Testing....1, 2, 3

This is a test....this is only a test......my blog and commenting abilities has not worked in months.

I Photographed a Wedding!!!!!

I had the opportunity and pleasure of photographing a wedding this weekend. This was a very small and small budget affair and to be honest it was great! These kids are very young do not have a lot of money but they adore each other! There was so much laughter and fun at this little wedding by the creek.

The wedding was Saturday at 5 pm and at about oh....5:15 the skies turned black, the wind picked up and oh boy...it got interesting....did I mention it was an outdoor wedding? The brides vail was blowing straight up in the air, the pastor and best main were holding the arc to make sure it did not blow away, the maid of honor was holding the unity sand table, small limbs were falling from the old trees, and I was praying it would not start to rain and get my camera wet. The beautiful thing was....they found it funny and had a good time anyway! We just snatched up table cloths and headed to a tin roofed pavilion and were not only serinated by the music of the dj but also the pitter pat of rain on the roof for a while.

I loved doing this!!!! I didn't get all of the poses I wanted by no means (because of the unexpected precipitation and mess it left behind) and I do not claim to have done a good job on their pictures but they knew going in I am not anywhere near a professional and I was asked to do this on Wednesday for the following Saturday. I think I did okay considering the circumstances and the fact that I was more of a helper in the end than a photographer...I even changed their little daughter's diaper at one point. :-)

This was a charming, fun and geniune wedding...no pretenses nothing fake. They are simple people who enjoyed a wedding within their means surrounded by their closest family and friends and I am happy that I was a part of it.

The groom has a young son from a previous relationship and they have a little daughter together....both children are beautiful and I had a lot of fun pointing my camera at them.

Later Gaters!!!!

Guilt Over Something I Didn't Even Do....I Am A Weirdo!!!!

I have so many things going on inside my mind and heart now days. I am literally taking on a situation that has nothing directly to do with me and I am worrying myself sick about it. More than worry I am consumed with guilt which is completely and utterly insane because I have not done anything wrong. I am merely a very close bystander but I am feeling all of the emotions as it I were the one making the decisions, carrying out the actions and or the one that the decisons and actions are effecting, etc. Why???? If I were the one in the situation I would understand the worry and loss of sleep over this but I am not the one in it. (This is coming from someone who actually feels embarrassment for people on T.V. shows and I have to look away!)

I just pray that all will end well. This is all just bizarre and in this case I wish I would have been someone left in the blissful shadows of ignorance for a while longer until the whole situation was resolved.

Like I said....other than the strange emotions I am feeling I am fine, my husand and children are fine. The people involved are outside our little foursome.

I do not intend to be mysterious it has helped to type out my thoughts and feelings.

Later Gaters!

My Uneventful Life Is Getting Disrupted

Nothing is going on within my little 4 person Wheeler clan but things are going on within my life that is disrupting the very routine ho hum existance of mine.

I mean...have you ever literally been speechless...have your gaw completely come unhinged and drop like a cartoon characeter, a little bit of drool forming in the corner of your mouth due it hanging open for a little too long, brain frozen completely void of anything at all due to complete and utter shock and you literally have to force yourself back into consciousness? Well, that happened to me today. If I had been standing I would have honest to goodness fallen on my face and probably would not have felt it because I was in such shock.

Let me say that everyone is okay...nobody was in a terrible accident or anything like that....just shocking news. The very odd thing is I don't know how to feel about it....am I happy, and I pissed (I normally do not use that word but I have felt that emotion...one of many in the past few hours.) how do I feel????

I can't disclose exactly what the news is quite yet but I thought that sitting down to blog would help me work out some of my feelings and thoughts.

Oh well....maybe a goodnight's sleep will help me digest this issue.

Later Gaters!

Disney World!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so very excited about our vacation to Disney World tomorrow!!!!!!!!! I am going to be in picture taking paradise!!!!!! This is our first "real" vacation....um.....EVER as a family. My kids have only stayed in a hotel once before for one night for a wedding. It appears that the hotel is the part they are most excited about at this point. Oh, and Sam is thrilled that we ride the tram.

I really dread the long ride but by this time tomorrow that part will be over and the fun can begin!!!!!!!

Our plan is to get to Orlando tomorrow, get checked in and just chill by the pool for the rest of the day. We have park hopper tickets and will hit the parks Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then we are going to either come home OR........depending on how the kids are doing and the amount of fun money we have left over we may drive to a beach, get a cheap room and bum around for a couple more days. Yippppeeee!!!! I love playing things by ear and not having concrete plans....just winging it. :-)

I Sit Here....With No Motivation

I am sitting at home on a beautiful Saturday afternoon blogging. I am surrounded by a house that is messy, clothes that need to be put away, beds that need to be made, dishes that need to be washed, floors that desperately need to be swept and scrubbed, every surface is covered in a layer of dust that is quietly but persistantly whispering my name, my dog stinks and really needs a bath, a grocery list and menu needs to be written, groceries need to be bought, a vacation packing list needs to be made, vacation items need to be bought, Disney maps need to be studied, a basic game plan of our vacation days needs to be created, pictures need to be printed and backups need to be made, I am not caught up at work and I really needed to go into the office today, I need to take a shower...............................yet I do nothing, nothing, nothing at all..........

I am blogging....wasting time.....cannot get motivated to do anything at all. I have a big fat case of the blahs or "I don't give a craps"....whatever.

Sometimes a Great Picture Can Be Found Inside Another One

I really love pictures....especially when I can find a great picture inside a great picture....or a great picture inside one that I looked over 50 times. Two for the price of one is AWESOME. When I took this picture of Riley I scanned right passed it because she was standing in the sun and it just looked drab. On like the 51st time I was looking at the Easter pictures I realized I loved this picture as a whole once I adjusted the color a little but I also LOVED and wanted to focus on her cross necklace. With it being Easter morning the significance of the cross was more important to me. She folded her little hands in this way completely on her own and I loved that too!!!! The fact that her Great Grandma Wheeler gave her this neclace was the icing on the cake. :-)

I just love both of these pictures.

Pictures!!!!!!

Picture Therapy......

We were at my mom's house this last Thursday and I just happened to have my camera.....I really LOVE these...sometimes the best pictures I get are from a normal Thursday! It all started because I wanted to take some pictures of my mom's tulips...I love tulips and never think to plant them until they are in bloom which is too late....and the next year I forget again.

Riley also got in on the fun and snapped a few pictures. (I kinda like the one of me that looks like I have to pee really bad....I am actually just bending down talking to her and explaining/showing her how to take pictures with my camera....it is neat to me because that is how she sees me.)

Craving Calm - Dealing With An Obsessive Family

Do you ever just crave a sense of calm? I do. Nothing in my life seems calm anymore. My children, my husband, my dog....nothing is calm and everything stresses me out completely.

It seems like my kids bicker CONSTANTLY and they are simply wild and have so many quirky personality traits and true obsessive compulsive issues for me to keep up with and cater to that by the time I get everyone out the door each morning I seriously am thanking God above that I did not have my stroke on that particular morning...I know I am going to have one I just do not know which morning it will be.

My husband has obsessive compulsive disorder. He is very high functioning but he has it. People who know him well know that he does and at first and about some things it can be somewhat comical. (Him sniffing each and every bottle of laundry detergent after we got married and were shopping for the first time together comes to mind....it had to be perfect because he would want to use the same kind FOREVER!) I have to deal with issues related to his disorder from time to time. He gets unusually irritated about unplanned things coming up....major things to very minor things such as change in dinner plans for instance. The awesome thing about him is that he is an adult and can (with a stern look or word from me "get over it"). My little obsessive compulsive kids however are a little harder to calm down and deal with.

If anyone reading this really knows me you know I am the complete and total opposite of obsessive compulsive!!!!!!!!!!!!! I do nothing in the same order or way twice for goodness sakes! Half the time I can't remember how I did something the first time much less insist that it is done that way from now until forever or I will completely LOSE it.

I am just tired I guess and that is why I am posting my venting. I knew that Jamey was obsessive compulsive when we dated and I married him anyway and now we have two tiny people that the traits were passed along to. The very bizarre thing is....as frustrating as it is to me as a non-obesessive compulsive person it is even more irritating to Jamey...I guess that makes sense actually....when Sam has crumpled to the floor because his pants are touching his shoes it does cause delay in leaving the house, etc. and with Jamey being obsessive it triggers him.....GOOD TIMES!

I will leave you with some examples of things I deal with from my loved ones...most will be things I am dealing with from Sam because he is going through a really difficult time with things bothering him right now and they are fresh on my mind:

SAM
-His pants cannot touch his shoes - thta causes "bumps" in his pants and freaks him out.
-His socks have to be perfectly smooth...no "bumps".
-He WILL NOT let you help him get dressed even if it is taking 30 minutes....no help!
-I MUST brush his hair first. If I brush Riley's first he freaks out.
-I MUST brush his hair straight down in the front. "No Turns"
-He MUST brush his teeth before Riley.
-His velcrow (sp?) shoes must be the same amout of tightness. We spent 20 minutes trying to get that right yesterday.
-I have to ask him every morning if he wants his bookbag in the front seat or the back seat and if he is going to carry it into school or if I am. If I fail to do this and do the wrong thing the results are BAD....complete melt down.
-Season changes are bad. He hates to transition from shorts and short sleeves to pants and long sleeves.
-Shirts cannot be longer on his torso than a certain length...I do not know exactly what the length is but he does and he lets me know really quickly if the shirt I gave him does not work for him.

RILEY
-She MUST eat the same breakfast every "school" morning.
-She has to pick her hairstyle each morning or she will completely melt down...it is a delayed melt down at school...not at home when I can fix it.
Any change in routine knocks her off her axis. (Someone different picking her up than she was expecting for instance.)
-If she ever learns how to draw something new she will draw that thing CONSTANTLY and will get extremely upset if you make her stop to eat, take a bath, whatever. (When she learned how to draw stars she drew them for 2 days. She filled up several spiral notebooks and drew them anywhere else she could as well. She drew an American flag at school the other day and when she came home she refused to go to gymnastics because she wanted to keep drawing flags.)
-Basically is it almost impossible to get her to stop doing something once she starts...transitioning from one thing to another is very difficult for her.

JAMEY
-Basically his deal is that he does EVERY SINGLE THING IN ORDER EVERYDAY. From the stretch after he gets out of bed, walking to the kitchen for a sip of orange juice before his shower (do NOT run out of orange juice), the exact order he has for dressing, where he keeps his keys and wallet and the way he always flips his wallet open before he puts it in his pocket, etc. It is very bizarre to me.
-You cannot spring anything on him without negative results. If we are going to go to a cookout for instance I have to tell him as far in advance as possible so that he can work it into his routine for that future date and get himself prepared to go because......
-He always hates the idea of going somewhere where there is going to be a gathering of people...even if is people he knows well...he always makes me mad being negative about going so by the time we get there his negativity has rubbed off on me and ticked me off at him and then when we get where we are going he has a great time and I am still ticked at him for putting me in a bad mood.....it happens every time!!!!!! So if I show up to things alone you will know that I just wasn't in the mood to put up with his unpleasantness on the way. :-)

I know this was boring but I wanted to post it...I am hoping I can look back at this one day and thing....Whoa.....I am glad those days are over because I hope that these "symptoms" ease over time!!!!

Later Gaters!