Where in the world is...

Yes, I have fallen off the map.

I am in the midst of my pre-midlife crisis. And it's bad. But also really, really awesome. I decided some time ago to go back to school because I wasn't happy with my career. I hit the ceiling at 28 years old and it was a sobering realization that I had no place to go unless someone died. I'm not exactly the type of person to sit around with my fingers crossed whenever someone had chest pain only to be discouraged when it turned out to be indigestion.

10 years filled with the Army, school and just plain working my ass off and this was it. How could this be IT? I should have been happy, I should have been proud. I was one of the youngest Lab Managers in the industry but that also meant I sometimes wasn't taken seriously. I could overcome that, what I couldn't overcome was that this was IT. No, this was not how it was supposed to be.

So I decided to go back to school and in order to do that I needed to find a night job so I could go back to school full time during the day. And I did it, well I guess I am doing it, but it's carried quite the price so far. It will get better, once this semester is over I will have a better understanding of when to schedule my classes so that I don't walk around like a flesh eating zombie. Soon. 

Anyway, I have thousands of pictures sitting on my hard drive unloved so I decided to just pull some easy ones off and work on them before class today. This is the girl's soccer team during a car wash fundraiser last month, I think September 9th if you want to be specific. Aren't they friggen adorable?! Lovelovelove those girls!

Play time.

This afternoon I noticed the girl coming down the stairs with a handful of Barbies and the following conversation took place.

Me: Whatchya got there?

The girl: Some of my Barbies.

Me: Oh, reaaaally? You're finally going to play with some of them?

The girl: Yeah.

Me: Well, that's good. I guess the 1.56 million dollars we've spent on them over the years wasn't a complete waste.

The girl: Yeah! We're going to pretend they're drowning in the dog's water bowl.

Me: Oh.

I'm not sure that's what Mattel had in mind when they designed Holiday Barbie.

P.S. You might have noticed something a little different about my blog in the last 24 hours... My photos are now watermarked, something I've long resisted because they detract from photos. Yesterday I got an email that alerted me to a certain flickr account. Someone had set up an account with a similar first name and my last name and had stolen pics/blog content from here and posted them as THEIRS on flickr. Very creepy, very disturbing and fortunately Yahoo has deleted that account. Anyway, stealing photos from someone else is not only ILLEGAL it is also a very douchebag thing to do. So, "Jen McKee", if you're reading this: You are a douchebag. Over and out.

17 more days.

Until school starts. I can't even believe it.

__________________________________________________________________

The boy: Mom, do we have to wash her hindquarters?

Me: Uh, yeah dude. You wash your hindquarters, don't you?

The boy: But... that's her BUSINESS!!!

Me: I know. And, you wash your butt right?

The boy: Mom! You're membarrassing me!

Me: Just making sure. That's my job.

The boy: Membarrassing me? Or making sure I wash?

Me: Both. It's my reward for 13 hours of labor.

Cananaloupe.*

I remember when I first started shooting with an SLR, waaaay before dSLR's were the rage, and how preoccupied I was with taking perfect pictures. I was obsessed with finding the light, uncluttered backgrounds and happy expressions. Then in 2003, I bought a dSLR and I really started to push what I knew about photography and realized, I really didn't know anything at all. It's SO true when people say, the more you know the more you realize how much you don't know. That goes for pretty much everything in life really.

Here it is 6 years later and my kids are that much older and I've found in the past few years that I don't care about those "perfect" pictures anymore. The most I might do is have them move a little into better light, no posing, no directing, just THEM. Doing what they do, because that's what it's really about. And you know what? They're happier and I'm happier. Images like the ones above might not mean anything to anyone else, but to me, they're perfect. THIS is why I got into photography, it just took me a few years to figure it out. 

In other news, some of you may already know that the boy was bitten by a neighbor's dog yesterday. It was not a horrible bite when you take into account that people get their faces ripped off by dogs but it was bad enough that he had to go to the doctor. Were it any other injury he would have gotten some stitches but since it was a dog bite it was left to close on it's own. The idea is not to sew up any germs under the skin making the risk of infection much higher. He was also put on antibiotics, and since he is allergic to cillin drugs he was put on Bactrim.

I called animal control because this particular dog has bit before and was required to wear a muzzle, which he obviously wasn't. I feel pretty guilty about the whole situation because I should have checked to make sure the dog was muzzled before I let the kids go play with them in their yard and I didn't. Bad Momma moment, for sure. :( Anyway, the boy is fine. Not that I had any doubt because he's such a champ. 

P.S. We're protected by Brinks, in case you didn't know. ;) 

*Boyspeak for cantaloupe.

For the love of... limes.

I have found a new obsession. It's a good one though, unlike some of my others that aren't exactly... healthy. You know like, counting steps when I walk and re-organizing every binder at work every.single.morning so that they were lined up just so. Okay, okay those aren't that bad. I'll keep the bad ones to myself, cause really, you don't want to know. Or maybe you do? Wellll too bad for you!

I digress. New obsession. 

Food blogs! Holy hell, where have I been for the last, oh 100 years?! Oh man, oh man. I'm in new obsession nirvana and I don't ever want to leave. I discovered this blog the other day and I can't get enough. And by discovered I don't mean strapped on a space suit and planted a white flag discovered but more like blindly stumbled upon in a 2 am insomniac state of sheer boredom discovered. Great photos and yum food that doesn't require a culinary degree just so you can feel superior when you can pronounce the ingredients and no one else knows what you're saying. Blank stares all around.

I am making this tonight and I swear the boy has a nose akin to a pack of wolves. Within 2.57 seconds of slicing open a lime, there he was. Standing at the edge of the kitchen staring holes in my back. He was showing remarkable restraint by keeping his distance because he knows he's usually not allowed in the kitchen when I'm cooking. I can't STAND the whole kids underfoot thing.  Can't freaking stand it. The hovering, the staring. Ugh. I do let them help a few times a week but sometimes I want to poke forks in my eyes. Seriously. Did I mention I can't stand it? I did? Okay, well I just can't stand it. 

He's lucky that watching him eat a lime provides me with great pleasure otherwise the internets wouldn't be getting treated to the pictures above. You're welcome.

Pretty little princess.

The girl had one of her bestie's spend the night last night and of course the boy has to try and be involved in everything they do. This works well for awhile until they are completely over including him because 1) he's a stinky boy and 2) he's also an annoying stinky younger brother type boy. At some point last night I made him stay downstairs with me and he went into full blown drama queen mode.

For example: He sat down on the couch with arms folded and pouted. Then he looked at me and said, "YOU NEVER LET ME HAVE ANY FUN!". Then the lower lip came out and he went with, "I NEVER GET TO HAVE ANY SLEEP-OVERS! IT'S NOT FAIR!!!". He rounded it out with my favorite. "SHE GETS TO DO EVERYTHIIIIIIING! I DON'T GET TO DO ANYTHING!!!". And yes, I was laughing at him. And teasing him. "Really? You don't get to do anything? Wow. Well I guess you don't need that bike of yours? Ohhhhhhhhhh, wait! I know someone that really wants a skateboard. Maybe we could give him yours? You know, since you don't get to do ANYTHING, EVER!". He eventually started giggling and I made him some popcorn and put on a movie. And order in the universe was restored.

I do have to say the girls are REALLY good about including him and playing nicely but sometimes they want to be little girls and giggle about the jonas brothers and lip gloss and whatever inane crap 10-year olds are into these days. Stinky little brothers are not conducive to these conversations. 

Anyway, this afternoon they had all been playing wii and riding bikes together until the girls again decided he was not cool enough to play with. The boy put on his sad face and effectively melted them into submission. They were sitting on the stairs whispering and I very clearly heard, "we'll let you play with us on ONE condition", whisper, whisper. 

I knew something was up. I was just not prepared for what that something was.

I hear fits of laughter and look over to see the girls DRAGGING him down the stairs. In a CINDERELLA costume. Ohhh man. Luckily my camera was nearby and the girls were all too happy to hold him down while I snapped off some shots. Although, he proved to be a little too wily and got away before I could get a face shot. 

I love those turkeys. I really, really do. My heart is completely full.

Remember her?

It's been awhile since I posted a picture of my sweet girl, so I went with some backlighting, which is my very favorite way to shoot. She's really big into writing stories these days and she even illustrates them with these cute little pictures. She's got a very creative soul and changes what she wants to be "when she grows up" almost daily. Currently she wants to be a fashion designer. Last night she took a long red ribbon, tied it around her dress like a belt and pranced around asking everyone if they liked it. She's got some big plans for herself, that one. 

Helicopter ears.

It's a good thing she doesn't have any pride. I might find myself stepping in a pile of poo that was rather conveniently left in front of my bed or something. I'm still in this funk that I can't seem to shake so I thought it was time for a photo session with the wonder dog. She never disappoints. 

Duty calls.

My oldest brother leaves for Afghanistan today. 

This is his third time being deployed to the Middle East and the second time to Afghanistan. 

We had a rather... tumultuous sibling relationship growing up. You know, with him setting my hair on fire and me standing around laughing as he got attacked by a swarm of bees. Being only 13 months apart will do that to a person, at least that's what I tell myself now. When we were getting along it was even worse because we were pretty rebellious and would often conspire with each other. We raised holy hell together and really, I wouldn't have it any other way. He knows me better than most anyone even though we haven't lived in the same place since this picture was taken in early 1999. That's the airport in Frankfurt, Germany in case you're wondering.

This picture. How awesome is this picture?

I l-o-v-e-d that ugly jacket. I loved it because it was so friggen ugly and everyone else hated (okay, despised might be more accurate) it. And then there's my rockin' NOFX shirt underneath, a shirt I think I still have somewhere. Side note: I'm pretty sure this proves I've always been rad. But enough about me, that's my Marky Sharky up there too. I still call him that and he still pretends to hate it. I know he loves it though, secretly. Very, very secretly. I mean it's better than my little sister's nickname. Which I won't mention because she reads my blog and I'm pretty sure she would drive to Denver from North Carolina and kick my ass. Or at least attempt to bite me or something. ;)

So if you see fit to do so, please keep my Sharky and his entire unit in your thoughts.

Much love,

Janett

Just the boy.

Wearing his favorite shirt. And expression. Heh.