Back To Life ~

Oh my goodness.

I cannot believe how long it’s been since I’ve posted to this blog. It’s just not right.  So, this is going to be wordy (because, if you know me, you know I'm a 'wordy' person), but I have excuses to make.  If you're interested, read on.  If not, skip this entry and move on to the beauty queen I'm featuring...

In an effort to make up for my regrettable negligence, I’ll spend this week catching you up on what pulled me away from my home computer in the first place. If you read this blog regularly, I don’t want you to feel slighted… I haven’t really posted anything to Facebook all summer either.

Sooooo – here’s my top 10 excuses for my summer distraction.

1. Kids on summer break from school
Yep, the kiddos are were out of school (yep, it took me so long to write this, my kids are no longer out of school), and everyone who has kids in school knows exactly what that means. There’s something that happens to them when they collectively breathe a long sigh of relief – especially my older ones. It’s like, with one long breath they say,

‘no more hours of homework, note cards memorizing vocabulary words, required reading, science concepts, flash cards, multiplication, division, fractions, or percentages. No more memorizing historical characters. No more writing assignments and standardized test preparations. No more school lunches, and breakfasts, and recesses with kids who aren’t always nice. No more getting out of the bed at 6am and no more hours on the bus.’ Yeah, Evan and Elise both said it in one long sigh.

Ethan, however, is just happy to do whatever. “School?” he says. “No problem! I got this.”

2. Working loaded hours at the office
It’s enough to say that it’s been hectic. REALLY hectic. I’m thankful that things are starting to calm down now, and that I can get back into some semblance of a routine. It’s never fun to lose sleep just because you’re worried about the next day’s to-do list.

3. And then exhausted evenings crashed on the sofa or by the pool
Needless to say, with a really crazy hectic pace at work, the evenings became solid r&r. I sat by the pool a lot, and watched as my summer swimmies took to the water. By now, meaning August, they’re more casual about swimming, but at first, I couldn’t keep them away from that glorious water. And, while my qualities as mother-of-the-year contender can be debated, I will clearly state that I would rather be watching the kiddos swim than blogging away at my computer – for obvious reasons… safety being the main primary, and - well - I just plain love 'em. Summer sun – silly kids – laughter – splashing – lemonade evenings… WHAT COULD BE BETTER????

4. Family vacation to my parents house, and Holmes Beach
For one week, Derrick and I took the kids to my parents’ house in FL. They were amazing, as always. Mom and Dad hung with the ‘chillies’ (as my mom calls them) while Derrick and I got some much needed time alone. It was a great spot. The condo was okay, but the food?! O…my…goodness!!!! I’ve never had scallops that fantastic in all my life! Oh, and the shopping. I forgot how nice it was to shop without someone saying – “Are you going to buy me a toy?”

5. Shooting hiatus – I took June/July off from portrait sessions
Just a little time off. For good reason. I could say that it was all because I just needed some down time, but there were additional reasons, as well. I didn’t want to schedule any more sessions until….

6. CAMERA UPGRADE
Yep! So jazzed about this. (Nerd alert!) If you’re a camera junkie like I am, then you’ll appreciate this little digression into tech talk. I invested in a full-frame Canon 5D MarkII, and I must say that I could not have made a more fantastic decision. It’s incredible the way it handles noise in high exposure, and is super fast. Notice, I didn’t yet mention that it records video in high-def… We’ll talk about that later. (Digression complete)

7. Getting ready to go back to school - translate - going back to school
Oh the wonder of school supply shopping! Ethan, having just turned 5, stunned us all with his vocabulary on our supply shopping morning. Here’s a sample –

Mom – What’s 100-17
Kids – silence
Mom – Okay, what’ 100-10
Elise – That’s easy. 90.
Mom – Well, what’s 90-7
Pause
Ethan – 83!!!!!
Elise – (eyes as big as dinner plates), I was going to say 84
Evan – HE JUST GUESSED!!!!

And another sample –
Ethan – Mom, look at all that tall grass (he said as he pointed to the overgrown brush in the pecan orchard). That is a great snake habitat!
Mom – What? thinking - surely, the little man didn't just say habitat.  He only JUST turned 5!!!
Ethan – That’s the kind of habitat snakes like to live in.
Mom - Yep, he said 'habitat.'  That' right, Ethan.  It's a perfect snake habitat!

And my favorite sample – as people were shoving and arguing with strangers about notebook paper, folders, and glue, Ethan says (in a voice as loud as he could without screaming)

Ethan – Don’t they know that people are more important than school supplies?! Why are they being so rude?! (you should have seen the looks I got after that. Needless to say, we hurried out of the store with less than what we were after.)

8. Getting ready to go back to ballet
Yep. It’s that time again. Elise has blossomed into this girlie, lip gloss loving, creature that has fallen in love with a good mani-pedi, and was more excited about getting sized for her ballet, tap, and jazz shoes, than she was about her school supplies. We’re not totally sure what to make of that… yet.

9. Getting ready for a soccer try-out with a new league
My Chandler-man has been at it for weeks now - working out to get ready for a soccer try-out with a traveling team. Frequent have been the evenings that had me running soccer drills in the front yard. Evan works and sweats (despite his severe loathing of Georgia summer heat), and then runs, and dribbles, and shoots. All the while, Ethan subtly tries everything he sees big brother do. We stay ‘mum’ about that to Evan, or there’d be war, complete with the phrase “STOP COPYING ME!!!!” Ironically, last night Evan offered to be Ethan’s soccer trainer at the house. He said, and I QUOTE, “Dad can train me, and I’ll train Ethan.” Those are valuable words, my friend.

10. Did I mention the extra time at the office and then exhausted evenings that followed? Oh, well, August had me recovering from that….

So, you now have an idea as to why I’ve been so … gone. But no more. We’re getting back into the swing of things, starting with some regular blogging about the summer, complete with pictures (though I know this post is painfully missing the visual images - they're coming). If you know and love the Eldridge clan, stay tuned, my friend.

And for those of you who are more interested in the business of photography, I have some things coming up for you, too. Here’s a little teaser – I had my first photo shoot with the 5D MkII, and I’ll be putting more images out there for all to appreciate, but I'll add one of my favorite's here.  Have I mentioned how much I'm loving my new camera???  Does it show???


Loving those baby blues!!!!