Piper news and scrappy shopping

Let's start with the Piper stuff first...

Today Piper

*Figured out the Shape Sorter Toy
*Said Dada, and seems to have meant it
*Started a new babble: nya nya (LOL)
*Stood up in the middle of her play pen without pulling herself up (since her hands were full with Elmo and Grover)
*Kinda sorta almost said Mama... but it might have been a nya nya that I misunderstood

Recently she has also started meow-ing... too stinking cute. Of couse she learned this skill from Jack's Big Music Show on Noggin. There is an episode in which Mel the Dog thinks he's a cat, and meows the whole episode. At one point, Jack tries to teach Mel how to ruff, and it goes something like this: Ruff, Meow, Ruff, Meow, Ruff, Meow... you get the point. Piper has been barking at dogs since around her birthday, and now meowing when seeing a cat is new. BUT she also meows when you say ruff ruff ruff. So that's the new thing around our house... ruff ruff ruff, meooow

And I went scrappy shopping today. ScrapArtist is having a big 'ole birthday sale, and I couldn't resist. I got their joint kit with Denise Docherty, my idol, called Express Yourself, Michelle's kit Clair de Lune, Michelle's Acrylic Paint Brush Strokes, Nancie's Schmootzy Alphas (thanks to Gina who has been using them alot recently), Michelle's Distressed Alphas, and Nancie's Bella Stamps. FUN STUFF! Now to have time to play...

On the kit front, I am working on a few... One for Tanya's darlings' birthday, some sort of summer thing, and probably something else that I have forgotten in the meantime.

The worker bees have about a quarter of the roof shingled... and tarps over the rest.. they had to stop early on Friday as the sky opened up and poured buckets in a matter of seconds. A majority of my Tupperware is in the attic catching leaks. They were supposed to return Saturday and work half day, but no dice (no surprise)

That's all from CT today :)

and so it begins...

Almost 3 full months from when they were supposed to start, and 11 days after they were supposed to be finished, the contractors have begun work on the house remodel. Todd showed up at 10 am, dumpster in hand, to start tearing off the roof. Of course I had long since given up hope of seeing them, and so I was still in my pajamas (read: tank top, and neon green pajama pants that say Cheeky Monkey all over them) when he knocked on the door. Hair and teeth unbrushed... you know, BEAUTIFUL! He took one look at me and said, "I'm sorry I should have called" Bwaaaahahahahahahahahaha!

So we are on our way to a new house! well, kind of... a new roof, new siding, new garage and new basement! Whoo hooo!

I'm it!

Traci tagged me, so here goes!

1. Have you ever been searched by the cops?
no

2. Do you close your eyes on a roller coaster?
no, eyes wide open... and hand firmly gripping the shoulder harness

3. When's the last time you've been sledding?
I haven't the slightest idea it's been so long ago

4. Would you rather sleep with someone else, or alone?
with Dan and Piper... but on a BIGGER bed!!!

5. Do you believe in ghosts?
yes

6. Do you consider yourself creative?
I think so

7. Do you think O.J. killed his wife?
without a doubt

8. Jennifer Aniston or Angelina Jolie? (silly, I know ... but very "now")
Jennifer... though I am still an Angelina fan, Jennifer is my fave

9. Can you honestly say you know ANYTHING about politics?
nope not a gosh darn thing

10. Do you know how to play poker?
I think so... hmmm, maybe I shouldn't play then LOL

11. Have you ever been awake for 48 hours straight?
possibly... I was awake a LONG time when Pip was born... but it's too much math for me to figure out how long

12. What's your favorite commercial?
hmmm... I loved one recently... last years Super Bowl, there's a guy in the kitchen and he knocks over some salsa or something... I don't remember, but the end result is him holding a cat and a butcher knife, with something that looks like blood on the floor... hysterical commercial

13. Who was your first love?
Andy Keating, 5th grade

14. If you're driving in the middle of the night, and no one is around you, do you run a red light?
depends on the light... if it's been red forever, yes

15. Do you have a secret that no one knows but you?
absolutely... and no I'm not telling

16. Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees?
neither (how sad is that... I live in New England), I am a born and bred Chicago White Sox fan

17. Have you ever been Ice Skating?
Yes... and I will never go again

18. How often do you remember your dreams?
almost always

19. What's the one thing on your mind?
Piper, scrapbooking, Piper, school, Piper, Dan... that is my constant rotation

20. Do you always wear your seat belt?
Yes.

21. What talent do you wish you had?
paint or draw, or do pottery... something creative. Or is self-esteem a talent? I wish I had some of that LOL

22. Do you like Sushi?
only the non-raw kind

23. What do you wear to bed?
tank top

24. Do you truly hate anyone?
No... though my MIL comes close on some days

25. If you could sleep with one famous person, who would it be?
only one... no fair. Let's see, my man du jour would be Vin Diesel...today... tomorrow Harrison Ford, the next day Jonny Depp... we could be here for hours

26. Do you know anyone in jail?
I hope not... though I wouldn't be surprized if I did

27. What food do you find disgusting?
okra

28. Have you ever made fun of your friends behind their back?
Probably, but not in a malicious way

29. Have you ever been punched in the face?
no

30. Do you believe in angels and demons?
Yes


Fun stuff Traci, thanks!

I tag Nikki and Laura

scrappy stuff

after the book I wrote thursday about the weekend... I didn't feel like talking about scrappy stuff... but now I do, so here goes:

All my kits are on sale at Digital Freebies and ScrapMommies until Sunday for 40% off including my 2 newest kits



I also have the Friday Freebie this week, that coordinates with the new Birthday Girl kit both at Digital Freebies! Here's the freebie you can get:



You can get it here

We're putting the finishing touches on the next ScrapMommies designer Mega kit, and I have to tell you it is TOO adorable! Personally I can't wait to get it! Here's a teaser:



August 1st is when it will hit the store, so make sure you come check it out!

And you can always get free kits from me by participating in my challenges and crops.

Check out my Weekly Challenge at Digital Freebies, and come hang out with Sherri and I Wednesdays at 3pm EST for the SAHM chat at ScrapMommies

Alright, that's enough self-promotion for the day...

what a week it has been

(it's funny, I know everyone is waiting for the updates, but I have had so much trouble writing this post....guess it's all too fresh and still bugging me)

Not that I didn't LOVE everything that happened last week, but boy am I glad it's over. Mom came out on tuesday, we bought a swingset on wednesday, dad came out on thursday, Dan did the best man "run errands with Matt all day" on friday, the wedding was saturday, Piper's birthday party on sunday, dad left on monday, and mom went home tuesday (yesterday). Phew

Now to elaborate

We chose one of the nice wooden swingsets with a "fort" on top, the sandbox underneath, a slide, monkey bars, and 3 swing stations. It took Dan and my parents 3 solid days to put it together...in 90+ degree heat. I was almost positive one of them wasn't going to survive the ordeal... either from another one killing them, or because of the heat. But it was mostly done for Piper's party, and the kids got to swing a bit. Piper, of course LOVES it. Here's my happy monkey on her swing


The wedding was nice. It was HOT as predicted...probably around 90 in the church, and I trying to be polite and rule-following was wearing a cardigan so as to not show my shoulders in church. Plus wrestling with the monkey, OMG I thought I was going to DIE! Then about 5 min before the ceremony is supposed to start, Dan walks out and hands me Matt's camera, and says Matt wants you to take some pictures. Um, excuse me... you choose the 1 person with a year old baby in the church who is going to have to keep her confined and un-fussy, and you give HER the camera???!!!??? SO I can best hold Piper with my right arm, but cameras have the shutter on the right side... SO I held the camera upside down so that I could take pictures with the left hand and juggle Piper with the right. And somehow in the middle of all of it I managed to SWITCH cameras and take some photos with mine. Of course I brought my small maneuverable POS Sony, instead of my large cumbersome takes-the-greatest-photos-ever Cannon, so my pictures came out awful, but at least I got some. Here's Matt and Erica...


No the WHOLE reason I brought Piper to the wedding at ALL was I assumed they wanted FAMILY photos. Since Pip was only going to be at the church (and all wedding party members knew this) I assumed they would take them after the ceremony. Nope. I was finally involved in a photo midway through the reception. SO Other than everyone getting to see her for an hour, and her "being present" at the ceremony (which she will of course have no memory of, and we have no record of as there were no photos) there was really no point in my bringing her... oh well!

Then sunday was Piper's big birthday party. I made her a cake. Of course. Seeing as that has been my primary focus for like 2 months now. I found a normal cake recipe that had a substitution for eggs, and it actually tasted like CAKE! Can you believe it??? I, of course, knowing my daughter's fascination with Elmo, made an Elmo cake. See:


So the party starts, and MIL is being a beast already. Come to find out later, she was jealous that my parents got to see Piper for 5 days straight. Um, helloooo, my parents haven't seen Piper in five and a half MONTHS, you see her twice a month at a minimum, and spent 3 months seeing her twice a WEEK! I think you're even! The only response I have to this behavior is OK, you want to see her 5 days straight, that's fine, but then you only get to see her twice a year, just like my parents. DONE, THE END, ALL FIXED. Yeah right, she'd probably go postal and stab me with an antique letter opener or something. I can't stand that she is so obsessed with Piper. It really makes me crazy.

All in all, seeing as it was almost 100 degrees outside, Dan popped the kiddie pool 5 min before everyone arrived, Amber wouldn't stop teasing the dog in his crate, so we let him out and she FREAKED and SCREAMED at the top of her lungs as if he were attacking her, Holly (MIL) pouted the whole time and didn't say a WORD to my family, and Piper didn't eat a SINGLE CRUMB of her cake, the birthday party went well, and a nice time was had by all. And as soon as blogger starts cooperating again, below you will find a picture of my birthday girl! I can't believe how grown up she looks!


Dad went home, I cried. Mom went home, I cried more. And here we are, a week later, and I am STILL exhausted.

I GIVE UP!

OK I've hit a wall, and I am just at a loss. I tried an egg-free, dairy free cake mix the other day and it was so-so. They made it with malted barley flour and you could definately taste the "malt". Today I made a cake that was in the what to expect book, and used one of the substitutes for eggs that the doc gave me, and it came out very chewy, sticky, etc. not fluffy like a cake... I gave pip a tiny piece and she gagged on it and threw up (not from allergy reaction, but because it was sticky). I swear I'm feeling like "mommy of the year" over here, just for trying to do the right thing. I introduce her to eggs so I can make her a cake and she breaks out in hives, I make her an egg-less cake and she vomits... I'm about to lose it. I am so sad. I fell like nothing that I try to do is right. And every time I try something and it doesn't work, I get a look from Dan like I shouldn't have tried it in the first place and what the !@#$% was I thinking...I'm starting to feel like I shouldn't have done any of this, made her a plain old cake for her birthday, and since it would have been her first exposure to everything, she wouldn't have had any allergic reaction (can't have a reaction until the 2nd time you are exposed). I know it probably seems like a stupid thing to be upset about but I just feel so awful. I feel awful for putting her through all of this, just so she can have cake on her birthday...just so she can be like every other kid who has a photo of their first birthday cake, with icing in their hair, and cake all over their face. But then I try to be the good mom, and make it a healthy cake, with no sugar, sweetend with fruit juice, made with whole wheat flour, etc etc. and instead I make her throw up.

I GIVE UP! Nothing that I do will be right. If I don't have a cake, the whole family will be "Why doesn't she have a cake" and if I make her a cake (without eggs) Dan will be flipping out the whole time, is she ok, is she going to puke, where's the epi pen...

Is it wrong for me to want a normal birthday for her with cake and ice cream and balloons... even though she's not supposed to have sugar or plain flour, or balloons? I know that what has happened with her allergy is not my fault, but I still completly blame myself. It's my fault because I introduced the eggs, it's my fault she threw up because I gave her the cake, it's all my fault.

Back from the doctors...

We are back from the allergist's. Really really nice guy (though he was male so Piper didn't like him much). He did the prick test, to determine Piper's allergy. He actually did it to me first, to show me that it doesn't hurt (nice guy!), and it didn't. Then he gave Piper the egg prick, and 2 controls. And the egg prick didn't react. He said that the egg protein test solution is diluted 50:1. So he got an egg, swished the pricky thing around in the white, and pricked her with that, and voila, BIG hive. SO she is allergic to eggs, but he said her number of IgE's is probably really low, meaning that it's not a terribly severe allergy. He's sending her for a blood test to get an IgE count to confirm. The basics of his conversation was avoid eggs, but don't panic if she gets ahold of something with eggs. He gave us an epi pen just in case, and said that he can't COMPLETELY predict that she will grow out of it, but he's almost positive that she will grow out of it. We're to get the blood test soon, which he will call us with the results from, and then see him again in 6 months for another prick test (at which he said he would be genuinely surprised if she reacted to, he expects her to grow out of it by then).

So that's my story. No eggs for a while, but she'll most likely grow out of it.

Did you know...

There was recently a legislation passed requiring manufacturers to use "plain english" on their ingrediants labels. For example, albumin, listed on the ingrediants label actually means that the product contains eggs! This legislation makes the manufacturer write eggs instead of albumin (and several other "jargon" words that manufacturers use for eggs and milk, etc.)! It went into effect Jan 06, and they expect it will take 1 year for all manufacturers to make the complete transition. So as of January it won't be a mystery anymore! Until then, I have a card to carry in my purse with all the "secret" words for egg containing products. I feel like I was newly initiated into a club LOL.

Newsworthy News

Good (almost) afternoon blog-readers!

It's been a while since I blogged... sorry... been a bit busy lately, though not really sure with what!

I have 2 new kits up at Digital Freebies: Under the Sea, and Aloha. Aloha has been in the works for a while, and I finally got into a grove and got it done. Under the Sea came out of necessity, we needed a Freebie for the Doodle Challenge, and I volunteered. I think that is the fastest I have ever finished a kit. I started it on the 27th of June, and it went active on the 4th of July. The free add-on, with doodles is available in the forums, and the full kit is in the boutique!

AND

I have signed on to be a designer at ScrapMommies! My first kit is up there right now called Fun in the Sun. It was a June challenge prize kit, but just in case anyone missed it, it's now in the store.

I will have exclusive kits in each store (DF kits only available at DF, SM kits only available at ScrapMommies). Look for Spring Flowers coming to ScrapMommies, and Birthday Girl coming to Digital Freebies!

AND

I am assembling a creative team! Since neither the DF or SM CTs have the time to work with every designer's new kits, I have "hired" a CT just for my stuff. I really didn't want to have a formal call... the idea of sending rejection letters was FAR beyond my comfort zone. So I contacted a few people who seemed interested in creative team work, weren't on a bunch already, and I liked their style, and there you have it. If I didn't contact you and you REALLY REALLY REALLY want to be on MY creative team, pop me a note! I was going for a small team. I have 3 so far, and 1 more PM out, so once I hear back from everyone I'll make the big announcement!


OK enough with the scrappy stuff...I know why you're really here... Pip talk! (kinda like a pep talk, but a little different LOL)

On wednesday we discovered that Piper is allergic to eggs. It all started about 3 weeks ago, when I realized that every recipe (that sounded good) for birthday cake that I had, contained eggs. So I started introducing Piper to eggs. First just scrambled yolks, over the course of a week, she had them 3 times. She had no reaction, and she LOVED them. Last week I started mixing in the egg white. On sunday she had egg whites for the second time. Then Dan and I took her for a walk. It was HUMID but not all that hot. All the same by the time we got back, I was WAY overheated. I gave Piper a bath, put her down for a nap, and took and ice cold shower. When Piper got up, she had a rash under her chin, on her neck, and on her chest, directly under her chin. The rash on her chest looked like a print of her chin it was so perfectly matched. Since she spends most of her time with her chin on her chest looking at books or toys, etc., we assumed that it was heat rash. We wiped it with a cool damp cloth, cooled down the house, and the rash went away. On wednesday I gave her egg whites for the 3rd time at 9 am. We were playing for a while, and then I put her in the play pen to play while I did general clean up, dishes, laundry, etc. etc. I picked her up at 10:30 to give her a bath before her nap, and her cheeks were covered in hives. Oh boy. I took off her shirt, and her back and neck and armpits had hives. I took off her pants and there were some random hives on her legs. She had had something that had looked similar before, after crawling on my MILs bed during a diaper change, that had been alleviated after a bath. So I went on with my plan to give her a bath to see if that helped, if it didn't it was probably the eggs. Nope bath didn't help. Called Dan, called the doctor, and we were in the office by 11:30. The doctor asked all the typical doctor questions, have you changed detergent, soap, etc etc. Which of course was a big no all around, the only new thing was Day 3 of Egg Whites. So we have a tentative diagnosis of an egg allergy, and an appointment tomorrow with the allergist.

I know it's probably going to sound selfish, or non-PC or something, but I am so...dissappointed?? Is that the word? I wanted her to be perfect, to have nothing wrong, to have nothing that she ever had to worry about. To never have to worry about going to someone elses house and saying, Oh What's in that because I can't have X, Y, and Z. But now we're reading labels. Luckily, she's really only still eating baby food and fruits/vegetables so it's not a huge issue. But all the recipes recommended in "What to Expect" with the exception of a very select few contain eggs. They say (whoever they are) that most babies grow out of an egg allergy by the age of 3. So really only 2 years... but, for the next 2 years, I have to bring my own cake to birthday parties, bring my own bread to picnics, etc. And I know and egg allergy is nothing in comparison to what COULD be wrong with her... anywho, we'll see what the doctor has to say tomorrow. Alrighty, that's enough out of me... I'll leave you with a Pip pic :) This was taken on July 4th. Look at all those TEETH!