BELLA NAPOLI!!!

We have arrived in "Beautiful Naples".
I will give a rundown or our time in Norfolk, waiting on the AMC flight and our 12 days here so far. Some of it more for me than you but atleast when I go to "scrapbook" the trip I can hopefully remember more haha.
The kids and I left North Carolina bright and early on March 24th in a Hertz rental van. We made it to Norfolk around 1230 but could not check into the Navy Lodge at that time, becase we had the dog. So I went over to Hertz on base to get some information on our other reservation (wasn't keeping a van on a one way reservation for almost 2 weeks as one day was almost the same price as a week for a local midsize car, and those who know me know I do not "throw" money away when I can help it.). Much to my surprise I found out that Hertz would no longer be servicing the bases in Hampton Roads and I was told I "had" to return it to a different location. I was irritated to say the least as I had spent over an hour at the Hertz rental in Asheboro NC over an error on their part the day before. I informed Becky that her logical solution was unacceptable, so she called her boss and left a message. I went off base to check with Enterprise, I about had heart failure. They wanted almost $700 for the same thing Hertz was charging $330ish for. BTW Enterprise is the new Base "rental car" dealers on base atleast until the contract is up. Went back to the base as Becky had called my cell while I was in Enterprise. They offered me the rental at the same price and a 15 dollar cab fare discount. I told her yet again that it was unacceptable. For one someone should have contacted me when Hertz lost the contract so that we could make arrangements and they should have had a plan in place if they weren't going to call the "customers". The reason I found it unacceptable was because we were told we had to return it by 6pm on Military Hwy in Norfolk and then some how get to NOB. Have you driven at rush hour in Hampton Roads lately? Uhm yeah not gonna make that cab ride for $15. So after speaking with the manager he upped it to $35 for the cab and a $50 discount when he heard the rest of the horrible story form the day before. Any way I left Hertz still irritated but some what satisfied. Got to the Navy Lodge and was able to get in, and got the van unloaded. Ran to the storage unit to get a few things that we were taking on the plane with us like Snoopy's Crate, sleeping bags etc.... It took me 2 hours to get from NAB LC to Tidewater Dr and back. I spent 12 mins total in the storage bldg. the rest was spent sitting in traffic as it was rush hour. Got back to the base, fueled the van and headed to Hertz to get the other rental. It was interesting to get the few things from storage in there but I did, trunk open, kids holding dog and crate broken down in front seat lol. Gary called from the airport saying he had landed while I was still trying to get the mess in the car. He arrived about 20 min early (that never happens when we travel as a family, but then he gets put in first class when he flies sometimes too). We picked him up and stopped by our favorite place to eat in Hampton Roads Dynasty on Northhampton Blvd. We were greated with surprised looks as they know us by name we are there so much haha, as we were supposed to already be in Italy at that point. Had a great dinner and crashed early.
Gary checked in at TPU the next morning while the kids worked on school work. The weather was cold and rainy most of the 12 days we were there. Gary went into work everyday M-F. We had planned to go to Busch Gardens but with the weather like it was it wasn't worth it. And we had planned a trip to DC to see the Cherry blossoms, that didn't happen either as it snowed in DC, no point after that. We repacked bags and containers. Took the boys to the Orthodontics for their final exams before being released to the military dentist. We stopped by the ship to pick up some personal effects and such, but as usual still nothing. Gary has been detatched for over 4 months and they still can't get his award to him that should have been ready the day he checked out (Dec. 20th.). Not shocking though as I had been there in Feb and got the same run around.
Oh and let me just say we have stayed in many Navy Lodges, but this was the worst stay ever. The manager even contacted us personally due to the problems we had. Not that it did us any good but hey it was worth a shot lol. We were in bed trying to wind down one night and at 1030pm there was a knock on the door. I opened it as it was maintainance, I asked if he could come back in the morning, he refused and said he had to come in. He finally left after about 45 mins. We were pissed as there was NO reason that he needed to be in our room that late. It was all because the guest next door decided to wait until 10pm to complain about his sink stopping up and demanded it be fixed (found this out after the mang. contacted us). But this was after the ice machine being broken, which was also broken a month before, when we were there for dropping the Van off for shipment. I was assured it would be fixed. Was still broken when we checked out over a week later. The luggage carts were broken, literally the wheels were flat on one and the other looked to have been filled with fix a flat and then the rubber burst which made it impossible to steer. I was assured they would be fixed also. Yeah they pulled them both, so there was no luggage carts at all. After all of that we were offer half off of one night. Next time we need to stay in HR's it was be the NOB or Dam Neck Navy Lodge locations not JEB Little Creeks.
We ate at Red Lobster on Thursday evening for a late lunch/early dinner. Had a couple of coupons in my purse so I took it in. HUGE mistake as I left it under my chair when we left. Since moving wasn't stressful enough. Called and it was still there, but when I picked it up I knew it had been gone through. All of the cash was gone, but CC's and all were still in there. I had to put alerts on the SS #s as ID cards were in it, close out CC's and such. Still waiting on those cards btw Discover.
My mom came up on Sunday and we met her at her Hotel as she didn't really know her way around. Finished packing and watched a few movies. On Tuesday we got up and took all of our stuff, carry on and shipped along with the dog to the airport so that we were checked in and could sit together etc... That was time consuming and stressful too. We had 10 bags/containers being shipped and then our carry ons and 3 personal items. Luckily we got smart and left all of the carry ons except one in the lockers at the checkin counter so we didn't have to lug them around and drag them back through security. Worked out great, we only had to  MIL and her sister came up to see us off. Called both of my grandmas one last time. We went to Uno's for dinner. That is when I realized I had left my cell phone in the rental car that we had dropped off just before going to dinner. Do you see the pattern here? lol. Went back to get it, but Hertz was closed. Thankfully the other business next door was still open and I described the car, they came back with my phone. We headed to the airport, zipped right through security and waited our 2 hours. Called my dad one last time and canceled the stateside cell phones. That took forever as they want you to put it on hold or have a family member take over it etc.... Just cancel my stupid phones and plan please. Visited with the moms while we waited and tried to keep the dog calm as she had no clue what was going on.
More to come later cause I have to go to the commissary again.

trying to see if this is going to

finally post to Facebook of if it is still blocked.
I hope to update here on Monday.
So much to talk about too late to do it tonight.

Great Smoky Mountains Wildlife

It has been almost 2 weeks since my last post. But I have been sick and on vacation. After a trip to the ER for dh and I, (He needed to go and the insurance said I had to go to the ER or wait another 48 hours to go to urgent care!!!) what the heck is up with that? I am finally on 3 meds for a Sinus infection and slowly starting to feel better. So I processed a few quick pics from a couple of days ago.
These are some beautiful animals that we saw while traveling through the Cades Cove part of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We saw lots of animals and I was very impressed with the trip.

This was a Doe that we saw just inside the loop in the woods. She was with 3 others. I wish the background hadn't been so crowded but hey you take what you can get with mother nature :D


These are some Turkeys that we saw in the fields beside of the horse pastures. I wish they had been closer. But again oh well lol.

 The husband and I are pretty sure this is a coyote. Pretty none the less. We actually saw a couple of these but the other one was running through the woods. If you know for sure what this is I would love to know :)

He decided to sit right beside of the tree to the right as we were heading up to the restrooms but some car come flying up so they could get a picture of him. Needless to say he was up and moving again before I could fire the shot. This was right at dusk.

This buck was right along the side of the road and had no care in the world. I believe he even posed for us. And when I say us I have to give credit to "the husband" as he actually pressed the shutter and snapped this beautiful image. I set the focal point and all settings to get the right exposure etc.. I think we work pretty well as a team lol.

We also saw a black bear cub, unfortunately I didn't get a shot of it as the was literally a "crazy" lady in front of us who jumped out of her car as soon as the bear ran in front of them and chased the poor thing across the field and into the woods. I really think she was crazy as apparently she doesn't know that "mama" was more than likely watching her every move, either that or the cub is going to be in big trouble when mama bear wakes up from her hibernation and realizes the baby is gone. Yes I was crazy in Alaska when I sat on the window seal of the van and photographed a bear cub there but I wasn't crazy enough to get out and chase him. But then the one in Alaska never moved haha, he just laid there and ate his dandilions.

 I was totally bummed that we didn't get a shot off though as I am sure most of you know that bears this time of year is a huge rarity. They aren't supposed to be out. lol

I have some images of icicles, waterfalls, the mill etc.... coming up soon. Hoping the weather and infection cooperate and I get a few images of the Winterfest lights before we leave.

We have been trying to find things that were here 15 years ago while we were on our honeymoon but that is pretty hard. Most things have been torn down or things built up in front of the old ones. The China unlimited shop is still here that is one of very few things we remember besides the lights.
Any way ears are hurting will try to write more tomorrow evening or maybe even Thursday while waiting on the husband to take his Chiefs exam in Knoxville.

Oh man I am sitting here

reading a friend of mines blog about their experiences while moving to Japan. I am so greatful that ours hasn't been as rough as hers.
You can read about her here http://ourimperfectlife.blogspot.com/p/favorite-blog-posts.html.
I met Debra and her family while we were stationed at NAS Corpus Christi. After reading her entries I will have to post ours as things are finally done. Luckily for us our whole process is going more smoothly than hers I think mainly due to the fact that we have more time to get everything set up. When all is said and done there will be 13 months between the time we found out we were moving to Naples and the time we actually get there. That wasn't our choice btw....
I was reading her blog while backing up my External HD's to my portable HD's. After having and entire 1TB HD fail on me last year I don't want to take any chances with the move. So I am backing up images to and from CD's, to and from HD's. I am leaving the CD's and Externals in Storage here in the states and taking the (4) 1TB portables with me to Naples. I will buy more once there as needed.

On a side note it snowed again today. It was very pretty but not nearly as pretty as the "white" Christmas we had. It was very windy and cold today. I hope to venture out tomorrow and get some photos. Hopefully the ice we are expecting doesn't get too bad. I want to venture further out this time :D.
Guess I should get going gotta get some packing done as we are heading to the Great Wolf Lodge on Wednesday as long as the roads are passible. Then on Friday we are off to Gatlinburg TN for our 15 yr Anniversary. Yes we are taking the kids, lol we always take the kids. That is the sacrafice of being a military family some times.
Hopefully I get to update tomorrow with some new snow images.

It is a new year and lots of things...

Finally blogger and google are cooperating :D

are in store for us.
But before I get into all of that I will just post a couple of pics from our "White Christmas". I don't consider it a white Christmas unless you wake up with it on the ground lol but apparently that isn't the "official" way to look at it :D
Hope you enjoy.

Well apparently blogger and google aren't communicating. I will get the images up as soon as they both cooperate.

Dental is done....

Went in to the dental clinic today for that portion of the overseas screening. Went well and we all got the green light! Now just get through the medical screening tomorrow.


Went to legal here, wasn't much help as I had expected. But I did get the contact info for there. I am almost thinking that it isn't worth even bothering with the photography business and I should just shoot for myself, maybe sell some landscapes etc... Gonna have to disc it with the hubster.



Kids and I will be heading down to the Seafood Fest here in housing in a few. They are having peel and eat shrimp :D Wish the hubster was here to go with us as he LOVES that kind of shrimp. And hey you can't beat a "free" meal right?

Photographers who need a laugh #2

rofl....

Photographers who need a laugh must watch!

How true this is sometimes!!

Fotofusion Templates

Just wanted to share some awesome templates from a great lady named Anna. She was so thoughtful and shared them with everyone. I can't wait to play but I can't until I get back to my photos. Anna I will share my plays once I get a chance.
http://www.annawhocropsalot.blogspot.com/
She also has some tutorials on her blog too. Please check it out if you love to take photos pro or not :D
Thanks again for sharing! You are Awesome! Sorry for taking so long to share. I had issues with Blogger posting.

If you are wondering what Fotofusion is it is an Awesome program for Scrapbooking and Photographers alike. I purchased this software to help me design my clients albums, but soon realized I could also use it for my own photos and scrap them digitally. There are 3 versions of Lumapix Fotofusion.
Scrapbooking essentials, Enhanced and Extreme (professional photographers)
You can check out the software here.
http://www.lumapix.com/index.shtml

Things are starting to get hectic

The past few weeks have been absolutely crazy.
The husband and I went to the TAP class at NOB mid September. We learned alot about our/his benefits. I highly recommend that anybody retiring from the military attend this course. You can go 2 times I believe. The husband still has just under 4 years left but we were told to attend here in the states as he would get much more information. I am sure we will attend again while we are still in Naples closer to the actual retirement.
During that week we stopped in at NAVPTO to find out how things were going wtih the travel part of the PCS. And as we figured  nothing was done. Command had not even sent the paperwork over and as far as I know they still haven't. Not surprising.
Found out what we needed to do for the No Fee Passports and Visa's. So we typed everything up and printed them off, and took them in the following week. They looked over the paperwork and wouldn't take them because we printed everything front and back. Can't do that. So if you are applying for a No Fee Passport you HAVE to print the front of the application on one sheet and the back on another. Apparently the barcode won't scan if you print them on both sides. And the command had typed one of the kids birthdays wrong, and had not signed any of the paperwork. So the hubs took everything in to the command the following day. We finally have them in and they are being processed. 6-8 weeks for the turn around. Visa's we are being told will take about 4 weeks. Hopefully they don't get lost lol. But we can't apply for them until the end of the year. So have jumping through hoops we have done what we can for those 2 things.
Overseas screenings, oh my where do I start. That has been a nightmare. I have been trying to get the information needed for these since we found out we were going to Naples in Feb. Yeah I finally had to go in and speak to people in person. We have the immunizations and TB test taken care of. But apparently they are to be done at the same time. So I spent 20 mins at Boone clinic being chewed out because someone didn't do things they way this person wanted it done. Not sure which is actually correct. Dental screening was last week but when I confirmed there was a mix up and we went in a day early, so now we are scheduled for this coming week. The physical screening is this week too. Hoping it all goes smoothly.
I am so thankful we are not one of the many of people who get orders and report less than month later overseas. There are just too many things to get done and too many times you don't get the correct info.
Still waiting on the command to submit the paperwork for us all to Travel and by the end of Dec. we should have our flight info.
Oh and we requested a sponsor almost 2 weeks ago. Still waiting on that too.
As for the photography business, I have done a few sessions but since we were planned to be out of here the end of last month, I had not booked any after September. So if you are interested in a Fall or Holiday session let me know. I am currently looking into the SOFA Laws for Italy. As I am getting conflicting info as to if I can continue the business there or not. I sure hope so, I love photography, but if I can't I will shoot for myself and travel as much as possible :D
Who has started their holiday/Christmas shopping? I finally have. I have picked up a few things for the kids, preordered a couple of things for them also. Heading out tomorrow to pick up my moms. Got to get to work on the grandparents and great grandparents gifts. So what have you done so far? This is our first year since my hubs and I have been married (15 years in Jan) that we have spent a Christmas at home. Kind of excited but also worried as both families are so big that there is no way we will see everyone on that day, we refuse to be in the car the whole day. But the hubs will be on leave so we will have time to see everyone at some point at least. So thankful I am not having to put up a tree this year though lol. It gets old when you have to do it by yourself cause the spouse is always gone. And I am so short that it frustrates me at times haha.
Oh and on a YAY me note, I have started  working out again. I had to do something, the meds for my back had totally screwed me up. Caused more pain than I started with and I have gained over 50 pounds in a year due to all of the side effects and not being able to work out. I am finally to a point that I don't wake up hurting every day (usually just a couple of days a week) and not physically sick. So Friday was my first day of working out. 3 days in a row..... It is a start. Friday I was only able to do 20 mins on the eliptical. Today I was able to go for 25 mins. I think it will do me even more good to work off some of the stress that comes from PCSing, so hopefully I sick with it.
Well this is it for today. I really hope I can post atleast 2 times a week. If nothing more it can be updates on the move to Naples Italy.....

The blog is much

closer to what I wanted now. Hope you guys like it and I will be updating more. Let me know what you think!

Bare with me

I am trying my hardest to revamp this blog to make it prettier and much more user friendly. Hope to have it fully done within a week or so. Have lots of updates to make once it is finished!

NAPLES ITALY!!!

It is official, we are heading to Naples Italy in 2011. We have known since March that we were going but we got the official copy yesterday!! We are so excited and March can't get here fast enough. Now there is so much to get done. I sure hope the next 6 months fly by. Photographing Europe has always been a dream of mine. Stay tuned for updates...

Oh man it has been a long day...

Updated to add the quick snap shots that I took.

Had some things that had to be taken care of last night so I was up until 2am. Finally fell asleep sometime after 230am. And then it seems like 5 mins later that the alarm went off. It was actually 630am and time to get up, cut Austin's hair, get the other 2 in the showers and be at NOB by 9am for Gary's reenlistment. We were up and, bathed, fed and completely ready by 8am. So we headed over the Nexcom to drop Sunrita's OPLOVE video and photos off to her. And then sit in traffic to actually get on base. Park forever away from the pier and then head towards the ship. Onboard at 902am but it didn't make a difference. Gary didn't get topside until almost 920am. We headed to the bridge, discussed what was going on with his releif and our orders to Naples. A little after 10am we finally got the reenlistment ceremony underway. Gary was discharged and enlisted in a matter of 3 minutes lol. They gave me a certificate (as usual) for my dedication and support etc... But someone forgot the kids. Not sure if it was Gary or someone else. I guess they will get theirs at some point. We celebrated with a cake. Certainly not the best cake but you could tell it wasn't from a box lol.
We (the kids and I) made it off the ship around 11 or so, and went to the Cold Stone Creamery to order Sommer's Birthday cake for Saturday. She wanted a Strawberry cheesecake ice cream with red velvet cake. Get to pick it up on Friday at lunch time (yay). This is the Cold Stone on Base, can't you see my excitement?
Gary finally got off sometime after noon. He decided that LoneStar Steakhouse was where we would go to celebrate his last 4 year enlistment in the Navy. Lunch wasn't too bad other than it took him til almost 2pm to decide where we were going. Didn't know kids eat free on Tuesdays there nor that they offer a military discount of 10% everyday and 20% on Mondays.
Now we are home and relaxing. I need to process his enlistment pics and get them up and maybe even creat a page or 2 for the scrapbook before we forget everything lol.
So after this very long winded entry I will try to get the pictures up soon.
Think I will head to bed early tonight :D

I believe my blog will be photography and everything else from now on!

The kids and I are sitting here listening to an Italian learning CD that we got from the JEB Little Creek library. Some of the things come back to me from my Latin days in High school. Some of the words though, oh my we will be laughed at I am sure. But atleast we are trying. And the kids will get what 4 years of Italian for their home schooling. They really enjoy it, thankfully and we laugh when we mess up. I have been told by a few people though that we will need to learn the Naples version of Italian as it is very different for regular Italian. Wish us luck and off we go for more :D.

Sunrita's Oplove session

Oh my been awhile again

Time is passing me by. Ever since we got verbal orders to Naples Italy in February, time has been going by quickly for everything except the hard copy lol.

Hard to believe we are already in July. Last week was crazy, the husband's ship went to the Bahamas for some shindig. Unfortunately no photos to scrap for DH's album as he only got to step about 5 feet outside of the gate. They were only there for 2 days and he had duty the full day in port. Go figure lol.
He finally got home about 6pm Saturday night, which made for a very short 4th of July weekend. We lounged with the kids on Sunday cause it was way too hot to go any where during daylight hours. We did wind up going to see some fireworks that night. Started off by heading to Downtown Norfolk since I was able to get some beautiful shots there last year. After sitting in traffic and realizing most parking decks were completely full we got out of there and hit 264 and heading for Va Beach instead. Stopped at a parking deck on Independence Blvd so we didn't have to fight the Mt. Trashmore traffic. If you are just wanting to "see" the fireworks it was a good location but I only too my 90mm as a "just" in case lense and it was too short. I had trees (which are ok) and powerlines in the way. But all in all I got some ok shots. Hopefully next year in Italy I can get some beautiful shots again.

I will post a collage in a bit of the kids and the fireworks.

Oh and we did take the kids to Kings Dominion on Monday, and OMGoodness was it ever so hot. I literally thought I was going to have a heat stroke or something. It was fun but too hot to really enjoy it.

But I just wanted to say I have been pretty busy with processing clients photos and designing albums.

Like I said before things have been way fast since getting the orders, we have gone to 2 workshops for the move and have another to go but can't do that until we have orders in hand. The kids are moving from phase one in braces to phase 2. Can I just say "Sticker Shock?" This is a busy time of year here in Hampton Roads for photographers, but it has been so hot that many of mine have been moved indoors. My house and studio are turned upside down as we have been packing things we want to keep but no need to take. You know that huge dining room table that is not going to fit in the 1400 sq ft houses over there lol. Yeah that has been oh so fun. We have gone through things and had a yard sale, but gonna have to have another. We are lined up to go to a TAPS class soon, hard copy should be in soon and we are no where near ready. The husband will be in and out until he detaches in Nov., so most of this move will be left up to me again. And after our last move I could so do a DITY but that would be too costly for an OCONUS move. So I am stuck with the movers the Navy hires.

My house is turned upside down and I have another shoot tomorrow. I gotta run and clean but again here are a couple of photos from our 4th of July weekend.

Been an interesting day here today

Not sure how many of you know but we have orders to Naples Italy!!!!! We are so excited, the time to go can't get here fast enough. Anyway....
The hubs and I had to meet with the Orthodontist this morning. We have one child that is still in phase 1 and ready for phase 2, one that has finished phase 1 and should be ready for phase 2 around July. The 3rd they are hoping can hold off until she is a bit older. Any way we were there today to decide what route we want to take for phase 2. We can do just plain extractions and make it all much better. Or he can have surgery and extractions and make it "perfect". I am pretty sure we are leaning towards just the extractions and make the best of what we were dealt. But the real question comes into play with no knowing what Naples has to offer for dependants with braces. So tomorrow at some point I get to try and call or go into Boone clinic and talk with Dental to find out if they have the orthodontic facilities or not. So that was sticker shock, insurance will only pay another 750. Our portion is almost 4000 dollars. Not counting what we have paid for phase 1. But we have started this process, we need to finish it I guess.
Once that was over we actually had lunch together as the hubs was going to miss it on the ship by the time he got back. He left back for work, I tried to schedule that drs appt. that I have been trying to get since Friday still with no luck. Worked on some photos, and took the kids to Soccer practice. It was parents against kids scrimage. Yeah that was a mistake. Pretty sure I broke my toe lol. It won't bend and it hurts like crazy to walk. Go figure, that is my luck. We are home and settled in for the night. While fixing dinner on the George Forman I burned my arm, blisters and all lol. Now waiting on the hubs to get home, as he warned me that this week will be late nights due to training.
So yeah I know this has nothing to do with Photography but I figure if I get into the habit of posting regularly the photography part of it will fall into place lol.
Hope everyone had a more productive day than I have. As I am still trying to search for answers about our DL's (North Carolina and Texas) as we need them valid for the entire length of the OCONUS tour.

Update for Father's Day

"A Father carries pictures where his money used to be - so why not give him a wallet with a picture on it for Father's Day!"

I said yesterday that I would post an update with more info on the Father's Day Specials. I am awaiting the samples from the company to actually show you some of the products. So until then I will just post a reminder that we have until June 14th to hold the session and get the session fee at 50% off. As soon as I get the samples I will update the post. So check back often!

Father's Day Specials!!!!

Book a session now for Father's Day!! 1/2 off the Session fee (some restrictions apply for locations) Hold your session between June 1st and June 14th for this special. Session fee is $75! That is 50% off. I offer many items that make great gifts for dad, mouse pads, mugs, wallets, shaving kit bag etc... Call or email to book your session!