Delight in Everything

Yesterday, Brianna took a school-wide test (4th grade and 5th grade I believe) for the National Geographic Bee. Brianna came in 9th. That allowed her to participate in the 100 question test today. Brianna was very excited about coming in 9th yesterday, so today she comes home and says to me with perfect drama,"Mom, remember that practice geography bee thing yesterday and how I came in 9th? Well, yeah, I just won it for the whole school." Then she whips out her medal. A real medal from the National Geographic Bee which has engraved on it "2008 School Bee Champion" She is so stinkin' pleased with herself. Apparently, she is now famous at school and will have her picture in the paper. A kid at school even asked if she could hug Brianna because maybe some of her smartness will rub off. Yeah, that's my kid.


And for a little dose of humility, Brianna only got 24 out of the 100 questions right to come in first. The next closest was 18. Apparently, geography isn't very advanced in 4th grade.

I had another great session today and it was really fun. I am still struggling with group shots, so I think I will focus on learning more that this week. The three beautiful girls are daughters of my good friend, Sandy. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

I am trying to pick a website address for me as part of my effort to start a photography business. I would wait but I have learned that waiting means risking having some of the web addresses taken by someone else. So I have created this poll to see what potential customers would like best. Please vote so that I can purchase my domain soon. Thanks!

Ben is married to my sister-in-law, Paula. He is a great dad, husband and uncle we want to wish him a happy birthday from all of us here in Tennessee.

So to Ben :
"Happy Birthday! We hope you had a great day!"

We all have our fears. Andrew's fear is losing one of the kids in a crowd, my fear is a house fire, Brianna's fear is getting bad grades, Arick's fear is getting lost, Ty's fear is showers, and Ella's fear, well hers is balls. Yep, you read that correctly. Our little punkin is scared of balls. Beach balls, basketballs, soccer balls, etc. If you roll one towards her, she runs away in a panic with sobbing soon to follow. Absolutely hysterical to watch, not so much fun for her, but fun for us parents. Maybe Bounce-a-Rounce 2007 was just too much for her to handle.

Don't be fooled by that sweet face. In that little brain of his, he has dreamed up plenty of mischief. Unfortunately for me today, the stars aligned (a.k.a. mommy was busy making lunch when he discovered a perfectly sharpened pencil and lots of empty wall space) and his dreams became reality. 100 ft of scribbled wall art later, he came to me so proud to show me his accomplishment. Oh how his excitement/giddyness was quickly erased (both literally and figuratively) in the ensuing freak out by me. Ugh, two broken hearts today. It is so hard to punish sometimes. Thank goodness for Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

It has been a while since I have posted about Brianna, so here is a current picture and a few facts about what is going on in her life right now.

* She is attending a gifted and talented program at her school that she totally loves.
* She is currently reading Harry Potter 5 and can't wait to finish it.
* She is doing very well in piano and is currently practicing the song "The 12 Days of Christmas."
* Her current challenge in life is to keep her room clean much to my frustration. Ella will have lots of access to her stuff and she doesn't realize the importance of keeping everything out of reach just yet.
* She is an incredible helper. She will change Ella's diapers, help me make dinner, watch her siblings, without much complaint and usually with a smile.
* Her current sport is archery and has earned 3 awards so far.

Susie. At first I didn't know which Susie, but after a quick phone call I solved the puzzle. She didn't believe me when I told her, so I have to put this on the blog to make it official and all. Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog and leave a comment.

One of the reasons I am doing the blog birthday prize (which includes a gift certificate to Target by the way, just in case you needed more incentive to leave a comment and be entered to win the prize) is to see who is reading the blog. According to my idcounter, I have had:


Total hits: 6068
Total visitors: 2961
Average visitors per day: 12
Total for last 30 days : 481

I am very surprised that I have had that many hits and it totally makes me curious to find out who. Even more interesting is where you all are clicking from. If you go to the bottom of this blog and click on the map, you can also see a very general area of where the visitors are from. Quite interesting.

By the way if you have a blog of your own, the idcounter and clustrmap are free, just go to their website and sign up. I bet you will be surprised at how many visit your blog too.

So I just discovered that I have been blogging for 1 year, and I would love to mark this occasion with a contest. Leave your name in the comments section and I will draw a name and mail a special surprise to the winner. It would be a lot of fun for me to see who is even reading this blog. You have until Sunday night to leave your name. I will draw the winning name on Monday morning. Good luck!

Yesterday I did a family photo shoot. Photographing families and toddlers are the hardest to photograph and I knew that this would be a challenge. The family was so gracious to let me do my thing without pressure and they were very patient. I did make mistakes and I learned a lot, so it was totally worth it.

I just love this photo:

This cute kid is very sick, so sick that he had to miss trick or treating, and that just really stinks.

If you asked me a year ago how I was doing, I might have responded that I was doing fine or okay. Today, I might respond with the words wonderful,great or fabulous. Why the change in answers? Well,I have changed my attitude. I started counting my blessings and focusing on what I have, not what I am missing. And you know what? My life is pretty great. Everything isn't perfect and I still have my quirks and struggles, yet that isn't what I dwell on anymore. I love living with this attitude! I have never been happier. One of new my favorite sayings is, "Attitude determines your altitude." That is so true. I don't know why it took me so long to figure out how much my attitude can affect my life, but I am so grateful I finally did.

Disclaimer: Please don't confuse my new attitude as perky. Perky does not exist in my life, especially in the early hours of the morning.

(This picture of me was taken yesterday by a friend. I very much prefer being behind the camera but I figure one picture every few years won't hurt.)