One World One Heart

I am a very happy girl!

I spent much of this last week entering the multitude of giveaways in the One World One Heart blogger's giveaway event! It's a fantastic event where many artistic bloggers are giving away little pieces of art they have made in an effort to introduce themselves to new readers and make friends from other blogs.

Well, I actually WON one of them, and when I say "little pieces of art", in this case I really mean it! Magic Gypsy, with a blog of the same name, offered up a piece she made called Altar-In-A-Box, and I just fell in love with it. It's a decorated mixed-media box with a little figure of Quan-Yin, who in Buddhism is the Bodhisattva of compassion and mercy. But it's not just a box... it's a tiny little box, like a matchbox, which you can pop in your suitcase or your purse! Check it out here...

Magic Gypsy is from Arizona, and is an artist who makes really lovely jewelry, has the cutest dog EVER, and also works in mixed media. Like me, she seems to like both vintage-y things, and is inspired by other cultures and religions and it shows in her work.

I am really proud to be Magic Gypsy's winner! Go visit her, and check out her little corner of the world!

Balance

I've been having a bit of an internal tug of war lately.

I've been feeling a bit guilty about the amount of time I spend writing this blog about my family (and reading other blogs) versus the time I spend, you know... spending time with my family.

I purposefully took a little break from both (a little cold turkey), and found that once the cycle was broken, I didn't feel the need to keep up with all the blog reading I had set up for myself. I had a bit of withdrawal, but I think I am able to go back now, and pick and choose from among the few dozen blogs I liked to peruse and pare down my list to a choice few.

I also learned to forgive myself for not blogging every single week. Or twice a week, for that matter, as I had been trying to do. In my internet wanderings I once found a badge you could put on your blog that said "Guilt Free Blog" showing your determination to not allow your blog to take over your life; not to feel bad if you don't constantly blog. I never put that badge up but I think I can live by that principle and write when it gives me pleasure or I feel so inspired.

I know it dismays the Grandmas when there is a big lag between grandchildren reports. And I know some folks who pop in daily to see if I've written a new post might wander away with boredom if I have long lags (I hope you folks will discover feed readers instead!). On the other hand, it pleases the hubby to have me hang out and watch a movie with him instead of using free evening time to write and photoshop. And perhaps adding other activities into my life might be beneficial. Yoga has piqued my interest lately.

On the other other hand, I have about a thousand photos waiting to be imported, culled and filed. Which actually gives me pleasure when I sit down and do it.

So, I have been thinking a lot about, and trying to achieve, some balance.

Anyway... I haven't abandoned you! I will come in, sometimes daily, sometimes weekly, sometimes every 20 days... but I will keep on posting. I just won't let this blog, which has given me a lot of pleasure, become a tedious job.

So, there.

(grin... wink!)

And on that note, I leave you with the easiest of blog material ever... (which maybe I should use more often since it is so full of grandma-pleasing-goodness) VIDEO! Video of me just sitting down with my kids and seeing what they do. Nothing hysterical... just day in the life.





Okay, Mom. Feelin' better now? ;^P

Down Came the Rain

Okay. I just had to share this really funny blog post.

Especially for those who need a laugh in these tough economic times.

Click on over.

Wherein the Author Explains Her Sudden Absence and Neglect of her Small but Loyal Audience.

Don't you hate when someone neglects their blog for days or even weeks on end, and then they write one of those posts apologizing and explaining their transgressions? So do I.

But I'm gonna do it anyway.

Mostly I need to apologize to my mother, who curls up in a fetal ball when I neglect to post at least once every 5 days. Get up Mom! There are other reasons to live!

It's not that I don't have things to blog about. I have LOADS to blog about, but it's those very things, planning for them and cleaning up after them that takes from me the time I need to blog about them!

The visits from our multiple house guests were great fun. Thanksgiving was lovely. Noah's family birthday before the bigger event was sweet. I've made a new friend with twins just barely younger than mine. I have begun a girl's night out thing with some random women I know. And I am attempting to bathe on a regular basis.

So, that's what's been going on!

And I can't promise to do better until after the first of the year. Between now and then we have the twins' birthdays, Noah's party, Hanukkah and Christmas... and let's see... how much... oh yes, ALL of my Christmas shopping to do. And maybe squeeze a visit to the dentist in there if possible.

So, hang in there and know that I will not desert you. I will be back in January when there is nothing to blog about. Until then, I might have the occasional surprise blog post. But don't get yer hopes up.

The Big Red Button

Put The Big Red Button on your site

Sweet and Simple

I've been meaning to write this post for awhile, and keep putting it off. Things are going to get busier and busier though, what with the holidays and shopping and visits from friends, dental stuff I have to take care of...

But every time I am rushed and crazed, it seems something comes around that gives me a little peace and happiness, and though I am not one to get all "into" jewelry, I actually got all giddy about winning a lovely necklace recently, and I wanted to show you.

I used to enter blog giveaways like a fiend! But then I gave that up to more wisely spend my time. But I ran across a giveaway at SimpleMom.net for this gorgeous, sweet necklace, and so I spent a few minutes to put my name in. My first giveaway in months, and my only one.

I was shocked a couple days later when I got an email from SimpleMom saying I had won the thing! And I have barely taken it off since opening the simple, charming box it was sent in. And I get a crazy amount of compliments.

Lisa Leonard began making jewelry so that she could work at home and be there to raise her boys. She is inspired by nature and artists and poets, etc. Her stuff is simple and elegant. Natural and clean-looking. She will make you a piece with all your kid's names on it that you will be proud to pass down through the generations. Go check out her stuff. She has a great blog, too.

Thank you, Lisa. And thanks, too, to SimpleMom, which is a great resource for decorating, menu ideas, holidays and such for the busy mom.

Okay, Who Flagged Me!??

So, I go to write you guys one of my most beautiful, heartfelt posts (okay, just an update, but it COULDA been!) and when I log into my blog, I get this message...

Your blog is locked

Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What's a spam blog?)

Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive.

You won't be able to publish posts to your blog until one of our humans reviews it and verifies that it is not a spam blog. Please fill out the form below to get a review. We'll
take a look at your blog and unlock it in less than two business days.

If we don't hear from you, though, we will remove your blog from
Blog*Spot within a few weeks. Find out more about how Blogger is fighting spam blogs.

So, I go to one of the links which leads me to a description of what the elements of a spam blog are. It says something about writing that goes on and on and says nothing, really.

Well!!

Harumph!!

It also says that they tend to contain lots and lots of links pointing to one particular web page. Since I don't have that, I have to believe they were insinuating the former.

Again, "harumph"!

Well, at least my blog has now been released from its chains and I can supply you with more of my going on and on and saying virtually nothing.

Can't Even Get It Together in my Second Life

Well, Blogher (the blogging conference for women in San Francisco) is over. I really want to make an effort to get there next year. Hoping its close. I did try to attend some of the events at the Second Life Blogher Conference. Second Life is an online world where you create an avatar (kind of an animated version of yourself) and move it around this online universe, interacting with other avatars controlled by other people. With my family arriving for their visit with us, I only was able to attend the late night parties. The one official event I got to was one of the keynote speeches which was being recorded at the actual conference and played via video "in world" had technical difficulties, so I saw nothing of the real conference.

I arrived at the final Second Life Blogher dance party just as it was ending, but one of the organizers Gidge Uriza, invited our avatars back to her house in Second Life, where we did some girl on girl wrestling (I lost badly) and some knife throwing. I had this awesome photograph of my avatar up on a spinning wheel, going round and round while Gidge threw knives at the balloons tacked to the wheel around my body. Alas, the picture didn't make it to my email address when I sent it so I have absolutely nothing to show for it.

I did have a nice time talking to the ladies, though. Gidge herself, whose First Life blog is called Live from the Wang of America has a pair of twin sons and an older son just like I do, so it was fun chatting a bit about our commonalities. She has some photos of the Second Life Conference here although none of them include her throwing knives at me.

We Have a Winner!

You might recall that last week I announced a little giveaway. The good folks over at Sea World San Diego offered up one of their cool little Bay of Play Cookie Jars as a prize if I wanted to hold a drawing. The jars were made to commemorate the new Sesame Street Play Area near the front of the park.

13 of you signed up and today was the big day! So I popped on over to random.org to see what the random integer generator had to say about the whole thing, and this is what he said:

Comment #12!!

And the lucky winner was Mannequin over at the blog Fractured Toy! This is what she had to say in her comment:

Oh.. I would LOVE to win this. When my son was younger, we took him to Sesame
Place here and we had SUCH a good time! Now, he thinks he is too mature to go
back but he talks about it so fondly! And yes, I failed to get a souvenir when
we were there. bad mommy, bad mommy. A cookie jar is something that I have
always wanted, there's no reason why I shouldn't have, but have NEVER had. I am now filled with desire for this cookie jar!

I'm really happy to see it go to someone who is really going to enjoy it, whether her son does or not! Hee hee... I will write to Mannequin and if I don't hear back in three days I will draw another name. Thanks to all who entered!

"Please Remain Seated Until The Fish Has Come To A Complete Stop"

It still makes me giggle when I think about it. That was the announcement played on Elmo's Flying Fish Ride.

This Saturday, I was lucky enough to be invited to a Parent-Blogger event at Sea World San Diego, celebrating the opening of the new area of the park called Sesame Street Bay of Play. Yeah, I am SO in the IN CROWD now. And it only took 40 years.




Michael and I decided it might be a good chance for some much needed Mommy/Noah time. Besides, Michael’s mom and his uncle from Yugoslavia were stopping by for a visit that day, so Michael stayed home with the twins to visit and catch up.



It was a big opening day for the Bay of Play complete with San Diego Charger Shawne Merriman who was there to do the ribbon cutting and lots of media doing live broadcasts.




According to Noah, the Bay of Play is "pretty awesome". There were three new rides meant just for smaller kids, a huge play structure, bounce house, water fountains to play in, fun house mirrors, and even a big area for toddlers to play together on a soft floor with big soft blocks surrounded by comfy seating for the parents.

The Sesame Street characters came out at regular intervals to do a song and dance up on a big pirate ship, and then came down to mingle and take pictures with the kids. Noah didn't want to pose with them since they were "just guys in costumes" but he still wiggled his butt a bit when they danced!

After doing a couple rides and checking out the place, us parent-bloggers headed over to a little reception area, gorged on chocolate muffins enjoyed a nice breakfast spread, sipped coffee and got to know each other a little bit.



I ran into Elaine of Wannabe Hippie and her hubby, and Wannabe Urban Housewife, both of whom I had met before. And I got to know a few other Southern California bloggers including Donna Schwartz Mills of SoCalMom, Erin from Queen Of Spain (who recently got to interview Barack Obama!), KTP from House of Prince (such royalty!) and some other parents of twins, Matthew of ChildsplayX2 and his lovely wife Andrea, and I also had a quick "howdoyado?" with Y. at Joy Unexpected.

We were all even gifted with a commemorative cookie jar with a fuzzy little Cookie Monster inside before sending us out to explore the rest of the park. It was great fun getting to chat with some other local folk who share my fondness for blogging!

Our thanks to Kami Huyse and the kind folks at Sea World for arranging this awesome day for all of us! It was our first time at Sea World, even after being here in San Diego for a year, and we will definitely be back!

To see more pictures of our day, click here! Stay tuned... I may just have a GIVEAWAY for you guys soon!

I Think I Have a Stalker

Seriously, doesn't this guy have better things to do than reading my Twitter Tweets?

For those of you in the know about Twitter, I relented to peer pressure and have been trying to figure out how the dang thing works. If you want to follow me on Twitter, my screen name is Shamalamamama... all one word.

Zen and the Art of Thanksgiving

A couple weeks ago, Bloggy Giveaways hosted the Spring Edition of the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival. I had participated in this with a contest of my own last fall but this year, with the random craziness, I passed, and barely had time to even enter.

I spent the last couple days of the carnival, staying up WAY too late in the night entering the ones I really wanted to win out of the nine hundred and nineteen giveaways offered this season!

And I won a couple of them! YAY!

One of them was what looks like some really yummy (and healthy!) Bossa Nova juices from a review and giveaway blog called the Beauty Counter! I am really looking forward to those.

Then there was a book I was really crossing my fingers for. Its called Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood by Karen Maezen Miller, which has been described as "an extraordinary book of practical wisdom offering a way to peace and freedom amid fatigue and doubt." Karen is, believe it or not, a Zen Buddhist Priest and a Mom with a great blog. Her book has 15 reviews on Amazon and they are all five star reviews.

I have been thinking about this book over the last couple months, while doing a bit of self-examination, and I think (I hope) it found its way to me for a reason. It has spoken to a lot of women. I look forward to hearing what it has to say to me.

Lastly, I never got around to saying thank you to Mary Ann of Pink Papillon Jewelry, from whom I won a stunning hand stamped sterling silver bracelet way back in January. I never posted about it, but I LOVE THIS BRACELET and where it often. Its bound to be a hand-me-down keepsake in our family. Why? Look here, and you will see:

Yeah, nice, eh? She does great work. You should go check out her stuff.

Anyway, just wanted to get right with the karma, giving my thanks and appreciation so good things will keep coming my way. Spreading the love, as it were.

Thank you, ladies!

As If She Didn't Have a Bazillion Things On Her Plate Already

My Mom started her own blog a few months ago, describing her life on Sanibel Island in Florida, and hers and my Dad's volunteer job with C.R.O.W. actually rescuing injured wildlife from dumpsters and bridges.

What a lot of folks don't realize is that one of her great loves is genealogy, the tracing of family trees. She has been doing our family for MANY years and has literally taken a couple of the lines back to the year 400. FOUR HUNDRED! (Have you heard of my great-gazillionth grandfather, Charlemagne? Well, he's probably your ancestor, too, cousin!)

In a late night epiphany, my Mom decided to start a new genealogy blog called Branches and Roots, where she will tell about our family, be a resource for others searching the same lines, and give help where she can.

This photo is of her parents on their wedding day in 1926. My grandmother, Opal, graduated from high school the very next day.

Why don't you head over to her new blog and check it out!

Treasure

Guess what? I got an award!

For the uninitiated, in the blogisphere, people sometimes creat “blog awards” for blogs with a certain attribute and send them out asking for the recipient to pass them on. Well, Killashandra, whose blog is called Full Time in New Mexico, bestowed the “Your Blog is a Treasure” award! How sweet is that? My first blog award!

Killashandra is a stay-at-home mom who lives with her hubby, 3 kids and a bunch of horses, and like me, loves dabbling in Photoshop and with digital photography.

So, who am I going to pass this award onto? Well, I tried to think of which of the blogs I read is really a treasure, and to me, that’s my mom’s blog, Sand Between My Toes. Is that a cop-out? A sell-out? You know, giving it to my mom?

I don’t think so.

Her blog keeps me up to date on what she and my dad are up to on a daily basis since we live so far apart, and that makes it a treasure to me. But for you readers, she writes a lot about daily life at C.R.O.W., one of the best wildlife rescue and rehabilitation hospitals in the country. She lives in just about the most beautiful place in Florida, Sanibel Island, an often posts pictures and stories about island life. And she is funny! I deeply admire her. At the age of 70, she is active in life, does something important for her community, is totally up on internet technology, moderating a message board for folks that live in and love Sanibel. She basically rocks.

And her blog is a treasure.


****************************************************
Want some treasure of your own?

There is this really great giveaway over at Mod*Mom that I wanted to clue you into, in case you are into that kinda thing! For Valentine's Day, Mod*Mom is giving away more than $3500 worth of prizes from organic fair trade chocolates to a great Phil and Ted's stroller!

Check it out!

And The Winners Are...

What a fun bloggy giveaway that was!

I tell ya, after just starting to make jewelry, its worth it to have a giveaway just so you can be swamped with compliments about how lovely your work is and how talented you are! I may just keep this up every few months just to keep my spirits high!!

But who won, you ask??

The winners were chosen by the number generator at random.org. And our first winner was #68, Sara at Be Thrifty Like Us, who has a wonderful blog dedicated to helping you save money. She shares tips on being frugal and spending money wisely. Its also a good place to learn about sales and great deals on shopping. Sara had first pick and chose the brown/silver/mustard colored earrings.

Our second winner was #139, Heather, over at a sweet little blog dedicated to her daughter, Eliza Valentine. Perfect for this time of year, right? Apparently, the happy couple found out they were pregnant on Valentine's Day (so sweet!) and decided to name their child after the day. Heather was really happy to get the burgundy and black earrings, which were the ones she was hoping for!

So everyone is happy!

I am happy too! Over on the blog, Mommy Brain, I won a copy of the book, "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith, a highly praised book about a woman detective living in Botswana.

And I also won a another great looking book, the Toddler's Busy Book, with 365 activities for one-and-a-half to three-year-olds using things found around the home! This should be a boon for me, because the twins need more stimulating play activities and sometimes I am just stumped, and find myself doing the same activities over and over. This giveaway was from Melissa over at Organized Chaos. She is a SAHM living in Canada currently studying to be a Post Partum Doula.

If you are looking to blow a little MORE time reading blogs, go check these fine ladies out! And be back in about 3 months for the spring Bloggy Giveaway Carnival!

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!! Let the Madness Ensue!!

It's Giveaway Time again in Blogland!

Shannon, over at Bloggy Giveaways has done it again, hosting the greatest blog carnival around. Hundreds of bloggers will be doing giveaways, trying to drum up a little interest in their blogs.

For my giveaway, I am offering up two pair of earrings that I made recently! I was going to give both to one winner, but since some folks enter a bazillion giveaways and win not a thing, I decided to spread the love and give each pair to different winners!

If you have a preference, please state it in your comment, and I will attempt to accomodate, but can't guarantee you will get your choice!

Here's the goods:

Each of two winners will receive one pair of earrings. Both are made with stone beads, pewter accents and sterling silver ear findings. If you have a preference toward one pair, I will try to accomodate, with the first winner getting their choice, and the second drawn to get the other. If the first drawn has no preference, the second drawn will get hers. (Or his, as it were.)

Pair number one is a bright golden brown bead with black ribbons through it, a mustard colored stone and pewter diamond-shaped bead.

The second is a rich burgundy (darker than shown) with black ribbons through it, an onyx oval and pewter bead caps.

I know most of you are just popping in for a moment to comment and will be off in a flash to enter more giveaways, but...

...let me tell you what my blog is about so if it sounds interesting, you can bookmark it and come back later!

I am a mother of three boys, two of which are twins in their terrible twos. I am from Ohio, live in San Diego with my sweet hubby, who is a very patient and tolerant man!

I used to work in stage management in professional theater, but now am a stay at home mom who is learning how to excel at light sabre battles and make Rube Goldberg machines with my sons. I love photography, Photoshop, and have just begun to design my own jewelry!

HOW THE GIVEAWAY WORKS:

1) Leave a comment (and only one!) on this post, any comment at all! (okay, rudeness will be deleted!)

2) Sometime on Sunday, Feb. 3rd, using random.org, I will draw two winners from the comments I receive and post the winners names on this page. I will also contact the winners via email. Please make sure you include your email address if I cannot find it in your profile.

3) If I cannot contact a winner by Feb 7th, I will draw another name.

4) Shipping costs will be covered by me (only to addresses in the US).

5) Once you’ve posted a comment, be sure to visit Bloggy Giveaways to check out the other giveaways going on this week!

HAVE FUN this week, and good luck!!!

Excuses and a Whole 'Nuther Distraction

Didja miss me?

Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s been forever since I posted, and the last thing people want to read after a dry spell is a bunch of excuses. But I have some good ones, I DO!!

First off, my parents came and visited for 10 days. We did a whirlwind of touristy activities, giving San Diego a run for her money. Luckily, we loaded the big ticket items at the front end of the trip; what with the sporadic rains we had leading up to this weekend’s big storms.

I usually do my blogging at night after everyone goes to bed, but the computer area shares space with the guest-sleeping area here, and while I felt free to read nearby sleeping folk at night, rapping at the keyboard seemed right out. So, posting was kept to a minimum.

And then there is the other thing that has consumed me lately…

…my new mistress! (Can a straight girl have a mistress?)

Actually its more than one thing I have fallen deeply for, so maybe “my new playgroup” is a more accurate metaphor!

I speak of my love for all things digital that have come into my life lately… I have been set up by generous gifts all around… my new Canon Digital Rebel XTi, my super-narrow depth of field lens that makes me feel all squishy inside, and my update to the latest Photoshop combined with the super-awesome Lightroom program which is a database for professional photographers (which I am not) to help them get organized (which I try to be) and manage their “workflow” (a fun new term I learned while trying to learn how to work the damned thing).

Lightroom absolutely rocks my socks off. It imports photos, renames them to however I have set it up, moves them to where I want them to live, does simple and more than simple processing of one or whole sets of pics at the same time, allows you to flag pictures as “picks” or as “rejected” or rate them by numbers of stars, or by color, allows you to imprint metadata (copywrite info, my phone number, etc) on each photo, set up sets of photos, allowing one photo to be in more than one collection at a time without having to make a copy of it, arranges slide shows, AND!! AND!!! I got a plugin which allows me to send a photo to my flickr site with one click!

It basically rocks.

Oh, I said that, didn’t I?

Did I mention, though, that it rocks?

But the problem is that it is a fairly complex program and is not all that intuitive. So with much of my free time, I have been watching video tutorials and reading Lightroom blogs, and trying to find answers to my questions.

And this all went on while I was wandering all over San Diego, taking a million different photos with my new camera and lens, creating a huge backlog of photos which I didn’t want to import until I had a new system in place, folders and hierarchies set up, and such, in which to receive and welcome my new digital creations!!

And so, instead of posting all the glorious fun we have been having, I have been reading technical drivel.

But wait! All is not lost!

The folders are now in place! The perfect naming scheme has been devised! The doors have been thrown wide open and the red ribbon has been cut!!

Whoo-hoo!!! NO MORE WAITING!!

Glorious Blog Posts with New Fantastical Images, HERE I COME!!!

Huh?



What’s that?

Oh Lordy, is it really THAT time of year already!??

OOOH, its Bloggy Giveaway Time, baby!! And you know what that means, don’t ya?

YEAH!

It’s ANOTHER week of not making any new blog posts because I am spending every free moment I have entering the literally HUNDREDS of giveaways held by bloggers around the blogosphere!

So, um, bear with me one more week, and I will be back to my regularly scheduled blogging, with all those fascinating updates about our lives that you guys live for. And I might even have a giveaway of my very own!! So stand by me. I shall return.

I swear.

Pinky swear!

Another Chance to Beg for Comments!

Why Hello!

Guess what I just heard?

Its already Wednesday and I only just found out that it is National De-Lurking Week! Yippeeee!!!

This is a great chance for you all to just click on that little button down there that says how many comments there are on this post, and tell me what you are up to this weekend! Or what's going on in your world!

So rarely do I see anyone lately, I probably miss you! Desperately!

Unless, that is, I have never met you. Well, then, by golly, introduce yourself! Just click on that comment button, pick a name for yourself and say HI!!

What am **I** doing this week, you ask? Well, let me tell you! I spent most of the week cleaning with all my free time, for a 15 minute walk-through of some folks who might want to buy the house I am renting. Yup. We might get the ole' heave-ho come April, if not sooner. Something about our rent not covering their mortgage now that the rates went up...

Little things.

And guess what?? My parents are coming to visit me tomorrow for TEN DAYS!! So, we will be doing lots of touristy San Diego things. Probably the Wild Animal Park, checking out the Midway Aircraft Carrier (for my dad), and see some theater. Lots of good camera fodder for my new baby.

Tell me (Hey, How about in a COMMENT!) what you are up to this week/weekend??

I will keep refreshing to see if you commented...

Go ahead.

I'll wait.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!!

Noah went off to day camp for the first time today, and the twins and I fell roughly back into our old schedule.

For the first time since before Christmas, I ventured out in the morning, picking up some tools so that I can do some jewelry making I have been wanting to try. The boys fell asleep on the way to the grocery store. Falling asleep in the car for even a few minutes can ruin nap time for us, so I turned toward home instead.

As suspected, moving them into their beds was not so easy, and Luka began jumping and shouting (quite gleefully). Experience told me to ignore him, and he fell asleep after an hour. Ethan, on the other hand, fell asleep quickly but woke way too early. So, while I didn't have the child-free time I have been craving for a couple weeks, I did get to cuddle with Ethan on the bed, trying to get him back to sleep, but instead giggling and tickling.

I don't get to do that much with my boys. Noah is not much of a cuddler, and maybe because they are boys, or twins, or both... our house is usually to chaotic to lay cuddled with Mama on the couch. So this was a very sweet and special little time for Ethan and I.

I had started working on a new blog header during the short time they were both down, and Ethan allowed me to finish it while he played on my lap and around my legs on the floor. I was kind of afraid to change it. Not sure why. I think it looks good, but my profile pic has the old picture of Noah giving me dandelions. I kept the dandelion theme.

Maybe I need to go take Luka out looking for dandelions. Equal time for everyone, you know.

What do you think of the new header?? Be honest.

No, really.

What Do I Want For Christmas?

Update: I am keeping this post on top because I am STILL BEGGING for your comments. I am lovin' it! But there is a new post below this one, you might not have seen.

I will tell you.

Comments, baby. I want comments!

I just sent out a massive Christmas Card email to all my friends and family (okay, lots of them) and I am guessing there is going to be an influx of visitors.

(waves furiously!!)

And what I want for Christmas is for you (YOU!!!) to just take a second (pleeeeze!) and leave me a comment to let me know you stopped by. Whether you stop by every day or if this is your very first time.

EVEN if you plan on never coming back again!

It's easy! See down there where it says how many comments there are on the above post? Click on that. Check "Nickname" and type in a name so I know who you are. Then just say "HI!" in the comment box and push "Publish Your Comment!"

It would make this girly-girl very happy.

Very happy, indeed.

Update: If you missed it, from my email Christmas Card, here are my kids dressed like elves and dancing their butts off.