Another stroll through a meme in May . . .

Weird Facts About Myself The Rules:

Once you’ve been tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random, facts, habits or goals about yourself. At the end, choose 6 people to be tagged, list their names & why you tagged them. Don’t forget to leave them a comment saying “You’re it!” & to go read your blog. You cannot tag the person that tagged you, so since you’re not allowed to tag me back; let me know when you are done so I can go read YOUR weird/random/odd facts, habits and goals.



For me, I'm going through my photostream at flickr. Let's see what i come up with...



Some people think this is weird, but to photographers it's "the bomb". It's called bokeh and it's what you get when you shoot with your lens' aperture wide open. See that blur in the foreground and the background of the focused flowers? Yeah, that's bokeh and it's something cool to try to achieve which will result in "oohs" and "ahhs" from your photography friends (like me). :c) There are tons of "groups" at flickr just to showcase your "bokeh" photos. I'm one who has gotten addicted to it.

And here's another example of beautiful bokeh:





I loooove these green tea frapps from Starbucks. I tend to get these more than (frozen or iced) coffee on most days in the summer. And the color I'm in love with. For some odd reason funky colors of green have really grown on me lately. Isn't it snazzy? (This photo is from my photo shoots in Chicago when Jo and I took a break in air conditioning with some yummy chillers.)

This isn't so much weird, or maybe it is? But here are my necessities when going on long shoots (weddings included).



D200
cell phone
glasses
water
and Starbucks (usually it's coffee or sometimes something cold. Just has to have caffeine.)
and, a cool place to sit down and rest my tired feet for a bit before more shooting :c)

I take chances a lot with my camera.



That's me and that's me during a shoot in Chicago in WATER. You kinda have to take some chances when you want the perfect photo otherwise you miss perfect opportunities. This is about the only realm of my life where I take chances, but that's okay. :c)



I can't find anything weird to say about this one. (hehe) This is just a favorite picture of when my dear friend Jen and her daughter, Addy, came to visit us. I miss her.



Even with all the problems we had in this house and the money we spent and lost on it, I still really miss it.



If you've never been to Chicago, you should go. And make sure you see "the bean" in Millennium Park. This is the bean, well part of it, and our reflection in it. A couple hours later we would have gotten our picture taken with zillions of other faces in it, too. It's quite popular. What makes this weird is, I don't like how dirty it is! Usually (I believe) it is cleaned once or twice a day and obviously it hadn't been cleaned yet!

These pictures make me laugh. Again, not weird. I just need something to fill this spot and these two pictures are two of my favorites from May. Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Bob the Builder:




And, this isn't weird, either, but then again, maybe it is because it excites me. But remember my contest to win the free canvas? Well, my winner, Candi, she asked if she could buy one a bit larger. So I said YES! and gave her a canvas in a 20x24 (I think it was) at my cost --- so she walked away with an awesome deal-a-roo! She got the canvas up and here it is!

If you hop on over to her blog, you will see the before and after of the space where she put it. Isn't it awesome?! I'm so happy for her that she won because it really turned out so great and it just makes me smile seeing it up in her home. Congrats again, Candi :c) (I also gained a friend in all this! Cool, eh?!)



This is my new favorite shirt. I may be weird, but I love it. Hmmmmm...wonder why?


Okay, there we have. My list of 10 weird things (they aren't so much facts, but at least I played!). I am not tagging anyone. But please feel free to do it -- it's fun! (Thanks, AJ!)

Southern Belles & Prairieland Girls

It was my dear friend, Jen's, little girls 2nd birthday last week. And I missed being a part of that celebration. Addison Jayne is 6 months to the day younger than Maia. I so wish I could have been there with her as Jen threw Addy her 2nd birthday party. I miss them both so much and Maia misses the friend she's not really ever gotten to know (or wait, I guess it's mommy who is sad because she's never really gotten to know her). But being she was hundreds of miles away down yonder in Hattiesburg, MS, well, it was kinda hard to make that trek. I cried when I saw the pictures on Jen's blog of Addison's birthday. It is so hard to see your friends move away. It's so hard to see their children grow up so fast. So hard. I miss them direly. Jen is one of those true friends who no matter the time or distance, will always be that same amazing wonderful friend. And that is a blessing.

Wanna hear some spectacular news?! No more tears welled up in my eyes! FRIDAY I GET TO SING ADDISON HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN PERSON. Addy and Jen are coming HOME!!!!!!!!!! Friday Jen and Addy are making their way here and they're staying all night with us! You know why this is more than very exciting? Because I remember when I had to say goodbye to Jen and I asked when she'd be back and she said "I'll probably never be back here, Val."

Saturday we're spending our day uptown here. Maia gets to play with Addy (Addy was just a couple months old when they moved) and Jen and I get to play catch up. It's going to be the best 24 hours in a long long time. But, only 24 hours. Wahh. I have to make the most of it.

So much to do, so little time. So why am I online? Because writing about it helps me get my bearings straight. It's like talking out loud to a friend. I need to clean clean clean and make some food . . . a cake maybe for Addy? I thought I'd have some fresh fruit and muffins for them . . . but I don't know if we're doing dinner out or not, so I'm not sure whether to plan for any big meals. Hmmmm . . . I went and bought some new pillows for the girls sleep on. They'll be staying in Noah's room in his bed. (We'll move Noah downstairs.) There won't be any big room transformations like what my amazing fabulous designer friend did for her guest, but at least I have a real bed for them and not a couch or mattress on the floor (*wink, Erin*). Oh, I just remembered, I do need to go out and get some tequila. Margaritas are Jen's fave. I'm sure we'll need one or two of those. ;c)

Anyway, obviously I need to get my derriere in gear. I have a brand new newborn shoot tonight which I am so excited about, so I need to concentrate on preparing for that the rest of the morning. So then I will only have about a day to prepare for my dear friend's arrival. Wish me luck. I want to give them a great impression of Illinois again so maybe they'll . . . move back??? Hopefully I can come up with something better than fresh crawfish and the ocean breeze. :c)

Home is Where the Heart Is

We had dinner with our good friends (a.k.a. old neighbors) last night at our favorite local place. I swear each time we go back to the area it gets harder and harder. It's suppose to get easier, right? I definitely thought it would be easier than last October. It wasn't.

We had a really great dinner. So much fun! And we went back to their house afterwards. That was hard. Especially since when we got out of the car, Noah sees our house and says "there's our old house. I miss our old house." I wanted to sob. But I held it in. I think Vic could tell I was having a hard time. I acted like it didn't bother me. (More margaritas, please!)

The hardest was getting in the car and leaving. I began crying when I got in the car and I bawled my eyes out the whole way home. That's 30 minutes straight. Yeah, my eyes and face were pretty swollen. I couldn't hold it back. I just miss it so much. And I think I've been holding it in for 8 months.

What do I miss? Not so much the house itself but I think our carefree moments. I did relish every second of it and I don't regret anything. But I miss our nightly walks and just the feeling of being outside not caring what anyone else thought of me. I love that when someone drove by, they always always waved. I loved that within a few months we knew everyone on our block. I didn't have true friends for a few years there, but everyone was always so friendly and would do anything for us. I haven't felt that here yet. I feel like a stranger still. I don't feel like I can sit in my front yard and feel at ease doing so. How long does it take? We've been here 8 months.

I just miss it so much. We're in this amazing little town with remarkable schools. But I would give that all back to go back to where we lived. I'm realizing what's most important. Home is definitely where the heart is. And my heart isn't here.

Pics from last summer . . . oh how I miss it. I loved sitting on the front step watching the kids play. Frankie just adored it too . . .

We're off to dinner with other friends. Hopefully a glass of wine will make me feel better. (Sigh . . .) Sorry to mope. It's just kinda hard.

Thursday's (Happy, Funny, Heart-warming) Thought

I just had to share this because it's way too cute.

My friend, Vicki, just shared with me this morning something that her daughter wrote. Chloe was our "straight across the street neighbor/friend" and we watched her grow up into a beautiful little girl. Check it out:

"Last week we went to Chloe's new schools open house and on her locker there was a paragraph she had to write about herself. It said she had 4 pets (the 4th is a new fish, the result of me leaving her w/her dad for a day between girl scout camp ending and school beginning-my mistake!) 3 cousins....and a half brother and a half sister named Noah and Maia! I was pretty surprised and told her they are not her half siblings, she looked kinda puzzled and said "they're not?" the people around us kinda laughed. I'll have to save that piece of paper for her school scrapbook! She misses them so much and asked when we can see you guys again."

Is that not the sweetest?! They miss you, too, Chloe! If only you knew how much! Last night we were looking at a picture and she kept calling one of our family members "Chloe"!!!