I will never forget Angry Snow White.  Somewhere along the way she had snapped. Could it have been consuming one too many apples, making one too many unmade beds, serving one too many grumpy dwarves, or maybe it was taking one too many photos with tourists?  Seconds after this shot was taken, Snow took those scrubbing hands of hers and sent the girls flying forward with a shove and a sickly sweet high pitched, "Have a nice day!" They caught themselves from hitting the pavement and looked at me with large surprised and amused eyes. "Um... Mom? Snow White just pushed us!" We could have been angry, but we chose to laugh. At their young age, they were able to see the humor in the situation and know that sometimes even Snow White does not have a very nice day. At my older age, I could feel her pain from dieting on fruit, making those endless unmade beds, dealing with grumpy short people, and snapping a million photos. A girl has got to get her fun somewhere!

When the girls come home with the "bring in a photo" assignment, I'm toast. What the teachers don't realize is that I have thousands of photographs of the girls' childhood. Yesterday the photo request came on a particularly horrible day. My dad had a heart attack, and I couldn't keep the world from spinning or the tears from falling. I can't keep my babies from getting older. I can't keep my parents from getting older.  The tears made my screen blurry as I searched for the photo, and yet they made something else very clear to me. My passion for photography is driven by the fact that for one two hundred and fiftieth of a second, I CAN make the world stop. I stop the world so that I remember all of life's details. I remember pink tights, round tummies, giggles, stamps on hands, undies hanging out, and crooked eyebrows checking themselves out in the mirror. I know one day my daughter will understand my tears when she remembers this day.  Until then, I will continue to stop the world from spinning one photograph at a time.

 I have taken many photos over the years that captured a look, an expression, a moment in time. Recently, I opened this shot of my youngest and was immediately carried back to the moment that my kids decided to stop listening to me. They figured out that maybe everything I said was not always right. All of those years of listening were down the drain with the discovery that maybe, just maybe, they could have an opinion of their own. The power to "just not listen" was discovered. If they closed their eyes and didn't face me, it was as though I had magically disappeared into thin air. They were left in a world of bliss, while I was left in a world where my dialogue had magically morphed into something that sounded  much like Charlie Brown's teacher. In this shot, "It's time to come in, Maddy" translated nicely into "Wah Wah, Wah Wah, Wah Wah Wah Waaaah". 

 {iPhone shot - a reminder that the best camera is the one you have with you} Tacky Day ... the process goes something like this ... try on outfit. take off outfit and try on another outfit. yell. try on a completely new outfit. request funny hairdo that takes mom too long with her brush. walk out the door. freak out and run back inside to change outfits. cry. put on new outfit. get into the car. sit quietly. sink down in seat and peer out the window. ask mom in a tiny voice if she is sure today really is tacky day. sink down lower into seat as mom pulls into carpool lane. peer out window to see if there really is anyone else dressed tacky. spot another tacky student. sit up a little taller. see more tacky students. smile and unbuckle seatbelt before car even has a chance to stop. jump out of car and ignore mom as everyone is gushing over your tacky outfit. mom drives to Starbucks and realizes that in all the madness she forgot to brush her hair and secretly hopes today is tacky day at Starbucks too.