"get to know me monday."

so i have a quite few questions that were left unanswered from my "ask my anything" post way back before the vacay.  i've been meaning to answer them because they were all really good ones, so i'm gonna pick a few & answer them each monday for the next few weeks.

kerry from nesting with niall asked:

"what do you do to overcome blogger's block?  how do you get the juices flowing again?"

honestly?  most days i go through the day having no idea what i'm going to blog about the next day.  i'm not one of those people who spends the weekend scheduling posts for the weekdays.  99% of my posts are written the night before.  and if i don't have anything to blog about i'll tell myself, "meh, no blog post tomorrow."  but then at some point in the day parker will do something crazy that makes me laugh, or at night while blog surfing & looking through pictures, something will hit me & i'll decide i have something worth sharing, even if it is just one picture or a random thought.

also, i try to keep in mind that this is my blog & is essentially parker's baby book, so i can't get too wrapped up in what i think others will find interesting.  i think that helps me keep it "real" & from the heart.

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jill from because two people fell in love asked:

"what camera do you use to take these AMAZING pictures?"

amazing?  wow, thanks!  i really do love my camera.  i have the canon rebel t2i, but it can't take all the credit... the lenses are pretty essential too.  i have a 50mm f/1.8 & an 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6.  this post shows all the deets.  oh, and?  the editing software is pretty important too.  i use photoshop cs5 to really make my pictures pop.  i try not to over-edit but i'd be lying if i said they all looked exactly like this straight out of the camera.  i still have a lot to learn though.  a lot.

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sara from unofficial mom asked:

"how did you come up with/decide on parker's name?"

yeah ummmm.... still not sure how to explain this one to parker some day.  it was kind of a matter of one name leading to another.  and also kind of loving a girl's name.  we have good family friends with a little boy named palmer & we really loved that name.  for the longest time, palmer was at the top of the list.  then i remembered one of my favorite actresses, parker posey, & fell in love with the name parker.  how do i tell p-ray his name could very well have been the same had he been a girl?  not sure yet.

and parker's middle name "ray" was chosen after my grandpa charles ray bates, someone sam & i both really look up to & who has been an amazing influence in my family's life.

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ok, that's it for now!  i'll answer more questions next monday.  if you have questions, go ahead & ask 'em in the comments or send me an email & i will try to answer them in the order they've been asked.  i'll just keep on doing these posts on mondays as long as i have questions to answer!

thanks friends.

click twice to make my day.  that is seriously all. it. takes.