bleach

Bleach sucks the breath right out of you. Literally. I wasn't thinking about it, and thought that just opening the window in my bathroom would be plenty. Nope! I was standing in the shower spraying my ceiling with a bleach solution to kill the mold that had grown (because we don't have a fan to suck out the humidity). I sprayed the bottle like 3 times and started choking and had to evacuate. Luckily Elli was over at my mom's house. I turned on the attic fan and it has helped a lot, except that now my house smells like bleach. My lungs are burning.
I wonder if I will have bleached stripes down my walls now. I wiped them down, but I doubt I did it quick enough. Time will tell, I suppose.
On a good note - I went to bed at 7:30 last night and woke up at 7:30 this morning. I feel great. My jaw still hurts, though. Stupid stress.
Gotta check the progress of my bleach.

I did it!

Well, I almost did the "Margo", but did this instead....what do ya think?

2 little things

Well one's not so little....

MY SISTER BECKY IS HAVING A BABY!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to be an aunt! Well, I already am an aunt - but now I'll be a biological aunt....I mean, it's different when it's your own sister!!! Yeah Becky!!! Little Becky got married...now she's having a baby. :) Aawwww.....

And I am really thinking of getting my hair cut like this: This is my cousin Margo. She always has had short hair and I have always envied and loved it. My friends and family who know me and know how I look - please tell me if you think I should do it...... I need encouragement one way or the other. If I got it short like this, I may leave it a little longer in the front so that I still had a little bit of a bang...I have a big forehead. This picture doesn't do her justice...she's beautiful and cute and this cut just makes her eyes and expression sparkle! I am seriously thinking of doing this tomorrow....what do you think?

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Happy Easter Elli - part 3

Here we are at my Grandma's house for dinner. I found this little yellow coat on clearance - it matched her hat that I made perfectly! And ofcourse it looked great with her ducky purse

This is her Easter dress that I made. I don't know how to read children's patterns yet, so it is pretty much huge on her....but darn-it! I worked hard to get it finished so she was wearing it no matter what! She's still a cutey :) We're hunting easter eggs!

Happy Easter Elli - part 2

Here we are next at church with her good friend, Jayden. Isn't he sweet? He is 2 months younger than Elli. It was fun being pregnant with Jill at the same time and seeing our kids grow up with a play mate. This is as close as we could get them to stand, and since I was on "catch duty", I couldn't get a good front on shot. They're still cute!
Jayden's like "How YOU doin' " in this picture....

Happy Easter Elli!

Here are a few Easter morning pictures of Elli when she woke up and found that the EasterBunny stopped by our house last night and left her a present! She got a baby-doll stroller and a baby bottle and sippy cup that the contents mysteriously disappear, some baby diapers and easter eggs! She had a good time this morning. And here she is chowing on breakfast-which by the way, I am not allowed to feed her anymore. She WILL NOT let me feed her breakfast.

Elli and Roo

Here's a sweet picture of Elli and her cousin Roo who is in visiting from Kansas with my cousin Bobby. It was so fun having them in. I love to t
alk to Bobby because he "gets" my artsy stuff and it's fun to talk to him and all that he does in his world of creativity. Roo loved Elli - she loved having another little girl in the midst of all the boy cousins running around! Elli really liked her too. We'll miss them very much!

Rice Krispy nests

So I was feeling pretty creative today and thought I'd share it with you!

I made Rice Krispy trest nests for Easter - pretty cute if you ask me.... Here's what you do!

Have everything ready to go - muffin cups, coconut, "robin egg" Whopper candy, and ofcourse a needy toddler.

Make rice krispy treats according to what's on the box - I added chocolate chips to make them chocolate-y goodness....because I thought it would be cuter and I love chocolate....don't judge me.

While it's still gooey press into muffin cups and then build a rim around the top of that to make a "nest."

Then add your green coconut...

And finally your Robin Eggs...and voila!

Cali dog

My wonderful, crazy, annoying, spastic, poor little dog. She's so neglected now. I want to start walking her regularly - I think it would do us both some good. (I have a feeling that's written on my etch-a-sketch list...see previous post) I think she'd feel like she was getting some attention if we did. We don't play with her like we used to - mainly because she's a wild beast and is wreckless when she thrashes her body aounr to get a ball and doesn't care what or who is around her...she's knocked Elli down too many times to count. Elli's getting her back now, though. Cali is really good with Elli most of the time. Really th only time that she growls is when Elli gets to trying to climb on her or lay on her. Other than that, she's suprisingly gentle- for as wild as she is.

I've not posted pictures of her in ages (ever?) so here she is minding her own business....

until Miss Elliza comes along - as she usually does, climbing over the arm of the chair....

trying to get her to "shake" like she does for me when I give her a treat.

And life goes on

So as many of you who have children know, or have a husband know, or have pets know, or have a job know, your plans may as well be written on a stinking etch-a-sketch. Last week, I had 5 days off in a row! Awesome right?! I had all of these plans to catch up on my school painting, work on and finish this mural I am going to be doing in our quiet room at church (it's going to be really baby friendly and cute!), do some organizing, start my yardsale pile, clean up my basement, finish sewing Elli's Easter dress, and all sorts of wonderful things. But NOOooOOoo! I was laying with Elli on the couch Tuesday night (the beginning of my time off) and she had suddenly developed a high-high fever. It was reading 102.6 or something like that. She kept it for 3 days. So I couldn't do anything! I couldn't go to school or church and paint and leave her sick somewhere! So I stayed home, which made her very clingy and panicy if I left the room she was in for any reason. I was nuts-so by the time it's all over. Needless to say, I've got nothing done. That's why I haven't blogged in a long time. I haven't had the chance! ( There was time, though to watch the first season of LOST) I haven't had time to tweeze my eye-brows (I am looking like the Eagle muppet). I only was able to get Elli's dress finished because it HAD to be done by Easter. I've only started organizing - which I can only do while she's sleeping because most of the stuff is on my second floor that needs to come to my basement and there's no way to block the steps and keep her from falling down while she's awake.
Today there is an art opening that I have to go to for school, but may have to skip because I don't want to go by myself, and Mike has a prior engagement that he says he can't cancel. I am waiting to here from someone to see if they want to go with me. The only thing in my life right now that is a for-sure thing is my work schedule. Probably because I HAVE to be there, otherwise it would end up on my "I'll do it tomorrow" list like the pile of laundry on the couch and the dirty dishes in the sink.
On a positive note, though...Elli was very pleasant yesterday. That was a very good day.

There was a little girl...

There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I've decided this poem was written about Elli. Seriously, how did he know?

another addiction

In addition to my chocolate addiction, my fluffy coffee addiction ("fluffy" because I can't drink regular coffee- it needs sugar, cream, ground ice, ya know....fluff), and of course my general food addiction - Mike and I have found something else. We discovered the TV show Lost last night. We don't have cable television, so we sometimes watch shows off of the internet directly into our TV from his laptop. I introduced him to Quantum Leap not long ago. He has a hard time admitting that he likes it. I know he does though, I can tell these things. I like it. It's a great show!
Anyways, last night on TV was some stupid basketball game that we didn't feel like watching, so we pulled out the computer and started browsing. Already today, I caught up on "Samantha Who?" on ABC - with Christina Applegate. It's a cute show. I was sewing and watching that online - yes, I can multi-task. :)
Some of our friends told us how they HAVE to watch Lost. They are hooked. But it's one of those shows you have to see from the beginning to know what's going on. Lucky for us! All of the seasons so far are online! So last night we started with the pilot...it got us at number one! We watched 4 episodes straight through last night. If it wasn't midnight, and daylight savings, we probably would have watched more. We've found our new "Heroes" (another show I didn't watch because I was lost, but started at the beginning online and can't miss it now).

Don't eat yellow snow!

It snowed yesterday...a lot...but not nearly as much as it did at my aunt's house or even my sister's house. I didn't go outside at all yesterday. It was cold and very windy. I take that back. I did go outside to get a bowl of snow for Elli to play with. She kept looking out the front window saying "No?! No?!" (not yelling, but trying to say "See the snow mom? Snow, right?!) and pointing at it in awe. So I braved the cold and brought some in. We would have played in it today even, but she doesn't have any snow boots or a snow suit. It usually doesn't snow enough to make it worth getting them, I was wrong about that this year.... Anyway, she had fun with her little bowl here.. The evolution of a snowball in a child's hand:

Snack time!

Tuesday I hung out with a dear friend of mine, Megan. I haven't been able to visit her in a very long time - which is a little sad because she lives so close. But anyways, Elli and her beautiful daughter Libby played while Megan and I sipped tea, looked at pictures, and caught up on things.
I had read before about toddlers liking to "graze" (much like us adults do) and that a good idea is to set out an ice cube tray of snacks for them to eat on the run. I never did it, because I don't have ice cube trays and never thought to buy one when I was at the store. Megan had a great idea - that I quickly stole. She used her Pampered Chef chillzane veggie and egg tray to do her spread of treats for Libby. What a genius! And I have one! So today I made a snack tray for Elli in my thing that I've never used before complete with Elli's favorite - blue berries or "boo" as she calls them. There are grapes, graham crackers, goldfish crackers, cheeze mandarin oranges with wheat germ on them so they aren't so slippery (another of Megan's things) and it slips in some Folic acid and Vitamin E, and some dried fruit too...yummyyyy.
Elli obviously went for the blueberries first. Truely her favorite. I have diapers to prove it. I am convinced that blueberries are the reason that she has not been sick all winter (other than the 3 days she had a stuffy nose). They are so healthy and full of anti-oxidants....and so good.....
And Cali clearly wasn't far away. Sure she looks like she's just laying there...but she's waiting until Elli or I turn our backs and then she'll be into in a flash. Little does she know, there's a fancy lid that comes with it that I have closely on standby.
We'll be doing this again!!!

Where's Elli?

Elli and I were playing the other day and I tossed her onto the bed....1-2-3 Weeeeee!!! And all of a sudden she disappeared! I thought it was pretty funny and had to take a picture :)