//www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeTjzyNxPbI

Several days ago I gave them a good test, setting up a white backdrop and some flashes, and did a mini-photo shoot of Nadia. I’ve never done this sort of shoot with her before. Seven months ago I did a little session for Christmas with the tree in the background, and well over a year ago I did a shoot of her at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, which was fantastic. But I was anxious to see how this setup with the white backdrop would turn out, because it is my favorite style and I think it’s what I do best. She was NOT cooperative at all, but I pushed through it and I think they turned out fabulous. I’m quite pleased. I ended up with 47 shots that I thought were worth saving, and I’ve posted what I think are the top 22. Below are several of my favorites. Click on the first picture to see the whole album on the Photos page.

This one sums up her attitude through much of the shoot.

Come by and check it out now and then.

MikeIsLosingIt.com

And now for your viewing pleasure, a Christmas medley by Nadia…

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfaiQ1oPyjI

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmgOzP4hUV8

A few weeks ago we started discussing getting a new car. We intended to keep our 1996 Honda Accord a year or two longer, but with all the trouble the car companies are having we thought we might be able to get a great deal on a new car right now. After all, if you believed all the hype in the news reports, you’d expect them to be paying YOU to get a car…so we started looking around to see if a great deal was really out there.

First we checked out this year’s Toyota RAV 4. We got one of those for Louanne two years ago and we both really like it, therefore that was a big possibility. I would be driving it, however, and I kind of wanted a sedan instead of another small SUV, so we looked at the new Camry as well. I thought the Camry we test drove looked and felt very cheap inside, so we quickly eliminated it. Everything was cheap plastic with a painted flat silver finish, reminiscent of the ten-dollar portable 8-track tape player I had when I was 9.  It was funny how the salesman went on and on about how nice the interior was…I had to give him credit for his super-human ability to say that with a straight face.

After Toyota, I researched several other makes and models, including another Accord, a Scion and even the new Camaro. The Scion was very inexpensive and pretty cool, but is was a coupe and not at all practical considering Nadia will be in a car seat for quite some time still. The Camaro is affordable and VERY cool but is also FAR from practical. The Accord is excellent, as I expected, but is still a little smaller inside than what I wanted, even though the back seat is pretty roomy for a smallish car.

Ideally I wanted something larger with a lot of features, that would be good for road trips, but not something huge. After thinking about it for awhile, I found I was leaning more and more toward a luxury car, but I didn’t want to pay the price of the luxury car brands such as Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, and the like. Further, I don’t care much for the standard “luxury-sedan” look…I wanted something with more of a sporty look. Louanne had mentioned the Chrysler 300 a couple of times, and I had seen the new Dodge Charger a few times as well and loved the look. So, I did a bit of research and the 300 Touring or Limited sounded like it fit just about everything I wanted.

The next morning we headed off to a Chrysler dealership to test drive one. The car the salesman grabbed for us to drive was filthy inside and the check engine light was on, which makes you question the salesman’s judgement. How does a car with five miles on it get in that shape, and what kind of salesman would show it to you? I liked it, in theory, but it was hard to get past that bad experience. After looking over a top-of-the-line model in the showroom, however, I REALLY liked it. But it was still a bit more than I wanted to spend.

That afternoon, while Nadia napped, I did more research and thought I might as well check out the Infiniti G37 before going any further. If that didn’t work out I would consider the 300 again or else rethink the whole thing. After Nadia woke up we headed out to the nearest Infiniti dealer. The G37 had the sporty look and luxury, but the back seat felt like it was designed for spider monkeys…of below average spider monkey height. That being a bust we decided to go home, but looked at their M class on the way out. It is bigger but was about $52,000 dollars and looked like twenty other luxury sedans…there was nothing distinctive about it, in my opinion. Plus, none of the sales staff said even a single word to us or gave us a second glance, neither in the showroom nor on the lot. I certainly don’t want to be hounded by them, but I do expect them to at least acknowledge my existence if they expect me to spend $50,000 on one of their stinking cars. That attitude really soured me on Infiniti. I wonder if our experience there was in any way typical of other Infiniti dealerships.

On the way home we passed Grubbs Chrysler, which was a different dealership than the one we visited that morning. We figured that we might as well stop there and take another look at the 300s. The first thing we saw was big sale tags on everything, marked with insanely low prices. We soon discovered that Grubbs is one of the franchises that has been cut by Chrysler, and therefore everything was marked way down. We looked over several 300s and were told that there was a black one on their back lot if we didn’t like the ones there. So, we decided to test it. The first thing Nadia said when she saw that car was, “Wow! That’s a cool car, Dada!” I couldn’t disagree…it WAS a cool car. It had every feature I wanted, it was the exact size I wanted, and we ended up getting it for $8126 below MSRP (about $1500 below dealer invoice).

Finally, we added a “lifetime” warranty on it (no mileage or age limit). As far as I know there is no other car company that offers that. The catch is that it is not transferable. The truth is, they know that most people trade in their car every 4-6 years, regardless of the warranty, so “lifetime” is just an extra selling point. They can sell the lifetime warranty for more than a 5 or 7-year/100K warranty, but in most cases they won’t have to do any more warranty work than those other warranties because most people won’t keep the car that long. Someone at Chrysler is going to regret selling me that warranty, because I’ll be keeping this car a loooong time.

After getting home with the car, Nadia ran up to me, hugged my leg, and said, “Thank you for driving that car home, Daddy!” I think she believes I got it just because she liked it so much. Who knows? Maybe I did. Maybe hearing that sweet little two-year-old voice saying, “Wow! That’s a cool car, Dada!” was all it took to seal the deal.

We sold our old Accord (which you can see through the windshield in the photo above) in 45 minutes on Craig’s list. Woot! Woot!

Nadia crossed two-and-a-half years old a couple of weeks ago, and we took her to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens to take some nice photos. It was an overcast day and getting late, but after a bit of color-correction and some prodigious post-processing, you’d never know it from the photos. I think they turned out wonderful. Turns out college actually IS good for something.

Nadia is a delight, and we still feel privileged daily that God saw fit to allow us to be her parents. She is indeed our great blessing. To watch her discoveries, her happiness, and her delight in almost everything around her is something that we could not have imagined, and it is beyond anything we hoped for. Not a day passes without us at some point wondering how we could be so blessed. She is truly loved and we are truly fortunate.

Here are a few of my favorites from the photo shoot; you can see the entire album on the Photos page. One last comment…I was thrilled that I was able to capture so many shots of her happy, playful smile and attitude. We see that joyful expression constantly, but because of her shyness at events and when around new people, many people don’t often get to see that side of her. That really is her demeanor most of the time, as anyone who gets to be around her for any extended period of time will tell you.

“Discovery in Solitude”

“Joyful Abandon”

“On Your Mark!”

“A Cartload of Fun”

“Double Blessing”

Not a single day has gone by since that I have not thanked God for her and for giving me the privilege of being her father. It is a humbling experience to see how wonderful she is and realize that God chose me of all people to be her father. I am blessed with the most supportive and loving wife in the world, and the greatest daughter that anyone could ever hope for. It is truly more than I deserve.

Here’s my new favorite picture of Nadia. I love it because it captures an aspect of her personality that we see often but don’t photograph as much…the intensity and seriousness with which she analyzes the things around her. I think that intensity is the reason she is so advanced for her age.

And here is my favorite referral day photo:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZfQWxdYCJw

I know everyone is used to Louanne posting, but I thought I’d take over for today.

Today is my birthday, and anyone who truly knows me knows that the last thing I want…ever…is to get presents or have attention brought to me. I have a great life, the best wife and daughter anyone could hope for, a great job making a decent living, and too many other blessings to list. I don’t need anything, and if I really want something I can afford to go buy it myself. The only thing I ever truly “want” is for children who need help to get the help they need. So, whenever someone wants to get me a present, I don’t hesitate to tell them that the BEST thing they could do for me…the thing that I would like the most…would be to take whatever money they were going to spend on me and help a child with it, like through World Vision or some other good charity. People frequently look at me strange when I say that, and I think they usually don’t really believe me, but it is true nonetheless.

So, that little bit of info about me will help you understand why a day like today is the kind of birthday I truly like. We are interested in getting involved with some charities or orphanages here in China, and we wanted to make sure that we visited at least one while we are here. So Louanne arranged for us to go to the New Day Foster Home today, just outside of Beijing. Our school helped us to arrange a driver to take us, and then the VP’s wife and little son decided to go too. We loaded up 400 diapers, a bunch of baby wipes, and my camera equipment and took off this morning for the 90 minute trip to get there. Louanne managed to come in contact with a couple of sets of parents who are waiting to adopt two children from there, so one of the things we hoped for was that we would be able to get some photos of their children for them. I know what those three little pictures of Nadia meant to me before we got her, so I really wanted to be able to get some picture for those waiting parents.

Anyway, the place is fantastic! They are doing a wonderful thing, and helping lots of children. Getting to see the children, play with them, take pictures of them, and get familiar with the place was wonderful. We won’t hesitate to sponsor their children or try to find other ways to help them in the future. Oh, and both of the children (Emma and Aaron) that the two couples are waiting to adopt were there–they are with foster parents, so there was no guarantee they would be there–so we got to take lots of pictures of them. Getting to take a bunch of picture to give to two waiting families made me very happy. Click on the picture at the top to see some of the pictures we took today. There are so many pictures of Emma and Aaron that I didn’t post all of them in that album; they have their own albums on our photo page: one for Emma and one for Aaron. There is also an album for another child called, Jade.

Later in the day after we got back to the apartment, and after Nadia had a much needed nap, we took her down to the playground that Louanne has visited and posted about a few times before. Nadia had a great time and orbited the whole playground like a little Sputnik for about an hour…and I got a lot of great pictures of her (click the top picture below to see the set).

So, all and all, this was probably one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had, because it wasn’t about me. I got to see some great kids, found a new charity worth supporting, got to do something for some waiting parents, and got a bunch of pictures of the greatest baby in the world, whom I’m privileged to have as my daughter. What more could I ask for? I can’t think of anything better.

…and Louanne just reminded me that food has to be mentioned in every post, so…after leaving the playground we stopped by the New York House again to grab some awesome burgers and fries to go.

There, that should cover it.