Such is life.

Dan has loaned me his Dell laptop while I wait for mine to get sorted out. It's so cold and utilitarian. Using Windows always makes me feel like I'm in a technical Siberia. But beggars can't be choosers and heaven knows I like it more than working on a hulking desktop. Thank you, baby!!!

Abby and I are sick. Poor baby can barely breathe at night, but I prayed hard God would give her a great night (since she'd already woken up 3 times in her first hour and a half of sleeping and I knew this was not headed for a good night for either of us) and He did. She's slept surprisingly well, only really woke once after I went to bed. I, on the other hand, did not do so well, and finally gave up around 6 to just get up. I kind of like this early rising thing, though. Got my contacts in, my teeth brushed, and my clothes on without the grab-grabbing of little hands and the begging of "Uppy?!?!?!?!" And now that I'm vertical the pressure in my head is not quite so bad, and with almost all of my first-thing-in-the-morning 16 oz. of water downed I'm feeling much less dry.

And speaking of being less dry, it rained out! The streets are still wet and weather.com says the high is only going to be 70. Beautiful. We were so loving the temperature in Ventura; it's always so lovely there. But it looks like we've finally turned a corner and can start hoping for some more autumn-like weather. Yay! Now I can finally start taking Abby to the park again; it's been so roasting hot that I haven't dared.

So I found a new obsession to keep me busy since I'm not nearly as overrun with activities as an OC mom ought to be. It's called Heritage Makers, and basically it's digital scrapbooking. A friend of a friend invited me to a party she was doing for it (it's a direct sales thing) and I got so excited! I mean, don't get me wrong, I looooove scrapbooking, but let's be honest; I've been doing it for three years and have yet to finish an album. This does not bode well for me. And given the fact that I only do it about 4 times a year because I can't bear to drag the stuff out unless I have half a day to devote to it, chances are I'll never finish anything. But I made 5 pages on Heritage Makers in less than 2 hours, and that was the first time I'd worked with it, so part of that time was me trying to figure out the program. Hello!?!?!? Five pages!! That would be at least 3 or 4 hours of work and half a metric ton of paper scraps on the floor when doing regular scrapbooking, at least for me. I've actually decided this is how I'll scrap, for the most part, from now on.I'm going to hand-scrap 3 books for each kid--the book of their pregnancy, their first year book, and a personalized alphabet book--and then just do yearly family albums for all the rest of the stuff on Heritage Makers. I'm also going to use HM to do biographies of all the grandparents and great-grandparents so my kids know those people. I still get a little weepy to think that this new baby won't know my grandparents. Abby still says, "Nana!" when she sees her picture, but honestly, how much of her will she really remember? And HM was actually started for the purpose of telling family stories, though you can do anything you want on there. So that's how I'm keeping busy while I wait for my poor laptop to be resurrected. I went ahead and became a consultant just for kicks, so if you want more info let me know. :)

Woohoo, Abby is STILL sleeping and it's 7 AM! I think I'm going to get to have breakfast without her trying to steal food off my plate. What a morning!