A Major Change and Some Photoshoppin'

Things don't always go to plan...and for us it's a good thing!

The original plan: Sam and I graduate in 2014 from UNM together.  Yay!

New plan: Sam changes majors from Biochemistry and Spanish to a B.A. in Chemistry and Spanish and graduates a year ahead of schedule!

Sam was already getting tired of going to school and decided for the heck of it to look at other majors to see if he could cut back some schooling and came across the B.A. in Chemistry.  It looked good and something he would enjoy (for the most part).  However, now that he's graduating ahead of schedule, that means he's taking the MCAT in May and applying for medical school really soon!  It also means that the next few semesters could be pretty busy.  Good luck Sammy!  (I wish I could graduate ahead of schedule).

So far in this semester I was able to have a good chunk of free time and tried to spiffy up my photoshopping skills by trying different effects and such.  I can never really reach my desired effect, but what can you do?  Here are some I've done recently if you care to look:

Before and After: making Sammy a cool cat

Before and After: creating a ghost glow while saturating the bushes

Before and After: doing a half tone sepia

Before:

After: creating a flare and all-out sepia

Before and after: warming up the sun to lighten us up

Before:

After: Playing with texture, sharpening the photo and putting a glow around me (a bit narcissistic?)

Here it is in B+W

Maybe one day I'll be a photoshop mastah.

Job Interviews

Today I had a job interview with the City of Albuquerque, where I might do clerical work in City Hall or work with kids at a community center.  It's pretty exciting to have a job that has the exact hours I was hoping to have.

Sam also has a job interview later this week at a Pediatrics and Family Practice Clinic.  If it works out, that would be so great for Sam.  As much as he likes his job now, he's keen to move on from the geriatrics scene.  We'll keep you posted.

Kartchner Family December 2011

The Holidays

Here's what Sam and I have been up to this past month:

11/24/11  Thanksgiving

We are blessed to have both our parents living so close to us!  Therefore, we had two wonderful and filling dinners for Thanksgiving.

First stop was Sam's parents.  SO GOOD.  That pretty much sums it up.  I love my family!

Mama and Papa Hobbs

Little Milo.  Is he really going to be one next month??

Baby Tyler :)

We then decided to go and visit my family and mooch off of them!  (Kidding but seriously).

Rambunctious toddler Tyler 

12/2/11  "A Child is Born"

Our Stake puts together lots of Nativity Scenes around the world gathered from many of the members.  They also had concerts about Christ's birth, which Sam and I got to play in.  Sam and I took a good amount of photos, probably more to try out the camera than have the photos to keep.  There were a few good ones:

Scene from Alaska

Scene from Peru

My Mom has one of these herself and says it's 

her favorite decoration at Christmas time

Scene from Japan

And ours for the fun of it (at our Duplex)

12/16/11  Caroling with Jess and Seb

Jess and Seb invited us to go caroling with them!  Despite Sam and I being the only ones that could come, we had fun with our quartet!  We made cream cheese filled cookies and Jess made yummy pumpkin and sugar cookies we could take house to house.  Afterward we played Rummikub and had hot chocolate.  Good times!

Love these cookies!

Jess seemed to like them too!

Now I know why he's called "Hudson the Hurricane"

Yeah.

12/21/11  Japanese dinner at Grandma Pitcher's

I confessed to Sam that I never had traditional Japanese food.  He then wanted us to try Grandma Pitcher's cooking and see the amazingness.  We were invited and had fun eating the expensive and delicious meal.  I think Sam went back for fifths or sixths.  We got to see Sam's parents and Aunt Jackie's family as well.  It was a treat.

Picture a little dark; sorry!

 Jackie's boys.  I don't know where they get their energy!

12/24/11  Christmas Eve

We got to spend Christmas Eve with the Hobbs' side of the family.  We had a great lunch/dinner, a Christmas program, presents, and even more caroling!  It also happened to be our half a year mark in marriage :)

Mario!  I loved his song and dance for us

 (Santa Claus is Coming to Town)

Mama Hobbs asked us to sing with her.  

Someone got into it.

Cutest family ever singing "Jesus en pesebre"

Best shot of the evening

I'm glad at least one of my nephews takes a liking to me :)

Aww.

They both are so cute!

Since we didn't put lights up this year, 

we're showing you Mama and Papa Hobbs' lights

Caroling caroling through the snow

Our little Christmas tree

12/25/11  Christmas!!

We decided to stay up until midnight to open one of our presents for each other.  We think alike: I got Sam a tripod for the camera and he gave me a camera remote!  So we took pictures before going to bed.    In the morning we had ourselves a merry little Christmas and enjoyed our gifts to each other.  The day also included going to visit my side of the family and to church to help us remember our Savior on the day we celebrate his birth.  It was a wonderful Christmas and I'm so grateful this day to have such a loving Savior willing to come down to Earth and give us the best example ever!

 Tripod and remote=a picture with BOTH of us!

The hot chocolate...and the office apparently.

The awesome books Sam gave me.  Excited for C.S. Lewis!

Yes.  I did get him a spatula for Christmas.

Might not be able to see it well, but I'll take this over 

Deseret Book's version any day!  Thank you Sammy!

What did you do?  :)

Catching the Kids

Maybe Sam has some of the camera mastered, but I sure don't! But it's so fun messing around with that I don't care. I was going to test my skills as a photographer by trying to capture awesome shots of my niece and nephews, and most of them were so blurry! I did manage to get some of these shots. Hopefully I'll hone this skill before I have a crazy kid myself!

(My personal favorite) 

(Someone sat in some nasty water)