E and Me

TILT - stillness and observation

2010-09-23T16:38:00.004-04:00

Apologies for my weeklong absence. I've been sick since Sunday and trying to relax. Joe has been awesome, getting E ready for school in the mornings and taking her in for me, plus doing dishes and making lunch and dinner for us. He's been really helpful, which is nice because usually when I'm sick I have to just march on and do everything for myself anyway. I feel special!

I've been spending lots of time on the couch and in bed, resting. TV kind of sucks now, and aside from regular night time shows we watch together we usually just watch movies or kids programs. So I've spent a fair amount of time in silence or listening to music. I do laundry here and there, but mostly I'm just resting.

I've noticed lots more in the stillness of the week. It's strange how when you're busy with chores, bills, or just every day stuff how seldom we take the time to pause, breathe, and be still. And with that, sometimes when I pause there is still chaos…thoughts of things that need doing, people who need calling, and so on.

As I type now I can hear Sable giving herself a cat bath and purring. She was really frustrated and sat herself next to me to get even with Miss Marvel.

I'm able to witness their interactions more organically now. Usually when Joe and Eleana are home we don't notice the drama leading up to the hisses and the barking. But in the stillness of the day I saw the two of them, kitty and doggy, argue without using any words.

Sable loves the sunshine patches on the floor during the day. She falls asleep in them every day, one on the stairs and one in the living room. When she wakes up she eats and then goes back to her sunshine patch to nap some more. She found a really nice patch in the family room today, and planted herself at the tip of it just before Miss Marvel came trotting along. Miss Marvel plopped down right in the middle of the sunshine as if to say, "Hey, doggies love sunshine too," and Sable did not like that. Undoubtedly Sable was preparing to venture into the patch fully and found it offensive that the dog took her spot before she could act. I had to take photos of the two of them in the sunshine…their expressions were so priceless.

Sable eventually figured the dog wasn't moving, so to spite her she came with me to the couch and has been sitting here with me since. To heck with the dog and her sunshine hogginess.

So the thing I love today is being able to witness these little interactions, the moments the two furbabies have with each other before they try killing each other.

things I love thursday - creepy fog

2010-09-16T14:30:00.002-04:00

It's kind of creepy, right? I took this picture of our street this morning at 10am. The fog settled in two nights ago and made everything look very creepy. That evening everything almost looked apocalyptic with the yellowish street lights glowing in the fog.

It makes everything look so very halloweeny. Eleana loved walking to school in the fog yesterday morning. The fog looks thinner in the afternoon, but it thickens up overnight. It's amazing. People are going to work later because of the low visibility and I can hear the ships in Port Anchorage blowing their fog horns. The only thing I don't hear is jet noise. It's actually almost eerie, the lack of jet noise given we live on an Air Force base.

things I love thursday

2010-09-09T16:29:00.001-04:00

Morning kisses
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23

Morning kisses! Miss Marvel is cuddliest at bedtime and in the morning. Eleana is constantly kissing her and hugging her when she wakes up but this was the first time I captured her grabbing Miss Marvel by the face. Moments like this remind me of why I love having Miss Marvel in our family.

wordless wednesday

2010-09-08T18:50:00.004-04:00

*I know this is supposed to be wordless…but this is my first time participating in Wordless Wednesday so I just wanted to get the info out there and say hi! The Wordless Wednesday website isn't working right now, miraculously enough, but it just so happens that today is my first really busy day here in Anchorage and I don't have time to post anything of substance aside from a quick photo. Hence, my clumsy start participating in Wordless Wednesday.*

the kissing hand

2010-09-02T15:27:00.004-04:00

Between the years 2000 and 2002 I bought a children's book for my boyfriend called The Kissing Hand. The bookstore was always a favorite place of mine, and I stopped there any time I was at the mall. I've loved books all my life. My mom took me to libraries as a child weekly, and when school started requiring we do research in the library I knew my way around already. Children's books are amazing. Before I had my own child I was often found reading Shel Silverstein or Roald Dahl.

During that time in our relationship Joe made up a simple hand gesture for us to use when we were saying goodbye, something to ease the pain and remind us we'd be seeing each other again soon. At many intervals in our relationship our time spent together was regulated and enforced strongly by his mother. I still remember the rules - we were never allowed to see each other two days in a row, and usually only on a weekend. So essentially we could see each other Friday, but never Saturday because we went to church together and Sunday counted as a day we would be together. We didn't go to school together after my senior year, so for two years we only saw each other twice a week. The thumb kiss gesture helped a lot. It was so sweet and a little goofy.

When I saw The Kissing Hand on the front shelf in the book store display back then I was immediately drawn to it. The concept is so sweet, and the story is about a mother's love for her baby, but the story spoke to me and I bought it on impulse to give to Joe for Christmas. I remember putting it in the shirt box I wrapped for him. The book wasgently placed under a shirt I had gotten him. I'm pretty sure I wrote something on the inside jacket of the book, too.

A few years later, after Joe and I had been married and had our own baby, my mother-in-law found the book and asked if I had ever read it. I started to say yes, as a matter of fact I bought that for Joe for Christmas when we were dating, but before I could finish she started to explain how she bought it for him a few years ago. I'm sure if she would have opened the book she would have seen my handwriting. I felt a little embarrassed and somewhat shocked. The woman buys so many books anyway, why should she remember whether or not she bought something for her son? I never brought it to her attention, because the book is probably special to her and I didn't want to embarrass anybody.

Yesterday when Eleana came home from school she had a picture she had colored and glued. The pictures were based on the story The Kissing Hand, which they had read in class. She had brought home a raccoon puppet she had made the day before and I didn't even think it was related to the book, but it was. I told her we had that book, and we could read it at bedtime if she wanted. She was thrilled.

Bedtime came and I started shuffling through her books in the boxes that sit in the hallway. (Her bookshelf was broken in the move and we haven't replaced it yet). I couldn't find The Kissing Hand. The one I bought for Joe years ago was nowhere to be found, and it was a hardback! I have two copies of The Polar Express - the one Mom got for me with the book on tape and the bell, and the one we bought for Eleana when she had her first Christmas - we have Bearanstein Bears, Care Bears, and Little Critters, but no The Kissing Hand.

Eleana settled for If You Take a Mouse to School. When I was done reading my story I let Joe go in and do his part. They started reading Falling Up last week and they are almost done with all the poems! While he was reading to her I ran down to the garage. I had a feeling, a hunch, that I had seen that book in a box or bag somewhere.

I found a box in the garage that had a bunch of random things in it - unopened toys from her birthday, special Christmas gifts my mother-in-law had bought in London and Ireland, and things we just didn't have time to pack properly. In the bag from my mother-in-law were several books - Zen Shorts, If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, Paddington, and The Kissing Hand. She had gotten the paperback version of the book for E two Christmases ago and I had totally forgot!

I ran upstairs with the books to show Eleana and she was absolutely thrilled. I read it to her when Daddy was done reading his poems and she fell right to sleep. We haven't taught her the thumb kiss yet, but I think we will, it'll be a very sweet family tradition to start I think.

Coney!

2010-08-30T16:50:00.004-04:00

So, I don't think I ever officially blogged about how I'm team Coco, and how horribly I think NBC treated him, but I am so very excited to start watching him on TBS.

This excites me! I love George Lopez's show, and I'm happy he invited Conan to join him and graciously moved his show to the midnight slot. That takes integrity and Conan is, in my mind, a national treasure! I love him. Love love love him.

I used to love Jay Leno, and I'd watch him every night in preparation for watching Conan. They were like a team, an unstoppable night time duo, until that whole contract thing happened. I never watched Jay's show at 10pm, by the way. I sort of hated that he took that time slot away from other shows. It seemed to me like he realized that when his contract was up he didn't really want to quit, so instead of bowing out gracefully he selfishly planned to do another show while Conan took over the Tonight Show. I miss Conan's Tonight Show, just so you know. I mean, he did a decent job! And after only one year, and comparing his ratings to Jay's, cutting him off seemed harsh. WAS harsh.

So, Jay Leno, I will never watch your show again. Not even if Robert Pattinson is on. Not even if Muse is performing. Not even if Jesus himself was going to be your exclusive guest. I am with Coco, and I always will be.

mosaic monday - kawaii!

2010-08-30T15:46:00.004-04:00

kawaii!
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

(As always, clicking on the photo will take you to it's flickr page, and from there you can explore each photo individually and meet some new and amazing photographers, or find some really cool things you'd like to buy or try yourself!)

Kawaii literally means "lovable" "cute" or "adorable" in Japanese and has been a part of Japanese pop culture since the 70's. Hello Kitty helped move the trend forward, and her popularity here in the states is comparable to her popularity in her home country of Japan. Hello Kitty is seen in the photo "masks" by amber renee, and I've featured some other items and characters whom I deem kawaii.

Cute things make people happy, don't they? Well, most people. People who aren't vampires. Beauty is inspiring, because beauty inspires happiness and hope and so many things at once. For spiritual people, beauty is proof of a higher power, or a source of happiness and perfection outside of themselves. Plato believed we strived for perfection through an appreciation and understanding of beauty in all it's forms:

"And the true order of going, or being led by another, to the things of love, is to begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and at last knows what the essence of beauty is."
Sec 211, The Symposium.

See, I still remember some of the things I learned in my philosophy courses! ;)

May this be an inspiring start to a beautiful and constructive week!

homework

2010-08-29T20:21:00.002-04:00

Friday E was sent home with homework. Her first homework assignments ever!

We chose one of three possible activities, and ended up learning our new address (important, since we move frequently, not to get confused), drawing a picture of our new house and then writing our house number on the house. She will take her picture to school tomorrow to share with the class. We also did a shape hunt around the house and recorded what shapes we found in each room.

Eleana is doing so well! After 4 days in kindergarten she has learned to successfully write her name. And she doesn't have to be told which letter comes next or anything. I just ask her to write her name on her paper and she does it. This amazes me! She's becoming such a smarty pants and I'm so proud of her.

This weekend I got the yarn out again and finished some crocheting projects. Three projects, to be exact! No pictures yet, but I made 2 cloche hats, a coffee cozy, and a mini Totoro. The Totoro was supposed to be a keyring, but he ended up being a little larger than the photo, so I gave him to Eleana as a toy. She doesn't have any Totoro toys yet, and he will be a welcome addition to her bedroom.

I am always surfing through Ravelry.com, looking for new and free pattern ideas to try out. I'm always happy to knock a new one out of my list, but sometimes, once I find a new pattern I'm actually good at finishing I stick with it for a while and make a bunch. So I made one hat for Eleana and one hat for her bff Hailey, and will probably make a couple more. Last fall I made a couple earflap hats for the little ones but I can't find Eleana's so I'm going to make another one for her to wear this winter.

Saturday morning I realized that although I haven't worked out every day I have managed to lose 8 pounds since the 16th. Yay! We are doing this mostly by limiting breads/carbs, and fried things. We aren't a family that keeps junk in the house, but during our travels from VA to AK we had to eat out a lot, which meant consuming more junk than we had in a while. Burgers and french fries almost every day, pop, milk shakes, chips and gas station goodies were the only way we ate because we had to pack light. So really, the 8 pounds I've lost have just been the pounds I put on during the trip. I'm back to my "normal" weight, and still have a long way to go before I hit my ultimate goal of my pre-pregnancy weight of 150.

I realize that surgery is always an option, as I don't want to live the majority of my life being fat. I started my life healthy and I intend to end it that way…but I want to be realistic. It seems these days the only way to lose a lot of weight is to go on The Biggest Loser or Oprah or something, or get surgery. I need to try this the serious way first and commit to my new healthy lifestyle. Healthier. Safer.

So this is me, trying to balance a new school year for E, a new environment to live in, and a new way of living this life. I have a lot of new goals for our time spent here in Alaska, and I hope to see many of them if not all of them accomplished.

first day

2010-08-25T21:07:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was Eleana's first day of kindergarten.

Yesterday she marched me to school as the leader, while also holding my hand, amid the cars driving by to go to work. She giggled as every car drove by, and answered all my babbling advice with "I know it" (emphasis on the word "know").

"Don't forget your sandwich is in the white box in the bottom of your lunch bag."

"I know it," she replies.

"Remember to ask for help to open your juice if you can't do it yourself."

"I know it, Mommy."

She knows so much these days.

Dropping her off was easy enough. She stood very patiently in line as the kids who ride the bus were coming. She didn't wiggle too much, push anyone, or cry for me. Every so often I saw her eyes wander the sea of eager parents, looking for me I assumed. And each time I met her gaze from afar and gave her a smile and a little wave.

As the children started filing into the building she looked worried, and I reminded her that I was coming, too, to help her put her things away and find her seat. The classroom was crowded with all our grown-up bodies plus the tiny ones, and E and I had a hard time finding her cubby at first. Once we did, we placed her gym shoes and art shirt in the proper spots and proceeded to find her seat and table. It was all so exciting for us.

As she was sitting in her seat, listening to the morning announcements, we heard that they were announcing birthdays for the summer children in kindergarten. Sure enough, they announced her birthday and said all the birthday kids could come to the office to get a birthday pencil. She loved that, and that helped her feel excited about her day even more.

She was nervous, and a little confused with the process because at the Montessori school she could start working on a project right away - a project of her choosing to last as long as she wanted. Naturally her first instinct at kindergarten yesterday was to go play in the toy kitchen, but I had to explain to her gently that she could play when the teacher said it was time to play.

I'm hoping the structure of the classroom will help her a bit. Eleana is very independent and likes to do her own thing uninterrupted, and therefore is sometimes hesitant to do what we ask her to do at home.

This year will be a great year for her. She loves her teacher, we love her teacher, and she has some exciting things going on now.

I only need to figure out what I'm going to do with all this spare time.

mosaic monday - homey

2010-08-09T14:54:00.001-04:00

homey
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

We've been in our new home now for a week in Anchorage, Alaska…and the whole week has been soaked with coffee, and filled with empty boxes and tissue paper. The only room that has nothing going on right now is the office. Or rather, has a ton going on because the boxes are still not unpacked. (I'm rushing up there as soon as I post this, because I need a place to start creating again!)

Things are going smoothly, and we love our new home so much. This mosaic inspires me and represents me. There are frustrations we've gone through, and since we've moved in we've been able to relax our muscles and sigh a heavy sigh of relief. Finding a home is the most stressful part of moving and now we're here and everything is taken care of, we feel safe again.

Enjoy the photos and the artists represented here! And as always, may you get lost in all the wonders of flickr, and discover new artists and talents for you to enjoy.

Today

2010-06-28T16:03:00.003-04:00

Today I am going through the closets. Mostly mine and the guest closet. There are some suspicious boxes in the guest closet that are begging to be sorted through.

I cannot believe the packers will be here Friday. It blows my mind. Considering they will do most the work, there isn't much for me (us) to do until then except get the things ready we are taking with us. Mostly the things we can't live without for weeks like computers, cameras, clothes, and valuables we don't want lost forever in the process of moving.

I have lists made of things to pack posted on the wall in every room, and a general to-do list documenting what still needs to be done. I still need to call the utilities and have them cancelled. I still need to change the addresses on my mail (magazines, etc.) Only issue is that I haven't got a new address to have those things shipped to yet. This makes me sad.

Not having a home for a month will be challenging. Or at least, not knowing where the home is, will be challenging. What do I do about my netflix account? What do I do about my magazines, credit card bills, etc? If I have things forwarded to my mom's address for example, that can take a couple weeks to process. Then to have it switched to Alaska shortly after, I could lose some stuff in the process. This is a headache!

But I'm not panicking. I'm just…venting. And I am so frazzled. There is so much info in my head, and so little time. Never ever enough time.

SO, if I'm not in the blog world for a while, I have a good reason!

I will post again about Eleana's party. Or not. Depends if I remember. UGH.

decisions decisions

2010-06-14T21:33:00.010-04:00

My husband is useless when it comes to decisions that involve colors or design.

Our little family now owns 3 passports, all of which will be very helpful in getting us into Canada and then back into The United States during our trip to Alaska. But, as we've learned the hard way, passports can be damaged or lost and need to be kept in a secure place and on us at all times. (Joe left his passport in his pants once and it was subsequently washed and needs replaced.)

So I'm faced with a decision: which In Touch Clutch do I purchase?!?

It isn't all that easy, deciding from 58 beautiful fabrics which ONE you will use to keep your ID materials in.

I've narrowed the choices down, thankfully…and am asking you, friends, which one suits me best? I will list the reasons I like each one to make this easier for everyone who decides to help (even if only one person helps, that's better than no input, not even from my color obsessed child).

(All photo copyrights belong to downstairsDesigns)

I like this one for an obvious reason - look at the beautiful deer!! But is it too cutesy for the family as a whole? Not sure.

This one is still sort of feminine, but I love the colors…they match my office color scheme very well.

If you know me, this choice was obvious too. I love woodgrain patterns and anything forest-y, and the fact that this is pink is a bonus. Very awesome.

This one just spoke to me. I like the colors, and the pink of the trees is just gorgeous. It's simplicity is what grabs me.

This one goes with the rest of the house very well, and I'm always drawn to red. The color is amazing, and again, I like the simple nature of this one. I'm almost leaning toward it as my favorite, though they all pretty much tie for first.

Lastly, one that is a little darker, but it speaks to my love of combining blue and green. The living room is mostly blue, green, and red, so this also matches the household…but I'm thinking it's a little dark for summer travel.

What do we think? Comments are much appreciated!!!

No, I'm not watching True Blood right now, but I'm still a fan!

2010-06-13T22:49:00.002-04:00

We don't get HBO.

Our landlady provides us with basic cable which pretty much covers channels 1-98…so no HBO for me. And that sucks considering the season 3 premiere for True Blood was tonight.

I'm going to miss all the Sookie/Eric dreams/nightmares that Bill has, and all the close calls that Sookie and Eric are bound to have during the course of the season.

I read the books. Am reading the books. LOVE the books. Some of the twists the story takes surprise me…especially the whole introduction of the fairies. And I know some people are confused as to why the series is introducing the fairies a book early… but I get it. I mean, there are 10 books now…who knows if the series will be around 10 years? They have to get a jump on all the awesome stuff just in case, otherwise there will be some book fans left in the dark.

The best part about being a fan of a book that's been turned into a series or movie is seeing all the stuff you love, the stuff you imagined in your mind, come to life. I'd say my favorite thing about the books is the relationship that has developed between Sookie and Eric. I mean, I am SO team Eric. Especially given the truth behind Bill's initial pursuit of Sookie. As I was explaining to my husband (who could give two shits about Sookie, or Twilight, or anything I read that isn't Marvel-centered) Eric has always been true to himself. Eric has never lied about who he is or his intentions. Yes, he's a "bad boy" but he's always been honest about that. Bill starts his relationship with Sookie with false pretenses, and when she finds this out she feels she doesn't know Bill anymore…it is the ultimate betrayal.

Eric has never betrayed Sookie in this way…he is always true to her from step one…in spite of his bad boy personality. And I think that's what Sookie is attracted to. That and she gets a taste of his gentler side more than once and that's enough to make any girl fall for the bad boy.

Anyway, I'm sad I'm missing all the excitement of the premiere, but as soon as episode one of season 3 is available on iTunes I'm totally buying it…just so I can get a glimpse of my lovely Eric…and a glimpse of Bill being tortured. Nice.

long hair

2010-06-10T13:04:00.003-04:00

Eleana is hard to contain sometimes…and she's at that age where she's likely to say things to other people that may offend someone. Not on purpose, and usually I've been lucky enough that the people she's talking to are really understanding of her words. At the Montessori school they discuss culture, and there are many children from other cultures in her classroom. Some are Indian and some are Asian and I think a couple are Swedish. It's a wonderful classroom, and Eleana loves all her friends. She is still in a color phase, where she's pointing out colors and telling me that yellow and blue make green and so on. She observes these things often, and as a result she calls her Indian and African friends in school brown. She means it lovingly of course, and falls in love so easily with other children.

My neighbor has many many grandchildren who are often over to visit. Eleana went for the first time to play at their house with their youngest grandchildren about a week ago and had a blast. As she was coming home she told me that the youngest girl was her new friend, and she was beautiful and had pretty brown skin. Of course there's nothing wrong with that, and I make sure she tells her friends these compliments too. It's the sweetest thing to overhear two small girls complementing each other on their pretty clothes, or pretty hair, or pretty skin. Girls need that in their lives, gentle loving encouragement. I hope as Eleana grows older and becomes a young woman she remains the same, complementing her friends as opposed to giving criticism or judging as so often young girls are prone to doing in their teens. I know if myself and my friends complemented each other a little more as teens I would have felt a little less awkward in my day-to-day life. Often I think we're too shy to say such things, or maybe are afraid to risk sounding too affectionate. But I love my friends now, and try to complement them as often as I can…and I hope Eleana does this as she grows up.

As I was saying, she's very observant lately. The other day at Target we were at the check-out where the clerk was a tall young man with long hair, tied in a pony tail at the base of his neck. His pony tail was long, too, at least hanging 10 inches from his neck. He greeted us and asked how we were, and had a fairly deep voice. Eleana looked a little surprised, squished her face up as if thinking and asked the question of all questions: "Are you a boy?!" with a strong emphasis on the word "boy."

Oh boy.

The clerk, thankfully, was lighthearted and told her yes he is a boy. She then said to him, "You have really long hair!" He said, "yes I do," and laughed. I apologized, and of course Eleana had no idea that she may have offended someone with a comment like that, and continued with "It's really long and pretty! SO handsome!" The clerk again was so gracious, and just said thank you and assured me it was no problem at all.

I was a little embarrassed, but the whole thing made me feel relief and I found myself smiling as we left the store. Eleana got a lesson in gender identification that day, and hopefully she will not be confused by it, but more understanding about those who make choices in spite of popular belief or traditions.

birthday again

2010-06-07T17:13:00.003-04:00

I printed pictures of Eleana today for her birthday celebration at school. She is celebrating this Friday since a) she won't be in school during her birthday and b) we won't live here anymore. At the Montessori school they do a timeline, a photo for every year of life plus birth. They walk circles around a candle which represents the sun, one lap per year. The classmates sing happy birthday to her, and she shares juice and her favorite cookie with her friends. Daddy and I are invited to join and we cannot wait!

Today, as I was going through the photo cds I have of Eleana's pictures - "Eleana's first year," "months 1-5," and so on - I became a little emotional. I can see the obvious changes in my daughter that have taken shape over the years, I can see the progression of how she went from being my tiny little cuddle bug to my spunky big girl, and I think she is so different now. But she still has the same glimmer in her eye, the same giggle…the giggle she was born with, and she still looks at me with love. And that is what this big thing called motherhood is all about. My daughter makes me happy, and in turn she has grown to be a happy child - one who is never intentionally violent or rude, who has decent manners, and tells everyone she meets how much she loves them. She has her moments of defiance for sure, but in all I can say that every day is pretty much a good day for her.

Her sass comes in waves. She loves to correct me, and I know she gets that from me. I've been informed by the birthday girl that she wants to have a Toy Story 3 party, and she is quick to correct me when I refer to it simply as a Toy Story party. "Toy Story threeeee, Mommy! Okay?" Her real party is June 25, and I cannot forget to purchase the Toy Story 3 plates, cups, napkins and such. I'm very excited. My mom, grandma and aunt will be here for the party, and Joe's family may be coming as well. Last year only Joe's side was able to come, and the year before we had a big family affair with both clans, so we've had a pretty even set of parties over the course of E's life. Having everyone here would really make her happy, she loves her extended family.

I'm just happy we will be celebrating with friends and family in a place we love, rather than waiting until we get to Alaska and celebrating by ourselves. Her birthday is at such an awkward time for us, considering we move always around June and are still new whenever we arrive at Eleana's birthday. This will be great!

mosaic monday - celebrate!

2010-05-17T18:21:00.001-04:00

celebrate
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

My mom's birthday was yesterday, and mine is today. So I offer you this simple mosaic filled with birthday-licious photos and artwork. Enjoy!

mosaic monday - greenification

2010-04-26T23:22:00.002-04:00

greenification
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

It's Mosaic Monday (late night edition)!

I should have made this last month, closer to when I saw the play. I did fave most of these right after I saw the play and fell in love with Elphaba all over again. She is such a strong and amazing woman, who has such a tragic story. She has many many fans, and reasonably so!

Enjoy browsing the photos by amazing artists and photographers featured here. The Blythe doll is an amazing example of fan work and craftsmanship. I admire greatly those who customize Blythe dolls, it truly is an artform in itself…and the photos of Blythe dolls are amazing! Also the painting of a dress inspired by Elphaba is beautiful.

So, get lost in Flickr! And make some favorites of your own!

something new

2010-04-25T10:28:00.004-04:00

I have been crocheting for about a year now. Usually I can make things that are square, like scarves or scarves. I can definitely make things that are round too, like flowers, hats and cup cozies.

I just haven't tried clothes yet. Because there's usually some kind of joining involved. That's really it. It sounds so scary to me. Plus, when you make clothes you need to block your item when you're done, so it won't curl. I don't have a blocking board. I want one though!

Because I made something yesterday that needs to be blocked.

Shrugs!

I made 3 actually. The one Eleana is keeping is white, she picked it herself. The blue one goes to her best friend and the gray one is going to her cousin/best friend. The only issue I have is the front of the piece wants to curl, hence why I need to block it.

I used the modified version of another shrug, found here. The original is here. I may try it for myself, or someone grown up size.

(sorry my pictures suck, I used the iphone and the lighting was poor in the bedroom for the second pic.)

lament

2010-04-19T10:57:00.003-04:00

I wish I could turn my mind off while driving. It goes wild, thinking and thinking of days gone by and of possible days to come. In the car is when I feel most like writing, and yet it's not the best time to be doing so.

I was listening to my iPod when Crazy Train by Ozzy came on. For some reason I had a flash of my mom as a younger version of herself, dancing while doing dishes or cooking. She did this frequently, and usually while listening to oldies or weird rock music that didn't quite match her. As a younger person, I remember frequently stating with shock, "You know this song, Mom?!" when she would jam to Metallica or something that I liked but she wasn't allowed to like as part of the sacred teenager/parent code book.

But, whenever a true oldie would come on the radio in the kitchen, something like "Knock Three Times" or "Want You Back," Mom would do the pony. And it was a bad pony. Or good depending on who you are. Regardless it always made me laugh, makes me laugh. Which is why I can't take oldies very seriously, although I love them.

Thinking of times like this reminded me of my mom's teenage nickname. She said kids used to call her "boobalina." I call her Boobalina now for laughs, and it gets a laugh every time. It's ironic because I have become a Boobalina myself...when I used to be a manageable B cup. Those were the GOOD days. I can barely remember that, or the advice I think my mom had gotten from some random guy that she passed onto me when I worried my boobs would always be small: "more than a handful is too much." Not very reassuring, but memorable. These days I'm not falling in that category anymore. I can't imagine wanting bigger breasts when, as it is, Lefty has her own cell phone and Righty is too cheap so she just has a pager. And I know that sends the wrong message but trust me, Righty is classy in spite of owning a pager.

My mom is awesome. She's always been goofy. Which is why I'm goofy. I don't dance too much in the kitchen (because I know I suck) but I do sing, a whole lot. Which is why Eleana sings a whole lot...and she's goofy too. I appreciate the goofiness. I try not to shush her when she's laughing raucously in the public eye, or telling a knock knock joke for the millionth time, and yet it's funny every time. She is who she is because of who we are, us founding women of goofiness...and of booby-ness.

I wonder what Eleana will ask me when it comes to boobs. She's already somewhat obsessed. She knows my breasts were hers to eat as a baby babe, and asks where the milk is now. I reassure her that if we have another child the milk will return and the baby will be able to eat, not starve. She is 4 1/2 after all, and very curious about life and everything that goes with it. I'm sure one day she will ask the same questions I asked my mom, and I hope for her back and her nickname's sake she remains a manageable b cup for a while. At least until she gets pregnant (at age 30) and subsequently grows fat and everything goes downhill from there.

Then I'll call her Boobalina. And hopefully she will laugh, just as I do. And just as my mom does.

to lazy or not to lazy

2010-04-11T12:04:00.002-04:00

That is the question for the day. It's easy to make the decision early in the day, when I'm still sleepy and only desire to return to dreamland. But there is much that needs to be done in my temporary little house, so much sometimes that it is easier to just forget about it and move onto other things. These things weigh heavy on my mind after while, and I take after my grandmother in the respect that a mess will eventually drive me absolutely crazy.

Crazy.

Motivation is hard to come by sometimes...and as I was reading in a friend's blog, motivation is usually spurred by negativity. A deadline perhaps, something you must get done. Ironically this is usually when Joe and I do our best cleaning. Picture a Friday night, during which we usually plan to eat a fun dinner and play a video game or watch a movie. Or fold clothes while doing both. Then around 5PM we get a call from our close friends and Joe invites them over. But wait! The living room is a mess! There are crumbs in the floor and doggy prints by the door, black cat hair is all over the white couch and my bookshelves haven't been dusted in weeks. What do we do? In one hour Joe and I can pull off the most glorious living room cleaning session ever seen. We sacrifice some chores for others - we may not dust the bookshelves, but we will throw all the random junk mail away. We may not sweep under the couch but we will sweep and swiffer the whole floor, and spot vacuum the rugs. We are good at faking clean in the last minute, and still have time for me to shower and - if I'm lucky - put a bra on.

So motivation can be good in a way, I think. But inspiration is what drives me to a clean and beautiful home. I am inspired daily by the homes I see on the internet. I can be in a terrible laziness funk, and the mere sight of a clean and ideal home will light a fire in me that can only be squelched by cleaning success.

Mostly these are homes of artists I admire, homes that graciously combine the modern with the antique, the handmade with purchased. I secretly desire a home that has all white walls and mostly white furniture, with color added for pop and interest. This is my future ideal. For now I strive to make what I have work, and I love it so far. The most difficult thing about it all is that we move so much. My palette has to come with me and conform to whatever space we end up calling home for 3-4 years. That's the difficulty.

I find most of my home inspiration at decor8, a blog I've been reading for a couple years now. Holly is amazing at finding beautiful homes, designers, and photographers to feature on her blog, and her style is impeccable. Just one peek in at decor8 and I'm inspired for home greatness. Her blog about her own home, Haus Maus is equally inspiring. I encourage you to take a look, I doubt you'll find anything at either place you won't love.

Therefore today I am inspired. Inspired to do something about this house. I'm torn though. I know the living room will take hours to perfect because of how behind I am in dusting, but I really want to tidy the office so it's workable again. I am longing to scrapbook since I have a new printer and substantial amounts of affordable ink.

I still haven't decided. I'm leaning toward office at this point, mostly because maybe it'll be more fun. Yeah...more fun.

I can't wait to be able to see Russia from my house

2010-04-11T00:31:00.004-04:00

Did you know that right now in Anchorage it's 34 degrees? According to Alaska.com that's the temp. This only matters because in a few months our family will be calling Anchorage home. YIKES.

We got the news about a month or so ago. It wasn't a complete surprise. We were the dummies who put Anchorage as our number 4 spot on our "dream sheet." Numbers 1-3 were for Chesapeake, VA. We really wanted to stay in this house for a few more years. Plus this is a nice city, nice people, and close to home. This is the closest to home we've ever been stationed, and it's been nice to be able to drive only 7 hours to visit family.

I cried as soon as I read the email informing us of our new station. It was such a shock. I think mostly because I just don't want to leave. I just don't want to deal with being so very far away. I have nothing against Alaska, actually. Well, maybe I'm just a little afraid I'll morph into Sarah Palin. Aside from that, Alaska seems awesome. All the books we have are super informative and everyone we've spoken to who's been stationed there has loved it.

Bonus: When we move in I'll be able to post "I can see Russia from my house" as my new FB status.

We plan on driving the entire way, avoiding a 3-day ferry ride. Mostly the ferry would suck for the animals. Pets have to remain in your car in the car parking bay, and you can only check on your pets twice a day. Can you imagine the amounts of pee and poop we'd have to clean up? We were encouraged by a couple people to do the whole trip in the car, and this way we can perhaps see some sights. I'm thinking Mount Rushmore should be on the list. And some corny stuff too. Any tips on places we should see in the upper northwest would be totally welcome! We hear the "alcan" highway is awesome, and I'm looking forward to driving through the Yukon.

For now I'm looking for homes in Anchorage. I found a public Montessori school that operates on donations and volunteering that I think Eleana would do great in, so we're trying to find a place within that school's district. Otherwise the only way Eleana could go to that specific school is through a random lottery. Most apartments aren't giving me much info since they won't know vacancies until a month before our move-in date, so there isn't a whole lot I can do right now. I'm contacting a realtor this week...you never know, maybe someone has something opening up in July because they are moving away. It's such a headache.

So, we're in prep mode for Alaska. I'm planning on having Eleana's birthday party sometime in may or June so she can have a party with all her friends from school. She's going to miss them so much. She's already insisting that her friends from school are coming to Alaska to play in the snow with her, and I don't have the heart to tell her they aren't coming with us.

Eleana's got her passport in the mail and I'm applying for mine this week. Stupid passports are super expensive....but at least they last a long time. I think they should last forever personally. We've mostly gotten our medical clearance done. We had to be approved by our doctors because Alaska is out of the continental US, which means it's considered being stationed overseas.

The only light at the end of the tunnel (aside from all the awesome stuff we'll be able to do while in Alaska) is that we will probably only be there a year. All this money they're spending to move us outside of CONUS and the station Joe is going to is set to close in 2011. Whatever. I'd rather be as close to WV as possible. This is a point in our lives where a lot of health issues are coming up in the family. My grandma has said goodbye to two sisters this year, and I feel the need to be close. Just in case.

I'm back

2010-04-09T15:08:00.003-04:00

I know I promised to blog more frequently than before and I will, I PROMISE. But I have a good excuse for not blogging the past week. I just got home from a brief visit with family in the home state. I packed up the child, doggy, and cat to drive home and visit family for a bit. Mostly we went home to maximize our visits with family before we transfer in July. I also grabbed some much-missed belongings from my Mom's house and my sister-in-law's attic. I had packed various toys of Eleana's away while living with Mom last year and just never had the room in the car to bring it all back with us. We still had to leave some things behind including Eleana's bike and her rocking chair. Perhaps we will be able to make another short trip before the transfer to grab those items so the movers can pack them for us.

I came home to a tiny mess in the house. This time, thankfully, it wasn't anything disastrous or surprising but a mess of my own doing. I was in such a hurry to leave this town and get home that I forgot about the dishes in the sink and the trash in the trash can. Woops. Plus my yard looks more like something out of a J. R. R. Tolkien novel than a suburban yard. I planned on mowing it today, and weeding the flower beds, but it's been raining all morning and the yard will probably not be dry enough for me to do any of that stuff until tomorrow. Plus, it's already 3 and I will have zero time to tend to my smelly doggy before we go to training class tonight.

Miss Marvel enjoyed herself a lot while in WV. She met my mom's and aunt's dogs plus one lonely stray. Mom's dogs were relatively accepting of her, though they snapped at her several times. My aunt's dogs (who visit my mom frequently) were rather mean to Miss Marvel, and one gave her a booboo in between her eyes. It was the stray (lovingly named Christmas Buddy when we met him during Christmas break) who loved her best, and she loved him best, too. I'm partial to believing she was attracted to Buddy's scent more than anything. The poor thing reeked of skunk, something I'm sure Miss Marvel hasn't smelled much in her short life. She was on him like bees on honey! If Joe had gone with us he probably would have tried to bring Buddy back with us, but we can barely swing it with one dog and cat let alone two dogs. Especially since we have no idea of knowing what this dog has. Regardless, I'm sure Mom will be hard pressed to get rid of him any time soon. She secretly loves Buddy. He's found a smelly place in all our hearts.

The rest of my day will include baths for everyone including the cat (fingers crossed, if I have enough time), and doggy classes at Petsmart. After that I really severely need to get a gallon of milk. My child is in need of "chocolate milk brown" and won't back down.

Perhaps tonight after Smallville (if it's new, *I hope*) I will get a chance to watch one of my netflix movies.

Tomorrow I am the yard queen if it's dry enough.

(recipe and original photo by Tara Anderson, here)

Today I am queen of scones.

inspiration

2010-03-31T14:42:00.003-04:00

For some years now, really since I was a young girl, I've been fascinated by doll houses. I never ever built one, and still imagine that something that comes ready made but not painted would be easiest for me (of course painting the inside would be very hard then!), but I really want to make one. Really really badly. And maybe I'll let Eleana help, too.

E is watching for the first time ever Disney's animated Alice in Wonderland. It's an early Easter gift for her, what can I say. Alice won over Alvin, which was great because Alice was cheaper.

As I was taking a break from dishes to sit on the couch I caught the scene in which Alice goes into the white rabbit's house to find his gloves. That's when she eats the cookie and grows as big as the house. Before that happens, however, the viewer gets a great glimpse at the interior of this awesome house. It's all pink and bunnies and carrots and I super love it. I immediately thought I definitely need to make a doll house exactly like that house, or at least as much like it as possible. And if I can't find the rabbit shaped furniture, how hard could it be to make it? Right? Right?

Needless to say, it inspired me.

reacquainting

2010-03-27T13:49:00.002-04:00

Hi.

My name is Nichole and I'm guilty of neglecting my blog.

I've been neglecting my blog for months now, and even before August my blogging attempts were few and far between. To sum everything up, my life got busy. I'm not apologizing to anyone here but myself, and for a while I've examined why I started blogging in the first place.

When I started this blog I was a frightened new mom, living far away from family, with few friends who had children, and a partner who was away at least half the year. I needed people! I needed someone, anyone, to help me answer the questions I had for myself. Because no amount of book-reading or internet searching can provide you with real answers from real people. The internet was (and still is) super-accessible for someone who for 6 months of her life had to have a child attached to her body. Someone who for that period of time also didn't have a partner to share the ups and downs with, except through email and yahoo chat.

So, blogging was my outlet then, and after a while I made some awesome blog friends. Blog friends who still remain in my blogroll somewhere, in my blogroll account (which I haven't even accessed yet since getting my new computer). These blog friends were amazing, are amazing, and took time to read through my bullshit and make comments worth reading, even when the content they were commenting on was less than worthy of reading.

So thank you, blog friends. Thanks, from the bottom of my little heart.

Here's the bottom line of it all that I've come to realize through self-examination and talks with another friend of mine who also blogs/did blog: I have plenty of things to say, and time enough to write them, but at the end of the day I have less time to read what the other awesome female bloggers have to say.

So, as I begin blogging again, as I desire blogging to tell my story (however dull or ridiculous it may sometimes be), I will probably not be reading every blog of the 100+ I love every day, nor will it be a priority of mine to comment on every blog I read. Because sometimes I read a blog and I think it's amazing and I love that the blogger has shared with me and everyone else who reads, but I have no clue what to say...or what I can say. So if I'm reading your blog and not commenting, I'm sorry.

I also think I got distracted by how easy it is to tweet and update facebook statuses. I value my facebook friends, who are mostly real life friends (some of my blog friends are friends too, and that's how I end up reading other blogs if I do at all, because they post links to their latest blog entries) and I am intrigued by writing something 150 characters or less to sum up my current mood or actions. And I honestly, as a writer at heart, feel slightly robbed by my ability to write something more meaningful because of this. I mean, it's enchanting and hypnotizing to simply write a sentence and be done with it.

I feel I'm losing something in not writing. I once heard someone say that poetry is for young people, and I am discovering in my adulthood that I write poetry NEVER. I have books and journals full of poetry from my young days, and yet have written nothing now. I feel partly that I've been out of practice for so long that anything I write will sound like a corny greeting card. And I don't want that.

Writing from the heart and writing as I do here comes easy to me. Writing what I know, what I experience, and hoping it can help someone who reads it is amazing to me. I feel I have a lot to share, and not a whole lot of people to share it with.

In short, there are 100s of reasons why I enjoy blogging, mostly because it's an outlet for me.

What I plan to do here in the future is simple: I plan to share. I plan to share more about myself than before, though that's always been my goal. So much of who I am revolves around Eleana, my beautiful girl, who before now was just an extension of myself. These days she's becoming something more, something herself. She says and does things that I don't understand, that I didn't influence and I'm realizing that she's going to be different, she's going to be unique, and I love that. This gives us more to work with, more to explore together.

We share a lot...in some ways I think becoming Mommy was hard and in some ways I think it was easy. Either way, that's where I am, but I'm constantly striving to be both Mommy and Nichole.

I will probably share less photos of E, simply because the internet is a scary place and my daughter is growing. She is a girl, not a round little baby. I'm aware of this and aware that her privacy is something she needs to retain. I will hopefully be sharing more photos of fun things, events, and hobbies. This is my goal.

This is a longer post than I anticipated.

In short, I'm welcoming myself back to the blogosphere for now, and am not sure how long this will last. I want it to last a while. I don't want to lose my blog, or the memories it holds, and I hope to record many more here in the future.

red velvet

2009-08-30T11:33:00.005-04:00

I'm doing my daily flickr hunt, in which I browse through all my contacts' current uploads/inspirations and mark about half of them as favorites. I have such talented flickr friends! And I'm so lucky to know them all, even if only through their beautiful images.

It was during this routine (that can sometimes take all day, I'll admit) that I found her lovely red velvet cake diecut. (Seen here)

Jenny is her name and art is her game. She and her P. I. C. Aaron paint and create beautiful works of art for all of us to gobble up in her etsy shop. I've bookmarked her work before, and am particularly in love with the Well Read Raven print she has. (That raven will be mine one day, I promise!)

But this red velvet cake diecut image spoke to me. I commented on her image, saying it reminded me that red velvet cake is truly my favorite cake...and I always forget that. It's like this - if I were ever on a quiz show in which the question is "What's your favorite cake?" I'd need to say "red velvet." BUT I would have a brain fart and say something dumb on the spot like "cheese cake." Which is delicious and in a league of it's own, but it certainly isn't my favorite.

Red velvet cake and I go back very far...all the way back to my first Christmas with my new family. I was probably 4, and hadn't been legally adopted yet. But I was living with my new family regularly during an unofficial trial period (because my birth mother would drop me off randomly and leave me there for weeks on end to go do God knows what).

SO I have this picture of myself that my grandpa probably took. He was the assigned photog in the family, and because of that I have precious few pictures of him, and probably only one that I know of with us together, which is a family picture. The picture Grandpa took is of me, on Christmas day, playing in the new toy kitchen my new mom bought me. That Christmas set a record. I think every present under the tree was for me...and I appreciated it more than anyone can ever know. It's difficult, to be living somewhere with your mother, only to have to leave unexpectedly (probably because of rent reasons) and leave behind all your earthly posessions. I was a child and had no idea why we left when we did, and why we left our things behind. So, to have this sudden influx of more things, things that I could love for however long I wanted, really took me to my maximum bliss. Not only because I loved the things (of course) but because I knew that they would always be there, and the people who provided them cared for me enough to do that.

So, sorry I'm rambling. When I think about the red velvet cake of Christmas day, I really feel all these emotions on the inside...because I'm remembering it all as fresh as if I were there. This is why I love red velvet cake. It reminds me of the epitome of happiness. The moment in my young life when I realized who my real family was and who cared for me best.

I think baking holds a special place in my heart for these reasons. Who would ever guess that a single person (in this case, Grandma, who has incidentally taught me most everything I know about food) could make such a beautiful and delicious cake, and say it was special made just for me? Why? Why would someone make a special cake just for me? It blew my mind.

So I ate my yummy red velvet cake at my new toy kitchen, in the middle of the living room. Grandpa came to take a picture of me and like a pro, I opened my mouth to reveal to him my big red tongue.

birthday blast

2009-08-26T17:02:00.008-04:00

My baby is 4.

4 years old.

I cannot believe it.

Lookie. Look at her blowing out her candle.

She had a wonderful birthday!!!

She loved the Tinkerbell theme, and wore a Tinkerbell shirt. The huge Tinkerbell balloon was her favorite thing (aside from the toys she got) and still floats (barely) in her bedroom.

Joe's mom came in for the party, as well as Joe's sister Kayla and her daughter Faith Eryn (who is 3 on September 13). We had our friends Amy, Bobby, and little Hailey here too, and had a great time.

(telling Grammy who is on her dress: "Aaaaaaa-rielllll")

It was so relaxed and fun...and really easy considering. Eleana didn't have a meltdown at all I don't think...not that I can recall. She just opened presents, ate cake, and rocked out with her friends. It was awesome.

(Eleana, Faith Eryn, and Hailey, pretend rocking to Chipmunks and Spongebob music)

(singing Goofy Goober Rock from the Spongebob movie: "You're a goofy goober!!!")

birthday prep

2009-08-14T12:10:00.002-04:00

Eleana's birthday quickly and evolved into something more put together yesterday. It was weird. I knew I wasn't going to bake, so we knew we would go order a DQ ice cream cake. They are minimal on the egg (if not entirely eggless?) and therefore E-friendly. Plus, even though it's been raining it's still very hot and muggy.

So other than cake and recycling left-over party favors from last year's bigger bash, I had no clue what was going on, party-wise.

Every day I check my email via my iPhone about 10-15 times. I get a lot of daily emails from marthastewart.com - daily cookie recipes, daily craft ideas, and something else that's daily. Also, I get great emails from Kraft with easy recipes, too. So the other day I glimpsed a great craft idea from miss Martha, involving magnets, flowers, and a table cloth. And I immediately thought this light blue tablecloth I have would be really cute with some blue and purple flowers.

Then, yesterday Joe, E and I went out to run a TON of birthday errands. We stopped first at Dairy Queen to order a cake. Usually we just go with a standard white ice cream cake with colored writing. Simple, easy. But I guess since we had to move the party back to Sunday, we had enough time to order something cooler. Joe wouldn't tell me what kind of cake he ordered at that point.

We headed to the party supply store, and I fully intended to just get the basics: plates, forks, and napkins. So I was looking for the solid colored inexpensive stuff and where does he gravitate to? Tinkerbell stuff. I thought it made sense, since E's new bed is Tinkerbell themed and she has some vinyl Tinkerbell stickers in her room...and then Joe says, "Can you guess what kind of cake I ordered for her?"

Which ends up being perfect because the Tinkerbell stuff is generally light blue and purple...the same colors as the table cloth and flowers!

Joe went crazy for E's birthday, and it was a pleasant surprise. He even ordered a giant Tinkerbell balloon, with 12 blue and purple latex balloons. It was very cool.

We headed to Toys R Us, where E got her crown and balloon, and we shopped for presents. We ended up getting her a Crayola art easel with a pad of easel paper to go in our office/craft room, a wooden Thomas train track set with water tower (the water tower is her fave thing to play with at the Barnes and Noble train table), a Thomas birthday set which includes Thomas and a caboose, a new Littlest Pet Shop pet, the Olivia DVD, a stuffed Olivia (which we gave her early because she LOVES her), a Spongebob karaoke microphone, and something else that I can't remember.

Also, to optimize music time and space, I found my first iPod (which is named Hotty McHot, and I'm wondering if I can change the name...) which is a first generation white iPod nano, and turned it into Eleana's iPod. She has an iPod speaker in her room, and usually at night I put my iPod in it with her lullaby songs playing on repeat. But that leaves me with no iPod for the rest of the evening. So last night I reformatted Hotty McHot, added only Eleana's playlists (entitled "Eleana's lullabies," "birthday jamz," and "kidz jamz." Then I erased those playlists from my iPod (which is named Green Momster, as it is a secong generation, 4G, apple green iPod nano). So I'm going to wrap the ipod and give that to her as well.

Ooooh, and here is a picture of E's table in the office/craft room after I crafted last night. I created the magnetic flowers, as well as a simple circle garland with embroidery floss, Tinkerbell-colored papers, a circle punch, and a glue stick. It took a while, but felt great with a glass of wine.

Now I'm off. We must go to the laundry again to wash our clothes. The washer and dryer aren't going to arrive for quite some time and we had put off laundry thinking the machines would be here this weekend. Sadface. After we come home and fold laundry, we must go to the commissary for some small groceries...I wanna make pigs in blankets for the par-tay. OH, and to Batteries Plus to see if they have a charger for my camera......I lost mine and my digi cam is a MUST for the party. Pictures later, charger pending. :D

We are MOVED!

2009-08-10T14:32:00.002-04:00

Yay! The crowd goes wild!!!! WOOOOOHHH!!!!

There are many things I love about my new house. I love the layout of the whole thing. It makes sense and yet gives enough weirdness to add interest. I love how big the kitchen/dining room is. For the first time ever I'm seriously in need of a buffet table to fill a very large empty space along a wall in the kitchen. I love the back yard...though it's been entirely too hot to do anything at length out there yet.

I love that my stuff seems to fit nicely here, that everything has a place and a way to be stored ever so nicely.

I also love that there isn't a TON of space, which leaves me purging a lot of items. I've dropped off trunk loads of things at Goodwill 3 times, and still have more to drop. I like getting rid of all the extra junk we used to think we needed but really don't need. We used to have a day bed, and had sheets and sheets and sheets to fit a twin bed leftover, so I donated all those because we only have one bed now other than Eleana's bed.

Also, paint is my friend now. I'm rethinking a lot of rooms and have already painted a significant amount of furniture. I painted 3 ledge shelves (which used to hang in my living room) white and hung them in our small master bath to supplement for the lack of medicine cabinet in there. There is a rather large medicine cabinet in the main bath, which is super small, so that helps. But I really need to keep all my hair/makeup/and face stuff in my bathroom, hence the storage issue.

I found a wonderful little shelf that fits in a corner in my bedroom and serves as a night stand. I painted it white, and it looks great in there. Pictures soon after I figure out what exactly to put on it other than a light and alarm clock.

I'm sitting in the office for the first time, using the computer for the first time, surrounded by loads of office-y stuff, and also crafty stuff. Haven't gotten everything put in its place yet though. I'm working really hard to finish this room particularly, since Eleana's little table and 3 chairs are in here. It's my vision that while I'm in here blogging (which I'm vowing to do more often) or scrapping (same deal) she can be at her little table coloring or crafting or playing with play-doh. We'll craft together.

Two of the walls in this room are black, which is bothering me less and less. The landlady was supposed to have painted them white, but ran out of time. This is the first time she's rented a house to anyone, so I'm leaving room for error. We had planned on painting the walls, but then our stuff exploded in here and the thought of moving everything around just to paint is scaring the bejesus out of me. Especially since this isn't OUR house, and we're out in a year. My office won't be photo-worthy, but it'll work. For a year. Besides, the black walls look kind of cool with the stuff I'm putting up. You'll see a picture probably. Eventually.

Additionally, Eleana's 4th birthday party is THIS Saturday, and I have zero plans finished. I know my in-laws are coming, and my sister-in-law and Eleana's niece, so I'm crunching to get the house in some sort of order/state of normalcy. The kitchen still acts as a sort of spill zone for random things we don't know what to do with, because it's so big. Definitely isn't ready for any dinners or parties yet, so I'm working working working.

I at least just need to get things on shelves in the office, without worrying too much about any sort of organizing at this point, because a lot of the things in the kitchen need to come in here eventually...and currently I have empty shelves, and things all over the floor.

So I'm blogging instead of cleaning.

I really just wanted to pop in to say I'm here, I'm alive, and I'm happy. Extremely happy.

I'd post a picture of our sort-of finished and really cute living room, but I'm too hungry to do it right now.

Lunch time!

Very soon...

2009-07-15T23:29:00.002-04:00

I will be moving into my very own home. Can you feel it? Can you feel the energy and excitement? I sure can! And so can my stomach! The stress (the good kind, luckily) is SO getting to me. Making my tummy do all sorts of nasty, unpredictable things. It's the pits. But otherwise, things are going awesome. I still have some minimal packing to do...but mostly I'm ready. I've been ready...for a year.

Everything is taken care of and falling into place. It's amazing. I've called the utilities and had everything set up in our names and to start running on today, even though we won't be there at the house until Tuesday. The lease has been read, no surprises and no WTF moments. I will sign the lease that Joe has when he gets here, and then scan it and email it to the landlord.

The best part was that I found out we do indeed get to keep the washer and dryer in the house! PHEW! Such a relief. I cannot believe I can be a laundry-doin'-mama from now on in my own home, every day if I want to! No more nasty, overflowing hampers because I'm too lazy or cold to walk down the street to the crappy wash rooms provided by crappy apartments. AAAHHH! (this is me, doing a happy dance. Can you tell?)

This weekend is going to be so very busy, so I'm enjoying the calm before the storm. I know that, for instance, after Friday I won't be playing much Wii, DS, or surfing the internet anyhow except with my phone. I've played Avalon Code like it's going out of style, and getting all my Animal Crossing time in. I have already packed my closest friends (magazines!) so I can't read those right now. It's madness, I tell you!

SO here's the schedule:

Tomorrow: call the DMV. Go to the DMV. Go to Walmart for more night time pull-ups for E.
Friday: babysit for sister-in-law. Joe gets here late that night. Much loving and kissing and hugging.
Saturday: Packing. Go see Harry Potter. Going away party with sister-in-law and Joe's family.
Sunday: Packing. Spending time with my family. Packing the cars.
Monday: LEAVE for the NEW HOUSE! Preferably really early so we get there while it's still daylight!
Tuesday: Wake up early. Pick up Budget truck. Go to storage unit and get assloads of boxes out to take to house so we can then get to all the furniture. Amy and Hailey are coming to help. Send big men to storage unit to pack furniture onto truck. Unload truck. Loads and loads of furniture placement. Make sure Mom, Grandma, and Barb get there safely. They will be with us the rest of the week helping us move in.

The rest is yet to come, friends! I will be so much more BLOGGY once in my own home and controlling more of my own life. It will be fabulous. I am planning on so many things. More scrapbooking (since I haven't done anything since Christmas that won't be hard, and I have TONS of catching up to do), more photography, more cooking, more everything.

More everything.

things-I-love Thursday: 7/2/09

2009-07-02T23:20:00.001-04:00

vintage us
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

Wow.

I remember taking this picture. I remember being there, standing with Josiah in his grandmother's yard, the butterflies in my stomach at the thought of being photographed while surrounded by strangers. Vulnerable, yet unable to conceal the adoration I had for this cute boy in red pants, hoping I looked okay.

This photo was taken without our knowledge, like most good photos. I have the other copy, the copy we stood and smiled for, but we are standing far apart. It's quite corny. This one though, this one speaks volumes.

I love this picture so much I want to blow it up and make it the inspiration piece for my new living room. The colors match the scheme I've planned already, it was simply meant to be a part of our home.

I love this simple reminder of how young we were, how fresh our love was, and yet so real...and so innocent. Though I feel we are this close in spirit, I cannot wait to be this close physically again, to live together in the same home, share our life-rhythms and enjoy the mundane pleasures of life...

together.

dreaming in drawings

2009-07-01T00:21:00.003-04:00

I've been drawing a lot lately...dreaming of decorating my new home. The bedroom is going to see the BIGGEST change...complete color scheme overhaul. We used to have a gold/purple/green setup...but it was too dreary. So I've changed it over to blue blue blue and WHITE. Calming. Serene. Lovely.

We'll be re-purposing one of my daughter's play chairs as a sidetable for the bed. Because we have MINIMAL wall space in this room. I mean seriously. The great thing about the chair is it has a little storage shelf under it. So books and things can go there. Simple. Lovely.

The living room gets a little change but not much. Going for brighter, and a little more white than usual...but otherwise, mostly the same. More blue though. We have a forest/woodland thing going on (which isn't apparent at all in this drawing) so we're doing red/green/blue. It's lovely I promise.

I also dreamed up a living room vision using the colors I want here at Polyvore. Which is controversial but so so fun!

dream living room by soleclaw on Polyvore.com

And here, too!

See the art hanging on the wall below, the piece on the far left? That is art by miss Emily Martin of the Black Apple. It's called "Circle Time" and I own this. It WILL be hanging on my wall in my living room...and is in many ways the inspiration for my new space. Yay!

living room 2 by soleclaw on Polyvore.com

Joy Rebel day

2009-06-30T22:04:00.003-04:00

Joy Rebel Day is tomorrow. I only just found out about this tonight, but I am so feeling like participating. I only just found Brandi's blog tonight, like 5 minutes ago...and I love it. I definitely would love to participate in Mission Monday...but I do Mosaic Monday already. Maybe I'll alternate between the two?

What shall I be doing tomorrow that makes me truly joyful? I have no clue! That in itself brings me a silly kind of joy!

Today was Grandma's 73rd birthday! That makes me happy. I'm so blessed to have my grandmother with me, in my life. She is ever so lively and such a great 3rd mother to my baby girl. Grandma and Eleana are awesome together...it's like watching two kindred spirits communicate. They are so different on the outside, and yet on the inside they are both fiery and playful. Grandma is all too quick to help Eleana break the rules, and she loves that about her Grandma.

What I do tomorrow for Joy Rebel Day will be partially decided by my family...I don't know if we have plans tomorrow...I'm often unaware of plans my mother makes. But I'd like to get a few things on my MOVING to-do list done. Mostly calling the storage unit and letting them know we won't need the space after July. That makes me so happy. We are so very close to the big move, and that brings me the purest, awesomest kind of joy.

So, have a lovely Joy Rebel Day tomorrow, friends! Whatever you do, however you do it, be happy and have fun!

Mosaic Monday - June 15, 2009

2009-06-15T23:06:00.001-04:00

pink, green, blue
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

It's Mosaic Monday time! WOOP! Yeah, I haven't done this in a while but when I do, I do it with 100% love and commitment! And always late! ;)

I haven't really been surfing flickr.com a lot lately, or as much as I usually do anyway. So my choices were slim since the last mosaic I made pre-election time. Yikes, it HAS really been a long time!

So I found most of my choices were really bright and fun, which is appropriate since it's about summertime officially and I'm thinking happy happy thoughts lately.

Please enjoy the lovely colors and happy moods these pictures evoke. I know I can't help but smile when I look at these photos. And as always, browse the photographers' photo streams. You may find some more images to inspire you!

Another entry coming soon...like tonight soon!

feel neglected?

2009-05-24T00:11:00.004-04:00

It just means that life has gotten in the way of blogging BIG TIME. I think mostly now that things are really starting to wrap up here in WV I'm spending more time with my mother, grandmother and aunt. Saying goodbye will be so bittersweet. It will be hard for us definitely, but also such a fresh new start for our little family.

Joe has been back and forth a lot the last month, visiting us for mini vacations and taking stuff we've packed to our bursting storage unit (note to self, on July 1 I need to cancel the storage unit). Last weekend Joe and I left Eleana here with my 3 female role-models and roommates (mom, grandma, and Barb) so we could go celebrate my birthday in Virginia (and put one last load of things in storage, and go look at our future house one more time before signing the lease). It was totally fun. Joe took me to the mall to look for something for my birthday but I really didn't find anything except for a couple books from Borders. Then we shared a wonderful dinner at The Melting Pot which included cheese, dinner, chocolate, martinis and a lovely bottle of our new favorite wine.

The house is looking great. The owner was gracious enough to let us intrude again to take a look and she's got the wood flooring finished in the living room and hall. When she gets back in July she's changing the doors and painting walls. Then we sign the lease, get a key and security alarm passcode, and move in! July 18th couldn't get here fast enough.

I'm very excited. I think about the house day and night, and have already got enough new things to revamp my decor once we move in. I ordered new curtain panels from JC Penny's on sale. They were buy one get one for 99 cents! So really it was like buy one get one free! Mostly we aren't changing anything as far as style. The living room will be updated big time because we got rid of our old sofa set, and the office won't have a bed in it anymore so there will be a little more room there. The biggest change will happen in the bedroom.

The house has small rooms, and the master room is really sorta shaped funny. We will be lucky to fit the bed, dresser/mirror combo, and one chest of drawers in there. Our second chest of drawers will go in the office, and if the other chest doesn't fit in the master bedroom we'll have to find a place for it somewhere else. Our bedfroom furniture is all handed down from my grandma's generation, so it's all very outdated. I'm planning on painting the dresser/mirror glossy white and replacing the handles with glass/crystal or silver knobs. The color scheme in that room used to be violet/green/gold but I really want a more airy/spa-like feel in there. We're changing it up to be blue/white/gray, with wiggle room to allow some violet, and silver and/or gold accents. I've got all new bedding to be the main focal point of the room. Plus the new curtains which are a shimmery sort of ocean blue. But they look lighter in a window which is perfect. The dresser will be white, and have mainly white/silver accents. I've got two frosted glass table lamps left over from before which will continue to be used as beside lamps. We don't have beside tables anymore (we sold them, remember the ones you helped Joe put together, Krista?) so I'm doing a little DIY work, mounting some cut and white painted wood to the walls on either side of the bed for some simple and smooth side table ledge shelves.

So anyway...yeah. I'm very excited about making the house a home for the next year. I'm very very into decorating and fashion...and can't wait to get all this stuff together and take pictures to show everyone! And I still have 2 months to wait! I'm going to go crazy! I mean I literally think about how I'm going to decorate on a daily if not hourly basis. I drew floor plans in a little notebook and drew out where I think I'd want to place furniture. I grabbed paint colors from the local Lowe's to put in the book so I have a more visual spread to look at. Isn't that crazy?! Yes. Yes is the correct answer.

I'm also very excited for Eleana to have her own room again...and for me to have mine back as well. She has so many things in storage that she's already outgrown this year. We will probably have a yard sale after we move in. The crib will have to remain in storage (duh) and we won't need her high chair anymore. I can't wait to see the look on her face when she's reunited with all her old friends again...stuffed animals, her rocking horse, her Little People, etc. She won't need a new toy for the next year, I'm sure.

The next two months better go by quickly. I am going to become a hermit again, saving my money like a squirrel saves nuts so we have the cash to get a moving truck and get ourselves established and start paying real bills. I can't wait to have a life again.

Carnival Soiree guest appearance

2009-03-14T15:32:00.004-04:00

Well well, look who showed up to our carnival today!

It's the Fiji Mermaid!!!

Yes, I know she isn't here in person...but she's here in spirit. We are such fans of hers! The little lady of the carnival is even wearing a mermaid headdress in honor of the Fiji Mermaid. Awww!

And lets not forget our snacks of the day! Stripey carnival cookies and carnival tea (coffee!). YUM!

Keep sharing your carnival/circus memories! I've only heard from one attendee so far, but no worries! This carnival has been such a delight to be a part of!

I almost forgot

2009-03-14T13:12:00.004-04:00

...the time when miss Eleana explored the option of becoming a tight rope walker!

She was the best. But unfortunately, because of her young age, the circus would not allow her to go on tour with them.

Which is a shame, because she really loved the circus troupe...and her balance skills were unparalleled, even by the experienced performers already employed by Mr. Spartoo.

;)

Oh well. We always have the option of being balloon vendors!

Carnival Soiree is HERE!

2009-03-14T12:38:00.003-04:00

Welcome, friends! This is it! The day we've been waiting for!

All day will be Carnival, can you believe it?! I am so very excited. I have made an item to share for the festivities, and my carnival tea is a-brewin' (good thing, too because I have a wicked cough today).

I want to share some of my favorite carnival/circus memories and things I love in general.

I guess my biggest love from any carnival/circus is cotton candy! I LOVE cotton candy! Especially the pink flavor. Which contributes to my love of the color pink.

And, as a native of Ohio I used to love the state fair. Ohio's state fair was always so awesome. And yet, every summer we'd visit Grandma in WV and try to go to WV's state fair, too. The best thing about WV's state fair was that they had a mini circus set up. They had it all - elephants, jugglers, clowns, ringmaster, cotton candy! I thought it was so cool to go to a fair and see a circus performance.

And I was always so mystified by the REAL LIFE MERMAID booth. I could kind of tell the woman wasn't really a mermaid, but at the same time...how'd they get her to be so small? The mermaid was probably no larger than 6 inches tall. Amazing. And she was always very beautiful.

So I am inviting you, readers, to share in the comments section your carnival memories, or favorites! I will be back soon to post some fun pictures. Be sure to check Lisa's blog for some giveaways and other exciting photos and stories!

Carnival Soiree!

2009-02-28T23:36:00.003-05:00

Hello friends!

I would love to invite you to join in on a wonderful blog party event! Hosted by the lovely Lisa Kettell of Moonfaires World, this is to be an all day blog/party with a carnival theme. There will be carnival tea, dressing up in wonderful carnival/circus clothes, and fabulous giveaways by Lisa herself!

I met Lisa (virtually) through a flickr.com group created for fans of magic, fairies, and all things fantastical. Mostly the members are artists, and we participate in many monthly swaps. Her art is fantastic, and she has recently published a book all about some of her wonderful work! Lisa is graciously hosting this event as THE Carnival Queen and will be giving away some really neat things to lucky people.

Join in the fun with us all, won't you? Create some art to display/share on your blog and to the participants, or just share you very favorite circus/carnival memory with us!

If anything, come here on March 14th to see if I'm wearing something really silly!

Click the banner to be taken to an info/sign up page! There's still time, friends!

TIL Thursday - Crochet

2009-02-19T17:52:00.001-05:00

julie cuff front
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

Things I love Thursday, Feb. 19/2009 edition:

I LOVE crochet!

I only just taught myself how in December...though to be fair I had really no clue what I was doing until about January. Then I finally got the hang of it, through instructional booklets and youtube videos. I am such a visual learner, and reading the patterns was difficult at first. But once I saw videos, I knew this was a hobby I could do and become addicted to.

So, crochet...I love you.

creative juices

2009-02-06T17:10:00.002-05:00

They are a'flowin'! Today has been a great day for creativity for me...but before I discuss that I need to update everyone on my Grandma's health.

Grandma is doing great in the hospital. She had a procedure done in her neck to clean up some blood clots blocking her carotid artery, and is now in recovery. Yay, Grandma! She, my aunt and my mom are all in Charleston, WV relaxing and waiting to come home to Eleana and I. They will probably be there until at least Sunday, if not Monday.

Which is why I'm here, being lazy and playing with my art stuff! Nothing to do but keep the house warm and the animals fed (and potty train E of course).

This morning (more like 11) I took my other aunt to town to run some errands and took myself to the post office to mail off a little summin summin to miss Amy (holla!). We've been home since about 1, and I got some really sweet, exciting mail today! You should've seen the mailbox, nothing else would have fit (because my mom also got 2 packages today).

First came the necklace I ordered for myself on behalf of Joe. It's lovely, and meant to be my anniversary gift (5 years!). He wasn't here on our anniversary (January 24th) and he also won't be here for the big day-O-love, so I had to pick my own gift out. I had my eye on this seller on etsy for a long time, and any of her jewelry pieces would have been perfect...but the one I got spoke to me strongly.

I really DIDN'T mean for this picture to be so big (I'm not this narcissistic!), but at least you can see the necklace pretty well. It's a tiny sparrow flying "home" to it's branch and a tiny red swarovski heart. Cute right? Sparrows have significance to sailors, and since the sea takes my husband away from me frequently I figured it was perfect. This necklace was created using vintage findings by the lovely Bombalurina.

The other great package I received came from an awesome etsy shop called Sun and Moon Craft Kits. She sells great little kits for making your own scrabble tile necklace charms as well as glass and chiyogami paper charms. She also sells the componenets needed to craft these items separately in bulk, which really comes in handy! I ordered silver plated bails from her during the summer to aid in creating the necklace charms I sold at the local town social. And it must be said that she sneaks little extras in every package she sends like a worther's original and extra bails!

So in my little kit I received a 2oz. container of Diamond Glaze (which I've desperately needed for months but nobody carries it around here), a small tube of E600, 5 pieces of square glass, 5 scrabble tiles, 10 small silver plated bails, and a bunch of little chiyogami paper pieces to use to create charms for myself, friends and family!

So today I have already created one scrabble tile pendant covered with chiyogami paper and glaze (it's still drying, and will get its bail later) and a chiyogami glass pendant, which is also still drying.

PLUS I've been working on honing my wire wrapping skills for these teardrop beads I bought the other day. I'm really trying to create lovely jewelry for gift purposes first, and later for something a little grander (wink!). And I'm making a necklace for my sister-in-law as a very late birthday present. It was supposed to be made by her b-day (Jan. 8) but stuff just interfered with that whole plan.

Now, after this bloggy interlude, I am going to go eat my Werther's original piece of candy and get scrappy with it! Something I haven't done since Christmas! Which page/project should I do first???

The second piece of mail I got was from

details

2009-02-05T16:46:00.003-05:00

Prompted by my dear friend coffespaz in response to a facebook status I posted that read "yay, we're moving into a house in July" (or something like that), here are the details on the moving into the house thing.

One of Joe's coworkers on the boat owns a house. She is transferring in July to another unit and is looking to rent her home. She would prefer, like most people in the military, to rent to someone she knows personally and can communicate with easily. So, knowing mine and Joe's current situation, she approached Joe and let him know the details.

I know nothing more about the actual parameters of the house than what I knew then. The house resides in Hampton, VA, in what I'm told is a nice and quiet neighborhood. My sugarbum has visited this house and says he can see himself living there. He tells me he can't see me living there, however.

Why? Why does he say that?

Because the bedrooms are significantly smaller than what we're used to in the apartments. Hm. Well, considering Eleana, Joe, and I share ONE bedroom in which to store all our toys, clothes, books, shoes, magazines, coats, purses, scarves, electronics, and pictures...I think 3 smaller than usual bedrooms sound LOVELY.

Plus, the living room is extra huge he says, as is the kitchen...and there's a back and front yard. My own grass to frolic in! My own grass to set the child loose in! Can a girl ask for more?

So I tell Joe to tell the woman who owns the house to count us in, but that we will look at apartments and come to look at the house in March to make a final decision. As a general standard for Joe, he tends to muck things up a bit...so he totally misunderstood, told the owner we're a go, not to let anyone else have the house and she's drawing up the contracts when the boat returns in two months. Panic!

This is okay. I am okay with this. It's like a deadline, really. This inevitable event of responsibility has spurred me to get my act together, so to speak. Monthly we are putting (if not bimonthly!) 200 dollars in our savings. By July that would give us 1,400 in our savings alone. We've only ever had 300 in our savings before, and kept it more than one month. Currently we have already beat that personal best, so we're doing really well! And if we keep saving the way we are with everything else, we will be looking pretty good by the time we move in July.

So, we'll have enough money for bills, rent, groceries, etc, and could probably continue with me not working, but I am doing my best to get an employer fast. I put in applications all over town and everyone tells me the same thing - "We aren't hiring new people. We just cut hours in fact, so we probably won't be hiring for a while." Damn recession! Damn economy! GAH!

Thinking positively, I'm so happy to start my new life, being the new me. I'm vowing to start buying store brand items as opposed to brand name items when possible. I'll start by switching to store brand soda because I shouldn't drink that anyway...then gradually change everything else. I'm told some store brand things aren't as good as name brands, and there are some items I really won't be willing to switch to anyway, but I'm ALL OVER saving money when I can, especially since we have so many new purchases coming along.

For starters we need a new couch. That's right folks. We sold our 3 piece red living room set before we moved here. And it's a good thing otherwise they wouldn't have fit in our storage unit. They were the most comfy pieces of furniture ever, except that eventually the middle of the couch broke and sank in, so that when you sat down you had a nail in your tush. And, yes, we are lucky to be renting a house this coming year, but who knows if that will be the case when we move in 2010? What if we are back in a small apartment after the house? No room for 3 pieces then I can tell you that. We were lucky to have fit them in our first place in MA...I know Sha and Krista know exactly what I'm talking about. It was a circus!

SO, we are instead investing in a lovely sofa and a side chair or two. I'd like a nice, neutral sofa that I can add color to with cushions/pillows. That way the sofa will look nice all year round. I'd like a smallish chair, something with a wood frame I think and minimal upulstry and a larger, softer, comfy chair (recliners need not apply!) that is all upulstery. Yeah, sounds nice right? Totally.

PLUS, we are getting a smaller, round, WHITE dining room table...and probably I will sand and paint the old dining chairs white as well. Or experiment with like, white mostly but with multi colored spindles. Yeah yeah! And since I'll have my own back yard, I can totally do all this outside! WOOP!

Ye old dining room table, (the brown top thing with the black legs) will then be moved to my guest/craftroom/office. It's going to be my new work table. When really, it's been my work table all along, it just pulled double duty as an eating surface! The poor thing really is an eyesore, and it's been burned by acetone (during a ink transfer phase I went through), so I'm just going to retire it all together. And besides, it's so big that if we have to move into an apartment with a smallish dining room, it isn't comfortable to sit at for dinner.

So, to purchase after move: small, round, white dining table, paint for chairs, couch, two living room chairs, and a lawn mower.

Also I think we need a new coffee maker. The last one once had cockroaches living in it, so we ditched it. A few other things got ditched for this reason too (including the sofa set - don't worry, the people we sold them to had cockroaches, so it wasn't like we were giving them something they didn't already had...and really I don't think we had cockroaches living in our furniture...ramble much?), our guest bed and a large area rug that was too cheap to last.

Gosh I miss my stuff so deeply! Joe checked our storage unit before his current trip to find some comic books and informs me everything is fine and safe and lonely without us. Well, all except that last part...but I just got done watching a documentary about women who love inanimate objects so it's influencing how I view my items (don't worry, I won't ever marry my desk or coffee mug!). Plus I really do miss my stuff.

My things are a piece of me, and a part of who I am and what I do. Does anyone understand that? I can't even go through any motions here aside from pitching in every so often because these things I'm living with aren't mine. Cooking dinner with foreign objects in a foreign place is strange and difficult. Every move I make here is a reminder that I'm without my things, without my life. I mean I am still me without them. I still have an identity of course, and somehow I've accumulated new things to go with this new life of mine, but I need my own space, a schedule of my own creation.

I have my scrapbook stuff here...and yet I haven't done anything creative with it since Christmas. I live with people who don't appreciate crafting, who don't appreciate hobbies, relaxing, or down-time. My grandmother is pretty much dying because she works too hard, yet she can't take the time to enjoy anything that may be considered "lazy" during daylight hours. In her waking time she does load upon load of laundry, makes her bed, cleans the bathroom, etc, all while watching soap operas at the loudest volume level. If anyone is caught by her sitting in a chair for more than 10 minutes she has to say something, she has to disrupt whatever they're doing. "In a minute I need you to do this or that...when you get a chance." It's always, "when you get a chance." Meaning - "whatever you're doing right now can't be important or productive because you're sitting on your ass so get up and carry this basket of clothes upstairs for me."

It would be different if she didn't imply things with her tone or her eyes. But she does. Why can't she just say, "hey can you carry this upstairs for me?"

Ugh. I'm rambling again. This is really another post in itself.

I truly cannot wait until we embark on this new journey of having a home, and the whole unpacking process will be an absolute delight. Think about it, I don't even remember half the things I have in storage...so when we unpack it'll be like Christmas in July! And if I don't like what I see, or have no need for the things we unpack, we can have a yard sale! Oh the possibilities are so endless.

it's me again, Margaret

2009-02-04T00:34:00.002-05:00

So, I really really really want to start blogging regularly again. I miss my blog...and I miss all my bloggy friends. There were so many ladies I visited on a regular basis...and they always made me feel like one of the girls. So much stuff has happened since I fell out of regular blogging. Mostly I just felt like my life sucked so hard that blogging about it, broadcasting it to the world, would just verify the total suckage that was my life.

But the thing is, I know (and secretly knew back then) that my life doesn't TRULY suck. Nadine really solidified that belief for me, and put it in words so much better than my cobwebbed brain can in her post titled "diamonds in the roughage." I read that post and just had a total, "I know!"moment.

Back then everything SUCKED. And I hated our circumstances. Everything was always a concern, I lived in total fear of the unknown because we had been shocked and taken by surprise by so much horribleness. I lived with cockroaches, and really it's like living the life of a person who's being spied on or hunted by assassins. I felt like everywhere I went inside the apartment I was on guard, ready with a blunt object as I turned on every light in case I had to squish some unwanted visitor. The sad thing was I eventually got used to that lifestyle, having to squish my own bugs even when the thought of it makes me queasy right now. Squishing a cockroach is so horrifying...it's not like squishing a tiny ant or freaking mosquito - they crunch and I swear they sometimes scream. Anyway, I hated that I had to do that myself because half my time there I was alone with E.

I started resenting Joe, resenting his job, resenting his dedication to a cause greater than myself. I felt like such a selfish bitch and yet I couldn't help it. I couldn't help asking how he could do this to us, make us live in this apartment. It wasn't entirely his fault of course. We chose the place together. We shopped apartments together, we signed the lease together, we moved in together. Neither of us could have seen the bad stuff coming. Neither of us could have done anything to stop it.

So instead, when Joe was away I would send him long, bitchy emails proclaiming how much I hated Newport News and the whole state of Virginia, and he would send me consoling emails about how he wished he could be here to help us. And I could feel his concern through the internet aether, and I knew he cared and hated being away. I will always know he hates being away. But it hardly soothes the pain from it. It doesn't change the fact that he's still away.

I look through my photo files on my portable hard drive and take notice of the gaping hole that exists. There are pictures from our time in Virginia, but not many. They're obscure, and usually don't include the whole room in which they're taken. I wasn't proud of my apartment. I hated it. I hated living there, and I almost let it get in the way of life.

I still managed to take many pictures of beautiful E, I still managed to participate in the moments of her life that were important. Her birthday, Halloween, Christmas, etc. I found ways to get out of the apartment, drove to a local park with friends, spent a lot of time at Target, and visited family often.

But leaving as often as possible had its letdowns. Every time I locked the apartment door behind me while walking E to the car I wondered, "will someone break in?" or "is the hot water heater going to explode while I'm gone?" That's how OFTEN crappy shit happened to us while living there. That's how often shit sucked.

So, we moved home...more specifically to my old home with my mother, grandmother, and aunt. I don't talk about it much here because I don't want to say anything I'll regret later. I am happy to have been offered a comfortable and hospitable place to live for this year of recovery. Joe and I are separated a lot, and were hit hard financially during our sucktacular year in NN...so we are camping out here with family, catching up on credit payments and saving a little money in preparation for our future. Eleana is spending so much awesome time with her extended family. She sees her Nana and Grandma every day now, as opposed to once every 3 months. She is learning so much about her family just by living with them, and hopefully memorizing every awesome moment in the process.

But we are suffering in ways that somehow almost don't compare to how we suffered last year. Sure we had cockroaches and maintenance issues, but at least we had our own life. Would I rather live with cockroaches right now? Definitely not. But that doesn't mean I enjoy sharing a bedroom with my daughter and husband (when he's in). That doesn't mean I enjoy that, while in homeport, my husband lives on the cutter during the week and drives in to see us for the weekend - if he doesn't have duty, if we have the gas money. That doesn't mean I enjoy having responsibilities I didn't want to have, and not having the responsibilities I used to have.

But I am ever thankful. We have a huge and challenging oppurtunity ahead of us, and I'm hoping to be spending more time at the house, less time shopping in general, and more time saving money. Plus, we're going to be focusing on packing up again soon, which will be a great distraction and reminder that there is a light at the end of this year-long tunnel.

But, as we couldn't predict our hardships last year, I'm trying not to be too blindly optimistic about the year starting in July. July should be the beginning of a fabulous year...but the house we're moving into could have so many hidden hardships.

From now until July I will TRY to blog at least once a week something more substantial than a Mosaic Monday post or a photo update. After July, once we reconnect our computers to the internet, I will blog even more regularly as we move into a new home, and start building toward some sort of normalcy again.

witnessing miracles

2009-01-28T18:02:00.003-05:00

It is more than accurate to say that little E is resistant to potty training. Though, now that I think about it, I think she's simply resistant to stopping whatever she is doing at the moment to go potty when it's so much easier to just keep playing with her toys while peeing in her diaper.

Every day we use the potty. Every couple of hours we are going to the bathroom to try to "push 'em out." When she does actually make a pee pee or poopy in the toilet it is a cause for celebrating. She laughs, she smiles, she announces to the whole family and everyone she sees that she went pee pee on the potty. She gets a sticker and maybe candy if she's extra good that day.

But to get her to GO to the bathroom is such a chore.

And yet today, I witnessed a tiny miracle.

I told E, who had already peed in her diaper, "lets go to the potty and try to go pee. Come on, lets go to the bathroom." Upon arrival, I turned on the bathroom light and began to help her take off her pants. She said very sternly to me, "No, Mommy. Stop right there! Wait outside."

What?! Wait outside? Really?!

At first I thought she was just going to try to trick me into thinking she was pottying.

So I stepped outside the door and left it cracked enough that I could watch her cautiously through the crack in the door frame. And what I beheld was nothing short of a miracle.

While quietly humming a happy tune only she knows to herself, little E took her jeans off. She carefully unhooked her diaper tapes (a trick I had shown her this morning) and placed her wet diaper gingerly on the floor. She hummed about as she placed her Sesame Street potty adapter seat on the big potty and placed her step stool in front of it. She climbed up, and, holding the potty seat handles, carefully sat down on the potty.

After a few moments of silence she beckoned for me, "Okay, Mommeeeee! All done!"

She was ever so proud of herself, and although she didn't actually potty in the potty...she got a big hug and congratulatory candy anyway.

This is hopefully the new light at the end of the long potty training tunnel.

Mobile Blogging

2009-01-15T20:51:00.001-05:00

Greetings via LifeCast! I sure hope this thing works. This mobile blogging application was free and hopefully will come in very handy for me- maybe even rekindle my relationship with my blog! For how many times am I out and about and tell myself "I have to blog this!" and how many times do I remember to do so? Very few. This little program will allow me to write entries on the fly and post when in wireless network range or better. So onward with the great lifecast experiment. Here is a photo...testing testing 123!

Posted with LifeCast

first scarf

2009-01-13T19:08:00.001-05:00

first scarf
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

Joe didn't want to model this...but he felt bad because my other option is really short and the scarf is longer than she is tall. So he put on his best pouty face and let me take a picture of him wearing my first scarf.

Love it? I love him!

more books, please!

2009-01-13T12:30:00.002-05:00

I only just realized this, but in 2008 I read at least 5 books! That's half of what I resolved to read, which is great considering I probably wouldn't have read any if it were up to me. Isn't that horrifying? I love books dearly, but the only time I truly get to read these days is after bedtime in my room, in the dark, with a book light while Eleana is sleeping.

I read "Remember Me?" by Sophie Kinsella via my friends' blog book exchange and loved it. If you would like to receive the book in the mail from me, please let us all know. Follow the link above and the shipment shall be arranged!

In addition to "Remember Me?" I read the entire Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer.

5 books! In one year! Actually, 5 books in about 6 months, which is pretty darn good.

So this year I'd like to read at least 5 (setting the bar low for myself this time!) but aim for more. In my book queue (aka the basket by my bed) I have "Marley and Me," "Hitchhikers Guide," "His Dark Materials," and "Peter Pan." My mom is ready "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" which she got for Christmas, so when she's done with that I'll grab it.

I have already read one book - yes I AM counting the entire Watchmen series as a book! A single issue of one comic book series does not count in my opinion, but I read the whole published series softbound, swallowing it whole and alive. So I'm counting it as a book. Which means I also have to tackle the Red Hulk series which Joe received for Christmas from his BFF.

I also would like to read Stephanie Meyers' "The Host" just to say I read it...but to be perfectly honest it doesn't really interest me that much yet. Maybe when it's available in soft cover I'll pick it up. Or better yet, download it onto my mom's Kindle...which she got before Christmas and hasn't used yet!

So cheers to the new year and being smarter in the brain by reading books.

What are your resolutions for 2009?

I know I'm obsessed when...

2009-01-06T11:13:00.004-05:00

...my reality effects my dreams. If something in my waking life makes its way into my subconscious ramblings, I know something has got a strong hold on me.

It happened with Twilight.

It happened with Eminem (I read a long article about the musician a few weeks ago, and used to be a fan of his music).

And now it's happened with Watchmen.

Oh. My. God.

I seriously cannot believe I have NEVER read this comic series before. My husband has. Why didn't he ever turn me on to it before now? Before the big movie is slated to release in March? When all the buzz is out about it?

Why am I always the last dummy on the train of coolness?

It is strange and intriguing to me that last night I dreamed my husband was Rorschach. And I was a cop. And we were hunting each other...and it was so vivid and so real, and such a warning that I am super obsessed and in love with this comic series. Let me explain.

A while ago, at least a month ago, Joe made me watch a preview for a movie called Watchmen. The music is awesome (a Smashing Pumpkins song I believe, which I intend to download but keep forgetting to) and the images are so shocking and beautiful. I put the movie in the back of my mind and figured I'd get around to reading the comic it's based on eventually.

Last week Josiah, myself, and E joined my sister-in-law and niece on an epic journey to the mall. Much shopping was had, and much fun as well. We were at the end of our journey and headed to the exit when we walked by a Borders Express store. I usually make a trip to the bookstore, but knew our little feet were tired as were our little childrens. But on the main wall of best sellers was this gleaming yellow and black book cover, and I gasped audibly. Joe stopped as I ran into the store and grabbed the last copy of the entire series of Watchmen bound together for my reading pleasure.

"Please get this for me! I have to read it, I have to read it now! I know you've read it but, PLEEEEAAAASSSE!"

It was so much cheaper than what we would have paid at the comic book store we usually go to. Plus I had a discount card.

I started reading as soon as we got home (which was the eve of New Year's Eve), and finished it January 1st.

I love this graphic novel. I love it. The story is compelling, the characters are fascinating. Some are flat and predictable while others are volatile bombs waiting to explode with no warning. All the characters have a shared goal, while each of them go about everything in their own way. And the artwork is astoundingly superb.

I cannot say enough about this graphic novel except that I think my mom would love it, and I am now going to recommend it to everyone I meet.

The movie releases March 6 this year. I downloaded the free iPhone app (yes I did!) and the movie website has a TON of back story and content for your viewing pleasure. Nothing beats the actual book, however.

Please read it and tell me what you think, or at least view a preview and call me and tell me how awesome it looks!

a new calling

2009-01-06T11:01:00.001-05:00

crochet
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

About a month ago, if not longer, I met up with my dear friend Kayla (not my sister-in-law Kayla). We had tea at Starbucks and just sat and talked. As I approached her initially (because I was late...and am standardly late more often than not) she was knitting. Or so I thought.

I told her I had no idea she could knit, and she quickly corrected me. She was not knitting, she was crocheting. I said, "Whatever," at which point she informed me that knitters are "crazy" and she would never knit. Aparantly she has been knitting since she was a girl, and her mother would have her and her sister knit when they were in trouble to help calm them down.

I can't believe I never knew this about my friend! And I can't believe I never learned how to do this before. I used to make friendship bracelets and thought it was so cool when I made one using, little known to me, a chain stitch.

So as I started to teach myself how to crochet with a small manual I purchased for a dollar along with a package of crochet hooks and two bundles or yarn, I found it was easier than I anticipated.

UNTIL I started to attempt my first row above the chain stitch row. YIKES. I was starting with the soft, chunky yarn that's sorta fuzzy...and visibility was pretty horrible. I couldn't see any of my chains to hook through, and ended up skipping chains all together, until what I had resembled more of an oval shape than a rectangle. Frustrated, I knotted the end of it and tossed the pathetic piece of yarn at Eleana declaring it a blanket for her Littlest Pet Shop collection. She loves it.

So, a few days ago I met Kayla for lunch and tea to read tarot for her, and to learn from her what the hell I was doing wrong. I showed her my yarn and she said, "no no no no." I started with the wrong wrong wrong yarn for a beginner. After 4-hour visit chatting over tea and jazz, I headed home, resolving to pick out a different yarn later.

While driving home I called Joe to inform him of my arrival and he asked if I had gotten milk and diapers. I totally forgot to pick both items up, so I had to turn around and venture back to Walmart. Serendipity intervened and I took a short detour to the craft section of my favorite superstore (aside from Target...but we don't have none of them in these parts, hyuk) to pick out this lovely bit of brown speckled yarn.

This photo is of the beginnings of my now fabulous scarf. I will post a photo of the full piece later. I am so proud of myself! It isn't perfect, even as it's finished. I think I did something wrong on the ends of each row, but I know what my mistake was/could have been and am going to try a different technique on my second scarf.

This is my new favorite hobby. It reminds me so much of cross stitching in a way...it's so soothing and hypnotic. Except with this I didn't have to look up to check a pattern or change colors...it's beautiful in it's simplicity. Next up, leg warmers! After about 5 more scarves of course.

chance

2008-12-19T22:01:00.002-05:00

So, lately my situation in general has been pretty bleak. I've tried making the best of things, tried enjoying the people I'm living with (my family) while I'm here...and sometimes it works. Sometimes I enjoy myself quite a lot being here. But for the most part I can't stop thinking that making the choice to live here for this year was the worst decision I have ever made in my entire life.

My sweet little girl is suffering the most. This whole living situation is just not right. She and I share a bedroom. A very small bedroom. She has literally no bedtime routine because we have the TV in our room and it totally ruined everything. Sometimes we get away with no TV, reading a story and the traditional tuck-in from the "old days" (when we had our own place), but usually it's a battle - one I'm not always willing to fight.

Add onto that the fact that she still isn't potty trained, for numerous reasons, and has no solid schedule because this HOUSE has no solid schedule, and I'm ready to tear my hair out.

So when Joe calls me and tells me we have the chance to rent a house starting July 09, I am more than ready to jump on it. I mean like, I wish we could move tomorrow ready. So ready.

A house would mean a lot of things. It would mean my own washer and dryer (and not having to lug my shit out the door and down the street to a public laundromat with a 3-year-old in tow). It would mean having my own front door and not having to share common space with questionable neighbors. It would mean not having to suffer the sounds of people stomping around above my head while I'm trying to take a nap with Eleana, or even read a freaking book in silence.

However, it would also mean I would HAVE to get a job. I am NOT opposed to getting a job by any means...it just terrifies me that this job I get (which will be a miniscule and nearly meaningless retail job for sure, unless I'm lucky and snag some sort of office job doing paperwork) could be what decides if we pay our electric bill one month. I'm finally realizing how Joe feels, how it feels to have people's lives depend on your paycheck.

I'd be willing to make sacrifices to have a house - no cable/phone for instance - but in this case cable/phone/internet will be included with rent. That's like 150 bucks free right there. I'm just trying to weigh the pros and cons in my mind...but trying not to be really super excited. I really really really want this house.

Pros:
privacy
freedom to paint/nail/hammer etc.
private, fenced yard
private driveway
8 closets
washer/dryer included
air conditioning
3 bedrooms
large living and dining room
new refrigerator
new bath tub
1 1/2 bath
trash pick up

Cons:
no dishwasher
high rent (1200/month, phone/internet/cable included)
water bill (we've never had to pay a water/sewage bill before)
trash pick up bill (never had one of those either)
yard to mow (purchase lawn mower)
gas stove/heating (i HATE gas)
smaller bedrooms than we're used to (but with 8 closets this may not be an issue...plus we can always put a dresser in another room, or even in the living room)

So, I'm not sure. I haven't seen the house yet...and won't be seeing it until around March. At which point we will also go campaigning/touring town homes and apartments in nicer areas than where we previously lived. Bottom line, I really think I want a house. Really. So a working I will go.

I put in applications here in town, so if I get hired by the end of January I can work 5-6 months and put those paychecks in our savings account without even spending them.

Gosh, I am just a font of so many different emotions.

I am definitely thankful to be given such a great chance at what seems to be a brighter future. Thanks, universe. I love you.

Twilight film review with a twist

2008-12-18T15:24:00.006-05:00

Hello readers. All two of you! I'd like to preface this review by saying I had purchased the soundtrack to the film via iTunes on November 4th, the day the soundtrack was released. Prior to the purchase I had only heard two songs from the soundtrack: Decode by Paramore and Supermassive Black Hole by Muse. Okay, and the two classical songs included on the album as well. It's a sad day when an individual can say they've never heard Claire de Lune or La Traviata before. Those I had heard as well.

As I listened through the songs for the first time, eyes wide with anticipation, I was impressed. The music included on this album is actually not your typical teen lovey dovey crap. While featuring two soulful acoustic songs by Rob Pattinson himself, the album also includes some music from known and unknown artists (at least unknown to me).

As I listened to the songs repeatedly while driving my car, surfing the net, cleaning the house, I became curious which songs would be played during the course of the film, and which would be played during the credits. One song in particular I thought would be the perfect song for the prom dance scene at the end of the film...and sure enough when I saw the movie they did indeed play "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" by Iron & Wine. Flightless bird, I mean come on, Bella has a broken leg during Prom...I mean it was just perfect.

Moving forward, I absolutely loved the film. I took my mother with me Thursday night for the midnight showing, and drove through big snow at 35 MPH. As everyone knows by now, the film grossed $7 million dollars in midnight showings alone. I am confident more people in my area would have made the journey to the theatre had the weather been more cooperative. Nevertheless, several screens were being used that night just for Twilight, though ours was only about 3/4 full.

The previews I had watched (repeatedly) prepared me for the parts of the film I was apprehensive about - tree-climbing, "spider-monkey," too-red lips, etc. As a fan of the novel I wanted and hoped for a faithful adaptation, but I know as an avid reader and movie fan that changes to the story would be inevitable.

At the start of the film, I loved that Bella was narrating. Before I knew she was narrating I thought narration would be an effective way to illustrate Bella's thoughts throughout the film. So much of the novel is just that - Bella's thoughts. As Bella is journeying from Arizona to Forks, Washington, The Black Ghosts' "Full Moon" is playing and I get chills. I literally wanted to shout, "yes!" that's how perfect that song was for that moment. Bella's reunion with her father, Charlie, is brief and terse, and the film is quick to give us all what we desire - our first glimpse of Edward Cullen.

Dark lips and pale skin resent, every female in the theatre still managed to squeal with delight - including myself. For the most part the supporting roles are what I expected, and Angela is particularly charming. I did also love how Edward smirked as Jessica says that famous line that nobody at the school is good enough for Edward. It's the perfect hint that he not only hears her perfectly, but is inside her head.

After Edward's mysterious absence (during which we view a montage of days passing while listening to Blue Foundation's "Eyes on Fire") he returns and attempts to be polite, which was absolutely adorable, yet a little painful. As Edward saves Bella, thus revealing his attachment to her as well as his true self, "Tremble for my Beloved" (Collective Soul) plays effectively.

I am generally pleased with Rob Pattinson's performance in this film. Asking any actor to play something as unfathomable as a vegetarian vamp is almost asking too much. Kristin Stewart's performance as Bella is amiable, but not quite what I expected. I realize that these roles are taken by the actor and molded into something they feel is believable, but Kristin's interpretations of Bella's outbursts (particularly the one in the hospital bed near the end of the film) are a little much.

Once Edward and Bella become an item the film becomes more seamless, flawless. Their first day arriving to school together (accompanied by Mutemath's "Spotlight" - so perfect!) in the same vehicle is intense, with everyone staring at them. Edward smiles for I think the first time in the movie, which makes him appear ten times more charming than before when he was just brooding, blood-thirsty Edward. We then experience another montage of the two of them spending time together and discussing all things vampire. And I have to say, the bedroom kiss/makeout scene is steamy enough to make this 26-year-old married woman remind herself the actors aren't really under age - at least Rob isn't.

I wish we could've still had the line about Bella having 3 eyes when she meets Esme and Carlisle, but the "meet the family" scene was rewritten for the screen beautifully. We get a real feel for the family's dynamics in such a small amount of time - especially Rosalie.

My favorite scene (aside from baseball) was seeing Edward sparkle. I think it could've definitely been a little more spectacular - it is THE best, most intimate part of the book after all. But instead we get a weird montage of the two of them cuddling, and all of Edward sparkles except his lips. Why aren't his lips sparkly, too? That really bugged me.

And about that baseball game! One word - AWESOME. I love the slow-mo effects, the running at high speed, and hello Rosalie! The outfits were so hot. I don't recall uniforms being in the book, but it worked for them. I had been curious about when during the movie Muse's "Supermassive Black Hole" would play, and was pleasantly surprised to hear it come on for baseball. I only wish Bella and Esme would have had their talk about childbirth at some point in the film if not during baseball.

Some other things I wish could have been included: the scene in which Carlisle reveals more of his past to Bella, and we see his office with all that spectacular artwork; more extensive storytelling on Jacob's part; more thorough explanation of the vampires special abilities (Jasper's wasn't even included in the film); a harder getaway scene at the hotel at the end - vampires are not that easy to trick! And for some reason it also really bugs me that Charlie and Bella eat at a restaurant all the time rather than her fixing him his dinner every night. The fact that she cooks for her dad every night really says something about her relationship with him, and to not have her doing that in the film makes her seem more indifferent to him than she truly is.

Almost every song on the soundtrack is played throughout the film. I recognized Rob's "Never Think" playing in the background of the restaurant as Edward finally began to reveal a bit of himself to Bella. His other song, "Let Me Sign" plays appropriately during the scene where Bella is dying from the vampire venom in her blood. Paramore's "I Caught Myself" is playing in the background of the dress shop in Port Angeles, and "Go All the Way (Into the Twilight)" by Perry Farrell is cranking during Prom (though the version on the album is actually edited to say "into the twilight"). "La Traviata" plays while the Cullens are preparing dinner for Bella, and "Claire de Lune" is played briefly in Edward's bedroom.

Bella's lullaby makes me want to weep tears of sorrow and joy. It captures so smoothly Edwards emotions and feelings for Bella. It is a sweet yet nearly creepy song that leaves one to wonder what torments the composer, which is simply perfect. The whole scene in which Edward plays the lullaby for Bella is pretty flawless except that they never discuss he wrote the song for her and sings it for her at night.

The credits are paired first with Linkin Park's "Leave out All the Rest" and then with Paramore's "Decode." I thought that was particularly strange considering "Decode" was written specifically for the film. It should have been played first, yet a song that isn't even included on the album plays while the main credits roll.

Oh and ONE more thing - I really wished they would have done the whole blindfold thing before prom. I would have loved to see Alice's bedroom at the house, and see her beautifying Bella against her will.

Since the midnight release I have seen the film two more times. Once with my husband (who enjoyed the movie more than he thought he would) and once with my sister-in-law (who loved it). The movie gets better each time, and I hope to watch it once more before it leaves the theatres.

I hope you've enjoyed this musical review of Twilight and look forward to any conversation/feedback in the comments. And don't get me started on what I hope to see from New Moon. if Taylor Lautner isn't playing Jacob I may actually cry.

MM - 11/24/08

2008-11-24T22:53:00.001-05:00

mmmPOP!
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

It's Mosaic Monday again...and every Monday. But I barely can remember to participate these days. Or rather, I participate, but neglect to post to this here blog of mine. It needs dusted...

This mosaic was created from my favorites of course, as almost all my mosaics are. The talented friends and photographers featured in this mosaic all have wonderful photos to marvel at. I suggest getting lost at Flickr for at least an hour and making some favorites of your own.

A daily favorite photostream of mine is that of (username) icedsoul. The 4th photo in the top row is one of his. You HAVE to go to the actual page for that individual photo and read the caption. He takes photos of his 4 brave troopers every day, and writes some amazing dialogue to go with them. Check out his entire Troopies 365 set...you will NOT be disappointed.

Cheers everyone! And if I don't see you before Thanksgiving, have a safe and hearty holiday!

yes!

2008-11-05T00:48:00.003-05:00

Congratulations, Barack Obama! I put my faith in you as I cast my ballot and I put my faith in you now as our 44th President of the United States of America.

(photo by Zyrcster @ Flickr.com)

Good luck to you, good luck to us all, and thank you.

Thank you for giving us all something bright to believe in.

Good night, America. Here's to a beautiful future.

a trick

2008-10-16T11:34:00.003-04:00

A couple of evenings ago, during the time which Eleana and I were enjoying having Joe with us for a whole week, Eleana performed a "trick" (her words, not mine) for Daddy.

She had pooped such a solid poop that it was coming out of her pull-up. Not messily, mind you, but coming out nonetheless.

As Joe proceeded to change our darling girl's pants, she asked him, "Daddy, want a trick? Want a trick, Daddy?"

"No, sweetie, I don't want to see a trick. You've done enough tricking tonight thanks," was his reply.

While she's lying down on our bed, he lifts her legs in the air and opens her pull-up to clean her and she says,

"TA-DAAAA!!!"

HAD to brag

2008-10-14T23:37:00.000-04:00

100 words

Typingtest

I can't remember...

2008-09-13T01:40:00.003-04:00

I want to be so freaking romantic with Joe when he gets here...my goal is to never stop touching him when he's home except if I'm showering or shitting. And to wake him up every morning with a kiss...I don't think we do that enough. I can't remember...isn't that sad? We haven't been in the same bed for so long that I can't remember if we kiss each other good morning.

I'm sad and eager and happy all at the same time...the fact that this is possible both excites and baffles me.

in high school

2008-09-11T20:12:00.002-04:00

So, one of my BFFs tagged me to do a quiz, and in the past I've been known to be quite the quiz whore...so of course I jumped right on it (even though the front page of the quiz has an image of the High School Musical cast, which I loathe). I have to say, I'm sort of an introvert who hides it well...so the results were a little surprising.

I don't know about "skating by" on my "looks and charms" though. And I was really nice, and knew everyone's name...so take that typical popular kid!

I hereby tag ~Mommy~.

You Were the Popular Kid

In high school, everyone knew your name - even if you didn't know theirs.

In fact, your still skating by on your looks and charm. Nothing wrong with that!

Who Were You In High School?

fever

2008-08-27T00:48:00.003-04:00

The little E has a fever tonight.

Her body is hot, her head is hot, her cheeks are red. She's happy and well...and then...

Cue the thermometer not reading correctly.

Cue rain.

Cue emergency drive to Wal-Mart at 10pm.

And, since I had no idea what kind of thermometer to buy, I bought 2. One strictly for oral readings, and another one of those fancy forehead readers they use in the hospitals.

Plus some new Tylenol that isn't just "cold and cough." And an actual measurement cup.

On my way back home I'm driving in complete dark and rain, on the winding country road that leads to the house. A sudden flood of memories washes over my mind as I recall all the other late night trips to the store for various occasions. I marveled at how different and yet how similar each event was. Each time, just as now, there was this incredible sense of urgency...like Eleana and I are being pulled together by a magnetic force. There is no way I can stop, not for coffee in the drive-thru, not for a stray dog in the road, I have to get home. Have to.

I got home at 11:15pm.

And Eleana was still awake. She came bounding out of her room upon hearing my voice shouting happily, "Hi, Mommy! Hi! Hey, Mommy, heyMommy! Um, you wanna watch Care Bears?"

Evidently she had been up and abusing her Nana's willingness to put on whatever movie she wants to watch, while eating pumpkin pie and drinking apple juice.

She's persuasive like that.

The oral thermometer worked. It gave us a reading of like 99.1 f. The forehead one worked (and I have to admit I felt so official and doctor-y while using it) and gave a reading of about 100.5. Then the forehead one gave me a low battery reading and said "err." What gives? I had just inserted the new battery that was included in the packaging!

Cue Mommy freaking out and proceeding to take E's temperature reading about 10 times in a row.

101.3

100.4

99.6

98.7

It started to feel like I was reading radio stations aloud to my mother as I told her each reading.

Each time Eleana would shake her head curtly "yes" like she was agreeing. When asked if she's hot or cold she answers cold.

Finally, using the oral thermometer, we checked again. 99.1 was the final verdict which is still normal for E. Phew.

The rest of the night will be an adventure, and though it's already 1am as I write this, I have no doubt that E is still awake, watching some sort of movie in her room while lying in bed.

At least she better be in her bed when I get up there...

E's Three!

2008-08-21T01:07:00.003-04:00

I cannot believe it, and yet the amount she's grown just in the past week is testament enough to how much my darling Eleana has grown. She went from a comfortable 2T to busting out of her 2Ts and desperately needing 3Ts. How did this happen? When?

Saturday we had the big celebration here at the farm. We invited family and friends to come share in cake, presents, bubbles, and conversation. Eleana had the best time ever, and didn't melt down once! Yay!

The theme was Princess of course, and Eleana's favorite Disney princess (Aurora, aka Sleeping Beauty) showed up a lot. She was glad to have a princess Aurora purse, dress (from Disney World! Thank you Aunt Danita!), porcelain doll, shirt, socks, etc.

The highlight of the celebration was just noticing how...grown she is. I mean, she throws around "please" and "thank you" like a real lady, like a real child! Sometimes I am just absolutely amazed at how well she's doing, how well we're doing. It helps having 4 strong women around to influence her at the same time, under one roof.

She's talking in huge, full sentences now, making lovely and not-so-lovely requests. Such as, "Now we watch Blue's Clues! Yeah, Blue's Clues, Mommy! Please please please!"

I do admit I love that she has a new love in her life - Peter Pan. We watched it about 2 weeks ago, and now it's all she wants to watch before bedtime. "Now we watch Peetser PeNNN! You can fly!"

So sweet. She melts my heart.

The only thing we would have changed about this birthday is we would have loved to have Daddy here to help celebrate. I figure 3 out of 4 isn't bad (I'm counting the day she was born!).

I've been bitten...

2008-07-30T10:04:00.003-04:00

by Twilight! If you've read some of my previous posts you've probably gleaned that I am 100 percent obsessed with the Twilight series. I think it's fair to warn you now that if you haven't read the books or finished the books but intend to and do not want things spoiled, read no further! THOUGH I seriously doubt that any FANS of the books have an unfinished copy of Eclipse lying around. The books are irresistible and not finishing them once you've started is simply impossible.

IF you don't ever ever plan to read the books, then by all means read on. If you have a slight doubt that you will read the books, you probably don't want to ruin things for yourself. Or even if you plan to see the movie in December. Yeah, so yeah.

I am high from listening to the Imprint podcast last night, and have my notes staring me in the face. I woke to post my last minute predictions for the 4th book (Breaking Dawn) on the Twilight Source forums only to find the forums have been temporarily shut down due to spoilers. Apparently a Wal-mart in Iowa sold copies of Breaking Dawn already, and it isn't due out until Saturday. Can you believe that? How horrible for us who are being good and playing by the rules.

Since I can't post my Imprint rebuttals on the forums, OR my predictions for Breaking Dawn...I'm posting it all here. For now. The forums will open on the 3rd, so I can post everything then.

Imprint is one of the best Twilight podcasts out there. They really are a dime a dozen, but this podcast, brought to you by the minds behind the Harry Potter-centered MuggleCast, stands out among the rest. I started listening during week one, which happened to be the first time I had read Twilight even though the books have been around for years now. I know, slow to jump on the bandwagon. It was the same with Harry Potter for me. I didn't start reading until Goblet of Fire was released.

Anyway, last night they talked about a slew of topics, starting with Comic Con. The twilight cast, director and author (Stephanie Meyer) were together for the first time taking questions from 6,500 screaming fans. I've watched the footage on Youtube, and found myself mostly frustrated as most the people who were in the audience were screaming "I LOVE YOU EDWARD!" and "MARRY ME!" I couldn't hear the actors' answers, and apparently the two male Imprinters (who were there) couldn't hear either.

During the Comic Con panel for Twilight they revealed the full James/Edward fight scene from the film. Andrew mentioned during the podcast that Rob (who plays Edward, and was also in HP Goblet of Fire) has a "constipation face." I think his constipation face, in Rob's defense is the face he makes as he's building up his growl. I'm going to be most curious about the growling aspect of the vampires in the film. Will the actors produce the growls all on their own, or will they have some digital enhancement? I also want to see them snarling their teeth, I remember a lot of growling, hunching and snarling in the books and it will be interesting to see completely human-looking vampires take on such animal qualities.

As I predicted and Stephanie confirmed on Monday, Edward and Bella will be marrying fairly early in Breaking Dawn. This is only suitable, as she cannot be bitten by Edward until they're married and they can't be completely intimate with each other until after as well. The tension between these two is so thick you could cut it with a knife. It'll be nice to have some sort of release early on. And we are all so very excited to see Bella as a vampire.

As to what Bella's power will be when she turns into a vampire, I liked the Imprinters ideas...specifically the idea that she could absorb other vampires abilities and use them herself. I do, however, think that perhaps her dreams will come into play. Throughout the novels Bella has always had very vivid dreams...specifically the recurring dream which she wakes screaming from every night that Edward is gone. I think perhaps she'll be able to know people's dreams, or manipulate them somehow through dreams. Something that might support my theory is the quote we see from Edward on StephanieMeyer.com reading "Do you want me to sing to you? I'll sing all night if it will keep the bad dreams away."

I think it's admirable that one of the female Imprinters (Laura or Elisa, I'm not sure which it was) claimed Team Switzerland. I myself would love nothing more than for Bella to marry Edward and still find a way to be friends with Jacob. However, I feel it's Jacob's choice to make himself more controlled and accepting of the fact that Bella will be with Edward. She can't be his friend until he stops making her feel guilty for choosing the person she truly loves.

The most interesting thing about the podcast last night was the discussion about Breaking Dawn's possible similarities to A Midsummer Night's Dream. There are, in the play, two couples essentially. Fairies meddle with a potion and cause the two men to fall in love with the same woman, leaving the second woman scorned, lonely and confused. The Imprinters seem to think that this woman left lonely is Bella. They also hypothesized that this would imply the two men who used to be in love with Bella may fall in love with someone else.

I HIGHLY doubt Edward would ever fall for someone else, however, I don't think it's out of the question to find him distracted by a female adversary. Tanya comes up a lot with the Imprinters, and I think this is mainly due to the quote Stephanie Meyer posted from Breaking Dawn which comes from Tanya. She basically says in the quote to Edward that she's missed him. Bravo, Stephanie for throwing everyone off the scent. I truly believe that Tanya is going to play a small role in Breaking Dawn, possibly as part of the Volturi, or perhaps the Cullens go visit Tanya's clan. Either way, she will pose no imminent threat to Bella and Edward's relationship.

I think the fourth Midsummer character, the other female, is more likely to be Leah. And I have to say that during the whole conversation I was scribbling "Leah" and words like "duh!" all over my paper. I couldn't speak to the Imprinters, but if I could I would have been asking them why the hell they didn't think of her. They did think of her, but ONLY at the very end of the discussion. Come on, Imprinters. Leah was, after all, with Jacob just before he left the tribe for the woods. And Edward mentions to Bella how twisted her mind is now that she's a woman scorned by Sam.

MY prediction is that either Jacob will imprint on Leah, this female werewolf he despises. OR OR OR, she will claim to have imprinted on Jacob to trap him into loving her. Her motive will be revenge on Sam, (though if she were smart she'd know this wouldn't impact him at all). Who better for Leah to choose as her rebound than the wolf who was intended to be Alpha? I predict much Leah drama to come.

Jacob won't imprint on a vampire. It's unheard of. I think it's ridiculous to assume Sam's released BD quote about "effecting the treaty" and being "something unexpected" could simply be referring to the fact that a former human friend of the tribe (Bella) has now been bitten and turned into a vampire. A newborn, possibly bloodthirsty vampire. A possible threat to Charlie, to Forks.

Jasper's quote "I can't understand, I can't bear this" could very well be referring to the phenomenon of imprinting. My theory is, however, his quote is referring to Bella's new possible abilities as a vampire. Her mind resistence and all that.

Finally, I think the Volturi will play a major part of Breaking Dawn. I think the Volturi know about werewolves existence...and could be the entity that knows both about werewolves and vampires that was mentioned in the (leaked?) synopsis of Breaking Dawn. Also the synopsis mentioned something to the effect of, "Because when dawn breaks, an angel will fall." I think the angel will be Carlisle, or one of the head Volturi. I keep recalling the image of the painting in Carlisle's office, of the 4 gods atop the school, one being Aro, one being Carlisle, etc. Why else would the vampires have insisted the werewolves leave before the Volturi arrived after the big newborn/Victoria battle?

And one final thought before I sign off an breathe a big, heavy sigh. Or two thoughts. Puck announces to the audience at the end of Midsummer Night's Dream that if anything offended them they could view it all as a dream. One of the Imprinters says if you look at it in that respect, only the beginning and very end of the play could be said to have taken place in reality. I'm thinking perhaps this could be alluding to a possible departure of the Cullen clan from Forks. The town of Forks will wonder, as time wears on, if the Cullens were ever there...and their time there will be as a dream.

And the Imprinters seem to be viewing the idea of "dawn" as a positive thing. And it very well could be viewed as such. There will be a lot of things brought into the light for us readers, a lot of conclusions and finalities. However, if we take the book back to the original parallel Twilight had to Romeo and Juliet, dawn can be viewed as a negative. The morning after Romeo and Juliet's wedding/honeymoon, they wish the sun would not rise for it meant they would be separated, possibly forever. Dawn is such a contrast to night, which is where all the vampire action takes place...what if Bella never changes? What if she does indeed choose human life forever???

Scary scary thoughts. I will probably have Breaking Dawn (I would LIKE to anyway) read by Saturday night. Hopefully I will not be as restless as I am now with anticipation.

See you at the Breaking Dawn release party?? Call me. We'll go together!

new schedules

2008-07-22T14:16:00.006-04:00

I'm taking time out from my normal schedule of reading and obsessing over Twilight to sit and update everyone on...life.

Eleana and I are doing wonderful here. There are a few snags every once in a while, as there are always snags when people who don't usually live together suddenly have to coexist together. Mostly we're having a wonderful time living a quiet life.

Eleana helping to water the flowers earlier today (and enjoying watering herself as well!)

Eleana lives close to nature now, closer than she has ever lived before. She enjoys seeing our neighbors come and cut the hay in the field, and then turning it into rolling, round bails. She delights at the rabbits, the deer, and the turkeys (and the occasional eagle). She tries to make one wish per day on the dandelion puffs and watches bees intently, without fear. Watching her excitement, seeing the wonders of the mountain through her eyes, has been one of my biggest and favorite thrills of late.

Picking blueberries Friday at Blueberry Hill.

One of the fields at Blueberry Hill. There was one even larger behind me as I took this photo.

Aside from her connection to nature, Eleana is doing well, growing into a smart and beautiful 3-year-old. Her birthday is fast approaching and we're still struggling with potty training. And struggling still with having her eat anything other than peanut butter and jelly or fruit. But, she's thriving, and learning, retaining amazing knowledge and developing the sweetest manners ever. When she refuses something, now, rather than saying "no" she tacks "thank you" onto it. "No thank you" sounds so much better than shrieking "NO!" as if the very thought of doing what you've asked her to do will kill her.

She is so brave, braver than I expected...and I have to stop myself sometimes when she explores this new world around her. Sometimes she takes off running full speed in a direction that could be dangerous if she goes too far. But, I've learned that she knows the boundaries as well as we do, and can stop running on her own without Mommy shouting "stop!" every 5 minutes. It's been hard to bite my tongue, but these are things she has to learn herself.

We're settled in finally. The car is registered in WV now, and our medical records arrived. We are setting up doctors and dentists, paying bills, and feeling more relaxed and normal. We're adjusting. And it feels nice.

Joe is leaving soon from Portsmouth, VA on a trip. We saw him for the last time on the 13th. He'll be gone the usual time, which doesn't bother me. It is so much easier now that we live with family. It is never easy to say goodbye to my husband, but the sting isn't as strong when I have people I care about to spend my time with. Happy little distractions to keep me busy during his absence.

This year Joe will miss Eleana's birthday - the first one he's missed. I guess 3 out of 4 (I'm counting her birth...it was sketchy if he'd be here for that even) isn't that bad of an average. I'd rather have him here for birthdays instead of Christmas. Luckily we're surrounded by aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, so the party will be pleasant in spite of his absence.

In the work aspect of my life I'm actually starting my own business. Rather small, mind you. I haven't even stocked up for sales yet...but I'm definitely going to open an etsy shop soonish. There is a town social here locally at the college on August 10th, and booths are FREE. My aunt and I are going to put some wares out to see if anyone bites. We're using the event as a sort of focus group, to see what will sell and what won't. So far I'm creating some lovely magnets, even some customizable sets, and perhaps some paper goods. I'm thinking lovely cards and/or bookmarks.

And while I'm not doing that I'm preparing an entry for a scrapbook magazine contest. The deadline is the 31st, and I have one layout yet to finish. I'm struggling with the theme, but I'm confident it will come together. If (and I severely stress "if") I get chosen as a winner (there will be 10 total) that will be "job" for me for the next year. Considering this is my first year entering, I doubt I'll be chosen. I'm trying not to be too optimistic about the whole thing. But I'm excited. If I get chosen, I'll be required to scrap regularly every month, and submit every month, which will keep me very busy.

More on all the worky stuff will follow as I come closer to having some tangible products. And also, I will be posting a review of Twilight (or moreso like a rant about how wonderful it is) soon. And the other book I read and already forgot about...gosh that's how great Twilight is!

Cheers!

things that are ephemeral

2008-07-09T00:53:00.004-04:00

I've been absolutely swooning lately over the music of She & Him. A fellow blogger recommended the band on her blog (I'm thinking it was Elsie, but I can't be sure...so don't quote me) and I immediately downloaded 2 of their songs from iTunes.

It sounds crazy, but I've been listening to their songs for a few weeks now and didn't realize who I was listening to until another blogger posted a photo of the band. You probably recognize the vocalist immediately - it's Zooey Deschanel! You know, from Elf and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Additionally I absolutely fell in love with her character in Failure to Launch. I don't think a lot of people saw that movie, at least nobody I know saw it, which is a shame because it was really quite funny and smart.

Anyway, getting sidetracked...She & Him are worth listening to...and I promise you won't be disappointed. Their songs are so lovely and happy, yet gritty and amazingly real. Zooey's voice is romantic and rich, and big for such a cute and small woman. I applaud her and M. Ward for creating such enchanting and nostalgic music. The title for this post is taken from song lyrics of "I Thought I Saw Your Face Today."

It's perfect for listening to while driving down country roads at a meandering speed. And also perfect music to listen to while reading romantic novels like Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella. A friend of mine started a blogger's book club and I was 4th to receive and read Remember Me. Very awesome book...and I'm so touched to have been included in this group. To find out about the book club go here. I will post a review of the book soon (which I finished in 2 days!).

here and happy

2008-06-18T18:32:00.003-04:00

Eleana and myself arrived at my mother's house safe and sound. We are officially country bumpkins now. Josiah is living on the boat, spending time with friends back in Portsmouth, and getting under way soon. We're making this work for the most part, however difficult things may become.

Mom and Grandma are super happy to have their great/granddaughter here with them, and she is happy to be here too. Every day she tells her Nana (my mom) and Grandma (my grandma) good morning and "I lub yoo!" Grandma's almost to the point where she can hear those words and NOT cry tears of joy.

We're having a crappy go at eating healthy foods, as usual. Eleana's staples are PB&J, raisins, yogurt, and fruit. No meats, no veggies (unless pureed and snuck into treats...but I absentmindedly packed away my cook books). So we're relying on the milk she still drinks, as well as vitamins and peanut butter to keep her alive.

We're still potty training, we have two potties, one in each bathroom, and a portable/folding potty that fits in my purse for trips out.

So things are going well, and blog posts will hopefully pick up again now that we're settling in. We've been unpacking and trying to fit items for 3 people in one small bedroom, making spare time hard to come by.

Daddy is coming in tomorrow for a long weekend. His mother's family is having a family reunion Saturday, and we have a movie date planned for Friday (hopefully). Plus tons of time together, outside, as a family.

yet another weird dream

2008-05-19T09:09:00.006-04:00

I know for a fact that the dream I had last night was mostly influenced by 2 items I viewed on TV last night. First was the film "Knocked Up" which was not as funny as I thought it would be. I mean, it was funny, but definitely biting and also kinda sad. Second was the season finale of Desperate Housewives. Let it be known that prior to tonight I have never watched Desperate Housewives. Yes, I've heard all the hooplah the media makes over it. I do watch daytime/morning shows sometimes and DH comes up a lot. I don't watch mostly because I know I can't relate to those women who live in their McMansions and have affair with gardeners and repairmen. BUT, last night was different. There was a lot of hype surrounding the finale, specifically the last 2 minutes of the show. And I had to watch.

So it makes sense that I was kidnapped in my dream. And it makes sense that Jonah Hill was in my dream. But other than that the dream had nothing to do with either item.

The dream begins with me lost at a mall/playground/picnic area. It was an outdoor type mall. I recall a woman being very rude to me, and me standing up for myself to her, then calling Joe to tell him what had happened. In the dream, he was preparing for some big sting operation a la S.W.A.T. My husband isn't a S.W.A.T. member at all...he's in the Coast Guard. His job is dangerous, but I would wager not quite as dangerous as S.W.A.T. BUT I don't know MUCH about his job, so there you have it. In my fantasies my husband is the badest mo-fo out there, and if he came to your door in full law enforcement gear the mere sight of him would make you shit your pants. That so turns me on.

Anyway.

Joe, in my dream, couldn't talk because he had a job going on. So whatever, I was planning to drive home. I don't think I had Eleana with me, but I know I had her...just not with me. I got lost in the car and maybe asked for directions. I'm not sure. Maybe in my dream I blacked out because the next thing I know I'm in some fancy executive's office, in a large leather desk chair, with a gun in my face.

The gun is being held by someone who sorta resembles/reminds me of Robert Downey Jr. But it isn't him. This guy is cleanly shaven. And recently I can't think of RDJ without thinking of Tony Stark (who has a beard).

My kidnapper knows my husband is in law enforcement. He doesn't know my husband is coming for me. I know it because I always know it. I always know he's coming back in real life, it is the story of our life. I'm still a little panicked though, thinking of E and what would she do without her mommy, etc. I am stressed to be sure.

The gunman ends up pressing his gun against me in different body parts. My armpit, my neck, my ear, my mouth. Yucky. He isn't mean at all though, with his words. He keeps using the word "just." He's "just" keeping me hear until he gets what he wants. He "just" wants to talk to the cops. They "just" wouldn't listen.

Eventually I beg him not to hurt my husband. I'm crying, my face is swollen from crying and begging, I'm so horrified that he'll kill Joe. I told him he could beat him, rough him up a bit, whatever, just to be sure he please didn't kill him. He can take it, just don't kill him. We need him in our lives. It was very horrifying to feel as though I were really saying those words. The kidnapper agreed not to kill Joe.

My phone rings. It's Joe. I put it together that the guy Joe is looking for is the guy who has me. I tell him he's here, but I don't know where "here" is. There were no signs of who's office we were in, no photos, no awards on the walls, nothing.

The kidnapper figures they'll find us where we are, so we make a run for it. We get in a car. We drive to a train station. On the way, he kicks me out of the car and leaves me alone at this rundown beat up train station. Well, I was probably 30 yards from the station. No vending machines, no phones, no police. I didn't yell for help. I figured if I did, he'd just come back and shoot me.

My phone rings again. Joe says they've located the killer. He is at the executive office of Martha Stewart industries. I tell him we're not there anymore, we went to a train station. Not sure where. Then the kidnapper appears again, but he doesn't see me. He hops in the back of a car, points his gun at the driver's head and tells her drive. It's Martha Stewart.

I meet some women who appear to be my age, in work clothes, and ask them for help. They say I can stay with them. They work for a celeb gossip rag or something, and they're talking about what fashion feature they'll put and who was wearing what at whatever event. I'm bored, frightened, and worried for Joe.

I see another group of people and end up talking to them for a while. They have a dog who used to be a drug dog for the police, they got him for free at some pound because nobody wants a drug dog I guess. He was a pretty vicious dog. (Mind you this doesn't reflect my true knowledge of dogs or love of them in real life...this is alllll how it seemed in the dream). Jonah Hill is holding the dog's leash and goes to chat up some unsuspecting lady. I'm standing alone now, trying to call Joe and as soon as Joe answers, the dog attacks me. Evidently the man who kidnapped me was a drug dealer, and the scent had rubbed off on me. The dog thought I had drugs, and he bit my hand. Jonah wasn't watching the dog until after it bit me as he was distracted by a pretty lady.

THEN

I woke up. I woke up quite shaken, and expecting to see my hand bloodied and mangled. I looked up some dream interpretations online. This was one of the most vivid dreams I've had in a while...so it definitely sparked my curiosity. Here are my findings.

To dream that you are being bitten, represents your vulnerability regarding your unresolved issues emotions. You may be pestered by a problem or obstacle.

To dream that you are being kidnapped, denotes feelings of being trapped and restricted. Someone or some situation may be diverting your concentration and your attention away from your goals.

To see a gun in your dream , symbolizes aggression, anger, and potential danger. You may be dealing with issues of passiveness/aggressiveness and authority/dependence. Alternatively, a gun can represent the penis and male sexual drive. Thus the gun may mean power and impotence.

To see a railroad in your dream, signifies that you have laid out a set track toward achieving your goals. Alternatively, it indicates that you may be too linear and rigid in your thinking. Sometimes you need to go off track and explore other possibilities.

To dream that you are walking alongside the railroad tracks, signifies much happiness from your skillful completion of your tasks.

To see or use a cell phone in your dream, indicates that you are being receptive to new information. It also represents your mobility.

That pretty much sums up my life right now. Wow. We're in for a lot of change coming up in the next couple weeks, a lot of crazy errands, a lot of life-changing events. I am convinced that this move is our only option (hence the "linear" thinking) but I anticipate to pay off some debt in the process of this move, which will be one large goal completed...making us very happy. I think the cell phone is meant to represent mobility, both because of the move, and because our life is if nothing else, a nomadic life. The gun is a little more complicated. I expect there will be "power struggles" at the house...after all, I will be living with 3 other very strong adult women. But I think that's just a latent fear...I am confident things will go well and we will ultimately be happy with the family.

So pretty much an accurate decoding of the dream. Well done Dream Moods!

she cries for help now

2008-05-10T00:54:00.006-04:00

Well yes there has been a lack of posts here, thanks for asking. We're moving soon, so my spare time is spent thinking about packing, spending time with friends, and trying to earn a few extra bucks via work.

I think it's safe to say we've entered the terrible twos and will be living in this stage for years to come. I suspect the twos have been here a while now, and every time I think it's not so bad, something happens that makes me giggle and stress out and giggle some more.

Eleana's newest habit is to cry for help when she's stressed out. Meaning, if we're in public (like the grocery store, mall, park, etc.) and Eleana doesn't get her way, she cries for help from the strangers around us.

E at the park two weeks ago, wishing she could climb the monkey bars.

For instance, one Saturday morning I showed up at the mall an hour before the shops opened to return a pair of shoes that are too small for E. I didn't know the stores wouldn't be open, and with gas prices the way they are I wasn't about to go home for 20 minutes just to drive right back. So we waited.

Eleana and I sat quietly at one of the mall couches in front of the store we were waiting to enter. Or rather, I sat quietly while Eleana climbed on top of me and on top of the back of the couch. She tried to escape sometimes, to run about and cause madness. She started to whine because I wouldn't let her run away, and squirming and flailing and all those awesome things that come with tantrums.

There were several other people nearby, perched on couches, reading books and texting on their phones. So, without missing a beat, Eleana drapes herself off the edge of the couch upside down while shouting, "HELP! HELP!"

But wait, there's more!

Have you seen Yo Gabba Gabba! on Nick Jr? We love it here...and talk about it way too much. I love the music, any time we watch E and I both have to dance. No question.

There's a skit they do on the show where Muno reads his favorite comic book titled Super Martian Robot Girl. She's a superhero who saves people from peril. And the people in peril always scream, "Help, Super Martian Robot Girl!"

So today we're at Wal-mart getting groceries. And the fine people at Wal-mart (and every other grocery) looove to tempt both moms and kids with the yummy candy offerings at checkout. So my sweet girl starts to demand candy.

I say no of course, and she's relentless. She starts to cry, she starts to scream, and eventually she tries to throw herself out of the shopping cart. Because she can. Because she's a girl and drama is her middle name.

As she's hanging out of the cart (firmly buckled in however) she makes eye contact with the customers checking out next to us and cries for help.

When this doesn't work (and I get grouchy looks from Mr. Customer) Eleana resorts to shouting,

"Hap! Hap, Sooopa Markin Robok-ger!!!!"

Yeah. I'm pretty sure that even Super Martian Robot Girl has better things to do than give a crying toddler candy even though Mommy says no. Ah, to be a child again.

colors

2008-03-21T17:41:00.005-04:00

Hi all!

We're in "wild and wonderful" WV (I refuse to accept the new slogan) for Easter with the families. I've had a bit of a sinus infection so I've been sleeping a lot lately. Traveling alone with a toddler chops about a billion percent of my energy and it takes time to recouperate from that.

We colored eggs today! Yay! This was a first for Eleana. Last year it was just she and I, and coloring eggs seemed somewhat pointless. Too, all she cared about was the candy. In fact, today she thought the eggs we colored were filled with chocolate. I felt awful that she couldn't eat any considering her severe allergy, but she enjoyed the activity anyway.

Eleana spent a lot of time hugging and kissing the eggs, which she calls "eggies." I think this is the fault of this movie, which she watched in the car on the way here.

We even created a special set that contained a message for Daddy, who left on the high seas Wednesday.

The next few days will be very exciting. We have a birthday party tomorrow at Chuck E. Cheese (another first for E) and of course Easter is Sunday. Look out for more pictures.

You can view more of the Easter egg eggcitement here.

A Who-wonderful day

2008-03-14T22:09:00.001-04:00

Went to see Horton Hears a Who today. I was fishing around the internet for images for the scrapbook and found this fun widget on the official site. More to come soon!

march of the tools, bamboo fun

2008-03-11T11:18:00.001-04:00

bamboo fun
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

I had been dying to get one of these for some months now. I've been planning a trip to the doctor about my wrist pain. My typing, mousing, and preferred position of rest at the computer was a bad combination for my hands. I could feel the carpal tunnel coming at me, full speed ahead.

So, I had started wearing a wrist brace at night, which helped a little. But ultimately, I wanted to broaden my horizons both artistically and digitally. So the husband bought me one of these for our anniversary (which was January) in February.

I love it! I was so concerned the programs wouldn't fit on my smally computer, but they did. It came with photoshop elements 5, which I didn't have before. I had used photoshop before, it was my first love. I used to be the bomb at creating funky wallpapers for my high school friends. It takes me back.

Using the pen rocks. The tablet's active area is pressure sensitive, which means if I use a brush to paint with in photoshop I can get different stroke sizes, merely by applying more pressure to the nib. Sweet.

Somehow the rise on the edges of the tablet makes it appear really thick, but it is so thin and so light. I love how pretty it looks on my desk.

The tablet came with a talking tutorial (you know, anything that talks to you is fun) that walked me through the basics of pen tablets. The blue buttons on the pen itself are your selector and right clicker.

I have noticed a huge improvement in my wrist pain. Since I'm a lefty, I use my left hand to surf the internets now whereas before I used my right hand with a mouse. My right hand is relieved and my left hand is no worse than if I were writing.

If you wanna play along with March of the Tools, please do! Just click the banner in my sidebar. You can even join the Flickr.com group and upload all your pictures! Yay!

"living in a hole" - or why I hate this apartment

2008-03-10T15:52:00.003-04:00

Well well well. Here we are again, frustrated at yet another silly and random thing that could go wrong with out home. (I am using the term "home" very generously.)

I suppose I could have predicted that our lives as renters wouldn't be blissful all the time. I certainly didn't expect such terrible events to happen so soon in our life together as a family. We've been married only 4 years, and have only rented 2 apartments together. The first was wonderful in hindsight. At the time we lived in our first apartment we sort of hated it. Rather, there were things we disliked about it. I think that mostly stemmed from the fact that we were both used to living in a house. Then we made the big move. Our first move from one home to another, and with a baby.

We loved the apartment here. The neighborhood seems questionable, but I haven't really witnessed anything horrible. The playground leaves much to be desired. The only people who play on it are horny teenagers. There was an old mattress out there last week that some of the younger kids were jumping on. It made me tremble to imagine what might be inside that mattress.

Okay, so the apartment is nice for now. It was and always has been "nice for now." As in temporary. Mostly everything is temporary when you live a military lifestyle, so I had a silver lining - we wouldn't be living here long. At least we have tons of space. That's what I kept telling myself.

Then the disasters started happening.

First the unwanted smaller than mice creatures. The ones that everyone hates finding out they have. Yeah. I've been so embarrassed about my unlucky circumstance living with insects. Yucky insects. The day we moved in we found a dead bug on the kitchen floor. I took a picture.

Two days later, we hadn't even gotten our furniture yet, and an exterminator is knocking on our door...here to spray for cockroaches. Cockroaches? Seriously? I showed him the picture I took and he confirmed it was what it was. I read up on my rights as a renter after that, and as long as they are taking action to remedy the issue there is nothing I can do. Of course it's always grounds to break lease, but we have no where else to go, nor the money to get us anywhere else.

So we adapted to that. I don't see many cockroaches anymore. My neighbor upstairs finally got her act together and is having a private company come out and spray her filthy apartment every week. I think the bugs I see are running from her place. I mean I know they are. I'm so clean I could eat off my floor.

Within a week of living here my upstairs neighbor (again with this woman) over froze her AC (she had it set to 68 F) and my living room, hallway and guest closet flooded with water. The AC upstairs broke three more times before maintenance actually FIXED the problem. And they had professional carpet cleaners out here each time to extract water and clean the carpet.

The icing on the cake, after Joe's car was vandalized and my car was scratched from nose to tail, was the plumbing explosion of December.

Eleana and I were visiting the family 6 hours away from Thanksgiving to about December 10. We had a long trip back home, and were so exhausted. All we wanted to do was potty, unpack, eat and go to sleep.

Looking back I can't believe I never blogged about this. I guess I was too tired to think about it. Too stressed.

So, I turned on the bathroom light to find that some sort of brown liquid had spilled out onto my floor and on my mat. I lifted the toilet lid and the whole thing was full of mud, dirt, and a large amount of waste. I'd love to be able to say I vomited on the floor, but I managed to contain myself.

My first instinct was to scream and curse. The second was to check my bedroom bathroom for damage.

The same scene in there - filled poopy toilet, soiled bath mats, yucky floor. Pukish smell.

I called maintenance right away. They called a plumber. No representative from the apartments came that night at all. It was after 7pm. I took pictures before the plumber arrived. The office never offered to have a cleaning crew clean the bathrooms. I had to do that job myself. But not until the following day. There was no way E and I could have slept there overnight with that toxic crap everywhere, so we stayed in a hotel which my insurance eventually covered.

To top things off, our second day back, I went in my bedroom for literally the first time since returning...only to find my entire bedroom carpet soaked. Everything was stinky, even my clothes in my closet. The water had seeped into my room as well as half of Eleana's. So we had to wait for the carpet crew to come out again to clean our rooms. That night we had to stay in a hotel because the carpet crew never came to clean my floors. I waited until 10pm and nobody showed. The smell was overwhelming in our rooms, and the question of bacteria loomed heavy over my head. The insurance wouldn't cover a second night, and we had some financial issues to iron out...so Eleana and I were this close to sleeping in the car. Luckily we got into a hotel, and were able to get about 6 hours of sleep.

The following day I spent all my time directing workers where to go. I had dry cleaners here to take away EVERYTHING from our rooms that could be cleaned. I had the carpet cleaners, giant fans drying the floors, window repair men, and a maintenance man. See, while I was on vacation they replaced my windows (which was nice) except they installed 2 cracked windows which needed to be replaced. And in the process they rehung my blinds wrong, and they fell on top of my head when I tried to draw them up. So I was a busy bee.

For a couple weeks we lived with what we had packed for vacation as far as clothes go, which wasn't a lot. Eleana and I were coming straight back in about a week with Joe this time, so we left most of our clothes at my mom's. We had about 4 days of clothes with us. I sent all my blankets away, including the ones I had stored in the closets...so I had only an afghan to sleep with. Eleana had a set of sheets I was able to spare since her room wasn't as damaged as mine.

During all this I never got so much as a "we're sorry" from the apartment management team. I called to inform them of the issue and all they said was, "do you have renters insurance? Because they'll cover all that for you." They didn't offer a spare apartment for us to sleep in, they didn't offer cleaners to come clean up a mess that wasn't mine. They didn't even replace the carpets, just steamed them (which I'm told kills all the bacteria but who the hell knows?) They didn't cut me a deal on rent the next month even though I had to pay a deductible for all of this shit.

Oh and get this, you'll love this part. I have a friend who's brother was a certified plumber for most his life. He said it sounded like there were tree roots interfering with the plumbing. I told the plumber this, I told the apartments this, and got no word at all about what caused the issue.

When Joe, E and I returned home from Christmas vacation the tree that lived in front of our building had been removed. Gee, I wonder why.

Last Thursday our whole building lost power. Just in the living room, dining room, and kitchen. But not the side of the fridge. The power company informed me that there were no other outages in the area and we needed to call maintenance. She sent a man out anyway just in case.

the caution tape is taped to the temporary fix of the power. lovely.

TURNS OUT that over the summer when the apartment people installed new privacy fences out back they PUNCTURED the power line and it only just now shorted out.

There was a man outside with a drill chopping up my concrete patio to dig a hole today. I'm sure the electric people will be here within 24 hours to go spelunking. Insert emphatic eye roll here.

We're moving in June regardless. When our lease is up we are out of here. Joe will remain on the boat as a geo bachelor so he can focus on his career. Eleana and I will move 6 hours away in with my mom and grandma. Their health is declining and they need help keeping house and getting to doctor appointments. So it's a win win for us. Joe advances in his career, I help my mom and grandma, and we save some money on bills and rent to dig our way out of debt by the time we transfer in 2009.

June 08-June 09 is going to be a long and interesting year...but hopefully it will be filled with happier things.

March of the Tools

2008-03-06T00:18:00.004-05:00

The lovely and talented Heather Bailey has started a Flickr.com group and theme for the month of March - March of the Tools, and I'm so into this. I mean, how many tools do we each use every day without really taking time to appreciate the usefulness of the tools? So for March I'm going to focus some of my photography attention to the tools I use and love daily. You should, too!

To find out more about March of the Tools, click here. And for all you Flickr.com addicts (because I know there are tons of us out there!) you can join the March of the Tools group!

So ladies and gents, what's your favorite tool? Why do you love it so much?

A few of my favorites that I'm going to feature include my Bamboo Fun tablet and my Scotch ATG gun. It should be fun.

puppet theatre

2008-02-29T22:03:00.002-05:00

Bedtime here at Chez 3 P's has always been relatively smooth. Usually there are no tears what so ever, and usually there's slumber of the toddler kind within 30 minutes of us saying, "goodnight."

However, in addition to having to sleep with nearly every stuffed animal within arms reach, Eleana has developed a NEED to sleep with all three of her Nick Jr. friends Diego, Dora, and Boots. (Or as she refers to them - Deego, Do-wah, and Boost.) She also really enjoys playing with these three guys over the course of the day, which makes finding them at bedtime challenging sometimes.

It's sort of evolved into a game/show at bedtime in which one of us (daddy or myself) realizes Boots/Dora/Diego aren't in the bed yet. One of us goes to find the other dolls, and brings them back. However, we always sort of make them pop up over the edge of the bed while hiding below, so it looks like the dolls came to the bed of their own will.

Last night it was Daddy's turn to find Boots and Dora. In true Dora fashion, Daddy said the whole "hi, I'm Dora. Do you see my friend Boots? When you see Boots yell, BOOTS!" His impersonation of Dora was spot-on, complete with high pitched girly voice. Go Daddy.

Well, Boots would come and go, pop up at random and make Eleana giggle. Then, Daddy asked Eleana again (as Dora) "Did you see Boots?"

Without missing a beat Eleana replied, "Yeah, Daddy!"

He was so busted! We both could not contain our laughter, and all three of us eventually just burst into chuckles.

happy mail

2008-02-28T21:25:00.006-05:00

For about as long as I've been blogging here I've been obsessed with The Black Apple. Emily Martin's artwork is, in a word, gorgeous. I love her whimsical creations, and I can spend hours browsing through her etsy shop, adding items to my favorites list. Something about her work is so organic, and so fantastical.

I finally had enough extra change this month to order a couple of her prints. I admire her so much for keeping her prints relatively inexpensive, allowing all of us fans to have a piece of her magic.

I ordered my first love, She Came From the Earth (the half tree girly) and a new love, Circle Time. The "lovely" post card was thrown in for free (thanks!!) which I think will look nice in my bee-obsessed toddler's room. Circle Time will go so nicely with my other art print in my living room (blogged about here). I've decided on an earthy/nature theme for that room. She Came From the Earth will have a happy home in my studio/office, where she can inspire me most.

Everything came so beautifully packaged. The envelope was awesome, I've never seen such a cool document mailer before! The hedgie stamp was the cutest, so cute I had to photograph it. Hooray indeed!

Tomorrow we're running a few errands, including a stop at Michael's for some fabulous frames. I'm hoping to have my new art gracing the walls of our little apartment this weekend.

I have to thank Emily again for everything. I know she was busy this week with a big trip to a secret location, and am so grateful she found the time to get these to me. I still have a wish list of Black Apple must-haves about a mile long.

Now, if you haven't seen her work, go visit now. You will not regret it!

Mosaic Monday(tuesday)

2008-02-26T09:13:00.001-05:00

my toddler's obsessions
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

Created one with a little POP today...a day late. Technically I created it last night, but the mosaic maker fizzed out on me. Rawr.

These are Eleana's current obsessions: Yo Gabba Gabba (must. own. these. toys.), kitties, monkeys, bananas, balloons, hearts, Pikachu, chocolate chocolate chocolate, Elmo, trains (she has the dragon, too), and bees. Anything that flies is a bee. Thanks, Bee Movie.

A few of these treasures are also my own. Like chocolate. And kitties. And I secretly love Yo Gabba Gabba. Seriously, it rocks. What rocks more is the way Eleana says the names of the characters. Plex is "Cleck" and DJ Lance Rock sounds something like "Hee hay Nance ROCK!" Don't worry, she can say other things crystal clear. Like "hi Daddy" and "hi sweetheart." "Good morning" is a new favorite for her too.

Yo Gabba Gabba (so happy)

2008-02-26T01:01:00.003-05:00

This was taken a couple of days ago. I love this song so much I downloaded 2 songs by the Salteens yesterday. I have no idea why Eleana barks at the beginning of the video. And when she screams "no no no!" at me, she's protesting me sitting on the couch. No loafing around at E's pajama dance parties!

(I made this video long so I could get the whole song in there.)

One Year Ago...

2008-02-26T00:21:00.002-05:00

These moves still get me chuckling. I can't believe how fast this year has flown by. Stay tuned for some of Eleana's more current dance moves. Until then, enjoy!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

business-y days

2008-02-21T20:38:00.001-05:00

rocket in the sun
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

Lots going on here. We've been driving all over this county, trying to get Joe's car fixed up. New brakes, new rotors, new everything after it sat in long-term parking for 6 months. Stupid thing. We're driving to NC tomorrow to get new tags and registration for it.

Yesterday was one of the more boring days. E and I spent lots of our time waiting in the car...going stir crazy. Lots of screaming, lots of "I'm stuck!" coming from the back seat. I had serendipitously decided at the last minute to bring my camera, which occupied most of my time. I took some really silly pictures, and some that turned out pretty nice.

Eleana was a lucky girl yesterday. She got 3 new plushes (Darby and Buster from My Friends Tigger and Pooh, and Rocket from Little Einsteins) and a reservation for a new movie from Disney. She hugs Rocket a lot, that is when she's not throwing him on the floor.

Moments like these, moments of quiet calm, give me hope that the world can be a better place. I want the world to be something at which my daughter can marvel and take joy in. I want her to see beauty when she gazes out our window, always and forever.

Wish us a safe journey tomorrow.

proud fan

2008-02-20T15:04:00.001-05:00

showing off
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

Yes yes yes, Eleana (and secretly myself) is a HUGE fan of "Yo Gabba Gabba!". So much so that I scrapped a page about her fanness.

See, on the show, they ask you to make a funny face...sometimes. So Eleana makes that crazy funny face you can see in the page. I managed to get a shot of it one day, after many attempts, and KNEW I had to document it.

I used my bamboo fun pen tablet (thanks, husband!) to digitally doodle in the space around Eleana. I used some images from the show (my favorite being the ominous floating head of DJ Lance) and all the usual suspects in a page - paper, stamps, ink, buttons, ribbon.

This photo of E showcasing the page was very hard to snap. She kept turning it inward so she could see it and point to the buttons. She says to them, "hi, circle!" She's the bees knees.

We've been doing great over here. None of us are sick anymore, and this mama actually got a job doing what she loves best - scrapbooking! I'll be teaching classes at the local specialty store. SCORE!

the power of no, plus food riots

2008-02-07T11:54:00.000-05:00

The terrible twos are upon us here in Eleana Land. Some of these outbursts were expected. Who goes into parenting expecting to be passed by the terrible twos? My favorite form of Eleana's self assertion is the game in which she's told what something is, and she tells you it isn't.

The perfect example of this is when we work with puzzle flashcards. She puts the ant card together to see the picture of the ant. She knows this is an ant thanks to the ant episode of Wonder Pets. Usually, if she's playing nicely, she'll exclaim, "What's that? An ant!" If she's exercising free will, like she was a few days ago, she says, "What's that? A ladybug!" Of course my reply is, "Nice try. Try again. Isn't that an ant?" She quickly comes back and says, "No. A ladybug, ladybug, LADYBUG!"

She uses "no" a lot lately. If presented with a food she'd rather not eat, she shakes her head fiercely while repeating "no." When she role plays with her toys they often reply back to her, "no." As in, "Niqua, wanna play?...Nope."

She's presented unsavory foods quite often. In fact, if it isn't fruit or a tasty cracker with peanutbutter, she's pretty much not going to eat it. She won't even eat Dora shaped pasta. Yeah, we went that route. I ate the Dora chicken noodle because she wouldn't, and I have to say it was quite yummy. The foods sit on her plate until they beyond cold. She could sit in her chair for hours, happily not eating what we want her to. This is where vitamins come in to play. And milk. Thank goodness she still drinks milk.

I'm told this phase will pass...eventually she may even LOVE meat. Or at least beans...something with protein.

I am proud of her in other realms. If she sees a spoon she automatically asks for yogurt. "Yogur? Yeah, yogur!" Thankfully I've learned how to sneak veggies into muffins and mac and cheese, otherwise she'd get nothing green either.

The food war is a front I'm constantly fighting. I'm constantly battling with the husband about this. See, Josiah will eat pretty much anything. He likes meat, as do I. He likes veggies. So imagine trying to tell your husband he can't keep eating 2 applesauce cups per day instead of "adult" food because that leaves nothing for the child. He doesn't understand why he can't eat those things. His favorite beverage are Capri Sun roaring waters. Well my friends, fruit flavored water is the ONLY water my picky toddler will drink, and when he drains the last one until grocery day, which is 5 days away, what then? Yes, we could buy double of those things next trip to the store, but that would put more strain on our wallets...and having more doesn't mean more for everyone, it means more for Josiah.

Labeling the food might work. Or else I'll just have to hide those fun things from him. Luckily he hasn't developed a taste for Blues Clues yoplait kids yogurt or we'd be in big trouble.

Hands off my yogurt!

the sickies

2008-01-29T10:36:00.000-05:00

Well, it seems Eleana is experiencing her first full-blown cold/virus type thing since...ever. She has the whole gamut of symptoms, from runny nose to yucky cough. Her face is red from all the tissue rubbage, and her poor eyes even water from time to time (and occasional fever). We're visiting the doctor for a more conclusive diagnosis, even though "sickies" does sound the cutest.

This has all been very strange for me, considering E has really never been sick apart from a small case of the sniffles and allergy related emergencies. This makes me pretty much useless in the illness department. Not because I don't know how to react, on the contrary I'm right there with the tissues in her face and tylenol for the fever. Perhaps I overreact? I've been told by a certain male party that I have overreacted in the past couple days. Well excuse me if her eyes look TOO swolen or puffy with tears. Excuse me if she's so tired at night that she looks lethargic and I worry about the things most moms worry about.

If it weren't for the mucous in her cough I would suggest it's allergies. She looks like I do if I've gone without my medication for 2 days (2 days is my body's limit, you see, 2 days without zyrtec equals puffy stuffy Nichole). So, with the allergy aspect in mind, and tons of sneezing to boot, I gave little E a half dose of children's benadryl last night.

If the phrase "slept like a baby" were ever appropriate it would have been last night. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. In fact, a couple times the husband and I crept into her room to giggle at her snoring like an old man. She needed the rest. The past few nights she's been coughing in her sleep and waking up crying.

Eleana is such a trooper. She has managed to remain happy and full of energy in spite of her condition, running circles around me, singing and dancing. Wish us luck at the doctor today. Hopefully we'll be early enough not to get turned away this time.

Happy Anniversary

2008-01-24T09:02:00.000-05:00

...to the best husband in the world. 4 years of marriage doesn't seem like a lot, but you my dear have been making me laugh and keeping me happy for almost 8 years. I wouldn't take back any one of those years we've had together.

This last year of marriage has been especially trying for us. Our life together has changed so much this year. Eleana is constantly growing and changing, bringing us new joys every day. We bonded with our friends in Boston only to have to say goodbye, and we've both dealt with that in our own ways. The move to VA has been tough, but the silver lining is always that I have you to comfort me, you to spend my days with, you to tell me everything is going to be okay in the end.

reunited after a 2 1/2 month tour, that adoring look in his eyes is priceless

Did I mention that you're the best daddy in the world, too? That helps a lot. I can't imagine how much harder things would be without your good nature and unwavering affection for E. I pity the women in the world who don't know what this is like, and take comfort in the fact that you'll never willingly abandon us except for the call of duty.

Last night was amazing to me. In the same instant you made an awful joke that scared the crap out of me, but were there to keep me safe from imaginary terrors. I love that we can lay in bed for hours, laughing and talking like a couple of girls at a sleep over. Our "daycamp nights" are my favorite...a happy reminder of the bliss we share together.

So, here's to our 4 years of marriage, and to a happy 5th! I love you, Josiah. *kiss*

a little winter break

2007-12-20T16:24:00.001-05:00

snow!
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

Most of you know, who read this blog anymore, that I've had some serious plumbing issues here at the apartment. All of these things happened while I was on vacation, and I intend to blog about it eventually.

To take my mind off of the not-so-finer things in life I'm spending some much needed time cleaning and redecorating/organizing our little nest. I thought a blog entry with a cutie pie picture of Eleana would be much more appreciated than a blog entry about poop and mold.

I snapped this picture of Eleana on December 5. We were at my mom and grandma's then, visiting for an extended Thanksgiving vacation. The snow came and Eleana's face was lit up for a whole two days. Her favorite word that week was "snow."

This is one of the many shots I took of Eleana tromping through the snow. You can sorta tell by her face she had just almost fell over but caught herself. With no snow boots at our disposal, we layered up on clothes and tucked our pants into our socks.

I had to drag the poor dear inside kicking and screaming. She did not want to say goodbye to the snow. She could've played for hours, but without the proper attire I was worried her tootsies would get wet.

I also have a great video of her carrying on a conversation with my grandma, who was telling Eleana to come inside if she gets too cold. I'll post that later. I haven't even unpacked my camera yet.

Also, don't look for anymore updates for me until after the new year. Josiah is flying home tomorrow night at midnight, then Saturday morning we're driving back to WV to spend Christmas at home with the families. We haven't been home for Christmas since 2003. We haven't had a real Christmas together officially as a family since 2003 either. When Eleana was first born we had Christmas together in Bethesda, but that doesn't count because Joe was blind and we had no presents there. So this Christmas is a pretty big deal to us. We're going all out on the merriment and joy. Tonight I'll be downloading holiday tunes to my iPod and printing pictures to give as gifts to the fam. (because the plumbing issue, insurance included, still cost us a lot more than we could afford right now).

I love everyone who still reads this, and everyone who doesn't. I'm sorry for never blogging anymore, or commenting or whatever, but I'm just not in that place right now.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, etc! I hope you all get what you wanted this year, and are able to spend these happy chilly days with the ones you love.

"Saturday at the Play Place," or "How my Daughter got the World's Biggest Goose Egg on her Forehead"

2007-11-19T01:16:00.000-05:00

Rather than spend a whole paragraph (a real paragraph) apologizing for not blogging (I'm sorry), I'm just gonna skip right to this story. (Did you see how clever I was, sticking an apology in there even though I said I wouldn't?)

As I mentioned before, Joe was home all of 10 minutes before he had to ship out again for work related educations. During the 10 minutes he was home we managed to visit with our friends from MA, whom we haven't seen in like ages. Really it hasn't been that long...but it does seem like forever. The better half of this couple is known to the larger internets as Coffespaz. To me she's Krista, and to Eleana she's Aunt Crazy.

The Saturday before Joe left we drove to Richmond to visit with our friends and their friends, who are by association our friends (though I only just met the husband, who is nice. I think that means I can call him a friend). The third party friends have children as well, which was nice for Eleana. She really is a sort of shut-in for most of her time here at the apartment. She sees one friend regularly and even then it isn't as regularly as most kids see other kids their age. Anyway, this socialization was nice for E.

At first, Eleana spent her time on Aunt Crazy's lap, being silly while avoiding eating any food at lunch. She didn't recognize Krista at first, but as soon as she swished her hair around her face and squinted, a little light bulb appeared over E's head. "Hey! It's that crazy lady who used to tickle my face with her hair!"

After eating we all headed to the coolest mall in the world...well, way cooler than my mall...to let the kids expend energy at the play place. You know, one of those corrals cleverly disguised as a fun place for kids when really it's an excuse for parents to sit on their butts and take a break from being a personal clown for said kids. One of those. It was chock full of foam sculptures for the kids to climb on...and even more full of kids.

I mean there had to be at least 20 kids in that thing. And all of them were running circles around each other. Eleana found time to enchant three boys. One was way too old for her, one was too young, but the other was just right. The one who happened to be her age kept barking and growling at her though...so he wasn't necessarily the best pick. All three of these boys loved chasing E around the play area, and I daresay she enjoyed it as well. The youngest and last of the three she met was very fiesty for his age. He ran around the most out of all the kiddies there.

Eventually Eleana ended up running circles around one particular foam structure, the truck with the slide in the back. It just so happens that the third boyfriend was running around the truck at the same time. The following events were almost surreal...it was like watching something out of a cartoon. I had the urge to shout, "No! Stop!" or "Slow down!" but it all happened so very fast.

Eleana and the little boy were running at full speed around the truck, toward each other. They were rounding the same corner, and couldn't see one another. They collided forehead to forehead, and bounced back as if they were stunt babies with bungee cords pulling them back from the waist. Both tots landed on their bottoms and immediately began to cry.

I rushed to Eleana, encouraged her to brush it off, not noticing the bump forming on her head. Her bangs covered it perfectly. Then, when the crying continued, I brushed her hair from her face and gasped dramatically. My voice went from saying, "It's okay, don't worry about it" to the boy's parents to "Oh my GOD Joe, come here, COME HERE!"

This was clearly Eleana's first bump on the noggin. You could tell from the panic in my voice. Her bump was huge. It was purply-black and it obviously hurt. We got ice from a vendor in the food court, which E wanted to eat more than have placed on her head. We held her and comforted her for a few minutes and then we smelled it. A big poopie.

Funny how poop makes everything better. We made a trip to the family restroom...which was actually more fun than most. This family restroom even had a kid-sized toilet and sink. We changed E, who wasn't poopie at all...just gassy. Then she washed her own hands in the child's sink and that really took all her frustrations away.

The bump remained on her head for the rest of the evening, but the tears stopped as soon as we got done washing our hands.

The rest of the night was awesome. The husbands took the kids with them so us ladies could wander around the mall distraction free. I bought some much-needed facial cleanser from The Body Shop, and we had festive coffees from Starbucks. Best of all, we had good conversation and good laughs. We really should try to make the effort to spend time with our friends more often...even if they do live 15 hours away.

(Sorry no pictures. There will be some soon.)

mosaic monday

2007-11-12T15:38:00.001-05:00

scrap happy faves
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

Okay, I know this isn't exactly a real post. Things have been so busy here lately, for real this time not for fake. Usually when I say I've been busy it's just an excuse for why I haven't blogged, why I haven't emailed, why I haven't done anything on the computer at all. But, I like my real life...and my real life has to come first. If I didn't have a real life there'd be no reason for me to blog in the first place. But I have been slacking off in the blogging dept. and for that I apologize.

Joe came home last Friday (the 2nd) and made our life a happy whirlwind of activity and fun. We took E to see Sesame Street Live (look for pictures of that soon, I promise), and spent time with some friends. We also got to see our friends John and Krista from MA, who came for a visit while John is attending school nearby for work.

After a week of pure bliss and relaxation, we had to say goodbye to Daddy again. Now he's gone, and I feel so conflicted. I'm not happy he's gone at all. I cried from the moment I turned away from him inside the airport to two hours later when he called me from another airport, waiting for a connecting flight. But I do feel a sort of release now, inside me. Like, now I can get back to being a neat freak and give more of my attention to the apartment. When Joe is here, I lose all sense of tidyness. I don't want to clean because that's time I could be spending with my hubby...who more than likely will not be home for any long period of time. But I hate it...I hate how messy the place gets. It messes me up in the head...makes me restless and irritable. So when he's gone I clean. I spend most my time playing with E, cleaning, and scrapping.

So, after a week of no scrapping, and a new and fun scrapbook kit coming to me in the mail (hopefully tomorrow) I'll finally have some guilt-free time alone at my desk with all the memories we made this week.

This mosaic is made up of some of my favorite scrapbooking layouts from other members of Flickr. These are the layouts I stare at and drool over, trying to draw inspiration from them. Maybe they'll inspire you, too.

More to come...details about Daddy's return, seeing Elmo and Cookie live, and learning new words (E, not me).

true friend test

2007-11-08T17:34:00.000-05:00

Feeling lucky? Think you know me? Test your wits!!!

Create your own Friend Test here

pink for October

2007-10-14T21:37:00.001-04:00

Yeah, okay, so I'm getting a late start on this. October is halfway over, but I still thought this was a fun and easy way to participate in breast cancer awareness. Every bit helps. Last year I did the clicks on the website, this year something a little more drastic - a remodel! If you'd like to participate it's never too late. Grab a button, register your site and change your view to rose-colored!

Breast cancer has touched my family, as I'm sure it has touched many, if not most. My great aunt had breast cancer and a mastectomy. I myself had a breast cancer scare at the ripe old age of 21. I had a lump in my right breast that was 2cm (which doesn't sound big, but it was). To be safe, my doctor suggested surgery to have the mass removed and tested, as it was solid as opposed to liquid. The lump was nothing, just a little fibroid cyst. I had actually remembered having it since I was about 14-years-old. It scared me, the fact that it was still hanging around. And as I grew into an adult I read magazines other than Seventeen, and learned of self breast examinations and the signs to look for. I knew 21 was very young for breast cancer, however women are beginning to get it at younger ages. Better safe than sorry.

That surgery was my first serious surgery. It scared the dickens out of me. The days after were the worst. Knowing there was nothing wrong with me was fine, but I felt so scarred and ugly. I had stitches, and steri stitches (tapey looking things) on top of that. My right breast was my favorite breast, the pretty breast. Know what I mean? Tons of issues were swirling around in my head. Will I still be able to breast feed when I have children? Will the scar fade over time? Will it heal by the time I get married? The first time I showered, first time I saw the stitches, I puked all over the bathroom and slept for 24 hours afterward. I had to carry a bookbag on wheels to all my classes for months during the healing process, and couldn't reach for anything or bend over.

I always felt, still feel so very lucky that it was nothing. However, the experience put me in the shoes of those who weren't so lucky...if only for a short period of time. I know how horrifying it can be. How all those questions can haunt you. Questions of health, life-span, having a future. Hopefully the actions we're taking as women, and husbands/sons/fathers will make a difference (however big or small) in the research and development of a cure for cancer.

My scar has not faded completely, and I sort of hope it doesn't. It's a constant reminder to me of the pain I went through, and of the pain so many other women go through.

ho-hum, language update

2007-10-13T10:18:00.000-04:00

So, I obviously sort of flaked out/missed out on the great nursing fest. Woopsie. My heart was in it...but I couldn't find the pictures I have of me nursing Eleana. And this week has been nothing but one maintenence snafoo after another. A true nightmare, to be sure.

Our carpets were swamped again due to frozen AC pipes (upstairs neighbor, again), so I had the fan and industrial power dehumidifier here for two days. Then electricians came to update our outlets and switches to bring us up to code. We've lived here since June, evidently not in code standards. Lovely. And now, today, I'm waiting for the plumber to come clean my pipes (heh heh). My upstairs neighbor (again) has a washer/dryer unit that hooks up to the sink. My sink has always filled with water when she runs her laundry, however now that she's had her unit repaired it runs 10times better, and now my sink fills almost full of water and bubbles. Heck, I could do laundry in my sink! I mean this puppy is bubbling with water, like a bubble volcano if you will. So I'm due for a pipe cleaning evidently, and if that doesn't work it's bye bye washer/dryer. Sorry folks, I can't be washing veggies in laundry detergent!

I've been homebound all week, mostly because we were so close to payday that we had sort of, you know, ran out of money. And also because every 10 minutes a maintenence guy of some sort was knocking on my door.

I bought groceries yesterday, however. Full fridge=full hearts (and tummies.) It was during our grocery excursion that Eleana displayed her knowledge of the rainbow. See, Mommy (me) had Starbucks yesterday for the first time in months. Mommy thinks she has IBS (TMI?), so the coffee did NOTHING but upset Mommy's tummy. Mommy therefore had to drag toddler twice to the bathroom in a rush, spending more time on the toilet than shopping. Thank goodness Eleana was very well-behaved and preoccupied with her Minnie book (a birthday gift from aunt Sonya). I had her point to the colors, point to the characters, and sing her alphabet...anything to buy me more time.

At one point she was telling me the stall was blue. Very good! Usually she'll point to everything else around her while repeating the same color over and over. This time, after she said blue, she looked down in her lap and said quietly to herself as if reminding herself, "purple, red, green, yellow!" (sounding more like "puhpah, wed, geen, lellah!") At first I had one of those WTF moments...but halfway through it hit me and I said, right there on the toilet very loudly, "OMG you said 'purple, red, green, yellow!' Good girl! Yay!"

It's no secret that I worry about Eleana's language development, perhaps obsessively. It's strangely disheartening to encounter 18-month-olds who can speak better than my 25-month-old. I know that her language will be taking off this year (and it is) but I still worry. She still slips into her own language more often than not, and speaks in very limited sentences. We are working constantly on this, however...and she is making improvements. Just the other day she said a whole sentence, the first half being, "Mama, I gotta go to" and the rest was jibberish. She asks, "who is it?" when she knocks on the door, or when someone else knocks. That's a start I guess...however she still whines and cries when she wants something rather than "using her words." More milk? I get a scream. Cracker from the jar? A pointed finger and a whine. Any suggestions on things I can do to help improve Eleana's communication?

The ultimate goal this month? Clean up this joint to be in tip top shape for when hubs returns. Gosh we miss him so very much. Eleana spoke to him recently on the phone (as did I, duh) and it nearly broke my heart. Her eyes lit up when she heard her daddy's voice, and she immediately said his name. He asked her if she's been a good girl for Mommy, to which I replied under my breath, "no." Eleana heard me and sad "no" to Joe while simultaneously shaking her head "yes." She's almost got the lying thing down...just needs to reverse the actions! LOL

Oh we cannot wait to pick him up! We still have quite some time to wait, but that day is fastly approaching. I've lost 4 pounds since last Thursday, which means I only have 6 to go before Joe gets home. My weight-loss goal was/is to lose 10 pounds by the time we pick him up at the pier. I've been taking yoga twice a week in addition to working out every day. Yoga is awesome. On my yoga days (thursday and friday) I get so much done, and feel so...GREAT. I loooooove it!!!

breast is best

2007-10-01T23:13:00.000-04:00

Most of you blogging moms out there are well aware of the mess between breastfeeding advocates/supporters and Facebook. I am appalled, as many of you are, that the site deemed pictures of breastfeeding mothers as inappropriate...especially in light of all the other kinds of inappropriate photos being flashed around on Facebook.

I'm pretty sure that most of the members of Facebook are over the age of 16, and in fact, as Facebook started out as a tool to connect fellow collegiate students, was probably intended for those of us over the age of 18. Most 18-year-old adults I know don't have a problem seeing a woman nurse her child. Most 18-year-old adults can witness this beautiful act of nourishment without giggling or squealing, "Ew, gross!"

So why all the stink? Who knows. A lot has been circulating around the internets about this. See Mrs. C or any other outstanding mom blogs for wonderful and insightful conversations about this upsetting topic.

Want to do something about it? Great! You can go here: The League of Maternal Justice! There you can grab buttons to post on your blog, join the Great Virtual Breast Fest, and find out even more information about the controversy.

As for me, I cannot quit my facebook account (otherwise my virtual relationship with BFF Brandie would cease to exist). However, as a proud former breastfeeding mother, surviving the trenches of nursing in the toilet at various establishments, or under a large blanket in the corner of the darkest booth at the Cheesecake Factory, I plan on participating in the Great Virtual Breast Fest on October 10, at 10am. So if you eager to see a picture of me nursing Eleana, check back then! Oh and I'm putting one of these up, you should too!:

Until 10/10 @ 10 am!

goals

2007-09-26T23:31:00.001-04:00

A while back Elsie (of Love, Elsie scrapbooking products and blog) posted a neat challenge, which she actually got from here. She took the original idea and challenged us all to scrap a page based on that idea. For me it would be 25 goals to accomplish before I turn 26. Pretty nifty, eh?

While I plan on putting this in a scrapbook, I decided to go ahead and post my list of goals here for starters. Enjoy!

1. Lose at least 20 pounds

2. Pay off some debt

3. Open a savings account

4. Go to Colonial Williamsburg

5. Spend a weekend thrifting

6. See Brandie at least twice!

7. Go to Tamarack

8. Go to the Living Museum

9. Try a new haircut

10. Get a pedicure

11. Make my own throw pillows

12. Have a mother/daughter photoshoot with Eleana (after I lose some weight)

13. Make homemade lasagne

14. Scrapbook regularly

15. Start yoga (again)

16. Visit Massachusetts!

17. Create a plushie for E

18. Submit a layout to a magazine for publication

19. Teach something to someone

20. Read 10 books

21. Try a new food

22. Go to a state festival

23. Draw more often

24. Practice tarot more

25. Relax!

...and one extra: try not to use "so" as often in my writing!!!

What are YOUR goals??

honored!

2007-09-21T16:13:00.000-04:00

I just realized I haven't yet thanked Krista officially for awarding me with her very own Rockin' Girl Blogger award! WOOP! Thanks Krista!

I'm so sure that the only reason I got this is because we're friends...as I have never received any sort of blogging award. But this doesn't phase me at all! It still pumps me up to know that someone thinks I'm special.

So, within a week or so I will be passing the award along to other gals down the chain. Hopefull soon we'll all have a Rockin' Girl Blogger badge on our blog!

name game

2007-09-21T15:17:00.000-04:00

Something fun for now, more posty goodness soon. E and I arrived home safely from our visit, and are spending this weekend unpacking and resettling into our routine. I think she and I are battling a small cold as well - tons of congestion and gurgling going on here.

Okay, so I found this at One Good Bumblebee and had to do it myself!

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) - Ebony Forester

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) -Mint Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodle

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) - N Pen

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) -Green Owl

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) - Lee Columbus

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) -Penni

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) -The Pink Game Fuel

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) -Donald Arnold

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy) -
Poison Nerds (this makes a better band name I think!)

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) - Lee Lay (I used my grandma's middle name for my last, because I don't know my father's)

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) -Fisher Franklin

12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) -Spring Lilac

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) -Melon Panty

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) -Granola Yew

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) -The Scrapbook Sky Tour (sweet. If I ever have my own scrapbook store I am totally naming it this, with the 'tour' and everything.)

So those are my names...what are yours? Do this and link here to let me know you did so I can check em out (Sharon)! heh heh.

mosaic monday

2007-09-17T22:54:00.001-04:00

aqua favorites
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

These photos with hints of black and aqua popped out at me from amongst my favorite flickr pics...and I had to make a mosaic.

I love the idea in number 3: hang your favorite earrings from a twig! 5 is my favorite number, so I love the photo of the handcrafted necklace and the flash card. The tea pots in 10 are so romantic...they give me dreams of sipping exotic tea at sunrise on my porch (if I had a porch). A couple of birds in this one...birds are a huge part of my fantasies lately. I discovered quite recently the artist whose work is featured in number 13...her work is delicious! And number 16 is so self-explanatory: new iPod nano = desire.

Hoping you like these photos and they inspire you to make your own mosaics...or at least get lost among the awesome flickr photos out there!

Wild and Wonderful

2007-09-14T15:47:00.000-04:00

Greetings people! I bring you this post from deep in the mountains of West Virginia, which is a whole different state from Virginia!

Eleana and I are chillaxing at Nana and Granny's for a while. We're coming to the end of our lovely mini vacation here and I just thought I'd post a little summin summin for the 3 of you who still read this.

Being home with my family and Josiah's family is SO bittersweet. Josiah is under way for a considerable amount of time, and being surrounded by all our awesome memories from when we dated is devastating. There were some icky memories too, but most of them are fabulous, and I find myself smiling a lot more often than usual every corner I turn It just sucks not being able to turn to him and say, "remember when we parked at the end of that road and talked for hours while listening to the same CD over and over again?"

So far Eleana has enjoyed her time with her extended family. She gets bored with the other babies who are 1 year younger or more. She's over baby toys and decides usually that she'd much rather run through the garden outside or jump the fence to moo at the cows. Which is fine with me.

Nana and Granny (my mom and grandma) love having Eleana in the house, and are surprisingly great with her. Not that they're incapable of babysitting...it's only that their health isn't as great as it once was and Eleana is 2 and a whole lotta work to keep up with. Eleana is learning new phrases and dances from my mom and grandma. The other day I found her jumping up and down on my mom's bed, brandishing Mom's magnifying glass while shouting, "Shoot you! Shoot you!" (my mom says, "shoot you!" to the dogs when she's mad at them.)

"I seeeeee youuuuu!"

"Where were you on the night of September 13, 2007?"

Of course, I cannot ever resist the urge to play with a magnifying glass myself, so I joined the fun and speculation.

"Where were YOU when you got that spaghetti stain on your shirt? Hmmm?!"

We still have much to do while here in the country before we head back to our busy little suburb in VA. Eleana's cousin's first birthday party is tomorrow afternoon. It is a princess party, and we were told to dress accordingly. I left my big girl tutu at home, but Eleana will be a ballerina princess of sorts for the event. Of course we won't out-dress the birthday girl. I can't wait to see all the wee babes in their attire!

Nana has been so sweet to Eleana and myself, induldging our every whim. Eleana has gotten many gifts for her birthday (since family from neither side could attend in August), and I got a new toaster. More to come, I'm sure. Until then I'll be enjoying a good book and a tall glass of iced tea...while wearing my new reading glasses!

Why?! WHYEEEEEE??!!!!

2007-09-14T15:42:00.000-04:00

God KNOWS I don't need another thingy from the people at iPod, but LOOK AT IT. It's gorgeous. And aqua. and I want it. Not to mention the touch version, and the iPhone. The more I look the more I need it. I'm totally blaming this on my nature both as a Taurus and as a consumer living in America. I cannot even DREAM of being able to afford this, especially since Joe and I JUST got matching nanos...his is silver and mine is the loooovely candy apple green.

But I still want it.

So. Bad.

That's TWO to you!

2007-08-27T13:28:00.000-04:00

Happy birthday to my dearest Eleana!

Notice the extra oomph on her hat? That's right, the birthday girl got a pink pompom on the top of her cone, along with some glitter and a badge that says, "It's my birthday!"

Yes folks, my little sunshine girl celebrated this awesome turn of age on Friday, August 17. We ice-creamed, we played, we danced, we ripped open many a gift. We had a small bash here at the apartment on Saturday the 18th, which a handful of neighborhood kids attended (by handful I mean my neighbor from upstairs + her kids, and my neighbor down the street + her darling little girl).

"Hey wow guys! This cake doesn't cause me to blow up like a balloon! Sweet."

We passed the time listening to music from The Backyardigans, playing with Spongebob themed hats and balloons, and coloring in a giant Spongebob coloring book. I'm hoping you noticed the general theme by now: Spongebob.

"Yeah! I love this song!"

Yes, folks it is true! Eleana has shaped up to be quite the Squarepants enthusiast! She gets this from her daddy, of course. He loves Spongebob and all things spongey, so it's only natural that Eleana would latch on to it, being that it is practically the only animated program we watch here after 4PM. Eleana sings the song, as most of you already know, and recognizes Spongebob wherever we go. "Bah-BOB!" she shouts, as if she's spotted Angelina Jolie and her rock solid boy toy Brad. "Bah-Bob" is everywhere these days: on balls, on frisbees, dishes, bookbags, teeshirts, shoes, socks, wallpaper. Why I'm even guessing there is a paint color called "Spongebob Yellow."

The "Bah-Bob" party pleased my little Eleana. She enjoyed her banner, especially enjoyed the hats. But I think the thing she loved most was the company. The other kids were a little older (a couple were 4 and 5) so mostly all they cared about was playing with my daughter's new toys. Eleana didn't care. She just loved having people around her, in her domain, sharing her space and energy.

Our shopping day extravaganzaa began at the party supply store on Friday, where we purchased the balloons, hats, banner, and a few other staples. Then we headed to the best place in the world to a child (other than Disney World): Toys R Us. Man OH man did we have a blast.

Eleana is two now, which means she has all kinds of new freedoms. Turning two is like turning 18 for toddlers. Now Eleana is one step closer to the toys that are marked "3+." She is full-on playing with toys marked "2+" and way over her old "18m+" toys. She laughs at the "18m+" toys!

This new toy freedom gave us parents an oppurtunity to shop in more than one aisle. You know that aisle, the baby aisle, fraught with Fisher Price and Little Leap Frog things. There is absolutely no need to purchase any new items from those companies anymore. I mean, Little People are still a big hit for Eleana. After all, she's just getting the hang of pretending with them. Before she used to just carry them from room to room and that was that. Now she's making the mommy Little Person sit on the couch in her beautifully pink house, while the baby sleeps in its crib crying, "mama mama." Other Little People are visiting the pink house, knocking on the door even. I can hear Eleana in her room soemtimes, tapping on the LP yellow door saying, "nah nah!...hewwwoooo!"

But there are new toy frontiers to be explored now. We've hit Mickey Mouse fandom. Indeed Mickey is Spongebob's biggest competition. "Blue's Clues" is still a hit with E also. Our choices were endless, our pockets were shallow. Finding out that Geoffrey's Birthday Club is free was such a sweet bonus to our already awesome day. Eleana had already had her enthusiasm bolstered by her birthday shirt and lollipop. Did she really need a free crown and balloon? YES! ABSOLUTELY! She wore the crown with pride the rest of the day Friday, and everywhere we went folks were saying "happy birthday" and "awww, how cute!"

At age 2, Eleana can say so many new words, including but not exclusive to:

Color

Crayon

Please

Help

Hey, you

Hello

Bye

Dance

Sing

Kitty

Cat

Treasure

Girl

Boy

Pirate

Aaaarrrrg!

Play

Clean

Cow

Duck

"Quack quack!"

numbers 1-4, and sometimes up to 10 depending on her mood

A, B, and C

Spongebob

Ball

Car

Tree

Sun

Baby

Lift

Step

Down

Yummy

Eat

Juice

Cup

Potty

Bird

Flower

"tweet tweet!"

She's starting to say phrases, including "hey, you" and "here, kitty kitty kitty kitty." She says, "I gotta go" when she's done eating or just generally done with the situation at hand.

Favorite activities include:

dancing and singing

coloring

painting

playing with Sable

hiding in her tent (with Sable)

Favorite foods:
chicken nuggets
ketchup
macaroni and cheese
applesauce
crackers of any kind

Eleana gives hugs frequently, and gives kisses even moreso. She hugs Sable all the time, which is really more like her leaning into her tummy and saying "awww." She says "awww" to anything she thinks is cute. She pets her stuffed animals. She hugs and kisses them. She makes her stuffed animals and figures kiss each other. It warms my heart to see her expressing such a profound emotion with the intention that everyone receive love. She is the little person in my life that makes my heart swell and makes me happy to be a citizen of this planet.

Happy birthday my darling. May all the birthdays ahead of you be just a joyous!

mosaic monday 8/20/07

2007-08-20T16:24:00.001-04:00

that's entertainment
Originally uploaded by soleclaw23.

It's time for Mosaic Monday again! If there's one thing I am always going to be a fan of, it's browsing through the hundreds of thousands of photos on flickr.com. I love the simple fact of marking one as a favorite. Here are some of my more recent favorites. I went with an entertainment theme this time, leaning toward video game fun.

Eleana's birthday was Friday, look for a post on that tonight or tomorrow.

<3

Very-very magic stick

2007-08-07T12:13:00.000-04:00

Wow, hey! It's the 200th post here at E and Me, formerly known as just "soleclaw" (how lame was that? Why didn't anyone tell me, "hey, your blog name is sorta lame," huh? I mean, seriously.)

I got a lame-o spam email from somebody who's name resembles what the tasmanian devils say according to Warner Bros (which is something like this: afhiofm;i1!$$%^*hjke;famr!!!), and the subject was "very-very magic stick." I'm a fan of magic of all varieties, and sticks are cool. A magic stick could be a wand I suppose, and I just thought it'd be cool to make the phrase "magic stick" my new way of stating something is cool. And if something is super cool it would be "very-very magic stick." Totally. And the hyphen is the most important thing of the whole phrase, by the by.

Oh my GOD I didn't plan on this post to be a random rambling about some new phrase, I swear. So I'll just say that in honor of this being my 200th post I'm going to do the quiz/survey thing my pal Coffespaz did on her blog. Enjoy.

Use one word to respond to the following:

Yourself: frustrated

Your Partner: carefree

Your Hair: desperate

Your Mother: angel

Your Father: fiction

Your Favorite Item: scrapbook

Your Dream Last Night: long

Your Favorite Drink: coffee

Your Dream Car: hybrid

Your Dream Home: historic

The Room You Are In: quaint

Your Fear: unhappiness

Where You Want To Be In Ten Years: established

Who You Hung Out With Last Night: family

You’re Not: satisfied

One of Your Wish List Items: camera

The Last Thing You Did: eat

You Are Wearing: sweats

Your Favorite Weather: mild

Your Favorite Book: emotional

Last Thing You Ate: toast

Your Life: bliss

Your Mood: content

Your Best Friend: wonderful

What Are You Thinking About Right Now: laundry

Your Car: everlast

What Are You Doing At The Moment: meandering

Relationship Status: wed

What Is On Your TV: Nickelodeon

What Is The Weather Like: hot

When Is The Last Time You Laughed: morning

Hope you liked it...the responses are somewhat cryptic. And by being not satisfied, I mean not satisfied with my current station in life...financially. It has nothing to do with my husband or our fabulous relationship, I promise. I mostly added this last note just so Joe wouldn't read that and feel embarassed. Though now he's probably more embarassed. :)

As for me, I'm going to celebrate my 200th post tonight with a glass of wine, scrapbooking and good tunes from my iPod. (Yes, Joe has duty again tonight...so it's a girl party for me!) And check the art blog for my newest work. Should be up momentarily.

Catching Up with B, and HP fabulousness

2007-08-04T16:33:00.000-04:00

Apologies, dear readers, for being so absent. Between visits with dear friends, unpacking/reorganizing, adjusting to hubby being home, and visits with family, I have rarely enough time to clean out my email inbox, let alone read blogs.

Let me just say that "B and Me" week was fabulous. Brandie arrived here early early Thursday morning. We settled her into the guest room, and sat on the couch chattering senselessly and incoherently about anything and everything. We were fighting sleep simply because we hadn't had a night like that in years. Eventually we went to sleep, knowing we had a great, full weekend ahead of us.

Thursday was spent relaxing mostly. We made a relaxing trip to the comissary at Langley, which was cool for Brandie because she had never ever been on a military base before. I think she's decided she wants to snag a military man herself. Mostly for access to the best perk of military life ever: comissary grocery prices!

That afternoon she and I left E with Daddy for a couple of hours to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And it rocked. No disappointments here. There were a few miner discrepencies, as there always are with these sort of films. But it was wonderful. Joe still hasn't gone to see it, but I haven't seen Transformers either, so we're considering it even.

Friday was THE BIG NIGHT at Barnes and Noble. The Harry Potter fanaticism is awesome, and in my opinion so much more fun than that of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. There were people in costumes so accurate they could have snagged them from the actual movie sets of the films. There were loads of children, with parents who were as crazy about the books as their offspring. I saw lots of people re-reading "The Half-Blood Prince", trying to make the facts of the previous installment fresh in their mind for the ceremonial cracking open of "Deathly Hallows."

I had printed about 15 stickers featuring the face of Sirius Black (the movie character, not an illustration...Gary Oldman = YUM). Brandie and I each wore a sticker of Sirius over our hearts, and on our Hogwarts bags (the bag was the surprise gift I mentioned earlier). While in line to make a wand (mine has green glitter, Brandie's gold) some kids behind us commented about the stickers...thinking we had gotten them there. When they knew I made them, and brought spares, they went crazy. Mostly the younger ladies. All night I had kids asking me, "are you the lady with the Sirius stickers?" I haded my last 2 to a boy who was getting them for girls

Besides the wand we made (for free) we also made our own version of "The Monster Book of Monsters" and a golden snitch. The cafe sold butter beer, which we missed out on. We didn't know they had butter beer when we bought our drinks, and heard no announcement or advertisement. We should have assumed that when almost everyone in the store lined up for the cafe that something awesome was going on. We were most bummed about that, as Brandie and I have always fantasized about the taste of butter beer.

We each got a goodie bag also, with temp. tattoos, mini posters, and 2 pairs of HP glasses (one black, one glow). Brandie and I already had our own glasses, which I brought from my last HP book party...but the extra pairs are nice, and will look great in ye old scrapbook.

When midnight began rolling around, we had heard the buzz straight from the managers mouth that the books will be sold to customers in groups of 100, starting with wristbands 1-100, and so on. My wrist band was number 418, and I would be purchasing both our books so that Brandie could get the awesome member discount. Before midnight they called numbers 1-100 to line up. at 12:15 they called the second group, and by 12:45 we had our copies in our hands, and were squealing like little girls.

We began reading immediately upon arriving back at the apartment, and both of us looked forward to the last page of the book. See, I always read the last LINE of any book I pick up, and it was killing me not to this time. Brandie read the last line of the epilogue, while I read the last line of the actual novel. So, given the info we had skimmed from our respective pages, she assumed one person may be dead, while I assumed another. We only realized we weren't talking about the same person until later into our reading.

Joe felt tremendously left out, so on Saturday, on our way home from Busch Gardens Europe, he bought a copy of the book for himself, and ended up reading ahead of both Brandie and I. I was the last to finish. I finished on Tuesday of last week.

Brandie left, full of love and happiness, and leaving me sad yet hopeful that visits like this will occur much more now that we live closer than before. We're already talking about a tourist trip to DC. She drove there by accident on her way home from here, and having never been, thought a trip for us would be nice (I haven't been either.)

I'm still recovering from the fun of our visit together, trying to get things in order, and get into a nice routine with Joe home. Having him home after so long is trying on our rhythm. We're going to the gym together, and once he stops taking my car to work, E and I will be going twice a day.

That is really it for now. We had a birthday photo shoot at The Picture People yesterday for Eleana, and I'll post pics of that later. Also, expect my brief and scattered thoughts on the conclusion of the Harry Potter series.

B and Me

2007-07-07T22:16:00.000-04:00

A picture tells a thousand words. Among some obvious words, like "unicorn," "barbies" and "baseball" this photo also says, "friendship," "happiness," and "brace-face."

Yes, that is me on the left, the one with the bangs, oversized Nike teeshirt, and braces. Braces which I had for 4 years. In this photo I had only had them for about a year. The one on the right with the beautiful, huge smile and gorgeous big eyes is Brandie, my bestest pal in the whole world. In short, we've been friends for 17 years. Wow! For the whole story behind the friendship, you can read this blog I wrote when I first started blogging. The above photo is actually the photo I'm talking about in that blog entry. (And if you're dying for more info you can just search the word "brandie" in my blog's search bar.)

"B and Me" is what I'm unofficially naming the blog between July 18 and 23. (though I'm pretty sure I won't be blogging AT ALL on those days.) Why? Because my BFF (Brandie) from home is coming to visit me! Ah! This will be the first time we've seen each other in the flesh in 3 years, since I got married. Can you believe this?

So, other than "B and Me" I'd also name our awesome times together something like "Harry Potter fans Only, Please" or "HP ROCKS" or "Did we mention we like Harry?" This is because there are TONS of Harry Potter things going on this month, and Brandie and I happen to share our rabid love for all things Harry.

I have to stop here and just say that a friend of mine from WV has the awesomest tattoo ever. Well, she has a lot of great tattoos, but she just recently got a new one on her foot. It's black, gothic, lower case letters that spell "mischief managed." Eeeek! I practically hurled all over her foot it was that awesome. Yes, she's a fan, too...and she's going to a convention, a CONVENTION when the book is released.

Ok, so more on "B and Me" weekend. Well, as most everyone who is alive and breathing knows, the newest HP installment, Order of the Phoenix, is coming to theatres on the 11th. As much as I would love to see the film on opening night (as I have for every other film) I don't think that will be possible this time around. Mostly because we have no sitter, and I don't want to leave my handsome, HP geek husband at home with the baby. That would be selfish.

No, instead I'm waiting for Brandie to get here, so we can see the movie together...and leave my handsome, HP geek husband at home with the baby! HA! (That's what he gets for seeing Transformers without me this week.) The bonus is that I have a free movie ticket voucher for HP OotP!

Yeah, I bought the new HP game for the Wii (which I haven't played yet...I'm on my way as soon as I hit "publish"), and it came with a ticket! WOOP! So, one of us gets in for free! Or, we could each split the cost of the one ticket we have to buy, and each only pay $4. Either way, we're so pumped.

Now, I'm pretty sure Brandie hasn't played Wii yet, at all, ever. So, we're going to totally school her on Wii Sports, and maybe some Wii Play, before we cast spells with our Wii-motes in HP!

Here's a rundown of our awesomely awesome friendship Harry Potterness weekend:

Thursday, July 19: lunch, then awesome dinner with Brandie, followed by possible Coldstone Creamery and hours of Harry Potter movie-thon (in HD), and Wii gameplay-age.

Friday, July 20: more all day movie-thon, play with baby (whom aunt Brandie hasn't even met yet!) dinner out

8PM Friday: Harry Potter book release party at Barnes and Noble. Play games, wear silly clothes, buy Harry Potter junk (like toy snitches and fake tattoos) and pick up our copies of Deathly Hallows at midnight!!!!!!!!! EEEEEEKKK!!!!!!

Saturday, July 21, midnight - dawn: read new books, sip tea, and point passages out to one another while taking notes and wearing fake HP glasses.

Saturday, July 21, all day: Busch Gardens, for free (thank you thank you thank you herosalute.com!)

Sunday, July 22, all day-ish: Virginia Living Museum

She leaves on Monday to go home. Our free moments in between scheduled things will no doubt be spent playing with the baby, catching up on everything and just being us together again, at last. The only thing the weekend will be missing is a viewing of Grease, including assigned speaking and singing parts to all viewers.

Yes, I'm aware that these things are happening more than a week from now, but I'm just THAT excited. I mean, seriously. Never mind the fact that my husband is coming home within a few days. Psh, I see him all the time! ;) (You know I miss you honey!!! I can't wait to see you!)

Of course, when all is said and done, I will have taken tons of pictures of us in action. Look for those later, people. It'll be awesome.

I choose you!*

2007-06-27T13:45:00.000-04:00

*UPDATE! I added pictures of my shiny geodude at the bottom of this post! WOOP!

Warning! Extremely dorky post ahead. Turn back if you want to continue believing that I'm cool because this post will only prove my coolness among the 12-year-olds out there.

Check out my custom TRAINER CARD! AAAH! How much does this thing rock? Oh, well, I guess the nerds will think it rocks.

Now, my "real" trainer card within the game looks nothing like this. In fact, it's just plain blue. The card in the game changes colors according to what you've accomplished within the game. I've only accomplished 2 major events, hence I have a blue card. But the generator lets you pick from all sorts of choices. The card within the game is cool, because with the DS's touch capabilities you can actually sign the card with your stylus. Yeah people. It's sick. Also, as you earn badges they go in your badge case. Which you see on the touch screen and can "open" it up to see the badges, and even shine them up with the stylus. You can see a video of what this might look like here. The guy doesn't even actually shine them, he just plays a tune badly with them. I actually have found that once you get them to sparkle, they're in tune, so to speak. I have figured out how to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on my badges, too, but that's neither here nor there.

This card creator is totally awesome. It allows you to display your wi-fi code, trainer name, choose an avatar from about 100, customize your favorite 6 pokemon, AND display how many badges you've earned. Yeah folks, that's right. I got all 8 Sinnoh badges. Bow down!!! It's uber useful for forum use because it informs other pokefans of your level and your wi-fi code.

I'm such a sucker for any kind of image creating thingamajig.

And, I'm sure not many of you know what this means, but less than an hour ago I caught my first ever shiny pokemon. A shiny pokemon, in case you're wondering, is a pokemon of a different color. The one I caught is geodude, which normally appears to be a grayish brown color, like this:

It's known that within the pokemon games, ever since Pokemon Blue, there is the possibility of encountering a "shiny" pokemon, or a pokemon that is indeed a color other than it's usual color. SO, I'm playing the game today while eating a snack and lo and behold, a geodude pops up in the wild, except it is

YELLOW!!

It looks like a ball of earwax, or cheese. And since the term "shiny" caught on so well in the past, most recent game installations of Pokemon actually have the shinies shine when they appear. So, a blueish sparkley circle was around my yellow geodude when I saw it. And you better believe I caught it! It's really not unique except for the color, and extreme rarity of the situation. It's kind of like collecting Beanie Babies, and having one that has a factory error. It's just...neat!

This wasn't my first shiny encounter. When Joe hooked me on Pokemon less than 3 years ago, one of the FIRST pokemon I ever saw was shiny. But, being an amateur I had no idea what it meant that it sparkled when I saw it, and was a different color, so I killed it. Now I know better.

I named my yellow geodude (who is indeed female, so, geodudette) Gilda, like gold.

Laugh it up people. Go ahead.

Here she is, in all her shiny glory. I think the red star above her image signifies that she is shiny...because none of my other pokemon have red stars.

You can see in this image the difference between the normal color and shiny color. The hand is pointing to her icon within the box I have her stored in, but the summary image shows her as shiny. Pretty cool eh?

dialogue

2007-06-24T21:07:00.000-04:00

In an effort to prevent myself from sitting around playing Pokemon all day, I took the initiative to make a trip to the trash dumpster a mini vacation with E.

We had gone to a church barbeque with my neighbor upstairs on Wednesday and drove past some places I hadn't seen before. I made mental notes of them, and figure what better day to go check these places out?

First on the list was City Center at Oyster Point. Man is this place gorgeous. As soon as I made the turn onto this development's main road I knew it was going to be big, and decided we should park in the garage and go for a walk. We hadn't had lunch yet, so the walk had to be brief, but this doesnt' mean we won't return in the future.

City Center is a new open air mall, and most of it is still under construction. There were tons of stores I recognized right away, like Talbots, Coldwater Creek and J. Jill. Though I don't really shop at any of them, it was oddly comforting to be surrounded by stores that reminded me of the friends I had left behind in MA. Sharon and I, in our days as mall entrepreneurs, used to pop in at the nearby J. Jill when they had their customer appreciation days to nibble on cookies and drink soda. J. Jill has the best jewelry by the way.

In addition to shopping and restaurants, this place also has luxury apartments for rent and sale, as well as a couple of corporate buildings for banks, and even a really nice Marriott hotel. In the center of it all is a large man-maid pond, with about 6 fountains in the middle. E and I walked around the pond once, enjoying the cool breeze and spray of water.

I've been reminded a lot lately of my childhood and the wonderful times I spent with my mother as a child. A lot of the most exciting times for me took place during festivals and fairs, all of which were usually spent with my mom. I remember shopping a lot with my mom, and having the feeling that shopping is equal to purchasing. As we got out of the car today in the City Center garage, Eleana and I, I almost turned around to go back home, thinking how silly I must seem to be here but not buying anything. Then I realized that there needs to be no purpose at all in my actions for them to be meaningful to Eleana. She enjoys our walks, whether they are at the apartment or at a mall, and especially when they involve giant fountains. I took the time today to simply be, to enjoy the place we were and the company of my young daughter.

I often wonder if this is how every mother feels, and indeed how my mother felt on our multiple outings. For now, it feels very one-sided, because I can't really communicate fully with Eleana yet. My mom and I were together after I was 3, and therefore have always had the luxury of communication. This is why I write these things here.

While Eleana isn't full-on talking yet, we did have a very short but very meaningful conversation today. It seems a first of sorts, and I cried those happy mommy tears (silently so she wouldn't think something was wrong).

This evening, after dinner, Eleana ran under the dining room table and got on all 4s. She started giggling immediately and I looked to see what was going on. The cat was under the table, and Eleana just screamed at the top of her lungs, right at the cat. Sable, of course, freaked out. She ran away, and this made Eleana laugh even more. She crawled around, I'm assuming like a cat, and screamed and laughed some more. Sable hid behind a box, hoping to escape the toddler of terror, only to find Eleana sneaking around the back of the box. They chased eachother like this for about 15 minutes. Then Eleana ran to me and giggled at me.

I asked, "What are you doing?"

"Nuh-ing" she said.

"Nothing?" I asked, making sure I understood her correctly.

"Yeah,"she said, clear as day. She shrugged, then ran away to chase the cat some more.

I can't express how truly blissful my life is. There aren't enough words.

tag I'm it!

2007-06-21T23:33:00.000-04:00

So, I've actually been "it" since May. But with the move and such I haven't had time to blog let alone do a meme. So here goes! (Thanks Krista!)

The rules: Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog. (*I can't promise I'll be able to tag 7 people. In fact, I probably won't tag anyone, as I'm sure everyone has done this meme already...and if you haven't, participate please and tell me if you do!)

1. I freeze. Even here, in sunny Virginia, where the average temp. at night has been in the 80's, I must must must either wear a sweatshirt over my pants and teeshirt, or snuggle up with a blanket on the couch. I don't usually take the blanket or sweatshirt with me to bed, however.

2. I collect tea. Not special tea. Most of my collection consists of the Celestial Seasonings brand. I just have this urge within me to own every possible flavor of tea. When the movers were packing us up one of them said, "Ya'll drink a lot of tea, huh?" To complicate things, however, I really don't drink a lot of tea. Really, I probably only drink a couple of cups per month!

3. I love accessories. What kind? Any kind! I love accessories for my home. I love accessories for shoes, hair, anything. Any gadget that has an accessory has to be mine. For my iPod I have every color sock and a rubber case for it. I'm dying for a cell phone charm, but I want to make my own so bad that I'm resisting the urge to buy a shiny blingy hello kitty charm or something even cornier. These things ultimately are useless, and I know this in my heart of hearts. It doesn't change the fact that I want them. I also love accessories for my DS Lite. And if a video game is largely based on or includes accessorizing, whether it be your character's outfit or hair color, or desiging your own home or town, I have to have it. The new Pokemon games are NO exception. In addition to all the kinds of pokeballs you can use, this time around you can decorate your balls (giggle) with "seals" or stickers. Geek love!

4. I make romantic evening plans for myself. For instance, I imagine perhaps after dinner, after E is in bed, I'll finish that book I started reading last year, whilst sipping a hot cup of tea. But, invariably, I end up finding a program on TV I want to watch, or surfing the internets, or playing Pokemon. I'm a romantic at heart though.

5. I'm a nosey neighbor. If you drive by my window with your music blaring, bass pumping, you can probably see me peek out at you from behind my blinds. If you're talking really loudly in the hallway upon a late arrival home and I happen to be awake, I'm probably listening to you from behind my door. Joe hates this about me. I sometimes hate it too, but it's more of a reflex now than anything. I'm nosey because ultimately I have the safety of myself and my child in mind. Crazy? Probably.

6. I'm a hobby collector. Meaning, I collect hobbies. My mom always used to tell me it would be easy for me to pick a career because I excel at all sorts of things. Aparantly this just made me more indecisive. I'm really great with my hands and have awesome eye-hand coordination. I'm not bragging really, these are just facts. I'm great at all kinds of crafts, mostly because I follow directions well. I'd make a living as an artist if I could pick one medium, but I can't.

7. I like collecting things. Like hobbies, I collect other stuff, too. Now, because of my indecisive nature I don't have many large collections. I fancy myself a stamp collector, but in reality only have a few untouched sheets of stamps (more modern sets like that of Audrey Hepburn and the Disney stamps). I collect egg cups and yet only have 6. Also, if anything involves collection I'm totally for it. Myspace is a collection game in a way. I collect the friends there (though I will say that 98% of the friends I have at myspace are people I've known in real life). Also, video games that are based on collection are awesome. Like Pokemon (duh..."Gotta catch 'em all!") and Animal Crossing: Wild World's furniture collection, bug/fish collection, etc. I also collect the tears of children, and blood of all the pets I've ever owned. Oh my God I'm so just joking. You got that joke, right? Good. I'm not that crazy. I promise. Believe me? Good.

Ok....so, that's my 7 things about me...if you wanna do it, DO IT. Don't have a blog? Do it anyway and email it to your friends. Why not?