Photo is of my kiddo. Took it last year during the beginning of the holidays. I was giddy when some family friends called to tell us they had found them. We all went out on the hunt! They haven't been officially announced by Jones Soda but I believe these are only available at Target. It's where we found all of our bottles.

Gosh darn it, I need to finish this book. I've been very side tracked these past few weeks with @ getting a new job and me deciding it was time to gut the house (rented a 15 foot dumpster to haul off all the junk both in the house and from the shed). But I think about it (the book) almost daily. Plots and characters, it's all there in my head. I just need to focus and find the time to sit and type it all out.

As for the cleaning... I think the house is about 90% ready for us to start having people over again. That'll be so nice! I'm incredibly tired thanks to the endless hours/days spent sorting, bagging, hauling, trashing stuff. I don't ever want to see my house filled with that much crap again. I never understood the whole "Less is More" saying until I had to go through this. Less is definitely more! I've rearranged rooms so now we actually have a guest room here for when we have people visit from far away (like my folks). The kids have their place to play during the day if I need to confine them, but now that I've gotten rid of the stuff about the house, they can have free run. Juliana loves it! I think the whole mess was what was making me feel depressed. I'm feeling so much better mentally now. Even more rested.

Same old same old with the health. We're all just about over another cold.

Here's the fun news. @'s new place invited him to a Christmas party... at the Chicago Hilton. Black tie affair. So I had to go buy my first cocktail dress. Found it at Macy's. Actually I found my accessories yesterday too. Veteran's day is a crazy day to go shopping. I'd forgotten it was VD when I went out in the morning until I hit all of the traffic. I would say that it was worth that mild frustration. Stopped at Kohls first and there they were running some huge sales. 30%-75% off of everything in the store. My mother-in-law was with me and she had an extra 30% off coupon that we got to use (and reuse). I ended up buying a $250 pearl necklace for about $75, and then a pair of Akoya pearl earrings for $20 (normally $60). I also found myself a beautiful new light brown suede leather coat with faux beige/ivory fur trim. It's got a huge hood, one of those nice renaissancey ones that bow out on either side of your face and kind of hangs over your forehead a bit. And then it has this lovely plant-like stitch work that is a little darker than the suede that reminds me of Rivendell. The pattern runs along either side of the zipper. It was originally priced $140, but was on sale for $75 and then we got the 30% off on top of that. I say, an amazing day for sales. Actually it was an amazing day over all. We found close parking spots everywhere we went. We got the best sales, and we just walked in to Macy's, found my dress, tried it on, bought it, and left. And we both thought it was going to take a few hours to find something.

So my next step is to check out the Chicago Hilton to see if they have a spa... @ is going to let me get my hair done up for the party. I told him I didn't want to be responsible for my hair that night.

I've been reading some crazy fun things about this company's previous Christmas parties. Like they give away plasma televisions and 2 week vacations to anywhere in the world as door prizes. The budget for this year's party was rumored to be in the 7 digits. That just freaks me out and excites me at the same time. They are paying for a hotel room for us to stay in at the Hilton, plus giving us gas money to drive down to Chicago.

My mom is all set to babysit.

Eeeee!

Even though I was told they would not move the lady that they sold my p.o. box to, they had a change of heart when they saw the bill presented to them for the cost of replacing my business cards and post cards. They asked the woman if she would mind changing boxes and apparently she didn't mind, as I now have my old box back.

I want to build a small structure on my property. Basically it would be a large room (20'x30') with a bathroom, heat, electricity and water hooked up to it as well. Why? Well I want a separate room for two reasons. One, if I am going to homeschool my kids I want a place dedicated to this. And also, if I am going to do any portrait work I need a place outside of my home to have my equipment set up in.

Yeah, I am crazy. I want to do it all by hand.

* A possible front door
* A possible side/back door
* Flooring
* Bathroom Vanity

You get the idea. Dark, mysterious and thought envoking. I will most likely use it as a retreat for my writing as well. I'd like to start in the spring, but of course we will see. :P There are tons of things I'd like to do that never get done. It would be awesome for this one to work out though.

Seeing as how the mail person that delivers to my actual home is not very reliable (he leaves packages and important documents hanging from the flag in a plastic bag, even if it's raining. He's ruined some certification documents... I've called the post master about this twice now) I rented a P.O. Box earlier this year at a local post office in a neighboring town. I thought that would be more reliable and assure safe delivery of any photos or checks being sent to me.

When renting out a P.O. Box, you pay for a term of either 6 months or a year. I chose a year and paid my balance in full.

Yesterday I went down to the post office and tried opening my box. To my surprise, the key would not work. I had to wait in a lengthy line before I could even ask about it. Finally a lady at the counter started digging through the files. She commented how the office used to write these sales on paper receipts but it's all been inputted into their computers now. She find my old receipt and someone has scratched off the 1-year date of expiration, changing it to the 6 month term... even though the rest of the paper indicates I had rented it for the full 12 months. Their computer, because of this error, automatically closed my box. And then they sold it to someone else. They said they couldn't give it back to me, either.

I made a list of losses due to their errors;

3,000 Business Cards (replacement cost today of $189.90)
250 Standard Size Postcards (replacement cost today of $79.96)
Add $45 for 3 day Business Shipping

Total cost: $311.86

This was just the financial losses. My business image may be tarnished by models getting their photos back with "return to sender" on them and the models being pissed off thinking I didn't want to bother looking at their images (I had an open casting call posted on my website for the entire duration of their "return to sender" stint). Also all of the time I spent promoting my business through the business cards and postcards was wasted as the address is now invalid. This includes the time I spent dropping business cards off in various locations, plus all of the face to face with people I had.

Their solution to their error (which they admitted was completely their fault) was to give me their only other available box (moving me from a small to a medium box - I would not have chosen to go larger). They would credit me the 6 months I had left on the small box and give me another 6 months free. Well, that's great. That was essentially $52 free ($72 - $20 remaining credit).

So let me ask you this... Is $52 in free rent fair compensation for everything I lost? Not to mention the fact that in less than two years time spent in that box, it will have gobbled up all of that "free" rent and then be costing me nearly twice as much each year for my box.

I am currently writing a letter to the Post Master General.

Little X Jr. in her 2006 Halloween costume.

I read this article on CNN today which leads me to believe that I suffer from a sleep disorder. Initially the thought of taking a sleep aid seemed like a sweet solution and allowed me to see some light at the end of the tunnel for my mood swings, tiredness and weight issues. I was ready to call the doctor and make an appointment. Then my mother pointed out that I cannot take any sort of prescription sleep aids because I need to be alert at night to attend to my children, should the need arise.

My night consists of going to bed by about 11, but not being able to fall asleep until 12, 1, or even later. I wake up constantly throughout the night due to noise. Any noise. Even faint ones. Then I have to be up at 6AM Monday through Friday to get my oldest ready for school. The weekends don't bring much relief either since my oldest likes to get up when the sun does, which means she comes and wakes me up.

So what do you other sleep deprived parents do? How do you deal with it? It is effecting my health and my mood, and in an indirect way, it effects my children too. More often than not I am too tired to play with them, inside or outside. I know they need more exercise. I do too. I don't get chores done around the house in a timely manner. And I've gotten to the point where I'd rather just stay home than go out to have any fun. Zombie is a good description (right in time for Halloween).

Good Lord... Well I have been busy. Such is the story of my life.

Let's see... a quick run down.

In May I found out I won grand prize in an international photography competition and was awarded $1,000 (check didn't come until August but it did finally show up). I also won a creative photography competition through pictureframes.com. The prize for that was a $150 gift certificate to use towards a print and frame project.

Here is what I did with my prizes... ( Read more...Collapse )

I have taken a short break from completing the Sprites series due to a lack of fresh flowers that are suitable for the project for now (plus some mechanical failures; see below).

Additionally, I have been toying around with the idea of creating some simple children's books based on The Flower Sprites. I am optimistic that they will become popular. Keep an eye on the official website for more updates.

I've had a few more Jones Soda labels printed... I've lost track of all of them now but I do believe it is a full dozen (possibly more).

OneModelPlace made me a Featured Member in June, and I was up until mid-August!

And of course GiftTRAP came out in July. I got my copy in the mail and it is awesome! 7 of my photos appear in the game. If anyone wants to play this weekend, its their big Guiness Book of World Records attempt launch. It's bound to be a good time. If there is interest, I will try and find some place in GR to have the game hosted... (Anyone want to volunteer their pad? Ours is really too small to entertain.)

In early September I found out that I won Ten Honorable Mentions from the 2006 IPA Lucie Awards. Ironically, three of those were for my first Flower Sprite image. It won in People - Other, People - Portrait and Special - Digitally Enhanced.

Last week my Canon 20D broke. I've well exceeded the 100,000 image cycle that it's supposed to withstand. Unfortunately the company whom we bought the camera through did not offer a warranty plan beyond the 1-year manufacturer plan... which I have gone over by about 6 months. My folks lent me the money to order a Canon 30D, due to arrive here over the weekend. We've come to the realization that I cannot use any money I earn from photography for anything else other than getting all of the equipment I need (see my previous post from today). I definitely need more than one camera body, and I definitely won't be buying any in the future without an extended warranty plan. The 30D is coming with a 4-year warranty.

My novel... I finally broke through my writer's block. I had written myself into a wall with one particular chapter, so I deleted it. Then I redirected the previous chapter. Now the story is flowing again.

Will post more later as I try to recall everything else that's been going on. There has been a lot. :P

ZOOMS

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Lens for Weddings

PRIMES

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM Lens for Portraits

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM Lens for Portraits

LIGHTING

Alien Bees in Black

CAMERA BODIES

Canon EOS-5D Digital Camera

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II Digital Camera