Change

So we are in the fourth week of Andrew's recent career change. He is loving life as a police officer, has already in his short time with the force dealt with a dead body and several arrests and car wrecks. Ah the joy of serving and protecting. Seriously, though, he loves it and is doing great. The real challenge has been adjusting to his new schedule. He started on days which was a nice change having him home every night for dinner, as apposed to the school schedule of him coming home at different times every night. This week, though, he started nights, going in after the kids go to bed and coming home when they wake up. It has been an adjustment to say the least. I thought the hardest part would be being at home alone during the night, which don't get me wrong, I hate, but actually I think it's harder to get used to him being home all day. He comes home, eats and we take the kids to school. He takes a different route, which my youngest quickly points out. We are the first ones to get to school, because he is notoriously early. Then we hang out and try to find stuff to do before he goes to bed for a while. As I said, this is his first week, and we are still figuring it all out. I'm sure his sleep schedule will change, as will our life schedule, but right now we are just trying to enjoy our time together and find some sort of normalcy in our routine. Change is a crazy thing, some people thrive on it, move from house to house, job to job, and have no problems adjusting. I however am not one of those, and every little change in our schedule, routine, well really life, has a major effect on me. I am learning to adjust and trying to become a better person for it, because as we all know life is change, and nothing ever stays the same. I'm including a pic of Andrew's graduation, however it's by far the worst pic on my blog. Someone else took the picture and clearly didn't know how to use the camera, so forgive me.

Breath

Sometimes in life things get broken and we don't know how to fix them. People say, "God knows what is best and we will know through him". However, like Bruce, in Bruce Almighty, we look past the signs when they are right in front of us. We don't listen to God and we don't see the signs. It's hard to know what to do when we are struggling so we breath, and we take each day at a time. Sometimes in life that is all we can do. Live each day and hope we make it through it. Everyone has drama in their life, everyone has pain. Some are bigger than others, people lose family members at the worst time, and I think how can my struggles even compare to theirs. Each person's reality is their own, though, and when your in it sometimes your reality just sucks and you feel there is no way out. So I will breath, and I will live each day, and I will survive.

Everyone should watch this......

I found this link on one of the blogs that I read daily. It's very interesting to say the least, I think it would be great if they showed this video to kids in school. It should be a requirement, just like splitting the boys and girls up in 5th grade to talk about sex. While it might not be for everyone, at least it makes you think about what we our doing to our planet.

More icey pictures....

A nature photographer I am not, but the weather is so inspiring right now, that I have tried to get some pictures. Here are couple more from the recent ice storm.

Ice Storm 2007

So we got a "little" ice over the weekend. Unfortunately we are losing trees left and right, and one of the branches landed on my friends car. Our neighboors tree across the street literally looked liked it exploded from the inside out. It's sucked mostly because we've been out of power for more than 24 hours now. Pretty soon I'm gonna have to start throwing out food if it doesn't come back on. Luckily for me I have in-laws with power so I have been able to shower and do the important things like check email and update this thing.:) Hopefully we get power soon, however, the prospects don't look good as we are suppose to get a couple more inches of ice this evening.

Sunday Morning Donuts!!

We've sort started this terrible habbit of getting donuts on Sunday mornings. Healthy breakfast I know, but the kids love it. We get to read the paper and hang out and the kids get a wonderful sugar high and all is right with the world. Anyway I couldn't help but take a picture today, because Ben loves the powdered sugar covered donuts that are filled with cream. Needless to say they create massive messes and he is just in heaven eating every last bite.

Growing up........

So the other night my daughter is getting ready for bed after her shower. She's standing there in front of me getting dressed and talking away about something that happened that day, and all I can think about is that I have birthed a woman. While I know she's only 12, and that really isn't quite a woman, she is definetely a teen. She has woman parts and soon enough she'll be thinking like a woman. It's amazing really, to think that from my womb came this beautiful woman who is going to grow up someday and be something amazing. I still feel like kid myself, how can I be the mom of a teenager, and then an adult. How does one do that. I really mentally don't feel much different than I did at 16, okay maybe 18, but still you know I just don't feel as old as I really am. And yet I am supposed to be a parent, give the advice, set the good example. Time is a crazy thing, if blink you might just miss out on an entire childhood. Sometimes I feel that way about my daughter, I was so busy growing up when I had her that I feel like I woke up one day and here I have a teenage daughter, next thing you know she'll be walking down the wedding isle. For now though, at least it's just dances and constant phone calls.

Christmas tree hunting!!

We went with my parents and my brother's family to a Christmas tree farm today. It's always so fun to search out the perfect one. You know it when you see it, the clouds part and the angels sing and you just take a moment to look at it in awe. We got a great tree, 7 ft. tall, bushy and perfectly shaped. Only problem, when we got it home in the tree stand, it's totally crooked. Isn't that just like life, you think it's going to be perfect and forget all the bumps that come along the way. Anyway we still love our not-so-perfect little tree, and our not-so-perfect life for that matter. So here are a couple of pics, I tell ya, Ben sure does love and adore his big brother. It's so cute to watch them interact.

Hello, my name is Leigh and I'm an addict......

Okay, so I have a few addictions. Pepsi, coffee, and music to name a few, but none are as bad as the internet. I check emails, work on photography sites, it's how I get my news, shop, really lots of stuff that I do requires the use of the internet. I know this about myself, but I didn't really know it was a problem until two days ago, when we lost our internet due to changing of phones. We are going to cell phones only and just keeping my husbands fax line at home, and in the process of that change I didn't have access to the internet. I think I was starting to have physical symptoms of withdrawal. When she told me today that it might be tomorrow, I actually almost cried. It's sad really, I wouldn't survive for 30 seconds on one of those reality shows where you live in the dark ages, I need my technology. Anyway enough rambling I'm just glad to be back on line.

My weekend away!!

So I went to a couple of concerts with some girlfriends of mine. We had an absolute blast and everyone should get to have a little fun every once in a while. We went to Kansas on Sat. to see my friend play with some of her friends. This girl was amazing, she's only 17 and already has more talent than most anything your gonna hear on the radio. Then on Sunday, we drove to Kansas City to see Regina Specktor in concert, which all I can really say is WOW. She is amazing, my only complaint would be that we didn't get to see enough of her. Sadly I don't have very many pics, as my little point and shoot, got either stolen or lost, we can't decide which. Here are a couple from Sat. though. And you should definetely check out her music. http://www.bayleykate.com/

Trying to get Christmas card worthy pic

The kids didn't have school today, so I went out trying to get a picture for our Christmas card. I even bribed them with pizza for lunch and ice cream for dessert. Maybe the problem really doesn't fall on my children and their cooperation, but on my ability. I have not been feeling confident in my group pics lately and now I am wondering if the problem that I always blame on the children might actually be me. Anyway enough with the rambling, on to the pictures.

Happy Halloween!

So this is by far my least favorite holiday. People dressing up, not knowing who's who. Complete strangers coming to the door begging for candy, and seriously if your not going to dress up, then why bother. My favorite costume of the night was a little girl at most the age of three, with mom, came to my house in a costume I can best describe as bloody bride, I mean seriously, three. What did they tell her she was dressed up as. We always have a big shindig, at our house on Halloween. Everyone brings chili and we mix into one big pot and it's the best chili you've ever eaten, and then you can't replace it. It's awsome, we had a really big turnout this year, loads of people showed up. I don't even know that I knew everyone. I'm sure my husband was in heaven, and don't get me wrong, I love having people over, or should I say I love the idea of having people over. Then everyone gets here, and I'm not really a people person, often times at some point in the evening I break out in hives. Damned anxiety disorder, why I am this way is beyond me, but I just keep having folks over in the hopes that one day I'll feel like joining in the fun, instead of sitting in a corner by myself.

A couple of different ones from me...

I played a little bit with my family session this weekend and got some great stuff. The location was awsome!

My "Beautiful Man"

Sometimes my son cooperates, most of the time he runs from the camera.

Sunrise

This is what I woke up to this morning.

walking the katy trail

with some friends.........

moody

sometimes it just works

Butterfly

Caught this butterfly on a walk. I couldn't get him to open up before he flew away.

If you're a mom read this

I found this link today and wow it was like reading my thoughts. Too many times as a mother I don't feel valued and like maybe there is something else I should be doing in my life. This brings it all into perspective.
http://theartfulflower.blogspot.com/2007/09/2-sentences-you-need-to-know-to-feel.html

A picture of the capitol

I was playing around one day last week and grabbed this one.