I'm in love.

Have you noticed the recent flurry of posts after a long dry spell? I guess I have to be inspired. And it's interesting what inspires me....dead cat stories, baby mullets, and now the iPhone. I'm not sure what this says about me, but whatever!

We recently switched cell phone carriers and got a free iPhone. Jason can't have a phone with a camera at his work...(ya know, so he can't take pictures of our Navy's sub fleet and sell them to the spys)...so guess who gets my trackphone and guess who gets primary custody of the new iPhone!?

We're really not techy people. And I pretty much despise it when people text and play games on their mobile devices instead of hold actual conversations with the people that are sitting next to them. So I'm going to try REALLY hard not to become one of those people. But I TOTALLY see the temptation!

We're not going to be on the internet all the time on this phone. And we're not going to use it to text up a storm. In fact, we really only continue to use cellphones for emergencies and when we're on the road.

What we ARE going to use this bad boy for is a GPS on the road, a handheld game to keep us occupied on long drives, an ipod to listen to our tunes, and what I believe to be the most important function.....a child occupier.

We've already downloaded some pretty cute and free learning apps for her (including Curious George ABC's, a few fisher price animal apps, and a counting app). And we ponied up $10 bucks for a season of Curious George that I'm quite sure will save my sanity a our 3 hour drive north today with a toddler that no longer naps in the car. Not to mention it will come in quite handy on big grocery store trips and waiting for food in restaurants!

It's been one day with this gadget and Ella is already in love with it as well. Don't worry, we're not going to let her become and iPhone junkie by any means. It will be for certain ocasions and perhaps as a reward at times. And I do think there's a lot of value in the learning apps and in helping to develop a (responsibly) tech savvy child this day in age.

The Mullet Cure

It's true. My child will be three in a few months and she's seriously challenged in the hair growth department. I'm beginning to wonder if she'll ever have any real hair to speak of. Seriously. It's part of my nightly prayers ("Please let Ella grow hair.") I swear I keep it to myself. Don't worry, she won't have a complex. But she really does have a rather unfortunate "baby mullet". See. Well, let me tell you how tickled I was to learn this past weekend, that she LIKES headbands. And will wear them! I boy did I run with it. I learned how to make these adorable fabric flowers that night and prettied up four simple headbands in two seconds flat! See. And now, when wearing the headbands, it actually looks like she has some cute little bangs with some longer hair tucked behind the headband. See! Okay, okay, it's not really a mullet cure. More like a cover-up, and not even the best one at that. Pigtails are really the best cover up, but she won't keep the in for more than two minutes...except this one time at the Winslow's where she actually had them in long enough for Angie to snap this picture. See. Even cuter from the front, I swear. Oh boy, I love this little girl. Mullet and all!

Did I tell you the one about the cat tin?

I've been in organizing/purging mode lately. The urge hits me often, but even more so just prior to the present onslaught of birthays and Christmas.

So I was taking some clothes to consign at a local shop. While I was filling out the paper, Ella was admiring all the shiney things in the counter display cabinet. "What is that mommy? What is that cat thing in there?" she asked.

I peered in and saw a small tin with a picture of a cat on it. I explained what a tin was and told her that the things in that case were for sale. "I want that mom. Can I have that?" (Don't even get me started on her "I want that phase" because it's a whole other story!). I calmly replied that we did not come to buy things today.

That's when the well-intentioned (and clearly soft) woman behind the counter said, "Oh, that's not even in there to sell. It's mine and I just put it in there for decoration. She can have it." I politely refused and explained she did not need to give it to my daughter. She insisted. I wanted to avoid carrying this on so I accepted and told her how nice that was and had Ella thank her numerous times.

The woman slid it from the display case and placed it in Ella's hands. "This is heavy mom!" she exclaimed, "What's in here?" The kind (and perhaps crazy/demented) lady behind the counter responded that she couldn't even remember what was in it. We attempted to open it, but it was glued shut. It was indeed heavy and felt like it was filled with sand. It had been filled and glued shut to be used as a paper weight, I reasoned.

Well, we got that cat tin home and Ella kept asking me to try to open it to see what was inside. It only took a slight little prying with a butter knife to free the lid from it's base and that's when I saw it. Yes, the contents were similar to sand, but just a bit more...ahem...finely ground.....or perhaps incinerated. That's right folks. It was a small plastic bag of ashes, a.k.a. A DEAD FRICKIN" CAT.

Ella can read my face and she knew something was up. "What mom!? What is it mom? What's in there mom!? What is it? Can I see it!?"

"Nothing sweetie," I replied, "Just some dirt." Then I chucked the dead cat ashes, sanitized the crap out of that tin and handed it right back to Ella. She loves that tin.

Marden's

I could be wrong, but I think Maine is the only state that has Marden's. At let me just say, that all you folks who don't have a marden's 15 minutes down the road from you are SOOOO missing out! Listening to the annoying commercials is totally worth the bargains you find there. (Also, check out my friend's blog about ugly crap you can find there too. Hilarious!) From candy, to books, clothes to home decor, hardware to fabric...they've got it all. And fabric is what I was in search of the other day.

I've been wanting to slipcover pillows in my living room FORVER! And by forever I mean like a few years. I finally used some of the house budget for pretty instead of practical and had at it! I did the bench pillows, the couch and chair pillows, and because the fabric was so flippin' cheap I reupholstered the benches too! I even had 2 1/2 yards that I decided to make into a doorway puppet theater for one of Ella's Christmas presents!

Anyhoo, Here's what the benches and pillows looked like before:And here's what they look like after! BAM!!!

I took pictures to do a tutorial because I made rockin' covers that you can change out, and there are no zippers involved. Perhaps I'll post the tutorial sometime.

This Thing Called Love

Don't get me wrong. I have my super share of days where I'm a wife like THIS. (PU-LEASE go read the blog on that link. It's hilarious. And if you say you can't relate, I don't believe you for a second!)

But then there are days like yesterday, where I just TOTALLY hit the nail it on the head. (Notice I choose to go into depth about this kind of day, whilst my friend Amy choosed to go into depth about her "crap on your head" kind of days. I think it's clear to see who has the higher self esteem ;) I'm talking, tidy house, dishes done AND put away, 4 loads of laundry, hot mulled cider on the stove with an accompanying mug bearing a sweet written message. Complete with relaxing music playing in the background when Jason walked in the door after a long day at work. He is one LUCKY man! Ya know...like once every 6 months or something :)

I do love this man. And I do wish I provided him with that kind of environment to come home to every day. Maybe I was feeling so inspired because we just had a fabulous weekend away in North Conway. Our new fave spots since moving down here. We decided to forgoe birthday and anniversary presents and combine them all for this weekend where we went EXTREME ZIPLINING with Alpine Adventures! So worth it! There are three levels of zipline tours here. We went for the most extreme SUPER SKYRIDER. There was only one ther couple so we got to hike back up and do more ziplines as well as go on even more extra ziplines from other courses.

We got to the top of the course by off-roading in this six wheeled army vechicle (Like, helmets required off-roading!).

All totalled I think we went on over 10 ziplines, a few zaplines, and countless sky bridges. One zipline was 1,800 feet long. Some were pendulums with some free fall time and we reaches speeds of 65 miles per hour! The views were amazing too!

Ready to zip!

We were already up really high in one tree... And then we climbed up that 30 ft. ladder even higher! See, there's the people below us on the wimpy tour :) None of our tree platforms even had railings around them. Slightly unnerving even for this adrenaline junky...especially when the tree starts swaying in the breeze, or is jerked about by a zipper jumping off! It's hard to get pictures that really show what it was like. We were SO high. And the zips weres SO long. And we went SO fast! The views were SO amazing. The videos might do it better justice! Suffice it to say, it was amazing.

Ella Bella

I think it's time for a little light-hearted, cuteness on this here blog.
Isn't this a classic? Riding a scooter with underwear on head. She did it all by herself. It was a successful bedtime stall as it got mom and dad laughing and held off bedtime until mom could snap a few pictures!

This is Ella, clearly tickled pink with herself for setting up this little scene.
Here we have the baby asleep on her bed, with her monkey clock that tells her when she can wake up, and the other thing in here (you can't see it in this photo) is the card she got from Nanny. Now, Nanny also sent her a lovely book, but she's hasn't given a second thought to that book. She carries this card, in it's envelope everywhere, frequently taking it out to read it. It goes in her purse, her tent, her mailbox, and obviously her baby's bedroom. This is Ella covering a letter "A" with playdough. Man, she's got a great attention span, stays on task, and does really well! We also glued Acorns on a letter A. (I fear this is the only smile we'll get at ther three year photos!) Okay, I just HAVE to show this because I think it's amazing! I had her do a pin push craft over the letter A and an apple. I showed her how on the lower left of the A and the stem and upper left of the apple and then just let her at it...no coaching, no correcting, I just typed an email while she did it on the carpeted floor next to me. I was expecting pin holes randomly all over the paper and this is what she did!!! And this is a cute new outfit! I love the leggings and tutu look and so does she. She helped pick this out and wore it to one of our library times. She also used to have pig tails in her hair...SO ADORABLE, but those only last so long, and she only stands still for pictures when bribed! This adorable face? Yeah, it's just her eyeing where she was going to tear off to in the next second!

Praising God

I am praising God for His answer to prayers.

My Aunt Karen has always been a very strong woman, but lately she's been showing just how strong she is!

Just a short time ago she was in the ICU
Just a short time ago she was fighting infections.
Just a short time ago she was taken off of sedation.
Just a short time ago she could only blink or slightly squeeze hands.

NOW
She has moved out of the hospital into a rehab facility.
She is able to sit up in a wheelchair for extended periods of time (an hour or two)
She is moving her left leg (which is the side most affected by the anurism in the right side of her brain)
She is smiling.
She is nodding her head.
She pulled my uncle in with one arm for a hug and a kiss.
She's made her clucking noises for her grandson.
She whispered "Tom" (her husbands name)!!!

Make no mistake about it. She will continue to amaze, but this is still a long road for her and her family. So please continue to pray for God's strength, peace, rest and joy for all of them!