April 18, Leaving On A Jet Plane

I’m on a part-time schedule at work and only go to the office on select days. Yesterday was not one of them. Whenever I appear in the office on a day that’s not “my day” my co-workers will let me know.

“Do you know that today is Tuesday Puna?”

Yes, I do.

One asked me, “Why are you here today?” I answered, “Because I’m going to North Dakota tomorrow.” He laughed – apparently it’s not the answer he was expecting.

But it’s the truth. The boy and I are traveling to North Dakota today on a jet plane. I’ve never been there and I’m excited. As I review my travel plans I realize that this is a one BIG and beautiful country.

So long – I’ll see you in North Dakota…

The Instagram Life

In rounding out my own little celebration this week on the acquisition of Instagram by Facebook, I will post the remainder of important – or not-so-important – images captured on my iPhone…

I love taking photos of food. I have a weird, funky gene that I can’t resist. The top left photo speaks of clean composition & the top right represents mother earth in pan. The jellyfish was captured in a plastic wine glass last summer and oogled over by the kids. It’s quite a fascinating creature. I once ate jellyfish in a Chinese restaurant. I don’t find many things to be awful but I wouldn’t order it again – and neither should you.

And for the record, I don’t eat hamsters. I just found him to be cute.One of my favorite places to photograph is Brownie Beach. The top photos were taken right after Hurricane Irene hit us. The bottom left was at the Awakening Fest, an outdoor concert that took place immediately after a long rain and I was scrapping mud off of my children for two days.

The bottom right is of Ella’s new home. The girl informed me that she needed house warming gifts for the new barn, like a wheelbarrow, rakes, shovels, feed buckets and the list goes on and on and on…

And finally, my favorite subjects of all time, people. And not just any person but people I love.

Happy Instagram Era. It’s a whole new world.

For Photostory Friday.

April 13, Look To The Sky

It may be Friday and it may be April 13, but I’m not going to let that bother me today! The sky is so bright and so blue – that’s always a sign of good luck, if one believes in those things.

Speaking of which, there are some things I use to say all the time, among them, “Good luck!” Now it seems like a colloquialism. I believe in providence, not luck. But I still say it, it’s a hard habit to break.  So conversely, I don’t believe in bad luck either, especially on this Friday the 13th. I believe only in the “luck” that we make for ourselves.

So along that line of thinking – I wish that bad luck stays away from you today, cross my fingers

April 12, A Stop Along The Way

I went for a very nice, very leisurely jog yesterday and I stopped about every 100 yards or so to take photos with my iPhone. The buds were so abundant and so gorgeous and I couldn’t help myself. And it gave me a good excuse to stop running.

The day before I wrote that I have had a difficult time sleeping lately. The next night, I slept like as soundly as I’ve ever done. Then last night…Let’s just say I think the problem remains, and stubbornly so. I am so tired today…so tired. However, I am going to get out of my chair immediately after posting this and take a walk in the woods, and yes, I’ll be armed with my cell phone camera.

I won’t continue to write daily about my restless nights…just know that if you don’t hear from me until noon or later each day, it’s because I’ve had another night of unexplained and persistent insomnia.

More Of Life Via Instagram

From top left -

1. I am not like most people in that I can look at a windowcase full of sweet treats and marvel more at the photographic value of chocolate than have the need to consume them. But just barely.

2. I love my church. I hope to never disappoint God – probably too late for that.

3. This concoction is – are you ready? – Korean kimchee che ge with goat meat. And it was delicious, tastes like chicken.

4. Naval Academy hockey! I’m a sucker for tradition so I love anything service academy related. And it’s only $5 to get in:) It’s a favorite pastime for our family, especially now that they serve food there! It’s also $5 for a hot dog but it’s all in the experience…

1. My girl – doing what she does best.

2. The girl asked me a couple of months ago if she could buy foundation. I resisted the temptation to be a mom and tell her that she didn’t need makeup and that she was beautiful without it. I told her I would buy it if she got a makeup lesson at the makeup counter. I think it worked. And she still doesn’t need it by the way. I guess it’s all a part of growing up.

3. I found this on my phone a couple of days after a St. Patrick’s Day party. It was a night that I wish not to remember, which is why I haven’t written about it. Looks like we were having fun though…

4. I alluded to the ups and downs of teenage romance not too long ago. Well, she’s smiling again and I’m so happy about that. I on the other hand – have a heart of a mom and the memory of an elephant…

1. Someone at work bought these humungous doughnuts. I put my hand next to it to show scale. Once again, should have gotten a manicure before I photograph my naked nails. I’ll never learn.

2. The boy is such a goof. I can’t even begin to explain how silly he is. This was taken on our college visit last week. We’re all sharing a single hotel room and he got the roll-away bed. I’ll miss him so much when he’s gone. I said that already didn’t I?

3. I love diners. This was downstairs in the student union of the college we visited. I will later post on how I feel about the cost of higher education…it won’t be pretty.

4. I saw this black cat and shot a photo because I was curious as to how I could get definition in a photograph of a completely black object. Instagram does wonders…this was edited with the warm “Earlybird” filter.

Congratulations once again to Instagram for its billion dollar buyout by Facebook. It’s made documenting life so much easier for me, and therefore so much better…

April 11, Slumber Comes

I am happy to report that one day after I confessed to you that sleep has been elusive to me for quite a few months now, I had a great night of sleep last night. The husband has been concerned about this as well, probably because it affects him – ahem – directly. Whenever a life “issue” pops up, either with the kids, the house, or the job, he will say, “Now this is going to keep you up too.”

Yes, probably.

I got proactive yesterday. I gardened for a couple of hours (loosely speaking), I went for a longish jog, and I spent as much time getting vitamin D as I could. I drove the girl to the farm with the windows and sunroof open. I stopped drinking coffee at noon – no more mid-afternoon pick-me-ups with caffeine. I asked the husband to skip my cup of herbal tea last night. He’s so used to making my tea on the nights that he’s home that he said, “I don’t feel like a good husband.” Bless his heart. I wanted to reduce the chance of me getting up in the middle of the night – if you know what I mean.

I also ate a good dinner and skipped the wine. And the husband gave me a Tylenol PM. I was determined – determined to get a good night’s rest.

And I did. It felt so good! I actually might have over-slept a little, it’s probably the Tylenol.

I hope tonight will be the same. I do quite a bit of sitting because of my work – but I’ll work around that…I hope last night is the start of a long stretch of perfect slumber.

Celebrating A Billion Dollar Acquisition

If you ever doubt you live in the best country in the world, then consider the acquisition of Instagram by Facebook for $1 billion. The company has a total of nine employees. It’s better than winning the lottery (which I still hope to do one day.) This is wonderful because the fortune was made on an idea, an idea that was extremely profitable – it’s what makes this country great!

I’ve not been using my DSLR much lately – it’s a long torrid explanation with which I will bore you one day. I went through the photos on my phone and I realize that if I ever lose/give up my iPhone, I’ll be losing a lot of memories…most of which were made then captured on the spur of the moment.

Basically – I’ll cry.

So in celebration of the $1 billion acquisition, and much love for my country and my life – I’ll share Instagram photos with you throughout this week. Apparently, I have a lot of catching up to do!

From top left to bottom right -

1. The husband went fishing last summer and sent me this photo. How gross is that? It’s the food chain but still…pretty disturbing.

2. The great Switchfoot band captured by my little girl. She put my iPhone on the catwalk. It caught this great photo so I can’t yell at her for it.

3. The boy and his friends on Halloween. Nuff said.

4. This beautiful sunrise was captured early one morning as I accompanied the girl on one of her sporting activities. It made getting up early worth it.

1. The boy is getting his senior portraits taken in the top left photo. Boo hoo! I snapped a couple of photos with my iPhone before I was politely asked to refrain. Then I paid an outrageous amount of money for a 5×7. They got me, just like they’ll get you too. Photographers know these things.

2. I bought a bunch of balloons for the boy’s birthday last August. The balloons lasted about 10 minutes before the boys popped them all.

3. Capitals hockey! We always love going to these hockey games.

4. This is an exercise class taught by my friend Lynne. We were outside that day – it was gorgeous and nobody seemed to mind that I was snapping photos. Maybe it’s because I didn’t tell them….

1. The sushi chef above was substituting for our favorite sushi chef one day. He saluted me. I was afraid for just a second that he may not know which finger to use.

2. The boy and his friends, engrossed in conversation in front of a fake fire.

3. This is Tuk Tuk. He’s coming to visit this weekend which means a lot more Instagram photos of him.

and finally -

4. A horse trainer with a pink witches hat at one of the girl’s meets. Why not.

Congratulations Instagram – I don’t know what I’d do without you.

April 10, Breathe

It’s time to confess – I’ve been having a hard time sleeping lately. If I happen to wake up in the middle of the night, I immediately begin to fret about things that I don’t have any control over and I can’t turn it off. I lie awake for hours and I begin to have this conversation with God, mostly asking for sleep. This has been a pattern for about six months. I wish – I wish it wasn’t so.

I’m sleepless in Maryland – except Tom Hanks will not be coming to my rescue.

I’ve decided that I’m not active enough during the day. If I’m more active then logic would dictate that I would be more tired at night and therefore go back to sleeping like a baby. Yes? I’m going to try it. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

The above photo was edited with a texture from the fabulous Kim Klassen for Texture Tuesday.

April 9, In Abundance

I am in love with the beautiful pink blossoms of the double cherry trees in abundance here in Washington DC. They bloom a couple of weeks after the Japanese cherry trees downtown and long after the famed Cherry Blossom Festival is over.

I’m in the pink today – I just bought Easter candy for my kids and am now cooking Easter dinner. These are things I didn’t have the time or energy to do during Easter but it’s alright. I was able to get candy at half price today!

Happy Mosaic Monday.

My Easter In SOOC

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. Starting Good Friday night, my mind was on capturing my church experience in photos. There was also another photographer on my team, a “real” photographer who teamed up with me to capture the sights of last weekend. You can see his photos here, I just posted them on our Facebook wall. He does a great job of capturing the motion and emotion, and he does great aperture work. Thank you Jesse Snyder Photography.

I on the other hand, attempted to capture the production from the audience, using auto mode of all things. I turned my flash off and held my breath. And my photos turned out like this.

It was during this time that I thought I might be more successful in manual mode – but I didn’t know how. Santa brought me this camera for Christmas and in spite of my best intentions, I never got around to reading the manual like I should.

So I asked Jesse, how to “work” my camera. He’s a Canon guy and I had a Nikon D7000 but yet – he was able to place my camera in the manual mode, complete with the correct aperture, speed and ISO settings.

So now I know.

And I went from this -

to capturing this in manual mode, changing my aperture setting only.

I think Miss Dana deserves to be shown in the best light!

Here’s more of my Easter in SOOC. I hope yours was just as wonderful.

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