Surgery today

It's minor surgery but it will pack a major punch: getting the tube in my left ear removed/replaced. Michael will drive me because the doc is putting me out. At my first visit she barely touched the tube with her scope and the pain was excruciating. I screamed. She nearly had a heart attack.

I'm ready to hear again! The past few weeks with this summer cold has made my hearing decline, so I'm ready for normal hearing.

School lunch

With Alannah wearing a uniform to school, I'm totally avoiding morning arguments about clothes. Too bad there's no hot lunch because I'm in for so much conflict about food. Add to that, there's no refrigeration or microwave for keeping food safe or warming it up. So here's what I have so far for ideas:

PB&J - of course
hard boiled eggs (no yolk, but salted)
Peanut butter OR cheese crackers
Snack packs: pudding, fruit and applesauce
apple
carrots with dill dip (have to keep this cold with an ice pack)
apple pleasers cookies (see recipe below on my blog)
dried fruit
string cheese (hoping this will stay cold with an ice pack)
rice cake
Clementines
chips
frozen GoGurt
frozen lemon ice

DRINKS
Sunny D
Juice boxes
flavored waters

We have her lunch box and I bought some lunch box Tupperware at Holley's online party, so we are good to go. Now, onward to filling it and her eating it.

If you have any suggestions for me, please let me know.

It's Weird . . . .

I've not been taking my camera with me on play dates and days at the beach. Sometimes I want to focus more on the day than capturing the day on a memory card.

Anyway, today was a playdate with the kindergarteners at Alannah's new school. We met at a community park and had fun getting to know each other. Some of the kids knew each other from preschool, and others didn't, but everyone got along together so nicely.

And the funny part is, I purposely didn't take my camera. So, no pictures today. You'll just have to use your imagination and I'll have to store the memory in my heart.

Here's another Before & After

All I used was the smudge tool on this photo. Oh, and it took a long time.

Here's what I love about digital scrapbooking

Isn't this photo lovely? A sweet lady at church went to Disney with her husband, daughters and their families. This is a very special photo of their trip. She showed it to me and I knew I could create something unique with this. I tried scrapping it in realistic-paper style and I couldn't make it work - the photo was pushing me for a magical story-book feel. So I decided to manipulate the photo like this to emulate a desert scape outside of a castle.

Here are some of the steps I used to manipulate the photo:
1. I used the Curves function to lighten the photo
2. I used the Glamour filter in Virtual Photographer
3. I cloned out the chandalier and background and then smudged it smooth (this was painstaking)
4. I created extra layers of gold, pink and blue and painted to make a sunset - the layer mode is set to Color

I used a glitter paper that I made for the dark swirls on the page and masked them using Christine Haskell's Sweeping Plumes overlays. I thought they matched the swirls of the railing to a T! I also used one of my Floral Artist overlays (the roses and flowers) to add extra texture. I made the brush to paint the stars.

When I was Cindy's (not her real name), she mentioned that a home is not a home unless there is glitter scattered somewhere. So I added silver glitter! - Birgit Kerr's Essential Sparkle.

I used many, many layers and blend modes to get the final effect of the canvas.

Portable Apple and Cheese Pleasers

School starts for Alannah in a little while, and she needs to pack a nutritious snack every day in addition to her lunch. I got this recipe from my friend, Jenn, who says her two young boys love these little cookies. We'll make some and see if Alannah likes them. If she does, we'll be making them for snacks for her. I need more recipes like this!

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup butter or marg, softened
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup oatmeal
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup raisins
1 cup chopped apple

Combine flour, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in large bowl, mix well. Add oats, cheese, and raisins; mix well. Stir in apple. Drop by heaping tblsp onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven at 375 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Store in tightly covered container in fridge or loosely covered container at room temp.

Makes about 2 doz.

I've been tagged!

Stephanie tagged me! :)

The Rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Eight Facts About Me
1. I prefer crunchy peanut butter to creamy.
2. I'm more than a little vain about my beautiful fingernails.
3. I had a secret crush on Luke Duke. (When my husband sees this posting on my blog, he's gonna LAUGH!)
4. My first car that I bought was a brand new, hot teal Geo Storm.
5. I wish it was always summer; I do not like winter.
6. I wish I enjoyed baking more. I've had chocolate chips in the freezer for a month.
7. Gladiolas are my favorite flower, but I've never grown them because in the climates I've lived in, you have to dig them up every year and replant them.
8. I'm enjoying saying "the shore" now that we live so close to it. "Let's go to the shore today. Let's take a drive up the coast; I love seeing the shore."

I'll tag Ruth, and ask her daughters to play too, so that's three people.
Glynis, Doris, Elizabeth.

Touring Cape Ann

We have yet to take a tour of Cape Cod (south of us) but today we visited beautiful Cape Ann (north of us). On Michael's day off we've been doing so much yard work that we haven't taken any little day trips until today. With school starting soon, our Fridays will be very different - just he and I. So we decided we wanted to have a family day where we weren't doing stuff around the house. God gave us a majestic day!

The highlight of the day was Stage Fort in Gloucester, first settled in 1623. The harbor is breathtaking and I marveled at the lack of housing development until I realized it was the site of one of the oldest defenses in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Cannons still line the protective walls of the for just as they did when protecting the town. This weekend is a festival, and I hope we remember next year to go there for it. We've got stuff to do around the house this weekend or else I'd love to go back!

Waterfront dining at the brand new Captain Vito's Seafood restaurant was just lovely. We ate on the wooden deck at a high-top table (our favorite!) and enjoyed each other's company. We are still not used to the shore, so we forgot to bring layers of clothes and we girls got chilly. Alannah sat at the table wrapped in our beach blanket. I just froze! Michael was comfortable. :) We got home around 8 pm and watched Monk. I'm gonna head to bed after I type this. I'm still suffering greatly from my cold. This morning I didn't wake up til 10:30! I felt like I took sleeping pills last night - I just couldn't wake up. When I did, all I did was cough. Several times today Michael or Alannah would say something funny and I would laugh and start hacking. Poor Alannah kept saying to her dad, "Let's not be funny, Daddy. I don't want Mumma to cough." I don't know if her extraordinary empathy will lead her to or from the medical field. One thing I've learned is that I can redirect her in any emotional state (fear or anger) simply by pointing out that someone or something (even a stuffed animal) is hurting and needs her help. Immediately she forgets to be afraid or mad and focuses solely on the person/pretend friend that needs her help. I do know this: God has gifted her with incredible empathy and has specific plans for her.

I'd love to go back to Cape Ann this fall when the monarch butterflies make their annual trek south to Mexico. What a site that would be!

Miley's getting bigger

Today Miley woke Alannah up at 5:30 by licking her face. Alannah hugged her like a stuffed animal for awhile, and then the cat scratched her. Boy, she howled! I ran to her, not knowing what the problem was.

The cat is getting too big for her to carry around, and that makes Alannah sad.

After being gone for a week, the cat is enjoying our company and is often underfoot while I'm in the kitchen getting a meal prepared. Today I gave her a little milk as a treat.

Life is different with a cat in the house! When Miley doesn't listen to Alannah, I use that opportunity to share with her how it feels when she doesn't listen to me. Doesn't always work , though!

15 year anniversary

It's our wedding anniversary today! It's a lovely day in New England, and I have an unlovely summer cold (thanks to a young woman who sat next to me on the plane on the way to Michigan).

Saturday my 23 year old cousin got married, and as I watched her joy manifest in smiles and tears, I thought of how young she was! Then I remembered, I got married when I was 24.

When we first got married, we'd talk about how it was good for us to marry young, but later Michael regretted not waiting until he was done with college. I didn't. What good are regrets except to share with others when they ask for advice?

So he's home early today, and he's going to make chicken and corn on the cob - both on the grill. I think I'll get out an old CD that we used to listen to, and we'll smile at each other as we remember the good old days. Today will be one of the good old days when we are married for 30 years.

Mad Libs

Since she was little, Alannah has been helping Michael and I in the kitchen. She cracks eggs, uses a handheld mixer, measures and pours, etc. Watching Rachael Ray has taught her how to prepare garlic.

Since she loves reading, I thought she'd enjoy Mad Libs Junior, an easier version of Mad Libs, a game I loved playing in grade school. She adores Mad Libs Junior - both giving answers and asking for them. I wrote this little story and she provided me with the words. When it was all done, she was entranced that we could do a story about HER! :)

If You Give a Girl an Olive

This is one page that started long before I sat down at the computer. I just knew I wanted to do this page when I discovered Alannah loved olives - black or green. Michael and I do not like them, but friends and family do, so she tried them and loved them.

We love the "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" books, in fact we used a GC to buy the treasury of 4 books/CD in June. So the book inspired this page.

Truly, getting her to pose for these photos was agony for her - 10 olives on her fingers and not in her tummy!!

I used Virtual Painter's Watercolor filter to get this effect on the photos, plus did some tweaking.

Favorite Things

Here's a fun way to do a layout of a someone's FAVORITE THINGS. These are Alannah's favorite things at age 5.

I love doing crossword puzzles, although I admit I'm not very good at them.

After I made the crossword, I decided to add photos of the answers to the clues. I made all of them B&W to keep the pop of the aqua so strong.