Wanted: Models

I've got some sessions in mind that I've been wanting to do but I'm in need of some models. Spread the word and contact me if you're interested. Please keep in mind that these sessions would be a specific idea that I have in mind and not just a freebie. Contact me for more details or to submit your name/picture for consideration.

Wanted:
* Young girl, approximately 3-5 years old with long blond or red hair (although I'd consider a brunette if she's really cute). :)
* Teenage boy - highschool junior or senior
* Pregnant women - preferably between 7-8 months pregnant. Willing to do semi-nudes.

Session would be free, with a complimentary 8x10 and 2 5x7's, and 10% off print prices.
Email me your name, age, and a recent photo at: lifecaptured@yahoo.com if you're interested.

ARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!

Where the heck is our tax return?!?!?

It supposedly mailed on the 16th........although I'm not sure why it was mailed in the first place, since it was supposed to be direct deposited.

grrrr.

It's Growing On Me......

After AJ's disastrous haircut, I was thinking I'd never get over the loss of his gorgeous blond lockes. However, in the last month, his hair has grown enough that we can fashion it into this stylish Mohawk that AJ himself quite likes. Never thought I'd be "styling" my 2 year old SON'S hair every morning with sticky hair glu and a blow dryer, but he actually likes it, so it's not so bad. :)
He gets quite a lot of comments on his punk 'do, so I think he's hip enough that I don't feel *quite* so bad about the loss of his hair.








Anyway, I think that "punk" suits him better anyway, don't you??

Revisiting....Brittany

I had a late order submitted today for some senior pictures from last fall so I thought I'd post a few for you to see. Some of you may have seen some of these before, but for lack of anything better to blog about, here's Brittany. I've been staring at her mug for the last 2 hours while I post-processed, resized, and submitted her order to my lab.

Whoa!

I just saw that I've had over 45 hits since this morning. Which I find weird....because I was under the assumption that approximately 4 people read this blog.

*cue Twilight Zone music*

Who the HECK is out there???

Slip 'N Slide

Today was absolutely GORGEOUS outside so we broke out the slip 'n slide for some afternoon fun in the sun.


In case you didn't know, my sons are complete nudists, weather permitting. They will be naked from now until October. Doncha love AJ's bum in the corner of this picture?? lol :)
That's Steve behind Owen.
And he's NOT naked.
Although I did suggest it.
He politely declined.


Being a total photo geek this was one of my favorite pictures. Not because it has my adorable son in it, but because I focused on the water and you can see how sharply in focus they are. BUT, if you take careful notice, you'll see that not all the drops of water are in focus (Go ahead - click on the picture and take a look at it up close--you know you want to). My f-stop was at 2.8 - which is where it's almost always set to on my camera. LOVE that depth of field!! It's razor thin. If you don't know what depth of field is, you can learn about it here, but my guess is that I lost most of you when I started discussing my f-stop. No prob.
The little things amuse me.
Anyway....




Have a happy weekend!

Weary

No responsibilities.
No to-do lists.
King Size Bed.
Crisp white sheets.
Feather Pillow.
Iced Chai.
Foot masseuse.
Absolute Quiet.


Would be pure bliss.

Kids are fighting.
Again.

Talk later.

An Elephant PooPoo Paper Journal, If You Please

My birthday is coming up in a few months, and I'd like to offer you all an idea suggestion.
The Great Elephant PooPoo Paper Company, Limited offers 100% recycled and odorless environmentally friendly products made from elephant poo!
I'd like the journal please.

Thank you.

Well Then!

Did you see the baby ticker that I added to the sidebar?? It changes on it's own every week and I just saw today's change in the text and well.....harumph.
How rude.

Spring Break Plans: Check!

Woohoo! Hotel is booked for spring break! Sandestin Beach Resort and Golf Spa, here we come!
Can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to be at the beach with my family over Spring Break.
Seems like every spring break we plan on doing something, and then decide we don't have the money for it. And every summer we plan on spending together, since Steve is a teacher and has the summer's off - and then EVERY SINGLE stink'n summer - he ends up taking on administrative tasks and having to be at whatever the school-of-the-moment's office is, or one of us has to get a job to pay the bills left over from meager school-teacher salary, or we MOVE, or whatever. Well....this spring break is for us and we're doing something fun doggone it! And I can't wait!
So....what're your spring break plans?

Backyard Baseball at Twilight

Man, my colors are looking really wonky on here. Time to recalibrate my monitor!

Anyway, the title pretty much sums it up. :) Steve was just happy that Owen actually wanted to participate in a sport so we played baseball for quite a while.

AJ did NOT want to bat - he just wanted to be the "tatcher".

And yes - this is my almost-3 year old son, with a binky firmly planted in his mouth.
And no, I do not care.



Here's Owen, instructing Steve on where to stand and how to place his feet while batting.
"Ya gotta move yo feet back daddy. There ya go. Keep your eye on da ball"

Lust

I am seriously lusting after THIS lens. Doesn't anyone have an extra $1700 they'd like me to take off their hands??

The Baby Ticker

Finally...compromise!

Considering Steve's affinity for disagreeing with EVERY SINGLE boy name that I particularly like for our baby, I consider it no small miracle that we have finally agreed upon and decided on a boy name.
Finally...."it" has a name - boy or girl, whatever it may be.
They are different, they are fun, they are unique.

Mom, you'll hate both of them but I don't care. :)

Guess Which One is Me

Weapon of Choice

This is one of my favorite music videos of all time.
It makes me happy.
Happy Thursday.
Enjoy. :)

Random Thoughts

When I was in highschool, we had to do mandatory journaling at the beginning of every English class. Sometimes the topic was directed, sometimes not. We would occasionally complain to Mrs. Beach (the best H.S. English teacher I ever had) that we didn't know what to write or have anything to say, and she would tell us to just write what was in our heads - even if that was to write, "I am bored. This class sucks. I don't know what to write. 7 minutes left." etc. etc.

I am currently bored. I've been sitting on the computer for the last hour doing nothing. The kids are at school. Seeing as how I KNOW you are dying to know what goes through my mind, here is my free-write random thoughts from the past hour:

I'm hungry.
I'm bored.
What time is it? Has that clock been changed since daylight savings on Sunday?
Where the heck is Dan O'Connor?? I haven't talked to him in forever.
The cat has no food. And will not eat until tomorrow.
Payday is tomorrow - yay!
Having no money really sucks.
If I ever win the lotto, we will sell all of our earthly possessions and move to a beautiful villa in Italy. And I will have a vineyard and make my own wine, which will taste terrible because I know nothing about making wine, but it will be fun anyway.
What will eat for dinner tonight?
I hate macaroni.
What is Katie Minkner up to?
What should I get Robby for his birthday?
I like beer. And hotwings. And I want some NOW.
And a puppy.
I like Chauncey's dog. His name is Sphinx. Which I think is a little weird, but it's not my dog so who am I to say?
The cat smells weird. And she's shedding grey hair all over my black shirt.
What if our baby was a boy and we decided to name it something really strange? Like Elmo or Wicker?
I should go to the gym. But that would require a change of clothing, effort, and moving off this chair.
I have completely wasted the last 1.2 hours of my life.

Ugh.

*sigh*

When it Rains.....

It pours.

Why does it seem like you always run out of everything obscure all at the same time??

In the last 4 days, we've completely run out of:
Flour
Sugar
Coffee
Drinks
Pancake Mix
Ranch Dressing
Basil
Pepper
Butter
Baking Powder (which is not the same as Baking Soda and cannot be substituted in recipes, FYI)
Paper Towels

And of course we go through a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread every other day. My kids love milk and PB&J's.
Zoinks.

I need to go to the grocery store.
Right after I get some money.

:)

Mah Nah Ma Nah

My kids are really obsessed lately, with this:

Mud Brothers

Small Miracles

I had thought that when AJ learned to ride his tricycle, that Owen would want to keep up with his little brother and decide to learn to ride his bike too. Alas, I was wrong.
Owen does NOT care about keeping up with others.
Owen does NOT care that AJ can ride a bike and he cannot.
Owen is quite content to ride in the wagon when we go for a walk, as AJ charges ahead on his tricycle.
Owen is NOT athletic. At all.
Owen does NOT give in to bribes to ride his bike.

Just last week, I tried to get Owen to ride his bike to the end of the driveway and back to which he promptly replied "no thank you".
I countered with, "What if I took you to the movie store and rented you a movie? THEN would you ride your bike a little?"
"No thank you. We can watch a movie another time"
"Not even if we rented Air Buddies?"
"Air Buddies??" he replied, perking up.
"Yeah! Air Buddies!! You ride your bike a little, and I'll help you, and then we'll go rent Air Buddies!! OK??!"
"No. No Air Buddies today"
Rats. Foiled again.

So Saturday we're out riding around, going for walks in the neighborhood, etc. etc. I was tired of pulling Owen in the wagon (rolling eyes) so I said I was taking a break, but AJ and Steve-o kept riding on up the street. Once again, I tried to get Owen to try to ride his bike.
"Owen, wanna ride your bike a little?"
"No. We'll just sit"
"But I don't want to sit. I want to ride bikes"
"No. You sit here with me mama"
***Lightbulb goes off****
"You know Owen, if you practice riding your bike, pretty soon we could ride bikes down to Jordan's house".
(Jordan is the 6 yr. old son of friends of ours - they live around the corner and Owen absolutely WORSHIPS the ground that Jordan walks on).
Owen says, "To Jordan's house?" a little skeptically.
"Yeah" I said. "If you practice riding your bike for a few days I bet you could learn to ride it well enough that maybe next weekend we could ride to Jordan's house"
"Oh! Okay! Come on! Let's ride the bike mama!"

After he thoroughly checked the stability of his training wheels to make sure he wouldn't tip over, he was game to ride his bike and was just climbing on when Steve and AJ got back. With an inordinate amount of praise from Steve and I both he was glowing at his accomplishment. He's still wobbly, still not very good, falters quite a bit, but he got on the seat. He pedaled. He even went about 4 feet all by himself. And that, for us, is a victory. :)

The Polliwog Project

Saturday afternoon was spent enjoying the sunshine and riding bikes up and down our street. Owen was not too keen on the idea of learning to ride his bike (no surprise there) so he and I took a breather in the front yard by pestering some ant hills while Steve and AJ went bike-riding some more.

15 minutes later Steve-o and AJ come back hollering about needing a jar because we had to "save the tadpoles".
Up the block from our house, and around the corner we have a retention pond which the boys had decided to go and have a look at. With all the rain from the tornado stuff the other day, the pond had overflowed a little, then receded back, leaving in its wake a few small puddles with quite a few stranded tadpoles inside.

I grabbed a tupperware container from the house and we all took a walk back up to the retention pond on our "mission" to save the tadpoles.
AJ was singing the Wonderpets theme song along the way. "Wonderpets, wonderpets, we're on our way! To rescue baby tadpoles and save the day! We're not too big but we're really tough and when we work together we've got the right stuff! Gooooooooo Wonderpets! Yay!"
Sorry, it's a preschool thing.

Anyway, we spent the next half hour plucking squirmy tadpoles from the puddles and throwing them back (or chucking them back in, if AJ was doing it) into the pond. We couldn't save them all, because some of them would burrow under the grass/sand/weeds/algae and we couldn't get them out, but we probably saved about 25 of them or so.

While we're doing this, Steve-o and I had the grand idea to bring a few of them home and see if we couldn't grow us our own little frog family, so we kept 3 of them, scooped up some of their nasty pond water and brought them home. They wriggled around in the tupperware container while we did a little internet research on the care and keeping of tadpoles and then we went out and purchased a small fish tank.

Some tidbits about raising tadpoles, in case you ever care to do it yourselves:
*Tadpoles cannot live in tap water or they'll die. If you DO use tap water, you have to let it sit out 4-5 days so all the chemicals and other stuff in it are null before you put your tadpoles in the water. We just keep them in pond water.
*Tadpoles like lettuce or spinach leaves. But you have to boil or freeze it first.
*Tadpoles also thrive on fish food.
*Tadpoles are slimy and squirmy
*Tadpoles do not survive well when a small child accidentally steps in their puddle, and thus, on them. AJ learned this lesson in the first 5 minutes we were at the pond.

Anyway, 3 days in and the tadpoles are still alive and (seemingly) well.
We'll keep you posted if they make it to full frog-dom.
And let me know if you want some tadpoles of your own. We've got PLENTY down at the pond.

Oh, and their names?? Fish.
All of them.
Are named Fish.

So says Owen.

Go Buy This Book. Right Now.

Just finished reading Rob Bell's newest book, SexGod.

It was outstanding. Not exactly what I thought it would be, but better - which wasn't surprising.
I breezed through it so quickly that I'm going to go back and read it again and hopefully retain more this time around. Steve-o and I are going to read it together.

Single? Married? Sexually active? Not?
Doesn't matter. It applies to you.

Go.
Buy It.
Read It.
Be Changed.

Pregnancy Woes Take 1

Incidentally, I could title this post "Pregnancy Woes Take 7", if I were to take into consideration the past-withstanding woes I've had up until now: nausea, frequent headaches, being tired, moodiness, and a few other things that you don't even WANT to know about. Seriously, you don't want to know.

It's been impossible to not notice the ever-increasing frequency of my need to pee lately, so I've been pondering the topic for the last few days. I first considered about how often, pre-pregnancy, I would have to go to the bathroom in a given day. I questioned others - "On average, how often do you go to the bathroom in one 24-hour period?" I got several answers, (and several strange looks), the average being 4 - which I conclude is about average (pre-pregnancy) for me too. Once in the morning, once before bed, and about twice during the day -- sound about right?

Yeah, well -- upon noticing that I spend a great deal of time in various bathrooms throughout the day, I decided to do a little experiment. I put a piece of paper and a pencil in each of our bathrooms so that I could actually COUNT the number of times that I would pee in a 24-hour period. Yesterday morning 6:30 am - my experiment began as I diligently ticked off each time I set foot into the bathroom. Considering the 3 cups of java that I consumed yesterday morning, I had a busy morning in the latrine -- No sooner had I swallowed that delicious joe when I would be shuffling towards the bathroom to let it all out.
I also had to remember my out-of-the house trips to the john so I had to keep in my mind the bathrooms at the gym, Target, Starbucks, and the hospital last night (long story). The verdict??

6:30 am Thursday --> 6:30 am Friday
Went to bathroom ELEVEN times.

That's a lot of pee, people. That's a lot of toilet paper. That's a lot of time.
Maybe tomorrow I'll calculate actual TIME spent in the bathroom in one day.
Or maybe I'll get a hobby.

Woe is me.

For Amy and Katie

GROUND SQUIRREL

Ground Squirrels live all over the world. The American red squirrel lives in evergreen forests in North and Central America. Arctic squirrels live on the tundra. Mohave ground squirrels live in the Mojave Desert of California. These are only a few of the kinds of ground squirrels there are in the world.
Ground squirrels and tree squirrels are different. You can tell the difference this way. Ground squirrels will run to their burrow in the ground if they are scared. Tree squirrels will climb a tree or high building.
They are about 7-8 inches long and weigh about 8-14 ounces. They most often make their home in the northern plains of North America.