14 Canopy Road

I Amuse Myself

2012-02-07T12:59:00.002-05:00

Joe's at the base for two weeks.

Last night he called to tell me he and some friends had worked through lunch, and were on their way out to dinner. And he tried to tell me where they were going, but all I kept hearing was "kielbasi".

And I was confused. Kielbasi? Like, the sausage? You hate sausage. How weird.

I noticed a little later that he had been tagged (hey, Facebook!) at Okinawa - a hibachi restaurant - with three other guys.

Ohhh. Hibachi! Not kielbasi.

And then someone pointed out that only men got an invitation to dinner.

Which... you know... makes it a sausage fest.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAA!

Inappropriate.

Incoherent and Headachey

2012-02-01T09:23:00.003-05:00

So the sleep thing.

It is not getting better.

I went out this morning and bought a little sound machine. I'm really hoping it'll solve my husband's Every-Bump-In-The-Night-Is-A-Burglar issue. Which in turn, will keep my daughter from hearing him roam around inspecting all the windows at 2:15am, giving her no reason to toddle down the hall with her arms full of stuffed animals (seriously?!) and crawl into bed with us - eventually crowding me out.

Which may just keep me from beating both of them.

Good luck, little sound ball. No pressure.

Days Away

2012-01-24T13:47:00.002-05:00

We needed a couple of cans of spray paint last week. Carter had a school project due and I couldn't figure out a way to complete it without a trip to WalMart. I put it off for as long as I could, but Thursday after school, it was time.

We went in through the garden center, which has been - up until now - full of Christmas stuff. Overnight, it seems, the garden came back. Weed killer and potting soil and trowels and watering cans.

And tulips.

Purple. Tulips.

My favourite.

I know they're only an annual here, and I really don't like to buy plants at WalMart anyway... but they were seventy four cents, and my fall pansies were looking pretty shabby.

Spring is just days away, down here. Man I love Florida.

No Sleep 'Til - Um...

2012-01-18T15:32:00.004-05:00

Nobody sleeps in this house anymore.

That may be an exaggeration. Carter sleeps. And he's a someone. So.

Only one person sleeps in this house.

Joe and I are having daily Worst Night Ever contests, where we try to outdo each other in hours lost, weird dreams, times woken, child dealt with, and eventual surrender to just... giving up and getting out of bed.

I usually win these contests by adding "and then the baby kicked my bladder - again" or "I think I pulled something trying to pick Kara up and take her back to her room." Plus? He's been waking up to freshly ironed shirts. We don't have a laundry fairy. That's me, at 4:00am - while he's all alone in the bed.

And even that's not true because for the last week or so, Kara has been crawling into our bed in the middle of the night EVERY NIGHT. She busts into our room and climbs right up and shares my pillow. That's why the pulling something trying to pick her up happens. And I've recently decided it's not worth the pain and just abandoning the bed to the two of them to snore and kick each other in. The leather sofa isn't at all comfortable, and at best I get to doze. But it's better than being crowded.

I think.

Some day we'll all sleep again.

I can't even figure out how to end this post, so I'm just going to stop.

And go lay down.

Knob

2012-01-12T16:11:00.001-05:00

"Your kid is dragging his foot back and forth across my belly."

"How do you know it's his foot?"

"I can feel it. It's a hard little knob. Either a foot or a hand."

"Yeah, but on one of our kids that could be anything. It's probably his butt."

"...you're probably right."

Kid's totally mooning me from the inside.

The Black Keys - Everlasting Light

2012-01-09T06:54:00.001-05:00

Yup. Doin' it for me.

My Favourite Christmas Presents

2012-01-06T07:33:00.002-05:00

I asked for token gifts this Christmas. There wasn't a lot that I really wanted or needed - so I just asked for little things, with vague descriptions like... "cute" and "not fancy". Partly because I'm really not very picky, but also because I wanted to see what the interpretation would be.

So Joe picked out some really "cute mugs".

Also some "not fancy" bracelets.

AND! An entire case of my favourite "candy".

I did not KNOW they came in assorted flavors! Christmas Miracle!

Like how all the fish are labeled "Swedish"? That cracks me up.

I got a few other small things. Some canvases for art projects I've been eyeballing on Pinterest. Seeds for an herb garden I want to grow inside. A very pretty thumb ring that is just a little too big. Boo. Lovely gray pajamas bottoms. Just little things, but things I wanted and would have had a hard time allowing myself to spend the money on because they're pretty frivolous.

Good Christmas. And I think next year I might take it a step further and ask him to just surprise me, for $50 or less.

Which he will probably hate. Heh.

Dumb Things to Worry About

2012-01-05T08:02:00.000-05:00

Every night, we sing. Okay, I sing. Joe often does a goofy dance, or chimes in with a silly falsetto accompaniment. But in Carter's room, You Are My Sunshine is sung. And in Kara's, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. These songs are theirs. We sing other songs together. But I ONLY sing Twinkle Twinkle to Kara, and I ONLY sing Sunshine to Carter.

I don't know what to sing to the coming baby. I can't think of any other songs. I just need one. But everything seems... not right. Too long. Too short. Too wordy. Too grown up.

I can't figure out a nickname either.

Carter gets called Bubba, Buddy, and Buster. And Carterman. And anything-and-everything McGee. Kara is mostly Keek, Kiki, or Baby Girl. Sweet Pea.

He has no song, and he has no nickname. And I know these things are silly, because it's not like either of my other kids had songs or nicknames before they were born. Just... they do now. And what if I never do figure it out for this one?

In The Bag

2012-01-04T07:58:00.004-05:00

I'm going to start packing my hospital bag soon. I know it's still pretty early, but I figured I would just do it and get it done.

Also I really like travel sized toiletries and am super excited to go browse the bins at Target, making life choices over whether I want Pert shampoo, or Herbal Essences, or - oooh, look! Travel size clinical strength Secret! Cool!

I know I don't really need a lot. Hopefully we'll be out of there a day earlier than we were with Kara. But if I do have to stay, I guess I need to be prepared.

And I need to find a hat and socks, for this outfit.

Can you believe people come this small?? I know I've done this twice before, and he'll probably even be swimming in this. But. Oh. So tiny.

Soooo tiiiiiny.

Bring It, 2012

2012-01-01T07:00:00.003-05:00

Is there anything more motivating than a new pair of running shoes?

Ok, maybe a gym membership. But I'm not there yet.

I grabbed a pair of these Reebok Realflex runners at the recommendation of my friend Christy. (I know. Her AGAIN. In my next life I'm just going to BE her, and have it over with.) She's collecting pairs of these shoes because she loves them and is concerned about the company redesigning them. Two pairs in hand, and debating another - just in case. That's... a pretty high recommendation, don't you think?

My New Balance runners are more than four years old - and somebody took the laces out of them, because his were broken, and he had a PT test to take on base. Still in pretty good shape, but I wanted something new anyway. And not just new laces. These ones happened to be $42 at Finish Line - down from $90 - and I happened to have just enough Christmas cash left.

Fate.

Of course, now they sit on the shelf in my closet. It'll be a few weeks yet before the baby arrives and I can restart the Couch to 5k program. But I'm ready. And excited. I WILL drop the baby weight faster than I did either other time. I will.

Happy New Get-Your-Butt-In-Gear Year!

The Silver Lining

2011-12-31T07:12:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, an internet friend asked what some of our top moments of 2011 were. After my bummer post the other day, it was nice to really think about the good things that have happened. Because good things really have happened. I know it.

To remind myself, I'm going to list at least one for every month of the year.

January. At the very beginning of the year, I got to spend some time with my best friend and her kids. That is such a rare blessing, since we live so far apart. I love her, and her family - and I love that they could be with us for a few days.

February. I discovered weight lifting. And began to really love my shape, more than I ever really have before - in my whole life.

March. The week or so my parents, sister, and two nieces came to visit was one of the best of the year. For sure. We had so much fun.

April. Our mini-vacation to Orlando - including the Sea World trip and meeting our friends. Maybe we can do it again in 2012? We'll see how brave we are about travelling with a newborn.

May. Mother's Day. Joe had to work (of course) but he and the kids went out earlier in the week and prepared. Sweet cards and thoughtful, token presents. It was a really nice day.

June. Hit UNDER my goal weight, which was unbelievable. So exciting, as that's been a goal for years that I could never quite get to. It gives me hope that I CAN get back there again, with enough hard work.

July. Carter turned seven. I was in the beginning stages of sickness, and was so miserable. But his birthday was a bright spot. He was so happy. He still talks about the day. Joe made it really fun and special for him.

August. August is a blur of misery and sickness and tears. Probably the best thing about the month was... well, Joe. Joe was incredible. I don't remember a time in my life I was ever treated so gently and carefully. He worked tirelessly to keep us all above water. He took on everything - and never complained - except to say he wished he could do more to help me get better. I felt sorry for myself the whole month - but looking back, I know I was actually incredibly blessed.

September. Surfacing. Being done with the Zofran pump. Getting Kara out of diapers. Huge victory - and not nearly as hard as I anticipated. For either of us.

October. Finding out this baby is a boy. Oh, how I hoped that since I had to be pregnant, we would have another little boy. I was so happy that day. Happy, and happy to be happy - because I had forgotten what it felt like. I kept telling Joe over and over that I was just so happy.

November. The month with my mom. A whole month! I am so lucky. And my dad's surprise visit - what an amazing thing.

December. Christmas has been beautiful. We were modest with our spending, and tried to be extra thoughtful with our gifts. And we were all happy. Nobody was disappointed, or left out, or left wanting. It was a beautiful season, all around.

And in addition to all of those things, I have the knowledge that my family is mine - forever. We get to be together - forever. And for now, I get to spend my days exactly as I always wanted. With my amazing kids, and awesome husband. I love them. And I know how much they love me. We are healthy, and happy, and want for nothing. We are lucky. We are blessed. I know we are.

So even if we do another 2011 in 2012 - that'll be alright. If we come out of it exactly as we are now - I will be happy, and lucky, and blessed still.

Well. maybe not exactly as we are.

Heaven help us if I'm pregnant AGAIN.

Scoot

2011-12-30T10:15:00.002-05:00

My kids are in the bathtub right now. And outside the bathroom door sit their favourite Christmas presents.

A very basic model Razor scooter, and a three wheeled Barbie scooter that lights up and plays some only mildly irritating music.

Santa brought these, on a whim. He likes to leave one kind-of large present unwrapped for the kids. So these were assembled and sitting by the tree when the kids rolled out of bed Christmas morning. They were mostly ignored, in favor of all the other things that needed unwrapping, but later on in the day - and for the majority of every day since - have gotten more use than the rest of their gifts combined.

Kara rides hers into my room every morning, bursting through the door with the lights going. Carter rides his from place to place throughout the day. If the kids are downstairs, the scooters are parked by the steps. If they're in the living room, the scooters are behind the sofa. At bedtime, the scooters are left just inside their bedroom doors - so they can get up and ride them again first thing in the morning.

It has caused a little confusion for Carter. He's not sure why Grandma and Papa would have gotten him the remote controlled helicopter he asked Santa for - and Santa brought the scooter. He's wanted to be very clear about what came from who this year, and that one thing has seemed to really concern him. I've told him Santa sometimes just knows what we'll like, even if we don't ask for it. He accepts that. I'm not sure he'll be a believer much longer anyway, so I'm not super concerned.

And now they're throwing their wash cloths at each other. So I'm off.

2011

2011-12-29T06:48:00.000-05:00

You know how sometimes you want to go back in time and slap the snot out of yourself?

Remember this post? About how I thought 2010 was such a freebie year? How nothing really happened, and we were just floating along?

I read that post and can almost hear God laughing at me.

2011 has not been my favorite year. I'm not sure it would even make Top Ten. Not that I'm miserable. Not that it couldn't have been SO MUCH WORSE. Not that anything really truly horrible happened, even. At least, nothing that we couldn't recover from.

It's just felt so... out of control. There's been so much change and uncertainty and indecision in addition to the normal minor illnesses and annoyances. It feels like there's been so much assorted crap to just get through. To just deal with. To just tolerate. For however long it lasts.

And I'm not saying it's been all horrible. There have been a lot of wonderful things about the year too. I can recognize and appreciate my blessings - for sure. My rank is so low, in the hierarchy of suffering.

I'm just... exhausted. Exhausted by this year and all that has changed or is still changing. I'm tired of "for now" and "until then" and "maybe we'll do this". My patience is low and my sense of adventure is depleted.

I would sure like 2012 to be more like 2010 than 2011.

I need a nice calm year again.

That'll be easy with a new baby, right?

Stop laughing.

Ornaments 2011 - The End

2011-12-27T20:38:00.000-05:00

Little felt candles. With little felt holly leaves and berries. Cute!

Snowmen. I think these needed a little something more... The picture I saw of them had a little twine at the hanger area. I might put a bow or a bell or something up there. I haven't figured it out yet.

And I probably won't, because Christmas is done.

I did decide to put the little red bows on the tree at the last minute. Just to really fill in any pare spots and tie the whole tree together. I know we'll add to it in the years to come, and that makes me even happier. I think the kids had a good time with their projects... I sure liked mine. I think that I could have done more. Eventually I hope we'll get that incredible more-decorations-than-tree look that I love so much. And I think next year I'll use garland or tinsel or something. It's a really big tree. I under estimate it. But even so...

Sigh. So pretty.

Wonder how long Joe will let me keep it up.

Or May Not

2011-12-23T06:35:00.002-05:00

I may or may not have been sort of pretending to doze on the sofa when Joe left for work this morning.

Carter got up at 2:30am with a nightmare, and I haven't really been back to sleep since. Even ironing one of Joe's work shirts - which usually puts me right back to sleep - couldn't knock me back out. So. The sofa and Pinterest and various blogs... and now it's 6:00am.

Anyway. I may or may not have been on the couch, being fairly still but responding to "good mornings" and "love yous" and "have a good days" softly. Until I heard Joe's truck drive away.

And then I may or may not have jumped off the sofa to go see if he had taken the leftover pizza to work for lunch. The leftover pizza I couldn't imagine eating last night but suddenly couldn't imagine NOT eating for breakfast.

... I may or may not have muttered a few mean words under my breath when I saw that he totally had.

So we may or may not be taking a trip to the mall to see Santa a little later in the day than I originally planned.

And we may or may not stop at Sbarro.

So there.

For Eating

2011-12-22T07:01:00.002-05:00

I got a HUGE craving for burgers last night, just before dinner. Good timing, eh? Yeah... except... I had no burgers. And no burger buns. And no motivation to go get either.

(Mostly because I had already taken off my jeans and put on pajama pants. And really, there's not a lot that can bring me back from that these days.)

What I did have was a pound of turkey. And flour and yeast. And Google.

Seriously. You guys. I fed my family homemade turkey burgers on homemade half-wheat buns, with a side of celery sticks.

AND THEY LOVED IT.

The Burgers:
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 C plain bread crumbs
salt
pepper
1/2 t ground mustard
1 t minced garlic
1 t onion powder
1 1/2 t worchestershire sauce

Squish it all together and form into patties. (I made 5 - three grown-up sized, and two kid sized.) Chill while you make...

The Buns:
2 T active dry yeast
1 C + 2 T very warm water
1/4 C sugar
1/3 C oil
1 egg
1 t salt
2 C all-purpose flour
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water, and let set for 5 minutes. Then add the oil and egg - and stir. Add the flour and knead until it's soft and a tiny bit sticky. Add a little more flour if you need. Then divide into 8 equal portions and form into flat-ish, palm sized disks. Space evenly on a cookie sheet and let rest while you warm the oven to 425'. Bake for about 12 minutes - just until they start to brown. (Honestly. No rise time.)

While the rolls are baking, heat a non-stick skillet or griddle to medium heat. Spray it well with non-stick spray. Cook burgers for about 5 minutes each side - turning once. DON'T SQUISH THEM - turkey doesn't have the juice to spare. Drain on a paper towel.

Everything should be done about the same time, so you can let it all cool and rest for a few minutes while you chop some veggie sticks or sort out drinks.

SO FREAKING GOOD. The house smelled in-credible while everything was cooking, and it was so easy and so delicious and so, so easy peasy. I've never made turkey burgers OR buns before, and I'm probably disproportionately proud of how well both turned out. But I was so full and happy and delighted with myself. The kids and Joe all snarfed it down. Joe was even eyeballing the stove to make sure there was enough left over for his lunch while he was chewing.

Not to mention - that turkey was on sale for $1.50 a pound. $1.50! Cheap, easy, relatively healthy, delicious.

Geez I'm good.

More Ornaments. AGAIN.

2011-12-21T12:32:00.002-05:00

SORRY.

Little paper UFOs. Really simple little project I found on Pinterest. I did two in the red and one in the blue and silver.. I skipped the beads called for in the tutorial, but I shouldn't have. I think I need something to weigh down the bottom because the paper really likes to fold up, and they look pretty flat.

I went by Joann's this morning to pick up some interfacing to do up a quick gift for my sister-in-law and noticed their Christmas stuff is already 70% off.

Kara would not leave without these birds. Luckily, they were 30 cents each.

I... would not leave without these poinsettias. They were 17 cents each.

I KNOW. I should have gotten three dozen more. They had them in pink, purple, silver, and gold too. But I stuck with these colours because I had to draw the line somewhere.

The birds got their picks yanked out, the hole covered with a tiny gem, and some pink ribbon. And another gem - because WHY NOT?

Keek then clustered them together on the tree.

I used Joe's wire cutters to clip the picks on the poinsettias as close to the base as I dared. I covered the stem with a piece of felt, and then glued on some embroidery thread in places that would let them hang properly.

I think they look fan-freaking-tastic on the tree.

I need more things that are this colour.

Now, I won't go so far as to say the tree is DONE - because Carter is off school starting tomorrow and I imagine we'll find some more ornaments to make... out of desperation if nothing else. Heh. But the tree certainly is FULL.

And... uneven. I need to fix that back limb. And... we need a new stand. Heh.

And More Ornaments...

2011-12-19T11:33:00.003-05:00

The project continues.

Salt dough!

Carter takes his ornaments pretty seriously. I mean, so long as he doesn't get totally bored. Which I why I did all the prep stuff (dough, cutting out, baking) and just let him paint. I think he did an awesome job!

Kara went a little less literal.

She also painted at the speed of light, and wound up with a couple of ornaments I had hoped to paint myself. Ah well.

This has actually been on the tree for a while. Kara and my mom painted this one afternoon. Same afternoon we did the glass balls I think. We decided to test out the theory that adding a big red bow to anything makes it a perfect Christmas ornament.

Not bad!

I just found these a few days ago. We didn't make them - my mom found them at Target. She's working on a Nativity collection, and got a couple for herself. She snagged a second set as we were on our way out, and left them here on my tree. So cute!

And I just finished a few of these this morning. Felt poinsettias.

I think that's it for now. That might really be it for this whole year, I guess. Christmas is less than a week away (GAH!) but if there are more - I'll be back with more pictures.

Expository

2011-12-16T09:35:00.000-05:00

Carter's been passing his spelling "pre-tests" at school the last couple of weeks, and coming home with harder words to practice.

Last week, because he knew how to spell:

show
hello
coat
blow
toad
know
boat
grow
loan
store

He got this spelling list:

official
interest
transaction
receipt
destroy
expository
narrative
tomorrow
coast

That's... crazy. Expository? For real? I remember having a hard time with the I and E placement in receipt when I was in fifth grade. He's in the middle of second.

And I know he can do it. Week before last, his words included "automatically" and "employees".

I'm just... blown away by this kid and his brain power.

This week's list is:

ingredients
international
dough
jalapeno
lightning
recipe
knead
crinkle
batch
pumpernickel

I guess it isn't quite as fancy. But it still impresses me.

And... pumpernickel? What?

Being Specific

2011-12-14T18:00:00.002-05:00

Today my mother-in-law took Kara to town for a Ladies Day Out.

As they were driving to lunch my mother-in-law pointed out the window, and told Kara to "look at the yellow tractor!"

Kara turned her head to observe, found the tractor in question, and then sighed.

"No, Grandma. That's an ex-ca-va-tor. It has a bucket. For digging."

Well. Pardon me.

Taking Care

2011-12-13T07:04:00.004-05:00

Joe left for work about ten minutes ago.

Which is kind of a bummer since his shift actually started about fifteen minutes ago, and though we no longer live twenty five minutes away, he still has a ten minute commute.

I don't know what happened. I had a sleepless night and wound up on the couch just before 2:00 am. I dozed off and on for a few hours and suddenly woke up and just knew... it was late.

Joe likes to wear jeans and dress shirts to work. He has a whole collection of really nice oxford shirts in beautiful colors - most of them striped - from Kohls. He likes to look a little more professional than he really needs to. There's no dress code in his office. But he's more comfortable going a little farther. Doing a little more than just what's expected.

This morning while he raced to get his teeth brushed, slap his hair into place, and find socks that match and are clean - I ironed one of his shirts. I didn't tell him I was going to. I just snatched one off the hanger and got to work. I was finishing a sleeve when he poked his head into the laundry room - and I happened to look up at just the right time. I don't think I'll ever forget the look of hope on his face, and then the briefest expression of pure delight. It was almost, you could say, like a kid at Christmas.

I haven't been taking very good care of him lately. Not nearly the kind of care he's been taking of me. I need to do better. He really does deserve it. His face shouldn't light up like that because of an ironed shirt. I mean... it's sweet that it does. I love that he's so easy to please.

I'll be stepping it up.

As I Was Saying

2011-12-10T07:01:00.003-05:00

Added a couple of new ornaments to the tree this week.

Cinnamon Dough Stars! A 50 cent shaker of cinnamon (the Fifth Season brand at WalMart - it's about 1/2 C) mashed in to 1/8 C of apple sauce with a rubber spatula. Then mash in about 1/4 C of glue. Let it sit for about half an hour, then roll out and cut with cookie cutters. I baked mine (200 degrees for 2 hours - turning once) but you could just leave them out for a day or so. Decorate and hang. There are about a dozen of these little stars, but if you wanted more you could always double the recipe. Bonus - they smell incredible!

Snowman Picture Ornament! It's enormous, because I never check the size against the tree before I make them. I just start cutting and stitching and gluing - and then I have... this. But it makes Carter happy. Actually it makes Kara happy too. She's put her wreath right next to Carter's snow man and she makes them talk to each other "just like a family!"

Not sure what's next. I found a template for some great paper stars, so maybe that. I'll be sure to show you!

Frozen Dreams

2011-12-07T12:54:00.004-05:00

I dreamed about snow last night.

I don't remember ever dreaming about snow before. It's not like I miss the stuff.

In my dream, I came out of our house and saw the ground was just covered in it. I walked to the end of our long driveway and looked all around. For some reason across the street was a village, instead of a cow field. The village was gorgeous. Blanketed with snow. Glowing windows. Smoking chimneys. Just beautiful. I remember thinking about how crazy it was, because it never snows like that in Florida.

While my mom was here we talked several times about snow, and since she's been home she's sent a couple of pictures of their weather.

It looks like this at their house.

The most vivid memory from this dream sequence was how excited I knew my kids would be. Carter's seen snow a few times, but he doesn't really remember it. Kara has absolutely no idea what snow is, really - she's only ever seen it on TV. Neither one of them owns winter boots or mittens or snow pants. I don't think Kara even has a waterproof jacket. They are absolutely unprepared for snow.

But that doesn't stop me from thinking that we should take a weekend this winter and drive as far north as we need to for them to get acquainted.

We can always come back to the warmth, after all.

Hygenic

2011-12-06T07:04:00.001-05:00

So, I haven't washed Kara's hair in about a month.

Seriously.

On purpose.

A few friends of mine were discussing how they had stopped using shampoo, and just apply a good conditioner in the shower instead of washing, and how their hair seems to be in much better health.

I haven't gotten up the courage to try this yet. Mostly because the conditioner I have isn't really suited for it. You need something with oils. Christy (two blog posts in a row I've talked about Christy. Geez.) recommended a Garnier Nutrisse product. Triple something? Maybe she'll chime in with a comment (hint). I think mine is silicone based.

But I went ahead and stopped lathering Kara up in the shower every morning. Now she just gets a rinse, and I put a little bit of leave in conditioner in her hair when I comb it out afterwards.

You guys, she appears to have twice the amount of hair she used to have.

It's really soft and silky and beautiful too.

No 'poo. Who knew?

The Ornament Post

2011-12-05T12:30:00.008-05:00

So I've been meaning to show you all the ornaments we've been making for my tree makeover, but it seems like as soon as I take pictures - we make new ornaments, and I have to add on. Like, right now, I have cinnamon dough stars baking in the oven. So in about three hours, this post will be out of date.

Ah well.

Here are pictures of MOST of the ornaments on my tree so far this year. I'll try and keep the descriptions short. It might work.

(Also, my computer took a nosedive about three weeks ago. My computer and Joe's computer were end to end - and his cooling system is evidently way superior. He baked my hard drive. For real. So until that gets fixed up I am editing my pictures with the tools on Photobucket. Sorry.)

In no particular order:

Bejeweled Felt Wreath Picture Ornament. I threw this together one night after realizing Carter had two or three picture ornaments on the tree - and Kara had none. The picture is backed with cardboard to give it some strength. I will make another one of Carter soon.

Hershey's Kiss Mice. Very cute and easy. Though, the instructions called for tiny googley eyes and replacing the kiss tag with curling ribbon for the tail. Yeah. No. We're just going to eat them. Also, I only made three or four with felt ears. The rest got construction paper. And most have already been eaten.

Santa/Elf Bellies! I love these. I got the biggest clear glass ornaments I could find and filled them with one 12" x 12" sheet of scrapbook paper - cut in about 1/4"- 1/2" strips, and curled around a pencil - each. The belts are glass paint. Done kinda sloppily. Should have used a higher quality brush. Still! Love!

Popsicle Stick Snowflakes (or Stars, I guess). There is also a tree. Keek's favourites to make. She painted the sticks - we have at least one in about seven different colours. I hot glued them together. Then mom and I put dots of Elmer's glue on for her to pop jewels on top of. They look kind of... heh... as they dry but are very pretty sparkling away on the tree.

Kid-Painted Wooden Toys. Something like 99 cents at Michael's. The kids spotted them and I figured - why not? Kara did the helicopter. Carter did the car. You can tell how enthused he was about it by the phenomenal job he did before running off to play a computer game with Joe.

Glittery Cookie Cutters. Coat with glue, and throw in a baggie full of glitter. Shake. Dry. SO PRETTY! We did a whole set of twelve of these. This ornament shaped one is my favourite. It works best if you keep the bag inflated so everything moves freely.

Sun Catchers. We found a pack of these at the dollar store when we ran in for something else. Carter painted his. Grandma covered one in glue and glitter. I'm not sure what it's supposed to be - maybe a snowman? waving? - but it is very sparkly.

Popsicle Stick Rudolph. I saw one of these on Christy's tree and just had to. Hers actually had pipe cleaner antlers, which would cut down on weight significantly. I only had popsicle sticks. I still like it.

Swirled Glass Balls. These were kind of a pain. We did them in tempera paint first, and all the paint ran out. So we washed them and tried again with gloss acrylic paints - and they went much better. Just squirt in some paint and shake it around. A lot. Don't wait for the colours to dry individually. They looked really gloppy and weird in the beginning, but as they dried (resting upside down in the carton with holes poked in the bottom so the paint could drip out) the paint swirled together beautifully. There are a dozen of these on my tree - some very Christmas-y colours, some absolutely not. All beautiful.

Anyway. It's still a work in progress. I want the tree to be really dripping with ornaments, so I'll probably be making different kinds right up until Christmas Eve. Some I am super thrilled with and some have been a little... hokey. But the process has been just a ton of fun, and I'm really happy with the tree overall. I do think I'll put my little red bows back on just to make it a little more cohesive, but I'm not too freaked out by it being all unmatched and uneven. Yay for letting go of the crazy!

Necessary

2011-12-03T18:42:00.003-05:00

You know what they never ask on baby registry prompts?

If you have a ridiculous hat for taking ridiculous pictures of your newborn.

Good news is? This is my third child. I can crochet. And read a pattern.

I am totally prepared.

Naked sleeping newborn rolled into a ball wearing a crazy hat pictures.

These are happening.

Stumped Already!

2011-12-01T11:50:00.002-05:00

It's time again for my favourite game!

We started late. I'm pretty sure we began way earlier last year. And the year before.

Anyway. This song came up on Music Choice (the Comcast holiday music channel) this morning as mom and I were in the kitchen doing something. I flew to my phone to send a lyric to Jody.

Perry Como's "Christmas Dream".

To be fair, I probably wouldn't have gotten it either.

Not my problem though.

Kristen : 1, Jody : 0.

(Jody pointed out - after Googling - that this is an awfully sad Christmas song. And she's totally right. What a weird combination of melancholy lyrics and... accordions.)

NaBloPoMo 2011 - The End

2011-11-30T07:15:00.000-05:00

Oh holy crap.

We made it.

Without too much filler or nonsense.

A post every single day.

No forgetting.

No cheating.

Done and done.

I'm so proud of myself!

It sort of makes me want to try Project 365 again next year.

Sort of.

Maybe.

Thanks for sticking it out with me, internet people.

Catch you all another day.

Probably not tomorrow.

Babies

2011-11-29T16:00:00.000-05:00

Kara has had a rough day. She was up much too early, after almost a week of being up far too late at night. We've had almost no structure, and no routine, and while she's had fun - she's crashing.

Earlier she got fussy at my mom over underpants. Mom had the gall to suggest turning her underpants right side out before putting them on. Kara ran to me - underpants in hand - saying she needed my help because she was angry at Grandma.

Ten minutes later she was asleep on my lap. She still IS asleep on my lap. She's been here for more than an hour. Sweaty and small.

Being kicked by her brother.

The baby kicks hard. Carter did too. Boys. Keek's legs are pressed against my belly and I guess he is offended by the intrusion on his space. Every time he kicks her, Keek sighs or shivers.

She's so much littler than Carter was, when he became the big one. The "not the baby". He was four years and two months old when she was born. She will be three years and four months. It's different. She's... little.

I know. Not as little as I think. Lots of people - most people - have their kids much closer. But I worry, watching him literally kick her out of her spot, that she's not ready for this.

She's so excited. But she's so... little. Still... my baby girl.

Betrayal at Bedtime

2011-11-28T08:38:00.000-05:00

"Daddy! I can smell some cookies!"

Busted.

When we went shopping the other day, Kara spotted Oreos in a display by the milk. Convenient product placement there, right? She asked if she could buy them.

I said yes.

She reacted like I said no. "AWWW!" It was pretty awesome. We had to tell her three or four times that she really could have them. I said it was okay. I didn't say no. Yes cookies. Put them in the cart.

The day went on and there just wasn't a time that worked for sitting and eating cookies. So they waited on the counter until after I had put the kids to bed. Joe spied the package and poured himself a big glass of milk to go at them with while he watched The Office.

Which he was in trouble for, three minutes later when Kara called him in for Twinkle Twinkle Round Two.

For future reference, cookie breath and bedtime songs don't go together all that well.

A Little Brecky

2011-11-27T13:55:00.004-05:00

I don't know if you know this about me, but going out to breakfast is one of my favorite things to do. I love a big old breakfast of fancy pancakes or french toast. Hash browns with onions and cheese. Nice salty scrambled eggs and jelly on toast. Sausage and bacon and occasionally - sausage gravy on flaky, fatty biscuits. Orange juice.

I married a man who would rather sleep through breakfast and go straight to lunch though, so breakfast out is something I typically only do with the kids. Usually when Joe's out of town, or at least at work.

And now, when my mom is in town visiting.

We're staying within two blocks of a Waffle House, and since we moved in Carter's been suggesting we walk up there and get ourselves breakfast.

He's full of good ideas.

And I think this should definitely be a new tradition.

Round Two

2011-11-26T08:17:00.001-05:00

We had our Thanksgiving meal yesterday. Joe and his brother both had to work Thursday, and we didn't want to do it without them.

Or without Joe's deep fried turkey.

More on the day another time. Possibly tomorrow. Right now?

Leftovers. Heavenly leftovers. For breakfast.

One part cheesy broccoli rice casserole, one part mixed bread stuffing, one part creamed sweet potatoes.

Ambrosia.

How Do You Feel About...

2011-11-25T08:26:00.001-05:00

Gellato?

Yes? Good?

We love Crispers. Kids eat free on Tuesdays!

Happy Thanksgiving, 2011

2011-11-24T06:32:00.008-05:00

Around 1:30 pm a taxi cab pulled up in front of the house we're staying in right now. I was just so sure it was the parent of a child who used to live here when it was a group home, and I was going to have to tell them I had no idea where their son or daughter was now. So sorry. Happy Thanksgiving!

But even though I was standing on my front porch trying to wave them off, the person in the back of the cab continued to pay their fare and collect their things. I spotted a head of white hair and glasses - and wondered if maybe my father-in-law had had car trouble. But why would he take a cab here instead of home?

And then I looked a little closer.

And I looked over at my mom who was watching me from the living room, just grinning away.

My dad - otherwise known as Papa - is here for Thanksgiving. He booked his flight weeks ago, but actually being able to travel was dependent upon a neurology appointment he had on Tuesday. They didn't want to disappoint us if it turned out he couldn't come.

He started his journey at 3:00 am yesterday, and my brother-in-law drove through freezing rain to get him to the airport in time. Holiday flight schedules had him down in Miami before they got him back up here. Going home on Sunday will take him even longer. He has an eight hour - EIGHT! HOUR! - layover in Charlotte, NC.

I am so lucky. I'm so lucky that my mom can and will pause everything in her life to come spend time with me and my family here. That she'll still sit me on the couch and take care of me. I am so lucky that my dad will spend two days in airports and on airplanes and driving through horrendous weather - and arrive smiling from ear to ear, happy to have three days with us. My kids are so lucky that their grandparents make knowing them such a priority. Because we are so far away, it would be so easy to just... grow apart. But they don't let that happen.

I am lucky, and I am loved, and I am so incredibly thankful.

Explosives

2011-11-23T08:09:00.001-05:00

I bought a couple of boxes of Pop-Its back around the 4th of July. And then my hyperemesis took over and we didn't get a chance to actually use them. Then I completely forgot we had them.

Lucky for the kids they surfaced in our move.

It took Keek a little longer to get the hang of it.

But she did.

I will never, ever get tired of seeing them play together.

Even with explosives.

ELFING!

2011-11-22T06:59:00.000-05:00

You knew THIS was coming...

Baby #3 Prep

2011-11-21T16:35:00.002-05:00

Well my car seat arrived on Saturday. Or rather, the baby's car seat arrived on Saturday. And I bought him a little coming home outfit the other day (it is striped and has a puppy on it, so is the cutest thing EVER).

Today I woke up to a giant 216 count box of Huggies on my doorstep, courtesy of my mother-in-law and father-in-law.

My mom has been crocheting a gorgeous blanket for this boy. Gray, deep red, steel blue, and cream. Gorgeous.

I found a stash of weird flannel to make burp cloths and swaddling blankets out of.

We brought the bouncer my sister uses for her kids when she is visiting over from the old house.

So he has a way home and something to wear while travelling. He has clothes here, and something to keep his bottom dry. He will be warm and... burped. He has a place to chill.

Next up is the bedding, I suppose. And some wipes.

I keep thinking we're done. Ready. We never really are.

Nobody ever really is though, right?

A Little Hokey

2011-11-20T08:05:00.001-05:00

We've been working on ornaments for my tree. Done four or five different ones. Some are pretty cute and some are... well. Less cute.

But in the process I get forty three hundred pictures like this.

I'm reminding myself that it's the memories I'm after this year. Not necessarily the most gorgeous decorations. It's the time we spend together, and the things they discover in the process of making these ornaments.

Right. The memories are priceless. Even if the ornaments themselves leave something to be desired...

I swear they look way better on the tree.

Word Girl? I Guess?

2011-11-19T06:29:00.003-05:00

Okay. Kara's Halloween costume. Not my finest work.

For like a month before Halloween, Kara said she was going to be a butterfly. And I thought that would be great - and simple. Leotard. Tights. Wings.

Well, the day we went to get Carter's costume from the Halloween shop (he decided to be Boba Fett from Star Wars, and I decided I was not going to kill myself making him that mask - so we got the $25 job from Spirit) she spotted a picture of a kid in generic superhero garb and suddenly changed her mind.

And changed it again when Grandma brought her a princess costume.

And again, and again, and again. Back and forth from butterfly, to princess, to superhero. Until the day of Halloween, I kid you not, when I took butterfly off the table and tried to nail down her final choice.

Yeah. No.

So I figured I'd already made her a little cape - I could just make her a little satin pillowcase dress and she could be either generic superhero or generic princess - depending on how long she wore her tiara.

It... well... didn't really turn out that way. (But really, when does it - when you phone something in at the 11th hour?)

As you see, she ditched the tiara before we even got out of the car. Which was fine. One little kid guessed she was Word Girl, which...

Ok, yeah. Kind of. I guess if she asks when she's grown I can tell her she was Word Girl. In reverse.

Ah well. She was cute. And happier than the video depicts, I promise. Candy was involved.

By the way... did you see Carter's jet pack? GENIUS idea from Pinterest. He loved that thing - and so did every third person we saw along the way. 2 liter soda bottles spray painted camo green - and paint chip flames - mounted to a piece of cereal box, and straps made of cord I hadn't turned into piping yet. THAT 11th hour project was the exception to the rule I guess.

Nemesis

2011-11-18T11:17:00.003-05:00

I don't think I ever parked in the garage at our last place. Maybe I did. When it was brand new and the garage was empty. Maybe not though... I'm not sure it was ever really empty. Joe bought his big tractor before we moved in, and I know we tossed a lot of boxes in there instead of unpacking or finding a better place for them. I don't think the garage ever actually held our vehicles.

Here though, we've been parking in the garage. Or - I have been parking in the garage. Joe brought a whole bunch of stuff from the house over a week or so ago and... tossed them in his spot instead of unpacking or finding a better place for them.

Wow. Pattern.

ANYWAY.

One afternoon the kids, my mom, and I pulled into the garage, got out of the car, went to the house door and when we hit the garage door button nothing happened. Tried again - nothing happened. Checked the door to see if anything was in the way, tried again, nothing happened.

Gave up and went into the house.

Joe came home later and I heard him close the garage door.

"You fixed it! How did you do that?"

"Well, the first thing was - open your car door and get the pull cord loose."

Oh. Heh. Whoops. Lesson learned.

And I really DID. I mean, I knew not to do that again, for sure. So the next morning when I saw it dangling as Carter climbed in the car to go to school - I snagged it and flipped it up to the top of my vehicle so it wouldn't be stuck.

Smarty pants! I learn from my mistakes!

Except... the little red part got tangled in my roof rack. And as I backed out, I pulled the garage door down. Right onto the back window of my car.

Everything is fine. Nothing broke and after a few minutes of wrestling with it and relatching a couple of things the garage door works just fine. And I must have protested enough that I did NOT break the garage door, it is NOT broken, it is FINE, DO NOT tell your Daddy that I broke the garage door - that is NOT TRUE, because neither of them have mentioned it to Joe. Which I am grateful for because man do I not want to hear about THAT for the rest of my life.

But I swear, that red thing and I have a staring contest every time I pull into the garage now. I just KNOW it's going to find some other way to make a fool out of me.

Stupid red pull cord.

Help Me Internet!

2011-11-17T17:35:00.003-05:00

I know I said I had a specific post planned for today. But something important has come up and that will have to wait.

We're putting up our Christmas decorations! Which is funny... because I haven't taken down our Halloween ghost yet. And on our front door is a turkey. Muddled holiday decor! Yay!

Anyway.

I have this spot in our temporary house that I desperately want to fill with something festive and beautiful. And I have no idea what that might be. All I know is it can't be a small tree because the spot is about two and a half feet from the actual tree.

Anyone got any ideas for me? And yes, I want the stockings to stay there. For sure.

Thank you, internet!!

Lame-O

2011-11-16T17:43:00.001-05:00

So much screaming today.

I had another post planned, but Carter was putzing around and totally ruined the picture I was trying to take to illustrate my point. And his putzing made Kara scream indignantly for the fifty seventh time since we had picked Carter up from school.

And I'm already kinda pissy today. So I'm just going to tell you that tomorrow there'll be a post about and better picture of this thing.

Who's excited??

As We'll Ever Be

2011-11-15T16:18:00.006-05:00

I ordered an infant car seat today.

Back when I first found out I was pregnant (and freaking out) a big concern was how we'd fit another seat in the back of the little Terrain... which I know we could sell... I guess... and get something bigger. (Like a minivan, says Joe!) But I really... am not ready to make the jump to minivan. I'm just not. But I really just FREAKED about a car seat, and had to do nothing but Google "narrow car seats" for about two days until I figured out what I was going to do.

Taking the measurements of the seats we have now for Carter and Kara, and figuring out the dimensions of our back seat, I actually found two seat options that should work with even a couple inches of wiggle room. Because they're children. And wiggle they will.

Even better - it was about then we discovered buried treasure. Kind of. Buried in our bank statements. We'd been earning reward points with our debit card for a couple of years, but hadn't realized it. So I converted those reward points into cash this weekend. And it hit our bank account this morning. YAY!

And to seal the deal, one of the seats dropped dramatically in price this weekend. Like, 33% drop. And free shipping.

Carter was at my elbow this morning as I was trying to decide between two of the patterns, and when I asked him which one he liked best he chose the cheaper one. When I asked him why he preferred the one he chose he looked at me funny and said "because it's cheaper." Like - duh. Awesome! I'm raising Scrooge. lol.

Anyway this is what we got. The Baby Trend Flex Loc infant seat in Mesa.

It should be here in two business days. And when it arrives... I guess we're as ready as we're going to be for this baby.

Well. We'll need some diapers. So there's that. And... I do need to make the bedding still.

Four months should be long enough to get that done though.

Geesh.

If I Die Young

2011-11-14T18:02:00.004-05:00

I got the news an hour or so ago that a woman I know... we'd been friends for a while but had lost touch... so I don't know that I can claim her as a friend exactly... but I got to the news from a mutual friend that she had passed away yesterday. She was two years older that I am, and had two little boys. A six year old and four year old.

I can't claim to be overwhelmed with sadness over her death, but it is hitting me harder than I expected. I keep thinking of her little boys, and how much she just adored them, and how different their lives will be without her. And THAT is breaking my heart.

Joe and I have talked several times about what we would want for each other if one of us were to pass. It's maybe a little morbid, but he lost his dad when he was Kara's age. It happens. And who knows when/if he'll deploy again. It's somewhat comforting to not have to wonder what he would want me to do.

I've only really got one thing I want him to remember. I tell him he needs to find someone to marry - carefully and thoughtfully but also... do it fast. I know he'll be lonely himself - he doesn't like to be alone - and I don't want him to be miserable. But mostly, I don't want my kids to grow up without a mom. And if it can't be me, it needs to be someone at least a little bit like me - and at the very least, someone who will love them as if they were hers.

My eyes were full of tears writing that paragraph. It's so hard to imagine all the things I would miss, and I am filled with jealousy thinking of someone else taking my place. But it is so much worse to imagine them not having a mom. They need a mom.

So if I go early... please point Joe at this blog post. He knows I love him, and the kids do too. I love them all like crazy. And I know they need a mom.

Find a good one.

He Has Opinions

2011-11-13T17:05:00.003-05:00

Carter got new glasses yesterday - finally. He smashed his at school weeks and weeks ago, and we'd gone to the doctor to get his new prescription, but it wasn't until last week that we got over to the "glasses shop" to pick out a new pair.

I say "we" but this year Carter was all about picking his own frames. He tried on every pair we handed to him, but wouldn't be talked into anything but the Esprit frames he liked right away.

This is a new thing for Carter. Until now he's been pretty easily swayed by our input. He's "chosen" the frames either Joe or I suggested to him.

But... he did pretty great, all on his own, didn't he?

Carter's Catch

2011-11-12T07:15:00.001-05:00

Carter's class had rescheduled a field trip they were supposed to go on last month, to earlier this week. He asked my mom if she could come along - and as luck would have it, there was room for one more chaperone. So we filled out the volunteer form, packed up some lunches, and my mom went to school that morning with Carter.

I wasn't sure how much my mom would like it. The trip was to an aquatic center, and the volunteer sheet explicitly stated that chaperones would be expected to bait hooks for fishing.

They both came back delighted with their day.

I'm so glad they got to do this together. And not just because my mom came back with a million pictures and videos.

Shoot

2011-11-11T13:45:00.004-05:00

This afternoon my seven year old will shoot his first gun. It's a tiny little rifle Joe picked up for him more than a month ago, which they have cleaned and inspected and talked about all the parts and pieces of over and over and over. They've been looking forward to this trip to the shooting range together, it's just taken a while for their schedules to align. Well - and for no emergencies to pop up. Their last plan was ruined by my sudden need to get my military ID renewed.

Today Joe happens to be off work, and Carter is off school for Veteran's Day. So they headed out about an hour ago. I imagine by now Carter's pulled the trigger a time or two. I wonder how he's doing.

I know it's a hot-button issue for a lot of people. Gun control. And I know many of my friends would never allow a gun in their home, much less allow their seven year old son to own and use one. But I guess I don't have really strong feelings about guns either way. I'm neither pro or con with them.

Which puts me in the minority here with the rest of the McD Clan. I've lost count of the number of guns everyone owns. It seems like they're always getting a new one. Everyone but me has a concealed carry permit - and they have all got at least one gun for each hand.

We've actually had guns for years. Joe's had an old .38 special that belonged to his father since he was a teenager. Two Christmases ago his mom bought him something fancy and semi-automatic (that year - I got a wheat grinder, which is a much more appropriate gift, in my opinion). Just last year my father-in-law gave Joe a .22 his father owned for decades. Our household is armed.

And since we are, I am glad that Joe is taking the time to teach Carter about guns. How to respect them and use them safely. Not to be too curious or too afraid. They play war games together on the computer, and Carter really likes the weaponry. I'm glad he'll be learning what a gun is REALLY like, and not just build it up in his head - or alternately, think it's no big deal at all.

I kind of can't wait to hear what he thinks about it all.

Scrap Quilt 2011

2011-11-10T16:44:00.004-05:00

I wanted to have an evening project for while my mom is here. Something I could sit on the sofa and do while we watch TV after the kids go to bed.

Of course, these days, when the kids go to bed - so do I. I didn't really think about that. Sorry mom.

Anyway. I started a project anyway. I saw a really cute and simple scrap quilt tutorial floating around on Pinterest and just couldn't resist.

Pretty cute right? This is just all the squares laid out. I've since picked them back up, and there's no way I'll get them laid out exactly like that again. But I love the craziness and the no pattern at all. And it was so quick and fun to do.

And my scrap drawer is almost empty. After framing it and making bias tape... I'm thinking it might be tapped out totally.

Ah well. Scrap Quilt 2012 will take care of itself.

Glitter Glue!

2011-11-09T18:31:00.004-05:00

And so, the Christmas crafting begins.

We've actually done quite a few crafts since mom arrived. Some have been silly and some are ongoing (like the pine cones above - those are part of a bigger thing that is still evolving). We try to do one every couple of days, and it's been lots of fun so far. My kids have relatively short attention spans, so they're not very involved crafts, and a lot of it goes immediately in the trash (like the paper plate and construction paper turkeys we made one night). That's ok though. It's the memories that matter... right?

We're going to get started on the Christmas tree makeover here in the next few days. I haven't counted up how many days my mom still has here, but it's time to get serious if we're going to fill a whole Advent calendar...

First up? Hershey's kiss mice!

...because we can eat them.

Hush. I will save one or two for the tree.

I WILL.

Classic

2011-11-08T18:35:00.001-05:00

My mom mentioned that she'd like to watch a Christmas movie with us while she's here. Nothing is really on TV yet, but we noticed this afternoon that Home Alone was available OnDemand.

So guess what we're watching right now?

Carter is laughing hysterically and predicting parts of the movie.

My mom and I are flinching and squirming at the same scenes. (Holy COW does this movie involve a lot of foot pain!! My instep is tingling in sympathy.)

So maybe it's no Frosty the Snowman... but it works.

Last To Know

2011-11-07T14:28:00.002-05:00

My father-in-law was shopping at Home Depot a few days ago and found this. And he bought it for me.

Wait. Look.

SERIOUSLY??

Did you KNOW about these?! Why didn't you TELL ME?!

Getting a Break

2011-11-06T17:57:00.003-05:00

One of the things I appreciate about my mom coming to visit is our dinner routine.

I really like cooking, and my mom likes eating more than most of my little family, so it's fun to cook for her. We all sit around the table and she encourages Joe and the kids to go "mmm" and make me feel like my cooking is just so delicious.

And then after dinner, she cleans up my kitchen while I sit on the couch (and tonight, write a blog post).

She thinks she's getting a break because she does all the cooking at home and here, her meals are prepared for her. But I don't have to scrape dishes and worry about leftovers. So I get a break myself.

Can't believe she's already been here a whole week... sigh.

"Feast"

2011-11-05T20:12:00.003-04:00

We have had a lovely day here today. Busy, but lovely.

Something we do every time my mom comes to visit us is take a trip to the nursery. Whether we buy anything or not (though, if I'm honest, it's almost never a "not buying" trip) we love to visit the koi pond in the greenhouse, throw pea gravel in the fountains, check out the pots and garden sculptures and birdhouses, and just enjoy being outside in the sunshine.

Today's trip to the nursery was one of the (super rare) no buying trips, but only because I had a $25 gift card to Home Depot, and their flowers were the same price anyway. But the trip was a little bit special because the nursery was hosting local artisans. Painters, basket weavers, jewelry designers, pottery makers... one musician... kinda. He had a guitar and he sang. Loudly.

We really enjoyed the wraps we bought for lunch from their food table. Carter "this is delicious!"-ed and "what a feast!"-ed his way through a giant turkey club wrap, with my mom nodding agreement around hers. Kara had a chicken salad wrap with a ton of tomatoes and cucumbers. I didn't expect her to eat the whole thing, but wound up having to go back and get a club wrap myself because there was nothing left to share by the time she was done.

And after lunch we took our trip through the trees and garden centers, talking about our favourites. We met three dogs. We spotted some birds.

We enjoyed the sunshine.

Driving the Point Home...

2011-11-04T16:06:00.003-04:00

The Carterman with his Citizenship award. He's super proud of himself, as you can see. And missing some teeth.

His favourite thing about these awards? They all came with vouchers for various restaurants around town. He and Joe used the CiCi's Pizza Buffet voucher last night and had dinner together. Keek isn't feeling well, and neither was my mom. So we hung out and had leftover chicken soup. I think it was more fun for Carter to have Joe's attention all to himself anyway.

Plus it means I can snag that free Applebee's kid's meal and take Carter out myself one of these days. Chocolate lava cake! Yes, please!

Awarded

2011-11-03T12:33:00.003-04:00

Carter got his report card yesterday, for his first nine weeks of second grade. He did wonderfully - A's in everything except for writing, which he got a B in. Still, excellent work. We were really thrilled with the report.

Included with the report card was a little note inviting us to an awards ceremony this morning. Carter was set to receive certificates for citizenship, honor roll, and gains in reading - and of COURSE we went. Of course! Grandma's here, Joe has today off work - why would we miss this?

And it was so fun. So many goofy little kids getting these brightly colored certificates for all their work. They'd all stand on the stage and grin and wave at their parents. So proud of themselves. It was so nice to see how many parents were able to make it on such short notice too.

I know that in second grade honor roll isn't something that's nearly as hard to achieve as it is in high school or college. But I'm just so excited to see him do so well and be so excited about school. We had a fantastic teacher conference a few weeks ago as well. He's just such a little smarty pants, my Carterman. With his reading and his unbelievable math skills. And he's friendly, and well behaved, and his teacher loves having him in class. It's all so fun to hear.

I just love that kid. My weird little nerd. I love him. He's so awesome.

Pumpkin Carving

2011-11-02T08:24:00.000-04:00

We saved carving our pumpkins until Grandma got here, and because she got in late Saturday, and we were tired from church on Sunday, it turned out that we carved them at about 4:00 on Halloween afternoon. We had a short window and no pumpkin carving kit, so I just had the kids describe what they wanted, and I did all the knife work.

But Grandma helped with the cleaning.

We cleaned and carved our pumpkins in a shady portion of the driveway. Joe pointed out that we could have done it on the back porch, but... driveway it was. Because... well, because I had been working on Carter's costume on the front porch (heh... I already mentioned cutting it close, right?) and just didn't think of any other option. But oh well. Driveway pumpkins!

Keek gave it a whirl when Carter lost interest. And then the ran around the front yard shaking the trees and being goobers. Exactly as expected!

Carter's "angry with eyebrows that go like this and two eyes that are one eye and pointy triangle teeth" pumpkin. He was very, very happy with my interpretation of his hand signals and air drawing of what he wanted his pumpkin to be. Also notice his shirt? Neatest school project ever! I don't really have any idea how they did it - but he created that himself. LOVE it!

I got really involved in the cutting of Kara's "happy face! Happy face with a happy mouth!" pumpkin and wasn't paying super close attention to where my kids were, exactly. So at one point, Keek was laying on my leg watching the knife pop through the pumpkin and giggling. SO SAFE.

But it turned out alright. (You can't see it in this picture but Kara's pumpkin also had a little heart on the side, to let in more air.)

I was really happy with them this year. Not fancy at all, just your old fashioned silly face pumpkins. But each kid got one they were thrilled with - and we had a good time doing it together. Mostly.

And that's all I have for you - unless you want to see a blurry picture of them lit up. They didn't really turn out - the lit pictures. But you get the idea. We left the pumpkins with my mother-in-law and father-in-law, since none of us were going to be home and we didn't want to tempt fate or mislead any other trick or treaters.

I should maybe go pick them back up...

Happy NaBloPoMo 2011!

2011-11-01T09:19:00.003-04:00

Yay! It's November! Fall, and turkey, and NaBloPoMo!

Maybe I'll actually do it this year, instead of blowing it by missing one danged day.

Actually, it's not looking that good, considering I had to be reminded on Facebook this morning that today is the start of NaBloPoMo. It would have been over before I even began. Whoops. Thanks Hillary!

In my defense though, we have Things Happening. The move from our old house is still dragging on and one. Mostly because we're lazy. Really all that's left is cleaning out the fridge and freezers, cleaning the bathrooms, and then the floors. All that's left for ME to do anyway. Joe's still got to clean out the garage and haul another load of junk away.

Also my mom arrived on Saturday night and will be with us until December 3. Good long visit this year. The kids were stoked to have her around for pumpkin carving and trick or treating yesterday. I love that she's here too. We're just running errands and planning winter crafts and stuff. But she cleans my kitchen after I cook dinner every night - and she sweeps my floors and folds my laundry. SO she may not be allowed to leave.

I'm currently uploading Halloween pictures, and need to switch memory cards - so I think that's all for today. But the beauty of NaBloPoMo is you can come back tomorrow and read more rambling! YAY!!

Well, It IS Monday.

2011-10-24T18:41:00.003-04:00

This morning we had to go get some papers notarized. It wasn't until we were there that we realized my military ID was expired. Which is awesome, because it's the only piece of ID I have with my married name on it - and all the papers were in my married name.

Luckily Carter had the day off school and Joe had the day off work so off we went down the highway to the base.

Anyway. About three hours later we were sitting in the ID place, trying to take a picture of me that didn't make me look absolutely insane.

It didn't work.

I've mentioned a few times that I have a wonky eye. Just the one. It's not usually noticeable but does show up when I'm tired. And today I am. I've been having super vivid pregnancy dreams, and they've been disturbing (One night - Kara was a zombie, or we thought she was a zombie, and the only way to tell was to throw her out of a force field, and if she could get back in she wasn't a zombie. But when I threw her out she twisted her knee and I could see it pop. It makes me sick and I can't stop reliving it EVEN THOUGH IT NEVER HAPPENED.) Plus, I have to pee a lot. So my sleep is broken - and this morning I was up at 4:00. (Side note - I could TOTALLY have gone back to sleep at 5:00 but apparently the loud "I'm falling asleep" breathing was too noisy for Joe because every.freaking.time I began to doze off he shook the bed. I gave up around 6:00 and went back to the couch to pout... and was soon joined by Kara who had kicked all her covers off and knows the most efficient way of warming her freezing cold toes and hands and cheeks is to press them against whatever flesh of mine she can access. PEACEFUL.)

Also my eye kind of worse right now because the soft contacts I started wearing don't correct my vision as well as the hard contacts I've always worn. So when I try to focus my good eye, my other eye goes a little wonky.

AND! Because we left in a rush I didn't have time to wash my hair.

AND! All my make up is still at the old house.

AND! I'm pregnant. And widening.

The guy took three pictures. The first one he shredded immediately and said he was going to say the printer jammed. The second one? He didn't even show me. The third (and final) and I have to assume best of the bunch? Oh yeah, I'm totally cross eyed. Bags under my eyes. Hair in a messy braid. Even in black and white I'm washed out.

It's good until 2015. I'm so lucky.

And then we got to drive about three hours home.

WHAT A GREAT DAY!

(But we did eventually get the papers notarized. And sent off. So it was a productive day, I suppose. The notary totally laughed at my ID though. She didn't even try and hide the giggle. Siiiiigh. Carter will be ten in 2013... maybe I'l get mine renewed then too.)

Our Third, Her Third

2011-10-18T06:42:00.003-04:00

Last week we had the big anatomy scan for this third baby of ours. Turns out, we're having another boy - which ends Joe's streak of predicting our children's genders, and gives me what I've been trying not to hope for.

That's a confusing sentence, isn't it? But with Carter - I was SO SURE he would be a girl. And then Kara? Of COURSE we'd have another boy. So when I started thinking I might like another little guy, I sort of accepted that we'd probably be having another girl. I'm just so wrong about these things.

Anyway... HE looks great. His heart is perfect, his spine is ideal, his kidneys, and bladder, and lungs, and brain, and all other parts and pieces appear to have formed flawlessly - and all we need to do is wait for them to get bigger and stronger before he makes his debut. (Which, incidentally, may be a little earlier than we expected. He's about a week ahead in development and size. Not sure if they'll bother changing my due date. I've never made it all the way there anyway.)

Carter's delighted. Kara's not super thrilled. She groaned when we told her it's another brother.

Speaking of... That girl of mine is three years old now. We had her birthday party on the 14th, and she's still talking about the balloons and presents and cake. I'm still working on another video, and when I'm done I'll get it up here again so you can marvel with me at how much growing and changing she's done this year.

It's... well, marvelous.

Tree Makeover

2011-10-10T09:30:00.005-04:00

I love, love, love my Christmas tree. A lot. But I'm thinking it's time to make it over. It's been the same red and silver for as long as I can remember - and it's gorgeous, it is - but I have such a desire this year to do something different.

So I've been looking at Pinterest, and surfing the web for ideas, and I think what I'm going to do is this.

from bystephanielynn.com

That's an ornament Advent calendar, full of hand-made ornaments. I'm collecting ornament tutorials, and I'm going to try to make at least 24 of them with Carter - so we have enough to fill the calendar. More, if we can.

It'll be hodge-podge and probably look way slapped together. Joe won't be able to call it my "display" tree this year. But I'm in love with the idea of home-made decorations right now. And I think Carter will get a kick out of it too.

And as a bonus, my mom is going to be here for the whole month of November - so we'll all be able to work together on our ornaments. There are a couple simple tutorials I think I can even involve Keek in, and maybe Joe will play along. Fun for everybody.

Or at least, fun for me - and everyone else just humors me.

Which also works.

Laugh!!

2011-10-09T09:57:00.002-04:00

Kara's pretty well potty trained. The rare accident if she's super distracted. But she'll go all by herself all day long.

Usually.

Sometimes she wants company.

The other night was one of those nights. She took me to the bathroom with her and had me sit on a stool in there while she sat on the potty.

And then we had a little conversation.

Keek: I got aaaaall the pee out.

Me: Good job, honey.

Keek: And now, I have to get the poop out.

Me: Oh. Okay. Go ahead.

Keek pauses. Looks at me.

Keek (straining): I think it's working.

Recounting this story to Joe later, I could barely catch my breath. That girl. She has no filter.

Johnny's Day

2011-10-08T17:40:00.002-04:00

Happy Third Birthday, Johnny.

I'm Sleepy

2011-10-03T17:42:00.003-04:00

I shouldn't be so tired. I went to bed at about 9:00, as usual... but we had a weird night.

I drifted off pretty quickly after an episode of LOST, but Kara decided to join us around midnight. She has an awesome habit of shutting the door behind her and crawling in between Joe and I. I probably would have slept through it, except Joe was nervous about her being in our bed without a diaper. So first he asked me if she would be alright there. I said yes - she hasn't wet the bed but once - but Joe was too anxious. So he carted her back to bed.

Even that wouldn't have been a big deal. Except... our alarm went off at 2:30. Our security alarm, not our alarm clock. And Joe hopped out of bed, ran to our bedroom door, and... yelled. Screamed. Top of his lungs primal AAAUUUGGGHHH!!! to intimidate any possible burglars, I would guess.

Carter woke up. He came and sat with me in the bedroom while Joe checked the house out. It was fine. I put Carter back to bed and sang You Are My Sunshine until he stopped shaking.

Kara stayed asleep. She sleeps through fire alarms too. I was grateful at the time, but as I was trying to get back to sleep myself, I imagined that the alarm was set off not by maintenance on our phone line (as we were assured by the phone company) but by someone smashing Kara's window and snatching her. Trying to talk myself out of that proved to be impossible - I gave it a good hour though! - and I finally snuck out to get a good look at her.

She was fine. Asleep. And had not wet her bed.

Two hours later my alarm clock went off.

I'm sleepy.

8 Days Off

2011-10-01T16:12:00.003-04:00

FedEx came and picked up my Zofran pump on Wednesday. By then it had completely dried out and appeared to be functioning properly, which makes me happy. My nurse had assured me I wouldn't have to pay for it - since I had been using it as instructed - but I was still nervous. That sucker is expensive.

I'm feeling... okay. Some days are better than others and I still have some weird things. I still can't drink a great variety of liquids, and prefer a thicker, frozen beverage to an actual drink. Smoothies and milkshakes and in a moment of frustration and desperation yesterday - double strength hot chocolate thrown into a blender with ice cubes. And I suddenly really like milk. That's not normal. I never do milk.

I'm still taking my Zofran pills several times a day. I'm allowed 4mg every four hours - but I try to limit myself to three a day. The side effects are much less intense with the oral medication. I'm not cold anymore (just in time for fall!) and the headache I didn't really realize I had has gone.

My abdomen is healing, slowly. I have a number of marks left from the injection sites, and they may scar. The knots of medication are slowly, slowly disappearing. My bruises are healing and it's not tender to the touch anymore.

All good news.

I've been feeling some movement for about a week. Nothing wild - just recurring often enough to be identifiable. Stretches and headbutts.

As a side note - one of my favorite little things about Joe is the way his voice changes when he talks about our children. I mentioned that I could feel some movement when we were sitting in bed a few days ago, and he said "just a-stretchin' " in that tone, and it made me grin. I don't know that he even realizes he has that tone. But it's sweet. And it makes me feel better that at least one of us is already being affectionate towards this... surprise.

In a few days we'll learn what kind of baby we're adding here, and who's going to be outnumbered - the boys or girls. Joe's still predicting a girl, as are most people who've mentioned it to me. I go back and forth. Most of my in-laws are predicting girl - though we're all a little afraid of a world with two Karas. Funny enough, Kara keeps saying it's a boy. Carter is like me, and just wants to know - not guess.

Luckily we don't have to wait too much longer.

PTing.

2011-09-28T19:37:00.002-04:00

A month or more ago I bought a gigantic pack of Huggies and told Keek it was the last box of diapers I would buy for her. Once we ran out, she was going to have to use the potty like everybody else. And we've been counting down what's left - all the way from 120 or whatever it was, to zero. Which came Sunday.

After she dirtied the last diaper, she looked at me and said "we can buy more diapers." And I said "not a chance."

So here we are, out of diapers for almost four days.

It's been going alright. She's dry all night and peeing first thing in the morning (though that's been going on for a while, really) and every time I put her on the pot all day long. She has yet to poop in the potty though, and poopy panties? Even worse than a poopy diaper.

She has had a few accidents, though they've dropped off dramatically. Sunday evening she crawled up on the windowsill to watch Joe grill steak on the porch... got stuck up there and peed. All over the windowsill. It was freaking hysterical to everyone but her.

But overall... we're doing it. Tomorrow *might* be our first trip anywhere in underpants. If I'm brave enough. She hasn't left the house at all since Sunday - except to go to the bus stop. And today the bus was late, which led to her first accident all day long.

I'm not really sure how we get from me taking her to the potty every 45 minutes to try, to her just knowing she has to go and going... or asking me to take her. I forget how that happened with Carter, it's been so long.

Anyway. I'm glad we've started the process because I am NOT going to change two kid's diapers. Not happening, no way.

No way.

Upswinging

2011-09-23T10:29:00.002-04:00

My Zofran pump is busted.

I don't know what happened - but an alarm on it started going off while I was in the shower this morning. I jumped out of the shower and yanked it out of the shower cover - stood there wrapped in a towel crying, scrambling to turn it off and pull the battery. Joe got up and tried to help me figure out what was wrong with it. Best we can tell some moisture got into the shower cover, and then into the pump. No freaking idea how though. I called my Alere nurse and freaked out - and she said it just happens sometimes, so I guess I'm glad I'm not the first.

Anyway. I had an OB appointment scheduled for first thing this morning anyway, and I had planned on talking to her about beginning to step down the medication. I'm feeling much better these days, and have put back on almost all the weight I lost initially. So the plan is to try taking the Zofran in pill form for the weekend. If I get sick again, they'll get me a new pump. If not, we'll just stick with the pills.

I'm pretty excited about three-ish days of freedom. Three nights of not being tethered to the pump, and getting tangled in my tubing. Three nights without an alarm getting me up to change my syringe. Three days of not getting curious glances if I venture out in public. I'm absolutely going to take a long, hot bath and shave my legs really well. Super exciting plans, I realize. But man have I missed baths. And shaved legs.

Next time I go to the doctor it will be for an anatomy scan. The big ultrasound that will tell us how baby's growing, and hopefully fill us in on whether we're having a boy or a girl. They do it really early with this practice, I'm surprised. Excited, but surprised. I hope we get some good shots.

Off We Go

2011-09-19T17:53:00.002-04:00

Before we found out I was pregnant, Joe suggested putting the house on the market and finding something smaller, with maybe fewer hours of maintenance involved. And I decided I was fine with that. I love our house but it is, after all, just a house. 2600+ square feet is maybe more house than we need, and we certainly don't utilize the acreage we have. Plus the kids are growing up alarmingly fast and we are zoned for THE WORST middle and high schools in our city. So... moving. Yes. Good idea.

Except then I started to wither away and was completely useless at everything including packing things into boxes and maybe trying to keep the house under control. So moving. Good idea - in theory. Not so much with the actual practice.

Now that I'm getting a little better, and able to eat, and sometimes can even Do Things - we're revisiting the idea, and have even come up with a pretty brilliant plan we think.

Joe's mom has a nine-bedroom group home that has been sitting empty for quite some time. Long enough that her insurance company is telling her she needs to get an occupant in there or they're going to hike up her rates. So we're going to move in there while we put the house on the market - keeping me and our incredibly mess-prone children out of the way. Our house can stay in show condition while it's... showing... and Joe won't go completely insane trying to take care of it all.

It's not totally perfect, because Joe's mom would really like to sell the group home - and if a buyer happens along before someone buys our place, we're going to obviously have to move back out. And it's not in Carter's school district, so he can't ride the bus. And it's kind of in a crappy area. But. It is temporary. Hopefully a buyer comes along quickly and we can find something else we like in a good school district soon after that.

Like before the baby arrives in March. Because if I'm useless NOW you should see me in my third trimester, all round and angry.

Anyway. We're moving. In a couple weeks we'll start sleeping at the other place, and we'll get as much crap out of here and into storage as we can in the mean time. And then we'll start praying for a buyer.

Wish us luck.

My Sweet Husband

2011-09-13T16:47:00.004-04:00

Joe and I have had a long standing issue with our sleep.

He runs really hot at night - and so do the kids (except for when they were infants) - so sleeping with the air conditioning cranked and the ceiling fans on high is necessary for them to be comfortable.

I freeze. I like to be warm when I go to sleep. Cool pillow, of course - and I always poke my feet out of the bottom of my blanket - but I need to be warm, and that's not really easy when the rest of your family sweats buckets when they're stripped down to their underpants.

One of the side effects of the Zofran is low blood pressure. I'm colder these days than usual, even, so I've been bringing an extra blanket to bed with me. If I forget (or if Kara decides to take her Dora the Explorer fleece back during the day, and I forget to sneak it into my room before bed) I'll wake up and night and have to either put on a long sleeve shirt or fumble around for something else to keep me warm.

Or I did, until yesterday.

My new incredibly soft and warm over-sized throw, courtesy of my sweet husband. Maybe one of my favourite presents ever - because it was so incredibly thoughtful and unexpected. He just stopped on the way home from work last night and picked it up for me. I love it. It is unbelievably soft, on both sides. It is just the right size for sleeping under. And it's my favourite colour.

I'm lucky.

And warm.

Motopony - Seer

2011-09-12T12:47:00.002-04:00

My current favourite, playing on a loop.

It's gooooood driving music. I mean, I assume. I'm not driving anywhere these days.

But if I WERE, this would be playing.

Real posts soon.

Probably.

Old New Music

2011-09-10T10:05:00.003-04:00

I downloaded this album this morning.

I'm feeling a little bit nostalgic, and Counting Crows makes me think of my best friend. More specifically, Counting Crows makes me think of hanging out in her old bedroom, in the house that was just a few blocks from mine.

Matchbox 20 reminds me of her too. Driving anywhere, and also she'd play it when she was mad. And I think of playing pool in her basement whenever I hear Hey Jude, or Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves. They had a great jukebox. And bar, that they kept stocked with sodas. And single-serving freezer pizzas.

See? Nostalgic.

$5 this month on Amazon.

Sweet

2011-09-04T14:30:00.002-04:00

Joe's "I'm Sorry I Keep Leaving - Even Though We Both Know It's Important And I Have To Do It - And Thank You For Not Changing The Locks While I'm Gone" gift to me.

He came home Friday and worked Saturday. Is working today too. It's his birthday. I'm attempting dinner (just bbq pork in the crockpot).

It really is important, why he leaves. I don't want him to give it up. He does need to do it - heaven knows I'm certainly of no assistance in the whole, Preparing For Our Future thing.

But it is sweet that he acknowledges how hard it's been. Not always. Just the past few times. It's been harder.

I need him more right now than I usually do.

That's hard for me to admit.

I'm glad he knows, though.

And I'm glad he loves me.

What's A Zofran Pump?

2011-08-29T10:26:00.007-04:00

This post is going to be boring. And it may gross a couple of you out. I'm sorry. But I'm going to write it anyway.

When I was told I was getting a Zofran pump I had no idea what it was, or how it would work, or what I would have to do with it. Even searching the web brought up very little information. Or, I could find information but no pictures.

Of course, there's also the possibility I didn't look hard enough. Or searched the wrong words. I hadn't been eating for a while, and my brain... well... mush.

So I'm writing this (quite possibly unnecessary) post (and including some pictures) so that anyone else looking for information might have an easier time finding it.

If that sounds like a snooze fest to you, go ahead and stop here, really. I don't mind.

Anyway.

How to use the Zofran pump.

These are the pieces you'll deal with. The pump itself, syringes of medication, plastic tubing, the introducer needle and catheter, and alcohol swabs. Also that little blue thing I have no name for. I'll show you how to use it though.

For the sake of brevity - and because if you're getting a Zofran pump your nurse will teach you how to properly do this - here is a picture of how all the pieces go together. See the little blue thing? It protects the part that hooks up to the catheter.

The part you're probably most concerned about is the introducer needle. And I won't lie, it's a little creepy the first few times. I had to take a few deep breaths the first time I used it.

This is what it looks like right out of the package.

You hold the little grippy part and peel the backing off the adhesive, and then pop off the plastic sleeve protecting the needle.

And then you pinch a good chunk of your abdomen (that you've previous cleaned with the alcohol pads).

And then you just push the needle in. I promise you, it doesn't really hurt. It doesn't even feel like a bee sting. It just pinches. Once or twice I haven't even felt it. It does take a few seconds though. It's not like you can jab it in.

Then you hold the adhesive down for about ten seconds, and let it get good and stuck. Pinch the little prongs together to remove the needle, leaving the catheter in your tissue.

Now remove the dark blue sleeve from the little hook-up portion there, and attach it to the catheter. You hear two clicks to indicate it's in place.

And now you're all hooked up and can start your pump back up.

You're done! Pop the pump back in it's carrying case, and you can take a break from sticking yourself for two days. Just change the syringe when it's empty.

And that's how you use a Zofran pump.

Really, it's not awful. It's kind of a pain to change the syringe or the battery in the middle of the night - and I have had one site go bad (that's what the band-aid is covering). I can feel little knots of medication left under my skin at each injection site - but they do get smaller and smaller, and eventually go away. There is some tenderness and bruising, but that seems to be getting better and better as time passes too.

The biggest bummer is that you can't take a bath. You can shower - they'll give you a little plastic sleeve to protect the pump - but the site can't be submerged. I miss baths. Still. Small price to pay.

I hope someone finds this helpful. Otherwise there are just pictures of me pinching my gut on the internet.

Yay!

(Other tags, for search engines. Hyperemesis, hyperemesis gravidarum, zofran pump pictures, zofran pump pregnancy, zofran pump how to, what is a zofran pump.)

Discouraged

2011-08-25T08:33:00.003-04:00

So, this pregnancy continues to be awful. Surprise.

I was feeling pretty dang good last week. I was eating about 900 calories a day, and I was negative for ketones, and I only threw up once every few days... Not a big deal. I was really thinking I had turned a corner, and maybe it wouldn't be so bad or last so long. Joe had volunteered for a special assignment on base before I got sick, and since I was feeling pretty good - I insisted he keep his commitment and go. It's for two weeks, but I really didn't mind. I was doing so well.

Until Tuesday night. When I started puking at 4pm and just could not stop, even with the demand doses of Zofran my nurses okayed, and the increase in the constant dose I get typically. I was still sick more than eight times before I finally gave up and took my kids over to my mother-in-law, where I was put to bed with a bowl to throw up in, and a bag of ice for my poor throbbing face and head.

God bless my mother-in-law.

My nurse called every hour until I stopped puking - around 11:30. I guess I was 30 minutes from being off to the hospital, but I managed to sip some juice and go to sleep, so it stayed down. And I got to stay home.

Of course I'm super dehydrated again and have lost four of the five pounds I managed to regain over the last week. Such a bummer. But tomorrow I see my OB again, and maybe she'll have something else for me to try.

I really hate this. A lot.

Try Something New

2011-08-15T14:04:00.003-04:00

When I found out I was pregnant, one of the first things I did was call my neighbour.

Around here, the hospitals have a policy of keeping mother and baby for 48 hours after delivery. Even if everything is alright. You stay for 48 hours. It's just the way it's done. By the time they let Kara and I out I was absolutely climbing the walls. I do NOT want to stay that long AGAIN.

So I called my neighbour. She is a doula, (This is her website.) and I was hoping she could help me find a way around the 48 hour stay without having to go to a birthing center. Not that there's anything wrong with a birthing center - I just am comfortable in the hospital and want to stick with what I know. She sent me to a practice run exclusively by women, where most of my prenatal care will be handled by midwives - as will the birth, so long as things happen normally.

And I have no reason to expect things will be anything but normal. I've had two easy, quick labours. 6 hours for Carter, 5 1/2 hours for Kara. Less than 5 minutes of pushing for both of them.

Anyway. The plan is that the midwives will discharge me at 24 hours, and I've got the name of a pediatrician to request who will discharge the baby at 24 hours as well - again, so long as we're both ok.

But. She made it pretty clear that if I want to be discharged quickly, I need to give them no reason to keep me. To be a little more clear... don't get the epidural if you want to go home.

So I'm going to go for an unmedicated birth. Which is not really something I've considered before, so I'm feeling a little bit... over my head.

I'm not afraid, really. I remember with Kara, on the way to the hospital, thinking I was maybe not in labour for real, because I felt so fine between contractions. Like, this was no big deal. And even when they told me I had progressed to 7cm - I still wasn't completely convinced they weren't going to send me home. So I took the epidural, because then HA! I'M STAYING NOW!

And like I said, I have short, easy labours (knock on wood) - and I kind of feel like... why not? Just, try. Either I can or I can't. We'll find out.

So there you have it. Maybe the most ridiculous reason to be considering an unmedicated birth. No health reasons. No "this is what my body is designed for". Just - I want to get the heck out of here.

And if you have any tips on books to read or exercises to learn, lay 'em on me. Please. I know it won't be easy, and I appreciate the tips.

The Big Guy

2011-08-14T15:03:00.002-04:00

While I was feeling sorry for myself, Carter turned seven. He had a VERY good day, despite his mother's poor attitude. Joe took him and his cousins to the Fun Station - kind of a grown up Chuck E Cheese - to play. They rode go-karts, played laser tag, ate pizza... all sorts of wonderful things. We had a simple family dinner of chicken nuggets, french fries, and cookie cake.

And then Joe really locked in the title of Favorite Parent by presenting Carter with his very own set of laser tag gear, and playing with all the kids until after 11 pm.

The other big highlight? Getting money in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa in Canada. Carter has never gotten birthday money in the mail before, and he was DELIGHTED. He refuses to spend it on anything though. He's squirreled it away in his piggy bank, planning on using it to buy a car when he turns sixteen.

In just nine years. Holy crap.

But We Were Done

2011-08-06T08:42:00.003-04:00

I really never expected to be here again.

I'm trying to get excited about it, but I'm still... just not.

Just after Kara was born I could not believe she was our last, and most of her firsts were really bittersweet for me. But I knew I was done with pregnancy.

I didn't feel like anyone was really missing from our family. You know how people talk about that? Missing someone. That's how they know they're not done having kids. We didn't have that. I was open to the idea of foster parenting or adoption, if that's where we felt prompted to go, eventually. I would have loved another baby, someday. But I knew I was done with pregnancy.

So we were careful. Very careful. And we discussed our options for permanent birth control - I swear, every week. Somehow it never happened, but that wasn't too big a deal because as I mentioned - we were really careful.

And then I had the same early pregnancy symptoms I had with my others.

So I bought a test, just to give myself some peace of mind.

But the test came back positive.

And I swore for about thirty minutes solid, and then cried my eyes out.

It's so selfish, I know. There are women who try for years and years to get pregnant and just can't. And that breaks my heart. I know there are a million women who would just love my big problem - oh no, I have to barf for a few months, and then I get to have a baby forever. CRY ME A RIVER.

And to be completely honest - this one is probably the healthiest pregnancy I've had. My new OB also suffers from hyperemesis - and she treats it very aggressively. The same day I met her, I got my Zofran pump. I haven't had to go in for IV nutrition. I haven't spent months on the bathroom floor. I've lost 12lbs instead of the 19lbs I lost with Carter, and 17lb I lost with Kara. Granted, I started this pregnancy about 10lbs lighter than either of the other two - and I now weigh less than I did when I graduated high school... but I'm not AS SICK as I have been. This is nowhere near the lowest I could go. I remember.

But I still... didn't want to be here. And I'm irritated that I am. And even though I've seen the ultrasound and watched the heartbeat... this doesn't seem possible. We've never had to try very hard to get pregnant, but it was always a choice. We always made the decision. So for it to just... happen... when it shouldn't have... well it feels like this is all a big joke. No way could this really be happening.

I feel like a jerk saying all this, and I know in the end it'll be just awesome. I will love my child. And I'm not hoping I miscarry or anything. I want the baby to be okay and I'm doing everything I can to ensure that it is. And our families are both REALLY excited, and our friends are delighted. Even Carter - who I thought was going to be so angry (he's said on more than one occasion that we do NOT need any more babies around here) is pretty stoked. It's not like we'll be bringing this child into a hostile environment.

But man. I was... done.

The Bad Blob of Doom

2011-07-31T16:37:00.005-04:00

So this is happening.

I've been taken over by another tiny little being who is dead set on trying to kill me.

Fun times. Now with a Zofran pump.

$hut In$

2011-07-07T18:16:00.006-04:00

Joe's been at the base for the last couple weeks. He's home very soon - which is good. While he's been gone we've been so... well... lazy and anti-social.

It's just so NICE to stay HOME when it's hot and miserable. Everyone is happy here with their stuff and their snacks, and I don't have to do much laundry if everyone stays in their pjs all day.

I mean. I do (usually) make them change pjs every night still. And underpants. And they haven't gone (very many) days without showering.

Also, it feels so freaking expensive to leave the house.

Today we went to see Rio at what I thought was the dollar theater across town. It is actually now the three-dollar theater, which is only two bucks cheaper than the weekday special at the theater that's relatively close to me. So we won't be going there anymore. Oh, and they only take cash. Which I never carry. But we were about an hour early, so we went to Chuck E Cheese (in the same plaza) to spend a few bucks and use the ATM... which was broken. And they don't do cash back.

But the ice cream shop had an ATM, so after we were done with Chuck we swung into the ice cream shop on the way back to the theater. Carter almost campaigned for ice cream but we were met by an incredibly unpleasant odor the second we walked in, and spent the rest of the five minutes it took me to get $20 loudly complaining that the smell was making him sick. I'm sure the owners loved it. I would be upset except it really was horrid, and I can't imagine anyone willingly eating anything that came from that shop.

Then I needed gas on my way home, and we swung by Barnes & Noble to drop off Carter's summer reading log and pick up his free book. Kara NEEDED a Max & Ruby book, since Carter was getting something, but that's alright. Books are fun.

All told, the trip to the dollar theater cost me about $50. And that's only because I was uncomfortable at the gas station (not an awesome part of town) and only put $15 in. It should last me a week though. Yay fuel efficiency!

Still.

Tomorrow we're staying home again.

Happy 4th - God Bless Them

2011-07-04T07:53:00.002-04:00

These Are The Days

2011-06-24T09:44:00.002-04:00

Last night before bed, Kara and I played a little game on the sofa. She would run and jump in my lap, and I would fall backwards. (Our couch is pretty big.) Then we'd snuggle for a minute until she got up and did it again. Yay for games that involve hugging.

After 427 rounds of this I changed her diaper, put her in her favourite nightgown, and tickled her so she would giggle her way to bed. I tucked her up and then lay down beside her where I sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star fourteen or fifteen times, until she started to drift off.

As her eyes began to close I leaned in to smooth her hair off her face, and give her a kiss. I whispered that I loved her, and told her to have sweet dreams.

She sighed, blinked up at me and said...

"GET OFF MY BLANKET."

Such a tender moment.

109 Pictures Later

2011-06-19T12:27:00.002-04:00

I'm a copy cat. A couple of my friends did this for their husbands for Father's Day, and I couldn't resist making one for Joe.

Not fabulous pictures, but great sentiment. And we can replace the pictures every year as the kids grow.

Cuuuuute. :)

Another Easy Nightgown Tutorial

2011-06-15T08:31:00.006-04:00

This one from a t-shirt, of which I have eleven thousand. Joe buys a lot of t-shirts in his quest for the perfect fit. The lower quality ones only last him a month or two before they shrink or stretch - and then they migrate over to my fabric stash.

Where I make them into Kara-sized nightgowns with very little effort. Yay!

The t-shirt I'm using here was NOT one of Joe's. It came in a giant box of clothes my sister-in-law was given, that she passed on to me. Years ago. I should really just take the thing over to Goodwill. Maybe later today.

Anyway. Supplies = adult sized tshirt, shirt that fits the child this will be for (for sizing), straight edge, rotary cutter, pins, sewing machine and thread.

Fold the tshirts in half, and lay the smaller one on top. Note (and mark) where the shoulder of the small shirt is located on the large.

Remove the small shirt, and cut a straight line from the widest point (inside the seam) on the bottom hem to your marked shoulder on the large shirt. This will cut off both sleeves.

Cut down the sleeves, following the seams. I just eyeball it, usually. It doesn't seem to matter too much. An inch or so from each seam fits Kara alright. I didn't take a picture but cut off the other seam too - about an inch in.

This is what the sleeve looks like unfolded, after trimming. And I know. Usually sleeves are all curvy for a more flattering fit. But. This is a toddler nightgown, out of a used tshirt. It's nice and stretch anyway, and I don't care too much about perfection as she will just be sleeping in it.

Matching the shoulder points, pin sleeves to the body, right sides together. You'll have to manipulate the fabric a little bit, it it'll be fine.

Sew the sleeves on to the body.

Now you have this.

Fold your gown in half, inside out, matching the hem and sleeves. Pin.

Sew a continuous seam from the sleeve to the hem, backstitching at the underarm to reinforce.

Turn right side out, and you're done! Ta-da!

This one, well, the neckhole was kind of big. A regular t-shirt fits better. But I liked the little ruffled edge.

Keek approves.

This is the same process I used to make Kara this little striped dress from an old polo shirt - super cute. I did have to hem it up a little bit. Cuter knee length.

And if you're concerned about a snugger fit - just run a couple lines of elastic thread around the back. Pulls it in nicely.

Show me, if you make one!

Chores for Crowns

2011-06-09T10:44:00.004-04:00

Carter plays a stupid game online called Wizard 101.

I guess it's no more stupid than any other game, really. But he is so in love with this game it's all he wants to do and all he ever wants to talk about, and seriously - MAKES ME CRAZY. Joe does better with it, and even created a character himself. First, just to check the game out and make sure it was age appropriate. Now he uses it to play with Carter now and again.

It didn't use to be so bad, but Carter recently discovered the "crown" function of the game. And I guess "crowns" are essentially game currency, used to get to higher levels or buy items and blah blah blah my kid is a nerd. He suckered Joe into buying him a $5 crown gift card at WalMart one evening a month or so ago (seriously WalMart?), and then made the mistake of buying him another online, printing it out at home, and handing it to him right off the printer.

Carter's head just about exploded when he realized you could get crowns without leaving the house. Now we can't print anything without Carter flying over to the printer to watch and see if it could maybe be a gift card for crowns. CROWNS! Is it crowns?? And if it's not - could we please print him more crown gift cards next??

Yesterday he asked me no less than seven times to print him some crowns. I said no every single time, but didn't explain why until the last. I don't think he really understood that crowns cost REAL money. They don't just magically print. And when that clicked, he decided he wanted to make money to buy his own crowns.

And now we have a chore chart.

It's not fancy, and there are rules... I don't want to pay him for every little thing he does around here, and I want his earning potential to be age appropriate. So I put together a little spreadsheet-checklist of mandatory morning chores, optional bonus chores that he can choose to do to earn some cash, and then mandatory evening chores that must be done to collect his bonus.

Want to see it? It's super boring. Like most things.

I know. Spreadsheet. Yay. I had this big idea about using a huge whiteboard and covering it with fabric and then making magnets with pictures of each chore and it would be so adorable and decorative and I could show all my friends and be so crafty - and then I decided I just wanted the dang chores done, and not to spend $40 and 15 hours making the stupid board. So. Spreadsheet. I'll pick up some colored printer paper next time I'm out.

If I remember.

The bonus chores pay a quarter each, so in a week he can earn a maximum of $7.75 - which seems like enough for an almost seven year old. A portion for tithing, a portion to save, and the rest to spend as he pleases - which, he assures me, will be on crown gift cards, of course.

The details of the chores are easy enough - like, for the bathroom he just has to bring the laundry to the hamper in the garage, empty the garbage into the big can in the kitchen, and clear off the counter. No cleaning supplies involved. I know he can't reach everything in the kitchen, so unloading the dishwasher will involve putting "drawer stuff" away, and moving everything else to the counter. And no knives. Never knives.

He's pretty excited. He even harassed me to hurry up and fold his laundry last night so he could put it away and check off that section. But he got distracted in the middle of tidying the bathroom and never finished. He was disappointed when he realized he didn't earn that bonus. But I'm okay with that too. He can learn about following through and that you only get paid when you actually do the work.

Maybe I need to start paying myself a quarter per chore. I could use some motivation too.

Over Sharing

2011-06-08T08:30:00.004-04:00

If I were a list making type of person, I imagine I'd have one called "Things I Thought I Would Never Do."

And yesterday I could have added "rinsed bare bottom in sink of a public restroom that had no locking door."

But it was either that or ride home for two hours, sitting on a mud pie.

Mud pies = not comfortable.

Cape San Blas is gorgeous. And very sandy.

"Help us! Our mother is a goober!"

The Place For Me

2011-06-06T22:25:00.003-04:00

Tonight my oldest nephew graduated highschool.

In the middle of the commencement address (Lieutenant Commander somebody or other gave a great speech that managed to be funny, touching, inspiring, and absolutely not condescending - which was hard, considering my nephew "graduated" by taking the GED test after failing 9th grade twice), my sister-in-law and I both muttered, at the same time, using the same tone, "she said do do."

Then we dissolved into giggles while our husbands exchanged half amused, half humiliated glances over our heads.

Moments like that are how I know I married into the right family.

Pretties

2011-06-01T09:21:00.003-04:00

I bought a pretty little necklace last night. On a whim.

I had asked some friends of mine to go see a movie with me, and the night sort of snowballed into putting on pretty dresses and going for dinner and drinks (for those who drink) and then eventually to the movie.

I was pretty excited about it, so I wound up leaving a little early. And since I had the time I decided to pop into Kohl's, just to see what they had.

So pretty! And so not what I usually wear. It seemed a little silly at first, and heavy. I was super aware of it around my neck and against my throat for the first twenty minutes or so.

But I felt so pretty. And happy. And funny! I was super funny, at dinner. I'm not usually that funny in person. But I was FUNNY.

And when I came home I told Joe I was going to try and be "more pretty". To his credit he kind of looked at me sideways and said "you're always pretty - you don't have to try at all" (awww... liar). I wear jeans 98% of the time, or long (mostly dark) skirts. Hair accessories, and most makeup (beyond mascara) is beyond me. I wear only my wedding rings and my CTR ring. But I want to make more of an effort.

So I told him. Or rather, warned him. Because I'm anticipating kind of an enormous jump in my clothing expenses. Heh.

And then to end the night on a weird note we had a discussion about what songs we want played at our funerals. Joe does not like my taste in music, so he's going to hate my funeral. Also I should probably give the play list to my sister, in case Joe goes first. Though if he does I get to sew him MC Hammer pants and play 2Legit 2 Quit.

His funeral's going to be a blast.

Smarty McGee

2011-05-30T08:03:00.003-04:00

Carter's got four more days of first grade yet.

Well, one more day, and then three half days.

And those half days are "Favorite Story Day", "Water Day", and "Class Party Day."

So yeah. First grade is pretty much done.

And it's been a really good year... that's giving me a lot of anxiety about next year.

Carter's been doing math at a third grade level for most of the year, and his reading has jumped up to fourth grade level just in the past month or two. I'd sort of expected his teacher to broach the subject of getting him into a gifted program, but she hasn't - and obviously, I haven't approached her about it either.

I'm not sure if I will.

I love that Carter can do these things, and I'm so glad his teacher has been allowing him to work ahead (during free time - he does grade level work during instructional times). Ideally we'll get a teacher who will allow that again next year (my nephew got one who insisted the kids all work at grade level all year, though he's an incredibly advanced reader) and not have to worry about testing and special classes and all that. I'm not even sure I'd want him in a gifted program at this point, because I don't want it to become something he HAS to go. I love that school is fun for him, and I love that he enjoys math and reading. I don't necessarily want him to be "pushed" and "challenged" because I don't think he's got the maturity to not just... cry... when things are hard. And I don't want him to think math is hard. I want him to keep liking math, and reading, and being completely unintimidated by them.

I'm glad I have the summer to sit on this. I know that sounds lazy. But I think he could use another summer to grow up. I'll probably... buy him some workbooks. Or something. Probably.

But that's where we're at, with Smarty McGee - my super nerd, who's looking forward to learning All Things Science, and Possibly Also Math when he goes to college.

At least I know he'll be able to read the textbooks.

I Should Talk Less

2011-05-26T13:30:00.013-04:00

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we had accompanied Joe on a work trip down to Orlando. While we were there, we took advantage of their Here's to the Heroes program, and got free one-day passes to Sea World.

It was a really fun day - just the right park for the kids we have. Carter does NOT like rides, and Kara is too small for everything. But we had a completely fun and full day just watching shows and visiting exhibits.

Carter went to SeaWorld last year with my parents, and he made sure he told us forty seven times that he wanted to feed the dolphins. Feed the dolphins. When Papa took him he got the feed the dolphins. He fed them fish. Little fish for the dolphins. He wanted to do it again. We needed to be sure to feed the dolphins. We could feed them. They eat out of your hands. Let's feed the dolphins. He calmed down when we promised to feed them on our way out of the park. Promise. PROMISE. We will feed the dolphins, I PROMISE.

And we did. Well. He did. We went to the dolphin feeding area and found out it would be $7/each. Even with the free passes I was OVER spending money that day (parking, lunch, and souveniers were still about $100), so I told Joe to take him. Keek (who couldn't have reached the dolphins yet anyway) and I bid the boys farewell and went to stake out a spot just on the other side of the feeding area, to watch.

We wound up standing right next to the divider, which was brilliant.

I freaking LOVE the look on his face. I know he's old enough to remember this, too - and I'm so glad, because he clearly loved the experience.

I just sort of wish I wasn't talking the entire time.

I also wish I looked better in this picture, but a)I had dressed to be able to play in the splash-pad area with the kids - who wound up not wanting to get wet, b)it was hot, and c)Kara was pretty much dead weight at that point and I'd been carrying her a lot - because Joe walks fast. She was out before we even left the parking lot.

Heh.

Mother/Daughter

2011-05-24T11:08:00.004-04:00

Keek found this enormous empty tube in my closet.

It's from a tube of wrapping paper I used up and then never disposed of.

It doesn't fit through the door, obviously.

But she kept at it.

And the whole time, she kept telling me "No helping. I can do it."

Which, as Joe likes to tell me - she learned from me. Don't HELP me. I can DO it.

But she totally DID do it herself. I didn't even give her a hint. I just giggled and took pictures.

So there.

Don't you judge my housekeeping. That laundry is on it's way to the machines out in the garage, and that Priority Mail box just arrived yesterday. Less than 24 hours ago.

Voluminous

2011-05-19T07:00:00.000-04:00

Know what I love?

Mascara.

Joe found this out accidentally. I'm not really a makeup girl at all, so it was a surprise to him.

But I do. I love mascara. I LOVE it.

I never leave the house without it on, and if I do - I have an extra tube in my car. For emergencies.

Yes. Eyelash emergencies.

And I'm super excited because the stuff I've been using (CoverGirl Lash Blast Luxe - love!) has finally begun to dry up and I can go buy something new!

YAY! NEW MASCARA!

Seriously. One reason I was happy Joe bought the Terrain is that he tossed out the tiny cosmetics bag I'd been keeping in the 4Runner (CoverGirl Volume Exact - mediocre) and I had to go buy new mascara (Maybelline Great Lash - never again).

I have to wait for tubes to NEED replacing. I can't just buy mascara now and then, because once the floodgates are opened I will buy EVERYTHING.

It's a sickness.

That I get to feed.

Tomorrow.

Got suggestions?

Majorly

2011-05-18T15:17:00.004-04:00

The other day after we watched Toy Story 3 with the kids (for the eighteenth time) we got to talking about college.

Carter was super excited to find out that you got to decide what you want to learn about in college. At least, you get to decide what you want to learn MOST about in college. I figure we have plenty of time to teach him about general requirements and essentially useless electives.

Anyway.

Carter's eyes kind of glazed over while we were talking and he got a dreamy look on his face. His mouth began to drop open and then suddenly he thrust his fists in the air and declared - SCIENCE! He was going to go to college and learn about SCIENCE!

I sort of giggled because I know, and you know, there are about eleven billion different KINDS of science. So he may need to kind of narrow it down or we've got a zillion dollars worth of tuition to come up with so he can learn all there is to know about SCIENCE.

And also I glanced over at my beautiful daughter, who was spinning in a circle then falling down and throwing her feet in the air and proclaiming "TO THE RESCUE!" and decided exactly which child I'm going to be lavishing attention on, so I can call in all those years of sacrifice and care when I'm old and incompetent.

Hint: NOT the one who gets distracted by carpet lint and shiny bits of rock.

And p.s. - Robotics and LEGO Engineering Summer Camp at the Planetarium. Most rockin' summer ever, y'all.

Hee hee. I do love me some nerds.

Simple Summer Nightgown - A Tutorial

2011-05-17T11:26:00.013-04:00

Last year, on a whim, I sent a friend of mine a nightgown for her little girl. It quickly became the pajamas of choice for this little girl - and I found out the other day that she's refusing to wear anything else but that nightgown and one other.

Laundry nightmare.

So my friend asked if I would make her a few more. Which I would absolutely have done, but I can't really remember how I made that one nightgown.

So instead, I made something up.

Which was this.

A simple, sleeveless, warm weather nightgown.

All you need is about 3/4 of a yard of fabric (I used cotton - because that's what I do), 1/2" single fold bias tape, 1/4" elastic, and basic sewing supplies.

And this tutorial. :)

Decide how long you want the nightgown to be, and cut your fabric. I used the entire width (about 44") minus the selvages (obviously) and a length of 20".

Make straps out of the remainder of the fabric. Mine are about 1/2" wide, but totally your call.

Measure around the chest of the kid wearing the nightgown to determine how long you need the strip of elastic to be. My friend's daughter is about Kara's size. Kara is 19" around her chest - and I wanted it to be a little snug, so I used 18 1/2" of elastic.

Measure a few inches in along the long side of the rectangle, and sandwich one strap between the right side of the open bias tape and the right side of your fabric. Pin this area.

Pin the other strap the same distance from the opposite end of your fabric rectangle.

Find the center of your fabric and mark it. Then pin the other ends of your straps several inches from the center marking. Be careful not to twist them around.

Pinning the straps in place will make your fabric go kind of wonky, since the straps are so short and there is so much loose fabric. And it's up to you how far from center to pin those straps. Since I knew the elastic would gather the fabric half it's original size I opted for 5".

Sew the bias tape, straps, and fabric together, matching the bias tape to the edge of the fabric as you go. Or you can pin the whole thing. I hate pinning though, so I never do. Again, because the straps are so much shorter than the fabric - you'll have to flip the fabric around a little. It's not hard, just keep it in mind.

Iron the bias tape to the inside of the fabric.

Sew along the lower folded edge of the bias tape to create a casing for the elastic.

Thread the elastic through the casing, securing the ends of the elastic with pins.

Aligning the top of the casing, right sides together, sew and finish the last seam. This will be the back of your nightgown.

Hem the bottom however you normally do a hem.

THE END.

If your fabric is very plain you could put the casing on the outside of your fabric to give it some colour or interest. I did it accidentally on the yellow one in that picture (pinned the straps and bias tape to the wrong side of the fabric), and then again on purpose to the white one. I also made the straps out of the casing fabric instead of the nightgown fabric. Way cuter than a plain white broadcloth one would be otherwise, in my opinion.

And that's it. Go forth and sew for the little girl in your life. :)

And send me a picture!

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

2011-05-03T16:45:00.000-04:00

Another favourite song of mine. I'm not sure how I feel about the video. I'll have to watch it a few more times before I make up my mind. It's certainly no Boy With A Coin.

Why are we talking about this? The album it's on is on sale at Amazon through this month. Only $5 - and worth every penny.

Fleet Foxes.

It's even fun to say!

Since We Last Spoke

2011-04-29T10:13:00.003-04:00

I fell off the face of the earth.

Okay. Not really. I just went out and did stuff and didn't tell you about any of it. Because... I'm lazy.

But here's a quick recap:

We took the kids to SeaWorld. Joe had free passes and a work conference in Orlando, so we pretty much HAD to do it. It was fun! Maybe I'll post pictures. I got a cute video of Carter feeling dolphins. If you go to SeaWorld, feed the dolphins. But be prepared - it costs $7 (cash only) for about four sardines.

We met my friend Christy and her family! They are so great! Christy found a bounce house play area and the kids LOVED it. Except Kara was exhausted and kind of cranky. OF COURSE! Talk about your boisterous kid and then when you take her out to meet friends she's all sullen and timid. Then we went to Cracker Barrell and I sat next to Christy instead of across from her so it was hard to really talk. Still. FUN. Joe and I talked all the way back to the hotel about how much we liked all of them. We're totally doing it again next year.

Easter happened... but it happened for you too, so I'm sure you already knew that.

Carter got grounded from electronics for a whole weekend. Hard, right? Turned out to be awesome. We wound up playing kickball in the yard with a whole bunch of neighbor kids. We got eaten by the bugs, but it was still a great time for everyone, and I want to do it more often.

Joe sat Carter down and told him how important it was to play a sport - any sport - so Carter picked t-ball. And then hit his sister in the head twice in one day with the t-ball bat. I'm no longer excited about t-ball. At all.

Also during this electronics ban, Carter picked his college major. It is... science. (We let him watch Toy Story 3 with us, and we talked about how you get to choose what to learn about in college. Carter's super excited to go to college now. And learn about science. Nerd.)

I got sick and lost 4 pounds. Woo! Shut up. Dehydration totally counts.

The March of Dimes auction I mentioned in my last post earned over $600 for the team! So great! They were able to up their team goal to $1500 and are just a few dollars short of that. Please consider clicking HERE and donating even a dollar or two - the walk is Sunday, May 1 - just two days away.

Kara now sleeps in her big girl bed, so I need to make some decisions about her room decor. Purple, I think. With yellow? And black accents. Probably.

There's probably more but that seems like enough nonsense to bombard you with in one day. And now I'm off to grocery shop and hit Joann's... I want to run my hands over some fabrics and change my mind about Kara's color scheme fourteen times.

Sewing For Strangers (Go Bid On My Pig!)

2011-04-01T09:42:00.004-04:00

I hate sewing for strangers. A lot.

I'm not convinced my work is up to selling standards, and I hate that someone might purchase something I make and be disappointed. I'll sew you just about anything as a gift, but paying customers... gah. Too scary.

But this morning several items I've made have gone up for auction. The entire winning bid on any action item will sponsor a team for the March of Dimes - March for Babies. A team that is walking for two of the babies I walked for last year.

So I'm putting my discomfort aside.

YAY ME!

Please check out the HH Mama's March for Babies team auction page on Facebook. There are all sorts of neat items and services listed. Jewelery, kids clothing, coupons, gift certificates, custom cards...

Some of my favourites:

I want these! I want to put little magnets on the back and use them on my fridge! So pretty! Starting bid is $1.

It's already too hot for scarves this year, but I LOVE this. LOVE! Starting bid? $7!

How adorable right? Peas in a pod charm. Starting bid is only $8!

And this crazy minky pig. I made this. It's crazy. I have to hide it from Kara because she's all about her soft little pig. I'll make her another one, don't fret. Bidding opens at $4.

The auction is open until April 10th. Winning bidder makes a donation in the amount of their bid to the specified March of Dimes - March for Babies team (link will be provided). Items will be shipped by their donator.

:)

Um. Uh... Um... No Title Today

2011-03-18T18:22:00.003-04:00

My family is headed here as I type this. They should be landing in about two hours, actually.

Holy crap. Two hours.

I plan on being super busy with them for this next week - March Break, incidentally. Joe's got a couple of days off work as well, so we're going to be all Happy Family Togetherness Time Bonanza!! Or something. It'll be fun.

But before I run off and abandon my blog again, I'm going to tell you two things.

First. I found my magical mystery contact lenses. Don't worry about that anymore, ok? I found them on a website called Lens Discounters, and as it turns out? They're the freaking cheapest lenses EVER. How happy am I? SO HAPPY! $12.75/box - no minimum order! Woo! AND yes, I ordered them.

Second. My son is a fantastic reader, did you know? It happened all of a sudden. He was reading at his grade level a few months ago, and we were just fine with that. In first grade, it is PERFECT to read at a first grade level. But the teacher turned reading into a competition. All the kids set a goal for points earned from comprehension tests - and if they hit their goal, they would get to have a pizza party with the teacher. Carter's been bringing home two or three different books a week. Managed to more than double his goal. And his skill level has jumped up to mid third grade reading.

He's still determined to take down the current top reader in his class. I don't know if he can or not, but he's trying. Funny goober.

Anyway. My over just dinged and I need to pull out the pineapple chicken. And my MIL and FIL just arrived and the only one out there to greet them is Keek. Heh.

Ok. Really. Bye!

Eyeballs of Mystery

2011-03-16T14:38:00.002-04:00

I finally went to the eye doctor.

I know I said I would do it before the end of 2011, but you didn't really believe me, did you? I mean. It had already been eight years. I wasn't in a rush, clearly.

But a few days after Valentine's Day, I was pruning back my rose bushes and managed to pop my contact right out of my eyeball and into the garden. That sucker was G-O-N-E. So. It became time.

And it was fine. The lady that did all the fancy eye testing before I got in to see the doctor laughed at me, but she didn't scold me. She did sell me the three year eye club membership, so I am all set for exams for three years. Good deal. $33/year and I can have two eye exams per year, which I might do just for the heck of it. Our specialist co-pay just went up to $40/visit, so I'm feeling pretty good about this deal.

And I wear soft contact lenses now. In both eyes! They are confusing as heck. For real. I finally have the removal all worked out, but now I'm trying to order more online (our vision coverage gives us either a pair of glasses or a year's supply of contact lenses - and I decided to go with glasses this year - I'm not sure why either, considering I only wear my glasses at home or to the bus stop and I could have just gone with a crappy pair from some weird place online - but I got fancy glasses and now have to pay for contacts out of pocket) and have discovered my lenses don't actually exist. Somehow the combination of my base curve, diameter, and prescription is impossible and no brand can do it. Anywhere.

Which is SUPER weird because I AM CURRENTLY WEARING THEM.

So I guess a third trip back to that optician chain is in order, to find out if I can have my prescription tweaked, making it actually fillable. (I had to go back once already because the lady wouldn't give me my contact prescription that day - she wanted me to really try out the contacts before I committed. I was supposed to come back within two weeks and it was almost four by the time I showed up. This shouldn't really surprise anyone though, given my track record...)

All in all I'm ok with it though. I legitimately lost my contact lens, and HAD to go to the doctor. Really, the only way I can get put my crazy away and just do it. If I HAVE to. And now that I've been wearing my 1-2 week trial lenses for a full month, I'm feeling that it has become necessary to acquire more. Again, HAVE to.

And it's brought a new level of intimacy to my relationship with Joe. Until I lost that last contact lens he had never, ever seen me in my glasses. He knew they existed, but he'd never seen them on my face. And now he has. And we're still married. So I guess I can put THAT bit of crazy away too.

Eight. (Not Crazy Yet.)

2011-03-14T18:08:00.003-04:00

So Joe and I have been married eight years today. Eight! That's how old our kids are - put together. It's high school - twice. Two presidential terms. It's med school. It's a little less than how long Bill Murray spent re-living Groundhog Day, and the average life expectancy of an English Bulldog.

(You've probably realized by now this will be one of those rambling posts with no real focus. Like most of the other ones, I guess. If not, then let me warn you. This is going to be one of those rambling posts with no real focus.)

We've had a lovely day.

I was supposed to have some visitors around noon, but I decided to cancel when Joe invited me to lunch. Keek got to tag along, lucky little punk, by virtue of it being a Monday and there being no babysitters around. But it was good to have her around anyway. She's really cute.

We went to one of Joe's favourite places - Hobbit American Grill. It is not very romantic, but is very delicious. He had his favourite thing in the world. Extra wet spicy Caribbean chicken wings, and I had the most fantastic turkey club sandwich I have ever had. I could only eat half at lunch, and just now polished off the other side. I'm sort of afraid to count up the calories. Three thick slices of lovely toasted bread - and four slices of cheese. Mayo, bacon, turkey... There was a tomato but Kara stole it.

She always takes my tomatoes.

When we arrived Joe looked across the seating area and spotted his old boss. This is the man who hired him where he works now - but he has since retired. We haven't seen him in almost two years, so it was fun to show him Kara and catch up a little bit. On his way out he and his wife stopped at our table and gave us their home phone number, offering their teenage daughters as babysitters. They also paid for our lunch - not even knowing it was our anniversary.

And I was thinking while we ate about how pivotal that man has been in our lives, though he probably has no real idea. Yes it was Joe's knowledge, credentials, and personality that won him his job - but it was this man who told him how to prepare himself for the interview and testing. He's the one who decided to even grant him an interview in the first place - and ultimately it was his decision to offer him the job.

And this job... This job meant the difference between building our house or continuing to live with Joe's mom. We probably would have still built eventually, but we would have had to rent out the Man Room instead of being able to use it ourselves. This job gave us health insurance, which has been just... I mean... Carter's eyes. Kara's eyes. Kara at all. If our insurance hadn't been so fantastic we never would have been able to afford another pregnancy - much less raising another child.

And he was a good boss. A kind person. He set things up during Joe's deployment so that contributions were still made to Joe's 401(k), and we didn't lose our insurance. He made sure Joe was still receiving his base salary through the city, and had the HR representative call and give me her information so I could call her with questions. And then to top it all off he would call me periodically to check in on me, the kids, and Joe while Joe was gone.

Anyway. Happy coincidence.

After lunch we did a little shopping, and Joe strong-armed me into some new clothes. I've been putting off shopping until I lose just one more pant size, but he insisted I get some new shirts and a new belt. We got both kids some new summer shoes, and Joe picked up a couple of little things himself too. And a new bathing suit for the girl, as we'll have use for it in a few weeks. Home in time to catch Carter getting off the bus, and we sat in the sunshine eating Popsicles before they played a little soccer. Carter showed us his books from the book fair - and we played Mario Kart before I made dinner and Joe headed off to work.

So it's been a great, laid back kind of day. We just go to... be... together. And were reminded how great our life is. How lucky we are. I hesitate to say how far we've come, because that doesn't seem right. But maybe how grateful we are to be where we are, and with who we're with. Eight years ago we got married as virtual strangers. Eight years in, we're ridiculously well matched. It could have turned out so different. But... so far, SO good.

Not Any Charcoal I've Ever Seen

2011-02-26T13:59:00.005-05:00

We finally got our tax return!

Which means we finally got our new sofas!

Kind of.

We always forget that most places don't actually stock their furniture, you have to order it. So we always go out with Joe's trailer expecting to drive home with stuff, and it never happens.

But we did get to order a new sofa and loveseat set. It's pretty. And comfortable.

And charcoal... green.

I don't know why they call it charcoal either. Charcoal is grey. Or black. This is... neither of those things. Though it kind of looked a little greyer at the first place we saw it.

Yes, first place.

We drove out (with our giant trailer) to the middle of nowhere to go see a set we liked last month, and spotted this. New arrival. We were set to order it, but Joe wanted to deal a little bit. Not a TON, because it was already a great bargain. But he has a thing about not paying sticker price on anything. It's a good thing. It's saved us a lot of money over the years. The salesman? Wouldn't budge. I don't understand that. Would you really prefer to not make a sale than even come down a few dollars? Oh-kaaay.

Anyway. Even before that we weren't feeling the love. Kara was in maybe the worst mood Joe's ever seen her in, and Carter was feeding right into it. We got several raised eyebrows, and I even got scolded by a different salesman as I was trying to pry her off a bunk bed.

She shouldn't jump on the top of a bunkbed? Really? I should get her down? Oh yeah? Good thing you informed me. Seriously. Can you not see me grabbing at her or hear me threatening her with beatings?

WHATEVER.

So Joe found the brand of the sofa online and we headed back into town to see if we could find it in another showroom. And we did. And because Joe had taken pictures with his phone of both the sofa and the price tag, they were more than happy to bring their price down, and make us a great deal. We saved on not only the couches but the protection plan - which covers seam rippers.

I asked.

It covers drool stains too. And cherry pie. And... pickles. Which I didn't know could stain, but alright. Covered.

And the nicest thing - the salesman we worked with noticed Joe nursing a toe he stubbed (REALLY bad -he might lose his big toe nail) on our way up to the store. He came running out to see if we needed any help, and even dragged a display chair out for Joe to sit on. He was sweet to the kids, got them balloons, and chatted with us like we were old friends. He said he didn't care if Kara broke or damaged a single thing in the store - "we got the protection package on everything in here."

SO. Sold. Sold and sold and sold. And if we have to buy any more furniture ever we'll be going back to deal with THAT guy, at THAT store.

And it's only six sleeps until our stuff shows up!

And So It Begins

2011-02-21T13:27:00.005-05:00

This is our five day forecast.

Our actual five day forecast that I just pulled off of Weather.com four minutes ago.

The next ten days look about the same. Mid to high seventies for the rest of the month, then a few days of rain to bring in March.

It's like we woke up and spring had arrived - and it feels so incredibly good. Though I'm a little nervous. It feels early for everything to be budding and blossoming. All over town the magnolia trees are bursting into flower, and it brings me joy and anxiety. One frost will really ruin things for them.

But, as a show of good faith, I've already been to the garden center once - though only to buy a couple new pairs of gardening gloves. I cut back my roses pretty severely this year - I hope they can forgive me - and needed a new pair of leather gloves to deal with the trimmings. Today I used my other new little pair to pull all the weeds out of my front garden.

Also today, Kara and I also planted basil and parsley. I'm going to try growing them from seed this year. I usually get impatient and buy plants, but I still have my winter basil plant on my window sill and I think I can wait for the seeds to grow. I think. I'm not guaranteeing that I won't supplement with a plant in a week or so.

I can't live without basil.

I love spring.

LOVE!