Blogspot, Baby!

Ok, I have the new blog up and running :) www.GoodMorningAstoria.blogspot.com. I'm adding Aunties and Grammies to the new email subscription list automatically ...  I am missing email address for some subscribers: Rhonda, Gina, Jer/Lindsay, Shannon, Stephanie, Jen, Dee ... Feel free to send them if you'd like to be added via email. Stalking is always a second option. lol... Hong Kong Peeps: Kindly don't subscribe. Also, if you have a blog or webpage you'd like me to like back to, send it over.

Also, let me know if images come through if you would ... For now, here's a cutiepie moment ... My mom called the other day, and Elaina sat there begging for the phone. I finally handed it over so she could chat, and she took off with it, plopped herself on her bed, kicked her legs up, and sat there chatting with Grammy Cizek in her bedroom. I had a "wait ... is she 15 or 2?" moment. lol... Here she is finishing her conversation with Grammy in her room. As you can see, they must be telling girls-only secrets or something :)

Snap-Happy

I'm still digging through thousands - literally, over 2300 pics, from the last couple of months trying to figure out which ones are worthy of editing and posting. I've come to the conclusion that I don't deserve this camera. My skills are so overshadowed by its capabilities, and our lifestyle (sand+water) is surely going to contribute to its early demise ... a horrifying thought.

Meantime, I've also been trying to catch up on household adminstrative stuff, trying to re-teach Elaina how to self-entertain after a month of Grammy-love, re-stocking the house with groceries and supplies, getting 5 rubbermaid bins of ebay stuff listed (ugh - didn't I swear I wouldn't do this again?), and return 2 month's worth of emails and phone calls and mail. I feel a little overwhelmed ... I keep seeing something that needs tackled, but then something else catches my eye, and so now I'm trying to tie up all these mini-projects that need FINISHED. Alas, the lack of blogging.

In the spirit of "it's practically winter in Astoria", I was looking for some spotty tights for E. this fall at one of my fave shops, and saw this cute video ... a homage to anyone who has ever tried to take a mobile child's photograph :). And your kids will be entertained by the little british girl trying to catch a rooster :) http://www.bodenusa.com/c.asp?segid=5&segname=Mini&gen=1#nav.

Tomorrow is the season opener for Notre Dame Football, thus my seasonal depression starts. lol... Just kidding. I don't mind being a football widow for a while. We kick off the season by watching Rudy the night before the first game. Oh yes, the addiction is bad. My husband actually wrote on the Notre Dame message boards announcing the birth of our daughter ("the newest Irish fan") while I was in the hospital yet. I'm working on a navy and gold football cake and painting our own "Play like a champion" sign for game decor to surprise our Favorite Fan.

Ok, time to get on that cake and revive my poor sage plant which has surely suffered from our 2-month hiatus. Love to you all ... I have been keeping up with your streams, and can't wait to get a second to comment on all you've been up to!!! I'm still working on the new blogspot.com location ... slowly but surely :)

we're back!

i think we're allergic to the midwest. we had awful allergies while we were gone, and we're still sneezing up pieces of michigan and indiana here and there.

obviously, living like nomads for a month doesn't exactly leave me twiddling my thumbs. catching up with bills, catching up with friends, and catching up with laundry have been ruling the few hours that we've been back.

but i briefly wanted to share two things before i dive into catching up on your streams. first, i am moving the blog for time's sake ... it just makes it a lot more seamless and quick to keep up with through blogspot ... sooo.... www.goodmorningastoria.blogspot.com. still under construction to say the least ... but i'll slowly get things cranking over there, and it makes it a lot easier to check your sites too! If i don't have yours listed, i would love love love to add it to my reading list - please send! or if you have a SAHM business you want to advertise, feel free to send me the link.

second ... a completely flakey story, but nonetheless, fun :)

at the chicago airport, i found myself on the moving walkway next to none other than ...

oh yes, the designer who always cries from Extreme Makeover Home Edition.

Too bad my mouth just sat gaping open as I stared him down from Gate C11 to Gate C23. AJ was nudging me to get a picture or something. I have to think Ty Pennington's would be worth a lot more on Ebay. lol... So there it is. My small brush with fame.

My brother Steve is flying in today to stay for a week, so it will likely be a blogless few days. We're headed to Trillium Lake on Mt Hood for a camping expedition (assuming the wildfires are put out by this weekend) But as soon as the suitcases are permanently unpacked, I'm anxious to share some photos from the last month of state-trotting adventures :)

P.S. Post

i know i said i wouldn't blogging, but can you believe this?!?!?!?!!?

http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Mommy-Michael-Alexander-Salzhauer/dp/1601310323/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216668142&sr=8-1

i'm so glad that all the mommies who will be getting bum-implants can now have a friendly way to communicate it to their children. ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

i think i'm going to try and move to blogspot ... dandielines, do you have any tips for integrating flickr photos in? i know that yours are linked to your flickr posts. would love your help!

i couldn't resist getting these two pics in. this is aj who valiantly showed up toward the end of the fairy party. while we were all playing ring around the rosies, i spied him doing this:

looking out to make sure no one was watching:

Diving in for a mouthful of mud pie

what to do, what to do...

I've been awful at keeping up with xanga lately. partly because photoshop integrates seamlessly w/ flickr, and it's a giant time-leech to have to re-download and re-upload everything to xanga. partly because it's summer, which yields lots more family QT and adventures. and partly because i have habitual problems with melting laptops.

In any case, I'm 150 down, 600 to go in terms of photo uploading from the last 2 months. The 150 I've gotten around to are now posted to flickr ... batch by batch into the "sets" on the right (www.flickr.com/thesiegmanns) .

I'm still trying to figure out what to do w/ xanga. It started out as a way to keep the grandma's and aunties happy with baby pictures. It evolved into a family journal - a record of God's faithfulness, our family's adventures, and Elaina's milestone moments. And it culminated as a way to dish it with other girlfriends :) - helping each other through the temptations of pricey vacuum cleaners, the frustration of potty training (or lack thereof), getting a good peek into each others' lives since we can't all share a dorm room anymore :). It's also been some theraputic wind-down time for me to be able to keep some connection to writing.

So for now I'm taking a xanga sabbatical - at least until the end of our month of travels back east. But I'll keep posting to flickr throughout the summer.

In other SAD, SAD, VERY SAD news, we lost our sweet bundle of fluff named Chloe today. We came home from church to find her paralyzed and spread out in her cage. She was still alive, but breathing shallow and unable to move her little arms or body. We're not sure what caused her death - a sudden illness, or perhaps exposure to the painting/sanding/fumes of this morning's project. I snapped off a few pictures of Elaina giving her one last cuddle. We were very honest with her, and let her take care of our little Clove-bud. She cuddled her in her lap, stroking her, and we thanked God for her. Then Elaina helped up bundle her up in a blankie ... our friends Erin and Mike took her to the forest and laid her in a sunny spot. We told Elaina that Chloe went to the forest so she could look for her mommy and that God would take care of her, and if she stayed sick, He would take her to heaven with Him.

It was my first real pet ... she was a delight to have around, and we will miss the laughs she brought our family ... and especially how, whenever we asked Elaina who her "favorite" was ... she would always answer: "Jesus. And Chloe."