Clouds in the midwest

Atmospheric conditions in the midwest. I haven't seen clouds like these in some time.

Go figure it would be kid related.

This is the last photo taken before I discovered I left my battery charger in New Mexico.  Wah, wah, wah...

I still have my p&s but I will say goodbye to my DSLR for now. 

In Michigan on "vacation".

From Effingham with love.

There are numerous elements of life you ponder when driving across country. You notice the obvious shift in topography and the climate that changes in tandem. When you've taken the same path for five years back and forth from where you used to live to where you now live, you begin to find hidden gems in towns and cities along the way. Food coops with amazing sandwiches, parks to take the kids to, hotels that allow dogs, and places to stay where the breakfast is served overlooking the rolling hills and not some parking lot. One thing I've noticed more specifically is that the people change as quickly as the landscape. In Albuquerque people are nice, but guarded. The attitude is similar to a big city although the population may not necessarily reflect one. In eastern Texas things shift toward southern hospitality. Joplin Missouri is amazing, the people will blow you away with kindness but as an eastern girl I often wonder what's hiding inside. By the time you get to St. Louis the shift occurs back toward an east coast stiffness with a midwestern guard. When we arrived in Effingham, Illinois I was completely let down by how little kindness we received from everyone we came in contact with. The southern attitude seems spirited in community whereas the midwestern vibe seems to say every woman for herself. 

Like the heaviness of the humidity my heart weighs heavy with our impending move back east. 

Moving across the country.

My husband Loren and I have decided to move back to our home state of Michigan. So many reasons motivate our move but my heart is heavy. I will miss the mountains most. The Sandia Mountains stand tall at the east side of the city and the furthest neighborhoods creep up the foothills. We have spent a majority of our days climbing, hiking, and watching the sun set on the side of the mountain. More recently I have been using the mountain to train for a marathon, gaining 1000+ feet during arduous runs in the foothills. More than anything else I will miss the light of New Mexico. The light that has brought so many artists and notable photographers will soon be a memory stored in 1's and 0's. I have made a promise to myself to take some film and capture the light before I leave. For now, a snapshot from one of our many family outings.

Hello!

I've had this internal blog thing happening in my head for quite some time and finally I'm ready to explore typing those internal conversations, sending them out into cyberspace, and hoping to god I haven't made to many spelling and grammatical errors. Until this point, I've wondered why anyone would possibly give a care about my internal dialogue but I'm trying to overcome the retched nagging girl in my head. This blog is also an effort to try again to regain some of the titillating conversation I once had with other artists and hopefully connect again with the artist that has been living quietly inside.       

    I"M BREAKING OUT!

OK, in actuality I haven't been away from creating for very long. I graduated form grad school in 2007 and after doing a damn good job of continuing to create I became pregnant with my third child. I shifted my focus mid pregnancy back onto the growing life within and let's face it, since then I've had some trouble shifting it back. More accurately, finding time to shift it back. Along with number three came the decision to pull #2 out of daycare and stay at home to bask in all the joys of motherhood. This has been and will be hardest job of my life. It is amazingly gratifying and at times amazingly difficult. I balanced life/work with one, balanced it with two, but three brought an unbalance that I feel might ever so slowly be shifting back. 

Although I feel this blog will benefit other mothers struggling internally to create their own balance between life and work, I have no intention of focusing primarily on the topic. This blog allows work and life to coexist as they do in real time and space even though so often we try to separate them.