Guten Tag, Meine Liebchens!

Ah, another triumphant return...So Blogger got all advanced while I was gone...stand-by for much high-falutin blog-antics.

Things I've been up to in the last 5 weeks:

1. Preparing for the largest garage sale NW Minnesota has ever seen

2. Enjoying spring break, including quality time with and without my sweet girl

3. Working

4. Sewing funky dolls (see photo, above, from the fabulous book Stupid Sock Creatures, a gift from my sister)

5. Reading lotsa blogs

6. Watching LOST, American Idol, and catching up on 24

7. Making myself new skirts

8. Playing Viva Pinata

9. Eating Girl Scout cookies

So as you can see, my dance card is full, and this extended absence is clearly not personal. It's not you, it's me. I do hope to be posting more regularly, and as I continue to refine my audience (hi, Aunt Shirley, Carla, and Tenessa), I expect I will get more excited each day.

And Sprout grows every day. Here she is, in a t-shirt from Prospective Aunt Johanna. 18 months old and moving at the speed of light. She likes for her belly to stick out of whatever she wears, and at this point it's too cute to worry about her reputation.

She's been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, which we'll hopefully be having repaired in mid-April...mostly I'm trying not to think about it, in the hopes that then it won't bother me. It's a same-day surgery (she won't have to spend a night in the hospital) and fairly simple, but it is still the scariest thing we've encountered yet. I always thought those Hallmark cards and movies were overly enthusiastic about the heart-wrenchingness of parenthood, but the fact that just typing the words "congenital heart defect" makes me want to projectile vomit leads me to believe they were considerably more accurate than I could have ever imagined. It reminds me, too, of how much more comforting life could be if I only believed in some semblance of higher power.

Damn atheism, failing me again.