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Glamour Shots! April 15, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Photography , 10comments

Kristina is having a “glamour shots” blog carnival!  You know you have an awesome glamour shot hiding in your house, so find it and post it!

Kristina’s photo qualifications:

The picture can be a Glamour Shots, Coverlook, Olan Mills, etc. Basically, any picture that makes you look like a member of Whitesnake, or one of Heidi Fleiss’ call girls, will work. And don’t worry, we don’t judge. Ha ha, I am clearly lying. We will be judging. And laughing. A lot.

Check out Kristina site here and see other fabulous pictures!

Diffusing the Sun April 15, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Photography , 2comments

Yay!  The weather is warming up and summer is on its way!  Lots of sunny days in the future!

This is great for playing, but not great for photographing.  Here’s a little tip when photographing on those bright sunny days: use a diffuser. Sometimes it’s not possible to move your subject into the shade, so this idea is great when you don’t want your subject to move, but you want nice diffused light.

You’ll need an assistant to hold the diffuser high above your subject’s head while you photograph.

The results are so fun, so try it!

Most reflector kits come with a white diffuser, and gold and silver reflectors.

Happy shooting!

Random Weekend April 14, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Church, Exercise, Friends, Health, Medical School, Memory Lane, My Handsome Husband, Photography, School, Thoughts, Utah , 10comments

Oh boy. This week is slipping away from me. I meant to post about some fun things this past weekend, but you know . . . where did the time go?

On Friday night, Hannah and I went to the musical “Singing in the Rain” in Lehi to see my good friend Bethany who starred in it. This was Hannah’s first play, and let me tell you, SHE LOVED IT. She giggled, and rooted for everyone. We were splashed by real rain that fell from the ceiling, and that was probably her favorite part along with all the singing and tap dancing. :) She was so giddy with excitement, her little body was about to burst, and part of the “bursting” was confessing her undying love for me no less than 98 times . . . that was my favorite part. Now she wants to learn how to tap dance so she can join a musical too.

On Saturday, I had an idea hit me over the head. It was like a persistent itch: I had to execute my idea to relive my brain of this cool concept.

I called Brian. (Naturally, I expect him to be available anytime I’m struck with a concept to photograph.)

I left him a message telling him my idea. I told him to clear his schedule for the next couple of hours because I was the most important thing in his life right at that moment.

Ahem. (Usually when you have to spell something out, it’s probably news to other people.)

He called me back, telling me he was on a plane, just about to take off.

Um . . . Hello? What part about “clear your schedule” wasn’t clear? And, to add insult to injury, he was off to meet his new girlfriend’s parents. (He meets EVERYONE’S parents . . . this is not serious yet.) I know my new rank now.

On Saturday afternoon, David and I went for our first barefoot run. He toughed it out and actually went barefoot for the majority of the run. I was smart and wore my five fingers from the start. :) It was our first “date run.” It was actually fun, and totally apparent that David is in way better shape than I am.

Saturday night, we finally got to spend some time with our good friends Marshall and Jill. They live five houses down from us now, (this is a crazy coincidence, since we haven’t lived in the same city or state for over a decade) but it took three months for our schedules to align. We had such a great time chatting, and just hanging out together. It really is amazing how everywhere you move, there are cool people everywhere you go. We’ve been fortunate to make life long friends everywhere we’ve been. Marshall and Jill have been part of our lives since we’ve been married.

On Sunday, a really nice person got up to bare their testimony (which was really sweet) and they talked about how challenging it was to be in school full time, while their wife was in school part time, and they had a child. If I had heard this before med school, I would have thought, “Oh my! How do you even deal with it?” But, sadly, we are almost POST medical school (did you read that! SIX more weeks!) and I am totally JADED. I looked over at David and whispered, “Whatever . . . try medical school . . . average of 32 credits a semester, and 80 hour work weeks during clinicals . . . did I mention I’m in school part time too and we have two kids?”

David whispered back and me saying, “Where is your compassion?”

You see, that’s the thing, I lost compassion somewhere along the way . . . it could have been when the school screwed us over, not providing nearly enough loan money (this is not an opinion, this is a fact) or the grueling hours David has spent away from us studying, or the FOUR (COUNT THEM FOUR) cross country moves we HAD TO MAKE last year, plus the MONTHS we’ve had to spend apart as a family while David completed rotations elsewhere. My compassion was swallowed up in the process of being jaded by medical school.

I’m trying to be a better person. Maybe my outlook will improve when I see the light at the end of the never ending tunnel of medical school in six weeks.

Let’s hope.

Sarah the Beautiful April 12, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Photography , 5comments

This is Sarah.

I had high hopes she would be my sister-in-law, but no such luck.

I love her to pieces and had a great time photographing her this weekend.  :)

(This shot is so classic Utah: spring in the foreground, fall in the middle ground, and winter in the background.)

I just don’t understand why I can’t pick out my brother’s future wife.  (Look!  Paris loves her!)

Don’t I have twin sister rights?

Extra Set of Hands, Please? April 9, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Daily Life, Little Man Dallin, Parenthood, Princess Hannah, Thoughts , 1 comment so far

Sometimes, you just need an extra set of hands around the house.

Especially when your husband is gone ALL WEEK LONG.

I had no idea how helpful a three and half year old could be until I put her to work.

Hannah shared her pudding with Dallin, which made him SO HAPPY, which made me SO HAPPY.

Seriously, kids are SO. DANG. CUTE.

Holding Out for the Marshmallow April 8, 2010

Posted by Emily in : My Handsome Husband, Princess Hannah, Thoughts , 2comments

During the General Priesthood session of Conference last weekend, one of the speakers was talking about “patience” and mentioned a study that a Professor from Stanford conducted involving marshmallows and four year olds.

Basically, they put a bunch of four year olds in a room, and told them they could have one marshmallow; but if they waited 15 minutes to eat their marshmallow, then they could have two marshmallows.  70% of the kids ate their marshmallows.  30% held out.  They followed these kids all through their adult life and found some startling differences.  In short, the kids who held out and waited to eat their marshmallow, had fewer behavior problems, higher grades, and higher income than their counterparts who ate the marshmallow immediately.  (Read a brief summary of the study from Stanford here.)

SO . . .

You can guess what happened at our house, right?  David and I had a little bet.  He thought FOR SURE she would wait the 15 minutes and hold out for two marshmallows.  I was pretty sure she would eat it right away because SHE IS THREE AND A HALF YEARS OLD.  Let’s face it, marshmallows are the the equivalent of mint chocolate truffles to adults, so I knew a little marshmallow would be pretty tempting.

David explained the rules to Hannah, and placed a teeny tiny marshmallow on the table for her to reach, if she wanted.

She stood there.  FROZEN.  FOR THREE LONG MINUTES.

Then, she climbed up on the chair next to David and said, “Daddy, let’s talk about it.”

Her biggest concern?  That Dallin or one of us would SWIPE it before her 15 minutes were up.  :)

So guess what?  David was right. (This is not a standard thing you know . . . me being wrong and him being right.)  Hannah held out and waited the 15 L-O-N-G minutes and enjoyed TWO tiny marshmallows instead of one.

You know what she wanted next?  TO DO IT AGAIN, BUT THIS TIME WITH BLACK LICORICE.

The kid knows how to squeeze treats out of us.

Oh Yes. Yes I Did. April 7, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Exercise, Family , 2comments

Apparently, great minds think alike.  On Easter Sunday, I was talking with two of my brothers (big family get together) about barefoot running.  Turns out, WE ALL BOUGHT A PAIR of fivefingers this week.

We were all a bit surprised to find out we each had a pair.   Now, I have two brothers, my husband, father-in-law, and friend who own a pair.  Wanna join the fun and start running “barefoot” too?

I love them.  I actually like running “barefoot.”

The workout regimen is very doable.  Too run “barefoot” you start out running every day or every other day for FIVE MINUTES.

Five minutes friends.  You can do that, right?  I can do anything for five minutes.   I could probably hold my breath that long.  Well, I’m not gonna try, but maybe I could.  :)

The second week you increase your time to 10 MINUTES.

Yep.

10 minutes is all you want to run during your second week of training.

Then, the third week you stretch your running time to 15 minutes.  OK, I’m sure you’re all math-aletes, you can do the math from here on out.

It’s important to transition into barefoot running  S-L-O-W-L-Y.  I’m not referring to your actual speed here, I’m talking about easing into it.

You have to listen to your body, and as soon as your skin hurts, STOP.  It’s protecting underneath your skin and preparing your body for this rude awakening.

You will have lactic acid in places you never knew you had muscles.  It feels AWESOME.

All About Kristina! April 6, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Friends, Photography, Thoughts , 3comments

This weekend, I photographed Heidi Klum.

I mean Angelina Jolie.

OK, so it was Kristina, but really, it’s so confusing because Kristina (of Pulsipher Predilections) gets mistaken for both of them ALL THE TIME.

Especially when she sports the Snuggie which is so obviously Heidi’s and Angelina’s style.

We had a fabulous time gossiping about celebrities and Mormon Mommy blogs (which are one in the same, right?) and I think we both walked away from our day feeling good about life, like there are a lot of crazies out there, but we’re not them.

I met Kristina through blogging and she is a frequent commenter on my blog (she know how to give comment love) and I when I finally met her over the weekend, I was like, “OH MY HECK.  I’M FINALLY MEETING ONE OF MY BFF’S.”

We share a love of trash mags, so what more could our friendship need?  Clearly, we see eye to eye.

Recovering From the Weekend April 5, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Family, My Former Dog Children, Photography, Thoughts , 2comments

There is much to write about.

Too much actually.

We had a fabulous weekend listening to conference, eating great food,  and spending time together.

While I collect my thoughts today, I thought I’d post some totally unrelated pictures I took this weekend white experimenting with “umbrella light.”

This is my father-in-law.  He was making himself a nice sandwich for lunch when I asked him if he would sit in for some test shots while I tested out my lighting.

And this is Paris who obediently sat still for one second while a treat was dangled above her head.

I love this stinker-dog sooooo much.

Now, I’m going to take a nap.  Weekends are exhausting!

I Spy With My Little Eye . . . April 2, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Daily Life, Utah , add a comment

Hot air balloons!  Not too far up in the sky!

We saw these balloons fly over while we were eating breakfast.  We had high hopes that they’d land in the park behind our house, but we had no such luck. :(