It's all good in the hood...

Now, I have to give credit where credit is due. The hubster came up with the title of this post. It'll all make sense when you see the photos! Ha!

So, this will be my hodge podge Thanksgiving recap post. I'm not feeling particularly witty or clever or much of anything today. I'm feeling... well... lazy. It's been a busy but insanely lazy week. We were fortunate enough to have the entire week off from school, work, whatever. So, we've all been hanging around the house together playing the Wii. (And, can I say that Emma is amazing at boxing!?! It shouldn't surprise me with all her spunk!)

Anyway, so, we planned to go to Curt's family Thanksgiving for the first time this year, so we went to spend some time with my sister & her family on Wednesday. We spent the night there, and then left to go to Curt's family on Thursday morning.

Now, my sister is the one with four kids. She's the crazy one with the two babies. You might recall the little red-headed maniac child and the sweet little guy with blue eyes. Well, the sweet blue-eyed child has since turned into ten times the maniac that his older red-headed brother is. (I hate ending sentences with a preposition. How would I reword that to fix it? I'm too lazy to use the brain power. Ha!)

So, you can imagine the fun (read: circus) that is her house. Those two are serious bundles of energy & mischief. They moved SO fast that pretty much every photo I took of them is NOT the photo I intended to get. It's like back in my ol' point & shoot days. You know how the delay is INSANELY long when you press the shutter so the entire photograph has changed by the time it actually takes? Well, with my camera, it's practically instantaneous, and yet they move faster than the speed of light. Crazy little things... It's kind of fun looking at the photographs for the first time because it's always a surprise! You never know what you're going to get with those two. I can tell you, for sure, that I get a significantly higher number of out of focus shots as well as chopped limbs, etc! Haha!

Here are a few of my favorites. Keep in mind that these are NOT the shots I set out to get. Ha!

This one's not even really in focus. The focus is on the end of his crusty ol' nose, but tell me it's not adorable with the drool! Haha! I love it!
Two little monkeys jumpin' on the bed...

And, yeah... their mischief knows no bounds. :-)
And, then there's Summer. Second mommy. Teenager. (The girl just turned 13 in September! Is it possible that I have a niece THAT old!?!) Anyway, she's a beautiful girl. She's also definitely a teenager. (Does that require more splainin'? Ha!) She showed me her new fur lined coat, and I just KNEW we had to grab a few pictures. These are all really similar, but I couldn't pick my favorite. There are actually TONS more great ones, too, that I just didn't even get around to proofing yet. But, just look how grown-up she looks!!!

Love, LOVE her hair blowing in this one!



She's got that teen angst thing down. (Or is it sheer irritation with her lame, old aunt?) Either way... she's just gorgeous isn't she!?!

And, then, on Thanksgiving morning, we headed to Curt's Nana's house. Surprise, surprise... we had an unexpected treat that afternoon!
Yes, that's snow! We had some big ol' flakes for quite a while. Then, it turned to sleet. Then, it turned to sleet + snow. Then, back to snow. Fun stuff. Of course it didn't stick around, but the girls HAD to go play in it!

This next one is a picture of Maya swinging on a swing that Curt used to swing on as a child. Isn't that sweet!?!
And, here is a photograph of my wonderful mother in law, Carla. It was such a pleasure to get to spend Thanksgiving with Curt's family. I really enjoyed spending the day with them, playing cards, and looking at Black Friday ads!
This is Curt's sister Cara. I think her hair ROCKS in this photo! Ha! Seriously... awesome hair!
And, a rare "treat." (That's debatable, right!?!) It's a photo of ME!
Now that you've seen the photos, please tell me the post title doesn't require explaining. :-)

Well, I've put off this post long enough...

This is one of those posts that I KNOW I need to post, that I WANT to post, but that I've been avoiding because I'd have to dive deep into my own head & heart to write it. You know what I mean? This one will be emotionally taxing for me, and so I've been putting it off since Monday.

Emma's been bugging me pretty regularly for a month or two now to get her hair cut. And, well, the girl NEEDED it in a bad way. Her hair would get in the way when I would tuck in her shirt. It was OUT of control long. I don't blame her for wanting a cut.

So, on Monday, she mentioned it again that morning. I decided today was the day... no more delaying. I realized that she had at least a foot of hair that could be chopped. I realized that would be plenty long to send off to Locks of Love should she be willing to do it. So, I mentioned it to her. I tried to explain to her that there are many children in the world that get sick and lose their hair. She didn't quite understand just what I meant. She looked at me like I had three heads. I brought her to the computer and navigated to the Locks of Love website. I began to show her the pictures of the kiddos that had lost their hair. Then, I showed her pictures of the people that had donated their hair. I showed her pictures of the kiddos in their wigs to show what was done with the hair.

Then, I went to the My Pictures folder on my computer. I navigated to a folder called "Amy's old family pics." I opened it, and I began to show her the photographs of when I was a little, little girl. I showed her pictures of me, my sister, and my two brothers. I showed her pictures of my brother Ryan when he was left without any hair from the chemo. She never asked what happened to him. I'm not sure I was at all prepared for it if she had asked, so maybe I'm relieved she didn't. Ryan was five years old when he died from cancer. My Emma is five years old. It struck me like a ton of bricks.

You know, I was the youngest of the bunch, so I honestly have almost no memories of Ryan that are my own. I've heard stories, and I see pictures. I wish I had more.

But, as a young mother myself, I cannot even begin to imagine the reality of LOSING MY FIVE YEAR OLD. Five. Years. Old. I can hardly remember my life before her. Gosh...

And, so, Emma wanted to do it. In the month of Ryan's birthday and also the month marking his death, we trucked off to get her hair cut. It's pretty miniscule in the realm of things to do for people. But, I guess it just felt right, meant to be. And, so, it makes my heart feel full, and it makes me daily grateful for the health of my children & my family. That is the thing I'm most thankful for this Thanksgiving season. Hands down.

So, of course I documented the day with photos. Here are a few shots before the haircut to show the length:
A cute one of Emma & Maya.
Emma & Daddy... you can DEFINITELY see how long her hair is here!
And, here she is with her ponytail:
A few "after" pictures:

Another zoo trip...

Well... we had a fun day today. Curt & I (and Maya) took a couple of his students to the zoo for a photography field trip. The students were focusing on (no pun intended) basic photography skills... exposure, composition, focus, etc. And, the animals were their subjects. So, I took my camera, as well, and because they were photographing the animals, it inspired me to do so, too. I never really have much success with the animals at the zoo. Maybe because my 85 just isn't quite a long enough zoom, but I won't give up the aperture for a longer one. All I know is that my zoo animal photos are always pretty uninteresting. Plus, I don't know if you know this or not, but zoo animals do NOT take direction well AT ALL. Ha!

But, I did take a few, and I was actually pleased with them. Maybe it's the cooler weather... the animals are out & about more, engaging a little more. I do wish our zoo had a little more natural looking habitats, but whatever.

The pink flamingos are Emma's most favorite part of the zoo. We visit them on the way into & on the way out of the zoo EVERY time we go. Unfortunately, she didn't get to go with us today because she had school. Anyway, I wish that guy in the upper left hand corner hadn't strolled into my frame...
He's looking right at me. I think he's irritated.
The parakeets are always fun.
I wish the two green birds in the background were blue, too. Wouldn't that have been a bit more fun? A little lone green bird among a sea of blue? Oh well... see what I mean about zoo animals taking directive?

This little guy was creeping along the edge of the stone wall separating us from the lion. He's a little fuzzy (crazy hair & focus-wise. Haha!)
And, just one of my Maya. She avoided being my model today! But, look... yet another great location at the zoo that I've discovered! I'm telling you... I LOVE the zoo for cool locations.