Meet Olivia

The newest member of our family!!

So, all of my friends having babies was really giving me baby fever! So, to cure the itch, I found Olivia. I've always wanted a pug. I had more specifically always wanted a pug named Lucy. However, my aunt has a dog named Lucy that lives right next door, so I didn't think another Lucy would be appropriate.

So, today, Tony and I were brainstorming names and we narrowed it down to Olivia, Fiona, and Isabel. Well, I really wanted to name her Fiona. I thought it would be so PERFECT, but Emma absolutely insisted on Olivia. She even went and found her Olivia book and carried it around with her all day long while she insisted the new puppy's name was going to be... Olivia.

Well, we had to drive all the way to Bennettsville, SC to see this puppy. Don't ask me where that is, please, it's just a really long ways from here, okay? Ugh, so like 15 hours later (not really) we were back home with our brand new shiny puppy named Olivia, who, might I add.. is absolutely edible. I'm so in love with her. She's asleep right now in my lap and I just want to wake her up so I can kiss on her some more. :)

Noah and the Spaghetti

Okay, so I've been a really bad mom. Noah is about to be 18 months old and tonight was the FIRST time I've let him have a plate of food and just go at it. He eats finger foods by himself, of course, but I just don't like messes, so up until this point, I've just made myself a really big plate of food and I've fed him off of my plate. Well, last night, he decided that he was just not going to have it anymore. He screamed and threw down and totally refused to eat with me feeding him. So, tonight I just did it. I gave him his very own plate of spaghetti and boy was he a happy little fella. Just look at that face!!!!

Needless to say, he had to have a serious bath after dinner tonight. :)

Downsizing

I decided earlier that I have/had way too many blogs in service. I think that's the source of me not blogging so much, because when I look at my dashboard and there are like 10 blogs there staring at me wondering why I haven't posted on them.... it's intimidating and I just click away as quickly as possible. LOL ;)

So, I closed FOUR blogs today and imported the contents of each of them onto THIS blog, so if you see random posts on here, that's why. I think this blog gained twenty-something posts today due to me closing the others.

And it's refreshing now that when I look at my dashboard all I see are my personal blog, my photography blog and the Mission 24 photography challenge blog that I'm a member of.

I feel like a new woman! :)

Halloweenie, Halloweenie!!

This Halloween was very unique. My Granny went into the hospital yesterday with pneumonia in her right lung, so I knew we were going to go to the hospital to see her as part of our Halloween activities. So, because of this, I planned for us to start early. And then I thought... if we're going to go all the way into town, we'll just go over and see my other grandma, who is about the same distance from the hospital as it is to go back to our house, so that's what we did. We drove LOTS of miles or only an itty bitty bit of candy! :)

And while Noah took his afternoon nap, I got Emma all spiffied up (even make-up!!) and we went outside and had us a little impromptu photoshoot. It was fun and I think she looks SO beautiful!

Marley had to be in the middle of everything, of course.

It was approaching four o'clock, which was a good hour after I wanted to leave, so we went and woke up Noah. He looks pleased, don't ya think? LOL....

I wish I could post the super cute picture of him when he stood up, but he had again stripped himself of his pants and diaper and so I don't think he would appreciate a picture of his little man on the internet for the world to see. Trust me, though... it's the cutest picture EVER.

We got all ready and went to Mimi's first, as she was going on our multi-county Halloween adventure...

He is the cutest monkey I have ever seen!

Sweet boy... just wanna eat him!

And Mama took this of me and my babies. I LOVE it!!

Then we went to see Granny in the hospital. All the nurses and patients were just ooohing and ahhhing over them. It was so cute! :)

And of course, it made Granny's night to see her sweet little ones.

And I forgot to take pictures when we went to Mama Peggy's and Aunt Kathy's houses, but we really enjoyed seeing them as well. When we got home, they got all cozy in their Halloween pj's and settled in for some left-over pizza and a Halloween movie. It was such a long day, but we got to see lots of people we love and we drove many, many miles. I think next year, we're going to try to pick and neighborhood and do the normal trick-or-treating. :)

Happy 5th Birthday, Sweet Emma

Instead of a party for Emma's birthday, this year we took a trip to the beach. I don't even remember the last time I was at the beach at this time of the year, but it was so nice and peaceful down there. It was a very cold weekend, so we didn't even go for a walk out on the sand, but we did play on the back deck of the condo some, which the kids absolutely loved! :)

This was my sweet boy on the drive down to the beach... just chillin with the girls...



My friend, Heather, who I just LOVE made this awesome cake for Emma! It took her hours upon hours of meticulous work and I could not be more thankful. Emma was in love with the cake and I didn't want to cut it because it was so pretty, but we did and boy was it yummy!



This is such a sweet picture of Emma, I just love it. And the band-aid on her head is a result of her jumping on the bed and banging her head on the dresser. Maybe she'll listen now when I tell her not to jump on the bed? Probably not.

Blowing out her candles!

The next day was Friday! I got up at 5:30 am to meet Jessica and Austin to go to Wilmington, where baby August was born. This was such an eventful day and I loved every minute of it.. well, except the 20 minutes where I left to get something to eat, because Ms. Jessica was only at four centimeters and in that 20 minutes, she went from 4 cm to a fully delivered baby. Who in the crap does that????? Anyway, I sprinted into the room just as the doctor pulled the baby out. I was pretty depressed that I missed the main event, but I'm over it now, I still got lots of good pictures, I just missed the best part.... ugh....

Anyway, this is one of my favorite pictures from that day, I just think she looks so cute putting on her chapstick.

The next day was Saturday and it was a very, very lazy day. I was tired from the busy day before and these pictures were all taken with a very crappy point and shoot camera that has since been returned to Best Buy, so please excuse all the red eyes and not so great pictures, but they're of my babies, so I love them just the same...

I love the look on his little face here! He loves playing with trucks, which believe me is a relief, because he also REALLY loves playing with his sister's dress-up clothes, mainly her crowns, necklaces, and sunglasses, so the mere fact that he likes trucks and bugs is quite reassuring. :)

And Emma took this picture of me while playing with the crappy point and shoot and she insists that it's great. I just think I look really gross and bored. Whatever.

Emma in her new princess dress that Mimi got her...

And this is her new Dora gown, princess toboggan, and Snow White crown.. all together.. boy is she a fashionista, or what?!?

And here's Noah with the crown.. he really likes it..

Emma being silly..

Sassyfras again....

Love this.. LOL...

Sweet babies.. in their non-matching clothes with unbrushed hair.. I love it!

And I look hideous, but I love it nonetheless, because it's me and my birthday girl... FIVE years old..... crap, life flies....

Most Fabulous Session EVER

Really... it wasn't a session.. it was more like an all day EVENT with two of my BFFs... nonetheless... BEST.... EVER....

So, if you want to see lots of this.....

Evil, Possessed Preggo Girl

and

Sex Kitten Preggo Girl

You should definitely go here and leave lots of sweet, fun, happy comments to make these gorgeous girls feel good about their very last pregnancies!!!! :):)

Just stuff

I am very much engrossed in "The Time Traveller's Wife" right now. It's amazing. The book can get a little confusing, though, because the story jumps around a lot... I guess that's what happens when the main character is constantly time travelling. I think it's so funny, though, because, as someone who loves to write and has tried twice to write a novel (yes, I have two unfinished manuscripts... blah, blah.... I got stuck.. so, anyway..) I am constantly wondering how in the CRAP this author is keeping up with what she is writing! I mean, seriously. Both times I've attempted writing a novel, I think part of what causes me to quit is that I just burn myself completely out. I end up with 90 pages of manuscript and about 200 pages of notes... yikes! So, I would love to have the opportunity to meet this author one day so I could ask her these burning questions about HOW she wrote this incredible story!

Okay, on other topics.. my little boy is proving to be quite the genius baby. Last night he did something I thought was SO SMART. And my mom was right there, so I have a witness. We came home from my granny's house and I put Noah down in the living room. We were talking, the kids were playing and I started talking about the things I needed to get done. I looked at Noah and I said, "Noah, do you want a bath?". Of course, I was really just saying this out loud, trying to decide if he needed a bath last night or if I was going to wait until this morning to give him his bath. Well, when I asked him that question, he threw down his toy, turned around and walked as fast as he could... straight to the bathroom! I was in complete amazement! I jumped up and my mom and I exchanged a very bewildered look and I followed him. When I got to the bathroom, he was standing by the tub, pulling back the shower curtain! I still can't believe he did that! I had no idea that he actually knew what I was saying. I think I have a very smart little cookie on my hands.

I am actively selling lots of our goods on ebay at the moment. My seller id is emmasmom1006, so check out my lovely items for sale on there. :) Oh, and during the pillaging of my house, looking for things to sell, I decided I was ready for Noah's room to have a new look. He's getting to be a big boy now, so I wanted him to have bigger boy bedding and decor in his room. So, I'm selling his sweet little baby stuff and I'm redoing his room in the Pottery Barn Kids Dr. Seuss stuff. Have you seen it???? Oh my... I LOVE it... and it's Organic AND it's on clearance right now!!! Woo Hoo!!! I'm so excited!! :) Oh, and Noah is still in his crib, of course, but his furniture is white, so I think it's going to look so cute! I'm so excited for my big boy. :)

And Emma is just super excited because her school starts back on Monday. I'm not so excited about this. Not because I don't want to give her up during the days. That was my gripe last year. But last year she was THREE and she was still my sweet baby. This year she's four, almost five, and I KNOW she needs to be in school. She really does. She's so smart and she actually craves school. It's so weird to me. She cries if she can't go to school. Gosh, my mom used to have to threaten my life every morning to get me up out of my bed to make me go to school. So, I don't really understand this part of Emma at all. But anyway.. I am not looking forward to this because... HOLY CRAP... we're going to have to be up at... EARLY.. REALLY, REALLY EARLY. We are not early people around here. Those of you who know me well know that you really shouldn't call our house before 10 or even.... 11... because we may or we may not be awake. I love to sleep the mornings away and my kids definitely inherited this same love. They will sleep til noon sometimes if I stay really quiet and don't wake them up. So, yeah... an 8am school time is quite ominous to me. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do it all five days. I'm really hoping that we'll be successful in getting there on time at least 3 out of the 5 days. Yikes... next year attendance is mandatory... what the heck am I going to do then???? And for those of you who are wondering if I sleep like 15 hours a night or something... NO! I'm such a night owl. I have to make myself quit doing chores and reading and watching tv at night. I would be the perfect person to hold a night job, because I really love being up at night time.

Okay, I'll quit rambling...

Really??

Usually, we're pretty healthy people around here, but you wouldn't think so from the last month. Noah has been throwing up all day long. And it's so strange, because he's not running a fever, when he's not throwing up, he's acting like he feels fine, walking around... playing, but when the throwing up starts, it's BAD! And it's the saddest thing, because it scares him to death. He has no idea what's going on, his eyes bulge out of his head, he holds his breath, gets all choked on vomit when he does try to breathe and just heaves and heaves. It's been horrible. Anyway, he's in bed now and hopefully he'll sleep okay. He's barely had anything to drink at all tonight, which is what his pediatrician told me to do when I called her today, so hopefully that means he won't have anything to throw up tonight. We'll see....



And this evening, when things finally calmed down a little, I had Emma lay on my pretty, sassy metallic fabric for me ~ that Jackie got me for my birthday.. thanks friend!! ~ to practice my lighting. I have a boudoir shoot tomorrow and since everything I've done lately has been outside with natural lighting, I haven't even used my studio light in probably two months! Isn't she a little sleeping beauty? :)




I also worked on putting together my wedding packages tonight!! Aren't they so pretty?? Hopefully soon, I'll have a wedding inquiry so I can give one of these pretties away. :):)

On Being Thankful

Despite the events of my life recently, I am a very thankful person and I'd like to outline a little of what I'm thankful for. I think it will improve my mood a little...

1. I am very thankful that that precious little morsel up there is walking like a champ now. Only choosing to crawl when he's either really mad and on the verge of throwing it all down in the middle of the floor ~ this happens between 3 and 5 times a day.. minimum... he has his mama's attitude ~ or when he's in a really big hurry to get somewhere. I'm so proud of him. He's even more edible than he was before now. And is it horrible that I think it's the cutest thing in the world to strip him down and send him on his way? I swear, baby boy parts have got to be the cutest things in creation.

2. I am immensely thankful for my friends, both near and far, who have shown me so much support. It will never be forgotten!

3. I'm thankful for my discovery of Alli, it strips the fat out of my food, which is sometimes gross... let's face it really gross, but it is freakin awesome!!! All that fat is now going into my septic system, not onto my thighs.... YES!

4. I am very thankful that I chose to go to college and get that degree that I always have to fall back on in times of less fortune.

5. I am most thankful for having two very healthy children. I know that's not a given and I'm just so thankful that I was blessed with their perfect health.

6. I am thankful for Emma's sweet, kindhearted nature. She teaches me how to be a better person every day.

7. I am thankful for this amazing house I'm raising my children in. I know it may not be ours forever, but I will forever treasure every second we have living here in this haven.

8. I am thankful for reruns of Friends, Seinfeld and The Golden Girls, as they have been what has made me smile this past month.

9. I'm thankful to Hostess for making Mini Muffins. You have made my boy very happy.... almost to the point of needing therapy to be weaned off them each morning.

10. I'm going to end here.... I'm thankful for my life. Sometimes it's not the best. I'm definitely skilled in making bad decisions, which is quite often pointed out to me... sometimes kindly, sometimes, not so much... but this life is mine and I'm very aware that I am fortunate in many ways. There's always someone else who has it way, way worse... why is it that that is actually a source of comfort? Anyway... So, for my life... I'm very, very thankful.

My Absence

I have been unable to blog for a few weeks now due to all the stuff that's going on with my personal life. Unfortunately I can't blog about these things because most of it I don't want out in the world yet. I am okay, though.


I so miss being involved with my friends on here and I do hope to be able to return soon. There are big changes coming in my life and I'm quite scared of them to be totally honest. I can't continue my life on the path that it's been on, though, it's just not who I'm meant to be in this life. So, I have to take charge... be brave... and march on... right?


I hope so.... yikes!

We Have a Walker!!!

I just have to post this for the sake of record keeping... Noah is now officially WALKING!!! He took nine steps in a row yesterday morning and that's the first time he's taken so many steps without plopping down on his cute little bum, then today he walked all the way from Emma's room into the living room!!!! I was so super excited.


And YES... I've been doing everything in my power to capture this wonder on video and so far I have about thirty minutes of him taunting me recorded. Everytime I pull out either my camera or the video recorder, he blatantly REFUSES to walk for me!


Little terd.


So, anyway, I'm trying to capture it for all to see, but just for the record.... July 11, 2009. The day my love muffin started walking! :)

Speak to My Heart

There are movies... movies that speak to me, that never fail to grip my heart and bring me to tears. They are my life, in so many ways... they echo my experiences and fill me with longing... happiness... and sometimes even pain.


We are our experiences. Everything that happens to us in life makes us who we are. The way we are treated, the way we are loved. The people we love... the way we love them... the passion with which we love. These are the things that make us who we are. At least... that's what I believe. Life can be so difficult and yet... so lovely. All at once, wrapped up in the same package. I've thought so much about life since my birthday. Turning thirty really brought life into perspective. I never gave my age or my days much thought, but for some reason, that big birthday laid it all out there for me. Like, you know.. this is really serious. This is it. Your life. It is what you make it.


The Notebook is a movie I can always watch if I want to be filled with nostalgia, it brings so many feelings to the surface for me that I try to bury deep. And lately, another one of these type movies has been coming on... Pearl Harbor. It affects me so deeply, makes me feel so many things. Is this normal? Am I the only one? I'm watching it right now and I just feel so many things.


I don't know. Maybe I'm just having an emotional day. Maybe I'm hormonal. I don't know. All I do know is that sometimes I can be happy without effort... I can push the lonliness away and pretend it doesn't exist and sometimes.... sometimes I just hurt. I have all this family around and of course, my wonderful babies, but my heart is lonely. My life... is lonely. But tomorrow will be better. It will be different. It always is. But tonight... I am lonely.

Yuck All Around

It has been a gross week around here. I do not wish for weeks like these ever. Thank goodness they don't come about very often. We've all been sick. Emma started it. She woke up Tuesday morning all cruddy and coughy and... whiny. I started feeling it coming on a little that night. You know.. that dreaded tickle in the back of the throat.


But Wednesday, I woke up really not feeling well. And neither did Noah. Great. As if I'm not a big enough baby when I'm sick. Ugh.


So, anyway, Thursday was worse. I felt like death when I woke up and Noah.... when I went to get him out of bed, both his nostrils were completely clogged with dried mucus, as was half of his face... smeared with dried mucus. And his sheets. Green, yellow... mucus. Gross.


So, I cleaned all that up. I had to melt the stuff out of his nose with a hot washcloth. Poor boy. His nose is so sore.


Then today has been the worst!!!! Oh my gosh, I woke up so nauseated and my head felt so wobbly... bobbly that I thought it was going to just roll off my shoulders. Ugh. It's been rough.



But tonight, Mama took Emma home with her, which is the only reason I have enough presence of mind to write this blog and Noah fell asleep on my chest a while ago. I laid him down... reluctantly... but he keeps on coughing from his room. Poor boy. He's had a high fever too, and he sounds horrible. His voice is all husky and rough. I'm worried about him. :(


I hate being sick. I just want to lay somewhere and occasionally eat something and occasionally drink something and take a shower and watch tv. That's what I want to do when I'm sick. Oh well. I'm grown now. I guess I have to act that way. Even if I am sick. :)

Relentless

If you like to read and you like suspense novels, you should read this!!! I thought it was amazing. And the characters were just awesome. Picture a six year old genius little boy who rivals Einstein with his inventions and a very quirky dog. This book is full of humor and suspense all at the same time. Really. Dean Koontz never fails. His stories persist and are filled with constant happenings. I loved it! Warning, though... it is quite scary. I had a hard time cutting the light off to go to sleep a few nights. :)

The Importance of Having a Voice

My mom and I were talking about this last night. She is the kind of person who when she's angry at someone or is hurt by someone... she tends to bottle it all up inside of herself and let it fester and brew. That's just not me. I don't always choose to be directly confrontational with everyone who hurts me or fills me with the kind of anger that makes you just shake all over with rage, however, one way or another I will have my voice heard.


I think bottling things up inside of you only does bad things... first of all, it causes the anger to grow, which stresses you out (at least it does me) and stress is bad for your heart.. your body in general and has been said to significantly shorten your life. And since I'd like to live and enjoy my kids and family as long as possible, I don't think those that cause me anger and hurt are worth the energy it takes to bottle up that hurt inside of me. That only hurts me more and causes me more problems. Therefore, I will always have my voice heard.


I know it's not "politically correct" to some for me to host my occasional venting sessions on here, however, that is not really a care of mine. Even when I am at my highest point of anger, I rarely say things that I don't mean a hundred percent. I may say them in an angrier voice than I would if I wasn't angry, but if I say it.... odds are I mean it.


But I'm thinking I am going to go ahead and do what a couple friends of mine have done. I'm going to open a seperate, private blog to put anything that is not fluffy and happy on. There are people in all of our lives... well, hopefully just one person, because honestly, more than one would be completely exhausting... who live solely for the purpose of causing trouble. You all know one. I hope I'm not the only one who knows one. Even if they live nowhere near you, they will find their way to cause trouble. Therefore, I'm just going to post my low moments where only those who can handle that kind of information like an adult can read it. I think that's best because I don't want this blog to be private. I like it being public. I love getting comments from nice people I love, like, and even from ones I don't even know. It would be great if blogger would come up with a function that would allow you to block readers from just a certain place.. like a city or even state... or address.. something, I don't know... but since I'm not a person in charge at google, I'll have to deal with the fact that public really means.... EVERYONE! :)


And if you wonder why I must write my low feelings out somewhere rather than just saying it to someone... well, Tony's not here, my house is me and two little ones and I would most of the time rather vent to someone my own age rather than to my grandma or my mom. They're the only two adults that I see on pretty much a daily basis. And I'm not a huge phone person. I loved talking on the phone before I had kids, I could talk for hours on end, but these days I just don't usually have time for long phone conversations. Don't get me wrong, I love getting calls from my lovely friends, I just usually don't have huge slots of time available for lengthy venting sessions. :) Also, I love writing. It's one of my very favorite things. Definitely top 3 on my list of how I prefer to express myself, so therefore, I will almost always write about my annoyances, hurts, pains, guilts, happy times, joyous occasions, and the like. It's just me and I won't change to suit someone else's personality. :)


Sorry if my honesty offends anyone, that's me... take it or leave it.... :) At least you don't ever have to wonder if I'm lying to your face. I can promise you.... I won't! :) Anyway, I"m a horrible liar. You can always tell when I'm lying. My voice totally gives me away. :)

Busy, Busy Week

I'm sorry I've been so absent on here over the past couple of weeks. I think of you guys all the time. Literally. I miss hearing from you and I miss reading your blogs. Last week was so busy getting ready to go to Dallas to train with Amy and then this past week, I was so busy implementing what I learned from her that I have had absolutely no time to post on here. Well, I could've posted something, but I'm not usually great at short posts.



I have had an amazing week, though, I'm happy to report! I spent two afternoons/evenings with great friends ( Alison, Garrett, Jack, and Collins & Heather and Miles :). I'm so lucky to have friends like you guys in my life! Thanks for always being there. :) And not to mention that a friend that I've known half my life drove from Jacksonville on Tuesday for me to take pictures of her and her four boys. What an amazing time we had! We started our shoot on the Bullard Farm because they'd just baled up hay and the boys had a blast playing and being themselves out there. It was a great time and so wonderful to see her again and catch up. I'm pretty sure we hadn't seen each other since 9th grade!!! Life is good when you get the pleasure of being reunited with an old friend from the past like that. :)

And these boys.... AMAZING. I completely fell in love with them! I'll have more of their pictures on my GJP blog this week, so keep an eye out! :)

And tonight, we got to cook-out and spend the evening with my mom for the fourth! We thought we were going to be alone for this holiday, because my mom was at the beach, but she ended up missing us and coming home early. So, thankfully we were not alone this fourth of July.





My mom wanted some pictures taken of her, because she never gets pictures and she likes updating her sites she's on, just as we do, so I snapped a few pics of her tonight after we cooked out. All I have to say is that LORD.. I hope I look like her when I'm her age. I mean, seriously. She's turning 50 this year and you would never, ever know it! I'm going to post a bunch of her on my blog this week sometime, but those of you on my Facebook have already seen a couple of them. Here are a few of my favorites so far...

All I have to say is... LORD, I am SO thankful that half of my DNA came from HER!!! :)

Hope you all had a happy fourth, friends, I"ll try not to go another WEEK without posting! What a slacker I am. I'm sure a few of you are on the verge of putting my blog in time-out. :)

So Far in Dallas

To start, this has been such an eventful, amazing, incredible... surprising trip! Not to mention, it's one of the most memorable trips of my life, by far. Let me do a not so brief overview for you!


My flights on Thursday were largely uneventful, which is a GREAT thing. You know well that I'm not a huge fan of flying, so when there was only the normal amount of turblence during the taking off and landing times, I was very thankful. But as soon as I got to Dallas, the memories just started hitting me quick... bam, bam, bam.


First of all, I have to admit a small amount of disappointment.... I thought when I got off the plane in Texas that all the men were going to be wearing cowboy hats and boots and all the girls were gonna have on lots of make-up with real big hair. Would you believe that is not the case?!?! What the crap!! They look just like the people back home. I thought Texas was it's own little country of big hair and cowboy attire down here.


Then, while I was at baggage claim, my mom calls me and tells me, "I think Farrah Fawcett has just died. I saw something about it briefly on AOL and I think that's what it said." So, you know me... I love the celebrity news and gossip... LOVE IT!!! So, I couldn't wait to turn the news on as soon as I got to my hotel room. But, in the meantime, Amy picked me up from the airport with both of her kids, who are so sweet and cute, but that little Lauren... I could just EAT HER!!! She is the sweetest, most loving little angel.... I miss her already. Anyway, it was so great that Amy and I genuinely hit it off right away, it was immediately like I'd known her forever. I love that. I love when I meet people (especially ones I admire so much!) and we start talking non-stop just like we've known each other forever. It just doesn't get any better than that. No awkward moments... no weird silences. Just fast friends!


So, we drove around a bit. She showed me her castle in-progress, and I went to my hotel to get all settled in and do a little Dallas shopping. Of course, upon checking the news I saw that, indeed, Farrah Fawcett had died. I was so sad. Sad stuff affects me. You know this, so I went to check out the mall, trying not to think about it. And while I was walking around, I heard a couple talking about Farrah Fawcett's death and they said something about Michael Jackson in relation to it. I didn't know what they were talking about, until I was walking back to my hotel and my mom called me AGAIN and was like, "Umm.. Michael Jackson just died." What?!?! Are you kidding me??? Anyway, so during my free moments, I am guilty of being one of the ones who has been consumed by all this endless coverage on the news channels about these deaths.


But, anyway, yesterday... SUCH an amazing day!!! Amy picked me up at 8:30 and we went to her studio, where she went over TONS of business ins and outs with me, then, she took some pictures of me. I did horrible. I'm NOT great model, I definitely prefer to be behind the camera, but anyway, I can't wait to see them, because SHE did them!! :) Then we went to the best Mexican restaurant that I"ve ever eaten at. Yes, my Fayetteville friends... even better than our beloved Micasita's. I, too, did not know it was possible to get better than that, but it is. In the afternoon, we drove into downtown Dallas, which I COMPLETELY fell in love with. I love big cities. I think I was really meant to live the big city life, because I was just enamored with those big, tall, shiny buildings. They're fabulous. I haven't been in a city like that since my mom and I went to NYC for my 18th birthday and I loved it just the same. Anyway, we did a shoot with two brides, who are sisters and one of their grooms in this amazing city loft with gorgeous brick walls, paper lanterns and twinkle lights hanging from the ceiling. Blown away is the best way to describe my feelings about this day. Completely blown away. After the shoot, we went back to the studio where she completely went through her work flow with me.


Needless to say, by the end of the day, both of our brains were mush and while we were eating dinner, we were both staring with glazed over eyes. :) But that sweet Lauren was sitting with me and I just wanted to steal her and keep her with me because her sweetness reminded me so much of my Emma.


And to top my incredible day off, one of my oldest, dearest friends, Mary, and her husband drove five hours down from Little Rock just to spend a few hours with me!!! :) They got to the hotel around 11pm and we went and had some drinks at Logan's and TGIFriday's. We again got together for lunch today for a couple of hours and they headed back to Little Rock. They are really amazing. How many friends would drive 10 hours just to spend like 5 hours with you??? Not too many. I'm a lucky girl!!! Lots of great friends in my life who I know love me! :)


Then, this afternoon, Amy picked me up for our final moments together to bring me to the airport. The weird thing about what I'm about to tell you is this.... I FELT like something weird was going to happen today all day long. I could just feel it. When I was packing my pajamas in my bag this morning, for some reason, I was thinking... I probably shouldn't put these in my dirty clothes bag, I may need to wear them again before I can wash them. So I didn't. I folded them up nicely and tucked them away with the clean stuff. Then, even though I got to the airport super early, I had a feeling I wasn't going to make my flight. So strange. I just kept feeling it. LIke I was not going to leave Dallas today. But, then, as I was sitting on the uncomfortable leather chair thing watching flights take off and land, I watched our plane taxi up to our terminal, the jetway went out, the passengers disembarked. I studied their face, because... you know, I wanted to see what their mood was. Wanted to make sure they looked relaxed and not like they'd just been holding onto their armrests for dear life. They looked fine. Like they'd just had a perfect flight, so I suspected my funny feelings all day were just due to my being nervous about making it home in one piece.


Then, when my flight was almost due to start boarding, I felt like I needed to get something to eat. It was so strange, I just knew I wasn't going to be able to eat for a while. I can't explain it. So, I ran real quick to get something fast to eat and when I walked back to my terminal, I looked at the board that has the flight info on it and all of a sudden, my 4:35 departure time had changed to 5pm. My heart sunk. My connecting flight in Memphis was immediately after my landing time there. There was no play room. I could not be delayed, or I would miss that flight. So, I began to panic a little. I've already been away from my kids for two days.... I CAN'T be gone another 24 hours!!!!! So I called my mom and filled her in, thank goodness she didn't totally freak on me. I really worried that she might, even though it's something that is totally out of my control, I worried. After I called her, I started texting my friends because I needed to spread the word that I was stuck in Dallas. I don't know why, I just did. So, then the guy at the counter announced that this flight to Memphis was not looking promising because the plane had some major mechanical malfunction. So, I got in the line that was already super long and made the call to reschedule my flight. I stood in this line from like 4:30 until almost 7pm!!!!! Did you process how much time that is??? 2 1/2 hrs, people!!! After all that waiting, my fellow passengers and I had become quite good friends. You know I'll talk the ears off a complete stranger without even thinking twice, so now I have lots of new friends who live all over this country. When we'd all been issued hotel and food vouchers and also given a $100 voucher towards our next flight, we went to collect our bags and catch the shuttle to the Holiday Inn Express. I was hoping it was going to be the same one I'd been staying at at Vista Ridge, but it wasn't. Nonetheless, this hotel is very nice, but once we got to the hotel, we again had to wait in line from just a little after 7 until right around 8pm or so, because most of our flight was here trying to check in. So, anyway, now I'm here, waiting til the morning when I can hopefully catch a very perfect plane that is flying directly to RDU without any layovers anywhere. So, this time tomorrow, I should be safely at home with my sweet little babies. I miss them SO MUCH!!!!!


I am SO eternally grateful for this amazing opportunity to learn to hopefully create for myself what Amy has created for herself. I have so much to look forward to, I cannot wait to get busy!!! :) Thanks friends, for reading this really long post void of pictures. :)

Flying in the Morning. Pray For Me.

Okay, so I'm totally scared of flying. I actually enjoy it okay.... once we're safely acsended to our flying altitude and it appears as if we're not going to spontaneously fall from the sky. But the going up and the coming back down really freak me out. So, pray for me.


I'm so excited about this trip, though. I know I'm going to learn so much from Amy and I just can't wait. It's such a huge opportunity, though, that it just still doesn't seem like it's actually going to happen. I think I'll believe it when I see her at the airport tomorrow. Til then, I'll still be thinking it's a dream.


Sorry I've been such a horrible blogger this week. I've been so busy trying to do a thousand things to get ready to be away from my kids for almost three days. I know this really isn't a long time, but when you're with two little people 24/7 with only a random hour here and there away from them... well, it seems like an eternity to me. And it doesn't make it easier when I convince myself that my flight is going to have some issue... oh gosh, just SHUT UP, Candace!!!!


So, I've cleaned my house (for the most part), laundered most of the dirty clothes, cooked a huge pot of spaghetti and put it in the fridge, so my mom will have meals at hand for the kids.... arranged for my dad to be here at a moment's notice if my mom is feeling overwhelmed... hmmm... I've covered most things, but still... gosh, being away from them will be a nice break, I know, but it just still makes me so nervous. I've only been away from Noah for a couple of hours a couple of times. We're pretty tight. I hope he does okay...


And in other news, Emma had her first ballet/tap/gymnastics class today and she did SO GOOD!!! I'm going to post a blog about it on here tomorrow night if I have a chance.


Don't forget to pray for safe flights for me! :)

More Birthday Party Pics!!!

Just another round of party pics from sweet little Penny turning one! :)