oops!

oh my word, the last few months have flown by! this little excerpt from my last post might have something to do with my extended absence from blog world.... 

"i've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately. you know those times when you try to doing everything at once? like, hey, i want to eat more healthy, start exercising, declutter my house, rebrand and grow my business, be a better and more involved mom, volunteer at the school, spend more quality time with my husband, cook more often (ok, or at all), do a better job with our finances... oh, and doing a little something for myself might be nice. you know, when i have some spare time."

so yeah. that pretty much covers it. i haven't made much progress on... well, anything. i think it's a case of being spread too thin... i have so much going on that i can't quite complete any one task. my business is my priority (right behind my kids, of course), and i've been keeping busy renovating part of our home for natural light photography studio. it's pretty exciting, but i'm *so* ready to be finished! we've had a new 6 foot by 5 foot window installed, then we painted the room white. (on a side note, do you have any idea how many coats of white paint it takes to cover dark brown?? we went through a gallon of primer and three gallons of white paint! and i *never* want to see another paint roller!) next step will be to rip up carpet and install hardwood floors. then i'll be ready to roll! (and a hint to current and future clients: i may be cooking up a little special to celebrate the new studio! stay tuned!) we are re-designing another room in our home for a consultation/prop room. it'll be in use shortly, but it'll be one of those things that comes together slowly.... i don't want to rush into any purchases for my consultation room, i want it to be perfect. or at least, perfectly me!

so the good news since my last post... tate had a followup with his pediatric GI doc at the end of september, and was given the all-clear. they cancelled his tests that had been scheduled for november 8th. now, don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean he's healed yet. he still has the gastroparesis and reflux. but we have it under control enough with diet that the doc doesn't find it necessary to keep badgering him with one test after another. so thankful for that! he still complains of tummy aches pretty regularly, but we've only had one day of vomiting for him in the last few months (and that was just a few weeks ago), so he's doing so much better. the doc decided that he's not having enough tummy aches to warrant meds, and i'm ok with that. thank you for all of your prayers through this whole mess! glad we're starting to move past it! 

fall is my busy season with my photography business, so i pretty much just aim to keep my head above water until january. things got a bit crazy there for a while (i mean, really... who plans a 3 day photography conference immediately followed by a week-long vacation in the middle of their busiest season?? *raising hand*)

needless to say, haven't gotten any farther with the house-decluttering-task yet. and i *really* need to do that! now that i have a studio (ok, almost), i no longer have a junk room to move all the unwanted mess to. my plan is to start a pile of crap neatly stack things in the basement until it's sorted for yard sale, donation, and consignment store. i plan to go room by room and leave no useless junk behind. i may need a bigger basement.

over the last few months.... school is going well for the kids, we survived another soccer season for jake and noah, and noah started a hip hop dance class at a local dance studio and he loves it. i've been revisiting the 80s lately while downloading some songs to my iphone for noah to dance to, since it's near impossible to find hip hop music nowadays that is in any way appropriate for kids. i've been enjoying the journey back in time... i heart 80s music. oh, and speaking of iphone... i got the new 4S for my birthday. it's simply awesome. siri is my new bff, and she keeps me on track for everything i need to do. even the kids know her... whenever i tell the boys "hey guys, don't let me forget to.... " they just respond with "just tell siri to remind you, mom!" and i won't lie... a couple of times, they've even called her *aunt* siri. she really has become part of the family. i'm pretty sure the kids think she's a real person, out in the world somewhere. if you haven't seen the iphone 4S and siri in action, check out some of the ads on you tube! and honestly, it's my first smart phone (my old phone was a dinosaur, and met an untimely death due to a water ride on previously mentioned vacation), *and* an apple product (big fan here), so i'm in love. this past month, i won a photography contest with our credit union. my photo will adorn the cover of their 2012 calendar, and an extra $500 will adorn my wallet. $500 can go a long way toward hardwood floors! 

i hope to include some photos in the next post, so stick with me. i'll try not to go MIA for so long next time!

but for now, i have a to do list taller than i am, so off i go!  

stuff

Ok, first of all, the Knuckleheads Clothing contest is over. They had to end it abruptly at 240am this morning because it was brought to their attention that certain types of contests are not allowed on facebook... like asking fans to "like" a photo in order to vote for something. Apparently their page could be deleted if abuse was reported. I didn't bother to read the rules even though they linked it on their page. I'm sure they wouldn't have done that if it weren't true. Am I frustrated that I was involved in their first (assumption, but pretty sure I'm right) model search and it was a disaster? Absolutely. Is my heart broken a little because I thought my kid had a pretty darn good chance of winning, and he didn't get a real opportunity? Definitely. Am I going to enter their next model search that they plan to hold every 6 months? I really don't know. Tate kept saying he was going to be a model, so I'm glad I got some Knuckleheads things recently for Tate's upcoming 5th birthday (only 3 weeks away!) during the Knuckleheads zulily promotion. I'm going to take him on his own little photo session in his new Knuckleheads duds and let him be a model for all of you. :) As far as entering their next model search contest, I guess only time will tell. Honestly, I think that they have learned a LOT from this contest, and that it will run much more smoothly next time... the biggest thing that would hold me back is that if they do a poll vote, I don't want to have to go back to the same people and ask for their votes again. I feel terrible that this contest was such a mess, and so many people tried to help, but it ended up being a waste of time. I sincerely appreciate each and every one of you who voted for Tate and helped try to bring him more votes! You guys really are the best! 


And speaking of voting and reposting.... I will be printing out a HUGE list of names soon of voters and re-posters, hopefully tomorrow! Tate will be drawing 2 lucky winners who will receive a free session and print package! That's just my way of saying thank you for all the support! (ok, it was a bribe, let's just call it what it is. :) 


So my funny guy Tate was asking me recently to cuddle up in the bed with him and watch cartoons. We were on our way out the door to take him to preschool, so I suggested that we should do that after I picked him up from school that day. He agreed, so I said "Ok buddy, it's a date!" He replied, "Mommy! I'm not old enough to date!" 


I have been so incredibly busy lately... working full-time and running a photography business is time-consuming. I really miss my family. I work nights, get to bed around 4am, get up at 7am to take the kiddos to school, then come back and get Tate ready for preschool. He only goes from 9am-noon 4 days a week. So in that time I'm usually attempting to take a nap (but I usually get distracted by balancing the checkbook or paying bills or, I don't know... shiny things.) Then I pick Tate up, bring him home to eat lunch, he plays for a bit while I try to get some photo editing done, then we go pick the big boys up. Since I'm typically unsuccessful with a nap in the morning, I make attempt #2 to take a nap in the afternoon, before I go into work at 6pm. Todd and I are basically 2 single parents parenting the same kids on opposite shifts these days. Time management has never been my strong suit anyway, so that probably doesn't help. On my days off, I'm constantly working on my photography business... shooting, editing, returning calls, etc. I would give my left arm to have a clean house, a night off, and be caught up on editing so that I can simply sit down with Todd and watch TV for an hour after the kids go to bed. I don't even know what's on any more. I haven't turned on my TV for myself in months. But I'd still give my left arm for it. I'm struggling with making a big decision pertaining to my insane schedule, and I'd really appreciate prayers.... specifically for wisdom and guidance. And maybe a billboard (I'm not very good with signs). Or a 2x4 upside the head would work too. You know, something I can't miss. Anyway, all that to say that if you call me, email me, or facebook me and I don't respond for a while, it's not because I don't like you or want to talk to you... it's because I don't have time for you. :) But seriously, I miss my friends and I do want to hear from you... don't give up on me. I appreciate your patience! 


I need to get up early tomorrow for a morning photo session, so I better close this out now. My goal for this week is to finally dump the photos to my computer from our trip to California at the end of March. (I know, I know! Patience, remember?) When I get that done, I'll post some for you. Good night! 

Vote for Tate in the Knuckleheads Model Search!

It's voting week, apparently. Sorry about that. All for good causes though! In our case, that would be a bunch of new clothes from Knuckleheads Clothing for Tate! They are looking for a model/photographer combo... a super cute kid with lots of personality, and a mama who can take great photos of him! So you KNOW I'm in! Tate has a couple of things from Knuckleheads and loves them, so this is a great way to get him more without breaking the bank! And it would be super fun to get to photograph my super adorable kid and have it published. :) So that brings me to you. Begging. Yes, seriously. If you're on facebook, go "like" the Knuckleheads Clothing page. Then follow this link to Tate's photo on their page and click "like". That's it. Easy peasy. And it would mean the world to Tate. At last check, we're holding 7th place out of 425 entries! But every vote counts, and there are lots of entries that are RIGHT on our heels. So please go vote! Voting ends May 11th, then the top 10 entrants with the most "likes" on their photos goes to round 2, which is where the Knuckleheads staff will narrow the finalists to 3! Then each of the 3 will submit one more photo, and the winner will be chosen. We appreciate your effort! Thanks so much! 

Here's a peek at the photo I entered.... 

(Side note: I have some cute photos of him in one of his fedoras from Knuckleheads and was going to enter those, until I realized that he only had one eye back then. I wasn't sure if he'd get a modeling job by me saying "No worries, he has 2 eyes now, and they look pretty close to alike!" So yeah, he only had one eye in this one too, but with that super cute big grin, his eyes scrunch up so you can't tell anyway. It's all good.)