Emmrie's First Birthday

Yes, my little baby is finally one! There are no photos yet, but that leads me to discuss today's lesson in camera common sense:
After watching Elmo taking photos on Sesame Street, Kortney decided she wanted to take her own photos around our house, too (bad mistake #1. Tip: Be aware of everything your children are watching these days. Even Sesame Street can be harmful). So me, being the nice mother that I am (and not wanting to battle her right then with a "no"), said, "Okay" (bad mistake #2. Tip: Good moms just say "no". This would be one of those battles you should probably decide to pick). I thought, "Hey, it's digital, right? Take as many photos as you want! I won't have to develop any!" She was doing good- she knows how to view movie clips on it and everything, so I wasn't worried at all (bad mistake #3. Tip: ALWAYS be worried). She was propping up and posing her stuffed animals, combing her horse's hair, and making us all say, "cheese" as she took photos and laughed at them when they came up on the screen. It was kinda cute. Well, I forgot all about her pretty soon, and, being the good wife that I am, I went upstairs to make dinner (bad mistake #4. Tip: Being a good wife doesn't always correlate with being a good mom. In this situation, it's probably a good idea to finish being a good mom before moving on to being a good wife). Soon enough, she came up to me, "Mom, can you get the camera to work?" I said, "Sure", as I held out my hand for it, thinking I'd just have to turn it back on or something. No, the whole thing was dead. The lens was permanently open, tweeked a little crooked, and wouldn't close, and it made a horrible, dying clicking sound when I turned on the power button. All I could think was, "What did you do? What did I do? Neil's going to kill me! Why in the world did I give the camera to a 4-year-old?!" (bad mistake #5. Tip: Revelation - Even the smartest 4-year-old can be careless) I know you all are reading this and thinking, "Yeah, duh!" So, needless to say, I have no birthday photos right now of my sweet little one-year-old, because they're all stuck on my 35mm roll of film. Luckily I still have my dinosaur camera, and I even still had a roll of film to go with it. I emptied the whole roll in about five minutes on photos of her eating her cake, realizing halfway through that I wasn't in digital world for the moment. Now I have to go to the store just to drop off a roll of film that will take 3-5 days to get back (because I'm too cheap to do the 1-hour developing), and then I'll have to pay for a bunch of photos that will all look the same, and I'll probably only use one or two of them. And I couldn't even make a little movie of her eating it! Man, I miss my camera!
Anyway, for her birthday, we just let Emmrie eat cake and open presents. We didn't have a party, since I'm not into those until they really appreciate (or bug me enough about) them. Kortney and Taylor had lots of fun playing with her toys, and she got a good look at them. She's such a sweet little girl, and adds so much to our family! We sure love her!

The Lord's Hand In My Life:
He knows how important it is for me to record special events. A few months ago I tried to sell my 35mm camera on Craigslist. It's a Canon Rebel, nice lens, filters, case, the whole bit. Well, some guy from Canada emailed me to tell me he wanted it. I felt like it was a little fishy how he wanted me to ship it, and how he wanted to pay for it, so after some of my own research, I found out that it was a scam. So I never did sell it. And now I'm so glad I didn't. I would've missed out on recording a very special day for my daughter. Kind of crazy, but I see it as the Lord's hand.