Missing Jeremy

Just feeling sad lately.

Christmas Catch-Up

A few quick little blogs coming up.

We got home last night. We ended up not leaving until Monday morning, because Nat was sick over the weekend. She went to the doctor on Sunday and got some meds, then we left Monday morning with her still not feeling super.

We had a good time. I'll talk about it later and post more pics.

From the condo balcony.

Natalie and Grandpa ringing the bell at Wal-Mart the week before we left.

They brought in a lot of money. Natalie did a good job.

Play It Again, Sam.

I have a bunch of stuff to blog about and no time to do it. I'll post a few video clips and some other stuff when I can.

Tidbits I might talk more about soon:

Natalie auditioned for a play earlier this week, and she got a part and is excited to be in her first production. She announced to me on the way home from the read-thru that she just might add director to the list of things she will be when she grows up. (Currently the list contains: veterinarian, artist, model, actress, doctor, and now director. I think there's one I'm missing, but I don't have time or energy or brain power to think of it right now.)

It was really funny at the play auditions. Natalie was the youngest, with one other girl her age there. The people auditioning were supposed to say a little monologue, memorized scripture, poem, etc. Some of the big kids (like 5th and 6th grade) had the funniest auditions (funny, like really, really bad). One 5th grader got up there and with zero expression said, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are, up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky." That was it. The other girl Natalie's age said a two-line little prayer-type thing, like, "Thank you for this food, Amen."

Natalie recited "Time to Rise" by Robert Louis Stevenson. "A birdie with a yellow bill hopped upon my windowsill, cocked his shiny eyes and said, 'Ain't you shamed, you sleepy head?' " She used her hop motion on the windowsill part and pointy finger motion when the bird spoke. She did a good job for her first audition - at 5 years old - especially compared to the much older kids who also auditioned.

Two of my last-minute client Christmas orders did not arrive today, as planned, so we are postponing leaving for our trip until Sunday. Hopefully, the shipments will arrive early tomorrow, so I can wrap up business stuff early in the day. I just want to be able to enjoy the trip, but I'm already thinking about everything I have to take care of for the business as soon as we get back. It's never-ending, of course.

I got a root canal last week. Yea! My mouth is so expensive.

Natalie did so well with her reading yesterday during school that it made me cry. (Happy cry.) She is doing so much better with the reading just recently.

I can't think of a few things I wanted to put in the blog. Darn.

We just got back from Ninny and Papa's house, where the kids opened Christmas presents. The girls are spending the night there, so it's just Billy, me, and Parker here. I'll wrap the kids' presents when Parker goes to bed in a little bit. I have to hide the Santa packages in a trash bag when we pack up.

We got a Wii from Ninny and Papa, so now Natalie can play at our house, too. She really is good at the sports games.

Oh, we had an almost crisis a couple days ago. It looked like we had a leak under the foundation, but it turned out to be a little, weird thing that didn't cost a whole lot to fix, but it did take one whole day to take care of it.

Probably a more exciting blog next time. I have presents to put away from tonight's opening and more presents to wrap for next week.

Indian Joker

Olivia had a little skit thing at school for Thanksgiving. Her part was to say, "Shh, shh," when the reading talked about the Indian women. Her headpiece cracked me up, because of the way it was drooping down.

International Thanksgiving

Just a quick one in between cleaning tasks this morning. I'll try to get another blog or two in later today, after I get some business done this afternoon.

Our Thanksgiving theme for this year was international. We had authentic international food and dress. The food my oldest sister prepared each day for the different themes was so good, and it was so much fun doing it that way. Of course, we had fun, fun games and great prizes - as always. We also determined the theme for next year - formal. I have some really great ideas for that, and I'm totally looking forward to it.

I'll post a pic of Parker in costume when I get a copy from someone. I only took these pics of the girls with the point-and-shoot. I didn't take any other photos during Thanksgiving.


Natalie was a Romanian gypsy. Olivia was a Fiji island girl. You'll see what Parker was when I get a photo to post.

Making The Cut

Yesterday started out badly, then it turned into a wonderful day for me. Then, it turned again.


I had a session scheduled for 8:45 a.m., and I had a no-show. Not a big surprise, and a boring story behind it. Anyway, I got home just before 9:30, and I was home alone. As I was pulling up, my mom was leaving with Parker and Natalie. Olivia was already at school. Gigi dropped off Parker at Mom's Day Out, and Natalie went home with her to do her school there. I had the house to myself. Quiet. Peace. So Nice! I just did some fun stuff (not being sarcastic) like dusting the bookshelves and unloading the dishwasher and doing several loads of laundry. I also paid bills and took care of a couple other things that were not a big deal to do. It was a wonderfully non-rushed, nothing-else-on-the-schedule day. Not that I didn't have a ton of stuff I could do...I just didn't have anything major that had to get done right away. I went to lunch with a friend (she paid, yay!), and then we picked up Parker at 2:30 and Olivia right after that. The peace and quiet was gone.


Billy got home early, because he had to get back into town in time to take care of some paperwork at the office. We played in the family room, where I told Billy one of us had to stay with the kids because he still hadn't put the lock on the art cabinet that holds all kinds of dangerous activity stuff like scissors, glues, important school books, special toys with small pieces that can easily be lost or that require the computer/TV to play, etc. We are finally using the family room for the kids to play and keep their mess there. It's so much easier to clean up that one space before bed than to go through the whole house following the trail of toys. I'm still working on getting them in the habit of playing only in the family room. When I don't want them back there, they want to go in there. When I want them to stay back there in that room, they wander elsewhere.


So, the first yucky part of the evening was when something was said to me that was really, really not nice and really hurt my feelings. Second day in a row that happened.


Then, after a gourmet dinner of Hamburger Helper, I got a call from my sister and had a nice conversation with her. I was sitting in Parker's room while I talked. At this point, Natalie had just left to go to Ninny's house for the night, so it was just Parker and Olivia. While I talked on the phone, Parker and Olivia played in the family room, and Billy........Well, he didn't play in the family room. He was on the laptop in the living room. When I got off the phone, I saw that he was in the living and the kids were in the family room. I quickly went to check on the two biggest trouble makers in our house. I found Parker playing with some flashcards (from the art cabinet) in the big chair, and he glanced over the side of the chair where I couldn't see what was happening, so I knew something bad was going on there, as well. Olivia had jumped up and moved away from the chair completely, as soon as she heard me ask what was going on. Oh, a little before this, I was putting some dishes away in the kitchen while I talked, and Parker walked in and said, "What's up?" I thought that was strange. Olivia was following behind him and asked the same thing. Then, they headed back to the family room.


Anyway, beside the chair, I discovered:

There was much more hair on the floor than this.

Nice haircut.

Parker said, "Olivia fixed my hair, Mama."

Good thing I got back there when I did. We're going to have great photos of Olivia with Santa, with her ugly new hairstyle.

Billy finally decided it was past time to install the lock I purchased for the cabinet (about 6 months ago). He did it last night, and it didn't take that long.

Why does nobody in our house listen to me at the appropriate times and respond with the appropriate action?

Christmas Plans

A lot of the people we've told about our plans for Christmas have thought we are so strange. I don't get it. A lot of people go out of town for Christmas.

We ran into our neighbors at Wal-Mart the other night as we were finishing up the kids present shopping, and they acted like it was so, so weird and said something about how we're skipping Christmas this year, just because we said we would be out of town and that I wasn't even putting up the Christmas trees at home this year. Have you seen the movie "Christmas With The Kranks"? We sort of feel like that.

Here is our plan:

We are leaving the weekend before Christmas and will visit my sisters in Arkansas for a day or two. Then, on Monday, we'll head to the condo in Branson that we have for the week. We'll stop and get some groceries on the way in, and then we'll get settled into the condo. I have the kids' Christmas trees to put up and decorate, along with their little nativity set.

The condo is a nice size, with a master bedroom with a King, another bedroom with 2 Queens, a queen fold-out bed in the living room, a double fold-out bed in the living room, a Murphy bed in the living room, 2 fireplaces, a fully-equipped kitchen, a private covered balcony with a grill and furniture, and two jetted tubs.

On Tuesday, we have reservations to have lunch with Santa in the reception hall at Silver Dollar City. The kids will get little gifts from Santa, as well as have their photo taken with him. Then, we'll get the kids changed out of their Christmas clothes and get bundled up for an afternoon at Silver Dollar City.

Wednesday, we will probably make our gingerbread house, and we'll make the cookies for Santa. Gigi and Grandpa are coming in that day (I think), and we'll go to the lights displays that night with them. (Other family was invited but declined the invitation. I actually thought "the aunts" in Arkansas would like to go since it's not far from home for them, but it looks like they aren't going.)

We'll have a nice Christmas morning. We were not going to get the kids any toys (just one present each from Santa and their stocking stuff), but we ended up getting one nice gift from Santa for each and one nice gift from us for each, plus their stocking stuff. Our main gift to them is just the trip to somewhere special and having a special kind of Christmas week. Branson is beautiful at Christmas, and hopefully we'll be able to do some fun stuff at Silver Dollar City (weather permitting).

We'll leave Friday and take our time on our way home.

We are really looking forward to the trip and doing something different this year. We may just do it every couple of years to mix things up a little.

So, that's the plan. I don't see what's so weird about not putting the trees up at home, when we'll be gone the whole week of Christmas. I don't have the trees up for that long anyway (usually two weeks before Christmas, and they're down a few days after Christmas).

K. I'm done explaining. Sorry I didn't get to the other blogs this weekend. Maybe later this week. It's a busy (stressful) week for my business. I'm really, really not looking forward to tomorrow's session with a newborn, a one-year-old boy, and a two-year-old boy. Fun for me! I'm actually looking forward to the newborn part, just not trying to get all three of them together.

Happy Monday!

Busy Fun

I'll try to get caught up on a few blogs (Thanksgiving, etc.) this weekend. I've been busy with business.

We're going to the Christmas Parade tonight, so I'll try to take a couple photos of that.

I'm posting a link to a video below (bad quality) of the cutie pie, full-of-energy 2.5-year-old whose portraits I did in her living room Tuesday. I also had a good senior boy session Monday (outside in the freezing cold wind).

Miss Brylee's Christmas session:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI5gKXnmfgI

Contrasting Ideas

I decided to try to get a few photos of the girls to use on my Christmas cards for my business this year, but I decided a little too late. I needed some images for an order tonight, and by the time I decided to try it today, it was getting dark. Anyway, the girls and I grabbed the hat and scarf and headed out in the evening light to go ahead and try a few shots.

I really, really like the old film look, so I don't mind having to bump up the ISO and even adding more of the grainy look of old film when the photos are for personal use. Also, I tend to like a lot of saturation and heavy contrast. Blah, blah, blah...Anyway, these images won't work for clients, but they work for me. There is one that really cracks me up and is so like the girls. These make me smile. So, even though I didn't get to capture the images I wanted for my Christmas cards, I got some unique images that I really like for my personal use.

Here are a few of them. Natalie wanted me to post some tonight, and this is all I've gone through so far. I'll post more of them tomorrow, if I get a chance to play a couple minutes with them. Super busy with EVERYTHING right now.

Oh, I forgot to say again that Natalie amazes me with her natural instinct in posing. She goes so naturally right into the perfect posing. I wish I could take her with me to my next senior girl session and have her there to demonstrate proper posing.

Okay...Done talking. More tomorrow.

Oh, one more thing: Booked my second senior guy today. The guys aren't as much fun as the girls, but I'm happy that I'll have more than one senior guy this year.

Painted Ladies

Here are the cards we painted yesterday.

I didn't get to finish mine.

Inside of Natalie's.

Front of Natalie's.

Back of Olivia's.

Front of Olivia's.

Copy Cat

Every time we go through a drive-thru, Parker repeats everything I say as I order.

I took him to Sonic for Happy Hour after Mom's Day Out. Of course, the girls are still sick, so they got Sprite. Natalie wanted a grilled cheese sandwich, so I got her one and just let her eat half of it for now. Parker wanted a chocolate milkshake.

So, I say, "I'd like 2 small Sprites." Parker says loudly, "I'd like 2 small Sprites." I say, "...a small chocolate milkshake..." Parker says, "...a small chocolate milkshake..." I say, "...one grilled cheese sandwich..." He says, "...one grilled cheese sandwich..." I say, "...and a large Diet Dr. Pepper." Parker says, "...and a large Diet Dr. Pepper."

The woman repeats the order and gives the total. I say, "Thank you." Parker says, "Thank you."

A minute later, I said to Parker, "You've got to stop copying everything I say when I order." He gives his so adorable little smirky smile. A few minutes later, I was watching him in the mirror behind me, and I said, "I'm going to start repeating everything you say, like you do to me." It took him only about 1 second, and he looked at me in the mirror like a dare to go ahead and copy what he said. He said, "pee-pee". Clever little cutie.

Finally, Parker's birthday package from Aunt Janell arrived today. It was mailed on the 3'rd, and he just got it today. I wonder where it's been all this time. He loves the gifts, and the girls loved their little surprises, too.

So Sick of It...

Warning: I just read what I typed below, and it's really, really dull and more like a private journal entry full of rambling. You can just ignore it, but I don't want to erase it because I don't have time to keep an actual written journal.

The girls are both still sick. I just got done cleaning up a diarrhea mess from Natalie - second time today (well, it's early in the day). I've been up since before 5 a.m., because Olivia came in and threw up in our bed. Billy was already getting ready for work. Anyway, then she said that there was diarrhea in her room. Natalie was sleeping on Olivia's floor, with a good pillow sham covering a spot next to her. She had diarrhea and covered it with that. Also, I found a HUGE diarrhea mess in the bathroom floor.

Parker is well, now. He went with Gigi and Grandpa to OKC yesterday and had a good time and behaved well. The girls and I painted cards for Daddy, because I didn't feel much like doing anything else (house stuff). I took care of a couple business things that didn't require too much effort.

Anyway, Olivia will be missing another day of school (missed Friday and yesterday). Parker will have to get to "school" (Mom's Day Out) later this morning.

I have no idea how everything (finishing some organizing projects and cleaning) is going to get done around the house before next Monday. I have to have stuff ready by then and be caught up on everything business-wise by then, because I want to be able to enjoy Thanksgiving week with my family. Well, Monday will be spent editing the senior session and portrait party I have scheduled over the weekend. Then, Olivia's teacher will be coming to our house for our little meeting. Then, I think I can do a quick clean Tuesday and finish editing and just enjoy the arrival of family for our fun Thanksgiving festivities. (Yeah...that's the plan. It's not likely it will go quite like that. There will most likely be some stressing going on and some last-minute rush to complete my projects.)

I really should work on all positive, full-of-gratitude blogs for a couple weeks - in honor of the Thanksgiving season. I really am thankful for so much, I just tend to use the blog to vent my negative energies.

Today, I had an aggressive plan on my schedule, but that will be altered now that I know I have Olivia home another day and both girls creating additional cleaning chores for me throughout the day. At least I'll have a few hours with Parker out of the house. Maybe the girls can just watch a princess movie while Parker is gone, and I can do some cleaning then. I've got to work on some personal budget stuff and make a few changes to some business stuff.

I keep forgetting to mention a few Parker things, and now I've forgotten several I wanted to include.

He's counting well, and his favorite song is "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", which he sings with such emotion. Uggh...I can't remember what he said last week that I really wanted to remember. It was so cute and smart. He's so sweet. He's so stubborn. He's so completely adorable - most of the time.

I was wrong about Olivia and Parker not understanding that Uncle Johnny was gone and they wouldn't see him on earth again. I think the fact that Parker ended up at the funeral was a good thing. They haven't once said anything about going to Johnny's house when we go that direction. Friday, Parker stopped playing and walked over to me and said, "Mama, is Johnny really all dead?" I told him yes, and he said, "Oh", in a really sad way. Then, he said, "No. He's not dead. He's not." He said it like an adult says it when you just don't want to accept something like that. I don't know what made him stop and think about it right then. About a week and a half ago, I was driving the kids around, and I turned down the road in front of the building where Johnny worked, and I started to look over to see if his car was there. It always takes a while to adjust to someone missing.

Parker is watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse right now, and it's so cute watching him interact with the show. Now, I'm smiling.

Late-Night Discovery

This is probably not that exciting to most of my readers, but I am really, really excited about it!

I have been struggling with finding a solution to my newest business problem from this past week (preview book issues). I just wasn't satisfied with the provider I was using for the Preview Books/albums, and I couldn't find another one that was cost-effective for me. Finally, I have a solution to the problem (and a new "proofing" method) - I think. I'll know for sure how well it works by the end of this week. So excited, though. I'll tell you more next weekend.

I just thought I should post a blog where I wasn't totally bummed out and bringing everyone down with my negativity. It's nearly 2:30 in the morning, and I just finished making my final decision on the new method, and I'm totally hyped about it. I don't think I can sleep, now! I have more work to do tomorrow to get some things going for this new method - but, Yea!!!! I'm happy and excited - and sleep-deprived!

Lay It On Me

The air is thick with stress in our house.

I don't feel good. Parker is getting over the sickness (upset stomach). Olivia is throwing up tonight, so I'm up with her and not feeling too stable in my stomach myself - as I'm cleaning up her throw up every once in a while. The laundry is completely piled up - as usual.

Billy is sick with a cold thing, and he's no fun when he's sick: "Hello, Mister Cranky, I believe we've met before." Tuesday night, after a really, really, really horrible day with the kids, Billy didn't even get home from work until 8:00 p.m. I hate the hours he's working now.

I am having to make a few changes/additions to my business stuff this week (has to be done by tomorrow), and that takes so much time and is so, so, so hard to do with the kids here. I have so many things backing up, and too many things are high on the priority list. There simply isn't enough time in a day for me to accomplish all of the priorities I have right now.

This week, Olivia didn't have school on Wednesday, because the school's water was going to be shut off for something that day. Also, Parker missed his "school" on Tuesday, because of the sickness.

I guess I'm going to do a little garage sale Saturday, and then I'll do the 3-day thing in a few weeks. I just need to start getting rid of some of it now. I'll just pull out everything I can get the chance to set up Friday night, and we'll go with that for Saturday. I had already blocked off this weekend for the sale, so I should go ahead and use Saturday for that.

The kids continue to destroy their toys, clothes, shoes, etc. They take stuff outside and leave it there to be ruined. Parker actually likes things to be clean and organized, but you wouldn't be able to tell that by his behavior much of the time lately. The girls are awful about packing things for camping trips and ruining all of my hard work to have things organized. It takes the kids minutes to destroy work that takes me a long time to set up and clean properly. I'm so sick of it. They are not getting ANY toys from us for Christmas. Santa is bringing one toy for each of them, along with a note that explains his dissatisfaction with their lack of respect and care for the things with which God has blessed them.

Completely overwhelmed with the lack of time, lack of money, lack of energy, and lack of respect.

It's really, really unfair that moms don't get the privilege of taking sick days, and if we absolutely can't function and have to take a little time out, we have 3 times the work to do when we're feeling better. Where's my nanny, chef, chauffeur, maid, personal assistant, and business manager?

Thanks for listening. I'll try for an upbeat blog next time.

My "Baby" Baby is 3!

Monday was Parker's birthday. We did a somewhat impromptu picnic "party" at our new favorite little park on Sunday afternoon. GiGi made a cake, of course. It was just us and GiGi and Grandpa and Ninny and Papa.

I had planned to do a construction equipment party for him this year (planned since earlier this year), but because of the time of the year of his birthday and the fact that he doesn't have little friends his age that we spend time with, we decided to do just our little family for the party.

On Friday, I told Parker that his birthday was in a couple days. He asked, "I'm going to have a party?" I said yes. He asked, "I'm going to get presents?" I said yes. He asked, "I'm going to have a firetruck on my cake?" I told him he could have the firetruck on the cake if he wanted. Then, I called GiGi and told her to save the construction equipment for the next year and find a firetruck for the cake, because he had requested it. So, he had a firetruck cake.

So, so, so busy right now. More blogs and photos when I can.

Happy News: I had a $950 order at last night's order session. (Would have been more, but I "cut some deals".)

Catch of the Day - Friday's Special

I could start a whole new blog and just post pics of Chicken Nugget's "Catch of the Day", because she just keeps killing rodents and bringing them to the front door to show me - at least 4 times a week (and that's just the ones she catches while I'm here to show before she eats them). Nasty cat.

She gets all kinds of mice, rat-type things, moles, etc. Here is what she brought me just a minute ago. It makes me sad. Poor little guy.

He worked so hard gathering nuts for winter,

and now some other guy will come along and eat them all.

Rest in Peace.

Wild Play

Yesterday, after we picked up Olivia and dropped off some stuff at the recycle bins (conveniently located near Olivia's school, which is close to our house), I took the kids to Sonic and then to a nice little park in a neighborhood. The kids had never been to that little park. It's really clean and has neat stuff, and the best part is that we didn't have to share the park with anybody else. I'll probably take them to that park more often, when the weather is nice. It's a lot nicer than the big park, because it's easier to keep up with them there.

I didn't have my camera with me at the park. Here are some pics of Parker from yesterday afternoon after we got home from the park. He doesn't stay still for longer than a quarter of a second. I feel really bad, because I don't have any good portraits of my own little man. I've got to try to get a real session in with him before the end of the year. Anyway, here's the best I could get yesterday while he played at home. You can see the wildness in his eyes. He's so full of it!