I’m only working with 4th grade this year via a Team Teaching / Co-Teaching model.  Our 4th grade Inclusion Homeroom teacher is Mrs. Shockey. We have 26 students.  The kids are with Shockey/Ecklor for  Math, Science, & Social Studies. Then they switch classes for Reading & Writing with Evans/Ecklor.

Ryley got to dress up 4 times this year for different Halloween activities. Last weekend she was a cheerleader princess for the Stockton Fun Run and she dressed as a princess for Spooktacular at the Jax Zoo.

Friday night we went trick-or-treating at the Avenues Mall with some friends (cheerleader princess again). Then for Halloween, I made her a giraffe costume.  We had found a giraffe print hoodie that inspired me to make her a full costume. I made a tail, mane and horns and sewed them onto the hoodie. I painted a pair of pants with a giraffe print to match the hoodie & then made her some hooves.  

Wanna see something CREEPY????

We took Ryley trick-or-treating in a neighborhood near where I work and parked on the side of the road. There were a couple small trees in the area between the sidewalk and our vehicle (foreshadowing).  When we were finished Ryley was tired, so Jerry carried her back to the Explorer. I went around to the driver’s side (on the road) to unlock it, while Jerry crossed the grass from the sidewalk to the truck and headed between the two trees.

Luckily his “spidey sense” kicked in and he spotted this ‘little’ guy  (more like 3 inches) right in front of them building a web between the trees. I have no idea how I managed to get out of the car without running face first into the thing. The shock probably would have killed me!!!

Being a ‘come here’ to Florida, I have no idea if this guy is poisonous or even what kind it is. So if anyone knows, please fill me in!

Can you IMAGINE walking FACE FIRST into it????  AAAAAHHHHHHHH

Check out my Facebook albums for more photos from Halloween and other recent events!

From the Heart,

Facebook has definitely taken my attention away from my blogging.  I don’t even know where to begin to catch up. I still have so many pix from my trip home to NY this summer that I want to share, but haven’t managed to make time for it.

The past month in a nutshell…

Being photographed by Hanson Fong was a lot of fun. I haven’t received portraits from him yet, but then again, I haven’t asked him for them either! I keep “meaning to.”  I wrote to him on Facebook right after the convention, but then never followed up.  For those of you who aren’t on Facebook, here’s a couple pix…

Here’s one of my favorite images that I shot of Ryley while everything was going on during Hanson’s workshop…I just couldn’t stand watching everyone else photograph her and not get to myself! SOOOO glad I did, because this image inspired me to update my look… this is something I’ve been playing around with.         Whatcha think?   I’ll use these for my children’s portraiture business card. This is the front and back of the card, plus a new logo I’m considering. Feel free to give feedback

Ryley turned THREE on August 25th, the day after Hanson photographed us. What a blessing to have Hanson Fong create her 3 year portraits!  The image I saw on the back of his camera was phenominal…competition quality.  He’s such a great person & teacher.   Jerry said, “Now I know why you like to attend these photography classes so much!”

The school year has gotten off to a GREAT start. I’m busier than ever… working solely with 4th grade this year. I thought I’d be less busy, but it hasn’t quite worked out that way. It takes A LOT of planning time and extra hours outside the school day to make our inclusion program work successfully. On a lighter note, Jerry & I are now both official business partners for my school John N.C. Stockton Elementary. We’ve been helping out through our businesses by volunteering our talents over the past 2 years, so this year we made it an official commitment.

Finally, this past weekend, I walked in the Inaugural Stop Child Trafficking Now Walk. I never knew that Human Trafficking is the SECOND largest criminal industry in the world, second only to drugs! The number of children trapped in sexual slavery is staggering. Florida is the 3rd ranked state in the nation for it’s number of child sexual slavery cases.  To learn more go to http://www.SCTNow.org .   Also, check out my pix from the event on FACEBOOK!

I’ve never done any kind of fundraising before that I can remember…and I signed up only 5 days before the event. So I set my goal at $100. I met my goal and have continued to receive contributions this week! I’ve almost doubled my goal!!!  That’s pretty exciting.  I believe in this cause because when I was young, my mom taught me about ‘bad people’ who do this sort of thing to children. It’s stuck with me my whole life…every single day children are sold and forced into prostitution and VERY YOUNG CHILDREN are raped to create pornography.  This organization is the first of its kind, because its focus is AWARENESS of the problem and CONVICTION OF CRIMINALS through Special Operative Teams. Other organizations focus on rescuing children only, which does nothing to DETER and PREVENT this from continuing.  “The efforts of a single operative team will do more to save children than millions of dollars put toward rescuing victims!” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uMbE5bvV2c Link to a good, short video explaining exactly what the Special Operative Teams do & how:

http://www.sctnow.org/contentpages.aspx?parentnavigationid=5813&viewcontentpageguid=503caffe-d8d0-498b-996a-9a01134b898c

In the picture I have a SCTNow.org sticker on my shirt, because they only printed 400 registration signs for participants to wear.  There were a BUNCH of people wearing a sticker instead, so that shows how good the turnout was for this inaugural walk! Next year, I imagine it’ll be at least twice as big. Go to this link to view my donor page &/or make a donation

Please help me in praying that this organization will continue to grow and succeed!

Love & blessings,

PS…I have lots more photos from the walk in my  Facebook photo album

NO MODELING EXPERIENCE NEEDED! What’s the catch? NONE!

Some slots are still open for family, young couple, high school senior girls (or close to that age), and maternity (must be at least 7 months along) at the The Florida Professional Photographers Convention in Orlando on Aug. 23-26.

Let me know if you are interested and I’ll give you more info!  You just need to respond ASAP, because spaces are limited and I’m not the only person sending out this info.

Here are some photos of me taken during Florida School in June 2009 by Bruce Evensen. This was taken at the end of a very hot, sticky, buggy, family portrait photo safari for his Foundations of Portraiture class I was attending (note I send attending and NOT ‘modeling for’) in the parking lot as we were all about to leave. Bruce looked at me and said “Don’t Move!”  He saw natural (no flash) rembrandt lighting and didn’t care that I was all sweaty with yucky, stringing hair. Next day my mug was all over the classroom wall for a while.

Or, you may have seen this one that one of my classmates posted on Facebook …

Years ago I used to model and taught modeling, but still don’t like being on the “other” side of the camera, so I know that feeling. So I wanted to post an example like this to encourage anyone who is really interested but thinking “I could never do that” or “They’d never want me.”  You are the perfect person! Photography instructors (& their students) are thrilled to have people willing to stand in front of a camera and take directions so they can demonstrate what they are teaching  

We need people to ‘model’ for us so we can practice, built portfolios, develop new product lines, etc. AND we have a ton of fun in the process …. and YOU get free portraits…..so don’t hesitate… if you’re interested let me know! Even if not this time, there’s always a need, so still let me know you’d like to in the future and I’ll add you to my list

Thanks a bunch!

Here we are 10 years after high school in 1998…

Niki (Kolosko) Panas    – me -     Kimberly (Partyka) Northem

Here we are 20 years after high school  in 2008…

(you’ll see Niki’s adorable twin boys below with Ryley)

with us in this photo is Chris (Ketter) Walters

Although I graduated from Starpoint, I had also attended Lockport schools from K through 8th grade.  I really lucked out, because  they were having their reunion the same weekend!  It was fun to see how many people remembered me, even after all those years

Since we graduated, Starpoint has undergone a multi-million dollar renovation/addition … we couldn’t believe our eyes when we toured it.   See me on Facebook for more photos

Ryley just before turning 2 years old.

Starpoint… Home of the Spartans

My friend Mike Chapin helped me with Ryley so I could take photos….

Mr. “Sark”  giving us the tour…

then off to the reunion picnic… (see Facebook for photo album)

I’m posting all the rest of my images on Facebook…see you there!

Love & Blessings,

Ryley and I stayed with my dad and had loads of fun.  I’m going to post photo albums on Facebook, so check there to see more.  

I LOVE this one of my brother Brandon, me, my Dad, and Ryley!  I think it’s my favorite image from my whole trip.

And a few more….

My next post will be about my high school reunion from my trip home LAST summer, and I’ll be adding a photo album of all my reunion images to Facebook.

Love, Hugs, & Blessings!