It’s only taken me four years, but I finally bought a bed skirt today.   I hadn’t bought one before because although I hated the ugly bed frame and box springs showing, I never had any disposable income to waste on the whole $25 it would have taken to indulge myself.   But yet at the same time, I have no problem dropping the same amount of money on a nice bottle of wine or some imported cheese.   Sometimes I don’t even understand myself.

We also bought curtain rods, a vase from Spain, and a liner for the shower curtain.  Not that we have any disposable income now either, but in packing up the old house I kept finding a $5 stashed here, a $20 stashed there until I amassed almost $100.  I hear that hiding money like some sort of deranged chipmunk is actually a symptom of living through the great depression which I obviously have no claim to, but I did grow up a Summerville, which is basically the same thing.  Besides, it’s fun to find money years later you didn’t know you had.   I have declared it my moving fund.   Now all I need is a couple hundred dollars so I can buy curtain fabric for the living room, rubbermaid bins to organize the garage, and paint for the dining room.   Since when did a hundred bucks could go so fast and do so little?

My goal for this afternoon was to finish Casey’s maternity shoot so that I can spend tomorrow cleaning and organizing without feeling the magnetic draw to the digital darkroom.   I don’t think there was a single bad picture of her in the hundred or so that I took, but since photography is art (in which case more doesn’t always equal better) I managed to edit it down to the 25 that had the most impact.   My top two favorites are this one.
 

And this one.
                                                                                

The first one is somehow both winsome and hopeful and it gives me happy shivers to look at it.
 I just like the “high voltage” and colors in the second one and the way the wind did yummy things to her hair.

Fun fun, I am already counting the days till Lucas is on this side of her tummy and so I can do cozy newborn pictures.  Can’t wait. 

Would you like a little toilet water with that rice?

Hannah showed up this week and after hugging her favorite nephews she promptly went and dropped her 32 gig itouch in the toilet.   We’ll just pretend it’s the first time she’s done that.   It’s nice to know I can blame my similar tendencies on genetics.      I tried to help her resuscitate it by putting the dripping apple product in a container of rice.  I read it on a blog somewhere, which must mean it worked for someone, and besides, it was rancid brown rice anyway, so it’s not like I was destroying precious food or something.    Apparently Jim didn’t get the memo, he came home and promptly started snacking on the tantalizing bowl of rice on the counter. 
 After washing his mouth out with soap he tried to blame us for not telling him it was seasoned with a succulant sauce of toilet water, because we all know how yummy rancid, uncooked, brown rice is.   Delish.

The whole house swapping thing is moving…slowly.  The short version of the long story is that we moved. (obviously).  Next door (down the street?).   We have the same landlords (my Aunt and Uncle), the same address, and the same phone number.  We just went from a one bedroom house to a four bedroom house.   Oh, and my sister Liz lives with us (or we live with her).   I have been busy painting and moving and cleaning for what feels like forever.  It’s hard to accomplish much with Jamie and Charlie.  Charlie eats (a lot) and when Charlie isn’t eating, I am running Jamie to preschool, speech therapy and the park.   When we are at home, I try to tackle a fresh room full of projects only to find myself playing trains with Jamie.   So while I sit there and create sound effects and build tiny bridges for Jamie’s amusement, I am scheming and dreaming about what I’m going to do when Jim gets home and the kids go to bed.  My dreams include sandpaper and picture frames, Jim comes home with far different dreams.  

But he did get the computer set up.  Hallelueigh

Because I’ve had photos trapped in there for weeks, and I was about to go crazy.  I did a maternity photoshoot two Sundays ago for a girl named Casey.  She makes pregnancy look so hot it puts Heidi Klum to shame.  

I need to get these photos to her asap, or the wee Lucas will be here and my photographic attempts will be lost and drowned in the wonderment that is a tiny new babe.    I hope she has as much fun playing Thomas The Train with Lucas as I do with Jamie.