weekend in review

WOW - that's all I can say about my weekend. It was a whirlwind of two days that seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye. I love being busy but I hate being stressed (especially when I'm stressing about being busy). Let's see, what is making me stressed I wonder? How about Justin finding a different job before his current one lays him off? How about finishing up one simple math class that stands in the way of me and my diploma that makes me feel about the size of an ant? Honestly, tell me how one stupid class can make me feel so dumb. I've logged over 70 hours at that freaking college - how can one class, one simple little business math class tear me down so? I don't know how, but it sure does.

Feeling stressed yet? Yeah, me too. Here's some more: how about moving furniture around my house all day - I live in a 1980-something trailer, not Buckingham Palace. Where am I supposed to put all this stuff? How about dealing with the enourmous temper tantrums of both my 2-year-old daughter and my 22-year-old fiance? How about never having enough money to cover my @$$? I had to take a week off from work to take that vacation to Williamsburg and I've been play catch-up with my bank account ever since. I hate stressing about money!!! I hate being stressed PERIOD.

I did however manage to make that potato soup I wanted to make on Saturday and it was quite delicious - although my "soup" reminded me more of "mashed potatoes". I'm not sure which ingredient I left out or which one I didn't add enough of, but nevertheless it was good. Just not very soup-y.

Oh, and you see this? This tiny little red spot in the corner of my eye? No amount of Visine would wash away this damned spot - I have literally been clawing at my eye all weekend long. Every time I think the spot is disappearing and will leave me alone, it flares up in full-force.


And another thing - you see this weather? IT'S JULY - how is it possible that we're having 70-degree weather during the day and 50-degree weather at night? YOU HEARD ME RIGHT - we've been having to turn OFF our air-conditioner at night because our house is freezing! When I get up in the morning, I don't want to get out from under my comforter. I'm using a comforter in July - what is wrong with this picture?!

It better clear up before September or I am going to freak out!!!

Luckily for me, I have this crazy, goregous, silly, talented, brilliant, wild child to cheer me up when the drearies of life get me bogged down.


I don't think I would've kept my sanity this past weekend if it hadn't been for our tickle-giggle session on the couch. We ate potato chips and watched Moulin Rouge (yes, she enjoys it too!) and just vegged out a little in the middle of all that insanity. Thank god for this little girlfriend of mine - she's the glue that's holding me together right now.

holy guacamole

I'm getting married in 64 days - how the hello fuzzy did this happen?!?!?!

Needless to say, I'm a teensy tiny bit behind in the planning department.

I'm blaming twitter and all you great bloggers out there I love to follow!!!

not to name names or anything...

But I think someone has been playing in my Avon make-up.







You can barely see the beginnings of her black eye - she ran into a table at mom's house. I'll try to get a good picture of it later today. It's the craziest bruise I've ever seen!

But doesn't my little one look adorable? Sometimes she's so cute & rotten even I can't stand her!

bridesmaids dresses

So, yesterday I went to order the bridesmaids dresses I had picked out (with my bridesmaids) almost six months ago and guess what - the delivery date for those dresses was 09/18. Our wedding date is 09/19. Not exactly the best news I got yesterday. Moving on. Moving forward.

Luckily for me, I am a very laid-back kind of person. Those dresses don't work? Okay, whatever. Let's just pick out new ones. The lady that worked at the dress shop gave me this "Really?! You're serious?" kind of look - like she couldn't believe I didn't lay down in the floor like a 2-year-old and demand that my dresses somehow magically appear on time and ready to go!!! Umm, I am 20-years-old. I may still be a "kid" in many ways, but I am more mature than that.

So that is what we did exactly. Me and two out of three of my bridesmaids sat down, started flipping pages. I was very cut-throat. If I didn't immediately like it, I said "next!" - it was actually quite fun. I narrowed my choices down to two different dresses, took a majority vote and picked the one I liked best anyway. Right before we were getting ready to look up colors, sizes, shipping info, etc - the wonderful lady at the dress shop gave me a subtle suggestion. It was something I hadn't thought about before (because wedding-planning is not my forte, believe me). She pulled out color swatches and started mixing and matching my colors, offering advice on switching up the colors for each dress and/or for one special dress (like my MOH's dress). So that's what I did - I took her advice. I said "sure! why not?" and again she gave that WTF? look. I'm easy, lady. I don't give a shit anymore. I JUST WANT TO GET MARRIED. I don't care if the girls wear burlap sacks!!!

We picked out a dress - Dobby (who is my MOH) is getting a kiwi dress with a chocolate sash, whilest Cassie and Miranda are going to wear chocolate dresses with kiwi sashes. Is that cute? I think so. If not, I really don't care. They're gorgeous girls, so they'll look great in anything. I'm not worried - and if they look awful, we can always go with the burlap sack. After all, it is in my color scheme.

Here's the dress:

What do you think?

Williamsburg

Here is another little photo series of shots from our mini-vacation to see my dad and step-mom in Williamsburg, VA. We didn't get to do a whole lot due to the fact that Sidney was sick for three out of the five days we were visiting. I wish I could've taken more pictures, but alas it didn't happen.

I had a dual realization whilest traveling with Sidney this time. I was able to see two sides of a very important coin. Side one: I love traveling with someone who helps me with Sidney (DUH!). Not only does it ease my stress-load, but it allows me the opportunity to photograph so much more. Take for example, our trip to the aquarium: I didn't get to take nearly as many photographs as I would've liked to because I was chasing SidMo from exhibit to exhibit. I spent my time pointing out different fish, picking her up to get a better view, etc etc etc. I was so busy being hands-on with her, I didn't have time to put my hands on my camera.

Which brings me to side two: when I am so damn busy with my hands on my camera, I miss out being hands-on with my daughter. Sure, I want to photograph these memories for us to cherish now and forever. But how much time am I sacrificing with my daughter just to say "cheese" and snap the camera? Am I making the wrong choices here? Should I not worry so much about having physical evidence of our memories and instead focus on making internal memories so strong I'll never be able to forget them? Which is the right thing to do here?

I think I've figured out the answer: let someone else hold the camera. I can take turns with the people around me and still find the balance of spending time in front of and behind the lens. I appreciate these people who travel with us and give us a helping hand so much for all the work they do taking care of Sidney, but maybe I should just say "hey, can you take a picture of us?" and then let it go. Either way, I'm re-evaluating the way I look at photography and vacations and time well spent with my child.

In the meantime, here are some snaps from our trip last week.


My father is extremely proud of his garden which includes over 200 potted plants...









Sidney became a huge fan of "stopping to smell the roses"...






Luckily, there were a few moments where she felt good enough to frolick outside






Seeing the tomatoes in the window right there inspired me to take the next picture...



even though tomatoes totally disgust me.



at Busch Garden's waiting to see the "horsey"...



like she doesn't see horses and cows every freaking day of her life.






this is what you get when you hand the camera to your dad and say "take pictures"






the seals at the aquarium were such show-offs...Sidney loved them



the turtles showed-off a little, too









we couldn't get enough of the turtles



and the fish



and the lobsters



we just had to do something tourist-y



and at the end of the day (and the end of our trip) we were tired but happy girls




thanks dad & brenda!