31 Things: Story 17 & 18

A little lighter in content for these two stories. Still, I think the girls will like reading about my love of photography and my lack of money for shoes! 

Story 17: Technology | "Total Techie"



i am a total techie. i don’t get as excited about anything (non-living) like i do about technology. fortunately, my husband has a similar love for gadgets and electronics, so he gets it. there are a few of our technology buys that i use on a daily basis. i love our computers (imac desktop and mac book air), my kindle, my iphone (i always say i’ll never buy another kind of phone), the dvd player in the pilot, our dvr in the house, michael’s ipad, our bose sound dock (best sound in the house), our televisions, our dvd and bluray players and all of the things that make those pieces of technology run, like our internet connection, our dvds’s, computer software, our routers, my cell phone provider and the satellite dish. if it plugs in or has batteries, i need it!


on our recent 10-day rv camping trip to california, we stayed in some pretty remote areas and were unplugged for 90% of the time we were there.  it felt so strange not to jump onto twitter or facebook to post a short update or to post a few photos on instagram. those are things that i do pretty much daily to connect with my friends, family and the people that read my blog.


i am so glad that i live in a time where technology can connect me to the people i love with the click of a few buttons. since we live away from virtually every single person that we know and love, video chatting can make the distance seem a little less daunting. the girls love to video chat and have since they had a weekly chat with my mom before she died. 


perhaps the one piece of technology that i appreciate more than any other is my camera. a canon 5d mark ii. i love this camera so much and have learned so much about photography just by picking it up and trying new things with it (though i have to throw in photoshop with the camera because i use them both to produce that perfect shot). i got “my baby” last year after a really good run with my canon 20d. this was a serious upgrade! the digital format allows me to see almost immediately what i did wrong and what i need to adjust. i’ve learned to shoot fairly quickly in full-manual mode this year through just trying new things and playing with the settings. i have understood the camera settings for years, but have always been pretty slow with adjusting and i often miss the shot.  i’m very happy with my progress with this camera and i hope that i can make photography a successful business for me. it’s a passion that i have and hope to nurture. selfishly, i hope to pass this love onto my girls, as well. i know they’ll never regret having quality shots of the important pieces of their lives.


i will be interested in the kind of technology that my girls will have as they begin school. i’m sure it will be a far cry from the Apple 2e i grew up with when i was younger. i mean, cars can park themselves now…what’s next?

Story 18: Shoes | "Hugegiantmanfeet"

i’m not a huge shoe fanatic. i mean, i am a woman, so naturally, i love a new pair of shoes, but they’re just not high up on my priority list as far as what to buy. shoes always get knocked down the totem pole when it comes time to buy them. There is always something else i need to purchase that is more practical. plus, i always think michael won’t understand if i tell him i want to buy a $100 pair of shoes...imagine his reaction if i show him a $700 pair!? Add to that the fact that i have hugegiantmanfeet. a size 10 just doesn’t look the same in a pair of sleek heels as size 6. truth.

this year, i have purchased 5 pairs of shoes: 3 pairs of flip-flops from old navy at $2.50 a piece (big spender, i know), a pair of tom’s (which were ruined in the washer after our camping trip) at $50, and a pair of k-swiss running shoes (to replace the cheap pair i bought in 2010) at a big price tag of $125. these running shoes are definitely the most expensive shoe purchase i’ve ever made. 

i would love to be able to afford the kind of shoes that catch my eye when i’m walking through nordstrom (which is never now that we’re in reno, because there isn’t one). a pair of manolo’s, or jimmy choo’s or charles david’s. truthfully, even if i had it, i’d have a hard time spending hundreds of dollars on a pair of shoes, it’s just not in my nature, i don’t think. i just don’t get dressed up and go out enough to justify it. that won’t change no matter how much money i have. i’m a homebody.

now, if we were talking about handbags, this would be a completely different story, but don’t get me started on the power of a great bag!