My Little Corner of the World

Bento Lunch

2010-10-21T21:03:00.011-05:00

From top to bottom, left to right: chicken breasts cooked in the crockpot with House Tuscan Italian dressing, Halloween mac 'n cheese, and sweet corn kernels (no color variations, but I was working with what I had) --> Dinner on the Run Night; ham and cheese sandwich with mustard on oatmeal bread, cut into bat shapes with a cookie cutter, pickle slices, and canned peaches (which those and the pickles are in Halloween cupcake liners); Piggy Burgers!!!!! (a.k.a. sliders, mini burgers); ham and cheese sandwich with mustard on oatmeal bread (again) cut into a black cat and a witch with cookie cutters (details in black FoodWriter, read below), carrot chips, red grapes, and 2 pieces of a fundraiser crispy chocolate bar; Salad Day: torn lettuce leaves, sun dried tomato vinagrette (tiny box w/lettuce), red grapes, carrot chips, turkey or chicken cubes in a Halloween cupcake liner, bacon crumbles in a Halloween cupcake liner, and a Splitz yogurt.

I know. Y'all are all thinking, "ANOTHER Bento blog?" Not really. This is just my little corner of the world, where I can blog about anything. And today, I just HAPPEN to be blogging about Bento Boxes!

It all started over the summer, just before the school year started here. A friend of mine was posting about those nifty little boxes and some lunches she made to try them out. I got curious and looked it up. WOW!!!!! I was so amazed, I couldn't even think straight for quite a while. I was so excited to try something new! So I got our daughter up here to look at all the Bento Boxes and recipe books on Amazon, and our craze started from there. By the way, she has 2 different boxes: one is a Laptop Lunchbox - complete with water bottle, a fork, a spoon, and a carrying case; and the other is a Panda 2-tiered Bento Box.

I know you're probably thinking that it takes too much time to make. And my answer to you is that it doesn't take longer to put a Bento lunch or dinner together than it does to throw some leftovers into a container, or slap a sandwich together. You're really doing the same thing, but adding a few details to it.

I'll admit, I don't go all out with the shaped cheese and stuff like that. Our daughter never asks for it. But she LOVES her shaped sandwiches! And she loves to pick out all the cupcake liners for her lunches when we go out to buy them. She loves to pick out what she wants to eat, and she loves to help put it together into her box. Most times, though, I'm the only one getting it all together and into her box. But I don't mind, because I'm doing it for her. And I'm having fun!

I've sent leftovers for lunch with her in her boxes. Yes, I've used the Bento recipes, too. Those are pretty amazing! Some of them can be made for dinner, and those always call for enough ingredients that you have leftovers. One of our favorites is Teriyaki Meatballs with Jasmine rice. Oh, it's AmAzInG.....

I usually take pictures of her lunches before I put the covers on the dishes (yep, they have containers for those boxes!) and pack it all away. Then I send that out to my family, and sometimes my friends. I even post them on FB. I've made a lot of people jealous of her lunches. *lol* My twin sister keeps bugging me to make HER lunches for her. Hasn't happened yet.

So, do I eat the same thing she does for lunch? No. Why? I'm usually too rushed for time in the mornings to make 2 different types of lunches. Mine have to be on the lighter side, doc's orders. And after having spent way too much time arguing with her about getting dressed and all that other good stuff WHILE I'm making her lunch and getting her morning snack together, I just don't have the patience. Mind you, this girl gets up at 6 am every weekday, same as me. But I give her 1 hr. to watch TV and eat breakfast, and then the TV goes off at 7 am. THAT'S when all the problems start, so it takes us 40 mins. to get it all together before we leave at 7:40 am. Sometimes I get to make her lunch before 7, but not a whole lot of times. Between 6:15 and 7 is when I get ready for my day, and I sometimes drag. And I eat breakfast during that time, too.

Anyway, I digress...

Bento Box lunches are really easy to make. They usually just require cookie cutters and the makings of a sandwich. For those really "short" or "thin" cookie cutters that you can't fit an entire sandwich under (which was my problem this morning), you'll have to go the extra mile and cut everything individually (lesson learned!).

Food picks for the fruits? I don't use 'em. I just put them in cupcake liners. Why? Because I've known those kids at the school for a long time, and I know how they behave at lunch. Not bad, really, but give them a food pick...No, thanks. So cupcake liners it is. I use the paper ones, but only because I just can't bring myself to spend so much money on the other ones. What are they, silicone? I forget. I know it's more cost efficient in the long run, but I always hesitate when I come across them...And the hesitation always wins.

By the way, if you think you can't afford a Bento Box of some sort, THINK AGAIN!!!!! No, I'm not crazy. Just buy a package of the Ziploc rectangular containers that has 3 compartments in them: a small one for fruit or veggies or chips, a medium one for the same, and a bigger one for sandwiches or leftovers or salads. Need something for dressing? Use the small compartment, or actually buy those tiny containers for the Bento Boxes online or at an Asian store. Heck, if you can find something at the store to take it's place, go ahead! Just be sure that they're spill/leak proof. Then pack those up in a lunch bag or lunch box, and you have yourself a Bento Box!

Not sure what to make? Well, like I said, a sandwich goes a long way. Or a salad. Our daughter LOVES salad, but I never used to pack it for her for lunch. I do now! And she pretty much eats it all up, too! You can find Bento Box lunch/dinner ideas on the internet, just do a search. I got a lot of ideas from various sites, but I didn't write those sites down so I can't share them with you.

For those little extra details I mentioned somewhere above, I use Wilton's FoodWriter markers. They're edible marker colors. However, don't use the black if you can avoid it. It turns your bread green where you used it between the time you made the lunch and the time you actually eat it. I learned that lesson the hard way! I'll just use green or blue next time. Heck, maybe even red.

If you're gonna go the extra mile and MAKE the little details yourself, then be sure to have different sizes of straws on hand. And some food gel to stick them into place. I tried it once before, and I hated it. I take the easy way out now and just draw the details with the FoodWriters. But I keep the gels on hand and in stock just in case.

So that's it! I hope you "enjoyed" reading this blog, and I may actually post another story or more Bento pictures later on. Enjoy!

HSM Fan and Update on Flu Allergy

2008-11-04T21:02:00.003-06:00

Let me start by updating you on my flu shot allergy. I've been eating foods made with eggs, and eggs period, since the day I had the allergic reaction to the flu shot. Nothing's happened. I finally went to the doctor, and EVERYONE in the office had heard about me. Well, about someone having had a reaction. Very...unnerving. I was given a list of allergists to call. I finally picked one and had an appointment for the day after I called. I saw him - very nice man, too - and they did a small skin test. Just for eggs. The only reaction I had was to the control test, which is what you're supposed to have if you're not allergic. And I wasn't. Yes!

Turns out I was already immune to one of the strains in the vaccine. Which one, we'll never know since there's no way of testing for that. And it turns out that when I got the shot last year, I was already immune. (BTW, this year's vaccine is the exact same as last year's. My allergist told me.) I'd gotten sick almost immediately after getting the shot last year, but the doctors wouldn't say it was the flu...even though it FELT like the flu. So the allergist wrote down the strains that I CANNOT have for me to keep in my wallet. He says I can still get the vaccine, but it can't have any of those 3 strains in it. So I'd have to talk to my doctor about getting the vaccine in the future, to see if future vaccines have the strains I'm immune to. He also recommended that I get the nasal vaccine instead of the shot. Works for me! But I'd have to do that at the doctors office. *sigh* The allergist gave me this little metal tube on a keychain that contains 6 pills. Whenever I get stung by a bee (since I'm allergic), I'm to immediately take those 6 pills. How I'm supposed to do that when my throat is closed off and my tongue is swollen is beyond me. But he said most people find that they don't need to use their EpiPens when taking the pills. Hmm...Hopefully, I won't get stung by a bee again. Or have another reaction to future flu vaccines...

And I still haven't heard from the vaccine's pharmaceutical company...

I took R to see HSM 3 yesterday after school. She LOVED it!!!!! We didn't get to see the very end, though, because she had to go potty. But that's okay, because I'll just buy the movie for us when it comes out on DVD. And she can't wait for the soundtrack to come out. She's so funny!

She's been listening to the soundtrack for HSM 2 since...Hmm...Sunday? Saturday? One of those. She's a Sharpay freak! *lol* She LOVES Sharpay, mainly because of the song at the pool that she sings and because she loves the color pink just like R does. We have to keep that song (Fabulous?) on repeat. I'm rather sick of it, to tell you the truth. Anyway, I told her that I have HSM 2 if she wanted to watch it. She was thrilled with that idea, so I popped it in the DVD player when we got home after school today. She watched about 1/2 of it, then switched to a different movie. She kept switching movies, but eventually ended up back with HSM 2 somewhere around dinner time. We were having pasta with meatballs, but she didn't want any sauce with hers. So we let her eat dinner in the living room (or family room as my mom calls it) while she watched the movie. This time, she watched it all.

She took a shower after it was over, then watched part of it again. The third time, she was doing the dance moves along with the movie!!!!! I couldn't believe it! She'd just started watching that movie TODAY, and already she knows a lot of the dances. I was so amazed. And it was pretty cute.

And, yes, this mama owns the first 2 HSM movies AND the soundtracks!!!!! But I think R is now claiming them as her own...Little stinker...

I'm supposed to be getting ready for a craft fair on the 15th, but I haven't had the inclination to do so. I just don't feel like it anymore. I don't feel like crafting for extra cash. I so rarely sell anything I make. And I haven't sold any Body Shop stuff in forever! I've been making SOME money at the craft mall, but not enough to cover my monthly rent. Is it worth it? I don't know anymore. I guess I'll give it till the new year before I decide for certain what I want to do. I'm so confused about a lot of things right now.

That's it for this post. Catch up with y'all later!

I need some medical attention, please!

2008-10-09T18:42:00.003-05:00

Yep, you read the title of this blog right. That was me yesterday. No joke. My life is just one big adventure after another. *sigh* Oh, and please excuse any typos I may miss. I'm still shaking from my latest adventure.

Yesterday started out like any other day. Woke up, got dressed, called up the stairs to R to wake up and get dressed, made us breakfast, brushed R's hair, got us out the door, took R to school, came back home, exercised, went up to my "studio" to make some hairbows and watch TV (mainly it's just on to keep me company), went to pick R up from school, went to Sally's for some clips, Whataburger for lunch, home, more bows, went to get my flu shot at Walgreens...And that's when it all began.

I don't know if I posted this a couple of years ago or not, but I found out the hard way that I'm allergic to bee stings. So I have to carry around an EpiPen. In the 2 yrs. I've had the thing, I've never needed it. I've come close, but it never happened.

Oh, boy, did I need it yesterday. A and I had appointments at Walgreens to get our flu shots. We got them. I had noticed that they had a basket of EpiPens there, and I asked what that was for. They said it was in case someone had a reaction. Huh? Never heard of that, but I pulled mine out and showed them I had my own. They asked if I thought I would need it, and I said no, so they left it at that. They have you stay around the store for a bit to make sure you don't have a reaction. I never understood what that was about, but now I do.

So we're walking around Walgreens - I should say I was walking around getting stuff we needed, and R and A were playing/racing/looking at toys - and all of a sudden I noticed that my throat felt like it was closing up on me. I thought it was nothing, since I was really thirsty. Then I noticed my tongue felt bigger. I had to stop and think and evaluate myself. I knew my arm was hurting where I'd gotten the shot, and I had started to feel funny. As I stood there evaluating myself, things kept getting worse. I was now having problems swallowing. I could still swallow, but with difficulty. I told A, and he said we need to tell them NOW. So I went there, stood there till they were done giving some poeple their shots, and told them I wasn't feeling well. They asked what was wrong, and I said it felt like my throat was closing off. They said, "You need to sit down NOW." I didn't argue. As I got to the chair at the table, I started having problems breathing, and it kept getting worse. They remembered I had an EpiPen, so they got it out of my purse where they had seen me put it, and had me get it out of the tube. This whole time I'm shaking and I can't breathe and I feel like I'm going to pass out. I couldn't focus on the directions to administer the shot, and I kept telling them - with difficulty - that I couldn't do it. I was in really bad shape, and I could feel the blackness coming on. One of the ladies took my pen, put it in my hand, wrapped my hand around it, put her hand on top of mine, and jabbed me with it. That was the only way they could "give" me the shot. Otherwise, it would be considered that they were giving me a drug and I could sue. Yeah, fat chance of that. They had a store employee call 9-1-1, and kept me there, trying to keep me from blacking out.

They pulled out my papers, and kept asking A for some medical info on me. They took my bloodpressure a few times, kept talking to me. The whole time, though, I was still having problems getting my breathing under control. I was panicking a bit because I couldn't control it. All of a sudden, I heard a voice in my head that kept telling me, "Focus. Focus." I don't know who's voice it was, but I wasn't ignoring it. Luckily, the flu shot clinic was right in front of my favorite section of any store: the makeup! So I zeroed in on a color and focused on that. It helped control my emotions AND helped me to get my breathing under better control.

By this time, the fire dept. had arrived. They hooked me up to some monitors, asked A and the pharmacists that were doing the clinic all sorts of questions about my and my health history, were trying to get me to answer questions but it was hard for me to talk still. They did a glucose reading on me since I'm diabetic, but it was normal. This whole time, they kept blocking my point of focus, so I had to constantly shift it. I was getting pissed because I would lose what little control I had on my breathing. Every time they asked me a question, all I would say was, "Focus." I didn't want to lose my focus and have my control slip. I kept trying to answer questions, but I just couldn't. It was hard to talk, it was hard to breathe. My throat and tongue were slowly getting back to normal, though. The EMTs finally got there and took over some. They gave me oxygen, which REALLY helped with my breathing...but I still had to focus. I was put on a stretcher and rolled out to the ambulance.

They did all sorts of readings in the ambulance, and by then my health was getting back to normal. I was able to talk more, which really relieved the guys. I still had to focus, though, because they had taken me off the oxygen in the store and didn't put it back on until a few minutes after getting me in the ambulance. I had found a turniquet that was tied to a rail on the ceiling of the ambulance, so I focused on that. They, all of a sudden, one of the guys reached up and grabbed it. I got mad and said, "You took my focus!" They just laughed, sillies. I had to shift it elsewhere again. They only other thing was a screw, which I kept losing because it was the same damn color as the rest of the ceiling. *grr*

By the time we got to the hospital, I was feeling loads better, but not 100%. I didn't need to focus anymore. They'd hooked me up to and IV and flushed some saline into me to push out the vaccine and stuff, to wake me up a bit. The oxygen was a great relief to me. Once they pulled me out of the ambulance, the driver asked if I was still in my focus zone. I said no. Then he said, "That's good. Now explain." *lol* I had to explain to them that focusing on something was a way to help get my breathing under control a little so that I wouldn't panic and keep the blackout at bay. They'd never heard of that, but they thought it was a good idea. My older sister said they just learned something knew yesterday.

I spent a couple of hours at the ER. I never got a room since they were all full, but I did see the doctor. It was a busy day for them there. One thing after another, short staffed, missing labs, no orders from doctors until labs came back...The list goes on. But they parked me right in front of my nurse, so she and the others kept a close watch on me. Everyone all told me it was good that I had my pen on me, but they all asked why I had one in the first place. I told them I'm allergic to bee stings. They asked what happens, and I told them since I've only been stung once, I'm not really sure if it's full blown anaphalactic shock or not. But I explained what had happened with the bee sting, and they asked me to describe what happened with the flu shot. Pretty much the same thing happened with both, and the doctor called it progressive anaphalactic shock. Which just means that it will be MUCH WORSE the next time. The doc ordered a steroid and Benadryl to be administerd through my IV, and said I'd be there for several hrs. because he wanted to see how I did once the adrenaline from the pen wore off. I felt woozy after the Benadryl was administered, and my nurse laughed at me. She knew exactly how I felt. I fell asleep for about 30 mins., and I really had to go potty. All that saline did me in - I forgot to say that I got MORE saline with the meds to flush them into my system faster. Soon after that, I was discharged. I didn't spend the several hrs. there that the doc had said, and I'm glad. I was freakin' cold! And I had 2 blankets! But I know it was the meds and shock and all that.

I left with Rx for 2 EpiPens, Benadryl, and steroid pills for my lungs. I'm on the steroids for the next week, which will do 2 things to me:

1. It'll lower my immunse system, making me more prone to getting any illness that I come into contact with. I'm now coming down with something, but I don't know what. It could just be from my ordeal, but I dought it. Sore throat, cough, scratchy chest/lungs, chills...

2. I'm diabetic, so it's going to cause my glucose levels to go haywire. Yeah, I've been pretty sleepy and out of it all day. Oh, and freakin' shaky!

After I was discharged, we went back to Walgreens so that I could get my Rx filled. The 2 ladies doing the clinic were still there, working at the pharmacy. They were relieved to see that I was okay and feeling better. They noticed my limp, and I told them it was from the EpiPen. I thanked them both for saving my life, and they just brushed it off and said they were just glad that they could help me and that I was feeling better.

I got my meds for free! I didn't have to pay anything. The doc wrote out a Rx for 2 pens instead of the 1 I'd always had. The 2 pack comes with a trainer, so now my family can practice helping me to administer the pen in case I need it again. And because I'm now allergic to a shot I've been getting every year since I can't remember when, the manufacturer of the vaccine will be covering all my medical expenses from yesterday. That's a relief. It's going to be a lot of money since I had to be transported by ambulance.

The best thing about yesterday? I DON'T NEED TO GET A FLU SHOT ANYMORE!!!!! The bad thing about yesterday? I DON'T NEED TO GET A FLU SHOT ANYMORE!!!!! *lol* It's bad because diabetics are supposed to get it, since we're more susceptible to getting sick. But I can't anymore because I'm allergic. I don't care, really. It's just one less shot I have to get every year.

The lesson for all of you reading this is this: Even if you think that you won't have a reacting to the flu shot, stick around a bit. You'll never know. Forget about the hurry you're in. Play it safe, just in case. All you parents that take your little ones in for flu shots, this applies to you, too. I've been getting this shot for I don't know how long. I *NEVER* knew a person could have an allergic reaction to it. NEVER!!!!! I'm glad I stuck around and played it safe. It sucks that I'm allergic, but it could happen to anyone. This just goes to show that you really CAN all of a sudden be allergic to something that you've been drinking/eating/doing for years.

So when you go for your flu shot, play it safe. Stick around, just in case.

-me

Birthdays

2008-09-26T16:52:00.003-05:00

Another year, and my baby girl is older and taller and has bigger feet. *sigh* I'm having to buy her shorts/pants/dress and shoes after about 2 or 3 months now. Ack!

Her Royal Fussbucket just turned 5 this past Tuesday. It was a great day. It started out with a special breakfast at IHOP, her favorite pancake place - just me and her. She took cupcakes, cantaloupe, and juice boxes to school for a special birthday snack. For lunch, my twin sis, my mom, and I took her to Chili's. Then we came back home for some pumpkin pie and games. Yes, pumpkin pie. It's her favorite, and I didn't feel like making her a cake she wouldn't eat. For dinner, A and I took her to Chuck E. Cheese's. She had a blast!

I took her for her 5 yr. check on Wed., and she got 2 shots: the new chicken pox vaccine, and the flu shot. Let me tell you, my girl may be 5 yrs. old, but she's freakin' strong! She kicked the heck out of my stomach, and shoved me with her feet. I crashed into the nurse that was walking behind me and stomped on her foot in the process. It took 2 people to hold her down: me and another nurse. She was screaming and crying the whole time. I still kinda hurt where she kicked and shoved me.

I kept her home yesterday to rest up. Turned out she had a cold when I took her for her check up, but only a small one with no fevers. Plus with her sore leg, it didn't really make sense to take her to school. She could have gone to school, but I wanted her to rest a little before her party tomorrow. I got a little more cleaning done, and she spent the morning playing on the Wii. I took her to the library after lunch, though, so that she could work on her writing and get some books. We did some pretend play there, too. She was a librarian, and she was checking out my books. Then she was selling me books - as a librarian. *lol*

She went to school today. They were having a Friendship Snack at school, all the classes were. I had to pick her up early, though. They had their school pictures done while we were at Disney World, so I scheduled a make up session with the photographer. They're located across from the church, so it was no big deal. After her pictures, we went back to the school to go to the book fair. She got a few new books. Then it was home for lunch and resting. Only she didn't rest. She put me to sleep with all her whining. *lol*

My BIL and his girlfriend are here now. They got in about an hr. ago. Well, they got to my house then. My BIL is playing Wii with the princess right now. She cheats, by the way. ; ) She doesn't like losing, and will choose games to play that she's good at but you're not. *lol* They're playing baseball right now.

Tomorrow's the big party. It's going to be at a bowling alley. It's what she wanted. The theme is Clone Wars. Again, it's what she wanted. This year, I only invited immediate family and 5 girls I was pretty sure would come. In the past, no one has really come from my family or her classmates. I didn't see the point of having another big production if that was going to be the case...again.

That's it for now. I'm tired, and I need to rest my mind for tomorrow's party.

*me*

Handipoints

2008-07-02T11:33:00.000-05:00

I found the most WONDERFUL chore chart site this morning! And it's FREE!!!!! Can you believe it? The link is above. Check it out.

I love this site. It's awesome. And I just found it today! You get to choose a cat for you to interact with. You can personalize the chore chart for your kids. Pick up to 35 chores and demerits and such for your children. Help them pick savings goals. Let them play in HandiLand.

As a parent, you get to log in to grade the chores that your children do. You can customize the chart by adding items that they have listed on their site, or create your own custom chores. Same for savings goals.

I just love this site. R does, too. This site is great for children 4 yrs. to 14 yrs. You'll love it! I promise!

I know this post is all over the place. I'm sorry. I'm on the phone as I type it up. Just check out the site!

Anyway...

I tackled the dungeon yesterday and WON!!!!! Yep! That corner on my side of the bed in our room was a dungeon. It had tons of books, dust, slippers, chanclas, catalogs, magazines, and I can't remember what else. That's 4+ yrs. of stuff. I finally tackled it all and it's CLEAN!!!!! Of course, I paid for it dearly with horrible allergies. My eyes were so swollen, my throat was hurting, I was itchy (even though I'd scrubbed in my shower after), and I was miserable. I just felt like crap. Anyway, I threw away most of the books that were in the dungeon because they were too dusty to mess with. I kept some books, though. I wanted to see if they would sell at the garage sale or in my Amazon shop. I threw away all the catalogs and such because they were too dusty to mess with. I vacuumed that area like CRAZY! I vacuumed the carpet there that hadn't seen the light of day in a few years. I vacuumed the baseboards and the corners of the walls and the ceiling corners. I vacuumed one of the mini blinds. I dusted the corner shelf and cleaned it off. I dusted EVERYTHING... Then I grabbed one of the nightstands that was on A's side and dusted it off and took everything off of it. I then moved the corner shelf to the corner, and put the nightstand where the shelf was. I then put some meds and lotion in the top drawer, and some books I haven't read that I found in the dungeon and some pictures in the bottom drawer. On top, I put R's cool mist humidifier, my alarm clock, 3 things of lip stuff, my water bottle, and there's a spot for her nightly water cup. The corner shelf is practically bare now. But my trusty lamp is still there, and I like it better in the corner than I did right in my face.

I forgot to mention that I put away the TV table that I'd had on my side of the bed - just about right there at the bed - for over a year...since my gallbladder surgery. I cleaned that off, too, and put away all the stuff that was on there for over a year.

It's really weird having all the space to move around on my side of the bed now. It's so open and light now in that corner. I'm happy now. I don't know HOW I slept in that room with all that dust. It was HORRIBLE!!!!! I NEVER WANT TO CLEAN THAT AGAIN!!!!! I hope I *NEVER* let it get that way again.

When I was dusting and throwing away all those books, I kept thinking that we (as in me!) have wwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too many books in the house. We need to go through them again. Oh, wait...*I* need to go through them. *lol* I'm out of places to put them! Yeah, I really need to get rid of some.

I'm taking today off from all the cleaning and such. It's my reward to myself for cleaning the dungeon out. I inspired A with the cleaning so much that he put away all the children's books that were on the floor on his side of the bed. *lol* He said he saw my corner and looked at his area and said it was a mess compared to mine. So he cleaned it up. But he didn't vacuum or dust. Silly. My side is STILL cleaner and nicer. ; )

I bought myself a new "game" for my Nintendo DS. It's called My Weight Loss Coach. It came with a pedometer. It's pretty cool, I guess. There are challenges that you need to complete - you get to choose up to 6 per day. You can plug the pedometer into the DS to upload your steps. You feed your coach the food that you ate everyday - or something close to it. It's pretty cool. I like it so far. *lol*

That's it. I'm taking R to Club Libby Lu today. It's her reward for being such a big girl by giving up some of her toys and books and clothes, and for helping me with the cleaning. And for putting up with me when I get after when she makes a mess in the back living room and leaving it there. *lol*

I'm off!...

I DID IT!!!!!

2008-06-28T00:36:00.000-05:00

I DID IT!!!!! I DID IT!!!!! I FINALLY DID IT!!!!!

I PUT DOWN A SECURITY DEPOSIT FOR A BOOTH/SPACE AT THE LOCAL CRAFT MALL!!!!! YAY!!!!!

Yeah, I did. I applied for my tax ID number yesterday (or rather, Thurs., since it's Sat. already). So I had it already when I went to get the booth. Yes! I have my space, I have my move-in date (Aug. 1), and I have my tax ID number. I'm set...

For the most part...

To start with, I'm going to push out the inventory I already have here at home. J and I pretty much know already what I've got here. But I'm still gonna make stuff to sell in my booth and website: hairbows, headbands, tutus, more: soaps, bath salts, milk baths, and candles. I *might* make some more kids floor pillows, but I'm not sure. I'll push out what I have now for pillows, and go from there. I've got lots of fabric, so that's not the problem. I'm just wondering if any of that stuff will SELL. I'd REALLY like to get it out of the house.

J walked around the mall, looking at all the different booth/space displays...getting ideas for mine. We pretty much have my space planned. I just need some decorations or something. I've got some wood boards that she's gonna give me, painted a pretty blue - I just need A to cut them down to size. I bought some hooks or pegs or something from the hardware store. I've got plenty of fabric and tulle, so I can incorporate those into sprucing up the space. I'll be getting some lattice for the clips. And there's an outlet right above my space, so that makes it easier for extra lighting.

J and I worked out a "schedule" of sorts of what to make/do and when. Cleaning, of course, is on the schedule...Every day...But only spot checks on Saturdays and Sundays...With Friday up in the air (I'd like a day off, you know...). I really hope I sell enough every month to keep the space or to upgrade to a bigger space. It would really help us, financially.

On a different note...

A took R to the zoo today. I stayed home because J and I had other plans. A and R really enjoyed their time together today, and I'm glad. The zoo trip was almost canceled because R kinda threw up from all her coughing, and she doesn't like throwing up. (Let's be honest: Who does?) She wanted me, and she wanted to come home to be with me. A told her, though, that if they came back home they weren't going back to the zoo today. She changed her mind real quick. She sucked it up and told A to keep going, since they were almost there. *lol* I hadn't heard from them all day, except when I called to ask him a question. They did fine. They even went to the tea garden. I'm so jealous! I've always wanted to go there, but never have. Grr...

We had what I called "Southern Chinese" for dinner tonight: chicken fried rice (that chicken helper box) with sweet corn bread. *lol* I'm paying for it now, since I'm allergic to corn - I get a mild rash. But I *love* the stuff...

I made up a chore chart for the 3 of us. It doesn't have anything on it yet. Other than the title and our names, it's blank. A and I need to sit down together to fill in our chores. And yes, R *IS* included in this. I know she's 4, but she's old enough to help.

I'm gonna end this now, 'cause I thought I saw someone out of the corner of my eye at the stairs. But no one was there when I whipped my head around. Kinda scary up here, somewhat dark, with A and R sleeping downstairs...

Yikes! I'm scaring myself more...

MY LITTLE FAMILY IS SICK! And other stuff...

2008-06-27T00:21:00.000-05:00

Yep, that's right. They're both sick. *sigh*

A was out of town for work last week, and he spent the entire trip sick with a bad cold. R was fine, but came down with a fever on Saturday afternoon. She had fevers off and on through Tuesday. She also woke up with a bad sore throat and cough on Sunday. On Monday, I took her to the ped.'s, where they didn't tell me much. They tested her for strep, but both the office test and the culture they sent in came back negative. She was mostly okay yesterday. But she woke up with a barking seal cough this morning and an even worse sore throat, both of which really worried me. I was worried all day, so I didn't get any work done around the house. (Sorry, J!) I finally decided this morning that I would take her to the pediatric urgent care clinic by our house when I picked her up from school. Good thing I did. The ped. she saw there said she had the tail end of the croup! Ugh! How did I miss that? Oh, yeah! She'd only had it once before, when she was a baby. And she didn't have the barking seal cough until this morning, and it pretty much went away when she took her cough and sore throat medicine.

Her teacher said she was fine all day, no fever. She played, she ate, and she crashed for 2.5 hrs. (Yes!) She didn't eat a lot at lunch, which I knew she wouldn't with her throat hurting. Ms. N. did tell me, though, that she was very quiet today and that she pretty much lost her voice and that it was really scratchy when she could talk. But other than that, she did fine.

Now I feel like such a "bad" mom because I didn't know she had the croup. Her regular ped.'s office was sure it was strep throat; my sister thought for sure it was a sinus infection; I just didn't know WHAT to think. I know it's not my fault. She didn't exhibit any of the symptoms until this morning. I knew she'd had that kind of cough before, but I couldn't remember what the diagnosis was for that time. I'm glad I followed my motherly instincts and took her in again.

As for A...Well, he's getting better. He still has his cough, but I'm not quite sure about his runny nose. I haven't been paying much attention to it, since I've been cleaning the house for 2 weeks now. I *DO* know, however, that he's at risk for getting the croup because his immune system is still shot from his cold. He's well aware of his risk, too. Me? I'm at risk, yes, but not as much. Neither one of us got it last time, either. Come to think of it, I think she had the croup then, we had bronchitis, and then she got bronchitis a couple of days after getting over the croup. Hmm...At least I *THINK* that's how it was. It was so long ago. A lot has happened since.

So, A is taking R to the zoo tomorrow. She told him over the weekend that he had to tell his boss that he couldn't go to work tomorrow because he was going to go to the zoo with her. *lol* I busted out laughing when she said that. But he took tomorrow off so that he could take her to the zoo. Me? J and I have other plans. And since I didn't clean the dining table like I said I would and planned to do, I'm gonna have to wake my happy butt up early tomorrow to do it. (So, yes, J - it'll get clean before you get here!) I think A is taking R to a tea garden by the zoo. If so, then I'll be so jealous. I've always wanted to go there...

I applied for a tax ID number today. *sigh* I had to. Don't ask why, since I really don't want to get into it right now.

I'm going to look into renting a booth at a local craft mall. I went today to look around and get some info. I talked it over with A, and he's supporting me in this. He likes my plan to rent a space for 3 mths., then go from there. Hopefully I can sell enough of my stuff every month to keep it going. Now I just have to go reserve my space and make all the stuff.

Oh, yeah...And keep cleaning this damn house. I'M SO TIRED OF CLEANING!!!!! How did we let it get so bad? I feel like the "Clean House" crew need to get their butts over here and HELP! A's not helping much, and R's pretty much done helping. However I have to keep on them about the mess: he falls asleep when he gets home, so she makes a mess, and he lets her leave it. Umm...NO!!!!! I just spent the past 2 weeks cleaning, and they think they're gonna mess up my clean and organized areas? I DON'T FREAKING THINK SO!!!!! They get ticked off and I think A started rolling his eyes at me, but I'm not going to give up. I'm going to keep on going until this house is clean and organized. I mean it this time! I'm sick of all the mess, all the toys, all the crap that we don't use or need.

I even broke down and said that I'm gonna have to sell some, if not most, of my ribbon. I have so much of it, and I really don't make that many hairbows because of time constraints. But I can't stop buying it! There's so much of it, that's it's taking over most of my studio. Ugh! Nope, time to sell. I can't keep it all. And the $$$ from those sales would come in handy right now. I just need to make up a schedule so that I can clean, take pictures of ribbon, list the ribbon, and make stuff for the craft mall. And, most important of all, spend time with A and R. Of course, it helps that R likes to help me make stuff. : )

Until next time...

Follow-up to last night's post

2008-04-22T21:05:00.002-05:00

I went back to the doctor today for a follow-up to the lab work. It went well. I'm doing okay emotionally today. Better than I was doing last night, actually.

I found out that my bad cholesterol levels were extremely hight, at 241. My glucose level wasn't great, either, at 141. Holy cow! I've NEVER had my glucose levels over 96! That shocked the heck out of me. My eyes just bugged out, and I nearly fell off the chair.

After hearing those levels from the doctor herself, I'm more than ready to get things started on my end. I can't live with myself with such high numbers.

Dr. P. had to walk out to get some info for me, but she sent her nurse in to see me. Guess what? I GOT A FREE GLUCOMETER!!!!! Yay! If you've never had diabetes or don't know anyone who has it, then you probably won't understand my elation about this nifty freebie. So, I was given a glucometer and supplies for a few days. I got Rx's for the test strips, the lancets, and Metformin.

Per Dr. P.'s orders, I have to test my Fasting Blood Sugar levels once a day, every day. I have to get my glucose levels down to below 120. I also have to exercise at least 4 times a week, 30 mins. each time. I have to call a certain hospital for information about their diabetes class - as in I *HAVE* to take the class, since they're faxing the form and everything to the hospital.

I pretty much know how to use a glucometer, but each one is different. I hope I acquainted myself well enough with the darn thing. I was distracted and fighting sleep. (Lost that fight eventually, by the way...) I start monitoring my glucose levels tomorrow morning. I just hope I do it right. I think I will, though.

I took my first Metformin pill after dinner. Dr. P. kept going back and forth on how many I should take everyday. She finally settled on 2 pills a day, but still thinks it may be too much. But she wants me to start out with the 2, and if my levels drop too much to cut back to 1 pill a day and to give her a call about it.

I go back in 2 weeks for another follow-up, to see how the medicine is working. She said I can go back to see her, or go back to see my PA since he knows my history more than anyone else. I'm not sure. They're both great. Hopefully I'll have lost at least 5 lbs. by then, and gotten my glucose levels under control. We're not going to worry about my cholesterol levels yet. We're going to see what diet, exercise, and glucose monitoring do for that first.

I've got a massive headache right now, and have had it for a couple of hrs. at least. And I think the Metformin is getting to me, 'cause I've got nausea like you wouldn't believe. But I've got one more thing to write about before I get of my computer for the night.

J and I have been trying to lose weight together for a weeks now. (Ha! Other than my dance class, I've only exercised once.) Well, after I told her that I'm diabetic last night, we talked about losing weight and my new diet. (Hmm...It just hit me that I have to combine a gall bladder diet with a diabetic diet...) We've decided to give our joint effort a twist. We're each putting in a $10 gift card to anywhere - not necessarily food - at the beginning of the month. Whoever loses the most weight wins their own gift card AND the other one. So it's a better incentive to lose weight, because $$$ just doesn't cut it for me. I'm glad I came up with the gift card idea. So it all begins AGAIN May 1. We continue with the "plan" we're on now until then. On May 1, we weigh in and the competition begins.

Oh, and my diabetic husband? I somehow managed to talk him into joining us. So it's now a $30 pot of various gift cards.

More bad news...

2008-04-21T20:35:00.002-05:00

It's Monday, and so far my week hasn't started well at all. *sigh* It's actually been going on since this past Wednesday night. Here's the lowdown...

Wednesday night: Thought I had a zit on my waist; checked it out, and it was UGLY; had A try to pop it, but it wouldn't do much; he suggested I go to doc, because he thought it was a blood blister; R had a horrible night, with severe leg pain (a.k.a., growing pains); didn't get much sleep.

Thursday: Kept R home from school, because we woke up REALLY late; A made appointment for me to go to doc; took R to Inflatable Wonderland at the mall; had lunch on the run because was on my way to see doc; doc tried to pop it more, but by that time it was pretty much drained (yes, it was a zit - an INFECTED inverted zit); got Rx for antibiotic & put myself on schedule to have blood work done on Monday (she was testing me for diabetes and cholesterol levels); got Rx filled, and bought some OTC stuff for the big ugly on my waist; went back to jumping place at the mall; R made the poopie in her panties; came back home.

Friday: Hmm...can only remember gymnastics and spending the day with my twin sis...Oh, yeah! Found out oldest brother is having surgery to remove the mass in his neck area a week from today.

Monday: Starting to wake up at 6:30am every morning, so that I can get used to it and have R at school at a decent hour; so woke up with alarm; R woke up a few minutes later, and wouldn't go back to sleep; got her breakfast; got us dressed; went for lab work; came home; don't remember what I did besides make a grocery list; went grocery shopping at Wal-Mart and ate lunch at the McD's inside; came home & put groceries away; got a call from the doctor HERSELF telling me I'm diabetic; t-ball practice; home for dinner; read; phone call; computer.

So...Now I'm diabetic. I told my twin sis, and she just laughed. I told her it wasn't funny. I mean, we always knew it would eventually happen since it runs in my family. So it really wasn't a big surprise when I found out, and it was funny then. But now it's hitting me, and I'm a bit worried and stuff. I know I shouldn't be. I've had to deal with this with family members, but it's different when you have to deal with it in your own life.

With family members you can say, "Well, it's your life. So if you want to mess it up by not taking care of yourself, then go right ahead. I won't stop you."

But when it's YOU...You don't get to tell yourself that. I mean, you can. But what good will it do? It won't make you stop and think about things. Luckily, I'm not in a position to put myself through that question.

I've seen first hand what diabetes can do to you and your loved ones if you don't take care of yourself. It's not a pretty sight. Too many people end up getting hurt when things get worse. There's so much pain and anger when they eventually pass away from complications. Survivors keep asking themselves and others what they could have done differently, wondering if they should have and could have done more to intervene.

I have a wonderful husband, and a beautiful and talented and bright daughter. I have so much that I do now and want to do in the future. Not taking care of myself IS NOT an option.

I know I have to lose weight and take meds and eat better and exercise...The list goes on, obviously. But I can't do it alone. That's why I've got a great cheer section to help me out: my twin sis and my diabetic husband - the 2 people who have never let me down in anything that I pursue. There's always my mom and my older sister (both diabetics), and the memory of my grandmother who passed away from what boils down to diabetic complications. I just depend more on J and A. And now on R, for whatever the future may hold for her that I don't want to miss.

So you know what? I think it's going to be a GREAT week!

Just a day

2008-04-03T13:27:00.002-05:00

Yay! Just a day. Nothing to do for t-ball. *sigh* Don't get me wrong. I love being the team mom, even though it's a lot of work. But the team has some great parents that are willing to lend a hand whenever I need help.

BUT I NEEDED JUST A DAY!!!!!

And I got one. Yes! It was going to be a busy, sleepy day for me. But I decided to just take the day off. No t-ball ANYTHING. No dance. No gymnastics. No running around doing errands.

I had some stuff I wanted to do, in regards to cleaning and organizing - you know, that on-going project that started during Spring Break. But I was so tired, and I didn't think wielding a power tool while 1/2 asleep was a good idea. (I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.) I also wanted to TRY to tackle Clothing Mountain today. But that's not gonna happen, either. Maybe later, but I'm not holding my breath - so neither should you. *hahaha*

Today started out with me running around. But I quickly put an end to that, once I made a stop at an ink place. By then I was so irritated and frustrated and royally ticked off, that I just came home and immediately got on my computer. I've only moved to go downstairs to make myself some lunch. Other than that, I haven't moved from here. But I will be soon, because I have to pick R up from school. That's no big deal, though. 'Cause then I get to spend time with one of my favorite people.

J and I started something today that has to do with our weight. We're committing to put aside 20 minutes a day to walk. Any kind of walking as long as we don't stop to shop or something like that. Since A has a Gazelle, I can use that for 20 minutes. And I have a "Walk Away the Pounds" tape, so I can use that, too. And then, next month after we've gotten comfortable with "working out", we'll change up the exercise with something else. I want to add roller blading to my routine next month. But first I have to get some! *hahaha* Like I said, we're supposed to start today. So I'm guessing the walking starts today. Then we weigh in tomorrow morning and "work out" and do something else - but the last thing escapes me right now. I've got a spread sheet or whatever that J created. I just can't PRINT it right now, since my printer won't print. I need ink - FOR JUST ONE COLOR!!!!! Weird how it won't print without it.

I'm off for now. I want to play one more game of Mahjong Safari on Pogo before I have to leave.

My stress levels have skyrocketed

2008-04-01T22:38:00.002-05:00

Why did I have to have the "brilliant" idea of signing R up for t-ball? WHY? As if we weren't busy enough, I had to add t-ball to the mix. AND I'M THE TEAM MOM!!!!! OMG, WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO?

Here's a rundown of our schedule:

*Sunday: Mass at 10am; R has Sunday school from 11am-12:15pm; might have a t-ball game somewhere
*Monday: R and I now have to do the grocery shopping by ourselves (which is NOT a good thing, since I tend to buy what's NOT on the list); t-ball practice, 5:30pm-6:30p; dinner when we get home; shower for R, then bed
*Tuesday: school for R (starts at 8:30am, but I'm lucky if I get her there by 9:30am) until 3pm; my intermediate tap class, 7pm-7:45pm; wash dishes
*Wednesday: R's dance class, 11am-12pm; lunch somewhere; t-ball, 5:30pm-6:30pm; dinner when we get home, shower for R, then bed
*Thursday: school for R (starts at 8:30am, but I'm lucky if I get her there by 9:30am) until 3pm; I think A still has 1 more RCIA class this week (last one!);
*Friday: early lunch; gymnastics, 12:30pm-1:40pm; may or may not have t-ball practice, 5:30pm-6:30pm
*Saturday: might have a t-ball game somewhere

That's my week. A works all day, comes home around 3:30pm. While he gets to sit his bum in a chair and stress, I get to run around all day - EVERYDAY - hoping I can make it long enough to take a shower before bed. It wasn't like this before t-ball. I did okay, for the most part. Now, with being the team mom, I'm going nuts! There's so much to do! I had no idea it was going to be this crazy! If I'd known, I would NEVER have signed up for it. I don't know how others do it. Plus, this Monday, A and I will be taking our certification class downtown from 5:30pm-8:30pm. Yikes! I called my niece to ask if she could babysit, but she doesn't know yet. I hope she lets me know soon, because I'll need to line up someone else if she can't make it.

A's an assistant coach for R's team. The head coach is out of town as of today, and he left his t-ball book with A yesterday after practice. He's been reading it ever since. He was going to go to the hardware store after work today to get some stuff that was recommended in this neat little book, but I offered to pick up what he needed since I was out running errands anyway. Practice is going to be VERY different tomorrow. Our head coach is going to come back and see that practices have changed, but I think he'll like it.

I worked on my half of the master bathroom sink/counter this afternoon. I came home after running around, dropped everything in the kitchen, took out some stuff to wash, and put the groceries away. I was just going to leave everything else there. But then I thought, "This shelf is NEVER going to be put to use if I don't put it together now." So I put it together and tried to put it on the bathroom counter. But there was stuff in the way, so I ended up cleaning my half. Why just my half? Trust me, it needed it BADLY. All my rubber bands and scrunchies and barrettes were in a bucket, and I could never find them in there. After I got out these stackable boxes (for lack of a better description) that I FINALLY washed yesterday, I put all my makeup and hair stuff in them (there were 3 large ones, and 1 small one). I cleaned up the counter and sink with the GreenWorks Natural Bathroom cleaner (LOVE THE STUFF!!!!!), sorted out my stuff, put the boxes by the outlet, put the shelf above the faucet, and WOW!!!!! It opened up the area A LOT. It even seems like I got rid of something that was on the floor there by my half, but there was never anything there. I was so proud of myself.

After that, I threw the trash out outside. Then I was about to settle down to rest (it being 1pm by this time, and I'd been on the go without stopping since 7:30am) when I noticed all the new t-ball stuff on the kitchen floor. *sigh* I had to label everything and sort it out. That took another 30 minutes. By then, I just HAD to rest, so I grabbed my soda and my book and sat in my NEW chair. I got it for me and Reyna over spring break, while she was with my in-laws. My other one broke. *sniffle, sniffle*

One of the things I did today was go to Hobby Lobby to get some ribbon for pony o's. I got the blue ribbon matched to R's hat. Not the same blue, but it was the closest I could get. I also got some cool printed ribbon. One says "Batter Up!" The other says, "Take me out to the ballgame." I got some printed sheer ribbon, too. I couldn't pass them up, they were so pretty. I don't need more ribbon, but THEY WERE PRETTY! I wanted more, but I had to limit myself. I'm glad I did. Even though there was some awesome fabric that I wanted, and ribbon to match, and the Simplicity patterns were on sale for $1.99. All I got was the ribbon, and I'm super proud of myself. I can't usually walk out of that store with just what I went in for. *lol*

Now I'm just here, waiting for my hair to dry. I don't know how long ago I got out of my shower, but I think it's time to brush and braid my hair. I want to get in bed soon. I'm hurting badly right now, and moving slowly (except for my fingers). My ears are starting to hurt, too. That's not a good sign. *sigh* I CAN'T GET SICK RIGHT NOW!!!!! I JUST CAN'T!!!!!

Sometimes I hate my family!!!!!

2008-03-23T20:18:00.003-05:00

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!!!!! Hope you all had a good time, and didn't overeat!

Now, on to my blog...

So my in-laws came down yesterday for my hubby's "conversion" into the Catholic Church from the Lutheran faith. They stayed till shortly after lunch today. It was great, and I'm now glad that A chose me to be his sponsor. I was happy, too, that his parents, my mom, and one of my brothers went to the Easter Vigil mass to witness this momentous occasion for us. I was even MORE glad that my in-laws got here safely with my baby, and I was SO FREAKIN' HAPPY that she was back home with us.

Well, today, my niece and my mom and my brothers were supposed to come for an Easter Egg hunt that my daughter asked for. I'd bought lots of candy and plastic eggs for this. Last night, they all said they were coming today for the hunt. Guess what? ONLY ONE OF MY BROTHERS SHOWED UP!!!!! ONE!!!!! No one else bothered to call and say that they weren't coming after all. I called my niece around 1pm to ask where she was. She said she didn't think she was gonna come after all because she had to finish her paper that's due tomorrow. Understandable. No biggie. After that, I kept waiting and waiting. My oldest brother was already there, waiting for my mom, too. After about an hr. of me falling asleep in my chair, I finally asked him to call our mom and find out when she was going to get here. Turns out she wasn't going to come after all, and neither was my other brother. Did ANYONE bother to call and notify me? NO!!!!! I'm SO PISSED about that.

But, even though my family pissed me off, the ONE person who showed up made it fun for my daughter. And I'm glad about that. I hid all but 4 eggs, and I didn't even bother hiding the candy. What was the point, since it was really for the adults? (And they didn't act like adults today, not bothering to call me.) So, long story short: I'm glad that she had a great time, anyway, and that my brother made it fun for her - and me! I had a blast taking pictures of the 2 of them. I just kept snapping away on the camera, watching them have fun and race for the eggs. Oh, and I got to give this same brother his birthday present: a Superman beach towel. I think it's gonna go in his Superman shrine, but he says he's gonna use it.

Next year? They better come or call me to say they're not coming. That was just plain RUDE on their parts. Or maybe we'll just go to my in-laws. I don't know. We'll see.

Spring Break and Other Stuff

2008-03-13T12:18:00.004-05:00

Well, Spring Break is next week. Am I looking forward to it? Not really. Why not? Because my daughter will be with my in-laws starting Wednesday afternoon. I don't like being separated from her for too long. Well, let me rephrase that. I don't like her staying the night - or several nights - with others. I don't like it AT ALL!!!!! But that's what's going to happen. *sigh* Until I have to think about it and get her packed and ready to go, I'm trying to keep my mind on OTHER things. Like...

1. CLEANING!!!!! I need to clean the house. Those same in-laws will be bring my baby back next weekend sometime - not sure when - and they'll be staying here for Easter. A's "conversion" into the Catholic Church is next Saturday, and they'll be here for that. So...I NEED TO CLEAN!!!!! I just don't want to. Too much to do, not enough time. I *WOULD HAVE* had enough time if I hadn't been surfing the web, watching TV, playing on my DS, reading, or playing free MMORPG on the web. *sigh* My sister has Spring Break next week, too. Maybe she can help me out some. And if she's reading this, I don't mean the major cleaning. Just washing, cleaning out the closets and dressers, weeding out toys, and helping me out with my website (taking pics, typing/writing up descriptions, uploading the pics, making new stuff...). And on that note...

2. MY WEBSITE!!!!! It SERIOUSLY needs to be updated. Well, actually, I need to install the new shopping cart! I've had it for a few months at least, and I haven't installed it yet. Just been playing around with it, trying to get used to it. I was thinking about changing my host to ShopPro, or whatever that is, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to keep the same URL that I have now. I have a couple of hundred business cards that have this URL. So I'm not sure that I'm willing to give that up. Yet. Anyway, I need to update the site, create new items, list them, photograph them, and all that good stuff. But it takes A LOT of time. Maybe my sister can take some stuff home with her to photograph at her house. Or bring her camera and we can get all the picture stuff done in about half the time! Yay! I like that idea. Then I'll be able to use the car magnets I ordered, and if she wants the other one she can have it. I just don't want to put the magnets on until the website's working.

3. FINISH THE 1st PHASE OF MY STUDIO SET-UP!!!!! Yep! That's right! I've got my own "studio". It's really one of the guest rooms, but I need my own space for all my crafts. A's going bananas with all my ribbon, fabric, yarn, and bath stuff all over the house. And to tell you the truth, I'm going bonkers every time I have to look in the entire house for what I need. Hopefully R won't take off with my supplies, but she usually does. That's okay. I like for her to try. The studio will have one of our old TVs in there, plus a VCR. Yeah, I know: ancient times. *lol* But we can always bring the upstairs DVD player to the studio if she wants to watch a DVD. And I think that the TV will need to be replaced soon, if it's the one that I think the color is all out of whack. I'll worry about that when the time comes. I had started to set it up, sometime in January. But then we all started getting sick, so that got put on hold. It's now March, and it looks like we're all starting to feel better. Yay! Stupid allergies...

4. CLEAN OUT MY TRUCK!!!!! Welcome to the world of Motherhood. *lol* R and I practically LIVE in my truck. And I get ticked at A when he takes EVERYTHING out!!!!! I do! Ask him! But it's getting impossible for R to get in and out of the darn thing, because a lot of her toys and stuff are in there: on the seats and on the floor. Plus our jackets/coats. And pillows. And artwork. And I have no idea what else is in there. So it all needs to be cleaned out and sorted.

5. WASH MY TRUCK!!!!! It WAS clean. Then it rained. *sigh* I had planned on putting a TinkerBell decal on it that one of my brothers gave me, but never got around to it. Always ran out of time or forgot. Then it rained, my windows got dirty, and now I can't put the decal on until it's washed again.

6. LAY OUT PEBBLE PATH!!!!! My mom had done something with pea pebbles to an area in front of her house, and I had mentioned to my sister that I wanted to do something like that to the sides of my driveway so that people wouldn't be stepping into wet grass when it rained. She apparently told my mom, and the next thing I knew my mom was me the stuff to do that. Yay! That was in October. It's now March. Hmm...Way overdue, don't you think? *lol* I better let my mom know. She said she'd help.

And last, but certainly not least...THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL!!!!!...

7. SPEND TIME WITH MY DAUGHTER!!!!! Did you all think I forgot that? Nope! Not sure what we'll do in the little amount of time we'll have together before she leaves, but I know I want to take her to the movies to see "Horton Hears a Who". Maybe I'll take her to the Japanese Tea Garden. I've always wanted to go there. I thought about taking her to the zoo, but I *KNOW* it's going to be packed. Not to worry, though. I'll come up with something. I have a bunch of art stuff that I printed off the Nick, Jr. website for us to do. And I know she'll help for a bit with the pea pebbles and bath items production. And if I wash the truck at home, she'll help with that. She LOVES to wash vehicles.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This summer is going to be R's last summer at her current school. It's getting too expensive to keep her there. And it's a somewhat long drive. She'll be starting at a Catholic school close to home, at our church. I hate to move her, but she'd have been moved anyway in a few years. Her current school only goes through 3rd grade. It's a sad thing, since she's been there since she was about 9 mths. old. But the drive...I'm ALWAYS out there, by her school, and it's just too much for me now. Not complaining about it. Just stating a fact.

Well, I must end this here. I know there were other things I wanted to blog about. But I can't remember what they were, and I have to go pick up the Princess from school. Then I've got to start washing towels when we get back. *sigh* I hate washing towels.

Sick, sick, sick!!!!!

2008-02-22T18:03:00.004-06:00

Ugh! I don't think I can take it anymore!

A is sick with the flu. He keeps getting the chills and fevers. I took him to the doctor yesterday, and he got Tamiflu. It seems like it just made things worse for him. He DID look better today, and spent more time out of bed. But he's back in bed now, with a fever and the chills. *sigh*

I had to take R to the pediatrician on Wed., so she stayed home from dance class. She'd been coughing and coughing and coughing, and she threw up because of that. I took her in to be seen, and it turns out it's severe allergies. So now we have to add Nazonex and a humidifier, on top of the air purifier and Zyrtec. Her cough sounds wet now, and I'm still not sure if she's coughing more, less, or the same. And her nose is messy now. She keeps coughing in my face, too. Literally! So now I've got a sore throat and cough, as well as a headache that just won't go away.

I'M GOING NUTS!!!!!

Okay. Sorry about that. Just haven't gotten much rest or "Me" time lately. I'm so tired now.

I finally bought a wood burning tool for cutting and heat sealing ribbon. I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet, though. I'll try it out and practice when I have more free time. All I can do right now is just LOOK at my ribbon, make some mental designs. Now I'm looking into getting a hot fix tool, to jazz up some of my bows and clothes. I haven't even had time to make a tutu!!!!! Or organize/set up my studio!!!!!

On the upside, I've been spending a lot of time with R. She's enjoying it, and I must say that I am, too. Last night, I taught her how to dip strawberries in chocolate fruit dip. There was such a mess afterwards, but we both had so much fun! She's always had just plain strawberries, but I thought she could use a treat this week. Boy, was I right. I had a treat, too.

I could REALLY use some coffee right now, but I don't think it's such a good idea with my throat the way it is. *sigh* I need to stay awake! I've been drinking water and tea for a couple of days now, but I had a couple of sodas today while R was at gymnastics. Those lasted me till shortly after we got home. I've been fighting sleep since, and it's becoming a losing battle.

I've been thinking about leaving eBay for a while, now. These new price "reductions" have me REALLY trying to make up my mind now. Plus, some idiot stole copyrighted eBooks from a friend of mine and some others and resold them. He was busted, but it was such a disappointment to the original writers and their friends. They didn't get any protection from eBay at all, no compensation. And eBay took FOREVER to do anything about it! On 1 hand, I don't want to leave because I'm part of a couple of great design groups. On the other, I can't stand the fee increase (yes, that's what those price "reductions" are) or how little they care for their own customers/clients.

I've set up shop at WinkElf and Etsy. You can see at the right where to go and who to look for. I don't have anything listed at WinkElf yet, but I've got a couple of Christmas bows at Etsy. Like I said, I haven't had time to make anything. I've also got a website of my own, but it's still under construction. I haven't installed the shopping cart. But I'm thinking of switching to a different host, so I don't want to work on it too much.

I'm trying to find the time to write a couple of eBooks, and work on the projects for those. I'm not going to say what they are about. I have all the ideas in my head, and I've experimented with a couple of things for one of them. I have no idea where to go to write and publish them. I'm lost on that part. I need to contact someone at a favorite website of mine to find out about this. But if my readers know anything about this, please feel free to let me know! I thank you in advance!

Whoops!

2008-02-11T22:09:00.000-06:00

Below you will find an interesting post - if you don't know about what's going on already. What I *FORGOT* to add in the post was that I've asked all my boutique and hair bow designer friends to list their name and website/other auction store site so that they'll ALSO get some business. A lot of us are leaving eBay altogether because of a lot of crap that's been going on. I'm soon to be one of them. PLEASE support us, and buy from me and from my friends! We have to start our businesses all over again! Thanks!

Join the eBay Boycott, Feb. 18-25!!!!!

2008-02-11T21:01:00.000-06:00

This is direct from my bow making group. It's been making the rounds everywhere!

*********************************

This post is a really serious topic about Ebay. I'm posting this
everywhere I know how to get the word out. If you're not in a good mood,
come back to it later.

I'm not sure if everyone is aware of this, but Ebay is making drastic
changes for people who sell and buy on Ebay. If one looks at it from the
surface, the changes don't seem too bad. But if you look a little
deeper, they're really very scarey.

Many sellers and buyers are going to be having a strike on February 11th
through February 25 that includes no buying, no listing, no selling, no
auctions on those days. If possible, if you are an Ebay buyer and
seller, I would really appreciate it if you could honor those dates, for
nothing else, then on MY behalf because the changes have the possibility
to really hurt me as a seller.

Right now, the Ebay marketing machine is billing these changes as "fee
reductions" and that is what the media initally reported because they
way the changes were announced were quite deceptive. But, for those of
you who aren't really super active on Ebay and are wondering what all
the changes entail, a summary of them follows.

First, they are reducing the listing fee by 5 cents and making Gallery
free. On the surface this looks great and this is how they are marketing
the change - as a "fee reduction". However, if you read the fine print
you'll find that they are slyly raising Final Value Fees (The fee the
seller pays when the item sells at auction) by as much as 33% to 66% for
sme sellers. The percentage of increase differs by seller because all
sellers sell items with different values and the Final Value Fee is
based on the dollar amount of the item. So we save a nickel to list an
item, but pay 33% more after the auction is over. This first part of the
changes, while quite disgusting, IS bearable.

Second, they are removing the ability for sellers to leave feedback for
buyers. Now, Ebay has always been successful on the basis of both buyer
and seller being able to rate each other based on the success of a
single transaction. They are removing this for sellers. This is very
scarey for the seller population because as sellers, we already are held
hostage by what we call "Feedback Extortionist Buyers". These are the
buyers that buy something in an auction and then send an email that says
"You send me the item free or I will leave you a negative and ruin your
Ebay reputation!" . While people like this are quite few and far between,
they do exist. I've got over 792 transactions nd I've come across 4
difficult buyers who no matter what I couldn't please them. I managed to
scrape by without a negative because they were booted from Ebay, but the
point of the matter is that while most buyers are wonderful, these
psycho types of buyers DO exist. Now with this new feedback system, ONE
rogue buyer (and even my selling competition) could ruin my reputation
very easily. Even if I provided a 100% perfect transaction and the item
was received the very same day and all was perfect with the world, that
one person could ruin me if they wanted to. All they would need to do is
buy 5 or 10 items from me and leave five feedbacks separately - because
each and every negative will count against the seller. This would mean
the end of my store and my business on Ebay over one rogue buyer. Why?
Read the next section.

Third, as if one and two weren't bad enough, if a seller has below a 95%
satisfaction rating on Ebay, Ebay will not display your auctions in the
search engine. For example, if I sell20 items one month and 1 of them
has a neutral or negative left for it by a buyer (deserved or not), I
can no longer list auctions on Ebay and have them be seen in the search
engine. Yes, thats right. I can list, Ebay will take my money, but all
of my auctions will be on page 857 of the listing and never be seen by
any buyers. So once I get one negative, it is virtually impossible to
recover from that by selling additional items becuase non of my items
will be seen to be purchased by another buyer later. Its a no win
situation for a seller.

Fourth, as if all of this wasn't the most horrific thing you've ever
heard, they're making changes to Pay Pal - which is the method most
people use to accept payment over Ebay. From now on, if you have less
than 100 feedback and you sell an item Pay Pal will not give you your
money for 21 (TWENTY ONE DAYS!). Yes, you read that right. Say, Susie
sells a 50 dollar item and the buyer pays through Pay Pal. Susie is then
forced to ship the item FREE without any paymen. After 21 days has
passed, THEN Pay Pal will forward Susie her money. This folks is just
horrible. Do you know anywhere else on the planet where you can demand
that someone selling you an item give you the item FREE and ship it to
you FREE while you hold on to your money for 21 entire days? I sure
don't. On top of this "under 100 feedback" thing, again if I have less
than a 95% rating or get one negative or get one neutral - again - Pay
Pal will hold my money for 21 days. Imagine how must interest Pay Pal
and Ebay will accumulate on billions of dollars being held in 21 day
incriments - yet another disguesting way for them to squeeze MORE money
out of the system.

Fifth, they instituted "Seller Rewards". Essentially, if you meet
certain criteria as a seller you can earn 15% credit on your account.
The catch is that you have to sell 1,000 dollars or more on your account
every month and have to have a 4.8 rating on all your "stars". I feel
that these guidelines are impossible to reach and that they wer designed
to be impossible to reach on purpose so that Ebay, yet again, would not
have to actually pay out the discounts. To give you an example of how
hard these are to reach, out of Ebay's top 500 Powersellers (These
people are the creme of the crop on Ebay and make lilke $100,000 a month
on Ebay)...anyway out of tje top 500 of them, only SEVEN qualify for the
15% discount. SEVEN.

And finally, when all these changes were announced, the Ebay sellers
went ballistic. The response from Ebay management? We were told that our
complaints and nager and frustration and tears were - and I quote -
"NOISE!". Yes, we are nothing but "noise" to the Ebay management, yet
they are making million dollar salaries off of us.

I know I am so mad, myself. I have 100% positive feedback and I've
completed almost 800 transactions. I'm not a bad seller and I bend over
backwards to make a buyer happy. I have a very good record. But ALL THAT
HARD WORK and ONE rogue person could ruin it for me. Or even someone who
comptes against me can very easily get a new nick, by stuff from me,
leave negs - and take my listings right out the search engine!!). It's
not fair at all. Not to mention, if somehow I do screw up or get a rogue
buyer, Pay Pal won't even let me have my money for 21 days. When you do
this type of work full time, that is a terrifying thought.

So I'm here to beg you guys, if possible, and even if you don't
understand all the ins and outs of Ebay and what a seller has to go
through to sell on Ebay - PLEASE RESPECT THE STRIKE we are organizing.
Please! Please don't buy or sell on Ebay from Feb 18th through Feb 25th.
Please tell your friends and family members to do the same. We know that
not everyone can respect it - some people make ends meet by selling on
Ebay. But for those of you who can, us sellers would very much
appreciate it if you could respect the strike on those days.

Also - if you are an Ebay seller - and you are angry like the rest of
us, CNN and FORBES is quite interested in how we fee. Quite a few
people, including myself have flocked to CNN MONEY to get their
attention. So far, the comments and anger and speaking out are actually
working - the media is starting to pay attention and Ebay has stepped up
their marketing tactics. We feel that they're getting a little worried
over all the outrage.

Just in case you think it is not real, here is a link from ebay itself:
http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/overview/index.html

Here is their official press release (it sounds deceptively good):
http://news.ebay.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=290446

An article from BBC:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7228460.stm

There is s pledge over on the ebay forums. No buying or selling!!
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000636290&start=0

Ebay thinks the strike wont affect them at all, but we will see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_ZFThSM6Rk&NR=1

******************************************

PLEASE support us boutique designers, and BOYCOTT eBay Feb. 18-25.

Take a stand, and be heard!

Shop at:
*www.winkelf.com (Look for JaysTwin - me! - but I don't have anything listed yet.)
*www.etsy.com (Take the handmade pledge! Look for jaystwin - me!)
*www.mommyauctions.com
*www.sewcutebags.com
*www.spoiled-rotten-girls.com
*www.provisplace.com (Not quite working yet, but this is my website.)

Disney World

2008-01-08T21:02:00.000-06:00

So I've been talking to Andy about some ladies in my bow makers group going to Disney World last month. We've been once before, just the two of us. That was December 1999. We haven't been since. Past time, don't you think?

Well, tonight at dinner we were talking about it again. I don't know how it came up. Well, I don't REMEMBER how it came - there's a difference. Oh! Never mind! We were talking about my niece's bags of stuff that she left here yesterday. She's on a skiing trip through her school for the week - left early this morning. R asked where she had gone, and A said she went someplace where there's lots of snow. We were supposed to go skiing ourselves this month, but we opted for our annual vacation at the beach last summer instead (less expensive). Anyway!!!!! She said she wanted to go to the snow place. And A said okay, we'll go next year. Then I told her that we could go to the snow place or we could go to Disney World. She still wanted snow. Then I told them both that we could eat with Mickey, Minnie, Cinderella, and others. They both changed their minds real quick! A did because it would be a great experience for her, and he knows how much she loves Mickey and Minnie.

We told R that we've gone once before, and we loved it. Totally left out the part where A got sick from the stomach flu and we missed a day at the parks. He also told her that I've got a bunch of pictures from when we went, and asked if she wanted to see them. She got excited and wanted to see them right then. However, A had to find them in the storage shed, so we convinced R to take a bath while he did that. Before her bath, though, I remembered having sent off for a Disney World vacation planning kit a few years ago. I told her about it, and I went and looked for it. I found it, and told her we could watch it after her bath when her daddy was done with the dishes.

So, a quick bath it was. Then we came down and looked at the booklets that were in kit while A cleaned up the kitchen. Then A told us about having brought in the pictures, so we put the booklets away and went through the pictures. She wanted them all, so it's a good thing I always got doubles back then. (She collects pictures.) Finally A was done in the kitchen and we popped in the video to watch. Oh, my!!!!! R was in heaven!!!!! She saw the part where we can do a character dining experience, and she asked if we could do that and if she could talk to Cinderella for a while. *lol* And she said she wanted to stay at one of the resorts. Yikes! Last time we looked, they were freakin' expensive!!!!! She was enthralled with the video. At one point she told me that she thought we'd have to watch it again tomorrow. *lol*

After it was over, I told A what R said about wanting to stay at one of the resorts. He didn't think it was in the budget, but I told him I got 2 websites from my bow makers group that had savings and stuff. So I got on the laptop and looked. Right now, I'm waiting for a quote from a site called Small World Vacations, Inc.: www.WDWVacations.com. A found that site through www.mousesavers.com. I forget who the other one is, sorry. I got a quote from the Disney site already, a little over $1,500 for 7 days. There were some things through the Disney site that I couldn't get for the dates we're planning on going, so I'm hoping that the travel agents will be able to include them. It might be more, though, because I added the Dining Deluxe package (or whatever it's called). You get 3 meals and 2 snacks a day per person, and one of those meals can be redeemed for a character dining experience. Not sure if we want to do breakfast or dinner for the character dining. Probably breakfast, though, because R will be too tired from her long day at the park.

None of this, however, includes air fare. *gulp* I *HATE* flying. I avoid it at all costs. But it would be more convenient to fly than to drive. It'll take about 3 days to get there if we drive, whereas it'll take at least 4.5 hrs. to get there if we fly. With a 4 yr. old, which do you think we'll choose? Plus, she wants to fly. *double gulp* It'll be her first plane trip. A figured it would be about $1,000 round trip for the 3 of us. Ack! We'll be having to save almost $400/mth. for this trip, not including the $$$ for extra food and souvenirs and such. I've already planned on PUSHING my businesses, to try to come up with some extra pocket money for the trip and for buying stuff that we need. Maybe, if I work really hard at it, I can save $100 a paycheck of the $200 I get for clothes and such. *triple gulp* But if it helps with expenses, I have to at least try.

So...Anyone need homemade: hairbows, soaps, lotions, shower gels/bath bubbles, bath salts, and/or milk baths? Or a tutu? I sell them!!!!! I've got a website, but it's not working properly at the moment. I'm going to spend more time on it, and taking pics of what I have and such. I'm also an independent consultant for The Body Shop at Home. New catalogs are coming out the 8th, so I'll be ordering some then.

Till next time!!!!!

Hair Bows and Other Things

2007-10-09T12:17:00.000-05:00

Well, another day, another month. We've certainly been keeping busy around here! I thought that as our daughter got older, I'd have a little more free time to sew or whatever. Silly me! That's not the case. If anything, she keeps me busier as she gets older! We're constantly having to do the voices of her imaginary friends and her dolls. She's in dance and gymnastics. She goes to CCD (it's now Religious Education), and she's in Pre-K3 2 days a week. So somewhere in all of that, I have to find some time to make hair bows and sew and run errands and do the other million and 1 things I have or need to do.

I've been a member of a yahoo group for hair bow makers. It's actually really nice, the ladies are so friendly and helpful. We have a monthly ribbon and tulle buy. I don't buy every month, though. When I do order from the group leader, I always have to watch what I spend. If it were up to me, I'd order 1 of each color and size. *lol* My first buy, I only ordered 1 spool of emerald green ribbon in 3/8 in. It just sat there for the longest time. Then one of my brothers and I cleaned the house and organized my craft stuff, and I couldn't find it. But I found out just how much ribbon I'd collected! I eventually found that spool. When I saw how much ribbon I had, I decided I had to gather what little courage I had and just MAKE the darn hair bows. I mean, I'd bought instructions off eBay, so what was I waiting for? Courage doesn't grow on trees, after all. So, I started out by making clippies. I love making clippies. No bows, just embellishments. So there went some ribbon. Then I went upstairs with ribbon and other tools in hand, and looked up the instructions I'd bought. After that, I started practicing on the ugly ribbon I bought a while back. Don't know why I bought it, it's so ugly. But it came in handy for practicing! I'm pretty good at making the basic bow. I *think* I can make a boutique bow, but I can't remember. I'm not good at anything else, but I don't have time right now to practice, either.

I'm a member of a Hair Bow of the Month Club. Every month, Wende from Maddy Jeans Closet (click on title or something up there to get to her site) has a new kit mailed out to us that belong to the club. My 1st month was Back to School. It's still sitting there, because I got caught up with life. I haven't worked on those, so they'll have to wait till next year. Then came critters and wraps. Still sitting there, but I hope to get those done next week. This time, for Oct., we're getting Halloween! It should be in the mail soon, if it hasn't already come. I can't wait to see what she's sent! I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!!!

I've started pattern sewing now. I bought a pattern for a dress for my daughter over the summer, but I didn't buy any fabric for it. I didn't want to make the dress, because I'd never sewn anything from a pattern before. Then I started looking through patterns for plus sizes, and I found some I liked. And some for my daughter, a couple for my niece. Unfortunately, Hobby Lobby doesn't sell Kwik Sew patterns, so I'd have to drive a bit to get them. No biggie. Just don't have the time or money right now. Anyway, while my daughter and I were looking at patterns at HL (she calls it reading), I found some plus size ones I liked. So I got one that had 6 patterns in it, and chose some fabric for the jumper dress. I washed the fabric that same day, but that was it. I finally ironed the fabric and pattern, and pinned the pattern to the fabric. But I was getting so confused and wanted to cry, that I gave up. It wasn't until later that same night when I talked to my older sister (who was the one to teach me how to sew) that I finally got some translations and comfort. I finished pinning the pattern after that, thanks to her. I started to cut, too, but then my carpal tunel syndrome started to flare up so I had to quit. I should actually be cutting right now, but I thought I should update my blog first. (Can you tell I'm procrastinating?) I'll get to the cutting in a bit. Hopefully I can have it all cut by the time I go pick up my daughter from school.

Andy got a new laptop. That's what I'm typing this blog on right now. I didn't want to turn my computer on upstairs, due to several gaming temptations. ; ) So I've got the laptop going, and I'm updating from my dining room. I love his laptop. It's nice, the monitor or viewing screen or whatever is called is big/wide. And it's faster than my very old laptop. My laptop is practically an antique!

I just finished making some hair bows for Halloween for 3 little girls: a set for my daughter, a set for one of her friends in dance class, and 1 bow for her friend's baby sister. Hey, I've got tons of ribbon I need to use! Normally I'd sell them, but I've got too much Halloween ribbon that I want to get rid of. I've got some other ones that I've made. I tried selling them on eBay, but there were no takers. My boys bow tie for Halloween sold, though! That was a highlight for me.

I've got an account on www.etsy.com. My ID is jaystwin. I've only got 1 thing listed right now, a Halloween French barrette. It's one of the ones I listed on eBay but didn't sell. It's a pretty big bow, 5 in. long. Check it out! It's one of my crafting pride and joys. I worked on it for a week! (The ribbons were hard to work with once fused.)

Well, that's all for this round. Hope y'all are having a great week!

Good grief!

2007-03-29T22:53:00.000-05:00

Okay. I'm HORRIBLE about keeping this blog up. I've just been ssssssssssssssssooooooooooooooooooo busy for the past several months. And the birthdays started on Feb. 20, so I've been going insane with that. We've had a birthday every week! As a matter of fact, we're taking Rey to a birthday party for one of her classmates on Saturday. *sigh* I don't see an end in sight, though I KNOW there's one. *lol*

I joined curves either in Nov. or Dec. Not very good at going, either. Too busy. But I try to make it when I can. Right now, I'm trying to lose at least 3 lbs. by Mother's Day. I'm being realistic. Rey and I have a big dance recital in May. Yes, BOTH of us! She's taking ballet - or pre-dance - and I'm taking adult beginning tap. I LOVE IT!!!!! It's hard on the legs and feet, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Unfortunately, we do some bouncing/hopping, so my stomach...Well, I'll spare you the gory details. Anyway, it's because of my stomach and the recital that I want to lose at least 3 lbs. It's not a lot to you, but to me, it's the world! I think I'll keep my goals to 3 lbs. at a time. That way I won't get discouraged if I don't lose more than that.

Back to Curves...I like it. I don't feel self-conscious when I go. And it's fun! It really is. The exercise doesn't feel like a chore, and you don't feel like everyone's looking at you. I'm glad I joined. I just feel bad that we're spending all that money every month for me to be a member, but I don't go often. I'm trying harder now, though.

Rey and I are having...issues. She's stubborn, just like me. Okay, I'll be honest: she's EXACTLY like me! IT'S SO DARN ANNOYING!!!!! We're constantly butting heads, and one or both of us comes out crying. I'm trying to change how things are done. I have yet to come up with new rules and punishments, but I'm thinking of some. She's also going to have more chores to do. I know she's only 3 yrs. old, but she needs to keep busy. She's refusing her naps while she's at home, and fighting bed time. She keeps the house a mess, and I don't get after her about it. I don't clean up after her, either. Well, let me re-phrase that: I clean up after her to a point. She's also saying a lot of hurtful things to us, and acting out a lot. I don't know where all this is coming from. But it's got to stop. Like I said, I'm working on rules, punishments, and chores. But I'm also working on getting up early, even if it means going to bed super early, so that I can wake her up if she's still asleep at 8 AM. No more morning showers for me. That way, I can get up and go. I'm going to try to get her to school by 8:30 AM, even if I have to wake up when Andy leaves for work at 5:30 AM!!!!! I'm going to keep her busy, and limit TV time. We're going to go outside more, too. No more staying inside all day. If I keep us busy, maybe I'll stop shopping so much. AND I'll be paying more attention to her. I'm hoping that by doing all this, she'll stop acting out so much and we'll stop butting heads so much.

Andy had to work a lot of overtime recently. Well, he didn't HAVE to. But it was strongly encouraged. *lol* It was a bit stressful, but I managed. The world didn't fall apart. *whew* But during that, we learned I'm allergic to bee stings!!!!! THAT was scary. Good thing I kept my head through it all, and didn't panic. I now have to carry an EpiPen with me at all times, and I wear a medical alert bracelet. I even have to take the Pen with me when I go out back. I can't even walk to the mailboxes with out the Pen! It's a drag, but I know that if I ever get stung again my reaction will be much worse. So I TRY not to leave the darn thing behind.

Still sewing a lot. And now crocheting, too. I've made 2 crocheted scarves. I'm working on a 3rd, and a blanket for Rey. I've been making a lot of t-shirt dresses for Rey, and I made curtains for her room. Plus tons of pillows. I even made a quilted tote bag from 4x4 ballerina print fabric squares, and a quilted Thanksgiving themed table runner from fabric squares. Rey helped with the table runner, so there's no pattern to it. There was. *lol* I've got a bunch of fabric, and I keep adding to it. Yarn, too. It's driving Andy insane! *lol* But he loves that I'm able to make stuff for us, instead of having to buy it and worrying about the quality.

I've been bidding on stuff on eBay like crazy these past few days. I need to stop! I've got this urge to buy dance wear for my tap class. I can't find much plus sized stuff for dancing, so when I do, I bid on it or buy it. It's insane! Then I made the horrible mistake of looking ON THE WEB for plus sized dance wear. OMG!!!!! I found quite a few sites, so if I keep up taking tap, I'll know where to go for my stuff. Then, once I've lost enough weight, I can FINALLY buy my stuff from the shops.

I've been thinking a lot about selling stuff, like Pampered Chef or Body Shop. Those are the 2 main ones I'm looking at right now. I could use the money I make from commissions to buy stuff for myself and/or Rey, and we'd put the money that we're saving from Andy's paycheck into savings - because I wouldn't be spending it anymore. He was against me selling stuff at first, because he thought I'd be going up to people and try to sell them stuff - kind of like door to door. But I quickly corrected him on that, and he's okay with it. He says he'd prefer I got a real job if I wanted the extra money, but I told him that if that happened then we'd have to put Rey in school full time. I wasn't going to do that. This way - my way - I'd still be staying home with Rey, and she could still go to school twice a week. AND I could keep up with tap! I have to admit, it's a bit expensive with 2 of us taking dance classes - what with recital fees, costumes, leotards (for her), tights (for her), shoes (for her, since she's little), skirts, monthly tuition fees...*whew* PLUS she's taking gymnastics through her school, so we have THAT tuition fee, AND the monthly tuition for her school. Not to mention GAS!!!!! It all adds up...

I guess I'll end here. My update has turned into quite a novel. Keep moving!

*hugs*

Just testing this out...

2006-07-04T23:17:00.000-05:00

Another month, another day, another store...

2006-07-03T23:50:00.000-05:00

Well, here it is...July...*sigh* Already, summer vacation has gone by so fast. I'm not ready for the school year to start. Wait! What am I saying? My baby's in daycare 2 days a week, so it doesn't matter. *lol*

I started an eBay store. It's called "Provi's Place". The link is above, just click on the title of the post. Check it out. Browse. Buy something. Browse some more. BUY SOMETHING. There's not much in the store right now. I want to wait a bit before I add more. I don't want to have a huge eBay fee to pay at the end of the month, and not have sold anything. Know what I mean? I'm selling eBooks in my new store, as well as some of my homemade pampering products. I'm hoping I'll get some business soon. I just set the store up last night, and I've been waiting IMPATIENTLY for someone to buy something. *lol*

We could really use the money here. I hate that I don't "contribute" anything to help with the bills, since I just stay at home all day and care for my little girl. No, I'm not wasting my college education. I'm doing what I want to do, and I'm doing what I need to do. Yes, money's tight, but I'm happy to be at home. I wouldn't have it any other way. With my business, I can contribute a very small amount to the bills. Andy's greatful, and I get a good feeling when I hand over what little money I can spare. Unfortunately, I've only been able to do that once. *sigh* I had to "take out a loan", but I'm happy to say that it's paid off in full. Yay!!!!! *happy dance*

On another note...I now have a sewing machine I can use. Well, make that 2 sewing machines. One's an antique that was my mom's - but no one remembers how to use the darn thing. I've always wanted to sew, but no one really had the patience to teach me. My older sister taught me the basics, and let me tell you: it's been practically non-stop sewing ever since. I just can't stop! I LOVE IT!!!!! I've already made a patchwork tablecloth and a "tent" for my daughter. I've got another "tent" and some curtains for my daughter's room lined up, as well as binding a quilt (?) and sewing some ribbon to some fleece blankets. Oh, and another patchwork tablecloth - though that material may be turned into placemats instead. Oh, and a table runner for my mom. Oh, my goodness! I can't wait! Now I just need the TIME to do all this. Between the 2 stores and my little girl, I don't have much time to sew or do anything else. I try, though. Whenever I get some free time, you can usually find me at the machine sewing away.

My little girl's got her very first UTI. *sigh* It's been horrible. Not only that, but she's constipated again: I forgot to give her her "poopie medicine" twice last week. *sigh* So we're dealing with 2 issues right now. Actually, her UTI is much better. But we have to keep an eye out for a relapse because of the constipation. (She has chronic constipation, and is regularly being seen for this.) We also have to lay down with her so that she'll fall asleep. And even then, we're not guaranteed that she'll sleep in her bed all night. Most nights, she'll wake up screaming for us and she ends up in bed with us. Whereas it used to be Andy who was hanging on to the edge of the bed for dear life, it's now me who's hanging on. *sigh* My poor back can't take it anymore.

Well, that's all for this episode, folks. I hope this installation finds you all alive and well. Happy Independence Day!

*hugs*

HaPpY BiRtHdAy!!!!!

2006-05-23T21:42:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday to me...
Happy birthday to me...
Happy birthday, happy birhtday...
Happy birthday to me!!!

*sigh* I'm 30yrs. old today. No, I'm not happy about it. I've been reminded of my age roughly 3 times today, twice by the same person, I could have cheerfully kicked everyone's butt for the reminder. Already, I have problems reading and seeing stuff on my computer monitor and the TV. That's been going on for a while, though. Geez, I hope I don't need bifocals already...

I've been busy this past weekend. I had some soap orders from a few of the teachers at my daughter's daycare, and one of the parents. ALL FOR THE SAME SOAP MOLD, and 10 of those sets were the same scent. (Teacher Set, in cucumber melon - just like the Bath and Body Works one). I would've been okay if I'd had 2 of that mold. The more orders that came in for that mold (and that stupid scent I now could cheerfully kill it's maker for), the more stressed I became. So I got on eBay and looked through my suppliers to see if anyone had the same one. I found one, bought it a week ago today, and have been anxiously awaiting its arrival in my mail box since last Wednesday. It's not here yet, and I needed these soaps done yesterday. So, having only the one mold, I used my freezer to cool the hot soap faster and got them all done shortly after midnight last night. *sigh* I REALLY needed that mold. I'd have been done sooner. Oh, well. I got through it, and have now realized I need at least doubles of all my molds. I don't EVER want to make that set or use that scent again! I don't even want to SMELL that scent!

My husband has learned how to make a brisket, and it's DeLiCiOuS!!!!! He's made 2 in the past 2 weekends, and I'd be in heaven if we could afford for him to make it all the time. He's so proud of himself. This last one was a little tough, but I wasn't complaining. I liked it like that. We had our birthday celebration on Sunday, and he made an 8lb. brisket and my annual yellow-cake-with-chocolate-frosting birthday cake. Mmm...It was yummy! And my favorite! My daughter frosted it and decorated it with Scooby candy. *lol*

Instead of going out somewhere today, my husband made dinner. He made beef stir fry and white rice. Mmm...yummy! He also washed the dishes (it was my night to wash them) and bathed our daughter. Yay! I had a free day, with nothing to do. I spent my birthday $$$ from my BIL on a movie, "High School Musical". I LOVE that movie! I have the soundtrack, too. The Easter Bunny gave me the soundtrack, though. I also go a gift card to Barnes & Noble, whatever my mom bought me which I'll get tomorrow, and 2 classical clarinet CDs. And whatever my sister gets me, if she gets me anything. All in all, it's been a good birthday. Nice and quiet, which is good since I'm somewhat sleep deprived.

Our DVD player broke last week. *sigh* So we now have to watch our DVDs on our computers, or watch VHS movies. Honesly, there just hasn't been any time to watch any movies. The only one who gets to watch a movie is my daughter! *lol* Anyway, the DVD player broke right at the end of "Tristan & Isolde", which I was watching with my niece. Ticked us off to no end! I even put in a different movie, to see if it would work with that one, but it didn't. We got all sorts of error messages. So I told her to take the movie home with her, so that at least ONE of us could see the end. I got it back on Sunday, when she came over for the "barky-pew", as my daughter calls it. *lol*

My daughter is on summer vacation until Tuesday. That's the first day of the summer term. My husband took the rest of this week off, mainly for my birthday. I've also got a neurology appointment on Friday morning, and he had taken that day off when I told him about it a month ago. He's got Monday off, too, for the holiday. So he has a 6 day weekend, and is looking forward to it. So am I, since I can sleep past 6:45am for the next few days. Tomorrow, we're going to Barnes & Noble, and Thursday is Zoo Day for him and our daughter. I have a free "day", but I won't be able to do anything without a vehicle. We have one SUV and one motorcycle. And since I don't have a motorcycle license, much less know how to drive one, I'm stuck at home. *sigh* Oh, well. At least I'll have some books and my computer.

I should be practicing my HTML with this entry. But I'm too tired. My eyes are just barely open as it is. I don't know if it's from the sleep deprivation or my eye allergies. But they've been bothering me since late this afternoon. So I need to get off my nice computer that kept me company for a bit today. I love my computer. My husband built it for me. *sniff, sniff* Anyway, I'm off! I hope I don't take too long posting another entry again. It's been exactly 3mths. since my last entry!

*hugs*
-me

Thank you, Brad Paisley & Dolly Parton

2006-02-23T22:03:00.000-06:00

My grandmother passed away 3yrs. ago today, Feb. 23rd. I've been grieving every day since, but the week of her death has always been the hardest for me.

Monday, Feb. 20th, was my grandmother's birthday. My aunt's, too, but she's still alive. I forget how old she would have been, sorry. For as long as I can remember, she's always been 73. *lol* She was buried on my older sister's birthday, Feb. 27th. Yeah, it was a bummer. But we DID sing Happy Birthday to her when we were all together at my grandparent's house after the funeral. And the next day, when we gathered there again to look at pictures and go through my grandmother's Hope chest, we had cake and ice cream for her.

***My thoughts are all jumbled, so please forgive me. Like I said, this week is hard for me.***

On Tuesday, I heard a song by Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton. I wanted to switch the radio to another station, because I just couldn't handle it. But something - or someone - made me change my mind and leave it on the current station. I'm glad I did. The song is called "When I Get Where I'm Going". It's a beautiful song, but it made me cry. I bought the song off of iTunes last night, and I've been listening to it since whenever I get on my computer. It's helped me to start letting go more, and remember the good things about my grandmother's life. Listening to the words today made me realize that she wouldn't want me to grieve so deeply or for so long. She'd want me to be happy and remember HER, not her death. And if she could be here now, and see what I've been doing, she'd kick my tush to kingdom come and back! *lol*

Thanks to some friends I met on eBay, I'm also starting to appreciate again the time I had with her and the legacy she left behind. And thanks to my husband and one of my sisters, I'm starting to let go and stop dwelling on her death. My sister said that the longer I dwell on it, the more it's going to hurt and then I'll never get over it. My husband said that I need to stop thinking about her death, and think about the person that she was while she was here. To remember the good times, so that I'll have something to pass on to our daughter (and any future children we may have in the future). I have to remember the good times, the legacy she left behind, so that I can tell my daughter about her great grandmother - the person she was named for.

So, I'm slowly but surely letting go more. I know it's always going to hurt, and that there will always be an empty place in my heart. I know she's always here, watching over us all. I know that she loves my daughter as much as she loved us all, and that she's here guiding my daughter - all of us, really - whenever she can.

If you haven't heard the song by Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton, "When I Get Where I'm Going", you should. It's a wonderful and beautiful song, and I thank the songwriter and the singers from the bottom of my heart. No other song has been able to help me deal with my grief the way that this one has. I now have a slightly more positive outlook on this whole week, and I'm feeling better emotionally.

*hugs*
-me

Hello, again!

2006-02-18T23:30:00.000-06:00

As you can see from the pictures above, I've been rather busy! I started a home business, selling things I enjoy making: melt & pour soap, bath salts, and milk baths. My online store isn't making any money, but I'm getting tons of orders offline. *lol*

I'm sorry I haven't been on in quite a while. It's been rather hectic here. My daughter is getting so big, and demanding more attention - instead of less, like I heard from many was supposed to happen. She's not clingy or whiny, but she loves to have people around just for the company. She watches too much TV, and it's a pain just to get her to go outside most times. We're trying, though. She's such a joy, really, and I'm so blessed to have her.

My husband has started his own blog, but accidentally posted a couple of times below. Sorry about that. It's more of a food diary, but he hasn't posted there in a while. We all got sick here, and we're now at the point where we're feeling well enough to do more OUTSIDE the house. I still tire easily, and have to rest more. This cedar is kicking my butt, making my asthma act up. I have to sleep with a vaporizer at night so that I won't wake up coughing/choking. And I now have to carry my inhaler with me everywhere. *ugh*

My daughter and I accompanied my sister to TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association) yesterday and Thursday. I've been going with her every year since she became a teacher, and this is my daughter's 3rd time. As usual, she was a HUGE hit with everyone. People kept coming up to us and saying how cute and beautiful she is/was. And I mean everywhere! *lol* Unfortunately for her, my best friend and his wife were there and he kept picking on her. He picked on her more than he picks on me! Poor baby...But she got him back - she got BoSsY with him. That's my girl! Anyway, it was tons of fun. As usual, we got back home the first day all worn out and with sore legs. This year, though, I took an Advil and I had instant relief. I was able to walk at the convention yesterday without wanting to scream in pain. And unlike in recent years, I *DIDN'T* spend tons of money on cool music stuff or get tons of junk flyers and such. Yay!

Right now, I've been concentrating on increasing my inventory and purchasing supplies. Everything comes out of my own pocket, not my husband's, so money's tight. I hope to increase my online sales soon, but I know it's going to take time. At least my offline sales are doing okay. I even list on eBay, but the bath salts and milk baths don't sell very well. One of my friends bought 1 that I had listed, because she loves the scent and is supporting me as much as I support her eBay business. If you want to check out my eBay listings, my userID is "jaystwin". I don't have very much right now, because most of the stuff I recently listed didn't sell and I don't have enough courage at the moment to relist. Not even the person who asks me to list items for her to buy is buying from me! That gets me so MAD! She's asked me - again - to list some bath salts, saying she was watching the ones I had listed and didn't realize the listings had ended and so she didn't get a chance to buy them. You know what? That's just her tough luck. She hasn't bought any of them yet, and it costs $$$ to list these things. Grr! The nerve of some people...

Well, I should get to bed now. It's late, and I'm tired. I've had a very tiring weekend so far, and I've got a rather annoying need to cough up a lung. I hope this blog entry finds all my readers well. Take care of yourselves, and don't forget to check out my auctions and my website!

*hugs*
-me

Sunday, 1/22/2006

2006-01-22T21:31:00.000-06:00

Breakfast
4 slices peanut butter and honey toast

Lunch
2 doubles and fries from McDonalds

Dinner
2 bowls of sausage and rice stir fry
5 chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies

Saturday, 1/21/2006

2006-01-22T21:29:00.000-06:00

Breakfast
4 slices of peanut butter with honey toast

Lunch
Super-Sonic cheeseburger with tots

Dinner
2 bowls of salad

Testing...Testing...1...2...3...

2006-01-07T04:11:00.000-06:00

Reyna update...

2005-06-07T22:27:00.000-05:00

Hey, everyone! I hope this entry finds you well. Things are finally looking up over here.

I took Reyna to see her regular pediatrician a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't take her pooping issues anymore. It's nervewracking, watching your child scream and cry in pain because she's trying to hold it all in. You feel so helpless. I'd taken her off her stool softener, Lactulose, after she'd finished it. I switched her to lactose free whole milk. Neither worked or made any hint of a difference. So, having given up on "home remedies", I made an appointment and took her in. The ped. ruled out lactose intolerance right then, since the milk switch didn't work. He sent us to a pediatric GI for more answers and a closer look. After answering all sorts of questions (in which the answers were typed into a Sony Vaio as they were being given), Reyna was examined. I won't go into details about that. He then sent us down for blood work and x-rays. The blood work was to test for Celiac Disease, IBS, and thyroid disease. The x-rays were to check to see how "backed up" she was. I haven't heard back on the x-rays, which is weird since I walked the darn things back up to the office myself. I'll be calling tomorrow to see if the GI read them yet.

She's been put on a different stoof softener, Miralax. I guess it's working. It took about a week, though. She's been backed up for several days now. She's been going since yesterday, though. She's still struggling to hold it in, but I think she's fighting a losing battle. We have to mix the Miralax with water, Crystal Light, or sugar free Kool Aid. I made up some C.L. lemonade last night so that she could have it, and the medicine, this morning with her breakfast. It's a struggle some days, since starting the new medicine, to get her to drink her stuff. We also have to cut her milk back from 3 cups a day to 1 cup a day. She's now at 2 cups a day. She's doing well with that. Oh, I forgot to mention above that the GI said she *MAY* be allergic to cow's milk protein. That's why the milk's been cut back. I eliminated her morning milk today, and she didn't even care. She got her Crystal Light with the medicine, and then stole my strawberry kiwi juice. We're supposed to be giving her "P" juices: pear, peach, prune, apple, etc. So we give her juice once a day, usually with her morning snack. But I'm thinking of maybe giving her some with her breakfast AFTER she's drunk her medicine mix. I'm not sure yet. It hasn't been worked out in my head. (My thoughts are running away from me, not staying in my head long enough before being replaced with another. I have no idea what's going on with that. But I'll try to get this whole juice thing worked out.) The problem is I have to give her water, too, and I'm having issues just getting her to drink milk lately. She's cutting back on her own, and I have no idea why. Oh, well. I don't even know for sure how much milk she consumes in a day anymore. I know it can't be 1 cup, though. She varies from day to day. Some days she drinks all the milk we give her, other days she's picky.

We may start potty training her soon. She's showing some signs of wanting to start using the toilet. I think we may start this weekend. I'm not sure yet. I threw the idea out to Andy last night, but I don't remember if he gave me a definite answer. I'm not going to do this alone.

Oh! She started the Toddler Room at her daycare last week. She's doing very well in there. She doesn't even cry when I leave anymore. She did the first day, because it was a new class with new teachers and new kids. But she's been great ever since. Well, she's in this clingy phase where she wants to be carried ALL THE TIME, but she's doing well. I still stay for a few minutes until she adjusts, and I say goodbye and she gives me a kiss. When I pick her up, THAT'S when she starts crying. *lol* She's so funny. And she wants me to carry her, too. This fall, she'll be in the Young 2's. I'm worried about that transition. She barely drinks anything at school, and sometimes at home, but she doesn't do well with new people and new situations. She's a shy little one, just like her Mama...or Bah, as she calls me.

Well, that's it. I'm sure Andy will probably have something else to mention. I hope this entry found you well, and that you bear with us in this long journey. Have a safe, happy, and fun summer!!!!!

*hugs*
-me & her

Illnesses, illnesses, and more illnesses

2005-04-26T14:15:00.000-05:00

Hey, everyone! I hope our readers are doing much better than we are here. Reyna's had 9 weeks straight of illnesses, and we're hoping this week will be the beginning of a healthy stretch. She's had 4 ear infections, hand-foot-mouth disease, and the stomach flu. And being the loving daughter that she is, she decided to share the stomach flu with me. *blech* I'm still struggling to recover, but she's just about 100% better. She's in school as I type, and I haven't gotten called yet.

Reyna is getting bigger, and growing much too fast for me. Her list of words is growing. She's added:
*bubble
*Oh, cold, cold!
*apple
*is TRYING to say banana, but says nanana
*vroom, vroom - when playing with toy cars
*tries to say Dora (from Dora the Explorer)
*shh (complete with index finger to lips)
*tickle, tickle
*up
*stuck
*cup
*ball (well, she says ba)
*bah! when she's finished with her food
*buh-buh for byebye

I think that's all she's added in the last few weeks. She sure does have a strong will, too. She throws tantrums for the smallest things. I've become the Mominator, and Andy has become the Gentle Giant. So because I'm rather strict (no laughing, please), she prefers her daddy to me. *sigh* I hope our next child is easier.

Andy started his new job. So far, I don't hear any complaints from him. He's had to take a day off and come home early twice, but they've been rather nice about it. And he has his first working weekend this weekend. You'd think I'd be upset about that, but I'm not. It may or may not be an all day thing. No biggie. Hopefully, I'll be just about 100% recovered by then and maybe Reyna and I can go out and do something...If Andy doesn't have the truck.

I got Reyna's classroom assignments for the fall and summer at her daycare. She'll be in the toddler room for the summer, and in the young 2's in the fall. She doesn't turn 2yrs. until after th school year starts, though. At least I know who her teachers will be for a while. I just hope that she transitions well. It's taken her a long time to trust her teachers.

I've been kinda eBay-ing. I bought a couple of king-sized toddler pillows from a friend, which I absolutely adore! Her store is listed at http://stores.ebay.com/Tamaras-Treasure-Chest. Her pillows are absolutely fabulous! Reyna loved the one I bought her. And Tamara is always coming out with new ones, so be sure to check out her store every 2-3 days.

I also bid on and won a vial of lavender oil. I'm hoping to make some scented candles within the next few weeks. I've never made any, so I'm hoping they turn out okay. All I have right now is that one vial of oil. I still have to go out and buy everything else. I've got several booklets on it, though. Just looking through them gave me lots of ideas.

Mother's Day, my wedding anniversary (6 years!!!!!), and my birthday are all coming up one right after the other: May 8, 15, and 23. I've decided that I want one gift for Mother's Day and our anniversary, but I ALWAYS get my own gift on my birthday. I'm a twin, what can I say? It's always been that way in my family. We may not have always had a separate cake, but we've always had separate gifts. Unfortunately, I have no idea what I want for any of those days. *sigh* Andy wants to get me a sewing machine. I don't know how to sew, but I'm interested in learning. And I already have one, anyway. I just need someone to teach me how to use it. It's really old, from like the 50's and it was my moms...I think. What I could really use is a steam vac, but I don't think Andy's really willing to spend that much money. I could also use some new bake ware. I don't know what I want. I know what I could use, but I don't know what I want. Decisions, decisions...I DO know that Andy's making me a cake again this year. My favorite: yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Yum!

Speaking of birthdays...Reyna's 2nd birthday is coming up in a few months, and we've already started making plans for it. It's not going to be a huge fiasco, like her 1st birthday was. We've got some stuff settled, but the theme is eluding me. Once I pick a theme, I can settle on the date and time. I think this year I'll just order the cake instead of making it myself. Or, if I make it again, I'll start making it 2 days in advance - like I did my Becca's cake for her 16th birthday.

Well, I'm off to pick up Her Highness from daycare. Hope this blog finds everyone healthy and in a joyous spirit!

*hugs*

2005-03-16T21:24:00.000-06:00

The finished product. She transferred our inventory of toilet-paper from the cabinet to the bed. Actually I was the one stacking it.

2005-03-16T21:20:00.000-06:00

Reyna transferring toilet paper from the cabinet to the bed. Note: Since it is not on the roll, she does not unroll it.

2005-03-16T21:19:00.000-06:00

Reyna in her office. She does not hang out in here too much anymore.

2005-03-16T21:18:00.000-06:00

Reyna talking to Daddy on the phone.

2005-03-16T21:15:00.000-06:00

Reyna likes to unroll toilet paper, but only when it is on the toilet-paper roll.

2005-03-16T21:14:00.000-06:00

Reyna hanging up on Daddy.

2005-03-16T21:13:00.000-06:00

Reyna kicking back with some applesauce I believe. She likes to use her feet while eating. She has an uncle who derives his nickname from doing this.

2005-03-16T21:11:00.000-06:00

A nice close-up of Reyna as she charges the camera.

Working on Stuff

2005-01-29T22:26:00.000-06:00

Today was a day of working on stuff. My bike just rolled over 8,000 miles, so today was designated my oil change day. I also need to replace the spark plugs and synch the carbs, but that will have to wait until another day.

The oil change went smoothly, except for when I was pouring the used oil back into the quart containers. I poured a little too fast, and the funnel fell over, dumping oil on the floor.

Our robe hook in the bathroom fell off this morning. The adhesive finally just gave away. I replaced it with another hook and some adhesive tape. It appears to be working fairly well, but time will tell.

Finally, my old computer has been locking up. It is a 4 year old AMD Thunderbird 750. The problem seems to be that the CMOS settings default to 1.75 volts for the CPU. That is a little high. I bumped it down to 1.7, which appears to be making a difference.

Hi, everyone!!!!!

2005-01-26T19:38:00.000-06:00

Well, I've been MIA for a while. I'm sorry about that. But I see that Andy has been posting off and on. That's good! What to say...?

Well, Reyna's been doing a lot of tickling lately. She's also helping to wash her hair at bath time, and "helping" with her diaper changes. I'm teaching her facial parts, and we started with her nose today. She can point out her nose now, and ours. Well...not really. That is to say, she grabs ours when we ask her where ours is, and covers hers when we ask her where hers is. She covers her nose because when I was showing her where her nose is, I would squeeze it and say "honk, honk". She doesn't like it when people mess with her nose, just as I don't. *lol* Like mother, like daughter.

We found out the hard way NOT to give her chocolate milk. She gets wwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy too wired. And she LOVES sweet tea. I've got to tell Julie to quit giving her all that sugar...I still give her water, juice (once a day), and plain milk. She doesn't care for soda, but she likes the cups and straws that come with it. *lol* She eats cheeseburgers with mustard and ketchup, but only 1/2. I've also given her an egg salad sandwhich, and she loved it. She didn't even touch the tuna sandwhich I tried to give her a few days later. Like me, she loves Danish butter cookies. I give her one, and like me she's quiet for a couple of minutes. Then complains when it's gone, so I give her another one. She doesn't care for chocolate chip cookies. She's not much of a chocolate fan, the weirdo. She also doesn't much care for cakes and such. I'm glad. Unfortunately, she still won't eat real veggies and fruits. She's still eating Gerber jars in that area. The entree, though, is table food.

This is her last semester in daycare. While she was on Christmas vacation, I learned that it's much easier to "deal" with her now that she's mobile and able to entertain herself for longer periods of time. I'm able to do what needs to be done without having her attached to a body part and crying for my attention. She was only in school 2 days a week, but it was great for me. I could do stuff without her attached to me, and get some rest, and run some errands on MY time. I'll kinda miss that, especially since I was able to go to the movies a few times. But I really enjoyed my time with her over the holidays. So May is her last month. I'm sure she'll be confused and sad, but I think it's for the best. I hate to take her out of school, though. But right now, we really need that tuition money.

Reyna is starting to try to climb up on the couches now, and some of the chairs. She can't do it yet, but she's getting there. Oh, joy...Andy finally okayed a play set for the back yard. I'm doing some research on that, so that we can get the best we can afford...and one that will last a few years. Hey, I'm a practical person. I like things to last, especially kid stuff.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I hope all our readers are doing well, and that you've survived the holidays.

*me & her

Reyna update

2005-01-21T20:01:00.000-06:00

It has been quite a while since anything was posted here. I have to admit, I am more of a consumer of weblogs than a producer.

Reyna has been walking for over two months. She is doing quite well. So well in fact, that we are going to have to transfer her from the walkers class to the runners at Gymboree. I guess her next milestone will be talking. She babbles quite a bit right now. She is also mimicing what she sees us doing. This includes things like eating with a fork and spoon, and tickling people. She saw PJ tickling kids at day-care, and she joined right in.

The photos below were posted using Picasa2. Picasa2 is a very cool free photo package from Google. Lets see, it searches for photos on your computer, and allows you to search. It allows you to manipulate the photos, including many common fixes such as red-eye reduction. You can also use it to email or IM photos, and even post them to your blog.

2005-01-21T19:58:00.000-06:00

Reyna getting aggressive

2005-01-21T19:57:00.000-06:00

Reyna at the park.

Reyna Walking

2004-10-12T09:52:00.000-05:00

Reyna is getting extremely close to walking on her own. Yesterday she walked around the block while holding onto my fingers. Can you imagine a 1yr old doing this? It nearly killed my back. After heading back inside and cooling off, she was ready to go again.

Last night, while watching the Astros, Reyna stood up on her own. She went from a sitting position to standing, without hanging onto anything. I started clapping, and guess what? She started clapping too, while standing there. Also, she did all this while hanging onto her blanky, and wearing a bulky night-gown.

Day off

2004-10-07T09:02:00.000-05:00

I took yesterday off because Provi was sick. I got to take Reyna to Gymboree. She was kind of tired, but she had a good time. She is close to walking. I walked her around almost the whole time we were there, holding one or two hands. She just doesn't feel like trying to walk on her own.

I downloaded the Doom 3 demo for Linux. It was super jerky on my machine, due to my cheapo Geforce 4mx graphics card. Maybe one of these days I will buy something better. For now my priority is a motorcycle jacket, and if I can afford it, some gloves.

We also watched BarberShop 2. It was pretty good. I really like Cedric's character.

I have succeeded in giving away some of my GMail invites. I have 3 left if anyone is interested. Shoot me an email at awframpton_at_gmail.com

The summer of George

2004-10-05T08:53:00.000-05:00

We are taking this month off. September was an extremely busy month, as you can probably tell by the lack of posts. Reyna turned 1, and a whole slew of other stuff happened.

After approximately a year and a half of job uncertainty, the uncertainty continues. Actually I had probably 4 or 5 months where things were pretty comfortable at GD. The contract I am working on is not being renewed. So as of Oct. 21st I do not know what I will be doing. I have decided to wait things out and see if GD can place me somewhere else here in town. The management has repeatedly told us they can.

I am used to the job uncertainty. In fact, I accept it. I almost feel like to not have the uncertainty is something that is too much to wish for. I know there are jobs out there where unemployment is not hanging over your head, but it has been too long since I have worked at one.

So, a quick rundown on my employment history.
I left SMI in 2000 to work for AT&T Wireless. This was totally voluntary on my part. I would probably still be working at SMI otherwise.

In the Spring of 2003 ATTWS started having rumblings about relocating people. I was told right off the bat by my manager that this would definitely affect me. I started looking for another job. Around this same time, we learned that we were going to have a baby. The worrying begins, and we put our big spending plans on hold, in case I lose my job.

August 2003 I took a job (and a nice paycut) with General Dynamics, the exact same week that I was to get my relocation offer from ATTWS. I was extremely happy to finally end the uncertainty. The only way to describe this feeling is to compare it to the last day of school. It is a carefree feeling.

In February, the contract I was working on was halted, while the government decided if they wanted us to proceed. Finally in April, they officially cancelled the contract. So, from February to June, I am sitting on my hands, wondering about my future.

In June I am offered a chance to work on a contract with the Air Force. I jump at the chance to get back to work on an active contract. It is not too long after this that I learn this contract is not a sure thing. With this knowledge in hand, we make the decision to purchase a new car and motorcycle. I was tired of waiting for job certainty (something I may not have for years). I now have a "I don't care" attitude. I basically accepted the fact that my employment situation is not stable, and decided to move on with my life. It does me no good to worry about something I cannot control. We are basically strung along by the government until just last week, when they tell us the contract is not going to be renewed. I am honestly not affected by this announcement. There may actually be some relief to finally have the contract issue resolved, even though it is not in our favor.

Well, enough of my job-related belly-aching. I have a great family, a good wife and a cute little daughter. They are what makes everything worthwhile. So, I cannot complain too much.

I'm back!!!!!

2004-09-09T00:10:00.000-05:00

Wow! We've got to stop staying away for so long. Unfortunately, being new parents and having a toddler, it's hard to find the time for much. By the time Reyna's down for the night, we're dragging ourselves.

Reyna's 6th tooth has broken through, with really no problems. She had a small cold, but nothing else. *whew* She's doing well. I recently let her start climbing the stairs whenever I take her up for a nap. She LOVES it!!!!! And she sometimes heads straight for her room at nap times. It's so cute.

I must be the world's weekest person. I can't start our lawn mower, and it's irritating. I'd like to help Andy out with the yard work, so that he won't have so much to do. But I can't start the darn thing! If I could start it, I could mow the lawn during the day when Reyna's at school (daycare) and leave the weed eating to him. I think, though, that it'll have to wait until he gets home from work. I don't know. We'll see.

Andy's 10 yr. high school reunion is this weekend. Wow! It's hard to believe it's been 10 yrs. for us. My reunion is in November. His is a one day thing, mine is 3 days. I know I'm not going to the Mixer, but I'm still not sure about the formal. The thought of my overweight body in a formal dress is scary...

I've been making a lot of plans for Reyna's birthday party this month. I had been thinking about getting a moonwalk for the older kids, but decided against it. I've been buying craft activities that they can do instead. Saves money, and they can take it home. We'll get a moonwalk some other time. The theme is The Wiggles, so I've been searching for all the stuff I can find. Not much in the stores. I have to go from store to store, getting anything they have. I may have to buy some stuff online. I'll know by Sunday if I have to go online. If you're planning a party, www.birthdayexpress.com is the place to go. They have A BUNCH of themes, even Raggedy Ann & Andy!!!!!

My computer has a virus on it that I apparently downloaded off some site without even knowing it. *sigh* My computer's all weird now. We're working on it, slowly but surely. Andy got most of it cleaned up, but it looks like we're going to have to reload Windows...AGAIN. I'm getting sick of reloading Windows. I think we've had to reload at least 3 times this year alone! It's getting annoying, let me tell you. I'm about ready to just have Andy wipe Windows and load Linux. At least Linux is more stable. We've already decided that we need to buy Norton Antivirus and install it on my computer, since my comptuter is the one that gets all the viruses.

Hope this blogger finds you well. Until next time!...

Update Update

2004-08-17T22:01:00.000-05:00

It looks like Reyna may finally be pulling out of her month+ long bout of teething/cold/ear infections. If folks wonder why there have been no posts in over a month, that is the reason. We have been getting very little sleep. The bulk of our time is spent soothing and medicating a fussy baby.

A couple weeks ago, Reyna was baptized. It was a little stressful with Reyna being sick, but it was nice to have the family there. The weather was really nice, and we had a good barbecue.

The weather has been decidedly un-Texas like. For the last week, it has been in the 60s on the ride to work. With temps like that, I just want to keep on riding. This past week I finally started watering outside. That is amazing. Usually August consists of one 100+ degree day after another. We have not hit 100 degrees since early/mid May I think.

The bike has 2000+ miles on it. It still runs great, and I have become very comfortable on it. It took some getting used after riding a cruiser for years. The sporty riding style was different, but the biggest thing was the transmisson. The clutch has a small friction zone, which means that there is a very small transition from the clutch being disengaged and then engaged. That combined with the gears being close together took some getting used to.

I went to see "The Manchurian Candidate" last Saturday. It is an excellent movie. In other news, I am finally getting into some Python programming. This is something that I have talked about for along time, but just never got a chance to spend time with it until now. More news to come!!!

Wow...It's been a while...

2004-07-12T21:15:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm here and alive and well!!!!! I've been busy getting in all sorts of doctors appointments, chasing after a VERY active 9mth. old, and trying not to fall asleep whenever I'm able to relax (which is rarely these days).

Our AC broke last night. Well, it didn't exactly break. The outside unit was working, but not the inside unit. So we had no air coming through. Andy called 2x in 2hrs. and they never came or called back. By the time I got out of my shower at about 11pm, I was ticked off. So I got the phone, pressed the handy redial button, and told the answering service something along these words: My husband has called twice already about our AC being out, and we haven't gotten any calls or any visitors about our AC. We have a 9mth. old baby who's getting over heat exhaustion, and we NEED to have that air conditioner working before she gets worse. *lol* Wouldn't you know it? Not even 2 mins. later, someone calls and sounded put out because they were disturbed from their beauty sleep. Well, TOO BAD!!!!!

Actually, Reyna isn't suffering from heat exhaustion. She's just reacting to the heat. She'd been out in the heat on Friday because we took her to the zoon, and on Saturday because Andy's company picnic was at SeaWorld. I just didn't like that our AC was out when she'd been sick for 2 days. She was throwing up. She threw up so bad on Saturday night, that we had to give her another bath. She fell asleep right after, poor thing.

She's much better now, but she's been cranky all day because of the heat. I tried to keep her out of the house as much as possible today, but it was hard. I couldn't come up with any places to take her that were FREE. The AC was going to cost a bit to fix, so I didn't want to spend money just to keep her cool. But I did, anyway. But not in the way you're thinking. I took her to IHOP with me for breakfast, where we proceeded to fight over a pancake. Then I took her home because she was so cranky and sleepy. I left her with Andy, who was waiting for the AC people to come, and left for Target. I've been on a GREAT DIAPER HUNT since yesterday, BTW. Didn't find the diapers, but got the other stuff that I needed. By then, it was almost noon so I came back home for lunch. Fed the baby, changed her diaper, and packed her up and loaded her and all her equipment into our NEW truck and went to Wal-Mart to continue with the GREAT DIAPER HUNT. Found the diapers, and found out that Wal-Mart has a better selection of 9-12mth. clothes than Target does, and for CHEAPER. So the GREAT DIAPER HUNT was *finally* over, and I was relieved. Unfortunately, that meant I had nowhere else to go for air conditioning.

*sigh* Off to the nearest payphone I drove, where I called Andy and asked for an update. It wasn't good for me. I still had 3hrs. to kill, at most. Called my sister, but she wasn't home and wasn't answering her cell. Parked and gave Reyna her bottle because she was fussy. Entertained her. Went back to the payphone about 30mins. later and called Andy. I just wanted to cry. I was so tired and hot and I had a migraine building up from all the heat and driving and from the GREAT DIAPER HUNT, and the baby was so fussy...Andy said to come home, that we would just have to keep her as cool as possible. So home we went, where I just wanted to fall on my garage floor and kiss it and cry and sleep. But I didn't. I took the baby inside for a nap, and I can't remember what I did after that. I know I finally took a nap. It was 87 degrees in the house, and I was covered up and asleep (I was cold, for some reason). *lol* But I woke up with an even worse migrained than what I had when I first fell asleep. It's better now. It's there in the background, but it doesn't hurt anymore. The AC was back up and running just as I had fallen asleep. I woke up about an hour later because Andy wanted to go out to eat. It was still hot in the house, and there was NO WAY I was going to cook dinner in the state I was in. It was 82 degrees in the house when we left, and back to the normal 78 when we got back. *whew*

Now I remember why I NEED air conditioning...I get killer migraines that stop me from doing anything. All I want to do then is sleep in a nice DARK AND QUITE AND COOL place, with NO ONE to bother me.

Anyway, that's a long enough update. I'm sure Andy will post something on the AC. Or maybe on his bike. I don't know. I'll have to look, and so will you. Have a good week! Until next time...

Air Conditioner

2004-07-12T21:03:00.000-05:00

Our air conditioner stopped working last night. The outdoor unit was running like it normally does, but there was no air being circulated inside. After repeated calls to the service company, we finally had someone arrive at midnight to look at the machine. He promptly says that the coil is frozen, and that we should wait until the morning for it to thaw out. I readily agree.

We had a tough night. I am exhausted as I write this. It was extremely hot and humid in the house with all the windows open and the fans running. Reyna woke up multiple times, and I finally ended up bringing her into bed with us at around 4am. Luckily Pro took her from there, since I was pretty much a zombie.

At 8am I call the service company to find out when someone is coming out. I am told sometime in the morning. At about noon, Pro calls and finds out that they should be coming soon. About an hour later, 2 guys arrive. They locate a leak on the evaporator coil. It is under warranty, but we have to pay for labor, $416. After having to drive across San Antonio to pick up the coil, they finish the work at about 4:30pm. Hurray, we have air-conditioning again. The total bill $660. Geez, our house is not even 2 years old yet.

Sea World

2004-07-12T20:50:00.000-05:00

We had my company picnic at Sea World on Saturday. Even with it raining when we first got there, we had a great time. I am not a big fan of amusement parks, but this was quite different. The shows were really enjoyable, I think mostly because they showcased two things I really like, the water and marine life. The first show we went to had acrobats/high divers, dolphins and beluga whales. It was really exciting. The whales looked like large dolphins with large rounded heads.

The other show we went to was Shamu. This is the show with killer whales (or orca). These animals were spectacular to see. For being so large, they are extremely agile and quick. I must say, this show was worth the trip by itself. It was a privilege to be close to these unique animals.

The last thing we did was go see the clydesdales and the coral reef. The clydesdales were huge. The cool thing though was the coral reef. There was all kinds of marine life in the indoor aquariums. I saw many different species of shark, some rays, and a moray eel. The sharks were amazing. It was weired to be that close to these animals that we see on TV and in the movies. They do look scary, especially the ones that swim around with their mouths open, exposing all the teeth.

Oil Change

2004-07-12T20:29:00.000-05:00

Well, my 600 mile oil change went fairly smoothly, even for an idiot like me. I get the left-hand cowling off easily enough. Then I use my trusty breaker bar to loosen the drain bolt, and out comes the chocolate milk. Well, that is what it kind of looked like.

Next I tried unscrewing the oil filter. I did not have a filter wrench so I tried using my gloves. That sucker was on there tight. I had to go to the auto-parts store and buy a oil filter wrench. Stupid me, I do not bring along the replacement filter to verify that the wrench will work. Luckily the one I buy works great. When I get back, I replace the filter and screw in the drain plug and pour in the fresh oil.

Next comes the fun part, replacing the cowling. The cowling fits in with the rest of the bodywork using a series of screws and tabs. Here is where my intelligence really shows. I keep trying to put the top lip of the cowling underneath the upper bracket. I notice it is not making it up high enough and the cowling is not fitting properly. After nearly an hour I realize that the lip should sit on top of the bracket instead of underneath it.

After thinking about it, I now know my problem with mechanical stuff. When working on something, I develop a perception on how it should fit together. Once developed, this perception is hard to break, thus things tend to go together wrong, and it takes me awhile to correct them. One thing a mechanic told me that sticks with me is, putting things together is a lot like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. The pieces can only go together one way. I just need to be careful, and make sure I put things together the right way.

Barbecue, Mechanical stuff, and Baptism

2004-07-06T22:13:00.000-05:00

I used the barbecue grill Pro bought me, for the first time on the 4th of July. It is a Char-Broil charcoal grill with adjustable height. Being inexperienced with charcoal, I put too many briquets in the grill. There were so many that they piled up nearly to the cooking grill. As a consequence, the food cooked real quick, and it was a challenge to keep stuff from burning. All in all I would say it was a good learning experience. Everyone there was very forgiving.

I have a fear of doing stuff with my hands. Be it wood-working, auto work, or any mechanical stuff, I am terrified of it. At the same time, I have a huge interest in learning how to do mechanical stuff. I am determined to do most if not all the maintenance on my new bike. Saturday I spent a lot of money on a rear-stand for the bike so I can clean the chain and do other maintenance like changing the oil. Saturday night, I cleaned the chain using kerosene and a brush, wiped the excess off, and took the bike for a ride to warm up the chain. After that I applied the chain lube to lubricate and protect the chain. In the next couple days, I will be faced with doing an oil change. I already have all the supplies, so it is just a matter of waiting for the 600 mile mark.

Tonight we went to the first Baptism class for Reyna's baptism. The instructor was really good. The class made me question my beliefs, what they are, do I have any etc... I have never really seriously thought of religion. When I was much younger, in elementary school, I took an interest in the Bible and Sunday school. It is funny, I think I had a better knowledge of the Bible then than I do now. When I got into junior high and beyond, church and Sunday school were more social activities, rather than having anything to do with religion. Now I feel that church is important, and something that I want to engage again. I think it is something that can strengthen our family, and something that can only help Reyna as she grows older.

Motorcycle

2004-06-30T23:18:00.000-05:00

I finally got the bike I have wanted for nearly a year. Last Thursday we went to New Braunfels Cycle Country and picked up a brand new blue 2004 Yamaha YZF600R, known in the UK as the Thundercat. I have been riding it every day, even in the rain. This bike is everything I had hoped for. The handling is superb, after spending 6 years on a cruiser. I also like the fact that I have gone over 200 miles and the fuel light has not even come on. If you are interested in some pics of Reyna, me, and the bike, head on over to Thundercat.

Day Care, Kiddie Pools, and Other Things...

2004-06-08T11:12:00.000-05:00

So Reyna has a kiddie pool. It's really cute, actually. It's got an elephant head at one end, with a snout or spout (whatever) that sprays water. And it has a little place under the head for a little one to sit. Anyway, Reyna didn't like the pool the first time. She cried and wouldn't sit in it on her own. She would hold on to someone for dear life, and wouldn't relax unless she was with me. I did eventually manage to get her to sit in the pool on her own, but not for long. She prefered to be with me in my arms or lap. The 2nd time she got in her pool, it was just with me and Andy. Andy said she stiffened up some and clung to his legs, but that she started to splash and have fun. By the time I got out there a few minutes after them, she was sitting in the pool splashing away...but never far from Andy. *lol* When I got in with them, she got a little braver and a little more adventurous. That's my baby!

Day care...Well, I hate day care. There's nothing wrong with the one she's at. I just don't like day care. I hate leaving her in the care of total strangers. Heck, I hate leaving her in the care of ANYONE!!!!! I love caring for Reyna, and it's really hard to leave her elsewhere for a few hours. Anyway, she had a little accident. After changing her diaper, the caregiver set her down on some colored mats. She crawled over to the tiled area, and dropped her head - the way she always does when she's tired. I guess she wasn't expecting the floor to be so hard, because she dropped it hard and got a bump and bruise on her forehead. Poor baby. She was also cranky and fussy, and acting like she wasn't feeling well. She even woke up from a nap feeling warm, but she didn't have a fever or anything when they checked her temp. She was just having some pooping issues, that's all. It's something that happens every once in a while. They called to tell me about the accident, and that she's been really fussy and acting like she wasn't feeling well. She was napping when they called, so I went to get her 2hrs. later. *sigh* Poor thing. She's just not used to having others around. She prefers her Mama and Daddy. As Andy says, though: She's a Mama's Baby.

She has started a new phase in snacking: MELBA TOAST!!!!! *lol* She LOVES the stuff! She can't get enough of it sometimes. Just like her Mama and Ahndewy...We love that stuff, too.

Reyna's crawling all over the place, getting into all sorts of baby trouble, getting more adventurous with each new day. She started to crawl to the stairs the other day. Yesterday, she was trying to crawl UP the stairs, and today she was crawling to the front door. She's crawled to the front living room, and IN that room. Bookshelves are her favorite place to crawl to, because she wants to pull out all of Mama's books! Little stinker...She's pulling up on everything and everyone. I think she'll be walking here in the next couple of months, too. No teefies yet, but that's okay. I'm not THAT anxious for them! *lol*

Hope this post finds everyone well. Have a great week!

*hugs*

Updated Stuff

2004-06-07T21:38:00.000-05:00

Well, my job situation is resolved, although not in the way you might think. The company that I have been working for since August found out that I was looking to leave. Some very cool managers took it upon themselves to make sure I would stay. They moved me into a position where I could have the stability I need. The best thing is that I have a job that is stable, and provides me with the time I need to spend with my family. I still work 40 hours a week, but at least I do not have to work overtime and on weekends, and there is no oncall.

My motorcycle is back from the shop. The fork seals have been replaced, but it turns out the dripping oil from the forks has ruined my brake pads. I kept reading that it was bad to get oil on the calipers, but I never knew why. The mechanic at the shop said that when saturated with oil, the pads do not work very well. He is right. The good news is that I can replace the pads myself relatively cheaply. I also need to clean the carbs. I really want to trade this bike in for a new one though.

For the past week now it has been extremely difficult to get Reyna to go to sleep. If she is awake at all when we put her in her crib, she tries to pull herself up and hang onto the bars. The only way I can get her to go to sleep is to give her milk when she is exhausted. Then, she will fall asleep on the bottle and can be placed in the crib.

Day Care...

2004-06-03T20:50:00.000-05:00

Well, today was Reyna's first day at day care. It was supposed to have been on Tuesday, but I kept her home because she was sick with her 2nd cold. She did great at school, unlike her Mama who just broke down as soon as we stepped out into the parking lot. I'm a SAHM, and I had to put my child in day care 2 days a week so I could get stuff done (meaning go to all my doctor's appointments that I've had to cancel). I feel horrible about it, but Andy's not a reliable source to turn to for child care right now. Not with his job situation the way it is.

Anyway, the baby did great. They called to let me know she was happy and playing. I didn't think that was fair since I was miserable. *heeheehee* But, well, I'm glad she did fine. Unfortunately, she wouldn't eat much at lunch - just the Turkey Rice Dinner I packed for her, no water or fruit. And she only took 1oz. of her 6oz. bottle of formula. They tried giving her a bottle 2x, but she wouldn't take it. Poor baby. I think she just wanted her Mama. She was playing quietly and alone when I went to go pick her up. I called out to her, and she looked up and gave me a HUGE smile. She threw down the toy she was playing with, then crawled to me. Aaaaawwwww...She was so happy to see me, and it made me feel even more horrible about putting her in day care.

She fell asleep in the car on the way home, and woke up when I was getting her belts undone. I gave her a bottle, and tried to get her to nap but she wouldn't. So we played for a while, then she started to get fussy so I took her into bed with me to see if she would fall asleep. It took a little while, but she fell asleep. It was funny, though. One minute she was playing quietly with her blankie, and the next she was passed out. I was holding her, and she was snuggled close to me. I fell asleep, too, even though I didn't think I was tired. Andy came to check on us, I think, around 6, and she had just woken up. She was a bit cranky, but only because she was so tired.

Andy's trying to get her to sleep again. He tried earlier, but she wouldn't sleep. So I suggested he take her downstairs with him and let her play around so that he could eat. That was around 7:30, and it's now about 8:45. She's so tired, but she won't sleep. We had to bring her into bed with us last night, around 11, because she kept crying out and we had to keep going to her. She slept much better when she was with us, but she cried out a couple of times. She kept kicking Andy in the back, and kept headbutting me in the back of my neck. She somehow gets herself in a sideways position when she's in bed with us. I think it's so that she can kick us and such. *lol*

It's looking like tonight is going to be another long night. She's up to her old antics of not wanting to go to sleep. I think she just wants to make up for the time that she was at school, or she's afraid that we won't be there when she wakes up. We left her at school this morning without saying goodbye, which is bad, I know. I think it's really bothering her. *sigh* I don't know what to do now, and I think Andy's getting frustrated. We'll probably have to take her for a drive again. We did that one night. Well, we took her out looking for something and to get dinner because she wouldn't go to sleep. She didn't fall asleep for about a week until 10!!!!!

That's it for now! Keep looking for the next installment of Pro's Corner...

*hugs*

Weight Watchers, here I come!!!!!

2004-05-31T15:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I'm not exactly coming there. More like I'm back. *heeheehee* Yep, it's my 3rd time in about 4 yrs. The 1st time, I lost about 10lbs., and quit because the important people in my life were kinda making fun of me. The 2nd time (a lot of issues happened that made me decide to try again), I had SOME support from Andy, and I lost 39lbs. in 1 yr. Yay! Then I got pregnant, and I gained it all back plus 1lb. *sigh* Now, 8mths. after giving birth, I've made a commitment. I just realized that I need to quit thinking about joining WW, and that I need to quit talking about joining WW. I just DID it last night, and I'm so PROUD of myself!!!!! That's a GREAT feeling to have about yourself. And you know what? This time around, Andy's more supportive of my weight loss efforts than he was any other time.

So, really, tomorrow is my first official day (since it's the 1st of the month), but I started tracking my points today. Why wait? I'm never going to get used to this eating less and healthier bit if I put off till tomorrow what I can do today. Right? So far, I've used up 9 of my 26 pts., and have used none of my 35 FlexPoints today. Heck, I haven't even exercised today either. I'm not much for exercising. I try to get out for walks when I can, but time is an issue. I hope to get some exercise tapes that a friend recommended, Walk Away the Pounds. Basically, you just march in place for 1 mile, 3 miles, 5 miles, etc. Doesn't sound hard, but she said that it is. She lost a lot of her weight from these tapes, and I'm interested in it. It's good for when the weather's bad, you know?

So, this is the beginning of a new healthier, skinnier, and happier me. Wish me luck!!!!!

*hugs*

List of stuff

2004-05-28T14:35:00.000-05:00

I made it past the phone interview for a job here in town, so the next step is an onsite interview next week. This job is for a really good company that is based here in San Antonio. Hopefully I will get it, and my job worries can come to an end.

My motorcycle is in the shop. I took it in yesterday to have the fork seals replaced, and they found some other parts in the forks that need to be replaced. They have to order the parts, so I will probably get the bike back late next week. New Braunfels Cycle Country is working on the bike. They are really nice there, and have a huge showroom. I could spend all day drooling over all the bikes they have.

Reyna is having trouble sleeping at night. She starts screaming when we lay her down, and tries to roll over onto her stomach and play. For that matter, she tries to roll over whenever we do anything with her, such as dressing her, changing her diaper, etc...

I am seriously contemplating buying this movie: Faster

Reyna crawls

2004-05-27T08:27:00.000-05:00

Reyna crawled for the first time yesterday. She does not crawl very far, just far enough to get to the toys that are in front of her. If the toys are on her sides, she will just roll to them.

Pro and I spent probably 30 minutes last night trying to video tape her crawling. It is a real challenge to find something that she is interested in enough to crawl to, and then place it out of her reach. I had rearranged toys all over the living room, before finding something that would get her crawling.

On another note, she has a cold. We think it is from a baby she met at church. Last night was pretty tough, as she was not feeling well. It took forever to get her to sleep and then she woke up screaming at 1am. We did not get her back to sleep until 2:30am.

Trolls...

2004-05-25T15:56:00.000-05:00

Well, once again the website that I frequent the most was visited by trolls. And, again, I was the one getting burned. This time I was getting burned by a fellow SAHM (stay at home mom, for you newcomers to the accronym world). You're probably wondering why, right? Well, because I - a SAHM - have decided to put my baby in daycare for 2 days a week for just the summer...so far. It's *MY* decision to make, and I HAD to do it.

I LOVE being with my baby. I LOVE my baby. But I CANNOT take her with me to all of my doctors appointments. Now that she's crawling, it's impossible to keep an eye on her and have my braces worked on and such. It kills me to put her in daycare, but it's only for a couple of days a week. It'll be good for us both. She'll get to interact with other little ones, and I'll have the freedom to take my time at the quack dr.'s offices to get treated.

It's been 8 mths. since she's been born, and in these last 8 mths. I've had to cancel or re-schedule NUMEROUS appointments because I've had no one to watch her. Andy gets sent out of town/state at a moment's notice, and every time that happens I have to cancel appointments. It's been TWO MONTHS since I've had my braces worked on, and I've come to the decision that it's time for them to go. I don't care if my teeth aren't perfect or anything. But I don't have the time right now to take proper care of them since Shadow needs me in her line of sight most of the time. *sigh* Yes, I know, I can take her into the bathroom with me while I'm flossing and all that, BUT...we haven't baby proofed the bathroom yet. Heck, we haven't baby proofed most of the house yet. Bad, I know. We have some stuff, but it's the time that we're lacking.

Anyway, for all you TROLLS out there...Byte me! I LOVE my baby. I do EVERYTHING for her, including giving up meals and showers and such just to keep her happy and entertained. Maybe you should spend a day in *MY* life. Then you'll see why I came to the decision to put her in daycare. It's tough, and not all us SAHM's are as perfect as you. You may have family and friends who are able to watch your little one(s) at the drop of a hat, but I don't. And as much as I love my daughter, my health is important. Andy and Reyna need a happy and healthy wife/Mama.

*peace!*

Turkey and other things...

2004-05-24T16:42:00.000-05:00

Let me start off by saying this to all you future moms and present moms: NEVER TAKE A BABY WITH YOU TO THE GROCERY STORE (ALONE) AFTER HAVING GIVEN THEM TURKEY FOR LUNCH!!!!! *lol* Why? Well, I did that today with Reyna, and she was sssssssssoooooooo cranky! She was sleepy, but I had to leave her in the cart. I got her out a couple of times to calm her down, but had to put her back in when it was getting too hard to pull the cart around, turn the cart one-handed, get the items off the shelves...Ugh!!!!! At least she liked the turkey mixed with pears. She won't eat any meat/poultry by itself or mixed with a cereal. But she'll eat it mixed with a veggie or fruit.

We're starting to baby proof our house now. It's a slow start, but at least we're getting there. We bought a gate and some extensions for the back door area, but we're short 2 extensions. The back door, you ask? Yes, the back door. That area has vynil flooring, and she likes to lick it. *blech* Since I can't watch her all the time and she rolls all over the place, it's easier to put up a gate there. Oh, and she also likes to sweep with her tummy, therefore getting her shirts/shorts/dresses/and such dirty. We haven't even started putting the gate up, but all the parts are out of their boxes! ( ; I also had to cover 2 power strips because with all the rolling around that she does, she's able to get into stuff. Well, she's been grabbing 2 of the power strips, so they've been covered with power strip covers. I need to get more, though. And we also have a cord winder for phone cords, and a few outlet covers. We haven't put any of those up yet. We will, though. We just haven't had much time to do anything yet, even sleep.

Anyone know how to keep an 8 mth. old from sticking her arms and legs between the slats in her crib rails? *lol* She keeps doing that when we're not there, and gets her legs stuck. She'll cry and cry and cry until we go check on her and see that she's stuck. Someone suggested putting the bumpers back up in her crib, but I know this won't stop her.

Looking for a new diet soda? One that's decaf and NOT a name brand drink? Something DIFFERENT? Well, how 'bout Canfield's Diet Chocolate Fudge soday? It's awesome!!!!! I've seen it in the grocery store every time I'm in the soda isle, and I've been curious about it and wanting to try it. I never got it, though, because I didn't want to be disappointed. But I finally gave in today and bought a 6 pack. Woohoo!!!!! It's great! You can't even tell it's a diet soda! They also sell it in Diet Cherry Chocolate Fudge. I'll try that one next. Also, another good diet drink is Diet Brisk tea with lemon. You also can't even tell that it's a diet drink.

That's it for today, I'm afraid. Hope all you readers are doing well!!!!! *hugs*

My so called job

2004-05-24T08:05:00.000-05:00

Let me start off by stating that I do have a job, in the sense that I get paid every two weeks. Aside from that, I pretty much come to work every day and sit around doing nothing. I work for a government contractor, and the contract I was working on was cancelled. This happened back in April, and since then a number of us have been waiting for a new contract to work on. So, a year after AT&T Wireless announces that they are relocating people to Seattle, WA, I am once again in limbo.

Financially, my family has to essentially put big purchases on hold. This is a bad thing because we were scheduled to buy a new car this summer. That will have to wait until I know for sure that I have a job. To add insult to injury, my company has decided that I can be sent out-of-town on a moments notice. This further puts pressure on my family, since not only can we not make big purchases, but we can also not make plans, because we are unsure if I will be in-town or not.

Hopefully I can find a stable job soon, one that will give me years of comfort and stability. Isn't that a novel idea?

Python

2004-05-20T08:52:00.000-05:00

I found this cool Python article on Everything2. Python is a cool language.

Everything2 is a cool website as well, if you have never checked it out. It is a database of information about everything, created by its users.

Hey, I can post here

2004-05-19T08:01:00.000-05:00

Allow me to introduce myself. I am called Andy Webster. My wife is the Pro that runs this Blog. We recently had our 5 year anniversary. Of course, Reyna is my daughter.

You will probably see me posting about my job (it currently stinks), motorcycles (I have a bad case of motorcycle wants), and computers (I dabble in things from time to time). You might also see me write about books I have read. Anyways, have a nice day.

Preemies...

2004-05-18T17:31:00.000-05:00

I am the proud mother of a premature baby. She was 4 wks. premature. I had to be induced because of PIH/preeclampsia. I hated it at the time, because (silly me!) I wanted to experience the last month of pregnancy. Go ahead, smack me over the head now.

I know that she's just technically a preemie, since she was born 1 week before a regular term - which term starts at 37 wks. I can't help but compare her sometimes to other babies her age. Her adjusted age is 6.75 mths., but she'll be 8mths. on Sunday.

Anyway, this is all coming from boards that I visit, friends with babies her age, and just going out. I see all these little ones her age that are crawling and pulling up and standing...It makes me wonder when *MY* baby is going to do that. I need to stop comparing her, though. It's not a healthy habit. She's sitting on her own now (for 1.5wks. already!), and she was rocking on hands and knees before she sat on her own. She rolls all over the place, she squeals, laughs, smiles, grabs for toys, reaches for toys, eats like a champ...She's very active for a preemie, and that's GREAT!!!!! But I took her to Gymboree for the first time today, and we were surrounded by nothing but crawlers and walkers. And they all had teeth, which we still don't have here!

*sigh* I know she'll crawl when she's ready to. I should consider myself lucky that she's not yet, because then I REALLY wouldn't be able to do anything. I'd have to get gates up, find a place to set up the extra playpen we have...Why do I torment myself like this? I MUST STOP MY OWN INSANITY!!!!!

*hugs*

Bad manners and just plain rude...

2004-05-17T13:40:00.000-05:00

Why is it that when you go to a popular TTC website, to get support and help, you get flamed, charbroiled, burned at the stake? It seems that some of these women are a bunch of backstabbers. Don't get me wrong, I do believe (sometimes) that these anonymous posts being downright mean and rude are by teenage pranksters. But not all of them.

It's very hurtful when you post a question asking for advice on a certain issue, and people post back anonymously. These anon posters just toss the match and burn you to death by even posting some ridiculous things and accusations. IT HAS TO STOP!!!!! Why post as an anon if you don't want people to know who you are? Why post AT ALL? Aren't these ladies your friends? I would never do anything like that. I am from the "If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all" school.

For example, I don't agree with the CIO method (cry it out). And there are TONS of posts on a certain website asking for help on CIO and other sleep training techniques. I don't agree with it, but I'm certainly not going to say anything about it. Just because I don't like it myself doesn't mean I won't support those who want to try it or those who are already trying it. More power to them, I say!

I'm a mother, and a first time mother at that. I have a right to ask opinions and for help from others who are more experience than I am. I have a right to ask opinions and for help from those who are going through the same things I am being a first time mother. So why is it that I'm suddenly some no good idiot who does nothing but watch TV all day and ignores her baby? Why is it that I'm suddenly a horrible mother because I let my baby sleep in bed with us at night sometimes? Why is it that I'm suddenly a bad mother because I buy her everything she needs and a little more? Why is it that I'm suddenly a horrible and stupid person, after asking other moms for their opinions, because I started a blog with just random thoughts?

Does any of the above make me a horrible mother? I didn't think so, but now I'm not so sure. I guess ignoring my baby while she's napping during the day makes some no good idiotic mother, but then she's NAPPING. Am I supposed to just sit there the entire time watching her? And, no, I DON'T watch TV all day. I'm too busy entertaining my daughter during her waking hours and TRYING to do chores - not easy with a shadow around. I guess I'm a horrible mother because I actually want to sleep during the night, and not have to go up and down the stairs all night to give my daughter her Paci and cover her with a blanket. I guess I'm a bad mother because I replace all the clothes she outgrows, and buy her toys and books that she'll probably end up destroying at some point in her little life. And I guess I'm just a horrible and stupid person/mother for asking for help from others, and for asking for their opinions.

Hmm...On second thought, I now think I'm a GREAT mother. My baby doesn't complain, and my husband tells me all the time. I believe it now. That's a great feeling.

*hugs to all the moms and non-moms*

Aah...It's Sunday.

2004-05-16T12:45:00.000-05:00

Good morning to all! It's Sunday, and we just got back from church about 30 mins. ago. *gasp* Shocker, isn't it? *lol* It wasn't bad, actually. We haven't been since Christmas Eve, and that was crowded and drawn out. We went to the first Mass of the day, which is at 8:30am. It's the Children's Mass, but it was great. Reyna fussed some, but it's understandable since she was sleepy. I just took her out to the entrance, walked her around a bit, then stood in place and swung side to side. She fell asleep in my arms, poor baby.

I actually wore a skirt today. Wow! I hate skirts and dresses. And I'm talking a short skirt, that falls to my knees or thereabouts. I'm all for shorts and jeans and sweats, let me tell you. The freedom of not having to worry about guys looking up my skirt...Which is why I choose to wear long skirts and dresses. But I wore a short one today, since I knew it was going to be hot. And all my long skirts are winterish, which I'm not going to wear in hot weather. And my dresses don't fit me, since I haven't been able to lose my pregnancy tummy. *sigh* But it felt good to wear something other than shorts.

Have a good one!

*hugs*