First, a photo

I'm planning on blogging a little later today with some actual news and words, but before that, here's a photo of Baby C from yesterday. I had a meeting with a client in San Jose, so I could stop by Taylor's house and hang out with them for a bit. Impromptu photo session!

The older she gets, the more fun I have hanging out with the two of them (no offense Taylor, I always love hanging out with you). Now that Carys is well, more or less, a child, she's able to sort of be involved in our activities rather than being a baby and being cute. I mean, she ate a peep with us yesterday. I can tell that the three of us are going to have a LOT of fun over the years.

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Ugh.

I feel bad, actually, for not writing, because there are so many things going on that I'd like to write about. However, Mercury in Retrograde has totally pushed me in to craptastic month of crap. So, here's a quick update on my life.

• My classes are going well, so far. I feel much less stressed about time and organization this semester, so far, due to a few changes Ive made in my attitude. It also helps that David is busy and that he is unable to lure me away from school work. I'm excited for the classes I'm taking, and trying to make the best of it.
  
• I miss my husband. He is so busy, and I love that he's doing this, especially because I've seen him light up in ways that I have not seen for a long time, but ugh! I miss the little things. However, I'm trying to concentrate on what I'm doing and supporting him so that once this is finished, we can move on to the next step.
  
• I have been cooking, but I haven't been posting mainly because my Macbook died last week and computer time in this house has been a stressed issue. Thankfully, I managed to jerry rig it to handle simple things, like Internet browsing. It's likely an issue with the hard drive, so it will be sent in to Apple for servicing soon. Until then, all of my photo work must be done on the big computer, and like I said...time is not on my side. (That's David's!)
• Oh, did I tell you my Macbook died? And that's not the only thing. I also managed, in an idiotic, but not surprising move to participate in a fall that killed my backup camera, the lens it was wearing, and my flash (also on board). That group right there is a giant portion of my equipment, so the situation is pretty tragic. I just spent a nice chunk of money on equipment rentals for the wedding I'm shooting tomorrow, and luckily, Sara sent me her camera to use as a backup (she's AMAZING) I've got to make the decision on whether or not fixing my backup camera will be worth it. I'm very conflicted on what to do at this point.
  
• Our household is kind of sad this first week without Suzanne. As if it needs to be said, but it's the tough thing about pet ownership. I usually nurse the wounds by bringing home a new little one, but we'll be making a different addition to our family next Summer that will likely bring our rat ownership to an end. So, no new rat babies from here on out. At least for now!
  
• I have a couple of weddings and other shoots to share over at my photography blog, and I promise that within the next week or so, I will share them. I hope that you're visiting that site as well.
  
• My band, Oddball Parker, will be releasing an EP the first week of November. I am very excited to share this work with you guys when it's ready.
  
• New stuff for this fall: I will be offering family photo sessions and custom-design photo Christmas cards in one big package. More details on this very soon. Aside from photography, I'll also have a giant bunch of new jewelry items (including glass pendants) for Christmas shopping.
  
• New stuff for next Summer: I will be booking weddings in Wisconsin/Minnesota, as well as family portraits, and senior portraits. I will elaborate on this more soon, but I'm super excited to begin planning.

Hope there's people out there still reading.

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Baby C's One Year

My good friend Taylor asked me to take her daughter, baby C out to the ocean for her one year photos.

I can't believe this little lady is about to turn one. She means a lot to me, because I've been in her life since conception. I hired Taylor as an intern, and then as a full time writer at the company we both worked for, and she and I shared a workstation. I will always remember the day her Mama told me, after a few days of missed work due to illness, that she'd taken a positive pregnancy test. At the time, the two of us hadn't become friends outside of work yet, but in the months to come, through morning sickness, a mystery adhesion, pregnancy emotions, my fantastic sister in law's prenatal advice, and a little, kicking baby C, we ended up in a wonderful friendship.

Her little life is very important to me, and I'm absolutely honored that I've been able to watch her grow this first year. I am even more honored to have been able to document her first year - the beauty as I see it - through photographs.





















Happy birthday, C.

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R.I.P.

Agatha
2.1.08 - 3.9.09

The most wonderful little person without words who I've ever known.
She is loved tremendously and missed furiously.

Sleep well, little one. We will never forget you.

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Ho Hum and a Couple of Rats

I hate January, February, March and the part of April that comes after my birthday. There's something about post-Christmas America that is horribly dull and depressing. No one has money, the weather is bad, and people are stuck between the festivities of the holiday season and when Summer begins.

That being said, I'm glad it's March. This Spring/Summer is ramping up to be a fun/productive one for me, so I'm basically counting the days.

Last week, I took a new job as a photographer's assistant for a local wedding photog. It's a great opportunity for many reasons, a few which are obvious and a few which are just possibilities that I don't want to share quite yet. But she's great, and I'm excited to work with her. Additionally, I have three of my own weddings booked for the Summer months.

My brother is graduating from high school on June 7th, and we're throwing a huge bash for him. I will return to my high school for the first time since graduating myself!

In other news, I'm turning 25 this year. A quarter century. *sigh* It brings me deep sorrow, as so many things I wanted to accomplish before this great age still remain only pipe dreams. It's more helpful to reflect on the things I have accomplished, I know; but why is it that each year seems to pass more quickly and with it, so many things seem to fall out of the realm of possibility? I wish I'd made better decisions, I wish I'd have known then what I know now. Obviously that's impossible, but the number 25 is like a screetching siren that warns me time is running out.

On that depressing note, I hope to leave you with some happy photos.

Margot spent a few days in solitary confinement because she had developed some respiratory issues including discharge from her eyes. Generally speaking, symptoms like that are scary, because rats suffer from respiratory diseases chronically. Being as though Margot is hairless, however, her lack of well, fur, eyelashes and adequate whiskers makes for more sensitive skin, eyes and nose. We had been letting them chew up a cardboard tube, and I wondered if it hadn't irritated her. Thankfully, after placing Margot in a single cage and cleaning her eyes out, the discharge didn't return. So I imagine it was the cardboard.

It was interesting to see the rats mood while separated. Margot was much more gentile and caring while alone. She even spent 20 minutes sitting with me on my lap! Agatha and Suzanne, who stayed in the big cage, didn't fight or inflict violence in the cage once.



Agatha is a little mother. She cleans everyone from head to toe, and is the nest-maker of the trio. She's sensitive, caring and delicate. And she loves cleaning Dave's facial hair. It is adorable to watch her parse the coarse facial hairs with her little hands.

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Thief

Taken a moment after Josh teased Margo with this guitar pick and she used her cobra attack to steal it.

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Margot

I've got a lot of blog posts milling around in my head, but I just haven't been quite able to write them. The past two weeks have been full of firsts and change, good and bad, and I'm really just trying to experience everything happening in the healthiest way possible. I'll write a real post soon.

For now, here's Margot. She and I haven't gotten along so well. The night we returned from Christmas Vacation, she mistook my finger for a treat and took a chunk out. That's not usual for rats (especially ours) and it shook me. I realized that she needs more socialization than I've given her, because I think I took for granted that Agatha and Suzanne would usher her in to their personalities. She's much different, and needs some more attention. So we're working on it. She's a member of our family and I don't want to let her down without a fight.

I took this picture last night. I still can't stick my finger in the cage to pet her (Agatha and Suzi will lick your finger and then hold your hand with their little hand; Margot is unsure of fingers still and is likely to bite too hard. ) but she takes treats very nicely and carefully when she's out of the cage. She'll have to learn to follow the rules like her sisters, but I'm trying to be optimistic that we'll be friends soon. She's so young and full of speed.

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Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is generally a non-holiday in this Brehmer household, because David is usually working so that we may use his time off for Christmas travels. This year, we're spending an entire week in the Midwest, and we're both 90% happy to give up Thanksgiving for a longer Christmas trip. The 10% of non happiness is reserved for wishing that we could begin our own family traditions for the holiday, considering they'll be quite different than those we grew up with, sans turkey.

This year, my favorite California lady Taylor invited me to spend the day with her family. We didn't do much cooking - in fact, the only thing I did was peel potatoes - because her husband and her brother in law's boyfriend took on the preparations for the day. It was nice to lounge around with Taylor and her daughter while taking in the warm scent of cooking turkey and mashed potatoes(I still love how turkey smells while baking, even though I don't eat it).

It's also interesting to observe the different traditions of different families. I was rather surprised that Taylor's family didn't serve green bean casserole, considering that's the staple of my family Thanksgivings. No matter, though, because any family that incorporates mashed potatoes in to their dinner will have a happy guest in me. I could eat them for days.

Anyway, onward to December, a.k.a. the month for eating everything you see.

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Possiblly a Birth Problem

I know I probably should have posted sooner after that last one, considering it was somewhat heavy, but I haven't felt like I had anything to add to what I said.

Maybe I'm just in a flux period, where negative energy has surrounded me? I'm trying to stay optimistic that the force will be relieved. Until that time, though, it seems I'm bound to be in the path of destruction. Not one to shy away from superstition, I'm re-evaluating my relationship to my Mom's maiden name - Murphy. Unfortunately, events as of late make me tend to believe there is an influx in the legitimacy of said law.

On Friday, I was presented with what I'll call the Best, Most Perfect Opportunity of All Time. I will not go in to details on this BMPOAT, mostly because it hurts too much. Suffice to say that it included architecture, color, design, photography, branding, and animals - not to mention a location along the Pacific coast. Sent an email to BMPOAT at 7 a.m. and was called back within 15 minutes to schedule and interview. Saturday, I met the BMPOAT and totally rocked. I was amazing. I brought the A game. We hit it off and things felt very comfortable. However, BMPOAT was concerned about my location, and the drive required (less than HALF of the drive I currently do). I vehemently denied this as a problem, which it is not. Continued to rock, and even met her wife, who is a musician and needs some help with music branding for her next album. BMPOAT and said wife are trying for a baby. Anyway, to make this lenthening story short-er, BMPOAT called an hour ago to tell me she gave the BMPOAT to someone else who lives in the area, but that she loved my personality and thought I was a wonderful person. Let me reinforce that. I lost the BMPOAT because of my location. Some will say this is simply the "right thing but the wrong place" syndrome, I say its either God (if existing) or the sun or whatever controls this earth playing a horrible trick on me, in which BMPOAT is dangled in front of my face, made very possible, and pried from my super-glued grasp. I'm horribly depressed. (Writing about BMPOAT has re-opened the wound, and I may need to cry for awhile. Not kidding. )

My brother (whose last name is Murphy) got in a car accident this weekend and smashed my Mom's car. He isn't injured, and the accident was his fault. He was issued an expensive ticket. This accident comes only one day following my Mom's registration of and insurance granted for my brother's own car, of which he was driving to pick up a battery. This incident will be marked on her insurance instead of his.

She heads to court on Friday and I hope that everyone out there who reads this blog will send good wishes her way. She's battling the father of her youngest 3 children - who wants to discontinue his child support payments because his "career status" has changed. This is the man who moved an hour away from the family and has failed to see his children on any regular basis, who illegally tried to claim the kids for head of household benefits on his 2006 tax returns (causing a year-long audit process), and who owes my Mother over 6,000 in past-due child support benefits. The woman needs a break, and so do my young siblings. Anyway, send her your wishes. She could really use the positive energy. I'm trying to muster up the morsels I have to give to her.

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Exahustion = No Blogging, but Good Pics

So I've been absent from the blog world for a bit. Can't blame me though - it's been visit after visit around here and lots of working in between. Not to say that it hasn't been fun - it has, but I'm exhausted.

My Dad and stepmom just left on Saturday after a week-long visit in which we drove around California seeing some nature and other things in the wild. It's always nice to do some car-tripping. Also nice to see family and know that we're not going to have to drive to someone else's house the next day.

I sometimes forget about how cool stuff is around here until someone visits and asks to see it all. We visited Point Reyes, which is a great little lighthouse/coastal place a bit north of Stinson Beach. It was literally amazing. Similar to the Lost Coast when we were there, there's something about how incredibly desolate certain areas are compared to the constant people, roads and industry of the city and surroundings. It feels so far removed from all of that, yet it's so close.

We also did the 4th of July at the Berkeley Marina which was pretty neat. It's your basic Americana celebration dotted with puppies, flea markets, and babies wearing red, white and blue. My stepmom and I got some very pretty sterling silver jewelery from a vendor who made charms. I had some kettle corn made fresh, my Dad had a corn dog, and my Stepmom had an ear of sweetcorn. We made out pretty well. We left the Berkeley celebration before the fireworks simply to avoid traffic, but headed back to the apartment where we co-opted the vacant upstairs apartment's balcony deck to watch the fireworks from Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, and Marin County. It was a nice way to finish off a long week.

I took a lot of photos and got a few good ones for my portfolio.

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Wilderness

Dave's parents left today after a great visit. We had lots of fun and were quite busy while they were here. Sunday, we drove up to Humbolt County in northern California, where the giant Coastal Redwoods grow, and there's more trees than there are people.

Hanging out with an 800 year old log!

Our quick visit up north was really eventful - we saw real wilderness, almost ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere, and saw a 5,000 year old tree.

Honestly, being in the middle of nowhere was fantastic. There were points in the trip where my cell phone didn't have service. I can't remember the last time that happened. It was incredibly liberating to know that I couldn't be contacted by anyone. The air was cleansing.

Sunday we left Richmond early and drove the 5 hours to the Avenue of the Giants, which is a 30 mile stretch of thick redwoods. I had never seen large redwoods (they grow here, but don't get that big) and neither had David, so it was pretty spectacular. I won't go in to the major details, but we did all the Americana stuff you'd imagine goes along with giant trees.

Not knowing how extreme the terrain was, we journeyed to the coast, which was about 30 miles from our hotel at the end of the Avenue of the Giants in Fortuna, to visit Cape
Mendicino - the most western point in the continental United States. We ended up taking a trecherous drive through the King mountain range, through three tiny towns of 300 or less, and pleading for gas in the first California town ever drilled for oil (Petrolia). Any of the bitten down nails were worth the absolutely pristine, wilderness of the Lost Coast (near Cape Mendocino) - it is quite possibly the most beautiful and wonderful places I've been in my life. The rocky beach was covered in beautiful, colorful seashells and bits of crabs and lobsters left by passing sea birds. No trash, no people, no trace of humans...I cannot believe such a beautiful place exists that has not been exploited, especially in the country's largest state. The Lost Coast, in fact, is 80 miles of untouched coastal area - the mountains around it are so treacherous that no construction of roads has ever been possible, leaving it as the largest stretch of undeveloped coast in the country.

The Lost Coast, Humbolt County, California

I'd talk more about our mini vacation, but it's really difficult to put in to words how it went. Being in the wilderness was incredible, and spending time with family was great as well. I would recommend that everyone spends time in a place like that...where people are an afterthought.

We stayed in Northern California for just one day and night; Monday I took the day off from work so that we could take a long drive home and stop in Sonoma County for a few wine tastings. It was a beautiful day, and we had some great wine.

We're back home alone today. Just a week until we get ready for my parents to arrive for an entire week. We're thinking of driving down to Yosemite, and I hope that works out for us.

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Visits

Dave's parents just arrived, and we're getting ready for bed in the living room. It's odd to have family here, in our world...much has changed since they were here in 2006. They haven't even seen the blue couch! They've also just met Agatha and Suzanne. They are the first family to do so.

We're going up to Redwood National Park tomorrow for a short vacation. It's about 4.5 hours, but I expect it to be a beautiful drive. I've never seen large redwoods.

In other news, I haven't had much to write about lately, mostly because it's been busy here and I'm midway through some bigger changes, but not really in a position to write about them. I'm waiting on something fairly bit to happen at work, so if and when that becomes reality, I will share. Until then, I'm enjoying summer vacation from school and trying to catch up on projects that fell by the wayside during Spring semester.

My parents will be here two weeks from now for a week. We're thinking of taking another short trip to Yosemite, another place I haven't been. It will be nice to have them here, too. It's a little odd to have two sets of parents here within two weeks. Lots of excitement for the middle of Summer, though it will be slightly sad when we don't spend the 4th of July in Wanamingo.

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Ratatouille, anyone?

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do I stick out in this?

Dave and I are heading back to Minneapolis this weekend to attend the Minnesota Teacher of the Year banquet, which his Dad has been nominated for. We're leaving Friday night and coming back Monday morning, but it should be a nice little weekend. We're also pretty excited to see the little monkey baby, since Sarah will also be making the trip.

I had a hard time finding something to wear for this event. Strangely enough, David chose my outfit, after I returned three dresses that didn't work. The last one I returned before finding the right one was a beautiful, yellow silk Liz Claiborne sleeveless trapeze dress I got for a great $40 (gotta love Ross). It was adorable and fit perfectly, but when I found out that it would be in the 40's in Minneapolis, I remembered how spoiled I am to think I could pull it off. I'm slightly regretful for taking it back, actually. I found this dress while waiting in line to return the yellow dress.

I think it will work with black trapeze pants - David's idea. It's very, very pretty with some incredible turquoise details. It's not offensive. I don't want to stick out.

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Birthday

Living far away from family and most friends leaves for money and gift cards on birthdays, but I don't complain about that too much. I got money (that will go to taxes, blah) and a gift card for Blick, which I spent almost completely on paper and some other random things I needed for class.

The best gift I got was from D, who is fantastic and just always knows what I want and need. I got my new, 88 key digital piano (that weighs around 50 lbs.) in September and have been mulling over dual keyboard stands ever since.

He finally had enough of keyboard moving and got me this for my big gift. It is AMAZING. It holds each of the keyboards sturdily, and allows for both to be plugged in and accessible at the same time. I can plug both in to my m box and record them both at the same time. It is heaven, though a little intimidating.

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Home is Where the Green Plastic is

Yep. That's where the rats live. If you look closely, you can see them all sleepy in their daytime naps. I can't imagine a better life for a rat. Also, I'm not too good with the feeding of treats. I share whatever I'm eating, and well, it shows in the belly area.

Both Agatha and Suzanne have started to understand the correlation between time and attention. When I get up, Agatha is always looking for me at the edge of the cage. In this picture, you can see her sitting where she always sits - If' im in the the chair (which is right where this photo was taken) she sits there, waiting to be played with or given treats.

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Last Minute Travel Plans

D's dad has been nominated for the Teacher of the Year in Minnesota.
We're going to be flying out to attend the banquet ceremony on May 4th. The tickets were pretty cheap, respectively, and we snatched 'em up. Hopefully, the Monkey family will be coming as well - we won't be going home until next Christmas, so it would be nice to see the kids before they are 25.

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