julialainephotography

A NEW blog - It's here!

Come over and see me HERE.  This is the last post from Typepad, but this blog will stay up for another month or so...

Blog Issues...

I'm debating...

I don't love my blog, and I think I've decided this one is going to be a long term thing, but I'm thinking about a change of venue.

My #1 dislike is that I don't get to show my photos as I'd like to.  They're like little miniature versions of themselves and that's not how I want to see them.  Plus if/when I do re-energize my photography business, this blog isn't how I want to do it.  So I'm contemplating a few changes.  No worries - if I do change, I'll keep this blog up for another month with a link to the new locale.

By the way - she says "Howdy!"

How do you spell RELIEF?

BLUE!

The announcements were made tonight - L made the Blue (Elite, the best of the best, future state champions) soccer squad tonight for the 2008/2009 season.  It was only the 2nd night of a 4 day tryout schedule and the coach (yes, Coach McDreamy) decided to put our girls - ok, and the parents - out of our collective misery.

I just can't go in to the detail that I'd like to.  I've tried to write it out, but I end up sounding like one of those spastic sports parents.  So I've just got one thing to say - she made the team because she deserved it.  She works her butt off out there and I can't wait to see her and the rest of this incredibly Awesome team develop over the next year.  I'm just so glad they're staying together, I so love these girls.... this one in particular.

Arriba Arriba! Andela Andela!

Speedy Gonzales fans will recognize that credo... and show their age at the same time apparently.

About a month ago M had her soccer awards ceremony, which consisted of the girls hanging out in a goal after their last game while the coach expounded on each of their virtues and talents as beginning soccer stars.  Not surprisingly, he talked about M's speed on the field, and gave her the nickname Speedy Gonzales.

Still today, M wants me to remind her (and this is a kid with a memory like none other) WHO Speedy Gonzales is.  Oh how I miss the old cartoon days, when Mice looked like, um... mice, and Road Runners tried to escape wild coyotes and waskily wabbits and stuttering pigs were hunted by someone named Elmer Fudd and his pop gun.  Ah, the good old days.  They're not like today's cartoons which are just... stupid.  Yes my dearest daughters, mommy said a bad word.  But they are... they're just stupid!  And violent!  And people don't look like people - cartoonists must have a challenge out there on who can make the creepiest looking kid.

Well, I found this pictures of Speedy, and will have to show it to M tonight.  I also discovered a couple of short clips from Speedy's adventures on YouTube that I'll share.  Now that's real entertainment!

Busy weekend...

I can't believe that I have lived in our house for almost 6 years and never painted my bedroom.  In fact, with the exception of our foyer, it is the only room in the entire house (basement included) that I had not painted.  I just always thought of a reason I couldn't paint it yet... I didn't like my bedspread, I wanted the ceiling scraped (I have a popcorn ceiling in there), I want to wait till I get new carpet so I wouldn't care if I spilled paint on the existing carpet, I needed window treatments... there was just always something.

Last week I wandered into Restoration Hardware one day at lunch and fell in love with some drapes that were 60% off - which is about the only way I can afford something in that store.  Unfortunately they didn't have them in stock, so I walked out empty handed, but at least now with the knowledge of exactly what color I needed; they were a kind of a light Tuscany gold - the drapes were a heavy velvety texture and the shade would be perfect with my existing bedroom set.  So I headed across the street to Pottery Barn, and they had some light sheer linen drapes that were PERFECT!  Exactly the right color and much lighter in texture and feel.  Though they were not on sale, the regular price was still cheaper than the 60% sale price drapes at Restoration Hardware.

Next step was to get the paint matched at Home Depot and I set up shop in my bedroom Saturday morning and got it done in about 4 hours.  There are two windows and three doors and crown molding, so all the trim work took awhile, but by lunchtime I was cleaning up.  It looks SO good. I was thinking a few weeks ago that I wanted to replace my comforter, but now with the new walls and drapes it looks made for the room.

If only the whole weekend had gone that well...  I was hanging the curtain rods and standing on a metal step stool, on the second step up when one of the legs gave way.  The stool went one way and I went the other, landing on my back and hitting my head (hard) against the side of my bedside table.  My back is fine, but two days later and my head is still ringing and my neck feels like I have whiplash.  Come to think of it, I probably suffered a minor concussion but there's not much to do about it now other than to keep taking the Excedrin.  After all my Saturday activities, I thought I would sleep great that night, but after only two hours I woke up with some pretty severe heartburn.  At about 1am I was debating whether to call 911 or my parents.  It ended up being neither, Daisy and I just roamed the house moaning for the next couple of hours, and by about 3am I was able to get back to sleep.  Other than 5 loads of laundry and making chocolate chip cookies with M, Sunday existed of nothing more than trying to get rid of a headache and the remaining aches from heartburn.  The girls were bored out of their minds with no friends in town but some weekends, they just need to figure out how to entertain themselves (or at least that's what my mom always said to me when I was their age and bored too).

But - hey, at least I got the bedroom done!

Speaking of whiplash - on a completely unrelated note - I was just catching up on Ree and have GOT TO TRY THESE!  Man, I am so sick of rice around here - and these look equal parts of yummy and easy.  Gotta love that combo!

Innocence? I think not.

This is what I found this morning when I looked out the back door to see what Daisy was up to...

She looks innocent enough in landscape view, right?

But, let's look at the "portrait" view now.

By the way, the blond bombshell laying next to her with her paw outstretched is the next door neighbors cat, who much prefers my house - not because of me, but because she's in love with my dog.  They get into all kinds of trouble together; for I have no doubt that BB the cat is the one that's made my dog into a backyard escape artist.

Photography

This blog re-started as a photography blog, sharing tips and tricks, session photos, etc. and I've complete gotten away from that lately.  If anyone has any questions about photography or photoshop, I'll be happy to try and answer them.  I heartily admit to not knowing everything (far from it), but I can make stuff up and have it sound like I do.  ;-)

I did stop doing photo sessions for three main reasons:
1) Time - there's just not enough of it
2) I'm shy by nature, always have been, and I struggle with meeting new people, I get terrified they'll come away thinking - this woman has no idea what she's doing
3) And lastly I'm not sure my style of photography is really what people are looking for.  My style being natural and unposed.  I like to catch kids running, I like to catch hubby giving his wife a secret look when he doesn't know I'm watching, I like to catch families just being families and not structured and tense and I never know if I communicated that well enough.

Anyway, I'm happy just having an opportunity to practice and get better at this craft.  I do so love photography, I think I would be happiest sitting on a park bench and taking photos of life as it happens around me.

Random... but it's all good

About 8 months ago my car got sideswiped by someone in the parking lot at my job.  No note was left, saying "hey, sorry about that", nothing, nada, zip.  It was about an 18 inch line that took off the paint along the right side of the bumper.  At first, it really just looked like a scratch, a deep one, but a scratch just the same.  Anyway, as time wore on, the paint started chipping away, until a nice 3" diameter circle of black bumper could be seen clearly.  I could literally peel away the paint with my finger so the longer I waited, the worse it was getting.

I've been getting estimates, which ranged anywhere from $500 to $700, but it didn't bother me that much, so I've just let it go.  Well today I took it in for it's regular oil change/tire rotation, and decided to stop by the dealerships body shop - knowing it was going to be the most expensive of all - but just wanting to get an estimate to kill time.  Turns out they came in $150 cheaper than my lowest estimate so far!  Plus they're going to take out a couple of dents left by random wear and tear.  So I left them my car and had a coworker take me to my parents house to get my dads car (they're out of town this week, so the timing worked out well).  My car should be ready on Friday, and I'm pretty excited about having a car that looks newish again!

In other random news, it seems that "soccer break" between seasons just gets shorter and shorter.  They had one week off after states, and then have started back up again for practices leading up to tryouts next week (which always make me incredibly nervous, but I won't go into that this year since the other parents keep telling me I'm being silly and OF COURSE L will make the Elite team again - it doesn't matter what they say though, so to avoid another PMS moment like last year when we walked out of tryouts, I'm just going to avoid them all together next week and make my dad take her. (yes, I'm high strung, haven't you figured that out yet)  Anywho - we got a call last night asking L to participate in a tournament about 3 hours north of us in a few weeks.  I said yes right away, and then the coach asked if maybe I should ask L first (details details...)  So I ask him to hold, then ask L and then when he hears her squeals he laughingly says "Um... was that a yes?"   So here we go again...  I do hope my lens is back from the repair shop in time!

And lastly I did a quickie layout the other day.  I really loved these pictures from the girls playing on our front yard a couple weeks ago...

Memorial Day Monday - in pictures

 
At the marina


In awe of how they're taking the boat out of storage and into the water


Juuuust getting started and trying to figure out how tight they should hold on.


Oh okay, we should probably hold on tight!


You're not supposed to be doing that!


And this is what happens when we hit another boats wake.  The girls found out what a "wake" was really fast.


Oh, and this is what happens when we need to stop in the middle of the lake and retrieve Grammie's hat.


Enough of being a good big sister - it's time to crank up the speed and let her go by herself


Poor deprived kid.

Exhausted... but in a good way

As previously mentioned, the last day of school was Thursday.  Friday was a relatively short work day due to the holiday weekend, I got out at 2pm, but it had been a loooong week (more on that later) so getting out early saved my sanity a bit.

Friday night L had a birthday party over at a teammates house.  I knew this newly minted 11 year old had a brand new pool in her backyard, but I didn't expect anything like what we saw.  I wish I'd thought to bring my camera.  The pool was incredible, complete with waterfalls cascading over one end and lots of room for the kids to spread out, then of course there was the hot tub and beyond that a large play-set next to the trampoline and then plenty of room beyond that to get together a pick up game of soccer.  Oh, I forgot to mention the fire pit too - which was a big hit when it was time to roast marshmellows.

My own paranoia and bad memories of pre-teendom led me to be a bit apprehensive about this party.  Granted L's played soccer with this girl for almost two years, but her teammate "A" is  - shall we say, WAY on the popular track.  The girl has "future prom queen" tatoo'd on her forehead (in a non-literal sense).  Anyway, the popular crowd was going to be there - all of whom L knows, but not kids that she hangs out with beyond the soccer field.  I just wanted to make sure she didn't come home upset later because she'd gotten her feelings hurt because she wasn't included in something.  So, while I fretted about this and that for the next two hours and worked myself into something of a lather on the way to go get her, I arrive only to find that the child has a perma-smile plastered across her face. She had the time of her life!!!!  Honestly, there were no less than 50 kids there, all of which go to her school, but considering her 5th grade class size was close to 500 kids, she knew only a handful of them.  She made a bunch of new aquaintances/friends and was really unhappy with me because I arrived "on time" and not fashionably late.

I worry too much.

Saturday morning was not a time to sleep in, instead we hit the highway to go visit friends who live a couple hours away from us.  It was going to be a short visit, but it's always a fun one.  We had no plans inparticular and just hung out, some at the pool, some at her home, and some at the local mall.  It was all good.  Here's a couple of M in the pool - I have to brag on her for a bit.  Last weekend at the Y, I was showing her how to do a freestyle stroke and she picked it up amazingly fast - this kid is so athletic!  Here she is practicing:




This morning we headed home and weren't here an hour before it was time to go to the end of season soccer party.  The yearbooks were a huge hit (yeah!), the girls especially loved them, and had fun signing each one.  We spent 4 hours at what I believe was supposed to be a 2 hour get-together, and I literally had to pull my kids away since there were still a half dozen kids there when we left.  I put my camera up for this party, so no pictures this time...

It will come in handy tomorrow though when we head to the lake with my parents to try out the new ski boat that my dad got earlier this month.  Not sure if we'll get anyone up on ski's tomorrow, but I know at least two girls who are dying to get out on the floats behind the boat!

More later...

Schools out for summer...

This is going to sound a little bit whiny, so just bare with me...

The kids get so excited about school being out and summer vacation finally getting here, but I've got to tell you, it doesn't excite me much.  M asked me the other day when my last day before summer break was and I explained that my schedule doesn't work like a teachers, I have to work the whole year.  Now please don't misread this, it's not to say that teachers don't earn the summer off and every penny of their pay and then some, I honestly don't know how they do what they do.  But I do so envy them those 6 to 8 weeks off during the summer months to make other plans.

My plans?  Well, the kids are spending the day with their Grandparents, and then next Tuesday through the day before they go back to school they will be in one camp or another.  Granted they usually have a great time, and they probably get to do a whole lot more unique activities than many kids that stay at home, but I still feel badly that they don't get to lounge around at home  in their jammies if they want to.  They don't get to sleep in late or go to bed as late as they would like.  They don't get to hang out with neighborhood friends who are staying at home, they still only see them at nights or on weekends.

I'm not really complaining about being a working mom, it is what it is, but sometimes I sure do wish I could either work from home, at least occasionally or that lottery ticket would finally come in...

They're here!

I'm pretty excited - the Soccer Yearbooks arrived!  They actually came on my birthday so it was like a little present for me.  I spent so much time on these and was very nervous about how the photo quality would turn out, but I'm so impressed with the job that Shutterfly did, the paper texture and photos just turned out so much better than I'd hoped.

So here's the book:

I must say - the only issue I had with the 8.5x11 size is that it doesn't allow you to do the photo cover, which I really wanted, but you can only do that with some of their other sizes.  I used the suede fabric for the front, and while it looks a little dingy in the picture, it's actually very nice live and in person.


This next page is the first page when you open it up and the photo I was most concerned about quality on because I'd really stretched it, but it's perfect!  The team is called "United", so I thought the "United We Stand" title fit it well.


Next there are 12 pages like this, one for each girl - they have their jersey number and name on the page, but I've blurred it here.  My kidlet is on the left tho.


Lastly there are about 12 pages of random photos taken throughout the season on pages like this.  I used a template from Heather Ann Designs, which made it very quick and easy.


The book ends with a page of total scores from each game for the Fall and Spring Seasons and then a group photo of them after they won the tournament we went to in Florida. 

They will be distributed at our end of season party this Sunday at one of the players homes who has a swim pool, tennis court, basketball and one of those huge play sets - the parties are always at their house, and for good reason!

46

It's funny you know.  I don't feel 46, but then again yesterday I didn't feel 45 either.  When growing up, I couldn't believe I'd ever be 46, I mean 46 seemed ANCIENT!  Didn't they start digging your plot when your 46?  46 is for old people.  My mom was a soon-to-be grandmother at 46!  YIKES!  But hey, being the middle kid, at least I'll always have an older brother and won't be the first one to hit 50... he he he.

Speaking of brothers, for the last 38 years I've had to share my birthday with my "little" brother.  We referred to him as "Bubba" when he was little - for obvious reasons, but soon he found a better use for the flub and used it to grow and grow and grow, and now he top's my 5'11" frame by a good 5 inches.

So happy birthday bro, if I had to share a birthday, I'm glad it's with someone I kinda like.  :-)

Why do I have this giant urge to photoshop this 30 'cough' 7 year old photo...

Sundays...

Must. Do. Something

A few things on the to-do list today:

1. Just ran/walked 30 minutes on the treadmill which hasn't been used in at least 3 months. (I ran a whole mile on level 4, which is a 15 minute mile - now considering I'm not a runner and never have been even in the best shape of my life, I'm pretty okay that I did that and lived to talk about it)

2. Will be pulling up 8 half-alive boxwood bushes that didn't quite survive the drought last summer.

3. Will be planting some beautiful knockout roses in their place (needed some color on that side of the house anyway)

4. Will spend more of the day giving my weeds a very unhealthy dose of Round-up.

5. If there is any energy left by this point at all, I will con ask the kids to help me wash the car (I learned a couple of weeks ago that supervision is definitely necessary)

6. Just got off the phone with Dish Network and will be downgrading our channels, more than 80% of which we don't watch and hopefully this will mean that the 3 of us don't spend the whole summer in front of the black box.

7. Have been investigating exercise video's and think I've decided to go with Jillian. 

The last time I lost 15lbs and got in really good shape was because of Jane.  Hey - say anything you want about Jane, but the woman gives a darn good workout!  I knew that thing by heart and when I got home from work I'd put it on and didn't do anything till I had sweat dripping down my face and it felt SO good.  That I do remember.  Did you know that exercise is a natural anti-depressant?  Not that I've been depressed, just that I've not been incredibly happy about me lately either.

Anyway, 'nuf about that - it's just that Jillian is the new Jane.  Make it burn baby!

What is it with the paper?!?!

If you don't know what I'm talking about, refer to this post.

I let Daisy stay inside this morning because it's been pouring all day.  We've had a wonderful spring so far, and she really enjoys her mornings out romping through the backyard, trying to catch squirrels.  But, not a whole lot smells worse than a wet pup and she's not really so keen on the rain anyway.  So.  She stayed inside.  All I can think is that she must have been bored out of her mind, because when I arrived home for lunch, there was nothing that she had not chewed up and spit out.  She had knocked over the waste basket, which does did have a lid on it AND even worse, found the very heavy paper shredder and knocked that over too.  I hadn't empty the paper shredder in awhile and apparently Daisy thought this oversight needed to be corrected, so she did it for me... and emptied it ALL OVER MY OFFICE!

To say I wasn't pleased is an understatement of monumental proportions.  Extreme cuteness didn't even keep her out of trouble this time.  She got booted (almost literally) out of the house and into the rain while I cleaned up as best I could.  When I couldn't handle the whiny moans at the door any longer, I let her in, dripping wet, which of course is my fault, but I wasn't interested in hearing her say that, so I stuck her in the laundry room which she hasn't been subjected to since she was a 10 month old pup.  She so knew she was in deep doo doo when she didn't even try and get out.  She just sat there and looked at me with those big droopy wet brows over her eyes while I made my lunch with barely 15 minutes left to snarf it down and get back to work.  Then I sat down to read some email and completely ignored her - she's not really thrilled with being ignored by the way, it doesn't sit well with her sensibilities.  Anywho...  it was soon time to run back out into the downpour and head back to the office.  I even thought twice about giving her a doggy biscuit before I left.  But the droopy eyes and pitiful look that so clearly said "sorry mom" got to me... so she got two.  I'm such a wimp.

Last soccer post EVER!

(at least for this week)

No seriously - I want to explain my families obsession with soccer.  It can be explained by showing one little picture.  Meet L's coach.  Appropriately, we've nicknamed him Coach McDreamy....  Go ahead, click it, you know you want to. 

One of the mom's was standing next to me when I took this picture and she got in a fit of giggles when she saw him carrying the little pink and green soccer ball...  or at least I think that's what she got the giggles about.  ;-)

Annoyed.

I really should learn to read the instructions.

Each year I put together a DVD of about 150 photos taken during soccer games throughout the year.  I set it to music and during our annual end of season party it shows on the big screen over and over and over again...  Each family gets a copy of the DVD, but I seriously doubt if it's ever watched again, because I know my family doesn't, it just collects dust with all the other CD's that I have and will probably one day be unwatchable all-together when technology decides to come up with a new medium for storing data.

So this year I had a new idea.  Having just done a photo book through Shutterfly of some digital scrapbook pages, and being very pleased with the way it came out, I decided I would create a similar book of soccer photos taken throughout the year.  The book would cost $30 to $40 each and all the parents were very receptive about the cost and excited about having a real "yearbook" of photos and accomplishments.

So it's all good!  I spent weeks going through 6000+ soccer photos taken between last August and last weekend and pulled out a couple hundred of my favorites and then began developing the scrapbook pages.  I was REALLY pleased with how it was all coming out, plus because I was going to be ordering 12 of them, Shutterfly gave me a nice 25% off discount, thus allowing me to add just a few more pages - 29 in all.

I put some finishing touches on the pages this morning while the kids were getting ready for school and then uploaded them to the Shutterfly website so I could then work on laying them out in the book and getting them all in the right order.  And then this is where I discover that reading the instructions first a couple of weeks ago would have come in real handy!  Turns out the books are only printed in landscape format.  I did all my pages in portrait format.  Damn.

Completely annoyed with myself at this point, I left my computer and drove back to work in a funk.  Then I realized that the way I laid out most of the pages (all but the 12 individual pages of the girls, which I used a different technique on) won't be too difficult to re-work.  It will take me another 4 to 5 hours, but it won't be anything like it was to pull out all the photos, which is what I thought I was going to have to do all over again.  So, while I'm still annoyed with myself for not getting all the information I needed to begin with, I realized it won't be quite as bad as I originally thought.

I wonder if I've learned a lesson here?  Hmmm... probably not, instructions are for weenies...  I like to live on the wild side.

State Championships

Thank goodness that's over!  These tournaments give me more gray hairs than the rest of the season combined.  I won't go into the gory details - the details that include the girls not having a coach (their coach was at the boys high school state championships 45 minutes north of us, which they won), I won't go into the fact that they had a substitute coach during their most crucial game of the weekend who played them all out of position and had them totally confused.  I won't mention the tears that each girl shed after they lost that game by 1 point.  I won't go into the details about the two teams that DID make it to the finals that our girls have beaten numerous times all year long. 

But what I will mention is the way our girls played - with all their heart and soul and speed and agility and incredible talent that this team possesses.  I really am in awe when I watch them play, when they are on, they are ON and they were cranked up this weekend.  You just wouldn't think that 10 and 11 year old girls can play like that, but they do, and it's so much fun to watch.  I wouldn't trade anything in the world to keep from being a spectator at one of their games.  They blow me away...

possibly one of my favorite photos of all time... (click it)

The difference between 1st and 2nd grade

OK, so check out the sweet innocence of the 1st grader, can you tell which one she is?

Then find the two 2nd graders who are going to be the B.M.O.C. next year as big 3rd graders (Elementary school ends at 3rd grade around these parts) - can you say attitude with a capital
A T T I T U D E ?!  LOL

This was not taken by me, it was by one of the dads on our team, and you may recognize these three amigo's as the musketeers who made up part of the little people team this spring.  Getting to play together on the same team brought these three really close, plus they see each other a few times a week at practices and games of their big sisters.  Anyway, I just got this photo in my email box today and the expressions completely cracked me up because you can so completely see each girls personality come shining through.

On another note entirely, this photo started out like this, but yesterday I finally bought the Totally Rad Actions with a $20 off coupon I got and man are they worth every penny (and they're not expensive to begin with).  I used the "prettyiser", "oh snap", and "ez burn".  I can't wait to play with the rest - their are 46 actions in all!  If you go to the site, they've got sample shots up and you can see what each action will do.

As always, these are clickable for a larger view.

A Mother's Day Tea

I can't even tell you how much fun I had at lunch today with L.  Today I was invited to a 5th grade "Mothers Day Tea", and they put on quite a production.  The kids weren't "allowed" to sit down, instead the mom's got to sit in their chairs and review the array of poems that had been created for us, then they served us pink lemonade and pink cupcakes.  While we enjoyed our treat, each child took turns introducing their mom and naming one thing that made their mom's special.  There was lots of "my mom never gets mad at me, and my mom always smiles".  I got the "my mom is special because she helps me with my book report"  That got a laugh, because the kids have a big end of year book report due tomorrow and yes, we worked on it long and often over the past few days to get it perfect, so that was fresh in everyone's minds.  Later each person read a poem, and there were lots of sniffles and tears - they were just sooo sweet, these kids really do know how to turn on the charm when they want to.

Something else kinda neat/special was that there was another mom there who had a two-ish year old Asian child with her.  While we were waiting to be escorted to our kids rooms I kept wondering if that was the little girl who had recently been adopted by the family of a boy in L's class - turns out it was.  Little "E" was clearly the life of the party and the kids couldn't get enough of her, she was the focus of all attention for the under 11 year old crowd, and that little girl was having a grand time - so was her brother who was obviously proud to introduce his new l'il sis to his classmates.

You know I can't help but feel bad for the 8 to 10 students who were there whose parents, for whatever reason, were unable to attend.  I'm quite certain there's valid reasons, or at least I hope there's good reasons they have not to go, it really does mean so much to the kids to have you visit, and I always think that one day not too far down the road it will be an embarrassment if I show up in class, so I'm going to go while I'm still invited.  :-)

An obvious career choice

For many years I've know that M has a career has a Hallmark card writer.  At least several times a week I get cards and letters and drawings that she's specially prepared for me.  Oh how I wish I had kept them all over the years, but tonight's special poem has convinced me to try and do a better job of that.  Surely by now I would have a box full, but some prove absolutely to incredible to lose.  So without further ado, I present to you my poem by a very special 7 year old:

"When I help around the house
She thinks to visit Mickey Mouse.
My mom's birthday is in May.
She likes going by the bay.
My mom likes the color blue.
She also likes to make pot stew.
When mom shops at the Gap
She celebrates with a clap."

First Communion

M looked so beautiful today.  I bought her dress on whim last fall on the clearance rack at Strasburg hoping it would fit 6 months later and it was perfect.  Add in some gloves and a bow with pretty streamers on a child that is so full of enthusiasm and life and you get a beautiful, perfect little 7 year old.  Of course add in 118 other children and you also get one really long First Communion service!  :-)

On another brief note - just have to give some props to my eldest who opted to miss her sisters big day (she was completely torn about what to do honestly) and go with her team to compete against a rival that is currently ranked #1 in the state... and you know what - they shut them out!!!  HA!  2 - 0.  They're back baby! 

Okay, speaking of back - check out the little beauty...

It's good to be home

I'm so tired.  You would think a week in Destin would be relaxing but I'm that kind of bone weary tired when it's hard to convince myself to do anything more taxing than reclining on the sofa.  It's that kind of tired where you feel ready to weep at any minute and you have absolutely no idea why, but that lump is still there unwilling to go away.

I'm a very routine driven person and I really really like being home.  I don't travel too well for extended periods of time, a trait I think I got from my mom, and two weeks away has done my body and mind no good at all.  I snapped at the girls today, both of them - again, have no idea why, it was tired talking.  Tomorrow brings more running around trying to get caught up on things.  L is riding with a teammate to a game 2 hours north while M and I stay home and finish up her end-of-year book report, then get gussied up and attend her First Communion services at church that will take a good part of the afternoon.  By the time we get home, L should be arriving too, fresh from her soccer game, but not so fresh in body and in desperate need of a shower, then it's time to finish her end-of-year book report that's due Wednesday.  Next Friday we leave for another city and the last soccer tournament of the season - State Championships.   But for now I'm wallowing in my tiredness, I'll be back to normal soon...

Not to end on so wimpy a note, Daisy is asleep in the chair across from me and is growling but when I looked over at her, she's sound asleep - I guess my dog is having a little dream - who knew?!  I hope she catches that imaginary squirrel in her dreams, as they are so prone to torment her in real life.  he he he... she just growled again - that's too funny...

Who needs golf when there's an outlet mall!

First, just to set the record straight - I'm NOT a shopper.  I don't really enjoy it; I do all my shopping online whenever possible.  It's quick, it's easy, it's at my convenience not someone else's, and I don't have to deal with sales people that want to help too much or not at all, and I don't have to tag along two kids who REALLY don't want to be there and let me know it at every opportunity.

But, two things have happened...  I'm down here in Destin again for the week and 80% of the leadership team made a bee-line for the golf course at 9am, thus leaving me with little to do.  I'm still peeling from our trip down here  a week ago so going back to the beach is out of the question.  Plus my company gave me a lovely little surprise american express gift card that was burning a whole in my pocket.  The combination of boredom and extra money with an outlet center conveniently two miles away and all of a sudden I rediscovered the joy of shopping!  See:

I think I would feel really really bad if I didn't very rarely buy myself new clothes, the vast majority of my clothing budget goes to the girls, after all - they look SO much cuter in stuff then I do.  But I've been ignoring my closet for too long and really did need some new work-wear and now I feel completely outfitted for the year!  The little people in my life didn't get completely ignored though, here's some pics of their goodies...

Isn't this CUTE!  To be honest, I originally was going to get this shirt for me, but they didn't have it in my size  :-(  They did however have it in L's, so  Peace Babe!

She's also been wanting a "grown up" watch, so a quick trip to the fossil store where they were having an awesome sale led to this little gem.  (Mom, don't show her my blog, she may be getting this for her birthday)

Now Little Bit has her First Communion this coming Sunday.  I bought the dress on clearance at Strasburg last year, but she need the "extras", so some new gloves, a pretty hairbow and some lacy socks fit the bill.

And finally I couldn't resist a pretty summer dress and a very silky squeezable jammies set.

Lastly - the "real" reason for showing some of our new goodies is because I was practicing with my new 430EX flash.  A couple weeks ago I was asked to take pictures at the annual meeting.  Although Destin is beautiful and sunny and doesn't call for using a flash much, the conference room we're in absolutely requires the use of a flash.  There's the cheap one that comes on the camera, but it can't handle the distance that I need when I stand at the back of the room trying to take photo of the speakers at the front of the room 20 yards away.  So a new toy flash was in order and I needed the practice.  So here's me... practicing.

This is sooc in a completely dark, very small bathroom.  I've got it pointed toward the ceiling to bounce the light off the ceiling in stead of in front of me which would have 1) created a bright light in the mirror I was looking into and 2) created a harsh shadow behind me since I was standing right up against the wall.  I still have some work to do, but I'm feeling pretty good about it so far.

Little People Soccer

She has a good time too - sometimes I feel I need to be a videographer rather than a photographer, you can't see the skipping and hopping and constant smiles she awards the spectators while she's out there.  They're priceless... so is she!  (Even if I did find out she wrote in blue ink on my leather car seats today - any hints to get that out are appreciated...)

WAKE UP!

This was the most frustrating game I've watched EVER!

After last weeks big win, the girls just never came out of the gate today, they were moving in slow motion, not talking to each other, passes were way off, kicks were pansy kicks, this did not look like a championship team.  Sorry... but they didn't.  They tied 2-2 to a team that they should have won easily.  Another game is tomorrow, it will be interesting to see if our team decides to show up or not.  :-(

Well... she did run as fast as always, but her passes and footwork were not as crisp as they normally are.

See?  Asleep!

What are they even doing down that close to your goal!

Well you know what - they had a good time anyway, and regardless of whether you're on a competition team or not, when you're still just 10/11 years old, they really are supposed to have FUN - and you know what - they DO!  :-)

And they did...

More beach pictures just...

• because the little one is still not feeling well and these remind me how happy she is when she's up to snuff (and doesn't snort)
• because we have 4 soccer games this weekend and these will be the last non-soccer pics posted in awhile
• because I leave again on Monday for a week long business trip and new posts will be scarce; I'm loading up on them now so it will give me new pics of the girls to look at when I miss them.
• because we probably won't make it back to the beach again this summer, and we do so love the beach
• because unknown people wander in here and I won't be able to show pics much longer of the little one in a bathing suit, and I shouldn't show pics of the big one in a bathing suit any more.
• because these pictures make me happy

Good news - Bad news - Good news

Good news first -

I played with my lens yesterday and it turns out it still works.  YEAH!  I love my lens, and was really bummed that it broke on me, I thought it loved me too.  Turns out the picture quality was due to user error (it takes a big person to admit that on a photography blog by the way!)  There was oil/greese seeping onto the lens, and yes, it will still have to go in to Canon for repairs (once soccer season is over) because it won't hold a filter any more, and I don't like shooting without one to protect the glass - it's much cheaper to replace a $30 filter, than it is a $1000 lens!  But, the lens WORKS for now and that's the main point.

Bad news -

The reason I was able to play with my lens yesterday was because I was home all day with a sick baby.  M has been struggling with allergies all season and has already been to the doctor once about a month ago.  A week after those drugs wore off, the cough came right back and sniffles too (although "snort" is more accurate), but yesterday morning she woke up and was choking and having a hard time breathing with all the flem (sorry).  So off to the doctor we went and this time it turns out she has a sinus infection and the beginning stages of crup.  She felt horrible as you can imagine, and I couldn't exactly come home from a business trip for 4 days and shuffle her off to her grandparents again, so I stayed home with her and while she slept, I worked, or at least tried to. 

Good news -

M is feeling better now, and is back in school today.  She's on steroids for a couple days for the crup, and other meds for the sinus infection, so she should be completely back to her happy little self by the end of the weekend.  Nothing is keeping her from her soccer game though and the doctor said as long as her breathing is fine and not labored she's ok to play, which made her very happy.  So me, M and my lens will all be there at tonights game.  :-)

Technical Difficulties, but a BIG Soccer weekend

And alas, no soccer pictures...  I took photos of the first game and they didn't turn out well at all, so I tried to figure out why and it turns out my lens broke.  I keep a filter on the lens and when I screwed it off the entire top of the lens came off and started leaking oil on  the lens.  Nice.

But, onto more exciting news though  THE GIRLS WON THEIR SOCCER TOURNAMENT!!!!  They played so incredible during the first day games, and then ended up in the semi finals against a team that is local, so there was definitely a rivalry going.  The ball got batted back and forth the entire game and they went into the half scoreless, then the other team was able to get a goal from a corner kick.  With 5 minutes left to the game, one of our players scored which tied it at 1-1.  But, the game couldn't end there since there had to be a winner to send to the finals, so it went into overtime.

Unfortunately that was the time I had to leave.  I'm traveling on business this week and had to drive the 5 hours back home so I could catch a flight out.  So the parents were left with instructions to call me when it was over.  Overtime ended up being a heartbreaker for the other team...  their goalie kicked it out, it hit one of their own teams players and bounced right back in the goal, which gave us the 2 - 1 score and sent our girls into the finals with only 2 hours to rest up before they had to return to the field for warm-ups.

The girls were going up against a Mississippi team that won the silver division of the Vulcan Cup tournament that we played almost two months ago and had a really strong tournament record.  I got calls from the parents all through the warm-up and during the game, so have a real good idea of what happened based on that:  the early message clearly indicated the other girls were big and they were very fast.  When the game started, the other team scored on the first possession of the ball....

and that was the last time they scored!  Our girls scored twice, so the final ended with a 2-1 win, but the game was not without it's fair share of drama.  The officiating all weekend was AWFUL!  They were making the worst calls and were completely inconsistent, meaning they'd let one girl get away with something, but would call a PK when the other team did the same thing.  During the second half of the game, a PK (penalty kick) was called against one of our team inside the goalie box.  This essentially gives the other team the ability to choose their strongest kicker and the only thing between the ball and the goal is our goalie.  The score is 2 - 1 already and our goalie BLOCKS THE KICK!  While everyone is standing on the sidelines and teammates are yelling and screaming and celebrating, the referee decides that she moved forward to block the kick (on a free kick at the goal, you're only allowed to move from side to side), so the referee gives the other team ANOTHER free kick at the goal!!  Are you friggin' kidding me!!!  Well the parents, coaches and players are absolutely going bonkers, and cautions were given to everyone (a caution preceeds a yellow card and red card, which can knock a player/parent/coach out of the game).  Two other refs came from nearby fields to converse about the (bad) call, but they let the decision stand so the girl took her kick and our goalie BLOCKED IT AGAIN!!!  Of course the crowd completely erupted.  Blocking one goal is hard enough, but two is almost unheard of in competitive soccer.  At that point our girls had all the momentum and carried the score of 2-1 for the rest of the game.

I got the final call minutes after the game ended and the chaos and cheering and girls screeching had me really close to tears, they were all SO excited.  I did find out that L got to play about 1/2 of the first half, and most of the second half of the game, so to keep her in that long, she obviously was playing great.  They so deserved this, the girls have worked so hard and are an incredibly talented group.  I wish I'd been there to see it, but thanks to the parents on our team, I almost feel like I was.

Too bad I don't have any pictures to prove it, but I'll be taking care of that soon...