Life is tough...

My poor Lydia. It all started 2 1/2 weeks ago. She got pinkeye and we didn't even think it was pinkeye, so she suffered 2 whole days with it until we took her in. Things were going good, until the 10th day of her medicine...She developed a rash. And not just a little spot on her arm, but an all-over-the-body rash with little red bumps. She was really uncomfortable, so I took her in right away to our regular dr. and he figured it was an allergy to the medicine that has amoxicillin in it. Nice. So she possibly is allergic to penicillin. Nice.
We were told to stop taking the medicine and let it run its course. Fast forward a few days (late last week), and she developed pinkeye yet again! So another trip to the dr, and he was a little shocked that she still had the rash, that it was worse than 2 days before, and also has pinkeye again. This time she got eyedrops. Wow. If you have never given a 16 month old eyedrops, you are lucky. It's just not that fun, I'll leave it at that.
By Saturday this poor child has a nasty rash, pinkeye, and then developed a low grade fever on top of it all.
Things didn't get any better on monday when I was busy yapping on the phone in our bedroom and in the next room, Lydia climbed halfway up her dresser when it fell over ON TOP OF HER! It was so surreal to me when I ran in there, throwing dresser drawers off of her. She cried so hard, but didn't even end up with a bruise. So scary.
Yesterday we went to the dr again so he could see how her rash was, and I explained how she's had a little fever, but otherwise fine. He checked her over and found out she has an ear infection. I'm so glad that there was an explination for all of this. Hopefully this new medicine will work for her and she'll be back to her normal goofy self in a couple days!

film photography

I wanted to share a couple of pictures that I used for my final project for my photo class. These were from a series of 5 pictures that represented the farm that I grew up at and how it's aged. I chose to just show these pictures because they were chosen by my instructor to be shown at a summer exhibit at the college! I have 17 other images from this class, which is way to many to post in one day, but maybe some other time. There was a lot of great work from our class and also a lot of pride went into making the prints. It was a lot of fun to see the improvement we made in our printing skills as well as the photography itself. I made a few friends and learned a lot from our master instructor. I will definitely miss this class, but I'm glad I have these few "souveniers" to remember.

So it must be the season to dust off my camera. It's been sitting on the shelf collecting dust for the last, oh, 5 months or so! That's terrible. My girls are growing and I'm not even getting it recorded. But things will change soon. I'm going to get it out and start taking more pictures because I just haven't wanted to during this winter. Sure I've had to take pictures for class, but that is for assignments, not completely for fun, and not for myself.
I just love this one with Lydia and her big cousin reading a book together. It was a very sweet moment.

It's been kind of crazy around here, I had 2 wedding showers and a bachelorette party last weekend! I know, all in one weekend! But now it is all over until the weddings, which will be a complete blast, I cannot wait.
Nate has been busy with yard work, me with school work, and we're trying to finish up our bedroom. We tore it all apart and we're going to paint this weekend, then soon carpeting and then move back in. (Cassidy has moved in with Lydia and we moved in her room, so I'm anxious to get back to normal.) I'll show before/after pictures when we're all done. It will be great.
In the last month or so I've decided to quit being a Stampin up Demonstrator. It's been a great 5 1/2 years and I will certainly miss it (I think mom will miss it more than me!). I've decided I need to concentrate on classes/artwork and my family, because time has been tight around here, and this is quite an adjustment. I'm hoping to get some time after this semester is finished (5 1/2 weeks!!) to work on our scrapbooks. I'm falling so far behind :(
Maybe I'll post more pictures in a couple weeks, otherwise, I'll be back next month...

Hapy Valentimes!

like the title? Cassie called valentine's: ValentiMes. funny.
Here's Lydia with her valentine sunglasses. She is quite a ham.
We had a good valentine's. Nate took us (me & the girls) shopping all afternoon & out to dinner and some more shopping in the evening! I cannot remember the last time I have been to rochester for no reason. It was quite relaxing and we ended up spending a wad because everything was on sale. almost bought a new computer too, but decided to wait for something bigger & better.

School is going good, in case you are wondering. Fall Semester I received a 4.0-the first in my life I can proudly say. And Yes, I am bragging. My brother in law calls me a nerd now. HA! I'm currently taking a math course (the first of 4) and I'm getting a 105%, and yes, bragging again :) But it really has everything to do with the teacher. She is wonderful and I hope I can get her again next semester.

Nate's job is great. They have been busy. I was concerned for awhile, but he reassured me that the only way he would probably lose his job is if the place burned down. Even then, the president would probably have something for him to do. So he's doing fine.

The girls are doing good too. We have been doing ECFE activities and they seem to enjoy daycare.

I think we're all anxious for spring. I received my Gurney's catalog the other day and have flipped through it about 4 times, dreaming of summer. It will be a great summer this year!

roller skating

Last weekend we took the girls roller skating! We weren't really sure how Cassidy would handle herself, and if she fell, we didn't know if she would give up (like she usually does), but she didn't care! She fell, she got up, and skated some more.



This was a proud mommy moment. Towards the end she was able to skate on her own! She was proud as well.

And of course, Lydia had to get in on the action. I had a hard time containing her while everyone was skating. She kept darting off, so we walked around and around several times. Then daddy took her around with him a few times. We thought that if they had skates small enough for Lydia, she would have skated too!

it's been...

It's been different around here. Quite different. I wouldn't say a complete 180, but maybe 90. You can probably tell I've been too busy to update this blog since the last post was on the 1st of the month. I have added an extra class to my schedule, so I'm now working on 9 credits this semester which includes Algebra (yuk), an online class (which takes a LOT of self motivation), and a photography class (we only work in black & white FILM) (and I think I'm going to LOVE it). So needless to say, there has been a ton of homework. (by ton, I mean about 95% more homework than last semester). So that is a huge adjustment for me. There is also the adjustment for my family. The girls are in daycare for nearly 2 whole days now since I'm taking classes during the day instead of evening classes. (and Cassie has finally decided to eat and drink at daycare now, thank goodness.) But it's been great to be home in the evenings too.
In addition to all of the school stuff, the girls were sick for awhile earlier this month, and me-I've been sick the whole month and have had a cough since early December. I'm so dang sick of being sick. (that has become my new motto)
So if you've emailed me a while ago and haven't gotten a reply yet, now you know why. And I'm so sorry that I've been terrible at emailing.
And since I hate posting without a picture, here is a sunset that has been sitting on my camera from 2 weeks ago.

Lydia's First Birthday

Last weekend my baby turned 1 year old. We had a party for her with all of the family and cousins here to celebrate. Her birthday was on Saturday but the party was Sunday, but I felt she needed to dig into a cake on her actual birthday, so we bought a twinkie at the gas station: It was devoured in seconds.

Classic Lydia.
She loved ripping off the paper. It helped that she had some practice from all of the Christmas presents days before.
She wasn't sure if she should touch her special cake.
But it didn't take her long to figure it out and make a mess!