My Life as it Pertains to Me Part 6: Eight is Enough
...evidently that is the case for me.
I thought five was the perfect number...and then seven seemed like more than enough beautiful little beings to raise - but evidently my destiny was eight. Eight darling little children that I have the privilege of raising and shaping in the hopes that they will grow up to conquer the obsticals they face in this world.
It was my third term enrolled in college that I realized I was 12 weeks pregnant. I DID NOT want to have another baby! And I absolutely would never have enrolled in college if I knew that I would be going through another pregnancy and delivery. So finding out I was pregnant after only just a taste of film school was a bit of a dilemma. I have personal convictions that would never allow me to end a pregnancy, and I knew that if I took a break from school, life would happen, and years later I would look back wondering "What ever happened to that dream I had of making films?' So I decided to stay enrolled in school through out the whole ordeal, pregnancy, deliver, new baby - all of it.
This may not seem like a lot, but you have to remember, I already had seven kids at home. I was homeschooling them, helping my husband run our business, and traveling - staying away from home several days a week for school - and pregnancy on top of all that, was a lot to ask of my body. This was the same year that Titus had turned seven and I was already an emotional wreck because of the overwhelming emotions I experienced when his medical testing stopped (If you missed that blog - here it is Part 3 )
So I pressed through and on, and into my second year of college dealing with exhaustion, and overwhelming emotion. Thankfully I made it through just fine holding up my 3.8 GPA and growing as a filmmaker, meeting people I loved in so many ways, who helped to support me on my journey.
It was a very eventful year. My favorite memory was a trip our family took over the summer break. My husband had a trade show in Arizona, so we decided to load up the family and take a two week road trip down through California, Arizona, and up through Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. My husband stopped at archery shops along the way, and sold products. We tent camped at KOA's in all of the different states, except Arizona, we stayed with family - which was great fun in itself.
We visited and explored The California San Miguel Mission.
Hiked into, and explored the canyon cliff homes that native americans built in Walnut Canyon in Arizona:
We stopped in rest areas along the way, and sometimes drove through the night...I'm sure it was a spectacle to see our sometimes pajama wearing family eating breakfast at picnic tables near restrooms during our trip:
At five months pregnant, I hiked with a baby on my shoulders about a mile into the grand canyon. Yes my husband and I took all seven down, and they did great - even with all of the visitors stopping us in awe along the way - Most of them seemed to think we were a little in sane for taking so many little ones on such a hike...and maybe we were, but its a trip none of them will ever forget, nor will I.
And finally we camped at and explored Yellowstone.
After Daphne was born, I continued on with life just as before, raising kids and traveling to school.
.jpg)
I enrolled in online classes for one term during which she was born, and when she was 5 weeks old I was back on campus taking a full load.
After returning to AI, I decided I needed to start pursuing opportunities outside of school in order to build up my reel and resume. So that summer I replied to several Craigslist adds, and ended up working as an associate producer for a feature film, "Mock Trials" Produced by Soundskript Entertainment.
And did production design for a couple films produced by Mercer Lunden Films one called
"Thieves" and another called "Someone" - which will be playing in the Bend Film Festival this coming month.
That summer I made one of the scariest decisions of my life. I walked into a Talent agency and asked them to represent me as a model...I had just had my 8th child five months before, and was scared to death that they would laugh at the fact that I even thought it a possibility that I would be able to work as a model again (after all it'd been 11 years since my first bout as a model.)
Surprisingly enough, they agreed, and I am now represented by Q6 Talent. Here is my first time back in front of the camera, since having eight babies.
It wasn't so bad I thought it would be, and I have since begun to love being in front of the camera again - as much as I like being behind it.
So That brings us up to the end of my second year of school. We'll start back next time with my first big production, which is still in post, and the adventures I've had since then.
For now, Life is All Surreal. It's not what happens to you, but rather how you react to it that determines what your path will be -so choose to make the best of it.
MJB
A fun video from this point in my journey:
Find the rest of the series here:
Life as it pertains to me Part 1
Life as it pertains to me Part 2
Life as it pertains to me Part 3
Life as it pertains to me Part 4
Life as it pertains to me Part 5
Next chapter: Life as it pertains to me Part 7
I thought five was the perfect number...and then seven seemed like more than enough beautiful little beings to raise - but evidently my destiny was eight. Eight darling little children that I have the privilege of raising and shaping in the hopes that they will grow up to conquer the obsticals they face in this world.
It was my third term enrolled in college that I realized I was 12 weeks pregnant. I DID NOT want to have another baby! And I absolutely would never have enrolled in college if I knew that I would be going through another pregnancy and delivery. So finding out I was pregnant after only just a taste of film school was a bit of a dilemma. I have personal convictions that would never allow me to end a pregnancy, and I knew that if I took a break from school, life would happen, and years later I would look back wondering "What ever happened to that dream I had of making films?' So I decided to stay enrolled in school through out the whole ordeal, pregnancy, deliver, new baby - all of it.
This may not seem like a lot, but you have to remember, I already had seven kids at home. I was homeschooling them, helping my husband run our business, and traveling - staying away from home several days a week for school - and pregnancy on top of all that, was a lot to ask of my body. This was the same year that Titus had turned seven and I was already an emotional wreck because of the overwhelming emotions I experienced when his medical testing stopped (If you missed that blog - here it is Part 3 )
So I pressed through and on, and into my second year of college dealing with exhaustion, and overwhelming emotion. Thankfully I made it through just fine holding up my 3.8 GPA and growing as a filmmaker, meeting people I loved in so many ways, who helped to support me on my journey.
It was a very eventful year. My favorite memory was a trip our family took over the summer break. My husband had a trade show in Arizona, so we decided to load up the family and take a two week road trip down through California, Arizona, and up through Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. My husband stopped at archery shops along the way, and sold products. We tent camped at KOA's in all of the different states, except Arizona, we stayed with family - which was great fun in itself.
We visited and explored The California San Miguel Mission.
Hiked into, and explored the canyon cliff homes that native americans built in Walnut Canyon in Arizona:
We stopped in rest areas along the way, and sometimes drove through the night...I'm sure it was a spectacle to see our sometimes pajama wearing family eating breakfast at picnic tables near restrooms during our trip:
At five months pregnant, I hiked with a baby on my shoulders about a mile into the grand canyon. Yes my husband and I took all seven down, and they did great - even with all of the visitors stopping us in awe along the way - Most of them seemed to think we were a little in sane for taking so many little ones on such a hike...and maybe we were, but its a trip none of them will ever forget, nor will I.
And finally we camped at and explored Yellowstone.
After Daphne was born, I continued on with life just as before, raising kids and traveling to school.
.jpg)
I enrolled in online classes for one term during which she was born, and when she was 5 weeks old I was back on campus taking a full load.
After returning to AI, I decided I needed to start pursuing opportunities outside of school in order to build up my reel and resume. So that summer I replied to several Craigslist adds, and ended up working as an associate producer for a feature film, "Mock Trials" Produced by Soundskript Entertainment.
And did production design for a couple films produced by Mercer Lunden Films one called
"Thieves" and another called "Someone" - which will be playing in the Bend Film Festival this coming month.
That summer I made one of the scariest decisions of my life. I walked into a Talent agency and asked them to represent me as a model...I had just had my 8th child five months before, and was scared to death that they would laugh at the fact that I even thought it a possibility that I would be able to work as a model again (after all it'd been 11 years since my first bout as a model.)
Surprisingly enough, they agreed, and I am now represented by Q6 Talent. Here is my first time back in front of the camera, since having eight babies.
It wasn't so bad I thought it would be, and I have since begun to love being in front of the camera again - as much as I like being behind it.
So That brings us up to the end of my second year of school. We'll start back next time with my first big production, which is still in post, and the adventures I've had since then.
For now, Life is All Surreal. It's not what happens to you, but rather how you react to it that determines what your path will be -so choose to make the best of it.
MJB
A fun video from this point in my journey:
Find the rest of the series here:
Life as it pertains to me Part 1
Life as it pertains to me Part 2
Life as it pertains to me Part 3
Life as it pertains to me Part 4
Life as it pertains to me Part 5
Next chapter: Life as it pertains to me Part 7
You keep lookin' like that and you're gonna have eight more.
ReplyDelete