Sometimes when I’m all alone in the house…and there are no cell phones dinging with text messages. No video games raging in the background. No slamming front door. No clambering up and down the stairs. No boy noise at all…

It is all just so still and quiet.

Sometimes I miss it so deeply that it takes my breath away. I’m just sayin’.

Can I get a hug? Do any of you feel the same way sometimes?

• Teen Bloggers
• How to be my favorite
• Peace and Quiet
• My Love Affair with Pretty Doors
• Boy Noise Poker Style

Okay, my internet is so wonky. Slow. Crashing. So we’ll see how this goes. Anyway…it’s Monday. I spent the weekend working of photo biz paperwork and playing with photos. SuperGuy brought me flowers. He knows I’m just a tad addicted to taking photos of them these days. See?

Anyway, I’ve also been thinking of you who have your first college bound kiddos leaving in the next days. Like my sister, and Mental Mama. Anyone else sending off your first? Let us know! Good luck with that! It’s so neat to see your kids start to launch themselves into the world…but it’s hard at first. It’s hard to look in the mirror and believe that you’re old enough to have a child going to college, isn’t it? (can I tell you it DOES get easier after the 5th child heads to college…)

In other news, I’m sure a lot of you know that Mary at Dear Little Red House hosts Mosaic Monday on her blog. Hop on over and see some of the beautiful collages if you’ve never seen them. I put up my mosaic over on my photography blog. (it’s wider columns, so mosaics show up nicer over there!) Pretty Purple Petals.

• The Face in the Mirror
• October/November Photo of the Month Contest
• Purple Fringe – Chromatic Aberration
• Give it Your Best Shot
• Love is All Around

When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things – not the great occasions – that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness. ~Bob Hope

These were my grandfather’s keys. They have always fascinated me. I’m sure you’ve seen them in other photos I’ve taken for the blog. I love these keys. Now, it wouldn’t have taken a MacGyver to pick the locks that they keys went to, I’m sure. I’m not even sure why he had all these keys. My grandparents lived in a small, small Iowa town. I’m pretty sure they never locked a door a day in their lives…

Nonetheless, these hold a connection to my past. They were hanging on a peg in the old wooden cabinet. I would take them out and play with them when I went to visit my grandparents. They intrigued me, so unlike the “big city” keys we used. I’m not sure why I kept them. Why I chose them out of all of the possessions my grandparents had. I now keep them in the drawer by my computer. I take them out and mindlessly finger them when I’m thinking. I love the rusty ones, the ones that are still shiny and polished from use. I run my fingers over the rough ones, the smooth ones. I wonder what they opened? A house long gone? A cabinet sitting in an old barn now? Why DID he have all these keys?

Just looking at them makes me smile. Takes me back to days long since tucked deep in my memories. Homemade ice cream, shuffle board, croquet on the lawn with wooden balls with most of the color worn off of them. The smack of those wooden croquet balls as someone would send mine flying across the yard. Quiet nights sitting on their front porch. Lazy Sunday afternoons after going to their small town church and coming home to a big midday meal. The street lamp light filtering through the huge tree at the end of their drive. Mainstreet lined in bricks. Fireflies.

Do you have something like that? Something you treasure that is guaranteed to bring those memories sliding back to the present? Memories that you allow yourself to luxuriate in for just a few moments, before allowing them to slip back into the recesses of your mind? What are your “grandfather’s keys”?

• The Great Lawn Mower Escapade
• All the Little Pretties
• Road Trip Sightings
• Childhood Memories
• Do You Know What this Is?

Yes, speaking of signs of the times, I’m so upset. Probably not as upset as when SuperGuy’s truck caught on fire. But…

My favorite reading glasses broke. Not only are they my favorite reading glasses…they were my first pair of reading glasses. I decided if I needed stupid old reading glasses, I was at least going to have happening glasses! Now, I’m NOT going to tell you how many years I’ve had these glasses…

Alas, they broke. Not just the hinge, but the plastic. No amount of SuperGuy magic can fix them.

Is it wrong to be emotionally attached to your reading glasses? Hm, probably…

Well, I’m off to find another cute and adorable pair of reading glasses. Wish me luck!

• Signs of Aging
• You are Not Going to Put that Photo on Your Blog
• The Perfect Knife
• Oh Dear…Not Deer
• Where the heck have I been?

So this caught my eye. This stash of mail in the front hallway. It’s where I put the mail that gets delivered here, but it’s for the boys. They know to check that spot when they come by. The mail sits there waiting for them nestled between the gumball machine that The Geeky One made years and years ago, and the dad reading to his son statute.

Sigh, sometimes it just hits me. The boys no longer live here. Won’t ever live here again. They’ll just be here for visits.

Visits. My boys come home for visits.

Sometimes I enjoy this empty nest gig…and sometimes I really, really don’t like it… Come cheer me up…

• Empty Hoop
• Empty Nest
• Moving On
• Speaking of Signs of the Times
• Yet Another End of an Era

I must be the only mother on the planet who is sad that her son is moving back to town after being away at college. Seriously.

I saw so much of The Photography One while SuperGuy and I were over at The Love Nest. Remember we even lived with him for a bit before we found The Love Nest? Anyway, The Photography One and I would go to Steak and Shake (YUM!) for lunch every week. (I cried when we left Steak and Shake for the last time. Sigh.) We’d also go to dinner. Meet for drinks. I swear I saw more of him in the last year than I have in the last FOUR years combined. I’m so going to miss him now when we’re over in Columbia at The Love Nest.

But, I know, this isn’t supposed to be all about me. It’s about The Photography One moving on to a new stage of life. Moving back to St. Louis. Yes, I KNOW we live here too, but he will work, run with his buddies, and generally be too busy to see his mommy every week. Sigh. Anyway, back to the moving day story…

First off, it was 100 degrees on moving day!! We brilliantly decided to do most of the moving on Friday night. After the sun went down. Yeah, baby…here was the thermometer–in the shade–when we headed over to The Photograph One’s apartment on Friday. At 7pm…

I should have known how this was going to go when I had to drive him 30 miles to Jefferson City to pick up the closest moving van. Okay, that wasn’t too bad. We had a nice chat on the way. In the air conditioning. I’m all about the air conditioning when it hits 100 degrees!

There was a ton of stuff to put in that tiny moving van. In the heat.

There were a few refreshment breaks…

and brief pauses to watch the Cardinals game…

and a bit of silliness…

We had to go back on Saturday to finish up. SuperGuy and I left about 2:30pm to head back to St. Louis. I’m not sure what time the boys finally got out of there. (because they never texted me to tell me they got home safely. This mean YOU!).

In a nice (planned) twist of fate, The Impish One moved INTO The Photography One’s apartment, so that made some of it easier. We left a bedroom set, chairs, desk, some tables, etc for him. Thank goodness, because nothing else was going to fit in that van! (You remember that they closed down The Impish One’s dorm in the middle of the year and my rant about that?)

Anyway, son, welcome back home and onto real life. Don’t forget to visit your momma!

“I’m moving on and last I can see
Life has been patiently waiting for me
And I know there’s no guarantees, but I’m not alone”
–Rascal Flats

• The Love Nest is Moving
• I Never Want to See This Again.
• Is This Normal?
• Moving Day
• The Love Nest

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another.  ~James Matthew Barrie

Allow me to indulge in some of my baby boomer thoughts for a brief moment, okay?

In my twenties I thought I had my whole life plotted out. I’m a planner, what can I say? It sure hasn’t turned out like I expected. Not. At. All. But it’s a good life, I’m very thankful for that.

I have an amazing, caring husband and 5, count ‘em, FIVE boys. Never thought I’d be the mother of five boys! I have The Love Nest to escape to. My photography, that I took up after college–but let drop after the boys were born–has taken me in new directions I’d never imagined. This blog has been become such a tremendous part of my life, along with all of you, my blogging friends.

Life doesn’t follow our carefully planned out course. Our kids throw us curves. Life will push us towards paths we had no idea were even there. Bad stuff happens. Good stuff happens. The book of life we thought we were writing turns into a whole different novel. I wonder where the next fifty years will take me?

• Life in Focus-Glass
• All the things to be thankful for
• Two Down
• Help Me…
• Name That Bird

Can you stand another post about growing my hair out?? I can ALMOST pull it back into a pony tail now. Seriously. A year and 3 months later!!

Notice the clever pink hair elastic matches my shirt. I’m always coordinated like that. Honest. Really…

Okay, honestly, it usually looks like this. All falling down and slightly messy artistic and creative. Yep, I’m into my artistic and creative hair length now. What do you think? Does it sell??

• Evolution
• Growing out my hair-part two
• Haircut?
• One Year Later
• Just Shoot Me Now

So, I might be a baby boomer, but I decided it’s never too late to have a new career, right? Remember back awhile ago when I talked about starting up a portrait photography business? I even shared some shots from a photo shoot I went on with some other local photographers.

Now I first learned on a film SLR camera right after college…so it’s been a long time. But I never really, really took off with it until I bought a digital SLR a few years ago. I do love photographing almost everything I see…as evidenced by the variety on this blog. But I’ve found that I truly enjoy photographing people.

So, resolutely putting aside my age…I decided to purse a new career. Portrait Photography. I’ve been busy setting up all the legal side of it. Licensing & registering with the state. Setting up sales tax stuff. Getting insurance. Building up my portfolio. Figuring out pricing, contracts, model releases, Etc, etc.

So, now is the time where you chime in and say it’s never too late to start a new career, okay? I could use a bit of support here!

I, of course, will let you know when I go live. But in the mean time…look at this…

My first junk mail addressed to my new company!

I guess I’m almost official, huh??

• Following My Dreams
• A few weeks ago
• Lazy Fun Day
• Signs of Aging
• Leah Profancik Workshop Review

Yes, I know I sometimes talk about our empty nest. It just sometimes hits me. Hard.  Allow me to wallow a bit, okay?

Like when I caught the reflection of the basketball hoop on the hood of my car. The empty basketball hoop. With no net on it any longer and a rusted pole bravely holding it up, pretending that a gaggle of boys are going to come back, beg me to get a new net, and start playing outrageous games of hoops. Like H-O-R-S-E…only they spell out nasty body parts. Males.

Or like when I went to the store yesterday. A little boys was dancing his way into the store, clutching tightly to his mother’s hand.  You know that little skip-jump thing that little boys do when they just are so excited about life? His mom smiled down at him, thank goodness. It would have so ruined my moment if she would have yelled at him to settle down.

Then I got jealous of another mom talking nonsense to her toddler as she unloaded her shopping cart. Sigh.

I wanted another baby. Right there. Right then.

I wanted those little moments back. Not the big, tremendous moments…the tiny ones. Walking out to the mailbox and a little one racing past me to get there first. Bath time with all the mess and splashes and toys. Rocking a restless baby back to sleep in the quiet of the early morning when it seemed like the universe consisted of just the two of us.  Endless pushes on a swing. Sidewalk chalk pictures. Lego towers. A little boy falling asleep on my shoulder. I miss that. It all goes by so quickly.

All these memories rushing back because of a reflection on the hood of my car. Sigh.

• Childhood Memories
• Watch Out!
• Empty Nest
• Holiday Snapshots
• He’s Growing Up!