Three words

Code brown. Tub.

Requiem for my head

By the time you're reading this, I may well be dead.

Okay, not really, but--at this point--I think death would be better than this summer cold/flu/plague I've got. It started with A, then decided I'd be a good host so it jumped ship last weekend. Along the way, it also decided to visit J, whose 102 degree fever broke yesterday afternoon, and D, whose 102 fever seems to have broken sometime overnight. It is a rockin' good time in our house right about now...just in time for our upcoming weekend in Chicago, sans kiddos.

We leave Friday evening, returning Monday, and my sinuses could not be more stuffed up if they tried. That should make for a lot of fun on the flight there and back. Oh well, small price to pay for a grown-up weekend, i.e., Jimmy Buff3tt concert, Cubb1es game, and the like. Let's just hope my head doesn't explode before then.

P.S. Speaking of stuffed heads, with all of the ear infections J has endured so far this year, and the persistent fluid in her middle ear/horrible tympanograms, we have been given the go'head by the ENT to have tubes put in her ears and her adenoids removed (they are significantly enlarged). My poor big girl. The surgery date is August 22nd. I'm trying not to think about it right now.

She's crafty

Why yes, yes I am.

Back in college, I was almost an art major but decided I liked money too much to be a starving artist...so I was an English major instead. Haha. Yeah, obviously money wasn't my first priority. After graduation, I went to work in publishing, and the rest is history.

Alas, I was stagnating inside, no creative juices had been flowing for the past few years. Last year, my SIL sucked me into the world of scrapbooking and I've slowly been wetting my feet in its waters. I've since expanded into other avenues whenever I can, i.e., a little 'me' time, doing mosaics, decoupage...trying a little of this and a little of that. Boy, does it feel good to get my creativity fired up again.

Here are two projects (actually one) that I recently completed. I bet you can see my inspiration. What do you think?

The thing is, they are really so easy, anyone can do it. I actually have written instructions if anyone is interested. I love mine 'cause I'm a big ole' softie like that.

Times like these

We live about 20 minutes or so from a lovely beach on the state's east coast. I bet you think that would make us regular beach-goers, yes? Well, as it happens, while we love the beach, it seems that something always comes up on weekends that prevents us from packing up the sand toys and zipping down to the shore.

So...where does the family that lives near the beach go for vacation? Why, they go to another beach, on the state's west coast!

Here are some delicious scenes from our semi-"staycation" last week. Sadly, they illustrate that I no longer have any babies in my house; now I've got toddlers, and who says they don't look alike?! Okay, granted their coloring is completely different, but I think they're definitely starting to resemble one another the bigger D gets; case in point:

Yes, this is my 17-month old girl still toting a (plastic, BPA-free) bottle! Not to worry, weaning to come...and soon, promise.

Thankfully, we kept that fair skin protected with lots and lots of sunblock, as D can attest :-)

Ah, my bathing beauties...how much richer my life is with you both in it.

I don't know why but, when I contemplate the divinity that is my life nowadays, I can't help but think of the F00 Fighters who said it best when they sang,

"it's times like these you learn to live again

it's times like these you give and give again

it's times like these you learn to love again

it's times like these time and time again"