In a few weeks....

I'll be headed down to Indy to photograph a boudoir session, and then an event with School on Wheels, and then hang out with some photog friends, and then hang out with some church friends, and then meet up with a friends new [ish], baby!

I'm excited about it.

But I just e-mailed the friend I'm staying with, and she mentioned it was firefighters week in Indy [her Dad's a firefighter].

And I was like:

THE FIREFIGHTERS CONVENTION!!?!!?! [smile].  My favorite time of the year in Indy!!!! [well, when I was single :)]; it is like the first real sign of spring :).

-mrp-

ps: remember this? wahahahaha rofl... lol... ha ha ha

Munchkin...

Have you played it?  There are a lot of cards, and a lot of reading, but it's fun.

And there are a ton of different genres: zombie, space, regular, pirate, etc.

So looking for something that was challenging, fun and short enough I could do it every night [ish], and not be overwhelmed, I decided to start drawing from the munchkin deck.

Here we are so far:

I finished up another 5x7 sketch book with these images :).

*mrp*

Kindergarten

A few weeks ago I substitute taught a kindergarten class at a private school here in town [maybe I mentioned it here or somewhere?].

Anyways, at one point, we sat down to do journal time where I give them a prompt and then they draw a picture and write a sentence about it.

I can't even remember what my prompt was [it was supposed to do something with the story we read right before].

What I do remember is, as we are drawing, one of the kids picks up his paper, barely written on and says he messed up and needs a new sheet.  I inquire about how he messed up and encourage him to draw around it or draw it into the story, but he starts to crumble it up, while telling me their teacher lets them start over.  Which of course ticks me off.  And I say something like, "well, I'm here today, and while we'll do a lot of things like your teacher does, this isn't going to be one of them".

In the end he crumpled up his paper in a ball, and I had to have a talk about respecting teachers, and when they ask something he needs to do it.  I should have made him draw on the crumpled up sheet.  But I didn't.

I was thinking though, what exactly are we teaching kids with that approach?  Are we teaching them if they mess up they can start all over, and not worry about the first mess up?  I know this is one of those small nit-picky things where it's ridiculous to pinpoint what it really is teaching kids.  But to a certain extent, I think the small things like this do teach kids problem solving skills for the future.

Should we have kids, I want them to know it's okay to mess up, and inevitable that they will mess up.  But they can't just run and get a new paper every time they mess up.  Most times they have to figure out a way to make the mess up okay, or better.  And learn from it so that next time they have a clean sheet of paper they don't make the same mess up.

And hopefully that lesson will expand to all things in life.  You can't always just start fresh.

-mrp-

April 1st!

And, it's snowing outside.

Not an April Fools joke.

:/

Spring needs to fight harder to get here!

-mrp-

An Update :)

Goals Update:

It's been 11 days since I stated my goals here on the blog.  And I'm happy to say I followed through with a respectable amount of them :).

1. I read the bible every day since then [with the help of the bible in a year; which has daily readings].  I also journaled, and stuck with the idea that I don't have to write a long drawn out passage every time I journal.  It was nice to write one or two sentences a couple times.  Freeing.

2. I've drawn 7 of the 11 days.  That's more than 50%, so I consider this a win :).  I've also found something to help.  I've pulled out Ronald's deck of Munchkin cards, and have been drawing a new one each night.  It's fun, and definitely been a creative pusher to just get my brain to think more about art, and possibilities.

3. Duolingo.  Okay, so I've sorta sucked on this, but in my defense, Whit was in town from Saturday to Wednesday morning, and it's weird to do a half hour of language learning when a friend is in town :).  BUT, I did do it 5 times, which isn't too bad.

That's all.  Hope everyone is has an excellent Easter!

-mrp-

So Sad :(

It's so interesting to open up your facebook news feed and see 90% of your friends making a statement on something that's happening in the government.

It's kind of cool for the first inspiring day.

And then it's sad, when all the people opposed to that statement figure out clever ways to refute it [shrug].

What I want to say to most of my fellow Christians, is that you can both believe that God made marriage between a man and a woman, and also support equal rights in the United States of America.

Have you watched Lincoln yet?  Back in the day, the good Christian people had their panties all in a wad about freeing the 'colored' folk.  Some were adamant they were not equal to the white folk.  Same story about women.  Let the women vote!!! [ho-ly-shit-no!].  I believe it's the same story with the gays and lesbians.

Because marriage is more than just something that happens in churches, I wholeheartedly believe they need to be seen as equals in our government.  No one is asking for churches to marry a gay or lesbian couple.  No one is asking you to change your beliefs about what is right and wrong.  What they are asking, is that you give them the same rights straight people have [lifelong partners don't get to make decisions if their partner is in the hospital, they don't get tax advantages, they don't get to be recognized as a family unit].

I've only watched one talk about this on CNN [the video here], and it's just sad.  On all fronts.  It's sad that we can't come together and talk about it.  Just talk, without any hurt feelings, or bashing of each other [I personally think that Suze Orman did a SHIT job of being respectful of the other dude in the clip; and seriously, from someone who has been told she's wrong probably her entire life in her lesbian relationship, why would you want to turn around and do the same thing to someone else?  I mean, seriously, you're going to tell him he's not educated because he holds different beliefs than you?!].  sigh.

I hope marriage equality becomes a thing where all states and the federal government recognize gay and lesbian couples.

I also see both sides, and understand it's a scary situation for a lot of conservatives.  But it's just not fair.

-mrp-

30 selfies before I turn 30?

I might have added a new goal today... maybe.  I'm so bad at goals though, and trying to get through things [we remember how the alphabet drawing thing was... so good at first, and then I fell apart at V].... [I have plans to finish some day even if it's already more than a year later].

In any case, I took a self portrait today, and I love me some Cindy Sherman [her early work anyway, her later work is a bit cray cray].  But I'm getting close to my final year in my 20's [I can't believe the 30's are so close! Yikes!].  And to celebrate (?), I might attempt to share 30 self portraits before I turn 30.

So here's number 1.

-mrp-

New Goals...

So, when I was in middle school and high school, I was always checking out self help books from the library.

Saying that [well, typing it], sounds super lame.  But I don't actually think it was that lame.  It was just that I wanted to be better, and access my full potential! [which sounds so cliché!]

In any case, this morning, I'm wanting to once again create new habits, in order to be more tomorrow than I am today.  Because I truly believe I can be.  And if I don't ever start those habits, and get into routines, then I'll never achieve some of the goals which require more than a one time/one day commitment.

So I thought I'd share them with you.  I'm going to be using the pomodoro technique, if you haven't heard about it, and want to make better use of your time, you should totally check it out.  I've downloaded an app on my phone, but you can also use an actual kitchen timer.

New Daily Goals [which I've had on my hypothetical to-do list forever; and haven't actually done at all]:

* 1 pomodoro [25 minutes] of duolingo * [I'm learning German :); my awesome Onkel George died in Germany just a few weeks ago, and so a new determination has built up inside me to make this happen].

* 1 pomodoro of reading the bible and journaling * [Besides just actually gaining knowledge and thinking more about the things I believe, I think this will be really good for my identity in general, and writing out things I'm thinking about as well as ideas I have on making my business more than just a business, but also making it something that gives back to the community, and figuring out what I'm passionate about as well and how to make a difference in that part of the world].

* 1 pomodoro of drawing * [I took drawing classes in college, and I loved it (well, mostly, except for that one tool professor).  My one teacher made me promise I would continue to draw after the class was over.  My response was, "of course!"... but I've sucked at it.  So hopefully this will get me back in the habit, and more inspired].

And that's it, as far as daily goals.

An hour and a half with short breaks in between.

Totally do-able [not for everyone, I know, but I'm self employed, so it totally is for me].

In other news, we're turning in an application next week for a special house purchasing program [they help you out with the down payment, and there are special restrictions for purchasing their houses; which we currently qualify for (hooray!)].  Who knows what will happen with it, or whether or not we'll be accepted, but we're hopeful!

That, and I'm working at The Cove this summer in the box office :).  I'm sorta excited about it, and it's a good summer for us to stick around SB and not spend money traveling [no weddings, or other big things that we NEED to go to].  So instead, we'll try to make some extra money, pay off more debt and just plug into SB more.

-mrp-

pinterest

Pinterest is less offensive than facebook... I hope it stays this way.

-mrp-

savers and futuristic language

So I've stumbled upon some awesome TED talks recently, from friends sharing them on facebook.  So this morning, instead of perusing facebook for inspiration/education/entertainment, I decided that I would just go to TED talks site and watch one of the videos I found which had an interesting title.

I found this:
"Could Your Language Affect Your Ability To Save"

Of course, most of you know since the husband and I have been married, I've been investing a lot of time and thought into money, and how to get it to work best for us.  Dave Ramsey says something like, you have to tell your money where to go and what to do, otherwise, it will always have control over you.

All that to say, money interests me, and the way we think about money interests me.

This Keith guy, he proposes the language we speak has an affect on how we see money and how we save money.  Our English language has a past, present and future tense where we have a lot of things that change in our terminology.

It rained last night     vs    It is raining     vs    It is going to rain tomorrow

Other languages approach the tenses differently, and translated is like this:

It rain yesterday      vs     It rain now      vs     It rain tomorrow

Obviously, he does a much better job explaining it [you should go ahead and watch it :)].  But his studies show USA citizens are worse savers than most [well, everyone except Greece] countries where the language for future encounters is not as different as present encounters.

It's fascinating to think about.

My favorite part though, when when he goes on to talk about health benefits.

He talks about smoking.  While saving is a current pain in exchange for a future pleasure, smoking is a current pleasure in exchange for a future pain.  And of course there are links to people who suck at saving, also being smokers, and overweight.  Clearly pointing to current pleasures outweighing their future pains.

-mrp-

"uncomfortable truth"

Homelessness... 

The “uncomfortable truth” about panhandling is not that most homeless people are liars, but that many of us want them to be.  Beneath all our ego and superficiality, our core desire is to make human connections – and yet we deny such connections to those who most need them.  He’s a wino; she’s a con artist; those shoes look new.

Makes you think a bit, ya?

I read this, and then this, and then this tonight.  This Andy guys is an incredible writer/storyteller.  I encourage you to click on the links and read them.  And take time to think about what it's saying.

-mrp-

Mornings!

So there have definitely been times in my life where I hate HATE HATE mornings.  But recently, they're my favorite part of the day.

Ronald comes in before he leaves for work to give me a kiss good bye.

A few minutes later Bentley jumps up [shh, don't tell Ronald], and curls up with me until I'm ready to be awake.

Then, when we've decided it's time, Bentley snuggles with me, and is all cute and sweet and puppy-ish for a good 5 minutes while he lets me pet him and scratch his belly, and he tries to lick my face off.

Then, when I ask him if he's ready to be awake, and get out of bed, he pounces like a tigger, all over the bed.  It's awesome.

That is currently why I love mornings.

-mrp-

A Bitchin Saturday...

I've been on a recent tangent of cleansing my facebook newsfeed from lies and misrepresentation and internet junk.

Which you might think means I'm chucking people out my friend group, when in reality, it just means I'm posting a lot of snope.com links on peoples shared internet stories [the ones we used to be spared of on facebook, because elderly relatives used to only have e-mail].

It got me thinking though.  About how much information there is out in the world, and how we often do a crap job of doing the research to see if it's true or not.

And how freakin gullible we are.  I mean, seriously.  Do you know how many times I've seen the post of Bill Gates wanting to give everyone who likes the page a gazillion dollars, or the free ipad link.... we are somehow smart enough to not believe that bad shit will happen to us if we don't forward this onto 18 of our friends, but we're not smart enough to realize this is not, and never will be true [if you're looking for that, you have to get yourself onto a screening of Oprah or Ellen, duh].... [also: can you seriously NOT tell that it was photoshopped!!!  Honestly?!?!].

Full disclosure, if you have shared this, I'm automatically going to assume whatever political posts you have made, or believe in, you haven't done your research about that either.

That's right.

I said it.

Do your damn research!  There are honest truthful research capabilities with the internet!  Don't be that gullible, easily manipulated, lazy person who gets all passionate and bent out of shape about stuff they read on the internet, without first doing your research.

I'm in no way asking you to change your beliefs, but I AM asking you to freakin know why you believe them, and if the reasons you believe them are TRUE stories, and TRUE information and TRUE facts.

I don't know why there is so much untruth out there, but I am amazed at how a fabricated story can spread like wildfire.

-mrp-

ps: Thank the LORD my one grandfather never had e-mail; I'm sure I would have daily reads and links about the minutemen of which he was a long time financial supporter.

pps: I'm particularly fond of how in the second photo, the origin of the story is from a facebook group called "People are Fucking Dumb".... so so true internet.... they're so dumb they are sharing your fictitious story over and over and over again... so dumb.

pps: years ago, we were excited to get the mail because there would be cards, and letters, and real communication in them!  Then that was inundated with crap credit cards applications, sales shit, and other stuff that automatically goes into the recycle bin in my house... Then we had e-mail, and it was so much fun e-mailing back and forth to friends and family and having access to quickly interact with people through words... Then that got clogged up to where I now have four e-mails, and two of them are used solely for junk mail and forwards.  And then we had facebook, and it was awesome, and we got to see pictures, and stalk boys we liked and could end our wondering about their relationship status with a click of our mouses... and now that's clogged up too.  Which does make me wonder what the next thing will be.  I suppose we have text messaging [which a couple companies that have my digits actually text me info (a tanning place and target)].  But what will be next?

ppps: this also sort of makes me want to come up with my own bad advice, etc and see it go viral.  But that would just make me cringe at the illogical-ness of people.

sickness

I'm sick.  And while complaining about it on facebook is tempting, I'm resisting, 'cause unless it's cleaver, I don't really want to hear about other people being sick, so why should they want to hear about my snotty nose, stuffed up ears, cough from hell and achy muscles [which I usually like, 'cause that means I had a killer work out].

In any case, I have stuff to do, but no motivation to do it.

Last night, I woke up around 1am coughing [ps: when this happened when I was single, I was mostly annoyed, now that I'm a married, I feel SOOO bad coughing in the middle of the night when I know the husband is asleep and waking up early to go to work; how sucky].

It was one of those annoying coughs.  Like a tickle in your throat.  A very small tickle.  And then when you cough to get it to go away, it's starts a coughing explosion.  So you take a sip of water.  That makes it go away for half a second while you think, "I just want to freakin sleep!".  Then more coughing.  So I get up and get some juice, I'm not a doctor, I don't know, maybe it will help!?!

Negative.

So I end up in the kitchen again [side note, I usually sleep walk to the kitchen once or twice a year and have, more than once, woken up with my hand stuck in a pringles container].  I grab some tortilla chips, eat a few there and then take a few with me back to the bedroom [which Ronald hates food in the bedroom/on the bed].

Silence for 15 minutes, when I consider if I need another Nyquil.  Then the damn tickle is back.  I quickly squelch it's annoyingness with a chip.

Better.

Sleep.  No more Nyquill needed.

***

I should be doing some sort of other work, but it seems harder than writing a ridiculous blog about my last nights sleep :).

So instead I'll settle for some creativelive.com... It's like school while I'm in my pj's, and for free... it's semi productive.  I'm learning.  I'll leave the doing things for tomorrow.

-mrp-

self portrait research

Some of you remember I started a self portrait series back in the day, right after I got out of college.  It was titled "To Scare My Mother".  It was awesome [smile].  And something I'm still pretty proud of.

So I've decided to revisit the idea of another self portrait series.  In college I studied Cindy Sherman who did a series of awesome self portraits back in the day.  And I figure, although my friend pool is growing up here in the bend, I still don't have a ton of people who would feel comfortable having me photograph them.  So, I'm comfortable in front of the camera, and I have time right now to do awesome photo/art things... so why not!

I'm mainly going to focus on things that are a bit out there, and more unique than the hum drum portraits [I can take an awesome portrait, what I want to take is an awesomely AWESOME artsy ART portrait].  In my research [pinterest, you are so ever helpful in this!] I've found, however, google apparently thinks "Glamour Portraits", really means topless chicks with giant boobs... wtf.

I realize nudity is all over the art scene, and I TOTALLY appreciate the figure and nudes... but "glamour" does not freakin mean nude!

Meh.

End of rant.

I'm sure I'll share eventually when I get one or two done.  I'm thinking I need to start out easy, and then work my way up.

Here are my "To Scare My Mother" series:

-mrp-

ps: everytime I write a blog... or really anything... I have to go back and erase like, at least two or three "that" or "that's".  Thank the Lord one of my mentors senior year in high school pointed out how often and ridiculously I use that stupid word :).

really though...

It totally ticks me off when people use their facebook accounts for the sole purpose of spreading hate, bitterness, ugliness, and just bad shit.  And I don't even think the people that do it, realize what they are doing!

There is so much of that in the world anyway.

You are probably right, that the world is out to get you... and everyone else... But really, the only thing you CAN do, is determine how you respond to that world that's out to get you.

I'm not saying there's no legitimate thing to bitch about on facebook [I'm a culprit of this every once in a while].  But when you seriously post every.single.time... about how you are being taken advantage of, or being disrespected, or how the president is taking away your freedoms... it's just too much.

There are so many beautiful things to share.  And so many awesome things happening in this world.  Why can't we share those things, and bond together about awesomeness, instead of bitterness and the things that we tsk and shake our heads about... why do so many people not share the story about the dude that offered the indianapolis guy a job, after he found out he was going to trek through the snow for 10 miles to get to a job interview [right!?!].  But will instead share our ragingly one sided opinions on everything.

I just wish people were more aware that they have to be the change in the world.  We have to educate each other, and that doesn't mean sharing links and bonding over negative things via facebook.  It instead means we need to do better to change things.  To be living life off of the computer in an effort to make a difference.

And I need to do better at this too... once again, I'm my a culprit.

-mrp-

snowy day

Yesterday it snowed the prettiest snow.

There was sun shining down between the clouds.

Like a handful of confetti, being blown out of ones hand.

The kind of snow that floats and is found in dreams and fairy tales.

Going up and down and around before reaching a resting place.

Like a soft swirl of a snow-globe.

-mrp-

pink

There comes a time every winter where I decide that it's time to paint my toe nails bright pink.

This year it's mid February.

-mrp-

Gendercide

I'd never heard of the term "gendercide" before today.

But it makes sense.

I read about it on the Mommy Monologues blog [I read it cause I'm her friend, not because I'm preparing to be a mommy, fyi].

And it's so tragic.  And awful.  And cruel.

I think of the amazing women in my life, and am so sad for the girls that weren't allowed to live and become amazing women as well.

-mrp-

Quizzed...

So it's V-Day and Ronald is out of town [we haven't had a valentines day together since we got married, it's no big deal; I do miss him in the general sense, but I'd be more pissed if he missed my birthday or Christmas, or our anniversary].

IN ANY CASE... I was fb-ing earlier, and came across this [mixed in between all the lovey-dovey, the card companies are the devil, and the general here's some zombie news]:

A Downton Abby Quiz

This is my result:


Matthew & Mary

The road to your union may have been rocky, but now that you're together, you are, like Matthew and Mary, the "it" couple, perfectly matched in looks, intelligence, and values. You are equally well matched in strength of will, which sometimes allows for differences of opinions to escalate. Fortunately, you always relish the opportunity to make up! At the altar, Mary told Matthew, "I should hate to be predictable." Even so, you and your partner are predictable in one way: you were made for each other.

I think they probably got it right :).

-mrp-

Hair...

This is me now-ish...

And orange-ish, apparently... [smile]... reception lighting...

I'm thinking I want to grow my hair out long.. maybe a few more inches... and I'm also thinking about going with some bangs again, like this:

Tim, my most awesomess hair dresser in Springfield, MO said I could totally pull it off :)...

So, as a reward for finishing the two weddings in January, I'll be making an appointment.

Last time I had bangs it didn't last long, but I think with the long hair, maybe it will last longer?  We'll see :).

*right after timmy cut and styled it... i love him... i wish i could have him style me every morning.

-mrp-

"If you want to start a book club...."

"If you want to start a book club, you should read the book, "So I want to start a book club".

Have you guys heard that commercial?  I can't remember if it's off pandora or hulu... but I've heard it a lot, and it's sort of annoying actually [almost all commercials are really], I can't even remember what it was advertising.

But today, I sure did google, "starting a book club" [I read a link on Oprah's site].

And then we had our first meeting, which was cool.  I'm hoping to talk a few other people into it, so that we can have some more diversity.  But people are noncommittal [I started out with "anti-committal" which I kind of like better].

Things I was glad for:
-almost all of us [with the exception of one dude], have never been a part of a book club [I'm choosing to believe this is a good thing :)].
-everyone seems pretty financially practical [library books, free kindle books, etc].

***I just heard the commercial!  Pandora, for carmax***

-the people that showed up seem really cool.
-although totally not a huge deal, the whole "smart" thing bothers me occasionally  right... so being a part of a book club makes me excited, but also sort of hmm... defensive on my smartness.  I'm hoping I'm not too awkward when it comes to that.
-4 out of 5 of us are not originally from SB.  I think this is also sort of cool.  And interesting.  I most often connect with people who also don't have roots in whatever town I'm in.  It's neat.
-We ended up picking Same Kind of Different As Me [damn, just looked that up, and the author is coming to Elkhart in September!  Woah... that's awesome.  It's like we're a big city!

Also, sort of interesting... Ronald and I start things, and commit to thing and groups easily enough... and pretty hard core 100% if we're in it, we're totally in it.  Not half assed.  And yet, we're sort of anti-committal on things like buying a house, or a car, or having a relationship [before Ronald, I didn't date anyone longer than one month].  Just sort of odd, right.  Oh well.  Maybe that's because of our priorities.  Community is high on both of our priorities.  So committing to them is necessary.

In any case, I'm excited for the book club.  If we do end up keeping it small, then we might be able to host at a few peoples houses, which I think would be awesome, and comfy, and more conversation-producing.

All that to say... yay.  Book club is going to be fun... and maybe Ronald will join us too.  We'll see.

-mrp-

mall walkers...

I was in the mall today [thanks to some awesome coupons for aerie], and I got there close to when it opened at 10am.  I learned 2 things while there:

1. If you have a toddler and are a stay at home mom, the malls kid area is the place to be in the winter [it's a pretty good idea, all the toddlers were having a blast playing together].

2. Mall walkers freak me out.

Seriously, about #2.  They turn following some unknown-to-me path, and you sort of don't want to be awkward and stop so they can walk in front of you [this isn't a driving situation, after all], but you also don't want to walk in front of them, only to feel like you have got to speed your stroll up so that they don't catch up to you.  Sheesh.

Mall walkers... totally make my shopping experience awkward.

-mrp-

ps: they were all decked out in workout clothes too... which I know I shouldn't judge [how many times have I put on my workout clothes and not worked up a sweat].  But it was weird to see them in the mall, dressed up to work out, and creeping up behind you every couple of minutes.  Between them, the random guy that's either handing you lotion, or asking to straighten your crazy looking hair, it's no wonder I don't spend more time in the mall... eek!

I love my parents :)

So half an hour ago, I noticed that my mother was on facebook, so I called 'cause she's been wanting to learn how to share images on facebook that I have posted.

After being confused, and dad taking over, we finally figured it out [and that there was no way to share with germany family that weren't on facebook].

She/dad then proceeded to share all off the NM Chrstmas Album that I posted :).  Apparently she loves them all... or needs to share all of them in order to really learn how to do it.

I love my parents.

-mrp-

awesome husband day

today, my husband is awesome.  he cleaned off my car when he cleaned off his own this morning.

-mrp-

the finish line..

So although I don't sit down and actually write out a new years resolution [I admire those of you that do], I'm more of a ... well, a ponderer, and an eventualist.

Which really actually goes back to the reason I'm writing this post.

This year I want to be less of an "eventualist" [I'll eventually get to that!].  And more of a "right-now-ist", and "finish-ist"... okay, so that last one sounds stupid.  Whatev.

I'm realizing for the most part, I get on things right away, and all those immidiate gratification things, I'm totally on!  But then for some of the other things, I struggle.  Like editing a session.  I can get my fb sneak peek up within a few days, and then the blog selections chosen within a few weeks... but it's so hard for me to sit down and freakin finish the session.  I literally get to a point where I'm like, "I've been looking at this same session for two hours, let's work on something else".

This is not JUST in my editing, but also in cleaning, laundry, and other things.  I have a hard time finishing as strong as I started.  So one of my goals this year is to get better at it.  Not that I would just finish, but that I would learn to push through that meh feeling, and conquer the finished product!

To finish lines.

-mrp-

ps: if I did have a list, running another 5K would be on it :)

Well...

Ronald: well, I haven't known her as long as you have [my parents], but I do know, a sure fire way to get Maike to do something is to tell her she can't..... Even better, tell her it's because she's a girl.

...
...
...

He's right.

I hate when someone tells me I can't do something.

...

I can do anything I want to.

-mrp-

respect

I'm coming to realize more and more that I not only have high standards for people, but also have a low threshold for lack of respect. If I text you, you should text me back.... texting is easy... take half a second and reply.

(Sigh).

High standards = bigger let downs

But manners matter! You should return phone calls and texts, you should write thank you notes, you should be greatful when people help you/change their schedule for you/make you dinner/etc.

How do some people forget that? If you get a gift, freaking send a thank you! Even if it's only through a text!

Meh... end.of.rant.

-mrp-

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#trainride

The husband and I are headed to New Mexico! The first question, after we tell pleople that is usually, "are you driving or flying?"...

To which I usually smirk a bit and excitedly say, "We're taking the train!"

We have about 25 hours left.

BUT... I'm so excited to see my family! I haven't seen the rents for a year and a half, and I haven't seen my grandma for almost three years.

It's going to be great :).... and we don't have to drive or navigate or worry about traffic.

We did have to carry our big ass backpacker packs a bit through Chicago (like a mile). But all in all, not to shabby of a set up.

We're going to make dinner reservations on the dinning car, and maybe check out the lounge...

So far, the only things I forgot that I wad planning on bringing were my knitting and travel scrabble (Ronald says I have words with friends so.I should be fine).

I'm glad we got out of town :). Sometimes I feel couped up staying in one city too long.

-mrp-

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Beautiful.

This is great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO64urOFNaY

-mrp-

shoot.

"if we had more guns, then this wouldn't have happened!"

"if we had more gun control and less guns on the street this wouldn't have happened!"

"if we had better mental health coverage this wouldn't have happened!"

"if we were a more loving people, this wouldn't have happened!"

"if we didn't allow our kids to play violent video games, this wouldn't have happened!"

"if there were two parents in that household raising that boy, this wouldn't have happened!"

and to take the cake, I just read this morning:

"if there were more men in that school.... this wouldn't have happened!"

Here's the thing... you.just.can't.prove.that.

There are thousands of people who have guns, and have never shot up a school/theater/etc.

There are thousands of people who don't have guns, and have never had a time where a gun would have been a useful form of defense.

There are thousands of people who have mental illnesses, who have never gone on a killing rampage.

And I could go on, and on....

I've been following along, and thinking and wondering and thinking some more about this whole Sandy Hook shooting [which is tragic and so sad and wrong].... but the thing I've come to realize is that no one  knows.

No.One.Knows.

This isn't like the common cold [remedy = drink plenty of fluids and take some DayQuil/NyQuil]

I think it might be a bit more like cancer [remedy = do something, even if it kills part of your body, 'cause we're just hoping this works!]

I'm probably a bit of downer, because I don't believe that there is a quick fix to any of this.  I really think though that pointing fingers at EVERYTHING, and ANYONE associated with this is not helpful [*maybe it was the layout of the school! if the architect had designed it better, then this wouldn't have happened!* [okay, no one has actually said that, but I wouldn't be surprised].

I read somewhere a thing that said something like, "Now is too LATE to be taking about gun control"... and while this may be true, I believe two things when it comes to talking about how to fix this problem right after it was announced... 1. People just lost their people.  Grief is hard enough to go through.  Why would you push them into anger right away?  Why can't you let them be sad for some time, and then move into anger?  and 2. What huge big messy problem have you really solved in a couple of hours?  You want to band-aid it, okay, go ahead... a band aid is temporary though.  You can't put a band aid over a broken bone and hope that it heals.  It just covers up a bigger problem.

I really think this is something that does need some thought, and research, and more thought, and more research, because I don't think this sort of stuff should happen!... but causation and correlation have to be considered.  And research has to be done so that we're talking about facts.

So, all that to say, I'm tired of getting angry at people who are heartless, and who think, "if we had just, blah, blah blah, this wouldn't have happened"....

You.Don't.Know.That.

-mrp-

holidays...

Just stayed in the car a bit longer to finish the song on the radio.... Ave Maria by Celine Dion. So beautiful.

-mrp-

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grinchy blog post....

"Grinchy" might be a little to strong of a word [shut up, "grinchy" IS a word!].  But pretty much I keep having to talk myself down from freaking out... cause my stupid computer has gone ape shit!

Seriously.  I move my mouse around to wake it up this morning, to find it completely different than I left it.  My desktop background, replaced with some colorful swirlish thing that comes with new computers.

Initially I thought, well, maybe Ronald hooked up his computer to mine, or something... so I look around... nope.

Then I'm like, okay, well, maybe it updated it, and this is not all bad... and as I hold my breath I click open the C drive... whew, still there.

Okay, so it's there, and I've got shit to do!  So I open up indesign, get my book exporting, and realize I need to do some photoshop-ing of a few images before I send it off... okay, open up photogshop [ha ha, funny typo that I'm totally leaving in], drag my photo in, and then hit my quick key to run an action... ... ... nothing.happens.oh.shit.

I realize all my actions are missing... [not a huge deal, I can re-load, whatever]... so then I open lightroom... all my presets are missing, and all my catalogues of past work... what.the.hell!

Okay, so for most of you, you have no idea what all that means.  It means, that if this happened at any other time, I would be super duper freaking out, but luckily, I've been kickin out all my projects earlier this week, and don't have anything that's REALLY pressing.

Unluckily though, what the hell happened?!?!

I look into my Documents folder.  Everything's gone.  My Pictures folder, same story.

Right now I'm approaching it with a "I'm gonna go ahead and work on crafts instead until Ronald get's home.  Then he can take a look at it and either we fix it or I'll start over again... and look into investing in the cloud backup.

Meh.

-mrp-

ps: it would be some work, but I assure you, as a professional photog, all my picture files are backed up multiple times, so my clients have nothing to worry about.  Random documents, and advertising files, not quite as well backed up unfortunately :(.

CRISIS AVERTED: turns out my crazy computer decided that it didn't like me as a user anymore, so created a temporary user... all I had to do was restart it and it started in as user Maike... [sigh]... I sometimes hate technology...

too many numbers!!!!!

I'm trying to figure out what I owe for my annual sales tax... too.many.numbers.

I need to hire someone to do this crap.

-mrp-

ps: suggestions on accountants are welcome.

sometimes...

Sometimes it's hard owning your own business... especially when you think you're good, but not getting a TON of business, so wondering what you're doing wrong.

And it's easy to get disheartened.  And discouraged.  And to start to believe you should get another day job cause some day you would like to be debt free.

And then something like this is sent:

******************
Maike,

This is from the boy's Mom:

Mom,

 

I absolutely LOVE them!!!!!  The are awesome!  I am going to show them to Chris, he will be so excited, can I order directly from her site? 

 

XXOO CSL
I was looking at the pictures again and I just can't thank you enough--there are so many great shots of the boys!!!  I really like her style of photography, it's like the pictures tell a story, really cool!

***************

How sweet, and awesome, right?  And this lady that wrote this, I've met her once before.  Which in my mind just means... she truly likes my stuff, not just because she knows me, or whatnot.  She likes it.  Which is awesome.  I hope she puts images all over her house, and sends many clients my way :).

Hopefully  :).

-mrp-

Cake...

I was just thinking about Cake... not this Cake... but this Cake:

We did play the linked Cake when we cut our Cake... :).

Did you know before this happened:

I looked right at Ronald and said "be nice"... then smiled and we fed cake to each other :).

Awww... marriage... [smile].

-mrp-

Mushroom Soup for the Soul

I'm a bit sick [recovering.. how awful, right, to be sick through a holiday weekend!].  Luckily, it wasn't too bad, I suffered through most of it with only a few wrong turns [ya, I totally took nyquil, and a minute later was drinking an awesome glass of wine... I have short term memory for do's and do not's together... whoops :)].

In any case, Ronald left yesterday on business for the week, so I'm solo... and being solo and sick, I decided I was going to make some soup.  Mushroom soup.

Ronald and Whitney both think it's weird that I eat mushroom soup, just as soup.

But what I think is weird, is thinking something that is called soup wouldn't be used just as soup.

That's all.

Back to coughing, blowing my nose and rubbing my aching muscles.

-mrp-

ps: for those of you wondering, yes, I had a GREAT nights sleep after the nyquil and wine cocktail :).

EDIT: pps: I wrote this as I was making the soup... freakin boiled over.... I suck at soup. [shakes head].

tday 2012 = Creole food

This is the fifth year we've done non-traditional thanksgivings... as a result of our new tradition, thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. So much anticipation and newness and excitement and learning.

I also think it reflects America well. We are a melting pot of cultures, religions, race, and many more differences.  Today, I am thankful for those differences and the freedom we have here to live them.

2011 = Thai food
2010 = Greek food
2009 = steak
2008 = Chinese food

-mrp-

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a lot..... A LOT....

Although I am a passionate person occasionally, I don't too often get really worked up/annoyed by things, especially posts on the internet..... except for one thing.  A lot.

I'll self proclaim that this was one of those things that I had to learn the hard way too, I thought it was just a tiny small word meaning many, or a plethora... alot..... It didn't really sink in the meaning of it until probably  I was in 4th grade.

Every time I see it on a facebook status, I have to restrain myself from correcting the offender... and then I have to restrain myself from making my own status update on the fact that it's freakin two words.

How ridiculous, right?  Of all the things to get worked up about.  I think though, I find myself reading posts and status' of people that I look up to/think are educated and know a lot, and I just wonder... wtf?... We learned a lot in elementary school, where were you?!

So, although there aren't A LOT of things that piss me off, when you don't listen to the auto correct in your blog post, or on your facebook status, I have to wonder about you...

two words people, just like the following:
a bunch

a crowd

a bushel

a gaggle

a group

a gathering

a lot

-mrp-

ps: I would like to officially thank my mother for beating a few of these grammar things into my head when I was in elementary school.  I am thankful to know that alot is not a word... even though people use it a lot.

pps: I am far from the grammar police; I did misuse loose, or lose in a facebook status a few months ago... and was corrected.

this never happens... but it is....

I hate saying I'm addicted to facebook, but it's probably the closest to the truth.  I realize it's ridiculous, and [shakes head], pointless, but I just can't help myself [shrug].

I was actually one of those that were happy when facebook stopped showing me everything from everyone. I know I miss things, but I'm sort of anal when it comes to checking my news feed and making sure I scan down to the last thing that I read the previous time.  So by not showing me every little detail, my brain is happier to not have to read through that many posts, status updates, links, photo's, etc.

I think it has to do with not wanting to miss anything.  Wanting to be included and not excluded.

In any case, I'm off facebook for a couple days.  It never happens, but it is... totally giving up fb this week.  I read through the news feed this morning, and I just cringed... the.entire.news.feed.... it was awful!... things like "Great, let's get another 5.7 gazillion dollars in debt!", to "America has disappointed me", to "It's a sad day for Christians today"...

I hate all the hate... it's horrible.

Hate is one of the reasons I don't like politics.  So much of it is about slandering the opponent.  Coming up with all the things he failed at in life.  Is it so hard to instead focus on what one has done good.  During Obama's last four years, the US's unemployment rate has fallen... he's put a plan into effect to get more of our troops out of the middle east... and his wife has pushed to educate children on how to be healthy.

I didn't want Romney to be our president, but I hope he goes on to do really great things, like Al Gore did after he lost.

I think, all in all... we ALL make up America... it's not just a president.  It's not just the Senate or the House of Representatives.  It's all of us.

-mrp-

backwards

The other day one of the blogs that I watch was like, "Hey, want a free sample to try this new brand/product?"... and I was like, "Yes!... actually, I do!".
...
...
... then it turns out you have to like the companies fb page to request a free sample.
...
...
[squinty eyes/shaking head]...
..
..
see this is NOT how it should work.  I should not have to like your page, and then get the sample... I should be able to get the sample, like it so much that I THEN decide to like the fb page...

gah.

I have loved fb since I got addicted 8 years ago in college, but seriously?  Lately all my newfeed gives me is info on the shit that I have liked... where are my friends, why aren't they up there, and newsflash, I have no money to spend on your junk!

Grr...

-mrp-

also this

... I took this at the last wedding we were at up in St. Joe, Michigan... it was freezing, but so pretty!

and ya know... since I'm already wasting time, I figured I'd go ahead and add this :).

-mrp-

productivity of the self employed

I am most productive when I am avoiding something...

Example:
yesterday I
-vaccumed
-gave the dog a bath
-stripped the bed and laundered the sheets
-washed some other pillows
-went to the farmers market
-uploaded a senior session
-check fb a million times

what I was avoiding was working on editing a wedding

today I have
-painted a few papers for a future project
-made bread in the bread maker [okay, this only took like 10 minutes tops :)]
-did a load of laundry
-opened and inspected an album that was delivered [yay!]
-took a shower
-cleaned a little bit off my dinning table
-wrote a quick blog
-checked groupon
-checked fb a million times

still avoiding culling and editing that wedding

Although today I did get a few hours of the wedding in... so that's good.  And don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job.... I LOVE photographing weddings, and I even LOVE editing those images! [you get to see so many details that you missed because I doing the job takes precedence over getting emotional at the groom crying/bride blushing etc.].

BUT, it doesn't have that short task instant gratification.  It will probably take me 8+ hours to fully edit, color correct and enhance a wedding.  So... not a quick job... oh well...

Must.get.back.to.wedding....

-mrp-

m + r = 2

And despite what the crazies on facebook are saying, that does not mean that we're pregnant with twins... [thank the Lord].

But we have survived being married for 2 whole years... :).

I'm a lucky girl.

“The human body is the best work of art.” ― Jess C. Scott

As a portrait photographer, I often encounter people who don't like this or that about their bodies.

And although I know there is always room for improvement, it really makes me sad.  I recently came across this website: http://www.bodyheart.com/

And although I didn't read a ton on the site, I did come across one woman, who makes a conscious effort to say how she likes her body in front of her little girl.  She talks about how that was never said in front of her, and about how when it isn't said, we sometimes start to believe we should never be happy with our bodies.  We should always hate our hips, or think our feet are too big, or our cheeks are too fat, etc.

I was thinking back to how I grew up, and I thought... damn, my mother was soo, sooo good at teaching me to love myself.

When she was young, my mom had surgery on her leg to remove a cantaloupe sized tumor [I think].  It left a scar all down her left calf, and although I noticed when I was young that she rarely wore shorts outside our house, she never once said anything about how she "hated her scar".  As I grew older, and tried to convince her to wear a knee length skirt, she explained that she didn't really like showing off the scar, but it was never in a "I hate this part of my body" type way.

And I think the way she went about that while we were growing up, really shaped how I love my body.  I love my nose, and my cheeks, and my chin, and my thighs, and my butt, and my fat calf's [although, that does pose a bit of a problem for buying skinny jeans, and taller boots].

I can remember being in high school and saying something along the effect of being dissatisfied with my hair, or something else, and my mother telling me I was fine, and perfect.

As long as you are living a healthy life style and taking care of your body... I really do think that it's okay to not hate any part of your body.  To love it all.  To be satisfied with how God made you.  He created your nose, your hips, your feet... he created you, and could you really say, "God, my nose, what the hell were you thinking?"... he would say to you, I created you just the way I wanted you to be and I love you that way.

-mrp-

Edit: HA!, the woman who's story I read about [one sentence actually], was Kate Winslet... she's so cool. http://www.bodyheart.com/2012/09/28/are-you-proud-of-your-body/

ten

Ten years ago I had just completed high school, traveled to Germany/Sicely by myself for a month, and moved into Smith hall at Drury University.

I can't believe it was that long ago.

Marahall class of 2012 had their 10 year reunion last night and just the fb updates and whatnot have got me thinking about high school, insecurities, growth and contentment... as well as jealousy, and general feeling of unimportantness... and classifications in school, etc.

Perhaps there will be a better thought out post sometime later.

-mrp-

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a bit political... just a tiny bit

Whit and I had a discussion the other day about how some people put political posts up on fb... and while in general, I'm okay with people sharing their political beliefs and voicing what they believe to be true/good on facebook, I HATE when that's the only thing they EVER post.

Because that's not all there is about life.  While that might be REALLY important to some people, there are SO many other things to post and share that will encourage others and just make for a better, happier world.  Why not mix a few of those posts in too?!

In any case... since I have had this talk with Whit, I have decided that I'm not posting anything political on there... but here, well... you came here to see what I was thinking!  So you get to see it :).

This is great:

http://front.moveon.org/five-guys-took-a-boy-band-anthem-and-created-one-of-the-best-romney-parodies-hands-down/

-maike rinaye-

ps: I don't like Romney... okay, sure... but I also know that I don't know a TON about him... so there... I still like this though.

“People can have the Model T in any color – so long as it’s black.” ― Henry Ford

Back in 2007, I went from this:

to this:

It was the first adult purchase I REALLY made... all.by.my.self.

I remember driving it off the lot for the first time, and listening to Colbie Caillat.... I also might have teared up driving it off the lot... how bizarre, right?  I'm not sure exactly why, but it was such a cool feeling to feel like I was making this huge decision, and I had gotten through it, and I had a brand new car.  That's right, 2007, 600 miles on it [they drove it in from like, Pennsalvania or something], first owner of it... not my best financial decision, but I don't regret it.  I was single in a city with not a lot of friends and no family.  I needed to have security in my car not breaking down.

The first year I had it, someone not only broke the drivers side mirror off of it, but it was also walked over; literally  someone [with huge feet], stepped on the hood of the car, up the windshield and over the top of it... who does that?!].... [that's what we get for living in the sketchy part of town], and miraculously my sunroof didn't break.

In any case, I love my car.  And now, it is no longer owned by the bank :).  COMPLETELY PAID OFF!

I'm so excited; you have no idea.  I know we still have a long way to being debt free, but this big monthly payment is no longer on my list.

Yay.

*maike rinaye*

dirty

I don't take a shower immediately after I complete a run. I think it's because I fear I might accidentally drown by attempting to gulp air but only getting water.

-mrp-

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Hmmm...

This morning I was thinking about art.. well, more or less.

I was designing a t-shirt in my head and thinking that I could make it for so-and-so, and I like the idea, but I couldn't actually sell/make money from it because of the likeness to a certain Disney character....

But then I thought... damn, tattoos do it all the time: make money from Disney characters/trademarked logo's, etc... what's the difference?  Each artists sells his/her work on a canvas of sorts, each artist creates it with their own hand, each get's paid for the end results.  So why do tattoo artists get to tattoo trade marked characters and other artists don't?

Hmm....

I think the world might be a better more creative place if tattoo artists weren't allowed to tattoo trademark characters on their clients.

But I suppose that's another conversation in general.

-mrp-

Potatoes...

"Do you have potatoes in your ears?  How many times do I have to say it!?!?"

No, who would have potatoes in their ear?  What a ridiculous phrase.

My mother use to say this to us, exasperated from repeating whatever it was two or three... or [God-forbid], four times.  But every time, it sounded completely absurd.

I have been watching my niece and nephew this summer (9 and 12). And throughout the summer there are certain things that I've been noticing about myself.  Most recently, for example, the kids have been saying "what?" and "huh?", what seems like constantly..... And my response (after grinding my teeth and taking a breath to not be as annoyed) was, "you need to clear out the potatoes out of your ears!" .... Ridiculous.

So a few weeks ago the question/prompt was to talk about one way you are like your mother (my question actually).  Jenkins and I both agreed we could write a book about this, and picking one was a bit of a challenge.  But I think really, every day I am realizing more and more ways I am like my mom.

Besides the potatoes, there are quite a few embarrassing ways that I'm like my mother.  For example, we both like stuff, and coupons.  And because of that, clutter is a constant battle to keep at bay.  We also always have a to-do list as long as our arms, which we have a problem focusing our efforts on to check things off the list.  We also are pretty good at loosing track of time/being late for things because we thought maybe we could get one more thing into the time before we were meant to be somewhere.

But there are pretty awesome ways I'm like my mom too.  We both have dreams of all the things we want to do some day [go back to Europe, hike/camp certain places, etc], we like to volunteer to make the world a better place and to love people in ways the world doesn't always.  We like to talk.  We, for the most part, don't care what the world does think about us [see my mom's crazy cowboy hat that she wears EVERYWHERE], we both have a bachelors degree, and we both like dressing up in general :).

My mom has always been so supportive of me, of my adventuring, of my not exactly job-secure degree choice, of my moving to other states, and the list goes on.

My mom's a bad ass.  I hope to someday achieve her bad-ass-ness [smile].

-maike rinaye-

Oh, I also look like my mom, I think I might have failed to mention that part of likeness :)

better

In 8th grade they made us run the mile.... and timed us.... I KNOW I walked for a lot [if not most] of it, but I have no idea what my time was [unfortunately].  I'm pretty sure it wasn't pretty.

This morning I ran the mile in 12 minutes.

Not awesome, I realize this... BUT, I ran it all... one total mile :).  Someday I'll actually run like, on a track and see what kind of time, when I push myself, I can do the mile in [hopefully less than 10 minutes].

But, I believe I'm more fit now than when I was in 8th grade.

Go me.

-maike rinaye-

darn...

So, while running in California this week, I have figured out that there is only about half my rout that I can get Pandora on (we're a little bit out in bfe).... so now I'm trying to make the decision of Pandora for half my run, or Christmas music that's already loaded on my phone...

Decisions decisions...

-mrp-

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day 2

Day 2 of running = successful.
I ran for 10 MIN, walked 5 MIN then ran 10 MIN and walked 5.... the gym I go to has individual tvs and when I was walking my final 5 MIN out, the Olympic runners started their run.
It was enough to get me to run another 10 MIN.
So, all together, 45 MIN on the treadmill and just over 3 miles all together.
All that to say, I think I'm signing up for the RAD run... :).
-mrp-
Ps: I have more thoughts on running, but I'll save them for another entry.

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In other news...

... happy baby pose is THE most embarrassing yoga pose EVER... sheesh.

-mrp-

Also, it might be the end of the world

... cause last night, I ran... right?!.. RUNNING, on a treadmill!... no one was even chasing me!

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm pretty physically fit, but running has always been one of those things for me that I have despised.  Probably something to do with middle school/high school, when we had to endure running a mile and being timed, and I was always at the end.

Not to mention that running has always been a bit boring for me.  I like classes a lot, and if I'm not doing a yoga/zumba/belly dancing class, then I'm probably going to do the eliptical for as long as it takes me to read a magazine, and then do weights... 'cause I want to be strong and toned.

Anyway, if I'm on a treadmill, I'm doing a quick walk.. not running.

But then one of the blogs I read featured this:http://www.colormerad.com/races/indianapolis.html

Right!?... and I thought, THIS I could run for.  How fun does it look!!!!  And it's in Indy on a weekend that I currently do not have anything booked.

BUT seeing that I have not run before, I thought, I need to make sure I can do this before I embarrass myself :).

And it turns out, I kinda liked running.. liked how I felt after running.  So I'm gonna try to do it again a few times this week and see how it turns out.

-mrp-

Storms...

Woke up this morning to CRAZY storms, that felt like the lightning and thunder were erupting from right out side our window, and then pelting small stones (hail) against the window.

My first thought, "I should find some pants to put on, 'cause when the tree falls on our house, and we have to run out, there's no chance I'll be able to find them quickly enough".

But then I decided it was too hot in our room to put pants on.

-mrp-

“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.” ― Laurie Colwin

This past weeks blog challengers question:


If you could acquire a talent (without any extra effort), what would it be? Why?


So, a few years ago [three actually], my bff, my boyfriend, and one of his friends packed into the G6 and headed up to Canada... to celebrate July 4th :).

While we were up there one night, all in my little tent, the boyfriends friend posed a similar question to the group as well.  My answer: Cooking.

They all laughed because their answers were like, flying or becoming invincible, but I'm totally serious.  I want to be able to cook better, without having to learn anything.  The main reason, I think, is because it's such a good thing to know, how to cook, how to make something taste great, how to make it healthy.  But we're so inundated with ways to not cook [I seriously didn't know one could make mac-n-cheese from scratch until I was in middle school and we made it for Home Ec Class].  Not to mention that knowledge about cooking is SOOO wide.  Like, cooking steak vs making an awesome salad vs making a casserole.  And then the different genres all have different seasons and ways to cook, and things to combine.  It's just so much knowledge to absorb to be good at cooking!

I think also, I want to be good at it, but I haven't really cared about it all that much.  For me it isn't a fun thing to know about or how to do.  Fun is showing off that I can juggle [which I can], or that I can draw a pretty good sketch of your butt [also which I can], or being able to sing the entire song to Baby Got Back.  That's fun and weird and cool.

All that to say, I want to be good at it, so slowly but surely I've been learning more about it, from all sorts of people [Beth and Jill in Columbus each took a night to walk me through some of their favorite dishes a year and a half ago when I visited in the winter].... [and Ronalds Grandma Leota taught me how to make a peacan pie (Ronald's favorite), last winter as well].

And honestly, since we've been trying to pay down debt, cooking has seemed the best entertainment.  When you aren't trying to spend money there are a few things you have to have, and food falls into that category, so why not try to make it fun, right?  So it functions as a necessity and entertainment!

I'm always looking for a new recipe to try, so if you have any, feel free to pass them on :).

-maike rinaye-

X-mas... and money

We have 22 weeks until X-mas, after today, there will be 156 full days until X-mas, and 22 paydays between then and now [if you get paid everyweek]... if I want to spend $500 on Christmas gifts this year, I need to save $23/week starting now.

Ya, it's July and I sure did start thinking about X-mas now.

-mrp-