Happy Birthday Nana!

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Sheesh. Yes, we have had a LOT of birthdays lately. Today is Nana’s birthday, and we are not done for January, yet!
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Apparently, one of the many things I learned from my mom was how to elude the camera.  This photo was taken the day Addie and I came home from the hospital, the day after she was born. That would be two years and four months ago. (But tell me Emma isn’t freakin’ a-dore-able in that photo!)

I just don’t have many pictures of my mom to choose from, but every one that I do have she is either cuddling up with one of my or one of Meesh’s girls. I think it is safe to say that she loves being a mom, but she adores being Nana.

What is that saying?  You can’t really appreciate someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes? Um, maybe I just pieced two different sayings together, I’m not sure. But at any rate, I think I have always had a healthy appreciation for my mom, but after becoming a mom, that appreciation has risen to a whole different level.

She has taught me so much about being a mom. And she passed on to me, some of her creative genes. (You think I’m crafty? There is not a craft that this woman has not tackled, and been successful at!)

Today we celebrate our Mom and Nana. And we are wishing you many more happy years. I’m hoping for a lot more time to learn even more from and with you.

You should probably know, though – the camera is coming out next time we are together. And I will get photos. 🙂

Happy Birthday, Nana! We love you.

You don’t forget how, right?

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I had a whole long, boring post all cued up about our long, not so boring week, but it bored me just thinking about it, so I’m sparing you the details. Here is the condensed version.

Went to ob/gyn. Had a little procedure. Passed out cold and did that little freaky seizure-y thing I do. Pretty traumatic on my body. Was puking sick all day Tuesday and Wednesday. In the midst of keeping girls happy, shuttling to school and finishing two projects. Finally back to normal. I think.

Much more succinct and a little more fun to read it that way, believe me.

Anyhow, the biggest news for the week is my new baby!

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My Christmas present. My guess is it is a bit difficult to do a triathlon on a spin bike or an old mountain bike. So I am the proud new owner of a road bike.

I haven’t taken it out yet, just around our house and in the driveway. You’d think I’d be out on the road all rarin’ to go, right? Why haven’t I been?

I’m terrified of it.

Seriously. Look how skinny these tires are.

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And the first time I get my shoes clipped into the pedals and forget to unclip when I stop….I’m so going to bust open my head or break a body part.

They say you never forget how to ride a bike, right?

We’ll see. We are going to test that out this weekend. But I do think it needs a name. Anybody got any good ideas?

Contrast ~ Theme Thursday

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I know I’m kind of “phoning it in” this week. And I promise an update and many excuses as to why I have not written anything of substance this week (not that it is that different from most weeks!), but I do have a picture to share for Theme Thursday. Today’s theme was any interpretation of contrast.

I was going to play with some b&w photos and work on contrast, and then I saw this on Tuesday –  I thought that this is a pretty cool contrast. How often do you see palm trees and snow in the same shot? Yep, there is snow on our mountains, well, there was anyhow…

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Stop over to Stacy’s to see some other contrast-y shots.

Crafty Tuesday

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Well, I haven’t gotten my 2 hours of scrappin’ in this week, and truthfully, it looks highly unlikely that it is going to happen. I did however make three or four homemade cards for all the birthdays we have this week. And I finished a project for my sister’s mother-in-law’s daughter-in-law to be. (Ya get all that?) We put together some really cute stationery to give her for her bridal shower. So that was a fun project, unlike most of my current work ones. Blech.

But, most of last week was spent frantically trying to put together the annual Em & Ad calendar.  I believe they have all been delivered, so I think I’ll share that today for Crafty Tuesday. Here is the “top half” of the calendar. Someday I’d like to have enough time that I can personalize the tops for each family and put in specific photos for each calendar. But as it is now, everyone gets the same.

January

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February

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March

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April

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May

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June

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July

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August

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September

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October

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November

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December

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What kind of craftiness do you have going on this week?

To Papa ~

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I am not quite sure why, but it is so incredibly satisfying and sweet to see your parents playing with – and really enjoying – your children. Maybe it is that whole “full circle of life” thing or something, but it really makes me so happy to see how excited my parents get when the girls visit.

(Yeah, I’ve so been replaced. I could ship the girls back to Michigan without J. or I, and I don’t think anyone would even notice! But you know, I’m ok with that, too.)

As a father, my dad is great.  But he is an even better “Papa.”

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All of his girls adore him.

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And today we are sending him lots of birthday love. And good wishes for a great year.

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Happy Birthday, Papa! We love you!

Off and Running ~ Best Shot Monday

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How can I feel so harried and hectic when it is only 7 days into the new year?

We are all off and running. J. is traveling this week already, I’m working on about 4 work projects, Em is back to school and starting a new dance school, and Ad is…well, Ad is just along for the ride.

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Don’t forget to run over to Tracey’s to see the other Best Shot Mondays, today.

I know, I owe a lot of photos, thank yous, phone calls, and emails to everyone. I’m really, really working on it. I have lots of fun stories, and the minute I stop running, I’ll try to tackle it all. I promise.

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On a little personal note – just want to send a very Happy Birthday to my Aunt Vicki. Hope you are having a great day!

Have a great week, everyone.

Hooray for Babies!

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J. and I just went to see the movie Juno, which was most excellent! It is a great date night movie.

And for the tiniest moment I wanted to feel the miracle of being pregnant again.

Then I remembered the three to four months of constant puking (with both pregnancies) and the extreme tiredness in every bone of my body, and the inability to heave myself off of the sofa as I reached epic whale-like proportions. Oh, and that is the easy part. The hard part begins the minute they make that grand entrance into the world.

Ugh. So I decided instead, I am going to live vicariously through my bloggy friend Colleen who just found out she is expecting a little brother or sister for Zoe! Go on over and see Zoe letting the “cat out of the bag.”

I am so very excited for all of them – congrats, Colleen!

(And I’m sure that your pregnancy is going to be easy and wonderful. And the baby will sleep like a champ from the moment you bring them back home! Hee…)

How do you get to Chaos?

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I was just perusing my blog stats because I haven’t done it in awhile, and I was looking through the search keywords that lead people to me, like when they type something into Google, and somehow it will bring my site up. For awhile I was getting a lot of “girl poopy pants.” Made me a little uncomfortable, I’m hoping it was just people trying to figure out how to get their girls to stop doing it, but whatever.

Among today’s searches are some funny ones though –

How to tell if a turtle has died? Um…he isn’t moving and seems a little stiff? That is a pretty good indicator, I think. That is how we knew with dear old Tuck.

Cut your own cute bangs. Whew. Fairly certain that they did not find what they were looking for at our site. Em’s bangs are getting longer, but they are still definitely not cute.

And my favorite –

Bossiness in firstborn girls. It isn’t just in the firstborn girl I’m raising (or others I know). It must be some sort of epidemic!

I’m off to take my bossy, little firstborn to school. Hallelujah! I don’t know who is more excited, me or her.

A glimmer of hope…

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I am not a political junkie by any means. Usually I scan the headlines, pick up what I “need to know” – when I need to know it, and I am a great “armchair critic.” I can sit here and tell you what is wrong and what needs fixing in this country, but I do not have any idea how to go about it, nor do I go out and participate in any sort of activism.

But I have been sitting here, eating dinner completely fascinated with the PBS analysts going through the Iowa caucus numbers.

Our “guy” has a true shot here. There could be a monumental and pivotal moment in U.S. history this year.

I remember a few years ago when Barack Obama spoke at the Democratic National Convention and J. and I watched his speech with our mouths gaping open. He is a phenomenal speaker. I literally had goosebumps as I sat and listened to that obama_mama.jpgspeech and I remember saying to J. that night, “Man, I would vote for him for President in a second.”

He really is astounding and if you have never listened to him speak, do yourself a favor and go listen to this and this. (And if you only have a little time – listen to the second one, the second half of his speech…that is when it gets REALLY good.)

We kept that speech on our Tivo for the longest time, and it was a good, little reminder that there are still politicians out there who are honest, sincere, smart, eloquent, and have a view of how our great country should be run.

I was thrilled when he was elected as our senator (when we lived in Illinois) and I have been cautiously optimistic that I would someday be able to vote for him for President as well.

I have jumped wholeheartedly on his bandwagon. I am an ObamaMama.

I am so hopeful…