Oh, it's good to be back~

How has everyone been?  Our computer finally died and it took us a while to get back up and running.  In the meantime things have settled down some. 

Last night we had Kiah's parent/teacher conference and it went really well.  He has been doing so much better~ better behaved, doing his homework more independently, and listening the first time. We have been giving him Synaptol, Omega 3's, magnesium, and some melatonin to help him sleep better.  Now if I can get my husband to get on the regimen since he suffers from ADD also and has all of his life.  Yes, it proves to be quite an adventure doing anything with my fam.  The boys with their ADD, granny with her dementia and me, I am no saint myself.  I suffer from anxiety so bad I don't drive.  So yeah now that the HIPAA privacy policies are no longer needed and everything is out in the open. 

I have had the luxury of getting out a couple times this past few weeks and had a blast  at our annual Halloween party.

     Beginning of the Party~                       

As I digress~

     Hiking Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve~

      Have you ever seen a bird like this?  Look at his beak~

    I just about ran into this spider after I was freaking out and running around crazily because I swear I felt      something crawl in my shoe.

                                      Natural Bridges State Park~  

            

I finished up all my ornaments for the 2 swaps I am in.  Now it's on to planning my son's Baseball Party, finally being able to participate in Julie Pritchard's Texture Town, and hopefully getting more listed in my sorely neglected Etsy store.
How 'bout you what have you been up to?  What crafting plans do you have for this holiday season?

It is all in how you look at it........

I figured I should add a note to people who don't know me personally. I love my granny and I tell her that a 100 times a day. It may seem like I am making fun of her, but I am truly not. I am finding the humor in our day to day lives. It helps me immensly to be able to retell the stories and make other people laugh. Having my granny move down here so that Chris and I could take care of her was a big decision. We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. It has been especially hard for Kiah. Before we moved her down here he had only meet her twice briefly. It is hard for him to understand why this adult acts like a child or why she takes up so much of my time. Awwww, I just got a Valentine from my boys. They do still love me. The moral to this story is we always help family no matter what and always look for the funny stuff that happens during the day to make our days brighter.

I started this blog as a way to share my artwork, photography, and vintage finds. Now it has become my way to unstress. Here are some photos that I recently manipulated on Photoshop. I love how I can totally transform my normal photos into artwork. If you ever get a chance to take a workshop by Susan Tuttle I highly recommend it. She is a regular contributer to the Stampington magazines and a amazing artist.

No vitamins for you......

I recently found out my family is too crazy to shop at Whole Foods. Last week I tried to make it there to get new vitamins. That idea was dashed when Kiah decided to throw a major fit inside of Game Crazy complete with a dramatic bloody nose (he gets those when he really works himself up). I couldn't mingle with the Los Gatos yuppies with Kiah all bloody. You would think that with all the bloody noses he has gotten he would remember to put his head back, not downward so it gushes all over his good clothes. But of course that would not have won him an Oscar.

I don't know what possessed me to try to go there again this weekend with Kiah and Granny. It all started out fine. We would eat first, then shop. It took us forever to get our order and we had to pay before we ate. So Chris goes off to get us a cart and I am walking backwards, my arms full of food trying to make sure Kiah and Granny were keeping up. At the same time I got to the checkout, Grandma got side tracked by the salad bar. I couldn't have lost sight of her for that long. But it was long enough for Chris to find her grabbing handfuls of kidney beans, sampling and making nummy noises. Yes, with lots of Los Gatos people looking on in disbelief. Chris comes up, "You can never take your eyes off of her!!" Me: "What are you talking about?" ...Okay, we won't be looking at vitamins this week either. We managed to sneak out of there without further embarrassment. When we scolded Granny all she could say was, "But I love those bally things!" Seriously, I am going to have to put her on one of those kiddie leashes next time.

I think I live in the Land of Loonies...

First off taking care of a Granny with dementia entails answering questions like, "will it be dark until it is light?", helping her when she gets stuck in public restroom stalls, having to deal with her when she gets angry when she doesn't have beer and chips, telling her I am her granddaughter every other day, listening to the same stories over and over again, and what not.

But what really worries me:


The other night started off okay. Kiah received a gift certificate to Baskin Robbins for graduating out of reading lab. He was happy to skip karate to go get ice cream. I was happy to skip karate and not have to sit in uncomfortable chairs listening to kids yell at the top of their lungs, yet, reluctant to go to ice cream - I mean come on - I just started a diet. I was proud of myself for picking the kid's size vanilla pomagranite probiotic frozen yogurt. So I figured why not go to Trader Joes to pick up some good healthy food to reward myself. Kiah was being his usual crazy self: squirreling around, hopping on the cart, all while holding his double scoop ice cream cone. I kept telling him to stop, and in what seemed like slow motion his ice cream flew up, somersaulted and landed face down in the cart. Of course he starts trippin'. After telling him told you so, I instructed him to take it out to the garbage and use the napkin to wipe the top of it off so he could eat the rest. He looked at me like, "What?" So I repeated my self again - "What?" So I slowly broke down the steps pointed everything out and figured he had it. Went and got the cart and came back. I started shopping and he asked, "Are you sure I can eat it?", "Yes". "Are you sure I can eat it?", " Yes, you wiped it off right? , okay then. " He takes a big bite then says, " I didn't know I can eat ice cream after wiping it on a garbage can." OH MY GOD!!! Now I am trippin'. Chris walks up and I start telling him and freaking out. I asked him, " Can you take him ... take him to get a drink of water." He looks at me like, "What." "Chris, can you take him to get a drink of water?" - "What?" By that time I was almost in shock by the absentmindedness of my boys -I mean what in the hell? Why would my son even think that I would say to wipe it off on the garbage and Chris, hello!, he ate garbage practically. He got his drink, I gave him my frozen yogurt and thanked God for probiotics.