Just Checking In

It seems like forever since I updated this crazy blog of mine. A week and two days...that practically is forever for me! So much has been happening. For one...I am exhausted. This whole month has been one of racing and running and Chris and I just passing like two ships in the night. The beginning of the month I was in North Carolina for 5 days. Then I was home less than 48 hours before Chris left for 10 days in the Boundary Waters. He got home and was grounded for all of 2 days before he left again for two days. Now he is back again...but just for 3 days before he leaves AGAIN! And so, in the meantime, that leaves me...the chief of discipline, transportation, chef, maid and social events coordinator. Added to all of that excitement, this whole week has been "early release" for Ben and Clara due to parent conferences, so my much needed "mommy" time has been cut EVERY day this week. Nice. Lovely!

Parent conferences went well. Benjamin has a marked falure to apply himself. His teacher feels strongly that he is capable of SO much more than he shares in class. (And I'm thinking...welcome to my world!) He seems to want to accomplish all of his work turbo speed (even though there are NO prizes for getting done first or fast) and his speediness, coupled with his carelessness is making for some less than ideal work. So he is going to need to work on slowing down and checking his work and getting more organized. That woman really has no idea what she is asking on that whole organization end. This IS the brother of Max, after all. And while those two boys can be so very different... in that area.. the blood bond runs deep! Clara's conference was great. Her only negative comment was that she tends to be a "chatty cathy". Hmmm. I wonder where in the world she would get a trait like that? It was interesting though. She's not chatty in a disrupt the class sort of way. Not at all the teacher assures me. It's more in helping others. Apparently the answers come so easily to Clara that she wants to help everyone else right along so they can keep up with her. Her teacher thinks it would be nice if the other kids are allowed to think for themselves sometimes. We tried to explain some of this to Clara.. we'll see if she can resist the urge to "help" everyone for a bit here. Then her teacher tells me that they are working on goals (can't remember exactly what the goal is), but if they achieve it, they get to choose something to do. And I nearly burst out laughing when she told me what Clara has chosen if and when she makes HER goal. Apparently, upon reaching this goal, the teacher will allow CLARA to TEACH the class for 15 minutes! FIFTEEN minutes! WOW! And so, once I composed myself a bit, I asked her..."ummm, are you sure about that? Are you sure you want to let Clara take over like that?" I'm thinking...15 minutes is a LONG time! She assures me that yes, she is good with that and that she is quite sure Clara could do it and do it well. Well, despite her assurances I was still sitting there thinking "Lady, you have NO idea what you are in for on that one!" The rest of the news on Clara was all good. She is reading on a 3rd grade level and is doing 2nd and 3rd grade homework sheets each night. She has her own spelling words aside from the class that are on her level. I assumed they must be drilling them in class as she spells them effortlessly...but her teacher tells me no...she just gives them to this little group of 3 and they have to learn and spell them. So I think she will be a good speller (she might actually have gotten ONE brain gene from her MOTHER!). It looked as though her Dibels scores were the highest of her class when I glanced at the scores and everything looks just lovely as far as she goes. No problems. Well...other than the fact that she might need a muzzle to keep quiet! But I figure that if that is the WORST thing that she can come up with about her...then very excellent!

What else? I got to take my first pictures of twins this week. Very fun. Precious babies those two little ones were! The session went well. I had never done twins and so that was a fun, new challenge for me. Of course...after the session was all said and done I have had like a zilliion ideas about how to do it. Isn't that always the case?! Lots of other picture orders have been picked up and my dragonfly printed on metallic paper arrived and it is STUNNING! Now I think i am going to print it even BIGGER and alternate out my downstairs bathroom with that and the bright water lily...just for something fun! More of a fall look.

That's all the news on this front right now. We are going to have a VERY quiet weekend. Going nowhere and doing NOTHING is my goal. I would love one whole day in my house! Just one! I am supposed to go to the gym to spin with Jenny today. But my lower back is killing me this morning. But not muscle like. I think it feels more like my kidney is hurting. So I am not sure what I am going to do in this next hour. To spin? Or not to spin? It doesn't really help that I totally hate spinning! My initial vote is to skip spin and just go back to bed! Going to let the ibuprofen decide. I will take some now and then, in an hour when I have to take the kids to school...if it is better...then I spin. If not....then I chill here! Till later!

Another Year

Well...today was my big day. The day I log yet another year on the old age calendar. I turned 37 today. If I were to take a moment to reflect on this past year and what I have done with it...I would have to say it has been a good year. I have had some great opportunities and a lot of life lessons. I have tried some new things and broken away from old ones. I have made some wonderful new friends and said goodbye to others. I have done a few things I am proud of and a few things that I am not. But mostly, I have just been so richly blessed this year. With a husband who loves me, friends who make me laugh and smile, and children who seem intent to test my limits of sanity while at the same time just melting my heart with their sweet grins and loving ways. Chris is out of town, so I got to get old all by myself this year. At first, I thought that that would be a sad thing. Just me and the kids hanging out. But the day has been just so fantastic. It all started with opening a card from my sweet friend Gillian this morning. Inside it was a gift card to my single favorite place on the planet...Lucy!!! Hooray! I was SO excited! Then I got to go to the gym for Body Combat. My favorite class on my big day! After that I rushed off and met my dear friend Mary for Pumpkin Lattes and pumpkin bread at Starbucks! After that I took myself for a manicure and pedicure treat! That was SO lovely. From there I picked up the kids, ran a quick errand to the post office, and then headed on into the evening's excitement. I went to Gavi tonight with Karen and Jenny from the gym. WHAT a delightful and fun evening. I can't think of two people I would have enjoyed more this evening. It was delicious food, easy conversation and just a wonderful time with friends. I don't know when I have laughed and smiled so much. In addition to all of that fun today, I also got a fantastic new purse from my sister, some really groovy new wine glass clips from one of Chris's coworker's wives and some monogrammed toilet paper! I have to say that in all of my 37 years, I have never had monogrammed toilet paper bestowed upon me. But tonight I did! And it's just too funny! To top off this great day, there were three bouquets of flowers waiting for me when I picked up my children tonight. One from each of them. So sweet. AND two big picture orders waiting for me in my e-mail. What more could a girl ask for on her special day? Honestly, I don't think it gets any more special than that! I am so crazy blessed at this point in my life. I am fluffier than I was a year ago...heck...I'm just plain fatter than last year. And more wrinkled and definitely more tired I think. But so very, very blessed. I don't know when I have felt so loved and so special. It truly was a fantastic day and such a wonderful way to turn 37. I'm almost looking forward to 38!

Weekend Reflections

Well, it's Sunday evening and another weekend is drawing to a close. I sit here tonight with ANOTHER pesky headache trying to happen on me. Again. No idea what is up with the headaches...but it's making me crazy. They aren't terrible migraine level things...just annoying.

Chris is off fishing somewhere in the Boundary Waters up by Canada. He has ZERO cell phone reception, so for an entire week (and a little bit) there is NO hearing from him or him hearing from us. I'm guessing he enjoys his end of that deal a little better than I enjoy mine! So, in the meantime, the kids and I are staying plenty busy. Not that that is ever really a challenge for us. On Thursday afternoon I had to dash down to UMC to do a session for a full term fetal demise. Then on Friday afternoon, right as school got out, I got called to Northwest for another full term fetal demise. There were two other calls while I was in North Carolina and then there was ANOTHER call this afternoon. This is definitely one of those dreaded baby waves. I was just thinking right before I headed to North Carolina that things sure had been quiet on the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep front. VERY quiet! And no sooner did I think that, than the wave began. So I have two on my desk here to work through...plus a few hundred other minor photography tasks to tackle. No...I cannot complain about being bored or having nothing to do! Hopefully, this call today will be the last of this wave and we can go back to the low key, quiet status that we enjoyed for such a good long while this past time!

Friday night we had dinner at Jackie's house. And that was totally great because I did not finish at the hospital until right at dinner time. It was so nice not to have to come and try to figure out what to feed everyone! Then on Saturday, I got up early and took Oscar for a long walk. Then came home and jumped on the treadmill to make sure I spent a good 20 minutes "in the zone". It was only AFTER I walked Oscar that my friend Mary told me about all the recent javelina attacks and how people walking dogs had been attacked and their dogs had been hurt and the javelinas were seemingly fearless! YIKES! I quickly made a mental note to my self that Oscar will NOT be getting those walks for a while now until javelina mating season is over!!! On Saturday afternoon, both Max and Clara had friends over to play for the afternoon. Then Clara and I met my friend Gillian and her two girls and we had a girls night out at Mi Nidito! YUM! It was delicious, as always and such a good time! Then we all came home and collapsed into bed, exhausted (and with one of those pesky little headaches!) I decided not to try to herd all the kids into church by myself and spent the morning instead "in the zone" on the treadmill. Can I just say...the "ZONE" sucks! I mean it is totally not fun working out there for 20 minutes. Today I stayed there for 30. And the last 10 minutes I was pretty sure I was going to throw up. (That's a good thing, I understand. You really want to push for that "about to vomit" feeling. Apparently that's the real "sweet spot".) I was SO ready to quit! As I got to the end I caught myself thinking that I really could stop in just 5 minutes if I wanted to....because I only have to be in the zone for 20 minutes. Then I caught myself thinking back that I am NOT a quitter and that NO WAY was I going to stop in 5 minutes, that I was in for the full 10. At that point I made a NOTE TO SELF...something along the lines of "I hate you". Self quickly answered back "Amen sister. You sure do! That's why we are even IN the zone in the FIRST place!" Hmmmm? Self had a point. I hate it when that happens. Still...I hated every second of it, but made it the full 10 minutes to round out a nice 30 minutes in the zone. THAT was seriously tough! But when it was all said and done, I felt a bit better for all of my efforts. After that, the boys did a little slave labor around the house in order to earn some precious few minutes of game time on the stupid new XBox 360 they purchased. Completely against any and ALL of my objections. I won't even go into that whole nightmare here. It still makes me too mad and it's not good to be that mad at them without the possibility of Chris coming home to save them. So I will stay away from that for now. But believe me when I tell you it is NOT a pretty story. Once the house was sparkling clean and shiny, they did indeed have a closely monitored hour of gaming. And then it was OFF to Costco! Oh the joy of it! Not really. My kids hate having to go and it's no walk in the park for me either! But these things simply have to be done and now, tonight, DONE it is. We are ready now for lunches and whatever else life brings our way this next week. I think. We are on full accident precautions, as something obnoxious always seems to happen when Chris is out of town! Knowing that he is totally unreachable for days on end really kind of sets the stage for something extra spectacular. It is my goal to keep us all healthy, free of gaping, stitch requiring wounds, head injuries and all other manner of evil yuckies until Chris' return next week! Wish us luck!

Peer Review

Okay, so here recently I have started occasionally submitting some of my nature photos to the Arizona Daily Star reader's gallery. If you have never checked it out, there is some phenomenal photography there to be seen. Awesome really. There's a fair amount of just snap shot stuff...but also some really stunning stuff. Anyway. I was just looking at my gallery and a whole bunch of my photos have received awesome comments from others. And I just think that's so exciting! The dragonflies I posted last night already have two comments. And now I also know that this kind of dragonfly is called a Flame Skimmer. It's just a fun way to see what people think about your stuff. In a fairly anonymous kind of way! And it's educational too! What's just too funny is that one of my photos was published in the paper a while back. Only...it wasn't one of my stunning nature photos that made the morning print. It was a picture of Oscar yanking on our dog, Casey's tail! Go figure! Maybe someday, something a little more naturistic will be print worthy! But at least for now, I just have to settle for having been printed! Silly as it was!

Chasing Dragons

Well...dragonflies anyway! I have become a bug stalker. For whatever strange reason, I keep finding them to be absolutely fascinating. The end of this summer has been rich in bugs and I have spent more than a fair amount of time chasing them! I have recently been treated to tarantulas, all sorts and sizes of butterflies, some really huge wicked looking black bug, and now today...dragonflies. I have watched this dragonfly dude on more than one occasion, but every time I grab my camera, he takes off. Camera shy this one. Today, the kids were all out swimming in the pool and I was sitting there with them working through my bible study as they splashed and played. I looked up and there, across the pool was my ever elusive dragonfly dude perched on the very tip of the agave plant beside the pool. I watched him for quite a while and for quite a while he just sat there. If for any reason he did get scared away, he always seemed to return very quickly to that same post. Finally, I decided I just HAD to try to snap his picture. And so I grabbed my camera and began, yet another bug stalking event. I was able to creep up beautifully close to him...at which point he flew away. Of course. But in just the shortest of times he came right back to his post and just perched there so beautifully for me on the end of the agave spike. Well, needless to say I was overjoyed. I took his picture and took his picture and took his picture and he was just so cooperative. What a blast it was. And I am thrilled with the images. Just thrilled. This was definitely the highlight of my day! If you click on these images, it should bring a large and up close version for you. You can see every tiny hair on this guy. VERY cool!

Welcome Back!

Ahhh...it's so good to be home. Well...not really. I came home to a dirty house, PILES of laundry, a dead fish, an empty fridge and kids with attitudes. I was REALLY missing my sister's little cabin in the woods this morning! And so today I began the process of setting it all back to "normal". Or whatever normal happens to be for this crazy family of mine! The morning started off with a BANG! Getting lunches made and progress reports signed and all sorts of other small details. In the midst of it all, Clara knocks over a whole cup of coffee. Mental note...add mopping the floor to the already long "to do" list. Then proceeds to have quite the attitude about it. That shortly morphs into complaints about and talk about quitting her cheerleading/tumbling class I just paid a fortune for her to do. We have been having THIS particular discussion for a month now and when I voiced my opinion that maybe this activity should maybe wait for a year or so she went NUTS! Crying, begging, pleading to let her do it. And so I relented and wrote out the check, signed the recital contract and committed to pay for her lessons through May. And of course...exactly ONE day after those forms are turned in she decides she doesn't REALLY want to do it after all. Welcome to the land of tough crap, Baby! Because now she is all in and there is NO turning back. She may not be the best tumbler and she may not grasp all the ins and outs of cheering. But she WILL understand the meaning of the word "commitment" and she will know what it is like to see something through to the very bitter end before it's all said and done. And so...coming home was not really pleasant. I SO treasured the peace I had the past weekend. The nights sitting in the gazebo at NIkki's house, listening to the frogs and crickets with a glass of wine in my hands. I loved the low key feel to the weekend. None of the rush and run that seems to be a constant in our household. I am treasuring my sisters even more than ever today as I go back and face my reality. I am so grateful that we have managed two get togethers now in two years. Nikki was very tearful that it would be another year before we get to do this again. But I am so thankful that we even get to attempt it each year. What a wonderful tradition we started between us! I am already looking forward to next year and planning out our next visit in my head. But in the meantime...there is reality to deal with. Guitar lessons and ballet, art lessons and mountain biking clubs, cheerleading and tumbling and then of course...homework, homework, homework. Life is so busy right now. I am so thankful that I have two wonderful sisters and the fantastic memories of our weekends together that I can draw on to bolster me through my reality! Speaking of reality...back to it!

My Favorites from the Weekend

I just got back from a magical and fun weekend at my sister's house. While I was there I got to take a gazillion pictures of her two precious little boys. They are WILDLY adorable and oh, so beautiful! What a treat for my camera! WHAT A TREAT! Two adorable boys, amazing scenery and new and interesting places everywhere I turned! These are my favorites from the weekend! Enjoy!

Mr. Frog! I thought it was rather brave of me to get this up close and personal with him! Ribbitt!

Just two brothers trying to catch some action down at the fishin hole!

Nate! This one looks exactly like my little sister! SUCH a charmer!

Look out! He's a 4-wheelin dude!

Brotherly Love!

Running away from home!

Drew...such a sweetheart! And SO smart too! What can I say? I'm a softie for the brainy type!

Sister's Weekend

The little guest cabin where the sisters stayed! Nikki's house is a MUCH bigger version of this little charmer!

Well...it FINALLY happened! We got to have our sister's weekend! HOORAY! What a bliss filled and totally fun weekend it was! We all met up at my little sister's house this time. She lives in a precious little log cabin in the woods. So rustic and scenic and breathtakingly beautiful! Every inch of it screams home and comfort and warmth and welcome. It was such fun to just be there and be together as sisters for a few days! Such a rare treat for us! We spent our nights sipping wine in her gazebo, listening to the crickets talk to the bullfrogs, then snuggling in cushy feather beds. We spent our days poking around little antique stores and eating yummy lunches at sidewalk cafes. We walked in the woods and marveled at the beauty around us. We debated whether or not Donna and I could really be "country" girls. We decided by the time we left that it was so very beautiful, but might be a bit labor intensive for us! We ate chocolate croissants and had fondue dinners. We debated the finer points of cilantro and child raising. but most of all we just treasured being there together and enjoying being in one another's company every second that we could be. It was so hard to say goodbye. Before I was even out of the car I was planning the next great sister's weekend out in my mind! Such great fun! How blessed am I to have such wonderful sisters in my life!

Sisters!

Well...I'm Off!

Okay, I just checked reservations once again and it looks like all things are go. And so...I am going to head out of here! Hopefully Hannah will behave herself until I am on the ground in Charlotte tonight! I don't relish the idea of being stuck in Minneapolis one little bit! And so...ta ta for now! Back soon!

Head Spinning

Well...it's the night before takeoff. And of course, this has been THE craziest day ever. TONS and tons to do. My car was ready to be picked up today (of course!) and it was all the way down by Tucson Mall. And when I got there it took FOREVER for them to bring it around to me. By the time they did get the keys back into my hands, I had to abort errands schedule A and instead, run with schedule B. This involved making a lightning fast trip into Target and a quick tank of gas before charging into my 11:30 a.m. hair appointment EXACTLY, to the minute, on time. Two hours later I walked out gorgeous. Or at least not dull and lack luster like when I first walked in. Of COURSE, today had to be the day that I was due for the intensive beauty overhaul! Couldn't have been a quickie in and out day! From there it was time to spring poor Oscar from the kennel! About the moment I thought I could get a few more things packed and gather my thoughts, the phone rang and it was Clara's doctor. Apparently the school needed another form stating that she does indeed have a dairy allergy. And they had the form ready for me...and so I took off flying to grab it because there was EXACTLY enough time to grab the note and get to school to pick up the kids. I picked up Ben and Clara and quickly calculated as I walked in the door (for the third time so far) that I had roughly an hour and 15 minutes to help Clara get her homework packet finished, give her a snack, do her reading time and get her dressed and ready for cheer and tumble. And then, life happened, as it so often will....and Max called and really, REALLY needed his mountain bike at school so that they didn't have to be so doubled up and sharing since they were so short on bikes. And so I threw Clara and her reading materials in the car and hoisted Max's bike into the back of the Explorer (leaving some very snazzy tread marks straight across my thigh no less!) and took off for Coronado. I dropped off the bike and rushed back home. NOW I had roughly 10 minutes to get Clara dressed and ready for cheer and tumble. I changed her in a hurry and we took off at a dead run for class. We made it almost on time too. No sooner did I drop her off, when I had to return to Coronado to pick up Max. I dropped him off at the house and just kept right on going straight back over to Clara's class where I could observe what was left. By the time we got home it was 7:25 and I was SO tired. I ate a quick peanut butter sandwich, gave Clara a bath, tucked her in, and began the process of trying to get myself organized for tomorrow. At this point in the evening I have FINALLY looked up my itenerary, printed off my boarding passes, thrown some clothes into the suitcase (not sure how much of it actually matches anything!) and am now sitting here with my head spinning...trying to think about all the things I might have forgotten. I have a typed sheet of directions for both Chris and Jackie complete with times, clothes required, mode of transportation, etc. I have notes to teachers about going home arrangements written and I have forms and tuition for dance next week tucked into ballet bags. My camera is all packed up. And I think that I am too tired to try and think of anymore tonight! Luckily, my flight is not too early tomorrow, so once they all leave, I SHOULD have a few minutes of quiet time to just process my thoughts! We will see!

Hurricane Hannah is still messing around there. I am finding her projected path to be a bit less favorable for my landing time tomorrow night than it was earlier today. I'm not too stressed since it has changed so many times these past few days. I WILL be checking first thing tomorrow morning though! That's for sure! Hopefully things will go off without a hitch! Here's hoping!

As the Wind Blows

Well, there has been a definite shift in Hannah's Path. It's still on course for my sister' house...but the track is bringing it in MUCH lower...like the very tip of Florida, instead of north Florida. So that's at least improvement! I have a state's worth of buffer zone...for now. There is talk of it strengthening. I am thinking...that on this Wednesday Morning, there is still further time for it to shift even MORE south and just duck UNDER Florida and head on up into the Gulf. Now, the gulf coast folks won't be a bit excited about that I am sure. But I REALLY, really, really want to have my sister's weekend this weekend. And if that's the only way for that to happen...then I have to just throw that gulf coast out there as bait! And so....PRAY ON!

Yeah...About That Zone

So can I just say that 5 hours after my workout in "the zone" my butt is just screaming in protest. My hips are getting stiff and sore and I can't even imagine what my backside is going to feel like tomorrow when I wake up if it's already hurting this much after just 5 hours! That workout was MAJORLY intense today. Thank God it was as short as it was. I'm supposed to build up beyond 20 minutes to 30 or even 40. I have new respect and admiration for Oprah! That's all I have to say about that right now. Oh, my butt!

The Zone

So I have been re-reading Oprah Winfrey's book Make the Connection. I bought it a LOOOONNNNG time ago at the dollar store in Florida and thoroughly enjoyed it. (The treasures one can find at the dollar store!) I recently picked it up again after I was out of things to read around the house and started working my way through all of the chapters and information again. I have to say that I really, really like this book. And timing wise, it has found it's way into my life again at the PERFECT time! My workouts have been stalled out and I have slowly over the course of this year watched my scale inch up and inch up and inch up....and you know the saying...give her an inch and she'll take a mile? Well my butt and gut are approaching the mile wide zone these days. And despite longer runs and more classes at the gym, it doesn't seem to be moving anything at all for me. And so I have been reading these pages with a fresh new outlook and it makes more sense to me right now as I approach the ripe old age of 37 here in two weeks than it ever has before. One of the chapters in particular that never really clicked with me is TOTALLY clicking with me right now. It talks about exercising in "the zone". Basically, it says you can exercise all day long and while you might burn calories, if you aren't doing that exercise in "the zone" then you are not doing a single thing to rev up your metabolism and help yourself. You are just burning calories. And that you can get TONS more benefit from working out for 20 minutes in the zone over working out 40 or 60 minutes not in the zone. The more I have thought about this and examined my life I think old Bob Greene just might have a real point there. I exercise all the time. And have now for years. This is not new. I am very faithful to my gym schedule. I run 5 to 6 miles at a time at least a couple of times a week. We eat reasonably. Not perfectly. But reasonably. I don't have a sweet tooth and I rarely crave things like potato chips. Despite all of this, I have watched the scale climb this year. And now half of my closet doesn't fit. My friend Wendy has always said 5 pounds is no biggie and nothing to complain about. But for me it's a whole size up in my clothes and it's a HUGE difference. It's the difference between bikini and no bikini. It's almost the difference between bikini and "Stay off the beach, lest someone try to shove the whale back in the water!" It has been very frustrating the past year watching all of this, knowing that I have not made any detrimental changes to my diet and have only stepped up my efforts to improve the situation...all to no avail. And so today, I had my first day of working "in the zone". I was BARELY able to hang on to it for the required 20 minutes...which according to ole Bob is a good thing, I ran 7.5 minute miles for 15 of the twenty minutes. Then I had to back it down to an 8 minute mile (which, incidentally, is the same pace that Oprah herself works out at). I did last the 20 minutes and I was SO tired when it was all over. I kept running it through my mind that Bob said that most people don't have to work as hard as Oprah does to boost her metabolism. Then immediately I just figured that me...being me...would be the exception to that rule and would have to work every bit as hard as Oprah does. So as soon as I could begin to catch my breath after that I ran up and down my stairs 10 times at top speed...just for good measure. Oscar was very supportive of this particular phase of my exercise routine and accompanied me up and down each and every pass! We were both tired at the end. We will see if the saying "less is more" really is true! I can say that I am definitely feeling that 30 minutes on the treadmill WAY more than I usually feel the full hour. And I am tired and my butt and hamstrings are just singing to me as I sit here typing this. Time will tell! We shall see.

On another note. I am going to see my sister on Friday for a second attempt at "Sister's Weekend". At least...that is the plan. The ticket has been purchased and all the appropriate people have been put into place to help chaufer the kids to and from their various destinations. But sometimes I just have to wonder if we really just aren't meant to have our sister's weekend there in the tar heel state! As of this morning, Charlotte is due to be slammed by Hurricane Hannah sometime between Friday and Saturday afternoon and my arrival is sceduled for SMACK in the middle of that! In addition to that, Hurricane Ike is hot on Hannah's trail. So this could end up being a very interesting weekend for sure! I gave my older sister a hard time earlier when we booked our flights because she didn't want to fly "steerage" (as she so sweetly described it....MOOOOOO" with me. Seems she's a bit on the spoiled side and likes the bigger seats, extra leg room and a hit of champagne before takeoff! Anyway. I tried guilting her into flying with me by telling her how sad she would be if my plane crashed and she knew that I spent those very last few seconds of my life all alone and scared on that plane with noone's hand to hold or be able to talk with. She said if my plane went down she'd just be even more glad she wasn't on it. So much for my guilt trip attempt! However....if my plane goes down in Hurricane Hannah, I think it will definitely always be in the back of her mind that she let me fly all alone when she COULD have come right along with me. ESPECIALLY since she ended up booking her own flight in STEERAGE anyway! So...it's a great time for all of you to lift up your prayers for a MAJOR shift in the winds so that Hurricane Hannah will blow HARD west and aim for...I don't know...Texas maybe...or Louisiana (sorry about that) or even Alabama would work well for me this this weekend. Chris tells me not to worry about it. That the worst possible thing that could happen is that I would spend three days sitting stuck in an airport somewhere. Nice. very nice. And so...back to the praying! Pray it up....Hannah neads a hard westward movement! Many thanks in advance!

Life in the Roberts House

I cannot believe it is already September 1st! WOW! The kids are entering their 4th full week of school. Time is zooming by! What's been going on in our house? Well...the usual chaos! I've been busy driving the mom taxi every which way but the way that is ON the way or convenient to get to! Clara has a ballet class on Mondays, Ben has an art class on Tuesdays, Max has a guitar class on Wednesdays, Clara has cheerleading and tumble classes on Thursdays and then when Friday rolls around all three kids want play dates! So we are keeping busy for sure. I am making it to the gym on an incredibly regular basis. I'm changing some things up exercise wise to see if I can change some things up body wise! We shall see if it works! No real high hopes...but it never hurts to try something new and improved!

Picture business is good. It's very, very good. I actually turned down my first photography opportunity today. I was approached about doing a family portrait day at the school as a PTO fundraiser. It sounded like a great idea and I kicked around a lot of ideas. But last night I couldn't sleep and so much was racing through my head pertaining to that event. I finally came to the conclusion that I didn't want to have to shoot family portraits in a 10 minutes time slot. I don't know that I can work that way. And let's face it...not all families are cooperative. Mom and Dad are usually quite well behaved...it's just all the little people that are the total wild cards! For the most part, kids are so fantastic. But sometimes you get those that are just bent on NOT having their pictures made. And lots of kids kind of freak out when you point a camera at them and they need some time to adjust and to kind of settle in and play for a bit before they feel comfortable. Having only 10 minutes would not allow for any comfort zone building. And there is no one single one pose fits all families pose. Every family is SO different. Some have one child, some have four or five. Some have even more than that! Some have bigger kids that can sit up and listen and follow directions. Some have newborns. The more I thought about it all, the bigger headache I was getting and I just decided that that would not be my style. To push families through rapid fire like that. I like to spend a little time with my families and get to know them a bit and get a feel for what works best with them. Ten minutes won't let me do that and I think it would not be a good idea to jeopardize the last two years of work and building a good, solid client base with a day of super rushed, lacking quality family fiasco pictures. And so I told Traci this morning that I didn't think it was a good fit for me. At one time I don't think I would have done that. I think I would have just had to jump at any opportunity to take pictures of any one or anything. But not so much now. Business has been really good and it's not even the busy season yet. Christmas is coming and I have great stuff ordered this year. Well...I love two out of the three things! I don't know if I love the third thing or not because I can't get my stubborn kids to cooperate AT ALL for a test drive session. I did, however, like the way this one worked out. It was the ONLY one I liked from the first trial. My kids were seriously grumpy and this session was done under great threat and with much talk of long lasting punishments. That said...I still like it. Would I LOVE to play with it some more? ABSOLUTELY!!! Just not with MY kids!
What else is going on? Chris is in Europe right now, so it's just me holding down the fort this week. He gets back on Wednesday night. This week is looking fairly quiet right now...especially considering Monday is already DONE and we hit the floor running with Tuesday's schedule instead! I SAY that it is looking quiet! I haven't actually LOOKED at the calendar at all! I need to change out my kitchen calendar and get everything updated for the month. But in my mind...I think it is quiet. There is no big outstanding appointment or anything that immediately comes to mind for this month. Other than that Chris will be leaving again shortly after he gets home from Europe to go to the Boundary Waters to fish for 10 days. Leaving me here. All alone. On my birthday. To ponder and reflect upon the fleeting days of my life and their meanings all alone. Where he won't even be able to pick up the phone and say Happy Birthday because there is no cell phone reception there. But hey. No big deal. I'm tough. I'll handle it. In all fairness, it's his birthday too...so it's a nice birthday treat for him I suppose. He gets peace and solitude and fishing for 10 days. I get screaming kids, hectic schedules, no adult relief or breaks for 10 days. Hey wait a minute! I think I am getting the shaft on this one!

Anyway...now you are caught up on what's going on in La Casa de Roberts!