Random Picture Challenge

27th folder

Or December 2007

27th picture

Oh, my word.

Well, that would be Eli. Actually, Eli's mouth. And his tooth is barely hanging on. I'm sure he plucked it out right after this picture was taken.

You asked for it. You got it!

PS. Notice the sand in his nostrils and peanut butter at the corners of his mouth? This picture screams summer time! LOL

For the Family

I decided that we needed a getaway. Well, actually, I really, really, REALLY need a getaway. But I'm getting one. In two weeks. But that's then. This is now!

We, the whole family, is going to Minnesota Friday and Saturday. Just because. Just because we can. Just because Samuel thought of it. And it's his birthday Saturday. And I like Samuel. Because.

So. We are going to take in an IMAX film. About the Great Lakes. Because I like water. And one about the Grand Canyon. Because I like water and great heights. And I've been to both places. Yup. Small parts of them but still.

We are going to eat out. Yum. No more eggs for me this week. Guess what? When you don't feel like cooking....eggs are an easy meal. But they get old. And if you have an aversion to them because you are pregnant with your 3rd or 4th child it just might not be the best meal.

And we just might go to a "REAL" mall. You know, the kind that has more than 3 open store fronts.

But. We gotta get there first. And that is going to be the telling. Are we still in the honeymoon phase of childrearing? Hohohohahahee. No. I coulda told ya that. But the boys will have to get along. Sitting REALLY close together for 4 hours. Mike and I might just let them run the halls and we'll lock ourselves into our room and have a honeymoon. Woo hoo.

Ok. It's late and I'm gonna go back over to PW to read more of her real-time answers. Hope she answers my burning questions. See ya there!

Random Picture Challenge

3rd folder

1st picture with the color brown

My little sister Kim holding Riley. I'm not sure how old Riley is at this point but it can't be too old...maybe a month???

Mikey was so cute! Look at the little man in his suit!

Inflammatory Breast Cancer

I am taking an informal poll....

How many of you have ever heard of Inflammatory Breast Cancer?

No?

Don't feel bad. Not many people are aware of it.

I first read up on it about a year ago as I stumbled upon the term when I was having labs ran on a spot on my breast. That spot turned out to be a very small cyst and it went away on its own rather quickly.

I forgot all about IBC. Until today.

Yesterday I visited my doctor because of a sore lump surrounded by a large reddish patch below one breast. He told me it was cellulitis and prescribed an antibiotic. Thanks, and I went home.

Today I started studying up on cellulitis. That's not pretty in itself. I specifically 'googled' "breast cellulitis" because most sites mentioned that it was common on the extremities (arms and legs) and was a cause for great concern if on the face. But nowhere did it mention the breast. When I started looking into "breast cellulitis" I found on one site that it mentioned that IBC was often misdiagnosed as cellulitis of the breast.

Well, that woke me up in a hurry.

I am not of the hypochondriac variety. But I dug a bit further and made up my mind that if this does not clear up in the 10 days of antibiotic treatment I will have my doctor specifically check for IBC.

It's kinda scary.

Here's some facts:
1. Rare but very aggressive. Accounts for 1-5% of all breast cancer cases in US.
2. Can occur in men and women of any age. Young to old.
3. Symptoms include redness, swelling, warmth, often lacks noticeable lump, skin may be ridged or pitted like orange peel, heaviness, burning or aching of breast, inverted nipple, discoloration, swollen lymph nodes.
4. Mammograms often miss the diagnoses because it does not look like the "typical" breast cancer lump but is more like a sheet of cancer in breast tissue.
5. 5 year survival rate of 25-50%
6. Symptoms can appear over-night.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/inflammatory-breast-cancer/4016186461

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/sites-types/ibc

Surprisingly, the Susan G. Koman for the Cure site does not have any information on this type of cancer.

I hope by posting this will help someone survive.


PS. I would appreciate any information anyone else has on this. Thank you!

Whew, I'm finished!

I finished one challenge! The Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge.

Check out my reviews here.

Zoey

Zoey has been home with us for a bit over a week now.

She is a puppy.



Puppies are like babies.



Lots o' work.

Everytime I think things are going well, she changes. Her housetraining was going really good. But now when I take her out, she plays around and though I try to be patient with her, it gets old--really fast.

She is a cutie though.

Zoey, thankfully, is a very small dog so her doo is small and her puddles are small and the few accidents she's had are easy to clean. But, alas, I don't want to be cleaning up after her for months so I'm really wanting this training to take hold in her teeny-tiny brain.

Mike is the one getting up in the middle of the night with her. I told him, "I got up for all the midnight nursing and diaper changes. You can get up to take the dog out." He claims he got up for 80% of those nightly feedings and changes. I don't remember him nursing! Oh....I see. He woke up. He didn't GET up.

Well, Zoey's whining. Again.

I will take her out once before I head to the bus stop for my baby, Riley.

Later!

These were quick and easy

I had to come up with a number of quick and easy cards to make Wednesday afternoon. I was feeling my creativity begin to ebb and I was short on time. So I grabbed an old Stampin' UP! catalog at random and began to search for an idea. The original had an image of a frog stamped on a white circle with white rick-rack. The background paper was darker. After I had most of it assembled I decided it looked a bit unbalanced. Maybe because my image was larger than the original. So I added the tab to the side of the color strip. Evened it out a bit.

This is my favorite.

What do you like/not like about these cards?

Kim's Baby Shower Invitations

My sister, Kim, is pregnant with her third girl. She had two big baby showers for {A} and my mom, sisters-in-law, and I surprised her by driving 4 hours to give her a baby shower for {L}. This time I figured we couldn't surprise her again. She does not surprise easily--she's too keen for that. So I went ahead and told her I'd throw her a shower at her home. To make it a bit easier on her I'm going to do all the cleaning and decorate. My mom decided to get catered food for the most part and the guest list is small and intimate.

We are doing a book themed party so I wanted the invitations to reflect that. Check 'em out!

Not your typical baby shower invites but I wanted it to portray a girl and look like an old Golden Book-type cover. The image is stamped on pink card stock and embossed. Then I bleached out the image. When it was dry I water colored the image. A friend cut out the scalloped ovals using her die cutter. I used a bone folder to score along the "binding". A gold gel pen worked great to give it some detail and write the title. Gold cord was taped inside the binding and ran down the front.I already decided to make a library card for the actual invitation but also added the pocket and fabric-patterned scrapbook paper. I used three different patterns. Just because I wanted to. I like them. I think the stripe and the circles are my favorites.

I always finish off my cards with my signature, bottom center back.

Baby {B} and Mom

Here's Baby {B}

He's the recipient of my long dormant creativity.

He looks just like his daddy.

And here's Mommy with the gift. She was thrilled. She always is. It makes me feel all warm inside to be able to give each mother an original gift that will last longer than any of the dozens of awesomely adorable outfits or boxes of diapers, lotions, shoes, bibs, etc.....

I like to give all that stuff, too. It just doesn't make me feel all warm inside. It just makes me say "ooh" and "ahh". And wish I could have another baby.

Okay, maybe not. Can I just have a baby shower? Without the baby?

I've been feeling Crafty!

This past Saturday I had a baby shower to attend. For my close friends I always try to make something personal. Something they'll never, ever throw away.

The problem was that by Friday I still hadn't come up with an idea or gone shopping. So Friday night we ran up to WalMart and I picked out a few items in the infant section: a camoflage had and mittens set that will fit next winter, long sleeve white tees that will fit in 12 months and the most adorable monkey sleeper that will fit 3-6months.

But I still wanted to find something personal. I had about given up when we were perusing the clearance aisles. That's when I found this.

For $5.

Couldn't pass that up. Wish I would've grabbed them all!

So early Saturday I picked out four paints and got to work....

Baby {B} is a boy so I wanted to go sorta primary but picked different shades of primaries. Instead of the typical red, yellow, blue and green, I chose crimson, canary yellow, leaf green and sky blue.

It took 3 coats of paint to get a nice even finish. Sorry, I don't have a close-up of the final coat here.

I thought it was a major improvement from plain ol' white. But it still needed something so I scrounged around in my supply of Stampin' UP! rubber stamps and picked two that I thought would go: safari or bugs.

I went with the safari. Though I borrowed the ant from the bug set. I did his name free-hand in green at the bottom. I added some word stickers to the mat (a favorite of mine). But I wish-really, really, really wish-I would've painted the mat blue. I still could but, eh....that's kinda awkward to do at my friend's house. What do you think? Technically, it isn't finished in my book because I haven't signed it yet....which I'm going to do today....it's a long story. See, if I sign a painting, I'm saying that I'm done and have to be happy with it as is. It's my way of dealing with my perfectionism.

More later about my sudden burst of creativity brought on by necessity.

Serious.Life Magazine

I wanted you to know about this publication I’m a part of called Serious.Life Magazine.

They just published the March issue today, and I am in their Featured Blog Directory. It’s a very high quality magazine… you’ll really like it. The magazine includes a lot of great content from bloggers you’ll appreciate, as well as great features, photos and other content. The magazine is owned and published by a family who have seven kids, three adopted and one who has Leukemia (http://www.riggsfamilyblog.com/). The magazine gives away a bunch of ads to charities and ministries. Besides great articles on interesting people, there is a lot about family, adoption, personal finance, spiritual life, humor… all sorts of “life” topics.

Again, the subscription is FREE, and I know you’ll enjoy the magazine, so take a minute to check it out and sign up to get future issues. http://www.seriouslifemagazine.com/

Need a good laugh?

If you need something to laugh at, or about, today, you gotta go check out Cake Wrecks.

Never been there? Oh, you're really missing out.

Just don't blame me if you spray coffee all over your computer or wet yourself laughing hysterically.

Enjoy!

When Momma Goes to Work

Reality Check.

When Momma goes to work, all hands do NOT pitch in.

That is my reality.

Before kids came into the picture, Mike and I both worked full time jobs and we both did the housework.

I am not a women's-libber. I believe it is the place for the woman to be in the house, making it a home, if it is at all possible in this day and age we live in. The woman raises the children and cooks the meals and does the laundry and all that stuff.

But I also believe that if the woman has to work outside the home, then the household chores should be split-up. Although, she is still responsible for the home overall. Even if she has slave labor-um, er, I mean children.

Mike told me that if I got a job outside the home, that he would take over some of the housework to help out. Well, lets see what he's done since I've been subbing 3-4 days a week this past month: Dishes? Nope. Laundry? Nada. Vacuum or sweep? Of course....NOT! Make the bed? Yeah, right! Tidy the house? What????

You get the picture. If fact, he has been very busy: playing Call of Duty on the XBox 360, playing myspace apps, riding 4wheeler, taking naps, talking on phone to his buddies, did I mention taking naps?

So. I'm pulling double duty right now. Working and managing the household. It's a bit rough and I'm not inviting anyone over anytime soon. And I'm not allowing any cameras inside these walls. We are not going to capture this on film for posterity. No, sirree.

I'm not dissin' my homeboy. Really! I still love him beyond words. What can I say? He's a man and he's set in his ways. He likes living with "mommy" and having his underwear picked up for him these past 12 years.

I'm just telling you why I'm not posting as often as I'd like to. I'm filling you in on the blank spots of my life.

"Mi vida loca." My crazy life. That 'bout explains it.

Win a Book

If you haven't read Michelle Moran's books Nefertiti and The Heretic Queen, here's a chance to win a copy of each book along with an author interview over at Bloggin 'bout Books.

The New Toy

This past Christmas we decided to get a big family gift instead of lots of little things for the boys.

So we saved up our pennies and found this beauty at Keweenaw Motor Sports. We got a sweet deal on it.

It's a 2004 Honda Rubicon with brand new tires and a 2500lb winch. We bought a county plow to throw on the front of it and Mike uses it to plow our driveway while the boys and I just cruise around the yard and up and down our road.

Come spring, we are hoping to take the boys out for jaunts through the woods.

Mike was shocked that I had never rode a 4wheeler before. He assumed that since I grew up out in the boondocks that I had my share of "wheelin'".

No sirree, Bob! Not me. Our family was too poor to have that kinda stuff.

Or something like that.

Maybe it just wasn't that important to have all the toys when I was growing up.

Yeah, a few of my neighbors had 3wheelers and would take them out in the dunes and it looked like lots of fun. Actually, I'd love to have had this baby back then. That would've been freakin' AWESOME. *ahem*

But somehow I don't think my brothers would've appreciated the "privilege" of an ATV. Walking down the frozen river and biking into town in the summer was adventure enough for their 'free-spirits'!