Harvesting

Well it is hard to believe that Halloween is almost upon us. Around here that means the growning season is over. While I may still need to mow the yard once more, there's not much left to do but bring in the harvest. In case you came in late, Meghan and I planted a garden this year. We planted corn, watermelon and pumpkins.

I think the squirrels enjoyed the garden more than we did. We ate about 8 ears of corn out of over 60 corn stalks which sprouted. The rest went to the animals. At one point we had three pumpkins. Today, there was only one left which we could decorate for Halloween. Finally, we had a late entry of one watermelon.

I figure I spent about $75 plus countless hours in that garden for 8 ears of corn, 1 watermelon and 1 pumpkin. All of that costs less than $10 in the store. But somehow sharing the garden with Meghan made it all worth while. There was a certain thrill in her voice when she came back into the house after discovering another pumpkin or that we finally had a watermelon. As the commercial says "priceless"

Now it is time to get ready for Halloween. Meghan will be a fairy princess (what else would she be?). Of coarse Mathew will be Thomas the tank engine and Michah will be a pea in the pod. This year I'm a room parent for Meghan's class and so I get to celebrate Halloween at school. That should be fun.

Whack-a-Mole

Ever seen the "Whack-a-Mole" arcade game. The idea is to hit the little guy on the head before he runs back into his hole. As soon as you hit one of the moles, another one pops up from another hole. It seems like you are fighting a never ending battle. At least in that game, the time ends the game and you collect your coupons based on your score.

Unfortunately, real life is not quite like that. It seems that my work is like those pesky little moles. Each time I attack one of my piles of work, another one or two pops up and demands my immediate attention. Once again, despite my best planning, I'm getting backed up as we head into the holiday season. We've got just another 2-3 weeks before the album companies start applying the holiday deadlines. Meanwhile, I don't sleep and I keep falling farther and farther behind. Oh those pesky moles!

As soon as I started getting caught up on my albums, I fell behind with proof books. Catch up on those and then I fall behind on my postings, phone calls and e-mails. Well you get the idea. I thought I would have a 3 week lull without any events to allow me to catch up. As luck would have it, over the last couple of weeks, I've had Strep (along with the rest of the household), a pyogenic granuloma which required a surgical consult and something I can't pronounce let alone spell. Anyway here is the attempt, Epiditimitis which required had me in such pain, I needed to see a Dr. -- Stat. As it was, I was in bed from Friday night until Sunday morning.

Although Friday night, I did attend Meghan's Consecration ceremony. She is getting to be such the little lady. I'm not sure who's smile was bigger, hers as she was getting consecrated or mine as I watched her with pride. Nana and Poppa drove in from Milwaukee to watch Meghan. Despite being told I should take it easy, there was no way I was going to miss my daughter's Consecration. This is the reason, I'm a photographer. To be able to set my own hours to be with my kids when it is important to them.

The next day, the in-laws all met to celebrate Sheryl's birthday. Happy birthday! I'm told they had fun. I slept through it at home.

So anyway, the next two weeks will be filled with whacking moles and trying to catch up before the moles take over.

Another Weekend!

Well here we are in October and just about ready for Halloween. It is hard to believe that it is just a couple of weeks away. We've already got the kids costumes but, I'll try to talk about that when we are close to the actual holiday. Meanwhile I manage to fall farther and farther behind. It feels like I'm so snowed under, I can't find the snowblower. Hey Rick, please send me a plow or two or yours! As it stands now, I have two weeks without any events scheduled. So I hope to dig myself out of this hole over the next three weeks before my next event.

This weekend I extend a "Mazel Tov" to Daniel Charous for celebrating his Bar Mitzvah. I photographed his Bar Mitzvah portraits Friday Morning at B'Nai Tikvah. Here he is still studying for Saturday. While I was not there to see Daniel, everybody says he did great!



Saturday, I spent with Sarah and Jeremy at Prairie Landings Golf Course for the wedding ceremony and reception. It was a beautiful location. They really did a great job with the landscaping at this venue. Unfortunately, it was windy most of the day. As you can see, the matron of honor, Anne Marie, had to hold Sarah's veil out of the way during the ceremony. Later on we had a great sunset.

When I was talking to Cindy, one of the wedding coordinators at Prairie Landings, she told me this part of the building was over 100 years old. When I heard that it just reinforced my idea to take a photo of Sarah and Jeremy infront of the building and "age" the photo. So here is a quick attempt at the process. I still need to work on it a little bit but I like the concept.





I concluded the weekend by meeting up with Daniel and his family for the family party to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah at Maggiano's. If you've never been there you don't know what you are missing. They are a "Lettuce Entertain You" restaurant and as such they uphold the standards seen in all of the other LEY establishments. The party itself was a little bit of a reunion as I was with some of these same folks a couple weeks ago to photograph the Bar Mitzvah of one of Daniel's cousins.

Later in the day, I was out photographing the engagement session for Lance and Megan who are getting married at Starved Rock next June. They are another one of my couples who really like the outdoors. Therefore, I took them out to Stone Prairie for their engagement session. Despite having been out there several times this year, the change in season, creates a totally different look/feel to their images.

Amanda and Joey's Wedding

This week is starting out behind schedule. I photographed Amanda and Joey's wedding last Satuday. I was there until after midnight. By the time I finished everything back in the studio, I did not get to bed until 4:00 AM and slept until 1:00 PM. Yet I was still dragging on Sunday. Sunday night, I went to be early (ok early for me) at midnight. So this morning I was surprised to see the clock said 11:00 by the time I got out of bed. Boy I must really be missing a lot of sleep over the last couple of weeks. Well a new baby will do that to you. Michah is still not sleeping through the night.

Today, is Columbus day and Meghan had a day off from school. I decided to play hooky from Magical Moments and took the kids to the zoo. It was a fun time. After spending time with the kids, we like to ask them what was their favorite part. Mathew's answer was seeing the zebras. Meghan, melted my heart and let me know that taking the day off was the right thing to do. What did she say? "The best part of today, was spending it with daddy!" For me the best part of the day at the zoo was seeing my kids smiling and having fun.

Now I have to take a moment to say something about Amanda and Joey's wedding last weekend. Most of the day was typical wedding. The weather was perfect. Who would have guessed we'd have such a nice day in October. We did get some great shots at the Shedd. But all in all, a typical wedding day. But when we arrived at Porrett'a, all of that changed. The food there was simply the best I've ever seen for a wedding. It was a culinary work of art. It started with an hors d'ouvres buffet with at least fifty different items to choose from. One could have made a meal from the hors d'ouvres. Next was the meal itself. Soup, salad, Chicken and Filet Mignon were served. By the time the main course arrived, I was filled. I was so filled I couldn't even look at the desert table. It was a visual and culinary master piece. Petit fours, frest fruit and pastries were all included on the desert table.

Amanda and Joey were great hosts. Despite this being their big day, they were so concerned with making sure everybody had a good time. Even the videographers, DJs and myself. Everytime I ran into the bride or groom they said to eat some more. Who is going to argue with a bride on her wedding day. Certainly not me!

I'm finally beginning to catch up. I have two weddings to process and post and then I can start working on the album backlog. Right now that is about 6 albums. But that could change at a moments notice. Maybe one day I will get totally caught up!