Serenity Now

Remember when Brett lost his ring at Lake Powell? That's not all he lost at Lake Powell. Actually come to think of it we lose a lot of things at Lake Powell. My sister-in-law tossed her anniversary ring to her husband right before waterskiing and, well, he didn't catch it. We lose bathing suits, towels, beach toys and water shoes. Of course we gain tans (or in my case burns), great memories and come home with lots of sand in our bags.

On our last Lake Powell trip Brett gained a concussion and lost his two front teeth. Sorry Brett. Yep... I did it. Me. The driver of the boat who hit the waves that threw him from the molecule that resulted in said loss of teeth. He has already had 3 oral surgeries to work on his teeth. He has one more to go to get permanent teeth put in. Right now he has a gap where his teeth SHOULD be and fake teeth that he can wear. He plays with his fake teeth all the time driving me and his brother nuts. "Will you knock it off?" I'm always saying. He leaves his teeth everywhere; on the couch, on the counter, on his bedside stand and then says to me, "have you seen my teeth?" I keep telling him not to leave his teeth lying around.

That leads me to last night when again he left his teeth on the counter. Sunshine was coloring at the counter and it came time to put her to bed. Brett put her to bed and shortly thereafter went to get his teeth. They were gone. Suspicious. You bet. We searched and searched and searched. No luck! I didn't even have to say "I told you so." All I had to do was make the sound, "hmmmmm." The best part was when I heard him go into Sunshine's room and ask our little 2-year-old "where did you put my teeth?" as if she would answer him! hahaha!!!

Serves him right for hiding his mom's keys in a heater vent when he was three. Now that's payback. I wish I could be in all of his meetings for the next month as he tries to hide his gap. I know, I know. That's kinda mean isn't it? I'm trying to be nicer... I really am. But sometimes being right feels soooooo good. Terrible isn't it?

Giggles turned 7 on Saturday and on Friday afternoon I had a friend party for him. Because it was in the afternoon after school I was going solo in the parent department with 6 friends plus Giggles, Sheriff, Wannabe, Smiley and Sunshine (our foster daughter). Things were going great despite the odds until it came to the presentation of the cake. I couldn't bring over the cake with lit candles AND take a picture of him blowing out the candles at the same time. I needed to set the cake down on the table and go back for the camera.

SIDENOTE: Giggles has ADHD and when he gets something in his mind ... like oh... blowing out candles....

So here I am bringing the cake over and he is on the opposite side of the table and sees a cake with candles on it. He starts climbing onto the table to get to it. I know right away what it happening and I say, "wait... (still climbing) wait! (still climbing and now has his whole torso on the table) WAIT!!!!! (torso and legs fully on the table)

Too late. He reached the cake and blew out the candles before I could even set it down and stop him.

I was not to be stopped however in my memory making moment. "I'll just have to relight the candles and you'll blow them out again." I say

To this one of Giggle's friends responds, "are you INSANE?"

I flash back to all the moments I have had with Giggles and Smiley and I think, "yes, just a little bit."

True story.

I am combining weeks 9 and 10 into one picture.
Week 9 is Loud
Week 10 is Quiet.
I took this picture of the kids on a day off of school at an aquarium. Of course many other moms had the same idea that I had and also took their kids to the same aquarium. The noise level was incredible and I had to shout for my kids to hear me when it was time to move along to the next station. The serenity of this picture is VERY deceiving. Yet when I look at the fish swimming around in the tank I imagine it to be very quiet for them inside (inbetween the moments of children tapping on the glass of course).

Oh to be young and in love...
Don't get me wrong. I'm still in love, I'm just not young anymore.
This weekend I had the opportunity to take some pictures of my nephew and his fiance who happen to be both young AND in love. They showed me a great little ghost town to take pictures...












It was a lot of fun (I know they had fun because they did a lot of kissing during the photo shoot) and I'm glad to have discovered a great place for taking pictures.

This one was a little tougher for me as the topic was Fall. Now if was in the fall season it could have been a little easier but as we are still in winter I had to get a little creative. I am currently getting emails from a great photography site called Adorama which sells equipment but also provides tutorials. I watched a tutorial on macrophotography and from that I decided to work on some macrophotography. That is how I did my plug photo but also how I did the above water droplet photo falling from the faucet. You can turn out some interesting results with macrophotography. Thanks to Alicia for giving me the tip a few months back of reversing my lens!