Your favorite camera

Do you have a favorite camera? One that you would never leave home without? Something that takes fabulous pictures and is small?

I've killed yet another camera. I have been a Canon user for years. Starting with film cameras. The first one died because the flash died. I was told that I could add an external flash (and even more weight). So, I bought a new one. The next one lasted me a few years until I was ready to go digital.

I've had 2 Canon digital SLR's in the last 5 years. I bought a new Canon Rebel and added some fabulous lenses. It worked wonderfully until summer 2007. While on a roadtrip, my camera gave me an Error 99 warning. I took it into a local camera store and was told that it was cost as much to fix it as to buy a new one. I decided to do some online research and buy a new body (since I already had all the lenses). My Canon Rebel xTi was wonderful (rest your photo driven soul). It recently died in Fall 2010. Again, Error 99. I again did some research and have tried all the explanations to fix this. I've read that it's a lens error. I've used the eraser technique to rub the connection pins and lens. Now I'm torn.

Do I take it in for service or just buy another new one? And, if I'm buying a new one - what new camera should I buy. I've loved my Canon. I love that I can take clear pictures. That I have a great zoom (I don't leave home without my 28-200 lens attached). I bought a semi fisheye that takes great photos (my kids with the whole St Louis arch). 

But, I hate the weight and size. I am constantly bonking a kid in the head with my camera. It's heavy and very touristy. I'm not a professional photographer or plan to be. I just love to take pictures of my kids, vacation, sports, holidays. 

Here's where I hope you can help: suggest to me your favorite camera and why.

I'm looking for a camera with:
great zoom
fast shutter speeds (multiple frames per second)
light weight

I'm considering (it's all over the place. It's really zoom and weight that I'm looking for). I'm brand loyal. I just want a great camera that can take great photos and capture them in motion (as well as multiple shots). So tell me, what is your favorite camera?

Nikon CoolPix100

Canon PowerShot SX230 HS

Sony NEX 3 or NEX5 (comes with lenses)

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1

Olympus SP-800UZ

Chester Cheetah

In November, our elementary school hosted a food drive for the local food bank. Our school secretary has a son that works for Frito-Lay. They sponsored our food drive and donated snacks, drinks and a visit with Chester the Cheetah for the class that brought in the most donated foods.

I created these cute little turkeys to keep track of the amount of food donated by each class:

Each day I walked around the school with my little two and collected cans and boxes of food.  I have a class list that I keep track how many I count and then I would color in the turkey feathers. The classes loved to come out at last recess and see how full their turkeys were. Here's the problem, the classes responded to the prize of meeting Chester the Cheetah. This is great for the food bank and community, terrible for me. I was out there for an hour, coloring in each feather in the freezing cold! Each feather was equal to 8 cans. After awhile (2 days), I gave up and just posted the totals on a piece of paper across each turkey.


Our school was extremely generous. Our 1/2 day Kindergarten brought in 500 items! Overall, over 3000 items were collected. I was very proud of every student in our school. We collected items for 4 days and the Frito-Lay people came to collect all the items on Monday.


We broke the prizes into 3 grade levels, K-2, 3-4 and 5-6. Grades K-2 and 3-4 won a visit from Chester the Cheetah. 5-6 weren't very interested in spending time with Chester, so I provided the winning class with ice cream sandwiches.


Chester the Cheetah arrived on a Friday and went to our school's gym (less obtrusive for the school). My hope was that he could go to each room and say "Hi", but the costume is hot and the kids were aggressive. The Kindergarten class was great. We had very excited kids (including my little two that I got to bring with) and one little girl who cried because "he isn't real. It's a costume." The third graders (my sons class) were a little more aggressive and were hugging and hitting. We finally had to put food and drinks in their hands so that they would keep their hands to themselves and we were able to get class photos and individual photos for the kids (and our yearbook).


It was a fun afternoon. Here's a photo of Miss R and Mr N with Chester the Cheetah.

There are no words

For Lori - rrsahm your loss is felt around the world

My love and strength will envelope you when you need it — Heather from Seattle, WA, United States

Community

Imagine your life changing in the blink of an eye. Imagine your whole world falling apart without any warning.

We all may have this experience at some point (I myself found myself in this situation when my Mom felt bad, I took her to the hospital and she never came home - this is another story), but I'm writing to send my concerns, hopes, prayers to a fellow blogger.

I've never met Lori from Random Rambling of a SAHM but she is in my thoughts. Her husband is in the hospital, barely holding on. She is being vigilant, sitting by his side and we bloggers are sending ALL our positive thoughts towards her. I hope she is comforted from us strangers holding our hands and our families, projecting our love to her family and holding her hands through this life changing moment. 

You are in my thoughts. 

need an emergency chiropractor?

We received snow. For one day (really only a few hours) that due to freezing temperatures lasted for over a week. Luckily, we had finished our grocery shopping and gassed up the cars. The buses were able to pick up the kids and the dry roads made driving easy. But our street, it had an ice slick at the top that kept Marc from being able to leave. It was quite humorous to me. I've found a reason to love my minivan. It's heavy enough to get up the hill and across the ice to the dry roads!!

Our sidewalks were a similar story. I walked the kids up to the bus and did a little two steps forward, one step back slipping on the ice. I made a final huge slip at the bus stop. Now I'm thinking "uh-oh, there goes my back". I was feeling good though and decided I would take my alone time to clean the sidewalks. Since we don't have a snow shovel (or a flat shovel), I used a hoe to break up the large chunks of ice and then a large rake to break everything up and get it off of the sidewalk.

I spent about 30 minutes breaking and raking the ice off the sidewalk in front of our home and then up the hill to our next neighbor. I felt wonderful getting this job done and more than earned my 45 minutes of couch time to catch up on my DVR'd "Brothers and Sisters" while sipping a coffee.

 (before)

 (after)

The happiness didn't last for too long. By the time I went to bed and had a HUGE knot (or pinch nerve) in my left shoulder, neck area. The pain caused shooting pain down my left arm. Nothing I was doing, any position I tried to get into would not ease the pain. I tried having Marc rub it. I tried laying on a heat pad. I went to the living room with a rolled up towel and laid any way I could on it to try and pop my neck or upper back or put some pressure on the knots that were causing me pain. Here is where I tell you, I'm not a crier. I'm not. This, this made me cry. I called my chiropractor's office to ask that they schedule me first thing only to here they are closed on Thursdays (this was 3am). My doctor left his home number, but I'm not calling at 3am. Marc came out when he heard the back massager going full blast. I was pressing it into the painful areas and making the fillings in my teeth rattle. He tried me to another mini massage. I finally tried an ice pack and fell asleep.

I woke up feeling better. I went to help my friend set up her booth for the weekend wedding shoot. I felt great all day, then at bed time the pain started to set in again. I really should have seen the chiropractor.

Update:

My chiropractor called me Friday after he got my message and asked if I had an appointment set up. He got me in right away and after a lot of pops and movement, my neck feels fantastic and I'm back to normal. Getting old sucks!

PTSA President

Being a stay at home Mom is a hard job. A rewarding and fulfilling job. It my current job and I love it, but I'm ready to go back to work. I'm ready to make some money for our family. I'm ready to add a new level of insanity to my already busy days.

To help me transition back into this life, I've been volunteering at the kids school. I started out on a committee or two. Then I volunteered as our PTSA Secretary for 2 years. Now, I'm busy being the PTSA President. In addition, to being more busy, this job brought me some happiness and got me through the long, cold, dark winter. I was happy being so busy, but having control over how busy I would be. I'm very nervous about going back to work (and very excited).

But back to my busy, as President I oversee (barely) our day to day business. I run our monthly meetings. I'm to go to for any questions and problems. Really, I've found it very easy and happy I have something to add to my resume (rather than a 10 year blank). In addition to being President, I like to be in charge of a committee or two. In November, I coordinated our schools Food Drive (very successful - over 3000 items) and leading into February, I'm coordinating our annual Science Fair.

This extra task required (because I thought it was needed) me to rewrite our science fair packets. To make the packets more in line with state standards and our schools wording from grades K-6. This (president and science fair) required me to be at school for 2 days for several hours making photocopies. 475 copies of 2 page (double sided) newsletter to go home to our parents (I'm very happy that we are leading into a online newsletter, but it's taking awhile for parents to adjust to this idea). Then, I went back to school to make the science fair copies. A full class set from grades 3-6 and a few copies for the younger kids. Now it's time to email and line up all those judges for our kids.

 (I was chained to this machine until 5pm one day - worth every minute)

Busy and exciting. I hope I choose the right roads and enjoy my travels.

Regularly Scheduled Program

Mr N and I had a great 1st day back to our regularly scheduled program. The kids got on the bus (3 out of 4)!! We drove over to school to drop off Miss M's cello (I'm afraid it will get broken on the bus). Mr N and I stopped at Starbucks for some morning caffeine. And decided to stop to play at the park on the way home.

Despite the park being covered in snow (it's just in our little 4 mile radius), we played anyway. The sun was shiny. Rain was predicted. We played. 

Our first park surprise was a pair of bald eagles in a tree. We then walked out on the pier and found that part of the lake was frozen. Mr N had a great time throwing chunks of ice on the lake to see how far they would slide. The echo sound was pretty cool. We then found that we could kick the loose powder snow out onto the ice. It was like powder sugar on a cookie! Lastly, we walked around to the other side of the park and found a frozen puddle. Just thick enough to be frozen all the way through. He was able to slide and dance away. We did have a long talk about some kids that walked out on the lake when it was frozen and fell into the water. I don't want my kids thinking they can walk on any frozen water.