Fracture – A new way to print and display photos

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Christy

I’m super excited to try this new photo processing that I’ve heard about. It’s called Fracture and they print your photo right on the glass! It makes it easy to display and all the sharp edges are removed so it’s safe to touch. The glass is shatter proof and the images will not fade for years beyond average prints.

If I’m one of the first 100 people to blog about it I’ll be back at a later time to follow up with a review of a Fracture product. With all of the great pictures I take of Lily I would love to get a beautiful print, but it will take some time to find the perfect one.

“I wrote this blog post in response to a TwitterMoms RAMBO alert, making me eligible to get a Fracture picture frame for review. You can learn more about Fracture at http://www.fractureme.com.”

The one about Goals

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Christy

I have never really made a written list of Goals for myself and the other day I was ready a blog (sorry I don’t remember which one) and she was talking about her “life list) and it got me thinking. Oh yeah, I was reading She Likes Purple, I just love her and her son. I’m going to start small with my Goals. If this goes well maybe I’ll move on to larger, loftier goals.

Open a local bank account. Okay, I actually mean a Credit Union account because after working at a great Credit Union for 6 years I don’t think I can ever bank at a bank again. I don’t even know if we need a local account but I feel like we should get one. I have no intention of closing the account we had at my previous place of employment, all of our bills are set up for auto debit and our checks get direct deposited. Our debit and credit card is there, I know how it works and I know a lot of the employees. I feel it would be good to start an account here for little things and maybe start a relationship that might work into a house someday.
Find out about first time home buyer loans and get the loan app. I’m starting small with just the loan app. I’ll add buying a house to a longer goal list someday.
Visit family or friends for at least 1 hour a week. I know that doesn’t sound like much of a goal, but I have found that between working, Lily and her nap and everyday life visiting anyone at all is a challenge.
Blog more. I really want to get up to 3 posts a week, if not more.

z ‘p17160;[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[””””””””””’;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/???????????–Lily says HI.

I think this is a nice little list of Goals. I’ll revisit it in a month and see how I did.

Swim class

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Christy

A day or two after we told everyone that we were moving back to Cali my sister Jolene texted me to see if we wanted to go to Mommy and me swim lessons with her and Olivia. I almost said yes but my fear of a bathing suit in public stopped me. After a few days thinking about it I texted her back that we’d love too. I decided it wasn’t fair to deny Lily because of my body issues.

The swim lessons are 30 minutes a day Monday through Friday for two weeks. At first I was kind of ticked that I had to schlep all the way across town, grease Lily and myself up and stuff both of us in swim suits for 30 minutes. After the first day I was so glad it was only for 30 minutes and was happy to schlep, grease and stuff for two weeks.

Our class got pushed back a couple of weeks so by the time swim lessons started I was really looking forward to it. It was a great excuse to spend time with my sister and niece and play in the water a little. There were 5 or 6 kids in Lily’s class. Two of which were tiny 10 month old twin girls with some of the cutest bathing suits I had ever seen.

Day 1: (5 minutes late)
float on belly with Mama’s support – Aces

adding kicks to that – Aces

floating on back with Mama’s support – no go, but I get that, I can’t float on my back either. None of the kids like it.

Blowing bubbles – Aces. She didn’t blow any actual bubbles but she tried and I’m pretty sure she’s the only kiddo that even tried.

"Mom don't let go"

Day 2: stuff from Day 1 – Aces

Then they told us to do this weird pushing the baby under the water and toward the side – the first time, fine. The second time – no go in a huge way.

The rest of the class time was spend crying and signing to nurse. We got out of the pool after a few failed attempts to have fun again.

I got home and started thinking about being a swim class drop out. I didn’t go into this class expecting Lily to be a full fledged swimmer when we were done, I just wanted to have fun with my Girl and my Sister and Niece. This was so not fun.

Day 3:

After lots of thought I decided to give it one more try. Waldo tagged along to see what it was all about.

Not much fun was had this day. All the babies were crying, Lily just wanted to nurse. Disaster.

On the drive home Waldo said he had a lot to say about the swim class and none of it was good. He also said if I wanted to drop out he would totally back me on it because if it was him he would.

Day 4:

We took the day off from swim class and instead went swimming at my aunt’s house. It was so nice and relaxing. I did encourage Lily to blow bubbles, float and kick. I also tried to get her to jump into the pool which I guess we missed on day 2 after we got out of the pool. We had a great time and YAY! swimming was fun again.

Day 5:

I still really wanted to give up but Jolene texted me that day 4 had been a lot of fun for Olivia and we should keep coming and just do what we are comfortable with. Which is exactly what we did. We went back for the next few days and practiced all the fun floating/kicking/ bubble blowing stuff and by the last day Lily didn’t want to leave.

"Hey look I got it!"

I felt this was a huge success and swim class ended up being exactly what I wanted it to be. I don’t think the instructor liked me much or maybe she was a little intimidated with my Mama Bear impression because of the last day the kids all got certificates except Lily and Olivia. Jolene asked Monica (instructor) about it and she said she still had to fill them out. So Jolene went with her and a few minutes later handed me Lily’s. I read it and laughed. It said she hadn’t advanced to the next class, Jolene asked Monica why since Olivia did. Monica said that Lily just wasn’t ready, I totally agree with that, but I think Monica was a little scared to give it to me herself, like I was going to be upset or something.

Starfish to starfish

I’m sure next year’s class will be much more useful, but I’m so glad we did it this year. Lily loves to swim and I feel more comfortable in the water with her.

Grandma Gail (my Mom) and Lily

Kick, kick, kick

Jolene and Olivia

More kicking

Summertime

Posted on August 12, 2010 by Christy

We’ve been in California for about 2 1/2 months and it has been so nice. Yes some days the weather is too hot but the mornings and evenings cool off nicely. Other then the heat (and a little too much traffic) things are great and one our favorite things is spending time outside in my Father-in-law’s wonderfully taken care of yard.