quote is from Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

So..I've gone back and forth on something that weighs heavy on me. The pressure I feel from this, moving forward has taken a toll on me, in that, last night, I had the worst back/shoulder spasms I've ever had in my life (and I have a high tolerance of pain and don't try to display that I am even in pain at all) and today I can barely move because my back has pretty much given out.

I have this opportunity to be a seasonal photographer for another photographer. The actual seasonal job is not in my style (school/sport photography) but the opportunity is huge. I am interested in the experience, the networking capabilities, and the opportunity to second shoot and assist on her wedding gigs as well as learn from her photography business & marketing as a whole. The problem is - the gigs are during the week. AND it is seasonal. I was thinking of getting another PT job to make up for it but then we'd really be in trouble money wise.

An additional thing I have weighing on me is - I have this HUGE opportunity to second shoot a wedding in June for a wedding photographer that I greatly admire. His work is just outstanding, as well as his story on how he became a photographer himself. I reached out to him in an email and to my surprise he answered AND gave me a second shooting opportunity. I am still in awe over it. The only catch was - he is a Canon shooter. I am a Nikon shooter. He wanted me to get my hands on some Canon gear. And so, I did (which probably impacted my body and pocket book more than the seasonal photography decision) - that like cost us a good chunk of money that we don't have. But did I tell him this? Did I say no? Eff NO! I'd be an idiot not see seize this opportunity.

Anyway, enough about problems because despite these issues there is a lot of good, a lot of opportunity and a lot of happy going on..

And as soon as I finished writing all of the above..I get an email from Charlie with - Hey wanna second shoot a wedding this Saturday?

WHAT?! Yeah! Yup, it's like that. AND Charlie got a tutoring gig too!

Watching some more Sue Bryce tonight (she is absolutely uh-mazing) - and read this from her blog:

“Business is an equal amount of pleasure and pain (but we judge it by our pain) You will become as successful as the amount of pain you are prepared to endure” - John Demartini

So bring it! I'ma take it. I'll show you! *shakes fist in air*

**BTW: If you've never heard of CreativeLive - YOU SHOULD CHECK IT OUT!! It is a free learning resource full of wonderful amazing goodies - topics like Photography, Design, Business, Lifestyle (relationships/health). They have live workshops that are free during the internet broadcast or you can pay for the workshop to be played whenever you like (paid courses have worksheets or anything else for the course that is necessary).

Raima eating torn up pieces of quesadillas

My wonderful husband, Charlie, took the kiddos to the park so I could work on some website stuff and clean the house (the latter didn't happen). I wanted to have lunch ready for them when they got back because otherwise, my toddler probably wouldn't eat and just fill up on snacks (my bad). Since I had cheese, cans of beans, tortillas and such, I thought heck I can make us some mission super style burritos (unfortunately, I thought we had sour cream but apparently we didn't) and some quesadillas for the kiddos. Easy!

To my surprise - the kiddos ate it up and liked it. I was afraid the blue corn 7 flaxseed tortilla would be off putting but no :).

I am looking forward to some one on one toddler time with Jax, which I plan on doing on some Mondays (since my post didn't make it up about my reduced hours, yeah so that's why I'll have time to spend with my kiddo. Which is great. It's a blessing in disguise). Lately, he's either very sweet to us and his sister or is easily upset and can act out. I need to find new activities for him too - aside from the play dough, painting and superhero activities. What are some go to toddler activities that you do with your kiddos?

So, we had to change our Thanksgiving plans and we will now be doing the 400 mile drive to visit and be with family this Thanksgiving because of my grandfather's poor health. He isn't improving much and is hooked up to a machine. I don't want to make the same mistake I had made with my other grandfather and choose to see him another time, because what if there isn't another time? Even though money is extra tight now, what with my reduced hours, family is important and for some reason, things get taken care of. I have faith. Remember that cost we weren't anticipating on for our car repair? Well, we also hadn't anticipated receiving a bonus in the amount of that repair from Charlie's work! So..it all evened out. I'm not a religious person, but I do believe in God. I always have to laugh at myself when I get crazy with worry and then it gets smoothed out. Then I think - why did I waste that energy? I should have known. I should have had some faith. Silly me.

Grrr...Usually, I would have a playlist for you, but no, not today. Why not, you ask? Because the hour or so I spent creating the playlist last night (really this morning, it was past midnight already) I had on grooveshark (which I originally found out about thru this blog) all of a sudden kept playing (or rather not playing) with errors and so I refreshed and then tried again and nothing, so I hit back and when I did, there was no playlist. Apparently it didn't save any of the songs I just curated and "saved" onto my music Mondays playlist.



Oh Monday, how I loathe you..and now I have no music to get thru the day with. Not that it would have really mattered anyway because my work frowns upon music. They think its evil and is disruptive (bahumbug). We don't even have music on our hold line (I have resorted to ask to be placed on hold just to listen to some kind of music). I don't know about you but, for me - music helps me be more productive. It gets the juices flowing, the brain thinking and the body moving - ok, maybe that's why they don't allow music at my workplace.
In other news...we finally got a new camera. The photo above is courtesy of me playing with it (and using picmonkey - have you used that free site yet?!) a whole 4 days after I got it (for my birthday, I've never waited that long to open anything!). We got to play with it some more at Jax's daycare's halloween party. Where I made this cake.

I'll post photos up tomorrow & Wednesday for sure!

Hope your Monday is filled with some fun and music, especially music (I'm so jealous!).

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