White

The challenge at iheartfaces this week is "White." I just shot a wedding Saturday, so I have white on the brain.

Smile for Saturday

So... I Drove an Ice Cream Truck.

At least, I did in my dream. And as I was driving, I was thinking,  'finally I'll have something interesting to blah'g about.' So here it is. Except it didn't really happen.

It started with me having lunch with Trevor at school. I was talking to a teacher when a high school student (who happened to be a kid named Eric that I knew from when I was in high school. He always tried to hang out with my friends and me, but was a lot younger and kind of annoying at times) came up to her saying he didn't feel well and needed a ride back to the high school.

I volunteered. How difficult could that be, right?

So, we walk out to the parking lot and I'm scanning the cars, looking for a jalopy. I guess in my dream, it must have been a time where kids had to buy their own cars, and mummy and daddy didn't just hand over the keys to a new Lexus for their 16th birthday. Anyway, I wasn't finding any clunkers in the parking lot. And then it hit me. He drives an ice cream truck.

Not wanting to back out of my offer and thinking that this would be a fun experience to share about on my blah'g, I hop in and fire up the engine. If you were like me, you learned to drive a car manually (stick shift), and the first several tries at driving were rather jerky with a lot of stalling and peeling out. Multiply that by like a thousand.

To make matters worse, the way to the school was an unserviced gravel road. So, I'm jerkily driving a big, white ice cream truck over rocks, through deep puddles, and horrible potholes. Imagine how bumpy and jarring that would be in an ice cream truck. It would make even the strongest of stomachs weak.

And then it happened. The kid puked. All over. And it splashed. And sloshed. And oozed. And smelled. It was horrible. If you know me, you know I don't handle vomit. At all.

Mercifully, I woke up to the alarm before my stomach was able to react.

So there you have it. I drove an ice cream truck.

Back to School

I can't believe how fast the summer went. I guess we blinked.

This year, we have two in middle school...

I'm positive that only last week Sierra was stuffing her 4 month old baby sister's mouth with chocolate cookies while I was busy in the kitchen. Now, here she is, 12 years old and starting 7th grade. And that chocolate faced 4 month old? That would be my 10 year old Caitlin, starting 5th grade.

Shame on those who say you shouldn't hold your babies too much. I say, hold them while you can and as often as you can. You only get one chance to soak it all in. The days are long, but the years are fast. Too fast.

Here are my two oldest girls heading toward the bus. Caitlin is so blessed to have such a great big sister to show her the ropes.

Half an hour later, it was time for the rest of the kiddos to start their first day.

Our three youngest aren't so little anymore, either. Just yesterday, I marveled at my 2 year old boy riding his bike without training wheels and cradled teeny-tiny, mop-headed Abby in my arms. And about five minutes ago, cleaned mess after mess that Elise left in her path during her terrible twos. Now, Trevor is in 3rd grade, Abby is in 2nd, and Elise is taking one more in year in preschool to prepare for kindergarten.

Elise needs a photo of herself for her classroom, and I'm finding it quite humorous that being a photographer, I didn't have a photo to send with her. So we snapped a new one to print off:

I'm all too aware that tomorrow, I will have blinked again, and this little girlie will be following in her siblings' footsteps and growing up way too fast. But for today, I will enjoy her "strike a pose" phase.

Once we got to the school, Trevor and Abby took off running to catch up with friends, so there are no photos of them excitedly walking into the building. But I did get Elise putting her backpack away in her locker.

Those shorts weren't that wrinkled when she first put them on this morning. She was just up early enough to cuddle on the couch until it was time to go. :)

Now, please don't comment about all the free time I have on my hands now. That is not the case. I'm a wife, mom, homemaker, photographer, and bookkeeper. Plus, Elise is only gone a couple of hours every day. There is no free time. But if I ever do get some, don't give me guilt trips if I take advantage of it. I don't think people look at my whole picture. They just see no kids in the house, not all the hardships & struggles this mom has gone through to get to this stage of life. Who am I kidding? I still have struggles - mainly, trying to keep up with everyone, my work, and the house. I need 10 of me. Even during the two hours nobody is home.

Whelp, I should get back to editing. I just remembered that I've been waiting to use this song ("I Can Tell that We are Gonna be Friends" by Jack Johnson - it's the intro song to one of my favorite movies, 'Napolean Dynamite.'). And knowing me, if I put this post off at all, it wouldn't get posted until Halloween, and then the song would seem out of place...

 

Awww...

This week at iheartfaces is Pet Week. I am not a cat person, but our Sniper is such a good kitty. He doesn't jump on counters, hardly sheds, and best of all...

... he loves the kids.

Or, at least tolerates their love for him.

Smile for Saturday

Though we're all so sad to see her go, I can't help but smile when I think of how very, very blessed we have been to have had such an amazing baby-sitter for the past 4 years.

"If I can find a matching pair of shoes at the Schueneman's, I can survive college."

Faith G.

We'll sure miss you, Faith! Praying for all of God's best for you as you embark on this new and exciting time of your life!

Love, the Schuenies

Adventureland & Bowling

It's stormy outside, so since we can't go swimming right now, I thought I'd post here.

The title is pretty self-explainitory, so I'll jump into the pictures. There aren't as many as last year (it was super crowded when we were there Saturday), but that's OK. We still had fun and made memories. Like the memory of waiting an hour in line for the Tornado, only to have Elise decide she didn't want to go on it. Even though she loved it when she was four.

Abby kept watching herself in the mirrors.

Always the cowgirl.

We stopped here after the park closed to grab a bite and bowl.

Abby was doing a happy dance by the blower.

Caitlin mimicking Leah's bowling. 

Trevor trying to will his ball to curve away from the gutter.

Hmm... what's up with the tongues?

Midnight might be a little late in the evening to lose at bowling.



Elise won!

We had a lot of fun, and even slept in until noon the next day!

I've been really frustrated with how Blogger's changed things with uploading pictures. It takes longer (you can only select one picture at a time to upload) and you can't put the pictures side by side. To get around that, I tried using html codes from Photobucket, but that is just as time-consuming. If anyone knows of a faster way to share pictures on here, I'm all ears. I don't think I want to deal with switching to another platform, but might have to.

Well, it is still stormy out. I hope it lets up - today is the last day to go swimming at the pool before it closes for the year. I can't believe summer is almost over. Time flies way too fast.