The past month was a whirlwind of emotions, I will not lie.  But out of trying times often comes laughter and perspective…I will try to be brief, but some background is required.

My Mom has been hobbling around with an increasingly sore hip since my son (now 3) was born.  One minor injury turned into the need for a hip replacement and, of course with all surgery, the fear of the unknown.  You see, I’m very lucky to even have my Mom here today.  Eleven years ago she was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer, whisked in for surgery and began 6 long months of chemo.  That was the same summer we were married.  I think the wedding was a blessing in disguise as it helped to keep our minds on something more positive and tone down the bridzilla in me ;).  See what I mean?  Laughter and perspective.

Thankfully Mom has had great health since then.  She’s also young and looking forward to being more active again (I’m serious when I say I can’t keep up with her…energizer bunny).  However, to get to good health, she had to endure the joys of surgery again and the prospect of “what if”.  Now as luck would have it, my Mother-in-law was going to be in town during the time I needed to be across the country (thank you!), so the stars aligned beautifully and I didn’t have to worry about my babies..okay, I still did, but more in a missing them way, than a what’s going on way.  I guess I’m just in that “sandwich generation”.  Looking after my kids, while giving back to my parents.

Well, the surgery went off without a hitch and she was so very grateful to come out of it with flying colours that we really wondered if she’d lost it those first few days in the hospital (drugs probably helped!!).  “Oh, the food is sooo good here!”  Really?  “Everyone is so nice!”  They were, but you’d think she’d gone to the spa for the weekend!  Again, laughter and perspective.  I also got to spend a quiet two weeks with my Mom….this just doesn’t really happen when you have two active children around, so it was very nice to just hang out together.  Now the added bonus of all this was that I got to spend a few days with my brother and sister-in-law and you cannot help but laugh when you’re around my brother!  He also let me “babysit” his iphone…ilove….

So, without further ado, here’s a few images from my time in Victoria.  Happy Mother’s Day Mum and I’m so happy things are progressing so well!

Surrounded by tropical (and not so tropical 😉 ) flowers…

My brother and I shopping…this never ends well as neither one of us is very good at it and we’d rather goof around and drink coffee!

The beautiful blossoms in Beacon Hill Park.

Mt. Baker a hop, skip and a jump away.

And you can’t go to Victoria without some really yummy seafood!

Sorry I can’t be there today Mum, but enjoy your day regardless and know we’re all thinking of you!!

Part II of the trip coming soon!

Shona 🙂

…I think I need a little “Swagger Wagon” to carry around all of my photography stuff!

Saw this ad a few days ago and have watched it a million times…”Every Mother’s Day proves, I’m kind of a big deal!”

Another post to follow, but this just be where I at – fo shizzle (watch the video so you don’t think I’ve totally lost it!).

Shona 🙂

The past month has been a little crazy, but I’m not complaining!  I have managed to visit 4 provinces, see some old friends, visit with family, enjoy new sights and learn from some amazing teachers.  Needless to say I have a lot of blogs lined up to go along with the rather full calendar of sessions I have lined up for May.  Bare with me!

My first adventure was a fabulous mini-holiday to Montreal with my sister-in-law (thanks Kim!!!) and the kiddos.  The weather was unseasonably warm and we took advantage of walking everywhere.  We also learned that we both navigate far better above ground than below! 😉

Old Montreal is absolutely beautiful and I think Kim was sick of hearing me say, “Oh this would be an amazing spot for a session!” or “Can you wait a minute while I take a picture?” {of no doubt some obscure thing that I’m sure she thought I was nutso for taking a picture of in the first place}  Thankfully she is as patient and forgiving of me as she is with the kids!

If you haven’t been to Montreal, Notre-Dame Basilica is a must.  It’s just stunning!

We also visited the Biodome, Insectarium & Botanical Gardens to see the beautiful butterflies flying around us.  The kids were quite impressed, but also a little disappointed that they wouldn’t just come and land on their hands like the chickadees at home!  And as luck would have it, one did land on Auntie Kim so that just added fuel to the fire!

Thank you again Auntie Kim for a most wonderful birthday present!  We had such a great time 🙂

…I miss my babies.  I mean REALLY miss my babies.  That’s a good thing though.  A little separation can make us appreciate each other more, now can’t it?

Since one of the downsides of being a photographer is never processing your own work, I thought I would take some time to look at older images and get to work on them.  These darlin’ images were taken back in January.  That’s actually not bad for me as I have some from last summer that I still haven’t got to!!  Yikes!

My little Mermaid…

He looks like he’s practicing that GQ pose in the first image…

And I promise, no photoshop voodoo on those beautiful blues.  They really are like that!!

Only problem is looking at pics of them, makes me miss them more!!  See you soon babies!

xoxox

My “baby” is 3.

He says he’s a big boy…until he’s tired and would like to be carried around.  Secretly I’m okay with this as he’s such a snugly kid when he’s not getting into mischief and I know this will not last forever.

Capturing images of him at this age is also a challenge.  I can’t stand the “say cheese” looks he gives me and much prefer natural smiles, mischievous looks and knowing smirks in my photography.  He’s also learned all my “photographer mom” tricks and will engage with me and my antics, but keep his head down.  Thanks son.

I was therefore thrilled to capture him in his element.  Wearing his “piderman underwears”, jumping on the bed and stomping like a dinosaur.  This is what being a boy is all about isn’t it?

Earlier this year, he also discovered how to give me a “thumbs up” with excellent coaching by his big sister.  He was so proud of himself, it was cute 😉

And after an afternoon of silliness, he lay down for a rest….NOT!  He is soooo faking it here.

He is there, I am here and I am feeling sorry for myself 🙁  However, he was two weeks overdue and had to be induced (both my babies refused to be evicted…), so I’m thinking of this as payback!  We will have his requested blue cake (?) birthday party when I return!

Happy Birthday, baby boy!! xoxoxoxo  Mwah!

Mommy

Yup, I did.  It was a painful day for me.  I will never forget standing in the hall of the old CS building, finding my student number, sloooowly dragging my finger across and seeing that big ol’ F there.  WHAT?  Are you kidding me?  I knew I wasn’t doing well (especially on the final exam when I truly had no idea of what they were talking about…maybe that should have been my first clue??), but I was essentially an A student, so I figured I could pull off a pass!

Oh, how wrong I was!

Now in my defense, I signed up for the wrong class that I needed to satisfy my BSc in Geography.  Instead of the all around CS class that had a smattering of pascal programming, I signed up for the “lets-weed-out-as-many-people-as-humanly-possible-from-a-computer-science-degree-by-making-them-solve-all-problems-related-to-man-kind-with-pascal-programming” class.  Oh ya, it was awesome!  Apparently I don’t take hints well as on the first class in this massive lecture hall they outlined how 1/2 the class would drop out by the legal drop date (REALLY should have paid attention here…).  Then of the people remaining, 1/2 of them would fail the midterm (by some miracle I passed…barely).  And then of those stubborn folks remaining, 1/2 of them would fail the final.  Presto!  Giant human CS sieve would solve their enrollment problem!

But wait!  I’m stubborn and I really couldn’t believe it would be THAT hard.  I’m no genius, but I have always done well in school because I busted my butt.  Why would this be any different?  Um, because it involves PROGRAMMING!  Apparently my big brother got ALL of the brain cells involving computers…lucky guy!

So, to make a long story longer, I decided to redeem myself, many many many years later and customize my beautiful new blog.  For the most part I did it, but there are still some weird glitches that no one can figure out.  I’ve tried everything I can think of, but it’s probably a little space here or a blasted comma there that is messing me up.  The white flag has officially gone up & I’ve hired someone to fix the issues…:(

In the meantime, if you’re looking at this on firefox, it should be perfect except for the sticky drop down menus.  If you’re looking at this on Internet Explorer, those same menus work (go figure!), but other issues show up (weird spacing/font size, little icons on weird places etc.).  However, the actual posts look great in both, so go with that and ignore the rest until it’s fixed!!  Please forgive me for posting before it’s fixed, but I’m impatient…

Oh, and about that credit I needed?  I took the appropriate class the following term and giggled the whole way through…couldn’t believe how easy it was!!  DUH!

AND, because I can’t post without an image….

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Shona 🙂

EDIT: ARGH! Even the web designer said, “I’ve never seen anything like this.” Awesome!

A funny thing happened on the way to making this image…you see I bought some candy hearts to photograph.  I’ve always wanted to do this {and a macro lens would have made this oh so much more fun ;), but I digress} and what better time than on Valentine’s Day.

And then, I made my fatal mistake…

I left them alone with my son…

No, he didn’t eat them all, but he did lick the sayings off of most of them!  Lucky for him they were pretty lame {hot date, urgr8, lost love etc.}, but come on!  Ah well, never a dull moment with the boy!

Here’s what I managed to capture along with one of my favourite poems by Roy Croft {which was also read at our wedding}:

Love

I love you
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;

I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can’t help
Dimly seeing there,

And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple.

Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good.
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.

You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.

You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.

Happy Valentine’s Day! xox

Cows was a must this summer when we visited the beautiful island of PEI…yummy, yummy, yummy!  It was great to see not only how the ice cream was made, but also the t-shirts and award-winning cheese (which I didn’t even know they made).  It feels funny to blog this on December 1st, but why not!?  Enjoy…and sorry for making you hungry!

Why do kids have to grow up so quickly?  Really.  All of a sudden my daughter’s singing songs from the radio, wanting to wear girly clothes and generally just plain old growing up.  Excuse me?  She’s FIVE!  She’s even decided that she’s going to have a boy and girl and has even drawn a family portrait.  At least she still thinks that she’s going to marry her brother which gives me some solace in the fact that she isn’t interested in boys (however, I gather from my sources that there are a few that have crushes on her…again, she’s FIVE!).

Here’s her “family” including Nicholas and Holly (don’t ask me where she got those names from):

And a photo that reminds me she’s still my baby who can pout like nobody’s business!

Sigh….

With my camera people!  Sheesh!  Mum’s been out visiting and kicking my butt into gear.  We did a quick mini shoot yesterday for her Christmas cards and here are a few of my favourites. 

Thanks for all your help 😉