Easter and then some

Survived spring break week (barely). So nice to have E back home (even if he got to go to work all week...yes, even all day Good Friday).

Too much candy for Tess, though. I'm glad she's at my MIL's with E & her brother. Three! meltdowns! before! breakfast! (not including the jellybeans at 6:30a).

The Easter bunny came by at 6a to leave jelly bean trails from each child's bedroom door to the spot where their Easter baskets were located:

Luckily, she (I'm convinced the Easter bunny is a she...c'mon, give us ladies one holiday, right? Santa's got his and I've never seen a female leprechaun, we can't be witches only...besides, who REALLY goes and fills those baskets? Can I get a what-what...)

SHE put Tess's basket in our room, so that I would know when she was up (see 6:30a, above) and feel some of her excitement, not like Christmas 2007...ahem.

Grandma wanted a picture of the dress she made for Tess & her AG doll, we got it but not without (another) tantrum and sour face (AFTER the photo was taken, thank goodness):
I would have preferred that she comb her hair (and the doll's), but as we had just experienced Meltdown #2, I let it go. As Tess so wisely noted, "her hair matches mine!" Somehow I don't think Grandma is going to appreciate that...

Lil Guy got a very nice basket, too, and I got a nice photo of the both of them. Rare, believe it or not. Tess cannot be in hug range without squeezing Ben until he smacks her.

I had to move fast.


Hope you are having a bright, sunny Easter weekend too.


Peace out.

Crap.

I called E in Colorado this morning and told him he's never. allowed. to take a trip alone ever. again. Here's a little summary of little things that went wrong and drove me over the edge this weekend:

1. Ben didn't nap Saturday.

2. He woke up at 4 a.m. ready to roll. Uh, no.

3. Alarm went off at 6:30a so that I could get ready for early church before waking Tess; she had to sing in both services for Palm Sunday.

4. Sunday evening she swallows a metal marble from the Mousetrap game. Yes, she's SEVEN. I have no idea why she thought it would be a good idea to even put that in her mouth. Ben, maybe. Tess, uh, no.

5. Call 911 in a panic, they send an ambulance, she's fine. We just have to wait until it passes. Lovely.

5b. the only bright spot: I am not charged for the ambulance visit (apparently you only get charged if you ride).

6. The other bright spot in my weekend was the fact that Tess was supposed to go to a friend's house at 1p today and sleep overnight. In fact, Tess's only question before the ambulance arrived was, sniff, "will I still be able to sleep over?" sniff... The friend's mom called this morning; they are out of power.

So now I have Tess's friend visiting and sleeping over here tonight.

At least Ben is napping.

And I made brownies.

Charmed, I'm Sure

I was on FIRE with this project Thursday and Friday. This is the most fun scrapping I've had in a while. The idea just came to me and I couldn't let it go...ever since I found Cindy (fellow Friday Night Cropper) throwing away slide protectors (gasp!)...I KNEW there was a mini-mini journal in there somewhere...



Lots of other LOs in my SIStv gallery...I've been on fire generally in that department. I know it will wane once again, but I'm enjoying the ride for now.

E's out of town for a 4-day weekend. I'd call it an "exchange" trip for my trip to SIS Live at the end of June, but he has not arranged childcare for me (as I have for him that weekend), so I've come to think of it as more of a "retaliation" trip.

My only bump with not having him around was getting both kids out the door early (8a) this morning, so that Tess could sing in BOTH Palm Sunday services. After Ben woke at 4a last night. He NEVER does that, except that he did not nap yesterday (kids out front with sidewalk chalk on our driveway, kept him up) so at 4a he was all. done. He wanted to have major conversation with me, but after 20 minutes of trying to rock him (only to have him pull back and start on a new subject with me), I put him down and walked out.

Of course when I went to get him up early this morning, he was passed out like a little drunk, arms in the air, nothing would wake him except for some gentle shaking and calling and conversation. Payback time, baby!

Kindergarten Art

The pile in my kitchen hutch is still there (Tess's 1st grade work), but our kitchen table is (mostly) clear. I went into my scrap room and got to Tess's pile of kindergarten art from last year and remembered this gem:

All about her day, Step One: "I git my mom ep" -- It made me laugh when I first saw it, and it still does (I especially enjoy the accompanying artwork). I see she didn't get the concept of the assignment...she doesn't go back to sleep In The Morning. She does now, though. I have to "git her ep" in the mornings this year. My alarm goes off at 7a but I usually hear the high school bus coming through our neighborhood at 6:50a. Yeah, you read that right. 6:50a.

Seriously, I do NOT remember getting up that early for school as a teenager. Then again, I didn't take the bus. I thought school started around 8:30a, but another Livonia grad claims we all started at 7:30a. Of course, I didn't take the bus, but I walked or my Mom drove my sister and I in, so we had to be ready to leave with some time for travel.

My new printer has a scanner, obviously. I have soo much scanning to catch up on. Not too happy that I have to have Kodak paper for it -- makes sense, but I had just bought a HUGE package of Canon paper; I ended up giving it away at SIStv since my pictures were coming out dull. E claims Kodak ink is cheaper (one of the many reasons he picked this printer); I'm hoping the same holds true for Kodak paper.

Not Dead Yet

An interesting article on blogging from Writer's Digest.

I can't imagine being so techologically hooked-up that it would kill you!

Well, as long as you're here, I may as well entertain you...

On Mondays we try to have a Family Night, which usually involves us all laying around watching a movie. A couple of months ago, E thought the kids would enjoy Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Yeah, I know, not smart. I remembered that it was a little racy, but forgot Christopher Lloyd's completely creepy end as Judge Doom (flattening a villian who then pops up and continues to come after you...the very stuff of children's nightmares. Thanks, E!)

Tess kept hiding under the covers, saying, "Turn it off! Turn it off!" but I wanted to assure her that Eddie Valiant & Co. get him in the end. She's at that age where you can draw the line between bad characters and the actors that portray them, so I mentioned that Lloyd plays a really great Good Guy in one of my all-time favorite movies, Back to the Future.

Santa was listening, and brought me the BTTF trilogy on DVD for Christmas. Not having learned our lesson, we spent a couple of Family Nights watching each in turn. The first movie isn't so horrible, some bad language and sexist situations (somewhat over Tess's head), then the second movie was too dark. At least Ben gave us all some perspective: he became obessessed with flying cars.

Both kids were bored by the third movie, wandering off during the romantic scenes (when Marty comes to get Jennifer off the porch, where they left her at the end of BTTF2, and leans in to kiss her, Ben actually turned away and said "ew" !!) (he is starting that way too early, LOL).

But we scarred Ben for life (again) when the modern freight train at the end completely destroys the DeLorean. He was taking in big gulps of air, near sobbing, saying, "Car! BOKEN!" At least we tried to assure him that Doc Brown would be able to put the car back together again. Sort of.

Holy cow, just looked up Lloyd's DOB. He is the same age as my mother. So is John Cleese. Maybe 70 is the new 50?

Guess what his favorite new word is?

223365
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile

Ben, say bottle.
Bot-tle.
Ben, say orange juice.
Orng-jus.
Ben, say supercalifragilisticexpialdocious...
No.
Ben, can you say yes?
No.

The boy is spent.

Busy preparing for CE. Went to look for new luggage today...my rolling carry-on is so small, and the next size up in our luggage collection is HUGE (will weigh 50+ lbs with paper supplies stuffed in there upon my return...), so I need something medium-sized but I want something cUtE, KWIM? God, luggage is ugly these days.

Maybe I'll borrow Tess's cupcake suitcase...

Shining sinks

E was admonishing me yesterday because Ben hadn't been outside to play all day. After all, we have a new swing set and the weather was gorgeous, but perhaps he's forgotten just how much a 19 month-old can get into outdoors...especially when you have a pond to make you extra-nervous.

After I did my self-imposed morning chores (I subscribe to FlyLady's emails, but rarely follow them...the task for yesterday --cleaning off your kitchen counters-- suddenly inspired me) where I felt the urge to clean every. single. bathroom. sink. (did I mention we have 5 bathrooms in this house? One of them a handicap bathroom that we hardly use, for a previous owner with ALS, but still...FIVE)...seriously, I went to put a full liquid soap container back in the main floor bathroom and the sink was DISGUSTING...once I start a job, I may as well be consistent...but not perfect, right, FlyLady?

ANYWAY, after that was done (I left one upstairs sink for later...the backyard was calling), we all trouped out to the back forty and had a very pleasant morning swinging, pulling chairs under the overhanging branches of our willow tree (the one advantage to having a pond...willow trees...), checking out the goldfish in the pond (amazing how they survive the winter...they are HUGE and were coming up to the surface to feast on water bugs) and generally enjoying the sun on our backs and the wind in our hair.

Now I'm about to get my recipe LOs done (for a CE swap), and I was just thinking how much I got done in January...during Lain's challenge...and how that has changed my perspective on my "free" time. Ben's home, but napping, so I can grab the hour and a half or so that I have and spend it cleaning (did that this morning!), cooking (peeled potatoes & got them in water as he was settling down) or getting creative.

I'm so glad I got the cleaning bug out of my system first thing this morning!

Monday moanin'

Well, that wasn't TOO bad...Dr. Roy was done in about a half an hour with Tess, she only cried when she got the "sleepy juice" (novocaine), a concept that originally made her laugh. Our dentist is great with kids...told Tess she had some "cavity bugs" he had to put to sleep (thus the sleepy juice) and take out for her...although I knew the real procedure would not make her laugh...she's at school doped up on Motrin, hopefully she'll get through her day okay.

It was wonderful to be out in the morning, even though it was cold. We went to the Dexter Bakery as a "treat" (yum...get a filling, fill up on a sugary donut...brilliant, mom!) since she wasn't going to make her bus and needed lunch (yes, I know, a donut...) We wandered over to the downtown Dexter Pharmacy, one of those wonderful old teeny tiny family-owned pharmacies, something that actually gives us one up on snooty old downtown Chelsea, our artsy-fartsy neighbor to the west.

The pharmacy had a bunch of tiny 3x3 encouragement cards marked down to 50 cents; I bought a handful to put in Tess's lunch on Fridays. Yes, I know, I should actually MAKE her little cards, I used up all my little card creations (so far, need to make more) on her earlier this year. I can't believe she has only 7 more weeks of school left.

Tonight is my Stampin Up Stamp Club...my last for a couple of months, since I am still saving for Creative Escape. I'm pretty much caught up on my registration fee, but I still have to get airfare and save up to pay my roommate, whoever she may be...I've decided not to get a hotel room, but instead depend upon The Kindness of Strangers. Good thing I'm in the Yahoo Group, lots of roomie connections there.

Here's this month's swap card...I went to my cardstock stash and picked a color (CTMH's Barn Red) I'm not all that fond of, that was masculine, that I had a lot of, and added some copper accents (embossing powder and metallic paper) for an elegant-yet-whimsical Father's Day card. Crown is Anita's, argyle background is SU, letters are my current favorite CTMH alphabet, Tiny Typewriter. Which reminds me...I have a new CTMH shipment coming today, including a new Summer catalog...to be released Into the Wild May 1st...I'll be listening for my Man in Brown for the rest of the afternoon...ready to pounce!

Amoeba knitting

I noticed today, as I put YET ANOTHER new knitting project into a leftover gift bag (this time a Hello Kitty from Tess' birthday), that my knitting bags seem to be splitting and multiplying. I haven't touched what's in my ACTUAL knitting bag for about 3 months (the red tank top from IWK I started last Fourth of July...and it's nearly done, too...) While I swore I wouldn't get stash, I do have an overabundance of actual projects.

I went to Chicago the week before last (spring break...my folks did not go to Florida, and E wasn't budging, so I said I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE, and I did, to visit my sister), where I stopped in at Loopy Yarns. As I walked in, the gal behind the counter said "everything in the bins on the floor is a dollar a skein, because we're sick of looking at it," so I snagged a very pretty blue ribbon yarn (Berroco's Glace) and some Elsbeth Lavold alpaca...not enough to make a sweater, of course, but I've got a pattern for a decent vest (and I have a vest phobia, so that is something!) that might work.

On another note, Tess has the first (!) of her cavity fillings tomorrow. I am so depressed about this I can't even think. *I'm* the one who brushes her teeth for her (most of the time), and she still got cavities. At our Friday night crop, Kelly and I were praising the flouride in Livonia water (where we grew up), she never had cavities and I have only 3 after all these years.

Tess has FOUR cavities, three filling appointments coming up. It's making me physically ill to think of it. I just hope I can hold it together for her tomorrow.

It's O-VAH!

365062
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile

Whew. E thought I was crazy when I told the girls' parents to come back in an hour and a half; turns out I was right on target (he thought they needed 2 hours).

Here was the party line-up:

Arrival: put handprint on Tess's birthday T-shirt. Sign it. Get your rock star gear: sparkley boa & glitter sunglasses (the Hannah Montana specs I'm sporting were one of Tess's gifts...shh...don't tell her I tried them on...)

Craft: Rock Star/BFF foam frame creations. Photo opps with party girl Tess.

Game: drop-a-clothes pin -in-the-bottle. This determined the order they would go in for...

Goodie bags: follow your color of curling ribbon (7 in all) twisted around in our basement to your goodie bag (fun to set up, until I got to ribbon #4...#5...and got increasingly tangled in my own cleverness).

*proceed to drive adults crazy with the whizzing lip favors I put in the goodie bags*

Food: popcorn...cake...ice cream...juice.

Gift opening.

Everyone arrived at once, and everyone left at once. Clean up began.

Made for a short Sunday, though!

Pick your hobbies carefully...

Tess on horseback
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile

The key to not being bored out of your mind at your kids' practices, lessons, games, whatever, I guess, is to hope they choose a hobby YOU love (or for you to take up knitting, which I plan on pulling out at all future soccer, basketball, tennis, or other sports-related event either kid picks up).

I absolutely LOVED being in the barn/practice ring with Tess Saturday morning. Even though it was bitter cold in the ring, even with the smell, even though *I* did not get to ride. And she really enjoyed it too.

Now, it looks like Ben will be taking up tennis...that should make E glad.

Did you think I forgot?

12 months!
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile

I had the weird feeling after this last photo was taken, that somewhere I had missed a month. But no, I got them all.

I just missed a newborn photo...I remember thinking around day 2 or so, when I was home alone for an hour or so (Mom and Dad were visiting, but out shopping, or doing something equally useful for us), "gee, I should start taking the orange quilt/Ugly Doll pictures today," but then I was tired and worried about Ben's endless sleeping; sure enough, we went into the hospital the next day to take care of his severe jaundice.

So that is a story in itself, with plenty of photos...

Anyway, here is the full set. Complete at last!

Morning Reflections

Kids just waking up...I woke up early (6:30a), just before my alarm went off, with a disturbing dream. Woke up glad it was just a dream. All I can say is, I need to learn Russian. Then maybe these dreams where my husband and MIL are talking frantically to me in Russian will make sense, and be less disturbing.

Tess got all emotional on the drive home last night about her Dyeda (Russian grandpa). Out of the blue, she says:

"Bacteria can make you die."

Me: "It's pretty rare, though."

Tess: "What did Dyeda die from?"

Me: "Cancer."

Tess: "Sounds like 'pencer...and 'can't...'"
(she drifts off here, obviously sounding things out and rhyming them, to help her remember, then...)

Tess: "I miss Dyeda. I loved Dyeda. Why did he have to die?"

Then, within 30 seconds of my attempts to comfort her and find out the source of this sudden sadness, she's off talking about her bus driver and how they all have to be quiet when they are crossing railroad tracks (we soon came to railroad tracks, thus the jump to a safer subject).

Apparently her bus driver, Jen, has a CD player on the bus, which she turns down to listen for the train...all the kids have to hold their hands up to show that they are being quiet...and Jen went into a rant one day about her CD player (still not sure of all the connections on this, but it was pretty funny).

"Our bus driver spent her time and money to have music on the bus and we have to all be quiet when she stops at the tracks.

"But I wish she had Backyardigans instead."

Me: "What kind of music does your bus driver like to listen to?"

Tess: "Blues...y'know, stuff like that. Backyardigans has the blues. She should play Backyardigans."

(Tess is obviously obsessed with our Backyardigans CD...maybe she should take it on the bus some day for Jen to play...heh, I'm sure that would be appreciated...)

Strangely Peaceful

I put Ben down at 8:30p (poor guy's been rubbing his eyes for an hour, but he had no afternoon nap so I didn't want to put him down *too* early, only to have him wake up in an hour and be up until 10p) and went to check on Tess, who had been bouncing off walls at 7:30p, then complained of a headache and went upstairs around 8p.

This is what I found. I like how she is clinging to the bed rail, as if to keep from falling. Asleep, that is. Now I can only hope that she doesn't wake up vomiting. The last time she went upstairs and fell asleep on her own while it was daylight was when she had the stomach flu. She was three years old then and it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon, but still. Crossing my fingers here.

Today I had 5 whole hours at the Zone to crop. All of my bitching during and after our "vacation," where E {begin lengthy whine} dragged us to his friend's place in Petoskey (I know, poor me, gorgeous condo near the shores of Little Traverse Bay, whaa, I'll shut up now) JUST SO HE COULD PLAY SOME TENNIS, not considering I wasn't planning on cropping again for a full TWO WEEKS (although I did get out for a couple of hours when we got back early from our trip), {/whine} finally paid off.

You'd think I'd accomplish more than two layouts in 5 hours but that's what a long break does to me. E has also been encroaching on my Sacred Fridays, where I try to get out to Chelsea for my weekly crop by 7p (and I crop until midnight...or until they start running the vacuum to get us out, usually around 11:15p). Now, Sacred Fridays are something that NOBODY should mess with, most of all E and his frickin' tennis schedule. I think he learned his lesson today when I was gone. All. Day. Sweet.

Friday (a shortened 3-hour crop, more like 2 hours), I tried an 11 x 8.5 ("landscape") layout for the first time. My pictures required it, so I closed my eyes and jumped. Eh. Not so fond of that one, but today's -- second one in a row! -- was a LOT more fun.

LOVE the Stampin Up "Notebook" alphabet (now retired) for "Binky Face" (no, I did not hand draw those letters. I wish)! Not too sure about the tab and the journaling strips, but overall the layout works in the mood I was going for -- playful and silly.

The other layout I completed today I totally dreamed up yesterday. I recently read an article on hair care in Real Simple magazine, and under Oily Hair (totally my type) it listed all the things I *should* be doing to take care of my fine, oily hair, and voila! I am doing all of them! So I ripped the article out, grabbed a page kit I received from a swap-bot swap, and went to town.

Here's a couple of reasons why this layout is so out of the box for me:

1. PINK!
2. ribbons
3. hidden journaling
4. TURQUOISE!
5. a button (gasp!)
6. for the dot on the "i," no less!
7. FLORAL STUFF (!!)
8. I finally used my Coluzzle file folder template.
9. and my Autumn Leaves journal box stamps.
10. more than 2 fonts on the page (shh...don't tell the scrapping police...)
11. did I mention I used PINK and TURQUOISE?

I can't promise anything, but since I have just purchased Elsie Flannigan's 52 Challenges book, you may be in for more surprises on my pages...

Looks easy, right?

Ben at 8 months
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile

Just prop up your baby next to the same stuffed animal every month and get a nice tally of his growth over the first year. Easy, right?

Not so very...

First, you have to involve Big Sister.

Get her to hide behind the couch (arm) and keep baby there by distracting him with funny voices.

Only Big Sister -- FOR ONCE -- does not understand the concept of "hide."

You know, so you CAN'T BE SEEN.


Then, of course, baby takes note of MOM. Taking the PICTURE (or, trying to...)


And he has to do one of those classic "Hi Mom!" TV shots...or perhaps a "could I drool on your lens a sec, Ma?" question is being posed.


Suddenly Big Sister realizes her help is no longer needed.
She is being asked to GET OUT OF THE PICTURE.
Zut, alors!


THEN Mom realizes he crawled all the way across the couch for...
...the remote.
So, let him play with it!


Now he has no interest in anything else.
Including the large, green Ugly Doll put there expressly for his amusement.


FINALLY, the Money Shot.
Sister no where in sight.
Remote firmly in grasp.
(see first photo, above).

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.

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.

Clean tank, happy fish

Clean tank, happy fish
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

We had our neighbor's teenager watch Jack while we were in Florida. Even though I asked her to give him only a *pinch* of food each day, and also gave her a glass to skim old food off the top, he still came back with his tank nastier than when we left (and I cleaned it the day before we left!)

I couldn't stand it anymore. I cleaned it this morning. Then Tess & I went to the library for storytime and...whoa!...baby animals. Tess was really looking forward to that part; she has taken on Ming-Ming, the duckling from Wonder Pets, as her personal imaginary friend. Too bad the ducks were more teenager than duckling. Still, she had a fun time feeding the baby angora goat (too adorable).

NOT a lamb
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

This picture will go great in the new, COMPLETE SEI album I WON last night (still got my crop-drawing mojo!) at my first Paper and Glue crop last night. I had a BLAST cropping with Hailey and Shel, who are actually from my end of town. Despite taking the wrong Michigan Avenue exit (who knew there were so many?) on my way to their Canton location last night (no offense Ypsi, but I don't need to see you for a long, long time) (you either, BELLEVILLE) (that's right, I ended up in frickin' BELLEVILLE) I was able to get focused and get a lot done.

I won TWO drawings, a really cool 7 gypsies stamp (family) that I used right away, and that beautiful SEI Spring/Summer 8x8 album Halley had made up...she even sold me the "sequel," the Fall/Winter album, from today's drawings (sorry, ladies).

Best of all, I stayed until 1:00 A.M. (my usual haunt would've kicked me out at 11:30 p.m.). I will be going to one of their crops again...hopefully out Ann Arbor way? And I'm not just saying that because I won everything...

>insert evil laughter here<

p.s. to Shel...my DD bag came in -- it was at my MIL's, since she ordered it for me for Christmas. And I really like it after all! It's not pink & orange like I though, it's a pink & green & black floral pattern. Yum!

Happy (Half-) Birthday, Ben!

Six Months Old
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

I've got the whole (so far) set over at Flickr, of course.

If he keeps smiling in the same increments each month, he'll be bursting by his first birthday!

Check out those three toothies at the bottom. Hee.

Happy birthday, baby

Rrrrrrrooooaaarr!
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

Time: This morning.
Place: Kitchen
Dialogue with my (NOW!) 5 year-old...

Tess: Mom! I've got presents!!
Mom: Cool! I wonder who left them for you.
Tess: Daddy!
Mom: Um...who does all the shopping around here?
Tess: The Birthday Fairy!!
Mom: (sigh) I get no respect.

(Daddy thought this exchange was HILARIOUS. Ha. Next year HE can be the damn Birthday Fairy and run out in icy rain with a baby and get some shopping done while Miss Thang is in school and then stay up late the next night trying to make a blank cake look like a dinosaur while said baby refuses to sleep and OH YES don't forget the gruesome PMS symptoms).

Dinosaur: Does this tail make me look fat?
Mom: You are going to be delicious.