Sunrise Challenge

So over at Pioneer Women's blog under her Photography section she posted some wonderful pictures of some grass. Yes just grass. But taken during the sunrise -- with the sunrise behind the grass it looks like it was dipped in gold. It's very pretty. So her challenge was for everyone to take some pictures at sunrise. There were lots of whiners that didn't want to get up that early but I thought it sounded like fun. Crazy girl that I am. So I checked and the sunrise here this morning was at 6:40am. No problem -- that actually sounded late to me. I set the alarm for 6:15am -- only 15 minutes earlier than it's set for work. Wore pjs to bed that I could wear outside and was ready.

Funny thing is -- we don't get sunrises in the city. Between the fences, trees, houses, etc I couldn't see the sunrise. I stood there with the dogs and waited. They thought I was nuts and thought going in the house and feeding them was a much better idea. I waited until 6:50am and still couldn't see the sun. The dogs convinced me it wasn't going to happen. So I went in and feed them. After that I ran back outside -- just in case -- and there was the sun poking through the trees.

So I guess I'll never get the cool dripping in gold sunrise pictures but I did get some cool shoots with just playing with the setting on the camera. The backlight setting made a beautiful colored sky. And no -- it didn't really look like that outside. And no -- no photo shopping was involved there either. I just bought a copy of photo shop but I'm still clueless as to how to use it. I guess that will be my winter project.
So here's a sample of what I got:

Here's looking east -- where the sun should be -- using the landscape setting.

Here's the same shoot - 1 minute later using the backlight setting.










And here's the sun -- finally was able to see it around 7am.

Olympics and more signs

The opening ceremonies were GREAT and very moving for me. I just love all the kids that got to be a part of the celebration. Of course, I wanted to hug them all. They are just so cute. What a great night for China. I'm very proud that my daughter will be from China. I'm going to be one lucky mommy.

Speaking of adopting, I decided last night that I'm going to adopt one of those guys -- I'm not picky I'll take any of them -- from the gymnastic team. Did you see their arms?!?!?! And the crazy stuff they can do on the rings with them? If I adopted one of them I'd never have to lift another heavy thing --- ever --- or never have to move furniture again -- that would be nice. I asked Sonny if he'd agree and he said no --- he didn't want a son who could kick his butt with both arms tied behind his back. So I guess we'll stay in line for our baby girl. But did you see their arms and how they flip and twist and their elbows look like they are on backwards --- just crazy! My arms ached just laying in bed propped up on my pillows watching them. I really needed to rest while I watched them all work so hard.

On to more signs and this time Sonny even made the 'signs' comment --- not me. I have him trained so well. Behind our property and fence is the church property that is basically just overgrow weeds, brush, trees and tons of mosquitoes. About once a year we spray/kill the weeds behind our fence. If we don't they start to creep in to our yard. In the past couple of weeks I have noticed a thistle bush that is about 5 feet behind our fence and about 3 feet taller than our fence. Our fence is 6 foot tall. Sunday after Sonny cut the grass he sprayed the jungle -- at least what he could get too - since we'll have to wait for some of it to die down and spray again -- it's that bad this year. After he filled the sprayer and was getting ready to go spray I went out there with him. I however stayed about 1 foot from the gate so I didn't get lost in the jungle. After being out there for about 3 minutes guess what I spotted???? A million -- ok maybe not a million -- maybe 100 or so CHINESE LANTERN plants/bushes. They are everywhere. Once I pointed them out to Sonny and he walked around and saw them everywhere. He said -- so if that's not another sign I don't know what is then. Of course I was very happy to get another sign. I told Sonny not to spray them -- however some of them got sprayed just because they where so many of them and they where so mixed in with the weeds. I can't believe how many are back there. And to think that before June I had never seem or heard of these plants. I'm just amazed at the journey and renewal of faith that this adoption has led me to.

Plus, the CCAA sent out referrals through 01/31/06. Only 6 days worth but at least another month is completed. With a 06/19/06 LID there is only 4 months and 19 days ahead of us. So lets pray that things speed up really quick or else I might just have to adopt me a gymnast instead.

;)

I got nothing

I really have nothing to talk about but since I promised myself to keep up my blogging -- I'm going to write something.

The Olympics start on Friday -- I'm looking forward to the opening and closing ceremonies. I bet they will be really entertaining. Then I'm hoping after the Olympics that referrals speed up a tiny bit. Ok -- who am I kidding -- I want them to speed up more than a tiny little bit -- I want the to get back to referring a month at a time. That would be a dream come true.

Speaking of dreams -- I went to bed really early last Friday -- like at 8pm. I woke up at 11:35pm when Sonny came to bed and smiled because I remembered that I just had another dream that we were going to pick up our daughter from China -- and it was APRIL. I love those dreams. So I'm holding on really tight to the dream that we'll be in China in 8 months. I can wait that long to hold my daughter -- in fact I can wait even longer if I have too. But I really don't think it will be longer than 8 more months.

Please, please let me dreams be true.
That's all I got for now.

~Until I have something else to talk about.
Or another dream.