rollercoaster

So, suffice it to say, updating my blog is not my strong suit. I always think about it - want to do it - but then life has a way of saying "pick me!! pick me!!" and that blog post that I'd formulated in my head... well, something else has taken its place.

Spring rolled into summer with a rollercoaster of emotions this year. May marked the end of school for my kids... my youngest (who was just a baby, like, yesterday) will be starting his last year of preschool in September. My middle one will be heading into first grade, and my oldest (insert panic) will be in his very last year of elementary school. I look at them and wonder just how did time get away from me?

I started June with a trip to Iowa for my cousin Abby's wedding. Sadly, but most fortuitously, the trip was perfectly timed to coincide with my beloved grandma's last days of life. She held on like the spunky, life-loving woman that she always was, and passed away the morning after the wedding. The trip was a whirlwind of emotions - so glad to see my unbelievably amazing family, to watch my beautiful cousin get married, to visit my other set of grandparents (still so spry in their 80's), and then to say good-bye to the grandmother who loved to bake us monster cookies and who loved to let us drive her golf cart every summer when she and my grandpa would go golfing (and buy us RC colas afterwards!)

After being home a little over a week, we were off again to Fripp Island, SC. Words cannot express the Mathison family's love affair with this tiny little island where deer eat right out of your hand and where fresh-off-the-boat shrimp is nightly fare. It is one of those places that makes you feel a little healed every time you leave from your week of R&R.

And in the midst of it all has been work. Oh, how I love my job. This spring has brought some amazing clients, some beautiful babies, some kids who've grown so much since I saw them last. I had the privilege of documenting a family who was losing a family member to cancer. (She passed away 13 days after our session, just a day before my grandmother.) Not a day goes by that I am not grateful for having a job I love so much, even on the days when I'm at my studio until 7:30 or 8:00 at night and feel so exhausted I just want to fall into bed.

This ended up being sappier than I'd intended, but I wanted to explain my long blog absence. Pictures to follow. Shortly. And yes, I promise.