Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Is it Friday yet?

What a day! Three people from my department were terminated today. All the budget cuts are really hitting home. For now that just means that I have to do my work plus extra that I really don't know too much about. But I'm not complaining; at least I have a job, for now anyway.

Saturday, September 24, 2005


Worn Sweater Freebie preview Posted by Picasa

My digital side

Last time I posted I was just getting into digital. I am still doing digital, but a lot has changed since then. I have learned so much and digital and photoshop! I am having a lot of fun being on the creative team at The Daily Scrap (see my links). The girls are so nice and talented. We've got a Grand Re-Opening starting Oct. 1 and lasting a whole week with so much planned. Then on Oct. 20th we're having a Halloween Party that will be a lot of fun also. Both events will have a lot of freebies and prizes.

Speaking of freebies, that's another area I've been delving into. It's a lot of fun creating kit and quite addictive! My first kit was created to match the smock dd wore at a daycare Mother's Day Tea. My second kit was created based on the colors of her Cute As A Button Gymboree outfit from last year. Both of those kits were posted for free at RAKscraps. If you ever do any digital and you've never checked out their element RAK forum, you should do so. People post free elements and kits there all the time! I have gotten some awesome stuff there. My third kit was created for the RAKs Exchange club for a freebie. I have it on megaupload if you want to snatch it up for yourself. Here is the link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AN4BG3UV

I also have several freebies coming out with the Grand Re-Opening and Halloween Party at The Daily Scraps, along with a monthly freebie for my ad challenge at the site, so be sure to check them out!

Paw-Paw Dalt

Paw-Paw Dalt passed away yesterday afternoon around 4:30. Momma, Daddy, Lady, Pat, Mike and Ruth were all there when he went. Lady said she couldn't have planned it better. He was 90 years old this past Monday (the 19th). He had been put in ICU two weeks ago from the nursing home for pneumonia. When I was home that weekend he coded twice; once on Saturday and once on Sunday, both times because he quit breathing. He was put on a ventilator and never got better. I'm so glad he didn't suffer any longer. I'm also so relieved that they finally decided to make him a no code. This has really reinforeced talks within my family of our wishes for life support or not if something happens to us. It's so imperative that people get their wishes down BEFORE something happens to them. It's such a hard decision for the family to have to make.

The funeral home in Amory already has two bodies in it, so they weren't going until today at 1 to make arrangements. With Aunt Myra coming in from Ohio, the visitation won't be until Sunday; she wanted to make sure she was there for that. The funeral will be Monday afternoon. I hope this time since it's Dalt that all of Aunt Shelba's and Aunt Janice's white trash crew won't show up. After Maw-Maw's funeral last summer, we all hoped we wouldn't have to see them again. I know that sounds terrible, but you don't know these folks. I'll spare the details, but lets just say things were stolen from family member's homes in which they were staying and plus there were across state lines illegally to be there in the first place.

Despite my relationship with Dalt over the years, I am saddened by his death. I'm so thankful that we did build some kind of relationship during my college years and after. It would have been nice to have known him better as a child, but I always said Grandpa had enough love for me to make up for what Dalt didn't have. I credit William for making me see that Dalt had calmed down and changed as he got older and that it would be all my fault if I never gave him a chance. I'm so glad I listened to him. He was still my grandfather and I love him and will miss him.

I must do better

I said this before, but now it's been over 3 months since my last post. I MUST do better about keeping up with this thing. So much has happened and my main reason for this blog is to keep up with Rylie and now so much has gone by that I haven't documented. If you are reading this, kick my butt if I don't post again in a week...please!!!

Today Rylie was sitting in her high chair having a sucker after lunch (long story...I'll get to that in a minute). I was on the computer and all of a sudden I hear her calling Jennifer. What? Where did she get that from? She's only 26 months old; how in the world does she know my name? I asked her if that was what she was saying and she said yes. So I asked her what my name was and she said "Mommy Jennifer". I just laughed so hard. I had to call William in there to hear her. Of course she pretty much had stopped it by then. I asked her again what my name was and she said, "Mommy, you're name is Mommy." Oh well. After that I went into the den to get a splinter out of William's foot. She finished her sucker while I was working on it and kept calling out "Jennifer" then. Too funny!

We have been working on potty training for a little while now, but especially the last two weeks. We started giving her surprises when she would go to the potty to encourage this behavior when we were at mom and dad's two weeks ago. She sure did like that idea. Problem is now she goes CONSTANTLY and expects a surprise each time. She was doing really good this morning and had not gone in her diaper at all so I told her we would put on her Pooh panties for a surprise. These are real underwear; not training pants. She did so good for a long time. After a while she decided she wanted to color. Before I got everything out I asked her if she needed to use the potty. Of course not. I put her in her highchair and she went to work on another masterpiece. ;) In just a few minutes she had pulled off the top of her sippy cup and was playing in the milk all over her tray. As if that wasn't bad enough, when I went to clean the mess up, I smelled it. Ugh! Why hadn't she told me she needed to poop? Why, she would have had to stop playing for a minute. I picked her up and rushed her to the bathroom. By the time I got her underwear off it was all down her legs and everywhere! It got all over her, the toilet the bathmat and everything! I tried to clean it up and finally just put her in the tub and turned the shower on. Poor thing it scared her, but William and I were both right there. I bathed her and he dried her off while I went to wash all the dirty stuff. I just threw the poor Pooh panties away; I didn't even want to try to clean those things. YUCK! I feel a little bad now because she loved them, but I told her that she shouldn't poop on Pooh and now they were ruined. I know; bad mommy moment. But with my grandfather dying, my killer headache, the milk mess she had already made, this was the last straw. She told me later I was mean. :(

Now, the little thing is down for a nap after lunch and a sucker (I sure couldn't tell her no now) and I finally have a little piece and quiet. William is taking a nap too, of course. Poor thing had to get up with her this morning a little before 7 so he's tired. Boo hoo. Oh well, if they're going to sleep then I'm going to take advantage of the free time!