Meet Virginia

Well, the first few days of attempting to use my DSLR more often were a complete fail.

My nephew Caleb had his last soccer game of the season on Saturday, and I was excited to take some real pictures at the game.  One of the little girls that I babysit for also had a ballet recital that afternoon, so I made sure to charge my camera on Friday night.  Of course, I got out to the soccer field on Saturday morning, turned on my camera, and… nothing.  Dang thing wouldn’t even turn on.  I had spent the night at Jonathan’s parents house the night before, so I thought maybe I had just used a plug that wasn’t working or something.  I was frustrated that I wouldn’t be able to take any pictures at the game or the recital, but NBD.

I charged my battery when I got home that evening, put it back in my camera… and still nothing.  Long story short, I ended up paying a little visit to the camera shop yesterday and came home with a new battery.  I’d been using the same battery since I got my camera about 4 years ago, and I guess they just give out after a few years?  Anyway, not I’ve got a shiny new one that should hopefully last me a while.  Good thing, too, because my friend Allison’s wedding festivities start on Thursday, and you know I go all paparazzi mode for such events.  If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!

I think my poor DSLR has been feeling pretty neglected lately.  Since getting an iPhone, I’ve found myself almost exclusively using that to take pictures.  Although the iPhone has a great camera, the quality obviously isn’t the same.  My goal for the rest of the month is to use my real camera more than I use the camera on my phone.

We’ll see how it goes.

For now, enjoy a little recap of the past few weeks, courtesy of my phone.

Worth noting:

• My current food obsession = strawberries + peanut butter.  My favorite breakfast right now is a mini cinnamon bagel, toasted, with peanut butter and sliced strawberries.  Every now and then I’ll throw some banana slices in there.  So good!
• Jubala introduced a new drink last week, The Homeland.  I’m not exactly sure what all is in it, but I’m pretty sure it includes ice cream, coffee, chocolate, and happiness.
• A few weeks ago, I went to visit Jonathan, and we both ended up with the norovirus.  Pretty sure I thought I was dying.  Literally, I have never been so sick in my life.  When I was finally able to stomach a real meal, about a week later, I had the strangest craving for Wendy’s?  I haven’t been there in at least 2 years, but it was delicious.
• That same weekend, Jonathan surprised me with these beautiful earrings from Anthropologie.  For no reason at all.  Just to be sweet.  Win!
• Caitlin made NUTELLA cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing this week.  Seriously.  A-ma-zing.
• I live with 5 of the cutest kids on the planet.  (Only second to my niece and nephew, of course.)  Cannot handle it!

Lots of exciting things coming up this month, including my sweet friend Allison’s wedding, going Washington DC, and a  family camping trip!

Stay tuned for some real pictures of all this and more!

I put “summer” in quotations because I suppose that, since I graduated from college last year (???), this will be my first year without a real “summer vacation.”  Growing up is tough stuff, people.  I can’t even say that too seriously, though, as right now I’m lucky enough to have a very laid back and flexible schedule.  I currently have a fair amount of free time, and one of my favorite ways to fill it is by reading!

I started reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo back in January after I saw the movie.  I liked it, but was glad I saw the movie first.  There were so many characters and I’m sure I would have been totally lost without the movie.  I absolutely loved the second book in the series, The Girl Who Played With Fire.  It was definitely a page-turner and kept me in suspense until the very last sentence.  I’m having a much harder getting into the third book, though.  I’m only about 60 pages in, so I’m gonna keep plugging away.  I’m actually kind of ready to finish up the series and move on to one of the following books:

• Insurgent, Veronica Roth – The sequel to Divergent
• The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
• Bloom, Kelle Hampton
• Gone, Mo Hayder
• Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson – Um, have you read the story about the metal chicken?  The The Bloggess is a hoot.  Also thinking about getting the audio version of this to keep me entertained on my many drives to and from Charlotte.
• The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
• A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini

What was the last book you read and loved?

I’m always looking for new books to add to my list!