In Which I Turn Into a Ball of Mush

This new year has ushered in a new awareness for me that my youngest child, Alex, will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. With an August birthday he'll probably be the youngest in the his class but likely the tallest anyway and he's ready so we aren't red-shirting him. He's been in daycare/preschool three full days a week for the past three years.

He has also been home with me on two days a week for the past three years. For at least the past year that has been very enjoyable time, one on one with my little man. Granted I do put him in childcare at the gym for a short workout those days, but we also hang out at our local coffee shop, hit the grocery store together and play games together. 

So one day earlier this month we were strolling through the grocery aisle on a Tuesday morning when it dawned on me that my little buddy wouldn't be with me to do that in a few short months. It made me surprisingly sad. 

My older kid had two years of Kindergarten, one private and one public. For whatever reason I remember no melancholy over his going five days a week, or even taking the big bus home from school every day. 

But Alex is my youngest and I admit he probably gets treated a bit differently than his brother. I notice how he's losing his baby belly and how he has peer to peer conversations with his brother. I hate that I can't pick him up and carry him, even though I used to hate how much that hurt my back. He still is in a big silly phase and uses made up language all the time that remind me that he's only four. 

A couple nights ago he crawled into our bed at 5am. I miss cuddling in bed with my babies so much that I'm inclined to let him stay but Mike was having none of it. It was becoming habitual and getting earlier and earlier in the morning. So when we told him he couldn't stay he burst into babyish tears and I totally melted. In my early morning haze I had no resolve in me and selfishly wanted him to stay so Mike took over and walked him back to bed. In the end we all got another couple hours of sleep we wouldn't have had. 

Kindergarten registration isn't till April in our district, but I'm dreading it. I'm not ready for my baby to grow up just yet. Is this why some women just seem to keep having babies? I suspect it is. 

My 2012 Word of the Year

My friend Alece has this thing...this community of people who choose one word to live by, focus on and define the year. I admit that I thought it was just a bit to simplistic for me. I prefer concrete goals with actionable steps and milestones along the way. Yeah, I'm an engineer.

But this year when buzz was spreading about people choosing their "one word" for 2012, I gave it a few minutes of thought. I'm already on a path of living very purposefully, very intentionally. That's what this whole blog is really about. I already feel mostly full of gratitude, joy and contentedness. So what would I want to change about my life to improve it?

The word "Hustle" popped into my head. I think mostly because of how freakin' much running I've been doing of late.

So why would I, someone who relishes being totally chill about everything, want to hustle? Miss Type B, plan lots of margin in the schedule, no need to get stressed out...that's me. Well the word "hustle" does not necessarily mean to do everything faster. But it does mean to do more...to do the work...to keep the effort level up...to not get lazy and not get too relaxed. I have a tendency to get a bit too relaxed, and then I wonder why my blog isn't growing as much or my clothes aren't fitting as well.

So in 2012 I have promised I will hustle. I have already started that with my intense running schedule and my analytically tracking of every calorie I put in my mouth. You may have noticed a sharp increase in blog posting as well. Hustling means staying on top of  things and putting a few more irons in the fire. It means pursuing my dreams a bit harder.

It does NOT mean working so much I start to get stressed out. It means pushing just a little more while still maintaining the balance I cherish.

So what's YOUR one word for 2012? 

Fashion Friday: Shoes with Bows

So one of my favorite boards on Pinterest is just for shoes. (If you don't follow me on Pinterest, you should!) Not necessarily shoes I actually want to buy, but more like fantasy shoes that catch my attention and are totally my style.

As an aside, curating my favorite fashion pins on Pinterest has absolutely helped me hone in on my personal style in a way I never expected. I highly recommend this if you want to find a way to shop more selectively. I thought my 15:30 project last year would help me narrow my style, but it really didn't. Pinterest, on the other hand, definitely HAS helped.

So I discovered that I have a major thing for bows. I find this fact a bit surprising, but the evidence is right there on my shoe board...half the shoes that caught my eye had some kind of bow. So I'm gonna show you a few of my favorites today!

Found on Pinterest via Laurie Turk from Lulu's

Found on Pinterest via Leslie Ma from Bakers

Found on Pinterest via Leslie Ma by Betsey Johnson

Found Pinterest via Ashley Mattocks on ebay

As you can tell, I really love stiletto heels. Unfortunately my knees do not love them, as proven this week when I wore them to host a Tex-Mex girls night at my house. My knee pain is likely patella-femeral syndrome from my running, but stilettos really seem to exacerbate it.

So I guess I really need to find more flats with bows :)

Check this out, as part of Fashion Friday this week, we're giving away a $75 SpaFinder gift certificate. Just link up your fashion post!

Tips for Great Landscape Photography

Landscape photography can be really fun and yield gorgeous results. It usually involves being outside and taking time to appreciate your natural surroundings. Unlike taking portraits of children, landscape photography can take a lot of time and be done slowly and very mindfully.

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend a presentation for my local photography group by Tom Haynes. The talk was called Listening to the Light and focused on his landscape photography, mostly taken around Big Bend park here in Texas. Today I thought I'd share a few highlights I took away from the presentation.

• Become a weatherman.
• Learn to read the light and predict how it will change with time.
• Don't use any artificial light. 
• At sunset, wait for the sun to drop below the clouds and light up the bottom of the clouds. 
• Some of the best color can come even after the sun drops below the horizon.
• Look for areas in the foreground that can reflect the light. 
• Slow down, think, take time. 
• Wide angle lens makes the mountains seem smaller. 
• He doesn't use a tripod because sunsets are dynamic. 
• Bracket your exposures. 
• Use aperture priority, usually around F/8.
• Break the rules sometimes.
• Long telephoto lenses can compress things together. 
• 100 mm macro lens is good sometimes.
• 12 mm ultrawide, he refers to it as his "cloud lens".
• 10.5 mm fisheye
• Black and white shows texture. 
• White balance is always set for daylight.
• "Fortune favors the prepared". 

Have you tried any landscape photography? Where was your favorite location to shoot?

Roadtrippin' to Austin

Last weekend I did something kind of crazy for a working mom my age, but it was fun and worth it. I took a roadtrip with my friends in the band, Forlorn Hope, to see them play a gig in Austin, TX. What's so crazy about that? The show was on Sunday night and we all had to drive back the same night to get up and go to work the next morning.

In case you didn't know, Austin is about 2.5 hours away from where I live. Mike stayed with the kids while I grabbed my camera and joined some of the wives in one vehicle while the guys piled into a truck hauling a trailer full of their gear. Because of the trailer the guys could only drive about 60 mph so our girls vehicle sailed past them and arrived in Austin much earlier. Some other friends of ours met us there later on too.

The drive to ATX was a scenic one. 

Riding with the girls was fun because we are all already in the same adoption focused life group and are good friends. I plugged in my iPod to share some good music and in between chatting we sang a few familiar worship songs together. We had dinner with my friend Trish's awesome brother-in-law and the world's smartest toddler who entertained the heck out of us.

The funniest part was when we arrived at the club and heard the opening "band", a bunch of white high schoolers rapping about drugs and bitches while their mom, dad and little sister sat listening.

Finally the guys played their set while I took photos and video. The big difference between this and previous gigs was that the sound guy at the Red Eyed Fly was excellent and the mix was great. Not mindblowingly loud as it was at Fitzgeralds. Forlorn Hope has two percussionists, Mark and Richard, and they did a great drum "solo" that I caught on video here.

Afterwards we hopped across the street to the weirdest little pizza joint ever and had a few more laughs before piling in our vehicles around 11 to head back to Katy. If you're ever in Austin, I do not recommend Hoboken Pie. Nope.

The drive back was incredibly tense because the thickest fog I've ever seen had settled over south east Texas. The ENTIRE trip home we had less than a quarter mile visibility and sometimes we had to slow to 20 mph because we couldn't see anything at all. I'm very grateful to Mark Ferow for driving me home so safely.

We rolled in around 1:30 am, unloaded the instruments and I went home and crashed. Of course Alex woke me up at 6 am and I worked all day with Nathan home sick. Then I had my first day of "hill training" with my running group. Boy was I tired.

But it was totally fun and worth it and I'd do it again. In fact you can do it with me again on March 4th. :)

Remembering Joe Paterno

I took these photos than 5 years ago.

Yesterday the world lost one of the most positively influential human beings it has ever seen, Joseph Vincent Paterno. You may think I'm crazy or exaggerating but that's probably because you simply aren't aware of the massive scope of his impact, as most people aren't. To say that this humble football coach impacted millions of lives would not be stretch if you consider the impact that Penn State University as a whole has had on the world in the past six decades.

You see, Penn State wouldn't be what it is today if not for Joe. When he arrived at the University in 1950 it was just a cow-town farm school. Today it is a top tier research university, churning out hundreds of thousands of exceptional graduates and dominating fields like engineering, meteorology and nursing. Those achievements might not have been possible if not for Joe Paterno and his emphasis on winning football games while educating boys and turning them into men of character.

Penn State consistently had the highest graduation rate of football players among all Division 1 championship level programs. Joe did not ever allow his players to even skip a single class, something I and all other students do routinely. If he caught a player in their room when they were supposed to be in class, they got benched. He made it clear that school was the first priority. Joe was grossly underpaid relative to his peers for decades and yet he poured millions of his own money into academics at Penn State, including building a massive library which bears his name. His "Success with Honor" mantra became the PSU brand and attracted millions, maybe even billions, in research money across numerous fields of study. There are currently more than half a million PSU alumni spread out across the US and the globe and every single one of them has been impacted, whether they acknowledge it or not, by Coach Paterno.

It would take me more time than I have to explain to you why this is true but ever Penn Stater knows it is. When I chose Penn State over several other excellent schools it wasn't because of the football team. My high school didn't have football, I had no interest in watching it, and I didn't even buy season tickets. I chose to come to State College for the globally recognized Scholars program and for their top five Chemical Engineering department, yes, but also for a certain family pride vibe I felt during my first campus visit. They called it being "Penn State proud" and I liked it.

I was fortunate enough to live in a building where I had breakfast with the football team every morning for three years. Joe didn't come to breakfast every day, but he did very frequently. There were many occasions when he'd be leaving the building around the same time I was, only to stop and chat with a handful of students including myself. His smile was infectious and in all seriousness he would usually tell us something like "Study hard." and "you'd better get to class, you're going to be late".

He was the one person besides my own father that consistently reminded me why I was there, to study and learn. Not for football games or parties or boyfriends.

"Believe deep down in your heart that you're destined to do great things."

My affection for Joe Paterno and his wife Sue run deep, as if he were my own grandfather. I even stopped by Joe's house just last summer on my short visit to State College. The last few months have only solidified the feeling of family that we as a deeply wounded Penn State community feel for one another. So together we mourn and together we celebrate the legacy of a man who encouraged us to be better. We Are Penn State. 

Fashion Friday: Winter Color

When it's really cold in the middle of January it can be tempting to dress a little bit like the weather, that is gray and dreary. I know I gravitate toward black and gray in the winter because here in Houston we really can not wear black in the summer. At all. It's rather limiting actually.

But I believe in color. Lots of it. I think that especially in the winter a bright pop of color can help bring cheer to yourself and those around you. I mean doesn't how you dress heavily influence how you feel? I know it does for me.

So here are a few bold and not so bold ways I used color in the past week. My favorite outfit last week was this bright pink sweater I got at the Gap a couple years ago but never wore. I finally took the tags off it and paired it with my nice dark rinse jeans from LOFT and when it was time to head outside I grabbed this adorable reversible vest I got at Target. It's chocolate on one side and pink on the other. I finished off this look with my favorite silver shoes from Nine West, my new pewter bag from Coach and some cute silver jewelry. I felt cute in this for sure.

Scarves are a really great way to add color to your basic neutral winter wardrobe. It's hard to tell in this photo but this scarf is pale pink and shimmery. I also wore a pale pink with black trim top from LOFT under this thin, fitted cardigan from Talbots, and my LOFT jeggings (because curvy girls can wear jeggings too!). The gray boots were dirt cheap at Old Navy and got many compliments at church on Sunday, including one from a four year old boy in my Sunday School class who sat on my lap and played with the buckles during storytime.

This third outfit, I have decided, is less than flattering. I love the color of the top but maybe it's the print or maybe it's the bagginess of the pants that just don't work. They were comfortable for sure but a more fitted thigh certainly would look better. I got that purple necklace and matching earrings from my sister for Christmas (from Charming Charlies) and the comfy brown shoes by Naturlizer were shown in a previous shopping video of mine. This goes to show that you can always add bright color to your wardrobe with your jewelry!

So tell me, how do YOU add color to your wardrobe when it's so cold and gray outside?

Photography Thursday

Well it's been a busy posting week around these parts. I'm pressed for time and the posts I have in mind to share with you all require considerable time. So since many of you have told me you come here for the pretty pictures, here ya go! All of these were shot at Moody Gardens in Galveston, TX. 

Oh and don't forget to read my note at the bottom!

Your turn: Tell me your favorite and why. Give me some good critical feedback!

What is PIPA and SOPA? Why is it bad law?

Isn't protecting IP (intellectual property) a good thing? Why wouldn't we want to protect copyright? How could ending online piracy be wrong?

Listen up...I make my living on intellectual property as an engineer, a photographer and a writer. Protecting copyright is a massive passion of mine.

But so is liberty, freedom of speech, and free market capitalism in an economy driven in this country by creativity, innovation, small business and the open exchange of ideas.

Both bills proposed in Congress, SOPA and PIPA, will put a swift and sudden end to all those things on the internet.

For more information, check out this very clear and simple description of the proposed laws and how to take action to stop them. Or watch this video explanation below.





And here's another video with thoughts from a bunch of internet famous people including a few blogger friends of mine.





And finally for a little humor on the situation in song...




Do you want to lose the internet we know and love? Facebook and YouTube? I doubt it. Don't think that because Obama says he won't support SOPA and the bill has been "shelved" that means the fight is over. It's far from it.

Call and email your U.S. Senators now. I already did three weeks ago and while TX Sen. Cornyn has told me he is listening to both sides and carefully considering the bill, the response I got from TX Sen. Hutchison was clearly in favor of passing the bill.

Ten Motivational Quotes for Runners

Last night I had my first one mile time trial with the Katy Fit 5k training group. A week ago I tried this on the treadmill just to see what I might expect and came out around 13:35 minutes. That's pretty pathetic if you ask me. I ran with the training group on Wednesday night for more than 2 miles and I ran again on the treadmill Saturday for a bit more than 2 miles. 

Last night I had someone running beside me for the entire one mile time trial. I'm not sure if she slowed me down or sped me up but she definitely kept me going. I finished the mile in 12:56. That's a big improvement and it is motivating. Then we ran another mile and half in intervals. 

I'm sure it also helps that I have fundamentally changed how I eat and in the process have dropped 6.5 pounds so far. I don't see myself quitting that process anytime soon either and I'm optimistic I may actually hit my goal weight by the time my Run 4 the Children race happens in March. 

Today I wanted to share with you a bunch of awesome motivational quotes with images I have found across the internet. Some are from Facebook and I don't know the original source, most are from Pinterest. 

1. I love how simple running is. Can be done virtually anywhere. 

2. This is one of my favorites. So true.

3. Never in a million years thought I'd be a runner. I am.

Found via Pinterest from joemarelo.tumbler.com

4. Fierce.

Found via Pinterest from thehealthychange.tumbler.com

 5. This is the complete truth.

Found via Pinterest at 1.bp.blogspot.com

6. I used to hate sweat with a passion. Not anymore.

Found via Pinterest from wanttobehealthynhappy.tumbler.com

7. Are you gonna be strong today?

Found via Pinterest at weheartit.com

8. Perfect for computer addicts like me.

Found via Pinterest at staleymc.blogspot.com

9. Meeting my personal pain barrier straight on.

Found via Pinterest at WeHeartIt

10. Fortunately I've already seen my body changing after 2 weeks.

Found via Pinterest from WeHeartIt

 Bonus! In honor of my one mile time trial last night. As my friends keep reminding me not to worry about the actual number.

Found via Pinterest at jillconyers.typepad.com

This post is linked up at Amanda's Top Ten Tuesday!

8 Best Dresses of the Golden Globes

You love fashion as much as I do. You had to know that I would watch the Golden Globes with massive anticipation, not to see who won what awards, but to see what everyone wore!  

So without further ado, I give you my own personal best dressed list. 

1. Berenice Bejo in Elie Saab. I'm a sucker for strapless and this iridescent blue is just to die for.

2. Evan Rachel Wood in Gucci. Come on, peacock feathers? Yes please. 

3. Freida Pinto in Prada (you're gonna see a trend here). She called this fabric "fuss free". Perfect. 

4. Kate Beckinsale in Cavalli. This girl knows what works on her body and never misses. 

5. Sophia Vergara in Vera Wang. Love the color and the cut but especially the little flair at the bottom. 

6. Tina Fey in Oscar de la Renta, for ONCE looks breathtaking. That color is so perfect for her.

7. Viola Davis in Emilio Pucci. Who knew Aibileen could look so downright FIERCE!

8. Zoe Deschanel in Prada. Yes I love Prada and I loved the color and cut of this gown. If only she'd really done her hair. 

Just as a refresher, here's my recap from LAST year's Golden Globes! 

Ok your turn. Tell me who YOU loved last night?