Sad Day for the Hand...

So for those of you that have been to our house, you've probably at one time or another seen the pink hand that was on the ceiling of our stairway for maybe 2 or 3 years. Well I decided since we are trying to sell our house I should probably try to get it down. Now this thing was not easy, it is several feet up and sticky as hell. I had envisioned it having gotten hard, but it was still sticky as hell, which explains why it was hard to get down. Anyhoo, I finally got it down, so I thought I'd take a pic to commemorate this momentous occasion.

Maternity Photosession

I wish I could have looked this great when I was prego. I got to take pics of this beautiful mama and her four year old. Thanks K for letting me get some experience in this. It is very different working with adults who actually do what you tell them to do. Kind of scary actually, cause you have to know what to tell them to do. I can't wait to meet the little sweety, just a few more weeks and hopefully I will get to take some pics of her too.

"Take Me Out To The Ballgame!!"

Buy me some beer and nachos and I'm good to go:) Seriously though, we went to a Cardinal game this weekend with friends of ours that have season tickets. They were awesome seats, super close and right down third base line and there was a great view of the arch. We had loads of fun, until the downpour, but we were troopers and stayed for most of the game. We had to finally call it quits when our clothes were so wet, we weighed an extra couple pounds. The only thing that could have made it better was if the team actually played a little better, I mean we left when it was 13 -1 and we were losing and wet so decided it was pointless to stay.

Rosie Thomas Rocks!!!

Another phenomenal artist has given me permission to use a song for my photography website. I am so excited, Rosie Thomas has quickly become one of my favorite artists. Her voice is so pure and sweet, I just love listening to her music. So when I found out she had a song on a kids cd, I jumped at the chance and asked permission to use it on my website and she, or her "people" said sure. She and Damien Jurado, have a sweet little number called "Small As Me" and it just fits perfectly. I am so excited, now two of my favorite artists are one there.

Coming Soon, Marketing Brochures...

So I am getting super serious about my photography business, and am lining things up to have a busy summer. I spent a couple hours last night putting together a marketing brochure that I plan on sending to clients after they book a session with all the info needed for the session. I am super excited and it wasn't too difficult because I bought a template from one of my favorite sites. I'm almost finished, there are two pages that I'm not happy with, so before I send it off to print, I will work on those, but here's a sneak peek. It will be a 5x5 tri-fold, so use your imagination.

Scene's from summer....

Sometimes it's the joy in the little things that gets you through the day. We've had a pretty good week so far being out of school for summer. I was a little frustrated in the beginning of the week because of all the bickering, but I guess I just have to entertain them. We painted a great big card board box yesterday, which the kids loved. I put it in the driveway, gave them the paint and said have at it. Then we washed my car, and played water guns and water balloons. It was a great day and today has been much of the same, Popsicles and water balloons, lunch outside on the patio, we'll make this summer fun for sure. I guess next I'm gonna have to bravely put on a swimsuit, despite my weight gain, and head to the pool. WooHoo!! Summer!!

"Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming!"

So we got a fish today! Technically it is Maddison's, in that she claims she will take care of the cleaning of the bowl and feeding of the fish, but I give that all of a week. We will see, our track record with fish is not very long, but this one is pretty. The kids named it Dory, after the movie "Finding Nemo". Hopefully it will last a little while, cause it is a nice addition to the bathroom.

Live your life to the fullest...

Because you never know how long you have on this earth. I am a big fan of singer/songwriter Katie Reider, and she is suffering from a rare tumor. Her story is so sad and heartbreaking, I just had to share. If you can take a look at this site, she needs all the support she can get for her family, she has two small children. I can't imagine going through something like this, so hug your loved ones today and be thankful for your health.

a girl, a phone, an and aging old mom....

That's what I feel like when I look at these pictures. Maddison is one the phone pretty much 24/7 so I thought I should document it. I can only imagine it getting worse over the summer since she won't have that day to day contact with her friends. I'm sure we will have to make up some new rules regarding phone usage over the summer. On another note, I hate the picture of me on my new website, Andrew took it and my camera was set to manual focus and we didn't know it, so it wasn't very good to begin with, so I gave my camera to Maddison today after school and was like here get a good one of me. Well she did fine, although subject looks like she's got a few years on her. Dude, when did I get so old. WOW!! do ya see the wrinkles around the eyes and mouth?? I can't believe this is me and not only that, I have seriously gained weight and my short hair cut accentuates that fact. Anyway, wonder which one you thought was better, if you want to give your opinion, be gentle, though.

Lisa Loeb Rocks!!

So I have this new website for my photography business and I was wanting to put some really good music on there, you know not just the stock generic stuff. Anyway, I'm a big Lisa Loeb fan and she has this awesome children's cd called "Catch The Moon" and I thought, "what's the worst that could happen, she'll say no". So I went to her website, emailed her people and asked if I could use her song on my site, and SHE SAID YES!!! It's actually a really great album, especially for a kid's cd. Click on the pic and you can head over to Barnes & Noble to buy it. Isn't that the coolest. I feel so cool now, I'm so glad I did it, you know it just goes to show sometimes in life you have to take a little risk.

Because Bubbles Are So Fun!!

Sometimes you just have to blow bubbles. I love catching kids in the act of blowing bubbles, the concentration and sheer joy is so fun to capture. These two were having a blast today enjoying the weather and the bubbles.

WOO HOO!!!!!

I have pretty much spent the entire weekend working on my photography website. I revamped it and made a much more professional one. It is so exciting to have one that is what an actual website is supposed to look like. So take a look if you'd like, I would love any feedback.
www.leighlearphotography.com

Cleaning House....

My Internet home that is, I am working on a new website for my photography, I hope to have a real live website soon. I was going to say by the end of the weekend, but man this is complicated. I have purchased the template/hosting thingy and have been plugging in pictures and words and all that good stuff, but I am ready to pull my hair out at this point. I have been pretty busy with sessions, so I thought it was to time to upgrade to a more professional site, I had no idea it would be this much work. I think in the end, though, it will be worth it, if the end ever come.
On another note, we've only had one showing of the house, and I am getting kind of bummed. We put a contract on a house, so hopefully ours sells pretty quickly. I am seriously considering the statue of St. Joseph, it's some Catholic thing that all my family believes in, and at this point I am thinking it might be the way to go. Oh well, ta ta for now.....

Portrait session...

So I took a beautiful little baby girls pictures today. It was totally exciting for me, because it was raining, I had to use my flash. I think they look great, and I learned that I shouldn't be afraid of m flash. Baby's are so fun, it's a good thing I get to take pictures of them often, or I would have to have another. This little cutie was easy as pie to take pictures of and she is beautiful as well. Really, is there anything better than little baby tootsies?

Softball season is here....

And man am I sore. It is quite sad and pathetic how sore I am from just one game, but it's true. We had our first game of the season and I got my old position of first base back, last year I mostly played second, and it was nice. I caught almost every ball that came my way, minus a couple of out of control ones, and I hit every ball that was pitched to me. Unfortunately, I didn't make it on base for all of them, got picked off a couple of times. Man, my first hit was great though, and I had a blast. It's frustrating, though, every year I promise to be in shape before the season starts, and every year I fail. My back is sore from swinging the bat, and my legs are sore from actually having to run the bases. It sucks getting old, and it sucks even more that I am the oldest one on the team. Good times:)

Piano

So I was trying to get one of those really cool pictures of our piano with only part of it in focus, but I think I didn't actually get enough in focus. I don't know how you get that perfect shot, this clearly isn't it, but it point out to me just how dirty our piano is. As you can see, I have had a really boring day, Andrew worked and the kids have been watching movies and basically entertaining themselves.

New Music...

Don't know if you've noticed my music playing in the side bar, but Rosie Thomas might be my new favorite artist. I love, love, love her voice, her lyrics are so completely beautiful. I love it so much that I went out and bought two of her cd's and only two because that's because all Barnes & Noble had. I will eventually own all of her cd's, she is awesome.

House??

So we put a contract on a house this week, but of course it has a contingency on ours selling. I am a nervous wreck, they had an open house today, so we took the kids and the in-laws to see it and I'm in love with it even more. I hope our house sells super fast cause I love this house, it's perfect. It's so surreal to imagine living in a house that's new and fancy. It has a pantry bigger than our bathroom, super cool landscaping and just so clean and nice. Wish us luck.

To write or not to write.....

I write, because that's what I do to be well, to heal, to vent, sometimes just to breath. I mostly write poetry to vent, or just get it out there. Often times I question whether or not I should put it out there, especially know now that my mother reads it, but if I don't put it out there, then I am filtering sometimes my truest feelings. I never intend to hurt or anger anyone with my writing and a lot of the times it's fictional. I rarely put a disclaimer on those that are fictional, so if your reading something that I've written and your worried about me, don't I'm fine and sometimes I just write and the things I write aren't always pretty.

I feel like I could collapse....

I can't even imagine how bad Andrew feels, because he is working nights and only slept from 7:30am until 12:30pm. No naps in between, just constant hard work, in a house that's like 78 degrees right now I might add. What's all this work for, you ask, well we are getting our house ready to put on the market. That's right, after 6 or so years we have decided it's time for a move. We have seen houses sell and be resold in this neighborhood and still no kids, I think since we've lived here five houses have sold surrounding us and all of them filled with retired people. Not that I have anything against retired folks, we love our neighbors, in fact we often sit around in the cul-de-sac with them and have "happy hour" with drinks and snacks while the kids run around and play. The thing that's missing from that scenario is other kids for mine to play with. Anyway, long story short, a house right next to some of our best friends is for sale and it's in neighborhood crawling with kids, so we thought we'd give it a shot. It may never happen, as we have to sell our house first, obviously, and the market sucks, but we're gonna give the good ole college try. In the meantime, I have been cleaning up, decorating and just generally fixing the things we should have done a long time ago. It looks so nice right now, I don't even care if it sells.:)