Win a Tamron Lens!

Win a Tamron 18-270mm or 28-300mm lens!

I wanna win this water slide bounce house!

The contest runs from June 30th thru Aug. 3rd.

Pirate Water Slide Bounce House blogger review

Pirate Water Slide Bounce House

Latest Line of Barbies

http://railyuh.blogspot.com/2008/12/wonders-will-never-cease.html

Thank you, Annie!!!

Live Tree vs. Fake Tree

I've always been a fake tree proponent, probably mostly because I seem to be allergic to most evergreens and the idea of having one in my home for a month doesn't appeal to me. I like the ease of a fake tree and the fact that I don't have to remember to water it. One of my biggest fears is having a house fire, and a dry tree is definitely a fire hazard (yes, my mother did nickname me Sparky!).

This video makes me even more glad my tree is fake!

Gifts of Grace

Nov. 2nd - Nov. 30th

My church is partnering with another church across town to provide underprivileged kids with a gift this Christmas season. Our goal is to provide 800 wrapped toys for
this community need. Please help us make a difference in a child’s life! If you're interested in helping, leave a comment and your email address and I will get in touch with you regarding the specifics.

Thanks!

Wordless Wednesday: Why I Buy Minced Garlic in a Jar

 

She's Gone.

Nani is gone. The vet said she had cancer. There is a huge cockatiel-sized hole in my heart.

My "Baby" is Sick. :-(

No, not Miss N. I mean, not my human child, Miss N. My 10.5 year old cockatiel, Nani, is currently spending the night in a heated, oxygenated cage at the emergency avian vet in a town that is roughly 30 miles from our home.

I'd noticed the last week or so that she'd been sleeping with her head under her wing a lot. I didn't think too much of it. And then today I noticed she was having a hard time moving around the cage. She was struggling to get up onto the perch where her food dish is. I took her out of the cage and she could barely hold her wings up, she was so weak.

I went into panic mode. I started calling vets trying to get her an appointment immediately. This was at 5 pm, and most of them closed at 6 and weren't willing to stay open late. So Brad offered to take her to the emergency vet.

I had worship team rehearsal tonight, so I called a friend from my playgroup who lives VERY close to our church, and asked her if she could watch Miss N (my human child!) for an hour or so while I attended rehearsal. She was willing and able, and I am so very thankful for her!

Brad was home when we got back to the house. He said the vet said she was encouraged by the fact that Nani was eating and moving around some more. The vet called a little later and said they were trying to take blood but couldn't get a vein, so they gave Nani some fluids and tried again a little later, and were still not successful, so they'd keep trying. They said she's more active now, which is a good thing.

The vet said it could be one of three things: a kidney problem, which they can do little about (and which I suspect because of how her stools have been over the past couple of years), cancer, which they could possibly operate on and successfully remove, or a bug that could be beat with antibiotics. We're obviously praying for the last one and for our baby bird to be healed! We won't know anything until they can run the blood tests, and they have to be able to get blood for that.

Lens Filters are a GOOD THING

Well, sort of...



If you bump your camera lens against something, your lens filter will protect your lens. The good news is that this was a $20 filter on a $200 lens. The bad news is that this was much more than just a bump...the impact was strong enough to jam the filter out of the threading and down into the lens, and messed up the zoom and focus rings. They move, but not smoothly! I have no idea if I'll be able to get the filter off of the lens. Thankfully, it was my cheap kit lens and not one of my more expensive lenses - THAT would have made me really mad.

In case you're wondering, this happened over two weeks ago. I stepped off a curb I didn't see (don't ask how). I sprained my ankle and broke a bone in my leg. It sounds much more dramatic than it actually is - the broken bone was the very tip of my fibula (the little bone on the outside of the leg). I'm walking around ok and am able to drive, praise God! I do not know what I would have done if Miss N and I were cooped up in the house for four to six weeks!

Not So Much...

Rule of physics: when a toddler drops a crayon from a height of 3 feet onto a hard, tile floor, that crayon will NOT be "Hard to break!"

Photo Meme

Tagged by Becca, sort of! She says, "If you read my blog and you are cool enough to do this, then you should."

Go take a picture of things in your house AS THEY ARE RIGHT NOW! No fixing before you snap the picture!

1. My Closet-

If we had it to do over again, we wouldn't have the builder install any of those shelves or rods. We plan to redesign it and tear it all out and install Elfa, probably this January when Container Store does their big 30% off sale!

2. Kitchen Sink

Ahhh, a clean, shiny kitchen sink. Thank you, FlyLady!

3. Toilet in Main Bathroom-

Exciting stuff, huh?

4. Kids in their best form-

She was quite frustrated that she couldn't get that brown shoe off in order to put her other pink Croc on.

5. A Beautiful place I want to visit:

Treasure Cay, Abaco Island, Bahamas

6. Something I do not enjoy:

I HATE folding laundry! HATE HATE HATE!

7. My Fridge and freezer:

You can see all of the fridge clutter is on the side so I don't have to look at it all the time. Miss N brings home one piece of artwork from MDO each day (so 2 per week). I put one on the front of the fridge and replace it with the newest piece each time.

8. My Favorite room-

Right now this is my favorite room because it is 90% done. We still have stuff to hang on the walls and some decor to put on top of the bookcases, but it gives me hope that the rest of our house will be complete some day!

9. Self Portrait-

This was the best I could get.

10. My favorite shoes-

I LOVE these shoes on Miss N!


And these are my favorites to wear. They're probably horrifically out of style, but I don't care, they're still cute!

If you read this, guess what? Tag, you're it, NO TAG BACKS! :-)

In Honor of Labor Day (a couple of days late)

Saw this on Jess' blog and was instructed to complete it!

How long was your labor?
5 hours

How did you know you were in labor?
my water broke

Where did you deliver?
at home, in a nice warm tub of water!

Drugs?
No way!!!

C-section?
Nope

Who delivered?
I DID!

Happy Anniversary!

Brad and I have been married four years today. One thousand, four hundred sixty-one days, and a handful of hours. It's really hard to believe that it was four years ago that we became husband and wife. It's been quite an adventure, full of fun and several challenges. I know that with our foundation built on Christ that we will successfully weather any storm that may come along.

I'm a very blessed woman to have such a wonderful husband who truly knows what it means to follow Christ and lead our family.

Here are some photos of us from our wedding day. If you want to see more details, visit Our Wedding Web Page. The wedding highlights video link doesn't work any more, but I haven't had any desire to update the web page.

















To celebrate the day, I cooked Brad's favorite meal, sauerbraten and mashed potatoes. Yesterday he brought home a dozen red roses for me and one hot pink rose for Nyssa (so sweet!). He told me last night that when I went to bed, I couldn't get back up until in the morning. I had no idea what kind of surprise I'd be waking up to! When I left the bedroom in the morning, there was a piece of computer printer paper with a smiley face printed on it that was taped to the wall facing the bedroom door. As I rounded the corner, I spotted two more pieces of computer paper with prints of ducks on them (we have an inside joke about ducks that goes all the way back to our third date). And then I spotted the larger-than-life love letter he had written to me, printed out on over 200 sheets of paper and taped to the longest wall of our living room. I was blown away by his creativity, as well as the sweet letter he wrote to me (no, I won't be sharing it). There was another two sentence letter on the wall in the entry of our home, and he had scattered more prints of random ducks on the walls in the main living area. He also had taped Howard (the duck that started the whole inside joke about ducks) to the wall with a letter (we've been doing that for over five years now!).

After dinner we exchanged gifts - the fourth anniversary gift is supposed to be fruit/flowers (traditional) and appliances (modern). I ordered him six bottles of St. Lucia banana ketchup, which he fell in love with on our honeymoon to St. Lucia. I figured since banana is a fruit, that counts! And he got me the latest Flip video camera, which was originally on my Christmas list for this year. I can't wait to really use it and post lots of fun videos over on Nyssa's blog.

Tomorrow night we are going out for dinner to Ruth's Cris. I'll have more photos to share tomorrow!

Stud Finder of Odd Proportions

I hate conventional stud finders. We have never been able to get one to work properly, as evidenced by the nine or so holes that are hidden behind the giant blue marlin that is hanging in the photography studio. There were another sixteen holes in the wall of our apartment where he was hanging in our living room for the same reason.

A few weeks ago I sat down with my 1994 copy of Reader's Digest Household Hints and Tips. It mentioned the use of a strong magnet to locate the studs in the walls of your house. I was skeptical but figured it had to be better than nailing hole after hole after hole hoping to hit the 2x4 on the first try.

What do you know! It actually works! You start by locating the poorly spackled nail hole in the baseboard.



Then you take your magnetic Tot Lok (any other strong magnet will work, the Tot Lok is just the one we happened to have handy) and starting at the baseboard, move your way up in a straight line, following the magnet until it is at the height you want to place your nail. You'll feel the magnet stick every few inches.





Quite ingenious, no? Too bad I didn't think of it myself, many moons ago!

Oh, dear.

72 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior Take the test!

I *heart* Dr. Sears

"Babies will wean and someday they will sleep through the night. This high maintenance stage of nighttime parenting will pass. The time in your arms, at your breast, and in your bed is a relatively short while in the life of a baby, yet the memories of love and availability last forever. "

This is why we 1) cosleep and 2) REFUSE REFUSE REFUSE to sleep train our daughter to go to sleep on her own.

I do not want to send the message to her that we are only available to her during the day. I want her to learn that (to use Dr. Sears' phrasing) sleep is a pleasant state to enter into and a safe state to remain in. I do not believe that leaving her to cry alone until she falls asleep will accomplish those goals.

I'm not criticizing any other parent for choosing to use the cry-it-out method to get their children to sleep. I believe that, generally speaking, parents do what they feel is best for their families based on their own beliefs and principles when it comes to raising children. So why do I not get the same courtesy from other parents? If I'm venting about having trouble with sleeping, just offer some sympathy and encouraging words: "This too shall pass."

WRONG!!!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Um, wrong. There is ONE person in the US that has MY NAME....

DUH!

Who writes these programs?!

Bachelorette Party

You know you're in trouble, when you Google, "Name-of-hometown Nightlife" and the only thing that pops up is the local historical downtown movie theatre.

Halfway House?

So as of yesterday, there are now seven beating hearts living in our house. No, I'm not pregnant! I just have a 3-week-old cottontail bunny living inside a plastic box in our bathroom right now. He's a temporary resident and will be returned to the "wild" (aka our yard) probably this weekend.

A storm came up yesterday mid-morning and the wind that preceded the storm was blowing our empty 5-gallon plastic water jugs all over the front porch. I stepped outside and glanced down at the planter that sits right outside the front door. I noticed something out of place...there was a tennis-ball-sized pile of fluff sitting huddled between the wall and the container. It startled me and I exclaimed, "OMG What IS THAT?!" I quickly realized it was a baby bunny. Great. I figured out he had probably been disturbed when the landscape guys came that morning to mow our grass (we have landscape guys because Brad is HIGHLY allergic to most grasses and weeds, I just refuse to mow, and N isn't tall or strong enough to push a mower yet).



Hilarity ensued...after talking to my friend Kimberly (who had recently had the same problem, except there were TWO bunnies invovled in her case, and they were much younger) I decided to set some water and spinach out for him. Well, in doing so, I frightened him and he darted off to the end of the porch. Now he was huddled next to the wall and under the porch railing, but remember the storm I mentioned was coming? Well, it had arrived and the wind was blowing sideways, soaking this poor rabbit.



I ran to the garage to get the stroller and my umbrella. I secured Nyssa in the stroller and set her in the front door where she could see me but wasn't getting soaked like I was about to be. I then opened the umbrella, walked around the porch in the pouring rain, and poked the bunny back toward his original hideout. I had to nudge him a couple of times, but he ended up back where he was, except now he was quite wet, poor thing.

I then got an email from a wildlife rehabilitation lady (http://www.rescuedrabbits.org/), who advised me to get the rabbit, put him in a small shoebox lined with a t-shirt, and set the shoebox on a heating pad set on medium. Then she sent me a Power Point presentation that showed Eastern Cottontails in various stages of development, from birth to adulthood. She asked me to guess how old the bunny was. I figured 2.5-3.5 weeks, and then sent her a picture, which she confirmed was probably a 3-week old bunny.



She said I could either get him to her later that evening, or she could tell me how to care for him over the next few days. We opted to care for him ourselves. She advised us to put him in a tall box, keep part of that box on a heating pad, and to provide water in a shallow dish and give him cut grass from our yard for him to eat. She also listed some of their other favorite foods (dandelions, pansies, petunias, hibiscus), but I don't have any of those so he's just getting grass!

I found out a little later that they don't eat spinach. She advised against giving apples and carrots since they don't get those in the wild.

So I put the little shoe box inside a big clear plastic box and then set a baby gate on top of that. I realized that evening that rabbits are nocturnal! He was bumping around a bit while I was trying to fall asleep, and then he was quiet through the night. And then at dawn, he started bumping around again. Silly guy! When I went to check on him after I got up this morning, I panicked, because I didn't see him at first. He had burrowed underneath the t-shirt that was in the shoe box. I uncovered his head, worried about him getting enough oxygen. He was probably fine, but the mom in me was concerned.

I'll post a photo of his latest set up later.

Why I Love Dr. Sears

It's no secret that I am a HUGE fan of Dr. Sears.

This is my latest favorite quote of his.

"To expect a curious two-year-old to be a model of obedience in a supermarket that is set up to make adults act impulsively is unrealistic."