Emotional Wreck

My heart and my head are all jumbled up right now. My other grandmother, Mary, who is my mom's mom - and the daughter of Bobby who I have talked about before - is not doing so well. She had surgery last Wednesday to remove a portion of her colon that was all twisted up. She seemed to be doing well in the couple of days following, but something happened late Friday night/wee hours Saturday morning that had them rushing her back into surgery to remove her entire colon. She is back in ICU "holding her own" as they say. My mom is frantic because my grandpa is frantic. Last month my grandparents celebrated 58 years of marriage, and they have known each other since they were 11 and 13 - an entire lifetime. My mom and my grandpa are totally father/daughter - they are not people who get frantic or break down or get emotionally distraught even in the midst of devastating news. They are not emotionless or cold, they are just quietly stoic people I guess. Just not when it comes to Gran....who can blame them?

So I am sitting here 3000 miles "from sea to shining sea" away from them...waiting for news. And praying.

*****

In totally unrelated news....I followed this link on the email from Michaels Arts & Crafts and discovered Vanna is at it again! She's having her 2nd annual contest for crocheters and knitters. Anyone in the mood to win a $1000 bucks worth of yarn? 

http://www.vannaschoice.com/

Got my frown turned upside down

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It's picture day at Max's school.

The picture info packets were sent home yesterday.

Go school for giving us 15 hours notice!!

Way to stir up mass parental hysteria.

You know I let out an "aw, man, this sucks" cause my little guy is still looking a teensy bit like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer....but I'll leave the profanity that slipped from my neighbors mouth to your imagination. This poor chick has twin daughters & a little boy to get gussied up on a moments notice. And cut a check for the cost.

Luckily, it's only the 3rd week of school so those fresh haircuts should still be pretty much intact. Even so, I added this line to my prayers last night:

"Lord, Please protect the tresses of all the little children whose mothers may be tempted to whip out scrapbooking scissors for a little trim. And may forgiveness come swiftly to the child's heart who shows up tomorrow with scalloped edged bangs. Amen."

So, question. Why are school pictures such a source of stress?

I know I can't be in the minority when I say I completely hated them as a kid. I was never the girl with the perfect pig-tails. For 3 solid years I had Summer Teeth (some are over here, some are over there, ignore the spit coming from the gap in the middle). We always got, like, a months notice, which is the downside to too much notice - because with that kind of time frame, one of two things always happened:

1) You forgot & showed up at school in mismatched Garanimals (elephant pants/giraffe turtleneck), questionable hair, and a koolaide mustache.

OR

2) Your mom went on the hunt for matchy-matchy outfits for you & your brother, got borderline OCD with hot curlers, which burned your scalp, gave you a headache and made you squint for the camera...forever immortalizing you as a dork. You know you look ridiculous when your pictures come back and the only nice comment even your grandmother can make is "oh what a darling pinafore". Umm, yeah.


DEATH TO

PINAFORES!




Oh, Sorry.
Ahem.

But its all good now, cause I grew up to be a winner! Yup, I sure did. Just look here to see the awesomeness that I won:

Mixed Media Artist

I am so excited!!

It even makes the woes of "picture day's past" all better.

I promise when I get a new printer/scanner I am totally showing you that picture, cause #2 is for real. And when you see it? You'll want my moms address so you can send her severely worded letters on the eternal damage she did to my psyche. And I will give it to you.

TCB

Takin' care of Binnissssss

UP FIRST:

A couple of weeks ago I threw caution to the wind and entered into a cool contest over at Blaze N' Crochet...and I won! This awesome little set of baby blocks was the prize:





I am going to give them to my neice's youngest son Jonah:

Who, my dear friends, has a very severe case of chocho-holism...a kid after my own heart if ever there was. It is my highest of hopes that the blocks will entertain him so that he doesn't sneak into the kitchen & douse himself in Hershey's Syrup again. (Because I WANT to do that & last time he didn't leave me any.)

The blocks are exactly as promised, and you know, why wouldn't they be, except that somehow, if possible, they are even snazzier in person. Maybe because this is my first ever contest win. Unless you count the 4th grade talent show in which I tap danced my way into a blue ribbon. Ennneeeeways, I can't wait to see him with them in action, which I imagine will be this upcoming weekend.

~~~

AND!!!

Sarah over at Sarah's Sweet Hearts has chosen to give my little attempt at a blog a very nifty award. I'm stoked! This is the dealio:



The Rules:

1. Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

2. Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

3. Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.

4. Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit This Post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!



Before you head on over to check out my picks, let me just clarify that a couple (all) of them might be all Sweet Mama Who IS She? You see, they are all blogs I've happened upon in my extensive innnernet travels that have held my interest or made me LOL for real or have crochet highlights or knock-yer-socks off recipes OR all of the above. I have maybe commented on them a time or two, but mostly I just stalk them from the shadows of my Dell computer screen, because I can. Scary huh?



The tricky part comes in telling them that I am passing this award on to them without giving them the heebie-jeebies...sorta like elementary school when you passed a note to the girl who wore a yellow ribbon in her hair everyday asking if she wanted to be your partner in a little double-dutch jump roping at recess and she replied "Ok, but what's your name again?" Everyone had that happen, right?

Summer In Melstone

Tomato Soup Cake

Vallieskids

The Blue Crab Crochets At Midnight

Jill's Believe It Or Not

Holy Contest Winner Batmama!

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HAPPY DANCE! I cannot believe this, but I JUST WON that adorable GIVEAWAY I entered the other day over at Blaze N' Crochet. I'm all excited! This just made my day.

Just last night I was laying in bed thinking I need to give this little ol' blog some attention, something more than the tidbits of late, and nothing sad. I don't want to dwell, I want to re-focus. I came up with a variety of thoughts, but no way to make them cohesive. So the plan for today was to scribble one of those random, all over the map type posts. I usually like reading those when others do them, so why the heck not, right? And then came news from the fabulous Miss Shana that I won! I'm so tickled, I cannot even make sense!

Quickie!

Lookie here...

My girl Shana over at “Blaze ‘N’ Crochet is hosting a giveaway for notNeutral’s Wood Block Set from Living Rooms Direct, an online source for living room furniture and home decor.”

Since she isn't one to steer a person wrong, I decided I had to check it out. Even though I don't have any little, little ones of my own - my 9 year is about as little as they get in my house - I do have an adorable nephew named Jonah who would totally have a blast with these. Yeah, my life is chock full of little boys!

Part of the rules is ya gotta check out the website she is hosting this for - and it was totally painless, even fun! Look what I found and now must have:
It's called the Powell - Wilmington Cherry & Burl Cocktail Table
How perfect is this for a family room? Especially as a game table? My nerdy kids love them some Monopoly and Chess and Scrabble - I can totally see us sitting around it playing & cheating (usually me) & making fun of each other until someone pouts (also usually me).

Anyhoo, this is a fun down to earth blog to check out...totally go read about the snake her hubby found in the bathroom, holy crap!

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