Cricut Expression 2 Anniversary Edition Giveaway

Hey y'all! Mixology Crafts is having an awesome giveaway of the new Cricut E2 5 year anniversary edition. Check it out at http://mixologycrafts.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/cricut-expression-2-anniversary-edition/#comment-2321

Awesome Giveaway!

LOVE LIVES HERE is having a giveaway for unpaper towels, something I've been wanting to try for quite a while. Go check out their giveaway...you can enter the contest, too! http://www.facebook.com/theloveliveshere?sk=wall#!/photo.php?fbid=198705836826014&set=a.150263981670200.23353.143406639022601&theater

Awesome Giveaway!

Sherbet Blossom is hosting an awesome giveaway of all 11 colors of twine from The Twinery! Full spools! It's a giveaway worth $154!! Go to http://sherbetblossom.blogspot.com/2011/02/giveaway-twinery.html and enter the giveaway before February 15th. Good luck!

Contest Time!!

Hey y'all! I know I haven't blogged in a long time, but hey, I can't pass up the opportunity to win a $75 prize package! My friends at The Twinery are having a giveaway to celebrate their 3 new colors of twine, which I absolutely love to craft with! Go check it out!

A new adventure

Yesterday, I leaped into a new adventure and absolutely fell in love with river tubing! Those who know me well know that I hate the summer heat and am usually stuck inside hugging the air conditioning vent. Not this time. On one of the hottest days of the year so far (98*), I ventured outside to the river with my honey tagging along.

Bryan and I went to Adventure Carolina (www.adventurecarolina.com) on State Street in Cayce, SC to rent our tubes, PFDs, and paddle. Next time we will get two paddles, one each. We then followed the AC shuttle van to Granby Park on the Columbia side of the Congaree River, where we parked Bryan's truck and boarded the shuttle. We were then taken to the banks of the Saluda River at Riverbanks Zoo.

Getting my still rather large rear-end and not flexible body into that tube and headed down the river was a challenge. I followed the three other people who had come in the shuttle with us to the bank, not knowing that Bryan had chosen to go in a different direction. I thought he was behind me. I stepped into the freezing cold water (the data for the USGS gage near Columbia shows the temp as 54* at 1100 hrs yesterday) and almost passed out. OMG was it cold!!! All the shivering I was doing was making it a bit difficult to navigate my frozen feet over the rocks. My left foot slipped in between two rocks and I fell into the water, flipping the tube over my head. Yes, it was hilarious. Thank God Bryan didn't see it. Unknown to me until later in the day, I cut my big toe on those rocks. I eventually got into the tube, and then I noticed Bryan already floating down the river. How the hell did that happen?? I was not very happy with this; I figured I'd be floating down the river by myself, as he was already well on his way. Fortunately, we were able to paddle to each other with a great deal of work. At that point, we tethered ourselves together with rope tied to the tubes.

I had been a bit apprehensive about going over the rapids, but in a way was excited about it, too. I had this same type of anxiety about parasailing last year and ended up loving it! As we approached the first rapids, I could hear the water rushing over the rocks. Bryan and I untethered ourselves and he advised me to lift myself up so I wouldn't be hit in the rear by the rocks. And over the rapids we went!! Oh man, that was fun! There were several spots that you dipped quite a bit and got splashed (water's still cold!), but I never felt like I was going to fall out or get tipped over. When we got past the rapids, I wanted to do it again! In fact, we watched two kayakers get out and walk back up the river just so they could do that. Next time, we will, too. There were two more smaller rapids, and they were fun, too, but the first ones were the best.

We saw a few houses built high on the banks. One house had a walkway down to a dock on the river. The others had no way to get to the water. What's the point in living on the water if you can't get to it? And much to my disappointment, one house had a rock overlook which apparently they sat on and threw their trash down the bank. There were bottles, cans, just trash, a lot of it, floating in the water caught in the brush and all over the lower bank. Disgusting. Have respect for the world in which you live people!!

At the confluence of the Saluda and Broad Rivers, where the Congaree River starts, the water warmed up considerably. I can't find temperature data (the USGS gages in the Congaree apparently don't record temp), but it was a good 20* warmer. The colder water ran below but would swirl to the top as you went over the larger rocks. It was nice.

One thing we saw was the Spider Lillies. The rare spider lily is a bulbous breed related to the amaryllis. Its name, the "Rocky Shoals Spider Lily," comes from its preferred habitat—rivers in which fast-moving, well-oxygenated water passes over rocks. Such environments are found in the Saluda and the Broad Rivers near the convergence that forms the Congaree River. Though we flowed quickly past them and saw them from a distance, they were quite beautiful. We also saw tons of turtles, some small, many LARGE, and a couple herons.

The trip which we took was 2.8 miles long and took us 4 hours. It didn't seem like near that long to me. I wanted to go get back in the water and go again. But Bryan worked very hard paddling us around the obstructions and getting us to the left side of the river where we needed to be to get out. I knew he was tired. And hot. I really stayed pretty cool with most of my body staying in the water. We were only 2 of 40 or more people that we could see out enjoying the outdoors in the coolest way possible. I'm ready to go again!!

My sunburned feet...the only thing that got burned.

Another trip to the doctor for me

I went back to the doctor today. Ever since I had strep throat a couple of weeks ago, I've had an ongoing problem with a sore throat. I wake up in the morning and I'm fine. By noon, it has started hurting again...EVERYDAY. By nighttime, I can barely swallow and my tonsils are badly swollen. I go through this cycle every single day.

I thought at first that perhaps it was the abundance of pollen this year. I was taking my usual Claritin, but I was still having allergy symptoms (nasal congestion, itchy eyes, etc.) So I added Zyrtec to my regimen. This has tamed my allergy symptoms, but hasn't affected my sore throat at all. I've had two rounds of penicillin-based antibiotics already.

Today, my doctor was just baffled. He said he has no idea what's wrong with me, but he doesn't think it's an infection of any kind. Regardless, he put me on another antibiotic just in case. He also suggested that I might have reflux. WTH? I have no reflux symptoms whatsoever. He also suggested that reflux was the source of my chest discomfort back in February that landed me in the hospital on the cardiac floor for a day...when they never found anything wrong with me. So, he put me on Nexium too. And I'm being sent to an ENT to do further testing.

I have been so sick this winter! You'd think I would've been not as sick since I quit smoking last June, but it hasn't worked that way. I've had bronchitis, pneumonia, the swine flu, the seasonal flu, numerous sinus infections, strep throat, and ear infections. I'm ready to be well again!

Olivia Rayne

I just realized that I had not posted anything about my new granddaughter! Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of my family, Olivia Rayne Allen. "Liv" was born at 0149h on Friday, April 9, 2010. She weighed 5 lbs 8 oz, and was 19 inches long. These statistics give a false impression, because this little girl is tiny!!

My daughter, Lisa, labored for 92 hours and 16 minutes before she gave birth to Liv at home with the assistance of her midwife. Liv is the second Allen child to be born at home. Lisa's first child, Katie, was born in a hospital. As the grandmother, I have to say that the homebirth experience has been a very good one, especially for my daughter.

Lisa's long labor was due to the fact that Liv had her elbow sticking up near her head as she descended the birth canal. That elbow was pushing against Lisa's cervix, and her body's natural reaction was to keep stalling out her labor because it knew something wasn't quite right/ready. The midwife had to manually help Lisa's cervix move out of the way so that Liv could be born; the midwife who helped Lisa birth Katie in the hospital had to do the same thing with that birth. With the cervix out of the way, Liv was born with just two pushes!

When I first saw Olivia, she was about an hour old. My first words when I saw her were (to Lisa) "whose child is this??" LOL She had a head full of hair, something unheard of in our family. I thought for sure she'd switched her child for someone else's! :-)

My oldest granddaughter, Katie, and my grandson, Aiden, are enjoying the newest member of the family. Katie, age 5, had some meltdown time the first few days, as she realized she wasn't getting the Mommy time she thought she should right then. Lisa has done a good job of spending quality time with her as much as she can to help ease that problem. Katie likes to be a Little Mother to both Aiden and Olivia. She's even thanked her Mommy for giving her a little sister! Aww...

Aiden, age 21 months, has been just fascinated with the new baby! That is, until he realized that he was going to have to share "boobies" with his new little sister. Aiden is still breastfed, and until Olivia was born, it was mostly at night at bedtime. Not anymore! He doesn't like sharing too much as far as his Mommy goes, so Lisa has been having to nurse both Olivia and Aiden. How's that working, you ask? Hhmmm, not very easily, I assure you. (Lisa, you're a better woman than me.) The result has been that skinny little Aiden ain't so skinny anymore! He has really chunked up in the last 7 days, getting all that nutrition he hasn't been used to. I'm sure he'll run off all the calories with no problem.


Katie named me, her maternal grandmother, "Nana" (pronounced "nawnuh"). Aiden decided he would call me "Nawnee", which will probably change as he gets older. I wonder what this third little angel is going to call me? Aww, who cares? She can call me whatever she wants to, as long as it's nice. I love my grandbabies very much, and I wouldn't give them up for anything in the world. I am very grateful to my daughter, who I also love dearly, for bringing such joy into my life.

Happy Birthday to you, Katie!

This should've been posted before now, as it is now a new day, but April 2nd is my granddaughter's birthday. This year, Katherine Ailani turns 5 years old! "KatieBug" is one spoiled rotten child, and YES, I did it! My daughter, Lisa, and her husband, Steven, lived with me when Katie was first born. I had plenty of opportunity to spoil her, and with them still living next door, I still do. I wouldn't have it any other way!

Happy Birthday, KatieBug! Nana loves you!!

Will we have an Easter baby?

Lisa had a final visit with the OB today. From this point forward, she'll be under the care of her midwife. But how much longer will that be? The OB found that Lisa is 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced; he says he would be surprised if she makes it to Monday (today is Thursday). Lisa has been teasing my mother, a very old-fashioned 78 year-old woman, that she will give birth at her house on Sunday during Easter dinner; it makes my mother almost faint!! Wouldn't it be hilarious if she went into labor at her house??? Ok, maybe not so much, as I would be the one who had to birth Olivia...because my family would scatter like bugs!! LOL

On another note, I was at the doctor AGAIN today and missed yet ANOTHER day of work, which canceled out the day of overtime I worked on Tuesday. I have a bad sinus infection and my doctor thinks also strep, even though the test was negative. (He says the test gives a lot of false negatives, especially if you've only had symptoms a day or two.) Anywho, he's also checking my white blood count, as he is concerned about my constant illness this winter and my fatigue. He said he would call me by the end of the day if the test results were not on target, and I haven't heard from him. So I guess that's good??

In an effort to combat the fatigue, I tried to take a nap. That didn't work. I keep thinking about all the Quantitative Reasoning work I have left to do that was due last week (my professor gave me an extension, but that's already passed, too), and about the birthday presents I have to wrap for Katie, and the birthday cards for Katie and Karen I need to make, and the Easter cards I never made, and the work I'll have to miss next week if Olivia is born this weekend, etc, etc, etc.... My brain never stops churning. So I guess I'll stop blogging and go do some of those things.

Spring cards with Imaginisce brads

A couple of weeks ago, I won a contest with Oh My Crafts! My prize was a set of 6 Imaginisce brads. I used 5 of them today; the sixth brad had a fox on it, which didn't fit in with my theme. Here are pics of the cards I made today.