Sucked Dry

Have you ever felt completely zapped of all creative juices? Void of any new ideas? Uninspired? Uninteresting?

That's how I've been feeling. Even my normal creative outlets (blogging and photography in particular) have seemingly run dry. After nearly 2 years of blogging it seems I've run out of something to say. Except that it appears that in my emptiness, I found something to say, didn't I?

Luckily, my sister is still as creative as ever. I got this teaser picture of Reese in my email inbox over the weekend. I can't wait to see the rest. While I was in Utah a week ago, Reese stayed with my sister, who dressed her up and took some glamour shots. My jaw hit the floor when I saw this picture of my 6 YEAR OLD. Wow.


My sister amazes me constantly. I am in awe of her talent.

Sisters are good. So are friends. They help me stay on track when I'm feeling uninspired. They keep me busy with projects to work on and phone calls to cheer me up (you know who you are!) and emails to keep me on my toes. It's all good.

Kids are good. Thank goodness for kids that keep me busy and for a particular little boy who sings at the top of his voice so that I won't forget he's there. That same little boy who I find snuggled in my bed when I wake up every morning. He's my companion. My friend. My Little Buddy.

Life is good. It really is. I just have to remember that when I'm feeling empty....

Here's to the Sisters, the Friends, and the Kids in my life. What would I do without them?





PS--While you're here, don't forget to enter my current giveaways!



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Back to School 2009

Where did the day go? I have been working on getting these photos from this morning loaded all day, and somehow it has taken me til the very last minute to get it done. The four older kids headed back to school this morning. Honestly, everyone was thrilled to be starting back up again. I am grateful that my kids enjoy school.

I've got to rush before I leave to pick the kids up in a few minutes, but here's a quick peek at my the back-to-school morning traditional shots.

KitKat started 8th grade today. Her last year in middle school. She's back to being the big man on campus, and she loves that.

From Aurora

Necco started 5th grade and is also the big man on campus. She is one of the patrols, and so she has special duties every morning and afternoon. And she gets to wear a cool belt thing.

From Aurora

Twizzler is more excited than you can imagine that he "finally!" got a "boy" teacher. He couldn't be more happy about 3rd grade.

From Aurora

Reese is our big 1st grader, and wins the prize as the first child in our family to have a teacher that one of her siblings has had before. After 8+ years at the same school, we finally got a teacher for a second year! Mrs. O, as the kids call her, has been at the school since the first year it opened. We love her.

From Aurora

From Aurora

From Aurora

As you can see, we had one family member less than thrilled about back-to-school time. AJ was sad to see everyone go. We got to go on a long walk after dropping the kids off, so hopefully he has forgiven us by now.

From Aurora

It's time to pick the kids up now. More on the 1st day of school later!



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$100 Famous Footwear Giveaway!

**Contest is closed** The lucky winner is her5boys (I checked and doubled checked and she submitted all of the required entries plus some!) Congrats! Thank you, everyone, for all of the entries!

For the last day of my end-of-summer giveaway week, Famous Footwear and Mom It Forward have teamed up to bring us a delicious (and stylish) giveaway!

I don't think I've ever met a woman who didn't love shoes and ice cream. Am I right? A great pair of shoes and some yummy ice cream are almost all we need to survive. Famous Footwear blends these two ingredients together on its site Make Today Unexpected, which gives us women the chance to discover their style and flavor in a most unexpected way.

I just took the quiz and laughed when I read the results. This is me:


Why did I laugh? It was oh-so accurate. :) And I am totally craving some of this now:

Giveaway

I am excited to hear what your ice cream flavor is too. Let me know by entering this stylish, not to mention FABULOUS, giveaway!

Grand Prize

This week, Famous Footwear is awarding one lucky winner with a $100 gift card. Shoes anyone? (See Entry Requirements below.)

Coupon

Everyone's a winner in this giveaway! Make your back-to-school shoe shopping spree a little more affordable by visiting MakeTodayUnexpected.com and entering to receive $10.00 off your next purchase of $50.00 or more.

Entry Requirements

To enter for a chance to win the $100 Famous Footwear gift card, please do these four things (make sure you leave a separate comment for each of your entries).

Note: Entries that do not follow all of these requirements will not be considered.

1. Take the 'Find Your Flavor' quiz by clicking here. Leave a comment on this post with your flavor.


2. Become a fan of the Famous Footwear's Make Today Unexpected Facebook Page. (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Make-Today-Famous/112646406371?ref=ts)


3. Follow @maketodayfamous on Twitter.


4. Post these messages on Facebook and/or on Twitter and leave comments here, linking to your messages:

What's your flavor? Click here to find out: http://bit.ly/a5zhj PLS RT

Download Famous Footwear coupon 4 back-to-school/fall savings: http://bit.ly/fogQH PLS RT #gno

Extra Entries

You can earn up to three extra entries for this week's giveaway. Leave an additional comment for each.

• Click here and become a Famous Footwear REWARDS club member (free).


• Post or tweet about something unexpected that has happened to make your day or week more positive on @maketodayfamous or on the Make Today Unexpected Facebook Page.
• Subscribe to Better in Bulk, follow me, or put me on your blog roll.

The Fine Print

No purchase necessary to enter. Famous Footwear and Mom It Forward employees, and giveaway hostesses are ineligible to participate. Entries that do not follow all of the entry requirements will not be considered.

This contest ends on Thursday, September 3, at 10:00 pm. Winner will be notified via email and must send me contact information by Friday, Sept 4. Winner will be announced at the top of this post.


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Give Me Your Best Shot 8/28

I hope you don't mind that I'm cheating a little this week and sharing more than one "best shot." The kids and I spent 3 hours at the pool today. We've been spending as much time at the pool as possible this week as we finish off the last week of Summer. If it weren't for the fact that AJ got tired and cranky....and the fact that we needed to eat something for dinner, I would have stayed all night, too.

I am mourning the loss (hopefully temporary) of my water camera. The kids developed a habit of watching the videos on the camera, and they have run off with it. I'm assuming it's somewhere in the house. Grr. I miss it. I was brave and carted my big, fancy camera to the pool with me today.



Look at the tan on that girl!


Reese was brave enough to try jumping off the diving board today for the 1st time. And the 2nd time....and the 3rd. Once she started, she didn't want to stop.


What have you been photographing this week? Have you tried anything new? To find out more about Give Me Your Best Shot, read this....And come back to leave the link to your best shot below (please link to your actual Give Me Your Best Shot post). And grab my button below so that we can get more people to stop by!

<a href="http://1momof5.blogspot.com/search/label/GMBS" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Photobucket" src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/1momof5/08Nov21_gmbs_1-1.jpg" /></a>

Shh! I'm adding my own meme to someone else's...Is that bad? ;)

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

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Anybody Want Free Business Cards?

**Contest Closed** The winners are comments 5 and 22: Cecily R and and Heather C. Congrats, you two!



For my 4th day of giveaways, I've got something very exciting to offer not one, but TWO readers today:

500 Die Cut Business Cards from the Digital Room!

Have you always wanted a business card, whether it be for an etsy shop, your home business, your blog, or simply as a personal contact card?

The Digital Room gives you the options to:
*Choose from three Business Card Sizes: 2x3.5”, 2x3”, or 2x2"
*Choose Paper: 14pt cardstock (matte or gloss coating) or 13 pt cardstock uncoated
*Choose Color: (4/4) Color both sides; (4/1) Color 1 side , B/W backside; (4/0) Color 1 side, black backside

**All you have to do to enter this giveaway is to visit the Digital Room and tell me what style of card you would like, and what you would do with 500 business cards.**

For extra entries, you can follow me, subscribe to my blog, or tweet about this giveaway. You can tweet once a day for the duration of the contest. If you would like to do anything else to spread the word about this contest, simply let me know with a separate comment for each task.

Good luck!

This contest will run until Thursday, Sept. 3 at 11:00 pm. I will notify the two winners via email and announce them on the top of this post. This contest is open to US residents only. Shipping must be paid by the winner.



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