Making Progress and Working on Labor Day

Alright, alright, so the dining room isn't quite finished. And it should be. I have no excuse other than, things just came up. Yesterday we drove the kids over an hour south of here to a city called Lake Charles to have their pictures taken at JC Penney. Not really high-class, but I loved the Sesame Street background they have for Hunter's 2-year-old pics. Also, I found out that Drew and Louisa's school pictures are in uniform. I like to have school pictures to give away at Christmastime, but I don't want pictures of the kids in their school-green polo shirts. I mean, really, if I'm going to pay the insane prices they make you pay for school pictures these days, I do not want them in a dumb ole polo shirt. So I let Drew and Louisa get their pictures taken, too. However, I was not at all impressed with the job the lady did. We bought the bare minimum we'd need and got out of there.

One issue I had with the lady is that she had no sense of "going with the moment" photography. When we were having a group picture taken of all three kids, Hunter casually put his head on Louisa's shoulder. It was so cute and so exactly something Hunter would do. What did the photographer do? She tried to get him to pick his head up and smile! Huh?! When taking pictures of kids, you let *them* lead. If one kid lays his head on his big sister, tell the other one to do it, too. Take their lead and you'll get much better pictures than forced smiles and cranky kids. I was so upset when we left. Can't believe I drove an hour for that.

I also wanted to go to Lake Charles because I have a gift card for Bed, Bath & Beyond and we really need new pillows. Guess what I forgot to bring?! That's so like me. I always forget that kind of stuff.

Now, back to the house cleaning. This has become a project of EPIC proportions. And, I'm so very happy to report that we are making good progress. Just because the dining room is still a disaster, doesn't mean we haven't been working hard.

I'm proud to present the *BEFORE* and *AFTER* of Drew's room. And yes, this really was what his room looked like. With a huge emphasis on the WAS part.

*BEFORE*

(my dad will recognize this mess as this is what my room always looked like. husband likes to joke that his tent in Afghanistan was cleaner.)

Drew and Hunter getting their hard hats on and preparing to go into the trenches, I mean, Drew's room.

*AFTER*

Ta-Da!! Ok, so it's not quite perfect yet, but THERE'S A FLOOR!!! Four garbage bags later and we can finally see his room again.

Daddy worked hard to organize the closet. Hopefully everything has a place. He made the shelves in the closet, by the way.

We also cleaned Hunter's room. It wasn't near as bad, but there were many plastic tubs full of toys that no one played with anymore. We went through those, emptied, sorted, organized, all the fun stuff that comes with three growing children and more toys than Toys R Us. Hunter is very excited to be able to play in his room again. I also went through and changed batteries on every toy I could find with low or dead batteries, so he's in there right now pushing every button he can find.

No doubt, many of my friends and fellow moms/parents are out there enjoying this day off, celebrating Labor Day. Someone's firing up their grill. Someone's knocking back a few beers. Someone's at the lake swimming, where we were supposed to be right now. Unfortunately for us, Husband's army unit has a little rule, when a few people get in trouble, everyone gets in trouble. Mass punishment. So, here we sit (the kids and I), at home instead of heading out to the lake. Husband is at work along with all the other guys in his unit because a few messed up and got in trouble this weekend. Labor Day is supposed to be a day off for many (save people like my mom who is a nurse). Husband just got off working 18 days straight with no break. One four day weekend shouldn't have been so much to ask for. He still has tomorrow off, but it's the principle of the situation. They just worked for over two weeks and now they are made to come in on Labor Day. When stuff like this happens, I can't help but think about how last year he was in Afghanistan, and next year he'll be in Iraq. I have this one little, short year to fit in as much as I possibly can with him. The army comes first. It's our way of life, but one little tiny four day weekend shouldn't be so much to ask for.

I hope you all can relax, enjoy yourselves, be with friends and family. And drink one for those who are too far away from their families (and can't have a beer!). And if you're reading this today, Get off the Computer! Go enjoy the last weekend of Summer!