Second Shooting...

I never thought I would want
to take pictures of a
wedding.
Well one of my friends Mindy
asked me if I wanted to second shoot
with her at one of her
upcoming weddings.
I said, "sure!"
Why wouldn't I?
Totally no pressure,
more experience,
and being able to take pictures of a
beautiful wedding =
fun in my book!

Meet Alma... such a gorgeous bride!

I just happened to find this heart that was
carved in one of the benches
located right where they got married!
Alma + Dan... too cute!
If you're wondering...
I did not do this:)
I'm just lucky I guess!

Flower girl from Mexico... C.U.T.E.

The beautiful flowers... I love hydrangeas!

and instead of cake,
YUMMY pies from a local
orchard.
OH.MY.GOSH
I so wanted to
dig into this!
For REAL!

Cousins... A Sneak Peak!

I had a blast doing two babies at once :)

Tomorrow I have a
maternity shoot,
and Friday I am a
second shooter
at my first
wedding :)

It's getting busy!!!

I Should be doing the Laundry...

...and other motherly duties, but
I just didn't feel like it!

About 2 months ago I
bought the Canon 40D.
I LOVE it...
What I don't LOVE
is that hideous
camera strap,
that comes with
this A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.
camera!

Boring. Right?!
So instead of doing my
"motherly duties"
I whipped up a
new strap,
just with stuff I had
lying around.

Now I am in
LOVE
all over again :)

Off to do some of that
said laundry!

Amy Butler Yumminess :)

I'm in love with Amy Butler!
I mean who isn't?
With all her beautiful,
scrumptious,
fabulous
and
extrodinary
fabric and paper...
It's to die for!
The cake above is with
all of her newest designs :)

This set is for
16 individual
SLiCES!
Four different patterns,
four SLiCES each :)

Just looking at these cakes makes me
want to have a grown-up party...
No kids,
pretty paper cakes,
real flowers,
food that my
kids would turn their noses up at,
even though they've never tried it,
where I can drink Coffee Punch
all afternoon
and not gain a pound.
Oh and there has to be
chocolate.
Gobs and gobs of
delectable
chocolate!

Here is the recipe for the yummy punch:

Coffee punch

16 cups strong coffee
1 cup sugar
3 tsp vanilla
4 cups milk
1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream

Mix hot coffee and sugar,
chill.
Add vanilla,
milk
and ice cream.
Mix and serve :)

I Suppose...

...I should start thinking about,
"The Most Wonderful Time of the Year"

The advent cake pictured above is from
last year. I have enough to make one
more. So far I haven't been able
to find this paper in stock anywhere.
I do however have 3 new sets of paper
to make up 3 very different advent cakes
this year! I've already started on one of them :)
If you love the color combo pictured in this
post then you better get it fast, 'cause it is
the last one!!!! It will be in the shop this afternoon!

Here is a sneak peak at the new fabric for
the Christmas bunting... more to come
soon!

Maybe I should turn on my Christmas
playlist to get me in the holiday
spirit?

When do you start to listen to
Christmas music?

Where are the parents?

If you have a friend or a family member that has a child with Cerebral Palsy or any other kind of disability think twice before wondering why it's harder for them to get out...

To make a long story short, earlier this week a question was asked by some nitwit official as to why there weren't more parents (of special needs kids) involved in the local PTA and other issues that have come up that directly involve our kids. His question, which was passed on to me was, "Where are the parents?" I went home that night, started thinking - and boy was I pi**ed - and banged this "little" essay out the next day on my lunch break. By the way, I took copies of this to the school board meeting that night, gave it to a couple of influential people and it WILL get around......

.......

Where are the parents?

They are on the phone to doctors and hospitals and fighting with insurance companies, wading through the red tape in order that their child's medical needs can be properly addressed. They are buried under a mountain of paperwork and medical bills, trying to make sense of a system that seems designed to confuse and intimidate all but the very savvy.

Where are the parents?

They are at home, diapering their 15 year old son, or trying to lift their 100 lb. daughter onto the toilet. They are spending an hour at each meal to feed a child who cannot chew, or laboriously and carefully feeding their child through a g-tube. They are administering medications, changing catheters and switching oxygen tanks.

Where are the parents?

They are sitting, bleary eyed and exhausted, in hospital emergency rooms, waiting for tests results to come back and wondering, "Is this the time when my child doesn't pull through?" They are sitting patiently in hospital rooms as their child recovers from yet another surgery to lengthen hamstrings or straighten backs or repair a faulty internal organ. They are waiting in long lines in county clinics because no insurance company will touch their child.

Where are the parents?

They are sleeping in shifts because their child won't sleep more than 2 or 3 hours a night, and must constantly be watched, lest he do himself, or another member of the family, harm. They are sitting at home with their child because family and friends are either too intimidated or too unwilling to help with child care and the state agencies that are designed to help are suffering cut backs of their own.

Where are the parents?

They are trying to spend time with their non-disabled children, as they try to make up for the extra time and effort that is critical to keeping their disabled child alive. They are struggling to keep a marriage together, because adversity does not always bring you closer. They are working 2 and sometime 3 jobs in order to keep up with the extra expenses. And sometimes they are a single parent struggling to do it all by themselves.

Where are the parents?

They are trying to survive in a society that pays lip service to helping those in need, as long as it doesn't cost them anything. They are trying to patch their broken dreams together so that they might have some sort of normal life for their children and their families.

They are busy, trying to survive!

Sue Stuyvesant 10/15/96: Permission to duplicate or distribute this document is granted with the provision that the document remains intact.

Sue passed away in October 2003. Michelle passed away a week before she was to turn 18 in September 2005.

Photoshop is getting a little easier!

Just a few photos I played around with today :)
Let me know what you think.
I need some feedback...

˚˚˚˚˚˚˚
Hope you are having a
great Monday!
If you are tell me about it.
Cause mine
didn't happen the way I
had planned it and so
I got all mad about it and
had a bad day,
kinda like a pouty
five year old!

Oh Me... Oh My!

My life has been crazy busy!
Lot's going on with
DAiSYS & dots
and now my new
photography business!

I feel like my blog has taken the
back burner :(
I love blogging.
A LOT more
than I thought I would!

Apparently I refer to blogging
about random things so often
to my friend that she sent me this card today :)

If you really want to know,
I have most of my laundry caught up
AND it's folded and put away.
A big accomplishment for me:)
My husband did help me, so
I'm givin' him credit where credit is due!
Thanks babe!

I've also been doing a lot of traveling
to see my family that is in town,
{which is about 2 hours south of me}
I had the privilege of celebrating my
beautiful Grandmother's 81st
Birthday!
Visiting family is so much fun for me!
I love my family.

˚˚˚˚˚˚˚
{Look away now if you have a weak stomach!}

This past week Alaina
had another eye surgery!
The doctor ended up only adjusting
her left eye.
It looks pretty crazy...
and painful, but she doesn't seem
to notice it.
She was seeing double,
but now it's getting better.
Only occasionally she'll say that
she sees two of me:)
What a trooper!
The rough part about this
whole ordeal was the actual day
of surgery.
She does great up until the OR room
when she becomes scared.
Then when she wakes up she's,
disoriented,
cranky,
nauseous,
and
whiny.
All of which I can understand.
I probably would be the same way!
The other hard thing is pinning her down to
squirt her medicine in her eye.
It's the consistency of
Vaseline,
and let me tell you,
she puts up quite the fight!

On a happy note I got these
very adorable dishes.
I can't wait to use them in the spring :)

˚˚˚˚˚
So now you know why I have been MIA...
coming soon... two giveaways :)

12 Days Old...

What a little peanut :)

I was honored to take pics of this
little guy!

Oh my, couldn't you just squeeze him?

I'm not sure what it is about
this picture, but I LOVE it:)

I'm so in love with capturing
the moments in people's lives!
More than I thought I would.

I'm almost 100% sure I've picked
my photography name...
Now I need to make it legal, then I
can share it with you... I'm paranoid that
someone will take it. Believe me,
when I say picking the name
of my photog biz was not an easy task!
I can't wait for my logo to be designed...
I'm going to be hiring
someone for this!

My Sister Got Engaged... Finally!

This is my sister and her family!
Alissa and Bill have been
together for at
least 10 years!
It's about dang time ;)
The little guy is my nephew
Kai

Let's take a look at that
rock!
It's over a karat in size,
it seriously did make me
squint :)

Billy took the diamond from his late
Grandpa's ring that was passed down
to him and had it re-set into
a beautiful engagement ring!

He took Alissa to a Tiger's Baseball
game and had it put up on the big
screen:
"I love you
Alissa...
Will you marry me?"

She turned to him to see if
it was her,
and he was down on one knee with
the ring... *sniff, sniff*

I love you guys
and I am so very
happy that you
two are getting
married!