A girl's love of curling explained

Ahhh...curling.   The beloved sport of the north, where two teams face off with their stones and brooms in the ready.  Why do I love it so?  Is it the thrill of watching a team come from behind and get a double to leave only their stones in the house?  Is it seeing a stone land smack dab in the middle of the button?  Maybe it's the northern accents...I gotta say that does weigh in alot!

But the real reason I love curling so much is because it reminds me of this:

During the 2006 Torino Olympics, J.J. was not even a month old.  Late night feedings consisted of him and me learning the joys of curling, because that was all that was on at 3 a.m. when the games were on the other side of the globe. 

So mock, if you must, my love for all things curling, but just know that it holds a place near and dear to my heart.

Playing with Photoshop

I'm getting more adventurous with Photoshop. I don't have the fancy-shmancy professional version...just little ol' Elements. But I found fun things to do and I'm starting a notebook (a la junior high...yes, it's a Mead spiral notebook!) with tips so I don't have to keep flipping between windows while I'm doing it.

Here's a couple I did today:

I mainly just did colorsplash and vignettes, but I did do some skin-tone and eye color tweaking (wow...two posts in as many days for that word!) and I gotta say I'm pretty impressed.

Now if I could just learn how to use my camera properly so I have really good photos to mess with, I'll really be cookin' with gas!

Toodles for now...I'm off to sleepyland with the sounds of curling in the background to lull me to sleep.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE that sport?  Maybe I'll expand on that tomorrow.

WHAT?!?!?!?

There's only a few reasons why I would actually make the effort to post twice in one day.

I just found a REALLY good one.

Are you ready?

No...really ready?

Here goes:

JENNIFER KNAPP HAS A NEW ALBUM OUT!!!!

If you know me but at all, you know she is my absolute favorite singer...ever.  She's been gone for seven years.  Seven years without new songs to jam to.  Seven years of listening to "Refine Me" and "Martyrs and Thieves", wistfully wondering if she was gone for good.

I'm a LITTLE excited.  Just a tad.  Especially since it's not coming out until May...but still!

Maybe I'll pick up my guitar again.  And sing a song.  (Don't tell...but if Lillith Fair comes here...I may just have to go and check her out...along with Sarah, Ingrid, Sarah, Norah, Sheryl...WOW the list is long!)  But shhhhh...it's a secret. 

Go check out a taste of her new stuff on her myspace page

A project that needs a little "tweaking"

Who knows the quote?  Anybody?  (Lauren...I KNOW you know it!)

So with the help of my friend Amy, I changed up the look of my blog.  What do you all think?  Good, huh?  Yeah...she's an artiste! 

I don't really have a whole lot to discuss...just wanted to kick the tires and give the new layout a test-drive...and post a cute pic of my kiddos...of course!

Happy Saturday!

When Hadley speaks, people listen

Does anyone else remember that ad for E.F. Hutton?  No?  Just me?  Okay...moving on.

That's right...I'm doing two entries in one day!  You're shocked, aren't you?  Hello?  Are you okay?  MEDIC!

The reason for my dual posting (not to be confused with DUEL posting...where the blog posts draw pistols, take ten paces, turn and FIRE!) is my pwesh-us widdle baby girl and her inability to stop amazing me with her words.

Plus, I've been at home all day with two not-so-well kiddos and I feel the need to get away into blogland.

Here's a list of what my baby can say at the tender young age of 19 months:

Mama
Dada
"Bubba" (brother....sorry Jo, it happened)
Bye-bye
"Me"
"Beebee" (baby)
"Bup" (cup)
"Meh-moh" (Can you guess?  What toddler DOESN'T say this one?)
"Baa-baa" (Yeah...it's not for sheep...it's Abby, as in Abby Cadabby)
Uh-oh
"He-oh" (hello...it's really cute when she's on her Winnie the Pooh phone and he says it and she says it back!)
"Mammy" (Manny, as in Handy Manny)  **According to my mother-in-law, she says this is also "Grami"**
"Buh-boo" (love you, which if you've known us awhile, is better than J.J.'s version when he was her age!)
"Tah-woo" (thank you)
Moo
Ho Ho Ho (ANYtime she sees Santa...on TV, in a book, no matter where)
"Eee" (ear...and also eye...they're indistinguishable, really!)
"Mah" (mouth)


Signs she knows:

"More"
"Please"
"All done"
"Thank you"
"Out"

I'm trying to get better about this blogging thing...

So, here it is February 17 and it's exactly 2 weeks after I last posted on this, my lovely link to all things cyber (well, except for that pesky Facebook...why is it soooo addictive??).  But since my previous stints between posts seem to linger around the 2-or-3-month mark, I think I'm doing pretty well.

At least that's what I keep telling myself.  It's all about grace, right?

That's what Beth keeps telling me anyway.

So I had a mom's group at my house yesterday.  It was kind of a test run...to see if I could pull off hosting one.  I think it went pretty well and from what I took from the other mommies that were there, they all seemed to have a good time.  I'm excited!  I used to go to another mom's group at a friend's house and I think it was good prep for me to see what all goes into hosting one.  We've even decided to make it a weekly thing!  Not that every mom can come every week, but whoever ("Whoooom...whoooom...sometimes it's WHO!") wants to come whenever, join us!  The more the merrier!  And if it outgrows my house, well then I guess we'll take it somewhere bigger!

But I'm getting ahead of myself a bit, I think.

We did hear some odd noises coming from the playroom at one point.  They sounded like screams of anger or pain.  Instead, we found out what they were:

Horse whinnies!  J.J. was teaching his new friend Jonas how to ride the horsie.

I don't know how your horsies sound, but ours sounds like this:  "I'm a little pony, clippity-clop, clippity-clop.  Such a pretty pony, clippity-clop, clippity-clop."

"I love to have my co-o-o-oat brushed underneath the old oak tree."

"Let's jump and run, we'll have lots of fun, will you come and play with me?"

You know you want to ride, don't you?  :)

My strong boy

**EDIT**

After going back and looking at this entry, it dawned on me that some weirdo out in cyberland might see this picture in a completely wrong way.  So I'm removing the picture.  But at least the quote is still funny.




J.J. came into the kitchen on Saturday afternoon, stripped down to his underwear.  He said, "Mom, I took off my pants and shirt because I'm strong, like Samson."

I don't know where he comes up with this stuff.