I won a photo shoot and 8’x10′ picture in a silent raffle at school last spring. Does it count as “winning” if you have to pay for it? I paid $5 or something. I was excited. Last month I noticed that it expired in September so I called to set up the appointment. After clicking around their website a bit I was less excited. The photo poses were all quite dull. After talking to the woman on the phone and finding out that there is no way to get the digital copies I was even less excited. I told her I was hoping to use one for Christmas cards and she said, “Don’t worry, we sell Christmas cards.” Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about!

I made the appointment for two weeks ago but had to reschedule because Alan was really sick. Rescheduled for today. So my day went like this. Rush the whole family out the door at 7:55. Drop kids off at school. Drop Alan off at work. Bring myself to work. Of course it is cold and raining through all of this. Then I went out of my way to go to the Dunkin Donuts that sells cheap iced tea (this momma needs her caffeine!) only to find that they had raised their prices. Sigh. Made it to work anyway. Busy, but productive day. Home in time to get the kids off the bus. Eve was a mess. She’s so high and low. She ran home, yelling happily, jumping in puddles… then ended up collapsed in the living room in tears. Why? She couldn’t tell me. She said her body just needed to cry. Which, funny enough, was almost the same thing Lex told me in bed tonight as he was in tears. Sigh.

I got her calmed down, we all had snack, then started the effort of finding coordinating clothes for a family photo. Can you see how unexcited I was about this?! :) No fancy shoes or manicures. We just got somewhat matching clothes and headed out. The lady at the (sketchy looking) place asked me a half a dozen times if I needed to use the powder room to freshen up my make-up. I was kind of offended, but mostly just didn’t care. Lex put up a fuss about going, but I bribed encouraged him with the promise of Panera for dinner so he cooperated and overall the photo shoot went well.

Turns out the owners/photographers are the parents of the one kid in school Lex doesn’t like. Luckily for all of us Lex chose to keep his opinions to himself when they told us who their kid was.

Panera for dinner turned out to be exhausting. The kids were uber silly and loud. Wore me right out. Home for a late bedtime. Back at it tomorrow!

We go back next week to look through the photos and pick one for our 8’x10′. I’ll post a picture of it when we get it. :)