My Loveable (and frugal) Senior

It isn't enough that you have to deal with the imminent doom of having your baby boy kid go off to college.  No, you also have to deal with all the costs associated with his senior year and having your boo boo kid go off to college.

The first of such expense is the senior picture. 

Now last summer my ex called me and told me that he called around to various photographers and that it would cost between $300 and $400 for his senior pictures.

Wha??

But what is a mom of a just yesterday a toddler senior supposed to do.  I told him to book an appointment.

Well thankfully I have Andrew for a son.  He put his foot down and refused to pose for a picture that would cost so much money.  (I no longer complain about my son not wanting to be in pictures).  He told me that I could just take my digital camera outside and snap a few shots.  Ironically (I think) my sister-in-law is a professional photographer and we always go home in August but this year Andrew didn't go with us. 

Great.

We contemplated flying Andrew back to Iowa in October to have her take his picture, as it would have been cheaper.  Then Andrew told us that his friend Jordan had a really nice camera and he would take Andrew to a park and snap a few shots.  So Andrew put on his $3.00 thrift store shirt, his jeans he has had for many years, and trotted off to the park with his friends Jordan and Jamo.  They took about 50 shots.

This was the first one they took...and the one we chose.

We also liked these two:

These are my personal favorites!!

I love these boys.

So recapping:

A friend who takes pictures - free
A thrift store shirt - $3.00 (which he paid for himself)
One expense taken care of - priceless

If any of my family wants any of these please text or call me and let me know which ones and what sizes I am going to place a Shutterfly order soon.

More Later

- A Ro

Happy Birthday Michelle

Everytime I do a birthday blog I feel like I must apologize again to my sister Kate and brother Greg for not doing a blog on their birthday...sorry guys.  I'll make it up to you.

maybe

So my Top Ten Reasons I Love My Sister-In-Law Michelle.

10.  She makes all of us look good.

(I realize that I always use this picture all the time, hey...it's my blog I must always look good!!)

9.  She is a very fun loving girl.

(I can't believe he is a senior)

8.  She got this guy to cut his mullet hair.

(Don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart)

7.  Then she married him.

(I can't believe he is a senior)

6.  She is the best Ti Ti ever!!

5. She has an amazing family.

4.  She is an amazing photographer.

(If you live in the Des Moines area give her a call!!)

3.  She has to put up with these two little boys.

(yeah...been there done that)

2. And then there is the rest of us and our constant madness. 

And the number one reason why I love Michelle

1.  As Jojo says...she rocks

Hope you have a wonderful day!!


More Later

- A Ro

A Last First Day for One

It is very bittersweet.


Andrew's last first day of school, I was a little teary I must admit.

It seemed like only yesterday that he was my Jeff Gordon toteing Kindergartener...sigh.

Bella is rip raren to go to her first day of Seventh Grade, and Andrew is also a bit excited to be a senior and all that entails.

Here are some pictures:

Um...when did she get almost as tall as me??

I think we all look a little sleepy but we are all ready to start our first day.

It's the last day this year that is really going to get me.

More Later

- A Ro

Some Random Pictures for my Mom and a Little Something for You

OK back to school tomorrow.  Ready or not...

I am a little sad because it will be my last back to school day with Andrew as he enters his senior year.  I will have to bribe him with coffee for a picture, we shall see how that goes.

Bella starts 7th grade and is very excited.  However she is still putting the final touches on that blasted math packet as we speak.  She did start it much earlier than she did last year, but as we all know starting and finishing are two different things.

OK the rest of the blog post might not be that interesting to 90% of you so feel free to exit this browser page and come back tomorrow for some first day of school, or at the very least head on down to the bottom of this post to see and absolutely cute video of my niece Abby reading a book.  It is totally worth the 6 minutes of your time, but also worth however many minutes you have to spare.

Pictures of my new-ish house.

Front of the house (BTW Bella is proud that she is in almost all of these pictures...don't have to bribe her with coffee)

  Rich just put these in today so I thought I'd show off his handy work.

Our backyard.

The kitchen...I also realized that the sun is in an awful place in almost all of these pictures.

Dining room...the carpet needs to go and there is a ginormous fireplace just to the right of this picture.

Living room...just bought that couch and loveseat yesterday.

Little family room off of the dining room.

Up the stairs leads to a bonus room that has all of the bedrooms off of.

Kids bathroom

Bella's room.

Bella insisted that we take a picture of her new fish Jazzy (or DJ Jazzy Jeff or squishy, both my nicknames)

Master  Bedroom

Those two door lead to Andrew and Sarah's bedrooms...didn't want to take a picture without their permission.

Fifth bedroom downstairs that is serving as a music room and my scrapbooking room.

So there you have it.  We have a million few things left to do so I'll post more pictures as those things get checked off the list.

Now for the fun part of the post...ABBY.

the book is one of those books that keeps repeating the beginning part but changes the ending so here is the translation (it really makes it that much cuter if you know what she is saying)  If you make it to to the end you will see her scolding me for taking her picture...too cute.

So here is what she is saying: 

One pitch black very dark night
Right after mommy turned of the light
I looked out of my window only to see
A (something) staring at me.
That (something) didn't frighten me no no no.




I hope this worked.  We shall soon find out.

More Later

- A Ro