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- Today is my last wedding of 2021.
It’s been an amazing year – full to the brim with incredible love stories, beautiful wedding days, and the most fantastic people. I am so blessed to be able to do what I love for a living.
I won’t lie though – the fall is always absolutely exhausting as a photographer. October (and the beginning of November) seem to be the most popular time to get married. It’s also the most popular time for engagement photos. And it’s also when every single family on the planet wants to update their family photos. So, the fall is just always super busy & 2021 has been no exception – I have photographed more families & engagement sessions this year than in years past. Plus, after today, I will have photographed 4 weddings back-to-back.
So, while I’m oh-so-grateful, I’m tired. And, after today, if you need me, I’ll probably be hiding somewhere, napping.
(Oh, and if you love reading my wedding day blog posts, the couple I’m photographing today has requested I keep their wedding images private, so there won’t be a blog post or sneak peeks!) - You know what else is exhausting? Taking children shopping. OY. I rarely take Braelynn & Leander shopping with me (mostly because I tend to utilize Instacart for groceries & Target pick-up for everything else), but I needed to actually go into the store this week to pick up a few things & so along came the kids. It’s like going shopping with a three-ring-circus in tow. Everyone is pointing & yelling & asking for things & whining & trying to get out of the cart – it’s chaos. And now I know why I pay a little extra for Instacart & pick-up orders – it saves my sanity.
- I needed to go shopping for (ready for this?) Leander’s birthday decorations. Because, somehow it’s mid-November already & his birthday is right around the corner. I like to decorate for his birthday early, so we can enjoy the theme & colors & balloons, because as soon as his birthday is over, we tear it all down & Christmas decorations go up. And my sister was able to come over to help me this week – so a trip to the store was necessary (and there were no pick-up spots available – trust me, I looked – I even looked at the stores in the next towns over).
One of the things I bought though was an electronic balloon inflator. Oh my gosh. Literally – that was the best $18 I have spent in my entire life.
Normally, my sister & I get lightheaded & dizzy blowing up 30+ balloons for party decorations (and it takes us like an hour). $18 later & we blew up all of the balloons in about 5 minutes – with zero negative side-effects. Seriously – if you blow up balloons even once in your life – you need one of these things! - Speaking of things I purchased this week that left me going “DUH why have I never bought this before” – I spent $20 and bought a slipcover for our ottoman in our living room. My children have so gracious decorated our ottoman with a rainbow of markers & every time I take the time to scrub it all off, they just re-decorate it the next day. Which has left me tossing my hands in the air & giving up. And this week, it dawned on me to buy a slipcover – so if it gets dirty, I can wash it – and it hides all the marker stains.
Seriously – I should get massive gold-stars this week for my brilliance. - Speaking of markers & cleaning up (I’m on a roll) – Leander (with a little help from his big sister) decided to decorate the walls of Braelynn’s bedroom. It was fine – nothing a little Magic Eraser couldn’t fix. But as I was walking back downstairs with the Magic Eraser in my hand, I decided to touch up a few spots I noticed along the way (why is it that I never noticed these spots before, but put a Magic Eraser in my hand & suddenly my house is filthy?) Anyways, I decided to wipe a few spots on the wall along our staircase & I instantly regretted it. Turns out – that wall is just caked with dirt & the few little swipes of Magic Eraser just made the entire wall appear as if someone had dumped a bucket of mud all down my walls. This meant I now had to get a rag & bucket & actually scrub the walls – yuck.
But: good news! My wall is now super clean! No one is allowed to touch it ever again. - Maybe it’s because his 3rd birthday is coming up, but Leander has been “on a roll” this week with the mischievous behavior.
We had the marker on Braelynn’s bedroom walls incident.
Then, he realized he could unfold the step-stool in our kitchen, push it up to the counter, climb up onto the counter, all in an attempt to get to his Halloween candy bag (which sits up on top of our cabinets).
I caught him, and put the step-stool away where he couldn’t reach it.
I assumed this was the end of the counter-climbing.
(Someone is laughing somewhere, I can hear them.)
NOPE.
He then proceeded to push a chair, from our dining room, into the kitchen, which he climbed up on, and got up onto the counter with. Ugh.
And lastly – last Saturday, while I was at a wedding, Braelynn decided to make me a card. And not just any card – but a card complete with glitter. Derrick had no idea we even had glitter hidden away, so he was totally unaware of the danger going down in our dining room.
Leander came along to see what his sister was doing – and well, I wasn’t home, so I can’t exactly explain what happened next.
Let’s just say: I came home from my wedding to find an empty glitter jar in the garbage & Derrick explaining to me that our dining room had been “glamorized”. He did the best he could to clean it up, but it took me sweeping with a broom, vacuuming with the sweeper, and then scrubbing the floor on my hands & knees to get all of the glitter up.
Needless to say: I’m slightly nervous to head out to my wedding today. - Oh, by the way, if you’re looking at this week’s Abby’s Saturday photo & thinking it looks familiar, it’s a re-creation. The original photo is posted here: #246 (which, is actually a re-creation of #50!)
