DragonBlog

Trick-or-Treat!

My little guy went trick-or-treating with his daddy for the very first time today! Previously we've taken him over to see Brian's folks, but we did that yesterday when we joined in their neighborhood's parade. After following the fire engine in a small speed walk parade to the community center there, they had cookies and punch spread out for everyone and a raffle for all the kids to each get a chance to pick a toy off of a big table of stuffed animals and other assorted halloweeny stuff. Jareth got a bear with a sweater on it. We call it the "pumpkin teddy bear" as it's got a pumpkin on the sweater. We're not to good at giving his stuffed critters names apparently, we tend to just call them what they are. This is surprising considering I usually give the Thanksgiving turkey a name, my car usually has a name, and I'm trying to come up with names for the two new spider plants that RainMoon recently gave me that are now happily brightening up my kitchen windows as they dangle just out of kitty-kat reach from hooks in the ceiling. But, see, they aren't my stuffed animals. They belong to Jareth. HE needs to name them. Some things I just don't feel right doing for him.

The picture was taken yesterday, at the playground where the parade participants met. I couldn't resist taking it while it looked like he was in a "cage" on the playground equipment. We took off the bear "feet" as we were afraid he'd slip and wanted to let him play for a bit. He walked for a while, but we were falling way behind so his Grandma carried him for a good majority of the parade. We'd brought the stroller they keep handy for when he's over, but he wanted none of it. Because of Brian's new schedule, we haven't gotten to see his family as often as we used to, so I think Jareth was getting his "gramma fix" on as he kept demanding her over anyone else for most of the time we were there. *grin*

Today we stayed home except for a quick jaunt to the bank and waited for the trick-or-treaters to start coming. I convinced Brian to try and bail out early on work so that Jareth could have a chance to trick-or-treat this year. Otherwise Brian wouldn't have gotten home until it was too late to take him out. They had fun and I guess Jareth did really well at saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" at the houses they visited. We did let him pick ONE item out of the bucket after dinner was over (after rifling through and pulling out the stuff he absolutely couldn't have). He picked a Kit-Kat and seemed to like it pretty well. While we had had an "episode" with him during dinner, he was surprisingly good about not getting more after the one little package was eaten. We also got him to pick ones out to share with us as well, which is part of how we intend for it to go away quicker. We'll keep the bucket handy and let him pick each night for a few days more yet before it all will magically disappear (as in mommy and daddy get to finish it off so he doesn't eat all that candy!). Each year we'll let him have more control over it all, but while I do want him to have the occasional sweets so he doesn't binge later in life from deprivation, I don't want him eating them all the time.

We got lots of trick-or-treaters this year, as I even ran out of candy - something which has never happened to me before! At least I didn't run out until late enough that there were probably only a couple more kids who might have come after I turned off the light. It had wound down to a trickle by then.

I think Halloween is my favorite holiday. It's just fun. I look at it as about letting one's imagination run a little wild for the day. What a fun thing. I'm hoping that each year we have kids we get a little more into the decorations and having fun with it. Jareth seemed to get a great kick out of dressing up and romping around as a "teddy bear". I certainly got a great kick out of watching him!

I hope your Halloween was fun and safe! (and full of "loot" too!)

G'night!

Current Mood: quixotic

Pumpkins!

I'm putting this one in the "Arts & Crafts" category. I think I did the best pumpkin carving project I've done yet in this year's batch. Not on my own pumpkin, mind you, but on my son's. Behold! The Pumpkin-Kat!

Brian has always been bigger on the decorating than the pumpkin-carving activities, so I take over on pumpkins for children too small to do their own yet. I even did a teeny little one the year I was pregnant. I didn't do that this time (sorry little unborn one!) as having to do both Jareth's and my own was more than enough work! In fact mine, which was supposed to be "insane" actually looks like it's yawning instead! How appropriate! Brian's turned out to be what I call a "winking willy"...

The decorations, however, aren't really going to go up after all this year. With Brian's work schedule and everyone being sick this past week, there just hasn't been enough time. I had a perfectly good pile of dirt in my front lawn too, but couldn't find an arm to stick in it as if someone was clawing their way out... Oh well. Ya win some, ya lose some. I would have made up a tombstone to go with it too. Maybe we'll do something fun with decorating next year instead.

G'night!

Current Mood: creative

The Road To Recovery
(Is Paved In Crap)...

Well, despite the fact that Brian coined the term "ass cannon" the other day (I prefer "butt cannon" myself, but to each his own), I think we are finally on the mend side of our illness or illnesses. I've lost count of the symptoms myself, as each of us seems to have a slightly different set. My own problems have been some diarrhea, some sore throat, some headache, lots of nausea and stomach upset, and a total lack of energy. There was a couple points when I thought I was feeling feverish, but every time I took my temperature it was either perfect or a little low. I did wake up with a sore throat this morning, but I used some throat spray and it went away. It hasn't come back again yet so I'm not taking anything else until it does.

Jareth has been coughing. We're working on the concept of him holding his hand over his mouth when he does so, but not having much success. Since I can't tell when he's about to cough, I'm always telling him after the fact, which doesn't reenforce the idea as well. He stands there after I tell him and says "cough, cough" while holding his hand over his mouth, but then the next time he actually coughs he totally forgets. Oh well. He's two. Give the kid a break. We're working on it. We're trying to have him do it for sneezes too. He can make a pretty good pretend sneeze when practicing at least. He used to always say "excuse me" after burping, which was awesome. Lately, however, the little boy in him is showing through and he giggles and says "burp!" when I ask him what he's supposed to say when he does it. *sigh* Boys will be boys, no matter what their mommies try and teach them I guess.

Brian, on the other hand has been having the... um... "ass cannon" effect. I think he's getting better, but it's hard to tell. He keeps going to work anyway so I haven't exactly gotten to keep an eye on him like I might normally do. He's been the trooper in the family this time, and comes home and takes care of me anyway, which is so sweet. I'm not sure what the rest of his symptoms have been, as he's not as interested in giving people a play-by-play on how miserable they feel. That's my territory. Doh!

Nonetheless, I'm hoping that we'll all be healthy and happy again so we can run out and expose ourselves to brand NEW germs on Sunday and Monday for Halloween festivities. Our pumpkins, however, remain uncarved on one of the kitchen counters and our home is woefully under-decorated this year. Our Sundays have been too busy and then this past week all we wanted to do has been sit quietly in front of our computers or sleep during the evenings. Even Jareth has been spending a good deal of time in people's laps. He spent most of today nearly passing out on me until I finally put him into his own bed for a nap. I had dosed him up again with cold medicine as he'd been coughing. I mentioned to him that with all that coughing maybe I'd give him some medicine today and the poor kid asked me for it! When your two-year-old looks at you like some lost puppy dog and says "Med-cine pleeeease?" you just can't ignore it. He seemed better this evening again, although especially cranky. I probably should have given him another dose before bed but I never like to over-medicate. I'll have to give him one in the morning if he's still coughing though, just to be sure. Especially since I blew off errands today (again) to let him rest and therefore will need to go do them tomorrow instead. Fortunately there's not too many.

I feel like I've basically blown off nearly everything this week - I even skipped class on Tuesday although I did go in last night. I spent most of the class wishing I had stayed home though. I think between fighting off the illness(es) and being pregnant my poor body is in overdrive trying to do stuff that it's not leaving me any energy! Even though I'm still having the usual sleep troubles, I feel pretty well wiped all the time.

That's all for now. Hopefully the next post will be full of "yay I feel good" vibes instead of all this ickiness...

G'night!

Current Mood: hopeful

Oh, Crap X3...

So, if it wasn't bad enough that I'm feeling nauseaus (although I've managed not to throw up more than the one time), and having icky stomach and a splitting headache (now reduced to "throbbing" - thank you Tylenol)...

Now Jareth and Brian are both sick too! Arrrrgh!

Jareth has been coughing a little, but it got a lot worse today, and his nose suddenly stuffed up something fierce. Brian is feeling under the weather as well. And I, bad evil person that I am, just sent them to the store for me. Granted, I made sure they were both medicated first, but I feel like a bad, bad mommy/wife tonight indeed.

I am sitting here at my computer "conserving energy" instead of emptying the dishwasher to make room for the dinner dishes and cleaning up the rest of the stuff that's building up on my kitchen counter. Mainly, I'm conserving the energy to help put the groceries away when they get back from the store. Otherwise, I'd be crawling back into bed. To try and sleep. Not that I've been overly successful at actually doing much sleeping lately. I got about four hours last night, and then a couple more after Brian had left for work before I had to get up and get Jareth's day in gear.

The good news is that I've finally made a doctor's appointment for next week with a different OB-GYN. The bad news relating to that, however, is that she is in the same office as the guy I don't like. The guy who was totally condescending and rude to me the last time I saw him, as opposed to the people who all but kicked me out of their office because they don't take public aid. Which means, if I see this woman, there's that possibility that HE could end up delivering my baby anyway, if she were to get sick or go on vacation when I go into labor.

Damn. Damn. DAMN!

I only called THAT referral because I could find HER name on the internet in some of the "locate doctor" service stuff. The other name that I'd been given wasn't anywhere to be found, which is not a good sign in my opinion. You'd think I'd have at least found a yellow pages listing or something.

We'll see how it goes with this new doctor. If she's anything like the guy in her office is though, I may have to try other methods of searching.

I'm so frustrated over all of this. The idea of dealing with an OB-GYN shouldn't have to make me cry. Nevermind I'm on the verge of tears half the time anyway due to stress, lack of sleep, and pregnancy hormones.

Let's just say that nobody and I mean NOBODY better get between me and my m&ms these days. You don't want to see the mommy dragon ROAR!

G'night!

Current Mood: discontent

Oh, Crap...

No, not literally, although I wouldn't be surprised if we see some nasty crap later on too. I'll try not to share the details if I do - promise! I threw up though. And, based on the way my stomach feels right now, it's not morning sickness. I think it's the flu, or some other similar ickiness. ARGGHH!

This may explain why I was such a sleepy, grump yesterday. I was trying to fight this off. Because I took the nap though, I didn't sleep well last night at all. The big critter skittering and thumping its way across the roof above the bedroom didn't help. Just reminded me that we have a little, empty attic up there that makes thumping, skittering critter sounds echo and sound creepy. I was not pleased by the one sound where it seemed as if the critter (this was WAY bigger than your average squirrel, man!) crashed into something tinny up there. The sounds kinda stopped after that too. Hrm.

Brian, however, seems unconcerned. He's got a half day of work today so he's home already, cooking me something light to eat (since I threw up everything else I'd had today and I'm hoping that now some food might help - or at least give me something to hurl if I gotta throw up again) and doing my laundry chores. I guess I'll be nice back and not make him go up on the roof to check just yet.

I'm going to bail on going to class today. I've got something like three absences before it affects my grade and I haven't missed a class yet, so I figure I can stay home and NOT potentially spread the flu to the rest of the class. Not to mention the fact that I totally don't feel like going anywhere. I'm blogging now, in part, so that I can maybe go to bed early. I'm hoping it's just a 24-hour bug and not something longer. Ugh.

That's all for now. I think my soup & light sandwich is ready. Cross your fingers it stays down.

G'night!

Current Mood: sick

Tired

I. Am. So. Very. Tired. Today.

Usually, about an hour after I've ingested the ritual morning caffeine (pretty much the only caffeine I allow myself anymore while pregnant, unless you count the smidge of it found in chocolate) I can feel it working, giving me at least a little energy with which I can get at least something accomplished.

Today, I put soap into and turned on the dishwasher. THAT is my whole, big accomplishment unless you count the usual "mommy" changing of diapers and feeding of breakfast. Although I will admit we skipped out on lunch, seeing as how I got out of bed in the first place at about lunch time. The caffeine never kicked in though. I just kept yawning. I was about to just pass out in my chair while checking my e-mail. Especially when a warm little body wanted "uppy" on my lap. Snuggling was more than my tired body could handle.

I tried taking the snuggling upstairs, but he didn't want to nap yet, he wanted to play. I had meant to go upstairs to change into clothes for running errands. Then, something in my head decided that the errands just weren't that important after all. After an hour of trying not to fall asleep on my bed so I could make sure Jareth didn't play with anything in our room that might be dangerous - the room's not childproofed - I decided I had better just give in to the inevitable. I tucked him in for a nap in his room and then tucked myself back into my own bed again. And slept.

I'm still tired. I'm hoping the nap won't prevent me from falling asleep properly later, as sometimes it has when I've allowed myself one. I think I've hit that rock-bottom point again though where my body is trying to catch up from all the nights of half-sleep and restless tossing about. It's developing into a cycle. And it seems to be getting worse for the moment instead of better. This little person who has temporarily invaded my body, kicking and twisting about at 3am, is already tiring me out! I suppose someone will remind me of that, however, during those first few months when I don't get to have any sleep at all. Although I wouldn't recommend it. I get cranky when I've had no sleep at all. Trust me. It would be better to remain quiet. *grin*

A cool quote I saw today though, and wanted to share, came from the e-mail signature of a fellow freecycler:

"One Hundred Years From Now...
It won't matter what kind of car I drove,
What kind of house I lived in,
Nor how much money I had.
But the world may be a better place because I was important in the life of a child."
Author Unknown

I must agree. I may not have gotten anything really "productive" done today, but I did spend most of the time I was awake snuggling, tickling, playing with, and otherwise loving my son. Sometimes I have to remind myself that THAT can be more important than anything else I do all day.

G'night!

Current Mood: tired

The Civil War Couple and The Little Bear Go To a Party...

It's been some time since I've dressed up in Civil War period clothes, since we haven't really done much in the way of reenacting in quite a while. But, since we had another shindig.. errr... Halloween party to go to this evening with Jareth, I thought it would be fun if I dressed up for once. I don't know if I'll do it on Halloween itself, but it was fun to do. I may not be very "girly" about stuff, but I do like skirts that spin just right. And big ole' skirts with hoops under 'em spin good. Wheee! *grin*

I have pictures of Jareth and Brian (who also dressed in his Civil War uniform) at the party, although since I'm the shutterbug in the family we didn't get any pictures of me. I haven't gotten to uploading the pics off the camera onto my computer yet, so we'll see if I post any or not once I've done that.

I'm worn out. Lots of food, people, and chaos. I was also on the volunteer group for this party (it was done by the same group that does the summer camp Jareth went to, and that group asks that you volunteer for at least one thing each year in addition to the reasonable dues they require to keep it going), which meant I arrived a bit early to help do the setup. I also helped hand out treats during the "trick or treating" stage at the end of the party, which was fun as it meant I got to see all of the little kids' costumes. I love kids. They are so cute. Some are shy and look at you with big eyes, some run up and demand their god-given candy rights, others wait and scope you out and will reward you with a big, glowing smile if you give them one first. To be honest, I have a far better time relating to the kids than I do the adults. Go figure.

It also looks as if the beef & cheese ravioli crock pot dish we brought went over well, as we brought back only enough in the crock pot for Brian to take a small serving with him to work with lunch tomorrow. I had bought enough to double the recipe, but it wouldn't have fit in the crock pot, so I only made one batch. I'll wait a few days at least before making the next batch though, so we don't get innundated with italian food right off the bat. Just because it was enough as a side dish for maybe 50 people and their kids (although not all of them took some of it, obviously or it would have been scraped clean!) doesn't mean WE won't have to eat it for about 3 - 5 days as a primary dinner. I did have a small helping myself tonight though, and it turned out good. We'd had it before and I hadn't remembered any complaints, but I haven't made it a ton of times so I could only hope it would be well-received.

Anyway, that was the highlight of the day. Another Halloween party for Jareth. This time Brian got to go with us, making it an official "family outing," something we don't get very many of these days with his schedule being as it is. Fun for all, but exhausting too. Time to go tuck the little bear into his bed.

G'night!

Current Mood: good

My Little Guy, and how he came into the world...

I don't like to repeat myself. Alright, let me rephrase that: I don't like to repeat myself too often. I think that's part of why I seem to be skipping down to blogging every other day instead of daily as I was before. I expect that once I have my baby, it will become more often again (assuming I get some sleep here and there) as I will suddenly have much more to blog about as I compare/contrast the two children and my experiences with them as newborns. I'm sure that it will be different with the next child than it was with Jareth. I don't yet know how (obviously), but that's part of the adventure I signed on for. While I keep reminding this new little one to stay inside, as it's not time for it to be born just yet, whenever I feel him/her squirming about in there, I still am already waiting impatiently for the birth to arrive.

Today, while RainMoon and her daughter popped in for a visit, I was showing off some pictures of Jareth when he was just a little bitty newborn. How I already miss those teensy-tiny hands and feet. How small he was! How much he's grown in such a seemingly short time already! Wow! Simply... W O W. I don't think there is a day that goes by that I don't have one point where I just look at my son and smile with pride and amazement. I did that. Brian did that. WE did that together. What an amazing accomplishment we have made. And are still making as we struggle each day to try and raise him as best as we possibly can.

Our little boy. I don't think I've really told the story of how he came into this world. Now's as good a time as any...

He had only just been born in that photo. Not even an hour old and he was already looking around, checking out his world, and practically smiling for the camera! They placed him on my stomach right after he came into the world, and I said my first hello to him. Then, to my dismay, they scooped him off and took him over to check him out and clean him up while I had the unhappy duty of delivering afterbirth. Talk about anti-climactic! "Here's your child, ma'am! Isn't he wonderful? Great, now we'll take him away and you can give us one more push, okay?" I didn't want to push, I wanted them to at least move out of the way more so I could see my new BABY! But I did get to have him back shortly after that photo was taken, once they'd bundled him up in a blanket to help keep him warm. Then I got to snuggle up with him properly for the first time and gaze into my baby's face.

I did, however, hand him over to the nurses in the nursery for a while once we'd left the delivery room and gotten settled into a regular room. I'd pulled an all-nighter to give birth to him and was so exhausted I was afraid I'd either drop him or not hear if he started to cry. Brian, at least, had gotten a brief catnap on one of the chairs, but then he wasn't the one having contractions. He was awake for the back labor though - he wouldn't have lived it down if he'd slept instead of supporting me through that. (for those who don't know - back labor is when the contractions cause the baby's head to hit SLAM up against the laboring mother's spine - mighty painful stuff and the main reason I finally broke down and had the epidural instead of sticking with just the Nubane to take the edge off of the pain)

The labor was really only 11 or 12 hours? I started having contractions in the late evening and Brian got about an hour of sleep before I woke him back up and said it might really be time. We'd had some false labor contractions already, but I was pretty sure that time. The delivering nurse told me on the phone to get something to eat before going to the hospital as I wouldn't get anything else really after I got there. I ate something (don't remember what, but something easy and quick) and grabbed the rest of the stuff on my list for the bag to go with to the hospital. I even put makeup on, which later came back off when they had me take a shower at one point in the bathroom attached to the delivery room. The nurse who delivered Jareth got to go and put makeup on and all that after she was done and there's a picture of her with my son, looking all perfect, while all the pictures of ME look pretty darn crappy with no makeup and having just been through labor and all!

We brought music. Jareth was nearly brought into the world with music from Gladiator playing in the background. Right after he was born, I realized the music had stopped playing at some point since we didn't have our boom box on auto-repeat. That was the last soundtrack playing though. We had brought mostly soundtrack scores and soft, non-lyrical stuff. We were a little distracted to remember to keep it playing during the actual moment of birth, however. It certainly wasn't my responsibility anyway, as I was busy pushing! Brian was busy too, so I just remember that Gladiator was the last disc playing before Jareth was born and all. Interesting that it was that one. Some powerful and beautiful music on that CD. I wonder what the next baby will be born to?

I tried to go with just the Nubane - a drug to take the edge off the pain, but back labor and the fact that one of the hospital nurses was late bringing me my shot made me bail out and finally ask for the epidural. I will make sure that the next time they put the IV in at a separate time. My mother-in-law, who was with us for the birth, had been unaware on just how afraid of needles I really am until that point. I can handle them better when a) it's not an IV - something about those just bug me, and b) I've had a chance to breathe and calm myself in preparation. I didn't get the "b" side of the deal, and therefore went into "panic mode" for the IV insertion. The actual epidural going in was no biggie - it was just a little plastic bit in my back where I couldn't see it anyway, not the big-ass shot they like to show in the movies. But the IV was a problem for me. I was having back labor to begin with and when they decided to come in for the IV, they rolled in and expected to just pop it in right then and be done with it. I asked for a "moment" to breathe and calm down, knowing that I needed to prep myself a bit, but they acted like it was all "now or never" and stuck it in me anyway. I was shaking and in tears and technically THAT was the most traumatic part of the whole childbirth experience. While I know I hurt a lot during the actual pushing, and I remember getting tired and asking if they couldn't just pull him out the rest of the way, it wasn't nearly as difficult for me to get through as that damned IV. I'll be talkin' to someone NEXT time. Oh yes. We do NOT want a repeat of that little "experience."

Once the epidural was in, the RN/midwife gal popped something in my IV to help move the contractions along. I guess I responded to it very well indeed, because actually pushing and delivering the baby only took a little over a half an hour! I can only hope that that part goes as well the next time too.

So that's pretty much the most of the story about Jareth being born. The best thing I remembered to pack in the hospital bag? The two disposeable cameras. I didn't have to worry about losing my own camera, and it meant my mother-in-law took most of the pictures of Jareth right after he was born, including the one above, without me having to explain how a camera worked or anything like that. Totally uncomplicated. While I'll probably pack my digital for some post-delivery pics of my own, I'll definitely get another disposable again.

That's all for tonight.

G'night!

Current Mood: enthralled

Ohhhh... You Meant THOSE "Terrible Twos!"

Well, despite the hope to the contrary, the workbench that RainMoon left me a comment about didn't work out. Because it's going into the family room, when I do find one it will have to be within a certain size range and the one she was getting rid of wouldn't have fit the spot it's got to go. It was certainly worth stopping by and looking at though, if nothing else because it gave me the chance to give RainMoon's daughter some big ole hugs. *grin*

At class tonight, I think I managed to salvage my piece. It seems that most of my problems stem around soldering stuff with that darn "hard solder" that gets used first. In the future, if I know that I'm not going to need to solder anything else after the initial solder, I think I'll start using the medium I used tonight instead. The hard stuff takes forever to melt properly and I think I have a nasty habit of overheating my piece in the process. I'm not the most patient individual in the world sometimes. Guess I'd better work on that more. I thought I was starting to get a knack for it through practice with my son.

Speaking of which, it seems we've hit the "terrible twos" officially. In the past, I figured I was getting off easy, as he's been all but qualifying for sainthood in the "child behavior" realm of things. I also figured it must be something from his father's side as I seem to recall getting yelled at a LOT as a kid myself, although I don't recall doing very many things that would qualify as particularly horrible.

Jareth has recently begun some selective hearing when I tell him to do (or not do) something, and the newest thing is to be standing next to me and then suddenly bolt when I ask him to come with me or to hold my hand. He runs off laughing, as if it's the greatest joke for mommy to chase him down yelling at the top of her voice for him to stop. *sigh* I've obviously been giving him a little more freedom than he's quite ready for, letting him walk beside me in a couple of the stores we go in for quick trips to. Looks like it's back in the cart for this kid. I am not going to risk him running off somewhere that I can't see him. The little guy just doesn't seem to understand when I explain that it's dangerous for him to do that. He's not wanting to hold my hand either lately - something we do when going between the car and the cart. I'm ending up either carrying him if my back is feeling up to it, or getting a firm grip on his wrist and keeping him next to me that way instead. Sometimes, however, if I'm holding him by the wrist, he'll just suddenly sit down like a little lump on the pavement and be totally uncooperative. *groan*

He's also testing us - seeing how much he can get away with before we get mad and actually do something. When we DO discipline him, we either get the "throw myself down on the floor and lay there like a sulking deadweight" act or the "scream and cry in the most ear-piercing manner possible" routine. Neither are pleasant, although the former is far easier to cope with than the latter.

Apparently, Brian had a heck of a time with him at gymnastics class tonight, despite the fact that Jareth spends half the week just waiting to get to go there. Brian says that the class on Thursday nights is bigger and that the size and time of day might be a big part of it, although it seemed as if it was particularly bad tonight. I think we've finally begun those "Terrible Twos" in earnest is all. Jareth has learned how to communicate what he wants to us and he'll be damned if he's not going to GET it too. Hooooo boy.

I'm just glad I'm already pregnant with the next one. Brian has upped the anti on the "two's the limit" for how many kids we should have. He's just not entirely sure he could go through this a third time. But he's already locked into doing it again for the next one. *grin*

And, to think... it's only just begun. Maybe we'll get lucky. Maybe it won't last long. Maybe it won't just get worse. I like to think I'm giving Jareth the impression that I'm just as stubborn as he is. I keep telling him that that's where he gets it anyway. I knew my genes would kick in at some point.

Ah, well. One day we'll look back and laugh. Because it will all seem so simple and easy when we're busy going through the "Terrible Teens"...

G'night!

Current Mood: determined

Wanted: One Proper Workshop

I need a workshop. A proper place to have all my jewelry tools that isn't necessarily right next to my computer. Or else I'm going to have to get used to the new, strange smell that came in with my new Grizzly flex shaft grinder that arrived today. It was a far sight less expensive than some of the other, similar tools I could have ordered. We'll see how it holds up. The foot control pedal seems to jump up to fast pretty quickly, so I'll have to work on learning just how much pressure to add to get slower grinds too. We'll see how it works. I've rigged it up so the motor itself is hanging from a hook in the ceiling so that the casing doesn't touch anything when it gets hot. There was a hanging bracket in the box, but the way the room is set up I would have had to hang it too high on the wall for me to be able to use it properly. I've also set up a box lid with one side cut open to try and contain some of the mess that will be created when I start using it. It's going to be tricky to keep the area clean and childproof while still functional from a jewelry standpoint. At some point I hope I can afford an honest-to-goodness workbench at least - something high enough that little hands can't explore it very easily. That would help a ton.

At class last night I think I've managed to muck up my piece. For some reason the solder I was using just wouldn't flow and solder the two metals together properly. I'll fix it tomorrow I hope. In the meantime, I haven't gotten to actually use the flex shaft yet, so I'm hoping to clean the debris off the peice some tomorrow during the day to test it out some. I went out today to run errands and went to American Science & Surplus and picked up a bunch of bits to use in my new flex shaft. Little grinders and buffers and so on. Whee!

I know, maybe it doesn't sound as exciting to you, but I'm excited. I do enjoy creating artistic stuff out of the metals. Even when the designs aren't exactly what I wanted to do in the first place. I refuse to be discouraged here. *grin*

Also last night, after class was through, I took some time out to hang with RainMoon for some coffee. Although, technically, neither of us had coffee - she had tea and I had root beer. But you get the point. I also had nachos. That may not have been the best idea for a nighttime snack. I'm having heartburn issues with the pregnancy to being with. Those nachos sure didn't help. Doh! But the company was fun!

Enough for now though. I'm going to wind down and try to get to sleep early tonight.

G'night!

Current Mood: optimistic

Tired...

So. Very. Tired. Today.

It's not that I was unmotivated specifically. I was just plain tired. I keep hoping that the fatigue that comes with pregnancy will go away one of these days, but still it persists. Today was particularly bad. While I've recently prided myself on getting out of bed at a more reasonable hour as of late, today I didn't roll out from under the sheets until nearly 1pm! Fortunately Jareth had been transfixed at his window, watching the small storm that rumbled through the neighborhood and hadn't really seemed to notice.

I think he was tired too, somehow - maybe it's catching. He spent much of the day sitting in my lap and nearly fell asleep there at one point after we'd had our late lunch (since breakfast was kind of late to begin with). I asked my sleepy little guy if he was ready to be tucked into his bed and he nodded at me and had no problems wrapping his little arms around my neck and laying his heavy head on my shoulder while I took him upstairs. After I'd tucked him snugly in for his nap, I crawled back into my own bed and we both slept until Brian came home from work.

In other news, yesterday I got 78 spam e-mails in one of the e-mail accounts I rarely use since it's the generic contact account for my business web site. I e-mailed my web host about it, since the e-mails try to act like they are e-mails that have been returned to me as the sender, or are being screened for possible viruses through the hosts's system. I'm very confused - this is a new one for me. I've yet to get a response back from my usually prompt web host service, and I just got another 92 of these e-mails (plus some other new spam that acts like an autoreply thanking me for my "inquiry") today! While at least my e-mail program now understands that they are spam and they aren't flooding my inbox, I do have to sort through all of these as some other people I DO want e-mail from occasionally slip into the SPAM box even though I have their e-mail addresses in my address book. Therefore I make a point of checking through my spam (usually only 10-20 spam e-mails per day for a total of 8 e-mail addresses) once per day so I don't miss anything important. Getting 170+ spam e-mail in two days is annoying as hell, especially since it is one account that it is all coming to. Hell, that's what the Yahoo e-mail account I have is for. I only check that about once per week, and that's the address I give out for anything I suspect might send me spam in the first place. I also keep a Gmail account purely for my online orders so that I don't have to deal with their advertisements in my regular e-mail either.

I'm very close to closing that e-mail box entirely, and disabling the link on the web page for the moment, leaving only a text version stating a different e-mail to reach me at. I'll give it another day or two first though, and see what my web host has to say. Some of these make it look as if *I* sent the spam out and it's bouncing back! I'm horrified at the prospect of someone using my e-mail, especially a business address to send out spam. While I don't think that that is the case, I'm getting pissed. Each one has a different fake reply address on it though, so I have no idea how one would go about pinpointing the culprit either. *sigh*

Well, that's all for now.

G'night!

Current Mood: tired

Blasts from the Past...

Lately people I knew back in high school seem to be cropping up out of nowhere suddenly. Not long ago I got an e-mail through classmates.com from one friend I hadn't talked to in ages. She and I have e-mailed back and forth a couple of times now, although I haven't gotten another one off to her recently as I've been kind of busy and feeling guilty about how much time I spend on my computer as it is. Sometimes I've got way too much to do offline that just checking my e-mail can seem like it takes more out of my morning than it ought to. That's why these blog posts usually wait until late at night, after everything else for the day has been taken care of. I don't have to feel guilty for spending "my time" on them. Heh.

Earlier in the week I also got an e-mail from Griffin, who's popped in to visit this site on a couple of occasions and even left a comment or two. He was going to be in town today and wanted to know if I (and a couple others in this area) would have any time available to hang out. Since I did, I said YES! *grin*

I also noted on the e-mail that I recognized one of the other names he'd sent it to, and inquired if that was the person I thought it was. It turned out that it was the same person I remembered and today I ended up spending about four hours at an old haunt in my hometown, catching up with the both of them. I had no idea what to expect going into it - after all, quite a bit of time has passed since high school and people have different experiences and change a lot over time. I had such a wonderful time though! We all had stories to tell and stuff to share and we didn't seem to have any awkward moments where we just plain ran out of things to say. My only regret was that poor Jareth got so frustrated - he was good for FOUR HOURS sitting in a booster seat at a restaurant. Admittedly, he got antsy and kept tossing things on the floor after a while, but C'MON! FOUR HOURS people! How many two-year-olds do YOU know that could hold out for FOUR HOURS and not get just a wee bit agitated?

I'm very proud of my little boy.

He did start crying when leaving the booster chair involved only the short walk to the car where he promptly got put into his car seat! Poor guy... he thought he'd finally earned some freedom to only be stuck into something where he was STRAPPED IN!! Talk about disappointing from a two-year-old perspective...

He did pass out for most of the trip home though, which was good because that ended up being the only nap the little guy got today. He woke up about two miles from home and proceeded to cry for those two miles. After that, Brian and I let him play outside for a little while to try and make up for it before we made him sit down AGAIN, this time in his high chair for dinner. My poor little wonderfully tolerant boy... I shall have to make some time inbetween all the work around the house we need to do tomorrow and do a bit of spoiling him. Some of the work is going to be outside, so he'll at least get to play in his sandbox out back or something along those lines.

But it's not as often anymore that I go out and spend several hours catching up with old friends. I totally enjoyed myself. I need to do stuff like that more often. It's good for the soul. Especially when those friends have good, healthy senses of humor.

G'night!

Current Mood: nostalgic

Holidays 'Round Here (My Version)

Brian posted tonight, on his blog, about how he views the holidays. As he mentions, part of this comes from a discussion I've been having in e-mail with my father-in-law, relating to the upcoming holidays, what we celebrate, and how we celebrate. Surprising as it may be to some, Brian and I don't see entirely eye-to-eye on everything. We disagree on some points, but our different views are still harmonious enough that they don't cause problems. In fact, they tend to yeild some rather interesting topics of conversation around here. Since we love to sit and discuss stuff around here, this is actually a good thing rather than a point of contention.

Anyway, if Brian is going to post his end of the discussion as a blog post, then far be it for me not to do some of the same. Here's some of what I had started writing up for the pagan parents website I started up a while back and haven't had time to fully flush out into proper, fully-working functionality yet. We were planning on a "he said, she said" section to add into the area set aside for pagan holiday information, and following is some of what I had started writing up for that, along with some stuff swiped out of the recent e-mail conversation. Keep in mind that a lot of this is me getting my notes down rather than fully flushed-out, set-in-stone, holiday plans:

First off, while Brian separates the year into fourths and sees patterns, I see there as being "markers" along the journey through life, and within each year that passes along that journey. Each of the passing seasons is an easy marking point. As are birthdays and anniversaries of important dates, like marriage.

Spring Equinox:
Spring – growth & fertility, giving onto the earth

Possible activity – each family member should choose something (seed or seedling) to plant somewhere in the yard. Note: They should also take responsibility for caring for that plant until it matures.

Summer Solstice:
Summer – joy & family, receiving the warmth of the sun

Possible activity – Summer celebration. Take time out to picnic and play with the family. Enjoy the sun and warm weather and the company of those whom you care for.

Fall Equinox:
Fall – the harvest / receiving of the earth, gratitude

Possible activity – Another family togetherness time as we respectfully receive the bounty that we and the earth have worked together to provide. Recognize “oneness” with nature in some way (possibly a long walk to notice the changing of the leaves as the earth transforms itself for winter – possibly also readying the garden for winter) and then feast upon the harvest’s yield.

Winter Solstice:
Winter – cleansing & sharing, giving to the community, family togetherness

Possible activity – take part of the day to go through some of your old items that you no longer need. Donate them to others who need them more in the cold, cleansing months until Spring comes again. Remember your fellow spirits as they go through their own life journies. Perhaps also give some of your time at a soup kitchen or other similar volunteer work. Huddle together in the warmth of friends and family as the cold winter settles in around you.

Other notes on the "holiday matter":

First of all, for the winter holiday season, when giving onto others is a part of the idea, I'll allow those relatives who wish to to give Jareth something, to give him a single Solstice gift if they choose (or "Holiday gift" if they are more comfortable thinking of it that way). There will be no "Christmas gifts" specifically, however, as we don't celebrate "Christmas". In the same way you wouldn't hand a Jewish friend a "Christmas gift", but would call it a "Holiday gift" at the very least, I'd expect the same consideration to be used here. We don't do gifts from "Santa" either. No mystical bearded man in a red suit is going to make his way into my house on the 24th of December. If one does, it's a matter for the police to handle. At some point, however, I do want to tell Jareth some of the stories from which Santa has arisen. There is a lot of good there, once you make it past the Hallmark and Toy Store marketing scheme to push parents into buying more and more for their kids. The original stories that "Santa" came from are about selfless giving and compassion for children. While I respect those stories, that's not what the Santa of today has become. The same goes for the guy in the giant bunny suit 'round easter time. Egg hunts are all fun and good. Bunnies and eggs both represent fertility so I don't have a big issue with them as symbols for the season. But GIANT BUNNIES who bring baskets of toys, eggs, and candy and hide them in one's home? If one tries, I'll be waiting with the baseball bat. Okay? Good. No cookies and milk for THAT one either. Breaking and entering does not get rewarded. No wonder kids have nightmares these days. If Santa can get in so easily, what's to stop the normal monsters???

Any of the relatives who do choose to get something for Jareth this year will be asked to limit gifts to just one. One thoughtful gift that they feel will give him joy or that he will learn from (and hopefully won't drive either or both of his parents nuts in the process). One carefully-chosen gift will reflect their thoughtfulness just as well, if not better, than two or three. And it won't overwhelm him like last year when we were still trying to fit into what we felt were others' expectations and celebrated Christmas. There was a wonderful outpouring of generosity for Jareth, but the poor little guy was so overwhelmed that he didn't even see most of the gifts he was given until a couple days later when we had some downtime again. Part of that was his age, but part of it was also the sheer volume of gifts he received over a two-day time period. I love them all dearly for the sentiment, but sometimes family can be generous to a fault!

Other Holidays:

Birthdays are the main gift-giving event around here now. Birthdays celebrate another year in the passage of our own personal journey and should be a time of both personal celebration and reflection. Gifts are received as both markers of the previous year's passage and wishes for the next year. It's the one day of year where you should be able to pat yourself on the back for all the things you've either accomplished or survived over the past year without anyone bugging you about it. Eat the damn cake - you earned it! *grin*

We're kind of doing away with the other gift-giving holidays. We may still celebrate Valentine's Day, for example, but I think that it's more important that we celebrate it by setting aside some "us time" rather than buying each other "stuff". Our plan to celebrate our Anniversary by going somewhere together each year is along those lines too. Our anniversary is a marker that signals another year in our journey together as husband and wife. Similar to a birthday, he and I should be spending it together, reflecting on the past year together and our goals for the following year. And again, in the end, the memories we make are much more meaningful and rewarding than any physical gifts we could buy each other.

There are also, of course, national holidays. Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, and others. These we still celebrate. In fact, we're deciding to continue the recent tradition of hosting Thanksgiving at our house, simply because it's one of the holidays we still have in common with the rest of our families. At least until we move out of state, that is. Then, we'll likely still cook up a storm for any of our family willing to make the trip out to visit us.

There's probably more. Lots to still hash out on how we want to explain it all to Jareth as he gets older and has questions. Lots to decide on more specific traditions we want to build to better celebrate our holidays. But that's a start. At the risk of rambling on further, I'll stop here for tonight. I'm sure this topic will get brought up again. Possibly before the winter holiday season is officially upon us again.

G'night!

Current Mood: thoughtful

Dressing my kid on a Dime...

I went to do some thrift store shopping for Jareth today. Especially with our budget the way it is right now we can't afford to be putting a ton of money into clothes he's just going to wear through the winter and then never again. I lucked out something fierce this time though, and have him pretty much set up for the colder weather. I even managed to find him snowpants, mittens, boots, and a warm hat too. I picked up a good 10 or so warm shirts and sweaters, as well as several pairs of sweatpants, another pair of jeans, and a couple nicer pairs of pants too. Throw in three shirts for myself and you'd expect to see quite a bill. I walked out of there with two bags of stuff, one of which was huge and it all only cost me just under $30. I'm quite pleased. The only thing I really have left to get Jareth clothes-wise is socks. And I think the other thrift store I've shopped at before has a section with socks. I may hit that one next week. Otherwise I'll just pick up a couple bulk packages of plain socks at Wal-Mart the next time I'm there.

RainMoon joined us at the thrift shop and did some shopping of her own. Later, she and her husband came by and picked up the wood from the trees we'd recently cut down to use in their fireplaces. She also lent me the tiller she's got so I can till up the two beds before I plant the daffodil bulbs in the one. Most of the planting in the beds will happen in the spring, but now I can have them all ready for it when the time comes. I want to get it nicely planted and then add bark mulch around it like I did with my tomato plants in the back, to help keep the moisture in and the weeds to a minimum. It will be so nice when they are all planted and growing - I can maybe stop feeling like ours is the eyesore yard in the neighborhood then!

Later on I met Brian at the house of a fellow freecycler who had some leftover pea gravel up for grabs. We'd been developing this growing pothole in the muddy grass on one side of our driveway where Brian has to partly park his car. Because his car is parked half on the driveway and half off of it, one wheel consistently ends up in the same spot of dirt all the time. It was getting deep enough that we had concerns he would bottom out one of these days. Thus, when I saw an offer for some gravel on freecycle, I jumped at the chance. I had to wait in line a bit, but did get just enough gravel to mostly fill the hole - and save us the cash we were going to have to put into buying some gravel to fill it instead. We knew we needed to do something about it and we can't exactly afford to have the driveway widened like we want to. For now, this solution works. Phew!

Overall, I'd say this happened to have been one of those good days where things just sort of clicked into place. They are rare and far between, so I appreciate them even more when they do occur. I wish I could say the same for RainMoon, who seemed to be having an excellent day when I saw her. But, from the sound of her blog today, it went entirely downhill after that. *Pout* I want everyone to have good days when I do! If I could get it to work like that all the time - then maybe other people would go out of their way to ensure I have them more often! *wicked grin* Wouldn't that be nice?

Yeah, I know - keep dreaming.

G'night!

Current Mood: happy

Jewelry Class, Project #2

I finished the 2nd project in my jewelry class tonight...

The picture turned out a little dark, but you get the idea. The little leaf earrings are around an inch in height and I made the sterling silver french hooks they are on as well. They are silver and copper, itty bitty pieces I cut and put together painstakingly. This project was a real challenge and honestly - it didn't turn out quite as I had imagined when I drew the initial design. They look nice enough, but are paper thin as I had trouble when I went back in and filled in holes where the solder didn't quite meet when I put all the pieces together the first time. While the last project came out perfect in the end, I don't feel quite as pleased with these. They are done however. Any more work on them will actually damage them beyond repair at this point. On to the next project.

I spent time finishing up possible designs for the next project once I finished up the last buff and polish on this one. But my teacher decided that all my designs were too simple! Now, personally, I prefer my own jewelry to be simple, elegant designs that aren't too gaudy or busy. Thus, I have been doing my own designs to reflect that. While the pieces I've done so far have been complicated to make - they have not been complicated to look at when they were done. This next one will be slightly different. I went back to the drawing board (my little sketchbook) and started making some other designs that have passed the teacher's complexity meter. Now I just need to draw up a few more and then decide which one to start on Thursday. I've got three drawn so far. One of them is has potential. We'll see what happens.

I know there was other stuff I wanted to blog about, but I can't remember it right now. At the moment, there is a plate with bagels on it, lightly smothered in cream cheese, and calling to me and my grumbling stomach. For some reason I always come back from jewelry class hungry. I think it's because we eat dinner so much earlier on those days.

G'night!

Current Mood: hungry

The Great Halloween Spoiler...

Yes, that's right. I'm about to spoil Jareth's Halloween costume for the in-laws. Because he got to officially wear it today, and it was a picture-worthy occasion. The Stay At Home Mom's group I'm in had their second annual Halloween party today, at Didier Farms. There's a repeat of the occasion later in the week, for those in the group that couldn't make it today, but Jareth and I won't be going to that one too. I spent yesterday doing a ton of weeding work on the front and side beds while Brian took out a couple of trees before the trees took down our gutters. The problem I'm having with my legs and hips during this pregnancy was aggrevated by all the work I did, and I'm therefore going to be limiting some of my activities for the rest of the week at this point. It took a lot of Tylenol and caffeine to make it to the party today as it was.

I did get a bunch of pictures. I want to link them to the moms who's kids are in some of the pictures too. Thus, they go up in a gallery for all to see. And, in effect, my in-laws finally get a peek of the little "bear" of a grandson they have. A "teddy bear" of one, to be exact. If you click on the picture below, it will open a new page with the new gallery I created for today.

Despite how worn out I am from yesterday, I still managed to steal myself away this evening to spend some time with RainMoon too. I needed to get out for a bit and just unload a little, along with getting some laughs in there too. (Thanks RainMoon!)

I've recently had reason to be in a very down place after someone close to me managed to kick me from behind while I'm already down to begin with. I'm not going to say much on the matter here. Just that I'm shocked and hurt by it. Beyond that, I'm not going to validate it with direct response, no matter how many times I word and reword one in my head. There are times in life when enough, simply and plainly, is enough.

In more positive news, 3 of the 5 items I had for sale on eBay sold today. More than half is not a bad run, I think. I've got to get my act in gear and get some other stuff up there though. One buyer paid pretty much instantly after the auction ended, so hers will ship tomorrow. Another person is sending their money by mail, which is fine as I left that option open as long as it's a cashier's check or money order so I know it will go through when I drop it off at the bank. The third buyer hasn't sent any communication yet, but seems to have an excellent feedback record so I'm not worried. All in all, it's a small but good start on getting some clutter out of my house and a little extra money in the bank. Always a good thing in my book. I also downloaded the eBay "turbo" program to supposedly help make my listing process easier. So I could enter listings in at my leisure and then choose a time and day to upload them all at once I guess. At least that way they'd all end around the same time and I wouldn't wait an hour to see what happend with the next auction in line. I would have liked that today, so I'll have to give it a try in the future. It will also make relisting the two items that didn't sell a snap when I'm ready to do so. Also a good thing.

Okay, I've rambled enough for tonight.

G'night!

Current Mood: numb

The Evil Laundry Monster...

I am surrounded by laundry. Clean and dirty alike, I feel as if the loads are somehow multiplying. Laundry mitosis. They're out to get me. I know it must be so.

It would have only been four loads. Pretty impressive, actually, since laundry itself was long overdue to be washed. The plumbing problems negated my chances to get it done earlier in the week as I had originally planned. Thus, today became "laundry day" as Jareth quite literally couldn't wait much longer. I still refuse to turn on the heat since just Wednesday we were broiling in shorts and t-shirts while picking apples. Jareth woke up this morning with ice-cube hands though, so I bundled him up in the last warm pants he had clean, and a double-layer top - undershirt with long-sleeved shirt on top. I also upgraded him to the thick, thick socks I'd gotten at the tail-end of winter last year on sale, thinking ahead for this year. I wish I'd bought sweatpants that way too, but then I don't recall seeing them put on sale.

Of course I might not have had to change his sweatpants - he was already wearing another pair - if he hadn't of leaked pretty thoroughly out of his diaper this morning. I didn't notice right off as he gets out of bed on his own and walks around. But when he climbed onto OUR bed while I was changing my own clothes (in preparation for laundry day and JUST prior to changing his diaper) he plopped his wet butt down on OUR sheets. When I was pulling on a sweater over my own t-shirt he decided to come over and steal MY spot in the bed. In the process I snagged him up and set him standing up on the floor when I saw the WET BUTTPRINT he left on the fitted sheet, just below where Brian's pillow sits. In one swift moment I knew that I was adding not one but TWO full sets of bedding to todays wash.

Right now, all I want is a nap. But that requires that I make the bed first, which just sounds like something I don't have the energy for. I've got the mattress pad cleaned and dried and sitting up there, and a different set of sheets (time for the flannel ones to come out anyway), but it takes a bit of energy to make the king-sized bed we've got and I just don't have it in me. I've also got two loads of laundry sitting on a chair that got pulled out of the drier earlier in the week when we washed the towels we'd used to mop up the wet floor after the pipes backed up. I've already folded all of Jareth's laundry and put it away, as well as made his bed up. His nap got delayed to 4:30pm as it was because we were waiting for his comforter to dry. He's all tucked in, safe and snug, under a warm (fresh from the dryer warm) comforter and clean, snuggly sheets. I'm jealous. Seriously.

In the meantime, Brian ought to be home soon from work. Guess who's getting stuck with making the bed? Yup. I'm pretty sure I can fanagle him into it. After all, I'll be busy folding, folding, folding... *sigh*

I still think it's trying to get me. All this laundry. I'm dooooooomed. I've still got three more loads that haven't even made it to the washing machine yet. At least the very last one will be our sheets, which can just sit in the dryer overnight. If the sheets are a little wrinkly, it's okay. They usually sort themselves out once they've been sitting folded for a while anyway.

I hate laundry. I really, really do. *grumble, fold, mumble, fold, bitch, fold, complain*

Well, I'd better get back to it. Check out what RainMoon picked up at the resale shop today. It scares me. It looks like it ought to eat small children, not amuse them. *shudder* But her daughter likes it. The things we do for our kids...

G'night!

Current Mood: scared

Pick a Peck of... errr... Apples.

I keep skipping days in blogging lately. Mostly because I do my blogging at night most of the time, after Brian goes to bed. Last night, however, I was so tired that I went to bed before he did, just after we put Jareth to bed. While I get the occasional spots of energy here and there that make me think I'm past the "fatigue" stage of the pregnancy, I keep getting smacked back down again as my body says "nope - not done yet." The waking up every two hours to pee at night doesn't exactly help much either. It feels like forever since I got a decent nights' sleep.

Yesterday I went apple-picking for the first time ever at Quig's. While Brian grew up with an apple tree in his yard (he's always maintained that picking up the fallen apples was his most-hated chore, because of all the bees they attracted) I had never been to anywhere where I could pick my own apples before. I found myself gleefully grabbing them up, wanting to hoarde them into big baskets or something. It was very fun. I lifted Jareth up into the air and let him pull four or five off by himself too. He got a great kick out of us filling the bag with apples. I had a tricky time keeping him from picking up all the spoiled ones on the ground and sticking them in the bag too though. I had to pull several back out when he wasn't watching.

The only bad part of the experience was that we were overcharged. I went with RainMoon (her daughter couldn't go though - she had school) and a mom's group we're in, and the place sold apples by the "peck". They had bags that you could fill up. When we asked on the way in, when picking up the bags, the guy told us that two bags equalled a peck, which was perfect as RainMoon and I had already decided that a peck each would be too much so we'd split one. We each grabbed up a bag to fill and went merrily a-picking our combined peck.

On the way out, however, the guy charged us for TWO pecks. He said that each bag was a peck's worth. Confused and not wanting to argue about it, we paid the man. After all, we were still all good with that warm-glowy feeling of having just picked our own apples, so we weren't going to spoil the moment by complaining or having to put one of our bags back.

Later, however, when I got home and emptied the bag, I noticed that it said right on it - "1/2 peck". Which meant that we both had 1/2 peck bags and he overcharged us. Damnit. *sigh* I guess I'm a little less surprised now that the orchard we were at won't be there again next year. Apparently the apple trees will go the way of the bulldozer to make way for another subdivision. What a waste of a lot of perfectly good apple trees.

We also went and hit their store, where I couldn't resist some apple-cinnamon-(and something else, I forget what) spice and a container of apple syrup for pancakes and the like. Mmmmm. I do actually love apples and apple-flavored stuff, so it was hard to buy only those two items. I figured I'd try and only get stuff that could last a while at least, and that I could share with my little family over a weekend breakfast.

Then we hit the restaurant, where I had some wonderful cinnamon-apple french toast, with apples baked into the bread. The portion sizes left something to be desired, and the hostess at the place was a mean, grumpy woman who didn't like us having our strollers to deal with nor the amount of people in our party size. The food was wonderful-tasting however, and our actual waitress was nice, so it evened out and ended up being a good time overall. Something had made me decide to order a kid's french toast too, instead of sharing my own like I usually do, so the portion size ended up working well enough with him having his own. He ate nearly all of his, which surprised me. I stole a couple bites of his though, and his were almost as yummy as my own even though they were regular french toast instead of the cinnamon-apple stuff. I did also have their apple cider instead of tea or soda pop, and it was super-good too. Mmmm. I'll have to find another apple orchard next fall and make a day of it with Brian too. Very fun experience indeed.

Also yesterday, I ran a few errands. One of which involved a stop at the pet store. Nora, my older cat (A.K.A. HRH Queen Nora I), recently managed to get her collar hooked on something and take it off. While the safety catch allowed her to not be strangled by it, it also busted clear apart so I replaced it and got a new one for Cinder (A.K.A. Cinder "Troublemaker" Gray) too, since the last time I tried to put one on her she chewed nearly through it before managing to get it off some by slipping it over her head after loosening it a little. Cinder is now pissed off at me, as her head has finally big enough to keep the damned thing on. She keeps trying to get it off. I'm hoping she'll calm down about it after a few days. Nora whined about having to wear one again for the remainder of yesterday but seems to have accepted it again today. Each collar has a tag with the phone number for the house on it and the cat's name, just in case they should get out of the house. That way, if someone finds them before I do, they can call me if the collar hasn't been snagged off on a branch or something yet. Otherwise I'd have to canvas the area with flyers and hope for the best. The microchip they each have really won't do a ton of good unless someone thinks to call animal control and they scan them (or if their dead bodies were scanned, but I don't like to think about it that way). At least they both have collars on now. Hopefully I can keep Cinder's on her.

Today I finally got the chance to sleep in a little and then spent most of the day lounging about, paying attention to my son and relaxing. I still feel like I need to do some catching up on rest/sleep though. This evening I had class, and I'm nearly done with my second project. Yay! This one has been tricky to do. I'll put a picture up when I'm officially through.

G'night!

Current Mood: happy

All Plumbed Up

Well, at least someone was able to enjoy our plumbing predicament today. The plumbers showed up a little early, and parked across the street, obviously waiting for someone that wasn't with them already. They had told me they would arrive at 9:00 am to get started. At almost exactly 9:00 am, I watched the plumber guys put their van into gear and start moving towards my driveway, so I stood up from where I was sitting, half-awake on the couch. I then watched them use my driveway to turn around and then drive away.

???

Oookay. So I went about taking care of some little stuff around the kitchen, contemplating getting Jareth up even though he wasn't stirring quite yet in his room since he's used to getting up closer to 9:30 or 10:00 am - when I usually roll out of bed. Or, when he wakes up earlier, he's usually content to play quietly in his room for a while. After all, that's why we wanted to move him to his "big boy bed" and why we've got toys up there in his room - so he can play in there when I'm too wiped to get out of bed right away. Since he doesn't get to play in there very often otherwise, I think it's a decent arrangement. But, I digress...

A few minutes later they drove back and did another turn-around in my driveway. This time I could see they had acquired some paper cups of something (probably coffee) to sip at while they waited. A few more minutes passed before a pickup truck pulled up, pulling a trailer with a little backhoe on it behind him. That was the point when the plumbers pulled their van officially into the driveway and got out. Instead of the usual "sign this, confirm that, flush the toilet for us, run the water for us, sign that, now write the check" scenario that getting rodded out usually entails, this time I was asked to put a permit sign in the window showing they'd gotten the right permits to dig my yard up and replace pipe, and then was left alone until it was time to write up a check at the end.

In the first few moments as I watched in horror while the backhoe tore chunks of grass out of a section of my lawn, a vaguely awake part of me remembered just how much my son loves trucks right now. It's the "truck phase" that most little boys apparently seem to go through. I bolted upstairs and sprung him from his bed to show him the "digger" through the front window. After a few moments I wanted to get him breakfast too, but he would have none of it - he wanted to keep watching the amazing vehicle that was getting to destroy our front lawn!

We compromised by my moving his high chair into the living room in front of the large front window where he had a full view of everything happening while he munched away at his multi-grain Cheerios. I'm quite sure I made his day. He was laughing and chattering on with words like "dirt" and "digger" all throughout his breakfast. Afterwards we stayed up in the living room where he played and I watched a television special I'd taped ages ago and never gotten around to watching. I don't know for sure how long it was, but it only took them two or three hours to dig the hole, replace the bad chunk of pipe, and push the dirt back into the hole again. I now have this nasty large lump of dirt in my front lawn, although the guy who took the check said that it would settle back into place in time. I hope so. It looks pretty terrible right now.

The amazing part was that they never asked me not to use my water. Not that I was, mind you, as I knew that they were taking apart the line out to the sewer and didn't want to run around doing laundry and having it flood the new hole in my lawn. But I guess they just assumed I wasn't clueless and would limit my water usage until they were done. Which I did. I don't think I even flushed the toilet or ran any water at all while they had the chunk of pipe actually out. I just thought it was interesting that they didn't say anything. The part where they swapped the pipe out must have actually gone pretty quick.

It's good to know that we won't back up again for a while at least. We still have some occasional problems with how the basement plumbing is laid out, but usually that is handled with some Liquid Plumber from the store instead of a need for actual rodding. At the very worst we should only need to be rodded out once a year again. That's a relief.

In other news, it looks like I've gotten a bid on one item I've got up on eBay at least, as well as a couple people watching one of the other items. I don't expect to make a lot, but every little bit helps right now. I'll need to find time to get some of the other stuff I've got set aside photographed and put up for auction too. It's just tricky to figure out where my time gets balanced when I've still got boxes from rearranging the room sitting behind me to be sorted out and a little boy who likes to snuggle up in my lap and demand my full attention all day too. So much to do, so little time to do it all in. Some days it gets too entirely overwhelming.

G'night!

Current Mood: crazy

eeeeeeeeBay!

The first, in a series of installments I hope, of auctions on ebay went up today. I've put five items up there, although it's not like they are anything serious where I can expect to make a mint. Every little bit counts right now though. It took me quite a bit of time to put them up there, between cleaning items up to make them look spiffy, taking detailed pictures, writing up the descriptions, weighing and so on. Those five actually took me most of the day. I packaged them up too though, so if they sell all I have to do is slap a label on most of them and head to the post office.

The plumbers came and rodded us out this morning. Last time they showed up a half hour early on me and I was glad I'd managed to get out of bed on time that morning or I wouldn't have been awake. This time I rolled out of bed four minutes before they were due to arrive. Fortunately (I guess) they were a half an hour late instead. I gave them the downpayment for all the work and tomorrow they come dig in my yard and replace the chunk of pipe that's bad. *sigh* I guess I'd better dig some more eBay stuff out of the garage to help pay for this little disaster. I so much prefer giving stuff away to people who need it on freecycle than selling it to the highest bidder. Now I find myself asking for items on freecycle instead.

You know that part where things start turning around for the better? Yeah... anytime now... *taps foot impatiently* it can start anytime...

G'night.

Current Mood: gloomy

Two Days...

The past two days have been pretty busy. I've found myself completely exhausted to the point of nearly falling asleep in my computer chair a couple of times when I have had the chance to sit down...

Saturday, as I mentioned, was a birthday. RainMoon's daughter grew older by another year, and wanted her party at That Scarey Rat Place I have blogged about before. However, since it was RainMoon's daughter, I went there anyway. She seemed to have a blast, and Jareth wasn't nearly as afraid of the Rat-Suited Individual and Giant Robotic Rat as mommy was. At one point, while I was taking some shots of the birthday girl with my digital camera, one of the adult party members took Jareth over by the Robotic Rat. Jareth, apparently, liked the robotic parrot. Thank goodness for that. I can cope much better with the robotic parrot than I can with the Robotic Rat himself, who sings a horrifying rendition of "Crocodile Rock" done in "Chucky's" voice.

Hmmm... I must suddenly wonder if there is any coincidence between Chuck E. Cheese and the naming of the main character in this movie? Hmm indeed. Food for thought anyway.

Jareth did have his first time enjoying a "ride" though. He wanted to try out one of the rides in the toddler zone when I took him over to see the thing they had where he could climb and slide and such. I gave it a try, remembering the last time we were there when he screamed his little head off and demanded to be hugged IMMEDIATELY when the thing started moving. This time, however, he was old enough that I showed him where to put the token in himself and the button to get it started. He looked skeptical for a whole few seconds before deciding he liked it after all. In fact he was downright PISSED at me when I took him off it so another kid could have a turn. We tried another one though and he found he was content to ride in that one too, until we ran out of the small handful of tokens. After that, he was PISSED again until I bribed him into submission by swiping one of the balloons at the non-party end of the table we'd had the party on. Eventually, however, that wore off too and he was a little pain in the butt for the couple of errands we had to run on our way back after leaving. We did stay longer than most of the guests, however, so it's not like we had to bail early. I was hoping to hang out with RainMoon for a little more, however, while her daughter finished up the remaining game tokens.

Once I got home, it was all I could do not to crawl into bed for my own nap, but I had other stuff I wanted to get done. By the time I finished, I didn't have enough time left for a nap before the whole "dinner thing" had to be started. I had thought I was beyond the "fatigue" stage of the pregnancy, but I guess I just keep getting the occasional burst of energy and then drop back again. I was just as tired today, after just a little bit of tidying up to have Brian's family over. There was also an incident of water backing up on us while I was taking my shower, letting us know that the roots we just had taken care of less than two months ago have grown right back into the pipes already. We had to tell people not to flush the toilet unless absolutely necessary this evening, and I rinsed the dishes off after dinner with the hose outside so we could still put them in the dishwasher and out of the way. I won't run the dishwasher until after the plumbers come tomorrow and rod us out again. Then they'll come back on Tuesday and dig a hole in our yard and replace that chunk of pipe so we don't have to call them back every six weeks to rod again. That's going to cost us a chunk of money we can't spare right now too. *sigh* Lovely. Just F*$%ing lovely.

But, at least it didn't rain on the food at our bbq/potluck dinner tonight. It did rain mind you, but not while we were bbqing stuff and the covered patio in our backyard meant that we could still sit out there and eat instead of taking it all inside. It was a fun evening, and Brian and I got to meet his sister's boyfriend, who seems like a great guy. Jareth recently had learned how to climb the short ladder on the slide his swing set has, and tonight he mastered it, going up and sliding down over and over again. He'd only really done it once before, with Brian, and so I had people stand near to catch him in case he had troubles. He didn't, however, and got a great kick out of showing off his new skill.

Okay, so I stopped typing for a moment and my mind just wandered off. I nearly forgot entirely what I was doing. I guess I'm tired enough that I ought to knock off this and consider heading up to bed shortly...

G'night!

Current Mood: tired

Of Reunions and Birthdays...

We had an interesting day today. First I ran errands like some madwoman, trying to get everything out of the way before the weekend and still managing to forget something at the store. I'll try to stop off tomorrow and pick up the last couple of items I missed (poor iguana won't be getting any nice leafy greens in her breakfast tomorrow for one) and anything I've thought of after the fact as well.

Jareth fell asleep on me on the way home after errands too. I'd been running him into the store on foot instead of procuring a cart in the parking lots we visited as I wanted to tire him out good so he'd take a nap. That, unfortunately, backfired entirely as he passed out in the car seat instead. I tried to keep him awake until we were home, but it was no good. I had to watch the road not him, so between two stop lights he nodded off for good. I left him there while I unloaded the car, but then didn't want him actually taking his nap in there so I tried to shift him to the bed. He's never transferred well, and today was no different. His "nap" consisted entirely of that 10 or 15 minutes in the back of the car and then he woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep once he was taken to his bed. I kept trying to get him to take his nap, but he just wanted to play at that point.

Which made it pretty amazing that he wasn't totally cranky tonight. We took him with to Brian's Boy Scout reunion. The troop he was in is still an active troop and has reached its 50th anniversary. Very cool. I had hoped more of his former troopmates from when he was a member would be there, but we did at least spend an enjoyable time with the one other one that was. There were members from the troop back before Brian was in it, all the way up to the current boys in the troop as well. There was a nice big campfire going that Jareth seemed to like, and a local astronomy group was asked to come and share their telescopes. There was other stuff but we weren't able to get there until around 7:30pm and we spent a good deal of time just hanging about and chatting. Brian may well mention it on his blog. I spent most of the time talking with the girlfriend of the other guy who'd been in the troop with Brian. She was great. Very outgoing, which took some pressure off. I tend to clam up and follow along behind Brian like a lost puppy at things like that, so I jumped at the chance to chat.

Brian's folks were also in attendance, as his dad had been one of the scoutmasters. Jareth got some bonus time in his Grandma's arms as a result. *grin* He also got to ride up on her shoulders for a while. And I think I've convinced him that the stars he sees that "blink" are actually airplanes. I think. I still need to explain about the ones that don't seem to blink, but move across the sky. Or maybe I'll just leave that one for Brian. We'll see. Some concepts seem so much more complicated when you're trying to explain it to a two-year-old. We're still working on the difference between "I'm and You're" as in "You're Jareth and I'm Mommy". Which he'll repeat exactly as I say it. He doesn't quite get the concept yet. English can be such a complicated language...

And last, but most certainly not least, I have a friend who's beautiful daughter is having a birthday tomorrow (well, today actually, seeing as how it's after midnight when I'm posting this). I've promised not to mention her name here, but I just can't leave it totally without mention...

That's all for tonight.

G'night!