In Search of Myself

Poly - what?

I found out today I have polycystic ovaries.

I have to majorly cut back on carbs, especially bread.

I have to go on birth control pills with progesterine to try to fix some issues with my uterus.

My hand is killing me because they had to take blood from it this morning and the lady left a huge bruise.

Plus, you know, there's nothing like a trans-vaginal ultrasound to start out your day.

Good times.

Sleep-talking.

Last night when I got into bed (Lou goes to sleep much earlier than I do, because I have to stay up with night-owl Jake), Lou was mumbling about something.  I thought I heard "garden gnome."  I said "Dude, what?"  He said "Watch out for the garden gnomes.  They're evil."  Do you know how hard it was to contain my laughter after that so I wouldn't wake him up?

Then this morning, I heard Jake stirring.  I told Lou to go check on him, and Lou said he was fast asleep.  All of a sudden, I hear Jake shouting "MY DUMP TRUCK!" and then he was fast asleep again.

These boys are weird.

Swim swim swim

Man, Jake wants to go swimming every. day.

It's kind of a pain to have to deal with a family shower room -- which is one long hallway with lockers, which both mommies and daddies are walking in and out of, then like 5 individual bathrooms, each with a shower, toilet, sink, bench to change clothes and do stuff.  It bothers me that the floor is always wet because the showers don't really have a lip at the bottom, and the floor drains aren't close enough to the shower to quickly catch the water.  Plus, the other day there was TOTALLY pee on the toilet seat.  Probably one of my hugest pet peeves.  I have public bathroom issues.

Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty clean place . . . I just hate trying to sit a 40+ pound kit on a baby changer and dress him so he doesn't get wet from the floor.  I'm pretty sure one day the thing is going to just snap off the wall.

BUT.  Jake is having fun swimming, and each time we go, he gets a little more comfortable with the water.  Which is good.  I want him to have swim lessons sometime this summer.  But first I have to get him ok with being in the water without sitting in those fun floaty things he's always been in when we were at Julie's pool.  Yesterday we went after church (we get out at 11:30 and have a 20 mile drive home, then they are open at 1.  Perfect.)  He's to the point where he'll walk by himself from the 2 feet toward the 4 feet and then let me pull him to me once he can't reach anymore.  Then as I hold him and walk backwards back to the very shallow water, I help him practice kicking as I keep his head above the water and he clings to me for dear life.  He WANTS to do it, and he has fun doing it, it just scares him WHILE we're doing it.  And then as soon as we sit down in the shallow water, he pops back up and says "Ok, let's do it again!"

On Saturday he wanted to go, but the pool is busy most of the day with swim lessons.  So I told him we couldn't go that day -- he kept asking ALL DAY "Are they done with swim lessons yet?  Are they done with swim lessons yet?"  And Sunday as we were walking up to the entrance, "Are the swim lessons done?"  So cute.

Oh, and on the drive back we passed a building being built, and he said, "I'm gonna help.  I'm gonna help build that building . . . I NEED MY TOOLS!"  ha ha ha ha.

OH, and I let Jake play with PlayDoh Saturday morning . . . here's how he plays with PlayDoh now.  He gets out some PlayDoh, spreads it on the table (well, first I put down wax paper), then he gets his Bob the Builder vehicles and THEY play with the Playdoh: they move it and roll across it and flatten it.  Everything we do these days is either Bob or Thomas.  But hey, it's not Power Rangers -- it could be worse.

Sunday nights

you know what I do on Sundays?  I walk back and forth through the house.  Back and forth, back and forth, trying to put things back in place that have been taken out of place in the previous week, things that are sure to go right back to being in the wrong place in a few days, but because I want to feel like there is SOME order to the randomness, some moments of cleanliness and calm amid the chaos, I keep doing it.  And maybe that's why I hate Sunday nights the most of any day of the week -- the weekend, which had such promise of calm and peace and TIME, has once again dissolved into a mad dash against the clock, trying to use the few moments that are left and that are MINE to put things back in order for the week to come.

I'm stressed out, can you tell?

Priscilla makes her debut . . .

. . . at JenStrange.com

click here to read about why she loves digi-scrapping!!!!

(THANK YOU for writing that for my site, Priscilla!!!  YOU ROCK.)

What's up, yo?

Lest you think I've fallen off the face of the earth, here's what I'm doing lately:

~ trying to get my piano students ready for a recital, which hopefully will happen June 11th (after the end-of-the-schoolyear craziness)
~ writing lots of new stuff for JenStrange.com -- ever wondered about lingo in the scrapbooking world?  or just want a refresher on IM conversation shortcuts?  Read my "Translations and Abbreviations List"
~ dealing a lot with the Stop Piracy blog.  For those of you who don't know, because of the "virtual-ness" of digital scrapbooking, that leaves it pretty open to theft.  People share kits, steal down-load links, redistribute files by the hundreds . . . I've been working for about half a year to help put a stop to it and educate people why it's not cool.  I have 3 people working with me in different aspects on it, but the actual blog I write almost all the content for, and I oversee all the major issues.  And I do it just because I believe in the industry and I want to protect it as it grows.  So yeah, that makes me tired.  LOL.
~ I'm hosting an on-line chat tomorrow, in celebration of National Scrapbooking Day!  It will be at A Cherry on Top, a Q&A period about digital scrapbooking.  So if you've been wanting to learn more about it, please come!  It will be Saturday night at 10 p.m. Eastern time (which is 9 p.m. for me, right?  LOL.)  Here is the list of activities for the weekend at ACOT.  Oh, and I have a new "An easy beginner digital page" tutorial up over there, to -- click here.
~ scrapbooking when I can.  I'm keeping up with pages for my two design teams and will hopefully get a gig on a 3rd soon.  :o)  (in my application for the design team, I quoted Meredith from Grey's Anatomy and said "Pick me.  Choose me.  Love me."  The designer said she about fell out of her chair laughing when she read that, so surely I'll get the spot, right?  ha ha ha.)
~ making my mom an album for mother's day.  After that big album I made my dad, I figured I should get started on one for mom.  I'll post some pages for that later.
~ I'm thinking about submitting some pages (paper scrapbooking) for some calls that are out right now.  I know last year I gave up on all that crap, but I have a lot of good pages sitting at home and hey, I think I'm up for another round of rejection!
~ I've been super-busy at work.  my immediate boss was in the hospital last week and is taking this week off work.  Which means I've been having to cover for her as well as do my stuff, AND I end up working through my lunch because there's no one here to cover.  Last Friday and Monday I was literally here by myself most of the day because other people were on vacation.  No, don't worry about me.  I'll just do everything.
~ I am thinking a lot about Sue and Kate and Kelly and I love you gals.

Swimming

I took Jake swimming on Tuesday night at the Y.  He'd never been in an indoor pool before, and he really didn't know what to think.  When we first went in, he was SO scared -- he clung to me like a baby monkey at the top of a tree.  He kept saying he wanted to go home.  They have a cute airplane slide for little kids, so I told Jake he had to go down it at least once before we talked about going home.  Well, once down that slide, and any thoughts of leaving left his head.  We were in the pool for 40 minutes and he spent the ENTIRE time going down the slide, over and over.  He was SO funny, laughing as he slid down, landing up to his neck in the water and figuring out by himself how to get back up and go again.  I just sat at the bottom to help catch him, and he kept not wanting me to help (stubborn independent streak lately.)  But I helped anyway.  (So much for me getting exercise, LOL.)  He had a really good time.  And he slept well that night.  And I think he's going to ask me every single day from here on out if we can go swimming again.  :o)  We might go again tonight.  And tomorrow.  And Saturday morning.  (gotta get our money's worth, eh?!)

Old pics, new kit.

DebF opened her own digi-store and was sweet enough to give me this kit to play with.  I found these pictures from January that I never got around to scrapping, and they were just perfect for the kit!  Oh, and I got to use my handwriting font -- I LOVE that I can put my own handwriting in my digi-pages!!!

Amazing.

I have to say, I am WAY proud of myself for taking these pictures.  Of course, SOME credit goes to Priscilla for being so cute in the first place and having such a cute kid.

This is the CUTEST kit by Michelle Bradley: Tropical Punch.