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Tired, excited, depressed

I'm overly tired but feel bad that I haven't posted in my blog in so long, so I'm going to make it quick. I'm excited because I joined a crafters club and have signed up to do a craft show in December (my first ever!) and depressed because the Noles lost tonight in a pathetic game.
This picture is of Lily in one of the new dresses my dad sent her.

This picture is of Lily playing soccer with her soccer ball that Uncle David and Sherah got her for her birthday. She is a very good kicker!

This picture is of her opening her presents that Granny sent her from England. (I've got a great video of this, just haven't uploaded it yet)

This picture is of Lily helping me make my aprons (and if you want to see the apron... it is listed at www.kitschyaprons.com)

This picture I absolutely love because of the bright eyes and huge smile

and this picture was taken two seconds later when I told her that she could not have cookies for dinner. Her newest talent is going from happy to tears in a split second.

I don't wash Zelda and Lily together, Zelds just jumped in so I ran with it and let Lily wash her. Then, of course, I let all the water out, took out the dog and re-washed the baby.

For the past couple of weeks Lily has decided that she likes to sew. She comes to me and says "sew mommy?" and pulls me into the cave to sew. I don't let her sew on her own, but she sits in my lap and tells me "watch fingers mommy" then pulls the pins out once I've finished the seam and puts them on the magnet for me. I've gotten quite a bit of sewing done!

My mom saved all sorts of things from our childhood. I'm assuming that she saved them with the intention of letting her grandchildren play with them. (eBay wasn't around back then... so it couldn't have been that reason)
She saved all the parts and the boxes and everything. How in the heck could someone have four kids and still manage to do that? Anyway, when Daddy moved from Marietta we got rid of a bunch of it simply because no one had the space to store it. I saved some of my favorites. See here, Lily likes Strawberry Shortcake too.

Good work by Jason Wood

I put an ad on Craigslist to find a graphic designer willing to do a logo for me for Betty's Team for the Race for the Cure. I wrote in the ad that we were just a group of people running in the Race trying to raise money for Breast Cancer Research & Awareness and that we wanted a logo but didn't have any money to pay for it.
I got three responses, two of them obviously didn't read the ad all the way through because they sent me pretty hefty estimates and one even wrote an entire paragraph about why he would not begin working without a deposit. (What would 20% of Zero be?... I'll send it right away)
however, there still are good people out there because this very nice guy Jason Wood volunteered. I sent him this picture

And he designed this logo for us!

Yay! Now I just need to go html code it so that I can plaster it everywhere

Lily has been getting so expressive with her words. I'm sure that I understand more than most people, but I can get about 95% of what she is saying without having to ask her to repeat. She still messes up some things. This is how she asks me to carry her "mommy, carry you" or will say "help you clean up? please" when she is asking me to help her pick up her cereal that she spilled.

It is just so amazing to listen to her sometimes. She loves her new babysitter and talks non-stop about everything she does on Thursdays. Yesterday she must have said "go back, mimi house, ok?" a dozen times on the way home yesterday. The "ok?" at the end of things just cracks me up. She says it all the time. "go to the park, ok?", "help Daddy, ok?" I need to get it on video.

My dad was shopping online yet again, so yesterday a package came addressed to Lily. She understands what a present is and started jumping all around asking me to open it. The word open has been one that we are working on. She will say "bo-hen" but if I ask her to say it slow she will say it right. You'll see that in the video. Another cute thing she does lately is also on this video. You can tell the things that we say to her all the time by the very end of the video where she says "there ya go"

Update

I absolutely LOVE this photo. It was taken by my friend Kristine Kristoff who is a photographer but we were just having a get together and she took a couple of shots of Lily. I stole the picture from her facebook page, hope she doesn't mind.

ok, so, BETTY's TEAM update for the Race for the Cure:
We've raised $793.00!!! and have 5 team members now. Nichole, Brandi & Tonya still haven't signed up yet but all three tell me that they have intentions to participate. If so, then all I have to do is talk Sam & one of the girls from my SAHM group to join. That would give us 10 (we can of course have more, but that was my goal)
If those 5 more members join the team than their race entry fees will bump us up to only $72.00 short of our goal.
I'm so proud and excited that we are actually going to be able to reach the goals that I set. I honestly thought I wouldn't be able to do it.

Work, car & fun

I love being a work-at-home mom. It opens me up to building new skills that not many other people ever have the opportunity to develop. Like this one:
editing photos with your child sitting on the table in between you and the monitor. I bet office-type people can't do that!
The picture below, is of my "how to change a tire" lesson. I can't remember if I posted about this yet or not, but I'm irritated to death over this stupid tire. Back in July I bought 4 brand new tires and since then have been back to Tire Kingdom 4 times to get them to fix this stupid tire. The first two times they were "fixing" the WRONG TIRE!! Finally, they tell me it is because my rim is "corroded" and that it will never seal properly. It goes completely flat in less than 24 hours. So, we decided that the donut will do until I can either replace the rim (I'll probably never find a match... which means 4 new rims....sigh...) or can get it sandblasted.
After I unpacked my suitcase but hadn't put it away just yet, Lily decided it was going to be a fun place to hide. She is very into hiding right now.
Here is a picture of her after I turned my back for 2 minutes when she was within reach of my make-up bag. That is mascara, she is a rock star in the making.

Make out with Violence - check out this movie if you can

One of my brother's closest pals from High School Andy Dunseng has been working on this independent film for a few years and is finally ready for screening. David has been working with him on the soundtrack and even has a small part as a "guy on a motorcycle" (if you remember me talking about a motorcycle accident a couple of years back .... that was seconds after the cameras quit rolling)
Their website is www.makeoutwithviolence.com and they are having a screening in Nashville and another in Birmingham so far, hopefully they will be showing it somewhere down here so I can see it. But, thought I would post this because I know that David never seems to self-promote. He is in the band the Non-Commissioned Officers that created and performed the all original soundtrack and will be performing for some of the screenings and parties involved.

Betty's Team update

Our team has blown me away with support. I'm thrilled that with very little effort we are almost half-way to our team goal of $1000.00! We are at $436.00 right now.
I honestly thought I was being a little optimistic when I set that goal. I thought it would be harder to reach. Lucky for me, I've got friends and family who are awesome.
So far we only have three team members (including myself) but at least two more friends have told me that they are going to participate but just haven't signed up yet. And Ross hasn't signed up yet either, but he will. Also, several of the girls in my SAHM group have put together some walking playdates to get warmed up. In that group so far, only one gal has signed up but I'm pretty sure we will have several more.
A cool feature if you want to participate but can't make it to the race is the option to "Sleep in for the Cure". You can still be a part of Betty's Team and you get a Race for the Cure T-shirt and a Betty's Team pin, but you don't have to show up and actually run/walk.
Here is how:
Go to our team website, click to join the team and chose the option to sleep in. Input your credit card info and pay the $27.00 registration fee, and voila, you are part of the team. I'll take care of sending you the shirt and Betty's Team button.
Just in case you want to check up on our progress, the little Race for the Cure ad over in the right upper corner of this blog is clickable to our team page.
Thanks all.

Boo Boo almost gone

Lily is totally used to her boo boo. She knows the drill. When we bathe she sits very very still to let me clean it and also sits still reminding me "no hair in boo boo" as I'm putting on a new band-aid. The stitches have almost completely disappeared, only one is left at the base of it. Tonight Ross insisted that we let her go to sleep without a band-aid over it. I personally think it is better to keep it covered until it is COMPLETELY healed (takes longer, but less scarring) but I figured it was pointless to argue because I'm leaving for Vegas tomorrow for 5 days.
The following picture was taken on the 17th:

The following picture was taken on the 18th:

The following picture was taken on the 20th

The following picture was taken on the 21st

And this one was taken this morning. We had a successful pee-pee! Yay! I honestly don't think that we are anywhere close to having this child potty-trained, but we celebrate the successes when they do come.

Slowly but surely.

Chuck e Cheese today

We had a tropical storm scare so it has been raining non-stop for two days. Lily and I started to get cabin fever and since Brandi was off today too, we went to Chuck e Cheese.
Brandi had to come pick us up because my stupid tire was flat again and my bicycle pump broke (yes, I was using a bicycle pump to pump up my tire, it takes 200 pumps)
So, Lily and I were playing around with my new iphone while we waited for Brandi. This is Lily's funny face that she will make on command.

But as you can see, she will not smile on command.



We had a blast but they were severely understaffed. Maybe they were expecting less of a crowd, I'm sure they didn't know that there would be a tropical storm and that school would be cancelled for two days, but geez.... they coulda called someone in!
What is the point of stamping mom & child when you arrrive if no one is going to be maning the door when you leave?

Lily's first trip to the ER

Today, just as things are getting back to normal around here after Marje left yesterday, Lily got hurt and needed stitches. Lily was teasing Zelda and running with her ball and I'm not sure if she fell on her own or if she tripped over Zelda, but she fell right into the corner of the wall. I picked her up immediately because I could tell it was a bad fall. A second later I pulled away from her expecting to see a big bump but kinda freaked out a little when I saw her entire face covered in blood.
She had a big gash on her forehead and a bloody nose. I panicked but knew I needed to keep my head so I grabbed a clean hand towel and put pressure to her head. I called Ross and he could barely understand me but I managed to get my wallet & keys and ran out the door. My stupid car had a flat tire (whole other story... brand new tires, 4 trips back to the shop and it still goes flat every 2 days!) but I didn't care. I put Lily in her seat and kept telling her that it was going to be ok and that we were going to the hospital to get the doctors to fix her boo boo. She was upset about having blood on her and kept trying to touch her head but wasn't crying or anything. By this time the bleeding had slowed a little. I drove so fast on my flat tire. The hospital is on the same street as me about a mile away but I managed to pass two cars and run a very very stale yellow light.
I was still shaking, and Lily was totally calm. They got us in right away and the nicest nurse (who was covered in glitter) came in and blew bubbles for Lily. They put this neat gel stuff on her head that once it sits for about 45 minutes, turns the area numb so they don't have to put a shot in the wound. During that time they gave Lily a pair of those socks with the rubber soles (she had no shoes on... I didn't take time to get shoes) and showed her to the playroom. She played and acted just like herself, as if nothing was wrong. By this time Ross had arrived. He went out and pumped up my tire with a bicycle pump for me! Bless him.
Then when it was time for the stitches, they wrapped Lily up in this contraption that is like a miniature version of what the paramedics use. Hard board with velcro straps all over, kinda burrito-ed her up. She didn't look happy, but she didn't cry at all.
I hate blood and needles and hospitals and all that but knew I had to be strong because I knew if she saw me panic, she might too. I kept my hand on her leg (the only part of her not in the sling) and kept eye contact with her. She was so strong. Not a peep.
They gave her a bandaid and now she is good to go.

This picture was taken tonight after her bath, you can hardly see the stitches because they are the ones that disintegrate and they are clear instead of the old-school black ones that I had when I was a kid.

Join Betty's team!

I run the Race for the Cure every year and this year I've decided to put a team together. I've named the team "Betty's Team" in honor of my mom. I've invited the girls in my mom group and tried to convince some of my old bar customers to do it, but unfortunately it falls on the same day as the O'Malley's Gold tournament. But, if you want to participate or make a donation to help our team reach its $1000.00 fundraising goal, go to this website:

http://tinyurl.com/5eet9f

Thanks

Adventures with Granny

Lily loves to help Granny cook. We love that Granny cooks for us!

We tagged along with Ross when he went down to Key West to visit his southern-most accounts. Oh-boy, was it hot! We had Lily and Zelda too so very few places would let us in, and some of those that would, it was still too difficult to manuver around and keep magnet hands from touching everything. So, basically we spent the whole day outside.

Lily liked walking more than Zelda did so Marje would have fit in better on South Beach with all their pampered pooches.

Then we figured out that the easiest way to keep them both contained is to keep them together in the stroller.

Had a grilled cheese for lunch. This table was huge but Lily insisted on sitting right up against Marje. Zelda had a treat there too.

Then, when it was time to change a poopy diaper we realized how impractical spending the day in Key West with a baby and a dog really is. The teeny tiny little restroom at the restaurant had no where to change her and any other restrooms on the island were off limits to non-customers. So, we went behind a museum and found a grassy spot, laid out a towel and changed a poopy right there on the ground. Gross, I know, but what else could I do?

Then we discovered the most obscure thing, a big sculpture. At first I didn't get it, probably because we were at the wrong angle, but it is a 3-D version of Matisse's "the Dance".



It was too hot for anything other than icecream


Look at this poor baby! pink cheeks and hair matted down with sweat.


Marje taught Lily how to trace her hand. She loved sitting with Granny to do art, now she won't stand and work on her drawings anymore, she has to have the chair scooted up and sit in someone's lap.

Yesterday we tried out the new sprinkler park at the beach. It is perfect and is now officially my new favorite beach spot. The new garage is cheaper than parking on the street and my non-a/c car is much happier in the shade. And, running in the sprinklers is a much simpler way to rinse off after the ocean.


Marje leaves tomorrow in the early AM, I don't know what we are going to do without her.

Bowling night

Last Friday night we had Brandi come over and babysit so that Ross, Marje and I could have a night out together and we decided to go bowling. Marje had never bowled before and it turns out that she is a natural.
Here is a video of her warm-up technique



The night before our big night of bowling I showed Marje the steps of how to bowl. Ross made fun of my technique and said that you are not supposed to kick your back leg over as you release the ball. Check out his technique.


After the bowling competition we went to Erin go Bragh for a drink & appetizer then to Shenanigans. We had a great time.



Ross makes sure to get his mom to give him a massage every time she visits and of course, little Lily has to do everything that we do, so she made sure she got a massage as well.

A Day at the Zoo

Granny & Lily

Marje and Lily have been having so much fun together. Lily is so good with Marje, she is always on her best behavior with her. She is showing Lily pictures from Zim.

Marje brought over a gift from our cousins in England (Thanks!!) and it was a little artist canvas and a set of paints and an apron and a small easel. Lily & Granny had a wonderful time painting but it was just so hot outside!

Kinda funny, because the gift that Ross & I were planning to give Lily for her birthday was an easel too! I'd picked this out at Ikea ages ago and waited until now. I was excited to take Marje there too (I just love that place). Lily is beginning the stages of being a nightmare to take out for long periods of time. Next time I go to ikea, I will either have her on a leash, or she stays home.

The new easel is working out great though.