This is a pretty tall order, since I can barely remember what I had for lunch, let alone what's been happening in our lives for the last six months or so. In the spirit of "smelling the Juniper" (see previous June 3rd's blog entry), I'll try to recap The Best of the First Half of 2008.
David. He's enjoying working with his team at the store. They've a good crew and manage to work hard, and play harder. He tries to get out and golf as much as the weather allows. He's signed on as one of our homeowner's association board members, which means we get to hear about all of the stuff going on in our neighborhood... good, bad and ugly. I think Max has him talked into starting Aikido... which will be fun for he and Max to have in common.
Max. As I type this I'm sitting on the floor in his room watching him fall asleep (and taking his sweet time at it, mind you). He's spent the last 2 days sick, with fevers spiking up to 105. It's been a while since it's reached that high, and luckily it passed quickly and wasn't much of a bug other than the fever. This bug forced us to stop and slow down for a few days. Kind of nice, really. This school year has flown by. I'm amazed that he'll be finishing kindergarten in a mere week. I'm fairly certain we were school shopping for the first time only last week. Maybe I'm wrong. We've certainly managed to make some really good friends this year. I'm not sure if I'm talking about Max or myself... but I'll say Max. There are a handful of his classmates that have really gelled and lucky for me, the moms have as well. Max is our "what's next?" boy. Could be the first-born thing... but could just be his personality, but he's constantly looking for something to do. Once he's doing it... you got it! "What's next?!!" It is helpful to my sanity when we stay busy... and threatens our quota of TV watching when we are not busy. He LOVES playing with friends. He LOVES staying active. This is a very good thing, since we just found out he has mild scoliosis. The threshold for scoliosis is an "S" curve in the spine with a 10 degree curve. His is 11 degrees. He's not in any pain, nor does it hold him back physically. We go back for frequent Xrays as he grows, and if it gets worse he'll wear a brace. Same or better, more Xrays to monitor his growth. I'm just thankful we could catch it early. The doctor's prescription for Max? "Be a boy...." Exercise and strengthening the back is beneficial. No sweat, doc!
Sam. Oh, Sammy. My baby is four and a half now, and a bit of a "Baby Huey" at almost 55 pounds. He's just hit a growth spurt and is shooting up even further. I hate seeing what clothes he's grown out of, because it only reminds that he's not my "little" baby any more. He's got a sweet personality, with a touch of cayenne pepper thrown in. One of my favorite attributes of this one is that he's an independent boy, with a wonderful imagination. He's constantly taking some sort of stick or plastic weapon and spends 15 - 20 minutes on his own making up stories, rescuing maidens, slaying dragons or chopping the heads off of some intergalactic intruder. We've a plastic set of num-chucks he was playing with this evening, and I just about lost it. He could have stood in for Bruce Lee any day, with his "Hiya's" and "WaaaaaChow's." Then again, there is the Sammy that cares for and loves "Honey," his baby doll. When he's 16, he's going to hate the fact that I love this so much about him that I tell the world. He is a very well rounded little man. Our recent challenge with him is we found out that he has allergies to wheat, dairy (even goats milk!), soy and peanuts. Try cutting THOSE out of your diet! Thankfully we're a bit familiar with some of this, as my mom has very similar allergies. We had him tested because he has a constant double-barrell runny snot gun, really dry skin (excema), his cheeks flush inexplicably on occasion, and he tends toward the firm side of life in the potty-arena, if you catch my drift. We're hoping that by eliminating his highly reactive allergens, that we clear up all of those symptoms. Time will tell.
Kimberly. What? Me? I've been spinning too many plates this last six months... okay 6 years, that I barely know where to start. A few of you have asked about my business... I am not currently making cards, but may return to that craft at some point in the future. Dave bought a Nikon D80 for me last November, and I've been taking pictures ever since. I love it, love photography. I'm improving with every shoot, and am having a great time. I've hit a few milestones, as well as achieved a few firsts. Here they are: I've a website! www.kimberlyteichrow.com. The family and friends section will contain most of our recent pictures, if you ever want to check in and see what we've been up to. If a site is protected, just e-mail me for the password. I launched the site to be able to manage my client photos, and have the ordering and fulfillment handled. I am also able to shoot Max's (soon Sam's too) sports games and post the images online for families to purchase. This seems to be working out well, and I really enjoy it. I'm published! There is a new local magazine that has only had 2 editions in print. I was able to get on a list of contributors for the magazine and they gave me an assignment for this recent edition. Two of my images made it, and they'd hoped to have had room for more... they loved the pictures. The magazine is True North Parenting... and you can see my image under the article reviewing children's cookbooks (although there is only 1 pic in the online version). I'm in a public space! I happened to meet the owners of a new restaurant in town (The Phoenix Cafe) at the right time. I've got about 8 or so framed photographs hanging in their restaurant. I've managed to sell a few, so at least I was able to break even on the framing! I made it to a week long Photoshop conference in Orlando by myself last April. While I missed the family... I had such an amazing and inspiring time, I loved being in the student's seat again.
The family? We'll we've added a new member... and its yet to be named. After much consideration, we added a 31' Jayco travel trailer to our family. You can check out our first trip (at the beginning of May), on my website... The Maiden Voyage gallery in the Family and Friends section. We're going to have SOOO much fun. Our next "trip" is all the way to Sisters, Oregon (20 minutes away) for the weekend of the Sisters Rodeo. This will be either the first of many years at the rodeo, or the first and only weekend. It's a BUSY weekend in Sisters, and the campground is RIGHT next to the rodeo grounds. The next trip will be to Eastern Oregon in late July (in Joseph, near the Wallowas), and we're off again in August to Lake Chelan with friends.
I suppose that catches most of you up... I'm going to try to make an effort to keep up the posts, more for my sake than yours (again, check out June 3rd's post).
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