Friday, April 20, 2018

Before the Bluebonnet Goodbye

We've lived in south Texas for three springs now. The first spring we were settling in, and I thought: next year we should definitely get family pictures taken with bluebonnets, because have you really lived in TX if you haven't taken bluebonnet pictures? The second spring our family was adjusting to the joy and chaos of our bonus baby. Then this spring we were getting ready to move. And I had an unexpected minor surgery that left me with a less cool version of Harry Potter's scar. And the Man had some last minute trips to squeeze in. And we had a fun round of hand-foot-and-mouth. And the girls kept ending up with bumps and bruises on their face because they insisted on playing Swamp People with the boys and face planting off the curb into the road. But I really felt strongly about the necessity to embrace meaningful cliches because "have you really lived in TX if you haven't taken bluebonnet pictures?" is the spiritual equivalent of "have you really lived in OK if you haven't eaten at Braums?"

Thankfully, we were able to find a photographer brave enough to photograph the seven of us and flexible enough to reschedule us multiple times, and behold: bluebonnet pictures...and our first official family photos since the twins were ten months old. We'll take it. Here's to military spouse photographers, unexpectedly cold Texas mornings, kids who hide beneath borrowed blankets in between pictures, and husbands who buy you coffee on the way to the shoot and cheerfully smile the entire 30 minutes--even though they hate family pictures and possibly smiling.

{All photographs by Lilly Love Photography.}























PS Next set of family pictures, we will explore the cliche of "Have you really lived in FL if you haven't swum with the sharks?" Kidding! But maybe we'll let Bruiser dress up in a shark costume for them... msf

Thursday, April 19, 2018

A Parade of Parties (Otherwise known as Move Month)

It might be move month if...

...you're trying to get the pets' shots updated and end up with a fantastic fiasco of a Wednesday instead that included getting two of your fingers bitten repeatedly by a pissed off feline, a subsequent ER visit, and dragging all the kids, both cats, and the groceries into the house while being pelted by hail. Also, of course it's move month because now you're anticipating meeting people at your new base while possibly missing a couple fingernails.

Trigger was much more cooperative than Oswald.
Also, after he got groomed, he was so fluffy that I wanted to die.

...you spend a lot of your spare brain space pondering the deep thought that in order to feed your whole family, you have to buy the party sized lasagna.

The rest of your brain space is used cramming in
a few more days of school.

...every box out of the pantry and every jar out of the fridge is celebrated with Random Dancing. Also, the most exciting meal of the week is Pasta Scrounge, where you get to choose from ditalini, rotini, or egg noodles at dinner since they all had just a little bit left in the box. Finally, adulting means finishing off the jar of dark chocolate hot fudge sauce...just so you can get the jar out of the fridge before the move, of course, and not at all because you are massively sleep deprived thanks to a no-longer-baby who still demands to middle of the night nurse.

When the Nap Poop kills your afternoon plans,
hot fudge sauce can be there for you too.

...you finally recognize that your family looks like a parade during their morning walks around the block.

...your husband gently suggests finishing a project later or letting him help when he gets home from work, and your response is a panicked, "No! I want a check mark on my To Do list if it's the last thing I do!"

I made the kids take a picture in front of this before I painted over it.
They were gracious. As ever. And I bribed them. Maybe.

...you decide to squeeze in family photos really quickly (because you have a deep need for the cliche Texas bluebonnet pictures), which then have to be rescheduled because a kid gets Hand-Foot-and-Mouth, which then have to be rescheduled again due to freak weather...but you still get amazing pictures before your mil spouse librarian suggested a great mil spouse photographer and mil spouses stick together! (HOOAH. Or something like that.) Also, I guess I should post some of those to the blog at some point. Hmmm...

...everyone is freaking out about everything all the time. Including you. And the baby. But not me. I'm totally zen all the time. Just so you know.

She's a pro at pulling nails.

...you want to get rid of All the Things. But you're not exactly sure which of the things you might actually want at the next house.

...you spend an inordinate amount of time painting walls and filling nail holes while thinking vaguely about all the other things that you'd rather be doing (taking a bath, reading a book, drinking coffee...) and simultaneously gleefully anticipating the check marks you'll get on your To Do list for "repaint" and "take down pictures" and "fill nail holes".


...you come up with multiple blog ideas but can't find the time (or the working fingers necessary to type--thanks, Oswald) to write them down. Then when you do get the time, you are sandwiching it in between other things and trying to multitask and consequently accidentally lose a long, newsy, and potentially hilarious email that you were simultaneously writing to a friend.

Littles insisted that I get in at least one of the pictures.

...you reward bad behavior by putting your kids to work taping nails to the back of pictures only to have them tell you that this is their favorite part of moving. Thank you, Type A military kid. You win at wrecking my discipline attempts.

Twinkles thinks she's ready to start school. By which she means, she's planning
to scribble with pen on any flat surface she can find while your back is turned.

...every annoying thing you notice about your current house makes you glad that you're moving because you won't have to deal with chipping paint or mildewy shower ceilings or algaed windows at the next house.

...you keep trying to squeeze in time with friends...in between the painting and vaccine updating and nail hole filling and freak out-ing...because you know that they are the part that you're really going to miss. Even more than your really awesome breakfast taco place down the road. And that's saying a lot.

So, yeah...it might be move month around here...