Done

I'm not even going to blog about it. Suffice it to say that I am DONE. Enough already. Finished. I simply will not go there again. The end. Thank you for listening to this little rant of mine.

Happy Thanksgiving

It is one a.m. and I am still sitting here like I have good common sense. I don't have to be up particulary early tomorrow (or rather, today!), as it IS Thanksgiving and I have no children to get off to school. But I DO have to get up and get to the gym because Jenny and I scheduled time with our personal trainer for Thanksgiving morning (it SEEMED like such a good idea at the time. Like we would both likely be sitting around with our feet propped up just soaking in a relaxing Thanksgiving day!) I have stayed up tonight cooking chicken enchiladas and Puerco Pibil, from scratch, for tomorrow's Thanksgiving feast. Did you catch that? FROM SCRATCH???!!! I pretty much do nothing from scratch. I'm not much of a scratcher, so to speak! No thank you. Pass the shortcuts! But tonight, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I prepared two dishes from scratch. Very, VERY scratch. And they are finally done and in the fridge, waiting for their debut tomorrow as the Thanksgiving feast! And now I need to get to bed. Like NOW. LIke, at least an hour ago. But I couldn't resist logging on here and just saying Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for so much this year I would not even know where to start. Of course, I am so thankful for my three sweet kids. And my wonderful husband. I'm thankful for awesome friends and wonderful workout partners. I am thankful for personal trainers and that peanut butter m&m's have 4 grams of protein in them! I am thankful for the desert and for rainbows over the desert when it rains. I am thankful for good friends that will share a feast with us tomorrow and I am thankful for our life here in the desert. Truly. I am so thankful for our last four years here. I am thankful that I have people who love me and that I have people that I really and truly and truly love. I am thankful for the gift of talent in photography and for the gift of clients who entrust me with the task of capturing some of their sweetest moments (and not so sweet!). I am thankful for so many things and for so many people in my life. And I am SO thankful that I have to get off of this computer because nearly every minute of my day tomorrow is packed with wonderful friends and family who love me. I am so blessed to know so many wonderful people. Have you counted your blessings today? Really and truly stopped and thought about each of the tiniest, yet so significant, ways that we are all so blessed. May your Thanksgiving be grand and wonderful. Gobble, gobble and many thanks to you all!

ADD?

Maxwell continues to frustrate me to no end. It's hard to say if he's just being belligerent at this point or if there is something going on for real that we aren't tapping into yet. It occurred to me last night, after MANY many reminders and prompts to get his homework done and MANY many starts and stops on that homework, that perhaps he just can't focus on his task. I was literally ready to strap the child into his chair at one point. His homework took FOREVER! And so I started wondering if maybe there's more to it. Maybe there IS something wrong with him and it's more than just his own teenage hormones and disorganization? When I mentioned it to Chris he told me not to be too quick to give him an excuse. And I don't want to be. Just out of curiosity though, I looked up the attention deficit disorder checklist to see...just out of curiosity if Max's behaviors would place him in that category. A VERY QUICK glance at the questionaire had these things popping out instantly at me!

A child who is chronically disorganized, has difficulty remembering, consistently loses things or waits until the last minute to complete homework or projects may also suffer from ADD. (That one sentence right there pretty much sums up my Max!)

Poor handwriting, often prints

Poor writing skills (hard to get information from brain to pen)

Tendency to be immature

Failure to see others' needs or activities as important

Chronic procrastination or trouble getting started

Starting projects but not finishing them, poor follow through

Spends excessive time at work because of inefficiencies

Inconsistent work performance

Poor organization and planning, trouble maintaining an organized work/living area

Chronically late or chronically in a hurry

Often have piles of stuff

Easily overwhelmed by tasks of daily living

Some adults with ADD are very successful, but often only if they are surrounded with people who organize them. (Max is HEAVILY dependent on me organizing him these days!)

Has to be moving in order to think (the child cannot carry on a conversation sitting down. He PACES back and forth as he talks to you.)

Short attention span, unless very interested in something

Easily distracted, tendency to drift away (although at times can be hyper focused)

Lacks attention to detail, due to distractibility

Trouble listening carefully to directions

Frequently misplaces things

History of not living up to potential in school or work (report cards with comments such as "not living up to potential")


Well...it certainly SOUNDS as if Maxwell might be a candidate. But he's mighty sassy these days also! So maybe he is just being a stinker. I do think that it's worth checking into and talking it over with his doctor. The only thing that would be troubling to me is why NOW? How is it that he has managed to do so well to this point? Even in this current school year (his first quarter wasn't stellar, but it wasn't awful either). This is something new and improved to be pondered here in this head of mine! Going to chew on it for a bit.

Just so ya'll know!

I wrote our family Christmas letter last night! Yep! All finished! Done! Finito! All that's left is to take it by office depot and smack it onto some fun holiday paper and the Roberts family Christmas card project will officially be airborne! Whoo Hoo! Cards are ordered already and most of the packages are wrapped and ready for dispatch to their rightful recipients. They would ALL be wrapped, but my dear little 6 year old is really embracing the artist in herself lately and has managed to use up ALL of my tape! Packing AND scotch! And so...there's a target pit stop between me and project completion! Ahhhh. The end is so close now!

Projects!

The past week or so has been full of projects in the Roberts House! For starters..the boy's have had a complete new bedroom makeover! We moved Maxwell back into Ben's room officially. He sleeps in there 9 out of 10 nights anyway and watches T.V. in there and plays all of his video games in there. Pretty much the only thing he does in his own room is get dressed and make messes. And so...in an effort to contain and control the chaos, we put both muchachos back into the same room. Part of that deal was ordering some new furniture, a complete new paint job, new bedding and all sorts of other fun. And so...here are the BEFORE pictures...




And after MUCH work and hard labor...and I DO mean MUCH! HERE is the finished room...all transformed into the new "cool" teen hideaway!




The boys seen to be thrilled with their new hangout and are enjoying their new space immensely. They are even making attempts to keep it semi-clean. And I will use the word "clean" very loosely here. VERY loosely! But it's a start! Hey...a mom will take whatever she can get!

In the process of this whole room transformation, I also found myself helping my dear friend Gillian move into HER new house. And we got to spend a lively afternoon unpacking boxes and doing the chit chat thing. And there is just something powerful about seeing everything in that brand new, everything put away in it's place for the very first time kind of state. And I got to thinking that I wanted that look again in my own house! And so, the "Great Purge of 2008" began. It started in my own closet. Then progressed out into my bedroom. Then into the family room, the kitchen, the game cabinets, the drawers, the garage cabinets, etc. It's like a giant tidal wave of JUNK was just washed out of my house! And it is SUCH a wonderful feeling! My garage is currently so full of boxes of things to go to Goodwill that I can't even park in there! And some of the boxes are now so heavy to pick up that it has become Chris's project because I just can't do it now! I need a bumper stick that says "I came, I cleaned, I conquered!" It's a happy day here in the Roberts house...yessirree! I still have Clara's room to do. THAT should be a fun one! But I'm all over that one this week and then we are DONE and SO ready for the holidays!

Picture business is great! I am spending LOTS and lots of time outside at the canyon these days. Many an evening enjoying the last light of the day out there! The weather has been so delightful! I really can't complain!

Max continues to be a challenge with school. He got put on a "check" system this week and was NONE too happy about it. He told me he was pretty much GUARANTEED to fail now because he simply was going to. He spouted out all sorts of reasons why this system of accountability is so stupid, etc. I simply said to him "Pick up thy shovel, stubborn child of mine...and dig, dig, dig your hole! Dig it hard and dig it fast...then preparest thyself to lie in it! And complainest NOT to me because you insisted on making bad choices! (Oh...and by the way...I'll send you a postcard from the beach where the REST of us will be enjoying our summer while YOU do a stint in summer school!)" He seemed to simmer down a bit after sleeping on it for a night or two. This weekend was relatively free of his complaints and threats of failing. We'll just have to see what the next couple of weeks hold for him and if his grades start to rebound any. I can tell Ben is getting anxious and tired of being grounded. He acts like he doesn' t care one bit. BUT...he has assured me all weekend that he HAS been working so much harder and HAS been making efforts and that his grades ARE better and that he has brought up his averages. BUT...to his dismay his teacher has NOT updated grades in forever...so I have no real proof of this. And so until I SEE that there is improvement...his status is officially grounded! Ben has checked grades at least 5 times this weekend hoping his teacher will have posted the new grades. But alas...nothing is there! Oh the lessons these young ones have to learn!

That's about it for what's happening at our house. Projects, projects and lots more projects! Still more to come! Lots to do and little time before the holidays arrive! I am pleased to report that 85% of the Christmas shopping is DONE. Not only done, but is wrapped. Not only wrapped, but is packed into boxes and is ready to SHIP! Post office, here I come! My Christmas cards got ordered TONIGHT! And I am READY for the delights of winter! Bring it on!

Pondering

I am pondering many a thing tonight. Life changing kind of ponderings. For one...I am thinking about not being a photographer any more. That's one. I mean...I guess I will always be a photographer. In some sense. But then...anyone who has a camera and pushes the button to snap a picture, is, in a very real sense, a photographer. But I guess I am thinking that I will no longer be a "professional" photographer. For one...these darned props are overrunning my house! For another...well.... maybe it's just this time of year... I don't know. But especially now, I feel like there are NO creative juices flowing really. It's just family after family looking solely for the obligatory Christmas card photo. I feel like it's right about now that I really lose that connection with my families. With my subjects. And I cease to really create something beautiful for them. But rather just stamp out the same old, same old. Honestly, I have two "new" photo locations on my calendar for this month. They are the ONLY two appointments that really excite or interest me in the least. That...and the fact that both of these appointments are friends and long time clients (Well...as long as they CAN be when you've only been in business for two years!). So there is a connection there with both of these families. And the change of location is a plus also. Often times, after I work with a family, I can stand back and really see some "magic" there in that session...something different and awesome. But these days...the magic just seems to be missing. It all seems so cookie cutter to me. I think another factor is that my business has grown so much over this past year, that I am working with so many NEW people who are strangers to me. When I first started out, I worked mostly with my friends. But now I have more "stranger" clients than friend clients. In some ways it's wonderful. But I also find it somehow lonely and less fulfilling. Honestly, it's SO tempting to clear out ALL of my props...my backdrops, my lights, my TWO huge cabinets full of nonsense things out in the garage. To pack away my angel wings and tutus and pearls and what not and just have my house...back to normal. Back to "BEFORE". I'm sure that Chris would totally rejoice in not having my constant disaster of a studio to deal with. I talked to him about it tonight. We both agreed that it's not about the money. It's been nice to have a little bit of my very own money...but honestly...anyone who knows me knows that I am a TERRIBLE business person and have probably only made a fraction of what I should have. Bottom line is that I don't need the money. And that's a good thing because I am so terrible at collecting it! I realized today that I rarely take pictures of my own kids anymore. I just dont. And it's not because I'm busy or don't have the time. It's because somewhere along the way, taking pictures has become a job...and not just a passion and hobby. My pictures of my kids come to a screeching halt about two years ago. Oh...there are some shots here and there. But really,...my own kids are largely undocumented. And I am not sure that I am okay with that. So that's one pondering.

My other pondering is over my kids. And this one directly links back to my photography. Max is doing so poorly in school right now. WHY that is, is yet to be determined. As far as I can tell it is pure disorganization and Max's own disjointed and chaotic thinking patterns. He IS a Roberts boy after all. But here lately, I often find myself thinking that if there were less on my own plate, perhaps I could help him more. Maybe...maybe not. I don't know. But right now, today, tonight...I feel like my photography is almost too much to juggle on top of trying to get Max straightened out.

When Chris and I talked about it tonight, Chris could not deny that he too, would love to see that studio room all neat and clean and maybe NOT so much a studio. He reminded me that it wasn't about the money. Of course, I already knew that. But then he said that he really thought I had an eye and a talent for it. And that I should keep developing it. But find a way to do it in a way that didn't present so many problems for me. And if appointments and what not bother me...then cut those and just focus on the photography for the sake of the photography itself. I'm not sure that appointments bother me, mind you. But it's nice to know I have his support in shutting this venture down if that is the conclusion that I come to. I still have a lot of pondering to do on this subject for sure.

I guess that's all I'm pondering really. I've been in a purging mode. I have been cleaning out closets and end tables, drawers and cabinets for a week now. Chris said that if he didn't know better, he would worry that I was "nesting". I'm certainly NOT nesting. I'm NOT expecting. I just want to feel some semblance of control and neatness in my life. And I am purging each and every area that proves itself to be unnecessary. Nothing but the bare minimum! That's my motto. If I don't REALLY need it...then it's OUTTA HERE! Goodwill....here we come!

And THOSE are my thoughts of the day!

Friday

It's now Friday night. And I'm tired...so here are the highlights of the past couple of days.

Yesterday was training session #4 with the personal trainer. As always, she had a lovely workout planned for us. It was awesome and fun. And funny. It's always fun working out with Jenny. There was a lot of LOUD construction work going on in the gym yesterday, so we spent a good bit of the time yelling at each other. After the work was all done, we went upstairs to test in on our bodyfat and have ourselves a little talk about diet and nutrition. My bodyfat had only gone down by 1%. A little improvement...but apparently NOT what I should have achieved in this time. Which was the jumping off point for our little diet discussion (WHICH Jenny conveniently skipped out on!). The results of that discussion? Well...there was no good news. Apparently I don't even get half of the protein I am supposed to be eating....which apparently could be a HUGE factor in why I'm not able to convert this fat to muscle. Despite much working out. Also deficient was my fiber. And so I have my task before me...to eat more protein and fiber. And less fat (AKA Tootsie Rolls! Those darned things are just so addictive!). So that then, brings us to today!

This morning I got the kids all off to school and then went to Kohl's to exchange a jacket. Then I dropped a ton of stuff off at Goodwill. THEN I went to Fry's to grocery shop. I will mention here that I am accomplishing all of this with some SERIOUSLY sore bicep muscles! OUCH! Had to shop for my fiber and protein you know. After I got home from all of that I choked down some All Bran cereal and Soy Milk (EWWWWW!). Then I went and picked up Ben (today was his birthday!). Then I had a photo shoot. Then I took my birthday boy to lunch at Chili's. And I can proudly say that I was a good girl at Chili's. While I watched my son enthusiastically devour a big mouth bacon burger and pile of french fries, I myself enjoyed some grilled salmon, broccoli and black beans. Yummy. Well...you know. Yummy-ish. It was no bacon burger, I can tell ya that! Then it was time to pick up Clarabelle from school. Her little friend came home with us to play today. They were VERY busy creating great masterpieces while I edited the photos from today's shoot. Then, it was time for Daddy to come home and dinner to be fixed. Only noone was really hungry. I had another wonderful protein shake for dinner. Can I just say that I am SO stuffed of protein, I don't think I will be able to eat another bite for a week or two? This protein eating business is tough! Anyway. It's late and I am tired and I am very ready to curl up in my bed for the night!

Tomorrow, I will tell you all about the birth of my sweet boy, Benjamin and how I lived to tell about it!

Tuesday

Today was a busy day (like there is ever any other kind!). I hit the gym bright and early this morning with Jenny. We did our workout from the personal trainer. That was fun. Then I hit the showers at the gym and went and met Chris at the mall for our little "bling" shopping trip. We struck out there and could not agree on anything. They had sold the one piece that we had really liked before hand and then they started hard selling some other stuff. NOT a favorite tactic of mine. When the sales lady pointed out a particular diamond that was "lovely" as she put it...with a price tag of just over $30,000, Chris balked a little bit. At that point she reminded him that it was an exquisite diamond. At which point Chris pointed out that it was also a BMW. By then the situation was just spiraling in a direction we just weren't going in...and everyone seemed to know it EXCEPT the sales lady. My, oh my, but she DID have some BIG plans for my fingers and Chris' money! Finally, we extracted ourselves from her and headed out to lunch. And then did a little more looking somewhere else and came out with something just lovely. Certainly NOT in the BMW price category! LOL! Not even in the Volkswagon Beetle bug category...but something we both loved just the same. So that part of the day was a success! Happy Anniversary to Me! A whole month early at that!

Then I got all my little ducklings picked up and settled at home. We did homework and practiced their spelling words. Then I had a photo shoot in the canyon at 5:00. It went quite well. Tonight's family is just so sweet and they were unbelievably cooperative. We were done in a matter of minutes. NO small feat considering they have FOUR little ones! That can sometimes be quite a challenge. But they all did so perfectly and smiled every time I asked. There was no whining and no crying and no fussing or complaining. They were total angels. Mommy and Daddy were good too! They had several great choices for pictures this year and to make it even better...they had their photo for their Christmas cards AND their card design selected within the first 30 minutes of receiving their gallery. OUTSTANDING! I was just so thrilled with them!

After the photo session, I ran into the new Wal-Mart here by the house and bought Max some new folders for school. I also made him go through his backpack when he got home today. As I suspected, none of his folders were actually in use...though they looked like they were on their last legs. Max much prefers the system of just cramming all of his papers loose into his backpack. Then is surprised when he can't find anything. While digging through that pack, he found TWO of his missing assignments. Work he had completed and was ready to be turned in. Yet, because it was in a ball in the bottom of his backpack, he instead had a ZERO. So hopefully, he can turn those two in tomorrow for at least half credit? We'll see. Anyway. Bought him some new folders. Not that I really expect him to use them. But at least I know that as his mother, I did my part! While we were at the super Wal Mart, I also was able to get Max's hair cut. He looks so cute right now! So now all of my wee ones are all nicely trimmed and ready for me to take their picture for our OWN Christmas card! I've scheduled myself for Saturday! Perhaps we can actually make it happen!

Then after all of that, I came home...bathed the wee ones, watched a little of the depressing election. Kept getting a bit distracted by my new anniversary bauble there on my left hand! Hee hee! And now...it is 10:00 and I am feeling the effects of this day and am thinking it's about time to call it a night! And so...I'm calling it. Good night!

Monday

Today was a bit out of the norm, as far as Monday's go. For one...on Saturday morning, I had a pretty major back/shoulder spasm that has had me ALL out of whack all weekend long. This one has been WAY painful and none of the usual tricks have worked at all on the situation. I have retreated many times to my massage chair to no avail. Chris made some, yet still precious little progress on massaging it out. And it has been very much at the forefront of my mind since bright and early Saturday morning. Which is why I chose to skip my step class this morning. Somehow, the idea of jumping around and stepping all up and down just didn't really set well with me and my pain in the neck. So instead, I walked Ben and Clara to school with Oscar. Then came home and, with my fingers crossed, put in a call to the chiropractor. Luckily, the fates were on my side today and I had just enough time to get a quick shower and slide into his office. Not the most fun visit I can recall having. There was definitely some pain and discomfort involved in putting things back where they belong today. The doctor said things would be sore for a day or so after this adjustment...and boy...he wasn't just whistling dixie! My shoulder blade area is throbbing tonight. A double dose of Aleve and a second glass of wine have done little to dull the pain. I am hoping to just wake up a whole new lady tomorrow morning. Because I have a lot to do tomorrow. And this pain in the neck would be...well...a real pain in my neck to have to deal with tomorrow! My friend, Pooh and I, have some serious workout stuff to do tomorrow. And then....well. THEN, I am meeting my hubby for lunch and a jewelry show to do a little bling hunting. 15 years of marital bliss is just around the corner for us now! You got to love that! But that's tomorrow! Back to today!

After I got myself all newly adjusted and straightened out, I came home and did about a hundred loads of laundry (seriously...three can really seem like a hundred sometimes!) and got ready for my dear little friend Sarah to come and play. Sarah is nearly two and is just a little joy. Today was moving day for her family, and so she was coming to my house for a little nap while her dear mom and dad directed the movers and shuffled all the boxes to their correct locations. This arrangement has worked quite well in the past. However...today was different. Apparently, Miss Sarah was simply too excited to take a good, REAL nap like her mother was hoping for. She slept BARELY an hour...maybe not even a whole hour...and was then up and about babbling nonstop about a "mo mo", a "cher" and a "kurt". Her dear mommy was kind enough to translate that to be an old beat up "Elmo" "Chair" and a shopping "cart". Awesome! Miss Sarah was a nonstop babble of "mo mo"s a d "kurts" and "chers"...and of course...."daddies". She was a sweet little doll. A bit mischievous by the normal Sarah standards...but still a sweetheart. She proceeded to nearly unpot one of my plants out front while I pumped up the tires on the jog stroller (LOL! LIke my plants need any tiny bit more abuse than they already suffer at my own hands!). She flipped over Oscar's water...then proceeded to slip down right into the puddle she made! She was none to happy about being wet...but alas...these are the consequences of two year old mischief. She LOVES the fact that my computer keyboard is so nice and easily within her reach. Oh....and I am pretty sure she called China on the cordless phone. I was finally able to distract her with some Curious George. I no longer really own any Barney or any of the other myriad of shows she requested. But she seemed happy enough with the tail end of Max and Ruby and then Curious George. She was thrilled to be returned to her mother and on the way to "mo mo" and "kurt" bliss. I only hope their evening went well after the little miss boycotted the nap!

Once Sarah was gone, I had to pick up Ben from his first Odyssey of the Mind meeting. He seemed to have had a really good time and is really excited about the team he is on and their problem that they have to solve. I only hope it lasts and that the good vibes will continue. Ben is my quitter and this is something that he simply cannot quit. It might just END for him if his team does not do well in January's competition and fails to move on to the state level. But for now, he is excited and pumped up and ready to take it all on. Let's just pray that it lasts.

Finally tonight...there was a quick pasta dinner, I got two HUGE $400 plus picture orders uploaded...oh....and my November calendar is dangerously close to be totally BOOKED! ALL appointments full. Booked. The end! It's pretty exciting...in a wacky, scary, stressful way.

Oh...and I also e-mailed each of Max's teachers to find out what exactly is going on his classes and where exactly my dear oldest is dropping the ball so badly. Hopefully, by the weeks end we will have some answers. In the meantime....both boys remained totally and completely, deeply, DEEPLY grounded. It's a sad state of affairs to be a Roberts boy in this house at this time.

And finally...dear hubby breaks the news over dinner tonight that he will be galavanting in Europe on business while I celebrate 15 years of marital bliss at home...ALONE. Awesome. Outstanding. Lovely. You got to love the timing of those husbands!

Flunking

My oldest son is doing an absolutely stellar job of flunking himself out of school right now. His teacher sent an e-mail that the latest batch of grades had been posted online. So I logged on and checked. I love that feature of the middle school! And low and behold he had C's in the first two classes I looked in on. My curiosity at that point took over and I proceeded to look up all of his other classes. I was NOT happy to see those two C's. However...I was REALLY, REALLY not happy to see two D's in other classes. And I nearly went THROUGH THE ROOF when I found out he had an F in his reading class. Lovely. Just lovely. Outstanding. I will just take this moment to say how much I love raising three gifted children. Life with them is always just such an adventure. And so. Mommy is now VERY, very cranky tonight. VERY. Maxwell is in more trouble than he has pretty much ever been in in his life to date. And I get to spend this next week e-mailing all of his teachers and trying to figure out exactly what it is that my boy is doing (or rather, ISN'T doing) to get himself flunked. There is NO good news in the Roberts house tonight. Max is grounded...just for the record. Many of you may not be catching even a glimpse of him now for many, many moons. He may well be a grown man next you see him because he is heavily grounded for just about that long. At the rate he is going, he may well be a very grown man STILL trying to pass the 7th grade. And on that note...that's just about all I have to say about that tonight.

Quoting Annie

A while back, Clara got some new boots. Clara LOVES boots, and I knew that she would love these. I also knew that she would be begging to wear them daily. And so I told her that she could wear them starting November 1st. AT THE TIME... way back when... that seemed an eternity away. Far enough away that SURELY it would be nice and chilly and appropriate weather for boots. Especially since these particular boots are suede and fur lined and fur trimmed and have these fun furry pop poms dangling from them. This morning, Clara walks into the kitchen and announces that TODAY is November 1st and proceeds to remind me what that means fashion wise.

Cut to our summer road trips to Zion and to San Diego. When we take these big long trips, we usually stock up on a few new movies...something the kids haven't seen. It buys us a good hour to an hour and a half of peace at a time on the road. Well usually. Among this summer's batch was the movie Annie. This one did NOT bring so much peace. The boys moaned and complained that they were being tortured. Of course. They also refused to remove their headphones and just play their video games while Clara watched. No. They had to comment on every other thing. And complained nonstop that there was just so much music. (Well, DUH! It's a MUSICAL for Pete's sake!) Anyway. The boys were in hell. Clara was in heaven. It was lovely. With all the music Clara was TRULY in the zone...hanging on every word. Memorizing every word and song.

Back to today. Our fashion discussion continues. I explained that the temperature was still quite warm and not quite boots weather. And I proceeded to look up the weather on the computer. (Because my girl requires facts!) That's when I learned of "the big chill" coming our way later in the upcoming week. And so I was able to tell Clara that this week she could start wearing them on these days. And she was thrilled. And proceeded to tell me that she would be wearing them every day. Well. Of course, I had to remind her that we wouldn't wear them EVERY day. But definitely with the outfits that would look cute. And that not EVERY outfit was really a boots kind of outfit. And then...in all of her six year old wisdom my daughter begins to spout quotes from that lovely, movie from the summer, Annie. And she looks right at me and says "Mommy, you know, just like it says in Annie, it doesn't matter what you wear." Translation... "I have every intention of wearing those boots each and every day until the heat of next summer sets in fully and completely and I don't care WHAT you consider to be cute or lovely. It's boots or bust!" Ah...musicals are such wonderful things to show your children. If you think that I am kidding about this, you can just scroll back through this blog to Clara's preschool days. There is a lovely picture of her in a precious little spring outfit... and her brown boots. When my girl sets her mind to something, it's not easy to change. And definitely not worth arguing about sometimes. And so...game on. Here come the boots! Brace yourselves! I know that I am. Let this blog serve as my official fashion disclaimer!