83/365

03.24

My photo binders for my Library of Memories class.

I love the idea of getting organized,

but it's tempting to say eff-it

and no longer take photos.

Anyone who knows me, however, knows that will never happen.

I'm a picture addict! Always have been!

I think it might have something to do with the fact

that there are hardly any photos of me as a baby and young child.

I am the youngest of four girls and am lucky to have been fed and clothed.

My baby book is empty, and I know it's not because

I was loved any less than my three older sisters.

I know that my mom had other priorities than filling out silly baby books.

So I think that's what drives my obsession.

Should I leave this earth tomorrow, I've done my best

to tell Greta her story so she can read it when she's older.

I plan on being here for quite a while though.

And doing a lot more photo-taking and scrapbook-making.

82/365

03.23

1240+ photos from Shutterfly.

Proud to say, they are all filed away

chronologically, ready for their stories to be told.

I've got my life's collection of photographs

organized into storage binders.

(That's 32 years of pictures!)

It's part of my homework for my

 Big Picture Scrapbooking Library of Memories class.

The class work is exhausting, but I am realizing

that I don't have to stay "caught up" on scrapbooking,

and that's going to make me feel less overwhelmed with my fun little hobby.

I hope. ;-)

80/365

03.21

Greta's favorite thing: her "kee" ...

She drags this blanket EVERY WHERE.

She's like a little Linus.

Unfortunately, the manufacturer no longer makes these blankets.

I have searched high and low for this damn blanket.

I placed two separate orders from two separate online companies,

only for each company to later contact me

to inform me that the blanket was out of stock.

I was lucky enough to locate one of the blankets on eBay.

It was used, but a little detergent and OxiClean fixes up anything.

And then, I hit the motherload, my friends!

I found TWO BRAND NEW ONES on eBay!!

Wahoo Wahoo Wahoo!

Now, fine, whatever.  You can read this and think WHO CARES?

Well, don't read my blog then, for one.

But, secondly, you obviously have never had a child so attached

to a material object that you would hunt down extras

to save your own ass.

We now have four, and I think we're all set.

One's constantly with Greta.

One's constantly in the laundry.

One's hanging in the closet, still in packaging.

One is hanging out around the house somewhere.

The things we do for love, right?

Holy Blog

Seventeen weeks pregnant, and my sleeping is horrendous. I wake up every two hours to pee. And the smallest peep of a snore from the big bear who sleeps next to me wakes me up and sometimes tempts me to kick him. Instead, I urge him to "roll over on your tummy." It only stops the snoring momentarily, but sometimes in those few moments, I can fall back asleep Most, I cannot. So I move to our office, where the spare bed resides, and I try to catch some rest there instead. Sometimes the transition is easy and I'm able to fall back asleep. Sometimes I'm wide awake and spend time tinkering on the computer. There's only so much facebooking you can do, so I read blogs to pass the time. I follow one of my best friends, and then I read this and this. Most of the blogs I follow are light-hearted, simple reads, and I generally am not interested in religious blogs. Not that there's anything wrong with them. They're just not my cup of tea. I recently stumbled up the blog, A Holy Experience, and I found the following, making me glad that there are religious bloggers out there. :-) I think this is beautiful.


Dear Babies that I have bore:

You teach your Mama and she be slow.

Every day we throw back the quilts and we do life together all day in these four walls and you six children teach this one hard heart what it means to love.

Thank you.

For learning your Mama --- what it means to show grace, to step over negativity, to bite the tongue, to hold and soothe the sadness, to work on when tired, to pray more fervently, to wipe up the ugliness with love, to cover up the sinnning mad with the embrace tender, to learn to do love the only way love is real: unconditionally.

It isn't always pretty. Every single day, many times a day, I fail.

But Love doesn't. Every way of living, every paradigm, every philosophy, every thing, that attempts to function apart from the righted love will unequivocally fail.

There is only one sustainable, enduring force to be found in the whole of the cosmos and it is sacrifical love.

Today again you children will teach me the language of the Kingdom that will never pass away, and today again I'll learn love, the reality that will never pass away and together we will work on rightly ordering love and I don't know if I ever really would have known it in the skin and the bone, the awe of the sacrifical love, without the love of each of you.

81/365

03.22

Greta painting for the first time.

She wanted to eat the paint.

2.24.10 -- 55/365

Friends.

79/365

03.20.10

Payton, playing the part of sad sad puppy dog.

78/365

03.19.10

My drink of choice these days: orange juice.

With Greta, I craved macaroni & cheese, deviled eggs,

and spicy foods like jalapenos.

I generally don't like Mexican (or other spicy) eats,

but when I was pregnant with Greta, I would sit at my desk at work

and eat jalapenos PLAIN.

Can you say heartburn?!

Feeling Guilty

for breaking into Greta's Easter basket (which I prepared two weeks ago) and stealing some chocolate candy. I'm not usually a chocolate fanatic, but I needed something sweet.

74/365

03.16.10

I'd pay money to get my hair this color.

73/365

03.15.2010

Bwahahaha!

I'm from Illinois but am a Mizzou fan.

I did my time at Mizzou (okay, just a semester, but still!),

so I'm a Mizzou fan, but Eric went to undergrad and law school there

so the man lives and breathes Mizzou.

We visited a friend, and Greta pulled this blanket from a basket.

It was soft, and she liked it,

and she kept laying on it and petting it.

I thought it would be funny to snap a picture to later show Eric.

I'm evil. ;-)

72/365

03.14.2010

We had a little birthday party for Eric's mom, Mimi.

I love that Greta loves her to pieces.

Happy birthday to the world's best mother-in-law!

(Seriously, how man people can say THAT?!?

I really lucked out.)

71/365

03.13.2010

I bought Greta a Cozy Coupe from the local resale shop,

and she is absolutely in love with the little car.

Right now, it's in our house, we've yet to take it outside.

It's occupied hours of her time, and I must admit,

it's the best $25 I've spent in a long time.

71/365

03.12.2010

Greta's two favorite things:

her kee and her cup.

Kee = blankie.

Cup = milk.

The child does not leave the house without her kee.

And let me tell you about the "kee."

The blanket is from Babies R Us,

and apparently Cocalo no longer makes it.

I scoured the Internet for them.

I bought one used off eBay.

And yesterday I scored two brand new ones off eBay.

Since she drags them EVERY where, they get so dirty,

so I now have back-ups.

Call me crazy, but this blanket is like a body limb she cannot live without.

As for the cup...

"Cup" means milk.

The girl is a milkaholic.

We've offered her water and juice,

but she wants her CUP CUP CUP!

Milk to Greta is like crack concaine to an addict.

I seriously need to keep a cow in my backyard.

70/365

03.11.10

Greta and her little friend, Dominic.

He kept smothering her with kisses,

to the point where he'd grab her neck and pull her close to him.

She wanted none of that.

She'd rather drive her car.

Here, though, she appeased him somewhat

by blowing him a kiss.

69/365

03.10.2010

My girl.

68/365

03.09.10

This is what a lifetime of

unorganized photographs looks like.

I'm currently enrolled in Stacy Julian's Library of Memories class

at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

The objective is to stop being stressed about scrapping,

to stop trying to play "keep-up" and instead,

scrap your photos in a meaningful way.

The idea is to take photographs and record the memories.

Not every single photo.

(Which is what I had been doing before. Hence, Greta's 9 albums...)

Luckily, I've had my photos organized for the most part,

so this part of the course isn't too daunting.

Unfortunately, I'm about a month behind on class assignments

since I was out of commission for a bit

when hit with strep throat and being exhausted

from the first trimester of pregnancy.

Trying to get up-to-speed now.

And also learning to TAKE LESS DAMN PHOTOS.

67/365

03.08.10

Sometimes she's just not in the mood for affection.

She's so like a cat.

She's so like her mom. ;-)

66/365

03.07.10

Here's Greta, in her favorite place of late:

next to her daddy on the couch.

It's pretty darn cute.

Oh, she loves him.

Have you ever seen such a serious child?

She always looks so contemplative.

I'd give a penny for her thoughts any day.

65/365

3.06.10

My mom reading to Greta.

This is where Greta gets her red hair.

It's where I got my quirkiness.

Before this day, I hadn't seen her smile in so long.

I kind of forgot what it looked like.

Sometimes people die and you forget the sound of their voice

or you fear that you're going to.

Sometimes people die, and you try so desparately to recall

every little feature of their face and their hands.

She is alive, and sometimes I feared that

I'd forget what she looked like when she smiled.

It was good to see it again.

64/365

03.05.10

Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh.

At last.

I purchased an SLR camera!

I really love taking photos,

and the point & shoot was giving me a headache.

Greta moves too quickly to capture any moments.

I like to say those photos taken with the point & shoot

are "artsy" but the truth is, they're off centered, blurry, etc.

because I can't get the kid to sit still.

So I broke down and bought this.

I'd researched cameras for A LONG TIME.

I finally bit the bullet, and seriously,

my hands shook the entire time.

I'd saved my pennies for this splurge,

and even though I was really excited about the purchase,

handing over so much dinero made me quite anxious.

Let's hope the quality of my photos soon improve, right?

63/365

03.04.10

These days, Greta is very into imitating.

Which, is cute, but it also makes you watch yourself.

Fuck and shit are slowly working

their way out of my vocabulary.

And you can't pick your nose at free-will.

Because SHE is WATCHING

and will soon start doing it herself.

Here's Greta with my velcro rollers in her hair.

I put them in mine, and she wanted them in hers.

3.3.10 -- 62/365

3.1.10 - 60/365

My honey.

3.2.10 -- 61/365

2.28.10 - 59/365

It melts my heart to see

how much Greta loves her daddy.

They're such good buddies these days.

Here they are watching Saturday morning cartoons.

2.27.10 - 58/365

Ugh. Not the most flattering of photos of me.

But, here I am, making it out and about

for the first time in quite a bit.

Tapas with lovely friends.

Maria is a vixen and I could scheme with her all night.

2.26.10 - 57/365

Sassy.

2.25.10 - 56/365

No, Greta no does not still take a binky.

A friend left it here,

and mischievous Greta

snagged it from where I hid it.

(Yes, Kim, it's Kenley's. Sorry!)

On a different note...

Greta is becoming a daddy's girl.

It's sweet.

Every little girl needs a strong father-figure in her life.

And I'm so glad that Greta has him.

2.23.10 - 54/365

53/365

02.22.10

I think her blue eyes are beautiful.

But I, of course, am biased.

52/365

02.21.10

Greta @ 19 and 1/2 months old.

Eats like a bird.

But loves loves loves cheese.

It's one of the cutest words she says right now.

51/365

02.20.10

My hubby.

Making me breakfast before

I head out for a day of scrapbooking.

50/365

02.19.10

It was the end of the day.

I needed a photo of the day.

This is it.

Staying out until 1:15 a.m. kicks a 32 year-old's ass,

I decided the next day.

On Holiday

I'm alive.
Will blog soon.
Currently in pregnancy-induced hibernation.