FOTO FRIDAY

"Macro"

This weeks challenge was really fun. I like taking pictures in macro. The first two pictures John took this summer of a hawk in our front yard. If you look close at the picture you can see the rain drops on his feathers.

Can you guess what the next two pictures are?

Its pop in a bottle!

I was sitting at the computer checking my email and drinking a pop. When I looked over and it had fizz bubbles and I thought it would be cool to take a picture of.

The next two are pictures of our cat Carlow. He was laying on the bed with his tongue sticking out. I thought he looked cute.

I took this last picture when we were doing the "Berry" challenge.

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The Circus!

We went to the Circus last week!! I had never been to the circus and thought it would be fun. We went with Johns Mom, Dad, and Brother. I think we all had a good time...

These are the only pictures that were not fuzzy. There was a lot of movement and lights making it hard to get a good picture.

FOTO FRIDAY!!

November 13th

"LEAVES"

Our first picture is actually of a lady bug but there was a leaf behind her so we thought we would use it as a leaf picture.

This picture is a pretty maple leaf. My Gramma and I used to collect pretty colored leaves in the fall and make place mats and bookmarks with them. This leaf reminds me of those times.

Our last picture was harder to capture than I thought it would be. It took us awhile but we got one that wasn't too bad. I just wish the bright part didn't show as much.

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Foto Friday

"Dress Up"

November 6

This is are pet "chicken" cat.




Sorry for the lack of imagination and pictures, It has been a very busy week. Next week is "Leaves"

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FOTO FRIDAY

October 30th

"MOTION"

We have been doing a little bit of demolition at our house recently.(If you look at Moms blog shes got pictures!) We were cutting up a tree that needed to go and thought it would be a good opportunity for some "Motion" pictures. The first two pictures are John and a chainsaw.

We didn't want to let another week go without putting another mushy picture of the two of us... So here we are! We played with the settings on our camera till we got what we thought was cool!

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FOTO FRIDAY!!

October 23

"BERRIES"

This weeks foto Friday was a little tricky.

We finally found some berries...here are our pictures.

The first picture we aren't sure what kind of berries they are. Mom pointed them out to us. (Thanks Mom)

These berries are on the burning bush at the side of our house.

The berries below I call "choke berries". I think they are actually called "choke cherries" but I think they look more like berries.

I'm sure everyone knows what the last berry is. Yummy red raspberries. I think these are my favorite kind of berry besides strawberries and blueberries.

This was a yummy topic this week!!

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FOTO FRIDAY

OCTOBER 16, 2009

WE DID NOT HAVE MUCH TIME THIS WEEK, IT IS GETTING TO BE THE BUSY SEASON AT WORK,LOTS OF HOURS. SO HERE ARE SOME....

"SELF PORTRAITS"

BERRIES ARE NEXT WEEK, SO MAYBE WE WILL GET SOME FRESH PHOTO'S

REMEMBER TO CHECK OUT OTHER FOTO FRIDAYS AT

http://zeahrenaissance.blogspot.com/

John and I carved our pumpkins this week. I couldn't wait any longer.

I really wanted to try out a new pattern. It was really hard and I only did the fish part of it...the rest was too detailed and I don't have enough patience. I think they came out really well.

They look cool!

I don't think they will last till Halloween but thats ok because we have two other bigger pumpkins to carve.

TRICK OR TREAT?!?!

I found this hat at Target. I couldn't resist it.

Carlow was not at all impressed with it or pleased that he had to wear it. I on the other hand thought it was funny.

We went trick or treating at Moms door...she did not have a treat for him...She will most likely get a trick from him later!! : )

Now if I could just get Chilly to hold still long enough to try it on her...

PHOTO FRIDAY

OCTOBER 9,2009
HELLO TO ALL THE PHOTO FRIDAY BLOGGERS

After talking we (John and Amanda) have decided

to do this as a husband/wife combo. I hope no one minds, but we do everything together so the camera gets passed between us all the time.

These are some of our photos that we have taken of

WATER

The Falls (Canada -maid of the mist)

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Acre Lake, PA.

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Ocean City, Maryland

To see more photo Friday's (pictures) please go to http://zeahrenaissance.blogspot.com/ and link up and become a photo friday poster too.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

p.s. wendy thanks for telling us about this

LOOK HOW CUTE THEY ARE!!

Carlow is finally letting me hold him a little more. He doesnt like to be held all that much. I am working on that. Chilly on the other hand is very eager to be held. I am suprised at how friendly she has been. We thought it would take her a while to get used to us..(thats what the books said). But she was eating out of our hands the first night and we were holding her the second night.

Meet Chilly

Newest member of the family

Chilly is a chinchilla, about three months. We got her from friends(thank you Brian,Jen and boys).

New Toy!!

Who needs fancy toys when you can play with a paper bag!!

One paper bag = Hours of fun

(for John and Carlow!)

A Day of Fun!!

We went to Conley's today. They have a "waterpark" which consists of two slides. It was still fun and we enjoyed ourselves. The first picture is Keith beside the slide and John coming off the slide. The second picture is John as he came out of the second slide which is very steep. J.J. found that if you have a "Butler County Family Fun Card" (which you can print online) admission is BOGO. Which I think is a little more reasonable.

We had a good time.

Meet the newest member of the Zombeck family!

We decided to call him Carlow. We got him from John's sister TT and that is where she went to college. So we thought it kinda fit. So far so good... we were worried that he would spray in the house...but so far he just sniffed around those areas. As long as he doesn't spray and John can live with him for a few weeks till he goes to the allergist he is here to stay!! He figured out the kitty door in our bedroom really quick... he was in and out all night. Its hard to get a good picture of him cause he just doesn't hold still long enough!

He is a sweetheart!!

VACATION TIME AGAIN!!

We went on a short vacation this time... only overnight. We went to the Cleveland Zoo. I wanted to see the hippo but they said he was retired and no longer on exibit. I was disappointed. John got to feed some birds nectar. We also went to the history museum, John Glenn NASA Center, and the Akron Zoo. We squeezed in a good bit in our 2 days.

Cleveland Zoo

Cleveland History Museum

Akron Zoo

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

We went out to dinner for our birthdays! We got dressed up and went to Lidia's in Pittsburgh. J.J. and Keith came with us and we all had a good time!

Can't wait to go back.

NEW CHIMNEY

DOWN WITH THE OLD, UP WITH THE NEW

HAWK IN THE YARD

Amanda spotted this bird on the swing in our front yard, after some research it looks to be about 1 to 2 year old.

The Red-tailed Hawk is a medium-sized bird of prey, one species known in the U.S. as the "chicken hawk," though it rarely preys on chickens. It breeds throughout most of North America.

In flight, this hawk soars, flapping as little as possible to conserve energy. Active flight is slow and deliberate, with deep wing beats. In wind, it occasionally hovers on beating wings and remains stationary above the ground.When soaring or flapping its wings, it typically travels from 20 to 40 mph, but when diving may exceed 120 mph.When the Red-tailed Hawk walks, its steps are slow and awkward.



A male Red-tailed Hawk may weigh from 1.5 to 3 pounds and measure 18 to 22 in.While a female can weigh between 2 and 4.4 pounds and measure 19 to 26 in. long. Their wingspan is about 45 to 52 in.

The Red-tailed Hawk has a complex history with humans. The name "chicken hawk" was applied to the Red-tailed Hawk in earlier times, when free-ranging chickens and other domestic fowl were occasionally taken by these birds. First-year Red-tails, usually in late summer or early fall, were the most guilty of such predation. After mid-summer, adults seldom provide food for newly-hunting young Red-tails, and easily-captured, flightless chickens at a farmstead were frequent targets. Today, Red-tails and other hawks are universally protected by state, provincial, and federal bird protection laws.

I found most of my finding on "hawks" in outdoor books and online outdoor sites and by observation of the (bird of prey) hawk itself.

I feel this wild animal is a natural wonder and I am grateful that it graced us with it's visit to our front yard.

EVERYONE PLEASE REMEMBER TO PROTECT AND ADMIRE THIS RED-TAILED BIRD OF PREY SO FUTURE GENERATIONS CAN DO THE SAME.

We had some movie tickets we got for free, so we went to the movies today and saw "The Proposal" it was a pretty good movie for some what of a chick flick I have to say..


For dinner Amanda made a killer Stir-fry and she baked a cake for dessert. yum...


going to watch some tv later......

Sunday July 12

About two weeks ago we found a deal on a boat so we became boat owners it is a older boat (a 88) it came with a 9.9. hp motor (needed t.l.c.) we had some issues with the tow light hook up and after two weeks of waiting for the dealer to fix it we got the boat in the water it was a great feeling to be on the water.
Amanda told me to go out and she would take a picture of the boat and me in the water.She also said I had to make sure it did not sink. ha ha ha.

Amanda caught the first fish on the boat.

I caught a bluegill myself.

The boat was great no water in it when we stoppped fishing.

We both can't wait until the next time we have time go out on the boat.

The blog is up to date and we will try to blog more ( with other things than fishing/boating, who am i kidding we do what we love)

until next time.....

JULY 4 WEEKEND

The fourth of July, No fireworks here just us fishing and on monday we went to idlewild park and soak zone.It was a great 3 day weekend....

JUNE 29

LAKE ARTHUR

SMALL LARGEMOUTH BASS

(HERE KITTY KITTY) 7 POUND CATFISH

JUNE14

ONE STRIPER= NICE FISHING

JUNE 7

LAKE ARTHUR

STRIPER FISHING

May 25, 2009

We went fishing with J.J. and Keith at Racoon State Park. We didn't catch too much. John had a butterfly problem. This little butterfly would not leave him alone. It was all over him.

J.J. caught a carp... way to go!!

May 17, 2009

We went to Moraine State Park with J.J. to fish.

J.J. took this picture of John fishing. I think its pretty.

Vacation Continued...

We went to visit the Valentines after Erie. We had a wonderful time as usual. Caught some monster fish and enjoyed watching the kids play baseball and t-ball. We didn't want to leave. Thank you for letting us stay at your cottage!!

May 2009... Our Vacation!

This year we went to Erie Pa. Our plan was to stay in Erie, go to Splash Lagoon, and do a little fishing up there. Our plans did not work out... Splash Lagoon was closed the few days we were there. So we ended up fishing mostly. We went to the casino and we went to the Erie Zoo.

Check out the giraffe behind us!!

We went to see...

WALKING WITH DINOSAURS

It was pretty cool. They looked so life like and were so big.

John took lots of pictures... here are two of my favorites!

Well... it has been a long summer for us. Sorry we havent blogged anything for quite some time. We have been busy... we went camping, had pictures taken (twice), not much fishing : ( and we went on vacation to the beach.

This was my first trip to the ocean. We went to Ocean City MD in August. We had a good time. Here are a few pictures from the beach.

The Zombeck kids had pictures taken for Mom Z's birthday.

I think they came out rather well.

We went to the Zoo on Sunday.

We had a good time. We went early and the animals were all active for a change. The polor bears were swimming and the tigers were playing.

Here are a few pictures.

VACATION TIME!!

For our second Anniversary we decided to go to Niagara Falls.

We stayed a couple nights and then headed back home.

While we were there we went into Canada for the Maid of the Mist ride, the Butterfly Conservatory, and a few other attractions. We had a nice time walking by the rapids and seeing the waterfalls up close. He even took me to the Casino! That was fun... I can see how people get addicted to it. Anyway...here are a few pictures from our trip!

JOHN FLASHBACK!!

(Look at those curls!)

AMANDA FLASH-BACK

Look what I found today!!!

We noticed a robin guarding the bush next to the house...

So I checked it out. There is a cute little nest with a tiny blue egg in in!

I cant wait till it hatches!

So heres the story...

We took Johns car to the dealer to be serviced today. Long story short... we left with a new car. Yep thats right...we traded my car in and got a new one. (Not really sure how that happened... but it did.) So here is John standing next to our new KIA Sportage.

We decided to try something new today!

We drove into Pittsburgh to the Triangle Bar and Grill.

They have a hoagie there named the "Destroyer".

We saw it on a WQED special and John decided he had to have one.

The first picture it looks like any other sub... nothing that special.

The second picture shows just how large the sub is. (It has to be close to 3ft)

Notice the light in the kitchen...John put them in last night. (Hes so handy)

The last picture is our fishing trip after we ate. (No we didn't eat the whole thing!)

We both caught some fish this time but only got a picture of John.

Well...Its that time of year again!!

Yep you got it... Fishing Season! : )

We have been eager for winter to be over so we could spend some time outdoors! It was nice to get out and get some fresh air. We both feel like we have been hibernating but spring is here...and we are out enjoying the sun!

So we went on our first fishing trip of the season. We didn't catch too much...but then we never do this early. So here is a picture of us at the Brush Creek Park. And a nice one of John and a really nice looking trout. (the only catch of the day!! )

Merry Christmas!!

We went to J and Keith's last night for Christmas. We had a good time playing games and eating lots of yummy food.

We had an ugly ornament contest and John was the proud winner this year! Here is a picture of all the entries and John proudly holding his pine cone and winnings!!

Hope you all have safe and happy Holidays!