Being Festive

Happy Halloween!

I hope it's safe and FUN!

Arrgggh Mateys

Went to a Halloween party this weekend. It was kind of spur of the moment, but viola! -- I found this pirate costume!

This is my brother; he and his fiancee were at my mom's this weekend. Its always nice to hang out with family.I got my hair cut and colored this past Friday, not sure if you can tell by this pic. New hair always makes me a little happier :-) It's the little things.

Hope everyone has a happy week!

I have big physiology exam Thursday...so that's where all my energy will be focused until then!

Very Interesting Indeed....

Go here: http://www.iwanexstudio.com/

Click on "Portfolio" at the top

Some Cali Pics!

So I totally forgot to bring my USB thing for my pics from my 30D when I packed for back to my apartment this monring, so all you get to see for now are a few photos from my little digital camera...grrr...most of the pics from my "nice" camera were so much better and exciting than these.

Anyway, here are a few:

Here we are! :-) Just before heading into Disneyland!

Disneyland was decked out for Halloween! Very cool!!

This pic was created per request of my Mom :-) I have a pic from my trip to Disney WORLD from when I was 4 years old, and I have a similar ice cream treat in that photo too. Silly Mom, lol.

Michele having some fun in Toon Town!

Here we are again, this time at the Mickey fountain.

Finally wearing some Mickey ears she wanted!

Santa Monica beach! This was the last stop on an all day tour around LA!

And just a little FYI I found at Disneyland...lol.

Back home and SICK

Finally back at home.

I have been feeling pretty crappy all weekend, but last night and today were especially bad. I was so sick that I immediately went to Urgent Care after leaving the airport. Apparently, its a sinus infection, but I really don't know if it is.

They did a strep test which I think I have, but it came back "possibly" negative. The doc said after 3 days it might come back positive. The back of my throat is all full of white spots -- I haven't felt this bad when I had sinus infections before. My temp was 103.5 at the Urgent Care place, and I was shaking with chills yet sweating...I can barely even drink water its so painful. And every single part of my body just aches...so bad. (Michele -- it was worse today than it was on Saturday evening!!!)

So yeah...today:
woke up at 5:45 am today
3 states
2 airplanes
1 bus
2 cars
1 trip to the hospital
3 prescriptions
$50 with insurance for the meds
1 stop to my brother house
1 stop to my dads house
finally at my mom's house
it's 12:17 am
=one tired me

Will post pics asap from our trip!
And it will be a happy post, I promise!

P.S. Kristi -- there was no special occasion. Michele had been traveling through Europe and then stayed a while at her sister's in the USA, and her return flight to New Zealand left from LA, so we just decided to meet up there for a few days before she returned home. I think she's been away from home since sometime in August!

i am HERE: california!

i should say we!
michele and i have been in california since friday!

we are having an awesome time and spending lots of money! :-)

i will update monday again sometime with some photos. you should see all these photos...lol!

Very Cool

Mrs. B,
I was in your fifth grade class at Washington Elementary school in ____ around 11 years ago. I am now in my senior year at UW-Stevens Point majoring in Elementary Education with a minor in Health Education. I will student teach next year and graduate in May 2009.

Yesterday in a class, we were discussing student motivation and the professor asked us to recall our "best" teacher through our K-12 experience, and instantly, I thought of you. I just wanted to take this time to thank you for being a wonderful teacher and not only influencing my educational path (and future career!), but also influencing my life in other ways. You always made everyone feel important and you cared about the interests of you students. In my case, that was with my story writing. :-) Hopefully, when I have students of my own, I will be able to bring in what you have taught me into my own classroom.

Thank you again!
Have a wonderful day!
-Kayla

--------------------------------

Dear Kayla,

You made my day! You made my week! You made my month! How absolutely wonderful it was to receive your message. It actually brought tears to my eyes to know you remembered me and thought enough of me to send me an e-mail. I am so glad you have chosen a career in education. We need more bright, caring people like you to work with our children. I hope when you are a teacher, you will have a former student let you know that you had a positive impact on his/her life. That is the greatest reward of being an educator. It's why we do what we do... but, we don't always know if we are making a difference. Thank you.

I got together with Miss B.B. and Ms. Bran this summer. They both have retired from Washington School. It was terrific to see them again. I love teaching here at _____, but I have fabulous memories and many good friendships from my days in _____. My husband and I have 3 children... our eldest is a freshman in high school and our youngest is a fourth grader. Our only son is in 8th grade. As you can imagine, my evenings are filled with their many activities. I taught one year of 7th grade language arts here at ____, and I've been teaching fourth grade for the last 7 years. If I can ever be of assistance to you as you begin your teaching career, please ask. I'd be honored! I have a student teacher fourth quarter this year. Student teaching is a very important part of your college education---I hope you have a good experience!

Thanks again for contacting me, Kayla.

With my best wishes for you always.

Launched!

Click ----> {HERE}

Urban Fabulous

I had one *fabulous* session today!
There are so many more, but I'll share, er, a *few!*

Loooooooove all the photos!

(p.s. Blogger makes photos look all grainy and off-whacked color...they actually do look good IRL ... they look better on my flickR.)

This first one is my favorite:

I had a visitor tonight...

Miss Jaelynn's mommy is
celebrating her 22nd birthday
by going to a Milwaukee Brewers'
Game with the hubby.
So I got Jaelyers!
So we played with my camera
and are having fun!
Pretty in pink!

I have two photoshoots tomorrow,
and one scheduled for next week.

Be prepared for a photo-overload!

Did you know?

I learned this in my physiology lab today while we were talking about vision, and in a little side note, the professor talked about why eyes sometimes get red when a flash has been used in photography:

"The light is relfectiong on blood vessels at the back of the retina. If you have red eye a lot, it means your pupils are larger than those of most other people."

Who knew?? Just a tidbit to throw onto your random photography info sheet :-)

{{ Lots of Random }}

Yesterday I went { HERE }with some of my family members. It's a tour of the estate of Alfred Lunt, Broadway’s greatest actor, and his wife Lynn Fontanne, who also acted alongside him. I couldn't take pictures inside of their home or around the grounds really, so I just took a couple picture of some neat things in the guest center.

This is the ladies room. It was decorated with these HUGE photos of various actresses who came to stay with the Lunt&Fontanne at their retreat home. Of course, being a photographer, I found these big photos very inspiring. The decor was like you were inside a dressing room backstage. Very fun.

This is some wallpaper inside the guest center. It's of all the play programs they starred in together. Of course, I also thought this was neat and had to take a photo of it.

After we were done on the tour, we went back to my aunts town where they were having a {Wine & Harvest Festival}. I had really hoped to get some good shots with my new lens, but I think this picture below says it all: it was so wall-to-wall crazy busy. That street goes down for many more blocks; all jam packed with people. Needless to say, I wasn't about to have a little bit too tipsy person (people walk around with bottles of wine and drink all day) bump into me and have my new lens wrecked, so I kept it tucked away in my bag, except for these two shots. :-(

The shot above is actually really neat. Did you notice it is a reflection in a window? I know, it's hard to tell, but you can kind of see the side of the building on the left and the blue banner in the font window. I like photos like this; where you have to sit and look at what's really going on. I am very surprised how clear the people are in the photo, as they were all the way accross the street from the store.

And here are some random photos for your viewing enjoyment...

New issue of Martha Stewart Living + Hot Coffee on a Cold Night = Perfection

Can't resist posting new pics of sweet pea!

New Lens Love

Here is a shot with my new lens. :-)

This photo looks better bigger!

(Still getting used to using the autofocus on it...I'm a manual girl but I have bad eyes and it's kind of hard for me to see if its in focus when it's so far away... a little practice should make up for this out of focus cow!)

Took this along the side of a county road this morning ... loved how you could see the cow's breath ... it was SO cold here last night ... it froze over already and its only SEPTEMBER!

Anyway ... here's a little more evidence of just how cold it is ... had to scrape my windows on my car this morning ... brr ... saw lots of acorn shells today on the ground as well. As the old wives and their tales would say, "It's going to be a cold winter!"

In 20 hours...

I will be wearing this bridesmaid's dress!

My best friend is getting married tomorrow! And I am the maid of honor! In a half hour I will be going to the rehersal, and then we're going out for dinner and then a girls bachelorette party night!

Can't wait!

I did it

So I totally *mastered* my Iced Mocha recipe this morning.

Oh Lordy, was I happy...

It's taken me so many attempts to make thee perfect drink.

One word: YUM!

Take that Starbucks!

Mine's better!