New headshots

One of the other dance parents approached me last fall, thanked me for all of the photography that I had done for the studio, and offered to take head shots for me, if I was interested! She and her husband have a photography business, Firefly Studio, and I was happy to take them up on their offer. I headed out to their home in western Loudoun on a gorgeous October day for some outdoor and indoor photos.

We had absolutely gorgeous golden hour light - the colors in the trees and the light on my newly bright hair came out so great!

 

Seriously loving that bright pink color in my hair...I might have to do something like that again soon...

They had me bring my camera so we could take some photos with it as well, for me to use for my photography business.

 

(If you've "liked" my FB photography page, then you've see the photo on the left, as it's my current profile pic!)

 

Then, we went into their home studio (I had some serious equipment envy!) where I changed and we took more "business" shots. However, I don't really love how I look in this more formal, indoor setting, so I don't have as many favorites from those. The one on the left is my favorite of all of them, and is my current LinkedIn profile pic. I also like the last one, although I'm not totally sure what I'd use it for. Still, a nice photo of me I think!

We made a marketing video!

Skipping ahead a bit to something that Natalie and I did together in December, as this will be a quick and easy post and I'm tired and don't feel like digging through a bunch of photos right now to post about more things from October.

Anyhoo... right before my Christmas break (when my company closes from right before Christmas through January 1), our marketing department asked for volunteers to come onsite to a client in Northern Virginia who allowed us to use their space to film a marketing video. I volunteered to drive up for it, and since school was already out I asked if I could bring Natalie with me (as I knew she'd love to help out). They said yes, so she and I journeyed back up to NoVa for the day!

Well, it turned out that they actually WERE able to use Natalie in the video! One of the things we were filming was a "doctor/patient" interaction, and we decided to have Natalie be the pediatric patient. She did great! We spent quite a while filming this part, from all different angles, changing small things to look better on screen...she was probably in that room, on that table, for at least an hour as we redid the shot over and over.

 

But the end result came out pretty damn well! Our marketing team took the footage and cut together a first edit. There's no sound (just music), so I will say that we had a lot of fun faking conversations during filming...some very interesting conversations, that's for sure! Did you know that Natalie is a magic unicorn who healed her broken arm all by herself? :D 

You'll see "med students" checking in for their exams, simulation and then a team debrief (run by yours truly - I got to play "center director"), the "doctor/patient exam" with Natalie, me, and her "doctor", the control technician running everything, and evaluations being completed and reviewed. All of this is done with my company's software! Pretty cool, and really fun to be a part of.

Short hair, don't care!

So, after years of having crazy long hair, I decided enough was enough! I was tired of how long it took to dry. How it constantly got stuck under my purse strap. How much I was shedding EVERYWHERE. And once I realized I had the required 9" of hair to donate...well, what else could a girl do but make the big cut? That's exactly what I did just after my birthday in October.

Before:

After the chop! 9" gone just like that.

 

Add some color (because who doesn't want to add some kicky pink/red to their hair?)

Finish the cut and blow it all dry, and...voila! A kicky new do for fall/winter.

 

I love how it came out. So much fun, so much lighter, and PINK! I felt like a rock star.

Of course that color does not stay in for nearly as long as you'd like for it to (damn those giant red molecules!), so by the holidays the pink was pretty much gone, and it had actually grown a good amount! So, it was time to get a trim and redo the color, as the bottom was looking quite a bit lighter than the top. This time, since we'd moved, I couldn't easily go to my friend and stylist JJ in Leesburg, so instead I had my new family member (step-niece, I suppose?) do it, after she'd done such a lovely job on all of our hair at my sister's wedding. Callie gave me a great trim and redid the red (although a bit more toned down) in the bottom.

And finally, finally I let Natalie get the color in her hair that she's been wanting for ages. Because of dance requirements we'd had to wait, and then I forgot when I told her we could do it last summer. So finally I upheld my promise and Callie applied a nice big chunk of purple/pink to Natalie's hair! It went in really dark like this, and has faded now to an awesome magenta. She loves it and it looks so great in her hair!

Gonna make this momma cry

I've started using Google photos as a backup for my phone photos and videos, for a couple of reasons. First, I had to buy extra Google storage for them in general due to this blog - Blogger syncs with Google and I'd run out of space. Second, Evan has a Google Pixel and syncs all of HIS photos there, so it's an easy way for him and I to share photos.

Google recently started sending me emails every week or so showing me some things they had put together. Today I happened to click through the most recent email, and, well, I had to save this video and share it here. As I titled this post...this is just the thing to make this momma cry. And for 22 year old Abbe to want to laugh at me for crying, but I'll wear my sentimentality proudly.

Natalie and Henry get creative with friends

I put these 3 videos of the kids being creative into one post. They all took place last fall, before we moved, and I'd completely forgotten about the first one. And for once, they aren't all dance videos!

Video 1: Natalie and Henry dancing together, to their own choreography.

Video 2: When Natalie's friend Aly came over for a sleepover, the girls used iMovie to create a movie preview. And they involved Henry in the production!

And finally, when Natalie's friend Bridgette came over for a sleepover on another night, the girls choreographed an entire show. They also involved Henry by letting him be the emcee of the show.

And here is the dance where I pulled the stills from above. The girls' choreography has gotten so good!

Hershey Park September 2018

We'd had a bunch of friends take their kids up to Hershey Park over the past year or so, and while we were still close enough to do a day trip to Hershey, we thought we should take ours. The kids didn't really get a big vacation in 2018 - just the long weekend at the Outer Banks with me in August - so we thought this would be a great weekend day activity for us to do. The kids were definitely on board!

We had some difficulty actually accessing the parking, as we were waylaid by off-site parking for a big RV expo that was being held at the convention center there. Once we realized the actual parking was NOT a mile away, we were able to park and easily walk over to the Park. We got our map, grabbed some food (as it was almost lunch time when we arrived), and started off on some rides!

The Park was VERY full that day, way more than they anticipated, due to the RV show. A bunch of concessions areas actually ran out of food by the end of the night! This meant that there were lines for the rides, and events like the sea lion show were quite full. Luckily we got there early, got some good seats, and the kids were brave enough to go down front before the show and ask the zoo keeper some questions!

We then found a couple of rides that the kids were VERY excited to go on (and with no lines!), like the Frog Hopper. We all agreed this was about as close to the death drop as any of us wanted to go.

 

It was a hot day (as you can probably tell from the pictures!), but everyone really got along well. Even when we waited a RIDICULOUSLY long time for the drive-your-own-car ride that the kids really wanted to do but was totally not worth it but by that point we were committed so we stuck it out.

We went on a kiddie roller coaster (very similar to the one we all enjoyed at Kings Dominion the year before). Here are Evan and Henry going a second time; Natalie had her fill when her hat blew off of her head on it, and we had to wait to get it back until it was turned into lost and found later in the day by maintenance. Luckily, crisis was averted, and we did get it back!

We also explored the small zoo attached to the Park, and by the time we made our way back, had some dinner, rode a few more rides...it was night! All day we had wanted to do the "ski lift" across the park, but the line was crazy long. It thinned out some as people left the park, so we finally had our chance! That's Evan and Henry in the car up ahead of Natalie and I.

I had to get a shot of this roller coaster from up high, as it was Natalie's first real roller coaster! She really wanted to try one, and Evan was willing to do it with her (too much of a drop for me). She loved it! I think if the lines had been shorter she might have gone again, but one wait was enough. I was so proud of her for going on an adult ride and not being scared! She's braver than I am.

Henry wanted to try something that was akin to the big roller coaster (which he not only was too short for, but also didn't really have much interest in). I looked, and Hershey Park does have a ride similar to Avalanche at Kings Dominion, where you go around and around without a big drop down. We convinced him to try it with us, and although he was nervous he LOVED it! He and Evan rode it 3 times! Natalie and I started getting a little nauseous after 2 rides, so we were done. Really proud of them both for trying something different! 

I couldn't get video of that, so here he is on the swings at night. 

All in all, we had an AWESOME day at the park. We didn't quite close it down, but we came close. We all tried some new things, we were able to find food for everyone (there were a lot of chicken nuggets eaten that day), and despite the heat and crowds we had a blast. It's a bit far for us to go back again in 2019, but maybe we can make it to Busch Gardens this year and complete the local amusement park trifecta!

Our going away party

I've been missing my Leesburg friends quite a bit lately; I know this is normal when you have a big move, but having that knowledge doesn't make the loneliness go away! It goes up and down; some days I'm busy and doing great, and other days I really miss everyone that had been such a part of my life over the past 10 years. I'm trying to focus on positives: we have met some new people, I'm reconnecting with some old friends, Evan and I have had a lot of time together (so we talk even more!), and we've had a lot of family time just the 4 of us. These are all good things...but none of that replaces the ladies that I no longer get to see every week! 

So, because I've been feeling sentimental, here are photos from the going away party that our dance friends threw for us in September. This was actually before we had even officially sold our house, but once we had the date set we couldn't change it as too many people were involved!

Our friends booked a pavilion at Franklin Park, and unfortunately it was a cold rainy day...but we had a nice time anyway! Well, as nice of a time as you can when saying goodbye. The girls were adorable together - I love these two photos of them taking a photo of themselves! I got the first one, and another mom got the second one, at the same time from a different angle. Then the girls were nice enough to pose for me.

This photo kills me. Natalie's friends were all going to miss her so much...and she definitely misses them.

Henry's buddy Garrett was there too - these two are so darn cute together, and Henry's asking now when he will see G again! We are hopefully going to get G and his sister down here for a sleepover before too long.

The dads braved the weather to grill for us; here are a couple of them with Evan. Beer and meat help to make the weather less dreary!

Then, at the end of the party, they surprised me with a birthday cake as my bday was only a couple of weeks away. So nice to be able to celebrate with friends!

Of course, once again, we failed to get a pick of all of us awesome ladies together. Thank you to all of you who were there (Lisa, Danielle, Stephanie, Jennifer, Debbie, Cheryl, Lydia, Leah - I hope I didn't forget anyone!). I miss you all!

2018 Wrap-Up

One of my goals for this year was to break into triple digits again on posts - I haven't done that since 2015. Well, I almost made it - I hit 97, and this post was supposed to be #98, but on Dec 31 I didn't get on the computer at all, so it was never posted. Still, 97 is more than the past two years, and if we hadn't had so many big things happen at the end of this year, I'm sure I would have made it to triple digits again. But, you know, uprooting our whole family and moving 100 miles south, then traveling for 10 out of 12 business days in December, then hosting both sides of the family for Christmas, kind of put a crimp in posting here! So, I'll take my 97 posts and hold my head high...and maybe set my goal of 100 for next year, and see how that goes (without giving myself too much pressure!).

I'm still on events from September; I really had hoped to at least get through to when we moved in November, but again, that just didn't happen. By my reckoning, I've got...oh, about 25 posts to get through from mid-September to now? Wow - just counting them up and realizing it's that many is a bit overwhelming! Here's hoping I can get about half of those done in January, and maybe the rest in February? Then I'd go from being over 3 months behind to just two months - that's something! And hey, I managed to document Lucy's first year in pretty much real time, so I'll take that as a win.

What is left from the last quarter of the year? Family photo shoot, a bunch of holidays, my sister's wedding, final dance performances, lots of videos of the kids being creative, first explorations of Charlottesville, decorating our new house...so much to share! I can't wait to get to all of it.

The blog is a lot of work, but I love having this family record, so even though I occasionally beat myself up over being behind, I'm going to stick with it. And I appreciate any of you who continue to read these posts, and keep updated on what we do. It means a lot.

Happy 2019 from the Macbeths! 2018 was a hell of a year - can't wait to see what our first full year in Charlottesville brings.