helloMoni

Spring is almost here

Wednesday, March 18 2009 - 0 comments

The Wedding: Marisa and Wesley, New Castle, Delaware

Tuesday, February 03 2009 - 2 comments

Marisa and Wesley were married this past Saturday in New Castle, Delaware.

Shortly after Marisa and I met, I discovered that she was a fellow Hello Kitty fan. At that moment, I knew that I would have a blast shooting their wedding because I’ve never met someone who loved Hello Kitty but didn’t know how to have a good time.

And I was right! Marisa and Wesley had a beautiful intimate wedding in front of family and friends before enjoying their party. Congratulations and happiness forever to you both!

 

A few favorite images…

  

  

 

Celebrating the Super Bowl – Rysavy Style

Sunday, February 01 2009 - 1 comments

Peter and I make no secret about the fact that we are not football fans. In fact, if we are going to be completely honest, we’re not fans of any professional sports. That doesn’t stop us when it comes to celebrating the Super Bowl ever year. Our three Super Bowl Favorites: the Puppy Bowl, commercials, and food. Usually I plan some sort of an elaborate menu for just the two of us. This year, I decided to do things up a little more simply – and chose a wine and cheese theme.

I found these cheeses at Costco today. The first group of three is by Isle of Man and was absolutely amazing for $7. Since I grew up on a farm, I totally have a soft-spot in my heart for farms and this company produces its cheese by working with 51 small dairy farmers.

Of course I had to pick up dessert. Costco was featuring David’s Cookies and had tempting samples out to try. I’m usually quite strong when it comes to resisting samples – I usually manage to keep walking no matter what the sample is – but my hubby ruined my will power when he stopped and pointed out the sign featuring these amazing truffle cakes. And then he tried a free sample – and it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t have one right? At least that’s what I’m telling myself. Less than five minutes later we were the new proud owners of the Truffle Cake Sampler.

  

Two slices are currently defrosting in the fridge – Marble Truffle Cheesecake (for Peter) and Chocolate Raspberry Truffle (for me!). Happy Super Bowl! Go Steelers! (Dude, I so don’t care who wins, but I remember that my brother John liked the Steelers when I was growing up so that’s who I’m picking. Peter chose the Cardinals just to be contrary.)

Tea for One

Thursday, January 29 2009 - 1 comments

I have a love/hate relationship with Tea.

I love…

• when it’s hot because I love hot drinks.
• that it usually still tastes ok after its cool. This means I can start a cup mid-morning, and by the time it’s lunch time, when it’s cool, i can still drink it with lunch! Peter thinks this is gross.
• that there are a lot of different kinds that are widely available so I can mix things up with a new kind if I get bored.

I hate…

• that it’s not coffee. I really do prefer Coffee.
• that it’s such a production to make: boil the water, put the tea bag in, wait for a while, take the tea bag out, find a place to toss it out without making a mess – Coffee is so much easier.
• that it doesn’t make me go “bing!” like Coffee does.

 

But for right now, as I make some healthy lifestyle changes, I have to stick with Tea.

First Snow Day of 2009!

Wednesday, January 28 2009 - 0 comments

A cat called “Puppy”

Tuesday, January 27 2009 - 0 comments

We often call my cat Jasmine “Puppy”.

She loves to fetch balls (although only the fluffy kind she can pick up with her claws or teeth), meows when she wants to get our attention, and seems to get lonely without people around. This is cute unless it is 4:30 AM and she is walking up and down the hallway and stairs howling. Then it’s so not cute. She especially enjoys sitting on the back of my chair when I’m eating or working at the dining room table.

These two shots were taking with my new lens – my new baby – the Canon EF 70-200 2.8 IS lens. This is my first purchase (and only for quite some time I’m sure) of L series glass.

I’m still getting used to the weight – it is quite heavy! I’m going to need to start lifting weights again so I can haul it around easier. I’ll be shooting my first wedding with it this Saturday.

Wilmington University Graduation, Lunch at the Green Room in the Hotel DuPont, and photos with Vice President Biden

Sunday, January 25 2009 - 0 comments

It’s been nearly six months since I defended my dissertation, and almost three months since I submitted the final draft of my dissertation for publication, but I was still excited when I woke up this morning to be graduating from Wilmington University with my Doctorate degree in Education. Even though it was freezing cold outside I was totally excited to be wearing the outfit I have had planned for weeks – a new skirt suit from Ann Taylor with the perfect matching heels (which I just realized are also from Ann Taylor, but were purchased several years ago).

The actual graduation ceremony wasn’t that long, about an hour and a half, but it felt like forever because the Doctorate candidates were the last to be called up on stage. I was totally nervous, but I didn’t trip, AND the announcer pronounced my name remarkably well – that doesn’t happen too often! I’m glad I decided to add the phonetic spelling above it (Reeshavee) because “Rysavy” is butchered on a regular basis. I met up with Peter and my parents after the ceremony and we had time for a few pictures.

Wasn’t I having a good hair day? Yea me!

With my hubby who put up with me being away almost every Tuesday night for the last three years as I drove to Dover for my classes. Without his support, I never would have finished the program!

With my parents…This picture shows our happy family. What it doesn’t show is the 5 minutes prior of Mom trying unsuccessfully to take pictures with her tiny point and shoot. We later found out that she was missing her memory card – oops!

But on a serious note…I am so thankful to my parents for always supporting me. Especially my Mom, who earned her Doctorate degree from Wilmington University as well, also in Education, back in 2005. My Mom was my unofficial advisor, was and is always available to listen to me, and the reason I enrolled in the program in the first place. Here’s a picture of the two of us together at her graduation back in 2006 – three years ago.

This is a way more accurate portrayal of me with my parents – Dad explaining step by step to me how to get from the Riverfront Chase Center to the Hotel DuPont – me looking at him with a not so patient look on my face.

Before we left, I made sure to find Dr. Curtiss. Dr. Curtiss was my Dissertation Advisor. She provided amazing support to me as I went through the long process of writing, rewriting, proposing, resubmitting, writing, rewriting, defending, and finishing my dissertation. I was so fortunate to have her as an advisor.

 

After we found Dr. Curtiss, Peter and I headed out to join my parents at the Hotel DuPont. As a special treat, my Mom had arranged for us to have brunch at The Green Room. I noticed two things after we arrived. First, my friend Maty and her family were seated right next to us, which was awesome.

    

The second thing I noticed was that our former Senator, the new Vice President Joe Biden, and his wife Dr. Jill Biden, were seated just two tables away from us! Since we didn’t want to disturb their brunch, I decided not to go up to his table. However, when they were getting ready to leave, Maty’s son went up to his table, and when Maty joined him and mentioned that she had just earned her Doctorate degree that morning, I took that as my opportunity to step up and introduce myself as well. Since he was our former Senator, I had heard Vice President Biden speak at various events over the years, but never had a chance to speak directly with him in person. We had a chance to talk to him for several minutes, and he even came over to our table to say hello and shake hands with Peter and my parents. He was so nice and generous with his time, even posing for several pictures with us, Maty’s son, and several DuPont hotel staff. We spoke with Dr. Biden as well for a few moments and she was very gracious as well.

The funny thing about all this was that I had been going back and forth about attending my own graduation. Since I really did finish several months ago, I wasn’t sure that I saw any point in attending. But at the end of the day, I enjoyed the ceremony, felt proud to walk across the stage in front of my family, and got to meet and take pictures with the new Vice President of America – I can’t imagine a better way to spend my graduation day!

I love a good deal

Wednesday, January 21 2009 - 0 comments

Peter introduced me to the Slick Deals and Fat Wallet websites a few years ago. I am now a huge fan. Basically, both are forum-based sites where people post deals they have found online and in stores. After a few visits to these sites my motto quickly became “Why EVER buy anything full price?”

Earlier in the week, I heard on the news about a class action law suit that involved several of my favorite cosmetics manufactures. As part of the settlement, the cosmetics companies were required to give customers who had purchased any of their products (and they weren’t requiring proof of purchase!) between 1994 and 2003 a free product on Tuesday. Peter pointed me in the direction of this Slick Deals thread that talked about the deal.

I first stopped by the Macys near our house. There was a pretty long line of people, probably 30-40 plus, but it moved quickly. The funny part about waiting in line was observing the others ahead of me. There were several guys, no doubt drug along by their girlfriends/wives in an attempt to get more free products. I internally laughed until I wondered why I hadn’t made Peter come with me too. Although they were out of most of the products, I did come away with something cool…

Vera Wang Princess Body Polish 

Not wanting to miss out on other potential freebies, I then picked up Peter from work and we drove up to the other Macys. There, I scored this…

Lancôme Cils Design Pro Mascara

 

and Peter thought I should try this…

Clarins Energizing Morning Cream

actually when we got up to the table I was supposed to tell Peter what I wanted but I was to focused on the products to turn and around and tell him what to get so he picked this out all by himself – I was actually very proud of him because this product smells fantastic!

If I had gone into Macys and purchased all of these items I would have paid approximately $95. I paid $0. I love deals.

My first lesson from Cooking School

Monday, January 19 2009 - 0 comments

This book, Martha Stewart’s Cooking School,  has been sitting on my dining room table for several weeks.

I finally decided to give one of the recipes a try – can you guess what I made?

 

Homemade chicken soup! It smelled fantastic but took forever. I did feel quite accomplished, however, I honestly can’t say that it tasted all that differently than Campbells soup. It made a much bigger mess than just opening a can. Peter was not all that pleased about this.

In other news, my cat Jasper hasn’t been feeling well and I had to take him to the vet again today. He seemed to be feeling better this evening despite today’s excitement.

I promise I’m not choking him here – this really is his happy face.

 

I heart CNN

Saturday, January 17 2009 - 0 comments

Today it is freezing cold outside. Peter and I decided that we were going to hole up inside and not go out. We are definitely not cold weather people. I love snow, but I like looking at snow from the inside. And to me, cold weather without any snow is just silly. We’ve been camped out on the couch all day with our laptops and one or both of our cats and watching the Obama Express Train coverage on CNN as it traveled from Philadelphia through our little state of Delaware down to D.C. It is so cool and exciting that someone from Delaware is going to be in the White House – go Delaware! Yea for Joe Biden! :)

In other news, I have some cool new gear to share. For Christmas, I got the coolest tripod from my hubby. This thing is a beast! I can’t wait to use it more in the coming weeks. It’s a Manfrotto 055MF3. No more using my wobbly tripod!