I'm still alive. For now.

To those whom have emailed to ask ... We are still alive, but it's been a battle to get through the holidays. To recap, our holiday timeline: Saturday, December 20: drive through 500 miles of snow, passing 30 cars in the ditch or in various fender-benders. 10 hour trip takes closer to 14 hours. Sunday, december 21: family Xmas party at my parents' house. Fun was had ... Until lisa kicked our butts in scrabble. Monday, december 22: can't remember what we did, but I think it involved snow and a trip to walmart. Tuesday, december 23, 4 a.m.: harp wakes up with fever and vomiting. She fluctuates between 101 and 104 degrees for the next five days. And keeps getting sick. Like, down my back at 3 a.m. On the way to the bathroom. Wednesday, december 24: harp still sick, and fever of 104.6 gets her a trip to refi-med, a flu test, a prescription for antibiotics, and fever-reducer suppositories. Merry Christmas, harper. Christmas day: harp is well enough to half-heartedly open gifts. She then sleeps while the rest of us venture out onto the golf course to sled on the ice. Friday, december 26: harp still sick, which postpones our trip to Indy to marc's parents'. Saturday, she feels better so off we go to Indy. Monday, we go bowling ... And henry says he feels sick. Sigh. Now HE'S in bed with a fever and upset stomach and vomitting. And I'm leaving them all in the care of daddy so I can have the evening out with my mom and sister that we did't get last week. Will be back with photos on Saturday, when we finally - hopefully - reach home. Hope you all had a better holiday than we did!

scrapalicious housekeeping

there are a couple of layouts i never posted. so, okay. they're posted.

these are the four i did - but only teased here - for my friend molly's kit club, scrap'n time:

then there was this beauty, which i made at the crop weekend just before thanksgiving but couldn't share because it was being used in the studio calico newsletter because yours truly was the spotlight member for december. (how friggin' cool is that?!)

there is still one outstanding layout from that weekend, but you'll just have to wait for the may/june memory makers ... ba dum bump.

and tomorrow's scrappy plans? cleaning. nothing but cleaning. i haven't even unpacked my bag of stuff from the aforementioned scrap weekend. now THAT'S sad.

harper makes no sense.

but she makes me laugh.

we were driving back from the airport last night, after once again retrieving daddy from his latest trip, and she and henry started telling the boo knock-knock joke back and forth and getting sillier each time.

(you know the one:

knock knock
who's there?
boo
boo who?
it's just a joke ... you don't need to cry!

good stuff, man.)

so then we hear harper start asking everyone to share their boos. she gets to me:

"mommy, what kind of boo are you? mittens, easy, or tink?"

???

what goes on in this kid's mind before things come out of her mouth? what a nut.

oh, and the other day she accidentally knocked an ornament off the tree and i heard, "it's okay, mama. the ornament didn't break. and it wasn't an adorable one, just a medium one."

she cracks me up.

from my magic hat to your doorstep ...

hanna ...

here is my entry http://www.studiocalico.com/forums/galleries/show/6482

Posted by: hanna

send me your addy so i can pass it along to fill at ideabooks4u!!

happy early christmas! and thanks to everyone who wrote ... i'll keep you posted for the next one!

excuse me while i drool uncontrollably and try to be patient.

i am quite literally counting the days until THIS

is in my hands. it's been hard, for the past 18 months, not buying a new camera, just knowing this one had to be imminent. and now "imminent" has been replaced with "pretty much available, if you know where to find one that isn't already back-ordered or sold out." and happiness is having a wonderful geek as a husband who knows where to find things that are hard to find.

days, people. i'm counting the days.

however, something happened last night that made my wait so much harder. the days now seem interminable. what happened, you ask?

well, first there was this: marc was in boston last week for work, and sent me an email with the title, "hehe ... very soon." thinking he was sending me something pervy, i open the email to find the following picture -

one of his co-workers had a mark II. and he brought it to boston. and marc snapped a pic with his iphone and sent it to me, i'm assuming, to taunt me. so i sent a reply that was a little on the nasty side.

then last night ... the proverbial straw on the back of the proverbial camel. this video, shot in HD on the mark II. video. HD. on a camera that i will soon own. and how amazing is the video???

i want. i need. i can no longer wait.

that's my boy!!

conversation with henry at dinner tonight:

"mom, is tomorrow pizza day at school for lunch?"
"i don't know. i circle the days we buy, then throw away the calendar."
"oh. i have to take a bag lunch tomorrow."
"okay ... why?"
"because we're on strike. they won't give us seconds anymore of stuff."

(trying so hard to not laugh. "we're on strike" ... priceless!!)

"who is 'we'?"
"me and matthew and josh. we're going to bring our lunch to school every day until they let us have seconds again in the cafeteria."

at this point, i need to interrupt him to explain that while his cause is a noble one, and i applaud his willingness to stand up to the Man, it might take more than three third graders to drive the point home. so i tell him to recruit matthew's brother, who is in fifth grade, and have him recruit his friends. (especially since fifth graders eat WAY more than the third graders, i'm guessing.) (and at the same time, the thought of packing lunch every morning for the foreseeable future fills me with dread and horror. that's a LOT of cans of campbell's select harvest chicken & noodle soup ...)

"maybe you guys should make signs to wear that say you are on strike until seconds come back."
"yeah ... but then we'd just get in trouble."
"well, no one ever said striking was easy."
"we just want to be able to have seconds on pizza day. or turkey and gravy day."

point well-made, little man.

extending deadline due to corporate sponsorship! or something like that.

since the holiday cut into scrappin' time, and i was really, really bad at getting the word out for writin' on wednesday, i'm extending the deadline by one week.

ALSO, in doing so, i can say that the prize drawing for "your words, your story" will be sponsored by ideabooks4u, who is featuring my book right now and has it at 20% off for this week only! jill wrote a lovely review, and is offering a 15% discount on any book through december 15!! woohoo!

the check-out code for the discount is 80c53e.

remember: the topic for this first challenge is TAKE THE PRESSURE OFF! just write. write it easy. write without spell-checking. just put something on paper. that's it. then link me up in the comments.

one more week, people! get scrappin'!

monday funnies

this first one occurred this morning at 7:18 a.m.

picture this ...

i'm lying in bed, the alarm goes off at 7, and marc hits snooze.

then, i'm lying in bed, the alarm goes off at 7:09, and marc hits snooze and rolls over so that he is now facing me but still asleep.

then, i'm lying in bed, the alarm goes off at 7:18, and marc reaches a finger out and presses my nose.

swear. to. god.

i say, "um ... am i now a clock?" but i get no answer. he's back to sleep.

he thought my nose was the snooze button.

seriously.

second funny of the day - not that it can top marc's apparently dead-to-the-world ability to sleep through three snooze cycles: we were driving to pick up henry from school, after having just dropped off my 4runner for $1000 worth of new brakes, seals, etc. fun stuff right before christmas. anyway, harper's chattering away in the back. then we hear her say,

"when i'm a mommy, i'm going to have two babies, jack and dot. jack will be the boy, dot will be the girl. dot will be my third baby, and jack will be my second baby."

hmm. "so," i ask her, "who is your first baby?"

"what first baby?" says harper. "oh ... my third baby is toy story. but he's not a boy. he's a girl. but i don't want a crazy name, so it's not toy story."

"so what is her name then, if not 'toy story'?" i ask.

"i don't know. something normal," says harper. "but i'm not having three babies. just jack and dot."

alrighty then.

don't forget: writin' on a wednesday entries are due by midnight tomorrow!!