Work Is Like A Bowl Of Peaches

Today was my first official day back to work since my maternity leave. I was sent out to the country to photograph an author and before I left he offered me full access to his peach and plum trees. How could I resist. He even helped me pick the scrumptious treats. It feels good to be working again.

I can say that because I am not overloaded. This is because I have cut my monthly assignments in half since having SJ. I think it will be a good balance between photo shoots and my top priority mommy job, however it will take a toll on our budget. I will be making enough money for my car payment and that's it. The idea of being at home more and becoming a frugal fanatic is an appealing concept, but the execution itself is easier said than done. Little things like lattes, a summer pedicure, or even thrift store shopping have got to go. There is no wiggle room unless extra money comes in.

I guess I need to hit the money saving blog circuit again. I feel good about this new season though. It's just another chance to stretch, learn, and grow.

Coming Soon To A Blog Near You

I just wanted to do a quick update on themessymom.com and what you can expect in the near AND distant future.

I am starting to get the hang of this having two kids thing and so I I plan on picking up the pace again for blogging. That means you can be on the look out more frequently for new material! I have so much to catch up on including photos of SJ's room, and the thrift store fashion show pics I took when I was still pregnant. Did you know that Z was in a horse back riding barrel competition? Probably not because I didn't post about it, but I will. So you see, there is a lot to catch up on.

In a couple months I will be celebrating two years of blogging, and my plan is to start back up on weekly theme posts again and I may even venture so far as participating in the blog community with memes and carnivals. We'll see, it may be something I start at the beginning of 2011. I am not putting any pressure on myself, but I have so many ideas so it would be a nice creative outlet for me.

My long term goal would be to become a genius at a craft so that I can share my knowledge with the world and make history, but for now I will just keep doing a journal format. Stay tuned.

Farewell

A couple days ago I had the TV on and there was a commercial for a new show called Loosing It With Jillian. I noticed at the bottom of the screen there was a song credit that said "Seabird Believe Me”.

Double click on the video to see the full screen.
So I call my brother and say “Hey bro, I think I just heard you playing on national primetime television again!” Not something I ever predicted I would be calling my brother about, but I shouldn’t be surprised he is a talented guy. So he confirmed that it was Seabird and that he is also in a music video, but I don’t have cable so I just had to look it up online.


The reason I am writing this post though is to announce that my brother is no longer a part of Seabird. There is no juicy gossip to tell. He wasn’t kicked out and he didn’t leave on bad terms. He just knew it wasn’t his calling. He and his wife gave up everything to move from Atlanta to Cincinnati in order to start up a recording studio and my brother knew from the beginning that life on the road with a rock band was only supposed to be short term. I know it was hard for him to resign from his position, but it was the right thing for him and his family. I told him how proud I was to see him on the stage performing in front of thousands of people all over the world, but I was even prouder that he was able to humbly step down when the time came.

So for now we will still see those little glimpses of stardom when we hear his bass on commercials or Grey’s anatomy reruns or watch him on VH1, but beyond that he is working more behind the scenes at his recording studio and continuing to do what I know him for best, passionately pursuing God.




The top photo is the latest CD and my brother is the one on the right.

Forever LOST

I don't even know how to put into words how I felt at the end of the Lost series. In the past 3 days I must have transitioned through all 5 stages of grief in regards to the finale episode. I think that I have maybe come to terms with the fact that I will not have all the answers and that it is just a show. After all I did say on this blog that I knew I would be disappointed.

The Lost obsession began with my husband and I renting the DVDs from netflix. Gradually more and more of our friends started to join us as we all piled in the living room on the edge of our seats watching one episode after the other into the wee hours of the morning. Little by little viewers were loosing interest and much like the cast members that were killed off in the show, our little fan club dwindled over time. However for the series finale we made a special effort to get together and celebrate this momentous occasion like old times. My friend made some rockin' tshirts. Mine said LOST on top and had the dharma logo then at the bottom it said "we want answers 5-23-10" we have since joked about inserting the word "still" now that it's over. SJ's onesie said "I'm a little lost".

We had mango quesadillas and fruit on a fish platter as part of the island theme and we all piled in the living room one more time to watch the final episode on the same little square tv that started it all 5 years ago.

Regardless of the ending, I don't know if any show will ever captivate me like Lost did and I don't know that I would want it to, but for those of us that were faithful to the end there is some sort of comraderie. We will always be able to remember the good ol' days when we were all LOST.





The top picture was 2006. We were reenacting our reactions to the show. The next photo is me, SJ, my friend Melissa and her mom, some of the attendees of our little Lost shindig.

Weekend With My Girl

The Lost Finale was on Sunday and we sent Z off to be with his grandparents this weekend so that we could have friends over and watch the show without interruption. This is the first time Z has been away from us since SJ's been born. Of course I always miss the little guy, but it was nice to have some alone time with my princess too. She even put on a show for us by rolling over for the first time! She can now roll over from tummy to back and vice versa, or flip would be a more accurate description.

We went to an all girl's garden party with ladies from the church on Friday. Saturday was a wedding at the church and Sunday was of course the Lost party. So we pretty much partied all weekend long. I guess it's true that girl's just wanna have fun!

The Day After Tomorrow

Some of you know that when I speak of the day after tomorrow (Sunday) I am talking about the LOST finale. It's hard to believe it's become such a phenomenon over 6 years and it's finally going to be over. I consider myself a fan. A big time fan. I've seen every episode, held Lost parties, have "John Locke's" autograph

and listen to a podcast about the show twice a week. So you can bet that I am excited that we may actually have a conclusion to the hours upon hours of mystery. The real mystery though is how I got sucked into this show in the first place. It's really not like me. I am not into Lord or the Rings, Star Wars, or anything like that. I don't ever have any good theories except that I will probably still have a million questions unanswered when this is all over. I do like Jimmy Kimmel's theory though. He said the end would be the smoke monster writing "So long suckas" in the sky and fly off. Don't get me wrong, I will still be a Lost fan no matter what and I am not shy when I tell people "I will probably be disappointed with the end... and I am REALLY looking forward to every minute of it!"

Meeting Aunts and Uncles

Over the weekend I got to visit with my brothers and sister in laws. It was nice for my siblings to meet their niece for the first time.



The whole reason I was in Kentucky was for the other Natalie's baby shower.



It was a beautiful event and I was so glad I got to be a part of it. We are back home now and I can officially say the whole trip was a success.