The Tale of Charlie

Sundays are relaxing days. Usually, I wake up, drink my coffee whilst engulfing myself into the Sunday Edition of the Houston Chronicle, and then go to church. After church, I embark on a long, joyful journey many Americans call, "football Sunday!"

This past Sunday, however, was not my 'usual' Sunday by any means. First, my morning routines were wiped away due to a grooming appointment for our dog, Macy. Macy, as you may have heard, thinks she is a diva and gets very self-conscious if her hair starts to get too shaggy. So, once a month, Macy gets her hair cut, thinned, shampooed; her nails are clipped; her self-image is restored.

So, back to my story. After Kiera and I dropped Macy off for her appointment, we began to head for the exit when something caught my eye: Charlie.

Charlie was all alone in the center of the store. He was in a cage that was too small for a dog his size. He looked a little dirty, but there was something about him that intrigued me. He was calm, gentle, and bigger than Macy (After all, what kind of a manly man am I if my only pet is a 5lb lap-dog??).

Within 30 minutes, the papers were signed, and Kiera and I were heading out of the store proud parents to a 50lb, one yr old, Schnauzer dog! That's when everything went wrong!

We soon realized that Charlie (we named him Charlie because Kiera thinks it's a sweet name) was very ill and had the worst case of diarrhea that mankind has ever seen! No matter what I did--no matter how many times I would take him out to go to the bathroom--Charlie insisted on pooping in the house, and that's not all!

Charlie pooped on the carpet, in the kitchen, in the bedroom, and worst of all, he pooped in his kennel and rolled all in his own poop!!!

So, Mr. Little (having nothing better to do at 4 in the morning) had to wake up, give Charlie a bath, clean out his kennel, wipe off the poop that had splattered on the wall from Charlie shaking his body and wagging his poop-dripping tail. I had to do all of this at 4 in the morning! So what happened next? Charlie and I repeated this THREE times!

Needless to say, Charlie is no longer living with us. We had to give him back up for adoption. So, if you or your parents are looking for a new dog, there is a young, innocent-looking dog waiting for a new home!

High Expectations

Tomorrow the seventh grade students will be bringing in life maps that they have been working on for a week. I am particularly excited about this because 1) it will be a great learning opportunity for me to get a better understanding of where you all are coming from ( your background, experiences, family, etc), and 2) it will serve as a great "ideas pool" for future writings.

I can already tell this year will produce great things via great students!

Working on Advertising!

After photographing a friend's wedding this weekend's, Kiera took some of the photos that we took and created this brand-spankin'-new advertisement for us!


Kiera and I were able to shoot a beautiful wedding this weekend for fellow teachers whom I met through Teach for America. The wedding was a blast! Check back in a few days as I will post a few of the pictures that we captured.

Now that Kiera is in Houston, a goal of ours is to begin marketing our photography business more aggressively in order to really kick-start us off. Our goal is to start doing some senior pictures and a lot more weddings. We hope to get to the point where we are shooting one gig a month!

We will be creating a few different versions so that we can market ourselves to multiple targets. This one, as you can see, will be targeting all those who are currently engaged to be married!

Stay tuned: I will be giving a sneak peak at some of the other fliers as we finalize them!