A Thankful Heart | Day 7.

I know I’ve said family already but for today I want to focus on my children:

Eman & ZigZag

There are no words to express all of the emotions that go along with Mommyhood. It’s a whole new world that is constantly changing. If you have more than one child, the milestones reached with the oldest are not necessarily how things will happen when the youngest reaches those same milestones. It is amazing to me how incredibly dissimilar yet alike my boys are. They both have fairly happy dispositions most of the time. Yet, even when they’re happy there’s such a difference of expression from one to the other.

I have learned more about myself in the last seven {and a half!} years than I’ve probably learned in the last thirty combined. New ways of teaching, giving, receiving. There just aren’t words enough to express how much I love these little dudes and how drastically they’ve changed my life {for the better!}.

ZigZag will make up little songs that say, “I love you Mommy” in them.

Eman will come up as though he has something very serious to say and then wink at me before giving me the biggest hug.

To quote the movie Something’s Gotta Give ”They make me want to be a better person”.

I just love them!

Updates.

School.

School is going great and is the main cause of slacking when it comes to blogging. SO MUCH HOMEWORK! No, really though, it’s not horrible. Anatomy & Physiology is keeping me pretty busy. Micro Computer Applications utilizes Microsoft Office 2010 – a software I’ve been using for months. Sociology I haven’t formed an opinion on yet as we only meet once a week and have only had one class so far. Orientation – I should have taken as a Freshman – I do like the instructor though so maybe I’ll actually get something out of it.

Work.

Work … is going. I do still like my job but with me going back to school the decision was made that I should probably resign. My last day to work at the ACE NET offices will be March 11, 2011. A bittersweet moment I should think. I do know that going back to school was the right thing to do and that’s truly where the peace is but I will miss my friends (co-workers) as well.

Boys.

Boys are HUGE!! Seriously. I can’t remember if I’ve stated this before or not but E-man can eat an entire 8 pieces of pizza all by himself  in ONE sitting! I can’t remember if that’s a large or a medium but you get the point. ZigZag has decided he doesn’t like food. Or rather, that he wants a teeny bit of everything – not even enough to equal one bite most times. I’ve decided I don’t like it when their food tastes change, especially because they tend to change just as I’ve gotten used to what they have been. Aside from food, both boys are doing great in school. And they’re wearing me out talking about which sports or musical adventures they want to challenge next! Soccer. Baseball. Cub Scouts. Karate. Swimming. Drums. Bass. Guitar. It’s enough to make me dizzy!!

Photography/Writing.

My passions. The things I do when I have nothing else to do – which is rare these days. Photography is on hold through the rest of January but I’m hoping to open February with a couple of contests that will be posted here so keep an eye out for those. Writing – what I would be doing. I’m feeling the need to write again so maybe I’ll start the outline for the book that’s been in my mind for ages.

Life in General.

Life is good. Very good. A few things I’m looking forward to: Winter Bible Seminar, Spring Break, Summer Just to name a few. Oh, and snow!! Supposedly we’re getting snow tonight – we’ll have to wait and see how right the weather people are this time. All in all, 2011 is looking to be a GREAT year!

I think that’s it for the moment. I know, it’s not as deep as some of the more recent posts I’ve done but life isn’t all about how deep it is. It’s all about how you handle what’s thrown at you – do you handle it with grace or do you crumble?

On Photography.

I’ve made LOTS of new discoveries this week.

New labs.

New fonts.

New templates.

New business card ideas.

New intake form ideas.

New business plan ideas.

New mentor-type photogs.

I am SO very excited!!

You see, this time last year I was working for barely just over minimum wage in a retail studio with so many limitations that the creative juices were all but extinct. When I left that studio, I accepted a job working in the IT industry (completely different) with some of my closest friends and was ready to walk away from photography altogether. But, a funny thing happened, some of my clients from the retail studio followed me.

I wasn’t expecting this at all. I mean, I know there were clients who’d say how much they loved the portraits I took of their children or of their family but very few of them actually requested me so I took it as the compliment it was, said, “thank you”, and went on. No biggie.

But when a person makes the decision not to change something in their lives, even if that means tracking someone down on Facebook, that’s a big deal! Not many people knew I was leaving. Honestly, I didn’t know I was leaving until 2 days before when things just went all haywire and I had to do something. So, it’s not like I’d prepped them and said, “hey, why don’t you come with me”. This was done of their own freewill.

What a humbling thing that is.

Moments & Memories

The last few days have been full of such fun moments with my boys I can’t help but to share some of them.

ZigZag:

- Has a new word that sounds an awful lot like a curse word we’ve all heard before but it’s not. It’s really a contraction of the two words: “am” and “not” so it comes out as amn’t. And, he uses it in the context of “am not” but, man, that’s a habit I’m trying to break him of real fast!

- Grocery list making with ZigZag is hysterical!! It took me a couple of minutes to catch what exactly he was doing but once I did I couldn’t help but laugh! It went something like this. I told them that I was going to make a list and asked both boys if there was anything they wanted. As I’m going through the list ZigZag leans over and goes, “Mommy, how do you spell orange?” to which I replied, “o-r-a-n-g-e”. Then he said, “Okay. Write that down. How do you spell grape?”

- I’m not sure which child on ZigZag’s soccer team actually kicked the ball but one of them kicked it square in the referee’s “no strike zone”! There was literally a collective gasp from the crowd followed almost immediately by loads of laughter from not only the parents/families but the teams, coaches, and even the referee himself – after taking a couple of moments to breathe, of course!

E-man:

- I have never been more proud of my oldest son than I was Saturday morning. In the middle of his soccer game his coached yelled cause the team was kicking the ball the wrong direction and she was trying to get them to go the correct way. If you know anything about soccer, this was right after halftime and they’d just changed which goal they were aiming for. He started crying. Covered his face with his hands, sat down on the field. Crying. She walked over to him, asked for a time-out and talked to him. Basically gave him two choices: to quit and walk off the field or to dry it up and keep playing. (I’m paraphrasing here as I didn’t hear her conversation with him but was told the gist of it afterwards.) He chose to keep playing. And he played so very well! He made the right decision and it was a benefit to not only him but his team and I think he saw that.

- Cub Scouts. I really wish I could leave this one at that one phrase and have everyone know what I’m talking about but I know better. I have seen him so happy that’s he’s earned a badge and a belt loop in less than a week. And that was his doing. He’s the one who learned the necessary pledges, promises, activities, etc to earn these honors. And I can’t wait see him up in front of everyone next month at the pack meeting to receive those along with any other he earns in the next few weeks!

- I looked at him this week and saw just who he is inside. It’s amazing really! I keep learning my son over and over again. He’s this incredible, not-so-little person who has an entire personality all his own. I love when he frowns at me and then flashes that smile of his. Or when I can see that he’s learning the difference between acting and reacting.  He’s so very sweet. He loves being able to play and be with everyone but he also very much needs his downtime. He has such a sweet spirit and loved getting to stay up late last week to listen to Keith Moore preaching. And music. He’s so very talented  musically. I very much want to encourage that in him and not destroy it for him. There’s a very fine line there.

I know there’s so very much more I could add to this but these are the things that struck me this week.

Friday Favorites – 2 weeks worth

I’m sitting here editing the hundreds, possibly thousands, of pictures I’ve taken in the last few weeks and it occurred to me that I failed to post a #FF post last week and this week both. So, I’m going to combine the two weeks now. And yes, by the time I’m finished with this post it will be Sunday. But, you know what they say, “better late than never”! Who’s “they” anyway?!

And the memories are going to be all jumbled up because, well, it’s 2 weeks combined and without having my calendar in front of me I’m uncertain of what happened when! Suffice it to say that the following events happened sometime in the last 2 weeks!

Here goes nothing!

One Saturday we had 2 soccer games and 2 birthday parties all before 4pm. Made for a very busy day, let me tell you! However, it was the first soccer games of the season and ZigZag’s first ever team soccer game! It was so exciting!!

E-man has had 4 out of 5 “green” days at school! I’m counting this as all week because technically he wasn’t at school on Friday so for the entirety of the week he did have, he was on his best behavior! This does, however, mean $5 goes into the piggy bank but he’s also that much closer to his goal of getting a DS for Christmas!

E-man has officially started Cub Scouts! He’s a Tiger Cub! We got the uniform, now to just get those patches on it before the next meeting!

My friend’s daughter had a baby! A bittersweet moment as she’s still just a teenager (17) but happy at the same time because baby is healthy and is in a very loving home!

We planted lots and lots of flowers with/for my mom. Some will live and come back next year. Other’s will die and will have to be replaced next year, but we had lots of fun doing it!

Pawhuska Bible Church had their 15th year anniversary and celebrated with a picnic after church. There was so much food and desserts and oh so many water balloons! But, the biggest draw was the dunk tank!

I think that’s about it. Not as long as I thought it would be! The only other thing that happened that was so very much fun was the planning party for the PTO we’re hoping to get started at the school. Very exciting stuff happening here!