Tuesday, June 26, 2007

A Boy's (new) Best Friend

This is Oscar and Zack (Zack is on the right). He's a brindle colored Terrier mix (which I guess means "mutt") Doesn't he have a nice smile? :0} We picked him up today at the local Animal Welfare League. He was rescued from the pound, adopted by an older couple, then returned when one of them became too ill to care for him.

He'll be two years old on July 5th, eight days before our two kitties, Maxine and Samantha, turn two. Neither one of them has had a kind thing to say to the poor boy, but they haven't terrified him either. I'm surprised at how calm he's been - he's not letting the girls intimidate him but he's not egging them on either.

So far he is just a love! We've FINALLY heard him bark - we were afraid he didn't have a barker there for a bit - but the cats coaxed it out of him while he was hanging out under the dinner table while we had tacos.

Oscar is potty trained, leash trained and knows a few voice commands. Right now he's warming my lap and has stuck pretty close to my ankles since we brought him home. I think he's a wonderful answer to a boy's prayers for a dog.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Wombmates

Here's a little layout I did for my friend Jennie (holy crap! she's having twins...) This layout is for Connor. :0) It's got a spot for a 4x4 and a 4x6 photo. It will hold a couple more 4x4's or a combination of 4x6's and 4x4's.

The cardstock is Bazzill, the patterned papers are My Mind's Eye - Tres Jolie - Baby Boy. The chipboard #2 is Rusty Pickle, the other letters are from all over... Heidi Swapp, Making Memories, We R Memory Keepers... (I LOVE having them all separated by letter in different drawers! See my March blog to see a photo of my storage system for my CB letters...) The safety pins are Phrase Cafe by EK Success. The ribbons are from all over as well - and the colors match a lot better in person than they do photographed. The ink is Versa Color - Brown, and the sewing machine (straight and zig zag along the patterned papers and around mats) is my Singer.

My favorite part about the whole thing is - I only have a 2X3 1/2 inch scrap of the dot paper left! All the rest was used in the layout or tiny pieces left after cutting out the CB letters! Scraps drive me crazy... I'm forever trying to store them in a logical way and never going back to them. I always want to use something new... sometimes I check my scraps for making a quick card - but I usually want something new for that too. Anybody have a scrap solution???
This is the one for her girl baby, Chloe.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Am I 5 Now???

The first words from my daughter's mouth the morning of her birthday: "Am I really five now, mommy?"

"Yes - You're really five now - you have been for two hours and thirteen minutes eastern daylight time!"

"Oh good! When I'm six - I want a hula kitty* birthday party!"

What??? WHY? Why does this child plan her birthdays so far in advance???

We do tend to let them drag on and on here, I suppose...

Today we celebrated the "official" birthday with dinner of the birthday girls' choosing (Special K loaf, scalloped potatoes and corn on the cob) and another cake. Then she opened her presents from family. Grampa got her a princess fishing pole (to induct her into the Grampa fishing club), Nana and Pawpa got her a Tinkerbell folding chair (perfect for fishing from I'm sure), brothers Jacob and Zack got her some Thomas the Tank trains all her own (with girly names and faces) and a Diego figure for the "Dora's Magical Castle" that mommy picked up months ago on $18 clearance and hid in the shed in a garbage bag low these many months.

Aunt Shari, Uncle Carl, Matthew and Jeremy sent gifts along too. Aunt Shari made a beautiful card (way to show up mommy Aunt Shari... I didn't bother with a card once I saw your lovely one...) and the favorite gift was the "more than 500 piece" something to do with Disney Princesses and paper dolls... I don't know a whole lot about it except the "more than 500 pieces" part. Take note Aunt Shari - payback is a you-know-what...

The Sunday following her birthday, the "boys" took Michaela fishing. This was Zack's idea for a present - he felt she'd really enjoy it. Grampa said she was all over the place (mommy stayed home and slept in :0) All I know is she came home fussing that "it wasn't fair" since she hadn't caught anything. But she looked cute not catching anything- even though daddy put her shirt on her backwards.
*I've since figured out that "hula kitty" is really "Hello Kitty"... duh...

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Tea For Four

Michaela's birthday tea was a success. With many thanks to the expert help of Gramma, Nana and Daddy. I couldn't have pulled it off without them. In fact - the only food I prepared was the birthday cake. Brian made the scones, muffins, whipped the Devonshire cream and baked the most delicious lemon bars I've ever had. And it was a recipe I've used dozens of times! I think the secret may have been the stoneware pan he baked them in.

Three beautiful little tea-takers Dana, Phoebe & Chloe) joined us right on time. They were dressed in such finery - beautiful dresses, hats and gloves. Michaela was so excited to have girls her age in the house. It's gets very tiresome to be the only little girl swimming upstream in the testosterone.
When the doorbell rang I was still frantically squeezing flowers onto the cake - so we let Michaela open one of her gifts from Momma, (a Gigi - God's Princess DVD with an episode called "The Royal Tea Party") and the little princesses enjoyed it while we put the finishing touches on the tables.
I think they may have been just slightly overwhelmed. We started with pink lemonade, raspberry and peach tea. There was no PB & J in sight... rather, the traditional cucumber sandwiches, strawberry and cinnamon flower sandwiches and striped egg salad finger sandwiches.



Next came the cream scones with raspberry jam or lemon curd and mock Devonshire cream and berry muffins. Following very close behind were the desserts of shortbread wedges, lemon bars and chocolate filled cream puffs.



The best surprise to their little ears was the announcement of "final dessert" - an unheard of fourth dessert of fondant covered strawberry "teacup" cakes and a of course the teapot cake at the birthday girls' request. By the time we got to the photos of the birthday cake the "faucet" (as Michaela put it) was under a bit of stress and beginning to fold. It was a bit heavy and wanted to pull out of the cake so I had propped it with another piece of fondant. This was the second "faucet" I had made too - the first was way too heavy and pulled on the cake something terrible.

Aside from the folding faucet I was fairly pleased with the result - and Michaela was duly impressed - good enough for me :0)


After Michaela opened her girly-girly gifts (her favorite by far was the wad of necklaces from Phoebe) and played for a few minutes we helped each girl decorate a tea hat with a ribbon sash, tulle and silk flowers and Michaela gave each a little satin purse with fancy hair ties and clips. To wrap things up they watched one more episode of Gigi and the little princesses buzzed out the door on a sugar high.

Mommy crashed.

I was whipped - but recovered after a short nap.
On to planning the next party...












Saturday, June 2, 2007

1987 Called...

What the H-E-double toothpicks happened????

WHOOSH! Twenty years gone like *snap* THAT! "My" songs are oldies now!

Twenty years ago yesterday, I was a high school graduate. By the skin of my teeth maybe - but a graduate none the less. Let's just say I was more... "socially skilled" rather than academically rewarded.
My graduating class is getting together in San Diego for a reunion in a few weeks. I was originally planning to be there - but life gets in our way sometimes and I'll only be visiting in spirit now. Would have been great to see everyone, especially if they have more wrinkles and gray hair than I do... By the way - I don't have any gray hair and the wrinkles are losing the battle! Extra weight is another issue altogether and we shan't discuss it...
And in case you were wondering - yes... Lucille Ball called too, and said she wanted her hairdo back...
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