Just a quick post to catch everyone up on our upcoming events and deadlines!  Don’t forget that our Holiday Charity Sessions are this weekend!  If you’re signed up, please don’t forget that the session fee is an unwrapped $25 gift (one for each child photographed) and that we schedule these VERY tightly, so please be on time!  I’ve never blogged our Pumpkin Patch charity sessions from last month so here are a few for you. 

The deadline for print-only orders for Christmas delivery is next WEDNESDAY.  I will be closed from Wednesday afternoon till the next Tuesday to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family and to pack and move, so I will not be taking phone calls and emails during that time.  If you have a “family share” gallery on our site, it will expire on Wednesday as well because we’re trying to launch the site redesign and the site will be down for a few days during vacation.  As of Dec 1, all sessions will take place “on location” and our pricing structure will change, so this is your last chance to book sessions or order prints at 2008 prices.

I’m really excited about the changes we have coming… I think that it’s going to make sessions a little more fun and creative and I have needed that.  Check back after Thanksgiving to see if we really DID manage to get everything redesigned and back up.    Somehow, web tech projects never follow the timeline that they should… .

We had a nice weekend away from the computer and the phone (mostly) and now we’re gearing up for school to start again. Today we went on a School Supply Hunt. It’s like a treasure hunt, but not quite as much fun. Every year there is at least one item on their school supply lists that you just can’t find anywhere. This year it was the Mead Primary Composition Journal. We finally found one at the Walmart on 3009 — and they have a nicely organized and mostly FULL school supply section for all of you locals who are still hunting. As much as I dislike having to go to Walmart (the crowds & the lines) it was worth it to finally find this last piece on our school supply list. It was not the most fun day for the kids though. We went to the library, too, but they would really have rather taken this last big Monday off to do something more exciting. I, however, usually LOVE school supply shopping… I love buying new notebooks, and the way new pencils and erasers smell. Once a nerd, always a nerd. But by the time everything is picked over and we’re getting this close to the beginning of school, it is much less fun.

On our weekly library visit today, the kids picked a book to share with y’all that made both of them happy. John, Paul, George and Ben by Lane Smith is their pick of the week, and we all thought it was good. Lane Smith’s slightly irreverent humor will not be to everyone’s taste, but it fits pretty well with our little household. My kids loved the story of how John, Paul, George, and Ben (and Thomas too, but he’s always been very independent) all had special “talents” that helped them when forming our nation. We are a History Channel kind of family, so they thought this funny but educational look at the young founders was fantastic. There is a true and false page at the end that helps separate fact from fiction.

In music, they chose one of my all time favorite James Taylor songs: Blossom. They’re very familiar with 70s singer songwriters because we always have music playing in the house, and so does my mom, and it’s usually all the same music. This is off of Sweet Baby James, which I still consider one of the best records of all time.

That’s it for this week! I will be back in the studio tomorrow to return all calls and emails. We have a very full week!