Jan 27

20120127-HPE_0564, originally uploaded by hezro.

Today did not start well. We got off to a late start. I knew we were cutting it close with the school bus. The kids jumped in the car and sure enough, we saw the bus leaving as we pulled out of our driveway. Ugh. I missed the school bus...for the third time in as many months. Luckily for me, I can take a short cut and actually beat the bus to the next stop. 

After I dropped off the kids off, I pulled back out and followed the bus for a minute before returning to my short cut. (Note to self, if I'm ever really, super late, I actually have one more opportunity to catch the bus. And I would be lying if I tried to pretend that this wild idea didn't just race through my head: we could *always* drive to that stop and it would probably buy me an extra five...or maybe even ten minutes every morning.) Anyway, here I am, following the bus, after having safely deposited my children on it. And because I'm a sucker for wet pavement and big, brooding clouds, I just happened to have my camera with me.

When I got home, I got a lot done but before I knew it, it was time to rush to the gym for my masters swim class. I actually had a pretty good swim.  Right now I'm focused on improving my rotation.  Last week it was steep and deep.  The week before that it was a 2:3 breathing pattern.  Who knew swimming was this complicated?!  Ha!  Although, it's crazy how far I've come in a year and a half!  Wait...it's been a year and a half?!  Seriously?!  That's a pretty long time.  Hmm...well...still...today's swim felt good.  I think I was a little slower than usual but I think I was nailing the drills.  In fact, after the stun gun drill, the coach said my stroke looked perfect...for 25 meters.  *ahem*  Can we pretend that he didn't add that caveat?!  (After typing this paragraph, I went back and read this post from October 2010 and had to laugh.  Oh...how little I knew. Not to mention, I'm suddenly feeling less pleased with myself for my little compliment today.  Apparently I had a better stroke back then than I do now because I can assure you that none of the coaches since then have ever been as pleased with my stroke as that swim teacher was!)   

Anyway, when I left the gym I was feeling good. It was almost 60 degrees out. There was a beautiful blue sky with fluffy white clouds. What a pleasant day! Kardy and I went from the gym to Tysons Corner where we met up with an old friend of mine from way back when my family lived in Africa. And then I came straight back to coaching my Odyssey of the Mind kids.

A busy, full day - as per usual.



I've not been very good about linking up my Focus 52 posts but I have been doing it.  This week's prompt is leading lines.  I didn't actually know that when I took the school bus pic but...it's the best I've got.  (Sometimes I'm a little slow to get to the party but hey, better late than never!)  Last week was black and white.  The week before that was "I Am ___".  I was late with my "I Am ___" photo but I was pleased with myself for doing it all the same. For the first week of the year, I followed the "New" prompt but it was a conceptual leak.  I was determined to make a reNEWed effort to update my blog and recommit to Focus 52...and all that jazz.  So I actually sat down, wrote what was on my mind and even linked it up.  Although in general I'll be more Focus52ed on photos.

Jan 25

Jan 25, originally uploaded by hezro.

So remember how the tooth fairy wouldn't go into Annika's room because it was a mess? Well, as you can see, the tooth fairy wasn't kidding. I'm a little embarrassed to post this photo of my daughter's messy room, but, it is what it is. My mom keeps encouraging me to let them have control of their rooms. Meanwhile my husband's perspective is that we're complete failures as parents if we're not teaching our children discipline. UGH!

I'm *trying* to get them to appreciate the value of an organized environment...or at least a clear walking space...but clearly I've not had much impact on Annika. *sigh*

Anyway, the point of this photo is actually to show her solution for the tooth fairy. She stuck her tooth under her pillow pet and left it here at her door.

P.S. This morning I couldn't take it anymore and I at least threw her dirty clothes into her hamper, when I went to wake her up for school. Annika said, "Wow, I had a lot of clothes on my floor." You don't say?!

Jan 24

Jan 24, originally uploaded by hezro.

The bus was 30 minutes late!

Jan 23

Jan 23, originally uploaded by hezro.

Grampy and Annika took a little midday nap.

Jan 21

Jan 21, originally uploaded by hezro.

So I'm going to be a little wordy, which I suppose is nothing new. But usually I sort of stumble onto being wordy and never actually intend to be. Oh my...now I'm being wordy about being wordy.

Anyway, I'm working on a web site for Heather Engen Photography and you may have noticed that I've rolled my blog into that.  So I wanted to make a new header, which reflected this change and made mention of Heather Engen Photography.

In the meantime, at the start of the month I decided to once again, try to participate in Jan's Focus 52 project over at Two Scoopz. I read the prompt for the second week, "I am ____", and I decided a new self-portrait would fit the bill.  Plus I wanted to redo my blog header anyway so I could kill two birds with one stone.

So there you go - that was my wordy way of introducing this photo. This shot was taken while I was still testing the light and actually, I decided that I would rather have two catch lights so I changed the lights around after this set up.  By the time I got everything set the way I wanted it, I'm holding a camera in every single on of those pictures.  In retrospect, I should have taken a few sans camera but I guess I was very focused on the task at hand.  (Look up at the new blog header and you can see one of the pictures from my final lighting scheme.)

Naturally I hated pretty much every single photo I took - including this one. It's strange because I used to be fine with photos of myself but it's been several years since I've had a picture that I like.  There's something in particular about this photo that I'm extremely self-conscious about. Perhaps (hopefully?) others wouldn't even notice it - because of course to others this is just how I look.  (Actually, most people would probably say this is a big improvement because my hair is actually combed and I'm wearing make-up!)  But I look at this photo and that one thing I don't like literally jumps out at me.  It's pretty much all I can see.  I don't want to tell you what it is, either, because I don't want to draw your attention to it...but I suspect it might not be the first "flaw" others would notice. Of course, I don't want to open it up for guessing either because then I might get self-conscious about some new thing(s). Yikes! Anyway, point is, I took quite a few photos and there were very few that I thought were even passable. So...this is a reminder to myself to be understanding when taking photos for other grown-ups because they might have similar peculiarities. :)  When it comes to pictures of ourselves, I think we care a lot less about technical proficiency than we do downplaying all of our "defects".

Moving on, we had an ice storm that day so while *I* was inside taking photos, the kids were out sledding on the ice.  My father-in-law gave us these great sleds which are perfect for these conditions. The kids had a lot of fun with them. (And clearly I did manage to sneak outside for a few minutes.)

Jan 20

Jan 20, originally uploaded by hezro.

The girls were running laps around the house while Dwight and Oskar were at Oskar's basketball practice. Afterward we all went out to eat. Then Mommy met up with some friends at a neighbor's house. When we left, we were all excited to see some snow!

Jan 18

Jan 18, originally uploaded by hezro.

Another loose tooth!

Jan 17

Jan 17, originally uploaded by hezro.

Annika made a poster for her "How to Monkey Jump" presentation. As you can see, I gave her full ownership. We made a DVD of her demonstrating how to do it and I did help her out with that. I think she wanted to make a DVD because she remembered Oskar making a DVD last year, when he presented "How to Rock Climb". Anyway, apparently the experience was a little traumatizing because a) allegedly her classmates laughed when they watched the DVD and b) all her pictures fell off her poster, when she went to give her presentation.

Oops. I guess that's what happens when you give a 6 year old full ownership of the process.

Jan 16

Jan 16, originally uploaded by hezro.

The kids had a sleepover at Grandpa's house (my dad). Here we are picking them up the next morning.

Jan 15

Jan 15, originally uploaded by hezro.

We visited with Grammy (Dwight's mom).

Jan 14

Jan 14, originally uploaded by hezro.

Oskar is playing basketball in a county league. The league is run by Gheorge Muresan so that's pretty cool. He coached the kids one evening. Oskar seems to be enjoying himself but he gets distracted very easily. Shocking, I know.

After Oskar's basketball game we went skiing (I still haven't downloaded the pictures from my little point and shoot camera) and then we watched Hunter's basketball game. I could kick myself because I left the camera in manual mode, even though I was trying to get motion blur photos. I should have locked down the shutter speed.  UGH!  Anyway, if I wasn't so lazy, I would do some post processing and fix the color and exposure but instead, I share my three favorites with you in all their SOOC glory!  :) 

Jan 12

Jan 12, originally uploaded by hezro.

It was very warm so we took advantage and spent some time outside. Autumn watched her cousin, Annika,  doing monkey jumps.

Earlier in the day she was not so happy. I tried to put her down for a nap and she wasn't having it. Before I rescued her, I had to first get a picture of what a big girl she is now and how she can sit up in her bouncy seat.

Jan 11

Jan 11, originally uploaded by hezro.

My daughter picked out this outfit and was quite pleased with herself because she felt that this was a masterpiece in MATCHING. The three browns match each other, of course, and the tights match the pink in the flowers (which you can kind of see from this angle).

She also asked me to take a photo of these webkinz for. She had borrowed them from her friend for the day.

Jan 10

Jan 10, originally uploaded by hezro.

I was playing around with the camera and trying to get a good motion blur (this NOT being the result I wanted) but I loved that they were holding hands, walking to the bus stop. I can't look at this picture for long because it makes me a little dizzy, but yeah, I love it when I catch moments of them being sweet with each other.

Jan 9

Jan 9, originally uploaded by hezro.

If you look carefully, you can see snowflakes. Kardynn had fun running around catching snowflakes on her tongue, while waiting for her ride to preschool.

I Love You Mom

I Love You Mom, originally uploaded by hezro.

Jan 8
Right now the kids - especially the girls - are into writing me little love notes. I have to enjoy it while I can because I have a feeling that before too long, things will change.

Jan 6 - Bus stop

Bus stop, originally uploaded by hezro.

The thing I dislike about having the kids in school is waking up at the crack of dawn to get them to the bus. I'm not a morning person so waking up at 6:30 am is NOT fun for me. Maybe when they're all in school, I'll be able to go back home and crawl into bed. That might not be so bad. But otherwise, these early mornings are for the birds! (Oh, and did I mention cold? That makes it all the better. [insert sarcastic smirk here])

Jan 5

Autumn, originally uploaded by hezro.

My niece is waiting for me get the older kids ready to walk to the bus stop. What a big girl!

Jan 4 - Marshmallow Girl

Marshmallow Girl, originally uploaded by hezro.

Waiting for her ride to preschool.

Jan 3 - Five Minute Snow Storm

Five Minute Snow Storm, originally uploaded by hezro.

We had a very brief snow storm the other day. But seeing as how there's not been much snow to speak of, we enjoyed the brief snatch of winter weather. Ten minutes after this photo was taken, the sun returned the little piles of snow quickly melted.