Vow to blog more...

Today was an okay day. I feel rather productive because I managed to complete the task that I have given myself to do that I figured would take my entire recovery time, but it did not. I had hundreds of printed pictures of Ty that I had from before I owned a digital camera and they were all loose in a box. Well, not anymore. They are (in my best guess) in chronological order, nothing fancy...I am not patient enough to scrapbook...nor do I have the extra money right now to invest in all those scrapping supplies. So now I have been contemplating going into all the monthly folders that I have of Ty from the moment I bought a digital camera. Yes, I have a folder for each MONTH of each year that Ty has been with me since he was about 20 months old...and I'll tell you, it's a lot of pictures. But I think I decided to save that project for a time when Ty is with Randy for an extended period of time...like say, summers. And I am also waiting for the price of the picture books to come down. I want to do one of those hard covered, your pictures are really the pages, kind of books...and since they started to become popular and more and more companies can do them the price keeps going down. Part of me wants to do one for every year Ty is in school, but I don't know if I will be able to keep up with something like that, you know?

In other news, I am feeling rather terrific given the circumstances. I really couldn't imagine this being too much better then it is with the surgery. That makes me very happy since Ty was just diagnosed AGAIN today with strep. He has an appointment with an ENT on December the 3rd and it looks like his ton sills will be removed over his winter holiday break. Poor guy. Would it be mean if I confessed that I am kind of glad that this isn't 'my' year to have Ty for Christmas if he is going to be going through this. I am happy about it because I will end up with him more then I would have before this had to happen because of the circumstances.

I have decided to cook more after I get better. I have spent a lot of time on the Internet looking up healthy easy recipes and I am sick and tired of eating the same crap. It's just that I hate this house with the kitchen. I have literally 12 inches of counter space and that makes making any kind of decent meal really hard to make just due to lack of space. But I decided on a lifestyle change that took effect the day of my surgery because I want to be healthier and that won't come out of nuking lean cuisines every day. And I know that Nate and Ty will benefit too. So, I consider it a win-win situation.

The downside to that is while I am accumulating a nice stack of recipes, I am also accumulating a nice list of groceries. I am glad I am doing it now though because we have a 10% off coupon for Giant for their thanksgiving promo. So, that 10% will really be put to great use.

I would really like to start blogging on a more regular basis...I think it will keep me motivated to discuss my cooking trials and errors...I am sure there will be much more of the errors. I was not blessed by the betty crocker fairy like my sister.

Awesome Wedding

Nate and I spend yesterday shooting an awesome wedding. And the best thing about it was that the bride was a great friend of mine in high school, so it was also like a mini reunion for me too. There were about 6 people that I haven't seen in AGES as well as my old english teacher. It was such a challenge because the ceremony was outside at 8:30. The lighting was tiki torches and SMALL candles. But the result of our efforts was amazing. I swear every wedding I do the pics just keep getting better and better.

The ceremony was at the residence of the bride and groom. It was tucked off of Liberty road in randallstown, totally not where you would expect a 150 year old vinyard complete with a concrete underground cellar what was transformed into a old italian / sicilian style winery filled to the bring with a display of wine bottles and lit with candles galore! Nate spend the better part of the afternoon sweating his butt off taking the best pics I have ever seen down there!

And today was the all day picnic reception. It was just wonderful. I am pooped. Going to bed now...

Yeah Baby!

My friend had her baby last night! A baby girl...and I was one of the first people that they called so I could come in and take pics of the baby! Off to Carroll Hospital Center before I pick Ty up for the week. This was SUCH perfect timing. She wasn't due until July 2nd, but she had other plans :)

What was I thinking?

I am SO beat right now. I went to work Friday morning at 7am...worked until 7am Saturday morning. I went home, took a shower, slept for an hour and a half, got up. Drove to Hanover...I was there from 10:30am until 7pm. I was shooting a wedding yesterday. I have to say that it was SO much fun, but I don't feel bad anymore charging $1500 for a wedding. After paying my assistant, and paying for the proof book...what's left of that $1500 is almost not worth the amount of work it involves. After the event I had over 1200 pictures to sort, edit, rename, etc. Luckily I am working today, so I am technically getting paid to edit these pics too...but I am still running calls and am busy at my "normal" job today too. But that's not the crazy part. Oh, no. The crazy part is that while I was at the reception last night my boss called me and said that there was a call-out last night and he could use me for any part of the shift from that time (4pm) and when I come on at 7am tomorrow. I made it clear that I was not going to leave the wedding reception early for it, but I would be in as soon as I could. So I left the reception a little after 7pm for the hour drive home, just in time to catch a shower, change into my uniform, and head into work by 9:30pm last night. Yes, I have technically been working non stop (with the exception of the hour and a half "nap" I took yesterday morning) since 7am Friday.

I am tired and sore. I never thought stooping down to take pictures ALL day long would be so hard on my body! But I can't wait to do the other weddings that I am contracted for this summer! Apparently there were a few people at that wedding that are getting married at some point this year too...so who knows? I also let the bride and groom know that for any wedding that I book off of theirs I would give them $100 in print credit. They were happy about that.

So, I am going back to editing my pictures now.