found: one forgotten passion

it was my identity growing up...

BOOK WORM.

i read every chance i could.

i read everything i could.

in school, i read books hidden inside

my text books during class

as far back as i can remember.

and then i grew up

and went to college

and got married

and had kids.

and suddenly the reading was gone,

replaced by diaper changes and meal making

and...life.

but it didn't need to be replaced.

just worked in.

the A to Z reading challenge

has helped me find this huge part

of who i am...that went missing.

and every day i feel my soul expanding,

remembering and smiling.

just wanted to share.

“To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.”
- A C Grayling

4

10 happinesses

from this week.

(in no particular order.)

01. Project Runway season premier

02. an amazing first visit to the dentist for both girls.

03. finishing a good book

04. planning a vacation to north carolina.

05. date night with ella.

06. bianca's new jeans make her bum look so cute.

07. many sales at my etsy shop.

08. snagging this cool print on sale.

09. fun little sliders for dinner.

10. this photo.

3

sizzlin' hot???

So, I am trying to find better DVD

burner software for our family videos.

This week I go online and google

some nerd-sites to see what is rated well.

And while on a site I see this ad is in the left hand column.

The photo rotates with pictures of scantily clad,

buxom girls and this photo is in the rotation...

Does anyone else finds this strange?

She isn't buxom...or very smutty.

She's just a girl standing in a too small swim tube

with her hands angled like flippers.

What's sexy about that?

 

3

this week: a comedy of errors

Sunday Evening:

- half of Emilie's tooth falls out.

Monday Morning:

- Emilie makes dentist appt.

Monday Night/Tuesday Morning:

- Emilie is up all night sick with stomach cramps.

Tuesday:

- Evangeline spends the day melting down, prompting this post.

- Car mechanic tells us our Van will cost $1,700 to fix.

- Matt and Emilie decide to switch cars for the week (cue: ominous fore-shadowing)

Wednesday Morning:

- Dentist tells Emilie she needs a root canal, two major fillings and 4 small fillings.

- Emilie begins to cry (not a silent tear falling down her cheek...a full-on cry face) in the Dentist's office.

- Dentist says, "Money is not the number one concern in our course of action". Emilie replies, "Money IS my number one concern in our course of action" then thinks to herself that cushy dentist has been living cushy for too long.

- Upon leaving the dentist the "low gas" light turns on. 12 miles later Emilie runs out of gas on the side of the road.

- Emilie calls husband and he says, "Yeah. My car totally needs to be filled the minute the gas light comes on". Too late, Hubbs.

Thursday Afternoon:

- Emilie slices finger open while cutting cheddar with a chef's knife.

- Emilie takes Ella and Evangeline to their very first Dentist appts. They both do swimmingly. Ella is a master-tooth brusher and Eva is almost there. Both girls have zero cavities and zero plaque build-up.

- Leave dentist at 4:35 and pile into car. Engine is dead.

- Emilie flags down cars...no one has jumper cables. Finally Dentist comes outside and says he has some.

- Emilie tries to pop hood for jump...hood release cable is stretched. Hood won't open. Bianca starts crying.

- Emilie calls The Hubbs. In a meeting until 5:30. Emilie calls Saturn repair shop. They say this is common with Saturns and that's why they went out of business. Great. Bianca continues crying.

- Mechanic tells Emilie to try to push down lightly on hood while popping hood release. Emilie and Dentist try it. It works. Jump car and head home...at 6:00. Bianca starts screaming. Yep, the hood situation took 1.5 hours.

- Hubbs gets home from work. Emilie explains car issue. Hubbs says, "Yeah. My car hood totally needs to be pushed down on for the release to work". Too late, Hubbs.

Friday Morning:

- Emilie awakes with a UTI (yep, I wrote it on my blog).

- Evangeline falls down the stairs, scraping her back badly on the railing.
- Still no charge on Matt's car.  Needs a new battery.

Who knows what's coming next?

25

this & that thursday

yesterday i went to the dentist.

bad news all around.

then, on the way home, i ran out of gas.

perfect.

at least i ran out next to this gorgeous field.

it smelled heavenly.

********************

the girls have been fighting a lot this summer.

pray for september to come quickly.

********************

in a fun and surprise twist....

the ahern family is actually having a summer vacation!

i booked a photography gig in north carolina.

the gas is all paid for...

so we're packing up the car and heading south.

yay!

********************

can't wait for sunday's "bachelorette: the men tell all".

might the villainous and cowardly bently actually show up?

********************

maybe flossing really does matter.

********************

any recommendations for a good
book on cd for kids? age 6?

6

A to the C

No, not Atlantic City...

Air Conditioning.

( img src )

Surely God must be angry with me.

How else do you explain the AC in our van breaking

last week at the beginning of the heat wave of the century?

And it would cost....

...drum roll please....

...$1,700 to fix.

Now I use the term would cost instead of will cost because we totally don't have $17 let alone $1,700. So it's windows down for this mommy and her band of sweaty, heat exhausted daughters.

At moments like these one finds it hard to believe the old adage

"Money doesn't buy happiness".

Because, seriously, I am pretty sure it does.

8

this girl...

is having a very hard adjustment to being a middle child.

is acting like Jan Brady in all the worst ways.

has an insatiable need for attention.

needs extra snuggles every day.

is suddenly the fight starter.

is calling names.

needs more personal attention than I feel is possible.

this girl's mommy...

is unsure of how to meet her little eva's needs.

is praying exhaustively.

is hoping everything evens out when school starts again

and this girl is in a pre-school of her very own.

9

Review: Easy Canvas Prints

I recently ordered a 8x10" canvas print for our front room from Easy Canvas Prints. I wanted to go all artsy-fartsy on it so I chose this picture of Bianca form early in her life.  This is only the second canvas photo I have purchased (the first was from a different company). When I got it in the mail...WOW! I was so happy with it! Here's why it rocked...

1. Edging options: I did not have any edge options when I ordered a canvas from another company. Easy Canvas Prints gives you three options. Mirror Image is great for if you have a photo which is cropped in tight to the subjects, but you still want the photo-wrap look. It mirror images the photos for the sides. Awesome!  I chose Border Color because my photo would have looked pretty creepy because of the half-face style.

2. Tight Stretch.  Which is what you want. My other canvas purchase was loose on the frame, making the image a bit distorted and making it look cheap. This canvas from Easy Canvas Prints was perfectly tight, making it seem much more professional and expensive.

3. Quick Turnaround:  I got the printed canvas very quickly. MUCH more quickly then the one I ordered from a different company.  And that matters when your inspiration is all revved up and you want to get going on your project!

Oh, and they even tacked on a hanger thingy! Nice touch.

All in all, this canvas from Easy Canvas Prints was highly superior to others I have seen.  It did cost more...and cost is important, but not as important as quality in this instance. After seeing my Easy Canvas Prints canvas I think I would save up and spring for theirs every time.

And one final note.  I would go a size bigger than you think you want. Maybe I was picturing the 8x10" size in it's frame as you usually see photos, but 8x10" is smaller than I remembered. Next time I would go for the next size up.

You can snag you own canvas print from Easy Canvas Prints by clicking here.

Right now they are offering  25% OFF ALL CANVAS AND FREE STANDARD SHIPPING.

I would love to see your finished project!

(please note: Easy Canvas Prints gave me a canvas for the purpose of reviewing it. 

My opinions on their product are truthful and my own.) 

3

Geo-Caching 101

Today the entire family threw ourselves into the world of Geo-Caching. At 10 am we arrived at the public library for Geo-Caching 101 with Larry. Larry and his wife are spending their retirement Geo-Caching together. Larry taught the class. Here are the basics.

What is Geo-Caching? 

A world-wide treasure hunt. People hide boxes of various sizes all around the world. They list the coordinates on geocaching.com and others go and hunt for the cache. Inside the cache are small trinkets and toys and a running list to write your caching name on.

What do you need to Geo-Cache? 

1. a GPS (or Smart Phone) 

2. a FREE membership to geocaching.com  

2. a pen to sign the log

3. a small trinket for each person who plans on taking a trinket from the cache (stickers, small toys, etc).

Is there a cache near me? 

Oh yeah. There definitely is. We put in our address and there are 20 within 1 mile of our home. 20! And they are all over the world. Every single country on earth has a least one geo-cache. Amazing, right?  You put in your address and a list of close caches pops up.  Make sure you check the difficulty and terrain level.

What should I avoid?

Avoid geo-caches that are labeled MICRO.  These are teeny, tiny, caches that can be as small as the sizeof a pencil eraser.  Seriously.

Here's what the online logs look like...

Here's what the iPhone APP looks like...

So, with these tools and a send off from Larry we signed up for our free membership at Geocaching.com, printed a lead, hopped in the car and headed to our first cache.

UPDATE: There is now a Geocaching apps that makes this process SO EASY!  Love it!

It was within blocks of our home.  We searched around a bit and then Matt spotted this...

After unearthing the cache we found this...





If you want to take something you have to leave something.  We took a gold coin out and left the pink frog.  Success!  Armed with this new confidence we headed to the next cache....which we didn't find.  But we did have fun tramping through some fun trails in the woods.

Undiscouraged we went to a 3rd and 4th. We found the third (and scored some flower tattoos for the girls and a plastic cockroach for me) and half-way through our search for the fourth cache Mommy called it because of the extreme heat.

Did I mention the temperature was 103* today? Yep.  We're insane. And dehydrated.

It was definitely a success! 

We had a great day, despite the heat, and we will venture back on a cooler day to search for cache #4 again.

Have YOU tried GeoCaching yet?

7

thanks, gwyneth!

we had the blueberry muffins from this book this morning for breakfast.

they. were. amazing.

matt says it's un-american for me to say this, but there were actually too many blueberries bursting out of these for my taste! but bianca didn't seem to mind.

1

this & that thursday

i am in love with the public library system.

whoever thought of this concept (greece perhaps?)
was a genius.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

my mom says bianca doesn't really look like me.

ummm.......what?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

really wish i had brushed up on marxism, communism, fascism and capitalism

before starting to read "davita's harp". public school...you failed me.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

plucky momo is on facebook now.

if you don't "like" me i'll pretty much know

you have secretly hated me for years.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

the entire family is going geo-caching this saturday.

i am giddy with excitement!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I think the expression "mating like rabbits"

should be changed to "mating like fruit flies".

seriously.

5

a public service announcement

to celebrity men over 50:

why...oh why do you think that getting one of your ears

 pierced would make you seem young? more hip? less aging?

because it doesn't.

it makes you look like an un-hip, old guy who is dying to appear cool.

and that's WAY worse than acquiring some grey hairs and wrinkles.

yeah, i'm talking to you...

Harrison Ford

Ed Bradley
(may he rest in peace...with the hoop earring)

Michael Bolton

although, let's be honest. Michael has had FAR worse offences...

( img src = the depths of hell )

all three of you...

look like idiots.

*this has been a public service announcement funded, conceptualized and provided by emilie ahern, your friendly neighborhood blogger.

6

movie review

two words:

NO BUENO

5

niner-niner

weight:
18 lbs 10 oz

likes:

hanging upside down
9:00 am church
loves swimming

dislikes:

being spoon fed

wearing hats

quirks:

clicks her tongue loudly
still no teeth!

the past month's milestones:

 pulling up
cruising the furniture

a favorite memory:

swimming each week and watching Bianca kick, splash and laugh.

Feel free to comment on the severe cuteness.

7

lane bryant makes me cry

i went shopping in H-burg today for a skirt. none of mine fit and I cannot squeeze my butt into them for even one more Sunday...it's like sausage casing, people!

i went to Target, Ross, Fashion Bug (oh, the degradation), some other plus size store i have never heard of. nothing was really working. i made a stop at Lane Bryant and found two fantastic skirts. each on sale for $54....no thank you. after LB i loaded the three girls back into the car and burst into tears.

why did God create calories? and why did he make butter, cheese and carbs taste so much better than vegetables, steamed fish and rice flour?

and P.S. i want to know why Old Navy only carries their plus sizes online?  There are a lot of chubby women out there shopping, ya know. we spend money too!

and P.P.S.  {sigh}

12