These are days......

Adios Amigos

Sorry for the lame short post but I need to get in bed soon........I'm flying out early tomorrow am to Little Rock to spend a few days with my sister-in-law in Arkansas eating, drinking. shopping, sunning, chatting, taking some pics and then eating and drinking some more.  I will check in as soon as I get back with a full report!  Till then be good, take care and thanks for stopping by!

P.S. When Mary Engelbreit was announced as the guest speaker at Silver Bella this year I caved in and signed up.  You don't understand how I've admired and appreciated her artwork for years and years.  I've been collecting her products since the early 90s and had (up until Dylan inherited our guest room last month) a guest room decorated with all of my Mary E. goodies.  The thought of meeting her and hearing her speak makes me giddy so Mary + Sally Jean = Jana in Omaha this November! 

Saturday

Texas Longhorns, originally uploaded by Jana P ~ Brown-Eyed Girl Photography.

Hi All, sorry I've been MIA. Little Man and I decided to head up to Dallas this week since the older two guys were at church camp and the hubby was away working. It'd been several months since I'd seen my parents so we squatted at their house for a few days and were pampered with alot of good food, went to watch the Texas Rangers and Anaheim Angels play baseball and did quite a bit of shopping so it was an awesome trip! Even squeezed in some photography time. My mom told me about this little shed with a Texas flag painted on it that is literally about 1/2 a mile from their house right in the middle of town, it's crazy! I found it no problem and took a few pics of the shed and Longhorn cattle that live in the pen. Next time I'm bringing a step ladder so I can take pics up over the gate and get the entire shed in the shot but oh well, I still liked the Longhorn peeking through the gate at me! We just got home last night and we're pooped but it was a much-needed getaway. Now it's back to reality since the boys get home from church camp today, the hubby is working and we have VBS & birthday parties coming up. To redeem himself, the hubby finished painting the boys' rooms while I was in Dallas and they turned out GREAT! He did a great job and I hope the boys are as thrilled with them as I am. I will take lots of pics and post soon, I promise!

My new baby, my 40D, arrived while I was gone and I can't wait to take it out and play with it!!! The difference in size & capability between it and my Rebel is significant so I'm hoping I can handle it but cripes is it awesome!

Hope you have a great weekend and spend some time doing something that makes you happy!

Happy Belated 4th of July!

Funnel Cakes!!, originally uploaded by Jana P ~ Brown-Eyed Girl Photography.

Hope you and your's had a wonderful safe holiday weekend! We stayed close to home since our oldest had to march with his high school band in our local 4th of July parade. We were blessed with sunny skies and a pretty day for the parade as you can see in the pic that I took just a bit after the parade was over but within 30 min. or so it was POURING down rain! I didn't complain since we need the rain and we were already home safe & sound. That night and the night of the 5th as well, I went to see one of my favorite bands, Blue October, at a local outdoor venue right along the Guadalupe River. Both evenings were just lovely and I enjoyed the shows SO much! It'd been too long since I'd been to a great concert and those boys never disappoint. I SO wanted to take some pics at the concert but normally they forbid cameras at the show so I snuck in my little point & shoot only to find out that they weren't searching bags and that I could've brought in the biggest honker camera & papparazzi lens I had if I wanted to! Oh well, I'll know that little tidbit of information NEXT time!

I shipped my older two boys off to church camp today for 6 days so it's just Little Man and me here for most of the week so I think we'll jaunt up to Dallas for a couple of days to visit my parents and take in a Texas Rangers baseball game later this week. I also need to paint Dylan's room since I promised him I'd have his room complete when he got home from camp. It's going to be SO cute and very teenage-boyish. This whole summer is just zooming by at the speed of light and I don't know whether that's good or bad??!!

I'm still debating on whether or not to sign up for Silver Bella this fall or not? I've gone the past two years and always have a wonderful time but the price has gone up and this year it's just harder for me to swallow spending the money now that I have my photography business. I keep thinking that the money I spend on that trip could go towards a new lens or marketing & advertising although I also know the trip would probably be very therapuetic and refreshing for me, esp. a month before Christmas. I know I'll be needing a break by then! Hmmmmmm, what to do? What to do???

It's July......let the summer begin!

Hi All.  Once again I find myself apologizing for my neglected blog.  It's July 1 and I finally feel as if my summer has really begun.......one of my 3 boys is gone to church camp, B's baseball season is officially over which also means that practices 5 days/week is DONE (woot!) and I'm nearly done with my personal training sessions (2 to go!) so I'll take a hiatus from that for a while too.  Not too long, but a short while.  It's as if I can breathe and actually begin to make plans, solid concrete plans, for the summer now that baseball is finished which is such an awesome feeling.  We loved it that Brendan was asked to play on an all-star tournament team and we have no regrets about the entire experience but when his team was eliminated from tournament play after the first tournement because they didn't place in the top 2 teams, no tears were shed, in OUR family anyway.  Losing meant Brendan could go to church camp for the first time ever and the little guy really wanted to go so I just put the whole situation over into God's hands and alas, he's at church camp as I type.  I pray he's doing well, isn't homesick and most of all is having fun and growing closer to the Lord.  I'm SO excited for him!  He'll be away from home for 3 days and although I'm enjoying the short break, I miss him terribly.  The older boys are enjoying their peace & the silence around here as I am too!  ;-)  

Something else exciting to report!!  Nope, I'm NOT pregnant! haha  Something nearly as exciting though......I've gone and ordered myself a new camera!!  I've obsessed over this decision for months now and decided that for now it makes the most sense for me to order the Canon 40d.  It's a definite upgrade from what I have now and will do everything I want a new camera to do except for shoot full-frame and for that I'm willing to wait a while for the new 5d replacement to be released and the glitches worked out of it which should take a couple of more years.  In the meantime the 40d will more than keep me content till that time comes when I can upgrade to a full-frame Canon.  What pushed me over the edge to FINALLY order the camera was that I was paid for shooting the homes I've been photographing over the past couple of months.  The final total was a bit over what the 40d and a new lens would cost me so that was all it took and it felt SO gratifying to be able to pay for my camera with my own earnings!  I love that feeling and that was one of my mail goals of starting up a photography business in the first place, to be able to purchase new & better equipment than I could afford otherwise and making this first purchase feels pretty darned good!  Oh, and for you photographers out there, don't know if you know or not but www.pinkinkstudios.net is having a HUGE clearance sale on things from actions to storyboards to frames to textures & etc. so head on over and take advantage of savings of 50% off or more before they're gone! 

I'm looking forward to the holiday weekend, not that we have a TON of fun plans but my oldest will be marching in our local 4th of July parade with his high school band so that'll be exciting and then on the evenings of both the 4th and the 5th I'll be going to see Blue October w/friends at a nearby outdoor amphitheater and I CANNOT wait.  Love those guys!  I'm sure there will be some cooking out, watermelon and fireworks thrown in there somewhere too and whatever you do, I hope you have a fun, safe holiday weekend too!  Thanks for stopping by. 

Scrapbooking

Hi All.  It's 11pm and I should be in bed since I have a 9am session tomorrow with the torture master, um, I mean Javier but I just felt led to blog, not sure why really?  Guess it's because I've been such a slacker blogger lately now that summer is here and my spare time is non-existant on most days but also because I just haven't had much to say lately unfortunately however tonight I DO have some thoughts on my mind concerning scrapbooking.  As most of you know, I USED to be a big-time scrapbooker.  I fell in love with the hobby when I first learned about it in 1995 and have been hooked ever since and a few years ago I was able to take my scrapping to the next level by being asked to be on a design team for an online scrapbooking store and was also asked to be a monthy guest designer for Rusty Pickle and a few small online stores which was such a huge honor for me!  I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Craft & Hobby Association conventions which is like the scrapbooking mecca, where you get to go and see the new stuff coming out before anyone else and rub shoulders with anyone who's anyone in the scrapbooking world and meet alot of folks and scrap celebrities who I'd met online through various scrapbooking message boards.  I met Heidi Swapp, Teresa McFayden, Tim Holtz, Teresa Collins, Ali Edwards, Janna Wilson, Melody Ross, Becky Novacek, Faye Morrow Bell, Lance Anderson, among others which was pretty darned cool to me.  I spent alot of time and quite a bit of money on this hobby which by now had turned more into a lifestyle for me.  I thought about scrapbooking constantly and invested alot of my time keeping up with the new trends, new companies sprouting up here and there and spending time on various message boards keeping up with what other designers and scrappers were up to.  It was at this point when I began to burn out.  It was exhausting trying to keep up with all of the new products and what was happening in the scrapbooking world and I got completely sucked into the competitive world of scrapbooking.  Many of my friends, well online friends anyway, were being published in magazines and were landing gigs on not just one but many manufacturers design teams and I just couldn't keep up although I certainly tried.  I might not seem like it but I can be just as competitive as anyone else out there and far be it for me to just lie down and let someone beat me at my own game!  So I spent many hours creating layouts and projects that I'd post online and submit to publications and most of these layouts were pages that I never would've created otherwise, they were just things that I thought people would be interested in seeing......much more than seeing a page about baseball or band or skateboarding or the normal boy stuff that was going on in my world at the time!  Most of those creations won't end up in my boys' scrapbooks for them to enjoy but are shoved in a random scrapbook and probably won't mean anything to anyone else other than me someday but hey, I tried.  So, about a year ago I'd had it.  I lost my mojo and my passion for it all and I just quit.  Quit scrapping, quit buying new product and quit spending as much time on the message boards although I do still check in at the Pub at Two Peas several times a week.  I couldn't give it all up completely!  I know alot of people who also walked away and they walked away from friends too and I hope my scrap friends know I didn't do that to them.  If they blog, I still checked in on them and if they're local friends, we stayed in touch.  I have met some phenominal women through this hobby and I'm a better person for having them in my life.....I hope they know that!  Heck, even Chasity and I met through scrapbooking now that I think about it!!  But after several years, scrapbooking and the thought of it just didn't bring me joy any longer so it was the actual act of doing it that I walked away from although I did keep all of my supplies, well most of it anyway, and am happy I did.  I knew in my heart that I loved it too much to give it up forever but I knew I needed to walk away till I could just sit and scrap for me and my family, not for anyone else or for fear that my pages weren't worthy of being seen by anyone else which is just ridiculous!  For a few months after I quit scrapping my boys would ask me every now & again if I'd finished any new pages for their scrapbooks and the answer would always regretably be "no" but by now they've just stopped asking which makes me so sad.  I need to start again for them, and heck, for me too.  I need to allow myself to resume doing something that used to make me so happy and stop putting the pressure on myself to create a magazine-worthy masterpiece each time I sit down to scrap.  Tonight there was nothing on tv and these scrapbooking thoughts were buzzing through my head so I thought I'd check in at a few scrapbooking websites & message boards I used to frequent to see what was going on in the scrap world these days and I found out that there's still drama galore happening out there so I think I'll just stay away from all of that.  Sure I would've loved to have landed a gig on a fabulous design team and would be so proud to be able to say that my pages were so awesome that they've been published in magazines for others to see but that wasn't my path I suppose, not for now anyway.  For now it's about my boys and getting their albums caught up which, afterall, is the reason I started scrapping in the first place, right??!

Happy Saturday

I'm SUCH a bad fan.  Yesterday was a very important day, a birthday of someone very special in my life.......someone whom I thought would be my future husband and baby daddy someday.  Someone I would lie in bed and think about for hours till I'd drift away to sleep and then think about again the next day.  Someone who still gives me shudders and flutters when I see him in person which has been a total of 9 times now and if you know me at all you probably know who I'm talking about.  Yes......my sweet, beloved, hot, talented, funny, sexy, bass god himself, John Taylor.  I cannot believe that I let life get in the way and that I neglected him on his special day, not that he probably didn't get attention or birthday wishes from 1000s of other ladies who have swooned over him since the 80s too.  He knows I was with him in spirit yesterday while I was doing the laundry and sitting at baseball, yet again, singing New Moon on Monday wondering how he was spending his special day.  I'm suspecting he was in LA with his family being pampered & spoiled rotten as it should be.  Happy Birthday JT, missed you on the first leg of Duran's tour this year but I hope to see you in the fall!! 

I'm off to work at a fundraiser for B's baseball team this AM, we're trying to raise moola to pay for uniforms and stuff although I'd much rather have just written out a check rather than deal with everything we've had to deal with for this silly BBQ dinner sale.  Heck, our season could be over in a couple of weeks anyway, you just never know and if our boys don't begin to "click" and play better as a team soon, that's exactly what's going to happen.  Not sure about the Smash Mouth/Boston/Styx concert tonight........we don't have tickets yet so we'll just see how we're feeling later today and make the call then.  No biggie.  It's not like it's DURAN DURAN or anything!  haha  Hope you have a great weekend!

Random Thought Wednesday

 As I sit here, tired and sore sipping on a Corona, I want to blog but can only form small simple thoughts so here we go........Random Thought Wednesday!

• Ok, so I worked out this morning w/my trainer, Javier, and did more squats than one person should ever have to do in a single hour.  I lost count but I'm guessing it was somewhere between 200 and 250, no lie, and he's sneaky about it too.  "Ok, let's work on your arms......do some arm curls and while you're at it, squat at the same time!"  If I don't have buns of steel by the time we're finished with our sessions, I'm going to cry.
• I'm SO excited because I'm going to visit my sweet sister-in-law in Arkansas next month.  She loves me and has pity on me that I live such a boring blah life and haven't been anywhere in, oh, forever so she promises to pamper me and spoil me rotten and I love her for that.  We're going to hang by the pool, sip yummy drinks, read US magazine till our eyes are sore and in her words, "Diss anyone who deserves to be dissed!"  haha!  I may not have a biological sis but God gave me one, well four really, when I married Steve, that's for sure and I love them as my own.  She's joined the blogging world too and although I'm hesitant to share her blog with you for fear it's so much better than mine that you'll never return, here you go: http://whattaride.blogspot.com/  You won't regret it.
• Do you guys watch the show "Flip This House" on A&E?  I was checking out behind Melina Montelongo, wife of the San Antonio couple they feature all the time, at TJ Maxx a while back and CRIPES was she gorgeous!  She bought a ton of stuff too! 
• I'm going to my first concert in a long while this weekend.......Smash Mouth, Styx and Boston aka "Jackfest."  It's at a local outdoor venue and we'll be sitting on the grassy knoll (as we call the grassy hill behind the assigned seating) and I'm looking forward to it although I don't "love" any of the bands.  It'll still be fun to sip a cold beer and sit outside listening to 70s & 80s tunes under the stars.
• 2 of my 3 boys are way taller than me now and I don't think it'll be long before my youngest surpasses me either.  I've always felt like a runt and especially will here in a year or two when other than the bunny and cat, I'm the shortest thing in the house!  I'm just grateful that they got their father's height, NOT mine.  I love tall guys. 
• Ok, my Corona's almost empty and I'm out of random thoughts for now.  Night!

A flower for you......

Single sunflower, originally uploaded by Jana P ~ Brown-Eyed Girl Photography.

.....which is my simple way of apologizing for being such a poor blogger so far this summer. I think about it each and everyday but most of the time feel like I don't have anything to say that is really worthy of sharing with others. I mean really, who wants to hear about yet ANOTHER baseball practice or how flippin hot it is here already? I don't think there's been a single day this summer where we haven't had something going on or something that needed to be done so I'm waiting on the lazy hazy days of summer to truly arrive however I'm afraid till baseball is over with, they'll just have to wait! Speaking of baseball, it's because of it that I am able to give you this sunflower on this lovely morning. B had a baseball tournament in a small town about 15 miles south of the city in Castroville. We'd never been there before and had NO idea of what to expect but once we arrived I was charmed by this quaint little farmtown perhaps because it reminded me of Oklahoma. All around the town were flat green lush farmlands full of corn, crops and these lovely HUGE sunflowers which literally took my breath away. I didn't bring my camera the first day we played there but you can rest assured that my baby was charged up and ready to come along w/me the next game we played! It was hot hot hot but I didn't let that stop me from taking a ton of pics and then going into town to explore a bit. It really made me miss the simple small-town farm life, that's for sure however coming back home to my nearby Starbucks, mega shopping center, Wal Mart and grocery store was good too!! Oh, and in case you were wondering, B's team placed 3rd in the tournament, won one game, lost two, but it was good practice for them and now we can say we've been to Castroville! Have a great week.

Bye Bye weekend

Here I find myself perusing blogs on this fine sunday night while sipping some homemade lemonade and then I thought that perhaps I should take a few minutes to update my own before folks stop coming around!  It's been a busy weekend which all began with the wedding I second-shot w/Chasity on friday evening.  It was an outdoor wedding at a pretty place on the outskirts of the TX Hill Country and although we had an occasional gust of wind which toppled over 2 glass hurricanes and shattered them everywhere, the ceremony went off without a hitch and we had lovely lighting for the pictures thankfully.  I find myself getting more and more comfortable shooting weddings where before I just felt like I was in the way.  Now I just go where I want to go and try to get the shot I want to get, not sure if that's good or bad?!  haha  I'm very comfortable just shooting w/Chas for now but once I update my equipment and get a few more weddings under my belt, I'm considering advertising as a second-shooter.  We shall see. 

Ok, so I'm not too happy about the changes that Typepad has made to their blogging system.  I'd been contemplating changing and now just might be the time??  Grrrrrrrrrrr. 

I'm desperately in need of a vacation and I'm not talking a "load the kids up and go somewhere vacation".  I'm talking an adult-only, sit by the pool sipping frozen fruity drinks with a big stack of gossip mags and books by my side, rubbing sunscreen on myself till I can't stand it any more sort of vacation.  I can't even remember the last trip that the hubby and I took alone with each other, it's been THAT long, and we really need to re-connect again.  Lately we've seemed more like roomates rather than husband & wife.  All of the trips that I've tried to make happen since the end of last year have all fallen through for one reason or another so it's not for lack of trying.  For his work he gets to jaunt off every 3 or 4 days to fabulous cities while I'm stuck here living the daily grind and I guess it's just getting to me as badly as I'm trying to fight it.  I don't blame him, when he's off work he wants to come home and be here while all I'm thinking is that I need to get the *&$%# out of here.  Unfortunately we're trapped here for the next several weeks of baseball but maybe in July we can plan something?  Any ideas??  This mama needs a get-away.

Guess a potential trip will be a motivator for me to continue hitting the gym full-force.  Had a brutal workout on friday that still leaves me super sore 2 days later.  I knew I was going to hurt after that one but I didn't back down and took what my trainer dished out like a man although I did have to keep telling myself, "You CAN do this, Jana, you can do this!!!!!" while doing those 15 more squats.  Thankfully there haven't been any more headches so I guess my body is out of "shock mode" now that it's been a month!  I have 2 sessions this week then 3/week for 2 weeks after that and then I'll be finished w/the trainer.  I pray that by then I see such awesome results that I'm completely motivated to keep on going by myself.  The area where I see the most results thus far is def. in my arms since I've done about a bajillion and one arm curls w/10 & 12 lb. weights.  Hopefully I'll be confident enough to take a photo of myself when I'm done so you can see how I look after all of the blood, sweat & tears but don't hold your breath for that one!   

It's the boys and I this week and not much else besides baseball practices and a tournament later this week that we'll have to travel to.  We're in the midst of organizing the boys' rooms, getting Dylan all moved into his new bedroom (which was his 13th birthday present) and modifying B's room now that Dylan is moved out.  I thought he'd miss having his brother there since they've always been together but the child is having the time of his life, I don't think he's left his room except to eat and go to the bathroom since the change!  The boys will all have new Pottery Barn beds thanks to the mega-outlet store nearby, otherwise there's NO WAY that would've happened.  I'll take pics when they're all done but there's still so much work to be done.  Need to paint Dylan's room and convert Ryan's room from his current vintage cowboy theme to something more grown-up now that he's in high school although he has NO idea of what he wants.  Sigh.  I also need to go through their clothes and purge too, tons to be done so feel free to yell at me if I ever complain that I'm bored this summer, k???  ;-)

Checkin' In

Hi All or those of you who haven't given up on me and still check in anyway!  I SO appreciate you!!  It's high time I posted something new and although I think about blogging everyday, it just doesn't always get done.  SO.....although I'm tired I'm sitting here watching the new Work Out, drinking my iced tea and will attempt to come up with something remotely interesting to say. :-)

Ok, so about the workouts.  I'm happy to say we're still going forward, not full-throttle but maybe 3/4 throttle.  I'm still going twice a week this week and next then will bump up to 3/week when school is out and life slows down a tad.  I had those two nasty headaches early on and am happy to say that I haven't had anymore.  On a workout day one tried to happen but thankfully Advil, food and alot of liquids kept it at bay.  My trainer (Javier) is primarily working arms, shoulders, abs somewhat and TONS of squats, more than one person should have to do but I am happy to say that my flabby butt IS tightening up a wee bit.  He changes up the workouts to where they're never the same which keeps it new & fresh which is good.  One session he actually had me doing PULL-UPS (OMG) although he pulled a chair up for me to sort of push up with one of my legs and "cheat" a bit although pulling all of my weight up 50+ times was HAAAAAAARD.  My arms ached like all get out for the next 2 days but hey, no pain no gain, right?!  On days I'm not working out, I'm walking although I do take sunday and sometimes sat. also off.  I'm still not losing a ton of weight so Javier sat down w/me one day to talk nutrition and see how my eating habits were.  I assured him that I was generally pretty good although I am allowing myself to splurge on the weekends for at least a meal or two, esp. if we eat out.  No WAY am I only eating salad on a rare restaurant outing!!  Working out has motivated me to eat SO much better and I'm proud to say that I've only had one hamburger since beginning workouts 4 weeks ago.  When you just take the time, it's amazing what good low-cal foods you can find at the grocery store! 

Only two more days of school thankfully.  I remember when the boys were little and I'd DREAD summer vacation but now I relish it and am so ready to turn off that ol' alarm clock for a while! 

I'm still busy photography the houses for the outdoor lighting guy.  I've done a house each thurs. evening for the past month or so and as far as I know, have 3 more houses to go.  Having to shoot at dusk and in manual has really made me go outside of my comfort zone and learn how to do things I probably never would've learned otherwise and it's also enabled me to go into beautiful neighborhoods I wouldn't have visited.  The last one I shot in was the creme de la creme of all neighborhoods.......gorgeous custom homes on 3+ acre lots protected by not one but two gates.  Once you got past the 24hr. guard, then you went through the gate!  Although I've enjoyed the experience, I'm eager to begin expanding my portrait clientele since photographing people is my true passion.  I'll be second-shooting another wedding w/Chasity this weekend too which I just love so Brown-Eyed Girl Photography is chugging right along. 

I'm beat and Little Man has his awards ceremony at school bright & early at 8:15am tomorrow which means I actually have to be up & showered by 8am (uhg!) so I'd better hit the hay.  Thanks for stopping by!