Word Fun!

I love words. I do. I love reading them and I love writing them. I especially love using obscure words in the correct context, and most especially when I can get an adequate you-are-making-that-word-up expression from Bub the hub! Whom I can then force to look up said word in the dictionary, proving him totally wrong and proving me totally genius.

So you can imagine my excitement when I heard that the people over at Oxford Dictionary announced an adopt-a-word program, right!?! Apparently there is some widespread concern about "hundreds of words dropped each year from the English language." Shocking, I know!  "Words that once led meaningful lives now lay unused, unloved, and unwanted." It's quite devastating.

In order to do my part, I have adopted the word "quaeritate." This new word of mine simply means, "to ask." I have pledged to use this word as much as possible in order to make sure it does NOT lay unused, unloved or unwanted! Now I must quaeritate that you go right this minute and visit the site in order to adopt your own word!! Think of all these poor, unappreciated words, quite literally begging to be used again. If you feel led, please go ahead and quaeritate your friends and family to adopt a word as well!

And on the subject of words, I have recently invented a new word, or more of an expression I guess. Lately I've been designing so many cards, that my poor right pointer finger is aching from all the work it's been doing on my laptop touchpad. I have officially dubbed this condition Photoshop finger. Anyone else out there experiencing the same thing? I'm thinking about writing Oxford to quaeritate whether this could be added to the dictionary. Long shot I guess....but it would look super sweet on my resume...

I also must quaeritate that you comment here if in fact you do make the decision to adopt. I'd love to hear what other words are being saved from obsoletion (yes Bub the hub, THAT IS a word :).

Today I am thankful for

lil'bub giggles on a very overwhelming turkey day................

family, friends, a warm home, baking pumpkin cheesecake................

online black friday shopping, all my new SugarBee clients!!, Photoshop, awesome old movies.....

a soft snuggly bed, a sweet thoughtful husband, MODERN MEDICINE..............

and awesome blog readers like YOU! Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.

Normal

Normal is such a funny word. Ridiculous, actually. I mean, I know the word serves a purpose and everything, but no one has the same "normal." Which kind of defeats the meaning if you think about it. For a long time, this word did not ever really bother me. I'm sure there were times in junior high, when everything was totally awkward, that I was probably super concerned with being "normal." But it seems like the minute a little confidence arrived, there also arrived a point where I wanted to be unique...stand out from the crowd. So then being considered "normal" kind of turned into a negative thing.

Finishing high school and college and then going on to grad school, I guess I felt like I was following a path considered somewhat "typical" of my peers, which is a word I much prefer to use for some reason. And when I got married, I remember feeling so excited to start a life with my best friend. I couldn't wait to settle into what I considered the seemingly "normal" existence that I had hoped for. This included my husband, a job I enjoyed, and a home where I felt secure. And expanding our family.

Then when lil'bub tumbled into my universe, everything about this word changed for me. Everything. Suddenly, nothing seemed "normal" anymore...and when it's lost is exactly when you began yearning for it: when you are thinking about it all the time, wondering why you do not get to have the normality that seemingly surrounds you. You regret taking it for granted. You regret not thanking your lucky stars every single minute that YOU had this normality before. So you mourn for it, and you get pretty damn angry about it, and you throw up your hands in complete frustration. And then you embark on a new normal.

This adjustment absolutely sucks, but it has to be done. Literally, in order to rescue a shred of your sanity and be able to walk around without constantly wondering why her and why us and WHY THIS, my little family had to come to terms with the fact that the "normal" existence of all the families around us would not be ours to have. And part of the way to do that is give up on the entire word. Useless!! to us at least. 

I apologize that this has been a much longer prologue than I had planned to explain a quick story. That on Monday of this week past, I had a nightmare of a day that included two intense specialty doctor appointments for lil'bub. One in the morning that involved rush hour traffic, waiting around for an hour and forty five minutes for the doctor to show up, and then listening to things that I don't really want to hear. And another that I asked Bub the hub to take off work and accompany me, because I wasn't really up to the challenge either physically or emotionally. Thankfully, he did, and ALL was fate because after examining Avery's eyes, then dilating her eyes, then waiting thirty long minutes, then returning for prying said screaming child's eyes open to deeply examine everything...whew...this doctor turned to me and said, "Avery's vision is NORMAL for her age range." I almost fell out of my chair. Bub the hub and I looked at each other and I asked meekly, "are you sure????" When I heard affirmation, I then seriously turned into a blubbering mess. I explained to the doctor that this word is not one we ever get to hear in regards to sweet lil'bub...that one particularly ignorant resident at the hospital told me that lil'bub was completely blind after her last surgery...that even though her vision has steadily improved, we never ever in a million jillion years thought those words would come out of her mouth. Like, ever. 

We walked out of that office with so much joy in our hearts and re-belief in miracles and in our little miracle. And we thank our lucky stars every single minute for our new normal.

Drum Roll Please....

I am so pleased to announce FINALLY that my new design site is open for business!!! It was a huge undertaking for me, and has taken a lot of my blogging time lately...SO, here it is:

http://www.sugarbeedesigns.com/

(you can also click on the Sugar Bee Designs button at the top of my sidebar :)

On behalf of my site opening, I'd like to offer 10% off my custom cards this week only if you respond here with a comment about what you think of the new site! That includes those of you who are already on my project list too :)

Thanks for all the wonderful encouragement and early card orders! Now go look! GO!! 

Guest Blog

When Bub the hub saw my recent post about movies, he was like...I don't think so.

Lol---actually, he agreed with my first pick, but has no desire whatsover to see the others. That's totally fine though. He will just miss out on some super cool movies while I go have fun with my friends! But I am all about freedom of opinion, so I agreed to let him post his own picks here. He thinks maybe some of my readers will agree with him more. Whatever! Take a look:

Bub and I try to see a movie whenever we get the chance. As you can see from her Top 5, we enjoy all kinds of genres, from silly comedies to serious dramas, and even a foreign film every now and again. It's just the perfect thing for both of us to "get away" for a little while. People probably hate us because we're always talking during the movie, guessing what's going to happen next, making fun of terrible actors. We can't help it. Usually we share the same opinions on movies...usually.

Without further ado, here are Bub the hub's top 5...

DUE DATE- Zach G is hilarious. That's all you need to know. He could just be sitting there staring at the screen back at me and I would laugh. Throw in Robert Downey Jr. and a crazy looking dog and I'm in.


SKYLINE- The movie looks so great mainly because it looks so ridiculous. I honestly don't even know what it's about. I just know there are aliens with outrageous tentacles grabbing everything in sight...awesome. Can the humans survive?


THE NEXT THREE DAYS- Looks intriguing and intense. Russell Crowe always seems to make entertaining movies and Liam Neesen is smarter than everyone in life.


THE TOURIST- Johnny Depp and Angelina...Quite possibly the two biggest male and female stars...in the same movie.


TRUE GRIT- Coen Bro. movies are either really good or really dumb in my opinion. This one looks pretty sweet. Jeff Bridges seems to have perfected his western accent and Matt Damon as a kooky sidekick will be fun.


Honorable Mention- SAW 3D (It's kind of an inside joke but I've seen all the others. Might as well keep the tradition right?)

Quite Possibly the Worst Movie Ever Made: BURLESQUE- that trailer is brutal, just brutal. I think they would be better off not showing the preview if they want to actually make money on this movie.

Your welcome.
-Bub the hub

Sick Bubs

Hey y'all, we have one sick lil'bub in this house...Bub the hub and I were up all night with a very snotty, coughy munchkin. Poor thing can't stay asleep for more than an hour or so. Today hasn't been much better, and now I can feel a tickle in my throat. Blah!

I think that having sick kids has to be the hardest part of parenting. That's not to say that I don't count my blessings that we are cozy at home instead of in a hospital somewhere! THOSE experiences waere definitely more miserable. But still. I hate seeing her feeling so badly :(

Current diagnosis: a bad cold...pretty please don't let it be anything more serious!!
Prescription: chocolate ice cream and fluids
Getting to sleep in mommy & daddy's bed: priceless

Halloween Wrap-up

Sorry to leave y'all hangin, I really did mean to post more bumblebee photos sooner, but you know...life got in the way! So here it is already November, I can't believe it. Anyhoo, I took a bunch of photos on the morning of Avery's school Halloween party. I was pretty thrilled that she didn't mind getting into her costume. 'Cause you never know, she might throw a fit. Thankfully, she got excited about it, and even let me put on the cute antennae headband too.

But that didn't last long! After about five photos, she couldn't help herself anymore.....

and those little antennae balls looked cute enough to eat! 
which lil'bub certainly attempted to do!

I think the bumblebee costume was perfect for her, so thanks again for voting in the poll. I think I should make that an annual Bub's Life poll since it was so very helpful (good thing that my vote was bumblebee too ;).

Not only is Halloween my favorite holiday, but it's also my favorite time to throw dinner parties. For the past five years, I've had a lot of fun coming up with spooky meals and ghoulish desserts to serve to our friends. Unfortunately, this year got wayyyy too busy for me to plan anything. Sad-I know-but it did help a little that I got to be the Halloween party mom at lil'bub's school. I wasn't quite sure how I could top the spider cupcakes from last year, so I kept it more low-key and whipped up pumpkin spice cupcakes with chocolate icing (delish) and used some fun cupcake toppers that I bought at Michael's. Much more simple than the spiders!

Of course, I had to throw in a couple pumpkin decorated cupcakes from Parents magazine too! The kids really loved them-- especially my kid:

We've eaten enough cupcakes now that I totally come prepared -- Avery is wearing this awesome full coverage bib that I found at IKEA recently. It makes cupcake-eating AND finger-painting a tremendously more pleasing experience. I don't have to stand next to her cringing! haha yes, I AM a little o.c.d. with messes.

I also got to make her friends little Halloween goody bags, which is almost as fun as making the cupcakes.

I found these really cute wands at Michael's too. It's my store! Threw in some Halloween Peeps, wind-up chatter teeth, ghost bubbles and cute little pumpkin bears. I'd also like to mention that I bought all these goodies in August, because I totally got burned last year when I went to Michael's for Halloween stuff on OCTOBER 1ST...and there was NOTHING LEFT! It had all been cleared out for Christmas stuff. I was annoyed to say the least, but totally learned my lesson.

Somehow I had a little creative energy leftover so I made a treat for Bub the hub that I knew he would love...DIPPED OREO MUMMY POPS! so fun and delicious.

When Sunday night rolled around, Avery had a little cough and congestion, so we kept it pretty low key. We took her to a few houses in her pink car. She was bumble bee on wheels! BUZZZZZZZZZZZ

 ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

She enjoyed seeing the other kids all dressed up, and smiled shyly when people opened their doors :)

We got to visit with a few nice neighbors and then headed home for some scary spaghetti and meatballs!! But not before Bub the hub tried to steal Avery's antennae...

She said I don't think so!

we had a tired, cranky baby bee at the end!

(at least mommy and daddy enjoyed eating her candy later that night)

Excuse me while I start brainstorming next years' costume choices.