Happy Thanksgiving

I am busy counting my blessings this morning, and wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving filled with food, family, and friends.

But among the happiness of the day, we have some sadness, too.  My Uncle Jack, my dad's brother and my godfather, passed away early this morning.   I have some fond memories of him.  Here's a layout I did of him (on the right) and my dad (on the left) when they were young men.

Rest in peace, Uncle Jack.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It started raining last night, and did not stop until an hour or so ago.  It's only in the low 50s, raw and cold.  Ick.

So, I did a page to warm me up a bit.  These were some of the hydrangeas that were in bloom when we were on the Cape in July.  After tulips, these are my favorite flowers.  Isn't the range of color amazing?

I'm off to finish getting ready for my Mom's visit.  She's arriving in a little over an hour to spend the holiday with us.  When I picked Jeremy up from school, he told me that he wrote a love note for her today.  She is just going to melt!

Licking the Spoon

I love to bake, but don't do it too often anymore because I really don't need the extra fat and calories.  But nowadays I have a helper or two when it's time to bake.  We made some Rice Krispy treats this week, and it reminded me of pictures I took of Jeremy the last time we made some (in March).  I was in a mood to play with paper, and created a layout today with those pictures.

Jeremy likes to add ingredients and turn the mixer on and off.  He enjoys the process to some extent.  But really, his favorite part is licking the spoon.  He anticipates the moment the whole time we're mixing the ingredients.  Once he receives the spoon, he's quite intent and deliberate about it.

Do you spend a little time licking the spoon after you accomplish something?  Or are you so busy with all those things life throws at you that you just move on to get the next item crossed off your list?  Take a page from Jeremy's book:  take the time to savor the moment and revel in it.  Go lick some spoons!

Notes from the House of Pestilence

"The House of Pestilence" is the label my friend, Jean, assigned to my home this week.  "Why would she say such a thing?" you might ask yourself.

It all started on Friday, Nov.6.  Matthew came home from school and "didn't feel up to" playing with his friends. You parents out there know that statement from a child is a big, red flag that something's wrong.  Sure enough, when I checked, he had a fever.  The only other symptoms were a mild cough and occasional loss of appetite.  So we had a low-key weekend, and Sunday night at bedtime he was fever-free.

But by then Jeremy had started a fever.

Matthew stayed fever-free on Monday and on Tuesday was able to go back to school.  But that evening his coughing really escalated, and when he got up on Wednesday morning he had a fever again.  So off to the docs we went.  They both tested positive for the flu,and Matthew had developed pneumonia as well.  Jeremy was tracking exactly 2 days behind Matthew.  Sure enough, on Friday he was seen at the doc and diagnosed with pneumonia as well.

So, for 8 days now the boys have been home sick.  Matthew seemed just perfectly  normal again today, and it looks like he'll be back to school on Monday.  Jeremy was still feverish all day today, so unless he's normal tomorrow he'll miss *another* day of school.  As I tucked him into bed tonight, he turned and said to me "Mom, I really miss my school."  Me too, buddy, trust me!

We did manage some fun, though.  They were both kind of bummed out Wednesday at dinner time, missing school and their friends.  So Ryan and I offered up a special bath in our tub.  We have an extra-deep garden tub in our bathroom, with nice jets.  We put enough water in to cover the jets, then turned them on.  Jets + bubble bath = bubbles nearly 2 1/2 feet high!  The boys had an absolutely blast playing in it!  And the cat, naturally, had to inspect the situation.

So far, Ryan and I have managed to avoid getting sick, and we're hoping it stays that way.

Belated Boo!

So I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of the boys on Halloween.  We had Captain Rex (from Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (the red one, whomever that might be) join us for trick-or-treating this year.  And the kids had me make a (somewhat pathetic) attempt at a Darth Vader carving on the pumpkin.

Matthew is (still) in his fake-smile phase.  Partly because he's got 4 missing teeth and likes folks to see his gaps.  Partly because he's just in that phase.  I'm really hoping it will end soon.

We trick-or-treated with our neighbors this year.  Actually, it's the first year we've had neighbors with kids the same age to trick-or-treat with.  It was rather toasty, in the mid-70s, and by the time we got half-way done all of the kids were soaked with sweat.  It's a far cry from the Halloweens I remember in Boston as a child, when we'd have to struggle to get the costumes on over heavy clothes because it was so cold outside.  (Wearing them over our coats meant people could see who we were.  It would have been just silly to put coats over our costumes.)

For the last 4 days, I've been dealing with sick boys.  Matthew popped a fever late Friday afternoon, and was able to go back to school today.  Apparently 5 of his class  of 18 were out sick yesterday.  Jeremy started with the fever late Sunday afternoon, and was still 102 today at lunchtime. So he'll be out another day tomorrow. Hopefully, if it follows the same course Matthew's did, he'll be back in school on Thursday.

 I'll leave you today with a picture of a greeting card I made using November's free kit at Scrapstreet, Thankful by Rachness Designs.  The free kit is a digital kit, and all of the things on the card are printed from a digital creation.  Don't those buttons look real, though?

Bad Blogger!

Readers, forgive me for I have been a bad blogger...  it has been nearly 4 weeks since my last blog post...  Ooh, look at that, I feel like I'm in a confessional again... sounds like it, too.  :)

What have I been up to?

• Lots of school involvement for me in the last few weeks: classroom volunteering, field trip chaperoning, and unpacking and displaying boxes and boxes of books for the school-wide book fair to be held next week.

• My in-laws came and visited for a few days, and we had a great time with them.  They got to see one of Matthew's baseball games.

• Finished up the baseball season.  The team actually won their last game - giving them a 1-and-10 or so record for the season.

• Parent-teacher conferences.  Early dismissals from school for said conferences.  

• Lots of creating for Scrapstreet magazine;  while I'm no longer an editor, I still help out by creating items for the monthly Showroom article and occasionally for other columns as well.  

• Some sewing: one of my bees has a Christmas tree block swap ongoing, and my 12 identical blocks are nearing completion.  

• Those of you who know me well know how much I love diet Coke, and that it was a 2L-a-day habit.  Did you notice the past tense?  I'm officially 4 weeks clean now.  No caffeine in that time.  An occasional fizzy drink like diet Sprite.  (And by occasional I mean only about one a week.)  Lots of flavored waters.  (Love those, not so fond of plain water.)   Amazingly, I did not get migraine-level headaches, only mild-to-moderate ones that were easy to cope with.  

• I also prepped two rooms and a hallway for painting, then had the painters here for a couple of days getting it done.  It's all nice and fresh upstairs now.  Well, if you don't look at the rugs.  I could render down the playroom rug for soup stock.  (Any David [and Leigh] Eddings fans out there may recognize that line...)  So today I got an estimate on getting all the rugs cleaned.  It's a bit pricey, but considering the state of the rugs...  Well, DH and I will be making a decision over the weekend.

• Oh, and if I'm going to come clean, I have to admit to a bit of an obsession with a Ratchet and Clank PS3 video game.  Been spending lots of time shooting things up.  

So, that sums up my last 4 weeks or so.   Busy crazy life stuff.  But I'm back on the blogging wagon.  Type at y'all later.