Suzanne made this gorgeous spring dress for LG. She made it long so that LG could wear it for a while, and because my girls tend towards being tall. We’ll hem it up a bit, but it’ll probably be let down by her birthday in August. Girls, they grow like weeds…

LG put it on as soon as it came in the mail! Then she wore it to the family birthday party that afternoon, and then to the first part of Easter the next day.

Check out Suzanne’s creations at Cloth Beginnings, she’s got some wonderful talents.

I’m impressed she’s getting out of bed each day pg with #3 and dealing with 2 kids under 5, much less creating cool things, but that might just be my own memories coming back to haunt me!

A friend of mine’s son has been sick for the past two weeks. We live close enough that we see them all the time in the summer, but far enough away that we don’t see them very often in the winter when school’s in session. We had planned to see them twice over the past two weeks, but both of them fell through because of his illness, and us being extra cautious about me (sick-bay girl personified) possibly catching anything.

After two weeks, I’ve become very twitchy. I don’t want to call every two minutes to find out how he is, but otoh, I’m thinking of them constantly. I want to do something to help, but what can I do to help other than listen to my friend and offer a few ideas?

Well, tomorrow he has a dr appointment in the morning with a specialist. We don’t know if it will be a quick visit or a long one, and since the specialist is right at the children’s hospital, it’s best to be prepared. So, finally I can be useful! I can drive there after lunch, bring their family a dinner, and be there when her daughter (MG’s age) gets home from school. Just in case my friend isn’t home earlier, I can stay until their neighbor comes home from work and invites the daughter over for dinner.

I’m still so worried, but the twitchiness is lessened. At least now i can be useful. Me worried doesn’t help much, but me supervising a playdate and bringing dinner & wine is helpful. I do better being helpful.

If you do vibes or prayers, crossed fingers or good thoughts, please send some for our friend. At this point, just knowing what is going on will be a huge relief, but knowing how to help him would be wonderful.

Oddly enough, Ra’s vet appointment is for the same time as our friend’s specialist appointment. i have a feeling that there’s nothing else similar about the two appointments though. Maybe we can laugh about it later, as we did when I was a teen and our dog had his neutering appointment the same day as my brother had a haircut appointment, and we joked over and over about having one of them accidentally snipped in the wrong place…

Have you ever read any books in the Urban Fantasy genre? Some mystery fans may be leery of reading paranormals or vampire books. However, there are some very intense mysteries published that are also paranormal/urban fantasy/vampire books as well. A Rush of Wings, by Adrian Phoenix is one of those hybrids, containing an intensely suspenseful mystery, vampires, as well as a touch of romance.

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Some authors use the same main character for all the books in a series. Other authors use one book’s minor character as the next book’s main character. It’s rare, though, to find a series where the first two books focus on the same character, yet the third book makes main characters out of people who were on the sidelines. Michelle Rowen manages that feat in her newly released book in the Immortality Bites series, Lady & the Vamp, which follows her hits Bitten & Smitten and Fanged & Fabulous.

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When I think of myself, I picture myself when I was about 21-22. When I look at my pictures from college (and some from high school), I don’t think I look very different now. When I see people I knew back then, though, sometimes the changes are startling.

If you were my friend in high school, and now you’re almost bald, it makes me feel old!

Today I don’t feel old, I feel happy. I ran into a friend from my high school days, but not from high school, and she looked exactly like she did back then! I was in Ala-teen as a teenager, and had some wonderful, special, incredible friends that were spread out along the North Shore in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, due to the anonymity piece of Ala-teen, I rarely knew people’s last names. Which makes it hard to find them again if you move back to the area!

I don’t remember the last time I left the grocery store so happy! I was so excited to have seen my old friend, met her two adorable little boys, BG had helped me shop, and then as a bonus my friend is in touch with several of our other friends from that time. It really feels like it was only yesterday even if it was 20 years ago, and it’s so nice to be around someone who knew me pre-kids!

This is one time warp that’s a good thing. It’s great that BG & MG made a new friend this week, and then I found an old friend this week. I’m crossing my fingers that the good luck trend continues for next week!

BG & MG and I have been voting in the shirt.woot! derby for the past few weeks, and since this week’s topic is turning text into art, we thought we’d take a shot at it. Our entry passed the “not lame” test, at least!

Oddly enough, the girls don’t have a woot! username, so it’s posted under my name only, despite the collaboration. Right now, our entry has more votes than can be explained by family voting! Our goal was to get a vote from someone other than me and B, and while anything else is gravy, it would be a great spot of light on a dreary snowy spring day if we got more votes!

Today’s Photo Friday theme is Emotions. I chose a happy emotion, the joy of a little one when playing in a cardboard box. This is LG playing in the box in which my cool new vacuum was packaged.
Trust me, it’s better that I post this happiness than focus on my emotions waking up to snow this morning!

A late entry for this week’s Love Thursday – BG and I love on our new pupster, Ra. He does bring light!

Today we went for a lovely walk to the park with a new neighbor-friend. Ra walked for part, but also got carried a bit!

A few things that have been rattling around my brain today…

• I love it when i find a great new author. My 3 newest author crushes are Jane Porter, Megan Crane, and Claire Cook. The first two have new books coming out next month that will have book reviews posted, the books are already in my hot little hands.

• Puppies are cute. Owning a puppy makes my girls understand why i said “no puppies!” for so long, though! teething, ugh!
• it’s hard to get everything done. Especially when your body rebells halfway through whatever you’re doing.
• Why is my almost 10 year old hearing about kids her age dating? yeeeeesh
• If you’ve ever bought something from woot!, you can vote for the cool shirts at the shirt.woot! derby each week. There are some great shirts, there!
• I’m too late for the Spring Reading Thing contest, but I still need to redo my reading list for Spring. Gosh, I’m behind on stuff!
• I like to revamp this site each season, so I’m looking for a new spring theme and springy pics of the kids & pets.

Some days it feels like my brain is moving through sludge. It’s hard to keep moving and not get stuck in something. So many things to think about and worry about.

Thank goodness for the sunshine and the puppy sunshine! Tired kids and dogs are always a good thing, they all look so angelic in sleep!

A while ago, I created a snowball comic strip from some snowman & snowball pictures. I had been meaning to have the kids create comics using the same software, but then I forgot.

BG has gotten very interested in the Babymouse graphic novels, aimed at the tween-age. MG is also reading them, but BG is simply gobbling them up. Her (male) friends aren’t interested in the same books, but they all love comic books.

So, today at our homeschool coop, I let the kids use my camera, and the four “big kids” took pictures so they could create their own comic book next week. They jotted down ideas, staged their photos, and came up with their plans. Next week we’ll use Comic Life, their ideas, and their photos to make their comics. Cool! And a great idea for anyone who has kids that need to journal or write, but are lacking inspiration. Taking goofy pics of your siblings or friends and then turning them into a comic book is fun!

We got Comic Life on my MacBook, but there’s a free 30 day trial if you have a Mac that didn’t come with the software.

Sometimes I can just pull cool ideas out of thin air. I like those days. I also managed to tire everyone out with a long walk today – tired dogs & kids are good ones!