P366 #27

Emma, in dress-up finery.

P366 #26

Liam required all 4 "stuffies" in his bed at bedtime last night. :) Normally he only sleeps with Night-Night Bear. :) I tried to snap the picture while he was holding all of them in his arms, but he dropped them as soon as I had the camera out (the stinker).

P366 #25

Cooking with the kids

P366 #24 Spaghetti for Lunch

P366 #23

At the library, visiting one of the K-9 Reading Buddies. I think his name is Perry, but honestly, I'm not sure. At any rate, Emma was thrilled that there were dogs in the library, and next week were going to bring a Bob Book so Emma can read it to the dogs (who have been trained to put their noses in the book opened in front of them, much to the kid's delight).

P366 #22 - Where is Liam?

Where is Liam?

Here I am!

All set up for a nap in the toybox.

But maybe now that Mom is in here with the camera, naptime is cancelled. (No way, Jose!)

 

 Drat.

P366 #20

Liam did some pretty awesome finger painting this week. Here he is, seen with the masterpiece in the background.

P366 #21

Emma and our friend, Felecia, hanging out Sunday evening. We love the Davis-Pederson family! I especially enjoyed stomping Joe at Apples to Apples (for once). :)

P366 #19 Giggles

P366 #18

At the Salvation Army volunteer appreciation dinner with my favorite folks (pictured, lol)

Did you know those bell ringers raised more than $30,000 just in our little town?

Did you know that money raised last year went to help over 13,000 families with basic necessities like food, clothing, housing and utility assistance? The monetary value of all that aid is valued at 1.5 million dollars.

Wow. Just, wow.
It's the everyday miracles that get me.

P366 #17 - Take Two

Okay, here it is, picture #17. It's of Emma's foot, which is honestly the only picture I took the other day. I owe y'all two pictures tomorrow, because today was a total bust.

I took this picture mainly to chart progress on healing. It helps me know when things are really worse or when I'm just overreacting. It looks even better now than yesterday.

My post yesterday was eaten by an app on my iPod, never to be seen again. In it, I mentioned that I regret not having taken Emma to the ER Sunday night. It has come open and bled many, many times and caused more of a headache than a few little stitches would have. Oh well. You know what they say about hindsight!

Anyhow, she is on the mend. No bleeding today, and we made it through a shower with no tears. What a good kid!

Giving Up

Gahh! Please forgive me, I cannot post p366 #17 tonight. I have it written in an app on my iPod, but it refuses to publish and I'm so tired, I have to give up. It's been a terrible day. I will post it tomorrow or die trying. Thanks for staying tuned! :)

P366 #16 - Couch Potatoes

'Fraid it's a case of mass vegetation on my living room furniture. We rented Dolphin Tale this evening, much to Emma's delight.

P366 #15 - Injured

Poor Emma. Wounded foot. She needs to stay off of it so the gash can heal, and she's living it up on the couch, getting food delivered, watching veggietales like it's going out of style.

She heard me talk about having seen a "chick flick" the other night, and she told me while resting on the couch that she wanted to watch a "chicken-pot" movie like I had, preferably, Dolphin Tale (does that count as a chick flick? I didn't care to argue it with her right then).

I had to stifle a good laugh, but told her I would go rent it tomorrow night.

Weekend Adventure

We stayed at a lovely cabin in the woods (about a 15 minute drive from my doorstep to theirs) last night for the fun of it, and this morning, this was the view I had from the balcony (okay, it was more of a sweet vacation home than a cabin).

Pictures just don't do it justice. :)

 

Beautiful, and with a good cup of coffee and some french toast, Perfect. With a capital P. ;)

P366 #14

Ducks! And maybe some geese too. :)

P366 #13 - Making Cookies

P366 #12

Liam took a trip to see the audiologist today. Bottom line? Hearing loss is not a factor concerning his expressive communication. Not that I didn't already know that. ;)

Here he is, checking out the book basket in the audiologist's waiting room.

P366 #11 - Fort Vannoy Farms: Dairy Edition

Emma and I went out to Fort Vannoy Farms today to hang out with those of the bovine persuasion. What an udderly delightful field trip!

Making friends with a Jersey

Cow kisses

Checking on the babies

She liked the calves the most. 

We're invited to come back another day to bottle feed some of the calves, and I think we will take them up on the offer soon.

Distracted (or P366 #10)

We were at the pharmacy picking up antibiotics for Liam who has strep and an ear infection (double whammy) when I thought to whip out my camera and take a picture of the kids. I had them all together, nicely smiling and ready for the daily picture taking, when the goofy guy next to me starts making funny faces at them.

 

Sigh. :)

Project 366.9

I thought I would share with you some photography shot by my little guy, Liam.

I get about 200 shots like this every time he nabs my iPod (he averages 3 times a day).

In addition to commandeering my ipod's Face Time-ready camera (do you have face time? Isn't that cool?), he managed to beat a level in Angry Birds that I had not yet managed to beat after several attempts - but I'll save that awesomeness for another post.

I present to you the series, "Foot On A Couch."

Project 366.8

The Three Belles: Emma, Tinker, and well, you know.

Project 366.7

I wanted to post a picture of the kids all dressed and ready for church this morning but we were running late and dashed out the door, with me thinking that I would grab the shot in Sunday School.

Then I had quite a few more preschoolers than usual in my class and was kept busy so that never panned out . . . and that's pretty much how the day progressed until bedtime and I threw my hands in the air and said "We have to take a picture before you put jammies on!!"

I arranged the kids on the couch and said "smile!" and then . . .

My camera died. No joke.

I made my kids hold their position while I ran for my iPod.

Ta-da!

Project 355.6

Per my resolution, I had to get something in today. This is what I have, because this is basically the majority of what we did today. We played. Liam is fascinated by all cars and trucks. The Sheriff is a favorite. :)

Penny-Pinching (Part 1)

I dropped by a local drive-thru yesterday, sans kids, to pick up a treat for myself (special treats on the fly don't happen much when you have a gfcf child in tow), and when I handed the cashier $1.75 for my $1.74 bill, she asked me if I wanted my penny, to which I promptly replied (even though my brain may have stumbled a teensy bit over the question), "Ummm, yeah, I save them."

And then, to my dismay, the girl said, "Okay, thank you" and shut the window. I sat for a moment, internally convincing myself that I was mistaken, and she would be right back with my penny, but in fact I was NOT mistaken, and she did not come back.

Well!

I sat for a minute longer and let my conscience tell me that after all, it was only a penny, and wouldn't I look like a complete moron parking my car and walking inside for a lousy penny? "But," the other side of my head argued, "It is after all YOUR money, and it was awfully presumptuous of that girl to ASK if you wanted it, let alone keep it after you claimed to want it. And where does she get off, anyway, thinking that folks are feeling so rich that they run around rounding their bills up to the nearest quarter, cheerfully shouting, 'No matter; keep the change!' Has the child bothered to open a newspaper or catch the local news in the last two years? We're in an economic downturn here!"

I want my penny.

To be continued . . .

(You can read part 2 here)

Project 366.5

Liam.

In a car seat.

In the . . . living room?

You bet. I needed to get something (anything!) done and after a few fiascos this week with Comet, nail polish and Sharpie markers, I hauled in his car seat and put the creative, imaginative (albeit totally destructive) child on lockdown for a few minutes so I could be productive and fold a load of laundry or wash dishes.

Liam, in the meantime, got a chance to watch a little bit of his favorite movie, Cars.

When I came back around the corner, he was asleep. And no wonder! He's been on turbo mode since before dawn.

Penny-Pinching, Part 2, or Every Little Bit Helps

(You can read part 1 here)

So.

I went back in the next day.  I'd had all night to think about it (and write a post about it) and I had come to a conclusion.  The folks down at Burger Bell need to re-train their employees to simply hand back change, without asking customers if they want it back.  If the customer says, "No thanks; keep the change," (and I'll address THOSE folks in a moment), then I suppose Burger Bell can keep it.  It's as simple as that.

It turns out that when I spoke to the (very friendly yet very professional) manager of the joint, I had not been the first to complain bring the matter to his attention.  Indeed, there had been so much concern over the "keeping of the change" that there had been what the manager called a "GM Conference" on the situation in Eugene, OR.  They've been instructed to teach their employees NOT to ask if the customer wants their change, but to just hand it back, regardless of the amount.

Amazing.

The manager thanked me for coming in to let him know, and that he would re-train his staff according to company policy.

And I walked away, satisfied.

Now, you folks who would give your pennies away to (I can only assume) avoid dealing with pocket change:
I'd like you to consider something.  Pennies add up. Don't give your pennies away to corporations.  Think about it.  If you took a few moments and dumped your pennies into a jar at the end of the day, at the end of the month, you'd have more than a few bucks to donate to a worthy cause.  If you're going to give your pennies away, shouldn't they go to help others? I can think of a few organizations who deserve them more than Burger Bell:

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Make A Wish
Faith Fulmer Foundation
Ethan's Army
The Salvation Army
Gospel Rescue Mission
Compassion International

Yeah, I hear you.  They're just pennies.
But every little bit helps!

Save the Pennies!

Project 366.4

Perfectly good bed.

And yet here he sleeps, on the floor.

With Mack, from Cars. :)

 

He loves Mack.

Project 366.3

Waiting for our turn at the at&t store. Gotta take these pictures quick because these kids never sit still for more than one click.

See what I mean?

Project 366.2

Emma, reading her storybook Bible before bedtime. I love teaching her to read. She's fairly thrilled about it too. But what am I going to do when she is able to read the tabloid headlines as we wait in line at the grocery store?