Week 42 of 52 - Pumpkins!

We visited a pumpkin patch at a local church over the weekend.  I attempted to capture the season while we picked out pumpkins.

Most of our moments went something like this:  Here comes mom with the camera – RUN!

Other mothers see their child stumble and pick them up.  Moms with cameras see a non-moving toddler on the ground, do a quick visual sweep for absence of blood or tears, and hit that shutter button FAST!

So yeah, maybe I did say, "Mommy won't buy you a pumpkin unless you look at me for 2 seconds."

After we bought the pumpkins, we compared notes on our previous pumpkin carving skills and finding none between us, we did the only thing left to do  – head to Wal-Mart.   

We bought stuff we thought we needed but didn't, so learn from our mistakes: 

• Electric pumpkin carving knife - $5.87  USELESS.
  Would barely move through the pumpkin. George also had a sixth sense for finding it on every counter so we tossed it before the $5.87 knife could yield a $150 emergency room visit.

• Pumpkin Carving Kit ~ $3.87  A BIT USEFUL. 
  We used the little serrated knives and scoops.  All of the picks to trace the stencils broke off. So he used a tiny flathead screwdriver to tap out the pattern which worked well. 

• Stencil Book $1.47 USELESS. 
  We bought an extra book to have enough non-ghoulish stencils.  I ended up googling "funny pumpkin carving patterns" and finding these patterns!   This link gives printing instructions too.

What this sweet moment doesn't capture:  Walt trying to hear the Georgia game on the radio while saying 982 times, “No George, you can’t use the knife to carve the pumpkin. George, don’t cry, just let Daddy carve the pumpkin.  Yes George, when you are older, you can carve the pumpkin.  Get out of the floor and let your mother take a picture . ”

If we had it to do over, we would've bought him a little pumpkin to decorate with markers so he could participate more in that aspect.

Turns out Walt is quite the pumpkin carver.  He was disappointed he lost a tooth on Big Tooth Magee, but he did much better than I could have done.  (Sadly, I suffer from “I can't cut straight lines without left-handed scissors” craft-time baggage from childhood.)  We had fun and hopefully started a new tradition for our little guys.

Weeks 40 and 41: Toes in the Sand

We just returned from vacation.  As you may recall, we had bypassed an earlier beach vacation for our debt-free goal.  So now past Baby Step 2, we were very grateful for the time and opportunity to celebrate and take a break from our daily lives.

We visited Panama City.  Walt would have preferred to visit a remote barrier island with no signs of life, but alas, we chose a kid-focused vacation spot.  Needless to say, we were among the thousands of families who hit PCB for Fall break, but we really enjoyed ourselves.

I spent more time playing with my kids than taking photos, but here’s what I want to remember…in random order.

1.  The fabulous motorcycles and their riders.  Much to our excitement, PC was hosting a Thunder Beach motorcycle rally while we were there.

We watched them until dusk.

2.  My mom, our conversations, her laughter, and her delight in the Harleys.  No need to guess where I got my love for shiny chrome and loud engines.  Nor did I need to guess where George gets his ability to avert his eyes at the last second from my camera!

3. George’s delight in "the jumpy thing".  He asked to go to the jumpy thing at least 500 times.  We went twice.  He reminded me of myself when I get obsessed with something.

4. Samuel racing into the surf, too young to yet feel any fear.

5. The crystal-clear waters and the dozens of hermit crabs we found and tossed back.

6.  The duct-tape sign to claim our rented beach chairs in the most redneck fashion.

I made the sign after a confrontation with a guy who took our chairs.  When I asked him to move, he refused, and between drags on his cigarette, he used a certain 4-letter word as a noun, verb, and adjective.  I smiled,  prayed I wouldn't be the first victim of beach chair rage, and continued to stand over the chairs.

At one point, I told his girlfriend my mom had a bad hip (a half-truth) and we couldn't just go steal someone else's chairs as he suggested, we needed the ones on the end.  We got the chairs back, I marked them, and my mom limped every time we saw him.  We laughed the rest of the week about these folks and the conflict.

 7. Good budgeting pays off – we came back with $35 in our pockets.  And that's after several over-priced meals and giving into George's incessant pleas to "go back to Targets (sic) and get the Big Buzz and Big Woody" after discovering little Woody only said 3 different things and caused much frustration.  "Mom, do you remember the Big Woody?  Do you think we could get it?  Mom, do you like the Big Woody?  Samuel can have the Little Woody." 

8.  Our Creator greets and ends each day with His signature.  

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Romans 1: 20

9.  And at the end of the day, His love, care, and direction for our family is what matters - I'm thankful to have this time with them.

Week 39 of 52 - Has it Really Been TWENTY years?

Just one photo this week, and I didn’t take it.

I attended my high school reunion this weekend and what a treat.

For anyone who makes excuses for why they don’t want to go back, wow, what a loss.  You missed meeting and reconnecting with some amazing folks, significant others, and beautiful children of all ages.

We…

• Celebrated the military service of two.
• Remembered one who has passed through our lives and on to eternity.
• Cheered for those who changed the most and changed the least. 
• Yelled for those who drove and flew for hours to be there.
• Applauded a classmate who has written a children’s book soon to be released nationwide. 
• Shared laughter, conversations, and fun that will carry us for at least another five years.

I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Week 38 of 52 – Adjustable Waistbands and Adjusting to Reality.

This week marks my twentieth year high school reunion.   I’ve looked forward to the event, even assisted with the planning.  

Then yesterday it  happened – I realized that in five days, I would be seeing people I hadn’t seen in twenty years and I had NOTHING. TO. WEAR.  Yes, I was shouting.

For months, ok over a year now, I’ve been residing in this narrow post-baby corner of my wardrobe.  Holding out hope I would pop down to my preferred size any day now.  I don’t diet so I knew it would take longer to reach my goal and I’d been pretty OK with that – until now.

It’s as if I was suddenly transformed to that worried freshman where I thought everyone was looking at me.  And really critiquing what I wore.

Panic was followed by anger – my husband was the unfortunate target.  His crime? Being silent after my lament of weight gain and lack of fashion choices.  My accusation?  “MEN, you just don’t understand, you wear your hidden adjustable waistbands and don’t have to give a darn if you gain weight.”  His defense?  “I knew nothing I would say would be the right thing to say.”

Once I calmed down, we strategized a bit:

Financially - Similar to the grocery budget, we can only cut the clothing budget so much.  We probably shouldn't have cut this category as much as we did while getting out of debt so now we will have to increase it to make up the difference.  I consignment and thrift shop for the boys but hadn’t done it lately for myself, so I need to make some time.

Rationally – Truly, has my wardrobe worn to rags overnight?  No.  Does absolutely nothing fit?  No.  Does everything need replacing today? No.   

Relationally – Walt talked me off my ledge, and I apologized for my undeserved outburst.  He even offered to give me part of his hunting and fishing fund for clothes.  I refused, but he still earned points.

At the end of the day, the reason for wardrobe woes is a beautiful little boy we were told we couldn’t have.  So Give Thanks and Get a Grip I Must. 

And as Walt said, remember it’s a season.  In his words, “I’ve accepted the reality that I will be fat for six to nine more months (his estimation of when Samuel will sleep consistently through the night), and until then, I’m going to say to heck with it and stretch my elastic waist bands to their capacity.”  Men...

For my 52-week photography project, I present an injured child. 

George is now healing from his first bloody skinned knee.  Now before you judge me ;-), I promise I'd first held him and dried up his tears.   Once he was calm, I said, let's take a picture of your skinned knee.  He agreed and when I pulled out the camera, the waterworks began, he cried all over again.

Week 37 of 52 - Budging the Grocery Budget...or not.

I’ve heard of a person’s body weight reaching a ‘set point’ where it’s hard to get the pounds to budge. But for us, our grocery and household envelope has also hit a set point.

We have one envelope for all of our household items – groceries, paper products, cleaning products, bath/grooming items, and baby supplies.

When we first began our budget, Walt wanted to separate these into 5 different envelopes, while I preferred the one-envelope approach as I knew who would get the dreadful task of breaking down a Kroger bill into 5 parts. When we met with the financial coach, I had my one-envelope defense prepared, and thankfully he recommended one envelope before I could clear my throat. Since we were chatting via conference call with the coach, only Walt could see my one-envelope victory dance.

So we’ve managed to meet the financial coach’s budget recommendation for that envelope. To do this, we use coupons, shop sales, plan meals, and use Amazon mom for diaper discounts. But try as we might, we weren't able to spend less than his recommendation. Then last month, we had almost $200 left in our grocery budget, so I thought I’d finally broken a record! I excitedly moved some over to savings, and covered a few other expenses.

Before I could revel in my accomplishment, the September grocery budget exploded – day diapers, night diapers, 932 tubes of diaper cream (or at least it seemed), good coupon stock-ups, and a few unexpected grocery trips. Suddenly, we are only 10 days into the month with $75 left for the rest of the month. So most likely, exactly what I “saved” last month will go back into this month’s grocery budget.

Lesson learned for us – our grocery dollars can’t be liquidated for other goals. If we spend less one month, we will undoubtedly make up the difference the next. I may never embrace my body’s natural set point, but I’m at making peace with the grocery set point… at least until the little guy is out of diapers.


We've been embracing the wonderful weather lately. On the cool days, we've played outside...

On the rainy days, we watched it rain and raced our trucks around...and eventually went to the Chickfila playground to burn the energy of cooped-up little boys.

Week 36 of 52: More Harley Fun!

More shots of my friend Mel, her husband Fred, and their fabulous Harleys.

Week 35 of 52 - Living Vicariously

I had the opportunity to photograph my friend Mel and her husband Fred today.  They are Harley riders and I enjoyed capturing them doing what they love.

As for me, I followed behind them in the Rav4 and pretended I was cruising behind on my Heritage Softail.  Yep, it was quite a stretch for a '99 Toyota with 2 car seats in the back.