Trick or Treat!

I've posted a few additional pics of the boys on the biz blog, if you haven't seen those in the last few days.

Happy Halloween!

What the Duck

Every day I read this blog/comic strip called What the Duck. It's about a duck who's a photographer and it makes me laugh a lot. :) LOL
This one is one of my favorites and it pretty much sums up the ebb and flow of my business/photography life cycle:




Just thought I'd share.
Happy Thursday!

Videos for Your Viewing Pleasure

Here's some semi-recent videos for the fam up north (and anyone else who cares to watch):

Dinner and A Nap: Starring: Tyler Nowack as....Himself



And Tyler Again, In Dinner and some Music:


This one is titled: Thank you Uncle Rob and Aunt Manda and CREW for my Early Birthday Present....Starring Owen Nowack. With guest appearance by AJ Nowack.


Here we have initial sword fighting with daddy:


And finally, The Triumph of Obi-Wan-Kanobi:


Enjoy. :)

And So It Begins.....

The other day I was doing Owen's "homework" with him and he was working on stuff regarding the letter "M". He had to do a worksheet, and then read a little book with M words in it. After I gave him instructions for the worksheet, he pulled out his little book, titled "My Mm Book" and read the cover:

Owen (in a southern accent): "My IiMm Book"
Me (over-enunciating): No...it's not 'IiiM"...it's 'M', making the letter sound short and concise (like it's supposed to be).
Owen: "IIIiiiimmmm-uh"
Me: 'No, M - it's short. M.'
Owen: 'IIIiim'.
Me: 'M'
Owen: 'M"
Me: right!
Owen (picking his book up again): "My IIIiim Book"
Me: (sighs)

He's talking southern.
What should I do?
Wouldn't you think that language is influenced more by the way it's spoken in the home rather than at school? What do I do, what do I DO?!?!? (running around in panic)

OY VEY.

Talk about an eventful (and awful) photo session tonight.....if you're interested in hearing the gory details (and about my call to 911 and the blood on my hands and shirt) then maybe I'll share tomorrow, but for tonight you can just read the condensed version on my biz blog HERE.

*sigh*

What a night.

$30...the story of my life

It seems like every time I go to the store, it costs me $30.

Trip to the store to pick up eggs, milk, bread, and something for dinner: $30
Trip to target for toothpaste, toilet paper, deodorant, and new pants for Owen: $30
A few hours of babysitting: $30
Enough gas to get me through the next week or so: $30

This sounds like a line from a mastercard commercial, but it's not -- I'm just always spending $30 somewhere. Isn't that weird? Do you have something like that??

I Suspected As Much

Being a middle child, I'm accustomed to being overlooked and/or ignored and having to fight for attention and rights. So I guess when I read this, I wansn't too surprised, but I thought, "well, that figures"

:)

This is me being glass half empty

I can tell already that it's going to be a very bad day. Ever have days like that?
By 8 am there was:
1) MUCH fighting and threatening of spanking because "will you PLEASE just get your freaking school clothes on?" is apparently not clear enough instructions for my 5 year old. Neither is: "GO.BRUSH.YOUR.TEETH.RIGHT.THIS.SECOND" in my "I'm about to go postal on your tiny hiney" voice.

2) the last of the Frosted Mini Wheats and all the crumbs in the bottom of the box dumped on the kitchen floor. FYI - Frosted Mini Wheat crumbs are VERY tiny, and make a VERY large mess.

3) One cardboard circle (from a pizza? I don't know) whipped around the house, stuck in the doorjam, and hitting me in the head. Twice.

4) Multiple instances of crying, tattling, and whining. All before I can even get the coffee brewed.

5) Dog food tossed in the dog water, and dog water splashed all over the floor in the laundry room.

6) One dumped bowl of cereal (tyler). And it wasn't enough to just dump it on his highchair tray. THEN, he thought it would be a good idea to violently wipe his hands around in it and spray milk and Kix in a 2 foot vicinity around him.

7) Tyler climbed on top of the kitchen table 6 times. SIX.

8) A battery powered Thomas the Tank Engine tossed in the master bathroom toilet. Aggravating only because the boys' bathroom toilet is currently out of commission from Tyler tossing something in there LAST week. After I fished out Thomas from the crapper, I whipped him across the bedroom (Thomas, not Tyler). That made me feel a little better.

9) A yet-undiscovered Pee-the-Bed incident. Picking up toys in the boys room, I stumble across some very WET, very ODOROUS pajamas.
"Did you pee the bed last night?" I ask AJ
[thinking] "Nope. I peed my pajamas."

This is all before 8 am. I can't WAIT to see what the rest of the day has in store.

Well, Dontcha Know?

(said in my best annoying Sarah Palin accent) I just feel so special now, dontcha know?

My printing lab, ColorInc, choose one my images as their favorite staff pics from the week...tada!:

ColorInc Staff Pics of the Week

Snaps from the Melon Patch

For the record, the PostSecret post was tons of fun and I became obsessed with checking the comments repeatedly for new "secrets" over the weekend. Feel free to keep posting on there if you want to and we'll do it again sometime in the months to come! Fun, fun!
-----------------------------
On Saturday after my senior session, we took the kids to the local Pumpkin Patch for some much anticipated "punkin" picking. Owen has asked when we were going to go the Punkin Patch no less than 273 times a day for the last 3 weeks. I couldn't justify going until it felt like Fall. And joy!! Saturday morning dawned bright and COLD! We wore sweaters and sweatshirts, people! Sweaters and sweatshirts thank you Jesus for autumn in the south - finally!! :)

Here's a few snapshots from our day.......

Shooting corn cobs out of a compressed air gun at a pumpkin target. I don't understand the allure - maybe it's a southern thing.

Lovely.

The "scary tunnel"....Owen tightly gripped our hands like a vice while repeatedly assuring AJ: "it's okay AJ - it's not scary. See, it's just pretend"

And the classic "kids amid the pumpkins" shot that everyone must obtain every fall.

Happy Autumn!

Secrets

You've heard of PostSecret, right? Steve and I religiously go to the website every Sunday when the new secrets are posted to read them. The basic premise is that people all around the world send in homemade postcards with an anonymous "secret" written on them. Some are funny, some are sad, some are sexual, some are angry, some are scary, some are just plain weird - but they're all fun to read.

this one is one of the first ones that I read at the beginning of PostSecret's inception and it still freaks me right out whenever I read it.
I guess everyone has stuff that they don't tell people, or that they think might be strange or whatever...anyway, I think the concept is really cool. And free-ing. So I thought it might be fun to have our own PostSecret Post here on Random Musings. SO.....

I've enabled anonymous commenting so that if you want to, you can post YOUR secret and it will truly be anonymous. Here's the rules, per PostSecret:

Each secret can be a regret, hope, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.

Post one, post five, post ten.....just post! Sometimes somebody else's post might make you think of your own......So, what are you waiting for??? Come on - it'll be fun I promise!

An Image Perceptions Experiment

Don't think about it too much, but......

What are the first 3 things that come to mind when you think of me??
3 Words, 3 Phrases, 3 Images...whatever.

Don't think about it too much. Don't lie.
Just list them in the comments please.....no holding back - you won't hurt my feelings, I promise. :)

This Will Be One for His Senior Page in the Yearbook....

This evening, I came upon this scene.......

Wonder what he's reading??


Rolling Stone, of course.

Restless

I feel restless.
Bored.

We've been in Albany almost 3 years now and I feel like we're knocking on the door of wearing out our welcome. I think there's something in me that desires frequent change, new scenery....and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Winds of change blow loudly in my ears these days.



I want to move.
Or take a vacation.
Or find a new hobby.
Or start a new project.
Or see something new.

Restlessness.
Rolls around every few years.
Chews at my soul.

PopTart Aydenism

Poptarts are bad.
They have no nutritional benefit whatsoever, there are 200 calories in just one, and the #3 ingredient in them is high fructose corn syrup (be still my heart. literally). We never buy them.

Except for the last month, when I've searched for a last minute easy breakfast on those mornings that we're running late for school. If anyone has suggestions for healthy fast alternatives (i.e. eat in the car) for a kid who doesn't like muffins or granola bars, I'm all ears.

Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I don't approve of PopTarts.
And I'm ashamed that I buy them.

Just now....

AJ: Can I have a poptart?
Me: Hmmm.....I dunno.....

AJ: Are poptarts hewffey (healthy)?
Me: No, they are not.

AJ (thinking): Oh.
AJ: Well, I'll just be fat then.

Forgotten Photo

A few weeks back, I had a photo session at The Veranda so Steve drove separately with the boys and they rode their bikes around the trails and played in the water fountains while I worked.

When I was done, I forced the kids to let me take their photo (they didn't complain TOO loudly...except for AJ - he did. Loudly). I had actually forgotten that I had taken these pictures until I stumbled across them last night when I was proofing.

Their hair isn't combed, they're wearing play clothes, their faces are dirty, but I love these two photos.

And I love my boys.

*warm fuzzies*

I Laughed So Hard I Died. The End.

I had this idea for a fun picture to put on my business blog, or in my scrolling header on my business blog...or....something. I don't know....when the creative juices flow, I just roll with 'em and figure out what to do with them later. They still need some work, but this was my quick and dirty edit so I could get them on here and show them to the world.

So I grabbed my camera and my muse, and asked him to pose. We wet his hair and slicked it back. I popped the lenses out of a pair of 3D glasses from the movie theater (thanks Erica!) and grabbed this book.

Funny, right?

But when I opened THIS one off the CF card, I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants.

Tyler....Via Another Photographer

A couple weeks ago my friend (and fellow photographer) Greta took pictures of Tyler for me. Technically, they're his 1 yr pics (3 months late).

It's so....WEIRD to see another photographer's "vision" on MY kid! Go check it out and leave her some blog love! :)

Leaked From Palin's Debate Prep

Ho, ha, ha, ha...hee, hee, hee....
Palin's Debate Flow Chart


Swiped from politicalwire.com

Rambling Thoughts on Last Night's Debate....

I've never had such a vested interest in politics before. As many of you know, I've never even voted, my apathy was so great. I'm not sure if it's because I'm older, or because I have kids, or because I'm just so disgusted with the morals and ethics that have been displayed for the last 8 years...but this year I'm SO INTO this election. I just think it's huge - SO huge.

Here's some thoughts I have on last night's debate, feel free to discuss, rebut, or hash out your opinions in the comments section.

I will begrudgingly say that Gov. Palin did better than I expected.....for what she did (more on that in a sec). Considering her horrible blunder(s) with the media this week (in particular that painful-to-watch interview with Katie Couric) I think there were many people cringing as to what she might say next to undercut her own campaign and further betray her lack on knowledge on key issues.

However, last night it was apparent that she was well-coached and was more prepared to speak on some of those issues. BUT, as I said before when I commented that she did well for what she did - what I meant was that what she did was, in a nutshell: Not answer questions directed at her.

She repeatedly would come back to the issues that she was comfortable speaking about (even if they were irrelevant to the question posed) and hammer home the same sound bytes again and again. I think it would've been easier for her to just have a tape recorder up there so that when her turn came up she could just press play and it would spew out her (1) energy policy expertise, (2) John McCain's tax refunds, and/or (3)any of the following words or phrases: "maverick", "Dontcha", "doggone it", "God bless America".

Which brings me to my next "issue" with Palin: I think she's just too "folksy" to be our country's next Vice President. My "northerner" is coming in here, and I don't mean to sound belittling or demeaning, but there is a very real stereotype against people who speak "folksy" (i.e. that they are of lesser intelligence). Is it true? Not necessarily....quite obviously, Sarah Palin is an intelligent woman, but who the heck gets on national television in a freaking VP DEBATE and uses words like, "doggone it"?? Seriously??
So many people comment that they like her because she's "real" or she's just an average soccer mom....but I say #$%&%*!! WHAT?!
I don't WANT an average soccer mom with access to our nuclear codes. I don't WANT a soccer mom who has to cram in the days leading up to the VP Debate in order to be remotely prepared. I don't WANT a soccer mom to have a good chance at becoming the President of the United States.

I also felt like she was John McCain in a suit with boobs and square glasses. Random stories and quips about her family, tangents on subjects that didn't pertain to the questions...all intended to give warm fuzzies and endear her to the heart of the American people - a smart political move I suppose - but I don't want to hear about how you have teachers in your family, and gay/lesbian friends, I want to hear what you've DONE and what JM has DONE and what you plan to do. Skip the stories and the rambling - gimme the facts.
-------------
I like Joe Biden. His answers were (I felt) gracious, to the point, and so filled with facts that they were difficult to refute. I like that his foreign policy knowledge is SO vast - especially during a time when the U.S. has some major credibility to rebuild with Allies and the world in general. I like that he has many, many years of actual experience in the Senate and knows the bills and laws and amendments that it seemed Gov Palin only had a skimming knowledge of.
I heard on CNN last night that people would zone out and get glassy-eyed when Biden would start talking about bills and things that he had and had not voted for, but I found those to be informative because I don't know about them.
And therein lies the problem with the average American - we don't know (to a large extent) what bill they're talking about, or what that means when they say "so and so voted to increase your taxes" We just gasp and say, "WHAT?! HE voted to INCREASE our taxes?! Well, I'M not voting for him!!" and then you find out the whole story is that he really voted to increase the taxes of the wealthy.....or something similar.
So when Biden refutes Palin's claims and says, "the bill your talking about is this........ and John McCain voted the exact same way" - I feel like I'm getting educated and seeing behind all the propaganda and sound bytes.

Palin's talking points last night seemed like lots of fluff with no substance. I like details. I think it's great that you want to end the war in Iraq and have a plan for withdrawal, but what are the details? When? How?
When all you say is empty words like, "give the money back to the middle class", "keep government where it belongs", "create more jobs", "clean energy", blah, blah, blah...but you don't have any specific plans/examples/history of actually making those changes, you're a big giant Republican soundbyte and nothing more.

Okay....I've gone on enough. I've got a lot more to say on this, but I ended up writing a lot more than I intended. I'm totally up for comments/discussion, so bring it on. Dan-o, I know you're itching to lob a gigantor comment at me, so bring it on.

Oh, and go here to write to your Congressional Representative and tell them what you think about the Bailout.

Oh, and here's some polls, for fun:

Tagged By Ness

Ness over at Happiness Is A Butterfly tagged me with the task of sharing 7 random facts about me, a task that is harder than it seems because I feel like I've shared just about everything with bloggerland.
I mean, you already know that I count how long I pee for, and that I always wanted an outie bellybutton, and how I save eggshells for my nonexistent compost pile, and how I have a thing for birds (okay, I guess I've told you about a few different things with birds) and roadkill.
What else is there??

Hmmm.....let's see.

1. I have terrible luck with checkout lines. I'm not kidding or exaggerating. Ask anyone who's been in store with me - I've actually thought about blogging about my CheckOut Line Curse but haven't got around to it. 99.9% of the time, I will choose a line (short or long, doesn't matter) and one or all of the following will occur:
I will
a) end up behind the person who is paying for their entire purchase in nickels and pennies
b) get the cashier-in-training who has to ask me "is that a cantelope or a honeydew melon" and proceed to flip through her produce manual page by agonizing page looking for the correct code.
c) be behind the elderly person who is paying by check.
And it takes her 7 minutes to write the check.
And then she writes it for the wrong amount and has to start over.
d) Unknowingly get behind the person in the self-checkout lane who apparently has no freaking clue how to actually USE the self-checkout lane.
e) any combination of, or all of the above.

2. I've had quite a few run-ins with broken fingers. From my middle school year through college alone I had 6 broken fingers.
4 of them (all 4 fingers on left hand) rollerblading
1 (pinky finger-right hand) playing beach volleyball
1 (pinky finger-left hand) playing volleyball in college intramurals (or goofing off with friends, I can't remember).
The last one I didn't think I actually broke it - I thought it was just a bad jam so I ignored it for about a week. When it was still hurting after several days I went to the college medical building and they suggested I go see doctor. It was broken all right, but since I hadn't done anything to it, it had already started to heal and is still bent to this day (I can't fully straighten it).

3. The only time I've ever punched anyone (with malice) was in 1st grade recess when Brent Bolerjack said girls couldn't play kickball. I showed him a thing or two about what girls could and couldn't do.

4. I say the following phrase at least 10 times a day: "Tyler! No climbing" or "Tyler! Get down from there!"
I also say the following in abundance:
"You rock"
"Owen, please stop"
"Great idea!"
"I love you"
"I'm gonna get you"
"Just a minute please"
"Did you wipe?" followed by "Go wash your hands"

5. I've always had a desire to adopt. For many years the desire was international adoption, but that desire has been morphing over the last year or so. I'm not sure what the future holds for us and adoption but I do know this: our family is not yet complete.

6. I never snooze my alarm. EVER. The sound of an alarm's buzzer is so aggravating to me that it's worth it to me to just get up so I don't have to hear that hellish buzz again in 9 minutes.

7. I have an actual bucket list. Like, written down in a journal. I've added to it over the years and I think everyone should have one. Right now there are 14 things on it and I've done 5 of them. The weirdest one? Go on vacation at a nudist resort. I'm saving that one for when Steve and I are old and wrinkled and our children will be completely mortified that their old parents are going on a nudist vacation.

okay, there's my seven! And I'm tagging Casey, Clint, Amy, AmyLynn, Amy Porter, Amy Pottenger (man, I know a lot of Amy's!), middle-school friend Melissa, and Steve-o (who actually has a blog that he has only written in ONCE so i cant' remember the name of it to link it- you better add your link in the comments after you do it, dear hubby!).