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- Happy Fall!!
It’s always so depressing to run out of summer – I love fall, but I love summer more.
Fall is an interesting season though: it signals an end of our travels (amusement parks have now flipped over to their Halloween events and are open extremely limited hours) – so in one sense, it’s nice to know we have some downtime. On the other hand, fall signals the beginning of my super busy season – so I’m shooting every single weekend, and squeezing people in during the week. It gets a bit bonkers. It’s a weird balancing act.
The first day of fall was on Thursday and wow did it arrive in full-force. On Wednesday, it was sunny and in the 80’s and on Thursday, it was cloudy, windy, and in the 60’s. My poor kids were so confused when I told them they needed to wear pants, when the day before, they had been playing in the sprinkler!
We celebrated the last day of summer by going out and getting ice cream – but now that all the cooler temperatures have arrived, I’m 100% all in with apple cider, soups, and hot chocolate season! - Poor Braelynn came down with an arm full of poison ivy this week (that’s the first time she’s ever had it!) I have absolutely no idea where it came from or how she got it – we were at the Lake all weekend, and on Sunday afternoon we were on my Dad’s boat when she started itching and she showed me her arm. Thankfully, it wasn’t too too bad – I mean, yes, her entire arm was practically covered in the rash, but we were able to stop it before it spread any further.
- I’m not sure if it’s just been because it’s been staying darker later in the morning, but my children have (for the first time in their lives) actually been SLEEPING IN. Braelynn has always been a chronic early-riser, waking up between 6am and 6:30am every day since she was about 6 months old. But for SOME REASON, this week, she slept in almost every single morning until about 7am! I didn’t know what to do with myself (I even checked on her a few times to make sure she was alright). I was hoping it was a trend that would stick, but yesterday morning, she was up at 6:15am again. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
- WHO WANTS A POTTY TRAINING UPDATE?! I am more excited to give this update this week than EVER: Leander is on a 13-day streak of NO ACCIDENTS *cue all the confetti* This week, he started pooping on the potty (WHAT?!), we took multiple trips out of the house in underwear (and returned in the same clothes we left in), and overall, it’s been the best week yet.
I sat on the kitchen floor on Wednesday morning and cried because he had taken himself to the potty. I could hardly believe it. We’ve been potty training since last December and there were moments (a lot of them) that I honestly believed he would NEVER “get it”. I reached out to other Moms for help, I read blog posts, I bought a book – it has been the longest 10 months of my life. And to FINALLY see the light at the end of the tunnel, I can hardly believe it.
I am SO proud of my boy – I feel like he’s grown up so much in the last 2 weeks of this potty training thing “clicking”. He has been talking more (longer, fuller sentences), he’s been more independent, and he’s been happier! I am just beyond thrilled. - I bought a new lens this week!! Derrick and I were talking (over our last-day-of-summer ice cream) and I realized that I do not have a single “major” business write-off this year. Every year, I’ve always had things I’ve needed to buy – last year it was a new computer, the year before that it was my new camera body and a new lens – but this year, I haven’t needed to buy anything. However, without at least one major write-off, I was going to end up owing Uncle Sam more money come tax-time next year. I’d much rather spend some money and buy myself something now, than pay more money in taxes! So, I bought a new lens! One I’ve been eyeing up for some time – the Canon RF 70-200 F2.8 L IS USM. It replaces my original EF 70-200 lens that I’ve had for 9 years (wow, that seems crazy!) It’s a huge workhorse lens and I use it all the time! This new version is specifically made for my new camera and has all the latest/greatest tech in it. I’m so excited to use it at my wedding this afternoon!!
- My phone decided to give me a scare this week – I was on Instagram and screen was suddenly filled with pink lines, my phone made a weird noise, and then it shut itself down. I panicked. While yes, all of my photos are backed up to Amazon, my videos are not, so if I lost my phone, I would lose all of the videos I’ve taken in September of our family. I have other important docs and memos on my phone too that would be super painful to lose – and I realized: I haven’t backed my phone up to my computer in forever. THANKFULLY, I was able to turn my phone back on and everything seemed to be working fine. I instantly downloaded all of my photos and videos onto my computer, as well as all of my important docs and memos, and then I backed my phone up to my computer as well.
It was just a really good reminder that technology isn’t perfect, and we should all back out stuff up more often than we do!! - My Grandma turned 88 years old this week! We celebrated by taking her lunch and having a picnic in her living room.
- Has anyone started Christmas shopping yet? I follow a few “deals” pages on Instagram (all they do is alert when items are on lightning deal, have good coupons, or are marked down on Amazon). A few things came across this week that were super good deals and I could not pass them up! It feels good to get a jump-start on Christmas shopping (I just need to write down everything I bought because I stash it all up in our attic and then forget about it!)
