life as a mama

ok, ok...

2009-11-06T15:52:00.001-06:00

so i know that i NEVER post anymore... life's been wonderful here, but blogging just hasn't been a priority. i need to evaluate whether or not it'll be helpful for keeping in touch with people, but that will be a decision that i'll be making between now and when this baby decides to come out in late february / early march!

until then, go check out 5 minutes for mom. their giveaways are AMAZING. the first one of the christmas season made my jaw drop...

Mother's Day Already?

2009-04-24T12:18:00.000-06:00

Go check out 5 Minutes for Mom. They are really the bomb.

dairy-free-goodness

2009-03-01T13:40:00.003-06:00

For those of you who, like us, have someone in your household who is dairy-free, CHECK OUT THIS GIVEAWAY! Pardon the caps, I'm just really excited about this. How have I not heard of these goodies before? I can tell you that if I win this, I'll be spreading the love among my local dairy-free friends (it's surprising how many of them I have!) Thank you to One Frugal Foodie and Erin Baker!

No Spend Challenge

2009-02-02T11:36:00.001-06:00

For this lovely first week of February, I'm joining in the MomAdvice No Spend Challenge. I'm just doing it for a week right now - but I'm going all out and not spending a penny. No buying food for us - make it a pantry challenge week. No gas - I have a full tank and I'm not going anywhere... No clothes or just stuff either!

The only thing I am going to spend money on is special ingredients for a lunch I'm having on Wednesday. Peanut and I are going to be entertaining two moms and their assorted five children - one of which has more allergies than I can count on my two hands. Seriously. Poor little guy. So I think I will probably need to pick up some specialty ingredients, but I don't mind doing that at all!

announcement and a giveaway to go enter!

2009-01-30T17:42:00.002-06:00

hey all.

i'm just about to unveil the new blog. it is pretty darn fabulous, if i dare say so myself.

but while you're waiting for that, go over to confessions of a yummy mummy and enter her AMAZING giveaway of organizational supplies! She calls it a super fab giveaway, and I'd have to agree! Halfway down the prize list, I was like "hey, this is a great giveaway!" and I hadn't even gotten to the big stuff yet!

a contest for you

2009-01-29T11:34:00.002-06:00

So whenever I enter blog's giveaways, I always skip the extra entries that come from blogging about the contests. I used to do that, but then found that my blog was turning into a couple thoughts from me and a lot of talking about other people's contests.

Actually, now that I think about it, I should just have a separate blog for those - and if you're into learning about new contests, you could follow that one. Huh. Good idea, me!

But - here's a contest that is making me break with my habit. Seriously want to win this one!!

A Daycare Life is hosting this diaper bag giveaway!

I'd never heard of Hoohobbers before - which is a good thing, as I would have spent too much money there!

blogging conundrum

2009-01-27T18:00:00.001-06:00

i'm in the midst of a blogging debate with myself.

should i blog for the public?
should i blog for family and friends?

how much privacy should i have?

i've been toying around with a bunch of different options, so i have a lot of "inactive-ish" blogs while i figure out what level of privacy i want to have.

thanks for understanding.

Pictures of the bag...

2008-08-26T13:18:00.002-06:00

My latest project

2008-08-26T09:34:00.003-06:00

Peanut and I are taking a trip from Illinois to Baltimore / Virginia this weekend. I'm kicking myself that I didn't buy her a seat. What was I thinking!? Flying solo (Mister's staying here) with a toddler on my lap? Who will want to nurse at every opportunity since the proximity will remind her constantly... Note to self. Spend the money next time! Of course, I'll have to since we have no plans to fly again before her 2nd birthday, but still!

I was envisioning this trip last week and realized that my diaper bag, as much as I love it, was not big enough to contain snacks for two flights, books, a dvd player, changes of clothes for both of us, sippy cup, enough toys to distract her, etc... So I made a new one. This was my first bag, and definitely a challenge for me. I'm usually a curtain sewer, with the occasional venture into baby clothes.

I learned a lot of new things in the process: fusible fleece is awesome, magnetic snaps are easy to install and look cool, bias tape isn't that intimidating as long as you have the proper width for your project, and a heck of a lot about why my threads were looping. It didn't usually mean that I needed to adjust my tension, it meant that I threaded my machine with the presser foot down! How did I not know that you weren't supposed to do that? So I really got past something that had been bugging me during my last few projects. It's not perfect, but I'm pretty pleased with it.

It has oodles of pockets - one for:

sippy cup (outside)
cell phone (outside)
travel placemat
wallet
medicine (velcroed)
binkies (velcroed)
diapers
diaper changing kit
sunscreen / bug spray
and a key fob!

Want to see pictures? There's a little handsewing that needs to be done, but that will happen on the couch next to Mister tonight as we watch a silly movie. Sounds like a dream evening to me! I've had a sinus infection for (let me count) thirteen days now and it's finally starting to recede, just in time to fly. So a silly movie and my Mister sound good to me!

Hmm. Blogger isn't letting me upload the pictures. I'll try again later!

Could This Be the End of an Era?

2008-08-24T12:56:00.002-06:00

So this morning I was discussing our "get-ready-so-we-can-go-to-church" schedule with the Mister. As I'm down with a sinus infection, I thought a nice steaming hot bath sounded fabulous, so I could relax and steam out my head at the same time. So I mentioned that I thought I might take a B-A-T-H and that since I'd just given Peanut one a couple of days before that I didn't think she needed to get in with me.

This was all fine and dandy until I'm standing at the foot of the stairs and said "Hey, Mister, I'm going to go take my B-A-T-H now..." and from the kitchen I hear a delighted yell "BAFFF!" and in comes Peanut, racing to the bottom of the stairs rapidly signing bath over and over...

Of course she got in with me for a little after that. But seriously. All I did was spell it!! Mister's theory is that she's associated the sound of "B-A-T-H" with the delightful experience that goes with it. My theory is that we have an extraordinarily precocious twenty-one month old.

Notebook Experiment: Joining Fabric Strips

2008-08-20T18:56:00.004-06:00

I'm an avid reader of MomAdvice, and especially love her Notebooks, and the resulting Notebook Experiments.

She opened up the Notebook Experiments to anyone who wanted to join in, and I couldn't resist! Here's the first one that I tried... Amy from Mom Advice listed it in her 6.26.08 Notebook, and the original post is from Laughing Purple Goldfish Designs.

I told you that I am in the middle of making a tshirt rug, which entails cutting up dozens of tshirts into long strips, sewing them together, winding them into balls and then crocheting away. I've tried a couple different techniques of cutting them, but many techniques left little flaps on the strips when I turned corners, and then those flaps stuck up out of my rug. Not exactly what I was going for! I came across this technique of cutting diagonals and I'm sold! I'm using a rotary cutter so it goes even faster...

Here's some pictures of my "yarn" before and after it gets rolled into balls. I'm also including a picture of the flaps on the "yarn" that are now a thing of the past... and for kicks, a picture of the rug in all it's tininess. =)

Dairy-Free Chocolate Rice Krispie Bars

2008-08-20T18:50:00.002-06:00

I made these tonight - the only thing I did differently was to use 1/2 Rice Krispies and 1/2 Cocoa Krispies. They're cooling, so you'll just have to be patient until I cut into them and let you know how they are!!

Dairy-Free Taco Pie

2008-08-20T10:14:00.002-06:00

So I have been tweaking a recipe for a while now, and think I finally got it to where we really like it - it's a dairy-free Mexican casserole that we call Taco Pie for brevity. =)

Taco Pie

1 lb ground beef
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 can pinto beans, drained
1 cup cooked rice
3/4 cup salsa
1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix
1 egg
1/3 cup water
1 cup cooked corn, cooled

Preheat oven to 400.

Brown the ground beef in a large skillet. Drain off the excess fat, then add the taco seasoning according to the directions on the package. Set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, mash the pinto beans (I use a hand mixer to get a super smooth consistency). Stir in the rice and salsa. Set aside.

In another bowl, combine the corn muffin mix, the egg and the water. Stir until almost combined, then stir in corn kernels. Set aside.

In a glass 9x9 pan, spread the bean and rice mixture evenly. Top with the ground beef mixture. Spoon the cornbread over the top - it doesn't need to be perfectly even. Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes or until the top is crisp and golden brown. Enjoy!

Vacation vs. Trip

2008-08-19T18:05:00.002-06:00

I read an interesting article earlier this summer about the difference between a vacation and a trip once you have kids. There were a number of points, but let's just say that a vacation involves staying in B&Bs, enjoying leisurely strolls down historical districts, memorable dining experiences and returning home refreshed. A trip involves chicken nuggets, fishing the sippy cup out of the diaper bag while driving, hours spent trying to get overly tired children to nap in unfamiliar settings, and piles of laundry once you get home!

We just returned from a lovely trip... we spent a few days with Mister's family at a fabulous resort in the Middle of Nowhere, IL. There's a great state park, an indoor water park and an indoor amusement park all in one spot! So there were hours of swimming, hiking and just plain fun to be had! All of us (seven adults and four kids) were in one big cabin, which was just a blast! From there, we drove up to Wisconsin to spend a few days with my side of the family. We didn't have too many plans, just hanging out with my parents, my bro, sis-in-law and their three girls... Oh, and we had to go to Irishfest - the excuse for that trip!

Peanut and I came down with a water-park-related-illness for a couple of days, but seriously, if you're going to be incapicatated, you might as well do so at your parents house where there are more people to look out for your little one... and people to bring you hot tea at intervals!! We spent a little time at a smaller local festival on Saturday. That was low-key and incredibly picturesque... which was a nice contrast to the fabulous craziness that is any of Milwaukee's Fests... if you're in the Midwest and have never made it to Milwaukee for a fest, you are seriously missing out! There are all sorts of ethnic festivals and one giant Summerfest on weekends throughout the summer. The grounds for the Fest are right on the lakefront, so it's beautiful and cool (sometimes!) and there are thousands and thousands of people enjoying the day with you.

Now we are attempting to return to normal. Mister took yesterday off, so we just bummed around and took a deep breath... but today involved many loads of laundry and a lot of catching up! I've got a little breather, but Peanut and I are flying across the country in just over a week for yet another trip!

grown men crying...

2008-08-10T06:08:00.002-06:00

So were any of you touched last night by Michael Phelps's quivering lips as he heard the National Anthem?

Yeah. The Olympics make me so darn emotional! I've always been so moved by the National Anthem being played for gold medalists... and the emotion on the athlete's faces. Like when the American women swept yesterday's fencing event and the gold medalist was crying so much that former President Bush had to give her his hankerchief? Classic Olympic moment... =)

On an unrelated note, I thought I'd share with you a craft project that I've undertaken. Our new house has a fairly standard design on the main level with a kitchen, formal dining room, formal living room and informal family room. Well, we said "heck with having both a living room and a family room." Who really uses two sets of rooms with couches and coffee tables? If we're having people over, we will invite them back to the fireplaced, comfortable space we enjoy. So we said to ourselves "what can we do with the front room that's so formal with this beautiful hardwood floor?" We've turned it into our "study," and it's lined with our big wooden desk and seven wooden bookcases. Our collection of diplomas are hanging on the wall, and there's a comfortable old wooden rocker over by the bookcases to curl up in if you find a book to read. But that's a lot of wood, and a lot of empty space in the middle of the room.

So I am making a rag rug for the middle!! I'm estimating I'll need about a 6'x9' rug, which is actually immense when you're crocheting it... and to add to the project, I'm doing it with strips that I am cutting from old tshirts. So I have to find tshirts in my color palette, cut them into strips, sew them together, wind them into balls, and THEN I get to start crocheting! I've already finished about 8 rounds on my oval rug and LOVE the way it looks so far... but I am running out of tshirts and I have a ton more to go. Let's just say I'm going to be hitting up some garage sales this summer!

Dinner

2008-08-08T15:49:00.002-06:00

Want to know what we're having tonight for dinner? It's a little weird, but do you see a theme?

GOLDEN Chinese eggrolls
RED-hot buffalo chicken strips on
mixed baby GREENs
BLACK Greek olives
BLUEberry pie

That's right! It's my Olympic dinner... With a Greek touch to commemorate Olympic history and Chinese to make it 2008... and the rest is straight up Americana! The pie is in the oven, but if it turns out as beautiful as I'm hoping, I might post a droolicious picture later...

Enjoy the Games!

whoa... twice in one week?

2008-08-07T17:47:00.003-06:00

Are you still sitting down? Seriously... I fall off the blogging planet, and suddenly I'm back! I have a few main sources of online contact with people, and one of them just came to an end, so I'm back to blogging. I really do enjoy it and the minute that someone comes out with the device that scans your brain waves and types up all those posts that are just in the "hey I should blog this" phase... this blog will be hopping!

Our summer has been lovely. We're now living in a beautiful home that's 5 years old and will be perfect for us for many years to come - we were looking a bit forward with this home, but we're really settling in and making it our own. I don't foresee us moving anytime soon. I've lived in - wait, let me count - this is the 13th place I've lived in the last ten years. That's different dorm rooms, apartments and houses. That isn't counting my parents house (wait, they moved during that time, so that is actually three houses for them), which saw me for a few summer vacations, Christmases, etc. So I'm really used to moving. It's actually a little foreign to think of living here for the next twenty years, but that's what we're hoping to do.

We've had lots of visits with family and friends and August is going to be hopping busy as well... I'll be gone twice for extended trips this month, which should be great!

Peanut is doing marvelously, talking up a storm and running all over keeping me busy. We're outside often, whenever it's cool enough... I'll post more on her adorableness tomorrow, okay?!

slacker and puppies

2008-08-05T19:22:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I am a serious blog-slacker. It's summer. I'm playing with my toddler and my new house... what can I say!?

But I saw a contest online today that I just had to enter and share with you... it's for three life-sized stuffed dogs. WHOA. Seriously cool. I mean, I only need one and I get to inflict, um I mean share, the others with two lucky friends if I win.

Why do I want to win these? Well... I'm not really a pet person, but I'd like to be! My parents are the same way, and so when they moved into a house with a large yard and a kennel, they just had to do something about it. So they got a wooden dog, named him Bosco and put him in their kennel. From a distance, Bosco is quite convincing, and their grandchildren love to sit on Bosco, pull his ears, etc. And he's such an angel... I want in on the fake-dog trend!!

I haven't decided which one I would want to keep - I might just let Peanut make the decision. She's been getting very decisive lately, and when she makes up her mind, she gets thoroughly excited if she gets to keep the one she picks. My heart, like Susan's, goes out to the German Shorthaired Pointer, but they're all way cool.

Bum Genius

2008-07-22T14:48:00.001-06:00

BUM GENIUS giveaway! Go check it out... I am totally splitting these with my friend P. if I win!

has it been a month?

2008-06-05T06:48:00.002-06:00

I know it's been a crazy one, but still. A month? Sorry!

So we sold our house, after 14 showings in 8 days... and two days later, our realtors showed us a house that wasn't on the market, which we promptly snapped up. :) We move in just over three weeks, which is a little scary, especially as the next week for me is going to be wrapped up in writing a talk I need to deliver twice at a conference next weekend. And the lovely Cellular Lola is coming to stay for a while next week - woohoo!

Peanut has been wonderful, she's such a toddler. We thought for a little while there that we might have been past the whole dairy thing, but we're not. Which is fine, it was just exciting there for a little while.

Most summers, I typically like to live in the basement with the air conditioning on - I don't like the heat or humidity. Ick! But I have a feeling that with a toddler, I'm going to be so tanned this summer... I already have a little sunburn and a little tan going on... She loves her blow up pool that we have on the deck. I don't know if it's the sunscreen or the water that's the attraction - I think it's 50/50 for her!

We enjoyed the Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes the other day. I think I have single-handedly introduced 200 people to the recipe so far. Whoa they're good!

Go check out this post over at Rocks in My Dryer. I tell you - it's worth it!

I've become rather attached to Guitar Hero for the Wii lately. Serious fun. We've had it for a week, and I think it's hampering my packing abilities. That thing sucks up so much of my free time... :)

where i've been

2008-05-07T13:09:00.002-06:00

We finally actually listed our house last week... and had our first showing a day later. Tonight will be our seventh showing in five days. Wow! Now the rush is on to find our next house, though... we're looking hard but everyone keeps beating us to the good ones. Soon, though, I know we'll find a wonderful place for us to spend the next however-many years!

So if I've been absent from here, it's because I'm crazy busy trying to keep the house clean, Peanut happy (and without baby gates up, I can't leave her alone for a minute... but the house looks so much bigger and more appealing without gates)... and trying to find us a new house!

Talk to you all after the chaos!

Win a Quilt!N

2008-04-23T14:16:00.001-06:00

Nope. I did NOT have time to make a quilt and raffle it off to my adoring readers. But somebody did! Go enter yourself, and do me a favor and tell them I sent you!

WFMW - gosh it's been a while!

2008-04-23T07:08:00.003-06:00

Well, it's been pretty much forever since I had anything to contribute to a WFMW! We are currently prepping our house to put it on the market. While it's true that the cost to effect ratio is fabulous for paint, (meaning that it doesn't cost that much, but it has a really great effect on your house), it takes a lot of work. Here's a couple other cheap and quick fixes that I have found to be really effective in making your house look fresher and up-to-date.

Change out your switch and outlet plate covers. These cost me a whopping 39 cents each at my hardware store. They take just a couple of minutes to replace an entire room's worth, but even if you didn't think they were that bad to start, you'll be shocked at how much new covers freshen up a space.
If your floor / wall vent covers are really gross, and I don't just mean dirty but corroded, they cost about $5 at your hardware store. Again, a screwdriver and a couple of minutes, and you've got a quick freshening for the whole room.
Clean your windows. I know, I know, everybody says to do it before you sell your house - and even though I thought my windows were pretty good, I cleaned them and was amazed at how much more sunshine it seemed to let in.
Take out most of your stuff. I'm not talking "eat pizza off paper plates while sitting on the floor," but by removing clutter from walls, furniture and even removing extra furniture, your rooms will look so much bigger. Of course, you need somewhere to put this stuff, but maybe you have a friend with a garage you could borrow.
Take out a ton of stuff from your linen closets / kitchen cabinets, etc. I'm going to be living with the bare minimum of spices, etc., for a while, which makes my cabinet look like there's actually room for them. Usually, my hundred different spices (exaggeration!) are jammed into a small space, and I have to paw through to find the one I want. Now my top twenty are neatly arranged in the space - when I eventually get bigger kitchen cabinets, my hundred can be neatly arranged, but for now I'm going to do everything I can to make my cabinets look gigantic!

I may add some more today as I think o f them, but I hope this helps!

Sunny Day

2008-04-15T12:25:00.005-06:00

Really, doesn't this look comfortable? A sunny spot to sprawl out and soak up some rays? I have to tell you, Peanut was very entertained by this! Although she kept signing "dog, cat, dog, cat" because she was very confused as to what it was. I guess the sign for squirrel just hasn't sunk in yet!

Was It Worth It?

2008-04-15T08:42:00.003-06:00

Oh my gooooodness.

An hour of nausea and a few minutes of retching in the bathroom - just to discover that at the bottom of the last few days' garbage lay my drivers license, ATM card, and a few other treasures from my wallet. Did I tell you that for the last five or six days, we've been fighting off a stomach bug? Everyone else seems to be past it, except for the lingering nausea and heightened awareness of smells that I got stuck with (and no, not pregnant!)... and I also got stuck with the job of digging through garbage!

Peanut loves to play with my wallet. My Discover card has a picture of a chimpanzee on it, and she just thinks that is the coolest thing ever. It will entertain her for an hour if I let her take everything out of my wallet, put it back in, etc... Except yesterday, she decided to take a handful of stuff and THROW IT OUT.

So now I'm going to be collecting all those fake cards that come with credit card offers, and go get a dollar wallet from the dollar store, and let her throw those out to her heart's content!!

Imelda Marcos, here we come!

2008-04-15T07:26:00.003-06:00

Peanut is obsessed with shoes. Seriously. She wakes up in the morning, and the first thing (after nursing) is to ask to have shoes on. Every day. Since they are the prelude to her favorite activity, Going Outside, shoes have their own appeal.

She has three pairs of shoes - shiny black patent leather ones, squeaky brown sneakers, and girly pink sneaker / sandals. She likes them all, but especially the squeaky ones.

It is not unusual to have six shoe changes in a day. We cycle through them all, trying to see which one works best with the outfit. At least, that's what I tell myself. I think she just likes watching me drop everything to hunker down and help her change her shoes.

I just said "not now, Peanut, soon..." because I was reading the internet, so she went in her room, opened her shoe/sock drawer, and brought me ALL SIX OF HER SHOES. She is now sitting next to me, unvelcroing the velcro ones and prepping them for wearing. She's not very good at putting them on herself - they precariously balance off her big toe, usually!

All right, I'd better go. Since she's wearing a pink hoodie and red sweatpants, I'm going to guess that black patent leather will go best with this outfit!

oof

2008-04-14T14:47:00.002-06:00

We've had a rough last few days here with a stomach bug. My parents were supposed to visit us on Saturday (and help us paint our kitchen) and then we were all going to my brother's and sister-in-law's house to witness the baptism of my newest niece - and Mister and I are her godparents!

But none of that happened. A couple movies, a lot of sleep, and a heck of a lot of family snuggle time happened. That part was nice. :)

What did you do this weekend?

ravelry

2008-04-14T14:45:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I joined. (lifeasamama)

For you experts out there, what are some good places to start looking around? It's so big...

Spring Cleaning, Take 2

2008-04-08T14:12:00.003-06:00

So yeah. I updated the look. What do you think? The other color scheme was probably more spring-y, but I needed something fresh. I really like the crispness of the white "life as a mama" against the header...

Any comments? I'd love to hear what you think!

I personally like the layout, so it didn't change, but suggestions would be embraced with open arms. :)

Spring Cleaning

2008-04-08T13:12:00.002-06:00

So as I mentioned in passing in an earlier post, we're debating about selling our house this summer. We don't need a larger house at the moment, but if we want to have a handful of more kids like we're planning, we'll need one eventually. We only have one toddler and I'm not pregnant. That sounds like it would be a lot easier to move now than it would be in future years!

The area where we live is really quite stable, financially. We haven't had the crazy housing-price-fluctuations that other areas have seen. And while we wouldn't make any profit off of our current house, we'd be able to snap up a bargain on the houses we've been looking at.

Of course, we've been acting very rationally about this until this weekend. When we went to an open house. Of a GORGEOUS house. One that we could just really be excited about living in. I walked out of there saying "If we lived there, I would feel so adult." In a good way, not in an "I'm an old fogey way." I would feel like we'd be squarely in the middle of living life as a family. This was a house for kids... and it had the perfect little craft room in the basement that was just calling out for me to come be creative in it! There was a ~~theater~~ playroom next door that would exactly fit Mister's requirements. So now we're all in a tizzy, crunching numbers, deciding how quickly we could get this house ready to put on the market.

So I cleaned all my windows today.

Matt Maher

2008-04-08T11:01:00.002-06:00

http://www.mattmahermusic.com/blogformusic

I'm not one to send you to other places. (Why should I? You enjoy me so much that I'm all you need, right?) If part of the criteria for a contest is that I would need to link back to the contest, I don't enter. I found that when I entered that kind of contest, my posts were littered with all these, and my content seriously decreased.

But I am making a serious exception. Matt Maher is worth it. I have had a serious music-crush on him for the last five years or so. (SWWOOOOON!) He's got this genuine, lyrical, subtleness to his music that I find so appealing. Mister makes fun of me all the time for it. Really. I even went out to Arizona to see him perform once. Does that make me a groupie? Oh well. I am. If you've never heard him, now's your chance - he's got a new cd out that I haven't heard yet, but am dancing in my desk chair about!

A Tendency of Mine

2008-04-07T20:31:00.004-06:00

I have a tendency to not complete projects. These could be crocheting projects, computer projects, etc., because I enjoy working on them so much. There's also a great big part of me that doesn't like to see them leave.

For example, when I sent the Baby a Baby package away to Leo (and Tonya), I knew I'd never see that creation again. I had a (brief) sense of loss attached to it, even though I knew that a handsome young man would enjoy it soon.

I just finished a giant computer project I've been tearing my hair out about for the last two months. It's done. It's off my desk. (I freelance a bit for the Catholic Diocese...) But while I should be feeling a sense of accomplishment and be turning my attention to our next big project (prepping our house to put it on the market), I am disappointed.

I won't get to fiddle with that darn Microsoft Access anymore. I won't learn Access' amazing capabilities. I won't have the chance to figure out how to do the really cool things I know it was capable of, but I had to do chintzy work-arounds because I didn't know Visual Basic... (That was rotten English, but I bet you know what I mean!)

Farewell, sweet database, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest...

How Fast They Are

2008-03-24T16:08:00.003-06:00

So we returned yesterday from visiting Mister's family for Easter, and I slept as much of the three hour car-ride as Peanut would let me, and then as soon as we got home, I fell asleep. So basically I rested from 4 yesterday afternoon to 7 this morning when I had to get up. I have that nasty headache / sore throat / achey virus that comes and goes and lasts for weeks.

So today my reflexes were a little slow when it came to watching Peanut. She had really enjoyed carrying around her Easter basket today. Usually it was empty, but sometimes it would have a binky or a mini Snickers bar in it. I didn't think anything of her carrying around the Snickers, because it's just the right size to fit in her hand and it crinkles, so she loves it, but oops...

I found her laying on the floor sucking on it a little while ago. Not a good thing. That usually indicates that the packaging has been breached and the contents are escaping into her tummy! Thankfully, she has no peanut issues, but she does have dairy issues, and there's caramel and milk chocolate in that... So I hastily remove the Snickers and go to get her Bendaryl... and I come back to find that she reached onto the dining room table, pulled off the box of Annie's bunnies, opened it, and dumped it all onto the floor.

Gotta love it....

Woo Hoo!

2008-03-17T17:00:00.002-06:00

The other day I saw a robin. I didn't let myself get too excited, though.

Yesterday, I checked my tulips. Nope, nothing. Ah well. (I planted a few hundred tulip bulbs last fall...)

Today, they're an inch tall. Seriously. YEAHHHHHHH!

how is this possible?

2008-03-12T07:26:00.002-06:00

Every once in a while, I will be doing something else, and then catch a glimpse of Peanut. And I just stop what I'm doing and stare at her. Who is this little person that's been entrusted to me? What a gift!

Today, she was wandering around in her sleeper pj's, clutching a small teddy bear by the paw, and with her adorably messy bed head (she barely has enough hair to count, but it sure can get messed up in the mornings!)... and I was just overwhelmed with love for her.

It's a good day here at our house. No matter what happens, I've got her.

just stuff

2008-03-10T08:35:00.002-06:00

I had a niece born on Thursday, and I was able to hold her when she was about nine hours old. BEAUTIFUL! What a fabulous experience. There's nothing quite like a tiny baby that's all pruny from nine months in the water! She smelled so sweet and her skin was like silk. Mmm. I would LOVE another baby in our house.

Speaking of my toddler (whose diaper is emitting some nasty fumes at the moment - so this will be a brief post)... she just asked me to open the cabinet where I keep canned goods. I did so, because she likes to take them all out and put them back. Today, though, she had a mission. She pulled all the stuff out to get to the bags of lentils that were in the back. She grabbed a bag in each hand (and at a pound each, that's impressive) and brought them to me. After putting one in each of my hands, she grabbed my hands, looked me in the face, then let go of my hands so that she could eagerly sign please.

Guess what we're having for dinner! Lentils with ground turkey and onions, some crusty rolls and a green salad. Mmm.

Uh oh. She just brought me the prunes. I gave her a tiny bite and she made her "icky" face. Guess we need to keep working on that one!

All right, must go put another diaper on this child. BumGenius, Mommy's Touch or Happy Heiny? We'll have to wait and see!

swap update

2008-03-03T15:14:00.002-06:00

So my project for Leo for the Baby a Baby Swap has been put on hold for a bit while I do some computer freelancing and also catchup on my backlog of ring slings that needed to be made... but today in the mail I received something I found on etsy for him... I think it's great, and it's something I think that he'll really enjoy. I know when I unpacked it, Peanut got these huge eyes and was so excited... she loved it, but after a couple of minutes of her enjoying it, I rescued it so that we can send it on in pristine condition!

Peanut also decided that today was "Pants On Our Head Day." She has never expressed clothing desires before, so POOHD is a whole new story... Welcome to the realm of a toddler expressing her will! Here's a picture of her reading her favorite book... with pants on her head. And yes, her tshirt has candy canes on it. So? You gotta problem with that?

Oscars...

2008-02-24T19:19:00.005-06:00

So Mister is not home this evening, and I have a bunch of odds and ends to do here in the family room while Peanut sleeps...

So because I always have comments on what is going on in Hollywood and no one to listen to me, I'll just blog them instead!!

It's the red carpet right now - and did Steve Carrell just walk by with "Jan" from the Office? That would be odd... Nope. He's married to Nancy Walls, who just happens to look a LOT like Jan. Wonder what Nancy thinks about him acting with a lookalike?

Jennifer Garner looks amazing, but she does not need to have her hair hanging in her face...

I want to see La Vie en Rose - it's on my queue, hadn't heard of it until just recently. Now it's an Oscar winner. Cool. And again! Best Actress? That's all the more enticing...

Way to rock the belly bump, Cate Blanchett!

Casey Affleck. Didn't see the Assassination of Jesse James yet, but he was phenomenal in Gone, Baby, Gone. I mean phenomenal. All those years of my making fun of Ben Affleck's lack of acting ability - they are all made up for by his little brother's performance in Gone, Baby, Gone. I'm sorry he didn't win the Oscar.

Yeah! The Bourne Ultimatum just won an Oscar!! Or two! Or three! Loved that movie... that was one that Mister was willing to watch over and over...

Once! Once! Once! (Does that make it Thrice?) Come on, please win!! Oh my gosh, this really is my favorite CD right now. I just love Marketa's voice... He even played the insanely broken down guitar from the movie. And they both just looked like real people on stage, not glitzy in the slightest. (She was wearing a butt-bow, for goodness sake, eh Lola?)

First laugh of the night from Jon Stewart: "According to imdb.com, the next presenter is the star of the 2010 Untitled Project of Nicole Kidman... Nicole Kidman!"

OH MY GOSH!!! WOOHOO! The only award that I really cared about this year was for Once, and they just got it! Oh wow. I am just absolutely blown away! Oh phew- that dress is so much better. Isn't he just adorable? "Make art, make art, tanks!"

I have such a little crush on James McAvoy. (Sigh!) And now that Atonement won the Best Original Score, I'm all about watching this when it comes out on DVD.

Helen Mirren looks beautiful tonight. She has the most amazing, age-appropriate gowns.

As always, the show went a little long. I'm tired. There were some lovely gowns, and one of my favorite songs won an award! Mister has No Country For Old Men in his queue. I'm intrigued because everyone says it is a flawlessly executed film, but I have to admit I'm a bit worried about the violence. I'll let you know what I think - it won the Best Director and Best Picture which makes me just a tad more interested in it!

so... uh... what happened to my winner's post?!

2008-02-24T19:07:00.003-06:00

I thought I typed it all in, but I just came back to start my Oscar's post, and my winner's post wasn't here!

So... without any further ado, let me congratulate Dee at the Diary of a Mad Crafter! If you want to email your address to lifeasamama AT gmail DOT com, then I'll get this out in the mail ASAP!

Baby a Baby Contest

2008-02-15T13:51:00.004-06:00

So, fellow yarn-aficionados...

It's time to start giving away some of that jewelry!

This contest is only open to participants in the Baby a Baby Swap - sorry to my other readers - but keep watching... there'll be another giveaway soon. As you can see here, the prize is a lovely set of drop earrings as well as a handy around-the-neck-holder-of-stuff. Perhaps you're like my crocheting friend who can never find her scissors? Or maybe it's your glasses that are always just out of reach... Use this to keep them right at hand. The jewelry is by Erin, and it's really lovely.I've been trying to think of a fun contest for you all to do. Since I haven't had any brilliant dashes of inspiration, how about this... Leave a comment on this post about the quality you most look for in a mate. If you're married or in a relationship, what was it that attracted you to this person? If you're not, then what do you most want in your future someone?

(I have romance on the brain right now as we just had V-day and our anniversary is only a couple of days away...)

I am not going to judge the answers, but I'll take all of the eligible comments and draw out of a hat. I'll do that on Monday morning, so I can put the jewelry in that afternoon's mail!

if my cheeks are red...

2008-02-15T13:50:00.002-06:00

It's because I'm embarrassed.

A telemarketer just called, which meant that Peanut saw me talking on the phone. She gets all excited about that, and so I usually let her play with the phone for a minute or two, because pushing the buttons makes great beepy noises. I am pretty careful to keep pressing "end" every couple of seconds to make sure she doesn't place a call.

She just did.

And if you're going to call anyone on your VERY FIRST accidental phone call, who should you call?

The Police Department two towns over. They just called to say they had a hangup and was everything okay?

i am a winner...

2008-02-13T16:51:00.003-06:00

So in the whole Bloggy Giveaway recently, I won a couple contests, and received a prize in the mail today... six pieces of jewelry from www.jewelrybyerin.com! THEY ARE AMAZING! Oh, sorry for shouting. They are, though!

This set was my favorite - and even though they don't match my outfit, they went on as soon as I took this picture to share with you:But really, I don't need that much new jewelry. What would happen would be that I'd wear one piece over and over again and forget about the other, just as lovely, pieces... so I have decided to share the wealth!

Keep watching over the next couple of weeks, because I'm going to have some random giveaways - not connected to any giant Bloggy Giveaways or Blog Parties. Well, maybe I'll save some for the Blog Party.

does it really say that?

2008-02-13T09:12:00.003-06:00

So I have ventured into the dizzying world of making bows for little girls' heads. Well, not just any girl. Just Peanut. I have no visions of starting my own bow-making business or anything like that... there's plenty out there already!

I picked up a couple small rolls of ribbon yesterday at Hobby Lobby, along with a low temperature glue gun. I already had a few dozen alligator clips... I made a couple this morning, and they're adorable! After finishing them, I was cleaning up my craft desk, and was going to throw out the package to the glue gun... when I saw this:
Well, I should hope so! I don't plan on putting glue in my children. :)

Becoming Jane

2008-02-12T22:42:00.003-06:00

My Craft Night girls and I decided that tonight's get together was going to be a movie night instead... we only do this for special occasions, and an Austen movie coming out on DVD? That's a special occasion!

We just finished Becoming Jane... and I am still in awe of how much this movie gripped me - there's so much tension in this movie... romantic tension, sexual tension, obligations, duties, passion.... holy cow. Who the heck cares if it's completely historically accurate? It sure made an amazing story!

I got it through Netflix (of course) and I'd like to send it back tomorrow so that I can get a new movie soon, but I may have to watch it again in the morning. How bad is that? But I spontaneously decided this morning to make a Valentine's / anniversary present for Mister... our anniversary is on the 18th, but I ordered a present online for him, and if it isn't here by Thursday afternoon, I'm going to have to have something else for him and I'll give him the online gift on Monday. It's nothing much, it's just a scarf, but he needs one, and I've never crocheted him anything. Weird. But I ran out of yarn right at the end of the movie tonight, so I think I might go to the store in the morning, then come home and crochet while watching it again... see, it's all for him, right?!

A project for '08

2008-02-11T11:23:00.000-06:00

One thing I remember vividly from homeschooling was having to keep track of every book we read for a couple of years. We had a chart where we had to write down the title, author, and a very brief synopsis. It was great, since I have a really bad tendency to forget stories. In fact, I read a book as a child that I've been searching for ever since.

It was about a poor little rich girl who was handicapped - I think she was in a wheelchair - and it was set around the turn of the 1900's. She was somewhat estranged from her dad, I think...

Yeah, I don't remember much more than that, but I remember that I absolutely loved it. That chart was very helpful for when I'd want to go back and re-read something.

So. My project for '08 is to keep a list of all the movies I watch, just to see a) how ridiculously many there are, and b) for fun. At the end of the year, I'll make a top ten list of the movies that I really really liked. There's already been a couple contenders. Once is right up there. If you're at all interested in my list so far, there's a link on the left hand side of the blog, but you can also find it here. I'm hoping to keep a list of the books I read, as well. That might be a bit harder, since I don't have Netflix to spur my memory for January...

baby sign update

2008-02-11T10:16:00.000-06:00

I know I keep posting on this these days, but it's really the highlight of what's going on in my world. The last time I posted about Peanut's vocabulary, it consisted of:

more
eat
baby
cat
all done
banana
dog
milk
light

In the five weeks since that post, she's added:

diaper
bird
pig (which also gets applied to cows)
shoes
cloth wipes (she made up a sign for this... but they are her favorite toys -she carries a stack of them all around the house)
pacifier
please
hot (which also gets applied to cold)
hat

And maybe some others - but that's what's coming to mind at the moment. Not bad, huh? Of course, many of these aren't signed perfectly. They're kind of the "baby talk" version of signing, where it's approximate. Others, like pig, hat and please are perfect - anyone who knows ASL would completely understand what she's saying... It does make it a lot more fun to be out and about with her. We were walking along the outside of a building in town recently, and there's a metal sculpture of a couple owls on the side of the building - and she got my attention and signed bird... she was so excited that she saw a bird!

I had a really good story about her signing, but I forgot. I'm off to go see if I can't convince her to take a nap - we have a lot to do this afternoon, and I need a shower and hopefully a little more sleep, but in order for those to happen, she needs to nap!

i got tagged!

2008-02-10T13:26:00.000-06:00

All righty then, I was tagged by Annalea over at The Passionate Mind to reveal 7 random facts about myself. Hmm... The sad part is, I was tagged by I Speak Beanish a long time ago, and I was such a booger that it's taken me double-tags to get around to doing it!

Okay, here goes... Here's the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I have an insane phobia of cotton balls. Not really a phobia, since I don't think they are out to get me or anything, but I just hate the feeling of them. So much so that I am physically cowering in my desk chair as I type this out, and I'm more than a little sick to my stomach. GROSS. I have psychoanalyzed myself to the point of realizing that this comes from my violent hatred of vitamins from when I was a child. We had to take these Shaklee multivitamins, and while I have nothing against either Shaklee or vitamins, those were pretty much the most disgusting thing I've ever smelled in my life. They were giant, green and smelled like rotting something-or-other. And before you could get to these delicacies, you had to pull the cotton out of the jar. So the squeakiness of the cotton (do you know what I mean?) is tied to the whole experience in my head. Cornstarch has a similar grating feel, and so I'm not too comfortable with that, either. Okay, I only touch it when ABSOLUTELY necessary.

(Pause while I regain my composure and quell my nausea with a little caffeine-free Coke. ICK!)

2. When I was in highschool, my Mom wanted me to go to the Milwaukee School of Engineering, so that I could take advantage of the seriously good male-female ratio, and find myself a Catholic engineer. I didn't, and went to a Catholic college out in Ohio instead. Two years after finishing my MA there, I found myself a Catholic engineer on the internet. She knew that an engineer would be great for me, but just had the "how" a little off... I am still impressed.

3. I went to the National Junior Classical League conventions for three years in highschool (it's for Latin students)... and loved it! I got to go to Knoxville, TN, Lawrence, KA and Indianapolis, IN for a week at a time and compete and hang out with Latin students from all over the country. The highlight of the week was the "Certamen" competition, much like a quiz bowl, except that the questions were in categories such as "Latin derivatives," "Roman private life," "mythology, "Greek and Roman history," or "Latin grammar," to name a few. My senior year, I was one of the four-member team from WI, and we won NATIONALS! This was a huge feat, especially as we were not one of the four states that typically won....

4. I have a small diamond-shaped birthmark on my belly, and over the last couple of years, I've developed a couple dark freckles right in the middle of it. Needless to say, Peanut will occasionally latch on to it in order to crack me up. It does resemble my, um, normal milk-producing locations... just flatter.

5. I am a really good cook. I don't typically follow recipes, but play with flavors and textures and come up with things that are quite good. Ask Mister... he's gained more weight than he wanted since he met me. What can I say? It tastes so good he doesn't like to stop eating!

6. I am a total Catholic nerd. My particular hobby is Catholic saints - I love reading about their lives, and realizing people who lived centuries ago are so closely connected to us. Some of my personal favorites include Miguel Pro, Edmund Campion, Margaret Clitherow and Maximilian Kolbe, if I had to narrow it down to a few! We're hoping to name our first son after a somewhat obscure saint, but I definitely can't share that information here, as we want to keep it a secret.

7. I am a lazy bum when it comes to housework. I would rather read a book than do the dishes, any day. It's something I'm struggling with - and actually have been ever since I was old enough to start helping with chores when I was little. My mother would not be surprised at all to hear that I struggle with this, I can tell you that! I have a tendency to quick rush around and clean up breakfast while I'm making dinner... and then I'm embarrassed if Mister comes home early and realizes this!

Okay. Phew. There's seven. Um... as for tagging seven, I think I'm going to go with: Cellular Lola, my best friend since I can remember... Teresa at Glimpses of Galway, since I can't seem to find her more recent blog... Groovy at the groovyoldlady... Shannon at a Reforming Mom... Chris at Serendipity Mine... Amy at Raising Angels... and whoever else might possibly stumble across this post!

baby sign update

2008-02-08T15:09:00.000-06:00

This girl can seriously communicate, although her speaking vocabulary is limited to "dada," "yeah" and "hey." She also says "shhh" for shoes, splash, and anything that possibly has a "shh" sound in it!

Today I was in the bathtub, sneaking a few moments of warmth and solitude while she was ensconced in the living room, busily rearranging my coasters for me. She does this for about a half an hour a day, so I figured I had a few moments for myself in between cleaning the house (my in-laws will be here in an hour and I'm procrastinating from vacuuming and going to the store).

Nope. Thirty seconds after the initial "ahhhh...." of warm water, there's a Peanut standing at the tub vigorously signing "drink, please, up, please, please, please..." By drink, she was referring to the water in the tub. She's not very good at the water sign yet, and her rendition of drink gets applied to anything liquid... So she got in with me and had a ball!

I think her most common sign is please. It's a great one, because it saves a lot of squawking. Although she doesn't always realize that I can't see her hand, and she signs please when I'm not looking at her... then she gets upset and squawks!

Peanut really does have quite the vocabulary now, though, and I really need to learn some more signs, because she's eager to learn more!

Lent? Already!?

2008-02-07T14:59:00.000-06:00

Wow... seriously, it feels like we just took down our Christmas tree. That liturgical year sneaks up on me everytime...

This year I've decided to try something new. Each week, I'm going to add something to my Lenten practices, whether that be making another sacrifice or adding something to my routine. That way, by the end of Lent, it should be pretty intense, and should really make me aware of what's happening.

I'm not sure what each week is going to look like yet, but this week (and then for all the remaining weeks), we'll be returning to our practice of a daily Rosary. We are normally horrible with this, and many months can go between our family Rosaries. I have to say, with Peanut around, it's a lot harder. Last night, she just wouldn't go to sleep (darn those late afternoon inadvertent naps when she just falls asleep on the floor!)... and so we ended up going to bed, turning out the lights, and praying in the dark, hoping that the repetition combined with the dark and cuddling with Mama in bed would put her to sleep. Basically, she just flipped out. Mister got to lead the prayers while I was on containment duty - she was more spastic than I've ever seen her! (Of course, she fell asleep moments after it was done. Darn kid!)

So. Daily Rosary. Next week, I'm going to return to my daily gym routine. Oof. This is one that knocks me right in my lazy patootie. So we're starting out with spiritual and physical discipline. Who knows what's coming next??

On a completly unrelated note, I'm very busy with my project for the Baby a Baby swap - and can I say that I am thrilled with the way it looks? My craft night buddies are loving it, too...

Bloggy Giveaway Winner!

2008-02-01T12:57:00.000-06:00

The winner is Shannon over at A Reforming Mom! Thanks to all of you who entered... 176 of you! That's more than have ever entered one of my contests - woo hoo!!

Baby A Baby Swap

2008-01-30T19:41:00.000-06:00

One of my blogging buddies, Top Hat, is hosting a new swap - it's called "Baby A Baby!" It looks like a lot of fun, and basically is for people that love yarn and love baby stuff. That is DEFINITELY me. So... without further ado, here's my answers to the introductory questionnaire for the swap-a-roo! Hurry up and go join before the deadline (which is really soon because I procrastinated on this one!) if you're interested!

1) What is your favorite yarn? Favorite colors? What is your least favorite?

You know, I've never been a picky yarn-er when it comes to natural fibers / unnatural fibers. I have a tendency to go unnatural, just because they're cheaper and I have access to them. I'm not a big fan of the eyelash yarns, but used in moderation, they can add a lot of punch to your project. Favorite colors? For me, I usually like earthier tones, less saturated colors, but for baby? I'm all over bright pastels! I usually tend to go pretty simple in mixing colors - I'm not a daring forty-seven color mixer in a project - one or two satisfy me.

2) Knit, crochet, both?

Crochet.

3) How long have you been knitting/crocheting? Who taught you? Why did you want to learn?

My mom taught me how to knit when I was little, but it never stuck. In college, my household (a sorority crossed with a prayer group) sisters found yarn to be extremely therapeutic, and our business meetings always went better with a lot of yarn involved. I tried knitting again, and tried crocheting as well, and found crocheting to be much more tactile, which I loved. I have to say I don't remember who exactly taught me (it was 10 years ago) but it was definitely one of my sisters.

4) What is your favorite snack/sweet?

Oh, interesting question. I like munchies a lot. I love potato chips (there's nothing quite like them!), trail mixes (but without chocolate, they're not quite as good!), almonds, semisweet chocolate, dark chocolate, mint chocolate, peanut butter and chocolate, crunchy chocolate.... etc! I'm mostly dairy-free for this year, so no milk chocolate or caramel for me at the moment!

5) What did you want to be when you grew up?

A chiropractor. My grandfather, great uncle, uncle, first-cousin-once-removed and dad are all chiropractors. I never fulfilled that dream, but my little brother just went back to school for it, and he's going to join my dad in his practice after graduation. In my family, we all fulfill each other's dreams. Seriously. I have fulfilled my mom's dreams. I should post on that sometime. It's interesting.

6) What names would you NEVER consider for a baby?

Tatum. (It sounds like something a two year old would make up). Dallas. (A city name? Really, that is what you want to name your child after?) Madison. (Presidential last names do not make good girl's first names. Taylor also fits that category). I'm very much a traditional namer. I want my children's names to not scream a time period when you hear it.

7) What things did you, as a child, vow to never to do your children, but have since decided that you will? For example, we weren't allowed sugar-coated cereal growing up and I told my parents I'd NEVER do that to my kids. After some life experience, I think my parents were pretty smart in that decision.

I told myself I would never ever call my daughter "girly girl." I hated that. Passionately hated that. Yeah, I call her that all the time. Oops.

8) What is your favorite thing about being a parent/expectant parent?

This changes as she changes. Currently, it's being able to communicate with her through baby sign language, and watching her realize that she can tell me what she wants... we make jokes and share secret communication - and she can't talk...

Bloggy Giveaway!

2008-01-29T09:06:00.000-06:00

I know I'm dreadfully late jumping on the bandwagon, but I have had one sick toddler here for the last week or so - I think she's finally getting better... phew!

Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer is hosting yet another fabulous Bloggy Giveaway Carnival, and here's my entry:

A box FULL of craft supplies - many vintage. There is a ton of vinage rickrack, old buttons, vintage zippers, fold-over-elastic and some random craft supplies that I just am not using and would love to know that they're being put to a good use!

Please leave a comment here if you're interested, and I'll draw the winner on Friday. Thank you for stopping by!

Day 4: Oh so wii-ry

2008-01-07T08:19:00.000-06:00

Okay, I've come to a conclusion early in my 30-days-of-blogging. It's not going to happen on weekends. I'm only on Day 4, but it's January 7. There's been three days where I get my Mister home. Do the math. I'm in love, what can I say?

But I am soooo tired this morning! Wii finally got our last Christmas present yesterday morning, bright and early. Wii'd received some cash as a gift, and decided to go ahead and splurge on the one thing wii'd been debating on getting as a mutual gift for ourselves...

Can you POSSIBLY guess what wii got?

Oh yeah. It's been a blast so far - and I'm only moderately sore from so much tennis!

Day 3: Communication

2008-01-04T13:40:00.001-06:00

So not only did Peanut learn how to walk last Sunday night, she's just soaking up as many Baby Signs as I can teach her.

In the last week alone, she's started using: more, eat, baby, cat, all done and a vague and thoroughly unrecognizable-to-anyone-but-me banana. Add that to her previous vocabulary of dog, milk and light, and you can see how much has happened since we came home from Christmas vacation!

It really lights up her face when she is able to communicate something to me! It's also made diaper changes easier since she grasped the concept of all done -she knows that she can't roll away until I say and sign "all done" and she knows that she can't be excused from her high chair until she signs "all done."

Today she walked into the kitchen (that's already a fabulous improvement over last week) and signed "eat." When I asked her what she wanted to eat, she signed "more." Not so helpful. She then gave her attempt at banana but laughed when I looked so confused. So she walked over to stand under the counter where the bananas were, and pointed up. OH! I gotcha! Of course you can have bananas....

Life as a mother has totally changed overnight. I am in the process of making a Shutterfly album to showcase 2007, and am amazed at exactly how tiny and fragile Peanut looked one year ago...

Day 2: The Ultimate Gift

2008-01-03T12:59:00.000-06:00

So I know I'm behind on this one as many of you have probably already seen this movie, but if you haven't, it's fabulous.

I was SUPPOSED to be folding laundry this morning, so I popped it in to watch while I attacked the piles. I didn't get anything folded since this film grabbed my attention right away and I pretty much just sat there and watched it...

I thought it was lovely. The acting was a touch stilted at points, but it was a well-made movie, beautiful scenery / sets, etc... It was heartwarming and sensitive and made me glad to be alive. I like that kind of film!

Day 1: Corned Beef

2008-01-02T10:23:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was the last of twelve days off that Mister had for Christmas. The company he works for is fabulous with that - only Friday the 21st was a vacation day, the rest were given to him. But I chose to spend it with him rather than beginning my month o' blogging.

Today's reflection is extremely trivial, but to parents of small children, it might be good to know.

Both Mister and I are avid fans of corned beef. We just love it. We can eat an obscene amount of it hot, and then corned beef hash the next morning usually means that there are no leftovers. At all. We love the stuff. So we were thrilled to see that Peanut enjoys it as much as we do. It's so tender after a day in the crockpot that she loved it... Cut into small pieces, it's soft and easy to pick up. Perfect toddler food, right?

Until the diapers started hitting. Corned beef poop is the most toxic odor that has ever come out of my child. And there's been some doozies so far. I was trying to describe this smell to Mister, and my saying "it really smells like corned beef" wasn't helping, since he finds that smell appealing. But somehow the appetizing odor of corned beef gets warped into this dreadful mutant gut-twisting stench.

So my advice for the day: Corned beef is not your toddler's friend.

Movies of 2008

2008-01-01T00:00:00.002-06:00

I thought I'd make a list of all the movies I watch in 2008, just for fun... If there was a movie that I was really touched by, it's in bold. Movies that I can't recommend to anyone are crossed out.

Amazing Grace: Way better than I expected.
Becoming Jane: Who cares if it's historically accurate? Oh the sweet tension...
Catch and Release: Predictable but it still made me cry.
~~Copying Beethoven:~~ Big disappointment.
~~Elizabeth, the Golden Age:~~ Didn't finish due to the serious anti-Catholic bias.
Freedom Writers: Good, predictable, gritty.
Gone, Baby Gone: Very brutal and vulgar - but unbelievably gripping. Who would ever have thought that Ben Affleck would make such a good director? I had my hand to my throat the whole time... with tears in my eyes.
Goodnight, Mister Tom: Wonderful, surprising, sweet.
King of Kong: Fascinating documentary. We were totally hooked.
League of Their Own: I can't believe I'd never seen this. I even knew a Rockford Peach.
Man in the Moon: Reese Witherspoon was fabulous.
Man Without a Face: Good, more serious than I'd expected.
~~Marie Antoinette:~~ Waste of time. Didn't finish.
Miss Potter: Interesting, but could have been better.
Nanny Diaries: Just like the book, it was okay.
Once: Fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. I have the soundtrack going nonstop.
Sweetland: Lovely. Better than expected.
Ultimate Gift: I liked it a lot, Mister thought it was predictable.

Resolutions!!

2007-12-31T15:09:00.000-06:00

2008 Resolutions

1. Do at least 40 minutes of exercise 3 times a week. At least. My real goal is M-F, but we'll make the resolution 3 times a week. Since we joined the gym a couple of weeks ago, I've been pretty good and love going. This is the first time in my life I've ever looked forward to exercise. I think the built-in tv in the treadmill is a serious motivator.

2. Spend at least 10 minutes outside everyday. Walking the cart back to the corral does not count. My toddler needs to develop better habits than her inside-lovin' mama!

3. Don't complain about 2008 being dairy free. This is an opportunity to make our whole family healthier! (We have a one-year assignment by the pediatrician, we'll re-evaluate in Nov 2008).

4. Be a better friend. I have a tendency to get stuck in ruts of just staying at home / not doing things with people / not calling friends in other states... and I really want to work on that this year.

5. Have another kid. :) Not pregnant yet, so I need to work on that one if I want to squeeze one into 2008!!

6. Blog everyday during January and see if I get in a good habit... re-evaluate this one at the end of January. I've been crummy lately and the only way to know if I should even keep the blog up and running is to do it a lot and see if I enjoy it!

Okay, off to make cookies for the people that are coming over tonight. Notice how weightloss isn't on the list? #1 and #3 are really combining to have good effects, but hopefully #5 will sneak in there and make my weight go back up!

Last Night

2007-12-04T12:49:00.000-06:00

Mister took Monday off of work, so we had a lovely and lazy weekend to ourselves. One reason we didn't do anything was that he was exhausted! I'd finally had it with Peanut's way-too-frequent night wakings (usually about every hour, sometimes I'd get two hours of sleep). For three nights (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), Mister was in charge of all but two of her night wakings. He had to get her back to sleep... I'd feed her once when I went to bed and then one other time.

We think that the dairy issues were causing her to wake up, simply from an uncomfortable belly. And the change that we were able to make in those three nights and by cutting out obvious dairy (still transitioning into cutting out all of the super-hidden-in-everything dairy) was enough that last night she did great! I actually had to wake her up at 10:40 because I'd gone to bed and was laying there waiting for her to wake up, and she didn't, so I did the "pick her up and feed her before she realizes she's even awake" thing. It worked great!

The next feeding, though, was ridiculous - and halfway through it, I realized it was blog fodder.

So I go in and get her at about 1:50. A little earlier than I would have preferred for the other feeding of the night, but I tried to comfort her back to sleep and she just woke up farther. I swear she can smell the milk. So I nursed her. Just as she was right on the edge of falling back into dreamland, she pees all over. And I mean a massive amount. Heat running down my leg.... her clothes are totally soaked. She falls totally asleep, from the relief of it. As I'm sitting there in the dark, with a sopping baby on the Boppy, debating whether or not to wake her up, suddenly she wakes all the way up and is uncomfortable. No kidding!

So I go over to change her, stripping off her pants and mine on the way to the changing table. Suddenly I realize that the long sleeve t over the short sleeved onesie is going to pose a problem. Either I need to take off both shirts to get the wet onesie off (which is going to put a naked baby in the cold house in the middle of the night - that's a recipe for a very long process of falling back to sleep!) or I need to take drastic action. So I pick her back up, carry her into the office/sewing room, where I grab my pinking shears and hack off the bottom of her onesie, and carry Peanut back into her room. I've cut off the bottoms of onesies before to turn them into t-shirts as they don't always fit over cloth diapers, so this wasn't anything new, but I really did a hack job on it!!

In the process, I caught the edge of a cut I have on my finger on something, which tears it way open, and since it was a really deep cut, I suddenly have blood everywhere. Not too helpful.

So I grab a cloth wipe, trying to put pressure on my finger, and put a fresh diaper on her, put fresh pants on her, and go sit back down to see if I can't nurse her back to sleep. Keep in mind that all I am wearing at this stage is a tshirt and fleece socks. And it's COLD in the house! I put the Boppy on my lap, upside down so that the wet part isn't touching her, and then I realize that it's touching me.

I'm half-naked, bleeding profusely from my finger, with a soggy Boppy on my lap, and a happy and contented toddler on top of that. That's blogging fodder for ya!

Thankfully, after I was able to convince her back to sleep, she slept until 6:50, which is an unheard of feat! (okay, okay, she was doing that months ago, but hasn't slept for over four hours in a row in a long time!)

Happy Birthday, Peanut!

2007-11-30T14:50:00.000-06:00

You're one year and one week old today. All those people that said life would never be the same? They were so correct! I can't imagine my life without you and your sweet face. You make me crack up so many times a day... and every day, I fall a little more in love with you.

I loved giving birth to you. It was the most intense experience of my life, and I felt completely fulfilled in my femininity and in my humanity. It was natural, and I felt every bit of you pass through me, your gateway into the world. It's been my joy to introduce you to so much of the world already, and the upcoming years will be so much fun as I get to see you grow and learn so much.

Thank you for being you...

My latest "hobby"

2007-11-29T11:41:00.000-06:00

Peanut's always been on the small side, which hasn't ever been a concern. But then when we went for her one year checkup yesterday, she hadn't put on an OUNCE in three months. I know that she had, but she lost it when she had a cold and wasn't interested in eating.

Still, though, that's a little disconcerting.

Add that to my "denial" over the last six months about her dairy issues. She'd developed hives around her mouth the two times that she was allowed to suck on a spoon that had some ice cream on it. Yes, there were two times. The first time, we let her suck the ice cream. Hives. Worried parents. Benadryl cream. A little relief. The next time, I was careful to lick all the ice cream off first, but she still got hives. Not as many, but still... So I haven't let her eat anything that has cheese or milk, etc., but I haven't cut it entirely out of my diet yet. I cut out ice cream, yogurt and milk, but am still eating cheese and cooking with butter.

She's not sleeping nearly as well as any of her baby-friends at this age. Poor weight gain? Restless nights? Add those up and it looks like she is affected by even the slight dairy in my diet.

It's time. We're going dairy-free for a year, I think. Still not sure if the Mister is going to join us, but we'll see. It's our new adventure. It pretty much hails the end of my ~~laziness~~ love of prepared food and having Mister order out when I'm tired.

I know scads of moms out there have tried this and succeeded, and they get more sleep at night which allows them to keep up with all the extra work during the day. Who knows, maybe I'll even lose those last tough postpartum pounds!

wfmw - what to get at sonic??

2007-11-07T07:56:00.000-06:00

This may seem waaaay weird to some of you Southern Gals who have become accustomed to a Sonic on every corner... but I am thrilled about the prospect of a Sonic being built just a couple of miles from my blogging location!

I've experienced the goodness of Sonic drinks on three occasions, but I have to say that once I tried the Strawberry Limeade, I was in luv. Fizzy, sweet, tangy, fresh, with little ol' chunks of strawberry shooting up the straw periodically to remind me that this was a HEALTHY drink, yup... I'm in luv.

But I don't want to get in a comfort zone and miss out on Sonic's other goodies. So I'm turning to you, Oh Experienced Sonic Aficionados, and asking what I should order the next time I'm there?

first of many....

2007-10-26T15:26:00.000-06:00

So my friend called this morning and wished me the first of many Happy 29th Birthdays!

I thought that was great. :o)

a weird sense of loss...

2007-10-23T06:56:00.000-06:00

When I was growing up, I never remembered my dreams. In fact, I had no "proof" that I actually slept at all. I'm legendary in my family for declaring at the wise old age of six that I never slept, and was awake all night long. My parents just laughed, but I realize that my problems with sleep have been around for a long time.

When I had Peanut, I wanted to co-sleep with her, but after a couple sleep-deprived-stumbling-around-in-a-haze months, I realized that a Squirming Little Furnace next to me wasn't a good idea, no matter how absolutely adorable she was. Those precious little toes? Not exactly what I want dug into my throat at oh-dark-thirty in the morning while her head is snuggled into Mister.

So I've never been a good sleeper. It used to take me ages to fall asleep, and if I woke up in the middle of the night, that was it. I was doomed to hours of reading / staring at the ceiling before falling back asleep. That's one good thing that Peanut has done for me - because I'm up so often, I've adapted to being able to fall asleep a heck of a lot faster! There is no time on the clock that sounds "too late" or "too early." 2:30? 3:45? Been there, done that a gazillion times...

One (unexpected) side effect of all this gallivanting around in the middle of the night is that I wake up duri\vng dreams, which means I remember (for a short time) what I was dreaming about. On Sunday night, I woke during the middle of a particularly enjoyable dream. It was an amazing mix of Brigadoon and some adventure, maybe like Firefly or something. I remember that I was going to have to save the whole town by my time-travelling escapade, which involved something about $1.32 being deposited into a cell phone account so that they would be paid up to date. But I remember having close friendships, a romantic interest, etc. It would have been a blockbuster of a movie!

The weird thing is... ever since then, all day yesterday, all last night, and even this morning, I have had a weird sense of loss that I didn't find out what happened. I miss the person I was in love with, and want to hang out with those friends. How odd. Mourning something I never had in the first place...

oh this is more than a little embarrassing

2007-10-12T13:11:00.000-06:00

has it REALLY been almost a month since I've posted last? sheesh. all those wonderful moments where i thought to myself "self, this would make a great post on the blog!"... none of those got posted?

so you don't even know that Peanut is on the verge of walking... she can stand for a (comparatively) long time, and she gets the sweetest look of extreme concentration after a while before finally letting out a little sigh and sinking slowly down. it's absolutely adorable. she can also clap, point, say "mamamamama... mam... mama...." while clutching my leg. that usually happens when i'm in the kitchen, which means that in order to get from the stove to the sink, it takes a couple of minutes while we walk veerrrry slowly together.

and the weather is suddenly freezing. literally. i need to go bring my ficus in from the deck.

i got to see my very best real-life-childhood-friend a couple of weeks ago. that was way too much fun. we met up at my parents' house for her 10 year highschool reunion, which was enough of an excuse for me, Mister and Peanut to go up there - as well as my little brother, his wife, her belly-baby and their two kids. let's just say that this summed up her reunion:

Plane Ticket to Wisconsin: $250
Haircut, new shoes, etc: $100
Finding out your prom date is now a woman: Priceless.

Seriously. How traumatic would that be? But we got a lot of belly laughs out of hearing her stories about her old classmates.

We got a van! Too fun...

Uh oh. I finally sit down to post and Peanut wakes up. Gotta go!!

a new phase

2007-09-17T12:05:00.000-06:00

So I'm officially deciding that Peanut is a toddler. She's still a baby, don't get me wrong, and like my mom, I'll probably be referring to her as my baby when she's grown with kids of her own... But she's a toddler, now, too.

A few weeks ago, I had her in the stroller at the library (much easier - that way I can put my books in the basket underneath her!), when some nice ladies came up to see her and commented to me, "That is the most content toddler we've seen in a long time!" I thought they were nuts - this was my little baby, who I can cuddle on my lap, this isn't any toddler!!

Yeah. Silly me. She's cruising around all the furniture, experimenting with standing on her own, loving table food, pointing, clapping and babbling all day long. I don't think she's a baby anymore.

Because I'm the googlenerd that I am, I had to look up what the official definition of a toddler is. This is what I came up with:

When she learns to walk.

Phew. Does that mean I'm off the hook for a little bit longer and can keep calling her my baby? I think I will. For as long as I can.

trying to get motivated

2007-09-11T10:12:00.000-06:00

I have to confess that I'm really anti-exercise. It's worse when I haven't done it in forever. I love the way I feel when I'm done, but I just don't like the process of getting to that exhilaration. If I've been exercising regularly for a little while, it's SOOO much easier to get motivated.

Lately, though, I've just been sitting on my duff. Like right now. Peanut's sleeping, the oven is cleaning itself (what a great invention) and I could totally be downstairs exercising, in the kitchen scrubbing cabinets, working online, etc... but no. I'm reading blogs that I just read an hour ago. I'm running google searches for the perfect MS Access database (for free/cheap, of course) that will organize my recipes, hold my menu plans and print out grocery lists by store / aisle... still haven't found it yet, but I have spent many hours looking for the right one. I do this about every two weeks.

Do you have serious time wasters?

Now that I've put this out here, I'm feeling properly shamed by my laziness. Here's where I get off my tush and go do something. I think I'll stay out of the kitchen, though, as it's still a little stinky. I did just take a bath a little while ago, so I'm not going to go getting all sweaty. Maybe I'll go pick up our bedroom and then go plan meals for the rest of the week. It's amazing how much work planning meals / organizing coupons / figuring out the grocery list / shopping / putting groceries away can be!

drooling and sad at the same time

2007-09-07T12:05:00.000-06:00

So I'm totally drooling over these pendants at Littleput Books on etsy - and you can even enter for a chance to WIN ONE!! or at the same blog, a chance to win some gorgeous earrings...

That's the drool. On the other hand, I'm sad because I just set up plans today for my brother and sister-in-law to come down to our house and watch the PACKER GAME on our gigantic-really-insanely-enormous screen. We were going to feast on wings and snacks and really kickoff football season with a big bang - and then appease my Mister by watching the Bears play after them. But I just doublechecked and the Packers aren't going to be shown here. We only live a state away! Too bad that St. Louis is a lot closer than Green Bay - they're televising the Rams.

"I am a stranger in a strange land." - Exodus 2:22

If only everyone around here embraced the deep love I have for the Packers. Ah well. It is my duty to convert them away from their Bear-lovin' ways.

put your thinking caps on!

2007-09-06T07:34:00.000-06:00

If I were able to do all of the jobs I'd ever wanted, marketing would be one I'd love to try. Here's a way for you to see how fun / addictive thinking about things like that is! I'm racking my brain right now to come up with the entry for the day! Let me know if you put an entry in - I'd love to hear what you came up with!

rest in peace...

2007-09-06T07:13:00.000-06:00

Luciano Pavarotti died this morning after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

I don't know about you, but I grew up thinking his name was synonymous with all things cultural, beautiful and passionate. He was graced with an amazing gift... I'm a little sad this morning and it seems that a little bit of color has gone out of the world. Maybe I'll just have to go listen to him singing Nessun Dorma a few times, and be uplifted...

yet another

2007-09-04T08:19:00.000-06:00

okay I'm following their rules: The guys over at Nuts and Milk are having a contest and giving away free money... $250 to be exact! All you have to do is follow their simple rules to enter the contest. Nuts and Milk is a blog about tech news & online tips & tricks.

Another contest out there involves being funny... go check it out. That one's for $350!!

Tackle It Tuesday - it's been a while

2007-09-04T07:42:00.001-06:00

I know it's been quite a while since I officially participated in a Tackle It Tuesday. Does anyone else out there wake up and say to themselves... "oh, it's Tuesday. What should I tackle?" or "Hmm... Wednesday. Anything work for me?" Yeah. I feel like a bloggity dork sometimes!

Today's tackle is a list. The Mister is in Florida on business and comes home TONIGHT - but super late. Like 11 if all the flights go according to plan, which they most definitively did not last night when he was flying to Florida. He was supposed to get to his destination at 11:30 pm, but it looked like it wouldn't be until about 2 am the last time I talked to him... Ick.

Oh. But. Tackles. Um. So yeah - I have a whole list that I'd like to get done today. This is a long day for me - I don't need to start thinking about dinner at 5 like I usually do - I can keep on working. Hopefully then I can actually get this list done!

~~Go to Target:~~

~~Need a new bin for the newspapers that have been read~~
~~Need a container to go on top of the bin for Peanut's kitchen toys~~
~~Get some double-a batteries~~
~~More binkies!~~
~~Adhesive squares~~
~~Mailing envelopes for stuff I want to sell online~~
~~nondairy creamer (we're gradually testing Mister's dairy intolerance)~~

~~Go to JoAnn's:~~

~~rotary cutter~~
~~rotary cutter mat~~
~~craft foam for making dividers for in between clothes~~

Go to Lowe's:

paint chips for the garage door (before we sell next summer, we have to paint over all the little rust spots on our garage door!)

put the final coat of spray paint on the new handles for our cabinets
if they dry in time, install the new handles for our cabinets
~~make dividers for in between clothes~~
~~organize Mister's closet~~
~~organize my closet~~
~~organize Peanut's closet~~
~~finish sorting clothes that I've bought that are too big for Peanut - figure out where they go~~
~~go through all the bills that need to be paid and get them all ready for Mister to review~~
~~prep the stuff I want to sell online (I have a ton of craft stuff and some clothes)~~
~~write thank-you to Peanut's cousins who each gave her one of their toys this weekend~~
~~figure out where extra spices need to go - they had a home, but they need a new one~~
clean and organize shelves in laundry room
~~do diaper laundry~~
~~FOLD diaper laundry~~

Yikes. I'm tired just contemplating! Peanut's napping now... gosh, maybe I'll just go lay down for a minute...

ETA: Sorry, I was having trouble with my deleting... it sure looked like I'd been productive, but this is much more accurate. :)

contests...

2007-09-03T14:53:00.001-06:00

Growing A Life is having a whole week-full of contests to celebrate her Flybaby's first birthday... go on over and check it out!

I just won a copy of Brandilyn Collin's book Coral Moon over at Camy's Loft... so as soon as I've read it, I'll be giving it away here! See, one of you can share in the winning-ness!! How fun is that?

nothin' much

2007-08-30T09:03:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to post something, and when I pulled up my blog, the first thought was "gosh, I really like that." Let's see how long I leave the basic layout the same - I can tweak widgets and stuff, but I'm really liking this! I have a tendency to be fickle with things that are easily changed, though...

How many of you do this? I finally added myself to my Google Reader, so that when I get all my blog updates (and I read 53 other blogs...), I get my life as a mama updates sent as well. I have to say, it's kinda weird. Let's see. Why is it weird? Well, for one thing, I have a tendency to think of all other bloggers as pros and myself as just an amateur - and I also forget that most of them are just moms who, in the words of my mother, "pull their pants on one leg at a time." Not that some of you have to pull your own pants on. You have scads of adoring minions who do that for you. And follow you around with makeup, so you always look perfect... But when I see my words in the same format as everyone else's, it makes mine look just as authentic. Which is kinda cool.

On the other hand, I never fail to get halfway through the post and go "wait, this sounds familiar," before realizing that it's mine. I am such a doofus. And no, it didn't take halfway through my eleventy-first post to get it! I'm not THAT slow!

another contest...

2007-08-29T07:41:00.000-06:00

Tips for Toddlers is giving away a Baby's First Kisses doll... how cute is that? Peanut has a little stuffed bunny that makes kissy noises, and it's her favorite stuffed animal. Seriously. She puts her face up to it and I push the bunny-belly and it makes kissy noises and Peanut just goes nuts! What the heck would she do with a DOLL THAT DOES THIS? I can only imagine...

Eleventy-one things about me

2007-08-28T10:14:00.002-06:00

So I never got around to doing my 100 things about me post... so here's eleventy-one things about me!

I like chocolate.
I'talk to my mother about once a day - that's a new development... I didn't call too often in my college years.
I like white gold better than yellow gold.
Bread pudding is one of my favorite desserts.
I don't like following patterns when crocheting, and only follow recipes when necessary.
I am the middle of three children.
My older brother is studying to become a priest.
I have an undergrad degree in Theology and Philosophy.
I have a Masters degree in Theology, with a specialization in Catechetics.
I'm retired, at the age of 28.
I go to the library at least once a week.
When I go to the library, I check out six things. No more, no less. That's a hold over from childhood.
I was homeschooled on-and-off, mostly on, for my pre-college years.
I skipped first grade.
I took a year off after highschool to catch up in age with my peers before entering college.
I spent it working in a German convent / inn.
I also lived in Austria for a semester.
I didn't speak any German before living in Germany, but was fluent at the end of my six months. I learned most of it from a Polish girl, though, so my accent was really funky.
I have forgotten almost all of it.
I am a lazy slug and hate exercise.
I love food - reading about food, making food, eating food, talking about food...
I own way too many books, but have given away hundreds...
I would rather sing harmony than melody.
I love to sing, even though I'm not nearly as good as my sister-in-law.
I had a natural birth with Peanut and toy with the idea of becoming a Bradley instructor.
I was 25 before I had my ears pierced.
I pierced them myself when I was given earrings to wear as a member of a bridal party - we got them at the rehearsal dinner, I pierced my ears that night, and wore the earrings proudly the next day!
I met my husband online.
I am a weird mix between an organizing junkie and a slob.
I'm definitely a procrastinator.
I love interior decorating.
The walls of most of my house are a bright, sunny yellow - which my white-wall parents thought was drastic, but everyone just loves.
I've spent more than a month of my life in Italy, between my five trips there.
Most of that month was spent in Rome.
I have been to: United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands, and the Vatican City. Oh - and Hungary.
As of today, I have been to 27 states.
If I had been a boy, my name would have been Andrew David. (My grandmother's maiden name was Andrews, and my grandfather's name was David.)
I love to spell.
I've always wanted to own a used bookstore with a pet monkey as a mascot.
I really like Sudoku.
I get bored with jobs easily, unless there's new challenges all the time.
Ever since being pregnant, I can't watch scary movies at ALL. I used to only be able to watch them a little.
I love the TV show House, but every time they intubate someone or go at them with a long needle, I can't watch.
I have a horror about being poked in the eye - probably because I'm practically blind and wear super-intense glasses. (This is an exaggeration... don't go feeling sorry for me because I have a seeing-eye dog or anything... but my eyes are a -7.5 if that means anything to you.)
I exaggerate everything. It's genetic. My mother's family tells whoppers proudly.
I like board games, especially if they have words involved.
I had a boy break up with me because I cheated at Scrabble once (that's not the reason he gave, but it had a lot to do with it.)
After being seriously addicted to caffeine for years and years, I have been caffeine free since November, 2005.
That's ONLY because of pregnancy and breastfeeding - after having our kids, I will definitely go back to drinking it!
We would like to have four or five kids... but we'll see what happens!
I would like to write a book someday, and am always coming up with new ideas.
Although I read 90% fiction, I'd probably write a nonfiction book.
I'm addicted to hagiography.
I didn't drink until I was 21 (except for the six months I was in Germany) but really don't drink very much at all now.
I was a virgin on my wedding night. (So was my husband.)
I have a tendency to crash the front drivers side of my car. It's happened at least 3 times.
I drive a Camry right now... we're looking for a minivan!! I never thought I'd be excited about that.
During my first soccer game as a kiddo, I scored a goal for the other team.
I played softball in a girl's league for years. My mom knew it was the league for me at the first game when a girl ran to first base while fixing her earrings. It was really low-key.
At the house where I grew up, I named the clump of pine trees outside my window Whispering Pines... and we cleaned out the inside to be a fort for me. It was really amazing.
I'm a little allergic to cats (as is most of my family) and my parents never wanted a dog, so I had lots of goldfish when I was growing up. We had a goldfish graveyard.
When I was growing up, I read all the Nancy Drews and Hardy Boys.
My hair is chocolate brown, and usually about shoulder length. Except for the time when I had "red" highlights put in and they turned out pink. That was sad.
I use cloth diapers on my Peanut and wear her in a sling. That makes me practically a modern hippie. I'm proud of it.
I was vegetarian for three years. (Does it still count if they were the first three years of my life?)
I took eleven years of piano lessons and played the clarinet for eight years and the guitar for six.
I broke my left wrist while playing basketball with three guys but was trying to be tough, so I kept playing... I even sank the winning shot with a broken wrist. :)
I'm really bad at basketball unless I have a broken wrist, but I do like playing.
I was reading Little House on the Prairie at the age of 3. No kidding.
I've only ever seen Schindler's List in German.
I absolutely loathe and detest cotton balls. They have this squeaky-feeling to them that makes me get all nauseous and goosebumpy. They have ended up in any number of pranks pulled on me, of course.
I never wear watches.
Once milk has even started to turn, it's gross, and since I'm the only milk-drinker in the house (Peanut doesn't count), I have to buy it in small containers.
My favorite number is 17. I think of it as a skinny number, but can't really explain why.
My dad is a chiropractor, and that's what I always thought I'd be when I grew up.
I love sheep and lambs.
I like to sew, but have more projects lined up than I'll get to for a long time.
I'd take a bath over a shower any day.
I would love to go to Australia someday.
My favorite color growing up was yellow, for the last ten years was blue, but I think it's becoming pink. I don't know how I feel about that.
I don't have that many clothes - I get rid of them as soon as I realize that I'm not wearing them.
I check my email at least twenty times a day.
I crocheted a pink and purple monkey for Peanut when I was pregnant (no pattern, of course!) - so it's a good thing she turned out to be a girl.
I'm still friend with one girl from my childhood - she's fabulous and lives in DC, so I don't get to see her enough.
I actually had two beds in my room growing up so she could come over and spend the night and sleep in a real bed.
We have a projector and screen instead of a tv, and we only have cable so that we can watch football games in the fall.
I use ellipses (...) waaay too often, and use all small case frequently - even though it annoys me, I still do it.
I use Google Reader to read blogs - which means I don't comment on other people's blogs as much as I should.
I have kid songs in my head all the time now. Like Clementine (that's a morbid song, by the way!)
My favorite tv show to fold laundry in front of is Rachael Ray. I'd like to be her when I grow up.
I grew up in Wisconsin, and yes, I love cheese.
Since Mister and I met online, we started with two weeks of emails, then two weeks of emails and phone calls, and then we met. At our first date, I knew I'd probably marry him, but I wasn't in love with him yet.
I am a sucker for a good massage.
My least favorite household chore is washing windows. It's not really my least favorite, but it's the one that gets done the least.
My favorite vegetable is the sweet potato.
I love blueberries.
We changed Peanut's name just a couple of days before she was born because no one could pronounce or spell the name we'd chosen.
I'll eat anything - I think the funkiest thing I ever ate was calf brains. That was in Hungary.
My two favorite classes in college (both Senior electives) were Introduction to Sign Language and Game Theory.
I had an almost perfect score on the SAT, but my parents wouldn't let me take it again to get a 1600 because that was simply pride.
When I was little and in grade school, I would get so homesick during the day that at recess, I would talk to a tree I nicknamed "Mom."
That is one of the main reasons I will probably homeschool Peanut.
I don't like to buy more than one book, cd, dvd, etc., at a time, because I will inevitably pick a favorite and then never really get into the other ones.
My mom always calls babies "punkin-noodle" and while I swore I'd never ever say that, I find myself saying it to babies.
I barely remember life before computers - I think I was eight when we got our first one.
Someday I'd like to invent a machine to read your thoughts and take all of those "I should blog this" moments and actually transpose and post them.
I have deleted ellipses from the ends of 50% of these items so far.
I have a tendency to forget the details of stories, so I can re-read books and re-watch movies and get as into it as the first time.
I love getting mail, and will sign up for free samples just to get something in the mail.
I have a golden birthmark on my belly, and since it has a freckle right in the middle of it, Peanut tries to latch onto it sometimes. It always makes me laugh.
I like my feet. I think they're pretty. In fact, I think I'll go paint my toes.

CONTESTS!

2007-08-28T10:08:00.000-06:00

Ok, all - here's some contests to go get yourself over and enter!

My Two Boys is giving away a Signing Time dvd...

Musings of a Housewife is giving away an Eliza Grace tote...

Musings of a Crunchy Domestic Goddess is giving away a doll sling. I know the perfect little girl to receive this!! (No, not Peanut. She just eats the tags that stick out of dolly bums. She's not really into carrying them around yet! It's the Mister's god-daughter that would get this...)

what do you think?

2007-08-27T12:01:00.001-06:00

yet another evolution of my blog design...

Menu Plan Monday

2007-08-27T07:22:00.000-06:00

Has it really been over a month since I've posted my menus, and two weeks since I've posted anything? Sheesh! I really have planned menus, but I plan them and forget to post. Oops. I feel more compelled to follow the menus when they're online, though, so I need to get back in the habit of putting them up.

Menu Plan for Week of August 27:
Monday:
breakfast - sweet potato pancakes (stir a couple heaping spoonfulls of mashed sweet potatoes into your pancake batter. They are to DIE for - so light and fluffy and faintly sweet.)
dinner - fajitas. (Great idea, Organizing Junkie!!)

Tuesday:
breakfast - skinny omelettes (we actually haven't had these in a while.... mmm!)
dinner - Creamy Ranch Potatoes & Chicken (thanks, Amy)

Wednesday:
breakfast - oatmeal
dinner - paninis

Thursday:
breakfast - scrambled eggs
dinner - going to a baseball game - Mister is going to the Cubs game and I am going to the Brewers game. Good thing they're playing each other!

Friday:
breakfast - with in-laws
dinner - with in-laws

Saturday:
breakfast - with in-laws
dinner - who knows? it's the weekend!!

Sunday:
breakfast - pancakes or biscuits and gravy - up to the Mister
dinner - sticky chicken (thanks, JudyL!)

sometimes life is fair

2007-08-13T16:47:00.000-06:00

So I was driving back from the post office this afternoon when this car speeds by me, pulls in front of me, cutting me off, and then suddenly drops about 20 mph. Seriously. I was a little frustrated, but then a minute later, from out of nowhere come these blessed red and blue lights... I of course had the momentary panic of "what did I do wrong?" but the wonderful police officer pulled over the offending driver and made my day.

Not that I was glad to see that person get a ticket, but I was just glad that... oh wait, I have to admit, I was a little glad to see them get a ticket. Oops.

On an unrelated front, we gave Peanut a sippy cup for the first time yesterday, and have cracked up at the wobegone faces she gets when she chews on the spout and gets WATER IN HER MOUTH. She never expects it, and still gets startled every time it happens. Is it wrong that I think that's funny?

Gosh, I sound like I really enjoy other's misery. Hmm. What's wrong with me? Must be the heat.

i went on a DATE last night!

2007-08-09T12:58:00.001-06:00

So yesterday, Mister took a half day off of work, came home and finished shampooing the carpets in the house (love that man!) and then we drove up to the Quad Cities, which for the uninitiated is two cities in Iowa (Davenport and Bettendorf) and a number of cities in Illinois (Rock Island, Moline, East Moline and Silvis). I know that adds up to more than 4, but East Moline and Silvis get really offended if they're left off the list. :) It's a cluster of cities (they all run into each other) that are found on the banks of the Mississippi.

My brother and sister-in-law and babies moved there recently, so we spent the afternoon with them, and then left Peanut there while Mister and I went to the American Idol concert! Wooooohooo! It was AMAZING! We really just had so much fun - had super seats - and just got such a kick out of seeing everybody. I thought it was more fun than a regular ol' concert because you never knew WHO was performing next, and WHAT they were going to do. Normally, at a concert, you know that band/person X will do a song, usually off one of their cds. This time, you didn't know if Sanjaya or Blake was going to come out, if they were doing a duet with Melinda or Sligh or something... and if anyone was playing instruments, etc.

Really, it was a phenomenal party. Musically, it was great - it was almost all covers, which meant that I knew the lyrics and could sing along, but it was just a lot of fun. Two surprises of the night: Phil and Chris Richardson were better in person than they were on tv... and LaKisha was PHENOMENAL. I'm not going to give any more details, in case anyone else will see them later in the tour, but it was just so much fun!

Then, we went back to my brother's house, stayed overnight, hung out with all of them this morning, and came on back here. Now, Peanut is sleeping and I think I may go catch up on a few ZZZ's myself!

grr

2007-08-03T16:43:00.000-06:00

so i feel like a major dork right now. we have an extra freezer in our garage, and it has been so helpful during the last few months of pregnancy / birth / first months of craziness... i can just walk downstairs, see what's in there and then pop it in the oven for dinner.

either i left the door open last sunday night or it's just been too darn hot, because i went in there a few minutes ago and everything is soggy and squishy.

so sad. there is a ton of food in there.

notice that i said "is" and not "was?" that's right. i am in here blogging about it instead of cleaning it up. this is denial if i ever saw it.

but I am married to the best man ever, because when i just called Mister to tell him we weren't going to have frozen pizza for dinner, his first reaction was to tell me that it was okay that we just lost a ton of food... and then he asked what he should bring home for dinner. now that is a man i could love forever!

i think it's a conspiracy

2007-08-01T08:59:00.001-06:00

Peanut was supposed to go down for her morning nap this morning at 8, like ~~I plan for her to do~~ she does on a regular basis. Nope. Not interested. She ate a few times, crawled all over the house, all over me, gave me wet kisses on my open mouth, etc... But not too interested in sleeping.

So I said to myself, "Self, if she's still awake at 10:00, we'll go to the library." That's when it opens, you see. And I have two books that were due yesterday. Funny how that always happens.

9:59 and the babbling to herself from in her crib finally stops. 9:59. No joke. Not going to the library for at least a couple of hours now.

If it's a conspiracy, I don't know who else is in it, but Peanut sure is!

dopey

2007-08-01T07:51:00.000-06:00

Gosh, Shannon's got a lot of parenting advice up at her blog today, so I think I'd better brew myself some decaf (I pretend it helps) and blearily flip through blogs this morning...

Don't know what is going on with Peanut recently, but she doesn't particularly want to fall back asleep after one of her midnight snacks. She used to sleep through the night so easily; I always felt bad telling other new moms about it... but now I'm hopping up and down every hour and a half or so to go coax her back to sleep. Which means I'm dopey now. Better go get me some parenting advice!

Since I know there's a lot of readers out there, and obviously we all love contests, I thought I'd point you to one for a Christian chick-lit book... go check it out!

Teeth

2007-07-30T14:13:00.001-06:00

When Peanut was itty bitty, I used to love her gummy smile... there was just something about the simplicity and innocence of her toothlessness that I loved.

Now she's got two little razors in that mouth of hers, and I think I love it all the more... but at the same time, I'm nostalgic for the gums. Isn't that ridiculous? She's only 8 months old, but here I am mourning the loss of the baby that was. Testosterhome has a good post about that today... and when I was flipping channels while folding laundry earlier, I saw a mom on "How Do I Look?" crying about her empty nest, and it made me get all weepy about when Peanut will leave to go off to college... Which is a long, long ways away.

Gosh. You'd think I was pregnant with all these hormones! I'm definitely not, they're just still settling down after having her...

swooning

2007-07-27T15:04:00.000-06:00

Have you seen the latest contest over at 5 Minutes for Mom? They are giving away a phenomenal TV, thanks to BestBuy! Go check it out. And if you win, enjoy! I know, I know, I was just talking about my 92" TV, but rest assured that if we win this, it won't be staying with us. It will be seriously regifted.

Come on now, who wouldn't mind a regift if it looked like this:

HELP!?

2007-07-27T09:24:00.000-06:00

so I know that your 100th post is traditionally a list of 100 things about you... but you'll have to wait a little while for that, dear and patient reader(s). I'll save that for some day next week when I don't know what to blog about.

Today, though, I have a fabulous topic and I need your help! My Mister and I love movies. We just really have fun watching them and discussing them. In fact, he had a 92 inch projector / screen setup before I met him, and he's constantly tweaking his speaker setup. I have to say, 92 inches is great... but it spoils you for anything else!

We haven't watched a movie in well over a week - which is unusual for us. Heck, we haven't even watched TV! (Not that we usually do - but sometimes we'll flip for a few minutes.) I think half the fun of it is just cuddling on the couch with Peanut in between us...

We're a Netflixin' family, since we don't make it to the theater too often anymore with Peanut nursing and all. One of the movies we currently have from Netflix is Roll Bounce... which looks like fun.

My conundrum of the moment is this... I'd like to make a "Roll Bounce" themed supper. Here's some of my ideas, but if you have more, I'd love to hear them!! Please help make our Date Night just that much cooler...

Meatballs ('cause they roll)
Rotini pasta ('cause they look like springs and springs bounce)
Garlic bubble bread (because they look like little rolls)
Jello for dessert (because it bounces!)

my 99th post

2007-07-27T07:37:00.000-06:00

My 99th post is to let you know the winner of the contest! Jennifer, over at Gabby Gwenhwyfar, is the lucky winner of my box of books! Since she has little ones, there may even be a book or two in there for them...

Check Shannon's blog for more prizes and winners!

for once in my life...

2007-07-26T13:19:00.000-06:00

i feel super popular! i've never had 140 comments on a post before! maybe i should give away a box of books more often. although when i gave away starbucks, only you faithful few entered... shannon's really good for getting us to bounce around other blogs, isn't she?

although i have to say i breezed through most blogs, just looking at the one post. i did add a few to google reader, but it's nice to know that there's a post at shannon's that lists over 500 different blogs for me to check out one of these days!

now if you'll pardon me, Peanut just laid down for a nap. that sounds like such an excellent idea that i might go do the same. brilliant. a nap in the middle of the day. let's hope she keeps up this habit for... oh... the next eighteen years!

downtime

2007-07-24T13:44:00.000-06:00

So after the craziness of this weekend and yesterday (I spent the day with my nieces and sister-in-law), I declared today to be a quiet day...

Peanut has slept most of the day (lucky her!) and I have alternated between entering contests through the Dog Days and reading Harry Potter. I had promised Mister I'd stay behind him, so I let him get 350 pages ahead of me, and snuggled down today with a cup of chocolate-raspberry coffee and the book... I'm now about 250 pages in, but am rationing it... 30 pages here, go enter a few more contests, clean something, then back to the book...

I'm having a GREAT day. Contests and an engrossing book? What more could a girl want?

Dog Days Giveaway

2007-07-23T15:57:00.001-06:00

Hello all, and welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere called life as a mama...

If you stay for more than a few minutes, it might become obvious that I looove to read. I think most bloggers probably do, since we're all about words - our own, others, etc.

My giveaway for this is a box of books. All sorts of books. Some Christian fiction, some just regular fiction - but all sorts of things to tempt your reading palate. It so far includes ~~six~~ ~~seven~~ ~~nine~~ fourteen books, but that number will only grow!

Because books are so heavy, I'm afraid that this contest will only be open to citizens of the good ol' US of A, but I welcome all internationals to just leave me a comment anyway!

Have a great one, and I'll be stopping by your blog sometime this week! In case you're completely confused, click on the cute little puppy to take you to a whole lot of goodness....

Edited To Add: Seems like a lot of people have decided to make books their prize. If I win a book at another contest, it will be up to my winner if they want to receive their prize right away, or if they'd rather wait for the book I won to get here, and then have it included in their package... And of course, all of Shannon's guidelines are to be followed here...

EDITED AGAIN: Comments will close Friday morning at 8:00 Central Time. The drawing will be that morning - it'll take me a while to sort through all of these comments and get that done... I'll let you know by about 10:00 am.

bunch of randomness

2007-07-20T09:35:00.000-06:00

So. I've been really absent from here lately. I've developed into a lazy-meme-oriented blogger. And here I am to pass along a couple of thoughts, and pretty much disappear for the rest of the weekend.

We are having a party on Sunday to welcome a friend to town - she got her undergrad / grad degrees with me while i was getting mine, and then went off to medical school while i worked and got married. now that she's beginning her residency, we are both thrilled that she ended up in the same town as i live! she's already just slipped easily into my group of friends, but we wanted to give her a formal welcome to town. but my brother and sister-in-law (who just moved from 9 hours away to 1 1/2 hours away!!!!!) are using it as an excuse to come down, and some friends from ohio decided to come back to town for it, too!!

So basically my place is the happening place for my group of friends this weekend. And thankfully it's going to be fairly cool and seasonable for the next few days, so the massive amounts of frisbee playing will at least not cause heatstroke.

Because the Mister and I are dorks, we decided to make the "official" reason for the party a celebration of National Ice Cream Appreciation Month. Welcoming my doctor-friend is just a bonus! So we're having a great big sundae bar for dessert! Mmmm.... Ice cream.

On an unrelated note, what do you think about Harry Potter? I didn't get into them until the first three books were written, but I have to say I've definitely enjoyed the rest, ordering books 6 and 7 from amazon.com so that I could read them on the first day they were in print. Mister doesn't read a lot of fiction, so he was content to watch the movies - until Goblet of Fire came out. At that point in time, he was convinced that these were really good stories and was sick of me saying "oh, but they left out so much good stuff!" and then between audio cds for the car and reading some in print, he polished off #s 3-6 in a very short time. Needless to say, we were looking forward to tomorrow as a "try to get stuff done while passing the book back and forth" day, but we're spending it with friends and family instead.

I read insanely quickly - I just re-read book 5 in probably about 4 or 5 hours. That's really fast. So it's not really fair to my normal-paced husband... because otherwise I'd be bursting with excitement wanting to tell him what happened a few hundred pages past where he is. Because of this, I promised him that I will only at any point read up to where he is. No further. I want to be able to share the discovery with him, and will hold myself back. This is gonna be tricky, but I love him more than I love these books, of COURSE!

I do have to say that I'm making these for snacks for the next few days, just so that we feel like a tiny bit connected to the Potterexcitement... but we're not going nuts!

When I come back from the weekend, look forward to the Dog Days of Summer! I have a fun giveaway for you - it's definitely something I've enjoyed and want to share with one of you...

WFMW - swim diapers for less

2007-07-18T07:08:00.000-06:00

This tip may come late in the summer for you moms out there, but since swim diapers are so expensive, I thought I'd let you know that you have an option!

I use cloth diapers exclusively on my Peanut for a variety of reasons, but one of the most cost effective things about cloth diapering is the comparison between cloth and disposable swim diapers.

The purpose of a swim diaper is to let sterile urine pass into the pool, but contain poo. Cloth swim diapers are trim, cute, and easily washed... and for a one-time-up-front cost, you'll never have to think about them again!

Here's a link to see some options.

They work for me, but for more great tips, head over to Shannon's!

Menu Plan Monday / Tuesday

2007-07-17T07:56:00.000-06:00

Menu Plan for Week of July 16:
Monday:
breakfast - french toast
dinner - fried rice with cilantro

Tuesday:
breakfast - veggie loaded scrambled eggs, applesauce
dinner - tuna burgers

Wednesday:
breakfast - oatmeal
dinner - shish kebobs (we'll finally get around to having these one of these days!)

Thursday:
breakfast - skinny omelette
dinner - popcorn chicken

Friday:
breakfast - fried eggs
dinner - taco salad

Saturday:
breakfast - quiche
dinner - who knows? it's the weekend!!

Sunday:
breakfast - pancakes
dinner - having a big party, so grilling out!

half baked

2007-07-13T13:07:00.000-06:00

so the new banner is up, and the color scheme is in place, but now i get to play with the background - won't just be a solid color - and perhaps even some pretty decorations for the widgets on the right....

but thanks to heather for the colors!

life's been pretty slow here since we got home from vacation. i got pinkeye and a weird virus that's going around, then passed it off to Mister. just the virus. so far, i've managed to keep the pinkeye all to myself!! good for Peanut, who is 95% breastfed, and is receiving all the antibodies that i'm sending her - she hasn't even remotely acted sick lately. just teething. and that's bad enough! but she's so cute with her one little tooth on the bottom... although she started biting for fun today. little booger. :) i love her anyway... just need to train her out of this phase!

hope all is well with you...

woo hoo!

2007-07-11T07:20:00.001-06:00

I have the windows open in the house right now. For the first time in WEEKS! Between Peanut and I, neither of us like to get hot and sticky, so we usually have the air running a little, and if it's really hot out, we'll live in the basement for a couple of days...

But there is sweet-smelling air blowing through the house right now - wahoo and thank you, LORD!!

Add that to our herb-infused eggs this morning, and I'm a happy woman. Yeah, I skipped the salsa eggs because we have sore throats and I opted for silky smooth herb eggs. So good. Just beat up eggs with a splash of milk (makes them softer) and finely cut up some herbs from your garden (I used sage, oregano, basil and thyme)... Scramble, and just before done, stir in a spoonful of cream cheese to add to the silkiness. Delicioso.

Okay. Now I just need to convince Peanut that she's really sleepy, so I can take a nap, too!

Menu Plan Monday for July 9

2007-07-09T11:09:00.001-06:00

Menu Plan for Week of July 9:
Monday:
breakfast - brown sugar and raisin oatmeal
dinner - steaks on the grill, risi e bisi, broccoli

Tuesday:
breakfast - skinny omelettes, bacon and fruit
dinner - dinner out with my husband!!

Wednesday:
breakfast - salsa eggs
dinner - giant sandwich loaded with fresh veggies, pasta salad

Thursday:
breakfast - oatmeal
dinner - pasta carbonara

Friday:
breakfast - scrambled eggs
dinner - shish kebobs on the grill

Contest Results!

2007-07-06T21:12:00.000-06:00

Well, readers of mine, we have a winner!

It's my swap-partner Heather, aka Top Hat! There were five entries, and the random number generator gave me #4 as a result, which was laam dark...

Isn't it cool? It's very fun... I'm really liking it. That splash of green makes it, in my opinion! Now I just have to play around with design ideas. Good dark colors to use for text and borders, but fun colors to use in the banner, etc!

Heather, I already have your address from the swap, so look for your gift card soon! Hope you enjoy Starbucks... (I just got home from vacation yesterday and your package came with my pile of mail today, and it's great, THANKS!)

BLOG DESIGN CONTEST

2007-07-05T13:33:00.000-06:00

Hey! My readers know my deep love of bloggity-ville contests.

So I'm going to host my own. My very first. I want to redesign my blog, and you get to pick my colors. For real. Go to colr.org and play around with it for a while - you'll get hooked. Then save your best color scheme there with the tag "laam" and whatever you decide to name it. (When you get a good scheme, it will say "no tags" underneath - but click on the + to add some tags...) For example, you can go to colr.org and search for laam, and you'll find the one sample scheme that I made up.

So. Make up a scheme. Save it under laam and some other tag. Then come back here and let me know what the name of your scheme is in a comment.

How long should we run this? I'm not going to have time to do this before I get back, so we'll let it go until the end of Thursday, July 5th. You can enter as many times as you like... and go ahead and let your readers know about it. I will simply pick a random number and that # comment will win the prize - and I am committed to using those colors as the prominent part of my design. That's right. I have no control over what my next design colors will be. :o)

What's the prize? How about a $25 gift card to Starbucks!?!?!

vacation

2007-06-26T06:58:00.001-06:00

So I'll be gone for a little while... have fun playing with colr.org. Hope you pass it along to your readers, I'd love to have a bunch of entries. Feel free to enter as many times as you want! Pray that our airplane flights with Peanut will go well...