God-baby

Oh hi, remember me? I finally have some cutie-patooty pictures to post! The last few weeks have been mostly just relaxing but I did get to see my god-baby at least. How cute is this guy?? And... not only is he cute, but stylin too! :)

I did knit that blanket it the background though...

I even knit him some cute little white booties for his blessing ceremony, but I didn't remember to take a picture of them. At least not one I could find on the mess that is my computer.

Hop on over to the Nizhoni blog to see what else I've been up to!

an arizona holiday

So the most of the clan, including mr. z and the pups, made it to Green Valley to spend Thanksgiving at ma and pa Z's new house. It was really nice to get to spend a few days with everyone (a few days that did NOT involve freaking out over wedding related activities). We mostly just hung around the house and vegged. There was no Black Friday shopping, which was a-ok with us... but there was a bit of driving around to check out the scenery, and to eat at Pinnacle Peak. yummy!

little bro and his gal

some sunset action... the more yellow one is probably more accurate coloring but i like the purplish one better

sister at a scenic pull off in the white mountains

All in all it was a lovely, relaxing weekend.

family

one of the contributors over at the always inspiring shutter sisters blog said something that struck a chord (cord?) with me a few days ago. (well i thought it was on shutter sisters, but i'll be damned if i can find the post) but regardless, she said that someone had reminded her to take pictures of the ones you love. i am especially bad about this. i feel awkward getting my giant camera out when i'm gathered with friends and family, especially when they are snapping away with their tiny point and shoots. i feel terribly silly around the people i know, thinking that surely they must be annoyed by the fact that i'm always sticking my camera in their face.

but this time i decided to take her words to heart. some are more artistic than others, but all are meaningful.

she was talking about her flowers and just kept on a-talking

this is my grandmother, my mom's mom.


she still lives in the cute little house that my grandpa and his brother built for her back in the 40's. its full of little details that I have forgotten to remember.


like the ornate doorknobs that came from another old house. the one on the way into the kitchen has the pattern almost worn off from all the hands that have gripped it over the years. that one always had rubber bands around it, just in case you needed one.


or the little fellow by the garage that holds a lantern. its probably as unpolitically correct as you can get. but it wouldn't be grandma's house without it.


and the chicks-and-hens that grow in and around all her flower beds. i don't know where she got the idea to plant them in shoes, but apparently they thrive in them. these were my grandpa's last heavy work boots he wore before he retired. they've held up since the 70's, she tells me. not like those cheap shoes you get today...


this is where she has sat for as long as i can remember. her chair is by the bay window. his chair was in the corner on the other side of the fireplace. his chair always had a jar of candy behind it, but that's been gone for many years, though the chair remains.


and beside the chair, hanging on her reading lamp is her rosary. she prays it every day. once for each of her children and their spouses, for the grandkids and the great-grandkids. she reminded me before i left to remember to pray, and for a moment i wished that i believed because i knew it would make her happy.


even now, with both my aunt and i in the house, she insists on washing the dishes. its her routine, she says. and so we shared the task. (once i was done taking a picture, that is.)

biggest pillbox EVER

today was my fourth day at my first rotation. so far i am actually really enjoying it... i guess that's good right? that i enjoy pretending to be a pharmacist, since that is what i plan to do with the rest of my life. this position is actually in a doctor's office, so not your stereotypical retail pharmacist. its a lot different than my usual job interning at CVS.

so far i've mainly been getting a feel for how the clinic runs and getting to know people. and doing a lot of diabetes stuff. we look over charts and review patient's blood glucose logs. the doctor's are surprisingly receptive to our suggestions, though i think part of it is just relief that someone else has already figured out what labs the patients are due for and has summarized their blood glucose logs so the docs don't have to do it themselves. its a clinic that serves low income patients, often with no insurance so the docs are overworked and underpaid. the more work we can take off their hands, the happier they seem.

while i enjoy retail, i do enjoy doing patient education in a doctor's office. the difference could have something to do with the patient populations i work with (low income and uninsured vs. the over privileged and sometimes downright arrogant folks in my retail neighborhood) but in a doctor's office patients seem happy that someone is taking the time to sit down and discuss their diabetes with them and address their concerns, which often the doctors are just too overworked to do. versus at CVS where people just want to get their meds and get on the way the majority of the time. anyway, i just hope that all of my rotations go this smoothly.

and on the topic of medication reviews and counseling... today my preceptor and i were talking about seniors and how easily they can get overwhelmed with all their medications and medical problems in general. and how many people could probably benefit from sitting down with a health care professional... be it pharmacist, nurse, social worker, whomever, and having someone take the time to go over things with them and answer all their questions. which reminded me of my grandmother.

my grandma recently had a heart attack, so of course her medication list skyrocketed. and i got a call from my aunt saying that she was overwhelmed and could i maybe figure out a way to simplify her routine so she wasn't taking a bunch of medications at all different times of day.

enter the world's largest pill organizer EVER.


on my receipt, it actually rang up as "CVS MegaPill..." and then the rest of the name got cut off. my coworkers mocked me for buying such a gigantic thing. but i thought, by God, i'm going to make it as easy for her as i can. at the beginning of each week, someone can put all her medicines in the right day and time and all she has to do is open the right little door and take whatever is in there. she sent me a very sweet thank you note, and it seems to be working for her so far. i just wonder if it leaves her any counter space...

back to cherries

i've gotten a lot of positive feedback on my cherry photograph, so a big thank you to everyone who said nice things about it. mr. z really likes it as well, and we're thinking of perhaps making it into some note cards or a print of some sort. what with christmas on its way and all...

but anyway, on the subject of cherries, i mentioned in a previous post that we got up early one morning while in NY to watch the tail end of the cherry harvest. mr. z's immediate family had actually finished up their orchards prior to our arrival, but were helping a cousin finish up his.

it starts like this...


that's two separate (and very large) pieces of machinery, one driving down each side of the row of trees. mr. z's brother, whom i will call dan (because that's his name) is on the left driving the shaker and his dad is on the right driving the other thing.

dan puts the shaker right up close to the tree and does this...


which is the best i could do to convey the violent tree shaking that ensues. apparently they spray the trees with some stuff that makes the cherries fall from the tree more easily.


the cherries all fall on to a conveyor belt on the machine mr. z's dad is driving then go up another conveyor before being dropped into a tank of water.


i got yelled at for taking the conveyor belt picture because it put me right in the path of the fan that blows all the leaves and twigs out of the way.


then there are some youngsters (looking mighty pleased to be up before 6 am) scooping any twigs, leaves, or rotten cherries out of the water. apparently the good stuff sinks, the rest floats.

before the whole operation, the tree looks alot like this...


and afterwards there's just a lonely cherry or two, still hanging on. but as you've seen, the lonely cherries make for better pictures. :)

Thing 1 and Thing 2

remember Thing 1 and Thing 2 from The Cat in the Hat? they come in with the cat and wreak havoc in the house?? i think its an appropriate reference in this case ;)

its been a while since i've posted, and i actually have quite a bit to blog about. there's sewing, and knitting, some wedding goodies, and even another photography installment. but its late and i'm tired.

mr. z and i spent the weekend in asheville at my cousin's wedding. it was a fun little town, and the wedding was beautiful. better still, we got to spend a few more days in the sunny south, visiting my brother's family. we had a really good time, and it was great to see the girls. i swear, they get cuter every time i see them, which is not often enough. since i'm too lazy to go into the details, here are some pictures of the cutest girls ever (no really, they are.)

Thing 1 is six. I'm told she looks just like I did at that age. If that's the case, she pulls the bob off WAY better than i did back then. She likes to ham it up for the camera.



Thing 2 is four, but its hard to remember that because she's as big as thing 1. When you first take her picture, she makes a forced smile that is remarkably like her dad's. but if you keep the camera on her long enough, she goes back to a natural expression.

i'll be honest, i didn't take the one above. Thing 1 took it.
Thing 1 was snapping pictures and Thing 2 was striking poses left and right.
Too cute for words.

shooting these reminded me how much fun it is to take pictures of kids. it would be awesome to be able to do that. my sister-in-law knows this gal, and i have to say i am jealous. she's self-taught and takes great pictures of kids. and she was brave enough to start a business of it. i would love to do that. i think you have to have more in your portfolio than tons of pictures of the same kids over and over though, even if they are adorable.

anybody in columbus have some kids they are willing to let me follow around with a camera?