To my daughter on her 3rd birthday

Dear Audrey:

You are 3.  The past year has flown by so fast. I wish I could slow the days down.
My dear girl, this year has been filled with so much. We went on our first girls vacation with Mom Mom to Charleston, SC. You had your first plane ride. You got a pony, a piano, and pierced ears!
I gained a few grey hairs and the refrigerator has gained a million painted masterpieces.
I call your Mom Mom and Aunt Val and Aunt Quackers alot and ask them "is this normal?" Sometimes you defy my ideas of what is normal, especially when it comes to your temper tantrums. They assure me you are in fact an "everyday kid".
Your personality is larger than life.  More than once you have stood in front of more than a few folks and said " ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my show!" You have no fear. You love people!
I realize: you ARE me, or at least a lot like me.
Although you are a DADDY's GIRL!  You sure do love your dad. You want to ride the lawn mower with him, hide under the covers with him and play hide and seek, be where he is. You love him and it shows. When he comes home you are the first thing he looks for. He cant get his shoes off fast enough!
You are HIM, or at least a lot like him. You wake up late and take awhile to ease into the day. You dont want breakfast right away. You are steadfast and stubborn.
You enjoy time with friends.  We are lucky to get a few phone calls for you to go to Mothers Day Out at the nearby church and you love your time at "school". I cant believe in a few short weeks you will start preschool.
Potty training seems to have finally clicked, after 6 long months of trying.You are a big girl now!I thought it would never happen and one day, just like so many told me it would, it clicked!
You love the movies Rio and Tangled. You can quote the words and sing the songs.
YOU LOVE to SING!  That you get from me! You will hear a tune and remember it after the first time.
You can count to 15 and you know most of your colors.  Although your favorite is Yellow!
You like french fries and pizza, and we have to sneak veggies and fruit into your juice box...hey we want you to be healthy.
You love to color and paint and do crafts.
I love that when I ask you to say your prayers you close your eyes tight and say,
Dear Jesus, thank you for our home...E-End!"
We spend quite a bit of time at the zoo nearby. You know the animals there by name and it feels like a second home to you and I. Some of your favorites are Butterscotch the Llama and Rocket the Giraffe.
I am so lucky that Daddy thinks it is great that I get to stay at home with you.
It means we can pick up and go just about anywhere whenever we want. You have always traveled so well.
You say the funniest things. You make me laugh everyday. You have more energy than I sometimes know what to do with, and all of those things make me grateful for you.
Happy Birthday Bug, I love you.

Always,
Mommy

Like Jerry Maguire

I have a mission statement.
Truly, I do. This is it in a few simple numbered statements.
1.KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!
Mr. Doug Mosher, my high school teacher taught me this...I think! maybe not, but I am giving him credit.
While I have been busy planning big elaborate things, I am missing the wonderful beautiful small things: my back patio swing, a book, painting Christmas ornaments with my daughter in JULY, playing tag in the park, laughing with my husband, you get the gist, it is all vanishing from my hands every day.
SIMPLE is WONDERFUL! I have ALWAYS filled my life with chaos.  No, I dont  mean for it to be chaos, but most certainly, chaos likes me and I like chaos. I say YES to everything and everyone and try to please everyone and everything and I AM MISSING IT...the mark. I am RUSHING TO MAKE SURE I FIT THE WHOLE WORLD IN!
2.  TECHNOLOGY SUCKS( sometimes)
YES, I am blogging on a laptop. YES, I love social media. I love groupons and coupons and steals and deals and learning who is on vacation and what they are drinking and who is doing what and with whom. I admit it, I love it! I WATCH DANCE MOMS! There I said it! I like mindless junk. And it has consumed me.
I am getting up every morning and making sure I get the Living Social deal and deleting my Girlfriends in God Devotional!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!! Dont guilt me! I am already aware.
Facebook has built my photography business from a hobby to a 8-12 appts a week full-time gig. AND ITS GREAT...but my plan, our plan, that being Jim and I, was for me to stay at home with Audrey and just LOVE her and TEACH her and BE BLESSED that I CAN stay home, that my husband is a selling genius and I CAN LIVE THE DREAM of A STAY AT HOME MOM( PS:  Hardest job EVER!!!!)
But I realized I spend 4 hours a day on this stupid computer....MINIMUM...just looking at other peoples CRAP! WHAT! YEP, guilty again!
This week( 2 days so far....I know, so minimal), I shut off the TV. I sat down at my dining room table with Letters, Numbers, Colors and Shapes and I took time for my daughter. We curled up on the couch and we read. We drew a village in sidewalk chalk, we watered our garden, we baked zucchini bread, we ate breakfast together and we talked. IT WAS HEAVEN! It was in fact SO MUCH better than reading about my friends who HATE their JOBs, WISH Their lives were different,etc...etc...etc.... I CARE, I really Do....but I care about my daughter SO MUCH MORE!
3.  GO BACK TO THE BASICS, SIMPLIFY LIFE FOR MORE THAN 1 WEEK
My friend Val and I have talked about SIMPLIFYING LIFE like 1 million times. And I want to, I just get pulled back into the chaos in about 3 days max.  I sometimes wonder why there are more cases of childhood disabilities, Obesity, Divorce, you name it, nowadays as compared to 20 years ago. My conclusion: WE WANT it ALL, WE WANT it ALL, and we WANT It NOW...and there is an app to get it!
I wonder about that McDonalds commerical where the farmer says he can grow lettuce in 3 days! Anyone, anyone???? is it just me.  I have lettuce in my garden, It takes much more than 3 days! I think I will eat my own lettuce and not McD's! My grandfather would have knocked my mother upside her head as an adult if she told him she bought a coffee for $5. do you get what I am saying????
I just want to have a healthy dinner cooked for my family with my own hands!
I am guilty of many unnecessary items and trips and goodness knows what else. Picnics in the park, that is my new focus before dinners at The Melting Pot( although that would be nice for my birthday!)
What I am saying is: I DO WANT IT ALL, and here is what it ALL is for me, what it should be:
meaningful moments with my daughter and my husband, ones she will remember, like the fact that I remember the taste of Roastbeef sandwiches with BBQ Sauce that my mom used to pack on wednesdays when we went fishing at the Cable Car( Scares you doesnt it mom????...those days, I remember!)
The smell of honeysuckle at the swimming hole in EC!. The warm sun and a blanket outside with my Gram.
Bicycles rides with my arms up in the air.
SO, I made myself this daily schedule.
I must admit it fits in all those crazy updates and time to catch up on email and check to see if my favorite restaurant has a 50% off deal...but NOT 4 hrs of it. Those 4 hours, I am taking back, keeping them simple and basic.
Someday Audrey, you will thank me for that!
When I meet God at the gates of heaven and he shows me the film recap of my life, I know I wont say, wow, I should have spent more time of Facebook and I dont ever want to say WOW, I should have spent more meaningful time with my parents, my husband, my kid.
Always,
Tom Cruise

What a busy summer

Wow, has the Salter Family enjoyed a crazy busy summer.
We have enjoyed a few camping weekends with friends, at Gettysburg and Pettecote Junction.

We have been kayaking and visiting places like the Land of Little Horses( which I highly recommend).
There have been a few visits to our favorite zoo, Catoctin.
A few weeks ago, Audrey and Mom Mom and I made our way to Corolla NC to stay at the beach with the Conways and clan.
Summer is surely sailing by.
Audrey is going through some transitions and growth.  She is such a funny kiddo.
Although she has had some defiant tantrums lately, that make me rethink that in the moment.
Not sure how to slow them down, but when this kiddo wants something, she doesnt like the word no. She will throw herself on the ground, kick, punch, pull, and bite.  It is CRAZY! and this mama's patience is tested at least once a day....but I love her anyway.
Potty training....what can I say, she may be in pull ups until high school.
Over the next few weeks, I have decided to slow down my calendar with Just So Stacy Photography and just focus on being a mom to Audrey. I think she truly needs that right now.
I have talked for years now about simplifying things for our family, focusing on basics, like meals together and fun around our house...now is the time.
My business is booming, and I feel blessed and  excited to see it grow, but I dont get a chance to do this again FOR my daughter. She gets 1 childhood and I need to focus on that.
I will still be doing pics, just saying NO when I should say NO and condensing my days.
I also need to focus more attention on my faith, as I have really struggled to keep up with my relationship with God as well. He knows that already, so I am not going to be afraid to write it down.  LOL!
All part of creating a new daily day to day for Jim and Audrey and Stacy( and Molli and Jagger too...and the fish and the hermit crab!)
I also, as you can tell, have to get back to blogging. It helps me along. I rarely get 20 minutes of adult conversation, so this is kind of a false outlet, but hey, it works.
Pray for me. Pray that everyday I am directed to keep my family first and GOD at the helm, and not my work, or goodness knows what other distractions I fall into.
Recommitted to Self and Summer,
Stacy

first camping trip of the season

last year, we bought a camper. A 26ft Zinger Bunkhouse to be exact. And we love it!
The only thing i would fix about camping is that Jim didnt get out everything he thinks we need, and just relax, that he would NOT be on his computer inside the camper, and that we had one more day each weekend to enjoy our times together.
This weekend, we made our way to Lake Glory Campground in Catawissa, PA, about 1 1/2 hrs away from our house, north. It is Knoebels 2nd campground, running a shuttle to the amusement park.
We got there on Friday at dinner time and met my mom at the check in office.
The sites were wonderful, large and flat.
The campground is just a few minutes from the amusement park and another great attraction that we found.
Rolling Hills Red Deer Farm.
What a fun place. We boarded a pull behind tractor and fed the beautiful Red Deer some special treats.
We learned all about these wonderful animals and truly enjoyed our 1 hr tour.
I highly recommend visiting. www.reddeeratrollinghillsfarm.com

Then, after a little snooze, we headed to Knoebels, ON THEIR BUSIEST DAY EVER!
It was Penn State and WVIA ( tv station) day. The park is wonderful, no admission, just pay as you go!
The wait isnt normally long, but we ended up waiting 45 minutes just for 4 pieces of pizza!
I love this park! I do not love that people bring their dogs to an amusement park. I think carrying your chihuahua on your shoulders is weird...there I said it!
Either way, Audrey had a great time on the rides( sorry no camera was taken in, less to carry)
The next time, I will not be taking a stroller.

All in All though, we had a very nice and relaxing weekend and look forward to many great weekends camping this summer.

One more from I once was...

The Implants

My parents had managed to buy a small store along the interstate that ran through the town.  It was the only grocery store, restaurant, tackle shop and gas station in a 25-mile radius. You could get take-out; can goods, and worms all in one stop.   It was situated across the field from my grand parent’s house.  My parents said they had moved because they wanted to get away from the rat race, their ranking for the city.  Though, I knew that it was because my mother didn’t enjoy the thought of living so far away from her parents.
The town was situated in the middle of nowhere.  It had a population similar to that of a small funeral.  Funny that I make that comparison, since many of the townspeople walked around like they had died a decade before I was born and just hadn’t realized it yet.
I was their only child.  The locals referred to my parents as the “implants”.  If you weren’t born there, “implant” was the closest you got to acceptance.  I was, by all rights, really an implant myself.  It was fitting.  Though I was born in that small town, my roots weren’t planted there.  They couldn’t and didn’t identify me by who my people were.  ‘She’s Ida’s daughter; you know, Donna’s kid that went to school with Mike and Neil.’   I was always just ‘that chubby little red haired girl from the store.’

Report Card

Report Card

I had run the short distance between this house and my own, down the dirt road.  I could almost hear the change dropping into my piggy bank.  Three A’s and 2 B’s meant $2.00 I opened the door, report card in hand.                          
“All we can afford to give you is this quart of cabbage and some pennies,” he said.                                                                                                                     “That would be fine”, I said.  “I like cabbage, Pop.”                                        
Within moments, I was out the door.  I headed home, 15 cents in my pocket and $1.85 worth of canned cabbage in my hand.                                                      
Later, my grandmother would say how they laughed about that day.  Then, I would hold out my hand and ask for the money she owed me!

Roller Skates: Part of I Once Was

Roller Skates

It was my 8th birthday, and I had finally gotten those roller skates that I had wanted so badly.  They were white and they had pink shoelaces.   I screamed with joy when I opened them.                                                  
“Now,” my mom said, “There are a few rules for the roller skates.”              
“First, long pants,” she said
I understood, fewer scratches.                                                                          
“You must wear your dad’s long socks as well. Then the top of the skates won’t rub your legs.”                                                                                                      
I shook my head.  Whatever, you say, I thought.                                            
“Also, you have to wear the knee pads and elbow pads and long sleeves whenever you skate.”  She held up each item as she listed them.                  
“Where can I skate?” I asked, anxiously.                                                          
“On the porch until you learn how to stop and start.” she answered. “Then we’ll see.”  She let out a heavy sigh.                                                                          
Our porch was cement, 15 feet long and 6 feet wide, but it was a beginning.
“One last thing,” she said.                                                                              
“What?” I asked.  What else could she possibly add to this?                          
“Pop has a helmet for you over at his house.  You have to wear the helmet; no if, ands, or buts,” she said.                                                                                      
“Can we go and get it now?” I asked.                                                              
“Ok,” she answered, with a smile.                                                                          
So we walked across the street and down the dirt road to my grandparent’s house.                                                                                                              When we got there, my dreams of becoming a professional roller skater were shattered.                                                                                                              “See how this fits,” my grandfather said, putting the helmet on my head.      
“This isn’t a skating helmet,” I said disappointed.  The delight in my eyes, dimmed.                                                                                                               He pushed the helmet onto my head, and pushed the plastic visor up.          
“No,” my mom said.  “It’s one of Pop’s snowmobile helmets.  It’s safer than a skating helmet,” She said.                                                                                    
“I can’t wear this!” I yelled through the mask covering my lips.                      
“You will wear this or you won’t be skating at all,” she said.                          
So, I wore the helmet, and the socks, and the kneepads, and the long pants.  Every time I skated my head would wobble and my body would sweat.        
“Safety first,” she said.