Margot Potter

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to photograph little Margot Potter in a "Newborn" session. I say newborn in quotation marks because Margo was two months old already at the time of this photo shoot. Her mother very sweetly and thoughtfully decorated nursery so I was sure to capture it along with the baby! A few photographs down you will see my own son in a few of these pictures. They have become quite chummy these last few months.

Dear Reader

The last few posts I have written, I addressed them as "Dear Reader."  Then, I signed off "Love, JoAnna."  I want you to know that those words only apply to those who I truly feel affection for.  Let me tell you, that does NOT include the computer generated people who scan my blog and send me advertisements about what I wrote about.  That also does NOT include the strange Russian website that I find is "reading" my blog on a regular basis (thought I was getting popular for a second there but not really).  If you are one of those, I do not love you.  I do not consider you dear, so please don't get that in your mind.  Those words were meant for someone else.

Love,
JoAnna

Honesty

Okay, I have got to be honest.  In reference to the last blog I wrote,I think I just want to let everyone know that I decided after all that I still think folding socks is not worth my time even though I might face the embarrassment of being labeled an adolescent.  Probably with all the mess and Chaos I have to deal with on a regular basis, I should choose  not to fight that battle.  It might be better for me to spend what little emotional energies I have on things that truly matter, like holding objects in front of Matheson's face and watching him coo and try to grab at them.  That probably means more to the baby than my socks being the right colors.

I am sure that all of this is of great significance to the reader, in light of all that is happening in the world.  So thank you for taking a moment to read about my socks. 

Also, I want to comment on my bad grammer.  In case you have not noticed I am so bad at spelling that often spell check can't recognize what I am trying to write.  In an attempt to be quick, I often don't even notice it and sometimes my words come out very strange.  So, hopefully until I can have an editor you can look past my writing blemishes and see that something more is there.

Love,
JoAnna

The end of an era

January 16, 2011

Today we took our youngest to his four month old well-baby visit with our pediatrician.  Our appointment went very well.  We chatted with the doctor about a variety of very important topics which seem to come up at most visits with him, such as Wisconsin snow and Kringles (Danish Pastries).  This time a new topic came up as he looked at my feet and noted that I was wearing two different colored socks.  According to our doctor, mis-mached socks are highly popular among his adolescent patience in this generation.  I am not sure exactly what he was hoping to accomplish by telling me this, but I am guessing he was hoping to get a chuckle.  Chuckle I did, but it was more like a "ha...ha....ha?"  I was not sure weather I wanted to laugh or hid my feet in embarrassment.  To genuinely find this funny I would have to think it was funny that I am thirty years old and unknowingly keeping with Adolescent trends.  But to be embarrassed would mean that I am weak and can not laugh about my silliness. 

You see, I began to wear two different color socks long before it was ever trendy or cool to do so.  I grew up in South Florida and in South Florida you only wear socks a few times a year, and those are the days when it is cold enough to wear long pants and no one is going to see your socks but you.  So I always wondered what the point was in matching them.  Socks are socks and they are going to serve their function regardless of my actions.  So I just stopped folding them altogether to eliminate unnecessary work.  As years went by more and more people would catch glimpses of my socks and I became known as "The girl who wears two different color socks."  Being branded as  an artist at a young age, most people who have noticed my socks have accused me of trying to be "Artsy."  (Oh how I hate that word!)  I am writing this to tell you that this is not so.  My sock choices are a pure act of laziness. 

I am sad to say, that my punky sock days might be coming to an end.  I have come to realize how important it is to live and be content with the phase of life you are in, and that means me realizing that I am not a punky teenager anymore and must behave like an adult and wear the same colored socks. If you have known me well over the years and are feeling like a part of me is going to die, please know that deep down inside I will always be the same short, lovable two different socked girl you have always known, I have just fallen prey to insecurities brought on by our unknowing pediatrician.

Dear Reader....

Dear Reader,

I try to write regularly, but there is no time. I have been very busy all day lately and in general, I and am very very tired.  You might ask why I am so tired and what exactly have I been doing? (well, if you are a mother you probably don't need to ask that.)  But otherwise,  the truth is at the end of the day I feel like I have run a marathon, only without the helpful benefits of the actual running. Yet I look around me and only .0001% of anything on my daily agenda has been done.  The only things I remember clearly about the day are neon yellow newborn poop stained pajamas floating in the sink, almost loosing my purse in the library and having a very large SOPA conversation with my spouse which ended with me teaching Jedidiah the "Sopa de Ropa de Popa" Spanish poem I learned in elementary school.  (So if you hear my son saying "Sopa" please don't think its anything political.) There are still dishes in the sink, and more that are emerging through the surface of the counter as I write.  The laundry has not been cycled through, and I just realized that all of his diapers are in the dishwasher.  Oh, did I just accidentally say dishwasher?  I meant washing machine.  But according to my two year old, there is no difference.  I am sure that at one point today I have found dirty dishes in the laundry room and dirty underwear in the refrigerator. Everything has its place and everything in its place, right? and  Pretty soon Jedidiah is going to come downstairs and say "oooh that's a wilson" because he wants to watch Dennis the Menace.  I will put him in front of the TV (guilty as charged) while I think about what I possibly could be doing while he is fully occupied in the land of Mr. Wilson and "That's a Dennis!" In fact, I will probably think about it for so long that I will not accomplish anything but think.  Now Matheson is wiggling around in my arms because he would prefer to be looking at something else and if I put him down he WILL cry.  I just picked him up and put him down and now he is starring angrily at his hands.   Well, I had a point in writing all of this, but Isaiah is coming home and I must gather all the things around the house that aren't where they are supposed to be and throw them right in a cardboard box in a closet where they belong so he doesn't have to come home to a messy house.  Don't worry, some days function better than this.

P.S. I typed the last portion of this with one hand!  Woo-hoo!!

Fourty Christmas Factoids

This Christmas: 40 things you need to know about our James Family Christmas Experience

So, a lot of folks have been asking about us.  The come up to us and say "How was your Christmas?"  So, I compiled a list of thirty-six things you NEED to know about the James Family Christmas experience.  It's really important, so read carefully and share with your friends.

1. I hate the song "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart...."
2. This Christmas season, I was flipping stations and I heard a remix of the above song.
3. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach over the fact in the previous statement.
4. We had a tree decorating ceremony in which we listened to traditional Christmas music and sipped home made hot co-co, and watched Jedidiah remove all the "balls" from the tree and throw them across the house in hysterical laughter.
5. Isaiah was very pleased to NOT be listening to "rocking around the Christmas tree in your bikini" type music that seems so popular on EVERY radio station this time of year. 
6. Our tree was decorated and was "Naked from the waste down." Ask my little son about that one.
7. We celebrated our Christmas by doing something special.  We did not know what that "Special" thing was until we got into the car and made a crazy decision to go to the "Coast."  This was the day before Christmas eve, because that's when we had to celebrate Christmas because Isaiah worked on Christmas Day.
8. So, we went to the "Coast."  If you are from Florida and you are reading this, please don't mistake the "coast" for the "beach."  The beach is a place you go to sit, relax, lay in the sun, play and make sand castles and ride in waves.  The "Coast" is where you go to stand there with your jaw dropped in awe and almost terror of the wildness of Nature. You probably don't want to play in the waves unless you have been trained by a professional and you have a wet suit. 
9. We were going to go to a Casino for lunch because we heard that they had an all you can eat buffet for 7.77, but we arrived there and immediately left because it was very sleazy.  There was no Japanese man making food in front of you and what we saw looked on par with the Hospital Cafeteria food.  Not much is worse than hospital cafeteria food.  We left even though that meant we would be spending twice as much money somewhere else and not be able to eat for several hours. 
10. We vowed never to go into a Casino again. 
11. We made it to the Oregon coast but I have no pictures to wow you with. 
12. The reason why is because Isaiah threw our Camera into the Pacific North West ocean.  
13. This was actually in an attempt to rescue Little Jedidiah from a wave that sneaked up on him and knocked him over.
14. As Isaiah put it, the salt and sand were not kind to the camera.
15. They were not necessarily kind to Jedidiah either, but he got over that much quicker than we got over the loss of our camera, because he was suddenly barefoot and wrapped in a towel which he thought was very funny. 
16. Our camera was bought less than a month ago, to replace the one that was destroyed a year ago by our son stirring it in a glass of water.  
17. We will never buy a non-water proof camera again.
18. It was not my fancy pants camera that got lost in the ocean. Isaiah had told me to leave my DSLR at home, for good reasons.  Now all I could do was stare at the magnificent beauty of the mountains jutting out of the sea and the sun setting over them.  Every moment seemed completely picturesque, and I had no means to capture it and bring it home with me besides my memory.  I guess you can say, it was oddly liberating. 
19. I am just glad that I have my family and no one got swept away by the scary NW waves.  Its funny how quickly your perspective can change on your material possessions. 
20. Also, I am sure people suffered from greater loss than us this Christmas. Which reminded me to reflect on the fact that we celebrate because we were given something imperishable. All the other glitter and "stuff" of Christmas will soon fade away, but there is something greater that came into the world that will never ever change and can never be taken away from us. 
21. We drove away from that lovely place, and had a delightful diner just the four of us in an amazing seafood restaurant. 
22. I don't think I like seafood too much.  But it was a fantastic restaurant, would recommend to anyone!! (They had other stuff besides seafood.)
23. What a good day.
24. After that, we went home and woke up Christmas Eve morning and I was so thankful for the rich blessing of "Florida like Christmas Weather."  Finally, I felt like "home."
25. Our kind neighbors  brought us cookies and fudge.  
26. We went on a walk
27. We went to Church.
28. Afterwards we went to the Market, because I felt desperate to get something nice as a side for our Salmon diner so I did not have to cook. 
29. The marked closed five minutes before we got there.
30. I busted into tears. (you think I would have learned something after my camera experience about what's important)
31. I got over it.
32. We went home and had a delightful salmon diner and we ate it alongside wild rice pilaf.  It took us ten minutes to prepare and it was delicious and perfect despite of my concerns that I would be overwhelmingly disappointed by not having fancy sides to go with it from the market.
33. We settled into watching "Charlie Brown's Christmas." I had never really watched it as an adult.  I found it to be creepy, and when I was a child I never knew Charlie Brown was suicidal. I liked it anyway, and was grateful to watch something that was neither politically correct or border line irreverent. 
34. Went to bed and woke up Christmas morning.  I am not a child so I did not run down to open all of my presents immediately, we would do that later in the evening.  Besides, I bought ALL of our gifts this year so I knew what everything was. 
35. In a desprate attempt to make our Chrismas even remotly what it would have been at home, I baked my mother's recipe for pecan fingers.  They were the only cookie I have ever successfully made.  
36. Jedidiah and I went to a "White Elephant gift party" at our neighbor and friend's house. I won a massage something or other and some chocolate truffles. I was very worried that I had now had a clunky massage something or other that I was going to have to find a way to get rid of.  But I use it almost every day, what a blessing!
37. We ate a diner of Lamb, "Christmas" mashed potatoes and a delicious salad.  We also visited friends who graciously gave us a smoked turkey as a gift, and opened our presents under the tree which was a very ceremonial and special occasion full of surprise and delight.
38. I don't know how long Jedidiah will be happy with dollar tree gifts, but he was beaming.
39. Just like that it was all over. 
40. This took me two weeks to write.  Maybe some time in the next year I will "publish" our Thanksgiving story which is still waiting in there somewhere.