V de Vomir

I spent my weekend cleaning up throw up. It's true. It just amazes me how children can be totally fine one minute, and near death the next. As was the story with Jade. On Saturday, she played and played like normal all morning. She ate lunch just fine (we'll see that again!) and took her nap. Nothing unusual. Just another Saturday afternoon.
Well, she woke up kind of weepy (unusual), so I went up to check on her. Well, her skin nearly burned mine. I estimate her temperature to be somewhere in the 103' range. She was limp and lethargic, so I picked her up and carried her into the bedroom, where she lay with me and Brian (after her nap) for about another hour or so. I put her in the TV room to watch toons while I took a shower. When I got out of the shower, she was found lying on the floor in our walk in closet (unusual). I picked her up and sat her on the bed, where she proceeded to lose her entire lunch.
Well, after the big cleanup, I gave her some Tylenol, and after a few hours on the couch, she seemed better. She even went outside and played ball with Kirby for a little while. The next morning was the same story. Fever. Small breakfast. 200 gallons of vomit, all over me and the couch. This was one that warranted Brian getting out of bed after only a few hours of sleep to help clean up. Jade then slept all day. Literally. Until about 5pm, when she finally started to come around. No other symptoms. Bizarre.
I thought about taking her to the doctor, but came to the realization that I was sure to get the pre-recorded message, "It's a 24 hour virus. There's nothing we can do. Just give her Tylenol and Advil for the fever and keep her hydrated. Thank you, that'll be $30.00"
She was a little better this morning, once the Advil kicked in.
I'll report tomorrow, when I'm sure Vincent will be afflicted.

Two Wheeled Wonder

This is our weeks biggest accomplishment. Vincent is riding a two wheeler without the training wheels. His little friend next door, who is 1.5 years older than him, just started riding his bike without training wheels a few weeks ago. Vincent, seeing this and seeing the other older kids without training wheels, decided he was ready to take his off. We tried to discourage this but he persisted in asking daily for about a whole week. Peer pressure.

So, today Brian took them off and they had a learning session in the back yard. He did pretty well, and was prepared to show off his new skills when I got home from work. But riding in the grass is definitely harder than riding on the street at least as far as getting started goes. I suggested he try riding on the street, and I could see the hesitation in Brian's eye.

We let him try it though. After a few tips, a few tears, and lots of frustration, he had it. Getting started was the hard part. That's where the frustration came in. Turning was next. Enter the tears. But as the other kids came out on their bikes and they were all riding on the street in front of the house, he was less concerned with the mechanics of the whole thing, and just wanted to keep up with the other kids. Once he concentrated less on what he was doing, and more on where he wanted to go, he was off. In less than 12 hours of taking off the training wheels, he's turning, going down the driveway hill, riding up the curb and into the grass, and keeping up with the older kids.

I think it took me a year to figure out how to ride a two wheeled bike. I'm sure my mom ran countless miles behind my bike holding the seat. Not with Vincent. The balance thing was a non-issue. Anyway. I was really proud of him. He just still looks too little to be doing such a big kid thing. Here I am wondering what's next.

My Cute

As I delve further into the whole prospect of paid photography, I have been collecting all kinds of knowledge from all kinds of sources. Books, publications, websites, basically anything that will feed my hunger for more information. As most of you know, I have a really hard time sitting still and focusing on one thing at a time. If I'm not doing something to expand on a skill or on my existing knowledge base, I get bored. This whole idea of wedding photography is quenching my desire for more knowledge.

I know, she won't have a wedding for a while. Not for a long while if I have anything to say about it. Hence, this is far from a wedding picture, but I thought it was a decent picture, especially given it was taken with my el-cheapo stock Canon lens that came with the camera. Imagine what I could do with an unlimited budget!!! Anyway, this was at the family reunion as Jade was sitting quietly on a bale of straw waiting for the next hay ride.

I thought this one was pretty cute, too. So to all of you out there (I think you're out there), put the word out... anyone who needs an event photographed (not only a wedding), I am needing some "stock" pictures to start up a portfolio. I did get a new toy today. My first semi-pro lens. That was one of the things I convinced Brian would really improve my documentation of his fireworks shows. That really is the case, as this is a super big wide angle lens. What makes it cool is that it doesn't "distort" much like some wide angle lenses do. I can't wait to get some shots with it. Keep checking back for more of my creative productions!

A First Time For Everything

We just got back from our trip to West Virginia for Brian's family reunion. The trip took us about 6. 5 hours each way, give or take. Now, remember, we are the only people on the planet who have 2 kids, neither of whom have ever slept in the car. Seriously. I think I can truly count on one hand the number of times both of the kids have slept in the car, combined. Even when they were infants. I don't know what planet they came from.

When all of my other friends with little ones would come over with the kids, they'd put them in the car seat, throw a blanket over it, and BAM, their kids were asleep. I was astonished. Mine would never do that, even in the car. Some people take their babies on a car ride to settle them? No, not us. In fact, the mere fact that both of the kids were sleeping on the trip home, in the same car, at the same time, was momentous enough to do a complete photojournalistic set on the occasion.

Another funny thing about this trip? We didn't hit one minute of stopped traffic until we were about 2 miles from our exit on the way home. And then, we sat in traffic forever because the toll road was down to one lane. Why? Because there were construction barrels lined up in the left lane, just like there was real construction, except, there was no construction going on at all. Not only that, it looked as if there hadn't been any construction going on there for some time. Go figure. Leave it to the State to make our lives just a little more inconvenient.

The reunion was nice. Brian got to go back and see some of the stuff from his childhood that he hasn't seen for about 15 years. Like Turley's station. A primitive little general store stuck out in the middle of no where. Brian said he used to walk there from his Uncle Jack's place when he was a kid to get popsicles. West Virginia was nice. I have never been there, so it was neat to see it. We went to the little sliver that is stuck between Ohio and Pennsylvania (extreme north West Virginia, I suppose). Every time I leave the Midwest, I wonder what the hell anyone would want to live here for. There are so many truly beautiful states in this union, and none, or very few, of them are in the Midwest. Oh well, I guess that's why we retire. If I lived somewhere cool now, I wouldn't have anything to look forward to, right? When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. If you don't like lemonade, play the Lotto.

The Magical Powers of Febreze

So we had some pretty bad thunderstorms passing thorough the area tonight. Vincent is absolutely terrified of thunder and lightning. Every single time it storms, he freaks out, screaming and yelling and carrying on, an 99% of the time, we end up with and extra body in our bed. This is a major no-no in our household, but it's the only way we get a minute of rest on stormy nights. Despite the fact that he is truly scared to death and we feel bad for him.

Tonight we tried a new approach. We mixed up a very magical batch of "thunder repellent". A little good ol' Febreze, and one drop of Bath and Body Works Hand Sanitizer, a little a-la-ka-zam, a-la-ka-zoo and some other magical sayings and gestures, and we had our own bottle of bona fide thunder (and lightning) repellent. We sprayed Vincent down, we sprayed Bob (our beloved fleece blanket - which actually needed a good spraydown), we sprayed mommy, and we sprayed Daddy. Vincent went to bed feeling empowered, and I came down stairs feeling skeptical. Skeptical that our brave 4.5 year old boy would actually stay in bed for a whole night full of storms, lightning, and thunder.

Well, around 10:30 pm, we heard the telltale screaming coming from upstairs. Brian went up to check on Vincent, consoled him for about 5 minutes, then it was my turn. A little discussion, and he wants an additional "booster" of thunder repellent. I've created a monster. So, I doused his room him, his bob, and everything else with febreze. Trust me, we have a very "mountain fresh" smelling son.

I thought it was cute, and definitely worthy of a blog spot. His parting comment to me was "I like that stuff... thunder repellent." Sleep well sweet boy.

Wild Animals

I'm such a looser. I finally get people to actually view my blog, then I don't post anything for 4 days. I know. I feel terribly guilty and undedicated. But seriously, I really haven't done anything interesting in a few days. I'm kind of in a holding pattern of sorts, which, sometimes isn't such a terrible place to be. I start the civil portion tomorrow of a detention hearing for the siblings of the 14 year girl who died of a skull fracture. Just trying to take it easy before that hell starts. I see it as kind of a "dry run" for my criminal case that is sure to go to court, eventually. It's kind of like seeing the game plan and the plays before the actual game actually begins. A pre-season game in a sense.

Well, the kids are still cute. This is a recent attempt at letting Jade feed herself oatmeal for breakfast. I think we'll stick with feeding it to her for a while longer... you know it's gonna be a rough day when you are entering the bathtub less than an hour after everyone gets up. As it stands, that's her also saying "uh oh" which has recently become her favorite word. I'm sure it's probably just because she's had the opportunity to say it more than any other word.

Vincent and I went to the barn today. Terry (one of the owners) had a baby duck that he had found in the arena. I'd like to know why there was a teeny tiny baby duck in the arena in the first place. If I had to guess, it probably attracted the attention of a not-so-hungry barn cat and got there that way. Otherwise, I haven't seen a big duck population inside the barn lately. Anyway, Terry, God love him, told Vincent that he could have the duck, lovingly referred to as Howard. One look at Howard and the answer was no way. For those of you who know, imagine Brian's surprise when he realizes there is a baby duck entered into the picture. Not to mention I don't think the duck story would be so sweet after our border collie discovered it. Not that our border collie is any Cujo, far from it actually, but if he didn't eat it, he'd probably herd it and have it running so fast it would have a tiny duckling sized heart attack. This is not an actual picture of Howard, it's a stock photograph of what I think is Howard's twin brother or sister.

Staying on the wild pet kick, Vincent just announced that he caught a frog (another frog, that is). He brought it in to show me, and as he opened the "cage" the frog jumped out and onto our floor. Vincent said he couldn't re-capture it because he didn't have anything to scoop it up with. Uh, excuse me, please get the toad off of my floor immediately. I don't care if you don't have anything to scoop it with. Just get it back outside. So here I am, toad scooping inside my own house. Boys will be boys.

Ketamine Blues

Well, we went yesterday to the dentist to get Vincent's cavity filled. A few weeks ago the dentist said, "it's just a small one, probably won't even need Novacane - it should only take a few minutes." How wrong he was. One look at the tooth yesterday and he exclaims, "ugh. That's gonna have to come out."

What's going to have to come out? The entire tooth? Yes, it had abscessed, and the tooth was dead or dying. Not to mention the raging infection below it. So we made an appointment at the oral surgeon for first thing this morning (what a way to start off Friday the 13th). What a little champion. The first part was the bite wing x-ray, which we've all had. You know, those hard little films they make you bite down on while holding perfectly still as the plastic cuts into your gums, under your tongue, wherever. Well, they put the "bite wing" in his mouth and told him to bite down. You could see the pain in his face as he bit and the edge cut into this mouth. His eyes started watering, but he sat perfectly still for the x-ray and didn't complain at all.

Then came the fun part. He got to the actual procedure chair, as images passed through my head of the recent case in Chicago where the little girl was OD'd by her dental surgeon and died. Blah.

He sat so still and good as they hooked him up to the blood pressure machine and the pulse oximeter. When the doctor came in, he explained what they were going to do and that I would have to leave. The team of nurses and other people in scrubs entered and I exited. About 30 minutes later, I was called into the recovery room.

There lay Vincent, wrapped in his Bob. He was mostly asleep, but opened his eyes when I talked to him. His little eyeballs darted back and forth in his head as the nurse told him to close his eyes again. After a few tears and a few "I wanna go homes" and a few episodes of vomiting, we were on our way. Ketamine was today's drug of choice. I know it has a tremendous street value, so it must be good. In fact, I know it to be used to tranquilize 1100 pound horses. The real kicker? The bill was an impressive $575 dollars for our little visit. I probably could've gotten the drug for a fraction of that cost in Gary. See what you get for being legitimate? Just kidding.

Yesterday the office called our insurance. It was always my understanding that they covered 90% of this type of procedure. But behold, apparently Anthem doesn't think a 4 year old needs general anesthesia to have an abscessed molar removed. They wanted the office to use Novacane. Now I don't know about you, but I guaran-damn-tee you that if that were me, we'd be breaking out the drugs. What insane person behind a desk at Anthem thinks it is sufficient to use Novacane on a 4 year old with this problem? Probably the same one I'd call every 6 months to insert Vincent into a straight jacket for the rest of his life to get him through the door at the dentist's office.

Obviously, I wouldn't subject him to this type of pain, even if it costed a million dollars... it's just the principal of it all that irks me. They can look at our history, a cleaning here and there, maybe every 6 months for me and Brian for the past 8 years of paying into the plan...I'd say I've MORE than covered the cost of the procedure in my premiums. The doctor's office is going to try to convince Anthem that the general was necessary in this case, but still with no guarantee that they will pay for it. Mark my word... if they don't, I'm going to make an issue of this to someone. Not that it would make a difference, but I'd feel better anyway.

At least it's done.

Kitchen Sink Blog

My blog today will be the kitchen sink of the day... the past few days of my life have been filled with completely different, unrelated events that it would take three blogs (at least) to explain them. I'll put three days into one and hope it makes sense.

Lets start with the positive. Yesterday I went to my old college town to visit my old high school friend Amy. I got there kind of later in the afternoon, actually around dinner time. We hung out for a few hours and took the kids to McDonalds to play in (as she calls them) the "germ tubes." Yeah, I stole that picture fair and square straight from her blog. So the kids ate there and played for a while. Then we went to the local frozen custard place (real frozen custard) and got stuff for the kids and ourselves. I got this delicious turtlely, carmely, hot fudgy, nutty, whip creamy, mmm mmm good thing. I'm sure it had more calories than my entire #2 value meal, but it sure tasted good going down! We then went back to Amy's and had a few glasses of Rosso. We had a good time talking and catching up. We fondly shared memories of some of the crazy things I made Amy do in high school that nearly caused both of our moms a heart attack - probably mostly her mom though, my mom was more used the things I was capable of. I still think Denna thinks I'm responsible for corrupting her innocent, pure daughter... yeah, right. We didn't get home till around 11:00, and the kids were righteous by then. Jade, in fact, screamed from the minute we pulled off of her street clear to mile marker 230 - roughly 50 miles of screaming. Yikes. Oh well. It was actually a nice precursor to today.

Today I went to Trooper Detective Rich's funeral. It really sucked. Cop funerals are really very structured, and it's amazing to see police from literally the west to east coast and every where in between turn out. I did fine throughout the whole thing till the end. We proceed past the casket to lay our carnations on it. The family sits right there by where we pass. His wife was there, weeping, and holding their 3 kids. Like I said, I did fine till I saw those poor babies... sigh. One of the little boys, just about Vincent's age was looking down into the hole where his father was about to be introduced. I couldn't handle it.

The story is that the "bad guy" had threatened to "go to a school and kill a bunch of kids" so maybe Detective Rich was more of a hero for intercepting this lunatic before he had time to carry out his real plan. We'll never know. What we will know is that Detective Rich was killed because he wore a uniform, and that his children will have to grow up without their Daddy. Hopefully, he saved lives that day with his sacrifice.

The end of the day was spent wrangling the kids and finishing our fountain. Now it's time to have a drink. It's been a long, long day.

The Thin Blue Line

Master Trooper Detective David Rich

Indiana State Police
End of Watch: Thursday, July 5, 2007

Biographical Info

Age: 41

Tour of Duty: 18 years

Badge Number: 5398

Incident Details

Cause of Death: Gunfire

Date of Incident: Thursday, July 5, 2007

Weapon Used: Shotgun

Suspect Info: Shot and killed

Master Trooper David Rich was shot and killed by a suspect on US 24, in Wabash, Indiana. Trooper Rich stopped to help a motorist he believed was stranded about one mile west of Wabash. Unbeknownst to Trooper Rich, the man was driving a vehicle that his dad had reported stolen earlier in the day. The suspect shot Trooper Rich in the chest with a shotgun and then killed himself. Trooper Rich had served with the Indiana State Police for 18 years. He is survived by his wife, daughter, and twin sons.

I hope we will all pray for his family, especially his wife and young children. Rest in Peace, brother...

Honesty, please

I promised, so here they are. I hope no one gets mad that I'm publishing these without the consent of the people in the pictures... DISCLAIMER: IF ANYONE READING THIS HAS A PROBLEM, SPEAK NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE. I took these at a recent wedding, and thought they were some of the better ones from the shoot. I especially like the one of the bride and groom dancing. Isn't it neat how the sunbeams were captured on her hair?
I'm hardly a professional photographer, so keep that in mind, but as far as I remember, these don't look too different than anything that I paid big bucks for at my wedding. Not only that, but if I weren't actually attending the wedding because I know the people getting married, I'd have nothing better to do than go around and take thousands of pictures, making the likelihood of good ones even that much better.

Now the only hurdle is to find the time to actually market myself. If anyone knows someone getting married in reasonable distance to where I live and they are looking to keep things low cost and need a photographer, send them my way. I guess the only way to get a demo album going is to have pictures to fill it. I could always just start crashing random weddings and taking pictures. I could just see it, the bride and groom saying, "Honey, did we schedule two photographers?" And I could reply, "Yes, remember you called my studio back in May of 2005 and booked me. Don't forget I have a $500 shoot fee." Just kidding. I would never be that cruel. :). Weddings are stressful enough.

Alright, so I need your comments. I'm going to bed now. More later.

Big Big Bombs Bursting in Air

Well, the busy fireworks season is winding down around the McDonald household, and I am just about fireworked out. I've realized that fireworks really aren't my thing. I like them, but you know, I just can't see the normal person jusifiably spending that kind of money to send a single shell up in the air, watch the effect, and have it gone forever. Well, mostly forever, except in my case, as I photograph and videotape every single show that my darling husband does. And then we watch it over, and over, and over, and over.
It's kind of like vacations. The memories are nice, but can I justify spending multiple hundreds, possibly thousands, of dollars for a memory? Anyway. There is one positive about the whole experience... that is the fact that I get to use my camera.
Those of you who know me know that I am really into scrapbooking (yes, it's hard to believe!). Therefore, I am also moderately into photography. I have played the cards very well, you see. I take still pictures of Brian's fireworks (something he really enjoys) and I get to buy all kinds of stuff for my camera, including the camera, so he can preserve his "memories." I am currently in the market for a couple of new lenses.

It actually works out pretty well. I say something like, "you know, I'd get a lot better picture with a such and such lens," or "you know, I'd get a lot better picture with a such and such tripod," or as it has already panned out, "you know, I'd get a lot better picture with a Canon 20D camera!"

I'd really like to do some free-lance stuff on the side if I had the time. Maybe when the kids get a little bigger, and aren't so in need of constant supervision. I'll post a few of the pics I took from a recent wedding - give me your opinions. I think they look a lot like the ones people pay thousands of dollars for for a professional photographer. My marketing plan will be, my pictures are pretty damn good, and because I'm not some major high dollar studio, I'll shoot your small wedding/reception for a fraction, and I'm talking a fraction, of the cost. Hmmm. That would be nice to have a little supplemental income in the pocket for a few hours of work on the side.

Moving on. The kids really enjoyed the shows. Jade was hilarious. Just like her big brother, she had absolutely no fear of the explosions. Even the really big ones. She just sat and ooed and aawed and squealed in delight. That's my girl. The more destruction the better. Vincent was the same. He told Brian this year that he liked the spinney ones the best. Brian can't wait to teach him the trade (believe me, there's WAY more to safely firing these things than most people realize). I'd rather he stay with tractors and horses... but who am I to decide?

Dog Gone

Once again, last night, we were messing around in the yard (I'm making a fountain out of that big red pot). It was starting to get dark so we were cleaning up. I shooed the dog out of the barn, and closed the door. He ran around the yard a little in his normal fashion, and we got busy getting V to bed, etc. A short time later, our neighbor came to our back patio door to ask if we had a bulb he needed and he tapped on the patio door. No big deal, but I thought to myself, "that's strange, I wonder why the dog didn't bark?"

Now, don't get me wrong, this is no Rottweiler, but usually he'll at least bark a little if someone comes to the house, especially in the dark, and especially in the unconventional fashion of coming to the back patio door. I didn't give it much more thought.

So, we were sitting on the deck sipping a pomegranate martini (yum! Good idea Auntie!) and the neighbors were continuing their sporadic fireworks. I asked Brian where the dog was. Perplexed, he got up and looked around the yard. No dog. Then he looked in our bedroom. No dog. He proceeded to check every nook and cranny, including the kid's rooms. No dog.

Wonderful.

Then, being the good detective that I am, I noticed a slight disruption of the mulch near the side gate. And still no Kirby. I figured he got scared of the fireworks and since we sealed off the deck so he couldn't go under it anymore, he took off. I meandered through the neighborhood for a while, flashlight in hand, calling out "Kirby, Kirby." My neighbors must have thought I was having a nightmare about vacuums or something. Still no dog.

Well, we left the light on for him and the side gate open in case he decided to make his way home and went to bed. Brian was furious. He said, "Another night that I can't relax because of this damn dog..." Well, he said more than that, but I can't publish it. Some of the neighbor kids saw me looking for him, and they started looking too. I told them I'd give the one that found him $5. Then I told them if they returned him to Brian, he probably charge them $5. Brian's recent renewal of his hate for the dog came up when we found a very large hole begun in our very new (<6 hours completed) landscaping. But that's another story.

I went out to get the paper early this morning, took a pause, and looked around. No dog. I started talking to our neighbor across the street (he's an old guy... who goes to breakfast at 5:30am?) and telling him "Hi Mr. Sunny (yeah thats really his name). Our dog got out last night..." and at about that time, from out of no where comes Kirby. He came up from behind me so I have no idea where he was; he just appeared. I guess he likes us after all. Brian seemed disappointed except for the fact that he wasn't going to have to explain that Kirby ran away to the kids in 2 and a half hours.

Who would've thought that we, of all people, would have a stupid dog afraid of fireworks.

The Fruits of our Labors

Here are some pictures of the landscaping we did. See, I wasn't lying when I said we needed a about 10 illegals! That would have made life much better. That way, I could have been sitting on the deck sipping something and saying, "Jose, could you please move that 3,000 pound boulder left a couple of inches?" Instead, it was like, "Brian, I think it needs to go over a few inches, 1, 2, 3, ok, push ---groan groan---, alright, no don't put it down yet..." and so on. Oh well. It was a bonding experience.

Yeah, whatever.

Hello, is there anybody out there?

I have been so bad. I can't even remember the last time I posted. But, I have a really good excuse. We have been landscaping. And I'm not just talking a little landscaping. I'm talking like the kind we should have hired about 10 illegals to do (is that politically incorrect?). Whomever's brilliant idea it was to landscape the sides and the back of the house was completely insane.

Oh yeah. That was my idea.

Well, I guess that's just confirmation for what I already suspected...

My hands are literally burning from all the little microscopic, and not so microscopic, cuts on them. My entire body aches. Muscles in places I didn't even know I had muscles. This is the kind of pain that wakes you up in the middle of the night and you lie there and think, if I would just get up and take 4 advil, it would all be better, but you're too tired to move, so you just stay in bed and suffer. The kind of pain that you think, "I'll feel better after a good nights sleep," and awake to feel worse than you did when you went to bed.

I figured combined, Brian and I totaled about 80 man hours on this project. Ugh.

But I'm back now, I think. This is Brian's big week for fireworks, so our life in centering around blowing things up right now. At least he blows up someone elses's fireworks and not ones he had to buy. That makes it a little better. I'll post pictures of the landscaping in a couple of days. Every time I've had the opportunity to take pictures, it's been dark because we've been working till it is too dark to see every night. You can tell by the time on this post that I'm not joking.

Keep visiting. I'll put more stuff on in the next few days when I catch up with everything else.