Success, Love, Late, and Reflection

I've been MIA for the past week, but I did do the assignments, I just haven't been able to post them. We went on a mini vacation to Idaho to visit family, and to let the kids play in the snow.(since we don't see much of it here in AZ) Here are my photos.

SUCCESS:

Here is Kennedy holding up the only SUCCESS of the day. My father-in-law took us ice fishing, this was the only fish caught that day. Although they did catch 12 the day before. 

LOVE:

My husband must LOVE me because this is what he got me for valentines day. Chewie is his name, and he's a yorkie. 

LATE:

The main reason for me being LATE, is the vacation we just had, and boy was it fun, and enjoyable. This was the first time we had been skiing, and snowboarding in 8 years. And the kids even got in on the action, and got to go to ski school!

REFLECTION:

My daughter Jocelyn. She was playing with the mirror after I did her hair for church. She gave me some really funny and goofy faces, but I liked how she looked so innocent in this picture. It makes me reflect on what I was taught, and what I'm teaching my children. 

CC

a library success

hey everybody...i'm janine...sorry it's taken me so long to get with the program. so i guess just getting myself in gear is success. however, i would like my this picture to symbolize success as my son and libraries do not exactly mingle well. and here he is behaving himself and actually enjoying it. success.

Love and Success

True to form, I am late posting the first challenge of the week. Better late than never right?

There was so much going on this week(end) that it was difficult to put the time in necessary to photograph such important topics. So the pictures aren't great, but the meaning behind them is. For me, the best part of these challenges was that it really made me think about how lucky I am.

SUCCESS: The View from My Front Porch

Mountains are regularly used to symbolize sucess, but this particular mountain (Mt. Olympus) has special significance to me. This is the mountain I see while Rod and I swing on our frount porch on warm summer evening, when I drive home every night, and each morning when I take my dog for a walk. I am especially proud of my house because I bought it myself two weeks after I graduated from law school. I was dating Rod at the time, but I bought it myself. I paid for it for two years with my salary from the job (an associate at Parr Waddoups) that I fought so hard to get, a job at which I have been very successful. Now, it is the first house of our (Rod and my) marriage, which I know will be successful. And even though it was my first house, Rod and I love it so much (in part because of this view) that it is the house that we plan to raise our family in. Hopefully, we will be successful at that too.

LOVE: Our Promise

Rod is the best husband! As a little girl, writing a list of all the qualities I wanted my future husband to have, I never in a million years would have come up with someone like Rod. I just didn't believe that men like him existed. He's gorgeous, smart, ambitious, funny (he makes me laugh every day), successful, sexy. He loves to cook and doesn't mind doing dishes or cleaning. We are truly partners in every aspect of our lives. He's unbelievable! But the most unbelievable part is that when I tell him that I'm the luckiest girl in the whole world, he tells me he's the lucky one. :) Before our wedding, we had our rings engraved. After the ceremony, in between taking pictures and joining the reception already underway, Rod and I slipped off our rings to see what the other had written. Much to our amusement, we both had the same sentiment inscribed: "I love you more". I can't wait to spend the rest of our lives trying to love each other more.

Lifted

I'm totally breaking the rules and posting this late (sorry Rachel!). This assigment was so difficult for me. I really didn't know what I was going to take a photograph of. It didn't help that Wednesday was a really hard day for me and Thursday wasn't much better. My sweet sister called me Thursday morning and we chatted for a bit. She could tell I was having a hard time and offered her help. I didn't think there was anything she could really do. When evening came, I headed out the door for a Relief Society activity. As I pull up to the church, my sister calls again. She's driven out with some surprises for me. Her sweet gifts proved successful and cheered me right up. In case you can't tell, there was a cute little pot of daisies, a pint of Haagen-Dazs, and the fabric in the back is a pair of pajama pants that she made for me. In addition, she also tucked in a cute hand towel, some fun socks, candy and a super sweet card. Not to mention, she also had treats for my kids!

I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out. I tried a few different angles to see how I could make it more interesting. I used natural light and no flash. CC.

Success: Anger Management

Canon Powershot S5IS: f 2.7 (super macro setting), 1/15, ISO 200

Sorry I'm late... Success is keeping my cool when my 2 year old does stuff like bite off little pieces of apple peel and then spit them on the floor... Or when he cracks eggs on the floor... Or gets into the dry erase markers... Or pulls every single book off the shelf... Or... you get the idea. I felt successful yesterday because instead of freaking out about the apple peel, I calmly asked him to spit the next one in the garbage- and he did. Success, even in small portions, is still success.

So anyway, a question: If you could pick any background for this apple picture, what would you choose? I didn't have time to find a new spot for it, but was afraid the background would be too distracting (although I kind of like having my toddler in the background). But if I would have had time to move it and "pose" it, where should I have put it? Any ideas?

As always, {CC}

The Sticky Side of Success

Another one-minute picture. And, it's blurry. In the middle of everything else, this is what I've got. I did play with the color some, and I think this looks more interesting than the original.

Yup, we've been potty training, and I feel like it is a huge success. He's not all the way there quite yet, but just as I'm typing this, he called out, "Daddy, I need to go to the bathroom!" and raced down there. That is definitely success.

sweet success

One of my new years resolutions this year was to cook and try out new things. We are creatures of habit... and that has always included the 10 things in our dinner rotation. I wanted to change this.
So thanks to Taste of Homes cookbooks that my mom got us, and a wonderful library full of cookbooks... my new years resolution has so far been very successful (and tasty!).
This was picture is of a dark chocolate cheesecake that I made. It was wonderful!
(I still have a lot left in the fridge... it's one that you have to down with like 5 glasses of milk!)
I really hope that the rest of the year can be this successful in the food department :)

Many successes

My husband Chris took this picture a few days after Connor came home from the hospital.

This picture has a few successes for me.

1. We had a baby. (I'd had a few miscarriages before Connor so we were/are so happy to have him.)

2. He was home from the hospital. (I have a bleeding disorder and Connor had my blood in him for a few weeks. He was able to come home after a few days but it was still scary.)

3. He had just finished breastfeeding. For any new mom, you know that's a success in it's self!

4. It's always a success when they go to sleep. A little victory every day! :)

Happiness

"Success is not the key to happiness,

Happiness is the key to success,

If you love what you are doing

You will be Successful." -Albert Schweitzer

I find almost everyday to be a success! I love what I am doing! My family brings me true happiness, and that I find very successful.

This picture was taken awhile ago, I didn't get a chance to take a new one. We have had a few things pop up. So life has been picking up again! I know I would have done a lot of things different, but I chose this picture because it is successful to me. Teaching your children is very rewarding, and this is a classic. I did the black and white with warm tones to even out the shades, it was a really bright picture and I wasn't looking at the background, so there was a lot going on back there, and the black and white took care of it. Sorry I guess this was a little late.

CC

Success, Shanda

Well gee...I almost didn't do this challenge. Yikes, it was hard for me. I thought and thought about what Success means to me...but I just couldn't think today. I didn't want to fail, so I am going ahead and posting...but it's not a great picture. I'm not totally excited about it and I was a little lazy about it I admit. It's not totally focused how I wanted it...blah blah...but what I DO like about it, is that it actually DOES stand for a success in my life. I have NEVER been able to keep a plant alive, but I swore if I got this one, I'd keep it alive, and so far I have. I LOVE bamboo plants. And I like the coloring on the pic.

Ok, you can CC it, but I already know it's not greatly done...next pic. I promise. I seem to be an every other picture sort of gal. I get a good one every other time.

Successful Parent

I can't look at this picture with out cracking up laughing.
There are a couple of successes in this one-
The obvious, motherhood. I have this perfect little boy who is and always will be my great success.
2nd- the fact that I finally captured this face in a picture. I've been chasing his elusive "smile" for a couple of days now. Yes that's right, I said "smile"- believe it or not he was not yelling or crying when I took this picture. He just saw something funny and he is smiling!

I'm not sure what happened but the last couple of days my child has become a Klingon. (please forgive my spelling if you are a Trekie) He once was such a sweet, beautiful little boy! If something is exciting or funny he scrunches his eybrows together and scowls like something is really yucky- it's his "smile". My goodness I hope he get's his usual sweet smile back before too long but we sure are getting a kick out of this one for now. This is a face only a mother could love- and I really do love it!

Success.. I actually took a photo today. :)

Well. It has been a crazy week thus far- so this photo has no hidden or double meaning (except the obvious- my sweet girl is my success! duh!) The real success is that I even pulled my camera out today- I took 5 photos and this is the best one- shows you the kind of poo quality the rest were... bear with me, and CC if you want, but know that I'm well aware it's a crappy shot. :)

Our Home

This is a picture of our home. The home it took us a year and a half to build. The home that we've now lived in for exactly 1 year, 2 months, and 10 days. It was a long, hard road, we did all the contracting ourselves, rather than paying a contractor to do the work for us. This saved us a lot of money, but was also a lot of hard work. So, this is the ultimate picture of success to me.
The home where I plan to live the rest of my life, where my children will grow up , and where they'll bring my grandchildren to visit me.
I love this place...

Success in the Little Things

f5.6 1/13 shutter ISO200, no flash photoshop: warmer, boost (PW actions)

I thought and thought... and thought... about what success means to me, and nothing seemed quite good enough, or important enough. Then it hit me... I have little successes every day. Today it was getting a button sewn on my son's pants (so he can wear them to the Valentines Day dance at school tomorrow... yikes!) It's the little things that really make me feel successful.

Love Success!

My husband works crazy hours and rarely has an entire weekend off. This does not make for an ideal dating situation for us. He called into a radio station and won dinner and tickets to a movie -- success! Yesterday we actually used those gift cards and went out -- a "real" date success! While we were out, I realized (again!) that I am still

so crazy in love

with this man I married almost ten years ago -- relationship success!

Yesterday was a good day in my book...

CC

A driving success

As I was posting this, I realized that it might look kind of greedy. I promise my original intent was not to say money=success.

:)

HOWEVER, success DOES equal getting rid of our second car on the 1st day we listed it for sale. We actually just bought this car and thought it was a great deal. But after we brought it home, we started feeling uneasy about it (among several other things). We listed it for sale as soon as we could so we could get rid of it before something "potentially" went very wrong...

Who knows,it might have lasted forever. But for us, it definitely didn't feel right.

Success=following your instincts.
Success=selling the car the first day it was for sale
Success=making a $250 profit over what we paid 2 weeks ago...
Success=managing with one car again. We seem to be good at that. :)

Success and Succession

This was amazingly tough for me!! I had NO idea what I was going to do, until I was cleaning. I found this trophy I won in a piano competition several years ago and it reminded me of a couple things:

1. I worked hard and had a feeling of success; and

2. I succeeded my piano teacher, not in the sense of taking her students, but that she passed on to me many techniques and also music for me to use when I teach my own students.

Actually taking the picture was also difficult for me; I had no idea how hard it is to NOT catch your own reflection in something like a trophy. But I did like the shadow effect in this one. It reminded me that, while I got much from my last teacher, I still feel like just a shadow of her, no matter how well I do. (Dang, that drifted pretty easily into the LAST challenge, didn't it?)

CC

Scholastic Success

After 5 1/2 years of college, graduating with my Bachelor of Arts Degree in University Studies (with Minors in Music, Art, and Dance) felt like a definite success! What made it feel even better was getting to check "earn a college degree" off of my list of "50+ Things I Want to Do Before I Die." (I chose this picture because I liked the angle, as well as how it focused on my name and degree. And, if I had photoshop skills, I probably would've given it a golden hue and burned the edges....maybe someday. =) )
CC

Successful Baking

This was an experiment. I wanted some peanut butter blossoms, but didn't have any chocolate kisses. So I made tiny blossoms with chocolate chips. I adjusted the recipe by making the cookies much smaller, and had to figure out how long to bake them so that they would be done without burning. The whole experience turned out to be deliciously successful! If you're interested, the recipe is here.

CC

The Shadow of a Future Success of a Newcomer

I have been reading this blog for a while now with a few comments here and there and I am amazed at the way people think, the great stories and pictures so far. Though I am not gifted with photography talent, maybe I can come up with some good things!

My name is Blake and I am from Utah. I met our co blogger Rachel at college and she is a good friend. My wife is a travel nurse so we pack up and move every 3 months. So far we have been to Denver and San Jose currently. I am in my masters degree online which provides we with lots of computer time and to be home with the kids. I also work a home business with Melaleuca. Photography is a new found hobby of mine but I see room for vast improvement.

I did want to start with Shadow and success in the same picture. I took this picture on a family walk around the lake across the street from our apartment. It wasn't intentional but it is the best I have for now.

Its me and the kids looking through a fence to the lake. You can see the shadows there. I picked it because of that and it got me to thinking. My kids are like my second and third shadows. I went to take the garbage out and while I was out my son ran to the door and was banging on it crying because he wanted to come with me. I can never go to the store alone the kids always want to come with me.

For the success part is for my kids wanting to be with me! It is a small success that every little child loves their parent but there are some bad parents out there who care less about their kids. It may not always stay that way but lets hope the training they have now will stick with them and they will want to always do things with me.

Second part of success is my kids are always interested in learning new things. We were on that walk and my son kept lingering back pointing his finger at everything and saying "wow" or "woah". My daughter would just ask questions about everything. Sure it is their age but I don't remember being that interested in things at their ages.
I have thought a lot about life and things happening which I feel have gone wrong and started to feel like a failure in everything. Then I thought more about the purpose of my life. My kids and family are my life. If I can succeed at that the rest doesn't really matter.