Aperture 1.4 {focused blur}

I'm back from CKU-Boston and I am finally starting to catch up.  Boston was really great.  I enjoyed each and every student that I had in my classes and I was able to add some workshop time to the end of the class where we went out and practice.  I love being able to see people grasp new concepts and run with them!

  Few Pictures:

This is me and my roomy Vicki!  Vicki is the greatest girl!  I am so glad that I was able to get to know her and spend time with her in real life.  I've known Vicki for almost two years now online and she is so kind and very fun!  I also got to meet Danielle.  Who is an amazing person as well as designer.  She is going to be on the New S.S. digital team and I wish her the best of luck!

I was also able to spend lot's of time with Elsie again.  I am so grateful that I have been able to be a part of CKU for so many reasons but mainly because I have been able to get to know and become friends with Elsie.  Aside from the fact that she is amazingly creative and brilliantly artistic.  She is sincere and kind.  She is a great friend!  And I am so grateful for that!

Here is a picture of Elsie and Emily from Graduation.

I came home on Sunday to a house full of the dearest people in my life.  My sisters!  Marissa was in from Las Vegas watching the boys for me so Stephanie came into town to be with us.  They could only stay for one day but it was so good to be together!  It was Stephanies birthday so here are a few pictures from our great party!

Speaking of Cake...someone at CKU brought cupcakes with all the teachers photo's on them.  It's a little surreal to see yourself on a dessert.

Okay, that's all for now!  Gotta spend some quality time with my baby sister before she goes home tomorrow!

Assisted by Superman

So, today didn't turn out as originally planed.  Mark was at rehearsal this weekend and his boot( it's a period play so they are rehearsing in the shoes that they will wear in the show to get used to it) straps caught on the other boot as he was doing a turn and he fell.  Normally not a big deal but he landed on his hand and broke his pinky finger.  As it turns out it isn't just broken either a piece of the bone broke off and embedded itself into his tendon. ( or something like that) so he had to have the piece of bone removed in a surgery today and then have a pin placed in it to keep it straight.  Nice.

  He was convinced that it was no big deal so he wouldn't let me take him in.  He thought that it would just be a local anesthetic but it wasn't they put all the way under to do it.  I picked him up at the doctors office and they gave me instructions while he smiled at me sleepily from his chair.  He is supposed to be on pain medications tomorrow but he refuses to miss rehearsal or the auditions for the new set of plays so he's decided to go with Tylenol.  Hope that works but I can't help but be a little worried.

I know that it was just something small but it makes me think about how much I depend upon him being in my life forever.  It makes me just a little more grateful for having him in my life.  Even if he is to stubborn to listen to me about the pain killers.

And, oh yeah, the title.  Assisted by super man?  We were shopping for some new school clothes for Grant and we came across Super Man P.J.'s they even have a little cape on the back and Cole just had to have them.  The problem is that he hasn't removed them since.  I was able to convince him that he needed to at least wear shorts with his tee shirt and cape so he begrudgingly went along with that this morning.  But man did everyone love him and his superman sound effects everywhere we went.  Sigh, a little embarrassing but what's embarrassment when you kid is living a dream!

New Apartment

So this is how I KNEW that this was the apartment for us.

Ummm... cherry red and celery green walls?  That match my furniture perfectly? Yep.  It really was already painted those colors. Pretty perfect huh?

Here are a few other detail shots:

There are tons of white molding everywhere.

I love all the old door knobs.

        Anyway, just a little peak of our new place.  It looks pretty good from these shots but, remember the house is over a hundred years old and well, I'm not sure when they lasted up dated the bathroom.  Yeah...not pretty.  But I can live with it for all the other good things.

Any good decorating ideas? Mom?

My very own BBC romance

Okay, so it's not news to anyone that knows me that I am obsessed with Jane Austin novels and any BBC production of a great classic.  Particularly "Pride and Prejudice".  I love the BBC version. So, I must say I was loving Marks long hair when we finally saw each other after two months of being apart.  He was in the Virginia Shakespeare festival this summer and one of the shows was Mac Beth so they weren't allowed to cut their hair. Mark has always been clean cut and I loved it.  I always thought that I was a clean cut kind of a girl.  But man Look how cute he is with his long hair.  I've taken to calling him my Mister Darcy, and luckily because of his roll in My Fair Lady he doesn't get to cut it for a while!

I took this photo in Virginia in colonial Williamsburg.  So fitting. I love it.  I love him!  People always ask how we do it and to be honest being a theater wife or as they like to call it in the industry being a theater widow isn't easy BUT, he makes it okay.  When he is gone doing a show he not only calls everyday  but he writes me a love letter every day he is gone.  EVERY DAY. I can't tell you how much that means to me.  It makes being apart a little bit easier but I am so glad that we are together again here in Louisville.

Leaving Athens

We moved! 

Here is our truck! And our old house.  Goodbye Athens!  I'll miss you!  When Mark and I first decided to move to Athens, Ohio so that he could go to their grad program at Ohio University, I thought we had lost our minds.  It's tiny there.  It's basically the University and a walmart. Don't get me wrong - the University it's self is over two hundred years old and is huge as far as schools are concerned. It has or rather had one of the best grad school programs in theater, but I just wasn't sure how the little boys and I would do there. I mean what do you do in the middle of nowhere?  But as it turns out, it was so good for our little family.  It's really relaxed.  No one cares how much you have or what you wear or who you are. It's honestly one of the most accepting communities out of anywhere I have lived and I found that I have gained some of  the best friends that I have ever had in that tiny town.  Plus it is honestly so beautiful there.  All hills and trees.  In fact, we lived just outside of the city in the woods.  We did lot's of hiking and walking trails and I loved how green it always was.

  Anyway, now we are in Kentucky.  Yep, you heard me,  Kentucky.  And again, I find myself saying, "Where do you want us to go"  when Mark told me our newest location. He was accepted to "The Actors Theater" in Louisville.  We didn't expect it, but Mark was really hoping.  It is one of the best theaters out side of New York City in the nation and it hosts the biggest playwright festival in the United States each year.  I really thought of Kentcky in that back woods sort of way.  But Louisville was a big suprise to me. It's a very artistic city and I love the area we ended up in.  (All big old Victorians homes turned into apartments.)  I've already discovered that an artist lives two doors down on the top floor.  He brought out a bunch of huge paintings and was doing copy shots from his balcony the other day. I love that there are a lot of artists around us.  Makes me feel that we have found a place we were meant to be. Surrounded by people who understand where we are coming from instead of shaking their heads when we are intoduced as a photographer and actor.

  I'll post pictures of our apartment soon when we are more settled.  I love it.  It's old and will probably be freezing in the winter, but I have always dreamed of living in an old home.  Something with character.  I grew up mostly in the west and in Hawaii in highschool so there really weren't many homes older than 30 or 40 years.  Living in a home that is over 100 is amazing, but comes with it's own quirks.  I just love thinking of the people who built it and what their lives must have been like.

Aside from the move, things have still been crazy.  Just to catch everyone up, I got back from CKU ( someone asked what that was in the comments, it's Creating Keepsakes University,  a scrapbooking magazine that hosts classes over a weekend to a bunch of really amazing women.) in Atlanta and then we moved two days later.  I unpacked and did an inteview for Creating Keepsakes about hall of fame for Scrap Diva Lounge.  Here is the link http://www.worldtalkradio.com/archive.asp?aid=7631 if you want to hear it.  But I am warning you I sound like a total geek.  I was so stressed that day, we had just moved and I was supposed to do the interview from our new phone at the new number the phone company gave me only they never actually hooked it up so The Actors Theater let me use theirs.  So... I gave the interview standing in the hallway of a theater, and let me tell you, as I am sure you are a aware, actors aren't the quitest bunch around.  Anyway, they are amazingly nice at the lounge but link at your own risk and you aren't allowed to think I am really that dorky because well, I already told you that I was!

  Then, I flew in and out of Utah for a meeting yesterday. I'm back and I finally have the Internet!  Do you know how hard it is to work from home for a company in another state and not have email for two weeks?  I spent a fortune at starbucks for internet use and I don't even drink coffee! I must admit that the smell is pleasent though after being there so much.

Grant started school today!  First day of Kindergarten break my heart in pieces why don't you?  Moving and then taking my baby away?  He has been in school all last year but I don't know being in a new place and letting him go like that is so hard for me.  He loved his first day though and said that his teacher is great.

In other news, my card kits and my sisters kits ( which are so amazing!) are up at www.scrapinfonts.com her name is Stephanie Ford. Stephanie, you are brilliant.  I miss you.  The sadest thing about leaving Ohio is leaving you!  Please come visit soon! 

-Family, now you know that we are alive and that everything is going well.  We miss you all!

Anyway, I'll try to be more consistant in writing. I think I keep saying that.  But I will try. 

We graduated...again:)

Here we are.  Elsie talked me into thinking these hats could actually look cute on someone for like ten seconds.  And of course we took a picture of it.  Nice.  Then I in turn talked Carrie into doing it too because one can't look stupid by ones self right?  But as it turns out, she actually did look pretty dang cute in it.

 

CKU is an amazing amount of work but if I help even one person understand their camera a little bit better it's worth it to me.  One of my professors was teasing me about ending up where I am. He said I had so much potential to really make a mark in commercial photography why did I choose this path?  But the truth is what would make anything commercial more important than a Mother capturing a childs life, or her own, or her husbands?  Pure love, captured in a moment in time. There is nothing more important than that.  There is nothing more validating to a child than seeing thier picture displayed in their own home as an important memeber of the family, and if I can help someone do that beautifully.  Why wouldn't I?

Okay, enough for now.  We are moving across states on Thursday. Crazy!  But I'll post more about that later.

  I had to post this picture too!  Um.... a little embarrassing as I look like I am sort of doing a kissy face but I am really just talking. But this is my friend Barb, who teaches for Imagination Project she is such a great woman!