Over spring break we asked Ellie if she wanted to go out for track.  She looked at us like horns had sprouted out of our heads.  BUT…she didn’t say no.  She tried throwing up a few road blocks (‘My best friend isn’t doing it.’ and ‘It’s too late to turn in the forms.’) but she didn’t protest too strongly.  Excellent!

Honestly I didn’t think she would stick with it.  We didn’t mean to misrepresent track, but somehow she got in her head that it was like a club and only met once a week.  She also thought she was really only going out for the high jump so she wouldn’t have to run very much.  Oops.  False on both accounts.  Track is four times a week and there are so many kids out there that she didn’t even qualify for the high jump.

Amazingly though, she has only complained once.  (Ellie is NOT a fan of fartleks.)  She is running relays, she is running laps she is trying the shot put and hibiscus.  (That is really the discus but Kate called it The Hibiscus and now the name has stuck.)  Allen and I are so proud!

Ellie is not the fastest runner, or highest jumper or farthest flinger.  But she is totally excelling at the event that I wanted her to do.  MY main motivation for encouraging her to do track was purely for the social aspect.  She has met all sorts of new girls that she didn’t know.  She has had to team up with them, work together with them, run in the rain with them.  Let’s face it…there is a whole lot of standing around in track.  With six heats (8th grade boys, 7th grade boys, 6th grade boys, 8th grade girls, 7th grade girls, 6th grade girls) of every event there is plenty of time to hang out.  It was pure joy for me to watch her at her first track meet.  The running was good, but the giggling and chatting were the BEST!

A big thank you to all of the coaches (there are at least 6) who incredibly manage to encourage, teach, organize and corral these 100 some odd kids every day.

I love the stage my girls are in.  My older two girls are now reading all sorts of books that I enjoy too.  Of course it started with Harry Potter many years ago, but lately Ellie, Jill and I have been trading books back and forth.  (Actually, we are sharing them electronically and borrowing a lot of them from Auntie Jo Jo.  Thanks Jo!)

Contrary to what you may think, not all Young Adult fiction is about Vampires or is dystopian.  I’m not a big fan of either so you can trust me there!  I thought I might share our favorites from the last few months. (If you click on the book name it will take you right to Amazon.)

The Fault in Our Stars- Don’t let the fact that this book is about cancer scare you off.  I said that wrong.  This book is actually a love story where both main characters just happen to have cancer.  Author John Greene does an amazing job of writing from the perspective of a 16 year old girl!

The Future of Us- This book was a total crack up.  It wasn’t trying to be, and my kids didn’t get the humor but anybody over 35 will understand.  The premise is that the main characters (teenagers Emma and Josh) get a new computer in 1996 and when they first log in they miraculously end up on Facebook and see what they are up to 15 years in the future.  They also see what their current actions do to their future selves.  Jill and Ellie didn’t get all of the 1996 jokes but I had a good time laughing at the AOL CD they got in the mail with free online minutes, the fact that Emma had to log off the computer every time her parents needed the phone and the Sony Diskman she used when she jogged.  Add in some teenage angst and you get a recipe for success!

Wonder- My girls haven’t read this one yet.  Joelle recommended it and she was right.  It was WONDERFUL!  (All puns intended.)  I loved it so much I think I am going to read it out loud to all three of them.  It’s absolutely appropriate for younger listeners too.  It’s about a 5th grade boy with a terrible facial anomaly.  He has been previously home schooled so he is entering middle school (5th grade is middle school in this book) knowing nobody.  The book is written from the boy’s perspective and from quite a few other characters too.  Such a great lesson in kindness and how what you think is your own cross to bear affects so many others too.  Awesome!

Divergent- I admit that I almost didn’t read this one.  I’m not a big fan of dystopian books and any book that uses the word FACTION more than once is off my list.  But my girls became obsessed with it and my sister really loved it so I caved to peer pressure and read it.  Glad I did.  It’s a very clever book about a future society where people are segregated by their overriding personality trait and each ‘faction’ is responsible for taking care of a certain part of the society.  It was interesting to think about where we would all be categorized and I enjoyed the fast paced storyline.  This one was very well written.  (I did not enjoy book two, Insurgent, though and quit half way through.)  The movie is coming out early next year and we may have to go to that midnight show!

Second Chance Summer- We found this book on Good Reads.  Boy is it EVER a good read.  This is another cancer book (not going for a theme here, just happened to be what we found) but this time it is the main character’s father who has cancer.  When he is diagnosed they all go away to the summer cabin that they haven’t been to for many years to spend time as a family.  Like a lot of families all three of the teenage kids had grown busy and grown away from their parents and this summer was about reconnecting as a family.  And of course there is a long lost best friend and first boyfriend too.  This book does a great job of getting to the heart of relationships and may be my favorite of the bunch.  Keep tissues handy for the end.  Totally worth it!

Divine Intervention- We met this author, Martha Brockenbrough, at a book signing at Costco.  We’d never heard of this book but picked it up for fun.  I enjoyed the whole premise of this book.  The thought that we might have a guardian angel looking out for us (even if he is a bit misguided) is intriguing.  Martha did a great job telling a funny story about death and resurrection.  (Doesn’t sound possible, right?)  This book was a quick read and has been picked up for a movie too!

I am sorry to say that I didn’t do any of these books justice with any of these blurbs.  Just read them.  You won’t be disappointed!

Last weekend we celebrated Mother’s Day at my parents’ house.  It’s always fun to get together but we upped the fun factor by bringing out a box of old photographs.  It was a complete hodge podge of photos from all different decades and that made it all the more fun.

It was so fun to show my girls the fun things we used to do when we were growing up.  And showing them the fashions got some great laughs.  It was also neat to see the resemblances that come in families.  My kids used to see pictures of my sister and I (like the one above) and think it was them.  We also found a picture of my Dad as a toddle that looks exactly like my nephew.  Crazy!

I can definitely tell that my Dad was the photographer most of the time since he is hardly in any of the pictures.  Yup, that happens here too.  I am hardly in any still pictures (Mr. Fun is hardly in any video.) when our kids were younger, but now that they can take some pretty great pictures I hand the camera over and jump in some of the shots!

So often clients will bring their kids to me to photograph them but never plan on getting in the pictures themselves.  Such a crime!  That is the perfect opportunity to let me capture you and your kids and the special relationship you have with them.  Usually I can talk folks into a couple of shots (it’s painless and quick, promise) and they are pleasantly surprised at what I capture for them.  Yeah!  And they they too can put the pictures on their walls and into albums to share with generations to come.

PS – For the record, I do have a brother too but the pictures of pictures I took were so unclear and shiny that I can’t even share them.  Darn, we will just have to go back for another walk down memory lane.  Maybe for Father’s Day this time!  (And maybe I should consider scanning instead of taking a picture of a picture?)

This is me going so fast in my chair that Jill can't get me in focus. Just call me Lightening!

Last week I did a bad bad thing.  While playing soccer I hurt my achilles.  That wasn’t the bad thing.  The bad thing was that I went off the field, attempted to stretch it out, and then let the uber competitive side of me make the decision to get back in to help my team.  That was the fatal error because I really couldn’t run very well but when I felt a ‘pop’ on the back of my leg I knew I was done for.  NOT GOOD!  (On a positive side note, though, I ended my soccer career with a goal.  Talk about going out on a high!)

It looks like I partially tore both my Achilles tendon and my calf muscle.  That means no weight bearing for at least a week and a boot for 6-8 weeks.  Obviously life as a I know it has changed quite  a bit.  Here are some lessons I have learned so far…

1. Crutches suck.
2. Nice looking toes go a long way toward lifting your spirits.
3. It is easier to crawl to the bathroom in the middle of the night than to try to ‘sleep’ crutch.
4. My kids are old enough to cook.  (Finding a meal that they will cook and we will eat is not always easy though!)
5. My desk chair makes an awesome wheel chair.
6. The dog thinks my scooting down the stairs (on my butt) is his personal cuddle time.
7. I will not die if the bed does not get made.
8. I will not die if the counters are a mess.
9. I will not die if the floors are dirty.  (Although it will make it harder to wheel around in my chair!)
10. It is hard to cut up apples when your line of vision is even with the cutting bored.
11. Not exercising drives me crazy and is slightly scary.  Must tune into Sit and Fit stat!
12. It was a good idea to keep all the good snacks (i.e. chocolate) on a high shelf.  Now I can’t reach them.
13. If my chiropractor wasn’t already my best friend she is NOW.
14. My family rocks.  They have all stepped up to their added responsibilities (cooking, cleaning, walking the dog, etc.) and even ask ‘Do you need anything else?’ before they leave for the day.
15. Having more time to get stuff done does not necessarily mean it WILL get done.
16. I miss easily getting outside.
17. Sunshine can be enjoyed from the comfort of my wheelie chair just inside a doorway.
18. I have a new appreciation for drive thrus and wish I could find a drive thru sushi place or teriyaki place.
19. Amazon Fresh can deliver all my groceries and even some new hobby items right to my doorstep.  (They have an excellent selection of crochet hooks.)
20. The UPS man (Hi Jason!) was nice enough to come into the house to get my signature, but leaving the wine delivery in the middle of the entry way rug was a fail.  (I did consider just bringing an opener and glass to the rug and crawling over for a picnic.)
21. I’ve got amazingly caring and flexible clients. One even offered to bring dinner after I asked her to reschedule her session!

Posts may be light over the next couple of weeks because my shooting ability is being limited to what I can get to in my wheelie chair. (Which is only bad if you are sick of seeing pictures of my toes and my kitty.)  Hoping to get back to chasing babies and kids in the next couple of weeks!

Meanwhile, if anybody is in the market for a cool pair of sparkly purple soccer shoes I’ve got a pair up for grabs.  Hardly used…

Just a couple of crazy picture outtakes of my nephews that were cracking me up.  Taking pictures can be hard but it is best not to take one’s self too seriously!  ’Nicer’ pictures to come later…

This should come as no surprise.  I DO love Instagram.  A bigger and bigger percentage of my personal pictures are being taken with it for sure.  I love the square shape, I love the retro vibe, I love that I don’t always have to upload pictures to my computer and spend time ‘fixing’ them.  With a click of a button I am done and it has been shared.  Sigh…that is so great.

The pictures are fun to share online and they do come out nicely in my blog book.  But there is just something so lovely about real, honest to goodness prints.  These days people don’t make them enough.  We use them when texting and and on Facebook or even have them appear as screen savers but hardly ever print anything.  Such a crime.  It feels like Christmas when the package arrives in the mail for me.  Not only that, if my phone or computer crashes I’ve still got my pictures.  (Okay, okay…I’m no fool.  It’s my job so I’ve got everything backed up in three different places, including the cloud.  But my guess is YOU might not so I’m really just thinking of you.  I’m nice like that.)

Last week I saw this post on The House of Smiths blog.  It was so timely because I have all sorts of vacation pictures on Instagram and I was just thinking about how I might print them out.  If you don’t want to go through the article I will give you the highlights:

The first thing you have to do is actually get the pictures onto your computer.  (Persnickity Prints, the lab, suggests using the LifePics App to upload your pix right from the phone but it took forever, timed out, and I thought it was confusing.  So there.)  Use Instaport to download all of the pictures from your Instagram account to your computer.  Not only is this good for ordering pictures but it’s good to have the digital copies too.

Next sign up for an account on Persnickity Prints.  I know of a few professional labs that can print small square pictures but I really wanted to try these guys out.  Boy am I glad I did!  The prints were fairly easy to order and I loved all of my choices.  When you first choose the pictures you want to order it will look like you can only choose photographic prints.  Never fear…right under the ‘Add to Cart’ button is the ‘Order with More Options’ choice.  Click on that and THEN you will be able to see all of the good choices.

I ordered a few different things just to try them out.  The bulk of my pictures were ordered as ’4×4 Instagram print (with 1/8 in white border)’ on matte card stock.  These were AWESOME!  I love that the paper weight is heavier than photo paper and the picture surface is smooth.  Even though it was ‘matte’ there is a slight sheen to it and it was really nice.  Makes me think that the pictures might be slightly protected if a drop of water hits them.

I also ordered the ’3×3 Instagram print (with 1.8 in white border)’ on pearl card stock.  These little pictures were cute and the pearl was fun and funky but I don’t think I’d like all of them on pearl.  I also ordered the Persnickity Prints Polaroid as a 3×3 on matte card stock.  Eh…that was just okay. It really just felt like a 3×3 print that needed it’s border cut.

And the best part in all of this?  I ordered the prints on Thursday and had them in my hand on Monday.  I then took old school metal tacks and pinned them up to the cork board on my pantry door.  We go by the this door all day long so it is fun to see all of our quirky little memories every time we reach for a snack.  We still have plenty of room on the bottom of the door so I am going to plan on ordering these vintage looking prints every few months and keep trading them out to keep the cork board fresh!

Remember when Miss Emmy was a teeny tiny babe?  (You can click here to go down memory lane.) I took one of my all time favorite newborn pictures at her session and I get to enjoy her up on my wall every time I go into my studio.

Now she is a big 13 month old who was super shy when she first arrived so I photographed her big brother Milton first.  What a ball of energy and smiles!  As soon as she realized how much fun we were having she joined in too.  It was cracking me up to see little Miss in her cute little sailor dress throwing down the wrestling moves with her brother!

Here are my favorites…

This is the girls afraid of getting caught!

We went from snow on April 30th to spectacular on May 1st.  Nice timing Mother Nature!  Just in time for our annual doorbell ditching.

This year we needed to wedge it in between home work and track and small group so everybody was a bit more cranky stressed out but as soon as you start handing flowers out how can you hold on to that bad mood.  You can’t!  Add to that all of us humming the Mission Impossible song and we were good to go.

Sorry for the green haze. I was hiding in the bushes across the street and they got in the way!

Since we’ve been doing this so long we were trying to come up with ways to be sneakier with our delivery.  We’ve had stalkers waiting for us on the front porch before so we thought carefully about the best way to handle that.  Most houses we went the traditional route but our last two ‘victims’ happened to be outside so we did a drive by.  We threw the flowers out the window of the car and yelled Happy May Day!  through the sun roof and open windows.  (No pictures of that though since I was the get away driver.)

One thing different for us this year was that WE were doorbell ditched in return.  Unfortunately I happened to be out on our front deck when one of our recipients pulled up to the front of our house, four boys piled out of the car and barreled up our front stairs depositing a bouquet of tulips on the front doorstep all with military precision.  The youngest one (age 10) looking at us saying ‘You saw nothing!’  It was AWESOME and Kate (the only one home with me) talked about it for the rest of the night!  Thanks Brueckmans!

Maybe next year we should try parasailing in from Poo Poo Point.  That sure would add the element of surprise!

Last week I was feeling the need to check in with some of the families that I have photographed.  Some of those kiddos were so sick and I just felt this NEED to hear that they were okay.  Most families I don’t have direct access to and some of the families are still in crisis and I would never want to bother them.  But one little guy I knew FOR SURE was doing really well so I invited him to my studio for a little mini session.

Mr. Keller is the sweet baby of one of our favorite teachers in elementary school.  Ellie’s kindergarten teacher, Shelly, has been bringing her crew to see me for six years but I haven’t seen them for awhile because last year was pretty hard.  Just another good reason to bring those guys in!  I know you don’t have anything to compare to, but this little man was just around 2 pounds when he was born way too early.  Look at how big he is now.  He’s crawling and babbling and charming the pants off of all of us!

Shelly thank you for indulging me and letting me see Keller and all of his tremendous progress!  Here are my favorites…

And one more for Shelly because I know how much she loves baby feet…

A few weeks ago I started playing soccer again. I used to play soccer all the time but I haven’t played since I got preggers with dear daughter #2. 12 years ago!

Clearly I would need some new shoes for this indoor soccer endeavor. This was the first pair I found at my local sporting goods store. They are purple and sparkly and I wasn’t sure I was worthy enough to wear them so I sought out the council of the sales gal. ‘Do you have any other indoor soccer shoes?’ I asked. ‘I don’t think I’m good enough to wear these.’

‘Sure!’ she said and held up a pair of flourescent orange and a pair of fluorescent green shoes from the clearance rack. One thing I new for sure was that I WASN’T good enough to wear those!

One of the best parts of this whole thing is that all of the players are bringing their kids. I think my kids really enjoyed watching us and cheering US on for once. I also think it kind of blows their mind to see me run. On more than one occasion they have mentioned that I don’t run. Really? I think I must keep the running for times when I’m not with them. Kind of like eating chocolate after they go to bed.

Unfortunately I slightly tore a muscle in my first game, thus making my leg the same color as my shoes. Thank heavens I didn’t buy the orange or green. I can only imagine what kind of injury THOSE would have led too! I played in the next game, though, because I decided I needed to shake it off. Just like I would tell my kids to do from the sidelines. Turnabout is fair play!