Well, it's been close to a week since Amanda's birthday and I haven't posted about it yet- sigh. We really had a nice time. I won't take time to blog about the weekend before her birthday but in a nutshell we took her out to dinner along with Nanni, Poppi, and Taylor (boyfriend). So on the actual day Taylor picked her up from school and I scrambled to buy presents, food and bake a cake. Travis grilled burgers and I almost didn't know what to do with myself since I wasn't cooking. So we had dinner, did presents and were lighting the candles on the cake when we heard a scream from the living room. Since a lot of people that already read this blog have been on the phone with me lately and since I get a knot in my stomach talking about it I'm just going to sum this up. Travis ran into the living room to find Halle with a pencil in her hand and blood pouring from her mouth. We finally figured out that she had the eraser end of the pencil (the eraser had been chewed off by Chloe just leaving the metal exposed) in her mouth and slipped while climbing on the chair. The next several hours were spent waiting on the Dr. to call to tell us if we needed to go to the emergency room, getting Chloe off to the Fadely's and waiting in the emergency room. No stitches, an inch or so long gash in the roof of her mouth, antibiotics and pain medicine with a narcotic in it. She's doing better but she's still in pain. I'm anxious to not talk about this again.
Moving on...I don't know if you can tell what it is because the picture doesn't highlight it but Travis drew a flower on Amanda's birthday cake! I was proud of him.

The next picture is Halle's artwork on my artwork and the last picture is the finished
product. There are a couple of touch-ups that I need to make (I don't like my signature) and then I need to put varnish on it and I'm done. Then I was reading on about.com about painting and she said that you should be working on more than one thing at a time to keep your perspective and if you get stuck on one thing you can move on to the next- so I started 4 more paintings. One is a watercolor and I don't think I'm going to like it so I don't know if I'm going to bother with it.

And I'm behind on everything because of Halle's accident, then the women't conference, church, and the main street festival in Franklin...so now I'm off to clean.

I've wanted to post this week but it seems like I'm just too busy to get to it. And now that I've gotten to it I smell that Halle has a diaper issue- it's just been like that this week.

My parents came in this past weekend for Amanda's birthday (which is actually today) and we had a nice visit- except for Halle. She was sick and really just acted- well really bad. There were fits and tantrums and crying and fits....gaaa! Halle has a strong personality, there's no denying that but this was so incredibly out of character for her. I've never seen her act like this before. On Monday she seemed better but after she got up from her nap she screamed and screamed and screamed (50 minutes-no joke!). I held her- or tried to- I sang to her, cradled her and took her outside. Taking her outside always works but this time she just screamed, "go inside, go inside!". I finally distracted her with some flowers and we played outside for about an hour and the end of the evening was pleasant. Yesterday she seemed better but she complained a couple of times about her ear hurting. I thought that the ear drops I've been using must not be working and that I'd probably have to take her to the doctor. So last night after her bath I asked Travis to put her ear drops in and a few minutes later he called for me to come into the bedroom to look at her ear. It turns out she had a piece of cotton jammed into her ear canal. She had pushed it so far into it that you had to use a flashlight to actually see it. Wow, that explained some things! So I held her down while Travis used a tiny pair of tweezers to fish it out. She was crying and saying "Ow, ow!" and "thank you Daddy!". I-felt-awful. After that she was laughing and playing and jumping around the room- my sweet-feisty little girl was back! She was just the same this morning and I am so thankful.

I've worked on the sunflowers some more and am almost finished. I just need to fill in a little bit more and seal it, I'm actually ready to be done with it and move on to something else. I did have to fix a bit of a mishap though. Halle got some of the leftover paint when I wasn't looking and painted a huge patch of white, yellow and green on the canvas. Thankfully I was able to wipe some of it off and paint over it in the ultramarine that I used as the base color. It made the blue darker than I wanted it but it still looks OK.

So tonight will be another birthday dinner and cake for Amanda and we'll be grilling out for the very first time- fun, fun, fun! OK, now I'm off to fix that diaper issue of Halle's....

Still Working...

Well, I'm still working on it but this is what I have from this morning. I want to keep working but I need to let the paint dry and I have to get to the stuff I've been putting off- folding laundry, vacuuming, and taking a shower. I'm not done yet though...

Sunflowers

So, I did make a list yesterday and I found it quite helpful for keeping me on track. I worked faster and more efficiently. I did not get everything done, however. And one of the reasons is because I started on the painting you (hopefully) see here. I've had this canvas for a while now and I've had the artist acrylics but I didn't know what to paint and I was afraid to mess it up. Oh, and I've seriously lacked the inspiration to start anything. Since this is the first time I've used artist acrylics- as opposed to craft acrylics since they're sooo not the same thing- I was hoping I would like it. And I'm very happy to report that I LOVED it. I'll have to see how it goes but I think that painting with acrylics is going to almost rank up there with singing as something I truly love. In some respects I like painting more than music. I certainly like it better than writing music. I find writing music to be a chore- probably because my piano skills stink so badly that I can't get what's in my head onto paper and I quickly lose interest. But with painting it is so freeing. I love the way that the colors meld together to create something unexpected and yet still pleasing. I love it that if you screw it up you can either fix it or create something different.

So this is my sunflower and it may end up being more than one and I'm kind of questioning my placement of it to begin with but ultimately it will end up being what it is and I really hope I like it. I've filled out the bottom of the sunflower more since I took this photo but it takes about 5 different steps to get one picture in Picasa so I'll show you more later. There are also about 3 (or 7) other painting Ideas that I want to start- a couple being watercolor, gasp! So I think that the secret to staying inspired is to keep painting. Which I'll be able to do a little bit this morning but there are some things that I absolutely have to get done this morning before Mom and Dad get here. I guess I'd better get cracking!

"Oh, oooohhhh my eaw huwts, help meeee!" That is the pitiful little cry I heard from the back seat this morning after Halle and I dropped Chloe off for school. She's been sick since Saturday and I've not taken her to the Dr. because she just got off antibiotics and I wanted to wait it out. And now since I know that she has an ear infection I'm more determined to wait it out. Last summer I got some ear drops from the health food store for Chloe and put those in her ear 4 times a day and made sure to give her some Ibuprofen every 6 hours for the pain and she was over it in two days. Halle is watching "de-de-Dowa" (that's how she asks for Dora) right now and has had ear drops and Ibuprofen and seems to be content-yay.

I am REALLY feeling better today. I feel better than I have in close to a month so there are tons of things I want to get done and none of them include watching TV. It's been very frustrating to be sick so often but I know that God is bringing healing and restoration to our house and even though it hasn't manifested itself yet I know it's happening. So, I'd like to vacuum and wash the van. It's so big that I usually take it through the car wash but since the weather is warmer I think it could use a good hand washing. I'd like to work on Chloe's fan blades some more, the problem is that it's not something that I can rush if I run out of time and I hate having to stop painting if I'm on a roll. I think if I was able to have my paints out all the time I would just always be painting. It's like blogging though- if I don't do it regularly I lose inspiration and am not willing to just paint anything.

Amanda really liked the fan blade I did for the girls and I'm thinking of painting something for her birthday. I just don't know if I have the ability to paint what's in my head. I'd like to do and abstract of her- black hair/wild eyeshadow. I haven't begun to tackle faces yet and while it wouldn't look like a photograph of her (abstract you know) I would like for it to not look like a blob. My other idea is crazy simple and would match her bedroom- so I'll fool around with both things and see what I can come up with. There is also tons of cleaning that needs to be done- since I've only done what we absolutely needed to survive lately. I don't want my parents to think they're in a dump. And I need to try to tack down the 15 or so tiles that are popping up on the floor. Bargain tiles aren't always a bargain. Sooo, I'm afraid I shall have to make a list. I don't like living by lists because I don't like to be told what to do- even by myself- so pathetic and I really need to get over that. But I watched a show the other night about a lady that had a set of twins and then had a set of sextuplets! So she has 8 small children to take care of. Now if that was me our house would be in utter chaos. But she had lists and schedules and was so organized. It was truly amazing. I think that I will have to take baby steps toward something like that though.

So for today I will make a list of the most important things that I feel like I can get done today. As it is right now I look at everything that needs to be done and I start doing it all at once. I don't finish one thing before I start in on another thing that catches my eye and forget about the first thing, then I remember the first thing while in the middle of the second or third thing, and the kids are yelling and getting into things and I feel the stress right in the middle of my chest. I actually feel more stressed at times here than I did at my last job. I don't think that's healthy or necessary so I'm going to have to change- change is hard.

I'd also like to get a Pilates session in today because my muscles feel very stiff and it's relaxing. A walk would be nice too....I should get to that list.

So, what have I been up to lately that's blog-worthy? Not much, I'm afraid. I've actually been sick since somtime in March- with a couple of different things but I'm on the upside of a sinus infection since I started antibiotics yesterday. Anyway, my fever broke sometime this afternoon and I was itching to do something that didn't include cleaning up after children. So I started the ceiling fan project again. I took the fan blades and paints out on the patio and somehow attracted about 10 kids from the neighborhood that wanted to help and handed me paints- so cute. One of the kids was the same age as Halle and was apparently being cared for by his 7 year old brother. They live across the street and I was just really surprised that he was allowed to roam the neighborhood- funny. Actually, a couple of other kids came over a few days ago asking for water and if they could play inside, etc. and this little 2 year old that I'd never met was in my kitchen asking for water! Knowing that if you give these kids and inch they'll run all over you (one day they actually came in without knocking) I told them all to go home and get water and that they all had to play outside. One of them had already come over just to use the restroom and left without even saying hi to Chloe. So I knew that if I gave them anything else we'd be the bathroom/water stop of the neighborhood. It's just a different environment here...

Sooo, this is what I've come up with so far. The first picture is what I had but it didn't look right and the second picture is what I have now. Travis liked the first picture better but it was not exactly what I wanted. I'm not done with it now- something has to go in the middle of the board but I'm not sure what yet. I was thinking that instead of having the flowers covered by the board I would cover part of the board with flowers and maybe write "surfer girl" in the middle. I'll most likely do another fan blade with whatever design I come up with for this one and I'll do the other two with just Hawaiian style flowers; the surf boards will be across from each other on the fan and the flowers will do the same. And the other fan blades are pink, green, and lavender. I pulled all of the colors and flower design from a "surfer girl" picture that the girls have in their room that we got Chloe for Christmas.

So that's pretty much it over here. My Mom and Dad are coming in this weekend for Amanda's birthday. They haven't been here since November for my birthday and I really wish that we'd gotten more done since it's been so long since they've been here. Things do look better though and I'm sure we'll have a great time. Oh, and this is this weekend. We went last year and had a great time. They had a great play area for the kids but it was crowded. I'm not sure if we'll go again since my parents are strongly opposed to walking shoulder to shoulder with strangers but there is plenty of cool stuff to do even if we don't go to that.

Easter

We had a nice Easter this past weekend- cold, like ice on the car windows in the morning cold- but nice. We didn't go "all out" with outfits this year but the little girls got new shoes and Chloe got an outfit and Amanda picked some dressy shorts to go with a new top she'd purchased recently. In the past they've gotten "super dressy" outfits from Grandma but our church isn't a Sunday clothes kind of place so it feels weird to have the girls too dolled up so the casual-yet-dressy thing worked.

We went to the 8:45 service so that we'd be out at a reasonable time for Easter lunch. We're usually 11:00 service people but we get out by 1 or 1:30 and don't end up having lunch until around 3. It really sets the whole day back as far as errands or lawn mowing goes or even having lunch with friends so I think we'll end up being early service regulars from now on. Not to take away from the significance of the services themselves but I'm pretty sure God can do what he needs to do in either service. Anyway, Easter isn't one of the holidays that we're really expected to spend with our out of town relatives so as in years past we spent the day with the Fadely's. I made a couple of bunny cakes that were super easy and very cute. The kids loved them so my goal was accomplished there. In the past I've asked Amanda if she'd like to help me bake but she's never really seemed interested until I made the bunnies. She helped frost them and did most of the "grass" that was around them so that was pretty cool. Chloe is my constant cooking/baking companion and I love that but I missed so many opportunities like that when Amanda was little (I was in college) that I'm glad for even a small opportunity to spend time together in the kitchen. The rest of the holiday was spent helping Tisra finish up loose ends in the kitchen, having a wonderful Easter meal, and doing an Easter egg hunt with the kids. It was a great day.

The Sneaky Chef

I was watching the Today show yesterday morning and they had a segment on a lady that had written a book called The Sneaky Chef. I was totally intrigued and excited at the prospect of being able to make brownies that included spinach and blueberries in the mix. I have a terrible time getting Chloe to eat anything. Even the stuff she says that she likes she fights against eating. Dinner time is getting so frustrating. If we tell her she can't eat anything except her dinner she just won't eat until lunch at school the next day. It-is-so-frustrating. Now, I'm not saying that I'll only make mac-n-cheese and pizza, even if it is healthy. Chloe needs to learn to eat whole foods- but I don't like to eat all of the vegetables I'm supposed to eat either. I know I should eat more sweet potatoes but I don't like them all that much- ditto for carrots. But if I could put them into spaghetti sauce, then I'm getting more vegetables as well. I think that this will definitely be my next purchase.