New layout

Yesterday was an absolutely horrible day. Everything went wrong. To top it off, Matthew's intramural soccer games are on Wednesday afterschool, conveniently when piano takes place. I *really* wanted his piano to be during school and now he misses out on soccer. Also, I'm missing a dinner because it's during the week. I'm sure there will be other times to meet with the new mommy friends I made. It's not really that big of a deal but I got so many little straws heaped yesterday that the back just broke.

We sat through a 90-minute "presentation" on windows. Why can't these companies just come in, measure and then give you your price? To be honest, the guy was a terrible salesperson so there was no hard sell really but it's just the process. Plus, like those next-day carpet places, they seem to jack the prices up just to give you a "discount" if you sign with them that same night. We're just collecting estimates.

The carpet is done .. yeah! Now we need to paint around the baseboards for the stairs, touch up the bazillion places they scuffed and readjust the closet doors which no longer work because the carpet is too high. I don't really recommend this company. I was not very happy with the workers.

So, following are before and after pictures of my basement, which still need some work and my layout following the scrapbooking class I'm taking on www.Jessicasprague.com. Leave me a comment if you like it!





A note on the basement pictures. Our basement is small so it's hard to get a good general picture. I chose the ones I did because it shows the pole in the middle. The HVAC used to be by this pole and we moved it along a wall that goes under the stairs. We also added a closet and bathroom. The bathroom remains partially unfinished in that the fixtures and flooring are not done, but the plumbing is installed and the first part of the electric. We'll finish it up at some point. At least now we can close our storage unit when we get it emptied out. Where to put everything is another problem. I'll probably be spending a lot of time on freecycle. I guess if I haven't used (or missed) something in almost a year's time I obviously don't need it LOL!

Happy Anniversary to Me!

Today is my 13th wedding anniversary. Boy we sure have come a long way! When we got married, we were living on the top floor in a penthouse suite in downtown Baltimore with a cool view of the Orioles stadium. I drove to Silver Spring to work full-time and dh worked for the company that owned the building in which we lived; hence the penthouse apartment with a 60% discount! I think he was working part time as well.

We had no kids and I was in college part time working towards my Associates in Science, Business Management. No kids, no responsibilities, nothing to do on the weekends but whatever we wanted. Stay up late, sleep in even later, eat whatever, whenever we wanted. Take off for a weekend trip, no problem!

Boy times have changed.

Three weeks after we married, we moved to a house in the burbs we later purchased. Bennies included a driveway to park right next to our house instead of a garage across the street and free washer and dryer!!!!!!!!!!!! It also came with more to clean and yard work -- blech! Life happened while we've lived here and we're now the proud owners of a minivan and parents to four kids. Whew! There was a time we didn't think we'd have any children so it's truly a blessing.

DH is fantastic and I couldn't have ordered a better father to my children. We've had our ups and downs and it's hard to stay connected a lot of the times but we're truly committed to each other and work hard to keep things together. No that it's all that hard but it just takes some extra efforts with all the other responsibilities and things going on.

This past Saturday my SIL babysat all FOUR kids while dh and I ate dinner at RUB in the city. The food was either very good or so-so depending on what you order. I recommend the brisket and dh recommends the Lemonade ;) Stay away from the banana "pudding" which isn't pudding at all. It's more like pureed bananas with cinnamon and vanilla wafers. Not too tasty. I think they were a little short-handed in the service department but over all not too shabby.

Tonight my stepmom offered to come down so we could spend time together on our actual anniversary. Not sure where we're going yet but I'm leaning towards The Cheesecake Factory because I want some chocolate cake :D Personally, I opted out of the overnight for the kids. Charlotte is our anniversary surprise from last year LOL! And while we love her to bits, we're not ready for another "gift" of that nature.

So here's a shout out to my wonderful hubby. Love you dear and look forward to many more years together :)

My First Comment

Woohoo! I love comments :) Thanks T!

Grandma Got Lost

My grandma has dementia. She's had it for several years but it's really been telling these last one to two years. She spent the last two weeks at my uncles new home and since she's been home, she's really discombobulated and her routine is all messed up. For someone who lives on routine and depends on it to function because of memory problems, this is a really bad thing.

Yesterday she drove herself to the hair dresser or her weekly appointment. Now, the doctor told her some time ago it was probably best not to drive. And basically she doesn't except to the hair dresser and grocery. The family down there felt that was okay. My thought was perhaps you all should figure out another way to get grandma to her destinations.

I'm always hearing about old people venturing off and getting lost, dying after being exposed to the elements too long in bad weather. So yesterday she got lost coming home from the hair dresser. This is a place she's driven to on a weekly basis for YEARS! It was so scary; she was lost for over an hour. They finally took her car away. Hurrah!

But I still worry. If she's gotten this bad, how do we know she won't go fetch the mail and forget where she is? Will she catch something on fire because she's forgotten a pot on the stove? This is really hard. She's getting to the point where she may need to have more care than what's being provided. I'm not down there to deal with it. My uncle used to live across the street but he's moved due to his job. That leaves the lady that stays with her and my mother. I guess it'll have to do. I'm wondering if my uncle will take her to live with him?

My uncle and my mother don't get along because they're both cut from the same hard-headed, stubbon as mules cloth. My uncle is just like my grandad was in that there's no other opinion but his own and if you try to have one you're just plain wrong. And to that effect, there's only one right way to do things and that's his LOL! That's off topic anyhow. I'm worried about my grandma. She's more of a mom to me than my own mom and helped raise me for many years. I usually don't think about it much since she's not close by but it's going to be hard to say good-bye to her and it's happening bit by bit.

DH was in the doghouse!

My dh is a pretty good sort of fellow. He's a wonderful provider and an excellent father. He helps around the house with everything, I'd say, except cleaning the bathroom. Dishes, laundry, changing beds, vacuuming, mopping, he does it all. With the kids, bedtime, baths, errands, meals, drop of at school, again he does it all. Can't really complain all that much.

Except for last night.

He accused me of spending too much time on the computer scrapbooking, i.e. goofing off. See, after dh comes home from work, it's usually time to get the kids ready for bed, which he does. So I do some computer work or other stuff. This week the kids have taken an extra long time getting settled down he's coming down later than usual. On top of that, I did spend extra time at night, i.e. after 9p working on the scrapbooking lessons and doing some layouts using the techniques I learned in the on-line class I'm taking.

When he comes down from the kids bedtime, I'm scrapbooking. It's like 9:30 or after. It was irritating him that he was up there dealing with the kids instead of doing something more productive while I sat downstairs and played. There's a couple flaws in his theory, though. First, I made sure I had all the other chores done that needed to be done that day before I began scrapping. Second, I wasn't spending as much time doing that as he suspected because I did other stuff first. Third, he still would have been upstairs with the kids even if I had been doing something more productive.

So we hashed it out in a nice way last night. It was a productive chat. But his reaction doesn't help my guilt over doing things for myself these days. I feel guilty because he works hard all day and then comes home to deal with the kids before he even eats dinner. Then he stays up really late doing his things. But he says he enjoys that time with the kids. I'm not sure how I'd feel if the situation were reversed. I think I'd be the stereo-typical male -- wanting to come home, put my feet up and relax while the wifey gets dinner on the table LOL!

I do spend more time on the computer than I should. I'll admit that. It's a hard addiction to break. Almost as bad as my addition to coca-cola! But at least when I'm scrapbooking I feel like I'm doing something for the family and not just myself. DH thinks it's unnecessary in any event. His opinion is that I should just throw them in albums and be done with it. Our ideas about time efficiency and which tasks take precedence doesn't mesh for the most part. And that's okay.

I was trying to explain to him that as a mom who stays home I have no identity outside of the home. It's just Denise Mom or Denise Wife. I have nothing of value to talk about except how many times Mia uses the potty or what errands we ran or what we ate for lunch, etc. It's very depressing some days. I need an outlet. And if I'm not able to get out of the house to join a club, use a gym or have a job, then what's wrong with joining an online community, making cyber friends or working on scrapbooks? He just doesn't get it and never will. Some people don't and that's okay. I get it and I enjoy it, especially since I'm so shy in real life, and that's okay too. Some things we just have to agree to disagree.

Again, we had a productive chat. I always feel emotionally closer to him when we have these chats without the fight, of course. We should really have them more often. I mentioned that perhaps we should have "meetings" from time to time to assess what type of goals we have as a couple and a family and individually and how to best meet these goals. We can discuss our progress and perhaps if we are meeting goals and such on time then it won't matter if I spend an hour or two scrapbooking in the evening. Relationships are so complex.

Back to School Night + this and that

I LOVE back to school night. It's so much fun to talk to the teachers again, see the classrooms and visit the rest of the school. I'm so used to things staying the same and knowing all the teachers. This year there are a lot of new teachers and new things happening. I still find it strange that I have first and third graders!! We also picked up the yearbooks for the previous year and I can't wait to dig into those.

Madison had more troubles at school, if I haven't already blogged about those. Talking again and cutting hair. Oy! In Matthew's class, there's a small spot on the board for discipline. It appears they get their name written for misbehaviors and then tally marks for repeated offenses. Then they run laps based on the number of tallies, i.e. 5 laps for one mark and 10 laps for two marks. After that they go to the principal's office. My whole point in mentioning this is that when I first glanced at it I thought it said "slaps!" What a hoot. I took a double take because the last I heard, there was no corporal punishment. And even if there was, my son would not be part of that.

A potty training funny. Mia likes to run around al fresca and I let her because she's more apt to use the potty. With two in diapers, 1. I hate paying for that many diapers. My free diaper source has dried up. 2. I hate changing that many diapers. To be fair, Mia needs very few diaper changes but still. I did discover that the regular pull ups (Pamper's brand) have the same number of diapers as the comparable size diaper packs Mega size for the same price. However, I can get $3 coupons on the pull ups vs. the $1 coupons for regular diapers. Plus they have Dora on them, Mia's fav! To me they're all just diapers.

With Mia, if she's got nothing then she'll use the potty or ask for a diaper to go. At this point I forward her to said potty. We tried panties the other day and she just peed in those as well. The point of this long story is that Mia asked for a diaper so she could poop. I thought she just had to pee so I said go use the potty and she's like hurry mommy poopy coming. Instead of arguing I picked her up to carry her to the potty and she did indeed have a poopy coming. What a lovely site that was. Thankfully, we made it to the potty in time. That reminds me I should clean the potty.

I went to the mall and found some pants that sort of fit. There was a choice between two sizes which shall remain nameless. The smaller size was a tad tight but it's my goal to lose the last of the baby weight by the end of the year. The larger size was just a bit too roomy for me. I wish they had the middle size. I think I have 15 pounds to go. In the mirror it doesn't seem so bad but it photos I look fatty fat fat.

I got an email from Home Depot today. They don't know we have a new Lowes I intend to use instead. Anyhow, the title was free shipping on tools and computers. Yes you read that right, computers! I opened it and indeed Home Depot is selling computers. I know that computers do have hardware but I didn't realize they came under the confines of a hardware store these days. So funny.

My addition to coca cola is absolute. I must break it. That's my new challenge. Matthew and I continue to have our bedtime chats. He really enjoys his time with me and it's rather relaxing. Charlotte was holding a toy and chewing on it today. She was also trying to rollover. Growing so big so quickly. Sigh.

I'm off to try another layout before it gets too late. I stayed up til 11:30 last night oy! Here's what I made today outside the class. Night. I had other stuff to blog about but it's getting late and this is getting long.

Here's My Mid-Week Challenge

Here's my digi class midweek challenge. I wish all l/o were this easy as pasting a picture and doing a couple techniques. I'd be caught up in no time ;)


On other fronts; I went to Eldersburg for LLL this morning. I was the only attendee so I got to catch up with my friends/leaders a bit. No real "burning" questions! Called and make a carpet appt. for next Wed. When I talked to the woman last week, she said she'd try to squeeze me in that week but if she couldn't then she'd have me in this week. So I called Monday and left a message. No return call. Today I called again and she scheduled me for next week. What's the deal? I am not sure I recommend them based on timing. It's been almost a month since we ordered the carpet and were told it would be in in a couple days and installed shortly thereafter. Everything else with this project has taken for-e-ver so I don't know why I thought this would be any different. Of course, that means I get another week to hold on to my $ LOL!

It's been really cool here, only 64 today. I think I'll take my last remaining GC and find some pants that fit tomorrow. Hopefully I won't lose my diaper bag this time! I was hoping I'd have lost more weight by now but I seem to have hit a pleatuea. Doesn't help any that I keep eating fast food, chocolate and drinking coca-cola. Man that stuff is addicting.

I just caught my two-year old coloring on the stiars with marker. Her face is covered also. Oh boy! On a good front, she's used the potty several times today. I guess I should find some dinner here. I hate cooking. I don't mind preparing it but I hate thinking of stuff to fix. Tonight is Adventure Club sign up and tomorrow is back to school night. Fun fun!

Digi Layout

I signed up for a digital scrapbooking class at www.JessicaSprague.com. It wasn't very expensive and started yesterday. So far I just finished lesson one and love it! There are four lessons, one a week. Here's my first layout :) I could sit and do this all night. Now that's a scary thought!

Madison, My Madison

What is there to be said for you, little girl? Twice you've cut your own hair. The latest time being in spring when you gave your bangs a buzz cut. They still haven't grown back completely.

The first day of school you got in trouble for talking and got separated from your friend. Yesterday you cut your hair once again in class this time and hid the hair in your desk. Today you nearly cut your friend's hair.

I think this is going to be a loooooooooooooooooong school year.

Happy Adoption Day1

Sunday was the celebration of when we became a family. The day dh became a dad and I became a mom. Eight years ago on Friday the 13th, we got the call that our son was coming home from Korea! So on August 19, 1999, around 6:00 in the evening, we welcomed Lee Myung Suk home to America. The wait to adopt seemed forever, although, it was a rather short period of time.

January 1999 dh and I took a 15 anniversary of meeting trip and spent the weekend in Annapolis. I love that place. The weather wasn't the greatest but it's where we made a life-altering decision. We quickly filled out the paperwork to adopt, returned it to the agency in February and by August we were holding our son.

Adopting is a complete roller coaster ride and we had our shares of ups and extreme downs. A couple times we weren't sure it was going to go through at all but our story had the happiest of endings.

So now, every year we celebrate our "Family Day" together by doing something special. Usually that entails a trip to our local airport (not the one Matthew flew into) and a meal out. We drove out to BWI after lunch and spent a couple hours hanging around and visiting the Observation Deck. I really like the Observation deck if you have cause to be spending some time there. They have airplane parts to check out, fairly comfy chairs, huge windows to see planes landing and taking off and a play area for kids. It's also fairly quiet. It has restrooms but they took out the snack shop so come prepared.

I think we spent as much time visiting the snack shops and restrooms as we did in tne Observation Deck. We all had a nice time and well worth the $8 parking fee! DH was especially excited about the planes for some reason and took several photos. I think he was more excited about the planes than my son LOL! Mia kept asking when we were going to the hairpo so we kept explaining we were in it! My little cutie. We're trying to be frugal so decided against dinner out but then decided to pick up Chinese on the way home LOL! Everyone found something they liked, aside from Mia, and it was a nice day. A friend and her ds have birthdays that same day so we talked with them as well.

Since then, we have added three more children to our family and have a full house or quiver, so to speak. We are truly blessed with abundance.

Crisis Averted!

I took my oldest daughter to a birthday party this morning. I nursed Charlotte shortly before I left.

I left an empty bottle for dh and instructions on the frozen milk bags I have in the freezer. I think I have about 10-15 two ounce bags of milk. I don't pump often but I try to keep a bottle of fresh in the fridge and when a few days have passed, I freeze it and start again.

Anyhoo, when I got home, dh said that C had drank one of the bags of milk and then he had an additional one he took when they went out so I opened the fridge to toss it in. It was already half defrosted so no other choice. There sitting in the fridge was my entire bag full of the other frozen bags of milk! :eek: I almost had a cow in that kitchen I tell you!!!!! Anyone who pumps milk can feel my pain, right ladies?!

I checked it over and they seemed frozen still so I threw it back in the freezer. Even though it wouldn't really matter if the milk thawed and had to be trashed It mattered to me. That's a lot of work!

Shew!

Something truly funny

Sometimes my dh comes up with some good ones. While I was hunting for freebies, I happened to run across a man scrapbooker through the blog of Ikea Goddess. I can't recall his name or blog at the moment but I found it rather humorous. He looks like a manly man and did manly man things, according to his blog, like mow the grass. But he also scrapbooks and creates freebies! I can't get over it!

Anyhow, so I was telling my dh about because to him certain activities, such as scrapbooking, ballet, gymnastics and the like, are just for girls. His response was that "who better to know what a woman wants than a man." A busted a gut. Perhaps it was funnier in person but sometimes you just have those easy and fun moments with your spouse and it really is wonderful.

Just one word...

chocolate. I do love my chocolate.

And cocoa cola.

Now I'm going to read a few pages of Lean Mean Thirteen, download some scrapbooking freebies, Bible study and go to bed.

MYSTERY SOLVED!!!!!!!!!!!!

DH told me this morning he found the roast. It was still in the grocery bag nestled amongst the Home Depot bags on the kitchen table. He said it was disgusting, all defrosted and drippy. Thankfully, it did not drip out of the bag.

I'm just glad dh found it. :blech:

On another food note, we opened a new milk today. I poured the last bowl of Cocoa Pebbles (breakfast of champions, you know) and took a huge bite. Unfortunately the milk went the way of the roast. I just bought it Monday but didn't realize it was dated 8/15. Milk usually lasts way longer than that but perhaps since it was organic milk it doesn't last much past the due date. Dh fed it to the kids and they ate it. Didn't they notice the funny taste? ew.

Oh, and I found the remote. It was deposited in the VCR where you put the movies

Have you ever lost a roast?

Maybe this is a hint to become vegetarian LOL! I remember taking a roast out of the freezer yesterday in a blue grocery sack. I thought I set it aside to put in a dish so it doesn't defrost all over the fridge like the last time. What a nasty mess that was to clean up!

I promptly forgot about the roast.

Today I was looking for said roast and cannot find it. First it makes me irritated because I've lost a not so cheap piece of meat. I usually buy on sale but it's still a waste of money. I'm thinking I tossed it in the trash by mistake but I would think I would have noticed. It's not in the fridge, it's not in the freezer. My dh claims he did nothing with it, nor has he seen it.

My only other conclusion is that Mia carried it off somewhere. I so hope not. I can just imagine the smell and mess of that one. Today she lost my TV remote. Wonder what else will get lost besides my mind?

First Day of School Revisited

So, follow up to first day of school. Matthew loved his new day and can't wait to start again. Last night I suggested little bedtime chats. I used to do this years ago and it's now time to start again. Matthew needs the one-on-one time just to have it and it gives him a chance to tell me what's on his mind or share things I don't get a chance to listen to earlier in the day. I learn so much and he really feels cherished and loved.

Second, Madison and her little friend are split up already...for talking :laugh: I find this hysterical. A) that a child that came out of quiet ole me got reprimanded for talking too much (in class no less) and B) that it's only the first day. I asked her who sits next to her now and she couldn't tell me. Apparently, the teacher didn't move the friend to a different desk, just had her move the desks apart. I think perhaps she'll have a seating chart soon LOL!!!

So exciting -- I loved reading the materials that came home today and I wish all teachers would do that. It's really important to me to know what's going on in the classroom.

First Day of School!

Disclaimer: that is NOT a bugger under Mia's nose in her photo. It's a scab from wiping her nose so much.

I found this first day of school to be far more emotional than even the first day of K

Madison was very excited and didn't look back once we crossed the threshold. The teacher had some items on each desk including a nice-sized stuffed bear. She was too distracted at that point to even listen to simple instructions from the teacher LOL!

She picked out a desk right next to her friend, Megan. However, she chose a desk in the back of the room. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Then they had name tags on the teacher's desk. I did not see Madison's name, however, there was a tag for "Madi." Now I presumed this was for my daughter, however, we have never called her that, only her friend Megan called her that.

It was indeed her nametag and the teacher said she used the records from last year. Teacher said she'd be glad to call her whatever we wanted but I deferred to Madison and she said Madi. So, Madi she is for the year. I thought last year's teacher called her Madison so it seems odd to me but not a big deal.

In the note home from school, it stated that they were going to have snack time between 9-10 am and we could send nutritious snacks! In addition, Madison said they have nap time! I am astonished. I hear wonderful things about the teacher so I hope she has a good year. Oh, and the teacher even took a photo of each student with their parents

I asked Matthew to wait for us to go to his which he grumpily did. He has a teacher new to our school this year. It was fun to see which students have returned and which are new. They have several class pets including lizards and real live snakes! His teacher seems really nice and greeted everyone in our family and encouraged moms and dads to take pictures. Once we got him in there, he was off talking to his friends and meeting new friends. They get actual school books this year and letter grades.

Matthew was sooo nervous and very grumpy last night so we had a little talk and I hope he felt better about starting class. Piano starts next week and I really hope they get daytime lessons. Matthew said he enjoyed his first day very much and talked about the class pets and new friends he made. He sounded really positive and ready to return tomorrow. I was a little worried. Here are a couple pix. My camera funked up this morning for some reason and the pix are hazy. Bummed about that but we got some cute shots.

And last but not least, Mia wanted her first day of school picture taken too. I *heart* her :)

Reflections on a Monday

So frustrating. I feel like we're slowly being financially buried alive, one grain of sand at a time. Or perhaps it's a cupful.

- Watched my friend's dd and she was late picking up which made us late for the dentist.

- Signed up for a digital scrapbooking tutorial at Jessica Sprague

- Mia left food and made messes all over the house -- including stripping naked and proceeding to pee on the floor. I'm fairly certain she's more than ready to potty-train since when I yelled stop at her, she quit in mid-stream.

- Matthew needs a tooth pulled and received a referral to the orthodontist.

- Comcast is giving me the runaround on a strange charge on my bill

- Carpet should arrived Wednesday and be installed end of this week or sometime next week. Hopefully, we'll get the storage unit cleared out before we incur another charge.

- Got lots done on my to-do list

- Took a walk by myself after dh came home for 25 minutes. It's nice outside.

- I had to use the charge card for groceries today. I'm really afraid to look at my ending balance. oy.

- Thinking of my friend today and thinking I should have called to see how she's doing. She got bad news this past Friday.

- Rescheduled Charlotte's research gig until Thursday. Now we can meet my late friend for a lunch playdate tomorrow.

- Mia had her first cleaning today and did wonderfully!

Matthewisms

Well, Matthew says the funniest and/or most interesting things sometimes. He must be very introspective at time.

During Sabbath School yesterday, he noted that Queen Vashti (to King Xerxes) was beautiful but only on the outside. After she was cast aside, Queen Esther took her place. You can read about Queen Vashti and Esther in the book of Esther in the Bible. Matthew noted that Queen Esther was not only beautiful on the outside but on the inside as well. If only we could all remember that it's more important to be beautiful on the inside.

Next, during children's church the teacher was talking about Noah and the ark. She told the children about the animals that were in the arc - two of each kind, male and female. Clean animals (i.e. those we eat that are cloven hooved and chew a cud, were placed in the arc in groups of seven. Then there was Noah, his wife and their sons and their wives. After the flood receded, the animals and Noah's family went forth and multiplied.

Matthew asked where all the people on the earth came from. The teacher stated that Noah's sons had children and they had children, etc. Matthew was quick to point out that Noah's sons were related so how in the world could they have had repopulated the earth. The teacher was quick to move on in the lesson LOL! What an interesting incite from an 8-year old.

Tonight's dinner philosophy was that if you like dandylions in your garden then you don't have to weed because they're already weeds. This was in response to a conversation we were having about growing tomatoes in posts as opposed to growing them in the ground. I thought that was really funny.

Once he asked how Charlotte came out of my stomach. Madison was quick to point out that she came out of my bottom before I could formulate a response to that questions! Perhaps I've watched too many Baby Stories and the like! Cheers to you, Matthew the Great Thinker!

Domestic Goddess

Well, I had typed up this really nice blog entry and poof it was gone thanks to Comcast. I'm about ready to kick them to the curb. Ugh! ETA: Okay most of my draft was saved. Here's how I began:

Domestic Goddess, I am not! But I do like homey activities. Today I am getting out the sewing machine. First I need to sew patches on the kids' honor sashes and M1's patches on his Karate uniform. He's only had it like 1/2 a year now.

So far, I've got the foot pedal connected, took out the instruction booklet and lifted the presser foot. If it goes well, I want to sew a moby wrap-type sling and make the kids some winter pajamas. I also want to sew up some home-made wipes from flannel blankets and perhaps try my hand at ... (pick up below where it talks about my projects LOL).

So, I never claimed to be a domestic goddess but I do enjoy my time at home. While the kids are away, I decided to try my hand at my "new" sewing machine. It's actually brand new in the box but I've had it since Christmas. I always planned to use it sooner but with the pregnancy, birth and kids home for the summer, I never got around to seeing how it worked, etc. Now that I've spent some time with it, I'm more comfortable sewing with the kids around even though they'll likely get into all my stuff.

So I put on my iPod and listened to ABBA, Johnny Cash, and Lilly Allen while I alternated sewing, feed and dancing with Charlotte. My top thread kept getting caught underneath which I need to figure out. I realized I change top threads anytime I want without worrying with the bobbin which is great since the honor patches are all different colors. I was trying to get finished before Charlotte woke up and ran out of music and bobbin with two left to sew and someone bozo knocked on the door.

I thought it was my friend J but it was one of those "teens" selling magazines to earn points or whatever to go to Hawaii. I got burned by these types before so no dice. They guy seem truly surprised that I wouldn't buy anything. I couldn't buy anything if I wanted at this point. I replaced my bobbin and finished my sewing in silence. I had cleaned up before I realized I wanted to sew the patches on M1's Karate uniform. Oh well, perhaps tomorrow. I also want to make a moby-wrap type sling, cloth wipes from flannel blankets and maybe even cloth diapers. That last project is a stretch and it would probably be more beneficial to buy them online.

After that I rebooted everything so I could get back online. One thing I like about Firefox is that if it unexpectedly shuts down, it has a restore session feature so I don't have to figure out which websites closed on me. Here are the fruits of my labor today (before and after):

Junk Fooding It

Well, it's been a long summer and to culminate it, my MIL sucked it up enough to ask for the kids -- all 3! After much going back and forth with dh, we okayed the trip.

So today at 11, the in-laws picked up the 3 olders and took off! I hightailed it out of the house to run my few errands of the week:

• return videos to the library
• bank to open savings account for baby and return money to savings
• post office to mail live auction package, announcements/photos and buy stamps
• Wal*Mart to pick up diaper liners

It was sooooooooooooo hot outside! Like a furance. The humidity is the pitts.

While there I thought I might get a treat since the kids are gone and I don't have to share ;) I ended up buying two boxes of my favorite cereal, plus I had a coupon, two pairs of school pants for M2, back of assorted snack pack chips for school lunches, soda, Crunch & Munch, oh and a pack of M7m's.

Then I stopped and got lunch, a milk shake and a gallon of sweet tea at Chick-fil-A. Gotta love that sweet tea! So I'll save the store treats for later or tomorrow. I'm sure the soda won't last past this afternoon or evening.

I can fix a supper that dh and I would like but not necessarily the children. I want to try and get most of my work done today so I can pal around the next couple before the biggies come home. We'll see as I'd rather take a nap ;)

Alas, the baby crieth!

Men Are Definately From Mars ...

or at least my man is. My man doesn't get me. And I don't know if he doesn't get me because he just doesn't get me or if it's just because men are obviously different creatures than women. He always wants to solve my problems. Well, sure, I do seem to have lots of "problems" that seem to need solving. And perhaps I complain too much so he feels the need to solve the issues to avoid listening to me expound on them.

What he doesn't seem to realize is that as a woman, I like to talk about things, hash them out, thoss them out and see what comes back. As a woman, I like to vent, whine, complain, share my innermost thoughts with someone who loves me unconditionally.

As a stay-at-home mom, with a couple side jobs, I don't always get a lot of time to chit chat during the day. My time is filled with changing diapers x2, nursing, making meals, nursing, cleaning up meals, picking up toys, nursing, playing referee and did I mention nursing? We seem to do a lot of that but truthfully, those are some of the sweetest moments of my day. I can't say the calmest because being in charge of four children is not in any way, shape or form, calming!

We have playdates from time to time which I really enjoy. The kids have fun and I get a mommy connection. I rarely get to enjoy a telephone call. Most people I know are working during the day and busy in the evenings, as are we. Dinner, bath, bedtime, etc. And when I do get on the phone, the kids start badgering for something, they have something they just have to share at that moment! or they start bickering. In any event, there goes the phone call.

So that leaves my poor dh to listen to my woes, my joys, the highlights (or lowlights) of my day. Although, I must admit, giving a rundown of our day seems pretty lame. I feel insecure thinking I have nothing better to share than the fact that my two-year-old peed or pooped in the potty, what we ate for dinner or a rundown of what chores I accomplished during the day. Truth be told, I'm a list person so when I accomplish a lot on my list in the day, I love to crow about it to someone.

Case in point, my son (who's 8) offered to present the mission story to his Sabbath School class this upcoming Sabbath. I told my dh that I was glad he volunteered for this and his response was "why." Okay, so I tried to give a few reasons nothing that I feel it's important for the children to feel comfortable talking in front of people, getting up in front of class to talk and the like. I am *painfully* shy and have been for as long as I can remember. I don't want my children to be crippled in this way.

So, instead of having a discussion about how proud we are of ds and his accomplishments, it became an introspective of why I'm the way I am and how I could improve myself. Man, talk about downtrodden. Nothing like a wakeup call of this nature to shoot an arrow right through your self-esteem. I just try to remind myself that he thinks he's helping me. I didn't want to make the conversation any more heavy than it already was so I dropped it.

But it just served to remind me that whoever coined the phrase "men are from mars and women are from venus" really hit the mark.

First Post

Just a trial run. Not sure what I want to do. Myspace, blogspot, etc. Time will tell, I am sure.