Giddy.

So, I got a new lens.

Which  makes life even more awesome than it already is.

I traded in my extra wide angle for a fisheye, which excites me to no end.

Both of these were taken with the new lens. It doesn't show what I REALLY wanted the lens for - which is fun, random photos like this one:

 (Please excuse the bags under my eyes. Clearly, I was tired.)

And don't you worry that there will be many more to come. ;)

In other news, I am finally done editing all my boudoir sessions from Denver and Dallas. They turned out so, so awesome. And I had such a blast - I can't wait to make this a full-time gig. I plan to set some dates in stone for boudoir marathons in cities like Boston, Vegas, Miami, Austin, Los Angeles and Chicago.

I can't really do this until I no longer have any other obligations (i.e. school, school, school), but at least I have a plan.

Thad and I are traveling to California for a week in June. My sister, Brandi, is getting married, and I am going to take her and her fiance to the Santa Monica pier for some engagement photos. Oh, and maybe we'll go to Disneyland because that's, well, required.

The following month, my good friend Danielle and I are headed to North Carolina or Colorado, or both. We haven't decided which. Lol. But just know that there will be lots of road trippin', beer drinkin', shitty food eatin' to be had. Although, maybe not all at once.

Tom is still loving his externship. Every day he comes home with some story about how he got to defend someone in court, or how he - ahem - won a case against the assistant Attorney General for the state of Michigan.

(Read: My husband's a bad ass).

I am so incredibly proud of him. I have always known he would make a great attorney, and now that he is getting to play that role, I love to watch him succeed.

August needs to hold something fun in store for our family, although I'm not sure what. I can't believe that Thad will be coming up on his 4th birthday. Time has gone so incredibly fast. As I type this, he is outside playing in the yard with his little girl friend and the neighbor kids. He wants nothing to do with Tom or if I if it doesn't involve being outside with his friends and shooting a Nerf gun.

Ah.

Life is good.

Now excuse me while I grab a nap before Tom and I head out to some friends' place for the evening. Dirk's quarter-annual Drunk Fest begins in t-minus 3.5 hours.

Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy

Now that another semester has started,  I have realized that not a single day of the week can be used for something like hanging out and relaxing. 

Bummer.

Tom started his externship with the public defender's office, and he is absolutely loving it. I love seeing him so happy, too. He gets to conference with prisoners, and stand up in court, and co-chair murder trials. Pretty cool stuff.

So, while he is working Monday thru Friday, I am at home with Thad, studying, cleaning, cooking, editing 1,349,730,276 photo sessions, and generally realizing that I've taken on way too much.

By the time that's done, I meet Tom in downtown, hand over Thaddeus, and go to school.

Then, on the weekends, I teach.

Yep. Week 2 of this and I am totally drained. Lol.

The good news is that I am the kind of person who is encouraged to work harder when I have more work to do. So I am not falling behind.

Yet.

The other good news is that snow is officially gone from the forecast, and there are trees and flowers in bloom all over Western Michigan.

Swoon.

I will admit. I do love the spring and summers in this state. I really can't wait to get to the lake.

Oh! And for those family and friends who keep up with my blahg in California -- I just booked my flight! I will be there with Thad on June 1. Can't wait to see you! xoxo

Beauty and inspiration.

I've mentioned before on my blahg (several times, actually) that my Aunt Tracey is a survivor of breast cancer. At the onset of her diagnosis, I think she and I naturally formed an even more special bond than we already had because I could relate to most of her struggles.

Not breast cancer struggles, of course, but struggles that involved the fear of leaving our child[ren] behind, the fear of what this disease might mean for our futures, and the fear of the physical side effects that each of us would be battling.

Someone who could help relate to her exact feelings and experience, however, was a friend of mine from my days at Baylor. At my age, she was in the midst of the same battle -- undergoing a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, and reconstructive surgery. In addition to all of this, during her ordeal she was informed that her dad was also battling cancer. Unfortunately, he lost his battle a little over a year ago.

Through all of this shit that she had to put up with, I never heard one single negative word come out of her mouth.

Instead, she devoted herself to the cause and embraced her "new beautiful."

I am so thankful for this friend of mine. She has never met my Aunt Tracey, but I know she instilled into her the same positive attitude that she had, and I am a firm believer that she helped my aunt in many ways that most of us around her were unable to.

So, on my recent trip to Dallas, she told me that she wanted to do boudoir. In addition to this, she wanted to focus on taking some pictures of herself with pink boxing gloves and underwear that read "survivor."

In other words, she wanted to show the world (and herself) that she [literally] kicked cancer's ass.

I burned out.

My big grand plan to talk about Wegener's all the time went South.

Quickly.

Then I realized eh, I don't really want to be defined by my disease anyways, and told myself I was "over" talking about it.

But the real reason?

I've been super, incredibly, amazingly busy.

Stressed.

Busy.

Stressed.

Busy.

Stressed,

Busyessed.

What have I been so busy with, you ask?

Well...

Her photos.

And her photos.

And her photos.

And her photos.

And her photos.

And her photos.

And her photos.

Oh, and don't go thinkin' I'll be back any time soon.

I have 10 more sessions to edit.

Ten.

TEn.

TEN.

But seriously? 

I fucking love my job.

Wegener's Disease: May 2 Fact of the Day

FACT: The average person diagnosed with Wegener's Granulomatosis spends an average of $10,000 each year, on medication alone.

Uh, yes...you read that right. $10,000 each year.

Now, take away insurance coverage, etc., and the future looks a little less bleak. And, thank God, our insurance covers all but $15 of each of my prescriptions. But at 8 prescriptions each month, $15/month, my average amount totals:

$1,440

Per year.

Ugh.

Any photographer will tell you that $1,440 is better spent on a nice lens - definitely some L glass.

Sigh.

Oh well. Maybe some day.

Vasculitis Awareness Month

Vasculitis Awareness Month takes place in the month of May. Since I don't really have the resources to host "awareness events" or anything of the sort, I've decided to make an attempt at blahg-ing at least one fact each day about my disease, in an effort for more people to understand what it is, how it effects those who have it, and what is done to treat it.

Vasculitis is an inflammation of the blood vessels, arteries, veins or capillaries. When such inflammation occurs, it causes changes in the walls of blood vessels, such as weakening or narrowing that can progress to the point of blood vessel blockage.

Members of the vasculitis family include:

• Behcet's Disease
• Churg Strauss Syndrome
• Henoch-Schonlein Purpura
• Microscopoc Polyangiitis
• Rheumatoid Vasculitis
• Buerger's Disease
• Cryoglobulinemia
• Hypersensitivity Vasculitis
• Polyarteritis Nodosa
• Takayasu's Arteritis (I read a book written by a woman with this disease once - it's called Sick and Tired of being Sick and Tired. The book was absolutely phenomenal --- and hilarious.)
• Kawasaki Disease
• Polymyalgia Rheumatica
• Wegener's Granulomatosis (my particular disease)

Symptoms of vasculitis include abdominal pain, gastrointestinal bleeding, asthma, severe headaches, chronic sinusitis, nasal allergies, cough/shortness of breath, fatigue, weakness, fever, joint pain, facial soreness, kidney problems, lung inflammation, nerve problems (numbness, weakness, pain), skin lesions/rashes, and vision changes.

Finally, I wanted to add that my motivation for participating in Awareness Month stems from not only the fact that I am impacted by this disease on a daily basis, but because more people are effected by autoimmune diseases in this country than are people with breast cancer. And while breast cancer foundations and events are definitely worthy causes, there is in no way, shape or form the same kind of support for the autoimmune family. Members of this family are also without a cure, and are often at the mercy of their disease. Something needs to be done for these people as well, and I would love to some day see people wearing not only the color PINK, but also the color RED.

Dallas update.

As much as I talked badly about the state of Texas when I lived here, being in Dallas really does make me realize how much I actually truly love it. I don't love the heat, but I do love the people. And the friends. And the city. And the nightlife. And the schools. And the homes. And the cost of living. And a lot of other things, including the Mexican food.

My days here have been occupied with photo shoots and good friends --- at all times. I've had the chance to visit with old friends, old roommates, old sorority sisters, my Big sister in Alpha Chi, as well as people who I figured I may never even see again.

On top of that, I have had some fabulous boudoir shoots. I am not even kidding when I say that these shoots are so much fun --- I laugh so much while working, it's ridiculous. And it's not always with people I know --- I had several sessions this weekend with people I had only met for the first time, and by the time we were done, we were exchanging jokes and laughing our asses off. 

Tomorrow the plan is to take it easy, and hang out with friends some more before leaving on Tuesday.

I'm so sad to leave some of these people behind. Especially Kelly. I wish we could live closer!

Maybe someday. ;)