A List of Sorts

... that is totally unrelated in any shape or form...

1. Can you believe the devastation in the deep South?  My heart breaks for them.

2. I've stretched the groceries about as far as I've ever stretched them.  Today my kids had scrambled eggs and canned chicken noodle soup.  It was literally the only thing we could find.

3. We're celebrating my husband's birthday tonight just the 5 o' us.  I let the kids decorate.  Who knew a valentines wreath, a used car lot pool flag rope, and some ribbon could be so festive?

4. I made my first big cookie cake from scratch today.  We didn't have a regular bag of chocolate chips so I used minis and chunks of a giant Hersey bar.  What could go wrong?

Oh, maybe the fact that I used a flat pizza pan so now my house smells like burnt cookie drippings.

5. My brother has been trying to make it home from deployment for over 2 weeks.  It involves a large plane that keeps breaking down. The fact that he had to travel over 8,000 miles of ocean made us a little uneasy.  We're waiting on the phone call of his safe return...

6. Someone please tell me the secret to a clean toaster oven.  Ours looks disgusting and it's less than a year old.

7. Here's a hypothetical question for you... if you find a snake in your yard/garage do you catch an release?  ignore it?  kill it?  Just curious.

8. My son was dropped off from a playdate yesterday and the mom said, with a perplexed look on her face, "He wouldn't eat dinner."  If your child is anything like mine, they NEVER skip a meal.  She had taken them to CookOut and he said he would get migraines if he ate the hot dogs (which is true) and he would DIE if he ate the hamburgers.  Umm.... maybe allowing our 7 year old to watch a documentary on meat processing wasn't the best call.  Sorry, Erin.

9. However....  I HIGHLY recommend adding Food Inc. to your Netflix queue.  It will change the way you look at dinner.  Our family has made some drastic changes to our eating habits.  Drastic and for the better!

10. We have a not-very-nice neighbor.  When I say not-very-nice I am being VERY nice.  (Have any of those??) I passed him in public yesterday, put on my big girl pants, and said hello.  He completely ignored me.  From 6 feet away.  Needless to say it provided a good life-lesson conversation with my daughter who was completely shocked that someone would be rude to her momma.


Don't forget to answer #6 and #7.
Hugs!!!

Hiding from the Camera

There's nothing like accountability for a good kick in the pants.  :)  I mentioned last week that I was going to make it a priority to take some pictures of just me and my man.  

On the way home from church, with my to-do list running a mile long, the last thing on my mind was a photo session.  I had 10 people to feed and a turkey to check on for Easter dinner.  Fortunately, my daughter said, "mom, we have to take some pictures of you and daddy."  So I grabbed the camera and headed to the yard for some shade and a couple of snaps by the kids.  We didn't even plan on matching our blues, it just worked out that way.  

A dear friend reminded me of the importance of capturing mom in the pictures of life because one day our kids are going to look back and not have any photo memories of us.  I'd much rather stay behind the lens.  It's safer (and more fun) back there.  If I'm real honest, when I look at pictures of myself, I become very critical (bad hair day, chubby arms, lines of life on my face.) But if I stay in my "safe" place, it's not doing my kiddos any good.

I had a Groupon to Lulu.com that was going to expire at midnight last week, so I threw a memory book together faster than you can fry a chicken.  It wasn't perfect, but I got it done in time.  One of the things I noticed was how few none of the pictures were of just the two of us.  Hence, my commitment to take more of the man of my life with his bride.  

What about you?  Are you being intentional about capturing your daily life?

Are you making sure YOU are in the pictures?  

I encourage you to pick up your camera and capture the everyday, normal life.  Sure, beach pictures are great, but unless you live at the beach, they shouldn't be the only moments captured.

Start clicking!  :)

Happy Easter!!!

Celebrating the greatest miracle...

Jesus' gift of eternal life

He is RISEN!!!

Good Friday

But God was merciful! 

We were dead because of our sins, 

but God loved us so much 

that he made us alive with Christ, 

and God's wonderful kindness 

is what saves you. 

God raised us from death to life 

with Christ Jesus, and he has given us

 a place beside Christ in heaven.

 God did this so that in the future world

 he could show how truly good 

and kind he is to us 

because of what Christ Jesus has done. 

Ephesians 2:4-8

Easter Morning Pictures

Do you try to get Easter pictures on Sunday morning before you leave for church?  We usually do them when we get home.  Needless to say, the lady with the camera (me) is not the most popular chic in the yard because my little bunnies are hungry enough to gnaw on their appendages.  This year I decided to go ahead and do our "Easter morning" pictures on Tuesday.  Before Easter.

I explained my reasoning to my kids and they happily donned their Easter attire and had great attitudes during our little photo session.

 I didn't have to worry about their outfits getting dirty because I knew I still had time to wash them again before Sunday, should the unexpected happen.  Fortunately, it didn't.

 Since we weren't trying to rush to Easter dinner, we had time to include some adorable props.

Rocko just wanted to help out with the natural smiles.

One of my favorites...

The only drawback of doing it early is not having my man and I in the photos.  Oh well, I've made a resolution to get more pictures of the two of us together.  Seriously, it is sad how few we have of just US.  So, I plan on snapping a couple of pics of us on Easter morning.  Assuming I can find something in my closet to wear...

Needless to say I didn't want my picture taken on a Tuesday morning in my favorite Wyoming t-shirt.  My little man snapped this picture of me and my girl.

 Ha! He may be the future designated family photographer.

One of the {many, many} things I've learned about photography is that I've got to make it fun if I want to capture genuine smiles and natural poses.  In the middle of the session, I told them to take their shoes off and dance in the wet grass.  They thought that was the coolest idea ever.

Hope you are enjoying this beautiful Easter week!

Coming Down from the Mountain

Last week we decided to take our spring break.  I know it was a week earlier than the rest of the world, but we just needed it.  One of the clues that we might be ready for some time off to enjoy the great outdoors was this:

 Two full size tents set up in my living room and foyer.  Complete with rock campfire.  Notice that my 11 year old camps in style.  She has a loop/shag rug, matching quilt, small chair and blow up mattress.  That's how we roll.  Comfort and style, baby.

The kids and I took a road trip to the NC mountains to enjoy some fresh air and time with my parents.  See?  We are accomplishing both:

 Isn't my mom cute with her grands?

 It was a week of rest and refreshment for me.  I checked off everything on my list (except for scheduling a photo session and doctor appts ... too much work for break).  Speaking of work, my sweet honey stayed home to work so we could play.  Little did I know that he was working day and night.  He stayed up each night working on this:

 Squeal!!!  We needed to replace the carpet on our stairs, but it was either a family vacation or new carpet.  So we racked our brains and decided to pull up the carpet and paint the subflooring.  Since it was going to be a summer project, I was shocked to come home to it already done.  I love my man!!!  Pulling off all of the carpet staples almost sent him to the looney bin.  It was a labor of love that turned out beautifully.

The dishwasher fairy visited while I was gone, too.  No, she didn't come in and wash all of my dirty dishes.  She dropped off a dishwasher.  I know it's totally lame to post a picture of my new dishwasher, but when you have to spend that kind of money, you want to show it off.  No?

My kids think the blue lights are so cool.  Not so cool when they found out it doesn't put the dishes away for them.

Blown Away

You may have heard about the tornadoes that struck NC on Saturday.  Wow.  

Our house/neighborhood was spared, but we have friends who were not.  The devastation is incredible.  Please keep NC in your prayers.  There is so much damage.

Some family friends lost their barns and found one of their horses a football field away, 30 ft in a tree.  Stories like this are becoming commonplace (but no less shocking) as reports roll in.  It saddens me to see so many families and poor migrant workers who lived in mobile homes that were completely swept away, leaving them with only the clothes on their backs.  There were more than 15 deaths in the state and some are still missing.