80’s Prom

A friend of ours decided to throw an awesome surprise party for his wife’s 40th birthday. She was never able to attend her Senior Prom, which would have been in 1986. Fantastic idea, but it makes the rest of us husbands look like chumps.

Anyways, photos:

Possibility

I think that there are people in life who enjoy challenges, who go looking for the less traveled road in life and relish the idea of conquering those obstacles. People who continue to go back to school year after year, who enjoy the rigors of higher learning. People who climb freezing mountain tops, just to say they reached the summit. People who run in insane marathons that reach from one side of the United States to the other. They rally themselves, they work hard, and they meet the challenge head on.

I am not one of these people.

I stand with that OTHER group of people. The ones who only do things they are already good at. The ones who usually sit back and dream about the things that they would love to do in life, but when it really comes down to it, we would rather dream about it than actually do something about it. I join the ranks of people who usually run away from challenges when they get too difficult, making some sort of excuse rather than admitting that we gave up. It’s not the worst place to be, but it’s a safe place. You don’t get to feel that thrill of victory if you take yourself out of the race after the first mile.

When I look back on this time in my life, I’m pretty sure that I will see it as a time of numerous possibilities. A time when I decided that I wasn’t going to stand in the sidelines any longer. A time when it seemed that anything I chose to pursue was attainable. I don’t want to give up anymore, and I don’t want to settle for what is easy and safe. I used to think that becoming a mom meant that all the dreams I had for myself would have to be packed up and put away until my children were grown. But I am realizing that being a Mom has only made me more determined to achieve my goals.

I should probabaly explain where this is all going, huh? Well there have been a lot of amazing things happening in my life lately and I’m just bursting to share a few of them:

SmugMug’s new video player

A lot more work goes into some of the features at SmugMug than you might think.  Through the magic of Shizam and the other SmugSorcerers, we now have a full HD Flash video player.   Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t actually allow me to embed any videos.

But you can get an idea of my excitement from my brother’s blog post.  Reese’s videos will now play in Flash instead of Quicktime (unless you are on a Mac, in which case you can silently shake your first at Adobe).

I have been really busy lately, but I should have some more Reese videos coming your way soon.

Ramblings

Somehow blogs make you feel guilty for not posting often enough. Meghan does most of the writing around here, but sometimes I chip in. So I’m going to just post about some things on my mind. Warning: very long!

I am an admitted people watcher. I could sit for hours watching other people go about their lives. Of course, I absolutely hate being watched though. I always try to sit in the back of rooms just so people aren’t watching me, but of course I watch everyone in front of me.

Well, a man named Nicholas White stepped into an elevator after a smoke break and ended up getting stuck there for almost 41 hours. And it’s fascinating to watch how he handled it.

Finally, a quiet week.

This week is spring break, which I wouldn’t even know except my babysitting jobs are canceled this week because of it. In addition to that- I have none of the usual crazy scheduled jobs/plans this week. So I have been at home. Which is weird. I haven’t been home this many days in a row for so long! I don’t know quite what to do with myself. After I put Reese down for her naps I wander aimlessly through the house, halfheartedly picking things us and putting them away. I’m so used to making every minute when Reese is asleep count so I can accomplish the things I need to do without also having to chase her around. This week it doesn’t matter if I don’t do the laundry today, I could do it tomorrow, or the next day…

I have to say though; I’m glad that this isn’t how every week is for me. I like my busy, sometimes bordering on crazy, life. It makes me a more productive and happy person. This weeks is turning me into a lazy couch potato, and it’s only Wednesday! I will be a bit relieved when things are back to normal next week:)

I feel I must include a Reese update, because who know when I will have the time to blog again?

Reese is almost 11 months now. She’s big and toothy, and hairless as ever! People still mistake my poor sweet girl for a boy all the time due to her abundance of scalp. Oh well, we still think she’s beautiful.

Trouble should be her middle name. That’s all she does these days- get into trouble. She has an entire area where all her toys and music tables reside in our living room. Yet, every time I place her here to play and leave the room for a moment, when I come back I find that she has somehow made her way to the bathroom where she is pulling all the toilet paper off the roll, or she has figured out how to get though the barricade we have set up to block off Cibo’s food dish and she is elbow deep in his water dish. She is only happy if she can crawl and stand.

I am both loving this age and stressed out about it. It’s nice that she can finally make her own way around and entertain herself for longer. But it means that I have to have an eye for detail to make sure nothing is left on the floor or within reach that she shouldn’t put in her mouth. Cibo makes it especially hard since his chew toys are also on the floor, and Reese is fascinated by them, but we do the best we can.

I am doing a bunch of photo shoots in the upcoming weeks… A newborn shoot this weekend and a family portrait shoot next weekend. Every time I pick up my camera and hit the button I am reminded of why I love photography so much. For me, it is the most incredible feeling to be responsible for capturing peoples memories for them in a photo. People remember the way their children looked and what their wedding day was like though your eyes as a photographer. It’s such an amazing feeling. I can’t even properly describe it. I just feel lucky that I have the equipment and the knowledge to do it. Hopefully I will continue to get better with every shoot.

Off to enjoy the rest of my lazy week. Next week promises to be a doozy, so I’ll enjoy this time I have in my pajamas at home while I can.

Photography and My Little Princess

Put them together and you get this:).

A Few Random Thoughts…

Just a few random thoughts at the end of a very long day, and a very tiring week. Sometimes I think my ambition gets me in trouble. I can’t seem to find that happy medium between doing enough to keep myself busy and happy, and saying yes to everything and running around like a crazy person. So if these thoughts are totally random, it’s because I’m a bit dead on my feet.