One of my friends posted what she did today, and since I'm in a bit of a blogging lull, I thought this might help me get back into things a bit. Thanks, Emily, for this idea that I stole. :-)
Today I stole this blog idea and re-posted my comment left at the scene of the crime as my very own post here.
Today I did NOT visit pinterest (this is news, I tell ya!).
Today I washed and hung one load of laundry out to dry.
Today the weather was gorgeous. GORGEOUS.
Today Sasha and I played in a park with friends.
Today the above-mentioned friends said I look noticeably bigger than a week ago AND that I am beautiful. (Seeing as I'm almost 33 weeks pregnant, both of these made me feel really good!)
Today I got annoyed with crappy grammar on facebook posts.
Today I baked chocolate-chocolate chip friendship bread.
Today I no-baked cookies.
Today dinner was cereal because the hour that I spend in the kitchen before dinner was taken up by emptying the dishwasher while arguing with the girls about helping to clean the living room. (The living room that would've taken about 5 minutes to pick up if we could've skipped the arguing.)
Today I looked at a pile of towels that needs to be folded.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Two birthdays, stitches, and a new school. And some randomness, too. Not in that order.
Sheesh, two birthdays in this house since I last blogged.... life must be busy! :-)
Aubrey turned 9! (Holy bleep, I do not feel old enough to have a 9 year old.) Poor thing wanted a slumber party birthday party, and so she invited only a handful of friends - only one rsvp'd (that she couldn't come). The other 3 didn't rsvp at all, and didn't show up. Aubrey was crushed. I had a feeling before it happened, so I tried to brace her as best I could. And we (Andy and I) had already decided that it was time to have a kitten in the house, and that a 9 year old is old enough for some responsibility in caring for it, so we let her pick HER kitten. She helped pay for it, she named it, she helps clean up the litterbox... Anyway, I took her looking at kittens the night she was supposed to be partying like a rockstar. And why? Whywhywhy do people not rsvp? Just a quick call. Or text. Or e-mail. Freakin' annoying people.
And also, we decided to switch elementary schools. The old school was okay*, but Aubrey was struggling in some areas, and they were not as helpful as she needed them to be. So when a flyer came about a charter school, we checked it out and decided a switch was necessary. She's having a tough time with homework, but is apparently doing well in class. So we are brainstorming ways to get her to concentrate and focus at home. Lauren is, well, Lauren. Didn't even want me to walk her into the building on her first day. I DID walk her in, but that's not what she wanted. Crazy girl.
*and what I really mean is, I thought the old school was okay. Until I saw her struggling so much with some of the homework she was doing in the 2nd week at the new school - I'm pretty sure they should've held her back or something. Learned that old school doesn't teach phonetics. Isn't phonetics key in learning to read and comprehend? Also, watching Aubrey try to answer some of her homework questions, it appears that they worked really hard at teaching their 3rd graders how to pass the standardized tests last year, and neglected other things as a by-product.
Sasha turned 2 in the middle of all of this. She is an awesome 2 year old, I have to admit. Loves to sing and be sung to - 'You are my Sunshine' is a favorite, along with 'The Itsy-bitsy Spider' and, thanks to our summer camp program at the preschool, an annoying song about a princess sung to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'. I can no longer sing to her about a twinkling star - she gets mad at me and insists I sing about the princess. Stupid summer camp. She loves to eat. Especially fruit. Pretty sure she'd attempt to eat her weight in bananas (all 19.4 pounds of her) everyday if I'd let her.
She loves playing with baby dolls, and likes to play "Squeezy Pie" - a game where we hug eachother again and again. But Not the Hippopotamus is a favorite book, along with Beautiful Oops (awesome book!!!) and Pat the Bunny.
Oh, and Sasha got stitches. In her chin. From falling from a standing position on the floor while playing with Lauren. This child climbs everything (she's gotten on top of the kitchen counter to turn on the microwave before) and she needs stitches from falling at ground level. Of course. Anyway, she was a trooper. Hated being papoose-d, but it was absolutely necessary to keep her still enough for the doc to stitch her up. She beat Lauren to needing stitches. But I figure Lauren's expensive, holey mouth makes up for it.
(Oh hey, about that expensive mouth... so when she was 3 we had to remove her two front teeth that had been capped when she was 18 months old. Grown up teeth are nowhere near to coming in. While in Colorado, a tooth next to her hole got knocked out. Another capped tooth. With no hopes of fixing it. She's got a 3-tooth wide hole. And, no joke, the most expensive mouth in the house.)
Today I am 28 weeks pregnant. Andy took a picture of me at 26 weeks. I am HUGE! Definitely looked bigger than I felt at that point. But now I kinda feel as big as I look. Bending over, squatting down to get something off the floor is really tough. Getting out of bed is a production. Enough of a production that when I wake up in the middle of the night needing to pee, I weigh how badly I need to pee against the effort necessary to get out of bed. Staying in bed is often the winner.
Aubrey turned 9! (Holy bleep, I do not feel old enough to have a 9 year old.) Poor thing wanted a slumber party birthday party, and so she invited only a handful of friends - only one rsvp'd (that she couldn't come). The other 3 didn't rsvp at all, and didn't show up. Aubrey was crushed. I had a feeling before it happened, so I tried to brace her as best I could. And we (Andy and I) had already decided that it was time to have a kitten in the house, and that a 9 year old is old enough for some responsibility in caring for it, so we let her pick HER kitten. She helped pay for it, she named it, she helps clean up the litterbox... Anyway, I took her looking at kittens the night she was supposed to be partying like a rockstar. And why? Whywhywhy do people not rsvp? Just a quick call. Or text. Or e-mail. Freakin' annoying people.
And also, we decided to switch elementary schools. The old school was okay*, but Aubrey was struggling in some areas, and they were not as helpful as she needed them to be. So when a flyer came about a charter school, we checked it out and decided a switch was necessary. She's having a tough time with homework, but is apparently doing well in class. So we are brainstorming ways to get her to concentrate and focus at home. Lauren is, well, Lauren. Didn't even want me to walk her into the building on her first day. I DID walk her in, but that's not what she wanted. Crazy girl.
*and what I really mean is, I thought the old school was okay. Until I saw her struggling so much with some of the homework she was doing in the 2nd week at the new school - I'm pretty sure they should've held her back or something. Learned that old school doesn't teach phonetics. Isn't phonetics key in learning to read and comprehend? Also, watching Aubrey try to answer some of her homework questions, it appears that they worked really hard at teaching their 3rd graders how to pass the standardized tests last year, and neglected other things as a by-product.
Sasha turned 2 in the middle of all of this. She is an awesome 2 year old, I have to admit. Loves to sing and be sung to - 'You are my Sunshine' is a favorite, along with 'The Itsy-bitsy Spider' and, thanks to our summer camp program at the preschool, an annoying song about a princess sung to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'. I can no longer sing to her about a twinkling star - she gets mad at me and insists I sing about the princess. Stupid summer camp. She loves to eat. Especially fruit. Pretty sure she'd attempt to eat her weight in bananas (all 19.4 pounds of her) everyday if I'd let her.
She loves playing with baby dolls, and likes to play "Squeezy Pie" - a game where we hug eachother again and again. But Not the Hippopotamus is a favorite book, along with Beautiful Oops (awesome book!!!) and Pat the Bunny.
Oh, and Sasha got stitches. In her chin. From falling from a standing position on the floor while playing with Lauren. This child climbs everything (she's gotten on top of the kitchen counter to turn on the microwave before) and she needs stitches from falling at ground level. Of course. Anyway, she was a trooper. Hated being papoose-d, but it was absolutely necessary to keep her still enough for the doc to stitch her up. She beat Lauren to needing stitches. But I figure Lauren's expensive, holey mouth makes up for it.
(Oh hey, about that expensive mouth... so when she was 3 we had to remove her two front teeth that had been capped when she was 18 months old. Grown up teeth are nowhere near to coming in. While in Colorado, a tooth next to her hole got knocked out. Another capped tooth. With no hopes of fixing it. She's got a 3-tooth wide hole. And, no joke, the most expensive mouth in the house.)
Today I am 28 weeks pregnant. Andy took a picture of me at 26 weeks. I am HUGE! Definitely looked bigger than I felt at that point. But now I kinda feel as big as I look. Bending over, squatting down to get something off the floor is really tough. Getting out of bed is a production. Enough of a production that when I wake up in the middle of the night needing to pee, I weigh how badly I need to pee against the effort necessary to get out of bed. Staying in bed is often the winner.
Monday, July 18, 2011
goggles and ice packs
Sasha needs goggles, because her big sisters have goggles. She's yet to want to stick her head under water, but she still feels like she needs to wear her goggles. Too cute.
Anyway, this girl who must be just like her big sisters, but who is also entirely independent and free-thinking and unconcerned with the way things should be, has got some silly ideas about how the world works. So when she hurt her foot this afternoon and I held an ice pack on her foot, it didn't take long for her to take the ice pack out of my hands and off of her foot. Her right cheek needed the ice. Doesn't matter where she actually gets hurt, the right cheek always needs the ice. She tried holding the ice pack on both cheeks, but that was not as comforting as the right cheek alone. All this because the first time she used an ice pack, it was on her right cheek. I'm glad it was one of her northern cheeks, and not a southern cheek. And I kinda hope she never outgrows this oddity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
edited to add: is it difficult for anyone else to type 'goggles'? Google is such a part of my life, I kept typing 'google' and deleting to fix...
Thursday, July 14, 2011
baby names
Oiy, the baby name discussions have begun, and man, oh man, is it tough. We don't like trendy names. Andy has an aversion to old names. I'm with him on some... Bertha ain't ever gonna happen. But some old names? Some old names are just awesome. The man has no respect for the classics, I tell you!
LOVE the name Oscar, but seeing as that was our cat's name, we can't do that. Or I feel like we can't do that, at least. LOVE the name Ruth, but Andy cannot stand it. Ruth is the strongest contender for a girl's middle name, because Ruth is my grandmother's name - but Andy keeps hoping I'll agree to another name from that branch of the family tree...
Anyway, maybe we've found the perfect name. Boy or girl, it wouldn't matter (which is super cool, as each of our girls' names could be boy names. Anyway, this name is super unique, the kid would have an easy enough time learning to spell it, and it's just cute. Super cute. Drum roll, please....
Baby's name will be W. 'Dub' for short. Isn't that awesome? I don't know why we never thought of that before, but we LOVE it!
Hahahahaha. No, we don't love it. At all. But we think it's hilarious, so this kid is currently being called 'Dub.' Oh, and if I am creative and gutsy enough to post something to this effect on fb, please do me a favor and play along like you love it, okay? ;-)
LOVE the name Oscar, but seeing as that was our cat's name, we can't do that. Or I feel like we can't do that, at least. LOVE the name Ruth, but Andy cannot stand it. Ruth is the strongest contender for a girl's middle name, because Ruth is my grandmother's name - but Andy keeps hoping I'll agree to another name from that branch of the family tree...
Anyway, maybe we've found the perfect name. Boy or girl, it wouldn't matter (which is super cool, as each of our girls' names could be boy names. Anyway, this name is super unique, the kid would have an easy enough time learning to spell it, and it's just cute. Super cute. Drum roll, please....
Baby's name will be W. 'Dub' for short. Isn't that awesome? I don't know why we never thought of that before, but we LOVE it!
Hahahahaha. No, we don't love it. At all. But we think it's hilarious, so this kid is currently being called 'Dub.' Oh, and if I am creative and gutsy enough to post something to this effect on fb, please do me a favor and play along like you love it, okay? ;-)
Sunday, June 26, 2011
green planting and eating
I have an old dresser that came from my grandparents' house. Not antique-old, but junky-old, that we used for Sasha for awhile, until it became evident that multiple drawer-openings a day would not work. But I just couldn't toss it. Not because of sentimental reasons, but because there HAD to be another use for this wood, besides taking up space in the landfill.
I held on to this dresser for months, even though Andy wanted me to toss it. I had no plans for it, but I couldn't toss it. Then, a cousin-in-law posted a link on fb about repurposing an old dresser in to a planter. Genius!
Here's the first drawer I've converted. One drawer at a time, baby!
I'm even picturing turning the dresser frame up on it's back and planting potatoes or something similar.
And another thing... have you ever eaten pea tendrils? Holy _____. You must find some and try them. Apparently they are good sauteed or otherwise cooked, but my tendrils never got that far, as we all loved them raw - by themselves or in salad. (Here is someone else's blog post dedicated to pea tendrils, with more information AND pictures!) Suffice it to say, one of my miscellaneous containers will be holding pea tendrils as soon as it's cool enough to plant the little suckers.
I held on to this dresser for months, even though Andy wanted me to toss it. I had no plans for it, but I couldn't toss it. Then, a cousin-in-law posted a link on fb about repurposing an old dresser in to a planter. Genius!
Here's the first drawer I've converted. One drawer at a time, baby!
I'm even picturing turning the dresser frame up on it's back and planting potatoes or something similar.
And another thing... have you ever eaten pea tendrils? Holy _____. You must find some and try them. Apparently they are good sauteed or otherwise cooked, but my tendrils never got that far, as we all loved them raw - by themselves or in salad. (Here is someone else's blog post dedicated to pea tendrils, with more information AND pictures!) Suffice it to say, one of my miscellaneous containers will be holding pea tendrils as soon as it's cool enough to plant the little suckers.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Blessings
Seems like forever ago that I started the 1000 Blessings challenge. It's been so long that I would have to dig too far to link to the original challenge. It's been over a year since I last mentioned any blessings. Oops. Here goes. (and there may be repeats, as it's been 14 months... but a blessing is a blessing, and *for me* the important thing is to remember them... even if I'm repeating)
#67 - my sister
#68 - peach cobbler from Schoepf's BBQ
#69 - Andy's patience with me while I struggle through this rough patch of exhaustion
#70 - the dairy that sells raw milk
#71 - steak ala Andy. That boy can cook, but man oh man, that boy can really grill.
#72 - Aubrey's thoughtfulness
#73 - Lauren's imagination
#74 - Sasha's determination and vocabulary
#75 - my Jaimie. Haven't seen her in almost 2 years, and we can go months without talking, but that doesn't matter. She's my Jaimie. And I'm gonna see her soon!!! :-)
#67 - my sister
#68 - peach cobbler from Schoepf's BBQ
#69 - Andy's patience with me while I struggle through this rough patch of exhaustion
#70 - the dairy that sells raw milk
#71 - steak ala Andy. That boy can cook, but man oh man, that boy can really grill.
#72 - Aubrey's thoughtfulness
#73 - Lauren's imagination
#74 - Sasha's determination and vocabulary
#75 - my Jaimie. Haven't seen her in almost 2 years, and we can go months without talking, but that doesn't matter. She's my Jaimie. And I'm gonna see her soon!!! :-)
13w6d, tutus and one LONG vent
I am officially out of my first trimester, and am mostly done with the icky feelings. Still very exhausted, because sleep alludes me even though I am freakin' tired. And still not gaining any weight, but seeing as I was a good 20 lbs overweight, I'm not concerned.
AND, I met my midwife. She is so sweet, so laidback, so my kinda midwife! She owns a birth center, but also attends homebirths. We are leaning towards another homebirth, but I am glad we have another comfortable, safe option if we aren't feeling 'home' (because I KNOW we will not be feeling hospital unless there is a medical reason for it). I was pleasantly surprised, though, that Andy thinks he'd prefer home... since our previous midwife missed Sasha's homebirth, I was thinking of the birthcenter for his sake, mostly.
And, Ali's wedding is in less than a month. Woohoo! Our trip out there begins in just over a week, with a stop in Colorado Springs to spend several days with my Jaimie, and at some point some time with my April (April! We've got to look at schedules... Friday, June 10th, in the evening??? or some time Saturday June 11th, during the day???) Combined, Ali and Daniel have 3 nephews and 5 nieces. Or, 3 nephews and 5 flower fairies. The 3 youngest - Lauren, Kate and Sasha - will be in tutus. (And shirts, my model was naked for the photo shoot - we're lucky she had the tutu on at all, as she was also throwing a tantrum.) I am really happy with how they turned out. Really, really happy. Sometimes I get my craft on and really kick some butt. ;-)
And, on the drama side of things, I am done with drama. Been done for years, but occasionally some sneaks in, and I get to figure out how to deal. So, here's my vent about the situation... feel free to ignore if you want, I just need to get it out.
A year ago Judy and I became friends. Very good friends very quickly. And I observed that her favorite way to deal with conflict was to get pissed at people and not talk about it, but choose to ignore/avoid the person she's mad at. I really didn't think anything of it when she had problems with her neighbor, because she always talked about how her neighbor frustrated her, and *hello* you can't pick your neighbors, so if you need to ignore them, so be it. I really didn't think much about it when a similar situation happened with the wife of her husband's coworker. Again, *hello* sometimes people are in your life whether you want them there or not.
BUT, seeing as we chose to be friends, how she confided an awful lot in me, and I in her, that we have loads in common, when I wanted to talk about an issue between our daughters, this is how the conversation went:
me: Aubrey said that Jax kept touching her during dance class and wouldn't stop, so she asked me to talk to you about it.
J: Well that's not what Jax said happened, but I don't want to talk about it. This isn't the first time this has happened, and I just told Jax to stay away from Aubrey.
me: That's probably a good idea, a break would be good for them.
And that's where the conversation ended because some people can't have an uncomfortable conversation in order to make things better. And the more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I'm left to assume that Judy thinks Aubrey is some evil bully (because I have no idea what Jax's side of the story is) as opposed to two grown ups helping their growing daughters realize that they can talk to eachother and figure out a way to get along, because any rational person knows that what actually happened lies somewhere in the middle of Aubrey's side and Jax side.
(No, this was not the first incident between the girls, but I ignored previous incidents as I've always encouraged Aubrey to use her words and work things out on her own if she can.)
SO, I haven't had a conversation of substance with Judy in over a month, and I am counting down the days until we leave on our trip, as by the time we get back, they will have moved to Connecticut. I know, very mature of me. But I've spent enough energy on this crazy lady when she wasn't implying that she didn't like my kid... I have no more energy to spend on her now. And, honestly, I am the one doing the avoiding, but it all relates to her not knowing how to communicate if there's something other-than-pleasant to talk about.
Thanks, feels good to get that out. :-) BTW, something kinda funny... Andy has always maintained that Judy's crazy. I should know by now to trust his take on people. And not necessarily avoid them, but keep a bit more distance than I kept from Judy.
AND, I met my midwife. She is so sweet, so laidback, so my kinda midwife! She owns a birth center, but also attends homebirths. We are leaning towards another homebirth, but I am glad we have another comfortable, safe option if we aren't feeling 'home' (because I KNOW we will not be feeling hospital unless there is a medical reason for it). I was pleasantly surprised, though, that Andy thinks he'd prefer home... since our previous midwife missed Sasha's homebirth, I was thinking of the birthcenter for his sake, mostly.
And, Ali's wedding is in less than a month. Woohoo! Our trip out there begins in just over a week, with a stop in Colorado Springs to spend several days with my Jaimie, and at some point some time with my April (April! We've got to look at schedules... Friday, June 10th, in the evening??? or some time Saturday June 11th, during the day???) Combined, Ali and Daniel have 3 nephews and 5 nieces. Or, 3 nephews and 5 flower fairies. The 3 youngest - Lauren, Kate and Sasha - will be in tutus. (And shirts, my model was naked for the photo shoot - we're lucky she had the tutu on at all, as she was also throwing a tantrum.) I am really happy with how they turned out. Really, really happy. Sometimes I get my craft on and really kick some butt. ;-)
And, on the drama side of things, I am done with drama. Been done for years, but occasionally some sneaks in, and I get to figure out how to deal. So, here's my vent about the situation... feel free to ignore if you want, I just need to get it out.
A year ago Judy and I became friends. Very good friends very quickly. And I observed that her favorite way to deal with conflict was to get pissed at people and not talk about it, but choose to ignore/avoid the person she's mad at. I really didn't think anything of it when she had problems with her neighbor, because she always talked about how her neighbor frustrated her, and *hello* you can't pick your neighbors, so if you need to ignore them, so be it. I really didn't think much about it when a similar situation happened with the wife of her husband's coworker. Again, *hello* sometimes people are in your life whether you want them there or not.
BUT, seeing as we chose to be friends, how she confided an awful lot in me, and I in her, that we have loads in common, when I wanted to talk about an issue between our daughters, this is how the conversation went:
me: Aubrey said that Jax kept touching her during dance class and wouldn't stop, so she asked me to talk to you about it.
J: Well that's not what Jax said happened, but I don't want to talk about it. This isn't the first time this has happened, and I just told Jax to stay away from Aubrey.
me: That's probably a good idea, a break would be good for them.
And that's where the conversation ended because some people can't have an uncomfortable conversation in order to make things better. And the more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I'm left to assume that Judy thinks Aubrey is some evil bully (because I have no idea what Jax's side of the story is) as opposed to two grown ups helping their growing daughters realize that they can talk to eachother and figure out a way to get along, because any rational person knows that what actually happened lies somewhere in the middle of Aubrey's side and Jax side.
(No, this was not the first incident between the girls, but I ignored previous incidents as I've always encouraged Aubrey to use her words and work things out on her own if she can.)
SO, I haven't had a conversation of substance with Judy in over a month, and I am counting down the days until we leave on our trip, as by the time we get back, they will have moved to Connecticut. I know, very mature of me. But I've spent enough energy on this crazy lady when she wasn't implying that she didn't like my kid... I have no more energy to spend on her now. And, honestly, I am the one doing the avoiding, but it all relates to her not knowing how to communicate if there's something other-than-pleasant to talk about.
Thanks, feels good to get that out. :-) BTW, something kinda funny... Andy has always maintained that Judy's crazy. I should know by now to trust his take on people. And not necessarily avoid them, but keep a bit more distance than I kept from Judy.
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