Pool Pics

I have taken only a few photos of the kids at the neighborhood pool this year. Time to remedy that. On Thursday, we headed to the pool and I brought my camera. I especially wanted to capture Jackson's amazing bravado as he jumps in the pool with wild abandon. AND he can "swim" by himself, using only with his water wings. I also wanted to capture Katie's skill and confidence in the water, and then I experimented with my shutter speed as I attempted to get some hair-throwing-water shots. Lastly, I was thrilled that my neighbor used my camera and captured a wonderful moment between Jackson and I in the tube. I am so happy to have these photos!

Crackhoes

One of my son's favorite things is a crackhoe. Yep, you read that right. Of course, he means "trackhoe." He just can't pronounce the "tr" blend very well, so it comes out as "crackhoe." (And I decided to spell it that way without a space between the K and the H so that anyone Googling the other meaning of the word doesn't get directed to this blog.)

When we are driving around town, he'll see heavy machinery and call it by name. It's either a crane, crackhoe or front end loader. And, yes, he gets the distinctions right. On Thursday, I drove up to the local heavy equipment rental store and asked the nice man there if I could let my son see their equipment. (Not THAT equipment, y'all! Sheesh!) The nice man said yes and let Jackson walk out to the lot and go crazy. He ran from machine to machine saying, "Wook at dat! Whass dat?!" over and over. At first, he was hesitant to climb the machines, but then he got braver and asked to sit in the seats. It was so adorably cute and I was truly overjoyed to see such happiness on his face.

I am so blessed that I get to do this type of fun stuff with my kids. And so lucky that the nice man at the rental store indulged my two-year-old like this.

Who Needs a Dining Room Anyway?

I've been busy with a new project this week. It's been brewing in my mind since I read this post by Jodie about her atelier. (I have NO IDEA what that fancy word really means, so I'm just gonna call it a craft room.) I decided I am tired of having one-fourth of our first floor living space blocked off because it's full of family heirlooms and breakables. And I was tired of all our craft supplies being stored in a jam-packed kitchen cabinet where we couldn't find anything at all.

Just the other night, Katie had homework to do and I told her to find a pencil in her craft cabinet. She opened it and a stack of papers fell out onto her, and I gave up. I went to Wal-Mart and just bought her a new pack of pencils instead of having to dig through the chaos to find one we already had.

It's time to change, y'all. Who needs a dining room anyway? It's silly to have that entire room gated off just so I can use it once a year IF we host a holiday dinner with my extended in-laws. So I boxed up all the silver and crystal and moved it to the basement. We moved the heirloom dining room chairs to the attic in favor of "trashable" folding chairs. Then I boxed up some other stuff I haven't used in years and donated it. (And, never fear, my friends and family. The awesome portrait of my brother has been moved to the upstairs hallway. It did NOT go into storage. Perish the thought!)

Here's what the room looked like before. I'm kind of embarrassed to show it to you because it looks so messy and junky. But, remember, this was my "safe room" (or my staging area, as my friend Michelle likes to call her dining room too), and I kept things on the table that I didn't want the kids to touch. And then I locked the door and reinforced the baby gate and kept everyone OUT. So... here are the before shots:

Wednesday was a half day of school for Katie. When Jackson went down for his nap, she and I set to work on boxing the heirlooms and clearing out space. We had to take a break at one point so I could explain to her why Grandmama was inside the china cabinet (her cremains, y'all... not "her"). That was a tear-jerker conversation to have with my six-year-old. A tear-jerker for me, not really her. The little girl inside me rebelled at the thought of having to explain loss and cremation to her, hearing, "It's not fair that my mom is gone!" inside my head. And it's also not fair that I have so many examples of death to compare - Steeley or Gran Boot's burials versus Uncle Jackson and Grandmama's cremations. Ugh. But it's a fact of my life, and, therefore, a fact of hers.

So... back to the craft room. We worked at it all day and finally got things moved into the room by my bedtime that night. There are still lots of details for us to tackle: spreading out the rug I bought, moving more craft supplies up from the basement, delivering the LARGE plexiglass that we bought for the dining room table, and assembling a cabinet to go between the windows (which will hold Mommy's craft supplies!). But the craft room is officially functional and ungated and open for little hands.

Jackson was the first to create in the newly-repurposed room. He painted on Thursday, and enjoyed himself immensely.

Maybe I'll show you some more photos once we've broken in the new room and I have everything hanging up, all the drawers labelled, the rug laid and the cabinet assembled. And one day? Oh, yes... I plan to get rid of that grape border and paint the darn room too. But that'll have to wait a bit. Too many other things on my plate! It has felt good to purge, so there are some other projects on the horizon too.

Going, Going...

My blog friend Janera tipped me off to something cool. You need to go check it out, because it only lasts for two days (until midnight Wednesday). And if you search really hard, you might even find something from me.

How's that for cryptic and uninformative? Go check the links, y'all. GO!!!

Macro Monday & My Excuses

Yes, I've been an absent blogger for a little bit. It's just been a crazy few weeks! My family reunion in North Carolina (aka my adrenaline rush weekend of Harley riding and skydiving), then Camp Grandma at my Aunt Lucy and Uncle John's in Virginia, then a weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks, then desperately trying to get the kids back on a normal schedule. Which brought us to this past weekend. It was full of parties: the birthday kind and the pool kind. Not to mention paying the piper finally at Weight Watchers (I did some damage the past few weeks), then a nice leisurely three hour training walk with my half-marathon team. (We did ELEVEN miles!) And to nourish my soul, I finally got to go back to home, I mean church. Which is like home to me. I had missed two weekends in a row, and was starving for it. I think that was evident by the virtual dam of tears that were unleashed by the final song, It Is Well with My Soul. Wow.

Now I have to admit one more lame excuse. The few times that I DID have the ability to blog, I chose not to. Is that rude of me or what? Well, I have a good reason. I was determined to catch up on my scrapbook. I hadn't finished 2008 and therefore wasn't even close to starting 2009. I am proud to say I finally finished 2008 and have cleared the way for 2009. I think that deserves a pat on the back!

So, enough of my ramblings - just be glad I'm not posting ALL the details I could!

Let's move on to today's Macro Monday post. I found this little fella last week hopping near our outdoor trash bin. I grabbed him and went to show Jackson, and he peed on my hand (the frog, not Jackson). After releasing him, washing my hands, and grabbing the camera, that's the photo I got. For the rest of the day, Jackson told everyone about the "proggy" he saw. (He has trouble pronouncing Fs. Today he told me, "I don't peel so good." That's the new phrase he uses to catch attention, and I'll admit it does grab my attention to hear my toddler say he doesn't feel good! Then I find out he's just playing me.)

Happy Macro Monday! I'm going to go relax on the couch while my body heals from the abuse it took yesterday. (176 laps on the indoor track. Ugh!)

Powerful Friends

Did I mention that our photo won the contest at Jodie's blog? The one I wrote about here, asking you all to go vote for us? Wow, do I have great friends or what?! At my last count, our photo had 92 votes. Most of the votes are from people I know, not random people who voted. You, my friends, are powerful. Thank you for that!

And, now, I have yet another request for you. A way to use your power to make a difference in someone's life... not just make me happy and help win contests. (Although, please know I'm not belittling that!) It's an easy request, really. Help if you can, don't if you can't.

I met Jamie through my mom's group. I haven't seen her in years, but she still keeps in touch with one of my friends. Turns out that Jamie is in a serious crisis. Last October, her youngest child (she has three) was diagnosed with leukemia. He is TWO. His body is being hammered with chemo, and he is susceptible to infection. Imagine trying to keep your kid away from germs when you have two others bringing them in the house. How do you even go grocery shopping with him? You can't let him touch the nasty carts. Imagine the stress of seeing your baby so sick and near death. Doesn't get much worse than that.

Oh, but it does. Jamie's a stay-at-home mom with no income of her own, caring for her youngest round-the-clock. AND she split from her husband amidst all this turmoil because she couldn't take his violent physical abuse anymore. He was arrested, and now he's withholding money from her and has cut off her utilities and health insurance. Simply put, she is struggling - to make ends meet, to raise a family on her own, to pay for a divorce lawyer, to even afford gas so she can get her two-year-old to his chemo treatments.

Ever since I heard about all this turmoil in their lives, I have been praying about how I can help them. Now this is where you come in. There's a group called Phoneraiser that will make donations to help this family when we collect ink printer cartridges and old cell phones. Do you have any old phones or cartridges you can send to me? If so, please PLEASE let me know and I'll make sure they go to help Jamie's family.

Maybe you can't help in that regard? Then how about forwarding this information to your friends, or posting about it on your own blog? Help me spread the word.

Thank you, friends. I know we can make a difference in this family's life.

UPDATE: Thanks to my great friends, who gave me their phones and ink cartridges. I donated 22 phones and 10 ink cartridges. Awesome!

Yearbook Yourself

Thanks to my sister in law, I spent at least an hour today at Yearbook Yourself. What a waste of time. And I never realized what an odd-shaped face I have until I tried to squeeze it into a round hole. The final results gave me a chuckle, and I thought I'd share them here. I did my photos first, then worked on Dan's and finally figured out how to manipulate them better. So I think Dan's turned out way better than mine. They're a hoot!

Oh, and Dan requested, "When you put those photos on your blog, say that they are NOT real." Notice he didn't say "If..." He knew exactly what I would be doing. So this is my disclaimer: NONE of these photos is real. I think we might have looked worse than this in our real yearbook photos!

Saying Goodbye

I had never met Jenn and Chris Hawn before today. And today is a day I wish could be erased from their lives.

About three weeks ago, I started reading their blog after hearing their story from my friend, Danielle. Their son, Ryan, died just three days ago. He was only six months old. Six months. At his funeral today, I met him for the first time. A hello and a goodbye in the same breath.

My heart aches for this family. It split right open when I saw Ryan in his casket, which reminded me of a cradle. He was nestled inside, peaceful and painless. I hoped that he would wake up and smile, because he looked like he could at any moment. I'm sure that in heaven, he's smiling despite all the sadness over his loss here. Hold him close, Jesus. And his family too.

Please keep the Hawns in your prayers. Their loss is tremendous, and so is ours.

Tonight's Dinner Conversation

Daddy to Katie: "What's that sticker on your shirt?"
Katie: "It's Troy Efron. I mean Zac Efron."
Daddy: "Where'd you get that sticker?"
Katie: "Someone gave it to me on the bus."
Daddy (in a gooey, syrupy voice): "Do you love him?"
Katie: "No. I just like him."
Daddy: "Do you think he's cute?"
Katie: "No. He's hot!"
(Dan and I both visibly shudder and our eyes flick to each other. She's never used the word "hot" like that!)
Daddy: "But Daddy is still the cutest ever."
Mommy: "Yes! Your daddy is the most handsome."
Katie: "No."
Daddy: "What?!!!"
Katie: "No! I mean, yes! Yes!" (Too late...)

And so, let the record show that today - July 30, 2009 - Dan has been knocked off his perch in little Katie's life. It's all downhill from here. Hooney, you'll always be the hottest in my book. Zac Effron is too shaggy anyway!

Vote for Us!

I need your help! Go to Jodie's blog here and help us win a great prize. Just leave a comment that you LOVE photo #7, and hopefully we'll win an album of all the photos from our Love Light session two weeks ago. Ask all your friends to go vote for us too.

Thank you!

Guess What I Did Yesterday?

I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane for the second time in my life. And THIS time I didn't crash land. Hallelujah!This is the after photo: me, my cousin Laura, my sister Mary and my brother-in-law Wally.

My aunt, another cousin and his girlfriend jumped on the first pass, and my group went on the second pass... even after my aunt's parachute had a malfunction. We STILL went. Crazy!!! This is how we do reunions in my family. What a blast! I'll recap my adventures after Katie and return from Camp Grandma.

Love Now

I started my day by watching this video this morning. It is inspiring! It makes me want to live fully and deeply and wildly. Note: You'll need to pause the music player on my blog sidebar before you watch this video.



Today, Katie and I are headed to my family reunion. Tomorrow would have been my grandmother's 95th birthday, so my family is celebrating together. I'll post details when I return!

Baptism Photos

I just got an email from my church with a link to all the photos that were taken on baptism day. I already posted a video here on my blog after that weekend, but these new photos just make my heart sing. How could I not post them for you?

This is the Before shot. The pastor was telling me to look around and acknowledge all the people there to witness this step in my faith journey. And I look pained, don't I? Uh... did I mention my fear of public scrutiny? That would explain the look on my face. My heart was flopping around in my chest, so my reflex was to shut out all those fears clamoring around. I ended up closing my eyes and just listening to the pastor. I was filled with peace instead of fear.

And this is the After shot. Happiness. Can you see it? And I love the three church leaders surrounding me, and the joy on their faces too.

Immediately after, I hugged Dan. Bliss!

What an amazing day. And I'm so happy to have these photos to remind me of it! Want to see more? Go to this link here and look at all the photos from the day's festivities. Be forewarned: there were almost 300 people baptized, so there are lots of photos. But it is worth looking at to see all the joy on so many faces.

Macro Monday

I took these photos last night. My plan was to get a close-up of this stalk of grass/wheat thingy, then I noticed a tiny spiderweb built right on it in the curve of the stem and the grass head. This is the last shot of it before Katie so nicely tried to help by holding the stalk straight... and put her hand right in the web. Oh, well.

Then I looked down and a skeeter was getting my ankle! I shot this photo quickly, then killed him. So this is his memorial photo. RIP, skeeter! Good riddance. As Jackson would say, "Go away!" (That's become his catch phrase lately, so I have told him he can say it only to bugs. When he says it to Katie or me or whomever, I ask, "Is Katie a bug?" He says, "No. Sorry, Katie.")

Good News for Lupus Patients!

I heard some encouraging news today. Back in November, I wrote about the lack of lupus drugs on the market, and how it's been FIFTY years since any new drugs have been released to specificially treat lupus.

Did you know that the main lupus drug I am taking is actually an anti-malarial drug? It isn't even FOR lupus. And it has some nasty side effects - one of which is possible blindness. Yay.

Anyway, the good news today is that there is a new drug that is successful in clinical trials. This drug is specifically used to treat lupus. That is quite a medical advancement! You can go here or here to read about it.

This, my friends, makes my heart happy.

Weekend Recap

After Friday's fun day with Jackson, we had dinner plans with friends. My friend in real life, AbFab Geek, invited us over for dinner with her family. We used to go to the same church, and her two youngest geeks boys have been enamored with Jackson since he was an infant. They used to beg me to let them hold Baby Jackson, and it took me a while to trust these two boys (Who were ages 11 and 9!) with my baby. Eventually I caved, and they have adored him ever since. We went to AbFab's and got to hang out, and they fed us some GOOD food! Yum.

Saturday morning, I hauled myself out of bed at the CRACK of dawn to go weigh in at Weight Watchers and then meet my half-marathon team for a training session at 7:30 in the morning. Ugh! We did the longest walk of our training so far - nine miles in 2.5 hours. Yeeow! It felt good to push my body and accomplish something I have never done, but I will admit I'm a tiny bit sore in a few odd places today, like my abs and shoulders. This could be related to my lupus flare, or just from abusing my body.

While I walked, Dan took the kids to a nearby lake and walked the trail around the entire lake while Katie biked. I met them at the playground later and brought a picnic lunch to share. The playground had a water feature, so we broke open the "emergency kit" I keep in the car for occasions like this and dressed Katie in her swimsuit and let Jackson run in a diaper. It was a fun morning, and the weather has been fantastic these past few days. Even chilly enough for me to wear a jacket! Katie and I monkeyed around on the playground.

Then Jackson showed me an acorn he found.

Saturday after Jackson's nap, we had a special night planned. We took the kids to Grandma's house and had a date night. With Jodie. Yes! We had dinner by ourselves, then met Jodie in University City for our Love Light photography session. I have to admit that Jodie is a bit of a girl crush for me, so I was really excited to finally meet her in person after reading her blog for so long. And, of course, I was excited to "make out on a street corner" (as she phrased it) and have her take photos of it. It was a good time with Jodie. She is so good at what she does - and I can say that before I even saw any of the photos. She just knows her stuff and has an eye for things. It was a good date night, although next time we agreed NOT to buy the large pizza at Cicero's, because it was way too much food and our stomachs were hurting by the time we headed for home.

This morning, we sacrificed sleeping in so we could go to church before picking the kids up at Grandma and Poppy's. We ate lunch there, then got Jackson home for a nap. Katie and Dan went out on an adventure bike while I communed with my computer.

Tonight, we went to Dan's brother's house and got to see our good friends on their once-a-year trip back home (they live in Seattle now). The men in these families that gathered are guys who grew up together, so it's nice to see how they and their families have changed and grown. Here are the mommies from the group:

It was a very busy weekend, but also fulfilling and enjoyable too. We are so blessed to have good health, good friends, good photographers, good church, and good weather in our lives!

Fun with Jackson

Now that school is back in session, Jackson and I are back to our routine. There are days that I have to physically restrain myself from giving myself a pat on the back. I can't tell you how relieved I am that the 2005 version of myself decided to wait another year to have a second baby. Because that is paying off in spades now. Katie goes to school, and Jackson and I have our own time together. She got four years of being an only child, and now Jackson is getting a version of that same luxury. I am so pleased about it because it gives me time to spend with him and gives me a chance to get to know him as a person, one-on-one. Way to go, 2005 Elizabeth! Thanks for thinking ahead and for knowing your limits!

I digress. Anyhoo...

Friday was one of those fun days for me and Jackson. We went to the library to have a Clifford storytime and then meet a life-sized version of The Big Red Dog. When Clifford first walked into the room, Jackson wasn't too excited about it. Some other kids were hesitant about him, and then there were the ones who wanted to physically smother him with love and hugs. As long as Clifford stayed at the front of the room, Jackson was comfortable. When it came time for everyone to get photos with Clifford, a long line formed and Jackson contented himself by plopping in front of the TV and watching a Clifford show. The line was almost gone and I finally coaxed him to go visit Clifford and take a photo with him. He was pretty darn cute, hugging the dog and trying to show him the Clifford book he was holding. By the way, it was an odd flashback kind of day too. The shirt Jackson is wearing is the one Grandma bought for Katie to wear at her third birthday party. It is technically a boy's outfit because we couldn't find a girl's Clifford outfit. She loved it, regardless of who it was made for. So, yes, I dressed my daughter in boy's clothes. And now her brother is wearing the same thing. It's kind of weird for me to see him in her clothes!

We left the library and met my mom's group at a nearby park. I brought Rice Krispies for the kids to throw to the fish in the pond. (I got a clean on last week when I couldn't find my muffin tin in the pantry. I decided to save the stale Krispies for a fish trip just like this.) The kids enjoyed throwing the Krispies into the wind and watching the fish nibble them. We looked for turtles in the pond, and Jackson took about two years off my life by hopping and "gumping" (his pronunciation of "jumping") near the very edge of the pond. I was sucking my breath in with huge gasps, just convinced that he would end up IN the pond.

Luckily, he stayed dry and I convinced him to sit down and take some photos. (I told him if he didn't, then he couldn't play on the playground.) He cooperated, and this is the face he gave me when I said, "Show me your smile."

I could just eat him up!

Back to School, Part 2

I wrote about our back to school morning last Thursday. Yes, we already have two days of school under our belts by the time I'm posting this update about the end of the day, but I wanted to make sure the details got entered in the record anyway!

If this photo of the triumphant return is any proof, then it was a successful day.

I invited the kids on our street over for rainbow cake. You'll recall that last year's cake had only a "K" on it. The "K" stood for Kindergarten, even though the other kids on our street were not Kindergarteners. So this year, I decorated the cake with a "K" and also a 1 and a 2, to honor all the kids on our street - Kindergarteners, first graders and second graders.

We cut into that cake, and it was gloriously colorful on the inside. And no one was the wiser that it was a complete wreck just a half day before. Sweet!

The kids begged for seconds, but I wouldn't let them because there wasn't enough to go around twice. Besides, I wanted to save one last piece for Dan to enjoy when he got home from work. It's not often that you have rainbow cake around our house!

After the kids were bathed and watching their evening show, I escaped to Wal-Mart to search for a new lunch box. This is what I saw when I walked out of the store:

Beautiful, isn't it? Almost as good as the sunsets in Jamaica... but not quite.

I Won!

I am stunned. Overjoyed. So excited! Remember the Work-Your-Camera contest that I wrote about here? Michelle picked me as the winner. !!! I am flabbergasted. Truly! You can see the other entries here. See why I'm stunned that I won? There were some great finalists!

Stay tuned because when I receive my prize, I'm gonna be stepping up the photo quality around this little shop. (I hope!)

Back To School, Part 1

It's a happy day! Tinged with a little sadness that my baby keeps growing and time keeps passing, but I think I'm more happy than sad this time around.

School is back in session! Katie started first grade today. She was obviously excited, because she came bursting in to our room while Dan and I were still getting dressed this morning. She didn't even wait for me to wake her up! We got her dressed in the outfit she picked out for her big day, and headed downstairs. She excitedly reminded me that she needed to do her "chores" before school.

Last night I wrote a list of her jobs to do every morning, afternoon and evening. The morning consists of packing her own lunch and then eating breakfast. Afternoon is the coming-home-from-school routine of giving me her folder, washing hands, eating snack, etc. The bedtime jobs are brushing and flossing teeth, the bathroom routine, and setting the table for breakfast the next morning. We did a dry run through all the routines last night before bed, so she knows what to do. I hyped it by telling her now that she's a first grader, she has more responsibility. And I also told her that if she doesn't do her jobs and I have to do them for her, it'll cost marbles from her marble jar.

So back to this morning. Katie raced downstairs and packed her lunch with pride on her face from getting to do a job by herself. Then the three of us (Jackson was still in his crib) went to the bus stop for breakfast with the neighbors. We brought the muffins Katie and I made together yesterday.

Everyone ate, chatted about the new school year and took the obligatory photos. We have a new Kindergartener on our street, who was a little nervous about her first day. But the other kids were pretty excited to get the school year started.

Dan and I took photos with our big girl. Don't you just love that in every picture of her lately, she is baring her teeth and showing the missing tooth in front? She loves that.

The next thing we knew, the bus rounded the corner and the kids were off to school.

A new year full of new beginnings. A new journey, just one step closer to graduation day. Ouch. My heart just seized in my chest!

I Bruised My Coccyx, Broke My Cake and Burned My Muffins

All in a day's work!

My mishaps started after my exuberant post today on "jumping in there" and "acting like a kid." Since it was the last day of summer before school starts tomorrow, I took my kids to a local play area. I decided to enter the fun myself. That ended badly when I went down the slide a little too fast and landed straight on my tailbone. No, not the fat on my bottom which would have protected me well, but I landed right on the base of my coccyx. (Yeah, I spell checked that one too!) The thud on my bones was an audible sound to bystanders. Ouch! Enough sliding for me, thanks.

During Jackson's nap, Katie and I had a long To Do List. First I had to fight an unnecessary battle with my doctor's office about getting my medications. That was annoying and delayed our To Do List. But we finally got down to business and started making a Rainbow Cake. Go check that link out - isn't that the coolest thing?

First we mixed the batter (using the Weight Watchers recipe that has just the cake mix and a can of Diet Sprite or Diet 7Up). Then we added the food coloring, which I bought especially at Michael's because they had the intense gel colors. We separated the batter into six equal portions, then dyed them the colors of the rainbow.

Next, we poured the batter into the cake pans in the Roy G Biv order. It looked pretty cool so far!

But, of course, there was a big mess to clean up afterwards, while the cake was cooking. Katie helped by licking the six spoons clean.

While the cake cooked, we moved on to making mini blueberry muffins for the breakfast on the first day of school.

Then it was time to pull the cakes out of the oven. So far, so good!

After a little bit of cooling, I got a little overzealous shaking the cake out of the pan and THIS is what happened. Ugh!

Oh, well. I wasn't wasting all that effort, so I salvaged the broken cake and I don't think it turned out too badly. A little lopsided and crumbly looking, but I think it'll still taste like cake. Yummy!

Time for the muffins to come out. And, yes, half of them were a little burnt and crispy. Man! While everything cooled, I had yet another item to go into the oven. Katie painted her own tea set on Tuesday, so it was time to bake it. Here you can see our three finished items.

Lastly, my dinner strike is officially over and I ACTUALLY cooked turkey tenderloins for dinner. It wasn't the best meal I've ever made, so that was a little discouraging. But after being on dinner strike for almost four months, I'm proud of myself just for cooking the darn thing!

I have one more photo for you, just because I have to show you how cute Jackson is. I made him an "astronaut helmet" from a milk jug, and he had fun running around with it on. He says, "It's so cutie." Yes, he is so cutie, isn't he?

It was a busy day, and my bottom really hurts tonight. But I'm excited for tomorrow, and can't wait to see what the Rainbow Cake looks like inside!