Thursday, February 28, 2008

life as it is..

Well, life has been much different since the little one left the house. I don't quite know what to do with myself. Honestly, it's been quite difficult. A roller-coaster of sorts. A wild ride. Emotional. Turbulant. My friend, Sarah, who is my bestest buddy here at work with me, has been at the bitter end of my rants and raves lately. She has heard me cry, heard me get nauseaus in the car on the way to an early training, burp, you name it....scream, yell, complain about work, (you get the picture yet....).....it's been a crazy week. I've definitely gone through the gamut of emotions. I am getting better at not crying so much but I still cry a little each time her name is brought up. It's tough.

So, I'm trying to stay busy. I started my Digital 1 Photography Class last Thursday. It was wonderful. We've been busy photographing everything. We've done several shoots together, and here are a few of my favorites from this week. It's a good way to keep my mind of of stress...and I love it. Where has this been my entire life? Why did it take me so long to realize that I love taking pictures? And to shoot manually? WOW! I never knew how cool that could be?

We went to Riverside and the walking bridge the other night...turned out a North wind came right in and was about to blow us away. We got some good shots. My shutter speed was set too low the whole time and I didn't realize it until the end.. (amateur, remember)....so a good cup of hot chocolate fixed it at the Coffee Shop on Cherry Street. It was fun. (And it allowed me to get a super cool shot of it!)





Sarah and I trekked over to Oklahoma City for a training for our job....and went downtown to shoot at the memorial. I think we got some amazing pictures. And, what's really cool, we decided, was that even though we go to the same places....we never get the same shot! We both came home with different pictures! That's what's soooo cool about it!

We didn't have class this week due to some last minute stuff, but it's added on at the end of the other weeks....so it's all good. Here is just 1 of my favorite...and two other fun ones! Hope you like them too!

Our photo blog has more.



Sunday, February 24, 2008

should have been a cowboy!

How 'bout them Cowboys?


Reminds me of times I was there earlier this year...when Taylor and I took little one to the OSU game and sat in the cool boxes up high! She loved it...and she thought the OSU table was the coolest thing EVAH!








Saturday, February 23, 2008

It's so hard to say good bye....

It's now been about 24 hours since Violet's been gone....and it's been a rough road. We had a great last week of fun things. We had many last things do to, friends to see, family members to see, and things to do. I think it went really well, all things considered. The one thing that made it hard, was that my mom got really really sick and actually ended up in the hospital on Thursday morning, so she didn't really get to hug her good bye.

However, after talking much with Gayle, my stepmom, who also did foster care years back, I realized that we needed to make this a "see ya later" rather than a "good-bye" so that's what we did. Violet liked this idea much better, the incoming family was totally fine with it, and I liked it too. We still had our moments. Violet cried every day and I caught myself tearful (read: emotional breakdowns) at multiple times during the week, usually when someone told me what a good job I did. Which is another blog post in it's entireity.

So, with that being said, Violet moved yesterday afternoon to Wichita, Kansas. I sent her with an address book with all her friends and families addresses and phone numbers, stamps, notecards, pens, stickers, and other fun writing stuff. I do hope she calls to tell me how she's doing. If I don't hear from her within the week, I will call her. However, I'm going to guess I'll hear from her within the week.

The plan is for us to go visit her within the next 2-3 months to see her, follow up and make sure she's doing well. Her worker will keep me informed and they told me they'd let her call as much as she'd like also. I feel very relieved with this also. For having someone in your life that long, it's like losing a piece of your heart. A very hard thing to do.

I decided to get away for the weekend and come to a peaceful place for me. I'm renting a cabin at Grand Lake. I've got wi-fi, tv, warm blankets, books, food, pop, and my dog....what else could a girl want...and the best part is that I'm in a place that I spent much time growing up as a child in the summers with my grandpa.

He built this resort (Lee's Resort) so I'm feeling at home, even though it's away. I wanted to get away, spend some time in peace and quiet to center myself before getting back to work and life as it was before Violet was in my life.

I think I'll be alright, it will be quite an adjustment, but I will be doing some fun new things too. I'm starting a new photography class and I'm sooooooo excited for that. I can't wait! Speaking of that, I changed my design of my blog and put a new header picture...that was from the class on Thursday night. It isn't a big deal, but I thought it was a cool picture...so I put it up there, because that is now the focus of my life. Well, one of many. Our instructor, Zane, was great. He was young, hip, cool, and seems to know a ton about photography. I'm excited to learn basic DSLR photography and how to shoot Manually. That's our goal.

We have homework assignment and Sarah and I already have a few shooting ideas for this week. We'll post pictures on our photo blog (link on upper right side) and I'll put some here too, I'm sure)! I'm going to try to capture some tomorrow. He said he expects us to get 50-100 per assignment! What a fun class! I'm so excited.

Well, I'm off to watch the OSU/Kansas basketball game...a little anxiously I suppose, but milk and oreo's will make it better. Here's a picture of what I'm looking at the moment...which satisfies our assignment too, by the way...

ISO 100/200
WB Daylight (I didn't even adjust to cloudy)
Center the meter to 0







Thanks for reading!

Oh, and for the record....Violet will be the first and the last foster kiddo I have. I've got some other stuff on the horizon.... ;)

Cows and Horses

My friend Sarah and I took a little photo field trip the other day for our lunch hour. Thursday night was the start of our photography class. What an AWESOME time I had. I can't wait. Here are a few of the shots I took, but I played a little with them in the photoshop too. We just went to a field of cows...and then a few horses too! It was fun.

 

 

 

 
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Sunday, February 17, 2008

Zoo Tales Part 5

Check out how long his nails are....I guess he has to clean out his ears too...and he covers his eyes as well!


 


 


 


 
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Zoo Tales Part 4

 


 


 


 
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Zoo Tales Part 3

 


 


 


 
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Zoo Tales Part 2

 


 
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Zoo Tales Part 1

 


 


 


 
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Violet and Vindi

My little monkey.....playing with the 1 year old chimp at the Tulsa Zoo.

TOO TOO TOO TOO CUTE! Check out how funny this chimp is!


 


 


 


 
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Thursday, February 14, 2008

LIttle brother is getting big...

I finally had the chance to go down and watch Taylor play on his travel hockey team this weekend. It wasn't a good game, but I had a good time. I took my camera, but man do I need practice. I tried to get a few. I was playing with settings the entire time to figure out the best way to shoot...and I still didn't get it quite right. I can't wait for my class. AGGHH!

Here he is...Mr. Taylor Fritts.



 

 

 

 
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Happy Heart Day

What a wonderful day!

For the first time, I was able to be the one to give the Valentine's gifts to a little kid. It was so fun. Violet got some new little baby stuff for her baby. I didn't get her candy because I knew she'd get so much today. We had a great day. Her mimi bought her a beautiful heart necklace (that matches mine). She loves it. It's a big girl necklace and she thinks she's hot stuff and very special. We went to the Hideaway for pizza and pop tonight and came home to have some cake.

However, after seeing all of her Valentine's from school, I must admit that I know for certain she had the cutest Valentine card I've ever seen....I'm a little partial, but check it out for yourself. Isn't it adorable?

Fun times.


 

 

 

Lost in the woods on a snowy evening...

What's the name of that poem again? I can't remember and I'm too lazy to google it right at the moment.... anyway....I uploaded pictures. So, I'm in the blog mood at the moment. I made a list and I'm checking the main events off that have happened over the last month or so....here ya go.

Oklahoma... I swear one day it's 80 and the next day it's 50 and the next days it's 20 and it snows and then it's 70 and then 10 and then 40 again. CRAZY.


 

 

 

 
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