Christmas Card Time!

Thanksgiving isn’t here yet, but it’s time to start thinking about Christmas cards. The past few years I’ve designed and printed my own cards. I was planning on doing the same for 2010, until I learned about Shutterfly’s great promotion – bloggers get 50 Christmas card FREE! I’ve never used Shutterfly for cards, but I have printed tons of pictures from them.

I started searching through their website and found a lot of great designs that I just love! Seriously, check them out, http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards. I’m sure you’ll find at least one (or two) cards that you really like. I’m partial to their photo cards. Seriously, what’s a Christmas card without a picture? I’ve already picked out the one I’m going to use – it’s a secret for now Now, I’ve got to figure out which picture of Emily I want to use. Here a few of my other favorites:

All Wrapped Up
Merry Blossoms
Snowflake Sprinkles

Something else that I’m very excited about – Shutterfly can address and mail the cards for you! Really, how much easier can sending Christmas cards get?

I’m sure you know this, but Shutterfly does other things besides Christmas cards. From mugs to birthday cards to calendars – Shutterfly can hook you up. And I’m sure you’ll be able to find a great Christmas present for someone in your family. And they even have photo books (I love me some photo books!).

 

So, check out Shutterfly for your Christmas cards this year!

Shutterfly is running a promotion – bloggers can get 50 free cards when they blog about this promotion. If you would like to participate, visit their website, http://bit.ly/sfly2010

The Joy of Crashing Your Computer

There are some good things and bad things about getting a virus and crashing your computer.

Yes, I managed to crash our computer. I was just looking for a cute little Christmas outfit for Emily. One that has the adorable little ruffles on the pants. But, I can’t justify paying $50 for an outfit she’ll wear once (maybe twice). So off to the internets (yes, I said internets) I went. I was searching away one night and some how, some way, I managed to get a nasty virus on our computer. As soon as I thought there was a problem I just shut the computer down. Brad got on the next morning, and started to question what I was up to. Ummm….let’s just say there were some new icons on our desktop and they were a little graphic.

Brad tried, and tried, and tried to rescue our computer. But he finally gave up when we got a “physical memory dump” and “blue screen” error. We were able to get the most important files off of the old computer (thanks to an external hard drive). However, I know if  we didn’t get it all.

The good things about crashing your computer beyond repair (ok, it could have been repaired, but the computer was five years old, the monitor was coming apart, and keys were missing) – is that you get a new computer!

The bad thing is that it’s expensive!

The good thing is that this new computer is super fast and fun to play with.

The bad thing is that it’s expensive and we still aren’t sure if we were able to save everything.

The bad thing is that shopping for a new computer is a pain in the butt! Sure, we could have built a Dell online, but we didn’t want to wait that long. We went to six different stores searching for the best deal. We found what we wanted at store #5 but the sales guy was a idiot and we walked out of that store without a computer.

The good thing is – I have some new software that makes it easier to blog and edit pictures.

The bad thing is that it’s expensive!

In some ways it was nice not having a computer at home for a little while. It was amazing how much more I got done around the house! This new computer will spend more time in the office and less time in the den.

Now that we are back in the computer business around here – maybe I’ll be better about updating the blog.

Fun Day Friday!

Fridays are my day with Emily. The director at Emily's daycare calls them our "Friday Fun Day!" I try not to put pressure on myself to get stuff done, but to really spend my time with Emily. We spend time playing outside - either at the park or our back yard. We spend time making a mess around the house. We spend time just hanging out.Now that she's starting to get a little older (tear) there are more and more activites for us to do.

The past couple of weeks we've gone to the zoo and the children's museum. The zoo was wonderful because Emily loves animals. She would get as close as she could and wave to each animal. She was so excited to pet the goat and the horse. Roaring at the lion was big-time fun. And trying to pet the white tiger might have made her day. Oh, making monkey noises at the monkies was pretty cute.

The children's museum was fun, too. It was so nice to just let her walk around and explore the different areas on her own. She loved pushing the grocery cart around, pressing the button to make noise in the ambulance, and playing with the bubble machine.

And then there's the park. Emily loves being outside and going to the park. She's perfectly happy if I just let her wander around the big, open field and explore. But she loves going down the slide, too. The bigger the slide, the better.

I'm going to have to find some fun, indoor activites for winter. I can only handle talking her to the mall playground so many times.

And yes, she wears that TCU shirt a lot on Friday. Fridays are TCU purple day around here.

Halloween Crafts!

Eighteen25, one of the blogs I follow, did a month of Halloween crafts all of September. I'm not really much of a Halloween fan (I'm really looking forward to Christmas on their blog), but there were quite a few crafts that I just fell in love with! There are so many creative people out there - I love copying their ideas :)

My favorite idea was the trick-or-treat bags posted on September 15. They idea simple enough for me, didn't require any sewing, and it's something that I could use year after year. So, Emily and I headed out to Joann's to pick up some supplies - fabric, wonder under, bags, and ribbon. As much as I love Joann's, their ribbon selection is NOT good. So, we made another trip to Michael's for cute Halloween ribbon.

I made Emily's bag and then I kept going. I made four bags and the only reason I stopped is because I'm out of bags. Here are a few pictures of the finished products:

Be sure to visit eighteen25 and see all of the wonderful Halloween stuff!

It's Only Temporary

When Emily was three or four weeks old she would get really fussy and cranky around 4 p.m. We would calm her down only to get a screaming, crying, very unhappy baby around 8 p.m. Brad and / or I would be up for hours trying to figure out what was wrong and how to help. Many, many times I sat on the couch holding a screaming baby telling myself, "This is only temporary. This is only temporary. This isn't going to last forever."

When Emily was seven weeks old we finally figured out she had reflux, got her on some meds and the crying, screaming fits ended. That was only temporary.

Emily started sleeping through the night when she was about 11 weeks old - right before I went back to work (awesome!). That all changed once she was five months old. All of sudden Emily wanted to be awake in the middle of the night. Sleep was only optional. Again, I sat on the couch, in the middle of the night, with a crying baby telling myself, "This is only temporary. This is only temporary. This isn't going to last forever."

And yes, with a little (modified) sleep training, Emily started sleeping through the night again. That was only temporary.

Then there were those times I would excuse myself from whatever was going on at that moment (work, hanging out with friends, running errands, playing with Emily, sleep, etc) and lock myself in a room (or bathroom) with the pump. When Emily was ten months old I was very ready to be done pumping. I was sick and tired of being hooked up to the pump several times a day. But, there were many times when I remember thinking, "This is only temporary. This is only temporary. This isn't going to last forever."

And of course, it didn't last forever. It was a "sacrifice" I was more than happy to make for a year for my sweet girl. It was only temporary.

Last weekend when Emily was sick, we had a lot of downtime at the hospital. We sat there with our sweet little girl, who just felt like crap, wishing the doctor would move just a little bit faster. She was so sick and we were very worried. I remember thinking, "This is only temporary. This is only temporary. She's going to get better and this isn't going to last forever."

All of a sudden it dawned on me - sure, the tough times are only temporary, but so are the good times. Emily isn't always going to want me to snuggle with her before she goes to bed. She isn't going sit in her highchair, sign "all done" and continue to eat with a smile on her face. She isn't going to pull her little doggy around the living room and laugh everyday. She isn't going to run to me and smile everytime I pick her up from school. She isn't always going to blow kisses to her daddy before she goes to bed. All of those things are only temporary.

It may take a rough night or a sick little baby to remind me that good and bad - it's all temporary. I need to cherish each moment I'm given with my sweet little girl.

This is only temporary . . .

Our Trip to the ER

We had to take Emily to the ER Sunday morning - it was not a fun experience.

Emily woke up for her nap around noon on Friday with a fever and trouble breathing. I gave her some Mortin and breathing treatment and she seemed to be doing much better! Well, she woke up from her second nap and her fever was even higher. Awesome. We cancelled our Friday night plans and spent the evening at home with Emily. She woke up around 11 p.m. - fever of 102ish. I gave her some Tylenol and she went back to sleep. I wasn't too concerned because she had no other symptoms and has done this kind of thing before.

Saturday - Emily woke up and wasn't great. Fever would go down with Mortin or Tylenol, but right back up when the meds wore off. One minute she was happy playing, the next she was screaming and not happy. Saturday night she woke up around 10 p.m. very unhappy. I took her to bed with us. A few minutes later I was covered in puke. Brad got everything into the wash and we all went to bed. About a hour later - same thing, Emily was throwing up. Got cleaned up and back to sleep.

Around 5 a.m. I woke up and put my hand on Emily's forehead - BURNING up. We took her temperature and it was 105. I looked at Brad and said, "Emergency Room! Now!" We grabbed a few things and got to the hospital as fast as we could.

The ER staff did a great job getting us to a room and making Emily as comfortable as they could. Her sweet nurse gave her a good dose of Tylenol and the fever started to come down. A shift change and an hour later, the doctor came in. He had zero personality, but he checked out Emily and ordered some tests. Emily's new nurse came in (he was awesome) and got the process going. Poor Emily had blood drawn, a flu test, and catheter. She was not a happy camper.

Two hours later, we learn Emily has a urinary tract infection. She gets a shot of antibiotics, a prescription for antibiotics at home, and we are out of there! We were there about 7 hours - but it really was a quick 7 hours (if that's possible).

She slept great last night but woke up this morning with a fever again. It's going to take a few days for her to be back to normal - but I think we are on the right track (hopefully).

I just feel so helpless. There's not really anything I can do to help to her feel better. I'm trying to get her to drink as much water as possible and anything she needs to be comfortable, but that's it. I really hope she's able to get past this soon. Poor baby.

Chores

Emily has her first chore around the house. She gets to feed Banjo in the evenings.

And it's really cute to watch her.

It all started the other day when Emily opened the dog food container, grabbed a handful of  food, and put it in Banjo's bowl. (yes, I realize we probably shouldn't leave the dog food container so easily accessible, but oh well). It was so sweet. After that we decided she was old enough to feed the dog.

She's still asleep when Brad feeds Banjo in the morning. And I don't need to anything else on our to-do list in the morning, so Emily just gets to help at night. I'll tell her, "Let's feed Banjo!" And she walks over to the dog food container and opens the top. I'll scoop the food into the cup and hand it Emily. Then she walks about four feet over to Banjo's bowl and pours in the food. Some days, I have to help her carry the cup - she hasn't quite mastered holding it up-right all of the time. But she really understands the concept and the directions.

Now, if I can just get her to put the laundry away.