our little sweet p keeps getting sweeter and sweeter as the years go (fly) by.
just a few (okay, maybe more than just a few..) of my favorites from our little impromptu photo shoot last week. i am currently making her room, “her room” and needed some pictures of just her, to make it, well, hers..
and then there’s the, “in your face mom! i am still going to suck on my fingers…”
i am in love with her.
this is cameron.
the baby that might just have ruined me for every other baby i will photograph. he was so chill!! he didn’t want to sleep. didn’t want to fuss. just wanted to lay back and look, right at my lens. what a sweetie.
i must also confess, i “thought” about the composure of each and every new shot just a little longer than i really needed to, just so i could hold him and smell him…
he was too sweet.
JessicaSprague.com is FOUR! To celebrate, they're throwing a HUGE Birthday Bash & Summer Sale. From June 13-26, you can save 20% off of every self-paced class, and 35% off of ALL digital products. In addition, grab all 27 episodes of Jessica's amazing Photoshop Friday tutorials for just $1 each before they're retired on June 26! As part of the celebration, starting on June 24, you can participate in an incredible 49-person blog hop, picking up a sweet digital freebie at each stop! Best of all, on June 26 Jessica will be making a special announcement of a brand new class coming up in July. We only put our site on sale two times a year, so don't miss out on this GREAT savings opportunity! For all the info on the Summer Sale, Photoshop Fridays, blog hop, and the new class, just click here!
Just watch out my friends.. the fun only gets funner!
P.S. Don’t forget the speed scrap, 7pm eastern, tonight!!
i have made (and will continue to make) these cute memory blocks for probably as long as i live.
i have done them totally traditional in the past, which is fine. but the 3d style of it bugs my ocd mind.. they just don’t sit flat!
so i tried one totally hybrid, designing my 6 sides in photoshop, printing them off and slapping it all together.
it sits flat!!
my tutorial is featured over at the “mouse, paper, lovely” blog today. go check it out!
(you can also get a complete list of the products i used to make it.)
insurance.
such a joke.
we don’t really call it insurance here. merrill and i refer to it as, “just-in-case-something-really-bad-happens-to-us-urance”. because seriously, that is the only time it helps.
let me complain for just a minute.
(okay, maybe more than a minute.)
we have health insurance. i really shouldn’t complain because there are a few people who don’t have it. but having insurance puts me in a situation where i am tempted (repeatedly) to pull out my own hair.
because we have health insurance, we also have a monthly draw on our bank account to pay the monthly premiums that only continue to grow. every year, there is the anticipation, waiting for the letter, telling us how much that premium is going to rise. (it is really less exciting than i am making it sound. i promise.)
in previous years, we have been able to re-apply, have our premium drop to the rate that a new customer would get. there have been years where we have saved ourselves $60 (!!!!). that particular year earned me a dinner at maddox. if you don’t know what maddox is, well then, i am sorry. you just don’t get how awesome saving $60 on your health insurance is.
the only problem with re-applying is that once you do it, you can’t for another two years. so last year, as our premium expectantly rose, we searched out if it would be worthwhile to re-apply.
we would have saved $4.
that would have earned me a happy meal.
(whoopee.)
so we decided to wait for this year, see if re-applying would save us more money. (the whole two year deal..)
this year, that letter comes and our premium rises $62 and change. we are nearly to a house payment (an old house payment) for a monthly premium.
this would be fantastic if our insurance actually did anything for us. we get to pay 100% of just about everything. well, until we reach our deductible, which has never happened.
so basically, we shell out a butt-load of money to health insurance premiums every month, but try our darndest not to have to go to any sort of doctor because, well, that is more money, out of our pocket, you see?
(surely you must…)
so, thinking that we would be able to save some money re-applying (certainly we would!) i call our agent to crunch some numbers for me.
it was laughable.
in a crazy “you are taking all of my money” sort of way.
we could save $6.
$6!?!
well, there are other options to consider as well…
raise our deductable?
drop that “supplemental accidental coverage”?
(which costs $39 a month, but i will go into more on why that isn’t going to be dropped.)
and then there’s other companies we could switch to….
so there was a firm “no” to the first two options. who wants a higher deductible? and that accidental coverage has covered our bum more than once. think of every time that peyton has dislocated her elbow (twice that we have had to take her in for that, once at lake powell, and i fixed it.) and her broken arm? the time ashley fell out of the cart at joann’s.. or our latest incident with the bowling ball/hand sandwich. that’s right. all covered 100% because of our accidental coverage.
i just got an itemized bill from our mother’s day/bowling ball hand sandwich er visit… just a few dollars short of the one thousand mark.
that will all be covered because it’s an accident!!!
(see, we won’t be dropping that…)
i have thought many times of arguing how the girls didn’t get sick “on purpose”.
“it was an accident!”
you know, just to see if it can work?
so we moved on to the possibility of a new company.
the first one, same plan, same deductible, $10 more a month, and restrictive as to which doctor we could see.
the second one, same everything, different hospital, $150 more than what we are paying.
it’s laughable..
(again, in that crazy kind of laugh..)
and i thought obama fixed health care?
summer is in full swing at my house and i am enjoying every minute of it.
i have been taking pictures of many fun things, and i get hung up, not wanting to “waste” time on editing them to post. i will have to get over that soon cause they are too cute to not share..
i have to say that my most favorite part of summer is having all my kids home. just having everyone around is heaven and i have to admit, i try to dissuade them from wanting to go play at their friends houses. i just love having everyone here!!
besides that, i have to tell you of a funny.
merrill and i like to torture one another.
i don’t like clowns. he tries to get me to look at them. the other night, it was a special clown pick on “american pickers”. seriously? i should insert the link to the article that was recently in the paper about coulrophobia. people, it’s real. 1 in 10 people are afraid of clowns. you just don’t hear about it because we don’t seek out therapy, we just avoid the circus. merrill thinks it’s funny.
but there are things that he doesn’t find as funny.
like doctors. needles. insurance.
so i decided to get him back. a couple of days later, as i was getting ready for bed, i told him in great detail about my doctor’s appointment that was coming up.
you know.. MY doctor.
so fun.
anything doctor related makes him squirm, so when i start to divulge details about latex gloves, long q-tip thingies, ky and the sort, he squirms.
it’s fantastic.
but let me tell you.. my insurance company has been calling, sending letters, telling my that my ob/gyn “misses me”. yeah right.
(i guess that i shouldn’t have let it go for three years. whoops.)
i am sure that all three obs who have explored my reproductive areas have been doing math, calculating how long it has been since they have seen me or my cervix.
(read that above statement with a heavy sarcastic tone will ya?)
doubt they miss the “v” that much.
now as i am trying so hard to be ladylike about this, it is also a sore spot emotionally. i won’t get into it now mostly because i am in my happy place.. and because i have my eye makeup intact.. but i will say i cried. something about checking a box that says, “my family is complete” is just a little heart-wrenching.
but i am not sure how much worse chillin’ with a clown would be.
i have a dear friend, someone i love soooo much who is turning 4 this month.
that is a big deal.
there will be festivities to last all month and the good news is that you can join in too!!
the party kicks off today..
now remember, it’s EASTERN STANDARD TIME. so it'd really be 7 pm here.
there are freebies for participation, no contest, just join in the fun!
there is so much more to come, and there is no need to worry, i will keep you posted. :)
now i am off to play, maybe even finish my new area today?
(maybe..)
