After the storm

After the storm, there is something beautiful.  The other day we were having an outdoor party for one of the kids.  There was rain and some storms.  Which is irritating. Driving to one of the kids to get clothes to stay the night we saw some amazing sights.

These were not editted except to add the watermark.  

I loved the flags with the sunset in the background.  Oklahoma has some beautiful sunsets not quite as good as Texas but still good.

Luckily the Handy Hubby was driving because I took tons of shots.

I just thought I would share with my friends, the beauty after the storm.  There is always light after the dark, and beauty after the storm.

Unspoken traditions that make Mom giggle.

Photo by Alyssa Hawkins Photography

Little Miss has always done photoshoots and she has always had a blast doing them.  She loves the camera and the camera loves her. When she was a little Little Miss I would trade sewing skills for photography work.  I could do pictures with no problem I had a film camera not a digital.  I knew for toddler age I would shoot about 3 rolls of film to get 4 pictures that were decent.  Toddlers are so fun and busy.   But for this particular shoot my friend and awesome photographer Alyssa Hawkins in Simms, TX was taking pictures of Little Miss.  I had made Cricket and Grasshopper costumes for her daughters for halloween.   So she was doing a fall mini session at a horse auction barn.  Love it.  So I made Little Miss some overalls with farm accents.  Best part I made them so Little Miss could still easily potty train.  I loved those little overalls.   Alyssa took some amazing photos of Little Miss.  But she also started an unspoken  tradition  embedded deep within Little Miss's mind.  At fall photo shoots, I get to eat the apple props.  

Fast forward to last week and mom doing the fall photoshoot .  Little Miss immediately grabs an apple out of the basket of prop apples and started eating it.  Funny it is even the same type of apple.  Years later and nothing has changed. My little girl still stealing apples off of the photoshoot set and eating them.  I wonder if 5 years down the road we will be doing middle school fall pictures and she steals an apple prop and eats it?  

You know it is the little things in life that make you smile and giggle.  This was one of those times.  It actually too 3 days and standing in the kitchen if front of the basket of apples for me to  remember why I loved the apple thing in Little Miss's pictures.  This is all Little Miss, her idea.  It makes my heart smile to think about this.

Handy Hubby, Lemonade stands, and knock kneed flamingos

Well we had an eventful weekend and following week.  Last weekend Handy Hubby finished the Lemonade stand/photo prop.  Little Miss loved it.  She instantly ran in the house and grabbed her picture of Lemonade and plastic cups.  She  sat on the curb in her lemonade stand selling and giving away lemonade.  Truth be told she gave away most of it.  Unsuspecting customers got sugar free lemonade.  But she had a blast.    Her friends had a blast.  They brought out paper and crayons and made signs.  Who could pass up buying lemonade from these kids.  Daddy was just as happy and proud of his craftsmanship.  He even made a bench that perfectly stores inside the stand.  Although the bench had more cussing and fussing to make it than the stand.  There was one screw that was being insanely stubborn.  I think that particular screw was made in October.  Everybody knows, us Scorpios are the most stubborn people. That is right I am a Scorpio and I am extra extremely stubborn.  I was the one that got that screw in, but I was more stubborn than that screw.  We were so glad we made him happy to make her happy.  I think he was also happy for me to stop nagging him to make the stand.  But all said and done I will get all my money out of that prop I can.  

Now this wasn't all fun and games.  When taking the picture of Little Miss in her Lemonade booth, I shifted my weight on my knees oddly.  Something popped and I started standing there like a knock kneed flamingo.  My left knee Hyper extended backwards and inside toward my right knee all at the same time.  No worries, my knees have done this forever.  I keep a brace and crutches handy because of this problem, not to mention 2 knee cap fractures in 2 years.  My neighbors giggled when they figured out what I had done.  "Looked at a tool and thought about using it didn't you."  This is all an inside joke.  You see 2 years ago, I broke my knee cap in half, completely into 2 pieces while trying to rip pallets apart.   My other friends just call me Grace.  So needless to say I am riding the couch for a few days.  But then again I am pretty used to this considering I am as accident prone as I am stubborn, although I think somehow those two things might actually be connected.  

So Tuesday brace, crutches, and all went out to shoot test shots for the Fall Mini sessions I am going to be doing in a few weeks.  Little Miss wasn't quite in the mood to do pictures but Daddy bribed her.  If she did pictures, we would go to Sodalicious afterward.  Sodalicious is our favorite drink spot.  They also have the bestest snickerdoodle cookies ever.  So if you live in our neck of the woods go visit them and tell them HouKreative Photography sent you.   Anyways, Little Miss finally started behaving and posing for pictures.  Handy Hubby and Spazz the middle child set up the stand which for this shoot is going to be a fall pumpkin stand.  They help me haul the decorations out and decorate.  We found this awesome old tree to set up under, it had the most amazing bark patterning.

So if you are in our neck of the woods or know somebody in our neck of the woods.  Send a flyer.  We still have a few sessions open. Then afterwards you can stop by Sodalicious and have a drink and a snickerdoodle.  

Blessings of a handy husband.

I have a mini session planned for my photography business for the end of the month.  I have a whole vignette in my head and needed a larger prop made for it.  So my awesomely handy hubby hooked me up.  He started building it yesterday.  

The boys helped him drag out tools and set everything up.  Spazz helped rip apart pallets and Bubba helped  carry out the saws, hammers, and other tools.  

So this isn't just a thank you to my handy hubby this is a thank you for my helpful handfuls too.

So I looked up on Pinterest exactly what I wanted, and printed out directions of the one I wanted.  I made arrangements for the supplies.  We only took two trips to Atwood's for screws which is pretty good for us. While my handy hubby was working on this awesome prop for me, I start dinner for him.  I made him oven bar b qued chicken breast, wild rice, sauteed green beans and mushrooms.  I would  sneak out to the drive way to get pictures and help out where needed.  I am not allowed to use tools often because of a hammer incident that caused a broken knee cap, but I got to use the drill.  We got it done except for a couple of pieces to add on tonight.  

It is awesome having a supportive and helpful hubby when running a business (or in my case businesses) out of your home.  Thank you Handy Hubby.

What does a diabetic dream?

Taken Saturday morning at the park after playing with
the sadistic Goose.  Little Miss decided to stop and
smell the crepe myrtles.  

Little Miss was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 3 years old.  She doesn't really remember life before diabetes.  She is 7 now and it is just a way of life to her.  Although she realizes that she is different from friends because she has to have finger sticks and shots at every meal. But other than that we try to keep her life as normal as possible.

I don't know what typical little girls dream about because Little Miss is my only girl. But I certainly don't remember the boys having dreams like this when they were 7.  My oldest dreamed of trains, Legos, and pirate ships, he is very creative and imaginative.  The middle child dreamed of beats and dance moves, he is BFAB (Born From A Boombox), music rules his world. Little Miss doesn't talk about her dreams much.  She has more than occasional nightmares and frights, these usually follow sugar roller coasters.  If you have a type 1 diabetic you fully understand the sugar roller coaster, for those that don't understand I will give a quick explanation.  No matter what you do diabetes have ups and downs, and when you have a high or a low they make you feel bad and there is typically some sort of bounce like Newton's 3rd law of motion (For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction).

Little Miss taking a few sips during a photo shoot
 because the heat and sun affect her Blood sugar in a
 bad way.
Taken By Misti Houk of HouKreative Photography.   

Well, anyways, Little Miss woke up smiling this morning, which is a totally awesome thing seeing as she is NOT a morning person.  She growls when she wakes up and it takes her a while to stop growling at her brothers.  This morning she was smiling.  She said, "You woke me up from a good dream."  I asked her what she had dreamt about.  "There were unicorns and I got to ride a pink one and we went to a candy store where I could have what I wanted and no shots because I wasn't diabetic."  Well there you have it.  That is what a 7 year old diabetic girl dreams about.  Riding a pink unicorn to the candy store and getting what she wants with no shots or finger sticks involved.

You know she amazes me.  It isn't often that she complains or makes any reference about being diabetic.  She just accepts it and runs with it.  Most of the time, I think it affects the rest of us more than her, but in a 7 year old's telling of her dream, it is made real that no matter how normal we try to keep her life it still weighs on her conscience.