Happy Liver Day, Kasey!

Today is a very special day, you see exactly 20 years ago today, my daughter Kasey had her liver transplant that saved her life!   We are so thankful that God let us keep her with us and we are especially grateful, to the mother that was so extremely generous, to give Kasey the liver of her child that was hit and killed by a car. We will always be thankful for that selfless gift in the midst of her horrific tragedy!

These are just some pictures of Kasey,while she was in the hospital in San Francisco, awaiting her transplant.  She and I were there for 5 months.

Holding my baby!  I am so blessed to have her in my life.....I love her more than words can express!

With those big beautiful smiles on her face, you'd never guess she was in end stage liver disease,

in these picures. Of course, the fact that she is flourescent yellow, just might be a dead giveaway though. Her bilirubin was sky high and in fact, it actually reached 50 and

normal total bilirubin should

only be 1.

Andy and Michael came to visit! Kasey loved her daddy and her big brother to pieces, so she was so happy when they would come see us! It was very difficult being away from both Andy and Michael.....it tore my heart out, but the medical bills were piling up, so Andy had to work as much as he could. Bless his heart, he would drive 14 hours straight through on his days off, just to see us for a day or two and then turn right around and drive straight through, to get back home and sometimes he would have to go directly to work. 

Aw....Kasey and her daddy!

Another wonderful day when all of us were able to be together! *smile*

Hangin' out in the hospital playroom waiting for them to come and take her to prep her for the transplant surgery.  This was my last kiss before handing her over to the nurse........she was in surgery for 11 hours!  Andy and I spent the eleven hours in a small private waiting room.  We had Domino's pizza delivered (they were the only ones that would deliver to the hospital) and spent the whole time pacing the floor, praying and

just hugging each other. I'm sure you can imagine how relieved we were when the doctor came in to tell us that she had made it through the surgery!  We had to wait another grueling hour for them to get her all cleaned up in recovery, before they would let us see her. The first thing we noticed was her pale skin.....it was such a wonderful sight, after seeing her so yellow for 7 months.

Time To Do the Hallelujah Dance.....Won't you join me?

Oh how I wish y'all could see me doing my Hallelujah Dance right now!  Ok, well maybe I don't really, because I'm sure I look pretty funny! LOL  Why am I dancing you ask?  I have a computer again!  Woo hoo.......I can't even begin to express how excited I am!  We finally took my computer in to find out what was wrong with it after Andy had replaced the power source and that didn't fix it.  As it turned out, the mother board was bad and the good news is......drum roll please.......my two hard drives that I had replaced a few years ago are fine, so I still have all of my pictures! Whew, what a relief!  *sniff, sniff* Somebody get some tissues, I might just cry some tears of joy!!!  The guy said I have 180 GB of pictures.....I'm guessing that's a lot, since he was surprised by it. LOL 

Anyway, my computer was so old that we decided to buy a year old reconditioned computer that is faster than my old one and the guy said that will make it much easier to use photoshop.  Hmmm, guess I might just have to learn how to use photoshop now.  I learned a few things awhile back, but it's been so long now, that I'll have to re-learn it. Ugh!  Andy has been diligently downloading all of my software to my scanner, printer, camera etc. Oh and he re-downloaded itunes for me too, so now he has transfered all of my songs from the hard drive into itunes and I'm having to organize all of my music into folders all over again....arggg, what a job, but I'm not really complaining, I'm just happy to still have all of my music! 

There is one thing I can't figure out how to fix......everything on my screen is stretched, so when I look at my pictures everyone is short and fat and the faces are all stretched wide.  I went to the control panel to try to fix it, but have not suceeded.  I guess I will have to call on Monday and ask the computer guy how to fix it.

Just to let y'all know, even though I just got my computer, I'm afraid I won't be on it much right now because my daughter-in-law is on her way here to visit for a couple of days and then we will be packing and leaving for my son's graduation from bootcamp in Georgia, but don't worry as soon as I return, I will be sharing pictures with y'all.  If I have time, maybe I will be able to put a couple of pics of my son and daughter-in-law on here before I leave, but don't hold me to that, just in case I don't get to it. :)  Bye for now and I'll be returning soon!!!

Skywatch Friday ~ Astoria-Megler Bridge at sunset!

The Astoria, Megler Bridge stretches 4.1 miles from Astoria, Oregon across the mouth of the Columbia River, to Point Ellice, Washington. It is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America.

These first two photos were the first two shots that I took and I like them both for different reasons.  I think the first one is a little better exposure, but I like the composition in the second one because of the pilings in the foreground, plus I love the ducks too. LOL

It was so hard to choose my favorites because I had so many, but I did my best!

This one may be a little dark for your liking......but I love it!

I love this one also....and the rest as well!

Ok, so I noticed that I need to clean my lens again, because I can see a couple of water spots on these photos.  Ugh!  I guess I will have to edit the spots out in photoshop, if and when I ever get my computer fixed!

Please hop on over to SKYWATCH FRIDAY and check out other beautiful skies all over the world!

By George....I Think I'm Gettin' It! (freezing the motion)

I took these pics yesterday and I was finally able to achieve my goal of freezing the motion of the hummingbird's wings!  Woo hoo, I'm so excited!  I've been practicing with different shutter speeds and found that 1/3200 sec. does the trick, but because I increased my shutter speed, I also had to change my ISO to 800, which I don't like to do because you get more noise in the photo.  I definitely do see some noise (grainyness) in these photos, so next time I will try 1/2500 sec. or 1/2000 sec. and see if I am still able to freeze the motion and also get enough light with my ISO set to 400.  A few days ago, I tried a shutter speed of 1/1600 sec. with ISO 400, but wasn't able to freeze the motion of the wings as well....I'll be posting those photos soon. 

All of these photos were taken in TV mode......Aperture f/5.6, Shutter Speed 1/3200 sec., ISO 800,  Focal Length 250 mm

It has been so much fun practicing and learning as I go. If you've ever tried to take pics of hummingbirds, you know just how challenging it is, but hey I love a good challenge!

***(click on the pictures to see a closeup)

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I've Had Enough....I'm Out Of Here! (hummingbird 6/02/09)

Another hummingbird from our trip to Arizona last summer...

This little hummingbird wasn't very cooperative when we first me, so it would usually only allow me to get a few shots, before it had had enough and would take off.  I completely understand......I mean after all......I WAS invading it's territory!  LOL

I found out that it's really tough to get the right exposure, when you're pointing your camera up in the trees.  These are a little over exposed and blown out in the spots where the light is coming in through the trees, but I was still learning at the time and didn't really know what I was doing yet. All that considered, I think these turned out pretty good! :)  

Skywatch Friday ~ Sun Rays!

These were taken on January 24, 2010.
I was right in the middle of exercising on my Elliptical machine, when I saw these sun rays shooting down through the clouds, so of course I had to get some shots of it!  :)

 

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Hummingbird...Sittin' Pretty!

These are just a few of the hummingbird pics I took when we were in Arizona last summer.  I was pleased to find that I still have some of them on my SD cards, so I downloaded them onto Andy's computer, since my computer isn't fixed yet.  Woo hoo, now I can start putting them on my blog and I'm so excited!  I have tons, so I'll probably be posting some at least once a week for awhile.

Skywatch Friday ~ Sunrise Sillouettes!

I took these pictures on Jan. 9, 2010. I just love it when it's still dark, before the sunrise and you start to see that beautiful, deep orange color with the sillouette of the horizon and trees! It's so gorgeous and peaceful!  These were taken in Manual mode with my Canon Rebel Xsi and my 55-250 mm lens.  Aperture f/16, Shutter Speed 1/8 sec., ISO 100, Focal length 171 mm

Aperture f/16, Shutter Speed 1/8 sec., ISO 100, Focal length 100 mm

Aperture f/16, Shutter Speed 1/8 sec., ISO 100, Focal length 100

Aperture f/22, Shutter Speed 1/8 sec., ISO 400, Focal length 123 mm

Aperture f/22, Shutter Speed 1/8 sec., ISO 400, Focal length 135 mm

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