hip hopping away...

okay, seems that some people think i need insurance for my photo business since danger is my new middle name... so to be totally candid here is what ACTUALLY HAPPENED when the train rounded the corner, saw us, and hit the horn...

that brave hip hop artist RAN FOR HIS LIFE. and then i yelled for him to get his hip hop butt back into the photo shoot. i clicked off two more photos and we all ran. it was a slow moving train. i promise...

i guess hip hop artists aren't as brave as those rap artists who are always getting shot at in the news stories.

remember no hip hop artists were injured in this photo shoot. they lived to go on and pose for photos such as these...

new alliance(s)...

i was asked to take some photos for a local hip hop band new alliance. i know one of the members, chris, because he ran cross country with maxx. he is a vegetarian so i would take him to find meat-free food options on some of the cross country trips. which meant that chris and i had lots of chatting in the suburban looking for vegetarian friendly restaurant time. he is a neat guy. heading to college in new york in a few days so he wanted his band photos before he left. 

here is one of my favorites... see if you can figure out why...

YES, THAT IS A REALY LIVE TRAIN HEADING OUR WAY!!!!! i love danger in a photo session. the excitement and fear just make the photos all the better. the best part was that the train was alerting us with a loud alarm noise and the boys were about to leave the tracks and i screamed over the train noise, "JUST ONE MORE SHOT WITH THE TRAIN IN THE BACKGROUND!" i am all about the photo. not so much about people actually surviving the photo shoot. 

belated...

we never bought maxx a birthday gift for his 14th birthday which was at the beginning of august. but we told him that when he thought of something that he wanted that we would get it for him... well, after his last boy scout camping trip he came home all excited about these two books.

how to stay alive in the woods

and the sas survival handbook (and if he starts to “sass” me, he will NOT be surviving): how to survive in the wild, in any climate, on land or at sea (pretty darn comprehensive). 

here is a part of the description...

The SAS Survival Handbook is the Special Air Service's complete course in being prepared for any type of emergency. John 'Lofty' Wiseman presents real strategies for surviving in any type of situation, from accidents and escape procedures, to successfully adapting to various climates (polar, tropical, desert), to identifying edible plants and creating fire. The book is extremely practical and is illustrated throughout with easy-to-understand line art and diagrams.including chemical and nuclear

About the Author: John 'Lofty' Wiseman served in the British Special Air Service (SAS) for twenty-six years. The SAS Survival Handbook is based on the training techniques of this world-famous elite fighting force.

at the last campout maxx was able to do some survivalist camping with a group of guys. whoo hoo. that sounds like a good ole’ time. personally i like some survivalist scrapbooking with a group of gals. i might need a handbook for that...

so we ordered the two books that he wanted. they arrived today. as i was looking at them on the table waiting for him to come home it hit me that perhaps the fact that he needed these two books says a lot about my mothering skills...

and the things that it says about me as a mother are not great. so i stopped thinking about that and thought of all the possible benefits to him being able to forage for his own food...

perhaps he will come out of this household alive. even in case of a CHEMICAL or NUCLEAR event. both are entirely within the realm of possibility...

and speaking of survivalist scrapbooking.... that is what i will be doing from wednesday night-monday morning this week. i am heading to the beach house with a few of my nearest and dearest friends (well, actually my furthest awayest friends. one from south carolina, one from tennessee, and one from georgia). and we will be scrapbooking our hearts out while we chat, laugh, eat, and solve the problems of the world. one scrapbook page at a time.

we will not be foraging for our own food. i ordered meals from your secret pantry... which one time in a school newsletter fundraiser advertisement was printed as “your secret PANTY” by your truly (i swear that i never noticed but the assistant principal noticed when the newsletter came out. he thought it was funny and every time he sees me at the school he still laughs and calls me “your secret PANTY mom”. totally awkward).

beach boys...

for maxx’s 14th birthday last week (wednesday to be exact), i took 5 of his friends to the beach for a 24 hour party. 

that felt like 486 hours. because every hour was fraught with danger and the possibility of needing to call 911. which is kind of like EVERY hour of raising a teenage boy. but here i was ALONE with 6 of them.

there was creek jumping... (note, if you are an insurance agent, do NOT look at these photos...

there was FIRE (sparklers)...​

and an all out epic water balloon fight that ended up with a smaller death toll than the battle of thermopylae.

all in all we had a GRAND time. and these boys are FUN. very fun. 

sometimes a bit too much fun. as exampled by one of them who after 3 hours at the beach had already gotten EVERY item of clothing that he brought wet and so said that he would just go commando until they all dried. ummm, i think NOT. he wore a towel until i got them out of the dryer. 

but i like maxx’s friends. for a bunch of teenage boys, they were polite. helpful. kind to each other and to me. respectful. and they ate a LOT. and they loved EVERY meal. they played every game with reckless abandon. they ran 5 miles on the beach, swam for hours, and still managed to fall asleep after me. good times.

and i swear that if the disney channel ever got a glimpse of these photos... it would be goodbye jonas brothers HELLO tallahassee teens for a new series of “boy baywatch”. these are some athletic and talented boys. all are cross country runners (the twins’ dad coaches the cross country team (and just try to figure out which two are twins in the group). two of the boys play soccer, 2 play baseball. one does gymnastics. and maxx and wil are the singers and actors of the group. if i was dina lohan, i would be marketing these boys... but i am no dina lohan. thank goodness. their lives can remain rehab center free for a few more years at least... one can hope.