6 months?

Mia is already six months old! It's going by so dang fast.

The Happenings

I need to update the blog more; I'm forever saying this.  But life is busy and this blog seems to be the first thing that is sacrificed when my schedule gets out of hand.  So, here's a brief update....

Uncle Greg returned from Afghanistan awhile ago (actually a LONG while ago) and we finally had him over for dinner because in a short time he's moving on to Texas.  Uncle Greg lived with us for a while last year before deploying and the kids grew quite fond of him.  He's a fun guy to have around and is always, always, ALWAYS trying to help out.  (I love you, Greg, but if you wash the laundry one more time, I'll kill you!)  We will miss you when you move to Texas.

Earlier this month Chance had a guys weekend with some old friends from high school.  They went to some sort of crazy outdoor concert weekend in Texas and Chance came home completely sunburned.  It was a good weekend for him, though.  He doesn't do enough stuff like that, really.  He was gone for four days and Emma was a complete drama queen.  It's not that I don't believe she missed Chance, she's just so over-the-top.  Eyes full of tears, unable to do any chores because she misses her father and her "heart is broken". 

The kids finished up the school year successfully.  And the summer battles have already begun between Emma and Tyler.  They simply cannot get along and it is exhausting.  I'm not 100% certain but I believe Tyler may have planted evidence against Emma in her room today.  We have a no-food in the bedrooms rule.  A can of nuts was suspiciously "found under her pillow" by Tyler, but he changed his story about where it actually was a few times.  Of course, Emma denied having nuts in her room.  I can't quite believe what she says either because she wasn't exactly surprised that there was a can of nuts in her room.  Important skirmishes like this are happening constantly and I'm threatening to cancel 4th of July everyday. 

This afternoon I had an argument with Emma about folding her laundry.  She stormed upstairs and was gone for quite awhile.  I got busy with Mia and kind of forgot she was up there.  Sometime later Noah informed me that someone had TP'd is room!  Apparently, she has found a new outlet for her anger.  (And yes, that dresser usually looks that way.  Noah has an interesting system going on.)

 

 

 

And I almost forgot about my trip to Urgent Care the other day.  Emma and Noah stuck Q-tips in each other's ears.  I don't know why.  Emma's ear is still a little sore, but doctor says she didn't sustain any serious injury.  Just freaked me out when I heard the screaming.  Kids!



 

 

"Siblings are the people we practice on, the people who teach us about fairness and cooperation and kindness and caring - quite often the hard way."

~Pamela Dugdale

7 going on ... 17?

Emma had her first phone call from a boy tonight!  AT 10:18 pm!  Seriously? 

On the last day of school, Emma took some cards to her friends with her phone number inviting them to call for playdates over the summer.  Well, this was her first phone call!  From Kevin.  You may remember Kevin from last year.  I mentioned him in this post.  Sigh

Hoods

It feels like Summer!  I'm eating strawberries!  My sister Danielle came up for a visit and brought me 4 flats of my favorite strawberries from Oregon - Hood Strawberries. (As in Mt. Hood, Oregon).  They are only available for about 3 weeks each year, but with Mia this year berry picking would be too tough. So, I made several batches of strawberry jam and froze a few bags of strawberries for later, too.   And there was shortcake and fresh whipped cream.  Strawberries and cream = happiness

 

My sister's visit was just what I needed.  Its been a rough couple weeks.  I'm unable to share why everything is so hard these days, but I am so grateful to her for all her kindness.  I sent her a text the other day saying ... "Sometimes I am so very unhappy."  And she just listened.  Thank goodness for summer, thank goodness for strawberries and thank goodness for sisters.


"Sweet is the voice of a sister in the season of sorrow."
~Benjamin Disraeli, 19th Center English statesman

Alarm Clock

This morning:

Me:  "OK, Tyler. Just to be clear, these are the rules - do not wake up your brother by punching him and do not wake him up in the middle of the night!"
Tyler:  "OK"
Me:  "Unless there's a fire or something."
Tyler:  "Yeah, then I can punch him!"

 

Old shot from last year at my mom's wedding.  Blurry, but accurately portrays Tyler's keen sense of brotherly love.

Happy Birthday!

I love my husband.  I love him!  Chance bought me a new camera for my birthday last week and I'm in love with it!  He spent too much (especially since I didn't really get him much of anything for his birthday two days later...oops) but I love playing with this camera.  It brings me joy.  Now that I have a DSLR of my very own, I'm (finally) going to take Karen Russell's The Photographer's Workshop.  I can't wait!  I've been on the waiting list for 3 years.  Mostly because I didn't have the right equipment, but also because there are hundreds of people on the waiting list and the classes fill up in minutes. 

Here are a few pictures I took with it recently:

 

Aren't they beautiful?  And I don't have a clue what I'm doing yet.  It's very exciting.  I'm sure there will be more to come....



“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”
~Dorothea Lange, Depression-Era Photographer