How I Got into Photography

When Ethan was about 4 months old, I started talking to a friend of mine that was telling me her love for photography (black and white film to be exact). She used to have a business in NY and missed it.

Well, being a new mom, I was in love with the idea of offering my child up for practice. I agreed to buy all of the film and she'd show up and shoot. (Pardon my head on the below pic, when I was transferring it over, it made it look weird....).

She shot tons and tons of rolls and I fell in love with every one of them.

It was amazing to me how she could capture his eyes in a black and white photo!

This is one of my all time favorites that she took. It won a photo contest too. I had a series of 3 similar ones matted and framed.


As soon as I saw them, I was hooked. Jerry got me my first Minolta Maxxum SLR camera and I've been at it ever since. These were my first attempt at black and white film photography.

Personally, I don't think I did a bad job. Actually, looking at them makes me want to shoot more film.

There is something timeless and elegant about a black and white photo.

Note to self: Self, you need to get back into black and white film photography.

A Dedication Post

Dear Ethan,

It seems like just yesterday that we brought you home from the hospital. You were so tiny but you filled up such a large spot in our hearts.

You were such a good baby and I loved your squeezable cheeks.

You were the reason that I got into photography. I just didn't want to miss a single moment of your life.

You were baptized in Gram's church, and while the church is no longer there, it will be forever in our hearts.

You and your cousin Chas were just like brothers from the very beginning. You loved each other one moment, and the next...you were stealing his binky.

We lived each day thankful that we were blessed with you.

And when you turned one, we couldn't believe how fast the time went.

Our little boy was already discovering that he loved balloons.


You spent a lot of time going to your brother's baseball games.


And you were thrilled with the very first swing that you got.

Your brothers were your hero's, and while you loved to annoy them, they took it with grace...because they love you.

You certainly loved your babies and didn't spend any time without them.

And as you got older, your personality blossomed into one that made us smile every day.

I can't believe you are now five and will be starting school in a couple of months. I hope that one day when you read this....

you will know just how much we love you. I hope that you will never doubt how much we adore you. You are going to go on to do great things and it makes my heart swell just thinking about the wonderful little boy that you have become.

I love you.

Happy Birthday, EE.

Here is one of the video's that I made a few years ago.

Please Forgive Me for Being Absent.

Errr...yeah...I realize these are weeks late but I figure you'll forgive me. Things have been a bit hectic around here. So most of you know that I'm now done with school for a while. I finished my Bachelor of Business Administration and since then I've just taken a break from everything but books. I've been catching up on lots and lots of books that I've put off reading for pleasure.

These pictures are horrible and I almost didn't post them but then I decided that I'd post them anyway. We started Ethan's birthday by taking cupcakes to his school and had a great surprise! Mr. Matt, one of Ethan's all time favorite teachers was there! We snapped a picture of the two of them.

That weekend, we had his real birthday party at Bounce City, an inside inflatable jump place. We had his birthday there last year too. I love his face in this picture.

This is probably my favorite picture of the day. Even though it's blurry, it cracks me up. Do you see how they are holding hands?

These are two of Ethan's team mates and lemme tell ya, he was so happy to see them. They are brothers. Aren't they cute?

They ran around non-stop. Last year, we made the horrible mistake of not bringing drinks. They didn't have drinks for while they were playing and boy did we regret that. This year, we we brought a whole cooler of water and juice.

Since I couldn't give him his cake and take pictures at the same time, my friend Robin took him the cake. We forgot his candle but I don't think he even noticed. As soon as he saw it was a Spider Man cake, he was thrilled.


He had a great birthday. Great friends + fun presents + yummy cake = one happy five year old. I'm still planning on doing a dedication post for his birthday. That's coming up soon.

And since you've been so patient with me, I thought I'd throw in a few of my favorite recent pictures of Butterball. Butterball got neutered several weeks ago and we had to put one of those RCA dog collars on him. Remember the RCA cartoon dog? That's all I can think of when I see this.

Of course, Butterball was not as amused as I was. Actually, he down right hated it.....but how can you resist a face like this?

Celebration Times

Disclaimer: I'm going to apologize in advance for these pictures. Frankly, they suck. It was pretty dark in the room....and this lady was sitting in front of me with a water bottle. Half of time the camera focused on her melon head or the bottle. Good times.

Last week was Ethan's pre-school graduation. It was at Kingwood Community College of all places. The boys wore blue and the girls wore red. It was all very....emotional. I mean, it's not every day that your kid graduates from pre-k.

He was gracious enough to allow me this picture of him. Although there were about 6 thousand other parents bumping into me and running me over to get pictures of their kids.

I admit that I got a little teary eyed when they started playing Pomp and Circumstance. I have a very bad picture of him coming down the isle. I say bad because well....I only got one window of opportunity to get a snap shot before he walked by. He chose that exact time to turn around to see what his friends behind him were doing. Gee...thanks Ethan. That's a great Kodak moment that you left me with.

When he got his diploma, he was so proud. While they were introducing each child, the speaker read what they want to be when they grow up and what makes them a super star. Ethan is a super star because he's the biggest helper in the school. When he grows up, he wants to be.....wait for it.......a grown up.

Did you know that a diploma also acts as binoculars. Or rather...monoculars? Is that even a word? Get it!? Bi (2)- mono (1)...er....never mind.

Oh and he did this. I'm not sure why he was aggravating the boy next to him...but the boy wasn't thrilled to be seeing Ethan's tongue. See that guy to the left? That's Mr. Matt. Ethan's all time favorite teacher. Mr. Matt's last day at the school was this past Friday and Ethan has been having a tough time with it. I will say that Ethan was able to charm Mr. Matt though....it was sometimes funny to watch Mr. Matt glaze over Ethan's bad behavior so he wouldn't get in trouble. Sweet.

See that lady in the middle? That's Ms. Sheila. His lead teacher. She has been such a large influence in his life. This lady has a rare talent and I don't think she knows the half of it. These kids love her and well....I'm going to miss her. Ethan moves up to the last classroom in a few weeks.

So after the ceremony (which was a little long...the kids did great by the way) Ethan and Mr. Matt posed for this picture. This was right after Ethan dropped his first piece of cake on the floor. About 5 minutes later....he dropped his second piece of cake on the floor.

I call this pose "The Dreamer". Actually, I have no idea what he was doing. Well, yes I do....he was wanting me to hurry up so that he could finally eat his piece of cake (we were on the third piece by then).


Doesn't this have a dreamy look about it? And doesn't he look so satisfied after his cake?

Happy Graduation Ethan.....We are so proud of you. You're going to go on to do great things.

Soccer....The End (For Now)...

Last Saturday was the last game of the season. We arrived early and I took individual pictures of each child as well as a few groups. Amazingly, most of the kiddos were pretty reasonable. They smiled when I asked them to, they looked at me when I called their name...and they stood still! Ethan decided to go with the flow and posed for me.

One thing that I am hesitant to do is post pictures of children that do not belong to me. That being said, it makes it incredibly difficult to tell a story of the game... So, many pictures that I do have will not be shown on this website. Sorry, my five readers....if you are my Facebook friend, you can catch them there....my Facebook page is private, so I can control who sees what there.

They started the morning after my pictures with a fun game of duck-duck- goose. Ethan was smart...he'd get a running start before he tagged his person so that he was way ahead of them. I am raising a genius. My child is a critical thinker....err...well it could also be said that getting a head start is cheating.

One thing that I did notice was that his tongue was chronically hanging out each time he kicked the ball or ran. He scored 3 goals this game (well one was for the other team but he celebrated it none the less).

Interestingly enough, he was the only kid that got this excited when he scored a goal. He would actually celebrate his score. A lot. Just call him his own cheering squad. This particular shot was right after he scored a goal from the line.


This one was after he scored for the other team. See? He celebrated right along with the other team. Hey Ethan? Please don't score for the other team please, OK? Thank you.

Are you seeing a trend here? Leg extended= tongue hanging out. I love this kid.

Quick Photo Update

If you have been reading this blog for a while now, you will notice that this background with the Easter Bunny looks familiar. And while we are on the subject of the Easter Bunny, yes I know I'm a little late posting this picture.

Ethan loooooves the Easter Bunny. We patiently waited with a slew of other people waiting for their chance to take a picture with EB too. Ethan then walked up to EB, gave him a huge hug, and hopped (pardon the pun) on his lap. I'm hoping to get at least one more year next year with a picture of him and the EB, but we'll see.


But now to more important matters. My baby is graduating from Pre-K in about 10 days. I seriously can't believe how fast time is flying. One minute we were in the hospital looking at him in awe and the next minute, he's telling us "kindergarten better watch out, cause here I come".


As much as I want him to grow up, I want him to slow down too. It's a bitter pill to swallow! He's questioning things now and holding long conversations with us. It amazes me every day that he is getting so mature.

I'm not going to get all emotional today....no....I'll get all emotional on May 28th, when my "baby" boy turns 5.



You can click on the pictures to enlarge.

Ok so I Lied

Well, if you every check Twitter, you would see that a few days ago I promised to post pics of our bee drama.

Sike.

Actually, I really had every intention of putting the pictures up...because...well...you know me...I chronicle everything...the camera is an extension of my arm. But, as I was proofing the pictures the other night, I got the heebie jeebies all over again. In theory, honey combs aren't gross.

Uh yeah...until you see them up close and personal.

Sorry everyone, I can't relive that right now. I think I have PTSD. How about I tell you instead?

We noticed bees on the back part of the frame of our house a while back. Finally, I called animal control to find out if we were allowed to remove them. They referred me to a company that kills/removes bees. The genius that called me walked Jerry through exactly what he was going to do (including the chemical he was going to use).

Pardon me...is this thing on? Excuse me...can you hear me?

Sorry, I often wonder if I'm talking to myself.

Anywho.....

Since we were given the play by play of how to remove bees on our own, Jerry took that task and ran with it. We had to take board off of our frame in two parts. Then he sprayed them, pulled the hive thingies out, burned them, and had to scrub the sam hell out of the inside so that it was clean. Jerry only got stung one time.

Now I realize that I summarized this drama in like 3 lines but I promise you...it really did take longer than that in real life! In normal Mikki fashion, I hid way back with my zoom lens and snapped away to my hearts content. Far. Far. Away.

I love my zoom lens. I like to make you think I'm really up close and personal but I'm not.

What is the status you say? No more bees but the pictures scarred me for life. I may post pictures in a few weeks...once I've had time to heal. My spirit has been damaged.

Who gets bees in the suburbs!?

On a totally unrelated note...we got Ethan's graduation pictures in today and they are adorable. I still need to upload his Easter bunny picture, so I'll do that all at once. I was "doing the math" today and realized that he and I graduate one day apart. How cute is that?

I promise to get some pictures up soon. School is winding down next week FOR GOOD (thank God), so I will have more time to bore you with my endless chatter.

Except...don't act like you're bored, okay? Just smile and nod.


Sincerely,

She Who Can't Keep Promises