November

After quickly throwing on sweaters, Isabella and I walked down to the mailbox with Lovie tonight. It was right at dusk, so everything was that deep shade of navy blue. As we were walking the sounds and smells of November surrounded us and wrapped their chilly arms around us like a hug. Just smelling the cold wet leaves and feeling the nip in the air against my cheeks took me straight back to when I was a kid. (was that really just a few short years ago?!)

Playing outside until it was too dark to see anymore, I would make my way back to the house with my pants soaked around the bottom with evening dew and a set of chapped cheeks and lips. The house would be warm and full of dinner smells, the dog would be wondering around, hoping for spills, and my sisters would be bustling about gossipping, helping, bickering...There would nearly always be a general to-do about how filthy I was and how I smelled like cow pasture...but then Daddy would walk in from work and there would be no time to fool with it. The fire would crackle and pop away in the background as we ate and discussed Christmas ideas or school activities...Later in the evening before bed, mom would rub lanolin on my chapped face, I still remember the sticky texture on my face and the thick oily smell...the next day my freshly healed face would be ready for another long, chilly evening of play.

As I held Isabella's warm, squirmy little body while we walked, I wondered what childhood memories she would be longing for eighteen, twenty years down the road. Would she see home the way I see it? as her safe haven, the fondest time of her life? I hope so...I strive for as much. Maybe in twenty years, she'll be holding a little squirmy body of her own, and I'll be walking behind her, snapping pictures, relishing a moment, holding on to a memory for dear life.

My life lately

An overflowing suitcase, A toddler who curls her own hair and wears Victoria's Secret perfume, and A big black dog nose in the middle of everything I do.

I promise to take better care of my little blog...It's been a crazy month.

What's in your carry-on?

"What's in your carry-on?"

I'm a'leavin' for the hills ya'll! Going home for a little visit that is... I can not WAIT to see family, and eat at Chick Filet!...and go to a Target!...but lemme tell ya, I'm dreading that 18 hour ordeal that I must go through in order to get there.

I have neglected my little bloglet...sorry about that, but this week and last week were filled with finals...i'm finally done!...for now that is...there will be more. Oh, the drudgery...(this is where my therapist would chime in encouraging me to use my posative self talk and focus on my accomplishments) Focus on my tasks at hand, that's what I need to do! I need to do laundry, organize, pack and get myself in order before embarking upon my 10 hour plane ride home...I leave in two days...yikes!

I have flown (or is it flew? flied?!) with Isabella all by myself many times...I have pretty much been through every embarassing airplane scenerio you can think of...right down to the cranky ritzy-titzy woman flipping up her sleep mask to glare at me and ask if I "couldn't give that baby something to quiet 'it' down?!" believe me lady, I tried that! efforts in futility come to mind.

If you ever find yourself about to fly alone with a toddler for about eh...all together, 18 hours? and you need to know what to include in your carry-on, Well i'm the woman for the job!

This picture is just kind of an example...the real deal carry-on will include many, many more snacks and a laptop.

Ok, so here's THE list...so far.

Travel neck pillow
Fuzzy pink blanket (airplane blankets are the pits)
Child leash, yeah! I put my kid on a leash, if you don't like it, then spend sometime with my child. You'll love it then.
Benadryl (reccommended by her pediatrician)
Tylanol (just in case)
Band-aids, ever cut your finger on the overhead container? hurts.
Lysol, airplane bathrooms, 'nuff said
Hand sanitizer, see above
travel toothbrush and toothpaste, I can't stand to have fuzzy teeth
P-J's for Bella to change into
He favorite books
A million diapers
A million diapers for me...(did I seriously just take a picture of tampons? sorry guys...)
Wallet
Cell phone
iPod
Snickers-Energy!
Color Wonder coloring book and drawing pad (a beautiful invention!)
Color Wonder crayons...markers
Hand lotion and a teensy tiny bottle of parfum (we hate airplan smell)
Laptop
A dvd of Isabella's very favorite cartoons
PLENTY of wipes
Diaper changing pad
Eyeshadow, blush, lipstick, chapstick...etc...

Ok...so far that's it. Am I missing something? Any ideas?

This face makes me happy

Eating Cream of Wheat before bed, in the midst of a madhouse of painting this gleeful little face is all it takes to put my world in order and set my mind at peace. One of those rare occasions where she completely cooperated with me and allowed me to take her pictures, she even included an added bonus of her silly spoon trick...what a happy face! After looking at these pictures I'm amazed at how much she has grown just since my last batch of pictures! she looks so much more like a toddler every day :( Why can't she just stay my little baby forever?

Tuff Snuff

It's been a tough week. When I say tough, I mean one of those weeks where pretty much all you do is pray. I've prayed for myself, I've prayed for my little family and I've prayed for my sister in Virginia and the little bitty baby growing in her belly. I've been praying so much and so hard that I caught myself accidentally praying to myself out loud in the commissary yesterday. Turns out, people don't like that, apparently it's pretty weird. Well, whoops!

But amidst all of this stress, and tears and angst and hand-wringing, there was a big 'ol ray of sunshine just sitting pretty right in my mailbox! It was from my other sister over at The B Hive She sent me a big box of goodies "belated, for my birthday" (even though my birthday was in August and she's already sent me one box) I know it's really because she's always just been that way, sweet and generous.

Who could not be cheered up by all of pinkalicous-ness? She made that beautiful charm bracelet herself! can you believe it?! I come from such a crafty family, my mom and sister are always cooking something up in their crafting "lairs" I just try to keep up as best I can...it's hard to do do! I just love the way she decorated that bucket...it came chock full of fancy shmancy pink unmentionables from Victoria herself...My FAVE!!! Isabella even scored, My B included some monogrammed buttons to fasten onto Isabella's hairbows, PERFECT!, some Elmo goodies (Isabella's new favorite) and even a couple of adorable shirts, I would have photographed those too, but she is currently wearing one and is napping, and the other is dirty from yesterday, they were so cute I couldn't resist putting them on her righ away! I squealed with glee when I unwrapped the little poodle ornaments...Where does she find all of these treasures? I guess that's just what B's do...they buzz around, unselfishly gathering up the best of the best so that others can enjoy the sweetness of their labor.

Thanks B! this box worked better than a bottle of Prozac!

Aunt G-G's Isabella fix

I was beseeched by my Auntie Gaye-Gaye to post more pictures of The Bella...

Pardon her puffy little cold eyes...we're both undergoing a bout of the sniffles. I decided to let her help me make a mini batch of cookies, (I figured nobody but us would want to eat our germ-infested cookies right now)... I needed some chocolate and she was grumpy, so I thought it would be a nice distraction. She stirred the butter and sugar for me...ok, so she tried to eat the butter...lets just say she definitely inherited my adoration of butter.

After our cookies were out of the oven she clapped her little hands with glee and goes "Yay!!" me too Bella, me too.

Candy Garland

I'm trying to fill up a nick-knack shelf over in my spooky corner. Yes, I know I'm obsessing over that darned corner, and I can't even promise you this is the last time you're going to hear about it...I really am sorry! I finally got finished painting last night and it's made a huge difference. A few years ago right after I had first gotten married, my dad made me a beautiful knick-knack shelf for christmas, it's made out of an old vintage picture frame, and I just love cluttering it up with stuff! I adore a good shelf full of eye candy. I've been having trouble finding cute non-gory stuff to fill it up with, I hate Halloween decorations that are bloody and gutsy. I ended up making my own little garland out of maribu and old christmas tree ornaments. I took those cheap glass ball ornaments and I boiled them in vinegar so that the aint came off and they were clear, then I filled them with the color of glitters of my choice, I shook them up a bit to coat the inside of the ball and I rather like the antiquish outcome. I made the little candies by wrapping up wooden dowel balls and squares of cardboard up in scrapbook paper, then I wraped them up in cellophane. I think I am going to make about a dozen more of these candies and pile them up in cutsy litle trick-or-treat bags for display!

Sorry for the picture quality, I had to use my flash-again. I don't know what's up with my little pink camera these days, she just won't take clear pictures unless the flash is on, I guess its time for a grown-up camera. Sigh.