Jenny's Blog

New blog

2009-02-19T23:15:00.002-06:00

So I'm thinking I'm done with this blogger blog. It's been good to me but I'm kind of tired of it. I've started a new wordpress blog. Here's the address:

http://jhintze.wordpress.com/

I'm not sure that I'm sold on the template yet or anything else but the address. It's nothing fancy. So anyway, that's where you'll find me from now on. Update your feed reader and bookmarks and all that stuff.

lighting stuff

2009-02-19T08:08:00.004-06:00

So my lens sold. Someone did the buy-it-now after it had been on a few hours. I'm glad that it sold but I'll be sad to see it go.

But I just bought this....

I purchased a used 580EX II flash, a light stand, and an umbrella. The stand and umbrella are for the dreaded formals for a wedding in May. I'm wondering if I'll get much use out of these two things with the regular stuff that I do. I'm thinking it might benefit me from time to time in peoples' homes. I've encountered some pretty awful lighting in homes.

I know there will always be things that I think I need but I'm thinking I'm almost to the point where I won't really need anything else. Much (most) of what I've made has gone to equipment. It will be nice to actually start making decent profits.

Random

2009-02-18T19:40:00.003-06:00

We joined some Disney movie club thing and got like 6 Disney DVDs for about 20 bucks. Jackson is excited.

I now have 2 pez dispensers to decorate my camera with - Donkey (from Shrek) a that chef guy (from Ratatouille). I need to get some other ones.

Mikey is fascinated with birth marks. He discovered his own in the bathtub the other day. He has a mark about the size of a man's thumbprint on his upper right thigh. When he realized it was there he was trying to peel it off like a sticker or rub it off. I showed him my birthmark, a gross black mole thing about 4 inches above my belly button. We also showed him that Phillip has a birthmark on his ankle and Jackson has one on the left side of his jaw. Mikey just thought all of that was so cool. So if you want to show Mikey your birthmark or "spot" as we call it, then go ahead as long as it's not in a place that shouldn't be shown to a toddler. He'll be pretty impressed. Promise.

I'm blogging because I don't want to edit wedding pictures. I have narrowed it down to 270 images and am almost done with my initial editing in Aperture. Once that's done, I'll have a good 3-5 hours of editing to go. I have to finish these and proofs from three other shoots by the end of this weekend. I need to stop procrastinating.

I'm putting my Canon 28-70 f/2.8 L lens on ebay tonight. Which reminds me, I need to take pictures of that lens. Be right back.....
Okay, that was fun. I really needed this lens to take pictures of this lens. Our house is a little too small to get far enough away from it with my 70-200. We have a puzzle in our house that is light activated. So with every flash of the camera, I heard a rooster. I really hate to part with this lens. Even now, I'm having second thoughts about putting it on ebay. But I really don't need it. Once I get the lens I just ordered, a Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 and the Canon 24-205 f/4, I'll have pretty much all the focal ranges that I need covered. I need the money from this lens to buy another flash and a few other doodads that I need for a wedding in May. And this lens is dang heavy. But I REALLY hate to sell this lens. The majority of the pictures I have taken in the last year (?) have been taken with this lens. Dear Lord, is there another way?? The new version of this lens sells new for about $1,200. I'm hoping to get $650-$750 for this one. It's probably about 10 years old but still in great condition. Here's a picture. Sexy, huh? Maybe I'll wait until tomorrow to put it on.....

I had a nightmare (during a nap today) that someone broke in and stole my computer and replaced it withe the horrible piece of junk we had before we went Mac. I woke up terrified and in a cold sweat.

The repair and painting of our house should begin soon. Phillip is going to need to call those guys tomorrow and find out for sure when they're starting. I'm having a hard time deciding on paint color. I'm thinking kind of a light khaki for the main color and a dark green and a dark red for trim stuff. Our house will look like Christmas. I like Christmas.

Jackson has had kind of a rotten attitude with me lately. He's beginning to act like a teenager. He disagrees with everything I say. It's like I'm his arch enemy. It's really getting on my nerves. I think all the time I spend on the computer working on stuff is starting to get to him. Which is why I should stop farting around and get to work.

Mikey is fascinated with and allergic to ants. Have I written this here before? I think maybe I have. I need some new material. He very intentionally sat in a huge ant bed yesterday. I was right there thankfully. I'm not going to survive that kid.

This is absolutely genius

2009-02-18T07:00:00.002-06:00

I wish I had come up with this.

I'm now collecting pez dispensers so if you have any lying around, I'll take them off your hands.

More underwears - I just can't stop

2009-02-17T14:36:00.003-06:00

This time whitey tighteys and a guitar. What's cuter than that?

From the Jackson archive - Underwears

2009-02-17T14:28:00.004-06:00

Mikey might soon be ready for the wonderful world of underwears!! Yes, if they're this small they're underwears with an "s". I did not touch this photo. I didn't feel the slightest need to make it look better than it does. Okay, I felt the need and I fought it. And I won.

Mikey has been tee-teeing in the potty! Go, Mikey. But it's so scary to let an unpredictable 2 year old run around in underwears indoors. Maybe I need to get some valium and just let him learn.

I want a new blog

2009-02-17T13:37:00.002-06:00

I'm bored with this blog. I'll be bugging Phillip to help me create a wordpress blog to replace this one. My business blog is a wordpress blog. I won't be moving the content of this blog. I'll just put a link to the new one once it exists. Okay, then. See ya.

Catching up

2009-02-09T19:08:00.004-06:00

So the wedding on Saturday went pretty well. I had none of the stomach issues I was so worried about having, thank goodness! I'm thinking lighting is always going to be an issue at weddings. This one in particular was a little tough because it was in a country club and the ceilings were covered with some kind of stuff that wouldn't bounce light. So I had to do some stuff with my diffused flash pointed directly at people (not the most flattering) and I used my pocket bouncer some and I used a combination of both the diffuser and pocket bouncer together. I really need a wide angle lens and a full frame camera for these kinds of affairs. I'll most likely be buying this lens soon. I'm not really sure how I'll like it. Guess we'll see. I'll be getting the older model 5d and the 24-105 f/4 L in a month or so. I'm thinking I might sell my 30d and my 28-70 and get a 40d for backup. And....I still want to get a lensbaby. And maybe a good 50 or 85 mm prime. Not sure about all that stuff yet. Anyway, who cares?

The pit bull next door is becoming quite a nuisance. She has jumped into our yard three times now that I'm aware of. She's gotten out of the yard almost every day lately. I've been calling animal control every time I see her out. Is that kind of tattly of me? Yes but I don't care. Her owner told us this evening (after she jumped in our yard to play with us) that he was going to get some kind of rope to tie her to in their yard. And I'm wondering how long it's going to take him to actually do that. It's been over a month since she started getting out of their yard and they haven't done anything about it yet. They don't even have a collar on her. I wouldn't be at all surprised if she's never even been to the vet in her life. I feel sorry for her. I really, really do. They are a horrible family for that dog. On one hand I want to pet her and give her some attention but I don't want to encourage her to jump the fence to play with us.

I'm excited about a newborn session I have coming up on Friday. It's going to be so cool!

I might be photographing a birth soon! I'm very excited about that. Hopefully it will work out for me to be there. People get weirded out about birth photography. They think that you actually take pictures of the emergence into this world. Um...yuck. No, it's everything else surrounding the birth that you photograph. And then of course lots of pictures of the baby just as he/she takes that first breath, screams, cord cutting, weighing, excited grandparents...... all that fun stuff.

I'm thinking about just taking off for the entire month of June or July. I need a break. I will definitely need a break by then. I need to get away for a couple of days. I will need to start getting our house ready for homeschooling Jackson. I will also be getting curriculum stuff situated. I am so ready to not have to sit in those pick up/drop off lines at the school anymore. Those lines are horrible! That's really why I'm doing it, you know.

We will be getting our house painted soon. It's way overdue. Phillip and I knew what colors we were going to use but I think we lost our color swatches. Back to square one. And I want to get some very basic landscape work done....like a hedge and a tree. Maybe a cactus. Just kidding about the cactus.

I think I might be finally honing in on what I actually love to photograph. I like photographing people of all kinds but I love photographing babies in the 9 month-15 month range and teenage girls. Is that weird? (Generally speaking) Newborns are probably a little tricky. I'm not really sure about that yet because I haven't done that many newborns. 2-4 year olds are tough because they never stop moving. 6-10 year olds are tough because they've been taught to say "cheese" and are very self-aware and it's hard to crack that and catch who they really are and not who they think you want them to be. And men and teenage guys are just plain difficult. I've run across a few men/guys here and there who were naturals in front of the camera. But generally speaking, they don't have a clue how to look natural in pictures. I hope this doesn't offend any of you men out there.

Mikey is starting to learn colors. He likes blue and likes to point out anything that is blue. He says is like "bwuah!" And he can identify some other colors but can't really say them yet. He is saying "eggs" but it sounds like "as*." We like to get him to say it over and over again. Bad parents!

Jackson has been sick a lot lately. He has missed at least 8 days of school this year. I'm not sure why he's catching everything under the sun. I'm taking him to the doctor on Wednesday to alleviate any guilt I feel about letting him remain sickly for so long.

I've been packing on the pounds since I started working at the preschool. Not taking the time to eat a healthy breakfast and snacking on various kinds of preschool snacks is starting to take it's toll. I think I've gained 8-10 pounds since I started working there. I think the entire 8-10 pounds is in my upper thighs, butt, and gut. I don't want to buy new jeans one size bigger and I'm getting the unattractive "her thighs are too thick for those jeans" wrinkles in my current jeans. Time to do something drastic. I've eliminated sugar from my coffee but it might be time to cut out candy and exercise. NOOOO!!!! Some might say, "Who cares?? It's just 8 pounds!" Well, 8 pounds becomes 15, which becomes 45 and so on and so on.

I'm beginning to realize that I am much more of a rule follower than I thought. I'm not happy about this. I thought I was a rebel. A free spirit. I'm really disappointed to learn that I'm not. I need to work on that.

Crazy Mikey Video

2009-02-07T10:06:00.002-06:00

Debbie took this little video over the weekend. When I first saw it, I thought it was sped up or something but it's not. This is what we live with every day. Incase you can't tell, Mikey really likes this song.

TMI

2009-02-06T20:05:00.002-06:00

My stomach has been in bad shape since Wednesday. I don't know what I ate or how long it's planning on wreaking havoc on myself and those around me. I'm photographing a wedding tomorrow and I'm TERRIFIED that I'm going to accidentally rip one during the ceremony. That could be the end of my wedding photography career. I found this video and thought it was worth sharing. So do any of you have medicine suggestions that actually work? I have to know by 10:00 in the morning.

Mikey fashion and other nonsense

2009-02-04T19:48:00.003-06:00

Layering is all the craze this winter. Here MIkey is wearing a long sleeve striped tee from Children's place, a hula dog t-shirt from Nana and Granddad, Hanes jogging pants, Prospirit shorts, and Victoria Secret boy short panties (someday he'll need therapy).

On a completely unrelated topic, I will be leaving at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning to go to a Methodist Preschool worker conference. We will be there all day Thursday and Friday. I would be lying if I told you I wasn't totally stoked and excited. (I'm lying to you.) Don't tell my boss but I'm pretty certain I won't take home any useful information. Which means that I probably won't. But I'll try really hard to fake it. I am doing one little class entitled "What do I do with this child!!??" Maybe I'll learn something there. Maybe I'll be able to teach that class in another few years. Our moms are pulling double duty to take care of the kiddos for this thing.

Saturday I will be photographing another wedding so that will be fun. The last wedding I shot was outdoor in freezing weather and it really didn't end up being worth my time. Probably shouldn't say that but oh well.

This school year has been really hard. I knew it would be. And I LOVE my preschool kids but I'm so ready for summer. I don't feel like I'm doing much of anything 100% lately. This has probably been the busiest I've been since I graduated from college. There are days when I just to run away. I hope I haven't done irreparable damage to friendships and family relationships during this busy time. I'm planning on taking a much needed breather once May is behind me. I think there are a lot of friends I need to take to lunch, have over for dinner, babysit for, shop with......the list goes on and on. I hope they haven't given up on me. You know who you are. I'll be back to the land of the living once school's out. Let's make a date. Except for Andrea. I'm just going to have to make time for you now before you up and leave me for stinkin' Singapore.

Okay, I need to get busy working on Miss Kendall's pictures. She's one year old today! Happy Birthday, Kendall!

New lens at the park

2009-02-01T11:16:00.009-06:00

I got a new lens a few weeks ago. I've used it on a few shoots and I love it! But I haven't really used it a whole lot in no pressure situations. Also, I've been practicing more with using my flash outside for fill. I still need to work on it much more, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. I still certainly prefer shooting in shade. I have been shooting in fully manual mode on my camera for several months now and can't imagine going back to AV. I love having so much control over my shots. Anyway, enough camera blah, blah, blah....here are some pictures of the boys. We went to the park earlier today.

Because I don't want to give captions on each picture, here's the lowdown:
- Mikey eats dirt. I don't really care that he eats dirt.
- Jackson did not want to be photographed and that's why there are so many more pictures of Mikey.
- Mikey found a cat and I'm not quite sure what's he's telling him in the picture of the two of them walking away. Maybe he's telling him our address. That would be cool. I like that cat.
- Mikey needs a haircut. Bad.
- I don't know why my boys wear their hats like that. We didn't teach them to do that.
- The black & white picture is not "technically" a very good picture. But I like it anyway. Sometimes pictures that aren't very good look better in black & white. I don't know why that is. Maybe that's just my opinion.
-These pictures are in complete backward chronological order. So, if you want to see them in the order they actually happened, start at the bottom.

Because I have nothing to blog about....

2009-02-01T08:10:00.004-06:00

This is my 25 random things about myself from facebook. If you're one of my facebook friends, you probably already read it.

1. I have abnormally cold hands and feet. I've had blood work done to see if there's some kind of "condition" and there's not.

2. I spend lots of time looking for things I have misplaced.

3. I pick at my cuticles.

4. I like trying new kinds of soap. But not anything that smells like peaches. I don't like peach smelling things.

5. I never wear my wedding ring on photo shoots. You never know who you're going to meet.

6. My truck is filthy.

7. Sometimes I drink straight pickle juice from the jar.

8. I can't stand pen clicking. It makes me fighting mad.

9. I like to sit outside in the grass but I rarely take the time to do it.

10. I used to have a Bart Simpson blue jean jacket. I felt really cool in that jacket.

11. I have a belly button ring and I kind of wish I didn't but if I get rid of it I'll just have a strange looking belly button.

12. I became an aunt at the age of 6. Thanks, Kevin. I'm sorry I've been a sucky aunt.

13. I will be homeschooling our son for 2nd grade and I'm very excited about that.

14. I played the saxophone for about 9 years. But I never got all that great at it.

15. I am really, really bad at remembering numbers of any kind. I think I have some kind of number learning disability thing. And I'm fine with that.

16. I'm an affiliated NILMDTS photographer but I haven't had a shoot yet. And I'm afraid when I start doing it regularly, it will change me forever.

17. I have an uncanny ability to remember children's names. Once I meet a kid, I can see them years later and almost always know their name.

18. I get really nervous sometimes about Phillip driving back and forth to Houston everyday and I wish he didn't have to do that. And it's not because I think he's a bad driver.

19. We have one biological child who pretty much looks like a boy version of me and one adopted child who looks like the baby version of Antonio Banderas.

20. I have always wanted to meet Robin Williams but I think he would freak me out.

21. I don't like doing things out of obligation and I don't like when people do things for me out of obligation.

22. I like free t-shirts.

23. I have a wart inside my nose on the right side. I had it removed one time it grew right back. I figure it's meant to be.

24. I think back tattoos look pretty skanky.

25. I love my bed like a family member.

I forgot to put on there that I hate handling raw meat of any kind, especially chicken. I have almost perfected cooking chicken without ever having to actually touch it. It's really something to behold.

Favorite quote of the day

2009-01-29T16:17:00.002-06:00

Stop it, Mike! You're destroying my cutie! - Jackson

Revision to original post. It should be Cootie, not Cutie. Like the game with the bugs. It was funny in person.

Check this out

2009-01-26T07:23:00.000-06:00

http://brokenheadstock.com/?p=291

Go on, check it out. It's worth it.

More Mikey Mischief

2009-01-23T13:31:00.003-06:00

I know I just blogged about some Mikey shenanigans this morning but I have a little time so I thought I'd do some more. You know those door knob covers that are supposed to keep a kid from opening a door? Well, Mikey can just pop those things right off without any trouble at all. We have 6 doors in our hallway. Three are bedrooms, 2 closets, and the bathroom. We keep those door knob things on all of those doors except Mikey's door. He can pull every one of them off in about 1 minute. We've tried two different kinds and he can get them both off. We've tried wrapping packing tape around the door knob covers to keep him from popping them off and he just carefully finds the end of the tape and pulls it off. We have to open doors for Jackson all the time because these door things keep him out of rooms instead of Mikey. So you might wonder why we keep them on at all or why we keep putting them on all day long. It's because it buys us some time. We hear them come off and we know he now has access to that room. And we go and stop him or remove him from the room and put the thing back on so we can do it all over again. This morning I only needed about 15 minutes to finish getting myself ready for work. It probably actually took me about 30 minutes because I had to keep stopping and getting him out of various rooms or closets. A friend asked why he can't just be in the bathroom with me while I get ready. Because he will put anything he can in the toilet (including himself) faster than humanly possible. Getting ready to go anywhere without Phillip home is next to impossible. Oh...and baby gates. That's another thing. He can knock those over if he wants to bad enough. He just kind of rams his shoulder into the gate over and over and over again until he gets one of the corners of the gate out of the doorway. Then he just knocks the whole gate down and walks over it. That takes much more time and effort than the door knob things. So, any suggestions? Other than tying him up? I don't think we're allowed to do that.

The bandit

2009-01-23T07:10:00.002-06:00

Usually Mikey is in his highchair while the rest of us are eating dinner. But occasionally he finishes before us or refuses to eat all together so he's loose while we're eating. This is dangerous. This is dangerous because we have a small round table and he can reach anything that's not in the absolute middle of it. He likes to play this "game" where he innocently approaches the table and then quick as a flash grabs something off the table and runs away as fast as he can. Usually it's something harmless like a napkin or a cracker. But the other night it was a full glass of Sierra Mist. He's a funny kid.

Playing hooky

2009-01-22T08:54:00.002-06:00

Jackson woke up with a debilitating leg cramp this morning. He's been limping and howling and crying all morning. I believe that it hurts. I really do. But I also know that Jackson's tolerance for pain is pretty nil. He had this kind of thing before a year or so ago when he had the flu. His electrolyte levels got too low and stiffened up his legs. That's most likely what this is too. I noticed a little while ago that he feels like he has a fever. My almost nurse sister-in-law said that when you've got a virus and/or fever you're more likely to have an electrolyte imbalance. So we'll just be pushing orange juice, bananas, gatorade, and pathetic attempts at walking all day. My mom came over to bring us some gatorade and orange juice. She's compassionate in ways that I am not. She believes he's in excruciating pain and I believe he probably hurts but needs to suck it up. He was milking it while she was here. Now he's stuck with his mean drill sergeant mommy again.

The Bear Hunt

2009-01-20T07:03:00.002-06:00

I have a cd of children's music that I copied from a preschool I worked at. Yes, I copied music. Let me explain. For those of you think there is no explanation, then just skip this part. We had about 25 or more children's cds. There were probably only 2-3 songs per cd that I ever used as the music teacher. So, I compiled the songs I liked onto one disk to use at the school. I had the numbers pretty much memorized so it was very easy for me to get to the right song quickly. Before I left, I made a copy for my "records."

Anyway, we have Greg and Steve's "The Bear Hunt" on it and Mikey loves it. He dances and makes up his own little moves and has a lot of fun with it. He will let us watch him do it but if we start to try to do it with him, he gets all bent out of shape. He just stops dancing and closes his eyes and shakes his head and wrinkles up his nose. It's just his own little private activity. He's not very good at sharing stuff. If ever we get a video camera thing, I'll record it. It's pretty funny.

The dark side

2009-01-19T14:38:00.005-06:00

I did not have Darth Mikey's permission to take these pictures. He was getting pretty ticked off by the end. Oh well, he got over it.

Endorsement for Seagate throat spray

2009-01-16T06:32:00.003-06:00

I've been using Seagate nose and throat spray for over a year now when I start to feel the slightest inkling of sickness. I have been so much healthier the last year. If you have ever been around me much or especially if you've ever worked with me then you know that I get sick alot. I get sinus infections, strep throat, ear infections, colds... very often. But seriously since I've been using this stuff I have been really well. I woke up yesterday morning with a tickle in my throat, which is what led to the accidental use of the anti-itch spray in my throat. I think I was so traumatized by that that I only used my real throat spray a couple of times yesterday. Last night I went to bed about 9:30 with a very sore and very red throat. I really thought it was strep throat. I've had it many times and I know what it feels like. But I woke up several times during the night and used my throat spray and nose spray and my throat feels almost normal this morning. I still don't feel great. My body is little achy and I just don't feel well. I'm not sure if I should go to the doctor or not. I hate to go and be exposed to who knows what at the doctor's office. But if what I had/have is strep throat then this stuff has basically cured it. Even if it wasn't strep, it was something very unpleasant that went away over night. And it's not a placebo because I really didn't think it wasn't going to do any good but I used it anyway. Also, there was a time a couple of years ago that I used their ear drops for an ear infection and it cleared it up without antibiotics.

I wouldn't be telling you about this stuff if I didn't whole heartedly believe that it works. You can buy the throat spray and nose spray and ear drops at the health food store next to Food Lion on Oyster Creek Dr. The store is called Peak Nutrition. The sprays are about $10-$15 a piece.

Throat spray

2009-01-15T18:23:00.002-06:00

Just in case you're not one of my facebook friends and didn't see my status today, I thought I would share this embarrassing story. Today is my 31st birthday. Not that I'm fishing for happy birthdays or anything like that. I just think it's important to note that the first thing I did when I woke up this morning was spray anti-itch spray in my throat. I actually sprayed twice before I realized something was very wrong. I really wish I had a video of myself doing this. I think it would probably be very funny to watch. I pretty much freaked out and kind of screamed and started frantically gargling water and spitting it out. My throat has felt weird all day. I'm not sure if it would have felt kind of bad today anyway or if it's the Wal-a-dryl spray. So I hope the rest of my 31st year is not full of similar sorts of calamity. Maybe it will be full of unexpected surprises. The anti-itch throat spray was certainly an unexpected surprise.

Jackson's school work

2009-01-14T20:54:00.006-06:00

Okay, I had to take a minute to post a few pictures of Jackson's recent school work. The first two were brought home today. They were done in honor of Martin Luther King. Of course I mean no disrespect to Dr. King (and I'm sure Jackson doesn't either). We all know he was an incredible man. But.....apparently he had green eyes, fangs, and two caucasian daughters. I guess they're fangs. I'm not positive about that.

UPDATE: I confirmed with Jackson this morning....these are indeed fangs. Jackson wanted Martin Luther King, Jr. to look like a vampire.

This is another drawing Jackson brought home before the Christmas break. Just read the directions and see what Jackson decided to draw. I don't think he actually read the directions very carefully. The person is crying and I'm pretty sure that's blood or entrails coming out of his body. This horrible scene was drawn inside a wreath with a happy little bow. Isn't that sweet?

Q: How did you help someone this Christmas season.
A: Well, I called 911 when they got hit by a bus....does that count?

The great homeschool debate

2009-01-14T13:25:00.004-06:00

So, I'm thinking I'm about 85% sure that we (I) will be homeschooling Jackson for 2nd grade. I need to make an absolute decision very soon. Phillip is supportive either way but thinks it's kind of my decision since I will be the one doing it. If we decide to do it, we'll take it a school year at a time. We could certainly go back to public schooling at some point. I used to be very anti-homeschooling. I didn't see any legitimate reason to do it. Now I pretty much think that it can be really great thing or a really bad thing depending on the individual situations within that family. Jackson has done extremely well in public school so far and I have no major gripes about his public school experience. But he is rather bored and unenthusiastic about school in general.

We've weighed the pros and cons that we can think of and I just really think it could be a good thing for both of us. It would provide him with much more time to spend with his entire family, including extended family, which is very important to us. And I think it will give me the chance to really hone in on his interests and help him explore those things more than can be done in a public school environment. There are lots of reason to do it. There are lots of reasons not to do it. One of the things that keeps coming up from people I talk to is the whole "social aspect." But I haven't heard a lot of real specific questions or concerns related to this. Just the worry that the child won't be "socialized." If they mean learning how to fit into a crowd even though you really couldn't care less about that crowd then I'm cool with him not mastering that. If they mean placing more of a value on friends and activities than family, then I'm okay with him skipping out on that too. Those are most of the social things I learned in school and I think it took me a lot of years to relearn what I knew when I was little. And that's that God made me who He wants me to be and I should be proud of that and not try to change myself to be what others think I should be. Our primary motivation for homeschooling would not be to shelter Jackson from "the world." It's first and foremost an opportunity to spend more meaningful time with him. Secondly, to provide him with a top notch education where he's not spending half his day sitting and waiting. And thirdly, to help him learn who he is without being told who he is by others.

I know by posting this, I'll get opinions on it and I'm totally cool with that. The decisions is ours to make but I'm not opposed to hearing what people have to say about it...good or bad.

Delayed? I don't think so.

2009-01-12T20:19:00.004-06:00

It is accurate to say that Mikey has a speech delay. It is probably even accurate to say that Mikey has a significant speech delay. I accept that as fact. I don't like it and I wish that weren't the case but I accept it. But it is not accurate to make the blanket statement that he is significantly delayed. There's a big difference between these two statements. And it's really not just semantics. He is not verbally speaking on the same level as other kids his age, granted. But he is not overall delayed. I know some of you without children or perhaps some of you with Jackson type children might think I'm overreacting. And many people may think that we are blind to the truth...unwilling or unable to see Mikey objectively. And you know, that's true. I can't totally look at my child without feeling or emotion getting in the way.

So, Mikey might not be able to speak in complete sentences yet. But here are just a few things that he can do and do very well.

- He can verbally say about 10 words...give or take...depending on his mood.
- He can sign about 20 words. He does these on his own and absolutely knows the meaning. This number could be much higher if I would get more aggressive with teaching him more signs.
- He understands just about everything we say and follows directions....if he feels like it.
- He can jump like no 2 year old you've ever seen.
- He can match shapes and colors.
- He can stack blocks very high....just so he can knock them down and do it again.
- He can throw a ball very hard and pretty accurately.
- He can run around almost the entire block...yes run, without stopping.
- He can hold my hand in the mall willingly for about 45 minutes...that's the new record.
- He can feed himself using a fork and a spoon. He holds them "correctly" and doesn't make *too* much of a mess.
- He can blow kisses and give kisses.
- He can remember things that he saw or experienced months ago.
- He can notice and point out differences in his surroundings.
- He knows what objects in the house are for and tries to use them appropriately. For example, the phone, the remote controls, toy guns, keys, vacuum cleaner, computer keyboard.....
- He can interact socially with people very well, even people he doesn't know.
- He can be sneaky and conniving.
- He can sit in one place and watch an entire Wubzy episode...or two. (We really need to limit his t.v. more.)

So when someone tells me that my kid is significantly delayed it bothers me just a little. It bothers me not because I'm scared it's the truth and unwilling to face it. It bothers me because he is so much more than his speech delay. I know that can't be ignored and must be addressed and worked on. We see an intelligence in this kid that trumps any inability to express himself verbally. I want the help and advice of others. I really do. But more than that, I want people to see the whole Mikey package and not just what he can't do...or isn't doing yet.

Mikey turned 2

2009-01-11T17:34:00.007-06:00

As I write this, it has been two years exactly since Brandon brought that beautiful baby to our home. In some ways it seems like it has passed in a blink. But on the other hand, there have been many days with this little one that I thought would never end. When Mikey was about six months old I wrote on this blog that he is fearless! That he is going to be the complete opposite from Jackson in every way. At six months old (if not before) we knew that this child was going to make us work. And he has, there's no doubt about that. But I simply cannot adequately put into words what he has brought to this family. But I'll try. He has brought hope, healing, boundless joy, love, laughter..... We love him fiercely. We love him wholly. We were made to love him. If we don't discover any other reasons to have been put on this earth other than to love and protect these two boys, that will be enough. And for Phillip and I to be privileged enough to do this job together is a gift.

In May of 2005 we were facing a very scary situation with a baby boy we ended up losing. His name was Evan and he was very wanted and loved and grieved for. During that time I wrote these words "Someday in the faces of whatever children God gives us I will see the reward. And I hope that the desperation I feel now never completely goes away. I do believe with everything that is in me that someday this will all make sense and I will feel that it has all been worth it."

I get to look into the face of one of the most gorgeous children God has ever created every day of my life. And this child didn't come from my body. He is not biologically related to me in any way. I never felt him kick or have the hiccups as he grew within me. He doesn't have my eyes or Phillip's nose or Jackson's skinny frame. And yet, he is completely ours. We could not love him more. And as hard as the road was to get to him, I can honestly say that he is absolutely worth it. I would not change one single second of my life if it meant that he couldn't be in it. I would go through it all again to get to be his mommy. I hope he always knows this.

So, here are few pictures from my baby's 2nd birthday party. Jackson and I made Mikey a birthday banner and Jackson made tags for Mikey's gifts.

Final Rinse?

2009-01-11T11:18:00.003-06:00

I bought some liquid fabric softener at the store the other day. Usually if I bother with fabric softener at all, I use the dryer sheets. I was going to use it for the first time so I read the direction to see what you even do with it. It said on the directions to add the liquid to the washing machine's final rinse.

This really perplexed me. How am I supposed to know when the washer is beginning the final rinse? Am I supposed to have some innate washing cycle sense? Should this be a part of my womanly instincts? Even more ridiculous, am I supposed to keep an eye on it so I know when it's coming? There are plenty of times I forget I even put clothes in the washing machine at all. Is the washing machine supposed to let me know one way or another when the final rinse is happening? Is there a buzzer of some sort? I just stood there as the washing machine filled with water not knowing what I should do. Should I call my mom and ask her? Maybe my mother-in-law or my friend who has an answer for everything household related.

Finally, I just decided to pour it in at the very beginning when I put the detergent in. What's the worst that could happen? And then I forgot about it. I forgot about it because later that evening I put a shirt on that had been freshly washed. It smelled better than our clothes usually smell. I was honestly confused about why this shirt smelled better. Had this shirt ended up with Jackson's clothes somehow and gotten washed at my mother-in-law's house? Then I remembered the liquid fabric softener that I put in with that load of laundry. I don't know if the shirt was actually softer or not. Probably not.

We're kind of silly

2009-01-09T23:05:00.001-06:00

You can click on it by the way if you want to actually see the pictures. It's still not real big. I ordered this for our hallway in 5X30.

I stole this from another blog

2009-01-09T07:24:00.003-06:00

But I like it. I like the song. And the video is awesome!

Hangin' with Mikey

2009-01-08T12:20:00.004-06:00

Now that Phillip and Jakson are back in school, it's just me and Mikey on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Here are a few hanging out pictures from today. Nothing spectacular, just some pictures. He's a pretty kid.

He went down for a nap way to easily today. I'm suspicious as to whether he's actually asleep or not. I wish that stupid poodle next door would shut up. That stupid poodle has woken our boys up from hundreds of naps over the years.

Some friends of our are moving

2009-01-08T08:39:00.003-06:00

Okay, our friends aren't actually moving until May or June but I'm already dreading it. I've known they were moving for a while now but it didn't really hit me until Sunday at church. I don't know if I was hormonal or what but I was having a hard time keeping it together. I was very briefly imagining "the goodbye" and it was just too much. I'm not much of a cryer most of the time. I try to avoid that if at all possible. I got home from church and had a good little cry while I was washing dishes. I hate washing dishes. Anyway, I know they won't be gone forever and I know we'll always be close but I'm still dreading it. It's like hanging over me, just this tinge of sadness that I can't really shake off. Good friends are hard to come by. Friends that feel like family are next to impossible to come by. And I don't want them to leave.

What?!?

2009-01-06T07:59:00.001-06:00

Jackson said something on the trampoline the other day that was pretty strange. I meant to come in and blog about it but then the whole pit bull thing happened. Anyway, he was jumping and he said something like, "I'm going to jump so high it'll make your grandchildren stink!"

What in the world is up with that kid?

The pit bull next door

2009-01-04T18:48:00.003-06:00

Our next door neighbors got a pit bull puppy about 5 months ago. Needless to say, we're not real happy about this. She was really little when they got her. Now she's probably at least 30 pounds and quite a bit bigger than our dog Scott. I think her name is Charra or something like that. Not sure what that means.... probably something bad. We decided that if there was going to be a pit bull next door we wanted her to like us. So we pet her from time to time and give her treats. Phillip doesn't even like dogs and he's been petting her and letting her smell his hand and stuff.

We were out in the back yard earlier this evening so the boys could jump on the trampoline. I was petting the pit bull over the chain link fence and she just decided to come right on over and play. Keep in mind that this dog is about 6 months old and she just climbed right over the fence without much effort. This is bad news, folks. We have two young kids and sissy little yorkie. Our dog is pretty big for a yorkie but he's still dinner for that dog. She probably wouldn't have climbed over the fence if I hadn't been talking to her....this time. But she is very interested in us when we're out in the back yard. I would rather her be interested in us because she likes us rather than because she wants to eat us. We thought she was going to tear Scott up for a second but she was too busy playing. Phillip grabbed Scott and zipped him up in the trampoline with the boys and went over to tell the neighbors to come get her. The owner didn't even apologize. He just said, "She doesn't bite." Are you freaking kidding me??? She's a PIT BULL for goodness sake!!!

So, I'm not really sure what we should do or if there's anything we can do. Right now she's a pretty sweet (huge) puppy but very soon she will be a terrifying dog who could kill my children if she wanted to. I'm hoping the people next door will use their brains and decide to chain her on their own. But these people have been historically very irresponsible and stupid about lots of things over the years so I'm sure this will be no different. Even if we got a privacy fence she could still climb the chain link and then just have another couple feet or so to go over the privacy fence. I'm not really sure if that would keep her out. I guess if we start to feel threatened in our yard we'll have to keep pepper spray on us just in case. I just know that if I'm out in the yard with two little boys and Scott I won't be able to protect all of us from her if she gets aggressive. We'll have to keep OFF out there to keep the mosquitos away and pepper spray to keep the pit bull away.

Do we have any legal rights that any of you know of? What should we do if she gets in our yard again? I don't know if I should call the humane dept. so it's documented or what. I really don't want to make enemies with the people next door but I am really scared of what that dog could do. I know that not all pit bulls are aggressive but they are all extremely strong with very sharp teeth.

My little graduate

2009-01-02T20:26:00.005-06:00

Okay, Jack's not really graduating from anything. I already put these on my photoblog but I had to put them here too. I think they're so funny. I was using Jackson as a guinea pig for lighting so I could snap a couple cap and gown pictures of Tori. My favorite is the one of Jackson making the "Mikey hmmmm..." face. Phillip's favorite is the first picture in the cap. He was really not pleased to be wearing the graduation cap. I am absolutely going to use one or two of these (somehow) in Jackson's senior announcement when he graduates from high school.

Mom's Little Monster

2008-12-28T20:35:00.010-06:00

That's what Mikey's shirt says. We got him this shirt, a monster truck shirt that simply says "Monster" and some monster p.j.s. Are we noticing a pattern?

He's the cutest thing.

Trampoline!

2008-12-26T07:47:00.000-06:00

Christmas Trampoline clip #1 from Phillip Hintze on Vimeo.

Hintze Christmas - 2nd batch of pictures

2008-12-25T23:12:00.006-06:00

So here are a few more pictures from today. We might have some video up eventually. The first two pictures were taken with my new (used) Canon G7. I'm not sure if she will stick around just yet. We might decide to send her back and just get a little video camera. The jury is still out.

There are a couple of interesting Phillip faces. He's very photogenic.

The last two of are of my new cool ring. It's from Nelle & Lizzy. I really like it!

Hintze Christmas morning - 1st batch of pictures

2008-12-25T11:11:00.006-06:00

I don't have time to caption all of these. I'm sure you can figure out what's going on anyway.

First picture, Mikey about to hit Scott with a tambourine...Scott cowering in anticipation.

My new (used) camera, a Canon G7. For the times I don't want to haul my real camera around.

Last picture, Mikey throwing the ball at my camera.

My favorite Christmas picture from last year

2008-12-23T20:14:00.002-06:00

Mikey with spots

2008-12-23T16:09:00.004-06:00

Way back in February of 2008 (before Mikey's adoption) Mikey had a really bad reaction to penicillin. I posted a couple of pictures of his belly and back but I couldn't post any of his face yet. I came across this a little while ago and thought it was pretty funny. Jackson was looking at the picture and he said it was making him all itchy just looking at it.

You may be wondering why I'm putting dated Mikey stuff on here. I couldn't post any pictures of him before his adoption and I have been meaning to post lots of pre-adoption pictures and just haven't gotten around to it.

Just an old Mikey picture

2008-12-23T15:23:00.004-06:00

This is what Mikey's hair used to do all the time. It started sticking up when he was about 5 months old or so and stuck up until he was a little over a year old. He's always had great hair. I'm trying to put a couple more videos on here from when he was a baby but I'm not having much luck.

Star Wars Lullaby Video

2008-12-23T09:14:00.003-06:00

I've been trying to post this video and I'm not sure if it's going to work. The quality of this video is pretty bad but it's really cute. This was taken when Mikey was a few weeks old. Jackson was holding him and humming Star Wars music to him. It looks like Jackson almost falls asleep there at the end. I don't think I've posted this before.

Don't go to jail.

2008-12-20T18:33:00.003-06:00

Jackson and I got out this evening and did a little shopping. We were both pretty moody and on edge by the time we were finished. Actually I was probably moody and on edge before we even went but that's beside the point. We were leaving the Office Max parking lot and I could tell that the exit I was attempting to use was going to take forever so I decided to back up....way up....back to the parking lot. Anyway, I told Jackson that I was probably going to get pulled over by a cop for doing that. And I told Jackson that I would just have to tell that cop to back off and get back in his car and leave me alone because I am in a bad mood!...or something along those lines. Jackson said that I would get arrested if I did that. So that led into our conversation about going to jail.

I basically told him that jail isn't a cool place to hang out. I told him about the bad food, bad beds, mean people, no video games, etc, etc. And then I told him that he should plan on never going to jail. He said he was too young to go jail and that you have to be legally 10 to go to jail. I said, "Yeah, you're right."

Where does he come up with this stuff? Legally 10? Is 10 an adult to him?

The day we got Mikey

2008-12-19T09:27:00.003-06:00

Other people talk about when they "had" their babies or possibly "having" more babies. We have to use the words "got" and "get" when we're talking about adding kids to our family. It's kind of funny to me now. When I say, "When we got Mikey....." or "If we get more children...." to someone who doesn't know he's adopted, I get some confused looks.

For some reason I've been thinking a lot lately about when we first got Mikey. Phillip and I are still in awe of him. Maybe not daily but at least weekly one of says something about how we can't believe he's really ours. It just still seems too good to be true. He was given to us almost 2 years ago. That's just so hard to believe.

We received the call at about 2:30 on January 11, 2007 that they would be bringing a newborn boy to our house. I called a friend and asked if she would pick up some newborn diapers, wipes, and pacifiers. I told her I would pay her back. She showed with half of Wal-Mart's baby department and wouldn't hear of letting me pay her anything. She brought about 4 different kind of pacifiers because "we don't know which kind he'll like."

At about 5:15 he was here. A young, handsome black man brought Mikey to our house. We sometimes joke that "the stork" is a young black man. His name was Brandon. I'll never forget his name or his face. I wanted to hug him but I didn't.

When Brandon brought him to our house, the baby was in a carrier covered with a blanket. We couldn't see him right away. We were both terrified to lift the blanket. The worker went outside to get some paperwork and when he stepped out we took a peek. All of our fears of having to love a child who wasn't as cute as we were went right out the window. We could tell right away that he was beautiful beyond measure. More beautiful than any baby had a right to be. We were amazed by his eyelashes. They just looked too long to even be real. My mom was already at our house hanging out with Jackson while Brandon was making his delivery. As soon as he left, we called Phillip's parents and they came right over. I wouldn't be surprised if they were pacing by the phone when we called.

Our parents were there when we undressed him to take a look at him and change his diaper for the firsts time. I was so moved by how they loved him instantly with a reckless abandon that we were unable to muster right away. I was scared to kiss him at first, scared to say the words "I love you" to him. It felt wrong doing those things to someone else's baby. Phillip's dad was the first one I heard say those words to him. And that just opened the flood gates for him to be our son.

Against strict foster parent guidelines, Mikey slept in our bed that first night right next to me. I tried to get him to sleep in the bassinet and he wouldn't. I don't know if I slept much but he slept perfectly.

Here are some pictures of the night we got Mikey. I was noticeable fatter then.

Does your doggie need treats?

2008-12-17T06:44:00.003-06:00

Our friend, Anna, who is 9 (I think) is making home made doggie treats to sell. She is using this money to help her older brother and sister go to Kenya on a mission trip. If you would like to help out Anna and her brother and sister by buying some special Anna's Secret Recipe doggie treats, visit.....

The Stunz Family Blog

She might even be able to get you some made before Christmas if you act quickly. Tell your friends.

Nana & Granddad

2008-12-17T01:18:00.008-06:00

We tried to get a picture of Donald and Debbie and the boys for their Christmas card. I bought cute shirts for the boys that they'll never wear again. We managed to get one or two in their "formal wear" that are okay. Here's one. Notice the sucker in Mikey's mouth as a deterrent to freaking out.

Then after that ordeal was over (aka, we gave up), the boys stripped and started to play. I got the camera out again and took some pictures. I just love these. This is the real relationship between these four people. No tucked in shirts and sweater vests. No sitting still saying "cheese" for the camera. Just playing. Notice Donald's Underdog t-shirt. Also, very typical.

This is the card. I think it's pretty cute.

Ummm...okay

2008-12-16T11:47:00.002-06:00

Jackson is home "sick." He has strep throat but he's acting like he feels totally fine. When he's home sick we let him play a lot of video games. I know that's probably not the best thing for him to be doing with his time but whatever. Anyway, he has conned me in to playing some Wii sports stuff with him. I just killed him in bowling and now he's wanting to take me on in tennis. I told him I was going to wipe the floor with him. And he said, "Oh, yeah, I'm gonna clean your head with a mop!"

Okay....

So, now I'm going to go crush him in tennis.

BTW, his tennis "technique" is awesome. He just waves his hand as fast as he can without stopping. And he kind of dances around all crazy while he's doing this. He totally wears himself out.

Away

2008-12-12T18:16:00.003-06:00

We are away. We are away from our kids and our jobs. We are away from our somewhat disheveled home. We are away from laundry. We are away from road construction. We won't be away for long and we aren't very far away. But we are very glad to be away from everything else.

Just stuff

2008-12-10T06:27:00.003-06:00

Phillip and I are running away this weekend. I wish it was today. I'm ready to go right now. We're just going to Houston Friday afternoon and coming home (maybe) Sunday afternoon. We'll be doing some Christmas shopping, eating, relaxing, and other stuff. I got a cheap hotel on priceline several weeks ago. It's a 4 star in a junkie neighborhood. Hopefully we don't get mugged or whatever.

Our driveway is done and it's so nice to have not only a driveway but a double driveway at that. This feels like such a luxury to us right now now. Weird. We're going to look into getting the house painted soon. I'll probably call a few people out for estimates once the Christmas craziness is over. We need to get some rotting boards replaced before the painting happens. I told Jackson we might be getting the house painted and asked him if he had any suggestions about the color. Without skipping a beat, he said, "Maybe palm tree green. Like the leaves of the palm tree, not the stem." I'll have to see if they have that color at Lowes.

Last night I totally freaked Jackson out. We were driving home from Philllip's parents house at about 8:30 and I told Jackson I was really tired. I told him that I thought I would just take a nap. I started fake snoring while I was driving. At first he was laughing and thought it was a joke. But then he started to get a little worried and started telling me to wake up. I ignored him and kept snoring. This went on until he finally screamed in terror for me to WAKE UP!!! Oh man, it was really funny.

We still have no Christmas decorations up. I've been too busy to push the issue and Phillip is kind of a scrooge. He will be getting the stuff down on Thursday. We'll see how that goes with Mikey. We kind of need a new tree anyway.

And the driveway was happy.

2008-12-10T00:02:00.005-06:00

There once was a driveway and the driveway loved two little boys. And everyday they would come and draw on the driveway and eat the chalk. They would run and dance and bounce balls. And the boys loved the driveway very much. And the driveway was happy.

Inspired by The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.

'Tis the Season

2008-12-07T19:28:00.003-06:00

This is a really busy time of year in the photography business. I think I'm almost past my busiest time of the year. It's been fun but I'm tired. We still haven't gotten out any Christmas decorations. We need to get that done this week. I second shot a wedding last night. I've been doing a few of those here and there. It's really good experience and kind of fun. I'm not sure if the wedding thing is growing on me or not. I'm proud to say that I got hit on last night at the wedding by a less than attractive man. If he had actually been cute, I might have been flattered....still unwilling and uncomfortable, but flattered none the less. Instead I was annoyed. He started calling me "Ice Queen." Nice.

So, that's what's been going on in my life lately. Not a whole lot to write home about.

Today is new driveway day!!

2008-12-04T08:46:00.002-06:00

I'm so excited! We're finally getting a new double driveway. We've been wanting to do this since we bought this old house. Jackson liked our old cracked driveway for some reason. I'll totally post pictures once they're done. I know you can't wait for that. It will be a huge canvas for the kids to color on....just what a driveway is meant for.

My truck isn't as toast as I thought

2008-11-21T18:33:00.002-06:00

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.

my truck is toast

2008-11-20T20:46:00.003-06:00

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

2008-11-20T10:29:00.002-06:00

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.

6:00 a.m.

2008-11-18T06:32:00.002-06:00

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.

Too cold to live

2008-11-16T07:48:00.002-06:00

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.

What I've been up to

2008-11-15T06:54:00.003-06:00

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.

This and that

2008-11-10T06:26:00.006-06:00

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.

Decision 2008

2008-11-05T07:01:00.003-06:00

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.

Rock Star Babes, okay, maybe not

2008-10-31T16:53:00.003-05:00

So, this is how my teaching partner, Holly and myself dressed for Halloween this morning at the preschool. Yeah, kind of scary, I know. I think we decided that our band name was "Hearts Aflame" or something lame like that. My name was Sasha. If you think this is scary, you should have seen two of the other 4 year old teachers. They were dressed like members of the band Kiss. Seriously. At a preschool. I kind of like being a blonde.

The Bridge

2008-10-28T07:04:00.003-05:00

I'm a little late posting about this. Many of my other blogger friends have already told you about this.

Anyway, a group of amazing kids from Kenya came to Lake Jackson over the weekend. They are a group of orphans and vulnerable children who are sharing their love of God through song and dance. They are with a group call The Daraja Children's Choir. Daraja means bridge in Swahili. (I think it's Swahili...it's Swahili, right?) They came to our church and it was just incredible. There aren't words. Their joy is infectious. As I heard their stories and watched them sing and dance I just couldn't keep the tears from coming.

I had the honor of meeting three of the young ladies the day they came in at the Stunz's house. I went over with the boys for a little visit. The girls, Marci, Rahab, and Gladys loved playing with Mikey's floppy hair. They were really interested in knowing more about his adoption. They wanted to know what happened to his mother. They wanted to know when we would talk to him about being adopted. Hard questions. I didn't want to leave that night. Jackson didn't want to leave either. He asked me on the way out to the car if he could stay and spend the night. There's just something about being around these children that is just indescribable. You can just feel the presence of God when you are around them. It's like their love of God is not snuffed out by all of the other junk of life. I think in many of our lives, you can maybe see a glimmer of Jesus every now and then. With these kids it is just an ever present radiance that they carry. I want that. I don't know how to get that.

Randy spoke on Sunday about injustice. That is one passionate man! He spoke about the orphan and the widow and the hungry. How are we helping? We can't try to solve every bit of injustice, but we need to do something. And what am I doing? Just doing what I can to keep my own life rolling along most of the time. I have such a heart for kids, especially kids who are orphaned. I have an ache lately to adopt another child, maybe a little bit older child. I know adopting one child doesn't help the many and it doesn't really solve any global problem. But it does help the one. Adoption is rescue but it is so much more than that. Seeing these Kenyan children, many of whom are orphans, just made this desire to adopt again even stronger. Adopting from Kenya or any other country is not realistic for us at this point. There are many orphans right here in our county. There are orphans who nobody wants because of their age or race or abilities or past. They are unwanted because of the label put on them on paper. If we ever were to adopt again, Phillip and I would have to be unified in this desire. We're not there yet. We may never be there. Maybe I'm just living with my head in the clouds. Maybe it's not right for us right now. Maybe our family is complete. I'm not sure what our part is or how we should act. I guess we need to pray. We may not have a lot to give financially at this point in our lives. We do have abundant love to give. This is not meant to be a guilt trip aimed at Phillip or anyone unsure about adoption. It's just where my heart is right now. I don't know how to make it go away.

These children from Kenya touched so many while they were here. I think their presence here stirred something in everyone who encountered them. For me, they boosted my desire to adopt. For others, the desire is to give financially. Others will feel the need to go on an overseas mission trip. Many people are changed from meeting these kids. I hope we won't let it fade. I hope we will seize the desires put in our hearts and know how to make sense of them. I hope we will seek and find our individual ways to act.

I'm lazy at relationships

2008-10-27T07:23:00.002-05:00

I'm kind of a passive friend at times. I'm one of those friends that you have to make an effort to be friends with. I'm sure at times it's not worth it and I totally understand. I'm not good at remembering birthdays, inviting people over, or needing to hang out regularly. If I've got two or three people I'm deeply connected with, that's great. I don't feel the need to have a huge circle of friends. But I do have a lot of friends who I really don't stay in contact with all that much. These are people that I genuinely love and miss being around. It just seems that there aren't enough hours in the day to actively pursue deep friendships and I'm just simply not interested in the surface level stuff. And so that's partly why I blog. I know that I can sit down in about 10 minutes and tell all that's going on in my life and whoever wants to read it, can. Then hopefully I won't have to tell everyone who cares about what's going on because they'll already know. Saves time. So occasionally I come across a friend or family member who asks me how I've been and what's been going on. My first thought is to tell them to read my blog. And I get annoyed that they don't read it. If they had a blog, I would add it to my feed reader and read every new post. I want to say, "Well, if you actually care what's going on, then read my blog." That's very lazy of me. So if I've ever said this to you, I'm sorry. I take for granted that other people aren't wired the way that I am. Some people need to sit down and have conversations over coffee or whatever. And I like that too I just don't have time to sit down with everyone regularly. I'm cool with writing about my life and reading about yours and hoping that will keep us connected on some level. That's probably not the way to try to have relationships with people.

Jackson unleashed

2008-10-26T21:58:00.003-05:00

Jackson now has his own computer. He has my hand me down imac. Now that he has his own computer, he has decided to start his own blog. He made his first post a little while ago. What you see on his blog is dictated by him and typed by me or Phillip. We will try to get him to post several times a week. Should be interesting. We will pretty much type exactly what he says. He has a poll on there right now for you to take a look at.

We're thinking it wold be best to prompt him with questions about stuff from time to time. So if you have any questions that you would like answered by Jackson, post your question in his comments section. It will have to be stuff on a six year old level and you should expect a six year old answer. We'll probably get him to define words occasionally or tell a story or just different stuff. So if you have any ideas, just let him know. Just keep it clean and keep it on his level. He's pretty bright but he's a first grader.

24" imac

2008-10-24T18:41:00.000-05:00

I just got a new computer. It's awesome. That is all.

Jackson: sensitive and demanding

2008-10-24T06:58:00.002-05:00

A week or so ago I was looking at the pictures I took of the boys out at Varner Hogg. Jackson came in and wanted to look at the pictures too. We got to a few of Mikey. I said something like,"Aren't we so glad that we have a Mikey?" ....or something along those lines. Anyway, Jackson's eyes welled up with tears and he nodded. I asked him if he was crying and he said, "I just love Mikey so much and I'm glad he's here.".....or something along those lines. We both just sat there with tears in our eyes looking at pictures of two brothers put together by a God who knows exactly what he's doing.

Flip the coin over.

This morning I was asking Jackson what he wanted for breakfast. I gave him a couple of choices, one of which was pizza. I know, pizza for breakfast, what a way to start your day. Anyway, he said he wanted pizza. A little while later I started fixing their breakfast and I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing. I fixed him a waffle and told him to sit down and eat. He looked at his plate with a look of disgust and said, "I ordered pizza." A few minutes later after he started eating his "order" I heard him yell from the other room, "Where's my drink?!"

Now I lay me down to sleep

2008-10-23T22:52:00.002-05:00

I found out about the non-profit organization NILMDTS or Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep today. I didn't know this kind of thing existed. This is an organization that pairs professional photographers with families who have just lost a baby or know that they will be loosing a baby soon. The photographer captures the moments that the family has with their little one in the hospital or in their home. It is totally voluntary and the photographer gives the family a CD of their images for free. When I found out about this I knew I had to try to volunteer. I filled out a request this afternoon to be a part of this. I got an approval e-mail a little while ago. Needless to say this would be extremely difficult for anyone to do. And I will be no exception. But I can't not do this. I know first hand how precious those moments are. I'm really glad I found out about this.

Made it through day one

2008-10-21T14:10:00.002-05:00

Today was super easy at the preschool. I put a few pictures on my photoblog if you care to look. I'll be posting more tomorrow and the next day.

Busy few days

2008-10-21T05:53:00.002-05:00

Today, Wednesday, and Thursday I will be taking school pictures for a preschool in Angleton. I got this gig from a photographer who used to live nearby but has since moved to the Houston area. It's a pretty big deal for me. I'll be photographing over 100 kids and the school staff. It will all be outdoors because I don't have (and don't want) a studio set up. I'm also offering some slots on Thursday afternoon/evening for people to come back for sibling or family shots. I sent home waivers for parents to sign so I'm hoping I'll have lots of new faces for my photo blog and website. I'm offering packages that they have *hopefully* preselected prior to seeing their picture. I'll snap a few of each kid and only edit my favorite and that will be their package picture. I thought about doing the proof thing and ordering after the fact but decided against it. I need this to go well. I'm a little worried because I'm coming down with a cold kind of thing and I'm loosing my voice again.

Next week I'm doing the same kind of thing at a daycare in L.J. That will be more kids in one day. I'm hoping to establish relationships with these two facilities so they will contact me in the future for their pictures. I'm also planning on sending out flyers to every preschool in L.J., Clute, and Freeport.

So I guess we'll see how it goes. I think I'll wear my lucky flip flops.

True Humanitarians

2008-10-20T06:49:00.002-05:00

I saw this on a friend's blog and thought you might like to see it. I think you will be truly touched by their act of good will. These guys will grab your heart. I bet these boys are a handful.

So, yeah, not quite sure what to make of this. I will steer clear of boy scouts from now on.

Soon and very soon

2008-10-16T06:18:00.002-05:00

My current computer needs to be replaced...bad. It was a great computer when we got it however many years ago. It's an imac of some sort. I'm not even going to attempt to tell you anything specific about it because I have no idea. All I know is that's it's barely able to function anymore. I've got a lot of stuff running on it. Photo editing takes me easily twice as long as it should because of this thing. The "spinning circle of death" is my worst enemy right now. So the plan is to replace this sucker some time in November or December. I'll be getting one of the new 13" macbooks and a new monitor. I'll also be getting the latest version of photoshop and aperture. I was really hoping to upgrade some of my camera equipment but the computer situation is more dire. I still might be able to upgrade the camera anyway. It just depends on how the next couple of months goes with the business. My current camera is fine but that doesn't make me want an upgrade any less. I've really never been much of an accumulator until this photography thing happened.

Jackson knows that when I get a new computer, this current computer will become his. For a 6 year old to have his own mac is pretty cool, I think. Once I get all my stuff off of it, Phillip's going to reformat it or something. I'm seriously totally inept when it comes to technical computer jargon....sorry Phillip. I told Jackson yesterday that I will be getting a new computer soon and he was pretty excited. He decided it would be an even better idea if he gets the new computer and I just keep using the one that I have. He says that he needs a laptop so he can take it with him wherever he goes. Dream on, kid. So we'll set him up with his own desk and stuff in the office. He will be able to go to http://www.hasbro.com/starwars to his heart's content. Actually, his internet time will be closely supervised and limited and all that unfun stuff.

I'm getting pretty busy lately. I've got the next seven Saturdays booked or partially booked and some other days sprinkled here and there. I'm afraid I'm going to get a Christmas rush soon and I'm hoping I don't have to turn people away. I guess that would be a nice problem to have. I've also got six wedding gigs between now and February. Only two of those weddings are actually my bookings. I'll be second shooting on the others for a local wedding photographer. That is a great way for me to get wedding experience without the pressure of perfection.

Mikey just woke up so that means my day has officially begun. It won't officially end until around 11:00 p.m. I better get started.

The dog needs a bath

2008-10-14T07:14:00.002-05:00

Scott has probably gained about 8 lbs. since we got him. Every time Mikey is in his highchair Scott sits right there next to it waiting to gobble up anything Mikey drops or throws. The dog will eat pretty much anything. Since he does this he often gets food dropped or thrown on top of him. We have found taco meat stuck in his fur, chicken nugget pieces, bread.... He's got a glob of dried yogurt stuck in his fur right now. That happened yesterday and I haven't had a chance to bathe him yet. Scott is starting to get pretty fat. I used to take him on regular walks but since they've been working on our street I haven't been doing that. I don't want him tracking dirt and mud in the house. Once the street construction is done, Scott needs to start exercising and loose some of that gut.

I've got a hankering

2008-10-12T22:42:00.002-05:00

BTW, I did not take this photograph. You can click on the picture to follow the link to this person's flickr page.

Canon AE-1
Originally uploaded by Jumbo Jack

I would like to get a film camera. I think it would be fun to play around with. I was watching Spiderman and Peter Parker was using a film camera. This is one that would be pretty cool. I just think it's cute and I'm sure it can take pretty good pictures if you know what you're doing. This particular Canon film camera does not use the same kind of lenses that I currently have. If I get a film camera, I'll most likely get one of the older model Canon EOS Elans or something.

The problem is that if I got one and took a roll of film with it, then I would have no idea what to actually do with the film. Processing film at our house is not really going to be a possibility. I guess it kind of defeats the purpose of having one of these if you can't process the film yourself. Can you still take film to Target?

I guess spending $200 on a toy isn't very practical. I guess I need to do some more research.

The one for the Christmas card

2008-10-12T16:19:00.004-05:00

I guess it's nice to know that I have our Christmas card pictures out of the way. One less thing to worry about. This is the picture of them together. The only one.

Hintze boys fall '08 photo shoot attempt #2

2008-10-12T00:15:00.003-05:00

I tried to take some pictures of Jackson and Mikey about a week ago. It did not work out. We tried again this morning and things went much better. Still certainly not the best shoot I've ever had but I'll take it. I think I got one useable picture of the two of them together. Jackson did not feel like cooperating and when he did bother to smile, he looked pretty geeky. And Mikey, well, he was just Mikey. All in all, it was good and I'm glad we gave it a try. Here's a very silly one of Jack. The more I look at it, the scarier it looks.

If you would like to see more, you can go to my photoblog.

To the Mall with Mikey

2008-10-10T20:28:00.003-05:00

I went to the Mall this evening with Mikey for about an hour. One hour. I just had to get out of the house. I was feeling totally claustrophobic and tense. I don't really know why I thought going to the Mall with Mikey would ease that. Phillip stayed home and cleaned up the house. We went to the little kid play area. Here is what Mikey accomplished while we were there.

1. Sprinted out of the play area at least 15 times - He runs as fast as he can for as far as he can before I catch him.

2. Tackled another toddler

3. Stole lots of shoes and either ran away with them or threw them randomly

4. Ripped people's bags away from them and threw them

5. Stole a cell phone and ran away with it

6. Got plowed into about three times by very large children - When this happens he basically shakes it off, smiles, and runs away as fast as he can.

7. Stole an unattended drink cup and poured the ice out and proceeded to eat all the ice off of the floor until it was gone

Now keep in mind that I hardly sat down the whole time we were there. This didn't all happen under lackadaisical supervision. I was running all over the place to keep him from or stop him from doing all the things listed above. Now, as gross as it is, I let number 7 slide. Eating someone else's ice off the ground kept him busy enough to not do the other things on the list for about 12 minutes. I think one of these days I need to hire a videographer to follow me around. Someday I might think the whole thing is pretty funny. I don't think I'll try the Mall thing again solo. The problem is that Mikey really needs to get out of the house sometimes. He gets really antsy and bored here. But he's just next to impossible to take anywhere so I'm not quite sure what the answer is. I need to take him to a really big field that's several miles in ever direction and just let him run.

It's a good thing he's cute.

For You

2008-10-10T07:19:00.002-05:00

I have to be honest, most of the school work that Jackson brings home ends up filed away in the trash can. I know that probably makes me a horrible mother and I'm okay with that. He brings home 5-10 papers every school day and I just don't know what else to do with them. But occasionally he makes something worth saving.

Look how lovely. In the first picture the man is saying "for you" and handing the other man something. It better not be a honeycrisp apple he's handing him. We don't share those with our friends. I'll have to ask Jackson about that. In the second picture the man is punching the other guy's lights out. I suppose those are tears. I'm really glad its tears and not blood.

The message here is "Give to others instead of punching them in the face." If only things were that simple.

Honeycrisp, The best apples on the planet

2008-10-10T06:35:00.005-05:00

Honeycrisp apples are back in season. Maybe they have been for a little while but I just noticed. I noticed at H.E.B. last week after I had already checked out and was leaving the store. I considered, for a moment, grabbing them and getting back in line even though Mikey's head was spinning around. Instead I just grabbed a few and ran out of the store without paying. They're that good. I promise. They're worth risking jail time for. Actually, I got my first Honeycrisp apples this season yesterday at Kroger.

Debbie first told me about these apples a year or so ago. The way she was talking about them, it sounded like they were Eden's forbidden fruit or something. I was thinking, "Come on, they're just apples. How good can they possibly be?" Unbelievably good. That's how good.

If you would like to read about genetic fingerprinting and parentage of the Honeycrisp Apples, you can read that here.

And now I'm going to go have a nice breakfast of honeycrisp apple, strawberries, caramel rice cakes, and coffee. Yum.

Made of devil

2008-10-09T19:09:00.002-05:00

Jackson has made a pretty good friend at school. They seem to have equal interest in video games and Star Wars. This kid told Jackson that he has a Wii and a Play Station 2 and that his mommy lets him play whenever he wants to. Jackson says that this kid's mommy always says "yes." Well, good for her. That should work out nicely for her.

Anyway, these two have been trying to get together to play video games after school and that hasn't materialized for obvious reasons. Like I don't know this kid's parents and they don't know us. Anyway, today Jackson told us that this kid told him that he actually doesn't have a video game system. Since all Jackson wants to talk about is video games, I guess this kid felt like he had to lie to find some common ground with Jackson. That's kind of sad. But the kicker is that not only did this kid say he had this stuff but doesn't, he also said today that "video games are made of devil." Not of the Devil. But made of devil. So, devil is now an adjective? So, I'm not exactly sure where this leaves their friendship. It seems that this would be a deal breaker for Jackson. Jackson was quick to tell him that video games are not made of devil. You know this kid didn't make this up on his own. This is probably something one of his parents said, which further confirms that Jackson will not be going to their house. As much as Jackson talks about video games, you might think it is all he does when he's at home. He actually only gets to play on Mon, Wed, and Sat for 30 minutes. Occasionally, if friends come over or if he goes to a friend's house he is able to play on a non "video game day."

So, devil has apparently made its way into our home via video games. That stinks.

Toddler

2008-10-07T07:15:00.005-05:00

Mikey has now moved from the crib to a toddler bed. I know Phillip thought I was nuts for even thinking about trying to transition him out of his crib yet. I kind of thought I was nuts too but much to our surprise, it's working out great. We just gate him in his room and tell him to go to sleep. After about 30 seconds or so of crying at the gate and then another 15-20 minutes of goofing off in his room, he gets in his bed and goes to sleep. Not too bad. This kid has always slept and ate really well.

Mikey now signs "I love you" when he feels like it. Like everything that he does, he must be in the mood and it must be on his terms. He has mood swings like you would not believe. One minute he can be throwing a huge fit and 10 seconds later he can be laughing and playing. Phillip mentioned that he had a really moody co-worker one time who took some herb to help stabilize his mood. Now I forgot what it was. Maybe I need to get some of whatever it is for Mikey and myself. We're both quite moody.

Just in case you didn't know this by now, Mikey is one of those so called "strong-willed children." My friend, Erin gave me three books to maybe help me have a little insight into how to handle him. I told Jackson that these books might help me learn how to be a better mommy to Mikey. I also tried to explain to Jackson what it means to be strong-willed. Jackson has asked me several times if I have figured anything out yet. All I have figured out so far is that the people who wrote these books are describing Mikey to a T. Yesterday Jackson called Mikey "Strong-willed Mikey." So the challenge will be to form his will without breaking his spirit or something like that. Honestly, sometimes I would settle for breaking his spirit if I could. I hope whatever teachers he's going to have in his life are going to ready for him. It's so funny that I thought Jackson was so obedient because of my wonderful parenting skills. That's just his nature. You could say that Mikey's nature is quite different.

Phillip and I are amazed at the extremes that are in Mikey. He is one of the most beautiful children we have ever seen. And that is balanced out with being one of the most challenging children we have ever encountered. As a photographer, I love having this beautiful little "subject" always around for me to photograph. But taking a good picture of Mikey is like taking a good picture of Big Foot.

Out takes

2008-10-04T17:10:00.003-05:00

After photographing those beautiful little girls on Thursday morning I decided to try to get a few shots of my boys together. I thought it would be so nice to have some cute shots of the boys together in their geeky little clothes. What was I thinking?! We were there for about five minutes before Mikey threw himself backwards onto the gravel kicking and screaming. I took 18 pictures before we called it quits. With the girls we had a wonderful, relaxed 2 hour shoot. I took over 200 pictures and had a hard time narrowing it down. With my boys, 5 minutes, 18 not-to-pretty-good pictures. Here are the out takes. I only got out takes. The one of Jackson is cute but it's not really sharp enough and he's being cheesy. If I ever try this again I'll make sure they don't wear white socks.

Pants on fire

2008-10-02T07:07:00.002-05:00

Jackson has been lying lately. And it's not even about anything important. He's just been lying about stupid little insignificant stuff. It's like he's testing the waters or something to see if he can get away with fooling me. So far, I've caught him many times.... probably every time. It helps that he's really bad at it. I can't believe my offspring is so bad at this art but I'm glad he is. I wish I could post a picture of his "lying face" so you all could recognize it if you see it. He won't make eye contact first of all, and he kind of shrugs his shoulders a little and twists his head all weird and opens his mouth funny. All of these things are subtle but they're there.

He told my mom some long drawn out story the other night about the four of us and Phillip's parents and brother flying to New York City. He totally had her going until he told her that the bottom of the plane opened up where lots of cars were being stored for people to drive away in. He even told her that we visited the Statue of Liberty and described to her what she looks like. Just now he lied to me about how many kit kats he ate yesterday. I put two in his lunch box and he told me that he just ate one. He won't be getting any kit kats in his lunch today because of it. I just want to say, "Come on, dude! If you're going to lie, make it worth it!!" Right now I'm working on catching him every time. I want him to be totally convinced that I can tell when he's lying. And I plan on taking away video game time or something else every time I catch him at it. I told him that God knows when he's lying and that I know when he's lying and that it really hurts our feelings. This wouldn't bother some kids but Jackson takes the feelings hurting business pretty seriously. I really want him to stop this before it becomes a habit.

So keep your eye out for the look I described. And call him on it. Remind him that he's really bad at lying and he should just give it up and move on to something he's better at.

Shawshank Redemption

2008-09-29T15:53:00.003-05:00

Jackson told me on the way home from school that he and another little boy are "working on plans to escape from school and run to our house and play video games." I told him that he and his little friend can pretend and try to think of cool ways to escape but that they better not actually do it. I told him he would get in trouble if he ran away from school and he asked how much trouble. I guess I need to make sure he's not sneaking off with any kind of ropes or sharp objects in his backpack in the mornings.

Needless to say, he's still not a huge fan of school. He hasn't been crying lately so I guess we're making progress.

Jackson quote

2008-09-29T13:29:00.002-05:00

Regarding his new game "The Force Unleashed" for Wii:

"I want to play as Darth Vader's apprentice and destroy Master Ron Cuta. He (Ron) is pretty skilled. I've played as him before on dual mode. That's the challenge I'm looking forward to." - Jackson Hintze

Just a thought

2008-09-29T06:12:00.003-05:00

I woke up at 3:00 this morning with a crazy idea. I'm thinking I might audition for Brazosport Center Stages. I missed the audition for "Clue the Musical" by about a week. And I don't think they're having another musical until April. Knowing me, I'll think about this for a few days/weeks and then decide against it. But right now I'm thinking it might be something fun to try. I pretty much hate watching musicals but it could be fun to be one of the performers. And I basically have no fear on stage and I don't really mind looking like an idiot. So anyway, just thought I would share my crazy 3:00 a.m. idea.

Put it in your head

2008-09-27T09:17:00.004-05:00

Phillip told me about some "worship video" this morning that's pretty insane. I had to look it up and see for myself and it is truly something to behold. I think the guy kind of looks and sounds like Jack Black except for his ridiculous hair-do. Okay, and what's the deal with the drummer's forehead? Is it just me or does it look like he has a huge bandage on his head? And the way the lead "singer" says "air" is hilarious. Messesah??? What the heck does that mean? Some of the people are really working themselves in to a holy frenzy. And some look like they feel like they should....idiots. Give him glory!!! We love the Lordy?? Praise him with your socks!!! (He didn't actually say that but I wish he had) Wow, I'm flabbergasted. Go ahead and and watch/listen to the whole 9 minute love-train wreck. Come on, you know you want to. I want you to have this song in your head all day too.

I know there will be some of you who will say that it doesn't matter how we worship just as long as we worship. I know there will be those that will say we shouldn't judge the songs or ways that people praise God. I hear you, I really do. But this kind of thing makes Christians look like complete idiots. Of course I can't (shouldn't) speculate what Jesus thinks about this whole thing. But I'm thinking he might be saying, "Dude, put your socks back on. Your feet reek."

Stressed

2008-09-24T13:47:00.003-05:00

Okay, let me preface this by saying that we have power at our house. So all these gripes are being made in air conditioning. That may make some of my friends without power want to beat me over the head with a big stick. Some day (very soon I hope) your power will come back on and you'll be free to gripe about some things in air conditioning too. So, please forgive me.

This morning we had some kind of alarm clock malfunction (or mis-operation). We woke up at 7:40. I have to be at the preschool at 8:00 on Wednesday mornings. Jackson has to be at his school by 7:50. And Phillip was supposed to be at his school in Houston at 7:50 or something like that. Needless to say, I woke up and started totally freaking out! I basically just thew some clothes on and brushed my teeth and left. Jackson got up and dressed and Phillip took him to school crying. Jackson ate about half of a thrown together sandwich in the car. It was a pretty bad morning.

I was really stressed out about my pre-school stuff until my kids starting coming in. We have the absolutely best class of 4 year olds that could possibly exist. Each of these children is insanely well behaved and polite and ridiculously cute. I'm already falling in love with all of them and there are a few I want to bring home and keep. Thankfully they're wonderful because all of the planning involved for this class is really tough. I'm not much of a planner/organizer kind of person. I have had to step into that role this year and it is really stretching me. I wish I could just play with the kids, sing songs with them, and just love them for three hours but that's not what I'm getting paid to do. Since we missed almost 2 weeks with them we're having to redo our planning stuff and figure out how we're going to make up what we missed. The whole thing is just really stressful to me. I know it will come together eventually. I'm really glad I have this job to bring in a little extra income because......

Things are really slow with the photography business right now. I'm not sure when people are going to be concerned with getting pictures done in light of all the Hurricane Ike mess. I know people have much more important things to be concerned with right now. I'm really hoping things pick up as Christmas approaches.

Today I got home to realize that they have started tearing up the street right in front of our house. This is the side of the street that you could drive on before today. Yes, that means that there is a section of our street that is totally impassible. So now I can't go the wrong way that way anymore. But I'll have to go the wrong way to come home. Surprisingly, this actually makes me happy because mean old man across the street is going to have to drive the wrong way down the street too. I think I'm going to go out and yell at him the first time I see him doing it. Sweet justice. I've decided that if he comes out yelling at me and wagging his finger at me like I'm a dog again I'm going to walk over there and drop kick him. I could, you know.

Jackson hates school. He cries and begs us to let him stay home. I don't know what the deal is. He is not having trouble with the work at all. He's extremely bright and well behaved. His teacher seems very nice. I'm hoping he settles into his new routine in the next few weeks. It's breaking our hearts to have to take him to school crying. I didn't like school when I was little either. I remember the anxiety that I would feel to have to go. I just don't want him to have this dread in his life. He's too little to feel this way. We may look into home schooling him for 2nd grade. It's just so hard to know what the right thing is for him. He has always loved learning. He is very creative and articulate. I want to preserve that in him not squash it like a bug. Mikey also hates his "school." I'm considering pulling him out. I just don't think he's ready. His BACH therapist is going to observe him in his class next Tuesday so she can help me make a decision. We don't want to coddle our kids. We know that isn't going to help them in the long run. We also want them to feel secure and have a positive outlook. Being a parent is so hard.

Our elderly neighbor

2008-09-23T13:11:00.004-05:00

Our street is currently under construction. It's a good thing because it will be really nice to have new streets and sidewalks. But right now it's a total mess. Here's a picture taken from the street in front of our house. This was after we got back from evacuating from Ike. You can see the tree down in the last house on the right. The people on the torn up side park in the front yards of the non-torn up side. When they start on our side, we'll park in their front yard.

Anyway, just in the last week our old man neighbor across the street has apparently gotten a "bee in his bonnet." Maybe he's just ticked off that he still doesn't power. The other day he chewed our friend Andrea for speeding down the street and driving the wrong direction. The speed limit is 20 and that's about as fast as you can possibly go without bottoming out in the many pot holes all over the place. Andrea was probably doing about 15 mph when he came out and started yelling at her. He has yelled to me and Phillip that he's written down our license plate numbers and is calling City Hall about us. Uh, City Hall? In my opinion he's just making a fool of himself standing out there in the yard watching people "break the law" all day. Seriously, get another hobby.

And lots of people go the wrong direction down the street. If you drive around Redwood, Ash, Hawthorn, Gardenia it's hard to know which way to go. The streets are torn up all over the place and there are crews working here and there too. In order to go the "right" direction we would have to make a ridiculous detour that would take us several minutes out of our way. Our house is about 8 houses in on the right. So when we need to head out toward Plantation Dr. we almost always go the wrong way down the street. Is it legal? Probably not. Is it bothering anybody? Nobody except our old man across the street. When they first started tearing up our street I tried to go the "right" way several times and got down to the end and had to turn around anyway. So I finally just gave up and I go the "wrong" way. There have been a couple of times that another vehicle has been coming down our street the right way while I've been going the wrong way. So, I just pull over into someone's yard until they pass. We both give each other the knowing wave that says, "Yeah, this sucks but you gotta deal with it."

I'm not a total rule follower by nature, especially if the rules seem to serve no purpose. Is driving against traffic on a one lane street dangerous? Possibly under certain circumstances. Is is dangerous going 10 mph for a couple hundred yards? I really don't think so. Is it illegal? Yes. Is driving 55 mph in a 50 mph zone illegal? Yes. Do we all do it? Most likely.

I'm thinking about making a sign to stick in my front yard that says "Just ignore our old, crazy neighbor!"

I like sweet, cute, happy old people. I don't like the snappy, crotchety, crazy ones. Something tells me I might not turn into a sweet, cute, happy old lady. I guess if I'm snappy and mean I'll probably be too crazy to know.

We have the internet!!!

2008-09-22T20:19:00.001-05:00

I think I'm actually more excited about having our internet back than getting our power back. We got power Friday evening and we've been internet-less until this evening (Mon). I had 96 e-mails! That's insane!

We have power!

2008-09-19T20:23:00.002-05:00

Our side of Redwood has power. So it looks like tomorrow we'll be going home and getting our lives back to "normal" whatever that means.

In other news, I might be photographing a birth tonight sometime. I'm waiting by the phone to see if things progress fine without a c-section. I would love to get into doing birth photography. That would just be the coolest thing.

Phillip will be out of school until Thursday. I'm still not quite sure when Jackson will be back. They're saying Tuesday, I think. I guess we'll see. I think Jack's elementary school is still without power.

My screen on my Mac got dinged up during all of the moving around. We were taking my computer and hard drive home along with some other things. And the hard drive feel off the console in the truck and fell and hit my screen. The computer is still useable but it's just got a little ding in it. Just one more reason why I need a new computer.

Some shots from around Lake Jackson, TX

2008-09-15T16:28:00.006-05:00

I always feel like I have to apologize when I put crummy pictures on here. So, I'm sorry for the crumminess of these pictures. There you go.

Here are a few post Hurricane Ike pictures from around town. The first picture is of our fallen tree limb in the back yard. Missed the house by a few inches.

This house is at the corner of Narcissus and Ash. Not good. I feel pretty bad for these folks.

This is the side of our church's Youth Guy's house. Looks like it went through the side and maybe a little bit of the roof. Hard to tell.

This is a house down the street from us on Redwood. Thankfully the tree fell away from their house and didn't hit anything other than ground.

These next two are from the front of the Willson's house. Their big tree is just everywhere. But it seems to have pretty much missed the house. I was trying to get some pictures of their yard and all I got is tree. It looks like the tree just exploded. Crazy.

As you can see, there's a lot of tree damage. There are still many people without power and who knows when that will be completely restored. Just from the little bit of driving around I've done, it looks like most people's houses look okay. There are lots of wooden fences down all over the place. And there are traffic lights hanging all weird and out of whack. We feel very fortunate that our house made it though without any damage. Sometimes I really wonder why we live on the Gulf Coast. I can't imagine living anywhere else.

We are home...sort of

2008-09-14T20:51:00.002-05:00

This will be quite short and sweet. We got back into town this evening. The power is up at Phillip's parent'shouse in Clute. The power is still out in our neighborhood. We checked on our house and everything appears to be fine. It's pretty stinky so tomorrow we'll need to go open windows and light some candles. There's a huge limb down in our back yard that missed the house by inches. That's pretty much it for now. Pictures tomorrow. I'm going to check on my mom's apartment and see is she has power.

"Camping" in Belton...Ike is a big fat jerk!

2008-09-11T13:49:00.005-05:00

We have evacuated to Belton to wait out Hurricane Ike. We're hoping things are somehow going to be okay back at home. I don't have much time to type this up. Here are just a few snaps from today. Not much to look at, but it's something. The first is our home away from home. Hopefully our actual home is still there when we get back. And then just a few of the boys. See ya later.

Okay, I am officially weirded out!!

2008-09-10T10:09:00.005-05:00

What should I be doing? I should be packing up our valuable, clothes, taping windows, packing bags, etc. What am I doing? I'm looking at pictures of ball jointed dolls, or b.j.d.s as they're called. I heard about bjds the other day on the radio. Kind of sounded weird so I decided to google it. They're some new doll craze that's sweeping the nation or something. B.J.D.s are just these incredible life like (odd looking) dolls. They also happen to be anatomically correct, which is just kind of gross. Here's a picture. I found lots of pictures of these doll naked and in very provocative positions. People are just sick and weird. So anyway, just in case you were wondering what B.J.D.s are, now you know. And if you are one of those fortunate people to have your own collection, just know that Jenny Hintze thinks you are a weirdo.

Evacuate

2008-09-10T06:21:00.002-05:00

Well, it looks like we'll be heading out of here later today. I hate that we have to go but it just seems like the best thing for us to do. Jackson will be very excited when he wakes up to hear that the schools have closed and that we're going "camping." We plan on telling Jackson that this is an evacuation and we are not planning on having any fun. He can bring his favorite toys and video games but he will not be playing with them. We will not watch any movies or eat any hot dogs roasted over a fire. We will only sit around and look solemn. That's just the way it is. I don't think he'll buy it.

Just random stuff

2008-09-08T19:39:00.004-05:00

The tooth is still there. It looks really gross. We've pretty much given up on pulling it out. Today we're out of cash so I haven't pushed the issue. He has already "earned" $3 from that tooth and it's not even out yet.

We've got two little boys who don't want to go to school. Mikey doesn't go to "real" school just mother's day out, but still. I'll be glad when they both adjust and stop all this crying business.

Tomorrow is going to be insane. I'm subbing at the preschool for the music teacher. And right after school we have CPR, which is always an awesome time! Then I have to get Jackson, go home, try to miraculously clean the house a little. Then the dog has to go to the vet at 5:00 for his shots. Don't know where dinner is going to fit in but I'm sure it will find a way.

This storm is threatening all of my awesome plans. I'm supposed to have two shoots this weekend if the storm doesn't ruin it. I've had to move/cancel two shoots already for weather stuff. And I had to postpone another one because the expectant mother ended up on bed rest (yuck!). Anyway, it's been kind of nice to have a little photography break but the break needs to be over. I hate my photo blog being stagnant. It really bothers me to not have new stuff on there. And Mikey and I have much needed haircuts scheduled for Friday. I had to cancel our previous appointments for a photo shoot that ended up being cancelled by bad weather. UGGGHHH!

If we have to evacuate without my father-in-law, that's not going to be fun. Evacuating is never fun, I guess. Donald is in Bulgaria until Sunday (I think). Our friend Roger might end up having to pull the folks' camper to Lake Belton for us since Donald won't be here to do it. Jackson thinks evacuating sounds like a blast. I think it sounds like a bummer. But if we have to do it, we'll just make the best of it and enjoy some time together. And Debbie's a really good cook. : )

Our street is all torn up right now. They're redoing all the streets and sidewalks in our neighborhood. It really needs to be done but it's a huge pain in the butt right now. Jackson is really mad at these guys for tearing up our road. I have told Jack numerous times that they are just doing their job and we should be glad we're getting new sidewalks. He just thinks they are being destructive. He says he wants to go out there and beat those guys up. Also, he apparently really likes the huge crack in our driveway and doesn't want those guys to fix that either. He said he's going to go stand on the crack so they can't destroy it. (Destroy a crack??!!) I guess if he handcuffs himself to our driveway in protest I might be kind enough to bring him water and a crust of bread.

I have a really great preschool class. I can't believe how amazing our kids are. Seriously. There are a couple of little boys who have really latched on to me. Kind of makes me want another little boy to call my own and drive me crazy. One of the little guys told me today that his allergies are "acting up." So funny.

I have the new camera bug again, but I don't currently have the funds to make it happen. If I'm able to double my equipment, Phillip and I could get into the wedding photography biz. Hopefully within the year that could be a reality.

It's 8:00 p.m. and I really want some coffee. I need to get some decaf for these occasions. I don't really want the caffeine. I'm just a total coffee junkie. I just love the feel of a curling up with a hot cup in my hands. I love the feel of the smoke in my face as I go to take the first few sips. Okay, gotta go make some coffee.

We are no good at pulling teeth

2008-09-05T21:27:00.003-05:00

Jackson has a tooth that's ready to fall out. It's just dangling there. It's his first loose tooth. Tonight we finally convinced Jackson to let us pull it out. I told him I would pay him $1 in addition to what the "tooth fairy" would give him. He actually sat there and allowed us to try to get that darn tooth out and we could not get it out. Phillip and I both tried. Phillip even got out the needle nose pliers. And the tooth still hung on for dear life. I think the last plier attempt probably hurt. We finally gave up and gave him the dollar anyway for letting us try. I'm sure he will have awful nightmares because of the whole ordeal. Poor thing. I just don't think we're cut out for this whole parenting thing.

What a day! And it's only 1:30

2008-09-03T13:34:00.003-05:00

Today was my first day teaching 4 year olds at a local preschool. Considering it was the first day, it went pretty well. We had one little guy who was pretty upset for the first half of the day. I have 10 boys and 6 girls. There's a TON of work involved in teaching preschool. I'm a little worried I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I've got a lot of balls to keep in the air and I just hope they don't all come tumbling down on top of me. (Okay, that's enough cheesy sayings). I got a fortune cookie several months ago that said, "As long as you don't take on anything new, you'll be fine." Well, I took on something new. So I guess we'll see how it goes.

Jackson had a really hard morning. They had to peel him off of me crying at the school this morning. It broke my heart. I wanted to just take him home and say "forget it!" But that's not possible. I'm hoping he calmed down quickly and had an okay day. Phillip and I really need to give him more one on one time when he's home. I wasn't crazy about going to school when I was his age either.

I have had coffee and two graham crackers today and I think I'm close to dying. So I guess I better go eat and maybe take a nap.

This morning

2008-09-02T06:53:00.005-05:00

I made pigs in blankets this morning for breakfast. I just put some little cocktail weanies in crescent rolls. Nothing strange or unusual about that. Usually if I put anything in crescent rolls, I leave a couple plain for Jackson but I didn't today. Jackson's response to this was, "Mom, why'd you sneak weanies into these?" Okay, if I was going to sneak any kind of food into anything, I wouldn't be sneaking weanies.

Mikey starts preschool today, or mother's day out or whatever you want to call it. He will be going to his class on Tues/Thurs. I will be teaching 4s at the same school on MWF. In other words, he and I are going to have a lot more time apart. I hope he does okay with that. I'm sure I'll be just fine.

I got up at about 5:15 this morning to start the day. Not sure if that's going to be enough time to get it all done. I guess I should get my butt off of the computer.

Infrequent

2008-08-28T14:04:00.001-05:00

My posts on this blog have become less and less frequent. So, this is one of those posts that isn't really a post because it's just a post to acknowledge what you already know, which is that I haven't been blogging lately. How's that for a horrible run on sentence? Alright, then. See ya.