Life As It Is.

Youthful Aspirations.

Seth was looking at a friend's car last night which had broken down in the parking lot of Jeremiah's (local restaurant). So the girls and I decided to grab some dinner (turkey avocado sandwich on whole wheat was pretty tasty) while we waited.

During dinner, Sadie told me she had another job to add to the list of things she might like to do when she grows up. Always intrigued by her choices, I asked, "What is it?" Imagine my disappointment when "photographer" no longer made the list!! Instead, the list was as follows, "Librarian, artist, lawyer." Librarian and artist have been on her mind for a very long time (mom is always the top of the list...it is a given).

Librarian because she is OBSESSED with books to the point that the most severe form of punishment for Sadie is to take her reading privileges away. She's like a junkie, always looking for the next opportunity to read. If I had to name the top thing that we have to discipline Sadie for, it is definitely for giving me attitude because I've told her she has to do something other than read. I realize there are far worse problems we could have, so I'll try not to complain, but her love of reading can be both a blessing and a curse. 

Artist because she is already surprisingly adept at drawing/creating. I can't even draw a respectable stick figure, so I'm amazed at Sadie's ability to draw. There are stacks of pictures that Sadie and Avery have drawn, colored, painted, etc. They love to give their creations to friends and family, and I am often asked for stamps so they can mail them off to someone they had in mind when they made a particular picture. Sometimes there are creative additions...Avery recently glued an almond to a picture she made for daddy. So yes, I suppose I can see "artist" in Sadie's future.

But, lawyer? I wasn't quite sure where that came from. We've discussed what a lawyer is, but not recently. Seth has some inherent lawyer qualities, so I suppose Sadie could have inherited it from him. :)

So I of course had to ask where she got the idea of being a lawyer. And I guess it should come as no surprise that it was from a book. Evidently, Nancy Drew's father is a lawyer. There you have it, perhaps years down the road we can remember the birth of Sadie's career as a lawyer and credit Nancy Drew's father.

When we discussed what type of lawyer she might be, she seemed to get most excited about the prospect of helping children that have been hurt or abused. I must say that there was a sigh of relief that she doesn't like the idea of defending criminals. :)

The Sound of Silence.

Just sitting here enjoying the quiet. :)

Seth took the girls frolfing while I was doing a photo session this afternoon (with Pastor Terry and fam....so much fun), and I beat them home, so I have the house to myself. I should do something productive like fold the basket of laundry sitting next to me, but no, I'm just going to sit here and enjoy the silence. 

We are having some amazing weather right now. The first week of November was just beautiful with temps in the 60's. I wish winter would stay just like this! It has made for some incredible photoshoots.

We attended a birthday party today that had a "camping" theme, so I really should go shower off the campfire stench. Sadie and Avery (Avery especially) are obsessed with C.S. Lewis books/movies/audios right now, and they wanted to pass on their love to the birthday girl...thankfully their mama was okay with that.

Family is home, silence has passed. It was good while it lasted. :)

Observations.

Written Oct 21:

Sadie has made several observations about the world around her since she got her new glasses this morning. Even just on the way to the car she excitedly exclaimed that there were hills and bumps in the pavement...if she couldn't see that before then I'm surprised she didn't trip more often!

She pointed out that she could see the leaves on the trees...the doctor had told her she would be surprised to see all the individual leaves. I asked her if she was going to like wearing her new glasses and she smiled her sheepish grin and said, "Maaaybe."

As we were driving through downtown Ogden, she said, "Know what I realized? I can see all the bricks in these buildings now!"

And, most recently, she came into my office and was looking at the portrait of Avery hanging above my desk. She told me she didn't realize before that there were little white polka dots on the dress that Avery was wearing in the photo. 

Sadie looks so grown-up in her new glasses. After her eye appointment last week, she tried on dozens of pairs of glasses. It was hard to decide what looked best on her...a lot of them looked pretty much the same to me (not as many choices for kids as for adults). 

Written today:

This post has been sitting in wait for a couple weeks and I'm finally getting around to posting it. Sadie didn't wear her glasses often for the first couple weeks, but she has started to wear them more frequently. I think it probably made her feel self-conscious...something new that draws attention to her.

She has already lost her glasses once....she dropped them (in the case) in a friend's driveway. We/she didn't even realize she didn't have them until the next morning when Sadie took the call telling her that her glasses had been found. Thankfully the glasses were fine and hadn't been run over!

Must Be Love.

This session was so much fun! It was laid back and easy and we just had such a good time! Photographing couples in love is just so easy. These two couldn't get enough of each other. Some guys just really struggle with being photographed, especially if they have to be "lovey" in front of the camera. But Darren was totally on-board with their engagement session and it totally came through in their photographs. Darren and Kayla genuinely love being with each other and it was truly delightful to witness the two of them together (even if I do feel like a midget standing next to them!). I'm looking forward to photographing their wedding in just a couple months.

 

 

Catching up.

I guess it has been a while since I posted here. The last week went by in a blur. I was attending the IPPA's (Intermountain Professional Photographer's Assoc.) annual convention for four days last week. I look forward to the conference every year and this year did not disappoint. I love learning new techniques, getting new ideas, and just enjoying time with fellow photographers (we are our own breed). I especially enjoy rubbing shoulders with the Master Photographers who have been in the industry for years and years and learning from their expertise. It is very inspiring and I always come away with a new excitement for what I do.

Seth had full charge of the kids and even took two days off so that I could attend the entirety of the conference. They had a great time together while I was gone and they made no secret of the fact that daddy is much less of a slave driver than mama. Oh well.

One of the highlights of the convention for me was winning a judge's choice award for one of my prints (see below) as well as winning a $500 scholarship.

I am going to Nashville in January for the national PPA convention, so I will probably use my scholarship towards those expenses. I booked the tickets earlier this week and Seth will be going with me, so it will be a nice little getaway for the two of us.

That has been my week...convention and then attempting to catch up from convention. Leaving for a few days always makes for a lot of catching up to do when you return, but it is worth it.

That's all for now!

Halfway!

Today is my halfway day for P90X! 45 days under the belt, 45 left to go. At least for my first round...I'm pretty sure I'll do it again. Some days are harder than others. One of the hardest parts is making sure I eat enough. If I don't eat enough, I really feel it during my workout.

Kenpo is my favorite cardio workout, but I enjoy plyometrics as well. I enjoy all the resistance workouts, but there are certain moves that are harder than others. My reps and weight are slowly increasing. Yoga is my least favorite of the workouts. "Yoga X" is long and brutal, unlike any yoga I've experienced.

I can't do one-arm push-ups to save my life. I face plant on every attempt. I used to hate push-ups (partly because I have tendonitis in my wrists) but I've gotten a lot better at them over the past few years and I don't mind them so much now, with the exception of a few of the more difficult types. I'm still working hard at the pull-ups (you do a lot of different types of pull-ups in P90X), but I still use assistance. I can sometimes do a chin-up without the chair, but I still need the chair for all the others. Before Seth and I were married, he would make me do pull-ups every time we went to the weight room, and I wasn't any good at them then, and quite frankly, I still have a long ways to go.

I had Seth take "before" pics, as well as 30 day pics, but I won't be sharing. Perhaps after about round 6 I'll have a "gun show" worth buying tickets for?! :)

I've gotten used to feeling the soreness. P90X focuses on muscle confusion...the idea of not letting your body get too used to any one thing for too long. So if you stop feeling that soreness, it really isn't doing the job. Most of the time I really enjoy the pain, in some twisted sort of way. :)

Avery loves to do the workouts with me. She has done kenpo, plyo, yoga, and a few of the resistance workouts. She uses little 3 lb. weights to do the resistance exercises (and I keep a close eye on her so she doesn't hurt herself). She is awesome at kenpo and plyo (plyo is pretty hardcore and I'm always amazed that she sticks it out). The first time she did yoga with me, I was floored that she could even figure out how to do some of the moves (I have a hard time figuring out how to do some of the moves!). She has perseverance, that is for sure. I'm impressed that she has such good awareness of her body and how to make it do certain things. 

The most difficult part of P90X, by far, is committing to finding the time to do it every day. It is basically an hour to an hour and a half, six days a week. There are days that it is a real challenge to set aside that much time for exercise. It drives me crazy when people tell me, "I just don't have that much time to exercise". Well, guess what? Neither do most of the other people doing P90X, including myself. It often means getting up earlier, or staying up later. It isn't easy. It really does take a lot of commitment, but you just have to make the decision to do it...and it is worth it. 

So, definitely a thumbs up from me on P90X. I love it, I really do. It is certainly more intense than anything else I've done before, and I love that.

Random Monday bits.

1::  The girls have been practicing the pronunciation of "synonym" for the last few days. I think Sadie has it down and Avery pretty much has it. Of course, by now they've probably forgotten the definition of synonym...might need to revisit that.

2::  I was so glad to be able to attend church yesterday after two weeks MIA. We missed last week because of the swine flu piglet, and the week before that because we were in Estes Park. I'm going to miss next week because I'll be at the annual IPPA convention (woowoo!). So Seth was a trooper and stayed home with our recovering kids so that I could go to church. It was a needed respite.

3::  So, speaking of our bout with illness...an update. I think we may be good. I hesitate to say that because as soon as I say it, someone is bound to spike a fever. Seth and I have managed to stay healthy thus far, thankfully. Sadie put up a valiant fight, but in the end, I think she lost though she came out with fewer battle wounds than Avery. I thought I'd get sick just as a result of sheer exhaustion putting a damper on my immune system!

4::  Have I mentioned that my husband is the best? I've been so thankful for him recently. Not only has he been working so hard at his own job, but he has been really great at understanding my own crazy schedule recently. I try hard to not have to bring a lot of editing, etc. home with me in the evenings, but during this time of the year, that is an impossible feat. So Seth has spent a lot of evenings putting up with me with my face buried in the computer. He has also been gracious with all of my evening photo sessions...(gotta photograph when the light is good!) watching the kidlets for me. He has even been my assistant when I was short an assistant/sherpa. Then to top it all off, he ran my competition prints a half hour away to the drop-off location while I was in sessions so that I could get home earlier that night. He has been more than understanding through this busy season...hopefully he will make it through Christmas!

Sadie's Hogle Zoo Pics.

I put up some of Sadie's photos from Hogle Zoo on facebook. So if you want to see the brilliant artwork of my now 7yo Sadie, click here.

Like mother, like daughter.

That is the caption that my mother-in-law gave this photo when she sent it to me. Sadie asked a couple months ago to go to the zoo for her birthday. So we planned for it, invited friends and family, and she has been counting down the days. Unfortunately, when Avery got sick on Saturday, our plans had to change.

After some discussion, we decided that Seth would stay home with Avery, and I would take Sadie to the zoo. Sadie had been looking forward to it for so long, our schedules are already overflowing, and the weather is only getting worse, and the likelihood of one of us getting what Avery has is high...so we just couldn't see trying to reschedule. Sadie insisted that she would rather go to the zoo, even if was just Sadie and mama, than not go at all.

Sadie was disappointed that Avery wouldn't be able to go. She told me, "It just won't be as much fun without Avery." She was already bummed that a couple friends weren't going to be able to make it to the party because of other plans, so this was adding insult to injury in her little mind.

We thought we better notify our guests of the situation in case they didn't want to take the chance that Sadie and I might be harboring enemy germs. And our party of 30ish quickly ended up as a party of 6. Grandma Carla, Grandpa Preston, Uncle Andrew and Kelly met us as the zoo for a fun afternoon.

In attempt to help cheer Sadie's spirits, we told her before we left home that she could take one of my old dSLR's to photograph the animals. She loves using it and she is very responsible with it. I love seeing my little Sadie hauling around a camera!

She took her photography very seriously...she took close to 400 images in the few hours we were at the zoo. She would take several of every animal she saw...but usually the exact same image (she'd compose, then set off the shutter 4-6 times). Then she'd say, "Okay, I got it, what's next?" She would often announce, "That's going to be a good one!" She is not a humble photographer!

We ended our zoo adventure with humongous cupcakes and watching Sadie open her gifts while sitting in the trunk of grandma's car. It wasn't the birthday party we had planned, but Sadie had a great time and made the best of the situation. I'll try to weed through Sadie's plethora of photos and find some to post for you to see.

Sick piggy.

So as most of those of you who are friends and family have already heard, Avery had an evening visit to the doctor on Saturday night....thought I'd give an update.

She woke up a couple times on Friday night sort of whimpering. When I checked on her, she said she just couldn't get comfortable. She was coughing just a little, but nothing that even made me think anything of it. By Saturday morning, she was coughing just a bit more and had a runny nose. I had appointments at the studio, and by the time I returned home in the afternoon, she had gotten worse. By late afternoon she was feverish and when I took her temperature in the early evening, she was at 103.3 (quite unusual...my girls pretty much never get fevers). I spoke with the on-call physician from our doctor's office and he said Avery should see a doctor.

Let me just mention right here that the thought of waiting rooms give me the heebie jeebies. My feeling is, if you aren't sick when you get there, you'll be sick when you leave. Doesn't matter how clean they look, they are still germ factories.

So the very rosey-cheeked, bloodshot-eyed Avery and I sat in the waiting room patiently. Avery of course had to wear a mask, and the fact that it had mickey mouse on it was of no consolation. She was not impressed with the mask. She was such a sad sight...it made me feel so bad just to look at her!

The doctor checked her out and ruled that she has the H1N1 virus. They didn't test her for it because 

1. it is a nasal swab test which is really traumatic for kids

2. the test is pretty unreliable

3. there's no tamiflu available so the course of treatment was the same regardless.

But evidently pretty much anyone with the flu is assumed to have H1N1 right now.

Avery's fever stuck around throughout the day yesterday, but by this morning, she was back down to a normal temperature and feeling (and looking) much better. Sadie's well-child check-up has been scheduled for today for a couple weeks, and we were hoping for flu shots, but our county apparently is out of flu shots for another day or two.

But on a separate note, our suspicions were confirmed that Sadie will be getting glasses. There's a good and a bad side to many traits, and Sadie's love for reading has revealed its bad side....her eyes are done for. Poor girl has been squinting to see but hasn't slowed down her reading one bit!

So there's the medical update. All is well, all is well. Very thankful that Avery made a quick recovery and that it proved to be very mild.