Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Ashli's Feet..... gotta love em!

Looking for my signature photo.

Okay, after having not blogged for so long I feel like I have so many different things to blog about. I have decided to go with my most recent thought. "I need a signature photo." My daughter Ashli just got back from hiking the Lost Coast in California and she sent me photos from her trip. I have have included some of my favorites, but there were so many to pick from. The one that tickled me and stood out from the rest was the simple one of her feet. Ashli has this very unique signature when ever she is away and taking pictures, she take at lease one of her feet. Okay, I don't know if she always takes pictures of her feet, but I have noticed that at least the pictures of her trips that she shares with me seem to have pictures of her feet..... Maybe she just thinks I would be interested her choice of shoes? Anyway...... I think of it as her signature photo, and now I want one. Maybe I should start taking one of my hand? No, to similar..... how about one blurry one? That seems to always happen when I am taking pictures. Ohhhhhh, I know, I could shoot one and miss the top of someones head...... once again, seems to always happen. Maybe I need to think of something more artistic...... If anyone can give me a good idea, I am open for suggestions. Mean while, I think I will post some of my ideas on here in the future, and see what kind of feed back my mother gives me...... she is the only one to ever comment on my blogs.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire!!!

Okay, what is worse than having your husband being laid off with no new job in sight? Having the same wonderful husband having surgery on BOTH feet at the same time. Yes, I said both at the same time. I know it makes sense to him to get them both out of the way now so he can have his 6 week recovery time all at once, but do you know how restricted that makes him? Remember that I also have a 3 year old, new puppy and now an invalid to top things off. One of the biggest challenges is keeping the little one and puppy off of the now waiting target. He is like this big beacon reclining in the living room, and that just seems to be to much for them to resist. I need to make a cage to protect his feet. The rest of him is up for grabs..... just do not touch the feet!!! It doesn't help that this is the same husband that can hardly sit still for more than 5 minutes. He is always doing something, and now he is restricted to bed or his recliner. You can imagine what a joy he is to be around..... He keeps wiggling all over. That wouldn't be so bad, but we bought him a new recliner at Sams since we didn't have one before, and the leather squeaks and groans with every move. Or maybe that is just my nerves squeaking and groaning. Anyway, this should be an interesting few weeks. Maybe I will start crushing the other half of Dales pain killers and put them in his food. He is being the tough guy and only taking half of his pain medicine, I really think I need him to take the other half too! Speaking of medicine...... I should be recording him. He is having little mental laps. Today someone called and every time I would walk bake into the room he was telling this person the same thing I heard him telling them the last time I was in the room. After 4 times of this happening I was starting to think I should warn people who call to talk to him. If nothing else this should be very entertaining..... I will have to keep bloggin the highlights. Some day I might look back on this and laugh:)

This little one is not a girly girl!!

When she is all dressed up you might be able to get a very pretty picture of her.... if you are very fast. This little one loves nothing more than to jump in the nearest puddle and squish her hands in the gooest stuff she can find. As long as it does not smell bad...... she hate things that smell bad, but everything else is fair play. It does not matter if she is wearing the new dress mom bought for her birthday or a nice clean white top.... the dirtier the better. If I was really smart I would dress her in brown all the time.

Oh my aching back!!!

Okay, I have heard all the hype about how great yoga is..... and really I think I will grow to love it...... that is if my aching back survives. My lower back is telling me I need to ease myself into this whole work out thing. My heels are right on board with the lower back...... I am sure at some point this will all start to feel really good..... and I hope that day is not to far off. Maybe I should really think the water aerobic thing threw some more. That might be a little less stressful on my poor body.
Back to me doing yoga..... Somebody could make a mint (or what little money I have)if they had a video tape of me trying to do this stuff. I am not limber enough to go into the full poses so I have to stop and hold about halfway there. While doing this I tend to sway and almost tumble.....and produce some untimely morning toots. Do I really wonder why my back is hurting so much? At least I am able to now do yoga without Cassies help now that Dale is home. When I was doing anything on the ground on all fours she would crawl up on my back and ride me like a horse. Like I need the extra weight while I work out....
Wish me luck.... I might be on bed rest if I keep doing my back in. At least I might get a lot of blogging done.

SPRING!!!!!

We are in the 50's!!!!! I am so ready for spring!!! This seems like the longest winter. I don't know if that was because I was trapped with an overly energetic toddler. Or just because winter is Chicago is not fun and you want it to be over as soon as possible. I love it here the other 3 seasons... well maybe not on those super humid summer days, but thankfully those aren't all the time.
I know we are the known as the "Windy City", but that is not because of the weather. It was because of the politicians. I think it was more windy in Kansas..... Hello!!!! Wizard of Oz!!!! All and all spring and fall are my favorites. Most people are getting itchy to plant things. Me I love to enjoy the fruits of their labor while I go around and take pictures of it. I am looking forward to getting out more and taking pictures. I should be able to do it more now that Cassie is getting older. (Mental note: you are delusional!!!!!)
I love tulips!!!! I would love to make a trip to Holland Michigan for the tulip festival.... or maybe go to Holland???? (yes I said delusional)
Well I am off to enjoy our first spring day!!!!
HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE!!!!
Oh by the way, I am exercising now, not upping my meds. This would account for the good mood!

Happy Birthday Cassie!!!

My little girl is now 3....... She still poops her pants in the closet,but otherwise she is really growing up.
We went to the All Aboard Cafe .... aka the Choo choo resturant. Then came home and opened present and had cake. I baked the cake myself, and it took me 2 hours to decorate it. I only spent $38 at Wiltons on the stuff to make it. What was I thinking? My hands will never be the same again. All this and my daughter said it was icky cake. Oh well,,,,,, I liked it.

We have been holding our breath and counting our blessings for months, but my sweet hubby got laid off a week ago. You know what they say....."When everyone else gets laid off it is a recession, but when you get laid off it is a depression."
It has been nice having him around for a the last week, and he is getting lots of things done around here. Check back with me in a week or two. He is disrupting our routine, and question every thing we do. Today he was trying to be nice and make Cassie a sandwich while I was doing something. Cassie came crying to me. She was crying to hard, and I couldn't understand her, so I followed her back upstairs. What was so upsetting that this little girl was having a break down? Daddy cut her sandwich the wrong way. Oh,,,, and the crust was still on it. See if he tries to make her a sandwich again.
We were hoping to use some of this time that Dale is laid off to go visit my family in South Dakota, but my car has decided it is getting tired and doesn't really want to take us that far. The transmission is acting funny and since it is a Lexus it will cost an arm and a leg to fix it. Dale is cursing because I didn't by American. He is good with cars but he just doesn't understand these foreign cars. Wish us luck and maybe we will get things fixed in time to visit my family. Dale thinks this could be a long lay off since so many guys are already out of work. Come on stimulus...... lets get things stimulated. My transmission would be a good place to start. Okay, maybe that is not what the stimulus is for.

And you thought you were having a bad day!!!

This is how my poor puppy looks this week. We call him cone head now..... I know, not funny. He is starting to have second thoughts about if he really likes this family. We took him in on Monday to have him neutered and then they had to pull 4 baby teeth. I have never heard of taking a dog to have baby teeth pulled, but I trusted their advice and had them do it. He is eating much better now. That could be because he likes his food softened with warm water, or he is afraid we are going to starve him again....... He did not get to eat anything for over a day because of his surgery and teeth being pulled.
I feel so bad for him..... he is so low to the ground, he keeps getting his cone caught on the carpet and things. Watching him get in and out of his crate is also good for a laugh or two.
He seems to be doing better now, and we are trying to give him some time without his cone...... Now Cassie is wearing it like a hat. I think she thinks it is something special her puppy got from the vet. Who knows.