My Best Shot

Here's Lil Girl & Sister K practicing on the piano.

If there is a 3 year old in your life who has access to a piano, then you know that practicing actually means "making as much noise as humanly possible," and so you can appreciate the patience of SisterK appropriately.

Happy Monday, all. Now head on over and check out some more Best Shots.

Hey there, all!

Connections
Originally uploaded by bbackprple

Peeking out from my blogging break to post this photo for the I Heart Faces theme of Reflections. (It's so great that they have the themes posted ahead of time). I knew exactly which picture I should use for this.

Things here are crazy. Tonight's my last night in the house, and I'm all over the place, emotionally & physically. Happy, sad, confused, excited; sick, exhausted, & sore. (Mostly exhausted and sore.) I'll be staying at my grandmother's for the foreseeable future, while all the repair & painting type work gets done at the new house, so posting will continue to be catch as catch can for a while now.

In the meantime, enjoy this picture of Lil Girl reflected in her dad's picture: it's certainly captured the whole "looking forward, looking backward" vibe I've got going in my life right now.

Hope you all are well, and, if you get a chance, head on over to check out the rest of the I heart Faces pictures!

Me too.

Some days, Lil Girl and I seem to wear each other out more than normal: everything I say bounces around her as if it were no more important to her than the traffic report, her energy level is high to manic, and her chosen activities are randomly designed for maximum mess and noise, minimum actual enjoyment. Napping is for suckers, eating is for babies: of which she is NOT ONE!!, and clothes are made for changing in and out of. For my part, there are just days that are worse healthwise, energywise, pain wise. Unfortunately, we managed to combine a bunch of our issues together last week, and had a heck of a day. Lil Girl has learned to say "I hate..." (which I totally fell into the trap of paying attention to, and now have to work harder to ignore, because if I pay attention she just says it all the more, like a curse), and she spent a lot of the day grumbling about everything from books to baths (she couldn't find one, and didn't want the other). Both of us seemed to be losing the last vestiges of our patience, and so I decided, since it was still nice enough out and the sun was going down: "Let's talk a little walk."

Our walks are short and sweet: we head to the end of our block, cross the big street and head back towards the house. We stop in front of the church for some running around space, and because the kids like to climb the stairs or walk the balance beam (depending on which other adults are with us, obviously). Lil Girl took Grammy's hand, then let it go. She had us "freeze" on command and forgot to reciprocate. But the fresh air was doing us all good, it was relaxing and something different than being stuck in the house all day. This is the picture I managed to get before the little one decided she'd had enough and wanted to go play Care Bears (again).... I think it says a lot about how our day went.



I understand exactly, sweetie. I'm soo there with you. Tomorrow will be better.

Don't forget to go on over to Mother May I for some more Best Shot Mondays.

My Best Shot Monday

On a Monday and everything!

So I tried to get the kiddos to pose for pictures before Youngest Nephew went back to school and stopped coming on a weekly basis (wah!), and it was... interesting. I was remembering fondly how easy it used to be to take pictures of the Lil Girl... back when she stayed where I put her. No such thing, now, and who can blame her. BUT, I did manage to get a few, and wanted to show you a then and now of my chicklets:

Here's the pair in August of 06, when Lil Girl was barely 3 months old and her big brother was six, and here they are two weeks ago, Youngest Nephew at 8, Lil Girl at 2.

(And yes, I do occasionally make my bed, if it just so happened that we were washing the sheets on both of these days, well, it just makes the comparisons easier, right?)

Iconic Shot (1)
Originally uploaded by bbackprple

Iconic Shot 2
Originally uploaded by bbackprple

The difference a year makes -

Here's the kiddos at our library trip last June -




and here they are this June -



(Contrary to the whole "I"m lounging around and falling asleep" vibe in this picture, we actually came home with about 10 books, and have read them all at least once in the past 3 weeks.)

So that's My Best Shot Monday for this week, I'm looking forward to checking out all of yours.

Never let it be said that I don't keep my promises...

when I can.

So, here's some of the Getting Ready batch:

(I wish I had the professional pix, but I still don't... SisterJ is being flimsy with the sharing here, cuz she wants to make sure people see them with her first.)

So: Here's SisterJ at midnight, first picture on her actual wedding day.


And then SisterCh, protecting her hair (did you know "Up-dos stick better to dirty hair?" It's just one of the interesting things I've learned from this wedding), as she finally gets into the shower.


SisterK's hair looked like those ribbon candies, after it was all curled. I was jealous.




And petrified that I'd have to go with like a ponytail, because with an hour left to the wedding, Naomi, the woman who came to do our hair, still had 3 people left, including me. I kept trying to do the "As long as the bride looks good it'll be fine" mantra, but I was freaking out a little inside. Luckily, she zipped right through us final three. :sigh:

Here's 3/5 sisters getting what they could of their make-up on:



SisterJ is the one who knows how to do make-up and stuff. Which kinda sucked for her, as the bride spend some of her day putting on other people's make-up, but she seemed ok with it, since we all came out fancy-dancy.




Which isn't to say that she didn't get pampered a bit too:




Here she is hugging the Best Man, Kev's cousin, who dropped off a little note and present from the groom:


Which were some dazzling diamond & pearl earrings...



and you'll see just how gorgeous they look on, in the next little piece of this.

Mosaic Meme

A little meme that I saw over at Abigail's. I love to play on Flickr, so my only difficulty was staying on the first page long enough to put the whole thing together. I may have gotten distracted a few times. May have.


Here are the rules:

The concept:
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

The questions:
1. What is your first name? For the purposes of this blog, it's Never
2. What is your favorite food? right now? Right now I could use a pickle
3. What high school did you go to? Somerville High, baby
4. What is your favorite color? Purple... well lilac really, but I put purple.
5. Who is your celebrity crush? I am totally crushing on Stephen Colbert... drool
6. What is your favourite drink? In the summer, I love iced tea. The iced tea in the picture happens to be alcoholic, but I really like the picture so pretend it isn't.
7. What is your dream vacation? I said restful, because that's all I really want right now, just someplace where I feel content and rested for a little while.
8. What is your favourite dessert? My grandmother's lemon squares, which didn't look like any in the results (they're not like a cookie, they're like a ... pudding maybe?), but I LOVE the irony of the picture I chose.
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? A mom. Not thinking about that right now. Moving on.
10. What do you love most in life? Tender moments: those times in life when you're with the people you love most and you're really experiencing it, really feeling it. The ones that you look back on and think "this is why I put up with all their craziness, this is why I'm in the world."
11. What is one word that describes you? I always respond to the question "How are you?" with "I'm doing." It doesn't say much, but I've learned that most people don't really want to know much. So I picked 'doing.'
12. What is your flickr name? BBackPrple, which is a combination of my favorite color and something I used to say when I was little. Every time I'd be going somewhere I'd say "I be back!" It kinda stuck and is now a family saying.



1. Day 203/365: You Never Let Go, 2. Cornichons smell an awful lot like pickles, 3. Zenith Space Command, 4. PURPLE HAZE, 5. Stephen Colbert Christmas Ornament, 6. Long Island Ice Tea, 7. sweet dreams...zzz..., 8. lemon squares, 9. ~ A Kiss For Mommy ~, 10. A tender moment 2, 11. When Waves Collide, 12. Sign of a good book

Please, please feel free to play along: it's a great way to spend a little time, letting your mind wander.

Have a great Sunday & Happy Father's Day to all my dad-type readers (are there any? If so Hello!)

A get back on track Monday post....

Here's one of my favorites from the rehearsal dinner: Lil Girl and her bride bear, looking all angelic as we wait for the coordinator to finally let us practice. (SisterJ, the bride, was not looking all that angelic at this point, I have to say, and I didn't blame her: coordinator person, it would be nice if you were helpful instead of making things worse. A little tip from me to you.)

Hope to have a bunch of getting ready pics posted for you either tonight or tomorrow... I told you I'd try catching up!

Rehearsal Dinner: Pass the wine!

So then, after the rehearsal, we all went out to dinner and had a pretty good time. Here are some of the Best Shots from our little get together. Honestly, at this point in the festivities, people were still trying to be on their best behavior. But the stress, of trying to get everything finished by Saturday (this was Thursday night)? Oh, it was pretty heavy.

But here's the happy couple, and they did a good job of putting aside most of the pressure in order to have a good time. SisterJ's anxiety got a good strong hold on her when we'd first arrived at the church - mostly because of an annoying coordinator lady who was pretty damn unhelpful - but she'd managed to calm down a lot by the time we got to the restaurant.


My two nephews are four years and usually quite a few miles apart, but they still manage to get along pretty well. Here, in response to my request that they do 'something fun,' the pose as 'Secret Agent Spies,' which they continued to be for the next two days. Once they got their tuxes on? It was look out evil, here we come.

Here's Big (no longer Only, as I now have a Brother-In-Law!) Brother and Oldest Sister/SisterS. These two were the least... caught up in the wedding- brouhaha, and all it involved, and while I guess that was good for them, it wound up being pretty hurtful, in some ways for SisterJ. SisterS not only left the bachelorette party about halfway through, she set herself apart at the reception, secluded with her boyfriend, and then left early, even after SisterJ had told her she'd be hurt if she did Ah, the drama. Mostly, I don't understand SisterS as much as I can my other sisters - she's lived with her mom, and therefore apart from most of us, for various times in her life. She's also at a point in her life where she thinks a lot of things are a waste of time, energy and resources - unfortunately, this included what she called the 'overreactions' of SisterJ about stuff (relating to the wedding) that 'isn't really important.' I'm not saying that there wasn't a certain amount of obsession on the bride's part, when it came to the wedding and the details and all of that, I'm just saying that SisterS, and her lack of tact didn't exactly help things. She just didn't handle things well. But here, at least, she's having a good time.



Here's Dad, my new Brother-in-law, and his uncle, about 1 and a half bottles of wine into the night. Deep discussions, and at least 5 more bottles of wine and a bottle of lemoncello followed.




Obviously:


Now, neither Lil Girl or I were drinking, but we still had a good time ;)




Here's Big Brother and Sister K being sweet too (although I won't swear to how sober either of them may be)



SisterJ and her bosses, who had nothing but nice things to say about her. It's so weird, sometimes to see your younger sisters as adults. (Yes, I realize that's an odd thing to be saying when I'm talking about her wedding, but that's a whole 'nother issue.) I was so proud that these people, who'd stood by her during this really trying year, were able to see just what a great person she really is, issues aside.


And another great shot of the bride and groom, as the evening wrapped up.



Oh, there's tons more --> you can click on my flickr account if you're impatient, but I think I'll be getting around to them as time moves on, if you've got it in you to wait.

Up next, a few finishing touches & the getting ready craziness!

Oh, the moods I've been in

It's been a long tiring week, while my body does it's vicious dance with the germs that want to take up residence permanently. Aside from a fever that just wouldn't quit, my brain just couldn't stay connected to reality for more than, let's say 7 minutes at a time. If this week had had a theme it would've been something akin to "ugh."

So, I'm glad that it's over. I've declared that it's over, and my body is just going to follow along cuz I told it to (hahahahaha). Either way, I'm sick of thinking about it. So, how about some of the pictures I promised you instead?

I'm going to start with some really cool shots of the rehearsal dinner, b/c I'm organized like that. :D

This is our very gorgeous church: I honestly can't imagine getting married anywhere but here. In addition to being our childhood church, it's just really picturesque, so we kinda lucked out there.





Here's Dad, Lil Girl, Oldest Nephew, SisterS and SisterJ - The Bride on their way to get things started:


SisterJ & Dad practice their walk down the aisle (no tears for faux-wedding days!)


Here's the 3 loves of my heart: Oldest Nephew, Youngest Nephew & Lil Girl, all on their bestest behavior!


And the Happy Couple stops to pose on their way out of church.



The rehearsal at the church went quickly, we had kind of an annoying lady running us through it (she kept saying how in charge she was, but she really wasn't). SisterJ was feeling a little bit of anxiety, b/c the church people had screwed up some of the paperwork, but it went pretty well.

I'm going to stop by again later and show you all the rehearsal dinner highlights, keep my mind busy on something else for a while.

Hello My Lovelies!

Laptop is still being uncooperative, but I managed to get back here again, so I thought I'd check in.

I wanted to tell you how the shower went last Saturday, in case you were waiting with baited breath.

Honestly? It went rather well... my co-hostesses were a bit lax in the whole "you have to introduce yourself to people" arena, but other than that, and a mini-post crash, I think things went awesome.

SisterJ and her fiance seemed a little bit surprised (although I'm not entirely sure they were), and most importantly, everybody had fun. So that's good.

How about some photographic proof of said fun? I thought you might like that...

Here we are in the car... I'm taking pictures because we're running late. AGAIN. And I'm trying not to go crazy. (I am an early bird, in a family of never-on-time-s.) That's Sister Y, Oldest Nephew, & Sister Ch...



Lil Girl, hiding for the chance to say 'surprise;'

Here are the soon to be Mr. & Mrs. playing a who knows who best game:

Can you guess who's winning?




Then there were some presents:





We did cake smooshing, because Sister J is VERY MUCH OPPOSED to doing it at the wedding...




Which turns out to be a good thing.


There's a few more still to come, but overall, I thought it went really well! (Note to self, however: if you're planning on playing games, bring pencils. Don't leave them on your desk.)

(You can click on over to my Flickr Stream to see more: if we're not friends, let's be!)

I don't think it fits

Here's My Best Shot Monday shot: Youngest Nephew tries on his dad's 1st Communion suit... it's a tad bit small. But I couldn't resist taking the shot anyways... he's too cute!

I don't think it fits
Originally uploaded by bbackprple

Now I'm off to check out all the other Shots... Happy week, everybody.

My Transparent Niece

I know everybody's going to have their Easter pix up today, but my camera is in another room, and the card with the pictures on it is in it. (Imagine that!) I'll try to get a few of those up later in the week. I hope everybody had a wonderful weekend, no matter how they spent it.

In the meantime, take a gander at this one:

My Transparent Niece
Originally uploaded by bbackprple

I promise you that this is straight out of the camera. I have no idea how it happened: I was playing with F-stops and exposures and .. well, everything, but I was quite surprised to see the resulting photo. Any of you photographically inclined people got any ideas on how this happened? Anyways, it's My Best Shot Monday!

Tatooed Bride

Tatooed Bride
Originally uploaded by bbackprple

I'm finally feeling up to a little My Best Shot Monday, and, since I spent hours and hours yesterday printing and then assembling wedding invitations (which I will hopefully post later this week), I thought I'd give you all a little gilmpse of Sister J - the Bride.

Two months from today, my sister will be a Mrs. It's pretty astounding, and I just couldn't be happier for her. (For all the drama and the craziness and all that... to have her be happy? Especially after our past 6 months or so? Too, too amazing.)

So: Here's My Best Shot Monday picture. You can head on over to Mother May I to catch some more glimpses.

MBSM

It's a snowy day here in the Boston area, and, if I could get outside, I'd be wandering, trying to get shots of the heavy, tired trees.

Instead, this is what I can see outside of my window.


But, it reminds me of a wishbone, and we could use all the good luck we can get around here, these days. (Nana is hopefully getting her feeding tube put in as I type... please cross fingers right now.)

I'm going to distract myself by wandering through all of your photos, so I'll thank you in advance for the distraction!

MBS -- Tuesday?

Just because I really, really, really need some cheering up, let's see what the first Christmas picture to come up in my slideshow shuffle is... no matter what, I'll post that one.



ooh... it's a good one.

This is Older/Only Brother, Christmas Eve 1988, lighting the candles on the altar. This is one of his signature poses, the over the shoulder glance... For his scrapbook this year, I've got a page just of him doing it. (I'll try to take a picture today, but one of the reasons I need the aforementioned cheering up is that my stupid printer is not working. At all: it takes a piece of paper, immediately tilts it, then proceeds to tell me there's a paper jam. You think?? It's cuz you're eating it crooked! :Sigh:) Anyways, he was an altar boy for a number of years. Back before our Catholic churches allowed 'altar servers,' and there weren't that many boys in our neighborhood. Between that, and the fact that we live directly across the street from the church, he served at a lot of masses, got the pick of assignments. This is right before the children's Christmas Eve Mass, 1988, he's 12, I was 9 and in the pagaent as... probably a non-speaking angel that year.

He's a cutie, and I gotta say that Lil Girl and her big brother do have so many of his mannerisms, it's kind of amazing.

Alright, that kinda worked... I'm going to go curse at electrical equipment in my room. And hopefully take a shower, cuz we've got Lil Girl tomorrow, and I know it ain't gonna happen then.

Off I go...

She loves to see the babies...

... and I can't pass them up either. Besides, it helps me to be not obsessing.



So, there we go.