The Eve

Tomorrow is my dad's surgery. Today we spent the day at his house, talking about things and how they'll go over the next few days. A 4-7 hour surgery, 2 days in ICU, then a hosptial stay of about 5 more days. It's going to be a long couple of weeks for him, for our family.

I can't remember how much I've posted about the details of the surgery . . . but the changes that will follow are pretty outstanding. He'll be rid of the cancer in his throat, first and foremost. He's also going to lose his voice box and the ability to breathe through his mouth and nose as an unavoidable result of the tumor removal. He'll continue his life as a 'total neck breather' -- breathing through a hole that is left at the bottom of his neck. As outstanding as the circumstances may be, my dad is still going to be around for many years, hopefully cancer-free . . . and that is the most important outcome of all.

Think of us -- pray for us -- tomorrow. There's really nothing funny about this year's 'April Fools Day' -- unless, of course, this whole surgery is just a joke. My dad kidded about that today . . . but it's probably an awfully long way to go for a joke, we decided.

He'll wake up and head to the hosptial in the morning, and I'll wake up and wait at home to hear how it goes. If I could be there, I would . . . but it makes more sense for me to just stay home and keep life with the girls as normal as I can. After tomorrow, I guess we'll have a new 'normal' to get used to. We'll be taking it one day at a time.

My Reflection

Got a phone call from a friend last week . . . her husband will be traveling for work quite a bit over the next 6 months, and she called to ask me how I manage life with 2 kids and a traveling husband. Our conversation went on, describing the loneliness and occasional resentment that comes from being left at home. She was worried about how she was going to manage her family on her own most of each week.

How do I play tennis? How can I get anything done? What about ME time? were most of her questions.

My answer: you just don't do a lot. You don't play tennis, you don't get a lot of time to yourself, and it's kinda tough to get stuff done most days. But you manage . . . and you look forward to your husband's return when you can turn the kids over to him.

"You are just so dedicated to being a mom," my friend told me. "I don't know how you do it. You've put your whole life on hold. I wish I could be more like that."

My response: "I think it's so funny that you see me that way . . . as this dedicated mom. I really feel like a very selfish person a lot of the time because I want to do and be so much more. I don't feel like a great mom . . . I feel like a mom preoccupied with my own things. I'm always wanting to do something for myself. I'm a lot more selfish than you think!"

That conversation has rolled around in my brain since it happened last Thursday. It's so strange that she sees me as a dedicated mother . . . that I'm putting my life on hold. I don't feel like I'm putting anything on hold. I often feel like -- if anything -- I'm putting my kids on hold so I can do my own things. (Case in point: Kate is crying in her crib as I write, and she has been at it for about 10 minutes. She's awake from a nap . . . but I desperately want to finish this blog.) I feel very very selfish. I'm so ready to have Kate done nursing . . . to have Meg more self-sufficient . . . so that I can have more time to do what I want to do. I was shocked to hear my friend tell me that I'm not as selfish as I think I am.

It's often comical how others see us so very differently than we see ourselves. My friend -- the one who called -- seems like the 'I can do it all' mom to me. She has a part time career, she babysits for family Mon-Fri, she's got two great girls, and she finds time to play tennis and work at her kids' preschool. To me, SHE'S the Super Mom. I have other friends like that, too. Friends that work full time/part time and raise their family, friends that have more than 2 kids and manage to keep everything afloat. I don't know how THEY do it. When I talk to these busy bees, I feel guilty complaining about a thing in my own life . . . I am here by myself quite a bit, but at least I don't have a job to go to each day. I couldn't do that at all, not in our situation. It just is not possible for me to work AND take care of the girls 4 days each week. Not gonna happen.

I feel like those people -- those with jobs and lots of other responsibilities aside from their families -- those people must think I'm a wuss if I can't handle my own life. When I look at them, I wonder how THEY do it. Certainly they can't wonder the same about me. I look in the mirror and see someone who is working so hard at being a mom, but they must look at me and see a bon-bon eating loafer with 2 kids and a posh, no-job lifestyle.

Turns out, not everyone sees me that way.

It sounds stupid, but the conversation with my friend was a little bit of a ego boost. She seems to think I have it all together, which I took as a huge compliment. Ha! Well, if others can see me that way, then I must be doing something right . . . because it's not very often that I feel that way. I felt like I was given some credit for the job I do, taking care of the girls and the house while Jim is away. Someone thinks I have it tough -- who would have thought? I was astounded to find that she views me as the Super Mom . . . but I'll take it. I'll take the credit. It made me feel good to be the one that looks like I'm making it all run so smoothly.

I guess what I'm saying is that our own reflections are never quite what others see when they look at us. We see our faults and our shortcomings when we look in the mirror; we are all too hard on ourselves. But others see us quite differently from the outside. They don't see all the pitfalls or weaknesses . . . at least, we hope they don't. Others can often see good in us that we don't even know is there.

And it's nice to be reminded of our good qualities when others let us in on what they see in us.

Hang Overs

How old am I?

I totally, throughly enjoyed my 'ladies night' on Friday night. Two very old friends of mine joined me in town for some dinner and drinks . . . something I was SO excited to do, something I'd been wanting to do for quite some time. I just wanted one night with no kids to remind me that there is life out there without diapers and sippy cups.

And boy -- did I pay for my fun night yesterday.

I did enjoy some drinks . . . I'm not kidding myself and saying, "Why do I feel so crummy?" I know why I had a hang over. I just didn't drink THAT much . . . at least not enough to warrant the way I felt all day yesterday. I freakin' drove, for pitty's sake. I guess the hang over was just my body's way of reminding me that I'm not as young as I think I am. More than just one or two drinks is too much for my 31-one-year old body to handle. (Trust me -- I was sober enough for driving by the time we went home. I wouldn't have driven if I wasn't.)

Now it's Sunday, and I've recovered from the hang over. Some greasy food and a good night's sleep were really all it took to make me wake up back to myself today. And, as terrible as I felt at times yesterday, I do think it was worth it. I might not be as young as I once was, but for one night, it was kinda fun to pretend I am.

Off to play with my kids . . . Meg keeps referring to my bad-laden state yesterday as "Mommy having a cold." I think that must be what Jim told her I was doing in bed at 2pm. This morning, she's happy to see that I'm all better, and she's ready to have me help her with sticker books and crayons. Back to my life as a mom :)

Favorite Photo Friday

Just a few from my recent sessions . . .

I did officially decide to take 'a break' for a while. Not exactly sure what that means or how long 'a while' is. But . . . I'm still hoping to work with friends and family off and on, even while on sabbatical. I just have to slow things down through the summer so that I don't miss out on my family life. So far, everyone has been very understanding.

Have a great weekend :) I'm out for a girls night tonight . . . spur of the moment (kind of), totally needed. Now I must go up to my closet to decide what to wear so that I don't look too much like a mom . . .

Milestones

They come and they go . . . and in the house of a young family like ours, they come and they go on (what seems to be) a daily basis.

Meg is doing things now that constantly make me think, "Are you OLD enough to be able to do that?" Going potty by herself, putting her shoes on and tying the laces, returning her dirty dinner plate to the sink, unbuckling her car seat (only when she is supposed to, thank goodness), putting her straw in her juice box, picking out her clothing . . . countless things that force me to realize what a big kid she is becoming. I can't believe it.

And Kate . . . her milestones are flying by. She's already NINE months old. As the second baby, I've experienced a lot of her milestones before . . . but it's just as much fun the second time around, trust me. I discovered her sitting up in her bed for the first time this week, and I remember what a BIG deal that was when it happened for Meg. I made a big deal out of it this time, too. Though-- I will admit -- the second time around, some of the baby milestones make me a little sad. I'm happy for her accomplishments, but they make Kate a little less baby and a little more big girl. I'm not ready!

Kate's latest milestone -- crawling -- is one that she gets to claim all for her own. I never reached that milestone with Meg as a baby. A lot of the things Kate is doing get constantly compared to Meg, but not crawling. She's got that all to herself -- no comparisons at all.

I'm really enjoying having a little crawler around here. It forces me to vacuum a bit more often, but it's worth it to watch her make her little way around the house. What a sweet time this is for Little Kate.



I love this young stage our family is in right now. These milestones are so precious, so once-in-a-lifetime, so life changing. Soon these days will pass, and they will never return. *Sigh* I'm cherishing it today. It's a great time to be a mom.



And -- by they way -- Meg really isn't tying her shoes. Dude, the kid isn't even 3. I was just wondering who was really reading this stuff. HaHaHa . . . 'April Fools' a few days early :)

Guess What We had for Breakfast

Following the tone of the 'I'd Never' blog from last week, I just had to take a quick second to comment on our breakfast this morning here at Casa de Dahlby.

Lucky Charms.

I threw in a banana for good measure, but Meg totally downed herself a bowl of marshmallow sugary goodness prior to the piece of fruit. Lucky Charms. I swore I would never cower to the cereal giants . . . who advertise their wretched products on children's TV so that they can capture their perfect (and perfectly impressionable) clientele. But cower I have . . . I've totally fallen victim to yet another thing I said I would never do: sugary cereals.

I can blame Jim for this -- and Jim, you know it's true. He brought home a box of Fruit Loops with marshmallows a few weeks ago, and we've only gone down hill from there. Meg LOVED the cereal, calling it 'Fruit Loops with Hearts' and asking for it each and every morning. Fruit Loops -- sugar coated cereal in itself -- with marshmallows . . . who knew such candy even existed for breakfast?!

Horrified, I poured her bowl after bowl of the Fruit Loops . . . always offering fruit in the hopes that it would somehow create that 'balanced breakfast' the cereal claims to be such a part of. I felt terrible for giving her such crap.

Then I told my dad all about it. You see, he loves to give Meg treats when she's at his house, I just couldn't resist letting him in on her newest favorite . . . just in case he wanted to get her a treat for her next visit. I was thinking maybe we could pass the Fruit Loops off as something that is done at Grandaddy's, not at home . . . and then my dad said something that kinda struck a chord with me.

"I just can't believe I'm feeding her this sugary cereal. She can't be getting any kind of nutrition from it at all . . ." said me, the worried Mom.

"Oh, relax. Let her have it. You are only a kid once, you know," said Grandaddy.

I thought about that. You are only a kid once. That's so true. I don't want to deprive her of some of those kid-things, things you only do when you are young. There is such a small period of time when these little things -- like Lucky Charms -- are a real treat. I thought that my dad's opinion made sense . . . I won't give sugary cereal to her all the time, but every once is a while, some sugary stuff makes being a kid that much more special. I just need to relax. She is only a kid once.

Today, Meg had Lucky Charms, and I didn't worry too much. I actually poured myself a bowl and ate Lucky Charms with her. She got a BIG kick out of that, and so did I. For a few moments this morning, I was a kid again. So we didn't get any nutirional value from our breakfast . . . we both smiled a lot, and that has quite a bit of value to me.

Busy Days

Pretty busy right now . . . blogging might be taking a bit of back seat for a week or so.

Three shoots to edit, invitations for Grandma Dahlby's 90th birthday to complete and send out, neighborhood newsletter is due, May shoot scheduling has been procrastinated too long, spring pictures of my own kids need to be taken, filling plastic eggs for Meg's preschool egg hunt later this week . . . all the other things that make this house run . . . and an attempt to spend more time in Newnan with my dad before his surgery next week. That makes for a busy few days ahead.

I'll try to keep up with it all . . . we'll see how it goes. At least Jim is only gone Tue-Thurs this week. That always makes me happy :)

Have a great week . . .

Favorite Photo Friday

Meg, March 17 2009, Marietta GA


TIME OUT

We spend a lot of time here these days . . . she's got a teenager's attitude in a 2 year old's body. What a terrible combination. And Lucky Me: I have another little drama queen waiting in the wings.

Oh well. I'm so deleriously happy to have girls, I guess it's a small price to pay.

Happy Weekend!

Kate is Crawling!

Now this I've never had to deal with before . . . a crawler.

Meg walked before she crawled. Before walking, she kinda scooted on her butt a bit . . . or she just would somehow wriggle and work her way toward whatever it was she needed while in a sitting up position. But she never crawled. As a matter of fact, it became a bit of a problem when she was playing on playgrounds in the early toddler days . . . she didn't know how to crawl through tunnels until sometime well after her first birthday.

But Kate . . . we've known for a while that she would crawl. She's just a totally different kid when it comes to (everything) the way she plays on the floor. The army crawl really kicked in last weekend, and within days she's become very good at it.

Then tonight, after bath but before bed, I caught her . . . up on all fours and clumsily putting one hand in front of the other. Shaking and not very sturdy, she crawled just a few paces before collapsing onto her tummy and dragging herself by her arms. I picked her up, reset her in a sitting position, and tried to entice her to do it again by putting a hairbrush out of her reach. She tried even harder the second time.

GAME OVER here. Now I have two mobile children.

A Couple of Meg-isms

Upon opening Meg's door to greet her after an afternoon nap . . . .

Meg: "Mommy, I pulled some boogers out of my nose after I taked my nap."

Me: "Ewww . . . Meeeegggg. We've talked about that. That's so yucky."

Meg: "They were big ones."

Me: (eyes rolling) "Well, what did you do with them? You took them out of your nose?"

Meg: "Yeah, and I wiped them on my sheets."

_____________________________________________________________

While playing on the swing set, Meg and Kate bumped heads. Meg was attempting to push her baby sister in her baby swing, but she didn't get the timing quite right . . .



After some crying from both girls, I took Kate out of the swing to console her. Naturally, Meg wanted her to go right back in the swing so she could attempt to push her again.



Me: "In a minute Meg, Kate wants me to hold her for a minute."


Meg: "Why?"


Me: "She's upset. Doesn't it feel nice when you can sit in Mommy's lap for a minute when you are upset?"


Meg: "Yeah . . ."

a moment of thought passes . . .

Meg: "How about next time you and Kate bump heads, you can come sit in my lap Mommy?"



Yes, Meg. I'll sit in your lap anytime.

Back it Up

We had a minor catastrophe around here this weekend, which will explain my lack of blogging for the past 2 days. A minor problem, mind you . . . nothing good old computer engineer Jim Dahlby can't fix.

One of our three external hard drives was corrupt. Yes, we have THREE external hard drives . . . my photos are large in size because I capture digital negatives instead of jpegs. I fill up space fast. I don't know much about computers . . . but my average shoot takes up about 4 gigs of space, and apparently that's a lot. I don't even save everything -- I delete client files after 1 year -- but we still need a lot of disk space to house all of our photos. So, we have our hard drive and 3 others around here, providing me with enough space to go about my photo-taking.

Whenever the computer starts acting weird, I just stop what I'm doing and tell Jim. He's my go-to, and he's never let me down when it comes to fixing this here machine. Like I said, I don't know much about computers . . . enough to be dangerous and a lot about Photoshop, but that's about the extent of my knowledge. On Friday, I let Jim know that the external drive housing all the 2008 files was giving me fits . . . so into the office he went. And he didn't come back out for a while.

It took him pretty much all weekend, but he did recover what appears to be all of the 2008 images from our corrupt drive. (THANK YOU, my love.)

Let me remind you what happened to us in 2008: Kate was born, Meg turned 2, we traveled to New York, Kansas, built the swing set, remodeled the basement, etc etc . . . and I did more photo sessions than I care to count. I really didn't worry about my client files (the families had all been given at least ONE disk), and I knew we had burned nearly everything to CDR in case this ever were to happen . . . but the idea of losing my 2008 memories was still scary. It felt very final.

It made me realize how priceless my photographs really are. How much they mean to me. What a part of me they are. If I lost a big chunk of them -- like all of 2008 -- I would have been devastated.

Thank God for Jim and patience . . . he figured out how to recover everything, and he even figured out what we need in order to avoid this in the future. Let's just say that -- after a heavy investment -- we will have the Fort Knox of computer security around here. NOTHING will be lost in the future.

The moral of this story: BACK IT UP. Back up your computer, your photos. Burn them to disk, whatever you have to do. And if you don't know how -- ask your husband to help. Ask anyone. Just do it. The memories you have in photos and videos that might be housed on your hard drive are priceless. When you are staring at a computer message that reads, "The disk containing this file is corrupt . . ." you will quickly know exactly how irreplaceable those memories are.

Back to up and running, so I must get to editing my little sleepy newborn from Sunday . . .

Favorite Photo Friday

Kate Allison, March 13 2009, Marietta GA



We are officially standing around here. No walking or cruising, just standing sturdy on our feet. At least sturdy enough so that mom can step back and take a picture.

And we are crawling . . . well, 'army' crawling . . . kind of. She really just drags her body around with her arms, and occassionally she gets a good push off from one of her feet. Crawling 'in progress', I guess.



Kate is growing up too fast. Both girls are. Here is Meg, just 2 short years ago . . .

This picture made me think:

(a) I'm a WAY better photographer now.

(b) Meg was much more advanced than Kate when it comes to mobilization . . . this picture was actually taken in early February, and Meg was walking by mid-May. If the calendar goes the same, Kate is about a month behind . . . meaning she won't walk until her birthday in mid-June. Fine by me.

(c) Kate is so much smaller than Meg! It's hard to tell in this picture, but I know that the outfit Meg is wearing in the February 2007 pic is still too big for Kate. Looking back at the baby book tells me that Meg was the size Kate is NOW before Christmas 2006 (at 6 months of age). What a little peanut little sister continues to be.

(d) Please stop growing, both of you. I can't stand it.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Beware of Strangers

You might think that I'm sitting down to write a tale of how we've taught Meg to be wary of strange people in the community -- or what to do if she gets lost in public -- but NO. We haven't really broached those topics with our two-yr-old, but perhaps we should.

Today I must tell you of my lovely, sweet nearly-9-mo-old, who has quickly fallen victim to the wonderfuly exhuasting stage of babyhood commonly referred to as stranger anxiety.

It started a few weeks ago . . . we were shopping for Jim's Valentine's treat, and a salesman leaned over Kate's stroller in an attempt to make her giggle. Instead of a smile, her lips turned down and an instant panic attack insued. As I bounced her around the store to stop the crying, I joked with the saleman and assured him it was not him she was screaming at . . . just strangers in general. And ever since then, I've been replaying that scene in my head . . . and repeating it in many public venues.

Kate cries if pretty much anyone attempts to hold her right now. If I put her down to leave the room, she cries. She only wants mom. Kate's at that classic stage of thinking that I must have totally disappeared if I am no longer in her line of sight. If she is distracted and does not realize I'm gone, things generally go OK . . .but the second she sees me or even hears me, the tears mount and the wailing begins.

Jim has told me that while tooling around Disney World with a sleeping Kate in the stroller, he would often avoid me -- or encourage me to walk behind him -- in an effort to avoid this situation. He didn't want her to notice that I was gone -- or there -- so that she would continue to sleep or just stay calm. Poor Jim's mom . . . she tried to help during her visit last week by giving Kate a bath. "A screaming bath" is what we called it because poor Kate cried the entire time Paulette was bathing her. And as soon as she was all lotioned up, in her jammies, and handed to me, the cries stopped and the smiles came. That stinker.

Ahhhh . . . as much as I hate it, there is a great deal of pride and glory that comes from knowing I am the one that Kate wants. I'm the one that will make her happy. And when she sticks those tiny fingers in her mouth and buries her head in my shoulder, there is not a sweeter feeling in the world than rubbing her back and 'sshhhhing' in her little ear. I know it's hard right now -- but I do consider how wonderfully lucky I am to have that tiny Katy-did, crying or not crying. Even when it's hard, it's great to be a mom.

Still . . . I hope this phase passes as quickly as the 'crying in the car' phase did. Remember that? Three months of constant crying in the car. I survied that, so I'll survive this.

I guess I don't have to worry about Kate running off with any strangers these days. No stranger would want her, as noisy as she is. But I want her :) And -- I guess I'll have her to thank for some seriously buff 'mom-arms' I'm developing from carring her around all the time.

I'd Never

As I put Meg down for her nap earlier this week in her new Disney Princess T-Shirt and Sleeping Beauty pull up . . . after carefully removing her Cinderella panties while she was still wearing her Disney Princess slippers . . . I thought, "There are sooooo many things I said I would never do as a parent that I have already done."

We all know this feeling. Back before we had kids, we thought we knew it all . . .



"Oh MY goodness. My kid will NEVER throw a tantrum like that in public!"
"I'll never let MY baby scream in a restaurant!"
"Bribing with candy is something I'LL never do."

The list could go on and on. But then a baby is born, and you realize it is actually alive with feelings and actions all it's own. You realize there are things you can control, things you can't. Battles you can fight, and those you can just let them win. You find that maybe all those things you thought you would never do are (a) maybe not so bad or (b) just not worth the effort.



My own personal 'things I'd never do when I am a mom' list includes:



1. "I'll never let my child wear all that licensed character-wear. All that Disney or Dora stuff . . . that's awful. None of that for my girls."


HA HA. As soon as Meg fell in love with the Backyardigans just before turning one, this 'never' was off my list. And today, more than a year later and nearly 3 years into mommyhood, I think I could even be accused of feeding the princess obsession with the amount of princess-laden things I purchase for Meg. She's got jammies, panties, slippers, toys, socks, books, stickers, dinner ware . . . it's ALL princess around here. And I thought I'd never do that.





2. "I'll never bribe. That just produces a kid who expects things in return for doing what I need him/her to do anyway."

This, I have found, is not as drastic as it seems. You can use a little innocent bribery when the time is right, and you'll get what you need without totally spoiling your kid. I've found bribery to be a useful tool, as long as it's not overused. And -- believe me -- I've crossed into the 'overused' area, and it's ain't pretty. I don't know how I would have potty trained Meg without a little reward here and there for her efforts. See -- bribery properly used can even be referred to a 'reward' . . . as long as you know that you are still bribing the kid. Face it: it's easy, too. "Just do this for me, then you can have a cookie," is often a sure fire, quick way to get what you need out of your kid. Quick & Easy -- two key benefits of bribery. When you don't have all the time in the world to rationalize with your kid -- or you realize that rational thought won't work -- bribery becomes appealing very quickly.




3. "I won't say 'Because I said so . . .' to my child. That was so frustrating as a kid!"



Yeah, well, when you are the parent, there are often times you couldn't care less if you are frustrating your kid. You just need them to listen to you, and you don't have the energy for an explanation. And, once I started talking in circles with Meg -- answering her every "Why?" and getting "Why?" as her response -- I quickly resorted to: Because I said so!



4. "My kid won't be a couch potato."

The dreaded TV -- or 'TB" in Meg-speak. I could quite possibly carry more guilt about the television watching than anything else, and I'm not kidding. I do feel like Meg watches waaaaaaay to much TV. "Just stop -- you control it," I hear you saying. Oh, if it were that easy. I try to limit it . . . but with only ONE of me here 4 days a week, I have to result to something that occupies her time for longer than 5-10 minutes in order to keep our household afloat. I need her to do something so that I can have a few minutes to myself -- to do more things for her, of course.



Books? She'll look at them for about, maybe, 10 minutes on her own, then she needs me to read every last one to her. Can't do laundry while reading to Meg. Coloring? Art projects? Again, the attention span is limited. I can maybe unload the dishwasher, then her interest has wained and she wants something else to do. TV, however, will hook her in for at least 20-25 minutes. And, during that time, she'll be playing with toys or playing with Kate . . . but the TV is there to catch her if her attention to an activity wanders. So there you have it -- how I justify the amount of TV Meg (and Kate) watches: I just have to use it as a babysitter a few times a day. I said I'd never do that, but do it I must.



5. "I'll play with my kids all the time . . . how dare that mom shoo her kid off and say, 'Go find something else to do -- go play with your friends,' !!"

How quickly I realized that I DO play with my kid ALL the time, and I still want her to go off and find something else to do at many points in the day. As adults -- as parents -- as humans -- we all need a break sometimes.

I'm sure we could keep the list going -- and, if you'd like, please comment and share something YOU said YOU would never do with your kids. We're all friends, here. I'm sure you'll even get a few "Me too!" comments in response!

Off to wash those princess pajamas . . .

Disney Video -- You know You've been waiting for it!

(And -- as a side note -- and update on my dad: Surgery was officially scheduled for a few weeks from now. The great news is that the doctors seem confident they can remove the tumor, and they will radiate anything they can't get during surgery. Not so great news is that he's going to lose his voice box . . .but will be able to learn to speak again using a device and esophogial speach within a week or so of the surgery. They are also going to have to seal his airway in his throat, meaning that he'll have a permanent hole in his throat for breathing. He will no longer breathe through his mouth and nose . . . meaning no sense of smell. Hopefully THIS -- all of this -- will stop his horrible 30+ yr smoking habit. If this doesn't, I don't know what would. Until surgery, we are all just taking it one day at a time. Thanks for all the well wishes and the kind words!)

Ups and Downs

Up -- We got to spend 2 extra days at Disney World!

Down -- Returning late Tuesday threw off my entire week, and it's been a whirlwind since I got home. I had no 'recovery time' and just jumped back in to a VERY hectic schedule.

Up -- The Disney trip lived up to my expectations and MORE. It was wonderful.

Down -- While we were there, my dad found out that what was thought to be a small tumor in his throat is actually VERY large. His post-crazy-surgery MRI revealed some terrible news, and the doctors were not sure if it was even operable.

Up -- Dad found on Friday that the tumor IS operable.

Down -- But he's going to lose his voice box in a major surgery to remove it.

Up -- I hosted a beautiful baby shower for a friend this weekend, and the entire event went so wonderfully well. I hope she enjoyed her celebration!

Down -- The weekend was HECTIC, as I mentioned. Meg went to spend time with my parents, we had the shower here on Saturday morning, we all went to a friend's home for dinner Saturday, Jim's mom was in town (and such a big help at the shower), I attended another baby shower Sunday, and my parents came for dinner on Sunday night. Thursday and Friday were both spent in a mad dash to get ready for the baby shower, and I had to volunteer at Meg's preschool for 3 hours because I had committed to that weeks ago. I have just NOW sat down to breathe since . . . well, pretty much since we got off the plane on Tuesday night.

Up -- I only have one shoot to edit right now.

Down -- I'm no longer taking HD Portraits appointments. Not for a while. The official decision was made last week, when I frantically cancelled some March appointments to make room for family time. With all that is going on with my dad, it's just too much right now. I'll look back to the business later this year -- after my dad is through his surgery and after I've had a summer break.

Up -- Meg had a great time at Disney World, and Kate is back to nursing without issue.

Down -- Meg returned from the vacation kinda spoiled and has had some trouble readjusting to 'regular' life, and Kate is wearing me OUT with all the nursing she wants right now.

It's been a roller coaster around here. Hold on -- because another week is starting, and who knows how this one will go.

Back to Reality

We are home. 825 pictures and two extra days. Two exhausted kiddos, and one seriously tired mommy. But we made it, and the trip lived up to our expectations in every way imaginable.

I couldn't go to bed without uploading some photos . . . so enjoy. You might as well get yourself a drink and a comfy chair because there are a LOT. I'd love to caption them all, but that is one thing I am too tired to do right now.

I can't wait to go back. This was Meg's trip for sure . . . and next trip, it's all about Kate :)

Disney World 2009

Walt's 5th Park

Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios.

Ever heard of Walt Disney's 5th theme park down here at Walt Disney World?

Orlando International Kingdom. AKA: the airport. The Orlando Airport.

Today, we had the privilege of enjoying this park for pretty much the entire day. It's great -- we arrived, enjoyed the run around at the TSA security area, ate lunch, then boarded a plane. Planes are a lot of fun . . . especially when you get to hang out on one for over 3 hours with two young kids. It was the ride of a life time, I tell you.

After de-planeing after our 3+ hours (during which we never even left the gate!), we got to enjoy the park in reverse. We ate dinner at the same place we ate lunch, our flight was cancelled, went back through security and claimed our bags, then got back in a taxi and went back to our hotel. The same hotel we checked out of this morning.

What a day at Orlando International Kingdom!

All kidding aside . . . due to the 'blizzard' in Atlanta, we are still enjoying our Orlando vacation. As we packed to leave this morning, Delta called to tell us our flight plans had changed, and Jim was no longer going to Charlotte. We knew the weather at home was bad . . . and many flights were being cancelled . . . and the day was starting off with some changes . . . so we called Delta to to see if we could just go ahead and change our flight to come home on Monday. We figured we could just hang out and enjoy one more day -- doesn't everyone want to do that when they are on vacation?

Little did we know that -- after our day at OIA -- we'd get TWO more days out of this trip.

We ended up keeping our original flight -- a 12:30pm departure -- because it was still set to leave Orlando, and we figured we should be good and just go on home. Jim was able to get booked on our flight to Atlanta -- so at least he'd be coming home with us. We went through the whole process -- got to the airport, boarded the plane with both girls, then waited. We waited and waited and waited. Our flight was on a gate hold because of the snow in Atlanta (you guys got like 3 inches, I hear!). The girls both fell asleep, so the wait for the first 90 minutes wasn't too bad. But, as 3:00 turned to 4:00 and we were getting closer and closer to dinner time . . . it started to feel quite ridiculous that they were keeping us 'hostage' on the plane. Clearly, we weren't going anywhere. Sometime shortly after 4pm we were asked to get off the plane. About 15 minutes later, the flight was officially cancelled. So there we were, 5:00-ish, and back to the idea of extending our vacation for another day or so.

The terrible weather in Atlanta wreaked havoc on all kinds of flights, so our attempt to re-book and return home tomorrow (Monday) didn't quite work out. The earliest flight out of Orlando to ATL is on Tuesday at 5:30 pm.

But, you know what? Our DW park passes are still good for three days. We bought 3 days and got 4 free, but we've only used 4 . . . and the rest don't expire until a week from Wednesday. Our trip up until this point has been incredibly cheap, in Disney terms anyway (free flight, free hotel, and we packed our food each day). Jim is at a point with work that he can miss a day or so, as long as he does some catching up from the hotel.

We are extending our vacation until Tuesday. Why not? How often do you get a chance like this?

Our 5 day retreat is now going to be a full 7 days -- 6 at the parks, 1 at the airport. Tomorrow we are going to head to Magic Kingdom once again and do some of the things we missed out on . . . the race cars, Aladdin's carpets, maybe even a roller coaster or two.

I guess you could say that the magic really doesn't stop down here . . . magically, we were given a two day extension to our Disney World Vacation.

Hope you enjoy the snow in Atlanta! We are a bit sad to miss it (it is so rare, after all), but happy to stay where we are for -- as Meg would say -- just a Yittle Bit Longer.