Lucky

My little man is playing in the sprinkler in our back yard. He's happy and healthy and cute as he can be. His daddy is playing with him, splashing him, lifting him into the streams of water. I'm the luckiest woman in the world right now. Jareth is sticking his little tongue out and drinking from the water that squirts out of the brightly  colored beach ball. Thank you Little Tikes for making this so much fun. He's drenched in water now, gurgling unintelligable words into th water. Our dog, Jack, laps up the water from the grass. I sit in a chair happily watching..... I'm the luckiest woman in the world....

I want Sunshine

Jon and I made it back from Hawaii safe and sound and only slightly sun burnt. We had a great time despite the fact that the first few days were rainy. Sadly though, we came back to a very chilly east TN. It's 56 and cloudy today and I'm not happy about it. I miss my shorts and bathing suit already. Don't get me wrong, I love east TN and all but looking back at our sunny pictures of Oahu is making me sick. (You can see them here.) Maybe looking into next years vacation will make me feel better!?! Where oh where will we go? Any suggestions?

DIY Mother's Day Gift

If we call you "Mimi" STOP right here!!!! No Peaking! You have to wait until tomorrow!

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For Mother's Day this year I decided to go DIY. I wanted to give my mom something different that I know she will love instead of spending money on something impersonal like a gift card. So, what does mom love? Scrapbooking, photography, plants, and of course Jareth. So I made her a "picture tree." I wish I would have taken photos along the way but I only thought to do this after I had made the final product. But here is how I did it.

Materials:
Some sort of planter in a fun bright color
Foam floral ball that will fit in your planter
Fake Moss
1 Sheet of scrapbook paper (or use 2 different colors)
Ribbon
Scrapbooking embellishments
Glue
Several of your favorite photos
Clothes pins
Tree branch of equal weight on both sides (fake or real will work, I used a real one)

Instuctions:
Stuff the foam ball into your planter tight so that it won't come out
Insert your branch into the center of the ball
Cover the foam ball with moss
Using clothes pins, pin photos to the branch trying to spread them out so that the entire branch is covered
Cut one small and one large square out of the scrapbook paper
Fold the small piece of paper in half and cut out a half flower design so that when it is opened you have a whole flower
Repeat with larger square of paper
Glue the smaller flower on top of the bigger flower to create depth and texture
Decorate the center of your flower and your branches with scrapbook embellishments
Glue your flower to the front of the planter
Tie a pretty ribbon to the handle of your planter

Up, up, and away!

     Hawaii is just around the corner! In 48 hrs we will be living it up at the Moana Surfrider in beautiful Oahu. Thankfully, Jareth is over his virus so mommy can leave without any worry too much worry. It's definitely going to be hard to leave him for eight days but I know he will be in great hands. Plus there is always Skype! Maybe I should be more worried about the amount of de-spoiling I will have to do when we get back.
     I hope to blog each day we are in Oahu as kind of a journal of our activities. (One day I'm going to have to print this whole thing off) There will be plenty of pictures to come in this and on my photo blog. So if anyone out there is reading, be sure to check back. Back to packing for this gal.

Poor, Pitiful Baby

My little monkey is so sick right now. I've never seen him so puny. On Saturday he woke up a little grumpy but he was more or less fine. We went to the park, where he played happily, and afterward went for some icecream. It was there that a switch flipped inside him. He wanted nothing to do with icecream and whined and pouted until we left. I assumed he was just sleepy as his eyes glazed over in the back seat and he slid down into car seat limply. Once we got home we realized how hot his head and trunk were. His temperature was 103.5 and his breathing seemed labored. A dose of tylenol and a call to his ped nurse later, he was given a lukewarm bath and lots of fluids and put to bed. His temp got up to 104.5 even with the tylenol and around 10:00pm he vomitted. We went to emergency care hours at his ped office on Sunday. He was miserable. All he wanted to do was sleep on his daddy's chest in the exam room and he lost it several times. I didn't think he was ever going to recover from his finger prick. They also did a strep test which, thankfully, came out negative. However, the doctor said he may have Roseola . I know, it sounds primitive and I wasn't sure what it was exactly. And she said that we won't know if that is what it is until he breaks out in a rash all over his body. Great. Since Saturday, his temperature hasn't been below 101.0. He has had a few moments of play but he mostly just lays against me. The doctor seemed to think whatever it is should only last 3-4 days so I'm hoping that by Friday he will be back to 100%. We leave for Oahu Saturday morning. eeeeeek!




Here he is at the doctor. It is so out of character for him to be so clingy.



Here he is now, beside me.