food dare - day 4

Today, I made the what i thought would be an easy 4ish hour trip to Rocky Mount, NC. However, what my gps said, and what my car actualld did was another story.

Just south of washington was some of the worst mid-day traffic I've ever encountered. It took me about an hour to go about 2 miles. things picked up a bit after that, but set me back to what I thought would turn this 4ish hour trip to a 7-8ish hour trip. UGH. seems to be a common word... especially when I'm thinking about the hummus dare...

Thankfully though, I made it to Rachel and her family's house in just under 6 hours. I wasn't mentally prepared for more than that ;)

Neither was i mentally prepared for soy sauce mixed with hummus.



And wouldn't ya know it, whilst posing for this picture, I accidentally poured a bit more than i originally intended.



It was sick.

UGH.

Maybe tomorrow i'll post something other than the food dare... :)

food dare - day 3

Today I thought... No problem. I'll down this hummus and ranch dressing with ease. The problem is that I left the hummus at the house I'm sleeping at, but was at another house all day long.

By the time I got back at almost 9:30pm, the last thing on my mind was eating more... esp after going to Chilis and having a black bean burger, with a side of mashed potatoes... mmmmm

As I readied myself for bed, like most people, i partook in the age-old ritual of brushing my teeth.

BIG mistake.

you see, i still had not completed my food challenge for the day. please imagine with me if you will what a strong garlic creamy substance mixed with a horrifying buttermilk ranch flavored dressing would taste like. Then add toothpaste.

(as a sidenote, I used to think that buttermilk, was butteryER than normal milk, it wasn't until recently that I learned it's true nature and i've been unable to eat it without being painfully aware of what it is since then)

I was so disturbed at the thought of downing such a substance this evening that I began preparing an email to Jim letting him know that it was just not possible today. But then I thought, gee, the point of a dare is to make people do things they don't want to or wouldn't normally do. UGH.

Down the stairs I went. Prepared myself this close to mid-night snack and downed it as quickly as possible.



with that combo settling into my stomach i'm off to bed now... ugh...

food dare - day 2

For today, jelly+hummus.

I chose strawberry jelly. Mainly because that was the only jelly in the house. I am not a huge fan of jelly, but I've been known to enjoy the occasional pb+j sandwich.

As I mixed the combo, I also reached for a tall glass of water... knowing that after I had consumed so much food beforehand (not remembering that I still had to do this!) I wasn't sure it would all make it down.



But down it went...



gagmatostic. That's about all I have to say...

ps mad props to my cellphone for being available to take fairly decent pictures when I just couldn't muster the energy to get my big one ;)

food dare - day 1

There are 3 foods that I categorize as so utterly disgusting, I absolutely will not eat them.

They are:
Mushrooms
Oatmeal (the cooked breakfast mushy kind, not like when it's in cookies and stuff)
Cottage cheese

I hate these foods.

HATE THEM.

With that said, the story continues. A couple months ago, i was at my friend Jim and Melissa's apartment when jim pulls out his trusty rusty container of cottage cheese and starts mauing away. nomnomnomnom. I am tolerant of other's decisions to eat these foods, although for the life of me I cannot figure out WHY anyone would eat them... but I had to let Jim know just how much i despise the curdy substance.

He insisted that cottage cheese was an amazing food, such a treat! And I said sarcastically, bet you couldn't eat it every day for (insert ANY number in here) days. And he said he could.

So i was all like, oh yah? well i bet you couldn't eat it MIXED with something for (so many) days.

And he said he could.

The challenge was on:

To eat cottage cheese for 10 consecutive days mixing it with any substance of my choosing. Bwahaha!

Oh the things I made him eat... my favorite mix-in was the mayonaisse. He tried so hard to get out of that one... and I eventually gave in, allowing him to only eat a portion of the egg-based goo + curdly cheesy milk substance and substituting the rest of his portion to be mixed with Gushers.

If you'd like to see all the other things Jim ate for those 10 days, go to his blog here to read all about it.

Anyways, since this challenge took place, there has been talk of a food dare tailored to my liking. And it has begun.

The base food:

HUMMUS

Oh how I love hummus...

I just hope I still like it after this...

Day 1 of the food dare:

mix hummus with any veggie (not-so-disgusting right? don't worry, i'm sure it will get worse...)



I found this hummus at Whole Foods in Annapolis, and while it was exorbitantly expensive as far as hummus goes, it was quite tasty. Better than most i've had.



So far, day 1, not so bad. But i'm under no delusions that the rest of this dare will not be so easy peasy... in fact i'm kinda worried.

Come back tomorrow for day 2:

jelly+hummus

Dear Dad,

I was laying in bed tonight sorting out the thoughts of the day. I realized in that process that tomorrow today is Father's Day. and then I realized, "this is the first Father's Day that I've spent without my dad."

Oh but wait, Father's Day isn't about me. Silly me :) But it is about you, and I started thinking how heart-breaking it must be for you to not have me there on your day :D After all, what are you doing without the pirate who doesn't do anything?

So here I sit, at 1am because I knew that I wouldn't sleep right without getting the following thoughts out of my head and onto somewhere. In some ways, I'm glad I'm not home now... because I honestly don't know that I could say all this in person. I am able to say what I think and feel better in writing and I hope that you are encouraged to hear these words.

I can't even begin to tell you how much you've come to mean to me over the last few years. it was hard when I was growing up, I know that, and I think you do too. We had our rough times but throughout it all, I've come to see what an amazing dad you've been. To me, to rob, jay and dan and to the rest of your family...

You're "kid central" with all the grand-kids and I hope and pray that I am able to see you play with my kids the same way.

I'm thankful to God for restoring our family and giving us renewed opportunity to love each other and become the foursome that we are now. I love our place at 71 and I love that I've spent all of my adult years at home with you and Mom and Dan. It's such a comfort to me knowing that I have a place to lay my head where I am safe, protected and loved beyond my comprehension.

You're a blessing in my life, Dad. I value your input and I will seek your counsel as long as you're around. I want your approval more than anyone, and I really feel that from you right now. Thank you.

You're a good man! I love you so much and cannot thank God enough for picking you to be my Dad. I wouldn't trade you for anyone... seriously.

All my love,
Your baby girl,

i'm not old...

but lately for some reason I've been reflecting in ways that make me feel old.

For example, I look at my hands and realize that they've finally thinned out... not sure why, but my hands have always been on the "chunkier" side, and now they're not. Apparently my older brother had the same thing... my mom always told me that his hands looked like little kid/baby hands til he was in his mid-twenties. I look down sometimes and see my mom's hands. And I love that, because I've always wished for hands like my mom's. It also makes me stop and think about where I am right now. Who I am and what I've done so far.

Reality becomes something different for everyone. Whether good or bad.

I would like to know more about my future, but I think I would get bored if i knew what was going to happen by next year. That or I would become complacent, feeling that my life has already been set.

Right now in my life, I feel challenged daily. I'm facing some huge life changes right now, and scary as it may be, the scariness factor in no way outweighs my craving for adventure and the lure of the unknown.

That's all. Kinda random, I know :)

it was a good roadtrip

as far as road trips go. The only complaint i had was the hour long standstill traffic jam I got caught in in Baltimore. Have to say though, that at least it was at the end of the trip versus the beginning where I would have had another 5 hours ahead of me to go...



But here I am, just out of my driveway. I was all kinds of excited :D I love road trips



Then while I was going through the pics, I noticed that there was an awful lot o' detail in my sunglasses, so I zoomed in and cropped, and here is what I found



I brought my brother's bike along with me (since I don't actually own my own, but he has 2, so he lets me use the one regularly) And because I get significantly better mileage (40+mpg) without the bike rack, I decided to take it apart and put it in the trunk. Leaving the backseat and passenger seat for all my stuff. And let me tell you, I have some stuff!

I brought a total of 6 bags/suitcases, a cooler, and my desktop computer and monitor. I'm sure you're rolling your eyes at the amount of junk I brought with me, but honestly, it doesn't seem like too much when I broke it all down.

1) suitcase - all my clothes
2) a separate bag for shoes (3 pairs of flip flops, 2 pairs of dress shoes and a pair of sneakers)
3) my camera bag
4) a reuseable wegmans bag with some food in it
5) my laptop bag (with books too)
6) my bathroom bag (with anything and everything I would use to get ready for the day)

Does that seem unreasonable to you?

Too bad if it does. Ha! My dad kept talking about how I needed to pack lighter, and I was all like, hey, if I'm not flying, i'm not working to consolidate. I could care less about consolidation when I'm the only passenger and there are no limitations. I'll enjoy it while I can :D



The sky seemed unusually beautiful as I began the drive...



It was at this point that I realized snapping pics along the way would be really cool. So I left the lens cap off and the camera sitting in the passenger seat for easy access. This one was snapped through the moon roof. (and no, i did not buckle the camera in... but I did buckle the computer in the backseat ;)



Whilst driving behind this car i was soooo longing to be able to just freeze time, go get some people to take pictures of and use the car for a mad cool prop.



And then, with only an hour left... standstill traffic. They took a 4 lane highway and funnelled it into 1 lane. wth? I honestly thought there was an accident or something... but no. In fact, by the time I got through and was back on the open road, I hadn't seen one thing that appeared to warrant such a delay.



So while I was sitting in traffic, I took this, and then noticed that the people in the car next to me were staring. I was a little embarassed... heehee :)

Today has been really nice so far, Aside from being awakened at 7am by a cockatiel... I went for a run this morning, but it was already 8 when I started... and I quickly realized that running after 8 is NOT an option. I'll have to try again at night.

I went to get a wireless card for the computer and some food. But I've been alone all day so far. It's been really nice :) The kids are still in school til wednesday, which I didn't know til last night. I'm happy to have a couple days alone. I really do enjoy being alone, I think that's the introvert in me coming out :) But I love being around people too. I don't know what I am. Maybe I'm balanced?

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get some pictures done... like actual shoots. I've got 2 in the queue right now, I can't wait to get them done!

a new chapter

It seems like just a few weeks ago that I was thinking these days I've just spent were so far off.

I loved my job as a nanny. But it wasn't going to be my life. Or my career. It was never intended to be that for me. I never thought it would be so hard to leave though.

On the one hand, I'm so happy to be done with that chapter in my life. Whereas on the other, I feel like a huge piece of my heart and my life has been obliterated. Of course, the family I worked with only lives 6 miles from me. But it's not the same.

I used to think about what it would be like when I left... thinking that I could either be an emotional basketcase about the whole thing, or I could just be cold-hearted and unemotional so as to avoid the imminent heartache. Deep down, what I really wanted was a balance combination of the two. I think I've achieved that, but I never ever expected it to hurt as much as it does. I used to imagine myself crying at night... never really thinking that day would come. But it has. And even as I sit here, tears are coming to my eyes as I recollect the memories I have made with them the last two years.

It's a heartache that I've never felt before. And I'm trying to put words to how I feel, but it seems awfully difficult. I have so many things to look forward to right now. And one of the things I've been struggling with lately is the very real fact that I may very well be saying goodbye to a lot more people than Andy, Claudia and Sydney.

I had a dream just the other night that I was hugging people I knew I would never see again. Simply because their presence in my life is not that profound. Like, if I leave to live in north carolina, I will still see my family, and my close friends, but there are a lot of people that i just may never see again. It's hard to think about, but somehow comforting... maybe because if I realize it now, it won't be so hard when the time actually comes.

I sat down here originally to write down how excited I am to be leaving in the morning. And that I am! I have so many plans in my mind... whether they become reality, we'll see. But I am hoping to have an adventure unlike any I've had so far in my life these next 3 weeks. I'm nervous and excited all at the same time.

I was just looking through my flickr account to see if i had an appropriate picture to share (since my entire desktop is packed away in my car!) Yes, that's right. I'm taking my desktop with me. I started thinking about doing all the work I have to do on my laptop and I realized that the laptop would meet it's death if I attempted such a thing. It's seen better days. But alas, there are no pictures appropriate for such a post, but feel free to check out the pics in my photostream anyways :) There are a lot in there that I have yet to post on my photo blog. But they will be posted soon :) and hopefully with lovely commentary. Although, most of the time I feel like the things I have to say with my pictures are just blahblahblah.

Anyways, it's after midnight now, and while I expected to be hitting the sack by about 3am, I am pleasantly accepting this new bedtime :)

My next post will be from MD and I'm planning to photo-document my whole trip. We'll see how that goes ;)

new adventures

In just a few days I'll be headed down to the lovely state of Maryland. I am excited both to see my family and also to spend a bunch of consecutive days doing anything I feel like :)

The last 2 weeks for me have been weird. I was so apprehensive about this change not even 6 months ago. The thought of not having a fixed income scared me half to death... but now that I'm immersed in that reality, I've found that it's not as scary as I thought it would be. Not only that, but it's given me a new motivation and drive that I didn't know I had... meaning, I'm working a lot harder than I gave myself credit for, because basically, if i don't work, i don't get paid! Isn't that the truth though? It's just that right now, I'm the only one I can blame for a lack of income...

But thankfully, I'm not in a "lack of income" boat right now. God is so faithful. I have essentially no experience owning a business, but somehow, I'm figuring it out! Through mistakes and lots of questions, trial and error. And I'm loving every minute of it!

While I'm out on the road I'm also planning on driving down to North Carolina and visiting my amazing photographer friend Rachel. And whilst doing that I'll also be travelling to Greenville to check out the potentiality (is that even a word?) of moving down there in the near future. As in the next 6 months or less.

When I first started thinking seriously about moving down there I didn't want to say anything in fear that saying things would lead to the ultimate failure of my plan/dream. I've wanted to move down there for 4 years now. And I've been dead-set on it at times... and then let go of it because I would realize it just wasn't realistic for me at this point. But now it is! I have never been in a better place to make a huge move like this. I own nothing but a car... that's not to say I don't have other stuff, but that's the only thing right now I'm actually responsible for. I don't have a job tying me here, I don't have kids or a husband. I have family nearish to there and I honestly haven't thought of a single thing that would be important enough to me to make me stay here in NY.

I am hoping and praying, and seeking counsel and making phone calls and checking out churches and visiting websites...

And the coolest thing to me about the whole thing is that this year I will turn 25 and it seems only fitting that after living a quarter of a century in dismal upstate NY I could leave it behind and begin the next 3/4 of my life the way I want it. Yes, I plan on living to be 100 :D

Anyways, I'm excited beyond words about the changes that have been occurring in my life and I can't wait to get up every single morning (well except for tues-fri when I hit snooze 6 times and monday, saturday and sunday when I hit it only 3 times...) heehee :) Because i can!!! Finally! Haha! That I must say is probably my favorite part of working from home :)

Ok, the end. I'm off to work some more on my brochure. Very excited about it and it will be done soon!

always moving ahead

It's time for a real post folks. It's been a bit of a whirlwind for me lately. Some of you may know that I've been a full-time nanny for the last 2 years all while discovering my love for photography and finally last summer beginning to step into it on a professional level. It's been difficult juggling my work as a nanny and as a photographer. I give you full-time moms out there working your businesses on the side mad props. It is hard!

Anyways, I've been planning my launch into doing full-time photography for the last several months and this week all that planning paid off and I dove in as a full-time, fully self-employed, unbelievably happy photographer.

So far this week I have:
- made lots of lists (because I don't remember anything anymore... I think I'm running out of room up there or something)
- ordered my first round of sample pieces


16x20 on 3/4 inch standout board. It turned out fabulous! I am SO glad that I decided to offer this mounting option standard on all prints 11x14 and larger. They come ready to hang and don't need frames! Pretty much, they're amazing :D


Then I also got this beauty in an 11x14 canvas wrap. I couldn't be happier with it!

(moving on with what I've done...)
- pumped out 2 shoots and finished them (those will be posted shortly, but if you want to see one now, check out my facebook page)
- began working on my last wedding
- ate more meals with my family than I remember doing in a long time... and that's worth a lot :)

I've got 3 shoots lined up for next week so keep checking back to see what's new.

Also, I've posted a new link on the linkbar at the top of the page that allows you to see my pricing guide and all available options. Click here to see that now :)

Only one more week til I'm headed down to Maryland! While I'm down there, I'll be able to spend time with my family but I'm also very excited about going a little further south to visit Rachel and her family.

Summer's finally here, and I'm enjoying it sooo much!