steph's stuff

Well now.

The day started off great. Busy, busy as always - we all had to hurry out of the house even earlier than usual because I had an appointment for a baseline mammogram. Hadn't even thought twice about it. I was really worried about the heavy snow that was falling and getting everyone to work and school safely and on time. Well, no one got anywhere on time, but we did all arrive safely. Big, huge, beautiful snow storm here today! So, I breathed a big sigh of relief and headed over to my mammogram appointment. The technician was young and smart and bubbly and we laughed our way through the whole thing (which, by the way, did not hurt even a tiny bit and wasn't even uncomfortable, so go get one!!!!) and at the end, she said have a seat and I'll be back in just a few minutes after I look at the films and make sure we got everything. She cracked a quick joke on her way out the door and we laughed again. A few minutes passed and she came back in the door. Very quiet and with quite a sober look on her face. She suddenly became very professional and spoke very softly to me - she told me that I would either hear from my doctor or receive a letter in a few days, maybe a week. I just looked at her and said okay and she walked quickly out the door.

Well. Now. I didn't expect that. What happened to the laughing, joking, very congenial tech that I had just met? Tom says that maybe while she was out of the room, something else happened that put her in a down mood. So, here's hoping that she got yelled at by her boss or something while she was out of the room, right? Because, seriously, I was shocked at the change in her demeanor.

Well. I just had my checkup and the doctor didn't find any lumps, so I'm gonna hang my hat on that one until I hear something.

Meanwhile, I've consumed way too much chocolate this morning. :p

Maine or Texas

We're contemplating not going to Maine this summer. Sigh. I don't know if I can do that. But, Tom's Texas side of the family is having a huge family reunion this summer and wouldn't ya just know it - it conflicts with our usual Maine vacation. The same week that my brothers and their families always go to Maine and the only chance I get to see them each year. But, really, we haven't been to Texas since I was pregnant with Andrew. And Tom's grandfather is 93 years old. There aren't many chances left, ya know? So, we have a decision to make. Either way, we'll have a great time and the kids will love both trips. But, going to Maine isn't really vacation for me. It's going home. And it's going to be very difficult to give up that chance this year. My gut tells me that the decision is already made, but until I see it on paper, it's not, ya know?

And, in other news, I had a great conversation with Stef yesterday. Well, actually, she was feeling pretty darn crappy, but it was still good to hear her voice and laugh with her. And apparently pizza can cure a few ills, so she's feeling a bit better. :)

Looks like my house is getting the plague again. Elizabeth has a fever which lowers her seizure threshhold, so I've given her strict orders not to get off the couch without telling me. And Andrew seems to have a horrible cold. I guess it's the season.

Hope all is well with all of my faithful readers. I haven't been great with updating my blog lately. I'll blame it on the digi scrapping addiction that I've acquired. ;)

6 weird things, a baby, and a book

6 weird things:

Tagged by Boo! for 6 weird things about me. (Hi Boo!!!!!!!!!!)

1 - I cannot move my toes independently. Totally true - if you tell me to wiggle my toes, they either all move at the same time or none move.

2 - I have incredibly bad eyesight. Really bad - I've been legally blind (without corrective lenses) since 3rd grade. Love my contacts!!!

3 - I can't twist my tongue, wiggle my ears or cross my eyes. Seriously, I have no sense of any of my muscles like most people.

4 - I can't drink my coffee until I can sit down and either browse online with the laptop or read the paper. There is no coffee drinking without reading material for me.

5 - My favorite movie is The Thomas Crowne Affair. Most people don't even remember it, but dh and I absolutely love it!

6 - I cannot keep milk in the house if it is after the date on the container. I know that's the sell by date, but if it says April 7 on the gallon and it's April 8th, that milk is poured down the drain. Ugh - can't stand old milk.

A baby

Sharyn had her baby this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am sooooo excited for her and hope to get to see Sharyn and little Mark before too long!!! And, she had to call me tonight from the hospital to let me know that I was wrong and it was not a girl! LOL!!  Eh, I suck at those things - don't know why I even try to guess. But, either way, it was great to hear her voice and her laugh and a huge congratulations to her and her whole family!!!!!!!!!!!!

A book

I am so excited to be the official photographer for a small book for our local hospital. It's for the Breast Care Center and it's a book made up solely of funny anecdotes from breast cancer survivors. Hysterical stories about their chemo experiences and other cancer-related experiences. I am so honored and cannot wait to meet everyone. I am totally humbled to be able to photograph all of these amazing women.

Catch up, catch up Mustard!

Love that cute little song that Elizabeth's teacher sings when some of the kids fall behind the group! Although the version using Monster instead of Mustard is cute, too.

Anyway, lots of organization going through my brain these days, so this will just be a catch up post.

• Elizabeth seems to be doing well as we start the med switch regimen. Her appetite is starting to come back and she seems to have regained a tiny bit of weight, so yeah team!!!!
• Emily has finally decided upon the list of invitees for her birthday slumber party - who knew that narrowing down a list of 12 girls was going to be that agonizingly difficult.
• Said slumber party will be this Friday - six 8 & 9 year old girls. God help me!
• Dh and Andrew will be going to his brother's house in Michigan for that night - wish it could be me instead. :p
• Emily has developed a somewhat regular phone buddy. And it's a boy. Oy.
• I have found something to keep Andrew quiet!!!!!! Santa brought him a Leapster for Christmas and it is quickly becoming Mommy's best friend. :)
• The Leapsters are making my kids whine for other video game systems, but no go in this house. Educational Leapsters are as far as I'm going down that road.
• Emily's at a sleepover at a friends' house right now. And the friends' father is Emily's teacher. Tee hee - Em was a bundle of nerves when she left. I don't think I have to worry about whether she was on her best behavior or not.
• Did I mention that dh won his trial a week or so ago?!?!?! Not an easy thing to do at all in his type of practice. I think that makes his track record somewhere between 70 - 80%.
• He's also still riding his bike everywhere instead of driving. Even in the snow and rain - I about have a heart attack every morning and night when I know he's on the roads.
• I am totally addicted to digital scrapbooking. I'll never give up my paper stuff and actually did 3 new paper LOs just a week or so ago, but digi scrapping rocks, too!
• The worst part is stopping myself from buying digi kits online. So far, I've found lots of good free stuff.
• Got my LOs and tear sheets back from CK's Idea Annual last week. I was one of the few not upset over that - I loved that book soooo much and had already broken down and bought it with a coupon. :)
• I am thisclose to being caught up with clients' photos that need editing!!!!! I hate being under the gun with 3 clients waiting in the wings. Blech.
• My sil should be having her baby in the next 3 weeks or so. I am soooo excited to have a new baby in our family - I am totally craving babies right now.
• Oh, and sil's baby is her 3rd boy - she'll have an almost 6 yo ds, an almost 3 yo ds, and a newborn ds. Whew - better her than me! :)
• Santa got my kids Lincoln Logs for Christmas and they have quickly turned into THE. BEST. TOY. EVER. All 3 kids play with them all day and they play together!!!!
• Oh, kids are calling. Back later.
• Here's a quick picture from a mini-shoot I had a couple of weeks ago. Two sisters - 20 years apart.

A new word maybe?

Hmmm. Today's post is just a mindless jumble, so feel free to stop reading now. :)

I'm thinking I need a new word. My word, as inspired by Ali, was simplify. And I really love that word. My life is chaotic most of the time and I need to simplify. Physically - we need to get rid of stuff in this house, in my scraproom, in the filing cabinets, kids' clothes - just simplify things to make everyday life easier to manage. Emotionally - I need to get rid of some baggage in many areas, give up on some ideas that no longer seem right and come to terms with some new ones.

But, another word keeps crossing my mind. And I wonder about it. Because, for the first time in my life, I've become a cup half full kind of girl. I'm not sure I could be as upbeat as Stef but I've managed to be okay through some trials and tribulations. And I'm not a natural-born cup half full type. Dh and I have always said that we're both "wallowers" - we wallow in the bad things and that's our way of dealing with them. And I don't mean that we've felt sorry for ourselves when bad things have happened or whined incessantly - just that we allowed ourselves to really live in the pain for a bit and work our way out of it. So, wallowing has been our way.

But, I've changed. Slowly, but over the past couple of years, I think my whole personality has changed. I feel more comfortable in my own skin, in my beliefs, in my life. I said two years ago that I felt like I was having a midlife crisis and I joked about it a lot. Looking back, I think maybe I really was. LOL! Because I've changed. I don't tend to wallow anymore. I tend to keep my head about me and stay okay with the bad things. And I'm just now realizing that maybe, just maybe, I've kind of gotten my act together over these past 2 years. (Honey, you are so not allowed to comment on that. :p) And the thing that's helped me get this all figured out is perspective. When my grandmother died (two years ago yesterday), it was beyond devastating. She was a parent to me really, not a grandparent. And with the exception of another death, there's not much that could ever make me feel that bad again. See, it's the perspective. The bad stuff just isn't as bad anymore. So, there's no need to wallow. It's just a thing and it will get better.

So, I'm thinking I need to change my word to perspective to remind myself of this new me. Because right now I hate that my child has epilepsy. But, really, it's just a thing. She's fine, she's going to keep being fine and, even when I'm hating it and I hate that she's not allowed on the playground equipment at school anymore and I hate that she's suddenly different than her classmates, she's really totally fine. She's perfectly healthy and she's generally pretty happy. And when I remember to keep my perspective, my anger goes away. So we have to change some things to make sure she doesn't injure herself. No biggie. It's simply not worth the wallow. I've got better things to do with my time. :)

Or maybe I'm just so damn sleep deprived that none of this makes sense. :p

So much fun!!!

Wendy's visit was awesome! She called me last Thursday and said, "Hey, I was going to go mail you a birthday card, but then it hit me. Why don't I just come visit you instead? What're you doing tomorrow?" And I about jumped for joy!

So, she drove all the way here - 2 hours one way with her gorgeous 3 1/2 yo dd - and we had a blast! We left all 4 kids with a sitter and then dh came home early and watched the kids. Wendy and I had a 3 hour lunch at Houlihan's and then went to the LSS. Wendy totally cracks me up! When we got to the restaurant, she told the waitress that we were going to be a pain because we were going to take up her booth for hours, but we promised to leave a good tip if she just let us sit there. LOL! And we had a blast! I don't think we stopped talking the entire time. Except when Wendy had to go use the little girls' room at one point and she hurried as fast as she could because she didn't want to waste a single minute of our talking time! Love her to pieces!!! I knew I really needed a girlfriend fix, but I had no idea how much! I walked around that entire evening all happy and singing after she left. Thank you, Wendy!!! Best birthday present I've had in a very, very long time!

After we got back to the house, Wendy had to break it to Zoe that it was time to leave. And adorable little Zoe did not want to go. I love, love this picture of this tiny little girl attempting to stand up to her mother when Wendy told her to go potty. Zoe was having nothing to do with it because she knew that going potty was just the first step in the leaving process. LOL!

We would totally adopt Zoe if we could! She's virtually the exact same age as Andrew (they're only 10 days apart), but sooooo much better behaved. And my girls just adored her! Look at how she was trying to beat up Emily! I think Emily was having more fun than Zoe!

And look at these beautiful eyes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a happy, happy day! And...........I also got to see......................

........................

........................

THE BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG! I am so excited about Wendy's and Kitty's book! It is totally amazing and there is sooooo much incredible talent in the book!!! So, hold onto your hats everyone - this is going to be THE idea book to buy this summer!!!!!

January 7, 2006

January 7, 1968 - 14,235 days ago - that's how long it's been since I was born. I've been in denial about my age for years now. I had my first child at 30 and I think I've been sleep deprived ever since because it doesn't seem possible that I'm nearing the end of my 30s. But, today is my birthday and I am 39. Surely, I was supposed to have felt like a grownup before now? Surely, I was supposed to have figured life out by now, right?

Then why do I still feel 15? I can remember the angst of my sophomore year in high school like it was yesterday. I can remember the pain of college days like it was this morning. If you had asked me about age during either of those periods of my life, I would have told you that I would have life all figured out by 30. 'Cause that was the age of being a grown up - truly mature, probably married, on your way to financial security, home owner, etc...

Well, LOL - I sure would have been wrong. My life was just starting at 30. And, now, 9 years later, I still don't have a darn thing figured out. Except that maybe the point is not to figure it all out. Maybe the point is to struggle through it everyday and just enjoy the process. So, that's what I'm doing. Just trying not to worry about the age and just enjoy the process.

Surprise!

Don't ya just love surprises?!

I got a phone call today with a bit of a surprise in it.

And I'm more than a little bit excited about this early birthday present! :D

Wanna guess what it is?

Here's a hint: I expect there to be lots and lots of laughs. ;)

RAK to the first person to correctly guess what my surprise is!

***ETA: Okay, next time Wendy and I need to coordinate our blog posts. :p  RAK to Amanda!!!

A sight for sore eyes!

Dude.

CZ is back!!!

It's a good day. A very good day!!!!!

January 1, 2007

Happy New Year!!!!

This is going to be a good year. I can just feel it! My lucky number is 7, my birthday is January 7th, this is 2007 and I heard on the news recently that 2007 is going to be a great year for Capricorns. So, yeah, bring on a good year! We need it around here!

My mom is packing up right now and getting ready to go. The kitchen has been cleaned and cleared of all Christmas treats, we have a borrowed steam vac for the week and I'm cleaning carpets and I want to simplify! We have really outgrown our house and since a new one is not in the cards for a year or two, I need to declutter and find some more space. Plus, both upstairs bathrooms need to be redone and we're going to get going on that next week. So, the first goal of the new year is to declutter and simplify.

My other goals include organizing my photography business that is becoming so much busier than I had expected it to. I also need to do some serious thinking about whether I want to continue to pursue any publishing goals. I haven't scrapped for months, with the exception of assignments. I simply don't have time and, well, photography simply pays better. So, that leaves me with some serious thinking to do. It sure would be fun to just scrap for myself. It's been well over a year since I've done that and my kids are bugging me to make them some books. So, what to do?

There are a lot of personal goals as well and I'm thinking that simplifying my overall life will help me to reach those as well.

Whatever happens, I'm excited about the new year! Happy New Year!

Bring on the good stuff, 2007!