Catching up....seems like I am always doing that

Well, its been a long week. But I didnt forget. I am off my internship this week and my photography class with Karen Russell is OVER. =( Its been weird. I mean I have assignments to catch up, but being off interning and the havoc in my household has motivated me much, lol. But did do 2 loads of laundry and folded 2 that have been staring at me. Plus, I swept and vacume so I feel like I have been somewhat productive.

Now the kids are doing chores and Ben is taking a very needed nap. So, I am taking this time to blog and get people up to date. Let's see, ahhh yes.

News-

Well, Nick has the shingles and is hating it. He is in a lot of pain, and he finally got on something stronger then motrin. He can only take it at night.

Sydney had dance pictures taken,today. And she was nice enough to be my model for some pictures I wanted to take and see if they came out how my friend Allie and I envisioned. They turned out even better, whohoo.

Natalie and I were suppose to go to school together to take pictures of her classmates for a mother's day project. But we had to rescedule for next week cause Nick was needed on days last minute.

Ben is up to the usual, running around the house and eating me out of the house. Though he loves to have pictures taken by me and then he has to see them right away, lol.

Last but not least Cameron is still raising money for the Young Marines and so far he is doing really well. He is excitd to graduate and "become" a Young Marine in the later part of April.

Well, I have children that are fighting over who is done with chores and who isnt. LOL. Those are my kiddos. Hope you enjoy the pictures....And I will post about the cool find I got at Ross a couple of weeks ago.

Have a good Evening....

Time....what is time...I never have any!!!

I have been a bit of "Crazy Busy", lol. Startin the internship with the Naval Hospital, Bio-Med Dept. has been such an awesome expierience so far. At the same time, it has be busy and I think I am finally adjusting. I have learned so much in just two weeks. I got to shoot my first function it was for some navy guys getting ready to pcs (permenent change of station). It was the first duty station for both. We scoped out places for a group picture and even got pictures of the dogwoods that are in full bloom.

Then Friday, was gorgeous outside. It was partly cloudy but the sky was blue and the clouds look like marshmellow, lol. I got to learn more about adjusting my settings and how to deal with the different places the sun is during the day. The Photographer, walk me thru a retirement, shwing me where everyone stood and the flow of things. Also shared with me where he usually stood and stuff like that. He is so awesome at explaining stuff, but he is deploying and his last day is Friday. Then I have a week off and his counterpart come back from taking a class, I have heard he is a hoot, I feel like I already know him cause I have heard so much about him. I am confident I will learn alot from him too, I have seen some of his photography and its so good.

Anyway, Friday right before we went back in I got some pictures of the flags infront of the hospital. I love how the first one turn out. The angle and perspective was exactly what I was hoping to capture and love that you can see movement in the picture without and bluring. I was pretty proud. Nothing that is award winning, but I feel like I am learning and getting where i want to be a step at a time.

On the family front, Cameron is loving the Yound Marines. This weekend was his first overnight function and he seem to really enjoy it. He is studying his material non-stop, and practicing his drill movements. I Love the pride he feels, and the excitement of it all. He is doing awesome.

The girls had a field trip to the park to fly kites friday but it got reschedule for this friday. Its going to be lots of fun for them.

Ben is just being him. He is enjoying having Dad home during the day and has been a good sport.

Nick is adjusting to Night crew, which is always hard on him but he is being a good sport about it and being very supportive.

I think that about covers it pretty much, I promis to try to update a little more often then every 10 days or something.

Catching up....getting back to a routine that works

Well, I never came back and blogged. Its just been so busy. And honestly, I never got back to my routine once Nick came home. Life has just been hectic and irratic. But, I told my self starting today I was going to work really hard to get back to the routine I had loved so much. I got so much done and felt productive. I have a feeling that I couldnt get back there because I was beyond exhuasted.

That is because, Friday I got very yucky sick. It felt like the Flu or something. By the time it was almost lunch time, I had thrown up, kept feeling nauseous and every bone, even the ones I wasn't aware I had, had me laying on the couch with agonizing pain. So much so, I had to call Nick to atleast pick up the girls for me. I NEVER EVER really call Nick, when I am sick. Its the U.S. Marine Corp, unless I am giving birth or on my death bed, they are not keen on letting their marines come home and nurse their family. And well, let's be honest, I pride myself in independence and having to call for help and depend on someone, no matter who, is not something I enjoy. Well Nick came home got the girls and stayed so I could get some rest. I wasn't allowed out of bed the rest of the day and was on a very "restful" weekend.

Thanks to that, I got up today ready to get back to my routine. I got up, got the kids up, jump in the shower, got dressed and even blew dried my hair. Even Ben was fully dressed to take the older kids to the bus stop. Came home, had breakfast, threw in a load of laundry, uploaded an assignment for my photography class(The Photographer's Workshop which is taught by the AWESOME Karen Russell...will tell you about it more later.) and am already on my second load of laundry. Oh, and I took pictures of the dogs and Ben too. WHOHOOO!!!

Though Ben keeps trying to break into the Fridge, somethings don't change. Well, I am off to see if I can create some now that my scrap room is finally organized. I totally overhauled it. I started New Years Day and a couple of weeks later, it was workable but I wasn't happy so I kept at it and now I am really excited. I know I will keep changing little things to fine tune it butI think I got the major of it to be productive. I will share my scraproom in the next few days. And all my craziness, hope everyone is well and dont be shy drop me a comment or a email.

HAPPY MONDAY!!!

But all is better now.

I am back and a catch up on the happenings!!

*Sydney showing me her ice skates, lol*

Happy New Year!!

I know I have been so bad about blogging. I have missed it ever so much. So my goal now is to try to blog at least 3 times a week. I think that is doable. Before I pressured myself to do it everyday so when I missed one day it tend to throw myself off and then I didn't even know where to pick it up at.

Well, lets play catch up here for a minute. Nick came home safe and sound just a few days before Halloween. I can't tell you how glad we all are to be back together. We had a few adjustment pains but nothing like what I had prepared for. The kids all ran to him when he got off the bus. He was off most of November. And most of the time after having your husband home for a couple of weeks, you are ready for him to go back to work, get in a routine. But honestly, I was a bit a sad to have him go back to work. It gave us time to catch up and for him to get reacquainted with the kids.
I am till now really trying to find my groove again and getting in a real routine with Nick back home. I am in the mix of reorganizing my scrap room. I started this on New Years Day and then we decided to go on a overnight trip to Wilmington,NC. We only live a little over an hour from there. But we just wanted to get away, we had intended to take a weekend trip or something sometime while Nick was on leave and it just didn't work out. Well, we had a great time. We went to the Aquarium at Carolina Beach. We all enjoyed the aquarium. We got a good look at everything, and everyone was on the best behavior. It was such a treat. We then check into the hotel and decided to take the kids ice skating. My husbands family are HUGE Hockey fans and players. So, its almost a rite of passage to learn how to ice skate. Cameron had been a couple times and wasn't fond of it till lately. It was the first time for Natalie, Sydney and Ben. Well, its in their genes, the girls took to it easily. By the end of the night, the girls were pretty much on the own with ice sleds. Ben ankles aren't quite strong enough, but like his dad he LOVES the ice. They all took turns going out with dad except Cameron who with an ice sled does really well by himself. Ben hated having to wait, but he learned quickly he got to go after Natalie. So he would hurry Natalie to go his turn would come faster, lol. After that we stayed and watch Nick play Pick-up hockey for a little bit and then we went back to the hotel. We got in pj's and relax. Nick got a ride back to the hotel after the game. It was a great time.

Well, Nick is back to work and Cameron, Natalie and Sydney are back to school. We are getting back into our normal schedule. Syd, went back to dance yesterday and Natalie has gymnastics tonight. So, I am finally trying to set myself up to keep my new changes, I hope that sticks better then New Years Resolution, lol.

OK, well I will be back in a bit to expand on that. I think this is long enough!!

Sorry I have been MIA!!

Howdy everyone!!!

SOrry I have been gone for so long. Nick left last week and its been beyond crazy. Its been a week and a day. It started to hit me today. But I am still doing ok. Was just a bit blah there for a bit.

I am hoping to get some ideas for Christmas gifts. I also set up a little studio in what use to be Ben's room. Cameron had been begging for Ben to room with him since he was born. It took a little be of getting use to but they seem to enjoy each other's company.

Well, Nick took the laptop which means I am on the iMac full time and its making me insane. SO ANYONE OUT there, who knows the iMac please HELP ME!! Editing my pictures has been a pain in the you know where. I have Adobe Lightroom and PSE 3 I believe. And I got Adobe CS3 and I have tried the best to learn and experiment but its not working too well. I do have a book for PSE 3 so going to try that. I have heard that the iMac are awesome for graphics and photography. So if anyone can at least point me in the right direction.

Also, I have pictures uploaded from when Nick was on leave(vacation), we went on a few family outings. There are also pictures of Nick leaving and Halloween. Feel free to take a look and leave some feedback, love, suggestions or critiques.
Pictures

Busy, Busy, Busy.........and the countdown is starting =(

What do you get when siblings get together and mom says, time for no TV. They put their heads together, and turn a play kitchen into a play BOAT!! LOL!!! They loved playing pretend boat, they played this game for days to come. Sydney sitting the middle what the "driver", I have no idea what the rest of the kiddos were, LOL.

Well, we have been busy bees here. Cameron is doing soccer and he is getting to play goalie and getting quite good. Sydney is still dancing and LOVING every min. of it. We had observation day last week and she is doing so well. She had no hesitation performing in from of all the parents. She has come a long way from dance camp last summer. I am so VERY VERY proud.

Natalie being goofy as always, and Sydney is trying her very best to potty train her and Natalie is not having it, LOL. Natalie is a tad of hard headed to say the least. She is quite the entertainer along with Ben. There never is a dull moment here.

Ben is Mr. Talker. He is talking so much. Loves to repeat and mimic. He is already helping out in the house responsibility. He LOVES to let the dogs in and out. He also can go get a diaper when asked and throws away his dirty diaper. Yes, ladies and Gentlemen, my almost 2 year old is chipping in. He just wants to be a big kid just like his siblings. He still gets in trouble, digging in mom's scrapping space. Along with terrorizing the dogs, but they still worry and keep an eye on him.

Along with all these happy moments and growing, we have hit the time when we start counting down to Nick departure to land of sun and sand. He is now on leave, and we are trying our best to make the best of our time together. Today we sat and have a tentative plan for his time off. He will be off for about 3 weeks. Then he will deploy shortly after that. Along with that have I have projects to finish for him. Included in them are a pillow case with our pictures on it and a small scrapbook of family pics. I also want to take pics of the him with the kiddos, so the kids have recent pictures with daddy!!! A year is a long time, but we believe in the mission he is going to be part of and we are preparing the best we can. The rest, we have faith that God will watch over us and guide us and help us get through it.

Will try to update soon. Hoping to set up my studio in my spare room, now that Ben is rooming with his older brother and both are quite content with the arrangement. Anyone wanting to be practice models for this dream, determine pro-photographer wanna-be, would be great. Send me a message and I will be sure to get back to you as soon as possible. And just in case, I am in the market for a good deal on a Nikon D40. I am open to D40x or ect. I definitely want a Nikon though. Along with any good site or insight. Love you all and Hasta Pasta for now!!

P.S- Sorry the picture above was not edited because the hubby is taking my laptop and he wiped it clean and restore it, so my editing software isnt loaded. And I am too lazy to go mess with PSE 4 on the MAC. =)