Purple Valley: t-ball

Brad and Chel and the girls are home for a week! Woo-hooooo! I get to see them, hopefully tomorrow, and then again Thursday. Neil and Noah haven't seen them for 9 months, so it's exciting.

Back a couple weeks ago, my friends, Matt and Lisa, visited on their way to North Dakota from Virgina. You can read about how I met Lisa here, along with zillions of pictures from her visit, but here's a sneak peek until you make it over there:

This is one of my faves, I think because it reminds me of a vintage photograph.

Something fun. Heather caught me working, again, at a wedding. It's fun to see what I look like through other peoples' eyes. Like hers. I'm glad I don't look too dork-ish. (Sometimes I very much feel that way.)

In that photo I'm setting up a shot, which ended up like this:

And this:

We were going to a lot of t-ball games. That is over now. But at the last game, Maia decided she wanted to meet a new friend. I don't think they ever carried on a conversation, but they played together so well. It was so cute. Maia is in total awe of bigger girls. I have the scene planted in my mind forever. What I love about this is that it signifies the best kind of friendships . . .those where you don't have to work at it . . .where you are completely comfortable with each other even when you have nothing to talk about :)

And Noah at a game:

He was so precious out there. I love the innocence and how playing sports hasn't become competitive yet. They're so sweet when they are just being children and having a blast doing so.

I have tons of these little (nasty) guys in my garden. Do you?

We also had swimming lessons for 2 weeks. Both kids participated. It took a while for Noah, but Maia wanted to join right away. (I originally didn't have her signed up.) I'm not sure how much they learned, but at least they're getting accustomed to the water. And, they can blow bubbles, so in a their mind, that is totally worth the 2 weeks of mom paying for lessons!

I have had my 5th picture make it to "explore" on flickr. What is "explore"? Well, flickr defines it as this: "a way to show you some of the most awesome content on Flickr". Pretty cool! The flickr people go through millions of pictures and pick out what they believe are the best ranked on several things. I know some people who have had dozens. I'm happy with my 5. :)

I have been super-duper busy. I finished up my last album last night (Chris, I know you read this blog . . . super good news for you! It should be in about a week or two!), I got my last wedding all proofed and online (over 800 pictures, oh my), I had a session last night, I have another one tonight, Tuesday night and Wednesday night. Oh my goodness gracious! I actually feel okay about how busy I am. There's been times I've been super overwhelmed, but I'm not experiencing that feeling anymore. I think I'm grasping my work "flow" now. Finally. It's taken 7 years. But, come Wednesday night, I may change my mind on that one.

So if you see someone with a camera up to their face, with long brown hair and you think it could be Val, well, it probably is :)

Unless you're at a wedding, I probably won't be wearing this dress, though :)

I cannot believe it's been over a week since I posted. I'm not going to sugar coat it, I've not been feeling too dandy.

Long story short, I've been experiencing some upper back pain located between two vertebrae up near my shoulder blades. After a week I went to the doctor a month ago back when Neil was in China. They gave me motrin and told me to come back if it didn't get better. I wasn't happy with that answer so I talked to my friend who works for a chiropractor, something I had never sought out before. She thought I needed to come in. I did and had x-rays taken. It turns out my spine is not only curved, my neck is extremely curved. You know how a banana curves? Well, that is how a person's neck is suppose to be in it's natural state, at a 45 degree angle. Mine is at a -2. Can you imagine trying to pull back that banana backwards? Yeeks. And that's my neck.

Another long story short, I've suffered unexplained headaches for over 10 years now. I've had CT scans, MRI's, seen 3 neurologists, etc., and no one ever found the cause. It appears the chiropractor did. With my neck beginning to curve the opposite way, my spinal column is also being pushed the opposite way putting lots and lots of pressure in that area probably attributing to my headaches. It was a HUGE blessing in disguise. When he told me this I started to cry because for the first time I had an answer and it was at a time when I wasn't even looking for one. I had totally given up on finding a cure for my headaches. Bad news was, he didn't find anything around those vertebrae causing the pain. I've now started seeing the doctor 3 times a week and I definitely notice change in my neck area. Unfortunately not my back. So last week I went back to my general doctor and he seemed a bit worried this time. He lined me up with a CT scan of my back. I had that done on Thursday. I still haven't gotten those results back yet. I was incredibly worried - so much so that I haven't been myself, I've been on the verge of panic attacks and experienced a really bad migrane (wah wah wah). But I think I've realized this is out my hands. Hopefully today or tomorrow I will find what is wrong. Heck, maybe it's nothing?! But hopefully if it is something, it's treatable. That is why I haven't been around. I haven't had the energy emotionally or mentally to think about my blog. So that's my "wah wah wah" part of this post. I'm done with the "Wah-ing" and ready to move on for the time being. (yay me.)

This is the "wee wee wee" part.

I got two super neat-o packages in the mail last week!!! One from a very dear friend who moved away to MS. Jen sent me the yummiest package of cookies, which she beautifully made herself, as a super sweet surprise.

I think I am the only person she knows other than her mom who looooooves anise cookies. What's anise? You know . . . black licorice?? Mmmmmmmm . . . I can smell it just talking about it. Those yummy-to-my-tummy treats were gone in just 3 days all by myself. Oh my goodness are they the best. Jen and I are two black licorice peas-in-a-pod. We also crave and adore Good-N-Plenty's. Anyone else?!

Then a couple days later I received another box. This time when I picked it up, I really questioned it. "What is this?!" Well, as soon as I opened it up and saw a card inside with the logo of the product on it, I knew just what it was and who it was from. It made my day sparkle. Can you guess?!?!
I then
took out
the paper
and
inside the box
were
these 6
very pretty . . . .

{make sure you click on the picture to see what it says because it's been custom-designed and it's just way too cool!}

. . . SHARPIES from my friend, Amanda, my BBBF who sent me these as my winning prize at her (amazingly fabulously awesome) blog for .. . drumroll . . . this is kinda embarrassing . . . being her most commenting commenter! (I'm going into hiding now.) Really, though, it's SUCH an honor!!! I've had such fun at her blog over the past year and all the while I've grown to really known her and we've became the greatest friends, hence the "BBBF" which means Best Blogging Buddies Forever. We have so much alike all the way down to our love for VW's and Converse. Thanks, a, I really love you, friend! (Here is her prize-giving post!)

Lastly, two exciting bits. One is, I signed up Noah for summer t-ball last week! He wasn't so excited at first, but now that's all he talks about. I played softball for 8 years in school and then 2 more years once out of college. I looooove baseball and hope he acquires a love of it just like his mommy. His grandparents absolutely cannot wait to come see him play. It's going to be such a fun summer. I can't wait.

And lastly, I spent a lot of time during my not-myself days last week in back pain putting up pictures on my VWC blog. So check 'em out if you have time . . . there are a lot. And also, I wasn't going to say anything yet, but I might as well. At the end of May I am going to Chicago for a weekend to do shoots with some of my Chicago clients and if there is anyone else interested, let me know! The appointments are filling up quickly. I'm just in awe of the response and feeling really really really excited about it. It's going to be so so much fun shooting in downtown Chicago. It'll be a dream come true for me.

Okay, enough of my notorious rambling. I've missed you all and I hope next time I'm here, it's to give a (positive) back update.