I was kind of waiting for someone who GETS IT to tell me it was ok to combine my blogs… making this space as much about the business of Fresh Art as about the business of my LIFE… so when I got a comment from my friend Lyndsay I knew it was all good. Because in my heart I think I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. To have one little space on the internet to call home instead of feeling so spread out. Especially because while Fresh Art is my JOB (full time with no second job as of April 1st!) it’s also so intertwined with my daily life it’s nearly impossible for me to separate the two.

And dammit. I used to love blogging! I’m hoping this kind of re-ignites that long lost love!

So this space will have lots of posts about my kids and family and our daily life and the random things we do to keep the days moving happily forward WHILE AT THE SAME TIME being the space I share client sneak peeks and session announcements and behind the scenes stuff that you all seem to like sometimes! There will be more words and definitely more of my not-so-professional images and that’s ok. In fact, it’s so much more ME that it kind of makes me giddy!

I got Lyndsay’s comment last week and I was still kind of on the fence until Saturday when the highs and lows of that day hit me full in the face and all I wanted to do was blog about it! That’s when I made the final decision to bring the ME back to this space.

Why Saturday? Well if you are friends with me personally on Facebook you already know this answer.

Saturday started out pretty darn awesome. I met my friend Carrie (Bailey’s amazing Kindergarten teacher from last year) downtown and we ran the St. Patrick’s Day 5 Mile Race together. I only walked a few times but definitely ran the majority of it making it the longest I’ve run since just after college when I was coaching lacrosse and running with my team. So it’s been about 10 years I guess? The coolest part is that I only strapped on my running shoes and started training for it the Sunday before! Just five running/training days before the race and I did pretty darn good!

The most surprising part of this new running endeavor, aside from the shocking fact that I didn’t take a short-cut during the race (like I did last year), is that I’m REALLY enjoying running right now. I have a killer mostly 90’s mix I run to… totally filled with songs that got me through the hardest runs in college. And when I get sick of music, which I tend to do around mile 2 or 3, I listen to the Dave Ramsey talk radio show! HA! SO random but I kind of have a crush on him so hearing his voice (and learning a LOT about finances) just helps somehow. I also love the Nike+ ap on my iPhone (I carry my phone to run b/c for about 12 years I ran with a lacrosse stick so running empty handed just feels strange!) and I actually just found out today that when I start my run it posts to FB and when people comment on that little status update I actually hear people cheering on my headphones! It’s awesome!

ANYWAY. Running is making me happy and will hopefully soon make my waistline a little smaller too. Or not. The happy part is enough right now with or without any weight loss.

So I come home exhausted but totally on a high that I did the race and felt good about it! A HUGE storm rolled in and our whole family cuddled together watching a movie. It was seriously becoming a perfect Saturday when the clouds parted the teeniest bit and I rushed the girls into spring dresses and rain boots for a few quick photos (I bought a new umbrella I wanted to play with!). I was parting Parker’s hair to put pigtails in when I noticed this tiny bug. I thought it was a gnat so I picked it out, rinsed it down the sink and kept combing.

Then I found another one. And another one.

And then I screamed at the top of my lungs, “HOLY SHIT CHRIS I THINK PARKER HAS LICE!!!!!!!!!”

I literally plopped her in a chair, told her not to move and not 2 minutes since guessing lice was what I had found I was on my way to Walgreen’s! I spent $70 on lice removal crap and lice repellent shampoo and M&Ms (knowing she might need some encouragement!). Then I got home, did the treatment, combed out her hair for TWO HOURS (I found about 12 live lice and maybe 25-30 nits), bagged up ALL stuffed animals and couch throw pillows, threw away ALL our sleeping pillows, went to Big Lots for new sleeping pillows, stripped the beds, scoured the internet for other solutions, got great advice on Facebook, went back to Walgreen’s to buy Listerine, had my mom bring over clean sheets so the kids could finally go to bed and around 10pm I collapsed into bed itching my head like crazy and with the most massive headache ever.

Sunday morning I doused ALL of our heads (except Chris who doesn’t have enough hair for lice) in Listerine and for two hours we sat in shower caps watching a movie. Then we doused our heads in vinegar and left it on for another 20 minutes. I can not describe that smell to you but it’s a mixture of pure awfulness and totally clean smelling. Then we all showered and I combed me and the girl’s hair with the nit comb. I found three more nits in PJ’s hair but nothing in me or Bails. Yesterday was all about laundry and cleaning. Luckily I had a meeting scheduled that got me out of the house for a few hours… it helped me feel like a normal person for a minute!

LICE FREAKING SUCKS! This is our first bout with it and I am just DONE! My house is torn apart, I’m SO paranoid that I can’t keep my fingers out of the girls hair and I’m having nightmares about bugs. I let today be normal… mostly because I had a session and some other things I had to get done… but tomorrow I’m doing Listerine on Parker again and Wednesday I’m doing all of us again. I’m going to do Parker every other day until after the 10th day I think. Ugh! And of course Chris leaves for five days on Wednesday so just when those damn babies could possibly start hatching (if I missed any nits I guess? If I got all the nits is she home free?) I’m a single parent.

So anyway. Spring break started out with a BAM and it can only get better right? I’m honestly not sure it could get worse! At least the weather is awesome and the kids are having a blast playing outside giving me more time to scrub inside!

Happy Monday and welcome to the JODIE ALLEN MEETS FRESH ART PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG! HA!