I could write a novel about Ella’s 8 year old antics as of late, but I wasn’t planning to take things to such an exciting level as blogging about motherhood is new to me and honestly something to pass the time while I wait for something better to come on tv which I can imagine is the exact same thing anyone reading this is waiting for as well so I wouldn’t want to grip you with the drama that is the third graders life and have you so wrapped up in who took what out of who’s lunch at school that you miss the show you’ve been counting down the hours to watch all day long.

Instead I will bring you along on mine and Oliver’s journey to Mr. Lube today.  Now, Brock and I have had heated conversations on many many ocassions about who should take my car to get the oil changed, I have more than once reminded him that if my Dad took care of it for me when I lived at home then he should most certainly be taking care if it for me now.  He will often let my car go 9000km or more over the sticker’s recomendation!!!  Well I shouldn’t even say that because he has never in the 10 years we have been together taken one of my vehicles in for service so ok, its me that lets it go 9000km over the stickers reccomendations (sorry Dad)

So off Oliver and I go to get the Oil changed.  Its been raining for a few days in Calgary now and Oliver has come up with this charming game he likes to play on all car trips where he starts screaming at me at the very top of his lungs to turn the wipers on and then when he’s had enough of their back and forth he starts screaming at me to turn them off…really so fun, even more fun when he is screaching at me to turn them off in a down pour and wont listen to any reasoning as to why I can’t turn them off ahhh kids..good times.  Once we have arrived at Mr. Lube and were safely able to turn the wipers off as per Oliver’s request I thought we were smooth sailing until the guy comes out and says we have to shift things around, there are 3 lanes all full and he wants everyone to back up and let a car from the far lane come over into the opposite far lane, I wanted to ask him if he was fing kidding me the rules should be if you pick the shitty lane thats your shitty luck but that would have been rude so I awkwardly backed out because 1. i get nervous backing out in front of people and 2. i’m not entirely sure the proper way to back out I usually try to pick a spot that you can pull through.  Once pulled back in Oliver and I played the wiper game for the next 1/2hr while we waited for our turn.  I always get the same guy and Mr Lube, the one that thinks he is gods gift to the universe he is obviously beyond full of himself with his overly pomaded hair and dirty fingers and I swear he sees me coming from a mile away everytime.  We went through the whole, you’ve gone well over the reccomended milage, your cap is seized on due to you driving with oil fumes rather than oil, we have to run a $19.95 flush in order the clean things out again and so on and so forth, I just nod I don’t care just change the oil.  Then he starts pulling out filters, honestly everytime I go in there they pull out the filters and tell me I need new ones, this is when i start bombarding Brock with texts about how annoyed I am that I am having to do the oil change again because I know I don’t need new filters but i’m a people pleaser and can’t say no.  7 unanswered texts later I figure Brock is probably busy watching a movie in his truck and can’t answer because he got some really good new ones in Blockbusters closing out sale a couple weeks ago.  Thats when Oliver decides its time for another round of the wiper game and starts screaming at me to turn the wipers on and you can almost see the Mr. Lube guy start to smile, he has been waiting for this moment of distraction/embarassment as everyone is looking over at the screaming kid, he wisely chooses this moment to bring up some other service I must have with winter fast approaching.  I can’t even tell you what its called because I couldn’t hear him over Oliver’s screaching to turn the wipers on, but I am almost positive he said it cost $19.95.  I just nod and continue to tell Oliver that the car isn’t even on I can not at this time turn the wipers on!  $350.00 later we pulled out of Mr Lube.  Brock’s movie must have ended around the same time because he texted back saying he would be on top of it from now on I told  him not to worry about it I have an arrangement with the neighbour, he mows the lawn and puts out my garbage cans on Thursdays, its a one sided arrangement I do nothing for him, I’m going to discuss with him the possibility of him also taking over my oil changes.

That said, today Oliver and I got a few things done other then eating, I will spare everyone the details of our doctor visit this am, if you are a close friend/family member you likely know exactly what I am talking about as I don’t ever feel it necessary to leave any detail spared when it comes to you!  Once that fun was dealt with home we came to take it easy and Oliver thought what better then to run around in your undies and a superhero cape!  This cape was the one and only thing Oli asked for for his birthday this year and I made it myself….my Mom didn’t even help….at least that’s what we agreed to tell everyone.

As most people know Oli is pretty reserved, he’s quiet and shy and down right refuses to get his hair cut, he also will not wear this cape in front of anyone incase they look at him for longer then the 1/2 second he is comfortable with, but he wears it at home and its usually with his undies on.  Recently I seen an image on pinterest of a little guy dressed similar to this so I grabbed some shark boots, bribed him with 3 suckers to wear it outside and let me take his picture and I just love them!! I felt it was probably not very nice of me to post the images on facebook because who wants to be on facebook in their underwear and I’ve heard future employers check facebook for just such images when considering you for employment,  we don’t want him losing any future jobs over an undie shot!  Therefore, I figured that blog was a far more appropriate place to share such images.

Enjoy!

And a quick shot of the back just so you can see how awesome this cape is even though the picture is not so awesome!

I had to go to three malls (how is anyone supposed to abstain from shopping in a city that almost literally has more Malls then Doctors)  and various stores as it seems the spring/summer  birthday party circuit is in full swing. It wasn’t easy being in store after store filled with beautiful things, I put things in my cart and I put them back, I put things in again and again I put them back with visions of  Brock laughing and telling me he knew I couldn’t do it.  I swear in ten years Brock has yet to be right about anything and I don’t intend on that changing anytime soon.  No need to call me and tell me about everything you think you’ve been right about, Brock, we both know you’ll be wrong about that too.

I must admit it crossed my mind more then once to just buy what I wanted and hide it until the month was over and as much as I would like to say I couldn’t possibly do that because I would never be able to stomach the guilt, the three t-shirts and sweater I found hidden in our bedroom the other day prove that I have very little guilt when it comes to hiding clothing and its very likely I would forget about them by the time the month ends as the couple Christmas gifts I found between folded sweatshirts would suggest.  Yes, cleaning out my closet and dresser has not only been an eye opening experience but also like shopping without spending any money at all!!

In conclusion to this victorious week two things have become obvious to me.  The first being,  if the hardest thing in my life is trying not to shop for new clothes I am living one lovely little life! and the second, can Rock and Republic really  call themselves designer denim when you can buy them at London Drugs and Costco….

And because I think blogs are boring without pictures, even if their pictures have nothing to do with the blogs here is a picture of Ella who is practicing her little behind off for her upcoming violin recital.

All these questions aside I dove into my first day of the challenge head first.

The worst place for any recovering alcoholic to go would be a bar, The worst place for any sex addict to go would be a strip club, the worst place for a drug addict to go would be Hastings street in Vancouver, the worst place for a shopaholic to go would be a mall, so where did I go at 9:30am this morning…Chinook Mall featuring over 200 retail stores for my shopping pleasure.

I went with the intention of going straight to the sunglasses store, exchanging my sunglasses and walking out, but what to my wondering eyes did appear a huge sale at Anthropologie and that crazy woman (I wont say where I know her from on the off chance she stumbles across my blog and reads it then decides to re-direct her yelling from someone else to me, or on the even more off chance we become friends one day, of course this last one is very unlikely but stranger things have happened!)  She was buying up a storm in there and I couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness for myself, I thought I would just look around for a second, I mean I couldn’t have this crazy woman thinking she was trendier then I am!  So in I went and let me tell you this sale was amazing!  As I tried to reason with myself that should I buy anything it wouldn’t really count, I mean these were marked down hugely after about 20 min and an arm load of things something happened that has never happened to me in a store before.  I thought back to my last blog and it came rushing back to me…Anthropologie does not manufacture clothing in my size, covering up that fact it doesn’t really fit me with an equally expensive sweater is not logical.  I quickly snuck to the back of the store dropped everything and ran out of there before the girl that had been helping me could see me and try and reel me back in.

Into the sunglass hut I ran, quickly exchanged my sunglasses, well thats not so true the guy working there really took his time in the exchange of my sunglasses having me try them on 3, yes 3 times before he came to the conclusion he really loved them on me, If I were a meaner person I may have told him after the second time I didn’t really care what he thought of them on me I had my heart set on them and I was getting them whether they looked ridiculous or not.

Out of the sunglass hut I went, on my way to the elevators and out of the mall feeling fantastic! I had done it! I went into the mall and bought nothing….it was at this point I considered….are shoes considered clothing???

Can you believe this clean out! I wish I had taken a before because it really is remarkable!

Shot with my Iphone 4.

1} whether I like it or not Anthropologie just does not manufacture clothing in my size and buying 2 shirts and a dress with a price tag that would knock my mother out of her chair thinking I can pair them with a sweater to hide the fact that they are far too big is just not logical thinking.

2} no one needs 18 pairs of jeans 3 of which have never been worn because the dryer just didn’t shrink them down to the size I should have bought. And finally and probably most important

3} I have a problem.

A challenge was given and accepted and I am positive moderately sure I can do it.

No clothing can be bought from May 15 to June 15….I hope blogging about the agony will help me keep myself in check.

Wish me luck!

Then one day I fell in love…had a baby…got married…had another baby.

I now literally feel a huge wave of happiness if every sock out of the dryer has a match and on the flip side a huge wave of failure when three don’t.  I have spent more time then I care to admit perfecting folding a fitted sheet, I  would now consider this to be a resume worthy skill.  I spend morning, afternoon and evenings obsessing over what is going into their little bellies and countless hours looking for a healthier alternative to Kraft Dinner that tastes exactly the same as Kraft Dinner.  I’ve left full glasses of wine sitting on peoples counters, mixed drinks with less then half a shot in them, whispered to the waitress to put my cranberry juice in a highball glass and regretted every second of drinking too much the night before when kids are jumping around me on the bed in the morning, my head is pounding and even though I am grossly hungover I still have to pull the laundry out of the dryer to find three socks at the end of the pile without a match.

Happy Mothers Day to all the Momma’s!! Hopefully all your socks had a match today!

(taken with my iphone 4 no special app.)

These were shot in my bedroom on an overcast day, with my D700 and 24-70 at iso 1000, 80 f5 and I love them!!

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from my newest Iphonography obsession! I honestly have not photographed my kids with my professional camera since I got it and I love everything about all 200 images I’ve taken so far!

As with everything my perfect plan for my photography didn’t turn out the way I had planned it to.  A few months ago an opportunity came along that I instantly knew I wanted more than anyone else that was going to apply.  I knew it was the perfect plan for me and my career in photography and I couldn’t be happier about my choice to join Danna at Bowes Photography.  Joining Danna has already allowed me more quality time with my family, time to read books again, the opportunity to seriously consider going back to school and learn to write and the opportunity to learn things about photography that I just wasn’t learning in books.

I can’t wait to see where this new path takes me, my photography, and everything else.

I hope people will continue to read my blog, although it wont be based solely on photography anymore it will never be lacking in photos.

(Thank you to everyone who has recently emailed inquiring about sessions with me, however, I will no longer be booking sessions through myself)

1) Teaching Ella that “comfy” pants are rarely appropriate attire for anything other than lounging around the house and most certainly not church attire!

2) Gently teaching Oli that bathing is a very essential part of life and more importantly an essential part of  not only making but keeping friends.

With those important life details seemingly about to be taken care of I moved on to my personal goals and shocker decided on the extremely underused “be a better person” goal.  I seemed so satisfied with my originality in choosing such a great resolution.  Seriously though, how many thousands of people came up with the same resolution and ditched it mere hours into January 1st.

I daydreamed about my plans to better myself as Brock and I drove home from the Mall, afterall, If I was about to better myself that probably meant not spending a fortune on brand name jeans simply because they bore a 7 on the back pocket so lord knows I had to stock up before the years end. I seen the tiny hand print that kept appearing on the passenger window everytime it froze, the setting sun shone on it making it seem even sweeter then it already was and my resolving to be a “better person” suddenly became very silly, we all know I can’t give up designer jeans no matter how hard I try and not gossiping shouldn’t really be a resolution but more a way of life…much like bathing is an essential part of making and keeping friends as is refraining from the gossip mill.  Hmmm looking at the tiny handprint I thought, possibly my resolution should be to take more pictures of my kids, said kids would roll on the floor laughing if they heard me say that as there is rarely a moment I don’t have a camera shoved in their tiny faces but what they don’t know is not one photo is a snap shot, not one photo isn’t taken without me saying “Ella look this way, move over here the light is better, can you fix that piece of hair, I said smile nice I don’t recall asking for a silly picture”  ”Oliver look at me, no not that way this way, twist a tiny bit, where’s your cheesey smile, nope that shirts not working for me, Ella get me his blue shirt” and if by chance I do take a photo that isn’t set up I usually end up deleting it because of bad lighting, exposure ect ect ect, I wont ever show them to anyone and friends wait months for pictures of their kids because I can’t fathom the thought of giving them an unedited image.  In that moment I was hit my this thought, one day my kids are going to be all grown up, there wont be any cheerios being stepped on, no snotty nosed kisses, no begging for movie night, no play doh creations covering the kitchen table and no frozen handprints on the window.  There also wont be any photographs to remember it because the light wasn’t good at that time.  Therefore, this year I resolve to not only keep all those not exactly perfect images but take thousands of them.