what I need is all around me

Again?

I feel like Anna has been sick for the entirety of 2012.  Okay, not every single day, but at least some point of every week. And we're all growing weary.

Friday night her asthma kicked up but we were able to keep it under control (relatively speaking) with treatments. Her cough will go away for periods and then come back with a vengence. Last night she needed one about midnight (go, Jason!) and she was still up at approximately 2:00 a.m. Ugh. This morning, she woke with a fever. Nothing earth shattering (101+), but enough to make her listless and crabby. We are just getting ready to do yet another treatment with her after a brief and fitful nap on the couch wherein I snapped this now ubiquitious shot:

This is life...again.

Refilling $200 prescriptions...again.

Treatments way too often...again.

Soup and hot "chocolate" and crackers...again.

I have to imagine Anna is just as tired as I am of this...again.

Play dates

This past Sunday was filled with play dates.

Lindy brought her niece (and Anna's long-distance BFF) Riley over for a play date.  The girls were sweet enough to pose for a picture.

Despite their history of fighting during playdates, they managed to have a terrific time.  Now that they're both six, they seem to have a little more ability to stuff their Type A personalities in their pockets for an hour or two.

While they enjoyed their play date, Lindy and I had one of our own.  We were prepping stuff for our birthday gift to our friend, Sue. That meant gathering scrapbooking supplies we'd purchased over the past few weeks and then using them in little "samples" we could give to her so she'd feel 100% able to use them. {Turns out Sue loved her gift, so this was time WELL SPENT} Lindy and I always have a good time together, regardless of what's on the agenda. But when we get together to create/plan/prepare something, it's especially fun.

After the girls left, I had one last play date. I loved the photo above enough to want to scrap it immediately. And after a trip to Mesa the day before with my mom (yay, mom!), I had the perfect papers. Some photo editing was necessary if I wanted to use them, but that was done in a flash and I was elbow-deep in paper and glue and ink and fun in no time.

It's been a long time since I spent that much time on a single scrapbook page.  It's been a long time since I spent so much time playing with the "stuff" that goes onto a page. It was awesome. And the result?

Some of the time-intensive elements up close:

There is something so great about brand-new paper and the perfect photo.

And I've got to say, there is something pretty great about play dates, too!

Anna + asthma

Yesterday, Anna woke with some pretty nasty asthma symptoms. We ended up calling our pediatrican-on-call to get a med refill (our regular appointment was scheduled for tomorrow) so we could do breathing treatments every two hours (instead of the recommended every four hours).  Most of our day looked something like this:

or like this:

[So very thankful for the Russian dolls, Cory & Mick]

Later in the day we realized that the every-two-hour thing wasn't working so I loaded her up and took her to the urgent care. Where we stayed for the next five hours. (Anna was actually the only one there for five hours...Jason and I tagged-teamed it). Steroids and three double treatments later, we were sent home with the expectation that we'd go to the ER. But knowing our kid and not knowing the really conservative doctor, we opted for sleep.

Our regular pediatrician confirmed that we made the right decision last night when Anna saw him this morning. It's not pneumonia but just another one of her crappy flair-ups because of a slight cold and a ridiculously high pollen count.

So day two was spent a lot like this:

I'm thankful that Anna's asthma is only "kind of" scary and that she's so used to it, she doesn't know any different. I'm NOT thankful that it's so much a part of our lives and that her pediatrican believes we've got it "well controlled"...meaning these semi-regular flair-ups are something she should expect forever. Ugh!

Here's hoping she's just that much better tomorrow and can maybe make it to school. The little twirp has such a great attitude and it's hard to keep her from running around, even when her oxygen levels are seriously low.

Breathe easy, sweet girl. 

the naughty one

Anna has missed recess five times in the past week. Five times. That is more times to be punished at school than Sam and Mary combined. Okay, let's be honest. One time was more than Sam and Mary combined.

Most of the time it's talking too loudly or fighting with one of her little friends. Today we added "playing with my shoe laces" and "kicking the garbage can with another kid" to the list of infractions.

I'm honestly surprised by this little naughty one. It's not something I'm used to. We've decided to implement punishment at home to emphasize the seriousness of being naughty at school.

Let's hope it works.

a good weekend!

I spent the weekend doing not much of anything. Love this kind of weekend!

Today was 8 loads of laundry.  For real. And there are still plenty to do, but I feel pretty good about the dent I made in the pile!

I also cleaned the kids bathroom. Which isn't something I usually do because the kids clean their own bathroom, but every once in awhile it needs a "real" clean!

I finished this week's Project Life yesterday, which doesn't usually happen until Sunday. That allowed me to finish a few "real" scrapbook pages.  Both were copies of pages I'd seen (either on Two Peas or Ali Edwards)

Totaly Ali Edwards steal and I couldn't be happier with the result.  The color is wonky here, so I apologize. But it looks (and feels, because there is cool embossing on this page) great in person.

A totaly steal I found on Two Peas. The baby in the "original" was pretty dang cute, but I do think my patterned paper selection is better!

I made delicious homemade chicken pot pies for dinner, and while they were cooking, enjoyed a little of this wine:

Anna's grandparents stopped by to pay off a debt to our youngest family member and she was able to talk Grandpa Sam into a game (or three) of Mario Cart.  Priceless!

Grandma Jean also did a race with Anna and had the same reaction I usually do...car sickness. :-) Seriously, whoever made this game never met vertigo!

Anna is taking a bath right now, and in 25 minutes Jason and I will have those delicious pot pies. Maybe a little more crafting and we'll close the door on another wonderful weekend!

love

Love this girl.

Love that she still enjoys Wonder Pets enough to dance in front of the tv when a new episode is on.

Love a lucky shot to capture that moment.

Love a dad who lets me borrow his camera while mine is in the shop to get said lucky shot.

Love digital elements which allow me to document on a photo.

Valentine's Day

Anna didn't want to give "normal" valentines to her classmates because she was worried that they'd either be good for boys or good for girls but not both. I found this idea on pinterest and modified it to suit our tastes and have to say, the whole family is happy with the result! Cute but not "lovey", no candy and didn't take me too long to design, print, cut and adhere!

In case you need help, they say "Ready Set GLOW have a happy Valentine's day" and are mounted on glow-stick bracelets.  CUTE! Anna signed them all and drew a different picture on the back of each one.

And happy birthday to my Aunt Jane.  I {heart} you!!!

today

Today I:

*Left the house for the first time since Monday (if only to take Mary to school)

*Showered for the first time in three days.

*Started drinking wine before 3 pm to stop the pain

*Approved more than $50,000 worth of invoices for work from my home computer (I {love} the internet}

*Finished preparations for our "Favorite Things" party this weekend

*Made a scrapbook page that wasn't Project Life related

 

The level of my desperation

One of the shitty things about being 40 is that my body doesn't like me anymore. Which is getting easier to deal with as the time goes by for the most part.

But once every 3 or 4 months, my back and/or neck gets tweaked. Typically from doing nothing. Like nothing.  As in, doing some scrapbooking and some laundry on a lazy Sunday nothing! It usually lasts a day or two, and it's about 50/50 whether I can deal with it at work or not.

So Monday I went to work, limping. Luckily, sitting was the best position for my back. On the drive home, my neck went out. I haven't been out of the house since.

Awesome.

Last night Lindy came for her regularly scheduled dinner, and God bless her, she brought a couple of bottles of wine.  Which I we managed to put down in the five hours she was here. And I was able to sleep for a few hours before the pain came back.

Today we're out of wine. Well, we have white. But I only keep white in the house for my friend Missy because I don't drink it. Ever.

My level of desperation has reached new heights. As I type this, I'm gulping taking dainty sips of something they call Pinot Grigio in the hopes I find a tiny bit of relief from the pain.

Look, it's this or head next door to our neighbors who occasionally smoke something that doesn't smell at all like cigarettes and ask if I can join in.

Don't judge me.

But feel free to bring over some red wine if you happen to be in the neighborhood...

JOY

One thing I really love about Jason is that he just "gets" me. Lately he's been trying to take more photos because he knows I enjoy his perspective in our family's "Project Life".

While I was away this weekend, he and Anna joined Grandpa Sam and Grandma Jean at a street fair. When he sent me this photo in a text, I felt the JOY I'm striving for this year.

He claims it's "dumb luck" that he got this expression, and while a part of me totally agrees, part of me thinks there was a little something special going on that allowed him to capture this particular memory forever.

Finding JOY in street fairs.

Finding JOY in pictures taken by Jason.

Finding JOY in dumb luck.

Finding JOY in capturing memories.

Finding JOY in my life.  Yay me!