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Finding the 'normal'

I feel so naked, exposed, and nervous about putting this post out here like this....but here goes

It’s funny how one minute you are one person and the next minute you are forced to become someone else.  Still you, but a different you.  Perhaps one step closer to the real you. In one moment, one act can change your lives forever. It leads one down a road you didn’t want to travel…a road you didn’t even see coming…a road you never knew existed.  A journey to a place you never thought you’d be. A place you never wanted to be.  Your life becomes a life you never expected.
You cry. You pray. You talk to wonderful family and friends. You cry. You grieve. You mourn the person you used to be before “the moment”, the life you used to have, the family you used to be. You worry about everyone it effects. You wonder if  things will get better. You cry. 
Then, one day, you look up and decide that you can’t just lie down and cry. You give it to God. You pick yourself up. You make a plan. You take action.  You ask. You read. You research. You do all you can to make this new normal positive and happy. You dig and dig and dig. Searching. Until you find it.   There it is, buried. The positive.  The goodness that comes out of every not so good situation.
You accept that your life has, once again challenged you and changed. You all come out stronger and better and smarter and closer. A better family, tighter, more in love with each other and with life than ever. You know this is part of the plan and that one-day, many years down the road, you will understand why this had to happen. Waiting is hard, but like with anything good, patience and time pays off. 
Until then, you breathe, relax, and relish the simple, the ordinary, the normal.

Team Up Thursday ~Self Portraits~

The challenge this week was "Self" and I think it was a challenge for most of us.  Most photographers I know only want to be behind the lens..never in front, which is ironic because we are afraid to do the very thing we want our clients to do and relax in front of the lens...I tried to savor that feeling of being the subject of my own camera so I I can remember how my clients must feel each and every time I point a big huge black box at them and say "just be yourself, just relax"...not an easy task.

Amy and I both chose to be with our cars...what does that tell you???  Not that we love our cars, but how much time we spend in them. I can't help thinking about the days when families only had one car and usually the husband took it to work...

This is what Amy had to say about hers: "Here are the only 2 that even half way came out of me in the car!  Sometimes I feel like all I do is shuffle around, be it for me or the kids.  No make up…just running!"  I know she says they only 'half way came out'  but I love how we can see three perspectives in this image.  We can see Amy's view and then we can see 2 reflections of her...one in her rear view mirror and the one her kids see.  I love a reflection photo when you can't see the camera.

So, I had a different idea than this, but HEB wouldn't let me borrow a grocery cart to bring home, so I had to face 2 fears in taking this photo.  I HATE photos of myself and I HATE people looking at me...imagine the stares I got with my big old camera on a tri-pod and a big bright umbrella on a sunny day in the middle of the grocery store parking lot...lots of cars slowing down to see what I was doing.  I felt nervous and self-conscious the entire time, but I did it.

I was hoping to show that even though I am a mom with a mini-van, I am not your typical 'mini-van mom'.  I like my van, I love my family, I love taking care of them, I even like grocery shopping and cooking. I am involved in their activities and they are my first priority and always will be. But there is more to me than that...so much more.

I can't wait to see what the other ladies have done with their self portraits.  Please play with us and link back to Melody or the talented levitating Megan

 
 

Legacy Outdoor Market ~San Antonio Photography~

This morning my daughter said "Hey Mom, let's go to the farmer's market and buy some veggies to make a salad for lunch".   Right On!  I grabbed my camera, threw everyone into my swagger wagon (but mine is not a Sienna) and we were on our way.

We always have a great time at Legacy Outdoor Market.  I love being outside to shop, buying from local growers, making new friends by having great conversations with the vendors, see what creative people are making...just a great way to make this big city feel a little bit smaller.

Here are some of the sights the kids and I saw:

These nuts and homemade breads were delicious! ADDICTING!!! Can't wait to go back next weekend and buy some.  You can find these at the market or at their website.

These next pic were taken at Heather's booth "Cowgirl Granola".  My kids were in love with the granola and Heather is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to nutrition.  She has even created a line of delicious and healthy GLUTEN FREE pancakes.  That's right people, gluten free pancakes!  Check her out, you won't be sorry:

Our next stop was for veggies.  The people at  Uncertain Farms were so friendly.  I loved them.  Their veggies were beautiful and they had a huge selection of honey, jams, and jellies...YUM!  You could sense their enthusiasm for what they do and it was contagious. 

We also stopped and bought a sweet treat for after lunch. (That comes at the end of this post)Then we took home all of our great veggies, washed them, and made a great salad for lunch.  We topped it with some left over chicken and it was delicious! 

Finally it was time to break into our sweet treat. We got some amazing cupcakes from Saweet Cupcakes.  We got 5 different flavors.  We split them all between us and each got to taste all of the five flavors we picked.  I wished I didn't have to share the chocolate peanut butter cupcake....guess we'll have to go back next weekend to get more!

Team Up Thursday : New

Hello Team Up players!  Glad you are back and can't wait to see everyone's photos.  I love seeing just how talented everyone is.  I hope we can get more people to play with us...remember...you do not need to be a photographer to play or even have a good camera. Head on over to HipMomma or Mental Inventory  to meet the creators of this fun project and see more examples. 

This week Amy Craft and I decided to use the theme "new".

Amy loves a NEW box of crayons...can you blame her?  All shiny, sharp, new, clean, colorful...like I said before, I am in love with Amy's light in every picture.  Perfection!

I was going to use these new eggs from my friend Becky's chickens, but decided to go with a NEW puppy belly.  I LOVE smooth, warm, pink , and FRECKLED puppy bellies!  Check out the cool birthmark she came with!

These don't go together at all, but I love them both.  To see a larger version of the images, just click on them:)

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Important

  I usually do not put heavy subjects on here, but I thought this was very important.  2 young girls from the area left home with an older person and are thought to be headed to San Diego.  I do not know them personally, but I know people who know them and they are all surprised and very affected by this. 

It has been discovered that an adult they chatted with online coached them on how to run away, deceive their family and friends, and possibly even bought them cell phones to aid in the running away.  It seems like these young, vulnerable, and impressionable girls were taken advantage of....so many scenarios are possible...I can't even begin to imagine what is going through the minds of their parents.

Please keep these girl on your mind and in your prayers.  Be on the lookout for them and spread the word.

This is a Facebook page for them.  PLEASE join:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=332692670814&ref=nf

I will post more as I find out more information.

Revolution

Revolution: a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving

Several women in my MOPS group recently came up with New Years Revolutions instead of the tired old resolutions.  They were heartfelt, touching, sweet, and wise.  Some talked about a change for their families and for their children.  My sweet friend wrote about the brave and scary steps in starting over as a widow and a mother.  After reading these revolutions that made me think hard and brought me to tears, I felt mine was a bit silly to share, but here it is:

I Will:

I will eat cookies before bed, chocolate when I want to, and potato chips for lunch and not feel guilty. 

I will feed my kids cake for breakfast and breakfast for dinner and know they will be okay.

I will procrastinate and know the world will not stop because I did not complete my to do list. 

I will let the dishes and the laundry go and be fine with it. 

I will go out with my girlfriends and laugh loudly and sing and dance and not be self conscious. 

I will have days where we do not get out of our jammies and just eat junk all day and know that I am still a good mom.

I will not go to the gym on the days that I don't feel like going to the gym and not worry about what it will do to my body.

I will take a day and sit on the couch all day with a box of tissues and my favorite movies and know it is good for my soul. 

I will play hooky with my husband and do some things we have always wanted to do and not worry about how it will affect our finances.

I will buy a dress that I will never wear just because I think it's pretty and put it on and twirl in front of the mirror.

I will live for each day, relish in my mistakes, and be proud of the me God intended me to be.

Team Up Photography

Whew!  Amy challenged me this week!  That's a good thing. I needed a challenge. When Amy first told me she wanted to do the theme 'red', I thought "Well, that should be pretty easy".  Too bad for me, I was wrong.  I really had a tough time finding something red I to photograph.  There is lots of red food, but I did food last week, so I didn't want to do it again.  Another reason excuse is that I am a weather wienie.  It has been either cold or rainy or both and I did not want to venture out in that. 

This week Amy and I sent each other our 3 favorite images that we took in the past week. Then we each picked our favorite from the other person and made that our team up photo.  Personally, it was really hard for me to choose because I liked all of Amy's photos.

So today I included our Team Up Photos and at the bottom of this post you will find the ones that didn't make the cut, but were still good.

Head on over to Melody's or  Meagan's if you want to play along. 

Amy's photo is on top (winter berries) and mine is on the bottom (ketchup):

Here are the ones that didn't make it:

Someone posted a good question about that top picture.  It is a wind up/rubber band airplane.  That was harder for me to do than I thought because the plane kept moving forward whenever I let it go.

Get Yer Hair Did ~San Antonio Corporate Photography/ San Antonio Head Shots~

Last week I had the pleasure of photographing the beautiful and fun women of Pure Posh for their new website that is in the works and for their Facebook Fan Page.  For such a group of outgoing and pretty women, they sure were camera shy...well most of them ;)

I know I have said this before, but this is really the best place in town to get your hair done.  They have other services like waxing, make-up, facials, and so much more that I totally plan to take advantage of in the near future.  If you are looking for a new place to get beautilicious, then go to Pure Posh.

Not Crazy Enough...

Our lives are not crazy enough, so we decided to add another family member:

We love our 14 year old female Jack Russell so much that we decided to add another little girl JRT to the mix.  We are calling her "Tink"...not to be confused with Paris Hilton's 'Tinkerbell" (waayyyy too girlie for me), but Tink, as in a little Tinker (Stinker) because she is SUCH a stinker in a cute JRT sort of way.

I know I said I didn't want a puppy, but as far as puppies go, she's really good.  She even slept through the night !  I also said I would NEVER get a dog from Craigslist...guess where I found her.  Yep.  Never say never.  This post is a short one because I think I need to go wipe up a puddle on the floor:)

Chilled - Team Up Thursday ~San Antonio Photographers~

I LOVE how Amy's photo (beer) and my photo (Frozen blueberries) matched up so well together!  I kinda want to drop those blueberries into the beer and drink it up.  Our theme this week was "chilled" and that could have been anything (chilly outdoor scene, kids chilling out, ...) but we both choose some kind of food.  We don't reveal our pictures to each other or even give each other a hint until Wednesday night.  I like that element of surprise.  I also like going around to al the other blogs to see what they have come up with. 

You should play with us, really!

Btw, the frozen blueberries also go with February's  theme of "Things I Love".

 

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