When I woke up this morning (rather early), my arms and shoulders were sore. Not sure if I slept funny, or if it’s a result of all that stapling, but it seemed to get a little more manageable as the day wore on. First thing, I did some QI work. I’m still feeling pretty behind there, but that, too, got better by day’s end.
Kayla eats like a horse. This morning, her breakfast included a poptart, a “chewy” (granola) bar, and several goldfish crackers. Then she went upstairs and begged pretzels from Mike.
Did some more work on the room today, cutting, fitting, and hanging two pieces of sheetrock. One was a whole piece, the other was 21″ wide, so I’ve got almost 6 feet of “wall” (though none of it is on the wall I will need to build). Let me just say, that sheetrocking wears my ass OUT! You burn a ton of calories doing it, and I feel hungry the whole time. Really, it’s a two-person job (at least to get the hanging started), but I’ve been doing it alone. Mike’s helped me bring in one of the pieces of sheetrock, when I asked him, but I think I’m going to have to ask him for more. One thing’s for sure: I have a newfound respect for Dan Conner.
Adam has been asking about the meanings of more words lately, mostly things he comes across in reading books. For example, today I was reading him the Disney book Home on the Range (I refuse to let him see the movie), and he heard the word “justice.” Try explaining THAT to a four-year-old!
In the afternoon, I did more computer work (I won’t bore you with details), then had a snack of tuna salad & crackers.
Later, Mike made a yummy dinner. I held Mr. Wiggly (aka Thomas) as long as I could, but finally had to hand Mike off so I could make a plate. That kid just never sits still! He’s like a perpetual motion machine, and everybody who holds him comments on it.
I called about a dance class starting up in Colfax next month. I think both of the older kids would enjoy it, so they’re going to send us a couple of registration forms.
I did some cross-stitching after dinner and watched TV with the kids. For once, I had a break from cartoons, and we watched Mad About You. The episode we watched had a demon housecat on it, and the kids laughed and laughed and laughed. While they watched tv, I took Thomas to bed with very minimal fuss. Once TV time was over, I got Adam to bed, also with minimal fuss. Then I tried to do some work, but I was just too tired to concentrate. So, I left Kayla with Mike, and went and passed out in bed myself.
I woke up this morning and got right to work. Thomas was very grouchy all day, and needed much holding and comforting. I still think it’s that tooth, poor baby. Kayla is still trying to use the potty on the example of her brother, but has had no success. Ah, well, at least she’s interested!
Took a break from work to post a new auction for the Hook-a-thon, then got started on the “reconstruction” project again.
There was still much fumbling around trying to figure out what the hell I was doing, scrounging for tools (in today’s case, it was a stapler, staples, scissors, and cutting blade to slice sheetrock), but I made pretty substantial progress (for me, anyway). I got the existing wall which had lacked insulation, insulated. Mike and I moved the light switch from one stud to another (so it will actually be IN the new room), I nailed up a new plug housing (whoop-de-do!), and Mike did some more work on another plug. I also cut to size the first piece of sheetrock, before I realized I needed to insulate first, and then managed to step on it in such a way as to break it. Grrrr. Oh, well; this room has lots of small areas to fill, so I’m sure I can use that piece to fit other areas. Still, it was a nuisance. Tomorrow, sheetrocking! (Do I sound excited? I’m not. Sheetrock is fucking HEAVY, though it’s mercifully easy to cut.)
And now, a word on safety. WHO INVENTED this stupid system, where you have to wear long sleeves, long pants, goggles, AND a breathing mask? Forget for a moment that it’s August (my air conditioner finally got its first workout). Could not the greatest minds in the free world come up with a better insulation material than FIBERGLASS??
I found the goggle/mask combo to be particularly impossible. The mask was ok, though even that alone was a bitch and made me cough, but when I put the goggles on, I just plain couldn’t see. My breath was escaping over the top of the mask and into the goggles, fogging them up every time I exhaled. I tried taking the mask off and wearing just the goggles, since my eyes were getting a mite irritated, but even my own forehead sweat fogged them up. I finally gave up on safety, and just finished the job as quickly as I could.
Two showers later, I decided to spend the rest of my day relaxing and working. I managed to put up a new feature over at QuiltIndex, which I hope will be much-used. I didn’t get to work on the quilt at all, but it was still a pretty productive day.
Mike made dinner, then I did more work and blog-reading to wind down the evening. Around 10PM I was feeling tired, and sick of sitting in my office chair, so I took Thomas to read in the bedroom. He nursed to sleep, and I turned off the lights and passed out.
Adam came into the bedroom this morning, waking both me and Thomas up. Of course, Adam then fell promptly asleep, and slept for a couple more hours.
I posted some of the illustrated alphabets I bought yesterday. I got I-Z up, and I need to find the push-pins upstairs so I can post A-H. Both kids were intrigued with them, and I think they’ll be a good teaching tool.
Spent most of the day working on that quilt top. I made substantial progress, but I didn’t finish. Maybe tomorrow.
Adam’s making great progress on using the potty, and is almost fully trained. Today, he got his first “special prize” for finishing a row of “pooped in the potty” stickers. Ooh-rah!
Helped Adam finish reading Mouse Soup, then he went upstairs to play with his new game.
Thomas has begun teething. This afternoon, he chomped down on my finger pretty hard, so I started feeling around for a lump. Sure enough, his bottom-right tooth is trying to break through. It still has a ways to go, but it looks like the rest of us are in for some Hell time now. Joy.
I watched the MTV Video Music Awards last night while I worked on the quilt. Most of the performances were awful, and almost all were utterly cliche. The Christina Aguilera/Nelly performance, however, was great - original, new, and fun. The Alicia Keys/Stevie Wonder/whatshisname performance didn’t even begin to live up to the hype.
Make made another yummy pasta/vegetable sauce dinner, with grilled sausages and cheese.
Bedtime was actually relatively easy. Kayla hadn’t napped, so she fell asleep on the couch. I got Thomas to sleep by nursing him, and left Mike to deal with Adam.
Woke up with Kayla about 6:30, and had a breakfast of rice pudding. Shortly thereafter, I started packing for a trip to Spokane. I needed to get some supplies to make that scrapbook for the Hook-a-Thon. While there, I was to meet up with Emma.
We stopped in Steptoe first, to refuel and top off the windshield wiper fluid, and get a package of peanut butter crackers to munch on. Then we headed on down the long, long, boring rode to Spokane. First stops were the bank to make a deposit, and the post office to mail a couple of packages. Kayla was a doll, looking at all the pretty mailing boxes and stickers, and didn’t get in a lick of trouble.
We had about 40 minutes to kill before time to meet up for lunch, so we hit the scrapbook store on North Division. Of course, it happened that BOTH kids were in need of diaper changes, so I ended up being about 5 minutes late for lunch, but Emma and her son were both very gracious about it.
In fact, they both just rule. They’re super-sweet, funny, smart people, and were a joy to be with. I haven’t had such a nice, comfortable lunch with someone new in a long, long while. We talked about blogging (well, of COURSE), and kids, and men, and … well, I can’t really tell you EVERYthing we talked about. ;) Suffice to say, it was a blast, and we’ve promised to do it again. Her son was an absolute gentleman to Kayla, too, and was very good about having such a “kid” there. You’d never even know he was a teenager! Lunch lasted for 2.5 hours, until Kayla started showing signs of overtired.
After that, we went to this store called Learning is Fun. Walking in there was a lot like the first time I went to a big scrapbooking store - overwhelming! There was just SOOOOO much cool stuff to look at, and I could easily break the bank in there. But I was good; I only got some readers for Adam, a roll of 12″ craft paper, and a set of illustrated ABC cards to hang on the walls. The “real” teachers were out in force, too, and I overheard all kinds of talk about curriculum, and scheduling, and what-not. An obviously brand-new first-grade teacher was taking herself VERY seriously, and I had to try hard not to laugh. A veteran first-grade teacher was giving her pointers on how to do it right, including this little gem, “Oh, yes, they need spelling words the very first day.” I’m sure her little darlings just LOOOOOVE learning. [ /sarcasm]
Anyway, after we finished there, we went to the bigger scrapbooking store in Spokane, Huckleberry’s Paper Patch. They were quite obviously sold out of a great many things, but I still found a bit more to add to my growing collection.
At both scrapbooking stores, and at the educational store, they had play areas set up for children, with toys and games and tables and chairs. Whoever thought that up is a freaking GENIUS. Shopping is made SO much easier when my kids are safely occupied, and I can buy more. If you are a retailer of a kind of store where young (shut up) mothers routinely shop, take note: GET A PLAY AREA. You’ll be doing both yourself AND your customers a great favor. Given the choice between two stores, one with a play area and one without, I will definitely shop at the former, even if their selection isn’t as good or their prices are a bit higher. There’s just no contest.
Kayla was a dream girl all day long, despite being overtired. She played happily with the toys, didn’t fuss too much when it was time to leave someplace, and (mostly) happily waved bye-bye to random people on the way out. I was thrilled.
Last two stops were drive-thru’s: Dairy Queen and the A&W. I’m getting old, though; fast food just doesn’t taste as good as it used to.
Then we made the long, long boring drive back home. By the time we got here, my butt was sore, and I was sick of being behind the wheel. I got Kayla a plate of food for dinner, then we just kind of petered the night out until it was time for bed.
I woke up early this morning. In fact, I was the first one awake for a change. I had a nightmare about my ex-husband. He was chasing me around an apartment complex. I couldn’t get back into my own apartment, so I was doing from one door to the other, trying to find someone to take me in. Every apartment was different - different layout, different furnishings, different electrical systems, different language spoken in each. It made me wonder, was my mind using the apartment complex to symbolize the blogosphere? Some of the residents seemed oddly reminiscent of some bloggers.
Started right in on the quilt again, after getting chewy bars for the kids for breakfast. Reading time with Adam was as smooth as silk, and afterward I took Adam and Kayla to the library to check out books. They had a good time, though they spent most of it playing with the library’s toys rather than choosing books. Alas. Still, they each managed to choose both a book and a movie, and even had a few minutes to run around the park next door to the library. We were only gone an hour, but it was a nice break.
After we got home, the kids had corndogs for lunch while they watched their library movies, then Kayla wanted to play outside for awhile. I offered the same to Adam, but he declined. He’s generally less of a “play outside” kind of kid. So instead, Adam and I finished up his sticker book about telling time. I don’t think the ideas have sunk in, really, but he still had fun with it, and might’ve learned a little something along the way. Perhaps in a few months, when he’s older, I’ll make him a little pretend clock with movable hands, and tackle the concepts again.
The three country music CDs I ordered arrived today. w00t!
Thomas, Adam, and I had naps this afternoon. I had a hard time waking up from mine, but Kayla was infinitely chattery and happy and noisy. I was still grouchy, so I mostly tried to ignore her.
I was SO damned behind on work, but I made good progress on my inbox by the end of the day.
Mike made us dinner (stirfry), and afterward I gave the older two kids their baths. Things were going relatively fine, until Kayla made a poopy in the tub. She started screaming, and I hauled them out of the water, and called Mike down to help. We got everybody cleaned off and dressed, then Mike bleached the toys from the tub and cleaned the tub itself. Ahhh, domestic bliss!
More work on the quilt after baths, as well as more work on my inbox. Kayla fell asleep on the floor next to my chair, so I carried her to bed. Then I took Thomas to bed with Mike, who had crashed early, so I could get Adam to sleep. He (Adam) was too wiggly, so I got up and Mike and I switched kids. Thomas went right to sleep after only a little nursing, so that was good. I was right behind.
I woke up pretty early, and had a bagel with cream cheese. Kayla saw me making mine, and wanted some for herself. Of course, I obliged.
Did a bit of work in the morning, then we all went into town to run errands. The very first stop was the Endicott post office, where I had two packages to pick up: a raffle quilt I had sent off to be quilted (Ulrika had made the top), and an album and pictures to make the scrapbook from the auction.
This week we had to go to the pharmacy to pick up a couple of prescriptions (Adam accompanied me into the store for that one), the drive-thru at the bank to make a deposit, the optometrist where Mike could pick up his new glasses, the grange (Kayla accompanied Mike), and the grocery store. Overall, everyone was pretty well-behaved, and it was a relatively uneventful day. I love those.
Once we got back home, Mike started moving his computers and other stuff upstairs. He had moved down in the spring to be with me in my pregnant-ness, and now that I’m un-pregnant and the weather has cooled off, he can move back upstairs. This will also help keep our oldest out of some trouble, as he’s been getting increasingly wild up there, unattended. While he was busy with the migration, I made some chocolate-dipped strawberries. Yum!
I realized I have a very busy two weeks ahead of me. In the next two weeks, I need to do all of the following:
1) Make the aforementioned scrapbook, which includes shopping for appropriate supplies.
2) Bind and label the aforementioned charity quilt, so as to enter it into the fair.
3) Finish the top of the quilt I’m currently working on. OK, I don’t
technically HAVE to finish that in the next two weeks, but it’s already
out on my desk, and I refuse to put it away without at least the top
done. I started it five years ago, and if I quit now, it’ll be another
five before it’s done.
4) Put up the wall. Incidentally, I’ve been thinking about that, and
decided I don’t need to toenail those studs after all. I’ll just put up
the sheetrock on the existing walls first (the studs are already there
for that), then put up the new wall. Before I can nail any of the
sheetrock up, though, Mike has to do his part: electrical. The
lightswitch needs to move over one stud, and he’s going to install two
new electrical plugs into an existing wall. He won’t wire them into
anything yet; it’s just a good time to plop in new boxes for wiring
later.
5) Finish the cross-stitching
piece I want to enter into the fair.
That’s probably enough to keep me out of too much trouble over the next few days.
I spent the evening making a lot of progress on step #3, whilst watching my latest guilty pleasure, the Nick and Jessica show on MTV. Hey, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, but we all have our vices!
Adam was BAD tonight. Arguing, hitting, threatening. I think he was just overtired, but he got sent to bed over and over again. It was finally at the point where if he came out ONE MORE TIME, he would’ve had either the television or computer taken away the next day. Lucky for him, he didn’t.
Nothing at all interesting about this morning. Adam was asleep when I woke up, Kayla was already awake, cheerful, and chattery. Thomas slept in another hour, nursed, then went back to sleep for another couple of hours.
Had a breakfast of rice pudding Mike had made. The kids requested French toast, so that’s what I made for them.
Did some work in the morning, until the Building Center showed up with the lumber, sheetrock, and insulation I had ordered. I helped the guy unload it, then came back in to finish up some work. Mike went to take a nap, so I rode herd on the kids. I wimped out and let them watch a few cartoons while I did some more work. Got the older two corndogs for lunch, and Thomas got his usual.
Once Mike woke up, I tried to work on the reconstruction project. I say “tried", because it was mostly a matter of FINDING all the bits and pieces I’d need. Started out wanting to see how long the first stud needed to be… couldn’t find the measuring tape. Hunted around for it for 20 minutes. Make measurement, grab pencil, go off in search of circular saw. THAT was relatively easy. Next, look for extension cord to plug it into. Found that, then go off in search of something to use as sawhorses. Finally settled on a couple of old chairs in the garage.
Tried to make the first cut, but the blade was dull. Luckily, I had bought a new blade at the Building Center last week, so I unplugged the saw and took it in to change the blade. Figured out how to change the blade, then went back out to make the cut. No go. I hadn’t tightened the screw well enough. Went off in search of one of those round-end wrench thingies. That took for-bloody-ever. Finally found one that fit, and tightened the screw up. Success! It cut beautifully. Next, find the drill. See, I have to drill three holes in each end, as a set-up for the nails I have to put in at each end. I have to “toe-nail” this stud into an existing wall, to attach sheetrock to down the road.
Found a drill ok, and Mike even found the cordless for me, but finding the bits was a much different matter. That took nearly an hour. Once I found some, I brought them into the house and started the drilling. Managed to break a drill bit off into the piece of wood, with just a little bit peeking out. Mike thought I might be able to use a wrench to “unscrew” it, so I went looking for the wrench. Found it, and tried to unscrew the bit. This resulted in breaking still more of the bit off, and leaving a piece inside that was impossible to get at. Scratch that piece of wood! (I can use the part without the bit in it for smaller cuts.)
Needed to cut another stud, but I had lost the measuring tape again. Found it, and decided from then on to keep it clipped to my shorts. Another measurement, another cut, and another try at drilling. This one was more successful. Tried next to hammer the nails through the drilled holes, and I just could NOT make that work. The stud kept moving. Upon reflection, I think I’m going to have to cut small braces to butt against the existing faces and studs, then use that as a buttress against the new stud. I still haven’t figured out how to hammer such long nails into such a tight space, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. At any rate, I gave up when the light started to get bad (no existing overhead in that room), and I got frustrated and tired. No visible progress.
Settled down to figure out the exact finances for Hook-a-Thon, and found that we have cleared exactly $1060! Hooray! I’m going to keep working on it, though, as there’s more to do. It did feel great to cut that first check, though, and send it on to the FRG. If you’re reading this, you have a website, and you want to help support the military, please post a link to the Hook-a-Thon, and maybe mention it on your blog (if you have one). We need all the exposure we can get.
Adam wanted to play some go-fish while his sister slept. I let him, but when I was gone to change Thomas’ diaper, he managed to break the “fishing pole.” I took that as a sign that he was being too wild, and I confiscated the game for the day.
Leftovers for dinner. More cross-stitching, and a bit more Olympics rounded out the day.
Once again, I was the last awake. Took another shower with supervision. Might be time to start using the door. Spent much of the morning doing more cross-stitching, since I’ve decided I want to enter the piece I’m working on in the fair. That gives me just about two weeks to finish it and frame it.
Mike made us all French toast for breakfast, a nice treat.
I did reading with Adam today - he read the book My Loose Tooth in its entirety. After that, we did some more work in their sticker books (time for Adam, shapes for Kayla). Adam decided he didn’t want to do any more workbooks, so I let him skip it. No point in giving him TOO much work; he is just barely four, after all.
So instead, we did a few art projects. I took the kids into the bathroom and filled a pie plate with water, then we played “chase the pepper.” You sprinkle some pepper on the top of the water, then use the edge of a bar of soap to “chase” the pepper out of an area. Then you sprinkle sugar in the empty space, and watch the pepper run back. It was ok, but not as amazing as I thought it would be.
Then I helped the kids make little tambourine/shaker things. For each one, I filled a paper plate with dried pasta, then stapled another plate around the rim onto the first, upside-down. Punched some holes in the outer edge, strung a little ribbon through it, then let them decorate them as they liked. Kayla opted for markers and glow-in-the-dark flower stickers. Adam simply taped a few dinosaur die-cuts to his. Then they spent some time make a helluva noise with them (but, really, that WAS the point!).
About 2PM, I realized I hadn’t heard from the building center about the supplies I ordered, so I called them. True to the Palouse notion of efficiency, the delivery was being delayed by (at least) a day, and no one had opted to call me. *sigh*
I did get a call from my friend Natalie, on the pre-school coordinating committee. She told me the committee was meeting September 1st at Basilio’s, and could I come. Mike and I are the treasurers this year, so that puts me on the committee. I said sure, I’d be there, though I’d be bringing a kid along. She said of course, that was fine.
Finished de-nailing the room, and also removed the framing from around the window. The former (ahem) decorators had glued wood paneling to the window framing, and I couldn’t get it off. Seems it’ll be far easier to just make a new framing.
Not much happened for the rest of the day. Dinner (yummy fajitas), a little more work, a lot more cross-stitching, and watching the Americans win gold in beach volleyball.
This morning I noticed that Thomas has this great, big, huge pimple on his chin. I don’t recall any of my other kids having one, but from what I gather on the net, it’s perfectly normal. I just have to resist the urge to pop it.
Had leftover quiche for breakfast. Then I did some work, hauled a little last-minute trash out to the dumpster before it got picked up, then did a bit of cross-stitching.
Adam got a toy catalog in the mail, which included a section of Halloween costumes. Adam saw the Superman, Batman, and Spiderman, and remarked, “Being a superhero makes you supercool!” Can’t argue with that.
Adam wanted to play the word-fishing game again (we call it Go Fish), but I didn’t feel like standing up by the back of the couch for an hour. So, we compromised; he sat on a box of books in the living room, and fished for words in the floor, where he could see them. This made the game go much faster, though we had to keep shooing Kayla away from the fish.
Mike made yummy BLT’s for lunch, complete with fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes and lettuce.
I spent the majority of the day compiling the directions for a new mystery quilt pattern that I’ll be posting over at QuiltIndex. Sadly, I’ve noticed that the quality of my work declines the more kids there are.
Mike made a dinner of salmon croquettes, mac & cheese, and peas. Adam once again refused to eat, but that may have been because he had a big, late lunch.
Watched some more Olympics after dinner, while I finished the pattern, then did a little more cross-stitching. All in all, a pretty boring day.
I didn’t have a good start to the morning. I was the last one awake, and when I finally staggered out of bed, I felt dizzy, hot, and sick to my stomach. This gradually wore off over the course of an hour or two, but I was NOT feeling good there for awhile.
I decided to take the day off from working and household stuff and just do crafts - quilting, scrapbooking, or cross-stitching. Unfortunately, the kids had other ideas. Thomas, in particular, spent a lot of the day screaming his fool head off, and demanding to be held. *sigh* So it goes.
In the afternoon, I took a little time to make a pineapple upside-down cake. It turned out quite yummy, and was super-easy. I should do it more often.
Watched some trash TV today: The Nick & Jessica newleywed show on MTV. On one episode, Nick and his friend tackled the job of putting down new sod onto a 7000-square-foot lot next to their house. Lesson learned: hire a landscaping company.
Adam was terribly bored, and since it was raining I couldn’t send him outside to play. Instead, I used my Sizzix to make some paper fish. I wrote words on one side, and taped a bit of wire to the other. Then I taped a magnet to the end of some kitchen twine, and tied the other end of THAT to a dowel, making Adam a fishing rod of sorts. Then he spent some time “fishing” for them over the back of the couch. He had a great time, though (like many things) it was a very tedious process from the parent’s point of view. Still, it’s good practice, as Adam was encouraged to read the words after he had caught the fish. I think I can tailor this game to Kayla, too, putting shapes, colors, and letters on her fish, rather than words.
Nobody but Kayla napped today, so everybody was pretty out of control by bedtime. Everyone else went to sleep around 11PM, but I decided I needed some quiet, alone time, so I stayed awake until 12:30, reading in the tub. Then I staggered off to bed and collapsed.
I took another pain pill at 4AM, so by the time I awoke around 8:30, I was still pretty groggy and “loopy.” The first thing I noticed when I came into the living room was a big, gaping hole in the wall where the air conditioner used to be. Mike had worked on it early in the morning, and had finally managed to get the old unit out. After working at the hole with a hand saw for awhile, he managed to get the new air conditioner in place. This, of course, caused a nice cold front to move into the area, so that we didn’t need the a/c all day. Figures.
Made a breakfast of scrambled eggs and buttered toast, then started folding and putting away laundry, and started a load of diapers. Laundry: a never-ending chore. I spent much of the day feeling super-stressed, and even blogged about it a bit. That feeling got a little better over the course of the day, and will no doubt keep getting better as I make progress on the construction project. I really think that’s the source of most of my angst, since it means the house is even more cluttered, even more crowded, than it usually is.
To a toddler, “no” does not mean “no.” It means “Please, oh, please, ask me again, and again, and again.”
Did a little work with Adam on an educational sticker-book I bought at ShopKo last week. It’s designed to teach him how to tell time. It’s a bit of an advanced concept, but I think he can learn the basics - o’clock, and -thirty. At any rate, he loved placing the stickers in their proper places. Kayla was equally intrigued, so I got her sticker book out, too - about shapes. Yayyy, homeschooling!
I did some more work on QuiltIndex, including designing a mystery quilt. I have a call out to a shop, to see if they want to sponsor it, then I’ll have the first step up by September 1st.
I spent a birthday gift certificate I got from a friend, and bought 3 cd’s: Gretchen Wilson’s Here for the Party, Sara Evans’ Restless, and Brad Paisley’s Mud on the Tires.
I tried to have a nap this afternoon with Thomas, but he refused to sleep, so I scratched that plan and got back up. Did more sorting of the junk on my desk, and came up with a stack of educational books a foot high. Time for me to claim a shelf somewhere for them.
Mike indulged me with a couple of quiches for dinner, which we ate while watching Iron Chef. That’s a goofy show, but one we all enjoy. Afterward, I watched some Olympics (damn, those sprinters are FAST!), then we all progressed toward bed.
Woke up at 7:30 this morning, and decided to have a shower. Kayla was up not long after, and she came by to supervise. She likes to stick her hands in the water under the shower curtain, and catch bubbles. Silly girl.
I spent the morning whacking away at my inbox, and trying to handle work. This task was made more difficult by a screaming, gassy baby. It’s very hard to focus on programming with a two-month-old blaring in your ear. I somehow managed, however, to start a new feature over at QuiltIndex. It’s not public yet, but it’s going to be an events calendar. At present, I’m taking submissions from the shops about their events, then I’ll design the display pages. I haven’t thought that far yet. :)
Did some more work on the reconstruction project - I did all of the de-nailing, except for the line of them all the way around the ceiling. Then I sat down and drew a sketch of the new wall, so I could draw up a shopping list for the materials and supplies I’d need. It’s a long, long list. I decided to go buy the supplies today, since I had to go pick up the new air conditioner in Lewiston, anyway. I was hoping Home Depot would deliver, since I didn’t relish the thought of bringing home 12′ long two-by-fours in the back of the truck.
On the way into town, it occurred to me that the building center in Colfax might deliver, so I called them. They do! So I stopped there instead. The guy behind the counter was extremely helpful, and the shopping took me a fraction of the time it would’ve at Home Depot. The lumber, sheetrock, and insulation will be delivered on Tuesday. The rest of the stuff I brought home with me, including six pounds of nails!
After a quick stop at the Arby’s drive-thru for dinner, I drove to Lewiston for the a/c. It’s a long drive, broken only by passes through the towns of Colton and Uniontown. Tomorrow is Uniontown’s annual flea market, so it was kind of fun to see everyone out setting up their antiques and junk for sale. I almost stopped to browse, but decided against it. The road down into Lewiston is a steep, steep, winding road, with strong cross-winds and tons of signs telling runaway freight trucks where they can pull off. This always makes for a nerve-wracking drive for me, and my heart rate increases exponentially each time.
Got the a/c picked up without incident, though it took the (quite clueless) warehouse minions awhile to locate the air conditioner. Seems they’d never seen an online purchase receipt before. *sigh* Once they found it, they loaded it into the back of the truck, I bungeed it in, and Thomas and I were off again, this time headed for home.
By the time I got home, I had a really bad toothache, and was feeling kind of grumpy. I stayed up for awhile, trying to decompress and doing my best to help Mike get the old a/c out of the hole in the wall. I was more successful with the former than the latter. Adam had been misbehaving all afternoon, apparently, and so had to stay in his room the entire night. Mike took Kayla to bed around 11'ish (I think), and after taking a pain pill, Thomas and I weren’t far behind.
I have decided to turn comments back on. I just don’t like blogging without them. Mind you, I still don’t like comment spam. Harvey suggested a couple of third-party comment systems that have less of a problem with spam, but I haven’t had the time
have been lazy, so I haven’t looked into them yet. In the meantime,
I’ll just use Movable Type’s comments, but I will close comments on
posts over a week old. We’ll see how that works, anyway. So please, let
me hear you!
While getting my cereal this morning, I noticed the Box Tops for Education logo on the top of the box. I’d always saved those for the local school, but now that I’m homeschooling, I thought I’d check into whether I could use them myself for anything. Turns out you can use them for homeschool educations, but only for “Accredited home school associations, K-8, in the United Sates that are organized and operated primarily for educational purposes and have 15 or more students.” I’m only 1/5 of the way there so far, so I guess we’re SOL. For now. ;)
Adam read more from Zack’s Alligator with Dad, and did great. In fact, he had one of his better days all day. It’s nice to notice him growing up, and having more and more days where he’s not a needful, clingy, whiny person.
We played another round of the NEMO card game, this time with the added complication of me lying down nursing Thomas. Luckily, Adam has mastered the game well enough that he needs virtually no supervision. After NEMO, I once again consulted my Busy Book, and this time drew the activity of making the kids connect-the-dots pictures to do, using letters instead of numbers. Adam got more complicated pictures than Kayla, of course, with more letters and requiring finer motor schools, but this is definitely an activity that can be tailored to their needs. As an added bonus, Kayla’s pictures were shapes, so I was able to work with her on shapes, letters, writing, and (afterward) coloring, all in one activity! Yayyyy, homeschooling!
Did a bit more laundry today. A necessary evil. I also did some more de-nailing in the reconstruction project, and have finished two whole walls. Afterward, I called the dumpster people and scheduled a pickup for Monday. We’ll have to plunk down another chunk of money for that, no doubt. *sigh*
I had a quick lunch of last night’s leftover vegetable sauce over bread, plus strawberry yogurt, before we had to leave. We took the kids to the clinic for their shots. The boys did fine, with minimal crying. The girls (including me) thought the whole thing a horrible injustice, and we cried much longer than they. Of course, Kayla was noisier about it, and rightfully so, poor baby.
After the shots, we drove to Pullman so I could renew my (expired) driver’s license. It was easily the most pleasant experience I’ve ever had with any DMV, anywhere (though here, it’s the DOL). The whole thing, from walking in to walking out, took less than 5 minutes. $25, and I’m set for 5 more years. I love small towns!
Next stop was back in Colfax, where Mike had an appointment with the optometrist to update his prescription. I rode herd on the kids (including a VERY poopy infant) while he did his thing, then we did a quick bank deposit, a stop at the grange, and a refuel and snack stop at the gas station. By the time all that was done, I was only too ready to get home. All of the kids had dropped off to sleep by the time we got here, and Mike got them all nestled into their beds to continue their nap. All Hail the Nap Gods!!!
It was another blisteringly hot day today, and the house felt wonderful by comparison. Later this afternoon, a cold front moved through, and I went around opening all the windows that had screens to let the air circulate. Around here, I relish the little things. :)
Mike made a yummy dinner of homemade split pea soup and fresh bread. I had two helpings. Yum!
Thomas had a very noisy night, probably because of tenderness at the injection sites, so he needed lots of holding. I spent some time doing the mommy-bop with him, holding him on my tummy and rocking him up and down. You moms know what I mean. Once that quit working, I turned him over to Dad, which seemed to be what he wanted for awhile.
I finally bit the bullet and designed the quilt for the next Mall Crawl, did some VBA programming, then sent out the emails to the shops that have already signed up, so they could start getting logos and blocks into place. It was a chore I’d been putting off and putting off, but like most things, it was easier than I expected, and took less time than I thought it would.
It was a long, hot day, and by the time I was finished working, I was ready for bed. Mike was reading to the kids, so I went in with him and had some bonding time with Kayla, who assured me I was a special mommy, and that she loved me, and that she would take care of me. Sweet Baby Girl.
First thing this morning, Adam asked for Fruit Loops for breakfast. I got some for him, along with chocolate milk. The chocolate milk he drank (of course), but he flat refused to eat the cereal. Sometimes that kid frustrates the hell outta me. Awhile after being sent to his room for wasting food, he came back out and was allowed a granola bar and a Mud & Bugs poptart, both of which he ate without protest.
Kayla’s first words of the day: “Mama, mama!” followed by “I need some ice cream.” She settled for a granola bar, too.
Once breakfast was over with, Adam started his reading lesson with Mike. To keep Kayla distracted and out of the way, I took her into our bedroom to play a new Nemo card game I got at the mall last week. It’s a pretty simple word/letter game: each card has one letter, one word, part of a picture, and a colored background. All of the words are composed of four letters, and the cards for each letter in the word have the same background. The cards, when arranged in the proper order, both spell out the word and form a picture.
I was playing it with Kayla, but not having much success. She only recognizes a very few letters - O, A, W, and sometimes H - but she loved looking at the pictures. Adam finished his reading lesson, and came to play with us. He caught on right away, so I let him find the matching cards, form the words, and say the letters. Then, as he worked on finding the cards for the next word, I showed them to Kayla, pointed out and said the letters, and let her put them back in the box. That seemed to work well, as each child was playing the game at a level he or she could understand. Adam wanted to play again, but I told him it was time to play a new game.
I grabbed my copy of The Preschooler’s Busy Book, and started flipping to the pages I had marked. For the past several days, I had gone through and skimmed all of the activities, marking ones we might be likely to do. I’m so glad I did, because it made finding something suitable really easy. Today we played “product geography.” The kids were told to go find something they thought was special or interesting, and bring it to me, and we could figure out where it came from, and find that place on the globe.
They, of course, started bringing me toys. In no time at all, they learned where “China” was. I thought we’d be stuck on that country forever, as a half-dozen products were all made in China. In fact, Adam even said, “Everything comes from China!” Luckily, Mike saved us, and went to the pantry to pull out some interesting foodstuffs, so we were able to look up Thailand, India, the Netherlands, Denmark, Korea, and a couple of other countries on our little blow-up globe. They seemed to love it.
Did a bit of laundry today. *yawn*
The wife of one of Sgt Hook’s soldiers contributed a gorgeous quilt for auction at the Hook-a-thon, so I took some time to get that posted. It really is very beautiful, so go take a look! It’s for a good cause. :)
It was another scorching hot day today, so I had a bath to try to cool down. While I was in there, I read the next part of my book about putting up interior walls, to see what the next step would be. Unfortunately, depending on where the ceiling joists are, we might have to cut through part of the ceiling and add supports. Bah. Construction jobs always get bigger and bigger. I tried to have a nap after my bath, because I had a raging headache, but Thomas wouldn’t allow it. So it goes.
I started the nail-pulling part of the remodeling job, under the close supervision of my two-year-old daughter. By “supervision", I mean that she ran around in circles, saying, “I’m holding my baby and running around! I’m holding my baby and running around!” I did as much as I could before Thomas started screaming, and almost finished the de-nailing of one wall.
Mike made a very yummy, very elaborate dinner of pasta and garlicky vegetable sauce. I ate my fill, had a few Oreos, then went to try to work. I didn’t make much progress, since I was so tired. I finally gave up and went to bed about 9, but once again Thomas tried to thwart my plans. I took him out and gave him to Dad, then went to bed once again. I don’t know when he was brought back, but some time in the night I woke up to find him next to me. Some time later, I noticed Kayla was in bed, too.
Thank GOD, today’s weather was a lot more reasonable than the past week. It was still warm, but it was pleasantly warm, and there was a steady breeze all day. It was warmer in the house than outside because the house had retained so much heat overnight, but still, much more livable. Which is a good thing, because I won’t get our a/c til Friday, at the earliest.
I spent most of the day doing more work for QuiltIndex, as well as some more work on a new site I’m going to be launching (but can’t announce yet), reading through more magazines, and doing more organizing of my scrapbooking stuff. I finally put to good use a set of two toolboxes I had bought at the Wal-Mart months ago, at Mike’s suggestion. They hold a TON of stuff, and now my desk looks a little nicer.
I did Adam’s reading lesson with him this morning. He read ten pages from Zack’s alligator. He’s doing well on it, though there are a lot of new-to-him words in there. It helps that the subject is something interesting to him, and the illustrations are great.
I made some real progress over the course of the day on the reconstruction project. I finished taking down all the sheetrock (the last part involved basically gouging out an area around the nails, pulling the nails, then the sheetrock just fell off; there was no other way to get at it). Once all the sheetrock was down, I took the plastic sheeting down, sorted the big pieces of sheetrock from the small, then hauled out load after load after load of debris.
Once THAT was done, I swept the floor (with dust mask on). Whew! Gypsum dust (the stuff sheetrock is made from) is VERY fine and VERY light and it just hangs in the air. I’ll definitely need to vacuum in there VERY well before doing any painting or laying the carpet, but as Mike says there’s no point in doing a thorough cleaning job in there when we still have a wall to put up. Next step: pull out the million-and-one protruding nails, and figure out how much wood we’ll need to frame the wall.
Once I was done with my remodeling effort for the day, I had the best-deserved, most necessary shower of my life. Felt REALLY good to get all that grime and powdery dust off of me.
Mike had made the kids pancakes for breakfast, and they both requested more pancakes for lunch. There were plenty of leftovers, so Mike obliged. Despite the abundance, the little monsters still had a “my pancakes!” argument back and forth over them. Maybe I can turn this into an economics homeschooling lesson about scarcity of resources or something.
At one point this afternoon, Kayla brought a baby over to play with me. I asked if the baby was hungry, and she said, “Yes!” and promptly pressed the baby’s face to her chest. When I asked what the baby was going to eat, she replied, “Kayla milk” and followed that up with “And the fly can drink some fly milk.” Can you tell this is a nursing-positive household? ;)
Kayla played outside this afternoon, then she had her own much-needed bath. Of course, she wasn’t near as pleased about hers. Afterward, I was cuddling her all wrapped up on my lap, and I asked, “Are you Mommy’s pretty girl?” She said, “No, I’m not your pretty girl, I’m your special pretty girl.”
Mike made dinner again - macaroni and cheese with leftover ham mixed in, and peas. Kayla fell asleep mid-dinner, but not before twirling some cheese into her freshly-washed hair. She’s a hair-twirler from way back, especially when she’s tired.
Post-dinner, Adam and I watched a little TV - an episode of Friends, and a bit of the Olympics. *yawn* While watching TV, I finished making the tags I had started at my birthday party. Now I just need to figure out how to use them. I had intended them for Kayla’s baby book, but I haven’t had our digital pictures from that far back printed yet, and I’d feel guilty if I didn’t use up some of the printing I’ve already done. So I’ll probably set them aside for now, and do some “regular” scrapbooking for a change.
Mike decided to have a bath while we were watching TV, and after a bit Thomas joined him for a soak, too. He seemed to enjoy his time in the water with Daddy, even if there were no nice milky boobies to go along with it. :)
For my birthday this year, Mike arranged with my friends Mo and Ulrika to come visit. My in-laws had known about it, but I had no clue. Saturday the 7th (3 days before my birthday), they just showed up, knocking on the door! Mike told me, “It’s for you.” It took me a minute to recognize Mo (whom I’d met, but not seen in 3 years). Once I finally did, I realized who Ulrika was, and I started screaming, “OH MY GOD!” and hopping around like a blithering idiot. It was a complete shock.
We had SUCH a good time while they were here. Mo got to stay til Wednesday, and Ulrika til today. In that time we (in no particular order) went to a movie, went out to eat (several times), visited a grocery store and the Wal-Mart (several times), stopped at a quilt store and two scrapbooking stores, went to a preschool picnic, and had two birthday parties (one for Adam, one for me). Of course we spent a lot of time just chatting and hanging out, which was GREAT. The a/c went out while they were here, so it was pretty hot and uncomfortable much of the time, but we managed.
This morning, I drove Ulrika to the airport. It was a very sad trip, and I kept offering to stash her in our root cellar so she could stay in the country. I really think some mistake was made somewhere along the way, and U was really meant to be born here, in the States. She’s such an American!
Now that our houseguests are gone, I’m busily trying to catch up on everything I’d been ignoring and/or neglecting during their visit. Work, household chores, the Hook-a-Thon, and developing a business idea I have. Not to mention all my hobbies - scrapbooking, quilting, cross-stitching. Since I took all my scrapbooking stuff to the party yesterday, I spent a good amount of time today trying to better organize it all, and get it rearranged on my desk. I have a stack of magazines that need to be read and filed or trashed, so I spent some time doing that.
Today, Kayla brought over one of the Sweet Pickles books for me to read to her. It brought back a lot of memories, since I remember collecting and cherishing the Sweet Pickles series when I was about seven years old.
While I was at my party yesterday, one of the women started talking about how awful her husband was treating her. She’s the one I mentioned before who has lymphoma. Her husband had wanted her to abort the baby right away, so all along there had been some tension over the pregnancy and her treatment. Thus, when she eventually lost the baby, he was happy about it, and she couldn’t turn to him for help with her grief. He’d also been really mean to her about their two boys (the oldest of which is not hers), and treating them differently. At one point, she was being transported from Pullman to Spokane for emergency treatment, and he basically told her he doesn’t care if she lives or dies.
The other women were sympathizing with her about what an ass he was being, and one of the women was talking about how marriage “was always work, work, work, work", and that women did 90% of the work. I held my tongue (because really, what’s the point of arguing against something like that?), but I did comment to Ulrika about how my marriage was NOTHING like that, and that it bugged me when people generalized that ALL relationships are like theirs.
It’s so damn hot around here these days (and the a/c not due to arrive til Friday), so about mid-day I took a bath to cool off. I could’ve gone down to the pool, but it’s such a hassle to take the pool cover off and put it back on, that it kind of negates any relaxation you get from the actual swim, unless you’re out there a LONG time. I couldn’t afford too long of a break, since I need to catch up on other things, but the bathtub dunk really helped make me feel better and help me to think.
Both kids got Play-Doh sets for their birthdays this year. Adam got the Play-Doh farm, and Kayla got Doh-Doh Island. What is it with all the toys that Play-Doh packs come with nowadays? It used to be you’d get 8 colors of Play-Doh, and maybe one or two toys or molds. Now, it’s almost like the Play-Doh itself is an afterthought!
Thomas is beginning to coo and make sweet baby noises, when he’s not sleeping, nursing, or screaming. I wonder how long it will be before he’s actually talking?
I posted a new book review over at 2Frogs. Lousy book, bleah! But when I told my doctor about it a couple of weeks ago, when I was halfway through it, he seemed interested. So I’ll take it into him this week when we go in for the kids’ shots, and he can read it if he likes.
Mike made a yummy dinner last night - noodles with a chicken/shrimp/veggie sauce. I added a judicious amount of Parmesan cheese, and it was very good.
Mike was reading in the bed with Adam last night when I decided to try to get Thomas to sleep. Kayla came in with me, so we were all five in there. I had hoped the two older ones would play quietly enough to let us all stay in there for a bit, but it didn’t happen, so Mike and the older kids went out, and I got Thomas and myself to sleep.
I’ve decided to post here again, but not as before. If you were a reader here before, you know that I wrote about a wide range of topics, but most entries were about politics or the military. Note-It Posts was what I consider a “bloggy” blog, meaning most entries included a link to something that prompted me to post, along with my commentary. I’ve since moved that kind of publishing over to Eat the Lettuce, where I’m blogging with the ever-fabulous Mike (not the one I’m married to, the other one. heh).
This blog will now be a “journally” blog. In the past, I’ve
kept a diary over at my personal/farm site, 2Frogs.
I quit writing there some time ago, as it wasn’t fun anymore. I’ve
enjoyed the break, but I find I’m missing it now. I just have this blog
sitting here, doing nothing, so I’m going to use it as my new diary
site. I hope to copy emulate the journal of
SexyHusband, and post an entry
every day about my day-to-day life. I can’t promise to keep that up, but I will try.
You might find this kind of diary/journal boring and/or tedious, or you might find it funny and enlightening. If you read enough entries, you’ll know soon enough which is which.
I’m also going to keep comments closed on this site, for the same reason they were turned off to begin with: spam. I still don’t have the time to deal with it. If you find something here funny or comment-worthy, feel free to email me about it.