busybee

Officially breaking out the holiday tunes!!

It is officially POST-THANKSGIVING, which means FULL-STEAM-AHEAD on the holiday goodness!!  I am SO into it this year...  Get outta my way, I have halls to deck (fa la la) and chestnuts to roast on open fires...  Oh yes, Nat King Cole, I sure do.

 

Whipped out a few more monsters this weekend!  The blue one on the left you've already seen, but he happened to be in the room, so he joined the line-up for the photo.   My goal is to fill a big box with them so the kids can open it up and DIVE IN on Christmas morning...  Cheap.  Silly.  FUN.

  
A chair in my livingroom that just looked cozy in the afternoon sunlight...  And my new pink star, which was handed over to me by my friend Sarah, who's hubby VETOED the idea of a pink-starred christmas tree (who VETOS a pink star??!!) I think I may have actually squealed with delight when I stepped back and admired it on my own tree...  Thanks Sarah!!

 
Right after I took the above picture of the pink star...  A car came screeching around the corner too fast in the afternoon snow, and BAM, knocked over a stop sign.  I caught a picture as the perp hit reverse and fled the scene!!!    Nothing like a little sunday-afternoon-crime-witnessing to stir things up...  Plus I just really like saying the word "perp."

 
I enjoyed some home-made coffee in my new coffee-maker this weekend!!  And I also discovered that Jeff is much too tall for mistletoe.  I may as well just hang it from his forehead (if only I could reach...  way... up... there....)  He just has to ruin my hall-decking by being all giant-size.  What a scrooge!!  :)

Advent Calendars, here we come!!

Full. (mostly from turkey, but also from other things as well.)

I had a dream about my Grandmother the other night.   What's funny about that is that it always seems when I am thinking about her the most, she shows up in my dreams.  I suppose that makes sense... sub-conscious mind and everything...  But it's a thing of bitter-sweetness for me.  It definitely stays with me for a few days, just a heavy feeling, like someone is sitting on my heart.  She has been gone for almost 10 years.  I can't even believe that sometimes...  She has been gone for a third of my life now... 

I've been thinking about her a lot these past few weeks.  Wishing she were here.  Missing the way she just understood me without trying.  Wishing she could be a part of this peaceful place I feel I am in right now.  Wishing she could read me the Amelia Bedelia stories that I loved so much and rub my head until I fell asleep (it's still the fastest way to knock me out cold...)   Mostly just wishing that I could tell her she gave me some of the best days...  Oh how I wish...

 

Yep... Missing her a lot lately.  But so thankful for the memories...

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

thy cup runneth over...

I am a lucky girl.

Yesterday was a wonderful, wonderful day... 

   

Steve showed up in the morning with the kids, who had made me a really cute card, and he also gifted me the above tee-shirt, which is HYSTERICAL!  I love how the front ninja is KNITTING!!  HAHAHAAHAH!!  Seriously.  SO PERFECT.  But I am lucky because it reminded me of how FAR Steve and I have come these past couple years.  We are more than just "co-parents," we are still friends, and we still care so much for each other.  I am so proud of us.  So Lucky!

My phone and email were buzzing ALL DAY with messages from you guys.  Seriously!  My heart is unbelievably full.  Cards and gifts in my mail box (including 4 burned CD'S worth of MUSIC FILES from my friend Josh - SERIOUSLY!  SO LUCKY!!) blog comments, facebook notes, gift cards to some of my favorite places, dedicated song lyrics, balloon bouquets, carrot cakes....  Seriously?  So lucky.  I hope you ALL know how much you mean to me...

My gift to myself was to spend the afternoon with my kids.  It was a cold rainy day, but around 1pm we snuggled up on the couch under a big warm blanket and we watched cartoons.  Then we all fell asleep, all three of us, tucked up on my little sofa.  As we were drifting, Alyza kissed me on the forhead and said "I love you Mommy!"  So lucky.  So very lucky.

I had surprise visitors all day as well.  First, my parents showed up with a pretty new skirt for my Christmas tree, and some yummy home-made treats (that I had to hide from Mr. Keegan - who kept trying to beak into them when I wasn't looking.)  Jeff showed up in the middle of the afternoon just to say hello on his way back to work from a meeting in town.  And Stacy who stopped in to hand-deliver a sweet card, and got choked up while wishing me a happy birthday!   I love these people so incredibly much.  SO lucky!

Jeff came back in the evening and surprised me with gifts...

      

Once again, his incredibly functional (yet ridiculously thoughtful) gifts were a homerun with me!  I NOW OWN MY OWN COFFEE MAKER!!!  I'm such a big girl now!!   AND - I don't have to rig up my (pathetically broken) tripod with hair elastics and super glue anymore...  He also came with a bag of what I have determined to be my favorite coffee (thus far - in my coffee adventures) and two of our favorite candies to share (Mike & Ikes, and Milk Duds.)  Soooooo lucky.

In the end, I don't feel any different today than I did last week.  But what better way for me to segue into Thanksgiving (and my thirties) than to recognize how lucky I am?  My most sincerest of thank you's is not nearly enough to cover how thankful I feel.

So very lucky.

Birthday-eve.

Jeff tells me that sometime tomorrow the Wisdom Fairy is going to come down and tap me with her wisdom stick, and suddenly I will have all the answers.  Actually I think his exact words were something like: "you will have all the answers, because you will be old and fragile and therefore will commence losing your mind." 

(That actually explains a lot, since he's got 5 years on me.)

So today I was going to sit and write some big long dramatic post all about the last decade of my life.  Until I realized that I could summarize it quite simply...

It COMPLETELY ROCKED and it COMPLETELY SUCKED.  Sometimes at the same time. 

And that's all that really needs to be said about it.  Quite honestly, it was mostly a series of misfortunate events, some of which are moments that will forever define me as a person.  Some, incredibly happy, and some incredibly sad.  But all good.  ALL good.  I am certain that I am a better person for having gone through every single moment of it... 

And last night, I wandered my way into the dream-bubble while feeling nothing more than a very simple feeling...  Happy.   And that, to me, felt like the most noteworthy of triumphs.  (Aside from growing human beings in my body - which was pretty cool as well.)  Happy feels like the right place to begin the next decade...

Here goes nothing!

well, that was just lovely.

It was a lovely weekend.

Calm.  Peaceful.  Relaxing.  Fun.  Lots of getting in the holiday spirit.  Lots of watching movies and cuddling with small people.  Lots of playing and being with people I love.  So good.  So great!

For a few hours today, the house smelled AMAZING, as I baked some pumpkin bread...

 

I have a reader (and real life friend) who was amazingly kind and so helpful to me recently when my vehicle kicked-the-bucket...  Janice - Thank you (again) for your help!  I hope you and your family like pumpkin bread!  :) 

And this morning, while the kids and I enjoyed our fruit-loops, I was reminded of how rainbows can color our lives when we least expect it...

 

There will be some cool stuff going on around here this week...

Stay tuned...

Oh yes I did.

  

Yup.  Almost an entire week before Thanksgiving, the kids and I set up our Christmas tree.

I know, I'm crazy...

And now they are settled in on the couch sipping hot cocoa and licking on candy canes, while watching WALL-E, and I am about to bake some pumpkin bread...

I am SO INTO CHRISTMAS this year...  Bring it on!!

Happy weekend to you all!!

there are sounds going in!

Keegan had his 5th audio screen (to date) this morning.   

I am happy to report that although he was extremely (and uncharacteristically) NOT INTERESTED in participating in the test today, he passed with flying colors.  Yes, according to the little chirping contraptions they poked into his ears as he protested, Keegan is hearing perfectly.

Going to these hearing tests is always fun for me. It's a busy little audiology office, and they also do hearing aid adjustments. The waiting room is usually filled with elderly patients who are waiting for adjustments or new batteries, etc...  When Keegan and I walk in, you can literally see every single face light up.  He makes me smile every single day, but I love (love love love) those moments when get to share him with others...  He may not have much to say, but he certainly can win over the heart of a little-old-lady any day.

I am officially going to add hearing to the list of things Keegan is really GOOD at.  Way to go, Buddy!!

monsterlicious!

So, it's no secret I am in a bit of a monster phase right now!  I am completely obsessed...

So of course, what better than some fun etsy finds to share...

 
Someday I will buy my kids these shirts!!  Oh how I love them...

 
Silly little monster mirror.  So simple, and so appealing to my monster addiction.

 
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  I mean, seriously?  I am enjoying this steering wheel cover ENTIRELY too much.

 
Monster taggie blanket!  Great gift idea for those itty-bitty "First Christmas" celebrators!

 
Oh the cuteness!!  This is actually a crochet pattern for sale... I'm thinking Alyza may need a purple one!!

 
Someone STOP ME!  I CAN NOT RESIST THE MONSTER GOODNESS!!  How cute are these finger puppets??

I think that's enough for today...  But really, HOW CUTE?!!

a walk down haircut lane

Remember this hair?

 

Which, very suddenly became this hair...  (in a moment of complete and total lock-me-in-a-padded-room insanity!!)

   

I tried very hard to like it.  I really did...  Remember this dorky picture?

But, the truth is.  I hated it.  I really really hated it.   I cut it on a whim for ridiculously stupid reasons, and I felt naked and silly, and very very WRONG.  When the scissors made that very first snip, I wanted to hit the "UNDO" button and go back in the most unbelievable way.  But it was too late. 

Melodramatic?  Very much so.  But my hair had never been that long before (ever in my life) and I absolutely LOVED it.  I literally hated that haircut so much I wanted to cry, and I did not leave my house for 3 days...  So I set out to grow it back.  But after 15 months of NO HAIRCUTS, I realized that trims were probably something I should have considered...  Over the last couple months my ends became so dead and split that they very-much resembled straw and I came to realize that the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz was NOT the look I was striving for. 

So as much as I did not want to cut it.  I knew it needed to be done. 

So Jyoti and I worked a trade.  Photos for her, and a haircut for me!  SWEET DEAL.  I thought about how short I wanted to go, thinking I would need at least a couple inches chopped off to make it healthy again.  I contemplated snipping it up to my shoulders for a MILLISECOND.  I finally told her to trim as much as necessary so it wouldn't feel like straw, and we snipped in some "sweepy bangs" as well.  Done and done.

I am VERY happy.  It is still longish.  It feels healthy again.  It is still growing... 

   

And, I am still a dork.

stuff to shaaaaaaaaaaare.

I haven't shared any creativeness in a while.  What the heck is that about?

A couple weeks ago, my Jenn was here playing in MY CRAFT STUDIO, which was exciting for a variety of reasons, but mainly because I've never really had a space big enough to SHARE before.  Good times, and M&M's were had by all.

So what have my little hands been up to?!  Take a look....

FELT MONSTERS for the kiddos. Yup, with my van being on the fritz, it's going to be a low budget Christmas this year, but lucky for me, my kids haven't discovered iPods and Play Stations yet...  Making these is so freaken easy, and UNBELIEVABLY fun!

   

Finished up 2 Monster hats (will be in contact if yours is done) and needed a little break from all the monster-ness, so decided to teach myself a new knitting technique called entrelac.  Um, yeah, so can we just talk for a minute about how FUN this is?  And HOW PRETTY?!!  Loving it!

 

Haven't been doing much scrapbooking lately, but managed to squeeze this little lovely out.  Oh, ya know...  Just adoring my giant-type guy.  Standing next to him feels good - even if it hurts my neck.  Love is good.  Life is good.

 

Have had lots of fall photo shoots this year, and still have three more on my plate!  Working my way through proofing all the pictures, and stumbled on the above shot.  Holy-take-my-breath-away.  Some combination of that adorable little girl (the daughter of college friend), and that magnificent fall back-drop.  I still have a long way to go before I am REALLY confident with my camera, but once-in-a-while I have to slow down and recognize that I am growing SO MUCH as a photographer.

And, it is November, and it is has been raining for three straight days...  You know what that means, right??  Time for some Axl.  Come on, click it, you know you want to....

Peace Out!