We Are Family

This is one of the pics I've taken with my new camera. Yummy, don'tcha think? I was trying to get her to do something and I snapped the photo a second too late. This is the shot I got in place of the one I was originally trying to get. I'd say it's a good trade. Some of my best pictures are ones I took by accident.

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There's something about this blog that's been bugging me from the first post. Many months ago, when I started reading blogs, I came across many different people who handled their blogs in many different ways. Some people share everything...photos, names, intimate life details, etc. Some people share nothing...no pics, no names (only nicknames), and no identifying details. And a bazillion people who fall somewhere in between.

So, in the interest of some semblance of privacy, I started out using initials, which quickly irritated the snot out of me. Then I switched to the middle-names-used-as-first-names method. Again, my eyeballs became itchy when I tried to reread something I wrote this way. Instead of enjoying the flow of the story, I'm forced to stop and think, "When I wrote 'James', did I mean Child #1 or Child #2?" My brain cells are too few and far between to waste in this way. Plus, this method certainly confused my readers who actually know us in real life (I know, you're shocked that someone might actually want to know me in real life!!).

I mean, really....we're not in the Witness Protection Program. We haven't won the lottery and been forced to hide our vast wealth. We don't have any messy custody battles. We're not hiding from any loony relatives (yet). I have not posted any racy pics of anyone in the family and I don't ever intend to (my apologies to those of you waiting to see the shot of me lounging at the beach in my thong bikini). So I'm not entirely sure why I'm hiding names. What I do know is that I'm done with it.

Here goes nothing!















This handsome boy is Child #1. On the days when I'm feeling too lazy to remember his actual name, I do call him #1. On a normal day, he is Nicholas James. He is the child every mom should be blessed with.















This handsome boy is Child #2. For the first three years of his life, he was my shadow. He has a heart of gold. His real-live name is Benjamin Joseph.














This beautiful girl is Child #3. She took everything I knew about parenting and threw it out the window. She's busy teaching me that she has her very own mind. Her name is Alexa Camille.














This beautiful girl is Child #4. Can you believe some people said we were "crazy" to have 4 kids? Can you look at her face and say that we were crazy? I'd say I'm glad we had the brains to try for one more. She's tough as nails and my sweet, cuddly baby. Her name is Rachel Julia.















Here at Cas Family Central, I'm the Team Captain. My real-life name is Chris. You may call me Mama Cas, cuz I kinda like that nickname. There's this guy who has spent the last 16 years making me happier than I've ever deserved to be...his name is Nick. He's a great Co-Captain and he knows stuff about my computer....which is great since I know SQUAT about computers.

So that's the rundown. From now on, I will be using our real names. I think this will make the writing AND the reading a little easier.


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To wrap up today's ramblings, I submit 2 more photos I took with the new camera. I love them both, but I happen to adore the second one the most. Nick likes the first one. So, loyal reader, what do you think? Do you prefer the first or the second? In case you're wondering, they were both taken on my front stoop at about 8:30 one morning. The natural light was fantastic.