A Brave New World

So I've been hanging (online anyway) with some other aspiring photographers lately. I think it's been good for me. One of them put out a challenge today. The challenge was to declare yourself a photographer. That takes a lot of guts and confidence. I started a new blog to commemorate the occasion because I am a photographer! I'm still growing in my craft, but I am a photographer. For real! Stop laughing, oh wait, that's me. Maybe if I say it enough it won't be weird or feel like I'm bringing judgment down upon myself.
It's a new format for me and maybe for some of you. It's a lot more complicated than I'm used to, so hopefully it will improve over time. Let's call this it's "soft opening" for friends and family. Hopefully soon it will be ready for the world to see. The template is so cool. It changes the color of the background to enhance each picture. I'm not sure if I'll stick with that, but it sounds like fun for now.

Blah!

I've had this sinus infection for about a month. Mostly it was just annoying, but lately I had started feeling sick and tired, really tired. Probably because I have not gotten a solid night's sleep since Christmas for one reason or another. The one of the kids would call out, I'd get too hot or I'd just wake up and not be able to get back to sleep. So I made an appointment and got the antibiotics. I started taking the antibiotics and have felt terrible ever since. That's not the way it's supposed to work! I guess all that gunk that was trapped in my sinuses needs to go somewhere and that's what is causing the crappiness. It's no fun. In fact I felt so bad this morning that I tried that sinus cleaning rinse stuff the doctor gave me. It wasn't as bad as I thought. It was a little strange, but after I felt like I could breathe- for a while anyway. I'll probably do it again, but the trial pack I got only had 2 packs of solution, so I'm saving it for later. I bet you really wanted to hear about my no good day...in detail, didn't you? Well, you can blame it on the boredom. You can only surf the internet for so long before people start thinking you're stalking them. Plus no one updates that often. I'm so bored! There are a million things I need to do, but I can't even stand up long enough to make a sandwich without my head throbbing. I'm afraid my brain is too fried to write something meaningful to someone. So internet, that is why I'm here. That is also why I have not done my 2nd and 3rd day of the 365 day photography challenge. Perhaps I'll start over when I'm feeling better.

Football on the Brain

Ryan LOVES football. He watches the Ravens game every week. He's starting to understand parts of the game, too. This morning he asked me if I wanted the Dolphins to beat the Steelers. I said I wanted whatever teams need to win for the Ravens to get in the playoffs to win and the ones who need to lose for the Ravens to get in the playoffs to lose. Then he asked me who the Colts were playing. I told him I'm not even sure who the Ravens are playing he laughed and said, "Yes you do! Their playing the Oakland Raiders." I can't tell if he was completely shocked that someone wouldn't know the Ravens' schedule or if he just thinks I know everything he knows. I guess I had heard it in passing this morning, but it didn't matter that much to me, so I didn't retain it. Ryan however remembers every fact he's ever heard about the Ravens. He can probably tell you the score of every games this season.
Just a minute ago he dropped a game on the floor and Jay told him not to go around throwing stuff on the floor. He said, "Daaaaaaad, it was like when Derrick Mason dropped the ball!" Not, "It was an accident" or "I didn't mean to!" Nope, "It was like when Derrick Mason dropped the ball."

****Please note these things are all from my memory. If any of them are incorrect I'm sure I remembered incorrectly. Ryan would be very upset if you believed he messed up Ravens facts. I accept full responsibility for any misquotes or inaccurate football scheduling information.****

Where Are All the Candles?!

We had a birthday cake for Jesus yesterday. I like doing this because it's a good concrete way for the kids to relate to why we have Christmas and bring the focus back to Jesus on Christmas day. And I don't know about other people's kids, but with my kids it usually brings up good questions, too. When I asked Lily if she wanted to help me make a cake for Jesus' birthday she asked if Jesus would come to eat it. Which was a good time to talk about Jesus wanting Lily to enjoy the cake for Him and talk about Jesus wanting good things for us. Later I let each child pick a color candle to put on the cake. Lily chose pink and Ryan chose blue. So I put 2 pink candles, 2 blue candles and 2 yellow candles to be neutral territory in the middle. So Ryan asked why there were only 6 candles because Jesus isn't six. I made the off-handed comment that I didn't have 2,000 candles (a rough general estimate, I know). Ryan said He's not 2,000 either, just like he would say "Nuh-uh!" when I say it's 12:30 instead of saying it's 12:28. My dad, who was standing near by, agreed that Ryan was right. Then Ryan said something very profound, but I'm not sure he knew how profound. He said, "Jesus is infinity!" Again, my dad agreed and a little dialog about Jesus and God being one went on. I plan on delving more into this with him, but what a great conversation starter, right?! I LOVE Christmas!

Waiting

I feel like there is so much to do yet I'm stuck waiting. I need to go to the store to get some food for Christmas. Yet, here I am sitting on the couch waiting to take Ryan to the bus stop because he has a 2 hour delay. I am not looking forward to going to the store 2 days before Christmas, but luckily I don't have too much to buy. I've got all the non-perishable stuff already. I also need to finish cleaning the basement and the rest of the house. Well, I don't have an excuse to not be doing that except that I'm worried if I get involved in doing something I'll forget about the bus. I probably should be cleaning...maybe I'll go do that. hahaha! I think I'll write more about Christmas prep instead.

I really like having brunch at our house Christmas morning. It's a nice mid-day thing and it gives us the chance to see both of our families on Christmas Day. This year has been a challenge with the snow. I feel like I spent my whole weekend dressing and undressing kids, making hot cocoa, cleaning up the wet clothes, hanging up the wet stuff, washing the dirty stuff and cleaning puddles left behind by the whole ordeal. I also had a project I was working on for a good part of the last 3 days. Then there is the fact that Ryan hasn't had school, so things are all out of whack. The messes are bigger the refereeing is constant and there is not a lot of uninterrupted time to do things that need to be done for Christmas morning...if you get my drift. Luckily one of our friends called yesterday to see if Ryan could play and since that made Lily sad we arranged for her to visit her Grandma and her dog "cousins."  That seemed to make everyone happy, especially me. I got a few hours of alone time and finished most of what I need to do with no one else around for Christmas morning. I still need to finish emptying the basement, but the kids don't know that is for any special reason. That is until Ryan reads this over my shoulder;-) I'd better get going!