Sometimes it happens

I wander off unsupervised and forget to come back. Honestly its not a sometimes thing for me where this blog is concerned, its a most of the time thing. I have dozens of unfinished posts hanging out in my draft bin that either are no longer relevant (the most recent one was started the day I was officially 16 weeks pregnant…. 3 weeks ago) or I was passionate about something when I started, but got sidetracked and realized the fervor had worn off, or more often than not, I get started and then forget what I was going to write about and another half post goes into the post graveyard to die a slow and painless death.

Tomorrow, I will be 19 weeks pregnant. My pants are finally getting snug around the belly (thank goodness I have such a love of low-rise jeans!), the baby is VERY mobile, squirming around all over the place, making me giggle at the oddest of times. The new puppy is nearly 10 weeks old and litter box trained, making my life much easier. I’ve only got 3 days left of my current classes and then I move on to something new and hopefully a little easier on this pregnant mama. I have a new and greatly improved garden in the works.

My husband spent quite a bit of time yesterday driving back and forth between a neighbor’s farm about a mile and a half away in one of the big backhoes to bring me 2 year old horse manure that has been composted to the consistency of beautiful rich black dirt. (Hooray for awesome neighbors btw- this guy also gave us some firewood and disced our garden for us!) and I plan to get some of it spread out today so it can be tilled in this week if all goes well. We enlarged the garden from about 20 by 30 to 30 by 60 and 70 (one side is longer than the other) and I’m so excited about growing a much larger variety of veggies this year and hopefully preserving enough to keep us in local healthy food throughout the winter (I know- major undertaking for a gal who’s also preggers, but I’m motivated to take good care of this baby)

My husband is finally nearing the end of two jobs that have engulfed the last year of our lives, spending his weeks in Iowa far away from me and tho I am sad to see the better income come to an end, I’m so thankful that soon I will have him back home with me as I get further along in this pregnancy. Already things like severe round ligament pain have kept me laid up a bit when I really need to be getting things done or, worse had me out hobbling around in a lot of pain to take care of those things.

I’ve had good reason, with all these things going on, to have a hard time getting time to post, but I’ll try to make it back again a bit more often. For now tho, I’m going to get showered and dressed and go play in the garden now that the sun is coming out.

Back to school

The last 7 weeks has really flown by what with the holidays and the whole being pregnant thing. I’m so thankful to have been off for so long because I really needed the break, but now that my classes are scheduled to start back up on Monday I’m a little nervous. My two classes that I’m taking this session are Lighting, and Color Management. Both of these classes are photography classes in my major which should be exciting, but instead I’m a little worried. ‘Why worry,’ you might ask, ‘After all your supposed to be a photographer…’ But the problem is I haven’t taken a photography related class since July. Seriously- my last three courses were Art History, a web design class, and College Algebra. I’ve barely had time to pick up the camera (as evidenced by the lack of pictures lately) and somewhere along the way, this baby has stolen some basic camera knowledge from my brain. Add my lack of organization leading to one lens having gone AWOL on me and I’m a little worried about how I’ll fare in these to courses.

In all seriousness, school has taken a back burner to this baby I’m growing and I’m having a hard time taking interest in anything but that. Photography is my one true love (aside from my husband and baby) and even that is not enough to make me pick up the camera and take pictures right now. The weather is cold and gloomy, as I mentioned before my lens (my FAVORITE lens no less) has gone missing, and I just feel… blah. I’m loving lazing around the house where its warm and cozy and resting to my heart’s content. This new life inside me has taken precedence over everything else and its making some other things difficult. I’m hoping that with the transition to the second trimester, I will start to feel more energetic, but the reality is, I live in Missouri where gray is a standard color for the sky this time of year and gray makes me want to stay inside whether I’m pregnant or not.

I’m really struggling with this because along with grants, I am wracking up a sizable student loan debt with these classes and there’s no way I would want to quit at this point even if I didn’t have that looming over me. I’ve come so far to give up and be uninterested now, but I’m not sure how to get re-inspired. (or where to find my lost lens as I feel like that would make me feel a lot better and less panicked)

Another picture post

I haven’t been around much on the internets lately- the weather has either been great and I’ve been outside, or its been terrible and I’ve been hiding in the basement. Add that to me not being a shut-in any more since I got my own car again (finally!) and keeping busy with school and its no wonder I’m hardly around any more.

This business also explains why I haven’t gotten around to getting to meet one of my fellow bloggers for the first time in person last week. We got together and did a photo session and I must say it was a lot of fun meeting Miss Toi. She’s every bit as sweet and funny in person as she seems online and I had so much fun hanging out with her and her dog Lucy while we explored the area around my home and did some picture taking.

Back tracking a little more, I had an interesting assignment for my final for the last photography class I took. We chose a word at the beginning of the class and then we were supposed to illustrate the feeling of that word. My word was ‘discarded’. I’m very literal and this assignment was therefore pretty tough for me. I want to take artistic photos but I’m not sure I get the psychology of it all and that is honestly a little daunting for me. In the end I halfway figured it out tho and the professor gave me some good pointers to get me closer to where I need to be. With that in mind, I think I’ll be doing some self-imposed assignments along the lines of this assignment to broaden my base of experience.

Discarding the trappings of society (no models were naked or harmed in these pictures- she had shorts and a tank top on but it sure looks fun, huh?)

Discarded life, discarded prom queen, discarded love, you pick the discard

Childhood discarded and growing up. J12 was great at riding off on his bike over and over for me until I got just the right angle for this one.

Left behind (this one wasn’t used in my final, but I love the feel of the picture) J14 with her little dog, Dirty Dan, was so helpful and she’s the model in the other shots as well 😉

November

Holy cow I’ve been busy! So busy/lazy that I haven’t even completed my Halloween costume yet (our party is two days away so I need to get going on that one!!) In my defense, I’m doing school work, making decorations, cleaning (sometimes…..), cooking, running errands, and all the other little things that make up life and blogs and costumes fall very far down on that list of things to do. Class keeps me busy a lot of the time- the one I’m in right now (which thankfully ends Wednesday- just when its finally getting interesting) is Color Theory for Web and Media- basically I’m learning about using colors on the computer. Unfortunately, I’m not a design student and I’m also very left-brained which makes being creative in random fashions quite a challenge. That said, I’m still keeping my 4.0 average (go me, right?) but I feel pretty relieved to make it through every week.

I’m actually here today because I am going to try (notice I say try) to post most days this month. It’s November, and here in the states that means the holiday season is upon us starting with Thanksgiving. I thought it would be nice to post something that I’m thankful for every day here on the blog. (only thought of it today so there goes NaBloPoMo)

In that line of thinking, and since I missed three days already, here are  four things I’m thankful for. (don’t get used to it- I’ll only be posting multiples when I’ve missed a few days…. on second thought, maybe you should get used to it…)

1. Jarell- My husband, partner in crime, best friend, house cleaning aficionado, handy man, favorite comedian, and all around wonderful guy. He makes me smile, he takes care of me when I’m feeling yucky like I have been this last month thanks to bronchitis, works his butt off at a very tough job and tells me he’s glad to because it means I don’t have to work at a job I hate. I don’t deserve this man, but I try every day to live up to the standards he sets by being as wonderful as he is.
2. Speaking of the job Jarell does, I’m thankful that he has been well employed all summer even if that meant him being gone all week and us only talking for a few minutes each day. Our bills are caught up, we have a car being fixed as I speak that will be mine when its done, propane for the furnace, food in the fridge, and lots of little things that make me happy around the house.
3. I am incredibly thankful to be in school. Despite the fact that some of the classes get me (they’re short- 5 1/2 weeks long) I love being in school and learning again. The knowledge that I am moving forward with my photography makes me incredibly happy.
4. Finally as a random one, I am thankful for Fall. I love Spring with its greening grasses and possibilities of a garden ahead, but I was born in January and I love all the changes that lead up to my birthday- the crisping nights, the warm fires, the first time it snows. All these things are magical to me and I love love love this time of year!

A leap of faith

I’m taking one. And very suddenly I might add. Applying for a BS in photography (I love that the accronym is BS cuz I feel like that’s what I’ll be doing…) at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh online. Its such a huge step to take for me who has been out of school for 6 years but I’m really excited about it. Think good thoughts my way folks- I want to do this and add it to my sewing business for which I finished my first paying job on Thursday.