January, 2009 - 12 of 12

January, 2009 - 12 of 12

Yesterday was January 12th. (hey I tried to remind you guys….. smartasses!) lol

12 of 12 is the brain child of Chad Darnell. The idea is that you take 12 pictures on the 12 of each month and then post them over here. There are pictures of people’s days from all over the world. It’s a cool little exercise and you can really make it what you want.

I did my 12 of 12 a little different yesterday. I used my 50 mm f1.8 lens all day. I’m pretty happy with the results. These are all SOOC (straight out of camera). I also tried to incorporate the original idea into at least a few pictures which was to include a body part in the pics.

6:51 AM just out of my morning shower.

7:10 AM Hunter’s morning biiiiigggg stretch.

12:58 PM Waiting for my Hubby… in his sunglasses (he left them in my car and mine were in his… go figure).

1:02 PM Me without the sunglasses. I told you I was waiting for Hubby, but I didn’t tell you why. We were going to lunch together.

1:04 PM He’s here!!

5:20 PM Just leaving the office. Man having two positions really sucks and creates havoc on your desk.

6:01 PM Hunter standing in the kitchen (ok actually he was running from having his picture taken… I just don’t know why… lol). Yes, he really is THAT tall.

7:04 PM Yellow peppers all cut up for my salad.

7:08 PM Pizza for dinner - homemade.

7:54 PM Avoiding the camera part 2

7:55 PM Just got a text from Hubby and Hunter wants to reply.

8:20 PM The eyes have it.

Well, that was my Monday. Thanks for stopping by and be sure you go and check out the rest of the participants. Actually, you should really try it…. it is a lot of fun.

Friday wrap-up

Yay for short work weeks!! But can you tell me why the week still seemed a month long?

From way back in the end of August…

Kev and I went to a friends wedding. I got this great shot, but I’m so ticked… it’s blurry. And it’s the only one I took from this angle. There are a few more pics over on flickr, just click on the pic and it will take you there if you care to see them.
Lee and Steph (did I mention Kev and I fixed them up?)

The day after the wedding I had a photography class that was taught by a good friend of mine and a great photog. The class was at a local mansion that the Orion Art Center is trying to help refurbish. The mansion and the gardens were so cool. It was an honor to get to shoot there and I may even enter a couple of my shots in the photo contest they are having.
The Scripps Mansion

Here is my buddy Bill. I love this picture I captured of him.

Insert bizarre-o week here.

Then following week we went north and went canoeing. It was a blast. Yes, my husband was a mere 72 hours out of surgery, but he went anyway. And as you can tell from this picture… healthy as ever.
Kevin and Jimmy.

I started taking self-portraits again, but I have already missed some days. With my birthday rolling around here in less than a month, I am going to try really hard to remember to take those daily self portraits.

This week, Hunter started school. I didn’t take my camera on Tuesday, but Tuesday evening I was able to catch the essence of the day. I give you Hunter, in his backpack and pullups. Yea, I know he’s trying to army crawl away from me and the camera… but that’s just how he rolls.

Lastly…
Today, I started drinking Mona Vie. It’s a drink that contains the Acai berry as well as 17 other fruits all from the rainforest. I’m hopeful all of the amazing nutritional claims I have heard are true.

See? This is why this blog is called crap-o-rama.

Have a great weekend!!

Discombobulated and back

Tuesday afternoon Kev called me at work… this is nothing new… what he said was…

As soon as he said “hey”, I knew something was up. He said he had a stomach ache, like he ate something that was bad. And he asked me if I could pick up the Bug. I asked him if he took anything like Pepto and he said we didn’t have any.

I left work 45 minutes early, I was going to stop and pick something up for him to take, but I had second thoughts about the Pepto. Instead, I called my Mom and asked her to come and watch Hunter so I could take Kev to the doctor. When he said that probably wasn’t a bad idea… again that internal alarm went off.

Kevin has a very VERY high tolerance for pain. He smashed his toe last week and I thought it was broken… he was like… “yea, whatever”. I’ve seen this man go to work with the stomach flu and in the almost six years I’ve known him, I only know of one time that he called into work sick… and his temp was 104.

So when Kevin said he didn’t feel good, I took it seriously. I knew he was in pain, but I was still thinking it was something he ate. He told me he has a stomach ache.

We went to the Urgent Care clinic close to our house. For some reason, I thought the Emergency Room at the local hospital would take too long. Going to Urgent Care was like looking symptoms up on the Internet… only it took longer… maybe the Internet on dialup.

Bad idea, but I did learn a lesson: unless it’s something that needs stitches or something simple… no Urgent Care for us. I can’t even think about what would have happened if his appendix would have ruptured and we were at the UC having a doctor look in Kev’s ears… I kid you not, that is how he started his exam.

Urgent Care sent us to the Emergency Room. Once there, things moved rather quickly. Kev had appendicitis and his appendix had to come out.

Now it’s just before eleven PM and I have to go home and put Hunter in his bedroom. It’s up a flight of stairs and my Mom can’t maneuver the stairs while carrying him and I didn’t want him to sleep on the couch all night.

I got back to the hospital just before midnight. When I left there were going to operate right away, but once I got back they were poking and prodding at him again saying the ultrasound was “inconclusive”.

He was finally put into a room about 2:30 AM and more questions and poking ensued. I had been dozing, in the craptastic chair in emergency for 20 minutes at a time. Once in his room I was able to take a bit longer nap, but I was still way tired. Now they were able to tell us Kev was scheduled for surgery at 7:30.

I headed home about 4:45 AM so I could get Hunter situated for daycare and switch cars with my Mom so she had a car with a carseat. I headed back to the hospital about 6 AM and Grandma took Hunter to daycare. I wanted to keep Hunter’s schedule as close to normal as possible.

They came and took Kev about 7AM and I was off to the surgery waiting room to wait… and wait. About 10:15 the doc came out and told me everything went well and he would be in recovery for about 45 minutes (read: and hour and a half).

By Noonish, Kev was back in his room and I headed home for some much needed sleep. My plan was to get about 3 hours of sleep and then go get Hunter and head back to the hospital.

I had no idea how much my home phone fucking rings during the day. During that 3 hour period of time, my cell and our home phone rang FIVE times… wtf?? It had been an exhausting 24 hours.

This is Kevin’s wedding ring on my finger. He couldn’t keep it during the surgery.

I decided yesterday was a good day to start doing the 365 challenge again.

Wedneday afternoon, August 27th - “no sleep”:

Thursday morning, August 28th - “missing half”:

Kev is home now. Feeling much better. Now the challenge is going to be keeping him from doing too much, too soon. I think he will behave since he plans on going back to work on Tuesday.

I love my husband… I’m glad he’s home again… I’m very glad he’s okay.

Reason # 643 billion why I am married to an amazing man.

Hunter goes to daycare at a local church. The church runs a daycare program, a pre-school program and an academy for K thru 12th grade based on home schooling.

One of the ladies that has been caring for Hunter since he was an infant is a single mom, I’ll call her Ms. D. She doesn’t drive and she lives with her Mom. Her son, who is about 9 or 10, attends school at the church. She is a very quiet, thoughtful and loving person.

Once when my Mom was having so many health issues, she put a card in Hunter’s lunchbox for me, just to let me know she cared for my family a lot and she was praying for us.

Many times when I go to pick up Hunter and he is the last child there {insert Mom guilt here} he is often sitting with Ms. D and she is reading with him or playing with him. In fact one day last week, Kev kinda accidentally snuck up on her while she was dancing around with Hunter. She takes amazing care of our son and it shows.

Oh yea, this post was supposed to be about Kevin, not Ms. D. Moving on…

For Kevin’s birthday, I bought him a PlayStation 3 (PS3). My husband works hard and he is a great Dad so I had no problem justifying such a gift for him. He usually plays the sports games and on the occasion that he feels the need to play a violent game like Grand Theft Auto, he respects my feelings and plays it when I’m not around and he would never play it in front of Hunter. He is very responsible like that.

We had several ideas about what to do with his old PS2 and several games, including trying to sell it on Craig’s list or just taking it up north so he could play while we were there.

Yesterday Kevin took his PS2 and all the games and gave them to Ms. D for her son. She went and got her son (B) and said “Look what this nice man has for you.” B started pulling the games out and was very VERY excited. When he got the bottom of the bag and saw the game counsel his eyes were as big as saucers and he shouted “I got a PS2!”

After Kevin helped him put everything back in the bag (B originally tried to give Kev the bag back … so polite) he took Hunter by the hand and started walking towards the door.

As he was leaving, Kevin could hear B in the other room telling the student teachers about his gift; undoubtedly one of the most exciting things that has happened in this young boy’s life.

At the dinner table, as Kev finished telling me this story and I wiped the tears from my check he said “The look on that kids face was all I needed.”

How lucky am I?

It feels like a new life

Hubby started a new job this week and quit his old one; a decision we made together.

His old job? … was bad for his soul. Twelve years of mental anguish. He never brought it home, but I know he struggled during the day.

His new job? … Kev doing the happy dance inside. A new gig, full of opportunity.

Old job? … outside 365 days a year.

New job? … inside with air and heat.

Old job…various staring times ranging from 6:00 AM to 10:30 AM. Seriously, last week his start times were as follows:
Monday - 10:00 AM
Tuesday - 10:00 AM
Wednesday - 6:00 AM
Thursday - 11:30 AM <- oh and as an added bonus… work until 5 with no lunch.
Friday - 10:00 AM
Saturday - 7:00 AM

But he was not allowed to work over 39.5 hours. This was for every other week. The opposite weeks there work started an hour earlier, except Wed was still 6AM and there was no Saturday. It was great for most mornings, since he could take Hunter to daycare, but crappy for establishing a routine.

New job: M-F 6:00 AM to 2:30 PM, any time over 8 hours a day… OT. Plus 2 - 23 minute breaks and ½ hour for lunch.

While I have lost my morning help, I no longer have to wait until after 6:00 for my husband to get home. Often times it was 6:30 or 7.

I feel like I have gained an hour a day with my family.

Happy Birthday, Baby.

Yea, yea, I know I just used this picture… but I like it so I am using it again.

Today is my Honey’s 40th Birthday. So in honor of Kev, I give you 40 things I love about him:

1. He can build stuff
2. He fixes things.
3. He is an amazing father to our son.
4. He grounds me
5. He is very level headed and even keel… unless you mess with his family
6. When he makes a decision – that’s the decision – no waffling
7. He has a great butt.
8. He is chivalrous
9. He is great bowler
10. He cooks
11. He does the dishes on the night’s that I cook
12. We can talk about anything
13. We have never had a fight
14. We communicate
15. I still get tingles when I kiss him
16. He has an enormous heart
17. He is a great provider
18. He is a great protector (see # 5)
19. We always discuss who’s going to be the designated driver if we plan on drinking
20. He always puts his family first
21. He lets me cut the grass when I need some me time outside
22. He loves to be outdoors
23. He respects nature
24. He loves animals (we have four, so yea…)
25. He does what he has to do and doesn’t complain about it… he just takes care of it.
26. He puts gas in my car
27. He laughs when I burp words
28. He laughs when Hunter farts
29. He always supports what ever goof ball idea I have
30. He always supports my silly hobbies (he’s the reason I get those amazing deer shots)
31. When we are up north, he drives me around at dusk to get amazing deer shots
32. When putting something together, he lets me read the directions to him (he calls them suggestions).
33. He truly makes me want to be a better person
34. On a daily basis, he makes me laugh right out loud.
35. He makes beautiful babies (or should I say he made a beautiful baby – cuz we’re done.)
36. He is very responsible
37. He’d give you the shirt off his back (must be why he never wears one). lol
38. He’s my best friend
39. He is a kid at heart, but still all man and smart enough to know when each is appropriate.

40. He’s truly my soul-mate

Happy Birthday my friend… I love you more than words can say.
xoxo