Shannon Montez Photography Blog » San Jose's Family and Child Photographer, Shannon Montez, captures all aspects of family life: Families, newborns, children, babies, high school seniors, and weddings.

So I finally got around to looking at some of the pics from my trip. Took me a while, but I’ve been sick and I’ve had to play a LOT of solitaire during that time and I just couldn’t manage anything else between the sitting around and the playing solitaire and the general feeling sorry for myself (plus two dr visits and an ER visit… don’t worry, it was just strep throat… my insurance was kind of messed up, and of course it was a weekend and there was no actual people around to straighten it out… but I promised myself this post would not be about me whining!).

But I’m getting better, and I thought I’d post some of the pictures I loved from our day in Amish country.

I think I’ll actually get one printed for my house. Just for fun. (you can click on them to see a larger version)

Opinions on which version is best of this farm? I loved the moody dreary sky. This first one, I call Isolation.

This second one I call Country Roads Take Me Home. I’m a big John Denver fan. Don’t be hatin’.

This third one I call, um, what would you call it? Dreams of Amishity. I’m not sure… Tough.

We HAD to get pretzels while we were there. I mean, didn’t the Pennsylvania Dutch INVENT pretzels?

Gosh that looks delish. Andrea and I always spent our hard-earned paper-route dollars on pretzels at the mall, so this felt like we’d traveled to Pretzel Mecca. Notice Andrea’s pretzel is almost gone and I haven’t even started on mine yet… I was having fun taking pictures. Plus, I didn’t have a two year old stealing from me (for the first time in like 10 years!)

We got a kick out the name of this town. Like a couple of teenage boys.

Andrea really wanted to see a covered bridge, so I had to humor her by taking some pictures once we got there.

And as much as Andrea might pretend she wanted to see pics of our day in Amish country, what she REALLY wants is to see pics of her kids. But I’m not quite ready to show her.

So for now, a sneak peek. This picture cracks me up. Leah’s face looks a little skeptical… and for good reason. Bennett had a sneaky little habit of pretending to kiss her while digging a tooth into her head.

Last night Dave and I made it to a concert! I heard this song on the radio a few weeks ago and was so in love with it I made Shelby write down the singer’s name so I wouldn’t crash while trying to do it myself. Another advantage of having kids get older…

The singer was Ingrid Michaelson. I came home all excited and told Dave I found the best song, the most perfect song for my new website (in the works… yeah!). So we looked her up, bought her album, loved it, saw she was coming to San Francisco and bought tickets immediately. We’re so spontaneous.

The show was awesome. Her voice is amazing. She was so funny… part stand-up comic, part musician. She’s going all over the country the next couple months. Go to her show. She’s the next big thing… I think her big break was when Grey’s Anatomy played several of her songs on their show, and she was recently on the cover of Billboard. In Borders the other day I saw a big display for her CD. I have a feeling we’ll all be seeing a lot of her in the future!

That cute clown in the video? Turns out it was the guy that opened the show for her is also a VERY talented artist: Greg Laswell. His show was also awesome. I think Dave found a new favorite artist too.

So, yeah for us getting out of the house together and doing something fun! Well, my ears and head had fun, anyway. I realized I’m getting really old last night at the show because it was a standing room only crowd, which meant we were standing. The whole time. And my back and legs were killing me… still are! Even my ribs hurt. I’m such a wimp. I feel like I ran a marathon and all I did was stand around for a couple hours. Prepare my bed for the old folks’ home, at this rate, I’ll be there by next year.

But enough whining about my poor pathetic physical condition. The coolest thing is, I asked Ingrid’s manager last night if they would mind me using their song on my little website and she said it was ok. Yeah for Indy artists who have control over their own songs!

Just felt like posting this today. I really want to post pictures from my adventure last week, but I haven’t had a chance to even look at the pictures yet! I want to do a big, beefy post about that, but that will take some time.

Anyway… I joined the wonderful Jill Johnson for this wedding, she had just had some surgery and was afraid she wouldn’t be in tip-top shape, so she asked me to come along and help out. I loved playing around at this wedding… no pressure but plenty of fun stuff to play with!

Some of my favorites from the day:

The gorgeous bouquet… love the feathers!

I love this shot… the bride is getting her veil put on, and her mom in the background looks kind of nervous and excited…

The bride’s daughter, so excited, seeing her mom all dressed up.

The bride being led by her father…

And the groom’s first look at her.

After the ceremony…

This shot was not posed, just captured as it happened:

You KNOW I loved these doors.

And the car.

Their first dance…

  about to cut the cake…

emotions during the speeches and slideshow…

And some random details (click to view larger…)

And if you aren’t already sick of looking at these pictures, here’s a link to a slideshow I threw together.

(and if THAT’S not enough, there are a few more plus a slideshow with Jill’s work on Jill’s blog.)

Whew! Quite a big post. Time to get back to… whatever it is I do all the time…

Quote of the day:

“I prefer my chip-to-dip ratio to be higher than my chip-to-salsa ratio.”

This was followed by a lengthy conversation about the merits and qualities of licorice, pickles, and popcorn.

Today was all about food. And laughing about dumb stuff.

What I learned in Amish Country:

1. Amish people have fancy, froofy dogs too. And they look just like regular dogs. I met an Amish Pomeranian today. I didn’t take a picture, I was afraid it would be rude.

2. Sometimes, the Amish can fool you. At lunch, we were seated next to a couple of Amish girls. At the end of their lunch, one of them pulled out a cell phone and started chatting, and then told her friend to email her. I guess they were plain Mennonites, not the stricter counterparts (Amish). Or maybe they were in Rumspringa. But it threw me for a loop. I was kind of wondering… why bother with the unflattering get-up if you’re not going to be all old-fashioned? (I’m sure that comment was totally ignorant, please forgive me.)

3. Amish kids are the cutest things EVER. I wanted to take one home with me, but I’m pretty sure that would be frowned upon. But seriously, the little hats and suspenders… I could die. Maybe I’ll start dressing Franklin that way.

4. You need cash in Amish country. People in farmhouses don’t take credit cards, and you’re lucky if your $2 will buy you a bar of soap. (I was lucky.)

5. Covered bridges are pretty cool.

or something like that. Isn’t that what Pennsylvania is called? Either way, I’m blogging from my sister’s house today, all the way across the country in Philadelphia. She just had an adorable new baby and I’m here to spend a few days with them. Sightseeing and eating. I mean, helping out the new mom as she recovers. While eating and sightseeing. Just kidding. Or am I?

It’s now barely eight o’clock in Cali, but in Philly it’s past 11 and everyone’s asleep… feels weird. So blogging and interent on my trusty laptop is on the menu for the evening. My sister doesn’t have TV. Can you believe it?

It’s been a while since I was on a plane and I learned a few things. I started taking notes because I didn’t want to forget.

Lessons learned while traveling all the way from one side of the country to the other:

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1.  Don’t wait until after 10pm the night before an early flight to find out that rodents have found your suitcase in the garage and eaten half of the zipper. It’s too late to do anything about it and you’ll be forced to deal with the extreme heebie jeebies you get from the thought of your clothes touching something that a rodent touched. Ew. {shudder}

2. When getting a window seat on a long flight, take small sips of your beverage. Or better yet, go thirsty… abstain from drinking if at all possible. Your body will thank you. Because inevitably, the two big dudes next to you will be asleep for most of the trip and crawling over them in the midst of your agony is… awkward.

3. Bringing cash is a good idea. Two dollars won’t buy you lunch. Or a snack. Or headphones. Or anything. The pretzels are just a teaser, the Coke adds to the aforementioned torture, and there’s no such thing as a free lunch anymore.

4. Pilots now leave the cockpit and hawk credit cards at some point during the flight. Seriously?

5. Regular headphones DO work in the jacks… but you have to actually turn the volume up to hear it. I missed an entire movie because I didn’t learn this lesson earlier.

6. There’s a good reason Philly Cheesesteaks are famous. They taste amazing. Especially when you’ve just spent your day being tortured and starved.

That said, I love traveling. I was being a little dramatic about the tortured and starved part… On the docket for tomorrow… Amish Country! I’m sure I’ll learn plenty of new things tomorrow too…

One more thing to add to this already too-long post. Happy Birthday Mom! And happy belated birthday, Shannon! Me? Yes. And Grandma too, if she was still here. I was hours away from sharing a birthday with Mom and Grandma… I don’t know if I mentioned it before, but I was spoiled by this fact because Grandma would bring an amazing cake to celebrate our birthdays and I got a beautiful cake with flowers and grass and bumblebees all magically made out of frosting,  while the sibs were lucky if they got the correct number of candles. (only kidding!) To continue the tradition, my sweet brother brought me a cake to remind me of old times. It wasn’t quite as fancy as Grandma’s, but it was delicious and thoughtful. It made me all nostalgic for those little magic moments of childhood.

And that is all for this edition of blog-a-thon. Amen.

So, the being perfect resolution… I’ve already failed. I left a pile of laundry on my bed last night and just pushed it off onto the chest at the end of the bed, allowing the clean clothes to sit and fester and wrinkle themselves all night. Oh, and I ate some chocolate that’s not allowed in the ubiquitous new years diet. And had a soda. It was mostly diet, but not all, and diet’s not that good anyway, so why not just drink water? Oh yeah, for the caffiene that I’ve also sworn off, that’s why. And I wasted time roaming the internet today and being entirely unproductive. So… back to square one. I’m not perfect. Besides, perfect is boring, right? Right.

(This post is too long, so I’m breaking it up with the Christmas card that ended up being a New Years card that I sent out. If you didn’t get one in the mail, here it is:)

Besides the impossible goal of being perfect, I do have a few other goals. The last few years, I haven’t bothered to make New Years resolutions. I figured that if I wasn’t already doing something, I wasn’t likely to start just because of a date on the calendar. But this year feels different. I think it’s because after a couple months of craziness and work, I got a nice break. It felt like a pause button on life. No school, no commitments, nothing on the calendar after weeks of being jam-packed. And once the kids are back in school, I’m sure it will be back to crazy. So I want to be ready.

I’ve made a 3-month goal in each of these categories: Work, Money, Love, Personal, Spiritual, Friends, Family. To keep myself accountable, I’ll share it here.

Work: I have lots of plans in the works, a new website, the workshop, a new logo if I get that brilliant flash of inspiration I’m waiting for. And I plan to read one book per month to help me with being a better business person. Right now I’m reading The Tipping Point. I’m not sure how that relates to my business, but it’s pretty interesting and it’s non-fiction and it was in the business section and a best-seller, so why not?

Money: Spend less on eating out, eat lunch at home as much as possible. To do this, I bought stuff at the grocery store today that I actually like so I don’t have to eat PB&Js all the time. This should also help with the diet thing.

Love: REAL date night at least once a month.

Personal: floss my teeth every single day. I know, that should have been my habit since I was, like, 4, but it hasn’t been, and it’s never too late to start, right? And the working out and eating less thing that everyone else is planning is also on my list.

Spiritual: Pray. I plan to journal every day. I feel better when I dump stuff out of my head and onto paper.

Friends: Go to the park day and/or volleyball and get out from behind the computer once in a while.

Family: Take each of the kids on a “date” once a month with either me or Dave.

I tried to come up with a list of 101 things to accomplish in the next 1001 days, like I’ve seen a few people do, but I’m stuck at 45. I’ll keep working on that though.

Sorry for this exceedingly long and boring post. I’ll try not to do it again… at least today.

From here on out, I resolve to be perfect. No more of this “making mistakes”, or being “too tired” or “not caring enough” crap. Yeah. I’m going to just start being perfect. Starting tomorrow.

What are your resolutions?

Happy New Year!

and thanks for all the congrats on my last post. They make me all warm and fuzzy inside.