Long Live Harold Lee Miller Photography!

When I was pregnant with Anna over five year ago now, I wanted a professional picture of me and my pregnant belly. And lucky me, I was (and still am) friends with a commercial photographer who was willing to take some photographs. Flash forward, it is now the Summer of 2010 and I want an accompanying photo of the dear girl that once was a baby in that handy dandy uterus of mine. I'd also like to capture the two of our kids together, if that is humanly possible.

Enter Harold Lee Miller. I can't say enough about the man. He is an artist first and foremost. But one word is not enough. He is a story teller, a visionary, an entrepreneur, a fabulous cook, a gentle man, a funny guy, a patient husband, a loving father and an amazing photographer. He's a got a wife, too, who I love to pieces and is one of the few people who I can name as a true friend. She gets me and I'm okay with it. Quite a combo. These two people are a power house of creativity. Sometimes, I just bask in it. Other times, I covet it. But I never get tired of it.

So we're in Indiana for a Summer visit. Now that we officially live nine hours away from my closest and dearest peeps it is impossible to see them all in a five day period. And, I'll tell you what, it makes me grumpy. But that is another post. This is about the photo shoot we squeezed in while partaking in the annual Hoosier-palooza (advance tickets on sale now for next year...get your time with Kelly reserved a year in advance...ugh.).

Harold's studio is in the heart of downtown Indianapolis. You can't help but feel hip or tragically inferior (take your pick) when stepping into his space. He designed the building himself and then set out to become an interior designer as well. The studio has some fabulous mid-century pieces that fit the space perfectly making you feel like you truly are in a place reserved for creative pursuits.

When we arrived the kids immediately went running to Sam to play. Meanwhile Grace assisted Harold with getting the lighting set up. And then the photo shoot began. I have to say, I'm biased, I think Anna is beautiful. But, Harold can make a fence post look beautiful. So I'm calling this Anna's first photo shoot.

Here's collage of a few of the shots Harold captured of Anna Mae.


And somehow,Harold, managed to get our two kids to stand next to each other and look like they might actually like each other, just a little bit, for a minute.


If you want to see some of these photos individually check out my Flickr account. And while you're at it head over to Facebook and become a fan of Harold Lee Miller Photography. Thank you Harold for capturing the essence of our kids so beautifully!

First Day of School 2010

What's a mother to do?
I mean, really, she isn't supposed to be this old yet.
I took the day off just so I could freely think about her all day and, per chance, forget something that she absolutely needed to get through the day so I would have to go back to school to drop it off. Really, it happened.
Okay, so here they are in all their first day glory.


My heart aches when I look at this picture. She's growing up too quick.


And this guy...well, I'll tell you a secret, shhhh...he still likes to snuggle. I haven't lost him yet.

So here's the photo documentary of us surrendering our children to the public school system once again.


Daddy walking Anna to her classroom. Ten bucks to the best "thought bubble" for Anna.


Anna waiting in the hallway outside her classroom.


Here's our big 4th grader doing his best to ignore us...I guess we'll get used to it eventually, right?


Okay, just one last peek before we leave!

When Gavin and Anna got home from school, I excitedly asked Anna what her favorite thing about kindergarten was. Answer: "Napping". Now this is a girl who has her priorities straight!

So tell me, how's the beginning of the school year for you?

The House on Maple - Before...

I wanted to get all fancy and do a "before" video. Let's suffice it to say the learning curve for me and my perfectionism were getting in the way of getting any thing posted before we actually moved into Maple Street. So I'm giving you a pictorial account of the house before renovations and what not begin. So let's start shall we?


This is the old Magnolia tree in our front yard. Magnolia trees are great for climbing!


This is the living room


Me and the professor in front of the fireplace in the Living Room on the day we closed.


View of the Living room from the mudroom/laundry room


Dining Room


moving into the butler's pantry


The kitchen circa 1932


The original sink...should it stay or go?


Jenn Air Stove...circa 1974...ugh.


LSD trip or 1974 linoleum kitchen floor...you decide.


Master Bedroom "suite" (aka den and sun room combined with 2 bathrooms -one a handicapped accessible one and the other bathroom...untouchable)


Fireplace in Master bedroom


Sunroom half of master "suite"



The "untouchable" bathroom...none will enter until it's sparkling new.


All it needs is a little "bon ami" am I right?


Oooh, I feel the need to take a shower just lookin' at the picture!


Let's move onto the handicap bathroom...it's usable.


Shower big enough for a family of four...


Are you jealous of our corner toilet?


Scary long dark hallway...


Anna's room after the professor painted it a blissful white


The entire room used to be this color, pepto pink from the 1930's. Gotta love that lead paint!


Jack and Jill bathroom between Anna and Gavin's room. How to tone down the pink for a boy? Any suggestions?


Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful?


Gavin in Gavin's room - painted blissfully white by the professor. Before it was a mustard yellow floor to ceiling...yeah.


The porch is all repaired and repainted...the overgrown bushes gone.
Come say, "Hello" to the House on Maple.

More to come...of course.

God help us.

The House on Maple

Well, hold onto your pants.
As I mentioned in the last post, we are homeowners once again...finally...and in the deep South. And I have to say if we have learned anything in this whole process it is patience.

Most people go about buying a house the traditional way. They find themselves a great Realtor like Sherry Soforic and go house hunting. It's a very different animal here in small town Clinton, population 8,000 give or take a few. Here if a house is actually listed, it's usually overpriced and on the market for...well let's just say we've been here almost two years and many of them are still for sale.

The start of this transaction began in November last year with an e-mail and ends with the most unusual closing I've been party to on June 28, 2010. No joke, we signed our names on one piece of paper in an attorney's office in Clinton and then he shooed us out of there saying the office was too hot and we could just pick up a copy tomorrow. We then went directly over to the Presbyterian Home where the owners live. You see, the attorney's office isn't handicap accessible and Mrs. Skinner is in a wheel chair. Instead of having two elderly people wait out in the car in the attorney's parking lot on the hottest day of the year (record breaker I might add) as was suggested by the attorney's secretary, we all trekked over to Presbyterian Home's assisted living. After signing their name in the comfort of air conditioning, we were handed a whole bunch of keys by both Dr. Skinner and Mrs. Skinner. We were handed hope. Hope that one of those keys might actually work because right now we only had one key to one door.

Oh, did I fail to mention we had a key? Why yes, doesn't everyone get a key to the house they are buying several months before they are actually the owner? No? Uh, well this is awkward. Yep, the house on Maple was fair game for several months prior to signing that one signature on the dotted line. So much time for dreaming and lamenting and dreaming and lamenting. Did I mention dreaming and lamenting?

So we're the third owners of this Southern brick bungalow built in 1937. The Little's of Clinton built it. I tried to convince Anna that Stuart Little and his family lived here. But she wasn't having any of it. Then in 1965 the Skinner family bought it. They were a young couple with a new baby. Dr. Skinner taught English at Presbyterian College and Ramona dabbled in art and raised little Jimmy. They wanted to see that the house was passed onto another professor thus here we are...dreaming and lamenting.


We'll keep you posted.

The House on Maple: The Beginning

house2, originally uploaded by missmonkeymae.

We are officially home owners in our little town. The house on Maple is a 1937 painted white brick bungalow that needs a lot of love and attention. And we are just the family to give it to her.

More to come....

Can it be that my baby is five years old?: Rainbows

Baby to Five in the blink of an eye.
How does that happen? Remember when Summer vacation lasted forever? Now it seems like it's a week long and they are back in school. And it was just a few weeks ago our Anna Mae was a baby.

So she had her Rainbow Party. All the invitations were created (Anna drew and cut out all the rainbows)then sent along with a request for each attendee to wear a designated color of the rainbow.




Gavin and Daddy created the sign behind the kids. See, I have visual proof that her big brother (or bother as she, thanks to Olivia, refers to him)can do something nice for his little sister.



We had rainbow cupcakes. I had seen them featured many times in many blogs. They all look so pretty and rainbow-y. Mine...not so much. Advice to anyone considering making these...be prepared for color gel stain-a-palooza. Oh, and make sure you are totally a left brain person or have a left brain person handy to separate out all the cake batter and layering. I sucked at that part. But we did get very bright colorful cupcakes, so I'm pretty sure that the kids that came ingested their fair share of food dye for the next year or so. And can someone tell me where to find a cupcake liner that doesn't ruin the look of a perfectly beautiful cupcake? Are you sensing cupcake frustration dear readers? Dreams of a cupcakery were dashed because of the dreaded rainbow cupcake.



Oh, and the tropical heat pretty much melted any great frosting fantasy I may have thought might save the look of the cupcake. Okay, enough already Betty, move on.


One more beef...it pains me that there is no "y" in this cupcake, only RO_GBV...the shame.

There was also the quintessential party event, the pinata. I have a hard time watching children trying to bang the living daylights out of something that may have represented a living thing. So what does it say about me that I was okay with them beating the hell out of a rainbow? Kinda seems like some sadistic dream killer if you ask me. Not that anyone is, but if they did ask me that would be my answer.


This was the before the dream killing began. Such a sweet image don't you think?


Let the dream killing begin! It would have been perfect if only I had loaded that thing with all sorts of vegetables.

But in the end, after all the cake that was ground into the carpet, the sticky dried juice on the table and the remains of the destroyed rainbow, there was a five year old girl that loved the celebration she had with her friends.



I guess that means we'll do it all over again next year because after all, how often do you get a chance to whack the hell out of an object and not get arrested?

Can it be that my baby is five years old?: Surprise!

Yes.
And I've got birthday party pictures to prove it. After great gnashing of baby teeth, she decided that she wanted a Rainbow birthday party (I'm not sure why I capitalized rainbow. Maybe I'm finally giving it the respect it deserves). But before the official birthday party kicked off on the actual anniversary of this dear girl's birth a surprise birthday party was thrown for her the weekend before. And it was cause for celebration because we finally got some cousin action down here. Cousins, Aunt L. and Uncle K. and Gramma descended on our little house and we partied.


Clearly she wasn't expecting this when she came in from playing.


"I've always wanted a cookie pizza!" -Anna


Aunt L. and Anna get her itty bitty twin dressed in her new birthday clothes


Gramma Cece and the girls!


I swear there is a story in these pictures! Happy cousins, uninvited giraffe man comes to party, dress up gone bad...

...so we laughed, gossiped, chased kids around, and all around celebrated being together. Is it any surprise we had a great time?