Finally, some progress!

I've been such a slacker! I haven't been dedicating as much time to my list as I've wanted to, what with wedding plans picking up speed. Less than four months to go, people! :) Anyway, this last weekend C and I celebrated our two-year anniversary, and there was some progress on the list. :P First and foremost, both of us made it through the whole day without any negativity! We made a promise to each other to do that, since it was our anniversary and all. :)

We had a home-cooked Mexican dinner (courtesy of a friend's little sister), and then went to see Harry Potter 7.2...in IMAX! It was incredible, and (in my opinion) the best movie in the series. As far as how my first IMAX experience went, I loved the giant screen and 3D. It felt like we were immersed in the movie, which is exactly how I like it. :)

The movie finished at 1 in the morning, and rather than heading home right away, we hung out with our friends and played a board game. By the time we made it home and fell asleep, the sun was just starting to come up, so we fulfilled the "pull an all-nighter" item on my list. :P

I've also spent a lot of time teaching people how to make fabric flowers recently, which satisfies another item on my list. I made the bouquets and boutonnieres for our wedding, and I had some friends helping me with them. Essentially, I've taught myself something new as well as teaching other people. :)

Hopefully I'll be able to cross a few more things off my list soon, but I'm not making any promises. The next few months will be chaotic, so I'm just going to do what I can. I hope you're all well!

J

Oh my word!

I've been gone for sooooo long! Actually, I've been posting more on my writing blog now than I have on this one. I'm going to have to consult my list and find something to check off soon.

C got a new job, so now we get to have lunch together on a daily basis. We're even thinking of carpooling sometimes, since he only works ten minutes away from me. It's pretty freaking awesome! We also just got new tattoos, which I'll have to post pictures of at some point. His is a half sleeve on his right arm, mine is a two-inch one on the inside of my right forearm. Yeah, we're cool. :P

Anyway, hope you're all well, and I'll try to be more diligent about my posts!

J

Before I Fall

I finished another book for my 26 Books list. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver filled the B spot on my list, and was a bit of a deviation from my usual selections. I'm not a huge fan of contemporary fiction, purely because it has the tendency to strike a little too close to home. However, Delirium, Lauren Oliver's second novel, has been getting a lot of buzz lately, so I thought I'd try her debut first.

I was completely blown away by the intensity of this book. For those of you who don't know it, it's about Sam Kingston, a popular girl who is content to sit at the top of the social pyramid and doesn't really care who she has to step on to stay there. She's killed in a car crash, and relives her last day of life seven times. Sam herself compares her experience to the movie Groundhog Day, and I have to say I agree with that comparison. Nonetheless, it was incredible to see Sam's transformation from cold-hearted ice queen to a normal teenager with insecurities over the course of the novel.

There were so many layers to the story, and Oliver did a wonderful job of not giving too much away too soon. Sam really needed seven repetitions of her last day to learn all her high school's secrets, and the reader needed seven repetitions of her last day to be able to empathize with Sam and her group of friends. I'll admit, by the end of the book I was tearing up during some of Sam's revelations, something I didn't think would happen based on my first impressions of the character.

Overall, I enjoyed Before I Fall, and look forward to reading Delirium. I would definitely recommend giving Lauren Oliver's books a try, even if you aren't a huge fan of contemporary fiction.

J

I believe in miracles

Oh miracle of miracles! C and I found a church that actually supports, and embraces, our belief system. It's an interfaith church that mixes the teachings of Jesus and Buddha, which makes us Buddhist Christians now (I suppose). We only caught the last fifteen minutes of the service, but what we saw was wonderful, and we're really looking forward to going back next week. If all goes well (which I think it will), we've found a church home, as well as an officiant for our wedding. :)

It's been a while since I was genuinely excited about attending church. It's a wonderful feeling! I'm off to read our welcome packet. :D

J

New things to entertain myself with

Well, Sunday is winding down now, and I can honestly say that I've been pretty productive this weekend. Yesterday, C and I spent most of our time in our creative zone. He's currently working on a painting of one of my characters, and I'm currently working on the novel said character lives in. I spent the majority of yesterday outlining in my notebook. I did backstories on all my characters, developed my villain (and learned where her intense rage/jealousy comes from), and worked out the general story arc.

After Creative Time was over, we went out to dinner with some friends of ours. It was the second time eating out yesterday, since we went to Cheesecake Factory for his dad's birthday lunch earlier in the day. We're fatties. We know this. We had grand plans to bring everyone back to our house after dinner and play Thunderstone (an epic deck-building game which I kicked severe tail at), but sadly, Baby O wasn't feeling well and we lost half our group because they had to go home and tend to her fever.

Today, we returned to our Creative Cave (also known as the loft above the living room where all our electronic equipment is located) to do more work on our projects. I researched medieval weapons for the different characters in my story and found landscape reference photos for those times when having a visual is way more helpful than plucking stuff from thin air. C painted. We're still here, 6 or 7 hours later (I honestly can't remember how long we've been up here).

I've been getting a little sidetracked in the last few hours though. I started a new blog for my writing progress, which you can check out at concretepiecesofsoul.blogspot.com if you feel so inclined. It only has one post so far, but that will all change. I've also been reading the archived posts of Kiersten White's blog, which is amazingly funny. I recently read Paranormalcy, which I may have talked about in a previous post because it fills the P spot on my alphabet-of-books list. Now I've become her latest internet stalker, because I'm finding that she has a lot of really great advice for aspiring writers. She inspires me to be better at what I do (and also to wish that I were as hilarious as she is).

Anyway, I really should get back to working on my story. Or reading more of Kiersten's posts. Whichever one calls to me first. :P

J

Where have I been?

Goodness, has it really been nearly two weeks since my last post? Not that I'm so sure tons of people read this thing, but I'm sure my one or two devoted readers have been wondering what happened. After all, the last time I posted, I had this great new photo project that I was really looking forward to, and now there's been nothing. For ages.

The long and short of it is this: That project is on hold, because I've found something different. I feel like I have the attention span of a small child sometimes. I jump from project to project and have a hard time finishing things. But let me explain! We've had a few busy weekends, what with car troubles and taxes and friends with babies and new board games to try. I've been taking photographs off and on, but nothing that applies to my project. And in the midst of all that, this burning need to write took over.

I've had this story sitting on my computer for five years now. I recently unearthed it, and while the idea is solild and I still believe in the plot, it is painfully (and I mean PAINFULLY) obvious that an 18-year-old wrote it. So, I've decided to revamp it, change some things around, look at it with fresh eyes, give it a new lease on life, however you want to describe it. Basically, I'm going to fix it and make it the best thing I've written thus far, because I know I can.

C's been helping me with character development, and has even drawn character sketches for me! I'll post them later. :) I'm working on fleshing them out, as well as really developing my setting and researching some cultural elements. I'm pretty confident that I'll have most of my development done this weekend and be ready to move onto outlining and writing next week (fingers crossed). I've been getting a lot of advice and inspiration from some newly-discovered authors that I love (and also wish I knew personally just so they could be my friends...they're all amazing!), and I feel like I'm ready to take this journey and see where I end up.

I promise I'll be better about blogging! I really don't know what happened before, but I won't do it again!

J

Unforgiven

Ugh. Yet another chaotic weekend for us, with little time for hobbies. I did manage to watch Unforgiven, which was the 1992 Oscar winner, so I suppose that's something. It definitely wasn't my favorite from the list, but I think I'm a bit biased considering it's a Western (I'm not a big fan of Westerns). It was alright, I suppose, but I've seen other Clint Eastwood movies that I've enjoyed more.

I did get my taxes done as well...finally! And I'm getting a refund back, which was wonderful news. We really need all the help we can get financially, and I was not looking forward to shelling out even more money to the government. Thank goodness for student loan interest. Sometimes those darn things come in handy...

Anyway, I'll get back to photography and working out tomorrow (hopefully), once I'm finished with work. With any luck, it'll be a nice relaxing week!

J

Epic fail

This has been the busiest, most stressful week in a long while. Needless to say it was not a good week for starting a photo project, so Raw Sienna will be taken care of in the coming week instead. We bought an exercise bike, so I've been working out more, and we've been taking care of a lot of extra stuff. Not to mention work has been a nightmare and I haven't been taking my camera since I've been so busy there. Ugh.

I feel like I'm making excuses, but quite frankly, it's just been plain overwhelming. So, I'm starting fresh tomorrow. Ta ta!

J

The birth of my very own Project 64

I went to the store today to purchase my box of inspiration for the next year. 64 colors, 64 opportunities to let my creativity shine through. We'll see what comes of it, I suppose, but I have high hopes for this project. I spent most of today looking at other people's Project 64 pages, which helped me get even more excited to start (like I needed any more excitement lol).

I've decided to have my week run Saturday through Friday for the purposes of this project. There are two main reasons for this. Reason #1: It allows me to start sooner, as Saturday is only two full days from now. Reason #2: I have a feeling that the majority of my shooting will occur on the weekends, since I have more time to get out and explore. It would just be silly to split my weekends up, because then I'd spend Saturday wrapping up one color and Sunday starting a new one. It just makes more sense to start new colors on Saturday, when I'll have two full days to find them without any pressure from the chaos of my work week.

I also made my list of colors in the order I'll tackle them. How did I do this, you ask? When you open a Crayola box, the crayons are all in there randomly. There's no rhyme or reason to the placement of them. I, being the obsessive-compulsive weirdo I am, prefer to have my crayons arranged by color so that I can find what I'm looking for quickly. I'll post a photo of my nicely organized box tomorrow. :) Anyway, since I was going to be organizing the crayons, I decided to just close my eyes and randomly pull them from the box. Whatever came out would be the next color on the list, until all 64 had been removed and placed with their color families.

It was actually a pretty effective system. There were only a few times when I pulled similar colors one after the other, and in those cases, I just put the crayon back and chose a different one. That way, I won't end up with weeks of various reds, or a back and forth between shades of green and shades of orange for a month. In case you're curious, the first color I pulled was raw sienna. I'll begin my hunt for it on Saturday, and I can already tell that it'll be a fun challenge. I was unaware of just how many shades of brown there are until today, and it'll be interesting to try matching raw sienna to the world around me.

In the meantime, I'll be continuing to check out other people's blogs for inspiration, as well as continuing on in my quest to complete my massive list. I'm a tenth of the way there already! Can you believe it?

J

A spark of inspiration

I don't know if I've mentioned this up to this point, but the thing I hate about 365 projects is how monotonous they can become. In the beginning, I was excited about it, and I was taking really great photos. I was going places with my camera and challenging myself. It's gotten to the point now where it seems more like a chore. I'll get caught up in the rush of the day, in doing things with F and A or spending quiet time with C, and just completely forget about photos altogether. Then I'll remember, at 10 o'clock at night, that I haven't photographed that day, and I'll snap some random shot of something just for the sake of taking a photo. It's not creative anymore, it's just something I have to do every day.

Luckily, I found a 365 project that may work for me. It's called Project 64, and it involves photographing colors more than subject matter. Tomorrow, I'm going to head to the store and purchase a box of 64 crayons. I'll choose a crayon a week, and take photos that make use of that particular color. It'll challenge me to see the world through a different lens, give me a direction with my project, and won't necessarily require daily photos. This way, I'll have some wiggle room with my photos, and won't feel so stressed on days that I can't get out and photograph for whatever reason.

I feel so much better about the direction this particular list item has taken. Goodbye old 365 project, hello Project 64! :)

J

Mundane

I don't really feel like I have anything interesting to report, but I'll do it anyway. :) I do have some photos to put up, so maybe I'll just keep it at that. I've been busy working, and getting back into writing. C's been sketching up some characters for me, which has been a blast so far. I'm always excited to see what he creates, and it's even more exciting when it's something that comes from my head instead of just his.

Enjoy the photos, and I'll check in later!

J

Books, books, books!

So I've been on a bit of a reading spree lately. I breezed my way through the Need series by Carrie Jones, devoured the Hush Hush saga by Becca Fitzpatrick, and giggled through Paranormalcy by Kiersten White. I'm currently reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, which is proving to be just as wonderful as my other recent reads.

I cannot begin to explain how awesome teen fiction is. It's got romance, but not sex scenes every other page, and the morals are so much stronger. Teens have a lot to figure out, and I feel like the lessons in teen novels speak so much louder to me than adult ones do. Apparently I still have a lot of things to figure out too. :P Honestly though, I was starting to get discouraged by all the books that were just copying each other in recent years. It's nice to know there are still fresh ideas out there! I recommend any of the titles I just listed, by the way. Go do some reading!

Today was a very successful day at work. We had to stay home because the housekeeper came today, but we played outside for an hour and soaked up some sunshine. A didn't really sleep well today, and she had a pretty bad meltdown before she went down for her nap, but she woke up in such a good mood that she made up for it. :)

Tonight, we're heading to the Cheesecake Factory for C's birthday extravaganza. I'm looking forward to pasta carbonara and cheesecake, along with some really wonderful company! :D Enjoy my photos from the last couple of days!

J

So far behind!

I haven't posted in ages! It's surprising, considering there hasn't really been much going on, but I'll try and recount it all the best I can.

Friday, I completed an item from my list. I ate a piece of broccoli, for the first time since I was 7! It wasn't awful, but it's still not my favorite food by any means. Here's a photo of the piece I ate. :)

Can you see it?! It was delicious stir-fried vegetables and steak with rice, and I wasn't too keen on the broccoli part, but I ate it anyway. And I didn't die. :P

Saturday was...interesting. C gave me his cold on Friday, so Saturday was day 2 for me and day 3 for him. I had to get the tires changed on my car, so we went out and did that. We discovered an amazing new Thai restaurant in the process, so that was good, but we wore ourselves out in the three hours that we were waiting for the tires to be changed. We got home and both chilled for the rest of the evening. I did, however, put on makeup in an effort to make myself feel better, and snapped a few photos in the bathroom after it was on. :)

Eyeballs! :P

Sunday was day 3 of the cold for me. C was mostly over his, but I was pretty much bed-ridden. I sounded awful, and felt even worse, but C was nice enough to spend time with me anyway. We played a game on the back porch and watched the sun go down, and it was wonderful (even though I was sick). :) I snapped a photo of Sydney after her bath. She looked so peaceful. :D

Yesterday was back to work. I was still feeling a little crummy, but F and A made things easy for me, thank goodness. After work, I hung out with K while C went out to finish an art project with his buds. I was supposed to help, but I wasn't really feeling up to it. Plus, I think the guys had more fun together than I would have had. K and I spent a lot of time chatting, and then read for a while. We've both been on a reading kick lately lol. I snapped a quick photo when we got back at 11:30. Definitely not my best work, but it still counts for something.

And finally, we're caught up. Today went pretty well at work. F and A were both in good moods, and even though they didn't nap for long, we had a good day overall. We made cupcakes for C's birthday, and I took a photo of them in all their delicious glory.

Yum!

When I got home, I made C a delicious birthday dinner while he painted on his computer. Once dinner was done, we all sat down together and ate it. We finished off with cupcakes, cake, and presents. Yes, we're awful, but it was tasty and fun! :D

Hopefully tomorrow goes well too...enjoy!

J

Blah blah blah

This week has been a struggle for me. It's been a rough one at work, what with both kids having temper issues, and it's been rough with C spending all his time working on his new computer. I've been left to my own devices quite a bit, and while I normally wouldn't mind, it gets a bit boring after a while. Today, when we finally would have had time to spend together, C has a nasty cold and has been sleeping most of the evening. He was awake to watch American Idol, so that was something at least, but sometimes I feel so lonely.

I think my mood has been slipping into my photography lately. I just haven't been feeling creative, haven't really seen anything that's really caught my eye. I've been photographing, because I know the way to get out of these slumps is to keep moving forward, but I've honestly been feeling a bit empty, like I'm just going through the motions.

Today, though, I finally got a spark back. :) I was wondering what it would be like to see things from an ant's persepctive. They're so low to the ground, and I haven't really experimented with different levels like I should. So, I laid down on the ground and photographed in the backyard. And I got something I'm really quite proud of. :D

What do you think?

J

Of sunsets and babies

Last night we hung out with P and K, so I didn't have time to post then. I did get some really great shots of last night's sunset though, including this one.

Today was marginally better than Monday and Tuesday, but there were still far too many tantrums for my liking. We're really going to have to work on that... We went to the railroad park today, which went pretty well actually. We rode the train, and I managed to get both kids in the car and home with no fuss. Naptime was a disaster though, as the dog is inside the house due to landscaping, and she decided to go berserk while the kids were sleeping. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Until then...look at this little face!

Enjoy!

J

Most boring weekend evah

C just got his new computer for work and school, and spent the entire weekend setting it up. Where did that leave me, you ask? Right here.

I spent all day Saturday and most of Sunday curled up with my hippo, who still needs a name, tearing through the Hunger Games trilogy. I finished books 1 and 2 and half of book 3 over the weekend. Sad, I know.

Last night, we did get the chance to watch a movie together. I captured this. :P

Yes, he makes that kind of face often. :)

Today, after a very long grueling day with the kiddos, I came home and spent some time outside. I photographed some of the flowers in the backyard, but this one was by far my favorite.

Sorry this post isn't more interesting, but I'm starving and haven't really spent much time with C in days.

Enjoy!

J



Zoo day :)

I've had better zoo days, but I suppose that all things considered, this one wasn't so bad. We didn't really get to see many animals, and we didn't really have much time for photographs, but we got to get out of the house and enjoy a gorgeous day, so I really can't complain. I really wish I'd had more photo opportunities though. I feel like I barely had my camera out of the bag at all, and then we were leaving. I did manage to snap this one though. :)

In other news, I finished Fallen by Lauren Kate, the F book on my 26 books list. Overall, I enjoyed it, although I felt like it took a little too long to explain certain elements of the story. I'm a bit impatient though, so I may not be the best judge of that. :P The characters were likable enough, and I thought that the emotional side of the book was well done, but the names left a lot to be desired. I'm a bit of a name snob, so if I don't like a character's name, I often change it a little to make my reading experience more enjoyable. Awful, I know. I'm anxious to read Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick next, which is similar in the general idea of the story. It'll be interesting to see which one I prefer. :D

J

Back to the old grind

Today was my first day back after a little break from work. It was difficult to get up at 6 this morning after five days of sleeping in, but I did it, and was greeted by two little faces at the door this morning. F and A were really excited to see me, which always makes me feel good. :)

We went to Imagination Avenue for the first time in a week, since they had the flu last week and then I was gone. Both kids had lots of fun at storytime, but were a mess by the time we got home for lunch. Apparently they've been off their sleep schedule, so they were just completely exhausted. They napped really well this afternoon, which was good news for me. :P

We're headed to the zoo tomorrow, so there'll be lots of interesting photos from that. Watch for them! :D

J

Honk shoo

I'm completely exhausted, so I'm just going to post real quick before I pass out. I spent the whole day hanging out with K, which was lots of fun. We ran a bunch of errands in the morning, had some lunch, and then spent a couple hours reading while her baby took a nap. Afterwards, we made dinner, and then finished the night off with Nacho Libre and organizing her baby's dresser (it was full to bursting!).

I forgot my camera at home, which was lamesauce, but I did take a photo of another little piece of my hippo collection. :) Enjoy!

J

Yay for car maintenance!

Today was a fun-filled day of awesome. I had to take my car in to the dealership because the power steering pump had to be replaced (not sure if I mentioned that in my last post, but...there ya go). C had to come along so that I didn't have to sit there for hours while they worked on it, so that was helpful. After it had been repaired, the maintenance guy informed me that my tires are nearly bald, so that gets to be my next great adventure. Shopping for tires. Oh yeah.

Once we got home from getting the car fixed, I took some photos of C drawing so that he could post one on his blog. I guess it's supposed to make him look more productive, and it was pretty fun. It only took a few minutes, but we got to be indoors using natural lighting, so it was a win. :)

Look at the concentration! :)

Also, check out what my mom got me! It was a late Valentine's Day present, and arrived today (along with my contacts, which I've been patiently waiting for).

Yes, that IS our queen-size bed that it's sitting on. It's huge! And fluffy! For those of you who may not know this, I have a slight hippo obsession. :P I think they're awesome, so every time anyone sees a hippo in a store, they feel the need to get it for me. This one just happens to be awesomely huge. :)

Enjoy your Wednesday!

J

Vacation!

I have another massive post to do, due to the fact that we spent the weekend with no computers in Sedona. :) We were really excited for our trip, but our excitement quickly faded as we set out in the rain on Saturday. We drove the entire two hours in pouring rain, and by the time we made it to Sedona, we were both a bit miserable. All plans of hiking and a day trip to the Grand Canyon were gone. I took these in our condo once we finally made it to Sedona.

I haven't had the chance to play with reflections much with this new camera, so these photos were fun. :) After lugging all our stuff into the condo, we headed back out into the storm for dinner. We ate at Olde Sedona Bar and Grill, which was pretty good. The only problems we had were that the menu had far too much variety (it made it difficult to decide what kind of food we wanted to have) and our waitress kind of failed in the dessert department. We ordered a hot slice of pie with ice cream, and the pie came out completely cold! We also didn't get our ice cream until the entire slice of pie was already gone. Other than that, the food was delicious, and provided us with two of our five meals in Sedona. :P

Sunday was spent holed up in our condo with some games and the Food Network. We only ventured out for some vodka and lemonade to bring back to the room, and for a little midnight snack after 4 hours of Food Network. We had a lot of fun playing board games and watching the crazy weather outside. It snowed, rained, hailed, sleeted, and shined throughout the day. It was very bizarre to watch! I snapped this one while a gentle snow was falling.

We left yesterday morning under heavy cloud cover. Luckily, we didn't have to deal with bad weather on the drive home. We made it back in the early afternoon and had lunch together before C had school. I drove him yesterday, since it saves him time, and K and I hung out at Barnes and Noble to pass the hour and fifteen minutes of his class. I've been on a book binge lately, and have been buying lots of new things to try. I got some spending money from my overnight, and have been stretching it as far as it can go. :) I've actually found a lot of really promising stuff!

Once C's class was over, we hung out with K and P for the rest of the evening. That was completely unplanned, as we were only going to stay for an hour or two. We had dinner with P's extended family, and then the guys went to go pick up the dogs from P and K's old house (they just moved to a house five minutes away from us!). K and I watched a super-girly movie, which was wonderful, and then watched some South Park til the boys got back. C and I finally made it home by midnight lol. I snapped this when we got home.

I'll let you figure out what it is. :)

Lots of really fun things happened this weekend, but I think P and K's move is the most exciting one. K has become a really good friend in the time that I've lived here, and now that we live so close, we'll be able to do a lot more together. We've both been missing girls' nights, with makeovers and sappy movies and ice cream. :P We're reinstating them! And we're also going to be working out together, which will be helpful for both of us. I'm so pumped that they live so close now. :D

More later today...

J

Wedding bells and boredom

Today may have been the most boring day of my life. No lie. Work was very uneventful, due to the fact that we couldn't go anywhere (since the kids were sick yesterday). Once I finished up with work, I came home, where C spent the entire night looking at computer specs for the new PC he's buying for work. I left to window shop at Target, and no one even knew I was gone. I was gone for over an hour. :(

On the bright side, I picked up a wedding magazine from Target, and I think I finally figured out what I want to do for centerpieces at our reception. It mentioned using cake stands with cupcakes on them for centerpieces, and that's totally perfect for us. We wanted to do something small, like cupcakes or mini cheesecakes, for our dessert anyway, and this does both. It's a centerpiece AND dessert! I have to refine it a little, and start looking for little cake stands, but I'm loving the idea.

I'm throwing in a photo of my Nook and some new books I got a few weeks ago. It's a nice comparison of the new and old methods of reading. Though my Nook is really convenient, I think I'll always love the smell, feel, and vibe of good old books the most. :)

Enjoy!

J

Ick

I'm not really in a blogging mood today, but I need to do it anyway. This has been one of the hardest work days I've ever had. A either has food poisoning or a stomach bug, and spent the entire day puking and/or pooping all over everywhere. Thank goodness her mom stayed home to help today, because I don't think I could have handled that on my own.

Needless to say I didn't get much photographing done. I was too busy at work, and by the time I got home I was pretty exhausted. Then I wasn't feeling creative enough. I'm getting better at recognizing these excuses and powering through them for the sake of developing a skill. I buckled down and tried, and actually ended up with something I'm moderately happy with. I fully intend on plugging myself into my iPod and going to bed, which is where the subject matter comes in. :)

Enjoy!

J

Some super cute kiddos :)

Okay, I may be biased, but I'm pretty sure I take care of the cutest kids ever. They definitely have their obnoxious moments, but they're so freaking adorable that it always balances out. :) A was dressed in the CUTEST Western-style outfit today...I nearly grinned my face off when I saw her this morning. Look at this baby!

I know, right?!

We had a pretty uneventful day today. We spent lots of time at Imagination Avenue this morning, and there wasn't anyone else there for the majority of the time. It was wonderful! This afternoon, after a nice long nap for both kids, we played outside with chalk. A is a budding artist, and has decided that chalk is her new obsession, so we spend a lot of time doing that. I even came out of the bathroom the other day to find that she'd colored the tile in the entryway with her chalk (the bucket got moved out of the lower cabinet after that)!

Here are some more photos from the day...enjoy!

J

Updates, updates!

I realized right after I posted yesterday that there are some things I've done but haven't blogged about yet. So...I'm going to blog about them. :P

#14: Read 26 books I've never read, one for each letter of the alphabet. I think I mentioned a few posts back that I've been reading (and loving) the Iron Fey series, which definitely falls into the category of books I've never read. The Iron King, which is the first in the series, will sit in the I position on my book list. The books are about a 16-year-old girl named Meghan. She finds out that her father is actually Oberon, king of the summer fey, and the book follows her journey into the Nevernever to learn more about him. For those of you who aren't fantasy fans, I won't be offended if you don't read it, but I've been on quite a fantasy kick lately and these books really hit the spot. Sometimes it's nice to escape to a world that isn't this one. :)

#30: Buy a Rubik's cube and solve it. I've nearly finished! My photo for today is of my nearly solved Rubik's cube. I've solved the top face and two layers, so I just have the bottom layer and the yellow face to solve. I looked up some tips online, but they were really basic. They told me that I needed to learn how to make a cross and insert corners on my own before I could solve it, so I spent all night last night figuring those two things out. I feel so much smarter! :P

Look at it, in all of it's nearly-finished glory! :D

Those are the only two that I've really made major gains on, so I'll leave you with that for now. Enjoy! :)

J

Eek!

I haven't posted since Friday! I've still been photographing, but we had a pretty chaotic weekend and I didn't really get much time to post. Let me see if I can sum everything up...

Saturday, I helped C photograph a bunch of his artwork for a new portfolio. It was a pain, but he's got his work archived digitally now, which makes it easier to add to portfolios and to print for potential buyers. The following photos are my photography, but his artwork. :)

This last one, the willow in the moon, is my favorite. :) Also on Saturday, we went out for Thai food to celebrate Valentine's Day. Neither of us are really into the overly commercial aspects of the holiday, but we did take some time to just enjoy each other's company over a delicious meal. After dinner, we headed to Frederick's of Hollywood, where I bought the first outfit that's ever made me feel totally sexy. :P I can now successfully cross #15 off my list!

We had friends over Saturday night, and we played a zombie game together. It started out fun, but then quickly turned into everyone-gang-up-on-J, so I wasn't enjoying it much at the end. Oh well...you win some, you lose some. :)

Sunday, we saw Gnomeo and Juliet, which was hysterical. It was part 2 of our Valentine's date, and despite the fact that it was a theater full of small children, it was actually nice and quiet during the movie. It was a really enjoyable experience for both of us. Sunday afternoon was devoted to schoolwork for C and some creative time for me, and last night we went over to our friends' house for fajitas. They were absolutely delish, and we had lots of fun playing with their baby as well. C is slowly warming up to the idea of having a baby soon after we get married, which is exciting news for me. :D

Here are some photos of O, our friends' adorable little girl!

Today was back to work as usual. F made it through the whole day in undies, with no accidents at all! It was wonderful. :) I'm definitely enjoying only changing 4 diapers a day, as opposed to the 10-15 I was changing when I first started taking care of the kids. I didn't get a chance to photograph the kids, as we were at the library most of the morning, and they slept late. However, I photographed more artwork tonight for C and his mom. Here's a photo of C's mom's creative use for old software discs. :P

So, now you're all caught up on my weekend escapades. Happy Valentine's Day to all!

J