I know... I know...

So it has been quite a while since I have blogged. Life has been a bit crazy in the mad house. Occasionally I answer the phone, "house of chaos, how may I help you?" Since my last post, I have been to Disney World again. I did another photo shoot of an adorable little buddy, Austin. I made it through another anniversary of April 16 Virginia Tech massacre. I am less than a week away from my girls' cruise. I am going to see Pioneer Woman at a book signing on Tuesday. So, let's get started on catch up.

1. Disney- This trip will definitely go down in the history books as a memorable trip. Brandi couldn't go so this meant Jeff and I got to take 3 kids and a toddler to Disney World. My mother went along for the fun. We could not have done this trip without her. The trip started off well. We arrived at our resort on Saturday morning only to find they didn't have a record of us booking even though I confirmed less than a week before. Jeff whipped out the confirmation and we were quickly handed room keys. We checked in extra early so mom, the kids, and I headed out to Walmart while Jeff slept. The vacation was off to a good start until Monday afternoon. While enjoying The Lion King show at Animal Kingdom a smell began to attack us that caused me to go blind for a short period of time. I'm pretty sure I lost nose hairs. It seemed to be coming, not from the baby but, from my 6 year old son. Of course he denied such things. So I did what any good mom would do. I blamed it on the people in front of us and secretly wondered what the heck they had been eating. After a short while I could no longer believe my precious little boy. I told him it smelled strangely as if he had pooped himself. THIS, he owned up to. Yep folks, that's right, my 6 year old son had pooped himself in Animal Kingdom. Perhaps he wanted to smell like the other animals on the safari. After looking for the hole to swallow me, I dragged my foul smelling offspring to the nearest bathroom. Once I calmed myself, I realized just how crowded that bathroom was. I turned to my son and instead of spanking him within an inch of his life (like my head said to do), I asked him if this happened because he was trying to pass gas. He hung his head in shame and admitted he had in deed done this. I accepted a swim diaper from my mom that she happened to have in the baby's diaper bag. (yea for my mother's need to over pack). While standing with my son while he "finished" the deed, I found myself gagging and wondering just what did I feed that boy and making a mental note to NEVER feed him that again. It suddenly occurred to me that the full bathroom was now very empty. My own mother had abandoned me to breathe in the toxic fumes coming from my youngest child. Once all done and cleaned up, he apologized for lying and pooping his pants. I accepted his apology and we finished the day with a smile. The next day, however, my 7 year old decided she didn't need to tell me she needed to potty. Instead she just did it in the back seat of my mini van and hid the evidence under a chair in the hotel room. Yeah, that went over like a ton of bricks when those clothes were found. What is wrong with my children and their bodily functions when they get to Disney World? My mother, meanwhile, was getting eaten alive slowly by something in her room. By the end of the trip we were pretty sure it was bed bugs. Nope, it turned out to be fleas. Someone before us broke the rules and brought in a dog. NOT COOL PEOPLE! There are rules against dogs in hotels for a reason and this is it. On the way home my sweet little nephew was happily eating KFC when he gagged and projectile vomited all over himself, the car seat, the floor, and the door. Yep, time to seriously detail the mini van. We pull over at the next gas station in South Carolina. While my mother and Jeff ran around searching for towels and soap to clean up the mess, I took the gross little toddler out of the car to clean him off. He was soaked all the way to his diaper. I stood him up outside the van to strip him. I immediately got attacked by sand fleas. I am swatting sand fleas and stripping sweet Jamie when he decided this was the perfect time to show me his new trick. He can make himself pee. He gave me the cutest smile and tilted his pelvis forward and began to spray the ground. I am half laughing and half yelling at him to stop it while trying to swat the attack of the killer fleas and clean up vomit and hold on to the wizzing naked 16 month old. My mother and Jeff come around the corner to see me desperately holding on to said naked child when he decided to now splash in the puddle he has created. OMG I would pay money to have a video of that moment. My mother is laughing and Jeff is mortified that Jamie is dancing naked in urine. Yep, down in history...

2.Will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm going to bed.

Second unofficial clients

So yesterday I spent a little time with some of my neighbor/friends' kids. She was wanting some "school like" shots of her kids. Sorry but I 'm just opposed to that kind of shot. I was only able to convince the 6 year old to stay in front of the camera for a few minutes. The 7 year old, however, it destined to be a model. She loved the camera and was quite patient. I gave her the chance to add in her own poses too.

Can we be done yet?

The rest of the pictures are on my flickr page.
On Friday Brandi and I set up the basement to do a little photo shoot. I planned all day what the kids would wear. I spent the morning searching for cute props and new shirts. After the well behaved children put on exactly what I laid out, it was time to take pictures. Hahahahaha, yeah right. It took about an hour just to get them dressed. I learned I have a ham in the family. Jaden is so full of himself I thought the boy would explode. He wanted every other turn to be his. For the next shoot I am bringing duck tape or that child. He was EVERYWHERE. Jasmine was cooperative. Taylor just wanted it to be over. RJ (Booga) was so busy running I was just tired looking at him. I was able to get a few shots.

Not Me Monday

This Not Me Monday is more a YES I DID Weekend. I was completely sick of the yucky white junk that kept falling from the sky. I was also at the end of my rope with 3 kids who were climbing the walls. We all needed a little space from each other and since Mother Nature was not going to cooperate this weekend. I was gonna take care of it myself. There was another snow storm heading our way and I was not shoveling again. Heck, I was still sore from the last storm. Dear sweet husband came home to a tight faced wife who had spent the day separating kids and cleaning up messes. The conversation went a little like this:
Toya: I'm leaving
Jeff: Ummm, where are you going?
Toya: I'm going to Disney
Jeff: What about the kids?
Toya: They are going to Granny's. You are welcome to join me if you want to but I'm leaving.
Jeff: Where are you gonna stay?
Toya: Don't know. I'm sure I can work it out.
Jeff: Ummm, I guess I will ahh, go

I had already called my mother and informed her that I needed a mental health weekend. She agreed to spend quality time with her grand kids. Yep, the woman is a saint. I pretty much had a little over 24 hours to make this happen. Jeff had over 110,000 Hilton's Honor points. Who the heck has that many points saved up? Lucky for me Jeff did. We were able to get 2 FREE nights at the Hilton in Downtown Disney. With in 24 hours we were packed and in the car heading down the road to freedom. We drove all night. I woke up as we were arriving in Disney World. We arrived too early to officially checked in so we spent time hanging out in Downtown Disney. The weather was just beautiful. It was cloudy but near 80 degrees. We walked hand in hand giggling like newlyweds. When the time came to check into the hotel, we were pleasantly surprised to find we had been upgraded to concierge level. When we got to our room we discovered what that meant.
I had an awesome view of Downtown Disney. In the distance I could see Disney Studios, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom. At night I could see the fireworks. Okay, that was pretty cool. We went to to Universal City Walk to have dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp. Yep, that was good. On our way to dinner I got a call from Jerry. He is the uncle of my "adopted" daughters Kellie and Leslie. Jerry was such a great host while we were in town. He allowed us to be his guests in the parks. Yep, free park tickets! He did not have to be so generous and we appreciated him so much. On Saturday Jeff and I met up with Jerry and had a great time in Epcot. We hopped the monorail and headed on over to Magic Kingdom. As night fell I immediately regretted my decision to not take my tripod. Since the park was not a full as when we usually visit, this would have been the perfect time to take some cool slow shutter speed shots. I had to practice being really, really still. This is what I got.


We had a great weekend. It was wonderful not having to dress someone else. I didn't have to beg, plead, or look after anyone other than myself. If we wanted to do something, we just did it. Well the carefree life is over now. I am back to the land of reality. Unfortunately my reality included shovels, snow, and more school closings. My mind is already planning my next great escape.

Birthday

Today I am 35. I feel great. I could be in so many other places but I am blessed to be here. I am happy and healthy as are my kids and husband. I really can't complain about anything. Unfortunately lots of people can't say the same. Birthdays make me reflect on my life and I have come to the conclusion that I am full. There are so many things I wish I would have done. But, if I could go back and change anything, I might not have this husband or this family. So, the last 35 years have been great because I am here.

Yesterday we celebrated my birthday with family and friends by going out to lunch after church. My wonderful husband surprised me with a cake with my picture on it. I was really surprised. He went to a lot of trouble to make this all happen. When he went to pick up the cake, the picture he gave them to scan wasn't scanned at all. They put the actual picture on the cake. After much debate, the bakery accepted responsibility for the error and worked enough magic to have the cake done right. Jeff was able to get the cake to Ruby Tuesday's without me knowing a thing. He totally rocks as a husband. I love his surprises.

Filming

So today was fun and different. I got to be an actress. I have been teaching first aid and cpr for almost 9 years. So, when I was asked to participate in a training video, I agreed. Sarah, Peyton, and I went down to the rec center this morning to shoot the video. Now Peyton has a cute crush on Sarah and he doesn't hide it. I would guess he even did a few extra push ups just for the shoot. No the problem with this is Sarah is over 30 and sweet Peyton is barely 19. When asked which of us would be the rescuer, I gladly handed that responsibility over to Sarah. She kicked me. I'm not sure why. LOL Here are a few pictures from that shoot. I like to call this Sarah's first kiss. This is what happened after Sarah's first kiss. hahahahahaha

This is Sarah's revenge.

We had a great time!

Happy New Year

We are starting a new decade today. So much happened last year that was good and not so good. When I take inventory of everything all I can say is, we are all still here and my kids are healthy and happy. Okay, enough with the emotions. The game plan for this year involves road trip with Sarah, birthday trip to NYC, Disney with family, girls trip with Melissa, trip to TX, vacation at the beach... This year someone will find a cure for cancer and autism. This year will be a great year. I won't tell you what my resolutions will be cause I know I will break them. Lets just say I made some and I will do my best. Now, put on your happy face and step into the New Year right. Smile at strangers more, recognize it was God who did it and not you, recognize it was your poor choices and not God punishing you, hug more, fuss less, remember tomorrow might not come for you or them so be slower to anger, and don't forget to treat yourself right because you matter too. Have a Happy New Year!

Photography

Since I was a young girl I have had an interest in photography. Knowing that my family just didn't have the money for such an interest I didn't even bother to tell anyone. After adopting Jasmine into our family, I gained an extended family I never dreamed would be so wonderful. They introduced me to the world of scrapbooks, which led to taking more pictures, which led to my pursuit of my interest from years ago. I have been blessed with a wonderful husband who has supported my many interests over the years. He is coming along for this ride too. He bought me my first (and only) digital slr camera. I love my Canon. After taking a class recently to get to know my camera more it left me hungry for more. I still have so many questions and I am slowly finding the answers to some of them thanks to the world wide web. I have met (in my head they are all totally my friends cause they let me into their family by way of a blog) Mckmama . She is awesome. She is a well known and loved blogger. She happens to have a section on her blog about photography. Woo hoo, I was on cloud 9. Finally I found someone to explain the cool tricks I see people do online. I was wondering why the eyes in everyone's pictures look so clear and brilliant. She totally let me know that I'm not just a sucky photographer. I too can have clear and brilliant eyes in my pictures if I have photoshop. It just so happens that I do. The next question I had was about how people put pictures together in a layout. Guess what I found out last night? Mckmama knows how and she was willing to teach me how for free. So, I grabbed some shots of my nephew that I posted earlier this month and tried out the instructions. It may seem like a small thing but by golly it was one of those small things that bug me. So I can mark that one off my list of things to figure out. Now I'm gonna hop on over to The Pioneer Woman's blog and read her photography lessons.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone! We actually went to bed before midnight last night. This is an unusual thing for us. Christmas Eve is usually a very late night for Jeff and I. We always spend that night charging, building, wrapping, and setting up santa's stash. Well this was the first year we didn't have anything to put together. No one needed or received a bike/scooter. The kids all got exactly what they needed/begged for. I spent the day in the kitchen and got rave reviews from my hubby and children on the dinner. Daddy spent the day playing wii with the kids. The kids are all tucked in bed now probably wishing they could do it all over again tomorrow. I am tucked in my recliner under two blankets wishing I could smell. Daddy is still playing wii. Good night. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

I'm Santa's Head Elf

For the last 8 years I have put together the children's party for our rescue squad. I look forward to it all year. Swalker, Catie, and I head up to Roanoke for a day of shopping. My favorite thing is the look on the cashier's face when we walk up to her register with buggy full of toys and gift cards. It has become a tradition to guess the amount. A huge brunch is prepared the morning of the party by Ricky.

The kids show up giddy with the excitement of seeing Santa. They get started on crafts and activities.

Mrs. Claus always makes an appearance first to read a story. Twas the Night Before Christmas, of course...

While she is reading, the kids hear the sounds of hoofs on the roof. As she gets to the end of the story a loud "Ho, Ho, Ho" comes from the hallway. The squeals of happiness are deafening. Santa walks in the room and some children run to him while others run away. The kids quickly get silent so they can hear from the big man. There is the occasional child who just can't help but ask Santa to be the first to get his gift. Santa is only too happy to grant the wish. Each child goes home with a special gift that was hand picked with their name on it. How does Santa know what they wanted? He really IS magic!






It is a great time for family. My camera can't catch all of the smiles and happiness. It really is the best time of the year. I look forward to this day all year. The fact that I am dead tired at the end of the day doesn't matter at all when I have mental pictures of these faces.








Thanks to Sarah for letting me steal 3 pictures from her smugmug account. She is my co-unofficial photographer.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!