The good, the bad and the ugly

The Good – My mother flew into town yesterday and will be with us for the week. Yay!

The Bad – Count Dooku appears to have an allergy to something. Lately his eyes have become very red and itchy at random. Today though he really scared me when after a 28 minute drive he got out of the car and I saw his eyes had become slits. The lower lid on both of his eyes were each so puffed up, they looked like there was something stuffed inside of them. We’re waiting for a blood test to tell us if it’s something seasonal or if it’s the hamster. If you have any suggestions to help him in the mean time (besides Benadryl which didn’t do much besides making him sleepy) it would be appreciated.

The Ugly – That monthly visitor of women reared her ugly head yesterday after a 1 year 9 month break. Woe is me!

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Go vote!

So the voting for April’s Photo Contest is now open! My photo is in there so if you liked it, go ahead and vote for it eh?

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Hands

You see it in my header.
You see it in my avatar.
You see it on my social networking profiles.

That is because it is the photo which most identifies what I am and will always be, no matter how big those hands get. A Mother.

Hands
A sonnet
© Summer Owens

The hand that clenches my finger so tight
Will only this day in time so small be,
And it shall seem as though barely one night
Has passed between childhood and infancy.
Soon you’ll be older, your hands bigger too.
They’ll reach for mine as your first step you take.
Scrapes will soon follow but you will pull through
I’ll teach you to learn from mistakes you make.
Each new accomplishment will bring a smile
We’ll laugh and talk of the things you have learned
Yet I know it will seem such a short while
Before you seek for the freedom you’ve earned
Soon you’ll be ready to let my hand go
You’ll hold my heart in your hands always though.

The above photograph was taken by and is the sole property of myself, Summer Owens. I have entered it into the Mother’s Day Giveaway Photo Contest over at 5 Minutes for Mom. Be sure to check out the other wonderful entries there.

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A giveaway to get really excited about

The ladies at 5 Minutes for Mom are having an amazing giveaway event.

They’ve kicked it off with a themed photo contest: Motherhood. The winner will receive…$1,000 dollars.

I am really excited to see all of the personal photographic interpretations of motherhood. Especially from you, my regular readers. I think this contest will be more about what you’ve captured than how you’ve captured it, so don’t feel like you have nothing to offer up because you’re not a practiced photographer (I’m certainly not practiced). Let’s get out there and go for the gold!

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Flaming Beauty

For April’s Photo Contest

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If tulips were people

This is Modest Mary. She looks a bit plain from the outside
but her true beauty shines from within.

This is Graceful Gabby. She is lovely inside and out and well
rounded besides.

This is Wild Wendy. She prefers a look untamed, just for the
sake of shock value. And of course, she’s all about having fun.

This is Confused Claire. She’s a lot like modest Mary, but she wants
to be like her friend Wild Wendy. She’s a bit overzealous at times in trying
to be someone she’s not. She’s still working on finding the right balance.

This is Flirtatious Felicity. She’s got good looks and she likes to flaunt it.
She makes an extra effort to outshine her peers in the garden.

And what have we here?

A pet hedgehog? In the tulip garden? It’s so flippin’ cute!
Must get one!
Ahem.
Back to the subject at hand.

Which tulip are you?

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I’m normal, really.

Yet something has happened to me today. After spending hours perusing the ginormous list of giveaways happening around the blogosphere, I’ve suddenly struck a silly chord.

Maybe it was my ending every entry with an exclamation mark, Great Giveaway!, I would love this!, Thanks for the opportunity! that drove me crazy. But I had to do it.

I mean, won’t these people know that an exclamation at the end means I really want to win? Doesn’t that exclamation convey the desperation excitement I have to win this or this?
Aren’t I bettering my chances by sounding super excited? Please?

Alas though I found I could exclaim no longer. At least not in traditional fashion.

So I found myself typing things like, Target is da bomb! and Holy Sweetness! I love it when people essentially give away money. I don’t have any! Pick me! and Me like cheesecake.

Yes, I’ve decided with that last one I best get off the computer and start again tomorrow, re-normalized.

P.S. I’m giving away another blog design

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Angel Girl turned one!

So April 19th 2008 has come and gone and my Angel girl is officially one year old. I even made an extra effort to savor her newness and the first year still flew by. Angel girl’s birth story in brief:

Little Angel girl came into our world yesterday. Hubby and I arrived at the hospital at 5:30a.m. Pitocin was started at 6 a.m. The doctor broke my water around 7:30a.m. Shortly thereafter I was given an epidural. By 9:30 a.m I was dialated to 4cm…They checked me again at 11:30a.m. and I was 10cm! I started pushing at around 12:02p.m. and Angel girl was born at 12:08p.m. Only 6 hours of labor and 6 minutes of pushing (as opposed to 19 hours and 1 1/2 hours of pushing with my last one). – My journal entry 4/20/2007

Angel girl was 10lbs. 2oz. and 22 1/2 inches long when she emerged. So I started out with a linebacker

I was so very sick that day. I had viral pink eye in BOTH eyes and a horrible head and chest cold.

Now she’s almost 20 pounds, has more hair and 4 little teeth. We had a fun little birthday celebration.

Here is the mini cake I made for her

I’m so in love with my baby girl and so happy she joined our family!

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Afraid of everything

It was 85 degrees yesterday. EIGHTY FIVE. Of course we had to go out and enjoy the fine weather. So after picking Count Dooku up from school, we drove to our favorite playground. I settled down around the sand box where Count Dooku was playing. Then I encouraged Obi Wan to join his brother. Obi Wan whimpered sadly and shook his head. He sat down by me instead and I assumed he would go off and play soon enough. But he didn’t.

My conversation with a friend kept getting interrupted by, “Aaaagh!” and “No-ho-ho-ho-ho!” and “Eeeee!” followed by a cowering four year old clasping my arm or snuggling into me. I was so focused on conversing that I didn’t register his behavior in my head at first. Every time he made a noise I just kept telling him to shush or to go play. Finally it clicked and I wondered what all of his fussing was about and why he wasn’t playing.

“Obi Wan, what in the world is the matter?”
“I mee a go home!”
“No you don’t need to go home. Why are you squealing so much?”
“Aaaaagh! A bug! A bug!”
I shooed a little fly away from him
“Nohoooooo! Go away bee!”
“I shooed the fly away from him again.
“Are you flipping out because of the bugs?” I asked
“I no wike bugs mom.”

Well I guess that was my answer. I kept encouraging him to play but he wouldn’t leave my side. I had thought he wasn’t afraid of bugs anymore. Last Summer he was but then he seemed to get over it.

Oh.
Wait.
He didn’t get over it. The bugs just died. Now they’re back and Obi Wan is as afraid as ever. Combine that with his stubborn personality and no amount of coaxing could get him to leave my side for an instant. The constant squealing and whining was pretty darn annoying. I did have to laugh though when the whining that interrupted me at one point went like so,

“Mom, iss da big bad wofe. I scared a da big bad wofe.”
“Big bad wolf? What in the world do you mean?”
“Der mom, da big bad wofe.”

His little finger pointed toward a park bench where a huge husky sat panting in the shade of a tree, it’s owner holding the leash.

My boy is afraid of bugs and dogs and I don’t know what to do to help him get over it. *sigh*

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Men and Make up

If you read my recent purse post, you may have been able to surmise that I am very much a girl of the Au Natural mindset when it comes to makeup. This doesn’t mean that I won’t brush on some eye shadow and mascara from time to time, but that is as far as making myself up goes. My lack of wanting to make myself up stems from a very early dislike of my gender in general. I dealt with some very mean girls in elementary school, starting in the third grade and decided right then that I wanted to be nothing like them. This meant doing the opposite of everything they did. So I refused to wear makeup, played baseball with the boys at recess and caught bugs and worms to dangle in their screaming faces after recess. How charming I was! But I digress.

I married a man who hates make up more than I ever did. Not just on me but on the female population as a whole. When I comment on how pretty a face we just saw on TV is, he’ll correct me by saying she wasn’t necessarily pretty, just made up (if she was). For him, made up in any way is not very attractive, though the woman beneath the make up may be.
For me, made up is pretty as long as it is not overdone. I did remind him that you can be wearing make up and still look very natural and beautiful and he conceded that yes this could be true. Half the time the silly boy can’t even tell that I’ve put mascara on, so either my trying to accentuate my lashes so my eyes look half alive, isn’t working after all or he’s just not as put off by it as he claims.

Hubby has promised me with a passion that if I ever decide to wear lipstick, he will not kiss me while it is on. Whether it be the kind that won’t come off on other surfaces or not. The thought of his lips touching the stuff, or his hands touching a face with even a tiny layer of base gives him the heebie jeebies.

So now I ask you, how does your husband feel about make up? Or if you’re a man (though I honestly don’t think I have any male readers), how do you feel about make up?

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