Christmas 2010

Although it doesn't snow here in Southern California, at least we have family to make it feel like the holidays. Here's a snapshot of our Christmas at the Reeds.
Joey had some fun:

 and relaxation....

 For the first time, I picked fresh flowers from the garden for our centerpiece:

 Joey (and Ronia) played with the new Disney Fairies dolls:

 We drank delicious hot chocolate out of snowmen:

 Ate Filet Mignon that was so tender you could cut it with a fork:

 Spend time with the parents:

 Cuddled in cozy sweaters and jammies:

 Noticed my in-laws had a very similar nativity set to the one I had growing up...

 Even Murray had some fun with the tree:

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thoughts from a 4 year old during breakfast

Ronia: You need to watch the dolphins again. (referring to the show at sea world).
Me: Oh yeah? What will the dolphins help me with?
Ronia: She listens to her heart. I listen to my heart.
Me: What does your heart tell you to do now?
Ronia: My heart tells me to eat blueberries. (pause for several minutes and then randomly starts up again) I listen to my heart, and when it says drink your chocolate milk I do. When it says brush my teeth, I do. And when it says I want to listen to Raffi, I say Mom, may I please listen to Raffi?
May I please listen to Raffi? 

Odds and Ends

I never write full blog posts, but I could update my facebook status every 20 minutes. However, instead of doing that, I've decided to just leave this open and add to it when I have an interesting thought.

* Coco's, you have nothing on Julian Pie Company.
* I admit it; I like Justin Bieber. That's right, I do. At least I'm sure no one is surprised and I'm not alone in this world.
* Funny I can call myself a photographer when I don't have one spectacular shot out of 700.
* It's really nice when your neighbor asks your kid to come over and play.
* I can't believe how long a child can, and will, scream continuously. Over nothing of course.
* There's a guy leaf blowing outside my apartment. And it's raining.
* Amy and I are 93% sure we saw Lady Gaga hanging outside Starbucks and Boston Market yesterday. She didn't look so good.
* Am I done yet?
* Trix is back to it's original form! Whoo hoo! How I despised those fruit shapes...
* I hate it when I have unexpected visitors and I (and my house) look like crap.
* Funny how I get sick of my cds when I have several hundred, but I can listen to the Golden Girls DVD song (a whole 20 seconds) play over and over for an hour and it doesn't bother me at all.

Time for an update

I'm so excited to have a fresh new look on my blog! (I'd say "our" blog, but we all know the chances of Joey ever returning are pretty slim and nil.)  I've been meaning to upload some pictures of the maintenance done around here and just haven't made time. However, I think it's a good tie-in... the construction on my blog is done, and most of the summer fix-ups have been completed as well. Here's what you've been missing around my house:

Damage to some of my prized possessions due to flooding:

Here's Luis and Tony. Tony and I are buds now; he reminds me of Erik Estrada (he's on the right).  Here they are providing us kitchen light while ours was torn out.

And here's what our kitchen looked like for a few days:

This is my neighbors house after mine was finished:

This is on my building complex. Not quite sure what they're doing. I just wish I had caught the water spouting out:

I really should take a picture of the huge construction zone outside my bedroom window, but that's ongoing since I moved in and it looks absolutely NO different from the day we arrived. At least we're assured there will be some soft of continual obnoxious noise for the year to come.

That pretty much wraps up summer.

The New Addition

We got a new kitty! His name is Murray and he is such a wonderful cat; super tolerant and loving. Since I'm sure you're all dying to see, here he is! (Sorry Linda, we picked him out before you told us to get a female!)

Family Fun

Today Joey, Ronia and I had some fun with clay. Thought I'd share the fun:

Joey is really proud of his wizard (without looking at anything!)
Ronia and I made the food for her Noah's Ark animals.

What I Love About Michigan

Everyone that knows me knows that I love Michigan. There are so many people who may never understand, but I love it just the same. For example, I'm typing this on my mom's patio and listening to several birds chatting and singing away. My neighbors are across the pond enjoying the warm evening out on their patio. Lush green trees are surrounding me, light is reflecting off a baby pool, and the sound of the waterfall outside makes tonight feel like home.

I'm covered in mosquito bites, was woken up at 1:15am for a tornado warning and had to hide under the stairs, saw the most lighting in my life, and still happen to find this place magical. Last night Joey and I walked to the golf course next door and watched lightning bugs by moonlight. Tonight, my dad took him joy riding in his S2000. We spend the day at Matt and Melanie's with their new dog and brand new baby girl.

When I picked Joey up from the airport, we saw a frog in hop across the highway.  Yesterday, my husband held a toad for the first time. There are deer in the front yard, turtles in the back, red-winged blackbirds and robins all around. I love the smell of outside, the change in the weather, my friends and family, my church, Lake Michigan (which you can see the sandy bottom while swimming), the soft sand, beach grass, lakes, houses with big yards and no neighbors, the color green, pizza, Biggby and Jimmy John's. Ah, I will miss it all when I go back.

In two days I'll be on my way to San Diego again. Things to look forward to: being home, having instant coffee, being able to actually work on the thousands of photos I've taken, seeing my neighbors, spending time with Amy, being close to my in-laws, and of course being able to see the massive amount of damage (hopefully not) that the corroded water pipe in my kitchen ceiling created.

What if?

Somewhere between something Angie told me when I was half asleep, watching Batman Begins and reading Sarah's blog, I found myself in the bathroom of all places, wondering what I'd be like if all conveniences were suddenly stripped away. I was rather horrified to realize I had no idea. With no clothes, food, money, shelter, friends or family (ok, these would perhaps be needs, not conveniences) who would I be and what would I live for? Makes one contemplate.

Just for you Shan

So, in talking to my friend yesterday, I was reminded that I don't blog enough. I tried explaining that when I have nothing cool to say the posts would only be mundane and pointless. But because I said I would, here is a post just for her.

Here's an inside look in the typical day of Erica Reed.  Today consisted of:
7:15 woke up and got Ronia ready.
8:00 headed down to Ronia's school (as it is Monday)
Worked on photos, posted a blog entry.
Called client, checked on an upcoming photo location
Wrote some work emails and had some coffee
Took a shower
12 noon- picked up Ronia
Had a picnic lunch in the front yard. Peanut butter and Jelly, cheese and crackers, yogurt and raspberries.
1pm folded laundry
cleaned out/ organized Ronia's clothes drawers
2pm played babysitter to Ronia's stuffed dogs and made a card.
3pm Noel stopped by to drop off the backpack he forgot to bring yesterday
3:30pm Ronia is having quiet time with Fraggle Rock Sing-alongs

That's all I have now, but I'm making taco's for dinner and will continue to clean and hopefully will get to the dishes. That's it in a nut shell! Welcome to my life.

Here we are again, still alive I promise

It's been a long time as always. Let's see what's been going on. In the last week Joey and I have both had our vehicles worked on. His truck had been broken into for the 3rd time and we finally got the lock replaced. $900 later ($500 of which we had to pay before insurance), he's finally able to open his drivers side door.

Meanwhile, yesterday, while in the Wendy's parking lot, I put my car into drive where it continued to roll backwards. I whipped it around into a parking spot where I continued until I hit a concrete wall and pulled the emergency break. $638 later, I should have my transmission cable replaced and feel much safer.  We were so lucky we didn't have Ronia, weren't surrounded by cars, and happened to be on the same road as the car repair place. Not only that, but the tow truck was literally right across the road, and we broke down around 3pm, 2 hours until the repair place closed. We were planning on taking a road trip, so I'm fortunate we weren't in the middle of the mountains or desert near dusk when my transmission went out. Sometimes I just feel lucky.

Work wise, Joey has been making progress and I have ordered a new camera. It's been taking forever to arrive, but I'm looking forward to it!

Here are some pictures just to liven this post up a bit.

This is a portrait of Joey (above)

This is a portrait of me (above)

And this is the school picture of the artist. They cost a fortune, so if you're wondering why you didn't get one... that's why.

More later!

Bombing for Peace and What-not.

Just realized that my background was still Thanksgiving. Similar to how the pictures above our couch are still Halloween. Slowly but surely I'm working on changing the pictures in my frames around here.

This upcoming month will kick off a time of visitors. My step-mom will be staying in the area starting next Saturday, with my Mom arriving around the time she leaves. Following that my sister arrives on Easter for spring break. I'm so excited for visitors!

Perhaps we haven't updated since the last entry (the week of the sick and rain) because, well- it's been a reoccurring theme these days. Every weekend at least one of my sessions gets rescheduled, and at least two families from the complex are sick.

Speaking of neighbors, I have gotten to know a few lately and am finally starting to feel like I fit in a bit more. On Saturday, Laura, Emmy, Maria and I went out to the Miami Grill for dinner and a girls night. I haven't laughed so hard since, well- a long time. We laughed till we cried and sounded like a bunch of drunk college girls. Of course, they're all Mormon and don't drink so we were perfect companions.... but that sure didn't stop people from thinking we were.  :)

Work has been fun to, with the limited number of shoots I do get to take. This past Sunday, I had my first maternity shoot and it turned out really well. I can't wait to post the pictures.

Well, time to put Ronia to bed. I'll leave on this note...
One of the cars in our parking lot has a bumper sticker that reads: Bombing for Peace is like F*cking for Virginity. It makes me smile every time.

The week of the sick and rain.

The start of a new week begins. After a full week of sick child and no day care (and tons of rain), we needed a little break. As a result, Amy was able to spend some quality time with Ronia while Joey and I grabbed a bagel and coffee, and today Ronia spend some time with her grandparents while we went for a walk around the quaint town of Glendora. Thank you all.

In addition to that the three of us squeezed in some family time. Joey and Ronia made waffles, Ronia and I made cupcakes, we went to the library, visited the J street marina and enjoyed dinner together tonight. (Which we cooked!) Joey cut up some excellent chicken and I mixed together dijon mustard, honey, a bit of olive oil and a touch of mayonnaise together. We then slathered the meat and dipped it into a mixture of bread crumbs, onion powder, parmesan cheese and poultry seasoning. Pan cooked it with olive oil = delicious!

Other things I thought were noteworthy this weekend...
The carpool lane is for carpools. Just because it's on the left side of the road does not mean it's the fast lane, as it is labeled... the carpool lane. Somehow Californian's don't get it and drive 200 miles an hour and beep at you as they pass. I'm really not a slow driver. I'm just stubborn. Pick another one of the 4-6 lanes to be in. Seriously.

Another fun note: the hotel down the street usually known as "Embassy Suites," is simply glowing as "assy Suites." Actually, it's all in caps, so it reads "ASSY SUITES." Ha! Now isn't that funny?

Let's see- business stuff. I opened my website last week with a little less than a bang (more like a small smolder) but received 5 solid bookings thanks to my step-sister Lisa. She posted a blurb about me on Parent Connect and bing, bang, boom, I'm in business. So, including her I have 6 sessions in the next month and 2 more pending. Technically, if one of the pending one confirms, it's another 10 clients since it is for 11 individual children. That would be nice! In the mean time, I'm hoping my camera holds up and I can pull off some images people are happy with. Time to cross some fingers!

I printed off some posters, but am waiting for the rain to totally clear before I hang them up. Iwork is my new best friend. My business cards also arrived, although carelessly packaged and wet. Yes, torn up and wet. So... we'll see what will come out of my letter to Vistaprint.  More things to come on the way will include a facebook page (yes, yes, i know), a paypal account so people can pay with credit cards, an online viewing gallery and a page with all the options one has to turn their pictures into awesome stuff. P.S. my facebook page will be set up mainly so people don't have to see my photography blog posts show up on their feed in addition to these posts! So, if you want to see what I'm up to, great. If not, then you have a choice! Yea!

Whew, this is a long post. Time to go!

Its about time

As you all know, Erica's computer came last night and it couldn't come at a better time. Compared to her old computer, the new one moves at lightning fast speeds. That is especially important for a piece of software like photoshop. New pieces of equipment are so much more impressive when you have to deal with clunkers for a while. I guess that goes with anything.

Random Ramblings (stolen from Angie)

My feet have found heaven. I have these two pairs of socks that I received from Joey's mom at Christmas, and they literally create an amazing habitat for my feet. It's hard to explain, but my feet feel like they're in paradise when I put them on. Carol, if you remember which store you bought these at or what company manufactures them, I need to know so I can become their personal spokesperson.

Today I received my new mac and am currently typing on my new smooth, clean, backlit keyboard. It's wonderful. The only problem is the color on my photos seems very yellow and green compared to my old one. No, I don't have a way (yet) to truly calibrate my computer, but I almost think- what's the point if my pictures look different on every computer. They're profiled in sRGB, but my new color LCD looks much better. I guess all I have to worry about is how they print, but then I'm back to calibration.

The rain has started. Actually at the moment it's glowing outside. Rain here is a big deal, and everyone made an event of going to the store yesterday to stock up on supplies. When it rains here, it pours.

Tomorrow, I hope to release my website. Cross your fingers.

How did the Exam go?

I Passed! Which means I get sentenced to another year and a half doing hard time. Yeah for me :)

It has been awhile

Hi everyone. Things have been a bit busy lately. My advancement talk is next Tuesday at 3pm. Good news is that the talk is pretty much done, just need to "cross my t's" as they say. Besides the math news, quite a bit is going on around here. Erica is working hard on getting her company started. It is really exciting! I am a bit partial, but I would hire her in a minute.

Ronia and I are making and playing in forts. Playing in those things makes me a bit nostalgic. In music news, I started playing the piano. Let's just say that it is tough. I know they say math and music go hand in hand, but I am a bit skeptical. Math doesn't make your hands coordinated :) Jingle Bells is giving me some trouble.

Progress

Domain and website templates: done
Logo: temporarily acceptable
Pricing structure: subject to fine tuning, but done
Fictitious business name filed: done

Working on today;
Finishing Seller's Permit for the Board of Equalization
Reading 51 pages of Publication 68 for the BOE
California Resale Certificate

To do ASAP:
Open business bank account
Order business cards and sample products

Anticipation

So I have heard the anticipation regarding the picture capturing Joey's amazing ability to make our bed. Unfortunately, I discovered this evening that I accidentally deleted the picture and you'll have to wait just a little bit longer until it's posted. I deeply apologize.

Joey and I spend the day at Balboa Park and at his friends, Charlie and Venita's, house.  I took pictures, Joey and Ronia made a tent, and Ronia and I watched Tarzan. Before bed, Ronia was practicing words and came across "computer." Somehow, computer turned into "come-poo-ter" and uncontrollable fits of laughter emerged.  Always fun times.

While Joey entertained Ronia with books and the tent, I created a logo for my website. It may be temporary, but it has a little edge. I'm getting pretty close to releasing it. Just a few more tabs and once business cards are in hand, I'll be set to go. Keep those fingers crossed!