The Human Camera

This video is amazing. Stephen is autistic and has a photographic memory, paired with an amazing artistic talent. Watch the video - it'll blow you away.

A fascinating waste of time

Have you been to the Earth Cam web site? It's "where the world watches the world" and it's a great way to waste time. There are cameras everywhere. Go to www.earthcam.com Today I watched a camera from the Columbus Zoo, then I checked on the surf at Lake Michigan, then I saw Gound Zero and Times Square, and then went to Paris. Awesome.

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

It's time for Etsy Favorites Wednesday again! For this edition, I have a theme! I seem to be drawn to trees, for some reason. Stylized trees. Check these trees out! (and don't forget to visit the Etsy shop of yours truly! Link here.) The names of the items are linked to the listing on Etsy.

Sisters Print - $15
From Jelly Beans' shop. I love her watercolor trees!

Swirly Tree Wall Decal - $18
This is so right up my alley! I need it. From Sticky Culture's shop.
I love the wall decals that are on Etsy. I need to buy some.


Large Retro Tree Pendant - $18
This clay pendant from Block Party Press' shop is really pretty.
She also sells hair pins and rings of the same design!

Mod Trees Card Set - $4.50
At $4.50 for a set of 8 (and that includes envelopes!) you can't beat that deal.
You can also have the cards personalized. Love it!
These cards are from Green Apple Paperie's shop.

Curly Brown Felt Tree Applique - $4.50
Don't know what I'd put this on, but I'd find something! So cute. From Kutz' shop.

What's up, camping is cool!

We had a great time camping this weekend! We camped with our friends the 'other P family' - Logan, Foster, Tonya and Bret. I put pictures up on my Flickr site, which you can see here. There are some cute ones. In this picture here, Arlene and Logan are showing off their new rose tattoos.

We're off to camp!

We're off to camp this weekend - what fun! Have a great weekend everyone!

Curly Girl

Missy Miss Arlene actually let me convince her to sleep in curlers! The result were these delightfully bouncy fun curls! TOO CUTE!

Wii be fit!

Wii are going to be FIT! The Wii Fit's were released at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, and Mike was at Meijer at 11:30 p.m. to get in line. The store had 20 Fit's to sell. Mike was about the tenth person in line, so we got one, yay! He had debated about going early to get one, and I'm really glad that he did. He was one of the youngest people in line - there were a bunch of old people there to get Fit. Funny! I'm anxious to check out the games. And I will say, Nintendo is pretty smart with how they're creating a buzz out of everything Wii by only giving stores 20 of their product.

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

I'm going to start a new thing - every Wednesday, I'm going to do a blog post that features my five favorite Etsy items of the week. That way you can see some cool Etsy stuff, I can share my favorite stuff and give props to other Etsians and we can all appreciate the goodness that is homemade! Enjoy! (I hope I remember to do this every Wednesday!) I've added a hyperlink to the names of the items which takes you straight to the item on Etsy.

Circle Mustard Rosette Circle Graphic Ring - $16
From John W Golden's shop. I want to find out where he buys his ring

bezels so that I can make some too! I love the simplicity of his design.

Car Litter Bag - Keep your car clean - Lime Dot - $19
Who doesn't need one of these?! I love them. The bags have an adjustable strap - so you can securely put it anywhere in your car to keep yourself tidy and neat.
They're from Allyson Hill's shop.

Tree Silhouette Wrap LEATHER Cuff Brown on Brown - $25
These cuffs look sweet yet rugged. From Holly Hawk's shop.

Yellow Sunflower Spiral Lantern - $25
These lanterns are ingeniously simple, yet really delicate and pretty.
I want all of them in Mariposa Avenue's shop.



Etsy Widower T-Shirt - $25
I need to get Mike one of these shirts. So true.

I hope you've enjoyed this first installment of "Etsy Favorites Wednesday"!

$2 off all pendants!

I just reduced the price of all of my pendants by $2! If you've had your eye on one, now's the time to get it! Go to my shop here: www.wendykayp.etsy.com

Oh now that's lovely

We've been having an on-going battle with the girls at night. Lydia loves to come into our bed in the middle of the night and make herself comfortable. It was really cute at first, but then it started to get annoying because she'd lay practically on my face or on my legs, and I wasn't getting any sleep. We let her get away with it longer than we should have, so we had to take drastic measures to put a stop to it. It was becoming a bad habit. So, we put up a baby gate on our door frame - she could still get up and go to the bathroom if she needed to, or if she needed us, she could get our attention from the gate. The gate works well - I've heard her get up, walk over to our room, see the gate, and turn right back around and head to her bed, without getting upset at all. I've almost broken my knee cap running into the gate in the middle of the night, and Mike has tripped over it as well, but overall it works good. Last night I forgot to put the gate up. I woke up at 5:30 this morning with a cold knee. Wait a minute. That feels wet. Arlene's in bed with me. What the heck? I turn on the light. OMG. Arlene had (for some reason!) gotten up out of her bed, changed out of her pull-up, put on underwear, came into our bed, fell back to sleep, and had a pee-pee accident! WONDERFUL! Arlene hardly ever comes into our bed! URGH! I was so annoyed, and tired, so I wasn't in the best of moods. Mike was already up and leaving for work. I stripped our bed and started the laundry. Arlene decided she was up for good, which should make for an interesting day - a sleep-deprived toddler is a scary sight! Lydia woke up 10 minutes later and says, "Um, mommy? I have to tell you something." That's never a good sign. She told me that she felt water on her bed. YAY! SHE PEED HER BED TOO! At least she just peed her own bed, and not mine! Needless to say I'm a bit tired and cranky today!

I highly recommend this book

I finished The Pillars of the Earth last night. I highly recommend it. It's long (900+ pages) but it's gripping and it's hard to put down. Even after reading it all the way through I didn't want it to end. (there's a sequel on hardback now, yay!) Ken Follett is a masterful writer.

There are so many twists and turns in the book. Just when you think things are going okay, they turn around for the worst. The book is full of ups and downs, tragedy and triumph. It was an excellent read!

This date in history

Did you know that today, May 19, in 1536, Ann Boleyn was be-headed? Now I know that our anniversary shares an important date in Tudor history. Hmmmm. I have been interested in Tudor history since I started watching "The Tudors" on Showtime last year. I was fascinated by the rise of Anne Boleyn and started my streak of reading Tudor fiction with "The Other Boleyn Girl" and followed that with "The Boleyn Inheritance." Now I'm reading "The Pillars of the Earth" which isn't about Tudor history, but it's timeline is similar. I think I must have been sleeping or passing notes in history class because I recall absolutely nothing about Tudor history. On The Tudors Ann Boleyn is falling from grace, and a new lady, Jane Seymore, is taking the helm! News to me! Drama! Now I'm going to have to find a book about Jane to catch myself up! If you're a dork like me and are interested in this type of thing, go to this web site: http://tudorhistory.org/

Tell me a yoke!

The girls are into jokes, or, as they say, "yokes." They're always asking us to tell them a yoke, but my joke stash is limited. I have a few favorites:

Why do seagulls fly over the sea?
Because if they flew over the bay, they'd be BAGELS.

They like knock-knock jokes too, but I only know a couple:

Knock, Knock!

Who's there?

Boo.

Boo, who?

Why you crying?

Knock, Knock!

Who's there?

Who.

Who, who?

You sound like an owl!

I went online to www.knock-knock-joke.com and found some good ones I'm going to teach them:

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Woo.
Woo, who?
Don't get so excited, it's just a joke.

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Annie.
Annie who?
Annie thing you can do, I can do better.

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Repeat.
Repeat who?
Who Who Who!

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Amos.
Amos who?
Amosquito bit me!

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Lettuce.
Lettuce, who?
Lettuce in and you will find out!

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Moo.
Moo, who?
Well, make up your mind, are you a cow or an owl?

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Cargo.
Cargo who?
Cargo beep! beep!

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Gorilla.
Gorilla Who?
Gorilla me a hamburger, I'm hungry.

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Cow-go
Cow-go Who?
No, Cow go MOO!!!

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Icy.
Icy who?
I see your underwear.

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Ice Cream.
Ice cream who?
Ice cream every time I see a ghost.

I could go on and on!

Yeah - Camping!

To celebrate our annivesary my parents took the kiddies overnight and Mike and I went camping. It was the most fun we've had in a long time! It was awesome. We were on our own time, just relaxed, did what we wanted to do. We love our children dearly but we also love a little break from them too! We love, love, love our little camper too. We're going camping for three days this holiday weekend and can't wait.

Our campsite this weekend.

Cute camper!

So happy to just sit and crochet!

This was the most awesome snack. We heated up a can of Frito-Lay cheese dip over the fire and it was so bubbly delicious with chips! This just proves that it doesn't take much to make us happy. We were so proud of our dip that we took a picture of it. And yes, I'm using Halloween plates in May.

Happy Anniversary!

Today marks the day that I married my sweetie Mikey! It's been seven years - wow! I love you!

I blame Ken Follett on my drowsiness

I have been reading Ken Follett's book "The Pillars of the Earth" and I love it. I start reading it at night and I can't stop. The past two nights I've gone to sleep past 1 a.m. Today I'm super duper tired because I read until 1:30. I just couldn't stop reading! The book is 900 pages and I'm in the 700s now. I just found out today that there is a sequel - how exciting! It's also a huge novel with 900-some pages, called "World Without End." Can't wait to read it, although I think I need to take a Ken Follett break and catch up on my sleep first.

Last day of preschool!

I started this here blog the day before the girls' first day of preschool, on September 12. I have posts about it here and here. Today, May 15, is their last day of preschool for the school year!

September 2007 - first day of preschool!

May 2008 - last day of preschool!

Look at those big girls! I love the comparison between the two photos. What do I see? I see sweet little girls from 2007 that were a bit nervous to start on a new adventure. They had never been away from a family member and now they were going to spend two hours a week with a stranger. But they were excited - going to preschool means they're getting to be "big girls!" Arlene loved preschool right away. She engaged with the other kids and the teachers and never ever complained about going. Lydia had a few issues in the beginning. She went through a spell for a couple of weeks where she'd scream whenever I tried to leave. But she got over it and got just as adjusted as Arlene. The teacher told us during their evaluations in April that they were the most advanced in the class - but of course! In today's picture, I see the same little sweeties, but I also see a bit of sass in them, because I know that before taking that picture, I had a twenty minute argument with Arlene about which socks she was going to wear today. I see confident little BIG GIRLS who love to have new adventures and who have embraced learning with excitement. They are like sponges, constantly picking up new information and new words and phrases. I'm so proud of them!

Can someone please tell my husband to get with it!

I'm not what you would call a real "materialistic" person. I don't have to have the latest trends nor do I have to wear designer clothes. I don't get my nails done, I don't get facials, and I've only had two pedicures in my lifetime. I do, however, like myself a nice purse. Case in point, I bought that purse (to the left) last November. Read that, November. And I've carried it every day since I got it. I want a new purse now, because I've had that one since November, and I'm tired of looking at it. My mom crocheted me an adorable green purse which I carried for two weeks, but the handles aren't long enough to put it over my shoulder, and I need to be able to put it over my shoulder so I can hold the girls' hands when we go out. (sorry Mom! I'll use that green purse as a catch-all bag when we go camping - it'll be perfect!)

So anyway, I tell my husband that I want to get a new purse from Etsy. My husband says, "You just bought a purse." I say, "No I didn't, I bought it seven months ago." He says, "You can use a purse for longer than that." I say, "There are some women who change their purses with every season!" He says, "Well then wait until November to get a new one!" Whatev dummy-head. I need a new purse! Don't you agree?! I'm due.

I've got my eye on purcashing one of these:

Cinammon Big Pleated Bag

Cherry Jubliee Boxy Bag

Japanese Owls Boxy Bag

Saavy Sense Hobo Slouch Bag

Yellow Slouch Bag

Lydia's casting for orthodics

Today Lydia had her casting session for her orthodic braces. The phyical therapist cast both of her feet up to the knee and will send the casts away so they can make braces. Lydia will wear the braces only at night and they'll slowly stretch out her tendons so that eventually (we hope!) she'll stop walking on her toes. Lydia did very well during the casting session, didn't complain at all! As you can tell from the first picture she was being quite a ham. She looks a tad worried in the last photo - the PT was cutting the cast off and I think Lydia was a bit concerned at first!

***If you've landed on my blog from searching the 'net for info on tip toe walking or serial casting or AFO braces, hello. This particular post here is one in a number I wrote about my daughter's tip toe walking. I encourage you to start with this post instead. It encapsulates our journey more succinctly.***

Happy Anniversary!

Today my parents have been married FORTY ONE years! Happy Anniversary! Love you guys!
(It's also my brother in-law & sis-in law's anniversary today - eight years! Yay!)

I have a theory

Gas is $3.95 down here in the 'Nati. Ridiculous. I was lucky today and found gas for $3.65 before it increased. I put $42 in my CRV and it didn't even fill it up. I have a theory on this whole gas "crisis" crap. I think that George Bush knew that the gas prices were going to go sky high, and that's why he is giving everyone their "economic stimulus" money. So if we start complaining, he can say, "I've helped you out, use your economic stimulus money!" Whatever.

The Architect

Arlene loves her Lincoln Logs - she makes houses complete with little garages or two stories, and they keep getting better each times she makes them. Tonight she made this "parm house" as she called it. (farm house) She said that the "parm lady" climbed up the "ladder" so that she can "see everything". Interesting! A milli-second after I took this picture she smashed the house to the ground in one swoop of her hand - haha! She also loves to make "book houses" - which are square or rectangles fashioned out of books - either books standing up and open, or books laying on the floor. She then designates the rooms like the bathroom and her bedroom. Too funny! I will have to get a picture of her next book house.

Death Cab for Cutie - out today!

I am soooo excited! We just got the new Deathcab for Cutie album from Itunes! It's awesome. I love them so very much. (to the left, that's a t-shirt for sale - I need to buy it!)

Embroidery & Crochet package

I got the BEST package in the mail Saturday - a whole lotta crochet and embroidery from the past! My cousin had stashes of our great-grandmother's crochet and embroidery. She gratiously parted with some of it and sent it my way. I so cherish it. These pictures doesn't do it justice in any way, and it's not even the half of what she sent. Now I have a bunch of couch arm doilies that Great Grandma had made. I'm on a mission to find those curved pins that stick them into the couch so that I can use a set. Did your Grandma have couch doilies? So fun. I also got pillowcases that have crocheted edges and a couple of table cloths and a bunch of other crochet doilies.

My favorite pieces are the embroidered ones:

This one is my all-time favorite. The peacock is stunning!

I'm keeping the stash in storage for now, hopefully to bring it out when we move! I want to frame the peacock piece.

I told my husband - see, this is why I love to do crafts so much, it's in my blood! Both my paternal and maternal grandmothers were crafty!

Weeeee!

"I've been hanging out with the P family but I'm now leaving to make my

journey north to Toledo! Be there soon!"

"I think I'll sleep on the trip ..."

Celebrating Mother's Day

I hope that everyone had a fabulous Mother's Day with your mother/kids/grandmother! We had a great day. I was so spoiled (and I LOVED it!) Mike made chocolate pancakes with the girls for breakfast and brought it to me in bed - I got to sleep in until 10:30 - loving it! Then he bathed the girls without one complaint, cleaned up the kitchen after the huge breakfast mess, picked up the basement and vacuumed the floors! What a guy! He did all of this while I laid on the couch, haha! We had my parents and brother Jeremy over for a cookout in the afternoon. It was rainy and cold so we ate inside, but we had a great time.

I have jeans and flip flops on today

And I don't feel like doing any work at all. I'm going to read through everyone's blogs and then search the internet and then hang around Etsy and then maybe, just maybe, I'll work on updating the 4,000-name mailing list that I'm supposed to be updating today. But really, who wants to update a mailing list on a Friday? The internet is better.

Seeing double

The girls' teacher at preschool asked me if I had a double stroller from when the girls were little. Her sister is pregnant with twins, and she's looking for a second-hand stroller. The teacher went on and on about how her sister is freaked out because she's going to have to spend $500 on a double stroller plus double cribs and double everything. I assured her that the double strollers were not that much, and, sorry we don't have ours anymore. I looked online just now - a double stroller is $140. It's about double (obviously) the cost of a single one, but it's not that much. The way the teacher was carrying on, it sounds like her sister is beside herself by the thought of how much money she'll have to spend on her twins. I recalled when I was pregnant that a couple of people told Mike and I that we're going to be surprised at how much money twins will be for us. Oh really? I'm not feeling any extra burden. I never have. We have to buy double of everything, sure, but if we had two kids a few years apart we'd still have to buy both of the kids stuff. Maybe I'm just dillusional because we didn't have a singleton before we had the twins, so I don't know the cost of a single kid. I don't know. It's just irritating to me. Twins are a blessing and not a financial burden! I've never been like, "oh dear me, I have to buy for two!" Give me a break.

Dirty hands

In the bathrooms at work we have these "Yogurt" soaps by Dial. I don't know about you, but I'm not too jazzed about washing my hands with bacteria. Why in the world did the makers of Dial think that this was a good combination? When I think of yogurt I think of Jamie Lee Curtis raving about Activia which leads me to think about how yogurt is making people poop regularly. I think of that every single time I was my hands at work.

My labeling is bad

I just noticed that I have horrible labels on my blog. I lump too much stuff together (for example, the "silly me" label has a bunch of unrelated stuff in it) and then I come up with labels that I never use more than once. (case in point is the "games" label I created for that last post) I need to redo my labels and really organize this blog. Not that anyone but me cares, nor do I think that anyone even looks for things by the labels, nor do I think that this blog has a big following, but I'll have to fix it sometime in the future because I know that it's disorganized and I'm anal about organization.

Speed Racer

Last weekend we bought the Wii Mario Kart game. Being fans of the Mario Cart Double Dash game, we couldn't wait for the new one. (I know, we are dorks!) The game is COOL! The courses are a lot of fun. We bought two steering wheels, but I do not have the dexterity to use one. I just can't turn the wheel and hit the buttons to blast the other drivers with mischievous items at the same time. I was getting dead last each race. And of course Mike can use the wheel like a pro. So we switched me to using the regular controller. Happy to say that I get first almost all of the time now! Mike will argue with that, but it's the truth. Unless I screw up big time and drown my driver or run into a barking steel dog, I'm golden.

I got pooped on today

I was sitting in my car after eating my lunch, wasting a few minutes before I went back to my office. (no one eats together in my office so I spend a lot of lunch breaks eating alone in my car and reading, how lonely!) Anyway, it was sort of raining, so I only had my driver's side window open. It was open maybe four inches. I feel something hit the side of my head behind my ear. What the heck? It wasn't raining hard enough nor were the drops big enough to splat on my head. Felt it. It was bird poop. I told myself not to freak out because it might drip or something, so I calmy and methodically reached the box of baby wipes in the back seat and got all the crap out. It was nasty. Like beyond nasty. That bird must have one heck of a projectile pooper to get that shit to come squarely into my window and on my head. Thankfully I had a hair appointment later in the afternoon and the poo was completely washed out. Gross.

Please give me those 15 minutes and 26 seconds back

I got a call just now at work - it was a woman conducting a survey for the "possibility" of constructing a new hockey arena in our area. I was going to hang up, but then I thought, no, I'll take the survey because in my job we rely on surveys to conduct some of our marketing work. Maybe I'll get good survey karma, or something. Anyway, she started out the survey by quickly reading through a script. I couldn't understand anything of what she was saying because she kept tripping over her words. I *think* she was surveying me on my interest level in the construction of a hockey area, which would house a minor and major hockey league. I'm not sure though - I thought that's what I heard - but I also heard a bunch of coughing and hacking from her peer sitting near her and it was confusing because she couldn't pronouce a third of the words in her script. About 10 minutes in and answering "possibly" to everything, I knew that my responses really weren't going to benefit the company at all. But I just didn't care. She asked me if we'd purchase box seats for the arena or lease a private suite for $50,000. I answered "definetely not" to that one! We're a NON PROFIT agency! It was comical really. No, we weren't interested in arena seats costing $300 each. No, we weren't interested in box seats costing $600 each. Were we interested in seats costing $10 each? Yes. At the very end, after 15 minutes of survey torture, she said, "Okay, Ms. P, thank you for your time. I have recorded here that you are from GE and I called you at ***-****." Ummm ... I didn't know what to say! No, that was wrong! But at this point I didn't care if I mislead them! I am not from GE and that's not the number you called me on! I agreed just to get her off the phone.

So now the powers-that-be that want to build this arena are wondering why GE, a company with billions of dollars, isn't willing to purchase tickets costing more than ten bucks! hahahaaaaaa So much for that survey karma.

Embroidery

My embroidery project is finally complete and framed and hung up. I'm very pleased with how they turned out! (if you click on the photos you can see a larger view)