Hurricane Party

August 29th is a pretty memorable day in my book. It's my baby sister's birthday. It's right before Labor Day. And, of course, in a Southern Louisiana girl's book, it's the anniversary of Katrina. This year also brought Isaac. Thankfully, I have since moved west after Katrina and am not in the middle of a swamp. Isaac also wasn't nearly as bad as Katrina.

Don't get me wrong, there have still been deaths. My family has property damage and is without power. My mom's work is underwater. But where I am, it was just a windy and rainy day. Having lived in the south all my life, I've got a pantry full of the necessities and know what to do in the case of a storm.

The kids have never been through a hurricane before - I was pregnant with Auds when Gustav happened - so they didn't really understand it. Auds got a little scared when the power went out and stayed out, but handled it well for a three year old.

Here's a little video from my phone of the kids playing in the yard the morning after. The ground was so saturated we kept slipping and sliding all over the place. But, we had a blast out in the wind. We were actually able to open the windows and enjoy the breeze from the storm passing on.

Now we've just got to wait for the ground to dry before we can cut it again and remove all of the outside toys from in my studio. It's packed in here.

At Home Haircut

So I decided to cut little man's hair at home. Usually, he goes to the same barberspa that my husband does. I think it's adorable that they go to the same stylist and have that bonding time. However, T's hair grows so fast that he needs it cut frequently. He needs it more frequently than my husband and I don't have the time to take him every two weeks. And I certainly don't want to pay $20 every two weeks to have it done.

Rather than having him look like a shaggy boy or grow a mullet, I decided to take matters into my own hands. At home hair cut? You bet!

I put him in the bathroom sink and filled it with water. He sat in there with his toothbrush and a cup and played contentedly while I tried to mimic what I've seen his stylist do. He threw a cup of water at me and I stuck him in the tub to rinse.

I couldn't get during shots coz a wet toddler in a marble sink with scissors without a mama coz she went to go get the phone is a recipe for disaster.

But, here he is during his post-cut bath and after I dried him off. What do you think? Look too home- done? It's better than bringing back Billy Ray Cyrus, though, right?

Bliss

Today, I am thankful for God. And my third cup of coffee for the day. And the fact that I saved $98.62 making groceries. 

This week has been a roller coaster, that's for sure. But because of God's faithfulness, I am able to see the beauty in the hard times. 

What hard time? Oh, the fact that T woke up at midnight on Sunday night/Monday morning (however you look at things) and threw up constantly for 12 straight hours. We thought he was doing better and were getting ready to go to church to pray for him when he started all over again. How many loads of laundry does it take to wash three loads of bedding, two baby outfits (I eventually let him go naked) two mommy outfits and two daddy outfits? Too many, that's how many. But I got to cuddle my sweet little man all day. And then I got to cuddle my sweet little girl all night because she refused to go to sleep until midnight. Yup, that's 24 hours with no sleep. Rock star mom? I think so!

Or the fact that Tuesday, my kids became posessed. Like nearly green soup spewing posessed. These adorable babies were trying to pull the iron down - as I ironed, by the way - fed the dog various pieces of Mrs. Potatohead, ran around the house screaming their head off just because, and fought with each other all day. At the end of the day, we were rushed, things were crazy, I was late to Junior League, and my husband was late to church. But, I was inspired by the projects we'll be doing at JL and showed up at church (after rushing out of JL as quick as I could) before the preaching started. I missed worship, but according to my husband someone screwed up the sound system so there were no drums or guitar which messed up the beat and everyone was worried about fixing it and yadda yadda yadda. But I got to hear all of the preaching, and the babies fell asleep on the way home. Score!

I was supposed to do a stylized shoot for breastfeeding awareness today, but the baby was having a bad reaction to a vaccine so it was rescheduled. What does a mom do with her free time with the assistant coming over? A wise photographer probably would have worked on the ton of portrait sessions that need tending to - they will get done! But a wise mom took the time to go make groceries sans kids. It was like a vacation! Amazing! Groceries is always a big deal for me. We have farmers markets, but during busy wedding and portrait season it's so hard to get out there coz their working hours and mine are at the same time. So, I scour sale ads and coupons and match up the best deals. Honey, if it ain't in the sale ad or have a coupon for it, I ain't buying it unless it's an essential item. 

I go around to all of the different stores (which are in town 20+ minutes away) with my lists and my ads and my coupons and my reward cards and calculate how much I saved. It's actually really fun for me. Today I got nearly $100 in FREE groceries! You read that right! $98.62 to be exact. And everything was gluten free and organic when possible. That's a pretty good turn of events. 

My husband was lamenting earlier in the summer about how hard the law industry is getting hit. Today, he called to say that he has more work than he can handle, is having to travel across the state more (we get reimbursed for that) and is getting people inquiring about having him represent them in large cases. Praise God! 

And now I'm sitting here with a bowl of almonds and a cup of coffee with organic sugar listening to my kids play in the playroom with my mother in law. They're both feeling better. My husband is working hard. I've got a to-do list as long as my arm and feel motivated in crossing things off and life is good. This is as close to blissful as it gets - especially when I'm leaving the nasty diaper from this morning for my husband to clean when he gets home. :)

So Proud

I'm so proud of my husband. He preached an amazing message at church today. God is so good for not only giving such an inspiring message, but for letting me be married to the man He gave it to.

A Man and His Guitar

I'm hoping this link works since I'm typing this from my phone while enjoying some morning cuddles with my girl. :) but here should be a video of my husband at last night's music practice. Please ignore the ending as I run to try and keep my son from scaling the pulpit.

I Have a Not-So Secret Secret

No, I'm not pregnant!


I totally want to buy my husband a banjo and sing old hymns with him. Yup. There. I said it. My husband, who can shred up a guitar like nobody's business during an anointed service is so gonna bluegrass it up. He just doesn't know it yet. The times I've mentioned it before, he thought I was joking. Little does he know...

What do you think? Would you buy Cajun Country Hymns? haha!

This Is The Day

This is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made. I will rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice and be glad in it. I'll be glad in it for this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Oh, this is the day. This is the day that the Lord had made.

It all started with an incredibly early bedtime for Auds followed promptly by a horrendous night terror. When Auds has these, she somehow gets this super human strength and my 6ft husband can barely contain her. This night terror kept her awake until about 1 and subsequently kept her brother awake as well. This caused us to miss prayer meeting and music practice.

We ended up going to bed around 3 and my husband woke up at 5, after his alarm went off at 430. Auds teeteed in the bed shortly thereafter. I put a towel on it and told her to lay back down. I scooted out at 6 praying that they'd sleep in so I could get some processing done. I worked on washing the diapers and cloth before I realized...

No such luck, both kids sauntered out shortly thereafter. We had breakfast and got ready for Tony's play class. Owing to his lack of sleep, he wanted nothing to do with the class. On top of that, an older sibling of a classmate slammed his face into the floor during bubble time. Yup. That was a blast.

We made a quick stop at the market to make some groceries and Auds threw a fit about the buggies. They were spaceships and not race cars like at the other store. I told her if she didn't want to get in, I'd leave her in the parking lot and pick her up on my way out. Don't call CPS, it was an empty threat. But she did get in.

Came home and made lunch and got a call that the A/C man was coming. We need a new unit. He washed ours and put in some freon to tide us over u til he could find a unit like ours. Woo hoo.

As I'm bribing the kids with a movie and trying to get a teeny tiny bit of work done, the dog somehow gets his collar stuck in his kennel in his sleep. When he tries to roll over and can't, he freaks out flipping the kennel, his gate, and literally scared the poop (and pee) out of himself. So I have to free and comfort a freaked out pit bull, clean up his mess (and we just ran out of paper towels. We're mostly cloth so we didn't have any more on hand), flip the kennel and gate back to their normal positions all while keeping two very curious toddlers out.

I'm convinced that God has a sense of humor when we get days like today. You know, the kind of days to keep you humble. And everything hits the fan at once so all you can do is laugh. And then your babies pretend to laugh with you. :) such a sweet sound that is.