an event worth documenting

I typically enjoy cooking and don't mind slaving over a hot stove (barefoot and pregnant, mind you) in order to whip up a tasty meal for John and I to devour that night (and maybe even the next, if there's leftovers).

But sometimes. . . sometimes I just want to throw something quick together and call it dinner. Usually it's cold cut sandwiches or a pizza, but every once in awhile, I'll do Brinner.

Brinner = Breakfast for dinner.

Breakfast is easy. Breakfast is quick.

Breakfast is especially easy and quick to make when I can get John to help me out. And since John is a self proclaimed 'Pancake Man', it wasn't too hard to talk him into joining me in the kitchen:

Along with the bacon I whipped up, Brinner made for a successful meal last night!

24 weeks

This morning John and I went to my 24 week appointment. Of all of my appointments thus far, today's was the most uneventful: urine sample (I'm a pro 'goer' in a cup by now), blood pressure, weight check (I've gained around twelve pounds so far), fetal tones (145 BPM, yay!), chit chat with the doctor, and we were out!

I was also given a bottle of an orange flavored dextrose drink (containing um, 50 grams of dextrose) that I have to consume on the way to my next appointment so they can test me for Gestational Diabetes once I get there. I'm highly doubting that I have G.D., but even if I did, I'm not that concerned-- John's grandfather, dad, brother, and that brother's fiance' all have either Type 1 or Type 2, so I've been around diabetes enough to know what I'd be getting myself into. I'm just not sure how different G.D. is from the other two.

My next appointment is in four weeks, and after that appointment I will start going back every two weeks! It's amazing how quickly this pregnancy is going by! I'm definitely not complaining though-- when we found out in September, May seemed so far away, but now that it's February 1st, my due date is just three and a half months away!

I think I'm about to make a run to Target to get an idea of what I want to register for. We've already got quite a bit of the big stuff, but there's a few more things (i.e. high chair, pack'n'play, etc.) that I want to look at before I decide what I want. Should be fun!

We still don't have a name-- poor kid. There were (are?) two names in the running, but we can't make up our minds. So stay tuned-- we're hoping to figure that out soon!

'Whoever said orange was the new pink was seriously disturbed'

. . . But I think this orange tinge looks rather nice atop these originally pink flowers.

and five points to whoever can tell me what movie the quote in my title comes from!

first photography gig

I'm in the process of setting it up!

Now, I guess you could say that Andy and Cherie's engagement session was my first gig, but I've learned a lot (a TON) about my camera since then. At the time, I'd owned the T1i (also my first DSLR camera) for a month, and I only had about an hour to prepare before we set out to take the pictures, so I wasn't exactly the most competent of photographers out there.

Not that I am now, but I'd like to think my competency points have gone up a little bit in seven months.

Back to the gig. After [finally] getting my pictures from our beach walk posted, one of the girls asked me to go back and do a session with her family. She offered to pay, however, since I am building my portfolio this year (remember that goal?), I am not charging for sessions.

Here's another picture from our time at the beach:

One thing that I learned from this little session is that a bright sunshine in a wide open sky reflecting off white sand causes the photo taking process to be a little more challenging. Even though the picture may not be overexposed, so much natural light can make it appear so. It's just another aspect of photography I'm learning the ropes of!

a sampling

Life's a Beach
Originally uploaded by Anna Woerner

Yesterday I joined several ladies (and their children) from my Sunday school class for a stroll on the boardwalk near the beach. After walking for a little while, we headed to the water so the kids (who had been in strollers while we walked) could stretch their legs and run through the sand. I decided to take my camera with me and got a few great shots, including the one your looking at. I had intended on posting a few more, but there is something wrong with the uploading process, and this was all I was able to get. Hopefully AT&T (if that's where the issue is rooted) will have it resolved sometime tomorrow.

Other than the problematic uploader (is that not a word? Blogger is telling me it's not, but I'm pretty sure i've heard it used before), I've been really excited to see how modern technology is providing so much convenience when it comes to organizing my photos on my computer's hard drive and on Flikr. The combination of Windows 7 and Google Chrome is also worth mentioning-- I love how quickly and conveniently I can navigate through photos, Photoshop projects, and websites at the same time with such ease. it seems I discover something new (and consequently helpful) about how these two work together; it's nice to just sit down and actually have your computer help you more than frustrate you.

Though, I say that, so I'm sure the entire thing will crash in the middle of the night just to spite me, as technology also tends to do.

But I'll enjoy it for now :)

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

behind the computer screen

I've pretty much 'set up shop' at the kitchen table. It's not exactly the most ideal location to have an office, but it'll have to do for now. I don't mind-- it's a large space that's close to John's 'office', so we can chat back and forth when we sit and putter about our computers (i.e. now).

The day I picked John up from the airport, I sat at Barns and Noble a couple of hours before his flight was scheduled to arrive and read through a book on the Rebel T1i written by David Busch. I couldn't believe how much information that book was loaded with! Once we get our finances a little more squared away, I'd like to get my hands on a copy. From the seventy or so pages I thoroughly read, so much was learned about my T1i that wasn't in the dinky 20 page instruction manual the camera came with.

One of these days I'll know that camera backwards and forwards, but for now, I'm really enjoying the whole learning process!