Friday, July 21, 2006
Daddy mowed today
Can you tell? Because of our weekend project it's been well over a week since he mowed and the grass was tall.

Leftover
From last night. I liked these pictures individually better than as a pair.

Thursday, July 20, 2006
Check out my spiffy new Swiffer
This is 24 hours worth of dog hair swept from the new living room floor. I vacuumed it yesterday. Are you jealous?

Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Unbelievable
I often comment that Emma is not that entranced with the TV. She loves Elmo and Curious Buddies, and she'll even ask for them. But once you put them in she'll watch about five minutes and then start playing. She'll pause and watch a little and then play again.

Today she was on my lap and we were reading her Baby Einstein Alphabooks, working our way through all 26 of them. But she kept being distracted by the television. I was reading and I could tell she wasn't paying attention. Finally she climbed off my lap and went to the other end of the couch and got comfortable. I have never seen her in this position on the couch before. Looks comfy, huh? Wanna know what had her so mesmerized? Um...it was Drake and Josh. Go figure.

Feed me, Seymour
The only thing she's ever gotten in the little blue cup is carrot sticks. She can find the cup on her own and will bring it to you when she wants some. Which is what she did tonight. It warms my heart when she asks for the stuff that is good for her.


I read another book
And yes, I think I deserve a medal if that’s what you’re wondering. I actually tore myself away from my blogs, news and IM friends long enough to read three books since the weekend. Never mind that last night’s book I started at 11:15 p.m. and finished at 1:45 a.m. I read MaryJanice Davidson’s Undead and Unreturnable. Another enjoyable installment in the series. Now when I can get my hands on Undead and Unpopular I believe I will be caught up.
The picture procedure
Bear in mind I'm doing this with Paint Shop Pro 6, so it may or may not work this way for you:

Open the picture you wish to edit (Image 1)
Then right click, copy Image 1.
Then "paste as new image" This will be Image 2.
Grayscale Image 2.
Then copy Image 2 and paste it onto Image 1 as a new layer. "paste as new layer"
Then use the Eraser tool to scrub away the grayscale image to reveal the color image underneath.

Ta da!
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Dead Flip Flop
A sad ending to a faithful flip flop. I'd say that was $1.97 well spent.

Discovery!
Emma finds my Disney video collection. I started collecting them over a decade ago. Never dreaming that by the time I actually had a child the video format would have changed. She had no idea what she was looking at, but it was colorful and pretty and she was impressed.

Happy Blogiversary!
To me! Yep, it all started Monday, July 18, 2005. Right after I got my new camera, and after a few postings on the B.O.M.B. I'm really happy that I've stuck with it. It's been a great outlet for me and a wonderful way to preserve a record of Emma's development. It's also a nice way of letting my friends and family know what's going on. In one year we've accomplished 1308 posts and logged 18,805 visits and 36,285 page views.(Statcounter says 19,813 visits and 41,110 page views)

So thank you to my BIO friends and my family, Noni, Popi and Aunt Patty. Thank you to Angie and Allie, who have helped me with the template when I needed a new look. Thank you to my newfound blog friends; it's quite cool to see blogging "networks" mingle and grow. Thank you to all my fellow bloggers on the list to the right who inspire me with their great ideas (which I wantonly steal) and who push me on with their kind comments. A special thank you to those of you who have no affiliation with me, yet read anyway. I do the same thing on many different blogs and I enjoy "the show" so to speak. I find it interesting and compelling to get a glimpse into other people's lives because it reinforces my belief that despite the bad news we're barraged with every day, real people are good folks. Thank you!

Monday, July 17, 2006
Ah, success...
Jake likes his new bed, now we're just waiting for Beaker to warm up to his.

Don't forget to bring a towel!
I have no idea why it took me this long to think of playing this game with Emma. I know I used to love it when I was little. And sure enough, she loves it too.

I read a book. Again.
Two of them. On Friday I read Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk, who also wrote Fight Club. Lullaby was one of those books that intends to be disturbing. I felt uneasy just opening it up and starting it. The book starts with dead babies. Babies who died of SIDS, every mother's nightmare and a fear very close to my heart. But in the book the "hero" makes the discovery that the babies are actually being killed by a culling song. They die after their parents unknowingly read them a particular poem in a particular book. Over the course of the story our hero tries to track down all copies of the book and eliminate them. He also discovers that the culling song kills anyone who hears it, including adults. He is shocked to find that the culling song gives him the ability to kill at will, even by directing thoughts of the song at people. Being a Palahniuk novel, you can imagine much weirdness ensues.

The other book I read was Undead and Unappreciated by MaryJanice Davidson. I'm ashamed to say this book has been sitting around my house for nearly a year. I think she's written two more books in this series since I got this one. I really loved the first two books in the series and the third was perhaps the lesser of the three, in my opinion. Still, I enjoyed it very much. I'm now trying to think of where I might have hidden the fourth book from myself.
Testing the merchandise
Emma testing out the dog beds...before they're all hair coated and disgusting. Now I hope the dogs will use them.


Back to Reality
I imagine this is about as spartan as practicality allows...

The New Floor
When we went to bed on Saturday night this is where we were. Saturday night we had to move the entertainment center, pull up the carpet and padding, pull up the staples and carpet tack, place down the underlayment and then lay the boards. He did the small portion at the bottom of the stairs first. We had a little problem with lining up that portion with the rest of the room. Old houses are an extra challenge because the floors are rarely level and the walls can be bowed. So this was Saturday night's progress...



On Sunday morning we had to finish the room which meant laying the rest of the underlayment and the rest of the floor. Then M. had to caulk the edges all the way around the room and then install the molding he had made. Here's the last board going in...


And finally the finished product. I'm really enjoying the spartan look. It may take a while to get the rest of the stuff back in the room. The old chairs aren't going back in at all. They're being replaced with dog beds, which is what they were anyway. Now when company comes over we can just stack the dog beds and pull out temporary chairs. Our new floor...

Sunday, July 16, 2006
Noni's Saturday Emma Report
Hi There, Mommy and Daddy!

Today has been a really busy day.

I slept a little later this morning since I was up a little later last night. I had a good night's sleep. Noni fixed us breakfast. We had bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast. I ate everything on my plate. You would be very proud of me.

We had a mission - to go to Costco to take pictures of dog beds so you could pick the pattern you want for your new dog beds. We were doing pretty good until the Costco Nazi came up to us and told us we weren't allowed to take pictures of the merchandise. Noni explained the situtation, but no go! Before she got to us Noni had taken a picture of all the patterns, but two and Noni didn't think you would have liked either one of them any way.

Noni got real excited while we were in Costco. It was pretty funny. We were playing a peek-a-boo game and while I had my eyes covered I said "Emma". I did it twice and Noni got so excited she was running around trying to find Popi so I could do it for him too! When we found Popi, I wasn't very cooperative and it wasn't until later in the day that he heard me say it. Noni said I say it very clear and she loves to hear me say my name. That must be something special.

We came back home and played around for a little while and then Popi put me down for my nap. He forgot I needed a paci and it wasn't until I cried and he asked Noni what was wrong, that she realized I didn't have it. She took care of it and I took a nice long three hour nap. I woke up so refreshed and happy.

I played for just a little while with the toys in the living room. Popi said it would give my stomach time to wake up and then we would go have some lunch. They took me to Chick-Filet. I ate four of the nuggets and some of my waffle fries. Noni got a cup of ice cream and I ate some of that until Popi got a chocolate milkshake and that looked so much better than my ice cream. He was very nice and shared it with me. Noni laughed and said something about, it wasn't only Mommy's food that I was always after. It was just anyone. They let me play in the playroom for about a half hour I climbed up the steps and then down, up and then down, up and then down. I did it so many times, Noni lost count.

We took Popi home to mow the lawn and we went back to Costco to get Beaker and Jake new beds. While Noni was pushing me around in the cart I was saying "dog bed". Noni thought that was pretty special too.

Popi hadn't finished the lawn when we got home, so Noni put me in my car and pushed me up and down the street. She let me play on the neighbor's slide and she pushed me on their swing. Then she pushed me around the back yard while Popi was mowing the grass. I thought it was pretty funny when he got close to my car. We were passing on the interstate lawn. It was fun!!!

We had supper at Wendy's with Grandmommy. I ate yogurt and some fries. I didn't care for the hamburger they got me. Then I ate some of the granola you can put in the yogurt, but I ate it separate.

I had a good bath and after Noni dried me off, Popi showed me your blog pictures from last night. I was so glad to see them. Then Noni put me on the bed in the computer room. She turned away and when she looked back I was peeing on the bed. Mommy and Daddy, did she ever move fast picking me up and wiping me and the bed off. She called me a "scoundrel". I don't know what that means, but I think it means I did something maybe I wasn't supposed to do. I thought it was pretty neat. It felt nice and warm.

I had a good day - a busy day and now I'm tired and ready for bed. I gave Noni and Popi lots of kisses and hugs today. That makes them so happy. I can tell by the big smiles on their faces.

Goodnight, Mommy and Daddy. I'll see you sometime tomorrow. I hope you didn't work too hard tonight. I'll be anxious to see you!!

Hugs, kisses and love,
Emma

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