Yeah, Write

Capturing the Elusive Muttshroom

Our little "gogga" (as Keira calls her) is notoriously difficult to photograph. One problem is that her face is so much darker than her body. And the other problem? She never holds still. Ever.

Also, she somehow senses when I'm about to snap the shutter, and she closes her eyes just in time. Or runs in the other direction. Or shakes her head just enough to make it blurry. Behold:

So, imagine our surprise and delight when, after many months of trying, we finally caught Jovie in her famous "muttshroom" pose.

Every now and then, you look out into the back yard, and it appears as though a dog-shaped mushroom has taken root in the lawn. She tucks all of her limbs under her body and plants herself as deeply into the grass as she can. And she doesn't move a muscle. (Until, that is, she senses a camera lens pointed at her.) But finally, we have captured it.

Is the little beast getting slower? Or am I getting quicker with the camera? Time will tell.

But I also recently captured another of her signature moves: carrying her dog dish around the yard (and through my strawberries, naughty puppy) after she's done eating.

Good gogga, Jovie. Good gogga. Maybe next I'll be able to get a picture of her sitting on top of her dog house, Snoopy-style.

"Handmade" Gifts: Photo Desk Calendar

To continue my parade of handmade gifts given to family and friends this Christmas, behold the calendar with which I surprised my husband, Travis, and his mother, Beverly. I didn't do much "by hand"apart from moving the mouse around to click and choose photos and layouts via Shutterfly.com, but it still counts. Family photo books make fabulous gifts, no matter how or where you create them!

Travis just started a new job as the Creative Architect / Director of Interactive Design at Deseret Digital Media, which runs local news sites KSL.com and DeseretNews.com, among others. (Way to go, sweetie!) And this is the calendar that now sits atop his shiny, new desk. (AND, I get to help him pick out office decor from IKEA. Woot!)

This project reminded me what a BIG year we had. Jovie the Loveable Tyrant joined the family in December, followed by cute Keira Jane in October. Life is good. And characterized by the cleaning up of lots and lots of poop.

 

Top Ten Memories from 2010

In no particular order...

Jovie as a puppy, when she still looked like she was wearing footie pajamas that were a few sizes too large. I had to keep checking her belly for a zipper.

My last Girls' Weekend with my nieces before they packed up and moved to Mesa, Arizona. I miss my girls! (Pictured: Haylee and Breanna gathering up the courage to pet a stingray at the local acquarium.)

My Grown-up Girls' Weekend with Wendy Smedley and Elizabeth Dillow, who was visiting from scenic Cheyenne. (Photo hijacked from Elizabeth's blog, as I was too intimidated by her mad photo-taking skills to even pull out my camera.)

 

The surprise Travis Lucas 40th Birthday Bash with nearly all of his favorite people in attendance--a major undertaking as this man is (almost) impossible to surprise.

The great haircut of 2010 (donated to Pantene Beautiful Lengths), which landed me and my sister-in-law on a local morning show.

 

Sailing the California coast with my sister's family. (Pictured: my 5-year-old nephew, Thomas.) Well I didn't sail, due to anti-nausea-medication-induced pupil dilation in just one eye. But the boys had fun!

 

Our four-wheel-driving adventure through Colorado's back country—Silverton to Telluride to Ouray and all sorts of places in between. (Pictured: two pesky marmots peering at us through the rocky terrain.)



The release of my second eBook, Journaling that Matters: Simple strategies for finding the right words. This one was co-written with Kelly Jeppson, with whom I've been friends since we were fellow English majors at Utah State University.

 

The Deseret News 24th of July 10k that had me on a 24-hour high. (Pictured: me with running partner, Kelly Jeppson.) It was such a fun race! So fun that I haven't run more than a mile since. But that can be blamed on the entry that follows...

 

And now for the memory that rules them all: the arrival of miss Keira Jane Lucas. This event could easily fill ALL ten spots and then some, but I decided it was only fair to share the love with other events, too.
Keira Jane at 3 days old.

Firsts

Baby Keira's first cold. (Thank you for lasting less than 48 hours.)

Keira's first smiles.

Keira's first actual tears.

Keira's first trip to Idaho.

Keira's first overnight stay—at Uncle Matt's house in Preston, Idaho (home of Napoleon Dynamite).

Keira's first time being showered with attention by cousins Haylee, Breanna, Brock, and Derek.

Keira's first visit with her second cousin, Hadlie, who's just 33 hours older. (More on this cool story another day.)

The first major snowstorm of the year.

The first warm, crackling fire of the year.

The first of the Peeps (the ones we've saved since Easter) to be roasted in our fireplace.

Our first pot of homemade hot chocolate (cocoa + sugar + milk + a splash of vanilla) this season.

Baby's first dress. (Paired with authentic, hand-knitted-by-a-little-old-lady booties.)

I love firsts.

We'll Never Forget You, Ruby

It's hard to believe that it's been a year since we said goodbye to Ruby the Wonder Dog. We still miss her. We talk of her often. "Hey, remember Ruby?" one of us will say. "She was the best," another will reply. "There will never be another like her."

Despite her massive size, she was my "replacement baby" during my struggle with infertility. She was the thing I nurtured and cuddled while I hoped for a baby of my own. I may not have had to wipe her slobber off my shoulder, like a real baby, but I definitely had to wipe it from my pants several times a day. :) And it was from her that I received the unconditional love and absolute adoration that I craved. She didn't like to be more than 5 feet away from me at any given moment. And when Jeremy was around, well, she liked to be directly on top of him, if possible.

With all the baby excitement and hullabaloo, the anniversary of Ruby's passing came and went quietly. It was not unnoticed by Travis, Jeremy, and I, but the sting was swallowed up by the overwhelming love we felt for our sweet baby girl. I still don't quite know what to make of the fact that Keira Jane Lucas joined our family on October 4, 2010, the exact one-year anniversary of Ruby's death. (After a short battle with cancer, we let Ruby go on October 4, 2009.)

That part of me that still believes in fairy tales and magical things has a hunch that Ruby was up in heaven pulling a few strings for us. She always was pretty persuasive.

In honor of Ruby this month, here's a photo book I created using the templates at Shutterfly.com. I gave it to Jeremy for Christmas last year.

Click here to view this photo book larger

I wish you could read all the captions on the pages, but they're hard to make out online. Ah, well. I think the sentiment is clear.

 

She was one in a million, that Ruby.

What Will Today Bring?

I grabbed these shots of Jovie early this morning, one through the back-door window and the other through the ground-floor office window. (I had to be careful not to draw any attention to myself, because Jovie does not stay in states of repose for long.)

Here she sits so calmly on the patio furniture, very human-like, gazing out at the back yard, seeming to wonder what adventures await her today...

Will she get a chance to bark at the mailman or the elderly neighbor, Ralph?

Will she catch any bugs, like the poor praying mantis she carried around the yard for about 5 minutes last week?

Will there be a walk with mommy and Keira? (Oh please please please let there be a walk!)

Will that one tall kid (Jovie's favorite) come over today to wrestle with her on the lawn?

Will grandpa Lucas come visit her at lunchtime, with a baggie of treats hidden in his pocket?

Oh, to be a dog.

Waiting for us at Home

Cute little Jovie-Jove. She got to spend the week under the watchful eye of my sister, Alli, who house-sat and dog-sat for us while were adventuring in the hills of Colorado. She's not quite well-behaved enough to join us on our four-wheeling trips. (Jovie, I mean, not Alli.)

Here are a few more recent pics of our little monster, snapped on my camera phone:

"I have claimed this Love Sac as my own! Don't bother me, I'm sleeping."

"Oh, humans...I'm ready for my breakfast!"

"Would you please scratch my belly?"

"Can I please come with you? I'll even drive!" (Note: I found this cute surprise on my front seat after I finished unloading the groceries from my trunk.)

I need to pull out the video camera, too, because Jovie can now sit, lay down, shake hands, high five, roll over, play dead, and bark on command. And oh, the noises she makes! We have compared her vocal stylings to a baby Chewbacca, a llama, and the velociraptors from Jurassic Park.

She's a character, all right.

Now That's One BIG Butterfly

I couldn't resist buying this blown-glass Butterfly Feeder at Western Garden when I was picking up a flat of "stink flowers" (aka Marigolds, which got that much more descriptive name from Jeremy). Imagine! Feeding butterflies! Inviting them into my yard for a lovely little meal and sending them on their merry way!

I "planted" my butterfly feeder in the strawberry patch next to the garage and filled it with butterfly nectar, homemade from a recipe printed on the tag.

I stored the remainder in a labeled container in my fridge, and the very sight of it made me smile. It's a simple mixture of boiling water and sugar that's been allowed to cool. That's it. (And yet, it supposedly will only last 7 to 10 days in the fridge. I wonder what the consequences are of offering stale nectar to the local butterfly population.)

Things went along beautifully for about 36 hours. I'd gaze admiringly out the window at the lovely glass sculpture several times a day. Until, that is, I caught the above creature trying to impersonate a butterfly. What? We don't feed her enough already? Sure, her food bowl isn't quite this pretty, but come on! Of course, it couldn't bear up under her considerable weight.

Travis's only response: "You didn't know that was going to happen?"

Luckily, it broke fairly low on the stem, so it can be replanted again–just a little bit deeper. And I'll definitely have to find a new home for it. One that's inaccessible to Destructor the Dog.

And the winner is...
Melanie K., commenter #4! Congratulations, you've won a spot in Shimelle Laine's upcoming photography class. :-)

Loving My Photos

What do I love most about taking photos?

Watching the passage of time.

Capturing evolving relationships.

Preserving precious interactions.

These two photos span six short months, from the moment Jeremy picked Jovie out of that litter of two and cuddled her tiny self (her entire body no bigger than his hand) in the car before we left for home—to a moment a few weeks ago that shows how much she has grown, and how much she has grown on Jeremy. 

Would you like to fall in love with your pictures all over again? The talented Shimelle Laine has offered one Yeah, Write reader a free spot in her upcoming online class, Love Your Pictures, Love Your Pages.

Just leave me a comment explaining what you love most about photography (or any photo you've taken), and I'll pick a random winner next week!

The Photo That Made Travis Jealous

In the middle of a regular workday, I snapped this photo of little Jovie out soaking up some sun next to the garage. We don't know why she sits this way, but we find it adorable.

Travis: "I'm actually a little bit jealous of this photo."

Angie: "Why?"

Travis: "It's really, really good. I wish I had taken it."

Angie: "Well, I didn't even know it was good until you told me. So, you still win."