Happy as a June Bug

[Photo by:
George K. Bryce/
Animals Animals or Earth Scenes]

This is a "June Bug"... also known as a "May beetle." Ugly little scarab, isn't it?

I present him to you in all his ugly glory because of a recent exchange Chi and I had en route to JoAnn's craft store for Christmas Ornament making supplies (yes, we're a tad bit late).

Chi exclaimed yesterday that she/I/someone was "Happy as a June Bug."

Now I, in one of my sarcastic moods inquired, "Have you ever met a June bug?"

Of course, Chi had not, so I continued," so how do you know it's happy?"

She laughed as she thought about this rather odd idiom she'd recited. I continued, amusing her further, of particular note was this quip: "And seriously, it's DECEMBER, if I was a June Bug, I wouldn't be happy, I'd be frozen."

She spouted a few variations of June-bug-isms while we shopped and I silently pondered as to whether there really was such a thing as a June bug.

I suggested, then, that I was instead, "Mad as a hornet," and having had encounters with them, I could assure her that they were miserably mean creatures who are mad when you mess with their homes that they impolitely build on yours.

She created a few fractured idioms each with a June Bug substitution and chuckled at her silliness.

At some point I said to her, "Okay. You've used your word quota for today." This elicited a few snickers from nearby shoppers and peals of laughter from Chi.

Now that I've found a June Bug, which it says appears initially in the month prior, I think he's only a "happy" bug in June because the ugly pest wasn't swatted to death in May...

And today Chi says (after looking at this hideous creature): "You're as pretty as a June Bug."

I'm sure someone thinks it's a beautiful creature., so my dear daughter, thank you for the compliment. You too are as pretty as a June Bug.

I swear, sometimes, I'm just not nice...

Take Out Takes

"Cut!"

It's what I often like to yell as i pull my hair out and complain that my batteries are dying say when I demand politely request my darling children to cooperate while I snap a few {hundred} photos. I mean, I've been at it since Chi was three months old, so you'd think they'd know the quicker I get my shot, the sooner I'll put the camera down (I'm stretching the sooner part... get the shot? Try seven more angles and half a dozen new locations, right?). Honestly, I'm not that bad.

I have a few {thousand} out takes that I have hit delete on immediately. A few {hundred} more make it to PhotoShop for potential overhaul tweaking. Most never make it to print and certainly aren't shared... But the cast at I ♥ Faces wanted to end the year with a snort guffaw chuckle ROFL belly laugh, so I yanked a couple recent "oops" shots out of the digital circular file. (Although I suspect that the trash is no longer circular, but is a big pixel eating parasite that does not care if you change your mind and affords no opportunity to retrieve the tossed photo and uncrumple it with delicate hands).

Here was my thought with this first shot: great light from the window... a chance to turn off the flash. And then I realized just how fast/much/nonstop my Ya moves. And the grimace on his face doesn't exactly scream "happy boy." And trust, there was a lot of light... so why didn't it work?

In the second shot? I finally got Ya to wear the Santa hat. He's dressed in a big boy button down and turtleneck. He looks good. He's willing to smile for Mommy's third eye [camera].

But someone let him steal a candy cane off the tree and the evidence is all over his face and in his mouth!

Try making this sticky boy look "sweet and tidy" and not like a candy monster.

This third shot is so terrible it's funny. He said the notorious "cheese," but his eyes did the "drunken droopy" that makes this picture a total stinker.



Certainly Chi has a good number of out takes, too.
This fourth shot is one where I let her pick the hair style (OMG) and the pose. And no sooner than she gave me this charming memory, she says, "I'm done," grabs her coat, and heads inside. Gotta love a seven-year-old.

Handsome Uncle

Handsome Uncle, originally uploaded by Mommy Rachelle.

This is my baby brother, Art. Not much of a baby, though. He's a pretty stellar looking man, if I do say so myself (and I do!). He doesn't like me to grab the camera and point it his way very often (something about he has to be awake, showered, and dressed? Go figure.), so I was lucky to get this shot at Tav's rugby game just before we raced to the car to escape torrential downpours.

My little man likes to emulate his uncle... just check him out in this Art-inspired image:

I am so glad he's copying upstanding people and not the unsavory media-hyped folk we see idolized...

Ti-double g -er

Ti-double g -er, originally uploaded by Mommy Rachelle.

I still can't upload anything new to my Flikr account (and the funds to "go pro" are being spent on the billion dollar annual car inspection), so I was browsing the images I uploaded and never posted.

I came across this gem taken days after Halloween. It's Ya, though you'd never know it, posing in his sister's second Halloween costume (which fits him at 14 months). I've kept most of the costumes we've gotten over the years and sometimes I like to whip them out for play time. It doesn't hurt that my kid brother LOVES Tigger and this shot was great for his collection.

Did I mention that I am so looking forward to Tigger-izing my future nephews and nieces when they arrive in a few years? I guess I should wait until the official "I do"s are said in Vegas (1-10-10), but hey, he's a great Dad already. I know because he was the official father-figure to my daughter for the first four years of her life while we shared first an apartment and then a condo. Oh how I love having the godfather in my kids' lives!

Suave

Suave, originally uploaded by Mommy Rachelle.

This handsome little man is hard to catch these days... so I am finding myself getting pretty familiar with PhotoShop and all the manipulations it has to offer. It's a far stretch from my days as a photojournalist.

Changes to this image? A head swap {yikes} to ensure that my "smooth" kiddo was in a cute pose and you could see his face. Somehow one of those two perfect photo essential elements is missing in every shot I take of the "I refuse to stop for a 'cheese' pose no matter how hard you beg or how many times you call me, Mom" toddler.

And don't worry, this picture is from early December, so the weather was not frightfully cold and snowy (though the wind sure was kicking up).

Winter Wonderland

It's been a winter weather wary time here in our neck of the woods suburbs! And so, the photographer in me that is me has been trying to capture some of the happenings inside and out... but Daddy/PopPop thinks I'm nuts (and no doubt the neighbors who saw me taking pictures of the bushes outside and wondered what was so dang interesting about bark, agree).


I killed my "free" Flikr account upload space for December, so I'm making due with the smaller image capability of Blogger. Who'd have thought I would have 100MB of photos to upload in a single month? And how, with a paper weight for a computer, was I able to accomplish this? {The answer to the latter question: I've taken Dad's office hostage for the last two days and whenever I can load up the kids and trek over to the momndad's pad, I'll claim it then too. That'll teach him not to expedite the diagnosis and cure protocol I ordered for the dead critically ill PC}




Dec 19: Happy, happy birthday baby!

DEC 19: After we sampled Chi and Unc-Arthur's fabulous Spice Cake Birthday Cake, Chi and Ya busied themselves playing with a collection of empty tea bottles. They're supposed to bowl with them as the pins, but this time the game was build and destroy towers. Notice which kid is destroying and claiming the bottles...

Dec. 20: This poor little bug-ger was probably wondering how on earth he got caught outside in a snow storm... Chi found him clinging to the tree... I think he was praying (mantis) that the cold would subside before he froze his thorax [they have those, right?] off.

Dec.20: How happy we were to see a plow... and how lucky that we have neighbors who made it arrive within a few days of snow fall... connections are everything.

Dec 22: Temperatures didn't improve and the snow stayed... so Mommy used her "fabulous judgment" and determined that an outdoor photo shoot would be a great idea. Their coats are with the camera bag and the shoot was fast to prevent any furthering of the already present winter sniffles.

Of course there would be more photos, but Mommy was given funny/aggravated looks every time she grabbed her coat and camera to "document" the storm aftermath.

Fantasy for the X-Holiday

As Christians, we are taught that substituting the CHRIST in Christmas with and X is terribly blasphemous and removes the reverence to He who was born to die for our sins... so why did I title this post as I did?

I admit it, I bought into the hoopla and got Giggy with the fantasy behind the commercialized monster that is Christmas. I mean it is a little silly these days to get excited about a fat guy in red to break into our house. Usually we try hard to avoid break ins, right?

Now I know well enough that Saint Nicholas {for a great informative site, visit St. Nicholas Center}was a man of God hoping to spread love and cheer to the less fortunate who were suffering to provide the bare necessities to their families during a time of great religious persecution, but I also know the 2k Santa Claus that sits in the shopping malls and offers to listen to kids' deepest desires for the low, low cost of $20 for a {used to be Polaroid, now digital insta-print} photo. Mommy refuses to pay this fee, so I had planned to take the kids to a school sponsored Breakfast with Santa... but alas, it was canceled on Code Red and vacation began three days early.

But we needed (yes, we really needed) photos of the kids caught in the merriement, so I took these:

I will not succumb to the holiday hype. At least that is what I tell myself each year. Nevertheless, Chi is a modern child, and kids are conossuers of commercialism. She refused to share with me what she wanted from Santa, saying only that he could get her whatever he thought she needed. I confessed to her that I hoped he picked out something that would bring the family together. She prepared the cookies (okay, MommyR doesn't really bake, so we used Graham Crackers) and set out the "Magic Reindeer Food" for the sleigh pullers. Initially, she also put out a cup of milk, but Mommy insisted that sitting milk out of the fridge for any length of time might make Santa ill. This appeared in the place of the cup:
We pushed Chi to bed at 9 p.m. ... she peeked in at us at 10:30 p.m. and mentioned sleep was not coming easy. I crashed by 11 p.m. and woke early (to the dumb alarm - hello Friday - at 5 a.m. and the second at 6 a.m.) and Chi was on the floor in my room wrapped in her blanket. I forced coaxed her to stay in the room until 8 a.m. and she waited [im]patiently for the clock to change.

On Christmas morning, we donned our hats and flashed a few grins while opening our gifts.

Commercialized or not, it was a beautiful Christmas. Outside was still white from our birthday blizzard, and the weatherman was wrong about the freezing rain/sleet/messy mix he predicted. (That's more like it, Mr. Meteorologist. I swear, though, you must be in cahoots with the grocery store folk and the dairy people.)

The Santa gifts -- an indoor teepee/tent/tube set up for the kids and a Wii system for the whole family - -were a big hit. The gifts we selected for one another were well-received, as less was truly more: limited funds meant practical gifts that were really wanted and/or needed were chosen instead of the hottest toys and gifts advertised.

And as I sit down at Dad's PC (remember, I killed mine) editing photos of the day, I cannot help but smile. I am reminded daily, and especially on holidays, just how truly blessed we are as a family.

O' Christmas Tree

I'm not a very good decorator. Something about putting up lights and such has always given me palpitations. Maybe it's because my daddy always waited until the first frost to take out the ladder and attempt to nail up the out door lights as his hands trembled and his fingers began to tingle from frost bite. Or maybe it's because I just cannot find a design I think looks perfect and so I refuse to even try to put up a string of lights. The exterior of the house looks better untouched, right? I need only change the wreath from autumn to winter, and viola! Done.

But inside I can cheat and it still feels festive. Our tree is pre lit. It doesn't drop pine needles, doesn't need water, and doesn't have to be chopped down in its prime.In a few snaps and shakes, it is out of the box and ready for my decorating goddess (which is not code name for Mommy).

Chi loves decorating the tree.

We thought Ya would like to help her...

But, as we discovered quickly, Ya loves disassembling the tree and then handing the ornaments to Chi to put back up.

It's no wonder it took more than an hour to get all the decorations on the tree (two feet above the lowest branches just for Ya). And here it is:

Worth the extra effort.

A blizzard for your birthday

The weather forecast was finally right. (Perhaps this is why meteorologists get to keep their jobs?)

The prediction was that snow would cover the Northern East Coast beginning late Friday night. It's Saturday afternoon now, and the snow is still coming down heavy.

Poor Chi watched the forecast on the morning news before school yesterday and was clearly disappointed: "A blizzard on my birthday? This is terrible!"

So much for a relaxing morning at the Santa Breakfast and a girls' afternoon at the salon. Instead, we ran around the homestead hoping to gather up the heavy duds, tosing things into an overnight bag, and planning an escape (for the snow-in) at Oma and PopPop's.

We made an unfortunate stop at a department store last night to make a few returns (this Christmas shopping has done wonders for my wardrobe, emptied my wallet, and my tree is still void of presents below). It was chaos. Apparently fear has set in and people were determined to do several things before the first flake fell:

1. purchase ridiculous amounts of toilet paper, milk and bread (because in an emergency this is what everyone consumes the most of, right?)
2. hit up the hardware store for shovels, sand/salt, and... I don't know.
3. shop for the last few items on the Christmas list just in case the roads aren't clear before the weekend sales end.

I parked in Outer Siberia - - because I set my car in reverse and forgot to put it back into drive before some nasty lady in a pick up shot into the spot I had been waiting for (never mind that I had to carry several bags of returns and a squirmy toddler). In the store, the return line stretched halfway across the store. And the purchase lines? Wrapped around the rope indicating the line twice! Luckily, Chi picked out a consolation gift for her botched spa day birthday and was content.

We woke this morning before 7 a.m. and saw more than a foot of snow had fallen. Yikes. Luckily, Chi had determined that it might be fun to play in, and no longer thought the day would be terrible.

We loaded on the layers: tights, mittens, sweaters, turtle necks, jeans, boots, and hats. (I should add camera, but that's a permanent appendage when I'm not at work, so it goes without saying that I had it).

It took us 10 minutes to get it all on. And then we went outside.

It took less than 5 minutes to determine we'd had enough.

PopPop was mad because the snow came in with us. We striped down to our unders to be rid of the wet and cold clothes. And we settled for a few minutes in the warm house.

But Mommy didn't get a good picture of her beautiful birthday girl, so a few hours later, we piled the clothes back on and ventured out again; this time to the backyard.

Chi made a snow angel.

Ya was okay... if you consider a paralyzed little chap "normal." He stayed exactly where he was placed, as the snow came well up to his waste and restricted his movement (walking was not happening). He was up to staying outside until the flakes began to rest and stick to his eyelashes. That was just not acceptable.

Chi was assured that this special weather was just for her. And somewhere in the middle of the steadily falling snow, she declared: "This is the best birthday ever!"

I'm so glad you feel that way, my little Heaven on earth, because you deserve nothing less.

Wouldn't This Be Nice

I'm sorry, Nikon, but your camera system is proving far too expensive and the resolution is not as high as I'd like for the cost. So though I have been a faithful consumer of your system for seven years, I have found a new camera and it is pretty tempting... It's unfortunate, because I like you, but I know you understand why I must stray from our relationship.

EOS Rebel T1i Digital SLR Camera Kit w/18-55mm IS & 55-250mm IS Lens

• 15.1Mp CMOS Sensor
• HD 1080p, 720p, and VGA Video Capture
• 3" Clear View LCD with Live View
• DIGIC 4 Image Processor
• ISO Expandable to 12,800
• EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens
• EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Lens
• Compatible w/ 60-plus EF & EF-S Optics

• B&H # CAEDRT1IKQ

• Price: $1,099.98
• $200.00 Instant Savings! Offer ends 01/16/2010
• You Pay: $899.98

Now, if I were a rich girl, I might still be coveting this beauty:

D3x SLR Digital Camera (Camera Body)

• 24.5 Megapixel Resolution
• FX-format (full frame) CMOS Sensor
• Nikon EXPEED Image Processor
• NEF (RAW) Files at 12- or 14-bit Color
• 3" Super-density LCD Monitor
• Live View Shooting Modes
• 5 fps Continuous at Full Resolution
• Scene Recognition System
• Virtual Horizon Indicator
• Dual CF Card Slots

• B&H # NID3X
• Mfr # 25442

Buy Used: $6,799.95

This item is in your cart

Home Going

I'm not a fan of funerals. In fact, I hate them. I protest actively, often refusing to go and busying myself with any activity that keeps me away from the proceedings. So it came as a surprise to some that I welcomed the opportunity to pay my last respects in person to my Great Aunt Helen.

Here's my thoughts:

To know Aunt Helen is to know a woman who had a big voice spoken in a soft whisper. This is a woman who lived in God's favor, who knew of His mercy, and who accepted His actions in her life without question. This is a woman who lived actively to the blessed age of 92 years thanking Him for waking her up each morning and praising His name until bedtime.

This is a woman whose jacuzzi jet spa bathtub I believed was a swimming pool; whose yard was adorned with geese and deer and other such lawn figurines (except the gnomes - - they weren't welcome); whose home was the last stop before venturing back to whatever state we lived in at the time.

At my cousin's wedding, she pop locked to the radio top 20 (at 90 years old!). She smiled as she twirled among the 20 and 30 somethings on the dance floor.

She commanded respect and possessed a quiet strength that those who knew her could only hope to emulate. She was grace. She had wit and spunk.

And to journey to North Carolina to say goodbye to her physical body was not a trip of sadness. I'll see her again. She's up there out-singing, out-talking, out-dancing the angels. She's made her passage home to Him whom she has always held in her heart, spoken to daily (hourly), and trusted with her whole being. She's said goodbye to earthly trials and tribulations and hello to eternity in heaven. She's no doubt sharing stories with those who got there before her, catching up on what they've been up to.

I bet her tub is even bigger up there!

Her funeral was a home going celebration - - an opportunity to share with others stories of how very important Aunt Helen was to our family, her community, and the world.

Raging Beauty

There's not much time these days to get online. There's even less to scrap book all the photos I've had printed of the last year of events (and day to day hum drum). But if all my time is limited to mere moments, I'm happy I can fill each one with the click of my camera and my kids.

****

It seems like yesterday I was planning Chi's sixth birthday party and now she's less than a fortnight away from seven. What am I doing with a seven-year-old? What happened to that precious baby girl with the beautiful almond eyes, the never ending inquiring conversationalist, and the precocious personality?

She's certainly not a baby any more, though she's even more precious to me at this age than at any prior.

My first born is reading, she's writing, she's creating. She's a free spirit that sees something special in the ordinary. She dreams of becoming an artist (she already is in so many ways). She might study fashion design in school (and her "In My Pocket" toys are the best dressed). She's complimented for her advanced vocabulary and ability to articulate beyond her peers. And she's surpassed all expectations of sisterhood for one incredibly active and time consuming baby brother who demands her attention, eats her crayons, and gets in the way of her play/television watching/socializing.

Seven years have passed us by, and they've been the most fulfilling, most interesting seven years of my life.