Like I've said before-- not all of my challenge photos are great, but not all of my days were great. I feel so proud of the fact that despite illness, creative anxiety (that never went away!), moving, surgery on my elbow, all of our money being stolen, parents moving in, a busy 4-kid-schedule, ornery kids, and just plain old lack of motivation, I didn't miss a day. Not one! It wasn't always pretty, but I accomplished my goal!
Speaking of not always pretty... I guess it's fitting that capturing my final photo would be a challenge. I struggled with knowing how to end this journey. I mean, I wanted it to somehow pay tribute to accomplishing my goal, but knew I couldn't do anything really grand. What to do?
Right before taking Bud to school I had an epiphany. It was fueled by Big's affinity for wearing numbered shirts-- it's all he'll wear for the most part. So, I quickly whipped up a new shirt for him to wear and made a plan.
Not the best plan, as it turned out. Yesterday was one of those days where Big took extreme pleasure in being contrary. Super funny to him. Not so funny to me. So, relying on him to be the integral part of my plan didn't work out very well. My creative anxiety kicked into overdrive. I was determined to capture a photo that was exactly what I had envisioned!
So, this is where we started--
Big lasted all of about a minute in front of the funny mirrors until he was done (and haven't they ever heard of Windex?!?)-- he was much more interested in the fish.
Hmmm. Not exactly what I'd envisioned for my grand hurrah, so when we picked up Bud from school we did a quick shirt-switcheroo and made another go of it.
I looked at my shots when I got home, only to realize that it was a lot darker out than I had thought, and having Bud sit on the bottom of the slide was a bad idea. Too much red and orange have made my child into an Oompa-Loompa. And since I don't know how to edit....
Back to the drawing board. Another quick switcheroo....
Yeah. Again, soooo not what I'd envisioned. Yikes!
Maybe if I give Bud another go....
With promise of a sucker treat, I coaxed him into another shirt-switcheroo and had at it. He did great for a few, but quickly lost steam.
Okay. There's one kid left. Another sucker promise, another shirt-switcheroo....
It was looking rather promising, albeit a little stiff, so I asked her to jump a bit.
Yowza! Sorry, my bad.
Let's try again...
A little intense, but such enthusiasm! I think I can work with that.
Now we're talkin'!
Apparently Ginger's been taking an Irish step dancing class on the sly. I think we're getting close...
I DID IT!
11 comments:
WOW!! Congratulations! Good for you! (and all of your money being stolen??? yikes!!) I thought there were more good shots among all those "365" than you did, but the last few were indeed excellent. Hurrah! Congrats!
Wait, i was wondering the same thing ... all your money got stolen???? All of it? How does that happen?
Hilarious! I love seeing all of the kids wearing the same shirt.
Yeah, JA. I really wish my final photo could have been a montage of the 4 of them. It was so frustrating at the time (the kids were throwing tantrums and sniping at each other all day, making it extra hard), but my coaxing and bribing efforts turned out something pretty funny.
Believe it or not, Pen was the only one who posed really willingly. And luckily Ginger's snack finally kicked in and she had a bi-polar-like change of attitude! ; )
Congrats on the 365! Glad the kids finally cooperated...LOL! : )
and that money story has got to be interesting!
Right after I said CONGRATULATIONS!! and your pictures are AWESOME!!, I was going to say ALL YOUR MONEY STOLEN, WHAT THE...? I hope the horrible situation is remedied (did I spell that right?) Anyway, congrats! Fun post!!
Thanks, Carrie Marie and Laura!!
Okay, I commented once before on the stolen money thing and then deleted it, since Pen pointed out that I used Rophone's real name.
Anyway, a few weeks before Christmas someone got ahold of our debit card number and cleaned us out. We DID get the money back, but not until AFTER Christmas-- about 3 1/2 weeks later.
Not having any credit cards at the moment, we were lucky that Rophone had a few un-cashed birthday checks we could live off of until he got his next paycheck!
So, in a little more than a 2 month period, I had elbow surgery, Rophone was hospitalized and diagnosed with Crohn's (leaving me one-armed in a sling with 4 kids), all our money was stolen, my grandma died and my folks moved in.
THAT'S why I'm surprised I made it without missing a day! ; )
WOW!!! How horrible! I'm so glad that you got your money back and you had a few $$ to live on meanwhile. Uggggg, and before the holidays.
At least you can say, whew, it's over and we made it!! :-)
HALLELUJAH!! ; )
Um, yeah, I'm gonna say God was definitely watching out for you. It would certainly be a miracle if I had uncashed bday checks... LOL Glad it all worked out! : )
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