a shameless pursuit of paper products

dining al fresco

Ella ate outside tonight. I think you can understand why...

Oh my! I laughed so SO hard! So did she. She thought she was hot stuff! LOL!

I can't WAIT to use these on a page. Any suggestions for a title??

getting creative

Whew! One big weekend is behind us.

Had the National Scrapbook Day crop at the store on Saturday. The all-day crops are a lot of work, but so much fun! This one went amazingly smoothly. Gotta give a lot of the credit for that to Drew. He helped me out huge with the food, putting the dinner in the oven and helping me load up the car to take it up there.

Got to spend time with some old friends and a couple new ones. Everyone sounded like they were having a great time in the crop room!

Then today, we had a National Scrapbook Day class sponsored by Simple Scrapbooks magazine. Again, had many familiar faces and several new ones. It's always so exciting to watch someone new discover the store for the first time! Many are totally overwhelmed - in a good way, of course!

Now, it's total crunch time. We're getting ready for our first convention of the year, the Memories Expo in New Jersey. The next three days will be spenting finishing packing class kits and packing boxes of product. Then we load it all up in the Uhaul on Wed night/Thurs a.m. and drive over to Somerset, unload, and set up the booth.

Conventions are always exhilarating, and I'm really looking forward to this one. It'll be a good test run for us, too, before we head farther afield to the Great American Scrapbook Convention.

I haven't been scrapbooking much the past 3 or 4 weeks, but here's one I like:

Drew hates to have his picture taken, so we always joke that the pics of the "two" of us should have me and him with his head cut off!

Here I come, World!

Cuz you know that's what she'd be saying if she could talk!

This is Ella, last week, on the walking path near our neighborhood. Drew and Ella and I try to go for a walk every day, when it's nice.

This is one feisty, fabulous little girl.

Oh, she has her moments. All kids do. But she is just so precious, so smart, so fun to be around for the vast majority of the day. Hearing her laugh is sheer joy.

Oy. Enough. I'm turning into one of those mamas who can't talk about anything but her kids!

So let's see. What else shall I talk about?

We rediscovered Costco today! Man, does that place have great food, or what? And the prices! Wow. They really are a ton lower. It's kind of hard to believe. Still, it adds up - I think we checked out at $250-ish. Course, that was with the renewal card fee, since my membership expired awhile ago.

Drew's mom (hi mom!) had a heart blockage, but the good news is, her doctor said she'll be fine. So that's a big relief.

In other health news, my friend Denise just found out that her mother's suspected lump was just a cyst. Thank God! Much to celebrate there!

My mom may come out and visit this summer. That would be fun! She hasn't seen the kids since last July, I think. Ella's like a whole different person, now!

We moved up our Disney trip this year from December to September to take advantage of a free dining offer. Should be fun. Hot, but fun.

Salvation Army is coming to pick up a monstrous old sleeper sofa from the basement. Just getting that out of the way will help give us room to start sorting and pitching all the layers of crap-ola down there. Part of me just wishes it would all go away - but there are things that are important to me down there, so I guess I'll just have to buckle down and do it.

Got two huge bags of clothes from our friends Don and Sharon. They're too big for Ella now, but in a couple years, she'll look great! LOL! With the price of clothes these days, we're not looking gift horses in the mouth, as they say!

Got just about everything lined up for our first road show of the year at the store. We'll be teaching three classes and vendoring at the Memories Expo in New Jersey. We've never been to this show, but the store has a big following in Jersey, so we should do well. And with the crackerjack team we've got going - Christina, Lisa F, Lisa V, Steph P and me - it's gonna be a blast, too! Hey Kim - you live in Jersey; come see us! :)

Haven't scrapbooked in about two weeks. I've got a couple ideas brewing in my head, and would love to tackle them tomorrow - need some more samples to take to the Expo!

Hmm...I think that's it. Except that I am SUPER excited for the weekend! It's National Scrapbook Day, and we're having an all-day crop at the store, which sold out ages ago. So looking forward to spending the day at my favorite place with my favorite peeps! Then on Sunday, Simple Scrapbooks magazine is sponsoring an NSD class at the store. Should be fun.

So that's enough rambling for tonight. Hope everyone is well! I'm trying not to eat any more chocolate. So I'll go to bed, instead! :)

loving him

All moms are supposed to love their kids. That's kind of the rule.

So it's no surprise - duh! - that Drew and I love Declan so much.

But sometimes it does still take my breath away, just how much fierce emotion I have in my heart for that little man. And he *is* a little man.

It's mostly because of the things he does and says - the things that just make him, him. Such as:

Last week, the subject somehow turned to a girl one of his buddies "likes." Drew asked Declan if he had a crush on any girls. His reply: "Nah. The only girl I like is Ella."

Declan and Drew went to Pittsburgh for the weekend. Just the boys. A little bonding trip. Drew took him to the zoo, and to two Phillies vs. Pirates games. On the way into the stadium, Declan said: "I can't believe I'm going to a real baseball game." Drew cried. (don't tell anyone!)

For all the days he dawdles, and drives me crazy when I'm in a hurry, I need to stop and remind myself that maybe it's me who has the problem, not him.

His dad got him a butterfly pavilion for his birthday, and we watched the caterpillars form chrysalids, then emerge as butterflies.

We set them free on Friday.

I know one day I'm going to have to set my little free. Man, is that gonna be hard to do! But, just like those little butterflies, I know he's got something beautiful to share with the world.

I just hope he remembers to come back home and share it with us, too, every now and then. 

Momma said there'd be days like this...

Some days, life is a wondrous adventure, just beckoning to be explored and savored.

Then there are days like today.

It started out not terrible. Except that it started out at 6 a.m., with Mattie, our cat, standing on my chest and meowing.

Mattie is, at this point, quite old -at least 13 years old. And he has started peeing and pooping in the wrong places every couple weeks. Which has me paranoid, and worried about him (I've read tons online about what it "could" be, but nothing seems to fit). So when he makes weird noises, I get up with him. But I can never really figure out what he wants, so after getting him fresh water in his bowl, I tried to go back to sleep.

But...

Declan was up. And 6:10 a.m. is WAY too early for him to be up. Still, he got up.

And since I had to be up at 7 a.m. anyway, I got up.

It was Muffins with Mom day at Declan's school. Which sounds all sweet and nice, but really, I've suggested a new, truth-in-advertising name for next year: Muffins With My Buddies While My Mom Watches My Stuff and Sits on A Chair That's Too Small. Has a nice ring to it, eh?

So whatever.

I go home, after all the fun is done, and Drew and Ella and I go for a walk. Only we get up to the walking path behind the development and I realize I really have to go to the bathroom. I can see my house, over the gently swelling hill, about a mile away, and know that there's a good chance I might not make it.

I barely did. But I did. Thanks to the clean garage. If I'd had to spend 6 extra seconds negotiating the piles, we would have been in big trouble.

So whatever.

So then Drew and I are trying to get Ella to eat something (she only eats about every fourth day - today apparently was the third day) when I notice that her eye really doesn't look much better.

She's had what I thought was a minor eye infection since Monday. Not pink eye. I know what that looks like. And there was really only a small bit of yellow goop every other day. No matting. (ew!)

But there's still swelling in the corner of her eye, so I pull her eyelid down (cuz that's FUN!) and I see this lump. A growth. A weird, red, swollen lump on the inside of my baby girl's eyelid.

So I'm doing some quick math and realizing that this thing is going to hit full bloom about 4 o'clock on Saturday morning, when Drew and Declan are in Pittsburgh and I'm here alone with Ella and need to get some sleep because I have to be at the store on Saturday.

I reach for the phone and call the pediatrician. They'll get her in, but we have to come now.

So she doesn't get a nap. Bad Thing number one. Ok, number 3.

So we get to the doctor's in Doylestown, and he looks at is and doesn't know what it is. It's "atypical." Love that word. Wouldn't you just like to tell some really annoying person some day, "You know, you're really atypical."

Anyway, so they give us a prescription for an antibiotic drop and refer us to a pediatric opthomologist. And I know I spelled that wrong, but I'm not about to go look it up.

So we go to get the prescription filled, and it's gonna take, like, an hour, so I beg for 45 minutes and we go have lunch. And it wasn't even a good lunch.

So we're back home now, and holding Ella down so we can put the drops in her eyes (FUN!). Drew goes down for a nap. Ella goes down for a nap. I hit the phone, and start calling the specialists.

They recommended CHOP, so I called there. The earliest they can see her is May 20. Um, no.

So they "squeeze" her in. On May 8. At noon. When I'm supposed to be in New Jersey, setting up for the Memories Expo. Nice.

Then the nurse says, "well, we could schedule to see the doc there at the Bucks County office, but he's just going to refer you down here (Philly, CHOP) to the surgeon, so why don't we go ahead and book the appointment with the surgeon?"

Um, gee, I don't know, maybe because NO ONE HAS GIVEN US A DIAGNOSIS YET and I'm NOT ready to talk about surgery on my baby girl's eye!

So we book the appt for May 8 (grrr) at the Bucks office.

Then I called another doctor.

Sure, we'll see her. Now.

So I go wake up Drew, and get Ella dressed (Daddy may have slept, but baby did NOT) and we get ready to go. But this means we'll miss Declan's bus. So I call the parents of his buddy, Nick. Not home. So I call my friend Tracy, who lives next door to Nick and his family. Thankfully, she will get Declan off the bus, and if Nick and his parents have to leave, she'll watch Declan til we get home.

Everyone says no one in the suburbs knows their neighbors. Thankfully, that's not true here!

So whatever.

So we get to the doctor's office, and all is going well until the doctor actually has to examine Ella. I don't even know how to describe the screaming, crying, head thrashing, kicking that was going on. And that was just Drew.

Ha. I'm kidding.

Ella was NOT happy. And all the doctor was trying to do was look into her eye. I can't imagine trying to hold her down for anything truly painful.

Getting her head into the machine with the chin rest so they could look with the bright light in her eye - yeah, I'm gonna remember that moment for a LONG time.

The doctor decided the lump is most likely a chalazion, a lump on the eyelid caused by the blockage of a gland. Some people mistake them for styes, which are usually infectious.

They're usually not serious, but because they swell and put pressure on the eyeball, they can cause eye damage. So the doctor had to put drops in Ella's eyes to dilate them to see if any damage had been done.

It hadn't, thank goodness.

Ella's is "atypical" in that it's on the lower eyelid (most chalazions, I know now, are on the upper) and it is not red or markedly swollen on the outside of the eye - only when you pull back the lid can you see it.

See? Learn something new every day, doncha?

With that, we packed our now frantic, kicking and screaming daughter into the car and headed for home. She was asleep within 7 minutes.

So that was my day. I got very little accomplished - and I had several things that needed to be done for the Expo - but I am thankful for several things:

1) that I knew enough not to book eye surgery, sight unseen

2) that a very good doctor was able to see us so very quickly

3) that Drew and I were able to do this together. It was no fun, but would have been infinitely worse for either one of us to try to manage alone.

4) that I've got great friends and neighbors who can step in and help. Not only did Tracy get D off the bus and made sure Nick's mom, Danielle, could take him, but she called a little bit ago to see how everything ended up. And not only did Danielle watch Declan, but she made him and Nick do their homework first, before they played, so he wouldn't have as much to do when we got home.

So, if you've read this far, you deserve a freakin' medal for sticking with it.

My reward is going to be a shower and my book - I'm even too beat to scrapbook, if you can imagine that!

Hey, guess what?

Our garage has a floor!

No, really! I swear! We found it today!

It's been lost for about a year and a half.

The great garage clean out commenced shortly after 1 p.m. The plan was to just do about an hour's worth of work, but that never works with me. The Creed of the Obsessive Compulsive demands that anything worth doing is worth doing RIGHT NOW!

So once we dug in, we didn't stop until about 4:20.

For the first time in, oh, EVER, we have more trash bags at the curb than will fit in our trash can. Drew also carted four boxes of stuff off to the Mennonite thrift store 'round the corner.

There's still more to do. We've got to call the Salvation Army and ask them to come get a chest that is doing us no good. Then we'll need to buy a couple shelving units. But we are well on our way to sanity.

It's too dark, now, otherwise I would take an "after" picture. I conveniently forgot to take the "before" pic!

But man, what a feeling of accomplishment. I feel so good. Even Drew said, "We got a lot done today" as he was leaving for work at 5 p.m.

With that, off to rest and read before bed. Night, all!

A girl can dream...

I have a dream.

That's the cool thing about this country (just one of many, really). Most of us grow up with the feeling that so much is infinitely possible.

My dream is a modest one, but one I know so many of you share.

It's not to cure cancer, though that would be amazing.

It's not to become a millionaire, though that would be cool.

No, my dream is more real than that. My dream is....

(wait for it)

...to be able to park in my garage.

Now, in all fairness to me/us, our garage is minute. I mean, really, really tiny.

It's a one-sedan garage in a neighborhood of dual-SUV families. The builders built it that way. Dumb builders.

We never started out with a good system of storage - just odds and ends we were trying to make due with. And now it's totally out of control.

There's a narrow path snaking through the stuff. But you have to shimmy this way and that to follow it. Not fun with a squirming toddler in your arms, or grocery bags dangling from your hands.

Wednesday is trash day, here in the ol' stomping grounds.

You know what that means: tomorrow is Garage Clean Out Day!

Pray for me. Please. :)

This one's for Kim B! and Marlene!

Ok, so my friend Kim was complaining that she hasn't seen Ella in, like, forever, and she needed a good dose of baby heiney. (Is that how you spell heiney? Funny. It looks odd.)

So, Kim, this one is for you.

Here's Ella's heiney, in her new Gymboree spring jammies.

And this one's for Marlene, who always notices that Ella sticks her tongue out in a lot of pics.

 

The first pic was taken in our bedroom, as Ella crawled up on top of the subwoofer to get a good look out the back window.

The second was taken at The Perk, a neighborhood restaurant around here. We've lived in the Sellersville/Perkasie area for almost five years now (!) and had never been to The Perk, so Drew, Ella and I went for lunch last Sunday, after the Star Wars exhibit at the Franklin Institute (more on that trip later.)

I love the fact that so many people from around here stay around here. I love the fact that old timers remember their history. I love the fact that the Perk is still here, after all these years.

And I love cute little girls in pretty spring jammies. Even with their tongues sticking out!

Spring is here!

Had the windows open today for the first time in ages! Man, did it feel great.

Today was an all-around great day. Drew and Ella and I went for a long walk. I got some work done while she napped and Drew ran to the grocery store. She and I had fun up at the store in the afternoon - til she started to lose it at the end of the day! She's still getting over a cold, and gets really tired - and cranky - by the end of the day.

Haven't taken many pictures the past few days, but thought I'd share one from a couple weeks ago that I really like.

Happy Easter

We had a lovely Easter. Ella actually napped through Easter brunch. But when she got up, I got to indulge in one of the things moms of girls love best - dress up!

I had stopped at Target the day before to pick up some last minute Easter candy, and here was this one, lonely, dressy dress - the perfect size - on sale, 30 percent off. I knew she'd probably only wear it once - and probably for no more than an hour or two.

And so it was. But as these pictures attest, it was still one of the best $12 I've spent in a long time!

Not to be outdone, Declan started cheesing it up every time I pointed the lens at him. This is the best of the bunch of him.

We had a couple egg hunts for the kids, then Declan hid the eggs for me and Drew and Kevin to find. I think he liked doing that even more than finding them himself!

So, all in all, a very nice day.