Final

We are putting everything in a box today. Packing it all up and dragging it to the garage to be moved into the truck bright and early tomorrow morning. I can't even tell you how much there IS to be done...Omigoodness it's overwhelming. But I guess it's a good thing I'm busy cause if I had a few minutes to really stop and think I would probably be sad and emotional and cry. I'm happy we are moving, I really am. I am not looking forward to not being settled and having us all share one tiny little bathroom until we refinish the tub in the other and build a whole new one for us. I am not looking forward to all the work my husband has planned for us during the whole Christmas holiday season. But I am excited to be somewhere we can stay forever. Cause if this process taught me anything...it's that I myself don't really enjoy change either. I guess Emmy gets that honest from me. I didn't have this reaction when we moved from Tolono. I was also pregnant and we had way outgrown that house and moving here was exciting because we never dreamed we would be able to have a house like this...let alone a BRAND NEW house. The kids were so little and I wonder if their age now is playing a part in my "sadness" because I know they are a little sad to leave the only house they've ever known.

So my mom and Russ are here and I need to give direction...actually....I need someone to give me direction:) My brain is fried and I just want to take a nap! I am hoping to not forget to get a picture of us all on the front porch before the night is over......

Sibling Rivalry

You can tell we are all on edge....here was the conversation that came from my girls bathroom this evening:

Faith: I miss Mae Mae!
Em: Eh...not so much.
Faith: Your mean! How dare you say that about our baby sister!
Em: Why? She's mean to me most of the time and drives me crazy!
Faith: Fine...you can't say no to this. Would you save her if she was falling off a cliff?
... Em: Um...
Faith: YOU PAUSED! You wouldn't save her?
Em: It's a ridiculous question. She's not ACTUALLY falling off a cliff. Plus we live in Illinois. There ARE no cliffs.
Me: Sigh.....

Week of Lasts

I can't believe it's already been almost a week since my last post...man time is flying! Tonight....even though there is only like 20 minutes left in the day, starts the week of lasts in this house. Even typing that I got a little teary eyed. It's not that I'm not happy and thankful for all that has happened in the last couple months, and it's not that I am not excited, but this is the only home my kids have really known. Faith was 2 1/2 when we moved here, and Emmy was 2 weeks old. We had the house built. We've been THE only people who have lived here. Faith is handling it well....just a little sadness for the loss of nostalgia, but Emmy...well...she doesn't enjoy change. If you ask her if she's excited about moving, she will look at you with her "face" (those of you that KNOW Emmyrson KNOW the face:) and will point blank tell you no. She's excited for the things to come, but she doesn't weather change well. She will probably be the one that stays with us and takes care of us when we are old and gray. I am pretty sure the family buying our house isn't in need of an 8-year-old girl, and given the fact that we would probably start missing her after a week or so, I guess were going to have to figure it out.

I thought it would be fun to throw out some of my favorite memories (since this is basically my journal to my kids when they are older) of our times here. All our pictures are packed, and everything else is backed up on a hard drive, so words will have to do.

• Shortly after moving, going "puddle jumping" with Faith when the streets flooded due to backed up storm drains (we suspect all the construction material from the houses being built). The water was up to Faith's waste and my thighs.
• Sitting in a chair in the middle of the kitchen and barking orders to everyone as to where I wanted things when we moved in. I had just had a baby and was bed ridden for two weeks after, so I could do nothing. But bark orders.
  
• Researching, hunting, and shopping to find THE perfect red color for the kitchen and dining room. We found it...and it only took 6 coats of paint to get it perfect.
  
• Camping in the backyard with the kids.
• Hunter....sigh....Awe HUNTER (I totally cried re-reading that post)
• Decorating this house for all the various seasons.
  
• All the various LOST PARTIES. Yes I know we are freaks. No I don't care;) (click on both links for double the party fun)
  
• Making my kids all kinds of fun cakes for their birthdays. Of course I don't do that anymore...I don't have time and Walmart has become my bakery of choice. But I used to have time. And SKILLS.
• Many many MANY many days like THIS
• Many day's like THIS too:)
• Bringing my last little monkey home from the hospital. I was much more relaxed with her than the other two.
  
• Sitting in my jacuzzi tub. Really gonna miss that. Didn't realize how much til the other night when I was sitting in my jacuzzi tub.
• Watching Esther jump off the back deck like a flying squirrel. I will have to tape this before we leave.
  

I know I'm missing a gazillion things...I might add more as I think of them. It's now well past midnight, and I probably should try and get some sleep. There is just so much to do, I don't even know which end is up! Tomorrow (or today I should say) we go to the new house to clean and get everything good and sparkly and ready for us to move right on in. First thing on the agenda (after getting all the boxes in of course) is to go and buy a Christmas tree and get it put up. Second thing on the agenda is this:
Meet Moses....but SSHSHHHHHHH! He's a secret. He's part of the kids Christmas present. We will pick him up the weekend after we move. He's a mastiff....and he will be HUGE. What's a puppy on top of moving? Eh...we got it;) We made two promises when we told them we were moving. #1 was a puppy (we knew we needed a larger dog being out in the country than a 7-pound Chihuahua) and #2 is a kitten. The kitten may wait til Spring.

So....off to bed. I pray sleep will come to me easily.

........What?.........

Pretty much. That's life these days. Always changing, always surprising....it's utter chaos.

Biggest news? Were moving. Yep.....when was my last blog entry? Sigh....Yeah. It's crazy. At this point I am not even sure I can muster up the energy to BE excited, but I should be. Because the only reason it all even came about is God, and it's really a pretty cool story. On a random comment by my husband like "hey...this houses price dropped, lets go check it out" on October 6 to signing final offer acceptances on November 4, we were bought and sold in 4 weeks. Our house sold in 3. Three week. Three. We were on the market for almost a year last year, with not even a hint of an offer, and in the end, we ended up having two offers (one was ridiculous, but still) on the house. When it's God, it's God. Were moving to the country people! If you want to see some pictures I posted on Facebook, check the out HERE. That should be a public link for you to see them and sort of see what I commented in order to know how it's all gonna be laid out. Is it my dream house? Definitely not right now. It is a well-built, super solid, upgraded house on a GORGEOUS 3.5 acres with a BARN...yep...a barn:) We can live there the rest of our days on Earth comfortably, and that was the most important thing to me. We can decorate and change things up course, and I will add some fabulousness to it:) There's room in the basement for an eventual indoor studio....theres a TON of room for some amazing outdoor photography, my husband's gonna grow me some wheat and wildflowers for more outdoor photog stuff, and I have about a billion apple, cherry, and pear trees for me to make some great home-ade goodness. It's gonna be awesome....sigh.....

So...off to get some sleep. I'm tired. It's well past midnight, and I only have a billion things to do in the next 13 days. Yeah...13 days. well...now it's technically 12. Oh my.....

Mae's Random Prayer

ug...I'm behind again. What's new. So much has happened too that I need to document and blog about but who the heck has the time? The house is back on the market. We made an offer on another. Haven't heard back on our offer as of yet...but we're being patient. Well....Russ is being patient...I am trying to not explode out of my skin. Speaking of exploding, I've been editing so much that I literally feel like the back of my brain is going to explode from shooting pains due to staring at my computer screen every spare minute of the day. I need a break soooooooooo bad! I simply cannot wait til December! Can't get here soon enough for me!

Anyway, back to the title of this little post. Maebree is THE most random prayer on the whole Earth. I have tried taping her, but she just looks at the camera and then acts all silly and doesn't do the norm. Tonight, I decided to memorize her prayer, and it was perfectly random. Went a little something like this:

"Dear Jesus,

Dank you for dis day. Dank you for yetting us have Faifies best macaroni for dinner and for all the popcorn. Danks for yetting mom tell her dat she is not my mudder and dat she doesn't get to boss me all da time. Danks dat tomorrow is just gonna be mom and me all the day and maybe dad can come too. Danks dat we are going to the hotel tomorrow too and dat we will move into the new house and dat we will get a new cat dat doesn't eat all the carpet and a new dog that is yike a horse so I can ride on him. Oh! And dank-you dat we will only have good dreams ever day and not bad dreams cause dey are scarwy and so mom won't have to get woke up from us being scared and won't be grouchy all day. *peeks at me with one eye and witnesses me stifling laughter* Um....Help mom to remember dat we are suppose to CYOSE our eyes when we pray so Jesus doesn't get mad! Help dad have a good night at work and me to not pee da bed so Emmy won't get mad and grouchy at me tomorrow. In Jesus name, Amen."

I have no idea why she thinks were going to a hotel tomorrow. We are not. And if you haven't figured it out, she substitutes y's for l's and d's for th's and I'm totally fine with that. Someday someone's gonna teach her the right way to speak, but it sure as heck ain't gonna be me right now.

Happy Half Birthday to Mater!

Since I'm too busy taking pictures of everyone else's kids, I haven't had a chance to take my own kids annual pictures. They have reminded me of this fact every time I go out for a shoot. Why is that?

I needed to get a Christmas promotion out and needed a model, I took the opportunity to use my own kid;) What was meant to be a couple cute shots turned into her bossing me telling me how and where she wanted her picture done;) I haven't really had a chance to work on them (as I am currently working on 6 shoots that need edited!) but I wanted to at least get the post up for her half birthday...which was two days ago...again, parent of the year award right here. Better late then never right?









See the rest as I get a chance HERE.

Christmas Promo

It seems early, but I'm totally booked through the end of the year for a regular session! Crazy huh? So I opened two dates to do some mini sessions in hopes to get as many people in without driving me crazy!

I needed a model for my card promo. Who better than my own kid who is here...all alone...aching for her own little "session". Problem is...I wanted a couple cute, Gap/Old Navy/Children's Place shots where she just looks cute and trendy and natural, and she is pulling a Tyra on me. As in Tyra Banks...America's Next Top Model? You get the point. I did manage to get a few and the end results were pretty good.


Anyway...if you're interested...email me soon cause space will fill FAST! If not...just enjoy looking at my super cute kid.

Christmas in September!

If you know my grandma, well....you know:) You will remember THIS post from a while back.

She is always willing to step in and watch the kids if need be for us. We never leave her house emtpy handed, and that includes a stack full of hand-me-downed People Magazines, some bread, and maybe a package or two of donuts.


Gramma loves feeding us and she loves her gossip mags. In fact, for as long as I can remember, she has had stacks FULL of People magazines for us to read at her house. I'm sure it's where I got my amazing fashion sense from an early age (as I sit here with greasy hair and in my husbands pajama pants and stinky t-shirt). Here are a few things you can always count on at her house: People Magazine, a cushioned toilet seat (seriously where do you GET those things?), 18 family sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner (cause she and grampa have so much hair to wash), Suave Baby Powder lotion, makeup from 1982, and the t.v. always tuned to Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network. That is if her favorite "stories" aren't on and being taped. I remember coming over one time when she was on the phone with her sister. She was going on and on (reading off a yellow notebook) about some couple who were divorced and the kids were having a hard time dealing with it, then the ex-husband shows up when they thought he was dead and come to find out he was actually the CURRENT husband who had been beamed down by aliens in order to repopulate the Earth with superior intelligent beings....ok...maybe I'm not sure that last part was in her notebook, but when things started s0unding weird, I looked at the top page she was reading off of and it was dated with "Young and the Restless" following it. Yeah. She takes notes. And then reads it to her sister in Florida. As if it's real. *sigh* Oh.My........

Anyway...Back to my "Peops"....gotta see what The Biebs is up to lately. And I'm VERY curious to see how "Sandra Got her Groove Back".

Boring Ol Housewife.

I wish. I was reading the "About Me" section I filled out way back when I started this blog (my those were simpler times) and I described myself as a "boring ol' housewife". I then laughed and laughed and laughed until I felt like passing out so I stopped. I wish I was a boring 'ol housewife. But no...I gotta try and build an empire or something. Russ and I joke about how people just don't understand what "big deals" we are, I with my photography, he with his......whatever he seems to be overachieving at that particular day. I said we are like the JLo/Marc Anthony of St. Joe but without the amazing Latin heritage, or the creepy inexplicable skinniness (Marc A), or the pending divorce and twins and.....the...um...."junk in the trunk" (that would be me...I have no junk up in my trunk. This is an area that I am in agreement with the whole "spread the wealth" philosophy on. I would like to spread some wealth of my hips and thighs and belly to my trunk). So....maybe we really aren't like J/Marc, but they do have an fun new clothing line at Kohls and I gotta give them mad props for that.

I am taking some much needed time off over the winter to slow down my brain a little. I want to enjoy Christmas with my kids. I want to not be working their ENTIRE school break. I want to pain my kitchen a new color. I want to decorate my house for all the upcoming holidays. I just want to enjoy life again without all the crazy/business that seems to have taken over lately. I want to start next year off organized and ready to take on the year and not hold on for dear life like a roller coaster that's taken off without the safety bar being locked firmly in place. This year...I'm gonna do it!

PS: We really don't think we are "big deals". It's a joke. We aren't self absorbed jerks.

No...it's not the hair color

I get asked almost daily by people who know me how the dizziness is "going". It's really a funny way to put it.."hows the dizziness going" as if I'm building a house, or making a craft, or attempting to accomplish something. And my response (as I'm a firm believer in positive confession) is typically (if caught on a good day) "can't wait for the manifestation of my actual healing". The reality is that I struggle with it on a daily basis. Daily.Basis. Not that vertigo, room spinning, I'm gonna throw up or I can't do heights (though...I can't do heights) kind of dizziness. It's more like when your under water and your holding your breath and its' that moment of "crap I better get air now or I'm gonna drown" kind of dizziness. I feel short of breath and sweaty and creepy. It's so awesome (sarcasm drip drip). My favorite response from people is "well...you ARE blonde". OMG and Wow. Amazing. That is information I was not aware of. I mean...here I thought I was paying my hairdresser to make my hair purple. Dang. She is so fired. And the blond jokes..really? I had a stranger come up to me as I was leaving a baseball game and ask me if he could tell me the funniest blond joke I ever heard. I told him no. His drunk-off-her-butt date said SHE wanted to hear it so I got to hear it anyway. Jerk. Coincidentally...it was not funny.

Another question is "have you seen anyone, like a doctor, about it?" Usually that gets a huge laughter response from me. Um...yeah. Just a few. No one can fix me. I got some relief through the chiropractor (go see my cuz...he is AMAZING!), and should be going more regularly, but nothing has "fixed" it. I saw a neurologist cause they thought it would be wise due to Diana's recent diagnoses of MS. He was a complete...er....butt. And that's being nice. There was a language barrier to begin with, so that immediately frustrated me. I couldn't understand half of what was said, and the other half he said with such a condescending smile that I wanted to throw up allover him. He kept saying "MOOOST women come in here and think "AH...I have MS..I'm so dizzy, my arm is numb" and they just don't have MS". Ok..that exchange didn't go over...you have to hear it in my head because I hear it with an accent and if I typed it like he said it...I would end up on some government watch list and probably would be arrested for a hate crime. He ended the very brief visit with "Well...it's not a tumor, it's not MS, not cancer. It's nothing big, so I don't have answers for you". It was at that point that I took a page out of my mentor, Jack Bauer's book and jumped out of my seat, grabbed him by the back of the head and repeatedly slammed it into the computer desk over and over. Then I ran to the door, threw my coupon for Rosetta Stone at him and pulled the fire alarm thus evacuating his practice. Ok...almost none of that is true, but it did go down like that in my head. I did leave in tears of frustration over the fact that I am not even sure he looked at my file or my MRI and once again...I don't have anything to tell all the people that ask on a daily basis if I'm still dizzy.

So.....square one. Still there. I deal with it. There are things that I can't do that is frustrating (ie singing, talking for more than 10 minutes at a time, etc). But...I have the assurance that "it's nothing big" from an esteemed neurologist at Carle Clinic...so...I should be comforted by that right? Right. And next time you see me...please....refrain from the blond jokes. I've heard them all. And they are not funny.

Back in the saddle.....Vacation post

So....it's been awhile. We are now almost into fall, and life is none less crazy. I realized I hadn't even blogged about our vacation yet which was equal parts awesome and exhausting. Faith turned 11 while we were gone, and we got her a phone. You must know I am not an advocate of kids having a phone, but since she joined cross country (another new development MUCH to her father's excitement!) it's come in very handy. Also...it came in very handy yesterday when I was attempting a nap and could hear every footstep and stomp below me and I texted her to tell her sisters to sit on the couch and be quiet or they were all grounded to her rooms. Yep. I threatened them via text. From the same house. Yes I know that's lazy. Don't judge....it worked and I got to finish my nap.

Very. Excited.

Vacation: Well.....the weather was crap most of the time. And there were at least 1.5 billion people everywhere we tried to go. And if you know me, I like to relax WITHOUT people around me, so that wasn't super fun. The resort we stayed at was ok...nothing fancy. The pool was small, overcrowded and dirty most of the time. And we went during seaweed season (I wasn't not aware there is a seaweed season...but now I know) so the beaches were equally nasty which was pretty much the entire point of going....for the beautiful beaches. We almost died in a thunder/lightning storm as we were stranded on an island with NO shelter (except a metal umbrella...not good during a lightning storm). We found some rocks to shove the kids under during it so they were safe, but it was still scary. Me and God had some words....well...more so me than him....but he kept us safe and gave us shelter so that's good.

Pre-Apocalyptic storm-looks pretty eh? Not-so-much 3.5 minutes later.

the kids hiding in their shelter. Mae and Emmy are still hysterical at this point. Mae at least tried to put on a happy face for the pics:) The ferry captain jokingly told us he was taking us all to Mexico on our way over to the island. After the storm, Mae let out a big sigh and said "I HATE MEXICO!" Apparently she took his joke to heart.

The last trip to Florida was perfect. Except all the jelly fish. That put a bit of a damper on things. But the weather was perfect. The room was perfect. The timing was perfect in that all the party people were not there. We were spoiled, so anything less this time was disappointing. BUT...I must remember. We are so blessed that we were able to save and take this trip in the first place, that I should not focus on the negatives of it. I got away for a week. I only answered 4 business emails, didn't edit one picture, and could just enjoy my family and that is awesome. The highlight of the trip was our dolphin tour. We (again) were disappointed in that the guide we had the last trip was unavailable. He was perfect. We felt safe with him. They hooked us up with this young kid who I could tell from the get-go was on his dream job. He got to go out snorkeling all day, showing people cool stuff, got to drive his boat fast, swim with dolphins..yeah...not too shabby for a kid huh? He took us to this little shallow area to go snorkeling then left us to go find and bring back cool stuff.

That would be a puffer fish. He brought us back a puffer fish. Who brings back a puffer fish??!!

After this trip I quickly decided I needed a boat. Boats are fun. We could've swam with wild dolphins. He took us out in the middle of the Gulf with like 5 foot swells and said "go ahead guys, jump in!" as wild dolphins were swimming all around. Here was our exchange:

Kids: Uh yeah...were are NOT getting in. You guys go.
Me (wearing my life vest and standing on the edge of the boat): Go ahead hunny...you go first.
Russ (not wearing a life vest): You go first. GO head...you can go first if you want.
Me: your the man. You go first. Go ahead hunny...I'll follow you.
Russ: No no...ladies first....you go.

This went on for about 30 more seconds. I jumped in first (haha!) and the dolphins swam away. Russ jumped in and we both quickly realized that were were in fact in the middle of the ocean with other boats and Ski-Dos' flying around us and wild ocean creatures swimming below us and thought...Hmmmm.....petting wild dolphins isn't really that important to us. Maybe we'll visit the zoo next time.

So all in all...we did have a good time. I will never again return to PCB in August. Or September. Apparently the time to go is October. Maybe we will try that next time. Maybe we will save ourselves the 14-hour drive and just go to Michigan.

Here are a few more pics from the trip!

Not our pool. Our was gross and smelled like rotten cheese. We illegally resort hopped and went to the resorts pool next door. Not my proudest moment. And at the same time....my proudest moment:) It was a massive lagoon type pool with waterfalls and deep ends. Nice.

Hermie 2, Hermie 3, and Hermie 4. We had to let them go on our boat tour. The girls wanted to keep them.

Post storm....the girls running off all their pent-up frustration and scaredness.

Mae Snorkeling. She had NO fear.

Beware of the seaweed.


Balcony view. Yeah...that didn't stink.Shell Island pre-storm. No seaweed. Clear skies. Yeah. Best 45 minutes of the trip. Faith catching some waves.

The kids favorite part....."surfing"

There is so much more...but I must get onto other things today. Hopefully I will get busy with more blogging this week!

PS: Funny Maebree sayings of the week in case I forget.

*Yesterday in church as we were walking out she stops in her tracks and says very seriously "Do NOT stand in front of a hippo. They will kill you" Words to live by.
*She accepted Jesus in her heart on Wednesday of last week. I asked what she did in class and in one breath she says "I got God in my heart, do I get a mint?" Yes you do....yes.you.do.

Random thoughts of the day...

• I need cameras. Video cameras. I need them following me around every day so that a.) people believe the insane stories I tell, and b.) I could at least capitalize off the crazy. I'd totally watch my reality show. Though...I'd probably not be shown in a very good light. Scratch that...I need NO cameras. Anywhere near me. Ever.
  
• Crap...still need to order checks.
• Why is it that when I don't need something..it's always in my way. And when I do need it, that same thing that was in my way 5 minutes ago is no longer there. It has fallen into the great abyss that swallows up things in my house. And it always happens on Sunday mornings. And it always causes me to practically cuss before church.
• Pastor Mike said we should demand things. I like that. I'm gonna start demanding more things. I know I'm taking it out of context...but...it sounds like a great idea. My first demand is cake. Lots of it. And that none of it makes me sick or fat.... mmmmmmmmm....cake....Next demand? No annoyances....ever. That one will be trickier than cake.
• Found this picture the other day...who the HECK gives a 5(?) year old a picture of Jesus for their birthday? Seriously. I love Jesus, and the love of him was cultivated from an early age, yes...but is it really necessary to give a small child a picture of Jesus to hang on their wall? He doesn't even look like that. It was probably some family member trying to be all "spiritual" and give me something my parent's would approve of. Whatever, skip that, Jesus lives in my heart, I wanted Strawberry Shortcake that year! Ironically...I still have that awesome wooden Jesus picture;)
  
• My cat looks awesome...and ridiculous...and he knows it.

Wanna know WHY he looks like Mufasa's groomer got ahold of him? See HERE

Safe

This evening we went to a birthday party at a public park that has a big water splashing feature. The kids were supposed to splash and play and generally burn off the excessive amounts of sugar they had just consumed. The park.was.packed. I mean PACKED. I wasn't really over there, cause...I just wasn't in the mood to get wet. As long as I saw my kids every few seconds, no one was bleeding and no one was crying, I was fine to let them play.

When we got in the car, Maebree immediately starts in on how bad all the kids were that were there (to be clear...she was not speaking about any of the kids that were part of the party!). She said she had a rough day of being pushed around. The other two chimed in on how kids were shoving and pushing and splashing water in everyone's faces. I never saw any of this go down, but apparently it happened when I wasn't looking. Not that I don't believe them, because I watched a few of "said" kids steal the big long bubble tubes right off our tables then proceed to start whacking people light saber style right in front of us. As they were telling me these story's, Em comments "I just wish DAD were there..he would've been all 'OH! You wanna shove MY kid? Yeah! You wanna piece of ME?' " Then Mae starts in with how dad would push all those kids back and would yell at them for shoving. They just started going back and forth about all the things "dad" would do to protect them from those bad kids. I just smiled. I'm so thankful that I have a husband that makes me feel safe, and also makes our kids feel safe. He doesn't care what others think, his main priority is to protect his girls. And it works, because when he's around, we all sleep a little better at night.

Today

Today, I woke with a sore throat. I thought, eh...allergies, no biggie. Coffee is usually the cure for such issues, but even that wasn't helping. Then Em woke up, surprisingly early for her (during the summer, anytime before 9:00 is early...today it was before before 7!). She had that look..the "I-dont-really-feel-well" look. She ended up eating half a poptart and crashing on the couch for another 2 hours. In the meantime, both other kids woke with similar issues. I hate this day already. Yesterday, Em came in to Russ and the following conversation arose:

Em: Hey dad!
Russ: Hey Sugs...
Em: *silence*...so...whatcha doin?
Russ: Just messing around on the computer. What are you doing?
Em: Well....something happened outside. It's not our fault, and we have NO idea how it happened.
Russ: What?

He went out to find a hole in the side of the pool. Yup. Our vinyl pool with a nice tear right in the side. Nice. So...on this day that I hate and would LOVE to ship kids outside to swim out some energy, they can't because a.) they are sick, and b.) there's a hole in the pool. I go to grab our cat and clean out his room (which is the downstairs half bath...commonly referred to as Vietnam since he's been staying in there)and feed and water him for the day. He is locked in his room for the moment due to his obsessive eating holes in carpets issues. Obsessive. He just chews and chews til you can see wood. What is with us and holes in stuff? Geez...anyway, Max is a clever cat and if I'm not Jonny-on-the-spot with his food, he will just help himself, climbing the shelves til he knocks it allover the place and he can feast on a grand buffet. He coincidentally also drinks from the toilet. And opens doors. And plays fetch on a whim. Well...he helped himself to his grand buffet and invited about a bajillion tiny little brown ants to join him. Yup. I hate this day. He doesn't groom himself, and he is a BEAST of a cat last time weighing in at 18 pounds, so I go to pick him up and notice that not only a.) does he have mats covering his entire body (maybe THIS is why he's eating carpet..he's ticked his hair is being pulled) and b.) that there are ants crawling all around in his hair. It was as if he was John the Baptists cat living in the dessert letting bugs crawl all up in his dreds. Yup. I hate this day. Called the groomer, $45 and an interesting cross between awesome and ridiculous, I have an almost hairless cat. She kept his main, and the tip of his tail, and his "boots". He's been fully manscaped and he loves it. The groomer tells me she's sure he has thyroid issues or has diabetes as he's "half the cat he was the last time he was there". I came home and weighed him just to be sure. He's 16 pounds...I'm positive the other 2 pounds was hair. Lord....that's the LAST thing I need is some cat I have to give shots to.

So, my kids start feeling better as they have been obnoxiously antsy due to laying around and being cooped up all day. The cat is clean and manscaped and apparently has to visit the vet to have his thyroid and diabetes checked. The dog is fine...for once. My house is still a complete wreck as apparently a tornado of clothes and toys and old shredded bills and junk are laying allover the place. I have an incredibly packed weekend/week and I still feel like complete junk. But on the upside...my husband took all of us sicky/sore throat girls to enjoy a nice dish of lemon ice cream from The Dairy Bar.....but that also meant I blew my diet. Again. I hate this day.

Funny Maebree Story

I should make a completely separate page for this category, because it is daily that I have a Maebree story. I will run into people that I haven't' seen for years, but via the wonderful social network Facebook, she seems to be known worldwide. Or at least state wide. She's for sure known town wide as the goofy Houston kid, and on a daily basis, I'm stopped and asked for a funny Maebree story. I can never think of one off the cuff, even though she whips out funny stuff on a minute to minute basis. Stinkin' mommy brain. So I figured I better do a better job of documenting. Here's a little something she came up with over the weekend.

My baby sister got married Saturday. I don't even know how that is possible because in my mind she is still a 10-year-old goofy kid with glasses, big teeth, and an even bigger smile. But alas, she is not 10, she is 24, and apparently it is legal for her to get married. We were in a mad rush to get to the church to get ready. I thought ahead and got myself ready before we left knowing my family and that I would need to help with hair, makeup, etc. So the girls were pretty much left to themselves. I just told them to throw some clothes on and they could change in their dresses at the church. Mae picked not one thing that matched, but since our only stop on the way was Wal-Mart, (and I knew in that particular attire she would fit right in there) I didn't worry about it. I'm in a tizzy of hairspray and eyeliner when I holler to Faith to go ahead and help her sister get her dress on. This was the conversation that took place shortly after:


Faith: UUUhh.....MOM?
Me: (said through a comb stuck in my teeth) Yeah?
Faith: Did you pack Mae some underwear?
Me: No....no I did not. I packed her dress, shoes, and that is all.
Faith: Um....then we have a problem.
Me: Please don't tell me that she peed her pants. I really dont' think that I can handle her peeing her pants at this particular moment.
Faith: Ok...I won't tell you she peed her pants...because she didn't pee her pants. She just is not wearing any underwear. At all.
Me: Nice. Maebree WHY did you not put underwear on when you changed!?
Mae: (hands on her hips) Mom....seriouswy....I was wearing two pairs of shorts. I don't need unerwear! Pyus.....I counin't find any.
Me: Nice.....where is my phone? (dial up Russ...he answers) Honey? Have you left yet....cause your daughter decided to show up to the church not wearing any underwear. And she's going to be in a dress. And it spins. And you know how MUCH she likes to spin. And there isn't even any pull-ups here that I can steal.
Russ: Nice.

We eventually did get her in some underwear...and she did spin like a mad woman in that dress. Hopefully soon I will have pictures to show!

Random thought of the day....

• Chances are if you are a parent, and you have to leave an ENTIRE cart of groceries at a store because your kid is running around like crazy, opening and trying on all the lipsticks and nail polishes, breaking stuff, and generally being a nuisance to society.....you need to rethink your discipline options. I'm not saying beat the kid...but...maybe you should try something. Anything. Gently speaking in calm tones and begging the kid to obey you isn't gonna cut it. I'm just saying.
• Crap...still gotta order some checks.
  
• Donuts should not be allowed in my house. Especially on days that I am weak and had to deal with bratty children running up and down the aisle at Target screaming and breaking nail polishes while I was trying to pick out my dog food. But it sure tasted good goin' down....
• I seriously say "seriously" way to much...it's evident in Maebree's speech. Everything starts with "Seriouswy Mom...." followed by at least 10 more "seriouswies" in the same sentence. But dang it's cute.
  

Lifeguards are awesome

Because I know that all anyone care's about is the new little guy in our lives, I will throw up a quick pick of his big self (taken with my phone...sorry for the quality) My sister in law is a tinsy little thing, so the fact that her hand looks gigantic next to his little monkey nugget shows how tinsy he is. He's so stinkin cute and it was everything I could do to not grab him out of that incubator thing and just snuggle him to pieces. But I've already been yelled at by one NICU nurse up there, I decided that I best not get in trouble again. Seriously...who WOULDN'T turn to look at a crying baby in a bed next to them? A heartless lump of coal...that's who. Apparently that's against the rules...I think from then on she gave me the stink eye. I will instruct Ethan to leave her a really nice surprise in his diaper the next time I'm up there.

Anyway, it has been a crazy week with babies and weddings and all, so us girls decided to just take the kids to the pool and have a nice float down the lazy river. Only....the lazy river was more like a congested and blocked colon due to the MASSIVE amounts of park district delinquents that decided to interfere with our relaxation time. I think I heard more whistles being blown by lifeguards than I ever did in my life. Relaxing it was not. I took Maebree up to the top of one of the intertube slides, and the poor cute little lifeguard girl up there was just doing her best to keep the chaos to a bare minimum. She was hoarse from yelling at kids all day. I asked her how many times she had to repeat the same threat/order and then I asked her how fun was it s to be able to do so. It was in that moment that it dawned on me....next year...I am going to become certified to become a lifeguard. It is their job...dare I say their DUTY to do nothing but yell at bratty kids all day long. They hold all the power with one blow of their whistle. They can take fun away from those dang kids with one little breath. "YOU! Delinquent splashing all the kids! OUTTA THE WATER!" "OH...wanna butt in line? Guess what buddy....YOUR DONE! No intertube for you!" "Wanna get lippy? MMMMk......banned from the pool for life!"

Sigh....lifeguards are awesome and I want to be one when I grow up.

Random thoughs of the day...

My random thought for today? I.Hate.People. Not really.....but kind of.

Wal-Mart paint guy? Yep..your general lack of people skills and droning on and on about paint annoyed me. I just want my paint mixed...the color I asked for...the quality I asked for. Done.

Old people in your jazzies at Wal-Mart? TOTALLY on my list. Next time you butt in front of me after I've waited to speak with an overpaid/undertrained sales associate, there is a good chance I will go ballistic on you, throwing a huge ol hissy fit right in the middle of the store causing you to be all sorts of flustered, shaking your head and grumbling about "young people these days". Just cause your old and I must respect you as an elder, doesn't mean you reserve the right to be rude. Please go back home and watch your taped copies of "Young and the Useless" and let me go on with my day. (no joke..this happened TWICE while I was there!)

AT&T guy...you fixed my internet and didn't charge me...your great. Sales lady I talked to on the phone afterward to (for the 1 millionth time) to fix my bill...yet again....you were on my list til you ended the phone call with "God-Bless you". I'm pretty sure you weren't allowed to do that, but I appreciate it.

My new 3 pound 3 oz nephew? You gave me a fluffy moment when I heard you let your momma hold you for over an hour and feed you....keep up the good work buddy. Not on my list....

Farm Girls

We spent a day at Russ's dads. I really wanted a picture of him, Russ and the girls. Then I proceeded to just take pictures like a crazy woman. The result was the following:

I have a picture of myself at her age, in a tree, posing the same way. She looks WAY cooler as I am not a mean mother and did not cut all her hair off and give her a perm a la Orphan Annie. One of many of my mother's passive aggressive punishments.

Who else has hair that blows freely in the wind like hers and still looks like she came out of a Breck commercial (and who even still knows what Breck is?) I'm pretty sure she has dreads under that main as it hadn't been brushed for days. She doesn't care...she likes it wild and free.

MmmmmHmmm....Get on it girl! Did you expect any OTHER pose from my sassy pants? I said "Mae! Stand by this tree. Give me a good pose...look like your a cool lady!" This is what I got. I'll take it.

Random thoughts of the day...

I'm gonna try something that might help me blog on a more regular basis...I have at least 20 random thoughts in a day, some are worth sharing, others not so much. They may be mine, they might be stuff my kids said..and I might do this once and never again. Here's today's:

• Does anyone else take 45 minutes to pick out a box of checks? There is a lot of pressure involved with this. I mean...I don't use them a lot anymore, but my checks say a lot about me as a person. I can't do some girly flowery junk, otherwise the next time my husband has to pay for something with a check at the fire station....hmmm.....that would actually be funny. I won't do anything with a Christian symbol on it, cause lets face it....I might be in a bad mood that day. AAAAND I don't like apologizing..."Sorry clerk. Don't be hatin' on God cause I'm PMSing" I don't want to go too simple like "metropolitan design" or anything 'cause that's boring. I still haven't picked out my checks.
• How MANY Free Willy movies are they going to make before they realize the first one was extremely LAME! Though that last one has Bindi Irwin in it...and all my fellow Joel McHale fans say WHAT?!
  
• At some point this week....laundry should've been higher on my list of priorities. I'm pretty sure the body of John Gotti is hidden underneath this pile.
  

Welcome back dear friends.....

Dear Lord...it's late. Like 10:30 at night, I'm exhausted, and I'm waiting on five little kids to fall asleep so that I can crash myself. That's right, I said five. My nephews are spending the night while their momma and daddy are staying at the hospital to ensure my new little nephew doesn't make an entrance into the world too soon. It's been way to long since I've blogged. I've wanted to for so long and have been so behind on editing that I feel guilty about not working on that. So I haven't. And I honestly have been grouchy about things and don't want to get on here and be nasty about life..cause I know people want funny...not crabby. Just to catch you all up on some bullet points of what's gone down in the last few months (for all five of you out there who still may read:)

• The house didn't sell. We took it off the market at the end of May. Just couldn't do it anymore. God shut SOOOOO many doors, it was ridiculously obvious we were not to continue with that sign in our yard at this point. Neither of us feel that release to go ahead and start ripping out floors and adding an addition, in fact...we both religiously check the Realtor sights for the newest house out there...and folks..there aint much out there. So....here we are. We will re-arrange some things so that we can have a family room...mainly because I want to be a part of my family when they are playing or watching a movie and I know longer want to be stuck in a little room all by myself alone with my computer. I can at least be stuck in a corner in the same area as all of them. And we are taking a trip to Florida...that was my contingency plan..house doesn't sell..Screw it...I'm goin' to Florida. I think I might make some t-shirts that say that. I'd make millions considering the current housing market.
  
• I turned 32. It was amazing..not really. I had to rush my sister to the ER due to her losing control and feeling of her left side...she was later diagnosed with MS...but she's awesome and is doing great. She regained her strength and is working on keeping it so it won't happen again.
  
• Emmy turned 8. She spent her birthday at the hospital with Aunt Didi....for my BIGGEST complainer...she never once had an attitude or was nasty about the fact that we canceled her party and still haven't done anything for it. She's awesome.
• Business.Is.Booming. At one point recently, I actually had 3 shoots scheduled in one day. It was pure insanity. I am sitting on five I need to edit right now. But...I'm sure they would appreciate that I am not editing at 11:00 at night. Those would NOT be good pics. I've booked almost all Saturdays through October as of right now. Yeah...wow...
• Dizziness is back. It's hits me at strange times. Considering everything that went down with Diana, I saw a neurologist. He was a complete jerk, and the only thing that saved him in that appointment was the fact that he looked like the tall creepy Asian dude from Lost that made all the orientation videos. That and that alone kept me from punching him in the face. The good news is, it is nothing "big" i.e. MS, cancer, tumor, etc. Bad news is....I have no idea what it is. It's purely frustrating and I should've left happy that it wasn't any of the bad things. But...I'll just keep attempting to rule out/in what I know causes it. Right now it seems to be caused by the following: Standing, sitting, walking, breathing, singing, taking a shower, swimming, exercising, eating, looking at the computer, going to church, grocery store, walking the dog, sitting on my porch, taking a drink, doing the dishes, hugging my kids, laying in bed, watching t.v, drinking a cup of coffee etc. So....guess I have my work cut out for me on the elimination front. So far I've been able to eliminate........baking?
  

Well....the kids seem to be sleeping...and given the fact that I believe my nephews are early risers, I might want to head to bed myself. Dear God in Heaven...please don't let them wake at 5:00....I am pretty sure I will be twitching in an corner by noon if that were the case! I promise to try and be a better blogger.

3+1 for Peanut

She refuses to be four. Says she doesn't want to be four cause she wants to stay "yiddle" forever. She doesn't want to get big and go to school and wants to stay with me at home for a "yong time". It melts my stinkin' heart. And drives me crazy at the same time. So instead of having a 4th birthday party, we had a 3+1 weekend with her. She wanted the beach for her birthday....but it's too cold for any beaches around here. Then she decided an indoor waterpark would suffice...but Russ wasn't sure that setting the president that spending a fortune for a 4th birthday was really something that we should be doing. So I "Price-lined" a hotel up in Schaumburg that had a pool and just us five spent the weekend together swimming, shopping, eating and having fun as a family. The city of Schaumburg ended up #2 on my "Top 10 most annoying places to visit EVER" list, but needless to say even though the rest of us were annoyed most of the weekend, she wasn't and still had fun.

Waiting for an incredibly overpriced meal at Rain Forest Cafe.

Eating her birthday sundae....she cried when another girl was brought out a huge princess cake with sparkler candles (her family obviously planned ahead). Russ and I made a mental note to quickly promise and find a cake afterward.

Swimming in the pool. One of the few times young pre-teen boys weren't jumping over their heads into the pool.

I don't know if I've told the story or not...but who cares, it's worth telling again:

The only kid we were surprised with was Faith. We "tried" for the others. Emmy we were thrilled with being a girl. She could have all Faith's hand-me-downs, eventually they could share a room, and when our son was born as the third child, we could all live happily in our three-bedroom house forever and ever. So when we found out we were pregnant with baby number three, the boy planning began. We never even thought of girl names. I was prepared to buy all boy clothes. I had the nursery attire all picked out (thank GOD I didn't buy it!). We walked into that sonogram fully confident, all four of us, that we would walk out with pictures of our boy's junk sprawled out for the world to see (side note: why is it ok to show sonogram genitalia to anyone and everyone, is it only me that finds that odd? Like....just think about that for a minute...Oh yeah, here's my kid, here's their gender-specific parts. You wouldn't do that AFTER the baby was born, right? Just weird) The songographer starts scanning on the "area" and sure enough..I knew. My heart sank. I could feel the tears start to well in my eyes...it was another girl. She didn't even have to say it. Though she did...in fact, her exact words were "have you seen that movie "Little Women"? Well....looks like you guys will be living it!" Oh she was THRILLED for us. Faith was ticked. I thought Russ was going to throw the machine out the window. Emmy asked if we could just PRETEND she was a boy. I wanted to throw up. We got into the midwifes office, and the only thing Russ muttered was something about having to buy another gun...you know...one for each of them when the boy's come a calling:) I don't even remember anything else about our appointment I was so upset.

I went home and cried to my mom....cried to my BFF, cried to my cousin. I pretty much just cried for a week straight. I could NOT for the LIFE of me understand why God, who knew our hearts desire for a son, knew our hearts desire for my husbands name to be carried on for another generation, how He could do this to us. I was mad. Why did He give me yet ANOTHER girl. It just wasn't fair.

And then reality hit me square in the face. Here I was, crying like a spoiled little baby brat because how dare God give us this wonderful, precious, little girl, this beautiful perfect lady that he would entrust US to raise into a Godly young woman when all around me, couples were dealing with infertility, and miscarriages, and loss, or even babies who were born too early and had to stay in the NICU for weeks after, or had to have surgery in their first few months of life. I had a perfectly whole baby girl growing in my belly, and I didn't even thank Him for her. Ug.

I remember getting this realization, and crying in my computer chair while I typed a transcription on a woman who for the 4th time miscarried her 4th baby in the 5th month. I was at the same place in my pregnancy. I just cried with the headphones around my neck at my selfishness. I remember mumbling something to Russ about it and he came over and kissed my belly and told her we were so sorry for being hateful that she was a "she" and that was it:) We were *sort of* over it. I only say sort of because there was still that 1% chance in my mind that everyone was wrong which brought me even up to the point of her being born to asked the midwife to make sure she didn't have a little somethin' "extra".

To say that Maebree is magnetic is an understatement. Everyone, strangers, friends, her teachers at church, weird people in restaurants, they are all drawn to her. People who don't even like kids and just want to throw them in a garbage can are drawn to her (that's for you Stacia;). God's plans are always right, even if we think we hate them for awhile. That's the thing about God, he's ALWAYS right. No matter how annoying it is at the time, or what we think our plans could or should be, he ALWAYS knows what's right and best. And he was right when he gave us our squishy little "tater". She has this personality that is truly bigger than life. She is random and awesome and perfect and we wouldn't trade her for 1 billion of the best, perfectly breed boys in all the world.

Happy Birthday to the Man!

It's a day lot, but not really a dollar short:)

Yesterday was my hubby's birthday. Unfortunately we had sick kids, so it was just his women surrounding him for the big 3-5, but that's ok with him. All he needed was his girls, his cake, and his new toy:

Sorry for the picture...it was taken with my phone:)

See that dimple? Seriously close to 14 years later....and it still melts me:)

That's him opening his new toy.....which was an Apple iPad...oh yeah...WHO'S the best wife ever? ME!
Check out Mae's face because she was with me the day before when we bought him a DVD. She was COMPLELTELY shocked because that's what she thought he was opening...it was hilarious:) She just kept saying "That's not a movie!" as I was trying to shoosh her so that she wouldn't ruin the surprise of that one!

This guy is CONSTANTLY surprising me. Just check out HERE and HERE. (wow...my photography skills have come a long way from that first one!) I am so not good at the whole birthday, gifting, surprise thing. I want to be. I love a good "theme" party (Hello? Lost parties!?) but usually those are all thrown together at the very last minute. Ask all of my kids...we are usually planning parties for them like 3 days before. Anyway, Russ was the big 3-5 this year and I wanted to do something special-ish. He is not into parties.....hence the reason my surprise party was such a shock! So that was out. I really wanted to buy him a t.v...but thanks to stinkin' Dave Ramsey and all HIS good wisdom, paying off debt was a priority. I am coming into my super busy season and need the computer every spare chance I get (Oh man I LOVE nap time!) so a laptop was a good choice. But with Apple and all it's technological goodness, I have now become a Mac snob and didn't want to just get any laptop. As with the t.v., a $1200 laptop was not in the budget either. Enter the wisdom of my amazing 10-year-old daughter as she says "Why don't you just get him an iPad....all he wants to do is shop around for his gun stuff, check email, and play games and stuff "(hello Apps!). TAH-DAH! So after a few runs to a few places we came home and COMPLETELY surprised him:) He really thought I bought him a t.v.

So happy birthday to the most amazing man in the world. I often have wondered why God gave us all girls. I have even struggled with it since I was just sure there was a son in there for us somewhere. But recently He has shown me WHY he gave us girls. Not just any man can raise women. It takes a REAL man to raise good, Godly, healthy, well-rounded, confident, and strong women. Women who will someday make excellent wives and mother's themselves. God gave us all girls because of Russ. He knew that he could trust these precious girls to him. He knew that above all else, whether it be popular or not, Russ would do whatever it took to protect these girls from anything that would try and do them harm emotionally, spiritually, or physically. We can all rest assured that other than his Salvation, there is nothing more important on this Earth to him than us Houston girls...his "chicks"...his "peeps". Happy birthday (a little late) Honey! Sorry I didn't get you another gun...maybe for Christmas:)

Happy Valentines Day!

We go from one holiday to the next it seems....sigh. So much has happened in the last two months that I've wanted to blog about, but it took a backseat. Ah well...such is life.

I loved bokeh things (photog term) and wanted to try something new for some shoots I have coming up. I also wanted to give my "guys" parents and grandparents a little Valentines treat:)





I took some of them by themselves, and then decided to take one together. Literally, Chuck put his arm around I without any prompting and gave him his own buddy hug:) Gotta love their bromance!




Happy Valentines Day everyone!