if you still have this on your blog roll...

I'm officially posting to
http://letmythoughtsflow.myfotojournal.com/

If you put that in your blogroll, it will update, but you'll have to click on the POST title, not the BLOG title. I don't know why, but it's the only way I know to get it to work.

that's it. I'm done.

I work a very full time job. teaching.
I run a part time photography business.
My husband just started a 60 hours a week job.
I have two boys. not girls. BOYS. big difference.
I host several more boys weekly since we live in a cul-de-sac, have the biggest yard in the circle, and a wii.
I have two dogs, a cat, and sea monkeys.
okay, so the sea monkeys don't really play into what I'm about to say, but i just like writing in threes.
I'm done. I give up.
I'm hiring a maid.
I can't keep up with the mess any longer.
I lie. I could.
but I.don't.want.to.
I'm done.
I'm willing to pay somebody to take something off this plate of mine.
Some wonderful soul who will come and make my house sparkle and shine for at least a few minutes before the boys, the dogs, the neighborhood children, and let's be honest here, I, mess it all up again.
Does this mean I'm weak?
i don't particularly care if it does.
Weak. I am weak.
Send me a maid!
She shall make me strong again.
And make my floors smell of pinesol and my kitchen sink smell of ajax.
and I shall sit in my clean house and play with my children whilst not feeling guilty about the mess.
I embrace my weakness, my shortcoming as a housekeeper and beg of you, send me a maid!

If you know of anyone who is a maid, knows someone who knows a maid, knows someone who knows someone who once had a maid, or just want to share stories of the wonderful things a maid can bring into your life, please comment.

I just want someone to come maybe every other week to clean the bathrooms, sweep, mop, dust, vacuum, and clean the kitchen. Not wash the dishes. But the actual kitchen. I don't need bed linens changed or the silver polished or the 64 pleats in my favorite house dress ironed. Just the house to be cleaned.

Help. :) Much appreciated.

PS. You should read the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The best book I've read in a long time. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder how things were ever the way they were... Go to the nearest library now and get it.
After you send me the name of some maids, of course. :)

family+amazing race+mexia=best time EVER!

We had our family reunion this past week in Mexia, Texas. And it was, so incredibly ridiculously fun.
Tammie created what can only be described as the most amazing Amazing Race ever for us all to compete in. She planned, set up and photographed the whole thing. We ran all over the place doing crazy things like duct taping kids to back stops, throwing cheetos at shaving cream covered heads, dragging people around in bed sheets...seriously. Best.time.ever.

Go here and here for pictures if you're so inclined.

I've always known it, but this past week further confirmed that it doesn't get any better than my family.

three random things

1) i know school is coming soon because I can't sleep at night without having school nightmares. Last night district walkthroughs were the first day of school. And I had 46 students in my homeroom.

2) I haven't really posted about this yet because I kept waiting for it to not happen, but it's legit now. Troy is now the assistant athletic trainer at Lakeview Highschool! Why do I suddenly feel that's it really real? He got his class schedule in the mail today. He has three PE classes, an afternoon in the training room, b lunch and an advisory. That's for real kind of stuff right there. I'm pretty proud of my man, gotta say. : )

3) I posted more pics on the other blog. For some reason, no matter what I do, my link in my blogroll won't work. This is a problem for LOTS of reasons...main one being that it also doesn't work when I do with my new sprinkle blog. Being in blog rolls is how you get read. Sprinkle has to be in blog rolls. ugh. It's all very frustrating.

create your own wordle!

I went to a workshop today and the presenters showed us this site, WORDLE.
I think someone or even a few of you may have posted about it a while back, but I thought it was so cool I wanted to share it again.
You can go in and create a word cloud by typing in text, or linking to a blog.
But then comes the fun part! You can change fonts, colors, take out words, change the layouts of the words (all horizontal, all vertical, half and half, every which way...) and then you can print it.
So, if you're a teacher, or a mom, you could have your kids:

• create a wordle for their spelling list(if they type in the same word more than once it's bigger, so the words they're having a hard time with could be bigger)
• make a synonym poster for overused words like said, big, pretty, cool, etc. Type those words in lots of times so you know what word you're building from.
  
• all the vocabulary they're learning for a unit of study.
  
• all their dislikes, all their likes, their character traits, etc.
  
• copy and paste a piece of literature you're reading to see the text in an artsy way
• commonly misspelled words
• all about me wordle (which they used to decorate the cover of their students journals. )
  

And there are hundreds more ideas I'm sure you could think of. I even had the ambitious thought that it might be cool for ME to make one for each student at the end of the year and frame it and give it as a gift. I could put in all the words or things that I think apply to the student. Well, maybe not ALL the words... :)

Anyway, I just thought it was a cool FREE site and that some of you teachers/moms out there might love it!


I plan on making some for my students and then giving them the opportunity to make their own for various times of the year. And I think i will see if Mason likes doing it and have him make one for his spelling words each week.

our vacation!

For pics of our vacation, go HERE.
I don't know how to make the complete switch over. It's a whole new blog address. My 6 readers might lose me in cyperspace.
Which is why I'm not sure it's the right move.
because it's not blogger.
and I might have to PAY for a blog which seems ridiculous.
No, it is ridiculous.
except that it looks really cool and has the potential to be even more cool...
But i can't link twitter posts to it...
or blog rolls...well, that might be possible...I should research that.
And change isn't something i handle well.
but then I look at the big pictures, and the simple design, and the slideshow header...
but letmythoughtsflow.blogspot.com was the beginning. the home for my thoughts for over three years.
However, none of us still type on typewriters, make calls from our bag phones, or wash our hair in the creek. Change is inevitable.
But i usually resist change with every fiber of my being. And, really how bad could have it been to wash your hair in the creek?
sigh. indecision is one of my more serious downfalls.

while I spend far too many precious minutes of my life debating this monumental decision, please refer to the new blog for the vacation pictures if you're so inclined.

changes?

So...In searching for a new blog for sprinkle of grace I found something I am thinking of using for my personal blog...maybe... I just hate how small the pictures are on my blog...

anyway, check this out...

the new letmythoughtsflow

and tell me if you think it's a good idea or if change is a bad thing. :)

bartering

A teacher at my school makes and sells jewelry. It's all super cute, but her "charm school" is my favorite. For a color lover like myself it's to-die-for. You just buy a base chain necklace and then buy the charms to add to it. See the drawers full of charms? See the necklace on top? That's how it works!

This necklace...
can turn into this in seconds...

Seriously, the coolest thing ever. And for taking pictures of all her jewelry (or a teeny portion of it, really) she paid me in charms! I am in love.

Bartering rocks.

She sells them very reasonably at Rattle Dazzle - go check it out! Or you could just wait until the next time you see me, because I'm willing to bet I'll be wearing one. :)

Operation 2 boys, 1 room.

So this was Mason's room before the transformation. Except not really, because this was like 2 years ago and it had since become much messier and rearranged.

But this is the boys' room now!

I brought in that color, wouldn't you say? It's still in the very early stages. I literally found the bedding, bought the paint and started like 48 hours ago. I still need stuff for the walls, blinds, and other little things. But I really like it! And the boys look so sweet sleeping in their beds. This morning when I woke up, I walked by their room and both boys were in Grant's bed talking. So, now we have all their toys in grant's old room (which will eventually become a guestroom) and now I need to start working on turning the sun room into the big play room/family room. Fun! :)

fine dining

There was a fine meal to be had by all tonight in the wilde household.

On the menu:

two mini pizzas
14 taquitos (of varying mystery flavors)
3 egg rolls (believed to be pork)
a handful of battered french fries
an individual serving of broccoli and cheese
an individual serving of buttered corn

It was lets-empty-out-the-freezer-and-also-i-haven't-grocery-shopped-in-like-three-weeks night.

Hey. No one went to bed hungry. And there were vegetables.
That's a job well done in my book, my friends.
: )

art boxes

yesterday, when i was cleaning out my office closets, I found this old art box that I bought several years ago at a garage sale. isn't it wonderful? It has calligraphy tips, charcoal, actual lead pencils, oil pastels...I just wish i could draw. My Grandmother, Nona, could draw. She was a amazing. She could also paint and sew and loved doing crafty things.

This is one of the few things I have from her.

her charcoals.

It's amazing how special this simple tin box is to me.

I wish she was still here so she could see my art. I think she would love to see some of my photographs. And I wish she was here so I could tell her thank you for showing me how fun it is to be creative. And I wish she was here because I just wish she was here...

the things you let your kids do when you're trying to get something done.

The closet cleaning bug hit me today, and, as I've learned in my very short, and I mean, very very short time on this earth, when the closet cleaning bug bites, you clean the closets. Those bites are few and far between in my world.
Anyway, I have two closets in my office and they have been in a shameful state for two years now. As I unloaded more art supplies than any non-artist should have from them, there tumbled out a small HEB sack with rice and balloons.
I'm assuming at one point the two were combined for some sort of project. Rice balloon balls? Musical balloon shaker thingamajigs? the world will never know.

I kept cleaning.
Grant found the rice.
Wait!
I must pause here to tell you this bit of important information. If you're following me on twitter, which you're not, because Kara is my solitary twitter follower (thanks kara!), because well, i just started tweeting like 3 seconds ago and i think we're all still wondering what twitter is, (except for seph who grasps internet fads at an accelerated rate) and so, no one is following me on twitter and therefore I must tell you this important piece of information that you would have read in my latest tweet, except that you're not following me...
was that a bit excessive?
Excessively long story short, Grant learned today how to climb out of his crib. Meaning that in the midst of my closet cleaning spree, Grant escaped from naptime. I never would have started the closet cleaning had I known today would be the day Grant would discover his inner houdini.

Back to the rice that I found and then grant found.
He first dumped out, accidentally, a small bit. I thought about stopping him.
But it entertained him so.
Then he dumped out more.
and more.
and the whole bag was on the carpet.
Now, most mothers would have, at the discovery of the opened bag of rice, put it in a proper place out of reach for little children but not me.
I needed to clean the closets! And my crib-escapee had found a source of creativity inducing entertainment.

He found his dump truck...

He made a pile....

He patted that pile down...

and then some more patting...




and then he drove that little dump truck all through that rice with the sweetest little joyful face.
again and again and again.

And then after the closet had been cleaned, and the excitement of the rice had faded, I just vacuumed it up.

I might dump rice on the ground more often. :)

I believe this is what heaven will taste like.

At home there are three plum trees. And every Memorial Day weekend through mid June they produce the most delicious plums you'll ever have in your whole entire life. They are juicy and sweet, deep purple on the outside, crimson on the inside. They are best straight off the branch. And because they're completely organic, and they were long before organic was a term the whole world knew, they can be eaten straight from the tree. warm from the sun. It would have made more sense for me to have gone home this week, rather than last week, but these plums would have been gone if I had waited. I didn't wait.


The trees aren't really that big. But in years when the rain has been plentiful, and the weather has been just right, the trees are loaded with them. While I was there I had to of eaten dozens upon dozens of the tiny purple plumps of heaven. I didn't make a dent.



Grant and Mason had their fair share too. Didn't matter. There were still more...and more...and more...



You could pick this many in a matter of minutes. Mom and I rescued twice this many while a storm was blowing in and ripping them from their branches. I was sure the trees would be bare the next morning. Nope. I was still able to pick about four boxes worth before I headed home.



So with what remains of the amount I brought home, I think I'm going to attempt to make jam today. I have no clue what that involves. But through the miracle of the internet (and mom being a cell phone call away), I think I'll find out. :)

self portraiture

Very often, I find myself in my car waiting for customers.
Just waiting.
Just me and my camera.
Bored.
For hours.
minutes. Fine. Just minutes.
And very often, I find myself taking pictures of myself because, like i said, bored.
and for practice, you see.
What is the best white balance for the car?
These are important things to know.
So.
Today, due to bridal bouquet issues, I was waiting for a longer than normal time.
with just my camera.
just me and my camera.
And ...things got a little out of hand...

I'm Jenny: A series of Self Portraits by Jenny

I'm jenny. I smile.

I'm Jenny. I am intense. My hair is often in my face.

I'm Jenny. I like to pretend I know how to make serious, but not angry faces.
With hair in my face.

I'm Jenny. I don't get much crazier than this face. That's all I got. Unless you give me lots and lots of lemonade. Then you'll have a maniac on your hands. You've been warned.



I'm jenny. This is my best you-come-here-to-me face. You can understand why I married the first boy to fall for this face.



I'm jenny. I laugh at myself. especially when I'm being stupid in my car with my camera.




I'm jenny. I get stressed easily.



I'm Jenny. I'm a teacher. This is my teacher face. I rule with an iron fist. They tremble at my feet. I need only to look at them with this face and they are putty in my hands.

I'm jenny. This is me.

boys.

yesterday i heard the words I've been expecting for years.

"Mom, what channel is the sports channel?"

And as I changed the tv channel to espn
so my son, the baseball player, could watch baseball, i thought two things:
1) I will never again watch tv in my own home if I have to share it with 2(going on 3) sports fans.
2) How stinkin' cute is that?!

***

Grant says my for I.

My do it.
My go outside.
My wan' gum!
The only time he doesnt say my for I is in his favorite sentence these days.
"idon'twanttoooo!" which he grumbles out in one adamant breath.

Memorial Day

One thing always brings tears to my eyes.
Soldiers returning home.
Without fail, the stories or images of this, make my heart swell and my throat tighten.
I've cried my way through the images posted here:

Coming Home

It's a wonderful collection of images of our soldiers coming home.
So, scroll through them and think about all the brave men and women who are serving our nation on this Memorial Day. And send up a special prayer for my nephew, Adam, who is now in some far away land with hundreds of other soldiers....

my son, the green thumb

My mom gave Mason some packages of seeds for his birthday because that's what he wanted. Because the boy loves growing things. Because he's a green thumb.

So, without ANY assistance from me whatsoever, as i would have surely destroyed the whole operation with my very black thumbs, Mason planted his variety of seeds in the old plastic pool I gave him last summer for his garden.
He dug the holes. He planted the seeds. He watered them faithfully. He even had the smarts to say at one point, "Oh, I better water my plants good today because we're going out of town." Do most seven year olds think like that?

So, after two months of watering, bug duty, and numerous "come-see-the-new-leaf,-Mom!" sessions, it is now time for the harvest. Mason is quite proud of his crops.

Now, if anyone could give me a recipe that calls for about 7 green beans, that'd be great. Because, as it turns out, one solitary green bean plant doesn't produce a whole heck of a lot at one time. :)

summer! [part two]

*** When typing this, I didn't know all the pictures would be links. I can't find a way around it. I'm very annoyed. Just wanted you to know that up front...***

It's officially the first day of summer. And I am thrilled!
Last summer, I didn't know I would be teaching the following school year and before May even began, I had a calendar FULL of weddings and photoshoots.
I just looked at my 2009 calendar.
I had 41(HOLY COW!!!) shoots and 5 weddings between June 1st and August 12th.
It wasn't the most enjoyable or relaxing summer.

Needless to say, this summer will NOT be like that. And I'm even taking the whole month of August off from Sprinkle so I can start the school year off right.

Anyway, I want this summer to be fun, creative and at the risk of sounding contradictory, productive!
i've got quite the "to-do" list brewing in my mind. I'm all about the to do lists, you see.
One of the major things I want to do this summer is help out my poor house.
I feel like I say that all the time.
I could probably find like 12 posts that say something like "I want to make my house a home...yada yada, blah, blah", yet, if you look at my house, you will see nothing has really changed in like three years.
"Not this year!" she declares shaking her fist in the air.
"This year, I have plans!"

Kylah introduced me to the website, houzz.com. She learned of the site from Sarah who is basically the reason any of us look at any site...she's like the website guru...without her etsy might just be a weird word...

...back to houzz. It's like a one stop shop for room ideas. You can search by room, color, style, etc. And then you save your favorite room pictures to your ideabooks.

I will now share some of my photos from my ideabook and I would like you to notice the common theme:


I LOVE THIS! And so want it in my classroom.


I am smitten with (by?with?by?) these frames on that yellow...with the pink flowers...sigh...


The door on the pantry makes me want to go to every antique store I can until I find one just like it. And then all the white...makes me want to make brownies.


Please. Please, someone give me permission to paint my kitchen this yellow.


I have a crush on the color red.


I would never leave my rocking chair.


Troy and I could be very content sleeping in that yellow bed... with all that randomness around us. Well, I could...troy might not feel the same way. Hmmm....


love.it. all.of.it.



Ladies, I think this girl likes COLOR!

Which would only make sense. I mean when I was a little girl i would carefully rearrange all my markers and colors in rainbow order as soon I opened the package.
When I play mexican train with the dominoes with the colored dots, i have to try really hard to care more about winning than making the prettiest train.
Choosing a font color is a life or death decision.
I have an obsession with paint samples. I have hundreds in a baggie.
When I buy shirts, I will buy solid color tees that look good together even thought they'll never be worn at the same time.
Color. It's my thing.

Yet! I never really used that in decorating! I mean, I have a few punches of color here and there, but for the most part my home is a very jumbled mix of tans, blacks, whites and some red.

But in looking at houzz, as i was just adding pictures to ideabooks based on what made me go, "ooooh! I like that!" without really having a room or idea in mind, I really think adding color should be my goal! It's what makes me happy.

There were two other trends I noticed though.
White. I like white furnuture, white cabinets, white frames. I think it's because the white feels like a breath of fresh air. Especially the white kitchens. Something about them made my heart tingle.

And the other trend was walls full of pictures. I bet you coulda called that one. I love hodge podge, yet somehow cohesive frames covering a wall.

So, the reason I went through this ridiculously long ramble about color is because I'm going to try to use that when I start doing things to my house this summer.

My first few projects lend themselves to color anyway -
~the boys' room (as in singular room - we're putting them together...is that the stupidest thing you've ever heard of or what?),
~the new play room (currently the "dog room"),
~and the laundry room (for some reason, when that room feels organized and clean the rest of the house does too...)

If I get those done, then I'll move onto more important things like the living room and the kitchen. But I think I need to start with less intimidating rooms. IN other words, should color not really be my thing then the children and the laundry are the main ones suffering. That's fair, right? :)

So, I'll try to keep you posted on my color adding goal! :)

Summer!

It's here!
It's actually here!
I can't believe it!

one for the books.

i had one of the best moments of my teaching career today.

All 52 of my students were in their homeroom lines after lunch recess. They were sweaty and hot and chatty and not-in-perfect-line-form (as always) and I yelled, "Hey 4th grade! 4th Grade! Listen!..."
They finally all got (semi)quiet and looked at me.
"Remember how hard we all worked getting ready for the writing test?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you remember how we did our best every day?"
"Yeah!"
"You know how we talked about rocking the taks test?!"
"YES!"
"And remember how I said we were gonna win the big game? How the championship was the taks test and we were already the champions?"
"YES!!!"
"Well...EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU PASSED THE WRITING TAKS TEST!"

I wish you could have seen the reaction. Jumps and screams and high fives and "no ways!" and "all of us? even me?"'s.
It was one for the books. Amazing. I'll remember it forever.

100%. Every 4th grader at crockett passed. I'm still in blissful shock. And I'm still unbelievably proud of them all...

not your ordinary cocktail.

every night i take a shot.
yep.
I even toss my head back, chug it in one big gulp, and make that gritting-your-teeth-because-of-the-burn(shots burn right? Is that why people make that face?). My shot doesn't burn though.
I make that face because of the...well, you'll see.
I'm a teacher and a mother and a photographer and a woman for crying out loud and I sometimes need a little...help at the end of the day!
My help just happens to come in liquid form.
If you feel an intervention is needed, i understand.

So here's how you make the shot:


First you need two tablespoons of the good stuff.

Notice how thick and gritty it looks. The way you know you've got the good stuff is because of the pond scum resemblance.
See below how it kind of oozes down the side of the glass? Yep. yumm-o.

Then you add enough lemonade to make it even yummier.

As you can see from the image below, the good stuff settles somewhat at the bottom of the glass. You may decide if you prefer your shot shaken or stirred.
I highly recommend you at least do one of the two.
Really.
You must at least stir it or shake it.
If you don't, you'll...uh...ruin...the pleasant...the...um...unique flavors of the drink.


Then chug it! chug it! chug it! No matter how bad you want it, don't try to lick out every drop from the glass.
Keep your dignity for pete's sake!

Seriously, all my hair was falling out and I had no energy.
at.all.
so after a trip to the doctor, I found out I was a little low on a few vitamins and she recommended the cocktail above. :)
It's helped. Well, it's helped with the energy part. I still can't tell if my hair is doing any better....

I like to offer it to grant just so I can hear him say icky with a wrinkled up nose.
Mason is horrified by it.
Troy took it.
notice the past tense verb in that last sentence.
And I continue every night to take it.
I'm almost (gulp) 30 years old.
oh, good gosh that was devastating to type...
and I need to start taking better care of myself.

I do wish facials had been the remedy for lack of energy though...

bullets...because, well, there's just no other way at this point.

• my cell phone is broken. The screen is just white. I cant read texts or see who is calling or find any phone numbers. It's a tragedy. So, if you've texted me lately, then please know that i didn't get your text, but that hearing my text ringer about sent me over the edge of frustration.
  
• there are FIVE days left of school! I am unimaginably thrilled about this. You have no idea. Unless of course youre a teacher and then you know exactly how I feel.
• in other school news, i had a very good friday. like VERY GOOD. I can't say why yet, but, totally made my year.
  
• In other other school news, my campus is losing some teachers due to numbers...i am the low man on the totem pole. I'm terrified I'm going to be shipped off to kalamazoo. I am not overly stressed (I totally was at first), but now I just want to KNOW! Because I want to be a better teacher next year. Which means some working during the summer. Which means I need to know what I'll be doing in the fall!
  
• in other other other school news, troy might be involved in a school in town. That's all i'm saying about that. I shan't curse it with too much speculation.
• this is a somewhat cryptic post.
  
• mason's baseball team has had so much fun this year. And that's what it's all about right? fun? Because man have they had fun! And they've learned a lot too...like how to deal with loss. :) But, seriously, it's been very fun, this baseball stuff.
  

And that's all I really have time for. What a tragic post. Maybe summer will be more exciting. SUMMER! It's almost here!

Home

I should be in bed since i have to actually go to work tomorrow morning but i just want to write this before I get busy and don't...

The things that make home home for me...

Wildflowers in the orchard
Moms books everywhere
Pictures. Pictures. And more pictures.
The sound of Ollie* racing around the house
The slam of the screen door
The the smell of goat feed
The feel of chicken scratch in your hands
The familiar smell of the air conditioner being used for the first time
Eating fruit straight off the tree
Long chats on the couch
Homecooked meals
Cereal from a sippy bowl
Gathering eggs
The sounds that are so familiar you don't notice them-the tick of grandmommy's clock, the creak of the second story as mom enjoys her quiet time, the ac kicking on, roosters crowing, guineas squawking, the lack of sirens and horns honking...
Pop pop's popcorn
Gema's desserts
Games.
The crunch of the gravel in the driveway
The musty smell of the barn and how it never changes
The school room view
The feeling of peace I get when i turn the corner and I see the front porch

Home isn't perfect by standard definitions. The plates come in many shapes and patterns, the silverware is all different, the furniture is mismatched the towels come in every shade. The flowerbeds have tomato plants next to petunias, and the bedding is bits and pieces from different sets. But it's perfect. I wouldn't have it any other way. Home is home. It's familiar and safe and the place i feel the most at ease. And it's all because of the woman who made it home, my mom.

I never want to leave and my heart always aches a little bit as the hills become plains and each mile takes me away from the home and the woman that saw my first step, my first sleepover, my first date, my first baby...

I love you mom. Thank you for giving me the childhood I had and for making a home saturated with love and priceless memories.

A day off

I took the day off today.
I am right now sitting in a retro burger joint in Austin eating the best french fries of my life.
Next to me is a couple with a chihuahua, a giant poodle dog, a golden retriever and a PARROT! I love Austin.
So on my childless day in Austin, I'm getting my camera cleaned, doing some shopping and enjoying doing whatever i want.

I do feel guilty about not being at work, but why? They give me days off for a reason right? And I am so sick of school right now. It was just too good an opportunity to pass up. But i still feel so guilty! I hate that!

PS The parrot just took flight for a second! Crazy! He's back with his owners now though.
PPS I love blogging on the go with Charlie!

a steal!

I've been looking and looking for some old luggage to use during photo sessions. It's easy enough to find, not as easy to afford. Well a few saturdays ago I went to several antique stores and found tons of cute luggage - for like $17 bucks and up.
Then I went to one of my favorite places, Christians in Action.
I found a luggage SET, three soft yellow pieces of varying sizes, for 5.99!
But it gets better!
Everything there, pretty much, was half off! So I got three pieces of luggage for $3.

Thrilled was I! :)

Today I used the luggage for the first time. It didn't really match their outfits so I didn't want it to stand out, but it was perfect for getting three girls to sit in a stickery field of flowers (weeds) at varying heights!

See...

That person.

Do you have a person that you just consistently do stupid stuff in front of? I do.

Stupid thing 1:
I Never wrote her name in my sprinkle calendar and completely forgot...no, didn't even know I had a shoot with her until she called to confirm. I did not play my mistake off very well.

Stupid thing 2:
Immediately following that phone call i sent her an email that was supposed to go to another customer. Yet somehow it still said dear "her name".

Stupid thing 3:
Today was the session. It was at 5:30. As a car was pulling into the EMPTY spa parking lot where we were meeting I saw a couple and the girl was on her phone. At that moment my phone rang. I answered it and she said, "we're having a crisis!" I said, "oh no! Let me come over there and talk to you." and i hung up, hopped out of the car and was met by a man climbing out of the car. As soon as i said hi to him I knew they weren't my customers.

This means i just hung up on my customer who was in fact not there yet.

I called back embarrassed and praying i had actually remembered my camera bag. I had.

Sheesh.

He's here!

He's here!!! I'm so darn excited! My iPad that I've been waiting for forever arrived today! I must have pressed the refresh button on my fedex shipping status like a hundred times today. Seriously. Anyway, he's here! And yes i did say "he". His name is Charlie. I'm in love.

More to come later! I just wanted to post something from Charlie. :)

Grant and some web inspiration.

Grant got his first real haircut this weekend. Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen. And see his scar from his stitches? It almost makes him cuter!

And here he is with his 'nakes. Oh, how he loves them. He also loves 'polies. (roly polies). He keeps fistfuls of them with him. Yesterday I found about 5 very near my toothbrush after he had had his bath. This did not thrill me. But it did make me grin...I'm the mother of boys. polies and 'nakes just come with the territory.
And then this totally unrelated thing. Yesterday, after TAKS was over, my students quietly passed notes amongst themselves(which, for the record, officially sealed my fate as the coolest teacher ever for some reason) while I didn't do any of the 500 school related things I should have been doing and instead chose to websurf.

Websurf. Does anyone say that anymore?

anyway, i found "the creative mama" and was totally inspired by one article in particular. Read this first and then this to see how her project turned out. I.loved.it. And i'm definitely going to try it for sure.

I found lots of other photography based articles that really inspired me too. I've been feeling very blah about my pictures here lately. I don't know why. I just rarely ever will just love a picture I take anymore. I can always find something wrong with it. And it's very frustrating. There were lots of articles from the creative mama sight that reminded me I should just take pictures. And then actually do something with them...

and the truth is, the pictures I love the most from my childhood aren't the ones that look like they should hang in a photography studio, but are the ones of our family being real. So many times I dont take pictures because of completely stupid things like the boys look dirty. Or the house is a mess. Or the lighting isn't perfect. Do you know how many moments I've completely missed because Mason was still wearing his pj shirt at noon or grant had crazy hair? It's just stupid! I want more "real" pictures. More pictures of daily life. I'm really gonna try...

But right now I have to go get dressed so I can administer my last TAKS test for 2010. Can I get an amen?

five seconds from a photo shoot.

"Mason, please smile. Where's Grant?! Oh, where's Grant?"

"Mason! Great smile!Now keeps smiling while I... Grant! Where's Grant! Grant!?"

"There's Gran-"
"aw, come on!"


"well, there's something..." :)

(is that not the sweetest little hug of forgiveness you've ever seen?)