Senior Pictures

I went out on a limb and hired someone quite young and inexperienced for Austin's senior pictures.  And since it was the middle of winter, we decided to try doing them inside the school.  I mean, that IS what this is about, right?  I certainly love all the pics of the kids "modeling" in the woods and various scenic areas and we might try to do some like that later but something about doing them at the school - the school he spent a whopping 2 years at - seemed to speak to me.

We started out with a couple of quick shots outside on the football field.  Too cold for much there!


























Then we moved inside to the auditorium where Austin participated in a play his first year (Junior Year).  We started out with his jersey on by the flag.  I kinda liked the patriotic thing.




This one on the stage was much more dramatic because of the lighting.  Makes me think of West Side Story.





While I don't love this shot, I do like the lockers and the reflection they created.  It might have looked better with a different shirt, bigger smile, something.




These stairs were half the reason for my wanting to do the pictures at the school.  I love the way they turned out and I'm shocked that the black clothes against the black stairs worked.




If I could substitute the smile in the previous picture onto this one, it would be my hands down favorite.




This balcony shot was iffy and required some serious editing to get the light right. We were shooting up into a very, very bright, light-filled crosswalk. However, I love the way it turned out and Austin is really the subject of the picture.

I love having great pictures of my son!!  He's so hard to nail down for good pictures like this.  Maybe a few more in the spring if I'm lucky.

Healthiest Salad Ever

Even though kale salad is all the rage, I'm just not crazy about the texture.  But I have found that if I chop it up like cole slaw, I can handle it just fine.  So I've started experimenting with chopping up all the veggies like that and I've hit on something quite awesome.

Most of it I do from scratch but for this batch, I happened to have a box of broccoli slaw with carrots in it - sort of cut up like match sticks.  The rest I did myself.

So I started with that box of broccoli and carrot slaw and tossed it in the food processor for a few bursts.  Dumped it in the bowl.

Next I chopped up a bunch of green kale leaves followed by red kale leaves.  Into the bowl

A few chunks of purple cabbage and then some green cabbage.  I had some radishes so those went into the food processor to add some "pepper".



This has to be one of the prettiest salads I've ever made!  But I wasn't done yet.

I scooped out a cupful into a bowl and added sunflower seeds, pine nuts and a few dried cherries.  And just a tablespoon of Newman's Poppy Seed Salad Dressing.  Oh my.  Crunchy heaven in a bowl!





Since it's a lot of work to chop all this up I usually make a pretty big batch so I have some to take to work for lunch three or four days (along with a spool of dental floss!!).  Last week I decided to try using my FoodSaver and it worked!  My salad was super fresh even 5 days later!



I do not add the seeds, nuts or cherries until I'm ready to add the dressing and eat it.  This is just the veggies in the FoodSaver pack.  Even though the salad seems pretty dry, it still has enough moisture that the seeds would get soggy and the dried cherries would absorb moisture too.

The nuts and seeds add the most calories to this salad and certainly could be left out. With them it's about 350 calories.  Leave them out and you save about 200 calories - of course, that depends on how many you use in the first place!

Snow coming

What do you do when you aren't asked to the Sadie Hawkin's snow coming dance?

You take your best bud!

New Horse Trailer

Last weekend we sold the old battleship horse trailer.  Sold it on Saturday.  On Sunday, we picked up this little beauty!

This weekend we hauled it to the barn for a test load.  Well, I should say Madison hauled it to the barn.  First time pulling a trailer and she did great!  When we got home, she backed it into the driveway and all the way back to the side of the garage!!  First time ever backing a trailer and she rocked it!!

Cabinet