Labels: Madalyn, photography, pictures, summer

I wasn’t very happy with his beach pictures because he had such a terrible burn in them.  Even Photoshop couldn’t compensate for the red skin, so when we got home and he was healing up a bit, I took these.

They’re ok, I guess.

At least, I know 10 years from now I will be pleased with them.

But it is so dang hard to get my kids to cooperate.  Other kids, no problem.  My kids?

They don’t want to look at the camera.  Or me.

They see me every day.  I can make them laugh like this, but it’s in a sort of detached way… not as engaged as they might be with a stranger.

I tried to get Jack’s, too.  That didn’t go well at all.

They just wanted to play with dirt… and you know…

Be boys.

Now THIS one will engage.

She has been SO sweet while I’ve been sick this past month.  She’s rubbed on me, helped with Jack, gotten things I’ve needed, and had the best attitude- has had a “Pollyanna” approach to her day, which is refreshing to be around right now.  I love them all fiercely, but this week she’s my favorite.  This week she’s not only been a great daughter, she’s been a great friend.  xo        

Labels: Evan, Jack, Madalyn, photography, pictures, sugar and spice

This morning I walked Evan out to Shaun’s car in my pink bathrobe, then I rolled the trash to the road.  It was cool and crisp, and when I headed back up toward the house the sun was rising from behind it, making it only a silhouette against the starburst of orange rays.  Chickens were bawking from somewhere nearby, and it seemed so very fall in that moment, with Charlie trotting briskly beside me.  But that all changed, of course, when we got in the car and the kids wanted to hear Jimmy Buffett for the 5th morning this week.  I would have no problem with that- I love summer year-round, and I love Jimmy Buffett (how do you think they know about him)- except that Jack loves The Volcano Song.

And ONLY The Volcano Song. 

It’s one of those avenues he uses to show us all JUST how strong-willed he is. 

After listening to I don’t know- I don’t know- I don’t know where ima-gonna go when the vol-ca-no blows 500 times this morning, Madalyn politely asked to hear The Cheeseburger Song. 

Sure.  No problem.  (Except, of course, that you won’t be able to HEAR it over your brother’s blood-curdling protests.)  And our poor car-pooling friend that had to witness the fury… 

Really, Jack?  Really?  Over THIS? 

But their song choices are fitting this season of life.  Right now, Madalyn has the disposition of a cheeseburger in paradise, not too particular, not too precise- and Jack is an unpredictable volcano, ever-ready to erupt.  I should be the one singing “I don’t know where ima gonna go when the volcano blows.”  Okay, but to his credit, he’s getting a little better, choosing his battles.  (Why The Volcano Song was one of choice, I’m not sure.)  But  after drop-off he asked to go to Gracie’s house, and to the store, and was told no to both.  Instead of making me suffer, though, he gave a very emphatic, OH, MAAAN!  But I will take that ANYDAY to my bleeding ears.  Ear-bleeds for 18 months is enough to make anyone crazy… SO crazy, in fact, that that person might decide to have another child and add to the madness.  (I mean, does it really matter at this point?)  I say that with a smile, not pessimism; with a crazy, foaming, shaking, drooling smile.

Labels: autumn, beach, dumbhead parenting, humor, Jack, Madalyn, making music, phases

...that my husband just informed me was never an actual hurricane.               

I've told you she's senseless before, haven't I?

And okay, maybe so am I for letting her do this.

It was pretty chilly and pelting down on her... not to mention the WIND!  But she's a daredevil.

In a few more years, she might be that one you see on the news, surfing or kite boarding while the hurricane sweeps onshore, and while the reporters from The Weather Channel and every local station grip onto palm trees and promise you in dramatic, breathless tones that it really is very windy, and did you see how their hood just lifted with that last gust of wind, lions and tigers and bears- oh my!

And I might be the woman in a moo-moo with a bottle of booze and barefoot from having an out of control teenager who likes to kite board in hurricanes.

Or maybe I'll just shrug my shoulders and join her.  That sure sounds better than a moo-moo.

(Her poor big brother had a collision with the dog right when we got outside and skinned his ankle very badly.)  It took about 6 Sponge Bob Band-Aids to mend him, and we left him dressed in warm clothes on the couch to heal.  We left the dog on the back porch.  To think about what he did.

Speaking of the dog, he got so scared last night when we made him go into the storm to pee that he hid underneath the deck.  Where there were surely roaches and rats and snakes. 

Shaun pulled him inside the house while he whimpered LOUD-LY.  We thought the neighbors might call the Humane Society, it was such a fight to get him back in.  Then he smelled like dead animals and had a black stomach, so he spent most of the night on the porch. 

(Just in case you were wondering what we did last night.)

Random side note: water droplets are very fun to photograph.

So is wet hair.

It adds a kind of ethereal quality, don't you think?

I feel like I can glimpse what she will look like when she's older in these.

I love polka dots.  They compliment her little white teeth, don't you think?

I love umbrellas, too.

Hm.  Maybe that's why I bought a polka dot umbrella.  (This isn't it.)

Of course, umbrellas have their vices.

Unless you're Mary Poppins.  She might, like Mary Poppins, go kite boarding now if a strong enough wind comes along.  Which is fitting, because in the first post I ever wrote I described her as being like Mary Poppins, "practically perfect in every way."

I took these yesterday and it has rained right up until now... while I was posting these pictures it stopped. 

What I should post is a shot of our pool.  It needs to be drained some- it is over-flowing.  Shaun read that we had more rain during this storm than we've had in the last 6 months.  Usually, we have a brief thunderstorm in the afternoon, if anything.

No school for three days- that's how this first week of school started out.  One mother said to me, "My house is worse than a Catergory One Hurricane, come on!" 

Three days of canceled school, all this rain and no lightening??  How could we resist playing in it?      

Labels: boo boos, Madalyn, photography, pics, summer, when hurricanes strike

Okay, look.  I know this might be the most BORING post you've ever read (or skimmed... or just closed altogether,) but this is for me.  This is me archiving the pieces of paper that have sat in my office for an entire year, collecting dust and fading.  This is only one one-thousandth of the papers that circulate around my car, house, and Evan's desk in one year.  These are my favorites that have now been put into a Tupperware container.  So, if you're a better friend than I deserve, humor me and let's enter the gallery-

This is the cast of The Little Mermaid, by Evan.  (I guess I should preface this by saying ALL of these were completely done on his own without prompting.  He spends much of his quiet times "creating.")

This is the cast of Peter Pan.  These were both done about a year ago, actually. 

This is a beach scene.  His babysitter drew something similar and he copied her really well.  He copied her over and over again, actually, until he had it perfectly matched.

Fruit Salad, by Evan

The United States, by Evan

Evan, Madalyn, and Jack, by Evan

And then it was really weird to start finding papers with writing on them all over the house:

Days of the week.

"Vanilla, Pink Ice Cream, Chocolate"

"Sun, Spider web, Grass, Sky."

Months of the Year.

Shapes of the states of our country.      

Clocks.  When he taught himself how to tell time.  I think he might be bored in K-5 as this is the lesson on page 90 in his math book... he gets this hunger to learn from his father, by the way.  I remember my dad taking the clock off the wall where we lived in Augusta, GA, and I wanted to run and hide under my bed.  I remember thinking, 'okay, I almost get this, I am close, I can feel it... but I ain't there yet...'       

Pictures of him with his siblings and how much they love each other is a favorite topic of his...

He even made a catechism book:

"God loves me.  God loves all of the people."

"Adam and Eve both..."  I can't make out the rest, I think it was something about listening (or not listening) to God.  Then the pink paper: "I love God, do you?"

"God made the whole world."

When we got back from Universal Studios last December, I found the following papers in his room.  Let's play a game, try to guess what they say.  I'll give you a hint- they are activities or rides we did at Universal, we'll start with the easier ones:

1 2 

3     4

5 6 

7 8

9

1) Shrek4D 2)ET 3)Lunch 4)Cat in the Hat 5)Barney and Evan (character sighting) 6) Carousel 7) Sponge Bob 8) Water Ride 9) Dinner

This explained to me why he pronounced things the way he did.

Now the papers I find around the house look more like this:

"Please, I really, really, really can cook!  Just trust me!"

And the drawings I find are lately of Spongebob characters like Patrick here:

And he draws a mean Sponge Bob, I can't believe I forgot to take a Sponge Bob picture.

He also makes lots of charts and maps and such (I'm not always sure what they are):

My best guess on this would be a map.  To church or school?  Or maybe Jerusalem... from the temple to the cross...

This is definitely a recipe.  Although I'm not sure what the color code is about, I will have to ask him.

This is most likely a board game.

This is a sequence of events of how he wants his day to unfold after school, he wants friends to get in the car and come over.

Okay, I know, you need an intermission if you're still with me... we're winding down now... I'm to the end of the year papers...

This is what Madalyn brought home the last day of Mom's Morning Out last year.

Evan's teachers made him a whole year book... these are the teachers from the post below.

Yep... somebody needed a haircut.  What?  It grows REALLY fast, don't look at me like that.

His teacher made that quilt and prayed over her students while she worked on it.  :(  So sweet.

All the kids had fun signing their autographs in each other's books. :)

This is a sample of what his homework assignments looked like.

This is what they looked like when we lost the official paper and I made my own lines for him.  I got an N in handwriting in first grade and thought I was going to die.  I haven't improved much since then, so why on earth would you think I could draw a straight line?

See how he wrote "bumblebee?"  I'm not sure if this means he's Dyslexic or just really bright?  Don't answer that.

His teacher gave his picture a caption after asking him what the dots were on this assignment.

He liked to make notes for all his classmates.  They all did this and left notes in cubbies.  They thought they were sooooo cool.

On the first day of school last year he told me about a boy who has lots of dots on his face.  I told him those were freckles.  You can imagine that I nearly died when I walked into his room after his quiet time and found pictures of every classmate... and Brett.  Complete with freckles.

We were also all forced to comply to a behavior chart at home, just as he was at school.  He made this completely by himself.

I had no idea he had become a redhead by the end of last school year.  He changes completely... goes from dark hair and light skin to light hair and dark skin every summer.  Don't worry, I didn't pay MONEY for these.  I just stole the proofs.  Wow, that is SO unethical of a photographer.  But, they didn't ask me for them, so whatever.  I'm KEEPING THEM.

And hers.

Her coloring has come a REALLY long way... even further this summer but I didn't take any pics of her recent stuff.  She is very into the details, and using many colors, and staying inside the lines now.  I LOVE watching her color, and her patience that has come with it.

Evan's coloring has come a long way, too.  But Madalyn about has him beat out now with staying inside the lines.  I'm just happy they can do that at all considering I am so fine-motor-challenged.

Madalyn would come home with a paper like this,

or this...

or this...

Or this.  And I would be all 'you know how to do this??'  Because she SO wouldn't act able if I were the one showing her.  That's why it's good someone else is.  Then we can just play and be silly together.  It's better that way.  (Don't you like her mini-pattern on the pattern... I was amused by that.)

This was my favorite thing she brought home all year.  I don't know why.  Maybe because she doesn't know any Joshua's and I have no idea where she got that name.  Or maybe it's her drawing of the giraffe.  Or that she said a giraffe was most decidedly her favorite animal.  I don't know.  I just like it.

She brought home this cross she had made during free coloring time.  I thought the sticker choice was very appropriate to the picture.

And she has her name down pretty well.  Sometimes she writes it perfectly, sometimes she leaves out the "l".  Why she leaves the easiest letter out, I have no idea.  I think it's cute she started writing it by herself next to the one she was asked to trace... she decided to go above and beyond, take the extra mile.  That's encouraging... considering a year ago she spent all of clean-up time in time-out for not cleaning.

But almost better than the actual work they brought home, were the cards and handmade gifts:

It kind of surprised me about myself to find out that I could tear up over something the teacher printed out that my child never actually thought or said... what in the ??? 

But even better than the ones that come home from school, are the ones that come from their bedroom, without prompting:

Evan drew this of Jack and wrote the words.  I found it later and said, "who is this a picture of?" 

"Jack."

A placemat Evan made me, all on his own.  He made one for everyone in the family.

Shew!  If you got this far, you are SOME kind of wonderful.  Thanks for hanging in there with me, doing life with me.  Thanks for visiting the McDonnell Art Gallery.  Now, take a few deep breaths and move along to another blog... and I assure you, you don't have to do the art work again for another year.

Labels: bittersweet, Evan, kids art, Madalyn, milestones, nostalgia, phases, pics, school, school work

It has been an emotional few days.  To say the least.  And I feel like I just wrote this yesterday.

It started with a letter from his teacher.  It was sweet and all, but nothing in it made me cry- it was just the sight of it.  The fact that I was opening a letter from his kindergarten teacher.  I had the same experience when I looked at the cafeteria menu.  The tension built on this night when we went to his Open House.  These were taken with my camera phone because I forgot my camera.  Thank goodness for technology or I might've missed these confused scowls and this balding parking lot.  Phew.

But the reason I took these are because of his backpack.  LOOK at that backpack on him.  That is nothing big or fancy, it's a standard sized backpack from Target.

He's the oldest in his class, and the smallest.  This is his fake smile at its best.

We had to clear up that he would not be teaching the class.  Just kidding.  He knew that.  He just liked the teacher's chair.  It gave him an ego trip.

This is his desk, front and center.  Actually, no.  Just center and center.  He is in the middle of the middle row.  Perfect for someone who has trouble paying attention and likes to make his own way.  I'm just saying.  If I knew a certain 5 year old who was like that.

His teacher told him his number should be easy to remember because it rhymed with his name.  He liked that.  He found that to be very thoughtful of her.

These are the frantic parents, desperately trying to figure out how to fit entire packs of pencils, markers, and crayons in one supply box as though they were being timed.

This is Shaun making a weird face and Jack laughing because Shaun's making a weird face.

This is what "Little Shaun" did.  That's a cookie in his hand.  He licked the icing out and handed us the rest- all done.  He did that with about 6 cookies.  What?  Who cares, it kept him quiet.

This is Madalyn on the way to get ice cream afterwards.  She is demonstrating how NOT to wear your seatbelt straps.  

So all was fine and we felt good about things.  Especially Evan.  He spent his weekend counting down the minutes until he would go.  This morning he woke up at about 5:45 and came in our room talking to himself, "today I get to go."  He was so excited reminding us of this that his whole body would clench and his voice would get shaky whenever he got to the name of his school... "today I get to go to..." shake, clench, voice cracks...      

It was funny to look back on my preschool post because he was excited about the playground then, and still excited about yet another new playground this morning.  This is what he looked like at about 7:20 this morning, when the whole family took him to school to walk him in and drop him off...

But let's back up a minute.  To last night, when I had a complete and total nervous breakdown.  And I didn't even see it comin'! 

I had had a nap Sunday afternoon, so I was wide awake when we were trying to fall asleep that night.  I feel sad.  I feel lonely.  I feel nostalgic.  Why can't I shake that feeling?  I said to Shaun.  I can usually pull myself out of the funk or ask Someone else to pull me out, but I can't seem to shake it.

Well, sending your firstborn to kindergarten is a big deal.

It hadn't even occurred to me that perhaps that was the trigger.  As soon as the sentence left his mouth, though, I was bawling.  Not tearing up, not sniffling, BAWLING. 

And that was the way I fell asleep; remembering that scene from Father of the Bride when he replays all his daughters milestones leading up to that day while Today I Met the Boy I'm Going to Marry serenades all his nostalgic emotions.  I mean, talk about NOT helping.  I was picturing his wedding day, I was re-living his birth and his toddlerhood.  I was a WRECK.  A complete and total MESS.  A mell of a hess, and seriously concerned about whether I would ever survive graduation... college... marriage... menopause... 

Because it's all about me.

Actually, that was what snapped me out of it this morning.  When I realized it wasn't about me and I was fixating on my emotions and not his. 

As I watched him in all his excitement, rush to his desk, go through his school supplies again, observe the other students and start following suit... I realized he would be just fine. 

Fake smile and all.

And if he was fine, I could be fine, too.

(Gosh, though.  I still can't look at these right here without tearing up again.) 

It's not that he's in school and I will miss him during the day, per say. 

It's that he's gotten SO BIG.  He is so big.

And he is so kind-hearted.  He is so naive and pure.  Not in a cheesy way, in a wholesome, refreshing way.  I know that sounds biased, but mother or not, I am insisting, he's just a good kid- a good person.  And I am better for knowing him.

So we left him, were the last parents in the room, (yes, my teacher-friends, we were those parents,) and went to a boo hoo brunch.  Then we said bye to daddy.  When we drove away from campus Madalyn said to me, "I'm sad, mommy.  I miss Evan."

"Me, too, baby," I said.

Then we pulled ourselves together and went to Target, where we ran into two other moms we had just seen.  Ahh, Target.  The meeting grounds for moms everywhere.  It's like the modern day choice prairie for hunting and gathering. 

Then we had Madalyn's preschool Open House- this is her in her spot at the table.

I can't believe I have to take her to Kindergarten next year!  AHHH.  One thing at a time.

This is her with Ms. Jan and Mrs. Larra.  Below is Mrs. Christine.  Jan and Christine were Evan's teachers last year and Larra is the director of the preschool.  I have come to really appreciate these people!  They have been true blessings. 

Evan told Madalyn earlier in the weekend, "Madalyn, you're really going to like Ms. Jan, you know why?  Because she has your favorite kind of hair.  It's light white and curly.  Like wavy.  Isn't that your favorite kind of hair?"

Madalyn nodded emphatically like she had certainly shared this preference with him before.

Now, Madalyn had seen them before, nearly every day when we picked up Evan.  She talked Mrs. Christine's EAR OFF.  Mrs. Christine was most charmed by her, and went out of her way to engage her.  She loved Madalyn's view on fashion and why she chose this particular outfit this particular day and all the things she was thinking about in that moment.  I'm sure they will enjoy each other this year, especially seeing as how the class dropped from like 12 students last year when Evan was in it, to FIVE this year, including Madalyn.  Which is awesome because they will get lots of one and one.  There are four girls- she knows them all from last year- and one boy.  Poor boy.

This is not him.  This is her first love (well, after her daddy and Evan and Jack.)  Meet Andrew.

I believe I wrote about him long ago, here.

Madalyn and Andrew have a special thing.  They get downright giddy and flirty around each other.  They dream about each other, actual dreams, yes.  And they have asked to go on dates.  Madalyn asked just this weekend, "Can I go to a restaurant sometime?  At night?  With Andrew?"  You should SEE the eyes she makes at this boy.  I am glad she picked a good one.  Yes, maybe we should be concerned... but his parents are golden, so instead we are taking pictures and planning their wedding slideshow.  Very appropriate of us, I think. 

Don't you just love what his shirt says?  HA!

So after she had a moment with the Big Man on Campus, we headed to Chuck E Cheese with her little girlfriends in her class.  It was really fun for her, and for me to get to know their moms better, even though I saw them all year last year.

Before we knew it we were headed back to get Evan.

When he got in the car he teased me and pretended like he wasn't going to tell me anything about his day.

But I already knew a little because we had arrived early enough to see him not come off the playground when his teacher called and she didn't notice and almost left him!  I bit my lip and waited to try and not interfere.  He finally realized and ran over to the gate and said, "hey!"  And she spun around and I could tell- felt terrible- KNOWING I was watching.  THEN she did a head count.  She won't make that mistake again.

Neither will Goofy Grin.  I hope.

So, when he finally quit teasing me, the first two things he told me- and everyone else who called him to chat about his day later that afternoon- were that his teacher almost left him on the playground, and that there was a girl in his class named, Charlie, and wasn't that ridiculous because that was a boys' name!

And then I tickle-tortured him till he told me more. 

And that was one therapeutic tickle session.  Boy, was I glad to see him.      

It was all pretty anti-climatic, though, as Hurricane Fey has put a big cancellation cloud over tomorrow.  It's like we're on a Monopoly board.  Stop, Go, stop! Can we just get these new changes going, already?  Because I think everyone is going to have a great year.

Labels: bittersweet, boys will be boys, dumbhead parenting, Evan, Madalyn, milestones, nostalgia, parenthood, parenting, pics, school, siblings

I hope you don't get sick of hanging out at the beach with us this week. 

I, for one, am tired of the dunes.  So come on- let's go to the water!

Ahhh, there.  Her sunburned body up close.  Much better.

But I love that scraped knee, I really do.  Let me tell you how she got it.

All day, the day before we left, she begged me to take her on a walk with Charlie.  ALL DAY.  So I finally consented even though I was trying to pack.  We put him on a leash with her on the other end, headed out the door, and can you guess the rest?  Yes you can- two seconds later Charlie was walking her... dragging her, actually, down the sidewalk. On her face. 

She was lucky to come away with only a scraped knee.  We turned right back around and went inside to bandage her up before starting all over again.  With Evan holding the leash.

But all is well now because the salty ocean worked its magic.

Now she is busy making new boo boo's to keep count of.

Childhood is good like that...

You don't dwell on yesterday's wounds.

You wallow in the present. 

Labels: beach, boo boos, Madalyn, national lampoon family vacations, photography, pics, sugar and spice

This was my slip when I was little.  I had no idea how to pose like this when I was little.  I was too innocent and pure and naive.

Just kidding.  She totally gets that from me.  I'm a poser.

My mom has pictures of me in this slip and I am quite brown from the summer sun like she is.  Okay, okay, she's red because I didn't reapply her sunscreen.  But normally she's more brown than I ever am or was. 

I wish I had those old photographs to post with these.  Mine were done in front of a mirror in a studio, though, with the white hazy effect of the 80's, and I kind of hope to imitate those some day. 

But "some day's" tend to never come.

Comparing our personalities is much like comparing our photographs, though.  She's not completely like me.  She is and she isn't. 

She can make friends with a lamp post, (and in fact, she made friends with a little girl not even in our group this trip and spent an entire day with her,) but she's not nearly as sensitive as I was when I was little.  She's hard to offend or upset, which means if someone hurts her feelings it makes me MAD.  Because it takes a lot to hurt her. 

She's tough, and sassy...  saucy.  She's saucy.  I like that word.  I learned it when I read Wuthering Heights in high school.  It might be one of my favorite words, and I'm so glad I have a daughter who fits it.

My Aunt Carolyn described her as having a "coy" way about her, which would be another completely perfect description.

(She looks a lot like my baby pictures in this particular one, don't you think, mom?  Nana?) 

She's more girly than I was, though.  I secretly hated pink, and matching mother-daughter clothes, and just clothes in general.  I preferred water-skiing and bike-riding, though I did love my baby dolls.  L-O-V-E-D my doll babies.  They went with me everywhere.  But I preferred THEM to wear the frilly pink things, not me.

She loves pink.  L-O-V-E-S pink.  And doesn't really care for baby dolls for more than five minutes at a time.  She would rather mother her stuffed animals.  She prefers the frilly clothes to be on her, not on her toys.  She is attracted to anything sparkly, shiny, glittery, flashy, fancy, much like a Barracuda.  She recently told me she didn't want to wear a particular outfit because it wasn't "fancy enough." 

On this beach trip, case in point, we had to make her wear a t-shirt the last day because she was getting too red ( don't pretend you didn't notice.)  The t-shirt offered by a friend was a Batman one.  She was NOT okay with this- I repeat- NOT okay.  She threw the biggest, most unexpected fit I've ever witnessed out of her.  When I asked what was so terribly wrong she told me the t-shirt hurt her feelings.  I asked her how on earth a shirt could hurt someone's feelings.  She said, "because it doesn't appreciate me." 

Actually it was more like- becuzz it duzzent uhhh-priiii-shaa-aate meeee- ah-ho-hee-hee-hee....  (face crumpled in distraught.)

In adult terms: it ain't flattering.

And she does say some funny, funny things.  I am sad to have forgotten a lot of them already.  Yesterday, though, she said while hanging from the handle of a grocery cart upside down and thinking it was hard work, "WHOA, I can't handle this!!"  To which Jack parroted, "WHOA- I can't HANDLE this!"

She says sweet, thoughtful things, too.  She tells me I'm her best friend in all the world.  She tells me I look so very beautiful when I SO don't.  She says I'm her sister.  AMEN!  We are sisters, girl!  We certainly are.

She used to tell me she loved me soooo strong, but she's old enough to know that's not how people say it anymore.  And that makes me want to cry.

She asked me the other day if God could ever die and be gone.  Could he be run over by a car? 

We talked it over some and I realized that what she was essentially asking me was whether or not we could ever be separated from God, and was this something she should worry about?  The Lord brought two of the few verses I have hidden away in my heart to mind- Psalm 139-

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
       Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
       if I make my bed in the depths, ^[a] you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
       if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,
       your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
       and the light become night around me,"

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
       the night will shine like the day,
       for darkness is as light to you.

and:

38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8

(Of course I paraphrased these verses to meet her understanding.)  Then I asked her if God answered her question.  She nodded.  I said, "where did he answer your question,"  (thinking she might say the Bible, His word,) but instead she pointed to her heart. 

I couldn't have understood it,  nor expressed it better myself.

But back to that saucy thing.

She likes to shake her "bon-bon."  Like her teacher taught her.  At PRESCHOOL.

Please tell me how I'm supposed to refrain from laughing.  Oh, I don't even try.  No, in fact, I ASK her to do this, though in these pictures, and quite often, she doesn't require any asking. 

She shakes it freely.  

Like her mother, Shaun would say... to the pizza man... when the kids run to the door naked. 

Labels: beach, Madalyn, national lampoon family vacations, parenthood, photography, pics, sugar and spice, summer

I always knew this day would come.  When I would have to choose.

I've worn aqua-tinted contacts over my pale green eyes for nearly 12 years. 

You can keep the color, or trade it out for better vision and moister eyes, he said.

You can stay superficial and blind, or get real and- be healed- is what I heard.

We had come straight from swim class to the eye care office. I had three wet children sprinkling rice cake crumbs around the room, there wasn't time to deliberate.  It was vanity or vision.  The choice was that simple. 

I knew what the right answer was, but still... my fake blue eyes!  My DEEP, FAKE BLUE EYES!  How I would miss them!  They were the only contrast to the rest of my whiteness.

But I'm stubborn.  I'm stubborn, gosh darnit, and that adds fervor to my moral compass.  So I forced out the answer better vision, and swallowed the lump in my throat with an audible gulp.

And here I am.  Casper, once again.  Not much difference in black and white or color.  Gone are my artificial Alice Blue's, gone is my contrast.  Boo hoo! 

That was over a week ago but still, something looks "off" when I brush my teeth in the morning.  A little dull, a little flat, a little washed out.  Maybe I should write a letter.

Then there was shock #2 of the day at the office.  When it was discovered that I am not slightly, but majorly asymmetrical.  And so- whatever, who cares- right?  But it was more that I had no idea!  That was the shock.  You would think a person would know this about herself. 

When I was fitted for my glasses I asked if they looked crooked.  She said, "oh that's just your face." 

Seriously.

My left eye is- apparently- further away from my nose than my right eye.  One eyebrow is lower than the other.  One EAR is lower.  How very ODD.  I always knew my jaw and bite was asymmetrical, but obviously the problems don't end there. 

These are my old glasses, do you SEE how crooked they are?  How MUCH lower one ear IS?  We're talking plastic-surgery-low, people.

I told her this about these old glasses, I said, "NO WONDER one of my ears always hurt when I wore them!"

She nodded like it was a real shame, as if she understood the gravity of the situation.

These are my new glasses.  Hm.  Is it just me or am I looking whiter every picture?

Now, I know what you're going to say... oh please, there's not much difference, you would never know these things at a glance, and look how nice you look.  But you're only saying that because I'm wearing makeup in these pictures.  Most of the time I look like this:

And when a four year old is styling your hair and choosing your wardrobe, having deep blue eyes is not just important, it is essential in order to keep confidence.

But enough about my self-absorbed thought life.  Let me show you who really makes glasses look good:

Not that I would wish bad eyesight on any of my children. 

But if their day comes, it's nice to know they'll wear them well...

if not goofy.

Because glasses or not...       

There's always gotta be a little bit of goofy.

Labels: doctor, Evan, Katie, Madalyn, pics, pictures

I love Summer.  Summer tans, like hers.  Summer mornings, and days, and afternoons, and evenings... like right now.

Jack and I are having appetizers; Triscuits with Muenster cheese and OJ on Ice (mine may or may not have a splash of Amaretto in it.)  The older kids are washing the dog in the shower.  Shaun has to work late, but eh, it's summer.  We'll eat cereal or sandwiches... or Triscuits with Muenster cheese.

And then there's the summer weekend mornings like this one, where the kids climb in bed with us to cuddle, and crisp summer light greets us.  (I love how you can see the word "dream" on the back of Shaun's shirt in the first picture up above.)

It is just so nice to have hardly a schedule at all, to sit with the kids while having your coffee, to do "summer" things like play in the mud puddles and go to swim school.