room for improvement

out and about

Went to the zoo yesterday for our inaugural annual pass visit.  Russ has Tuesdays and Thursdays off now, so we were making the most of it.  :)  Point Defiance Zoo has a really cute feature right now called "Animal Avenue," and there are the cutest lemurs and meerkats.  They are a must-see, I really want to have a lemur for a pet, now!  We went to the Woodland Park Zoo last week with Aidan's 'best friend' Alexia and her mama and baby brother, and it was a blast.  Aidan's main concern at WPZ was getting to see the Butterflies & Blooms exhibit, and at PDZ he wanted to see the sharks.  Or, in his words, "the socks."

lol

After the socks, we needed to eat and I thought it would be fun to go to last weekend's photo shoot site, Sunnyside Beach, for a picnic.  It's sort-of a hidden gem.  The weather held up really nicely and Aidan loved the playground and the sandy/rocky beach.  Russ impressed me and made me swoon with his stellar rock-skipping abilities.  Are you kidding me?!  We've been married for five years and I never knew about this?! haha.  He taught me some tricks and I was able to skip ONE rock.  Just one skip.  Russ was getting five and six skips, because he is apparently superhuman.  No evidence of it though, because I left my extra camera battery in the car a half mile away.  Extra bonuses at Sunnyside Beach were the awesome trains that passed by just feet away from us, and the stunning homes situated for your viewing pleasure on the hillside above the beach.  I'm so jealous.

Time has been elusive lately, all day I'm absorbed in Aidan and house stuff, and for the few hours we have in the evening, I am catching up with Russ.  Whenever I can, I'm doing photography work.  Last week I shot a family reunion with lots and lots of babies and babies on-the-way.  I have terrible baby fever right now.  Two friends at church just had babies (boy and girl), my best friend in high school just had a baby girl, and one of my close cheerleading buddies is due soon with a boy.   Look how nicely God evened the population out, there. :)  I haven't watched any of those TLC baby shows in years and years, since before I was ever pregnant with Aidan.  Now I find myself watching them as I fold laundry or sit at the computer.  And I CRY every time.  I have been crying about everything lately- I think it is post-traumatic stress disorder due to the Twilight series ending.  Good news, though- the movie comes out almost a month earlier than planned now- November 21!  You'll know where to find me...

It's not raining today so I think a bike ride around the neighborhood is in order!  Have a good one.

-M

"breaking" the silence

Oh, my goodness...

That was probably my longest blog silence EVER!  Two and a half weeks?  Horrible!  I missed you, Blog!!!  So, I'm back and I have so much great stuff to report, we have been so blessed recently.  Here goes:

Sooo...I have to say that out of all of the exciting things happening, there is one item on my calendar that has been leaping out at me and making my heart pound for months now:  The release of the final book in the Twilight series, "Breaking Dawn," THIS PAST FRIDAY NIGHT!!!   

Shelby and I are total nerds so we drove to our nearest Borders at 11:45pm, where a HUGE crowd was assembled to pick up their copies of the book the moment it was available: 12am!  Everyone was cheering and counting down the minutes.  Shelby and I were laughing and chatting with a nice gal in line ahead of us.  We were numbers 444 and 445 if you can believe it!  Good thing there was a Seattle's Best Coffee inside the store, otherwise we may not have made it until 1:30am, when we actually stepped up to the register and received our copies.  I also bought a commemorative movie calendar.  I know, I'm a sucker...   The second we stepped foot into the house we both plopped down and immediately began reading.  Of course, neither of us could put it down, but my eyes gave out at 4am, and Shelby's at 5:30.  She stayed about 150 pages ahead of me after that, but we read through Saturday and I kept going into Sunday, with all of the breaks I was taking to still be considered a nice mommy, plus mowing the lawn. :)  I finished the book at 5pm and I was breathless.  The series ended perfectly, for me at least, and wow- even though a couple of my theories came true, there were a million curve balls!  It was insane and I loved it.  I've already started re-reading my favorite parts.  Please, all my Twilight friends, you HAVE to email me and tell me what you think of the book!  Shelby and I are loving discussing it.  And it's so nice to finally have the cover figured out.  YAY!   Evidence of our obsession (and that I swiped a cardboard display sign that was no longer in use...sorry, Borders- you were about to throw it out!):

All in all, this has been a really fun week for me.  I'm up to nine portfolio shoots now and I'd love to share some of my recent work with you...check it out at the bottom of this post.  I am about a month away from unveiling my business, give or take.  I assisted my very talented cousin Ashley at a wedding on Friday.  (Can you believe I fit that in before the book release? haha)  I didn't think I would be shooting at all, but she loaned me a souped-up camera, gave me a brief tutorial and all of a sudden- we were at the wedding, both shooting away!  It was trial by fire but AMAZINGLY fun.  I thought it was so awesome of her to trust me like that, she had me looking for shots of really important moments, and that was soooo scary, but exciting.  Her business is One Thousand Words Photography, and she and her partner Angie have won many awards for their art, and have been published numerous times.  I really do think she produces fine art, as she works primarily with film which is becoming pretty rare.  I was SO excited to see her in action, the clients loved her and I think it will show in the end result.  It never hurts to have a super adorable, super in-love couple to photograph, either. :)  Whenever she is done wading through the many hundreds of photos I took and narrowing it down to the five that actually turn out, I should get copies and will share!  I can only hope and pray that I took a few good pictures that night!

Russ and I have been reconnecting with old (and new) friends right and left, and I'm really excited to start getting together with other couples and families on a much more consistent basis.  Life is becoming a little less harried and much more orderly.  Russ has already been promoted at his new job and there are some other interesting things on the horizon.  Aidan has a spot reserved at a school that is VERY special to us (my mom would be his teacher!), and I started working out again.  We're just staying busy and happy.  Now this is starting to sound more like a Christmas card letter than a blog post.  I guess that's what happens when you abandon your journal for over two weeks!   Enough blabber- here's a shoot I did a couple of weeks ago with Howard and Amanda:

  

 

More soon...the silence has been broken!

:)

M