What have I become?

Look what I’ve resorted to…. just to get him to sit still for a picture….

 

Ok, in my defense… I had bought this lolli-pop with the intentions of using it for some sort of shoot with Porter… I think the brightness of the sucker is interesting, and fun.  So what if he’s only 9 months old… LOL.  Porter was in love with all the sugar, and he threw a fit when I took it from him.  Poor guy.

*DISCLAIMER* please know that I normally am very anal about the foods P eats… I do not intend to let him eat candy or sweets until he’s much older…

I watched Aubri for a few hours today while my mom took my grandma to the airport.  I wanted to get a picture of the two of them together… here’s my best attempt… (notice the lolli-pop theme??? Only way to get the kid to sit still…I swear!)

Ok, ok… so I bribed them with candy canes too.  It worked!!

I got a few of P without the lollipop in the frame..

So what else is new, you ask.  I haven’t blogged in almost a week.  I have felt so weird writing anything after what happened to Teegan… it just seemed weird to write after her post.. kind of like I should keep it up for everyone to see.  I haven’t heard any new updates on how Sarah is doing.  Teegans service was yesterday, and Amy updated us that everyone was staying strong, the service was beautiful, and posted the link to Teegan’s Obituary.  So sad. 

I guess I could update with what has gone on this week (not much).

• I started a Photo Blog.  Many many photographers have one so that they can update clients more often and post little peeks into their sessions.  Yes, I realize right now no one knows my name, I’m just a little nobody photographer and who the heck wants to look at my photoblog. But who knows, someday maybe people will?  And the few clients I do have, I’d like to have a place that my few fans can check up and see my pictures.  I hate the thought of clients seeing THIS blog, and my many snapshotty crap pictures of Porter mixed in with my session pictures.  So, my session pictures will now be posted over there.  Oh, I should give you the link…. nicole barczak photography {blog} 

• On Monday, my class had a surprise party for me.  I love surprises!  It was so sweet.  I had no idea anyone at work even knew it was my birthday.  Apparently (sp?) on Friday (I don’t work Fri’s) they announced it on the morning annoucements.  When I left Monday morning to go into 2nd grade (I work with 3 students in math for an hour each morning) one little girl in my class asked "Mrs. Barczak, how old are you?"  It kind of took me by surprise, but I told her and left. I did note that she seemed a little sheepish after she asked, and a few kids did kind of glare at her.   When I came back they all yelled "Happy Birthday" and sang to me, and we had cupcakes and donuts.  Yum!

• I recieved a phone call from a principal at a nearby charter school and he wants to interveiw me for a Special Ed position.  We’ve played phone tag for the last 2 days, and I’m currently waiting on him to return my last call.  I hope I don’t miss my chance to interview.  I’m kind of excited, but also not wanting to have to leave Bean. I love where I work now.  I’d love to teach full time here if the opportunity arose, but who knows if it will.  I’m skeptical about the pay, as charter and private schools pay less than public schools, so we’ll see.  I’ll be paying for full time daycare, so the pay has to be enough to make up for that.  Ugh. I also don’t want to have to deal with finding other arrangements for the extra hours Porter will have to be in daycare.  I’m already working on finding someone else to watch P on Tuesdays when Ryan’s mom has surgery (which I’ll probably just end up paying someone to watch him both Tues and Thurs… it’ll make my life easier).  So… thats more crap I don’t want to have to deal with… all the daycare arrangements.

• Kim has dubbed me her Christmas Grinch… well, let me tell you, Kim, I’m actually in a little better mood lately.  Something about my birthday and decorating the tree seemed to lift my spirits slightly. I’m still not done Christmas shopping (ordering the last few gifts online tonight) and I need to get another roll of wrappign paper (ok, so maybe I’ll just use last years… they don’t all have to match, right?).  The traveling issue is much better this year… see, usually we spend Christmas Eve with Ryan’s family and then we’re supposed to go to his parents at the butt crack of dawn on Christmas morning, and then travel to my dads house for a bit and then, if my mom was in town, go spend the afternoon with her.  Well, we’ve rearranged the plans and will be spending Christmas Eve with his immediate family only, and Christmas morning… we get to stay home… and open gifts in our own house! I’m so excited.  I’ve decided we aren’t traveling at all on Christmas day, and invited my mom, sister, brother, dad and Ryan’s parents over for a laid back, hang-out afternoon. I did buy a turkey to cook and will have just a few munchies, and hopefully it will be a RELAXING day. I’m actually kind of looking forward to it.  I just wish we had a larger house.

Well, not much else to write about… I can’ think of anything else I needed to update about.  If I do, I’ll be back….

I’M BACK!

I remembered some other things I had wanted to post about! 

• I have more pictures too… Porter is walking with a walker now.  He practically runs around the house with it.  Its so cute.  I haven’t resized them yet, but I’ll post them tonight.

• Lately, amongst all Porter’s "D"  sounds he says, he’s been saying "dawww T" … with a very enunciated "t" sound at the end.  I thought he was trying to say "that" but what the heck… where would that come from? He says it all the time "daww-T!" I figured it out today. I always enunciate the "g" at the end of dog… as in "daw GUH" and he is trying to say that… every time he’d see the dogs outside, he’d say "daww T!" and we’d copy eachother back and forth..

  "do-g"

  "daww T!"

  "do-g"

  "daww-T!"

• I can’t believe I almost forgot to post about this… The Porter’s might be moving to Michigan!  I’m so freaking excited about this.  See, Ryan (Jess’s husband) is in the navy and to keep it short, they have to move next year or else he will probably be sent overseas as some kind of weapons officer or trainer or something (is that right, Jess? Eek… can I even post about this? let me know…).  So, he’s going to do recruiting instead, and he can basically move anywhere.  They were looking at the Chicago area, which would be cool too and its pretty close to us, but then they’ve decided that since Ryan will be working longer hours than they’re used to it’d be nice for Jess to have someone around that she knows, and it’d help them both get to know new people in the area too.  I know they’d love our group of friends here, and they’d be warmly welcomed.  Jess and I also started discussing possibly going into wedding photography together, something neither of us have any desire to do singly.  But working in a team shooting weddings wouldn’t be too bad, the work load would be cut in half, and it’d be more marketable for people to actually be hiring two photographers rather than the normal "photographer and their assistant".  We’ll see… we’d have a bit to learn about wedding photography, flashes and indoor lighting and all that, but I think the benefits would be great if it worked out.

Ok, that should be it.  I may, however, be back with more… LOL.