car tags

The kids from our ladies' bible study this year. Not so many of us, but Gennie had fun playing with her friends every week. Anyway, just thought that every post should have a picture. :)

So, I've been sick again. About a week after he was over that stupid cold, Kev came down with some kind of throat/bronchitis thing. And since I was about a week behind him getting sick, I have it now. Needless to say, I haven't felt like doing much . . . but when does life take sickness into account? Had to go help my parents get the summer camp stuff done yesterday . . . went to the grocery store after that then home group last nite . . . and today I have to go to the DMV to pay for new car tags so we're still legal to drive. We waited until the last day to do it so I'm sure we're in for quite a wait in line but why should the DMV get our money one minute earlier than absolutely necessary? They have enough. But after that I'm coming home to collapse on the couch. Not that I'm really comfy anywhere but at least I can still keep an eye on Gennie from there. Thankfully she's been really good about entertaining herself with her dolls and stuff lately.

My next dr's appt is tomorrow . . . we're at every two weeks now. Sunday makes 31 weeks along. At the last appt he moved the c-section date to July 26 so we've only got 7 weeks to go. Funny thing . . . I'm not at all concerned with bringing a new baby home or sibling jealousy or anything that I should be concerned with . . . I'm DREADING that stupid spinal block needle. I've heard that the terrors of labor become less and less memorable as you get closer to having your next baby so by the time you go into labor you don't even remember the pain anymore. Well, congrats to you all who can put that out of your minds!!! I don't think I'll EVER forget the horrors of 8 TRIES to get that gigantor needle to squeeze into my spinal column . . . I am terribly tickleish in my back, right around the exact spot they have to stick the needle so they don't paralyze my lungs, etc . . . and every time the anestheseologist touched me I jumped a mile off the bed. He was soooo mad at me by the end that I think he was trying to think of something to give me to knock me out and just deal with the surgery with me out cold. I've been having dreams at night about it, I find myself thinking about it randomly during the day, I know I'm driving Kev crazy bringing it up. I'm probably not going to sleep much the night before we go in. I just have to keep telling myself that as soon as they do get the needle in, I have 30 seconds to lie down then my part is pretty well done, at least for a day or so. I just get to lay there and wait for feeling to return to my legs and try not to drop the little guy.

birthday girl shoot

Busy week we had here. I haven't had a shoot for about 3 months and all the sudden I have two in one week. I did these Thurs. for her 1st birthday (which was last Sunday), then had a family shoot on Sat. I haven't gotten the fam ones post-processed yet so I don't have them to post on here but they will follow when I do. I just love the little white and red dress she wore for these. It looks like a vintage dress from the 30's-40's . . . one that my grandma would have made for my mom and her sisters . . . then made one for me to wear, too. I couldn't resist doing some in black and white, tho, since that's really my favorite genre. I would do that exclusively if I thought anyone around here would buy them. But like my dad says, for years and years people couldn't get pix in color so why would they go back to that when they can have pix in color? Can you tell we kinda disagree on some photo stuff? :) Maybe I should just do a compilation of all my B&W stuff just for me. Some pix just look a hundred times better without all the distraction of color. And I love doing hand-colored prints, too. I used to actually color the photos with grease pencils . . . before I went digital . . . and that took forever and made a huge mess. Thank you, Photoshop! At first I swore I would never go digital because manipulating an image "wasn't real photography." Then my dad got a digital SLR camera and let me play with it . . . and I've never gone back. My film camera is back in its box, waiting for me to decide what to do with it. I still like the excitement of the darkroom . . . swirling the photo paper in the solution and watching as the picture forms before my eyes . . . but that was a ton of work and I just can't see that as being a good use of my time when I could be enhancing them on the computer and sending them off to be printed at the lab. I only make about $0.25 an hour now with what I charge clients for my family shoots . . . after I put in all the prep work and post-processing . . . so I can't imagine I would be bringing in anything at all if I was still developing in the darkroom. "I'll never go absolutely digital!" So much for absolutes!

why i love hand-me-downs

Gennie got a new scooter! Well, new to her, anyway. There is a fantastic family in our church who has blessed us again and again with hand-me-downs that their kids have grown out of. Gennie and their daughter are about the same body shape so the clothes always work for her, and this time they gave us some bigger boy stuff for when the boy is a toddler. Gennie loves getting new clothes and daily asks to wear "something from Gracie". This last Christmas they went thru their toys and gave us a few things like the Little People dollhouse with all the accessories and a rolling suitcase that Gennie loved to drag around whenever she went over to play. It was better than garage-saleing!

When I was a kid we had two families who did the same for my sister and me. Being a preacher's family we didn't always make much money . . . enough to pay bills and not go hungry but certainly not enough for name-brand clothes and shoes . . . ask Kev and me about Pro-wing shoes sometime. It was always like Christmas morning when we would get a bag of clothes to sort thru . . . especially since they could afford some of the "cool clothes" at the time . . . Guess Jeans and Keds shoes to wear without the laces in. Since then I've always loved garage sales and especially thrift stores. Usually the clothes are properly broken in and don't shrink in the washing so you know if it fits when you bring it home, it should keep fitting. And kids consignment stores are fabulous, too. Since she wears the clothes for such a short time before she outgrows them, it's so great to get a huge bag of stuff for $5. For myself, I love vintage stuff, mostly from the 70's but earlier stuff, too. Cracks my parents up.

I've heard some parents completely against hand-me-downs . . . too used or ratty looking or gross that someone else wore it . . . personally I draw the line at underwear . . . and I guess if that's your opinion, do your thing. But for us, it has saved us a ton of money and Gennie usually looks cute . . . if I do say so myself . . . and it makes her happy to wear something that her friends used to wear . . . and has taught her more about sharing. I have to admit that it's kinda hard for me to not start going thru our old baby stuff and finding someone to share with but propriety says to wait until we're sure we're done having kids to do that. If I learned nothing else from college, I learned not to sell your World Civilizations book at Christmas break to buy presents for your friends back home when you have to take the second semester of the course when you get back in Jan.

baby shower pix

Here are a few pix from the baby shower Kendra and her fam threw for us. I had a blast! Like I said before, the theme was Calvin and Hobbes and you can see a few of the decorations in the photos. They found all the cartoons online and framed them for us to use in his room later. Funny thing about the building blocks . . . we told most of our church people what we plan to name the boy . . . or so we thought. You would not believe how many people didn't get that the blocks were his initials . . . Josiah Michael Anderson . . . they thought they were just ABC blocks. Then one lady said, "Hey, these are all the same letters. Are these his initials or something?" Awesome. The "Hobbes" (not an actual Hobbes) holding the punch bowl has been mine since I was about 11. I found him at the flea market in Albuquerque one summer . . . my parents gave my sister Krista and I each $1 to spend at the flea market . . . and before we went into the vendor area we walked thru the "mom and pop yard sale crap" area . . . I saw him sitting on a pile of old Mexican blankets with a strip of masking tape on his head . . . you guessed it . . . just $1. I grabbed him up and immediately wanted to buy him but my mom was worried that I'd get bored of him before the day was over and want to return him . . . but I didn't and he's been mine ever since. He's one of those puppets that you strap the arms and legs around your own body and "wear."

And the cake!!!! I loved it!!! I had to have several pix of it, and really didn't want to cut into it to serve it. I love how simple it was . . . just the gray and white. Kendra's brother and mom and sis-in-law spent the night before the party drawing the cartoon onto the frosting with pins or toothpicks. Then they went over it again in the frosting. Wow!

And of course, the obligatory photo of the loot. I have this same photo from Gennie's shower so I could remember what all we got from friends and family. Mostly we got clothes this time, which is awesome because we have most of the baby essentials that can be used again. The Lion thing on the left-hand side is actually the quilt/comforter for his bed . . . but since you aren't supposed to put thick bedding in the crib, we hung it over his bed as a tapestry-type wall hanging. I'll post pix of his room once we get the changing table painted, probably this weekend if the wind isn't too bad. I'd hate to accidently spray paint our neighbor's car.

Tiger blanket

It's finally finished! And it's huge! I made the body piece big enough so that we can wrap the boy up in it but to keep the porportions right, the head and legs are HUGE!! In the photo it's laid out across our queen size bed . . . you can just see Gennie's hands in the top corner . . . it fills up the bed! Oh well, when he gets older he can tie the top legs around his neck and use it as a cape.

And here's a photo of Gennie's blankie. (No, we don't have this hideous blue futon anymore!) I had made it for the Project Linus kids but when I got it finished I showed it to her and she wouldn't give it up! She hid it in her room and refused to tell me where she'd put it . . . quite a stand for an 18-month old. We've always vowed to never give the kids toys or buy them stuff just because they won't let go of them at the store . . . seems to me that it leads to spoiled and expectant kids, not thankful . . . but this one time I couldn't resist. I had been planning to make a blankie for her at the time anyways but had another design in mind. But since she liked the watermelon so much I made the other one for PL and let her keep the watermelon. Every night since then she can't fall asleep until it's laid out beside her . . . just so . . . on her bed.

This is the original Blankie . . . the reason why I make them and donate my work to Project Linus. This is my blankie from when I was a kid. The story goes that it was a shower gift from before they had me, but it never even came out of the package until I was about 2 1/2. I became really sick and they had to take me to the doctors in a rush . . . my grandma just grabbed whatever she could lay her hands on to wrap me up. And from then on, we were inseparable. I changed it from "it" to "He" . . . not sure why . . . and we did everything together. A flying carpet, a boat on the high seas, a picnic blanket, an island from which I escaped the alligator-infested waters . . . you name it, we did it. He made a great sunshade for the long car trips to Albuquerque every summer, before they made sunshades for kids in the backseat. Made it all the way thru high school and college, and I still have him. My mom offered to cut a chunk off and keep it with my baby stuff and throw away the ratty part. I threatened her with beheading. Some people give their own blankies to their children as heirlooms . . . not on your life. They now have their own.

I guess I just believe that every kid should have a security blanket of their own. I never had any fantastically traumatic incidents happen in my life, really . . . with the exception of my sister getting run over by the moving van . . . but my blankie was my favorite thing. I couldn't sleep without it as a kid. I can only imagine what it would be like to be terminally ill or lose a parent or something equally drastic and not have anything to remind me of happier days, something totally my own. That's why I love the idea of Project Linus . . . providing handmade blankets for kids who HAVE gone thru trauma or illness. Some of mine have gone to kids of people deployed to Iraq last summer from our area including very close friends who at the last minute, THANK OUR MIGHTY GOD, didn't have to go . . . some have gone to babies of teen moms abandoned by their own parents who had nothing, I mean, NOTHING, for the new baby when it arrived . . . some have gone to kids in our local hospital. I guess if a blankie I made brings some comfort to a little kid . . . even if I never hear about it . . . it's a ministry in some way and that's what's important to me.

So, not allergies afterall.

Yep, took Gennie to the dr and it turns out she has a really bad double eye infection . . . but we were right, it's not pink eye . . . and an ear infection to boot! She hadn't even complained about her ear until the dr asked if they hurt. From then on, of course, she had to hold her ear every few minutes and cry. Thanks, doc. Anyway, she's on eye drop antibiotics . . . which she absolutely HATES me putting in . . . and pink bubble gum medicine for the ear . . . same stuff Kev and I took as kids . . . I guess when you find something kids will take you stick with it even 20 years later. My dad says he remembers when there were only a couple kinds of antibiotics available and they tasted like a rotten spoonful of Dr Pepper. He still won't drink it till this day unless there's NOTHING else around. Thankfully she's no longer contagious so I can leave the house and run a few errands today. Unfortunately, Kev is also home with another version of the sinus infection he had a week ago. I picked up the decongestant that the dr gave him last week and he's been on it for 3 days now . . . with no relief. And, since it's a perscription, you can't take anything with it except Tylenol for fever, headache, etc. No Nyquil, no Sudafed, nothing. Needless to say, he's miserable.

So, I'm ready for this all to be done. We usually get some sort of cold in the spring when the weather changes for good . . . and again in the fall when it goes cold . . . but this is ridiculous. I'm running around with Lysol all this next week, and I'm going to get rid of these germs if it kills me! And I don't think it will since most people don't die from the cold . . . at least not since the 1900's. :)

Silly Squishy Veggie Dough

Allergies are crazy this week. Gennie is apparently allergic to something in our area this year . . . she's going on three days of eye yuckiness. When she wakes up her eyes are stuck together - nasty! - and they've been flaming red, but only from the pupil to the outside. It's sooooo weird to look at! Thankfully it didn't come across too badly in this photo. We've been pumping in the children's Benedryl and she keeps falling asleep randomly. She actually took a 4 1/2 hour nap yesterday! We're pretty sure it's not pink eye . . . no swelling or itching and she has a runny nose to go with it and hasn't spread to any of us . . . I had pink eye in college and it didn't act like this at all. But because of all this I've been trying to keep her inside so whatever it is doesn't bother her even more. All of this to say . . . she's been playing with her playdough a ton! Since it's made by the Veggie Tales people they have to call it something different so it's Silly Squishy Veggie Dough.

She's been making all kinds of "spaghetti" and cookies and stuff and does pretty well at keeping the colors separated . . . try explaining to a 3 year old why you can't just moosh the whole thing into one lump and put that thru the squisher.

Last weekend was my baby shower for the boy. We had a blast . . . the decorations were sooo cute . . . and the games were fun! I'll post pix later when I get them all collected from everyone. Also, Kevin got the crib finished and decorated so now it looks like a baby room! We rent this place so we aren't allowed to paint which is a bummer but it still looks cute . . . and we won't be here forever so I can do all that home decor stuff later. We got all the presents from the shower put away or hung up so I'll post pix of that soon, too. Been kinda slow around here for posting material . . . now all of the sudden I have tons to say! Check back soon!

And this is today

Okay, so two days later this is our weather. What's the deal with this place?!?! Last night the clouds blew out of town and we woke up this morning to clear blue sky and it's supposed to be in the 70's by Wed. Crazy. These pix were taken at the same places as the ones on 5/5 and you'd never know today that we even had a snow storm at all. Must have been the weather's one last Hoo-rah before the spring weather actually arrives for good. We keep telling Gennie that the baby will come in the summer . . . she's going to be really disappointed when the weather turns warm for good and he's still not here yet. Probably should have explained it to her a little better. She really can't wait to pack him up and take him to the lake . . . don't know if I'll be up for a lake trip right after he's born, and the weather turns cold again in Oct. so we'll have to see. He may have to make his board shorts debut next summer.

gift album, again

So, it finally worked. Here's the photos of the gift album I did for our friends getting married in June. Her shower was last Sat. and was a blast. Kendra and I did the games and they turned out really funny. The shower was for the lady teachers that Shannon . . . the bride . . . works with at her school, plus those of us in home group together. For that many people we decided we only wanted 2 games so it didn't take too much time . . . and we wanted to give her plenty of time for opening presents. The first game we did was to have each person take a roll of toilet paper and tear off the amount they use on any given trip to the bathroom . . . and they had to be truthful . . . then they each had to make something for the rehearsal, wedding, or wedding night out of the TP they pulled off. We had everything from a bow for her hair and a g-string to an "elope-rope" for her to throw out her window and escape in the night . . . funny thing, she lives by herself so I'm not sure why she wouldn't just use the front door to escape . . . but that's not the point. They other game was a writing game . . . perfect for gradeschool teachers. We put a bunch of items on a tray and they had to break into teams and write a poem or story about the couple using the items on the tray . . . candy bars like "100 Grand" and "Oh, Henry" and Big Hunk . . . and a candle, a ring, a sparkplug, a box of pudding, etc. They were really creative so we are going to type the stories up and give them to the couple.

Cinco de Mayo in WY

Grandma Joanne was right. She commented the other day about how surprised she was with the post about golfing since she fully expected to see snow drifts and grayness in the outdoor photos of Green River. Well, the weather was fantastic up until this morning. Kev took Maggie out to pee at about 5:30am and there was already about an inch of snow on everything. It rained yesterday but I didn't think it would be cold enough to actually stick. The first photo is out our front door and the second is out our back door. You can see that our lilac bush in the front has probably had it and the choke cherry tree in the back had already

blossomed . . . probably won't be pretty anymore. I guess this is why they tell you not to plant anything until after Memorial Day. Rotten weather . . . .

I finished the gift album!!

yeah!!! One more thing finished. Now I just have to wrap it and give it tomorrow. I tried to post the photos of it but this computer is giving me crap today and I'm not in the mood to fool with it . . . I'll try them again another day. I was kinda timid about doing the gift album in the first place . . . I love scrapping and have tons of albums myself and love to look at them over and over . . . and so does Gennie . . . but I can never tell if others appreciate them as much as we do. So I asked around and thanks to all the advice (Thanks, Sam and Krista!) and encouragement I went ahead and made it for the couple. I did it so that they only have to pick out the pix they want to include and add them to the photo spots on the pages. No extra work, since they are both very busy teachers. It was a real stretch for me tho because I usually like to scrap around the pix . . . I pick out the ones I plan to use then build the pages around them . . . but since they don't have the pix yet I had to just pick a design and go with it. Hopefully it will all flow from beginning to end when it's finished. Funny thing, too . . . as soon as I finished it I came in here to check the email and I had a request from some church friends who have moved to TX but lived here when we first moved here. They had a grandson born the first year we were here and they had me make them a gift album for the new parents . . . it had one page for each month of the first year of the baby's life, starting with coming home from the hospital and ending with the first birthday. The parents just had to pick their favorite pix from each month and put them in the photo spot . . . very little work to do since you have so much to do as new parents already. Anyway, the request today was for another book, this time for their new granddaughter who was born about a month ago. Since I've been in baby scrapping mode myself a bunch lately I have tons of ideas and supplies for just such an album. All that to say, I guess people do still appreciate handmade gifts.

yesterday's to-do list

1. work on gift album for shower on Sat.

2. clean master bath. Should take just about all of my energy for today so thankfully I have plenty to do otherwise that just requires sitting still.

3. come up with games for the shower. my friend Kendra is hard at work coming up with some, too, so hopefully between us we'll have some that haven't been played at every shower since the beginning of time.

4. find sunglasses/trenchcoat for church on sunday. I am co-directing Vacation Bible School again this year and Lisa and I are going to start the advertising announcements this sunday during church. The theme is about spies/top secret info this year so we're dressing up like spies and hamming it up really big for the kids. Do they even make trenchcoats that fit at 6 1/2 months preggo?

5. store run for salad makings for the shower.

So, all I got done was the cleaning of the master bathroom and working on the gift album. I was right, even tho it wasn't that dirty, the cleaning and reaching and all did me in. Oh well, at least I can still crochet when I just have to sit still. I'm working like mad to finish the blankie I'm making for the boy . . . later on when we move him into his Big Boy Room, we're planning to decorate with Calvin and Hobbes stuff . . . tiger stripes and little boy overalls . . . pawprints and shoe prints running rampant all over the room . . . so I'm making him a tiger skin blankie to go with. We would have done the C&H motif now except that you really can't find anything for baby rooms in that design. So we'll stick with the noah's ark stuff for his baby room and change it when he moves at 2 y/o or so. That will also make it special for his "big move into a big kid's bed" and all. But I have to say, my friend Kendra and her sister and mom are doing a shower for us on May 12 and they did everything in the Calvin and Hobbes motif!!! I love it. Here's pix of the invite, and I'm told the cake will be really similar, too. Can't wait!!! I'll post pix when I have them.