Family Moments

It was a couple of weeks ago when a new photographer friend of mine, Amy, invited me along to one of her photo shoots. Of course I said yes. The opportunity to work alongside a professional photographer, to observe and learn, would be silly to pass up. Amy was awesome. Not only did she allow me to annoy her with my many questions, but she set me free to shoot too. And boy did I shoot. Honestly, I couldn't help myself. The family we were shooting was nothing short of sweet, loving and adorable and little Erin, too cute, just waaay too cute. They really made me push and challenge myself with my camera as I tried to capture just how warm, caring, loving and devoted this little family was, I hope I succeeded?!?

Here are just some of the photos from our shoot. I know there's a lot, but trust me, there were many more where they came from. 

The setting sun allowed me to capture these next 2 silhouetted shots. I love them.

Recharging

Its been a weekend of recharging. Hanging with friends, eating out, catching movies. Really the most productive I've been was folding my pile of clean laundry. Huge for me, since I canNOT stand folding laundry. I hate it more than I can clearly and plainly articulate. As a result, laundry has become one of Husband's chores. For some unknown reason, he likes it. However, Husband has been gone for 10 days and in his absence the laundry pile took on a life of its own. Growing at a rapid rate and threatening to takeover the whole right hand side of the room. So as my good deed for the day and a pleasant surprise for Husband's homecoming, I folded.

I also spent some time going through the photos I shot recently of the cutest little girl, Erin and her parents. I'll post a bunch of photos soon, but until then here's a sneak peek at Little Miss Erin.

This little girl is almost too cute for words. That blond curly hair, those big blue eyes and rosie lips. Adorable

I Wanted To Blog

I wanted to blog this week. I wanted to blog and share my tails of savage beat downs on the track, of the training kind obviously and not some random acts of violence. Of yet more run-in's with ants. I wanted to share some more of my photos and give you an update on my kitty, Fintan. Fintan, who had been puking almost daily. Who I knew was not right but had been told by others (others = you Husband), that he was "fine, its just hair balls and heat".  But a mother knows. A mother knows when her "child" is struggling with something more than hair balls and heat. And after the vet's urine, poo and blood tests reveled nothing usual, I told her she was missing something. Things were not right and she needed to look harder. She suggested an x-ray, not cos she believed it necessary but only to appease me and my over-protective approach to my kitty. "Do it" I said. So she did. 

I wanted to blog about the bird the x-ray reveled was sitting in Fintan's lower intestine. A bird he had obviously been hunting and swallowed and who's bones were now stuck, blocking his whole internal digestive process. I wanted to blog about how I was right. That my kitty was sick and that I was not just some sort of crazy, over-protective mother.

I wanted to blog about all of this, but I couldn't. Fatigue hit me hard this week. Energy has been in short supply and my brain has been very limited in its ability to string sentences together. I resemble nothing more than a dead woman walking and barely walking at that. So bare with me as I find a way to recharge and get my usual high energy life back on track

Happy 4th of July

Yesterday was America's Independence Day and Shinks celebrated by being one of 50,000 people to run The Peachtree 10k. This is the biggest 10k in the US and its run every 4th of July here in Atlanta.

I'm not going to lie and say it was easy, it was tough. The heat was intense, even at 8am, which is when the race started but also I was running it hard, trying to better the time I ran in the same race 2 years previously. What can I say, I'm a competitor, always have been, I don't know how to do anything "just for fun". However, trying to navigate your way around thousands and thousands of people who are in fact there for the fun is seriously frustrating. And I did get a few "relax, its not that serious" comments as I hurdled small children, or "brushed" an elbow or 2 in my efforts to power forward and pick off the slower folks. Clearly these people did not know who they were dealing with, it was in fact "that serious", I was on a mission and had a target to achieve.

I did end up running over 2 minutes faster than my time from 2 years ago but couldn't helping wondering how much faster it could have been had I not been bobbing, weaving and hurdling the masses. But I guess faster is faster at the end of the day, so one should just zip up and be pleased

After the race my friend Mike and I hit a small restaurant for breakfast and a celebratory mimosa and beer. We dined al fresco so we could cheer and clap the rest of the Peachtree participants on towards the finish. Its still a tough race wether you walk, jog or haul ass so a little encouragement never hurts. 

Yes for a powerful run and a patriotic wave of the flag.

Someone looks too fatigued to be even holding that teeny flag.

Ok, not sure what I was going for here, just got an urge and went with it.

Bestfriends, Captured.

I finally finished going through the photos I took of my friend Derval. For those of you who don't know, Derval is a kick-ass 100m hurdler who has won medals for Ireland at World and European Championships. We became friends many, many years ago, on a trip to Latvia with the Irish track team. We hit it off instantly and as a result, we shared not just a room for roughly 8-10 years but athletic successes and failures, clothes and hairbrushes, wine and beers, tons of memories and stories and the odd vacation or 2. 

I was so excited when Derval agreed to let me practice shoot with her, but was also very nervous. I don't really know why. I think cos we are such good friends and have a long and hilarious history together, I really, really wanted to have some great shots to give her. The photos turned out pretty good. I'm still a work in progress as far as the photography goes and even though I was having some frustrating camera issues, I wasn't too unhappy with the final result.

So here, for your viewing pleasure, are a few more from our day on Howth Beach, Dublin.

This May Appear Late But...

....it's really not. True, last week was Father's Day and of course I called my dad and mailed him a card wishing him the happiest of days. I just never addressed it on the blog.

But today I was sifting through some of the photos I took while back in Ireland a few weeks ago and came across this one shot of my dad and my nephew Evan, checking out their reflections in a mirror. It made me smile cos I can see how happy and proud my dad is to be a grandfather.

So late and all as this is, I wanted to again say, "HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD/GRANDDAD."  XOXO

Après Paartaay

I'm not going to lie, I feel a bit rough round the edges today. But I don't appear to be as bad as my kitty, Fintan. I've just spent the past few minutes following him around moping up nasty turds of puke. Yes, I said turds of puke, cos that's what it looked like. I swear, if I hadn't been standing next to him as the whole fiasco unfolded, I would've assumed it was booboo when I came across it. Poor little guy. Don't know what's up with him. I think maybe he had his own little margarita party last night while I was out and is paying the price today.

The party was excellent. So much fun. But I realized 2 things last night as I got my "Moonwalk" on and yelled, not sang (cos I can't) yelled along to "ABC".

1. I still have not replaced my precious point n' shoot that died so unexpectedly last March. I need to get on that right away cos I'm missing out on capturing a lot of life's embarrassing moments by not having it always in my purse. True I do have my big SLR, but not the direction you really want to go on a night out with friends. So looks like internet and I will be doing a little camera shopping this evening.

2. I have solved the mystery of our decapitated flowers. Let me explain. Husband and I were out in the garden a few days ago and noticed the flowers we had planted at the base of 2 big trees, were all missing their pretty, colorful heads. I assumed they just died. The heat here's been pretty intense. But Husband, much like Forrest Gump, is a smart man and he realized that they had in fact been eaten off. What? "Who eats flower?" His smartness ended there, cos he had no answer. But then again, neither did I. Fintan sprang to mind, but he's never shown any interest before. Squirrels? No, same thing, no previous history of flower felony. So who then??

Well, in the wee hours of this morning as I made my way home from the party, I noticed something very large and weird standing in our front garden. "What the hell??" With a few too many margarita's on board, I assumed I was seeing things. So I blinked a few times allowing my eyes to refocus and my brain a few more seconds to catch up. But it was still there. Fintan?, I thought. No, this thing was way to big to be a cat. We're getting closer and I'm still confused. I turn to my friend and say, "OK, you see that too, right?" And he did, thank god. "What is it?" I ask. "A unicorn", he says. "You think? Nooo, I'm sure those things are fictitious. Whatever it is it's tearing up my flowers." We get a little bit closer and the thing stops what its doing, lifts it's head and looks right at us. A deer. So that's who's been decapitating my pretty flowers. Son of a bi*#h. It bolts before we get too close. Lucky for him, cos I was mad. I'm not the gardening type, so it was a huge deal for me to plant flowers in the first place. Then this dude, without a second thought sees my flowers and thinks "hmmm, flowers, yummy, MINE". Not cool. Not cool at all. 

Now my garden looks ghetto and I don't know if I should bother replacing what's been eaten. I mean, he'll just come back and do the same thing again.