Of photo shoots and shoes and books

[linking up HERE]
1. Last Friday we had a super fun photo shoot with Carissa (who, coincidentally, hosts this blog link-up!). Thomas and I were both a little nervous about it, but Lillian did pretty well and we had a blast walking around with Carissa, her husband Kelly (terrific schlepper of stuff) and my mom. Mom definitely wins the award for getting Lillian to smile during some of her crazy moments. You can see a few pictures from this session on Facebook or on Carissa's blog, here. Yep, we're pretty much famous in the blog world today. :)

Seriously, though, if you're looking for a photographer in Charleston, Carissa was awesome to work with. She had lots of pose ideas, was flexible with Lillian's crazy moments, and generally made the whole session feel just like an hour of walking around with friends with occasional stops for pictures. WIN. It's also fun seeing the pictures on FB and on her blog. And, most importantly, she hasn't made me feel like an idiot for the TWO TIMES I have failed to pay her now, the highlight being yesterday at church when I gave her an empty envelope that I thought I had put a check into. Bless my heart. The money's coming, girl, I promise!

2. Last week was my first week back in the classroom! I am teaching physical science (stop the madness!) at a hybrid school called Veritas. Basically it means that every Thursday, I teach seven 8th graders about the very big and the very small of God's creation (seriously, I am a science teacher now). So far I love it! The kids are awesome and it's fun to teach a subject matter that is so radically different from English/writing/reading. I even ran a successful lab last week. My mom watches Lillian, which is a win for both of them. Last week Lillian came home from Mimi time with three new pairs of shoes. Turns out her old shoes were too small. Whoops! Which brings me to my next point...

The first wearing of her first shoes. She wasn't convinced of the magic yet.

 3. SHOES! Baby girl loves her some shoes, which she did not learn from me or my husband. I think Aunt Hillary is sending shoe love vibes all the way from Hawaii...Also, she outgrew her first pair of shoes last week which I was surprisingly sentimental about. Maybe because the last few months have been such a sweet time of watching her move around and explore her world? The great thing is that I don't have to get rid of them, since I can play the "well we're going to have more kids so we might as well keep them card." And I'm 150% convinced we're going to have at least one more girl. :)


4.  I am really late to the Alexander McCall Smith party, or at least the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency part of his oeuvre, but I am absolutely loving this series! I want to go live in Botswana now. I also love his Isabel Dalhousie books (Sunday Philosophy Club series), and would similarly love to visit Scotland. They're on the list. Our incredibly long travel list. (book cover via here)

Photo by talented Thomas

4.  Lillian on East Bay Street last weekend. She is wearing (still squeezing into!) her dress from Kenya, still rocking the fluffet (fluffy mullet), and generally having a grand old time being a 1 year old. She is a hilarious, non-stop ball of energy and sound. She  loves Sullivan, walking, playing with random household items such as plungers (true story but I only let her touch the handle), tupperware and tiny travel tolietries. We are planning to invest in some books about the strong-willed child. She especially loves her daddy and get incredibly jealous when he holds other babies. Heaven help baby #2 someday.



6. I am enjoying one of my favorite parts of the day. Almost every morning, Thomas takes Lillian and Sullivan for a walk before he goes to work. I have 20 glorious minutes to myself to do WHATEVER I WANT. It's like nap time but better, though shorter. Here are some of the ways I have used this time before.
-sleep
-clean like crazy (you can get an amazing amount done in 20 minutes)
-fold several loads of laundry
-prepare dinner
-shower
-waste time on the Internets
-blog (or is this actually #4?)

7. I have really been missing Colorado this week.It happens when you're from the best state ever.

8. I serve a beautifully gracious and glorious God.  Here's some lovely truth for Monday morning.
1 Peter 2: 9-10 "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

9. We had a dear friend and his girlfriend over on Saturday night. It was a wonderful time of catching up with an old friend and seeing who he is going to be doing life with from now on. My favorite part, though, was how proud he was of her. He never directly said any of these things, but I could tell this is what he was thinking: "See, look how great she is! Isn't she awesome? Aren't we great together?" love it. 

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!!