I ordered a different style from an Etsy store, but I didn’t like it as much. It was more of a sleeve to go over your existing camera strap. It moved around a lot and got bunched up on my neck.

I wanted to get a birthday present for my friend Vicky. She just got a new DSLR, so I thought I’d get her a new strap for it. (Thanks for the good idea Vicky ) Again, Gabi was awesome. I had the strap within 2 days and it was adorable! I noticed that the new ones had this super soft fleece lining sewn to the inside. It looked like just what my sensitive neck needed.

I emailed Gabi to see if she could sew some onto mine. Again, she went out of her way to be nice and helpful. I mailed it off to her to add the fleece. She sewed it within one day of receiving it, FOR FREE, and then sent it back to me.

I just wanted to tell all my photog friends to go check out the adorable prints on her site. Order something from her. You won’t be disapointed!

She started talking about Zia’s birthday. She is having a birthday party. Emma said that she wasn’t invited. She said “Zia can only invite 17 people, and there is no room for me.” She seemed sad about it, but said that she would still want to invite Zia to her birthday. Emma has been talking about her party for months I have been trying to explain to her that she should tell people about her party, because we aren’t sure who we will invite 3 months from now. I keep trying to tell her that she could hurt some people’s feelings if she talks about it now and doesn’t invite them later. This was a perfect example of that happening. I tried to explain to her that how she was feeling now, was how other kids would feel if they didn’t get invited to her party later.

All of a sudden she burst out crying. She said that Zia is her best friend but there are 2 girls that are very mean to her. Apparently one of them told her she wasn’t her best friend, that she couldn’t come to her birthday, and that she couldn’t play with them. Another girl who has been one of Emma’s good friends, apparently went along with the mean girl.

I felt so sad for her when I heard her crying. I just wanted to hug her and make it all go away. I felt so bad to see my little girl hurting, and not really have any control over it. I remember all of these issues so well, but I wasn’t thinking they started in first grade.

I gave her a hug and tried to comfort her. I told her that there will always be some kids that aren’t nice. The important thing is for her to keep being nice, and to try to be friends with everyone. I know that Emma is a sweet and sensitive little girl. It just breaks my heart to hear that everyone is not that way to her.

It was another beautiful day here yesterday, so we got the rest of the garage done. We made a quick trip to Home Depot to get a few more hooks and hangers. I have been wanting to hang up our wheelbarrow for quite some time. I finally found the perfect thing for it. This hanger was a close out at Home Depot and it worked great. Having it up off the floor sure cleared out a lot of space. Our 3rd garage bay actually looks like we could park a car it it now.

While we were cleaning out the garage I found an extra shelf for one of my bathroom cabinets. I had wanted Scott to cut it to fit after we first moved in. So while we were doing projects I had him cut that too. I put it in my cabinet this morning and it is great. Just one more shelf gave me so much room, and it looks much more organized. The next thing I need to do when I am feeling motivated is to go through all the random bottles of things I have in my bathroom cabinets. I am sure half of it could be thrown away.

Last, I cleaned out Emma and Ian’ pjs. Ian kept getting dressed for bed in pajamas that were floods. He still had some in his drawer that were size 24 months! No wonder they were so short.

It was a nice weekend. I always feel good when I get projects done. Going into the garage this morning was a treat. I’ll see what other projects I can come up with in the next few days. I’m sure I can think of something

I took a ton of photos of Sue and Scarlett and then pretty much put my camera away for the week. I even got a new lens for my birthday that I haven’t used at all. Next week I should have more time to experiment with it. Here are a few more photos from my photo shoot.

Please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom to view all the Weekly Winners participants.

I have been wanting to clean out our garage this whole summer. Scott and I finally spent a couple of hours today and made a big dent in it. One of the main things we needed to do was organize our bikes. We bought some pulley type bike hangers about a year ago. Scott hung them up today and they worked out great. I got a lot of things organized and hung up on our Rubbermaid FastTrac system. It really made a big difference.

Hopefully tomorrow it will be nice again. I still want to sweep the floor and possibly wash it down.

We also took the kids out for a movie today. It has been a while since we have all gone to the theater together. We went to see Madagascar 2. I thought it was really cute, and the whole family enjoyed it. Nora did great for most of the movie. She sat in her own seat eating her popcorn. About 20 minutes before the movie ended she started getting antsy. But it was still a lot of fun to all be there together.

So that is our Saturday wrap up. It was nice to all hang out together with no real agenda. I am looking forward to more of the same tomorrow.

One of the other presents that Scott got me for my birthday was a Gorillapod. It is basically a mini tripod that you can carry with you in a purse or backpack or camera bag. You can set it on a table or wrap it around a pole.

I have been wanting one for a while, and just haven’t ever ordered one. I am excited to try it out and see what it can do for my photography. Maybe now I can work on setting it up with my timer and actually getting some photos of myself. I was working on my scrapbook photos yesterday and I was reminded that I need to do better at that. There are almost no pictures of me in the scrapbooks or anywhere else. The only ones I have are ones from Peekaboo Photos or that my mom took. (By the way, if you click on the Peekaboo Photos link, you will see that Ian is their poster child )

I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, but I am looking forward to seeing what I can do with it.

I found a new website called Parentography. They are giving away a Gorillapod to one lucky winner. All you have to do to win it is to link to their site on your blog. The contest ends on November 15 at midnight. Hurry and check it out!

I started just letting her wear dresses with no diaper or underwear underneath. With Emma and Ian I found that this was the best method. If they had an accident they got immediate feedback and pee running down their legs. It usually sent them running for the bathroom in mid stream.

The first few days Nora did great. She peed in the potty many times and pooped every day for about 3 days. I started trying to have her wear underwear, but that didn’t go as well. She had more accidents, but I decided to keep trying. One day I had her wear underwear when we left the house. She had about 5 accidents and her pants were completely wet

The last week or so has been harder. We have been gone a lot and it just doesn’t go as well when we are away from home. She is distracted and she just isn’t able to hold it until we can get to a bathroom.

So, it isn’t perfect, but I am still encouraged. I am still having her go naked as much as I can when I am home with her. When we are out in public, she is wearing pull ups. I think she is making progress, but slowly. Which is fine, because she is still really young, and we have lots of time.

There is something about a paper planner that I love, too. Quite a few years ago I tried to switch over to a PDA. I just couldn’t do it. I missed having a place to write things and hold all my random slips of paper. I love transferring all my info to a new planner at the end of the year.

Once I had kids, I still needed a planner, but I had to downsize. I just couldn’t lug around a big planner with all the diapers, wipes, toys and all the other baby paraphernalia. I switched over to a simple black little Day Runner. I have been using the same one for about 7 years now. I just reused the cover and got new pages to go in it each year. Since it is getting close to the end of the year, I wanted to order the 2009 refill.

I went to the Day Runner website and was bummed to find out that they stopped making the refills for the size I have been using. The next size up was too big, so I had to find a new one. I checked a lot of sites and couldn’t find any that were small enough that I liked.

I finally found this one. I thought it looked like a good size and it came in some cute colors. Even better was that it was only $22 including the pages. I ordered my favorite color–pink!

I’ve spent the last couple of days transferring all my info to the new one. As a bonus this one came with the last few months of 2008, so I get to start using it now, and I don’t have to wait until the first of the year.

I can’t wait to start using it!

Today was my 36th birthday. I really didn’t mind turning 36, especially since I have been telling people for the last few weeks that I was turning 37! I forgot how old I was. I finally realized one day that I was 35, and not 36 like I had been thinking. Ha! So this birthday I actually lost a year

My birthday started out a bit rough. I always have a hard time on my birthday. I always play it up in my head and think about how wonderful it is going be. Then when it actually gets here, if things aren’t perfect, I get stressed out.

But I talked to Scott about it and I started to feel better. It ended up being a really nice birthday.

I had a great lunch at Siegfried’s with Scott, Sue, and Sarah. And a really nice dinner tonight with Bryan, Mary, and my Dad at a new Thai restaurant.

I was overwhelmed with how many people called, texted, and emailed to say “Happy Birthday”. I don’t think I have gotten this many birthday wishes ever. Emma showered me with birthday presents. She made me about 10 birthday cards. Scott bought a pie for me (since I don’t like birthday cake ) and we sang “Happy Birthday” with the kids.

Scott surprised me with a new lens for my camera. I was so excited! I have been wanting it for quite a while, and it was really sweet of him to get it for me.

So it turned out to be a really nice birthday. Thanks to everyone for the gifts and all the nice birthday wishes!

I did a lot of planning before hand, and it really paid off. I laid in bed last night thinking about all the things I wanted to try. I had a few background set ups in mind and I think they turned out nice. My background stands worked out nicely, and my improvised studio worked out well.

It was great because we didn’t have anything really planned for the day except to take her photos. We took a few, then let her nurse. Then we took some more and she went down for a nap. When she got up we took some more. It took all day. I am exhausted, but it was a lot of fun. I think Sue was really happy with some of the shots we got.

Here are a few of my favorites:

If anyone in the family would like any copies, just let me know. If you try to download them from here, you will get really grainy photos because I sized them way down to prevent weirdos from copying them.

Thanks Sue, for letting me photograph Scarlett. It was lots of fun!