« January 2012 | Main | March 2012 »
He's home.
And it's hard to see her, but Courtney Lee is sandwiched in between us in that shot.
If you've got 4:41, play this song. Just turn it up loud, close your eyes, forget about everything else and take it in for a bit. If you don't have that much time, just fast forward it to 3:12...that's the part that gets me every time.
And since you're reading this Josh Downs...Welcome home.
Cole and I shot that with my iPhone the other night after finding out that Josh Downs was safely out of Afghanistan.
The anxiety in my gut and mind had been building because he was already supposed to be out of there, but every day or two, I'd get a call from him saying that he was still at Camp Marmal and that hopefully he'd get out the following day.
So when he called to say that he was on his way home and was currently in Kurdistan (I don't know where that is...Maybe Turkey?) I just sat in my car on the side of the road and cried. I'm not even sure why.
Relief I guess.
Last night, the kids and I all went to dinner and spent the entire evening telling stories and sharing our favorite things about Josh.
And at 10:12 p.m., I got the phone call I had been waiting seven months for; the call where my cell phone listed the caller as 'Harriet' (his nickname, from a quote he sent me by Harriet Beecher Stowe when we first started dating). Not the odd six digit numbers I'd grown accustomed to seeing when he called from Afghanistan or the long numbers I'd seen when he called from other countries. It was his cell phone number this time - which told me he was in the U.S.
And if all goes as planned, we'll see him step off a plane and onto the tarmac of Klamath Falls International Airport tomorrow.
And I don't normally blog on Sundays, but I knew that many of you would want to know, that many of you have been thinking of and praying for his safe return, that many of you have left comments and sent emails or even mailed care packages to him in Afghanistan and that many of you have been anticipating this post.
Thanks for all that. Thanks for your patriotism. Thanks for caring about my little family and for doing things that made some of the days without him a little brighter.
I probably won't be blogging much over the next few weeks. We're going to spend a few days at home and then we're taking the kids on a surprise road-trip. But I'll share everything when we get back. And I'm about two months behind on emails right now so I hope to get caught up on that when I get back too. (Sorry if I owe you one.)
And if you'r reading this Josh Downs...You have all of my honor and all of my respect and all of my love.
I'm coaching a running team.
Meet my crew...
Taz (as in Tasmanian Devil).
Ninja T. (A friend of the family.)
The Roadrunner.
And Little Lightening Legs.
We started training for the Pear Blossom a couple weeks back. (Taz and Ninja T. are running the 10 mile race, The Roadrunner is doing the 3 mile race and Little Lightening Legs is running the Mayor's Mile.)
And we decided that nicknames make us run faster.
The kids have to refer to me as Coach when we're on the track. In fact, referring to me as 'mom' or 'K.K.' during training is grounds for push-ups.
I like doling out push-ups.
In fact, The Roadrunner had to do a few push-ups for making that face (above) when I told my team to give me 50 jumping jacks.
Much better you cute, little Roadrunner.
Sometimes I even make them do push-ups for no reason.
I can do that because I'm the coach.
Ski jumps.
They kind of like those ones.
We do all sorts of races too.
We've even been using a stop-watch to track our progress.
All serious coaches use a stop-watch.
Sometimes I kick the soccer ball and make them chase it.
Little Lightening Legs always gets a four-second lead (because four is my favorite number and because her legs might be made of lightening...but they're still short).
It's a rigorous training schedule.
And whenever they look like they're having too much fun, I make them do more push-ups.
Occasionally, I just let them stand around and look cute.
They're really good at that.
Cute and fast...that's my crew.
And if you're reading this Josh Downs...I mowed your lawn and got your truck cleaned and bought you some fresh coffee beans. Now you need to do your part. Come home.
I shared some exciting news with Annie about Josh Downs and his homecoming last night which sent her into a sqealing, jumping, singing frenzy.
About 15 minutes later, she was standing in front of my desk with her head hung low and tears streaming down her eyes.
When I asked what was wrong, she said that it had just been too long since she had seen her daddy.
I just sat and held her for awhile, realizing that I had been doing the exact same thing for weeks now; butterflies and excitement one minute, followed by tears the next because it just feels like it's been too long.
Coley came in to see what all the estrogen was about and then he picked Annie up out of my arms and carried her away.
A few minutes later, I walked down the hallway and found him reading to her...
And then it was her turn to read to him.
Eventually, an 11 year old grows tired of being read to by a 6 year old though.
And telling that 11 year old that he has to sit through rest of the book to encourage the 6 year old doesn't help.
He's just like his mom...the love runs deep...but the patience wears thin.
Later in the evening, Josh called and I said, "I don't know what's up with Annie and I, but one minute we're happy and excited and the next minute we're in tears?" to which he replied, "I know what's up...you're girls."
And if you're reading this Josh Downs...Thanks for loving your girls just the way we are.
Annie fell asleep in my bed the other night.
She must have found her daddy's shirt sitting on the nightstand and thought it smelled as good as I think it smells and decided to sleep with it. (Josh wore that shirt and then mailed it to me from Afghanistan per my odd/unusual request.)
And if you're reading this Josh Downs...Thanks for being a fine-smelling man.
I stopped to pick up six balloons for the newly six year old and talked her into an impromtu shoot...
And that's all she wrote for the birthday pics.
Oh, and I finally got all my Nikon gear back from the service department this afternoon. (I shot all of Annie's birthday pictures with a borrowed Canon 5D and the fabulous, but inexpensive Canon 85mm f1.8.)
Oh, and someone asked where I got Annie's tights - got them at Old Navy back at Christmastime.
Oh, and again, all the regular seats in the next Photographers' Workshop are sold out but you can still snag an auditing seat here or you can read more about the workshop here.
And if you're reading this Josh Downs...Everyone is awaiting your homecoming - even the waitor at our new favorite Mexican restuarant keeps asking how many days until you'll be home. (I know that a lot of you blog readers have inquired too and I really appreciate it. The only reason I haven't mentioned the exact date/number of days is for security reasons - you know, just in case the al-Qauda has me on their Google-Reader.)
I was waking up Cole when I heard her little footsteps coming down the hall. She had a huge smile on her face and promtly crawled into my lap while Coley and I sang Happy Birthday.
And then she followed me downstairs, in anticipation of her birthday muffin.
And just as she blew out her candle, Josh Downs called. (Perhaps that's what she wished for.)
She decided she didn't want to have a party until her daddy gets home, but I still promised her one present on her birthday. (The night before her birthday, she told me she wanted a Lego vet set...and lucky me, that's exactly what I had gotten for her.)
Cole snagged that one. (Thanks Coley.)
Annie opted to spend her birthday at home with me instead of going to school (an option the kids always have on their birthday) so after dropping Coley off at school, we started building the vet clinic.
Later as we were doing our hair, we heard a knock at the door and noticed the silhouette of flowers through the window as we went to answer the door.
Annie immediately said, "Mom, I think Daddy sent you flowers!" to which I replied, "No, I think Daddy sent flowers to his birthday girl."
The first flowers Annie has ever received.
And she talked about them all day.
And then we went to Target where Annie had a $10 birthday budget.
And when she spotted Jessie (from The Toy Story) on the bottom shelf (with a $40 price tag I might add) she immediately sprung, arms wide-open towards the box and said in a voice that one might hear on The Jersey Shore, "Heeeeeeeey girl...I've been needing you my whole life!"
And then she immediately broke into her pleading puppy-dog face.
I'm immune to the pleading puppy-dog face though so she settled for a $10 Barbie Mermaid Tale instead.
And then we headed to The Roadhouse, per Annie's request (because she loves their rolls and honey butter) where she sat and shelled a bazillion peanuts for me to eat (She hates peanuts, but loves to shell them.) while we waited for our lunch.
We always have the kids opt between water, milk or iced tea - but birthday girls get stawberry lemonaide.
And after lunch, the waitor came by with a surprise.
Next on Annie's birthday wish-list was a trip to the park.
On our way there, we ran into my dad.
He really loves having his picture taken.
And then we picked up Coley from school and made our way to the park.
That was her bazillionth birthday call. (That one was from her Grandma Jo.)
Happy Birthday Yans.
And all the regular seats in the next Photographers' Workshop are sold out, but you can still snag an auditing seat if you want one. (Just scroll down to the post below for all the details.)
And if you're reading this Josh Downs...It feels like time has come to a stand-still. Come home already.
Registration for the next Photographers' Workshop begins this morning (Wednesday, February 15th, 2012) at 9 a.m. Pacific Time. (This class runs from April 2nd - June 10th.)
To register just go here.
Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. I have no way of knowing how today's registration will go but past classes have always filled up fast so you'll want to type quickly. (To make the process quicker, just fill out the 'General Information' section, knowing that you can fill out the remaining information at a later time, after your registration is complete.)
The workshop runs for 10 weeks, includes 45 lesson (a total of 450+ pages of information and images) and 9 assignments. There is a class forum (an image from the Q&A Board is shown below) where you can interact with your classmates, post all of your questions, upload your assignments and post images for fun and/or critique. (This forum is my full time job so you'll have access to me 40+ hours a week during the entire course.)
I allow a limited number of 'regular students' ($395) and 'auditing students' ($245). Auditing students can participate in class exactly like a regular student, asking questions, posting comments, uploading photos, etc. The only difference between auditing students and regular students is that I do not provide evaluations for assignments or photo critiques posted by auditing students.
Some students choose to audit because the regular seats usually fill up quickly and other students choose to audit because their schedule is busy and they want the flexibility of working at their own pace, knowing that they can choose to schedule a telephone or Skype consult ($95 per hour) with me in the future to ask questions and receive feedback on their images.
If you'd like to receive updates on future classes via email, you can get on the wait list here. (There's currently 1268 people on the waiting list but don't let that scare you!)
If you have any additional questions, check out the information here. If you don't find the answer to your question there, feel free to leave your question in the comments section and I'll update this post with the answer to your question marked in red so you don't miss my response.
And you can weed through the comments on this post from Feb. 2011 (Sorry, I was doing a giveaway so there's 800+ comments) to hear what some past students have to say about the class.
Hope I didn't miss anything and looking forward to having some of you in my next class! (Oh, and if you email me on registration day, please be patient with my response because registration day is crazy for me!)
The kids and I spent Saturday morning down at the Hedrick Middle School track, doing a little training for the Pear Blossom. (All of my kids are planning to run one of the Pear Blossom races - but I'll save that story for another day.)
And then we refueled ourselves at Donut Country.
Then we ran errands, hung out at the park and went to the movies before dropping Courtney Lee back by her mom's house.
I had a headache all day, so when we got home, I told Cole and Annie that I was going to lay down for a bit and asked them to play (quietly) upstairs.
About an hour later, I woke up to the sound of giggling and when I walked upstairs to see what was going on, I found them in their swimsuits, taking a bubble bath...
I just started laughing and then, still half-asleep, tried to remember if/where I had a camera. (My Nikon gear is still in the shop and I already returned the Canon 7D I rented.)
I was just about to go looking for my iPhone when I remembered that a friend of mine had loaned me her Canon 5D - I just hadn't taken it out of the camera bag yet.
I hadn't shot with a Canon 5D in at least five years, but as luck would have it, it felt much like riding a bike.
And the next morning while I was taking my own bath, I heard Cole whisper to Annie, "Trust me, if we do all this stuff for mom, she'll let us do whatever we want for the rest of the day."
Turns out they had cleaned the entire downstairs. They even did the dishes.
And that's reason enough for this mom to allow her children to rot their brains with a five-hour television marathon.
And don't forget that registration will open up for The Photographers' Workshop at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time tomorrow (Wednesday, February 15th.)
More details on all of that here.
And if you're reading this Josh Downs...I'd wish you a Happy Valentine's Day, but you know I couldn't care less about Valentine's Day. February 13th is where it's at.
Funny how quick six years goes by...
Today is her sixth birthday.
It's also the seven year anniversary of Josh Downs and I meeting on an airplane out of Atlanta, Georgia.
Feel free to skip the math on that though because it kind of leaves me looking like a two-bit-hussy.
Happy Birthday Annaliesa Belle Downs.
And if you're reading this Josh Downs...Yep, kismet.
