Decorate Your Soul

Are you a fan of your camera? Well, if so, today is the day to celebrate it! I recently read that June 29th was Camera Day- and this year I just can't let the date go by without mentioning how much I love my camera. Here's a few tips I have collected regarding cameras that I would like to pass on (unsolicited, of course) about taking good care of your camera:

1. Always where the neck strap- even when putting her in other people's hands. You never know when gravity will be the party foul.

2. When changing lenses, tilt the camera downward so specks of dust and imaginary fairy dust particles floating around in the universe are minimized into their entry into the sensor area.

3. Clean your sensor as little as possible. A good cleaning product such as Eclipse will do- just check out your local photo store to purchase that and a Sensor Swab. And YouTube for a tutorial!

4. Get into the habit of having a lens cap cover on your lens to protect it from dust, scratches, and little people finger prints. If youcan swng it, buy a UV filter to protect your lens. A friend of mine was recently VERY thankful that she had that extra piece of equipment- you can check out her story here.

5. I highly suggest learning how to use your camera off of "Auto" mode. Learn what your icons on the dial do- here's a quick read on what those icons can do. I realize this isn't really tkaing care of your camera, but rather learning what it can do can make a difference in her performance!

Hey- what's a post about cameras without a picture?

Before (taken earlier today when there was hair covering the back of my neck!):

After:

I'm so excited to be free from the blow dryer- yeah, right!  

The plan for last night was that Becky would pick me up, and we would pick up a few more friends and head off to the movies for a fun girls' night! I had been looking forward to this movie night all day long! So here's Becky and I just about ready to get the others…

(you should know that this shot was taken after Andy said the first shot had us too far apart like we were strangers, ha!)

We hopped out of the car at Reina's for a quick pit stop (maybe a picture or two?) before heading on out to p/u Sarah- but this is what greeted us at the door:

(nevermind that I couldn't think about camera settings when trying to get this image!) 

The surprise was on me! Sarah and Reina brought together all of my SD friends and planned a farewell surprise party a month ago for our "movie" night and met before hand to come together… and boy did they ever SURPRISE me- I had no idea. Even the husbandly was in on it!

Seeing this line of women greet me when the door opened left me speechless and all teary-eyed- sheesh! Honestly, I can only equate the feeling to possibly being in Heaven- you know, after meeting the Lord, that I might share eternity with the people I have had the opportunity to know and love. These women, both individually and corporately have become my church family and it was beyond touching that they would take time out to be apart of a celebration like this- Thank you, so much, my friends.

I know, I know, enough sap…What's a party without a little Sassy Shoe action?

And as usual, I coerced my friends into a little JUMPING action (I was not the official photographer- I'll point you over to the better pics when I get them in:

Oh how I love these women. Thank you, thank you 100X for making this season in San Diego amazing. I prayed for dear friends and wouldn't you know, God just blew me away!

Father's Day fell on our 6th wedding anniversary this year- so it was going to be a wonderful day full of celebration– complete with pomp and circumstance. Okay, dismiss that last one, just cards and food.

Until Andy went out to get my card from his vehicle and found this:

Top 3 guesses as to what happened:

1. The neighborhood cats got ticked off that we sold the neighborhood litterbox (aka sandbox) and wanted revenge. 

2. Baseball to left field went to right field.

3. Some loser car thief broke into the Jeep and stole the GPS system, a work blackberry and the front cover to the car radio.

If you guessed #3, you're right. Such a tough way to start a celebration day…

Andy called and made a police report

Then we went to church, grabbed some lunch to go home and clean up the rest of the window glass mess left behind by the thieves. I would like to say that this incident did not tarnish our day's plans, but it did a bit. Let's just say, keeping a loose grip on worldly "things" is the way to go. All the items stolen are replaceable and the things that matter most in our lives were unharmed (thank you, Jesus!):

Our annual pose caught by Sarah (not bad, huh?):

you can read the story about the 'pose' from last year's aniversary post.

…

So, that was Sunday and I think I might still be in recovery mode. And shocked from that morning's discovery. How on earth do people live with themselves having broken into other people's stuff? Seriously?