Notfunatol

Rob has been out of town since Thursday. Gretchen's behavior has been deteriorating since that time. Yesterday, my MIL fell and broke her hip, and today she had a hip replacement surgery. After I had gotten the updates on that, Gretchen was being so ornrey that she picked up her plate and threw her lunch at me. It's as if we've gone right back to square one. So, this is what I've come up with tonight:

We have a name for this face - “evil cartoon character face”. But, there’s really nothing funny about it. Gretchen has been making this face since the age of 18 months, and it represents years of tantrums, screaming, anger and frustration., both for her and for us. This face reminds me of all the research I’ve done, the meetings with doctors and psychologists, the suggestion that she may be bipolar and the countless nights I have worried about what her future may hold. Mental illness still has such a stigma with it and it’s very difficult to find support and people who truly understand. I am truly grateful for the few people in our lives who have listened and offered me a break on days when things get really bad. Mom and Dad, Jim and Patrice, Jeanmarie, Angela, Debra, Melissa, Amy, Melinda, Audra and so many others have listened and been there when I needed it. So far, we think her behaviors might be associate with a sensitivty to cow’s milk, but it’s really just a starting point.. I will continue to rely on God for direction, and I pray that Rob and I can help her learn to manage the confusing feelings she must have inside. 7/14/07

Yes, I finally managed to capture that evil cartoon character face she makes when she's having a fit.

Time for a glass of wine...

Daddy needs to rest

Heidi: So Daddy, what did you do at work today?

Rob: Oh, I did a lot of things. I had so much to do.

Heidi: Aww Daddy, did that make you tired? It sounds like you need to rest. Come on Daddy, let's go downstairs and rest.

Is there really anything I can say to this? LOL I haven't had anyone offer for me to rest today. Instead, I attempted to fill up their little pool since it's 94 degrees here and feels hotter than h@#$. Thank the Lord we have AC! As I was pumping up the pool (which has a continuous leak in the top layer) the air compressor literally died. Sigh. So we made do we a half-filled up pool and a hose. It was great until they started climbing the slide...

I also set up their little princess tent in the backyard. Now they want to camp out tonight! Yikes! And Rob has to work again, so if I let them I'll be solo. This just won't end well, I know it. Last night it took me 2 hours to get them to go to sleep. It was back and forth between bedrooms.

Here is a layout from our trip last week to the Lake Erie coast. See full credits here.


Vermillion, Ohio is such a cute little town. There is a small, but pretty beach, a marina, lots of shops and restaurants and just has a lot of charm. We had lunch at an old fashioned soda fountain and man, was it good! There are also more trains there than I've ever seen...one about every 5 minutes.

Before I forget, be sure to check out my first altered project as a part of Traci Reed's CT! Visit the Hawt Mamas Team Blog to see it, and leave me some love if you would. :-)

Happy Birthday USA!

The 4th of July is my favorite holiday, and this year did not disappoint. To start the day we headed down to Harvard Circle to join in the annual celebration which is geared towards kids. Some friends of ours, who are normally out of town on the 4th, came along with us, and it worked out so well. They have a 4 year old girl and a 20 month old boy, and the girls all decorated their bikes to ride in the little bike parade around the circle. It was so cute! They also had their faces painted, got tattoos, ate popsicles and popcorn, visited with Mister the horse and had Cookie the clown make them little balloon animals.

After the festivities, we had a BBQ at our house. The kids played and we had way too much food (which is always a good thing!) and we had a blast. I found myself missing my pool. See, we used to have an inground pool, before the kids. Once I got pregnant, we had it filled in, because it literally took up our entire backyard. It was too much of a risk having little ones around.

When you are the one with the pool, it's always easy to get people to come over. LOL There was one especially fun 4th that involved swimming and smoke bombs. Too bad I don't have photos of that one!

I have a whole blog to do about the trip Rob and took, but that will be another day. I just spent the past two hours trying to get the girls to go to sleep, and looking for a well-loved sheep that was lost for an hour of that time. Sigh. It's time for a glass of wine...

Conversations with an almost five year old

Gretchen: When we're five, we are going to do whatever we want to do.

Me: Um, I don't think so! As long as you live in this house, you will follow our rules.

Gretchen: When I'm five, I'm not going to live here anymore.

Me: Oh really? Where are you going to live?

Gretchen: Me and Heidi and going to live in our own house!

Me: Okay, how are you going to pay the bills? You'll have to get a job you know. What kind of job do you want? A teacher? A firefighter?...

Gretchen: Oh! I will be a teacher!

Me: What are you going to teach?

Gretchen: I will teach little kids how to dance!

Me: Okay, good! That sounds like a great job. Now, how are you going to get there...will you drive a car, or take a bus, or walk?

Gretchen: I'll take the bus.

Me: How will you pay for that?

Gretchen: I will just get the money from Kroger (our grocery store). Do they give you money there?

Me: No sweetie, you have to have your own money to buy stuff from there.

Gretchen: Oh, well as soon as I'm done teaching the kids every day, I'll come right home. Heidi, what job are you going to do?

Heidi: I think I'll be a mouse catcher.

********************************

Sigh. Is this what I have to look forward to...my five year old trying to leave home every other day? LOL She is really something. Man, where did she get that strong will from?


I should be cleaning my house right now, but that little exchange was just too priceless. It had to be recorded! We are having some family and friends over for the 4th tomorrow. It's my favorite holiday, and I just relish every minute of it!

Happy Birthday USA!

Playground is done! (almost...)

After three long days, Rob and Dad got the playground into "playable" condition! LOL

Isn't she just sooo sweet?

The glider. On the box it says "promotes teamwork and socialization". ROFL!!

View from Heidi's bedroom window.

As you can see, the playset literally takes up the entire width of the yard, and almost half of the length!! Notice the smaller pile of wood? I'm so thrilled...Rob sold a whole ton of it to a friend from church, and that one stack there is all we have left. Yay!

Stuff still left to do:
1. Build the roof on the fort part.
2. Install a knotted rope for them to climb.
3. Install a pulley with attached bucket, so they can send things up and down to each other.
4. Get some mulch so they can stop playing in the dirt!!
5. Move sandbox to underneath the fort.

Here's my first layout featuring the playset:

Credits: Play by Heather Roselli, available at The Digi Chick; arrows by Jessica Bolton, circle doodle by Heather Ann Designs, font is Mish

Yes, that is me in the middle there, in the brown shirt. That slide is the most hideous thing ever! It's very fast and has a bump in the middle, which I find quite painful. I've gone down a few times to humor the girls, and now I'm DONE! Besides, my rear end wasn't designed for that slide...or maybe, the slide wasn't designed for my rear end...

Needless to say, this new activity creates the need for baths every night now. Sigh. And, they are begging to be pushed "really really high". I thought this was supposed to occupy them! Ha!

Okay, time to make some spaghetti for supper. Happy Monday!

Project: Playset

Phase 1


This thing is pretty honking huge! The girls are going to love it. :-)

We also got rid of about half of our huge pile of firewood...yay!

Today I am catching up on laundry, cleaning my kitchen floor (yuck!) and putting some more clothes in the attic while the guys keep working and my Mom has the kids. Should be a productive day.

Killin' time

Guess what?

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

You Really Know Your State Capitols

You Got 18 State Capitols Correct You're either a geography buff... or you have an excellent memory.

Do You Know Your State Capitols?

Your IQ Is 110

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Average Your General Knowledge is Above Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Americana

I was hardly on the computer this weekend, because we were doing lots of family activities. Saturday we went to the Cherry Festival in nearby Whitehouse. They do this every year and it's your typical Midwest, small town festival. They have a parade with a band, fire trucks (and lots of loud sirens!), tractors, cute little cars, and even camels!

There is something completely overwhelming and touching about watching a small town parade. For a brief moment, everyone comes together and gets along, enjoying the simple pleasures of life. Every time I go to a parade like this, I actually tear up! But then I'd weird like that. I also tear up at the first high school football game every fall, watching the marching band come out onto the field to their cadence. Ah, the good old days...but, I digress.

I need to add more to this layout, but I'm stuck, so I posted it anyway. Notice how I used the tag to strategically cover my butt! ROFL!! That is one of the worst photos of me ever. I think you can see every bump and bulge. Note to self: burn that outfit!!

Sunday we drove up to Great Lakes Crossing in Pontiac, Michigan (about 1.5 hours from here) for Rob's birthday. He wanted to take the girls to the Rainforest Cafe, and it was a great choice! They absolutely loved it. Their non-stop chattering all through lunch was really funny. We let them each pick out one thing from the gift shop, and they both chose little kitties. Now, they could have had something different and exotic, but no, kitties. They carried them all through the mall, making them meow. They just crack me up.

Yesterday we did a bedroom clean out in the morning, and then we met some friends at a playground after lunch. A trip to Target set me back about $38, even though I went in to look for a birthday gift for Rob and couldn't find it! I got a new strawberry tablecloth with some red vinyl placemats...very summery and bright, along with some supplies for S'mores, and Uncle Sam hat for Rob to wear on the 4th, patriotic socks for the girls and a couple other odds and ends.

A couple of blog prompts from Stephani at KB and Friends...

What do you consider to be the ultimate snack food?
I can only choose one? Oh man! I guess I'd say cereal, because that can cover many different kinds. You can eat it dry, or with milk for something more substantial. And what kid doesn't like dry Cheerios? ;-)

Name a hobby that you’ve tried but eventually gave up for some reason.
I used to do counted cross-stitch when I was a kid, around 4th-6th grade. It was fun, and I learned from my mom. Once I got involved with music/band/junior high, I just didn't have time anymore. Now, I don't know if I'd have the patience! LOL

Have a great day!

Work Day

I have my work cut out for me today. Mom took the kids (thanks Mom!) for the day so I could work in the house. My project for the day is to completely clean out the sunroom, which is only 16x9, but the girls use it as a playroom and I have my "studio" in there, and you'd be amazed how much stuff can pile up! I'll post before and after photos later on...wish me luck! :-)

Tonight we have the 8th grade banquet for DH's school, and they are having it at the country club where we had our wedding reception. I don't think we've been back in that particular room since (13 years ago), so it will be fun to take a trip down memory lane.

Oops, almost forgot the daily blog prompt:

What are 3 things you would like to put in a time capsule?

1. My laptop (I can't imagine how technology will be different, even 10 years from now)
2. My cell phone (Same as above...will we even need cell phones in the future?)
3. One entire outfit that I wear on a typical day (which right now is capri pants, a short sleeved shirt and sandals or tennis shoes with short socks) and also my glasses :-)

Later chicas!

School's out for summah!

Remember that song? I think I have it right. Well, today was the last day of preschool for the girls. We have the next 8 or so weeks to really hang out and have fun, right?

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I sooooo don't want to get bored! I have them signed up for gymnastics and swimming lessons, and they are also taking a week-long Pixies and Princesses class at the Y. I think we'll also check out the summer reading program at the library, and visit the zoo and science museum on a regular basis. No problem, right? LOL

I decided to start joining in on Sempson's Daily Blog Prompt, to get me blogging on a more regular basis. Today the prompt is:

If you could wake up tomorrow with a new talent, what would you want it to be?

This is an easy one...I'd love to be able to dance! You know, kind of like they dance on Dancing with the Stars (only I wouldn't be dressed like that...yikes!). I think dancing is so much fun, but I'm not very good at it. The only dance class I've ever taken was in high school, when I was in the flag corps. We had a dancing only portion of our halftime show, so we all took a group lesson over the summer. I loved it! But my body is, let's just say, not exactly designed for dancing. LOL

I put up a couple of altered projects I've done lately, as I applied to Traci Reed's CT and she's looking for altered artists. I will be adding more in the next day or so, but this is a start anyway.

Bathroom Shelf Project

Simple Altered Clipboard

And here is a quick layout, from our outing on Memorial Day:

Back In Time

Ciao for now!

Atilla the Mom

So it's been a while since I've blogged again...what's new, right? LOL This time I actually have a decent excuse.

The Friday before Memorial Day, Heidi came down with a fever, coughing, sneezing, congestion, etc. This had been going on all week (minus the fever) and I figured it was just a cold or allergies. Saturday Gretchen got the fever too, and we spend the weekend hunkered down, running sick bay. I don't know how other people do it, but in our house, the kids get the couches and I wait on them hand and foot. That's how my mom did it for me, and I know how rotten it feels to be sick, so I want to do the same for them.

By Monday I thought they were on the road to recovery, so we ventured out to a park and did this really cool canal boat ride. The boat is a replica of a canal boat from 1865, and is pulled by mules. The people running it are dressed in period costumes and "acting" as if we all lived in 1865. It was really cute. We even got to go through an actual working lock.




I sent them to school Tuesday, since they didn't have a fever. By Tuesday afternoon, though, the fevers were back and they were both coughing A LOT. Finally Wednesday I took Heidi to the doctor, and it turned out she had PNEUMONIA!! I was shocked! Well, at least we got her some medicine. That night Gretchen's fever went up and she coughed all night, so Thursday am it was her turn at the doctor. She had an ear infection, so it was antibiotics for her too.

We spent the rest of the week trying to recover, missing their school zoo trip and everything. I was able to send them back to school on Tuesday, and they were able to take their birthday treat, so everything worked out okay.

Now, Rob caught the bug. He's home sick today with a fever, coughing and congestion. It's like having another kid! I know he's feeling awful but I am SO DONE with the house being under quarantine! Let's just hope that I don't get it next. I don't have time to be sick!

I better get back to the grind. So far today, I have cut the grass, swept two driveways and the sidewalk in front of our house, done two loads of laundry, fixed all the meals, waited on Rob, watched the girls ride their bikes, baked cupcakes for my MIL's birthday (which is today) and took a short nap while they watched their afternoon show. Sigh.

Inconsistent Blooger Award

If there was such a thing, I think I would win! LOL I walk around writing really cool sounding blog posts in my head, but they very rarely come to fruition.

I finally won something for a layout! Yay! I submitted a bunch of layouts in DigiShopTalk's 2007 Scrappers Awards, never expecting to win anything, but lo and behold...my layout was chosen for Best Overall Submission! I was absolutely shocked!

See all the credits here. I must give credit to two people for this one. First, to the very talented Jessica Bolton, who designed the fabulous kit I used to create this, and secondly to Melinda Staley, who has a knack for making really striking layouts using black backgrounds. And of course to Heidi, who is the star of the layout! LOL My prize is a $10 GC to any scrapping store, so I chose KB and Friends. I just love their new collab kit:



Okay, this is sad...I actually had to go look at my last blog post to see what I wrote about...it's been so long! Didn't want to repeat myself. :p

I don't even know which layouts to post, so I think that will wait for another day.

Happy Monday!

A tag...seven random things

I have been tagged by Audra (thank you my friend!). So now I'm going to post seven random tidbits about myself...are you ready for this excitement?

1.

Um, this is a lot harder that is seems....

1. Sometimes I snort when I laugh.
2. People call me Michelle in real life, but I use Mish so much online that I'm starting to like that better!
3. I absolutely love fresh green beans, and I eat them like potato chips this time of year.
4. I am afraid of raw chicken, and refuse to touch a raw turkey as well.
5. My favorite pair of shoes right now are my $8 fake Crocks (in a lovely shade of brown, so they can *almost* pass as real shoes).
6. I used to have a terrible fear of tornadoes, but now I actually enjoy a good thunderstorm.
7. If I could be anywhere in the world right now, I'd be in the Canadian Rockies.

I think everyone who reads this and has a blog has already been tagged, so I will tag Jeanmarie, Debra and Dawn. You gals can just email me, okay? :-)

I have a new favorite store

I usually don't blog on Sundays, but Rob and I had a date night last night and I just felt compelled to write about it! Now, most of you are probably very familiar with Ikea. I had never been there before, and the closest one we have to us is about an hour north of here. My parents took the kids overnight and we had a little adventure!

I couldn't even believe the outside of the store...it makes such a bold statement, with that blue and yellow. Then once you get inside, they take you on this little tour and weave you all through the store. I felt like I was in a maze or something. Their displays are really well put together, and I'm convinced this is way their products sell so well.

We ended up with a few things:

Rainbow colored plastic bowls and little plates for the girls...

A little table and chair, which I've been wanting to get for a long time now...

And finally, a chair for my "office" LOL. Mine has an off-white, washable cover...nice!



Anyway, I know it seems silly to post these things on here, but since it was the first time we were ever there, I wanted to remember it. :-)

After shopping, we had a yummy Mexican dinner, and then drove over to Ann Arbor, just to people watch. They had just had graduation earlier in the day, there weren't too many people around, but it was still fun. We sat in a local coffee shop, right next to the window, and I tried to smile at people walking by to see how many of them would smile or nod back. Much to my dismay, only a few responded. The fellow at the next table decided to join in (he was this cute little Asian dude with the biggest smile I've seen in a while) and started commenting on the pedestrians. It was such a hoot!

Rob borrowed a log splitter from the neighbor and is finally getting to work on the monstrous pile of logs that is still in our front yard. The tree was cut down in November, I think? At least the wood is nice and dried out now. There will be lots of outdoor fires in the backyard this summer.

Speaking of fires...

This is how we spend many spring and summer evenings at our house. It's so much better than TV! Don't my girls have such sweet little toes? I made this one for the Weeds and Wildflowers CT call. I hope I make it!

I love sunshine :-)

Ah, sunshine. If you live in an area where it's sunny most of the time, you probably don't appreciate it like I do. Around here in NW Ohio, I think just over half of our day shave actual sunshine. So, when the sun comes out, it's just awesome!

Today is one of those gorgeous spring days that we long for all winter. The kind of day where you just feel good about life in general, and wonder bad things can happen. It's a bit eerie to know that it looked just like this in NYC on 9/11, and now with the terrible events at Virgina Tech this week, there is such a disconnect between peace and horror. It doesn't seem fair that I can be sitting here enjoying this day, while so many families are suffering to a degree that I can't imagine. They have been in my prayers all week.

On a lighter note, I called Rob and asked if he could take the afternoon off. He worked so much last week on that virus problem (40 hours in 4 days) that I think he could use a break. Besides, I just miss him sometimes and want to hang out, like we used to. :-)

I can't think of anything else to write, so I think I'll sign off. Have a great weekend!

Another Wednesday

It's a kind of blah day here, overcast and chilly. Yesterday was so gorgeous...sunny and about 55 degrees. The girls had school in the morning, and then we headed out to the park in the afternoon. Things got pretty crazy there after school let out, so then we headed to my favorite produce market, Monnette's, to get some HEALTHY food.

Can I just say, as an aside, that there are a lot of complete idiot parents at a playground? There were quite a few sitting around smoking, talking on their cell phones and generally ignoring their kids. One kid was even taking his dog, who was on a leash, down the slide! I should have snapped a picture but didn't want to seem obvious.

I did get a bunch of cool nature photos, which I'm going to use for textures, etc. Fun fun!

Okay, back to the healthy food business. We are *trying* to start eating more natural food around here...some organic things, soy and rice milk, and generally nothing with added color or preservatives. Let me tell ya...it's a challenge, especially do to on a budget! After getting our fresh produce, I made a yummy dinner that was really well received by the whole family - Thai Pork Burritos. I used ground turkey instead and it was delicious!

After dinner I ventured out to the natural foods store in town. We are making our own bread too, and Rob wanted all kinds of wacky things. Here's my grocery list, which set me back over $100 - ouch!!

Soy milk
Rice milk (which is quite tasty, I've discovered!)
Almond butter (a treat for me and the girls)
Toasted almonds
Organic cereal
Rye flour
Gluten flour
Date sugar
Cane sugar
Soy yogurt
Water buffalo milk yogurt (I know, I know, but it made me laugh!!)
Arthur shaped mac and cheese
Kid's vitamins
Frozen spinach and garlic pizza
Burt's Bees orange facial cleanser (mmmm, it smells sooo good)
Mothering magazine

And...

Are you ready?

ONE WHOLE FROZEN CHICKEN!!!

Now, if you know me IRL, you know that I am tragically afraid of touching chickens, turkeys or most other raw meats. But, free range chicken is so expensive that I decided to buck up and by the darn thing, roast it, and then maybe it won't be so gross to touch. However, somehow the chicken got left at the store! Oh darn, I'm so upset [insert sarcastic snicker here]. They did call me and will be crediting my store card. So, I got out of it this time...

~~ Contest Winner! ~~
Okay, enough about chickens. We have a winner! Muka received my Cosmic Wonders Paper Pack after leaving a comment and being randomly chosen. Enjoy Muka!

~~ New Products ~~
I just finished up another set of templates...Rectangle Quickies Power Pack 2 and
Square Quickies Power Pack 2. They are on sale right now at PDW for just $3.50!

Cosmic Wonders freebie

I just put a really fun and funky new paper pack in my store at Plain Digital Wrapper. I think this is my all-time favorite product I've ever made! Just click the preview to check it out in the store.


Here are a couple of layouts using this paper pack. The first one was created by the fabulous Jessica Bolton. Be sure to check out her awesome store at Scrapbook Graphics!


By Tracy Blankenship, who gives away the coolest freebies ever!




And here is one I did:


Now, for the freebie. I had an extra paper that wouldn't fit neatly into my preview (LOL!), so I thought it would make a great freebie. Please leave me some love if you download. :-)

Everyone who leaves a comment before Wednesday, April 18 at 12:00am will be entered into a drawing to win the paper pack for FREE! I will post the winner here sometime Wednesday afternoon. Be sure to PUT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR COMMENT so I know how to find you. :-)

DOWNLOAD HERE

Enjoy!

A very long Saturday

Today has been a really long day. Rob had to work today, to continue rebuilding all the stuff he lost when that virus took the network down at school on Thursday. I wish I could understand why someone would want to spend their time writing a program that could be so destructive. If these people would put that knowledge to good use, they could make a lot of money!

We are supposed to go to a hockey game tonight, but I'm not really in the mood.

The girls did some cool art projects today to pass the time. This morning we painted with the new paint we got last night, and this afternoon we made flowers:


Did you ever make these as a kid? You take wax paper, shave crayons onto it, put another piece of wax paper on top, and then put a cool iron on top to melt the wax. They look cool in a window, because the sunlight (or at least daylight, in this case!) comes through. It is a bit messy, but no matter. One tip though...don't do this on a vinyl tablecloth, because it's easy to melt a hole in it, like I just did! LOL

I tried out a different kind of scrapping style last night:

Credits:
3 Slide Frames by Doris Castle, from True Love
Distressed frame by Jessica Bolton, from Home Life
Background paper by Lisa Whitney, from Easter Sweets
Flower Hook-Ups by Donna Rafferty
Dotted ribbon by Michelle Coleman
Pink trim by Bren Boone, from Hip Chick
White stitches and embroidered alpha by Toni Berman
Hand Stamped Alpha by Michelle Coleman
Paint splatters and painted frame by Doris Castle, from Art Strokes

This will end up being a two page layout. It was fun to make though!

Okay, I guess I should go take a shower, and the girls need a bath too. :-)

Another digi student :-)

It has been my goal of late to try to get a couple people I know IRL to start digiscrapping. And guess what? It worked! Yesterday my good buddy Carrie brought her kids over to play with the girls, and she brought along her picture card from her camera. Check out her first digi layout ever!

Credits: Template by me, Home Life by Jessica Bolton, available at SBG, Fonts: Michelle Marker, Old English

I'm so excited to get someone else "addicted"! LOL

The girls had spring break this week, which doesn't amount to much since they are only in school two mornings a week, but it's enough to change the routine. Rob took the day off Tuesday and we went to The Butterfly House...it's so cool there!

Credits: Paper, frames, binder clip, bow, star brads and journaling
paper from Toni Berman's Debutante kit, available at [url=http://www.mydigitalmuse.com/boutique/product.php?productid=417&cat=0&page=1]My Digital Muse[/url]
and [url=http://toniberman.com/shoppe/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&products_id=60]Toni Berman Designs[/url]
Painted butterfly by Michelle Coleman
Clay butterfly by Amy Knepper
Silk butterflies by Christina Bartholomew and Eve Recinella

Rob had a very late night last night. The church/school network got a virus yesterday afternoon, and he was there trying to get it up and running until 4:30am (with the exception of a one hour break at home). I feel so bad for him, because he had to get up and go back in this morning. No rest for the weary. But at least he was able to get it working. Sometimes those viruses can destroy entire systems.

I don't think we have much planned for this weekend. Rob is going to a hockey game tonight, and we are supposed to go together to a game tomorrow night (it's playoff season for the Toledo Storm). In our former life (before kids, that is!) we had season tickets to the games, and Rob was the webmaster for the team for a season. Ah, the good old days.

Well, we are off to go to the natural foods store in pursuit of some rice milk and soy milk. Gretchen has been experiencing tummy aches after just about every meal, so I'm wondering if it could be a dairy/lactose problem. Maybe this will help her constant attitude/behavior issues? We can hope!

Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm still here!

It's been close to a month since I've blogged. And now I can, because I finally finished a huge project I've been working for almost that whole time. But more about that later...

Spring has arrived here in Ohio, at least briefly. Monday and Tuesday it was 70-75 degrees, and then Wednesday hit and it was back to winter-like temps. But we did get outside those warm days and I got some great pics.

Is this a pose, or what? Gretchen sure knows how to work the camera!

And here's Heidi. Notice how she is standing? I guess all those ballet classes are starting to sink in! LOL

A couple of weeks ago, Rob was out of town for almost a week for a basketball tournament. We tried to plan lots of things to do to keep ourselves busy, since my parents were in Florida at the same time!

The girls got to meet Ronald himself on a lunch outing with my Grandma. Heidi decided that he must be real, since his feet are so big...that makes him a real clown. LOL

Then back at Grandma's place, we built a giant tower with her blocks. Now, these blocks are probably 60+ years old. My dad and aunt had them as kids, and I used to play with them too. Grandma still gets a big kick out of watching us build towers.

The project I mentioned earlier is the school yearbook for Rob's school. I can't show you here, since some of the kids' parents don't want their photos posted on the web, but let me tell you...it was a HUGE job. We ended up having 55 pages total, and I designed each and every one. We did have a group of kids helping out. They were great with Photoshop, but I didn't have as much time as I wanted to really teach it to them properly. Hopefully next year, now that I know what I'm doing, we can make an even better book!

Okay, I'm signing off now and getting to bed. Too many nights of 2:30am bedtimes lately. Later!