well that was interesting!

About a month ago, I got this random call from my old boss, to whom I haven't spoken in years. I used to babysit her daughter, and she called to inquire about doing pictures of her.

So, the daughter is a grown woman now, and wanted some photos (of a sensitive nature!) to make a calendar for her fiance. This is what I spent the morning doing.

The girl is 20, with long, curly hair, and she was a gymnast for a long time. Needless to say, she's GORGEOUS. She had everything planned out - a theme for every month - and brought a carload of props (including cupcakes for his birthday month, an American flag (and garter) for July, and my favorite... a taxidermied turkey that he caught. He's a hunter.) No joke. I had a real, dead stuffed turkey in my studio. It was a first!

OHMYGOODNESS. As weird as it sounds, it was a lot of fun. Her mom even came and helped her pose. She knew exactly what she wanted, and she did a fantastic job. I just uploaded the pictures to my PC, and I'm weirded out to say that these are some of my favorite pictures EVER! Unfortunately, this is the one set of pictures I can't share with the world! Boys: don't even ask. I won't do it.

I was taken aback a little that her mom was so open, and involved, in this process. My mother found out my cousin (who is happily married) was having an adult "toy" party, and she was disgusted. This girl's mom was uncovering her because she wasn't showing enough. Mom and daughter have matching tattoos.

So, all in all, it was an interesting day. A learning experience. And someone has some kick ass pictures to give to her husband!

(Still a little weirded out.)

dirty feet

We always say that when the boys have dirty feet, it's been a fun day.

We had a lot of fun this weekend. Yesterday we went to the Festival of Lanterns at Spades Park. It was really interesting - there were hundreds of colored lanterns strung across the park, and they lit them all about 9:00 last night. They had food vendors and crafts booths and live music. Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band played as it got dark; if you ever have the chance to see them live - go! They look like they walked out of 1850 West Virginia.

Today we went to the Mt. Comfort Air Show, which was amazing also. Afterwards we grabbed some dinner and took our bikes over to Ft. Harrison. Ben, Lauren and his friend Tom all went on a bike ride, and I took Evan to the playground. We brought Evan's bike, but for some reason he wanted to carry it instead of ride it, so he and I hung out on the swings.

So, yeah, the boys fell asleep in the car on the way home. They were filthy! Evan seriously looked like pigpen. I know there won't be time in the morning, so I gave them sponge baths while they were sleeping. Not perfect, but much cleaner.

A fun time was had by all. :)

My (little) big kindergartener.

Benny started kindergarten last Wednesday! I'm excited to report that he absolutely loves it!

He comes home every day and talks for a while about what they worked on and (so far) has been very excited to get up in the morning and go back. They have homework that is assigned on Fridays (not due until the next Thursday) - last Friday he attacked me before I even got in the door, and got upset that we couldn't work on it until Saturday. If he's anything like his mom, he'll get over that. So far he's loving art and music class. It's fun to see what he's worked on that day - he's even improved his name writing already. :)

I took a lame picture of him at home (Evan jumped in and gave me his signature "drunk eyes" look), and Lauren took his camera to the school to get a first day picture. Of course, the batteries were dead (mine weren't!), but my camera was at home. Oh well. He looks really cute in his little uniforms.

I can't imagine

I got news tonight that my friend Kristi's baby, Austin, died today. He was 10 months old and had a twin sister, Alyssa. I guess his sitter put him down for a nap and checked on him about 45 minutes later, and his lips were blue.

I just had lunch with Kristi today. I'm just so in shock - I can't imagine what she and her family are going through. So... if you think about it, say a prayer for them. Kristi and Jeff have three other kids - Emma, Logan and Alyssa.

this week's obsession!

I don't know why it took so long for me to discover this. As you all have figured out, I'm a musical nerd. This opened on broadway late in 2006, and won best musical in 2007. And, now, I'm obsessed. Seriously. I started listening to it Monday morning and haven't stopped.

Check this out from Spring Awakening! (Sorry for the Rosie O'Donnell...)