The Terrible News is No Longer Terrible (Sequel to previous post)

'member last week when I wrote that awful post about how awful my life was? Well, let me tell you something.

I was having a horrible few days without my camera. Katie decided to do everything cute and start posing fun all the time, and actually saying "cheese" when prompted (as opposed to the rest of the time we tell her to say "cheese" and she glares and says "NO!"). It was feeling sad and desperate.

Way-ell, I think Mike was starting to notice how sad and depressed I was without my camera. I love to take pictures (on occasion I'm actually rather good) and one of my great ambitions is to become a real photographer. So I tend to just click and click and click. We have hundreds, nay, THOUSANDS of pictures of Katie. (And a couple of them actually aren't blurry!)

So Saturday comes around, and I'd briefly talked to my sister Emma about using her camera for a while (they have like 6 at their house so she could probably share with Sarah or my dad if needed). However, before I have a chance to go get her camera, Mike comes up with a devious plan and sets it into motion! It turns out, he had a secret stash--quite literally in his sock drawer. Go figure?

He comes up and is like, "what if we replaced your camera?" And I'm like, "well, I guess I looked at some options. Costco and Best Buy have some $100 point-and-shoots that I could deal with." And he's like, "No way, woman. I'm talking better!"

Turns out, he researched some options also, and found this:
It's the Nikon Coolpix L120! And he found it at Costco for less than $200! Yay!

I know what you're thinking. That's not a real camera. And you're right. It's not. The kind of camera I'm hoping for someday is the kind that's up in the thousands, comes with different lenses, and should only be bought by real photographers who know how to use it (unlike me just yet). It's the kind of camera that will only come when Mike's a doctor and is like, "I stayed late and did one extra brain surgery today, so who wants to go to Europe? Also, Brittany, I got you this professional-grade camera."

Yeah, it's gonna be a few years before that happens. But right now, I have something better than a typical point-and-shoot that I can use to improve my skills--something I didn't think I would have for years! Woohoo!

Excuse me. I need to go play with my camera now. Bye!

I have terribly bad news.

My fellow Americans (and also that one international reader I have--I don't remember your name but you're from the UK and you commented once and I will never forget you): a very sad day is upon us.

My camera is broken. (Weep! Seriously.)

As much as I know you all get very frustrated at me for writing all the time without pictures, the fact is that I was just too lazy to get up and get my portable hard drive (where I store all the pictures because our laptops are both senior citizens in technology world). I really did have plenty of pictures available. Katie has been the most well-documented child in the history of digital photography.

But now we face a very real crisis: NOT having pictures of every single cute thing Katie does in her entire life! Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking. I don't actually just follow her around every single day clicking pictures of everything she does. But she is an adorable baby. Add to that the fact that I have very real photographic aspirations and you get rather good pictures of every new thing Katie does!

Besides, my mom makes comments sometimes about not believing that I'm the mommy, and that I'm supposed to be her little girl, and it makes me all sad. I don't think I can handle thinking about Katie growing up and not wanting to sit on my lap and read stories with me all the time. It causes real, physical pain in my chest area.

So . . . I'm going to document everything I can while she's still little and cute and she likes me.

But I can't.

In other news, I have officially lost ten pounds on my weight loss thermometer OF SCIENCE! I'm all super buff and stuff like that. I can actually wear dresses that didn't use to be flattering and now are sometimes and not feel entirely uncomfortable. More importantly, though, I feel all healthy. I work out every day and (mostly) limit my treat intake, and it's actually making a difference! I was actually going to take a picture of the thermometer to prove it to you . . . but I can't.

Darn that camera! It's getting in the way of everything!

Anybody have a spare camera I can borrow until I figure out my photo-taking situation in a more permanent manner?

April? Really? Are you serious?

I know, I know, I promised by Monday. Well, I almost kept my promise, right? It's only Wednesday! This is like record-breaking almost-honesty! Wow, I'm just so impressed with myself right now.

It seems this month has snuck up on me. I realized the other day how different my life is than last year. See, I used to count time in semesters. You know how the family is the basic unit of society? Well, to a student, a semester is the basic unit of time. Forget months, years, days, whatever. First day of class to finals week is what really matters.

I am no longer a student. I know, I need to add some kind of metaphor to my blog title to make it make sense now that I've graduated and am a (sort of) real adult. But the thing that has shaken me up the most was when I learned, last week, that my kid sister, Hannah, was coming home for the break between her semesters. WHAT?!??!!?

Yeah, the semester's over. And I didn't write anything worth grading. Time is FLYING by. And as a result, I haven't paid any attention to how long it has been since I gave you guys a good, solid picture post. Well, here it is. A few pix of March and potentially February. Plus one or two from this last conference weekend. I hope you can one day find it in your hearts to forgive me for waiting until Wednesday when I promised Monday.

We'll start from the beginning, shall we?

Valentine's Day balloons make the perfect volumizer for your hair.

Aaaaaaand, here's March. So that's where you hide the goods, eh?

I realized I didn't have any good pictures of her reading her stories, when that's what she spends 75% of every day doing. I love this one.

And here's conference weekend. Grandma won her over by giving her her most favorite food in the world: noodles. (Also known as "dittley dittley.")

Presenting: the world's smallest farmhand! Only 18 pounds!

Feeding grain to the chickens was only moderately frightening--after all, some of them are bigger than she is.

Did I do okay? You may notice that neither of her parents are ever in any pictures. This is because a) I'm usually behind the camera because Mike doesn't think of silly things like pictures and posterity and whatever, and b) I know that I am not comfortable with my picture being taken (despite the fact that I colored off my tenth pound lost this weekend! YAY!) Mike I cannot account for. He's just never doing things as cute as Katie. If he remembered to smile I might take his picture. Seriously.

To sum up: we've had a crazy couple of months, which have seemed to fly by. Is it really April? For real? That's nuts. Conference was delightful, though. Mike's and my favorite quote: "Heavenly Father did not put us on this earth to fail, but to succeed gloriously." Elder Richard G. Scott. In fact, I designed a wall quote to hang in my kitchen. What's your favorite?