*Ahem!* And now to Breaking Dawn...

The wait is almost over!!

*Decibal shattering EEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

My sanity has held out this far! As I write, there are precisely 2 days, 9 hours, 15 minutes and 2 seconds remaining...no wait, make that 2 days, 9 hours, 14 minutes and 55 seconds...52!

Okay, okay. So my sanity is questionable.

I have read all 3 books in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga 4 times over (twice with my husband, bless his sweet, handsome heart, I love you Clint!) and hubby and I have read Meyer's "The Host" (which we absolutely loved!!) in the past month to fill in the ever decreasing gap between the official book release of Breaking Dawn and the current day!!

*gasp of breath!*

As it stands, BD will be released in exactly 2 days and Oh. My. Gosh. I cannot tell you how deliriously giddy and excited this makes me feel. As for hubby, he can't wait either!!

So, my good friend Kris Crandall, and my friend and nextdoor neighbour Heidi, who swore that she doesn't read but read all 3 books in a matter of 2 weeks(!), and a number of other deliriously giddy gals, and moi, are choofing over to Borders Bookstore at 11pm Friday eve (August 1st) to wait out the bewitching hour of midnight. At one minute past the bewitching hour, we will claim our already reserved titles of Breaking Dawn. We will then consider staying on to party with the rest of the Twilighters at the bookstore before heading over to a hotel that is reserved for our band of crazy, squealy group of Twilighter Moms to read Breaking Dawn - til the break of dawn! LOL!!

How does my sweet hubby and soul mate Clint fit in all of this? He has made the ultimate sacrifice by staying at home to watch the kidlets for me while I go and be a bit inane with my girly friends. And he actually took time off work both days to do this for me! And I didn't even have to twist his arm! He volunteered on his own!!

Now now, girls, he's all mine!! LOL!!!

I am one lucky gal for sure!!

One rule does stand however. As we are reading as a group of girly, giggly, silly Moms, once one person finishes a chapter, they must wait for the others to complete that chapter too before continuing. Can you imagine the dilemma a speed-reader would present in our situation? We just can't have someone bursting out in fits of laughter when they're 3 chapters ahead of everyone else!!

And you may ask, how much reading will one actually digest in a sitting of less than 11 hours in a room with a bunch of giggly girls poring over the words of the same book title?

Not much of course.

BUT! How fun will all this be, eh???? *hehehehehehehehe!!*

Okay, I'm already giddy and the day hasn't even arrived yet. LOL!!

So, to rectify this most horrifying conundrum of the aforementioned question proposed, I (for one) will return home, and re-read the entire contents of the novel with my hubby, thereby savouring all the delicious ingredients of the storyline bit by bit.

Savyy?

Hee-hee!! Too much fun!!

Ooohhhh!! I have more things to post, like Alora's "Before" and "After" shots of her hair and some fire pics from California!!

Back soon!!

"Joyous" News!

Just a quick note regarding my late business ventures over in Europe! Some of you (and many others) already know that I have been creating images for rubber stamps for the past several months with a stamping company in the UK called Sugar Nellie. I have recently signed a contract with a second stamping company called Whiff of Joy Stamps and they are already receiving enormous attention!

So now I am one of the very lucky illustrators to be on board with both Sugar Nellie and Whiff of Joy Stamps! I cannot tell you how exciting it is for me to be with both companies who are already reaching stardom!! My friend and work associate Katharina Frei of Whiff of Joy Stamps is literally "a JOY" to work with (hee-hee!), and we have tons of exciting ideas ahead of us regarding beautiful stamp images for you to play with and enjoy too! :D You'll have to stay tuned with the Whiff of Joy blog as well as the Whiff of Joy online store for more details!

Here is a sneaky peek of Willow carrying a lantern with a Christmas theme to be released through Whiff of Joy Stamps. Hope you all like her! :) Click on over to my art website blog to read all about how our "Willow" got her name! It's very, very cool!

*Big Big Hugs!!*

Lovely Brown Crackers!

Lately I'm finding that life likes to give things in small doses. Ofcourse only when It decides to. And never when we expect it.

Yesterday I was busily typing away in my office, content that my children were occupied by the yammerings of Goofy on tv while I worked on some emails. My darling son came up to me and handed me something small, brown and squishy. It looked an odd shade for the fistful of crackers he had been nibbling on. I caught a strange whiff. What was that bizarre smell?

I ran my eyes down his arm and stared at his grubby hands.

Grubby?

Uh-oh.

Traces of poop smeared up his arm and leaked out of his bulging diaper. Worst still, his binky held tell-tale traces of an experimental snack.

*Aauugghhh!!!*

MAY-DAY!!! I scooped him up in one quick stride and holding him as far away from me as I could manage, tanked to the bathroom, his legs dangling in mid air as he sucked nonchalantly away on his binky. I could just hear his little mind thinking that this was purely elementary behaviour in the Bell household! Frantic mother. Clueless child. Haha, if you can imagine it, we must have looked pretty funny!

I plunked him in the tub fully dressed and wrenched the hot and cold faucets around to their limits until water belched its way out at high velocity. As the water jetted into the tub and as Cougar endeavored to drown our bathroom by sticking his finger beneath the faucet and spraying the walls, myself included, I proceeded to peel off the poopy-ridden onesie that was now beginning to smell like my little brown and squishy "cracker".

*sigh* My little angel.

And that was definitely no cracker! LOL!!

Two days ago, I received the best phone call from my soul mate. He was being demo'd (demobilized) and he would be on his way home in the morning! As I type, he is only a few miles away from Phoenix. He and his crew have been driving all day today. I will see him in a couple more hours. I wasn't expecting him home until Sunday, so this is better than Christmas!

I'm soooooo happy he's finally coming home!!



Here is a pic of my beloved hubby playing Mr. Mom and being the biggest sweetheart cleaning our very messy livingroom on a laundry day. No wonder I can't live without him! Hee-hee!!

(OMGosh!! That room really is a mess!!! (See, Aubry? It DOES get messy around here, haha!) And when was the last time I straightened up the picture frames on the back wall? Umm........ LOL!!!)

There is saying from a prominent breakfast cereal company that says, "It's the [small and] simple things in life that are often the best".

And might I add, "And also the funniest!"

How true that is. :)

Life in Real Time

Alora now


Alora's final haircut


Alora's haircut from the back


During (first) haircut at Grandma Bell's


Alora's hideous haircut!!





Finally! Pics of Alora's Hair Before and After her crazy hair cut!! LOL. Geez, how I love my kids! :P



Clint has been gone for a little over one week already. He has also taken the camera with him which means I can't take pictures while he's away. Ironically, it's when he's away WITH the camera that all the crazy things begin happening around here!

Just when I thought I was taking things into my stride as a "single parent", life decides to spice things up just a notch to make my life a little more "interesting". Yesterday was a real blast. While changing Eden's diaper in the livingroom, Cougar had found his way into my studio office for the umpteenth time. Alora has been such the big helper these days, but to the point where she "over helps". Now that it's over, I can laugh about it. *Strained chuckle*

*Rolls eyes*

Cougar was helping himself to some of "Mummy's things" in my studio and Alora went charging to the rescue and hussled him out of the room. In the process, she shut the office door.

After changing Eden and sensing the would-be calamity to have died down, sighing with relief I went to enter my office. The door handle wouldn't budge. I was locked out of my office!

Not only that, my cell phone and the GOOD phone that works and my computer with some very important emails I was composing before Eden created her stinky were all in my office!

I was going to rip my hair out!!! Haha. Uugghhhhh....

*Inhale*

After briefly having a word with Alora (who very innocently said she didn't do it), I hurried to the bathroom to find a bobby-pin. I'd seen it done in movies and knew my husband could do it (but he wasn't here, dagnamit!), but I'D never done it!

Straightening out the bobby-pin, I pushed it through the tiny round opening in the middle of the door knob digging around hoping to spring a catch or SOMETHING. I had no idea what I was looking for. So I twisted and prodded to no avail. I had a wave of inspiration. "Google it!"

Thankfully we have 3 computers in our house, so I ran to my bedroom where my hubby's computer sat patiently waiting for me to pounce on it. I googled, "Unlocking a door". I pulled up some YouTube info, but they were really no help.

Great.

I did read somewhere that someone had used a coat hanger, so I grabbed an old wire hanger in our closet, straightened out the hook, and slid it between our 2 doors hoping to push the catch aside. Nope. So I proceeded to dig around in the door knob again. The fleeting thought of calling 911 did a merry jig across my mind.

Then suddenly, a distinct "click" and the door popped open! Relief!!

*Major Exhale!*

The coat hanger remains propped up in the corner of my office as a souvenir of yesterday's crazy antics.

Then Life decided to have another go at me today.

Just before 7am this morning I heard the soft footsteps of Alora approaching my bed. I was still curled up beside Eden (who was already awake busily downing a bottle of apple juice). I wear contact lenses, so without it I'm practically blind, so I didn't see Alora clearly when she came up beside me to say good morning.

"Mummy, guess what?" she suddenly gushed with a little too much enthusiasm for 7 am.

"What, honey?"

"I did something very, very good! I was helpful! Remember how you said yesterday that I was going to get my hair cut? Well, I helped you and I cut my hair!"

My eyes bugged wide open although that didn't help my vision too much. I whirled around to stare at her, squinting like an old woman. It was simply too early to NOT be completely taken off guard. My brain was spluttering like an old motorbike - a very annoyed one. Breathe, Lis, breathe, I told myself. You don't have all the facts. Maybe she's kidding.

"What?" I croaked still dazed from sleep. "You CUT your hair??"

"Yes."

"When did you cut your hair and where??"

"I cut my hair in the bathroom."

"This morning??" (Obviously I was still half asleep, ofcourse it was this morning).

She nodded.

"Which scissors did you use?"

"I used the ones in the kitchen". I cringed imagining the mess, hair scattered everywhere. And those blunt kitchen scissors...

I whipped my spectacles on and studied her head. Yup. She did.

And nope. She wasn't kidding.

I closed my eyes stifling a laugh and wanting to blow up at the same time. In less than 40 minutes, we were supposed to get in the car and drive her to school.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Heaven help me, I whimpered. And I thought I had reached my wits end yesterday.

Alora's face was still as beautiful and as angelic as ever. She is truly blessed with beauty and nothing she did could ever mess that up. Her hair on the otherhand.

The pictures above show the length of her hair. Those pics were taken several months ago, so her hair has grown about an inch since. She had chopped off her hair right up to the hairline above her brow so that little tufts of black spikes stood on end. It was the first thing you saw when you looked at her face. She said that her hair had gotten in the way when she ran around so that was her 7 year old remedy. LOL!

As for the rest of it, she had hacked the length of her hair to shoulder length. I suppose she was looking in the mirror when she did this as the length was approximately (emphasis added) even. The back of her hair remained in a jagged mess where she had ventured blindly with the (blunt) scissors, leaving a handful of long tresses as she missed. Imagine the popular 80's Rat's Tail gone wrong. Really wrong.

I WISH I had my camera!!

"Honey", (I practically whined) "Why didn't you wait until Daddy got back? I would have taken you to a professional to cut your hair. Sweetheart, I will tell you the truth, YOU still are beautiful but your hair is a mess!"

I wanted to hug her. I wanted to yell. I wanted to tell her the truth. I didn't want to hurt her feelings. I wanted to cry. I wanted Clint to be home! It was clearly WAY TOO EARLY for this to be happening!!

I was just trying to help", she said with a straight face. "I did clean up". I checked afterwards and true to her word, she had cleaned the chopped bits of hair off the floor and most of it lay in a big, lumpy mass in the trash. I sighed. I knew that I had to record this 7 year old milestone moment where Alora exercised her independence by cutting her own hair. In the morning. Before anyone else was awake.

Hilarious!!

I called the school and left a message that she wouldn't be making it this morning. Then I called Grandma at the Bell Patch and told her of the emergency, asking if she wouldn't mind watching the kids while I took Alora for a professional hair cut. Her hair was beyond any saving that I could possibly administer. Mom suggested the next best thing, she could cut her hair. Okay I said. Maybe I could get a bit of grocery shopping done while she was at it. She said that was fine. AND she would take a picture of Alora's hair too!

Thus my day is coming together. Finally.

Now to rescue a screaming 8 month old and a 2 year old that is bent on turning the fan on high and blowing us all away.

I love being a parent!! (*exclaimed with tongue in cheek*) xx

BLissful Parenting!

Alora, our beautiful Second Grader.


Our lovely, sweet and adorable Eden.


Our crazy sweet Cougar with a new hair cut and glasses!

For the sake of family all over the world (you all know who you are) I have made the active decision to update my blog ATLEAST once a week. I make no promises. You could get lucky and I could update it more often!

Once upon a time I was the avid journal writer. But now, such is historical antiquity. Children, family, being a full time Domestic Engineer and Professional Artist (haha, don't you love my lofty titles?) have overtaken everything else in my life. That and going insane on this small spot of the world. My beloved soul mate is off in northern California fighting fires for 2 whole, frustrating weeks which has left me to be in FULL charge of the household and everything within and about it. I'm not READY to be a single parent! I didn't sign up for this. Where is the off button? I want to jump off and run away to a remote island somewhere in some gorgeous villa and lock the door behind me...(here Clint would have me include the fact that he would be there with me too. Haha!) Only, I'd miss my kids too much. Then I'd have to come back to reality. What a jarring slap in the face that would be. AAuuugghghghghh!

So he's been gone 5 days already, but only 3 of those days count (travel time not included - darn it!!). 11 more days to go. Plus travel time. Why does counting backwards sound like it's less time and provide more sanity than counting forwards?

- AND we have only a few chapters left of "The Host" to read! As soon as we finished Stephenie Meyer's "Eclipse" we picked up reading her latest release, "The Host" together. He left just at the height of the story! Now I have to wait for him to get back before I can find out what happens to Melanie and Wanda!! Doh!!! And because I'm so steadfast and will wait for him AND to read the rest of the book together, I'll just suffer and vent all over my blog! :P

I miss my Clint.

Ok, vent is over. It's really not as bad as that. I'm glad I can be here for our kids. I wouldn't have it any other way. I was able to go to Target yesterday (flanked by a 2 year old and an 8 month old in her humungous car seat. Humungous for little me atleast) and do lots of fun shopping. Now could I have done that if Clint were with me? Are you kidding? I'd forever be hearing him sigh in every aisle, and be harrassed by his "Nooo, we don't need that" glares hurled in my direction every 2 minutes. Yes, I pick up something and look at it every 2 minutes.

No I don't. But he thinks I do. Haha!

So, the bliss of being able to shop (and shop I did) all by myself (minus the 2 kids who were actually quite well behaved under the circumstances - until we hit the juice aisle...) was refreshing. Nice to get out of the house. And to spend money! LOL! Oh dear, somewhere in northern California, Clint's ears are burning, and it's not because of the fires.

So back to the juice aisle that I'd mentioned in parenthesis. As soon as Cougar saw all the gleaming, colourful bottled juices, he belched out a Cougar-iffic high pitched squeal. That's when I realised his sippy cup was empty. So if you're a parent, you may be able to relate. I put down my cute red shoulder bag to prepare myself. That's when Eden joined in with her shrills. Oh dear. I was ready with a bottle of apple juice and popped that in her mouth. One down, one to go.

I scanned the ridiculous shelves responsible for our current mayhem hunting for some type of juice that didn't require a straw or wasn't packaged in some type of heavy cardboard that was parent proof in situations like this. I needed something easy to open and in a hurry. No straws. Not only would a straw produce a huge mess that I wasn't willing to deal with, I wasn't going to spend precious minutes trying to dump the juice into his sippy cup through the teeny straw opening. Of course, I could rip open the juice box. Of course! C'mon, this is me here. I don't think like that under pressure. My hubby could though, bless his heart. And he wasn't here with me!

Then I found it. Gatorade. I pounced on the orange bottles and wrenched off the plastic rings binding the pack together, twisted off the lid and hurriedly poured the contents into his sippy cup that I managed to open in under 3 seconds. A Lissy's World record. He popped the sippy cup right into his mouth, and ahhhh, the sound of silence. As much as can be afforded in the middle of the juice and cereal aisle in the middle of a Target store at any rate.

Then, as the kids were happy, I was able to throw down a yogurt covered granola bar. It was 9:30 am and this was breakfast. We hadn't had breakfast, so no wonder Cougar was a bit grizzly. So I grabbed more snacky items, fruit chews, and opened those boxes as well. Haha, how often have I done this before in times of desperation? *sigh* My poor brain.

I needed an outlet. We needed a new dvd player. It had finally broken down due to its exhausted use by my crazy 2 year old who likes to switch dvds every five minutes. First it didn't eject properly. Then it stopped playing altogether. We went to electronics.

My outlet? Spending money. One dvd player later, plus 2 dvds for Alora, a training potty for Cougar, a Fisher Price Ocean Wonders soother for Eden, and a bunch of food that I probably didn't need (word of the wise, NEVER shop hungry) we were on our way back to the car with a store assistant pushing an extra shopping cart behind me.

That's when I noticed Eden had done the biggest poop in her car seat. It had oozed over her onesie, crawled up her back and spilled out over her chunky little legs onto her seat. I rolled my eyes. That would have to wait until we got home.

Earlier that morning (unbelievably to me, this was only yesterday) we had driven Alora to school. It was her first day back from summer vacation. She is now an official second grader. Where does the time go?

As I approached the school, I could feel my stomach dropping, my face turning into a grimace, then puckering into a scowl. There were cars EVERYWHERE! Cars were parked haphazardly by the sides of the road, along the curb. Parents in a late frenzy to get their kids to school and on time. It was chaos. I hate the first day of school.

Then I realised that Alora had a new teacher and a new classroom. We didn't attend Meet the Teacher night so we had no clue who her teacher was, or where her classroom was located. Was I just going to drop her off at the school to fend for herself on her own so I could avoid the cataclysm of banked up parking and harried parents? This place was worst than Best Buy on Christmas Eve.

Of course not. I was going to brave the throng. The horde of crazed people. I would lug all 3 of my children out of the car and get my daughter to her classroom, even if I had to wrestle my 2 year old along the way and carry Eden in her stroller with my free arm and pummel everyone else in my way with my feet! I would be a dedicated, responsible parent who takes care of her daughter's scholastic needs. Help, I whispered to myself. I said a necessary prayer.

And I did it! WE did it. Alora was amazing. She helped out with Cougar on the way to the office and through to her new classroom. She held his hand and opened all the doors as we walked through the school. Cougar was helpful in the fact that he held Alora's hand and didn't try too hard to run away. She was my saving grace on the way to her room and I was able to push Eden along happily in her stroller. As for Eden, she just sat back and gazed at all the new surroundings. Oh, the joys of being a baby!

On the way back to the car, I managed to hail down the help of Natalie, one of the assistant teachers. She was so nice and helpful, to her credit I even remember her name! :) She pushed Eden in her stroller while I rounded Cougar up and kept him from running away. When we finally got to the car, I thanked both Natalie and heaven most emphatically. Incidentally, the parking lot was void of the monstrosity alive only minutes before. School is a crazy place. Thank goodness tomorrow is the SECOND day of school!!

All in all, Alora had a wonderful first day at school. I was able to get out of the house and find some enjoyment at Target. AND I managed it with my kids. Oh, and I managed to hook up the new dvd player ALL BY MYSELF. I don't care if it doesn't require an IQ to hook up a dvd player. I'm real proud of my accomplishment. You see, that's something else Clint would do for me. He practically does everything for me. I am very spoiled.

How I miss my man. (Can you tell? Maybe I should change the title of this post to "Ode To Clint" LOL!!) I really love that he treats me like his princess. I truly love my family, so much that my heart breaks over the amount of love I hold for them.

Clint and I get to text eachother every day. I'm grateful that his cell phone gets enough signal to do this. He and the rest of his crew are out in the wilderness living like mountain men. They're sleeping in tents, and have special places set up for them to wash and go bathroom. He hasn't shaven for days! He'll come home with a beard. Haha! Ugh. As long as he's safe and healthy, and comes home undamaged, that makes me happy. His phone is running very low on batteries, so we hope he'll find some place to recharge it.

I'm grateful that we've had some type of communication every day so far. We've already discussed all the things we'll do when he gets back. We're both planning on taking a late anniversary getaway for a couple of days. I wasn't able to earlier in the year as I was still heavily nursing Eden. Another plan of ours is that I complete weining Eden during the short time he's away. That won't be a problem as Eden is already preferring the bottle now more than me. It's a bitter sweet thing. Although I loved the act of nursing my babies, I am through with all the mastitis and nursing problems I encountered this third time round.

Geezz, I know, it's only 2 weeks. But I'll be honest. I miss the heck out of him. It will be good when Daddy returns. Then perhaps my sanity will return. Afterall, he is my sanity. And insanity. Haha!!