A Hodgepodge post

I wanted to update on the 2peas situation, since someone asked about it. For some reason, their server was blocking a slew of peas' IP addresses. It was seemingly random. After I talked to them, they told me to call my internet service provider, which I didn't do, because I knew it was on their end. A few days later, I could magically get on the site again. Spiffy. ;) Actually, I do really like it there. They like my cakes.

Yesterday, I was putting a bracelet on Aubriana, standard procedure for whenever we leave the house or I get her a new outfit. She looked up at me and said, "Bracelet," and held out her wrist. I could not believe it! She enunciated each letter too. I got her to say it later at Melissa's house, so I'm not crazy and she's said it more than once. It's sooooo cute! She loves her pretty bracelets.

The other day I heard Maxton and Xander playing. Xander was proposing some exciting senario involving dinosaurs. Maxton was more skeptical. He said, "I don't think we have the experience for that." Brawhahaha!

In other news, here's a recent clip of Griffin being a total goofball. I just learned how to do this. Yay!

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Aubrey's First Birthday

We had Aubriana's birthday party yesterday. I'm trying not to cry that she is one today. It just doesn't seem possible that my last baby is growing up so quickly. She is pretty cute though, so I guess I'll keep her even though she is growing up.

After searching the web high and low for the perfect cake, I decided to go with a ladybug theme. It just seemed to fit Aubrey. I hobbled a bunch of ideas together and then added my own touches.

She loved her cake. She was so excited the first time I showed it to her, pointing and cooing and reaching for it. She's getting expressive with everything and babbling all the time, in addition to saying words and sometimes sentences. "What's that?" accompanied with a pointed finger was a favorite for a while recently.

David helped her blow out her candle. She makes the funniest faces. She loved us singing Happy Birthday and even started dancing with the music.

After that, she got very messy with eating her cake. For a while when we put the ladybug on her tray, she just touched it softly and cooed at it. David had to help her by breaking the ladybug's head off. Then she tried to put the whole thing into her mouth. The funniest was watching her grab a fist full of ice cream and holding on to it while shivering and making faces from the cold. Grandma gave her a fork at the end. She thought that was pretty cool.
Then it was time to open presents, after a quick bath in Grandma's sink. She thought the presents were pretty cool. She got some shorts and a shirt, an animal puzzle (right now, Old MacDonald Had a Farm is her favorite song), a baby doll, one of those donut baby towers (I have no idea of the proper name of that toy, despite it being a classic, and from the Blairs, a CareBear, which she adores. See pics below. Maddy really liked the bear too. She tried to tell me that Aubriana didn't like it so she should have it. :)


It was a great party.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

There's nothing like an idiot on roller blades

So, David bought roller blades for himself and for me for his birthday, so we could go together. I haven't been on roller blades in years, although I owned a pair when they first came out. David hasn't ever been. Well, we decided yesterday for our date that we will drive to the mouth of Provo Canyon and then skate to the movie theater to see Iron Man. David bought me some knee pads, elbow pads and wrist pads, but I decided I didn't need them because we were going to take it very easy, since it was our first time out.

We get to the mouth of the canyon and strap on our roller blades. I was a bit worried about getting on the trail. It's a steep incline with a smallish gate at the bottom, but I figured I would be ok. I'd take it slow. Well, I start down the hill, so does David. We're picking up speed alarmingly fast. David veers off to the left to hit a guardrail to slow himself down. I'm thinking about hitting the chain link fence to stop myself, but it looks sharp at the top. I'm afraid to use my brake because I'm thinking it will knock me off balance, so I decide to take my chances through the gate.

Except when I get close, I see that it there is a lumpy dip between the asphalt and the cement of the bridge. I panic. There is no way I can time it to step over it, I'm going too fast and I'm way out of practice. I realize this as I go over it. Then I feel my feet slip out from underneath me. They fly up into the air, I can feel my body hovering for what feel like eternity and no time at all at the same time. Just before I slam down, flat on my back, I think, "Crap, the backpack has slid up and it's not underneath me." It had my shoes in it and I would have much rather landed on the backpack, even with its lumpy load. I lay there, stunned, as a biker who was just behind me rides through the gap and asks if I'm ok. I gasp out a yes, which is a total lie. I realize that my body has flown much further than I would have imagined, since he has room to go through the gate and around me. It's a narrow gate.

David gets there and after a few moments, I'm able to get up. I have road rash on my left palm and road rash over a nasty bruise on my elbow. The worst is my back. All night I couldn't breathe from whatever I did to my ribcage. It's much better today. I have a nasty red mark all the way down my back and it is so sore. I also ended up with a migraine from the tension of holding my neck up. I'm so lucky I didn't hit my head.

It's hard to stop on roller blades. I hate that back brake. Before we go out again, David and I are donning those blessed knee, elbow and wrist pads, going to a nice, level park to practice braking.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

In case you haven't seen me recently

About a month ago, I decided to cut my hair. I've been thinking about it for ages and decided it was time. I chopped about 8 inches off and I love it! I can't believe how fast it dries and how easy it is to comb and take care of. Humm, and looking at these pictures again, I've gotten way better at styling it too.

Here's the pics of my new 'do.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

I've Been Spoiled

In case you didn't notice, yesterday was Mother's Day. It also nicely coincided with the Stimulus Checks. I don't think I've ever been so spoiled. The kid's made me cards, but I also got Dance Dance Revolution (ok, I got that one early, a few weeks ago. I love it and if I hadn't been sick for over a week, it would have got a lot more use) with two pads. I got a dinner at Olive Garden. I got a bunch of new beads from Fire Mountain Gems (love that place!). I got a new makeup container. It's a caboodle. Can you believe those things are still around? They are much cuter now. Although I just went to their website and apparently my generation is suffering from a bad case of nostalgia because they "offer the classic plastic cosmetic organizers from the '80s in sizzling hot colors." Hopeful, caboodles will not be followed by the return of the '80s bangs. I can't take that much nostalgia. I also got some gift certificates to See's, some makeup brushes (score! maybe it will help with my sadly lacking makeup application skills. I don't know why with my artistic nature, I'm not better at it), and Stephenie Meyer's new book, The Host, which I read yesterday while I spent most of the day in bed with the worst migraine of my life. The headache was bad, the book was very interesting. Not the kind of cult classic that Twilight is (by the way, I saw the movie teaser trailer and I'm willing to just skip to Dec 18 right now), but still better written than Twilight and extremely interesting characters and plot. Despite the migraine, I had a wonderful Mother's Day.

Oh yeah, and my new computer comes today too.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

A little update on my last post

I called my sister to get on 2peas and see if my posts were still there. They are. I was able to log in from her computer and created a service ticket asking what was up. Hopefully they will get back to me! I still have PMs from a few people that I haven't replied to and that is really bugging me.

I cleared the cache and cookies on both our computers, but I still can't get to 2peas. I just don't know what to think. :P

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

I think I've been banned!

I'm not sure what to think! I've been going to a website, twopeasinabucket.com, since Xander was first born. Yep, over five years now. It's the best place on the web to find anything you want to know about scrapbooking. It's where I picked up all sorts of tips and tricks, where I found great deals and most importantly, where I'd been going for support with my depression.

I haven't been able to get on for over a week. I chalked it up to the website being down, although it's never been down for that long. I was missing it, especially because I'd started a thread about how hard it is to keep my house clean with depression and I'd received a ton of support, suggestions and email and I was eager to go check. I was reading elsewhere on the web and someone mentioned being on 2peas recently, and then I realized that the site wasn't down, that something else was going on here!

I can't think of why I'd be banned, other than I created an alternate ID. I used it to get support when I was first trying to get help for my depression. I'd been blasted a few times on there, especially being in the published scrapbooking arena, you can come up against a lot of harsh criticism and I didn't feel like I could mentally take anything negative being said when I was in such a delicate mental state. I'm feeling much stronger now and had transitioned into using my regular id to post about my concerns.

I'm not sure what to think. On the one hand, I think it's kind of funny that I might have been banned, especially considering the crap that goes on there that I was never party to. I can't believe I might have done something so against the rules as to get me banned. Not, good, little, conformist Kara! On the other hand, I'm upset because I did nothing wrong, I've been a member for a long, long time and I didn't get an email or notification or anything. I'm also thinking that maybe it's just a mistake? 2peas is notorious for uneven and even unjust moderating--threads that should get pulled stay while others get pulled for very little reason.

Or maybe there's something wacky going on with both our computers? Weird.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.