Hello February!

Another long absence...another lame excuse? Nooo. I've been snowed in and battling a cold of epic propportions! I have a theory that Mother Nature is a wretchedly spiteful entity...and knowing this is my last winter in middle-America she's decided to hurl everything she's got at me. Seriously!

We generally have ONE storm per winter....one ice storm, one snow storm, ONLY ONE. In the past month we've had two ince storms and two snow storms. See? Spiteful.

Cait brought the cold germs home from school. She was almost recovered when Jim got sick, and then he passed it on to me as he left town on business. I spent last week stocking up on groceries, that useless ice remover stuff ...it's shameful how much they charge for that stuff considering how ineffective it is...the ice laughs at it...and me...putting gas in my car...still don't understand that ritual. Once the snow hits the car stays parked in the garage because despite the 4 years of required drivers ed in Alaska...I can't drive in snow or ice....and telling myself I was NOT getting sick. I lied, obviously

Sooo, we watched a ton of movies, used a million tissues, and ate copious amounts of junk food. They've already cancelled school for Monday, but I'm trying to work us back into a routine. We even had a nice grilled salad for dinner tonight....trying to detox.

As you can see, I've managed to stay busy with some small photo shoots. My favorite is Candice as Charlie Chaplain....she hates it.

Update stuff

The 365 challenge has kept me busy this week. Cait came home from school sick last Wednesday and hasn't gone back, and Jim has been sick the last 3 days. It's amazing how quickly your days fill up with little busy stuff that don't seem like a whole lot of anything...you know?

Photo shoot with Kera...

Lotsa changes...

Still plugging away at the 365 Challenge. I had my doubts when I started this, and it's only day 8, but it really does provide the motivation to grab the camera and shoot every day. It's also afforded me an opportunity to break out of my usual style and try a few different things. I haven't strayed too far, obviously, but I'm becoming a bit more adventurous.

The weather (is it me or do I talk about weather a LOT!?) has improved greatly this week. You can actually walk to the car without risking frostbite. So, I'm trying to take advantage...I have a shoot scheduled with a 13 yar old girl on Sunday, and Saturday we're hoping to get started on my new series. I'm still really anxious for Spring to officially start...it's my favorite time of year here in Oklahoma. It's hard to explain, but the air just smells different here in spring. Fresh and earthy. It makes me want to wear ugly shoes and plant things in the dirt.

Hope you're all having a great week...

Switching Gears

Hello Blogland...

We've been all girlified lately and shooting pink all over the place. Valentine's Days is quickly approaching so we're shooting some stuff for that and just finding girl stuff comforting at the moment.

The girls and I had a pretty good weekend. We spent Friday night at home staying warm, and Candice's bestie spent the night. Saturday we shopped til we dropped...but we picked up some fun stuff and had a late dinner at the mall. Today we all went up to the base so Jim could get a haircut and the girls and I did some light shopping. I looked at dvd players...we have two that are quickly dying on us...ugh.

The weather is finally improving. It feels like we got a whole winter's worth of cold in a few short weeks so this slight improvement is very welcome!!

ooooh it's cold....

I know we all hate the cold but I'm pretty sure I hate it most. I can't prove it, but I really do. Today's high was right around 17 degrees...that's not nearly enough degrees to function.

Everything I had planned for the week has been postponed. No photo shoots, no girls night out at the Wreck Room. BUT...there is good news...Sunday it's supposed to start warming up and by the middle of next week it should be in the mid 50's!!!! That's practically balmy compared to what we have now. Maybe that wretched snow will finally melt. Woohoo Weehoo!!

In other news, I've joined Shutter Sisters 365 project to keep me motivated and shooting photos. My love/hate relationship with table top photography is as tumultuous as ever. We may need couples therapy. I'll keep you posted

Updatish stuff

Hello Blogland! Since the weather in middle-America is cold and keeping us inside for the most part, I've been updating things. There are some new photos in the ETSY shop and a SALE coming up on January 16th.

I've also been perusing the arhives and finding all kinds of good stuff to play with. And...most exciting of all, I've got several new shoots starting this week...including a new series of photos I've been working on.

Hope you're all having a great week!

...another year...

A better blogger would probably have a funny anecdote or some yummy recipe to help you forget it's the worst time of year ...with the worst weather! i'm obviously not THAT blogger. I'm the girl who tortures herself by watching movies about sunshine and summer and swimming in pools of sunshine...in the summer. We just watched the Hannah Montana movie...same thing, right?


I don't know why I always equate the new year with the end of winter because realistically, we're not even half way to spring! But deep down in unrealistic places I'm pretty sure spring should be starting any day now. Which makes it so much more disappointing when I wake up to snow and 30 degrees outside. Pfft.


In other, less depressing news, we're steadily working on the house to list it for sale. The girls and I painted the loft, cleaned out the extraneous 'stuff that makes it look like people actually live here' kinda stuff and then Jim painted the stairwell and the living room. We have to replace a ceiling fan and I bought the rest of the light fixtures to replace the old ones. However, Jim has spent the last ELEVEN days lounging in flannel pajamas. I don't think grown men should have 11 days off in a row. Especially men with a plethora of flannel pajamas.

*The photos are left overs from our summer vacation. I took these in Strawberry Plains Tennessee.

Christmas Continued

I wish I had new and exciting things to share but it's been rather uneventful around here lately. We've completed all of our Christmas shopping and the kids are officially on winter break so we're all just kind of relaxing and doing whatever we want.

I've taken a slew of Christmas photos...in fact I think I'm officially over Christmas. I'm ready to move on to Valentine's day so I've been brainstorming some new stuff.

This weekend Jim and I took the kids up Rt.66 to Lake Overholser. We went up there about 2 years ago and things have drastically changed. Candice wanted to stop and eat dinner in an old Rt.66 Diner and they've all closed in that area. There was a RT66 sign over the old bowling alley and one motel...other than that all of the old businesses have closed up and moved out. Sad.

But we did find some great old trees. They appear to be bark-less..as in without bark, and people have carved initials and hearts into them...but the bark actually incorporates the grafitti into it's trunk and grows what looks like a knothole i heart shapes. It's was cool! I took a bunch of photos...I'll upload a few next time.

Hope you're all having a lovely holiday and aren't snowed in.

The Stockings....

I'm mildly obsessed with knee socks and Target always has the cutest socks! We found these recently and I had to have them for a shoot. I"ve been looking for some lacey ankle socks in soft colors for a new shoot and can't seem to find what I want...so if you know who has some hollar at me.

Photos from the Christmas series

Jim and I have never been big drinkers, but the kids and I love love love the fake champagne so I used some for this first photo. I also crushed candycane for the rim of the glass. Crushing the candycane was almost more fun that the actual shoot!

Two new pair of socks. We also have some groovy thigh high socks I've been trying to work into a shoot. Some day I'll get to it.

The one and only ornament shoot I did. I'm still struggling a lot with the table top photography. About 50% of what I shoot never sees the internet...it gets buried on my external in the file of shame.

TGIF anyone?

This has been one of those crazy wild weeks full of random details that make your head spin.

We are definitely pulling the kids from public schools. December 18 will be their last day. So happy we made this descision. Cait's daily antecdote is about Zak, who gets high every day and goes to class and does crazy bonehead things. The teacher can't be so oblivious she doesn't see this happening!

I spent most of the week at the hospital...my favorite place. Wednesday i had x-rays on my ankle and yesterday I had blood work done for the whole diabetes thing. I managed to squeeze in a trip to the immunization clinic and got my H1N1 so I'm officially NOT going to get 'swing' flu as Cait calls it.

This morning I was taking the girls to school and they mentioned I was starting to dress like Edie Beale. Pfft. It's cold, I layer. We use to spend summers with my granny in Tennessee and every morning my sister and I would help her gather eggs and feed the chickens. Granny always wore penny loafers with knee high stockings rolled down to her ankles, pajama pants with ONE leg rolled up to her knee, and a sweater. I like to think she was avant garde. Either way, I'm apparently channeling her as I leave the house every morning in pajama pants, a sweater and whichever shoes I stumble across first. In my defense I always get dressed in normal clothes as the day progresses, and who can think about matching at the crack of dawn? I usually go home and go back to bed anyway.

I sincerely hope Jim lands this job in Cape Canaveral...it would be wonderful to live in a WARM climate and not have to worry about whether my gloves match.

News

Wednesday I found out I'm diabetic. My doctor actually told me about 9 years ago, but at the time my glucose levels were fairly normal and have been since then. Now, however, they're higher.

And to be honest, I'm not surprised. I've been playing fast and loose with the Mt. Dew. So, I've spent the last few nights doing some research and....OMG. No two web sites can agree on anything. Literally! I started making a list of foods I can still eat, but I'd run out of info, go to another page, and have to cross off half of the foods I'd written down. Blah!

Update

Time seems to be flying by...I post and before I know it a week or two have passed. It honestly feels like just yesterday we were all lounging in the pool discussing our upcoming vacation, and now we're halfway through the school year. wow.

A lot has been going on here at casa Blevins. Most importantly, we've decided to pull the girls from public schools. I talk a lot about 'militaryisms' the little eccenticities the military community shares. In particular, we tend to have a broad base of comparison because we move so frequently. I attended 9 different schools between kindergarden and graduation. And I can honestly say whether they were a big school or small...a department of defense funded school or your basic county school, they were all good.


That isn't the case here. I finally had to choose...and I chose a better education for the girls.

New shoes

The best laid plans

So...today I was supposed to share with you the mind blowing BBQ ribs recipe from my mom. However, Jim intervened.

He flew into OKC around 4 and went to long-term parking to pick up his car...which is when he discovered his batter was dead. He thinks he didn't get the trunk shut properly before he left last week.

I was just about to pull the ribs from the oven and start some cole slaw when he called and asked me to bring the jumper cables.......all the way to the airport. So, I turned the oven down and took off. I was almost out of gas so I had to stop for that and before I could get back on the road he called to say he was starving (ironic, huh) and could I please pick up a soda and some chips for him????

It gets better...I'm exiting the highway when I realize we have roadside assistance through State Farm. He could have called them to come jump the car instead of me. And his poor OLD car took almost 40 minutes to get going. He loves that car...I mean he REALLY loves it. It's a 1997 Tiburon which is supposedly Korean for shark and his nickname has been Sharky since he was about 16....surfing incident. He thinks he was meant to have that car and he forgets she's 13 years old and not quite as spry as she once was.

Anyway, instead of painstakingly photographing each step and showing you the glorious results, I rushed in, threw some fries in a pot and got supper on the table as quickly as possible because we were all starving by the time I got home.