A New Address

Hi,
Fish Out Of Water is now, McParty of Five.  Check out my new blog Here
Thanks!
Katie

A Re-beginning

It is with a heart that weighs about as much as it normally does, but not without a tinge of sadness that I inform you that my blog, Fish Out Of Water, will soon be no more.  Most likely forever.  I add that little addendum because though I plan to post no more for the foreseeable future, I do not plan to remove it from blogger.  I worked too hard to get what I had up and on the chance that I one day might possibly want to return to FOW, I don’t want to have to start over from scratch. 

I will be focusing on my blog for my business, Storybook Pictures (which is a HUGE work in progress so I’m not even sharing that web address right now) and a blog that I stated a while back but have not been good at posting on for my family (Our McParty of Five; http://ourmcpartyoffive.blogspot.com/ ).  You are welcome to visit either blog, though I will not be posting on Facebook anymore when I have written something new.  You can sign up for email alerts or just check up on it every once in a while.  I will probably not post that often anyway.  If you check out my mcparty of five blog, you will see that I have not posted in almost a year.  I do plan to post more than yearly, especially now that FOW is kaput.

 

So, to close, here is a pic of my 3 little models from a recent test shoot. 

 

Oh, and my sister had her second daughter last night! Yeah for her and her family!  I would post some pics of my new little niece, but they live in darn NYC and I am down her in the awesome ATL.

In the meantime, here is a picture of me and my sister's oldest daughter (who is 2) from back in Feb. when I went up for a visit.

 

 

Rain and a talented squirrel

I'm sitting here in my bathing suit, wishing we could be at the pool.  However, after we all got changed and I got the pool bag all ready, we noticed just as we were about to walk out the door that it is raining.  We are staying in our suits hoping it'll slow down soon so we can still go to the pool.  There's no thunder so I think it'll be ok.  I prefer sunshine, but these kids need to get some energy out!

So, while I'm waiting on the rain, I decided to do a quick post. 

Here's a fun pic;

 

 

There is this very talented squirrel in our back yard.  He somehow manages to scale our house and climb up the window and then fling himself over to the bird feeder that hangs from the over hang, while managing to continue to hang on to the window frame. I have yet to see exactly how he does it.  He's done it several times though.  I'm hoping to catch him in the act one time.

A little more

Some more pictures from my 31 days of picture takin' project;



Before I start, I will admit that some of these pictures were not taken on separate days.  The first 4 were all taken on the same day on a recent trip to Callaway Gardens.

I love this picture.  I love the way the light comes through the flowers making them look translucent and almost painted.  I think I'm going to have to print and frame this one.

A red tailed hawk at the birds of prey show at Callaway Gardens.

 



My 3 natural beauties.



 

My youngest in some sort of water relay on field day.

 

My middle child playing the balloon toss on field day. 
 



My oldest getting ready to start her field day.



More pictures later.
 

Before and After School

Lest you think I have slacked on my 31 days of picture takin', I am here to say I have not.  I've been taking pictures everyday.  I just haven't posted them.  That's always been what's held me back from doing one of those 31 day/365 day projects.  It's the posting of the pics that I seem to run out of time for. 

I will share with you the last 9 days of pictures tomorrow.  Today, I want to share a before and after picture of sorts.  Yesterday was the last day of school  YaHoo!!  It is bittersweet.  I love summer.  I love having my kids home and I love going to the pool everyday and not having to set my alarm and not having to feel like we have to eat dinner right at 6 so the kids can get in bed at a decent time and not having to be in bed at a decent time and having no real schedule and not having to be sure everyone has a coat before we go out and not having to wash and sort so many socks since everyone will be wearing flip flops and I love watermelon and Popsicles and cookouts....and I could probably keeps going.  *big breath*

However, I can also appreciate the time I have when my kids are at school.  This year was a first for me.  My youngest started Kindergarten.  I was an emptynester from the hours of 7:45 and 2:45.  And I'll admit, it was kinda nice.  I remember when my youngest stopped napping in the afternoon.  That opened up the whole day for us.  I no longer had to be home at 1 so she could take a nap.  I had more time to be out.  Having them all at school all day was kinda like that, only better.  Cause this time, I had more time to be out by myself.  This last week of school I went into a kind of panic mode.  All I kept thinking was, ohmygosh!  I only have 4 days left to get anything done kid free!  And then the count down ensued.  I think I was pretty productive those last 4 days (and 2 of those were early release). 

And, aside from my struggle between my love for having them home and my love for running errands by myself, the end of another school year means they have grown some more.  Why won't they just stop already!!??  In the fall, I will have a 5th grader!!  Which means next year, I'll have a middle schooler!! 

I remember an episode of Modern Family.  The old dad, Jay, was defending his decision to get botox to his much younger wife.  He said to her, that in his head, he's still 40 years old.  And he walks around acting and thinking that he's a prime 40 year old man.  Until he happens to see his reflection in something.  And he thinks, "who's that old guy?"  (He's really supposed to be in his 60's).  That's kind of how I feel.  Except in my head, I am in my 20's.  But then I see my reflection or look at my ever growing older, getting bigger kids and think, "whose the old lady, who is obviously not in her 20's anymore, with the 3 not so little any more kids?"

There are fun things about them getting older.  There is so much stuff we can do now that we could not when they were younger.  Our conversations are getting more mature.  I can even leave my 10 year old home alone for a little bit, by herself!  But you do kind of miss those little kid days when they were so cute and said the cutest little things and wore those tiny little clothes that you got to pick yourself.  Alas, my younger sister is at that stage (as well as my husband's brother and his sister as well), so I am fine to be aunt to little ones and then give them back after a while. 

Nonetheless, I have babbled on for too long.  Here is what I wanted to show you in this post;

This first picture is from the first day of school, 10 months ago.  Left to right, my middle child was starting 2nd grade, my oldest was starting 4th and my youngest, kindergarten. 

This picture was taken yesterday, on the last day of school.  Look at how much my youngest's face has matured!!  She started the year with a mouth full of teeth and now she is missing quite a few.  And when those grown up teeth come all the way in, she'll look even older!  They all look like they have matured some over the last 10 months.  My oldest will be getting braces soon ($$$) which will change her look even more. 

*sigh*  I do love my growing little kiddos.

 For now our job as parents is to love our kids and to "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."  Proverbs 22:6
Amen.

I don't care if it's not good for you

How could you not be happy with a bowl of warm rolls nestled in a delicious, golden pool of garlic butter sitting in front of you?  I don't even need to order any other food.  (maybe a mint afterwards.)

The Next 7 Days

So in keeping with my 31 days of picture takin', here are the next 7 days of pics. 



Saturday was my middle daughter's 8th birthday party.  We had an art party this year.  They painted a parrot.  If you are Facebook friends with me, you've already seen all of the party pics.  Her birthday is on May 5, Cinco de Mayo, which she takes very seriously, hence the sombrero.



This is an added picture to this week's lot.  I was so proud of how this cake turned out, I had to share it. 



Her actual birthday was on Sunday. 



The rose bush in our yard is beginning to bloom.



With all the rain we've had this winter and spring, our grass is a lovely shade of green. 



My middle child is obsessed with Lego Friends.  For her birthday she got a number of new sets.  She brags that she now has 16 Lego sets all to her self.  That doesn't include the sets that her 2 sisters have.  Our basement currently looks like the Lego monster threw up. 
This picture is of the larger set she got for her birthday.  It is the summer riding camp.  If you are not familiar with LF, the details in these sets are amazing.  This is just the front view.  You should see the inside.  Maybe I'll show you that next week.



Playing Play-Doh with my youngest.

Honey's spaghetti al fresco.  (Honey, being my late grandmother. And yes, that's bacon in there.)