So, my friend and I decided on a photo project for the month of July.  Each day before 10am we are to take a photo of anything we want to.  The rules are simple to allow for creativity.  The results should be interesting.  We are hoping to have a book made up at the end with our side by side results.  What her life looks like before 10am and what mine looks like before 10am.   She goes into a traditional office each morning, while I get kids rolling through their day.   I am super excited to see the contrast between our days in photos.

To do this though, I’m not just taking one photo each morning.  I’ve taken like 5-6 (it’s only day 2) to get my groove on.  So… I’m going to let the “one” I picked be a secret between my friend and I now.  But I will share the “warm-ups” with you here.

Day 1

Day 2

Maybe throughout the month I’ll share more of my “out-takes” with you.   Have a great 4th of July all!

Although I’m losing some of me.  Which is a good thing.  Really.  I’ve lost 21 lbs of me since April.  See, I told you a good thing!  I recently lost 6 of those pesky 21 lbs.   And guess what?  I feel amazing!  Absolutely amazing.

Now this photo doesn’t really show you a classic before/after photo of the progress I’m making.  But this photo does show you the cool new running shoes I own.  (Yea, they’re awesome!)  And it does show you that I’m wearing them!  And it does show you that I’m attempting to run.  (Well, it sorta shows you that, you do have to infer a little.)  I am running though, so you don’t have to infer anymore.  And I’m training on the Couch to 5K program by Cool Runnings.  And I’m on week 5.   And I feel so stinking accomplished after each workout because I worked really hard to complete it.  I also feel a whole lot of other things like, tired, hot, sweaty, fat, out of shape, out of breath while I’m running.  But that is all overcome when I actually finish the workout….  I did it.  I actually ran/walked 1.69 miles.  I ran for 16 minutes total (3 on, 5 on with walking inbetween then 3 on, 5 on).  I did it!  Then when I get on the scale I read that I’ve lost weight, it feels even more good.  So good in fact that I teared up two days ago with how good it felt.

I still have 50 some more pounds to lose to be at my goal.  I still have a long way to go to accomplish that healthy eating lifestyle balance.  But I’m doing it.  I’m on my way.  And I’m ok with that.  I’m ok with the journey.  I no longer want to focus on not being at my goal.  I want to focus on the journey.  How am I doing today?  I’m doing pretty stinking good.  I hope to run tonight.  If not tonight, then tomorrow morning.   This is the journey.  I’m ok with me on the journey.

I’ve found a love for mixed media recently…  And today I found Donna Downey’s Inspiration Wednesday Video’s and projects.  I’m inspired.  :)

See what I’ve been working on:

This is a 11×17 canvas, with a photo of my princess on a bicycle outside our house.  I took the photo, and created a digital “stamp”.  Then I printed out the “stamp” on a laser printer.  (because I read the process won’t work on an inkjet printer)  And then I mod podged the paper/picture onto the canvas.  I waited for the glue to dry.  Then (and my technical writing is in need of some help, I know!) I took a bowl of water, and my finger and slowly took the paper off, leaving the ink behind.  Therefore, creating this mixed media canvas print!  And to give credit where credit is due for my inspiration of this project go here to Sunghee’s blog.

Have a great Wednesday!

Like with the Ferrences…. I’ve created an Album for the D Family.  So, as a special Sneak Peak, I’ll share a few pages I’ve created for them.

and

and

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged, but because I’m going through a season of figuring out stuff.  As you all know, if you’ve been reading, I’m now a college student in a graphic’s design program.  I haven’t really taken photos of anyone professionally in a while. I do have one story session about to go up at the end of June of the D family. But, I have no plans, and I’m not sure how much I want to put myself out there for photo sessions.  I was thinking of changing my rate system, and offering out a list of dates for photo sessions.  But, I’m undecided right now.  I love putting together albums, and have also found a new way to display photographs.  So, my passion is still there, I’m just not sure how I want to direct it.

For now, I’m thinking of using this as my personal blog, meaning sharing stories of our family’s adventures.  And throwing in professional stuff in every now and again as needed.  But mostly sharing what I’m passionate about at any given  moment.  Showing the me behind the lens, so to speak.

This could change in a few months as I figure some things out, but for now, to keep things here more consistant, I want to write more, and the subject will be what’s on my mind that day.

Have a good day all, and tomorrow I’ll throw up a sneak peak of the story session I’ve been working on.

So, for the past two weeks we’ve been trying this new thing with Family Movie Nights. We do love movies, and watch a lot of movies, but I came across this idea over the internet here, here and here about a two weeks ago. And fell in love with the concept and wanted to give the idea a go. So…. Although my project/craft/snack doesn’t look like the designers, it was fun to make and the time with family is precious.

So, yes, even the coloring pages are part of the whole craft/project idea. Pretty cool huh? The above is the grocery items all lined up, and if you look closely you’ll see we also have some frozen pizza that we cooked for dinner. (yea…I’m a cheater!)

Coloring

A little unknown fact about me. I just love Circus Peanuts! I know they are marshmellow candy and I shouldn’t eat them. But I love them just the same. It’s a good thing I only eat them about 1-2 times a year. (This year it will be 3, but who’s counting?)

This is when things got a little crazy. They look more like cows then horses. The rope licorice didn’t want to stay. I even melted more chocolate thinking it would hold better than icing. Nope. So, instead of horse heads, we had cows. (not that the kids cared!)

See…. They are about to demolish the cupcakes and horse/cow heads…

Watching the movie…. Before Daddy came to sit on the couch with them.

Then after. (you can see a lot less light, and I got all up in his face!) This was about half-way through the movie, that I decided to try some low lighting shots. This was the only one that came out half decent. So…  My kids say the dessert is the best part!   I say the family bonding is.  We all agree it’s fun and we look forward to our Friday Night Movie Night.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

So, Poppy bought Jordan and the grandkids a kid’s 4 wheeler to ride when at his home.  Jordan got to ride it with his cousins and sister this past weekend.   He had an absolute blast riding it.  (until….)  But wait…  Let me post the good photos first before I tell you the “until…” part.

Riding through the tall grass

He took his sister and cousins for a ride too….  His cousin Autumn rode on it by herself, but the two youngest were only passengers.

The daddy riding on the kiddie 4 wheeler.

This is Jordan taking a fast turn.  I did not get any photo’s of the crash or the after hurts and boo boo’s.  It really wasn’t all that bad…. Although it was scary for the kids.  Jordan and Autumn were riding together, when going really fast toward a bunch of tree’s, panicked, and forgot to hit the brakes or turn, and crashed.  The front of the 4 wheeler is pretty bent up.  Jordan has cuts and bruises  all over.  His helmut flew off, but saved his head from getting hurt.  (Thank God for Helmuts!)   So… We will see if Jordan chooses to ride again.  He was  pretty shaken up.  And his leg is hurting him now with a bruise and a scratch on it.  Although I’m glad there is no broken bones or real intense injuries.

I want to do this next year!  I want to train myself to be able to run a 5K because this race looks like it is fun to run!  Seriously… I never thought I’d say I want to run (cause I really do hate running), but this race looked like the people were having a blast!  Wait till you see the photos I took.  I mean…  Wow!!!!!

Yup…  We stood by this mud pit and watched these people crawl through the mud after they just ran a 5k.

Then along came this guy…. Who posed like….

It looks like a belly flop is coming….

No, that looks like it’s turning into a dive…

Yup… A Dive.

Can you believe this guy?  A full on Dive into the mud!  This guy likes to get dirty!

Families did this too….  How cool is that?

I’d say this guy was running a muck… Wouldn’t you?

Then… As this one race was ending, people were starting to gather for the next race.  And we saw lots of people looking like….

I think we should “Vote for Pedro!”

Is that guy eyeing me up?  He looks like an escapee, with his friend the mental institute escapee….  Should I be scared?  Oh wait, there are children right in front of him… I may be safe.

These people are here to run a 5K, and then do army crawls through the mud!

Is that an Avatar?  Here on Earth?

Both Minnie and Daisy decided it was a good day to run in the mud… Along with Waldo, TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles), convicts, etc…

Oh and George Washington crossing the river too!  All at Washington’s Crossing.  Can you see why this would make running look like fun? We even saw brides (full on gear!) about to run a muck, guys in hula’s, 70’s dancers with full on warmups on.  Wow… I have to think about what I want to be to run a 5k then dive through the mud army style.

Wanna come?

So…. Last week we freaked out a little when my son starts complaining of double vision.  We made an appointment with the doctor, the doctor refers us to an opthamalogist.  Meanwhile, the ladies at the front desk are telling us that it takes 5-7 days to get a referral, and the lady who takes care of them is not in for the next few days.  Oy!  So… I call the insurance company to see if a referral was necessary, and of course it is.  But she tells me if it really is bothering him to take him to the ER.  So… we did.  The pompous  know it all concerned doctor told us that it was nothing to be concerned about that we should just keep our appointment with the opthamologist.  (I know I’m spelling it wrong.)

So, we keep our appointment, and the opthamologist  ,oh forget it,  Eye doctor,  is super friendly, nice and is great with kids.  He finds out that Jordan just has a astigmatism in his left eye.  (so, I’m not doing great on the medical spelling!)   Which basically means the cornea is misshaped and a lens will correct the vision problem that he is experiencing.  Whew!  My mom worries and fears totally kicked in and I thought Jordan had some sort of brain tumor or eye cancer or worse.  Sigh….  We are so relieved the problem was easily diagnosed and fixable.  (And our insurance covered it all!)

So…. to make a long story short, we got our glasses today from Indian Valley Eye Care in Harleysville.  And here are the photos to prove it.

My silly man…

Isn’t he handsome?  I told him he looks like Harry Potter.

I took several different poses, just to give you the full glasses effect.

I told him to do what I was doing… And this is apparantly what I look like….  :) (when taking photos that is!)

Serious….  and last one I promise…

I think he saw his friend here.  (Yeah for the friend for making him smile!)

The I heart faces challenge this week is Smiles.    So, I have a little sneak peak from a session this past week.  A session that will wind up being a story session in May.  But I just thought that a few of the photos I took this past weekend were too cute not to share now.  Stay tuned in May for more information on this family’s story.  Meanwhile…. Enjoy this little one’s smile!  (And remember to check out all the other smiles too!)