School – Page 3 – M. Sullivan Photography

December 21, 2012 M. Sullivan Photography Family, Photos, School, Weather

Out Of The Picture

You may have noticed that we have neglected our blog this month. The big factor has been that are dearly beloved Toshiba laptop that allows me to load, edit and upload photos has recently passed away. We originally thought it was a Windows 7 issue. Unfortunately, a local computer guy gave us the news that no one wants to receive, the hard drive had crashed. The good news is that I backed up everything within in a couple of weeks of the demise of the hard drive. Also, for an additional fee, I can have the computer guy try to pull all the data off the laptop – just in case my backup isn’t as good as I though it was. Our household is currently using our 2004 PC (running Windows XP). The kids have complained how slow it is. They should be grateful that they haven’t been trying to run a photo editing program with it. I’m back to Photoshop Elements 6 with no actions. Extremely slow and limited in its abilities! Therefore, the posting to this blog has been on hold. Perhaps there will be some post-holiday sales where we can get a great deal on a fast new laptop. We will have to reload all of our programs and data, so it may be a while before we are “back in the picture”.

I did get a few pictures edited and uploaded though. Here’s a quick peek at some things that have been going on this month.

Buddy, our Elf on the Shelf, returned from the North Pole.

Sophia still doesn’t know how he got up there and stayed there throughout the day and evening. Magic, of course!

We had a snowfall that allowed for some play in the backyard, but it wasn’t sticky enough to make real snowmen. Mike and Sophia improvised by making mini snow people.

Sophia’s school had their winter concert. She sang with both the school choir and with her class. She did a great job and it was fun to see how much she enjoyed being on stage.

Her class also performed “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”. We took some video and pictures, but they have made their way to our makeshift editing room yet.

Mike and I enjoyed a day off from work on our wedding anniversary last week. We celebrated 18 years of marriage by having a quiet morning at home after the kids were off to school. We went to lunch at a new restaurant in Canal Park and then walked around checking out the stores. We finished with coffee and hot chocolate at Caribou Coffee. The evenings are always chaotic during the school week, so it was nice to spend some uninterrupted time together during the day.

In the days or weeks ahead, I hope to get caught up on photo editing and posting. Maybe Santa will bring me a new laptop for Christmas. 🙂

Happy Holidays!

November 19, 2012November 19, 2012 M. Sullivan Photography Basketball, Daphne, Family, Gymnastics, Photos, School, Weather

November Ramblings

Today is my first official day of vacation. I am taking the week off to begin Thanksgiving preparations. I don’t actually need the whole week to prepare, but always like to spend a day attending to household projects that get neglected throughout the year – touch up painting, going through closets and giving away clothes that the kids have outgrown, organizing our storage room and working on things that I have put off due to lack of time. Today is project day, tomorrow is cleaning day and Wednesday is cooking/baking day. By Thursday, we will be set to host our 19th Annual Sullivan Thanksgiving for 12 people + two dogs.

Before I delve into “project day”, here’s a recap of what’s been going on in our household during the past few weeks.

Thanks to the end of daylight savings time, it is just getting light out when I leave for work in the morning and is dark when I leave work at the end of the day. Here’s what I see when I leave my office. I can’t wait until the days begin getting longer even though the sunsets are beautiful.

Sebastian’s basketball season began a week and a half ago. In his first game, he scored the first six points for his team. He has the same coach as last year, the mother of one teammate’s and good friend. We are looking forward to a great season with several returning kids from last year, plus a few new team members.

When Sebastian isn’t busy with basketball practice or games, he has been diligent in his music studies. This year in band he is learning to play an instrument – the baritone. His teacher has asked all students to practice with their instrument’s for at least 10 minutes per day. They haven’t learned how to play the various notes yet, but need concentrate on producing sound and the proper hold on the instrument. Here’s what happens during practice with our dog, Daphne, in the room.

Daphne has been recovering slowly and continues to take a half tablet of prednisone every other day. She had her 8th birthday yesterday and celebrated with a new toy – a rubber chicken.

Sophia continues to take gymnastic classes on Tuesday evenings. She loves her teacher and enjoys an hour of balance beams, floor mat exercises and parallel bars. She has also been busy at school with her weekly choir group and a performance for a Veteran’s Day all-school assembly. She talks about having a bit of stage fright, but really enjoys music. We are looking forward to watching her class perform The Grinch Who Stole Christmas in a few weeks and the school’s winter music program in mid-December.

We did a quick family photo shoot after church yesterday in preparation for our annual holiday card. With my remote shutter release in hand, we snapped many, many photos in the hopes that we would end up with a few good pictures. By the end of the day, the photos had been edited, uploaded, organized in a card and 50 copies were ordered. With a number of discounts applied, I was able to get 60% off my order and had them shipped for free! It’s nice to have that project crossed off my list in only mid-November. We had thought of waiting until we received some snow to make for a more “holiday” card, but if recent years are any indication, we would have been waiting until January. Here are a few pictures that didn’t make the card.

Our big news this month is that after 14 long years with our old SUV, we purchased a new 2013 Nissan Pathfinder a little more than a week ago. Sebastian has been awaiting the arrival of the newly designed vehicle for months. When it finally arrived at the dealership, he was beyond excited. After test-driving the optioned out model, the whole family was in love. We decided on a lesser trim level to fit our budget and were able to get one brought in from the Twin Cities that matched all of our requests. We are in love!

We can’t wait to try out the 4WD after the first snow of the season. Speaking of the weather, although there is no snow in the forecast, the week ahead looks to be spectacular for northern Minnesota in November – highs in the 50’s and no precipitation in sight. I guess we will have to use the sun roof instead of the 4WD for now. I’m not complaining.

September 16, 2012 M. Sullivan Photography Baseball, Family, Photos, School

Middle School, Baseball And A Milestone

Sebastian started middle school this past Monday. It’s hard to believe he is in 6th grade already. It doesn’t seem that long ago that he stepped on the school bus for the first time and began kindergarten. He was quiet and shy and struggled with his new routine for the first month. He didn’t know anyone in his class but made friends quickly. Now as a 6th grader, he was a little apprehensive after the open house, but is confident and enjoys his new-found independence after the first week of middle school.

I predicted that he wouldn’t be overly photogenic on the first day of school. I was correct. I did snap a couple of pictures before he headed off to the bus.

Sebastian finished the third week of a four-week UMD baseball camp today. The first week was spent practicing and evaluating players. After evaluations, the kids were divided into four teams and now are spending Sundays through September 23 practicing and playing games. The games are six innings and each inning is pitched by a different player. Sebastian’s inning was completed in just 11 pitches – he struck out the side. He also did a nice job at bat. He was 2 for 3 and had one walk.

One final item about Sebastian. We have been using the back of a bedroom door to measure the height of both kids since they were able to stand. At just shy of 12 years old, Sebastian has hit the mark of five feet. He grew two inches in the past year. I don’t have much time left before he will surpass me in height. My days are numbered.