Finally...The Field is White

I've been working on this photo for 8 weeks now. I finally know how to make it into the vision I had the first time I saw it. This photo was taken up at Calico Basin near Red Rock Canyon just west of Las Vegas. It was about a month before Deric reported to the MTC. I saw this as "The field is white already to harvest". Now, it is.

More Photoshop Stuff

This is a photo that I took at Brittany's wedding. I love what happened when I turned it black and white and highlighted the red. So cool. I also like how Photoshop allows me to choose a color in the photo for the words.

Our Teacher - To - Be

Okay, I finally found a cute picture of Felycia. I played with it and here is what I came up with. Isn't she beautiful?

My New Hobby

When we went to SLC to see Evan before he went into the MTC, Becky was working on a quilt and I decided to get ambitious and make a quilt. I happened to be at JoAnn's with my friend, Jennifer (a total Halloween freak) and it was close to her birthday. She picked out fabric and here is the result. The pattern makes really small quilts. The finished product is only about 40 inches square. They make great lap blankets.



I suggested to the YW in my ward that a quilt would be a great value project. So, I took one of the girls shopping for fabric and I found this for me. Now, I'm on my third quilt and I have stuff to make 3 more. 3 of the girls have completed their quilts and I have about 6 more coming to my house this week to finish their's. It's been a fun activity and I love having the girls at my house. My house is too quiet without the kids here.

Photoshop Classes are SOOOOO FUN!!!!

I have finally learned what I really took this Photoshop class to learn. I can make parts of photos color and parts black and white. I'm having so much fun. These are my first two attempts. They aren't perfect because this is a very involved process and it will take lots of practice to get good at it. It's a beginning though.



As you can see, I've had lots of fun working with this one photo over and over and over. I just pull up the original and do whatever it is we are working on in class for the week.



This was one of Deric's Eagle Scout photos. I wanted the flag to stand out and it was an easy shape to start playing with.

It occurs to me that most of my photos have been Deric. I need to find more pictures of Felycia to play with. She tends to hide from the camera so I just have more pictures of Deric. Besides, Felycia was mostly done with her sports by the time I got a good camera and joined the digital age. I'll find some good Felycia shots and work on them this week.

The Scoop From Honduras

We got an e-mail from Deric on Saturday. We thought that p-day was Monday for his whole mission, but it seems that the office missionaries do Saturday p-day because they are busy during the week. We don't have all the details yet, but here is his letter.

THIS WEEK WAS INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday we had a zone p-day. Tuesday, we had the normal meeting. I did not sleep at all on Tuesday night because we had to leave the zone leaders´ house at 1:30 AM to catch the bus to come to San Pedro Sula. In the transfer meeting I found out that I am the new secretary. I am in charge of all the immigration stuff and all of the records (Baptism, Ordination, etc.) Wednesday night, we had all of the missionaries that were headed home staying at the house. At least the house is huge. We got to bed really late and got up really early. Thursday at 5 AM we had to be at the airport dropping all of the returning missionaries off. We also went to make President Veirs a resident of Honduras. A couple of hours in immigration later and we now have a Mission President that is 100% legal in the country. Yesterday we ran tons of errands. Buying parts to fix President´s car, doing some other things in immigration, Baptismal interviews for the baptism that we have later today, Taking president to a special interview, and a ton more. In other words, there is not a ton of missionary work that gets done here. We are really just here to make sure that the rest of the missionaries can do their work and are doing all of the paperwork right. Because I will probably be here for Christmas, They are going to put me in charge of editing the Christmas video. That is going to be a ton of work, but it should be really cool.

I have done a ton of things in the last week that I had never done in my mission before. I have stayed up all night, been with President Veirs for more than 5 minutes, driven a car, taken a hot shower, and a ton more stuff.

I am doing really well. I am just really tired from the lack of sleep this week. I am hoping that there are not many more days like the ones this week. I need more sleep.

That has been this week. I am tired. Other than that, I am doing just fine.

I hope you are all doing well. I love you all.

Deric


At Stake Conference this morning, one of Deric's friends from high school (Matt Stewart), who returned from El Salvador 2 weeks ago, was talking to Conrad. He mentioned seeing Deric in a video presentation about missionaries in Central America. That's the first I've heard about anything like that. I'm going to work on getting more information this week to see what's going on. Matt also met someone (a returned missionary) who knew Deric in Honduras. Pretty cool.

We are hoping that he will have access to a card reader so we might get to see some photos. Cross your fingers for us.

Felycia's Great News

Felycia was home last weekend for General Conference. Halfway through the Sunday afternoon session, she got a text from her roommate wondering when she was coming home. Felycia told her that she would be leaving in about an hour. Then, Britt sent another text that she needed to hurry because her letter was there from the Education Department at Dixie. Needless to say, Felycia left for St. George as soon as conference was over. SHE'S IN!!!! We are so excited for her to start the real part of becoming a teacher. She starts practicums in January and then it's just 2 years to graduation. As her parents, we can't wait for her to be done either. Tuition times 2 starts next September when Deric is back home. The sooner that is over, the better.

More fun from Photoshop

This really was in Las Vegas. I learned how to contour words around objects in my photos. I love learning all this stuff.



I learned how to put words on my photos in my second class. I've had lots of fun with it.



This is the same photo from the last post, but this time, I learned how to add the banner with the words in it. Pretty cool, huh?

I have also learned now to erase unwanted things from photos. I took some family pictures for a friend of mine and I got a stop sign in the background of one shot. I took it out now. Quite convenient. I can also get rid of people I don't know and shadows in the wrong places.