.

Twelve

Today we have been married for twelve years.  Twelve years is not a very long time, but in this short amount of time we have endured and learned so much.  In twelve short years we have had all of our vows tested.

We have had our share of fun adventures, had three children, finished college, bought homes,lived in poverty,  started new careers,....for richer or poorer.

Our marriage and family survived 15 months of separation while he fought in Iraq and survived the adjustment when he came home...for better or worse.

and we endured watching and waiting as our little boy lived through cancer and chemo therapy...in sickness and in health.

and here we are today.  Twelve years later. Twelve years wiser. Twelve years more blessed.  Twelve years more thankful and appreciative...twelve years older.  This is a picture of how we look on our average day of our twelve year marriage....Josh is sweaty and dirty from working on his "masterpicece"  (car) in the garage.  Just the way I like him.  I am make-up-less, tired, and content from the demands of having three children and my own business.  He says he likes me without make-up...sweet.

I'm not saying we have the best marriage, but it's the best for us.  I know we will have many more moments that test our vows, but we will also have many magnificent, everyday moments that infinitely overshadow the hard times .  I can't help but feel proud of our twelve years together.

Malloree

Be on the look out for Malloree.  This girl is going places.  She is an actress, artist, photographer, carpenter...I mean multi-talented  Renaissance Woman.  Malloree made this shoot so much fun and was really willing to do anything. We had tons of fun laughing too...espscially at all the people honking at this beauty with amazingly long legs.  One older "gentleman" even stopped his car to stare at her.  He didn't say one word, he just stared at her and rolled away.  Creepy but funny.

Found Dog

UPDATE:  This little guy "Hunter" was reunited with his people tonight!  I am so happy!

Today during the thunderstorm, this little guy wandered into our garage where my husband and son were working on a car.  He did not look like this.  He was caked in mud and had all kinds of sticks and twigs in his fur, but he was smiling at us...yes, dogs do smile.

I gave him a bath (my tub is now literally covered in an unbelievable amount of mud) which he just sat and took a bath without complaining and then he ate a ton of food.

If you recognize him, email me or leave a comment.  He is about 15 lbs or so and very well trained.  He walks well on a leash and seems to be crate trained.  As soon as I brought out an old dog crate we had, he crawled right in and took a nap.  He loves my kids and gets along with other animals, so I know he must be from a loving family.

I am positive that someone is missing him tonight and all I keep picturing are some little kids crying because they can't find their dog.  I know I would be.

Hope I don't end up here:

My new favorite blog for comic relief is Awkward Family Photos.  My photo friend Amy introduced me to it.  I wish she had a website or blog (hint hint Amy) because her photos are terrific...so terrific she is going to do my family photos in June/July or whenever we get around to having all of us under one roof.

Anyhow, I KNOW I have taken photos as awkward as these at some point. I look back at some of my older photos and cringe.  I'm sure that in a few years I will look at photos I took today and cringe again. I only pray that none of my shots ever end up on this blog.

I have not been a very good blogger these days, but promise to have some photos up soon.  I have a beautiful hs senior , a one year old, a two year old, and two different newborn sessions to post soon...can't wait to share.

See this film!

If you love children, or photography, or both you would love the documentary "Born Into Brothels".  (Warning: Tissue Alert!)

It's about a photographer who was sent to Calcutta's red light district to document the life of the prostitutes.  Along the way, she becomes close with several children of prostitutes and begins teaching them the art of photography.  The photographs the children take are stunning, full of feeling, raw, original.  They are taken with film cameras, no editing, no computers. These children have seen and felt so much strong and raw emotion and it shows in their photos.  They are wise beyond their years and more street smart than any child should be.  One child in particular really understands the feelings behind photography and talks about how some of the photographs are disturbing and not pretty, but we should all look at them because it's  life and it's the truth...I think he was 9.

These children break my heart and their talents amaze me.  It hurts to know that there are children who live like this everyday and will become adults who do what their mothers do.  It's all they know and there is no escape for most of them.
(There is bad language and some parts are graphic, so I would not watch it with your children.)

Here are some of the photos taken by the children in "Born into Brothels":

Funny Questions

My kids often say funny or quirky things and I vow to write them down ....but I never do.  Today each one asked me questions that I will definitely write down:

Abby's question:

We were sitting down to watch a b&w Shirley Temple movie .  She looked troubled so I asked her what was up and she said "I was wondering what year it was when people started seeing in color".

Caleb's question:

I was cleaning the blender after making fruit smoothies for the kids.  Caleb watched carefully as I poured soap and hot water into the blender and blended it up for a quick clean.  He asked "Mom, if we drink smoothies made out of soap, will we fart bubbles?"  Such a boy!

Flowers

What's Got Me So Excited!

I thought I would share a couple of things that got me pretty excited this week.  None of them are anything super, life-changing exciting, but I am a simple girl like that.  Easy to please.  My family always teases me about how it does not take much to make me happy. I'm just passionate like that.

1)  I won in Bunco.  I won it all!  THAT is not what got me excited though (it was pretty exciting when I got it all handed to me in ones and it looked like I had a successful night at the strip club and I'm all "Oh yea!  The fellas are paying lots of $$$ to see these A cups that nursed 3 kids"). Don't worry, I'm not really a stripper.  ANYWAY...I went to our neighborhood yard sales today and used a portion of my Bunco winnings to buy this:

A few things excite me about this "Snack Set".

a) It's in it's original boxes (obviously) , complete, and unbroken.  I love the 50's vintage box.

b)  I LOVE that the box says "Informal snack set for casual living"...because to me it's pretty formal.  For me casual and informal are paper plates and a bottle of beer.  It cracks me up to see this described that way.

c) I have 0 matching dishes, so when I have the girls over for GNI (girls night in), a party, or Bunco; they have to eat off of paper plates or mismatched dishes.  We never registered for anything "formal"...we registered for camping equipment and boxing gloves.  See mom, your little girl is finally growing up.

2)  The next thing that excited me is this:  (not from a yard sale, but from Target)

This is no ordinary hose people...this is a SOAKER HOSE!  Notice how the end is capped off.  The water comes out of tiny holes in the body.  I lay it at the roots of the plants in my garden and it slowly seeps water to the roots.  That way, the roots get all the water and I don't wash any of the pollen needed to make the vegetables away.
Like this:

An finally:
3)  We got to "harvest" veggies from our garden and eat them for dinner this week. Our lettuce is huge! and the green beans are getting that way:

What I am most excited about is how different organic vegetable are from store bought....and seriously, it is not that much more work to grow them organically.  I know I sound like a granola, tree-hugging, long arm-pit hair girl...not that there's anything wrong with granola (I eat it and like it), or a little tree love, or even long arm-pit hair.  I'm just sayin', I'm just a regular ol suburban mom and I can do this...so everyone can.
Look:

See how much greener and plumpier (I like to make up words) they are!  My kids even said "Mom, these TASTE greener"...seriously, they do.

Like I said, I get super excited about little thing.  Your thinking, "Poor girl...she needs to get out"....but these kind of things make me happy!