Busy busy busy....ebay....wifey....mommy....school (going back to get my B.S.N)....looking for a part time job....but I'm alive.

I know I've been promising a set. I just don't know when and if it will happen. The weather has been super crazy here and it's putting me really behind on my scheduled shoots. It's also putting me behind on shipping our ebay stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to work something in before my free ride is up. If not, you can always look at my old stuff in my profile or in PSW. This thread has links to all my PSW albums.
Besides, I'm a photographer, not a model. I need to take some pretty pictures soon before I go crazy.

Steven and I watched some DVD's during the stormy weather these past few days. We got caught up on season 4 of The Office. The movies we watched were Step Brothers, Yes Man, and Religulous. Step Brothers was really stupid but had some funny moments. From now on, if any of you piss me off, I'm going to put my nut sack on your drum set. Yes Man was the typical A+B=$$$ story plot but still funny. I love Jim Carrey no matter what. He's my guilty pleasure. Religulous was funny but not exactly ground breaking. Bill Maher talked over most of the people he interviewed. Sure they might be saying something dumb but I want to hear it so I can laugh. Plus there seemed to be a heavy tolerance to Judaism. Very Ironic considering the premise was suppose to be questioning the logic of all religions. I was also disappointed to see him offended so strongly by the Orthodox Jew who believed Israel should be a Palestinian state. It was strange coming from a man trying to sell logic and also sell the fact that he was raised Catholic and didn't have any ties to his Jewish roots. Oh, well, it's hard to sell movies in Hollywood that's anti Israel. You're automatically branded anti-semitic.

Of course I have to post some pictures.
Via Happy Silly then Mad



Homemade Strawberry Pie


Self Portrait

It's been awhile. We've been really busy with our ebay sales. Lot's of item pictures, then listing, then packing, then shipping, then it all starts over again.
They've shut down all the schools in our county for a week because they've found two "probable" cases of H1 N1. They haven't been confirmed through the CDC yet. I really hadn't been worried about it. I'm not calling myself an anal cleaner but I do follow universal precaution. My medical training has taught me what to do to prevent illness. Then I realized that we are living with the "plague bringers". Let me explain. Currently we are staying with Steven's grandparents. All of our ebay inventory is over here for storage and we really don't want to tap into our 401k right now to rent something (the market has made our 401k drop and has driven up rental prices). We thought about it for awhile and decided we might as well save some extra money before we get back on the road and save ourselves some extra work on taking trips to this side of town for batches of ebay inventory.
Steven's grandparents are VERY conservative Southern Baptist who believe god will save them from everything. They are under educated. I can over look these things because they are genuinely caring people even if they are ignorant. They are allowing us to stay with them and they are very good to Via. However, their ignorance does affect our lives.
I've asked them to please wash their hands when they get home and to avoid touching Via before they do. It's not that hard and it makes a big difference. Of course they think it's mumbo jumbo huey. They go to crowded places. They touch a lot of people when they go to church (including school age children). Then they come home and don't wash their hands. Please don't touch my child until you've washed your hands well. I'm not asking you to wear masks. I'm not asking you to avoid all the unnecessary trips to crowded places and churches. I'm not asking you to fill your hands with sanitizer every time you're about to touch Via. Just wash your hands promptly when you get home after being out in public. Running your hand lightly under cold water for 5 seconds doesn't count either.
Do you know how many times I've gotten sick while we've been here? I'm an avid hand washer but it's hard to avoid germs when you live with non-hygienic people. I'm terrible about itching my eyes and nose. Basically, I've retrained myself to avoid touching my eyes, noise and mouth without freshly washed hands. Anytime I have an itch that requires me to touch my eyes or my nostrils, I wash my hands first. I haven't been ill sense. Now lets try teaching Via to do that.
ANY flu, type A or B or H1 N1 or H3 N2 is dangerous for a young child. Via is healthy and has only been sick twice but she will catch a highly infectious illness like a wide spread flu, Swine or other.
I know that Via needs to be subjected to pathogens in order to build tolerances. I'm not uber anal about sanitizing everything she comes in contact with. That's a futile battle. Still, I'm not going to be careless enough to disregard a more serious illnesses like any form of influenza.
Influenza is a serious virus that kills about 30,000 people a year. That's the common variety. H1 N1 is the virus that caused the Spanish Flu in 1918. The same flu that infected 1/3 of the worlds' population and killed about 20-100 million of those people. Not to mention it uncharacteristically killed more people between the ages of 20-40. At first it was an unseasonal flu that hit in the spring and was mild but came back with a vengeance in the fall. So, if you're wondering why there's such a "scare" right now, these are the reasons. Unfortunately there's an implication that the scare is due to the deaths in Mexico City and we can feel we're in the clear now because Mexico Cities' cases are stabilizing. This is not the way to think. No, you don't need to panic and lock yourself in a bubble but make sure you're being hygienic and educate yourself on the transmission of flu. If everyone is proactive it will prevent a dangerous outbreak like the one in 1918.
/rant
BTW, the Mirena isn't bothering me as much anymore.
So, here's some pictures.
Some Key lime Pie I made (from scratch) a couple days ago. I squeezed juice from 2 pounds of little key limes and it was worth it!



A bee in the yard.


Steven and I are planning on putting a set together on Sunday :crosses fingers:.

Well the Mirena is getting better. I wake up with cramps and soreness but as soon as I start getting active and moving around, the pain subsides. That works out cause it keeps me going.
Hopefully we'll get a PSW set up in the next few days. Any suggestions on themes?
Via turned 9 months old yesterday. I can't believe how quickly she's growing. It's amazing watching a baby's exponential growth and development. She's currently learning to stand without support . She does it for about 5-10 seconds. You should see her little face light up when she does it. You can tell she's amazed with herself.
We've had a recent step back. She was on 3 solid meals a day and was nursing 3 times a day. As of lately she started to wean from the breast which would be ok except I still can't get her to take a bottle or sippy cup. So, she wanted to just eat her solids and mouth my booby without drinking. Her wet diapers started getting smaller and fewer. So, I removed one of her solid meals and she's back to eating a better balance of solids and breast milk. She likes to drink from an adult cup but it's so big that it's hard for her to get enough fluid from it. I'll just keep trying to get her interested in the sippy cup or wait until she's old enough to get a lot of fluid from an adult cup. Part of me wishes I could get her to take her breast milk from a vessel instead of my breast but part of me really enjoys the bonding.
Even though the weather has been nice the past few days, I haven't really shot anything. Mainly I've been taking pictures of ebay items. That's no fun. I had a shoot planned yesterday but the model had to cancel. We need to go to the park or something so I can take some nature shots. My shutter finger is itching.
People have been asking me lately what we sell. Instead of listing the slew of categories, I'll just direct you to our ebay page
cobra_sniper.
I leave you with a few older images.

self portrait

Steven and I from 10/08

Via one day old

The cramps from my Mirena have returned. They're not as bad as the first day but still pretty sore. I also feel like I'm getting a mild UTI. Yuck. Sorry guys but I don't feel up to doing a set at all. We'll see how I feel in a few days.
I'm really tired of tornado season. It scares the hell out of me. It's even worse this year because of Via. I have my previous paranoia now I have mommy protection mode to add on top of that. Friday was awful. Even though we weren't hit too bad with the weather, there were non confirmed tornados just to the north and south of us. The sirens were going off. The weather radio was beeping. It's a complete sensory overload. I have PTS from a tornado that hit my neighborhood when I was in HS. It was really random and we weren't really expecting it. I need to really try to rein this apprehension in because it could affect Via in the long run. I have to stay strong and not fall apart. I'm working on it. We're suppose to have bad weather tomorrow. Hopefully it will be minor.
Well, that's all I have for now. Surprisingly I don't have any new pictures to share right now.

Here's a picture of some biscuits I made a few weeks ago.

I got my mirena put in yesterday. That was fun (not)! It really sucked. It burned, made me cramp bad, and almost made me lose my lunch. It's not so bad today. I went in to the GYN on January 15th for my consultation. I didn't get it put in until yesterday because we had trouble catching my period (it's easier to insert the mirena during your period because your cervix is slightly dilated). I didn't start my period until January 8th (a week before Via's 6 month birthday). My first 2 periods lasted two days and were on the weekend. My 3rd period was longer but I was sick. I guess 4th time was the charm. It was cool though because there was some time in between my doctors visits so I got to see my weight loss progress over a 3 month period. I usually just go by my measurements and the way my cloths fit. Watching the scale can be discouraging.
Woo hoo, I've lost 15 pounds in 11 weeks. I'm losing it slowly but steadily. I go for the healthy route.
Here's the numbers. I got to 285 when I was pregnant. I was down to 272 right after Via was born. Now I'm 240 and a size 22. I was a size 20 right before I got pregnant (actually got down to a size 18 during the first trimester). Right after Via was born, I think I was a size 28. I'm not sure. I know I was bigger then a 26 and my measuring tape wouldn't fit around my hips. I think I'll reach my goal of getting back to my pre-pregnancy size by the time Via's a year old (July 15th).
Here's a picture of my new shirt and my new eyeshadow.


Here's a picture of my boobies

Here's a couple of pictures of Via


Here's Via and Alien Sleeping together.

Here's Via standing on her leapfrog toy in order to reach into a box. She actually pushed the toy over to the box and stepped right up on it. I think it was intentional.


That's all she wrote.

P.S. Steven and I are planning on working on a PSW set on Sunday if schedule allows. Hopefully you'll get to see my big naked ass soon!

Here's some pictures from yesterday.

Via being silly.


A couple of shots of sketchy_. Unfortunately the shoot got cut short but we plan on finishing it up soon.



My OCD picture of chairs in a row. I have a thing for taking pictures of things that are lined up.


A purple floating flower.


Some tulips.


I was trying to go for a painted B&W negative/print here. I'm not sure if I succeeded with a digital manipulated version.


Not really a lot of interesting things to say. My life is, take care of Steven and Via, take pictures, and process our ebay orders.

Where's TigerAngel? She's still MIA...haha. I hope she comes back soon. I miss the PSW group.

I got my new lens and shot with it for real on Saturday. These are images of Ally Cupcake. She's a local singer and is pretty good (for pop ).







Optics ARE everything, kids!

You can see the rest of the images here.

Where's TigerAngel? She's MIA...haha. I hope she comes back before my 3 months is up so I can participate in PSW.

I'm shooting tomorrow and I'm excited. There will probably be a tutu involved. That's always awesome.

I got a new lens on Thursday. So far it's pleasing.

Here's a few pics I took today.

self portrait

random puppy

Via

Papa in his junkyard


Hope all is well in your 'hood.

Hey everyone. Looks like I'm back for three months. Someone reactivated my account. It was done anonymously on February 22 but I just noticed the email today. Weird. I wonder who it was. Well it will be nice catching up with y'all during my 3 months.

I had my baby girl on July 15th, 2008. We named her Via Sapphire. She's a super active silly baby. Here's a few pictures of her.




I've also been really active with my photography. Here's a couple of pictures from my recent shoots.




Hope all is well with everyone. How have y'all been?