Still Here...

Today my step-dad, Eric, finished his last chemo treatment, and he is in remission! This is such wonderful news!!! We've been praying for him quite a lot, and we are so glad to hear he's back on the road to excellent health. His cancer was very agressive and we feel so fortunate that he is still with us. We love you, Eric!!!

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I was up pretty much all night with big labor pains and lots and lots of movement. Mr. Mustard took a great video of the baby trying to push through my stomach. It's pretty incredible! But all of that movement didn't really amount to much, and here I am...still here...waiting for our baby to let us know it's really time!

Today we have been wrapping up odds and ends around the house. We got some new camera equipment, which will come in very handy. We calculated last night that we have taken over 20,000 photos of Paprika since she was born. About 2/3 were taken on our little point and shoot Canon Digital Elph and about 1/3 were taken on our digital SLR Canon Rebel XTi that I got for my birthday in 2007.

The little point and shoot Digital Elph has been through a lot in its day. I think taking about 15,000 pictures is a lot for a little camera to handle- so the flash doesn't really work anymore and it is having some other problems. As Indiana Jones says, "It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage." In the past three years, our camera has gotten some serious mileage!

Over the past year or two, I've become much more interested in photography. I love learning about it and taking pictures, and stretching the limits of our equipment. My goal is to keep getting better, and maybe one day do something more with my photography. Right now it's a great hobby, and I enjoy it so much!

Of course, the more I learn about photography, the more I salivate over gear! I know it's really the photographer who takes the picture and not the camera...and some cameras are definitely easier to get great images from than others! It's fascinating learning about all this stuff, and I love having an outlet for my creative energy.

So, I am excited to play around with our new photo equipment! New toys are fun, and it will give me a good distraction as we wait for real labor to begin!