Well on my last picture blog that had the guys jumping off the ramp I forgot to show troy and his jumping "skills". So here you go...
Now that last shot with a little editing could make him look cool...

Troy has the worst like with computers, he has spent hundreds of dollars in phone calls to have his IT department help him, on this job he is on his second computer!
So he came home and started his computer...but his screen was upside down! LOL Not sure how he did it, but apparently on Windows you can turn your screen. This took awhile to find on on google how to fix it! Now that he knows don't be surprised if your his co-worker and your screen goes all funny. hahahaha
Its kind of hard to tell the picture is upside down (because the picture is of a temple that has a lake next to it) I zoomed in so you could tell!

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An odd flower that I found growing by the pool area.

Usually the girls hold up the signs and yell at you to come in....they don't like their picture taken LOL. But the guys...they like it..so they even got together and smiled for me!

Tequila Reef is the only Mexican Restaurant we have found so far. The foods ok, but the Margaritas are great! Here are some pictures from inside.

Poker night, took second place tonight! And me trying to get all creative with the camera!
My last night with Mia :( She had to fly back home to the states.

This is one of the bird that watch over the pool at the hotel.

Ok how do YOU say that?.....
Anele Massage

Ok boys and girls today's lesson is in Shutter speed!
Ok so shutter speed is really easy. The faster the number 1/1000 (as in 1/1000th of a second) for example the faster your camera's shutters open and close (faster the picture is taken). The slower the the number 1/60 the longer the shutter is open. I learned you can't go slower then 1/60 without a tripod---it becomes to blurry by body movement. So if you taking pictures of children running or sports you want a higher speed (1/1000 is good with no other adjustments).
My camera does go much higher and lower then these two speeds but you have to play with the ISO if you get faster or slower then these (I learned the hard way LOL). And there are many in between 1/60-1/100 you just have to play with. You will notice the longer the shutter is open the more light that gets into it and the over exposed the pictures gets.

Ok so here is (ISO at 1600 since I'm indoors):
1/1000 Shutter speed
1/60 Shutter Speed3'' shutter speed (I had to lay the camera down to take this clearly). And as you can see the ISO was so high (1600) that it let to much light in the picture. So you do have to adjust ISO if your Shutter speed is slow.
So then with that in mind here is a combo adjustment (yep I'm getting good enough to change TWO settings at once).

Shutter Speed is 3'' (3 seconds open) for all of these (and the one above).

800 ISO/3'' shutter speed400 ISO/3'' shutter speed200 ISO/3'' shutter speed

Just Mommies, or as my husband likes to call it- "The mommy board", is the website site that brought me out of my shell as a mom. My favorite feature is the message boards/forums. I always believed that I was an odd person who wanted to research and learn about as many parenting options as I could, BEFORE even trying to becoming pregnant. I mean who does that?

Well it turns out there are tons of us who want to learn more about our options when it comes to motherhood. And their are tons of moms who want to talk and share with each other and us not yet moms. When it came to some of my real life friends I would get laughed at if I tried to have a parenting choice conversation with "real" moms, as they like to call themselves. But on JustMommies...we are all moms--either future moms, pregnant moms, or moms who have little ones in their arms and we all have something to share and learn from each other. No one is laughed at for talking about their plans, no one is criticized for wanting to talk about things even before they are pregnant, or for not knowing something, or for worrying about the same thing over and over again.

The Fertility Charting board taught me how to chart my basal body temps, cervical mucus, cervical texture and cervical position. It taught me how to use that chart to both prevent pregnancy and to increase my risk of conceiving...but most importantly to learn about my body and what its trying to tell me. The Waiting to trying to conceive board got me through months of babyfever before we started trying to get pregnant even. I also learned what AP parenting was, that cloth diapers are a real alternative, how to take better pictures, and why some women choose to not vacinate their children, plus more then I could even sum up in one post.

There are boards for all walks of life on topic ranging from waiting to trying to conceive, health issues of all types, education, childbirth options, religion, pregnancy, infertility, childhood, hobbies, etc. These are the best forums I have ever seen. Many of these women are now friends both online and even in real life.....we cry together, laugh together, learn together and most importantly support each other.

So pop on into the message boards on JustMommies, I know you will find at least one board you will love, if not more.

Ok so your ISO is you "amount of available light" feature. If you outside on a bright sunny day you want a low ISO-100. Best general ISO-200-400. If you indoors with low light you want a higher ISO-800-1600. But why not just leave it at 1600 all the time to make sure enough light gets in--because you lose some quality in the picture.

Examples of ISO in the hotel room--troy was working lol.
Everything about these pictures are the same except ISO settings, you can see the higher the ISO number the brighter (indoors) but the more grainy it looks. (tomorrow shutter speed--I know you just dying for that) HAHAHAHA

ISO 0f 1600
ISO of 800
ISO of 400
ISO of 200
ISO of 100
Auto ISO (so I am guessing the Auto focus put it at ISO of 800)

My Disclaimer:

The thoughts and opinions in the blog are my own, and yes they are usually strong ones. I hope that no one thinks that I am trying to be all high and mighty with this blog, because that is not my intent. My intent is to show the people in my life and those who want to read this blog what my research and life lessons have taught me. I am in no way saying that my way is the best for anyone else but me and my family or that your way is not the best or wrong. In fact I have a strict "never say never" policy. Many things I will talk about I have no experience in and its things that I hope I can do/will do in the future, but no one can say they will until they do, so I leave myself open to change.

One of my current favorite sayings is...

"Uneducated people do as their told, Educated people question what they are told"

So that in a nutshell is what my blog is for---questioning what I know and what others tell me. I hope you feel now that you know me a little better. Thanks for reading! :)

A group of us went to Lakeland again. (the cable water-skiing place). I got to try out some sport settings on my camera....and some locals were nice enough to show off some skillz for me!
Ok not ALL where good-but wow my camera did get some nice falls also!

My intro:
I should probably take a few moments to post and intro of some sorts. My profile tells a little bit about the person I am, but for those who want to know more about me, he is some background..

I was born in January 1978 in a very small town in South Dakota. Yes there are people in South Dakota. :) I grew up in Yankton, SD with my mother, father and one younger brother. I would say I had a wonderful childhood, and I never once doubted for a second that I was loved and respected.

My father, who died ten years ago, was a local business owner and worked so hard that he took us from an apartment in the not so nice place of town to one of the only people in the city with a pool in their backyard. He was very active in this kids life, usually our coach on and off the field. He worked hard but he played hard also, he was always hunting or traveling. My mother stayed at home with me as a baby and returned to the work force as a nurse when I started school. My younger brother and me have had rocky patches in our life together, its been all love but moments of "not feeling the love", shall we say. The older we get the more we have learned to appreciate each other, but yes we still have our moments. But don't all siblings?!

I went to public school and was never an honor roll student. I was active in school sports until it came to the years that you actually had to have talent at them, I never made the auditions. However I did work while in school. As young as I can remember I loved to save money that I made and buy things with it. It was such a sense of accomplishment! As a child I would sell kool-aid, ok so not that uncommon for children right? But I went so far as to time when our street was the busiest so that I could optimize my time/profits. When I became old enough to babysit I tried organizing a babysitters club to make it easier for parents to find good care. I even at the age of 13-14 tried to rent out a office area in the local mall during the holiday season so that parents could drop off their kids and go shopping-hassle free! (Never even got a call back from the mall). Once I hit the age I could work with my father, I started helping at the family business...for a good price of course ;)

After high school graduation (1996), I went to college but stayed in the state because my parents were paying for it and I felt it would have been rude to make them pay out of state tuition. I never had any problems leaving the nest that my parents made, they raised me to be an independent woman-and that's what they got! I didn't become an honor student there either, it took me one extra year to get my Bachelor's degree in nursing (2001). In the meantime, I met some great people through the dorm living, through classes and through joining many groups that mainly were volunteer based. One of those great people turned out to be my soul mate Troy.

The day I met him I told my mom and some others that I had met my future husband. They laughed since I was never a believer of love at first site or even "the one". I was heartbroken to learn that the man I just clicked with was in a long term relationship. It really made me question my intuition. I figured then I was wrong about the romantic part, but that he probably will a strong influence in my life in some other way. So we became great friends, and best travel buddies. During our friendship we traveled to over 6 states and 8 countries together for trips. After our back packing around Europe trip our dynamics changed, his long term girlfriend ended their relationship, Troy graduated from college in May '01 and moved to Fort Collins, CO.

Well Colorado was one of the two states I wanted to move to, and this was even before I met Troy. As I was finishing off my last semester of college I did a clinical rotation at a Magnet Status hospital. Magnet status is something hospitals earn by only their nursing care treatment and performance. There wasn't many in the country at the time. I could really tell a difference at this hospital and decided that I wanted to continue working at one once I had my degree. So I got online and did a search.....Fort Collins, CO was on that list. Ok even I can take a hint for the universe. So five months after Troy had moved there I sold everything that wouldn't fit in my car and moved myself out to CO. I had no place to live, no job, nothing but a friend with a couch there. When I got there I was able to find a job right away and a fully furnished apartment and most importantly a friend who became more. We were finally engaged in December 2005, and were married in September 2006.

I worked as a Labor and Delivery nurse (at one hospital out of town), a Surgical Unit nurse and finally as a Cardiothorasic Unit nurse at the greatest hospital I think I could have ever worked for. I quit working in August 2006 right before I got married. Troy had just started a job working for an engineering consulting company and his job would take us around the world. He didn't really have to twist my arm to get me to quit my job and follow him around the world.

So that what we are currently doing, traveling around the world for his job. We live in hotels, rent cars, never know where will be or for how long we will be there. Most days I don't even know what I am eating or can talk to any locals. But we both love it. We have been to about 25 countries since we have known each other, most with this job.

Troy and I had some goals we wanted to accomplish before trying to start a family such as becoming financially stable, traveling alot, focusing on us and our marriage and waiting till after our honeymoon phase (which ends much faster when you live in a hotel with someone and share one bathroom with foreign food being eaten everyday!). Now that we have met our goals, it time to start a family. It will be a globetrotting one at that, we do plan to keep living like we are with kids. At the latest till school starts for them, then we should pick a location.


Other random things about me:

-I was raised Roman Catholic but have changed my religion to the Bahai faith.

-I am a democrat, mainly on human rights issues. I do tend to be on the boarder for economy/financial issues.

-I love to read, and am always looking for good book suggestions. I am currently in love with Janet Evanovich's Plum Series.

-I have two dogs, currently my only babies. Sandy is a male Jack Russel Terrier and Belle is a female Golden Retriever and part goat we think. They are staying with a friend in Wyoming while we travel. We don't get to see them nearly as much as we would like to.

-I am a wannabe "treehuger", "granola", "neo-hippie" person. Its something I feel strong about changing in myself, and I am learning.

-I love going to see movies and I do about once a week when I can.

-I just got a professional type camera and am learning more about photography. So you can expect many pictures in this blog.

-I enjoy educating people and telling stories of my life, and since many days I don't get to talk in English the blog is my way of at least being able to communicate in English. I am also hoping this blog with inspire me to learn more, do more, see more--so I have something to talk about.

-I am a blonde with blue eyes, and why is this important you wonder. Well only 2% of the world is blonde and it draws alot of attention while traveling. Since its usually hard for me to blend in, I get some odd experiences that many travelers would not.

-In college I became one of the first certified doulas in South Dakota (through DONA).

-I am an adrenaline junkie-love to scuba, ski dive, bungee jump, cliff dive, cannon jumping, etc.

Well some of the boys got to hang out with me and Mia (another roadwife). And they got to see what we do many days here in Thailand. Well it started with me walking up at 10am. Then I got in my suit and packed my pool essentials and was off to hang by the pool! Today with my new camera. After they all drank sangarias for 5 hours and me my virgin Banana Ramas (great ice cream and banana smoothie) the big talking started and then the boys had to see who could do the best flips and dives. Me with my camera just sat back and enjoyed the show!
Here are my favorite pictures of the boys...


This is Mike S. (visiting us from Saudi Arabia this weekend)This is Jeff W. (husband to the awesome roadwife-Mia)This is Nate (roadie who is working in Rayong, near by city, and likes to use our hotel pool while he stays at his cheap hotel on Walking street LOL)

If you remember before we used to have a white bird that hung out by the pool all day with us. But the last few weeks whitey went bye-bye and now we have matching blue and yellow birds.
These pictures are in Manuel mode---wooohooo I'm starting to figure it out!
Looks like they are helping sorting the towels.
These guys are not as nice as the white one ones---one even bite my camera!
But allays all is well and there was a kiss!

Ok well I did the same thing today as I did yesterday except instead of lowest aperture and highest, I added a middle one. Can't tell much of a difference from the middle one and the highest one---guess I still need more practice with this. Oh I should mention this is one of the many sculptures in the pool area of my hotel.

Lowest setting, still blurry background but not as blurry as the cup yesterday (today I was about 4 feet away yesterday I was about 16 inches away from the focus item...i'm thinking closer to focus item I am the blurry the background when shooting in aperture mood)
Medium setting
Highest setting

This is called a low aperture number (or a low f/stop number) on a camera, note the background is blurry but focused item is in focus...This is a higher number of aperture on a camera, every thing is clear...
This weeks online camera lesson is on aperture! LOL

Nov 2008 we went up to Chaing Mai and Chaing Rai....while up in the area we took a bus and went up and visited the long neck tribes near the Myanmar (Burma) border.