Photo Op?

You know, I am not a photographer. I mean every once in a while all the stars align and I take a pretty good shot. Unfortunately though its not consistent and I’m usually in such a hurry that composition is out the window. A few years ago I got MAJORLY ticked with LifeTouch – the school picture monopoly company in our province. I mean how many pictures do they take every day!?! Why then could they not take a picture of my lovely daughter in her stunning glasses without getting a starburst flashback on the glass not once, not twice, but three times!!! So after the initial picture, the retake and 2 visits to the LifeTouch office I finally had a good picture. Problem was every year I gave photo’s to all the grandparents of the girls at Christmas, sent them out with cards, that kind of thing. That year I had to wait till January. I wrote a letter, I got my money back and my pictures. As I said, I was ticked. I vowed never to do the school pictures again. I could take my own photos, pay a bunch less and get them printed in a jiffy at my grocery store of choice. It’s worked out pretty good. This year I have a great photo of Mandy, great one of Samantha got 5x7’s made at Costco, wallet sizes at SuperStore. I’m set, Christmas is next week and all is well – right? WRONG!!

Samantha hates her photo. It looked fine on the camera display, she hates it blown up… I tried to rush through retakes this morning, but that didn’t quite work out. Maybe Mandy will have a photo shoot with her after school. If I’m lucky and the stars are in alignment I’ll send off more pics to Costco/Superstore tonight and Christmas pictures will be mine!! I think its time to let LifeTouch have another go at it. They are the professionals after all.

do you like surprises??

My husband sneaks up on me I flip out! If my kids don't give me a hello how are you? before launching into a verbal tornado detailing what they want and I can't help but say no to whatever they are asking. Surprises tend to knock me right off balance.

On Friday, Nov 21 I was stressing over Mandy's imminent birthday when DH called from downstairs wondering what I was doing - i turned the corner out of the bedroom and there standing in my upstairs hallway was my 2 favorite speedy creek kids!! (i.e. Swift Current). Their mom was out walking the little white dog before coming in!! What a night!! Mandy was working and the kids went to go pick her up. We're still fighting over who screamed louder when she/me saw the kids. After that DH took Charlie to pick up Samantha - again, surprise extraordinaire.

That was the best surprise I've ever had! I was so off balance I thought I should clean up my kitchen before sitting down to visit. Then it hit me, the mess would still be there later, my friends were only staying for a few hours. Leaving the mess alone was definitely the right choice.

They can surprise me anytime.