Melvin:  “Some have great stories, pretty stories that take place at lakes with boats and friends and noodle salad. Just no one in this car. But, a lot of people, that’s their story. Good times, noodle salad. “

:excerpt from As Good As It Gets:

he sat first, with goofy grin on the goldenrod yellow Formica counter top of my childhood home. i stood on a chair dusted in flour and as i leaned over to look in the mixing bowl, i could feel the grains of sugar gritty in between my chubby, 3 year old fingers. my mother would let me stir and when she wasn’t looking i would sneak a finger full of cookie dough. her back turned to me as she bent over the stainless sink to wash the wooden spoon, no way to see or hear….she would always know and scold me gently. her hair was cut short to her neck, and i could see by the way her ears perked up, she was smiling. we would bake the cookies, let them cool, and then fill the turtle cookie jar. its just a cookie jar. a ceramic, hand painted by my Grammy Young cookie jar, just for my mother because she loved and collected all things turtle. as i grew up the turtle traveled with me through out childhood and into adulthood. through the separation and divorce of my parents, through different apartments, homes, and stages of life.

it’s just a silly cookie jar. but when it came to my house this weekend, delivered excitedly by my mother, it brought back so many happy moments spent in the kitchen with my mom. we would make full days of baking sometimes. it wasn’t just special, but where she worked 80 hours a week on occasion, it was often our only time for just us.

 i placed the cookie jar on my counter and paused to take in the turtle in all his glory. same goofy grin. i looked at him a while. an awkward while, to where if he was an ACTUAL turtle he might feel a bit nervous. i don’t cook often with my girls. honestly, it drives me crazy. i have no patience for frequent spills and eggs shells in the bowl and inexact measurement.

in fact, i don’t even bake cookies that often.

and i hate that about myself.

i definitely like to eat cookies.

with a side of milk.

and guilt, of course.

yesterday, after the girls came home from a day of summer camp, we baked cookies to fill the turtle. as usual, my idealistic view of how this would all unfold was skewed radically and i found myself wondering if i had been adopted or missed the gene that is required for creating tender, storybook moments with my children. anxiety stricken with each cloud of flour settling onto my floor, wincing painfully through one too many teaspoons of baking power, and hiding my intense desire to tell them to go play in their room when most of the egg shell wound up in the bowl, and lots of nervous laughter, i survived. literally exhausted emotionally, i cleaned the kitchen and took cookies out of the hot oven. i placed them on the rack to cool. Katie bounced up next to me, her face barely breaching the top of the counter, she peaked with outstretched neck and one blue eye at the steam rising from the chocolate chips. a smirk of heavenly satisfaction across her rosebud lips, she proclaimed loudly enough to startle William from his catnap in the bouncer,

“BEST DAY EVER!”

she shuffled off quickly to her next adventure, a wave of flour dancing behind her as she departed. as the last curl in her Goldilocks hair curved around the corner, i shook my head and wondered if we had just witnessed the same disaster…all the while an uncontrollable, unexpected smile spread through my heart and onto my face.

yup. BEST DAY EVER.

These custom CD cases always make me feel happy as I pop them in the mail and send them to my clients. With gorgeous image quality, and just the right touch of personalization, it really puts the icing on the cake for my couples and parents who purchase the digital files to their wedding or family session.

People often ask why, if a CD is so inexpensive to purchase physically, why is the digital collection the most expensive option? Almost all of my clients are going for that digital set these days, and it is because they get the printing rights, and FULL RESOLUTION files…these aren’t just 5 x 7 files or ones you can put on Facebook. These are images you can print as many times as you want, and in any SIZE you want, and in any medium you want. The options are truly endless. From canvas to large prints, to books and albums, mugs, t-shirts….anything!

I couldn’t resist sharing a few from my session this past weekend with one of my favorite little guys, Liam. When I asked his sweet mama what he was into, she said anything related to sports and being silly. I, personally, LOVE silly. (who doesn’t!)

…so nice to have a boy that can be both silly AND sweet like this shot with his dad…

Happy Fathers Day to my Dad, and to my amazing husband…

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

i try to show real parenting. today, i am laying it on the line.

let’s talk.

this whole teething thing…is a bummer. my girls didn’t get teeth until the were over a year old. when they got teeth we threw a party because we thought it would never happen. literally, cake was served and there were no tears. no pain, just party hats and pastel streamers.

just when i was starting to get more than 2 hours of consecutive sleep, these teeth started to come.

and you know what is awesome (not), there is no actual teeth..there are just little teeth buds that pop in and out, in and out….

i am a mom…i fix stuff. the crying baby, the skinned knee…the clogged toilet. it turns out teeth are immune to Mom, and her kisses, and her homeopathic remedies. and apparently Orajel is poison. sweet.

my dad’s advise: “Well….your mom used liquor…apricot was your fav. that is funny…you love fruit and WINE now.”

thanks dad.

mom’s advise: “i never used liquor THAT much with you, but it did seem to work.”

awesome.

(you wouldn’t even know they were divorced by this conversation)

what i have found works….

his sisters and TOO CUTE on Animal Planet. yup, i know…he shouldn’t watch TV at his age…i am probably destorying his brain cells and determining his future intelligence.

did his sister try to dress him up today?

yes, they did.

did he love it?

yes. he did.

i am okay with that.

today.