Photography Fun

Y'all know how much I love to take pictures and honestly there is so much I do not know about photography. It is crazy how much you can do with a good camera and good lenses. I really wish I had more time to learn the ins and outs. In the mean time, I usually shoot on auto and then sometimes I edit the pictures I take. However, a lot of times I don't have time or energy to edit them. I have a program called photoshop elements and it's awesome. I use it to do my graphic design/blog stuff too. There is so much to learn about that program and honestly it's a bit overwhelming to me to even try so I usually just post my pics either unedited or just a little edited in iPhoto (the program on my Mac). Anywhooo....I have always envied real photoshop owners because they can use Pioneer Woman actions which are basically really cool shortcuts to get your pics to look awesome or just make them look cool. Well, thankfully Pioneer Woman (check her site out if you haven't ever done that) just released some of her actions for elements users! I am SOOOOO excited about this!!!! Last night, I had some time to just play around with a few of them. I can't wait to use more of them in the future:)

Favorite Memories and Pictures

Finally, more from our trip to East Asia....

This is a famous experience/food of Asia. It's called HOT POT. What you have is a boiling pot (the middle part is the non spicy and the outer ring as you can see is very spicy) and you order different food to boil in it. We did pretty normal stuff like meatballs, egss, bacon, pumpkin, dumplings. Of course it still gave some people with us stomach issues. Thankfully, neither Jeff nor I had any issues with our digestive system. It's really a miracle.

some scenery and faces...

Memories from the Great Wall...

The Forbidden City (where the emperors lived)...









Forbidden City Gardens...

this tree is over 300 years old

Settling Back In

So, I think I might be finally over the jet lag. First 2 nights and days home were not fun...but last night and today have been much more normal. I'm feeling very overwhelmed at trying to figure out which pictures to share from our trip, so instead I'll just share what's consuming my days now. I am totally enjoying my kids and have just loved being their mom (not that I don't always love that...but you know what I mean:)).






I'll get my act together soon to share more pics from East Asia. I promise.

We Are Home!

After another 30 plus hours of travel, we are home from East Asia. I am going on about 7 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours so to say I'm tired would be a huge understatement. There is no easing back into life when you have 3 children. We jumped right back into things this morning when the kids woke up us up at 7:50 am (we walked in the door after 1 am last night). It was so sweet to have them jump in bed with us and cuddle for awhile. I missed them so much and we have enjoyed lots of hugs and kisses and playing today!

I really cannot thank our parents enough who divided and conquered our children. The trip would not have been possible without their help. I think things went really well though as no one got hurt or seemed to miss us that much!

I am still processing the trip as it seemed to go by so fast. We got to spend some great time with the team there and also get to know some of the students they are ministering too. Also, as you saw in the pictures from the last post, I got to see one of my best friends Ashlei who lives in East Asia. She has lived in the country (that I cannot name for safety reasons) for 6 years now I think. She is amazing and I had so much fun just seeing how awesome her language skills are and have her show me around her side of the world!!! I also got to see precious Grady (her 20 month old). He was a bit shy at first, but then he warmed up and even got all smiley for the camera...

We at such good food! I loved it so much. Here we all are on what was called snack street.
The camera only focused on the people in the foreground (oh well).

ping pong is very popular in East Asia

there was a beautiful sunny spring day while were there.
this is very unusual as most days are smoggy and gray!

what it normally looks like...

we got to see Meagan (who used to work with us at UGA)!

green beans....pretty much my favorite dish!

So that's it for this weary, jet lagged blogger.

The last few days were spent sightseeing in Beijing since that is where we flew out of. I will work on posting a few more picture posts in the next few days since I took so many! But for now, I am going to bed (at 9:16 pm).

Sights of Asia

We are really having a great time on our trip. I am finally getting the opportunity to upload some pics. Enjoy some of what we are seeing here in East Asia...

from the market

seeing Ashlei for the first time in 2 years!

me and Jeff at the hot pot restaurant

so many cute babies around

at a Buddhist temple

yummy food