2010 October | I Should Be Folding Laundry

Archive for October 2010

My Mom, the superhero

Sunday, October 31st, 2010

By Beth

Hi friends. I just wanted to stop in to encourage you guys to head over to the Shrinking Jeans website to vote for my Mom. Shrinking Jeans had a really cool weight loss challenge called “Shrinkvivor.” I have watched my Mom make the decision to join the challenge and have watched her dedicate herself to losing weight. She has done such an amazing job. I’ve also literally watch the weight melt off of her as she exercised every single day and watched everything she ate. She has worked so hard to get to this point.

Anyway, if you could, maybe head over and vote for Mary on the sidebar? (you can vote everyday until Wednesday.)

She honestly deserves this. I’m so proud of her.

(also, you can go to her blog and see the video she produced talking about the challenge. It’s quite inspiring.)

Categories: Family

Friday Morning Coffee

Friday, October 29th, 2010

By Beth

I just had a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. Anna and Noah are home from school today, Eli is currently teething and crying in his Daddy’s arms as I type. I don’t really feel bad because he would cry in my arms, too and also, he did this with me all day long yesterday. The first three days of this week were really amazing, Eli and I had such great days, they reminded me of being at home with Anna and Noah when they were babies.

And then yesterday was so different. It wasn’t horrible it was just difficult. Eli is definitely getting his top teeth, maybe even five…is that possible? Anna and Noah are on fall break yesterday and today. Anna is taking pictures of her feet and the ceiling fan with our point and shoot and Noah is playing Wii.

Today should be a good day of Halloween festivities. Halloween is so much work between the costumes, the pumpkin carving, the candy…Yesterday I allowed Anna and Noah to have one piece of candy every 90 minutes between 10 and 4. I thought this would alleviate the millions of times they ask me for candy but they still asked right at the 90 minute mark “if they could have that piece of candy.”

Anna was going to be a witch for Halloween. And then she decided to be a cowgirl and then she decided to be a witch.

Noah was going to be carrots then a bear then a cowboy. I even bought cowboy things (hats, boots, sheriff boots!) for him and he wore them to a school function. This past Monday as we were getting ready for school he said he changed his mind, he didn’t want to be a cowboy.

“Sorry, Noah. I already spent a lot of money on your costume. You are going to be a cowboy.”

And then those gigantic, brown eyes filled with tears and he laid his head on my bed and just cried. My heart sank but I had to stand firm. No matter how hard it was.

So on Wednesday, when he went to his class Halloween party, he went dressed as an Army Soldier.

So much for standing firm. But like I’m going to deny him wanting to be a soldier “JUST LIKE HIS UNCLES.”

I’m hoping that my little family gets out for cupcakes today and I think maybe I’ll bake some pumpkin seeds just because my kids have asked for them. I have a pedicure this morning and hours and hours of work today. This day is planned, every single second of it. I’m going to do my best to enjoy it…every single second of it.

Happy Friday, friends.

Categories: Friday Morning Coffee

You Capture – Autumn

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

By Beth

Hi everyone. I hope you all had fun capturing the change of the season. I did…not. Simply because I went to GREAT LENGTHS to go out and capture something unique and perfect for autumn and my camera was basically dead. It just sat there. This was about 90 minutes after a waitress spilled water into my purse where my camera was located.

I did realize she had spilled it on my camera when it happened, so I took it out of my purse to check it but it was fine. I knew that it could very well be broken later but what could you do? I put my camera down and ate about nine breadsticks, that’s what you can do. Which means I can blame this waitress on my lame-ass attempts at autumn and also may 2 pound weight gain this week. Yay.

Anyway. As I had hoped, my sweet little camera is fine. So, Eli and I drove around in the freaky weather and tried to capture fall.

I found this.

fallish

I also took a picture of the chicken tortilla soup I made but I downloaded it and it was too boring to even edit so I couldn’t bear to show it to you guys because it was just that. A bowl of soup. Even my bowl was boring.

But the soup. The soup was goooooood.

So, now it’s your turn to share!

But first – PLEASE READ THIS GUIDELINES, especially, yes, especially if you have never linked up!

1. Anyone can join in on the challenge at anytime.
2. Please make sure the photos you use were taken for the challenge, meaning do not search your archives for an appropriate photo. The goal of You Capture is to get you out taking photos each week!
3. Use YOUR photos.
4. When linking up, only link to your You Capture blog post, not your main blog URL. (incorrect links will be deleted.)
5. You MUST link back to You Capture in your post.
6. I encourage you to visit other participants and leave comments. This is a great way to meet new friends!
7. Be kind. Rewind. {oh, come on.}

{more You Capture info can be found here.}

YouCapture_300x150

Two, I have TWO for you.

1. Halloween

2. Silence

I prefer you to participate in both but I know some of you do not celebrate Halloween. But I would love it if we could all do silence. I can’t wait to see your creative brilliance at work…

And hey, if you are trying to photograph pumpkins, try to do it at dusk, turn off your flash (OF COURSE) and slow down your shutter speed. For great results, put your camera on a tripod.

Happy Capturing!

Categories: you capture.

Geography

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

By Beth

I will not talk about the weather, not how windy it is, how cloudy it is or how much fun it isn’t to drop your kids off at school to come home to a tornado warning.

Nope.

Not going to talk about it.

crazy-weather

(but it is really windy.) (and dropping your kids off and coming home and your sirens going off is quite unsettling) (and also, THE WIND.)

Anyway.

I wanted to drop in and tell you guys that in two weeks I’m going to be doing mini-sessions in Louisville, so if you or someone you know lives in Kentucky, I’ll be in the area and would love to meet you! More information can be found here.

And if you’re in Michigan, in the Ann Arbor area, there is a REALLY cool photo walk scheduled, you can go here for more details.

and also, I posted here.

See you later. Don’t get blown away and drive safely. And eat a cupcake.

Categories: Beth Fletcher Photography

New Management

Monday, October 25th, 2010

By Beth

I’m at a crossroads right now. I seem to always have a million things to do, Beth Fletcher Photography is doing pretty well. There are many things going on behind the scenes, business things that are a big deal to me but probably not to you. I’ve hired “a nanny” (my mom!) to come out a few times a week to help with Eli while I work but I’m still struggling. My house is a total disaster (I’ve never seen it so messy and disorganized) and yet I’m so inspired to change things like painting my living room walls and surround myself with pretty things that I love.

Making those changes keeps me inspired and because I live and work here, I think this actually ranks as among the most important things on my to-do list. But time and money really keep me from taking the leap into making major changes from “warm” and gloomy to uplifting color.

Right now I have a huge to-do list for my house and my business so I’m trying to tackle everything in chunks.

The thing is, I feel like this is possible because this guy is like a real baby now.

teeny-tiny

A baby who will play and not cry when he’s not being fed or held. Even when he was being held and fed, he still ALWAYS cried. I mentioned on Friday that things are changing, he is better and I am so grateful because he really is such a happy guy.

He’s amazing.

This means I need to do some restructuring with my time, I’m going to start a schedule of housework, like today is my kitchen day, where I clean the kitchen, mop, wash the kitchen towels and rugs and grocery shop (see the kitchen theme here?) And maybe tomorrow will be the office and the living room but I’ll see what tomorrow is like before committing.

killing-me-with-his-cuteness

I’m trying to do it all and I’m trying to do it well and I don’t see anything wrong with that but I realized, this weekend, in particular that above anything else, I want to be a good Mom, not just a fun Mom (because I totally am) but one who can keep all of the school crap together and have real conversations with the big kids and snuggle time EVERY SINGLE DAY with all of the kids.

I’m really excited about this but you’ll have to understand that this may be why I’m around here less.

But then again, maybe I’ll be here more because, you guys, I wrote this while Eli played next to me.

Things are definitely changing.

Eli-4028

My sister, Sarah, bought this outfit for Elijah when I was pregnant with him, today is his first day wearing it. It reminds me what a dream come true he is really is.

Things around here are lighter & better, we all feel it. I can tell.

Categories: Being a Mama, Beth Fletcher Photography