Germs and Teeth (but not together this time)

Well, the evil bug of pukey sickness has finally made it's way around to me today. It slowly worked its way through the whole family over the past week. Yesterday I stayed home with Emmelia and had hopes that I might avoid it... but then it hit around 4 am this morning. Sigh.

Hopefully we didn't infect the tooth fairy when she made her first ever trip to our home! That's right - Emmelia lost her first tooth last night. She was very excited - she's been looking forward to losing a tooth for a couple of years already. The tooth fairy brought her a gold coin (a Sacajawea dollar) and some Pooh rubber stamps. I'm just floored that my baby is old enough to lose a tooth already. I keep asking her to smile for me - isn't it so cute?

Fathers & Daughters

One of the gifts I got for Christmas was the Paul Simon CD "Surprise." I love Paul Simon. And since getting the CD, I've fallen in love with a verse from his song "Fathers & Daughters." It seemed perfect to use on a layout with a photo of a friend of ours and his new daughter I took last summer. I was honored that our friends asked me to be present for Leeza's birth. At the last moment, after a fully un-medicated labor (Leeza's mom was *pushing*).... the doctor discovered the baby was in a frank breech position and little Leeza was safely delivered via emergency c-section. This photo was one of the first taken of father and daughter after her delivery, while mom was still in the operating room. So, I of course had to scrap it and the Paul Simon verse came to mind. The layout itself started out more simple, using a template from Christine Nash and Doodleboog's City Love kit... but then I decided to "free-style" a bit and it got kind of crazy. But (I think) fun, too.

Kinda cool!

My "Beach Paradise" LO got "Layout of the Day" over at Digital Scrapbook Pages (aka Digitals) yesterday! That's very exciting.

The Deac was up all night with the stomach bug Maura had on Wednesday night. We're all dragging a bit and I'm not sure how this will affect our weekend plans. We are hoping we'll all be up to going to the baptism of the son of some dear friends, but we'll have to see how tomorrow morning pans out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I don't get it, because I can't exactly hop out of bed and run to the bathroom these days......

How hard can it be?

Today I realized why we shouldn't be worried about the possibility of human cloning: scientists still cannot make a microwave popcorn that pops all the kernals. Really - it's 2007. I think they could do better.

My friend C. is in Costa Rica this week, relaxing on a beach and assuredly enjoying a margarita or two. So it's been fun playing with the new Megalodon kit by my friend Amy. I really love the colors and elements in this kit! I scrapped some of the beach photos from our vacation in the fall of 2005. It made me forget the frigid temperatures outside for just a few minutes, anyway.


My foot is doing much better than even a week ago and I'm encouraged about recovery and having a brand-new foot that will work for the activities in which I'd like to participate. In the meantime, though, I can't do much except sit back and enjoy the DirecTV we had hooked up on Monday. Even with 155 channels, my favorite shows are the same: Northern Exposure, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Monk, My Name is Earl and The Knights of Prosperity. Soon Eureka will be back on as well. But then will come warmer temps, hopefully melting of some of the GIANT snow piles around the area, and spring evening bike rides with the girls. I can't wait.

Franken-foot

I got my cast off yesterday! YEAY!

My foot looks really quite freaky. It is swollen from the surgery and being compressed in the cast for two weeks, not to mention the 3 incisions the orthopedist made. I got my stitches out yesterday, too, and they gave me a "walking boot" to wear for the next 2 months.

I was looking forward to tossing the crutches to the side, but it turns out that it really HURTS to put your weight down on a newly lengthened tendon.... really, really hurts. So I have to use the crutches for a little support until I get used to the pain and stretching feeling the walking boot provides. Sigh.

Still, I'm very excited that I will soon have a new and functional foot. The doc had me move my foot up yesterday and it moved into a normal 90-degree angle - something my foot has NEVER been able to do. It will be great to be able to be more active with less pain.

Off to rest and take a pain pill...

Yeay, a couple layouts!

Once again, templates come to the rescue in a scrapping slump! Plus, I wanted to make some layouts for the creative teams I'm on. The blizzard layout is made with templates and Snow Wonder kit (soon to be at SBE) by Christine Nash, and the other one is with a template and City Love kit by Doodleboogs. They were both pretty easy to put together. I've tackled some work projects which have been sitting on my desk for a while the past couple of days and also managed to do the layouts.

Only 1.5 more days of crutching around until my cast comes off and I *cannot* wait!

Thanks for the music recommendation, Mom. I've seen him perform on PBS before and have always liked the emotion and vitality he brings to his performances. However, my iPod is already full of terrific violin music.... I may wait to buy any new music in that genre. I did find this album (sorry, I'm not sure how else to link it or how to get the album cover on here)- for me as much as the girls. It's pretty fun. But, I'm still taking suggestions.

One resolution I am hoping to keep this year is to get into a regular exercise routine. I have an elliptical machine at work that I can use again once my tendons heal up. In the past, I've wanted to listen to music while working out but never had a good idea of how to make a playlist that would be at the same energy level as I wanted to work out. But this week I happened upon fitpod.com and their archived mixes as podcasts on iTunes. I subscribed and am excited to see how it goes (did I just say I was excited at the prospect of working out? There must be something wrong with me!).

Happy New Year!

It's been crazy here, what with the eight feet of snow and all....

Last week I had surgery to release and lengthen my Achille's tendon, as well as the tendons on the top of my foot that move my toes. I am really hopeful that this will help me be able to lead a more active life with less pain. Right now it's kind of annoying because I'm on crutches. And, you know, it just keeps snowing and snowing and snowing..... once I get the cast off and can discard the crutches it will be much easier.

I wanted to just post quickly so you all know the blog isn't defunct. I just haven't felt much like sitting in front of a computer lately. This has hurt my digiscrapping, too. I just haven't felt like scrapping much, even. I put a lot of work into a 4x6 "brag book" for my Mom for Christmas (which she seemed to like a lot), but now I'm a little "scrapped out". I'm sure I'll feel more into it next week.

I still have about $50 in iTunes gift certificates I got for Christmas if anyone has any suggestions for what I should download!