Movember

I haven't had the opportunity really to spend any time with the 'stache, so this might be news to most of you, but Tony is participating in Movember this year. Their team is being lead by my stepbrother and for how impressively quickly Tony is able to grow in facial hair, it was about time his ability was used for good!

Tony gave me four variations, including big mustache, medium mustache, Hitler mustache and Fu Manchu to choose from. There was absolutely no winner. It was a lose/lose/lose/lose situation, so I just told him to have fun with it!

And so he did.

I give you the Fontaine Fu Manchu.


If you'd be so kind, he's also sporting a huge goose egg, with nary a single donation.

You can donate to the Movember movement through Tony's link here: http://us.movember.com/mospace/7437033

Girls Weekend

This past weekend was my annual girls' weekend with my college teammates. I have yet to attend a weekend for the full duration, but considering how touch and go it was for awhile, I'm super glad I was even able to do the almost 24 hrs I was able to this year!

It's amazing how a lot bit of conversation & a little bit alcohol can really bring out what is on your heart. These girl friends and I have shared some of the closest moments of our lives together, or at least, the 18-22 year old version of them and have seen a lot of growth in our 10 years of friendship.

I felt like a babbling idiot through fair portions of our evening though, as we crossed into conversations that I didn't feel prepared to have. About spouses, and children, the past and the future. I hadn't developed a firm opinion about some things that I shared, as I hadn't even fully addressed them until the words, the poorly poorly chosen words were on my tongue.

It didn't take long to realize how many insecurities I've been brushing under the rug lately.

Things that I just haven't had time to deal with.

Like how little Tony and I have been seeing of each other.

The fact that I only get 1/2 a year with Isaac before he goes to Kindergarten. I feel like I've worked every minute of every hour of his childhood and am feeling a lot of guilt that he'll have the shortest time with me. [assuming of course that spending time with me would be a good thing!]

Immense pressure to reach new clients, who will have new friends, who will become new referrals, because omgosh, it's sink or swim time!

I felt like such a mom. Such a completely unattractive, wearing what was clean, absolute fuddy duddy Mom.

The best part is that two of the listed above resulted in my leaving my business cards with the male servers we had throughout the night.

not.even.realizing.what.it.looked.like

Hello! I'm still a woman and here I am leaving my business cards around.

I'm sure they got a good laugh about the "happily married" woman giving her number out.

Thank goodness, the one saving grace, is that my number actually isn't on my card
[I decided long ago to omit it, because I'm rarely, if ever, available by phone call!]

So, Girls Weekend 2013 will be remembered as the year I was giving my number out.

Shoot.me.now.

Change is Coming

A month from Wednesday will be my last day at Capella. Unfortunately, in this moment, typing that doesn't send me into unfettered leaps of joy like I've imagined ever since I allowed myself to dream of it. Buying this house, well, it completely changed the landscape of my self-employment, by chunking off a significant amount of savings.

Couple that with the fact that I've hit a definite lull in inquiries and bookings, peppered with several "You're out of our budget responses [even though my pricing is posted on my site!] and I'm feeling scared.

Naturally, instead of buckling down on our budget, I feel like Tony and I are doing a yo-yo diet approach. I'll try to do a spending freeze and then, it's like my only thought process is "all the monies will be gone, so spend now! Spend!" Super healthy, clearly.

I haven't been great at blogging this year, either personally or professionally, so I hope that with an increase in both, I'll start to see somethings pick up!

I hope.

On the flip side, it seems like the perfect storm to actually crack self-reliance, because you'll note, no where above did I write "so I've been praying without ceasing that God will guide our decisions." Instead, I wrote out and glazed over how I think I'll fix it.

Miriam: Seven Months

Miriam, you're on the move now! You're not quite past army crawling, but you get where you want, with speed. You had your first taste of food and managed to swallow a bit of it. Additionally, you've even scaled the step in Grandma's living room . . . just like your brothers!

Baby girl, you simply amaze us.

Headbands

Whether through Instagram [leahfontaine] or in blog comments, I've received several requests over the last few months to share the sources of Miriam's headbands and bows.

Here is a small sampling.

A Little Town Boutique




Dear Grace and Parker




A Little Lady Shop



Forest and Fawn [I think I have close to 15 of these ]








ps :: I stumbled across all of these shops on instagram and many of them have been gracious enough to send my headbands, or have included extras in my orders in return for pictures, lest you think I've invested too much money in accessories. ;)

pps :: My heart hurts over how fast the last 7 months have flown by, after reviewing all of these pictures for this post. We're so blessed.

MishMash

:: I really miss being able to just come to this format and lay.it.all.out.there.

:: Remember the excitement Isaac had in sharing his new brother and then sister, with every single human being within earshot at the grocery store/Target/doctor's office? Insert "We have a new house!" and he's back at it.

:: Tony's participating in Movember this year on my step brother's team and I resisted the urge to tell him to keep it conservative. He asked me my opinion regarding three different options. Honestly, not one of them is "better" than any of the others, so I just told him to have fun with it. So . . . he's going with a fu manchu.

:: While we've all acclimated pretty quickly to the new house, I still find myself walking upstairs with the hallway light off, entering our room and using my phone light to guide my way. It takes me a few seconds in our room before realizing I can turn ON the light, because I don't have a baby sleeping in my room!

:: Additionally, this morning, for the first time in my life I walked into the garage following our first snowfall and was able to leave without scraping the snow off of my windshield. Insane.

:: We've now had family over twice to our house and have chalked up 4 days of actually being a family. We need so much more time together. I only have 17 more family/engagement/mini sessions and 5 weddings to get back to clients and then I'll get a little time to relax. [ready.set.go]

:: Only 43 more days until 12.20. But in the meantime, I have to get my wisdom teeth out. Yikes!

:: The boys have been fighting like cats and dogs lately. Actually, probably worse, because Lucy and Allie get along a lot better than them! That said, just the other night ago, I stumbled across this scene while going in to kiss the boys goodnight. That's Isaac, sleeping on Ezra's bed . . . those abnormally long legs though? Those are Ezra's, because he's at the bottom of the mattress.


:: Miri has just been continuing to light up our lives. I'm kind of in denial she's almost 7 months old. I feel like I've gotten to spend the least amount of infant time with her, but before I get caught up in mourning the lost time, I'm quick to remember I'll at least have 2014.


:: I say at least 2014, but I'll be honest: I'm a little scared of what lies beyond. I don't foresee myself reaching Rock Star Photographer status and at some point, I'm sure there will be another vocation change. Those uncertainties I'm good with, past those though, well God's got it figured out anyways. It's not for me to worry.

:: I've been too stressed to take care of myself lately. I don't remember the last time I actually ate a meal I made. With Tony working every night on the Woodlawn house, it was very easy to resort to PB&j's for the boys or something similar, while I went on grazing through out the night. While I haven't been completely unhealthy choices, I'm very unhappy with my skin and the amount of my wardrobe that actually fits. So, starting yesterday, I'm back on track. I know I'm disciplined, but it's just got to be a habit again!

:: Speaking of the Woodlawn house: WE HAVE RENTERS! God is so good. I can chalk up very few times I actually felt like God was speaking to me, but He distinctly impressed upon me to lower the rent just $55 to get into a different search bracket and viola, we have well qualified renters in for 28 months.