Happy Holidays!

We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.

We're currently enjoying the holiday festivities in Christiansburg, catching up with friends from high school and hanging out with the family.

A new year's resolution post will be coming in the next few days, but for now, we hope everyone enjoys their holidays!

--Jennie and Heather

Where is the Snow?

Its December 7 and there has been zero snow in Syracuse yet this winter. Is it global warming? Are the snow gods being kind to us this year? Did someone do an anti-snow dance?

Granted, we've only experienced one Syracuse winter, and everyone told us that last year was unusually bad, but even the locals are staring at the sky in wonder. In fact its starting to feel strange thinking about Christmas without wading through the snow to get a Christmas tree.

Other areas in the country have seen the white stuff, even areas that typically don't get any snow at all some winters--NYC, Washington DC, Southwest Virginia. Our friends in Colorado have posted pictures of dazzling white stuff, but we're still staring at bare trees, cold dirty streets, and gross, icky rain.

I may regret this in a month, but I wish it would start to snow already!

Pictures of the Day October and November

I've been delinquent posting my favorite pictures of the day, so here are a few of the best to catch you up. You can see all of my work on my facebook page.

A Day at the Pumpkin Patch



After the Rain



Syracuse University Volleyball



Creekside Walk



Dandelion Fun

Barefoot on the Treadmill?

Last night at the gym Jennie and I decided to test out our new style of running. We worked out on the elliptical for about 30 minutes and then decided we should give the whole barefoot thing a try. We had heard from several people that we needed to start slowly and carefully so as not to injure any of the muscles that we haven't been using with our fancy running shoes.

We started out walking barefoot on the treadmill at about a 2.5-3.0 speed. We definitely got some funny looks from those around us at the gym! After about 5 minutes of walking (it felt really nice to be barefoot I might add) we decided to go for it and jog for a few minutes. We jogged at about a 5.0, a 12 min mile pace, which is slower than either of us typically run, but it was our first barefoot experience. We both loved it! Definitely need to build up the strength in my ankles and shins and the callouses on my feet, but it felt so nice--so natural compared to running in shoes. Jennie said she definitely felt it in her calves more than anywhere else. I think my calves were alright because I tend to take shorter strides and stay more up on my toes, even in running shoes.

My biggest complaint is that the balls of my feet are rather raw this morning. I will definitely have to build that up, but I think that I prefer the barefoot feel to wearing the Vibram Fivefingers that we tested out. Jennie definitely wants a pair of the Vibrams but I think I'll save the money and use my bare feet. I am also thinking about investing in a pair of the gladiator running sandals for running on rocky terrain.


Overall, it was an awesome experience and I think this change is important on our road to the life more abundant (no pun intended)! I'm hoping this will motivate me to run more often and enjoy it. I'm also in the middle of reading Born to Run which is helping to motivate me. Who knows, maybe we'll actually do our half-marathon!

EDIT: And now that I've read more about barefoot running I'm realizing I don't need to build up callouses, but instead I need to change my technique :) Apparently I need to land lighter and pick up my foot sooner--those actions should help avoid any friction!

Run like the Ancients

When we were home in Christiansburg for Labor Day weekend and my grandma's 90th birthday, my dad passed on to me Christopher McDougall's book Born to Run. Inspired by the great distance runners, the Tarahumara Indians of Copper Canyon, Mexico, McDougall explores the ancient art of running, trying to discover out how the Tarahumara manage to run up to 60 miles a day, often several days a week, for 60-70 years of their life, and rarely, if ever, end up hurt. In comparison, 80% of all modern runners is hurt every year.

What he finds is a culture of people who enjoy running and who trust their body (their legs, their feet, their ankles) to carry them wherever they need to go without the need for fancy footwear and expensive orthotics. When he discovers that no medical study has ever proven that the newest and 'best' running foorwear prevents injuries, and in fact they typically cause running injuries, he dives into a training plan that stresses natural stride, minimal support, and a quick footed lightness that protects the body from injury.

The book profiles interesting characters, all runners who come to their passion from different avenues, and culminates in a 50 mile run through the Copper Canyons of Mexico, pitting some of the best ultra runners in the US against the legendary Mexican runners.

I walked away from this book inspired to change my running style.

There are many reasons that people decide to make the change, many of them prompted by nagging, permanent, running injuries. I have been fortunate never to have had any major issues--no plantar fasciitis, no stress fractures, no Achilles injuries--just a few minor muscle tweaks, and currently a nagging hamstring that I just can't seem to heal and that seems to re-injure without warning in a variety of exercises.

My hope in making a change is that this nagging injury goes away as the rest of my legs get stronger. Also, I am searching to embrace the spirit of the Tarahumara and really focus on enjoying my running. In the runs that I have done since finishing the book (including one 5 miles race), I have really tried to zero in on letting my body run and enjoying how it feels. I tried to erase thoughts of distance left and time, and to trust that I do know how to run (even if using my current running style). At the end of each run I felt good--tired in a great way--and I managed a decent, consistent pace throughout the whole run.

The next steps are to change my footwear, forcing me to alter my stride, and then to start training slowing, letting my body adjust to the changes and letting my feet and ankles strengthen over time.

My dad is at least 4 months into his transition and he says he is a completely changed runner. I hope to follow in his footsteps.

Hopefully Heather and I can both embrace our inner runner.

And if you haven't read the book Born to Run yet, I highly, highly recommend it.

Jess and Matt Married!

Heather and I attended the wedding of a childhood friend this past weekend. Even though Jess moved away from Christiansburg in middle school, we've managed to keep in touch through the years. And when Heather and I first met Matt two years ago we knew they had something special.

The wedding was held in the beautifully renovated Chamberlin Hotel in Hampton, VA and even though I wasn't the official wedding photographer, I tried to get as many beautiful shots as possible. Here is a sampling of some of my favorite.

We both wish Jess and Matt years of happiness and love!

Time to Pack

Things have been hectic around our house for the past few weeks. We're in the process of moving to a new apartment in Syracuse and we've been trying to pack in bits and pieces so as not to overwhelm ourselves at the last minute.

But the time to move has crept up on us and we are now T-minus 3 days (!!!) to the move. I ran out of paper for the kitchen dishes tonight and it still seems like we have so much to do.

The cats do seem to be enjoying the mess and chaos and the piles of boxes that they can climb on, but I so wish it wasn't so much work to move!

Fortunately our new apartment only costs half of what we're paying for rent right now so we plan to double our payments to our debts.

Hopefully we survive the weekend move!

Photo project

A week or so ago I started a 365 day photo project in an effort to push me to think creatively, work on my photography techniques, and look for picture opportunities everywhere I go.

I think it must be working somewhat because Heather says I'm commenting on everything in terms of what might make a good photograph nowadays.

The downside is that the camera and case is rather bulky and I haven't been carrying it around with me all the time, so I've definitely missed some opportunities for what might have been a good picture. This also means that I have sometimes had to take pictures inside, which severely limits my subject matter, and often forces me to use my flash.

I've been reading some books on wedding photography and photography in general and I realize that using flash still confuses me. Not necessarily knowing when to use flash, because I think that's fairly easy, but knowing how much flash when you're at certain exposure settings or distances in order to get a pleasantly exposed picture that doesn't turn the background black or completely overexpose and flatten the image. I think in the future I'm going to need to take some sort of course or workshop on it because I think understanding flash better and not relying on 'auto' will make me a better photographer.

Anyway, here is one of my 365 day photos, which I will be keeping an album of on facebook. I'll post my favorite here when they come up.

Enjoy!

You gotta start somewhere

As the end of summer draws near, I would have to say that out gardening experiment wasn't a huge success. Honestly, I think our biggest problem was that we just had a planter, and not a garden on the ground. The only soil we could find at Home Depot was technically top soil and was meant to be used with regular soil, but we didn't have that option so we hoped for the best.

It seems that everything we planted took a long time to grow and was a little stunted. Our herbs, our parsley and basil, is miniature and is just now big enough to pick and use. The peas we had were producing, but there weren't many of them, and then they got super scourched during the heat spell we had in July. After our week away out west they were pretty much goners. Our squash sprouted leaves and some flowers, but then they scourched away as well. Our cucumbers also had some leaves and flowers, but didn't seem to do much but turn yellow in the sun.

Amazingly, just when we had given up on the garden for the season and said we would just let it die off, we had a couple of days of rain and voila!, we had some miniature cucumbers! So now we're nurturing a few cucumbers and some herbs. We picked our first cucumbers yesterday and made a cucumber and tomato salad with some tomatoes with my parent's garden and some fresh basil and it was soooo good.







We can't wait until we have a real backyard to call our own and some real dedicated gardening space.

But I suppose we had to start somewhere.

Ashley and David--Married!

Here are a few of my favorite shots from Ashley and David's wedding last month. They were married in Federal Way, Washington, between Seattle and Tacoma. I wish them, and their adorable son Nathan, years of happiness and love!

Meet Green Blossom Photography!

Crazy as it may sound, I have decided to enter the wedding photography business.

I have been interested in it for awhile now, and in the back of my mind I always said that being a wedding photographer would be a dream job. I just didn't think I would be talented enough to do it.

But then along came opportunity.

A few months ago, Heather's brother and his fiance asked me if I would do their photography as a wedding gift. I had been dubbed the 'unofficial' photographer for Heather's step-brother's wedding last summer, though at the last minute, a long lost uncle who happened to be a professional photographer showed up and I was relegated to backseat photography. I think I came out with some good shots, but I wasn't the front and center photographer and I was using borrowed, slightly older, equipment.

Nevertheless, I guess it put me on the radar for Heather's brother, and I was only too happy (though extremely nervous!) to accept the challenge.

I wanted to do a really good job for them so I did my research--I read blogs on wedding photography, browsed galleries of professionals, checked out books from the library, even invested in a Digital SLR of my own (which we were going to get at some point anyway), and practiced, practiced, practiced.

The day of the wedding I was nervous, but once I jumped in and started shooting the time just went so fast. I had so much fun! Composing shots, suggesting poses, snapping moments from the middle of the action, and looking for photo opportunities around every bend. I know I still have a lot to learn and I know I made a few mistakes because I'm not not on auto pilot yet when it comes to exposure techniques, but I was pleased (and maybe a little bit surprised) with the results of my photos.

Since the wedding I have been editing in my spare time and I am really happy with the final results. I hope the happy couple will be too!

Which leads me to the business aspect of the venture. Because I had so much fun during every step of the process (planning, shooting, editing), I really started to think that maybe I could do this as a profession. It will have to start as a part time side job for awhile and I know it will be awhile before I make much income from it, but I could see myself being happy shooting weddings for years to come.

I finished the editing process on the pictures yesterday and since I wanted to post some on this blog, I figured I better come up with a name and a logo that I could put on the photos before posting. Heather and I spent the last weekend brainstorming names, and then I spent a couple of days googling our ideas to see if they were already taken in the photography business. Crazily almost every single idea we had was already in use, so it either means I'm not very creative or I'm on the same wavelength as a lot of artists out there. Which might be a good sign :)

In the end, I chose Green Blossom Photography, which I designed a logo for today. I also purchased the domain name so no one else can use it in the future. Since I don't have a website yet, the name is just living in cyberland, but I wanted to jump in before someone else snatched it up. The website, blog, facebook page, etc. will all come in time.

I'm just staring out and have a long way to go but I am so looking forward to this new adventure.

So welcome Green Blossom Photography!

Travel Updates

We’ve been fortunate to be able to take a few weekend trips this summer—nothing too far and all within 5 hours diving distance—and we’ve had the opportunity to meet up with some good friends.

In early July we traveled to Hanover, PA for a surprise baby shower for our R-MWC friend Katie. We had fun hanging out with her and her husband and a couple other Macon women who came down for the night. The morning before we left, we helped her make a cast of her belly. Katie is quite the crafty person (we all minored in crafting at Macon) and she’s planning on decorating the cast to put in her nursery.

After we left Hanover, we took a tour of Gettysburg. We didn’t have enough time to see the museum but we got to drive around the national park site and visit the cemetery. During this trip we started to play around with our camera a bit and I ended up taking some pretty good pictures.

Two weeks ago we drove down to Philadelphia to meet up with our DC friends Sarah and Chris. Jennie was the only one never to have been to Philly before and she really loved the city! For a large city it never felt extremely big and we LOVED how much history there was just lying around. For example, we were walking in the historical district and we were amazed at how many national or state owned buildings were just open to the public for free. It was really cool to stumble across them as we were walking around.

Of course, we saw the Liberty Bell and visited Independence Hall and Jennie and I went to the National Constitution Center. We also went to Betsy Ross’ house, the waterfront, South Street, Love Park and tried the three major cheesesteak places in the city.

We were also lucky enough to be celebrating our one year anniversary of our DC wedding and it was so awesome to be able to celebrate with Sarah and Chris because they were two of the very small number of people who we invited to our DC wedding.

For a first visit to the city, it was great!

This week we’re headed to Las Vegas to visit another two Macon friends, before moving on to Seattle for my brother’s wedding. We can’t wait!

Berkeley!

We have a new addition to our family--an adorable shih tzu/yorkie puppy named Berkeley.

Even though we've had her for a couple of months we keep forgetting to post pictures of her. She was four months old yesterday :)

So far life with a puppy has been a bit of an adjustment, for us and for the cats. The first few weeks it felt like we had a newborn, and she didn't sleep at all the first night we had her home. In addition, there have been the accidents (she doesn't quite understand asking to go outside when she has to pee, though she'll go if we're diligent and take her out), the chewed flip-flops, and the need to come home right after work and let her out of her crate. There is definitely a level of commitment that isn't there with cats.

It took the cats a few days, but they're fairly accustomed to having her around. They still run from her when she gets close, which just prompts her to chase them because she thinks they want to play, but I think they've worked out a co-exist agreement. And the cats still cuddle and sleep with us, which I'm very glad didn't change. One sad thing for them is that they don't have access to all of their fun toys anymore, because Berkeley steals them and they're too small for her.

Tomorrow she goes for her first grooming appointment and then Saturday, we're going to check out a dog festival at the local park. She should have fun!

Heather is in love with Berkeley and though it took me a little longer, I now view her as a fun addition to our family. It is nice to be able to take her places and she gets compliments from everyone for being so cute. Its kind of making her a bit of a princess, but she's so little and cute that its hard not to spoil her.

A Disappointing Read

I just finished Zelda's Cut, a book by one of my favorite authors, Phillipa Gregory.

Sadly, this book did not live up to my expectations.

In Zelda's Cut, Isobel Latimer is a middle-aged literary author straddled with an invalid husband, a passionless marriage, and financial troubles. As a means of raising some fast cash, Isobel and her agent engineer Zelda, a character completely opposite in looks, literary style, and personality from Isobel. With her new secret persona, Isobel as Zelda, lands a lucrative book deal, and enjoys being a sexually and socially desirable woman. But in the process of living her new secret life, Isobel finds that Zelda has become an entity of her own, and when her agent decides to take over Zelda's life and success, Isobel realizes that she's loosing control over who Zelda is and what she does and also loosing control of who she is as herself.

I did find it interesting that the book openly explored transgender issues and sexuality, but I didn't always like the characters as people. I suppose this is one of the reasons that I didn't like the book. Even if a book doesn't end happily, I like to enjoy the characters. With a likable character, you can sympathize or empathize or feel sorry for them as appropriate, but if you don't like them, its difficult to feel anything but disappointment in the book.

It's such a shame, because I typically like Phillipa Gregory's books.

I first fell in love with Gregory's books when I read The Other Boleyn Girl about 5 years ago. I came across it in the bookstore and was drawn to it by the cover artwork (I am often drawn to books by the cover art, particularly historical looking covers as historical fiction is one of my favorite genres). I had never heard of Phillipa Gregory and this was a couple of years before the movie The Other Boleyn Girl came out, but I bought it and took it home.

I was immediately hooked--Gregory wrote such a vivid picture of life in Tudor England and her focus on well known historical figures, as well as those that I had never heard of, made for a fascinating read. After I finished the book I immediately went to the computer and did some background research on Tudor England and her characters, trying to learn what from the story was documented fact and what was embellished fiction.

Soon after I discovered that Gregory had written five other books about Tudor England. I gobbled them up, each as good as the last. Last year she came out with two books on Plantagenet England, the period of Civil War (called the War of the Roses) before Tudor England. Again, excellent read from cover to cover. The duo she wrote about the English gardener John Tradescant and his son in post-Elizabethan England, were also good.

But when I branch out to other books of hers, more strictly fiction, I find that my reading experiences change. I'm not sure she is as successful in books that don't play off of real people and real events. I think part of what makes her so captivating in historical fiction is that she's giving depth and dimension to real- life historical figures. She's giving the reader some insight into a person they might have heard of before and wondered about. I think it gives the entire time period she's writing about more dimension and context.

But the books that I've read that are not based on real people have typically disappointed me. In a way they seem to be more of a psychological study of society or individuals or class structures. Interesting in their own right, but not as interesting to me, and none of them have ended happily.

I suppose I might give a few more books a chance, but sadly I think I might have to stick to her real-person based historical fiction.