Lillian and her "posse" ~grin~

A few views from Lillian's photo shoot today.

Lillian enjoying her balloons after her birthday party.

So, Lillian is officially one whole year old now. Walking like a champ and saying a few words ("mama," "dada," "hi") but still not a tooth in sight. Although she would really enjoy eating more we are keeping it as limited as we can. Let's just say that experience based on what food we have given her tells us that her digestive system is not yet ready. You really don't want more detail than that. Her main method of communication is when she wants something she will look at it and scream; we are working on that. ~grin~ I've pretty much got her where she will say "mama" when she wants me to pick her up instead of standing in front of me screaming. She really likes the "Pat the Bunny" books right now. That and removing things from cupboards. She pretty much keeps us all on our toes with that one. She also can reach the trash can now so we will have to keep a close eye on our valuables!

On an unrelated note...I consider myself something of an ice cream connisseur (sorry, I'm just too lazy to go look that word up; I'll probably never need to spell it again so it is not worth it!) Don't know if you all know this so I will let you in on a little secret...the best way to eat most flavors of ice cream is with a little milk poured over them. Give it a try.

Remember the filling I got last week that left half my face with no muscle tone? Well, my face was so numb that I couldn't really tell if it felt "right" before I left...the filling, that is. So, the dentist wasn't sure if he'd filed it down quite enough (or whatever they call what it is they do.) I don't think he did. It hurts BAD when I chew anything chewy...chew gum for 3 minutes and my lower jaw on that side aches for hours. Plus it is now sensitive to cold, which it wasn't before. So, I'm going back in on Wednesday for what will hopefully be a quick fix. There is the potential that I may be looking at a crown there but I don't think we've come to that yet.

Forgot to mention in all the birthday excitement, but I also gave myself a new hairdo! Cut my bangs for the first time in I don't know how long. So far, so good...we will see when the honeymoon period is over. ~grin~

Hey, by the way, I'm posting new blinkies over to the left...enjoy!

Well, we survived Lillian's first birthday party. I say "survived" because it seems like such a momentous occasion...a very first birthday party!...but it was actually very fun.

Lillian wore the most beautiful princessy dress...but I'm not posting any pictures of her in it yet because she is getting her pictures done at Sears on Tuesday wearing it, so you will have to wait for those. But trust me, she looked like a little angel.

She cooperated and took a nap after church until just before party time, 2 PM. When she awoke, Arnel had hung up crepe paper all over and her balloon bouquet was in the room...she sat right up and said "Oooh!" I think she liked it. ~grin~ She was in good spirits as the guests arrived and was very cooperatively social. I may be speaking too soon, but it seems as if she is getting over her stranger anxiety a little already. So, let me count real fast...besides the six of us that live here with her full-time she had 27 guests...11 adults with their assorted children, but she was the only really little one. Next youngest was 5, and then up to 17.

She basically got passed around and followed around for the first couple hours while we all talked and played Cranium. (Though we didn't see much of the younger kids as they were all off doing their own things.) Then we put her in her high chair and everyone circled around her and sang while her parents shoved fire under her nose...at least I'm sure that is how it looked from her perspective! We've been working on "blow" for the last few days and we did get her to give it one decent puff...not enough to blow out the candle but at least she tried. Then we took the pretty cake away for everyone else and gave her the one I baked for her last night, a heart-shaped banana oat cake. We let her go to town with that one and I have not seen her do any one thing (except sleep, for the first several months,) for that long in her entire life. She apparently LOVED it and ate quite a bit. We knew she was done when she decided it was more fun to throw it on the floor.

Next was present time. She did her part but of course was more interested at the time in the tissue paper, etc. Fortunately she only had a handful to open (unlike Christmas) so her interest stayed for most of the time it took. Her friends know her well and she got some very sweet and fun gifts which she enjoyed playing with later. I am sure tomorrow they will buy us a little time during our school day, too.

We had bought stuff to make pizza for dinner and were able to convince a couple of families to stay and enjoy that with us.

Got lots of pictures (of course!) but the "big" memory card on our camera is no longer working...I had to come upload the pictures to make room on the memory card for more...three times!

She also discovered her balloon bouquet anew and looked so adorable walking around the house with it, in her pretty little dress!

Tomorrow is a short break and then Tuesday, her actual birthday, we will serve her a semi-traditional Filipino dinner...rather than pancit noodles, we will use spaghetti noodles...a "long" food to symbolize a long life. Then she gets to open her presents from family!

So, Lillian is just on the verge of being a whole year old...I still don't understand how this year went so fast when the nine months of pregnancy took forever!

I think I mentioned that I signed on with another company of scrapbooking products. They have a great line of their own creations, not available in any stores. But, I think I forgot to share the link...I do not currently have my own website with their products, but you can view them at Top-Line Creations. Use the menu at the left. Let me know if you are interested in anything and I'd be more than happy to help you out!

In order to expand my fledgeling scrapbooking business, I'm adding a new service...custom-made scrapbooks! If you love the look of scrapbooks but don't have the time or interest in making your own...let me do it for you! For just $12 you can get a beautiful one-of-a-kind way to display your precious memories. If you would like a more elaborately-decorated page, we can do that, too, for just $15. You supply the photos and some basic information, and I will do the rest! Contact me for more information.

How blessed of a mom am I to leave my kids home alone for 3+ hours and come home to a cleaner house than I left??

Here's the deal. Friday is cleaning day at our house. We all have our assigned "zones" and it works out great for me because I know that no matter what happens in between, my house will be clean once a week. So, I don't worry and nag about the "in between"...well, not much anyway. Everyone is responsible for their own bedroom, each of the older three kids have a bathroom and the 5-year-old dusts the living areas. I have the kitchen and most of the floors. I freely admit that I don't like cleaning and often will offer to "hire" one or more of the kids to do my zone. (They can do the same with one another...the free market system at work, right?) They don't have to take me up on my offer and sometimes they don't.

Well, as most of you know, Lillian's first birthday is coming up. We are having a little party for her on Sunday. Nothing major, but we have invited some people over and I was feeling woefully unprepared and beginning to stress. Skipping around a little in my story...Arnel received a $25 Cracker Barrel gift certificate for Christmas from some of his employees...just enough for a nice dinner for just the two of us. None of the kids had anywhere they had to be tonight, Cracker Barrel is close to the house, so we decided that if we did this tonight we could leave even Lil and actually go out JUST THE TWO OF US. Well, fine and dandy, but we had to run to WalMart first, and then stop at the grocery store "real quick" after...ran into our realtor there and gabbed for a good half hour. We kept in phone contact with the kids and knew all was well at home, but what we had expected to be a two-hour trip turned into well over three.

So where does the clean house come in? Remember my stress about being unprepared for the party? I told the kids that I was making them a one-night-only offer of "time-and-a-half." Any of my cleaning that they did while we were gone tonight would get paid an extra 50%. (I don't pay that well...the kitchen normally pays a whopping $2 for example.) Well, when we got home my big girls had done all my cleaning between the two of them and to keep the boys busy they'd convinced them to do all of their normal chores for tomorrow...plus they had Lillian diapered and ready for bed when I got home! I know they are getting paid for it but I still think that is awful impressive. I could not be more proud of my crew.

Okay, I just read a post on an email list that has really got me thinking. Why is it that eating one lousy doughnut can make you gain a pound, but cutting out one doughnut cannot make you lose a pound? Wouldn't that be logical? I am telling you, if someone can ever solve that mystery, harness that power, we could solve all the world's energy problems and make time travel possible.

Julia, Laura, Kaila and the Kar(r)as...these girls are clearly up to no good.

Lillian updates:

She can howl pretty well. Not cry-howl, literally howl, imitating us imitating the dog.

She will wave when you say "hi" or "bye" or if she sees you after you've been gone awhile. (My favorite is when I've been upstairs and she spots me in the hall from downstairs and waves at me from down there.) She has progressed from the full arm wave to the flexing the fingers wave.


She will "ba ba ba" along with you if you sing "Barbara Ann" (or "Baa Baa, We're Lambs" which is how my kids know it, from a CD by ApologetiX.)

I never realized that I put my finger up to my lips when I say "ssshhh" but apparently I do because now she does when I do it. Or up her nose...whatever. In the general vicinity.

She will hide her eyes to play peek-a-boo if you ask "Where's Lillian?" Or her nose...whatever. In the general vicinity. So maybe the kid needs to work on her aim a little bit, okay?

So last night the youth group leader tells us this silly joke that I relay to my younger kids on the way to AWANA tonight. It goes like this. "Two muffins are in the oven. The first muffin says 'Sure is hot in here.' The second muffin responds 'Holy cow! A talking muffin!' "

I thought it was silly and unexpected enough to be pretty funny and thought that the little ones would appreciate the humor. But you just never know how the mind of a five-year-old boy works. After a few minutes of thought, apparently trying to work out the details of his new masterpiece, Isaac pipes up with his own joke. It goes like this.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Bean.
Bean who?
Holy cow! A talking butt!

I'd say something else about it but honestly folks, I have no idea what to add.

"Excerpts From 'A Cat's Guide To Human Beings'"

1. Introduction: Why Do We Need Humans?

So you've decided to get yourself a human being. In doing so, you've joined the millions of other cats who have acquired these strange and often frustrating creatures. There will be any number of times, during the course of your association with humans, when you will wonder why you have bothered to grace them with your presence.

What's so great about humans, anyway? Why not just hang around with other cats? Our greatest philosophers have struggled with this question for centuries, but the answer is actually rather simple:

THEY HAVE OPPOSABLE THUMBS.

Which makes them the perfect tools for such tasks as opening doors, getting the lids off of cat food cans, changing television stations and other activities that we, despite our other obvious advantages, find difficult to do ourselves. True, chimps, orangutans and lemurs also have opposable thumbs, but they are nowhere as easy to train.

2. How and When to Get Your Human's Attention

Humans often erroneously assume that there are other, more important activities than taking care of your immediate needs, such as conducting business, spending time with their families or even sleeping.

Though this is dreadfully inconvenient, you can make this work to your advantage by pestering your human at the moment it is the busiest. It is usually so flustered that it will do whatever you want it to do, just to get you out of its hair. Not coincidentally, human teenagers follow this same practice.

Here are some tried and true methods of getting your human to do what you want:

Sitting on paper: An oldie but a goodie. If a human has paper in front of it, chances are good it's something they assume is more important than you. They will often offer you a snack to lure you away. Establish your supremacy over this wood pulp product at every opportunity. This practice also works well with computer keyboards, remote controls, car keys and small children.

Waking your human at odd hours: A cat's "golden time" is between 3:30 and 4:30 in the morning. If you paw at your human's sleeping face during this time, you have a better than even chance that it will get up and, in an incoherent haze, do exactly what you want. You may actually have to scratch deep sleepers to get their attention; remember to vary the scratch site to keep the human from getting suspicious.

3. Punishing Your Human Being

Sometimes, despite your best training efforts, your human will stubbornly resist bending to your whim. In these extreme circumstances, you may have to punish your human. Obvious punishments, such as scratching furniture or eating household plants, are likely to backfire; the unsophisticated humans are likely to misinterpret the activities and then try to discipline YOU. Instead, we offer these subtle but nonetheless effective alternatives:

* Use the cat box during an important formal dinner.

* Stare impassively at your human while it is attempting a romantic interlude.

* Stand over an important piece of electronic equipment and feign a hairball attack.

* After your human has watched a particularly disturbing horror film, stand by the hall closet and then slowly back away, hissing and yowling.

* While your human is sleeping, lie on its face.

4. Rewarding Your Human: Should Your Gift Still Be Alive?

The cat world is divided over the etiquette of presenting humans with the thoughtful gift of a recently disembowelled animal. Some believe that humans prefer these gifts already dead, while others maintain that humans enjoy a slowly expiring cricket or rodent just as much as we do, given their jumpy and playful movements in picking the creatures up after they've been presented.

After much consideration of the human psyche, we recommend the following: cold blooded animals (large insects, frogs, lizards, garden snakes and the occasional earthworm) should be presented dead, while warm blooded animals (birds, rodents, your neighbour's Pomeranian) are better still living. When you see the expression on your human's face, you'll know it's worth it.

5. How Long Should You Keep Your Human?

You are only obligated to your human for one of your lives. The other eight are up to you. We recommend mixing and matching, though in the end, most humans (at least the ones that are worth living with) are pretty much the same. But what do you expect? They're humans, after all. Opposable thumbs will only take you so far.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think I may have mentioned that last time we went to the dentist for check-ups I was the only one who had to come back for a filling. I had chipped my very back molar (don't ask me how) and there was a filling on that tooth. They were concerned about seepage underneath it, so I needed to have it refilled. So, today was my appointment. The first shot didn't leave me too numb but I figured things had just improved over the years. Nope, I was fine for awhile but every once in awhile the cold blast of air would hit and I felt THAT. So, they gave me another shot. Waited awhile, came back in and the very first thing...there was that cold air again! "Well," says Dr. Payne (seriously, that is his name,) "I guess we can give her one more shot."

Okay, so that one finally does the trick and we proceed without incident. But I was sooo numb. When I smiled my mouth looked like a sideways "s." Just completely droopy on that one side. I couldn't even BLINK! It was actually rather hilarious and I was a bit sad that we had some errands to do on the way home so I had recovered muscle tone before I could get a picture. (You know us crazy scrapbookers!) I kept catching Gabe just starinbg at me. And the inside of my ear is still numb, four hours later.

You Are a Visionary Soul

You are a curious person, always in a state of awareness. Connected to all things spiritual, you are very connect to your soul. You are wise and bright: able to reason and be reasonable. Occasionally, you get quite depressed and have dark feelings. You have great vision and can be very insightful. In fact, you are often profound in a way that surprises yourself. Visionary souls like you can be the best type of friend. You are intuitive, understanding, sympathetic, and a good healer. Souls you are most compatible with: Old Soul and Peacemaker Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

Alright, I am a little freaked about how accurate this one seems to be!

You Are 36% Abnormal

You are at low risk for being a psychopath. It is unlikely that you have no soul. You are at low risk for having a borderline personality. It is unlikely that you are a chaotic mess. You are at low risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is unlikely that you are in love with your own reflection. You are at high risk for having a social phobia. It is very likely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement. You are at medium risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is somewhat likely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer.

How Abnormal Are You?

I was tagged by Rachel!!

So here are my answers!!

3 Jobs You Have Had
1. retail sales
2. financial aid analyst
3. newspaper bundle hauler

3 Movies I Could Watch Over and Over
1. The Full Monty
2. Signs
3. The Usual Suspects

3 Places I have lived (besides where I live now)
1. Modesto, CA
2. Woodland/Davis, CA
3. Greeley, CO

3 TV Shows I love to watch
1.Forensic Files
2.Law & Order
3.Seinfeld

3 Places I have been on vacation
1. Lake Tahoe
2. Mackinaw Island
3. Disneyland

3 Websites I Visit Every Day
1.Scrapfriends Message Board
2.My Place at Scrapbook.com
3.MemoryWorks consultant message board

3 of my favorite foods
1. Rocky Road ice cream
2. authentic Mexican
3. warm, fresh bread

3 Places I'd rather be right now
1. Someplace warm (but not hot) with my family
2. In front of the fireplace playing games with my family
3. a scrapbooking store that gives everything away for free!

3 Bloggers I am tagging
1. Connie Jean
2. Vonnie
3. Nicole

Not too much going on here except that Julia had her first "snow day" today. Not truly a snow day but school was cancelled due to weather so I guess that is the shorthand way of referring to it. Roads were too icy due to freezing rain. She was all up and ready to go when Arnel saw the report on TV and let her know. She studied for a bit (her first ever final exams begin tomorrow!) and then went back to sleep--until about 1 PM. About normal for her when she doesn't have school or church.

Enjoy the Journey Scrapbooking is adding a new line! I've recently become an independent consultant for another company, Top Line Creations. I hope you will check it out and keep me in mind should you like to order any of their fun and unique products!

Lillian saying "hi." My baby is turning into a toddler!

Gabe with his car at the AWANA Grand Prix.

You Are a Powdered Devil's Food Donut

A total sweetheart on the outside, you love to fool people with your innocent image. On the inside you're a little darker, richer, and more complex. You're a hedonist who demands more than one pleasure at a time. Decadent and daring, you test the limits of human indulgence.

What Donut Are You?

Alright, I think I have been quite patient, but enough is enough. It is January in Michigan and it is RAINING for crying out loud. It is in the mid- to upper-40s and, apologies to all our loved ones in California, but that is just not right! We have grown used to four seasons...so...winter, where ARE you??!!??

Tonight was the AWANA Grand Prix. For those unfamiliar, the child is given a kit including a small block of wood, some wheels and axles, and then is to carve and decorate the car to race. Awards are given for speed and, sometimes, for design. Only Gabe participated this year and they sorta left it to the last minute...it looked really cool but they didn't have time to test it and make sure the wheels ran smoothly, etc. ("They" being Gabe and Arnel.) So, no awards or anything, but hopefully Gabe had a good time anyway.

In between races, though, they had a speaker and I thought something he said was pretty cool. He said something to the effect that many of us there were taking pictures. None of us believed that our cameras were the result of a big explosion in the microchip factory. Yet our eye alone is so much more advanced than even our technologically-advanced cameras...think of how many images per second we can view, etc. This isn't even to mention that our eye is just one part of our body! So how can people believe that we can be the result of a big bang. I guess it is sort of a "duh" thing but I never thought of explaining it like that before.

You Should Drive a Bentley Azure

You're all flash, and you love to show off to anyone who will watch. And you're such a high roller, this is just one car of many for you...

What 2007 Car Should You Drive?

Lillian has a "toe thing." Yesterday I was just being sill with her and stuck a small toy between her big toe and the one next to it. (Yeah, I know, I know, we are a weird family...that's news to you? Oh, and Mom, you know who I blame for that particular quirk!!) Anyway, you'd have thought I stuck an ice cube in there! So, of course, the rest of the day I had to experiment with this. Great fun. She giggles and smiles and crawls away...far and fast...but there is this look in her eyes that lets me know she is just a little bit concerned as well.

At one point last evening I even spotted her cautiously touching her own toes! Now that was funny!

Annoyances:


1. When something is "new and improved," which is it? If it's new, then there has never been anything before it. If it's an improvement, then there must have been something before it.

2. When people say, "Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too." What good is a stupid cake you can't eat? What, should I eat someone else's cake instead?

3. When people say, "It's always in the last place you look." Of course it is. Why would you keep looking after you've found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they?

4. When people say, while watching a movie, "Did you see that?" No, I paid $12.00 to come to the theatre and stare at that thing over there. What did you come here for?

5. People who ask, "Can I ask you a question?" Didn't really give me a choice, did ya there buddy?

I have a new place for you to check out if you are interested...it is sort of like a blog for scrapbookers...I don't plan to use it as a primary blog or anything, but if you are interested specifically in scrapping you might want to check it out, and it is also where I will upload some of my layouts if you are interested in seeing those.

My Place at Scrapbook.com

I just thought I'd mention a movie we really loved, "Signs," with Mel Gibson and Jauquin Phoenix. It is pretty old, but if you haven't seen it yet, it is worth renting. There are not many movies I will watch more than once, but this is one of them.

On the other hand...~grin~...we also had Monster-in-Law, too. It looked like it was going to be so cute! Alas, I was interrupted midway through watching it and decided not to waste any more time on finishing it. Who knows, maybe it got better.

Finally seem to have gotten Julia's new cell phone working. Nobody could figure out the problem so they just sent us a new SIM card. She has a new phone number as a result, so if she or we gave you one before, contact us for the correct one.

Oh, and I got new glasses...really funky and sassy.

Your Inner Blood Type is AB!

Your personality is hard to define - you're very unconventional. And even if your personality could be defined, it would be completely different next week! Outgoing and shy, sensitive and thoughtless, you tend to have a very split personality. This makes you unpredictable. You can be a total angel - and a total devil. You are most compatible with: everyone! Famous Type AB's: Jackie Chan and Marilyn Monroe

What's Your Inner Blood Type?

I've updated the family website again with tons of new pictures; please check it out! The link can be found on the left.

It is finally snowing again! We have had just a rainy, foggy winter so far...and that is just not right in Michigan. When I told my kids that was a normal winter for California, the looks on their faces was priceless.

Okay, can I just take a minute to say that I LOVE Lillian's smile? I mean her big, full-blown smile. Those chubby baby cheeks, the way she wrinkles up her nose, and her eyes turn into these little upside-down crescent moons. ~sigh~ Just pure bliss.

Well, everyone is back to school and work as normal today. I guess this means the holiday season is officially over.

Now on to planning someone's first birthday!!

Oh, and the kids and I all had our dental check-ups yesterday...no cavities for anyone! I do have a chipped tooth, though, where there is an old filling, so I need to go in and have that filling enlarged to keep liquids from leaking underneath it.

Well, apparently Lillian woke up today, overheard someone say she was eleven months old, and decided it was time to walk!!

Over the last couple days she has taken a very hesitant step or two but mostly it looked like it was an unintentional thing. But today it has obviously been very deliberate, with her taking time to get her balance standing and then taking a step or two or maybe even three!

And that, my friends, is the end of the world as we knew it.

Well, I had a blast...which makes the First Annual Negranza Extravaganze a success in my book. My quick count says we topped out at 39 people here, though of course many of them were smallish ~grin~. Not everyone stayed until midnight as they had younger kids. Most of the ones that did, though, hung out until about 3 AM, so I guess that means they were having a good time, too.

Let's see...we played Texas Hold 'Em with a really nice set of clay poker chips brought by one young friend. I was holding my own, too, until I let Arnel take over for me! And those of you who don't know these people cannot truly appreciate this, but we played Cranium, too...and let me tell you, you just have not lived until you have seen Leon channel Shirley Temple doing "On the Good Ship Lollipop," (and I quote "Pay attention because I don't want to do this too long,") or seen Tricia try to get someone to say "butternut squash" without talking!! And I don't know how he does it, but Doug can hum and sound like a four-piece band...unlike some of the rest of us (ahem.)

Lillian played and flirted with everyone until she got too tired. We ate way too much junk, but it tasted gooooood. Six teens and pre-teens slept over and spent a good part of the day here today. A couple more will be here soon (though we did lose Laura for the evening to one of afore-mentioned pre-teens.)

2006 is shaping up to be a good year.