August 22nd, 2009 by Heidi

Two months ago I made a point to say that I was going to blog more. I did for a couple days and then I seemed to have fallen off the planet. In reality, I’m still here! Thank goodness for that. Life gets busy – which is good. That means we’ve had an enjoyable summer and work has been good to me. But sadly my blog has nothing to show for it. I’ve taken the pictures, they’re still just stuck in folders unedited. I think I have a very large project when the weather turns frigid and the business slows down.

We’re 4 days from the start of a new school year. It’s so hard to imagine my baby girl going to her first year in highschool. And now my boys will be in 1st and 2nd grades. My babies are not babies any more. This leaves me feeling a bit wary for the return of school but at the same time I am the one anxiously counting down the days!

Today is the Fargo AirSho. I love this! I love the sound of those jets flying just feet over the top of our house. I love that it rattles things around in here and rumbles my guts. I think it’s all just so cool.

This afternoon Hannah is having 4 of her besties over for a sleepover. First, I’m photographing them downtown for some best friend fun and ‘back to school’ pictures. This should be great fun – I can’t wait to share! What a fun way to spend the last weekend before they go back to school.

James is home. I missed him for 3 very long weeks. We’ve had an excellent week just being together. I do not look forward to Monday morning though.

So here’s me, I blogged! I will find some pictures to add in soon. I’m sure tomorrow will come with much more to talk about – as long as I’ve survived the sleepover of friends.

June 17th, 2009 by Heidi

It didn’t take long for the rain to roll in today. The clouds got dark and dreary off and on all day and laid down a couple of good soakings. There was even some thunder mixed in there late this afternoon. The boys played well indoors for most of the day though they did get out for some biking in between rains. My photography session got postponed but I did manage to get a lot of work done today. Amazing the things you can do when silly Facebook bans you from commenting for a few days. [more on that another day] No really, so much going on this week, I had way to much to do and I did it. But the best part of a rainy day like today – it stops while there is still daylight. And the peonys that are about to bloom are filled with tiny fresh raindrops that I love to photograph. And I did.

June 14th, 2009 by Heidi

Yesterday was the one day of the whole year that I really dread. After 9 years, I’d think I’d be used to it, but I’m not. Hannah really enjoys spending the summer with her dad but that’s a month and a half that I miss her like crazy. We woke up early to say our goodbyes. Connor had a hard time too, he cried while they hugged goodbye. It breaks my heart. I watched them drive away and hugged my boys. And just one hour later I drove them out to their dad’s place to let them go for the weekend. I drove home with the radio on loud and a heavy heart.

I came home to an empty house. [minus a couple of super cute Corgis and some kitties] Most days I really live for the silence, the time that I can just be alone with me, to clear my head and do some things that I want to do. But this day was different. I laid down on the couch and slept for 2 hours. I felt bored the rest of the day and into the late hours of the night. I just wasn’t enjoying myself. And James is held up with a broke-down semi and he’s not having any fun either. We were bored together, only separately. sigh. Just spending some time feeling sorry for myself.

But leading up to yesterday, we had a great week. The weather was gorgeous at the end of the week. We had a picnic on 2 different days, we went to the skate park twice, we played outside, went to the library, we just had a good time being us.

The skate park was awesome. The boys have been begging to go for such a long time and my mama fears kept us away. I’m just not sure they were ready to take on something so dangerous. But really – when is a good time? So I gave in. We had a long talk before so that they knew what to do and what not to do. I could only prepare them so much. But it was such a relief when Connor came to me after riding some and told me that his legs were so shaky. I knew this meant he’d be a little more careful, at least for a little while. They really had fun and I know they were so appreciative that I actually let them go. And they’d sit and watch the older kids who could do some tricks and I could see the admiration in their faces. I’m pretty sure I’ll have some BMX trixter kids before long! It’s fun to see them excited and having fun. Of course, I took some pictures to share. They make me smile and I hope it’s just one step to making it through a long summer.

more pictures here.

June 12th, 2009 by Heidi

I’m seriously slacking. I’m frustrated with myself for not following through with my blogging vision. A year ago I started this blog as a place to just write, a place to keep my big ole family updated on the things that go on around here, a place to share about myself and my kids and my photography. And lately, I’ve just let it all go. Even sadder, I’ve not blogged or journaled much of anything in months. And I’m feeling a little left out from myself. I feel like I’ve cheated myself and my kids out a lot of details throughout the year that are now undocumented. That was exactly waht I didn’t want to happen. I need to keep doing this, to keep writing down the litlte thing, sharing the pictures and keeping a record for my family.

If you’re a reader of my blog, and you see me skipping too many days of writing, will you please kick me? Leave me a comment, send me an email, give me a call. I need that little push sometimes. I get caught up with the other 50 trillion things going on day to day and forget or don’t take the time to write. I’m doing myself an injustice. Keep me in line!

May 25th, 2009 by Heidi

I’ve spent some time thinking today. I realize that the older I get, the more sentimental I grow. Today was no exception.

This is a day that the United States has set aside to remember our fallen soldiers and to celebrate our active soldiers – men and women that our entire nation has to thank for our freedoms. For many families it’s also a day to celebrate family with outings and picnics and fun. It’s also the kickoff to summer. [for those of us up here in the north, it's more like the official kickoff of spring, summer will happen tomorrow.]

Starting early this morning, Facebook was full of Happy Memorial Day wishes and those reminding us to remember what the day is all about. I took some time to think about the soldiers that I know that are active duty or active guard right now. People were commenting about their grandfathers and uncles and I had to stop and think a minute to remember if I had anyone in my family to celebrate Memorial Day for. Then I was really sad. I was sad for the not knowing which of my family members may have served in the military and then for actually having to take the time to remember that both of my parents served in the Navy.

Because I couldn’t remember, I had to ask my sister, “Did we ever celebrate our parents being in the service or did we just have family picnics?”  She never remembered anything beyond picnics and family time either. I know we didn’t talk about the war while we were growing up. And honestly, while we were kids, I don’t think that mattered to us. We waved our flags and we caught candy at the parade, we played with our cousins and ate watermelon until the sun went down.

I’m pretty sure my kids don’t even know that my parents served in the Navy. I don’t know that I’ve ever talked about it with them. It wasn’t something that was talked about with me, I just know that they were, so how can I talk about it with my kids?

And I can sort of understand why my parents didn’t want to talk about the service or the war. I know it was not a great time in their lives and maybe they didn’t feel so proud to be representing our country. But they did. They fought for us. They cared for the wounded. They served our country. And yet we never celebrated that. And I feel sad.

I almost emailed both of them today, wanting to avoid putting them on the spot with a phone call, and asked why we never acknowledged their time in the service. But I didn’t. I will save that for another day. Instead, I thought about the joy we used to have on this day and I took a drive with Hannah down to the cemetery where I knew the flags would be flying and families would be visiting their loved ones. I teared up several times. I’m so thankful to have not lost my parents and Hannah and I talked about how fortunate we feel to not have loved ones to visit in a cemetery. I have lost grandparents and an uncle, none of which are buried locally. We looked at all the flags and flower pieces. We admired headstones from the 1800’s. And I took this picture as we entered the cemetery.

I have some more thinking to do about this. My family is dear to me and I want them to celebrate and be proud. I want to wish them a Happy Memorial day and have it have meaning from both me and my kids.

May 10th, 2009 by Heidi

And for the second year in a row, my sons are not with me. It seems their other parent doesn’t respect the importance of the day for them or for me and has bribed them away on a weekend trip out of town. I was trying to be ok with this only because I have no desire to try to argue with him but because I have the boys with me much more than he has them with him and I have far more Mother’s Days than one  materialized by Hallmark. But then I woke up this morning and was reading my Facebook page and seeing how everyone else is spending their day is really depressing. I’m trying not to feel angry or bitter about my own situation and to be happy that I get to spend the day with Hannah and some with my own mom too. But I’m sad for my sons who are learning inadvertantly to think that this day isn’t important or that if they do think it is, their dad isn’t letting them spend the day with me.

Though before they left on Friday, the boys gave me gifts made in school. Dillan made several art pictures and gave me a painted pot full of violets. Connor gave me some special notes in a neat envelope book. And yesterday, after returning from her class trip to Minneapolis, Hannah surprised me with a cute card and a polar bear magnet from the gift shop at the zoo. She saved some of her eating money and took time to find me a little something all on her own. This warms my heart so much.

I love being a mom.  Well, most days anyway. There are those days that all chaos is taking over and I wonder what the heck I got myself into but those days are totally overshadowed by the fun and the joy and laughter we have. I love seeing who my kids are becoming – watching them strive and succeed and develop their own uniquensses. (is that a word? I hope it is. If not, it is now) I never imagined parenting would be so tiring and challenging. I never thought that doing so much for other people could be so exhausting and rewarding at the same time. But looking into all of their bright blue eyes and hearing them laugh and sharing their excitement puts me in a really happy place.

And I’m thankful to have my own mom just down the road from us. I’m glad she gets to share in the joy of my kids growing up and for being special in their lives. Tonight I’ll cook her some dinner.

And the sun is shining and the sky is blue and the air is fresh and I have my kiddos close to my heart even though they aren’t all here right now. I think we’ll have to do something special when they return.

May 10th, 2009 by Heidi

I’m certainly not doing a good job of using my blog the way I wanted and intended. I can’t believe it’s already been a month and a half since I last updated. I need to make a much better effort here. People still visit every day and I’m thankful for that, though you have to be crazy dedicated to keep coming back with no new info being posted.

Random: Green Day is playing on VH1 right now and I’m reminded that I just think they are really super awesome. I’m excited fro the new album to be released in just a few days.

Just for updating sake, I’ll make a bullet list of anything I can think of with any relevance about what’s been going on around here since I last updated.

• We survived the flood – no water in our house and Fargo was not overtaken by the Red.
• It’s spring – finally! Buds are popping out on the trees and the grass in green and I see flowers. I’m so happy.
• Hannah is running track – hurdles even – and really enjoys it.
• Connor and Dillan are back to playing soccer and having a blast.
• Photography has been slow for me all winter but is picking up and I’m so excited about that!
• I’m in the process of bulding an office in the house. My kitchen table needs to return to just a table.
• The kids are almost done with school for the year, wow that went fast!
• Dillan turned 6. What a bad mom I am for neglecting a blog post just for his day. Insert guilt here.
• I didn’t blog about my dad’s birthday visit. More guilt.
• James has been home pretty frequently which I love.
• The Zoo is as cute as ever and despite leaving behind 10 tons of hair daily, they are such a joy around here.

Wow, I thought the list would be longer – maybe life isn’t so exciting around here. Sadly, there are a lot of little things that I wish I would have taken the time to write about. Someone please kick me and make me update at least once a week but preferably much more.

March 26th, 2009 by Heidi

To say things are a little chaotic around here is being mild. The city is in a major state of emergency. The river levels are rising so quickly.

I haven’t been able to keep up with updating several blogs so I’ve chosen to keep up the biz blog with updates since it has RSS feeds in a few places. I’m writing here now to direct anyone to that blog and other info.

Follow what’s going on with us at www.heidismithphotography.com/blog

Helpful city links with flood info:

Newspaper: www.inforum.com

Flood Levels: www.ndsu.nodak.edu/fargoflood/

Valley Flood Watch: www.valleyfloodwatch.com/

Currently, I’m trying not to have a freakout. We live far enough from the river that we shouldn’t be effected. But the river is going to surpass record levels and nobody is certain how the dikes will hold up. We are optomistic and hopeful but we are taking precautions anyway. Today we will be getting things out of the basement and gathering important things and preparing for evacuation if need be. Gosh I hope that is not necessary but we need to be prepared. Having a zoo within our house will leave very little room for taking anything with us. me, 3 kids, 4 cats, 2 dogs. Talk about chaos. But I think as long as things are upstairs that we shouldn’t have to worry about personal belongings and all of us creatures will be ok. And that’s the extreme, I don’t imagine that we will have to do that but I’m getting our ducks in a row. No need to fret, we’ll deal with what comes our way. We’re just hoping nothing comes our way.

Thank you everyone who has called or emailed or commented to check and see how we’re doing. We appreciate  your support and prayers and well wishes. Fargo is in great need of volunteers. With schools being closed, the numbers are harder to get as there are childcare issues. I hope everyone that can go out, goes out.

So please follow my photography blog for more updates for the time being. When things mellow out some I’ll get back to posting here. Thanks so much!

March 1st, 2009 by Heidi

Ok, so it’s been 2 months since I’ve blogged. Not for a lack of wanting, just for a lack of time and organization. There has been plenty going on, plenty to blog about, I just haven’t made the time for it. And now, the idea of getting caught up and talking about all the things that have gone on, I’m overwhelmed. So I’m going to label myself a blog slacker and fill this post full of pictures from the past 2 months with a bunch of commentary just so I have something to share. Then I hope to take a little time each week to sit down and type some entries and pull myself out of slacker status. I’d also like to update the theme of this blog. I’ve paid for a couple of really cool themes but they lack some of the things I want to put here. I’ll need to take some more time to decide if staying or changing is the right thing to do. Sooner or later you might visit and find things in a bit of disarray or totally different. We’ll see.

I last left off just after New Years. Since then the kids have been busy with school, we’ve been digging out from under snow, and we’ve had some good fun too. How about I just dig out the images and tell the little story as we go along?

We went sledding and James was all bundled up and mountainman-like

When it’s really really cold and you have facial hair, your breath freezes on it

I played with my new camera plenty. Besides doing my Project 365, I’ve just take a lot of neat pictures.

The boys were interested in the coconuts at the grocery store. They could hear the milk inside but have never had it or seen it. I bought one. James tapped some holes in the ‘eyes’ and we slipped a straw into each one so the kids could all taste at once. That did not go over well. We cracked it open afterwards and found it was rotten. yuck! But it was funny to watch.

We mad e a very large pot of yummy chicken soup to go with the awesome noodles mom made us for Christmas!

No day is complete without cocoa,

or silliness.

James spoiled Millie. He does this every day though. But on this day she looks especially spoiled.

More furrbabies

Casey loves to lay by the bedroom door waiting for James to wake up each morning. He’s just so cute.

It has been horribly cold. Downright frigid.

And super snowy. This is our street – our house is almost burried in snow piles.

Connor’s teeth keep falling out. He’s even lost another since this picture was taken. Funny enough, they have yet to grow back in, even a little. He has a big ole toothless gap!

We’ve lost our heads

But we innaugurated an awesome new president

James celebrated a birthday. He treated himself to a spiffy new laptop. Now being away on the road is a little easier to handle  since we can share images and even video chat if the connection is good.

We took the kids bowling for the first time – Hannah had before actually, but not the boys. We went with friends and had an awesome time!

We’ve had our share of the respiratory sickies. I’m so thankful that for the most part, we are a really healthy family. The kids get mild fevers and a day or two of the yucks. Me, I’ve been sick off and on like crazy since September. I haven’t been this way in years. Sinus infections, strep throat, bronchitis, cold virus. Yuck. This picture was Dillan. He had a fever the night before and went to bed very early. He woke up early but fell asleep on the couch again.

For my birthday I got a spiffy new lens that does some really cool things! This is tiny Millie’s nose.

I visited Dillan’s class for Valentine’s Day where they did a little program and we had muffins and helped pass out Valentines. Very cute! One of my favorite pictures of Dillan recently.

There was crazy in the Valentine box!

And James gave me beautiful roses. They look amazing and they smell so good too!

The sundogs have been out. I wish I could get to a better place to photograph them without distractions but they rarely stay around very long. I love the way they light up the sky.

We celebrated Casey’s first birthday! He was so not thrilled to have to be wearing the party hat. But we all think it’s a super cute tradition.

Last weekend, Dillan and I had a day to ourselves. Hannah had gone skiing with her class and Connor was at boyscout winter camp. We got to hang out and play and just be us all day. Here he wanted to do his own silly pose and give himself rabbit ears! that boy…

He went outside to play in the fresh snow and jump on the trampoline. [our neighbor friend in the background] He’s the only one that even attempts a backflip – he nails it every time.

He’s been learning some sign language in school. Now I frequently here, “Hey Mom!” and then he flashes me this sign. I love him too!

For good behavior he’s earning quarters to use in the pencil machine at school. He has a new collection obsession. Here he is showing off his ‘pencil beard’ and ‘pencil teeth’.

Connor and Dillan started swimming lessons this week and I had some fun with processing images.

This is how Corgis be lazy. We love it when they lay like this. You can’t help but smile and giggle.

Little Miss Princess Millie looks so extra adorable on her purple throw on my bed in the winter sun.

Last night, Hannah and I went out with friends for a little Cosmic Bowling. Since we never get ourselves in a picture together, we snapped one before we went out the door. We look a little deer in the headlights and silly but thats’ us!

And I leave you with The Zoo. This is a typical night in my bed. They all come in, one by one, and claim their space. They don’t care that I [or even James as well when he's home] can move legs or not, they get comfy and that’s that. This image is missing Jelliebeanie. She’s not a fan of the group slumber party and usually sleeps on a bed with only one person taking up space. But funny enough, in the morning I woke up and Thomas was off the bed but Jellie was on it! Even with the rest of the crew still on it. At least we are warm!

There’s my big update. It’s picture heavy and if you’re on dial-up, I appologize! But it’s the quickest way to get the goods out there and get myself back into the blogging groove. I’ve missed it really.

January 4th, 2009 by Heidi

It’s 2009 already? How did that happen? It’s no joke, time really does go faster as we get older.

It was an uneventful ringing in the new year here. I was exhausted and went to bed at 10pm. James stayed up and watched some TV. We still have Rockin’ Eve on the DVR and have yet to watch it. Same with the Rose Parade from New Years Day. Yeah, I’m into it. I have good intentions anyway.

All the hoopla surrounding New Years doesn’t excite me. I like looking forward to a new year and new things and renewed attitude. But starting it off with an exhausting hangover is so not my thing. I’d rather be cozy at home.

We’ve lounged around and gone sledding and have been eating ourselves silly since then. Just the way things should be on winter break.

Tomorrow school is back in session and I need to get back to the gym. I’m feeling like a sloth. It’s nice to be lazy but I have to get back into the groove.

I’m feeling really excited about photography right now. I’ve been using my new camera some and really loving it. The snow reflections make for some nice bright winter light. I’m looking forward to spring but I also enjoy frozen photography. We’ve gotten plenty of snow but not too much frozen. In most cases that’s a good thing!

I decided to take on Project 365 again this year. I will be taking and posting a photo a day for the whole year. Last year I got off the wagon in August when things got just too busy. I hope to make it all year this time! I was going to post every image here but I started another blog for my photography clients and friends to also see. I don’t want to double up on posting [or server space] so I’m just going to add a link in my side bar for PROJECT 365 in 2009. Here is the direct link: http://www.heidismithphotography.com/blog_p365_09/. Check it out from time to time – there will be some cool stuff there!

So what else do I have in store for 2009? A booming business, much love and fun with the kids, a happier, healthier, better me. I’m not a resolution maker, I just aim every year to be better than the one before and for me to be a better me – however that might be.

Best wishes to everyone in the new year!

Some pictures coming soon –  I have some to upload.