Scooting

What kind of a parent lets their children ride scooters around the house? This one does... Adrienne and Genevieve each got a Razor scooter for Christmas (they were on sale at Toys R Us for about 15 dollars, and the kids had been begging for scooters for nearly a year... wasn't an option in Korea, and when we came back to the States there was so much going on that I never got around to it). Anyway, I don't know if this makes me awesome or awful. The kids, however, love "scooting" in circles around the house. I've got no real problems with it as long as they keep out of the kitchen while I'm cooking. They have lots of other boundaries and things that they are Absolutely Not Allowed To Do so it's not as though they're running wild and going loco. And I have to admit, I get a kick out of seeing them whiz past hooting out "Look at me, Mom!"

On another note, it's funny that sometimes the people you least expect to be friendly or take notice are the ones who you find out are really sweet people. Yesterday we were in Best Buy and Charlotte started to wander away from me. I called her back and waited, and when she didn't come immediately a young woman who had seen what happened scooped her up and brought her to me. I smiled and said thanks, but it was ok because she was just going to her Daddy, that was why I had waited to make sure where she was going. I suppose the kindness of strangers isn't really something to be surprised over, but this girl had her hair half dyed an odd yellowish green, had multiple piercings on her face, interesting choice in make-up application, and dressed like some sort of Emo-punk (I can never really tell the difference so I lump them all together. They'd probably have heart attacks if they knew.) Not that I usually judge people by appearances, but I didn't expect anyone to pay particular attention to a pregnant woman with a (seemingly) wayward toddler, but if I'd been asked to rank people nearby on a scale of 1 to 10 she may not have been near the top of my list of "possible helpers." (And the group of guys playing Guitar Hero would have been dead last.) She told me she has a 1 year old so she understood what it was like to be chasing after them all the time. Later on I saw her with her husband-boyfriend-whatever, he was pushing the cart with their little boy sitting in the seat. That's something my husband would be doing, too. Sometimes we find similarities in the strangest places.

I also looked at some lenses for my camera... I tried not to drool, too much. Not that I was going to buy one right then any way, but I like to look. I hefted up some of the other models, some Nikons, and fancier Canons... Nikons felt too bulky to me, I have little hands. And I decided that I probably will never really upgrade from the series of Canon that I have now because I didn't like how much heavier the others were. Add weight of lenses... well, toting a really heavy camera is just not for me. Sure, I might fall in love with the specs but there are other things to consider, and if I didn't like it just from picking it up in the store no way am I going to like carrying it around for actual daily use. So there ya have it. Not that I had actually actively considered upgrading at this point, I don't intend to get another camera unless/until this one dies on me, but when I take that leap it will be for more of the same, not an actual upgrade.

I am dumb.

For serious. I really shouldn't go looking at old pictures of myself. Especially not when I feel fat and everything hurts.

Me "then"


Me "now"


I could cry (figuratively speaking). lol I want my body back. I feel fat and tired and my back hurts. I was scrubbing my kitchen (which leaves me even more exhausted) thinking about blogging... and lately my blogs have sucked. I mean, nice little updates on the family but nothing really creative. I think I used to be funny. I wrote much better blogs back when I was doing my "15 minutes of ME time", but I haven't had a chance to do that since moving to GA... since coming back to the States, really. I want it back. The solitude, the relaxation, the time to blog if I decide to use it that way... so much of my life is wrapped up in kids and being pregnant right now that I'm too tired to spend 15 minutes for myself once the kids are in bed. I'm ready to go to sleep before they are.

18 more weeks...

I was thinking about why I do this... and really, it's not like I have more than a handful of people reading... I just do it for me. To put what I want down for prosperity or something. To vent, to rage, to share something funny with whoever might happen to see it. But I'm not sure the sharing is really my primary goal. Maybe it's just to exercise my brain. Whatever it is there is a piece of me in there, and I want it to be the real me, not the big fat whiner me. :P This me is only temporary, I have to remind myself of that. THIS will be over soon enough... well, maybe not soon enough, but it will end.

Photos I’ve taken that don’t suck.

Title and blog idea stolen from The Pioneer Woman. I'm not going to post anything prior to this past year because, frankly, (and I apologize to my children in advance for the crappy representation of their childhoods) my older photographs suck. Lighting was poor, angles were wrong... I have pictures that I love because of WHO is in them from the past 6 years, but none that I especially love because I think the picture is actually DECENT. Up until this year, that is. Well, I may be exaggerating slightly, there may be a few decent shots from the older stuff, but it certainly isn't an accurate representation of what I am capable of... they are more snapshots to remember events or stages in my kids lives. Not that that needs justification, it's just that it doesn't necessarily make for quality photography. I can already see that my post will not be limited to 5 photos... and probably not nearly as concise as PW's but I don't care, this is about me and what I like so... deal. :P (I'm linking them as small but the images SHOULD be clickable to see a larger sized image... should be... don't quote me on that, I suck at this html crap.) These photos are also not edited in any way, although a couple could use it. What you see is what I get straight out of my camera.



I took this shot at my in-laws home right after I got my XSi. Rusty hog trailer, not exactly the most beautiful thing in the world, but I like it. It's as simple as that. I like it.



I took this one as part of a challenge to capture the word "anatomy" in a photograph... I think ultimately I settled on another shot for the challenge, but I love this picture. She has the damn cutest nose.



This was taken while documenting pie making--sometimes I do that, photograph the process I go through to cook a meal. It can provide some really cool shots and is a challenge to me to work with my camera in poor lighting situations, learn how to get the best out of my camera. I love the reflection on the knife.



Found this guy when I was taking the trash out one day. I was so intent on the bug (and praying that he wouldn't fly into my face) that the bokeh was entirely unintentional. I just wanted to get as close as I dared and get the best shot possible. I took several and I'm really pleased with the way most of them turned out--this is NOT usually the case. haha



Searching for inspiration one day and took this shot of some junk on my desk. If you could SEE how horrendously dirty my desk is you'd be even more impressed.

(OMG this is going to be a long post... you can skip the lame commentary and just look at the pictures if you want.)



Genevieve is super expressive and I love capturing her at various times. Sometimes I wish I could capture my other girls like this, but then I guess it wouldn't be as special a trait in Genevieve.



I blogged this once before but it bears repeating. This is one of my absolute favorite shots of Adrienne. It captures so much of her personality; she's such a happy, beautiful, fun, and loving child.



Charlotte... holy crap she has grown so much since this summer! I love her expression; just kinda taking it all in, "Hey Mom, you camera-toting-freak, whassup?"



My father in law... I was trying to be discrete but he totally knew I was taking his picture. But this is one of the ways my children will remember him; him taking care of the garden, while they run and play between rows of straberries and vegetables.



This is one of my favorite poses for Charlotte, she does this when she colors, reads, watches movies. It always makes me laugh.



Adrienne, again, so full of life and fun.



Again with the awesome expressiveness. You can see why she's so much fun to photograph.

I think over the next couple weeks I'm going to have to devote a blog post (with photos) to each of my kids. There were so many more pictures of them that I love for various reasons... and I may have gotten carried away here and shared some that do, in fact, suck even though I said that they wouldn't. But this was about me and what I like... so I guess if I like bad photos... oh well. haha

20 weeks

20 week ultrasound. :) We didn't find out for certain, but we're pretty sure it's another girl. It would be funny in a way if it were; Matt's older brother has 4 boys (they got married a year before we did, our anniversary is the day before theirs), and we always joke that they're getting all the boys and we're getting all the girls. Of course if this little one is born with a penis I will be shocked. I'm not really hoping either way, but I am expecting another girl.



Last night Genevieve and Adrienne got haircuts; Adrienne's was really just a trim to get rid of the ratty looking ends, but I cut a few inches off Genevieve's hair. It was all uneven and wispy and the front pieces were finally long enough to cut the rest of it so it was evened out. She likes it and I think she looks pretty adorable. It'll be awhile before she sports piggytails like these again, though.






Adrienne has been a pretty super helper lately. Washing dishes, helping make dinner, cleaning up the living room (we make all of them help, but she's the only one who really hauls ass and gets it done, the other two lolly-gag around). Today the girls and I cleaned their play room... from the sound of things it's going to be a wreck by the end of the day. They have been avoiding playing in there because they KNEW it was a mess, Adrienne even told me it was too messy, but now that we got it tidied up Adrienne doesn't want to play anywhere else.



This was the best shot I could get of Charlotte by herself on Christmas Eve. She just doesn't hold still for very long, or she rushes the camera because she wants to help take pictures. Potty training has good days and bad days. She's starting to say more words, which is helpful when she is trying to tell us what she wants. She's started playing "Eye winker, Tom Tinker" with me; she'll point to my eyes and say something that sounds like "ginkger" (hard G sounds) and then "kikkle" at my chin. It's pretty funny... except when it's 11:00 at night, you're in bed and she comes in and decides she's not tired, she just wants to play.



The wouldn't smile for me, but they'd look at Daddy and give him their best grins. The pictures where Charlotte is looking at me she looks like she's on drugs.

PT, mom style

Potty training; an adventure for the whole family! At least it seems to be that way (lately) in our house. For my first two kids it was a relatively calm event. They had both already hit and passed their second birthdays. Adrienne was nearly 2.5, and Genevieve was a couple months past her 2nd birthday when we undertook the endeavor. Training, when we really got down to it, happened quickly, they abandoned diapers of their own volition and even stopped peeing at night (this was never really an issue with them anyway, praise God).

Charlotte, for some INSANE reason, my husband decided to start training while I was suffering morning sickness. She was probably around the 20 month mark. She's finally catching on (she will be 2 later on this month). And when she does decide it's time she doesn't come tell me she has to go (and trying to MAKE her go and sit when she doesn't have to is never succesful), but usually when she does her big sister Genevieve is in there with her. And NO ONE is more excited over her progress than Genevieve. She comes out yelling gleefully "Charlotte PEEDED on the POTTY!"

Now you see why I devoted a blog to discussing toilet training my children. Simply so I could point out how joyful my darling 3 year old is. Who, coincidentally, is so skinny that her underpanties fit Charlotte better than they fit her.

Right now, Genevieve the Joyful is prancing around in a pink satiny dress-up dress with a strand of pink plastic beads around her neck. She's so freakin' cute. Charlotte, panty-clad, is sitting next to me brushing her hair. She thinks she's so grown up. Adrienne is *ahen* still in her pajamas and playing alphabet games on the computer. But at least she's learning something!

Matt called me from the grocery store (seriously, he's awesome) and asked if I wanted anything. If he'd told me he was going this morning I could have just told him to take the list off the top of the microwave, but whatever, he's DOING the grocery shopping so I'm not going to complain if he has to call me multiple times to ask again what kind of beans I want for the chili (which I HAVE to make since now THREE friends have mentioned making/eating chili and I'm seriously craving it).

You know what else sounds good? Apple crisp, or cobbler, or pie. I don't care which, just some sweet, cinnamony, baked apple dessert. Preferably a la mode.

I'm making myself hungry.

Ultrasound appointment bright and early tomorrow morning. Whee! Maybe I'll post back then with another picture. :)

Huge.

Positively ginormous. That's how I feel right now. And I'm only going to get bigger. Who's idea was this again? lol It's all worth it in the end. Problem is I just wish it were the end NOW instead of 20 weeks from now.