Self Portrait Challenge

"My self portrait as astonished, disturbed...and cracking up about it." I know this is not one of my most creative self portraits, but I couldn't resist using this picture as my weekly image. One of my co-workers found this HUGE fruit on a table in the breakroom at work and told me I had to check it out. Of course, we had to take the camera with us to take a picture of this "oversized banana" that was invading our space. We did some research after the picture and found out that the "banana" was in fact a "plantain." Regardless, we think it is very unnatural and quite freakish looking. I mean, check it out, it takes two hands to hold it...how bizarre is that??? (Okay, if your mind went into the gutter, come back and join me in the non-gutter world because this entry was completely innocent and was not supposed to be suggestive.) :)

...and yes, our office does have neon green walls.

Sweet Baby

Yes, yet another entry about my nephew. I just had to post this oh-so-sweet picture of little Derek. He could be in Ann Geddes calendars!

Self Portrait Challenge

"My self portrait as a hollywood starlet." This picture was inspired by a story I read today about how celebrity photo shoots are arranged and how the "right" picture is selected for use on magazine covers, movie posters, etc. I thought, "I can do that. I can use a fan to simulate a mega-movie-star photo shoot and go from there." I added the big sunglasses for the modern celeb touch. I like the results!

If it contains fruit it must be good for you, right?

This dessert, made of a sugar cookie crust and a cream cheese and sugar topping, sure isn't good for you, but it is OH SO YUMMY! Amanda and I made this fruit pizza for a cookout on Saturday. We hadn't made fruit pizza since high school "foods" class, but we both had a hankering (yes, i just said "hankering," i'm from a small town after all) for it. Amazingly it turned out great, despite the fact that we made it:) It was so pretty that I had to take a picture!

Yummmmm, this picture makes me hungry!

Consider him initiated

Aaron was officially initiated into “uncle-hood” last night. We went to Jennifer and Doug’s to see Derek, and Aaron got hit with almost the whole gamut of baby-ness. While Aaron was holding him, Derek got the hiccups, sneezed 3 times (towards Aarons face), spit up on Aaron’s arm and (the best part)… left a puddle of pee-pee on Aaron’s lap. Derek had a diaper on, but Aaron was holding him at an angle that apparently allowed the pee-pee to trickle out of the diaper and onto Uncle Aaron’s lap. Aaron didn’t even notice that he had been leaked on until he passed Derek off to Jennifer and saw the large darkened area on his pants and shirt. The situation was made even funnier by the fact that Aaron had asked Jennifer, “Now, I’m not going to get pooped on while I’m holding him am I,” and Jennifer had replied, “No, but you might get peed on”…and he did about 5 minutes later : ) Aaron was a good sport about the whole thing though. After all, “You only pee on the ones you love (as the Parkins’ family saying goes).”

By the way, I just love calling Aaron, “Uncle Aaron.” It’s got a nice ring to it : ) It will be really cute to hear Derek call him that in the future too.

Self Portrait Challenge

"My self portrait as an aunt." My beautiful baby nephew, Derek Michael was born on July 5th. I am thrilled to be an aunt...he is our first nephew and Aaron and I are completely in love with him:)

Introducing....

...my ADORABLE new nephew, Derek Michael. Aaron's sister, Jennifer, and her husband, Doug, brought this amazing bundle of joy into the world on Wednesday July 5th at 3:35pm. I am thrilled to have a little nephew to spoil! Like I told Jennifer the day after Derek was born..."I can't spoil him to much or get him loud toys though because payback will be hell in a few years if I do." Eh, I'll probably do it anyway:) How could I not spoil something so precious???

Self Portrait Challenge

This month's "Self Portrait Challenge" theme is "My self portrait as..." The theme this month is very open to interpretation so I decided to interpret it in this way. My portrait this week is "My self portrait as a Shirly Temple Wanna Be." I was in a wedding on Saturday and at the end of the day, when I took my hair out of the updo I had created, my curls still looked quite Shirley Temple-like and since I loved Shirley Temple as a child I decided to capture my look on camera. It was after that that I found out the theme for Self Portrait Challenge and realized that I could make the picture work for it and show off my curly locks.

Superman Returns

As you all know by now, I’m a big fan of Superman (so is Aaron). So, we made sure that we got to see Superman Returns on opening night, last Wednesday. However, we were both a bit disappointed with the movie. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t anything near as amazing as it could have been. The actors that played Superman/Clark Kent (Brandon Routh) and Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) were great, but I thought the character of Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) left a lot to be desired. The plot of the movie was a bit lame and I thought the action sequences and special effects were a bit lacking. I think part of the problem is that the directors were using the first two Superman movies as a benchmark for improvement on this movie. When you compare this movie to the first two Superman movies “Superman Returns” looks AMAZING. However, with the great special effects and exciting story lines in the current “Smallville” series (which the most recent generations identify with as the "Superman story"), I expected more from the movie. If the writers of "Smallville" can come up with a new, exciting story line and impressive special effects each week for the “Smallville” series on the small screen, I thought they could do even more incredible, Superman-like things for the big screen version of “Superman Returns.” I was also very bothered by the lack of interaction between Clark and Lois in “Superman Returns.” In the movie, Clark returns from being gone for 5 years and Lois barely even says “hello” to him. It was a strange dynamic that seemed very unfitting for the age-old Superman story.

(Another point of irritation…what’s the deal with the latex Superman costume??? I’m not a fan of the updated latex-looking dark red cape.)

As we were leaving the movie and were both complaining about it, Aaron said, “They should have asked us for our input.” Because we’re cinematographers in our spare time, you know : )