Gilligan's Island?

Nope... Gilligan's Pier! Oh yea... that place. WAaaayyy back in the country of Southern Maryland is a little place called La Plata. Some of you may have heard of it as every September, the poor little town gets leveled by every hurricane that comes to visit. However, there's a little "nook" of the town I was introduced to when my Photojournalism class went there to visit and take some pictures of landscapes! It's really cute and somewhat chintzy, but hey... we are still in MD!

Anyway, here are a few shots from the evening...

Summer Lovin'

While I hate the movie "Grease," the phrase from that stupid song is somewhat fitting for my summer thus far.

If you may not know, this is my first full summer down here in Southern Maryland as Bobby and I got married in the middle of last summer. I have been enjoying the local flavor and hundreds of roadside stands supplied by the many farms down here. I stopped at one last week and the poor farmer boys probably thought I was nuts... I was so excited to buy a HUGE bouquet of Sunflowers from them for $3!!!! 12 flowers for less than 1 "grande" Iced Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks! Oh, the deal! Aren't they beautiful though? I mean, seriously!

So here's my checklist of things accomplished this summer:

1. Get summer quota of mosquito bites : Check (Record was 25 at one time. Thanks Tiki Bar!)
2. Take the doors off the Jeep: Check (Picture is from a few years ago!)
3. Hit some baseball games with my stud-of-a-husband: Check
4. Discover new Sunscreen allergy by fighting a terribly uncomfortable rash on neck(wonderfully flattering picture, I know!): Check
5. Spend almost every summer week night doing homework (someone please tell me these past 4 years were worth it!!!) : Check
6. Brave it through a weekend with no AC (yes, on purpose, yes, very bad idea): Check
7. Attempt to understand my foreign lifeguard when he says "Ah-dough-t sv-weem" means
"Adult Swim" not "I don't swim!": Check
8. Win a cook-off with the neighbors by sending them into a sugar-coma with my Pecan Pie: Check
9. Attempt to walk 40 blocks up Coastal Hwy in OC after a night at Seacrets: Check
10. Spend almost every Saturday morning having breakfast with my handsome husband
outside on our deck: Check

So Happy Summer-ing, ya'll!

Red-Rover

Dear Saint Mary's County,

I am writing to express my sincere dissatisfaction with your continued decision to completely outlaw street lights.

Us poor "new-comers" to the county are not sure what to expect when driving down your beautiful country or community roads. Is it to prevent us from seeing the GIGANTIC deer play "Red-Rover, Red-Rover" across a road with the highest speed limit in the county?! Or perhaps you want to pride yourselves on having the most aware and alert drivers in the state... all with huge dents on the sides of their cars.

Alas, you can find deterring deer whistles in almost every checkout aisle in the grocery stores. But still no street lights to guide our way down the winding roads of such completely vacant farm land.

I digress.

Saint Mary's County, I am quite upset at you for this.

Sincerely,

Your bona fide "city-girl" resident

Baby Love

I was a busy girl this week... Salsa class on Thursday night and a visit with my friend, Diane on Friday!
My final project for my photojournalism class is to create a photo essay to tell a "news worthy" story. I decided to portray a day in the life of a stay at home mother. I asked Diane and her beautiful baby Lily to be my models and thankfully, they agreed! They are just two VERY photogenic girls and Lily is certainly used to being in the lime light - she did a fantastic job of posing. Anyway, it was a great morning, so thanks Diane and Lily for letting me "snap" you for a few hours!

Spice Up Your Life

Last Thursday evening, I had the pleasure of attending my friend, Al's Salsa class down here in SOMD. Bless you, Al, and all the people in your class for putting up with some weird girl walking around the room, crawling on the floor, standing up on a ladder, etc., to attempt and capture them all moving so darn fast! However, it was a blast and next time, I might take my salsa shoes instead of my camera! Any activity where you can wear heels like those girls did and still get exercise is my kinda thing!

So here are some of the pictures I took the other night from Al's Salsa class... and I must say, the ladies were standing in line to dance with him!

Moved the camera to follow the dancers = dancers are clear with blurred background.
Camera held still to show the movement in the dancers with a still background.

Taken at the Modern Dance class held before Salsa. I think this is so cool!
...can anyone teach me how to use photoshop and get rid of the other girl in the background?!

The Phat Cat

Being an indoor cat and all, Poor Killian was beginning to gain somewhat of a gut that would frequently swing back-and-forth as he ran. While the rest of us are dieting and trying to keep our waistlines trim, we thought Killian should be doing the same.

After a few hours of searching online, Bobby found this website that sells a cat toy specifically designed to make the cat play with it in order to get his food, thus controlling how much food he gets at once and giving him some exercise while he's at it (I love run-on sentences!).

Here's how it works: one quarter to one half a cup of his food goes into the tube twice a day. There is a small opening on the side of the tube that only a few pieces can fall out of - feeding the cat. In order for those pieces to fall out, the cat needs to play or push around the tube to make them fall out.

He quickly caught on and gave in to our little game in order to feed his fat belly! So, we can now congratulate Killian for losing a whopping five pounds in the past 2 months! We now call him Jared and hold up his fat jeans to keep him motivated.

Good boy!!!

Beauty

The more I look through the lens of my camera, the more I see and am able to capture some of the most beautiful things this world has to offer.

Summer is my favorite time of the year - a delight for all senses. For me, there is almost nothing better than walking outside at dusk to the smell of grass, the sea breeze and that almost musky smell of Maryland humidity. Pair that with the calming hum of grasshoppers and the fuzzy view of the moon and you've got the perfect Maryland evening.

I was flipping through the bible I used in high school and came across this verse:

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities

...have been clearly seen, being understood from what has
been made, so that men are without excuse."
- Romans 1:20

After seeing so much beauty in the things that God has created, how can people claim that there is no God? A brand new baby, a bouquet of flowers, freshly picked blueberries, a sunrise/sunset, the rhythm of the ocean, a newly married couple. All tangible things of beauty should leave us with no excuse that there is a God and if the things he's giving us here are beautiful, I can't wait to see what His house looks like when I get there.

What an amazing privilege it is to be able to capture God's beauty here on this earth and have a constant visual reminder to keep with us until we get to see The Grand Finale.

Seafood, Jazz and Sightseeing!

Hey ya'll! This weekend was a blast! My parents came down from Severna Park to stay with Bobby and I this weekend. It started out with breakfast on Saturday morning with a fabulous, new recipe for Blueberry and Orange-glazed scones and some good catching-up.

For those of you who have never been to Southern Maryland (St. Mary's County, in particular) in the summer, there is some event going on almost every weekend and most times, right by the water! This particular weekend, my Dad had bought extra tickets to St. Clements Island Museum's annual Seafood and Jazz festival! Eager to do something local, we agreed! We met up for lunch with my Dad's high school friend, who took us on a sailboat ride. Bobby had never been sailing before, but he did a great job "manning the jig" and yelling "tallie-ho!!!" to all the crew members. Just kidding... I have no idea what those terms mean!

So off to the seafood and jazz festival we went and it was phenomenal! I am not too familiar with many Jazz musicians, but these guys were great! The festival took place at St. Clement's Island museum, which is right on the bay (also known to be one of the first landing places in Maryland and used as a refuge from the Indians that roamed the Maryland shore). We took a fairy ride to the island and took some nice pictures of the light house, which was built in the 1800's, and also the cross, which was erected in the 1600's (obviously, it's a replica) to symbolize one of the first religious tolerance movements in America. Anyway, it made for some nice pictures!

We had some fried shrimp, hush puppies, slaw, some good beer and wine, and ice cream to top it all off!

The Jazz festival from the water...

St. Clement's Island Lighthouse.

View from the "main land..." St. Clement's Island in the distance.

Cute boat.

This is what 43 years looks like... Mom and Dad.

This is what 1 year and 2 weeks looks like... me and Bobby with the island in the background.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Not everyone appreciates their mother as much as they should.

When I was about five years old, I remember vividly the image of my mother in the kitchen, hovering over the counter, kneading bread dough. When she heard me coming, she would turn around ever so gracefully. The vision of a happy, beautiful woman with her yellow, flowered apron on appeared before me. With her dark brown hair pulled back into a bouncy pony-tail and a big, pink satin ribbon tied around it (not to mention her brightly colored, coordinating shoes) she was the epitome of all things beautiful to such a small child.

At 13 years old, any mother-daughter relationship turns into that of love and hate. I loved the times my mom and I would parade the halls of Annapolis Mall together. I would cooperate (sometimes) in her Bombay Company store, while she would reluctantly visit the Limited, Too! with me. I hated the times she told me to put newspaper down before I ever sat on a boys lap (not sure where she got that one!). Those were the years I didn't appreciate my mother as much as I should have... in public. Despite my outward displays of eye-rolls and ignorance, I still felt extremely close to my mother and somehow secretly, I desperately hoped that she knew I hadn't gone astray from her.

About two years ago, right after Bobby and I got engaged, I spent numerous hours with my mom - making wedding appointments, talking about details, driving to different venues. We spent a lot of time together and I realized our relationship had shifted somehow from what I remember. No longer was she dictating rules or "ruining my life!!!" but she was speaking with me as a friend and a sister in Christ.

The memories that I carry of my beautiful mother are those of happiness and joy, two qualities that are almost constantly surrounding her. On Saturday mornings, I remember coming down the stairs only to see my mom laying down in the living room with her bible open and her head laid low. A fellow blogger and AACS (my high school) alum, Val Nebbia explains it perfectly:

"I have always dreamed of the thoughts that she must have had in those quiet moments and over time I have determined that she must have been speaking with God. She must have been asking him what heaven was like. And I believe that her home is a painting, her scaled model of the things he told her. I believe that he gave her dreams so that she would not have to search any longer."

My mothers happiness and joy can be explained by this and although her home is beautiful and full of life and love, her glimpse of heaven must have been the abundant, real and tangible love of Christ that we'll get to experience once we get there.

Happy Birthday Mom!

B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E!!!!

So I hate taking pictures of sports. I've always thought that being a sports photographer would be such a cool job. I mean, sitting on the sidelines of a baseball field while history is being made!? It doesn't get much cooler than that. Apart from the fact that I felt SO cool while taking these pictures at the 2 games I went to, I've completely ruled out sports photography from my list of dream careers.
Anyway, I had more fun joining in with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs' pep squad singing cheers than I did actually taking the pictures. Nonetheless, here's what I came up with. The girls were playing at a high school all-star game in Waldorf and the men were at the SOMD Blue Crabs game. Enjoy!



I call this one (below), "Behind the chain link fence"
I call this one, "Contemplations from the strike zone"


I call this one, "Melissa hates photographing moving things, so I'll be a cheater and take a picture of the only thing standing still at a sports game." I think it's kind of pretty though, don't you think?

Yay for Indie-Pendence Day!

If anyone knows the Wise Family, you know they like to cook...and mostly eat. That's exactly what we did to celebrate America's independence.

After about 60 e-mails back and forth in order to refine our celebratory menu, here's what we came up with:

Appetizers
-Deviled Eggs
-Individual Caprisi Salads
-Jalepeno Poppers
-Chips

Main Course
- Burgers, Dogs, Brats, BBQ Chicken
-German Potato Salad
-2 kinds of pasta salads
-Fresh Corn on the Cob
-Fruit Salad

Dessert
-Blueberry Pies
-Strawberry Pies
-Pecan Pie
-Brownie Pie
-Fruit Tart
-Jen's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies
-Hazelnut Mini-Cup Cakes
-White Chocolate Chex Mix

Needless to say...us Wises have sort of a sweet-tooth problem!!!

After dinner, Grandma Wise bought all her Granddaughters Red and White cheerleading outfits!! I have never seen such cute little girls!!! They all frolicked around in the back yard while Aunt April taught them cheers! Pom-Pom's and all, it was SO cute.

Bennett and AJ manning the grill.

Aunt April teaching a cheer!

It wouldn't be 4th of July without some sand! Little Neil Ascher likes to get messy!


Mary Claire and Jacob were kicking the soccer ball around.

Patience and Adam taking a rest.

Wife of the Year Award

...goes to ME! I just made my husband the happiest man of the world with this dish. Thank you Pioneer Woman!!!
Comfort in a pan: Pepper Jack Cheese, corn, green chilies, jalepeno, onion and garlic. It's magic. To find the recipe and win the award yourself, go here!