I don't want to miss a thing

Right now I should be up, cleaning, organizing, and preparing like a mad woman for this coming week. But no. And why? Because I just can't handle all of that right now.

I have been anticipating this coming week for months now. One of my best friends in the whole world is getting married in Texas next Saturday and I have the incredible honor of being a part of her nuptials. Additionally, I'm going to get to spend time with two very dear friends who are local to the area and though I'm excited about all of it? I mean... really! I AM. (I promise!) Being in Texas means that I won't get to be home and with Miss A and D and also my beloved students at school/work! And it won't be for just one day that I don't get to be home. Nope! It means that I will be gone for almost a full week!!!

A normal person would be rejoicing over all of this because something like this is also known as a vacation to some. Well... I guess I'm just not normal. Perhaps I shouldn't have accidentally just listened to this song from Taylor Swift because it's not helping at all. All of you folks out there who are parents of daughters (especially)? I challenge you to listen to this and pay close attention to the lyrics and not be a bawling and weeping mess by the end of the song...

Truth be told, I'm kind of dreading this coming week and I think my resistance to do what I know needs to be done is an unconscious wish to hopefully slow down the clock so that it doesn't get here so fast. Why? Because I really really really don't want to miss all of the little moments of Miss A's life that are as beautiful as these...

This next week I know I have the incredible honor to stand up with my best friend and watch her take her vows with the love of her life.  Still, I can't help but think about all of the things I'm going to miss about my everyday life here. And I would list off the litany of things that I will miss but I just started to and it only made me more sad about not being here.

I'm just so thankful for the life that which the Lord has blessed me. I fuss about how it all tires me out and wears me down but the truth is that I cherish every moment I have D and Miss A. It gets better and better every minute of every day and I know it will be here waiting in its own holding pattern until I get back but still? I will long for it until then.

"Icky belly" strikes again!

*sigh*

Do you know that tomorrow will mark the fourth time we've been to the doctors office in probably a month? This has got to to a record for us.

I will spare you the really gory details and just tell you the very condensed version of what our last 24 hours have been like. Pretty much it's been the following:

• 3am wake-up "call" courtesy of Miss A
• "Hanging out" with a very restless Miss A for a good chunk of the darkest part of the morning
• "Camping out" on the floor next to Miss A for the remainder of night's sleep that neither of us was getting
• Calling out sick from preschool (for Miss A) and from work (for me) for the day
• Parking ourselves comfortably on the couch and watching Ramona and Beezus On Demand probably four times

It was a rather dreary and rainy day which really did match the mood (and the belly pangs) for Miss A so it was kind of appropriate to be able to cozy up and snuggle with her on the couch instead of going to work and  pouring and sculpting cave walls for one of my latest art history lessons with my students...

Thankfully, a day of serious RnR, a few popsicles, the BRAT diet, and juice and broth had Miss A reasonably back on her little feet enough for her to enjoy putting on her rainboots so she could tromp out to the woodshop with D when he got home from work this evening to give me a break. Miss A only lasted about  20 minutes or so out in the woodshop before she insisted upon coming back in to make sure I was OK (she's good about checking on people like that) and then she pulled up a piece of floor, made herself a comfortable squat and enjoyed an episode of Kai-lan.

Seriously? I just love when I catch her squatting like this. It warms my heart and makes me feel like I'm looking at pictures of myself when I was once her age. The Asian squat is just in her blood. :)

By the way, would you care to see some of the beautiful woodworking D is getting into these days? The things he's turning out really are amazing!

Would you believe he is making these out of firewood? SERIOUSLY. I'm talking, the wood for them is straight-up from the firewood pile that we use in our fireplace!! AMAZING. Honestly and truly... the talent and vision he has been blessed with to be able to do this is AMAZING. We've been praying together about how this all needs to play itself out and we truly believe him realizing this talent is a calling that he is committed to answering and will use to help to share his walk of faith by. The first three crosses pictured above will be auctioned off for a charity auction in about a week or so and the fourth one was made as a gift for someone who has really blessed our lives.  And these crosses aren't even half of what he's actually made all together! I've only just started taking pictures of them because we finally got a product photography studio set-up put  together to be able to take pictures correctly. In time D will have his own website set up and (probably) Etsy store to be able to sell them a little more directly. We'll announce it when it all comes together. :)

Tomorrow D is staying home with Miss A and taking her to the Dr's first thing in the morning. We're praying that this will be the last trip for a while.

I need this, YOU need this, We all need this!

D and I were up until past 2AM last night trying to "remodel" (for lack of better way to put it) what was once my cramped and sad home art studio into something that is both usable for creating artwork as much as storing all of the supplies I have - both personal and business.

I am trying my best to just let D sleep in because last night he was nothing short of "my hero" when I accidentally assembled a corner shelving unit in the wrong order (to be fair the directions were hardly specific or explicit enough) and it become impossible for me to put together. He gave me the "easy" stuff and he took over for me where I royally fudged everything up. *SIGH* Thank the good Lord above for my amazing husband!!!

So, this morning I'm trying my best to 1) stay awake, 2) keep Miss A entertained/happy/and reasonably quiet, and 3) not get too slap happy because I definitely am approaching the point where I am deliriously barely awake.  Miss A got to bed an hour later than usual so she might be a little bit feistier than normal but I think she also might be a little slap-happy as well because... well... she just is that way these days! She's just becoming a little person who does and says stuff that is just plain pure entertainment! Case in point: yesterday morning she came up to me with one of her stuff animals and said, "She's my best friend! High-five, Mama! High-five the bunny!!" And she helped the bunny hold up its paw to high-five me and then immediately after she ordered me to "pound it" with the bunny in the fashion of the fist-pound.  Perhaps I'm becoming one of those people who just think their kid is more awesome than any other but I am just loving how much of a ham she's becoming!!!

Anyway, back to what I was trying to do at the beginning of this post which was share a video of this mornings antics. Miss A somehow has boundless amounts of slap-happy energy and she spent a good 15-20 minutes of it "serenading" me with a whole catalog (as it were) of all of the songs she knows and has been learning at preschool. Some of the really good ones I didn't even get because I wasn't fast enough at getting to the camera but I did get a pretty amazing rendition of her singing "Old MacDonald." Pay close attention to the very end at the pinnacle of the song when she holds the last note and then plops down on the couch and declares what a good day this is!

Love is best when shared

I have a confession to make. I might be enjoying Miss A's preschool experience more than she is.

She's grown so much in the past week since her transition to preschool and I've really enjoyed being just as much a part of that as well. I've loved meeting her little friends, hearing her tell stories about what she's done, making her bento boxes for breakfast/lunch, and helping her to do things like select what to take for show-and-tell.

I'm already planning what we will do for her birthday celebrations with her class but in the meanwhile I've been scheming (for weeks, I might add) on what we would do for her Valentine's exchange with her classmates. Since I'm just about obsessed with blogging (doing my own as much as reading others) months ago I stumbled upon a really cute idea to upcycle crayons into fun shapes! I immediately bookmarked the idea and made a mental note to do something with it for the next major holiday that would involve giving to others. Valentine's day was the perfect opportunity to do this!

I bought a box of old crayons from my favorite thrift store weeks ago for a little less than $2 and also picked up a heart shaped pan to mold them. It was a little hard to get them out of the molds even after they cooled down so I know next time I will use a silicon pan to remedy that. I took pictures of the process from start to finish...

"Preschool Valentine's blessings"

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And here they are finished! I affixed them to some old stationary cards and then penned the outside message with sharpie. The inside message simply read, "Love, *Miss A*" (I wrote her full name out)

And then because we've all had such a wonderfully smooth transition and I know it's because (in large part) because of her wonderful teachers and I (and D as well) am a teacher and I always appreciate a good unexpected thank you note, I made these for her teachers and enclosed a Starbucks card on the inside with a message that read, "Thanks a 'Latte' for all you do!" I hope they like them! I'm not a scrapbooker or stationary artist but these were awfully fun to make.

All we need is L-O-V-E

If you didn't know, we Ellwoods can be a real silly folks sometimes. Case in point? We like to listen and dance to bagpipe music AKA "pipes" music. "Pipes" music is currently Miss A's favorite type of music to listen to so much that she requests it when we are driving in the car, hanging out at home, etc. etc. etc.

D discovered Miss A's love for "pipes" on accident when he was introducing her to music he likes to listen to. And, like father like daughter? She LOVES it. And when she listens to it she makes this face that has become known as her "pipes face."

The other night we turned on some "pipes" music in an effort to capture the "pipes face" on camera. D did it with Miss A to try and encourage her to do it...

And THANKFULLY... Miss A joined in and showed him how it was really done!

We can't get enough of "pipes" in our house. But can you blame us when Miss A brings it so hard like this?

And since there aren't enough embarrassing pictures on here already, behold some gorgeous shots D took the other morning when I haven't combed/brushed/groomed myself at all! Truth be told, I was having such a good time with Miss A reading books in the morning that I actually handed D the camera with the order that he take these pictures. *sigh* I love being a mom. I really really do love it...

This is our life. And we love living it the way we do. Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours!