Shame on me.

I think it's obvious that I've been in quite the blog funk lately. I apologize, but don't actually feel badly about it. It's not as though my blog is wildly popular with people chomping at the bit to read my entries, so the entries will continue to come as I feel like it. So there!

Anyway! I had a birthday. It's official. I've reached the dark ages middle ages. I'm 30. And while I'm okay with that in theory, I certainly don't feel 30. I don't even really feel 20. Alas, the calendar tells the truth.

I had Matt snap some pictures of me on my birthday. And I had delusions of grandeur about showing you pictures of me from 25 and 20 and maybe even 15. But again, lazy.


My skin doesn't actually look all mottled as it appears in this picture. At least, I don't THINK it does. I'm often wrong.

Matt told me to be sexy. If this is my sexy face, I'm scared for him.

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A cautionary tale

Let me preface this story with an apology. We've been to the beach 6ish times this summer and this was the first (and last time we'll probably go this year) time I took the camera. You're not missing much. Sand. Water. Sun. You get the picture, right?

So, on to the story.
My sister, Rachel was in town and so we decided to head to the beach. It's the free-est thing we can take out-of-towners to do. And it's fun. Unless you're anal retentive about getting sand on you/in your car like a certain someone I'm married to. I digress.

The kids are actually really great at the beach. They play in the waves. They play in the sand. We have a couple of kid-sized boogie boards, so we feel they're relatively safe. They eat a lot of snacks and if you're Lucas, some sand too.

The kid is slightly obsessed with the sand. Slightly.

He likes to play with it, and has been known to attempt to eat entire fistfuls. Must be the salty grittiness he's in love with.

He spends his entire time at the beach bouncing between playing in the sand/shallow water and eating snacks from the cooler. What you see above is a combination of sand, Cheetos, and snot. Delightful, eh?

He also likes to pretend he can do headstands. Or something. We're not sure why he started doing this. But needless to say, his head gets quite uh... sandy.

Toward the end of our beach visit, I managed to get all the kids together-ish for a picture.

And Lucas threw sand at everyone. Abbie's expression sorta says it all, doesn't it?
Then Lucas proceeded to do his "headstand." Please make note of impending wave.

Yeah, those waves. They're merciless.

And really, nothing stings more than salt water and sand in your eyes.

Moral of this story:
a. no headstands on the beach
2. throwing sand will come back to bite you in the butt.
c. i have the cutest kids

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I won't lie.

I'm a cold-hearted mother. And not actually all that sentimental.
Monday was our first day back to school, and Anna's first day in Kindergarten. Now, most mothers would drive their kids to school on the first day, walk them to their classroom and take a million pictures and get a little teary and watch as their children waved goodbye and then go home and have a good cry.

I am not THAT mother.

My kids took the bus to school. I did not meet them at the school and walk them to their classrooms. I did not get even a little bit teary. I just felt relieved.

I did however, take pictures.

Headed off to Kindergarten. Couldn't be more excited. She came home and told me all about her new friends.

Off to second grade. Wow. I have a second grader. I distinctly remember that second grade was the very first time I received a "Will you go out with me? Circle Yes or No." I am certainly not prepared for that. Especially since Abbie already has a best guy friend. Abbie came home and told me she was bored. She's ready to jump in there with both feet and this first couple days of school bit is BORING!

They both jumped on the bus without looking back and I couldn't have been more thrilled. BYE Kids! See you in 7 hours! Thank you public school!
And in the meantime, I get to spend some "quality" which feels like "quantity" time with my boys.

But really, can you complain about this?

Or this? I didn't think so.
Will I cry when ALL of my children head of to school? Possibly. But they'll likely be tears of JOY!

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Better School Pictures- Take 2!

Last year, I started a program which I received a great response from and which I totally enjoyed doing. Better School Pictures!

I really wasn't sure if I'd be feeling up to it again this year, but I'm finally starting to feel better, and I've been being harassed to do this event again! So, I relent!

Here are the details, which are only slightly different from last year.


The Better School Picture Day
Saturday, September 19th, 2009
9am - 11am at a location TBA in the Longwood/Lake Mary Area.
$25 per child. I spend 5-10 minutes with each of your children. Just time enough to get 3-5 great shots of them. Your pictures will be fully edited and presented in an online gallery. The $25 pays for the sitting and ONE fully edited full-resolution file on a Data DVD with rights to print. If you decide you would like all 3-5 files, the cost is only $50 total (or an additional $25, make sense?)

Email Me now to reserve your spot! Or call! Whatever!

Here are some of the fun examples from last year!




Can't wait to hear from you!

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I've got my Treasure right here.

For Family Home Evening on Monday, we decided to take the kids Letterboxing.



We headed out to the rightfully named, "Big Tree Park" where we told the kids we were treasure hunting! Adventure, ahoy!


We got to the site where the Letterbox was supposed to be, and took in The Senator.


That tree was HUGE. Largest tree I've ever seen.


After we admired it's very large size, we went searching for the Letterbox. This is where I need to state the following elements: Florida, swampland, sunset. All these things combine to equal one very daunting force: Mosquitos. So, we looked. And got bitten. And looked. And got bitten some more. And finally, exasperated, we gave up.

But don't worry, I'm pretty sure we found our treasure.

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Yes. Yes. It's true.

So many people said, "But you said you were done!"

Obviously, they haven't known us for very long. We have said we were done after almost every one of our kids. After Anna. Yep. After Miles, yep! And after Lucas. Uh-huh!

We're not sure why people keep believing us.

So, yes. We're having another kid. Yes! It was planned! And yes! We're very excited! The children know, and have names picked out.

But really, this time... we're done! (There's no more room in our van!)

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Wordless Wednesday

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