Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Thanks

Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts, whether through comments or email. Today is our first "normal" day, with the kids back from up north and E back to work. We still have to tell Tess; we just want to get her back into a routine here at home before we do so, so that she does not think "oh, I go up north and lose my Dyeda" or otherwise have bad associations with his death or being up north with my folks.

She's just happy I managed to tape the Wonder Pets movie while she was gone. I don't want to mess with that yet.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Loss



My father-in-law passed away Thursday morning after a long battle with prostate cancer. Right now I am too exhausted from CKU to write with any sense about it. I'm hoping a picture truly is worth a thousand words.

And yes, I checked with E and there was nothing for me to do to help, so he said Please Go and I went to CKU.

I have a CKU set at Flickr for anyone who stops by and wants to check them out. To any CKU gals stopping by here, THANK YOU so much for the kind words, hugs, tissues, and all the support that got me through this difficult, weird, and exhausting weekend.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Grrrrr CKU


Grrrrr CKU
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.
Friday the 13th, right? Well, my strange bad luck with CKU has been going on for a week now...none of my emails have been going to any of the Yahoo lists I'm on (I'm on 3; the main one, my "dorm" list, and my album track list).A message I sent before I left for Florida, showed up after I got back! It seems to have itself for now, though.

My Handbook CD came in the mail and it's in a million pieces. Okay, not a million, but enough that there's no hope of reading anything off of it.

I can't even speak about my FIL; the news is too horrible to mention, E is over there every other day helping his mom move him and wash him. She starts every phone call to E with "he's still breathing," which I guess is her way of calming him down from the start (I'm sure E dreads seeing their phone number pop up on his cell screen...)

On the bright side, Tess has my camera (yup, the Canon. I know, E holds his breath whenever he comes home and sees her handling it. She's very responsible with it...so far).

She has captured some very sweet images of Ben, and Ben with me, then she becomes her usual silly self.

Cross-eyed Ben

Me & Boo

Me & Boo II

Feet

Toilet

Headshot

Littlest Pet Shop monkey

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Yarn Harlot appearance


Knitters Unite
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.
Having heard from Kim of her experience at this event last time (overflow room, faulty A/V equipment, etc.) I had suggest to Karen D that we get there as early as noon for Stephanie's 2:00 p.m. appearance.

When we (I'll include Amanda here too -- she of the almost-closed eyes -- she had knitting with her as well, you just can't see it on her lap) got to the Ann Arbor District Library just after noon, the room was already half full. Whew, I thought Karen and Amanda would think I was nuts wanting to get there so early. Who knew what an incredibly loooong day we were in for?!

Not as long as Stephanie's, though. Hers started at 3:00 a.m., almost landed her in Detroit on time, re-routed her (thanks to our fog) to Chicago, then didn't get her back to Detroit until after 3:00 p.m. I hope she got that -- make that MANY -- frosty adult beverages to make up for her travel day from hell.

I was due home at 5:00 p.m. so that E could get to his folks and help his mom out (my FIL is in home hospice care now, and she needs help moving him) before heading to the Sunday night tennis league he runs. Karen suggested that E bring the kids out (she wanted to meet Ben) and E actually managed it -- with only one frantic phone conversation about how he was "feeding Ben and getting Tess ready and trying. to. get. out. the. door."

Welcome to my world! Of course, I couldn't say that, 'cos it would have been bye-bye, Yarn Harlot, bye-bye, AADL, hello Dexter. After we made the exchange in the parking lot (cars and kids), Ben slept in his stroller for the next half-hour and woke only slightly confused and grumpy. After a several hugs and kisses from me and sis, and a bit of looking around while in Karen's and Amanda's arms, he was his usual sunny, flirty self. We'll see if Steph's photos show me holding him up with his bright-red hat on...


Jackal
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

Stephanie further made my afternoon by allowing those of us with babies -- outside or inside of our bodies -- to go first. I only feel bad that Karen didn't take advantage of our front-of-the-line status (Amanda had some plane woes of her own and Steph offered move-ahead privileges to anyone else with special concerns, so she came with me) and get her book signed. Perhaps we can right that somehow.

Loooong day, and such a busy weekend. I'm sure you're all falling over from my multiple posts. I'm working on that.