I am absolutely shattered

We had a photo shoot this afternoon.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that because in my mind it seems excessive (3 shoots in one year) but give me a minute to justify it :)

Birthday..... Newtown shoot.... this one I bought through a group buying deal for R400 (this lady's usual price was R1200) and then sent on the details to all the girls in the office and so from one office of 10 people, we bought 5 of these deals. Not bad.

Anyway, I extended it at the time to the latest date I could (it technically had to be used up by end August I think) because the birthday shoot was already booked. The Newtown one was the one I sandwiched in because I was tired of waiting until I lost ALL my excess weight.

And so this date comes along and the only prep I'd done was rush off to the hairdresser yesterday. Oh, and book the venue.

I didn't even think about what we'd wear, nothing.

Of course then today the children decided not to have afternoon naps.

My children are HORRIBLE when they don't sleep.

We'd booked V to come in during the afternoon and then to help us with the shoot (it's money well worth spending for my stress relief running after those two) and of course she was 40 minutes late.

The kids went to time out a couple of times and then D went to have a talk with them and they eventually fell asleep at 2 pm.

They woke at 3:30 and we dressed them (but they were already grumpy so that was a drama in and of itself), threw them in the car and all raced to my work (the venue).

these pics were taken about two weeks ago, not today - it is absolutely glorious walking these grounds

D and V were also both stressing me out because I don't know why I need to remember everything and boss everyone around just to get out the house on time. My bag and the props bag (yes, I'm very sad...) had been packed the night before and ready at the door an hour earlier.

Anyway, I drove and you know how I drive when I'm late so we left home at 4:05, got there at 4:23 and had a few minutes to let the kids run a bit wild before the shoot started.

Very nice lady and she didn't seem stressed by all the craziness.

The kids both refused to sit with me (mortified doesn't begin to describe how bad I felt... plus sadness!) so I have practically no pics with either of them and there are tons of D with the two limpets clinging to him. And me on the side, like the one that doesn't belong.

*sigh*

At least we got some time to get pics of just D and me (while the kids had some ProVitas).

But this is why I love D.

I just gave him one look (of desperation/ frustration) and he leaned over and said, "it's okay. it'll all be fine" and then I could see he tried really hard to get those two to be nicer to me.

Kids are so merciless.

We dropped V off on the way home and then D said to me, "I bet you can't wait to get home to blog about all this" LOL

Of course!

So bottom line, I way be warned off photo shoots for a Long Time and if that woman gets even 20 good pics, it'll be a miracle. MIRACLE I tell you!

She worked really hard trying to get those two to co-operate. There was always one running off or crying or tantruming.

D says this whole "spurning me" business is just because they were so crabby but I was very, very hurt.

Okay, enough about me. Onto you.

Please tell me anything to cheer me up. What are you reading? What are you listening to? What are you doing?

On the bright side, BOTH our TVs are on the blink (they've gone in for repairs today) and even though I rented a DVD for last night, I'm thrilled because D can finally book our Jan holiday :)

PS D and I wore purple, and the kids wore white.