Start of the School year!

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Sitting at her new desk., originally uploaded by island artist.

Today was an exciting day in the McEachern household… Paige started her first day of Grade one! I’m not sure who was more excited, her or ME! We’ve been counting down for weeks now so it couldn’t come soon enough. It was a lovely day, we met up with many friends that Paige made over the summer and found her new locker and desk… so exciting! It was like I was starting school myself, I even got up 2 hours before we had to go!! I know, I’m obnoxious sometimes.

We’ve had a busy summer- lots of playing, a little camping, visiting grandma & grandpa and some fishing! On our last camping trip Nolan learned to ride his bike without training wheels! I think he secretly taught himself because Ken took his training wheels on, held the back of his seat and the kid was off. End of story. It was amazing. He’s been a little wobbly since then but still doing pretty great for a 3 year old! That kid is constantly blowing my mind!

For a couple weeks we had a guest staying with us, a 4 legged, hairy guest. If you are a Facebook friend of mine you may have heard of Jack (or Buddy as I call him), the Silky terrier. We found him stranded on the side of Highway 2. He was absolutely forlorn and his hair was long, filthy and fully dread locked. We cleaned him up and took him to the Vet, they gave him a clean bill of health so we went on trying to find him a home. We would have liked to have been able to keep him but we aren’t set up for Piper just yet, never mind a new addition. My sister in law said she wanted him so we had him shipped by plane to Vancouver where she picked him up. The Travel really upset his delicate constitution and he got violently ill. After some vet care, I’m happy to report he’s happy and doing great with his new family. He’s a real sweetheart.

I lost my wallet a couple weeks ago- that sucks the big one. It’s taken me a couple weeks to get most of my ID replaced. I’ve only got a couple more things to replace and i’ll be back to where I was before except now I need a new wallet. I will be shooting my first (and probably only) wedding in a little more than a week. I’m pretty nervous about it but I’m going to do some research on poses and the like- then I’ll pray for sunshine. It’ll be an adventure… I hope.

Well I should head to bed- School starts early in the morning!
Hugs,
~jen

Summer is getting away from me.

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Kids at the Spray park, originally uploaded by island artist.

it’s been crazy around here. We’ve been keeping busy- going out and doing things as a family. We bought a new bed last week, our other one was 7 years old, which probably doesn’t sound old but, holy smokes, it was worn out. Now that the new bed is all set up and I’ve had a couple nights to get used to it, I am in love and I realize what a piece of turd the old bed was. I need a step stool to get onto the dang thing- but other than that, it’s great.

For those keeping tabs, allergies are still ahead of the game and I’m not going down without a fight. Last week I started taking allergy pills regularly which help immensely but they seriously impair my sleep. Not sure what to do about that. Anybody have any ideas (for the allergies and/or the sleep), please share, I’m desperate!

We went to the Strathmore Rodeo yesterday! I really enjoyed it! The midway was supposed to start at 3pm but NONE of the carnival help arrived so it started a few hours later.  After the poor guy organizing it called in some favours, I imagine. We also took in the actual Rodeo- the Bronc riding, Bull riding, Barrel racing and chuck wagon races. There was a nasty crash in the second to last heat and we found out later that one of the fella’s lead horses had a heart attack during the race. I watched the video of the driver talking about his beloved horse (clip titled “Tough night for the Rainbow”) and it was heart breaking. I don’t know why I found the rodeo so interesting this year but I wanted to go back today and watch the rest… especially since I can hear all the action from my front porch (and see the grandstand!). Tonight I watched the amazing fireworks display from my front porch- unfortunately they didn’t start until 11 because it was still too light outside so the kids missed them. I heard a lot of car alarms going off when the biggest fireworks exploded overhead, I don’t know how the loud booming didn’t wake the kids anyway!

Today I received some new camera equipment in the mail, a week early!! I bought a Fong Cloud flash diffuser, a reflector and a Speedlite 430EX off camera flash. I took them out tonight to test them in different conditions but I haven’t had a chance to get the photos off my camera. Instead I spent the time working on the photos I took at the waterpark last week. The one above is probably my favourite shot. You can see the rest in my flickr goodness. I am shooting a wedding on September 6th, so I’m hoping these tools will help me get as many good shots as possible in the 3 o’clock sunshine.
Jessica is coming as my gopher.. it’s going to be fun.

Well, this is it for tonight- I’m off to flip my laundry and hit the sack.
Take care all!

~jen