{The New House} Silver Reflections

{The New House} Lovely Mantle

I love our fireplace—it is not messy at all. I love it because even I can start a fire---by switching the “on” switch. :)  At first I hated our mantle---it was just so “blah.”  Then we painted the living room walls the nice Cobblestone gray color and now the white mantle just pops!  Recently, Cliff and my dad mounted our television and then began running speaker wires for Cliff’s new sound system that he “got for his birthday” when really I told him since it would make things easier—he could just go buy the sound system he wanted for his birthday. I decided to add a few of our pictures and I recently bought the cool silver candle holders at ZGallerie in Dallas last weekend.

Any way, here is our mantle:

This isn’t the best quality of picture---it was pretty late at night and for some reason I just could not eliminate the shake on my camera---which means I’m usually too lazy to break out my tripod. Oh well, it’s a picture—so there ‘ya go. :)

{The New House}The Guest Bathroom

Well, the house is slowly coming together.  He have the tv hung and speakers on the wall, cable, and boxes are slowly, but surely disappearing. The room that is probably the most together would be the guest bathroom. So, I thought I’d share some pictures with you.

 

 

All of the above photos were taken using my Canon Powershot G11 point and shoot camera.  The shots were taken in raw+Large files and edited in Photoshop.  I am still loving my nifty little point and shoot for side and fun projects.  My dad is a little scared that I might abandon my dslr…..which I don’t EVER plan on that one happening.  I still use my dslr for photo shoots and the more serious stuff, but it’s fun to use this little gem as well. 

Now about the bathroom:

We really didn’t do anything in here but paint.  I used all the same materials we had in the old guest bathroom.  I really liked them and the towels were very lightly used, so I just kept the same stuff.

We, Cliff, painted the bathroom walls a cool silvery color by Behr paints that actually shows up more like a light blue---which is just what I wanted, and Cliff just happened to be happy with it.

The shower curtain and rug both came from target, while the towels and bathroom accessories such as the soap pump and trashcan all came from Bed Bath & Beyond, (all gifts from our wedding registry.)  The really cool apothecary jar with the cotton swabs came from The Container Store purchased back about two years ago after we moved into our last apartment.  All the lotions and whatnot come mostly from my mother who likes to give me a lot of Bath & Bodyworks stuff, but I never have the ability to use it all---plus some of it reacts with my dry skin. 

**A note about bath products** I like to take the stuff from hotels and whatnot like a lot of people do---I try to store some of these items in my guest bath in the drawer next to the sink so if my guests ever forget anything while they are staying with us---they have a backup option.  I also do this with some mouthwash and toothbrushes if we end up with extra after we come home from a dentist appointment. (Cliff has gone to the dentist a LOT this year so we have lots of trial mouthwash bottles sitting around.) 

{DFW Photographer} Wait, You Mean I’m a Grownup Now?

Life has been crazy busy in the last few weeks.  Just in the last week a couple of very eventful things happened in our family.

Monday started with the birth of our beautiful niece—the first Carpenter grandchild, Zoey Carpenter!  Zoey decided to come 5 days early because she just couldn’t stand hiding out any longer.  Around 10:00 Monday, September 20th, Zoey made her first appearance into the world. (pictures to come later.)

Friday was a very eventful day on a personal level for Cliff and Myself.  We took the plunge, nearly emptied our bank account, and purchased a house.  You might remember that we started searching for a house back in January, and it ended up being quite the ordeal if you have read this post. We didn’t broadcast the information very much to our friends or on facebook, etc. because we did not want to go through the frustration of explaining to everyone again if the deal fell through.

The house is not as large as the last one we had under contract---but it is of good quality and in a good neighborhood, and it was cheaper! We were able to put the house on a 20 year note, so we’ll have it paid off faster! Nevertheless, we are still very excited to be purchasing our very first home together and getting it ready to move into during the next couple of weeks.

In lieu of starting a new chapter of our lives together, AND getting my trusty little point and shoot—the Canon G11, (which I am LOVING,) I have decided to start a “365” project where I post one picture a day, (or post several pictures—one representing each day prior,) based on our first year adventure as being home owners in Mansfield, Texas.  I’m not sure that these photos will always be the best quality that I am capable of, but I did want to document this first year journey of becoming home owners because this is a place we worked so hard to get to, and there was a lot of time invested in the search for this new home. (So the above displayed photo of Cliff and me standing in front of our new house counts as day #1.)

Here are images from the 25th and 26th of September.  Shamefully, I kind of forgot and didn’t take a singe picture yesterday on the 27th. :(

Here is a shot of our cousin’s daughter: Kenna, singing at the top of her lungs with a paint brush in one of our guest bedrooms.  This girl cracks me up, and is not afraid to sing and dance in front of you.  She makes me smile every single time I see her. Love her and her parents SO much!

 

Like I said, these photos are not of great quality but hey, they are photos and they are part of documentation of this new journey we are taking this next year!

Today’s image is of the custom cupcake picks I made for my grandfather’s 80th birthday party set for this weekend. Think he might get me for posting an old football picture of himself?

On another sad note, I am so glad that we were not in Austin today to have to experience the shooting at the University of Texas.  Cliff is a UT alum and we visit fairly often.  If you have not heard, there was a tragic shooting in one of the libraries on campus involving a student shooter who fired off several rounds before taking his own life.  Fortunately, he did not hurt anyone else, but it was scary either way.

{DFW Photographer}Real Life Moments From a High School Teacher

We are officially in the second week of school here in Texas.  Another year I am glad to have the opportunity to be involved and share my love of computer technology and multimedia with high school students. 

I feel like I have had the opportunity to learn so much in my two years, going on three at my school. You see, the school where I teach is different than the one I attended. I went to a school where there were quite a few people who had attended the school district since the beginning and many others who had transferred in due to parents relocating for jobs and careers.  I was part of group B.  We moved to Midlothian due to my father taking on a new role in the company he worked for in Dallas.  We all had financial challenges, but we all were still quite comfortable and had everything we needed, some more than others, but our needs were met. The school were I teach has a different assortment of students from various backgrounds.  Some students come from a home with both parents and are as comfortable as I was growing up, others live in a home where their parents speak a different language than they do.  Some students moved to this area with their parents in order to find new work, while others move to this area ahead of their parents with siblings or other family members in order to find them some work.  Some students have a child, others have children, who must leave school to see their child in daycare during lunch, or take the baby to the doctor, or they are concerned about what their “baby momma” is telling their two year old about them and that she’s trying to take the baby away from them.  Many students are dealing with walking in the halls, expecting their first child---some are only 14 years old. 

Some students don’t live with their mom but they don’t live with their dad either. Maybe they live with a grandparent, cousin, or other family member, sometimes a friend, but they stay with their parent every now and again.

Some students are doing just fine and have two loving parents but someone in their clique got into a fight with another clique last week and then was threatened, and sometimes that carries over into the school. (For the most part though, they do a pretty good job of keeping the gang violence outside the school.) 

Some kids face having the electricity being cut off for weeks at a time because the only person able to bring in a paycheck is living off disability, and that does not do much to take care of five or six people. So there is no hot shower, freshly cooked food, and little light at night to do homework.

Some students face the unfortunate circumstance of “how am I going to be able to participate in all these senior activities” because their step parent refuses to pay for any of them in the one income household because that child is not their own offspring.

Some students are just fine.

Some students are not disciplined and just need a good, thick board whipped across their behind.

But others are despite all odds that are against them that otherwise say they should be screwed up. But they are not.  They are focused, mature, sincere, and kind.

We can’t make excuses for why students do not succeed in school. We must continue to hold them to high expectations.  If we raise the bar, they will meet it. We must teach students how to deal with keeping their life as organized as possible even when the rest of it is chaos.

We must teach our students how to deal with challenges and raise their own bar, despite the fact they have been diagnosed with ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, etc.

I had a moment today where I was talking to a parent over the phone regarding a student skipping out on class after lunch. I am so glad my attitude was different than the one I immediately had when I saw that the student never came back to class.  I decided to approach the situation of asking the parent if the child was okay---did they get sick or did something come up during lunch that I did not know about.  As it turns out there was something that came up….a situation that I am fortunate that I have not had to deal with while I was in school---partially due to my upbringing, and another partially due to my situation.

My students, my wonderful students.  Sometimes I would love to knock some sense into their head using osmosis, but there are other times I wish I could cradle them and love them and give them the world as well. Little do they know how much they teach me day in and day out.

Cheers to a new school year—and keeping my senses. :)

My Leg in Its Current State, part 2

Today was my first day of therapy for my knee.  They unbandaged my knee to where it was open where you could see the staples. This totally grossed out my younger sister who graciously drove me to therapy this afternoon.  When I got home tonight, I decided to take the bandage off again and re-wrap my wound, but not before taking a gruesome picture of my staples in my leg! So, this post’s image is going to be a little gross and will not be good for those with a weak stomach. For those of you with a stable stomach that is stronger, feel free to see my knee below.

My Leg in Its Current State

Well, I’ve been talking about how I’m laid up in bed and just had surgery, etc, etc. So, what’s all that talk without some proof?  I was finally able to get my hands on my camera and verify my knee issues yesterday:

Out of Commission

Well, in case you have not already heard, I’m taking a break from photography for a while, and most of life. Yesterday morning I had surgery to reconstruct my right ACL in my knee. 

I should be asleep, but due to excruciating pain in my knee, I can’t sleep. I don’t cry much from pain, but I have multiple times since I woke up from my surgery.

My wake up greeting was vomiting into my oxygen mask, and at which point, they sedated me again to allow me to rest more I guess. This experience has definitely been more painful than the surgery I had back in November of 08 to scope out the ACL and just remove it.

The cool thing so far was the nerve block they put in that make most of my leg numb. I could touch my skin through the brace and it was like touching someone else’s skin.

I thought I would be okay by myself today while Cliff is at work, but I am SO thankful that my friend Diedra is coming over now, plus my mom is coming in this afternoon.  It’s just nice to have your “mommy” around when you aren’t feeling good.

{DFW Photographer} Twitter, Weddings, Roommates, and Family

This week has been pretty full of excitement so far. Right now I am in East Texas out at the "Shankle Farm" ie: My parents' house/barn, spending a few days with family and visiting with old friends before I have to plant myself in DFW for the summer when I have knee surgery next month.

Twitter
First off, let me announce, I'm on Twitter now! You can find me at www.twitter.com/cleephoto. 
I decided that I guess it is about time and give in to peer pressure and try this thing out.  I'm still not sure that I really understand the point of Twitter, but hey, I will give it a shot. After Candice Cunningham was shocked that I did not Twitter despite the fact that I'm a Multimedia teacher and her giving me grief about it, I decided to try it out. :)

Weddings
Saturday I made my way out to Mansfield, Louisiana to see my former college roommate, Hillary get married.  I did Hillary's engagement pictures last year in December and later did her Bridal shots this past spring.  She was such a beautiful bride, and it was great to see college friends again! One thing that is great is I have been DYING to share Hillary's bridal pictures with you, and now I FINALLY get to share these pictures! We did the shoot on a Sunday afternoon at the Mandalay Canal in Las Colinas. This place is so beautiful! I wish I would have known about it earlier in life or had attempted to find it earlier, because it is just gorgeous. Hillary and her mom came out to my house from East Texas and we went out to take the pictures, sadly, she left her veil back at my apartment, but we made do anyway.
This slideshow I created at Magtoo.com where you can make slideshows for free as silly or elegant as you like.


Here is Hillary with both her dad and stepfather, both named "Stan" and have been great father figures in her life.

From Hillary's wedding

These two girls were precious and I had fun playing with the editing of this picture:

From Hillary's wedding

James is Larry's son from a previous marriage that is super cute and seems to be fitting in with his new extended family quite well.

From Hillary's wedding

I thought the forks were lined up so pretty---and I like weird things such as forks.

From Hillary's wedding

Here are the three former fabulous roommates:

From Hillary's wedding

While I was at Hillary's wedding, I was able to see my old roommates from my senior year in college. Wendy and Eva were both there, and they both got married back in 2007 right after I graduated in May. We all lived in this really old house in Marshall, and we called it the House of CHEW, (Christy, Hillary, Eva, & Wendy.) It previously had been dominated by the baseball boys of ETBU and the softball girls before that. When the three baseball boys that lived there before us decided to move out, we jumped at the chance to move in. We had some fun times, expensive electricity bills, furry rats, but all in all, it was a good year where we learned a lot and made a lot of memories. Wendy and I had lived together for two years previous to that senior year, and we were both concentrating in Social Studies in conjunction with our degrees in Education--so we were the history nerds, oh yeah, and band nerds as well. Three glorious summers of marching band on a black asphalt parking lot----whew! Those were the days! We found Hillary and Eva across the way, and Hillary and I were also in colorguard together at ETBU, (part of the band.)

Since Hillary's wedding, I have been in East Texas visiting with some family and friends while I am here and I'll head back to the metroplex tomorrow morning. I've taken the opportunity to do some things that I don't always get the chance to do while I am out here. Sunday, I went and visited my cousin Angie, who is a photography buddy as well, and really enjoyed my time with her and her family. We get along very well. Angie and I both are really practical and have a lot in common. Her and Mandy were so mean to me as a kid, I mean, really, who wants to hang out with the younger grandchild? But since we have gotten older, and really since I went to college, we have become very close. I value our relationship, and hope it always remains as good as it is.

Monday, I went up to Mount Pleasant and visited my best friend, Terrie, who is going to be teaching Pre-K this fall!!! Terrie has always wanted to be a teacher, from the moment I have met her, she knew she wanted to teach children, and now she finally gets to achieve her dream! I am so excited for her! We went up to her classroom to work on getting some things organized, and goodness, there were packets of construction paper stashed EVERYWHERE in that room! I think we finally found it all and were able to organize it all in the closet. At least we got ONE thing done!

Tonight, we are going out to eat fish with some 2nd and 3rd cousins at a traditional place that we go to eat if we ever have a family gathering....David Beard's Catfish Village off Hwy 155 in Ore City. I definitely look forward to eating some bottom feeder catfish and visiting with family!

'Till Next Time!

East Texas Red

As I mentioned previously in my last post, I recently went to East Texas. It was good to see my parents again, and of course, Holly Dog loves to go out to the "farm" and play endlessly with Millie--my parents' chocolate lab.

This year, my parents have finally been able to put in a garden.  When I was younger, my parents always had a garden when we lived in Longview.  It was a pretty large garden, usually with corn, cucumbers, jalapenos, and of course, tomatoes.  You cannot have a garden and not have tomatoes growing in it.  It is a must.  Well now, they have a massive garden with lettuce, cantaloupe, squash, zucchini, strawberries, corn, watermelon, peppers, and of course, tomatoes.  When I told my mother in law about my parents' garden this year and that we would be visiting soon, she told me one important thing before we left, "...AND DON'T FORGET ABOUT MY TOMATOES!"  well, and she did remind us to be safe, because that is what mothers do, and even though she'll tell you she's not my mother, she is still my husband's, and my friend as well; so of course she will tell us to be careful----no matter how old we get. 

Back to tomatoes though. East Texas tomatoes are incredible.  They are all a deep, meaty red and full of flavor. They are downright, better than any other tomato I have ever tasted.  Slice them up, add some salt and a good bit of pepper, and they are delicious.  Be careful though, if you eat too many---your mouth may react to all that acid.  But they are ohhhhhhh so good!
Tonight, I made a great bacon and tomato sandwich.  But before I butchered a beautiful East Texas tomato, I had to give it a little "photo shoot." haha!

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

See how red and meaty these things are?? YUM!!

From Blogger Pictures

DFW Photographer---Birthday Wish!

Well, last night was the first ever Dallas SmugMug Meeting at the very nice Tower Club on Elm Street.
Candice Cunningham was one of our guest speakers and she was quite inspiring with her talk about marketing your brand. (I might have gotten in a little bit of trouble for not being a twitter-er.) One thing I saw of Candice's was something I would LOVE to have.....
This amazing little thing called the Canon EF 70-200 mm L F4 Lens Coffee Mug.

I just might start drinking coffee regularly in the middle of summer so I can have this mug. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this!

Do not fear Nikon lovers, they have a coffee mug for you now too.

About the best price I have seen on these wonderful little things has been about $35.00--a little pricey for a coffee mug, but come on! I say it is truly difficult to pass up something this amazing!
Needless to say...the title of this post says "Birthday Wish" so if you must know, my birthday is coming up in less than a month---on July 3rd, which happens to be the same day my cousin is getting married.  So----if anyone mentions "I really would like to get Christy a super cool birthday gift." Go ahead and tell 'em I'm in love with this little lens look a like coffee mug! And......don't hesitate to order one of these fantastic little things for the camera enthusiast in your life. 

The Texas Tech Graduate

Congratulations are in order---my younger sister graduated from Texas Tech last weekend on May 14th with her Bachelor's degree in Human Sciences.  Cliff and I ventured out to Lubbock for the event and discovered that the town can turn into a series of rivers once it rains a little bit. Yep, just a little bit of water out there causes you to start looking for an ark! I didn't think I'd get any pictures of graduation but the rain stopped and Cliff, being the incredible husband that he is, went back out to the car and brought my camera inside, just in time for Jessie to walk up to the stage and accept her diploma, and for me to capture her "getting her guns up" in the crowd of the rest of the graduates who had their hands in their laps. :) 

Jessie is a lot of fun---she's very outgoing and marches to the beat of her own drum for sure---everyone in our family can identify it.  She does not care if it is cool or what others want her or not want her to do---she's very much her own person.  I admire her for that.  She can make me laugh so much.  Even when we were younger, she had a wild imagination and could turn a simple ribbon bow into a whole Broadway performance. (She really did that one time at the table...) She knows me well enough that if I had to leave my house to be completely renovated and decorated by someone else, I would completely trust her to do it---and not much of anyone else. Jessie is usually the first person I buy for at Christmas---because I probably found her gift in June---she's that easy to buy for.  Tech fit her well as red was already her favorite color and the air is dry---allowing her to contain her wild woman hair!

Jessie will start teaching a toddler class this summer at the Texas Tech CVRC--where they hire certified teachers for their pre-school.  She's very excited to start her job, as well as the rest of the family is for her.

I'm Having Nightmares

That's right, I've been having nightmares, except they don't happen when I sleep, but they still keep me up at night.  They make my stomach hurt, my hair fall out, my husband's hair fall out, and give me ulcers in my mouth. The nightmares I've been having are called searching for a home to purchase.  Ugh, house hunting, I'm so tired of it!
We did have a contract on a house, but it fell through.  The sellers found out how much their house was actually worth and they did not want to come down, and eventually gave us problems with upholding their end of the contract as well.  Monday was an absolutely horrid day and I thought I just wanted to crawl up in the fetal position, fall asleep, and then wake up in June; either that or go barge through someone's office and demand my earnest money back.  It was a nightmare that wouldn't end, hopefully the worst is over now, we shall see.

Now we are considering a couple of options.  We can wait for this whole tax credit to blow over and home prices to drop and build a new house and choose what we want, on the lot we want, (anyone know anything about First Texas Homes?) or we can purchase an existing home that's about 12 years old, but in good shape and a great size.  It's only been on the market for 1, yes, one day, and houses are being grabbed up quickly.  Two houses we were interested in a week ago have already gotten contracts on them, so if we act on it, we need to act fast.  The hard part is deciding what to do.  Do we attempt to go for the tax credit with a matter of a few days left or do we build something for a little bit more money and get what we want??? (Which would also be closer to our totally fantastic, and photography buddy family members, AND it's just off the lake!)

People say if you can build a house together your marriage will survive, I'm beginning to think that just buying a house alone is hard enough.  The financing has been fine, it's the negotiations with the sellers that has been so difficult, then finding something that isn't being grabbed up that fits my picky desires.  (Hey, I'm making at least a 10 year investment here, I'm allowed to be picky for once!) Luckily it hasn't been quite as hard agreeing with Cliff.  Some things yes, but others no; I like older houses, where as Cliff prefers a newer home, about 12 years is as old as he'll go.

Well, I have this and two showers ahead of me this weekend.  I get to hang out with some college friends this Saturday and old church friends on Sunday, plus I get to see my mom and dad!!! Maybe I need this weekend to get away from it all.

House Hunting

Tomorrow we are starting the house hunt...again.  Hopefully out of 12 houses we can find one that will actually work out this time.  We had a contract on a house for a little over a month and it fell through this week due to the appraisal.  I'd be lying if I said I was not really disappointed about the situation, but I guess it just was not meant to be.  That's alright, there is a house out there for us that will work out just fine, and we'll have a happy life together and hopefully begin to raise a family out of it. The most important thing will be that we're together in a happy healthy home.  The sad thing about the state of the housing market right now is that there really aren't a whole lot of winners in the situation.  Lenders aren't making money because they are not lending very much, sellers are having a very hard time selling their home, buyers are having a hard time getting lending approval.  Unfortunately, some people are loosing their home and having to move out, all to see their former home sit empty and unlived in for months and months.  Right now we are the buyer, and I guess it really is the better situation to be in despite the stress we've had to go through finding a home.  Fortunately, our credit situation is fine, it was just the appraisal that threw a kink into the system.  The lender thought the house was worth less than the seller thought it was worth---so we did get it...stinks huh?  I guess the worst part about that situation is that I had no control over it; and it completely depended upon other people's decisions and I find that frustrating.  Hopefully this house hunt will be better.  Wish us luck tomorrow!

Day 18: 21 Day Body Makeover

Today I cheated on my diet, err, my body cleanse.

I cheated on it because I ate this:

It's Snow Ice Cream.  We have had upwards of five inches of snow on the ground today here in DFW.  I have NEVER seen snow like this in Texas in my lifetime.  It was perfect snow, easily packs together. It was great for snow ice cream.  Now how many chances do you ever get to make and eat some great snow ice cream here in North Texas?  The chances are second to none.  So I broke my diet and mixed in some evaporated milk with a little Splenda and vanilla for an afternoon treat. 

Here's what you need to make Snow Ice Cream

  

You'll need snow of course.  Get some fresh--an area that hasn't been touched.  We have to watch out for yellow doggie snow in our complex. 

Scoop you up some fresh snow in a bowl, Splenda (or a sweetener,) Evaporated Milk, and Vanilla.

Mix in about a 1/2 tablespoon with splenda, a tablespoon or two of vanilla, and a little evaporated milk and mix it all together.  Then you've got your snow ice cream!

Like I said earlier, it has been snowing like crazy here in DFW today.  It started in the middle of the night and it's been snowing all day!!! I had so many kids absent today.  I probably had about 15 absent from two classes.  During all lunches there were lots of snowballs thrown in our school courtyard, but luckily, nothing near as bad as what apparently happened at Skyline High School this afternoon, according to News 8. 

The snow is the deepest I have ever seen in this part of Texas.  It is so much fun to play in, but it's definitely all over the road.  It's supposed to drop down to the upper '20s as far as temperature tonight, so all the muck will definitely freeze, causing several schools to cancel classes tomorrow, including mine.  YAY NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!!! (oh, did I say that too loud??)  

Here's some images from today:

 

Here's the front of Sam Houston High School at around 10:00 am. 

 

This is how my car greeted me as I went out to the parking lot to leave today.  I was one of the only people left at about 3:45pm. It was so clean and not covered this morning when I left home.  I guess that's over. 

 

Holly and Cliff were out this afternoon when I got home.  Holly loved the snow. 

 

Hey you super cute dog!

 

Just sniffin' around, lookin' for some smells...

 

Cliff had to muzzle her a little bit when she would not quit barking at a super cute bull dog out and about with his owners. 

Well, even though I don't have school tomorrow, it's time for bed.  Hope you all have a good evening.

Guard Dog

Well, since Cliff has been down with the flu, he's been staying covered up in the chair quite often, and Holly has gotten used to him lying around.  Holly is quite the cuddler, and I love that about her.  She's totally a people dog and loves to be close to her humans. 
Well, today here's what I caught her doing:

Isn't she super cute???  I'm not sure if she's standing guard over Cliff or just looking to claim him as hers.  Either way, it's adorable.
Here's another:

Fireworks Commands

Whew, November is over already and now I'm facing freezing weather...where did Fall go? Where are you my favorite season of the year? Now I'm wearing gloves and a coat on December 3rd! Which, if you are from this part of Texas, you understand what I'm saying. We aren't used to this cold of temperatures and snow this time of year. We're used to cooling off, but not quite this much cooling off. Oh well, at least it isn't 100 degrees or -17 outside.

I must admit, I'm pretty proud of myself though. I finally figured out how to construct my own Fireworks Commands, for you Photoshop groupies out there it's basically the same thing as Photoshop Actions. This will make my life much easier when it comes to preparing images for the web and also for editing. I look forward to developing my knowledge of Fireworks because I see there are far less tutorials available for using the program available on the internet. I understand that Photoshop is the dominant tool, and I wish I had it as well; but part of the reason people still flock to using photoshop vs. Fireworks these days is partly because there are so many extra tools available online developed by its users, especially actions.

Perhaps before too long I can develop a tutorial and post it here if anyone decided to meander on this blog and desire a use for Fireworks commands....we'll see.