My first time having room service and riding a jet ski on the ocean!
We didn't take the zoom...so this was the best Mom could do getting us walking to the jet skis...by the time we got to them, the water was almost over my head. Want to feel tired and find muscles you never knew you had then WALK that far through water. Our legs were like jell-o.
That speck is us riding.
These are too much work, so we're just posing!!
We got to babysit cutie pie Alex a few nights ago...he met Brinkley because he really wanted to see the dogs...and Brinkley is pretty much the most predictable one when it comes to kids---as in the one who we KNOW will NOT eat a child. :) In fact, the worst Brinkley did was slightly frighten Alex by covering him in more friendly slobber kisses than he's ever dealt with before.
The most fun was bath time! I love finding things in the kitchen to play with in the tub. We gave him those little IKEA bag snappers and called them "noodles" and a pair of tongs naturally was dubbed the "noodle grabber." I definitely explained a lot when his Mom got home...so that the next time she gave him a bath, there wouldn't be any confusion or misunderstanding about a noodle grabber grabbing a noodle. :) He had a fun time cooking the noodles is his bowl and using the plastic strainer to make the water look like a shower. It was a blast.
You know how great little kid neck smells after a bath right? Has to be one of the best smells ever.
And the fact that this sweet, cute boy will be coming over to our house one day with a sweet, cute sister...OH THAT'S JUST ICING!
In January '08 we took the first photo of Alex in a tub! Why does that seem so long ago now?! Time is flying.
EDIT: Alex's REAL noodle was not supposed to be showing...it slipped past me in one photo...so I had to do a redo!
Julie had him laughing pretty hard with some of the sounds she was making.
I was just thinking, poor kid doesn't stand a chance when he's older---trying to keep people from seeing all the embarrassing photos of him...between his mom, KK and her tub fun pics, and now mine too. He's just outta luck.
This post could have many titles:
"The day we outran a tornado in each city we passed through."
"The day we took refuge in a Hobby Lobby."
"Why we love Reese even more than we already did."
So, where to start? I'll try to condense this as much as possible! We took Mom and Aunt Peg over to Berry College in Rome, Georgia to check out the campus for the wedding we're shooting there in November.
There's a Cartersville RaceTrack gas station that has the best frozen drinks ever...Julie had the Mountain Dew, I had the Sunkist orange---sooooo tasty!
Toured the campus, most scenic, beautiful campus I've ever visited. Seriously looks like something you'd see in a fairytale type movie.
Saw at least 30 wild deer grazing/playing in the grassy fields on our way out--apparently they KNOW they are safe there in the wildlife refuge.
While finishing up some tasty fresh-baked cookies in the car, in downtown Rome--Reese calls to check on us. Everything is fine there--just a little rain, so she apparently knows something we don't. Yikes. As she's telling me that there's a tornado in Summerville and not so great things are headed towards Rome--GET OUT OF THERE--gumball size hail starts pounding my car. Everyone starts freaking about whether or not to run out of the car into the nearest shop or to stay in the car. There was no way I was leaving the safety of the car to get pelted in the head with hail...we opted to take our chances staying.
Do our best to hurry out of Rome after hailing stops, get stopped by train. Woohoo. On our way back through Cartersville on the way home Reese calls again---storm is behind us, then another phone call, storm is in front of us...then tornado sirens are going off in Cartersville---the very place we are headed AGAIN! Leave one tornado, headed towards another.
Before we can seek refuge in the Hobby Lobby---hail comes again--even bigger this time, we were fortunate enough to find a shelter to pull underneath---no glass broken, thank goodness.
Make it inside Hobby Lobby and stay an hour or so until we had to leave because of them closing--it was pretty bad while we were in there---lights stayed on, but outside was crazy. Left there and things were looking up.
Reese calls with another update---where are the storms and tornadoes now? Atlanta--the next city we had to go through to get home. Fun. Kerry calls us after making it through Atlanta alive, where's the next tornadoes? Henry County, Spalding County, and HOME. So we literally dodged tornadoes or the makings of--in every single town/county we had to drive through to get home. Craziness. There were times when we were the most scared we've ever been. It was so great to make it home, the electricity was out--but the house was still here! :)
I can't tell you how much it meant to us that Reese read that we were going to be in Rome and then called to check up on us and called back a bunch to give us updates on what was happening. Doesn't get any nicer than that! Thank you Reese Cup, we love you lots of bunches! And thanks for your call too Lennye--you are too crazy!
ps...I got some hella cool stuff at Hobby Lobby for photo shoots!! :) :)
**Out of nowhere, sounds of craziness, pure put you in a straight jacket wildness flows around the office abruptly interrupting the itunes loveliness**
"Yep, those sounds are definitely annoying..."
**Sounds continue**
Then even crazier sounds and bigger annoyances come from the other side of the office...."yeah, don't try to play that game with me, I teach 700+ kids in a week, I KNOW annoying, I LIVE annoying 8 hours a day. I'll always win at this game."
**sounds cease, itunes loveliness resumes.**
All is calm, all is calm.
:)
Us with Blaze at Aunt Peg's house for Christmas.
2008 was gangsta'! No, not really...but we did have a fun time with these sock hats that Julie's mom got a couple of the grandchildren for Christmas! We had everyone put them on and give us their best gangsta' pose...it was on a whim, and it was hilarious. I call our photo the "Pretty Gangsta' and the Goofy Gangsta'" I just couldn't stop laughing.
Julie's mom cracked us up the most!
I DID NOT make any resolutions but I did make a list of the 9 (which I changed to 10 because odd numbers are icky) things I want to do in 2009--that's within reason--no New York and Hawaii just yet...
1. Visit a new GA state park every couple of months (make use of the park pass we just bought).
2. Travel to and photograph New Orleans on a long weekend.
3. Visit Callaway Gardens and put the macro lens to good use on butterflies!
4. Ride Bikes at Indian Springs.
5. Go to more movies at the theater, like the good ole' days.
6. A long weekend beach trip.
7. Have more movie night get-togethers with friends.
8. Finish getting artwork that is sitting around here in frames and on the wall.
9. Play outside with the dogs more.
10. Rent a cabin in the mountains.
Friday we put the kids in the kennel and went to Valdosta to hang out with Julie's mom for her birthday. Friday night family came over and we had cake and played a lot of Nintendo wii Rock Band. That was our first time playing, and it's so addictive! We stayed up way late singing and playing things like Roxanne, and some crazy rock songs we've never even heard of before.
We noticed the truck made a slightly funny noise when we had stopped off to get gas, so on Saturday morning there had to be an investigation underneath the hood. Found that though the truck didn't run hot at all, there was absolutely NO FLUID at all in the radiator or coolant tank. Not good news. Poured some water in the radiator tank and drove the truck to Julie's brother in law's shop. He did more investigating to find that the radiator had a hole in it. Yuck. That was replaced (thankfully Julie's mom paid for that) and we finally headed out to Pearson Georgia which is about 45 minutes North East (I guess--that's what the compass in the truck said!)of Valdosta.
Julie's mom still owns two houses and property there. It was pretty cool, when Julie was growing up her grandparents lived right across the road from each other. The story is that Julie's mom and dad got married and moved to Valdosta because of his job. Her mom's mom bought a house and a little bit of land and the land across from it was for sale so Julie's mom and dad bought it so that his parents could live there. They were sharecroppers and used the land for all kinds of farming back in the 50's. Julie's grandma on her mom's side had a store in town where she sold clothes, buttons, and food--basically a general store.
Since Julie's dad passed away six years ago, her mom hasn't had anyone to really want to go to the house and help her with yard work...and a 74 year old really shouldn't be doing that kind of thing by herself.
We drove the truck and trailer down and helped her get a few more things out of the house to put in storage and also did a little yard work. Of course there was so much awesome, rusted stuff to take pics of! We brought home a few things too, I'll show you those later.
Before the trees were cut:
After things were cut down:
We dug up quite a few bulbs of these to bring home and plant:
My very favorite:
Wow...been since Wednesday since I last blogged. I've just been super busy doing a ton of stuff for work. Planning the Fall festival, attending way too many meetings for stuff that barely pertains to me and stressing over what I'm going to do as my lesson that gets videotaped for the entire staff to see. Ugh.
Other than that, the end of the week and weekend have been pretty nice. Friday night we went to a bonfire at Nat's house and hung out with Nat, Sarah, Kinsley, and Lee. The weather was great, just enough chilly for me. We talked and talked and talked until 11ish.
The next day Kerry, Julie and I went to Atlanta to take some "just for fun" photos. Kerry wanted to see some different things/places and I had been checking out some abandoned places people in flickr groups had already gone to--so we went to a few of those.
The first was the "bridge to nowhere" where we met two homeless men who currently live on the bridge. I'll be completely honest with you and tell you that it scared Julie and me a little bit. As soon as we climbed over the concrete wall that just so happened to have a drop off below it which made you feel slightly uneasy, and made it safely onto the bridge, we were greeted by Donald that made sure to tell us that he saw us as soon as we drove up. He never called it "his" bridge, but it was clear that he was the head guy in charge. We made sure to tread lightly and ask permission before taking pictures. Kerry of course had no problem striking up a conversation and felt more comfortable than we did.
There was one man who was reading a book on the bridge and Kerry asked him what he was reading....he was reading John Grisham! They had a grill, a clock, a few mattresses, and Donald was sure to tell us that most guys just slept right on the ground, but he had constructed himself a shack with a place to sleep.
I know that we could have easily been in a lot of trouble, but the hairs on our arms or on the back of our necks never did anything freaky. Nothing ever told us that we should run away and never look back. But at the same time, I didn't want to stay and converse very long either...just in case the "voice" was on a small donut and coffee break. By talking to Donald it was easy to tell he is very intelligent and spiritual. I still couldn't help but recall the many horror movies I've seen over the years where things appear to be going WELL and then the next thing you know you have a knife in your back. BUT lots of photographers in Atlanta have been to this bridge and made it out alive, so I HOPED we'd make it out too. I'm not saying anything about the homeless...I'm talking about strangers on the street that I don't know. It's sad, but true that you probably shouldn't be out there trusting many people.
Anyway, the part I liked the least was when we had to climb back over the fence because this time we didn't have the tire on our side to get a boost from. So, Donald went around and then insisted to help us across. When he grabbed my arm to help me it was so tight and intense that for an hour later I still felt like I could feel his grip on me. I didn't care for that. Then he asked if he could pray with us and it was the longest prayer ever and was a great prayer, but once again scenes of scary movies came to my mind---here we are all holding hands pretending to keep our eyes closed. He had a grip on Julie that left an indention in her knuckle for a long time afterwards...and I'm between Kerry and Julie thinking that this is the part where somebody comes up behind us and hits us over the head...and then we wake up in a completely terrible, new place. YIKES.
My mother shall never know of this adventure.
Once we were finally getting back into the car, he asked us if we'd mind going to get them a chicken basket and we opted for handing over three dollars cash instead. I told him thank you for letting us take pictures of his bridge and he said "No, it's the Lord's bridge."
Here is my photoshopped interpretation of the "Lord's bridge", the bridge that Atlanta folks call, "The Bridge To Nowhere" because it stops abruptly in the sky and goes nowhere.
I'll save the second location for tomorrow---because if you thought this one was scary---you might need to recover before the next one! :)
That's Donald in this next one
The view from one side
The same one in b&w reminds me of an old movie or retro poster...and evokes the feeling that Godzilla is going to eat us all any minute. Maybe Brink felt the same way, hence his apprehension. ;)
"Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option." -Mark Twain
"I am only one but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do." -Helen Keller
"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." -Kipling
(I totally agree!)
"If you asked me how many times you have crossed my mind, I would say once, because you never really left."
-unknown
LOVE that one.
"I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments." -Oriah Mountain Dreamer
"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not, but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for." -Epicurius
What a splendid weekend! No joke! We had no obligations, didn't HAVE to go anywhere, so we stayed here the majority of the time. I did some house cleaning while Julie worked on some school work and I can't tell you how relaxing it feels to start the work week out with a clean house. We've done this for the last two Sundays and it just seems to make life in the house go so much smoother when you're not thinking about how there's some dog hair in the corner that needs vacuuming or dishes that are waiting to be loaded into the dishwasher. Ah, peacefulness. This all ends of course if I look outside because while we have maintained the inside quite nicely lately, the outside looks VERY forsaken. Weeds everywhere, grass that has grown taller every single day, bushes that need to be trimmed...we sometimes wonder if it would be worth the money we don't really have to spend, to pay someone to maintain. The weird thing about our yard is that with over an acre some of it is more like "yard" and the rest is like wild amazon jungle and it's kind of hard to balance out if you want to dedicate the time and money to making it all "nice yard." Like is it really worth all that?
Oh my God...did I really just write all of those thoughts about the yard?! I mean seriously, who cares really?! I'm terribly sorry.
Here are some photos that we took yesterday while scouting out locations for Natalie's family shoot coming up soon. If Julie looks pissed it is because she was...Brinkley had just shown out by getting loose out of his collar because he had a FREAK OUT moment after noticing his shadow on the building. It was a little much for his Golden Retriever-esque anxieties. We took child number three because everyone else had been on a small ride/outing with us but him. I can't tell you how cute he was when I locked everyone up and called his name to come out. I swear to you that he KNEW what was up and he went nuts when we put his collar on him. He ran out and immediately stood at the garage door. So easy to please, thankfully.
Check out the RED...you know we were loving it!
And fun with shadows! More fun for us than poor Brinkley! :)
Speaking of Nat, did I tell you guys that last weekend she came by for a couple of hours and we talked photography the entire time? I SO loved it! And today, Kinsley came by and we had a good chat for a few hours as well. It was really great to get caught up.
© Free Blogger Templates 'Photoblog II' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008
Back to TOP
