Friday, May 28, 2010

Photo Friday ~ 21 ~


Once again, I hardly took any photos this week!  I had to run outside after lunch with my son (who was in a surprising willing mood to be my model) and snap a few real quick so I'd have something to post.  It's just been really busy around here lately for some reason.  Which is why I'm glad that I'm forced to pick up my camera because of my weekly assignment.  Without it, I might not take any photos for a month, and then where would I be?  I definitely need the practice.  I didn't have any time to edit these, so they've just had a quick crop or color adjustment.  I still love them though.  This is my son's laugh...he thinks he's hilarious.  He's such a typical younger child, always trying to entertain us.

Although he was willing to be my model, (sometimes he'll flat out refuse to let me take his picture) you still never know what you're gonna get with him.  He was being silly with that golf ball and put it right in front of his face for most of the pictures, but I still managed to snag a few smiles. 


Last one...I love how he just laid down like this with his legs crossed.  Love his bare feet, his birthmark showing, the fact that he's holding a golf ball (his favorite thing) and that he's covering one eye.  This kid is always squinting or covering an eye.  If we are outside he always walks around with one eye closed like a little pirate.  I asked him to move his hand off his eye but he said, "I can't, it's too bright."  I still love it though.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Changing

I think I must be weird because people always talk about how change is so hard.  And people don't like change.  But I like it.  I think change is refreshing.  It's a shift in perspective, a new attitude, a bright new day.  If someone knocked on my door and told me to go pack because we had to move, I'd be excited.  Okay, I'd be a little sad about leaving behind things I love, but I'd mostly be excited about the adventure ahead.  I've been feeling lately like I'm ready for a change.  I really can't do the same thing for too long, or stay in the same place or I get antsy. I get in a funk.  I'm kinda in a funk right now.  But new things are coming and that gets me excited and motivated.  I'm not really sure what I'm motivated to do, but once I figure it out, it'll get done.

There's only one more week of school left.  My little girl will be home with us again, and I won't be babysitting anymore.  That's a good change.  And I'm starting to get some more bookings for photography and that's good change.  Exciting...the unknown...will this business thing work?  Will I have to babysit next year, or will I make enough money from photography?  That part is a little scary, so I guess I can see why some people might hate that type of change, but how boring if I never got the chance to grow and change.

I've been getting the itch to move lately too.  We've been in this house for five years now and it seems like an eternity.  This is the longest I've been in the same place since I've been out of my parent's house.  I like this house, and it's starting to finally look the way I want it to (why does it take so long to decorate?).  But then I think about how fun it is to move and hunt for a new place and decide where all your stuff is going to go.  I don't know.  Sometimes I just want my life to be different.  You know in that movie, Sweet Home Alabama, when Reese Witherspoon's character is explaining why she left, she says, "I guess I just needed another life".  I totally get that.  Not that I wouldn't want to be a wife or mother, just that I could do something different with my life.  Live near the beach, travel with my kids, downsize, have a photography business, live downtown in a city, learn to sew, be a teacher, pay off our debt, finally be skinny, write a book.  There's so many things I want to do in life, and sometimes I feel like I'm going to run out of time...which is silly, because I'm not that old, but sometimes it just feels that way.

I'm trying to figure out if this need for me to change up my life is God somehow working in me to get me off my butt and make a change, or if it's just me being discontented with what I have.  Because don't get me wrong, I love what I have, and I don't want to ever take it for granted.  So, that's where I am right now.  Please tell me that I'm not alone.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Lost Vacation Photos

I realize that I have posted a ridiculous amount of photos from my vacation already.  It's a disease I have.  But my problem is that I want to eventually have my blog printed into a book every year so that I don't have to also then print and scrapbook the same photos that I post on my blog.  The dilemma is then, do I bore all my readers with a million photos from my vacation so that way when I get my blog printed I'm not missing any?  Or do I pare down the number of photos from my eventual scrapbook to spare you all the boredom?  Do you see the major dilemmas that life throws at me?!  How great is my life if this is my major dilemma right now...pretty great, actually.  So, please bear with me as I post a few last photos.  I promise I will move on to other things after this.


 He only left his shirt off for about 5 minutes until he realized how much colder the water feels with no shirt.
 Cute little sandpiper.  They are so fun to watch...until my kids chase them away.
 I love that you can see his dimple and his eyelashes in this pic.
 Pretty girl on the way to dinner.  She made that necklace herself when she found a shell with a hole in it and she used one of her hair ribbons since we didn't have any string.
 He thinks it's funny to make this face when I want to take his picture. 
 Cuteness.
 I love when I get a picture of her when she doesn't realize I'm taking it.
 Me and my girl.
 The little fishes.
 Posing in her new "yellow polka dot bikini".  She liked when we sang the song for her.
This isn't a great pic, but it's just so them.
 Me and my love.
 This pic is from the first night we were there.  My daughter had to get all her "guys" out (that's what she calls all her stuffed animals) and show them the view.
 I love the colors of the ocean in this picture.  And I love how tiny she looks next to the vastness of the ocean.  Too bad I don't have a wide angle lens...maybe next year.


Okay, I'm done.  No more vacation reminiscing.  Oh, and I started a Master To Do list today of things I want to get done around the house this summer.  It's two pages long.  Better get busy.  I might have to start updating the blog so that I can track my progress.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Photo Friday ~ 20 ~

This was a bad week for Photo Friday.  I only took 7 photos this week.  Yep, I've been a little busy.  It makes for picking my photo for this post a lot easier though with so few choices!  The only time I got out my camera was to snap a picture of my daughter while she was waiting for the bus the other day.  And the only reason I did that is because I love when she wears knee socks!  So, so, so cute.  And with boots and a short skirt...the cutest thing ever.  So, these pics have nothing to do with me growing as a photographer.  Nothing to do with great lighting or creativity.  And everything to do with a great pair of socks.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Seashells by the Seashore

Yes, I'm still reminiscing about our trip to the beach.  I just have a few more memories to share.  The last day that we were there we decided to spend the whole day at the pool and beach.  At around five o'clock we went down to the beach for the last time.  My husband and daughter were playing around in the water and looking for seashells while I sat in my beach chair with Mr. I Don't Like Sand on my lap.  All of a sudden my daughter jumps up out of the water and says, "Mommy, look what I found!" and brings me this...

Wow...if you have ever been to the Gulf Coast you know that you don't often find huge shells there.  We've actually never been able to find shells much bigger than maybe a quarter.  So, this was a pretty amazing find for us.  And my husband was standing a few feet out in the water, just past where the waves break and he was finding a bunch too.


My son found some broken ones lying around the beach and had to show them off too.

And then throw them back in the water where they belong.

I think he really wanted to help find shells, but he just couldn't bring himself to go in the water.

 He walked around the beach looking for them.  I just love the way he walks, everything about it is so boyish.

Love this profile shot of her...of course...because I'm obsessed with profile shots!

 Check out all of our amazing finds!  I went out and found some too.  We hated to come in we were having so much fun.  We should have started going out at that time of day earlier in the week.  Now we know for next year.

Now I just have to figure out what the heck I am going to do with all these shells.  Any ideas?

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Beach is my Therapy

If perfection is my enemy, then the beach is my friend.  It really is like a week of therapy for me every year.  I think I am the real me at the beach.  Not the stressed out, depressed, frazzled, grumpy version of me that sometimes (okay, often) makes an appearance around here.  There's something about having a week with no schedule, no worries, minimal cooking and cleaning that does wonders to restore a person's spirit.  Everyone should be required to take a beach vacation every year.  There would be a lot more happy people around.  I won't talk about the let down that happens when you arrive home to a week of clouds and rain, ugh!

I love how while we were on vacation we just spent almost every waking moment with each other and we didn't fight or get sick of each other!  It's some kind of miracle that happens for that one week a year.  If we tried to do this while at home we'd probably kill each other.  But vacation is magical.  Is there a way to capture that vacation magic at home?  If so, please let me know how!

I feel like I have a million pictures to share, so sorry for the picture overload, but I just can't choose which ones I like best.  I love them all!  They represent so many sweet little moments that I want to remember.

 Guess I'll just start with our new family portrait.  Thanks to my mom for patiently trying to take photos of the four of us on two different occasions.

A photo of the inside of our beautiful condo!  We will definitely be booking it again for next year.  Wow, the attention to detail was amazing.  I loved waking up in this room for a week.  Perfectly done.
A few more photos of the inside of our condo.  The owners did such a great job decorating it.  It's exactly how I would do it if I had my own condo...but now I can just rent their's!


 Okay, back outside to the beach.  This picture cracks me up!  How did my husband know he was making that face?!  Guess it's because that's what my son does when he is freaking out about something.  I'm guessing it was the water touching his toes.  He wasn't a huge fan of the water this year.  He doesn't like his toes to be wet or sandy, go figure.  Tough luck when you're at the beach.  He was also afraid to walk over the line of sea shells that collect from the tide so we had to carry him or hold his hand a lot.  But he was way better than last year. 

She loved being chased on the beach by her dad.  It was so fun to watch.

 Digging a hole, she was pretty into that this year.  She wasn't so good with the sand castles and refused to let me help her build one.  Miss independent, I have no idea where she gets that. ; )
 A couple days later she got a little more ambitious.
 She was very proud of that giant hole.

My son had fun making tracks in the sand with his monster truck.  Love this pic of my boys hanging out together. 

I made him a sand castle with a bridge and he drove his matchbox cars all around it.  He doesn't look too thrilled about it here though.  Must've had sand on his hands.  Hope he gets over his sand aversion for next year!

Some pics from when we were trying to get our family photo at sunset.  I love his hair and his sandy toes in this pic.  And his sweet smile.  I love that kid.
 He so stinkin cute I can't stand it!  Are you sick of me admiring the cuteness of my kids yet?  Sorry, I can't help myself.  If you are mother, then I know you understand.

Every once in a while I get a picture of my daughter where she looks mature beyond her 6 years.  This is one of them.  Makes me wonder what she'll be like when she grows up.  Hopefully she can still pull off the grace and self assuredness I see in this photo.

I already feel more relaxed just looking through all of our photos deciding which ones to pick.  What an amazing week we had.  Just wish we could do it more than once a year.  I have a few more pics that I want to share, but I think I'll do a separate post about them since this is already ridiculously long.  Check back soon!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Imaginary Horses and Putt Putt Golf

What on earth do these two have in common?  They are both integral parts of our vacation story this year.  My daughter has an imaginary horse named Sarah.  She rides her almost every day.  She gallops pretty fast through our house, but mostly she's a good horse.  She neighs and she does jumps over things as well.  I didn't realize that she had somehow managed to make it to the beach with us, but there she was.  It was early in the morning (I was still in bed) the second day or so of our vacation when my daughter was riding Sarah through our condo.  I'm retelling this from my husband's point of view, since I was sleeping through this.  Anyway, they were galloping around at a good clip and then Sarah decided to take a flying leap over the threshold of the sliding glass door to the balcony...not realizing that the sliding glass door was closed.  I guess Sarah just kept on going right through the door, what with her being imaginary and all, but that left my poor daughter landing nose first into the glass at full gallop speed!  Ouch!  Well, this aroused me from my lovely sleeping in, lazy morning into full blown panic mode when I hear my husband scream my name from the other room and say that my daughter is hurt.  I come running down the hall at break neck speed to my daughter screaming and holding her face.  While on my sprint down the hall I had visions of broken bones and squirting blood, but there was none to be seen.  My husband is not necessarily known as being a calming person when the children get hurt.  He tends to look the other way and freak out thinking it's much worse than it is because he's afraid to look...apparently he was convinced she had knocked all her teeth out before he even called me and didn't bother to check since he was so freaked out.  But her teeth were all intact.  And she appeared fine but said her nose hurt.  And then I looked at her from the side...yikes...she resembled Ben Rothlesberger after he broke his nose in the motorcycle accident.  Not what you want to see when you look at your little girl.  I am pretty sure she broke it. But then I'm not really sure because she didn't cry that long and it didn't really hurt her when you touched it.  And she only had the tiniest little nose bleed.  Anyway, my husband and I looked at each other like, oh no, and tried not to freak out the drama queen.  I started calculating how we could pay for her future nose job.  I mourned her old face for about an hour and then figured we'd get used to the new one.  But, I'm happy to report that after the swelling went down, her nose seems to be fine.  It looks pretty much the same to me.  Maybe a tiny, tiny bump on the bridge, but no one besides her mother will ever detect it I'm sure.  You can't really even see it in our vacation pics unless you look really hard you can see a small bruise on her nose and on her forehead.  I am so thankful that she wasn't in pain and it didn't really affect our fun at all.  And I'm also happy to report that she has harbored no ill feelings toward Sarah for her tragic mistake that day.  They are still galloping around the house as great friends.

Moving on to other happier memories from vacation...we did a lot of golf while we were there...shocking, I know.  My husband took our son golfing on the real golf course for the first time.  It was a par 3 nine hole course and they took a cart.  He let our son sit in his lap and steer the golf cart, which was the highlight of the day for him.

Here's a picture of them getting ready to leave for the course.

He is so cute carrying his clubs.  And he just got that new Titleist hat and it's just a little bit big and smashes his ears.  I'm convinced that it's somehow going to make his ears stick out...anyone else's kids do that?  Please reassure me that his ears will be okay.


Oh and my son also thinks that the beach is a giant sand trap for him to practice in.  Here he is golfing on the beach.  He talked about it the whole way there that he was going to golf in the sand and he wasn't kidding.  I was convinced he was going to hit some old people in the head but he didn't...and I think the old men got a kick out of watching him golf.  We had more than one come up to us and comment on his natural swing.

And if that wasn't enough golfing, we went putt putting.  Twice.  The kids loved it and I think that my husband and I may have loved it even more.  We have quite the putt putt rivalry going.  I'm really good at putt putt, so I almost always win.  And I did the first time, by 4 strokes!  But then we went to a different course the next time and their greens were super fast and I ended up getting a 7 on one of the holes and then it was over.  He won by 4 strokes that time.  We'll have to have a tie breaker game this summer to determine who is really the best putt putter in the family.  I already know it's me though. :)  And the kids each got a hole in one too!  And so did me and my husband, but no one was watching when he got his.  Suspicious or not?

My little golfers.

I'm pretty sure my daughter had more fun climbing around on the huge fake rocks than she did actually golfing.

A very non conventional family portrait.

Argh!  It's me cutie pie in the stocks!  You can see her infamous bruise a little in this picture.

We had such a great vacation.  My son told me today he doesn't want to be home, he wants to be at the beach.  Mommy knows exactly how you feel, Bud.  I'll be posting more this week about our trip.  It was just too fun and I don't want to forget anything about it!

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