Talented...

I had to work on an assignment for class and was trying to capture this...

Then I was able to capture that...

And as were were getting ready to pack up and go home, Griffin asked if he could take a picture...since I had the camera on the tripod I let him snap a few pictures. He moved the camera up and down and then took a couple of shots...

I was so impressed with his pictures when I got them on the computer...great job my little talented man!

Turning Circles

This has been one of the longest weekends for Tim and I, not necessarily in the best possible way. We had one the most disturbing experiences since becoming parents that took place on Friday night, that I just keeping running around and around in my head...

Both of us got home late from work and errands on Friday night, and decided that we would go out to dinner. So we went to a little local family restaurant. As we were sitting and waiting for our food, McKenna started to squeal. Not a tantrum or yell, when she get excited or wants something, she has this high pitched "girly" squeal. She was making noise, but Tim and I were keeping her entertained with snacks and playing with her...Then the unbelievable...

This older man in his 60's came around the corner and started to walk past until he stopped and said, "Is that your kid making the noise?" Me thinking that he was going to say something like What is all the noise about, you know in a joking way, like I usually get if she squeals like that... No, not so much. Tim responded, yes. Then this man proceeded to start yelling and us...not talking, yelling...as loud as he could, to where everyone in the restaurant turned and were looking...some people started to "boo" this guy. In the middle of his first yelling sentence or two, Tim said, "Are you serious???". This man yelled, "Yes, I am serious, you may not care what your children do, but the rest of us want to have a quiet, uninterrupted dinner. You need to learn how to control your children." He actually said that we needed to control our children several times. Even after he saw that McKenna was a baby, and he didn't know that we had "children" until he walked around to where we were sitting cause Griffin had taken a transformer car with him and had hardly talked because he was engrossed with transforming. Not to mention there were TV's everywhere with ESPN on half and Winnie the Pooh on the others.

I was literally in a state of shock, and as this guy continued with his voice raised, he started to walk away and Tim told him what he thought of him, the best way possible since we had our kids with us. After the man walked away, a couple of people around us came up and said to ignore him. Since this a local family owned restaurant, the owner was there and came up and apologized and tried to accommodate us for the rest of the meal. But after she came up, I lost it...Pathetically, I just started crying, uncontrollably...our food came out at that moment, so I told Tim we needed to leave and we took our food to go. I felt the need to go for several reasons, I was crying and couldn't see my plate...Griffin was confused to what just happened, and McKenna was still squealing and I didn't know the mind set of this man and I had children to protect. So we walked out to car and when I was inside the car with the kids, Tim went back in and really told this guy what he thought of him.

I think that I was so emotional, because this was such a heartless thing to do. Such a mean, cruel thing, that happened in front of my children. You know when you are in a situation and wish you knew what to say at that moment, or what to do, only to sit on it later and wished you would have handled it different. I felt trapped as to what to do in that moment. This man needed to know what he had done was completely inappropriate, rude and intolerable. But at the same time, how do you articulate that when your children are present, so you don't have to justify your actions if you handle the situation poorly. I do so desperately wish that I could go back to that night and start over. Both Tim and I do, as we have been reliving this event all weekend and wish we could go back and start over. Since Tim did go back in, he got a little relief, but I didn't even say anything to this man. I know that this will never be seen by this person but for my own sense of moving on...To you sir I say this:

I am so sorry that my daughter was making noise, she was not throwing a tantrum, she was just excited. I am sorry that you did not have a quiet, uninterrupted dinner. Maybe if want a dinner like that, I would suggest staying home or going to an adult restaurant, not a family restaurant with Winnie the Pooh on the TV's. Furthermore, when you came around the corner and saw that the noise was coming from a one year old, you should have walked away. When you saw that we had another child with us, you should have walked away. If you really felt that way, you should have talked to your waitress or the owner. You sir should be ashamed of yourself, for behaving that way in place full of children. Children including my own that witnessed your repulsive behavior. We made the decision to leave not because our daughter was making noise, but because we had to explain to our son why a person would come up to his family and yell horrible things to them, and let him know if he ever chooses to behave that way there will be consequences and he will be punished. So when you look in the mirror, I hope you are happy with the reflection, because I am sad for the lack of joy and happiness that is obviously missing from your life.

Okay, I feel a little better...

Heads in the Clouds...

I have this dream of what my days and life would look like in a "perfect world"...I would wake up, make a loaf of bread so my house would smell so delicious...then I would get the kids up, make a breakfast and more than just oatmeal or toast, walk out back to get in some gardening and pick some fresh veggies for dinner, work on a craft project like scrap booking or sewing a new outfit, play the rest of the morning outside with my babes, after lunch we would go an adventure somewhere so I could take some pictures, then stop by the gym for an awesome workout, followed by some way of giving back to the community, come home to make dinner and hang out and play games after that until bedtime. Of course my house would be spotless the entire time. While I do a majority of these things, I can never find time in a single week to get most of them accomplished.

I dream of this world outside my house, outside of my children, outside the role of mother and wife. I dream of what would happen if what I wanted was on the forefront of my thoughts. So many times, and I know that all moms feel this at some point, I feel as though I have been lost in the shuffle. My husband has a life outside of our house, and has the fortune to experience many wonderful events and opportunities as a perk of his career. My perk, doing dishes 3 times a day and changing diapers...being a little sarcastic here...but knowing that I am so blessed to be able to stay home and raise my children and see all their new discoveries, being able to go and play and do things during the day because I have no 8-5 commitment...but on that same branch of thought, I desperately miss the outside world, the adult interaction, the ways in which I was challenged to perform in a job...so it has been my quest over the last few months or so to find something for me that balances out home life and outside life, something that allows me to grow as an individual but still allows my the opportunity to be a full time mom.

I have been taking photo classes for a couple of months and have really found a passion in looking through the lens and seeing more than just the face on the other end or something I am trying to shoot. When I look through the lens I see the bigger picture, I see beyond the roles of my life and I see a sense of freedom. With the encouragement of my instructor and his more than ego boosting compliments of my assignments, and with the praise I have received here and through my family, I have made the decision to start doing this professionally. I have so much more to learn, so much more to experience, and a great deal more practice. But this is a stepping off point for me. I am going to spend the next few months building my portfolio and taking a couple more classes as I continue to enhance this new craft of mine. The most exciting this is that my husband is all for it even when I told him how much I wanted to spend on equipment...this will not be a speedy thing, it will be a crawl, so while I am crawling along and finding my way through it, if you are local to me and would be willing to let me practice and get some experience I would be so grateful...this may just be something that takes my head out of the clouds and grounds me to a reality...

What is this country coming to?

So I usually don't dive into to worldly topics here..even though I have immersed myself into politics over the last couple years and have alot to say and several opinions about the direction of the country...that is neither here nor there. Furthermore, I have been educating myself on nutrition and health and made it my priority to make sure my kids are healthy and we are giving them everything their bodies need to stay that way...we don't watch TV during the day(or at least not a lot on really hot days) so my kids can constantly stay moving, exploring and develop their imaginations...and then driving and listening to talk radio (yes, I listen to talk radio unless we are listening to the Alvin and The Chipmunks soundtrack or the Curious George soundtrack...very entertaining) and heard the most unnerving thing...that children as young as 8 could receive cholesterol medicine...seriously???

Let me give you a little back story...I had my 1 year old at the pediatrician for her 1 year check about 2 months ago and the you have seen pictures of her here...she is a healthy baby in my opinion...the doctor told me that she is to thin and needs to gain weight...She weighs 20 pounds, I think that is normal for a one year old, that is what Griffin weighed when he was one. As a matter of speaking, that is what I weighed when I was one. I asked the doctor if she was serious and she said "Yes, we will look at her weight at her next check up and decide if we need to put her on a high fat diet to increase her weight. How often are you feeding her?" This doctor has seen us more than we have seen most of our relatives due to all of Griffin's problems and this has never come up before. In my mind I am just spinning circles and angry...as the doctor asks me if McKenna can say any words...I tell her yes she can say about 7 or 8. The doctor says...she can't say that many...so I start to say out loud the words that kenna can say and in perfect little form kenna repeats the words. "Mama, dada, dog, duck, ball, no, yes, stop, what's that"...the doctor has a somewhat impressed look on her face...so in some what rude but deserved form I told her "Well apparently I don't feed my children, but I do educate them." But at the end of this checkup after we were told she is the 95th percentile for height but in the 12th for weight, I am thinking who are children getting compared too, why don't we compare them to themselves and make sure that they are growing and making progress...

Which brings me to this outrageous topic of giving cholesterol medicine to children as young as 8. What happened to playing outside and being active, what happened to eating healthy nutritious meals together as a family, what happened to taking the time to invest in the things that will teach your children how to be healthy, happy adults. Why do we have to result to medicine, why can't we alter our behavior and lifestyles to make the correct steps for our children's future. I am not saying that I am a saint, I have been through my fair share of drive thru's...our lifestyle is due in large part to Griffin, we don't have anything that is processed in our house, we eat mainly fresh foods especially fruits and veggies, and I refuse to give my kids anything with high fructose corn syrup in it. We don't spend money on frivolous stuff, but I do make sure to spend money on organic and healthy food, I know it is more expensive but my children will thank me when they are older ( I hope) and Tim and I are in good health. They do get treats and "exciting" food every once in a while...but I am happy to say that both my kids prefer broccoli to most things including ice cream...yes Griffin has asked for broccoli instead of ice cream on several of occasion after dinner and we always give it to him.

Now that I have gone on for a ridiculously long time...my point is that instead of shoving pills down the throats of our children for a band aid over the problem, maybe we should take a step back and reevaluate the way in which they are being raised and change their diet and get them away from the tv and video games...

Happy 30th...

So yesterday was Tim's birthday...the kids and I were busy from the time the sun came up until we passed out at the end of the night. Busy making Griffin friendly cakes, which was a disaster, but ended up okay...decorating wrapping paper for gifts, making cards, etc. But I wasn't able to jump on and say Happy Birthday to my hubby...he is 30!!! Yes older than me, but I guess that means that 30 is only 2 short years away for me...Hope you had a good birthday yesterday, Tim...(my parents are taking the kids Saturday night so we can actually go out and have a real date...yippee!!)

So it's true...

You know how everyone says that if the kids are doing something and it gets quiet, they are probably getting in to something or doing something they aren't supposed too. Well this is completely accurate!!! After getting back from our trip I rebelled against doing anything yesterday and the kids I laid around all day and read books and watched cartoons, and just wasted the day away...part of my rebellion was not really thinking about what to do for dinner, so when Tim got home we decided to pack up and go out...so as we were getting ready, we saw the kids go into Griff's room with a book and close the door. Thinking they were reading we got ready at record pace due to lack of helpers. When we were about ready, we noticed it was very quite and Tim went to open the door and didn't see any reading...just this...

They had taken an entire bottle of baby powder and "decorated" his room and mainly her. Laughing on the inside we let Griff know that it maybe wasn't such a good idea, and he declined to have his picture taken cause he was embarrassed. The good news is that after we cleaned her up and vacuumed the large quantity of powder up, the back of our house smells like a baby's butt. Warning: If your children are quite, check on them!!!

Prepare yourself...

A little spur of the moment decision took the kids and myself on a little road trip up to Show Low, up to Greer and back to take a timeout from the scorching hot weather. It rained every day, and we actually got to wear jackets in the evening...I really hated to come back but Tim didn't go so we were missing daddy...prepare yourself for some delicious pictures as I had a hard time deciding what to post...

Playing in the rain...

Too much fun...

Watching the hummingbirds eat...

Playing in Greer...

Between chasing ducks and getting to help feed the fish, and playing in the creek it was hard to leave...

(all those ripples are tons of fish)

I have more pictures to share, but I will save that for a different post...