This:

(not the actual dog)

Plus this:

(not my actual forearm)

=

a trip to the E.R.

I'm fine. I'm home. Actual post with actual pictures later, when craig can email me the photo he took with his laptop of me in the hospital bed. Lovely.

um, kristen? yeah, my mom is IN the water? would you get her out? because she's nuts. i felt that water, and it's colder than it looks.

yes! we went to the beach yesterday! It was marvellous! we got there a bit after 3 and stayed until it started to get cold (the air, i mean). most of the kids ended up drenched to the ribcage, but had a marvellous time.

our spread is those two umbrellas up there and all the people-shaped forms that go with them. Look at that clear blue sky! it was delicious.

i wish I could say this form on the left, below is me, but alas, no. that's Jen, of the perfect figure. I tried to feed her a bunch of cookies, but she wouldn't eat very many. dang it... :)
today Connor is on a field trip to Long Beach, to an aquarium, for the whole day. he woke up early and could hardly contain his excitement. it's his first trip on a school bus, and his first trip without me. *ack!* *stress!* I hope he has an awesome time, and I'm looking forward to getting him in 2 hours and soaking him up. I love that kid....

what a boring blogger I have been

I got these all done last weekend. You see that purple quilt on the bottom? Yes, that is the very same one I started almost a YEAR AGO. Every time I hand-quilt something, I swear that I will never hand quilt anything again - and then I do. And then it takes me a year. I actually started a baby quilt for some friends a few years ago - they've had ANOTHER baby since then and I'm just getting the binding on it. Maybe they'll have a third, and this can be for that baby...

Motivated much? As you see, I am not. This must be fixed.

I also made chair covers for our primary kids' class seats. The ones we had were all dark blue and boring. I love how these turned out. Please bear with my lousy camera. :)

edited: I totally bought a walking foot FINALLY today! no more hand-quilting for me! also, I bought a ruffler. today is experimenting day! YAY!

The Cullens have been cast:

lots and lots of tidbits available on Stephenie Meyer's website. Also an excerpt from The Host, out in May.

Yum.

It's always nice to see Haute Couture looking 1) wearable and 2) modest. Kudos to Valentino, who is sadly retiring this year. His spring line is HERE.

I love this! From xkcd:

Somebody, please, help me.

these eyes need makeup. they love makeup. they can hardly bring themselves to leave the apartment without mascara. but they recently have developed a problem. I don't know if it's the new brand of liquid liner, or if it's the non-waterproof mascara, or what. for the past few weeks, any application of said products makes my eyes itchy, tender, and develop tiny little watery bumps.

this is not fun. and it is not okay.

are any of you users of a mascara/liner that is made for sensitive skin/eyes? are there 'natural' makeup products out there?

and if i get one comment on the size of my nose (mother, oh yes, I am talking to you) there will be consequences.

this is another birthday picture. taken, actually, mere seconds before the one I posted on his birthday posting. every time I open my photo files, this one is staring me in the face, begging me to let it out. is your heart breaking? oh, mine did. over and over again. this was pretty much how he looked through the entire face painting. he hates getting stuff in his eyes and was freaked out and telling me he didn't want to be spider man after all.

mean mom that I am, I told him to sit still and be quiet and that he would love it in the end. which he did. as soon as he saw himself in the mirror, he started glowing. he wanted to show everyone.

but I still feel bad about it.

a couple of weeks ago, dh came home from work with this idea for spending better quality time with the kids. too often in the evenings, after dinner, we'll end up sprawled on the couch in front of the t.v. or video games, for no apparent reason besides that we don't know what else to do.

pathetic.

so dh decided that we should pick 7 things - one for each night of the week - and make a card for each one (that was my job) and then each night the boys can pick one. we will spend at least 30 minutes doing said thing, and then when all the cards get used up we start all over again.
i made the cards several days ago, and have finally gotten around to making a pouch to put them all in and hang on the boys' bedroom wall. (i stiffened the pouch with a sheet of posterboard inside) it was nice to be crafty. i feel like it's been awhile.

aaaaarrrrggh!

whenever a long-time employee leaves Digital Domain, they take down the flag - (sorry, I suppose I should mention that there is always a pirate flag flying over the main building. for real)- and people sign it for the person leaving.
needless to say, the boys were pretty impressed when daddy came home on friday night.

craig wants to get this for our rats. i bet they would love it, don't you? click HERE for more cat/mouse armor shots.

well, honey. i know you don't want a mini-van. but eventually we will have to expand. (and NO, people! i am NOT pregnant yet! that doesn't mean I can't look at double strollers and multi-passenger vehicles!)

apparently chrysler is taking on the task of building the new VW bus. click on the photo to see more pictures. i am in love.

my husband called me from work expressly to tell me that he bought me something but it was NOT a Valentine's Day gift - because we don't exchange gifts on v-day - so not to freak out and try to go and buy him something:

see how pretty! he got it at DNA, which is "Los Angeles Magazine's "Best Retail Outlet"". he totaly fell in love with the store while he was there. for those of you in the area, it's a little boutique-sized shop on Rose Ave in Venice. about 4 blocks in from the beach.

now I need to get a slip!

in other news, what do you do when your son is running a high fever and can hardly bring himself to stand?
nintendo DS of course. and lots of Star Wars.
he has been lounging on practically every surface. my bed, my sheep-skin rug, the couch, the floor, the fold-up papasan-style chair. Everywhere but his own bed, of course. Nanette warned me this would happen last week...

Gifts for Him. (ha ha)


According to Tiffany & Co. this is a great gift for your guy! (only $7,900)

or, Hey! your DNA in a picture frame!

This one is the best; Valentine's Day toilet paper!

I think my dh will be glad to just get a kiss..:)

this is one of those projects that looks really complicated but really isn't but I still probably will never do it. Click HERE for a peek at a blogger who DID do it, and left photo instructions to boot.

looks like a lot of fun!

well I just got a call from my husband (it's 4:45) to inform me that we are having 3 to 5 people over for dinner at 6:30. So I'm going to go now....

yikes.

I've obviously gotten away from the whole Valentine's Day obsession lately. I haven't posted a cute picture or craft idea in days! Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. We have a V-Day tradition that involves very little of the gooey sweetness found in stores during the season. It's called Chineese take-out and a movie rental.

this year we're going to spice it up a little though - we're going OUT to eat Chinese and then going to a THEATRE to see a movie! Crazy!

Really, it's because Spiderwick is coming out on V-Day and we all want to see it, so it'll be a family affair this year.

HDILT #12

my husband is really fun. he makes things fun.
he's also funny, which I really think I couldn't live without.
we'll be walking along, and he'll bump into me. over and over again.
he'll race me, in seperate elevators, up to a friend's apartment.
he still tries to sing "popular" even though he has never, ever, gotten the tune right.
every so often, he'll test to see how schauvenistic he can be and get away with it. the wicked-mischevous gleam in his eyes is so darn cute that he gets away with it a lot.
"wench, get me a cookie!"
although sometimes I throw them at him, just to prove i'm not a doormat. :)

For heaven's sake! Alright - Craig got a job here. Sorry it's a boring link, you have to be a client to actually enter the site. You can see a list of things they've worked on here.

We're excited. It's a considerable pay raise, and he's working with a bunch of guys who he really likes. (all of whom have been at DD at one time or another) We have to figure out our own insurance for a few months, and the gig is only a 6 month thing - but if they have a lot of work in august, they'll likely keep him if he wants to stay.

So it's all good news. Except that Asylum is a bit farther from our apartment, and so whenever I want to have the car, I have to drive a bit to drop him off, and then to pick him up in the evening. I told Craig I want a better stroller for my walking days.

Like this one. :)

I realize I don't really need a double stroller NOW. But I might soon. Hopefully.

What to do when you hear:
"Ack! Help! Get him off me!"

You take pictures, of course.

Poor sweet abused boy.

so, some of you were concerned about my earlier post this week. well, no worries! craig was just busy getting another job. :) it's all settled now, and he'll start in a week. we're not moving or anything, but he's excited for this new opportunity. the home front has calmed back down and we're looking forward to a fun rest-of-the-year.

Two parties, because that's the way we roll.

This cake was a mess to decorate, but it turned out sweet! Thanks hubby, for helping (Does that count as a "how do I love thee"?)

wearing some paraphanalia. he still has the face paint on this morning, although it's mostly smudged off.

the party last night was mostly for mom and dad. :) Elle came over to keep connor company, even though she was mortally ill.
thanks, kiddo! (also, isn't Nan CUTE?!)

Somebody turned 4 today!

Apparently, the new year also adds a new name. his nickname of choice is no longer "thunder", but Spider Kid. and he will correct you, every time you get that wrong.

for the kid-party, i made web cupcakes with these little confetti cut outs in them. Scrumptious! I'm making a bigger, spidey shaped cake for the family party tonight - oy. wish me luck.

got to do whatever he wanted. which was eat snacks and play games. luckily we had company for most of the day - so he had to put the games away.

he got so much spidey-loot. He's going to be a walking advert for the rest of the year!

these books are all that is gross and irreverent in children's literature. i used to walk by them in the book store and think, "people will read anything".

oh, judge not! lest ye be judged!


my oldest son, who is 7, got the first of the Captain Underpants by Dave Pilkey for Christmas from a friend. He took one look at the cover and set the book as far away from himself as he could, hoping not to be associated with it in public.

then, at the end of january, needing a book to read for homework and being out of everything else, i talked him into starting Captain Underpants . I got halfway through the book and both he and my 3-almost-4 year old were begging me to let them stay up so we could finish it.

And they're fun for me too! When the boy gets sick of reading and asks me to take over, it's fun to read the names (Miss Anthrope, Ms. Ribble), make the sounds (I'll spare you examples of that) and find out how George and Harold are going to save the day, and Captain Underpants, this time.

We had to buy the next two books on friday. we're already almost done with #3. my 7 year old was laughing so hard last night he turned red, and was gasping for breath. i read the first 1/3 of the book and then sent them to bed - only to go in there at 10 pm to make sure they were still tucked in, and to see him still awake and reading the book!!

they. are. hilarious. if you have kids in the right age - especially boys- i highly recommend them.

Tra-la-Laaaaaaa!

It's a big day for us in California! Get out there and make your voice heard! Every single vote matters.

been out of the blog-loop a bit lately, and I'm afraid it looks like that will be the case for a little bit longer. this house got rattled last week in half a dozen ways (don't worry, we're all fine here. how are you?) and I want to get organized and together-ized before I hop back into virtual socializing. :)

How Do I Love Thee #11

He is very, very forgiving.