Author Archives: Shelley

Barter Me

July 23, 2009 – 12:52 am

Sadly, I started spotting gray hairs in my late twenties…

It used to break my bank to get my hair colored because I require the very time-consuming process of an overall color job and then highlights. I met Heather, my hairdresser, years ago when I stumbled upon her at a salon. We lost touch for awhile when she broke away from the salon and ventured into real estate. We reconnected a few years back and I can’t remember who contacted who…me calling her for hair services or her calling me for photography services. At any rate, we quickly ascertained that we should barter services…swapping haircuts and highlights for photo sessions of her family. I was so in….finally I could afford my hair regime again. 

So with the start of the summer, we got together with her gang and captured them just how they are…an adorable little family. We quickly rocked it out in about 20 minutes or so, because in typical Heather-style, they had somewhere to run off to immediately following our session (we are so alike…we both run around like nuts). 

So if any of you out there are also into the bartering game and have a talent to swap, I’m totally game. 

Did I mention that I have a few rooms in my house that are in desperate need of paint and wallpaper removal? Any takers?


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Are you smarter than a second grader?

July 16, 2009 – 12:34 am

Ummm apparently, I am not.

We have always known that our oldest daughter, Erin, was a bright child, but it wasn’t until we started investigating her potential this past school year, that we realized just how intelligent she is. Her teacher sent home a summer list of brain exercise games that she wanted us to work with her on so that her mind did not disintegrate like quicksand over the months of break.  I basically tucked the list into some random pile of papers for a few weeks and then finally got to ordering some of the games on-line recently.

Both of the girls were excited for the new games to arrive on our doorstep by the big brown UPS truck. They arrived last Saturday morning, just as I was waking up from a mere four-hour nap after working night shift. Erin was adament that she wanted to play one of the games right then and there…she did not care that her perspective opponent was a groggy nightmare. 

She sat me down to play one of the games, “Mastermind” and quickly relayed the simple instructions to me. “Huhhhh??” was all that I could utter. My brain was not grasping the strategy of the game. I am not sure if I can attribute this to the lack of sleep or to my pathetic IQ at this point in my mommy-hood life. 

Frustrated, she flatly said to me, “Mom, in first grade, someone explained this to me once and then I just played it. No biggie.” 

“See if Daddy will play it once so that I can see how it is done and then I can play it with you.” I replied.

So Sky came onto the scene and figured out the game’s strategy in no lie, 10 seconds flat. That math-lete bastard, I tell you. 

Erin sarcastically chortled, ” Daddy, Mom and Megan can’t play these games…they are dumbos”. (She got a talking to later about this comment, Little Miss Smarty Pants…I’ll show you who is in charge.)

And so I sulked off into the living room, with my once smart tail and my bruised ego (I swear I was smart pre-kids!) tucked between my legs. And this is the likes of who I met up with…

I can still play a mean game of Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders.

Even if I did lose. I let her win, but who’s counting?

Besides, if you ask me, us right-brained people are far more interesting than those left-brainers. Who needs them anyway? :)

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Back to Basics…

July 15, 2009 – 1:07 am

My mind is still trying to wrap around the idea that tomorrow is July 15th already…

I mean, where does the time go exactly? It is like the glorious days of summer get sucked into a giant vacuum of time…fleeting way too quickly for my taste. Father Time, it is okay to take a hiatus in the summer months…and then plunge into fast-forward when the dreadful winter months rear their ugly head.

My head is spinning with all that we have been doing this summer so far…uhhmmm…hence my very infrequent blogging this summer…please forgive me, my dear friends. I promise to be better in the fall when my girls return to school. We have been having alot of summer fun…old school style. Good ol’ fashioned childhood fun. Our days have been packed with swimming (can my kids’ hair be stripped any more from all of the chlorine?), playing with friends, riding bikes, day trips and the list goes on and on. I vowed at the beginning of summer to get us a little bit more back to the basics…and we have successfully done that, thank you very much. We have loved family moments of nighttime campfires in the backyard, roasting gooey s’mores, catching lightening bugs, playing “Ghost in the Graveyard” and watching the twinkling of the stars on a clear summer night. I have to say that we have really become much more in touch with nature over the past few weeks….and have witnessed some of God’s most beautiful creations…from ginormous orange full moons, the pink cascades of an evening sunset or the biggest, most impressive rainbow that I have EVER seen in my 36 years on this earth.

We have done science experiments to keep our minds fresh…planting pumpkin seeds to yield this year’s Jack-O-Lantern (hopefully…if our vines continue to grow as lovely as they have been), making homemade kites to learn about wind and movement patterns and even a little cooking/baking. This week, we are making “A Whopper Cake” for our grandma to celebrate Megan’s favorite summer read (The Whopper Cake by Karma Wilson and Will Hillenbrand…a must-have book if you have a young kidlet). The kids have made countless artwork projects over the past few weeks…and if I ever get around to it…I plan on framing some of the nicer masterpieces and plaster them on the naked walls leading to the basement.

Just posting about all of our adventures is making me sleepy….yawn.

Off to catch some ZZZZ’s folks….the sun will peek her eyes over the horizon, nudging us to start another day of adventures, before I know it.

Nighty-night. Until next time….sweet dreams.

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Drunk on Summer Fun

July 1, 2009 – 6:01 pm

As you may have noticed, I have been one lazy blogger…tisk, tisk.

You see, it’s not that I don’t love my fellow bloggers and followers…quite the contrary. I am indebted to you all for reading about my little life and following my photography. But in order to document that very life, I have got to do the living. My focus has purposely and knowingly, shifted this season, to my family. I am pouring my time into them…making them at the top of my list of things to do. Just the way that it should be.

My hubby serves as my blog police force…nagging at my ear, reminding me that there have been extensive time gaps lately in my posts…threatening that I will lose my faithful readers if I don’t up the anty. “Yeah, yeah, I tell him. I’ve got priorities, baby, priorities.” I mean there are only so many hours in the day, right?

I am making it my summer goal to post once or twice a week. I hope that you hang in there with me through the lulls…I sure would miss you if you didn’t.

In the meantime, we have settled over here into the rhythm of summer… sleeping in, A/C on day and night, hours at the pool and swim lessons, day trips to the shore, summer picnics, mandatory “school work” so that our minds don’t ebb into goo, daily doggie walks, working out and simply just being a family. Just the four of us…did I mention that my mom moved out recently? (more on that to come…) Or should I say the five of us…can’t forget the dear ol’ pooch, Reilly.

Until later, gator. I think I hear the chimes of the ice cream man in the neigborhood…

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An Unconventional Tithe

June 29, 2009 – 2:59 pm

I believe that angels walk among us.

 

I believe that they walk through us, stop a bit and use our bodies to help others in ways that we may not know how to even do. Other people that we may have never met.

And that is sometimes what I believe happens in my photography. A week ago, a very dear baby, Zane, died from complications of a degenerative neurological disease, called SMA Type 1 (www.sweetbabyzane.com). She was only 5 months old and a twin sister to Avery.  I have never met this baby or her family, but had heard of them though my nursing and facebook circles. Her little story profoundly gripped at me…pulling at the fibers of my heart, urging me to do something to help this family…literally strangers to me.

So at the moment that I knew that she died, I began pulling pictures off of her website, reworking them to become the design that you see above. I plan to have it professionally printed, mounted and shipped directly to her parents. It is not a cheap process. It will arrive at a time in their lives when everyone has returned to their own families, work and responsibilities…the funeral complete, the remnants of her life tucked away and their “new normal” has begun to seep into their lives. They will not know who it came from, who designed it or who paid for it. My hope is that they will be able to look at it one day and smile sweetly.

In accordance to the Bible, the church that I belong to believes that you should tithe 10% of your income to the church. Though I believe in those fundamental principles, I strongly believe that their are other ways to tithe…ways that may not be comprehendable to the church. Through my financial and creative resources, I can tithe to others in ways that I know emulate Christ.

And so I do these things not to make myself feel good, but because I genuinely believe and hope that it will help the hurting people on the receiving end.

To help push away the clouds and allow a glimpse of the rainbow to peek through…if only for a moment.

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Cobwebs

June 16, 2009 – 8:35 pm

Today, I returned to my exercise class…

It has been quite some time since I have been there…I am ashamed to admit since around the holidays…gulp. Now that is not to say that I have not been exercising. Quite the contrary…I have racked up a ton of miles walking over the past several months. But in my hiatus from my class, my muscles have grown reluctantly wimpy and pathetic. So, I decided it was time to shake out a few cobwebs.

It has been so long since I have been there, that the child care worker, when she caught sight of me, croaned down the hall “Now where have YOU been?”. Everyone glanced over their shoulders and stared. Can I say embarrassing? I quickly made up some lame excuse for my absence, shuffled my kids into child care which was brimming with rugrats now that summer is here and filed down to the big gym.

Now I couldn’t tell if the instructor worked us out particularly hard today or if I was just incredibly out of shape. The latter, I am sure. Even though my muscles and bones whinced and moaned at the positions that they were being stretched into, they also were able to somehow find some sense of familiarity in the routine. 

As sweat poured, my body found its’ way into an old natural rhythm…one that was full of energy and vitality. It was like paying a visit to a dear old friend. One that would take you back no matter how much you neglected her.

One that would smack my ass and tell me to giddy-up…

It is going to be one sore morning.

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Do I dare?

June 16, 2009 – 12:37 am

Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But certainly maybe one day…soon.

Since I have started blogging, I have been taken back by the number of my readers who have told me that I should write a book. The reason that I am taken back is because that has been a lifelong dream of mine…almost a secret of sorts…and it feels odd to have others encourage me to do something that has lie dormant in my heart for a very long time…silently waiting to be unleashed one day. 

My youngest child will be entering full-time school in two years….and the perpetual question of “What’s next”? is starting to tug at my heart like a pesty dog napping at my ankles. My husband and I always assumed that I would return to work in some manner once I graduated from the rigors of Stay-at-Home Momhood:The Early Years. But what exactly should I do? Should I jump a leap of faith and take my photography business to the next level? Or should I play it safe and return to the realiablity of the nursing world. Just the thought of the latter makes me want to curl into a ball and puke…probably not a good idea then, huh? 

Or should I write a book? Somehow combine my photography with another medium? 

So many feelings of self-doubt plague my mind…which always seems to paralyze me from taking a risk. It is scary to do new things totally out of my comfort zone. I have been there once when I launched my little business and I know the fear and apprehension all too well. I almost have to close my eyes and just jump. Because if I look out at my unfamiliar horizon, I just stand there, shaking…and then retreat back into my world of safety and familiarity. 

When I was a graduating from high school, my uncle gave me a piece of advice that I quietly tucked away, but always continually mentally peek at. He flatly told me: Shelley, in life, you always have to have a five year plan. 

And so I set forth in doing just that…creating my five year plans. And when one five year period ended, a new one began.  I created a mental checklist and got to checking items off, slowly but methodically.

Earn my bachelor’s degree and become a nurse…check. Become a nurse practitioner…check. Get married and start a family…check. Create my own business…check.

Writing a book has always been on my checklist of life…but it has always been more in the “someday” category. Is that someday now? As in the next few years?

Do I enter a world that I know absolutely nothing about…only navigating through the murkiness of it all with a heart full of passion, vigor and faith?

Well, I did it once…who says I can’t do it again? Am I the only one standing in my way?

Step aside, self. I’ve got some check-listing to do.

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Bootcamp Summer ‘09

June 12, 2009 – 10:30 am

So it is the last day of school today…the unofficial start of summer.

And though I am thrilled at the prospect of not having to get up early to catch the bus, pack lunches or do homework anymore…I also have a little dread in the pit of my stomach on this day…as I do every year. You see, our family does MUCH better with structure. We are rather laid-back people which means that with even the tiniest break of routine, we can be sent into a tailspin of destruction.  Pretty much all or nothing….anybody else like that?

We can easily slip into a pattern of waking up at a leisurely 9 AM and then move at a snail’s pace all morning long until we go to lounge poolside all afternoon long. Very easily, I can forget about routine grocery shopping, order take-out and let the laundry form into a pile the size of Mount Everest. My kids have no problem not doing school work, allowing their little brains to evolve into a ball of mush. I can go from a pretty regular excercise routine to total neglect all summer long. Like I said, pretty much all or nothing with us.

I really, really, really do not want that happen to us this summer. We are in too good of a groove. Though just like everyone else, we have a ton of fun things going on this summer…I am determined to stay somewhat disciplined this summer. Distinct goals have been set for all of us…a loose “Super Nanny” schedule if you will. Nothing too formal or rigid, but just a framework to keep us all on track so that we don’t derail our family train.

Time will tell.

And before we know it, we will be at the last day of summer. Which we all know that for adults has the same excitement of a child on the night before Christmas…

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Christmas in June

June 10, 2009 – 12:24 am

After seven years of motherhood, I have finally come to learn something…

not to lay the mom-guilt on myself so much. We all have moments where we do not deserve to win Mother of the Year…you know the drill….allowing your kids to watch mindless hours of TV while you feed your computer addiction, screaming curse words at the top of your lungs because you have lost just about every ounce of your weaning patience, sometimes doing everything yourself around the house just because it is easier than taking the time to actually teach them what needs to be done and so on and so forth…the list can go on and on if I put enough thought into it. But as much as I could beat myself up for not being a so called “perfect” mom, I could also give myself a pat on the back for being a pretty darned good one. 

Life is not supposed to be utopia, right? Childhood is supposed to be a happy time, but it is not intended to be a complete Pollyanna life. So you see by rearing my ugly head every once in awhile, I am inadvertantly teaching my girls an important life lesson…right?

But today, we didn’t have any bad moments, ridden with mom-guilt. With Erin still rounding out the end of her school year, Megan and I had a chance to spend some quality mother/daughter time together. We enjoyed a girls’ lunch, took in an afternoon matinee and then rounded out the afternoon baking together. 

“Mommy, can we bake Christmas cookies?” Megan asked me when we returned home. Quick to have a “no” to my lips, I thought a second and then replied, “Why not?” I had only scraped together ingredients to make chocolate-chip/walnut cookies and didn’t quite have everything needed for the fancier cookies that she had requested. But no mind…she decided that gingerbread cut-outs were in order. She ran into her play kitchen and fetched her wooden trays, checkerboard napkins, mini potholders and pretend cookies. 

And then we set off to the task at hand…baking. We slid on our aprons and then cracked eggs all over the floor, spilled vanilla on the countertops and licked raw cookie dough. At another time when I am rushed to just get the task done, the mess that lie before me would most likely get on my nerves. But today was all about Megan and our time together…so I let her just do her thing…make a mess and just enjoy the process. And I pretended not to notice when I caught her sneaking chips out of the bag. So we baked up a few dozen or so cookies…all the while listening to Alan Jackson’s Christmas album…while the air conditioner hummed at a cool 72 degrees. 

Times like these outshadow the bad ones, don’t they?

I like to think so.

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Cracking the blogging mystery

June 4, 2009 – 6:49 pm

What’s with all of this blog rage?

Today, while killing time in Chick-filet while all of our kiddies played (What?? Don’t all stay-at-home moms basically kill the day away much of the time…secretly pining for the precious moments when you read that final bedtime story and then plunge into the stillness of the evening that is ALL YOURS….peace and quiet at last…hands down, best time of day!) a friend of mine says to me “By the way, Shelley, I read your blog. And I got goosebumps with your last post”. I always like when people tell me that they are reading my blog…not in a narcissistic kind of way, but out of sheer curiousity. With the blog template that I built my blog in, you have the ability to see your blogs’ stats….you know…if anyone is spending their time reading your personal quips. Don’t worry…if you stalk my blog I can’t tell specifics of who is reading my blog (I always feel shy about that with blogs that I stalk…wondering if the blog author can tell that there is a nutjob in Collegeville, PA who visits their site every day…yes, folks…everyday. You all may have coffee or chocolate as your addiction, well, I have my blogs.) Rather, I can only see one general number as to how many people read my site each day. I looked at my stats one day and saw that over 450 people had read for that day. I turned to Sky and shook my head. “Who are all these people and what do I say that keeps them coming back for more?” We kind of sat there dumbfounded…thinking that the people that read my blog live somewhere out in cyberspace…virtual strangers.

But what I have come to find is that many of the people that I rub shoulders with on a daily basis are my faithful readers. Some friends and some just friendly strangers…who know more about me than I know of them. 

My blog-novice friend innocently asked me “Why do people write blogs if they didn’t think that people would read them?”.  The answer varies for everyone I am sure. For me, my blog began in my mind last fall, when I stumbled in the world of blogdom on a whim…or not so much…I really feel that God’s hand guided me to places where I needed to be. I am always perusing photography sites for inspiration to improve my craft, and found my way to one amazing photographer, Tara Whitney of Orange County, CA. If you want to see some downright spectacular, authentic work, visit www.tarawhitney.com/justbeblogged/ . She led me to the lovely, cjane and her nothing less than incredible sister, NieNie, both of Utah. If you are ready to be moved with their jaw-dropping story of courage, endless love and groundless faith, visit www.cjanerun.com and www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com. They pointed me to the likes of Carol Decker, nestled in the State of Washington. For her heart-wrenching, yet heart-warming story, visit www.sccsdecker.blogspot.com.

I warn you…if you find your way to these sites, and you are anything of a reader with heart, you will find yourself scrolling back to their day one posts and reading their individual lives as if they are a really addictive book. I have been following these ladies, as has much of the half the world (you will know what I mean if you start to read them) for the better part of a year. And they have unequivacably changed my life. I feel as if they are my good friends and yet, we have never met. And I am not the only one that shares these same sentiments…many parts of the nation have tuned into their cyber world and nestled into their daily lives, picking them up when they were slipping.

After reading their posts, I knew that I too, had something to say about the quirky little haps and mishaps of my life. It has always been a life-long dream of mine to write a novel…someday I am going to see to doing just that. Writing has always been a medium of expression for me…a form of creativity if you will. I originally wanted to start blogging as a marketing tool for my photography clients. But so many of my clients are my friends…so it has become more than that to me. It is a way to express myself…something for me in a world of stay-at-home momhood when so much is about your little ones. I hope that my kids can someday read my little stories and quips and discover a piece of their mom that they didn’t know…a diary of sorts…just a very public one. 

But as with every diary, you have to sign the secret book to let the author know just who you are…who’s lurking around…sharing in my thoughts. So give me a shout out and let me know who you all are…so we can get to know each other.

I promise, I don’t bite. Pinky swear.

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