Unexpected opportunity

This afternoon I braved the freezing temperatures and finished the photo shoot with Kyle and his son Connor outside of their home. What a different experience! It was so much fun taking pictures of them playing in the snow and the cold did not deter Connor from showing off his best smile. I haven't had a chance to edit their photos yet, but as soon as I do I'll post them here.

One surprising and exciting thing did happen while I was photographing Kyle and Connor: Kyle's landlord asked and paid me to take pictures of his friend and his wife in front of the house. Hooray for unexpected opportunities and networking! Since I am not acquainted with these people, I decided to edit their photos first. One of the pictures was by far the best, so I played with it and came up with these different options for them. Hopefully they like at least one of them and it leads to more "business" in the future.

Now I want to think up a name and have a business logo and card designed. Plus I want to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop. Ambitious? Good!

Happy New Year!

Love having friends with cute kids...

Wednesday I got to spend a wonderfully relaxing day with Lyndie and the kids. I love hanging out with Lyndie for so many reasons. Some of them, in no particular order, are:

1. I just all around love her.

2. We can just sit around and talk, play with the kids, and watch a movie and it is enough for us.

3. We have amazing (yet kind of ridiculous) ideas - such as having a cupcake business together this summer.

4. We then sit around and brainstorm cupcake flavors (and I write them down because we both know we'll never remember).

5. We share our lives with each other.

6. We love to eat.

7. And she lets me stick my camera in her children's faces in order for me to practice my photography skills.

The only problem is that I go back to work next week (yes I realize I'm complaining after having 2 weeks off...boo-hoo, poor me, yada-yada) and will not be able to come up on a random Wednesday, bring my friend coffee, and just have decompressing hang out time. Oh well. Looks like I'll have to plan a day off to play. :)

P.S. There are no pictures of Olivia this time because she was too busy running around the house playing with her new doll house. The inability to sit still MAY have been due to the four pancakes she had before I came and then the chocolate milk and chocolate donut that I brought her. But...that's only an educated guess.

First Photo Shoot Part 1

Yesterday I had my first photo shoot! It was of a father and son at City Park. I spent a couple of days thinking about it, coming up with ideas that I thought would be amazing and cute. Envisioned how awesome it would be, how awesome I would be. And then life happened and I was reminded that 4 year olds, no matter how cute and sweet they normally are, can be fickle and decide suddenly that they do not want a strange lady with a husky to take their picture. Ah, the joys of children. Haha. But what can you do, right? It was a beautiful, sunny day in Colorado. The kind of 55 degree December day that makes most of the rest of the country wish they lived in Colorado. So instead of trying to push formal pictures that would certainly not happen, I sat back and snapped pictures as we went. I think I got some great ones and we are going to try again at a playground on Friday. That way they can just play and relax while I try and do my thing.

Oh and after yesterday I fell in love with iPhoto. I'm trying to play with Picasa 3 to try and get over the fact that I do not own a Mac. I'm trying, but as of right now I'm pining for a Mac.

Time flies when you're busy as hell

I can't believe it is almost 2011. I have been so busy finishing the first three chapters of my thesis and finding my way through the first half of my first year of teaching that I haven't had time to update about how the semester ended.

It was a whirlwind first half of the year...and I absolutely loved it. Amanda and I's class is wonderful. Cute, smart, loving, annoying, chatty, funny, etc. etc. I couldn't be luckier to have the job that I have. I love my grade level peers and the awesomeness spills over to the entire staff. It's not often a person gets to say that. It has been a joy and a privilege to see the progress our class has made. The first week of school I couldn't imagine how we would ever get some of those kids from point A to point B. We still aren't there yet, but we are well on our way. They make me smile, they make me laugh, and they drive me crazy. What more could a first year teacher ask for?