Seriously???

All Americans must obey certain laws, regulations and everyone must pay their taxes... or so I thought. I guess if my name is Geithner or Daschle then I can pay my taxes whenever I find it convenient... lets say right before I am appointed to a federal position by President O'popular. I find this extremely frustrating and I do not understand that out of the millions of people that live in America, that these are the best nominees for the head of the U.S. Treasury (Geithner) and the Health and Human Services Secretary (Daschle)? Please!!!

So far, this weekend I have read an article about lighting and played around with my new camera flash. Boy, do I have a lot to learn! I haven't unloaded my photos yet but when I do I will update a couple of my practice shots. They aren't much to brag about but hopefully I will only get better.

I met Laura, Elizabeth and Gina for Breakfast this morning. I love getting together for "girl talk". Laura just had a baby in September and Elizabeth and Gina are both expecting. A lot of the conversations fell around baby talk. I get to babysit Kaelynn tomorrow morning. Hopefully she doesn't cry too much while Mom and Dad are out house shopping! I will definitely bring my camera along too!

I haven't posted a photo in a while so here is an old candid I took of my girls when they were playing tug of war with a sock... they were growling and everything. It was so cute.

Update

Brandon is out of the hospital. After being looked at by SEVEN doctors, they still couldn't determine what was wrong. They think it was a virus that his body will have to fend off. He has to go back every once in a while to have his blod tested to make sure he is not getting worse. When they released him from the hospital, everything was starting to look better. He hasn't been released to go back to work yet because his immune system is down. He feels fine but still is pretty yellow. Thank you all for your support and prayers!

Thanks to all of my friends who came over for dinner yesterday. I had a wonderful time with you all. I also owe a HUGE thanks to my wonderful husband who helped me get the 14 individual meatloafs made and dinner served. The meatloaf was delicious!

I am getting ready to look at what my new flash has to offer! I am excited to finally have it and finally have a chance to check it out!

Prayer Requst

I found out today that my cousin Brandon was taken to the hospital last night because he was turning yellow. It started out with his eyes becoming really yellow followed by his skin turning yellow as well. He finally gave in and went to the emergency room. They quickly determined that his liver was failing (being attacked by some virus) and they sent him to Champaign. He is currently in Champaign hospital with the hopes of being released tomorrow. He said that he is feeling fine except that his skin itches. His girlfriend explained why his skin itched but I can't remember exactly and if I try to repeat it I will get it all wrong! The doctors believe he caught hepatitis from some animal or bug while he was camping this past weekend. However, the tests come back negative for hepatitis and negative for all of the other tests that they ran. They have told him that it could be any of 3,000 things. Hopefully, he just gets better and his liver returns to normal. Everyone seems optimistic but I would still like to ask everyone to say a quick prayer that he returns to good health.

Sodium Intake

As part of my New Years Resolution, I wanted to start eating healthier. After reading Trish's blog, I decided to copy off of her and start counting calories using an online tool. I ate like normal on Saturday and recorded everything at the end of the day. I had consumed almost 2700 calories and 3 times the amount of sodium that I was supposed to have. I was shocked. Those calories add up fast! Sunday, I watched my calories as I ate and made some healthier choices. My calorie level was around 1700 but my sodium intake was still 1 and a half times the amount of where it should be! Soup and pickels really bring in the sodium. Holy moly!

I ordered two new coats from Victoria Secret! One pink and one red. They were on sale... I got such a great deal that I had to get two. :) The pink one came in the mail today. I was excited. I am still waiting on my darn flash for my camera though! Hopefully it comes this week.

I am off to bed... I have Zumba in the morning! I can't wait! :)

Photojournalism

I submitted my photos for the photojournalism assignment that I received through the Young Business Professionals at State Farm. I had to use some old photos but here is what I posted.

A place where you get good advice about money. Why did I photo State Farm? Because they offer all kinds of courses and presentations that will teach you about mutual funds, stocks, managing money, and more. The only other "place" I could think of other than State Farm was to Laura's house. She does my taxes and answers many of my money questions as well! THANKS LAURA!!!

A place where you feel comfortable asking questions. Ummm... I didn't do this one. I was clueless. Maybe I should have photoed the doctors office???

Something that you don't know anything about. Enough said. :)
Something you with you knew more about. I hear Chad talk about History all of the time and he is pretty passionate about what has happened before us. History bored me in school and I have retained very little of what I learned. Now I wish I could remember all of it. I decided that "history" was my answer to this question. How do you convey that with a photo? This was my best "shot"...

Someone or something that's helped you achieve a goal. This is a photo of a building at Wesleyan University. However, the point was that a university helped me achieve my goal of obtaining a higher education. I took this photo last year in the summer so it was an older photo.

People you trust and turn to for advice (Why? What topic?). I uploaded a photo of Chad that I had from this summer. I often ask him what he would do if... so he became part of my little project. He was thrilled to have his photo posted. haha I also realized that I have very few photos of him and the ones I do have, I either didn't take (wedding photos and such) or it is a photo of him and the girls.

A place where you learn, outside of school. I posted an old photo of our house. Why? Because this is where I read the most. I read various books or things I look up online. Because I do most of this at home, I thought a photo of the house would be great. I didn't want to bundle up to go take one so this is the only one I had. haha...

Letters Hidden in Architecture

One of my favorite Christmas presents that I gave this year was to Julie. I tried to get a little creative and I knew what I wanted to do… but time constraints forced me into a rush to get this all together. I basically took photos of letters hidden in architecture. I wanted to form her last name with photos. The hardest part of this project was finding a suitable frame! Let me know what you think! I am going to send her updated "letters" every so often so that the pictures are always changing. See below for the final result! I plan on collecting several photos of each letter… this will be a fun project. I thought I could do this as a wedding gift for some of my clients and I wouldn't mind making one in "Kemp". By the way, I didn't think of this myself. A client of mine received this as a wedding present that someone ordered. I thought I would try to duplicate the idea. :) (NOTE: I tried to get the photos to go in one row... but I got tired of messing with it. You get the idea! :)

Kickstart to 2009...

3 classes... somewhat healthy eating, two updates to my blog this week, and a new flash and photo editing book ordered! I think I am kicking 2009 off on the right foot so far!

I attended Pilates Monday morning and my core is still sore. I really enjoyed class though. I thought I would get bored like I normally do in yoga but something was different. I really enjoyed it. Tuesday morning, I went to a class called Zumba. It is basically Latin dance. The instructor doesn't speak, you just follow her moves. It was a blast! I can't wait to go again. Tonight I went to "Party Step". I really enjoyed the class but I didn't quite work up the sweat that I though I would. As for going in the wee-hours of the morning... I LOVE IT! Okay, I HATE getting out of bed but as soon as I walk into the gym I get some sort of weird energy and I am just excited to be there! I was almost sad this morning when I got up at 6:15 knowing that I could almost be done with my workout if I had gone to the gym. Instead I had to wait until tonight for class... and I felt like most of my night was gone. haha

I finally decided on a new flash unit for my camera. I ordered it and hopefully it will be here soon! I can't wait to play around with it. I also ordered a "Gimp Guide for the Artist" book as well as some RAM for my computer. The RAM will allow GIMP to work faster on my computer... it is sooooooooo slow! The book had rave reviews. I can't wait to get my hands on it to learn some more tips and tricks in photo editing.

I also volunteered for a photojournalist opportunity at State Farm. The Young Business Professionals (a club/organization within State Farm) that I am part of was looking for a couple of photojournalist volunteers (not professional). I volunteered although I wasn't sure what I was signing up for. Well, I got the assignment today. Here is what they want me to capture:

• A place where you get good advice about money
• A place where you feel comfortable asking questions
• Something that you don't know anything about
• Something you with you knew more about
• Someone or something that's helped you achieve a goal
• People you trust and turn to for advice (Why? What topic?)
• A place where you learn, outside of school

Hmmmm... this will be an interesting assignment! I will keep you posted with what I come up with!

Photos... finally!

Last night I signed up for 3 classes at 4 seasons. Two of them are at 5:30 in the morning! I had my first class (Pilates) this morning. It was hard to get out of bed but I was really pumped when I got there. Tomorrow I also have a class at 5:30 a.m. This one is called Zumba. I have heard great things about it but it requires dancing. I have no rhythm so this will be interesting! The other one is a step aerobics class on Wednesday nights. My eating habits would have been better if I didn't make cookies... again! Oops... :)

On another note...

Finally, some photos! The first two are of Tempest. She was "sleeping in" with Chad one day and they cracked me up. Note: I did not set her up this way... this is how she was when I walked in. Tempest also LOVES the snow... she was going crazy out there. She is the only reason I would ever wish for snow... because I know she loves to play in it.

This is a photo of my cousin Jady and her 5 month old, Derk. He was celebrating his first Christmas as we all fought over who got to hold him! :)

The following photos are from the Kemp side. First is Devereaux enjoying a spin on his new scooter in the basement. I am just thankful he didn't run over Rhyme and Tempest! The next photo is Cooper who was enjoying opening Christmas presents. Finally, the last photo is of little Miss Caroline. She was such snuggler... here she was snuggling with Grandma Kemp.

I have all my photos edited (as much as I am going to do because there are so many). I will get a disc out to family soon.

Now... I have to start making invitations for an upcoming post-Christmas party for the SF girls!