All Good Things Must Come to an End

So too must the card-making. Lil and I will head north to Virginia tomorrow morning, leaving Lissie and Paul behind. :o( BUT, I'll be home with my sweet Brien and Monkey Studios where even more creative magic can happen. :o) I can not wait to really get in there and work. Unfortunately, work must come before play and my house is a wreck after it was largely ignored in my drive to get Monkey Studios completed. Alas, bathrooms, the kitchen, vacuuming and laundry all await me. :sigh:

Lil and I have had a delightful visit with Lissie, playing, eating well and watching WAY too much TV (on Lil's part) and eating WAY too much delicious utterly bad for you food (on my part).

My mama loves me so much she actually fried chicken for me because I asked her to! Brien only eats boneless skinless chicken, and, nothing fried, which leaves out any hope of me having fried chicken at home. However, my mama loves me and made me fried chicken (which she got a mighty fine scald on) with all the fixin's--smashed taters (or "chetties" which we picked up from Paul or "pachetties" as Han was wont to call them), corn on the cob, cole slaw (my contribution) and a big ole glass of ice cold whole milk. Oh. My. Goodness. I wanted to cry I was so overstuffed, but MAN, it was SOOO good. She made fried apple pies this morning (again, how much does my mama love me??) and will hopefully make biscuits tomorrow. :o) I've also had homemade brownies, and even now, homemade chocolate chip cookies (hence forth and forever more to be known as "c cubed") in the oven. Is there anything better in this world than mamas who love us?

And, speaking of food, I suppose Lil and I will need to hit the 'krop some time tomorrow for food for the week...Yikes! I'm afeared tomorrow is going to be plenty busy.

Before I sign off, here are a few of the cards I made Friday. I was playing around with the Pick-A-Petal stamp set again and tortured Mom and Paul and made them use it too. ;oP



This one uses Barely Banana, So Saffron, Close to Cocoa, and Choclate Chip inks and the same papers, including Very Vanilla. I'm going to add a Chocolate Chip ribbon when I get home as Lissie didn't have any--yet. :oP I also played with my new Cuttlebug and the Swiss dots embossing folder. How fun is the Cuttlebug??? :o)

In fact, we played with the Cuttlebug quite a bit this weekend. :o)

On the "pixie boat" on the way here, I caught sight of a woman wearing a, um, very colorful shirt. It was a very bold shirt and had some fantastic Caribbean colors. I decided then and there I would make a card using, Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise, Passion Pink and Green Galore.


Here's one of the attempts. Obviously we've left off the Green Galore and Only Orange. I'll post the others tomorrow. They are bright, cheerful, summer looking cards.



Here I revisited a card I had made before, leaving off the ribbon. The colors are Soft Sky and Blue Bayou.


A similiar card to one I made before, this one using Barely Banana, So Saffron, Mellow Moss and Basic Black. Again, I used the Cuttlebug and had LOADS of fun! :o)

This evening we attempted never ending cards, and while I really enjoyed it, Mom and Paul weren't so certain... If you are interested, you should click on the video to see the card in action. :o) I'll post my efforts tomorrow.

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Sparklies:

1. Good food! Thanks, Mama! :o)
2. Good company!
3. Hot-from-the-oven C cubed's and a big ole glass of cold milk.
4. Sleeping with Lily. It's been so nice to awaken to her little body snuggling against me. She is MUCH easier to sleep with than Jessie. ;o)
5. Sleeping in until 8:00.

Milestone:

This evening, I went to Harris Teeter for the first time since Hannah died. Sure, it wasn't our "Balloon Store", but it was a "Balloon Store" nonetheless, with the cookies waiting there just for the taking, like Hannah always did.

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Good grief! It's almost 11:00!!! I'm off! Good night, all! :o)

Lots To Eventually Post

So, Lissie's internet connection, while good, isn't spectacular, and it takes FOREVER to upload photos. Hence, I won't be posting any until we return home.

We had a splendid day of card making (I made 12 cards today!) and Lil actually took a nap!! :oP We had a lovely scallop and pasta dinner and a trip to Michael's. Although I do miss Brien, life is quite pleasant nonetheless. :o)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

I Had More Photos to Post, But...

...my stupid Vista machine keeps freezing up!!!!

Lil and I made it to NC in one piece without any trouble at all. Okay, except that Lil flat out refused to fall asleep before we were only twenty minutes from Lissie's house. Grrrrrr. So, of course, her batteries were recharged just enough to make her miserable for the rest of the evening.

Lily was beyond delighted to see Paul and Lissie and promptly coerced Paul into playing Legos with her. :o) They built a little man, and then, a throne for bear. :o)




We had a wonderful dinner of carnitas and the most delightful salad with a honey lime dressing. YUM! Mom's friend Terry came to dine with us and wow, the dessert we had. Oh. My. Goodness. Summer is a time of fresh fruits that are best enjoyed with homemade whipped cream. Ahhhh. Mom whipped the cream with a little (1/4 teaspoon at most) lemon extract and about a 1/2 tablespoon of lemon zest. She then folded in some Meyer Lemon curd she had purchased at Williams-Sonoma. Paired with the fresh mascerated peaches, well, let's just say I oinked out. ;oP

Yum!

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For those of you who have asked:

I only began stamping right before Thanksgiving last year. My wonderful cousin, Woli, is a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and she came down for a weekend of fun and frivolity. I'd never made a card in my life, having only done cropping, but was certainly game.

Woli brought a TON of stamps, stamp pads, embellishments, ribbons, etc. with her, as well as a BUNCH of cards she had pre-cut for us to stamp and put together. I got a feel for the stamping part while she was there. I did however have a bit of trouble with the cutting and card sizes and just played around for a while.

I found much inspiration on the Split Coast Stampers' website and then, later at Stampers' Pad. If I find a stamp set I like, I'll search out ideas, but more often than not, these days, the ideas basically come from my head. I will however find a layout I like, or a color combination that intrigues me and use them for inspiration.

My advice, if you are interested in taking up stamping, is to find an SU! demonstrator in your area. Go to the Stampin' Up! website and do a search. A good demonstrator can set you up and will give classes so you can learn techniques. Woli taught me a number of techniques while she was here in November and the rest I've either read about or taught myself.

To that end, here's the birthday card I made for Lissie (I couldn't post it until she had seen it!):

I've had fun stamping the envelopes as well as the cards. :o)


Here's a better view of the card. I recently acquired a Cuttlebug and used it to emboss the background. I used Wild Wasabi, and Basic Black cardstock and inks. The frog was colored using blender pens and Wild Wasabi and So Saffron inks. I had found a pack of googly eyes in Target the other day and just knew they would be perfect with this stamp set. I was right! :o)

Mom, Paul and I are going to play with stamping and cards while I visit. I'm pretty sure Mom is anxious to try the Cuttlebug. ;o)

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Today's Sparklies:

1. The ride on the "pixie" boat. Lil just LOVED it!
2. Visiting with Mom and Paul.
3. The toad that greeted me when we arrived at Lissie's.
4. Dinner and dessert. Ahhhh.
5. Dinner company. :o)
6. The "jewelry show" after dinner. Thank you, Mr. Ron! :o)


So, with all that stamping ahead of me, I'm off to play with the Cuttlebug. Thank you all, as always, for your kind words of support. You all mean so much to me. :o)

Here it is!!

Ignore the dead-looking plant over on the right, this is it! The desk, the studio, all moved into and ready to be used! Barring the hanging of photographs, prints and such, it's finished finished finished and boy am I feeling a sense of accomplishment. :o)

The big thing there is my workspace. Brien and Pop discussed it, and such a large sheet (or two) of melamine would be flimsy so B reinforced it with wood strips and put a beautiful wood edging on as well. The desk is supported by craft cubes.

I recycled many of the things that had been Hannah's, as you'll see in a moment.


The photo is crooked, not the hanging shelves, lol. :o) I used Hannah's shoe keeper (which had originally been in her nursery holding her blankets and diapers and such) that she had decorated to hold my stamp sets. The hanging shelf was her's as well. I've got my roller stamps and embossing powders (Lil is too inquisitive for my own good) on the lower shelves and tributes to Han on the upper ones, including the Littlest Pet Shop monkey I saved and her vase from Mr. Ron's shop.

The little shelf is holding my Cuttlebug embossing folders and die-cuts. I'm planning on using this length of workspace for cutting and such. The heat embossing tool is hiding behind the Cuttlebug. The shelf also holds the Groovy Girl box Hannah decorated which also has a little of Hannah inside. The shelf was also part of Hannah's nursery and she later took it over as well. :o)



I'm probably going to have to add more paper holders eventually. However, for now, this works divinely.


This is a view from the desk side. You can see the cubes I chose to use. The blue shoeboxes under there are holding cards I've already made and need to send to friends and family...



I loved this spinny-holder-thingy and just had to add it tomy purchases. It's quite roomy and is really organizing my "stuff" quite nicely. The trash can was Han's and it comes pre-decorated with all sorts of fun things. Oh, yes, I forgot to mention, I'm also using Han's "Tinker" alarm clock as a time piece.

I can't wait to get everything hung and I'm already contemplating all the fun projects I'll be making in here. WOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!


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Today's Sparklies:

1. Being able to laugh while Lil was in full-on meltdown mode because she was utterly exhausted. Poor Bit. All B and I could do was laugh because it was, in the end, tragically funny.
2. Monkey Studios is open for business! YES! I fell so connected to Han just sitting in here. :o)
3. I'm off to NC tomorrow, infected water notwithstanding.
4. My Cuttlebug is WAAAAYYYYYY too much fun! :o)
5. I can NOT believe how much room there is here to work. Anybody wanna come and stamp with me? I have a HUGE playground!

Milestones:

I have been sitting in this room for the majority of the afternoon. This is not something I have done since before Hannah died. It's so strange, yet wonderful to be in this place and discover yet MORE things Hannah had decorated, LOL. She would really love sitting across from me while we "decorated" together. I do miss that little girl.

Thinking

B stayed home with me today to work on getting the desk finished. I had thought to slap some melamine on craft cubes but B would have none of it. And, as usual, he's right. So, he's been beavering away, cutting wood for support and trim. I've been moving things upstairs little piles at a time. I'm getting SO excited I'm ready to move in!

As is fairly typical for us, B and I wound up bickering a bit about the desk and how to make it perfect. As I was fixing lunch with a mantle of righteous indignation firmly on my shoulders, I could hear Hannah saying, "Guys, guys, GUYS! What seems to be the wee little problem here??" Yes, my sweet precious Monkey spoke like that and when she sensed things were getting tense, she would say this to make us stop and think. So, there was her sweet voice sounding in my head and I went to Brien's shop to apologize for being an ass. He was totally right and I was being stubborn and pig-headed (and I wonder where Lil got it...).

While he was working upstairs or in the shop, and while Lil was napping, I was blog hopping. I visit Sumi, Sheye and Stephanie daily to check on them. We are all members of this horrible club,Sheye at over a year, me approaching a year, Sumi four months and Stephanie's loss is still so very fresh. I read what they write and ache for them and for us. They are where I have been and in some cases, still am.

Stephanie was writing about "normal" and what is normal now versus before. I've been down that road and my "normal" now is so different from what I had a year ago. Sumi was talking about her loss and how she knows Jenna was there and she misses her so keenly, and yet, it's almost as if she was never there at all.

This got me thinking--lots. Hannah is everywhere in this house, simply everywhere! Every time I think I've found all the traces of her, I find yet something new--a hair doodle and hair brush full of her hair, new "decorations" on a wall, a scrap of paper hidden away that she had sketched and written on. Her presence is so here, and yet, her absence is so profound there are days I wonder if I just dreamt her. I'm living in this surreal reality. No parents should ever experience this, and yet we do, all the time.

Sumi also wrote about kissing little items that had some association with her sweet Jenna and that too resonated with me. We put photos of Han along the stairs, and most nights, I'll stop, caress her face or kiss a cheek and say, "Good night, Monkey. I love you!" I miss her with such a terrible fierceness I can't begin to describe it.

And, then, there's Stephanie, so fresh into the loss of her precious Camille. The funeral was this past weekend and now family are beginning to leave. I rememer the terror of an empty house. What did they mean they were all going home? They were all going back to their "normal" lives with their precious families still intact, and I was left with this gaping hole, this emptiness where I once had a gregarious, noisy Monkey. I was nervous and scared on the one hand, and yet, on the other hand, I knew I had get back into some semblance of a routine. I knew the healing couldn't truly begin until it was just Brien, Lil and me, our new little family of three. Oh, the agony, pain and terror of those days, when I couldn't think past the next minute because I would have the most excruciating panic attacks otherwise.

Meanwhile, in one of her recent posts, Sheye wrote about seeing an acupuncturist to trigger memories of her sweet Ava. She said she was afraid that as her delightful Ivy grew older, the memories she had of Ava would be supplanted by Ivy and what she was doing. I knew exactly what she was saying. One of my greatest fears (other than Hannah won't be remembered, for that is what EVERY mother truly wants, for her baby to be remembered) is that I'll one day forget Hannah's rumbly belly laugh, the size of her big ole blue peepers, her crazy double-jointed "belbows", that I won't be able to "hear" her voice any longer. This child lived in me for nine months and with me for almost six years. She was a part of me (still is) and I'm terrified I'll forget.

My heart is so full of love for Sheye, Sumi and Stephanie (and any other parents who have lost children) and I hurt so deeply for them. I remember Sister Rose once told me I would have even greater compassion for mothers and fathers who lost children because I had been there myself and I knew what it was like. She's right. She's absolutely right. I so desperately wish NONE of us were on this journey. I haven't had a down yo in quite some time (for which I'm eternally grateful), which also made me think.

This grieving, it really is a process. In the beginning I could barely make myself get out of bed in the morning. I chose to honor Hannah and to LIVE, but it was so so hard. I initially measured the passing of each day. Then, I would say, "It's been one week. It's been two weeks." Pretty soon, I was marking the passage of months. I was proud of myself for being able to make plans for the next day, then, to look ahead a week. Pretty soon, I was looking out a month, two months. There was such unbearable pain I was having more down yos than up. Gradually, so gradually I didn't even realize it was happening, the pain was lessening. I didn't consciously realize I was having more up yos than down, that I was no longer marking month anniversaries. Time, and life, whether we wish them to or not, move onward quite steadily.

Am I suggesting I'm out of the woods? Am I suggesting I'll never have another down yo? Nope, not by a long shot. Am I saying I'm in a pretty good place, right now, at this moment? Yes. Yes I am. Do I still catch my breath with slight twinge to my chest even this second as I sit here thinking of all I'm missing with the Monkey? Absolutely. This process, this journey is long and arduous, but right now, my path is pretty level.

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Today's Sparklies:

I really did mean to post them last night...you know what they say about good intentions. :sigh:

1. Brien. What a man. He took a day off of work to be with us and work on my desk. I don't know many guys who would do that. Thank you so much, Sweetie for putting up with my stupidity and for being wonderful.
2. Lily has had NO accidents today. Whoopie!!!!!
3. My beautiful Monkey Studios will be put together within the next few days. WOOOOO HOOOO!
4. The butterfly Lil pointed out today, a beautiful swallowtail that lit on the swing and then fluttered on by.
5. Gift cards.
6. My Belle & Boo prints are framed and absolutely GORGEOUS!! I'll take pics and post them when they're hanging in MS.

IT'S FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where to begin... Friday night Brien and I dropped Lil off at Nana and Pop's house and went to Carrabba's for dinner. From there we went to Lowe's to pick up the wainscoting topper we needed and to look for melamine for my desk. My plan is to stack those craft cubes two high and put the melamine on top. Lowe's was sadly lacking in the melamine department so we had to go to Home Depot--not my fave home improvement store, but they had what I was looking for.

Saturday we did the FM, Ace Hardware and then home to work on the room. I assembled cubes and B put up wainscoting. I painted trim and B put up wainscoting. We went to Lowe's for more wainscoting, stopped at California Tortilla for dinner, went to B&N (I found three more gift cards to spend!!), came home and finished putting up wainscoting and trim.

Yesterday, we slept in until 9:00(!!), got up and finished the room. I painted over the spackled holes in the trim and we cleaned up. Then, I looked at the room. The lovely antique white I had painted the wainscoting and trim did not match the trim around the windows and doors or the windowsills. Well, CRAP!!

This morning Lil and I went grocery shopping, I tackled the kitchen and while she was napping, painted the closet doors, the bedroom door, and all the trim. This was not as easy as it sounds as the doors are that textured stuff made to look like woodgrain, even though it's not. After that, I steam-cleaned the carpets, ran downstairs for my camera and took pictures of the results. I'm so tickled with it I can hardly stand it!

Before I show the photos of the room, here are the ones Pop took for me since I wasn't there to do so. I swear, Pop, you are one of the nicest, most considerate people I am honored to know. Thank you! :o)



Lil and the pillow. Lily will chill wherever whenever the mood strikes. ;oP


She is also quite proud of herself because, by standing on tiptoe, she can finally open the screen door by herself. :oP She's such a peanut!


Before she could reach the handle, she would go in and out the dog door...


She also LOVES Nana and Pop's hammock and has fingured out how to get in and out of it by herself. This is quite the accomplishment, you know. :o)


Lil and Nan share the hammock. :o)


This handsome guy is Chance. He is 12 years old, and on Friday, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Needless to say we're all very saddened by this as he has been a member of the family almost as long as I have. :o(


This sweet galoot is Mason. He's a PBGV and quite the clown. He and Hannah used to wrestle and wrestle and he's SOOOOOO gentle with the kids. He'll stand there as Lil (I swear to you this is the truth) tries to swing a leg over him to ride him! What a sweetie he is. :o)

Nana, Pop, thank you both so very very much for helping us out this weekend. It meant to the world to us!

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Okay, the room sans furniture.


The colors aren't that great here, but here's a close look at the wainscoting and the yellow. Ahhhhh. It is truly a sunny, happy room. :o)


We're going to leave the pink fan blades for now. It will be a bit of the Monkey in the room.


The closet doors I had to paint. UGH!


Looking from the far corner by the window to the door of the room.


And, the windows. If you enlarge the image and look very very carefully, you'll see two spots of pink above each window. Those are being left intentionally as well as reminders of the Monk. The god's eye hanging on the window cord was put there by Han and will remain there.

I'm going to select between three and five photos from the ones Beth took (I don't know how I'm going to do that...) and upload them to Ritz tonight to have 11"x 14" photos printed. I'll pick them up tomorrow with the Belle and Boo prints. These will all hang in the room, as will the beautiful drawings a friend did of Hannah. I'm planning on putting the hanging shelves that were in the room back up as well.

I'm hoping we can get the room finished tomorrow (that means putting the desk together and getting things hung) as I'm leaving for NC on Thursday and just want this COMPLETED!!! I'm beyond pleased with how it's turned out so far and if we manage to get it finished tomorrow I'll be sure to post photos! :o)


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Sparklies to be posted later...;o)

I'm Alive

I had a busy busy busy weekend and hope to post pics of Monkey Studios and Lil at Nana and Pop's house some time tomorrow morning/afternoon.

I hope you all have magnificent weekends! :o)

Happy Anniversary to Us

This time 9 years ago, Brien and I were at our wedding reception, quite grateful all the wedding nonsense was over. While the wedding was gorgeous and everything I could have wanted, I was more than delighted all the stresses leading up to it were over.

Nine years later, here we are. It's funny, nine years sounds like such a long time, and yet, the time has simply flown by. Good grief, next year will mark TEN years!! Holy moly! How in the world did we get here?

We met in Printing class in 1992 and began dating October 1993. Nana, I once again thank you from the bottom of my heart for suggesting Brien ask me to the Homecoming Dance. Who knows where we would be today if you hadn't... Me still flirting with Brien and he still missing the clues?? ;oP

Brien and I are going to have dinner together once Lil's in bed and then we're working on Monkey Studios. We're romantic like that. ;o) I honestly can't remember any time we've done anything romantic for any of our anniversaries. We typically don't get each other any gifts and we're lucky if we get out to dinner. Last year's dinner was preempted by Han's visit to the hospital. This year, we were going to go out of town for the weekend, but well, we couldn't find any kenneling for the dogs. So, we're going to stay home and B and I are going to work on my anniversary gift--MS. This is also a sort-of gift for B as it means I'll be vacating the dining room and moving my "mess" upstairs. :oP Nana and Pop are still going to keep Lil for us, however, so that's FABULOUS. Thanks, guys! I tell ya what, it is beyond convenient having family local! :o)

I'm currently sitting in the new green bathroom as Lil bathes and B is on his way to Bonefish to pick up our Bang Bang Shrimp and Key Lime pie. We're putting the shrimp on bread to make po' boys and I can't WAIT! I'm starving I tell ya!

I'm going to sign off with this (Mom and Dad just called to seranade us with it as well :oP):

Happy Birthday, Lissie!!

To my sweet sweet Mama, Happy Birthday! I love you as big as the sky and hope your day is GRAND!

Love,
Rach :o)

Quick Post

Pop came this evening to help Brien begin to put the wainscoting up. More to the point, Pop came to help tear the baseboard off the walls and get Brien started on the wainscoting. As we were walking Pop to the car, I saw my little froggy friends hanging out on the dining room windows.


This window overlooks the table where I had been working on Brien's anniversary card so I couldn't help but think they were looking over my shoulder as I was working. Han peeking in on me as it were. :o)

As I know some of you are interested in the results of the home improvements of the past week, here is the bathroom:

I rehung Hannah's hairbow holder. Lily uses hairbows as well, and, although I will always associate them with Hannah, I will also associate them with Lil. It seemed a shame to get rid of them because they reminded me of the Monk when I knew Lil could use them as well, you know? Imagine these walls painted white with TONS of navy blue sponging over that. This is NOT a big bathroom and the blue was so very dark. Sure, Lil will hate it when she's a teenager and the green casts a sickly hue on her face, but for now, I LOVE it. :o)

Next, the DDD/MS. I put this one in so you could see the dark mauve color that was the bottom half of the room. The top half was a lovely Pepto pink. Hannah LOVED this room and the colors, so even though B and I couldn't stand it, we let it stay.


The wainscoting. B and I need to get to Lowe's to get the wainscoting cap and I'll have to paint it, the baseboards and the wainscoting. As much as I enjoy painting, I confess I'm a wee smidge weary. I can't remember the last time my body hurt so much. Seriously. I took four ibuprofen three times today I was so stiff and sore from all the painting yesterday!



And, here are the cards I've made recently--minus the popsicle card for some reason. They are really quite cute so I need to post 'em!


Ella's birthday invites.


Playing with the Tart and Tangy set. I used Green Galore and Yo-Yo Yellow.




Finally, the anniversary card I made for Brien this evening. I finally broke out my "Unfroggetable" stamp set. :o)


I used the blender pens to pick up Wild Wasabi, Real Red, River Rock and Yo-Yo Yellow inks. I used the lily pad roller and VersaMark for the background.

And, here's the envelope. :o)



I'm getting so excited for Monkey Studios to be up and running! I'm tired of the clutter in the dining room, and, quite truthfully, I'm ready to have a space of my own. The fact I'll be connected to Han while working makes it all the better. :o)

I can't wait to move everything upstairs and into it's correct and appropriate location. Just wait until you see what I've got up my organizational sleeve. ;o) My plan is to steam clean the carpet in the room on Friday so we can get the desk and such set up. I don't know how long it's going to take B and Pop to get the wainscoting up and I'm getting this anxious-hurry-up feeling. You know how anticiaption is! :o)

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Today's Sparklies:

1. Erin graced me with this award today:
I'm so touched she would think to give it to me. Thank you so much, Erin! I, in turn, bestow this award upon Ruhiyyih. I first "met" RuRu when I began reading her mother, Bonita's blog two years ago. I've been blessed to have Ru in my life and I love her to bits! :o)

2. The wainscoting is going up! :o)
3. The painting is almost finished. Whew. :oP
4. Pop was so sweet to take his evening to come and help us out. Thanks, Pop!
5. There was absolutely NO line at the post office when Lil and I went today. I coldn't believe it!


No milestones.

I'm off to read and sleep. Night all! :o)

**Please note, my Firefox spell check is apparently not working this evening. Please forgive any spelling errors, as I'm sure there are many. I can teach, but I sure as heck can't spell...:oP

Busy Tonight

Yay! They uploaded this evening. Here is Lil with the Bert's Bees. What a mess. You would think I would have learned from Hannah and the Vaseline, or Lily and the lotions, but noooooooo. I somehow missed the tube of diaper ointment and of course Lil found it...


If you are familiar with Bert's Bees diaper ointment, you know the stuff stays on and stays put. Even after a diaper change and wipes. Seriously. So, I'm sure you understand the difficulty we had cleaning her up. :eye roll:

I painted the bathroom today, and once again, Lil decided it would be more fun to play jack-in-the-box, popping in and out of bed, than napping as she should have been. Lil is nowhere near ready to give up her nap, as she just needs sleep too much. I'm fairly certain my painting was far more interesting than the backs of her eyelids.

All of this means I still have the Decorating Diva Domain/Monkey Studios to paint this evening. Which in turn means, I've gotta get Lil into and out of the tub, into jams and then into bed. I'm not even thinking of beginning to paint until the child is sound asleep. Wish me luck...

The pictures that follow are from Sunday. What a precious love bug she is! :o)




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Today's Sparklies:

1. One room down, one to go. whew!
2. White and green "freckles" today. ;oP
3. Lil is going on the potty fairly consistently, unless she is outside. Panties all the way here, no pull-ups.
4. Bubble baths.
5. Romance novels that are a series. They are TOO much fun, but MUST be read in order. ;o) I LOVE getting to see the lives of characters you know and love from previous books. I guess it would be books in a series, after all, not just romance series.
6. I received a small gift from Leeann today. Thank you, Sweetie! I LOVED the breakfast bar box the moment I opened it and the confetti was an excellent touch. Lil LOVED it! :o)
7. Cate sent me a lovely card today. Cate, I'm TOTALLY copying that stained glass effect as soon as the DDD/MS is set up and ready to go! :o)
8. My Hokies headband and Hokie Bird hair clip arrived from Wendy today. Thank you, Wendy, I LOVE them! I'll take a picture of Lil and post it soon. :o)
9. Lily has my father's ears and hairline. Seriously. I was looking at a photo of him from when he was about two or three, and Lily has the same hairline and ears. Excellent! I have a child who looks like me!

No milestones today.

I'm off to attend to Miss Bit and then do the painting. Yippee...I'd be more excited if I weren't already pooped. :sigh:

A Little of This and That

I had some very fun photos to post but Blogger and my Vista Service Pack One are not cooperating with each other. Vista managed to eat my sound and I'm quite frustrated with the entire system at the moment.

Lily was a sneaky little imp today. She found her tube of Bert's Bee's diaper ointment and slathered it all over herself during her "nap". Lil was pooped after yesterday's exertions and I just knew she would nap like a champ for me. You see, today began the painting on the "make-over" upstairs. The previous owners had painted the girls' bathroom (a rather small room) a lovely shade of navy blue (sponged on over white) and the room has been terribly dark. Additionally, the mauve on the bottom of the walls in Han's room is too dark to paint the lovely buttery yellow I found. So, today, I began priming. I had hoped Lil would sleep. Ha!

You know what they say about best laid plans... Lil was up and down more times than the elevator in the Empire State Building. I kid you not. I think she was horribly intrigued by the priming I was doing (you have to admit, the roller sounds pretty cool on the walls) and wanted to be in on the action. I had to keep stopping to put Miss Bit back to bed. In spite of it all, both rooms are primed and ready to be painted tomorrow. Whew. :o)

The bathroom is going to be a spring green color. Hannah had selected the color last summer and I just didn't get around to painting it (yet another regret...) and then Hannah died. :sigh: The Decorating Domain is going to be a soft, buttery yellow on top and white wainscoting on the bottom. I'm looking forward to adding the new desk I'm going to make and to setting up Monkey Studios. :o)

Brien and I were talking, as we are wont to do. Hannah's room is no longer her room, it is the room she once slept in. Dad and Brien carried the cave out and put it in the dining room and all that remains of Hannah is her essence, her spirit. Her room is now empty and echo-y and it's all so strange. On the one hand, I'm SO excited to have a stamping room, and I know the Monk would be thrilled to be in there with me, stamping, decorating and cropping away. On the other hand, well, she's gone and this has been one of the hardest things I've had to do. Having something fun to do with the space has made it easier to take care of Hannah's things and honor them as they deserve to be honored.

The room no longer smells like "Hannah's room". It smells of paint and things other than the Monkey. I took her fuzzy pink blanket and nightgown, as well as the bedding from her bed, and put them in HUGE zipper bags to try to preserve those last little molecules of her fragrance. It's so odd that she's not here. It's just so strange.

We found one more surprise as Pop and Bri took the "cave" down. There, on the underside of the top bunk, smeared in Vaseline (Han LOVED Vaseline, in case you couldn't figure that out), were two hand prints. (While I'm thinking of it, Han always called the dogs' prints in the snow, "foot-paw-prints.) I honestly believe Hannah had so much swirling around in her head she couldn't contain it all so she wrote all over EVERYTHING! I found a piece of paper as well as the prints. On the paper were three columns. I column one was:
1
2
scip
a
fu
99
100

It took me a moment to translate, but it is "One. Two. Skip a few. 99. 100." That's my Monkey, always writing, always counting. All. Over. EVERYTHING. If she were here, I'd be fussing and handing her a bottle of 409 and a Magic Eraser. But, of course, I'm instead cherishing every little thing I find. Isn't it funny how it works out? Once again I'm left wondering about all the coincidences and little events that added up to this moment. Did Han live so HUGE because she was destined to live a short life? Did you leave little reminders of herself everywhere because she wasn't going to be here with me much longer? These are the things I ponder.

My slug week is over. Today began the work. I did five loads of laundry (two loads left), cleaned the play room, living room and kitchen and cleaned up Bert's Bees. I knew it was time to do laundry when B brought out the super-emergency boxers today. I'm not sure if you all have them, but I have the underwear that just sits in the drawer waiting. It typically skulks in the farthest corner of the drawer, afraid of the light of day as it sees it so seldom. It turns out, B does too. Who knew?? ;o)

Bri and I will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary Thursday. Mom and Dad will be keeping Lily for us for the weekend so we can get away. The dogs will stay at the resort and B and I will take off Friday afternoon/evening for parts unknown... I'm rather excited at the prospect. I'm finally able to be separated from Lil again. I had no trouble leaving Han, and then, leaving both girls. Once I lost the Monkey, I just couldn't stand being away from Miss Bit. I'm finally ready. Yay!

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Today's Sparklies:

1. Better living through chemicals--the SafeGuard guy came today and has sprayed to take care of the sugar ants that invaded my kitchen. No matter how clean I kept it, they were still everywhere. Ugh! Yay for the SafeGuard guy! :o)
2. Brien is the most wonderful man. My coworker recently purchased a new laptop and B has helped her set it up, set up her network, transfered data from the desktop machine to the laptop, and so much more. He has devoted close to five hours in this endeavor and I can't begin to tell you how amazed I am he would make such a commitment to someone he didn't even know. Thank you, Sweetie. :o)
3. White paint freckles are currently dotting my arms and feet. hee!
4. I LOVE painting and how fresh everything looks afterward.
5. Almost all the laundry in the house is clean and put away. Woo hoo!
6. The temps are supposed to drop back into the upper 80's tomorrow. Yay!!

Milestones:

Hannah's room is no longer her "room". It's just the room in which she used to sleep. :sigh: I didn't want to preserve it as it was, nor did I wish to create a "shrine". I just wish she were here, still sleeping in her room, decorating the carpet and wearing her dresses.


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Please pray for this family. They recently lost their beautiful 14 month old daughter in a tragic drowning. You have all been so very supportive of me on my journey I hope you can say a prayer for this beautiful angel.

To Two of My Favorite Men--Happy Father's Day

Dear Brien,

Thank you for falling in love with me. Thank you for being patient with me when I mess up (which, I know, is quite often). Thank you for being willing to eat carry-out and live in a pigsty during the last weeks of school. Thank you, most of all, for the sweet and wonderful children you helped create and raise. I wouldn't be who I am without you.







Dear Pop,

Thank you for being such a wonderful Pop! You have been a father to me since long before Brien and I married. I love being with you because you are funny, kind, patient and caring. Thank you for loving me and taking me in as yet another daughter. Thank you too, for being a father, for without that, I wouldn't have my wonderful Brien and two stinky chilluns. ;o)

Happy Father's Day to you both!

Love,
Rachael :o)





To all you wonderful fathers out there, Happy Father's Day! I hope your day was wonderful. :o)