Good Morning- Saturday Style

Our "sweet breakfast" of choice:

Whole Wheat Waffles... or partial whole wheat when we want them to be yummier. I won't lie.

2 large eggs

2 cups whole wheat flour (or one white, one wheat... I always use white wheat)

1 3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tbs sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Berries, syrup, powdered sugar... whatever you fancy... SMOTHER.

My house smells like waffles, turkey bacon, sweaty boy (he played basketball this morning), maple syrup, blueberry compote, and rain. RAIN! I love Saturdays. Even when I still have an unwritten talk looming...

Bullets

Don't remember where I saved this image from.... but I just thought it was cute. Today's a random blog... it's Friday, I'm trying to muster up enough braincells to make it through one more normal week day. I think bullets will be easier for them to handle.

- I have (this is where I'm supposed to cross out "have" and replace it with "get" -------how do people do that cross-out thing?) to give a talk on Sunday at church. I know it will be good for me, since you always learn so much in preparing for something like that. But I thought I'd feel better about it by now and it's not coming together yet. Feeling stressed.

- perhaps it's not coming together because yesterday, while hitting a stride writing it, I accidentally highlighted a whole paragraph and hit "return" which of course deleted the paragraph. Well.... get this, I'm so used to blogging, that I THOUGHT about the undo button, and then I thought how it wasn't an option (since this has happened to me a number of times in blogger and it's not an option THERE) so I quickly turned OFF my computer (mmm hmmm) thinking that this way it would retrieve the most recently saved version that would include most of that paragraph. Like I've done in blogger. Blasted blogger. Blasted end-of-the-week braincells. I lost the whole thing.

-And then Mila woke up an hour and a half earlier than usual from her nap because she'd pooped before she fell asleep and slept in it. Nice.

- Those ten minutes had me in tears. But then we jumped on the bike to pick Sophia up from Kate's, and went to the park with friends for the nicest weather ever. All was well.

- Today's Friday and I love Friday's because we get Sophia all day--- I don't have to have her looking human by 8 for school... and we can do whatever the heck we want. All day. If only my love-handles weren't still making some calls. Off to Body Combat. Where you surrender to moves that make you look like an uncoordinated, rag doll. But it's worth it.

- I ordered my first official set of baby announcements for a client. I'm excited about it. Feeling much more comfortable in Photoshop these days.

- Did I mention I'm doing an all day "Shootshop" with these photographers next week in Vegas? I'm SOOO excited and just a little nervous! They are the masters of making life look like the best party ever--- so I'm hoping they'll pass on all of their best secrets.

- I was so excited for the girls of American Idol this year, then a bit disappointed with their performances, than even MORE disappointed with the go-homes! I really liked both of them, and definitely could have lost several before them. Bummer. Won't miss the boys. Did you see last night when the long-haired country boy that Kara sexually harasses made that goofy face in the camera? Ross and I rewinded that like 4 times and could NOT stop laughing. I think he's a new fave for me.

- Happy Friday. I think you're lovely. It's true. (see image above.)

Again with the archiving...

I know.... he can't keep his lips off of me. Seriously, Ross-- it's a family blog.

Found these ones of my family from when Lacy and Joe came out at Thanksgiving. Sometimes I worry it will look like I was never there, part of all of the fun, because it's hard to get on the other side of the camera these days (and let's be honest-- when Ross tries- I end up deleting them as fast as he can take them.) So I figure when we've got ones of all of us together, they need documenting.

Check.

HELP- I'm having BLURB book anxiety.

I did my first book a couple of years ago and it took FOREVER. I'm hoping this time will be better.

Does anyone know how to change the font in your blurb book throughout the WHOLE book, without having to select the text and change the font for every single page? There's GOT to be a way right?

NEVER MIND! Problem Solved... thanks Lizzie. But I thought I'd keep the post up for anyone else who had the same question. Here's the link.

Just a little blast to the past

I was searching through my photo archives yesterday to find pictures of some furniture we're selling on Craigslist, and died over all of the old photos of my girls. I'll remember things like they were yesterday but then see that Mila (especially) was a completely different KID! A lot happens in those first few years.

I still remember this photo. We were at Byron and Kim's house and Mila got sick and had been throwing up. Her big sister wanted to comfort her. Nothing's changed there.

But I can't believe that in such a short time, she's gone from that spiky-haired baby (Papa called her "chief" in honor of her mohawk) to the most snugly, verbal, loving little 2-year old ever. She learns it all from her big sis, but last night, while eating pizza at Costco, she kept standing on the bench, wrapping her arms around my neck, snuggling her pizza-smeared cheek against mine saying "you're the best mommy EVER... I lujou.." (how to spell her pronunciation... it sounds like a blend of love-you and ajou- like the sandwich dipping sauce) "so much mommy-- I lujou so much!"

I think I'd choose right now. If I could pick a time to hit pause--- I'd choose right now. Life is really sweet.

My House

I have revolving-door syndrome. Self-diagnosed. Or husband-diagnosed I should say. He says our house is like the golden gate bridge. By the time they finish painting it, it's time to start back at the beginning....

I decided I'm not documenting it enough since I like to be able to look back and see the phases our home has been through. Every phase stirs up certain memories... like when you see a picture of yourself with different hair and remember a whole set of memories that match it. I have house-phases. I like change... I get stir-crazy... and unfortunately... I am a big fat sucker for a trend.

So here are some photos of my house... a couple of collage projects, a couple of random new nick-knacks that are making me happy, and already a dining-rug change. One before photo is all I could really come up with... so here goes.


BEFORE

AFTER (but I must admit there were definitely several in-between phases. So maybe I should just say "First six months of moving in" and "Now." Same blue on the walls... scary what bad editing can do. I guess I'm also exposing "editing skills, then and now."

Just in case you're curious like I usually am. The curtains and all of the white frames are ikea... the others are random thrift-store and crazy glass-less clearance from homegoods. Mirror, white pillows, and lamp are homegoods. Chair is a reupolstered thrift-store find-- so is the globe ($6!). Coffee table, side tables, and couch are hand-me-downs from my generous sister, Melisa. A new etsy poster that caught my eye. Though I must say, I've been spending a lot more time in Photoshop these days and now I'm thinking.... how hard could that be???
(Still need to fill the little black and bone frame from cost-plus. Yellow... thing... is from homegoods.)

Remember how I JUST showed you my new ikea rug? I really liked it... but for some reason I just wasn't loving it in my house. I'm all about color, but the orange just wasn't working for me or something. I found this one on overstock (well really I saw it on the Little Green Notebook where I was directed to overstock), that reminded me a little of this one.... (different I know... but it reminded me), but for much cheaper... and I did it.

Back to ikea.

This is just a little $10 Cost Plus find that I LOVE. I wish they had a big one for my front door. I wish I had a before of this... maybe you remember it in the background of some old photos... but it was a blank wall for a while... then it had 4 frames for a while... I finally got a whole collage up before my family came out for Thanksgiving. Oh what a little time crunch will do. I think the whole thing only took me an hour and a half or so when I finally got around to it. And just a year and a half of not getting around to it before that.

Lizzie had her babe.... isn't she lovely?

more at the other blog.

Lunch-- for now anyway.

Daytime eating is weird for me. I never know what sounds good that I can throw together in my house in the 3 minutes I'm willing to devote to lunch. If there's time to spare... there are a million things to get done right? Or a million ways to be lazy. Whatever you fancy.

But I definitely don't want to spend my free time preparing something for myself. After preparing food for kids all day long. Sometimes I love turkey sandwiches and sometimes I don't. What else is there?? When I don't--- then I'm really in a bind and end up eating chocolate peanut butter malt balls all day. (Those deserve a post of their own.)

But when I'm in a turkey phase... I could eat this every day. ("This" meaning many of these of course.) A slice of a multigrain baguette, (or white if I'm feeling more carefree... yes--- I'm one of those... watch my white flour in meals, then chase it with something made of cocoa butter and refined sugar for the rest of the hours of the day... leave me alone...), top with Boar's Head Golden Roasted chicken breast from Henry's (I said turkey... but the only one I really love right now is this chicken, I can barely go back to turkey now.) Slather with avocado. Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Repeat. But don't keep a count.

Chase with Chocolate Peanut Butter Malt Balls sold in bulk from Henrys. And hope you don't get diseases from the bin. (Have you heard those stats/rumors? Yikes.)

Idywilld

on the way...

Not only did I get my husband home when I expected him to be gone all weekend, but Monday came and I'd forgotten that he had the day OFF. So we had an EXTRA day to play. What should we do? I don't remember the last time he had a day off that wasn't completely accounted for by a trip to San Diego or something. Do we spray paint frames... and take out dining table leafs... and set up garage shelves? Or do we get the hoo-rah out of here and do something different. That one, we said. That one.

We've always said we should go check out Idyllwild since it's just up the mountain from us. It takes just over an hour, and it's taken us like 7 years of living here to finally make it happen. But it was so charming and so worth it. Just enough left-over snow for Ross to have a snow-ball (eh... more like a snow-crumb) fight with the girls, crystal clear, cool air, and warm sunshine. They have the cutest little candy shops, an old vintage toy and soda-pop shop with all the toys we've forgotten we had as kids, and the greatest little antique shops... I could have hovered in them ALL day long, with the old music and the old books....I wanted to buy everything--- and then remembered I wouldn't like half of it when it created clutter in my house. Thank goodness for photos. You can have a piece of everything and store it all nice and tidy on your hard-drive. :)

But first, you can share it with the WULD! (said like a dramatic English woman... not a child with a speech impediment.)

Shaved ice for the girls... chocolate dipped icecream bars with toasted almonds for us... yum.. We bought the girls harmonicas from the "Remember When" toy shop. Thank goodness those things naturally harmonize... because we've been hearing their sweet music ever since.

And on the drive home... unfortunately the windy roads made the drive home HORRENDOUS for me. Now just looking at this photo makes me sick to my stomach. ugh.

Valentine's Day

Heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast (it was a lot easier in my head... thought cookie cutters would work-- hmmm) .... junk food throughout the day to show our love... (wait a minute.... ), and heart-shaped cake (made by Brooke) with our yummy dinner at night. Valentine's Day is WAY more fun with kids.

I keep thinking I'll do the "things I love" post in honor of v-day... but it's getting closer, and I'm getting busier...

So here's a couple for starts.

P.S. Ross opted out of mancation because of the stones. Now I feel bad for joking about it as possible silver-lining. :/...... but I do have him home for valentine's weekend. Now if only I'd been a nice wife and thought of something sweet to do for him instead of writing off his snowmobiling excursion as my present to him.... hmmm...

My Early Valentine's Present to.... Myself

Luckily I took the picture right after I got them so you can't see how many I've actually eaten in 2 days. You don't want to know. I sooo connected with Cam lastnight on Modern Family. And Ross doesn't even like dark chocolate, so I can't pretend he's doing some of the damage. But these dark chocolate truffles are heaven. Heaven in the prettiest, smoothest little heart shaped package you've ever seen.

It's 9 am. Shouldn't have blogged about them at 9 am.....

too late. must go--- name being called from secret lillie-cupboard.

p.s. Finished up the wedding I did a couple of weeks ago. Check it out over here.

Oh and one more thing--- I'm adding this on after I posted this--- LOCAL GIRLS, that camera workshop I was going to in AZ is being done in Temecula, so I postponed my enrollment for that one. It's TOMORROW night. Friday. And two more spots just opened up. Just in case anyone has enough interest to jump in last minute and drive out with me! Here's the info.

Happy Birthday Papa!

Dear Papa,

With all of your threats of rolling around our house in a wheel chair, drooling, asking everyone you roll into to "pull your finger" and using up the phone line all day long (this was in retaliation of me using the phone a lot as a teen... nice try Kirk, you didn't foresee the cell-phone phenom)..... anyway... for these reasons, we're not thrilled at the idea of you getting older. But wanted to wish you a happy birthday anyway.

Love you--

On motherhood

Saw this on someone else's blog... probably Little Green Notebook since I did a full dive into her archives. I LOVE this photo. When I was growing up, my mom collected paintings and statues of mother-and-child. So this makes me think of her for a couple of reasons, the other being obvious. (And not because she sits in fields bottomless.)

Just feeling grateful today. For having a mom I feel so tenderly about, and BEING a mom. Oh there is nothing in the world as sweet.

Nothing.

You know how sometimes your kids say things that swell your heart so big it could burst. But to others it doesn't sound like much? This is probably one of those. Disclaimer made if bored from here on.

Last night, our family prayers by Sophia's bed were mostly just her and I. Ross was on the couch-- the pain is still in and out, he must be passing the other stones) Mila was refusing to leave the dollhouse unattended. Sophia volunteered to say it and started with some obnoxious mention of hot dogs with a big hardy laugh. This is her joke of the week. ANYTHING with the word hot-dog in it. NO idea why. But it's bugging me in normal life... so it bugged me even more in a prayer.

"We don't tell jokes in prayers Sophia. And we don't use that crazy cartoon voice... just the normal one."

I thought she'd get all grumpy like she does when I scold her a little for anything. But instead she quickly restarted... forehead against mine, her breath warm on my exhausted, mommy face.

"We're thankful for this day-- and that daddy's tummy's a little better, and we played with toys, and we played with Kate, and we're going to a birthday party tomorrow. And I like to draw... I like to draw my name. And I can draw my name berry well. And my mom--- my mom.... um... my mom is SOOO proud of me because I can write my name berry berry well.... "

this is when my eyes welled up with tears. The same eyes that had been giving her mommy-glare after a day of random "hot-dog" outbursts.

"And I love to draw my letters. I can draw M and O and P and H and I and A... and S. And E, and T, P, N, and V... lots and LOTS of letters. And we're thankful for Jesus. In the name of ......."

Sometimes it's just almost so incredible it hurts. It's just so incredible. So INCREDIBLE that we made these little girls and that they are OUR little girls to nurture and love and encourage and BUILD every ounce of confidence they'll need to take on this world. Ours to teach all about a Heavenly Father and his plan of salvation so they will be FULLY equipped to stand out and be peculiar, and be ok with that. And then I think of kids who are not uplifted and loved and TREASURED and I forget that there could be any greater sin in the world than that.

I'm all over the place.

But I'm the luckiest mom in the world. And today I think I could have a dozen... because I am TERRIFIED at the thought of reaching a day where my home is not ringing with the melody of their little voices saying these precious things.

Just so grateful to be a mommy.

Ross had kidney stones this morning.

I've never seen him in so much pain... it was awful. He woke up in a little pain at 5 or 6 and went downstairs... I noticed he was out of bed earlier than he needed to be for a Sunday but since I can't really think before 8am, I didn't wonder. Then he calls out at like 7 from downstairs, "Lillie! I need help---", I come out and see him lying on the living room floor--- "You need to take me to the emergency room."

I was worried the ER would have a long wait and lots of crazies like it does in the movies, so we decided to do the Urgent Care instead. Unfortunately they didn't open 'till 8, which left Ross throwing up and writhing in pain on the bathroom floor for an hour. Then after waiting at the door to be the first patient in, they took one look at him and his sweaty, ghostly white face and told us to go to the Emergency Room. (It was that or his pajama pant, holey t-shirt and sockless running shoe look.) Either way, bummer.

They took him right in at the ER, and by the time I took the girls to a friend's house and came back, he was lying in a hospital bed calm and peaceful. No moving or wincing or moaning or WRITHING... that really is the only word that describes it. I touched his arm to see if he was awake and he opened his eyes --"they've got me on some wicked good drugs." Oh the miracles of medicine. I was so grateful.

They took him in for a cat scan and then dosed him up a little more when he was still having a bit of pain. Then again--- peace. Ahhh....

The Doctor came in and explained that the biggest one, a 5mm stone had just passed through his something-or-other (the painful part- some tubes below the kidney but before the bladder?) and the worst was over. Phew. There are a few more in his kidneys still but they're little and hopefully won't cause pain like the last one.

So he's had like a dozen glasses of water today and lots of rest and some good drugs and we're CROSSING our fingers that it's over. Cross yours too?

Just because she's lovely.

And because my Internet was down all morning and I finally remembered where we shoved our dusty old router so I could, with the help of the middle-eastern woman on the phone and like 30 minutes wasted, diagnose the problem.

Unplugged chord.

Lame. (Said in the voice of Dwight Shrute on Monsters vs. aliens when he's talking about the omega quadrant. What? Have you not watched it a hundred times like us?)

But seriously, the photo. Doesn't she look like 18? Scary. But she turns my whole heart to butter.

I've been spending too much time on design blogs...

And now I'm in one of those phases where I can't fall asleep at night because I can't stop dreaming about all of the projects I'm going to get done. Notice I said "dreaming". I'm making NO such promises to start or finish ANY of these projects.

But CAN YOU IMAGINE having a playhouse like that in your backyard? Ross, need a new hobby? I find handy-men very attractive.

And the upper left--- did you see those on The Little Green Notebook? They're rain gutter book shelves. So it costs, like nothing--- for wall-spanning book shelves. Just a bit more elbow grease than I might be able to muster. She linked this tutorial on her blog.

The bottom left picture--- I'm into those framed boards... whatever you call them. Where you can stick pictures and notes with pushpins? A couple of frames, spray paint, cute fabric, batting, trim, fabric glue, viola! Lost the link--- but same lovely blog. It seemed easy at the time, but I'm already overwhelmed just thinking of what it probably took... oh to be a bit more crafty.

And lastly, the cute poster. All we have to do for that one is hit purchase. And then hang in Sophia's room.

What do you want to guess is the MOST likely to reappear on my blog in MY house?

And while I'm in the mood for link-sharing... Allie, did you see I finally did my horizontal tabs on my photo blog??? Thank you for sharing your tutorial!

Remember this lovely chair I found at Angel View that I vowed to reupholster back in... ummm.... August?

I did it! Well, if it counts even though I haven't put any kind of trim down to cover the staples yet. And perhaps you can see some of the natural wood where I botched the paint job because I couldn't figure out how to keep the batting down once I'd taken off the ugly fabric. Should have kept it on. I have a bit of a half-way personality... and since it looks done from afar, I'm afraid it might be a long while before I fix those little problems. But anyhoo... one project down! Just 6 months later.

Holy cow--- that's the first time I counted out the months. Sad. Notice there were two? Maybe Ross's ultimatum that the second one is tossed if I don't have it out of his garage in the next 30 days will light a fire under my butt.

And here are a couple of other newbies in the house I've meant to blog. The light fixture from ikea I got a while back and panicked that it was WAY too big for the room. Then Ross put it up and I think I dig it. The rug? A vast improvement from the shaggy old ikea one that left hair balls all over my house, but not the yellow I've been envisioning, so I'm not sold yet.

Can't find any before pictures. I wish I'd done the whole "tag" thing on my posts like everybody else.

In honor of Valentine's Day... right around the corner

We found a heart rock. Well Sophia did. And she treasured it like gold. I think it's lucky. Maybe it'll bring me so much luck my husband's flight will be cancelled and he WON'T go on mancation over valentine's weekend. Uh huh. Two years in a row. This explains all the good-hubby-ness. He butters me up all year long so I'll forgive his leaving me alone on the weekend-for-lovers for some stinky boys and snowmobiling. Pfft. At least I've got my girls to eat heart shaped something-or-others with all weekend long.

And speaking of love. Tere watched my girls last week while I took these pictures of her precious niece. I love these boys.

I think Sophia does too.

(I should mention that the photos at the top were taken AFTER crazy hair day, which is why she's got four ponies. They were, however taken BEFORE she cut one of the ponies off because "crazy hair day was over"... that's what I get for being too lazy to wash it for a few days. Ross came upstairs to me with a fist full of blonde hair .... "it happened.... " . I think we'll survive it with some clips and the usual french braid in front.... )