The Glass is Empty!

My hard drive completely crashed - on my newest computer...the one I use for all of my business activity! Most everything was backed up, but there were a few projects that couldn't be backed up and were only on a certain program on that hard drive.

Also, my last session from Saturday was not backed up, but I still have the images on the card. I just don't have any of the ones I started editing last night after the session. I was too tired to get very far - and apparently too tired to do my back up immediately! Big mistake.

I'm the most sick over some documents I created Friday for which I have no hard copy or back up. I spent so many hours Friday and Saturday morning working on several important documents that I can't just re-create in the same form and as well as I did originally. I put so much thought into the wording, and I worked so hard to have it all just right. I don't even want to think about it.

I'm calling the Geek Squad in the morning. I'm holding out a little hope that they may be able to help. I can't accept that I've lost it all.

My whole album design for the marketing project that I was ready to finish up this week is gone - unless the Geek Squad can perform a miracle. I had hours invested in the design of that. I'm so sick.

So, please pray for a miracle. Hopefully, somewhere near, there is a "geek" getting a good night's sleep, who will wake up and eat his Wheaties or Shredded Wheat (or peanut butter like my mom always had me eat before a test at school), and he (or she) will be ready to take on the task of attempting to retrieve my files from the crashed drive.

Pray.

The glass is half full...

I don't have any photos to post or anything cute from the kids' sayings lately. (Even though they've said some cute things.)

I've just been researching and thinking and re-working some marketing stuff (new logo coming soon to my website and already on some of my new marketing materials). I have so much to think about and work on all the time just with the business alone (stuff that other people can't even see are being done).

I have major studio "envy" when I see some of the totally decked out studios that some have. I have tons of great ideas for my someday studio, and I have to make myself stop thinking about it so much. I decided tonight that I probably don't want the expense and additional time-consuming and money-consuming responsibilities that come along with having a downtown studio space of my own right now. I've decided to look at the positives of my business situation and just focus on continuing to better the areas of my business that I can right now (i.e., marketing materials, product presentation, etc.). Plus, I'm working toward certification and building on my skills. So, a downtown studio is probably only something I want to undertake if I win the lottery. :)

I really, really want the building near our house that was up for sale a few years ago, when we didn't know what we could use it for at the time, since I had no idea I wanted to pursue the business side of photography at that time. It's not for sale now, and there is a small business using it. They renovated, and it looks great and would be perfect (PERFECT) for me. I'm sure if they decide to sell, they will ask way more than it would be worth for me.

I think I'm rambling, but it's just because I needed to "talk" things out to make myself feel better and remind myself of the full part of the glass.

I have a family session tomorrow evening, and I'm excited about it. They are the contest winner from my May Free Session Contest, and they've never had family portraits done. We're shooting in a location full of opportunity. I love my job! (This is way more fun than radiology transcription - even though that was way more easy money and much less effort.)

Okay. This blog was mostly for myself, I think. I feel better.

Sleeping Sisters

One day last week, when I went in to wake up Natalie for her summer class, I found Olivia in her room. It was the one time I left Natalie's door unlocked at night. We usually keep Nat's door locked, so Olivia won't go in there and get into everything.

It has helped a little to have all of the jewelry and hair accessories out of the girls' rooms. When I started the new re-organization project, I moved all of that stuff to the top shelf of the linen closet in the hallway. The girls used to get into all of that stuff and spread it out all over their rooms. It was a waste of my time to keep reorganizing it into the proper containers, when they would just do it again. I don't have that problem anymore.

Anyway, here are a couple pics I took when I found Olivia asleep in Nat's bed with her.

Nat's Mini Session

So, Natalie didn't seem to be in the right mood for doing photos tonight. She was kind of spacey and had to go potty for most of it. Here's the best I could get of her. She usually connects with the camera really well, but she was kind of zoning out a little. No time (or energy) for editing photos tonight, but I'll post these images now, because I don't want to have to take the time tomorrow.

I decided to go ahead and send Parker to Mom's Day Out with Olivia tomorrow. His poison ivy seems to be dried up pretty well. I'll decide for sure in the morning.

I'm super tired tonight, and I'm feeling overwhelmed with everything I need to get done.

So far behind...

I've definitely fallen behind on blogging, and I really don't think I'll get caught up on things I've wanted to say.

I'll post some images from this evening. I took Olivia out to try to get some images for a contest (not photography contest - kid mag. contest). I got a couple cute ones. I have to try to get some of Natalie tomorrow, before the deadline for entry.

Parker won't be able to do a little photo shoot for a while. Poor baby has poison ivy really badly, and his face is swollen on one side, and his cheeks are bright red, and he has sores all over him. He is such a mess and looks so much like a boy - a boy who loves to play outside and get into everything.

Parker and Olivia had to miss Mom's Day Out last week because of Parker's diarrhea stuff he had for a week. Plus, he had started the poison ivy stuff around that time too. Anyway, Parker won't be able to go again this week. I think I'll just make Olivia go by herself. She really won't like it at all. She won't even go in her own class. She stays in Parker's class. They just want to be together all the time. I'll just have to leave her crying Tuesday, I guess. She'll get over it and have fun anyway, I think. We'll see.

Last week was our 9'th anniversary. That means almost 14 years since we met, which seems like a lot since we're only 30. Okay, I'm 30...he's still 29...but not for long. Billy has decided to go with me to the convention in Phoenix in January, and I think we'll kind of consider it our 10-year-anniversary trip, since we probably won't both be able to leave together again later in the year. We'll be gone 6 or 7 days in January. That will be our first time to go anywhere overnight alone together since we had babies. The hotel is reserved, and we're looking forward to it.

One of the benefits of tonight's expedition to get some images of Olivia was finding a couple of good "new" spots for senior sessions. I took her to one of the spots already on my list for senior sessions, and she did some "model" poses.

So...Some of tonight's images:

Doing a model pose.

This model pose she did looks like an adult editorial pose for Vogue or something.

The girls both crack me up with their model poses. I told Olivia early in the day that we would probably go make some photos in the evening. Several times throughout the day, she kept asking if I was still going to take her for a "photo shoot". She was so happy to be a model for the evening.

Options...

I just can't keep up with this blog right now. Just a quick little Natalie thing from last night...

It was just me and Natalie in the car on the way to help a friend drop off a car, and there was a mosquito in the car, up around the windshield. I grabbed a napkin and was trying to get it to come close enough to me to smash it. I also rolled down the window so it could fly out if it came my way. It kept avoiding me. I said, "Come here so I can kill you, or at least go out the window."

Natalie said, "Yeah, those are your only two options, Mosquito. You can stay in here and die and have a funeral, or you can go out the window and live the rest of your life outside."

Spring, "Sprain", Sprung

Olivia has a sprain. She didn't get much sleep last night after she got back from the ER around 1:30 a.m. Since she didn't sleep well, Billy and I didn't sleep well either.

We had a long day today. Can't go into details now.

Olivia is not using the hand that is sprained. It really hurts her. When it gets hit or bumped by accident, she cries. I think it was really close to being a break.

No time for anything more right now.

Quick Update

Yesterday was Mom's Day Out, and it was Parker and Olivia's second time there. Olivia started crying, so she made Parker cry. I just had to leave quickly. They loved it after they were there.

When I picked them up, they had made drawings of them (the teacher traced around them on the big paper). When we were walking to the car, Olivia told me she sang the Hokey Pokey, and it was really cute how she did it. Oh, when I walked into the room to pick them up, Parker wasn't wearing any pants, and he was wearing a Pull-Up. The teacher said that they were getting ready to eat snacks, and they looked over to see Parker just turning around from the window, where he had pulled his little boy part out the top of his pants and peed into the window alcove. So, his pants got wet. I had planned to head straight to Wal-Mart with them (for my second trip of the day for organizational bins, etc.), and I couldn't really go in with a boy in just his shirt. Anyway, bad-Mama points for me, because I just let Parker's pants air out on the way to Wal-Mart and then put them back on him, so I didn't have to go all the way back home and then go out again to get what I needed.

*Note: Parker is such a stinker lately. It's so much worse when he's with Olivia, too. Next year, we'll finally be out of the stage of having a 2-year-old and 3-year-old at the same time. It's been a few years in a row of having 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds around (Natalie, then Natalie and Olivia, then Olivia and Parker, then we'll be down to just Parker when he turns 3, with no 2-year-old also), so it will probably seem a little strange and wonderful at the same time.*

Anyway, later that evening, Olivia headed toward Parker's room, and when I went to check on her, I found her in the hallway with one of Parker's teddy bears. She was using a piece of chalk to trace the bear on a piece of paper. I snapped a quick pic. It was really cute.

I'm working on a whole different organizational system for the house, with major changes to how some of the kids' things are stored, and it's going to make life much easier for me with them at this stage. They just have soooooooooo much stuff. I'm getting rid of even more. It seems like I'm always getting rid of toys and clothes, and then the ones left just multiply x 3 in a day. Anyway, I'm trying to work on the new system in between "breaks" from working on the business. Maybe I'll post details on the new system sometime. It makes me happy to be back to organizing and rearranging when I can, and of course it's fun to buy new organizational units/gadgets. :)

I've got a little session tomorrow afternoon, then two more this weekend, and some more soccer pic orders to deliver, so I'm not sure when I'll do catch-up blogging. I'm still behind on some business stuff , then on top of that I'll be back to editing/posting photos after this weekend.

I've been sick since last week, and so far the kids are okay (just allergy stuff for them). I've got fluid in my chest, plus the cough/fever stuff. The aches only lasted a couple days, so I've been able to function just fine. Good thing...since I don't get sick days.

I will make sure to have a quick update tomorrow about Olivia. She is at the ER right now getting her wrist checked. Apparently, Natalie pushed her off of the railing thing and into the ditch. I was gone doing some portable studio light stuff, so Billy had to wait until I got home to take her. Olivia is already scheduled for her audiology appt. and then her checkup after that tomorrow. So, she's really going to love it that she gets to go to 3 doctors in a row (tonight and in the morning). It's hard to say if her wrist is broken, because she's quite dramatic. Hopefully, it's a minor sprain.

Here's the pic of Olivia tracing the bear:

June Blog

Since I haven't had a chance to blog yet this month, here you go...

Too much has happened to include in the blog, and I know I'll be sorry I didn't keep up with things the past couple of weeks, because I use the blog as my own little diary of events and things the kids say. There have been some cute sayings/actions lately. I just can't think of them all right now, and others take too long to explain.

We should get the results of Natalie's kidney ultrasound Monday or Tuesday. I took her Friday to have it done. I didn't get to talk to many of the people I used to work with in Radiology, and it was strange being back there after so long. The ultrasound tech who did Nat's ultrasound has a 16-year-old now, which seems really, really strange, since he was still a little boy when I last knew them. It seems like ages ago and a whole different life that I worked there.

I am staying sooooooooooooo busy with the business stuff. It takes so long to take care of every detail, too. I am now an affiliated photographer with the Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Foundation. It's really heartbreaking to even visit the site, www.nilmdts.com. (Stephanie, don't look at the site again until next year.) I'm not sure how I'll make it through a session. I'd like to do a shadow session in the City to see if I can even make it. I just think it's such a great service, and I'm really excited about getting the word out to the community so families will be able to consider the option. I can't even imagine myself in the situation where I might need the services, but I do think that I would definitely want quality images of my baby. Photography is such an amazing medium for preservation of memories. I think I would want the visual reminder of the time spent with my baby.

Anyway, another busy week of taking care of business and more doctor's appointments. I'll try to get in some quick updates throughout the week. Plus, I still have some images to post from several weeks ago. I'll try to do that soon.

With this entry, I'll post a few pics of some muddy play from last week. I let the kids play in the water hose while we were waiting for Daddy to get home one afternoon. Well, the whole thing started without my permission, but once I saw how much fun they were having, I let it go on a little while.