Through My Lens

t's been awhile since I took pictures. Which is sad to me. I really love to take pictures. For awhile, the only pictures I took were portraits for profit. Which I don't mind, but my real passion is more artistic photography or at least candid portraiture - no stress or pressure with either of those. I just love seeing what I can capture through my lens. So when my sisters asked me to take their family portraits this year I pulled out my camera and shot some pictures of my boys. Their growth hasn't been documented in awhile. So please enjoy these - I sure enjoyed taking them.

Life Bombs

A couple of months ago a friend posted about a "life bomb" that had exploded in her life. Well, ditto. I've been MIA for awhile here because I had exactly that happen. A life bomb. More like my life was the bomb. My old life and my old me exploded and little bits were scattered everywhere. Can you imagine? I'm sure some of you have been there. It sucked. It sucked big time. I can honestly say that it was the hardest damn thing I have ever done. That's how hard it was. It deserves an expletive. Well, I've been slowly putting things back together and it turns out that a lot of the old stuff is just completely gone. I'm still trying to piece together a whole picture, and I'm far from finished, but as it turns out, I kind of like this new me and this new life better.

Happy Birthday Grammy!

Today is my dad's mom's birthday: Grammy. She's 22. She's been 22 for as long as I can remember. She's sort of fabulous. She's always got her hair done and makeup on. I can't remember ever seeing her without her pearly white painted finger nails. She's got a really beautiful wedding ring that my Grandaddy had custom-made for her. My mom has told me the story that Grammy wore a costume ring for years for her wedding ring and one day she lost it and was so upset about it. So for their anniversary or her birthday or some special occassion, Grandaddy got his wife a beautiful platinum and diamond ring to wear, custom-made to replicate that costume piece (that he had snuck off with to give to the jewelers to recreate). I bought a ring at a garage sale in Iowa that reminded me of it. Anyhow, I love my Grammy so much for so many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is because I know she loves me so much. Every time I talk to her, she tells me that she loves me and my family and that she prays for us everyday. And I believe her. She's never forgotten a birthday of mine, my husband's, or my kids - even when I was younger and they were living over-seas or in South America, I would still get some sort of birthday wish. In fact, when they were living close by, she would take me shopping for my birthday. It seems like she did that all through high school even. I always felt pretty fancy going shopping up at Scottsdale Fashion Square back in the 80's and early 90's. She's really pretty musically talented too. She plays the piano beautifully and speaks French. Yes, my Grammy is just so très chic! I've been handed down a few of her things, like an old tiara (that I LOVE! It sits on my dresser), a couple silk scarves from France, and some of her crystal and silver - all of which I treasure! And even though I looked and looked, apparently my mom doesn't have any old pictures of Grammy travelling the world or anything, but just believe me, she's one hot lady!

Long Lost...

I don't know how to explain why I haven't been on here. I've got a whole lot of reasons that explain it inside of my head, but because of all the recent psychology/psychoanalysis books I've been reading, I'm afraid that it would come off... weird, I guess. Anyhow, I've been doing a lot in the last 6 months and I even have some pictures to prove it. So here you go:

I found a henna kit at the local Whole Foods and tried my hand at this fun artistic outlet.

My sister in law, Antoinette, even came over and played with me.

We gabbed for hours while our husbands played Xbox.

I wore a fabulous hat to church on the Sunday before Christmas and felt super fancy. I got it at a local antique store. I seriously love this thing and I've been wondering how many times I can get away with wearing it in one year, or if it's just a once-a-year-special-occasion-like-Christmas type of a hat.

I had a wonderful Christmas Eve with my boys.

I also had a wonderful Christmas morning with my boys and the rest of the family.

I'm pretty sure the theme this year among the gifts with all my siblings was: "Who can make their receiver cry the most?" I think I won (because my receiver was pregnant). But Clarissa may have won by making the biggest number of us cry at the same time.

I also finally got a website dedicated just to my photography:

www.charmaineslifephotography.com

And you may have noticed that I changed the website for this blog. Be sure to change your feeds to:

www.charmaineslife.com

Please don't take this to mean that I am no longer Randal's wife - because I am. In fact, I am pretty sure that I am more in love with him now than I have ever been. The blogspot address will still get you here, but that may change in the coming months.

So you see, even though my web presence was lacking in the last six months, I am still here and I have still been doing many things... In fact, I've got many more pictures to post very soon.

Eating Cereal

I swear it doesn't matter what this kid does, it's the dang cutest thing any kid, anywhere, has ever done.

Pox, of the Chicken Variety

For the next week or two, this little guy is no longer a baby thug, but will be a chicken thug, due to the minor outbreak of Chicken Pox.

Clearly, he's distraught by all 5 of his little blisters (there's one on his elbow you can't see). I can't remember the last time I even heard of someone with Chicken Pox, but I must say, if you have to get them, this is the way to do it!

Israel and Kindergarten

Israel's first day of kindergarten was last week. He is going to the same elementary school that I went to for 2nd through 5th grades... AND I went to high school with his teacher! Crazy.

The first day, he came home and everyone asked him how his day was and he told everyone, but the second day he didn't want to say what he did. I asked him if he had a good day or a bad day. He said he had a good day, but "sometimes people just don't like to talk about their day." O-kaay.

The next day was the same thing. So I went through all the questions; "Did you get in trouble today?"
"No."
"Was somebody mean to you today?"
"Nope."
"Did you have fun?"
"Yes."
"Then why won't you tell me about your day?"
"Sometimes people just don't want to."
So I started to think, maybe he just doesn't like it when everyone keeps asking him...
"What if you tell me and then I'll tell everyone else so you only have to say it all once."
"No. Sometimes people just don't like to talk about their day."
So funny, right? So I had to get more creative.
"How about you tell me and I'll keep it a secret?"
"Hmmm... OK!"

Score! So he tells me about his day every afternoon and I keep it a secret. Sorry, all I can tell you is that he's had good days so far.