My life...just not on the road I expected (but it's still dang good).

Staying at Ross's Place

Ross has been lonely in his new place so he asked me to come stay with him.

And he asked that I bring Coley too so that when I left, Coley could stay with him for a few extra days.

So Wednesday, I picked Coley up early from the summer program he and the girls go to.

 

 

And we decided to stop to get a couple of drinks on our way out of town because it was so hot.  (Passion tea with no sweetener for me and an orange smoothie with whip for him.)

And then we stopped by a kettle corn stand on the way out of town.

And then we made the 1 1/2 hour drive to Klamath Falls listening to some podcasts I had downloaded and having one of the most meaningful conversations we have probably ever had.  (The podcasts are from a series called Character Under Construction by Andy Stanley and this particular series has been life changing for me and though they're not geared towards kids, Coley really seems to get the message too.  I think it's a six part series but they've only released three so far.)

 

And then we got to Ross's place.  (And no, those are not wine bottles in the background.  They're sparkling cider bottles...I already checked.)

Yes, my toes are painted orange right now (only because my husband thinks I look hot in orange.)

The boys wanted to play video games for awhile

But I hate video games so I walked around taking pictures of Ross's new place instead.

And for the first time after I asked him to PLEASE TURN OFF THAT HORRIFIC, HEAD-BANGING MUSIC BEFORE I SCREAM, he got to say, "Mom, when you pay the rent for my apartment, you can decide what music I listen to."

I think he's been waiting years to say that to me (since I spent so many years saying it to him.)

And after that statement...he changed the song to something I liked instead.

A note from Cali.

His work schedule.

 

He's had these face pads forever and they make his eyebrows turn orange...so I have no idea why he still has them.

 

He painted that coffee table a year or two ago.

And then I took them out to dinner.  (Mexican food.)

 

And then they talked me into taking them to go see Predators.  (I seriously can't think of any movie that I'd like to see less than Predators - and it looks like a bird who flew over the sign thought as highly of the movie as I do.)

When we got up to the ticket counter, I realized it was rated R, but the girl at the counter said it was just due to blood and violence.

Oh....just blood & violence.  Cool.

So against my judgment, I bought tickets anyhow.

And about five minutes into the movie, Ross could be heard saying, "Ok Mom, we'll leave, just don't make a scene" as I freaked out over the blood, the violence and the language I had just subjected my nine year old son to.

So we got a refund and went to Blockbuster to rent movies instead.

 

And then boys played guitar hero until almost midnight.  (Thank goodness my camera has a really high maximum ISO.)

And then we went to bed and after a lousy nights sleep, I locked the door behind me at 5:45 am when I left to head home.  (Ross is bringing Coley back with him on Saturday and we're all heading up to Salem to go to the Enchanted Forest.)

Teaching in Billings, Montana

Oh, and I forgot to post a quick reminder that I'll be teaching the One Day Photographers' Workshop at Raffia Sisters in Billings Montana on August 7th.  406 256 0812 for all you Montana gals (and guys) or anyone willing to drive/fly.

Looking forward to it!

Now, I'm truly not blogging for the rest of the week...and I mean it this time.

They're Home

Having a blended family means that our kids are spread all over the place at times.

Ross is of course living in Klamath Falls now.  Courtney Lee has been with her mom in Medford.  Coley has been with his Grandma and Grandpa Schaffran in Redmond.  And since Annie cries when everyone is gone, insisting that all the other kids get to go places because they're more 'specialer'...Grandma and Grandpa Russell took pity on her and invited her to spend the weekend with them.

But as of yesterday, they're all home (except for Ross of course but I'm going to go spend the night with him later this week.)

Having Ross's room sit empty has been bothering me, but I spent the entire weekend moving the girls stuff into Ross's old room (since Ross's old room is a lot bigger and since the girls are a couple of fraidy-cats who still want to share a room) and now I don't feel sad when I walk in there.

Spent the whole day Saturday at junk shops, swap meets and antique stores getting supplies for their new room and spent the rest of the weekend hauling everything in there (Josh was out of town too, so I had to move everything on my own) and got it all set up like a big school house (which is still their favorite thing to play.)

So it was a big surprise when they got home. 

And this morning, no one fought.  They picked plums out of the tree in our backyard for breakfast and we walked to school (a summer program they attend.)

 

And the focus is off...but the memory is right on.

Going to take the rest of the week off from blogging to work on assignment evaluations for my current class who has been turning in a TON of fabulous work.

So I've got to conserve energy.

Back next week.

And Now

And now, the riveting Seattle saga continues (at Pike's Place Market)...

Annie was so interested in her new tiara that she hardly noticed the guy playing the guitar behind his back while simultaneously playing the harmonica and hula hooping.

Nor did she notice the neon guitar growing out of the top of her head.

 

Waiting for Josh to get money from the ATM.

 

Josh and I were cranky with eachother (so he bought me flowers.)

And you can see Coley's new stuffed gecko in the background.

 

Josh and Coley and I got some cherries to share while Annie had a whole basket of blackberries to herself.

 

And then we had lunch.

 

And while the Pike Place Market is a lovely place to visit on a sunny Sunday afternoon...it's not the easiest place to shoot in (which is precisely why I don't have many photos to share.)

A Few More.

Just a few shots from the beach up in Seattle.

 

We had a contest to see how many times we could skip a rock. 

Josh Downs:  6  (And he can make ANY rock skip.)

Coley:  4  (He's on the fast-track to becoming a master-rock-skipper.)

My sister:  3  (She's not too shabby.)

Me:  3  (I stink.  Those three skips were a total fluke.)

Annie:  0  (She didn't fully understand the concept and would throw four rocks all at once, insisting that her rock at skipped four times.)

 

He'll pick anything up if it looks cool enough.

 

My sister's dog got tired of Annie mauling him and gave her a little warning bite under the eye.

Josh and I cracked jokes the rest of the trip about all the mean things we were going to do to my sister's dog. 

My sister didn't think we were very funny though.

 

 

Josh trapped Cole underneath that pile of driftwood.  (You can see just a little bit of his facing peeking through and you can also see my sister and Annie in the background, watching the whole thing.)

Time to go home.

 

After a pit-stop for icecream.

The Deck.

Our main purpose in going up to Seattle was to help my sister repair her deck.

My sister and I tried to help but whenever we asked, Josh Downs responded by saying, "No, I don't need anything right now." which is just code for, "Nope, this is man's work."

So we just entertained ourselves with 'woman's work' like fetching cold beer for the deck-builder.  (And he was kind enough to let us help stain the deck...under his manly supervision of course.)

My sister is really good at cooking though so she did lots of cooking.

And Coley is really good at carrying things so he did lots of carrying.

And Annie is really good at pretending to sweep so she did lots of pretend-sweeping.

And I'm pretty much good for nothing, so I just took pictures. 

Although I did manage to get some much-needed work done on my computer.  (Ok, technically, that's my sister's computer.)

 

Turns out, Coley is also pretty good at making slides and balancing beams out of 2x4's.

And even though my kids are lousy at walking dogs, they got to take the dogs for a few walks alongside my sister.  (I gave my sister those Gentle Leader collars for Christmas last year because her dogs were miserable to take on walks and now they're really easy to take on walks...so my sister gives them a big, two thumbs up.)

 

And other than that, us girls just hung around doing girly things like entertaining kids, laughing, cleaning, going to the grocery store, knitting socks and ironing.  (Joking about the knitting of socks and the ironing of clothes...I buy my socks pre-knitted and wear wrinkled clothes.)

Lovely All the Same

 

And lest anyone think that my family spends all our days frolicking in the summer sun on top of rolling hills...please rest assured that this was totally staged.  (We were walking past this little hill on our way to the beach and I pleaded with Josh to go play with Annie at the top of it.)

Lovely all the same though.

Seattle

We're up in Seattle at my sister's house.

Was going to wait until we got home to edit/post these, but I couldn't wait...

I've never caught lens flare that looked quite like this and am loving it.

 

 

That's lens flare too.

 

And check out that little circle of flare with the 'x' in it on his shirt.  

I've worked so hard to gain enough knowledge that I can shoot with (pretty) predictable results...but sometimes, it's the unpredictability that I love the most.

Have a great weekend.

His Place

Jill, my best friend in the-wide-world (We've been best friends for 27 years now, you know.) was in town this week.

On Tuesday, we headed over to Klamath Falls to visit Ross.

 

We had lunch at the Polar Bear.

Hamburger, fries and a Coke for her.

Grilled Cheese, tator tots and a Coke for me.

And we washed it all down with a couple of hot fudge shakes (which was about the time we both ended up with stomach aches.)

It's a good thing we don't live by eachother.

And then we hit the Goodwill and a couple of antique shops.

 

And stopped by Ross's new place of employment to leave a note on his car.

 

And when he got off of work, we stopped by his new place.  (As crazy as it sounds, I was nervous walking up the stairs to his apartment even though I was there just a few weeks ago when he first saw the apartment.)

And then we took him to the Dollar Store where I let him spend $46 on things like hot pads, tin foil, dish soap, Coke glasses, wooden spoons, garlic salt, etc.

And then we went to dinner at The Creamery before heading home.

Kind of blue the whole way home.  Kind of blue the rest of the night.  Kind of blue all day yesterday.

I just miss him.

So I called him last night at about 10:30 pm for no reason and told him that if my incessant phone calls started to get annoying that he could nicely ask me to cut back on the frequency.

He said he was lonely and all the phone calls were kind of nice.

And then he asked me if I'd come and stay with him for a few days.

And after we hung up, I just sat there with a huge smile on my face with the new-found knowledge that my 18 year old son wants me to come and stay with him for a few days at his new apartment.

And my blue-ness started to shift to a slightly lighter shade of blue.

Magic Blue perhaps.

Continuing Ed.

Back when I was a dental hygienist, I was fortunate enough to work for a few doctors who made continuing education a high priority.

And as funny as it may sound, anytime we attended a continuing education course, I'd have butterflies in my stomach, thinking of how I was going to apply all my newly found knowledge and customer service skills as soon as I got back to the office Monday morning.

The doctors I worked for were already great dentists, but they saw the value in continuing their education.  Not only from what they learned but also from the motivation and enthusiasm that came along with it.

And really, if someone is going to be working in your mouth, would you rather that person be someone who makes continuing education a priority or someone who doesn't?

I feel the same way about photography.

I love to be a student of photography as much as I love to teach it.

I love watching another photographer shoot.  I love seeing how they work with clients and light.  I love learning what shooting mode they prefer, what autofocus mode they prefer, what kind of exposures they prefer, etc.  (Even if I happen to prefer something different.)  I love hearing fresh perspectives on old topics.  And I love the excitement and motivation that I inevitably leave with.

And I'm realistic.  I don't attend workshops expecting them to revolutionize the way I shoot (because for the most part, I'm already pretty happy with the way I shoot) but I do attend them with the hope of gaining fresh perspective, motivation and maybe even a few new pearls of information along the way.

So I spent last weekend in Missoula, Montana, attending a workshop put on by Barb Uil who happens to be one of the first childrens photographers I ever remember feeling awestruck by.

And it was lovely.

First of all, the location (Meadowbrook Farm) was one of the most lovely places I'd ever seen.

 

And secondly, Barb Uil was fun, approachable and just as talented and creative as I had hoped she'd be.

She talked a lot about business (which I always find extremely interesting even though I don't shoot professionally) and about the value of developing your own, unique style of shooting (which is something I discuss in my own classes.)  We covered lots of photo editing (an area where I still have plenty to learn) and spent tons of time shooting.  (I think we did 11 shoots on Saturday.)

 

 

 

If you've never shot at a workshop before, alongside 15 other photographers...it's hard. 

Everyone is excited to shoot, there's no space to move around, the subject doesn't know where to look, there are lenses and butts and heads in just about every shot you try to take and unless you're bold (which I'm not) it's hard to get an ideal shooting position so instead, you just find yourself walking around, hoping for a fresh viewpoint that isn't already filled by another photographer.

If you don't let all that bother you though, it's a great learning opportunity.

 

 

 

Got home sometime after midnight on Monday.

I'm tired and I think I'm on the verge of getting sick (lack of sleep and travel always do me in.)  But despite all that, my brain is spinning with ideas:

- Branding for my own photography classes.  Branding is something I've never had the time to invest in but have decided to make the time.

- Implementing new editing techniques.  I learned some new things I want to implement but anytime I learn new editing techniques, I have to work with them for awhile to make them fit 'me'.

- Just being excited to shoot and to keep my eyes open to unique compositions and good storytelling.

I love being a student.