July Dog Days

Man, it is hot!!!!  And I like hot, but I DON'T like humid!!  And when you put the 2 together you get a miserable Carolina day...or several of them in a row as in our weather here lately.  But, I am not complaining too much cause we could be in a bad drought like parts of Texas...or be worried on a daily basis that the current hurricane brewing will blow our town away...or not have a nice safe home to live in!! I am not complaining!  Well,  maybe just a little.  Ha,ha!!  Okay, so I have not been here to post in a while because I can't post pics of my Bennett here and as you know everything I do these days (well, almost) has to do with him.  
We have had a wonderful summer and he has changed so much it is almost frightening!!  He is walking more and more by himself.  Talking and trying to say everything that we do (yes, my foul mouth is curbed).
He is still not eating any real solid foods, but we try at every meal to give him something solid.  Sometimes he eats a bite or two, and other times..not a mouthful.  I figured as long as he is not starving, we are good, right??
The hot weather has kept us from doing some of the things we were hoping to do with him, but there is plenty of time to do them.  Things like go to the beach (he is way too fair for this kind of heat), go to the zoo (not sure even the animals are out in this warmth), take longer (than we do now) walks and play in his baby pool for longer periods of time.  I suppose we can do these things when the temps settle down some.  But we have enjoyed being outdoors early and seeing the rabbits and squirrels and deer that frequent our neighborhood.  Bennett loves being outdoors.
As for Mandy, she is enjoying her summer, too.  She has done a lot of hanging out with her friends and has continued to keep in touch with school folks and is looking forward to her classes next school year.
I can't believe that it is almost time for school again....why does the summer seem to fly by??  I can remember when our children were little and we loved the summer so very much. We swam everyday and kept absolutely NO schedules.  I did make the kids read each day and we did keep their math skills sharp by doing some work, but other than that we really just hung out and played and loved every minute of summer.  We really milked the days and evenings for all they were worth!  I always hated to see the school yr. begin.  I missed my children when they went back to school.... I  now miss my children being small and cuddling and tucking them into bed with a kiss.  I do think that is the reason that I am more than thrilled that Bennett is here with us now.  He is a throw back of our son, Casey, in almost every way!!  And Casey really knew how to make the most of every summer day.  I have never seen a child that played as hard as he did each day.  When his little feet hit the floor he was off and running and that is Bennett, too.  Summers will be so much fun for us all as he grows.
So, we have not gone on vacation yet...we will be going to the beach and to the mountains with my sister and brother-in-law,  JoAnn and Ronald.  It is with real disappointment that I will miss the baby shower of some of our oldest friends' daughter.  It took quite a while for Lacey to become pregnant and when I saw her in early summer, she was just precious and so happy to be having a boy!!
This is Carol, our neighbor for many many years until they moved to Atlanta...her son, Keith, is Casey's age and her daughter, Lacey, is a year younger than Mandy.  We have continued to be friends (despite the move) for almost 30 years!!  She is funny and has the best laugh...and she is easy to amuse :)

      And this is Lacey...you can barely see her little baby bump!! She has a warm and wonderful husband named Adam.

Lacey is one of the sweetest young women I have ever known.  She is a former gymnast and not very big even today!!  Her baby shower is in Aug. and Mandy and I had plans to attend.  Now, our schedules and plans are being changed due to school stuff and things beyond our control and we will miss the shower.  I am bummed!  I will be trying to get to Atlanta before she delivers to take some maternity photos of her and I cannot wait!! :)
Hmmm, not too much more is happening around here.  Let's see....I had a photo shoot with the most adorable little girls.  Abbey and Callee were the funniest and cutest I have shot all year!  (with the exception of Bennett, of course )  Here are a few of their best shots...

You can see why I love to photograph these two, huh??  So sweet and so dang cute.  Abbey is the youngest and she is only 3 and it took a few minutes to get her to warm up to the camera. When she was finally comfortable...oh man, she was all ham!!  And I loved it.  We took these shots at a local park and it was so cloudy, I thought we would get wet any minute, but luckily, it held off and the shoot went great!
I have a couple of other shoots lined up and something new in the works, so stay tuned :)
I took a few shots of my sweet neighbor, Josephine yesterday for fun and here they are.....

JoJo the tourist..

JoJo the teaser...

JoJo the... well, let's say the caller!! (although the hat screams something different)

JoJo the fireman???

JoJo the beauty...

JoJo our special and sweet friend!!

Mandy and I went scouting for some places for me to shoot at my next couple of sessions and found a pretty nice place with a bridge and everything!!

 Oh!! I almost forgot!!! I also took some shots of my beautiful niece, Brittany and her fiance, Clark.  We were scoping out a winery called Millwood Winery in Vale, NC.  We ran across this great field of sunflowers and even though it was 100 degrees outside, they were real troopers about giving us (Melissa and myself) the opportunity to get a few shots..

Loved this time...I love learning new places and doing new things......did I mention I have something new in the works???  I only have one problem these days and that is I am not taking very good care of myself in the exercise dept.!! And as a good friend of mine pointed out, I can make all the excuses in the world and it boils down to me putting in the time and making myself stick to the plan to lose weight and feel good about myself!!  I will keep starting over until I have done it enough.....lol!  Hopefully it won't take me forever.

Okay, nothing new here anymore.  You now know everything in my life......open book, huh?? Dull book but open just the same.  

Ta,Ta!!