Goodbye Sweetie

We lost our sweet Badger today to what turned out to be blood leukemia. She was only 4 years old, and we are all devastated right now. I knew it was coming but it doesn't really make it any easier to deal with my children's naked grief.

I took these before it was time to say goodbye to our sweetie.

Sleepy Sunday

I spent the day sleepy and fairly unmotivated. Evelyn was croupy in the night and so she spent most of the night awake and complaining to us. She also decided to shout "Cupcake" repeatedly for no apparent reason at about 1am. I guess she was inspired by the chocolate yumminess we had for desert yesterday!

I was proud of myself today! I managed to talk myself out of ordering one of each of the "Confections" dresses from Loves Me Not that went live on the site today. Now, if only I can make it through the release of "House of Clouds" from Matilda Jane on Feb. 1rst, then I am sure I will be good to make it to my goal of not shopping for kids clothes until March 1rst!

No real update on Badger today, we visited her and she was a bit perkier but she is still on IV, and still no diagnosis has been made. The X-rays of her chest didn't show anything abnormal, so they are pretty sure it is something in her blood... for some reason her body is attacking her red blood cells. We are hoping another round of test results that are due in tomorrow will tell us something about our dear little kitty.

Pictures for the day! It was sunny but cold here today, and I was working on my assignment for my photography course. Just a couple to share...

Cupcakes

Photos at Addy`s went well today! Yay! The kids cooperated! I didn`t take any of my own pictures of them in their outfits, but I will share the ones Addy took once she is done editing. Here is one of Laina in her headband that I made last night.

After that, we drove through McDonald`s and for some strange reason, I thought it would be a good idea to just hand Evelyn a cheeseburger. She loves cheeseburgers (actually anything meaty) but usually I just rip off small pieces and give them to her. This is what she did with it. (sorry, this post is going to have lots of pictures of Evelyn with gross, messy faces... faces that only a mother can find cute)

Then we came home and cleaned up a bit and I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate creamcheese icing... Adam took a picture of me making them I realized when I uploaded my photos! Here it is, notice my mixing bowl that matches my lovely countertops? Classy, hey?

The kids licking the beaters after making the icing (Mylie is in her jammies already... it was like 3 o'clock, haha)

And finally, the cupcakes.

Evelyn after eating the cupcakes...

Sorry, that was a pretty boring day, but I took lots of pictures!

Terra, if you read this, Adam wants to tell Dustin something about the camera, so call us! And I can't wait to see you guys!

Girl Mommas! You need to try this!

Tomorrow is our Valentine's Day photo shoot with the lovely Addy and I had decided that I would sew or create everything for the girls to wear for the shoot. So far, I have sewn the Peekaboo skirt for Evelyn (pattern by Little Lizard King), the Knotty Apron Dress for Mylie (pattern from the book "Little Girls, Big Style") and the Apron Skirt for Laina (which I will share below and pattern is also from "Little Girls, Big Style" but I made some mistakes, oops! So the pattern was altered a bit to fix my "should've measured twice and cut once" mistake!)

But, since I am a procrastinator, I left the making of the hair accessories until the last moment. I decided on rolled fabric flowers which are hot these days on etsy, but I didn't know how to make them and I didn't have time to order any! I search online for a tutorial and found this awesome one at Prudent Baby. It is so easy and quick, and I think it could be a fun craft to do with older kids. I am pretty sure Laina could handle it minus the hot glue that I substitued for fabric glue. You don't even have the cut the fabric strips, you just make a snip at the top of the fabric, and then tear it all the way down (in case you didn't know that, fabric will tear straight along the grain!). Anyhow, enough babbling and linking, here are the pictures (which now that I am taking my photography course bother me because they are out of focus, so just ignore that please).

And the skirt (sorry for the daggy presentation, Laina is already in bed so I don't have a model!)

In case you wanted an update in the Badger saga, she is still at the Vet's and we still don't know what is wrong... we know a bunch more things that AREN'T wrong, but still don't have a diagnosis. She was in terrible shape today when we went to visit her. She is on an IV drip and she barely even lifted her head to chat with us :( But on a more positive note, the lovely vet called us tonight and said she had gotten authorization to perform a whole bunch more expensive tests... for free! They really want to find out what is ailing her, there are some symptoms that they have never seen at that clinic before and are eager to help us, and to learn at the same time. So hopefully, we may know more soon.

Stuff

Can you tell by my creative post title that I am not very motivated tonight? I found a Marian Keyes book that I haven't read yet at the used book store (The Other Side of the Story) and I am indulging in a "can't put it down" reading binge. I have loved reading from a very early age. I used to read so much and so constantly, that my mom swears I used to jump on the trampoline while reading as a kid! You just couldn't pry me away from my books.

I still adore reading but find I have much less time to do it these days. I can't pick up a book during the day because the kids will tear the house apart (and Evelyn would probably do something daring like climb up on the roof) if I don't give them my full attention. So reading gets relegated to the evening and has to share it time with photography, crafting, sewing, the internet and Adam. Oh, and TV. Can't forget TV. Which reminds me that I am missing Grey's Anatomy right now and that makes me even less motivated to finish this blog post! Maybe I should stop rambling and get down to the pictures.

Today was Mylie's monthly Party Day at preschool where they sing and dance and show us what they have learned this month. It was also a special one for her, since it was her birthday month. So everyone sang her Happy Birthday and she got to blow out a candle on a clay cupcake.

Here she is singing and blowing out her candle. The song is about bears hibernating, that is why she is pretending to sleep. She is always very enthusiastic with her actions.

By the way, she is wearing Gap Chelsea. One of my favorite lines, but then I always say that, don't I?

And other stuff.... I traded in my Rebel xTi camera for a Canon 60D today...it was love at first click. Also, in a very very sad turn of events, Badger is back at the vet, and is very poorly. I was taking her there for a follow up today when it turned into an emergency situation. I can't even talk about it right now because I actually feel quite traumatized by it. I know she is just a cat, but I love her so much. And it sucks being the adult. Can I just say how much it sucks being the adult in this situation? I remember being a kid and my parents had to make decisions like these.... I want to go back to that. I don't want to make decisions about the life or death of an animal that the kids and I love so much. It breaks me heart. We will know more tomorrow after yet another round of tests. I feel like I am torturing her at this point. And I don't want to. Whew, that was probably why I didn't feel like writing this tonight! I should have known it was going to go down the tube fast! And on that cheerful note... until tomorrow!

Pictures...

Nothing but pictures from our walk today...off to do some sewing!

Sorry, can't resist these shots whenever we go to the park!

I guess Adam isn't the best candidate for this, but when my pants are this tight, someone needs to tell me!

The adventures of DaredEvelyn

This post was going to be about how I had a sad day, and spent a great deal of it crying. But now I won't bore you with that story, since Adam is a sweetie and I am a total cliche.

He bought me a new handbag! It is pink, and not at all shiny like it is in the picture. And purses make me happy :)

And this lovely pile:

is what I dumped out of my old purse. Three times recently, I have had different people (2 seperate doctors and an esthetician) say, "Whoa, what have you got in there??" when they tried to move my purse. Well the answer to that is above. What didn't I have in my purse??? Order, that is what!

So now I have a clean, tidy and orderly new pink purse. And that makes me happy.

Tonight, Adam took the big girls to their skating lessons, and Evelyn and I stayed home. She wanted to get into her jammies (she doesn't talk, so she showed me this by leading me into her room and sitting on the changing pad and pointing to her bed.) It was too early for her to go to sleep, so I got her in her jammies and decided she looked so cute that I would take some pictures of her. I tried to get her to sit on her little rocking chair and look at a book and here is where it went from there. (Just an fyi, she was never in any danger, I was within a few steps and was keeping both my eyes and her camera on her... ready to lunge if necessary)

DaredEvelyn... the story of a little stinker

She pushed the chair over to the dresser at this point.

I decided that enough was enough, and I hauled her out of her room and closed the door. I came out to the dining room/ kitchen area and watched as she pulled one of the kid's table chairs into the kitchen. Here we go again!

And then I had to fish her out of the sink and change her jammies. Because she figured out how to turn the tap on, full blast.

Something you don't know about me

File this under things you didn't know about me.... It is a deep, dark secret.... are you ready?

I think seeing people fall is the funniest thing EVER. I am terrible that way. Of course if someone is hurt, I don't think it is funny, but as soon as I find out they are okay, I am rolling on the floor laughing. My mom says that I am sadistic, and that I have always been that way. But honestly, I don't enjoy seeing people hurt. Just seeing them fall. She remembers a time when I was maybe 9 or 10 years old and we were at the laundromat and an elderly man was coming in the door and tripped over the floor mat. As he picked himself off the ground, I was laughing so hard, my mom had to hustle me out of there because she was so ashamed of me. I mention this to highlight my assertion that I was born this way... I didn't chose to be sadistic. Really.

So anyways, today, Karma (or whatever) decided to pay me back for all of the times when I laughed at other people's misfortune. Like the time my sister did a superman dive (picture a woman parallel to the ground, flying through the air with one arm stretched out in front of her, holding a doggie bag full of food) as we were leaving a packed Old Spaghetti Factory. Or the time when my (new) husband slipped and fell off the ledge of a jacuzzi bathtub in front of me. On our wedding night. Naked.

Back to Karma. Today it was a typical Pacific Northwest day full of hard rainfall with puddles and muddy ground. As I was leaving my parent's house, I was running for the van trying to dodge the rain while carrying Evelyn when I hit the wet wood at the bottom of their wheelchair ramp. Can you see where this is going? Yep, all those years of laughing came back to haunt me right there. I fell (still holding Evelyn) and then log rolled the rest of the way down the wheelchair ramp. Luckily, I broke Evelyn's fall and then let go of her before my descent down the ramp. She was startled but unhurt. I, on the other hand, was soaking wet and muddy, not to mention that my hip and elbow were a little worse for wear. Adam and Mylie got the full show and Adam made use of this opportunity for laughter revenge.

Also, on a good note, after $1000 (seriously) worth of testing, including an ultrasound today, we've got the good news that Badger is okay!!! Yay Badger! She does have a slightly enlarged liver which we don't know why, and she did lose half of her body weight, but the vet said no signs of all the other things the blood tests indicated.

Here is a very happy girl (and I am a very happy girl too).

Valentine's Apron Dress

I had a nice relaxing day today which could have something to do with the fact that Laina and Mylie spent the day at their friend's house. It was quiet and laid-back over here without them fighting and making excessive amounts of unnecessary noise. So I took advantage of that and did some sewing.

The girls are doing a photoshoot next weekend and I am planning on sewing all of their outfits to coordinate. So Evelyn will be wearing the Peekaboo skirt and now, Mylie will coordinate in her knot apron dress that I sewed from the book that I talked about here "Little Girls, Big Style" Now that I have actually used the book, I would HIGHLY recommend it. It teaches lots of techniques and I think it would be an excellent tool for a beginner sewer!

The pictures are terrible, I think I will try again tomorrow in some natural light. Mylie is sick (again) with some kind of croupy, respiratory thing, but aside from coughing and sniffling, she is feeling good. When Mylie is sick, you can always see it in her rosy cheeks, and pale eyes. She just looks different somehow.

Now I just need to make Laina's set and we are already for the shoot!

Trip to the mall with kids (and other stories)

Watch out! I will ramble on tonight... consider yourself warned!

Okay, actually before I start that, I want to share a picture with you. I took this photo of Mylie in the rain yesterday, and I really liked it despite some flaws (like dark eyes, and too much stuff junking up the background) so the talented Heather (who is like, my idol of all things photography and a fountain of useful knowledge) offered to edit my photo for me, and here is the outcome! So thank you Heather, and Crystal too, whose idea it was to crop the boots in the second one.

And now on to my mall trip story.

I decided that I desperately needed a new pair of sweatpants. Actually maybe I should rephrase that. I wanted a new pair of sweatpants. Why? Because all of my other pairs were dirty as a result of letting my laundry piles build up into mountains that threatened to engulf anyone who dared to walk near them. So off I went to the mall with Mylie and Evelyn in tow.

I found a sufficiently cushy pair of sweatpants at American Eagle (which I am actually probably too old to shop at, but I digress). So I went into the big changing room they reserve for the disabled or those with children and large strollers. The changing area was pretty busy with young hipsters trying on cute clothes while I stuffed myself into some frumpy sweatpants. Soon, Mylie bellowed loud enough for the whole mall to hear, "Mama, did you just fart?"

I heard muffled snickers coming from outside the door as I hissed, "No, I did NOT!" (for the record, I really didn't) By that time, I had my pants off and was about to pull on the sweats when she said, "Hey Mama, you wearing your Christmas undies?"

I quickly pulled the pants up to cover my underwear that was allover Christmas print (hey, what am I supposed to do, pack them away with the decorations?) and gave her the stink eye. She stared back, unable to understand why I looked angry. As we exited the changing room, she stepped on the creaky wood flooring and exclaimed, "That's what made the farting noise!" I could feel the stares as my little gong show made our way up to the cash register. I could tell they were all thinking, there goes that lady who farted in her Christmas undies....

Moral of this story? Don't take your 4 year old in the changing room with you. They will humiliate you every time.

A Hodge Podge

There will be virtually no coherence to the post tonight, I have the attention span of a hummingbird right now (or something really tiny and fast, you get the picture).

First off, things you should not do:

*leave a marshmallow candy heart unattended in my house, especially with Destructo-baby on the loose:

*absentmindedly agree to whatever your children suggest while you are cutting out fabric (because they might ask if they can use the dance makeup)

*allow your husband to "help out" with the laundry, which COULD turn out to mean that he used the dryer on 1) Matilda Jane clothing 2) Loves Me Not clothing 3) Janie and Jack wool skirt
not to mention countless other Gymboree and Gap pieces in that load. I KNOW he meant well, but he is the one who installed the retractable clothesline in the laundry room for me to hang them all on!!! He knows the drill!

And for the next bit of hodge podge, we had some sad/ scary news for our family today. Our cat Badger has been peeing all over the house for a couple of months now even though she has a litter box and outside to use if she so desires. This has caused some embarrassing situations, namely the time Laina's teacher called me aside after school to let me know that Laina had come to school with her backpack that the cat had obviously peed all over and all of the books inside and her lunchbag had been ruined. How the heck did I not notice when we were leaving for school? I don't know.

Anyways, I had been thinking for awhile that I need to take Badger to the vet and see if maybe she had a bladder infection or if there was something we could do about the peeing everywhere. Then yesterday, I mentioned to my husband that I thought Badgie was looking skinnier lately, like her fur was hanging loose. Adam disagreed, so we weighed her and she had lost HALF of her body weight. The thing is, she was really fat before, and her size hadn't really changed, but her fur was just looser. I feel terrible for not noticing it sooner.

So we took her to the vet for tests last night, and today got the results. Which were not good. We are taking her for a round of antibiotics and potassium tomorrow, and then on Monday, she goes for an abdominal ultrasound. But from the sounds of it, we may have to make a tough decision to have her put down if what the vet thinks is wrong is confirmed by the ultrasound. She is a very sick little kitty who is very much loved by my girls. She is extremely gentle, and will allow even Evelyn to do whatever she want to her without ever scratching or biting. She sleeps on Laina's bed every night, and has done so ever since the first night we got her 4 years ago, just before Mylie's birth.

Badger seemed kind of traumatized by the vet visit and hung out in the towel cupboard all day, nestled up against the bath toys.

.

I hope we don't have to say goodbye to sweet Badger.