Latest USMC News

If you are a close friend or family member you probably already know that Nick and I really don't want to leave the USMC but there is a lot of uncertainty over whether or not Nick can re-enlist. I won't go into that here because it's a really long story but we've basically been living with the mentality that Nick will re-enlist if he can and if he can't then we'll figure something out. Well that's just not going to cut it, a family of 4 can't go with the alternative of "figuring something out". So we are now planning on getting out unless things finally work in our favor and Nick does get to re-enlist. Although this may sound like just an alternative way of thinking of our situation it completely changes things. We are now planning on returning to Texas on August 1st of 2011, that's 1 year and 3 months away. If things work out with the Marine Corps, great. If not, we have a plan. Either way I'm happy.



But all this talk about possibly getting out of the Marine Corps has me scared and sad. It's amazing how dependent I have become on the Marine Corps. I won't have free aerobics classes or gym memberships. I won't have a free swimming pool. No more free events with free child care. No more tight knit community of women who can relate to me completely. No more running into friends at the commisary. No more commisary. No more cheap dental. The list goes on and on.



But if we move back to Texas my girls get to grow up with family, we won't have to wake up at 4 am to take Nick the field where we won't see him for days or weeks (thats a huge perk). No more deployments. We'll enjoy Fiesta and NIOSA, and volunteering there with Dad. We won't need free pools because we'll have rivers and creeks. I'll have my old friends that I've known since middle school. I'm excited about the possibility of moving home, it's the transition that freaks me out. So I'm going to utilize every base resource there is before we move home. The base offers free microsoft certification and I will be doing that. They offer help with writing a resume, they train you how to properly interview, etc. And I am so so so glad I have spent the last 3 years volunteering because I can fill my gap in unemployment with my volunteer work and they can provide me with letters of recomendation.

So that's the news, as of right now we are planning on returning to Texas in late July/early August. :) Oh and here are some pics of Alice in her bathing suit:

Beautiful Girl

This girl amazes me with her ability to pose for the camera. She somehow knows exactly what to do and when I take her out to 29 Palms Inn for her annual photo session the session is always in her hands. I let Haley do her thing and I just simply push the shutter button. Every single one of her poses is her idea. Of course I'll direct her into the right lighting, or suggest she grab a buttercup, or twirl in the sunshine, etc.

The other two photos of Haley and her friend are kind of sentimental to me. When I was a kid I had a friend named Mirna and we would pick buttercups every spring and laugh at the way the pollen turned our noses yellow if we sniffed them. I have always told Haley stories about my friendships as a kid and how close I was to my best friends and although she loves hearing the stories she was always a little sad afterwards because she's never had that kind of friendship. But now she's got a very good friend and the two of them can laugh about buttercup pollen together.

Oh My Goodness! I Can Bake!

I made that! I even invented the recipe...sort of, I thought of the flavor pairings. But look at it!!! It doesn't look like a 5 year old put it together. Unfortunately after my last fiasco I didn't bother making the cake from scratch, it is from a box. But the frosting was homemade and I put a nice layer of apricot preserves in between the two layers so I feel like it isn't entirely a box cake. The cake is Duncan Hines French Vanilla and the buttercream recipe came from here, but the idea to put apricot preserves was my idea entirely. After it was photographed from every angle possible we all ate a slice and although it was delicious the entire family decided buttercream frosting just isn't really our thing, it's a little too rich.

Eat This

I am currently eating one of the most delectable things I have made. It's creamy white chili and it's amazing. I was a little freaked out by the amount of cheese (an 8oz block) and the heavy cream so I added everything up and figured out that it's about 466 calories per serving, however with all the cream and cheese it's not low in fat so beware. But if calories are what you pay attention to then this isn't too bad, especially since it's very filling, we didn't even need a side dish.

Here is the link: Creamy White Chili

Now I did a few things differently for it to be 466 calories. We omitted the oil by grilling the chicken, I used reduced fat broth and sour cream as well and I didn't garnish it with anything, it really didn't need it. It did turn out a little more soupy than I thought chili should be but it was delicious regardless.

Oh, and just because a post should have photos here is one of Alice and me taken yesterday:

In Case You Need More Proof...

That I suck at baking and photographing food. Here is what it is supposed to look like. Isn't it pretty, with those delicate little lime slices? Doesn't it look perfectly moist and doesn't the glaze look wonderfully crisp?

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Doesn't it look like a 5 year old did it? For as long as I can remember I have been really bad at baking. In fact it wasn't until last year that I could finally make a cake from a box mix, and even then it didn't look pretty. I can however make some pretty delicious cheesecake but that's about as good as I get when it comes to baking. In case you are wondering how this happened I will explain. I had recently purchased a silicone bundt pan and was under the impression that silicone baking tools were magical, after all they resemble plastic yet they can withstand extremely high temperatures. That just screamed magical to me. I was also under the impression that cooling racks were for cooling things off on. It just makes sense right? Well since silicone was magical in my eyes I figured it did not need non stick spray, so that was my first mistake, I did not prep the pan at all. Secondly, as soon as it came out of the oven I flipped it upside down so it could cool on the cooling rack. Only half of it came out of the pan, the rest was stuck to the bottom. Now, the good thing here is that it tasted ok. It wasn't really my ideal flavor, maybe it was a little too lemony, but it wasn't bad either so although my baking looks awful it doesn't taste awful.

So there you have it, my latest baking fiasco.

Retro Day

Today is retro day at Haley's school and can you believe on the little flyer they sent home they included the 90's as a retro decade!? Some of the students at the school were born in the 90's! Anyway, it was really fun talking to Haley about the style we had in the 80's and 90's. Haley decided to go with the 80's and everything she's wearing she pulled from her own closet and wears regularly with the exception of the black tutu thing. Here she is wearing her get up:

50D Review

The 50d is such a great camera. It's super easy to use and Canon does a great job of making it easy to transition to from one canon to the next. On the dial you have your basic camera modes in auto and manual but Canon has added three new dials, CA, C1, and C2. I haven't dabbled yet in CA but C1 and C2 allow you to save custom settings. So if I know that when I shoot in studio I need my camera set a certain way I can just save those settings on C1 and turn my dial to C1 every time I have a studio session. Aside from the obvious boost in image quality from my rebel the 50d just feels like a better camera. My rebel could be described as dinky and puny in comparison. The 50d is noticeably larger, more powerful, and it makes a really beautiful shutter sound. I seriously love that sound.

As far as image quality goes, click on the photo above and view it large to see how grain looks. My xti has noticeable grain if viewed large and the light is not evenly distributed, it's a darker photo all around. You can also see a noticeable difference in white balance. Overall, I am so so so glad I upgraded. Oh, and in case your wondering (Mom and Dad) SOOC means straight out of camera, no editing or enhancements.

Camera

I recently purchased a new camera, a canon 50d. Back in 2006 when I began pursuing my dream of taking my photography skills from a hobby to a professional business venture I bought the Canon Rebel XTI, a good beginners camera. Nick and I talked about it and we agreed to upgrade once things really started taking off. At the time I felt like that would never happen but now things are different. I'm confident in my work, I have a steady stream of clientele, repeat customers, and I things are very routine now. I have a system and that system works really well. So, I decided it was time for an upgrade and guess what I found? A canon 1d mark II camera used for about $3,000 less than the cost of a new one. This is the Mark II:





Yeah, it's big. It's a monster. It dwarfs the lens. It would look fabulous in my hands. So I ordered it. But there was something about it that concerned me, it's only 8.2 mega pixels and my rebel is 10 or so. But it was just so pretty, and big, and normally expensive, I HAD to have it. I needed to have it. I ordered it on Easter weekend and spent the entire weekend looking at photos taken with it on flickr.com and my concern over the mega pixels grew. First of all I could not find many portraits taken with it. Second of all, the portraits I did find seemed slightly out of focus and amateurish. So I did some research which you're probably thinking should have been done in advance, yeah I know but b&h photo video is an excellent company and they're really nice about returns and exchanges. Anyway, it turns out this camera is best for action shots. So if you're a wildlife photographer it's fantastic, if you shoot sports, it's amazing, if you take portraits, it's lackluster...but it looks fabulous in your hands. So I sulked for a few minutes, then I exchanged it for a 50d which is a really nice camera, and much more suitable for my needs. It's 15 mega pixel, handles high ISO extremely well. You can go up to 3200 ISO without noticeable grain, and the camera is capable of 12,800 ISO, but you probably suffer substantial image quality reduction, but it's there if you need it. Here it is:

It's nice. It won't amaze people when they see it, they won't look at me and think "oh, now there is a photographer" but it's nice, and it will take amazing photos. Plus it has a digic IV processor. That is the best part. A digic IV processor allows finer detail and better color reproduction. It's also capable of taking 6.3 frames per second which means if I do find myself in a situation where I need to take photos of wildlife in motion I can do that easily. So there you have it, my new camera. It might come this afternoon and if it does I will compare it to my rebel by taking identical photos with the same lenses on both cameras, then comparing the photos side by side. I will post those tomorrow possibly.

Easter Sunday

This Easter we wanted to go up to San Luis Obispo again but the Marine Corps didn't give Nick any extra days off so we ended up staying here. I thought that was so weird since it's a pretty important religious holiday but whatever. Instead we stayed here which wasn't so bad because the base had a lot of fun events going on. On Saturday we went to an egg hunt and Haley got a basket full of eggs. Nick enjoyed the free snow cones ...three times. Then on Sunday the girls got their Easter baskets and then we all got ready and went to Champagne Easter brunch. It was nice except our waitress was drunk. I know this because she came to our table twice and said "I think I'm getting really drunk" without either of us prompting her, in fact she told us she was drunk as a substitute for her introduction, as in "I think I'm drunk, what can I get you to drink?". So that's how our Easter went.

3 Months Old

My little angel butt is 3 months old as of the 9th of April. This month she has decided that if she is awake she wants to be either propped up in a sitting position or standing up, she prefers to stand though. She has also decided that her signature pose will involve having her fist up by her face, as made evident in the above photos. Her current favorite activities are going for walks and playing with mommy, daddy, or sissy, and drooling, oh does she ever love to drool. In fact, it's borderline gross. I took her to the PX yesterday and she was sucking her fist so much that she was leaving a trail of drool drops throughout the store, like a snail trail.

The last photo of her buttcrack is a result of a really heavy diaper. We had spent a couple of hours at the park, then she fell asleep in the car and slept until 6 so she went without a diaper change for 5 hours. After she woke up when I pulled her pants off to check her diaper this is what we found.

Cinnamon Roll Fail

Unfortunately I don't have pictures of my cinnamon rolls because they never made it to roll form and the dough is in the trash. I guess I could've photographed the dough sitting in the trash but I don't like to add insult to injury, especially to myself. So here is what happened, everything was going great until I cracked my egg and let it fall into the dry indredients only to find that it was a bloody egg. Yeah, gross right? Unfortunately it landed right on the yeast so I had to scoop out the egg and the yeast came with it as well as some flour. I went ahead and put more yeast in and a new egg and turned on my food processor. I had the dough hook in the food processor, something I hadn't done before, and I guess I didn't put it in right because nothing was happening, dough was not being made. So I thought maybe I need to stir the wet ingredients to the bottom. I turned it on again and liquid started pouring out of the bottom of the food processor. Great. So then I decided to just do it myself, mix that dough by hand, which it turns out is a complete pain, and there is definitely a reason people use bread machines. So I mixed and mixed and it was really dry, it looked nothing like the picture at all and so I gave up, probably a little too hastily but I hadn't had my coffee yet and I took the egg and the food processor issues as a sign that homemade cinnamon rolls just weren't in the cards for today. I was very dissapointed and settled on eating a carne asada taco for brunch seeing as how it was 10:30 am by the time this fiasco ended.

As for the strawberry cream cake, that thing was amazing. It looks a little like a 5 year old assembled it and it looked so dang delicious that it was half eaten and I didn't bother to adjust the white balance on my camera even though I knew the photos were far too blue, and they're out of focus. Anyway, this is about the cake not my photography so I'll get over it.

Yum!

Did you know that I adore eating? I'm sure most people adore it too, but I'm not sure if most people can spend a substantial part of their days scanning through food blogs looking at pictures of food, and then saving recipes in their internet favorites. Usually I make recipes that are simple and quick but not anymore! I have decided that at least once a week I'm going to make something a little more time consuming and intricate, sometimes twice a week. This week I'm going to make Strawberry Cream Cake courtesy of Eat Me, Delicious and homemade cinnamon rolls from The Tasty Kitchen . So I decided to play a little game where I compare photos of the food I made to photos of the food taken by the people who made the recipe. I have a lot of faith that my cake will look awesome, the cinnamon rolls I'm not so sure about because they involve yeast and frankly I'm a little worried about using something that is alive, reproducing and producing CO2. It just sounds more like a science experiment. Anyway, here are the photos of what the food should look like:



Doesn't that strawberry cake look just amazing? I can't wait to make it. And yes, in case you are wondering, I am making it for my birthday which is tomorrow. I'll post my photos on Sunday hopefully :)