Living Life… Wackbards

Tiegan is officially in pull-ups 80% of the time. If we are going to a place we know she won’t be able to go to the bathroom that easily, she gets a normal diaper. Also when she takes a nap or goes to bed. Otherwise, she’s in “big girl panties” as she likes to say. She’s peed on the training potty twice on her own so far, and according to Jason’s grandma (who watches her during the day), the cool sensation pull-ups are really helping her to recognize when she needs a dry bum.

I recently found myself thinking, “Why are we putting her in pull-ups already? Aren’t those for kids who walk and talk and go potty on their own?”

And then I realized…
MY kid walks and talks and goes potty on her own!

I think I hit the permanent fast-forward button on life when I gave birth.

Anyway… here are some photos from our outing at the park today. I’m not very happy with the settings I used in general (although the sky is stunning, wouldn’t you agree?!), and I’m getting kind of nervous about shooting 2 couples at the park tomorrow. To see more, go to my photo feed to the left and click “More Photos”…

… YES! I am participating!! It’s a short one, but I felt like writing about something somewhat meaningful [to me] tonight.

My very first TFT is on organization. It’s something I’ve been lacking, which is causing me lots of trouble in different aspects of my life. I have been so scatterbrained,  that I don’t know if I’m coming or going anymore. To start, here are the areas in which I need an organizational makeover:

• Finances
• Business & Record-Keeping
• Personal PC File Storage (photos! aaahhh!)
• STUFF around the house that isn’t always in use

Now.  Let’s start with finances. I was recently going through my old file cabinet from when I was single. I kept every single bank statement from every single month. I balanced my checkbook, highlighted all the transactions I could account for, made red check marks next to the transactions I didn’t write down in my checkbook, and made blue check marks next to the ones I did write down. Lately, people that are THAT ANAL about their finances annoy the hell out of me. But I’ve also realized it’s for a damn good reason. I’ve changed. A LOT. I’ve gotten very lax about keeping track of the finances and thought we could just *wing it*. That turned out not to be the case and now we have lots of catching up to do. I have learned a bit of modesty through this experience and I’ve realized that organized people are just wonderful. On to my next issue…

Business & record-keeping. I recently started my own business called Aria Designs. I don’t have an office. Not even at home. Granted, it doesn’t require all that much paperwork because it’s a photography business. However, I do need to keep receipts, tax forms, and records of every client I’ve had. And I have NO PLACE to keep these things. Currently, all the papers I could ever need are in one file folder… in my backpack. What if something should happen to my backpack? What if I was wearing it during a shoot in the rain, and the strap broke, causing my backpack to fly off and papers to scatter in the puddles? I’d be SOL. I. Need. Organization. Another aspect of my life where I have come to realize that organized people are my friends – not crazy obsessive-compulsive dillholes. (Haha… remember using that word in elementary school?)

Personal PC & File Storage. I dump my digital photos directly onto my PC’s hard drive, where they remain for a YEAR at a time. Granted, I have taken the effort to create monthly folders for my photos, and even daily folders within those monthly folders – all in one centralized location. I know exactly where to look for each photo. Not good enough. My new 10mb camera takes HUGE files, especially if I’m shooting in RAW format. I’ll be lucky to get 5 days worth of photos on one 700mb CD. I can’t imagine how much of my hard drive is being taken up by photos I never look at anymore. I have all of 2006 and [so far] 2007 on this one PC. I never archive anything. Which also ties into my personal clutter – I never throw anything out. Moving on.

STUFF around the house.  As I said, I never throw anything away. I have boxes upon boxes piled in my garage and basement… things that have not been sorted for over 2 years. I’m sure these are things that I will always keep for nostalgic purposes, but the fact is that they are not in any kind of meaningful order. There are stuffed animals in boxes with TVs. There are clothes in boxes with picture frames.

What is the point of this post? No, it’s not to complain about how unorganized I am. Really, it isn’t! The point is that I have a new appreciation for those that are organized, and can STAY organized… even with children and full time jobs. I’ve learned that I really am a clean freak and even a little bit OCD deep down – I’ve just been suppressing it for so long because I’m married to Mr. Mess himself, and had his child. It takes a lot to have the kind of self-motivation you need to stay on top of things, and I salute you.

So, what is your secret organizational obsession? Do you label your spices? Do you sort your underwear by day of the week? Let’s dish!

I thought I would post some family pictures, because I haven’t in such a long time. None of my family pictures ever have me in them. The curse of always being behind the camera! I often ask Jason to take over the picture-taking duties when we’re out and about, but he usually just ends up carrying the camera around like extra baggage, and he forgets to actually use the thing.

This is my kitchen – in a very rare state… CLEAN! I am dying to paint it.

Jason & Tiegan after a wrestling match… looks like they both lost.

Tiegan having fun with our new vacuum… I LOVE THIS THING. It’s like 7 lbs. Yes, it is a *real* vacuum, not a toy.

She still gets baths in the sink at my parents’ house. They just remodeled their kitchen and have a HUGE basin sink.

Following suit…

- I’m glad MacKenzie kidnapped me yesterday so we could hang out. I made some awesome new friends & need to get out more often.
- We need to be waayyyy more organized at the studio. We keep complaining about how awful our “system” is, but nothing gets done about it.
- I refuse to use the phrase “Animal Crackers.” THEY ARE COOKIES. (And they make a great pair with coffee for breakfast!)
- I would love to crawl back into bed this morning.
- Model Mayhem bothers me. I am very easily annoyed by the women with nudie profiles commenting on my husband’s pictures, and vice versa, no matter how innocent they are.
- Speaking of photography… I want to get more creative. Everything lately has been snap snap snap and I want to try new things. Oh Keely, where is my hair & makeup artist?
- There is a spider on my ceiling. I don’t mind if he lives there happily, as long as I don’t find any more crickets in my washer.

I have been totally neglecting this thing! I really should blog more often. It has been a great sounding board for me at times. Let’s see… what’s new?  (here comes a list!)

• Jason just had his 25th birthday on Wednesday. We didn’t really do much, but it was nice to have the day off and be home together. I made him brownies, for which he showed me his gratitude by gobbling up the whole pan of them (aside from 1 or 2… the cook always gets at least 1!).
•  I am starting to think about Tiegan’s 2nd birthday already. People keep telling me to chill out. “She’s only a year and a half,” they say. Boy, are they wrong! 20 months is closer to 2 than it is to 1. And when her birthday comes, I intend to be PREPARED, unlike last time! It crept up on me so fast and I was scrambling to get a cake pan 2 days before her party. Yeah, awful. This time it will be a luau/beach theme party. I thought it would be cute and fun to have beach balls and lounge chairs in the living room in the dead middle of February. Plus, she hasn’t really expressed any special interest in certain characters or themes so that is my choice. She was such a sun baby this summer that I think it’s appropriate.  I want to be creative, but I also don’t want to work so hard that I’m not enjoying myself. My idea for the cake is stellar – a blog dedicated to it will come in the near future, I’m sure.
•  We are LOVING our new house. It’s not quite the way I’d like it yet, but that’s alright. We’re technically renting for the first year, until we can officially take over the mortgage. So, we’re not allowed to paint the living room or kitchen. I feel a bit better having painted our bedrooms, but it still feels pretty bare. There’s no artwork anywhere, and I feel lost without my photos and paintings. We just don’t have the money to be running around buying frames and mats and things like that. I suppose I can live with a canary yellow kitchen and a stark white living room for a year… right? Either way, we still love it here and it fits us perfectly.
•  The job is great too. Sometimes it feels a little tedious editing 15oo photos in a row, but I am thankful to be doing something I love. I’d much rather be where I am instead of sitting in some office that I hate. Or unloading semi trucks full of stock for Michael’s – THAT was a fun job. Especially when no one was there to help me. But, as always, I’m going off on a tangent!
• I recently discovered that I may actually be dyslexic. I haven’t been to the ophthalmologist yet, but that’s what several people seem to think. I thought I was just reading things too quickly, but after having trouble adding up some very simple numbers yesterday, I started to realize that I’ve been seeing all sorts of things incorrectly. For instance, the sign at Dunkin’ Donuts appeared to say “Angels” instead of “Bagels.” This has happened to me all my life, but it never even occurred to me to consider dyslexia as my problem. We’ll see!

That’s all I can think of for now. Birthday cake blog to come!

Tiegan’s really amazing me lately with the phrases she’s putting together all on her own.  Here are some examples:

Yesterday we stopped at Little Caesar’s and Jason ran inside to grab a hot-n-ready pizza. I told Tiegan that daddy would be back in just a minute; that he was going inside to get a pizza.
Her response: “Daddy pizza, back minute!”

She has this “PDA” toy that has a little pen that she can draw on the screen with. When you push a button, these funny little eyes pop out the top. I told her it was a silly face.
Her response: “Funny eyeballs!” (eyeballs sounds more like eyebows)

She pulled a bunch of DVD’s off the rack, and I told her daddy was going to be upset because he was going to have to put them all back in alphabetical order.
Her response: “Daddy sad. No, no, no!” (shaking her finger at the DVDs)

As she tried to reach for the food on my plate when she had the same thing on her own, I said “This is mommy’s dinner. Can you eat your own?”
Her response: (pointing to mine) “Mommy’s dinner. Yours!” (then pointing at her own) “Tiegan’s dinner. Mine! MMMMM!”

She cracks me up. I don’t want this to be one of those braggy my-kid-is-more-advanced-than-your-kid posts, but I just thought I’d share. I think she’s right about where she should be at this age, and it’s so exciting to watch children grow and learn. It’s amazing how many things they pick up on their own without even being taught. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen/heard Tiegan do something that I have no recollection of showing her – she just  learned it by watching me. For instance, she picked up a bottle of lotion with a twist-off top. I let her play with it because I never thought she’d be able to get the top off. But of course, your kids always surprise you! She said “top off” and sure enough, twisted the darn thing right off!

Here is a hilarious photo I took yesterday while she napped. She has one of these pull-out couches that she naps on in the living room. She is such a topsy turvy little sleeper, that she usually ends up in some strange position with one foot in the air. She’s been known to fall asleep on the grown-up couch with her head hanging off upside down. HAHA!

Anyway, speaking of her head hanging off, here she is in dreamland:

I just glanced at the clock; I suppose it’s time to hop in the shower and get ready for my day. Have a good Friday everyone!

Our trip to Chicago had its high points and low points, but overall it was wonderful. I’ll start out with the sad things because it’s always nice to end on a good note.

Sad things:
I was sniffling, sneezing, blowing my nose and coughing all weekend.
I forgot my ID which meant no clubs, bars, or even a beer at dinner.
The busted blisters on my achilles from walking so much are the size of quarters.
I didn’t get to pack 1/2 the clothes I wanted to because we woke up an hour late on Saturday morning.
As I was taking a photo of a parking sign (I thought it was a cool shot) someone jeered, “TOURIST! Go home!”

Happy things:
We didn’t even spend $200 the entire time, including the ballpark… and I got 2 outfits!
I got a couple photos that I’m happy with even though I didn’t get much time to stop and frame things out.
Despite our Tigers not making the playoffs this year, we got to watch the Tigers SPANK the White Sox, 13-3!!!
To add to that, a lot of fellow Michiganders were there to support our team which was nice.
It was a new experience that I’ll never forget, which I hope to have a lot of during my lifetime.

To see photos from the trip, go on over & visit my flickr page (some samples to your left, but click the link below to see more)!

Okay, I am feeling pretty pathetic you guys: I haven’t gotten ANY entries for my photo contest yet! So, head over to my Aria Designs Blog (and add it to your feeds… I know you all have Bloglines – LOL!) and read up again on the details. I’m obviously going to have to extend the entry deadline, as it was GOING to be October 1st. I am feeling pretty lame right now! Also, if you wouldn’t mind… I’d love you forever if you visited my website and signed my uber-cool Photo Guestbook (thanks Nicole!).

Okay, that’s enough shameless plugging for now.

Sorry no pictures again for this post… but I can promise you that I will have PLENTY by Monday! We are headed to Chicago this weekend and I can’t wait. I’m sad that my Tigers didn’t make the playoffs but we can still go and support our team (and probably get garbage thrown at us by Chicago fans… haha). Either way, it will be a nice getaway and Tiegan will be spending some quality time at Jason’s parents’ house. We are staying at the coolest hotel: the Hampton Inn Majestic Theatre. Should be interesting.

See you all Monday!

I always get sick at the most inconvenient times. Normally, I would be more than happy to have an excuse to stay at home and rest all day. But this time, I have about 2,340,982,435,986 things I can think of that I’d rather be doing but just don’t have the energy for. I can’t even “work” on my laptop while “resting” in bed, because my [practically brand new] power cord is frayed and my laptop won’t hold a charge! One of the only thing that frustrates me about Apple products is their problematic laptop power cord. This is the second one I’ve purchased because previous power cords have gone bad. First, the pin that plugs into the laptop broke. I did some research and found that it’s actually a very common problem that isn’t covered under warranty. So, I ran out and purchased a brand new one from the Apple store in Novi for – get this – $90.00. That’s a crapload of money to dump on one little power cord!!  And now, this one is frayed and I haven’t even had it for a year. No one touches this cord but me, so I have no guesses as to how it happened.

In other news, we took Tiegan to her very first Tigers game Tuesday night. I felt horribly sick, but I didn’t want to miss out! We didn’t even plan on going, but Jason won tickets at work and we couldn’t resist: they were 16 rows up behind home plate. Check out some photos on my flickr page – click the link to your left below the previews. Tiegan was on the scoreboard! They had a “dance cam” between innings and a camera guy came up to Tiegan while she was shakin’ her booty to some music. I couldn’t snap a picture of the scoreboard while she was on, because it was raining and I had my camera all packed up. But you better believe I was one proud mama! She behaved like an angel, too. The whole thing was pretty captivating, I’m sure. She was quiet the whole drive there, and slept the whole way home!

I guess I’m going to fight off the insatiable urge to clean like crazy and get some rest. I feel like if I just poked a needle into my head, Niagara Falls would come gushing out. That’s how congested I am.