Friday, November 21, 2008

My truck isn't as toast as I thought

It looks like my truck only needed a new radiator, which Phillip and his dad graciously fixed for me. I am now even more indebted to Phillilp's dad. Great. Thank you both. I'm sorry I almost killed my truck.

In other news, I was directed to this website to help me with inspiration and direction for child photography. And I'm not going to comment on how I feel about that.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

my truck is toast

My truck overheated this evening. I should have noticed it was overheating before I did. I'm afraid I may have driven it too long and cracked the head or something else really bad. So I guess we'll know for sure tomorrow but I'm afraid what we thought was going to be a nice shiny new driveway is going to turn into a nice shiny new head gasket. (or something else engine related) Sometimes I don't think we'll ever get ahead. Didn't actually mean for that to be a pun.

Waiting room melt down

I just got back from taking Mikey to the doctor. He's had lots of crud in his nose and has been tugging on his ears. His ears look good but Dr. B prescribed an antibiotic for his sinuses. We waited in the waiting room for about 20 minutes. I'm guessing at the length of time. It may not have been that long...could have been longer. Regardless of how long it really was, it felt like an eternity. Mikey had the biggest public meltdown of his life. He was just absolutely out of control. I wouldn't let him get down and run. I forced him to sit in my lap or on the seat next to me. He was just freaking out. He sounded possessed. He probably looked possessed. It was really bad. I'm so worn out, both physically and emotionally right now. All I want to do is cry.

So this is to anyone who has ever witnessed this kind of total meltdown in public. This is to the people in the waiting room who were gawking at me and my son.

- Don't look at my child like he's a freak. He's a brilliant little boy who has a really hard time controlling himself sometimes.
-Don't look at me with pity. There is nothing to feel sorry for. I am blessed beyond measure with this child. He is perfect to me.
-Don't whisper to each other about my child right in front of my face. Just because I'm busy at the moment doesn't mean I'm too busy to take you outside and teach you a thing or two.
-Don't suggest things to me that might calm him down. There is no calming him down when he's like that. If there were, I would be acutely aware of it and would already be doing it, thank you very much.
-Don't act visibly annoyed or irritated by his behavior. Just get over yourself, please. And if you are really unable to deal with the noise, then remove yourself from the situation. Don't expect me to miraculously make him be quiet for your benefit.
-Don't say ridiculous, trite, obvious statements like "you've got your hands full" or "wow, he's not happy is he?." Seriously??? Wow, I hadn't noticed!!! Thanks so much for pointing that out to me, astute observer!!!!!
-Don't judge us.

Things you can do that won't make me want to punch you in the face:
-Kindly ignore us. That's pretty much the safest thing to do.
-Ask if there's anything you can do to help. I will most likely say no, but I would appreciate the sentiment.
-Tell me there's hope if you have had a child like this.
-Just have some grace. We're just doing the best we can.

I'm pretty sure I'll be fighting with Mikey and for Mikey for a long, long time.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

6:00 a.m.

Mikey has been waking up at 6:00 or before 6:00 a.m. almost everyday. It's really, really hard to like him that early. I know he's a gift but it's really hard to remember that at 6:00 a.m.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Too cold to live

It was so freezing yesterday at that wedding. It was outside at 3:00. We were on a little hill with no trees to block the wind. The weather made the whole thing quite miserable. The brides maids were wearing sleeveless dresses. There were little kids, babies, and elderly people out there. But we all toughed it out for them. It went pretty fast once the wedding actually started. I kind of forgot about the cold while I was shooting. The bride really wanted to do lots of shots outside at the wedding location. Thankfully she changed her mind. I've got one more wedding I'm doing solo in Feb. After that, I'm taking weddings off of my to-do list. It is not my thing.

I was supposed to do a family shoot this morning at Varner Hogg. The family has two young kids. We decided to postpone it until a couple of weeks from now. I just didn't think it was a good idea to shoot in like 40 or 50 degree weather, especially with kids. I don't think they were looking forward to freezing their butts off either.

I do not like cold weather at all. My hands and feet are cold almost all the time even when it's not cold. So when it's cold, they just get all numb and purple. Our house is pretty drafty. Anyway, I'm going to go get under a blanket and have some coffee. We'll be skipping church today because Jackson has been running a fever.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

What I've been up to

Today I'm photographing a wedding. I think it will be pretty fun. It's outdoors somewhere in Rosenberg. I'm really wishing I had a second camera to have with me today. I don't usually feel like I need a second camera but it would be nice today. I would probably use two cameras on an ordinary shoot if I had two cameras. I might need to think about investing in another camera body soon. We'll see.

For the month of November I have this wedding that I'm doing solo and I'm second shooting a wedding for a local photographer. Second shooting is a total breeze and it's decent money for the hours. I second shot for her in October and I wore heels like an idiot. I was dying after about 3 hours and we were there for about 6 or 7. I'm thinking weddings aren't really my thing. I've got the wedding today and one more in February. At this time I don't think I'll take anymore on. I love photographing kids and families. I don't love photographing weddings. I hope I can be picky enough to do what I love.

In addition to the wedding stuff, I have 12 family shoots in November. (Assuming a couple of them send me payment for their session fees.) I also did the College day care kids. This may not be a ton of stuff for some photographers but it's an insane amount of stuff for me. The shoots themselves aren't that big of a deal but the processing, ordering, packaging, delivering is pretty overwhelming. With working at the preschool MWF mornings and being a mom to two young kids, I feel like I'm working in some way or another constantly. I've extremely happy that I'm this busy with the business. This crazy busyness will probably only last two or three months during Oct-Dec. Then things will probably slow down for a while. I've decided not to work at a preschool next school year. It's just too much right now.

So that's what I've been doing and will be doing for the rest of November and into December. I want to get in here and blog sometimes but with other stuff piling up, I just can't. Last night I actually got about 8 hours of sleep. That hasn't happened in a while. So once I have several cups of coffee I'll feel ready to take on the day.

Monday, November 10, 2008

This and that

Our street has been under construction for a while. Our half of the road is torn up now. We will finally be redoing our driveway in the next few weeks. We've been wanting to do that since we bought this house but have never been disciplined enough to save for it. We're going to be doubling it. This is a good time to do it because the price per square foot is less because of the whole street construction thing. As they're pouring the new road, they'll just take a little side trip and pour our new driveway. I've been thinking about getting out and taking some pictures of our street torn up. But who wants to see pictures of that? I've decided not to waste my time taking pictures of dirt and rubble. Maybe when the cement is wet we'll go out and put in our hand, foot, and butt prints. That might not be good for the resale value if ever we decide to sell. It will be nice to have a decent driveway and sidewalk. Since the duration of this road project we have realized that some of our neighbors are pretty much idiots.

I've been very busy lately with photography stuff. That's good and I'm glad but I feel like I'm working from the time I get up until I finally go to bed at 11:00 or 12:00. It's rare when I just sit down and do nothing anymore. I know after Christmas is over there will probably be a lull. Once I'm really in the groove with this thing and making some serious bank, I need to hire a house keeper...and a pool man.

Between Mikey and the dog, there is someone following me around and/or whining about something all day long. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. Sometimes they sleep.

Jackson has renounced toast. He claims that he never liked toast in the first place. Mikey has been on a crash diet the last couple of weeks. He doesn't appear to be loosing any weight. I think he has a stash of cookies in his room somewhere. I need to look into that.

I've encountered some potential clients lately who are pretty flaky. I'm glad they're flaking out on the front end before I spend hours of my life on them. I much prefer to weed out the flakes prior to photographing them. Post photography flakiness is one of my many pet peeves.

Phillip and I are planning a weekend getaway to Houston in the middle of December. I would like to do three nights but I don't know if we can afford that or get our parents to commit to three days of childcare. I'm still working out the details on that one.

I've been working on this post on and off since 6:20. Now I need to get my self in gear and get us ready for our day.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Decision 2008

I am not big into politics. I fully admit my ignorance on many political issues. I fully admit that is irresponsible of me. I sat last night as Barack Obama was declared the 44th President of the United States. I don't fully grasp what his presidency means for America, let alone me as an individual. Even though I did not vote for him, I still feel guilty for my ignorance and apathy. Maybe that same ignorance is what voted him in. Many people voted with their hearts and not their heads. Many people voted with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside and remained uneducated about who and what they were voting for. I am including myself in this.

I think it is truly amazing, given our history, that America voted an African American man to be the President. I think that, in and of itself, shows that were are finally abandoning some of the horrible bigotry of our past. But the more I learn about this man, the more concerned I am becoming for this country. I know God is in control. I pray that he does not remove his hand from us.