This is the little imp that has caused 50% of today’s dramas.???? I totally want a “Do Over” on this day.???? Let me just walk you through it thus far and see if you don’t agree.

1.?? Decided this morning to take the kids to the Anthem Park because the weather is so nice.???? Started getting everyone ready and I couldn’t find the matches to the first two pairs of shoes for Tori.?? That makes me really mad.?? How could one pink boot and one brown boot just disappear??? Tori has mysterious shoe disappearances all the time and it aggravates me to no end.

2.?? I go out to load the kids in the car and Tanner asks if I could put his bike in the back of the truck.?? While getting his bike out of the garage, he gets a scooter for his sister.?? Busy with Troy, I don’t realize that Tori has taken off on the scooter.???? With my camera bag over my shoulder, I set Troy on the ground in his carseat and turn around and discover my 3 year old is cruising down the middle of the street on a scooter.?? With neighbors watching, I yell at her to get out of the street.?? She does not comply immediately.?? In a hurry to get her to safety, I drop my camera bag and yank little Missy from the scooter out of the street all the while telling her she doesn’t get to pause for even a second to obey me.?? I continue (loudly) with my lecture.???? Blood pressure rising.

3.?? Struggle to get bike into back of truck and ultimately decide (after my energy was spent fighting with it) that it simply was not going to fit.?? Didn’t want to go back through the house and Tanner kept triggering the sensor every time he tried to run out of the garage so I had to run the garage door opener to sensor jump race trying to teach Tanner to do it.

4.?? Get kids in the car and leave.?? Realize about 1/2 mile away that I have voicemails on my cell phone.?? I check voicemail only to discover that our adoption case manager has been leaving messages for me on my cell phone for two days because she needed information TODAY to get to the courts to secure our 11/19 date.???? I return to the house to make this phone call.?? Grrrrr.

5.?? Get back in car and drive to Jack In the Box for lunch.?? Get out of car and discover that I have left my wallet at home.

Now at this point, I did ask myself if all this was a sign and wonder if I should just stay home.?? Ignoring my gut instinct, I choose not to be derailed and return home for my wallet.

6.?? Have lunch with kids and drive to park about 20 minutes from my home.?????? Kids go off and play on playground and I create my nice little space on the grass under the ONLY tree with shade.?? I lay out a big quilt, put a boppie down for Troy and pad it with blankets making a nice nest for him.?? Lay out my kindle, my phone, the diaper bag, and my camera.???? Remove camera from bag and discover that horror of horrors I have a massively cracked lens!!!???? Did this happen when I dropped the bag to rescue Tori from the street????? Is it just my UV lens or my pro lens as well??? I still don’t know the answer because I can’t unscrew the UV lens right now because it bent.?? Waiting on Jim to get home to check it.?? This is a $1200.00 lens.

7.?? I switch lenses to determine if my camera body suffered anything only to discover that I have a dead battery.

8.?? Put camera body and long lens back in camera bag and sit studying my 24-70 hoping beyond hope that it is just the UV lens.?? I call Jim to tell him what happened.?? About 10 seconds into the call, I kid you not, the park sprinklers go off and I had placed my blanket between two wickedly powerful sprinkler heads.?? I grab baby in one hand, tell Jim I’ll call him back (while dropping phone) , grab lens in other hand and run for the sidewalk.???? Get to sidewalk and SHOOT – no where to put baby down or lens down but wallet, kindle and cell phone are still sitting on the blanket so I have to rush back.?? I am yelling for the kids to get off the slide and help me and a Good Samaritan stops to help.?? By the time I get everything moved out of the sprinkler path, the baby and I are very wet along with everything else I brought INCLUDING the lens in my hand.?? It was so wet that the drink cup holders on the stroller had filled up.?? Can you even believe it?

No.?? Joke.

As we were walking back to the car, Ty says “Mommy did you have peace while we played on the slides?”

(Note:?? Picture above was taken as soon as I got home because I wanted to check my camera body with a new battery.?? It seems good.?? I took some shots with my 24-70 as well and oddly you can’t see the glass shatter in the shots.?? Does that possible mean that only the UV filter shattered?)

One bright moment in my day was the fact that my girlfriend Janelle picked up the phone when I called her.?? She is a fellow photographer and happened to live within 5 minutes of where I was so she is graciously loaning me a lens (because I have a shoot tomorrow at sunrise of course) just in case my 24-70 is in fact damaged.?? Praising the Lord for a generous friend like Janelle because who on earth in the their right mind would put anything of value in my hands today?