Playing Library

One of my favorite plays is playing library. This is how you play: You take that uninspiring book (you know the ones that you are embarrassed to take and read out in public for their capital L Lame covers) or series of books that you have in different editions (and look preposterous sitting next to each other on the shelf, like a couple of step kids*) and then put a nice clean brown paper jacket on them.
If that is not therapy, I just don't know what is.
But then my favorite part is designing their covers and spines with all those stickers, labels, and bits of paper you have stowed away for just the occasion (even if you didn't know it at the time).
I always stamp mine with my name on the back for obvious "that's mine" purposes, but also using that big wooden stamp makes me feel more librarian than anything else.
I love the way they bring new life and ownership to sad little books scrounged up for a dollar.

And lately I have been on the scrounge for all of Dorothy Sayer's mysteries. (Thanks Sarah!) They are smart like Sherlock Holmes, and fun like Jeeves & Wooster.
I found two more today at half price books, and I have been wiggling my toes in anticipation!


*Not knocking step kids.

*Surgery Update*

Thanks for all of your prayers today! 
Dad's surgery went really well. They are pretty certain that the cancer cells on his lung weren't lung cancer, but leftover colon cancer that made its jolly way up to his lungs. The great thing about that is that he gets to keep his lungs all in one fancy piece. And that most likely a single round of chemo will be the only thing required to follow up. 
This is great news for us! Not to mention that he is marveling everyone with his recovering appetite* and alertness.
Thanks again for all the love!


*He had ordered up meatloaf and strawberry Angel food cake when I talked to him this evening.

Boom & Pips

So Greta has a little buddy named Noah. When we met Noah's parents he was just a bump in the tummy and Greta was a bump in mine. We had the same wedding anniversary (during that crazy windstorm of '06) and the same baby due date (the crazy snowstorm of '08).
Fast forward 20 months and they are the sweetest little buds. We laugh because they are the same age but (as your parents probably told you) boys and girls are so different. The way they walk, sit, eat, and play are so perfectly Boy & Girl. Noah calls poop "Boom!...chuckle chuckle" and Greta says "Pips" when we can bring her to mention it at all.
 Our friend Leslie took some pictures of the two of them snuggling in the hammock together, and I just love how two different kiddos can be such good pals.

PDA

Dad is going into surgery tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 5:30am for another round of "organ downsizing".  In 2008 dad had stage 4 cancer (the final stage where the cancer has spread to various organs) but the kindly Dr's did away with the offending bits of large intestine, liver, and lymph nodes leaving a cleaner, healthier, (slightly patched together) dad for us all.
We were blessed beyond measure to have had dad with us to greet Greta into the world that year and to have him here still to share in some of the best 2 years of my life as a wife and mom.
But tomorrow marks as another reminder for us that our bodies are temporary and often due for costly repairs.
They found a spot of cancer a month ago on his lung and as he goes into surgery tomorrow we will all be wondering with what pieces he will come out with.

So we had a nice visit on Sunday. Nothing somber or serious. But good conversation, a Mexican casserole thing, and flagrant displays of PDA on the porch.

Not to mention, Greta is kind of too cute with that watering can.

ibaby

Good News! I found a print shop to do some beautiful archival prints for my shop. With beautiful pigmented inks and the whole nine yards! Bad news, their scanner is out of commission for the week which will post-pone the editing/printing/getting in to shop by today ( hah!) process.
But as a distraction from un kept promises  (Quick! What's that over there?) I offer you a cute picture and Thing anecdote.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the future generation! It's no new news that Greta likes looking at pictures and home videos of herself on my phone. She's been all about that since like 9 months.
But she has crossed the bridge to completely self sufficient.
This is what Greta looks like on most mornings while I am getting ready for the day. About 5 minutes after waking up she is headed for my bed with giggles and "Yeah, yeah, yeahs". She hands me my phone to punch in the password*, then it's total check out until (dressed and ready for breakfast) I tear the technology from her nimble fingers. She spends the entire time sliding through pictures, (skipping over the lame ones) and playing the various videos of her first use of sippy cups, napkins, tricycles, etc.
She's good. And when she gets tired of pictures (rare), she will switch back to the home screen to find out the forecasts in Richmond, Virginia Beach, Silverdale, and the greater Seattle area.
19 months.  And I was hoping to hold out 19 years before she became cell phone dependent.

*I promptly added this feature once I realized that she could theoretically purchase and sell stock on my phone without proper safeguards.


Note- The hospital pillow case next to her. This is what we call Kent's "Pillow".  He hasn't slept on a real pillow in like a decade (by preference) but he does like to take care of our sheets so he uses a pillowcase. His favorite being the one we snatched from Children's when we ransacked the place during checkout after Greta was born.
I have long since given up on the idea of having a 'show room' bed.  It will always be my two pillows next to his hospital pillow case.

A Friendly Fungus

There is a fungus among us!
A whimsical little mushroom (of my own scientific discovery) dug up from one of the more dusty and remote corners of my imagination* to be precise.
Maybe a pleasant place for one Sir Alastair Humphrey Muskmelon the third** to come out of the damp for a spell? Saving his sheen and thus the day!

Thanks all for playing "Name that Beetle" and being all interested in my scribbles and small sport.
That's all the illustrations I have for now. The sun is back out and the weather predicts sunshine and HEAT-even for the rest of the week.
So that means back to summer pleasures (walks, gardening, general looking out the window and feeling guilty for not going on walks or gardening.)
And I will be trying to get my shop up and running before long.
Maybe...Monday? There, I did it, date set. I will have it all up on Esty by Monday!




* Next to the molds I try to forget and the longest ever Spanish word I've heard. (mantequilla  de cacahuete) Means peanut butter. (As relayed to me by my friend Dianer in the 8th grade.)

**Grand prize winner of the 'Name That Beetle' contest being Richard for his brilliant use of "Muskmelon".

The Lordly Beetle

Allow me to do the honors of introducing you to ---stuffy formal name*--- the lordly beetle.
An ever decorous beetle, you will never find him but looking his best.  Buffed, tidy, and always prompt (stemming from his military back ground). I think he looks most at home among laurels. Don't you?

* Let's have a round of that timeless old game... name that beetle!  Requests anyone?