Random Thoughts

I have a few friends who's blogs I check every day, just to see what they're up to. And I find myself getting all antsy when they don't have new posts. But I guess that's not fair when I haven't bothered to update my own blog in so long. I don't have any one, coherent thing to talk about, so here's a random gathering of things that have been running through my head.

1. I still don't know how to respond the the lady who told me that I look "ripe" yesterday.


2. I'm really proud of my husband for actually volunteering to go knock on doors for something that he believes in.


3. Everything makes me cry recently. For example, Caden woke up at 6:00 in the morning on Monday, and I cried.


4. Pete and I will be lucky to make it to dinner and a movie for our 5 year anniversary this weekend. This is lame.


5. Caden is into declaring things "beautiful" lately. Yesterday, as he was running up and down the hall, he told me that he was a "beautiful race car". And he totally is.

Here's a recent photo of the beautiful race car:

This is just funny

John McCain has single-handedly made comedians all over the world feel alive again with his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate.

Attention Teenage Shoppers...

I need to let the shopping youth of America in on something. I am 35 years old and 8 1/2 months pregnant. I'm at the point that most maternity clothes don't even fit me (shut up, it's normal). This weekend I actually had to go get a few shirts that would carry me through these last few weeks. And guess what... I found 3 totally cute shirts that actually accommodate this belly to the point that I can keep hitting the ice cream, no problem - IN THE TEEN SECTION.

I just thought you should all be aware of this a) for your general knowledge of the big picture and b) in case you want to make any fashion adjustments in light of this information. In the meantime, I thank you for your current sartorial aesthetic.

Tick Fest 2008

Last month, we went up to New London, CT for a family reunion. My mom and aunt Kathy refer to this now yearly even as "Camp Cousins". It's a happy name, and it refers to the fact that 1) there are a mess of cousins and 2) almost everyone sleeps out in a tent in grandma's backyard for the week. (Luckily, having children under the age of 3 and/or being pregnant exempts you from this. We stayed in a beach house 10 minutes away. Yay us!)

I'm going to refer to this yearly event as "Tick Fest" instead and here's why. There are at least 3 people who have not only been bit by ticks in this yard in recent years, but have actually gotten Lyme Disease. My uncle Barry, my grandmother and my own mother. So 7 children plus all their parents, grandparents, great aunts and uncles and even great grandparents are hanging out in this yard for days on end. But every 2 minutes you hear my mom or aunt yelling "Check that kid for ticks!", "don't sit on the grass!", "you're gonnna need to strip down and really look because ticks are tiny!" Jesus Christ.

So anyway, we take the train up and got in really late, so the fun begins for us the next day. We take an hour drive through the winding Connecticut countryside, then turn into a national forest and drive another 15 minutes over an unpaved road. We get there you will never guess who else is there:

It's the Crips, and they are having a pic-a-nic. Did anybody know that the Crips go for picnics in Connecticut? Luckily, the Bloods playing golf in Vermont or something, and everyone had a great time.
Here's Caden "catching" his first fish. He was so excited and damn it was cute. When he finally saw the fish come out of the water he said "Hi Nemo!" Thankfully, everyone had the good sense to let Nemo back into the water rather than killing him on the spot, saving us years of therapy bills.

Pete was having a good time. Bethany not so much.

The rest of the time was spent mostly just hanging out together at Grandma's, eating constantly and watching the kids play together. It was more exciting than it sounds because everyone really likes each other and we don't see my cousins and their kids that often.
It was about 100 degrees out, so somebody had the great idea to fill some buckets and coolers with water for the little kids to cool off. Tucker and Ava stripped down and hopped right in, but not Caden. He's a sophisticated little guy, and would no sooner sit naked in a bucket on the front lawn than I would. So he made it his job to make sure the buckets were full, and he also very thoughtfully sprayed everyone's feet and pants for them.

Of course, the other big thing was for all the kids to fling themselves down Grandma's hill. I used to do this when I was a kid with my siblings and cousins. It's always been the big deal at grandma's. I even made a little movie about it. Last year it was the older kids who ruled the hill. But this year, the little guys got in on the act. So did a few spouses.

In all, Tick Fest was a really good time, and nobody got Lyme Disease. I'm so glad we went, even though the week before had been so rough. Unfortunately, 5 more people got sick afterwards, and I know for a fact that Caden was the Typhoid Mary. Oh well. In 20 years when we're looking at the photos, we won't remember which kid it was, exactly, that gave everyone strep throat that year.

Photo of the Day

No. Indeed it's not.

The Stupidity Continues

Without skipping a beat, the stupidity continues to this day at our house. All last week, Caden had a really high fever and Pete and I took turns staying home from work with him. To further complicate things, we were supposed to be heading up to New London, Connecticut for a family reunion early Friday morning. It was touch and go, and at one point we'd made up our minds that Pete would stay home with Caden and I would just go by myself. So we cancelled their train reservations and I switched mine to leave Friday afternoon and come back earlier than planned. Then by Friday afternoon Caden was fine, so we bought them tickets again (more expensive of course), and re-reserved the rental car (double the price), and hauled ass up to CT on the train.

I have to say here that Caden was SUCH a trooper about the whole thing and he deserves ice cream every night until he's at least 7 years old. I'm so glad we made it and I'll write more about the weekend in my next post.

... But back to the stupidity. On monday morning I wake up with Caden's fever and Pete has pink eye by the time we get home. Sweet.

Back in the Saddle Again...

A few weeks ago I got an email out of the blue from one of my brides. I shot Jennifer and Matt's wedding a few years ago and really liked them. They'd since both done tours of duty in the military, had a baby, moved overseas, and then come back. She was wondering if I could take some family photos.

It was really nice to get back behind the camera for a while, and the whole thing was easy since we already had a good photographer/photographee(?) relationship. And god bless them, they've agreed to be my guinea pigs on a sound-with-photo idea that I have. More on that later.

Thanks Jen and Matt!