When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.

Right? So, I'm thinking when God gives you floods in the summertime, you put your kids in bikinis & go swimming in it. :-)

I'm a summer girl. I love summer. I love the heat, I love flip flops, bright sun, long days. I love spending the day out in the sun & feeling sticky with sweat, then coming inside, showering & putting on a clean white tank. I just do. It's weird, but true. (See...this is one of those moments where I'm divulging too much info. Haha!)

So, as much as I really am enjoying all this rain (though I don't wish for flooding for anyone,) I do kinda feel a little ripped off. (I'm sure I'll be taking that back come mid-July.) I'm just kinda ready to get the girls' swimming pool set up for good. I'm ready for grilling out, getting some sun...you know...summertime stuff. But, it's not happening.

Today, though, I thought, "well...there's no thunder or lightning. Let's embrace the rain, have a little fun." So, I told the girls to go get their swimsuits on, we're going outside!

We live on a hill, so all this water was just running off down the hill toward all the areas you see in my previous post. The girls had such a good time playing in it. :-)
This girl LOVED bear crawling against the flow. Haha! I don't know why. She's in a world of her own.






Emma's excitement after watching a leaf she threw into the stream flow down the drain pipe.

Where? Where do I live again?

Okay, first...for those who can, please don't REALLY answer that question. I try to use discretion about SOME things. I know, I know...it's a little surprising after all the info I divulge here.

But, really...let's just leave it at this. I live in Texas. TEXAS. Not Seattle. But, given the weather this spring & early summer, you'd think we lived in Seattle. It has been just crazy. We don't go even 5 days without rain. A LOT of it, too.

So, the ground has already been pretty saturated over the last few months & has stayed that way. Well, after only a few days without rain, it started back up yesterday. With yesterday's rain & then receiving even more today...well...we're flooded. The ground just cannot handle anymore rain, I suppose.

The little neighborhood that we live in...FLOODED! At one point this evening, you couldn't get into or out of the neighborhood because of water rushing over the roads. There are two ways in & they were both flooded. We've lived here for 6+ years, now, and I don't ever remember that happening.

So, the hubster (he really doesn't like that name...anyone wanna come up with something new to call him?), the girls & I drove around & took some photos. I'm gonna share some here, but I don't think it does the water justice. I can tell you that ALL of these places that are flooded with water...well...water's not supposed to be here. At all. None. It's completely dry during a normal summer. It's like...we don't even have just a large puddle of water...a place where it's all running off to. No, we've got rapids, lakes, rivers. It's seriously nuts. In fact, for a couple of these photos, I waded off into the water up to about six inches deep. I know, I know...you should never wade off into fast moving flood waters. I could have gone deeper...I didn't. I'm fine.

I have to say...I'm not much of a landscape photographer. These shots were tricky for me. There's no people here. Just water. Lots & lots of water. How do you go about taking creative shots of water? But, I tried. I definitely don't think you can see the magnitude of the waters here, or how deep it's running. Oh well. Also, it was about 8:45pm when I was out taking these. Awfully dark. Enough excuses...

This next one is of water running over the road. This is a relatively high road, too, so I always thought. This was probably running about almost a foot deep when I was here. However, I know it was running higher before because it was high enough that people couldn't cross.
And the rapids formed by the water going over the road. Crazy. I don't know where this little "river" ends.
Brush stuck in the fence. I assume this is a result of the earlier, higher flooding. Again...water running over the road.
And, yeah. Normally, this is a pasture full of cows. I have no idea how deep this was.
We're expecting rain for the next couple days, too, I think. Fun.

Big change...

Well, I need to point out a couple changes to you. Okay, okay, so maybe one of them is really obvious. I FINALLY gave my blog a new look. I think I like it. :-) So, yeah...that's exciting for me. It's the little things that make me happy.

The second change is quite an exciting development for the Coffey family. Look over to the left there. See it? Notice the first link under "Photographers I Love." Yep! The Hubster started his own blog! Yay! And, in this case, I mean LOOOOOVE. Like, LOVE love. :-) haha! Although, let me just warn you...he may not update as frequently as we'd like. We'll see. He may prove me wrong. He's off to a GREAT start, though, with two posts. The first is his recap of our Friday night. The second post is a really, really nice post about my Aunt. :-) He'll be sharing his photos on his blog, so I'll probably not be sharing them here anymore. Unless, of course, he starts slacking on his posting duties.

Sooooo...anyway. Now, I can get on with my posting, right? Well, yesterday, we went to Heather's house to celebrate my Aunt Rob & cousin Jesse's birthdays. We weren't there long because SOMEone had to go on and start pitching huge fits about dessert. (That would be Emma.) Anyway, she could NOT get it together, so we had to leave early. Bummer.

Before we had to leave, though, I got a few snaps of Kyden. I felt bad that I didn't get any of him on his birthday, so I set out to get a few of him yesterday. And, well...that's about all I got done before we had to leave. So, here's Kyden:

He's such a cutie. Oh, and that little cut above his eye? Yeah, he had stitches. I wish I'd seen him while he had them because that would make a great ALL boy photo, you know?

I did get a few other random shots during the short time we were there, but maybe I'll share them later. You can check Curt's blog for a really, really fabulous post about Rob. He said it better or as well as I could have said it. Plus, he posted a really nice photo of her, too. :-)

Does it get any better than this?

Gosh...I had THE. BEST. night! I seriously don't think it gets much better.

You long time readers will remember me mentioning good friend D.Brown, right? Well, D.Brown, the hubster & I generally don't like the same music. The two of them like the same stuff, while I find it quite boring & whiny. (I don't need any smart comments about this, D.Brown OR Norwood, okay?) Anyway...there are a handful of bands that we agree on, David Ramirez being one of them. There's a post about that concert quite a while back.

But, anyway, we DO all LOVE the Counting Crows. I think D.Brown & I were the earliest fans of the bunch dating way back to '93. Yes, 1993. Man, that seems like FOREVER ago. How old ARE we!?! Curt started listening in college. He's as big of a fan as the rest of us, if not more. (Well, not more than Dave...he's hands down their biggest fan of all time.)

So, David aka Dave aka D.Brown aka Big Word Dave aka D.Breezy hooked us up with some ROCKIN' tickets to a private charity concert at the new Dallas House of Blues. We're talking super small venue. But first, we headed over to Carrabba's for dinner. LOVE it (as new friend Kelly would say!) I've been dreaming about Carrabba's ever since the trip to Austin with Michael Norwood. I was so, so thrilled to be going back. I know, I'm pathetic. I think about food way too much. On a really, really, REALLY disappointing note, though, they stopped offering crab cakes JUST this past weekend! WHAT!?! What the heck is that!?! Yeah, Norwood...you read that right! So, that was sad, but fortunately it didn't spoil the evening.

Then, we headed over to the House of Blues where we walked the red carpet! Haha! Okay, so, they really did have a red carpet which we were SUPPOSED to walk down to get into the venue. HOWEVER, I think we all would have felt slightly foolish. Fortunately, one of the guys working the concert let us sneak through the rope. Although, I might not ever have the chance to walk a red carpet again. I should have jumped all over that opportunity. Ahhh well...

Anyway, so, the concert was so, so, so good. I can't even tell you how good it was. I was SO hoping they'd play my favorite song Anna Begins, and they did! Yay! I mean, they have, like, a billion good songs, so it's pretty exciting for me that they actually played MY favorite. And, personally, I think they played that song the best of all the songs they played. I could be biased, though. :-)

Let me share my most favorite lyrics from that song with you. I know you're all DYING to know. Haha! (By the way...I can't figure out how to indent, so I'll center it. In case you were wondering.)

She's talking in her sleep.

It's keeping me awake, and Anna begins to toss & turn.

Every word is nonsense, but I understand.

Man. To me, that just screams being in love. Yes, we all want someone that showers us with romantic notions & wonderful things, but to be able to say the above words about someone... In those random moments, in my nonsense...I want the hubster to understand. Anyway...now that I've rambled on about something so silly...I'll move onto photographs. I was told I could bring my camera as long as I didn't use flash. Yay. Two of my favorite things collide into one fabulous night!

(Please forgive the fact that ALL of these photos are taken from the same angle. Haha! It kind of stifles creativity just a tad.)

Okay...let me start off by explaining this not-so-great photo. We're sitting in our seats, waiting for them to come on stage. Well, I don't know who noticed, but Dave, Curt or Kelly noticed that Adam happened to be standing in a little window high above the auditorium. It didn't seem like anyone else in the audience noticed him standing there but us. Anyway, I only got one picture snapped before he moved. I really, really should have paid better attention to my settings, but I didn't. So, I kinda tried to salvage it a little by really focusing on his profile & crazy hair. I added some grain & just really went with a grungy B&W on this one. Nothing too fantastic for any of you, I'm sure, but it's just a fun little moment from our evening.

I should show you a close-up of this one. He's looking RIGHT into my camera. Tell me he's not looking in my camera! Haha!






This next one was during Anna Begins.



And, I think this is my favorite of them all. Just so much fun. :-)
So, yeah...it was a pretty fantastic evening. I don't think it could have been much better. Well...crab cakes. It would have been better had I gotten some crab cakes. Whatev.

Norwood - I wish you'd been here. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we really missed you this evening. With you & the crab cakes...woulda been perfect. :-)

The hubster's been ROCKIN' the camera lately!

Haha!

He has, though. And, he keeps saying he's gonna start his own blog to share his ramblings & photos, but that hasn't happened yet. So, I'm sharing for him!

He took these photos the other day at the zoo. I think the one of Maya is one of the very best I've seen from him. I just love it, and I think he nailed the technical side of it all, aside from the chopped hand. But, I do that, too. Just sayin'.

All of these were shot at f/1.8, too, and he still rocked the focus on these. I'm really impressed with how quickly he's catching on. So, here ya go:

I really should show you a 100% crop of the eyes in this one of Emma. Man, you can see the WHOLE scene laid out in her catchlights. Crazy.

It's Father's Day.

It really crept up on me this year. I don't know why, but everything is coming at me quicker it seems.

I know that my girls dominate this blog. They're almost all that I photograph & talk about. Those two stir up more emotion in me, whether it be good or bad, that it seems my days are consumed with them. And, they are. I mean, I'm home with them NON-stop. I'm responsible for raising them, for ensuring that they grow up to be good people. I'm responsible for two little lives, and it's not like it's a job that ends everyday at 5 o'clock or something. So, yes, sometimes I tend to focus on them a lot in this blog. Too much maybe. Maybe it's only too much relatively speaking.

So, tonight I'm gonna talk about my hubby...the father my children. It's Father's Day, and though I let it creep up on me, I'd like to make sure that he knows that I appreciate him, that I adore him. I don't say it often enough, I'm sure. It's hard to come up with the words to embody our relationship, what he means to this family. When he's the whole world to us...how do you go about summing THAT up, you know? But...I'll try. :-)
To me...to me he is the perfect compliment. His neatness is the answer to my sloppiness. His drive is the answer to my unambition. His solidity balances my over-emotion. His insanely good memory is the solution to my terrible memory. I could go on.

You know, this man learned photography for me. He saw my passion for it, he saw that it created an outlet for me, made me a better wife & mother, and he wanted to encourage that, be a part of it. He took up my hobby so that we could do it together. He set aside his monetary wants to make it possible for me to buy the things that would allow me to delve even deeper into this passion of mine. I don't know what he saw in the beginning...before I verbally expressed my love for this, but he saw something in me. He saw all the little minute changes in my spirit or demeanor as I found something I loved...before I realized those things myself. He's tuned in to me.

He is my comfort & my safety. No matter what has happened, no matter the circumstance, I feel a calmness in his arms. Before a tear can even fall from my eye, he's come close to me to wrap me in comfort & love. He is gentle & tender with me when I'm crushed, yet at the same time he lets me know that he'll be my strength. If I fall apart as a mother or a housekeeper or whatever my daily duties may be, he silently picks up my slack.

He dreams with me. Gosh, we have big dreams. And they're elaborate because we can talk about them for hours.

Through all of this & all that he is to me (there's SO much more,) there's one thing that makes our lives together SO much fun. He & I share the same wacky, sarcastic, and sometimes embarrassing sense of humor. DAILY we laugh together, and DAILY our daughters look at us as though we have two heads each. Sometimes I think they've got to be wondering what in the world is wrong with us. I know they'll be embarrassed by us as soon as they're old enough to realize that we're not normal. For now, though, I think they like it alright. :-) I think they feel like there's a sense of fun in our home. I hope so, anyway...

As for his relationship with our girls...I could ask for nothing more. All of these things that he is to me, I see him being to them, as well. He's got it rough, if you think about it. There's ONE of him & THREE of us. That's what he's got to look forward to. But, he embraces it. He throws an annual princess party for them (which I'm not invited to...I'm forced to have a night out.) He indulges them with Barbie movies. <-----THAT is a big deal. If you've ever seen a Barbie movie, you know what a big deal that is! Haha!

He recognizes their differences. He sees their strengths & weaknesses, and he loves them individually & accordingly. There is no better person with which to navigate this thing called parenting.

Like I said...he means the whole world to this family. Heck, our home crumbles when he's gone for a day. Haha! There's so much more that I could say about him. So. Much. More.

Anyway...Happy Father's Day, Curt. I love you.

One from May that I just didn't get around to posting...

Well, here's an oldie but a goodie. :-) Haha!

No, really, though. I took this at the end of May when I was experimenting with flash. I was having Emma jump on the couch (which is not usually allowed) to see just how low I could go with my shutter speed & still freeze the action. Well, I never got a good shot of her jumping, though it did freeze the action. BUT, I thought this one was cute anyway.

Any of you who know me & have been in our family room know that this picture is a bit off. Yes, those are pink walls. No, we did not paint. Our walls are actually a goldish, buttery color. But, that clashed. Sometimes I daydream about what my house would look like if Curt liked vibrant girly colors. So, I just did a little photoshopping to check it out. I do like it, though I'm sure I'd grow tired of pink walls pretty quickly. I don't know...maybe not. :-)
It almost doesn't look like her, does it? She's really growing up on me. :-( Kindergarten, here we come.

FINALLY!

Yeah, yeah...so, I said almost a week and a half ago that you could expect pictures from my nephews' birthday party. And, I'm just now delivering the goods. I'm SO bad about procrastinating.

Really, though, I've put it off this long because I took four billion photos. I just dread going through all of them and post processing so many. But, it's finally done. Not like I don't have other things to be doing. Because I do. But, whatever...

So, these are from Camden's 2nd bday & Kyden's 1st bday. But, I don't have any of Kyden. He slept. The whole time. :-)

Just one of each of the girls...

Today was the last day of our first summer break. It's back to work tomorrow. Bummer.

So, we wanted to do something a little fun for the girls today before it's back to long boring days stuck at the house. We decided to pack up a picnic & head to the park. I've always had such fond memories of family picnics. It seems like we did it a lot when I was young. Whether it was just mom & us kids or maybe Aunt Rob, Alison & Katie came along. Or, maybe it was even the WHOLE family...grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts & uncles, second cousins...whatever. We seemed to like picnics.

Picnics for us, though, meant going to the park, laying out blankets, eating salami & mustard sandwiches, playing frisbee... It seemed like long, lazy, carefree days. SO much fun. Like I said...fond memories.

Well, can I just say that it's not quite like that anymore. I think that since I've had kids, we've only been on two picnics with anyone in the extended family. Bummer. We've been on a few, just our family, but I REALLY like going with other families. Plus, can I just be honest & say that Curt gets kinda grouchy on picnics? Yeah, he prefers to sit at the tables. I personally think it's not really a picnic if you don't sit on a blanket and play frisbee. (Kinda like it's not really camping if you don't sleep on the ground.) The bugs (think ants & flies) REALLY aggravate him...I'm talking GROUCHY! And, well, he's not big on the heat, either. I can understand that last point, atleast. It does seem SO. MUCH. HOTTER. here in Texas. I don't know. Also, there's no frisbee going on. Now, I've got to be honest & say that Curt WOULD have sat on a blanket had I remembered to bring one. He wouldn't have liked it, but he would have done it. In addition, if I'd remembered to bring a frisbee, he would have gladly played with me. The downside of that these days is that the girls INSIST on playing. And, well...just imagine playing a competitive game of frisbee with a 3 year old & a 4 year old. Not so much fun after all. And, while I'm being honest, once the girls started playing on the playground, Curt perked up & enjoyed playing with them. Just not for TOO long. Haha! :-)

Nonetheless, we went on a "picnic" today. It was nice. Not what I remember, but nice anyway. We were only there for about an hour, so no long, lazy, carefree day. The girls had a really good time, though. It's amazing how hyped up they get about picnics. I guess they're creating their own fond memories. I think we should step it up, though, if I want them to carry on the picnic tradition the way it SHOULD be carried on.

So, I took my camera. I tried, again, to just capture the day. I only looked at them briefly, but these two stood out to me. (Can I just say that I LOVE that one of Maya!?! It cracks me up!)

The moving tire swing was HARD to get in focus. This one is definitely not super sharp, but it's acceptable. Whatever.

So...family reading this...we should get together & have a REAL picnic sometime. Like the good ol' days. :-)

Do you ever feel the pressure?

Well, lately, I've been feeling that maybe I've been falling into a pretty boring, safe pattern. It's boring and safe, yet it's still high pressure. I'm sure maybe some of you other photographers can relate to this very thing. At least I hope some of you can...that makes me normal, right?

Anyway, I feel like every shot I take has to be perfect. Perfect in my eyes...not necessarily according to anyone else. But, still...I feel like I have a certain standard to uphold. I have little things that I do every time I shoot & post process. I have things that define my "style" or my method of shooting, and I rarely stray from them.

Sometimes I feel like I'm trying so hard to make things fall into my expected "style" that I lose all personality, all character from the photo after all. It's high pressure. It really, really is.

I've been looking at my photos lately thinking that my daughters' expressions are just empty. I've finally broken them. They cooperate with me...standing there staring off into the space that is my lens. And, now...now I don't want that. I do, but I don't. Why can't they just happen to glance over at my camera in the midst of a good, hearty belly laugh? Things like that just don't seem to happen.

I guess we all kind of go through lulls like this no matter what our passion or hobby.

So, today we went to the zoo. I decided, "to heck with it." I'm tired of the self-inflicted pressure. I'm tired of getting lifeless photos. I'm tired of missing the moments...not just with my camera but with this mother's being because I'm fiddling with my camera trying to get the perfect shot. Sometimes I think I'm disconnected from what's going on. If I've got my camera in hand, I don't participate in & fully enjoy the little moments that make up my daughters' lives. That's pretty sad.

So, I kicked it out of manual & into aperture priority for a while. I don't know the last time I shot in AV. I raised that ap from wide open to 2.8 or 3.2. I even switched over to AI Servo for a while. These are all things that are SO not my norm. I like a particular look, I like the control I have over my shot when I'm shooting in manual. But, I just wanted to actually participate as a mom, not a photographer. I wanted the picture taking part to be less demanding, a little easier. I allowed myself to enjoy the day as a mom enjoying her children, yet I still got some shots. It was liberating, really.

I'm a total dork. I'm okay with that. It's true, though...at least for me. When you're good with the camera, life becomes significantly busier. I feel responsibility to shoot at every family function. I feel the responsibility to shoot every time we go to the zoo or whatever. If it's not a daily event, I'm shooting it. It's hard.

Today, it was all about balance. I've got to get better at that.

Here are some of my very "real," snapshotty pictures from the day.

The kiddos having some fun with dad:

Okay...here's one where I can't let it go. This shot SO could have been better. I don't know if you can tell, but there's a big ol' bear there in the background. The bear was actually standing JUST like Maya is. He was standing up against the back gate with his paws up like this just waiting for something. I SO wanted this shot, but Maya is only interested in each animal for...oh...about 2 seconds. Yeah, not enough time for me to get my aperture set. Oh well...
Quick story to set up this next set of photos. When the girls were quite a bit younger, they had crayons just like every other kid. Well, one day, I turned my back for no more than 5 minutes. Seriously. In that time, they had colored on EVERYTHING in sight. EVERYTHING. They scribbled all over the bottom half of the television screen (as far up as they could reach,) they colored on the couch, the carpet, the built in white cabinets...everything. I couldn't believe it. So, I took their crayons. I took every last one of them, and I put them in the trash. No more crayons in my house. At least for, like, a year.

Well, Maya LOVED crayons. For that year, she would pretend she had crayons anyway. She'd grab a whole fistful. She'd walk around the house with her fists clenched TIGHT. She wasn't gonna drop those suckers. So, Curt & I would have a little fun with her. We'd say, "Maya...how about a drink?" Then we'd offer her cup to her. She NEVER fell for it. Ever. She'd either put her pretend fistful of crayons down on the ground, or she'd take the cup between her clenched fists. This walking around the house carrying her crayons would go on for hours at a time. I'm serious. She'd "put them down" to use her hands for other things, then she'd pick them back up again & be on her way. I was always so amused & impressed with her dedication to her imaginative play. My family used to give me such a hard time about how deprived she was. Maybe so, but she never colored an entire ROOM in YOUR house!

Anyway, it was then that I noticed that she is committed to her imagination. The girl is so fun & creative & silly & dedicated. I just love it. So, she's obsessed with the phones at the zoo. Anywhere there's a phone, she's talking on it. It's like the moment that phone hits here ear, she's the only one around. She launches into serious sassy conversation, and she could care less that you're there. She'll go on for 5 or 10 minutes or however long you'll let her stand there. Just look at these expressions. I LOVE that she gets so into it. :-)




This picture...well...nothing special to you all, I'm sure. But, I just love it. I love these stupid little velcro shoes. I love them on Maya's chubby little legs with her rockin' little bermudas. (And, I love the word "little" when describing Maya. Ha!) For some reason, with the girls, I always associate different ages & stages in their lives with the shoes they were wearing at the time. So, when I saw her stepping back & forth between benches...well...I just wanted the shot.
You know, I probably shouldn't blog so late. I get awfully wordy. Sorry about that.