Playing In The Rain

I had so much fun on Thursday. It was Mia's last day of school, and we had plans to go to a Erin's house to take a few pictures of her & her daughters. She's pregnant with #3 - and THIS time it's a boy! I had to post this picture. It's one of my favorites of the day; Erin's older daughter thought of this sign they had upstairs. How perfectly appropriate.

So anyway - of course Mia was with me, and I know she was jealous of the girls having their pictures taken. (although if we go out she's completely over it - ONLY when I'm taking other people's photos does she get jealous)

It started to storm outside, and I love playing in the rain on a warm day. (Something we didn't really get to do in San Diego.)

And I guess I got to show off her cute new layered bob - EVEN shorter this time for the hot sticky summer. Anyway... more soon. I'm hoping to hear from friends of ours that are leaving for Hawaii, I'd love to get to see them one more time. The amount of moving trucks around here is getting downright depressing.

THANK YOU, TV, and Holy Photos....

First of all - Edith - you nut - you gave me an award for my blog, and that's pretty dang sweet.
(click on the photo to link to the arte y pico site)

I accept with tears in my eyes and a hug that would squeeze out all your juices. It will go in a place of honor in my home.

Ok. So TV. Seriously - I am STILL thinking about the Lost season finale. Anyone? Wow. Amazing and satisfying season, bravo JJ.

I'm excited for Mad Men, Weeds, and Californication to return. And when is Dexter coming back? I LOVE CABLE SHOWS. We've been watching Carrier, the PBS series about the USS Nimitz and loving it. I highly recommend it, even if you aren't some freaky military buff person. And I did just finally get to the season finale of the guilty pleasure, Grey's Anatomy and cried like a baby. I'm going to dig in to The Mole (which is BACK after a 4-year hiatus), and I'm heavily into So You Think You Can Dance, which in my opinion, is better than Idol. Heck yeah. What else should I be watching this summer?

Lastly - I have photos of the following to finish sifting through and will be sharing a few highlights:

a trip to Hamahiga Island
my friend Katie's new baby, Jackson Austin
a recent very nice sunset, but by no means the best I've seen
photos of friends at a recent party - even, perhaps, a photo of ME
yesterday's trip to Naha with beautiful and talented and super cool nice & fun Annya
Mia's new summer haircut (well, I haven't taken photos of that yet, but I promise I will!)

Tide you over? Well... OK.

A cool awning in Naha:

Some lovely flowers:

Sorry if this offends, but it was just out there at the mall off Kokusai...

This is one of many pig heads I saw at the market. And there were actually a lot of ...interesting things. I will post more soon.

These are not wooden boomerangs. They are smoked fish. The locals buy them and shave of pieces and then use the result to top all kinds of dishes. The resulting shavings are called bonito flakes.
I saw this adorable poster for sale at a shop and had to take a photo...
Here is Matt with new baby Jackson. Born on the same day as my new Niece, Brooke! He, however, was 2 weeks late.

Some mahi in a cooler. A guy at the Kadena Marina caught these and was giving them away. If I had any clue what to do with 20 lbs of mahi I'd have taken one.

Cool boat from our trip to Hamahiga Island
More boats.
As we were crossing the bridge toward the islands, we looked to the left and saw that the tide was not just low - it was non-existent. We pulled to the side of the road and got out, went down the steps, and squished our toes around in the biggest sand bar I've ever seen in my life. This picture doesn't really even convey how cool this was....
Ok, gotta go - kid gets home in 40 minutes from her last day of kindergarten. I know. Shut up. I'm not dealing with that yet. Just starting to grasp that I won't have days to myself anymore.

Unbelievable Coincidence

I have blogged about this tiny tiny island and how everyone seems to know each other. So much so that we end up spending holidays with folks we meet randomly at lunch several weeks prior.

But the coincidence thing is just getting out of hand. Ever mention something totally random and weird, like say - fried Twinkies - and then it comes up in a couple of other ways? That happens to Craig & I on a very VERY regular basis. I could cite examples, but this most recent one takes the freaking cake.

This past Sunday afternoon, as we were driving, we saw cars stopped in the middle of a road on base. As it turns out, there was a kitten out there and they were trying to grab him to get him out of the busy street. (I DO hope he made it out ok) It made me recall and tell a story about saving a turtle. I was in Maryland in the mid-90's and was driving probably to my friend Julie's house in Gaithersburg, and I saw a turtle in the middle of a rural road. He (or she) was going so slowly, I figured some speeding maniac would hit the little guy. So I pulled to the side and lifted him up and placed him in the grass on the side of the road. Small victory for an animal lover.

This morning as I was about to wake Mia for her 3rd-to-last day of school, my cell phone rang. It was Craig. And he states with a smile in his voice that he just got back into the car on route 26 after moving a turtle he saw in the middle of the road. We laughed a bit and then I had to go get the kid up. (I also referred to the ongoing joke of, "we should buy a lottery ticket".)

Funny coincidence - but not done yet. Hold on to your shorts, people.

I dropped off Mia at the bus stop, and returned home to read up on my Google Reader (it is how I keep up with the photography blogs, mommy blogs, and friend blogs - it just lists them and puts up the new posts), and I came to Elizabeth's blog. E, a fabulous photog from gorgeous upstate NY, found me through another photographer's blog I follow, super duper Marine wife and talented photog Deb Schwedhelm's. (You put your link in the comments, and voila - you've found someone else to blurk. blog+lurk=blurk.) I digress.

Today's post had some beautiful family photos and scenery around the area, and almost as an aside, ended with this:

It's just totally random weird life kinda stuff, but I mean really - WHO is trying to tell me WHAT about flippin' TURTLE SAVING!?

I'M AN AUNT!

Well, I was already an aunt - to my gorgeous nephew.

But as if today I'm an aunt to beautiful Brooke Morgan - my sister-in-law's baby girl. (Is she not GORGEOUS!?) She was born today/yesterday (depending on if you're in Japan) 6/7/8 (nice!) at 12:57 pm. She's 4.3 lbs and 5 weeks early, but thankfully doing great so far. I couldn't be happier today! Congrats Mommy Court & Daddy Jake! We already love her!

I'm feeling the distance - they're in Seattle and I want SO badly to come with gifts and lasagna. Send all the love and quick-to-be-out-of-the-hospital prayers & vibes their way! And Jake - good luck on those finals. I hope after they're over you have a couple of days to enjoy your new little girl.

Worthy Checklist & Shout Out To Teens or Teen Parents

Seth Godin's Email Checklist
A good read for folks who feel the need to forward things. Or to reply to forwarded things. Anyway, you get the point.

On a completely DIFFERENT note - I know there are a bunch of local Okinawa-stationed peoples who read this. If you're one of them and you are going into your senior year in high school, or if you're a parent of a son or daughter graduating in '09, (or know someone in that category) I want to take some senior photos.

I'd like for my photography portrait business to focus on Okinawa's seniors, to give them a choice other than what they're given. I need to build that portfolio a bit. I have a great deal if you are a/have a teenager whose pictures need to be taken. Put a comment in this post with your email address if you're interested - I have to approve before posting comments, and will NOT post your email address here for all to see.

(Ok, did I just write graduating in '09? ACK! Next year it will have been 20 YEARS since my graduation. Too bad I'm not in the states for the reunion. Or is it?)

ME!

I know, hard to believe - but OCCASIONALLY I let others snap a shot or two of yours truly. I don't like being on that side of the camera nearly as much, but during the aforementioned fini flight shoot I was even more willing. How can I not document my presence at such an event?

So - after takeoff, one of the crew guys that was out on the flight line, Justin, came to our van and admired my camera. So I handed it over and came home with the following fisheye shots which I think are not half bad! (Especially since I was fully working the drowned rat look from dashing around in the pouring rain for the last 2 hours.)

Note the pants soaked up to the knees, and the completely wet hair. The shirt was soaked too and I was very happy I decided to wear dark grey that day. On the left is Serena, on the right is Spider - I don't know his real name, nor do I need to. He was our wonderful driver and general go-fer that day, and I think he's just the bee's knees. Not too hard on the eyes either.

Justin (who took these pictures) was looking at me and said, "Gosh you look familiar - do I know you?"

"I don't think so.. I guess I just have a really hot Doppleganger."

Nobody else in that van knew the term Doppleganger (and yes, spelling/grammar/language afficionados, it IS supposed to have and umlaut over the a). So here's the Wikki definition for you, everyone. I love when someone uses a ten-cent word I haven't heard. What's your favorite?

One last cool shot - as the skies started clearing and you can see the F-15 to the right taking off:

MEA CULPA

Reasons I haven't posted in 10 days:

- Some PCSing friends have asked me to do photo shoots and I've obliged.
- Some very nice people here compliment me on my photography and want to pay me to do it; so I'm in the process of making that happen. (Starting a business is time consuming; ok, cat's out of the bag. More about this REALLY soon - suffice it to say right now I'm buried in test prints, merchant info and website building!)
- My very nice friend and former employer, Serena, had asked me to second shoot with her for a fini flight (which is an Air Force pilot's final flight before either retiring or just retiring from flying - which was the case for Dawg). What an amazing honor this was and I'm so happy she asked and I did it - because it was quite an experience! First day of the ceremony was his flight alone (well, with his crew and fellow pilots). Here are a few from that day... which was, um. Rainy.

This was actually after he returned, a shot with a fisheye from the back of the F-15. That machine is just amazing! Most don't get to be on the flightline like this unless they're pilots or family of pilots... so this was extra exciting!

This was him taxiing toward me. This was taken out the back doors of a panel van because it was raining so hard my gear would've been as soaked as I already was at this point. MAN was it pouring!

This was a shot of Dawg (aka Barry) during his pre-flight check. Serena said this was her favorite that I shot, and I really have to agree. He's looking at that plane as if to say, "I'm going to miss you." Um yeah - how cute is he by the way? TOTALLY. His whole family is gorgeous.
Here he is going by me giving the "hang loose" sign. Sweet! Yes. Still. Raining.
Formation flying overhead... incredible.
Ok - more of those from the 2nd day (Change of Command) when I have 'em. And have time to edit 'em!
- There are 2 more weeks of school. TWO MORE WEEKS, and then I have a kid at my hip for the summer. Not like I can send her off to full-day camp here, I'll be trekking her to swim lessons, t-ball, piano, snorkeling, etc. Which is fun & great, but I am definitely trying to enjoy the last days of having my daytimes to do ME stuff.
- There is a group here called OIWC (Okinawa International Women's Club). I have been asked to be on the board as their historian. (really great for me because we are very involved in the Okinawa community, culture, and charities)
- I've also been taking pictures for my own personal fun. Haven't even GOTTEN to those lately! I can't wait though ... SOON.

I miss you, readers and friends! More soon. Off to bed. I miss my hubby too.