Worth Remembering

HOT SPRINGS TRIP

2011-09-13T06:54:00.001-07:00

Yes, I know I am behind on blogging again. The week before last I was on edge trying to figure out if Randy was going to get to go on this trip I has planned. Who knew ginning season would start this year before Labor Day when I planned it? Certainly not me, the person who booked this vacation. I knew Cari didn't have classes on Friday. So I knew she could join us toward the end of the week. We had the condo booked from August 28th (Sunday to Sunday) to September 4th. The plan was for Randy and me to go up there after church on Sunday and then the kids join us for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Well the best laid plans don't always go as planned. My Baton Rouge kids couldn't come. Randy had to gin cotton and I couldn't find anyone with a schedule flexible enough to permit them to join me.
So I decided God must want me to spend some quality time with Him. I took the challenge and that's what I did. I traveled the 6 hour trip alone. Totally stepped out of my box. I had never done anything like that. I did my morning walk and prayer time with God on Wednesday of that week. Then I came home and finished packing. Then set out for my journey alone. I got there a little before 5:00. I took some bible study with me, some Karen Kingbury novels and my swimsuit. The first day was spend walking, reading and relaxing by the pool.
The next day Cari and her boyfriend, John Mark, arrived by mid-morning. They were very tired when they got there from late night, little sleep and driving the 4 hour trip. So I showed them their rooms and I gave them a 2 hour nap time while I went to run a few errands. Then when I came back we went for a late lunch at a famous local place called, Whole Hog Cafe. I wasn't extremely impressed. Maybe because at that point I was still trying to eat healthy and my choice was a little dry. Still glad we tried the place. Next we headed to downtown Hot Springs. Poor BF...Cari's guy followed us patiently into each little dress shop as Cari and I shopped and browsed the merchandise. He quickly learned to find the "man chair" in each of the little shops.
After all the shopping, walking and sweating, we decided it was time to head back to the condo. We had worked up an appetite too by then, so we decided to go ahead and have dinner at a restaurant not too far from our condo on Lake Hamilton. It was called Fisherman's Wharf. It was actually on the lake. Cari had ate there this summer on a previous trip with her friends with some friends that she had met in Cancun. They drove a boat there that time. The heat of the day had finally begun to be cooled off with a breeze. So we ate on the porch. We didn't take any photos, but it was quite nice. And we all ate too much...especially me the WW person. John Mark convinced me to indulge since it was vacation. And I did!
The next day I let the kids sleep late. Maybe not late, but late for me. I fixed them a big breakfast, my Eggs & Bacon over Asparagus. Then we got ready and headed back downtown so we could go to the lookout tower. This was our view from the tower. John Mark had never been to Hot Springs so this was must do.
We stayed in this hotel back in 2006 when my family came to Hot Springs. The name of this historical hotel is the Arlington.

Cari and John Mark looking down at the city and the surrounding area of Hot Springs. It is so amazing how far you can see when are this high above everything.

Okay, posing for a photo for mom....
Yes, I had to ask JM to take one of me and Cari too.

Cari stopped looking at the historical info long enough to pose for me.

A candid image of these two...
This is an another area at the lookout tower that I wanted to take a few photos in before leaving. I remember doing so when I had been there 5 years earlier with the rest of my family.

They were patient with me on the "picture taking " thing.

Below: the view from this location...

So next we went to the little park by Arlington Hotel where the hot springs were flowing. I wanted JM to feel just hot this water really is.

This park is actually where I did Natalie's one-year portraits. I will do a short post and add a few those images soon.

Yes, I saw this yawn a lot. Cari has a hard time getting her sleep regulated lately.
These two were always so happy to take pics...which was very nice for this photographer/mom.

BELOW: It was nice that JM didn't mind taking a few of me and Cari too. I hate asking people, but I do it anyway and I am glad I did. Otherwise, I look back and hate it even more that I didn't have any of me with my family.

My trip didn't turn out like I had planned, but it was a great trip all in all. Cari and JM kept me laughing. They are so precious and obviously in love. How can you not smile and be happy for that. He is an answer to many prayers for my daughter (but I won't get into that on this post). We ate a famous pancake place before leaving downtown. We spent the evening resting, playing (put-put golf, badminton...they played horse shoes) and watching a movie back at the resort.

The next day we packed up and headed home different directions. Cari surprised JM with a detour home to an Auto Museum and a little more sight seeing. I will try to link some photos of that later once she posts them. [If you are her facebook friend, she has a nice album on her page of them.] She's a bit behind in blogging too. She got a little behind during RUSH week and then trip that she is trying to adjust to studying for college and just life in general. I am so glad that she and her guy joined me for two days of the trip. Before I left I had a very long lunch date with Randy's cousin, Karen, and her daughter, Clair. I had the best time telling her what all God has done in our lives the past 1/2 year and Celebrate Recovery. I've been planning to do a Celebrate Recovery post and I promise I will. I want it to be a good one so I stall on that for now.

HERE'S A WONDERFUL VIDEO THAT TELLS WHO it is for...CLICK HERE!

I finally left and my trip home wasn't quite as easy going and as it was coming. Tropical Storm remnants started getting in my path. The last 2 hours home were the hardest and I had never been more happy to see this muddy dirt road that leads to my house than that night!

FLASHBACK Friday...(one year ago)

2011-08-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

(This was NOT the new uniform that they bought the year before...the one that I matching when I order NATALIE'S NEW CHEER SUIT.)

A year ago today, I found myself embracing all of Cari's lasts. This photo is an image of her and all the seniors at her last Jamboree of high school football. Weren't the girls all so beautiful? Now she's enrolled in college. This weekend will be filled with RUSH not high school football. WOW! Isn't it amazing how things change so fast and things are so different a year later. I am still proud of this beautiful child of mine and her beautiful friends too.

CARI IN COLLEGE...

2011-08-25T07:05:00.000-07:00

I suggested to Cari to start a college blog since I started back to blogging just before she moved off to college. I had blogged for several years pretty consistently, but mostly about Natalie (NATALIE'S WORLD) and then when she moved to Baton Rouge. I started my own family blog (this one). Well, between running ones own photography business, weekends with family from BR and parenting a very busy high school student, I became a slacker. I am so worried that I will again. I am about a week behind posting the posts that I want to post and in between there I am still hoping to backtrack listing highlights of what I've missed blogging about from over the last 1.5 to 2 years. And just maybe I will eventually backtrack some of the photos that go with some of those highlights that are listed. As you may already know from the previous posts, I am NOT good at summarizing, editing quickly and reducing the number of the images to show in a particular well documented event...thus why I am behind and probably the reason, I got behind to start with. It all seemed to get overwhelming because of keeping up with daily activities that I did just let this outlet go. I really want to stay on top of it and try to learn to give very short accounts of events/activites once I get very busy again as the fall always brings busy days my way. This is important to me and also a great source of venting to you, to me---just good therapy for me and great source to look back at moments and see the milestones that my family has accomplished through God's saving power.

So let me move...the post was to be about me doing a little mommy bragging and explaining. I am so proud of Cari for blogging. If you haven't checked out her blog please do: CARI IN COLLEGE

Cari pretty much already has one semester behind her belt between the her Dual Enrollment and the classes she clept because of her A.C.T. So she had a difficult time scheduling her classes which we did when we went to PREP (her orientation) back in June. We were in the first group to start scheduling her classes the last day and the very last person to leave to finally have her schedule completed. Thus her classes are sort erradic thus complicated to make an easy work schedule. So as much I believe kids should work while in college/high school and be responsible for their personal expenses (spending money), we made the decision for her to NOT work her first semester. I also really want to make sure she can get her bearings and learn how to be a good college student. You see, she was good high school student in the sense she made all A's, had a great A.C.T. score, but some teacher's might say she wasn't a good student. She did all this while often sleeping in class. So as the worrisome mother that I am, I worry that she is really prepared for college. Does she really know how to study? So I told her that I would pay her about as much as she did at her part time job that she had her last year at home at After Glow as an allowance which included a few things she had to be responsible for...to do, one of which is blogging. So yes, I am paying her to keep this up. But I am not paying for the quality! Only that she maintains it. I so enjoy getting an inside glimpse of what's going in her life. Yes, I talk to her daily (so far), but I does she tell me everything, of course not. So I love seeing her photos of her memories and her 2 cents on the little things in her life that she forgets to tell me about. I am proud of her and think she is doing a good job. Hope you enjoy viewing it too.

REFLECTIONS (Move in Day)

2011-08-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

I guess I should have done this post this next day while it was all so fresh, but then again maybe I needed a little distance and some time to process it all. Yes, a week ago this past Monday my baby girl did it. She moved from her home of 11.5 years to a cute little apartment style dorm in Monroe. Her whole life has pretty much prepared her for this time in her life. I just pray that I've taught her all life's lessons that she really needs to embrace this next chapter. I think I am have. She seems so ready now and happy. A year ago this time I could see it. I couldn't see my smart, beautiful, but yet often gullible little girl all grown up and ready for this time in her life. We even had a few fights about it along the way. But she's here now and I think it is right where she should be. She and I have had a few disagreements along the way. Okay, maybe more than a few, but it is has been a time of growing and growing closer for both us and as a family as well. I am so proud of the young lady she has become.
On my 18th birthday, my mom wrote me a letter telling me how grown up I was and how she knew it was time for her to "cut the apron strings". Not sure if that is a phrase anyone uses any more, but I specifically remember that in my letter. I don't know exactly where it is at the moment, but it is a keepsake box that I run across from time to time. And I when I read it, I cry like it was yesterday that she gave it to me. You see, I've always been tender-hearted. My mom said that I got that from my daddy's mom. At wasn't always sure it was a compliment since she was often considered "over sensitive". I am sure if you ask my children about their mom. They would say the same thing. Sometimes emotional people, tender-hearted people, whatever you want to call us folks...tend to be overly sensitive too and sometimes have a hard time dealing with things. But overall, I am glad God made me this way. Sometimes it is hard to cope with, but I would rather be overly sensitive than cold hearted. It does make me the mommy-wife that I am!
So back to the letter. My 18th birthday was the summer after I graduated high school. Cari's was 1/2 way through her year and thought never occurred for me to write one to her then. She still had much maturing to do. It's like it all came together just weeks before she left for school. So I had the idea to do hers before she left and give it to her to read after I left her at her dorm for the first time. Being the procrastinator that I am I waited until the morning before she left to compose my letter. So by the time, I got Cari and Randy up, I had already poured my heart out as typed it on the computer (I certainly didn't hand write it) and of course, you might guess, I cried as I typed. It turned out to be one page (front & back) not bad for me! I am not including the letter to this blog post. It was a very personal one-side conversation to my daughter. I just re-read it. Found all of my grammar errors, typos and misspellings. I ran out of time that morning and had not time for proof reading. Oh well...she knows how to read between the lines.

We were running a little later than planned. Probably because I spent a little more time on my letter than I intended and thus got everyone up later. You have thought she would have been the first one up. She has been so ready to go for so long...so she says! But that was okay since we had no specific time to be there. We did choose to go in 3 vehicles so Randy could come back home work a half day and so that I could stay there and help her get settled. Before we left, Randy stopped us before walking out the door and wanted us to pray. He broke down crying as he started. My reaction was "I knew it would it you sooner or later". [He has been saying it wasn't going to cry. He was fine. He was ready...you know all that dad stuff.] He said he wasn't crying because of her leaving but because of the time he lost when he was a jerk. [I will share more of the background of this. Randy is recovering alcoholic. He quit drinking this past winter.] Of course, we were all crying before long. I love my family so much and I am so proud of the growth we've seen in our lives because of God's saving grace and power. On the way to eat before coming home. I asked Cari to ride with me rather than with the boyfriend because I knew from there I would be headed home. At this point she had not seen the letter I wrote, but I wanted to tell her how proud I was of her and I was fine because I knew she was ready. It was also the first chance we had time to mention what had happened during the prayer before leaving the house. I don't even remember who brought it up. But I do know I will remember it forever. She said that she had already forgiven him for the past and that she was just happy over the time that we had (like the last months). Our family life has been so much better. Often no one really knows what you go through. This was one of our family secrets. I am so glad that I God gave us freedom and rescued us from this demon. GOD IS SO AWESOME!
The day didn't go smooth by all means. I had car trouble before even left. Fortunately I have guy who is good at some many things who took care of this before leaving about 30 minutes later. After we got everything unpacked in the room and made a list of what we needed, we went to Johnny's Pizza right down the road for lunch. We had to take back her pink futon that we had picked up the day before at walmart. She really thought she was going to have more room. Actually, she thought she could put it under her bed. Oh well...live and learn. We bought some food and misc items for her at walmart when we took it back. Her meal ticket didn't start until the first day of school. After the 1st shopping trip to walmart, Randy dropped back off at the dorm and he headed back to work. Her roommate's boyfriend, help hand the curtain rod and then later John Mark helped with some wall hanging too, but other than that (and bring boxes in), Cari and I unpacked and organized her room. I ended up making another walmart trip leaving her there to work. Surprisingly enough, we finished before dark. We had a dinner at her Red Lobster, John Mark's fave restaurant, of course, Cari and I love Red Lobster too. I hugged them each and left. I love the peace that God provides for you when you needed it the most. I didn't even cry!

Okay, I have one more thing I want to leave with you on this post. Last week while looking through some of my quotes, I ran into a quote that was perfect for this week.
HERE IT IS:

"A MOTHER IS NOT A PERSON TO LEAN ON, BUT ONE WHO MAKES LEANING UNNECESSARY"

After reading this one again, I felt even more pride and peace as a mom. Looks like I've done my job!

COPIED AND PASTED TO THE CORRECT BLOG

2011-08-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

Cari's last day home was a Sunday. After church we had lunch as a family with Cari's boyfriend, John Mark and his family, at her favorite restaurant in Natchez, LaFiesta. [All the time and money that she and her friends spent there the past few years--she should have owned stock in the place. LOL...Now that she wouldn't be going there several times a week now, made her want her last after church lunch there.] After lunch she spend some time at with his family and then came home to finish packing. She picked up a movie for all us to watch. Before the movie, we moved most of her things she had packed to to the porch.
I don't think this photo actually does it justice as far as how much she had. I told her she didn't' have to take it all now, but you know how daughter's often don't want to listen to their moms. Well, this was one of those times. Behind here are four larger Rubber Maid boxes of "stuff" stacked to two high. She's so excited.

Cari and John Mark (he was such a trooper dealing with documentation obsession)

See what I mean?

He was even helpful in loading the vehicles with the heavy boxes. And yes, they were heavy! One box alone was nothing but shoes!

Randy's truck loaded. We decided to go ahead and load up that night since we were planning to leave early.

Even had some things on the backseat.

The back of Cari's SUV. She had seats laid down.

Her backseat section...

We probably didn't really need three vehicles, but we wanted Randy to be able to come back home after he unloaded boxes and such. I wanted to be able to stay as late as I needed to to get her settled...which is why we used 3 vehicles to move one college student into her dorm. We had most of her stuff in Randy's truck and her SUV before we even started on mine. So we used the back of mine for her closet. Yes, this was her entire closet (less the shoes).

Her closet and space was NOT as large as she thought and she did send some things back with me.
Another angle of Cari's SUV...

Passenger side of her car...

Yes, it was getting dark by the time we finished loading the vehicles.

Randy before we left. Yes, I was in a documenting mood...

More documenting...
Just before leaving...

And there she goes...

and she's gone. Moved out of her home for the last 11.5 years and to her her new home...

Before unpacking images:

Catherine's mom, Erin, helping unpack and get her settled in...

Cari's college bedroom....

the other side...

Her roomy closet (that is before she put her clothes in there)...

Hers and Catherine's double sink vanity...

Now some of my labors...

Cari's things sorted and organized in baskets under her sink.

Cari's side is the left side...

Cari and JM posing for pics in her finished room.
Doesn't her room look cute? And oh yeah, they do too!

Her name letters that my friend, Kate, gave her for grad gift.

Love her mirrored closet doors...

I had to go by her the plastic chest of drawers. And I still brought a few clothes home. So far all she has been wearing are her workout shorts and tees. I wouldn't be surprised if she brings more clothes home soon.

They have this nice little foyer/kitchenette area for their microwave and fridge.

Cari painted this at Catherine's Senior Paint Party back in May. (below)

They even had a nice size bathroom.

Erin and I have them in good shape for toilet paper and cleaning suppies! I think this will be enough for this semester and next. [Notice the Rubber Maid box below the towels.]

I forgot photograph a view like this in Cari's room showing how she did her jewelry and such behind her dorm door. Trust me...it was cute and organized too!

Catherine's artwork...

Cari's roommate, Catherine, in her room...

Trying to get a casual shot of them in the room watching TV or something, but there someting about telling people to act normal that prevents them from doing so.

It usually creates this.

The view from the parking lot.

The outside of her dorm...which looks more like an apartment building than a dorm.

JM car and Cari's in the parking lot...like I said I got a little carried away in documentation some days.

Cari and JM started walking toward his car when we were leaving to go to the restuarant. I was like "Hello"..."she can ride with you all the time now, but I am about to leave to go back home." I wanted to have a few minutes of alone time with my baby girl since we had not really had much since leaving the house. I wanted an opportunity to tell her how proud that I am of her and jsut how "okay" I am about leaving her because I know she is ready. It is so much easier to let go as a parent, when we know our child is ready for the next phase.

My car was further down. After I ran to walmart this last time, I had to park further down.

I realized while we were having dinner that I forgot to have someone take a photo of me and Cari in her dorm...after all, I was the one who spent hours and dollars helping her get it all together. So I asked John Mark to take one before I left...before I hugged them bye and gave her the letter that I wrote that morning before we left. I didn't cry when I left, but I did when I wrote that letter.

I will do one more post on this give a few more details without photos of things about this day that I want to remember. Photos trigger memory, but sometimes we need to write our thoughts down that do not have a visual image to trigger memories.

Some things are truly Worth Remembering.

TO VIEW CARI'S VERSION OF THIS DAY: CLICK THIS LINK!

MOVING IN MONDAY MADNESS (August 15, 2011)

2011-08-23T08:31:00.001-07:00

Okay, if you're up to date on my previous post, you know that I accidently posted this on my "jami ainsworth portraits". If you're not, I did. So please click HERE to view it. Cari has been doing a great job blogging too. To view her post, on this go to this LINK: MOVE IN MONDAY. If you would like to follow her journey as she embraces this new chapter in her life go to this LINK and save it: CARI IN COLLEGE

Cari has already done several posts. I am very proud of her.

FEELING VERY STUPID....

2011-08-23T08:15:00.001-07:00

Yes, I feel very stupid. I spend over 2 hours working on a blog post about Cari moving into her dorm. I thought I hit PUBLISH POST w/o acutally going to Previw post. I was just ready to be done with it because I had put so much into it. My thoughts were if it needs more editing that i would just add that later. I quickly remembered that I wanted to add a link to her post about the same thing on her new blog. After walking around here doing a few things, venting to my hunny when he brought me a diet coke (I am out) and venting on the phone to my good friend, Pam, I decided to go back the drawing board and do it again. I wanted it to be posted and updated. I have a few more posts that I've been wanting to do, but I really need to do this big one before I moved on. Now as I think about I should have noticed it because when I did my "label" words, I didn't already have the ones that I used in a previous post. That should have been trigger, but at the time I was thinking well...maybe I didn't use those words last time. Anyhow...I am feeling really dumb. This is certainly the drawback to having mulitple blogs. I have done this before, but it was usually mixing up NATALIE'S WORLD and this one (Worth Remembering) NOT... "jami ainsworth portraits". Normally I think if I accidently do a blog post on "jami ainsworth portraits" I would delete, but not this time. This one was too long. So I guess I just made my business blog really personal...oh well. If i knew how to copy and paste into blogger, I would and if any knows how to do so, please comment or message me on facebook to tell me how. Because as far I know, anything in blogger has to be composed in blogger. Trust me I've tried. So if you want to hear about MOVING IN MADNESS at Worth Rembering the link is provided in the title of the post.

WHAT I WILL MISS...

2011-08-16T05:40:00.000-07:00

SOME OF IMAGES OF THE THINGS THAT I WILL MISS...

Above: Last Dance Recital

Below: Me and My Bestfriend (from prom)

Below: Cheering at football games (August 2010--Jamboree) Below: Dancing in the Nutcracker (November 2010--Snow Queen) Above: cheering at pep rally (October 2010)
Below: Dancing in the Pilgrimage (April 2011) Below: Dance Recital (April 2011--the dance she choreographed) Yesterday was the day, the whole story on that and the images behind the story will come later this week when I find a few minutes to get them edited just a bit. I will tell you I didn't cry like I thought I might, but I cried a lot over the last year or so...maybe I had much of it out of my system. But mostly I think it is the peace that only comes from God. Peace in knowing her heart is in the right place and that this is where she is supposed to be. I wanted to be light hearted about what I want miss because yes we don't miss everything about parenting when that phase is over. I miss my children being babies like their laugh or smile or them wearing "what I want them to wear", but I don't miss them being sick and not being able to say their ears or tummy hurts. Today I blog from an empty nest...these are some things I know I will miss about my last child not being here our home:

Not seeing her leave here and/or taking a photo of her on her first day of school. Maybe she'll ask her roommate to take one since she is documenting and blogging too now.

Her fashion opinion. You know--"which shoes look better?" I definitely trust her opinion on that one more than her dad's.

Watching her cheer. She cheered two years and in jr. high and two in high school two. The two that she didn't cheer was kind of nice staying home watching TV with my love while she was out with friends watch the games...but not as nice as watching her perform. She also glows when she is doing what she enjoys.

I will definitely miss our spur of the moment shopping trips. You know "retail therapy" or you realize you won't get another break in your schedule so this is a good time to go shop for new shoes, dress, whatever you're needing for whatever is coming up. It was so nice when she could do these shopping adventures with me. We have the same shopping style...a must for a good shopping partner!

I also love her opinion on what really looks good on my when shopping. Now I am going to have trust my own and opinion along with the mirror. OH NO! Yeah, I am definitely going to miss that too!

More along the shopping note: I am going to miss having her with me to pick up the case of diet cokes or case of bottled waters. I have had to learn to NOT pick them up because of my back issues.

I am going to miss watching her dance. These past few years she has danced her home pom routine/dance (whatever you call them) for cheerleading, she has danced in the Nutcracker, she dance in the Natchez Pilgrimage Pageant (again whatever they call it--they changed the name this year) and her end of the year recital dance. I will miss seeing her radiance when she danced.

I will miss watching TV movies like Lifetime Movies or series or renting DVDs. We love a good "chic flick"! I will probably even miss her watch Dirty Dancing for 100th time!

Cari loves to cook. And who doesn't love living with someone that loves to cook. I will definitely miss her cooking for us. Sometimes she would just give me a break and cook the whole meal.

Above all, I am going to miss my best friend. We've shared so much the last few years. Our family has gone through many ups and downs. We could talk to each other about things that no one else would get, but I could also talk to her about almost anything. I guess she will still be a text or a phone call away, but not like being in next room. I will miss this more than words can express. But I am so very happy and excited that my best friend is living the dream that I didn't get to do! LOVE YOU, GIRL!

NOTE: Have you seen Cari's blog lately? I hope she keeps this up. She has been blogging almost daily the last few days about her transition to college. Be sure to follow her: CARI IN COLLEGE

WHAT I WON'T MISS...

2011-08-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the day. The day my baby girls moves out of her bedroom (her space for the last 11.5 years) into her dorm. Today I celebrate this rather than cry! I will cry later, but not because I am sad because I am happy and proud. If anyone knows me well at all, they know I cry...cry when I am happy, cry when I am sad and sometimes I just cry. But today I will be a little wistful and think list all that I won't miss...because honestly as much as we miss so much about our children growing up there's always things that we won't miss. Don't you remember when you're baby woke up around the clock for feedings? Did you 'REALLY' miss that when they start sleeping all night. So here goes...

Getting her up for school. She's not now or nor has she ever been a morning person.

Her messy bathroom. Okay, it's not really her bathroom. It's the hall bathroom and we all use it. Her long hairs everywhere, ponytails, bobby pins and many other things piled up on the vanity in that bathroom will not be missed at all!

Cleaning up the mess she leaves after she cooks.

Telling her to clean her room.

Watching football/basketball games. No I am no sports fan. Occasionally I really get into an LSU game or a Saints game, but normally I would rather do anything but.

This question, "Is my _________ clean?" or "Where is my _________?" Feel free to filling the blank with words like school shirts, cheer tops/bottoms, dance items along with many other. She nor I are as organized as we intend and tend to procrastinate too much most of the time. I hate that I past this on to her...but at least now it will be on her...not me!

She loves to cook. And sometimes she cooks food that I should NOT eat. It is easy enough to avoid eating the wrong foods when they are NOT in your home...not so easy when you have to smell cookies, cakes or other sweets that I have difficulty resisting. So I won't miss her cooking those things. Okay, maybe I will....

I won't miss telling her to clean her room. I hope she does a much better job with her dorm than she did her room.

I won't miss staying up late to make sure she comes home safe when I already really tired or setting the clock to wake myself up to make sure that she comes home safely. Okay, I am sure there will be weekends that she's be home that I will still have to do this. So never mind on that one...

I won't miss her unplugging my lamp to charge her cell phone and then forgetting to plug it back up. I realize this when I got to turn the lamp on. This will probably like #9...it will probably still happen sometimes.

I am sure there is more that I can add to this list. But you get the picture. I am trying to not be sad, but to be optimistic and think of all the things that are positive about not having a child (this one in particular) living at home.

FLASHBACK FRIDAY...

2011-08-12T11:11:00.001-07:00

This sweet, sweet, beautiful baby of mine,

who was this happy, gorgeous, big-blue-eyed girl of mine just the other day....

is now all grown up and now an elegant, equisite, young lady.

Who enrolled at her college of choice 2 months ago, will be moving into her dorm at ULM in a few days. She gets to move in early because she was selected for CAB: Campus Activities Board. To say I am proud of this child of mine, I mean young lady, is an understatement!

Birthday Celebration at the Lake [August 6, 2011] and the Surprize at Mimi's house

2011-08-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

Friday night we had a family dinner, minus Cari who chose to go on a date rather dinner at the Ducks Nest with her family...imagine that! An 18 year old girl who would rather go out to dinner with a her "new" guy rather than eat with her family! After dinner we all stayed at the lake house on Lake St. John.
Saturday morning Randy and I got up and about rounded up the rest of the lake things that we didn't bring to the lake Friday night. By the time we got out there again, it was lunch time: Sandwiches and chips. We were still waiting for more extended family to arrive. But it was time for us to start playing.
I don't have anything on this blog about this yet, but if you follow us on facebook, you already know that this little girl was fearless last year and began attempting knee boarding. An adult put her own the board, but this little girl could ride. Since then her daddy learned of a new knee board that is lighter and thus even easier for little people or smaller people to ride. It was intended for 120 lbs and lighter. So that excludes me! She took to it right away!

I don't have the really good close up photos. Since photography is what I do all the time, I get tired of using a camera "just for fun" more than others do. Brittany knowing this from last year asked about using my good lens. So there you go...

I love the above image of Brittany capturing images of Natalie on the knee board and the one below of her daddy watching her.

We all loved watching her. She had a ball and it is always fun to watch the little ones do activities that usually only bigger kids do! Right?

She is just so adventurous and fearless. Later in the day, she attempted to stand on the board. This one is designed so that you can. At least I think it was. There was a photo of a child standing on it. If it can be done, we want to try it. Or this case, wanted her to. She did try and she tried it repeatedly, but never got up completely. As frustrated as she was, she kept trying. She reminded me of her Aunt Cari with such determination! We all loved watching her.

Above: Poppa watching his little sweetheart; Below: Aunt Cari watching her little niece.

Cari and her new guy, John Mark. This was his first day to spend time with our family. I immediately understood why Cari said that her first date with him was the best date she ever had. He was sweet, friendly, accommodating and very helpful in spite of his very serious injury. [Yes, he has a broken arm. He broke his arm upper arm bone (the name of that bone does not come to mind at the moment). His doctor has said it may be 6 months before it is healed and there is a possibility of surgery. Yeah, it's pretty bad! But that didn't seem to slow him down a bit. BTW...he broke his arm while arm wrestling. Yeah, crazy, huh?]

Cameron (aka Natalie's Daddy) helping with the ropes and Brittany photographing her.

Cameron on the wake board.

Natalie was very tired.

Natalie looking at some of the photos on the back of the camera of her.

Cari's turn on the wake board.

John Mark begged us to let him one-arm on the wake board, but we would NOT let him. Just kidding, even he knew better than that! So he just watched like me and Randy.

Daddy letting Natalie drive the boat.

When the rest of the family (my mom, sister, her friend and my niece) arrived, we decided we would go ahead and do the cake. Natalie blew out another#6 candle and had more presents.

These photos are me trying to document who all was there. I see everyone except my sister, Jackie. Now I am not sure where she was.

Posing for pics...

Eating icing off the candle...

[The cake was made by Kate, my good friend. She also made Natalie 3-layer Luau cake or birthday last year. She, her husband and son, Cash, came later that evening after he woke up from his nap. He fished off the pier. It was his first time to fish.]

Poppa picked out this movie for Natalie. He wants to watch it on his new TV and new blu-ray player with Natalie. Our weekend was so busy that we didn't get to do that. So, Brittany, when you see this, in case I forget to remind you, please bring this the next time y'all come in so that she and Poppa can watch this one together.

Aunt Jackie, Jamie and Brooke got Natalie this gift. She love it!

Gigi sent some money for Natalie a gift and I knew Natalie had shown me some Barbie items that she was interested in one day when we shopped after her Manner classes a few weeks ago. So I picked this up for her. Later she told me she wanted the Dentist Barbie. But when you shop at the last minute like her MIMI (me) does. You can't be picky! And that's Gigi (my mom) in the background.

Mimi got her this one...

It was a fun day playing water sports, fishing and visiting at the lake. It was also very, very hot and tiring. I hate that I did not get a photo of Natalie with each of her out of town guests nor with Cash and his parents or the gift he got her or the cute little bag that Kate had it wrapped it. It had her name on it! I think the heat just wore us all out. As the sun started going down, Randy and I fixed burgers and served them with chips and dips. Some continued to fish after dinner, some even played a game of poker (Cari and John Mark were the last two in the game and I was told she won. I wondering if he let her win. Guys do that sometimes to make their girlfriends feel good. Nah, it was probably fair and square.) Some fell asleep in front of the TV, but one very tired little girl put herself to bed.

The next day after church we met back up at the house (after the out of town guests had went home) and surprised Natalie with her birthday surprise. Poppa is making her lay her face down on his shoulder until we got there.

SURPRIZE!!!

She did say she liked it, but she wasn't that EXCITED! Maybe it was because of the 100 degree heat or maybe it was because really wanted to play with the kittens. We told her she couldn't play with them yet because their mommy was feeding them. So she says, "Can I swim?"

Oh well...she will have many hours of jumping in the future, but not many more days of swimming since she starts back to school this week.

I LIKE IT...

2011-08-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

A week ago today (Sunday afternoon) Randy put together Natalie's "big birthday surprize" (a trampoline). We came home from the lake today to finally show it to her. We made her cover her eyes and then open it when she was in front of it at the entrance where the bow and card was attached. She was all about coming home and playing with kittens. We had to tell her that she had to see her surprize and eat lunch before kittens or swimming. We're thinking as soon as she sees this new "toy" she'll forget about both. NOT SO MUCH...

She smiles sweetly and says " I LIKE IT..." with mild enthusiam and then asks about the kittens. After lunch, we told her the kittens were eating (nursing) so she couldn't play with them yet. So guess what she chose? YES, SWIMMING OVER JUMPING! OH WELL...SHE HAS THE FALL TO JUMP...BUT HER DAYS TO SWIM ARE LIMITED. SMART GIRL!

NATALIE'S 6TH BIRTHDAY PARTY (as viewed by Mimi and & Aunt Cari)

2011-08-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

Cari and I took turn taking "snapshots" at Natalie's 6th birthday party at Elite Gymanstics in Baton Rouge. This was her first birthay party in Baton Rouge. She invited only girls. It was such a nice orchestrated party and Natalie was such a sweet birthday girl. Our "picture-taking" started at home before we left. Cari offered to take a photo of ME AND RANDY...after all, we've now been MIMI AND POPPA for 6 years.
So I took one of Cari. Of course, she dressed to match the PUPRLE BASH!

A few party details...

I love this one of Cameron. It is such a "daddy" photo!

"oh, my... being the birthday girl is tiring!"

That was fun!

Kyleigh loved this one!

Sure wished I knew what she was saying here...

I think Natalie is asking for another turn.

I love this of her on the balance beam.

Sporting her birthday-theme matching tutu (gift from Aunt Cari)...

Posing for pics...

again...

taking turns...

and watching....

Mommy and Daddy took lots of pics with their camera too.

This one was just for the birthday girl!

THE BIRTHDAY GIRL RECEIVING HER GYMNASTICS AWARD!AND NOW POSING FOR MOMMY!

Back to the party room...

Posing before cake...

Her Microphone Cupcakes that her daddy made for her party...

And it's lit...

About to blow out her #6 candle...

And there she blows...

Mimi's Silly Sweetheart...

more sillinesss...

AND THAT'S ONE HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRL!

If you missed the blog post that I made the day after the party while my thoughts were fresh, please view this POST CALLED: REFLECTIONS

Time to Catch Up THURSDAY (Part 2)

2011-08-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

My Children..Fall 2010 FALL 2010 AT VHS HOMECOMING....
At this point, I had lost about 20 lbs. I was very proud, but still new I had a way to go.

We were very proud of our Senior Maid daughter...

I have a lot to do today: hair appointment at 3:30, give the dog a bath, clean/straighten as much as possible because we have family coming this weekend to spend some time at the lake celebrating summer birthdays....especially a certain little girl's 6th birthday, and an evening portrait session with a dear friend of mine and her family in front of her home before they sell it.

I am still trying to catch up on the events and milestones that are WORTH REMEMBERING (and blogging) before proceeding to stay on top of things and blog as soon as I can after an event has recently occured. I have been making notes on the things that I want to list as I remember them and I have even gone back to the previous TIME TO CATCH UP THURSDAY post and added things as I remembered them. I still have the Fall of 2010, Winter 2010/2011, Spring 2011, and the present Summer 2011. Since I have so many things that take precedence over blogging to do today, I am only going to list the first one...

FALL 2010...

We hosted a Sunday School party at the lake house (the weekend after Labor Day). It was a fun day of bonding with some very special people.

Had a custom made cheerleader suit made for Natalie to match Cari's. Hopefully, later I can do a post showing images of the two of them.

Cari was voted Senior Maid. It was very fun and stressful getting all her attire together for the event. She was quite honored to have been voted this title. I took many photographs...maybe I can do a post sharing some of them soon too.

Cari cheered at her last football game. I have lots of photos from the pep rallies and games. I will share some of those later too. I had every intention of doing a scrapbook for her and all the girls...maybe I still will. One pep rally I actually forgot to bring a memory card. It was nice to actually watch their awesome Home Pom dance/routine rather than photograph it. BTW...they got 2nd place on this dance at camp earlier that summer (July 2010).

Cameron turned 22 (Nov. 12th); the same age we were when he was born.

Cari turned 18 (Dec. 1st) . I would love to say we threw her this really big birthday party. I thought about it, but just can't ever seem to pull it off. Maybe if she had been born a different time of the year. We did, however, do a nice surprize birthday party with her friends at their favorite restaurant, La Fiesta. My good friend, Kate, made her gorgeous and delicious birthday cake! It was all good!

Cari danced as the Snow Queen in the Nutcracker. I watched her at each peformance including the dress rehearsal and captured tons of photos. She danced so beautifully!

We celebrated our 25th anniversary (Nov. 29th).

Randy got a new truck, a GMC Silverado.

Okay, that's all I can remember now. I am sure I will embellish or remember more and add to this post later. Wished I had time to dig out photo of all that I have photos of...which isn't everythng, but of course, I have plenty of some of the events...though not all.

~~ja~~

TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY...

2011-08-02T12:05:00.001-07:00

...this child of mine...I mean, young lady of mine, will be moving into her dorm at ULM.

She gets to move in a week early because she was selected to be on the CAMPUS ACTIVITIES BOARD (CAB). She is really excited about this. She applied back in June when we were there for PREP (orientation). I still can't believe my baby will be a college student in a few weeks.

How do you like her new college look? She wanted to do something different for her new adventure in life. She loves the length of her hair so she decided to cut bangs rather than cutting her hair shorter or anything like that. Today was the day she it cut and then we went into the studio to do a few shots. She is also starting her own blog today too that will be about her college experiences. I will include a link to that later.

~~ja~~

NATALIE'S WORLD BLOG HEADER...

2011-07-31T16:28:00.001-07:00

So how do you like my new header for NATALIE'S WORLD...OH NO! Just found an error! "As viewed by Mimi" should be somewhere else. I moved it and then planned to go back and move it to the appropriate spot when I finished with the images. So back to the drawing board! I am going to get a new background an header for this page. I am shopping for digital scrapbook papers for the links on the Blogs For A Cause page. So I was trying to decide if I want to change Natalie's World background up too. Since I have such difficult time making a decsion. I decided to change the images. Since I don't remember how to change it, I will get Nikki from Blogs for a Cause to do it when I get her to do some for this blog. Decisions, decisions, decisions....
But for now...with the text moved a bit, how do you like Natalie's World header with the updated images?

Reflections (Natalie's 6th Birthday Party)

2011-07-31T07:38:00.000-07:00

I used to be a very organized person: everything in it's place. Now...not so much! Certain things are usually always in there place...while some I can't never seem to stay on top of...like things that others use too! My 2nd set of car keys are misplaced this morning and my husband has mine in his pocket. He went to church earlier today to work on sound for worship service, but they were practicing it before Sunday School so that they could all go to SS. He drove my car last. Thus my keys were with his keys and he just put them in his pocket. I was running late as it was because I was doing some last minute preparations for a baby shower (my gift). So we had decided to go in different vehicles anyway...but now I have to wait to go with Cari who was coming in her car. Yes, we were going to have 3 cars for 3 people to go to one place. We normally do NOT do this. Sundays are usually the one day we all go to the same place at the same time. So now I waiting on Cari to get her shower since she wasn't planning to leave until later because of the project she was finishing for the gift also. Wow! Sometimes the simplest things can be so complicated!

I don't have any photos ready yet to post, but I thought rather than doing some cleaning, organizing, or straightening that I would do a little reflecting on yesterday's big event. Yesterday was Natalie's 6th Birthday Party. The day before she has turned 6 years old. Yes, it still seems like it was just yesterday she was born, yet it also seems like she has been a part of family forever because I really can't remember what our life was like without her. So much our lives have surrounded her existence now for the last 6 years. The last school year, her first year of Kindergarten, we did begin to spend less time with her. She was in "real" school now her absences count. So no more staying an extra day on the weekend to spend quality time with Mimi just because she misses her little sweetheart. It was difficult at the beginning of the school year for me...dealing with the loss of this time and facing the fact this was all of Cari's lasts: Last first day of school, Last time to cheer, Last prom, etc... But as I look back, at some point, I adjusted and now I am face all kinds of firsts again...but I won't be there to witness many of them (like her first day of college).

So I digress, with all these changes. I did less for Natalie and her parents did more...just as it should be. Most recently, this was Natalie's first party that I did NOT play a big part in planning or putting it together. Her parents did an excellent job! It was a PURPLE BEIBER BASH! Justin Beiber (and the color) purple was the theme. It was her first "girl" party. She only invited girls. And it was a gymnastics place in Baton Rouge. It was also her first party in BR. Brittany and Cameron both did a wonderful job with the food, decorating and preparations. Natalie was very well behaved and thankful for gifts. It was a very nice birthday party for top to bottom. I was a very proud Mom and Mimi! I will try to post photos soon!

~~jami~~

Six Years ago today...

2011-07-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

...our family grew and had the joy that comes with have a little one around again. It is so amazing the joy and love that is enjoyed everytime a new baby is born.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 6TH BIRTHDAY TO THE MOST LOVING LITTLE GIRL I'VE EVER KNOW! YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MIMI'S SWEETHEART, POPPA'S PRINCESS AND CARI'S LITTLE CARE BEAR! I PRAY THAT I NEVER FORGET THE TWO SONGS I MADE UP FOR YOU: "Natalie Pooh" and "Natalie's World".

~~jami (aka Natalie's Mimi)~~

Time to Catch up THURSDAY (Part 1)

2011-07-28T06:37:00.000-07:00

Istarted my first blog the fall of 2007 that was all about Natalie. After all, our lives seem to involve her. So I started this blog about 3 years ago when Natalie moved to Baton Rouge after her mommy and daddy moved down there. I wanted to do a blog that was for venting my loss of my time with her and for sharing the rest of my family via blogging, but also for digital type scrapbook of our lives...a new style of keeping a family album of images that also included a little story behind the images. After all, I was doing this type of thing before scrap booking become a hobby, but I took on my hobby and made a business is out of it. The one thing that I learned from that is once you take your hobby to the next level by creating a business, you never have time for other hobbies again. So to put it mildly, one of the reasons that I quit (or took a break) is that I have been in a somewhat burnout from feeling overwhelmed trying to combine my business life and personal life for the past...hmm...5 or 6 years (probably since making the digital transformation along with becoming a grandmother). I haven't even wanted to take snapshots unless it was my iphone. Yes, I confess! Photography, my love/my passion, turned to work. And sometimes we get so tired that work is work and we just need a mental as well as physical break. Have got all of that, not sure, but I my priorities are coming back in focus once again as I can see the summer coming to an end very soon as well along with many changes. So I plan to list a few things as I remember them that has happened the last 16 months since I made my last blog post (not counting yesterday: LOL).

(one of the fun shots)

I will try to list in order, but first I will give the background on these photos. Most of you have already seen them on facebook. They were captured in Key West, Florida. Randy and I have always wanted to go to Key West and I've always wanted to have a family beach portrait. November 29th was our 25th wedding anniversary. My husband booked our family a 7 day cruise out of New Orleans that included three stops: two in the Bahamas and the other, Key West. So decided it was more important to celebrate our family more than our marriage. After all, we officially became a family when we married, not when our first child was born.

ABOVE: (one of my favorites: us walking hand-in-hand looking toward my sweetheart)
BELOW: The first image again...one of my faves, but not my wall portrait.

Spring of 2010:

I started Weight Watcher's (a wonderful journey that from
time to time was one step forward and two steps back) [made Lifetime
Membership in February of this year] I believe everyone has an addiction
or two. It is a matter of whether they can find the balance in their
lives with things they are tend to be addicted to. Mine is food!

I hosted a BUNNIES & BABIES PORTRAIT EVENT. I had not done bunnies in a few years. Bunnies are always one of the most successful portrait events of the year.

Cari had her JUNIOR PROM. [She broke up with her boyfriend about 2 weeks before prom.] To view images of her and her friends, click HERE!

I attended a week long photography school. I had not done that in years. I was hoping it would jump start my juices to flowing and it did for while. I must admit as mentioned previously they are flowing as quickly or as freely as I desire.

Cari also came with me and photography friend and modeled for many different world renown photographers. Okay, maybe they're only well-known to other photographers, but trust me...it was an honor and very fun to Cari. She received many compliment from the photographer instructors and students.

The day after we got back to town we left again to go to NATALIE'S FIRST DANCE RECITAL. She had completed her first year of dance at Machita & Co. in Port Allen. Her recital was held at the River Center at downtown Baton Rouge. It was very long. But so precious to see her dance on stage.

Cari also completed her junior year and "officially" became a SENIOR!

Natalie completed her 2nd year of pre-school at KinderCare.

Brittany and Cameron celebrate 2 years of marriage.

SUMMER 2010

Natalie spends lots of time at Mimi's pool swimming and showing off her cute swimsuits that Mimi is addicted to buy for her.

Cari got a job working sales/customer sevice for Verizon Wireless in Vidalia.

Brittany was Conner & Abby Branton's baby sitter for the summer.

Cari wrecked her first car, her green, 2005 Nissan Altima. She loved that car.

Cari attended her last high school cheer camp at LSU where she made ALL-AMERICAN!

Natalie went to Tea Party Classes with Mignon. Her first beginning classes of social etiquette.

Cari went to church camp. While she was away at church camp, we bought her 2nd vehicle, a white, 2006 Ford 500 (we got a really deal on this one!)

Natalie turned 5 years old and had a Luau Birthday Party at the Country Club to celebrate with friends and family. Some of our extended family stayed the rest of the weekend and we continued to celebrate at the lake house.

END OF SUMMER 2010

Cari found a new job that she loved. She has hired to work at AFTER GLOW, a tanning salon with two locations, one in Vidalia and one in Natchez.

Cari starts her senior year. She had her last first day of school.

Natalie started her new school thanks to some special recommendation letters from two special friends: Tanya Mallory and Nicki Glenn. Natalie become a Kindergarten student at Baton Rouge Visual and Performing Arts Center (a wonderful magnet school that we were blessed to get Natalie into). We have been very impressed with this school and looking forward to another school year there.

Cameron starts his Senior Year at LSU and Brittany starts her junior year. I am very proud of growup kids.

I did a Mini Cheerleader Portrait Session of Cari in her CHEER ATTIRE for the football program book ad.

We spend several weekends at the lake after having fun after Natalie' party. Natalie could even get-up...rather stay up on the knee board.

Natalie started her 2nd year of dance at Machita & Co again and Cari started her senior year of ballet at NATCHEZ BALLET ACADEMY with Mignon again.

Cari tried out for Nutcracker. Even though this was only her 2nd year to do the Nutcracker since she had only started back taking ballet her sophomore year, she was hoping for a lead role. She was tickled to learn the had the role of SNOW QUEEN.

Randy booked the cruise for our family. We begun then to look forward to celebrating 25 years as a family and I knew then I would book a photographer in Key West to do our beach portraits.

Okay, I know I still have a lot of catching up to do. But this is a start. I have, in a nutshell, covered a large portion of events up to last fall. Maybe I will even go back and do many posts and add photos. But I doubt it...since one of the reason I stopped (or took a blogging break) is because I really don't have lots of extra time to do things like this. Maybe I will have more while living the empty nest life that will start very soon, but I really don't expect that I will. However, I do want to take time to blog about little things, big things and the things that really matter to me...in other words...the moments that I want to remember!

NOTE: As in my post on NATALIE'S WORLD today, if I remember additional things that I forgot to include in the Spring, Summer or Late Summer 2010. I will add them. This is my little digital scrapbook to remember the little things that mean so much to me and maybe to some others too.

~~ja~~

Way Back WHENSday

2011-07-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

I found this image while doing a random search for something older, but not blogged or facebooked.. It shouldn't have been hard to find an image that has NOT been blogged with since it has been over a year since I've blogged on a regular basis. The image date file read: 4.16.08 So that means this photo is over 3 years old. Natalie will be 6 the end of this week. WOW! HARD TO BELIEVE MY BEAUTIFUL LITTLE SWEETHEART WILL SOON BE SIX YEARS (in 2 days)!!!!

Without going into a lot of detail on this first post after so long, I am hoping (planning) to start blogging a little more regular again. I want to be "real", vent, savor the memories and document my family affairs! You're welcome to follow along, but I realize that this is something that I really want to do for me and my memories! HAVE A GREAT WEDNESDAY!

~~jami~~

Then and Now THURSDAY

2010-02-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

It was THEN: February 18, 1984

...that I met the love of my life, my future husband and the future father of my two children and future grandfather of our grandchildren...I mean at this point, grandchild.

[This photo was actually taken a few months later before my high school graduation, May 1984.]

This is NOW: February 7, 2010.

Yes, today is our Meetaversary. It was 26 years ago today, February 18, 1984 that Randy and I met for the first time. Twenty-one months and 11 days later we were married in a small church right down the road from my home. The end of this year we will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. I am hoping and praying that we have a better financial year so that we can celebrate it some grand fashion, but if not, I still love him more than I did on that day, November 29, 1985. Last year, Feb. 18, 2009, I blogged about our Meetaversary Day and did a tribute post to him. Click HERE if you missed it. I listed 25 (because it had been 25 years) reasons why I love him. So I think this I am going to add #26.

26. I love that he has lived up to all my expectations and then some. He has recently made a stronger committment to Christ than he has ever made in the past. I can honestly tell you that I am more in love with him than ever before. I keep thinking "what I have done to deserve such a man". Nothing...just one of my richest, sweetest blessings in my life.

I love you, Hunny! I look forward to the next 26 years and beyond. I have a feeling it will be even better than the first 26.

HAPPY MEETAVERSARY, BABE!

~ja~

DREW BREEEEEEZZZZZZ....

2010-02-15T06:01:00.000-08:00

Yes, I tried to titled like I so often here this man's name, Drew Breeeeezzzzz. My family has been a Saints fans before they ever had their first attempt at the playoffs in 1987. Yes, they had one in 1987 the year before we had our first child. I even dug our the 1987 Saints Playoff sweatshirt that I bought my husband, Randy, for Christmas that year. It was a VERY BIG DEAL! So if that was a big deal, how much more so this year has been with the Saints winning season and at least it was for the first 13 or 14 games or so. As stated before, I am NOT a big sports fan. I am an LSU fan and a SAINTS fans by default and I am really loving being a Saints fan now because of a hero like this guy! How awesome was this: Win the Super Bowl, Make Sure you have Your Little Guy in your Arms and the FIRST WORDS out of your mouth were GOD IS GREAT! The State of Louisiana really needed a hero like this.
I just love his boyish grins and the sincerity that see written all his face and the love that he has for his family, our state and above all God.

A week ago yesterday, my family's beloved team, the New Orleans Saints, won the Super Bowl. Click HERE to read my blog post on Natalie's World as to how we celebrated in New Orleans. The next day on our way home we decided to go to the airport to welcome them home. Click HERE to view that post on this same blog. We were very disappointed to learn that we weren't going to see the leader of this great team, Drew Brees, MVP of the Super Bowl. We quickly heard through the discussion in the crowd the reason he was not coming home with the rest of the team was because he would begin making appearances immediately as MVP of the Super Bowl. So as soon as all the press conferences were over and the rest of the team, were getting ready to fly by home to New Orleans, Drew was headed to Disney World. Yes, I was bit jealous of my good friend, Nicki. She photographed these at the DISNEY WORLD the same day at the "Disney Parks: CELEBRATES SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS" parade at Disney World the next day, Feb. 8, 2010. Click HERE to view her complete post.

Thanks, Nicki, for these photos...

I thought it was quite neat that Drew is wearing the same Saints Fleur de Lis beads that Brittany had picked up for us to wear to the Super Bowl party. See I keep finding more reasons to like this guy.

The next appearance this day was at the David Letterman show. I almost fell asleep waiting for his appearance, but my eyes immediately popped open once he made his appearance.

When we were so tired from driving/riding home, we were thinking at least we'll get home in time to see him with Dave.

While I am not much into Mardis Gras, I really loved this article and I think it really put many of my thoughts and so many people from the state of Louisiana in perspective. Please read this Thank You to Drew post from nola.com. If you are even bit touched by the Saints pulling this win off, I think this will make you cry too.

THANKS, DREW!

Before I read the above article, I found this on facebook fan page (I think) called, "Saints QB Drew Brees talks about Jesus".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJR5ig26RTA&feature=player_embedded

EDITTED TO ADD THE MORE DETAILED VERSION OF THIS VIDEO (sent to me via email by Randy) This one is the same as the first link, but more...watch it instead:

[Okay, I am having problems getting it to link. Go to YouTube and just do a search to find it. It is called SVT Interview with Dree Brees. I am sure it will come up. Be sure to do this. I think you'll enjoy it.]

It is so refreshing to see a MAN OF GOD represent the state of Lousiana, NFL football team and the winning Super Bowl Quarter Back. Thank you, Drew, from the Ainsworth Family.

~~jami~~

SNOW COMPARISON...

2010-02-14T15:09:00.000-08:00

Friday, aka SNOW DAY HERE (02.12.10), I posted this image on facebook. I had NOT blogged or posted images on facebook book about our snow in December just two months previously. So I quickly worked up this little photo comparison to show the difference.

Since there were so many posts that day on facebook with everyone posting images and all the status updates over everyone obvious enthusiasm for snow in the Miss-Lou Region, I thought someone may have easily overlooked this photo and felt it was worth blogging about it.

Just think, we just thought that was a snow day, but right at 10 weeks later, we really had a snow day! Who would have believed it...in one Winter we had two snow days! What a great memory!

~jami~

FIRST THE SAINTS WIN THE SUPER BOWL and the Snow in Central Louisiana...

2010-02-13T09:20:00.001-08:00

...so what's going to happen next!

A really big Saints Fan, say Cari Ainsworth, write "WHO DAT?" in the snow.

I think soo...

Cari's car as seen from the front porch. Photographed yesterday a.m. around 7ish when I let Precious outside
No, she wasn't foud of this thick white stuff at all!
She seemed to strategically make way down the steps and back up...completely different paths.

Cari and Randy's Snowman. No, I didn't help at all. I was too busy photographing the scenery. And if you didn't see enough of snow on this blog post and if your are a facebook friend of mine, check it out because there were many, many more!

He seems to be saying "Go that way..." or with his other hand, "High Five!"

Looks like we needed a snow gauge rather a rain gauge. We did, however, estimate about 5 inches more or less. If the ground had been frozen when it started (like even 32 degrees), we probably would have had twice that much because much of it melted quickly. Most of the accumulation came during the night and then it continued to snow until early afternoon the next day (02.12.10).

One of my favorites images of Cari. It was actually a little over exposed and what do I often do with over exposed images...yes, play! I love, love this as a black and white.

Cari's car from another angle, photographed after I got out in the yard. Remember the first one was photographed when I was letting Precious out (while I was still in jammies) from the porch.

Randy's truck...

My vehicle did not get any snow photographs since it was safe under the garage/house.

Silly Cari catching snow with her tongue...

Cari and I...

Randy and Cari...

Randy and I....

It quite a fun SNOW DAY experience here at home in Frogmore. While I didn't make a snowman or do snow angels, I did thoroughly enjoy the scene and capturing some of it through photographs. I did, however, after taking the last posed photographs, have fun in snowball throwing fight!

~~jami~~

How many Saints fans does it take to WELCOME HOME THE SAINTS?

2010-02-10T12:44:00.000-08:00

...apparently a lot. Reports estimated 10,000 to 30,000. I have no idea how they get this estimate, but either way that's a bunch!

Yes, that's Cari and Randy mixed in among the crowd. Randy is visiting with this older gentleman that we met who has lived in New Orleans for over 40 years, but is original for the Alexandria area. We enjoyed visiting with him over the next few hours. I don't know if we would have sought out this adventure if we would have realized just what we were getting ourselves into, but I am glad that we did.
Several games away from the Super Bowl, Cari asked her dad if they made it to final game, could she go welcome them back home at the airport. I assume that she has seen this on TV before and thought it would be neat to do that especially if they made it this far. I even asked her if she would still want to if they didn't win. She still did. So when they won the next day, Randy made some phone calls and we made the decision to go to NOLA. CLICK HERE to view SUPER BOWL DAY AT NATALIE'S WORLD as viewed through my eyes, (of course).

We had heard (even before we left for NOLA) that they would not be coming home that night, but didn't know anything for sure. Since they did win, they DID HAVE TO STAY for press conferences. And did not have any actually plans of going to the airport. However, we ate breakfast/lunch at IHOP and were in the car on our way home listening to more Saints radio, of course. It was about 12:15 as we were trying to get on Interstate to head home. We heard the radio annoucer say that the Saints were expected to arrive at 1:30. Since we were very near the aiport exit, we couldn't the opportunity to at least check it out.

By the time we found our way down Veteran's Blvd where so many were already lined up with their cars, we had to leave our by the overpass and walk over and find a place to wait. At this point, it should have only been another hour. If I had to guess, I would say about 1/3 of the crowd was there when we arrived. More and more people continued to accumlate. It mind boggling to believe this many people would show up for this.

This is what the crowd looked like to begin with. The tall building in the background is near the airport. We were still a good distance from it. People were lined all the way to the airport to the overpass and past.

This is when the traffic was still flowing on both sides of the curb. We chose the right side in hopes that the players and coaches would be driving their vehicles.

Now the owner of this vehicle was a very serious fan.

See what I mean...

Cari and I liked this girl's sign: DAT'S DAT!

In sequence of event (the first image of Cari, Randy and many others)...

Traffic was beginning to slow down and only a few cars were coming through at this point.

I don't think this was the exact plane, but it looked just like it (that is if it was the one that we thought...of course when this was photographed we thought this was it).

I included this photo rather than the other one because I liked the flag/pennat that was flying in the bottom of the image.

This guy playing the drum visited with us too. He came from California to see the Super Bowl from NOLA. Howver, he was orginally from New Orleans. I don't know the other guys story, but I think they met the day before on Bourbon Street. They played When the Saints Go Marching In. They really boosted the morale of the crowd and made it more intersting.

Finally a few cars started coming. I am not sure if this was the "official" group yet, but you gotta admit, that looks like a New Orleans Saints car. It also reminded me of a car my dad had when I was a kid. My dad's car wasn't this cool!

See the people lined up on the overpass. The police ran them off several times, but they finally gave up on that.

Also notice this fence. They put up the wobbly-portable fence. The told us that this fence would be on our side and a cop car would go side by side on the other side. So as sad as I was that we were going to be viewing this through a chain-link fence, I knew that was better than not seeing at all because of the cop car.

Okay...it didn't go that way.

See I told you those people came back and then some.

They removed the fence and the cop cars did NOT go beside them. The players, coaches and even owners (in the next photo, Rita Benson Leblanc) could barely drive there cars through. The people were so thick the cars just had to ease through to avoid running over people. Cari turned paparazzi on us and fought other women with point and shoot cameras and camera phones the Saints members as they slowly drove through. Some of the were very friendly and still seemed very excited. A few didn't even put their dark tinted windows down. SNOBS! But most of them, were at least, very accommodating and gave high fives...okay maybe not HIGH FIVES, but had their hands out sort of like a cross between giving five and hand shaking...kind of the baseball teams at the end of the game with each other. Needless to say, it was nice gesture. I know they had to be getting tired of the attention and probably just wanted to go home to sleep or rest.

Many of the people we didn't recognize. After all, they didn't have their jerseys on with their names and numbers. But I was told that this was Rita Benson LeBlanc. I did look up the Saints roster that included players, coaches and mangers, which confirmed that information. I plan to post many more images on facebook. I would love to hear who recognizes them either because they really knew who it was or could identify them from their photo on the website. As I looked through it, I recognized many of the faces Cari photographed, but I do not have the time or desire to match all of them and list their names.

Most of the photos that Cari took were very close. She had to literally be on top of them. If she allowed any space someone would be in front of her in heartbeat. In fact, she did end up getting many camera phones and peoples' heads in her images too. I am sure many of them popped in just as she was snapping.

Again I was told this was the defensive coach, Greg Williams. The WEBSITE confirmed.

Even I recognized the Owner of the Saints, Mr. Benson.

Who recognizes this guy? I will give you hint. He made the winning 3 points in the game against the Minnesota Vikings on the 24th.

GARRETT HARTLEY

There it is, the LOMBARDI TROPHY, and the man himself, Sean Peyton, HEAD COACH OF THE NEW ORLEANS SAINTS.

I think Cari was especially proud to have captured this one.

Now doesn't this player seem to be enjoying this as much as the crowd enjoyed seeing them?

Do you know who he is?

I think I do...according to the ROSTER, this is Thomas Morstead, #6.

This was quite an adventure and I am glad that Cari and Randy had to opportunity to do this. I know they both got a kick out of it. It was a little trouble, but I think it meant a lot to the Saints and everyone who made them who they are from coaches to staff. But what would they be without their fans.

Oh I almost forgot. I will have one more mini post about the Saints. We did not get to see MY FAVORITE PLAYER, Drew Brees. I will do another post on that and why we didn't.

For now, I think this is it. If you happen to be a Saints fan and would like to see some of the close-up photos that Cari captured at the airport as the Saints were going one, please look me up on facebook. I plan to post them in a day or so.

~~jami~~

GOODBYE 2009; HELLO 2010

2010-01-01T06:56:00.001-08:00

Okay, I finished another year not blogging as well as intend to or would like to, but I had the best intentions. And I wished starting the brand new year (right at 9 hours into it) with a new blog post would mean that I am going to be better at documenting my life and those I love the most. But I know this year will probably be as busy as ever and will be quite overwhelming at time (as usual), all I can do is put my best foot forward, love God, love my family and all the rest should fall into place. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

I hope you enjoy our New Year's Greeting. I've been saying for years that I may drop Christmas Cards and do these because my life is always so busy during the holidays. In fact, that was my plan last year, but then the family photo in front of the tree before we opened gifts was not even in focus....so scratch that idea. My plan had been to send a New Year's Card along with the Christmas Cards and letters (the one that I recently edited, printed and included with 2009 cards), but since it didn't work out last year, I was glad to do it this year. I only ordered a few. I really don't like sharing an image of myself with the extra weight that seems to cling to me these days (plan to do some about that soon--sort of a new years resolution) which is why I put it here and not one of my blogs that gets more hits. Even though I think I look very plump, I love that we are ALL in one photograph and that we look so happy. I want to remember that and that's what this blog has been all about!

merry christmas

2009-12-24T04:17:00.000-08:00

21st Birthday Post

2009-11-20T07:10:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: After I posted Cameron's 21st Birthday blog post (several days later), I realized that the date was incorrect. Blogger has thing called, "Post Options", meaning you can tell which day you want it to post and even the time. What I did not realize is that it shows up like you posted it the date that you actually posted it. Meaning it shows up as posted 2 days ago on others blog polls. I remember Penny mentioning something along this line when I decided to do the post date/time thing, but I didn't remember the exact problem. Oh well...just wanted to Sate that my son turned 21 one week ago on the 12th not the 10th as was shown as the blog post date.

I know just a trivial little thing, but I can't let it go without clarifying it.

AND ON MORE RECENT NOTE: This week we are very busy with Cari's first ever Nutcracker ballet performances. She danced beautiflly last night. If you are a facebook friend, I have posted a few images from the last two nights. I will try to do a blog post about it soon...key word being TRY.

TWENTY-ONE YEARS AGO...

2009-11-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

...today (NOVEMBER 12, 1988) at 9:23 a.m., I become Mommy to the most wonderful baby that had ever been born ---at least that was how I felt as the euphoric feelings lasted for hours . Did I say hours? I meant days, probably until the first interrupted night of sleep. Needless to say, this mommy was in love her baby boy and just purely in love with this feeling--you know the feeling that you know you love this baby that you are carrying--you know you love them before they are born, but OH MY..WHAT FEELINGS YOU DISCOVER...FEELINGS OF LOVE THAT YOU DID NOT KNOW EXISTED UNTIL YOU HELD YOUR NEWBORN CHILD THAT FIRST TIME!

[4-months old]

And so quickly those first few days turn into weeks, then years and before you know it, you wake up on the day you remember it, parts of it, so vividly, the day your child was born twenty-one years ago. Before you know it, he is a handsome young man. You think of the days when he was an infant and you remember those thoughts, "I wonder what he'll look like when he's one, two, three and all the different ages in between" and you wonder what he'll do. You wonder when will he walk, will he play ball, will he good student, will he go to collage, when will he get married, and as I as I scan through the images that I selected for the blog entry now I can look back and see the answer to so many of those questions.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, OUR SON, CAMERON!

[a few months after graduation]

Cameron, this blog post is all about you, a tribute to you and to let you know how proud of you we are are. I know we all have hang ups and you are know exception. I don't see you as that perfect child like I did that day you were born 21 years ago.

[11.12.88]

SO MANY FIRSTS:

You're truly are a son to be proud of. Thus I want to take this opportunity to reminisce of just how great it has been being your parents. Soaking in all the 'FIRSTS' in your childhood has probably been some of our most treasured moments in life. As the phrase goes, "What a ride!"

[first steps (summer '89), but it looks like a dance move, huh?]

[first fair--Fall 1989]

"She, your first dog, Christie, loved you so much! I remember how it drove me crazy when she chased you in circles around the coffee table. How much I would enjoy to experience those moments again...now."

[first dog, Christe, a Sheltie, Feb. 1992]

I don't guess this was a first moment, but I remember how it was first obvious that you were coming down with chicken pox just hours after Cari's first birthday party ended. I had to call all the parents of a little ones to tell them that their child was probably exposed to chicken pox. Then about a week later, Cari came down with what I call case of "poster-child" chicken pox. Literally, she could have done the photos for the posters at the Health Center showing what Chicken Pox looks like! Hey, but at least we got it done and over! No more chicken pox for our family again!

[Chicken Pox, December 1993]

This was the first year of cub scouts which lead to many special bonding moments between you and your dad as well as me and you. Just a few Mom and Me Camp outs and then Dad and Lad camping. And what about that cake that you mentioned the other day, I did not get around to scanning the photo to show Brittany, but I am so glad we have them so that we do remember that awesome, almost-life-size Indian Teepee cake that you and your dad made.
[Tiger Cub: first year of cub scouts]

"How fun was this day for you!"
[first pro game, Atlanta Braves versus Houston Astros in Houston]

You definitely love to win!

[First team championship--tee ball]

Even though you don't hunt much these days, your daddy sure has enjoyed sharing his great loves with you: football, baseball, hunting...just to name a few.
[first nice buck...I think it's the first]

Cameron, what a cute little boy you were!
[Kindergarten Graduation, 1st graduation]

Your daddy still reminds me how it was obvious to him when your first tee ball coach looked at you that he thought you would NOT be too great (since your were a small boy) and then how quickly he changed his tune and moved you to better positions and started working with you. He was very proud of that! We were proud of the little athlete that you were even then.

[First tee year of tee ball]

I wished I had a record of the hours that your daddy worked with you with baseball in that backyard in Tallulah and the side of our yard here. The hours that you and he spent together throwing, catching, batting are so special to him. I am soooo glad that you loved the game that was so dear to him too, but as much as he loved it, I know he loved it all the more because you did.

[one of the first All Star Teams...I actually think it is the 2nd year of All Stars]

OUR BEAUTIFUL BABY BOY: [Four Months Old...first Olan Mills portrait--my favorite baby photo]

You were just a beautiful baby. I so enjoyed being your mommy and loved showing you off because isn't that what proud Mamas do. Have you ever watched the movie re-run "Look Who's Talking"? Someone who had just seen it at the movie theater before your first birthday party said that you looked like that little baby. After we rented it and watched it on VHS, I agreed that I thought you and he favored, BUT you were much, much cuter!

[approximately 1-year...Christmas portrait for 2nd Christmas included in our Christmas card the next year I started doing Photo Christmas Cards...first two included a photo]

Can you see the curls from the sides? You had rows and rows of them in the back. After you first haircut at 19 months old, that was the end of them. Sniff, sniff!
[15 months old...before first haircut--love those baby curls]

Trying to fill Daddy's shoes, but you actually outgrew them!
[ two-years old..wearing Daddy's boots]

You loved riding that horse, but I think you loved those Ninja Turtles more especially those p.j's and house shoes.

[Two-years old--riding his handmade rocking horse, made by Papaw Don and painted by Mamaw Opal]

When I've been asked the question, "what is your favorite sport?", my answer always been whatever sport my child is playing at the time. We loved watching all of them from baseball, basketball, football, and even track (when I could come). Eventually you chose your sport, baseball. When loved watching you play the game that you excelled. You were such a natural athlete, but such a great leader too and it makes me so proud because even though I am not much of a leader, I am proud that somehow between your dad and I and the grace of God that we DID teach you some great skills for life and for the games included in life. You were often quite a stubborn, strong-willed child (as Dobson described it), but hey you probably got it honestly from both of your parents and grandparents too. Often with proper nurturing those same children do become the leaders of their generation. That is how we see you, as a leader.

OUR ATHLETE: [9/10 year old start team]

[AYA football--6th grade]

[11/12 year old all stars]

Each spring when I drive past the ball fields and there are games in every field available, I miss it. I miss it all, not any particular age group, but just the whole experience. I am so, so thankful that God gave me those memories.

When your child is a baby, you can't really imagine how it can get any better or how the middle years or teen years can be that special, but oh they are. As you got older there always so much going on that it all happen so quickly and before you know it, your first born child is almost grown.

ALMOST GROWN: [In Jr. High...playing on high school and jr. high team]

I think this photo session was more like your typical senior session. Do you remember how I wanted to do a session after you got your braces off? But at the time we were so busy with baseball and finally several month later we did our session. I am so glad that we did this session because of all that was going on at the time we never did a full-blown senior portrait session.

One of my favorite physical traits about you is your smile. I think you have one of the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen.

[Portrait Session in the studio after braces came off...Fall 2003]

This was the year your team won District Champs. Now wasn't that fun! Tiring and stressful at the time and I remember how achy your knees (since you were catcher for each game) were when the tournament ended, but what a great experience it was for our family and especially for you.

[Tri-Parish All Stars 13/14 age group]

I really don't understand why around here we have prom each year of high school, but you and your friends sure looked handsome.

[First Prom--Spring 2004]

Don't you love how parents think their kids are great even if they're not? Okay, that wasn't the case here. Cameron, we will always think you were one of the best catchers of all time and compare the pro guys to you not the other way around.

[High School Baseball--Jr. Year, Spring 2006]

I was so glad to finally learn how to make some of these collages, not that they are the best, but they are some of my most proud pieces of work.

[Junior Year--Spring 2006]

See what I mean about your smile!

[18th Birthday]

SENIOR YEAR: [last baseball season--Spring 2007]

Why is it the closer to the end of something the faster it seems to go? The last year of high school was so full of bitter sweet moments.

[Senior Prom]

My favorite Senior Portrait...

[Senior Portraits--Spring 2007]

[My favorite Senior Portrait with a Smile--Spring 2007]

I am so proud of you for being a great student especially those last two years of high school. I never will forget that first report card of all A's. It was the first 6 weeks of your junior year. I was sitting at my desk with a client and her daughter. You had went to school with the daughter at Huntington. When I realized you had all A's, I almost cried. The daughter said that witnessing that moment was like Silvan Learning Center commercial. One of the special moments in life that you gave me that I will never forget! Thanks for keeping it a secret until I saw the report card. It certainly made the whole experience unforgetable.

[Graduation Night--May 2007]

Several years ago our lives changed forever, of course, like any parent, when we found our child was becoming a parent while in high school, our hearts were broken. Immediately I realized that our heartache would become our joy, of course, I had NO IDEA just how much joy! Even though today is the day you legally became an adult, the day you are considered grown. I will never forget the moment that I witnessed you become adult right before I eyes as I photographed the birth of your daughter, my first granddaughter. As I watched you hold Brittany's hand, as she gave birth and as I watched the tears stream down your face as together you both held your daughter for the first time, I realized then that I was watching my child become an adult right before my eyes. I am not sure if I have ever shared this with you, but I do want you to know that I am so proud of you and how you stood by their side that night and since then too.

NATALIE:[My very favorite newborn portrait. Natalie about 3 weeks]

[Homecoming 2005; Cameron's Jr. Year/Brittany Sophomore, Miss French Club]

[Homecoming 2005]

[Homecoming 2006/Senior year]

[Natalie & her daddy--Prom 2006]

[Prom/Junior Year: 2006]

[Brittany's Senior Prom]

[The queen and her parents, April 2008]

The one thing that every parent desires in that when they grow that they find someone to love and share their life with and eventually have a family. Not every family happens in that order. I am so glad that you have found the love your life. I know you know that we love Brittany. I just want you to know that I am proud of you for realizing it. A lot of guys your age would not be mature enough how much they love someone else and be ready for the commentment and all the responsibility that comes with being husband and daddy.

ENGAGEMENT/WEDDING:

I am sure that I am not the first to tell you, but you two make a reall cute couple. Did I say cute? I mean gorgeous/beautiful/handsome--anyhow, I think you're pretty awesome together.

[engagement portrait--spring 2008]

This was a proud day for me as you mom.

[mom & son dance]

I love your sense of humor too. Yeah, it comes from your dad. This was photo idea was his!

[Gangsters?]

[The Exit]

Have I mentioned how handsome, cute, nice-looking that I think you are? You certainly made a very handsome groom.

[The Handsome Groom, Our Son]

I will never forget the day we told you that you were going to have a brother or sister. Your response, "Do I have to?"

Who knew you were content at being a only child for three years? Four years and 3 weeks later, your only sibling, your sister was born. I would love to say that I love how close you two are. Maybe it's the fours between you or maybe I should have done things different, but for years, I know you often felt jealous of her. And if any of that is my fault, I am sorry. She has always looked up to you. When she was a baby you could make her laugh better than anyone could and you were her first hero. She loves being Cameron's little sister and everyone knowing her at the ball games and before she got to high school. I am very proud that I see you getting closer as you get older. I love the way that you are so proud of her for doing well in high school and the advice you have for her for A.C.T. stuff and for college. I love that I know you will always look out for her best interst. Being the oldest child, I did not have an older sibling looking out for me. I am so glad that you are her Big Brother!

YOUR SISTER: [Later Spring or Early Summer 1993]

[Christmas Card Photo 1994]

[Vacation 1995]

[December 2004]

How blessed I am to have two beautiful children!

[Wedding Day, May 31, 2008]

FAMILY [not exactly sure on the date of this one--pre-digital for sure, so before 2004]

[Before Prom 2004]

Our family has changed so much over the years from this litle family that I love to coordinate our clothing for holidays & photographs...

[Easter 1994]

...okay that hasn't change, to a larger family..

[Dec. 2005--Christmas Card photo]

...that actually has two families within the one.

[Dec. 2005]

[Vacation 2004]

Cameron, this was our last Christmas with a family of four.

[Christmas 2004]

[Hot Springs, 2006]

[Summer 2007]

Cameron, maybe I get a litttle carried away with the whole family clothing coordination thing from time to time. I know you really didn't want to wear the p.j's last Christmas, but thanks for at least wearing the bottoms for the traditional group photo in front of the tree and to open gifts. I love that even though you are stubborn and head-strong (like so many of us in our family) that you will compromise.

[Christmas 2008]

I also loved that even though the gifts often change (from Ipods to griddles) once you get married that you still have a great attitude.

[Christmas 2008]

Thanks for taking my place at the recent ball at the old captitol building. From what your dad shared with me, you have the potential to benefit from that much more than me. He told me how certain people that were impressed with you when you were worked with them. How much they loved and respected you. Surely your dad and I had something to do with you helping you develop this great character of yours. :-)

[October 2009]

Leadership, sense of humor, compassionate, sensitive, loving, intelligent, head-strong, but yet compromising are all wonder traits that describe the wonderful young man that you are today. I want you to know that we love you not because of all this but because you are ours, our son, brother, a member of our family. We are so proud of you for these and so much more!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAMERON!

LOVE,

MOM, DAD & CARI

Wednesday Wishes

2009-09-16T05:33:00.000-07:00

WEDNESDAY WISHES

I wished that I could do a Blog Post w/o editting my images first.
I wished that I could post images w/o the story behind the images.
I wished that I photographed in low resolution so that I didn't have to convert to low res files...okay no I don't, but I wished that it was simplier or quicker to do.
I wished that I wasn't such a perfectionist (back to #1) so that I would not have to edit so much before posting.
I wished that I was a better blogger like Melinda or Nicki and stayed current with my blog posts. Okay, there are others (like you) who do much better that I do lately, but those two currently pop in my mind because lately they've had daily posts. Now I don't think I would have daily posts because I don't have a little one here every day any more, but between the 3 blogs that I have, I could have somethingon a regular basis.
I often wish that I wasn't such a detailed person. I think then I would better at this whole blogging thing. I have the thoughts in my mind (sometimes I even start blog posts in my mind), I have the photos and I definitely want to share it all. Now if I can just get better at this.

Now do you have any wishes that you'd like to share? Please comment or blog about it! Maybe I will make this a little regular thing like NOT ME MONDAY!

~~ja~~

THEY ARE GOING TO BE MISSED

2009-09-09T08:36:00.000-07:00

This is our pastor,

Dan and his wife, Nicki,

and their sweet little boy, Jonah.

Tonight is our last service with them. I could do several blog posts about this and I could go on and on. I am very sad to see them leave our church, but I am also very glad for them. I totally understand that God has a new plan for them...okay it's new to us and them, but not to God. I praise God that I met Nicki and Dan. I thank God for sending them into my lives just when He did. He always knows what we need, when we need it, even before we do.

I look forward to the message tonight but I dread saying good-bye to them. I know we'll stay connected through modern means such as facebook, emails and blogging, but it's still a bit sad seeing them leave. I honestly think I've learned more from both Dan and Nicki from messages at church to following their blogs than anyone that I've known with the exception of a few very close friends, my spouse and my parents (but you get the idea).

Dan, Nicki and Jonah, We love y'all dearly. I pray God blesses your new church like you've blessed the people here. I know we haven't been members of the church as long as some have, of course, some were there before y'all came, but I can honestly say that I don't think we would have ended up making First Baptist Vidalia our church home had it not been for your service to God and to the church!

Thank you for making a difference in our lives!

~~The Ainsworth Family~~

Besides you will be seeing us again. Are you sure about offering us a place to stay?

Happy Birthday to you: Randy, Hunny, Dad, Poppa and FLASHBACK FRIDAY

2009-07-24T10:23:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Almost 5 years ago, this guy, my hunny, my children's dad, Natalie's Poppa, prided himself in bragging to me that he was the first person ( and other than nurses, doctors, etc.) that was not her parents. He went over early the next a.m. after she was born and took breakfast to her parents.

Today, July 24th, is his birthday. I won't list his age either, but I will say he is two days younger than me. We were even born in the same hospital and were there at the same time (for at least a day). I am not going to do a long post about how much I (we) love this guy. I did that a while back. Click HERE if you missed it. And click HERE to view the blog post that I mentioned in the last post about how us moms aka photographers of our families should have photo taken of ourselves. I found it and want to pass it along. It really made me think!

SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RANDY!

WE ALL LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH!

~~ja~~

Happy Birthday to me...

2009-07-22T13:19:00.001-07:00

Today is my birthday (the age is not important). I am over 40 and less than 50. So let's leave it at that.

While I enjoy take photographs of my loved ones and others too, I don't particularly enjoy being in front of the camera these days. But since I am celebrating life today, I am sharing a few of me and some advice that I recently took seriously. Take photos with the ones you love. Today they may not seem that important or even that special, but one day they will be priceless. I recently read this entire blog post about a mom/photographer like me who isn't as photogenic as she once was or as young or as thin, but we only getting older and sometimes larger. I couldn't find the post or I would have included the link here. I have intended to do a post on the subject and include a link to this post that really sunk in with me. So even though I dont' have the link, the message is just do it...just take those photos with the ones you love.

EDITED TO ADD THE LINK: CLICK HERE.

I so love this girl and am so proud of her!

Above: Cari and I (just a few days ago at the beach)

...and you all know how much I love and adore my little sweetheart.

Above: Natalie and I at her dance review (mini recital) from dance camp

And of course, I love my hunny! Where would I be without him!
Above: my hunny and me

...I certainly wouldn't have this most precious family that I love more than words can express.

ABOVE: My Family

I am only getting older, but my love for God and my family is growing stronger.

I feel so blessed this birthday.

Celebrate life with the ones you love by taking photos with them as often as possible.

~~ja~~

NOT MY CHILD...

2009-07-20T12:16:00.000-07:00

Today MckMama is doing something different. So I thought I would play too. I only have one thing to post that I can think of at the moment. After all, I only have one child living at home and she is 16 years old. If Natalie had been here all week or the last few days, I am sure I could think of something about her.

It was not my child who forgot to pack her beautiful halter-style white portrait dress for the beach portrait that I bought last year with intentions of doing some kind of portrait of me and her together last summer [even though she had it lait out!]. More recently, I decided it needed to be a beach portrait. How much prettier would our portraits have been with her wearing a halter style dress so that it would cover newly darkened tans lines.

She and I did share the cost of a new pretty white portrait dress. It was pretty and I am glad that we found it, but the other dress would have been perfect. If I decide to get a wall portrait of this one or any of the photos that we captured on the beach, I will be paying my lab to "fix" the tans lines.

~~ja~~

Many more...

2009-07-20T06:36:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of my beautiful daughter, Cari, photographed during our Mini Portrait Session at the beach. The 14 year-old boys wouldn't necessarily think it was Mini Portrait Session, but I could have went on and on (even with the sweat running down my back...I love capturing these images)...so to me, it was a mini session!I have many more beautiful portraits to edit and to post to my blogs and facebook. I have posted a few more to facebook already last night that I couldn't resist. But for now I need to get to work. I have a few more orders to finish to have ordering caught up...just when I think I only have one or two more to do to be caught up, I receive another, I will praise God for that! And I have few sessions to edit. Cari will be leaving today for church camp. Pray that she and the other campers have life altering experiences and/enhancements. Natalie is still in Baton Rouge taking swimming lessons. I sure miss that little girl! So this week will be filled with work and some quality time with my hunny. I sure missed him while I was gone and I wasn't even gone that long. I think I missed sharing the expereince with him! [I do have him fired up for a family beach vacation. I don't know if we can pull it of this year, but he was online doing some shopping around last night. I love it!]

~~ja~~

The Beach...

2009-07-16T05:56:00.000-07:00

In a few hours Cari and I will be on our way to the beach for a little mini vacation! I have been blessed with a great opportunity to spend a little time with friends and some of my family (Cari) at the beach for the next few days! I wonder if this will be the view from our room. This is suppose to be a photo from Orange Beach and that's where we're going! Hopefully life won't be so crazy that I can't post a few picks next week. Have a great week/weekend!

~~ja~~

NOT ME MONDAY (and yes, on Tuesday again)

2009-07-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, I haven't posted anything lately. It's not like there hasn't been plenty happening in our lives. Though I must admit if I had time to post it would be on NATALIE'S WORLD because she has been such an intricate part of our busy lives and often the reason for it. The last three weeks have been quite a whirlwind: Two weeks of dance camp for Natalie with days that consisted of eating breakfast, dressing for dance, lunch, storytime/resting (aka naptime), swimming, supper and then we did it all over again. The 2nd week I was blessed with Cari's help on several trips because I had sessions [She was able to help because the child she was baby sitting for was on vacation with his family]. And just when I thought I would get back to work to finish some orders, edit those recent sessions, I've come down with one my worst sinus infections that has given me an excruciating headaches...actually they are more like face aches.

Just to vent a bit before I get on with my Tuesday morning, I thought I would play NOT ME MONDAY (and yes, I know it's Tuesday...don't you know me by now?, "A day late and a dollar short" or is "Better Late Than Never".

As much as I had to do yesterday, I DID NOT stop everything to do a Walmart shopping trip to purchase bleach (over $100 worth of other needed food and household items) so that I could continue washing clothes. It really would be a waist of time to wash my husband work socks w/o bleach. I also did not have make that dent in washing after I got back home because my headache was worst again (really I didn't).

While buying groceries and cleaning goods at Walmart yesterday, I did NOT buy some ice cream cones that I saw as I walked in the door because I have been craving an ice cream cone. And I certainly didn't buy one of my most favorite flavors, Butter Pecan, to put in those cones that I did not buy. We all know that I am very weight conscientious these day and that I would not splurge like that! No, no, certainly NOT ME!

I was NOT proudly showing Cari, my daughter, Natalie's birthday invitations that came in yesterday to discover that we omitted the date of the party on the invitation. Yes, that's right. We have these cute Princess Natalie invitations with all the other details except for the date! I won't take all be the blame for that since I had Brittany give me then details while I created the photo side and accents for the reverse side with the details. However, several people contributed to proof reading it and no one noticed. Now I admit it seemed something was missing, but yet it wasn't like I could identy that it was something missing, but something just a little off or strange, but I couldn't put my finger on it or even realize that was what I was feeling. NOW THAT DIDN'T MAKE SENCE AT ALL OR DID IT?

While trying to think of something different to do with Natalie, I DID NOT decide at the last minute to take Natalie to visit my mom (Friday night) Randy had golf the next day and I had Natalie while her parents moved into a new apartment. After talking to my mom who seemed a little down, I knew she needed a visit from our little loving sweetheat, princess child, Natalie. So I made a 24-hour visit! It was nice.

I DID NOT GET THE NICEST FREE BEACH INVITATION YESTERDAY. NO, NO, NOT ME! Those things don't happen to me. Okay, maybe they do, when I have my calendar extremely booked (which is really sort of strange for July). And I am NOT trying to see if I can figure out a way to rearrange my schedule for the end of the week so that I can at least go for a few days. I REALLY DO NOT THINK I CAN (really I don't) as bad as I would love a get-away...as much as I want to go to the beach.

And I am NOT FEELING HEADACHE FREE today...truthfully, it is pretty mild right now, but if start thinking about all that I need to do vesus what I want to do (beach trip) and then if I start do some serious comptemplating and re-arranging my schedule, I will probably have a really bad one again! UGH!
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, I DID NOT DO THIS NOT ME MONDAY and just now realize that I did link to Mckmamma's blog. Oh well...I have now!

Okay, with all that venting out of the way, I am off to try to create a productive day. And no matter what, I think I will have a blessed day! I do believe it is the state of our own mind that creates blessings more than what actually happens to us. [Disclaimer: I believe it. I just don't always follow it!]

FLASHBACK FRIDAY (posting a few hours early)

2009-06-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

Since Cari recently returned from cheer camp (aka bootcamp), I thought this image from three years ago would be perfect for FLASHBACK FRIDAY (which begins in less than fours hours from the time I am posting this). Cari and Katie will soon begin their junior year of high school at VHS. Katie is on the drill team and Cari a cheerleader for the Vikings. Three years make a huge difference. These girls have grown and changed so much!

~~ja~~

Check it out...

2009-06-18T07:36:00.000-07:00

BACKTRACKING #4

BACKTRACKING #5

Coming Soon: BACKTRACKING #6

Check out all the new posts on NATALIE'S WORLD. I just posted Backtracking #4 and #5 (only about 12 more to go). I really wished I could get this caught up before the end of this week along with all my other work because Natalie will be here next two weeks for dance camp. I am sure I will more images and posts. She will be doing a first next week. So I will definitley need lots of images and documentation for that.

~~ja~~

WORDY WEDNESDAY

2009-06-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

As you might have heard me complain, it is quite difficult to maintain three different blogs. I am not a great blog writer like some that I have ran across, saved and read lately, but I enjoy blogging. I enjoy looking back at my family's memories and I enjoy knowing that I have this to save our memories. I even enjoy keeping up my portrait blog. In fact, sometimes I wished that I could quit working as a professional and just keep up with my little sweethearts life and the rest of my family through blogging. I guess I could, but then I wouldn't have nearly as much to blog about because I couldn't afford some of the adventures that we blog about, if I didn't have least at source of income/cash flow from time to time.

I just wanted to make a quick post to say that I am trying to update Natalie's World with the events of the last two months or so. I have photographed the images, even gotten some of them ready to blog. I realized last night that I was 17 posts behind. I had even gotten to the point of not photographing insignificant moments since I knew I was already behind. I have a few posts that were not included in those 17 that need to be posted here. I plan to get Natalie's Images posted first and then I plan to catch up here as well.

It's hard to believe it is summer, that Cameron and Brittany have been married a year, that Natalie will soon be four years old, and that when summer is over my daughter starts school as a junior. WOW! I also can't believe my partial sabbatical (photographing babies, repeat clients, special promo and certain events) has come to a full circle. I still haven't done nearly as much as I wanted to do thus I will go into another year of the same thing this upcoming school year. Who knows I may continue it until Cari graduates. After that, who knows!

I don't think as a family we'll be taking a nice vacation...maybe some special outings to the waterpark, lake, and/or the beach. Hurricane Gustav effected many things like that for us this year, but no matter what we do, we'll make some special time for each other. Of course, I will be there to document and then BLOG IT! Check out NATALIE'S WORLD to see what we've been up to the last few months. I have posted a few of the BACKTRACKING today and last night..I have many more to post. So stay tuned to see what we've been up to with Natalie!

Flashback Friday...

2009-06-12T06:47:00.001-07:00

SUMMER

2004

This is Cameron from the Summer of 2004. This was his last season to play "regular" summer ball. He played tournament ball later.

The photo is a little dark as it was getting dark. I have acquired better equipment since then, but dark is dark and you can only get so much light on an image when it is.

This is definitely a flashback image. This was pre-Natalie. It is so hard to remember our lives without her. It seems she has always been a part of our family, but it definitely seems like summer ball has always been a part of our lives. Randy helped coach a league when Cameron was just an infant. He skipped a few years until Cameron was old enough to play. He was just away from us so much. It is very time consuming.

Cameron was just over 4 years old when he started playing. Cari could not remember a summer that she wasn't hanging out at the ball park while her brother played ball. It was often so tiring. We spent too much money at the concession stand. Gained weight too much weight eating nachos and anything fast food after the games to avoid cooking. Sometimes it all seemed never ending, but it ended and it was soooo sad to see a chapter in our lives close. So as much as we got tired of it all, we miss it just as much these days! Funny, isn't that the way life is.

~~ja~~

WHAT A WEEK!

2009-06-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Summer's have always been busy since our children have been old enough for ball, lessons and camps, etc. But wow WHAT A WEEK this has been and it only the first week of June! I think I have had only had one day of work. Hopefully next week will be much better. It is always so bittersweet...I enjoy my little sweetheart and all our special time together. But I also enjoy time to work and catch up on so many things that I struggle keeping together (my business/home work).

It is Friday and it already feels like Sunday afternoon by exhuastion level. My house upside down from coming and going and spending time with Natalie. I guess it can wait until Sunday afternoon because babies (little sweethearts) don't keep. They grow up so fast.

Monday I got up very early and took Cari to Baton Rouge for cheerleading camp. What an exhausting day that was. I got home around 10:00 pm ready to crash into my bed. Worked all day on laundry/photography work on Tuesday until bedtime. Wednesday I picked up Natalie and we went to the library and did some wal-mart shopping all before lunch. Then swimming with one very eager 3-year-old-almost 4-year old! I wanted take her swimming again that evening in the "big" pool (aka in-ground pool at the Tanner's) so I didn't even give her a bath or wash her hair like I normally do after swimming before naptime. We also normally read ALL the books from the library which was 12 this time. I knew I needed a nap as much as she did so I told her we would read half of them now and the other half at bedtime. She was sound asleep on my shoulder before I finished the 4th book. And I was so exhausted that while I was napping with her I didn't hear the phone ring when I received calls from Randy and Brittany. What can I say, swimming is very tiring for Mimi's too. As promised, we went swimming again that night. She did not want to put her face in the water at all. So....it has been decided she need lessons in a class with others so that she can see kids her age doing it. We took her to the other pool so that she could sit on the steps and begin teaching her some swimming skills. [goal not accomplished!] Needless to say Wednesday was fun, but also very tiring too.

Yesterday we went back to BR to pick up Cari leaving here very early, but late enough to see if one of Natalie's cheerleading sets had arrived. Fortunately, her gymboree cheerleader set did come in. I wanted her to have something "cheerleader" for the camp reveiw. We dressed her in the parking lot. And as she walked up to the collisium, I saw a cheerleader born right before my eyes. She walked, jumped, skipped and everyway that SHE thought a cheerleader would. And it got even better. She done it again with a dance to the music as we walked in. The seats were full of parents watching their child perform, but they couldn't resist laughing and smiling at Natalie as she walked in like she owned the place...like everyone was watching her...like they were all waiting for her to make her debut! It was a priceless moment. I wished I had a video of it though I don't think I will ever forget the image! Though this excitement soon faded because she wasn't allowed to get down on the floor with all the other cheerleaders to cheer. She had a meltdown or two and was chased by a parent/grandparent or two. We had plans to go to the zoo, but I knew she and we were way too tired for something as tiring as a walk through a zoo. So we opted for a movie instead. We saw another 3-D movie, UP. It was good-- though for a movie geared toward children, it was quite sad! And yes, I cried. [I forgot to add this part. As soon as the review and awards were over, as soon as Natalie got on the floor with the cheerleaders, Natalie asked Cari and then Alexa to teach her how to dance like that! LOVE IT, LOVE IT!]

Today as soon as i finish this post, Natalie and I will get ready to go to Natchez to go to the "big" Wal-mart to find birthday gifts for my nephew, and his step-sister, Chloe. And since on the way home last night, Natalie asked about the zoo, and since I feel guilty for not taking her after telling her we would, I will take her to Duncan Park for some kind of picnic lunch with takeout from McDonald's. It is so cool out this morning. So it looks like it will be a perfect day for a picnic!

Tomorrow we will head to Oak Grove to visit family and to take Natalie to Dalton's and Chloe shared birthday parties. This party will be at his daddy's (my brother) house; he has already had one with his mommy's family (I know this because of facebook...I love it!). Last year Dalton's "real" b'day was the day of the wedding rehearsal. So our dessert for the rehearsal dinner was a cake for him. To see some photos of Dalton's birthday from last year, click HERE.

Natalie woke up this morning asking if this was Dalton's birthday. I had to explain to her what we will do today and then tomorrow. So it's time to get off of this computer. I just felt the need to document this week's event even w/o photos...which I have...I have just been too tired to get them off the card. So stay tuned, I will post some soon....hopefully?

~~ja~~

FIRST DAY CHEERLEADING CAMP

2009-06-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

BEAUTIFUL CHEERLEADING GIRLS: Cari and Alexa Viking VHS performed their "home dance" Monday evening (June 1, 2009) at LSU as part of their cheerleading camp.

It is very hard to get great images of events like this even with a nice camera and exensive lens, but I did get a few images that I am pleased to have and to share here.

These following images are my faves.

The finish pose!

Alexa, Brandon and Cari...

Cari and Alexa...

Yesterday was a very tiring day for me: up early, drive to Baton Rouge, get Cari settled in, shop for more things for Cari for camp in busy traffic in BR, then back to Cam and Britt's apartment. I freshed up a bit and changed clothes then Brittany and I went to see the Home Dance Evalution (dance). Each group had really fun upbeat dances! I could have watched these all night...much more fun that them doing the same cheers over and over. The other two years of Cari cheering we attended the final day and that's what you experience: each team competing again each other doing the same cheers over and over! This was much more fun!

And I am glad I had Brittany there with me to share this.

I did have a photo of me too. I may include it later. It wasnt' great, but at least I have it!

I should have more images to post soon. We go back Thursday!

~~ja~~

NOT ME MONDAY

2009-05-11T09:59:00.000-07:00

Okay it that time again. And I think I will play for a few minutes rather than taking my shower and getting some "real" clothes on.

So welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. As for me, here goes:

It's not Monday at noon and I am NOT still in my p.j's. It really isn't the main advantage of working from your home. (Okay...maybe it is!)
I did NOT show FREE KITTENS to two different visitors who have stopped by this a.m. to inquire about said "free kittens" while still wearing above mentioned p.j's. No I would never do something like that!
And I did not keep one of the six kittens that I am trying so hard to give away before I get stuck with "teenager" cats that are virtually impossible to give away when the 2nd visitor wanted the whole litter ( or is it liter) because the first visitor who wanted a FREE kitten was coming back this afternoon for her one. After all, I do have four more younger kittens that will be ready in a week or so to give a way as well. (Yes, I know it sounds like we a have kitten kennel here!)
I did NOT enjoy playing bubbles, having picnics on the porch, reading library books and so much more with Natalie last week...no NOT ME!
I did NOT have another one of those excuciating headaches again on Thursday my first day of the week from last week without Natalie...thus I did not spend the day working like I had planned.
I did NOT find myself totally furstrated last Friday afternoon when the electricity kept flickering on and off until it finally stayed off. I did NOT decide that it was the perfect time to fold and put up clothes since I couldn't work on or play on the computer.

Okay, I am drawing a blank again (like last week). I guess I should do what I used to do...jot down my NOT MEs before actually doing them. Oh well...at least I played...though not too intersting. I will try to do better next time!

~~ja~~

I've been tagged...

2009-05-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

Cristi tagged me and now its my turn to tag some of you. So here is what you do. Make 3 lists of 8. First 8 Things you look forward to Then 8 Things you did yesterday Then 8 Programs you watch on TV. Then go tag 8 people to do the same. So here are my lists.

EIGHT THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO:

Taking Natalie to Disney World along with the rest of our family.
Sunday morning messages.
Date nights with my hubby/ get-a-ways with him.
Fun time in the pool this summer with Natalie.
A close relationship with Natalie as she grows into older child and then adult.
Possibly a nice much larger (and organized) studio.
ONE DAY...helping my daughter plan her wedding.
Getting over these headaches that I keep having and accomplish the goals that I had for this year of getting organized and caught up again!

EIGHT THINGS I DID YESTERDAY (05.06.09):

Made "baby" pancakes with Natalie. Then she added sprinkles to them. She said to me while we were doing this, "It's gonna be a great day, Mimi." And yes, it really was!
Took her to the library. We checked out 16 books.
Had a picnic with Natalie and her Poppa on the porch.
After our picnic, we started reading our books on our picnic blanket.
We finished reading our books, yes, all 16 of them, on my bed. Then I took a mini-nap after reading them--she took a nice long nap.
Natalie woke up in a great mood. While she heard me walking to my room, I don't remember why, she hid under the covers. This was the beginning of a really hillarious game of hide-and-seek. When she hides, she starts giggling before you find her! She's loves the game, but doesn't quite get the concept yet.
Showed some images from Saturday's sessions to some clients. They agreed with most of my faves. What can I say...I have a little experience at picking out baby pics!
I had a nice visit with Cari when she came home last night.

EIGHT PROGRAMS THAT I WATCH:

Ghost Whisperer (I know it's so fictional, but I am hopeless romantic and I love the "love story" included in this program.)
The Mentalist (one of my newests faves)
Criminal Minds
House
Dr. Phil (When it's a subject that I am interested...if not I can turn it off, but most of the time, I am interested.)
Big Bang Theory
CBS Daytime programs (I listen while I work on images on the computer.)
Lifetime Movies (when it's not one that I have seen 2 or 3 times!)

So those are my lists. Now its time for --

Brittany at (my "other" daughter aka daugher-in-law) http://natalieintigerland.blogspot.com/
Casey at http://miraclenamedavery.blogspot.com/
Shonda at http://bayleeb.blogspot.com/
Amanda at http://worldofthewilsons.blogspot.com/
Danielle at http://lifeatthepeppers.blogspot.com/
Penny at http://penny-mytwocentsworth.blogspot.com/
Diane at http://thehargonshappenings.blogspot.com/
Sara Madalin's Mommy at http://agiftworththewait.blogspot.com/ to make their own lists because they have been tagged too! Thanks for tagging me, Cristi. It was fun.

I was tagged at Jami Ainsworth Portraits, but I prefer to post my personal stuff here...not that I don't get personal at jap too, but I try to separate my three blogs as appropriately as possible. I have had a really rotten day feeling sick at my stomach and this migraine-category headache, but since I was feeling better, I wanted to go ahead and do this. If I waited until tomorrow to do it, I would only have about three things to list as what I did the day before. LOL...but it really hasn't been funny!

~~ja~~

PROM 2009 PHOTOGRAPHS

2009-05-07T11:25:00.001-07:00

Cari's 2nd prom (prom 2009)

Wasn't she beautiful? She just glowed with new confidence that came with the new smile, Courtesy of Dr. Traxler of Alexandria. I just realized that this next image is w/o a smile. At this point, I was just trying different expressions. But her smile is definitely her best these days!

See what I mean!

and again...

and even a little attitude with this great smile...

Cari and her date (She calls him "toy".)

She's tickling him to make him smile. Guys (for some reason) just do not like to smile.

These photos were captured at Stanton Hall. Everyone had already started taking pics before I was able to get my equipment out and get it ready. So having photographed some weddings here, I knew these place had more potentional than just the side of the building. So I moved Cari to this side angle with the walkway and part of the front of the house in the background. Soon everyone else did too.

Cari and her brother...now they both have beautiful smiles.

Cari and her dad (no photos of me will be posted this time...we took them, but I plan to use them for my incentive for my next diet!)

The backview was pretty too!

Brittany and Cari...

All the girls in this group...Cari went with the juniors since her date is a junior.

All the kids on the steps...most of them are juniors.

On the porch with the columns...

I don't remember what was so funny, but I love capturing real emotion like this.

Cari and the other sophomore, who was in this prom group, Kaitlyn...

again...

full-lenth version....

Can't do photographs without including Natalie!

waiting others to get through...

again...

I will add a little more text to these images later. I am feeling very bad at this moment, but I wanted to finish posting the images before I got off this computer.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

2009-05-06T05:22:00.001-07:00

NOT ME MONDAY on Tuesday

2009-05-05T05:42:00.000-07:00

I did not decide to do NOT ME MONDAY on Tuesday. No not me, I am always on my game!
And I certainly would not decide to do a NOT ME without posting the NOT ME logo because it is too much trouble at this moment because my external hard drive that holds most of my images is not connected at this moment and I do not have the time or patience at this moment to wait for the connection (really I don't).
And now that I am doing this I have not discovered a mental block....I have lots of NOT MEs...really I do (but since I decided to do this on a whim...I really think I have a writer's block.)
Here's one: I am NOT blogging and reading other blogs this a.m. (7:51 at the moment) while my little sweetheart is sleeping on the love seat (by the way her new bed at Mimi's) when I should be doing other things like cleaning the kitchen or making my bed...well you get the picture.
I did not spend our hard earned money last night at Wal-mart buying groceries including some scrumptioous looking strawberries along with the angel food cake and whip topping to make strawberry shortcake to discover that all the fruit that was visible was mouth-watering, but the rest of them spoiled. I discovered this after I got them home. In situations like this, I wished I lived next door to Wal-mart and/or the markets so that I could make them pay for every little thing like this. It's so unfair! But also more trouble than it's worth (when you live where I do) to make it good!
I am NOT planning to enjoy the rest of the time with my little sweetheart while she is here this week. NO NOT ME! I would never put our special time before housework and/or photography work.
And believe it or NOT, I am not going to list 10 or more NOT MEs...really I am NOT! NO NOT ME!

The outcome of the long awaited day is this...

2009-04-25T20:09:00.001-07:00

I only have a few images ready to post...I posted the other two on facebook. But I wanted to add this close up to this blog so you can see Cari's new smile (just in case you don't do facebook).

TOMORROW: The long awaited day...

2009-04-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

...that this beautiful girl will become even more beautiful because she will be getting her braces removed! Then the next day is prom. So I will have to do this image as a before and after! This momentous chapter in our lives especially Cari's made me finally do a post like I really want to do for the occasion. I intended to a detailed post for Cameron's birthday, then Cari's and never seem to get around to post about Christmas. I really will...ONE DAY! For now, I want to show the transformation of a pre-teen to a beautiful young lady.

It took years before she could finally get her braces because of her darn 12 year molars that still haven't completely finished coming through. In fact, her doctor is going to remove them tomorrow and yes, they squeezed her in for tomorrow so that she could get them off before prom.

BEFORE BRACES: 12 YEARS OLD (May 2005)

and another BEFORE IMAGE, July, 2005 (just before cheerleading camp)

May, 2006 (just a few months after she got her braces on)...

July, 2006 (also just before cheerleading camp)

Holly Ball, December 2006...

Cari and her girls (three out of four in braces) also at the Holly Ball

Summer, 2007: Cari and her BBF, Alexa...

Homecoming 2007: Cari and Alexa

Cari and Brittany at Homecoming 2007

Homecoming 2007: Cameron came home in time to drive Cari in the parade. This was photographed after the parade.

Natalie with Cari while in Memphis (waiting to watch Diego Live), March 2008

Cari's First Prom (March 21, 2008)

Cari and Alexa again (before prom at Monmouth)

The same four best girls as pictured earlier in this post at the Holly Ball (12.2006). Now two of the girl have had their braces off (Callie & Katie) and now Alexa has them on and so does Cari.
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Callie, Alexa, Katie, and Cari

TO REFRESH YOUR MEMORY!

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Alexa, Katie, Cari, & Callie

Cameron and Cari at Cameron's Wedding, May 31, 2008.

A few weeks later...

Vacation Bible School (June 2008)

Natalie, Ronald McDonald and Cari at McDonald's (of course), September, 2008...

HOMECOMING SPIRIT WEEK: The Incredibles!
Cari and another BFF, Lauren...

Natalie and Cari at the fair at the balloon races, October 2008...

BIRTHDAY DINNER: SWEET SIXTEEN!

She chose the restaurant, Little Dagos.

I wanted to plan a really big nice Sweet 16 Birthday Party! I guess I have gave birth to the wrong time of year! I had the best of intention, but I never get to give the party that I want to give. I am so sorry Cari. I love you more than life and always want the best for you...just be sure and make sure you have your babies some time of the year when life is a little slower and not so hectic. Cari turned 16 on December 1, 2008!

Christmas Dinner (at Center City Bistro), December 23, 2008

January 2009...

Cari and Alexa again (I wonder how many time these two have had photos taken like this?)

So tomorrow is the day that we all get to see her new smile again. Then Saturday will be quite a day. She has to be in Baton Rouge that morning to take the state Litery Rally exam in Spanish I at L.S.U. I will bring her (and Natalie) back here as soon as she finishes to get ready for from Prom. Hair appointments, make-up to be done and lots of photos to be taken! What a great way to get lots of pretty new photos without braces!

~~ja~~

2009 Natchez Pilgrimage Pageant: Part 2

2009-03-31T08:33:00.000-07:00

I borrowed this image from Torri who had this in her 2009 pageant album on facebook. Surely, she doesn't mind since she had it on facebook anyway. [I had tagged myself for the images.] We were sitting in the far righthand corner close to the stage...not a very good angle for capturing images of the dancers. So I glad I got this. I tried to wait to capture it at the end, but to no aveil, I don't think I got it. FYI: Cari (right back) and Alexa (front center--pink)

This is Natalie and her mommy, Brittany. I took it before the pageant started trying to get my camera setting ready.
I am really not that great at capturing images in the dark like this and I would probably do better to bring my whole photography set up like for a wedding or something, but as usual I was running behind as I was leaving. So just remember these are not professional images, but my candid memories captured from the audience.

An awful capture, but I still wanted to include (I think this was before I decided on all the settings that I was going to use too). But this is Cheryl Morace the President of the Garden club (who put on the pilgrimage pageant each year), one of the many hats that Cheryl wears, along with her escort.

Natalie is intrigued and loved every minute of it.

Cari and the other Fanny dancer as they came to the stage.

Mostly back angles, but still oh so pretty.

Cari did struggle some with the dance this time because she had to wear her new toe shoes that weren't broke in...

I just love capturing images of these girls on toe. It amazes me of the strength and agility to have the ability to perform dances like this. I never had the opportunity to take any kind of dance, but I truly respect and admire these girls who can!

Alexa had the lead. This is her coming out on the stage.

Alexa again...

and again. Alexa had been taking ballet for years. She took last year off, but missed it so much and came back this year. I am so glad since Cari is taking it too. It's so great for best friends to share things like this!

My last shot. I wanted some images showing all three girls. I wanted this one and I wanted the back view of the first images that appeared in this post. But this image was the last image that I could capture on my memory card!

To read more details of Natalie's experience through my eyes, scroll down to the next post. As you glance at it, it probably appears that I double posted. I did repeat some of the images. The next post was intended for Natalie's World. After I finished it, I realized that I had it here. Oh well...

~~ja~~

OOPS...I was wrong one more image...this was the last one that I captured Saturday night. I thought I was at the last images that I posted. Sorry!

Natalie's First Pilgrimage Pageant Experience...

2009-03-31T08:01:00.000-07:00

Saturday (March 28, 2009) was Natalie's First time to go the Historic Natchez Pilgrimage Pageant. And again she loved it. It was about like taking her to the Nutcracker (4 months ago). She was amazed at the dresses. She had tons of questions. We all love seeing things through her eyes. It makes everything so much more special.

Natalie and her Mommy...

[...posing for Mimi while waiting for the pageant to begin.]

She was mesmerized!
[She her holding the program book. She wouldn't let go of it. It was very important to her to hang onto the whole time. Another little insignificant moment that will remain precious to me because I captured it.]

We didn't have the greatest seats. We go more angles from behind than in front, but I am glad that I captured these from a different angle that the imags that I captured of her last time. Natalie's Aunt Cari is the one closest to the camera (right).

This one is all three girls doing Fanny. Alexa has the lead and again that is Cari closest to the camera (right on back row). Natalie loved watching her Aunt Cair and Her Alexa dance. She says she wants to be a ballerina too. So guess who will be taking her first year of ballet this upcoming school year?

I really didn't get very many images. I had to get myself ready and Natalie so I was running behind ("now what's new?") so I was on game when I grabbed my camera bag. I saw that it had a memory card in the pocket so I was thinking that I was good to go. The memory card only had about 10 imags left. Normally I just re-format the card and go, but I was pretty sure I had not downloaded the images on the card from our Saturday afternoon about 6 wks ago playing golf at the country club. It was another one of the precious fun days that I certainly don't want to forget. Without those images, I know I would forget some of the moments. Hopefully, I can find some time to go back and post them before I forget all the enthusiam that Natalie displayed that day. I am telling you, this girl has such a zest for life that I wished we all possessed!

I was just going to say that I was going th share the rest of the images on Worth Remembering when I realized that's where I have been putting this. It is way too much trouble re-doing this. So I will just add one image and do a link to this post on Natalie's World. Again this is the problem of having more than one blog!

~~ja~~

WORDY WEDNESDAY

2009-03-25T06:49:00.000-07:00

This post will be all words...no photos. I want to use the post to brag about my daughter one more time...not the last time I sure, but one more time for now. I don't have photos because I doubt any one took any photos of her at the Literary Rally this past Saturday a.m. If they did take photos, I am sure it would have been on the bus or something like that...possibly with some of them just being silly or something!

CARI GOT FIRST PLACE IN SPANISH!

Needless to say, we are very proud of her! Monday afternoon she informs me that she didn't think she would go to state because it was the same day as prom. I quickly informed her that she would. Personally (definitely, speaking as a mom) I think it is ridiculous that they have prom four years. What happened to having it just your junior and senior year? So now we have to figure out how we can do both. I don't know if she has a shot, but I know from personal experience that winning first place used to entitle the winner to a scholarship. If anyone knows more about the current status of this, please let me know. My daughter is clueless. Cameron said it was the same as it was when I won over 20 years ago. I won $500 ($250 for the first and 2nd semester of the first year in college) for winning first place in Home Economics my junior year in high school. Surely with inflation, this has increased. Even if it hasn't I certainly think it is worth going through a little extra pain on prom day. DO YOU AGREE?

My Daughter: VHS CHEERLEADER

2009-03-18T17:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, this isn't the greatest collage... not even close, but this was done several years ago...so I have grown and gotten much better...so I think. I wanted to include some cheerleader images...

BECAUSE TODAY MY DAUGHTER MADE THE VHS 2009-2010 CHEERLEADER SQUAD!

This will be Cari's 3rd year as a cheerleader. She was a cheerleader in the 7th and 8th grade and for whatever reason...she didn't make the squad for her 9th and 10th grade years, but she DID TODAY. SHE WILL BE A HIGH SCHOOL CHEERLEADER HER JUNIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL! I am so proud of her and her determination. I would have given up after two years of not making it! She is so much braver than her mom! FOR THAT I AM EXTREMELY PROUD OF HER...it makes me feel like I've done a pretty job at being her mom!

On a different note: Cari recently brought home another perfect (all A's) report card! Can parents be any more proud than we are? I don't think so!

~~ja~~

One-year ago today: March 16, 2008

2009-03-16T05:36:00.000-07:00

We were less than two and half months from the wedding to officially unite these two beautiful people. We had done a few engagement photographs back in the fall at LSU near where Cameron proposed to Brittany. Then we did more at the same place with did bridal portraits, held the rehearsal dinner and formal wedding portraits on Lake St. John.
I love the way this little girl makes all of us laugh...often we laugh until we cry! What joy a child can bring into a family!

On a less humorous note, I would like to ask a prayer request for the family of a young man (kid) from Tallulah. We lived in Tallulah for almost 14 years. We didn't make deep roots there for some reason...sadly Tallulah is sort of one of those towns that's like that...I can't or just don't want to explain at this moment. So we haven't stayed in touch with anyone on a regular basis and often miss news or events such as deaths that happen to people we know there. We often see particular people once a year at various meetings/trips. Cari was still very young when we moved and has forgotten most children in her class. A few years ago when on a business trip that we combined into a family vacation because it was in Hot Springs. One of the family activities was a river boat cruise...though now that I think about it, I think it was actually a lake. Anyhow...during this family adventure provided by the association Cari became reacquainted with this is boy, Dylan, who was also Randy's ex-boss's grandson. He and his wife are from Tallulah and they had brought Dylan and his sister on this particular trip. She (we) had not seen him since then, but had stayed in touch with him from time to time through facebook.

Friday afternoon while I was doing some work here at my computer, I was listening to the news in the background. My ears opened and I ran to get the remote to turn up the volume as I heard the speaker say that a 15 year old boy from Tallulah had committed suicide. Cari just turned 16 and there are many children her age that are still 15. So I knew it could easily be someone she went to school. I yelled out my grief as soon as I heard it was this same child...the same child my daughter had hung out with on the recent vacation...the same child that his grandfather patted him on the back for hanging out with such an attractive girl as our daughter, Cari. I immediately called Randy. He had been trying to call me to tell me because he had recently heard and wanted to tell me.

Randy went to the funeral yesterday. His mom was distraught [She had to physically carried into the church and out...I am afraid that's how I would be] . His grandparents seemed okay...which surprised us, but I suspect that was a front to get them through the day.

This family truly needs your prayers. We moved here in 2009. Since we have moved here they've lost many family members...not grandparents, but young people. Their son-in-law died of a heart attack (not long after we moved here). I think he was actually already an ex-son-in-law, but regardless he was the dad of two of their grandchildren...so as far as I am concerned still part of their family. Then a few years ago their only son was killed in a wreck in Baton Rouge. And then we heard about this, Dylan, a few days ago [his dad was the one killed in the car wreck]. And as I stated earlier, we don't hear everything that has happened because when Randy was talking to someone who used to work with that still works at that gin to find out visitation and funeral details, he found out that his oldest granddaughter, who is approximately 6 months older than Cameron, lost a baby daughter at 3 months to SIDS [not sure when this was--you know how men are...they often forget to ask about details!]

I also remembered that when I had my home daycare [something I did when Cari was young to be a stay-at-home-mom] I kept Dylan part-time because his mommy worked part-time at the time. Even though we haven't stayed in touch with this child and his immediate family it really hit home. It is hard for me to believe that a child that I cared for, changed his diaper and cleaned spit-up off of me and him, has done something like this!

So while I think about the joy that our 3 year old granddaughter has brought into our lives, my heart grows heavy thinking about how this grandfather/grandmother will never even hug this grandson again. So please, stop whatever you're doing for just a few minutes and pray for this family or add them to your prayer list, but please give this family, all their extended families, the kids from school, especially his best friend, another 15 year old who spoke at the funeral some time in prayer. I had to take care of things with my family...so I didn't go, but when Randy told me who his best friend was that spoke, I was crushed. His mom had written me a long letter several years ago to tell me that her daughter had committed suicide. I was so crushed that I did not know and for her and her pain of this tragedy. So this poor child has lost a sibling and now a best friend by such a awful means of death.

Here I go again getting long-winded. I wanted to make a post requesting prayer, but I didn't feel right making an individual post listing their names for it to get googled when someone is doing a random search. I want to respect their privacy. So I included it with this post.

So it seems in my life, just when things seem so unbearable or too complicated to deal with, I hear of someone I know...or maybe don't know, that is REALLY suffering! It makes me shake off my "pity party" (a phrase my Sunday School teacher used when I was young person) and realize THAT GOD IS IN CONTROL AND ONLY HE HAS THE ANSWERS!

2009 Natchez Pilgrimage Pageant: Part 1

2009-03-12T07:11:00.000-07:00

Cari: on the right

I am titling this Part 1 because I hope to go to a few more performances over the next 4 weeks. When you're daughter does this four nights a week over a four week period, you can't make them all. Today I was still beaming with pride that Randy and I had last night over our daughter's performance.

Cari and I were discussing the last time that she performed ballet before an audience was the last Mini-National level pageant that she competed in the summer of '99 in Shreveport, La. A little background to those of you who didn't know us back then: We, I mean she, had competed in pageants since she was 8 months old, off and on. This particular year we decided to lay off pageants for a while..okay I decided...maybe she had input. She was still five when we made the decision.

So rather than competing in pageants, we competed in dance. [edited to add: I think competition can be very healthy for children.] Her dance school started back competing that year! So we decided to tried a new kind competition. She was supposed to do a little tap dance with another girl and two boys, but for some reason this dance did not work out. So Cari being the youngest performer in the group that was committed to performing, her teacher choreographed her a solo. I think...I would have dig out the papers to make sure, but I think her dance was called Tiny Ballerina. She competed in three different competitions in dance as a solo and in also at each competition she also competed in a very large group dance. This included all the children that were competing. I don't know exactly what the wins were on the group dance, but I know they did well. In her Tiny Ballerina solo, she won two first place awards and a third place. The third place had many kids in her age group. I was pleased with the third.

In the collage that I posted yesterday, you see five different costumes. After the competition, they finished getting ready for recital. At recital, Cari performed five different times. I still remember our first recital that I discovered then that the seniors get to perform a solo. So then I started looking forward to Cari performing her solo when she was a senior. So it was quite exciting that we didn't have to wait until she was a senior, she performed her group dances with her class and she performed the large group dance for competition. SHE ALSO PERFORMED A SOLO AT SIX YEARS OLD!

For many reasons, I was so glad that Cari was allowed to perform that solo at Debra Franco's School of Dance recital in Vicksburg, MS. Because less than a year later we moved to Concordia Parish and Cari has not had dance with Ms. Debra again.

I don't want to go into details because I am finding that I am already being too wordy...much more than I intended to be when I started the post. But this fall, after everything...I mean somethings, went back to normal after Hurricane Gustav, Cari began ballet classes again. This time at Natchez Ballet Academy. I really don't think her teacher thought Cari would be that great. Cari nor I didn't really know what to think...Okay...I felt like she would be good. Ms. Debra always said that Cari was a natural ballerina, but I just know how she is...if she wants to be good at something "you can bet your last dollar" that she will be. THAT'S MY CARI!
So who would believe that it had been 10 years before this child (young woman) had performed ballet before an audience? Apparently not any one who saw this performance last night! And even her dad and I, who knew this, could not believe our eyes.

Cari: on the right

Okay...I confess I am not very professional at this kind of photography...so I did black and white images of the ones w/red-eye...it's okay, huh? since this isn't my professional blog?
Cari: right (back)

By the way, Cari is actually just an understudy. She only been on point shoes since November!

She is actually committed to this dance...Can Can!

Cari: in the middle (front row)

I don't know how many of you who view this actually read the text or just look at the images. When I view blogs it all depends on my mood and the time that I have at the moment. If it looks really interesting and I just don't have time, I come back later to read the story behind the images. But just for your information: That pageant that she did her solo in August 1999. She won overall supreme age 3-6...accumulative score of many different competitions including photogenic (by mom, the photographer) and talent (her ballet solo). I was very nervous because girls that we had known for years in our age group had been getting very serious about pageants were taking voice lessons and such for talent (so I had heard through the grapevine...if that was today it would be facebook or someone's blog, huh?), we spent that time in dance competition. I was concerned that our judges wouldn't recognize her ballet as "real" talent. Since the pageant was in August, several children did recital type dances, but I (and our friends) could tell that Cari's dance was much more than a recital dance. and by the way...SO DID THE JUDGES! SHE WON TALENT!

And to those of you who don't know much about pageants and think that's it all superficial...well some of it really is, but it is a serious competition that a lot can be learned out of it, but at the same time I think if you stay in it too long, around "some" of those people too long, you get sucked right into it too. It's sort of like gambling, but with some "crazy" moms. Maybe I was one of them, but I don't think I let me myself go that far. As I often tell some people...I was like Jon Benet's mom, but w/o money. And in the pageant industry...no money can keep you a little more grounded/humble however you want to word it.

Okay, I did not intend to post so much info...but there I go again. I did, however, want to do something with these images right away. So often my stuff gets put on the back burner for so long that it really is old news.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT! NEW NEWS! OUR BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER WAS A BEAUTIFUL DANCER LAST NIGHT!

~~ja~~

Way Back Whensday...

2009-03-11T11:59:00.001-07:00

OUR TINY LITTLE DANCER

Tonight Our Tiny Little Dancer is all grown up...well almost. Tonight she is dancing at the Natchez Pilgramage Pageant. Tonight (03.11.08) she is dancing in two dances. Over the next four weeks, she will be dancing 3-4 nights a week in the pilgramage performances. Tonight her daddy and I will see her perform ballet for an audience again for the first time since the year this collage was created. Excuse the less than professional looking image. I photographed the framed image in her room. I won't go into detail since I am knee deep in the middle of several different things, but she took ballet and other classes for years and then discontinued until this past fall. It seems our daughter is still a ballerina! Her teacher has been so impressed how a 16 year old who had not danced since she was 7 or 8 years old can pick up ballet as quickly as she has. Of course, I am paraphrasing and maybe stretching...but needless to say, we are proud parents are we are looking forward to seeing this performance.

~~ja~~

THE PROBLEM WITH THREE BLOGS...

2009-03-05T14:45:00.000-08:00

IS THAT YOU MAKE A BOO BOO LIKE THIS AND POST ON THE WRONG ONE! I TOTAL MEANT FOR THE PREVIOUS POST TO GO TO "natalie's world".

Now if I didn't have a Natalie World and only had this one for my family blog...this is definitely family related, but I started this one to have a place to post things that are family related, but not necessarily Natalie related. Before she moved to BR...almost everything in our lives involved Natalie too...almost!

So OOPS!

I will try to do better next time!

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

MUSTARD IN YOUR TEA?

2009-03-05T13:31:00.000-08:00

ABOVE: THE IMAGE THAT INSPIRED MY TITLE

BACKGROUND ON THIS POST: I know it has been a while. It looks like I may not get a chance to back track and post the holidays images...at least I posted "some" images this year through the fall and holidays(not like nothing like last year). I haven't felt well in weeks. I am actually feeling better...and I think if spring would come and more consistent weather, I could catch my breath and move forward. But in efforts of re-grouping and re-acclamating myself, I needed to do something for me, something for Natalie too. I don't know if I do this more for me and for her and I am not the best blogger, but these are our special memories and I don't want them to fade away w/o documenting some of the most precious days in our lives!

My cousin's daughter, Carlie, was born approximately 5 months after my first granddaughter. Yes, it is not the norm...my mom's first great-granddaughter was born in late July and my mom's older sister's (6 yrs. old) first granddaughter was born 5 months later (early January0. We don't get together as I often as I would like...life is very busy and we do live a few miles apart. Since Carlie's birthday was so close to Christmas, her mommy chose to have her party about 6 weeks later!

So without further adue, I will share this day with you: Carlie's 3rd b'day party at the Children's Musuem in Monroe.

Natalie loved brushing the teeth! (Gigi in the background)

Gigi and Aunt Cari visiting while waiting for Natalie to finish serving them at the "restaruant"!

Gigi wasn't feeling well and was tempted to backout of this little adventure with us. We picked her up in Rayville. She said she didn't backout because she so wanted to see Natalie. WE ALL LOVE THIS LITTLE GIRL SO MUCH! SHE HAS BROUGHT SO MUCH LOVE INTO OUR LIVES! THANK YOU, GOD FOR SHARING HER WITH US!

It was like the day after Christmas. Natalie ran from one thing to the next. She didn't know what she wanted to play with...the is the "big" sandbox. I love that concentrating expression her face in this image.

The lighting was terrible. I forgot my batteries and my flash batteries were dead. When I saw this place with these rocking horses with natural lighting coming from the window...I was definitely thinking...photo op!

another activity

"bluescreen background"

another one...

Final result...it was pretty neat!

Then Natalie talked Carlie into driving the police car with her. For some reason, I had a hard time keeping them still long enough to capture their enthusiam.

I have no idea what this is...but Natalie had to check it out too! Notice Carlie watching: I think she is a little shy like her mommy was when we were young. She's happy just being a spectator for this one.

Natalie is back in the restaurant (the kitchen area) cooking something special for Mimi!

And here it is, "Mustard in your tea?"

Carlie is a Dora fan too (I think this is one of the same toppers we had this year).

Before the cake cutting...Natalie posing for Mimi!

I missed a few images here. Carlie was excited about her cake and very happy with all the activities, grinnng from ear to ear, but at some point she got really embarrassed or something and cried...then she didn't want to blow out her candles.

As you can see in this next image, Natalie had no problem giving her some assistance!

Yes, yes...Natalie is pouting! She is mad because Carlie got the good piece of cake...you know the one with more icing. She finally got over it and at some cake.

Then she wanted to play some more...so I didn't make her stay to watch Carlie open her gifts. I did, however, make her take at least one cute photo with her cousin before she could go play. I know...I am such a mean Mimi!

They don't get much cuter than these....

I was very sick the day before...I knew Natalie was coming, we had plans to go to the party. So I spent all afternoon in the MD office patiently waiting to get shots so that I could get "my game" on...so that I could enjoy our time with Natalie and the trip to Monroe to go to the party! It was one of those special days that I want to always remember. Four generations (my mom, me, my daughter and Natalie) enjoying a simple day...a little shopping, a simple lunch and a birthday party for a member of our family. To me...life really doesn't get much better than this!

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

NO ME MONDAY (I meant Tuesday?)

2009-03-03T06:05:00.000-08:00

MckMamma's blog link

Okay, were do I start....oh I know, I know...I am a day late. [now what's new] I had intention of getting to this all day yesterday, but since we're being brutally honest...I just didn't get around to it! So if you don't want to read this this today since it isn't Monday any longer...save it for next week. Chances are that I won't get one up next Monday either...I don't know why I am always a day behind. It is a bad habit that I have developed or the last decade. [okay, I think I know why...I just under estimate my time...all the time!]

FIRST OF ALL I AM NOT FINALLY POSTING "NOT ME MONDAY" ON TUESDAY....oh well.
I DID NOT LEAVE ON A TRIP TO MEMPHIS WITH MY HUBBY A WEEK AGO TODAY... we did not leave Louisiana to go to Memphis going through Southern Alabama..that would be just crazy. Everyone knows that Memphis is North of Louisiana that one would go north to go to Memphis, TN. DISCLAIMER: Hubby found out at the last minute that he needed to go to this gin in Southern Alabama the day before leaving for Memphis. SO... to save him driving 6 hours to AL and another 6 back home and then get up the next day ,Wed., the planned day to leave for Memphis), we left Tuesday afternoon...so that he could get up early Wed., consult the gin about some equipment that he is knowledgeable, while I slept, facebooked (for just a few minutes) and ate my contential breakfast.
I DID NOT DO LIKE 2 WEEKS OF WORK IN 6 HOURS SO THAT I COULD LEAVE WITH HUBBY TO SAVE HIM FROM DRIVING BACK HERE TO TAKE ME TO MEMPHIS WITH HIM. [I actually seem to work better under pressure...not to mention all the meds seemed to be returning my focusing skills!]
ON-STAR DID NOT SEND US DOWN THIS SCARY ROAD ON OUR LAST FEW MILES TO GET TO THE SLEEPY LITTLE TOWN IN ALABAMA (Andalusia). I did NOT tell hubby that if there were scary music playing in the background that I would think we were in one of those freaky-scarey-twilight style movies! It's not funny now! REALLY IT IS! NOT FUNNY AT THE TIME!
WE DID NOT FIND OUR HOTEL AROUND 9:00ish TO DISCOVER EVERYTHING IN THIS TOWN CLOSED BY 9:00...[the scary ghost movie feeling continued!] So rather than the nice meal we were hoping to get at some unknown nice restaurant...we DID NOT go the Huddle House instead!
I DID NOT FIND MYSELF GIDDY AND DELIRIOUS BY THE TIME WE ARRIVED! I did not tell my husband about a dozen times "okay, that's all I am going to say and I am going to shut up!". HE DID NOT BELIEVE ME AFTER THE 2nd or 3rd tme anyway... (no he really didn't). Disclaimer 2: I started working about 5:30 a.m that morning and apparently my 5 hour energy drink lasted 15 hours. Obviously I don't travel well. Randy and I had a disagreement the night before. A friend of mine mentioned the trip would be a great opportunity to visit (talk about it all, etc.). I told her then that I know that often after a while all my talking gets on his nerves. Sort of a positive and negative of traveling...we get to visit about many things...once it all said I can't seem to get quite unless I am sleeping or reading [I didn't get my book until the next day. And sleep never came...I wonder why?]
SO WE DID NOT GET TO MEMPHIS FROM LOUISIANA THROUGH ALABAMA! That would be just crazy. NO, NOT ME (US)!
I DID NOT WISH THAT I HAD TAKEN PHOTOS ALONG THE WAY. I DID NOT BRING THE CAMERA KNOWING THERE WOULD BE NO ONE TO PHOTOGRAPH ME AND RANDY. I DID NOT GET IT OUT OF THE BACK TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS OF SOME OF THE UNIQUE SCENES ALONG THE HIGHWAY (Really there were only a few images that I wished I had captured!) NO, NOT ME! I AM ALWAYS READY TO CAPTURE THE SPECIAL IMAGES IN OUR LIFE [some photographer I am!].
I DID NOT GET FINALLY FIND A WAL-MART ALONG THE WAY TO PURCHASE A NOVEL TO READ. I did not thoroughly enjoy the book I purchased (Fireproof). I did not find myself laughing out loud...LITERALLY! AND I DID NOT HAVE TO READ SOME OF THESE PASSAGES TO MY HUBBY. He didn't need to laugh too!
I DID NOT ENJOY MY TIME ALONE WITH HUBBY [in spite of meetings, dinners at fancy restaurants with people I had just met, etc.]...I won't go into details since I know some of my family reads this and would really would be TMI.
I DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE MEMPHIS SATURDAY BECAUSE I LOVE WORKING AND NOT GETTING AWAY...I COULDN'T WAIT TO GET BACK HOME...Disclaimer 3: I really wanted to stay. It was snowing so hard! I did a few photos of that driving down the highway...I really wished I could have captured an image that I saw several times-- daffodils surrounded by snow! Too bad we don't have cameras in our mind!
SUNDAY NIGHT...I DID NOT ENJOY WATCHING THE MOVIE (FROM THE BOOK I DID NOT READ), FIREPROOF WITH HUBBY AND DAUGHTER. As much as I did not enjoy the movie, I DID NOT GET IRRITATED THAT THEY LEFT SOME OF THE BEST SCENES OUT OF THE MOVIE! NO NOT ME!