Week Three

Sick. Stayed home from work on Monday. Lost one shoot but corresponded about three new ones. Told the co-workers I am pregnant. Told Yvonne I am pregnant. Let my mom tell Facebook I am pregnant. Worked 11 hours on Friday and feel asleep on the couch at 10:30. Woke up on Saturday and made pancakes. Had a discussion with Mike about houses. Agreed we are both burnt out on the process already. Took promo photos of my gift certificates and albums available through Amy Sayre Photography.

Week Two

Drove back from Michigan even though I-94 was closed in Indiana. Suffered through the Polar Vortex and highs of -15 on Monday and -3 on Tuesday. Came down with a cold. Made my first lasagna. Saw two houses. Decided not to put a bid on either. Photographed the annual Project Rescue Freezing for a Reason event. Told Kelsa I'm having a baby. Walked with Mike and T on the Sauganash trail since the temps finally reached a balmy 20 degrees.

Week One

New Years Eve with the St. Aubins at 90 Miles Cuban Cafe. Home to Michigan for my birthday. Let everyone one know we are having a baby. A fierce winter storm blew in. We got stuck in Michigan and stayed the night at Lakeside Inn in room 2. We played ball with Taylor in the great room and scrounged the kitchen for silverware to eat our dinner. We are tuna salad with plastic knives.

2013 Year in Review

I am amazed that I still have the login information to this blog saved. It's been pretty much a year since I wrote anything here. I have still been writing on a blog. Well posting photos more than writing. You can find those photos here. Over the past year though, I could not shake the feeling that I missed writing in a place. It was the thing I used to do before I took photos. I dreamed one day that I'd make my living as a freelance travel writer. I no longer have those delusions. but I still do miss penning and typing my thoughts.

I refuse to make any public declarations in this space, but I would like to make this my own personal space for sharing my thoughts. And since I didn't do any of that last year, how about a quick summary of my 2013 via this very popular internet survey:

1. What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before?
Rode a horse in California. Went to and enjoyed going to a golfing range. Made more than $7,000 in my photography business. Fostered dogs (five total!). marched in the Chicago Gay Pride Parade. Got pregnant.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I always make 5 resolutions/goals with my friend Jenny. For the most part, I did. I never keep them all every year, but some years I fare better than others. This year was not so bad.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes, I am at the baby stage of my life. Carly gave birth to her son Xander, Amber gave birth to her son Brecon, Shannon gave birth to her son Thomas and Nicole gave birth to her son Charlie. My friends had a lot of boys this year.  Oh, and Julie had twin girls, so I guess not all boys.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no. But my sister and Josh have decided to divorce, so that transition has been the biggest loss I have felt this year.

5. What countries did you visit?
None. My most memorable trips were the week Mike and I spent in California, Yvonne's wedding weekend in Atlanta, Labor Day weekend in small town Wisconsin and the extended weekend Mike and I spent at my parents lake house in Michigan. Hardly exotic, but still fun.

6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
A baby. Oh wait. Already happening. Also, just kidding. Probably a new car or a new house. Or both.

7. What dates from 2014 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Oct. 12 - the day Yvonne got married, and I unknowingly got pregnant. And then Nov. 9, the day I found out I was pregnant.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Watching my photography business grow. I put so much work into it, and it's paying off. And that payback felt so amazing. Also, finally registering Amy Sayre Photography as the legal business entity felt really, really good.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Getting to the gym more than three times. I had no excuse for my lack of working out this year, yet I certain did not work out. Also, Mike and I were so good about controlling our diet in 2012 and we backslid tremendously in 2013. There was a lot more eating out that I would have liked.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No. My streak continues! I am continually lucky that my health has never been an issue. Also, my lack of morning sickness throughout my first trimester has been the most surprising.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
A new couch!

12. Where did most of your money go?
My God I do not know. Well, actually I do, but I refuse to believe it. Mike and I spent a decent amount of money on restaurants, groceries and our greedy, no good pets. I should have so much more in savings than I do now.

13. What did you get really excited about?
Buying a house. Three times. None of those houses panned out.

14. What song will always remind you of 2013?
No idea.

 15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

– happier or sadder? Happier
– thinner or fatter? Fatter. Baby weight? So not baby weight, but my doc told me on my last appointment that he wants to see me gain a pound or two by my next appointment, so I am clearly not obese.
– richer or poorer? Slightly richer. Not as much as I'd like to be.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Save money, journal, exercise and travel.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Worry about cleaning. Walk through snow in March and April. (I had a bit of a break down in mid-March when it felt like I hadn't seen the sun for months.)

18. How did you spend Christmas?
At home. Mike and I had the most mellow Christmas I'd probably had in years. He worked Christmas Eve, and we both worked the day after Christmas. No family came to visit and I sent out no cards. I just wasn't feeling Christmas this year, and I am 100% OK with that.

19. What was your favorite TV program?
Parks and Rec, with Modern Family being a close second. (The exact same answer as last year.) I also binge watched Orange is the New Black pretty quickly.

20. What were your favorite books of the year?
I really should keep a list of all the books I read. But that should be easier next year. Mike bought me a Kindle for our first anniversary. I do know that I LOVED The Fault in Our Stars and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Goodreads also tells me I liked Room and Wild. I agree with Goodreads.

21. What was your favorite music from this year?

I never have a good answer for this. I want to be hip to music, but I'm just not.I think the Pandora station I listened to most was the Of Monsters and Men station I created. So I guess I'll say them.

22. What were your favorite films of the year?
Um, I could probably give an answer to this if I thought about it for a while, but I don't really want to. I don't see a lot of movies and usually when I do I'm a year behind. So I'll save myself the embarrassment and not answer this question.


23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 32. I had drinks with Maria on Friday. On Saturday morning, I photographed the Project Rescue Freezing for a Reason event. My parents came into town and met me there. We all went out to dinner and then I fell asleep on the couch at 9:30. It was pretty lame as far as birthdays go. Mine usually are.

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More sunlight and exercise. This was not the year of taking care of myself, even though I have no reason for that. I had time to take care of myself, but I did not make it a priority.

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
Skinny jeans, tall boots, cardigans and sweaters for cooler weather. Anything that didn't make me sweat this summer. We had more than 30 consecutive days of 90+ degree temps this summer, and it was MISERABLE.

26. What kept you sane?
My mantra- "Good enough is better than perfect." This was one of my goals for 2013 and it helped me in so many ways.

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013.

The just because you are over the age of 30 and have been on birth control for years, do not believe that you will not get pregnant quickly. Lord, I thought getting knocked up would take a lot longer than it did. For the record, it took no time.

Eve

For about two weeks, Mike and I opened up our home to a foster dog - a 40 lb, black lab pittie mix whom we named Eve.

It was an adventure having her in our house. Mike and I have always thought of Taylor as a very high energy dog, but he was no match for Eve's one year old activity level. She spent a lot of time in our house wrestling with Taylor and biting his neck fluff. Luckily he didn't mind too much.

 

And when she wasn't wrestling with Taylor she was curled up next to Mike or I. Eve was a champion snuggler. And I will never understand exactly how she could stretch her small frame to take over our entire king size bed but she managed to every single night.

It was bittersweet to say good bye to Eve. We brought her into our home not knowing anything about her. By the time she left I felt like we knew her and came to appreciate a lot of her little quirks. No, I probably will not miss her hogging the bed, but there are a lot of things I will.

 It's a strange thing to foster a dog. You love them, you nurse them back to health and then once you start to understand and get them comfortable with living in a home and being around people you send them off to live with someone else. Ultimately though, i can't help but feel anything but happy that we were able to get her out of a shelter and into a home. I really hope she's enjoying her second night with her new family.We realy enjoyed having her be part of ours for a little while.

On Turning 32

I turned 32 this weekend. It was for the most part a pretty unremarkable event. There is no real numerical significance to the number 32 as far as I know. About the most exciting thing about turning 32 was that my birthday fell on a Friday.

I used the date to my advantage. I met up with a friend whose birthday is just a few days after mine. Well her and a whole gaggle of her female friends. We drank a lot of red wine, and they ordered me a slice of coconut cake with a candle in it.

I woke up on Saturday to photograph a charity fundraiser for Project Rescue, and then my parents came into town. We all headed out to an early dinner that night at a local creole joint. And I mean it was early. We originally had a reservation at 8, but decided to move that to 6 since we were all so hungry. Thank goodness we did because I was a lot more tired than I thought. I was on the couch and dozing off to football by 9 p.m. So please don't ask my parents if I am a great host. I am not. But I was so excited to go to bed that night because my and Mike's bed finally had a proper headboard and was on a bed frame, not the floor.

Thanks Mike and Dad!

So I guess if I can say anything about 32, it's that I am glad I have a nice bed now because apparently 32-year-olds need their sleep. Also, dogs that spend all weekend wrestling with each other.

The Post You are Supposed to Do on Dec. 31

So 2012, yeah, it was a year. It was memorable, frustrating, wonderful, exhausting, chaotic, and so many other things. It is hard to sum up an entire year in one blog post, which totally negates one of the reasons I have this blog. This blog is supposed to serve as a catalog of my year's highlights, however, I haven't been so great at filling up this space with those everyday moments.

As my photography business grew, it kind of took over this blog and became the space I used to showcase the photos I was taking. I love sharing those photos here because I am immensely proud of my photography. Putting my photography on my blog serves as a reminder to myself and my readers that I do this, and I've even gotten kind of good at it. I need that reminder, but I've decided this is not the place for it.

The past couple of months I've slowly been building up posts on a different blog, one that is linked directly to my Amy Sayre Photography website. It makes more sense there, and it's actually easier to post photos there than here. It was such a logical move, so I've moved. You can find my new blog here. I even posted a new blog post there today just to entice you to check it out.

I am not giving up on this space though. I really still want to use this blog as a way to document my personal, not business, life. I want it to be a reminder of my day-to-day activities, how I spend time with my husband, my dog, my friends and my family, not how I spend it building my business. That will be for my other blog. If I do that, hopefully writing this year end review blog post won't be such a daunting task.

So back to 2012. How about some highlights? Yes. Let's do highlights via this very popular internet survey:

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
Get married.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

For the most part, a big fat no, I did not keep my resolutions. And yes, I always make 5 resolutions/goals with my friend Jenny.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes, my friend Kristin gave birth to her daughter Autumn in March. I took photos of her in May. She is adorable.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Mike and I lost our two cats Leroy and Itchy. They were 18 and 19-years-old respectively, and we miss them every day.

5. What countries did you visit?
Panama, and I know NYC does not count as a different country, but I took a very memorable trip there in January to see my friend Sean sing at The Met.

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
More free time. The fact that I'm not planning a wedding this year should help with that.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Oct. 6, 2012 - the day I got married, because, duh, I got married.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Losing 15 lbs and sticking to a diet with Mike. (He lost 40!) We did it simply by making smart choices and being committed to feeling better about ourselves and our health.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Letting the stress of planning a wedding, holding a full time job and running a part time business get the best of me and taking out my frustrations on Mike. Sorry Mike. You put up with a lot in 2012, and I promise I'll be nicer to you in 2013.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No injuries, but I suffered a couple of colds I could have done without. 

11. What was the best thing you bought?
A king sized memory foam mattress with wedding money. I have never slept so good.

12. Where did most of your money go?
My wedding. I hate that that is my answer.

13. What did you get really excited about?
Going on my honeymoon, and with good reason. It was awesome.

14. What song will always remind you of 2012?
Into the Mystic by Van Morrison. It was my and Mike's first dance.

 15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

– happier or sadder? Happier
– thinner or fatter? Thinner
– richer or poorer? Probably poorer since my wedding savings is gone. But I still have no debt, so I'm doing pretty good.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Travel, but that wasn't really possible in the year that I took off two weeks to get married and go on a honeymoon. But I still did go to NYC and Panama, so really, I should just shut up.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Worry about my wedding. Everything turned out fine. All of that lost sleep was totally worthless.

18. How did you spend Christmas?
At home. Mike and I welcomed 12 of his family members into our home on the Eve of Christmas Eve, and it was a complete success. 

19. What was your favorite TV program?
Parks and Rec, with Modern Family being a close second.

20. What were your favorite books of the year?
I plowed through A Visit From the Good Squad. I also loved The Poisonwood Bible, and Loving Frank had me staying up way too late to finish it. To that, I will add A Year in Provence, which made me want to live in and eat everything in France. Oh and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kailing. I read it on my honeymoon and it made me want to be Mindy's best friend.

21. What was your favorite music from this year?

I know it's totally lame to admit this, but I have to say Pink Floyd. Yes, they have been around longer than I have, but I never really listened to their music until Mike and I attended "The Wall" tour at Wrigley Field this summer. Then I became obsessed.

22. What were your favorite films of the year?
Um, I could probably give an answer to this if I thought about it for a while, but I don't really want to. I don't see a lot of movies and usually when I do I'm a year behind. So I'll save myself the embarrassment and not answer this question.


23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 31 and held a small gathering at my house. It also served as a psudeo housewarming party because Mike and I never had one when we moved into our house in 2011.

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Getting a king sized bed sooner.

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
Layers and accessories, tall boots and scarfs. Basically, I want to wear this every day.

26. What kept you sane?
Sleep and my dog.

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012.

To stop waiting on perfection. I realized while wedding planning that I was having a really hard time committing to a venue because nothing seemed perfect. And then I realized I do this a lot. I stall decisions. I hold off on doing things, on calling people, on sending birthday cards, on buying a pair of shoes, on talking to Mike, on speaking my mind because the moment that presents itself isn't "perfect." I use this idea of perfection as a crutch and an excuse to say no to a lot. So I've committed to stop waiting for perfection in 2013.

So that is it. My 2012 in a nutshell. I am sure I left out or forgot some things, but in a nod to my last answer, I am going to publish this now and not wait for the perfect answers to come to me.

No Upgrade Necessary

On Friday afternoon, I called a local camera store to see if they had the new Nikon I wanted in stock. I had been eyeing this new camera for months and decided I really, really wanted it. It's a great camera, one is different from and better than my other two cameras for a few reasons, and by Friday afternoon I decided those reasons were enough to pull the trigger and make the purchase. I was certain I'd have it before the weekend was over.

However, yesterday I had a shoot and did something I haven't done since the early days of my photography business. I used only one camera and one lens. Typically, during a shoot, I'll use both cameras and interchange any one of three lenses depending on the shot I am trying to get. But yesterday, I used only my Nikon D300s and a 50mm/1.4G lens. I didn't set out to do this. It just kind of happened, but I am glad it did. This reenforced something I've heard time and time again: Better equipment does not make you a better photographer.

I am pretty proud to say that with limited equipment, I was still able to capture all of the images below. It didn't hurt that I had Nicole, Steve and Maddie in front of my lens either. This family is just the best. And such good friends to boot.

So will I get this new camera? Yes, probably sometime next year. But yesterday's shoot made me step back and realize that it's not an immediate need. I can do just fine with the equipment I have and the skills I have learned over the past three-and-a-half years. Confidence is so much better than a new camera.

To Nicole, Steve and Maddie, thanks for a fun afternoon. I can't wait to do this all again with baby number two!

Absent

I thought that once the wedding was over, I'd have so much time I wouldn't know what to do with myself. That has not been the case. As is the year of 2012, these past two months have flown by. Hence, no posting since early September. But all these wonderful things have happened since then. Great wonderful things that all deserve posts of their own. Some several.

Like getting married.

 Like going to Panama for my honeymoon.

Like how we Dog Shamed Taylor for eating a present we brought back for some friends. 

Like this photo shoot on one of the most gorgeous fall weekends I can remember.

Like redecorating this bedroom and getting a new king size bed.

Like our sweet old cat Itchy who sadly passed away right before the wedding.

Like how cute my dog is.

Ok, that last one not so much. I've talked about that a lot, so maybe it doesn't warrant it's own post, but he's too cute to not post a picture.

So anyway, a lot going on in these parts right now and in the months to come. Here's hoping I get back to posting some more things here before the New Year.