~boggle boggle boggle~

Yesterday we visited both sets of grandparents and ate two Thanksgiving feasts!  My parents had a bit of a full house, but not quite all of us at the same time.  My brother and his family were leaving as we arrived -- off to his in-laws.  My nephew, Seth, and his wife stayed just barely long enough to eat and then they were off to two more celebrations!  My nephew Rich and his two kiddos were there longer than we were, and my older daughter Hollyanne and her family were there for quite a bit as well.  It was good to see them all.  After supper, my sister Jeanne, my mom, B. and her Daddy, Rich and his two kiddos, and I walked up to the school a few blocks away to play on the playground.  I didn't need to wear a coat!  Amazing weather!  I took a few photos, of course.  I uploaded about 32 to facebook and flickr, but I'll try to keep it down to just a few here.  :-)

After my folks we went to Grandma and Grandpa B's house.  Grandma B. really  wanted a photo of B with her poinsettias.  I tried...but it was B's "run" time right before bed, so I mostly got blurry photos of her not looking at the camera.  This is what I'm left with:

More photos of the day on flickr.

We pretty much did NOTHING today, which was NICE!!!!  I did try to do a bit of work on my scrapbook space.  I wanted to fix up the bulletin board area so that it looked a bit nicer -- it was all cluttered up with a bunch of stuff I ripped out of magazines for inspiration.  So, I took all the magazine pages and put them in a clear envelope, used the Cricut to cut out the letters for the word "inspiration" and attached the word to the envelope with colorful paper clips.  I was going to glue them on, and I still might, I haven't decided if I like it or not.

B. "helped" me, and her daddy snapped this photo with his iPhone:

I don't like the way I blend in with the chair, making my butt look extra large...but overall, I like the photo and you can see the space a bit better.  The clear envelope is just under the bulletin board, hanging from it with a ribbon.  Now the bulletin board is ready for other bits of inspiration and photos!

B. made this turkey at daycare on Wednesday:

Here's the conversation...
Me:  B, what does a turkey say?
B: Boggle! Boggle! Boggle!

Hilarious.

~i won (+ some pics)~

I won!!  I entered a challenge over at the Scrapbook Circle Blog -- Challenge #18 In Stitches.  My "imagine" layout was the winner!  It didn't win because it was awesome or anything -- only because it was the number that some random number generator on the internet picked!  :-)  But, I don't really care why I won, it's just cool that I get the "Hallow's Eve" Scrapbook Circle kit out of the deal!

I had my granddaughter, M., on Friday and finally got a few pictures of her that actually turned out!!!

~ november first ~

When we got home from work today, it was in the 70s and it's November!  I changed B's pants (after an EEEnormous poop -- her words) and she didn't want her jeans back on.  Before I knew it, she had put on her shoes and was outside with Daddy.  The sun was out, but beginning to lower in the sky, which made the lighting delicious.  So I grabbed my camera, loaded with my birthday lens, and took a few photos of the silly girl, outside, in November, without pants.

Bea, What happened to your pants?

Oh no!  I forgot my pants!

Rats!  I forgot my pants!

But I remembered my shoes!

~ imagine ~

I'm still home from work.  I wish that I had gotten a D and C instead of trying to let my body take care of it a bit more naturally.  It's been a long and painful process.  I've missed too much work and I'm fairly unmotivated to do anything.  Besides, I can't really do much other than sit around anyway.  Leaves way too much time for thinking...and I'm not even really thinking clearly.  Work and studying is pretty much out.  My brain isn't working properly.

I'm not sure what I would do without my mother right now.  She has been amazingly helpful.  On Monday, she just showed up at my house thinking I shouldn't be alone, and she was right!  I had no idea what I was in for, and I even blacked out on her at one point, falling gracefully at her feet.  Scared her to death! 

I'm also not sure what I would do without my soul mate.  I know he is trying his best to heal as well, and at the same time he has been supportive of me and understanding when I don't get out of my pajamas.  And work hasn't stopped for him, in fact it's been extra busy the last few weeks.  I am so thankful that he is in my life.

Yesterday I stepped outside for a minute or two because I saw that this flower on our deck was blooming and I wanted to try to capture it.

I have been eyeing a few scrapbooking layouts and each day I have gone downstairs to try to do something and most days I've failed - uninspired and my head just isn't there.  I decided to try one that I knew would be fairly easy to scraplift, and I wouldn't have to think too much.  I picked a layout that I discovered through pinterest.  Actually,  I believe I repinned this Allie Hamblin layout from my friend Kirsten who found it originally on Studio Calico's website!  Here's my take on it.

 

Everything except the flower is from the most recent Scrapbook Circle Kit called Fresh Picked, including the Pink Paislee Sawdust Wood Alphabet that I inked with orange and brown stamping pads.  The background paper is called Timeclock from the Memorandum collection by Lillybee Designs.  My favorite paper is the one behind the flower and letter B, it's the Cross Stitch Paper - Farmhouse by Crate Paper.  Right beside it is Random - Textile also by Crate Paper, and the last square in the upper right corner is Simple Joys from the Fresh Goods collection by Pebbles Inc.  (And yes, I actually stitched with the sewing machine around the edges.  I had to change the bobbin and everything)!  Overall, I'm not very happy with how this turned out.  The photo was too dark for the papers I chose, and the stitching didn't go as well as planned, but it was something -- way better than having a pity party!

I used a Picasso quote, "Everything you can imagine is real" for several reasons.  Partly, imagining fits this photo of my daughter in her butterfly wings, but also imagining is hopeful.

~ 11 weeks ~

I was going to wait until week 12 to do my first belly shot (I like even numbers), but The Hereios, a group I'm in over at flickr, had "Reflected Restroom Selfie" as it's theme for today -- so I took it today instead!  The shirt I'm wearing is stretchy.  I'm going to try to wear it for as many of the belly shots as I can.  And, since I did this one in the restroom, I may try to do the others that way as well.  It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, and I'm hot happy with the actual photo, so maybe not!

I'm growing more quickly than my last pregnancy!  I'm sure this has much to do with the fact that I have no stomach muscles left -- from babies, the kidney donation, as well as the incisional hernia from my last pregnancy.  There's nothing left to hold it all in, so I popped quite quickly even though I've actually lost a little weight.  I think I'm going to have to break down and buy maternity clothes earlier rather than later.  Until then, I have the bellaband to help out (I would die without it).

The GD is still kicking my butt.  I continue to be over emotional and distracted by what to eat, when to eat and how to get exercise in.  Bleh.  But on Friday, I should get to hear the heartbeat!

What about craftiness, you ask?  What have I been up to in that area?  I'm not sure what I am thinking, but I ordered some PUL fabric and a book about how to make really cool cloth diapers.  I am not finding time to do anything crafty, I'm barely taking photos, and I'm not a person that sews.  I had to look up PUL fabric online so I would even know what it was.  So..uhh...what was I thinking?  I guess I wasn't.

I did get this awesome selection of doodle twine (doodlebug design inc.) in the mail the other day, and I cannot wait to use it!  It has been busy around here with birthdays and stuff, but I'm hoping that I'll find time this weekend to reacquaint myself with the scrapbook area!

But, not before I clean it up.....

My soul mate:  (hollering up the stairs) Uh, was B. downstairs by herself at all yesterday?
Me:  (as I'm walking down the stairs) Um, I'm not sure, I think she was recently, but I'm not sure....
My soul mate:  Look...

This is the floor!

At least she finished the task, right?  Her daddy says this means that she will probably finish college.

~ senior photos ~

Steve Jobs died.  A few hours before his death, I purchased an iPad 2.  I will never forget that.  The world has lost something special.


It's been busy 'round here.  Class, work, B., and family all taking up time.  But, unfortunately, most of my time is spent counting carbs, meal planning, grocery shopping and worrying!  Argh!  I wish I could get over the worrying part.  When I was pregnant with B. I had gestational diabetes.  I ended up having to be on insulin for most of the summer leading up to her birth in August.  Like typical GD, it went away as soon as she was born.  Also typical, I have to be watched carefully during this pregnancy because it will be back.  So, after my first visit to the GD doctor, she put me on the carb-counting diet (with 3 meals, 3 snacks a day) and I started checking my blood sugar before breakfast and after each meal.  It only took a week.  As soon as I sent them my numbers I was put on insulin in the evenings (before bed).  It's the long-lasting kind not the quick acting kind.  (I was on both before, and probably will be again, eventually)  The reason they started me so early is because my fasting blood sugars (right when I wake up, before breakfast) were a little high.  Another thing I learned, if I have to sit in meetings all day or something like that, my other blood sugars are higher than we'd like.  So, this means I'm counting my carbs carefully, eating every 3 hours (I set a timer on my phone), pricking my finger 4 times a day, injecting insulin at 9pm each night, and I walk about a mile after every meal.  It takes a lot of time to plan for all of that!  It's frustrating, time consuming, and takes up too much space in my brain.  And I really hate being on the insulin because then I sometimes have low blood sugars as a result, which make me feel dizzy and icky.  Bleh.  But in about 30 weeks or less, I will have a baby.

This weekend I took photos of my niece, Simonne.  She is a senior and needed some senior shots.  My one true love helped me immensely (AND is doing the photoshopping for me)!  He also gave me an early birthday present -- a new lens for my camera!!  (Can I get a woot woot)?  It was the perfect gift and just in time for the photo shoot (he planned it that way).  I took over 200 photos and we got a few that work.  Photoshop is our friend, especially since Simi got her wisdom teeth out the day before!  But she was a trooper.  We couldn't have had a better weekend -- beautiful, warm, with lovely fall colors all around us.  Here are a few....more on flickr.

~ camping ~

Charlie is on his second round of antibiotics, steroids, cough medicine and now and inhaler.  I'm feeling much better, but this cold has been nasty!  We've pretty much had the plague at our place since school started!  Luckily, the worst of it has stayed away from B.  She has a little cough and a slightly runny nose, but mostly it seems like allergies for her.  This is how cute she looked on Friday, Sept 9, in her Pink Hawkeye cheerleading outfit!  Isn't she big???!!!

 

Immediately after this photo was taken we headed to Pleasant Creek State Park to get away from it all and camp for the weekend. Pleasant Creek isn't a creek, it's a lake...but it is quite pleasant!

    
One of the reasons that I like this camping area so much is because you are surrounded by natural prairie everywhere you go.  The yellows are very active this time of year.

We saw a deer the first night we were there.  Then over the next two days we had encounters with a snake and bullfrog.  B. loved them all!! 

Another great thing about this camping spot is the playground.  When B would get bored, we would take a little walk and play on the toys.  Once again, these photos remind me of how unbelievable big she has gotten!

Believe it or not, some of the noodles did get into her belly!  The smiling is partly because of the "yummy in her tummy", but mostly because Daddy is making faces!

We took our hand-me-down scooter with us.  She didn't do too bad!  We should get out that helmet, though!  Daddy helped push, but she was also able to scoot herself a long a bit.  Steering is still an issue!

All that playing did make for a tired two year old!