Update: Fall 2014 edition

Just a quick recap since I have been MIA almost six months.

*Kids are great. I officially have three (!) teenagers. My "baby" is full blown toddler. He is still really cute and we are quite certain he is a genius. ;)

*Football season is wrapping up. We are in week three of play-offs for my youth leaguers and we have about two weeks left for my high schooler. This was our first year with high school football and it has been a new and exciting experience.

*Photography is kind of on the back burner. I photographed my football players and really enjoy it. I just don't have the practice time I would like. At least two of my boys will be wrestling. I would love to photograph wrestling but I am limited by me gear at this time. If you are interesting in my sports work you can check it out HERE (youth football) and HERE** (HS football).

*The biggest change...WE MOVED. Ok, not as exciting as it sounds. We just moved to a new neighborhood about a block from our old home. BUT it is a big deal for me. We moved into a smaller home. This sounds insane because we have a larger-ish family. However, I really feel this is going t o help my stress level in so many ways. I was having such a hard time keeping up with housekeeping. My kids have chores and help out a lot. But the reality is that we are gone all the time. I leave at 7am and I am not really home again until 8-8:30pm. Saturdays are full of football games and cross country meets. I spend all day every Sunday cleaning, food prepping and doing laundry. I think a smaller home will help. So far, my theory has been right (but we are only 2 weeks in, stay tuned).

*I am still obsessed with nail polish. You can check out my nail art HERE. Please note, I use the word "art" lightly. Basically, I just have a lot of nail polish and know how to use stripping tape and a dotting tool.


**My albums are La Cueva vs. Atrisco Heritage, La Cueva vs. Cibola and La Cueva vs. Eldorado.

Pressure

Long time no blog.

The past year my stress level has really become overwhelming. I would look around me and everything seems so much easier for everyone else and I wonder I am doing wrong? I feel like no matter how organized I am, I feel as though I am always rushing around and yelling and stressed. I am forever forgetting to sign reading logs and sign permission slips. As I am patting myself on back for getting my kids to practice early I will realize I left their football helmet at home. I send game day snacks only to realize our snack day is not for another week. If I clean my house, I don't play enough with the kids. If I play with the kids or allow myself to relax, my house is trashed. Pressure to be a "good" mom.

Then blogging began to feel like tons of pressure. Pressure for people to read and like me. Pressure for quality pictures and content. Pressure to be a good blogger. So I took a break.

I have come to release that there is no good or bad way to do things. I am just me. There will always be a better mom. There will always be a cleaner home than mine (always). There will always be a more interesting blog (like hundreds of them). I am me. Take me or leave me.

The long and short of it? I'm back.

what's new?

I’m alive! Just a really terrible blogger.

We are all doing well. School is winding up (woo-hoo) and I could not be happier. The school year stresses me out. I am a terrible, disorganized person and the school year just adds more chaos to our busy household.

We are in the middle of our spring tackle season. The boys are loving it. Shortly after that ends we dive into a whole new world. High school football! I am not sure how my son feels but I am terrified. Both for him and my wallet. My littlest guy will be two soon. Two! How in the world does that happen? In the words of the wise Ferris Bueller, life moves pretty fast.

As I said before, I really hate saying “I am busy” because, seriously, we are all busy. I think the issue for me is that I sit at a computer for work and I read and write eight hours a day. I admittedly avoid the computer at home. However, I do keep my Instagram updated. I may or may not be an Instagram junkie. Moreover, I may or may not have TWO Instagram accounts. One of those accounts may or may not be entirely devoted to nails and nail polish. Check us out (my family and my nails)!

The Family
barbiekkg

The Nails
amateur nail girl

Anyway, I will get a real update up this week. I just wanted to check in.

We're ready...

We're ready for some (spring) football.

We are not ready to be chasing a toddler all over the football field though...

I look like a circus clown

This really happened to me.

Situation #1
On Friday after work I went to Walgreens to buy...wait for it...nail polish. I treat myself every pay (like $10-15 bucks, nothing crazy). Anyway, I am standing there lusting after all the Essie polishes. There is a older woman and her grown son picking out polish for her. The son is going on and on about all the crazy polish. "Do people really wear all these crazy, horrible colors?" Meanwhile, I am standing there with mint green nails, with a black and white chevron accent. The woman says to me, "It is so hard to pick, so many to choose from. Can you believe people wear some of this crazy stuff?" Then she sees my nails and says, "Oh, I guess they do! Do you do that your self or do you pay for that?!" Thankfully I do not pay for it, I paint those crazy colors on myself.

Situation #2
I am not a make-up snob. I love it all equally. I have some more expensive favorites and some drugstore faves as well. One of my favorite drugstore eyeshadows is Wet-n-Wild. For the price, the pigment is pretty good (although, not as good as it used to be but I digress). I was in Walgreens (again) and came across a new limited edition palette and for $4.99 I could not pass it up. It is a mainly neutral palette but kind of glittery. I go to pay and the cashier tells me it is new collection that she just put out. Then she says, "These colors are pretty, they will be good for Halloween or something like that."

So there you have it. Apparently, my choice in make-up products is similar to that of Mimi from The Drew Carey Show.

I'm alive!

This is going to be a random post. Buckle up.

I have been MIA but with good reason. I have been sick. It started with a sinus infection. I had about one week of feeling human when I ended up with a kidney infection. And because that was not torture enough, I got another sinus infection. Good times. I finally feeling normal-ish again.

I am about to hit my one year anniversary at work. I cannot believe it has been year. This is the most challenging, rewarding, stressful job I have ever had. I love it, I really do but it has been a challenging year. But I made it. This past week was rough because I was trying to finish out the year all while being sick. No fun.

The kids and I are living for Spring. I am so ready to enjoy that sunshine after work. I am looking forward to some football (22 days!). Both of these things (sunlight and football) means lots of shooting time for me and that makes me a happy girl.

My current nail polish obsession continues to grow. I have perfected the chevron nail and I always get asked how to do it. A tutorial may be in my future. Yesterday, a barista at Starbucks told me that she loved my nails and called them "Pinterest nails." Folks, I have arrived. Also, all those hours wasted on Pinterest paid off.

That is all for now. But before I sign off, life lately...

There was some nail painting

Conor took me out on a breakfast date

There were some photo shoots

More nail painting...

Conor received some Valentine's goodies and loved it!

Annnddd some more nail painting and polish purchases.

And a few of my daredevil cutie

Nail Rock Nail Caviar

I have been seeing all the cute nail caviar design on Pinterest. They piqued my interest but I was concerned about durabilty. But I finally caved because I paint my nails 2-3 times a week anyway so I figured, why not. I bought the Nail Rock Nail Caviar . It comes with a nail polish but the brush was kind of wimpy so I used their polish with my accent nail only. I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Coin Flip" on my other nails. It was super easy to apply the "caviar" but I am all about an accent nail only. It could be more of a pain if you are trying to apply to every nail.

Overall I like to results and will likely buy more, because, well I can't stop buy nail products.

As usual, please excuse my ugly fingers, I had not had a chance to clean them up prior to the pictures. Also, please excuse the pictures in general...they were taken in auto (gasp) with a pop-up flash (double gasp). But my sweet 12-year-old took these for me and he did a good job :D.