a little bit of me.

{weiner weekend. or bratfest. either or.}

((first -- thank you so SO much for all of your concern...  we will have a new and updated roof and siding in no time at all...  we hope!))  :)

and...  BEFORE all of this happened....  we had a fabulous-ly fun weekend in Madison, WI...  visiting Melanie and her family - and meeting up with Kelly and Kevin too...  all for the sake of brats.  and fun.  :)

 so this little outting def counted as our first real family roadtrip (all FOUR of us were included)...

please dont be fooled.  that really is toby driving.  :)

& we found out that bratfest is quite the event.  like we expected a few tents and a couple of brats.  not so...

midwesterners totally take their brats seriously.  and i'm not going to lie...  i LOVED the boca brat.  need to find it in PUBLIX - my beloved grocery store of florida (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -- i'm excited about publix) after we move....

kelly took the shot of me shoving boca brat in my face.  and i love it.  so funny.

baby evan loved his cheerios and trying to grab my in-his-face camera more than brats.  but granted, he didnt get to try the brats...

was super excited to get to meet baby Camryn - who was adorable, as expected...  and so cute with her little bows, and also VERY sleepy...  but as a momma, i never complain about sleepy.  :)

after bratfest we wound down the weekend by chilling on the U of wisc campus by the lake...

and then brunching on deliciousness on sunday morning....  after which i made kelly and kevin hold ev and toby for some pics.  which, given evan's ever-increasing fondness of toby and toby's fur, was kinda comical...  i LOVE the look from kevin - who is toby's bff - who is like "hey evan, stop hitting my friend toby"...  heeeee.  cute.

and that was our weekend.  SO FUN.  love spending time with these girls.  love that we all got to get together with families even for a short time...  :)

{we're ok}

our house isnt.  but it IS thankfully still STANDING.

starting to get emails so i thought i'd post real quick...

likely going to need a new roof and def need new siding since there are now holes in it.  :(

just so THANKFUL that we still have a house, as there are now reports that 12 houses have been destroyed by tornados in our town -- a HUGE storm came through our little zip code this afternoon - we drove in (having been in WI for the weekend) on the tail, tail end of it...

and couldn't believe our eyes.

i just kept saying "shitballs"

because nothing else came to mind, AND because it was INSANE.

the entrance to our development - that is not snow...  its HAIL.

eric had to shovel in order to get into our garage...

and a few more shots...  again we are just thankful that we didn't go through the storm, that toby wasnt in the house alone, and that all is ok and can be repaired...  my heart breaks looking at the photos and video of the homes destroyed...  and hearing about those missing and now the fatality of a 2 year old.  breaks.

{evan the hat-hater!}

wanted to post a quick share before the long holiday weekend...

which i am totally excited about! :)

challenged myself to a "quick scrap" the other night...  hehe.

trying to get better less intense about my just for me pages...

so i randomly pulled a pic and said "GO!"...

here it is...

and the journaling...  about my baby, the hat-hater:

and while i'm sharing >>> a link to another Hero Arts web page i did...  LOVE their stamps...

:) happy weekend everyone!

{CKC Buffalo}

A week from today I leave for Buffalo, NY to teach some Fiskars and Cloud 9 and Heidi Grace classes at CKC-Buffalo...  And i'm thininking that i haven't mentioned anything about it on the blog before...

The classes are adorable (if i do say so myself!) - the Cloud 9 class is an interactive-mini-accordion album with the new Sunrise Smoothie line (perfect for summer photos!)...  and the Heidi Grace class is a 4 page "Baby's First Year Remembered" themed class with the new super-fabulous and brand-new Heidi Grace Baby line...

So I'm excited about teaching again...  and also excited to see NY and hopefully Niagara Falls too...  If you're a blog reader and going to be at the convention I'd love to know...  def email me.  :)  And if anyone has any Niagara Falls tips - I'd love to hear those too!!!

PS - I'll also be teaching these same classes next month at CKC-Ft Lauderdale!!

And just for fun, I thought I'd share a little pic of the Cloud 9 class project...  i think it's going to be a really great class...

{lunch...}

is it really a jaguar?

now that i look at it i'm thinking its potentially a bobcat???

are we already lying to him?

regardless...  he LOVES that little animal.  it's present at all of his meals.

and - his ever-increasing little lunch selection has grown to include broccoli, noodles and monterey-jack cheese.

yummmmmmmmmmm.

sometimes i steal parts while im "making" it for him.

((shhhhhhhhhhh.  dont tell.))

:)

{today}

...

...while sitting on the deck this afternoon with ev and toby, totally enjoying a PERFECT mn day...

i realized that i have less than 3 weeks left in this state.

part of which I'll be in Wisconsin...  and then upstate New York for...

...so really we're talking maybe 2 weeks and a day?!

insane.

summer is the.best.part.of.minnesota.

SOOO going to miss it.

& i have to say that my stress and anxiety about a seamless, easy move is ever increasing.

what might help is if we actually knew where (in terms of a house with an actual address - not a city) we were going to be living in less than 3 weeks.

but, we dont.  :(

ha.

hoping that gets sorted out next week.  ((hint hint eric))

:)

{another...}

...fisheye fave.  from yesterday.

ev LOVES his crib.  loves it.

lately - when i set him in while i do something upstairs - and throw a ton of toys in with him - he just giggles, and laughs, and rolls around and has a total party.  :)

he has also started snuggling up and hugging the crib bumper while he sleeps.  which you kinda have to see on the little night-vision baby video monitor to fully appreciate...  (but  trust me - it's cute.)

and for those who asked - this is the fisheye lens i bought: canon 15mm 2.8

its just fun.  :)

and yay for david cook.  psyched for next week.  wondering which song performance from the season he'll repeat - thinking it might be billie jean?? - what do you think?

{mothers day}

so my first mothers day was also the first time that evan was really really sick...

on saturday afternoon, after getting back to the house while being out and about and driving in endless circles during another house showing - we realized that he felt warm, and was running a temp of 104!  :(

and yet, despite feeling icky, and having sniffles...  he still managed to look cute...

break my heart....  i felt so bad for him.

we stayed in all weekend - except for a second showing on sunday night...  and evan spent mother's day napping off and on and watching tv with us and still being adorable...

despite being sick, he did however still manage to get me a really cute card.  ;)

& he's so much better today - but still not 100%, which i know because he slept until 9:45 this morning...

so that is what's been going on...  & i totally hope this satisfies the requests i've had from certain people for blog posts....  you know who you are.... ;)

PS - i voted 20 times for david cook last night and im.not.going.to.lie >> im a little nervous that i was able to get through EACH TIME!?!?!?!??!

{the couch that became...}

...a fisheye.

yep.  seriously.  :)

this couch was my college graduation present from my parents:

it has been with us in Orlando, and Philadelphia, and now Minnesota.

it's totally comfy and a great "nap" couch.  i've always loved it.

BUT...  we have 3 leather couches...  and with the move, decided that our new house in florida would NO way be as large as our house here, and that we needed to downsize our furniture stash a bit.  Which meant eliminating at least one couch.  And because our white leather couch in the sunroom has a matching chair - and because i have a total love affair with our large chocolate brown sectional couch in the great room - this one got the boot.

We listed it on Eric's work classifieds and it sold...  and i was so sad - bc i get sentimental about silly things like furniture....  until we decided that the $$$ from the couch sale should just be transferred into a FISHEYE lens for me.

awesome.deal.and just like that -- i was no longer sad.

college graduation gift becomes replaced and lives on in an updated and totally fabulous wideangle fisheye lens.

and so i've been having fun with my new fisheye over the past week or so - see photo of evan's nursery from 2 posts back...

and then this favorite...

i love the cartoon-like distortion...

...and i'm so sure that there will be many more fisheye shots in the coming weeks.  :)

and that is my story on how a couch gets turned into a fisheye.

:)

{happy cinco}

de mayo.

:)

((is that how you spell it?!))

from baby evan...

notice how super-excited he looks to be wearing a fake pinata sombrero?!

;)

photo taken by me, with flash, after i saw this little gem of a "hat"...

...and pulled my point and shoot out of my big old purse about a week ago...

in the liquor store.

yes.

the LIQUOR store.

baby evan helps me shop for liquor.

;)

actually we were waiting on dadda to select beer.

but whatev.  we got a cute pic out of it...

hope everyone had some chips and salsa in celebration...!