I'm back - did you miss me?

Because I have missed you.  Really, I have.  All 15 of you!  (the 15 of you that I'm not related to, that is.)  August.  That was the last time I posted.  It's shameful, it really is.  I go and start a blog, have a couple people who actually read it (I know!  Nobody was more surprised than I was!) and then... poof!  Off the planet I fall.  Into the mist.   

Last year was a good year, but toward the middle, it got complicated.  My son has some issues that, the more we learned about, the more time we found ourselves focusing on.    The house thing - well, let's just say the house thing is ALMOST done (and I'll be posting to the house blog soon with pictures!  I know, I know, you're not holding your breath.  But I really am going to.  This time I mean it.)  I cut back tremendously with work.   I love what I do, but when  you have to decide between your kids and your job... I'm just so happy that I'm in a position that I CAN choose my kids first every time.  I know how lucky I am. 

Okay, this is starting to sound all serious and near-weepy.  Totally not the direction I wanted to go!  So lets recap.

August - my last post.  Since then... my great aunt Lois (who I totally adored) got really sick, I went to Columbus for a marketing blitz, Lois died while I was gone (not because of Columbus), I sang at her funeral (THAT was a new experience for me), we went to Chincoteague with the kids, immediately vowed to never take another vacation with them again (and that was before we even got to the Bay Bridge), school started, I had to pick out doorknobs and lights (it takes longer than you'd think),  our fish died one by one, until there was only one left, and after we turned off the filter (soooo much like when they turn off the machine that goes ping), Cop (yes, my son named the fish Cop), floated in the exact same place for about two weeks, until we could no longer stand that we had a zombie fish in our kitchen and we scooped him out and tossed out the tank, and while I was so worried that Ian would be freaked out by the whole dead pet thing (he was a little freaked out by Lois' funeral), it turned out that he wasn't freaked out by it at all.  His reaction was more of an "Oh well.  Can I play outside now?"    

So the death thing was fairly present for us last fall.  And yet, it wasn't.  Lois did something very few people ever get to do - she actually got to direct her own death.  She was ill for a while, and in the hospital for about a week before she realized she wasn't going to get better.  Until then, none of us even knew she was there.  Then she asked her daughter to call the family, and one by one, we showed up and sat with her, and hugged her, and sang to her, and ate ice cream with her (the woman LOVED ice cream), and said our goodbyes.  And when everyone who could come had done so, she had them stop giving her the medication that was keeping her blood pressure artificially high.  And it started to drop.  She fell asleep.  And then she fell into a coma.  And then her heart stopped.  I never understood the idea of a good death before, but I'm telling you, when it's my time to go, I want to do it like Lois.  80-something years old, eating ice cream and gossiping with my loved ones before I died in my sleep.  (did I mention that before the goodbyes, she wanted a rundown of family scandals?  Ya gotta love her.  :)  It's not quite like Elsie from Cabaret, but it was a pretty good way to go.

So, are you still with me? Surely you didn't think I'd come back with just a hi, how are you, here's a picture, catch you next week, kind of post, did you?  I mean, it's ME we're talking about.   I'm chatty.  And I had a lot of iced tea with dinner.

It's strange - almost all of my photographer friends are in Phoenix right now, at the Imaging USA convention.   They've vowed to drunk dial me every day.  (They're very good friends.)  I'm a little jealous that they are there and I'm not, but as long as Steff calls me every 15 minutes from the tradeshow to tell me about the cool new stuff, I'm happy.  :)

Okay, enough of my babbling on.  When I said I was back, I was serious - I'm back.  As I mentioned, the house is about done, my life has managed to get back to a somewhat normal routine, and I'm booking sessions again (despite what it says on the website, which I SWEAR I'm going to finally finish by the end of January.  My goals for January - new tv, new president, new website, new elliptical machine, roughly in that order.)

I'm no longer on vacation - and had my first official session of the year.  I totally adore this family - they came in last year when their wee beastie was just a few months old, and I LOVED their session.  They are wicked fun to hang out with and talk to, and I couldn't wait for them to come back.  And they did - today.  The babester is almost walking, and soooo ohmygod cute.  I love her curls.  She was a little nervous, especially when we got the cake out, but a few Pocky's go a long way.  Have a look!  (And Julie, I'm sorry you had to read so much before you got to the pictures!!)

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