Three

BEVO and Coach Brown pictures

Hooray for the coaching staff!!  We had a great time last weekend and someone was kind enough to email me these pictures.  Since I am still quite a way off from downloading pictures from the weekend... these are quite lovely.

And there seemed to be a pattern this week: the president of EASB forwarded a picture of Mr. Price and yours truly with sweet Hillarey at the Seton Gala which was the night before.  I'll forward/post that momentarily.

LOVE when people share pictures.  Love it, love it, love it.  I'm to a point where I am drowning in a backlog of photos and I wonder if I'll ever catch up...

Props to the Picture Sharers of the world!

The Enemy of Perfection

So this evening as I ate my dinner, talked about work and fed the baby with the (seemingly attention-starved) cat sitting in my lap, it hit me: I haven't blogged in awhile. Was it the business trip that took a week of prep to match my week on the road? The photo sessions and related post-production endless task list? Maybe it was because of the newly-crawling, teething kiddo and adjustment to the time change and all that entails? Could it be the trips to the vet and the kitty-girl overcoming her illness that just about sent her to kitty girl heaven? Maybe it's the house redecorating? It surely wasn't the distraction of UT football. For all the times I get super busy, I still find time to blog. Why haven't I? I have tons of stories, updates and vignettes in my head, just bouncing around and itching to get out... so why?

My cousin recently emailed and asked us to compile photos and stories for my Grandmother's upcoming 90th birthday (yet another undone-to-do) and something she included at the end of the request was compelling. Maybe I should think on it a bit more until it REALLY sinks in... but on to it: "Don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough" In an effort to make things just right, don't put so much effort into it that you don't finish it and move on to the next thing.

You laugh. Think this was directed at me? Case in point?

So yes, I have managed to skip over some blog-worthy happenings which about drives me bonkers. It's one thing with things are just crusin' along, nothing to report, and I'm feeling the creative impulse to scribble. But uggh, to have content yet haven't captured it is like an itch I can't scratch. Did I mention I *actually* worked out? YES! THREE, count 'em THREE trips to Vinyasa Yoga (that's three 90 minute sessions of power yoga in a heated room). I mean, that's SOMETHING.

With all these things scrolling through my cabeza, I kept thinking I'd back-blog them. But alas, I give up. Maybe I'll have a very slow next couple weeks and have the chance to do just that. Ah, note to self: next week is Thanksgiving. Is it possible? (Time to bust out the Charlie Brown!)

And so in summary, I offer the following... Here 'tis:
-work trip damn near did me in... but I made lemonade: flew the boys to meet me in San Fran and we enjoyed spectacular weather. Even the locals were in awe.
-for now, I've managed to stave off the 2 week trip to Brazil. Seriously? Brazil. Don't get me started on the irony. and related eye-rolling frustration.
-The kitty girl is in full recovery. However, she has a new problem... for years she was a bit, shall we say, overly fluffy? (read: morbidly obese and on diet food for years, to no avail). She has dropped from ~20 lbs to a frail 5 1/2 lbs and as we have been working to pack the pounds back on, she has made progress. Along with it, she's become less irritable. whew. few things as mood altering as a cranky kitty. ESPECIALLY an hour after the baby has gone to sleep.
-yoga. see above. Mmmmmm. yay.
-the house make-over has been delightful. makes me wonder why i didn't do this early.
-we had our first over-night away from the bebe. Mr. Price and I got away for about 36 hours for a lovely stay at Barton Creek Resort while the shorty's delighted Nana got the pleasure of snuggling and playing with the little charmer. And a good time was had by all.

that's all I've got for now, team. Diving back into photoshop for the balance of the evening for a photo shoot of a babino with several large souvenirs of recent fun-gone-awry (aka scratches, bruises and bumps) that we'd prefer not preserve. good times.

over & out.

Neil Young

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, Nov 6, 2010 at 5:01 PM
Subject: Neil Young

Waiting for my last photo shoot of the day while listening to the wedding band play Harvest Moon, one of my favorites. Not to mention the typical wedding songs: canon in d, etc...




Sent from my iPhone

Here Comes the Bride

So this weekend I will be photographing a wedding at Mercury Hall! haven't done much photography since I got preggers. But this lovely bride came to me to ask me if I would shoot her wedding and I'm happily obliging. a little extra spending money ain't bad either -- so I spent my few spare moments this week checking my equipment and preparing for my six hours of physical and mental exertion -- I'm actually a little bit nervous to get back into the swing of things ..Definitely more excited, though, and looking forward to the event pictures to come -- but I suppose I am also a little concerned about having enough time afterwords to process the pictures as needed. But life goes on.

It turns out that 'weddings' are the theme of the week: not only do I have the wedding this weekend, but I finally got my wedding album! It only took five years :) and then yesterday I spent the bulk of my day over at the tri prices and Jackie and I spent time looking for her wedding pictures after realizing that we have had the same photographer! but of course the most key piece of this week that is wedding-related is that Tuesday night sweet Gray proposed to my little sister the day he received the ring at an impromptu dinner with dinner in a glass of champagne.

Sent from my iPhone

Caught on Camera

I realized last weekend that in the first 2 months of Jackson's life -- excluding any pictures my sister or sister-in-law took on their cameras- there are a total of 26 pictures with me and my baby- more than half of which are out of focus - and of the remaining half of those have other people holding him and my head popping out from behind. And of what remains, I'm partially unclothed (having just nursed) and not a picture appropriate for printing or framing.

Given that I have spent at least 95% of each day holding, loving or feeding this sweet baby, it's a little sad to me to look back at the pictures and see no sign that I was even around.

To help rectify this- Mr Price is going to make a concerted effort to take some pictures of the two of us. Such as this camera pic from last weekend:

Picture Perfect

We had a lovely time in New Canaan last weekend and NYC late last week. Kristin was a beautiful bride and the Stanwich Congressional Church was perfectly New England, the Rehearsal Dinner at Waveny Park was picturesque and the New Canaan Country Club was just as I'd remembered it.


Now comes the heart breaking news (well, for me at least): after what should have been a 15 minute bus ride full of guests heading to the church but ended up an hour of winding roads and getting lost - I partially recover from my motion sickness, settle into our pew of the breathtaking church and ask Mr. Price to take a picture of Chad (the groom). I checked to make sure the flash was off (there was plenty of light from the tall windows surrounding the two story sanctuary) and the camera wouldn't take a picture.... Yes, team: my battery was dead. The catch: in a hurry to make it downstairs for a 3pm bus departure, I had him switch out the batteries since I thought the other one might be running low. And dammit if the 'other' battery wasn't worse off.

And so it was. One of the absolute most beautiful weddings and receptions I've ever seen --seriously, the light was amazing-- and I have not a single picture to show.

*sigh*

My sweet brother-in-law took a bunch of pictures and emailed me today to say that even though "they weren't very good" he is going to send me a CD of high-res pics. Thanks, Ted!!

Blog Backlog

Dear Blog Readers,

I am remiss, my sincere apologies. Here it is, the begining of the year and nothing to read online during your downtime ...and I am not helping.

You see, dear reader, I have a backlog of blog posts that I have not yet posted because I have not yet uploaded the pictures to the posts. I've not yet included the pictures because I hadn't downloaded the pictures from my camera. Seems that it took me so long to do that, there was a backlog of pictures to organize and back-up. Turns out, once I realized that task was a bit more overwhelming that I'd realized (that of sorting), I just kind of ignored it - went along my merry holiday way... celebrating too much, sleeping in too much, watching movies and teaching my nieces to say my name (successfully, I might add!! more on that later). As you may know, I did start editing down pictures from the beginning of the year which leaves -who knows how long- until I get to the end of the year and to the task at hand.

This is no excuse, dear reader. I have heeded your call for reading material and I pledge to do better-- to catch up on my blogging backlog! NOTE: this is NOT a new years resolution, as I haven't and clearly shouldn't. My goal is to upload the pics tonight to the blog backlog and post those puppies! (wish me luck)

Best,
me

P.S. Madeleine can now say "Aahh Meh-Muh" for of Aunt Emmie (she can't say her 'E's just yet) and she's quite proud when she says it, too. Meanwhile, we had a delightful Christmas Day with the TriPrices - who refer to me as Aunt Em-lee and freely pull me from room to room for various adventures. My heart swells with pride. =)

Editing down from 20,000

Sorting through pictures from 2008 and selecting my favorites for our 2008 coffee table yearbook today. Realized that I took over 20,000 pictures in the 2008. Not bad, eh? yikes.

Of course, for Xmas, I made books for my parents and for poopsie's parents of the random fam pictures and poopsie's first year of life, respectively. Each book had ~700 pictures included in each, so 160-170 pages. I was so excited to give them and they were big hits!

But so far, in narrowing down the pictures for our '08 book, I've got 115 pictures for the month of January (and that was a light month as far as the shutter goes...). This is not an easy task, I assure you. Anyhow, at this rate, i'll have ~1,400 pictures for the yearbook. Too many? You decide.

The Great Christmas Card Crisis of 2008

I was SOOOO proud of our Christmas card picture this year.... Made it into a lovely postcard on heavy card stock... created the messages and laid it all out. They were to say "Merry and Bright" on the front with this picture:



Flip it over, and on the left half of the card, the message "Wishing you and yours a 2009 filled with finding Joy in the little things --The Prices" (get it-- the little ornament, etc) was written in a red casual script over this picture (which was at 50% translucency so it was more of a faint imprint):

I already had the little mailing labels printed just the right size to fit-- with a green font and the nutcracker stamps all ready to go.

The post cards arrive in the mail and... much to my disappointment, the front was practically black. You could barely see the picture- even the lights on the tree barely showed. Boo. Who wants an ironic Xmas card? "Merry and Bright" ....yeah, right. So I call (took me several days to get anyone to answer when I called - i listened to LOTS of holiday music while on hold), finally get through and they say "oh, yeah, we had a dark run that day..." So we reprint them. arg.

The second batched arrived! It was Christmas Eve Eve (the 23rd). I was SOOO going to get the cards out by the next day. Woohoo-- open the box up... and BAM! they are bright red. WAYYYY too much red. Yes, even red in the green branches of the tree. =( Booooo. Hands-down, MUCH worse looking than the ironic dark cards.

So with that, folks, my Merry and Bright Christmas Card bubble had been popped. No card from the Prices in the mail this year... just this post. And likely an email with the picture attached. Not nearly the same.

Our Christmas Cards aside, ours was just perfect and we hope you had a Merry and Bright Christmas of your own!!

And thanks for the Christmas Card if you sent one!! I'll do better next year...

Merry & Bright

Mission Accomplished! I'm feelin' it (the Xmas Spirit, that is): the house is decorated, attended a Christmas party- in Christmas-y clothes- that turned into a late-night dance party (nice...) and I even took pictures for and designed our Christmas card. Woohoo. The Holidays have officially arrived.

Tomorrow night: Christmas Cookie-thon


(that is my tree in the background...)

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas.

Christmas Cards from Aunt Emmie

I've been taking some pics for (other people's) Christmas cards lately and took three of my absolute *favorites* yesterday, so I thought I'd share some Christmas spirit.

And let me just say this: people who think there is 'economies of scale' in having multiples-- are mistaken.

That and: damn they're cute:







Faith (whispers) "I'm ready for my picture... cheese."


Ava hollas "I'm part of a group? I'm Part of a GROUP!"


Claire asks wide-eyed "Aunt Em-lee, can I have candy now?"


Little Madeleine-lou-who from Whoville:

Productivity Propagation

PART 1
I am sure there is a business case or ten on the subject, but I have recently been reminded that inflicting large amounts of stress and insecurity on employees does wonders for productivity.

And when I say "does wonders" I means tanks.

And when I say "large amounts of stress and insecurity" I mean things like offering to large groups parachutes for taking a package and a hike, delivered along with the message that involuntary separation is pending if enough people don't take the parachute.

Fascinating.

That noted, I am otherwise completely occupied working like the proverbial one-legged-man* trying to catch up from 4 days of travel and the days leading up to it, where I was preparing to be out of town for the aforementioned travel. (note the lack of blog posts last week)

Sister is exhausted. As if the 4 draining days weren't enough.... my legs are so redonkulously sore I can't begin to explain. You'd just have to see me walk (or try to walk) and if you did, I assure you, you would giggle. And I wouldn't blame you. I really wouldn't. Anyway, I think I got tricked into working out.

PART 2
The truth is....while photographing a wedding: there are a million things rushing simultaneously through your head. Things like: do I have the right aperture setting/shutter speed/White balance/lens/flash settings? Wide angle or close-up? What about the battery and memory card-- should I change those out or go a little longer? How do I keep things moving along as to not hold up the celebration? How do I ensure that we take enough time to get the right pictures that become the only lasting memory of the day? How the hell to I toe the line of assertiveness and 'nicey'-ness to handle crowd control of tipsy and otherwise occupied wedding-goers (who would MUCH prefer move on to the next cocktail hour than stand around and smile for the camera)? And most notably - unfortunately for my calf muscles, quads, hamstrings and glutes (really - just about any other muscle group between my hips and ankles, it seems): How do I get a shot of the happy couple that doesn't also include the nasty grey storm clouds on the horizon? --AND minimize the shadows and generally unpleasant lighting??

The answer to the last question --in case you were wondering-- was to take many many shots (the kind with the camera, NOT from a bar, unfortunately) at an upward angle which resulted in much time of squatting, lunging and quickly getting up and down from the ground while carrying an extra 10 lbs of camera equipment - just for good measure.

...And I just realized this story would have likely been MUCH more entertaining if the 'shots' I was referring to were from the bar and not the camera...

I think I'm going to bed now.


*you remember: the one in the a$$ kicking contest??

Halloween Stinker

For her second Halloween, Madeleine was a Woopie Cushion. It was awesome. Clearly it was just as funny to her as it was to us:

What else do 13-month-old Woopie Cushions do? They're not just all laughs! Oh, no. Turns out they spread all kinds of happiness....

They hug their cousins, (she *may* have been trying her newest wrestling move here)

they feed their sandwiches to hungry (and friendly) puppies:

they make new friends with monkeys they encounter...

They also give speeches about very important things in foreign languages (details of aforementioned speech pending...)

This little toot isn't talking just yet, but her animal sounds are brilliant. She can do impressive impersonations of a monkey, lion and horse. She also knows the difference between her aunt and uncle's noses and can find her belly button in a flash.

Oh, the fun you can have with a one year old.

Footnote: I'm going with the spelling of "Woopie" that matches Maddie's costume.

Celebrations in the City

Pics!
Here are some snaps from the weekend in New York. I have some artsy ones that I'm really digging, but I'm thinking the sugar high has me a bit hyperactive in choosing pictures to post (note: way to many pictures posted already)

Maybe I'll try reading a book. THAT should put me right to sleep!



Thursday

Jess and Mr. Nelson, the afianced ~Em & NatMay

Ladies~ The Striebys are SOOO Manhattan


Friday

Catherine: a few weeks to go before meeting the twins!
Jess, bride to be!

Magnolia Cupcakes: a little bit of heaven

AJ's bachelorette night 1: after dinner at Supper

Saturday

Watching the Horns with the Striebbehusens ~ Jess's bike on Bleeker

in line for cupcakes ~ and later that night


Sunday

clementine 'pimpin'

More Cake? (link fixed)

Additional Selection of Maddie Bday pics here.

1 Year & 1 Day of Madeleine Mae

Sunday, September 21, 2008: Poopsie's first birthday party.

She LOVED her party and clearly knew it was all about her.

It was fantastic.

cake work by Aunt Emmie (on the white & pink one)

(it says "One year and one day of Madeleine Mae")

Dive on in, sweet cakes...

Straight to the tub!

....contemplating cake.

Yep, still having fun.

Getting dressed for round 2 and seeing herself on her first-year-of-life-slideshow (from Aunt Emmie, of course, with love)

4 Generations:

Yay for the toys that make noise!

hahahahahaha - easy for me to say

...the tutu was pretty fun, too...

...And a sweet hug from cousin lucian

Damn she's cute.