Because I just haven't been posting...

here's a quick recap:

-- anniversary week started on Monday with flowers from Gus and also some gardenia scented candles (he got me one, single gardenia for my prom corsage and I LOVE the smell). Last night we went to the temple. Tonight will probably be low-key and then, with a little luck in the form of a babysitter, we're slated to go out on Thursday to our favorite restaurant. We'd talked about getting away for an entire night but I'm just not ready to leave overnight yet. Next year, maybe, for a weekend? It'll be our fifth then so a big to-do seems fitting.

-- swamped with class (huge amount of chapters to read, a test to take, and a paper to write), practicum, and work. I just wrote my boss an email and said, "If it doesn't HAVE to happen this week, I'm deferring it to the weekend."

-- Chie is doing amazingly cute things, like bringing us stuff when we ask her, taking us to what she wants, and climbing stairs standing up

-- I really need to remember to move the stroller over so I can get out for a run. It's good for Chie to be out in the air (I didn't have it yesterday and so we went to the park) and it's good for me too, even though I dread it until I'm actually out.

-- oh, and our website is finally in development. Hopefully we'll have an alpha version to show soon.

New to the world

We shot the Ellefsons a few weeks ago on the cusp of having their baby. And now, here she is in all her glory...



This was a really fun shoot despite some difficulties. Dayli was having a hard night and the weather was not cooperating so we ended up doing it just inside of their apartment. Hopefully we'll be able to get together again and do some outside shots. But I'm very pleased with how these turned out, in spite of things.

The advent of Swedish goodness

It was a long day yesterday. Long but fun. I woke up for the first time somewhere in the four o'clock hour as Gus printed out directions to our new Ikea. He was the avant-garde, securing places in the line to be among the first to tour the facility. I arrived a few hours later with child and Ikea-rabid neighbors in tow (the occupants of the two apartments downstairs, Jill and Val, are total Ikea devotees. They are best friends and regularly take trips together to what has been our closest store in Seattle. Needless to say, the opening has been eagerly anticipated in our stairwell). We got there at about 8:30, oohed and ahhed over all of the free gear that Gus had acquired, and bided our time. The employees were super pumped and did lots of marching drills, and then the flags were raised and the US and Swedish national anthems were sung. And then we were in. We had to walk through a gauntlet of employees that included screaming and pounding of those little rubber ears that are used at sports events (Chie was NOT a fan of the noise) and then it was up the escalators to the showrooms. We didn't last long there. Both of us decided that we were famished and so we went to the cafe to get breakfast. I had forgotten how cheap their food is! And it's so good too. After breakfast we toodled around for a while but quickly hit the "ok, let's jet" place. Chie was ready for a nap, Gus was past his limit, and the crowds were just increasing. In the end, he took off by himself and I waited a bit longer for J&V to finish their perusing. They were quite satisfied with the new store and bought a few bags worth of stuff: new textiles for V's bed, some cat and baby toys, and lots of food stuffs.

Once we were home we settled back in, but that part was short-lived for me because I had class that afternoon. My second speed class started on Monday; it's two days a week for five hours. I'm really psyched (no pun intended) about the material (the class title is Counseling) and the prof is phenomenal. He actually wasn't there yesterday, though, and instead we got to hear from his recently-former TA. John just finished his Ph.D. program, specializing in addictions and trauma, and the lecture was absolutely fascinating. I did take a 15-minute fiesta sometime around 4:00 because I just couldn't keep my eyes open. I'm very glad that I went, though, and that I actually stayed.

We collectively crashed last night. We traded off baby entertaining and ate fruit for dinner. I think that we were all in bed well before nine, a rarity for us. I'm still a bit wasted today but I have a lot to work on. Hopefully a morning nap will be in order soon.

Finished product

I promised a friend pics of our new living room photo wall, decorated with photography by yours trutly, so here they are. I would have posted the older images but those got dumped by Flickr to make room for new stuff, and I'm too cheap to pay the pro-price.



We gave the room a new arrangement as well. I love it even more than I'd anticipated. It makes the room feel bigger and just looks fabulous, in my humble opinion.



Closer shot of a grouping.



My newly green table. This had been one of our bedside tables but when we moved the bedroom around, I 86'd the tables. I am in love with this color and I think it ties the room together well.



A closer shot of the lovely roses that I bought for a baby shower I'm throwing tomorrow. I didn't notice until I returned home that they match my decor!

Post-processing

We're slogging our way through the photos. I understand now why, even when it's your full-time job, getting the proofs out for a wedding takes a few weeks. We started with 1150 photos! Even with the first cull, we're just below 500 to look through/process in Lightroom/upload. It's a LOT of work, and it happens when Chie is napping and/or asleep for the night so that the two of us can actually do it together. We've got the actual ceremony up now, though, so that his family can see that we're doing something. They haven't bugged us at all but if I were them, I'd be like, "Uh, do you have anything yet?" Hopefully, the rest can get processed in the next week or so. It's fun work but oh, is it work.