Monday, February 23, 2009

Poor Izabella came home early from school today because she had a headache, fever and sore throat. She told me she didn't feel good before she left for school but I thought it was just the Monday Blues so I sent her on her way. She slept for an hour or so after she came home so I believe she didn't feel good at all. Although after the ibuprofrin and a good nap she was back to her old self again. I hope whatevetr she got today does not stay around. My kids are NEVER sick but this winter it's been non-stop. I'm tired of the medicine dropper, the tissues, the coughing and whining. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't expect the kids to do anything but be whiny and clingy when their sick but Momma needs a break. I can't wait for the warmer weather and sunshine!!!

I'm still waiting (not so patiently anymore I might add) for my camera to come. Waiting, waiting. I hate waiting! And I'm sure I'll have to charge the battery up forEVER before I can even use it. Until then I've been going to every website I can about it just so I can read about it. I'm pretty sure it's going to take me forever to figure out all the settings on it as well. That's alright.

Mr. Green! OMG, he's still alive! I'm so darn proud of myself. He had a yellow leaf the other day that I quickly removed. Yellow leaves apparently mean "over" watering. I don't see how I'm doing that but I must be. So I got rid of that leaf and someone has torn two of his leaves.

Someone = Not Me.
Not Me = my fourth child who gets blamed for everything.

Whenever I actually find 'Not Me' he is really going to get it. That kid has been doing all sorts of things around this house! LOL

I'll have to come back to this later. Bill O'Rielly is squaking behind me. Lord! Someone take that man off the air already. What a hateful, rude old fart he is!!!

Sunday, February 22, 2009


Gabriella now has a Bumbo! What a great (really, really GREAT) chair. Any parent with a baby needs one of these. They are supposed to be good for the baby's back. I worried at first that it may hurt her back but apparently it's the opposite. She's so happy when she's in it. She thinks she's a big girl. She is supported very well in there and I can sit her next the the computer, on the coffee table, dining room table, kitchen counter...anywhere there is a flat surface. The box says not to leave her on an elevated surface but I'm always right there. I wouldn't put her on the kitchen counter and walk out. It's nice and soft as well. LOVE IT!







Now, if they only had a Bumbo for grown-ups!

Evan is so funny. When we got it he asked, "How do you turn it on?". He had watched the 'Bumbo Baby' video.


Monday, February 16, 2009

Monday Monday!


Whew! I haven't been here in a few days. I've been busy, busy, busy with my photography stuff. First of all here is my new baby! Isn't she pretty? I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on this camera. The shutter speed is....OMG!!! Really, I don't deserve this. Oh yes I do! DH will have to be home because I may neglect the kids for a few hours while I play. DH wants me to do a shoot with him and some of his friends that are coming up from Cinci to hunt. They want photos of their dogs (and them) in full on hunting mode. Okay, here's the problem with that. I like nature and all that stuff but I'm not too keen on actually tromping through the briers and mud. My butt could totally use the uphill action but I don't think me getting dirty and scratched up is necessary. Not to mention I'll be surrounded by beagles. Anyone who knows me knows how much I do not enjoy hanging with the beagles. Oh, that darn howling, whiney bark of theirs! And when you get 20 of them together...fuggetaboutit.
I don't know.
I'll see.
I'm going to try to talk them into staying up by the road where it's not so wildernessy. (<--- I totally just made that word up. ) I more enjoy doing cute little babies and kids anyway.

So I said I was busy, one of the things is getting my photography site up and going. I did one but I can't stand the look of it and may get rid of it and find another hosting site. It's just so yuck. I've also been working on pricing, seeing as how I want to be very cheap, that's a challenge. I'd like to make enough to pay some bills with it, but some (okay, most) photographers are priced to pay off their mortgage. It's crazy. I enjoy doing it but I am kind of tired of doing freebies. Well, my freebies have been mostly for family so....I wouldn't charge them anyway. I'm not looking for mega bucks but I do want the camera to pay for itself! Have I mentioned how much I love my Canon? I do. I really do.
Ok, getting weird now. Moving on.

My poor Izabella was sick Thurs. and Fri. of last week. It started with a headache, went into a stomach ache and ended with diarhea. Missing Thurs. was okay but I feel bad she missed Friday because that was her Valentines party at school.
Poor thing.
I made her Valentines for her this year and she helped me design them. She brought them in today but it would have been nice if she could have enjoyed the party with her friends.
Here is the Valentine I made for her.



She made it to school today. The weekend came along and she got better. Hmmm, funny how that works isn't it. LOL No, she was really sick with a fever. So she gets better and last night Evan started getting it. I knew he was getting sick because it was 7pm and he was sleeping on the couch! Evan NEVER takes a nap. Ever. Unless, of course, he's sick.
I knew what was coming so I woke him up and had him take his shower. I didn't want him not having a bath if he was about to get sick on me for 2 days.
He gets out of the shower and says that his belly hurt. I tell him to come over to me so I could feel his head. He comes over to me and there's no fever. He sits on the couch and says, "No really. My stomach hurts really bad." Then he looks at me and vomits all over the place! I was holding Gabby when this happened so I'm trying to hold her and hurry up and lean over to where he was sitting and make sure he doesn't get my couch. LOL I keep a blanket on the couch (where our butts go) in case of spills, dirty shoes....vomiting! Thank goodness that blanket was there because the couch came out of it perfect.
After he gets all cleaned up I had DH bring out his little toddler bed and place it next to the couch so I could watch him all night. I was scared he may choke if he would vomit in his sleep.
I had 3 pair of clothes, 2 wash clothes and a towel ready just incase we had a midnight episode. Thankfully we never had that midnight episode. It's now the next night and he never did vomit again. He did get a fever 2x since but childrens ibuprofen took care of that and by the time Izabella came home from school today he was back to his old, noisy, jumping around the house self. Just to be sure though he is sleeping in the living with me again. These fevers like to come in the middle of night for some reason. I'm sure he'll be fine. He didn't have it half as bad as Izabella did and I can only pray that Gabby doesn't get it!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Craig's List....Missed Connections...

OMG! I forgot all about this part of Craig's List. The 'Missed Connections' section. I used to love to read these things because, well, here's one I just came across:

"I made it clear when I left what needed to happen for me to return. None of that has transpired. In fact, you have gone on to alienate me further. You may not drink. You may not do drugs. But you have these compulsions that drive you to the edge that will be your ultimate downfall if you cannot manage to get control of them. I'm through begging and pleading and wheedling and needling. I'm going through the courts to get what I need from you. So I suggest instead of trying to get with the trash from the local eatery and living the high life at Harrah's that you begin saving your nickles and dimes. I hope you have a good supply of pickled bologna and crackers. I doubt if MB is going to keep your lights on either. All she wants is another half-breed baby so she can draw a bigger check. I'm not working that system. I know who my baby daddy is.
And I got him by the short hairs. Good luck."


Yikes! Someones headed for trouble. Here's another:

"Girl at the Waffle house ....
you were in a black hat and really cute..i think you were checking me out ...not sure though...you were beautiful "

"...I think you were checking me out.." Ha! I'm sure he wishes.


"not seeking want to say "i am sorry

5-or 6 yrs. ago you thought I was trying to get my son to wait in the car while I went shopping in Kroger.
Actually I was trying to get him into the car to wait in the car while I loaded my purchases in the car. A misunderstanding I was pissed at you for butting in to my business but knowing how my son was at a toddler age and the kind of fits he preformed,I can see a misunderstanding I know it's late and you might not read this but , Thanks you for being a child advocate I am sorry I went off on you! Thanks Again"

Aww, how sweet. This next one made me LOL and spit coffee.

"Pretend Relationship


I was looking on the best of craigslist, and this guy posted a listing looking for a pretend relationship, if anyone wants to give this a try, please email me.
I actually think I was in a pretend relationship with a real person, so this time I need you to pretend you like talking to me, pretend that I'm interesting and I'll pretend that your not angry & moody and mostly just a game player."

LOL, now that's the way to go about it. I just thought I'd share a few of these. If you're ever bored or want a good laugh or want to find people lonelier then you (:o) ) then you should check out 'Missed Connections".



Here's another shot from today that I was able to salvage and it came out much better then what I thought it would. I decided to try doing something with it before deleting it. I'm glad I took the time.

And my God! The wind is blowing like crazy here. It's so loud that Izabella can't sleep in the bed. The sound of the wind is scaring her. DH just got back from Chillicothe. I think the wind pushed most of the way back home. LOL

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I did a mini photo shoot with Gabriella this morning. I say "mini" because that is what it ended up being but that is not what I intended it to be. I had about 4 outfits picked out for her and a few different hats. I had the batteries fully charged and I was using natural light coming from a picture window in the bedroom that I really wanted to take advantage of because it never lasts very long. Well, Gabby had different plans. This is the first outfit and I only took about 6 shots and these are 3 of them. She totally thrue my plans out the window. Ah! I forgot that having a baby means you are on their schedule and more often then not if you have plans the baby will make sure they are changed. LOL

This first one is my favorite. I love the color I ended up getting.





This one is not my favorite. It blurred a lot. She was in the middle of going face down (she's too young to sit up yet) . I caught her before she made it all the way down. :o) The motion is more then likely what blurred this shot but since I only had 6 to work with I was bound and determined to make the best of it.



Also one of my favorites although her arm is cut off. This was the last shot I took. You can see in her eyes where she's saying, "ok woman. we're done!" Again, too much over exposure but I still love it.



I love the outfit she's wearing. It gives the photo a nice shot of color. I'd like to get a Valentines day photo of all the kids but I don' t see that happening in the near future.

Speaking of Valentines day. I'm still working on Izabella's Valentines for her class. They're going to be so sweet but dang it's taking forever to, not only make them, but then I have to print them all off one by one and personalize them before I do. It's a task I wish I never would have started. I'll share them when I get them done.

Last night DH and Izabella went to Wally World for supplies for her Valentine box (yet another task that I'm not up to) and when they got back Izabella handed me a box of chocolates shaped like a heart. OMG! HOW SWEEEEEET!!! On the box she had written a little poem and then signed everyone's name. DH came in right behind her with a bottle of wine. OMG! HOW REALLY SWEEEEET!!!! This does not happen very often so right away I ask what they did. They both say it's "just because". I open the box of chocolate because Evan is dying to see what's inside and when I do.....half the chocolate is gone! What?! Izabella told me that on the way home she just "had to have some of it". LOL Whatever. IT's the thought that counts and I don't need the darn chocolate anyway. She did me a favor. Then with the remaining chocolate Evan had to bite into almost all the peices to find one he liked and he still never ate an entire peice because the boy can't stand chocolate.
The bottle of wine is semi-sweet grape and has not yet been open but will not be that way for long.

Monday, February 9, 2009

I got a picture of Mr. Green. He's a very common houseplant but I just can't think of what kind he is.

Isn't he handsome...for a plant? LOL

Here are other pics I've taken between yesterday and tonight.

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Izabella posing with Mr. Green.

Below: Evan making music and playing on the computer.

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Gabriella smiling in her new swing. She loves it...when I'm not busy. When I want to put her in there to get something done around the house she wants nothing at all to do with it. If I'm right there playing with her she's loving it. Imagine that. LOL

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And...OMG...Blogger seems to have fixed itself! How freakin fantastic.
Yesterday I spent the day having issues with myself. LOL I totally believe in Karma and bad JuJu (however you spell it, I'll Google later) . I've been scoping out a camera that I want but I can't really justify spending the money on it right now. I've been waiting for a "deal" because I'm the queen of cheap. I'll say it. I don't care. It physically hurts me to pay retail. The Hubbs is total opposite. He thinks "just buy it!". He'd rather buy name brand then store brand because he can tell the difference. Uh...no he can't! When he isn't around I buy generic/store brand and the man has not a clue. LOL He can notice my butt. Anyway...I find a woman selling the camera I want "for parts" for only $5. That would be an okay price if it were really broken! She describes that she dropped it and now the camera will try to power up but then turns itself off and the lens will not come out. I also dropped mine (well, Evan did) and it was doing the same thing. It sat on my desk for a year before I got tired of looking at it and was either going to fix it or throw it away (which would have killed me!). I picked it up, turned the lens a bit and it started working. I know she has only jammed it. I was not going to bid on it for fear of God burning down my house or something but since someone else bid she has to sell it now. I just feel bad because it's fixable. So that's what I did yesterday. I paced back and forth in front of Ebay, biting my nails and getting advice on what to do from others. I'm sure it isn't a big deal to most people but I'm weirded out by doing something that may bring bad luck. Whenever something bad happens I scroll through my brain to try and figure out what the hell I did that may have caused the dreaded luck. More times then not I have a list of things that could have caused it. LOL

I bought Mr. Green last night. Mr. Green is a plant. I haven't had a live plant for years because since having Izabella (7yrs ago) every time I do get a live plant it has died d/t neglect because I've been busy with the kids and just forget the darn thing is there or I forget that it's real and not fake. So, with much thought given (and a family meeting), we've decided to adopt Mr. Green and hope that he doesn't get murdered. The Hubbs was against the adoption but he was out numbered and lost the battle.
We named him Mr. Green because, for some reason, we name everything. Our Christmas tree is named Webster. We are a family that loves to personalize and humanize everything. Mr. Green is on the coffee table so I don't forget about him. He is a "him" because a few of his leaves were dirty when we bought him. LOL Mr. Green was also very cheap. All the other plants there were a flat $5 but Mr. Green was sitting off all by himself and since I always go for the underdog he caught my eye. We scanned him and he was only $3! Yes! Another steal! I'll have to get a picture of Mr. Green up some time today. His dirt was bone dry when I picked him up so if he dies within the next week it soooo isn't my fault.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

I know this song is getting way too much play but this was really cute.



I liked this song...the first 300x I heard it. Now, not so much.
Blogger is driving me insane. Half of the features are gone, the Dashboard isn't showing up correctly and I can't get images from my hard drive or customize the layout AT ALL. I go into html and totally redo it all but it stays the same. I can only use their pre-made layouts at the moment. I've cleaned out the cache and cookies and still nothing. I hope it gets fixed soon because it's irritating. I can't follow other blogs and sometimes the publish button doesn't work. If it does not work this time this post will not be posted because I'm fed up with messing with it. Son of a Beeeeeeeeep.

DH took Evan to get his hair cut this morning because I just didn't feel like leaving the house. We go to a nice man who has a little shop next to his house. He's like one of those old fashioned barbers and I just love him. He cuts hair in an antique chair. How cool! Anyway, he always cuts Evan's hair the same way, a military cut. He uses the clippers and gets it real short all the way around and then he uses some sort of wax to make it stand up a bit in the the front and on the top and buzzes that down as well. It looks so neat when he does it. So clean. Well, today the man must have had a brain fart because he did it all the right way except that he left Evan's bangs long. It looks odd to have all his hair military short and then his bangs just cut normal. Gene said he was really busy this morning (usually we never see any other customers when we're there) and he probably didn't pay attention or got in a hurry. Gene said he didn't really notice that the bangs were left and he was getting ready to take him back and get it fixed when we realized it was after 12:30pm and he closes up at noon on Saturdays. So it won't get fixed until Monday and more then likely we'll be too busy to get it fixed then. Gene says it doesn't look that bad and he's probably right but "I" (I would totally emphasis that with an italic "I" but none of the buttons for that are showing of course) know it isn't right and it's bugging me. If I were brave enough I'd get the dog clippers out and try and fix it but the word "try" is the problem. LOL

Izabella, Izabella, Izabella...what can I say about her? She is her mother's daughter that's for sure. She spent over half the morning online and ever since she's been lurking around the house complaining about how bored she is. That is not how she is like me btw, it's because I've told her many times to get dressed and go outside and enjoy the day. She hates going outside when it's too hot/cold...that is where she is like me. I, however, do not complain of boredom and she, of course, does not think that folding laundry or cleaning her room is entertainment enough. LOL I guess boredom is one of the downfalls of living in the country. No neighbors to play with and no activity unless you make it yourself. If Cocoa (our horse) were still alive she could always ride her but she's not and the other two horses we have are not tall enough for her to ride. I spend over $300 for a saddle for them and they've only had it on once. They are too fat to attach it properly anyway and when I did put it on Merle he gave me attitude that I don't feel like dealing with. Gene calls them my yard ornaments. LOL One of these days I may get rid of them but I want them to be together.

I was up until about 2am this morning just fiddling around on YouTube and I found this...



...whether your for him or against...I don't care who you are, that's funny. Lmao.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Just a quick story about that swing. I sent DH to the store to pick out a certain swing...this one to be exact

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I described everything about it. I say "make sure you get the pink and brown one" he says okay and he sees it. All is well. Then he walks in the door with this..

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He said he'd take it back but the drive is too long so I told him not to worry about it. He said he thought it was pink and brown. I say he needs to get his eyes checked. LOL
It could be the fact that I drank an entire pot of coffee this morning I'm not sure. All I know is that within the last hour my nerves are on edge. It's been a pleasant day up to this point and I'm going to try my best not to let my raw nerves get the best of me. Evan has been playing School of Rock all day. He loves the movie, I get that, but dear God in heaven find another movie already. He's banged the drums, clashed the cymbals and then clashed the cymbals some more...just when I got the baby to sleep. He's jumping all over the furniture and I've told him repeatedly to NOT. He's whined, cried and accidentally said the word "shit". That was my fault though. I said it this morning and he repeated (hours later) the same phrase I said but said it so quickly he forgot to change the "sh*t" to "poop". The poor kid thought I was going to kill him. I told him that accidents happen and it was okay. I then had to leave the room because I was laughing so hard. He really needs to go outside but it's been so cold. Today it's in the 40's but he refuses to go out. Not even for his 4-wheeler. He just wants to bounce off the walls. He's not trying to annoy me but I'm pretty sure the coffee in my system is causing my irritation. I think tomorrow I'll cut it back to a half a pot.

So I go and spend $75 on a swing for Gabriella (on sale from $99...Yessssss!) and she sits in it one time and falls asleep and it was so nice to have my arms free. She looked so nice and comfy, so peaceful and like I said my arms were free! Even now as I type this I have a pillow on my lap and she's sleeping on the pillow. Most times I have to type with one hand and I'm really getting good at it. But anyway, this girl is totally on to me. She will let me put her in her swing and she'll look at me and raise an eyebrow like "move, I dare you, and I will scream!", and she does just that. This afternoon I was able to very easily lay her down in it and she snoozed for about 5 minutes and then she wakes up, looks around and just belts out her loudest scream. I really dread going through the toddler years again with a girl. That scream is enough to break glass. Most people can get things done when their baby is sleeping but mine knows when I put her down. So basically the swing was a waste of money. She'll sit in it and smile while I'm standing over her but the minute I walk away it's on!

I'm going to enjoy my sleeping baby while I can. Evan has just bundled up and went outside!! I hope he burns some of that energy up. He needs to run up and down the driveway about 10 times. I'm off to surf the net while I can. Maybe find the Obama speech I missed last night.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

My Two Names.

I actually still have a name. It's Crystal. The reason I've chosen the title for this blog is because now I'm "Mommy" more then I am "Crystal". The name "Mommy" is the more important of the two and the one that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It's the name I can't wait to hear first thing in the morning, the name I want to hear when my babies are sick or sad and the name that I dread hearing during sibling rivalry or after the sound of breaking glass.

"Crystal" is the name that sometimes I wish I heard more of. It is also the name that brings back partying, drinking and my more wilder days. It is the name that I long to hear when I've heard the name "Mommy" one too many times in a day. It is also the name that reminds me that before I was "Mommy" the people I hung out with were taller then 3ft tall and sometimes I miss that but I also remember that it is the name that I was called when all I wanted was to be called "Mommy".

Confused yet?