E has tea with Gramma on "Gramma Monday"

Wordless Wednesday...

Wordless Wednesday...

Two doctors in one day...

Because we are blessed with "Gramma Mondays" and mom is available to watch E, I have made some much-overdue doctors appointments for myself this month. This morning, I had my eyes checked (yes, my vision is worse, yes, something weird is still going on with my corneas, yes, I need new glasses and contacts again...no surprise there).

Then, this afternoon, I took E back to the doctor for another ear/nose check....(yes, she has mystery congestion again, yes, she has fluid in her ears again *ARGH!* yes, the doctor is baffled....and yes, I am sure it will go into an ear infection again) Doctor is considering low dose meds to try to keep her well and "get her through the winter"....but around here lately, it's been winter one day, and summer the next! So frustrating....what's a mom to do?

Two doctors in one day? With freelance work sandwiched in-between... (have you ever tried to work on your your computer while your eyes are dialated? It's interesting...) I'm tired! This mom is going to go have a glass of wine!

Little known fact...

Did you know that a spray can of laundry starch can spontaneously spring a leak, leaving you with a puddle of starch-y goo in your laundry room cabinets? And there's a lot of starch in those cans, apparently because as I was doing a small load of laundry today, I looked up to discover a drip...drip...drip coming from the laundry room cabinets above the washer and dryer....and when I opened the doors, I found quite the puddle, harboring soaked, sticky boxes of laundry soap, oxygen cleaner, stain remover and more....and I heard a tiny hissing sound from the back of the cabinet where the culprit was hiding.

Ick....what a mess! (Hey, I don't iron anyway....why did I have this stuff in the cabinet?)

Valentine cookie monster...

E helped me decorate Valentine cookies yesterday....her favorite part?
The frosting and big sugary heart sprinkles, of course...

A place of my own...

Since I've been spending a ton of time in my home office this week working on freelance projects, it's made me think a lot about how I treasure this tiny little room.

I remember when we were house hunting....our dreams were large and our budget was tiny. But I knew that I wanted a space for a home office...because eventually I wanted to be a stay-at-home-mom with a freelance PR business. (And thanks to God's goodness and grace, my dreams came true!)

In the end, we had to make a trade off...the tiny little house we live in has a wonderful space for a home office...with built in cabinets and built in bookshelves...the trade off? Our home has no formal dining room. At the time, our realtor was concerned that might effect our resale value someday, but I ask you now....which would YOU rather have? Home offices and telecommuting have become so common...in some larger homes, each spouse sometimes has their own office space, and there's a homework space for the kids (yeah, someday, right?) But for now, this tiny space is mostly my own. Hubby does check his email here and keeps a few of his files in the tiny little corner that I allow him. But mostly, this is my space....to work, to pitch business, to work on craft projects, to goof around on the internet. AND there's a baby gate in the doorway....no pets, no babies allowed. I love this little room -- it allows me to fulfill many dreams...and I can hide the clutter by just shutting the door! :-)

Peek a boo with Daddy...

Last night while I was holed up in the office doing some freelance work, E and Daddy were horsing around ... E loves to put things on her head and ended up doing "peek-a-boo" with a sweater of mine that I'd left on our bed. I love the second pic because you can see all of her hard-earned new teeth! She's finally getting a mouthful!

Making a list and checking it twice?

This morning, E and I were getting ready to run some errands. After getting her dressed and ready to go, I momentarily couldn't find her....then I stumbled across her like this:


She'd been rooting through "her bag" (we have a small bag with books, treats, a sippy cup, a snack and a diaper - much smaller than that big, ol' diaper bag we used to haul everywhere!) and she found "her" pen and notebook....apparently girls of all ages need to make a list before shopping or running errands!

Too cute!

Stuff and nonsense...

1. YOUR REAL NAME: Amy Michelle
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (first 3 letters of real name plus -izzle): Amyizzle (this doesn't work very well, does it?)
3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME (favorite color and favorite animal): Blue Cat
4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name and current street): Michelle Wellington (hm...has a ring to it, eh?)
5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of mom's maiden name): Cra Ampoe (I divided this in two - it made more sense that way...if it makes sense at all...)
6. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): Red Hot Tea/Red Coffee/Red Wine (none of these work well - and the last one is too close to Red, Red, Wine....)
7. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME (mother's middle name and father's middle name): Elaine Jerrell (huh?)
8. YOUR GOTH NAME (black, and the name of one your pets): Black Victoria

Hooray for story time...

Library story time started up again today after a (long!) two-month break. E was so excited to go back! She's still in the session for kids 23 months and younger, so the program was the same....but she loves the songs, the books, the peek-a-boo with scarves and chasing bubbles at the end. Now, she's big enough to copy the hand motions with the songs, identify some of the animals (we read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" today) and participate more fully.

It's hard to believe that E was such a little girl when we started going to story time! (The above photo was from her first storytime session in June 2007.) But it's such a part of our routine now - and she enjoys it SO much....we wouldn't miss it for anything!