Just another hump-day post.

I meant to say in my last post--- what great friends do I have (and really nice strangers) offering so much advice for Sophia's mystery sickness? I usually feel like I underestimate things... and then find out it's something I should have been treating. Or like most things are untreatable so it's not worth figuring out, but this time I really thought it was something more serious, for like a day at least. Or at least that morning while I blogged it.... but.... she was fine. She still has a bit of a hoarse voice (which I love) but her laboured breathing etc. was pretty much gone by Monday morning. The more advice I got, the more I ruled them out... no attacks at night, no steam needed... and now we're pretty out of the woods. Hooray! Glad I got all versed in croup for next time though. :)

Besides that--- nothing new here. Took some pictures for a family Monday with four boys ages 12-19. Holy moly. That was a new challenge, arranging that many grown bodies! I have a new EXTRA load of respect for family photographers. It's so much HARDER than it looks! Thank goodness this was like the nicest family you've ever met, so they were super patient and willing to get wet bottoms from the flower patch for me. The dad reminds me of Ross... if that gives you an idea of JUST how nice we're talking. :) Check them out on my photoblog. Here's one in case you're not a link-clicker.

I can't believe it's almost May. May's a big one for us... or for Ross I should say. Our anniversary (6 years!), my b-day (28 years!), and of course Mother's Day (nearing 4 years!) ;) I made him swear when we decided to get married in May that he would never combine my presents and that I would always get three separate holidays. (Again with the demanding... I swear I have redeeming qualities and that I'm not dreadful to be married to.) Anyway-- funny how things change with time.. turns out now I want all sorts of ridiculously expensive things like a new camera and a couple of lenses and SOME day... a bed. Like something more than our metal frame under the mattress. So I WELCOME this plethora of holidays we call May. And now I even seem to find myself convincing him we can borrow money from my next Christmas, or my NEXT birthday, and what is this I hear of "push presents"... pretty sure I've earned two of those even though I didn't technically push ... and shouldn't a girl get a present for Memorial Day anyway? Add 'em all up... now we're talking.

(I feel the need to assure that I am not entirely greedy, worldly, and materialistic. like I said... redeeming qualities... promise...)

I was cleaning out some boxes in a closet we've never organized when I stumbled on this:

It's a card that apparently was sent with flowers at some point while Ross and I were dating. I don't know what he did.... but I'm pretty sure it was something pretty big...

Like using his obnoxious "ghetto" voice at the Wendy's drive-thru... or checking the Laker's score on his phone during dinner (was there internet on phones back then? ok maybe that one was last weekend.)

Or maybe being too agreeable ...making ME seem far too argumentative.

And I was probably so mad at him for these offenses that he sent me flowers with this card.

(Ok so this isn't the real thing but my photoshop replica of the above real-thing so you can actually read it.)

Doesn't it make you sort of wonder why he married me? The thing is, I'm not exaggerating. Those were precisely the things I got mad at him about. The things we broke up about. The reasons I almost didn't marry him.

I almost didn't marry Ross and almost didn't have this life with these children because I didn't like his drive-thru tone. It's scary really. If I could travel back in time, modern-lillie would totally give vintage-lillie a good slap in the face. WAKE UP! (I might be feeling more intensely about this as I caught Ross reading an old incriminating journal from the same box.) Sheesh--- what was I thinking half the time?

I'm just glad those days are over. And that I can read about them in hundreds of pages of humiliating journal entries any time I need to remind myself of how happy and lucky I am to be a jammie-wearing, DVR watching, diaper-changing, bear-handed runny-nose-wiping, happy, happy, going on 6-years-married, grown-up.

Thank goodness he was in to me enough to let me get over myself and my cool, casual fast-food-ordering abilities.

(I just FINALLY figured out how to download tons of new cool fonts from my friend Allie-- I used one on Ross' letter above... they're free and there's a whole bunch-- here)

Warning: Potty-Talk Ahead

Sophia (hollering from the downstairs bathroom): mom, can you wipe my bottom?!

Me: yup- I'm coming--- you went poop?

Sophia: I suuuure did, and it's NOT dieWEEeeah! (I've never heard her say that word so it's probably funnier to me.)

Me: Oh yay-- it's normal poop?

Sophia: Yeah. And I did it all by myself. ??? (as opposed to....I don't know.... )

Might give you an idea of how the last several poops and days have gone. This is my second Sunday in a row skipping out on church because of her weird ailments. Mila threw up once a day for like 6 days over Easter weekend, then we had a couple of days of healthy kids. Then Sophia started this weird routine where she threw up once in the early morning... but it was mostly water and she wasn't feverish or anything... but said her stomach hurt like crazy and could barely walk. I knew it felt different than a flu or anything and ended up taking her to urgent care last Monday to find out she had a full blown Urinary Tract Infection. Sheesh! Poor girl right?

So she's on her antibiotics and seems better on that account... but now has this crazy barking cough, tons of congestion in her chest it sounds like, and like NO voice, (which made the whole diarrhea conversation even cuter in her airy little raspy tone). Her breathing sounds horrendous like there's a motor in her chest, I can hear her a room away. And when it gets bad I can hear her just struggling to get her oxygen in. It's heart-breaking.

Why does it seem like these things always happen on the weekend when you can't just call your doctor and get a little opinion over the phone without waiting in a germ-infested, disease-ridden waiting room of the urgent care. Anyone well enough versed in The Croup and Bronchitis to rule either out for me? Both seem to be able to go away on their own... but you know you always just want to know what the problem is. And I've watched a few too many "House" episodes so my mind wanders to all sorts of auto-immune disorders and other terms that I don't know the meaning of. Aren't we supposed to be past the sick season???

I'm 400 posts old!

I have a minute to blog. I decided to put both girls down after not having planned to. So now I've got this little window I didn't plan on having and I felt like writing... but then I went to hit "new post" and saw that today would be my 400th post! It feels like some sort of milestone, or anniversary... like I should blog about something important, and profound, or at the least, interesting.

I got nothin'.

So I'm still racking my brain as I write this. I looked through some old pictures for something I forgot to post about... eh. There's a few things. Nothing that beautiful or exciting. And I only believe in posting beautiful and exciting things so that my life seems utterly perfect. Hah! I'm kidding. But I have heard remarks like that before which baffle me since I feel like half of my posts are complaints and frustrations.... and frankly... if I'm on a good stretch without complaints and frustrations, that's a good thing for all of us right? Hmmm... where was I going?... how about the Easter egg hunt I never posted.. this was a casual church (sort of) Easter-egg hunt at a local park. Tons of families were there picnicking, we all brought eggs and "hid" them (and by hide I mean placed them in plain sight in a huge grass field) so all our kids could run around like crazy collecting them while trying to beat the stream of the sprinklers...

Are they too little... can you see the picture of all the kids in a row with their baskets and buckets and all sorts of handled-non-disposable-egg-collecting gear? And then can you see Sophia collecting eggs in a plastic Target bag I found in the back of my car? uh huh. I'm so that mom.

Oh and I can't get away from these collages because it's so much easier to throw a bunch in a collage and post ONE photo than to decide which ones to post and then go into my pictures and select each one individually. Just in case any one's giving me too much credit and assuming that I make them in Photoshop (which I used to do but it took like 10 times longer) nope.... Picasa. Like the easiest, most user-friendly, FREE editing program there is. I thought I was done with it when I got the new photoshop, but then my friend Rachelle brought it to my attention that they now had a collage feature and it's changed my whole world. :) I know you can do everything under the sun in Photoshop, but that doesn't mean it's the easiest way. I'm just sayin....

What else.. oh here's some proof of my celeb viewings at the Laker game... who knows, maybe I'll want that in my blurb book...

top left is the proof I was there with my cute friend Amber, (not sure if you could really make me out on the blurry blackberry picture from before)... Then of course there's a very blurry Zac Effron, bottom right is Kobe (I was SO scolded last time for spelling his name "coby"--- apparently it reflects poorly on Ross as a Laker's fan if I can't spell their philandering player's name right). Bottom left is Tori Spelling next to her husband who's next to Chuck in the yellow shirt (I don't know his real name but I watch his show... which made me feel all the more like a crazy person because I genuinely believed he was looking at me the whole night because he totally recognises me, because we're friends.... right?...

Turns out he was looking at this crazy guy who stood in my direction and shook his head like a mad-man for hours in order to get some free advertising for his business:

Word on the street is he's like the naked cowboy of Laker's Games. No I made that up. But supposedly he's always there.

Oh and ONE last thing for my incredibly random, outdated, out-of-order, poor-excuse-for-a-400th-post update--- check out the photoblog for my latest shoot of four darling sisters. Ok maybe I'd better put just one here...

Just a regular desert visitor at my front door:

ahhkhknka;kvjk;sjiorje! That's something like what came out of my mouth as my whole body contorted into all sorts of awkward eebie jeebie kinds of moves when I opened the door to find this guy. The embarrassing part is, I already knew he was out there from earlier. But he'd been down near the ground and I couldn't find a shoe big enough (or the guts) to squish him... So I saved it for later, when the girls were napping and I could FULLY focus. I opened the door, shoe in hand, expecting him at about ankle height, where he'd been before. But he was gone... PHEW! I mean awful since now he's roaming... but he's probably long gone by now. Probably across the street or killed by some dog or car or braver mama. Definitely not down here by my feet... nope.... a deep sigh of relief as I start to straighten back up to a standing position when something catches my eye, oh like 4 inches from my face!!!!!!

I don't like spiders. I don't think they're the worst of creatures.... I might actually hate ants in my house more since they come in like thousands... but there's just nothing like a big, bulbous, black spider near your face to make you spontaneously wiggle and flinch like a freak-show all day long.

Guess what I've been spending far too much computer time on?

I feel like there's so much I should say to lead up to this... since it's just a little bit exciting to me right now. :) Like I just finished a big semester project or something. My nature is to give an entire explanation for it, and probably all sorts of apologies and prefaces... but I know how those get annoying to anybody who loves me... so I'm going to resist. And just give you the link to something I've been spending some time on lately.

Friends who aren't too afraid: this is my first sort of "launch" so please tell me if you see something you think I should change. Any feedback is appreciated. Oh and any great ideas for a mellow background song? Or a vote on who likes music on websites and who thinks it's annoying? I won't be offended (since I have music on my blog) I know you can figure out your mute button if I decide to do it anyway. :)

HOORAY!

Easter

It started with Easter baskets... yes Mila's is a reindeer basket but I grew up in a family where our treats were shoved in any basket my mom could find. And I found a Christmas basket at my mom's. It worked. We made it through church (even though my mom gave me a hard time for letting Sophia eat a banana during Sacrament Meeting... which leads me to a dilemma for another post... WHAT is appropriate at church?... sometimes I wonder if I'm breaking all the rules with my kids and their noise and their snacks and their tooting... I mean what constitutes an 'it's time to take her out'? I just don't know.)

Anyway-- after church... up to Byron and Kim's for the Easter (slash) Dane's first birthday party. We made it a brunch with strata, potatoes, salad, and rolls... candy from the pinata of course, and Tres De Leche cake-- yum. I love holiday eating. I love eating. Lately I feel like I don't ever want to diet again in my whole life. Good food is goooooood. ( I just finished a slice of cinnamon sugar toast on homemade bread on the heels of watching The Biggest Loser and crying my eyes out when the father/son combo got to see the really overweight younger brother. anybody?) anyway. Hope you had a happy Easter.

Can you believe that I can take oh so many pictures but miss things like my girls together in their Easter dresses BEFORE they've been chasing cousins around the house and running buttery fingers through their hair?

Easter Weekend

I can't keep up lately. There's so much I want to blog about-- I don't know where to start. So this is one of those picture updates. It at least shows a good portion of our weekend in San Diego. Ross gave in to my request to stop on the side of the road in Hemet on the way down to snap some photos in a field. If only I'd planned for it and dressed my girls accordingly... it was like a dream come true with the long grass and the mountains in the distance. Not to mention there were like a dozen other spots besides that one that I wished we had time for. I can't figure out why we don't have places like that in the desert???... what? you don't think our 116 degree dry air can keep that luscious long grass alive? Why ever not---

Then of course we did an afternoon at the beach-- undeterred by the very chilly breeze (that's why you don't see Sophia in many of the pictures, she was face down in the stroller burrowed into my sweater, except when she was tucked underneath the lifeguard sign of course.) We chased birds, watched a small beach wedding begin, jumped off of sand dunes... and then jumped in the car and headed downtown to pick up a few of these:

That was all Saturday.... Sunday, we of course did the whole Easter thing-- at Byron and Kim's with all the cousins to keep Sophia on cloud 9 the whole time (she follows her older boy cousins around everywhere they go-- I'm glad she doesn't seem to notice that she's always chasing them...)

... I started this post last night and it's taking longer than it should so Easter day is going to have to wait....

Mia and Kail

My goal was always to practice some self control and just put like ONE picture on this blog or even just a link to the photo blog... but when a collage is so easy... I can't help myself. The bigger ones are on the photo blog... so it still serves a purpose... right?

This is what happens when you ONLY have the big hunker camera.

All your photos from events you want to remember but at which you don't want to lug it around end up documented by the blackberry camera. Can you sort of make out Koby Bryant in the first and maybe mine and Ross' faces in the second? What would you have seen if I had had my zoom lens you ask??

-a close up of Torrey Spelling who was way cuter in real-life than I ever thought she was on tv (but today I saw her on the cover of some magazine claiming she was 98 pounds... so I hate to support her eating-disorder by supporting the look it produces, but to her credit, she ate nachos like the whole time I watched her. And I watched her for a while...)

-Jack Nicholson with his glasses... looking just like he always does, court side.

- Lots of shots of the back of Zac Efron's head ,since he was directly in front of us (so there were like 9 or 10 rows between us but besides that, I could have reached out and touched him) which doesn't actually excite me like it would if I were 13, since I only know him from a silly summer show he did with Becky from "Full House" that we watched when we were that bored. But supposedly he's all the rage these days. I texted my 11-year old sitter (shhh she's almost 12) thinking she'd be excited and she said she'd be sure to tell her 9 year-old sister who would REALLY be excited. Phew. I knew SOMEone would think I was cool for seeing him.

- Chuck from Chuck. I don't know his real name but we actually watch the show... (it's not that good but it's in the DVR cycle and Ross just starts it when I'm on the computer and have no say). But since we do watch it pretty regularly... he was pretty fun for me to see. And he looked exactly the same. Like a cute/nerdy/almost BYU alum looking kid. I was excited about that one. I darted between him and Torrey for a while. I mean with my eyes, not my legs. THAT would have been embarrassing.

-Rick Fox, right after he smiled pretty sincerely at us (in response to Chad's wave). He's a handsome man isn't he?

- Our cute friends from Corona, Chad and Amber. Amber who looked far too cute to hang with me in skinny jeans and boots while I wore a staple t and flats. Oh when oh when did I lose the ability to dress up? Honestly, it's like I don't even own a pair of heels... and I'm almost certain I did once upon a time... Did I donate them all while I was pregnant and the thought of them made me angry??

- Oh and maybe a few pictures of those guys on the court. Let me rephrase, those ENORMOUS guys on the court. They were SO much bigger in real life than I imagined. I may have forgotten to watch the game until about the third quarter, but by then, the game was far more interesting than it was in the beginning... and I wish it would have lasted a bit longer.

-Maybe a picture of my devastation when we got back to our car and the battery was dead and we had to wait for AAA while our sitter waited 1 1/2 hours away expecting us exactly 1 1/2 from then. But it all worked out. They showed up in record time about 10 minutes later. Thanks for the late night Brit!

All in all. SOOO worth the drive, and feeling SOOO lucky to be friends with people who get killer free tickets to Lakers games. And we're more than willing to be any body's plus two next time they go. The end.

What did you do yesterday after your shower?

We're off to the Laker game tonight. Wish me luck getting my husband home when it's over. He's a little bit excited.

Baby Lincoln

I know I need to break up all these pictures with some writing. But once I'm done taking pictures... I'm dying to sort through and spice them up.... and once I'm done spicing them up, I'm itching to get them up on a blog so I can have that "viola" feeling. And once I've done all that and got my "viola" feeling, I don't have any time or energy to write. So there you have it.

I had another ANGEL 6-month-old this morning. His mom entertained my hat obsession (I have no cute boy hats yet) and brought two of her own and let me do one owl hat and one girl hat if I promised to convert it to b&w. (Don't let Chris read this, Kym--- lest he discover our big secret :)).

This photography thing is way too fun.