A week ago we got up and went to Mom's group. Did it again today. As usual, G got stepped on and fallen on. Poor girl needs to get those knees up under her so she can fight back!
I had an interesting weekend and week (so far). I heard from two old friends, one of them is pregnant and the other, well she saw some old pictures of us and googled me and because I am all over a google-search, found and wrote me. The weird thing about this gal, well Kylene and I were discussing her while I was over there this summer. You know the old: whatever happened to so-and-so anyway? I had googled her years ago with no success (Lee never tried because she never knew how to spell her name...). But there you go. I love that you can find me in a google search, I love that I've had two old friends find me that way. How cool is that?
Besides these two friends popping up from nowhere, my head has been a whirring mechanical machine, trying to get all of the stuff that is going on in there organized. Yes, when it rains it pours, whether good or bad, but the stuff pouring down now has the potential to be very good, and it also has the potential to be a complete and total disaster/disappointment.
I'm afraid I've taken like one set of pictures in the past two weeks. I hate bad weather, makes me not want to get out the camera. And then there were the first few days of the week after a weekend of WALKING. G spent Monday and Tuesday whining, screaming, crying and throwing tantrums because I refused to walk with her. We might have been over it by Tuesday if her daddy hadn't come home Monday night and WALKED WITH HER AGAIN. So when she started screaming bloody murder on Tuesday afternoon, I called him and just said: LISTEN. and he said: 'ok' and hasn't walked with her since and we've had a nice couple of days.
As for G herself, still scooching, not pulling up, sitting up or crawling. just scooching, spinning in cicles on her belly, turning in circles on her bum, playing ball etc. Actually, we did finally get out the VR over the weekend and got her recordered doing all those things...Might have sven try hooking the VR back up to the computer and seeing if I can get any of the footage transferred. Don't have high hopes for it though...
Watched Four movies in the past week as well (all but one without Sven, so I'll be rewatching most of them). My favorite was A Love Song for Bobby Long. I cried. This is what happened: I rented 'ShopGirl' (stupid movie) and it had trailers for P.S. & A Love Song for Bobby Long on it. So I rented those two as well. So yah, watched 'House of Sand and Fog', 'The Grudge', 'P.S.' & 'A Love Song for Bobby Long' oh - and 'Lady and the Tramp'. And yes, still reading.
Currently listening to: To The Teeth By Ani DiFranco
First, Jessica asked a while back whether G was bathing on the balcony or in a swimming pool. It's a swimming pool. Teeny, she just fits in it. This is really too bad because it means she only got to use it once and it won't fit her when the weather gets warm again.
And for Sybille and Kim about Memoirs of a Geisha. I personally enjoyed it quite a bit. I had issues with the love-story-line. I thought it was stupid that she'd wait her whole life for a man that much older than her and only to become his mistress, but that was for me, beside the point. I really loved the historical facts in the book. I loved reading about such a very different culture. I loved the stuff about training to become a Geisha, the glimpses of a Japanese city I'll never see. I thought the characters were real, I lived with Sayuri, I felt her pains and I seethed at the injustices. So yes, I liked the book. I kept thinking on it after I was done, and that's always (for me) a sign of a good book. The love story was silly, but the rest I truly enjoyed.
Mom's group today - no one fell on Georgia so I count it a successful visit. The youngest gal of our group is pg again. It will be the 2nd. I know that another gal is trying for the 2nd and I'm just overwhelmed at the thought, but at the same time, starting to feel that twinge of jealousy, especially as it was apparently SO very easy for M. to conceive. Like, first try. But I'm not there yet. Their kiddos are all 14 months, G is only 10.5! There is plenty of time! Besides, I can't imagine willfull, temper-throwing G., stepping down to let someone else have some of the attention she demands from us daily.
I know, I know. where have I been? Life is boring, what can I say? I've been reading - oh yes, you read me right: READING! In the past two weeks I have read:
Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life
The Honk and Holler Opening Soon
Memoirs of a Geisha
The Birth of Venus
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.
This is such a big step for me, I haven't been able to read anything since Georgia was born! Now she sometimes lets me read next to her on the floor while she plays (for all of 10 mins). AND, my concentration has improved. Yay Me.
The weather has been horrid. Grey, cold, wet. Not really the kind of weather that makes you go: Oh! I want to take pictures. So I haven't. Not since we went to the zoo.
Georgia has discovered the DSL box in the computer room. This morning she kept reaching for it (she pulls it and disconnects the internet) so I told her 'no' about ten times. She'd look up when I said it and stop what she was doing. Then as soon as I looked away, she was reaching for it again. So I got up and moved her across the room. Twice. The third time she stayed put and threw the biggest Temper Tantrum yet. Screamed bloody murder. It was loud. Her throat probably hurt afterward. She has quite a set of lungs on her.
Mom's group tomorrow - only three of us, should be pretty low-key. No one to fall on top of her...
Went to the Zoo today (hellabrun). No animal pics, because well, that's boring right? we've all seen animal pics hundreds of times before so let's look at new Georgie pics instead? Of course, if you really want, I'll upload animal pics, I've edited and scrapped them already, so it's not too much trouble. Georgie had a great time. Loved the primates. Fell asleep right when we got to the petting zoo...that's what happens when you're too excited to sleep ALL. DAY. LONG. Sven and I sat down with her and both dozed off ourselves while she was sleeping. Oops. Major sign that it's time to go home, eh?
Sorry for being so short, I find it hard to write when someone is watching over my shoulder...ahem, SVEN!
Just an info: we did go to Hellabrun last year the weekend before G was born and I bloth blogged and shared animal photos: here
Wow,
the last week has been insanely busy. Funny how you have a while of dead-time
and then all at once you are busy busy busy...The week after mom left we were
dead, emotionally, physically and socially. Our only plans were to go to Mom's
Group on Thursday (which we did) and clean up the place for the weekend visitors
(which we -I- mostly did).
For some reason, I was expecting Ines Friday late-afternoon so was surprised
when she said she'd be there by noon or so.
Had a fabulous
time chatting with her - that woman is full of energy and spunk. Plus, she brought
me goodies just because I offered to bring her stuff back from the states -
stuff she'd bought herself. There was so no need for goodies, but she did anyway
and now I have an awesome 8x8 SEI album (Grandpa's Attic - yum!) and then she
shared half of her Anna Griffen tablet with me. How cool is that? She couldn't
stay long and after some chatting and Georgie-time, we went and had lunch at
the Thai place down the street. We got there just before they were closing lunch
but the owner (?) offered to make us our meals, do the bill and take off to
shop while we stayed and ate - and even better - he subbed tofu for chicken
on one of the dishes for me and when Georgie grabbed Ines's bowl of peanutsauce
and spilled it all over the tablecloth, he ran up and cleaned up the mess without
a complaint.
Ines had to go
after lunch - bummer and we spent the rest of the evening waiting for Daddy
to come home and leaving yet anothe rmessage with Andrea. Saturday morning Andrea
called back and said we could come visit that evening if we wanted (yes!) and
meet Anne. Finally! Anne is adorable, has her mommy's big blue eyes and blonde
hair and was just a sweety the whole time (where did we go wrong?!). Plus BONUS
- they have a cat. Georgia loves her a good cat whose tail she can chase! Andrea
loved the nightgowns we brought - couldn't wait to dress Anne in them.
Sunday
morning at 6:30 we were at the trainstation to pick up Ellen
who had come in from Prague the night before. Big YAWNS on all sides! And guess
what? Ellen brought me goodies too - for no reason whatsoever! I scored a new
set of HS journaling spots - which G promptly stole.
Kept Ellen busy
with chatting, chatting and more chatting. Came home and had pancakes for breakfast
(original plan was to go out for breakfast, but as she got in at 6:30am and
all the restaurants opened by 9am at the earliest, we had to scratch that plan)
and then talked, shared, talked, played with G, talked some more, shared photos
and projects and stories...eventually went out to dinner at Alter Wirt where
Ellen had the Putensteak (I swear, everytime we go, my American guests get the
putensteak) and I had the Gemüserösti. I wanted fries though, so ordered
them on the side and got a bowl of burnt crispy brown things. hmmmm.
Ellen stayed through
Monday and we had lasagne and walked to the bakery for dessert and then took
her to the busstation so she could take a BUS to Sarajevo that night. Insane,
I'd never do it.
On another note,
check out G's hair! No, it's not turned red in the past weeks, but it is definitely
growing, and the longer it gets, the more obvious it becomes, that she's going
to have either curls or waves...We first noticed it back when we had actual
hot, summer weather (as you can see by recent pics, we seem to have lost summer
somewhere and jumped right into Fall, despite it being August) when she would
get a sweaty head and her hair would stick to it and curl. However, the waves
you see in this picture are just there - she did not have her hair wet, it was
dry and slept-on and still shows curls. So she will be cursed/blessed with voluminous
hair at some point! I can't wait until she has funny clown tufts above each
ear...
So Ellen left last
night and this morning at 7:30am, Liz and Julia came over to spend the day.
Georgia squeeked at Julia as if she were a cat, and tried to pet her head and
pull her leg (no tail) and eventually stuck her finger in her mouth. Julia was
very good about it and grinned at Georgia and couldn't take her eyes off her
- at least, for the hour or so today she was actually awake! That little girlie
was tired!
Now
tomorrow is Mom's Group and then we are done with our busy week. We have nothing
planned for the weekend, or Friday and I'm going to have adjust again, as will
Georgia who did a fabulous job with each of the women she was put into close
contact with the past week. The only person who made her cry was Patrick when
he came to pick up Liz and Julia this afternoon. She just couldn't help it,
he was so big and dark and male...
So
since G slept awfully last night and our morning started early with visitors,
I think it is time to end this entry and get my bum in bed so I'll be ready
for mom's group tomorrow morning. I'll just leave you with two more pictures
and a link to the newest at flickr:
Oh,
and before I check out completely, be on the watch tomorrow for a video of G! One more thing - my apologies to those of you who get email notices or read me at bloglines - I just edited this post about ten times...so you'll have that many Emails or notices from me...
Current
Earworm: "Jimmy crack corn, and I don't care, my master's gone away!"
Seriously,
I promise to write again soon. We've been insane here, Ines on Friday, Andrea
on Saturday, Ellen Sun-Mon, Holiday on Tuesday and Liz is coming on Wednesday.
It's been good, just exhausting. In the meantime, I'm sending you elsewhere
for recent pics of Georgia: Ellen
posted a bit about being here (while she was here) and loaded some pics of G
to her flickr account. So please go take a look!
(I don't think
we really showed E a good time...no going out on the town, the farthest we went
was the restaurant down the street towards Putzbrunn and the bakery down the
street towards Ottobrunn - yum, cake - which is a nightmare vacation for Sven,
but I think, *hope* E had an okay time just laughing at G's general goofiness...)
She STOLE that mushroom
when my back was turned...!
Okay, a seriously quick update in form of a layout:
(supplies are by Tracy Robinson from her new Streetware Collection - coming soon from scrapbookbytes.com)
No, not crawling, YES ON. THE. MOVE. It started with Heidi Swapp foam stamps. I was sitting across the room scrapping on the floor, HOPING that I could somehow entice her...eventually she did come over and then she saw the stamps and started chasing them - I'd move them a bit away, she'd go after them...and we've been working on it since. She hates it. She'd rather I did it for her. stubborn bub. she's up from her nap - out!
For anyone who might have missed it, Zane's 3rd anniversary was on the 23rd of July. I didn't write an entry for a number of reasons, we had only arrived back home the day before and were still jet-lagged, Georgia made it hard to stop and spend time on Zane, and we went to visit Patrick, Liz and Julia and ended up eating Zane's cake in a Biergarten.
I've still not had time to stop and reflect. I think I would prefer to spend that day alone with Sven than with others. I thought it would be good that way, having others there reaffirming Zane's existance, but instead, I felt like I had to suppress any true feelings that wanted to come out. It didn't feel right.
The day after, I received an awesome card from Cara - it was the first HAPPY birthday card I'd ever rec'd for him. I love it, and when I get around to making his layout this year, the card will be included.
She loves on this
cat like you wouldn't believe. Why wouldn't you believe? Because she doesn't
give any human hugs like that. She's not a cuddler and wriggles free whenever
she can, but boy does she love hugging that cat.
The cat obession
started when she met Underdog and Mody, since then if she sees stuffed cats
(or real cats, or pictures of cats...) she oohs and reaches for them (she squeeks
when she sees dogs, but does not reach for them). So her Grandma bought her
a stuffed cat when we were out one day. We decided it was a good buy when she
held the cat throughout the whole store and didn't even want to give it up to
pay. Later that day, the cat proceeded to soothe her at least twice after she
fell and bonked her head.
The cat is the
first thing she wants in the mornings, she greets it with a squeal and a hug
and then drops it and moves on to other toys. If you want to laugh and marvel
at how she hugs it, all you need to do is meow at her. I'm serious!
... .
So I'm reading
this book, this book that I have heard praised to the highest of praise gods
by many many scrapbookers with blogs. I took their word for it, I remember when
"The Time Traveler's Wife" made the scrapbooking blog-round
and was raved over. That time, I'd bought the book first, and loved it, and
so thought all these women agree with me, cool. This time, I took their word
for it and bought the above mentioned book. I won't say that the book is bad,
in fact, it is quite entertaining and witty, but it is not the life-revealing/changing
book that so many scrapbookers seem to claim it is and so I wonder: what's all
the hype about? Is it becuase this author is affirming the scrapbooker's way
of life? The 'scrap the ordinary' doctrine? And because she herself is not a
scrapbooker, but a successful author, does that make her word better than a
scrapbooker's?
In other books,
I have also flipped/skimmed through Cathy Zielske's new book and have to say:
pure inspiration. This book deserves highest praise and raves. It is not just
eye candy, it makes you want to drop EVERYthing and scrap. My only issue with
it is the obvious plugs for other books by the publisher...I don't have a great
deal of time to actually read magazines, or books in magazine form (my reading
is done while putting G down in a lay-down position, mags & large books
are too awkward for this), so I haven't gotten to read all her words - yet.
I will find the time. In the meantime, I acutally got up and took some self-photos
of me (nothing recent of just me alone) in the mirror. Never did that before.
weird. you finally get a picture of you that shows you the same backwards face
you look at in the mirror every day. It's a picture you cannot dislike. All
this, in order to scrap two pages about myself (no, I have never had a problem
doing stuff about myself) that Cathy had in her book. I loved the design, I
loved the colors, I loved the idea. I want to create. I am however, in the middle
of an album for G - a real album, with paper and real pictures and lots of glue,
and my workspace is so messy, I can't even imagine starting a new project without
finishing the old. Hard. By the time I can work on the new project, I will have
lost the momentum.
Current Earworm:
blissfully quiet in there tonight
Recent
Reads (& re-reads): (yes
I like to keep a running tally, there is nothing worse than not remembering
the name of tha fabulous book you read back in XXXX and therefore not being
able to re-read it!)
(obviously
not everything as my iPod already has 3GB of space eaten up!)
Ani Difranco
Black-Eyed Peas
Loreena McKennit
The Indigo Girls
Gorillaz
Dar Williams
Jack Johnson
Eminem
Photoshop TV
Dido
Beth Hart
