In Search of Myself

Who Knew?

. . . that a juice box would be so much fun for Jake?  He has a blast with these things.  I usually don't have them around, but I had several left over from the Christmas piano recital.  Jake likes to dart in when I have the fridge open and try to find new and interesting things to convince me to let him have -- and they were in the bottom drawer, so he found them.  I sat him in his high chair and let him make a mess -- it's more or less clear juice, so whatever.  It's fun to watch him get a kick out of something so simple.  (And I LOVE that smile!!!) [Click image to see bigger.]

P.S.  For sister Sheri (aka Pink Stuff!): I was going through a box of hand-me-downs and found this lime green shirt.  I just want you to know that I saved it and had Jake wear it the other day just because I know you love this color and I wanted to get pictures of him wearing it for you.  [Do you feel special now?]  ;o)

Today's SBing Moment

Let me tell you, I was a scrapbookin' fool over my vacation.  I got some Christmas money from Lou's family, and spent it on idea books -- you wouldn't believe the selection of books about scrapbooking there is out there.  I bought 5 new books and read them over and over for a week.  They're so cool!  I also bought some new paper and stickers to play with.  I also organized all my scrap mags from the past year (and dude, it's a lot) and scanned a TON of pictures to work from (many of which you will be seeing in the coming weeks.)  This is a page I did of pics I had of last Christmas -- my parents and little sister got to go see Sheri (PinkStuff!) and her son Chris (and live-in hottie Robert!) in Atlanta, but I couldn't go because we always spend Christmas with Lou's family.  You can tell how much fun they were having (because really?  anywhere Sheri is, it's like a party.  She's crazy fun.  I can't wait to see her next week!)

AND I'm almost done scrapping Jake's 2nd birthday party (4 months later . . . )  Every  friend who came gets their own page in Jake's book, so this is the page I finally finished of Cara and her kiddos.  (Cara, what do you think?  I used the expensive designer paper, so you should feel special!!!  This page LOOKS relatively simple, but it took me FOREVER to finish because I just couldn't get it right.)

A Moment to Remember

Jake and I were sitting in my mom's kitchen, in my dad's desk chair, blowing bubbles.  We had so much fun just goofing off and chilling out together during my Christmas break from work.

P.S. Shelly: here's that picture of me and Holly.  You would think that being in choir together (and both alto's, no less) I would have a picture with both of us from that, but I don't!  I didn't realize it, but while I was playing freshman volleyball, she was on the JV team, so I have a few pictures of her from volleyball.  In this picture she was watching my game, probably killing time until she played.  (click to see bigger picture.)

Christmas Vacation

Here's that picture of Jake at 3 months that I've been meaning to post.  Isn't it the cutest ever?  (Yes, I know that a lot of you who also frequent Picture People have the same picture!)

I have December 19th through 24th off of work (A WHOLE WEEK!) and I will be back on the 27th.  It's been so nice so far to just chill out, spend time with Jake, and get things done around the house.  I miss all my blog friends, of course, and I will pretty much not be online at all until the 27th.

I want to thank those of you who have sent me Christmas cards, even though I'm not doing them this year.  You all are so sweet!  I love getting mail, and it's so nice to see your handwriting and to know that you thought of us.  Kelly, I LOVE how the photo I worked on turned out!  It looks awesome.  Jenni, the pic of the boys is very sweet.  (No one else sent pics -- what the heck?  ha ha, just kidding.)  I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and I will talk to you next Monday!

Be sure to read my MOTW answers, if you haven't already -- I worked hard on those!!!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Mama of the Week

Click on "continue reading" to see my MOTW answers (or, as I like to call it, "Everything you've ever wanted to know about Jen, and then some -- complete with pictures!" [are you surprized?])

P.S. I nominate Shelly to be the next MOTW!

A Christmas Scrapbook Layout

(click to enlarge picture.) These are some pictures my mom took of Jake and my dad -- I LOVE them. Journaling says: Jake is so lucky to get to see Mommy's parents not just during the holidays, but almost every day of the year! The Christmas tree at Nana's house this year is gorgeous. It's a 9 foot artificial tree, pre-lit with white lights. We added clear, white, silver, and gold ornaments, red balls, and cross-stitched ornaments that Nana has made over the years (and a few of Jake's, too.) Jake loves this tree -- he asks Nana to turn it on every morning, he plays with the ornaments on his level, and Grand-dad helps him reach and see the rest!

P.S. Jake is still sick, but I think he's on his way to getting better.  He's not getting worse, and no longer has fevers, so that's important.  We had another sleepless night, though.  I literally was smacking myself on the drive in to work so I would keep my eyes open.  I think it's coffee time!!!  (Thank you, Kelly, and everyone, for asking how we are doing.)

P.P.S. for those of you who haven't already, post your MOTW questions for me here.

It's all about the LB

This post is mostly for JenA and Kelly, but the rest of you can read it, if you want.

Remember that party I had to go to last week, for Uncle Roger and Aunt Julie's 25th wedding anniversary?  Well I had NOTHING to wear, and $50 in Real Women's Dollars to cash in (meaning I could get $100 worth of clothes for $50.)  I also had a $25 off $75 coupon.  AND the manager on duty was feeling generous and she gave me two extra coupons -- so I got $200 worth of clothes for $100.  (And I put it on my LB gold card, so I can deal with it AFTER Christmas!  Not a good idea, but at the time I didn't care!!!)

Here is some of what I got: a black shirt with a COOL pink broach (above).  This is what I wore to the party, with black pants, black shoes (and a black bra . . . heh.)  Once I picked out this shirt, I knew I HAD to have these earrings!  They're so gorgeous!  I kept coming back to them and thinking "no, I can't pay $25 for a pair of earrings" but I just couldn't walk away from them.  They were my Christmas ME splurge.  (Oh, and I got a necklace, too -- it's the same color "jewels," looks like a broach on a ribbon for the necklace.  Couldn't find a picture of it online, tho.  And no, I didn't wear the necklace to the party -- with that shirt, it would be total overkill.)

I also had to get the black sweater with embellishments around the neck and wrists.  I rationalized this with the fact that I needed something new to wear to the piano recital, something that looked Christmassy but classy (the embellishments remind people of snowflakes, so that's the Christmassy party.)

The pink sweater poncho was pure fun.  I almost got just a sweater of the same material (yarn/weave?) but decided a poncho was much more fun.  The problem is, on the hanger and on the manaquin it hangs just right, but on me it's a "down on one shoulder" kinda thing.  I have a tank top of the same color (thank you, Anne Taylor!) that covers most of my shoulders, so when I wear my sweater poncho I'm not showing too much arm skin.  It IS, however, very hard to go about my day -- typing, copying, driving, carrying Jake, etc -- while wearing it.  So it's more for looks than practical.  I'm going to keep wearing it, though.  heh.

And now, pretty much I'm not going to get to buy anything new for several months.  But I'm happy with these couple new things.  And even though it's not as great as it used to be, I still love Lane Bryant!

Still Sick

Jake had a rough night, and he's still not feeling well.  His eyes are really goopy and he hates having them cleaned out, and his face is swollen a little.  His nose is still running, and he has a cough.  He didn't sleep well last night and neither did I, but I couldn't miss another day of work, so I'm here today.  I have a LOT to catch up on.  Keep us in your prayers, ok?  Hopefully this sickness will pass (for both of us -- I'm starting to feel it, too.)     :o(

At Home Today

Jake started getting sick yesterday at my mom's house after I dropped him off at 6 a.m.  He hadn't seemed sick to me, but he WAS more clingy and whiny than usual.  His eyes have been watering and had goop in them, and his nose has been stuffy.  Actually, one side keeps bleeding, one side has snot flowing.  Fun!  Mom said he didn't take much of a nap yesterday, but he was lethargic and moping around all day long.  So I brought him home last night and spent the evening wiping his eyes and nose (with a different tissue every time, of course).  I finally got him to sleep around 11 p.m., and at 3 a.m. he woke up.  He had pee'd and wanted his diaper changed.  We did that, and I noticed he had a fever and wasn't breathing well, so we went downstairs for Tylenol and to watch TV on the couch (because then he could sit up a little and be elevated to help him breathe.)  He threw up twice, and I think it was all snot (luckily I was holding him over the sink at the time).  His fever didn't break, but he felt like playing and kept making me rewind his video (I was in and out of sleep -- mostly awake but barely functional -- and I was SO tired!!!)  Finally at 5:45 a.m. he showed NO signs of being tired, so I loaded him up and took him to my mom's.  She had told me the night before that if I couldn't get him to sleep I could bring him over before bedtime and she would keep him -- well, I didn't do that, but I figured since I was up with him all night and he was a little better, it was her turn again.  I called in to work and I went back to bed -- until 11:30 a.m.!  Oh my word it felt wonderful.  I'm going to use the rest of the day to do errands and catch up on life, then I have to drive to the work side of town anyway to pick up my piano student from school for one last piano lesson before Christmas.  So needless to say, this is the only time I'll be on-line today, so really I'm not ignoring you!  Just not really at a computer where I can be around.  I am thinking of you, though (and Kelly, I had a dream that I came to visit you, it was SO funny!), and I'll talk to you all tomorrow.  Oh, and my mom told me Jake's fever has since broken and he's playing happily.  So it's all good.  ;o)

Keep those MOTW questions comin'.  ;o)

Jen

Piano Recital is done!

Ha ha -- I came up third for the following Google search: "who is 'the best pianist in the world' at the moment?"  [this is because I had made the comment once that I wasn't trying to be the best pianist in the world.]  It was good for a laugh this morning, though.  (dude, don't I look TIRED in this picture?!!!  click to enlarge.)

Ok, so the piano recital: it's amazing how much preparation and planning go into something that lasts all of 20 minutes!  I spent Friday night and most of Saturday getting ready for it -- shopping, baking cookies, printing programs, getting cameras ready, etc, etc . . .  It's such a huge weight off of my shoulders to be done.  I am very proud of my girls, they all did extremely well.  I think it's really good for them that they all get to play 5 songs each, instead of just one song.  It helps them learn to stay calm and poised to perform for more than just 50 seconds (you'd be surprized how short beginner piano songs are.)  Between each song they had to stop, find the next song (which were all marked with numbered tape flags), find their hand position, think about the tempo to start, then take a breath and begin.  [I have drilled that process into their heads.]  That's a lot more complicated than walking up to the piano, book opened already to the right page, and sit down and play.  I honestly think someday they'll look back and be very glad they had these recitals (although I do think they enjoy them now as well.) [this pic is left to right: Margie, Alexis, and Evie]

I think the highlight of the recital for most people was Alexis playing "The Dance of the  Sugar Plum Fairy" from the Nutcracker.  Alexis played the melody line, and her grandmother played the duet part with her.  Once the two parts were together, it sounded awesome.  She was determined from the moment she saw the song in her book that she was going to play THAT SONG.  I didn't know if she could pull it off, because the timing was hard and there were a lot of accidentals (which, for you non-musical people, are sharps, flats, and naturals.)  But she really did great.

They all made mistakes, but none were huge, and they handled them well.  Really I wouldn't want them to get all the way through without a single mistake anyway.  I think that more important than perfection is the ability to keep going when things don't go as you planned.  I always stress to the girls that if you make a mistake but you handle it well -- keep going, focus on what you're doing right, don't make a big deal of it -- people are going to come away remembering not the things you did wrong, but the things you did right.  And really, that's kind of how I feel about life.