I am an organization freak. I love my day planner. I think I got my first Franklin Day Planner when I was a freshman in high school. I haven’t been without one since. I loved just going in the store and looking at the binder covers and picking out which one I would choose next.

There is something about a paper planner that I love, too. Quite a few years ago I tried to switch over to a PDA. I just couldn’t do it. I missed having a place to write things and hold all my random slips of paper. I love transferring all my info to a new planner at the end of the year.

Once I had kids, I still needed a planner, but I had to downsize. I just couldn’t lug around a big planner with all the diapers, wipes, toys and all the other baby paraphernalia. I switched over to a simple black little Day Runner. I have been using the same one for about 7 years now. I just reused the cover and got new pages to go in it each year. Since it is getting close to the end of the year, I wanted to order the 2009 refill.

I went to the Day Runner website and was bummed to find out that they stopped making the refills for the size I have been using. The next size up was too big, so I had to find a new one. I checked a lot of sites and couldn’t find any that were small enough that I liked.

I finally found this one. I thought it looked like a good size and it came in some cute colors. Even better was that it was only $22 including the pages. I ordered my favorite color–pink!

I’ve spent the last couple of days transferring all my info to the new one. As a bonus this one came with the last few months of 2008, so I get to start using it now, and I don’t have to wait until the first of the year.

I can’t wait to start using it!

Today was my 36th birthday. I really didn’t mind turning 36, especially since I have been telling people for the last few weeks that I was turning 37! I forgot how old I was. I finally realized one day that I was 35, and not 36 like I had been thinking. Ha! So this birthday I actually lost a year

My birthday started out a bit rough. I always have a hard time on my birthday. I always play it up in my head and think about how wonderful it is going be. Then when it actually gets here, if things aren’t perfect, I get stressed out.

But I talked to Scott about it and I started to feel better. It ended up being a really nice birthday.

I had a great lunch at Siegfried’s with Scott, Sue, and Sarah. And a really nice dinner tonight with Bryan, Mary, and my Dad at a new Thai restaurant.

I was overwhelmed with how many people called, texted, and emailed to say “Happy Birthday”. I don’t think I have gotten this many birthday wishes ever. Emma showered me with birthday presents. She made me about 10 birthday cards. Scott bought a pie for me (since I don’t like birthday cake ) and we sang “Happy Birthday” with the kids.

Scott surprised me with a new lens for my camera. I was so excited! I have been wanting it for quite a while, and it was really sweet of him to get it for me.

So it turned out to be a really nice birthday. Thanks to everyone for the gifts and all the nice birthday wishes!

Scarlett’s photo shoot went really well.

I did a lot of planning before hand, and it really paid off. I laid in bed last night thinking about all the things I wanted to try. I had a few background set ups in mind and I think they turned out nice. My background stands worked out nicely, and my improvised studio worked out well.

It was great because we didn’t have anything really planned for the day except to take her photos. We took a few, then let her nurse. Then we took some more and she went down for a nap. When she got up we took some more. It took all day. I am exhausted, but it was a lot of fun. I think Sue was really happy with some of the shots we got.

Here are a few of my favorites:

If anyone in the family would like any copies, just let me know. If you try to download them from here, you will get really grainy photos because I sized them way down to prevent weirdos from copying them.

Thanks Sue, for letting me photograph Scarlett. It was lots of fun!

I hardly took any photos at all until yesterday. We had a baby shower for Scott’s brother’s wife Maren. Almost all of Scott’s 10 siblings were here for it! So most of my photos are from the shower. It was a lot of fun. I had to put the last one in, even though I cheated a bit I didn’t really take it, but I got the shot all set up for Scott’s mom to take. There are hardly any photos of me on here so I had to put that one in.

Please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom to view all the Weekly Winners participants.

My sister-in-law Sue asked me to take pictures of her 10 week old baby. I haven’t ever photographed a newborn–other than my own–but I am excited to do it.

I have been wanting to get a backdrop kit for a while, so this was the perfect excuse to go out and buy one. If I had planned a head a bit better I probably could have gotten a less expensive one. But since I’m taking the photos on Monday, I didn’t have much time. So I went to Pictureline and bought this system. I was like a kid in a candy store in there! I could have walked around for at least an hour just looking at things. But, my kids were in the car with their 2 aunts, so I couldn’t stay too long.

The best part, though, was going to the fabric store after. Sue came with me and we went to Joann’s Fabrics. There were so many great ones to choose from. I needed one basic black and then I got two fun prints. I can’t wait to see how they look.

I looked at my favorite photographer’s blog and got some good pose ideas from her. I also got some good ideas for props. I have lots of ideas swirling around in my head and I am really looking forward to the photo shoot.

Ian has decided that he wants to be dry at night, and he wanted to try the bedwetting alarm that worked so well for Emma.

When we were in North Carolina a few weeks ago, one night I forgot to put a pull up on him. My mom had put his pjs on him, and she always waits until just before bed to put the pull ups on. When I put him to bed later that night, I thought he was already wearing a pull up, and I just put him to bed.

Early the next morning I woke up to “MOM you forgot to put a pull up on me!”. I immediately imagined wet sheets and a pee soaked mattress. But instead he was thrilled to report that he had stayed dry all night. He was really proud of himself. He was just glowing all morning and told everyone about his dry night.

The next night we talked about it, and he decided to give it another try. We put a waterproof pad on his bed in case of any accidents, but no pull up. He woke me up at about 1:00am with wet pants. I helped him change his pjs and put him back to bed.

The next day he asked if he could use the bedwetting alarm when we got home. I thought it sounded like a great idea. Nora is working on potty training and it would be great to get Ian out of pull ups.

So when we got home, we started. The first night the alarm went off at about 11:00pm. He peed just a little bit in his underwear and then finished in the toilet. The same thing happened about 6:00am. The second night was about the same. But the fact that he only peed a bit and then woke up and went to the bathroom is great progress for him.

I think it was going well. The only problem is, now we can’t find the alarm anywhere! Our cleaning lady came on Tuesday and she put it in with the toys. Ian got it out of there and was playing with it. Scott says he saw him with it but what happened after that is fuzzy. Ian says he gave it to Scott and Scott says he told Ian to put it somewhere. I have spent HOURS going over every single place in our house and I CANNOT find it. I am so frustrated! I don’t want Ian to stop using it, but I really don’t want to buy another one. It was expensive! I am keeping my fingers crossed that somehow it will show up in the next couple of days. UGH!

I heard from the vet today about Flora. The results are that we still don’t know if there is a medical problem.

She had multiple blood tests done, and all those turned out normal. Her kidneys are functioning normal. But her urinalysis was a bit inconclusive. Cats really don’t get urinary tract infections, but they do get cystitis. I have had more experience with this than I could ever want. That is what my old kitty Amos had. He used to pee bright red urine on my bed.

Flora’s urinalysis did show a significant amount of blood. But, we aren’t sure what caused it. Earlier in the day the vet tried to get urine from her by sticking a needle into her bladder, called a cystocentesis. But they weren’t able to get enough urine to run a full test. But what they got didn’t have any blood in it. So they kept her for the day and waited for her bladder to fill up again. Later they did the cysto again under ultrasound. On the ultrasound they saw some “sludge” in her bladder and the urine was bloody.

Now the question is where the sludge and blood came from. It could be that they just didn’t get any of that “sludge” in the first urine. Or the blood may have come from the first cysto. The bladder bleeds very easily.

So, we still aren’t sure. I still want to know for sure if she has cystitis or not before we start any other treatment. We decided to wait for 2 weeks to let her bladder heal. Then we will try to get another sample by having her pee in a litter box with litter that won’t absorb. We should be able to do another urinalysis and figure out if she still has blood in her urine.

If she does, we will start her on meds for the cystitis. If not, then we will see how the behavioral changes are going. Since yesterday she has been in the laundry room. She has been using her litter box religiously in there. I feel bad that she is isolated from all of us, but I don’t feel like I have much of a choice right now.

We should have some answers in another 2 weeks.

Remember my cute tiny kitten? Flora is a year old already. It seems like yesterday that I was flying to Seattle to pick her up.

She has grown into a full fledged cat and she is still adorable. She is still small, only about 7 pounds. She is a small compact cat, typical of American Shorthairs. She has striking markings and adorable big eyes. People always comment on how beautiful she is. So many people have told me that she is the most beautiful cat they have ever seen.

She is adorable, and we all love her. One thing I don’t love, though, is that she has started peeing on my carpet. I feel like I am cursed when it comes to cats and urinary problems. Our old cat Amos used to get cystitis all the time and pee on my bed. I thought that was terrible. Now I think that was easier. At least then I could just wash all the blankets and sheets and get the pee out. It is nearly impossible to get it out of my rugs.

When we got back from our last trip to North Carolina I noticed that it smelled like cat urine in our stairway. That night I got out the black light and went pee hunting. I found tons of spots on the landing, and more downstairs. The next day I found her squatting and peeing on the landing.

Now I have a bunch of issues. The first is getting the pee smell out and the second is how to get her to stop the urinating. I decided to take her to the vet today to rule out any medical problems. I should get the results tomorrow. But my gut tells me it is just a behavioral problem. She gave me some suggestions and ultimately said that there are medications we can try that have a 90% success rate. That was a big relief to me. I don’t want to medicate her, but I am happy that there is something we can do if all the other things don’t work.

I love Flora, but I just can’t deal with a cat that urinates all over my house. She is confined to the laundry room for the next week so she doesn’t have access to any of her favorite pee spots. The vet said some cats just need to be reminded and retrained to use the litter box. If all else fails, I guess we will have a kitty on Prozac.

I know that today is election day, but I don’t want to talk about that I am just so tired of it all, and I am glad that today is the end of campaigning.

Emma is my little artist. She loves anything to do with art: crayons, markers, paints, colored pencils or paper. She loves it all.

Yesterday she had library at school. She was so excited to show me the book that she picked out.

She couldn’t wait to get it home to do some of the projects. She really reminded me of myself at her age. The book she brought home even looked like a book that I had when I was a little girl. I loved art, too. I don’t think I was anywhere near as talented as she is, but I loved it just the same.

As soon as we got home she got to work. She picked out the project she wanted to do.

She gathered all the things she needed and sat down at her art table. She worked on it all by herself. I think she was happy with the end result.

Along with the hundred other things I did on Friday, I squeezed in Emma’s first grade parent teacher conference. I’m not sure why I thought Halloween was a good day for it, but never the less, that is when I scheduled it.

It turns out it was one of the nicest few minutes of my whole day!

I haven’t spent very much time one on one with Emma’s teacher, Ms. Hensler. I met her at back to school night, but there were so many other parents trying to talk to her that night. Many of them were totally monopolizing her time, and I am just not one of those parents. But we did talk a bit and I got a really good feeling about her.

I heard a lot of different opinions about her from previous students parents. The biggest complaint I heard was that she wasn’t very warm. I have not found that to be true at all. She is really shy and quiet, but extremely sweet and nice. I think people mistake her shyness for standoffishness. (Is that even a word? )

But what other parents think doesn’t really matter because Emma LOVES her! She draws pictures and makes her cards almost on a daily basis. Emma was very interested to hear what Ms. Hensler had said about her, and her eyes lit up when I told her.

Ms. Hensler loves Emma. Her review was great. She said that she is a great kid and that she really loves having her in her class. She said she brings a great positive spirit to the class that really rubs off on the other kids. She is right where she should be as far as academics–ahead of most of her peers, but not so far ahead that she is bored. She is a good worker and a quick learner.

Ms. Hensler gave her the nicest compliment I think a teacher can give someone. She said that Emma is one of those kids that makes her consider having children. She said that if she could guarantee that she would get someone like Emma, she would definitely have a baby.

My Halloween was crazy and stressful. I had way too much going on, and Scott was sick with strep throat. But Emma’s conference turned out to be just what I needed. I was proud to hear that she is doing so well both academically and socially. I feel lucky to have such a great little girl for my daughter.