Lola Lately.

Sheesh. I have missed this! (and you). The photography thing has exceeded my wildest expectations and I have had photo sessions scheduled 4-5 nights a week! It's nuts! (and I love it) But the blogging has fallen seriously behind. So, here's a little installment I'm calling "Lola Lately." I can't have you falling behind on my entirely ordinary, uninteresting life now can I?

My son has become a connoisseur of fine Root Beer and has taken to wining and dining our cute, blond neighbor girl. Not disturbing at all. Not even a little.

I am officially dealing with an "Other Woman"
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her:

She is hopelessly devoted. She follows him everywhere he goes, listens to everything he says, and stares at him lovingly 24/7 with big, sincere, chocolate brown eyes. How can I compete with that - honestly?

and don't even get me started on the"Other Man"

What's a girl to do?

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The kid jumped off of his (very high) loft bed (after his mother expressly forbade it) and sprained his ankle. So he's grounded. Which SHOULD be punishing him, but really it's punishing ME! He is bored, and demanding, and crazy, and it has been all I can do to keep him busy!

I have him shucking corn

and cleaning up dog poop in the backyard (no photo, you're welcome.)

and enjoying 3 hour craft and painting sessions... that I have to clean up after...

I think he's going to be "ungrounded" sooner than we'd originally anticipated.

Much, much sooner.

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I had this for breakfast.

It was delicious,

but I totally couldn't finish it all.

...and they were thrilled about that.

Miss Liza got in a cat fight in our drive way, got an infection in a cut in her jaw (that we had no idea about) and the infected wound ruptured and bled out at 1:00 a.m. while Kort and I were visiting Ferron over the weekend and the Hubs found her in his closet throwing up and bleeding and puss-ing (sorry, gross, I know...didn't see THAT coming...did ya?) and he had to take her to the emergency vet in Orem, all by himself, thinking he was going to have to put her down while I was away and feeling horrible and like he couldn't do it...and it was awful! She's okay though. The hubs got her cleaned up and taken care of. One round of prescription antibiotics and one royal blue deluxe "no licky" cone later, all is well. And he ended up getting two whole hours of sleep - so that's good...right? (boo.) I love that man of mine, I'll tell you what. He takes such good care of all of us. (A $300 vet bill for a C.A.T? Only Kyle. He'd pay anything to avoid seeing me lose another pet before its time... what a guy.) I love him I love him I love him.

It's pretty difficult to look sleek and sassy

with a giant blue cone on your head,

but Liza Lee Lou Lou is holdin' her own...
(and yes, that's SYTYCD on pause in the background, loves me some SYTYCD)

Oh, and just a heads up for the neighbors: the next bully cat that comes onto my driveway to pick a fight with my pretty princess is going to get a paintball (or thirty) up its rear courtesy of the Hubs' Dye Matrix semiautomatic paintball gun. And I won't even feel bad about it.

$300, bully cat?

Are you kidding me?

If I see you again, you're t.o.a.s.t!

(okay, we'll probably just chase you away,

but you would certainly deserve a paintball (or 30) up your wazoo...I'm just sayin')

So, I've been working and working and clicking and clicking, and editing and editing, and I have thought to myself, (on numerous occasions) "How are my boys getting on without me?" AND "How are they surviving without me there to make dinner once a month and make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the rest of the time?"

And the answer, I've found, is "JUST FINE"

(Sneakily taken through my dirty sliding glass door after returning home from a photo session.)

Pictured: The hubs eating sunflower seeds in a camping chair on the deck while the boy catches butterflies in the garden and "the other woman" lingers faithfully less than a foot from her man. It's like they don't even miss me.
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Confession time: I let my kid build a magnetix pyramid on the floor of the gym at stake conference AND THEN I snapped a picture of it when he asked me to because I didn't want him to have a meltdown in front of 500 + people. It's official, I'm one of "those people." (the ones that will do anything to have moment of peace at stake conference while the mom with five boys under the age of six-yes, I just said f.i.v.e. boys under the age of six - has all five of her boys coloring quietly in their laps rights next to us.) Yep. I'm one of those. Oh well. Can't win 'em all.

Sing with me now:
Haaaa-aaaaa--leluja!

Haaaaaaaleluja!
Haleluja! Haleluja!

Ha leeee--luuuu---ja!!!

After 3 long, turbulent years

filled with brown patches,

dead spots,

crunchy corners,
and HOURS of lugging a piddly Walmart sprinkler around the yard..

The hubs fixed our

hopeless

pathetic

"gotta tear the whole thing up and start over again"

Sprinkler System!

(WITHOUT tearing the whole thing up and starting over again!)

How? I have no idea, but I will tell you this:

Every time I see those glorious sprinklers pop up out of the ground (simultaneously)

and

Every time I see them perfectly sprinkling every corner, nook and cranny of our yard...

I want to jump on him.

(and often, I do...sorry neighbors...I'm sure the urge will subside...eventually. maybe.)

And finally...

We did it.

That jeeeust happened.

I bought the kid his

very first

very own

p.o.c.k.e.t. k.n.i.f.e.

And yes, I keep it in a high up place,

And yes, he is supervised while

whittling

And yes, he is driving me nuts asking to use it

all the time

all day

every day
without fail...

but oh well.

Sometimes a mother just needs to nurture the Marysvale in her boy

...you know?