Monday, November 26, 2007

Things Done on my To-Do List

I did get some things done on my to-do list.

As soon as we got home yesterday, the house was freezing, so I decided that the only way to stay warm was to keep busy. I strapped Daphne to me, and I went out and cleaned out the car. Usually this takes me days after a trip, but it was done within the hour. We cleaned the car and then vacuumed it and cleaned the hard surfaces with Windex!

After that, we came in and cleaned the house, so that got all handled. I just need to keep it clean now, which is a hard thing to do. So, this stays on the list until it gets cleaned again!

I then gave the dog a bath. I haven't done this since before the baby was born. I had been taking him to a groomer, but I was noticing that she was missing things, so I gave him a bath myself. He had rolled in cow manure when he was out at the ranch, so this was a must.

He came really clean, so I plan to do it more often. Daphne helped, and it wasn't so bad really. He enjoyed it!

I am now off to mat things. Lots of that to do for sure.

Daphne Takes Her First Steps!!!

Yes, it is true, Daphne took her first steps this weekend. On Saturday night, my sister and I had just made raviolis for dinner, and we were sitting on the floor of the kitchen eating them. Daphne was between the two of us, and she was looking for something to eat in my bowl. She tried almost walking to get to it.

I immediately put the bowl down and so did my sister, and we put her between the two of us. My sister held her and pointed her toward me. I was just beyond her reach, so she took two steps toward me and then fell on her bum.

Good job Daphne! The first steps go down in the books on November 24th at only 8.5 months old!

Daphne's First Tooth

I told Daphne that she wasn't allowed to get a tooth until I was able to take a good photo of her toothless smile. The funny thing is that she actually listened to me. She is almost 9 months old, and it was starting to look like she wasn't ever going to get teeth.

When I hunkered right down and took the photos that I wanted, she went and got herself her first tooth!!!

It wasn't as dramatic as I thought that it would be. It didn't take a fever or many sleepless nights or anything. It just came right out!

It is on the bottom left. It is cute, but it is sharp. I was in no hurry for her to get teeth because I am still nursing her, but she has to grow up some time right? The official date of this new tooth is
November 11th! Yay! Well done Daphne.

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all who read my blog. I hope that your Thanksiging was lovely. Jared, Daphne and I all headed out to eastern Oregon to visit with my family. It is a long drive, but we had a lot of fun. More on this later.

I am thankful for my family, especially our new addition, Daphne. I am also thankful that I have had the opportunity to go to Greece and expand my photography skills to the point that I have been able to run a viable business. I have happy clients talking to me almost every day about how much they liked my photos of their wedding, or how excited they are to have me photograph their wedding because of how lovely the photos they have seen are.

I am thankful for my husband who puts up with my griping and snapping at times and is always willing to be my best friend even when he doesn't feel well. Thanks Jared.

My family rocks. I love spending time with them!!!!

Blogging has Subsided

In the month of October, I posted a record number of times at a whopping 87. That is almost 3 posts each day.

The month I planned to NaBloPoMo, I have only posted 15 times. I know, I know, I will get back in gear. I promise.

Style Change

In case you didn't notice, I changed the style of my blog. I like to change it up a little bit and keep you on your toes. I got tired of the blue, and I am liking the new sea foam green!!!

Busyness

Ok! The Thanksgiving Holiday is now over and I have a lot to do in the next week. Daphne's naming ceremony is coming up on Saturday, and we have a lot of people coming over to help celebrate that. After that, I am leaving for New York. These two things, one-after-another, are making for a very big amount of work.

I figured I would post my to-do list up here, and then update you when I get things done. That way, when I get to the end, I will be posting more. You all want to hear the latest about Daphne and out trip to Eastern Oregon right? I will be blogging in New York and NH as well, so worry not. The last thing on my list is processing photos for the blog, and there are lots, and lots of those!

1.) Clean the car
2.) Clean the house
3.) Wash the dog
4.) Balance the checking accounts
5.) Pay all the bills
6.) Take Jared to the doctor at OHSU
7.) Work with my photography apprenticeship
8.) Blog on Yellow Cow Photo about the recent weddings
9.) Create JM wedding album
10.) Create DC wedding album
11.) Create KI wedding album
12.) Finish wedding edit for JS and create wedding album
13.) Mail things to JS
14.) Finish website update
15.) Contact wedding promoter
16.) Finish matting all photos
17.) Mat photos for the gallery
18.) Hang gallery photos
19.) Print photos for the house
20.) Put up photos for the house
21.) Create Daphne's brag book
22.) Answer all emails
23.) Wash fabric
24.) Cut fabric
25.) Create flappy nappies for going to NY.
26.) Finish wet bag for NY
27.) Put snaps on all wool covers
28.) Wash and lanolize all the wool covers.


BLOG ABOUT DAPHNE WITH PHOTOS!!!!!

This is a lot of work, but I will keep you posted.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Credit Score Rocking

Jared and I recently were shuffling some home mortgage stuff, and in the process they were required to tell us what credit scores they used for us.

My credit score was 800. I have no idea how that happened, but hot diggety!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Solid Foods....Help and Questions

I put this on the moms group that I am a part of, but I thought I would post it here in case anyone had any brilliant ideas.

"I thought I might run this by you smart ladies and see if I could get some help.

I was one of those rare mamas that breastfeed her baby exclusively with no food whatsoever for 6 months. The problem was, that at 6 months Daphne still wasn't interested in solid foods. She would toy with the idea off and on, but would generally scream when she saw I was going to try to feed her. So I let it be, and at 8 months I was still pretty much exclusively breastfeeding. Now, she is starting to be interested in food more and more, but I am at a loss, I have so many stupid questions.

I am one of those people that don't want to feed her grains at all until after she is a year old. We have allergies running in our family, and I don't want to too anything at all that may help bring them into my daughter's life. I am also staying away from dairy completely.

The problem is that I am just giving her goopy and soupy fruits and veggies that I have mixed up on my own. How is she ever going to learn to chew something if I can't give her something with texture?

Is it going to be the end of the road if I make up some Ezekial biscuits and let her chew on them every once in a while? Ahhhh... What are the rules? I am so confused. You would think that I would bee more on top of this considering the fact that I have had almost 9 months to prepare.

Any ideas or suggestions?"

How Daylight Saving Time Screwed Me

Usually, I really love the fall daylight savings time. It always meant that I got an hour more sleep, and how could that be bad eh? However, now that I have a daughter of my own who has an internal clock that is very well calibrated, I am going to start an organization called "Mothers Against Daylight Savings Time."

Seriously just when I get her down to a routine with her naps all on time, they change the time on me. And a baby doesn't know that you change the clock. I explained it to her, but it took weeks for her to get used to the fact that what she thought was 7 was really 6. So she spent some time waking up the whole house at 6 when she should have been sleeping until 7 or later. She used to wake up at 7 standardly and then go back to sleep--sometimes until 9. Now that stupid daylight savings time messed everything up, she rarely sleeps past 7:15.

This means that I get less blogging time because I am awake with her in the morning when I should be getting my "me alone" time. It means I get less sanity.

She also insists that I go to bed with her at night, which I don't mind anymore. So my once 2am bedtime has been moved up to 8:30 ouch! That also means that my once 9am wake up time has also been moved up to 4am. Jared thinks I am crazy, but having a moment of silence is necessary--not to mention the fact that I have been working in my sweatshop non stop lately, and that is NOT an easy thing to do with a baby.

Do, though daylight savings time may be good for farmers, it is bad for mothers. Vive la Resistance.

Wood Toys

Since Daphne was born, I have become a little obsessive about wooden toys. This was before the whole China scare. I am determined to get rid of anything that is plastic in her life and unnecessary. I am currently debating over whether I should get some glass bottles or if she is over that faze in her life. I did break down and buy a sippy cup that she loves, but I am found much better stainless steel alternatives, which I will consider trying to get people to get her for Christmas presents if they don't want to do the buy a book thing.

Anyway, I am finally at the point that we have enough wood toys that I can eradicate any toys we have that don't meet my standards. It is good to rotate the toys around anyway, so I think I will put away the plastic toys that she has been playing with forever and see how missed they get. There are only a few of them, and I am only getting rid of the ones made in China for now. I have a rain stick that was given to me by a crunchy mama that was made in Israel, and I love it, so it has to stay--where is that toy by the way?

I now have relatives cooperating in the wood toy thing, and it is wonderful. Her grandpa made her a rattle from scratch himself and her grandma bought her some wonderful rattles that are even my favorite toys right now. I intend to have her toys last for many children. I am excited about her having quality toys.

Now if only I could find or make her some wood blocks like I used to play with when I was a kid. The ones you can buy are really expensive. I wonder how hard they would be to make.....

Composting

I have a question. I compost. I like that I compost. I have a place to put all my food garbage and lawn garbage that I can then turn into soil to grow more food for us. How cool is that? It is the ultimate recycling.

We have no trees at our house, but our neighbors do. I need leaves for my composter to balance out the types of matter that I have in there. So, is it odd of me to knock on the door and tell my neighbors that they should feel free to deposit their leaves in my backyard? Jared said he was sure that no one would mind if I offered to rake their yards, but do you think that they would benefit from not having to fill their garbage cans with perfectly good compost?

Does that make me a Green Hippie Freak or what?

I Disappeared...Here is Why

I think that NaBloPoMo broke me. I don't get it. Somehow my commitment to post every day, which I was doing everyday without any outside influence took a negative turn, and I have been ignoring my blog completely.

Here are some of the reasons why.

I am going to NY soon, but before that, Daphne is having her naming ceremony. I have so much to do to get ready for that, but I am behind. I am trying to get caught up by keeping the house clean, matting the photos and organizing potential food for guests, etc. It is a lot of work, but I am staying on top of it.

I have opened a sweatshop, or so my husband must think. Julie and I recently got some wool to make diaper covers. I decided recently that I was going to completely change my diapering style. Not only was I going to change the system to include fabrics that I liked more than the fabrics that you can get in stores, I decided I am dedicated to making them all on my own. Many hours of work later, and many mistakes, I have sorted it out. As soon as my last bit of fabric comes on Monday or Tuesday, I will have my whole new diapering set up ready. It is not for lack of being up at 4 in the morning many days in a row so that I could sew undisturbed. I will feature some of my sewing products on my blog in the near future. They are amazing, and my husband keeps thinking that I am spending money on new things, when in fact I have made them myself.

Daphne is being more and more needy lately, which means that I have to hold her and sleep with her longer, which is a direct hit to my blogging.

I had company over.

I am heading out of town for Thanksgiving.

I had 3-4 weddings and 4-5 photo sessions that needed to be edited. I am down to 1 wedding and 2 photo sessions, which, with the help of my new apprentice, should take place soon.

I am working to get some more promo and stuff set up for my business so that I can work next summer!

Jared has been feeling a little worse lately, so I am trying to help him take up the slack to feel better. I hope we are on the road to improvement for that.

I have plenty of blogging ideas, so stay tuned. I also decided that I am going to process photo and video in the next day or two, so don't turn that dial.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Wedding Season Ends

I have been running around like a mad woman while I try to sort out the end of my wedding season. I think that I have given up on NaBloPoMo for many reasons.

My list of weddings to edit is huge, and needs to be handled as a first priority. I have wedding clients waiting for photos, and I am editing away, but that doesn't mean that I don't have a lot of weddings.

I am heading to New York in under a month, and the things that need to be done before I leave, are many.

Daphne's naming ceremony is on December 1 and I am going to have all of my art up at that time. That means I have to mat it all, which comes to around 110 photos to mat... OUCH

I have got to get my house clean and organized.

I cannot type on the computer with my baby awake, which leaves me only a few hours a day available to do all my computer work, and god knows that I could spend much more time than that.

If it is any indiciation, it took me 72 hours to write this blog post. Yes, it has been open that long.

SO, I am going to host my on NaBloPoMo when I get back from NY.

More photos and videos of the baby to come soon, just not sure how soon!

Saturday, November 03, 2007

I Failed---And I am Backdating

So I totally blew it on day 3 of the NaBloPoMo thing. How is it that I work so hard to update my blog at other times and I WANT to, and then it comes down to me comitting to actually posting every day, and I can't do it? So,I am backdating this post. I have my reasons why I didn't post. I was at a wedding, blah, blah, blah.

The truth is that the universe was even giving me the benefit of the doubt by giving me an extra hour to try to make it (in honor of daylight savings time), and I still failed.

My only reason, I got home from a wedding late, and I was bushed. After reviewing the photos that my partner took, I blew it and went to bed, especially considering that my baby hadn't nursed in almost 10 hours, which is torture for any women that can understand that!

Friday, November 02, 2007

Day 2 Accomplished!

And I have successfully completed day 2 of NaBloPoMo!

Stay tuned all month. I promise, it will be good!

Knitting, Knitting

I am knitting a new diaper cover for Daphne. It is pretty involved, and it has involved a lot of work from me. I plan to make it then shrink it to her size then hand dye it and then soften it. This is quite a process. I have a feeling that I will be done with it by the end of tomorrow. I am excited and nervous about it all at the same time. You will be seeing photos. However, if it does really work out, I may never blog again because I may end up sucked into knitting land!

Stay At Home Mom Worth

I was reading in a magazine lately the financial worth of a stay at home mom. Apparently, the calculated value of a mom that stays at home and takes care of everything is valued at around $120,000 per year according to salary.com!

This is very exciting. I feel like what I do is worth a lot, and now I know. The numbers make sense if you look at it. I have a case for staying home anyway, but this is a very good case. I don't want to be away from my baby just so I can make money to pay for the daycare for me to be away from her. I am committed to being her mom, and that means that I am in it for the long haul. It is a bit of a sacrifice, but it is still wonderful. I get to see everything that she does that is new and exciting, and nothing is better than that for a mom!

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Personality

Daphne's personality is showing more and more each day. Today was a day that was particularly full of her fun personality. She cannot stop crawling under my desk trying to pull the wires.

I know she knows it is off limits, and she does it anyway. I particularly like when she pulls the mouse off the desk. As dumb as it is, the bonk it makes on her head gets me every time.

She really is blossoming, and I am already feeling the empty nest syndrome. Help!

NaBloPoMo Starts!

Today is the first day of NaBloPoMo, and I almost missed the first day. I am slipping out quick posts to still stay in the running.

Things to look forward to over the coming month.

At least one blog post per day on each of my three blogs. Read up and have fun!

Yellow Cow Photo
YCP Food