Category Archives: Portland

Ladies’ Night

There are many reasons why I love taking photographs, but at the top of the list must be the feeling I get when I look through the contents of my camera and am instantly transported back to the moment when the photos were taken. These photographs definitely live up to that promise. We sang, we rapped, we tried to hit the high notes and the low notes (often unsuccessfully). Most of all, we had a fun night thanks to great company and few inhibitions.

Just a few of my favorites from the evening – all taken using my much-neglected flash. I really need to pull that thing out of the bag more often.

First Up: the birthday girl.

A Touch of Spring

Back at work today after a fabulous long weekend that began with a birthday do-over and progressed to an anniversary dinner, a Spring Festival at Thomas’ school, a T-ball game and then a belated birthday dinner with the girls. And that was just Friday and Saturday.

Needless to say I have a TON of photos to go through and post but until then I will leave you with a touch of Spring in the form of my latest post for the I Heart Faces blog. This week’s challenge is “May Flowers”. I managed to take this photograph on Mothers day thanks to a patient family who agreed to a walk in the rain just so I could capture a few tulips while they are still blooming.

Back with more soon.

Birthday 2011: Requesting a Do-Over

I had big plans for my 36th birthday – and by big plans I mean a couple of days off from work, doing just what I wanted to do. No schedule, no appointments, just a couple of days by myself with the opportunity to walk around and take  a few photos.

Well, apparently life doesn’t quite work like that.

Tuesday (my birthday) turned out to be a day with Thomas. But not my healthy, happy Thomas. Instead I found myself looking after a sick child who was recovering from the stomach bug that Samuel kindly shared with us last week.

We did the grocery shopping (Trader Joe’s AND new Seasons), spent a lot of time watching TV and generally hung out for most of the day while I carefully monitored his every move to make sure he wasn’t going to throw up.

It wasn’t quite like I had planned but, actually, it was nice. It took me back to those days when we used to spend time together before Samuel was born. Just the two of us.

By the time Kei and Samuel got home at around 5pm, Thomas had perked up enough to agree to a birthday dinner of sushi (for me and Kei) and Soba noodles (for him and Samuel).

And this is the part when I realize just how important it is for me to take photos… While the events of later in the evening dampened my entire perspective of the day (more to come on that), these photos show me just how wonderful and special my birthday really was.

At first Samuel was all cranky and refused to let me take his photo so I said “please let me take a picture… for my birthday…” I honestly didn’t think t would work but then I got this…

And even this…

And then another reminder of that how he and I are genetically linked with the tongue-sticking-out-thing.

After a delicious sushi dinner we headed across the street to pick up a little dessert from the food carts. Thomas treated me to a couple of my favourite photos of him ever.

And then the boys ate cookies while I watched them eat. Strange – I didn’t feel dessert (more to come on that later).

Nothing commands their attention quite like the promise of food.

This was followed by a little activity to work off some of that chocolate. I know this next photo has the wrong focus and Samuel’s head is in the way, but I adore it anyway.

We ended dinner with a walk around the neighborhood where I finally had my opportunity to take a few photos of Spring.

The rest of the evening had a lot of promise – Glee night with the girls, wine and cupcakes. It started well but I had to leave a little early. Seems the stomach bug had not passed me over and I was destined to lie on the couch for the next 24 hours while Thomas (who wasn’t quite over it either) was forced to keep himself entertained with Lego and TV (LOTS of TV).

So, I am looking forward to my do-over next weekend even though in retrospect it wasn’t all that bad. Still, there’s no harm in trying to make it absolutely perfect and extend my birthday celebrations in the meantime, right? 🙂

Count Me Inspired

Thanks to a little work commitment, I found myself at the TEDx Portland event yesterday. I was there to manage the photo booth at the Waggener Edstrom table which meant I spent a day taking photos (which I love, of course) but I ALSO had the opportunity to actually watch the speaker sessions.

In a word – Inspirational.

I laughed, I cried, I sat in awe of amazing talent. I’m still taking it all in.

Unfortunately my camera was connected to the booth for the entire day so I didn’t take any of my own photos, but I will share a few highlights with some pics stolen borrowed from the interweb.

Jim Riswold 

Two bouts with cancer. Brave, funny, incredible. In one very short presentation, this man managed to teach me one very important lesson – laugh at the bad guy.

Storm Large

The woman can sing… and write and speak. She came across as brave and vulnerable and real all at the same time.

Genevieve Bell

As soon as she started speaking I knew she’d have something wonderful to say. I mean the Aussie accent gave it away. 🙂 Seriously though, she gave legitimacy to boredom. Put down the technology and just let your mind rest for a while. Now THAT’s an idea I can get behind… and I’ll try it as soon as I’m done with this blog post.

Greg Bell

This man changed his priorities in life and lives them. Adopting “mind your own Bamboo” as a catchphrase.

On The Rocks

Like Glee only better and in person.

PHAME (Pacific Honored Artists, Musicians and Entertainers)

Proving that anyone can have a dream and follow it (and be amazing), despite the obstacles.

Of course there was so much – discussions on everything from food to architecture to the power grid. DEFINITELY going back next year and encouraging all my friends to do the same.

I Can See Clearly Now…

Laser eye surgery is truly a miracle. I can now see more clearly than I could when I was a teenager. 20/15! Last night we went to an Ice Hockey game and watched from a box. I could see the expressions on the players faces – it was incredible.

The downside is that I can now clearly see how much I neglected my eyebrows over the past few months while I plucked blindly.

As for the surgery itself – I spent a lot more time waiting for the Xanax to kick in that I took for them to complete the surgery. It was weird and uncomfortable but painless. The worst part was the anxiety involved in having someone prop your eyes open and then place you under a large machine. They gave me a stuffed animal to hold to keep my hands occupied during the procedure and I didn’t realize how tightly I was gripping the poor thing until I was done. But they talked me through the whole process as it was happening and there were few in-the-moment surprises. I felt as though I was in good hands and, judging by the pace of recovery, I was.

Immediately after the procedure I was given some very sexy Bono-type goggles and instructed to head straight home to bed and go to sleep before the pain set in. Unfortunately we had a bit of a drive in front of us so the pain did begin before I was finally able to go to sleep. I slept well (could have been the medication) and when I woke up I could see perfectly without need to reach for my glasses.

So now I’m religiously following the post op instructions (eyedrops every hour!) and wearing goggles to bed to avoid eye rubbing during the night. Honestly, the goggles and fact that I can’t put my face under water are the most difficult side effects of this whole process – and they’re temporary. Brilliant!

So I’ll end this post with a photo that I took last night at the Hockey game. It’s my “slice of life” photo for this week’s I Heart faces challenge and one of my first opportunities to take photos without looking through the extra lens of my glasses.

Samuel wasn’t a fan of the noise that erupted each time the Winterhawks scored a goal – and with 7  goals in the game, that was a lot of noise.

Spring Change

The Portland sun came out for a full hour or so on Saturday – just enough to spur a burst of energy so powerful that I went for a run. Those who know me will be able to appreciate just how much of a big deal that is.

And it didn’t stop on Saturday. Each day since, I have been motivated to power up the Wii and spend 15-30 minutes with my virtual trainer to do a little yoga and a few toning exercises. It’s not as much as I would like to do, but it’s the most I can accomplish in the brief allotment of time that I have between walking in the door after work and when Kei brings the boys home. The upside of all this movement is that I feel a little more energetic and the stiffness in my joints has eased up. The downside is that it hurts when I sneeze and, thanks to Spring allergies, I am uncomfortably reminded of my new workout commitment many times throughout the day.

The emergence of Spring has also brought with it a few changes for the Ishidas. Samuel started at a new daycare this week – a big shift given he started at his other daycare way back when he was four months old. Thomas is also attending the new daycare for Spring Break and, so far, they both seem to be having a wonderful time making new friends and engaging in new experiences. I was told this morning that Thomas has quickly brought the other kids of his age up to speed on the full Star Wars saga and that Samuel is nearly up to full chatter capacity after a couple of shy days. Yes, it seems they’re settling in nicely.

And, finally, one more big change coming on Thursday. My date with the laser is imminent. I’m a little nervous about the whole CUTTING INTO MY EYE thing, but looking forward to  some Xanax and the promise of 20/20 vision. More to come on that soon.

For the moment I leave you with a few photos from our brief, but wonderful, sunny Saturday. Oh, and note to the ice cream vendors of Portland – next time can you wait until the temperature rises above 50 degrees before you start trying to cash in on the families coming out of winter hibernation? I don’t need to hear Greensleeves while I can still see my breath.

This mischevous look captures my youngest child perfectly.

I like to think that Samuel was pretending to be asleep, but I think he was actually playing dead. The joys of role play with a two year old.

Thomas was just shielding his eyes from the blinding sunlight (OK, it wasn’t THAT bright). And, honestly, he looks a little uncomfortable lying on the sidewalk. What won’t a cruel mother do for a photo?