Ok, I’m Addicted

I, honestly, just cannot stop taking pictures. Having a photo studio in your home is the greatest thing but also quite dangerous. If you haven’t heard from me in awhile…that’s where I am. Look at my little babies….

 

 

 

Sweet Little Guy

I just have to give my little Ollie some credit cause he is just the sweetest. He asked for some more milk this morning, which he did by holding out his sippy cup and saying “smore?…smore?” So, I took it and he softly put his head down and said “Tang koo” (thank you) as he walked away.

Then he watched me pour the milk and apparently I did an awesome job cause he threw up his hands and shouted “Yay! You did it!”. hahaha. Such a supportive little sweetheart. It made my morning. :)

I Got Tagged

Ok. So, I got “Tagged” by my friend, Marisa. Not really sure what that’s all about…but I am playing along.

Five things on my to-do list today
1. Complete and send passport renewal application
2. Go grocery shopping
3. Finish making Traffic-Free Chocolate cards
4. Respond to emails from chocolate companies, etc.
5. Get dressed, drop kids off at grandparents, and go on date with husband…woohoo.

Snacks I enjoy
1. Pastries (turnovers, danishes, cinnamon rolls)
2. Baked goods (cookies, muffins, cupcakes, brownies)
3. Cheese & crackers (especially Dubliner’s Aged Cheddar lately…mmmm)
4. Chocolate (slavery-free ofcourse)
5. Cherries
(gosh…you’d think I weigh 1,000 lbs…good thing those cherries are on there.)

Things I would do if I were a millionaire
1. Buy my mom a house with an awesome garden (even though I love having her living with us)
2. Buy a Mazda CX-9 for every mother I know (it’s the perfect car)
3. Get a professional organizer to ‘fix’ our his/hers office. I’m drowning in it.
4. Donate a crazy amount of money to the International Justice Mission.
5. Go on a romantic trip to Paris with my husband (I’m gonna dream about that one tonight)

Places I have lived
1. Phoenix, AZ
2. Los Angeles, CA
3. Boston, MA
4. Como, Italy (a semester)

Bad habits I have
1. Starbucks Drive Thru (I’ve been known to buy lunch for 3 at the drive thru)
2. Piling mail (record breaking piles I tell you…but I hide them in the cabinets when people come over…heh.)
3. Staying up too late
4. Mixing up the names of my children (I call Noah Ollie all the time…he doesn’t seem to mind yet)
5. Calling my husband to bring dinner home (thanks honey, you’re great)

Jobs I have held
1. Video store clerk at “Big Video”
2. USC Copy Store worker
3. Architect
4. Professional dancer (Star Search, Fiesta Bowl Parade, Miss Arizona Pageant dancer…oh yeah baby)
5. Catering waitress

Now apparently I am supposed to tag others. It is unclear to me whether those people are supposed to have blogs or not, but either way, I am tagging Joe, Brian, Kathleen, & Cecilia. Get on it people!

White Background Test

So…I tried out a white background. It went pretty well. I still have some tweaking to do, but all in all a good run for a first try. The kids were really bad. heh. They wanted nothing to do with me and my camera…but somehow it worked. I really was amazed I got what I did with all the crying and shouting and fighting. haha.

Go to this link to see the rest of the set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/92486576@N00/sets/72157605311156615/

Enjoy! And sign up for Pictures for a Purpose if you live in the Seattle area and like what you see. :)  (I’ll post more about this event later)

Home Studio

Yay. We have a home studio! Two Alien Bee B800 lights, a softbox and a backdrop stand. woo hoo! Now we’ll have plenty to do on a rainy day. Joe and I were playing around with it the other night. Noah was a perfect subject. He got so excited when all the lights would flash at the same time. :) I have Noah leaning on an ottoman here and that worked really well. Ollie was in bed, but I’ll get some shots of him soon. I’m going to play with a white background next so stay tuned.

What does your poop look like?

So, my 3 yr. old son had to go to the potty, and when he says he has to go we don’t waste any time. We drop everything and go straight to the nearest potty. Well, this time we were upstairs and the potty seat that sits on top of the toilet is downstairs. But I can hold him so he doesn’t fall in, so we went ahead and used the upstairs toilet and I held him. What I didn’t realize was that this time, he also had to go poopies. Bummer for me, cause usually he takes his own sweet time to go poopy downstairs as I go about my business elsewhere. This time I was stuck. Forced to squat there holding my child up watching his poops come out.  Lovely. And there is a strange phenomenon that happens when you help your child pee. Suddenly you also feel the urge to pee. Great.

So, as I was hoping (and praying) that he does his job quickly as possible so I don’t pee on the floor, the first poops come out. Oh, and as if this wasn’t already a weird post, I should describe our position a little more. Because he is a boy, when he sits on the potty he has to lean towards me so his “special item” is angled properly. If that makes any sense. So, because of this, both he and I are able to view what comes out. Isn't that wonderful. Anyway….so, the poop comes out and he says “That looks like a car.” And I paused and said "What did you say?". He repeated "That looks like a car." I had to laugh, but really didn't want to cause, remember, I had to pee. Then the next one came out and he said "That one looks like Cranky the Crane." Oh man....now I was dangerously close to peeing. Then the next came out (which was a bit smaller) and he said "That looks like an airplane (pause) but it is a hook for Cranky." haha. (It really did look like a hook for a crane) Thankfully that was the last, and I was able to then get on the potty myself. Oh, I love my son and the fact that he can be creative with his poop shapes. I never knew pooping could be so entertaining.

Boots for Cocoa Farmers!

Well, I came across an awesome organization called Project Hope & Fairness. They do all kinds of good work helping African cocoa farmers, but there was one thing they did that really inspired me. Apparently, Green Mamba snakes are venomous snakes that live in the cocoa fields. In December, a team went and distributed rubber boots to the cocoa farmers. Read the story here. The village was so touched they asked if more boots could be bought for the neighboring villages.

The boots cost $10, which seems like nothing to us, but to them it is 13% of their annual salary. I’m not joking. A cocoa farmer makes roughly $77 a year. Buying a pair of boots themselves to protect their life is simply out of the question.

So, guess what? A team is going in August and if we raise the money, they will buy and deliver the boots! They will purchase them  in Accra and Abidjan and take them in t heir van to 10 villages. The goal is to provide each village with 40 boots. Think we can do it?! I do! (I know…I’m totally on fire for this project, it’s ridiculous) :)

It gets better. While I was researching traffic-free chocolate a few days ago, I came across the name Tom Neuhaus. He owns a company called Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates, and I thought he was remarkable because he travels to Africa each year to visit the cocoa fields and really cares about the people. (not to mention his chocolate company is one of the best for ethically traded chocolate) The articles I read about him basically turned him into a celebrity in my eyes. When Ernie, from Project Hope & Fairness replied to me about the boots, I couldn’t believe it when he told me Tom Neuhaus was the guy that gets boots for the African farmers! I was star struck. He cc’d him and Tom wrote directly to me! As if he already doesn’t do enough, he is donating chocolate for us to use in our efforts and giving us an awesome deal to purchase chocolate to sell! Thank you so much, Tom! You’re awesome! 

Here is a great article about their trip last year. A man by the name of Stan Thompson joined them on the trip, but sadly passed away a month later. This story is truly inspiring. http://www.sanluisobispo.com/northcoast/story/357564.html

So, if you’d like to buy a pair of boots for a cocoa farmer, view my profile and email me. We’ll also be taking donations at the Issaquah Farmer’s Market on May 24th. Tell all your friends too. If we all help out a little, we’ll reach our goal in no time.