Crazy title for a blog, huh? Well, it describes the events of last weekend perfectly! The kids and I took off last Saturday midday to visit with some dear friends that had moved to Madison, MS. My friend Emily and I originally met at church years ago and our kids have been friends since birth so we were all super excited to get to spend some time with them. While there, I was also scheduled to photograph 6 families in 2 days! What was going to be a fun and busy weekend turned into a crazy one!
When I was photographing Emily’s little boy Beau the afternoon I got there, we were in a huge field with tall grass and he accidentally sat down right in the middle of an ant bed, so we were stripping him down and dancing around trying to get rid of the ants in his pants! Once he recovered from the shock of it he was still up for some picture taking. What a trooper!
After another session we headed out for a yummy dinner, good conversation, then bedtime for the kiddos. After we put the kids to bed, Emily called out to me to come into her keeping room. She calmly told me to look at the small snake on the floor wrapped around one of her daughter’s flip flops near the back door that the kids had been leaving open most of the day! Emily is always calm. I’m not. I’m much more excitable. Thankfully it was small and harmless or I would have been out the door and down the street spending the night with one of her neighbors before she could even get her sentence out! She got the Dyson vacuum and I got the broom. We had our weapons and a plan! But in reality, I kept my distance and rooted Emily on with her plan. It was like a big thumbs up from afar. When it comes to snakes I’m a complete wimp. I wish I had been in my right mind to take a photo of the snakeskinned flip flop and Emily with vacuum in hand, but I wasn’t. The funniest part was our squealing as we watched the snake being sucked up into the vacuum rod and then emptied into a garbage bag.
Unfortunately our night had more events in store after the snake. My son Luke had a severe allergic reaction from all the tree pollens that are rampant right now, especially in Mississippi, and I had to take him to the ER at the Children’s Hospital in Jackson. He ended up being admitted for breathing treatments and we were there two days. Thankfully my husband was hunting near the Mississippi state line so he was able to quickly make it over to help. I cancelled my morning sessions to take care of my son, but when my husband arrived and we knew Luke was going to be just fine I headed out in the afternoon to photograph the other four families and then go back to the hospital.
The good news is Beau’s ant bites weren’t as bad as we thought, the kids got to see the snake that was still alive and kickin in the garbage bag, and Luke got to see his friends when he got out of the hospital and he’s feeling much better now. But to top it all off, we drove home Monday night in the storms and tornado warnings!
WHEW! What a weekend! Life is full of surprises!
It reminds me of a quote by Phyllis Diller, “A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.” So, I want to thank all of the sweet families I met this weekend whose kids were smiling back at me through my camera lens and setting everything straight!
I’m working on all of the images from my sessions there now and can’t wait to share them with you. The neighborhood where I photographed these families is such a beautiful place and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting these new families! Everyone was so sweet and up for some photographic adventures! In the meantime, here is a photo of my kids with their sweet friends right before we headed back to Birmingham. Kinda didn’t realize just how much we missed them til this past weekend.
