photography

I am in a photography class under the direction of a retired professor/photojournalist.

I have been interested in photography for a long, long time. I was a photographer in high school for yearbook and loved hauling my big camera bag around with me, waiting for any possible shot. Sometimes I would take up to 4 rolls of film a day!

Over Christmas break, while out of town, our vehicle was burgularized. A lot of things were taken but my beloved 35mm camera with complete lens set was taken. So once I got my insurance reimbursement money, I ordered a new camera.

I got a Nikon N80 and love it. I have only taken about 4 rolls so far so I am still really trying to figure it out. Last night my mentor gave my photos a critique and showed me what was good, what was bad and what was horrible. HAHA

I have to make sure not to take it all personally. He encourages me so I am ready to get out and take some more photos!

self portrait

I don't get my picture taken often. Mostly because I am usually the one with the camera.

When I was a little bitty thing, about knee-high to a duck, I decided that I hated to have my picture taken. I really really hated it. I would run when I saw a camera. There are many-a-picture that was supposed to be a family photo and I have my head buried in my Dad's shoulder or behind my Mom's leg. I was just so embarrassed.

I will tell you what made me change my mind.

The Texas Dept. of Transportation.

I went in when I was about 18 or so to get my license and they took my picture. It turned out better than any picture of me I had ever seen. I am not kidding you. I wish I still had it. After that I had no problem with it.

Now that we have a child, I feel like the camera is a part of me- not even glued or stitched to my hand- it is really just a part of me. A growth or disease that I contracted somewhere. Hopefully the only growth or disease that I will contract in this lifetime.

RD asked me today- how many pictures do you think that you have taken of Madison? I thought about it. Possibly thousands? I dunno. Six Thousand? If I have only taken 10 pictures of her a day since birth that would be roughly 7300. I bet I have taken more.

But back to the story- he asked me this question as if it was a bad thing... like I was an addict. Like it was worse than smoking or drinking.

So I asked him- how many times do you think you have farted since she was born?
he said- A BUNCH!
I said- more times than I have taken pictures of her?
he said- Oh YEAH!

I said- how may times do you fart a day?
He said- Probably five.

I laughed out loud.

Then I asked- why in the world do you save all of those farts for me then? I mean, you can spread em around and fart when I am not around! Don't feel like you have to save them for me! My picture takin' problem is no worse than your fartin' problem and it doesn't stink near as bad.

I hate fart stories and can't believe I just wrote about one.

******
So the picture I posted was taken by me- it is my reflection in the car window. The growth on my head is GBK hanging on tight as she can. It was taken with my new Nikon N80 that I am in love with. It is my replacement camera for the Canon that was stolen out of our car over Christmas. This picture was on my first roll of film with this camera.

little hands

We rode the train yesterday at the zoo. I just realized that in 2 weeks she will be two years old. Where did the time go? She is no longer a baby. Doesn't she have the sweetest little hand?

This is the same hand that grabs my lips to give me kisses...

grabs her marker to color on the stairs...

finds a barrette to put in her pretty hair, only to pull it right back out...

likes to bang on my keyboard, disrupting my 'work'...

knows how to turn the TV off and on...

tells her baby shhhh-shhhhh...

pets my hair when I am feeling blue...

cooks up a yummy dish in her 'kitchen'...

writes "o" and "m" all over her Valentine Cards...

tries to tickle me all over, making me laugh and scream and jump around.

Gosh I am in love with her.

This was New Year's Eve. She is the cutest little redneck ever. She has 3 pair of bubba teeth and she loves to wear them.

One of them has a huge diamond in the front tooth. What's really funny is when I have her show it off to someone and they don't see the humor.

Happy New Year! We stayed up well past midnight with a few friends. We ate lots of good food, enjoyed the bonfire and sparklers and laughed a lot. Especially at Carson Daly who didn't know how to properly countdown as the ball was dropping. What an idiot.

gimme a hug

I am a part-time sub at a pre-school in town. They called me last night to go in this morning. I had a new group of kids today and they were so sweet and cute.

At one point, one of the little girls was squeezing herself and her face was turning bright shades of red. I said, what are you doing to yourself!? Giving yourself a hug?

And she said! mmm-hmmm... yes! I was giving myself a big ole hug.
She had the bigest grin on her face.

How innocent and sweet. Made me want to hug everyone in the room, including myself.

Sometimes you just have to hug yourself if no one else will.

I hate it when I ask GBK for a kiss and she turns her back on me. I think I will try to hug myself next time she does that.

Last year she had a t-shirt that said "Gimme a Hug". She hated wearing that shirt, I think because she did get a lot of hugs. Mostly from scary people that she didn't like. haha

Happy weekend to each and every one of you.

This Year II

It did get better.

Here she is- after opening most of her gifts.
She screamed Hooray! Wow! YEAH! each time she opened a gift. And then she had to run over and show each item off to Uncle Beaux.

We ate french toast for breakfast and drank mimosas while we watched her. Again, I don't think that it could get any better.

My little compass

I think GBK is a compass.

She has been sleeping with me since the mice moved in. I can't stand the thought of them crawling on her in her bed without me there to defend her. RD is worried that they will eat her fingers off in the middle of the night.

So we are now roomies in the guest room. It is fun. We stay up late and read or watch Jay Leno. Which is funny because she walks around... where's Jay? Mama, Where's Jay? When he finally comes on, she gives him her undivided attention. Anytime the camera pans to the left or right taking Jay out of the picture for more than 2 seconds, GBK bolts upright- Where's Jay? Mama, where's Jay? And I have to convince her that he is there and she settles back down to watch.

The real fun starts when we turn off the tube and settle in for sleep. Most of the time she gets comfy and goes to sleep right away. Other nights she takes a while. Tossing this way and that. Pulls the cover on, pushes the cover off. Head on the pillow, head off. Throws the pillow on the floor. UH-OH! Gotta get down and pick it up. Shouts of "bottle! water! cup! Please! PLEASE! Mama!" I tell her to get still and go to sleep! Good grief who gave her the Moutain Dew or coffee or energy drink or whatever it is giving her all of this energy!?

She finally settles in and drifts off. I love her. I snuggle with her. This lasts 2 minutes. Then the toe twitch starts. She pushes me off, rotates around until she is able to dig her feet into my back and then settles down again. Anytime I try to move, she moves with me, feet in the back.

Several nights I have turned in the bed diagonally. She moves too- feet in the back. One night I slept on the other side of the bed. Feet in the back. No matter where I go- her tiny little toes are stabbing my back. It doesn't really hurt... unless she kicks. Sometimes when I roll on my other side, I get her feet in my belly so I roll back over or lie on my back. Still- feet in the back.

She is my little compass- always pointing her toes in my back no matter which way I turn. She is upstairs now fast asleep. He toes are pointing to the head board and her hed is by the foot board. I believe she thinks that she is on the North pole and just totally confused about which direction to point.

Last Year/This Year II

Here she is- after opening all of her gifts. Wow what a great first Christmas. I didn't think it could get better than that.

OCD tendencies.

Something is wrong with me. Yes, some of you already know this.

But there are certain things that I have to do a certain way or I get really frustrated and out of sorts.

And there are certain things that I do not like... if I see them or hear them I get really frustrated...sometimes to the point that I get physically ill... maybe a headache, a cough, etc.

Example- I do not like prime numbers. I don't like Madison being 23 months old. I really can't stand it. I will not tell people that she is 23 months old. I have to say- she will be 2 next month. Or she is almost 24 months. Something along those lines.

I am 30 this year. I like it. I will not like being 31. Luckily for me there aren't many prime numbers left in my life. I will just have to muddle through them. That or lie about my age. The weirdest thing about it is I didn't discover this until last fall. Madison was maybe 17 months old or something like that and I was just having the hardest time saying it. And then late one night it hit me- I just do not like prime numbers.


When I was in high school, my Dad or someone said a word like abbreviate or some other innocent word that means nothing positive or negative and I said OOOO! I do not like words that end in 'ate'. So then my family proceeded to come up with a list of about 500 words that ended in 'ate'. I will not list those words here- not even a few of them. Because they make me cringe. But they sat around the kitchen table while we were eating shouting out new 'ate' words with glee. So innappropriate. (see, that word ends in 'ate' but is not pronounced with the long a sound, it is more like 'uht')

I am not sure why my brain works that way... but it does.

I was visiting with a friend yesterday about her OCD tendencies. And we talked about how just because we are OCD doesn't mean we are clean freaks... in fact, sometimes my house is messy because I feel like I can't clean it perfectly so I can't even get started.

Today I was thinking about the perfectionist part of my brain... perhaps that is why I didn't like school- because I could never do it perfectly- Since I couldn't make straight 100s on every single test, homework, paper, project, etc. I was frustrated to the point that I couldn't even get started.

I always had high expectations of staying organized and having a neat orderly notebook or folder... with sharp new pencils all of the time. And when any one of these things was not how I envisioned it, the rest of the day or week went downhill.

Today I am cleaning house- purging all of that stuff that you should have thrown away a long time ago and thought- I will save it, I may need it one day. Well, that day has not come so in the trash it goes.

What better way to spend a rainy day?!
What do you do on a rainy day?