a few more....

Happy Thanksgiving!

sorry its been so long! i got a new computer finally and just uploaded a ton of pictures! these are from yesterday and last week. I want to take some craft photos like the wreath I made yesterday, because I made Madeleine a really cute candy cane dress and some fabulous mantle decorations! Enjoy!

sugar

Today Madi said to me: "mommy, you make me feel better."
and yesterday morning when we woke up, she looked over at me and said,
"i love your eyes."

I think i got a really sweet one...

Raspberry Girl with Bed Head

i think i need to get madi this shirt.

she is obsessed with taking pictures! if i ever need to make a business call or email, i just hand her the camera and off she goes.

pool par-tay + madis point of view!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LITTLE PIXIE!!!

madi is 2 today! she woke up to find a vase on the dining room table with 2 goldfish in it. we will be trying to come up with names for them today. any ideas?

what next? i can take it!

So if you haven't talked to me lately I would love to fill you in on why i an sitting here at my computer, madi napping for the first time in days, and why a very unpleasant aroma is wafting past my nose.

It all began a week and a half ago when i just couldn't bear the smell down in the basement by the washer and dryer. andrew looked everywhere for a dead mouse (or cat) which is what i was expecting. but found nothing. i sent him back out to look, and after opening a little window under the back of the house, he found the source of the nastiness. a lake of sewer water sitting in the crawl space.

nothing was turning out to be easy since the sewer cleanup people couldn't get in there. so we had to empty out the pinball room. (not an easy task) they pry-bared up the wood floors and ran the poop hose through our house to the room. we left before that began and first stayed with tammy for two nights and then we stayed in a hotel in ocean city NJ trying to make the best of being displaced. It rained almost the whole time. but we did go the aquarium and rain forest cafe on the Atlantic city boardwalk which was different.

it was just too depressing to stay down the shore in the off season any longer plus andrew had to get back to philly for work. so we stayed downtown philly at the sheraton for the next 3 nights. we should have stayed longer since there still isn't a floor in the pinball room and the pinball machines are in our bedroom. oh and like i said, still an unpleasant aroma.

we were supposed to have madeleines 2 year birthday party here tomorrow, but i just postponed it til Sunday hoping the situation improves here. while i was baking her cake today, a sudden thunder storm and downpour occured and the party was going to be a backyard picnic party. i may need to turn it into a swimming party...

sick, sick, we're all sick...

i'm too lazy to take a picture and upload it for you to see, but i am staring at the most beautiful ginormous bouquet of flowers with a little pineapple on a stem that andrew got me yesterday for our 5 year wedding anniversary.

we are celebrating later today by going to the movies to see duplicity and then to Rx which is a restaurant we've been wanting to try for a while now that is in an old apothecary and still has the old jars and supplies on the shelves. the food is local and organic and eclectic. sounds like a grand 'ol time.

we are going to pretend that we're not sick even though we have tissues shoved up our sleeves and sneeze every 2 minutes. we'd postpone it but tomorrow i have to work all day.

my petite fleur!

A new chapter, a new job

this past week has been a mentally challenging one. last friday, andrew came home normal time from work, and told me that he had been laid off from his job at M.O.
he didn't see it coming and they just let him finish the day. but i'm sure you know that andrew has always wanted to start his own business eventually. so now he has to. so he has been talking to his sidework clients and scheduling weekday work, and i have been putting his business cards on every cork board in philly.

you know, the first thought that crossed my mind when he said he didn't have a job anymore was {hmm...maybe we could move to vienna}

sunny with snow

miss madi and i are soooo ready for spring. and if i hear right, its supposed to be 65-70 this weekend, sweet! we've been keeping busy, one of our favorite activities is going to the tree house play cafe which we are going to today. we are just waiting for our friends fei and yiechen to pick us up.

i can not believe that madeleine is going to be 2 in a month from saturday! here a few photos from the last month or so.

this weather is frickin awesome!

today is so much fun, i am loving it! this morning stephanie picked me and madi up and we went to the gym for a pilates kick ass class while madi and hugh had fun playing with the kids in the nursery. then we went to the park and playground for the first time in months. then we ate lunch outside on the front porch savoring every moment. while madi napped i had a delicious chai and watched ellen. (if you want to laugh, her show will accomplish that) then we played with the boys next door, visited the kitties upstairs and now madi is helping popy unload his tools. now i am pondering what to do for dinner when all i want to do is bake valentines cookies...

i got me some new shoes!

yes, very excited indeed.

new year, new words

back to the blog. i apologize for the 3 month pause in updates, but we didn't have a computer while we were in mourning over our ibook.

i recently joined facebook, crazy...i can't believe that i am in touch with some of my best friends from grade school! its so fun to hear what everyone does now...and it sent me into a nastalgic whirlwind of opening old shoe boxes of photos. hopefully i will get back to cleveland soon to see some of you!

since christmas i have been taking more pictures with my new diana+ analog camera and less digitals. i'll try to scan some of these dreamy vingettes later. basicly, the photos are 4x4 squares with a black halo around the edge. the image itself is a little blury which gives a beautiful surreal feeling. i love my diana+!

miss madeleine is talking like a pro. she loves to say, "poor mommy" any time i bump myself on something, "eat me sushi" when she is pretend cooking in her little wood kitchen, and 'honey, honey' when she wants me to play the mama mia soundtack AGAIN.
tiny mo peas and apple duce peas are hourly requests. and her dancing is too funny to even explain but i'll have to post a video of that.

i'm doing yoga and pilates again, trying to tone up...does anyone know of any tips on getting that post pregnant stretch mark ridden deflated balloon belly to go away? so far i've got; eat salmon, use bio oil, do crunches.

little miss chatterbox

Liar liar pants on fire

my computer is down again and this iPod just won't due

and we're up and running.

sorry for that little delay. our computer died, we moved, and now its magically working again. (well actually andrew opened the computer thinking, "well its already broken so i can't do any more damage." and he found a wandering screw,(and he knows screws) put it in its place, and viola!

so...its friday, and by sunday i promise to have up new photos. i am just trying to find my camera cord to upload.

but we are doing great, working a lot, and trying to finish unpacking the kitchen. madi and i go to storytime at the library every friday morning (which we did today) and then her new friend lexy came over to play. its friday so its take out and movie night. and tomorrow i am doing a candle party. every wednesday i drop off madi at hughs house for three hours while i do candle stuff which is amazing. we went to the zoo yesterday and i am REALLY wanting a membership for the Please Touch Museum that just opened last weekend 10 minutes away. here is a link to see its awesomeness.
http://www.pleasetouchmuseum.org/

i am crocheting and knitting and reading eat pray love on the second attempt.
i quit piper + olive and just focusing on getting WAX wholesale ready. I am still massaging at the spa on sundays, but this weekend will be my first back since a month ago because i had craft fairs and moving everyother sunday. my father dieter came to visit two weeks ago and we had a ball! we ate and drank way too much as we always do on his visits. and now we are getting excited to see Ellen at christmas!

where is my mind...wheeeeeeere is my mind?

i am wondering this more and more each time someone asks,'what are you doing tomorrow"?
and i'm like this.... So i apologize right now if i seem like a complete space case.
I'm sure that once the move is over, our candles are packaged, and my piper+olive orders are delivered, i will resemble someone more put together.

Oh, Ellen! before i forget, i wanted to tell you that madeleine has chosen her instrument! she LOVES to play the piano! yesterday we were playing at her friend Rubys, and all the sudden madi happened apon their piano (which i have never even showed her) and she went back to it a million times and again today. move over stevie wonder! (she can't see the keys either...she is too short)

she just stepped it up a notch in vocabulary to the two syllable words. Ap-ple Pur-ple and Doc-tor. first syllable always emphisized:)

well its all autumny here all the sudden. monday sucked...it was in the 90's and then tuesday brought the cooler weather, and now its down blankets and hot cups of tea with milk and honey...(i have one right now)

oh, gotta run...andrew and i need to finish disk 4 of season 5 of 24 (its due at the library tomorrow) chao!