September Here I Am. Happy Things.

A new year. I don't make resolutions, but I have decided to work on a few things this year. One being this forgotten blog. :) The quote that comes to mind is that we judge others by their behavior, but we judge ourselves by our intentions. *sigh* So I was reminded of my resolution decision last weekend while in Asheville eating dinner with some fellow owners/employees from my husband's firm. The couple at our table were older and we were talking about kids, grandkids, etc and the things they say. I was telling them some of my kids' recent antics and quotes. She responded, "You need to write those down! You will forget one day." I know it's true. What all have I already forgotten since my last long ago blog post? Here goes trying to get back in the swing of blogging . . .


September catch-up:
One fun thing I did for my friend Patty the first of September was do a free photoshoot (amateur!) for one of her clients. The girl, W, is graduating high school and couldn't afford the outrageous prices the schools charge for the senior pictures. I also took some of her beautiful little girl, J. We were running around snapping photos for about an hour and a half. I was pooped afterwards. I am happy with the results though. I hope W was too. She is a very pretty girl and easy to photograph.


W told me that J had never had her photo taken anywhere so I tried to get some good ones of her. She was an easy subject even at her young age (2).


And a few of mommy and daughter together.


My dear friend, Staci, gave birth to her third little girl, Alexia. Now Alexia is four months old and such a beautiful, good baby.



Elizabeth and I went on the middle school trip to St. Louis, Missouri. I have started a blog post about it (um, like back in late September) and will eventually finish and post. (Don't hold your breath though.)

Looking back at my photos I see that one thing I failed to mention for September that was important was the finding of two new collie dogs for my parents. Their third collie dog had passed away recently and they wanted another. Full-blooded collies are expensive as most pedigreed dogs are. My mom told me she was praying about it on Wednesday. On Thursday I saw a friend had posted on Facebook that her sister-in-law was having to give up her two collie dogs (sisters) because of moving. She had posted a video of them, and I immediately sent a private message to ask questions about them. I got her address and phone number, called my parents that next morning (Friday) and my mom and I were out to visit before 11:30 am. They were in my mom's van coming home with us by noon that same day. Ha ha! The girl told my parents they could have them for free if they would take them both to keep them together. Their names are Cloe and Zoey. *snicker* They are really sweet dogs and my parents have enjoyed them a lot. Plus, God answered my mom's prayer quickly. Photographing these two young dogs is worse than trying to photograph a two year old. They would not be still.



Andrew started a new flag football season and his second season being on the Redskins team. He played one of his first games against his friend Luke's team. We got him contacts to wear before football season started so he wouldn't be losing/breaking his glasses and the optometrist said sport goggles just didn't work well.


I'm going to stop with September for now and do the rest later as not to overwhelm myself.

Recent things.

• Tax season has officially been in swing for the last few weeks. That means days like today (Saturday) he is gone to work most of the day. Sort of sad but it also means the kids and I pretty much laze around all day in our pjs. He's working 5:30 am to 5:30 pm during the week to get his hours in and so he can be home with us in the evenings. The down side of this is that he has to go to bed by 9 (just like a kid! LOL), and I am NOT ready to go to bed then.
  
• Oh, hey! Elizabeth got braces! I say that excitedly but my purse is quite empty because of it. ;) She is doing well great with them; if only I could get her to brush good enough.
  
• Speaking of braces, Andrew lost two back molars this past Sunday. They had been loose so I told him if he would get them both out that day then I'd give him $3 a tooth instead of $2. Yep, all tooth fairy and Santa stuff if over at our house nowadays. (More on that later.) So of course he had them both out by that night. In fact one came out before we left for church.
  
• I mentioned being in Asheville, NC last weekend. That was for the annual partner's retreat. We got to stay at the beautiful Biltmore Inn and eat that evening at the restaurant in the winery. It was very good food. That Friday morning one of the wives picked me up and we all met up together for breakfast at Panera and then to go on to Asheville early to shop while our husbands met. It was a great day. I had lots of fun.
  
• The weekend before last I went to Pigeon Forge with members of my old scrapbook group. Oh the memories of when we used to meet once a month at the scrapbook store. I miss that. No more stores in our area and most of us rarely scrapbook anymore. I did bring my sewing machine and sew a bit. I made these without a pattern (tutorial found here) as you can maybe tell. I am always forgetting something on these trips. Next time I hope to do a better job. I want to send one in my birthday packages to my nieces in the coming months. (I'm seeing now I should have worked on the smooshed teal corduroy owl's face from where he's been stored. Oops! Just look at the link above and see how they are supposed to be made.)
  
  
• Winter has been in full swing around here for a month now. The kids missed I think two days of school in December and missed two days last week as well as two days before that. I'm hoping it's done. Global warming. Pshaw.
  
• I have attempted to begin working out again. Not at one of the local fitness centers but doing videos at home - p90x, Slim in 6, Turbo Jam, etc. A kind friend has lent me over a dozen DVDs to try to see what I like. I started a week and a half ago and have done a video 7 out of the last 10 days. I don't know what finally clicked that made me want to do it again but I'm enjoying it.

I do want to end with some recent things that have made me happy:

1. The mirror I ordered from Ballard Designs came yesterday. Super quick shipping! I can NOT wait to get it up in my dining room. Since I last blogged I have ordered and received a buffet for my dining room too. I have all my inherited dining pretties stored inside and can't wait to complete my room. We do use it. Almost every day for dinner. Eventually I'll have to share a photo of my completed dining room. (Photo from Ballard's website.)


2. When I was putting the kids to bed the other night Andrew had come in Elizabeth's room to kiss and tell her goodnight. She whispered something in her ear. I found out she had asked him to pray for her for the Geography Bee the next day at school. Sweetness. It makes me happy to know she feel she can rely on her brother like that and that she can rely on God too. She had study so she wasn't asking for divine intervention on anything she didn't know. LOL

3. I found a fellow Tennessean on Etsy right after Christmas who makes custom stamps. I have wanted either custom address labels/stamps or an embosser for a while now. I had Christmas money from my nannie so I ordered two (the spiral address stamp and the birthday cake stamp). One has already been used - the birthday one when my dad celebrated his 64th birthday last week. Purple Lemon Designs - check her out. Great prices!


I keep thinking about making my blog private so if you come one day and find it that way, don't be surprised. :)