Barking Mad

I Give Up! ***Updated w/ the rest of the Photographs***

...trying to take "posed" photos of my girls. 

Give me a lighthouse, an old chapel, a delapidated fishing shack along a rocky coastline....but I beg you, DO NOT MAKE ME TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS OF SOMETHING THE MOVES AND BREATHS!!!!!!!

Simply put, they don't hold still...

They look in two different directions...

They decide they'd rather count little piggies...

They make faces at each other....

And only occasionally can I get them to look at me, at the same time, in the same direction...

Even Gaby attempted to cooperate...

But no matter how much crap I put them through to try and get a nice photo, they still love each other...

Of course when I asked Meg if she was game for a few more photos, this was the response I got...

Shortly thereafter, the Little Imp's bath, I thought I'd see if she were game for a few more big smiles?  Um, don't think so judging by the response I got...

Even Gracie was not too thrilled about having her photo taken...

People always wonder why I laugh maniacally when they ask me if I take family and/or children's photos...Yeah right!!!!!

Why Does the Internet Give Some People a False Sense of Bravado?

I am not necessarily a stranger to message boards on the internet.  By the same token the ones I have frequented in the past were usually topic specific, i.e.; immigration and pregnancy and parenting. From time to time I'll visit a few photography boards but nothing with any regularity.   Gareth and I were both active members of one specific immigration resource message board whose name I won't bother to mention. 

We eventually moved on from our own immigration journey and also became tired of the drama which seems to the norm for that place. Part of that I think was due to the stress that the immigration process places on those going through it.  It was probably one of the most stressful times of our early marriage.   Looking back, my feeling is that if you can manage to make it through the hoops that USCIS sets up for you and then assimilate to life here in the states, you can pretty much get through anything.   But I think the entire ordeal makes people stupid sometimes, especially those who wanted to use the immigration board as a place to not only vent, but belittle and antagonize others. 

When I found out I was pregnant with Gaby I joined another message board with individual due-date clubs and other forums tailored to things like breastfeeding support, attachment parenting information and support, cloth diapering and so on and so forth.  I think that board, Pregnancy Weekly, has now morphed into a huge message board community with subsets upon subsets of forums.   It covers pretty much the gamut of pregnancy, childbirth and parenting.  It's also got other useful resources for expecting parents.  It's topic-heavy but if you're looking for a specific forum for information, chances are Pregnancy Weekly has a group tailored to that need.  Don't mistake this as an ad for PW...it's not.  There was a reason I left the board as did pretty much the entire January 2006 birth club.   Downtime was a huge issue, over moderation, lack of certain freedoms we'd previously enjoyed and when they retooled the site it became very antiseptic and cold.  So most of us (from my due date club) moved on to another board.

It goes without saying, you get a bunch of pregnant, hormonal women together and it's inevitable that there are going to be flare ups, personality clashes and the occasional cat-fight.  I was by no means immune but I'd like to think I maintained some semblance of maturity and level-headedness. Although I'm sure there are some who would disagree, probably reading this right now.   By all means, please feel free to leave me an anonymous comment if you disagree.  Just be prepared to be able to backup whatever you say.  I'm open to intelligent debate that's supported with reason and logic, not to mention integrity.

I'm Going to Regret Being Up This Late Tomorrow Morning

It's been a long but very interesting, and amusing evening.

Meg seems to be adjusting well to Maine so far.  Sure, she's homesick,  but that's to be expected.  It's not been as bad as I thought it would be though and for that I am grateful.   She's finally meeting people (oh but wait my pretties, she's met one in particular) and getting more familiar with the area and has been submitting job applications left and right.    And she and I have been having a lot of fun.  Often times I think Gareth is the one having all of the fun though as Meg and I tend to provide endless hours of entertainment for him.   At least with Meg here he has a primer of sorts for when Gaby hits that age.  Not that life with a teenage female is predictable.  Rather, it's entirely the opposite.  Heck, life with a 30-something female isn't any easier I imagine.

Anyhow, Meg hung out with a certain someone this evening (I have to tell ya though, when Brandon - this certain someone came in and shook Gareth's hand and called me "ma'am" and Gareth "sir" I about choked...it was an odd feeling to be addressed that way.  This boy is all manners and courtesy though and he's a real doll! He did the same when he dropped her off and although I insisted he call me by my first name he left the house still calling me either "miss" or "ma'am") and when she got back she wanted to go on a late night burger run.  Well, this is Maine after all and the only thing open after midnight was Taco Bell.  A brand new one at that.  So we are driving up towards the window and I come to what I thought was the little order-box thingy where you place your order.  So I sat there, and sat there and sat some more just waiting for someone to greet me.  I was begining to think that whomever was working the drive-thru window was not on the ball.  And I notice that Meg is absolutely shaking with laughter and tears are rolling down her face.  She is in hysterical fits of laughter and I am at a loss as to why. 

Ok so right about then I realize that I am not waiting to talk into the drive-thru speaker thing, no - this is what I was about to speak into....

Yeah, that's right, it was a trash bin! A freakin trash bin!   But before you members of the peanut gallery throw yourself into hysterical fits of laughter, you have to admit that it kinda looks like a drive-thru speaker thing! 

It does!!!!!