What She Said This Time

Recently added to the "What she said this time" section located in the right hand side bar.

2/4/2011

Chloe:  I want to watch the movie with the walled in it? 

Me: The movie with the walled in it?  

Chloe: No, the movie with the WALLED in it.

Me: The movie with the word in it?

Chloe: The movie with the WALLED in it.

Me: The movie with the walled in it?

Chloe: NO MOM!  THE MOVIE WITH THE WALLED IN IT.  WITH AN "R"!

Me: OH!  The movie  with the WORLD in it!

Chloe: Yeah.. (with a look of, oh my gosh my mom's an idiot)..

2/14/2011

Emma on Valentine's Day night:  I know why ya'll want to put us to bed early. So ya'll can do things together.... Just don't watch the Cosby Show without me.

We Changed the Weather!

  My friend Kristi and I decided to go get pedicures on Grand Hog's Day.   Emma had a half day at school that day and when I picked her up, I discovered that it was not going to fly for me to be the only one in the house with painted toe nails.. We decided to celebrate the lack of shadow with pretty toe nails to bid spring on it's way.  Read Two Big Weather Changes Ahead to see that it worked!

"Here comes the sun do do do do"...  

Thanks can be recorded in the comment section :)

PS: It's a shocker but, two posts in one day (got to get em' in when Adam is at home to chase the kids)! Don't miss my Happy Birthday wish to my mom below.

Happy Birthday Mom-- 60 years..

Dear Mom,

I started this post about thirty minutes ago and have written and deleted and written and deleted...and after a half hour, the only words I have past "Dear Mom" are the ones contained in the sentence you are currently reading.  I want to write something beautiful that honors you...something that will do justice to how much I value each of your sixty years.  I want to say the kind of words that people say about someone once they're gone, except I want to say them to you NOW.  I want to write words that will make turning sixty feel like a victory...I mean after all, you have survived a lot.

But...here's the thing:  I haven't been able to write ANYTHING for months.  I've been thinking and reflecting and then thinking and reflecting some more and I've decided that I'm in the throws of an early mid-life crisis. This crisis it seems, may be your fault.  I know,  I know, I promised a victory for you somewhere in all of this.  Just hang in here with me.  I realize that the blame I'm placing on you is not in the least bit fair.  Even so, let's be honest and say it...mother to mother:  we know that fairness makes no difference at all when it comes to children, mothers and blame.   You see, I crossed the thresh hold into my thirties without giving it much thought.  But, I have found that you turning sixty, has given me a new perspective.  Let me see if I can explain....

Do you remember our trip to Panama City Beach when I was 6-years-old?  I'm sure you do. That was the trip that YOU chipped my tooth. We had gone with some friends whose  daughter was Denise's, age (6 years older than me).  I was 3 years younger than I would have been if things had gone according to your original plan (You know, the plan in which I was also going to be named "Danny"). You were paying your usual penance for having a "tilted uterus", by filling the role of my playmate (since you were unable to get pregnant with me in time to make me a viable playmate for all the other children in our lives).  I was wearing a little purple bikini covered in little white hearts with ruffles on the top and I was dreaming of the day that I would take your place as the most beautiful woman in the world (when I would look the way you did in your blue bikini).   I had a deep sense of pity for all of the poor mothers who were laying on the beach because they didn't have a 6-year-old as cool as I was to share a day at the beach with.  I mean, they were so bored that they looked as if they might have actually fallen asleep! You and I were riding the waves in the ocean...you on one side of the raft and me on the other.  We were laughing and chatting.  I remember feeling like I was on top of the world and you were obviously having the best day of your life because you were lucky enough to have someone as fun as me to play with.  And then, reality slapped me right upside the head (a phenomenon that I have since discovered to be a constantly recurring theme in my life). This particular time, reality came in the form of a giant wave...just as you decided you could no longer stand my adorable 6-year-old cuteness and leaned in for a kiss.  Now that I am a mother myself, I know the panic that you must have felt as you struggled  to find your footing so you could keep me safely above the undertow.  But at the time, in the safety provided by your presence, I instead found freedom to express my fury regarding your impeccable timing.

At this point in the story, things get a little foggy.  I do recall my toes finding the ocean floor again as I stormed off saying, "I WANT MY DADDY!"   I also recall the irritation I felt over your ability to laugh at my quirky little personality, while I felt you should have been begging my forgiveness for the injustice forced upon me due to your inability to control the ocean tide.  That ability to laugh, by the way, is one that I have seemed to have inherited and it has proven invaluable in embracing the quirks of MY delectable second child.  

I still have a habit of narrating my own version of life.  Is my glass half empty or half full?  My hopelessly romantic nature often leaves my glass filled past the rim and overflowing.  This results in the most amazing life...until life hits a bump and I'm left looking like I wet my pants.  Okay maybe that isn't the best analogy for a story about playing in the ocean since we are, after all, already wet.  But, it's still fitting for my life since my bubble regularly gets burst in a wide variety of settings. 

But you know what else is memorable to me about this story?  (I mean other than the chipped tooth that I sported for years?)  According to my calculations, you were MY age.  That was 27 years ago and it seems like yesterday, even to me.

Mom, I promise that I listened when you told me how fast it was all going to go by!  One month into Emma's life, (when despite my attempts to soak up every second, I couldn't see where the month had gone), I knew that you were right.  I know that they are growing up WAY faster than I have wanted them to.  But what I haven't considered until now, is how old I'm going to be when we get there.

So what is it that makes growing older so difficult?  I mean, the alternative isn't exactly an option we'd want to choose.  I'll admit that looking in the mirror and noticing that the lines on my forehead have gotten deeper isn't fun.  But, as unsettling as that can be, I don't think it's the problem.  I think that (not so deep inside me), there is a fear that I will breeze through these years so exhausted by today's trials that I won't make the days valuable for tomorrow.  I'm afraid that I might somehow live these wonderful days so lost inside myself that I never get in the ocean to play.

So THIS is what I want you to know:

When I wake up in the mornings and look into the mirror and see that woman in the blue bikini staring back at me,  (Okay so I seriously doubt I'll be sporting a bikini anytime soon), I ask her what I can do that day to make me be the the kind of mother that you are.  I constantly ask myself how you would have handled all sorts of situations.  Those questions usually leave me running for the camera when Chloe gets into my makeup...or leaving the house a mess to go outside to play...or taking a break from making a grocery list to play Candyland,...or even deepening the lines in my forehead by getting up at 4 a.m. to work in the silence that I need to write a blog post.  Asking those questions also gives me the assurance that when I choose to make the grocery list instead of reading "The Cat in The Hat" (for the ONE HUNDREDTH TIME!),   or when I DO get frustrated about the 26th masterpiece that has been created on the wall with crayons or fingerpaint,  that my love for them will prevail against those frustrations.  Because of you, I know, that there is a way that tomorrow I'll be able to live with today.   When the next 27 years have passed even faster than the last, if I am somehow able to know that I have reached sixty years old, with my kids feeling about me the way I do about you, I will claim it for the victory it is...with no regrets.  

To the mother I dream of being, Happy 60th birthday!  I hope you celebrate it as the victory it is.  

I love you,

Dana

PS:  Despite the frugality that I also inherited from you, I intend on investing in a non-generic box of Kleenex with aloe comfort for my nose before I write another sappy blog post.

Freebie Friday- Photoshop Sticker Templates for Moo.com

  Since I have been using most of my creative juices on the Marketing Kit I'm designing for Click Photography, I haven't made much new that I can share this week.  So, I searched through my files for something fun to share.  That's when i came across these sticker templates that I designed for a sticker book from MOO DOT COM.  If you haven't run across MOO yet, you should definitely check them out.  I just LOVE them!  I wanted to make some stickers for the girls to use as seals on their valentine cards.  And since Moo will let you to use up to 90 different designs in one of their MOO StickerBooks for only $9.99, I decided go ahead and make some various stickers with various signatures that can be used in various places...

So I uploaded my sticker creations and this cute little sticker book appeared in my mailbox about a week later.  And at least for now, my girls think I'm the coolest thing since sliced bread.

 So download these Moo Sticker Templates for free.  And get your own customized sticker book cheap!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Friday's Freebie- Free Photoshop Heart Dandelion Brush

So Friday's Freebie is a day late but I think it's worth the wait because this is one of my favorites.

Today, I'm giving you a free download of the heart dandelion that I created for this: "Spread the Love Around" Valentine's Day Card.

Just Click: Spread the Love, Heart Dandelion Photoshop Brush

The free download will be available for 12 months from today.  

Blessings,

Calling All Moms, I'm Airing Dirty Laundry!!

I'm going to go ahead and say it because "Desperate Housewives" says it needs to be said.  Not only do I sometimes feel like a bad mom, I also LOVE "Desperate Housewives".. And if you're judging me for that, all I can say is: You need to watch "Desperate Housewives". It is the ONLY TV show that has a standing date on my calendar...


And this is why:





Oh and I'm a liar too.. Because this totally is not for all moms! I would LOVE LOVE LOVE comments from people that agree.. And if you don't, I hope you wake tomorrow with gray hair and boobs that are even more saggy than they were today !

January Review

   Since I still haven't posted all of my Christmas pictures, I'm going to quickly sum January up in one post. Frankly, I'd prefer to sleep through January and wake up sometime in February when the skies turn blue and the sun peaks through.   January is the month that usually makes me think that humans should be animals that hibernate..Having both mine and Adam's birthday's to celebrate wouldn't even be reason enough in my mind to pull me out of hibernation if I had my say..  When we lived in WV,  the skies turned gray in October and stayed that way until May.  Along with the blue skies seemed to go people's smiles and everyone seemed to fall into a long winter's funk.  January here this year has been way too similar to those never ending winters we had in WV and I'm longing for spring.. I think God knew that I might give up hope that spring would ever come and he blessed us with a beautiful 74 degree day yesterday.  We went down to a local park and we walked, and played and ate dinner outside and it was the most marvelous day... Today it's dank and dreary..  But hopefully yesterday's beautiful weather will hold me over for a few more weeks.. I have to admit that the cold has brought along some nice moments of snuggling.. But, I'm longing for days of playing barefoot in the backyard.  

    Adam and I share the same birthday and  we soothed each other's old egos and I secretly felt better because he's two years older... Since we do share the day, it is nice now that Emma is old enough that she insists that we have a birthday cake.. That way, we don't feel so silly buying our own cake.  My mom took the girls for a long weekend.  The trip was a day shorter because of the crazy ice that covered the path from here to there.  And the fact that mother nature stole a day of an opportunity to sleep in doesn't help her record in my book.. But we are thankful for the break and ever grateful to my mom for always being willing to adjust in whatever way she has to get them on weekends like that.  I have been told that my sister has some pictures from that weekend.  And we'll only hope that she does better at making those public than I have lately.    On the photography front, I've been doing virtually nothing.. I seem to go through spurts where I can't even stand the thought of carrying a camera around and I seem to be there now.  But, I've been doing a lot of graphic design and retouching work and I'm really excited about some marketing materials that I'm working on for my friend Jay at Click Photography and the new studio that she's opening.  Stay tuned on that one.. 

Okay, before I bore you to death with my monotonous January life, I'll  explain the pictures and be done with it..
   Top Left yep, sigh 33 and 35..  Top Middle:  Emma and her sweet little friend MaKayla at MaKayla's birthday party.. Top Right.  Benjamin and Chloe.  Benjamin is my friend Nellie's little guy that has been battling a disease called Langerhaun Cell Histiocytosis for the past year.  We were ecstatic to get the news  that Benjamin's scans were clear last week!  Nellie went out of town for a couple of days early in January and Benjamin stayed with us.   Chloe seems to think that he should live with us now.  Left Middle Chloe and Maggie after they ate a piece of our birthday cake.  Smurfette, watch out, these two will take you down!  Maggie stayed with us a couple of days while her regular babysitter was out of town and they both had a ball. I laughed and laughed at them because they both play like boys.   Bottom Left is a birthday prank because people will just never let us fully leave youth ministry.. I thought they were calling us old goats or something but apparently there wasn't that much thought and they just thought it would be fun to cut deer out of cardboard and stick them in the snow in our yard.. I was so unexcited about going out in the snow/ice and I thought it improved the look of my front yard by giving me something to chuckle about when I looked out into the frigid cold that I left them there until I went to pick Emma up from school the next day..  I do what I can for the neighborhood.. And, the last three are us attempting to play in the snow.  That lasted all of five minutes before we decided that fun shouldn't be torturous and we all went inside and snuggled up in the bed because we are so OVER IT!!  If that ground hog sees a shadow Wed., I'm going to hunt him down and pull him out of his hole and pick him up by his heels and slap his head against the wall....

Friday's Freebie- Free Photoshop Ipod Skin Template

Yay, another freebie!

 This is something that I think every photographer should make a part of their senior packages.  You want more senior photo shoots?  What do teenagers have in front of their face more than anything?  Their I-phones of course.  So what better than to have your favorite senior advertising you to her friends every time she sends out a text?

 I couldn't believe how difficult it was to find a template for an ipod/iphone.  So, I designed one of my own.  This was made to fit an Ipod touch 3 .. But the same template works for an iphone and I'm pretty sure it's close enough to work for all of the touches.  Once you go to a website to have it printed, they will give you the choice of using one of their templates or uploading your own.  Once it's uploaded, you can adjust it just like you want it..   Read on to find out where to get the best print deals on these.

Click Link Below to Download

Free Photoshop Ipod touch template

Yes, that is my seven year old's I-pod and no I'm not an indulgent parent.  She has been asking for a Nintendo DSI for two years and since she shows virtually no interest in any video game ever, I have refused to spend $150 for something she won't use.  

But, when she started asking for an Ipod touch and I began to think of it's benefits to me (road trips with no whining)  I warmed up to the idea.  And since my husband is a Ninja when it comes to getting things free, and I'm cheap frugal, I went with the idea when he was able to score one FREE.. And no he's not in to anything illegal.. But, I'm already giving you an excellent marking idea as well as a freebie template.  A girl's got to hold on to some secrets.   

I searched the net for the cheapest prices and landed at Gelaskins where I printed this skin for $6.99. To quote Gelaskins: "They're skins! Translation: self adhesive vinyl decals. They're made with pure awesomeness"   and I have to agree!  Not only do that they print Ipod skins but they also print 100s of other skins for other electronics.  And I was more than satisfied with the quality.  I will definitely be using them again!

Happy Weekend!

Blessings,

Thoughts From The Slammer

I've lost my mojo... I keep waiting for inspiration to strike so I can write.   But, I've had nothing for months..  I can't even seem to formulate a comment to something someone else has written that I feel strongly about... I think I'm in "fix it" mode, trying to get back the organization that I lost during the holiday season.   And, 2010 was an emotionally trying year and I think I need a break from reflecting... Things have been so heavy.  And the thing I'm needing more than anything is a night like so many I had when I was a teenager.  When my best friend, Kristen, and I would giggle all night long until the point my parents yelled at us because we were keeping them awake.. Oh for just one night to be the one giggling again...

Anyway, since I have absolutely nothing deep or moving to share because I can't stand another ounce of seriousness right now, I'll share what I wasted my time amusing myself with yesterday.

My sister sent me one of those survey e-mails..  You know, "2011 Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends and Family".. Well, since I filled out at least 2011 of those surveys during our time in youth ministry trying to make sure I didn't hurt a single teenager's feelings, I usually skip these things from adults thinking that they can take the rejection... But, my sister put a little personal pressure in there saying I was the "most likely to respond"and there was the part in the directions that said to be honest and not be lame and mess up the fun... Am I the only one that sees the irony in that statement?  Anyway, I didn't want to crush my sister's high opinion of my dependability so, here is my response..

Welcome to the new 2011 edition of getting to know your family and friends.. Here is what you are supposed to do, and try not to be lame and spoil the fun--this means YOU! 
  
Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person who sent it to you. 
  
Some of you may get this several times; that means you have lots of friends. The easiest way to do it is to hit 'forward' so you can delete and change the answers. Have fun and be truthful! 
  
  
What color are your socks right now? orange, that's all they let us have here

What are you listening to right now?

The lady in the cell next to me singing "Stormy Weather"

What was the last thing you ate? Not sure... Mystery meat?

Can you drive a stick shift? 
unfortunately yes.  That's what got me in this place.  Grand Theft Auto.. and all over a candy apple red Dodge Dart.  

Last person you spoke to on the phone? "It's me again Margaret". 

Do you like the person who sent this to you? 
Everyone has some sick affection for their mentors don't they? 

How old are you today? Old enough to know better but still to young to care

What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? 
Demolition Derby

What is your favorite drink? 
RUM

Have you ever dyed your hair? only when I needed a disguise after the bank robbery 

Favorite food? Anything that isn't roadkill 

What is the last movie you watched? 
"The Longest Yard"

Favorite day of the week? Sunday, that's when my baby daddy visits

How do you vent? scrub toilets--- with a toothbrush

 
What was your favorite toy as a child?  a tatoo gun

What is your favorite season? 
salt

Cherries or Blueberries? yep

Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? 
Down to my last friend.  I knocked the others off.   

Who is the most likely to respond? my probation officer

Living situation just me, Thelma and Louise

When was the last time you cried? 

when "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die"

What is on the floor of your closet right now? 
a chalk outline

Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? 
you, "friend"

What did you do last night? Lets just say I don't think I'll be allowed back in that Walmart 

What are you most afraid of? small tight spaces and a woman named Butch

Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? 
yep

Favorite dog breed? 
hot

Sweet or Salty? yep

How many states have you lived in? let's see-- state of paranoia, state of distress, state of annoyance, state of denial, state of confusion.... Hey, tonight is the state of the union!  

 
Diamonds or pearls? 
yep

 What is your favorite flower?  self-rising

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge--Innocent Wonder

This post is for a Photo challenge over at I Heart Faces. The lighting was low and admittedly, this isn't my best photography.  However, for the theme of "innocent wonder" I just couldn't pass it up.  This is my three year old on her daddy's shoulders looking at the star on the Christmas tree as I plugged it in to light it.

But  [she] treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.  Luke 2:19