Goodbye Maw Maw

Last night, my grandmother passed away.

Juanita LeLeux Sullivan was my father's mother.   She was only a baby herself when she married my grandfather who was a single dad, with two small boys.   My Maw Maw was the only mother my dad ever knew. 

Her maiden name is LeLeux (pronouced: lulu) and yep…you guessed it.  She was from Louisiana, of the Cajun French variety.  Every so often, you could hear the Cajun accent in a phrase or word she would say.  Her cooking largely consisted of gravies and roux or smothered and fried.

She was a very shy woman and kept to herself most of the time.  Especially after her husband Tom (my grandfather) and her sister Ramona passed away.  

My Maw Maw had 5 children - 4 sons and 1 daughter; 10 Grandchildren and 28 (or so…I lose count) great grandchildren.

One of my favorite memories of my Maw Maw was that she would always make me coffee milk when I spent the night at their home.  I'm not sure how she did it, but it was always the best.  Not too hot, not to strong and just the right sweetness.  That was the only time I ever got to drink coffee as a kid.

One year for Christmas, she made me an entire traveling suitcase FULL of handmade Barbie clothes.  Gowns, Dresses, Pants, Shirts, Skirts, etc.    I LOVED those clothes and played with them non-stop.  I can't imagine the time and energy that went into making all of those clothes.

Another fond memory of my Maw Maw was that she followed the OJ Simpson trial from beginning to end.  When you'd go over to her house, she tell you EVERYTHING there was to know about the trial. In all actuality, she always watched the big trials that aired on television.  She was fascinated with them.  

She loathed having her picture taken. But, last year during Christmas, probably sensing it was going to one of the last Christmases with the entire family, she allowed everyone to have their picture taken with her.  Here is a picture of my brother and me with my Maw Maw, nearly a year ago.

Maw Maw, thank you for raising my dad to be one of the most AWESOME men I know.  

I love you and you will be missed!

Where art thou?

Ooops, has it been a month already since I last posted on my blog?  That dang instagram is getting all of my love these days.

I wish I could tell you that life around here has been more than soccer practices and games, with a little bit of school volunteering thrown in for added stress… but I can't.  Because that's what the last month has amounted to.

I do admit, I have had a fun thing or two tossed in for good measure, but truthfully… not a whole lot going on.

However, in short, here's quick recap of the last month…

Fall soccer is over.  Kyla's team finished 4th place out of 11 teams and Elisan's team finished 4th place out of 12 teams.

Elisan's team had a amazing season with only 9 goals scored against them in 11 games.  (To give you a perspective… the first place team had 14 goals scored against them - they just won more games.)  And since Elisan is a goalie… well, that means she did a great job (along with our rocking defense.)

Kyla's team did well this year.  They came up against some fierce competition, but held their own. In fact, here's Kyla holding her own in last weekend's game.

I've had a few photo shoots this month and I've been very pleased with the results.  

There are times when I "think" I want to do this professionally (i.e. get paid), but I need to do a few more things (in the photography area) before I start.  One, upgrade my current camera.  Take a class on lighting.  More hands on training.

I recently had the opportunity to assist a friend who is an amazing photographer for a recent outdoor family photoshoot and a newborn photo shoot in her home studio.  It was such an awesome experience and was really eye opening into what needs to take place to get that perfect shot.

I believe that my photos have come a long way in the last two years, but I still have a ways to go.  Until then, I'm saving every dollar and selling anything/everything on eBay to save up enough money to upgrade my camera!

In other news, over the weekend, Randy brought us girls to the qualifying round for Formula One.  The Circuit of the Americans was JAM PACKED with people… and it wasn't even race day!

 I have my camera on a high shutter speed to capture this shot.  

These cars were going SUPER fast!

Sebastian Vettell… he has won 8 consecutive F1 races this year alone,

including the on in Austin over the weekend.

Finally, my birthday is coming in up in three weeks.  I'll be forty-one.  Yikes.  That is totally surreal to me, especially considering the fact I still feel 30.