SPC Week 4 {BLUE}

{BLUE}Accents
In my world {BLUE} seems to hide in accents.
Small touches here and there, nothing to overtly screaming "HELLO".
Today I wrapped my wet hair in a towel
Not one that matched the bathroom, they were all in the wash.
Instead it was a big fluffy pale blue towel that was purchased,
along with a mate, one day on a whim.
I'm not sure I would have even noticed its' calming shade of blue
if it wasn't for the SPC
challenge!

Big thanks to JStockwell for choosing my picture last week for one of his
Pictures of the Week. I love
the side by side comparison of mine with Erica's. Different takes on the same
type of day!

Run as fast as you can!!!!!!!!!!!

Drop what you're doing and run as fast as you can!! It is confirmed we have an evil case of the Flu (strain A) in our home!

This morning G's temps rose into the 104's, she couldn't stop shaking and her fever wouldn't go down despite meds. Little One also woke up in the night with a cough and a fever...when I called the nurse with G's progress she said to bring her in. Sure enough one test later it is confirmed as the flu. The upside is that if it is caught within 48 hours it can be treated, so our awesome Dr. B wrote out prescriptions for both girls and Bri is on his way to the store to fill them as we speak.

Makes my vomit-itis seem not so horrible.

So if you were lucky enough to stay away from us this week you can breathe a sigh of relief. If you were not lucky enough (Cindy I'm so so so so so so sorry) then I will give you a call so the symptoms arise you can get the kids in pronto.

Tuesday and Wednesday in a nutshell

**There is not a barf bucket big enough to hold the volume of vomit coming out of me. I believe I repeated, in a sobbing voice, about ten times in between heaves "This baby doesn't like me!"

**A very sick husband at home is worse than having your eyelashes pulled out one by one. Especially when he claims he is dying and when you made that similar claim a week ago after being laid out by illness he looked at you with irritation and spewed the words "You're not really dying."

**When your oldest child maintains she has the chills all day long you don't just chalk it up to her repeating what she has heard her father say ad nauseum for the last four days.....you take her freaking temperature. Hmmmmm 103.2......yes I do believe you have the chills.

*sigh*

SPC Week 3 {BLUE}

"Taking {BLUE} for Granted"
Looking outside today and actually seeing a beautiful shining blue sky
I realized, in the past, how much I have taken that simple sight for granted! Basking in it even if just for a moment I let the sun shine down warming my face
and letting it know even if it is here for just a moment I appreciate you
blue sky!
Enjoy the other "blue" photos here, at SPC.

Sully and Baby Brother!

So clearly I am missing the creative joy I get from taking pictures!
I showed up to pick up Little One from Sully's and in addition to taking the pics of Little One and Sully, I bullied my way into taking pics of his baby brother too! (Okay, I really didn't have to bully mom into letting me take pics...she even let me have my run of the house which is GORGEOUS!)
I have to say I am really loving the idea of more home shoots in the future!
Thanks "H" for letting me break out the camera and take pics of the kids for fun!

Happy Valentines Day.....do I feel clever?....

YES I DO!!!!
So the high point for me this Valentines Day has been these clever Valentines Day cards! My friend Jen (who should have a blog but doesn't and therefore is still weak!!) sent me an IM a few weeks ago stating "I want to do this" with a link (I didn't save the link in my excitement apparently). Clicking on the link I was like heck yeah we can do this!
I practiced with depth of field first so we would know where to place the hand in order to hold the sucker just right with enough room top and bottom of the picture. Then I tested it on G first. I love sharp colors and the sharp antique wash seemed to fit just right for this occassion. I also added some great elements from Diginirvana(my new favorite digital scrap book place!)When it was Little One's turn for her picture she threw in her own touch of the fancy jeweled crown! Jen and Audrey stopped by Saturday and we took her picture too and antiqued it, added the elements and they were good to go!
The slicing of the slits for the sucker was a bit time consuming but when I had the brilliant flash to use my scrapbook paper cutter it went much faster. After the suckers were inserted the girls thought they were hilarious (in a good way!) Even my dad was suitably impressed when he saw them this morning and asked to take two home.
Hats off to Jen for helping her pathetic friend out by picking up the suckers and envelopes! And she had a fun idea to add flowers in there (little fake stems) for the grandparents which looked adorable and you could actually do a card like that for other occassions like Mothers Day or Birthdays and put the little flower in.
So thanks for the rockin' idea Jen and allowing me to use some of my much wasted creativity on such an awesome project!

And now on with Valentines!
Since Bri knew he was going to be out of town I was surprised to have this fantastic package arrive yesterday! So bright and fun for the day when snow was gusting outside. The little monkey's heart lights up arond the edges and beats wild drums. The girls LOVED it.
He is such a sweet Valentine and it made me miss him even more :)

Little One's Favorite Valentine!

This is her "best best buddy" Sully whom she believes to be better than sliced bread! The two met in the same preschool class this year and quickly became buddies. Little One loves his nutty side that matches her craziness so well....Sully's mom paid Little One the ultimate compliment when she said "She just gets Sully." She laughs harder than you've ever seen when he grabs her and does a tuck and roll across the floor. They wrestle and play Star Wars and even access their softer gentler side playing kitchen at school. "Sully was the grandpa and I was the sister." It is so sweet to see the two of them playing and not realizing that hey....are girls and boys supposed to have so much fun together?! And even though she can wrestle with him she can still play damsel in distress at school. When another boy is hugging on her and sitting too close, her Sully will come to the rescue..."Mom, Sully saved me today! He's the strongest."
The thing I love about these pictures is they just fell into place beside each other, doing what they normally do. No posing or me saying a word....it was just Sully and Little One being buddies.

SPC Week 2 {BLUE}

It's all {BLUE} to me.
A heavy mood that you can't lift off of you.
The color you wish the sky would again one day become.
The sheer delight of learning you are having a baby boy.
Tears splashing in a sink of running water.
A familiar oversized shirt bringing comfort with nothing else will.

I've missed SPC and the beauty of so many people's interpretation of one theme. There are no wrong photos in the world of SPC just inspiration.
And how could I not jump in on a week entitled BLUE. I mean c'mon, who has been more blue than I have....the meanings were too great to ignore this Tuesday morning...right down to my comfy blue shirt :)

This is just getting pathetic!

Today as I was standing over the sink violently puking to the point where I was sure I was cracking ribs I started crying as I moaned "I can't do this anymore!" My Little One was in the kitchen with me, always interested in the throwing up (hopefully that will mean she will be a doctor someday and not some psycho contestent on Fear Factor)replied "But mom you can't give up. You have to have your baby."
*Sigh*
In addition to the throwing up I have been battling a cold that has stretched on for the last two weeks. It had gotten down to pretty much just the nasty cough when last night I started running a fever and have the chills and sneezing. My ear was hurting my throat was hurting....another cold. You have to be joking?
Is there a sign on my head that says "Don't let her see daylight ever again!"
My girls have been so awesome, today Little One was also battling the cold and I couldn't even fathom getting G ready for school so she opted to stay home too and they played so sweetly together. Even Bri came home early to help out, knowing he would be gone part of the week on a business venture is not helping my morale.
I just feel so sad.
By the time I crawl out from under this whole thing I won't have any friends left but at least I'll have a sweet baby boy....he better be sweet!!

Books Wonderful Books

I'm really behind in my book reviews and posting of the current book I am reading. I thought I would do one jumbo catch up post!


Point Blank By Catherine Coulter

I received this book from Bri as a Christmas present. I have to admit when I opened it I was puzzled. I do not normally read thriller/FBI type books. It isn't that I have anything against them, I just never seem to get into them. I knew the author, when I worked at Blue Cross quite a few ladies were obsessed with Catherine Coulter and her series of books "The Maze", "The Edge" and I believe "The Cove".
Bri said he got it for me because he thought it would be fun for me to read something different.....which I believe translates into "I saw it on the bargain table while I was shopping for you and grabbed it for an extra gift!". I was a good wife though and did not tell him my translation of his story, instead I thanked him and figured it would most likely end up in my discard pile.
But lo and behold when left with nothing to read I go crazy so one day I picked it up and started reading and actually finished it in about a week. It was an interesting book, there were characters that I figured out she must write about in other novels that she brought back for this particular book. The story itself was insteresting although I'll never figure out why thriller books always have to have creepy sexual deviants in them? If you are a Catherine Coulter fan I would recommend it, or if your husband gives it to you as a gift and you want to make him feel good about his purchase then I also recommend it!



The Husband By Dean Koontz

Now the problem with reading a thriller is that when you go to pick out a normal book it seems dull. So after starting a few books I found myself heading to library and searching out Dean Koontz. One of my favorite thrillers (of the probably ten I've read in my lifetime!) is "Shattered" By Dean Koontz. After reading that book I tried another one of his books which was punctuated with sexual deviants and resulted in the book getting tossed in the trash!
I haven't read a Dean Koontz book since but when I picked this up and read the dust jacket I must say I was intrigued!
This was a good book. Very roller coaster, and quite original in some parts. There were some parts I would have liked to have rewritten myself to make it more exciting. And of course there were the people that were weird pervs that he could have left out and still had a great book. I think I read it in five days which shows you that it rolled along at a pretty good clip. Again recommened if you like a good thriller.




Self Storage By Gayle Bradeis
Oh my gosh I LOVED LOVED LOVED this book. It was gorgeous, the writing was a breath of fresh air and the characters were so beautifully written that I almost felt like they lived in my home with me!
A real gem of a book that is hard to describe, and not a book everyone would appreciate, but I definitely rank it in my top readings and I especially recommend it to VANESSA so VANESSA if you are reading this you must read this book!! Talk about an inspiration to aspiring women writers!

And now to my current book....

Ophelia By Lisa M. Klein.
Anybody who knows me well knows that I ADORE Shakespeare. The mere mention of his name makes me sigh. So when I saw this book that was a retelling of Hamlet from Ophelias point of view I snapped it right up. Ophelia was such a sad and tragic figure, and this author saw her character as something more!
So far I am flying through it!!

I'll give you a hint.......

Due to extreme vomitting my big news was delayed! Bri was in shock for at least 24 hours after the news. He was 100% positive it was a girl....and whenever he is 100% positive about the sex of our child ALWAYS bet against him!! It makes me giggle to think of this little boy inside of me....I have no idea what you do with a boy! My world has been princesses and dressups and "boyfriends" and primping.
A boy! How totally fun!!
Little One was over the moon excited. All along she has told me the baby was a boy....her sister on the other hand greeted me with a BIG SCOWL at the news. G wanted a sister in the worst way. I think now that she's had a few days to process she is getting more excited. She says "Hello Boy Boy" to my tummy.
Who would guess a baby boy would make you puke until you hurt!!