A Self-Portrait Photographer in the Making

. . . maybe we should stop letting her watch America's Next Top Model . . .

Merry Christmas

Luke 2: 1-14 (KJV)

1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. 2(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) 3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10 And the angel said unto them,

"Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

2007: A Year in Review

Without further ado, I give you the first sentece to the first post of each month in the year 2007 . . .

January

We spent the first day of the new year having family fun time at Sea World Orlando. ...

February

This is one of my favorite poems - I memorized it and would recite it loudly with a friend when I was in college. :) ...

March

I came upon this meme which is currently floating around many bookworms' blogs, and thought hey--why not? ...

April

I have been knitting, I just haven't had time until today to mention it. ...

May

I totally promise to post more - like did I really finish the Sushi Wallet?? ...

June

Just been incommudicado (sp?) lately. ...

July

In addition to being Independence Day and Grandpa Bill's birthday, today Emily turns 1! ...

August

Hold the phone, I'm about to blog about socks, again! ...

September

On Saturday morning Wayne's dad was killed in a motorcycle accident. ...

October

I only have 2.5 more fortune cookies to knit!! ...

November

There are 30 days in November and I vow to post on every one of them. ...

December

We're still moving. ...


This year has definitely had its ups and downs and I look forward to a blessed 2008!

Click To Play

No time for slow/snow

No, it's not snowing here. Although the weather has taken a chillier turn here in Orlando, snow is a distant wish.

I'm envious of snow days though.

My sister got to stay home and snuggle her baby in Colorado last week due to a snow day. Ann-Marie got to play with her kids and hang with her hubby because of snow in Canada. The bloggy-verse seems to be full of photos of snowed in cars and cuddly looking families.

Outside of just wanting snow - 'cause it's so darn Christmas-y, I'm envious of the slow, relaxing day that a snow day represents.

I know I shouldn't complain about beautiful weather practically year-round (with the exclusion of hurricane season), but if it's always nice out, you always go out. Nothing stops you from running, running, running yourself ragged.

It would be nice if Mother Nature made it impossible to go out . . .

It's hot!

I got an email from my sister in Colorado today. She wrote to tell me that it snowed there the last three days and she and her baby stayed home today for a snow day. She couldn't help herself and also commented about how she'd heard it was supposed to be in the 80s here today. That is in fact true.

I've lived here for 15 years and still struggle through Decembers with no snow. And this year it can't even manage to stay cool for more than three or four days at a time.

Some friends who have yet to experience the Florida Christmas have been asking about it. And unfortunately I've had to tell them about the penchant for rain on Christmas and the unseasonable warmness that usually takes the day. It'll be cool the week before and sometimes the day after, but the actual day is usually warm. Ick!

We did get to experience some "snow" on Monday night with an abundance of Christmas cheer - the girls and I went to Disney-MGM Studios with the awesome Wendy and got to see the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights. As a lover of words, this is one of those times where the adjective definitely applies, it was certainly a spectacle. Complete with soapy "snow".



You can click on over to the flickr for more photos of the lights. :)

Holiday cheer

We're still moving. It is apparently an unending process. And while I trooped through NaBloPoMo, when it was over I have to admit, I needed a blog-break.

Good news:
*We got a REAL Christmas tree this year! I'll save that story for another post.

*I put lights up on the house! Wayne does not hang Christmas lights, but I love them and for that reason braved the 4-foot ladder to get some up.

*At my last drs. appt. I found out I've lost 45lbs (!!) in the last few months!! I kind of wanted to cry. It made me feel really good about taking our family Christmas picture the next night. :)

*Ali got in to a PreK that is bunches closer to the new house. AND she's taking it really well. AND she's taking changing dance schools really well too. I've got one great kid.

Speaking of kids, we stayed up past the girl's bedtimes tonight to go see Santa. Our new little city has been doing a Santa Run for the last few nights. The fire department toted Santa and Mrs. Claus, throwing candy, around on a trailer behind a fire truck through the residential areas. The city sent out maps so you'd know when they'd be near your house. We were at church went they went by here, so instead we caught him at City Hall tonight at the end of his route. I think the girls liked him. :)

Day 30: 2006

"Wearing" my little Emily, born 4th of July, 2006.

---

30 days of photos and anecdotes. Everyday. A glimpse into my life in a grander sense than ever before. I hope you enjoyed it, I know I did. :)

Day 29: 2005

In Colorado at the Natural History Museum with Ali. We'd gotten a little sun the day before. They had a Butterfly Pavilion at the museum and when we walked in to the subtropical butterfly area, our skin tingled and felt like it could breathe for the first time in days. Compared to super-humid Florida, Colorado is really dry.

Day 28: 2004

Chilling with the family at my sister's old apartment in Gainesville. Looking at this picture and then looking at myself in the mirror this morning, I'm floored by my weight loss.

I was talking to Wendy about this last night. I know I've lost a bunch of weight, but I see me everyday. And while my clothes fit amazingly better (or are falling off me), I don't see much a difference. Well, not until today. :)

--

My 300th post is coming soon ---- everyone who comments on it gets entered in a drawing for something cute and yarny. :) So start your commenting and don't miss out. I will reveal the winner on Friday.

Day 27: 2003

Ali's first trip to Disney World. Considering she was only 9 months old, she had a ball. You can tell that Wayne is also enjoying the happiest place on Earth. :)

Day 26: 2002

Beaming for a whole different reason. My Alison Gray. :)



It's a pretty safe bet that the number of times I've smiled like that at 5AM can be counted on one hand.

Day 25: 2001

Easily one of the happiest days of my life. The weather was gorgeous (important in an outdoor wedding), most things happened on time and I got to marry my best friend in the whole world. Plus, all day everyone told me how beautiful I looked. :)

Here I am waiting in the limo before the ceremony. My dress was fairly simple, just a strapless A-line with pearl beading along the top. My veil was made by a friend of the family to my specifications. I wore flip-flops. I didn't really do my hair that morning - I had a hairdresser come to the house to help us all out and my long-haired bridesmaids took up a lot more time than we expected. I don't have them on here, but for the ceremony I wore above the elbow-length white gloves. It was December and when I bought my dress there was a lot of talk about how cold I could possibly be, it was in the 70s the day of the wedding. :)

Day 24: 2000

So in love. Wayne and I went on our first date on Nov. 4th, 2000. It wasn't even really a date. He called out the blue and wanted to come visit me, so I let him tag along to the movies with me and my friends. He held my hand. :)

Day 23: 1999

This is my Filmmaking I class in college - I'm over there on the left in the overalls. I think I may have worn them 4 out of 5 days in the week that year. So comfy. I had a collection of black, white and navy blue shirts that I'd wear with them.

I'm not kidding. Everyday.

Some of the people in this picture are my best friends. Some of them are famous enough to have their own entries on the Internet Movie Database.

--

We're moving today!!! I'm hoping we'll be able to pick up someone's wireless network at the new house 'cause the Brighthouse man's not coming until Monday. :)

Day 22: Happy Thanksgiving

I have so many things to be thankful for. God has blessed our family in ways I could never count and he is faithful to continue.

I hope that you, my wonderful readers, who I'm also very thankful for, can count your blessings today and find them innumerable.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Day 21: 1998

I worked at GTE running credit checks and activating cell phones my first semester at college. The job was a temp position, but they really liked me and by the time Christmas break rolled around I was the only one from my group of temps still left. Unfortunately, I had to go home for a month and they didn't like that. It sucked, 'cause I could wear my pajamas to work.

Day 20: 1997 - High School Sweethearts

That's right, I graduated from high school in good 'ol 1997. And so did my lovey. Although at the time he was not my lovey. I never actually looked like this in high school, I usually looked a lot more like the previous 2 days postings. I spent most of my senior year with much shorter hair and a more grunge-y approach to apparel. Wayne was just handsome, devastatingly handsome. :)

Day 19: 1996

Sleepy, which is how I remember feeling a lot of my junior year of high school. I was working part-time, juggling AP classes and waking up at 6 in the morning.

---

Wayne and I went to IKEA!!!! It was so great.

There were some problems. First we attended a show that one of Wayne's friends was playing at. It happened to be a pre-game show for last night's Orlando Magic game. We thought we'd be fine getting out of there 'cause we weren't staying for the game. Little did we know that at the same time we wanted to leave, all the old people from the matinee show at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center wanted to leave. We waited in the parking lot for 35 minutes (!!!!) without moving an inch.

It was 5:50pm and IKEA closed at 7pm. There was talk of skipping it and going another time, but I assured Wayne we could do it. If we could only get out of the stupid parking garage.

We did. I made it from downtown to the IKEA parking lot in under 10 minutes. We were lucky, not a lot of people were trying to get in knowing the store would be closing soon.

We picked up some sheets for us and sheets for Alison's new bed at the new house. Some rugs for the new house to use until the new floors go in next month. And did some dreaming about how we're going to redo the bathroom and kitchen.

Hooray IKEA!

Day 18: 1995

Full of high school angst and drama, plus some acne. It took me until my sophmore year of college to discover that while my skin had oily areas, it was actually combination skin and the proper skin care products would actually work.

---

Busy day. Very sleepy. Can't promise more tomorrow, but soon. :)

Day 17: 1994

This was one of my favorite days. My church youth group had a day-long Polaroid Picture Hunt all over Orlando. We had a list of 9 crazy things we needed photos of (a team member hand-cuffed, two team members in an airplane, a video game with a high score over 100,000 points) and a Polaroid camera to capture it all.

We drove all over and made it back with 8 of the 9 required photos within the time parameters. I can't remember which team won, but it was wicked fun. And everyone wants a photo in 'cuffs to scare their parents when they're 15, right?

Day 16: 1993

Long live the sparkly shirts! And it's like I wanted everyone to know how pink my socks were. :)

Day 15: BONUS!!

Well I've made it to the halfway point of NaBloPoMo and thought we should celebrate with a bonus photo. I believe this picture was taken around 1996-1997. In Tampa, after a Supertones concert where we were all dancing and jumping and being silly in silly clothes. We're really sweaty, but we had a great time.

My sister Aileen is the only one who managed to look like a normal person, and if she weren't so overexposed it'd be easier to see how beautiful she is.

The guy in the top right corner, looking tall, lanky and weird - that's Wayne. The love of my life, although not at this time, we were still just friends. :)

Day 14: 1992

My 13th birthday: at this point in my life I was in full puberty swing - the weight gain, the acne, all the things that make this time so awkward. I compounded this by still having a pretty flashy wardrobe of colorful clothing (why didn't anyone take me to GAP??) and at this particular party by having the worst sunburn ever.

In what can only be referred to as a science experiment gone wrong, the weekend before this party I learned the different effects of the sun based on your location on the planet. I'd never been to the beach in Florida, but had lived on the beach in New Jersey. You can stay out all day at the shore in South Jersey applying sunscreen just once, this is not true in Florida where you are much closer to the Equator.

This trip certainly drove that point home - I'm a sunscreen crazy now.

---

No-kea for me today. The more I watched the news last night, reporting the growing crowd gathering at the new IKEA for the grand opening today, the more anxious I got about the whole thing. Would I even be able to get in?? Would there be parking?? Would Emily make it through the morning without a nap??

So in the end, I decided to just wait and go with Wayne this weekend.

Day 13: 1991

I volunteered at our church's Vacation Bible School this summer, I'm pictured here with one of my kids. I will refer to this time as the "overly-accessorized era". You may note the way big earrings and glittery clothing. I loved things that glitter. I still do, I've just learned to manage my glitter-mania.

Tomorrow is a doozie. Stay tuned.

Day 12: 1990

In Florida. This photo was taken by my friend Kristen in front of her house. I remember wearing that shirt all the time. With purple shorts.

---

I am not camping out at the IKEA, although today is the first day to start doing so. I will however be heading down there on Wednesday when they open. Hooray!

Day 11: 1989

This is me at Six Flags Great Adventure right before we made the big move to Florida. My best friend, Karen Sullivan, and her mom, who was also my 4th grade teacher, took me as a goodbye gift. We had a great time. I rode the Great American Scream Machine, which messed up my sinuses. And we drove through the Animal Park and had monkeys dance on the roof of the car.

With the exception of shaving my head in college, long story - possibly with photo later this month, this is the shortest my hair got. And it is very short. If I'd still been in private school at this time I would have been breaking "the rules".

Day 10: 1988

Look at the self confidence I'm rocking while sitting at the kiddie table with 2 party hats on. This girl's got moxie!

Day 9: 1987

Things I remember from 1987:

* I "played" softball - as evidenced here. I was terrified of the ball. I'm pretty sure I never hit the ball or caught the ball. My team was horrible, but somehow we made it into the Playoffs. Best part? The root beer at the pizza party after was awesome.

* I was also a crazy amazing Girl Scout. And I sold cookies like a champ. Our trick to big sales in 1987? We sold cookies outside the local video rental place on Friday nights.

* I weighed maybe 60lbs. soaking wet. This would also last for a few more years, the Skinny Years. Hopefully they'll be making a comeback. :)

---

I've been working on Erin's Clapotis while I try to decide what to do with Wicked. I may frog it. It hurts to say out loud, or type for all the world to see, but it's just too big and if it grows I'll be left with a sweater that's far too big and that I'll never wear. That is not my goal.

Would it be a good idea to wash the yarn before re-knitting?? So my sizing will be accurate??

Day 8: 1986

Christmas again, this time in our second South Jersey house,we moved from the beach to the mainland during second grade. My hair stays short for a few years now - I had a stylist at the mall who would snip and snip and then send me home with wonderful smelling Paul Mitchell products.

Day 7: 1985 & Glow!!

I keep a wist.

It's a great way for friends and family to know what I want them to give me without me having to write out what and where they can buy it. Last year, in preparation for Christmas, I included the fam in my wist. Adding a little tag here and there with each family member's name, we ended up receiving over 16 gifts from our list. :) It works for birthdays, too.

This year in an effort to streamline things, Alison and I have been going over her list every two or three days. I don't know if you've noticed, but Nick Jr. has been airing a lot of "feature-length" (read: 1-hour) specials, like Dora Saves the Mermaid and Atlantis Squarepantis. Great for Alison who loves an extended episode of her favorite shows, but boo to me 'cause I'll inevitably forget she's watching heavily-commercialed Nickelodeon as opposed to commercial-free Noggin.

More commercials = more "I want that. Let's put it on my list."

I'm glad she's embraced the idea of the list as opposed to thinking she'll receive every gift she loves for a 30-second tv spot. But the list requires some trimming on occasion. I watch to see how much she LOVES it the second time she sees the commercial, or as we walk by it at Wal*Mart and make adjustments accordingly.

This year, almost everything she wants glows in the dark. Or lights up.

I think it rubbed off on me, because yesterday I got this in the mail:

I don't know what I'm going to use it for, maybe some socks with glowing stripes? Or an intarsia hat with glowing hearts? If you're feeling the itch to glow too, you can pick some up here.

---

Easter 1985 at Grandma's (again), with Aileen and Erin. :)

Day 6: 1984

Christmas at my maternal grandmother's in North Jersey. That other kid is my brand new baby sister (well, she's 11 months here), Erin. She's the one getting married in January - so grown up. :)

My hair was curly for lots of special occasions when I was little. I remember all crowding into the bathroom on Sunday mornings before church, Mom in her fluffy purple bathrobe. She'd curl both Aileen and my hair, and if we were lucky, only one of us got their ears burned.

She claims that the ear burns were few and far-between, but I say we trust my sketchy, 20-year-old memories instead.

Day 5: 1983

Bangs!



--

I hit a wall on Wicked yesterday. I've been working on the first sleeve and it was looking a lot bigger than what I wanted. I added some decreases and thought that maybe when I got to the patterned edging it would be right. No dice.

Add to that the fact that I read all over Ravelry yesterday that this crazy yarn is going to grow and I'm screwed. I swear I Ravelried this before I started and no one said anything about growing.

This is a problem 'cause I've lost almost 40lbs. since I started this sweater and while I'm all for a sweater to layer with, it's gonna look weird with huge short sleeves.

My only option, short of frogging and starting over, is to knit the long sleeve version. I am not opposed to this, but I don't have enough yarn to make it happen. I've got an emergency message in to Jessica and Missa at kpixie for some more, fingers crossed.

Day 4: 1982

O yeah, I was a crayon!! And not just any crayon, a Crayola. :)

--

Wicked is still in progress. Of course it's been cold in the evenings (50s F) and overnight the last few days. I'll probably finish it during the week and the old weatherman will start announcing highs in the 90s again . . .

Day 3: 1981

Things you can learn about me in this photo from 1981:



a. I'm an innie. So are both my girls.



b. I'm not afraid of granny panties.



c. Or to go topless, well at least not when I was two.



d. You may notice there at the bottom of the picture that I'm wearing some sort of Ugg or knee sock, in turquoise, and I'm about to put on a red shirt with a plaid collar. This girl has no problem with color.

Day 2: 1980

This photo is of my wonderful Mom and I on the front steps of the "house on the hill". We lived at the top of the hill and everyday (at least that's the way it seemed) we'd go on a walk down the hill and back up. There was an older lady who lived halfway down (or up, depending on how you look at it) who would come out and bring us cookies, usually sugar wafers. :)

Day 1: 1979

There are 30 days in November and I vow to post on every one of them. It's my NaBloPoMo promise.

And to make it a little easier on myself, and funnier for you, I will post a photo of each year of my life each day. I paid special attention to pick out some gems people. Some are adorably cute, some embarassing, you're gonna love it.

Now since I'm only 28, I'll be throwing in some bonus pictures. At least one of which has a younger Wayne in it - this one is priceless and I may save it for the end of the month just to keep you in suspense.

Ta-da! 1979:

Ailments

I'm still working on Wicked. I finished and attached the pocket and have begun the "ribbing" on the bottom edge. After that we turn to the sleeves and done. :)

Unfortunately, the sweater is heavy and wrangling it around and around, even on my ciculars, coupled with moving and cleaning has caused a re-flaring of my tennis elbow. Ouch! A little ice usually does the trick, but carrying boxes to and fro is not helping. I think I'll just delegate that responsibility to Wayne.

Additionally, the weather has been up and down, I've been a little stressed with the move and the dishwasher was out of commision for a few days so my eczema is acting up too. I've burned through an entire box of Hello Kitty band-aids in the last week. Ick!

But I truck on because I MUST have this sweater. MUST.

A side note: I joined NaBloPoMo again this year and have a fun idea to keep the month interesting. Dust off your bloglines and I'll see you on the 1st!

Sshhh...

Don't tell my sister, but instead of jumping right back into her Clapotis after finishing the Fortune Cookies, I went back to my Wicked.

Wayne and I rented Transformers and Pan's Labyrinth* over the weekend and I wanted to concentrate/read the subtitles so I thought a little st st would be ideal. But then I started looking over the pattern and what's left to be done and I could be finished very soon if I apply myself.

I can taste it. So I'm going for it.

I don't feel guilty 'cause I've got until January to finish Erin's Clap and I know I can do both. Now the cautious, bride-supporters among you would say, 'Can't you just finish the Clap and then knit your Wicked??' I could, but there was a day 2 weeks ago where it got down to 60 degrees and I think it may happen again (although today's high is 92) and I want to be prepared.

Prepared with a sweater.

A sweater with 1/2 - 3/4 length sleeves, 'cause let's be honest, even if it gets chilly, it won't be that chilly.

So don't tell Erin and I'll be seeing you soon with one finished sweater.



* Wayne was talking to me the other day about movies and said, "You know what movie I never saw, but wanted to?"

And I said, "No, tell me."

"Labyrinth, it's supposed to be creepy, but not too creepy."

I was a little confused so I said, "Labyrinth? With David Bowie? I guess I wouldn't let Ali watch it, but it's not that bad."

He stood by his statement of creepiness though.

Only while walking through Hollywood Video on Saturday night did I realize he meant Pan's Labyrinth. :)

Pumpkin Patch

I took the girls to the pumpkin patch last night after dance class and baby gym (which Emily LOVED by the way). It was a balmy 82 degrees out, hence the shorts on Emily. Ali's still sporting her dance tights - I'm sure she was feeling the heat.

We picked up one pumpkin for Alison to take to school and three little ones for the house. Last year I let her color them with Sharpie and she was happy with the results, hopefully it'll work again this year. :)

O, and Emily HATES hay.

Good Fortune

I finished up the Fortune Cookies on Friday. The seaming went very quickly - I even enjoyed it a little. Friday found me with a stack of unfelted cookies.



And after approximately 30 minutes in the washing machine, a little drying time and assembly during the reunion episode of Top Chef off the DVR - I had finished cookies!



Pattern: Felted Fortune Cookies by Tanya Brooks

Yarn: Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, just under 1 skein (there's about 1/8 left)

Mods: I knit the size small, but when I printed out the pattern, I didn't realize that Line 5 was on page 2 and accidentally omitted it. Once I realized my mistake, I tried knitting one properly and in the end liked the mistake one better. To facilitate the mistake way, after knitting 8 in Line 4, I would slip the stitch purlwise in the beginning of the wrap and turn.

Next I'm going to buy some linen ribbon to put the fortunes on. I'll be sure to take pics of the blushing bride and happy shower guests with their little treasures.

Almost finished

I only have 2.5 more fortune cookies to knit!!

My 10-year high school reunion, which I've been helping plan, is this weekend!

Normal life and blogging to resume soon. :)

Stickers

Do you remember when you were 6 years old and your world revolved around stickers??


I do, we lived in Ocean City, NJ and my sister and I would troll the seaside tourist stores on the boardwalk looking for our next great find. We each had a sticker album filled with treasures. Things like a fuzzy monkey sticker that started to run out of fuzz in the middle from being loved so much, or a rainbow-colored gel-filled heart that your best friend gave you.

A lot of our stickers came from rolls and had a lot to do with Hello Kitty. We were a little girly. :)

Being all about tradition and nostalgia, Auntie Beanie pulled out all the stops this year for Ali's birthday by sending her some very cool stickers.





Beside these, there was an envelope full of our good friend Hello Kitty. :)

Now up until now Alison has stuck her stickers in several places. Stickers for being good at dance class get stuck on that day on the calendar. A sticker will occasionally show up on the wall of Emily's crib and when asked, Alison will report that Emily was a good sister that day. She also has a mirror in her room that has a pretty considerable sticker "border".

I want to get her a genuine sticker album/book, but I'm not having a lot of luck finding one. Any ideas??

---

I do still knit. The problem is, I don't knit much and when I do, it's fortune cookies. Sorry. I will say this though, this morning there was a slightly (and I use the term loosely) cooler (another loose term) breeze which made me long to finish my Wicked. Hmm . . .

If I Were in the Market . . .

. . . for a new automobile, you better believe I would go to the Nissan dealership first.

Why?

Because they brought me the season premiere of Heroes with Limited Commercial Interruption.

"But don't you watch everything after recording it on your DVR??"

O yes, I do. And Heroes begins at our house at 9:15PM, however we've noticed a bit of a trend lately toward more commercial breaks per show. And with reality TV, there are times that you'll only get 4 minutes of show between commercial breaks toward the end of the show. Even if you're fast forwarding through them, they're a pain in the ass.

I would pledge to buy a Nissan in the next year if they would supply me with a full season of Heroes (and let's throw in LOST too) with Limited Commercial Interruption. It's like a hug from Nissan, just for me (or everyone in America watching the show).

:)

Not a Bed Wetter

Last night, somewhere around 4:30am I was pleasantly dreaming. I was roused from my slumber with thoughts of really needing to pee, but I was also very sleepy so I decided that maybe shifting my position would relieve the pressure on my bladder.

But when I moved my foot, it encountered wetness. Cold wetness. This was alarming, but not horribly so since I was still mostly asleep. I started thinking - Did I already pee?? Did I pee the bed!!?? If I did, it had to have been hours ago 'cause this is cold and wet!!

Then several things started to occur to me, 1 - I still really needed to pee and I figured I couldn't have already peed in my sleep 'cause the need was too great; 2 - It was raining; 3 - What was I going to tell Wayne.

Thought numero uno prevailed though so I sat up to go use the restroom and *plop* a drop of water hit me in the head. The stupid roof was leaking!

I yelled at Wayne to get up the roof was leaking and ran into the bathroom. It took Wayne a little bit to realize what was going on, but then he lept into action. First he found a bucket and put it under the drips.

I walked right past him, got a blanket from the linen closet and went to lay down on the couch. That didn't last long 'cause he hunted me down and said he could really use some help. He didn't use the nicest tone of voice and I'm pretty sure my reply was not very polite, but basically stated my desire to go back to sleep.

He stomped back to our bedroom and after a lot of crashing noises, I followed him to find that he'd pushed our entire king size bed 4 feet closer to the wall and out of the way of the leak. Then he took apart the culprit ceiling fan. I sat on the floor and tried to fall back to sleep. He tried to make suggestions about putting towels over the wet spot on the mattress and getting new blankets, but I just crashed on the couch.

This morning when I went to grab my glasses from beside the bed they looked a little off, I tried to bend them gently in the opposite direction. Snap! The broke in half at the bridge.

Wayne glued them back together for me. He's also going to patch the roof and repair the drywall when it stops raining. I don't know where I'd be without him.

Ali-son-pa-looza!!!

Today Alison is 5 years old!!

I can remember holding her for the first time and waiting patiently to hear her say Mama . . . Now she never stops talking (and has an imaginary friend who is nothing short of great listener) and I try to avoid picking her up and summoning the wrath of sciatica.

It's been a big year of learning new things and enriching our lives in inumerable ways.

*Learned to tap dance and be "Truly Scrumpcious"
*Learned how to play soccer and be part of team
*Became an awesome big sister and a great helper to your Mommy
*Discovered how annoying it is to grow out bangs and rock some gorgeous
*Realized that trying new foods won't kill you
*Learned how to do a cartwheel (with a little help)
*Slept in a hotel for the first time
*Discovered you get car sick

And lots of other things, but now it's time to go make some cupcakes . . .

Love you Ali!! Happy 5th Birthday!!