Dear Internet Connection,

Having driven across town to meet you all week, I felt very spoiled when all I had to do this morning was walk downstairs. Please know that you are much appreciated.

Love, Maile

We had so much fun in Kentucky (also known as KY Jelly, The Tuck, and CanTUCKee). Don't ask, we are dorks. Anyway, I'd show you photos, but I haven't even downloaded them from the camera yet. And honestly I'm not sure when I'll get to it. There are a million emails and phone calls to return, bunches of orders that need to be couriered today, bills to pay. You know how it goes. But I did want to pop in to say HOLA! Long time no see! Here are some totally random and unrelated images for your viewing pleasure.  

Here are our souvenir mugs that we bought to remember the Starbucks dates. As you can see, I'm still going through my Hawaii obsession.

While we were there, I did Jason's sister Ashley's senior portraits. I think it's my first 2008 session. Here are a couple favorites. I'll post more at some point.

I love shooting in new locations! How perfect is this quote for a senior?!

I found this book in the airport. It had been left on a seat. Maybe because of the corny photo of the author on the back cover. I threw the jacket out, but I think he was in a business suit, giving the thumbs-up sign, or something like that. Or maybe someone left it because of the shameless references to his seminars after every chapter. Regardless, an abandoned book is begging to be read, so I picked it up. And actually, minus the cheese, it has been interesting. It's a book about money, but more importantly about the associations we create around having it.

Here are some other quotes out of the book.

"Your income can grow only to the extent you do."

"If you think money isn't important, you won't have any."

"The number one reason people don't get what they want is that they don't know what they want."

"Blame, justification and complaining are like pills. They are nothing more than stress reducers. They alleviate the stress of failure. But when you are complaining, you become a living, breathing, crap magnet."

I think "crap magnet" is my new favorite phrase.

Okay, now I'm going to leave you with two more photos that are related to nothing and completely adorable. Jason has gotten onto a kick where he likes to blow-dry the girls hair after their baths. This was taken in Kentucky in his mom's bathroom. She has the shades on because the lights were too bright. She will either marry someone amazing, or be single for life because no one can live up to this kind of pampering. Either way, this melts my heart.

See you tomorrow. If the interview is finished, I'll have another Rockstar Thursday for you. If not, it may turn into Friday or Saturday. And Tracey is trippin' tomorrow and I'm going to play. See ya soon!

I think I need to find a 12 step program that deals with laptop addiction. I'm sitting here at Starbucks. Jason is doing something on his phone while I check through a zillion emails and then try to frantically get through my favorite blogs before he gets too bored. So, a little business first. I didn't forget about Rockstar Thursday, I'm just late (sorry). Today's Rockstar is Sara from Whitebox Weddings. It's the first of a Two Part Interview. Melanie's will be next week. So go check it out. And forgive me for how funky the font looks on the WOAI blog. It's HUGE for some reason and I don't have time to figure out why. It was really bugging me, and I thought about postponing it. But there's so much good info in her interview, I thought what the heck. So thanks again Sara! 

K. I I don't have time to write much, but here is what the last few days have looked like.

This is Grammy when we got to her house.

I don't think there has been a 15 minute span where Annie has not been holding Lily. She is IN LOVE.

Meemaw and Peepaw

This is the view from her backyard. This church is really pretty when it snows too.

And drumroll please...Dun Dun Duh Duh! The FIREFLY SHOT! This was the best I could do. Those buggers are hard to photograph! But we had SO much fun trying to catch them!

Now we're off to check out the college area to try to find a good hole in the wall bar for when all the cousins get into town tomorrow. I'll try to check back soon, hope ya'll are having a fun week!  :0)

So it's not an unusual occurence to find a box from amazon in my mailbox. But I couldn't remember ordering anything recently. Then I open it up to find the sweetest children's books about FIREFLIES that you've ever seen. From Sandee. of COURSE...The most thoughtful person on the planet. She is what I dream to be. But instead, I'm the one who buys 14 cards at a time for everyone's Birthday/Anniversary/Christening/Kwaanza...ANYTHING I can think of. Then I take all those well wishes and promptly forget them in a drawer. I literally have 3 years of Father's day cards that I bought for Jason. Unsigned and stacked up because I just forgot that I had them. 

Anyway, I'm going to do my best to post throughout the week. Jason's mom has no internet (parish the THOUGHT)...BUT, he said he'd take me on dates to Starbucks. Because he knows how addicted I am. And he totally wants to me my enabler. Sounds good to me. So I'll check you later gators.  

Thirteen years ago today, I was saying I would at Waimea Falls. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. And I'd do it all over again in a minute. Happy Anniversary honey! Here's to many more!

fyi: The illustration up above is from an old magazine from the 40's. I framed it a long time ago, but I have no idea who the artist is.  

I started to comment on this post. Then realized I had so much to say that I should just write it here. First, can I get an amen for the sunshine that Kal pours into to the world every morning? I LOVED what she had to say about being yourself and how that's always enough. One of the reasons why I love photography is because it's such a metaphor: WHAT YOU CREATE DEPENDS ON HOW YOU SEE. Whether it's a photograph, or your life, your perspective creates your reality.

I also loved what she said about how expectations, and the (illusive) quest for perfection KILL. I learned this the hard way when I started college (forever ago). Without a doubt, I had wanted to be a graphic designer, so much so that I completely overwhelmed myself with the desire to be successful ("perfect"). The self-inflicted pressure DEMOLISHED my creativity and I ended up dropping out of the program. It's still a regret today. But I love the lesson. That trying to be perfect makes for a very sucky and frustrated existence.  

And speaking of that, this painting (minus the quote of course) is one that I did about a month ago. I'd been looking everywhere for dandelions to photograph with no luck. So I decided I'd paint them. After all, how hard could it be? A stem with a white fluffy ball on top. Well, I worked ALLLLL day on it. Then Jason came home and said innocently, "Hey, I love your sunflowers!" It was a little disappointing to think that they only looked like dandelions to me. But then I thought, just like Kal came to the realization with her shoot, that THIS IS HOW DANDELIONS LOOK TO ME. And they made me happy, which is not only enough, but it's the whole point.