Time Flies

I am so not the blogger, as I have confessed before, I love to look at other peoples blogs and even get irritated when they haven't written for a while, like, a week or two. I look at mine and see it has been 2...months.
Well, I have been crazy busy with pictures lately. That is a good thing. I thoroughly enjoy watching people through my lens and their faces when they see just what I captured. That is satasfaction to me.
I have many pictures to share, but this week was Halloween, it was a perfect night to go trick or treating...cool, dry and fun. Here are a few of my favorites from that night.

Reminiscing thanks to a 5 year old

Something cute Michele said to me today as I was cleaning and re-organizing my work space which is my office that gets bug bombed about every week, here in the 100 year old basement. Good thing it is concrete and not cinders...That is totally not a real sentence but that is the best I can do right now. LOL. I have several pictures of my sisters and my Mom and Dad in my "office" and Michele and Sydney and Chase love to look at them and imagine their mom and aunts "young" and looking young I guess. Anyway, I have a picture of Karen and I when we took a trip out east with absolutely no plans, we had not a clue where we would end up or where we were headed, not to mention sleep. We were in our early 20's and we just had THE BEST trip ever!!!! We went to a dive motel and asked for a room in Ocean City, MD. They told us there were no vacancies. We were our sweet selves and told them that was OK and were on our way out the door when they told us to wait a minute. We did. They had one room left and asked if the ocean front view was OK, Heck yeah!!!!! It was a really icky room, but clean and cheap from what I remember. I think they wanted us to have the room because they knew it wouldn't get trashed.There was a radio station at an outside beach bar that we went to and they were asking trivia questions about different things. One was how many colors and what are they in a roll of life-savers...no one knew...except Karen...she knew there were 5 because Mom loved the white ones, those were her favorite. She won a prize. Lots of prizes were won between Karen and Karla. What were the names of the 3 sisters in Petticoat Junction? Do ya know??? I knew that one, that was my very favorite show when I was little...Billy Jo,
Bobby Jo, and Betty Jo. We took a picture of us before our pitcher(s) and one after. OMG. Hysterical!!!!!!OK...back to Michele. She sees a picture of Karen and I at the beach and we are hugging eachother and Michele says..."Mom, that picture was taken when you were best sisters...you wanna know how I know that Momma?, cuz you were huggin' that's right huh? I told her she is right. That made me smile.

1st day of school

This summer has been different for us in the Jenkins household. We got back about 10:00 pm Sunday night, we left Gulf Shores at 8:00 am and made a total of 3 stops for about 45-50 min. the entire day. The kiddo's were troopers and were very good during the trip, I was proud of them...
We got home and left everything in the van and crashed (slept) when we got in the door. It rained all day Monday and Tuesday we went to WSC to help Karen unload some Carhartt Boxes. Today the kids started school and both of them and I were not ready for them to go back. We got all the supplies in their backpacks yesterday and today they woke up early and headed off for their first day. We walked as is our tradition and Michele and I walked back by ourselves. As we were walking back I told her that next year I will be walking back all by myself and I will be sad, she looked up at me and said, "nuh-huh..." I told that I would and I will be very sad and will probably cry, she laughed. What she didn't realize was that just thinking about that made me have tears in my eyes...but that is a year away and I am gonna enjoy her while I can.

More Alabama pictures

Here are some pictures of Fort Morgan, it is an old military fort on the peninsula that was used in the late 1800's to the early 1900's. There is also one of us on the beach in the early evening for some fun pictures of us with our bandana's on our heads.

The last Ha-Rahhhhh!

We had so much fun on our trip to Gulf Shores, AL. It is beautiful down there. But can we say HOT! It was crazy hot down there. The heat index was 110 for 3-4 days and really, there was no breeze unless you were down on the beach, and even the water was warm. We spent most of our time on the beach or in the bath water temp pools. The kids seemed to prefer the pools, they could see the bottom and could predict the depth. But they played in the sand and the salt water too. A couple of nights we went sand crabbing and that was fun, trying to catch those critters. They are FAST! We went sight-seeing too, to the Naval Museum in Pensecola, FL and to the USS Alabama Battleship and Fort Morgan. It was educational as well as fun and HOT!!! Too hot to really enjoy. But here are a few shots I took of every thing.

Oops!

Darn it!!!!!! My last post had 2 of the same picture and I have not a clue how to fix it...


A few weeks back was the West Side Clothing's Annual Sidewalk Sale. It takes weeks to prepare and it is only one day, but you can still go there and get the great deals after the sale, just not 1st picking's. Anyway, All of the cousins get together and wreak havoc while we try to work around them. Ah, the price you pay with a family owned business. Dad and Karen came up with the brilliant idea that the kids could sell frisbee's. The catch was that they could keep the money only if they stayed at the table. If you get up and leave...no money!!!! Well, they each earned $3 and were so proud of themselves. I think we have some entrepenuers in our midst.

Summer's End Part II

Here are the pictures that I wanted to post earlier...Will have tons more, in the next few weeks. We will be headed to Gulf Shores, AL and I can't wait for those beach shots!

Summer's End

Wow, how sad it is that summer is just about a memory! In ways it has gone by so fast, as usual, but then it has gone terribly slow. We have had the unfortunate happen to our family this summer. Joe got hurt while putting up traffic signals, or those huge, gigantic street lights back in June...He was at the base and somehow the thing toppled over on top of him and he got knocked to the ground...went to ER, though not the hospital, the workers ER or whatever and had X-Rays and the like and found nothing broken...weeks later he had tingling fingers and his neck is weak. He was on light duty work for 3 weeks then totally lost his job!!!! Needless to say, we were stunned! I don't work outside the home, we have 3 kids under 7 and we have no extra income!!!! Crazy! Somehow, though, we seem to try to look at it in a positive light. It is hard at times. He has been home for over a month, and is going nuts. Us too. The kids like seeing their dad at home more often, he just is not used to being around us. Ha!

Anyway, I have been busy with pictures of Seniors and of course I had to get Michele's 5th year pictures in between. She is such a joy! Her little antics always make me laugh, I find myself smiling at her, or at the thought of her, she has always had that effect on me, even as a baby. So here are her latest photo's that she was very cooperative about! She has her moments when she has not an interest of the camera in her face, but this day was all about her, and she loved being with me and my camera...Enjoy.

The cutest

These were taken on the 4th of July! I just love their expressions...only 30 seconds before they were at eachothers throats...feel the love!

My Babe is a growin' up

My oldest is almost 8. I remember everything about her birth. How scared I was, to me thinkin' that she wouldn't be born because I wasn't ready... to the extra day in the hospital because she bruised my bladder and the day I told the nurses I WAS going home, to self cath myself...Well, here she is, loving the camera and the camera showing just how much. All my kids are great posers, it is just natural, I sometimes wonder what would happen if a camera wasn't in their face, I will never know though. Neither will they!

13 hr. fish

We went to a wedding yesterday, the reception had fish bowls with candles and a little gold fish in it. Very pretty. Well, someone said that at the end of the night when everyone is gone, they flush them. With that said, a grandma from the family of the the bride and groom decided to bring some plastic bags to pour the fish in and give to the kids...
Well, one would not cut it at our house. So we were lucky and got 3!!!
On the way home the bag sprung a leak and water was leaking on the seat, Chase was very concerned about it and told someone at a graduation party we went to, after the reception, that we had an emergency. We turned the bag upside down, wow, that was ingeniuous. LOL.
We get home at 11:30 pm and we put the fish into an empty PNB jar and left the lid off. Chase gets up in the morning and starts checkin the fish out. He is SOOOO excited. He can't keep his hands off the jar and keeps giving us play by play moves that the fish are making, the big one is his, the small one is Sydney's and the medium one is Michele's. We don't have food for them, What do they eat anyway?
Well, We transferred them into a much larger glass jar and they were swimming around and then the unthinkable happened...the baby fish stopped moving it's mouth and just keeled over and was at the bottom of the jar, not good. Chase was not taking this well at all. What does that mean Mommy? Is it dead? is it going to live? What to do? I watched it and sure enough it looked dead to me, so I got a ladle and scooped it out and told them what I was going to do...I was headed to the toilet. Chase was so upset and so emotional that he could barely see through his tears. I flushed it, and guess what? It was not ready to go down. We flushed it again and it made its way to fishy heaven.
This has been an emotional day for Chase, and the girls. We have not had the fish in our possession for more than 13 hours and we already had a casualty...Can you imagine what it was like when Storm died? Chase asked me again, why I killed Storm and why I killed the fish. I explained that the fish was dying or already was dead and I tried to explain that we don't bury fish in the yard...he asked me if we could bury them in town...I told him that they love the water and I was putting him where he is best comfortable.
So, we cried and hugged for awhile and we will mourn the 13 hour fish and hopefully remember how it feels to lose something so special.

Where did it go?

Where did the time go? School is almost over, as in, 1 day and I am sitting here wondering what we did and how we did it because I did not write it down. I take pictures galore, but end up not remembering the tiny details that went with the moment I took them...Let's see...Michele graduated from Pre K, only to graduate again next year, hey, I had to...the pre K teacher told me that she might not have a spot next year if I kept her out this year, so I had to put her there. It will all work out. Here is a picture of her graduating, and of her beloved Miss Marca and one of her "not looking, not gonna look at the camera..." I caught her, the little Missy.

Here and there

Here are a few photo's from the past few weeks, Chase went to a way cool birthday party for a classmate and has sported his party favors in the yard and neighborhood ever since. He wants to be a cowboy, complete with boots. Then, I went to a garage sale and spied a too cute black witch costume complete with witch hair, it was adorable and right next to it was a purple one. Persuasion does not work with an almost 5 year old...how cute she would be with witch hair and beautiful cape. No, she knew what she wanted to be this Halloween, it certainly was NOT what her mother envisioned...so, as I was sitting at the picnic table on a sunny Saturday afternoon, sipping White Sangria with my neighbor, they both decide to dress up and this is how it was.

Long Night

It rained here all night, it wasn't a nice steady, gentle rain it came and went, gentle then hard, then it started to lightning and then a gentle thunder from afar, then BOOM! Sydney came down, wasn't waiting for Michele who was crying but on her heels. That was about 11:30 pm...No sign of Chase, but I knew he would be down any minute. Joe was away at work far from here so he was set up in a hotel somewhere. Good thing, when Chase made it down at 1:30 we had to play switch-er-roo because he can't sit much less sleep beside Michele since they pick on eachother so much. Good thing there is a King size bed in the house. Today ought to be fun, sleepless kids and colder outside to boot. That is not a good combination. Until next time...

Spring FEVER

Oh man, I am so not doing well with blogging. Thought I would be, I guess it is a mental and physical commitment to just do it. OK, so I'm just doing it. Ha.
The weather outside is just gorgeous. The temps have been in the 70's. Perfect. The kids just LOVE being outside, I love for them to be outside. Hannah, Emma and Michele just got done eating their grilled cheese sandwiches out on the porch. That is the favorite past time around here, eating on the porch, except, we now have to actually sweep the mess because Storm is not here to clean up after them. Chase used to always say "Mom, I want a boy cheese" I think he thought I was saying girl cheese. That makes me smile when I think of that.
Let's see, the snow melted away about 3 weeks after the snowstorm. The huge piles that Lisa and I climbed are gone, it is hard to believe that they were that high. I am in the process of gearing up to do some publicity for my Karla Jenkin's Style Photography business. I am so excited, I just love every aspect of it. Here are a few shots I have taken these past few weeks...

Mom's Rock!

A week ago we were bracing for a snow storm, which turned into an awesome blizzard. I enjoyed every bit of it too. Lisa, a close friend of mine and I went for walks 3 differnet nights in the frigid temps. I mean 3 to 5 degree weather with the windchill way below zero. We had so much fun climbing on top of the huge snow piles on the corners of intersections, we could reach branches and were even eye level with windows on 2 story houses. We ran and pushed eachother down and made snow angels in the public park. Don't forget, it is 3 degrees outside. This was all after 8:30 at night, we walked past my house and I saw 3 little heads looking out the window...they were spying on me, wanting to know when we would be home. Ha.

Well, tonight we will go for our walk, but the snow is slushy and the piles aren't so high and the town is not so pretty, but we'll probably come home soaking wet from splashing in the puddles. Who said Mom's have to grow up!

Independence day

My Conversation with Miss Sydney tonight...

S- Mom?
Me- What babe?
S- I think it's about time I got my own apartment!
Me- What makes you say that?
S- Well, I AM almost 8!

As she was standing naked after her shower in the bathroom and I was brushing her wet hair.

This really got me thinking about how time has flown by and in 10 short years, we will be for real having this conversation! She is such a first grader and such a big girl!

Snow Day #2

It's snow day #2 for us here in LeRoy. Joe went to plow snow on the country roads from 6 am to 6 pm. We hung out here at home and watched people plow the drive and other people's drives. A person could make lots o' $$$!!!! About 3:00 we headed outside for some snow play. We had such fun! Here are a few pictures of the day

Snow Fun

We had so much snow that one of Joe's friends brought his back hoe to move the snow into our yard! Now, I really don't appreciate the four foot mounds, because it will take FOREVER for it to melt! BUT, it really is so much fun to walk on top of them and be the tallest person in the world!