Will's Blog

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Good news. We are about a month away from Rebekah's due date with our third child. We had a sonogram done and found out that we are expecting our second son. Bad news is we are still looking for a baby name. Now I open it up as a contest, to you. Select the winning baby name and go home with a nice warm feeling and an autographed picture of the little guy.

Here are the rules:

1. Name can not be a nick name. "Kurt" is an example. We like to make nick names from their birth name.
2. Can not be "most" popular in the US. Social Security records the most popular names in the US at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/babynames/ . It changes every year. Wouldn't you hate to sit in class and be the third "John" their?
3. Can not be satire, funny, or weird. I have tried them all. I have lobbied hard for "Danger" for a middle name. Famous people such as "John Madden", "Kurt Warner", and "Austin Powers" . Funny names vetoed included "Warren Peace" and "Robin Banks".
4. Can not be Oliver.

Optional:
1. Name meaning. We liked the name "Arabella" for a girl, because it means "gift from God". "William" is a family names. Etc.

If you have not noticed, I tried to make a new banner to adorn our blog page. I am no professional web developer, but it seems to work. I like to stick to designing hardware, because if something breaks, you can kick it. Sometimes we will even do "experiments" on the hardware to alleviate our stress. (Trust me, electronics in the microwave do not smell pretty.)

Above on the page is one of my favorite shots of the kids walking. Little Aine is usually the pickle when it comes to taking pictures. Even with the camera on rapid picture taking, she still manages to fit in the perfect smile in-between frames. For now, I will try to keep on taking candid shots for the "money shot." Of course, Football and video games have supplanted most picture taking for the moment...

Gallery:
After a short summer off from the website, we are back at it:) New Pictures are up for those whom are clamoring to see my beautiful mug. For everyone else who like seeing the kids grow, there might be a picture of them too:) For the observant people out there, I have recently become lazy about shaving my head and now show my disguised hairline better. I posted about 500 pictures from the last few months. Do not fret, It is only a sample of all the pictures we have been taking.

BLOG :

We are also getting back in the habit of blogging, so you can start checking back regularly for our wisdom, humor, and thoughts. Or to just marvel how someone can be such a bad writer. We will try to blog weekly to keep everyone in touch. Feel free to leave us comment or register and put up posts. I can give you your own blog space if you desire. Its only a few clicks away.

WALL PICTURES:

With the weather starting to turn a little worse, we are again spending more time at home. In the next few weeks we will be having a small photo shoot with the purpose of getting some good shots to hang on the wall (or just throw darts at). Email me if you would like some shots and what sizes. If you have some suggestions for posses or framing of the shots, let me know. I am always open to ideas and suggestions (constructive of course Dad).

Life is still great in the UK. Newest pictures are up for your enjoyment of our travels around the area.

The weather has finally broke, for the better, on the island nation. I think that we are through all of the snow, even though it has hailed recently. I would say that it probably has hailed more than it has snowed. The "hail" is not the large chunks of ice that I was use to living on the lake shore in the states. It is more like grains of rice to peppercorn sized. The high winds of March are still causing some issues too. Ships were unable to dock for a few weeks in the south, due to the choppy sea and high winds. There are still some shelves that are waiting of the back log of goods to find their way up to this part of the country.

Lambing season has just passed in the UK. The fields are filled with little lambs frolicking in the fields. The mostly white lambs are a stark contrast to the winter dirty sheep. We took a few pictures around to give everyone a taste of it. (Maybe they will be on your store shelves soon?)

Cheers!

The House of Schermer

In an effort to spend out tax return before we get it, thus performing the "good American consumer" action and stimulate the economy, we purchased some "photo studio" equipment. We found some cheap, low end equipment and decided to try out creating our own home portraits. There are no "Sears" type cheap photo studios around us, only professional photographers. By the time we pay for two photo sessions, we can buy the basic equipment.

There are quite a few sites dedicated to the amateur photographer, like Strobist,equipment reviews, and other forums. The Strobist is one of the best resources, since it is a professional giving tips to un-educated photographer like us. So the internet is a plethora of great information and tips to aid us along our journey.

The equipment did not take long to set up, once we cleaned out an area to work in. The "equipment" consists of a couple of lights, back drop stand, and back drops (besides the computer software that I already have). Below is a couple of quick examples of the fun we are having. Liam made a mobile during Sunday school time here at the house. The first picture is of Liam with a Chroma key backdrop behind him. I can then edit the photo and do what ever I want to, like put him on a different background as in the second picture. The photography session and editing was done in less than 20 minutes.

My intent was to just play with the new things we received. The picture quality and positioning are, at best, "crap-tacular". We will get better with time and hopefully you will witness our evolution. I can already tell the difference in our outdoor photographs:)

The best picture Aine would let me get: