Jessica Who?

Jessica Simpson? Naaaah.... I think it's high time Jessica WORTHY became a household name! =)



I still can't believe she's 15! EEEEK!

Carter's Sneak Peek...

If they could just stay this little forever....

Extortion by Extraction?

I just realized that I haven't blogged about the newest addition to our family - that's definitely a whole 'nother story for a whole 'nother post! Anyway, meet Nathan - "Nate" - he's 9 years old & has been with us for 2 weeks now. He's super fun to have around, but is eating us out of house & home!!! I'm amazed at how much a 9 year old growing boy can eat! =)

So... I come home from work yesterday & Vickie, my mother-in-law, informs me that the boys have devised an evil plan to get some extra money.... Extortion by Extraction. Yes, you heard that right. Each took a turn pulling a tooth from the other! Where in the heck do kids come up with this stuff???



On the flip side, she did say that they had been fighting all day EXCEPT for the last hour while they worked on their teeth, HAHA!!! =) Here we go - pardon the snapshots ;) By the looks on their faces, they endured lots of pain & suffering...




Totally unrelated, but little brother was getting jealous of all the attention the big boys were gettin'!



Did their evil plan WORK??? =)

Yes, I realize...

that it's August. YES, I went to New Orleans/Cozumel/Costa Maya in June. YES, I posted like 1 picture, HAHA! ;) I really did forget to post more after I'd gone through a bit. I went a little bonkers with bw, but I'm finding I really, really like it lately. =)









I loved all the clocks - I really like this "old-timey" black & white (does anyone say that if you don't live in the south?)




Cool jazz statue in the casino-


That's all for now! =)

Fresh From God

"I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing, when they, who are so fresh from God, love us."
-Charles Dickens










Proud sister -



I'll be doing a "real" session with Carter very, very soon. =) Can't wait to hold that precious boy again! Congrats Frank & Casey!

Surprise!

Guess who's a big sister???

That's right, Madison has a baby brother =)


Mom & Dad...



Baby Carter arrived yesterday - I don't have all the details, but I'll be sure to post them along with some newborn pictures I hope =) If he's half as cute as his sister, I'll be in hog heaven ;)

Living up....

I'm totally living up to my blog name, guys. I'M OVERLOADED. Way. I'm in the middle of proofing 4 sessions, I'm having photo lab difficulties (grrrr) ... and I've gotta work in the morning. I didn't sleep last night & wound up with a migraine this morning (I HATE THOSE!) .... took an excedrin migraine for that, then of course my ulcer acts up... LOL!!!! If it's not one thing it's another.

Anyway... wanted to share a quick couple from a session last week. This young lady is a brand new mommy to this beautiful baby girl, Kirsten. Her husband is a Marine stationed in Iraq right now... bless her heart! She misses him sooo bad, I really feel for her...
Kirsten was born premature - she's now almost 2 months old but only weighs 7 lbs. She hasn't gotten to meet her Daddy yet, but when I look at this picture, it makes me think she's sleeping peacefully because she knows he's watching over her :) Awwwwwww.

I've got so many things going on right now, I'll probably be on posting overload this week :) I'm thinking about redoing my website (shhhh, don't tell my husband, he'll SCREAM, ha!). Guess I better get my plate cleared off before I go piling more mess on, huh? ;)

Where'd my baby go?

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I used to post pics of Cassidy all the time... mainly because she was the only one I could get to sit still. Well NO MORE. Oh my gosh - this kid is lightning fast now - running everywhere. I cannot catch her. I managed to get about 3 minutes of shooting time with her today (such a DIVA). Anyway - got back to the computer & uploaded - WHERE did my baby go? I about died when I saw this - she looks soooo big! But stinking cute. STINKING CUTE!!!!

Future Model?

Can I just say that I loooove taking this kid's picture??? She is a knockout. If you've been to my website you've seen her all over it :)

On a personal note - Tucker had to have a stitch in his lip yesterday - I don't know what it is with my kids & furniture, they're always wanting to climb on it... Jackson broke his collar bone a few months back & now Tucker's got a FAT lip. Bless his heart.

Young Love

Ahhhh, young love. Chris & Joanie are such a sweet couple.... and so stinking fun to work with! I was all bragging on Chris & how cooperative he was - then his beautiful bride to be informed me he had been griping prior to the shoot... MEN! haha!
I'm kidding. You guys were a blast. Here's some proofs from your session. I totally stole the idea for the silouhette pic from my bestest bud ever, Julie. But imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so she doesn't care. :)

New Orleans

Still going through the files from vacation... I came across this tonight. It was terribly noisy originally, but I LOVED it. So I just added to it using the RealGrain software... watcha think? Looks like an old film shot to me :)

Can I just say that I am happy to shoot a PERSON again? I've been trying to make myself "branch out" and shoot something other than people, and I've found quickly that not shooting people drains my passion for photography.

I'm nuts when I shoot. I climb on stuff, in stuff, get under stuff. I always come home with some kind of stains on my knees. Poor Jana - what a sport! Got paint on her arm, spiderwebs on her shirt, and on the way home, ants in her pants. The price we pay for art. Sigh.

Tucker Chase Photography?

Soooo, I hand the camera over to Tucker today while we're sitting in the car waiting on Eric....

and he gets this. Seriously. Backlit & everything. I'm still in shock! I just might have to print this, seeing as I never have shots of myself with my kids. SO PROUD :o)

Leaving On a Jet Plane....

Okay, so I'm not really leaving on a jet plane. But that song is in my head! Have you ever seen "Armegeddon" where they are about to blast off & they're singing that song... HA! I love that part... Anyway, FOCUS, Stephanie, FOCUS. LOL.

On the way to a family reunion yesterday, the hubster took me "the back way" through an old Army Base - Fort McClellan. It's been closed for several years now, and basically looks like a ghost town. So sad. But TOTAL SCORE! We found JETS! How freaking cool is THAT???!!!! If you're a jet expert, don't tell me if these aren't cool jets, I don't wanna know. Don't burst my bubble. :) I only had my 50mm 1.4 with me, so I wasn't able to get a wider angle, but you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be going back.




P.S. - I'm pretty sure it's not cool to climb on jets. Shhhhh! Don't tell!

I GOT A FINALIST!

I'm such a bad, bad blogger. I've been so busy since we got back from vacation.... I'm behind on my proofing, trying to keep up with Wendy's class, trying to get this house in decent order, CHASING three kids.... wow! I've not had a lot of sleep the past week, but I can't really blame that on anyone but myself ;) Well, I guess I could, but I won't. HA!

I did get the absolutely, positively fantastic news that I got a finalist at Better Photo! I was SOOOOOOOO proud of this - it was the first time that I had ever entered a contest. And considering the FREAKING AWESOME competition, I felt really really honored to have the judges pick this photo as a finalist. It's Madison - isn't she a knockout?! This was taken waaaay back in October, when I got my first decent lens, but it's still one of my favorites.

Here's the link. My finalist! Look, a little silver badge. How cool is THAT? I feel like such a bragger. HA! I SOOOOOOOOOO am. And I don't care. ;)

Here's a couple more from vacation.
Cozumel, Mexico - via porthole.


Pirate in Costa Maya - LOVED this guy - he was a hoot - such a poser!

I'm Baaaaaaaaaack!

Finally!

Got off the boat this morning & headed out of New Orleans around 8am. I'M SO GLAD TO BE HOME! I missed the kiddos. Everything was beautiful, but I got really, really seasick - so all didn't go as planned, (naturally!)

I was pretty lucky in the casino on the boat - I sat down at a quarter slot machine & put in 75 cents (the max bet) - spun it ONCE - and BAM! $500 bucks. HOW COOL IS THAT!



Here's one from Costa Maya - trust me you'll be seeing a lot more, I'm unpacking & sorting through things right now. Can't play on the computer until that's all done (WELL..... I did sneak in just ONE.) <<*grin*>>

Vacation time!

Yippeeeee! I'm headed to New Orleans in about, ohhhhh, 4 hours (yes, it's 2:30 AM!) and then we're off to Costa Maya & Cozumel! Can't wait - kids are staying with my mother-in-law, so I think this will be a REAL vacation.

I've started a photography class - I'm thinking it's gonna be good, but tough - HOWEVER, from what I have seen from previous students, I think it's gonna be worth it. For a "pre"-class assignment, we had to come up with a picture of 3 words she gave us. It was much harder than I thought (mostly because I procrastinated as usual & had to shoot them all in a couple of hours). Here's 2 of mine for ya.




I couldn't decide between the color or BW on this one - I'm not loving the BW conversion, I'm thinking I'll re-do that.




I promise to post more client photos on the blog when I get back - I know, I know - I'M A SLACKER. It's just been so busy with work and photos and the class and packing and.... *sigh* I'm tired. I'll do it when I get back.

Ta ta for now! See you next Friday!

A Message

Disclaimer: This picture has NOTHING to do with the post. It's probably my all-time favorite & I haven't posted it on my blog before. I didn't want to post a novel length blog entry without a picture to go with it ;)



Last week, one of my favorite patients of all time died. He wasn't old. I can't tell you his name due to federal laws, but he had suffered several strokes and had come to us for rehabilitation. He was a success story. By the time he was set to go home, he was walking & talking - AMAZING, considering he was mumbling unintelligibly upon his admission. He would sit by the nurses' station pretty much ALL the time & kept us laughing non-stop! I'll never forget the day that they yelled for me down the hall - he was choking. I was scared to death. I tried to perform the heimlich, but couldn't fit my arms around him. He went limp. I began doing abdominal thrusts like crazy. He turned gray.... by this time the room was full of people.... I kept yelling... ARE YOU SURE HE CHOKED??!!! Because to me, he looked like he was having a massive heart attack & was dying. I was devastated - I was trying desperately to help, but I felt so helpless. I remember thinking, "Lord, please help me, he can't die!" I got almost in the bed with him and mustered up every bit of strength in me for another abdominal thrust - and OMGosh! It came up enough for another nurse to get it out. A WHOLE freaking WHEAT ROLL. I cracked a rib in the process but he survived it. When he came back I told him the LPN did it. (HA!) He never knew any different.

Time came for him to go home. We seriously didn't want him to go; but he was a young fella (as far as nursing home patients go) and wanted to go home. He would tear up when he talked about leaving, because he really did become part of our extended family. I didn't have to say goodbye, because he went home on a Saturday.

A month or so later, someone at work tells me... his obituary is in the paper. I couldn't believe it - he DIED?!? NO WAY! But there it was... in black and white....

I got really frustrated. I am always nice to patients, I always try to make a difference - sometimes they yell at me, sometimes they curse me. Sometimes they'll hit me, or kick me, or spit on me. Sometimes they don't do anything. Then every once in a while - maybe, just maybe, I feel like I helped. Then THIS! I started thinking, "Why bother? Why should I even try? It's useless!" On the way home, I heard this song on the radio. It made me cry. I really think God sends us messages in the weirdest ways sometimes. And I got the message.

One hand
reaches out
and pulls a lost soul from harm,
While a thousand more
go unspoken for.
They say what good have you done
by saving just this one?
It's like whispering a prayer
in the fury of a storm.

And I hear them saying
you'll never change things!
And no matter what you do
it's still the same thing.
But it's not the world that I am changing-
I do this so
this world will know
That it will not change me.

2 Little Piggies

I'm sorry, I know she's mine, but I CAN'T HELP IT! She's taking cute to a whole new level with these pigtails...