Boo...

Tomorrow is October 1st, time to start thinking about Halloween!

Best Friends...

Of all the life lessons I teach my children, of all the morals and values I hope they encompass, of all the happiness I wish for them both...  I hope they remain best friends forever!

A victim no more...

I am proud to announce that I am no longer a victim to the pile of papers that always seems to accumulate on my countertop!  My kids bring home so much paper from school and I'd always add it to the "pile" so I could get to it later.  Well later always seems to happen when the pile would get so tall it had no choice but to fall over, spilling papers all over the floor.  Thankfully for me, my friend Shirley came to the rescue.  She suggested a "paper station" on my kitchen countertop.  Right before school started I bought my station and folders, and even dusted off my labeler and labeled each folder.  Now when the kids come home with paperwork I have a place to put it.  I feel so accomplished, I always want to be one of those organized people, and though I have a far way to go, I feel like I am moving in the right direction.

Just another Sunday...

We've been so busy lately with school, soccer, and other activities that we haven't spent much time at home.  Yesterday I decided we'd spend the entire day at home.  Steve and I watched football and the kids played most of the day (although I had given them the mission to clean the playroom, which still has yet to happen).  I love having big Sunday dinners and didn't do much of that in the summer.  Yesterday I made a homemade sauce and meatballs, it was super yummy.  The best part was smelling it cook all day.

After dinner I sent the kids back upstairs to clean the playroom (which again didn't get done), and I heard belly laughter.  The kids were in stitches as I heard them descending the stairs.  Juliana came down first to introduce Tyler (we knew we were in for something unexpected), she couldn't stop giggling.  He walked in wearing every shirt in his closet!  

It was very funny, but hearing the laughter was the best part.  He kept trying to do gymnastics, but it didn't work so well with all the extra padding.

When I helped him take all the shirts off I counted 22!  Of course I had to send them right back upstairs to hang them all back up (which surprisingly they did).  About 20 minutes later they showed up again, this time Tyler was wearing ALL of his underwear, I did not photograph that, but let's just say it was a hysterical site seeing him try to walk with it all on.

So that was our Sunday at home, good food, lots of laughs, and still a messy playroom!

A not so fun week...

A few weeks ago Hurricane Irene rolled into the Northeast, I think technically it was a tropical storm by the time it got to us in Connecticut.  We prepared for the storm and I think the kids were even a little excited about their very first hurricane.  The day of the hurricane we lost power at 5:30 am and did not get it back for six days later.  It wasn't very fun living without power, but not having water was what was super hard for us.  We have well water, and the well pump can't run without power.  I am one that needs to shower everyday first thing in the morning and not being able to do that was terrible.  Luckily I had some family members that didn't loose power and I shower hopped for a week.  It's a little odd to walk in someone's door and head straight for the shower, but I needed my shower.

I tried to document our day on the actual day of the hurricane a bit, I thought it would be fun for the kids to look back on how they survived Hurricane Irene.

Coloring was a big hit:

Tyler spent some time with his DS (and without his shirt):

Charlotte was happy to have us all home all day:

Lucy slept through everything (not surprising):

Steve attempted to make coffee with the Keurig in the truck (epic fail):

He then decided reading would be more successful:

Juliana and I played cards:

I also made sure I had flashlights ready for lights out:

I surveyed the damage mid-storm:

And the kids made a fort:

I definitely don't think it will go down in history as one of the best days ever, but we certainly made do with our time.  Let's just hope it's another 20 years before the next hurricane, because Mama needs her shower!

You don't need the fancy things...

I am often asked what kind of camera I have (Canon D50), what kind of lens I use (Mostly Canon 24-70L & Sigma 70-200 2.8), if you don't understand all that, you really don't need to.  I have a $50 Canon powershot that I keep in my purse and use more then my big camera, and I have recently started using my iphone all the time.  Of course when I am on a photoshoot I always use all my best equipment and spend a bit of time editing pictures as needed to give them the most pop.  But for my everyday pictures I use whatever camera I have handy and get some of my favorite shots by always being ready.  I was just going through some of my iphone pictures and will post some examples of ones I love, they are straight from my iphone 4 and completely unedited.  You really don't need anything fancy, just capture what makes you smile or what you think is beautiful and you'll have a great picture.

A day of sadness... 9/11/11

Everyone has their own memories of 9/11, where they were when they heard about it, how they reacted, if they knew someone in the towers or the Pentagon, and worse if they themselves were there.  For me, I've always harbored some sort of survivors guilt, I wasn't anywhere near the places effected, I didn't personally know anyone that was lost or injured, yet I feel guilt for not being effected more.  Don't get me wrong, I was emotionally changed on that day as most people in our country were.  I've been to New York City a hundred times and had always felt safe there, and that was not going to be the case anymore.  I'd flown the American Airlines Boston to Los Angeles flight several times before (the same as the first flight to hit the towers) and never thought it could be hijacked and used as a weapon.  It opened my eyes to a world of evil I hadn't know existed.

I was 25 years old, married for 2 years and almost 9 months pregnant with my first child.  I was living in Plymouth, MA and was in the shower when I heard the loudest, most startling sound and my entire house shook, I later found out it was the jets that were scrambled out of Otis Airforce Base on Cape Cod, they flew supersonic to intercept the hijacked planes (they flew right over my house).  As soon as I got out of the shower Steve called to tell me a plane had hit the world trade center, and like everyone else I turned on the television and saw the second plane hit the south tower live on TV and that's the moment the world changed forever.  Every moment of that day is ingrained in my mind, every image, every report, every face of those frightened people they showed on the tv screen.  The stories of the people who survived, hearing the phone calls of those who where stuck in the buildings or on the airplanes, absolutely heart wrenching.  I will never know what it was like to be involved in everything that day, or what it was like to loose someone that day, I guess that's where my own personal guilt comes in, although my life was changed that day, it wasn't changed even a tiny bit as much as others who were directly involved.

It took me a year before I was comfortable enough to go back to NYC, we took Juliana right after her first birthday.  We stayed away from lower Manhattan that trip, but have been there several times since.  It is always such an erie feeling for me, knowing what happened that day and how many lives were lost.

I took this picture in 2008, when the they first started building the new World Trade Center, Tower 1:

And this was taken from the Empire State building a few weeks ago, you can see the tower making it's way up the skyline:

We visited the Pentagon a couple of months ago, and found the memorial so very touching.

As I sit here with Juliana who is now almost 10 years old I feel like I am watching it all over again through her eyes.  She's keeps asking why anyone would do such a thing, and why would someone kill themselves to kill others.  My one and only answer can only be, I don't know, I don't know why there is such evil in this world.

First day always makes me cry...

Another summer has come and gone and today is the first day of school.  I don't know where the summer went, seems like just yesterday was the last day of school, yet here we are already at the first day of school.  I cry every year on the first day of school, I think I get so emotional for several reasons.  First, I miss my kids when they are at school, for all the days they drove me crazy this summer, I still miss them so much.  Second, it's another year closer to them growing up and moving out of the house and off to their own separate lives.  Ever since the day they were born I've been sad about them growing up.  Third, it marks the unofficial end to summer, my most favorite season, and brings on the dread of cold and snow that is winter.

They were both excited for school this morning, especially Juliana who is starting middle school today.  I know she'll do great, but it doesn't make it any easier on me when I watched her get on that yellow school bus this morning.  I remember her first day of preschool, I cried for the entire 2.5 hours she was there, it was such a hard day.  I was looking back at pictures, and came across one from her first day of preschool when she was 3 (almost 4):

And here she is this morning, age 9 (almost 10):

And of course there is Tyler, he's a big third grader now.  We are actually super excited for this year as he has the same 3rd grade teacher Juliana had and we love her.  I came across this picture of him on his first day of preschool, he was 2 (almost 3):

And here he is this morning, age 7 (almost 8):

Every year I take one of them together in front of the fireplace, here is them at age 2 & 4, and today at age 7 & 9:

If I had a glass in my hand right now I would raise it in a toast to another successful school year, and to slowing down time.