Why haven't I blogged in months...that is the million dollar question. The answer is there has been a million things going on and nothing at the same time. We are still playing basketball. Early morning practices and Monday night games leave us tired and exhausted at the beginning of the week which is not the best way to start things out. Work is busy.

Pictures are even more busy. I have had pictures appointments usually on Saturday and Sunday every weekend. I have two weddings scheduled for the next couple of weeks. I am getting to do the cover for San Angelo Family Magazine. Yesterday was the photoshoot for that. I am very excited about this opportunity.

Another local photographer and I worked out a deal to trade out. I will take her family pictures in the spring. She took mine yesterday. I was super excited about this because it is very difficult to take family pictures with yourself in them! Nearly impossible. I don't have all the photos yet but she did send me a sneak peek last night. We are giving each other the photos both SOOC (straight out of camera) so we can do our own editing, and also an edited version. It was really fun to get dressed up and be on the other end of the camera for a change. I am attaching a picture of Landry and I that I love. I have a big photo on canvas of he and I when he was in first grade. We are sitting on a staircase. I love that this one was also taken sitting on a staircase. He has changed so much he is almost unrecognizable. I on the other hand have not changed one bit and still do not look one minute older than I did then. HA! I will keep lying to myself it makes me feel better.

The other photo is obviously a picture of the whole family. Never underestimate the difficulty in finding a matching or at least "blending" outfit for everyone in the family. I was able to do it without buying anything for anyone but Rachel. That turned out to be a good plan because I can always find cute things for her without breaking the bank. I am anticipating about 50 more family photos so this may not end up being one of the best but I thought it was pretty good. I hope we can do this about once a year.

Ever since I was little I have been practically obsessed with photos. I love a good photo because it says "This is who we are...we are happy"....it kind of preserves the moment and when your kids are growing up at lightning speed. It lets you hold on to a little bit of who they were for a second before they became someone else. Landry was not 100% thriled with the shirt I made him wear or the shoes....and he wouldn't let me fix his hair. Rachel was tripping around in her new shoes, losing them a couple of times and getting stickers. This is who we were yesterday.

Putting the past in the past (and in the attic)

Wes and I undertook a massive project the last couple of days. We decided to clean out our storage building once and for all. Our storage building was a nightmare. We had made numerous attempts in the past to go clean it out. We would drive over there, open the doors, and get depressed and overwhelmed and leave. It was bad. One of the main reasons it was so bad was that I have saved every item of clothing that Landry ever wore from the time of his birth until he was about 8 years old. Every sock, every pair of cute little batman underoos, every smelly little shoe. At first I thought I might have another baby someday, then it just kind of became an obsession. I tried to get rid of the stuff from time to time, I DID!! But I would start opening the rubbermaid containers and pulling out the little footed pajamas and I would dissolve into a crying emotional wreck and have to go to bed. But this time I did it. I took all the clothes out of approximately 8 rubber maid containers (the giant ones) and packed them all up for my little nephew Brody. I swear the child will be nicely dressed for the next 8 or so years, more if he stays small for his agel. I saved only the specialest items for myself. Landry's coming home from the hospital outfit, his cowboy hat that he wore every day for like 3 years, his first Nikes, his little bitty wranglers. I fit all of these special items in ONE smallish rubber maid container. I am very very proud of this accomplishment. I didn't even cry - much. I think when Landry was littler I aways had a feeling that he was growing up (and away from me) too fast. And he is growing up too fast but I have realized that he is not growing away from me at all. He is still loving and sweet and still snuggles with me some. He is also so hilarious and fun that I love the age he is. He is not some sullen, negative teenager he is a JOY.

So anyway we loaded up a huge flatbed trailer and the bed of the pickup with all of this stuff and we parked in in our driveway so we would be forced to do something about it. It took two full days....TWO DAYS! But we have about 10 sacks of trash waiting to be picked up, all the keep-items are packed away in our attic which is $54 a month cheaper than the storage unit, and the rest is priced and ready for our garage sale tomorrow.

It was an interesting trip down memory lane....I found my barbies in their 1975 Barbie dreamhouse...sadly they had acquired a bad case of black mold and had to be disposed of. I found my twiring outfit from when I was about 8 years old along with my baton which I mostly used to beat my brother with. I found my mom's wedding dress from when she married my dad. It is so tiny I swear it would almost fit Rachel. (starve much Mom?)

I am so glad to have that behind us. I hope we make some cash tomorrow. Oh and most amazing of all is this. Wes and I even "merged" some of our storage items. We are bound for life now. I used to have all my stuff kind of packed and waiting for the next time I had to flee a relationship in the dead of the night but now the contents of our storage containers have consumated their relationship (gasp!). That in itself speaks volumes. I am much more well adjusted than the LaRae of my past. I'm here to stay. I don't even feel the irrational need to hang on to all the trappings of my past.

My World!

Here is a quick pix I loaded of the cutest boy in the world and the cutest husband in the world. I used my new flash on this and it is awesome. I am happy and grateful. Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Pix

party

Rachels Christmas Program

A Busy Month!!

I can't believe I haven't blogged in a month! I have been a little overwhelmed. Since Thanksgiving we have...
gone to Landry's basketball games, and Rachel's Christmas program, worked a ton! (I got my wish my job is no longer boring!), gone to two company Christmas parties one of which was a HUGE all weekend event! and somehow squeezed in Christmas shopping and taking photos for people every weekend. We never managed to get our own done or do get cards out. Today its Christmas and I am awake (!?) at 6:30 even before Rachel. I don't know what's up with that. I really hope that things slow down for awhile. In other news...Landry is getting braces and Wes got me a Nikon D90! It rocks!! I am having trouble as usual getting the months pictures to download to blogger so I will do them in seperate posts.

Thanksgiving Prayers

We are getting ready for Thanksgiving. There are a lot of people we care about that aren't very happy today. I pray for Staci who lost her son, Ms. Hoyt who is alone, The Clark Family who are fighting cancer, and Paige who is struggling to make it day to day. There are so many others and it really makes you stop and think about all the blessings in your life. I will post pictures of the day later!

My "baby" is 13!!!!

Here are some pictures from my baby's 13th birthday. He played his first baskteball game on his birthday. He got moved up to the 8th grade team...(so proud) but then some parents complained and he has since been put back on 7th grade. I bet they wouldn't have complained if THEIR kids got moved up!! :( Makes me mad!

This boy is the absolute best thing to ever happen to me. I look at him and I just can't believe that God saw fit to give him to ME! He is smart, HILARIOUS, cool, athletic, musically talented, and DANG GOOD LOOKING! Also he loves his mama! He has gotten to where he likes to pick me up and bear hug me to death. Almost breaks my spine! THANK YOU GOD FOR THIRTEEN YEARS WITH LANDRY! PLEASE GIVE ME ABOUT 80 MORE!

250 Yard Shot

We went hunting this weekend. It was very cold. Landry shot a doe at 250 yards! I am proud of him...he is good at everything he does! Tomorrow is his 13th birthday! I can't believe it.

I promise I'll catch up on blogging soon. I've been very very busy taking pictures. My battery is about to go dead because I have been editing all night!

Big Nuts

You are not going to believe this but I swear on a stack of bibles
this is true....let me preface this story to say that we do not live in a tree house in Arkansas....we really live in a very nice house but we have been invaded....



Monday night I was hungry and I decided to make a Weight Watchers quesadilla in the microwave....I put it in, turned it on, and I heard a weird noise. It sounded like someone was pouring a bucket of sand or something. I called to Wes to come check it out. (Thank you Lord for my husband!) He looked around and saw what he thought were mouse droppings on top of the stove which is below the microwave/ventahood thingy. We got a stool to look closer in the microwave and I freaked out because there appeared to be mouse droppings IN the microwave too! Wes went to the garage and came back with a cordless drill and the vacuum cleaner. He started to take the vent thing apart that is connected to the microwave and peered inside. Very calmly, he turned to me and said "YOU NEED TO LEAVE THE ROOM."

I am freaking out by this point thinking there must be a dead mouse
stuck up inside the microwave.

Oh it was SO MUCH WORSE!!!


When Wes broke out the gloves and a plastic trash bag I really got concerned. He stuck his hand inside and pulled out a DEAD SQUIRREL. IT WAS PERFECTLY INTACT....FUZZY TAIL AND ALL.

Much screaming and freaking out and climbing on the dining table ensued!!!

I started to finally calm down when the squirrel was disposed of and I went outside to call my Mom while he went to the attic to try to find out how this happened. A few minutes later he yelled to me to come to the attic. I climbed the ladder with shaking legs....there inside a vent pipe was ANOTHER ONE AND THIS TIME IT WAS ALIVE!!!!

We talked briefly about shooting it. I felt that the only thing we could do was call 911 or animal control or something but Wes told me he had it under control. I decided to distance myself from the situation and supervise from a safe distance in the driveway. Wes climbed down and got a piece of chain link pipe and a long piece of speaker wire and made a squirrel catcher. (I swear I am not making this up!!!)

He reached in with his "catcher" slipped the noose around the squirrel's neck and I heard some squealing and rummaging around and then Wes emerged from the attic with the (now dead) squirrel in his little squirrel noose!!!

My husband is some kind of Bad Ass-Rambo wilderness man!! Seriously, he is my hero!!!

The microwave is broken, NOT that I would ever want to use it again.

You can see in the pictures the first squirrel had been there awhile. He didn't even stink or anything!! The second one was a bit "fresher".

Hard Drive Be Damned

Last night I worked on the photos I took on Sunday. Right before I went to bed I downloaded them to mobile me which is an external site. This morning I woke up and my computer was deaderthanhell. One giant freak out, one $50 call to customer service where I was informed I was 30 days out of warranty, and one trip to a computer store where I was told they MIGHT could salvage my stuff for upwards of $600.00, and quite a few tears later I have more or less accepted that my pictures are gone. Not just the pictures I took Sunday, but hundreds and hundreds of pictures I have taken and edited over the last year. Hundreds of memories and a bunch of my blood sweat and tears. Gone. Forever. I am very sad.

We went to the San Angelo Roping Fiesta today. it was HOT!! Here is a picture of us all spiffed and ready to go. I got Wes a new HiYo silver wedding ring and it is cool! The funnest part was just going somewhere all together as a family.....and shopping of course.

Yearbook Yourself (and your son)

This is from a website called yearbook yourself....you download your picture and it places it on yearbook photos from different time periods. TOO FUNNY! The eighties one looks just like I looked in...you guessed it, the eighties! I also did some of Landry. Yeah so maybe I have too much time on my hands!

Picture that captures Rachel

Wes took this picture of Rachel and I just love it. If you look closely, she is gazing with love and adoration...at a stick bug. This picture is SO RACHEL! She loves animals and bugs and all kinds of creatures. She will play/love a rolypoly to death! She loves playing with worms and all kinds of crawlies and things that would freak out most little girls. I love this because it really captured how she is.

Weekend at Ranch

Wes and I got to spend a night alone on the ranch. It was really relaxing and fun. We played with the longhorns and watched the sunset and just hung out together. I really like my husband. I mean, of course I love him but I really like him too. He is my best friend. We need to do this a lot more often it was really nice!!

My son is the Ultimate Stud Muffin

Landry played AWESOME in his game Thursday night. AWESOME! He scored twice. I was just beside myself!! I nearly started crying!! This was their first win and the boys were so excited. They were yelling and grunting and hitting each other. It was like a MOSH pit!! So cool!! Movng him back to Christoval...seriously the best decision we have ever made!

I finally got my hair colored, I can't even remember when I had it done last. I got lots of brown. Cute for fall and winter!

Hair Wavy

Here is hair wavy. Pretty much looks like it always did just shorter. Who knew I had so much versatility. ha

Landry is home sick today and I am home with him.

Linda you are cracking me up! i can't talk about the job on the blog! It is top secret!

Hair Day 2

I washed it. I dried it. I fixed it. I think it turned out pretty good! This weekend I will try it out wavy and see how it looks.....stay tuned.

New Haircut

I got a new haircut. I hope I can fix it. I like it when it is straight but I am not very good at making it that way. It is so HARD! I find myself always looking at people with shiny, silky straight hair and being envious...but I like my curls too. I don't even know if you would call them curls because they are very moody waves really. Anyway, i am putting off washing as long as possible because I don't want to mess it up and then start to hate it.