Welcome Home Tommy

Matt's brother Tommy came home from his mission in Poland just over a week ago. We attended his home coming talk on Sunday. Afterward we were able to herd everyone outside for a family picture. We have everyone there ....but Ricky. Sorry Ricky (mission in Germany). I tried to Photoshop him in, but the only picture I have of him is on a dark background. I still might be able to do it, but it wont be a 5 minute job. Here are the pictures. Im not very pleased with the lighting so dont judge me too hard. It was a quick and dirty shoot.

Jammies

So, I went to the DI this morning and found some of these cool jammies:I thought they would be SOOO AWESOME for Christmas. Anyways, I didnt end up getting them because I was too tall. Lets just say a certain desert animal came to mind when trying them on. So, I have Audrey with me and we are in the dressing room. She was being a little pill but after time she just laid on the floor and spied out under the door. Just as I zip the jammies up and take a look at my cool self, Audrey bolts under the door with an insanly fast army crawl. I reach for the door and almost step out to catch her but then remember the not so awesome jammies I have on. I take a look at myself in new eyes and decide I dont want the whole store to see me chasing my little munchkin in long johns. So I hurry and get dressed. By the time I get out of the dressing room, she is long gone. Her favorite game in clothing stores is to sneek in a clothes rack and see if mommy can find me. So I get on my hands and knees and looks for two little legs....nothing. I asked the people that were around me.......idiots. I really doubt they didnt hear me yelling and threatening her when she bolted. Finally, I hear her laughing at me and spot her. There she is, climbing on the clothing rack like they were monkey bars. Needless to say, she was buckled right into the shopping cart and we went straight home. I wish she had a concept of Santa Claus so I could tell her that he is not comming tomorrow!

University Guest House

Last spring, I had my first commercial job. I was hired to take pictures of the University Guest House and it's affiliated buildings. They were going to use the photos for a new website and brochures. They have finally posted the new website and I thought I would share. A lot of the pictures on the site were taken by me. Especially the interior and exterior building shots. Another photographer did the wedding ones (except, I did one), most of the ones with people (except the Heritage center), and the food ones (I did some banquet ones). It was kind of fun to see them in action. If you want to see, here is the link. You probably wont know which ones I did for sure though.

http://www.universityguesthouse.com/University-Guest-House

Poor Tree

It finally snowed yesterday. Consequently, people drive crazy.

Someone took our corner too fast and crashed into our tree. Broke the poor thing right in half. Oh yeah, they took off without saying a word! Good thing, and bad thing, my neighbor was out in her driveway. She saw the whole thing. I'm glad it was our tree and not her! After looking at the damage, I got a call from another neighbor who is actually on a different street, but has a high house. Here husband saw the car from their bedroom window. They didn't see the crash but saw the speeding car. They told me who they thought it was and I spent all day trying to decide what to do. I thought it would be better if they came clean on their own instead of getting a phone call from me.

Today, the police officer involved told us that they know who did it. She had called it in but had a slightly different story. It WASN'T who I thought it was. The type of car was right, but not the person. Boy am I glad I didn't accuse anyone. Anyways, she came back to our house at 4:00 in the morning. Called the police and said that it had just happened. She then said that another car was going to hit her and she had to swerve into the tree. Later, the police got the truth from her. OMG! If she would have just stopped in the first place, it would have been a lot easier. We weren't even mad. We just did know what to do so we reported it to the police. Anyways, case closed. I was fully entertained.

Another Book Review: The Golden Compass

I just finished "His Dark Materials" trilogy aka: The Golden Compass. I saw the movie and then Matt said that there was a huge black listing of the book because the author is Atheist. So OF COURSE I had to read it, LOL! Anyways, I REALLY liked the books. I guess I must like Atheist authors. My favorite author is Ayn Rand (Atheist). Maybe I like them because they dont bind themselves by traditional rules. Even though I dont think everything in a "fictional" book is fact, I like the fresh new ideas. I like to see how they can make them work in a new kind of world. I understand why some people would make a big deal over the ideas in the book but I kind of wonder if the author was baiting for it in the first place. The author was said to be surprised that Harry Potter received more controversy than his books. As if he was looking for the attention to lead to more sells!! Anyways, I think people should be allowed to say whatever they want to say and you and I should then decide if it is fact or fiction. I dont think books should be ignored because they might have a different idea than the main stream. Maybe they are just not worth your time, but there shouldnt be some public strike against it.

To sum it up, this series might be added to my favorite books list. Although, it was a little drawn out in some parts and some things seems to be "a little too convenient". I love the whole idea of "Dust", good vs. evil, and your soul taking the form of an animal. I even liked the religious references. Maybe because I dont think The Fall was bad. Well, you will have to read it to know what Im talking about, or just go to Wikipedia. If you have read it, I would like to know what you thought.

December Photo Discounts

I know I have some people who read this blog but don't read my others. For those of you who might consider me your photographer, I just wanted to let you know that I am feeling extra charitable this season!! I have decided to waive any subgroup fees for photo sessions booked in December. See my "other" site for details. (www.summerderrickphoto.blogspot.com) FYI

Veges

Here are some pictures waiting approval from iStock. Just thought I would share

Blog Stalking

Are you a blog stalker?? Fess up. Let's get it all out on the table. I'm not talking about the creepy illegal kind of stalking. I'm talking about going from blog link to blog link finding people you know from other people you know. I confess, I am officially a blog stalker. Although, if I find someone I want to keep in touch with, I will let them know. I don't care if people stalk my blog, unless they plan on doing something illegal. I would not post anything that isn't free for all to read. I think blogging is an awesome phenomenon. I am able to post my opinion about anything for anyone to read and I don't have to be asked first!! If you don't want to know, you don't have to read it. How many times can you do that face to face? Zero. You have to keep your opinion to yourself, unless you are asked. So this it my tribute to the bloggers who are not afraid to blog about their every thought and to the people who read them, anonymous or not. Although, why be anonymous?? I am dedicating the comments section of this post to all blog stalkers who want to come out of the closet. You shouldn't be ashamed.

Tagged

Alicia tagged me. Here is my fourth picture in my fourth folder.

This is Matt playing volleyball in 2005, when I was still allowed to play with the boys. We are at Tanner park. Now I tag Tammy, Marie, Shonnie, and Gwami

Arrrrrr........Pirate

Ok, grandmas and Alicia. Here are your pictures you requested!

Audrey had so much fun trick or treating with Taylor. This was the first year I went with her. We booked it across the whole neighborhood. They were going so sloowwww. LOL Audrey was really brave and faced all of the scary pumpkins. She also said hi to our very scary witch friend. What a big girl!

Fighting for her buried treasure!

ok this picture is just weird but it makes me laugh!!

Matt taught her to hold her sword like a real pirate.

I'm testing out my new lighting toy. Still learning!

Taxes

I dont know who wrote this, but I like it.

Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

• The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
• The fifth would pay $1.
• The sixth would pay $3.
• The seventh would pay $7.
• The eighth would pay $12.
• The ninth would pay $18.
• The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar everyday and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers, he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:

• The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings)
• The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
• The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
• The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
• The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
• The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant the men began to compare their savings.

• 'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'
• 'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I !
• 'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks !
• 'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor !

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Halloween Pictures....finally.

There's more to come. I just tired of waiting for them to load....uhhhh

Lucky Day!

I was running errands today in the Sugar House area. I thought I would kill some time and run into Old Navy. Inside the store, they were handing out little Halloween gift bags. We were told to check inside to see what our discount would be for the day. To my complete amazement, my card said $150 off your total purchase! I had to read the fine lines to make sure it wasn't a trick...... NOT A TRICK! YAHOO!!!! I really got $150 of free stuff from Old Navy.

Most of you know that I like nice stuff but am usually too cheap to buy it. Hence my regular trips to Plato's Closet. I thought I would spend it all on a TON of clearance stuff. NOPE. I think I bought the most expensive thing in the store. It was an awesome wool coat. I've been wanting one for a long time but could never find a deal.

I got this one, but in gray:I also got some pants and some clothes for Audrey. I would have to say that I've had a pretty goo day.

Oh on top of that, I went into the studio that took my wedding photos. I was going to buy my wedding negatives (since its been 8 years, they were up for sell). I was expecting to pay $150 for them but she only charged me $50! This is the photographer I worked for when I graduated high school, so she wanted to give me a deal. What great people.

Bubble Gum

Matt was at YM's last night so the girls were able to play. I took some video of Audrey. I think it's cute and the grandparents will probably think its cute, but that might be about all. Take a look, it's my first video to music!!

My iStock Star

I took pictures of my neighbor's daughter the other day and wanted to show off how cute she is. I just barely got them all uploaded today. In fact, that's about all I did today. Poor Audrey. I uploaded 26 of her and 4 of Desiree's family. So check my iStock page in about a week to see them all. Here are some of my favorites.

Aghhhh, she's so cute!