Wednesday, December 30
Amazing!
Last night Daniel talked Alice into sleeping in her own bed on her own...AND it worked. It didn't even take half an hour. It was impressive. Now to make it consistent.
Monday, December 28
If you wanted to increase achievement of students...
Would you cut out science labs and 5 science faculty members?
I ran across an article about a high school that has a plan to bridge the gap between achievement levels amongst different races. The white students have scores above the state average, and the Latino and African American students have averages below.
The solution: cut science lab classes and 5 science teachers.
Jigga what?
They want to take the funds they will save by shutting down these classes and put it toward helping the Latino and African American students.
As someone who likes science, and even majored in it in college I am pretty dumbfounded. I admit the majority of my upper level science classes in high school were white, but I grew up in small town Kansas and the classes were 5-10 students in general.
The article even stated that one of the senior science faculty members had 17.5% African American and 13.9% Latino students in her AP class. For anyone that doesn't know the lingo, AP classes (or advanced placement classes) are high school classes you take then you take standardized tests for college credit.
I know, lets take the minority students that are doing well, and make sure they can't get college credit. At least the rest of their peers will be closer to the state averages for achievement. I think that is how it works. Dumb down the ones that are ahead.
The worst part is that this plan was made by a committee of students, teachers and parents and it was almost unanimous in passing. They think they are doing a service by decreasing the 'racial' differences in their students, but it sure seems like a stupid way to do it.
I ran across an article about a high school that has a plan to bridge the gap between achievement levels amongst different races. The white students have scores above the state average, and the Latino and African American students have averages below.
The solution: cut science lab classes and 5 science teachers.
Jigga what?
They want to take the funds they will save by shutting down these classes and put it toward helping the Latino and African American students.
As someone who likes science, and even majored in it in college I am pretty dumbfounded. I admit the majority of my upper level science classes in high school were white, but I grew up in small town Kansas and the classes were 5-10 students in general.
The article even stated that one of the senior science faculty members had 17.5% African American and 13.9% Latino students in her AP class. For anyone that doesn't know the lingo, AP classes (or advanced placement classes) are high school classes you take then you take standardized tests for college credit.
I know, lets take the minority students that are doing well, and make sure they can't get college credit. At least the rest of their peers will be closer to the state averages for achievement. I think that is how it works. Dumb down the ones that are ahead.
The worst part is that this plan was made by a committee of students, teachers and parents and it was almost unanimous in passing. They think they are doing a service by decreasing the 'racial' differences in their students, but it sure seems like a stupid way to do it.
Saturday, December 26
The Weather Outside is Frightful
That phrase has a new meaning this Christmas. I have lived through my first blizzard. As have all my traveling house guests. Yes, I was lucky, some of them refused to cancel despite my pleading and eventually my disinheritance. I thought that a disinheritance might keep them from trying to visit, but no. Finally I suggested train travel, as it would be much safer to get stuck on a train than to be stuck at the side of the road in a far...or dead.
Unfortunately we were unable to pick up anyone at the train depot in town due to the weather. We tried leaving our subdivision/street for almost 2 hours of shoveling, reversing, and pushing. Finally Daniel was getting sick from the exhaust fumes and we pushed the car to the side of the road and walked back home. I was certainly glad I was not in labor, as there was no way I would be making it to the hospital. Despite my upbringing and a couple of my siblings being home births, I like and trust my doctor and want her tot take care of the baby. We have insurance for a reason.
So after we got home we found out the train was just getting into the station. The police department was unable to send them a message, and the depot is officially 'unmanned' so there was no way to contact my parents. They called us from someone's cell phone and we explained that our car was stuck. The tried taxi's (none were running) and then walked to the Eldridge on Massachusetts. Anyone that has not been to the Eldridge, its a historic hotel built in the mid 1800s. Its really nice and the cheapest rooms are a good $150 a night. Anyway, from there we gave them walking directions and my sister Rachel headed out to meet them on their trek. No one got frost bite or needed limbs removed, though my father did insist that since it had stopped snowing it was no longer a blizzard and there were comments about how they were pioneers.
(don't get me started on any of this as I tried to cancel the whole travel thing to begin with and was met with them insisting the storm was moving to Missouri so I was just being mean and taking away their free agency)
Luckily I contacted my brothers and when I insisted they not come to Lawrence, they complied. They did travel to Emporia so Jarom could visit his son, and they almost died in the process according to them. Most people don't admit something like that unless it is true.
Anyway, aside from a stinky reaction between a parental unit and some edamame (because it DOES contain soy protein) once people were in my house they were not in danger. Rachel did get a little cabin fever (partly to due with the fact that we had been staying in the house since the weather got bad a couple of days before) and shoveled most of the block from snow including the hilly stop sign area 330 ft from our front door that we were unable to get past Friday morning. Daniel was able to get my parents and younger sister to the midnight train back to Dodge safely. In fact they even helped someone else who was stuck move their car.
I don't know the snowfall totals, as it snowed again last night, but it has been a long storm. The rain started Tuesday with occasional hail and power surges and outages. Thursday the precipitation was a very fine ice ball, super slick and the size of sand. We got 2-3 inches of that accumulated in our yard. Then it started snowing. I know some of the totals say the city got 6 inches, but when you live on the side of a hill, even a relatively small one, it gets much higher. The packed snow in tire tracks was at 2 inches, and a good part of that was the ice stuff, but on our street where there were no tire tracks it was much deeper.
And yes, we aren't planning on leaving the house this weekend except for church. The area doesn't plan on a thaw or stopping the wind from blowing the powdery stuff until Wednesday. It should be a fun week. At least its January in less than a week.
Unfortunately we were unable to pick up anyone at the train depot in town due to the weather. We tried leaving our subdivision/street for almost 2 hours of shoveling, reversing, and pushing. Finally Daniel was getting sick from the exhaust fumes and we pushed the car to the side of the road and walked back home. I was certainly glad I was not in labor, as there was no way I would be making it to the hospital. Despite my upbringing and a couple of my siblings being home births, I like and trust my doctor and want her tot take care of the baby. We have insurance for a reason.
So after we got home we found out the train was just getting into the station. The police department was unable to send them a message, and the depot is officially 'unmanned' so there was no way to contact my parents. They called us from someone's cell phone and we explained that our car was stuck. The tried taxi's (none were running) and then walked to the Eldridge on Massachusetts. Anyone that has not been to the Eldridge, its a historic hotel built in the mid 1800s. Its really nice and the cheapest rooms are a good $150 a night. Anyway, from there we gave them walking directions and my sister Rachel headed out to meet them on their trek. No one got frost bite or needed limbs removed, though my father did insist that since it had stopped snowing it was no longer a blizzard and there were comments about how they were pioneers.
(don't get me started on any of this as I tried to cancel the whole travel thing to begin with and was met with them insisting the storm was moving to Missouri so I was just being mean and taking away their free agency)
Luckily I contacted my brothers and when I insisted they not come to Lawrence, they complied. They did travel to Emporia so Jarom could visit his son, and they almost died in the process according to them. Most people don't admit something like that unless it is true.
Anyway, aside from a stinky reaction between a parental unit and some edamame (because it DOES contain soy protein) once people were in my house they were not in danger. Rachel did get a little cabin fever (partly to due with the fact that we had been staying in the house since the weather got bad a couple of days before) and shoveled most of the block from snow including the hilly stop sign area 330 ft from our front door that we were unable to get past Friday morning. Daniel was able to get my parents and younger sister to the midnight train back to Dodge safely. In fact they even helped someone else who was stuck move their car.
I don't know the snowfall totals, as it snowed again last night, but it has been a long storm. The rain started Tuesday with occasional hail and power surges and outages. Thursday the precipitation was a very fine ice ball, super slick and the size of sand. We got 2-3 inches of that accumulated in our yard. Then it started snowing. I know some of the totals say the city got 6 inches, but when you live on the side of a hill, even a relatively small one, it gets much higher. The packed snow in tire tracks was at 2 inches, and a good part of that was the ice stuff, but on our street where there were no tire tracks it was much deeper.
And yes, we aren't planning on leaving the house this weekend except for church. The area doesn't plan on a thaw or stopping the wind from blowing the powdery stuff until Wednesday. It should be a fun week. At least its January in less than a week.
Thursday, December 24
Random 3am Blog post!
Out power has been out twice in the last 4 hours, and for about 2 hours each time (actually for all I know the most recent time it was much longer). It has been fun. I guess. The power came on right before 3am. Daniel told me when I got help to get out of bed for potty time.
Because the power went out we forgot about our home teachers coming over at 6pm. We went to the store around 5:15 because we had no lights and we needed a few things anyway. We also forgot to call them. Oops. Our neighbor was home and our power was on when we got home, and he told us we missed to big guys in a 4 wheel drive. Oops. Daniel called them and left a message. At least the power was still out when they came by, and since everyone's power was out we hope they didn't stick around too long.
I bought some extra candles just in case the power goes out for a long period of on time again.
We went to bed pretty early tonight. I think I was out by 9pm. Alice is even in her own room. I don't know if she has a bed mate though. Perhaps. Anyway, by 3am my body decided it needed 1. to pee and 2. food. I took care of #1 before I was aware of #2, but all the growling and stomach pains led me to the downstairs and a bagel and the laptop. But the bagel is gone, so I think its time for me to go back to sleep.
Oh, and we had a doctor's appointment today. The child had dropped at my appointment on the 18th, but luckily he is way up high again. I am glad I don't have to worry about having a kid on Christmas. In a week I might say something different, but for now its a guarantee I won't be in the hospital for at least one holiday.
Because the power went out we forgot about our home teachers coming over at 6pm. We went to the store around 5:15 because we had no lights and we needed a few things anyway. We also forgot to call them. Oops. Our neighbor was home and our power was on when we got home, and he told us we missed to big guys in a 4 wheel drive. Oops. Daniel called them and left a message. At least the power was still out when they came by, and since everyone's power was out we hope they didn't stick around too long.
I bought some extra candles just in case the power goes out for a long period of on time again.
We went to bed pretty early tonight. I think I was out by 9pm. Alice is even in her own room. I don't know if she has a bed mate though. Perhaps. Anyway, by 3am my body decided it needed 1. to pee and 2. food. I took care of #1 before I was aware of #2, but all the growling and stomach pains led me to the downstairs and a bagel and the laptop. But the bagel is gone, so I think its time for me to go back to sleep.
Oh, and we had a doctor's appointment today. The child had dropped at my appointment on the 18th, but luckily he is way up high again. I am glad I don't have to worry about having a kid on Christmas. In a week I might say something different, but for now its a guarantee I won't be in the hospital for at least one holiday.
Monday, December 21
Dragging dead bodies down the stairs
And other fun midnight activities.
At 12:30am I awoke to lots of noises coming from somewhere. Daniel was not in bed, so I initially thought it was him. But no, it was the neighbors.
They had strange music going (typical with them, but usually not enough to wake us) and there was this strange thudding noise. Almost like they had several 10 year olds at a sleepover running up and down the stairs with suitcases of their peers. Thud, thud, thud. Thud, thud, thud.
I made Daniel go knock on their door after 1am when the noise KEPT going. I mean for real, if you throw a suitcase down the stairs its loud, but it doesn't last for 40 minutes. Well, they didn't answer their door but their dog started barking REALLY loudly. Daniel got creeped out by the whole thing and came back after a bit. He heard them as he was coming in our door yelling at the dog to be quiet.
I hoped that would deter them from whatever was going on over there, but the body getting dragged around sound kept going.
I made Daniel call the police and make a noise complaint.
It just figures that the thudding AND the music stopped right before we heard the dog start barking like crazy. I assumed that was the cop showing up.
Within a couple of minutes the music started up again. But the dead body has been disposed of. I guess its an improvement, but I am still awake and its after 2am. It makes going to sleep at 9pm seem a little pointless.
~~~~~~~~~
Unrelated note: child is gonna be a chunker. When they measured him at the ultrasound he measured in at 8lbs 3 oz (though that number might be slightly off due to his waist circumference being at the 98th percentile). Even losing 20% (the standard deviation) he is close to the weight Alice was when she was born. What a chunky monkey. Or maybe he is a shorter baby. Its hard to know. I just know that out of 4 measurements of his head and 4 measurements of his stomach, one of the head measurements was the same size as all 4 of the stomach measurements. Go him.
At 12:30am I awoke to lots of noises coming from somewhere. Daniel was not in bed, so I initially thought it was him. But no, it was the neighbors.
They had strange music going (typical with them, but usually not enough to wake us) and there was this strange thudding noise. Almost like they had several 10 year olds at a sleepover running up and down the stairs with suitcases of their peers. Thud, thud, thud. Thud, thud, thud.
I made Daniel go knock on their door after 1am when the noise KEPT going. I mean for real, if you throw a suitcase down the stairs its loud, but it doesn't last for 40 minutes. Well, they didn't answer their door but their dog started barking REALLY loudly. Daniel got creeped out by the whole thing and came back after a bit. He heard them as he was coming in our door yelling at the dog to be quiet.
I hoped that would deter them from whatever was going on over there, but the body getting dragged around sound kept going.
I made Daniel call the police and make a noise complaint.
It just figures that the thudding AND the music stopped right before we heard the dog start barking like crazy. I assumed that was the cop showing up.
Within a couple of minutes the music started up again. But the dead body has been disposed of. I guess its an improvement, but I am still awake and its after 2am. It makes going to sleep at 9pm seem a little pointless.
~~~~~~~~~
Unrelated note: child is gonna be a chunker. When they measured him at the ultrasound he measured in at 8lbs 3 oz (though that number might be slightly off due to his waist circumference being at the 98th percentile). Even losing 20% (the standard deviation) he is close to the weight Alice was when she was born. What a chunky monkey. Or maybe he is a shorter baby. Its hard to know. I just know that out of 4 measurements of his head and 4 measurements of his stomach, one of the head measurements was the same size as all 4 of the stomach measurements. Go him.
Thursday, December 17
As I hear about people showing up for Christmas, I am getting stressed out.
The living room looks like it belongs on an episode of hoarders.
Thats almost an exact quote from Daniel. He did add the qualifier "if everything were stacked higher."
What can I say. Alice likes to spread the newspaper ads around the living room. And he was at a cub scout committee meeting until 9:30pm (don't even get me started). And suggestions to go upstairs were met with wails. It didn't help that around 8:45 I was given flip flops and my coat to put on so we could go find Dad. Luckily she couldn't find her own coat so it wasn't 45 minutes of incessant complaints.
We took a really long bath.
Until Daniel FINALLY got out of the cub scout meeting.
We were supposed to have Elder Nielson and whoever is his current companion over for dinner tonight, but we both forgot and Daniel is working until 7pm since he is done with school for the semester.
I guess its good that it didn't work out. The living room might take me 2 days to clean if I follow the Hoarders speed of cleaning. Though I have no problem tossing all the food ads as well as the box of envelopes Daniel let her take from the computer room when he was in there the other night. So really, as long as I don't get pain from bending over, it will take about 15 minutes.
Ugh. I don't want to clean.
EDIT: The hoarders comment was really unnecessary. I got it cleaned during an episode of Elliot Moose as well as starting a bunch of pork marinading to make some Chinese BBQ pork. (I am gonna try and make steamed buns, lets see how bad that fails.) I did take 2 bags of trash to the can, but one was from the full kitchen trash, and the second was mostly milk jugs. Sometimes recycling is not worth it. Besides, those things biodegrade in less than a year.
The living room looks like it belongs on an episode of hoarders.
Thats almost an exact quote from Daniel. He did add the qualifier "if everything were stacked higher."
What can I say. Alice likes to spread the newspaper ads around the living room. And he was at a cub scout committee meeting until 9:30pm (don't even get me started). And suggestions to go upstairs were met with wails. It didn't help that around 8:45 I was given flip flops and my coat to put on so we could go find Dad. Luckily she couldn't find her own coat so it wasn't 45 minutes of incessant complaints.
We took a really long bath.
Until Daniel FINALLY got out of the cub scout meeting.
We were supposed to have Elder Nielson and whoever is his current companion over for dinner tonight, but we both forgot and Daniel is working until 7pm since he is done with school for the semester.
I guess its good that it didn't work out. The living room might take me 2 days to clean if I follow the Hoarders speed of cleaning. Though I have no problem tossing all the food ads as well as the box of envelopes Daniel let her take from the computer room when he was in there the other night. So really, as long as I don't get pain from bending over, it will take about 15 minutes.
Ugh. I don't want to clean.
EDIT: The hoarders comment was really unnecessary. I got it cleaned during an episode of Elliot Moose as well as starting a bunch of pork marinading to make some Chinese BBQ pork. (I am gonna try and make steamed buns, lets see how bad that fails.) I did take 2 bags of trash to the can, but one was from the full kitchen trash, and the second was mostly milk jugs. Sometimes recycling is not worth it. Besides, those things biodegrade in less than a year.
Wednesday, December 16
In 9 days
There will be (probably) 10 people in my home clamoring for food. We have a 1000sq ft house. It should be fun.
I will be 38 weeks pregnant and NOT cooking Christmas dinner (that's why God created grocery stores that sell already cooked holiday dinners).
I will eat some of the most expensive ham I have ever owned. (Daniel got a gift certificate for a Honeybaked Ham, those things are like $15/lb or so.)
I will have a freezer full at least 26 meals for after the baby gets here (maybe more but there is a full on write up and a majority of ingredients in my fridge for the 26 meals).
My house will be clean, at least in theory.
Not eat pizza for at least a month. Frozen pizza is only so good when you eat it several times a week due to its convenience.
Now I just need to:
Buy the rest of the ingredients i need for the cooking as well as a huge stack of 8x8 foil pans for all the meals, hello dollar store/checkers (3 pans for $1 at checkers).
Get Alice better because the "owie pee" is annoying (what she says when she is poopy, and since she has a stomach bug...lets just say its often).
Find some yummy recipes for quick breads so I can have the oven on keeping the house warm all day.
Cook something for us to eat now. Maybe I will just make a freezer meal recipe and eat one today. I just need to find something I want to cook. And eat. And I am afraid it will involve pork steak since there is a HUGE stack if it in the fridge. At least it isn't tuna.
(Notice how the majority of this post revolves around food? Well, since I haven't gained any weight since Thanksgiving I figure there is no problem obsessing over food. Of course the doctor appointment before Thanksgiving I gained 6 lbs in 2 weeks. So I can't be too happy about the weight thing. I will probably go up another 5 lbs in one week soon.)
I will be 38 weeks pregnant and NOT cooking Christmas dinner (that's why God created grocery stores that sell already cooked holiday dinners).
I will eat some of the most expensive ham I have ever owned. (Daniel got a gift certificate for a Honeybaked Ham, those things are like $15/lb or so.)
I will have a freezer full at least 26 meals for after the baby gets here (maybe more but there is a full on write up and a majority of ingredients in my fridge for the 26 meals).
My house will be clean, at least in theory.
Not eat pizza for at least a month. Frozen pizza is only so good when you eat it several times a week due to its convenience.
Now I just need to:
Buy the rest of the ingredients i need for the cooking as well as a huge stack of 8x8 foil pans for all the meals, hello dollar store/checkers (3 pans for $1 at checkers).
Get Alice better because the "owie pee" is annoying (what she says when she is poopy, and since she has a stomach bug...lets just say its often).
Find some yummy recipes for quick breads so I can have the oven on keeping the house warm all day.
Cook something for us to eat now. Maybe I will just make a freezer meal recipe and eat one today. I just need to find something I want to cook. And eat. And I am afraid it will involve pork steak since there is a HUGE stack if it in the fridge. At least it isn't tuna.
(Notice how the majority of this post revolves around food? Well, since I haven't gained any weight since Thanksgiving I figure there is no problem obsessing over food. Of course the doctor appointment before Thanksgiving I gained 6 lbs in 2 weeks. So I can't be too happy about the weight thing. I will probably go up another 5 lbs in one week soon.)
Monday, December 14
Toshiba Customer Service
So far its a fail.
1. We tried to file a claim online about the laptop power plug in thing being jacked up...and it said the laptop was not registered.
2. We tried to register the laptop and it said we had to call customer support.
3. We call customer support and they claim our year warranty is expired.
(We bought it at the end of February 2009. Our extended warranty claims they will not repair anything that should be covered by the manufacturer's warranty.)
Oh an the issue (loose thing where we plug in the power cord) is a COSMETIC issue. Yet it broke our power cord.
(and the AC adapter is not covered because its not NORMAL WEAR AND TEAR)
(AND THERE WAS A FREAKING RECALL so they won't cover the issue anyway. We didn't find out about the recall because we 'weren't registered')
Total freaking crap.
Today is a day for swearing. This whole thing is the last straw.
Daniel even got so mad he yelled at her and when they finished the conversation he threw the phone. I really want to scream and yell at people except that takes way too much effort. I really just want to swear a lot.
1. We tried to file a claim online about the laptop power plug in thing being jacked up...and it said the laptop was not registered.
2. We tried to register the laptop and it said we had to call customer support.
3. We call customer support and they claim our year warranty is expired.
(We bought it at the end of February 2009. Our extended warranty claims they will not repair anything that should be covered by the manufacturer's warranty.)
Oh an the issue (loose thing where we plug in the power cord) is a COSMETIC issue. Yet it broke our power cord.
(and the AC adapter is not covered because its not NORMAL WEAR AND TEAR)
(AND THERE WAS A FREAKING RECALL so they won't cover the issue anyway. We didn't find out about the recall because we 'weren't registered')
Total freaking crap.
Today is a day for swearing. This whole thing is the last straw.
Daniel even got so mad he yelled at her and when they finished the conversation he threw the phone. I really want to scream and yell at people except that takes way too much effort. I really just want to swear a lot.
Friday, December 11
Its the Weekend!
This week was sort of long. Alice and I got a mild bug of some kind that involved lots of sleeping and some frequent diaper changes/toilet trips.
I had my 36 week OB appointment. No impending signs of the spawn coming. Yay. We are having an ultrasound next week to check on the kiddo and see how ginormous he is gonna be and to check on the size of his kidneys.
Daniel is going to call one of the supervisors at work that offered to give us their old chest freezers this weekend. They are even delivering it. Sweet. It shall be filled with lots of food.
WE are also gonna be steam cleaning the carpet. There is an overwhelming scent that appears to have come from someone whose name rhymes with Malice and doesn't like to wear pants. Lucky.
Oh and Daniel has completed 1 of 4 classes. This weekend he has to finish them all. Well, by Monday night is the official cut off. He plans to be done this weekend if possible. Then sweet sweet school freedom.
I had my 36 week OB appointment. No impending signs of the spawn coming. Yay. We are having an ultrasound next week to check on the kiddo and see how ginormous he is gonna be and to check on the size of his kidneys.
Daniel is going to call one of the supervisors at work that offered to give us their old chest freezers this weekend. They are even delivering it. Sweet. It shall be filled with lots of food.
WE are also gonna be steam cleaning the carpet. There is an overwhelming scent that appears to have come from someone whose name rhymes with Malice and doesn't like to wear pants. Lucky.
Oh and Daniel has completed 1 of 4 classes. This weekend he has to finish them all. Well, by Monday night is the official cut off. He plans to be done this weekend if possible. Then sweet sweet school freedom.
Wednesday, December 9
Winter Wonderland!
So its really pretty outside. But its cold. Stinking cold. Like currently its 10 F outside. It of course feels colder. And temperatures are supposed to keep on dropping. It was 14 F at 6am when I was watching the news.
Last night our power went out. I got up to go to the bathroom at 1:11am. Fell asleep and when I woke up to go to the bathroom again it was 1:17.
Ok it wasn't really 1:17, it was actually about 5am.
Its also super windy. And yes I did take the trash can to the curb. Then I promptly said 64 was not warm enough in the house and turned the heat up. Because it must be at least 55 degrees warmer than the outside.
I think Alice and I have mild colds. Not really snotty or coughs, but sore throats and tiredness. She has been taking naps and falling asleep at 5pm (a trait I would mind less if she weren't starving at 5 or 6am). I have heard her tummy growl before 6am. Its sort of amusing.
Since its cold and Daniel brought home a carton of eggs last night, I supposed I should bake today. Though the quilt and sleeping heater do make me want to stay on the couch instead. Maybe after a little nap I will think about baking again. Especially if I still feel cold because I am not wearing a sweatshirt.
Last night our power went out. I got up to go to the bathroom at 1:11am. Fell asleep and when I woke up to go to the bathroom again it was 1:17.
Ok it wasn't really 1:17, it was actually about 5am.
Its also super windy. And yes I did take the trash can to the curb. Then I promptly said 64 was not warm enough in the house and turned the heat up. Because it must be at least 55 degrees warmer than the outside.
I think Alice and I have mild colds. Not really snotty or coughs, but sore throats and tiredness. She has been taking naps and falling asleep at 5pm (a trait I would mind less if she weren't starving at 5 or 6am). I have heard her tummy growl before 6am. Its sort of amusing.
Since its cold and Daniel brought home a carton of eggs last night, I supposed I should bake today. Though the quilt and sleeping heater do make me want to stay on the couch instead. Maybe after a little nap I will think about baking again. Especially if I still feel cold because I am not wearing a sweatshirt.
Monday, December 7
I went to the kitchen early this morn
With the idea that I would bake
I pulled out the pans and thoughts of bread made of corn
filled my tummy with dreams of the cakes
I opened the cupboard and looked on the ledge
and the supply of baked goods in a box were lacking
My creativity died when a phone call drove a wedge
between me and my lack of eggs
Boo on you. You will be hearing from me. There will be less couplets, and more me leaving you for the store. All this food in the house and I can't make anything I want anytime I want it? Sad. Oh well, this shall prepare me for the freezer meal cooking day of glory or doom this week/weekend/whenever I feel up to 3 hours on my feet. Depending on how life goes.
With the idea that I would bake
I pulled out the pans and thoughts of bread made of corn
filled my tummy with dreams of the cakes
I opened the cupboard and looked on the ledge
and the supply of baked goods in a box were lacking
My creativity died when a phone call drove a wedge
between me and my lack of eggs
Boo on you. You will be hearing from me. There will be less couplets, and more me leaving you for the store. All this food in the house and I can't make anything I want anytime I want it? Sad. Oh well, this shall prepare me for the freezer meal cooking day of glory or doom this week/weekend/whenever I feel up to 3 hours on my feet. Depending on how life goes.
Friday, December 4
Children are Overrated
Or maybe its just having your own. Pregnancy is a time when people laud adoption. Maybe its just me. But still, I would be willing to give 20% of our income to not be pregnant. Only I don't want the kid yet.
I woke up with evil central/lower back pain that according to the internet (the be all end all source of knowledge at 2am) is either ligament pain from having my body ripped apart from the inside out, a UTI or kidney stones, or dehydration.
This week has been absurd. We got home from Florida Saturday. Tuesday we had cub scouts. Thursday (yesterday) there was LINK followed by a Relief Society Meeting in the evening with a cookie exchange.
By the end of LINK (which took longer than normal because we had so much food left over that needed labeled and put away) I was feeling parched. Milk really didn't cut it. Then I got a soda from McDonalds because caffeine cures all. Only it didn't. Then with the Relief Society meeting I didn't drink much. I should have taken a water bottle.
Plus I ate lots of bad for me foods. Too many sweet breads/cookies and too little actual food. Not to mention that I didn't really eat a meal except for my sandwich when I got my pop.
And I have a platter of cookies in the kitchen from the cookie exchange. I am thinking of making Daniel take it to work with him. Just to get it out of the house.
Of course then I will have to cook food for me and Alice. Because I don't want any of the multitudes of leftovers we have. And I have no idea what I want to eat let alone cook. Even whole wheat toast with butter tastes sweet to me right now. And its not unsalted butter. I just have issues.
Like I said, pregnancy is over rated. Maybe next time we will just get an older kid. They are easier to adopt cause no one wants the kids with issues. But at least they aren't parasites like feti are.
I woke up with evil central/lower back pain that according to the internet (the be all end all source of knowledge at 2am) is either ligament pain from having my body ripped apart from the inside out, a UTI or kidney stones, or dehydration.
This week has been absurd. We got home from Florida Saturday. Tuesday we had cub scouts. Thursday (yesterday) there was LINK followed by a Relief Society Meeting in the evening with a cookie exchange.
By the end of LINK (which took longer than normal because we had so much food left over that needed labeled and put away) I was feeling parched. Milk really didn't cut it. Then I got a soda from McDonalds because caffeine cures all. Only it didn't. Then with the Relief Society meeting I didn't drink much. I should have taken a water bottle.
Plus I ate lots of bad for me foods. Too many sweet breads/cookies and too little actual food. Not to mention that I didn't really eat a meal except for my sandwich when I got my pop.
And I have a platter of cookies in the kitchen from the cookie exchange. I am thinking of making Daniel take it to work with him. Just to get it out of the house.
Of course then I will have to cook food for me and Alice. Because I don't want any of the multitudes of leftovers we have. And I have no idea what I want to eat let alone cook. Even whole wheat toast with butter tastes sweet to me right now. And its not unsalted butter. I just have issues.
Like I said, pregnancy is over rated. Maybe next time we will just get an older kid. They are easier to adopt cause no one wants the kids with issues. But at least they aren't parasites like feti are.
Wednesday, December 2
Just in time for the holidays...
The laptop power cord no longer functions.
That just figures.
Though I assume the problem is with the loose metal piece you plug the power cord into.
And here we were hoping we could get away with not sending it in for repairs until after Daniel finished school this semester.
It sure fooled us.
Goodbye internet on my couch.
See you in a couple of months.
I won't be sitting on a regular chair at the computer, that was torture enough at 24 weeks, let alone 35 and beyond.
At least we have an extended coverage warranty (not that its been a year, in fact it was broken about 2 months after we bought it, but it still worked most of the time and it was nice to have 2 computers when Daniel was in school).
Boo on you Toshiba, boo on you.
That just figures.
Though I assume the problem is with the loose metal piece you plug the power cord into.
And here we were hoping we could get away with not sending it in for repairs until after Daniel finished school this semester.
It sure fooled us.
Goodbye internet on my couch.
See you in a couple of months.
I won't be sitting on a regular chair at the computer, that was torture enough at 24 weeks, let alone 35 and beyond.
At least we have an extended coverage warranty (not that its been a year, in fact it was broken about 2 months after we bought it, but it still worked most of the time and it was nice to have 2 computers when Daniel was in school).
Boo on you Toshiba, boo on you.
Tuesday, December 1
Bran Flakes with Chocolate Milk
That is what Alice is eating right now. There was regular milk in the bowl, but she ate it all the milk and left some cereal in the bottom. So she added chocolate milk. Ingenious I tell you.
Yes her breakfast was at 11 am. She ate a banana on the way to my doctor appointment this morning.
Anyway, I had my regular appointment and my hospital pre-admission appointment. Yeah just about 2 hours of waiting rooms and junk. At least I didn't have to watch the epidural movie again. There are some perks to having more than one kid at the same hospital. Oh, and the renovated rooms and new recovery wing...also a perk. If Daniel were able to stay the night (which won't happen) they have love seats that pull out into beds. I think that's at least one step above air mattress. Maybe 4 steps.
As my totally rambling blog continues...Alice and I are watching a train wreck on Deal or No Deal. Her highest offer to date has been $8,000 and that was the first one. Yes, total train wreck. Sort of hilarious, sort of sad. The player's best comment: "This is not how it worked in my head." Yes, that is probably true. And now her offers are low enough that if it were me, I would just say, whatever go all the way. She is calling family to see if she should take $1500. Yep, not exactly good television.
Yes her breakfast was at 11 am. She ate a banana on the way to my doctor appointment this morning.
Anyway, I had my regular appointment and my hospital pre-admission appointment. Yeah just about 2 hours of waiting rooms and junk. At least I didn't have to watch the epidural movie again. There are some perks to having more than one kid at the same hospital. Oh, and the renovated rooms and new recovery wing...also a perk. If Daniel were able to stay the night (which won't happen) they have love seats that pull out into beds. I think that's at least one step above air mattress. Maybe 4 steps.
As my totally rambling blog continues...Alice and I are watching a train wreck on Deal or No Deal. Her highest offer to date has been $8,000 and that was the first one. Yes, total train wreck. Sort of hilarious, sort of sad. The player's best comment: "This is not how it worked in my head." Yes, that is probably true. And now her offers are low enough that if it were me, I would just say, whatever go all the way. She is calling family to see if she should take $1500. Yep, not exactly good television.
Sunday, November 29
We are Home
After a not so enjoyable flight down to Florida (Alice got tired and wanted to sleep in her stroller after the first flight, but our plane got in late and we had to immediately get on our connecting flight at the last boarding call) I decided that we were going to try and get first class upgrades. Especially since we would be having a non-stop flight so we would only pay the upgrade fee for one flight.
We checked our carry on and just took Daniel's backpack and the diaper bag on the plane. It was pretty nice. Plus the snacks they give first class are way way better. We didn't just get handed cookies or pretzels, we got to choose from a basket of snacks. Alice had at least 3 snacks while we were on there. Some Gardetto snack mix, the standard cookies, and some chocolate expensive cookies I don't remember the name of. It also was handy when Alice decided that she needed to poo (after her 2nd diaper change of the flight) and stuck her hand in it and attacked herself...and me. Daniel got to change her while we were landing. They got back right before we landed on the strip.
Either way, its our last plane ride for a long time. Monetarily speaking, plane rides just take way too much from our entertainment budget for the year. Or maybe its just vacations in general. Who knows. Either way, I can think of a few ways that would be more enjoyable to spend a thousand dollars.
In other news, Alice got her first case of chemical burns as a result of detergent residue while we were visiting family. I gave in and bought some so called "Cloth Diaper Safe" detergent online. After reading all the reviews a few people still have irritation from the stuff. But considering the people were recommending detergents that are known to cause irritation in baby bums, I don't know how much I can rely on their opinions. I have either bought a years worth of diaper detergent, or else I have wasted $20 on laundry soap that we really don't need right now. Lets hope its not the latter. I already have a giant thing of Tide that's at least halfway full that my pregnant nose can't stand and most of a container of Arm & Hammer that works fine. I just need to strip the diapers since we now have a stink problem.
So now we have about a million things to deal with this week. Tuesday I have a doctor's appointment and I register with the hospital to have the kiddo. I have LINK on Thursday, followed by a Relief Society meeting and cookie exchange Thursday evening. Then Saturday Daniel will be getting Cub Scout training most of the day and I will be going up to the cannery for the afternoon. I just need to make some phone calls and locate some child care for times when we are both committed to things. Sometimes I wonder if I will get released from any callings when I have the baby. Many people get released from their callings when they have babies, but all the examples I know of had 'bigger' callings, and none of them had callings in the Relief Society. I think the Relief Society makes plans to alleviate some of the duties of you calling for a couple of months, then expect you to pick things back up again. I suppose that means since 2 of my 3 callings are Relief Society, I should expect to keep them for a while.
I wonder if I cook cookies today if I will have any left for the cookie exchange Thursday. Oh wait, its way to late to worry about that. Monday to Thursday might work out.
We checked our carry on and just took Daniel's backpack and the diaper bag on the plane. It was pretty nice. Plus the snacks they give first class are way way better. We didn't just get handed cookies or pretzels, we got to choose from a basket of snacks. Alice had at least 3 snacks while we were on there. Some Gardetto snack mix, the standard cookies, and some chocolate expensive cookies I don't remember the name of. It also was handy when Alice decided that she needed to poo (after her 2nd diaper change of the flight) and stuck her hand in it and attacked herself...and me. Daniel got to change her while we were landing. They got back right before we landed on the strip.
Either way, its our last plane ride for a long time. Monetarily speaking, plane rides just take way too much from our entertainment budget for the year. Or maybe its just vacations in general. Who knows. Either way, I can think of a few ways that would be more enjoyable to spend a thousand dollars.
In other news, Alice got her first case of chemical burns as a result of detergent residue while we were visiting family. I gave in and bought some so called "Cloth Diaper Safe" detergent online. After reading all the reviews a few people still have irritation from the stuff. But considering the people were recommending detergents that are known to cause irritation in baby bums, I don't know how much I can rely on their opinions. I have either bought a years worth of diaper detergent, or else I have wasted $20 on laundry soap that we really don't need right now. Lets hope its not the latter. I already have a giant thing of Tide that's at least halfway full that my pregnant nose can't stand and most of a container of Arm & Hammer that works fine. I just need to strip the diapers since we now have a stink problem.
So now we have about a million things to deal with this week. Tuesday I have a doctor's appointment and I register with the hospital to have the kiddo. I have LINK on Thursday, followed by a Relief Society meeting and cookie exchange Thursday evening. Then Saturday Daniel will be getting Cub Scout training most of the day and I will be going up to the cannery for the afternoon. I just need to make some phone calls and locate some child care for times when we are both committed to things. Sometimes I wonder if I will get released from any callings when I have the baby. Many people get released from their callings when they have babies, but all the examples I know of had 'bigger' callings, and none of them had callings in the Relief Society. I think the Relief Society makes plans to alleviate some of the duties of you calling for a couple of months, then expect you to pick things back up again. I suppose that means since 2 of my 3 callings are Relief Society, I should expect to keep them for a while.
I wonder if I cook cookies today if I will have any left for the cookie exchange Thursday. Oh wait, its way to late to worry about that. Monday to Thursday might work out.
Monday, November 23
The Ok to Fly
I have one.
Went in and saw a different doc than my regular. She was ironically in her 3rd trimester as well, though not as far along. She also had some vanilla air freshener stuff and instrumental music playing in the waiting room. Plus she gave Alice a sucker, so I think Alice was sold on her being a great doctor.
She wrote me a letter saying I was only 34 weeks and had no complications so they (the airline) should back off. Of course she also warned me that if my water breaks or anything I should make them land the plane. Even if I get to be on CNN as a holiday travel warning. And she wants me to walk the galley a lot. Just keep going to the bathroom, even if I don't need to go. I am sure the other passengers will LOVE me.
Now, I just need Alice to empty her bowels so I can wash diapers and not have to take any poopy ones down with us to wash later. Or leave them. That's not something I want to face coming home to.
We also need to finish off half a gallon of milk before we leave tomorrow. That shouldn't be a problem though.
Went in and saw a different doc than my regular. She was ironically in her 3rd trimester as well, though not as far along. She also had some vanilla air freshener stuff and instrumental music playing in the waiting room. Plus she gave Alice a sucker, so I think Alice was sold on her being a great doctor.
She wrote me a letter saying I was only 34 weeks and had no complications so they (the airline) should back off. Of course she also warned me that if my water breaks or anything I should make them land the plane. Even if I get to be on CNN as a holiday travel warning. And she wants me to walk the galley a lot. Just keep going to the bathroom, even if I don't need to go. I am sure the other passengers will LOVE me.
Now, I just need Alice to empty her bowels so I can wash diapers and not have to take any poopy ones down with us to wash later. Or leave them. That's not something I want to face coming home to.
We also need to finish off half a gallon of milk before we leave tomorrow. That shouldn't be a problem though.
Wednesday, November 18
Dead Car
It won't start. The car alarm keeps going off. I have disconnected the battery to stop the insanity. There might be a temporary fix, but I will have to reconnect the battery to try it. Maybe after visiting teaching.
We are now car less. Daniel is supposed to take a test tomorrow night in Overland Park. He already had to cancel home teaching because it started last night when he tried to leave to go home teaching.
Let's hope the car is running before Tuesday so we can drive to the airport otherwise its no Thanksgiving for us. Happy holidays.
EDIT: I learned how to reset the car alarm and did so. Got a jump start and a $90 battery and we are on easy street. And to think I was expecting to have to pay closer to $500.
We are now car less. Daniel is supposed to take a test tomorrow night in Overland Park. He already had to cancel home teaching because it started last night when he tried to leave to go home teaching.
Let's hope the car is running before Tuesday so we can drive to the airport otherwise its no Thanksgiving for us. Happy holidays.
EDIT: I learned how to reset the car alarm and did so. Got a jump start and a $90 battery and we are on easy street. And to think I was expecting to have to pay closer to $500.
Monday, November 16
Baby names for the Holidays
I just thought of some great "D" names if the little monster shows up early.
Dasher (reindeer obviously)
Dancer
Donner
Dudley (from Christmas in Connecticut)
Douglas (for the Douglas Pine)
December
Dove (perhaps a bit girly)
If he's a new year's baby:
Dagny (means new ay)
And if he is born December 29th or 30th:
David (apparently its traditional names for the day in religious or traditional calenders in many countries including France for the 29th)
Of course if we throw off family tradition since Daniel isn't the first born (and technically not part of the tradition) there are many more options. Who wouldn't want a kid named Claus.
Dasher (reindeer obviously)
Dancer
Donner
Dudley (from Christmas in Connecticut)
Douglas (for the Douglas Pine)
December
Dove (perhaps a bit girly)
If he's a new year's baby:
Dagny (means new ay)
And if he is born December 29th or 30th:
David (apparently its traditional names for the day in religious or traditional calenders in many countries including France for the 29th)
Of course if we throw off family tradition since Daniel isn't the first born (and technically not part of the tradition) there are many more options. Who wouldn't want a kid named Claus.
Saturday, November 14
New Church Video - Marriage and Divorce
I just want to point out our couch (the first couple). I wonder if that means we are destined for divorce. Anyway, if you don't want to watch the video, that's fine. Pretty much the idea is that both people have to be doing the wrong things for a while before divorce becomes an option. Oh, and if you have had a divorce, it won't ruin your eternal covenants, that's between you and the Lord.
Anyway, my main point is: Looky its our couch! Its too bad our couch is part of a divorce. Poor couch.
Anyway, my main point is: Looky its our couch! Its too bad our couch is part of a divorce. Poor couch.
Wednesday, November 4
Family Photos!
We got some pictures taken last month (the first 2 were from the last week of September). As you can see, my gut looked huge. Though in comparison to now, not so much. I haven't got the CD yet, so I have pilfered a few pics from facebook. Enjoy!
Below is one classic, lumpy baby gut photo. Yes, good times.
Below is one classic, lumpy baby gut photo. Yes, good times.
Monday, November 2
It's Been a Hard Day's Night
Ok, so the day wasn't that bad. In fact, it was pretty nice. Alice slept in until 7am post time change (which is essentially 8am non-time change) and that is amazingly late. Even better, the sun is up at 7am. That's always a good sign.
Of course, then she fell asleep in our bed in just about the same position she is in right now. But I am getting ahead of myself.
The Primary Presidency is worried that I am getting worked too hard. You know, with being a cub scout leader as well as a couple of other callings. That and I apparently look REALLY pregnant. To think we still have 9 weeks (and a day or two) before the actual due date. {Fingers crossed for a baby after New Years.} So they had a bishopric member talk with me and Daniel and essentially say: Daniel step it up, Rebecca stop coming every week.
Done.
Of course that wasn't the only strange thing about church. In Fast and Testimony Meeting, Alice was in a strange mood. She cried out in the songs and was exceptionally clingy. It made me wonder if she had somehow gained an ear infection or something. The last time she did that was two weeks ago at a toddler music class, and then she came down with a cold. In fact, she was finally free of the runny nose.
When we tried to drop her off at Nursery, she immediately cried and made Daniel pick her back up. That was seriously a first. Usually, she is first in line for nursery. So we took her with us for our meeting with the bishopric member. After that, we tried again. I watched from the peep-hole as Daniel sat her down and stood by the wall.
Alice stood in the middle of the room and stared at the other kids. Then she looked at Daniel. Then she looked at another kid who offered her a doll or some play kitchen toy. Then Alice picked up a plastic skillet thingy and took it to the other kid. Home free.
The 3rd block of meetings was the annual Visiting Teaching Conference. In this ward it means the priesthood takes over all primary classes, and all the women (including Young Women) meet to hear why visiting teaching is awesome. It was pretty good. In fact, I assumed when they announced it, that the stake was putting the whole thing on, but nope it was just the ward.
The best part was when the special musical number totally failed, and another sister who knew the song got up and helped her out. Aparrantly 2 other sisters were asked to do the song and both got sick and called the Relief Society President yesterday. They gave a new sister the sheet music (which she doesn't know how to read) and a CD with the song on it. She listened to it enough to get the melody, but when she was singing on her own without the tape and with accompaniment, she got super lost. It was great when the second sister got up there and helped her out. In fact once she did, you wouldn't have known that Sister #1 didn't know the song.
After church I got some food. Alice ate a couple of bites of my white bean chili burrito (lots leftover after the halloween contest). She crawled on Daniel's lap and fell asleep. Around 6pm, the sun was down and we were sort of tired, but Daniel figured he needed to do some school work, so we watched Groundhog's Day. He gets to write a paper for his Monday night class using examples from movies and relating them to business something or other. I don't know the details, I just watched the movie.
In bed by 8pm, asleep not long after. Including Alice. Who woke me up not long ago and felt hot. Which led to temperature checks and medication administration attempts. The drugs were refused in favor of going back to sleep immediately, and now I sit awake. Alice is asleep literally behind my back on the bed. Daniel is also asleep. The fetus is also asleep. Or maybe not, but since he is no longer transverse (as of 1:36am Sunday morning because suddenly my stomach was in my throat, i couldn't breathe, and there were no palpable limbs on my sides), he is far less powerful in his attack power. The only downside, heartburn is back, and I have a noticeably decreased lung capacity, plus I have to pee all the time. Oh well, feeling a head, arms, and legs across my gut was certainly not a normal or even enjoyable thing. The first time I felt the head it was cool. The arms, strange. All three, sort of freaky. I even did some research into things to do to get the baby to turn head down. Eating chili wasn't on the list.
Ok, I got really distracted. I think I am going to try and shove the kiddo over so I can lie down again. Or watch some Top Design. But probably both.
Of course, then she fell asleep in our bed in just about the same position she is in right now. But I am getting ahead of myself.
The Primary Presidency is worried that I am getting worked too hard. You know, with being a cub scout leader as well as a couple of other callings. That and I apparently look REALLY pregnant. To think we still have 9 weeks (and a day or two) before the actual due date. {Fingers crossed for a baby after New Years.} So they had a bishopric member talk with me and Daniel and essentially say: Daniel step it up, Rebecca stop coming every week.
Done.
Of course that wasn't the only strange thing about church. In Fast and Testimony Meeting, Alice was in a strange mood. She cried out in the songs and was exceptionally clingy. It made me wonder if she had somehow gained an ear infection or something. The last time she did that was two weeks ago at a toddler music class, and then she came down with a cold. In fact, she was finally free of the runny nose.
When we tried to drop her off at Nursery, she immediately cried and made Daniel pick her back up. That was seriously a first. Usually, she is first in line for nursery. So we took her with us for our meeting with the bishopric member. After that, we tried again. I watched from the peep-hole as Daniel sat her down and stood by the wall.
Alice stood in the middle of the room and stared at the other kids. Then she looked at Daniel. Then she looked at another kid who offered her a doll or some play kitchen toy. Then Alice picked up a plastic skillet thingy and took it to the other kid. Home free.
The 3rd block of meetings was the annual Visiting Teaching Conference. In this ward it means the priesthood takes over all primary classes, and all the women (including Young Women) meet to hear why visiting teaching is awesome. It was pretty good. In fact, I assumed when they announced it, that the stake was putting the whole thing on, but nope it was just the ward.
The best part was when the special musical number totally failed, and another sister who knew the song got up and helped her out. Aparrantly 2 other sisters were asked to do the song and both got sick and called the Relief Society President yesterday. They gave a new sister the sheet music (which she doesn't know how to read) and a CD with the song on it. She listened to it enough to get the melody, but when she was singing on her own without the tape and with accompaniment, she got super lost. It was great when the second sister got up there and helped her out. In fact once she did, you wouldn't have known that Sister #1 didn't know the song.
After church I got some food. Alice ate a couple of bites of my white bean chili burrito (lots leftover after the halloween contest). She crawled on Daniel's lap and fell asleep. Around 6pm, the sun was down and we were sort of tired, but Daniel figured he needed to do some school work, so we watched Groundhog's Day. He gets to write a paper for his Monday night class using examples from movies and relating them to business something or other. I don't know the details, I just watched the movie.
In bed by 8pm, asleep not long after. Including Alice. Who woke me up not long ago and felt hot. Which led to temperature checks and medication administration attempts. The drugs were refused in favor of going back to sleep immediately, and now I sit awake. Alice is asleep literally behind my back on the bed. Daniel is also asleep. The fetus is also asleep. Or maybe not, but since he is no longer transverse (as of 1:36am Sunday morning because suddenly my stomach was in my throat, i couldn't breathe, and there were no palpable limbs on my sides), he is far less powerful in his attack power. The only downside, heartburn is back, and I have a noticeably decreased lung capacity, plus I have to pee all the time. Oh well, feeling a head, arms, and legs across my gut was certainly not a normal or even enjoyable thing. The first time I felt the head it was cool. The arms, strange. All three, sort of freaky. I even did some research into things to do to get the baby to turn head down. Eating chili wasn't on the list.
Ok, I got really distracted. I think I am going to try and shove the kiddo over so I can lie down again. Or watch some Top Design. But probably both.
Monday, October 26
Smelling something Sour
All parties in the house are officially better. Alice has some mild nose runny-ness, but that's mostly when she throws a fit and cries a lot.
Unfortunately since I didn't get clogged sinuses, I smelled something strange in the house Saturday afternoon. It was sour smelling. So we did some cleaning of obvious things move trash can to other side of garage, wash dishes, change trash can, wash diapers. Still there.
Sunday morning it was worse. I started cleaning more, including steam cleaning the carpet in the living room. Daniel had to dump the dirty water about 6 times. I was doing a deep cleaning. I even did most of the stairs with a hand attachment in case it was something random or diaper bin related. It smelled better, but we had the windows open, so it wasn't really smelling better.
After church, Daniel said he thought it smelled good when we got home. I thought it smelled like sour chocolate. I was tired and opted to just have windows open and light some candles since we were having home teachers come over.
They came and went. We went to bed pretty much right after that. Alice fell asleep pretty fast. As did Daniel. I haven't really been sick, so pre-7pm bedtime was just too early for me, so I stayed up a bit. Its good too because the phone rang at 8:30pm. It was the elder's quorum something or other (in the presidency) seeing if Daniel had made Home Teaching appointments for the month yet.
{Side note: They have had a really hard time getting home teaching reported, whether or not its getting done. January they had 3% completion, August it was 20%, and September 40%. They think most of the low numbers are because people are forgetting to report. I doubt that since we haven't been taught since moving into the ward in January until last night. But, hey if it gets people to do their home teaching, great!}
After that, I got up to finish cleaning behind the couch (its all gross construction shrapnel of dust, screws, and tiny bits of old aluminum windows. Its much easier to clean things like that when Alice is in bed. I asked Daniel if he was tired. He wasn't going to go back to sleep immediately, so he was drafted for muscle power. You see, I also figured I would rearrange the living room, so that we have easier access to the new windows on the inside for trim. Yep, everything on this side, will turn around and go to the opposite side. Good times. I annoyed Daniel by making him move so much stuff. But hey, after cleaning the carpet under the couch, the house no longer smells sour.
Unfortunately since I didn't get clogged sinuses, I smelled something strange in the house Saturday afternoon. It was sour smelling. So we did some cleaning of obvious things move trash can to other side of garage, wash dishes, change trash can, wash diapers. Still there.
Sunday morning it was worse. I started cleaning more, including steam cleaning the carpet in the living room. Daniel had to dump the dirty water about 6 times. I was doing a deep cleaning. I even did most of the stairs with a hand attachment in case it was something random or diaper bin related. It smelled better, but we had the windows open, so it wasn't really smelling better.
After church, Daniel said he thought it smelled good when we got home. I thought it smelled like sour chocolate. I was tired and opted to just have windows open and light some candles since we were having home teachers come over.
They came and went. We went to bed pretty much right after that. Alice fell asleep pretty fast. As did Daniel. I haven't really been sick, so pre-7pm bedtime was just too early for me, so I stayed up a bit. Its good too because the phone rang at 8:30pm. It was the elder's quorum something or other (in the presidency) seeing if Daniel had made Home Teaching appointments for the month yet.
{Side note: They have had a really hard time getting home teaching reported, whether or not its getting done. January they had 3% completion, August it was 20%, and September 40%. They think most of the low numbers are because people are forgetting to report. I doubt that since we haven't been taught since moving into the ward in January until last night. But, hey if it gets people to do their home teaching, great!}
After that, I got up to finish cleaning behind the couch (its all gross construction shrapnel of dust, screws, and tiny bits of old aluminum windows. Its much easier to clean things like that when Alice is in bed. I asked Daniel if he was tired. He wasn't going to go back to sleep immediately, so he was drafted for muscle power. You see, I also figured I would rearrange the living room, so that we have easier access to the new windows on the inside for trim. Yep, everything on this side, will turn around and go to the opposite side. Good times. I annoyed Daniel by making him move so much stuff. But hey, after cleaning the carpet under the couch, the house no longer smells sour.
Friday, October 23
Happy Friday!
We went to bed and actually slept at 7pm last night. Well, it was a little before 7, but then Alice was making the noise of one who needs nose irrigation, so we did that. Um yeah, nose irrigation is so much easier on a younger baby, but at least she didn't sound like she was drowning afterwords.
Around midnight I woke up and felt like either my throat was super sore or I had heartburn. Its hard to tell which it was since my stomach is a little more than a hand span from my neck. I took some Tums and started prepping the craft for the Halloween carnival.
We are making spiders/creepy bugs.
I prepped 30 kits, except for the eyes. I only stabbed myself twice with the awl. I also have 12-15 extra egg carton cups that I am sending in case there are a lot of kids that show up. They will need more parent help, but at least its not like they won't get to make a spider.
My sample spiders are fun. The first I made before I spray painted anything. I did stab some holes in the top though, so he can hang from a web. The second one isn't hanging, but its painted red and has pink googly eyes.
Googly eyes can save all.
I am pretty sure we are not going at this point. You know since its 3am and I am awake. Sure I will be shoving a toddler over so I can sleep in my bed, but there is no guarantee I will get much more sleep. I wonder if she is no longer contagious after her fever breaks even if her nose is a snot faucet. Since its just a cold, I am thinking even with the runny nose she is not contagious. If what I read is correct, after the 3rd day of symptoms you are no longer contagious. Well, its been almost a week since we were around cold symptoms, and Alice had a fever Sunday night, so I think we are safe assuming she isn't contagious at this point.
Though the snot streaks on me beg to differ.
Around midnight I woke up and felt like either my throat was super sore or I had heartburn. Its hard to tell which it was since my stomach is a little more than a hand span from my neck. I took some Tums and started prepping the craft for the Halloween carnival.
We are making spiders/creepy bugs.
I prepped 30 kits, except for the eyes. I only stabbed myself twice with the awl. I also have 12-15 extra egg carton cups that I am sending in case there are a lot of kids that show up. They will need more parent help, but at least its not like they won't get to make a spider.
My sample spiders are fun. The first I made before I spray painted anything. I did stab some holes in the top though, so he can hang from a web. The second one isn't hanging, but its painted red and has pink googly eyes.
Googly eyes can save all.
I am pretty sure we are not going at this point. You know since its 3am and I am awake. Sure I will be shoving a toddler over so I can sleep in my bed, but there is no guarantee I will get much more sleep. I wonder if she is no longer contagious after her fever breaks even if her nose is a snot faucet. Since its just a cold, I am thinking even with the runny nose she is not contagious. If what I read is correct, after the 3rd day of symptoms you are no longer contagious. Well, its been almost a week since we were around cold symptoms, and Alice had a fever Sunday night, so I think we are safe assuming she isn't contagious at this point.
Though the snot streaks on me beg to differ.
Wednesday, October 21
Do we have H1N1?
Official answer is no, but I am starting to think that Alice might.
Fever over 100 for 2 days (101 actually, but supposedly after 3 days you assume its viral).
Dry hacking cough, worse when trying to lie down, so sleeping is a bit of a struggle.
Nose running. Constantly.
Refusing most food, except cookies.
Ironically, I am the healthiest of the bunch in our house. I coated my chest with Mentholatum before bed last night because when I tried laying down I started coughing. The medications I can take are rather limited though. I haven't had any of the other symptoms though. And the coughing didn't keep me up all night or anything. In fact I haven't coughed since. Unlike Alice. And Daniel.
Looks like today will be filled with watching movies and eating cookies. Maybe I can convince her to try some soup.
Fever over 100 for 2 days (101 actually, but supposedly after 3 days you assume its viral).
Dry hacking cough, worse when trying to lie down, so sleeping is a bit of a struggle.
Nose running. Constantly.
Refusing most food, except cookies.
Ironically, I am the healthiest of the bunch in our house. I coated my chest with Mentholatum before bed last night because when I tried laying down I started coughing. The medications I can take are rather limited though. I haven't had any of the other symptoms though. And the coughing didn't keep me up all night or anything. In fact I haven't coughed since. Unlike Alice. And Daniel.
Looks like today will be filled with watching movies and eating cookies. Maybe I can convince her to try some soup.
Sunday, October 18
Weekend Follies
1. We left before Sunrise to drive to the temple in Omaha.
2. We watched a rambunctious child as a 'swap' while another couple were in the temple first.
3. At least 80% of the things the kid said involved "I'm gonna get her." while trying to pounce on Alice.
4. We learned the beauty of a monkey vest, even if it felt like we were walking a dog 90% of the time. A dog that yelled "I'm gonna get her!"
5. We got into our session right before it started, thanks to some great advice from a temple worker to change in the waiting area like the temple workers. The people we were watching the kid for showed up right AFTER 2pm. (our session started at 2). Apparently both sessions had a waiting list.
6. I took my blood glucose test (NASTY).
7. I walked home from the hospital after drinking the gross stuff because no one answered the phone and I didn't want to stay there for 3 more hours.
8. I drank 40ish ounces of water after the second blood draw because it was really hard for them to get blood out of the vein.
9. We went to church, from the hospital.
10. Alice was a demon child during church.
11. Daniel didn't feel good and I was still woozy from all the blood draws. We went hone after sacrament meeting.
12. Naps and couch slouching commenced for the next 4+ hours.
13. The living room was tidied and even the carpets cleaned because the home teachers were supposed to come over.
14. They were sick too and canceled.
15. We went to bed early. Except me. I can't lie down to sleep. I feel worse that way. Daniel drugged himself. I am jealous.
2. We watched a rambunctious child as a 'swap' while another couple were in the temple first.
3. At least 80% of the things the kid said involved "I'm gonna get her." while trying to pounce on Alice.
4. We learned the beauty of a monkey vest, even if it felt like we were walking a dog 90% of the time. A dog that yelled "I'm gonna get her!"
5. We got into our session right before it started, thanks to some great advice from a temple worker to change in the waiting area like the temple workers. The people we were watching the kid for showed up right AFTER 2pm. (our session started at 2). Apparently both sessions had a waiting list.
6. I took my blood glucose test (NASTY).
7. I walked home from the hospital after drinking the gross stuff because no one answered the phone and I didn't want to stay there for 3 more hours.
8. I drank 40ish ounces of water after the second blood draw because it was really hard for them to get blood out of the vein.
9. We went to church, from the hospital.
10. Alice was a demon child during church.
11. Daniel didn't feel good and I was still woozy from all the blood draws. We went hone after sacrament meeting.
12. Naps and couch slouching commenced for the next 4+ hours.
13. The living room was tidied and even the carpets cleaned because the home teachers were supposed to come over.
14. They were sick too and canceled.
15. We went to bed early. Except me. I can't lie down to sleep. I feel worse that way. Daniel drugged himself. I am jealous.
Friday, October 16
Toddler Music Class
It was a success! (From what I have been told at least) . We used the big legos (Mega Blocks) and built a tower/castle. Each piece had a song listed on it. We repeated a couple of songs since we let kids choose their favorites as a few of the options, but they didn't seem to mind.
We prepped for 25 kids, but there were only 22 plus moms (and a couple of people I think were grandparents). And not all of them did the 'craft' (we made ghosts out of tissues and tootsie roll pops). I think it went over pretty well.
Except for Alice. She yelled at the kids for using her toys. She cried randomly in several of the songs. She broke the tower/castle several times. *sigh* kids.
Next week we are having a Halloween carnival. The grade school kids are out of school, so its the week before Halloween. I signed up to help with a craft. I got told that usually we make lollipop ghosts (go figure). Since we have leftover lollipops, I am going to use them. I think we might make mummies and pumpkins instead of ghosts though. Especially since we will have older kids there. I might even let them use the glue gun (don't worry its cold melt).
Its either that or something totally different. Like masks from paper plates, to spiders and bats from egg cartons. We would just need to eat a lot of eggs between now and next Friday. At least we will have a properly functioning car next week. That will be exciting.
We prepped for 25 kids, but there were only 22 plus moms (and a couple of people I think were grandparents). And not all of them did the 'craft' (we made ghosts out of tissues and tootsie roll pops). I think it went over pretty well.
Except for Alice. She yelled at the kids for using her toys. She cried randomly in several of the songs. She broke the tower/castle several times. *sigh* kids.
Next week we are having a Halloween carnival. The grade school kids are out of school, so its the week before Halloween. I signed up to help with a craft. I got told that usually we make lollipop ghosts (go figure). Since we have leftover lollipops, I am going to use them. I think we might make mummies and pumpkins instead of ghosts though. Especially since we will have older kids there. I might even let them use the glue gun (don't worry its cold melt).
Its either that or something totally different. Like masks from paper plates, to spiders and bats from egg cartons. We would just need to eat a lot of eggs between now and next Friday. At least we will have a properly functioning car next week. That will be exciting.
Thursday, October 15
Tender Mercies of the Lord
Today Daniel dropped the car off to have an oil change before we go to Omaha to the temple this weekend.
He got a phone call within 30 minutes of getting to work. The ball joint (or something similar in name) was totally shot. The guy said he could move it 1 1/2 inches with his finger. He would let us take the car, but he wanted us to get it fixed ASAP since any bump could cause the wheel to blow (or worse) and we would be in the ditch.
The guy estimated less than $400 for parts and labor. We chose a more expensive part that they could pick up at the local auto part store instead of order. The part was over $100 anyway. We chose to spend $10 more dollars to possibly get the car done today.
I hope so, I was supposed to be going over to work on planning the Toddler Music Class tonight at 7pm. If worse comes to worse, I will call her and let her know that we have no car, and split up the stuff that way.
I didn't think to ask if they take credit cards, but even if they don't we have $$ in the bank. And we won't lose a wheel while driving on the highway.
He got a phone call within 30 minutes of getting to work. The ball joint (or something similar in name) was totally shot. The guy said he could move it 1 1/2 inches with his finger. He would let us take the car, but he wanted us to get it fixed ASAP since any bump could cause the wheel to blow (or worse) and we would be in the ditch.
The guy estimated less than $400 for parts and labor. We chose a more expensive part that they could pick up at the local auto part store instead of order. The part was over $100 anyway. We chose to spend $10 more dollars to possibly get the car done today.
I hope so, I was supposed to be going over to work on planning the Toddler Music Class tonight at 7pm. If worse comes to worse, I will call her and let her know that we have no car, and split up the stuff that way.
I didn't think to ask if they take credit cards, but even if they don't we have $$ in the bank. And we won't lose a wheel while driving on the highway.
Tuesday, October 13
Recovery Tank Clamps
That is what is ruining my life. It was preceded by missing diapers, poo on floor, and a fight to the death.
Daniel has started a (perhaps fruitless) attempt to go to a local store to buy recovery tank clamps. You see, without them, the 'recovery tank' also known as the dirty water tank on a steam cleaner, will not stay on. We tried calling hoover. After 10 minutes on hold we got a guy's voicemail.
Seriously.
Its a good thing the automated voice told us about a local parts retailer. Who knows how accurate the automated voice is though, I mean we went to someone's voicemail. Obviously I am an important customer.
Daniel has started a (perhaps fruitless) attempt to go to a local store to buy recovery tank clamps. You see, without them, the 'recovery tank' also known as the dirty water tank on a steam cleaner, will not stay on. We tried calling hoover. After 10 minutes on hold we got a guy's voicemail.
Seriously.
Its a good thing the automated voice told us about a local parts retailer. Who knows how accurate the automated voice is though, I mean we went to someone's voicemail. Obviously I am an important customer.
Upcoming events
I am seriously on the way to steam cleaning the upstairs. Even though it doesn't seem like all that much has been getting done. Stuff HAS! Ok, that was slightly more enthusiastic than reality, but its my blog I have literary license. Only $2.89 at walmart. (That's a joke my High School Freshman English teacher used to always make. I think I thought it was funny at the time, and clearly it has stuck with me.)
We are going to the Winter Quarters temple this weekend. Our whole ward is. We are trading kid watching, carpooling, doing 4 sessions (2 endowment, 2 sealings, 1 baptismal with the youth) and the whole nine yards. Temple trips in the family ward are a whole lot more complicated than then the university ward where few people have kids at all. One sister (who has 6 kids of her own) will be watching 6 more kids. We only have to watch one, but its at the same time, so if she needs help we can help her. I think the one we are watching will probably be as much work as 3 'normal' kids. Its not even like he is hyper or anything, he is just super curious and very strong willed.
October 24th I have THREE baby showers to go to. Yes three. One of them is for a 2nd time mom. It makes me wonder if I belong to a ward that just likes to throw baby showers. I don't know if I can even go to hers though. I have one in Topeka to go to, and I have been wanting to go to that one for a while. If you look at my sewing projects you would believe me. Even though nothing has been touched since early September. Man, its been a month since I have done any sewing that wasn't Diaper repair related. How lame.
Speaking on diapers. I bought a snap pliers. All the pretty colors of snaps and I get white and creamy white. Oh yeah, so original. But I figure it will keep the resale value on the diapers. Some of the diapers I put in rehab first (they only got replacement laundry tabs and regular tabs) will be first on the list to get snaps. Why? Well, those are diapers that literally are losing the front strip of loop velcro. I don't understand why I have fraying on the edges of my velcro. Even my new diapers that are 6 months old are starting to fray on the edges of the velcro. None of the diapers I have bought have that problem. Speaking of diapers I bought, I got 6 more. I couldn't help it. They were $20 for the lot shipping included. It was too good a price to pass up. That means I have bought 24 diapers that needed repairs over the last couple of months. I already had 6 that needed the treatment.
Hmm I should probably vacuum before the dishwasher is done. The dishwasher needs emptied because there are still a few dishes in the sink and the sink smells. Like sour milk. That is the curse of buying tons of milk on sale and not rinsing cups that go in the sink. I thought I would also blame the baking of cookies, but staring at Alice 'eating' her cereal reminds me that blaming the milk is not such a bad idea. She is covered in it. Oh well, at least I have most of the laundry done. Then I just have to sort it all and put all her outgrown clothes in storage. Sigh, its never ending in this house.
We are going to the Winter Quarters temple this weekend. Our whole ward is. We are trading kid watching, carpooling, doing 4 sessions (2 endowment, 2 sealings, 1 baptismal with the youth) and the whole nine yards. Temple trips in the family ward are a whole lot more complicated than then the university ward where few people have kids at all. One sister (who has 6 kids of her own) will be watching 6 more kids. We only have to watch one, but its at the same time, so if she needs help we can help her. I think the one we are watching will probably be as much work as 3 'normal' kids. Its not even like he is hyper or anything, he is just super curious and very strong willed.
October 24th I have THREE baby showers to go to. Yes three. One of them is for a 2nd time mom. It makes me wonder if I belong to a ward that just likes to throw baby showers. I don't know if I can even go to hers though. I have one in Topeka to go to, and I have been wanting to go to that one for a while. If you look at my sewing projects you would believe me. Even though nothing has been touched since early September. Man, its been a month since I have done any sewing that wasn't Diaper repair related. How lame.
Speaking on diapers. I bought a snap pliers. All the pretty colors of snaps and I get white and creamy white. Oh yeah, so original. But I figure it will keep the resale value on the diapers. Some of the diapers I put in rehab first (they only got replacement laundry tabs and regular tabs) will be first on the list to get snaps. Why? Well, those are diapers that literally are losing the front strip of loop velcro. I don't understand why I have fraying on the edges of my velcro. Even my new diapers that are 6 months old are starting to fray on the edges of the velcro. None of the diapers I have bought have that problem. Speaking of diapers I bought, I got 6 more. I couldn't help it. They were $20 for the lot shipping included. It was too good a price to pass up. That means I have bought 24 diapers that needed repairs over the last couple of months. I already had 6 that needed the treatment.
Hmm I should probably vacuum before the dishwasher is done. The dishwasher needs emptied because there are still a few dishes in the sink and the sink smells. Like sour milk. That is the curse of buying tons of milk on sale and not rinsing cups that go in the sink. I thought I would also blame the baking of cookies, but staring at Alice 'eating' her cereal reminds me that blaming the milk is not such a bad idea. She is covered in it. Oh well, at least I have most of the laundry done. Then I just have to sort it all and put all her outgrown clothes in storage. Sigh, its never ending in this house.
Saturday, October 10
Name found!
During scripture study we heard a long list of the 12 disciples' names (3 Nephi 19 for anyone that is interested).
Best name using D and R from the Book of Mormon:
Desolation Rameumptum.
There is a serious lack of D names in the Book of Mormon.
That name should be on the worst names list.
The R names has better selection, but none of them go with Desolation quite as well as Rameumptum.
Best name using D and R from the Book of Mormon:
Desolation Rameumptum.
There is a serious lack of D names in the Book of Mormon.
That name should be on the worst names list.
The R names has better selection, but none of them go with Desolation quite as well as Rameumptum.
Cold and wet fall = pretty colors
I must remind myself of this because its stinking COLD out there. Temperature at 11am - 38F, real feel 30F. How punkish. Of course supposedly having a cold and rainy fall means they trees change colors more slowly and actually change colors instead just going to brown. Lets hope its so.
Dillons is having some fancy 3 day weekend sale that includes $1 half gallons of milk if you buy at least $10 worth of other stuff. So I bought a bunch of baking stuff. Its so cold we should bake all day. Or maybe we will turn the heat on. Daniel has put insulation in the cracks around the front window. We have also decided we are going to hire someone to finish the job for a few reasons.
1. It will get done faster.
2. Daniel's work just opened up the overtime policy so he can work up to 11.5 hours each day on the weekend between 8am and 10pm. So he will get paid much more to work than to get annoyed at the windows.
3. Our neighbor who has been laid off is a professional carpenter and is considering starting up a business of window replacement. I think we would even have him put the third matching window into the side window hole that we put a puny window into because it was easier.
Then our living room will be pretty.
Daniel just needs to go talk with Scott and take a trip to Home depot (again) to get all the materials for trim stuff. I think he should take Scott with him. Daniel doesn't want to go so he is watching a cartoon with Alice, but I figure he will before too long.
Dillons is having some fancy 3 day weekend sale that includes $1 half gallons of milk if you buy at least $10 worth of other stuff. So I bought a bunch of baking stuff. Its so cold we should bake all day. Or maybe we will turn the heat on. Daniel has put insulation in the cracks around the front window. We have also decided we are going to hire someone to finish the job for a few reasons.
1. It will get done faster.
2. Daniel's work just opened up the overtime policy so he can work up to 11.5 hours each day on the weekend between 8am and 10pm. So he will get paid much more to work than to get annoyed at the windows.
3. Our neighbor who has been laid off is a professional carpenter and is considering starting up a business of window replacement. I think we would even have him put the third matching window into the side window hole that we put a puny window into because it was easier.
Then our living room will be pretty.
Daniel just needs to go talk with Scott and take a trip to Home depot (again) to get all the materials for trim stuff. I think he should take Scott with him. Daniel doesn't want to go so he is watching a cartoon with Alice, but I figure he will before too long.
Wednesday, October 7
Ice is Possible
Why must you tell me these things car!
The car also had NPR on and I heard the news. Then I was slightly depressed for all the people that voted for Obama hoping their friends, children, and spouses would be sent home from Afghanistan. I wonder if he will be as criticized as Bush was for the situation. Then again, another trip to Oprah and he will have the adoration of thousands all over again.
I smartly switched to the local 'alternative rock' station and listened to people's stories about how no matter how successful they are, they are a disappointment to their families. Unfortunately that was followed by a news update that included the number of additional troops Obama has asked to send to Afghanistan. We have spend $1 trillion towards this whole thing.
But enough about depressing things heard on the radio...
We have no baby name. We have considered selling the rights to naming our child to the highest bidder. I am so sick of names and people's thoughts on them. I am reminded why we didn't tell anyone any name possibilities when we were pregnant with Alice.
Tonight (cross fingers!) we should actually get the front windows installed. You know, with caulk and trim and the ability to not feel a breeze around every edge of the windows. Sometimes I feel bad that I make huge projects for Daniel. Happy night off (no night school or scouts), please spend lots of time outside getting mosquito bites. P.S. Tonight and tomorrow had flash flood warnings, but it should be about 20 degrees warmer than this morning.
Off to a 9am Enrichment Committee Meeting. Or is it a Relief Society Committee meeting now?
The car also had NPR on and I heard the news. Then I was slightly depressed for all the people that voted for Obama hoping their friends, children, and spouses would be sent home from Afghanistan. I wonder if he will be as criticized as Bush was for the situation. Then again, another trip to Oprah and he will have the adoration of thousands all over again.
I smartly switched to the local 'alternative rock' station and listened to people's stories about how no matter how successful they are, they are a disappointment to their families. Unfortunately that was followed by a news update that included the number of additional troops Obama has asked to send to Afghanistan. We have spend $1 trillion towards this whole thing.
But enough about depressing things heard on the radio...
We have no baby name. We have considered selling the rights to naming our child to the highest bidder. I am so sick of names and people's thoughts on them. I am reminded why we didn't tell anyone any name possibilities when we were pregnant with Alice.
Tonight (cross fingers!) we should actually get the front windows installed. You know, with caulk and trim and the ability to not feel a breeze around every edge of the windows. Sometimes I feel bad that I make huge projects for Daniel. Happy night off (no night school or scouts), please spend lots of time outside getting mosquito bites. P.S. Tonight and tomorrow had flash flood warnings, but it should be about 20 degrees warmer than this morning.
Off to a 9am Enrichment Committee Meeting. Or is it a Relief Society Committee meeting now?
Tuesday, October 6
I just got an email
Welcoming me officially to the third trimester. They told me the baby now weighs 2 lbs and thats why I feel like a barn with legs.
Sorry 'standard' email. Mt kiddo was at 2.2 lbs a week ago. He is on top of things. This makes me wonder what the estimated size will be when we have another sonogram.
On my maternal grandfather's side they had really big boys. Granddaddy Somerhalder (yes that's literally what we called him, all 7 syllables because my mom insisted) was born after a series of still born baby boys. And that my friends is why we have modern medicine. Being pregnant only to have the baby die? Talk about a slap in the face. Especially for someone that doesn't enjoy pregnancy. Even an 'easy' pregnancy in comparison to the previous one.
Any guesses for how big the chunker will be? (I will give you a baseline. Alice was born at 7lbs and 21 inches at 39 weeks 4 days.)
Discuss.
Sorry 'standard' email. Mt kiddo was at 2.2 lbs a week ago. He is on top of things. This makes me wonder what the estimated size will be when we have another sonogram.
On my maternal grandfather's side they had really big boys. Granddaddy Somerhalder (yes that's literally what we called him, all 7 syllables because my mom insisted) was born after a series of still born baby boys. And that my friends is why we have modern medicine. Being pregnant only to have the baby die? Talk about a slap in the face. Especially for someone that doesn't enjoy pregnancy. Even an 'easy' pregnancy in comparison to the previous one.
Any guesses for how big the chunker will be? (I will give you a baseline. Alice was born at 7lbs and 21 inches at 39 weeks 4 days.)
Discuss.
Friday, October 2
Things I love
- Moving the high chair in front of the TV so breakfast takes Alice 2 hours to eat while she giggles and laughs at Spirited Away.
- Hot foods! Its stinking cold in our house, and the tarp is here for one more day. I am searching out the food storage hot cocoa. Or at least a recipe to make hot cocoa since i have a bunch of dutch hot cocoa to use. I am leaning toward Alton Brown's recipe. Yum. I am also having oatmeal for breakfast. Nothing like hot cereal to start the morning out right.
- Good neighbors and friends. I literally had the neighbor knock on the door and insist we let them help us put the windows in. I will tell Daniel he is not allowed to work late, and should even consider leaving early. I mean, he can always work tomorrow if the window is done this afternoon. If i would have said it was ok, I think they would have started putting the windows in and have them dine before Daniel even gets home. But I think it will be better for Daniel to help and get some sort of happy feeling about the whole project.
Thursday, October 1
I hate house projects
I am sitting in my living room watching a movie and pretending there isn't a tarp covered window behind me. Yes thats right. Camping in the living room, I mean the windows were not installed.
It took 2 days to get to the point where according to the window manufacturer, we should get them installed in 40 minutes each.
I hate house projects. They make everyone get cranky. Even the toddler.
Thanks to rain we won't be able to get them in until Saturday. I hope there isn't complaints. I might go postal. I mean, how am I supposed to return the house to pre-last-weekend condition when we have no window in the front of the house, and the trash didn't get taken to the curb. This is only pointed out because my super powered nose can smell the rotting meat I put in there a week ago. Yes having no windows in the front of the house = lots of Lysol spray getting used.
I don't know if i even want to insist we replace the bedroom windows. I am ready to throw in the towel.
It took 2 days to get to the point where according to the window manufacturer, we should get them installed in 40 minutes each.
I hate house projects. They make everyone get cranky. Even the toddler.
Thanks to rain we won't be able to get them in until Saturday. I hope there isn't complaints. I might go postal. I mean, how am I supposed to return the house to pre-last-weekend condition when we have no window in the front of the house, and the trash didn't get taken to the curb. This is only pointed out because my super powered nose can smell the rotting meat I put in there a week ago. Yes having no windows in the front of the house = lots of Lysol spray getting used.
I don't know if i even want to insist we replace the bedroom windows. I am ready to throw in the towel.
Tuesday, September 29
How fat is my baby?
Today we had a hard core ultrasound. Fourty minutes long, and it started 40 minutes late. I got home from the doctor about 2 hours after getting into the office.
We have a long armed fat gutted child inside. Don't worry, his head and brain size are right on par. Almost puny in comparison.
He will be a monkey boy. A monkey boy with an 88th percentile waist and 70+ percentile arm length. Go him. I don't remember the leg lengths, but they weren't reading at 27-29 weeks like his arms and gut.
He is overall a good 3 ounces bigger than his fellow 26 week old feti. What a show off. I think I deserve pudding for that. Don't worry we have snack-paks.
We have a long armed fat gutted child inside. Don't worry, his head and brain size are right on par. Almost puny in comparison.
He will be a monkey boy. A monkey boy with an 88th percentile waist and 70+ percentile arm length. Go him. I don't remember the leg lengths, but they weren't reading at 27-29 weeks like his arms and gut.
He is overall a good 3 ounces bigger than his fellow 26 week old feti. What a show off. I think I deserve pudding for that. Don't worry we have snack-paks.
Sunday, September 27
Comments make me feel validated
Yes, I am trolling for comments. Besides who wants to read the title "to do list of the week." Even though, the to-do list is SUPER exciting.
Weather report for Tuesday and Wednesday...highs in the uppers 70s, low Tues night 39!!!!, some clouds Wed, no rain. What does that mean??
1. Replace front window. That is a Daniel project. But, he wanted a heads up of 2 days in a row (preference on Tues and Wed) with good weather for window removal and replacement.
I might not say anything and let him read this on his lunch break Monday. (he fell asleep with Alice at 8:30)
2. Sew the velcro tabs onto the otherwise completely overhauled BumGenius diapers! I am pretty sure I will have to adjust the bobbin tension back since I can't remember if I did that after sewing the charity blankets at the Relief Society service project thingy.
Daniel was all excited that I had done 7 diaper covers because I sent them through the dryer to seal up any holes in the PUL already. No sorry, didn't have time to add velcro tabs yet.
3. Figure out where I want to store the eight million bottles of cleaners that we got last week. If we get H1N1, I have enough cleaners to disinfect the house top to bottom every day for months. If we don't we have a good 2 year supply.
4. Return the house to pre-weekend condition. Lets just say, the BumGenius overhaul along with me going away for 8 hours leaving Daniel and Alice alone to rampage = lots that needs done. Mild cleaning happened this evening because it was so horrible, but it was so much prettier Thursday.
5. Finish moving the crib to Alice's room. If that happens additional cleaning and furniture room swapping will occur. But none of that can happen easily until the crib is in place.
6. Buy another layer of blackout curtians/blinds/something for Alice's windows. Getting up at 6:30am, refusing to nap, and throwing tired tantrums all day has got to STOP.
7. Stop eating tomatoes and tomato sauce. I have had a few heartburn free days, then I had spaghetti. Man was it good.
Weather report for Tuesday and Wednesday...highs in the uppers 70s, low Tues night 39!!!!, some clouds Wed, no rain. What does that mean??
1. Replace front window. That is a Daniel project. But, he wanted a heads up of 2 days in a row (preference on Tues and Wed) with good weather for window removal and replacement.
I might not say anything and let him read this on his lunch break Monday. (he fell asleep with Alice at 8:30)
2. Sew the velcro tabs onto the otherwise completely overhauled BumGenius diapers! I am pretty sure I will have to adjust the bobbin tension back since I can't remember if I did that after sewing the charity blankets at the Relief Society service project thingy.
Daniel was all excited that I had done 7 diaper covers because I sent them through the dryer to seal up any holes in the PUL already. No sorry, didn't have time to add velcro tabs yet.
3. Figure out where I want to store the eight million bottles of cleaners that we got last week. If we get H1N1, I have enough cleaners to disinfect the house top to bottom every day for months. If we don't we have a good 2 year supply.
4. Return the house to pre-weekend condition. Lets just say, the BumGenius overhaul along with me going away for 8 hours leaving Daniel and Alice alone to rampage = lots that needs done. Mild cleaning happened this evening because it was so horrible, but it was so much prettier Thursday.
5. Finish moving the crib to Alice's room. If that happens additional cleaning and furniture room swapping will occur. But none of that can happen easily until the crib is in place.
6. Buy another layer of blackout curtians/blinds/something for Alice's windows. Getting up at 6:30am, refusing to nap, and throwing tired tantrums all day has got to STOP.
7. Stop eating tomatoes and tomato sauce. I have had a few heartburn free days, then I had spaghetti. Man was it good.
Thursday, September 24
Randomness!
I had a dream last night that I was making a quilt. I wanted the pattern to be in long rectangles (I think its called coin slot pattern or something). Of course the only solution was to stretch one end of the quilt so I would get the long thin rectangles I wanted. Aren't dreams strange.
I have officially removed old laundry tabs AND removed the front velcro stuff from 8 of my 10 (current project) BumGenius diapers. I thought it was 9 last night, but one of them got mixed into the completed pile. After the 2nd one, I figured out I could seam rip some of it, then grab the inner layer and the outer layers and RIIIIP them apart. A much faster way to remove serging and topstitching. Just waiting for loop APlix to come in the mail already.
I have looked at snap presses, then looked at the price and moved on. Seriously, I wold have to start a business to make up for the cost of one of those bad boys. Even used ones are a good $100. I know there is another solution, but instead I have chosen to forget. That means its not important.
I still haven't made M&M chocolate chip cookies. I thought about it, but the dishes need done, and making cookies would start a whole new sink of dishes. Daniel has class tonight, so it still might happen. We still have most of the bag of M&Ms to go.
Visiting Teaching for the month. DONE!
LINK sign up sheet: filled! After calling a million people Monday, and taking a pile of stuff down there Thursday I will be free until December. I don't count Thanksgiving since we will be out of town (I will do a sign up, and hand it all off to someone else.)
I need to remember to go by Target and buy spaghetti sauce (the Market Fresh or whatever the store brand is called is on sale for 87 cents a jar). For that matter spaghetti-o's are on sale at Hyvee this week, as is the Betty Crocker pizza crust mix. I bet we buy a ton cause thats how we roll. At least a ton of the spaghetti-o's. They are the perfect back up lunch to keep in a desk at work. They are also good at home. I eat them from the can with no shame.
I have cleaned nothing (aside from necessary living room and dining room maintenance) since the weekend. It has been nice.
I am going to the service project/women's conference on Saturday and I can't decide if I should take a sewing machine. If I do, should I take spare needles and bobbins? Should I just take the machine and call it good? Should I take my dull scissors that work, or just the really nice ones that are easy to use?
I have officially removed old laundry tabs AND removed the front velcro stuff from 8 of my 10 (current project) BumGenius diapers. I thought it was 9 last night, but one of them got mixed into the completed pile. After the 2nd one, I figured out I could seam rip some of it, then grab the inner layer and the outer layers and RIIIIP them apart. A much faster way to remove serging and topstitching. Just waiting for loop APlix to come in the mail already.
I have looked at snap presses, then looked at the price and moved on. Seriously, I wold have to start a business to make up for the cost of one of those bad boys. Even used ones are a good $100. I know there is another solution, but instead I have chosen to forget. That means its not important.
I still haven't made M&M chocolate chip cookies. I thought about it, but the dishes need done, and making cookies would start a whole new sink of dishes. Daniel has class tonight, so it still might happen. We still have most of the bag of M&Ms to go.
Visiting Teaching for the month. DONE!
LINK sign up sheet: filled! After calling a million people Monday, and taking a pile of stuff down there Thursday I will be free until December. I don't count Thanksgiving since we will be out of town (I will do a sign up, and hand it all off to someone else.)
I need to remember to go by Target and buy spaghetti sauce (the Market Fresh or whatever the store brand is called is on sale for 87 cents a jar). For that matter spaghetti-o's are on sale at Hyvee this week, as is the Betty Crocker pizza crust mix. I bet we buy a ton cause thats how we roll. At least a ton of the spaghetti-o's. They are the perfect back up lunch to keep in a desk at work. They are also good at home. I eat them from the can with no shame.
I have cleaned nothing (aside from necessary living room and dining room maintenance) since the weekend. It has been nice.
I am going to the service project/women's conference on Saturday and I can't decide if I should take a sewing machine. If I do, should I take spare needles and bobbins? Should I just take the machine and call it good? Should I take my dull scissors that work, or just the really nice ones that are easy to use?
Tuesday, September 22
T - 15 weeks and counting
Today is the official 25 week mark. What does that mean? Well according to the baby sites the baby is the size of an average rutabaga. (as a side note, rutabaga might be a good name)
After my appointment next week we will be going there every 2 weeks.
This is the end of the 'babymoon' period. I think that term is loosely thrown around, but I guess they mean most women aren't having morning sickness and aren't the size of a house yet.
I have started thinking about names, but haven't really found anything good. Its sort of funny when you think of reasons why a name won't do. Typically its "I knew someone with that name and they were mean/gross/cute/I had a crush on them." OK, so I haven't had any crushes on anyone named Raca, but I think naming a child worthless is automatically out. Rocco is in though. I think its because there is a rock thats a friend in Elmo's world named Rocco (Rocko?). They don't spell out names on that show.
Most of my shoes no longer fit me. I wore some shoes that are usually big on me and they were snug. It makes sense though, I do have sausage fingers. Good old bloating. Its part of the pregnant glow.
After my appointment next week we will be going there every 2 weeks.
This is the end of the 'babymoon' period. I think that term is loosely thrown around, but I guess they mean most women aren't having morning sickness and aren't the size of a house yet.
I have started thinking about names, but haven't really found anything good. Its sort of funny when you think of reasons why a name won't do. Typically its "I knew someone with that name and they were mean/gross/cute/I had a crush on them." OK, so I haven't had any crushes on anyone named Raca, but I think naming a child worthless is automatically out. Rocco is in though. I think its because there is a rock thats a friend in Elmo's world named Rocco (Rocko?). They don't spell out names on that show.
Most of my shoes no longer fit me. I wore some shoes that are usually big on me and they were snug. It makes sense though, I do have sausage fingers. Good old bloating. Its part of the pregnant glow.
Monday, September 21
Swagbucks = sadness
I have been using swagbucks (its a search and win type site, but its powered by google so its not like its really unreliable). See the link if you want to sign up for giggles. Though, if you do, don't read the rest of this post.
Anyway, I was all excited to get season 5 of House when had enough points. You know, for a Christmas present for someone.
Only, I didn't realize it was for downloads only. So it will take all of my65 points to download one episode of the show. On my computer. And we don't have any portable media players.
I am suddenly disenchanted.
Anyway, I was all excited to get season 5 of House when had enough points. You know, for a Christmas present for someone.
Only, I didn't realize it was for downloads only. So it will take all of my65 points to download one episode of the show. On my computer. And we don't have any portable media players.
I am suddenly disenchanted.
Sunday, September 20
5:30 am on a Sunday
Why am I awake? Its a combo of going to bed at 8pm and Daniel staying up until 4am writing a paper for school.
Completed lists!
My list:
1. Finished emptying and organizing cabinets
2. Rearranged pantry and moved some food to kitchen
7. Find a place to store water storage besides dining room floor (comp room)
10. Sell/store mini fridge (in garage, might sell, but its out of the house!)
11. Steam Clean carpet and couch again.
12. Repair quilt we are Using as a couch cover. Its hand stitched between panels and some of the stitching had come loose. (Done, but its gotten dirty AGAIN)
19. Freecycle our DVD shelf that we aren't using any more because its an Alice sized Ladder (they were supposed to pick up last night, but its in front of the house still)
On Daniel's list:
6. Install pull out plastic drawer system under bathroom sink (I did this with just a screwdriver and Alice's assistance Friday morning. Super easy)
7. Hang bathroom cupboard over toilet. (A little farther left than ideal, but it was the only way to install it on studs, and I wanted it secure, even if someone climbs it somehow)
The roof project didn't happen because the neighbor's ladder was unavailable for roof access. I think the neighbor down the street is using it since he got laid off and has days free now. Daniel did crawl up into the attic to make sure our leak was what we thought it was. We found out the insulation was moved by the people that installed the dryer vent before we bought the house in 2007. Yeah, there was a HUGE pile of the loose insulation over by the leak and nothing on the side near the dryer vent. I guess its good we found that out. You know, 2 years later.
I have also bought a pile more cloth diapers, some needing some repairs, that are the same as the ones i have already repaired of our own. I also bought some free for shipping newborn size diapers. All from DiaperSwapper.com That place is a little addictive. You find something, paypal pay someone, and then a little while later you have all these expensive cloth diapers for a fraction of the cost. Example: BumGenius 2.0s with repairs started (yeah no seam ripping for me!) and stuff to repair them 9 diapers and inserts for $51.50 including shipping. A steal I tell you. I spent $18/diaper when I bought from the manufacturer before Alice was born. They now have a 3.0 they sell instead, and we have some of those, but they are wearing out faster than the 2.0's did. I will be returning them for replacements before the year warranty is up in March.
So yeah. The weekend was a time of house purging, reorganization, and cleaning. It was a good one. Even though no one showed up for my food storage class. NO ONE. and the house was so clean too. sigh.
Completed lists!
My list:
1. Finished emptying and organizing cabinets
2. Rearranged pantry and moved some food to kitchen
7. Find a place to store water storage besides dining room floor (comp room)
10. Sell/store mini fridge (in garage, might sell, but its out of the house!)
11. Steam Clean carpet and couch again.
12. Repair quilt we are Using as a couch cover. Its hand stitched between panels and some of the stitching had come loose. (Done, but its gotten dirty AGAIN)
19. Freecycle our DVD shelf that we aren't using any more because its an Alice sized Ladder (they were supposed to pick up last night, but its in front of the house still)
On Daniel's list:
6. Install pull out plastic drawer system under bathroom sink (I did this with just a screwdriver and Alice's assistance Friday morning. Super easy)
7. Hang bathroom cupboard over toilet. (A little farther left than ideal, but it was the only way to install it on studs, and I wanted it secure, even if someone climbs it somehow)
The roof project didn't happen because the neighbor's ladder was unavailable for roof access. I think the neighbor down the street is using it since he got laid off and has days free now. Daniel did crawl up into the attic to make sure our leak was what we thought it was. We found out the insulation was moved by the people that installed the dryer vent before we bought the house in 2007. Yeah, there was a HUGE pile of the loose insulation over by the leak and nothing on the side near the dryer vent. I guess its good we found that out. You know, 2 years later.
I have also bought a pile more cloth diapers, some needing some repairs, that are the same as the ones i have already repaired of our own. I also bought some free for shipping newborn size diapers. All from DiaperSwapper.com That place is a little addictive. You find something, paypal pay someone, and then a little while later you have all these expensive cloth diapers for a fraction of the cost. Example: BumGenius 2.0s with repairs started (yeah no seam ripping for me!) and stuff to repair them 9 diapers and inserts for $51.50 including shipping. A steal I tell you. I spent $18/diaper when I bought from the manufacturer before Alice was born. They now have a 3.0 they sell instead, and we have some of those, but they are wearing out faster than the 2.0's did. I will be returning them for replacements before the year warranty is up in March.
So yeah. The weekend was a time of house purging, reorganization, and cleaning. It was a good one. Even though no one showed up for my food storage class. NO ONE. and the house was so clean too. sigh.
Tuesday, September 15
News from the homefront
1. A person got called to be a cub scout leader! Sure its for the Webelos, so we will likely still have bears and wolves, but at least someone got called! He is a grad student and has no kids of his own so he should be fine with 6 10 year old boys, right? I figure we plan to do things together at least once a week. Then we will have everyone work on belt loops together. I haven't told him though.
2. You know how I was excited that LINK was over until December? Well, I was wrong. We got asked for a sort of last minute assistance October 1st (yeah in 2 weeks!). Apparently one of the other churches has been having problems getting enough volunteers and running out of food, so they called us. It should be fun, I guess. I already plan on not going if possible. At least we won't have enrichment the same night.
3. Daniel's work changed their time off policy (AGAIN) so he can keep none of his accrued time off next year. He will be able to have one week off for parental leave though. He has 7 unaccounted for days we need to use in the next few months.
4. I made us a MAJOR to do list of 32 things. It has everything I want done before the kid gets here. It ranges from change light bulb in garage to replacing the windows. OK, so the light bulb is the exception to the rule. But still, that will be one easy check mark. I seperated the list by area. Exterior work, upstairs, and downstairs. I figure we plan the outdoor ones to be done first, and if the weather is rainy, we will do interior instead. The interior list is longer anyway. Some of the things I can do, but will be easier without a toddler's assistance. But at least we have it all out there now. All on the front of our fridge. Which needs cleaned by the way.
5. I am already getting Christmas gifts together. A wee bit early, I know, but this way I can order all the 'rewards' and more that take up to 8 weeks processing, and I will get them in plenty of time for the holidays. I got one in yesterdays mail. It was exciting.
6. We got a copy of Alice's birth certificate. We have proof that she is an infant for flight purposes, and she will be covered by our insurance next year. (They are having an audit.) Its only been 20 months, we aren't slackers right?
Anyway, I should get back to Yoga. Daniel called right when it started. He asked me to make the list, and I thought I should blog. Just so, you know it won't be just the annoyed Sunday post at the top. Lots of planing and cleaning to go too! Besides the list. Cause I didn't include current me only projects. Yeah, I am totally nuts.
2. You know how I was excited that LINK was over until December? Well, I was wrong. We got asked for a sort of last minute assistance October 1st (yeah in 2 weeks!). Apparently one of the other churches has been having problems getting enough volunteers and running out of food, so they called us. It should be fun, I guess. I already plan on not going if possible. At least we won't have enrichment the same night.
3. Daniel's work changed their time off policy (AGAIN) so he can keep none of his accrued time off next year. He will be able to have one week off for parental leave though. He has 7 unaccounted for days we need to use in the next few months.
4. I made us a MAJOR to do list of 32 things. It has everything I want done before the kid gets here. It ranges from change light bulb in garage to replacing the windows. OK, so the light bulb is the exception to the rule. But still, that will be one easy check mark. I seperated the list by area. Exterior work, upstairs, and downstairs. I figure we plan the outdoor ones to be done first, and if the weather is rainy, we will do interior instead. The interior list is longer anyway. Some of the things I can do, but will be easier without a toddler's assistance. But at least we have it all out there now. All on the front of our fridge. Which needs cleaned by the way.
5. I am already getting Christmas gifts together. A wee bit early, I know, but this way I can order all the 'rewards' and more that take up to 8 weeks processing, and I will get them in plenty of time for the holidays. I got one in yesterdays mail. It was exciting.
6. We got a copy of Alice's birth certificate. We have proof that she is an infant for flight purposes, and she will be covered by our insurance next year. (They are having an audit.) Its only been 20 months, we aren't slackers right?
Anyway, I should get back to Yoga. Daniel called right when it started. He asked me to make the list, and I thought I should blog. Just so, you know it won't be just the annoyed Sunday post at the top. Lots of planing and cleaning to go too! Besides the list. Cause I didn't include current me only projects. Yeah, I am totally nuts.
Sunday, September 13
Before Church Rant
Church starts in 20 minutes. We will probably be late.
The rant is because I just got a phone call asking me to help out in the nursery today.
The nursery.
Again.
You would think these people think I like children!
Why do I never get called to substitute for any other primary class?
Just the heathen nursery. I swear I am the only one they ever call. I don't know why.
Are they incapable of asking a dad of a kid to help out? Do all the other moms flat our refuse? Am I just gullible?
You know being almost 6 months pregnant I should get some breaks.
I hate being pissed off when I go to church. Especially since I will probably sweat even more than the typical pregnant woman thanks to running like a furnace. Boo on you nursery.
Lets hope I don't end up getting hormonal and crying. Being pissed off is easier to hide.
The rant is because I just got a phone call asking me to help out in the nursery today.
The nursery.
Again.
You would think these people think I like children!
Why do I never get called to substitute for any other primary class?
Just the heathen nursery. I swear I am the only one they ever call. I don't know why.
Are they incapable of asking a dad of a kid to help out? Do all the other moms flat our refuse? Am I just gullible?
You know being almost 6 months pregnant I should get some breaks.
I hate being pissed off when I go to church. Especially since I will probably sweat even more than the typical pregnant woman thanks to running like a furnace. Boo on you nursery.
Lets hope I don't end up getting hormonal and crying. Being pissed off is easier to hide.
Wednesday, September 9
Alice update post!
I haven't had a "mommy blog" post in a while, so here goes.
Alice is talking more. Thank goodness. We were afraid that she stopped saying words she had been in favor of dragging us to the desired object.
She now says yes.
Holy cow.
Accomplishment.
Seriously, we have heard no's of all volume and emphasis, but never anything in the affirmative for so long. The closest she would get would be delighted giggles or squeals.
And then it happened. She was dragging me into the kitchen for something to eat. I tried several options. Then I asked bagel? and pointed to the bag.
"Yeah!" giggle and squeal. To her a bagel with cream cheese is like a really fancy graham cracker with frosting. Lets just say, she would probably live on graham crackers and frosting if we let her.
Then tonight we were taking dinner to a family in our ward, and I realized there was a solitary chocolate chip cookie left over from scouts still in the car. I gave her a piece.
Then she wanted more. whine, whine, I am a toddler whine.
"Mom cookie."
She got the rest. What can I say, it was positive reinforcement. Of course, once it was gone she screamed until she passed out. Good times. Good times.
Alice is talking more. Thank goodness. We were afraid that she stopped saying words she had been in favor of dragging us to the desired object.
She now says yes.
Holy cow.
Accomplishment.
Seriously, we have heard no's of all volume and emphasis, but never anything in the affirmative for so long. The closest she would get would be delighted giggles or squeals.
And then it happened. She was dragging me into the kitchen for something to eat. I tried several options. Then I asked bagel? and pointed to the bag.
"Yeah!" giggle and squeal. To her a bagel with cream cheese is like a really fancy graham cracker with frosting. Lets just say, she would probably live on graham crackers and frosting if we let her.
Then tonight we were taking dinner to a family in our ward, and I realized there was a solitary chocolate chip cookie left over from scouts still in the car. I gave her a piece.
Then she wanted more. whine, whine, I am a toddler whine.
"Mom cookie."
She got the rest. What can I say, it was positive reinforcement. Of course, once it was gone she screamed until she passed out. Good times. Good times.
Tuesday, September 8
To do list (well sort of a work in project list)
1. Replace elastic in diapers. I don't know why Hancocks didn't have swimsuit elastic (or at least elastic labeled that way). I came home with some well priced elastic though, so I will just replace and call it good.
2. Cut out hooter hider. Yes I am making one. Its also called a nursing cover, but I like the name hooter hider. Call it my schlectness. (yes not a real word, but schlectness celebrates all things bad or at least taboo). Its sort of a trial run, but I think it will go well. Its all straight lines!
3. Finish priming the upstairs bathroom. I was up late last night (because sleep was not happening). I started it, but it was hot, and I probably didn't have enough ventilation, and I wasn't going to possibly wake Alice to steal her floor fan. It actually looks pretty good in the places where I primed. I admit surprise this morning. I really doubt any more will happen while I am alone with Alice though. I can just see her stepping in the primer and leaving footprints all over the carpet. and on me.
After that, we just need to mud coat, sand and prime again. It will look good, and we can put up the cupboard and towel racks that I have had for a while now (less than a year, most of summer and some spring). Yes, there is lots of motivation in our house. /end sarcasm
2. Cut out hooter hider. Yes I am making one. Its also called a nursing cover, but I like the name hooter hider. Call it my schlectness. (yes not a real word, but schlectness celebrates all things bad or at least taboo). Its sort of a trial run, but I think it will go well. Its all straight lines!
3. Finish priming the upstairs bathroom. I was up late last night (because sleep was not happening). I started it, but it was hot, and I probably didn't have enough ventilation, and I wasn't going to possibly wake Alice to steal her floor fan. It actually looks pretty good in the places where I primed. I admit surprise this morning. I really doubt any more will happen while I am alone with Alice though. I can just see her stepping in the primer and leaving footprints all over the carpet. and on me.
After that, we just need to mud coat, sand and prime again. It will look good, and we can put up the cupboard and towel racks that I have had for a while now (less than a year, most of summer and some spring). Yes, there is lots of motivation in our house. /end sarcasm
Saturday, September 5
My Sewing Skillz
I admit, my sewing skills are limited. In middle school we had 'technomics' class (which was really a less insulting way of saying Home Ec, though all the teachers were female, and very few males took the class). I took a couple of sewing modules, but they were fancy things like machine embroidery. It was pretty fancy for the early 90s at least. Most of my other things were with kitchen chemistry and cooking, which by the way I can do. Even without a recipe. If I see a recipe, or have a meal and get a basic idea of how its made, I can duplicate it.
But, back to sewing. Well, I can do hand sewing, and hand embroidery though I haven't done much of either since then, just small repairs like sewing a button back on.
Last week I started some sewing projects. You know, besides my "I can sew a straight line {mostly}" baby shower presents.
Project #1. Make maternity jeans out of an old pair of jeans and a stretchy T-shirt.
Trial #1. Using really old jeans that I never wear because they are the high waisted jeans of yesteryear.
Data and Conclusions:
1 seam ripper lost its life in this project. Ripping belt loops off of jeans is not the job of a small sewing kit seam ripper. Lets just say, I literally got the metal head part out of the plastic body. It was a surprise to say the least.
Old school high waisted jeans are not a good choice to turn into maternity jeans. They end up feeling really high, and they are just too tall to put a giant gut in. Lets just say jean material cutting into an area where I am aleady getting abuse from the inside. I wear the jeans when I am doing laundry or around the house. They will need a big strip of elastic sewn in before they are even close to comfortable.
Stretchy shirts must have a high lycra count, or you will, again, need the elastic sewn in. Note: I need to buy some 3 inch elastic for waistbands. Especially for the second pair of jeans that I have not finished yet, but are newer, they just had a broken zipper and zipper replacement is major UGH.
Project #2. Repair Alice's BumGenius diapers with (FREE!) repair kits from the manufacturer.
Trial 1: Major success!
Data and conclusions:
I did all the seam ripping first. I again, killed my (brand new, used only to finish the jeans and to start this project) seam ripper. I blame it on the cheapo WalMart brand seam ripper I bought. It was surprisingly large, but I figured that didn't matter. Aparrantly, I am really good at breaking seam rippers. Mad skillz!
I sewed on the velcro tabs. The top tension needs to be at 3 (on my machine) for the hook and loop tabs.
I sewed on the inner loop squares that the tabs attach to when they are washed. Tension needs to be really low, like below 2. The cheapo and for that matter really old walmart thread that I was using, kept breaking on this low setting. I had to switch to better thread, but that also meant I switched to colored thread. Its ok though, everyone needs a little shock of bright orange on the inside of thier velcro to keep things alive.
Trial 1 of diaper repairs: Complete!
I started a second and messed up, but to prevent stopping for seam ripping, I started the third. Then I ran over my finger with the sewing machine.
Not the needle. Just the big screw thingy that helps hold the pressure foot on. Took a bit of skin off. Had to get the first aid kit out. Stopped to blog. Figure I might as well get out the seam ripper to undo my mistake on diaper #2.
Need to do:
Buy 3" (or close to that thick) elastic for the jeans.
Buy swimsuit elastic (the diapers also could use some elastic repair around the legs and on the waistband).
Buy high quality white thread. Its amazing the assortment of colored threads I have, and I don't have any decent white or black thread. Its probably because I don't sew things with those colors really. I like matching thread, or at least colored thread.
So yeah my sewing skillz are so mad they lead to bleeding and lots of seam ripper action. It doesn't stop me from trying though. At some point I might even learn how to do decorative stitches (you know besides top stitching). And when I have more complete use of my right hand, I will maybe even take pictures. That and after I take some tums. Cookies for breakfasat are almost always a bad idea.
But, back to sewing. Well, I can do hand sewing, and hand embroidery though I haven't done much of either since then, just small repairs like sewing a button back on.
Last week I started some sewing projects. You know, besides my "I can sew a straight line {mostly}" baby shower presents.
Project #1. Make maternity jeans out of an old pair of jeans and a stretchy T-shirt.
Trial #1. Using really old jeans that I never wear because they are the high waisted jeans of yesteryear.
Data and Conclusions:
1 seam ripper lost its life in this project. Ripping belt loops off of jeans is not the job of a small sewing kit seam ripper. Lets just say, I literally got the metal head part out of the plastic body. It was a surprise to say the least.
Old school high waisted jeans are not a good choice to turn into maternity jeans. They end up feeling really high, and they are just too tall to put a giant gut in. Lets just say jean material cutting into an area where I am aleady getting abuse from the inside. I wear the jeans when I am doing laundry or around the house. They will need a big strip of elastic sewn in before they are even close to comfortable.
Stretchy shirts must have a high lycra count, or you will, again, need the elastic sewn in. Note: I need to buy some 3 inch elastic for waistbands. Especially for the second pair of jeans that I have not finished yet, but are newer, they just had a broken zipper and zipper replacement is major UGH.
Project #2. Repair Alice's BumGenius diapers with (FREE!) repair kits from the manufacturer.
Trial 1: Major success!
Data and conclusions:
I did all the seam ripping first. I again, killed my (brand new, used only to finish the jeans and to start this project) seam ripper. I blame it on the cheapo WalMart brand seam ripper I bought. It was surprisingly large, but I figured that didn't matter. Aparrantly, I am really good at breaking seam rippers. Mad skillz!
I sewed on the velcro tabs. The top tension needs to be at 3 (on my machine) for the hook and loop tabs.
I sewed on the inner loop squares that the tabs attach to when they are washed. Tension needs to be really low, like below 2. The cheapo and for that matter really old walmart thread that I was using, kept breaking on this low setting. I had to switch to better thread, but that also meant I switched to colored thread. Its ok though, everyone needs a little shock of bright orange on the inside of thier velcro to keep things alive.
Trial 1 of diaper repairs: Complete!
I started a second and messed up, but to prevent stopping for seam ripping, I started the third. Then I ran over my finger with the sewing machine.
Not the needle. Just the big screw thingy that helps hold the pressure foot on. Took a bit of skin off. Had to get the first aid kit out. Stopped to blog. Figure I might as well get out the seam ripper to undo my mistake on diaper #2.
Need to do:
Buy 3" (or close to that thick) elastic for the jeans.
Buy swimsuit elastic (the diapers also could use some elastic repair around the legs and on the waistband).
Buy high quality white thread. Its amazing the assortment of colored threads I have, and I don't have any decent white or black thread. Its probably because I don't sew things with those colors really. I like matching thread, or at least colored thread.
So yeah my sewing skillz are so mad they lead to bleeding and lots of seam ripper action. It doesn't stop me from trying though. At some point I might even learn how to do decorative stitches (you know besides top stitching). And when I have more complete use of my right hand, I will maybe even take pictures. That and after I take some tums. Cookies for breakfasat are almost always a bad idea.
Thursday, September 3
A Day of Cooking!
Holy Cow my kitchen (and dishwasher consequently) have been busy lately. Everything for LINK is taken care of. In fact, I don't have to even think about LINK until December! (Well, maybe November, but we don't serve again until December). Thank goodness. I have lots of other stuff to do.
I cooked my 'high protein' casserole this morning. It was a rotini casserole with buttloads {technical term!} of hamburger and additional Hamburger TVP added. I ate some. It was good, but much better with cheese. I sent it with cheese layered in the middle and on top. You can never go wrong with lots of cheese.
I have also diced 5 lbs of potatoes, an onion, celery, and baby carrots. Those are in the crockpot becoming potato soup
Last, but not least, I have the little 6 cup slow cooker (imitation crockpot) heating up stuff that will hopefully become some yummy tasting PB fondue. I will know more at a later date. You know, when it actually melts.
I am also going to try making a roasted tomato vinegrette dressing. If it turns out good, I will have a great solution for some of the millions of cherry tomatoes that are still coming off that poor blighted plant. How a plant can look so bad and still produce so much food is an emigma to me.
In a non cooking note, I have hewn some flowers for the centerpieces, and half of them are dropping petals like crazy. I hope we have enough. My phone totally died, so I can't contact anyone about back up flowers. Sad sad times.
I cooked my 'high protein' casserole this morning. It was a rotini casserole with buttloads {technical term!} of hamburger and additional Hamburger TVP added. I ate some. It was good, but much better with cheese. I sent it with cheese layered in the middle and on top. You can never go wrong with lots of cheese.
I have also diced 5 lbs of potatoes, an onion, celery, and baby carrots. Those are in the crockpot becoming potato soup
Last, but not least, I have the little 6 cup slow cooker (imitation crockpot) heating up stuff that will hopefully become some yummy tasting PB fondue. I will know more at a later date. You know, when it actually melts.
I am also going to try making a roasted tomato vinegrette dressing. If it turns out good, I will have a great solution for some of the millions of cherry tomatoes that are still coming off that poor blighted plant. How a plant can look so bad and still produce so much food is an emigma to me.
In a non cooking note, I have hewn some flowers for the centerpieces, and half of them are dropping petals like crazy. I hope we have enough. My phone totally died, so I can't contact anyone about back up flowers. Sad sad times.
Wednesday, September 2
Done list!
~Put cookies away from yesterday. (Yes, thats 3 dozen 'flops' and 2 dozen {for next week} cub scout cookies.)
~Moved the food storage under the side table in the dining room.
~ Vacuumed the dining room! Its been way too long.
~ Vacuumed the living room. Just ignore the 96 crayons and the mister potato head that are all over now. They weren't there 5 minutes ago.
~ Changed a poopy diaper. Ok, that wasn't exactly on the list, but whatever.
~ Started a cub scout worksheets notebook. The worksheets make it easier for me to get requirements done. Plus, if we still have the calling next year all the planning will be taken care of!
~ Got inspired for the food storage class on the 19th!
~ just realized the laptop is dead. OOps!
~Moved the food storage under the side table in the dining room.
~ Vacuumed the dining room! Its been way too long.
~ Vacuumed the living room. Just ignore the 96 crayons and the mister potato head that are all over now. They weren't there 5 minutes ago.
~ Changed a poopy diaper. Ok, that wasn't exactly on the list, but whatever.
~ Started a cub scout worksheets notebook. The worksheets make it easier for me to get requirements done. Plus, if we still have the calling next year all the planning will be taken care of!
~ Got inspired for the food storage class on the 19th!
~ just realized the laptop is dead. OOps!
Sunday, August 30
The disease has spread
Alice's disease ridde nose has passed on to the rest of the family. I haven't had so much of a runny nose, but other symptoms. We all passed out for at least an hour Saturday afternoon, and went to bed early. Only, I can't sleep because I am sick. Its sad.
I did take the time to look up H1N1 symptoms. Cause, its important to be prepared. Essentially a mild case of swine flu = a cold + fever over 100. More severe cases include GI symptoms.
Well, aside from the fever, I totally have swine flu. As does the chainsaw next to me, and the one down the hall. I caught myself sounding like a chainsaw earlier today and I wasn't even asleep!
So there you go. My life is now a world of Kleenex, TP, and sanitizer solution. Oh and spicy food. Cause it clears out the chainsaws from the nose.
The cause? Enrichment meeting Thursday. Everyone that went there, except one, is sick now. Alice had a bit of a runny nose then, but my guess from seeing another kid, we got it from her. Darn drippy noses in toddlers.
I think my pain killers (acetaminophen) has kicked in so I can sleep more comfortably now. Its too bad i drank all that water with the pills. I love my bathroom, even if it needs cleaned.
I did take the time to look up H1N1 symptoms. Cause, its important to be prepared. Essentially a mild case of swine flu = a cold + fever over 100. More severe cases include GI symptoms.
Well, aside from the fever, I totally have swine flu. As does the chainsaw next to me, and the one down the hall. I caught myself sounding like a chainsaw earlier today and I wasn't even asleep!
So there you go. My life is now a world of Kleenex, TP, and sanitizer solution. Oh and spicy food. Cause it clears out the chainsaws from the nose.
The cause? Enrichment meeting Thursday. Everyone that went there, except one, is sick now. Alice had a bit of a runny nose then, but my guess from seeing another kid, we got it from her. Darn drippy noses in toddlers.
I think my pain killers (acetaminophen) has kicked in so I can sleep more comfortably now. Its too bad i drank all that water with the pills. I love my bathroom, even if it needs cleaned.
Friday, August 28
Play dates in the Park, and lies we tell others
Well, not technically a play date. But a play in the park day, nonetheless. Don't you like words that just seem like run on words?
Anyway, we met at a fenced and gated rubber tire park. I think the park is named for some kid, but the main lure is the gated fence. It means kids stay in and away from traffic.
Alice had fun. She followed some kids around. She monitored the gate between the big kid stuff and the smaller kid stuff. She even slid down several slides on her own! Though mostly she went backwards and on her belly.
Then we came home, she drank some Dr Pepper and passed out in my lap. Sounding like she has a disease in her nose.
Good times.
I also have to admit I lied today. I told "Discover Cards" today that I was Daniel. Yes, I know, not the most truthful of moments. But seriously they have called every single day for the last 2 weeks. I have chewed people out for the last week about calling during the day. Why? Well, he works during the day. Surprise. I told one guy to specifically put down to not call during the day yesterday.
So today when a woman called asking for Daniel I said that was me. No one said Daniel is a gender specific name. Now get this. I found out they are offering the SAME service we said no to two months ago. Lets see, I can get my credit report monitored for free online (though I can't remember who its with, but seriously totally free we both have accounts). Maybe I will pay the company that owns our credit card to do the same thing. For a free Experian credit score!
I don't think so.
If they call back I will request to speak with a supervisor and perhaps even consider switching back to a different household credit card. You know, one that didn't call every other month offering services. One that is also in my name as the primary, so I can tell them to not call back and they believe me.
Either way, lets hope the credit monitoring service they are trying to sell stops calling. Lets also hope that I get the house in reasonable condition. At least the living room and dining room. Cause we are feeding the missionaries. And, if we end up eating Arby's roast beef sandwiches, I won't feel bad at all. Especially if we serve them with salad or something semi-healthy. Besides, if worse comes to worse, we can eat at a park. Not quite the same as eating in someone's home, but its nice weather. And I can put off cleaning my dump/home until the weekend.
Anyway, we met at a fenced and gated rubber tire park. I think the park is named for some kid, but the main lure is the gated fence. It means kids stay in and away from traffic.
Alice had fun. She followed some kids around. She monitored the gate between the big kid stuff and the smaller kid stuff. She even slid down several slides on her own! Though mostly she went backwards and on her belly.
Then we came home, she drank some Dr Pepper and passed out in my lap. Sounding like she has a disease in her nose.
Good times.
I also have to admit I lied today. I told "Discover Cards" today that I was Daniel. Yes, I know, not the most truthful of moments. But seriously they have called every single day for the last 2 weeks. I have chewed people out for the last week about calling during the day. Why? Well, he works during the day. Surprise. I told one guy to specifically put down to not call during the day yesterday.
So today when a woman called asking for Daniel I said that was me. No one said Daniel is a gender specific name. Now get this. I found out they are offering the SAME service we said no to two months ago. Lets see, I can get my credit report monitored for free online (though I can't remember who its with, but seriously totally free we both have accounts). Maybe I will pay the company that owns our credit card to do the same thing. For a free Experian credit score!
I don't think so.
If they call back I will request to speak with a supervisor and perhaps even consider switching back to a different household credit card. You know, one that didn't call every other month offering services. One that is also in my name as the primary, so I can tell them to not call back and they believe me.
Either way, lets hope the credit monitoring service they are trying to sell stops calling. Lets also hope that I get the house in reasonable condition. At least the living room and dining room. Cause we are feeding the missionaries. And, if we end up eating Arby's roast beef sandwiches, I won't feel bad at all. Especially if we serve them with salad or something semi-healthy. Besides, if worse comes to worse, we can eat at a park. Not quite the same as eating in someone's home, but its nice weather. And I can put off cleaning my dump/home until the weekend.
Thursday, August 27
Enrichment committe meeting
I sent a whole pile of cherry tomatoes away today. It was great.
This morning I had an enrichment committee meeting at 9:30. Daniel has night class today, so I got picked up. He has been commissioned to find or create a carpool tonight for his Thursday night class. Even if its just for one night. Even if he just pays someone $5 to take him with them.
Why?
Well, next week will be crazy for me. I have LINK during the day. That means I will have 5 million things showing up at my house to drop off at the church that hosts the meal. I also had the university ward request to drop things off with me because no one had space that could drop things off in the middle of the day. Its totally fine, and really not a big deal because I don't care if they show up late. I won't be here. They can drop it off at the church. I don't have to call all the people and remind them what they signed up for. I don't even have to be concerned that they don't have enough servers for their ward.
Its great.
I by the way, have 3 servers and will be picking up and dropping off the Sister Missionaries as well as my trunk full of food around lunch time. Including my casserole.
After that I need to make a big pot of potato soup and peanut butter fondue for our enrichment activity that night. I hope our yellow flowers Helios (maybe black eyes susans, but some type of sunflower thing) are still in bloom because I want to pick several dozen for centerpieces. If they die we'll use something else.
We also did some more detailed talk about what we are in charge of for Super Saturday. FYI, it will probably be great. All of the crafts should be around $2 or less (super YAY!) and most of them sound interesting. You know, except for one that sounds totally dumb. But, the young women loved it and are teaching it, so its all good. Its just really not something I want to deal with.
Plus, we are going to set up baby sitting swaps for the temple trip! That means both spouses can go and not have to worry about someone watching the kid for 9+ hours, you will just swap for one session. I hope lots of people come if we set up that way. Plus, Daniel and I can both go with no worries about the kid.
Totally unrelated baby note:
Walked to the appointment on Tuesday. Daniel still had the stroller in the car. We were very slightly late because of it. Also had trace amounts of protein in the urine. They said it might have been from dehydration. (likely since I left the water bottle at home on accident) Have a sono next time to make sure the baby is doing ok and get measurements. I was measuring 3 weeks bigger than I should be. Next time we will be right on the 3rd trimester cusp. Crazy stuff huh.
This morning I had an enrichment committee meeting at 9:30. Daniel has night class today, so I got picked up. He has been commissioned to find or create a carpool tonight for his Thursday night class. Even if its just for one night. Even if he just pays someone $5 to take him with them.
Why?
Well, next week will be crazy for me. I have LINK during the day. That means I will have 5 million things showing up at my house to drop off at the church that hosts the meal. I also had the university ward request to drop things off with me because no one had space that could drop things off in the middle of the day. Its totally fine, and really not a big deal because I don't care if they show up late. I won't be here. They can drop it off at the church. I don't have to call all the people and remind them what they signed up for. I don't even have to be concerned that they don't have enough servers for their ward.
Its great.
I by the way, have 3 servers and will be picking up and dropping off the Sister Missionaries as well as my trunk full of food around lunch time. Including my casserole.
After that I need to make a big pot of potato soup and peanut butter fondue for our enrichment activity that night. I hope our yellow flowers Helios (maybe black eyes susans, but some type of sunflower thing) are still in bloom because I want to pick several dozen for centerpieces. If they die we'll use something else.
We also did some more detailed talk about what we are in charge of for Super Saturday. FYI, it will probably be great. All of the crafts should be around $2 or less (super YAY!) and most of them sound interesting. You know, except for one that sounds totally dumb. But, the young women loved it and are teaching it, so its all good. Its just really not something I want to deal with.
Plus, we are going to set up baby sitting swaps for the temple trip! That means both spouses can go and not have to worry about someone watching the kid for 9+ hours, you will just swap for one session. I hope lots of people come if we set up that way. Plus, Daniel and I can both go with no worries about the kid.
Totally unrelated baby note:
Walked to the appointment on Tuesday. Daniel still had the stroller in the car. We were very slightly late because of it. Also had trace amounts of protein in the urine. They said it might have been from dehydration. (likely since I left the water bottle at home on accident) Have a sono next time to make sure the baby is doing ok and get measurements. I was measuring 3 weeks bigger than I should be. Next time we will be right on the 3rd trimester cusp. Crazy stuff huh.
Monday, August 24
And they burn, burn, burn!
Daniel hasn't got home yet from his night class.
Alice (after I sat in the dark next to her bed with my hand on her stomach) cried for 1/2 hour for Dad. I left because she was sort of asleep and I was getting sore sitting on the floor next to her bed for an HOUR. I decided if she was still crying when Daniel got home he could deal with her. She hasn't cried for 10 minutes though, so I think he is in the clear.
Alice and I sorted through some of the pantry. Enough to consolidate all cans to the bottom shelf. Not enough to sort by can type. We have an absurd amount of foods where we have 3-4 cans of that type. Surprisingly enough, we are nearly out of several things that we bought in May as our '3 month food storage.' Looks like those were sure bets on things we eat lots of.
I was having some rather bad heartburn and drank OJ cause it sounded good. I fell into a burning ring of fire.
Daniel carried in the car seat just now because I am getting picked up for an enrichment committee meeting Thursday morning. (I also have an OB appointment tomorrow and am taking the car, but its the thought that counts.)
The mini series Tin Man from the SciFi channel is really good. We rented it from the Library. I have watched all three hour and a half episodes. It was Wizard of Oz enough while still be totally SciFi channel. They had a pretty decent budget.
I am really tired, but Daniel should be home by now, so I blog.
Alice (after I sat in the dark next to her bed with my hand on her stomach) cried for 1/2 hour for Dad. I left because she was sort of asleep and I was getting sore sitting on the floor next to her bed for an HOUR. I decided if she was still crying when Daniel got home he could deal with her. She hasn't cried for 10 minutes though, so I think he is in the clear.
Alice and I sorted through some of the pantry. Enough to consolidate all cans to the bottom shelf. Not enough to sort by can type. We have an absurd amount of foods where we have 3-4 cans of that type. Surprisingly enough, we are nearly out of several things that we bought in May as our '3 month food storage.' Looks like those were sure bets on things we eat lots of.
I was having some rather bad heartburn and drank OJ cause it sounded good. I fell into a burning ring of fire.
Daniel carried in the car seat just now because I am getting picked up for an enrichment committee meeting Thursday morning. (I also have an OB appointment tomorrow and am taking the car, but its the thought that counts.)
The mini series Tin Man from the SciFi channel is really good. We rented it from the Library. I have watched all three hour and a half episodes. It was Wizard of Oz enough while still be totally SciFi channel. They had a pretty decent budget.
I am really tired, but Daniel should be home by now, so I blog.
Sunday, August 23
I want a Pantry Makeover!
Erin over at $5 Dinners is promoting a $250 pantry makeover in the form of a $250 gift card to the grocery store of your choice! This is an extra entry, and what follows is yet another, so enter if you want (though I want to win, so personally I discourage too much competition.
Anyway, since I don't care if people think I am messy, plus this is in a closet so it seems ok to show...here is our pantry! Sorry its sideways, I can't be bothered to figure out how to turn it. I used to know how, but then I lost my brain to pregnancy. This time next year I can probably figure things like this out again.
Let me explain. Our pantry is literally the only place we store dry food (aside from the plastic storage containers that we have things like flour etc in). As you can see though we do have back up food for the containers in the pantry though. If you look closely behind the tater and onion bin (empty BTW, onions are pretty gross this pregnancy) you can see non food items that are just in there. I also forgot that {nearly} all the pasta as well as canned tomatoes and pasta sauce are in giant plastic storage bins in the computer room.
The multitudes of bags at the bottom are holding things like cereal and random canned foods. Because obviously i didn't have room for them on the bottom shelf or any of the other shelves that are holding canned food. Some are hard to put away because I have like 2 cans of that food item.The other bags are bags of grocery bags. (Don't ask why i keep so many.)
You know, its funny that I want a pantry makeover, when really a couple of hours or moving and organizing will make over my pantry quite soundly. But hey, with an extra $250 I can totally complete our '3 month food storage' as well as pick up lots of easy foods for when we add another kiddo in a few more months. Even if I don't win, I will probably try to do this in the next few months. Just cause it needs done.
Oh well, lets hope I can get it done for only the cost of my labor instead of labor and money.
Anyway, since I don't care if people think I am messy, plus this is in a closet so it seems ok to show...here is our pantry! Sorry its sideways, I can't be bothered to figure out how to turn it. I used to know how, but then I lost my brain to pregnancy. This time next year I can probably figure things like this out again.
Let me explain. Our pantry is literally the only place we store dry food (aside from the plastic storage containers that we have things like flour etc in). As you can see though we do have back up food for the containers in the pantry though. If you look closely behind the tater and onion bin (empty BTW, onions are pretty gross this pregnancy) you can see non food items that are just in there. I also forgot that {nearly} all the pasta as well as canned tomatoes and pasta sauce are in giant plastic storage bins in the computer room.
The multitudes of bags at the bottom are holding things like cereal and random canned foods. Because obviously i didn't have room for them on the bottom shelf or any of the other shelves that are holding canned food. Some are hard to put away because I have like 2 cans of that food item.The other bags are bags of grocery bags. (Don't ask why i keep so many.)
You know, its funny that I want a pantry makeover, when really a couple of hours or moving and organizing will make over my pantry quite soundly. But hey, with an extra $250 I can totally complete our '3 month food storage' as well as pick up lots of easy foods for when we add another kiddo in a few more months. Even if I don't win, I will probably try to do this in the next few months. Just cause it needs done.
Oh well, lets hope I can get it done for only the cost of my labor instead of labor and money.
Saturday, August 22
New Travel Plans!
Well, Daniel called AirTran just a few moments ago. We are leaving on the first flight Tuesday morning which means Daniel can go to school and work Monday, which means more benefit time can be saved for when the baby comes, since he has to accrue benefit time next year which is retarded...
Interlude by Daniel:
Actually, they sold the company that I work for last year and they are finally going to make us follow the benefit program of the new company starting next year. It's sort of ironic that when the change over was happening they claimed that the benefits were "substantially similar", but what really has happened is insurance has doubled in price... and next year I will get less benefit time by 5 days. :-| Oh well, at least I'm paid pretty well and am in next to no risk of losing my employ. Hoorah?!?
Return to Becca...
We are also flying back on Saturday instead of Friday, and we got a non-stop flight back. For no additional cost! I am so excited to leave florida at 10am and get into Kansas City at noon (well local time). Either way, yay no busy holiday airport for the layover back!
The confirmation email is hilarious. The total for our airfare is $12 more than the price of one of the non stop return ticket. LOVE it! So the best thing to do, book really really early and if they change flight times on you get a better flight!
The only small concern. Our layover on the way down is about 40 minutes. Lets hope the plane doesn't get in late or that it takes a really long time to get off the first plane and onto the second. If we are lucky we will get onto the same plane or one really close. Most likely we will get on a larger plane from Atlanta to Orlando though.
Interlude by Daniel:
Actually, they sold the company that I work for last year and they are finally going to make us follow the benefit program of the new company starting next year. It's sort of ironic that when the change over was happening they claimed that the benefits were "substantially similar", but what really has happened is insurance has doubled in price... and next year I will get less benefit time by 5 days. :-| Oh well, at least I'm paid pretty well and am in next to no risk of losing my employ. Hoorah?!?
Return to Becca...
We are also flying back on Saturday instead of Friday, and we got a non-stop flight back. For no additional cost! I am so excited to leave florida at 10am and get into Kansas City at noon (well local time). Either way, yay no busy holiday airport for the layover back!
The confirmation email is hilarious. The total for our airfare is $12 more than the price of one of the non stop return ticket. LOVE it! So the best thing to do, book really really early and if they change flight times on you get a better flight!
The only small concern. Our layover on the way down is about 40 minutes. Lets hope the plane doesn't get in late or that it takes a really long time to get off the first plane and onto the second. If we are lucky we will get onto the same plane or one really close. Most likely we will get on a larger plane from Atlanta to Orlando though.
Thursday, August 20
Changes in Flight Times, holiday travel stress
I am slightly miffed. Why?
Well, we bought tickets for our Thanksgiving trip to Florida to visit Daniel's family in July. We found a great deal, got an itinerary that we liked (you with the shortest layovers), and even paid extra to choose our seats.
Then today I get an email from the Airline. The first email I have had that wasn't about their great ticket prices or joining thier rewards club. It was titled "SECOND NOTIFICATION: Airtran Airways Schedule Change." Huh, maybe they emailed me last night and then again at 9am today. So I look and they say they are changing our flight times and to click the link to accept.
I clicked the link.
The schedule changes were horrible (for having a toddler along and a 32 week pregnant woman). They want us to leave later in the day the Monday before Thanksgiving. That's not so bad, except that we would get into Orlando at 6:15. It would be 7pm by the time we got our bags, we wouldn't have eaten dinner, AND we would still have an hour or so drive from Orlando to Daniel's grandparent's home. That means at 8pm, Alice's bedtime (in thoery) we would be driving or just getting in at Edgewater.
Now, if that were the only thing I might have accepted it. But no. Our return flight was moved to 15 minutes later and our retun layover was more than doubles to over 4 hours. I refuse to be in a huge airport like Atlanta with a toddler for 4 hours. Let alone add in that I will be way pregnant at that point. There is something that will give me high blood pressure.
Now unfortunately, the tickets are reserved in Daniel's name, so I probably can't even call them and change things.
Fortunately, thier policy is that if they are changing our flight times we can change to the day before or after with no added fee. Daniel is hoping for either a red eye out of Kansas City or Tuesday morning (so he can go to his night class Monday night). I told him, if we are getting in later, I want to leave later. Lets hope for Tuesday to Saturday instead of Monday to Friday. I mean sure its wishful thinking, but hello you don't mess with people that have 'infant in lap' and one of them is pregnant.
I will update after we have have anything definate. I mean, I would accept seat upgrades for a crappier itinerary. We shall see, no?
Well, we bought tickets for our Thanksgiving trip to Florida to visit Daniel's family in July. We found a great deal, got an itinerary that we liked (you with the shortest layovers), and even paid extra to choose our seats.
Then today I get an email from the Airline. The first email I have had that wasn't about their great ticket prices or joining thier rewards club. It was titled "SECOND NOTIFICATION: Airtran Airways Schedule Change." Huh, maybe they emailed me last night and then again at 9am today. So I look and they say they are changing our flight times and to click the link to accept.
I clicked the link.
The schedule changes were horrible (for having a toddler along and a 32 week pregnant woman). They want us to leave later in the day the Monday before Thanksgiving. That's not so bad, except that we would get into Orlando at 6:15. It would be 7pm by the time we got our bags, we wouldn't have eaten dinner, AND we would still have an hour or so drive from Orlando to Daniel's grandparent's home. That means at 8pm, Alice's bedtime (in thoery) we would be driving or just getting in at Edgewater.
Now, if that were the only thing I might have accepted it. But no. Our return flight was moved to 15 minutes later and our retun layover was more than doubles to over 4 hours. I refuse to be in a huge airport like Atlanta with a toddler for 4 hours. Let alone add in that I will be way pregnant at that point. There is something that will give me high blood pressure.
Now unfortunately, the tickets are reserved in Daniel's name, so I probably can't even call them and change things.
Fortunately, thier policy is that if they are changing our flight times we can change to the day before or after with no added fee. Daniel is hoping for either a red eye out of Kansas City or Tuesday morning (so he can go to his night class Monday night). I told him, if we are getting in later, I want to leave later. Lets hope for Tuesday to Saturday instead of Monday to Friday. I mean sure its wishful thinking, but hello you don't mess with people that have 'infant in lap' and one of them is pregnant.
I will update after we have have anything definate. I mean, I would accept seat upgrades for a crappier itinerary. We shall see, no?
Tuesday, August 18
Sickness Diagnosed
Heartburn.
Must buy stock in Tums Smoothies.
Apparently it can lead to coughing which in my case leads to cookie tossage. It also explains the added fatigue. Lucky me!
Sadly I have lost the bottle of Tums. Or rather Alice has. She thinks they are candy and will carry the bottle everywhere. Oh well, heartburn is way better than sickness. At least no one can catch it from me.
Must buy stock in Tums Smoothies.
Apparently it can lead to coughing which in my case leads to cookie tossage. It also explains the added fatigue. Lucky me!
Sadly I have lost the bottle of Tums. Or rather Alice has. She thinks they are candy and will carry the bottle everywhere. Oh well, heartburn is way better than sickness. At least no one can catch it from me.
Lazy Day, sick day
Last night I spent some time in the bathroom because I wasn't feeling so good. I assumed it was because I ate a hamburger and cheese burrito right before bed. I also had a bit of a dry cough, but hopes it was dust in my room or something like that.
This morning everyone got up around the time Daniel left for work. Alice refuses to sleep if he is downstairs or leaving. He put her in bed with me and she acted like she would leave, then she realized he wasn't getting in bed and started crying and climbing down the stairs.
We ate some cereal, watched some Elmo, and I hid the 3 cans of pop she had been carting around all day yesterday.
Then I figured why not do some yoga. Get it done early. Maybe it would bore Alice enough she would want to go back to sleep.
Well, I started coughing about 1 minute into the warm up. Then I felt the serenity of the pose. All over the floor.
Alice said "Uh-oh" I told her not to touch it and ran upstairs for wash cloths to clean it up. I came back, wiped up the mess. Alice helped with her own wash cloth (after I had it clean of course) and I fetched one of the cans of pop. What? Its ginger ale. That calms the stomach.
Alice chose a movie, and we are going to try and do very little today. Watch Shrek, drink ginger ale, maybe nap. I hope for that third option. The first 2 are guaranteed.
At least I did some cleaning up last night while Daniel was in night school. First day of his human relations course! He didn't learn anything except that his teacher is a freak. She has 7 Yorkies, 4 guinea pigs and 4 hamsters and is on the faculty of 7 universities in the Kansas City metro. I bet she has no family or life. You know aside from her 15 'children.'
This morning everyone got up around the time Daniel left for work. Alice refuses to sleep if he is downstairs or leaving. He put her in bed with me and she acted like she would leave, then she realized he wasn't getting in bed and started crying and climbing down the stairs.
We ate some cereal, watched some Elmo, and I hid the 3 cans of pop she had been carting around all day yesterday.
Then I figured why not do some yoga. Get it done early. Maybe it would bore Alice enough she would want to go back to sleep.
Well, I started coughing about 1 minute into the warm up. Then I felt the serenity of the pose. All over the floor.
Alice said "Uh-oh" I told her not to touch it and ran upstairs for wash cloths to clean it up. I came back, wiped up the mess. Alice helped with her own wash cloth (after I had it clean of course) and I fetched one of the cans of pop. What? Its ginger ale. That calms the stomach.
Alice chose a movie, and we are going to try and do very little today. Watch Shrek, drink ginger ale, maybe nap. I hope for that third option. The first 2 are guaranteed.
At least I did some cleaning up last night while Daniel was in night school. First day of his human relations course! He didn't learn anything except that his teacher is a freak. She has 7 Yorkies, 4 guinea pigs and 4 hamsters and is on the faculty of 7 universities in the Kansas City metro. I bet she has no family or life. You know aside from her 15 'children.'
Monday, August 17
Rain, rain, go away
I actually like rain. Except when its been raining for 5 hours and a look at the radar map shows no sign of hope. In fact, over half of the state is getting heavy rain and from the way its moving those cloudy hours will most likely be raining hours.
Over the weekend i picked a whole pile of cherry tomatoes. I didn't know how many there actually were, so I went out Saturday morning and started. I just put them in my pockets and continued around the shrubbery that is the tomato plants. I cam back in and had a good quart or so of cherry tomatoes. Pockets of my sweats totally stuffed. I already had a couple of cups worth in the fridge (to avoid gnats! the bane of Daniel's existence, second only to ants).
Speakign of the garden, at some point this fall we need to add about 5 bags of compost/manure. The soil level has been getting lower and lower, so it needs raised before next year. I also need to get my butt around to cutting the cherry tomatoes in half and salting them so I can dehydrate them. I didn't feel like it Saturday, and I can already see more tha need picking. If it ever stops raining enough to go outside.
There is a giant puddle in fron of the house, and a few in the back.
I am reminded that we need to fork over the cash to get a reel mower. You know, the push kind that aren't powered. The kind that is safe to use with a toddler playing in the backyard because the won't throw tiny rocks or sticks. We also should probably seed the yard again. But, its rainy so no more thinking about grass seed.
Over the weekend i picked a whole pile of cherry tomatoes. I didn't know how many there actually were, so I went out Saturday morning and started. I just put them in my pockets and continued around the shrubbery that is the tomato plants. I cam back in and had a good quart or so of cherry tomatoes. Pockets of my sweats totally stuffed. I already had a couple of cups worth in the fridge (to avoid gnats! the bane of Daniel's existence, second only to ants).
Speakign of the garden, at some point this fall we need to add about 5 bags of compost/manure. The soil level has been getting lower and lower, so it needs raised before next year. I also need to get my butt around to cutting the cherry tomatoes in half and salting them so I can dehydrate them. I didn't feel like it Saturday, and I can already see more tha need picking. If it ever stops raining enough to go outside.
There is a giant puddle in fron of the house, and a few in the back.
I am reminded that we need to fork over the cash to get a reel mower. You know, the push kind that aren't powered. The kind that is safe to use with a toddler playing in the backyard because the won't throw tiny rocks or sticks. We also should probably seed the yard again. But, its rainy so no more thinking about grass seed.
Thursday, August 13
Sleeping Alone
We are trying this again, and it was rather successful. Last night I had Daniel move our bed into what was "Alice's room." It wasn't actually her room since it just housed baby junk and things she outgrown. This weekend we will hopefully get a crib moved into her room though. You know, with the idea that she will share a room with the baby. Maybe.
I have also been sorting the baby clothes looking for anything that was gender neutral/boys to keep inside, and put everything else in the garage attic. Its funny how many clothes we had for ALice that were size Newborn or 0-3 months. We have a big clear plastic container that is STUFFED with them. As the sizes grow the amount of clothing we have in each decreases. Thats probably partly because we had a lot of 6-9 month stuff that was green or yellow and some of the 12 month stuff is probably still mixed in with her clothes.
All I gotta say, is wow do babies have lots of junk. Special furniture, clothes that aren't made to fit for longer than 3 months, plus all the accessories: diapers, blankets, burp cloths, bibs, etc. I should be glad that we have all the diapering covered. We might not even need to add more if we can get Alice potty trained pretty quickly.
Oh, I forgot the topic of my post. Alice slept in her bed until Daniel was too noisy in the hallway before he went to work at 6:30. I had him put her in bed with me. She was really cold. Looks like she will be needing those footie pajamas if she sleeps alone. Thats fine with me, we have several pairs. All with frogs and dinosaurs. Perfect.
I have also been sorting the baby clothes looking for anything that was gender neutral/boys to keep inside, and put everything else in the garage attic. Its funny how many clothes we had for ALice that were size Newborn or 0-3 months. We have a big clear plastic container that is STUFFED with them. As the sizes grow the amount of clothing we have in each decreases. Thats probably partly because we had a lot of 6-9 month stuff that was green or yellow and some of the 12 month stuff is probably still mixed in with her clothes.
All I gotta say, is wow do babies have lots of junk. Special furniture, clothes that aren't made to fit for longer than 3 months, plus all the accessories: diapers, blankets, burp cloths, bibs, etc. I should be glad that we have all the diapering covered. We might not even need to add more if we can get Alice potty trained pretty quickly.
Oh, I forgot the topic of my post. Alice slept in her bed until Daniel was too noisy in the hallway before he went to work at 6:30. I had him put her in bed with me. She was really cold. Looks like she will be needing those footie pajamas if she sleeps alone. Thats fine with me, we have several pairs. All with frogs and dinosaurs. Perfect.
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