My first kit is up

The first kit I put together is now available for preorder at www.bloomscrafts.com. Check it out and let me know what you think.

What a week!

This week is VBS at our school, so we've all been really busy. We leave the house at about 6:30 am so we can be at church at 7am, then we don't get home until at least noon. So needless to say we're all wiped out, but it's sooo worth it! This years theme is water works park and the children are all having a blast. Dave is the director and he's really just a big kid. He runs around in swim trunks and a lifeguard shirt. If that's not enough he alternates between water wing and wearing an inner tube. I'll have to try to catch a photo tomorrow.

She's back

My camera made it's way home early Tuesday morning and I've been taking a ton of photos since. Unfortunately our big computer is acting up so I just have a few photos here on the laptop, but I'll share them.

The baby is my friend Kerrie's 2 1/2 week old son Damian, who is just a doll. He really is such a good baby. He's one of those babies that just really doesn't cry, he just whimpers. He's not even convincing when he's hungry.

The flower is the first zinnia in my garden. Can you believe I grew this from seed? I've never had a green thumb, I kill mostly any plant I've ever had. So to have these plants that are almost to my waist is a new thing for me. There must be something in the Guam soil, because all I did was drop a couple seeds in the ground and they grew. Dave has bought me two rose plants in the last few months and they are thriving too. I'm going to be so disappointed when we go back stateside and everything I touch dies.

Schools out for summer!

And the kids are having a blast. Their last day of school was Thursday the 14th. Thursday evening the girls had Brownies, after that a couple friends and I took all our kid out to dinner then to see Firehouse Dog at the base theater. Friday they had a birthday party to go to at the base pool and they had a great time. That evening a bunch of us from the building sat outside and chatted while the kids all played together. At one point there were 10 of them inside my neighbors house and surprisingly enough there were no fights, no one coming and whining or complaining, it was very nice. On Saturday Caitlynn had another birthday party to go to and Dave and I took Hannah and Elijah to Coldstone for some ice cream. Unfortunately after I picked Caitlynn up for the party my back started acting up. I have no idea why, but my whole upper back tightened up, it hurt to walk, stand straight, sit, basically everything. So poor Dave had a pretty lousy Father's Day because after church I spent most of the afternoon laying down. Today it doesn't hurt to walk, and just a little to stand or sit up straight, so it's getting better. It still hurts to twist which made pulling out of parking spaces very difficult today. Hopefully one more goodnight of sleep will cure it.

The girls started Brownie Day Camp today, they enjoyed it but were both exhausted when they got home. The camp runs from 9am-5pm, plus 30-40 minutes of drive time each way, so it's a very long day for them. Elijah enjoyed having me all to himself, not having to compete with his sisters for my attention. I think by about Wednesday he will be over it and miss his sisters.

Next week is VBS, which we're really excited for. The theme for this year is Waterworks Park, so each activity is named for different attractions at a water park. This year I'm doing registration instead of crafts, and then I get to fill in wherever they need me when I'm not busy.

My camera has been finished being repaired for about 4 days now, unfortunately it still hasn't shipped. Supposedly when they do ship it it'll be 2nd day Fedex, but I don't know if it takes longer to Guam or not. We'll see.

I got my first bunch or goodies from www.bloomscrafts.com to work with and I'm so excited, can't wait to get started playing with it all. Don't forget to check out www.bloomscrafts.com/forums, especially is you're looking for a small forum just starting out. This place has lots of potential and I'm glad I get to watch it grow.

My wireless router is not wanting to play today, so I'm on Dave's laptop, which is driving me nuts. I don't have any of my favorite, or my photos etc. Hopefully it'll be in the mood to play nice tomorrow!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

I am so freaking excited!!!!!!!!! I just got an email from Ruby at www.bloomscrafts.com letting me know I'd been chosen to join their design team!!!!!!!!!!! Now if only I could get my camera back from the Canaon Repair Service all would be good. Did I say I was excited? Sorry for blabbing on, but this has made my summer exciting now!

My poor camera :(

Well, Dave stayed up last night and called Canon when they opened at midnight our time last night and they want me to send it in for repairs. The technician walked him through a couple of things to see if he could fix it, but nothing worked, so off it goes. I'm sad because school is almost over and there's all kinds of things going on that I want pictures of. I've already missed out on getting good photos of Caitlynn's birthday and her girl scout bridging ceremony. The actual fix is supposed to be really quick, just a few days, but add in the time it takes to ship to California and back and it'll be a while. At least it doesn't have to go to the east coast, that would take forever!

So much for starting photo school this summer. At least it should be back in time to start setting up some appointments to do portraits next school year. The technician said he thinks it's the heat and humidity here that is causing the problem. Not really something I have any control over. I figure I've had it almost 2 years and it took this long to affect it, so hopefully once it's fixed, the 9 months or so we have left here won't be long enough for it to break again.

What was I thinking?????????

When I told Caitlynn she could invite 7 girls to her sleepover party? She turned 9 on Monday, where has the time gone? My first baby is really growing up! A house full of 8 girls sounds pretty crazy but it went pretty well. We ha one casualty, one of her friends hit he head on the bed, but luckily it wasn't too bad and she was able to stay for the rest of the party. One other girl wasn't able to stay for the whole night because they're flying back to the states today, but Caitlynn was glad she got to come at all. For dinner I made homemade pizza for the girls. Between the 8 of them they ate almost 3 1/2 pizzas, WOW. Instead of a cake this year Caitlynn wanted them to decorate their own cupcakes, so I tinted a few different colors of icing and gave them all kinds of toppings and they had a blast. I wish I had more photos but my camera has been acting up the last week. After presents I let the girls loose with paint and my foam stamps and they decorated their own frames, while I took them one by one and took their photos and printed them out for them. Again, this would've worked so much better if the camera was working properly. When it came time to settle down the girls watched Night at the Museum and High School Musical. The first girl was asleep at about 11:30 and the last at almost 1:30am. Did I forget to mention it's not even 8am yet and they've already all eaten breakfast and been playing for a while? I have one more craft for them to do before they go home, I bought wooden door hanger for them to decorate.

Another

This one shows the color of the flame tree better.

Photography Thursday

It's been a while since I've actually had a photography day, last time I tried I got rained on. I figure I better get out as much as possible because the kids will be out of school in less than a month and it will definitely make it a bit harder to do. Without even realizing it almost everything I photographed today was either red or orange, kind of weird.

Sunset at the Beach

I took the kids down to Gab Gab Beach this evening to take some photos and let them play around for a bit. Here's my favorite photos of the sunset.

Fly a kite

Friday night at cub scouts we worked on the weather belt loop, after all the inside activities we all went out in the field and flew kites.

Mother Daughter Tea

Yesterday, Caitlynn and Hannah's Girl Scout Troop held the annual Mother Daughter Tea for Mother's Day. It was really nice this year since both girls are in the same troop so I could just relax and not try to run between two events. It was kind of sad since both of their leaders Kim and Beth will be leaving soon. Beth leaves at the end of the month and Kim will leave over the summer, so next year will be interesting. We're definitely going to miss them both, they've been outstanding leaders. The girls also received their patches and try-its for the year. Here's some photos.

Happy Mother's Day

You gotta love a day that you get breakfast in bed! Caitlynn scared the heck out of me, I opened my bedroom door to go downstairs, and there stood Caitlynn. Not at all what I expected. And what does she tell me? Sorry, you can't go downstairs right now, get back in bed. hehe. So I gladly complied and enjoyed a lazy bit. Then Dave and the kids came up with breakfast and presents. Elijah made the toast, Hannah the scrambled eggs and Caitlynn the tea. What more could a mom ask for? After a lazy morning I finally got out of bed and ready for church. The kids sang a beautiful song for us. At the end of church Lisa took a photo of the kids and I. The rest of the day has been nice and peaceful. Dave's got pizza cooking in the oven for us for dinner and the kids are already showered so we can play a family game after dinner.

More Galleries

I'm slowly adding galleries to my shutterfly site. Here's the new one's I did last night.

http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/NicoleBryantPhotography/VacationPhotos

http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/NicoleBryantPhotography/GuamPhotos

Took the leap

I've been talking for a while about being a professional photographer and selling my photos. Well I was asked to be the photographer for Caitlynn's baseball team. So instead of having the photos printed locally I decided to set up my own e-commerce site through shutterfly.com. What I love about this is I don't have to worry about the sales end of it, I upload the photos give the parents the link to my site and they choose what photos they want, what sizes, pay shutterly.co who prints them and sends them directly to the customer. What I love is I don't have to deal with the money end of things until it's the profit being sent to me.

Here's the link to my baseball gallery if anyone wants to check it out
http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/NicoleBryantPhotography/2007MarinersMinis

I've been tagged

Lindsey tagged me, so here goes.

7 random facts about me
1. I love living on a tropical island
2. Jesus is my savior
3. I miss the mainland
4. My kids are my life
5. I am so proud of my husband as a dad, father and navy chief
6. I hate the cold
7. I love photography

Ok, off to see who I'm going to tag, I'll update this in a few minutes.

So I've tagged Di, Becky, Jean, Melissa, Nancy, Jozzie and Miranda have fun girls!

Elijah's doing better

Thanks everyone that was worried about Elijah and his rash. It ended up being contact dermatitis, a fancy way of saying something made his skin react. It could have been anything, the chlorine in the pool or maybe the laundry detergent they used, who knows. He still has the rash and probably will for a few more weeks but it's not nearly as red or itchy. Gotta love sensitive skin!

The Rash

So Elijah woke up Saturday morning with this rash. It's now Monday morning and it's still here. We're going to the doctor this morning to see what it is. Not the best photo, but it gives you an idea, it's on his face, nack, arms, chest and back.

Very cool video

I was reading Ali Edwards blog, isn't she just the coolest? Any way she had a link to this video by Five for Fighting, the video features autistic children and different statistics about autism. Check it out here http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/213154

New Dive Instructors

A few weeks back Dave completed his certification to be a dive instructor. I just got my hands on this photo that ran in the paper. Dave is the second from the right. We are all so proud of Dave and glad to see that many months of hard work have finally paid off for him! Just being able to be a scuba diver was a lifelong dream for Dave, now to be able to teach others as you can imagine he's on cloud nine. Congrats Baby!