Days 272 through 278

Day 272: Inundated

This is the pile of mail that greeted us when we got home last night.  It's about half as big as the pile of paperwork on my desk when I returned to work.  I am thoroughly overwhelmed.  I have no idea where to even begin with everything I have to do now that I'm home.

Help!

Day 273: Glory in Imperfections

I got this penguin at the flea market in Cabo.  I picked him out amid a bunch of other, better looking, trinkets because I liked his little gimpy fin.  Being unique is something of which we all have the capability.  But here's the secret: you can't be unique when you're trying to be.  You can only pull it off when you are truly yourself - when you are no longer concerned with how you compare to others.

That is the challenge.

Day 274: The End of Something

Month 9 is complete!  That's right, I only have 3 months left!  The end is near...finally.

Today as I took pictures of the sunset, I was sad to know they would be the last pictures I took with this awesome lens I rented from Borrow Lenses.  I rented this same lens last summer for my family reunions, and I can't express how much I wish I didn't have to give it back.  It's too expensive for me to justify the purchase, but if I rent it any more times I will completely nullify that excuse.  The rentals aren't cheap, and soon I'll have paid the same amount in rental costs as I would have if I'd purchased the dang thing.

One day...

Day 275: The "Little" Things

I'm so glad RoseAnne came over tonight for our regularly scheduled girls night!  She was all dressed up for an appointment she had before she came over, and she looked so cute!  Jack was his usual adorable self, chasing the cats around the house in his speedy crawl, making faces at us, and being generally captivating for the camera.

I really love my family!

Day 276: Red Trees

I'm used to seeing trees turn red during the fall, but I'm not familiar with red trees with no leaves.  I saw these today in a parking lot and had to stop and capture them.  In the slanting winter sunlight, the bark on these trees shone a vivid red - almost fuchsia.  I wish I still had that lens I rented because it would have been able to capture these better.

Ah, well.  No use thinking about it.

Day 277: Note to Self

Note to self: put makeup on before taking an extreme close-up of your face.

If I had taken any other pictures today, I would have posted one of them instead.  This picture required an obscene amount of touch-up to make it even slightly acceptable, when all I needed to do was dab on a bit of cover-up and eyeliner before I hit the shutter button.  I guess I'm still shell-shocked from my return to work this week.  I can't believe how busy I was, and yet how little I got done!  So frustrating!  I guess all I can hope for is to do better next week.

Day 278: The Old Standby

Whenever you see a picture of my cats on here, you can almost be certain it's because I forgot to take a picture until right before I went to bed.  The cats seem to be my last resort subjects.  If I'm too tired to think of something original, I just run upstairs and snap a few of the cats and call it good.

I need a new standby I think.

Day 264: Sailing Away

Christine and Ryan

It's approaching sunset and we are on the ship, setting sail for Cabo!

We were on the deck to watch as we left the harbor (and to be cheesy and wave at the doc like people do in movies).  It was chilly and windy...really windy.  Christine and I both had dancing hair.  Christine's looked cooler of course because it's longer.

I love this shot because it looks like her hair is reaching out to grab Ryan.  Also because they both have genuine laughter faces which makes me smile every time I look at it.

Who cares that the subjects of the photo aren't in focus.  It's not like I'm a professional or something. ;)

Day 261: Cuddle Bug

Jack and RoseAnne

It's so fun to hang out with family.  It's so fun to live near so many family members!  Especially since I used to feel so isolated from family here in Utah (weird, I know).  Now, so many family members live close that I never seem to catch up with all of them.

I love it when RoseAnne comes over to hang out.  We always have so much fun just watching TV or laughing and reminiscing.  I also love it that I love hanging out with family because I used to really struggle with it.  You know, social anxiety and all that.  Life just seems so much better now that I can enjoy people and want to be around them!

I'm not saying that I don't have my down days, because I obviously do.  But I'm definitely better than I was.

Day 229: Quizzical

Jack

Tonight was RoseAnne's birthday party, and a bunch of the family got together at her house to help her celebrate.  It was so fun to hang with the family and see all the babies.  I was so stressed out all day, and even though the thought of the party stressed me out, I knew once I got there I would have a great time.

And I did.

Knew it.

I laughed until my face turned purple and I lost my voice!  We traded the funniest stories that only my family knows how to tell.  My favorite one was the story Mom told about Dad embarrassing her to death on their cruise to Alaska.  I promised her that I wouldn't re-tell it though, so tough luck.  I doesn't translate well in writing anyway.  There were hand gestures and facial expressions that were crucial to the story.

Day 206: Christmas Eve Party

Becca

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!  I had a great night with the family tonight.  We went over to my sister Sherry's house for Christmas Eve dinner, and it was great to have some time with the family.  Usually when we get together, we fill to bursting whatever house we are in, but since half the family is out of town for Christmas this year, we had a comparatively small party.  It was nice to hang out and open a few early presents.

It was especially nice because I'm out of time on the present issue, so now I just have to let go the stress and enjoy myself.  Usually that's easier said than done, but I'm feeling pretty good right now. :)

Day 194: Strawberry Shortcake

Esther.

I love my nieces and nephews!  RoseAnne and her family came over for dinner tonight, and it was so fun to hang out!  I was being a bit of a recluse for most of the evening because I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I did hang out a little bit, and I got to hang out with the kids downstairs.  Because we won't see RoseAnne or her family before Christmas, we exchanged gifts tonight (I wish I had realized this, because I'm not finished making my gifts yet).

RoseAnne gave me these awesome homemade soaps, and mom gave the family a card game.  Mom also gave each child a coloring book and it was so fun to see their reactions!  RoseMarie was my favorite.  She kept hugging her book of Minnie Mouse coloring pages and saying, "Ohhhh!  I love her!"  She thanked mom at least twice for her Christmas presents.  It was adorable!

Hyrum and Esther loved their coloring books too...especially the stickers in the coloring books.  Esther's coloring book was of Strawberry Shortcake, and RoseAnne told Esther it was a coloring book just for her since she was Strawberry Shortcake.  The second RoseAnne said this I realized just how much like Strawberry Shortcake Esther actually is.  She's got the hair and the cute personality to boot!

What a fun night!

Day 190: A Study of Light

Jasper

I resurrected my old strobe flash tonight.  I thought it was broken, but I wiggled a few wires, "rebooted" it by removing and replacing the batteries, and voilà!  It is reborn!

I'm a bit out of practice with the strobe flash, so I took it for a spin with Jasper.  He wasn't too happy about it, but being the good kitty that he is, he put up with it gracefully.  It took me a few tries to remember the settings I prefer, and the directions to face the flash when working with different different objects, but I think I've got it down again.

Now that I have the flash back, we'll see if it helps in future pictures, or if I'll just bury it away again.

Day 186: Family Portraits

Robert and Lindsey and baby Davis.

So I got to take Robert and Lindsey's family portraits today and it was so FUN!  Coincidentally, we went to the Riverwoods shopping center to take the pictures, and I was so excited, having traipsed through its deserted streets with glee just last night.  I was able to pose them in front of all the sites I drooled over last night.  And even though we took the pictures during the day, the lights were still amazing and provided a very festive backdrop.

I noticed today that when I get into the groove of taking pictures, I don't notice much else.  For example, I was so hyper-focused on getting the right angle for one of the shots with the family that I didn't even notice that I'd stepped in a very sticky mud patch.  I was walking all over the mud, taking pictures here and there, and not noticing that my boots were getting more and more glued to the ground.  It wasn't until I tried to move from the mud to a rock that I realized my boots were so gunked up and gooey that had no purchase when I stepped onto the smooth surface of the rock.  Luckily I didn't slip or fall, and luckily my boots weren't real leather, so cleaning them off at home wasn't that difficult.  I found it very funny because I honestly didn't care about the boots - I was more worried about slipping and falling - all I wanted to do was move on to the next location and get more pictures, but Robert and Lindsey were so worried about it.

The shot above is not one of the "portraits."  I just like candid shots so much that I decided to pick it for the photo project.  But we also got some really good portrait shots of the family that hopefully Robert and Lindsey will be able to use.

Day 170: Mo Bros

Steven's 'stache

So I guess there's a thing promoting cancer awareness for men during the month of November.  It's called Movember, and it's worldwide, believe it or not.  Apparently during the month of November, guys are growing out mustaches and somehow that's supposed to remind people about men's risk of cancer.  I tried to read up about it on the Movember website, but I'm ADD and didn't last long.  Take a look for yourself for more info.

Anyway, I had lunch with my sisters and my nephew Steven today and heard all about it when I asked him who was going to save that girl he tied to the railroad track (OK, I didn't actually ask him that, but I did ask him why he was going for the pedophile look).  After some serious thought about the great idea that Movember had, I starting trying to remember some of the funny one-liners I've heard about mustaches...as I said, I'm ADD, plus I like to make fun of my nephews.

And since a bunch of my nephews are doing the Movember challenge, I've just got to wonder, is this like a contest?  Because even if you win, you still loose.  ;)
I'm going to have to start calling them new names, like D'artanian, Magnum P.I. or maybe Amber Alert.
And for you single guys out there, was meeting women not challenging enough for you?  Because even if they're saying what a great idea this is and how awesome you are for stepping up to the challenge, all they're really thinking is how to politely remove themselves from your company and secure they're houses at night. ;)

But seriously, all joking aside.  It's a great cause, and if it gets people thinking about men's health and getting awareness out about cancer, it's worth a few babies getting scared. ;)

*Note: Since there's no such thing as a sarcasm font, I put little winking smiley faces to indicate that I'm just poking fun and am in no way being serious about these little jabs at mustaches.

Day 163: Puppy Love

Clare and Lucy

A few weeks ago, Clare asked me if I would take a few pictures of her and her dog, Lucy.  I was excited to do it, not only because I've never taken "portraits" of pets before, but because I haven't seen Clare in ages and I was excited to catch up.  We drove out to this park near Utah lake.  I forget the name, but it was great!  It had such varied landscaping that we were able to walk around it and get tons of different backgrounds.  Of course, all my favorites shots turned out to have the tree-lined sunset in the background, but that's not really shocking.

It was really fun to take pictures with Clare and watch her very hyper puppy run around and try to jump out of her leash.  We laughed a lot.  I froze my fingers off because I forgot my gloves.  Little Lucy almost had a fit of excitement over the ducks in the duck pond.  And poor Clare literally got knocked onto her back, feet flying through the air, as Lucy sprinted towards something while still on her leash.

It was a good evening!