My favorite new Timmy saying. There are a lot of new "I can’ts" lately. Hope this is just a phase. While the "I can’t like it" is so cute, the others I can do without.

I can’t like it.

I can’t go to school.

I can’t go to the movies.

I can’t eat it.

I can’t sleep.

I can’t go potty.

I can’t do it.

I can’t play it.

I kinda had a day like that myself. I did soooo much today, I surprised myself on how much I actually accomplished. But…I can’t like it.

I got the big boys to school, went into town with Timmy to the bagel store, the italian deli, and the camera store. Came home, potty break for Timmy. Did some computer work on pictures and cards. Finished decorating inside the house, including getting the boys trees down from the attic and putting ALL the empty boxes back up in the attic. Took Timmy to Tumbles class. Came home, another potty break for Timmy, ate lunch with Timmy while doing more computer work. Put Timmy down for a nap, balanced the checkbook and paid the bills (definitely can’t like that part!). Folded and put away 5 loads of laundry. A little more computer work. Woke Timmy up from nap, potty break, got the boys and their friend from school. Brought all of the boys home, more computer work. Snacks for everyone, another Timmy potty break. Changed a poopy accident (Timmy, not me- and this is what I meant yesterday about the potty training not going well) and threw in more laundry. Boys friend got picked up. Started dinner but was so frazzled forgot to turn on oven. Monitored boys homework. Finished boat project with boys while managing to burn spaghetti slightly. Got dinner on the table and shoveled it in in under 7 minutes. Packed up and went to scrapbook class where I finally put the 300+ pictures I recently printed into albums. Went to Carvel and got my treat. Came home, more computer work and making cards. Made lunches for tommorrow, cleaned up the house. Blogged. Collapsing now, thanks. And I get to do it all again tommorrow!

I am significantly sleep deprived. My hair is in dire, dire need of highlights- grey, black, and blonde isn’t so attractive. I can’t lose any weight although I really need to. The inside of the house still needs decorating for Christmas. I still have to make MY christmas cards. The laundry is piled up so high- dirty to wash and clean to fold and put away. I’m not spending enough time with my boys-there is a lot of guilt there. I hate that I can’t drop everything and just play with Timmy. Have to finish the boys boat project with them. Not taking enough pictures around here for me. I haven’t even started my Christmas shopping. Not. One. Gift. I’m in deep shit. And I still have a good number of shoots to go before Christmas. Potty training is not going as planned.

Overwhelmed. Freaked out. Guilty. Exhausted.

On the brighter side… I still have a number of shoots before Christmas. I just love doing it. I am getting such great compliments on my work- I love that. The big boys are doing SO WELL in school. I am a proud mommy. Their report cards were incredible. All E’s (excellents- the highest) and a few S’s scattered in (satisfactories). No NR (needs reinforcements). And all the teacher comments were so wonderful and positive. I am really looking forward to parent/teacher conferences this week. We are leaving for Florida in 22 days for a 9 day vacation. We have plans to go into NYC with the whole family later this month. The outside of the house is decorated. I have nice friends who hopefully understand that I won’t see them until January, and still like me anyway. Timmy is a great kid and he is such a love- I enjoy him so much. I have a great husband who I owe a big thanks. He has been so helpful in keeping things moving around here- laundry, the dishwasher, cleaning up, staying with the boys so I can go do my picture thing. Even though he has work of his own that needs getting done. That I have an incredible mom and dad who babysit as needed and who are so supportive. That my mother in law tears up when she is telling my friends how proud she is of me. That my father in law will come by and sit with Timmy so I can pick up the big boys from school without waking him from his nap. Still not believing I have a real BUSINESS-taking pictures-one of my most favorite things!!

Happy. Proud. Inspired. Exhausted.

Thanks for reading. I know you are out there, you blog stalkers. You tell me when I see you. So leave me a message here on the blog if you feel like it. How are YOU doing?

So happy I got all my editing done this afternoon so I felt ready to go! We decided to take the boys to the movies to see Santa vs. The Snowman at the IMAX theatre over at the Cradle of Aviation Museum. The big boys have seen it every year for three years now and they still love it. It was Timmy’s very first movie! And he really started with a bang with an IMAX flick! It is such a cute, cute movie made by the Jimmy Neutron people, with definite reference to Star Wars in the battle scene. Timmy was just whipping his head around to see all the stuff on the giant screen. He really liked Santa and dug the movie a lot. Of course, I forgot the camera so no shots tonight. We headed out to dinner after to "Pizza Nick’s" and home for brownie sundaes. It was a great fun family night. Hoping to get the boys to another movie Sunday night. Either the Bee movie or Mr. Magoriums Wonder Imporium. They are all leaning toward the Bee movie. Gearing up for the three shoots tommorrow.

The camera didn’t make it out much today with all the cooking, preparing, eating, and cleaning up. Sad, I know, but sometimes it just can’t be helped. I did take some pictures of my nephews and brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and all the grandsons with grandma. None of the grandma ones came out very well. I think my settings must have been off or something. Have to try again.

We had a 30.27 pound turkey for 21 people. Somehow, it was done cooking in 5.5 hours! John was a huge help and basted all day, I even got to sleep in a little this morning. It was very, very needed. I felt much better today than I have in a while. We had a really, really nice Thanksgiving with everyone pitching in quite a lot. I think this year I finally managed to give up a lot of my control over the day, and just let everyone help. I am so over that "perfect" Thanksgiving. The food wasn’t any different this year than it was in past years, but with letting stuff go, I was a hell of a lot more relaxed. Which was so nice. All the cousins played together so nicely and I think everyone had a fun time (especially with the Wii).

Nelson came by and helped out a bunch last night. He pre-prepared the turkey for cooking. That thing was so huge that I couldn’t have managed it on my own. He’s so handy to have around. I highly reccommend everyone having a chef as a BFF.

I got my new lens on Tuesday but didn’t even get a chance to take it out of the box until last night. I’m not loving it- it is so monsterously huge and heavy and that along with some other issues about it that I don’t love is making me think it might be getting returned. Still doing some research on what I might replace it with but the jury is still out. I might give it another go tommorrow, but for the amount of $ I paid for it, it should make me so happy that I am exploding. I am not exploding. The picture of Nelson is with it. It’s okay, but I’m not really able to use it in low light settings without a flash. And you all know how I feel about the flash.

Going to be a very, very busy weekend. Two shoots tommorrow, three on Saturday, three on Sunday. Going to try to take the boys to a surprise outing tommorrow (Friday) night. Dinner with the twin girls and their parents Saturday night- after a photoshoot for them!

Off to bed. I might get a whole 8 hrs tonight. I can hardly even imagine…