A Beautiful Day

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Dog days are here

My most favorite

Visiting Quilts and other stuff

Smacky and I are back from our long weekend. It was quite fun but boy did I miss the littles (and S too, of course). My brother's 40th birthday party was a good time.

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While at Sissy's house I saw a few of my quilts:

This was the first quilt I ever made. It was a baby nine-patch snowball that I made for my niece Taylor when she was born (13 1/2 years ago!). She still uses it every day - takes it to sleepovers and everywhere she goes. It's worn and very soft and, thanks to a repair I did a few years ago, isn't completely falling apart. In the pic it's draped over a big chair - my nephew and BIL were watching tv - the room they're in is being remodeled and they plopped down in the middle of the mess to watch King Kong on their new high-def flat-screen.

Then I bumped into the kaleidoscope scrap quilt I made for my niece Aleah a few years back:

Perhaps one day I'll outgrow this riotous color phase...it's just that I get totally jazzed making a quilt - which traditionally should be warm and comfy and serene soothing - and making it scream. Like this one:

Click on it if you dare - S calls this one "Migraine." He keeps suggesting that one day we'll do a gallery show of all my work and as the colors will no doubt induce seizures, we'll have to call it "Aneurysm." Shya. Migraine got me noticed in the art community. Yet something tells me the quilting community wouldn't have been so interested.

All right, enough of the glory days. You've been wondering what's been going on with the au pair, right? Right?

Gisele couldn't get a visa, so we're still without a live-in sitter. Ticiana, however, already has a visa and is on her way. As in, next week! Her flight comes in on Tuesday! Of course, S will be away so I'll have to coordinate picking her up and helping her settle in on my own, but just the thought of finally having some full-time backup is just delightful. Tici and I have exchanged emails and my gut tells me she's a perfect fit for our family. I honestly can't wait. People keep asking me if I worry about our privacy and I have to chuckle. Because until I can pee, sleep, shower and eat with any regularity, privacy will remain a fleeting luxury anyway. That and when the hubs is gone, the nights get really, really long - anyone whose spouse travels will tell you that when you're alone with the kids you go on heightened alert and even if the babies are sleeping, that slight increase in adrenaline will keep you up anyway. Another adult presence in the home should take care of that.

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What about my health, you ask? What happened to that treatment you were supposed to start?
Sigh - talk about anti-climactic - I had a checkup last Thursday: my counts were normal.
Yes, you read that right: normal. You can't be ordering a $750,000-a-year drug if your counts aren't abnormal. So the issue has been tabled for now. We'll of course watch for negative trends. My blood has done this before - now and again my marrow will prevail and my blood will venture into "healthy" territory. Keeping it there is the trick ~ wish I knew how.

Still Rolling

When the twins were still in utero; back when my biggest issue was (ha!) caring for Smacky while attempting some semblance of bedrest, I promised my nephew a crayon roll. During that time when I was making a slew of them, I mistakenly thought Daniel was too big for one. As it turns out, not at all -he'd actually love one. So I apologized and assured him he shall have one. That was six months ago. He's waited patiently and so, is very deserving of this:

To accomodate 12 larger-sized twistie crayons, I altered measurements found in Cindy's tutorial. And I'm pleased with the results:

Of course, no posting of mine would be complete without the gratuitous child photo:

The transition to solids is really starting to make a difference around here - a good one at that. The light at the end of our tunnel grows brighter every day...I think we might actually make it.

My New Look

You likey? Me likey. I tried on one of Typepad's prefabbed blog themes and decided to wear it for a while. I mean, as much as I love purple and all, even I was getting sick of all those colors.

And now, for the reason you really came here. Pics!

Simon gets all buggy-eyed when he gets excited.

This pic is old already! Auntie Sue came to visit what - 4, 5 weeks ago? Look at Smacky checking her out.

Uncle Todd came to visit not too long after.

This is the view out the side of our family's lake house in NH. I can't wait for October for leaf peeping- the views become magnificent!

Simon was fascinated by my NY Times Sunday Crosswords book - the black and white grids just mesmerized him.

Smacky himself chillin in his crib.

Lemme tell ya it's not easy extracting little baby boogers out of little baby nostrils...I've given up trying.

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We've got fairly good tickets to the Sox game Friday night. We should be happy, right? Huh. Ophelia's forecasted to pour on us...