the ruffled mama: The Times They Are A-Changin...Yet Again.

I can't sleep. Tomorrow Lucy starts preschool, and my thoughts are racing.

I know it has been a while since I've posted and, to catch you up to speed, I have spent the past month in crazy, lots-of-life-at-once mode -- much like May 2008 (Lucy was born, Tony graduated, I turned 21, we bought a house, moved to Austin and Tony started his job all within a month) or October 2009 (Tony's dad passed away, we got married and found out we were expecting Clara all within about 5 weeks.)

Here are some pictures to recap this past month -

Clara getting her hand bit by a goat at the Minnesota Zoo. She squealed at him disapprovingly. I missed the chance to rescue her as I was too busy taking a picture of her next to a goat.

Lucy shying away from the goats after asking to be let in to pet them.

A happy Lucy after leaving the goats.

The only pic I have so far of my friend Lora's wedding. She was a beautiful bride, and I was honored, indeed, to stand up next to her on her and Tom's big day. Hopefully I will get a chance to follow up with more pictures of that event later.

Jacob's first day of fifth grade! Special to have his nieces there to see him off.

A field trip to the Hudson Target

With the beautiful bride-to-be, Kaycee, the night before her wedding with her maid and matron of honor.

Another one of the few pictures I have from Rob and Kaycee's wedding (this was taken at the rehearsal) that Tony stood up in over the weekend.

Playing in the backyard and happy to be home.

Yes, life has come in a wave for us once again, and I am happy to say that it is now fall and everything should start coming back into somewhat of a routine....starting with Lucy's first day of preschool...tomorrow!

Tony and I were each in dear friends' weddings this past month, and it doesn't matter how well I know the bride or groom, the Father-of-the-bride speech get me every. single. time. It's pathetic, really. (Slideshows tend to do that too...unless they are more than 10 minutes long, then I'm just annoyed.) But I can't help but thinking about my relationship with my dad, and now it's like a triple-whammy because I start to think about the speeches that Tony will give when our little girls get married someday. I start thinking about how all of these women used to be little girls and how my little girls used to be babies..... it goes down this awful path and I'm actually tearing up just thinking about it. I have a serious problem.

Anyway, I was trying to keep my mind off of Lucy starting preschool tomorrow and I was laying in bed, next to a sleeping Tony, I was browsing pictures on my Facebook from my iPhone (because I am cool like that) and I came across pictures of a younger Lucille. I got a bit emotional (as I tend to do) looking over these...