Rashmi and friends did it again! We got a huge package in the mail. Inside was our family picture on canvas. I love this picture because this is the real us. Sitting on the couch with no shoes or socks, reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. In the big canvas, you can see Candyland under the couch.

Rashmi has this amazing talent of capturing life and we are BLESSED to know her!

Thank you Rashmi (www.rashmipappu.com) and friends!

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We got a wonderful surprise in the mail today! Rashmi, along with some friends, sent us a collage of Carmen. Rashmi took these pictures on Carmen’s birthday, July 20th, 2008.

Lauren saw the collage and said, “That is so beautiful I can hardly look at it.”

Thank you so much to Rashmi and friends for brightening our day! www.rashmipappu.com

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I would like to:

1) Take professional looking pictures. The kind that make you go “WOW!”

2) Speak fluent Spanish.

I absolutely love beautiful pictures. They make me happy. Especially razor-sharp pictures that pop off the page. I am finding that actually taking a picture like this is impossible when you don’t know what you are doing with your camera! So, I’ve been reading up on photography, practicing, and making my “wish list” of lenses! I have a loooonnnngggg way to go!

Before Carmen’s diagnosis, I felt very strongly that Carmen needed to know Spanish. We live in a very diverse area with a large Hispanic population. I didn’t want Carmen to grow up here and not speak Spanish so my thought was that we all needed to learn Spanish! (Dave speaks some Spanish but he would like to be fluent.) Lauren took a Spanish class and loved it. After Carmen’s diagnosis, learning Spanish dropped off my radar. But, I have hopes that someday we will learn the language and that someday we will go back to Guatemala.

I have no plans to actually start learning Spanish at this point but it is a skill I would love to have!

What skill(s) would you like to have???

Dave took this picture yesterday and I think it is really, really good! These are roses from my birthday.

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Here’s a picture Lauren drew yesterday. Sunflowers are my very favorite flowers (such happy flowers!).

Lauren’s Picture

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About two years ago, I was making coffee and Lauren asked if she could have some of it. “Sure,” I said, thinking that one tiny sip would cure her for at least the next ten years. Well, it didn’t quite work out the way I planned.

“Mmmmm! Daddy’s coffee is GOOOD!”

Since then, it’s become a bit of a ritual, mostly on weekends. I start making coffee. Lauren asks if she can help. Of course she can. She loves to stir the creamer swirls until they are gone. When we are finished, she takes a sip or two.

Here are a couple of recent pictures. I tried something a little bit different with the first one, bumping up the contrast quite a bit. Not sure if it works but Lauren approved (in fact, she helped me prepare them to post).

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Update on Carmen: We would appreciate prayers that the doctors quickly figure out what is causing the chronic diarrhea. After 6 months of chronic constipation, it is so strange to change 4-5 diarrhea diapers per day! Sorry if too much information! Dave dropped off Carmen’s stool sample today so hopefully the doctors will have some information for us in a couple of days. Our initial thought was that the constant antibiotics had wiped Carmen’s system out. But, I’ve been giving her 100 billion potency active pro-biotic cultures and nothing is helping. Her doctor suggested that she may have developed a secondary infection from antibiotic use so he is testing to see if she has some type of digestive infection. Other than lots of poop, Carmen is comfortable and doing OK!

Now to the shameless brag….(The shameless brag isn’t about poop!)

Last year Lauren’s preschool teacher commented that God must have known I would need an easy child with all that I have to handle with Carmen’s disease. Lauren is certainly an easy child. She can entertain herself for very long periods of time. Largely this ability comes from necessity. I am often very busy with Carmen and I feel badly that Lauren plays alone so often. But, I also think she has the personality and imagination to entertain herself.

Yesterday Lauren put together this 100 piece puzzle all by herself. She was very proud of herself! I still had to bribe her with chocolate to take a picture with the puzzle! Ha!

Lauren took this picture of Carmen. I did not crop this at all. I think she did a great job with composition! After taking one picture, Lauren said, “Hmmm…not in focus and not the right lighting.” After this one, she said, “This looks pretty good!” Ha, she is her mother’s daughter! Aren’t Carmen’s eyelashes insane?! I couldn’t get mine that long with a whole tube of mascara!

Thanks for indulging my shameless bragging!!!

The MOPS moms have continued to bless us with meals and we want to say thank you, thank you, thank you! Everything has been delicious! This has been such a huge help!

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 And then one that she took of me.

Here’s another one…she’s getting pretty good, eh?

 Lana will post a more detailed update about our wonderful trip tomorrow.

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I need a caption for the following picture that Lana took of Lauren and me the other afternoon. The person who posts the best caption (as chosen solely by me) in our guestbook by July 15th will win a prize. I will tell you that it’s a great prize!

Multiple entries are allowed. If duplicate entries are submitted only the first one will count. Let the contest begin!

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I am happy to say that I am FINALLY learning how to use our camera. A few years ago, we bought a digital SLR and have pretty much been using fully automatic mode. This week I decided that I was tired of just so-so pictures. With a few tips from the amazing Rashmi (www.rashmipappu.com), I am on my way! I have loads to learn but felt good about shooting in aperture mode. I have very shaky hands so a tripod is very helpful to me. It limits what I can take but at least the pictures are in focus!

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