A little bit of everything

I'm taking it easy today, so this post is going to be a mish-mash of loose ends. Indulge me.

My sick baby today.

We took Charly to the doctor's office this morning (they have walk-in hours from 7:30-8:30) because she has had this on and off stuffy, cranky, not wanting to eat thing going on. Turns out the poor dear has a mild ear infection, so after our stop at the Target Pharmacy she got her first taste of Amoxicillin, AKA Bubblegum Medicine. This pink-y goodness was a prescription fave at my house growing up. Whether it was the flavor or the distinct pink color (we were hard core Barbie fans), we LOVED Amoxicillin. I feel like such a mom measuring and administering medicine. Is that strange? I guess feeding and diaper changes I got a lot of practice with as I babysat, but administering meds is such a parental thing to me. It makes me feel grown up. The good news: she loves it! I guess for someone who has only tasted milk, sweet pink medicine is quite a treat. Today we are going to snuggle and relax and hope this babe gets feeling better soon. And since I have perfected the skill of computer use while holding a newborn (she's sleeping on my chest right now) I'll also spend some time doing research (aka finding more projects to add to my pinterest board) on my favorite blogs. Maybe I'll do some real research and read the news, too.

And for those who are wondering how in the world I have a sleeping baby on my chest while typing, we have a really sweet setup. Our computer is an HTPC, or Home Theater PC, so our TV acts as our computer monitor. This setup came about when our laptop went caput and we needed to save some moolah. I came up with the idea of just hooking a computer to our TV so we could cut cable and watch Hulu on our TV instead. I called my bro to ask if this was even possible (cause Matt was skeptical. I think he just wanted to keep cable.) and he informed me someone had already thought of that brilliant idea and pointed us in the HTPC direction. I think you could use any PC, but ours has an HDMI out that makes it possible for us to continue watching our TV shows or 'stories', as Matt says, in HD. So we just have a wireless mouse and keyboard that we use on our couch. It works great for us. It means less 'dual media' than before (where we mindlessly watched TV and surfed the web at the same time) and we save money by no longer paying for cable. Between Hulu and Netflix on demand we still have a lot of options, but we don't leave the TV on just for noise anymore. It works for us.

a view of our "computer" screen. The computer is that black box between the Wii and the basket on the right (which holds all the cords and cables this setup requires). Is this the first view of our house I've given you guys? Hmm. I'll have to give you a tour soon. This might win the prize for longest picture caption ever. 

In other news, our favorite houseplant, Orchy (its a purple orchid. original, I know), is not doing well. Orchy usually blooms 1-2 times a year, and when he does, it is fantastic. I think our last bloom was June of 2010 so we have been anxiously anticipaing this for a while now. Orchy used to live right next to a window in our old house, and I think his sickness is due to his new location. We really don't have a good sunny spot for him so he hasn't gotten his proper dosage of vitamin D lately. I'm afraid it might be too late to revive him, but he'll sit next to the window on our awkwardly placed coffee table until we know for sure.

Orchy Sitting in front of the window. See Those shrivelly looking blossoms toward the bottom? Not good.

Closer view of a shrivelly blossom.

A healthy blossom, for comparison.

I do have one small project to share today- It's a little Mother's day something I worked up. Mom and Lori- look away! You'll see yours soon enough!












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Are they gone? Ok, now the rest of you can peek.

I made up these little 'brag books' for both grandmas for Mother's day. They are my first attempt at scrapbooking since I was, oh, 14. I recently inherited a whole heap of supplies from my mom so I'm eager to get into it again now that I have the stuff and the subject (Charly). Anyone else making something for a Mother's day gift?

And last but not least... anyone looked at our page views lately? It's that counter on the sidebar. It is getting dangerously close to 10,000 views, and that deserves a celebration! I had a giveaway in mind... maybe something handmade. Anybody have an idea? Is there something I have made and posted about that you would like to see in a giveaway?

Phew. This post ended up to be even more of a scramble than I thought. Thanks for sticking through till the end. You guys are the best:)