Hammond Look-alike Meter

Miller look-alike meter

Fishin' pics

This is how Cora fishes. :-) She slept pretty much the whole time.





I'd like to point out that it was flippin' COLD in that water. She didn't care - she's a water dog. In this pic she was watching the bobber on a pole and trying to figure out how best to get out to it so she could 'retrieve' it for us.

Lunch time!


It didn't occur to me that, being as we were driving way up into the mountains, there would be snow on the ground. So she used her dirt toys to build a snow castle instead.

It was really nice just to get out of the house. I didn't really even fish, just held the baby and watched Chloe play, but that was okay. Fresh mountain air and a bit of cool sunshine is all I really needed. We all had a good time. Cora makes it hard to want to go anywhere since she still hates the car and always screams while she's in it, but eventually she's gotta get used to it, right?

Pretty Things for Baby

The pretty baby sweater.

TLC Baby Amore' in lavendar, size 10 needles. A super quick knit, finished in 5 hours or less. It was my first top down sweater, and I'm thrilled and fascinated by the way it went together.


A fleece bunting, the same pattern I used for her Halloween costume. Super easy and less than an hour of sewing. And it's just so darn cute!

And a couple cute shots of Chloe from late last week in the backyard, before this sudden cold spell that has made it impossible to wear tank tops anymore. :o\

More on music appreciation

Just for fun, here are some cute videos of Chloe. :-) Please pardon the crazy make-up, we got face painting stuff for when she's a cow but decided to open it early and play with it a little. then she smeared it. LOL Anyhow, enjoy!

Ooooh I'm irritated

It's just been kind of an irritating day.

It started with me calling the doctor Cora saw the other night, in hopes of getting a scrip for oral antibiotics since this ointment stuff isn't doing any good at all. They took my name and number and said someone would call me back. that was at 8:30. I called back at 11:30, and then again at 2:30, to find that someone had called in a prescription, they had just failed to tell me about it. So at 3:00 I was on my way to Wal Mart to pick it up.

While getting the girls in the car, I discovered one of those gigantic wolf spiders hanging out on my purse. So I yelled, cussed, and tried to kill the mother f*er with my shoe. It didn't die. So I sprinted inside to grab the bug spray, sprayed it, and it ran away under the seat, which is of course full of a bunch of random junk one finds on the floor of a car. I have no idea where the hell it went. I don't want to get in my car now.

So it takes us 10 minutes to get to Wal Mart. It's less than a mile away. We probably could have gotten there quicker walking, seriously. But between idiot drivers, too much traffic, and unbelievably slow lights... yeah.

so then we have to park half a mile away from the store in the one parking spot probably the furthest possible from the door. As we're walking along, some old man almost killed us. Okay, not really, but he could've! Here we're just walking along and he starts veering over toward the side we're walking on, right next to us. I stopped walking and watched him hit the bumper of a truck right in front of us. He looks all shocked, like the (parked) truck just appeared out of nowhere. then he backs up and goes on to park in a handicapped space.

We get the scrip (thank goodness both girls were being good) and head back out. I see the old man getting back into his car. We walk all the way to never never land where our car is parked, get in, get going, and lo and behold, that same damn old man is right in front of us. So we get up to the light, and the bastard sits through the whole damn green light because he is CLEANING his g*d d*mn glasses. Oh, for the love of god!!! Of course, Cora's in the backseat screaming bloody flipping murder because in her opinion, you may as well beat her as put her in the car seat. So I'm using all kinds of words my four year old ought not hear, sit for another five minutes behind the senile old man in front of us.

Oh! And my husband called earlier this morning to inform me he probably wont' be coming home this evening, and when he does get home tomorrow he'll be leaving to go hunting with my uncle. I tell ya, I'm getting used to being on own with two kids. At least it doesn't stress me out anymore.

Oy vey. I need a date with a bubble bath, a good book, and a drink. :::sigh:::

Blah....

I'm just not in the mood to do anything today. Chloe's supposed to have a make-up class for ballet at 11:00, but I'm not sure we're gonna go. Cora's face still looks yucky, and i don't really want to take her out in public. :o( That, and I just don't feel like going.

Impetigo really sucks. It's spread to four other places now. I keep cleaning it and putting more ointment on it, and I'm keeping a bandaid over the main part and socks or mittens on her hands so she can't scratch it and spread it more, but - ugh! I can't decide if it's getting better or not. The littlest areas are starting to heal but the big one on the side of her face looks just as bad as it did Tuesday. My poor baby. I think she got it from my parents' house - they have strep, and that's the virus that causes impetigo. So we're staying away from them till they're all better.

Andrew's out of town again - he left yesterday afternoon, hopefully will be back sometime late tonight, though I'm not sure when. He only got a couple hours' sleep last night, and I hate the thought of him driving mountain passes and winding canyon roads on such little sleep.

I'm kind of annoyed with the fact that Mark is supposed to have Chloe on Halloween, as well as the day of the Eagles' Halloween party. I'm not sure he'll even take her to the Halloween party, but hopefully he'll take her trick or treating, if we don't go together again. I hate working stuff like that out. I hate sharing her. The other day when she got back from his house she told me she was crying there because she missed me and wanted to come home. :o( That makes me both happy and sad - I hate to think of her missing me, but I'm glad she does, ya know? After all this time, it still kills me to have to send her back to his house all the time. I guess you never really get used to it, huh?

Blah. i should get up and start cleaning. I'd like to do something fun with Chloe today, and I'd also like to do some scrapbooking if Cora will let me. I'm so behind with my scrapbooks!

Hooray for Big Bird!

Don't you wish we still had things like this on kids' TV?

So it's not eczema...

It's impetigo. I did some more research on it yesterday as the day progressed and the little red areas started blistering and oozing. Ew. The good news is that it's easily treatable with some antibiotic ointment - the bad news is that my child looks like a leper. :o(

I took her to the doctor last night. I never realized what a problem our shortage of doctors here is, but it's a pretty serious flippin' problem. I couldn't find anyone willing to see my daughter. I called 40+ places out of the phone book and all of them were not accepting new patients. I finally got her into an after hours clinic at 7 o'clock in the evening. They were 'running a bit behind' we had to wait an hour to even see anyone, and there were all kinds of sick people in the waiting room. Some lady was hacking up a lung every couple seconds and refused to cover her mouth, and she had the nerve to come over and try to look at my baby. The nice receptionist girl got us in a room real quick after that, thankfully. And then after our long wait, it took approximately five minutes for the doctor to say that yes, it's impetigo, and write me a prescription. I paid $112 for that. Argh. I wish you could just call and say "Hi, my baby has impetigo, will you please write me a prescription for Bactroban?" It'd make life so much easier.

I was really worried Andrew would be mad or disappointed that I took her in, but by early afternoon I didn't care anymore, my poor baby's face looks awful. I decided I'd rather deal with him being upset than deal with the worry of her face not getting better. Luckily, he wasn't upset, and agreed that this is a good reason to take her in.

Eczema - ugh.

My baby has eczema. :-( A little patch of it on her cheek. It looks so awful. I feel so bad. I wish I knew what caused it. It could be something I ate that she's allergic to, it could just be dry skin. If I can just get it to go away, I could probably prevent it with lots of oil/cream and moisture. So far I'm alternating blueberry leaf tea poultices, breastmilk (in case any is infected), and a mix of Burt's Bees apricot oil and skin cream. It doesn't look much better today than it did yesterday, but it doesn't look worse either, and it got steadily worse from Friday, so I guess that's good at least. I feel so guilty though, like there's something I could have done to prevent it. I'm actually considering the possibility of not eating anything for a couple weeks to see if that helps it. I'd take vitamins and stuff and drink lots of water, just not actually have any food. And eczema has something to do with the liver, so I'm supposed to be doing a liver cleanse, but really, I'd rather just starve than drink that crap. If anyone out there has experience with eczema and wants to offer advice, I'll listen. I really would like help figuring out what to do to heal what's already here. I think I may be able to control it once this is gone, but right now it looks so terrible and must be horribly itchy and painful.

muahahahaha

We just got back from the in-laws. I needed a release. Look what I found!

www.motherinlawstories.com

This plus a glass of wine is exactly what I need.

Pumpkins are fun!

So we all carved our pumpkins. I'd always wanted to do one of the fancy kind and finally got to. We borrowed the pumpkin saws from my mom and printed out some patterns free from the internet. I'm on a pumpkin kick now. The first pumpkin patch we went to yesterday sold pumpkins for $1 each, no matter what the size. I wanna go buy like another $10 worth just cuz it's so much damn fun to carve them. :-)

So here are the finished products:

This one is mine

Here's Chloe's. she drew this face all by herself. There is another face on the side that she did from one of the internet patterns.



And the best for last - here's Andrew's. How flippin' cool is this?

The Punkanin Patch

My mom and I took the girls to the "punkanin" patch today.

There was also a corn maze. If you've never been in one - it's a maze carved into a cornfield. You really can't see past the first few rows of corn. There are dead ends and wrong turns all over. Thankfully, this one was small. Some are acres and acres of corn stalks.


Cora was far more interested in boobin' than she was in looking at corn.

Quick pic of my pretty girls before we went.




The carving of the punkanin. She was kinda grossed out at first but did great. I'll post the finished product later.



Sweet sleepy babe :o)

Hats :o)

A couple quick crafty pics...

Crocheted Baby Hat from Stitch & Bitch Happy Hooker
Size G hook
Stash yarn - white is Caron Simply Soft, pink is Red Heart acrylic

If I ever made it again, I'd do another row or two or double crochet and might make it a little bigger around too. It's supposed to be size 6 months, but runs a little small. I'm happy with it though, overall. Quick project too, I finished it in a day.



I just made this one up. 10 rows knitted, then 4 rows of purl, 6 rows of knit till the decrease at the top, then just decreased in sections of 8 with a knit row between each decrease row.

Caron Felt-it in Neon (from my stash)
Size 8 circular needles, casted on 81 stitches, decreased by one before starting the first real decrease round but wanted an even number on each of 3 needles while I knitted.

ETA:

Look! My kids are famous! Okay, maybe not, but they made the front page of Craftster for a few minutes :-)

My home - a survey

Stolen from my Myspace bulletin:

1.)) When you walk in your front door, which room do you enter?
The front hall, with the living room just to the side

2.)) Do you have a dishwasher?
Yep

3.)) Is your living room carpeted or does it have hardwood floors?
Carpeted with hardwood underneath. I wanna refinish the wood.

4.)) Do you keep your kitchen knives on the counter or in a drawer?
On the counter

5.)) House, apartment, duplex or trailer?
House

6.)) How many bedrooms is it?
3

7.)) Gas stove or electric?
electric, glass top. I wish it was gas.

8.)) Do you have a yard?
Yes, a nice big one that I love.

9.)) What size TV is in the living room?
What TV?

10.)) Are your plates in the same cupboard as your cups?
Same cupboard, different shelf

11.)) Is there a coffee maker sitting on your kitchen counter?
Yep!

12.)) What color is your home painted?
It's not painted, it's yellow vinyl siding. Inside most of the walls are white, but I plan to change that eventually.

13.)) What room is your computer in?
The desktop is in the computer room/office/craft room/den. The laptop is usually in the bedroom but migrates to the living room occasionally.

14.)) Are there pictures hanging in your living room??
Yup.

15.)) Are there any themes found in your home??
the girls have a farm-themed room. The living room is sort of Victorian-esque.

16.)) What kind of laundry detergent do you use??
Sun, berry scented. It's hella cheap and works good on diapers.

17.)) Do you use dryer sheets??
Yeah - Downy. LOVE Downy.

18.)) Do you have any curtains in your home??
Nope, but we have blinds and those fancy sash things on the living room windows.

19.)) What color is your fridge??
White, but you can't tell cuz it's covered in artwork and letter magnets.

20.)) Is your house clean??
Yep.

21.)) What room is the most neglected??
computer room - it never stays clean so i don't bother with it often.

22.)) Are the dishes in your sink/dishwasher clean or dirty??
The sink is empty, dishwasher is clean.

23.)) How long have you lived in your home?
A year and a half or so

24.)) Where did you live before??
At 'the blue house' downtown

25.)) Do you have one of those fluffy toilet lid covers on your toilet??
Ew, no.

26.)) Do you have a scale anywhere in your home??
Yeah, a people scale is in the computer room and the baby scale is in the living room

27.)) How many mirrors are in your house??
4

28.)) Look up. What do you see?
the ceiling?

29.)) Do you have a garage??
That would be the computer room/office/den/craft room. It was converted in the 70's.

30.)) Are you planning on moving anytime soon??
Not too soon, but eventually.

31.)) what is your Favorite Room in house ?
the living room

32.)) Do you have a guest Room ?
Not really, but we could sleep 4 extra people easily between the fold-out on the couch and the futon downstairs

33.)) Is there anything you would Change about your home?
refinish the floors, put in new windows, a new fence, new kitchen cabinets, finish off the basement into a bedroom, bathroom and laundry room, paint all the walls pretty colors.... I have big plans. :o)

34.)) how many square feet is your home ??
I honestly haven't got a clue. But it's nice and roomy, especially with the basement.

50 posts

I've already posted 50 times on this blog. Crazy! In honor of that (or rather, just because I want to) I'm gonna post some pictures.

Look who likes bath time now! :o)




And here's what I've been waking up to each morning since Andrew's been gone. Chloe and Izzy are gonna be mighty disappointed when they get kicked out of our bed again!


Today is gonna be cleaning day. It's been a week and a half since I've done any cleaning besides just straightening up and laundry and dishes. Andrew will be home tomorrow night, so I figure I better get a few things done.

We went to the library yesterday - I think I made another new friend. A girl with a four year old daughter and a baby due any day. She just moved here. I'm excited. It's so hard to meet people, but I've been doing it more lately. Friends are kind of important for my sanity. And friends with kids are good - I always feel silly with my friends who are kid-less, like they have lives and I don't. LOL And it seems my poor mom is the only person I usually hang out with because, well, at least she likes my kids!

I'm thinking about the possibility of throwing a Halloween party for Chloe and her friends. A chance to wear their costumes again, play some fun games, and just socialize. Not sure yet if I have it in me, but I do think it would be fun, especially if we could do it outside so I'm not all anxious about my house getting destroyed. she's got 5 or 6 friends her age now, and it'd be great to get them all together.

Chloe-ism for the day:
While she was coloring, she said "I'm making a tasterpiece." I asked if she meant 'masterpiece' and she said, "oh. yeah. Mom, what's a tasterpiece?" I told her I didn't really know. She said "Oh! That's when my room is really messy." She meant when I call her room a 'catastrophe'. :o) Funny how all those words just get themselves mixed up in her little head.

They're back...

My in-laws were out of town all week. They got back last night. MIL called this morning. They want to come over to see Cora. I agreed to let them come around 6 tonight. I wasn't going to, was going to come up with excuses until Andrew was home to deal with them. Then I thought about it, and I realize that Cora is, after all, their granddaughter, and I'm sure they really do want to see her, and it would be very cruel of me to keep them from her just because we don't like one another. And so they're coming.

The thought of seeing my mother in law seriously brings about near-heart attack symptoms for me. My heart starts racing, my stomach sinks to me knees and I find it difficult to breathe. The sad thing is, I'm really not exaggerating. It's bad. And I think about the fact that they're coming about every 20 minutes, so basically, I feel like crap.

Chloe's learning how to behave around them - that she is to stay quiet, not ask them to play with her, and to sit still. We decided she can color while they're here, so long as she doesn't talk or get rambunctious. I hate the thought of them not liking her - it just breaks my heart.

I need to make sure I get the floors mopped and clean up the living room and kitchen. And I guess I better hide my Harry Potter book!

Moooooo!!

Simplicity 0634, discontinued - bought it on eBay.
Size 4, toddler.
Cow print flannel, felt for the details. Added the udders because the pattern didn't have them, and left off a bunch of stuff from the pattern that I thought looked silly. Gonna try and find a cow bell to attach with some rope around her neck. It has a zipper in the back, the best zipper I've ever put in - I'm finally not afraid of zippers anymore.

I really think I'd like to make the tiger from this pattern for her for Christmas or her birthday just to play in. It's a super easy pattern and didn't take long at all to make.

"Mom, what's a penis?"

Ugh, yeah. She finally asked. I asked her where she heard the word, she said "Nowhere." She later told me she heard her dad call someone that. Awesome.

she looked embarrassed when she asked. I told her it's not a bad word at all, but that you should only use it when you're really talking about a penis. I asked her if she'd ever seen her dad naked, and she had, so then I asked her if she had seen how how he looks different than she does down there and that that is a penis and that only boys and men have them. "Does Andrew have a penis?" she asked. Then it was "and girls have crotches, right?" So we talked about vaginas. She knew that was where Cora came out of, but apparently didn't realize she had one too. So then it was "So you and me and Cora have vaginas. Does Grammy have one? Does Felicia have one?" Yeah. What fun. :oP

Later I heard her paying with her Littlest Pet Shop toys in her room dividing up the boys and girls and saying "No! You have a penis. You have to be with the boys." Later she came prancing out of her room and gleefully announced a discovery she'd made: "China rhymes with vagina!"

Oy vey.

I can only see us going somewhere and having Chloe announce that she's a proud owner of a vagina at the top of her lungs in the grocery store or something.

About apples

Here's something important to note about apples - sliced for dehydrating, they go really far. Smooshed up into applesauce, not so much. I started with a dozen apples - it only worked out to be about 3 pints of applesauce. I still have plenty of apples left, I think I'll make another batch tomorrow like this one, maybe twice as much. I can only cook a dozen apples at a time though since I only have one big pot. Ah well, on a good note, the applesauce it did make is delicious and we will enjoy it tremendously.

Along with the 4 or so apples we dehydrated (which turned into a small zipper-bag full) we also did 5 bananas which are still in the dehydrator. Are bananas supposed to get hard? Or will they be slightly pliable like apples are? If anyone knows and wants to tell me, that'd be great. i was shooting for banana chips. It's about the only way I'll eat bananas unless they're blended into a smoothie. something about that banana texture grosses me out.

Totally separate random note - someone gave Chloe a box of bandaids as her 'big sister' gift when Cora was born, with the intention that she use them however she wants, not to be stuck up in the cupboard for use only when she's bleeding. What a frickin' cool idea! She's gotten so much use out of those bandaids. Playing doctor, using them as tape to hold a picture on her wall, all kinds of stuff. I just thought that was a really neat and inexpensive gift to get for a kid, one of those things no one would ever think of, but that turned out to be a wonderful idea.

Library story time was today. We're actually sort of making acquaintances there with both the kids and their moms/grandmas. It's fun to let them play after story time and sit around and chat. Much better than yesterday's experience at the park.

On the crafting front, I've got half of a sleeve done for Andrew's sweater. I'd love to have it finished by the time he gets back. I've been reading Harry Potter book 7 while I knit - only about 50 pages left of a 750+ page book. It's absolutely wonderful, as usual. Chloe's pattern for her cow costume came today. In looking at it I realize i could've just used last year's poodle costume pattern, made it a little bigger and changed the ears into smaller ears and horns, but alas, i didn't think ahead. That's okay though, it'll still be adorable. I hope to get the fabric tomorrow and maybe work on it a bit while she's at Mark's. I have a feeling she'll get a lot of use out of it - she still wears that silly poodle costume almost once a week during play time.

Edited to add: I looked up dehydrating bananas. It appears the kind of bananas I like, the chip kind, are made by deep frying slices of bananas in coconut oil. Why is it that I only like fruits and vegetables when they are made to be unhealthy? :::sigh::: Chloe likes these dried bananas though - I haven't tried them yet, I have to work up the courage. Maybe I'll make banana nut granola bars. Yum. :o)

Attack of the killer ducks

Today was a pretty frustrating day, overall. Nothing huge, just little things that added up to some tension by evening.

But before I vent about everything I suppose I oughtta explain my interesting title. Doesn't it sound like the name of a great B-class horror flick? :o) But seriously, my girls and I were attacked by a horde of starving ducks this afternoon.

Okay, well maybe "attacked" is a bit of exaggeration, but not much! We took some hot dog buns to the duck pond to feed the - usually mild-mannered - ducks. Apparently when fall comes, ducks end up starving. Every duck in Grand Junction and surrounding vicinity was at this park waiting for some unsuspecting little girls and their mama to show up with not enough food to go around. They chased us as we threw the bread, trying to get them to go in the other direction. I made the mistake of getting the girls out of the stroller, and was nearly pecked to death while I got Cora back in.

Don't believe me? I have proof!

I didn't have the camera with me, just my camera phone, but you can see a few of the ducks there, anyway. That's the stroller right in front of me - see Chloe's feet? She held them way up so the ducks wouldn't eat her alive. After I got the girls back in the stroller we just backed up slowly and threw bread as we went. I'm just not quite so fond of ducks now...

As for my frustrations... it started with meeting some moms from mothering.com at the park. Amri was there, a girl i've met before. But some other moms came too and I felt like they just kinda thought they were better than us. There were 4 of them and they kinda stuck together and ignored us... sorta felt like a clique from high school, only of the natural parenting variety. The fact that I had Chloe didn't help - they all just had babies, the oldest of which wasn't even two yet. They seemed annoyed by her, at best. She kept wanting to see their babies and talk to the moms. She wasn't that bad. Till we had to leave. Then she up and ran away from me, right toward the street. I tried speaking firmly, but she got far enough away that I ended up yelling. Yeah, yelling at my kid in front of a bunch of AP moms. Great. :::sigh::: So that'll be the last time I meet up with new mothers around here. I hate that kind of humiliation. That was the first - and better be the last - time Chloe's done that. I think she understands now how serious an offense that was. At least I hope she does.

And then I let Chloe play outside for a bit with the understanding that she wasn't to play in the mud because she was wearing new clothes. I look out a bit later and she's got mud all over her new hoodie. Then tonight I told her not to jump on my bed because there was stuff all over it. About that time I heard a 'r-i-i-i-p' kind of noise and find she ripped a hole in her new pants with a snappie that was on the bed. Awesome.

She was just generally frustrating today. I put her to bed half an hour early for my own sanity. She didn't complain, she's in there reading to herself.

Tomorrow is library day. I think we're gonna walk. Cora likes the stroller and I really need the exercise. We're meeting some friends there, I look forward to that. Afterwards I'd like to can some applesauce but we'll have to see how it goes.

Keepin' busy

Look what I made! :o)


Admit it, she's the cutest caterpillar you've ever seen. Well. I think she is anyway.

I used a simplicity bunting pattern, added extra stuffed legs, re-sized the hood and added antennae and the pleated belly panel. Should've used a hot pink zipper but let's see you try and find one on short notice. :oP

It needs something more, but I'm not sure what. I might try and find some spray glitter to make it sparkly. Any suggestions would be great!

And a pic of recent diapering creations:


Ladybugs, retro flowers, and skull & crossbones. :-) They please me. These are a size small - she's outgrown newborn already. They're fitted diapers, to be worn under wool soakers. Beautiful, convenient, and reliable. Who could ask for more?

Chloe and I spent some time out in the garden picking veggies - it's getting near frost here and I'm nervous about them being ruined. A couple dozen bell peppers in different colors, and piles of anaheim and jalapeno peppers. WTF am I supposed to do with all these damn peppers? I suppose I could pickle and can some more, but really, how much can you really do with pickled peppers?



Speaking of canning... I bought 40 pounds of apples last week. Decided to use some up today by filling the dehydrator and making an apple crisp. I cored, peeled and chopped 10 apples. For the record, 10 apples goes further than you'd think. I filled all the racks in the dehydrator, made an apple crisp, made another apple crisp and gave it to the neighbors with half a dozen bell peppers, and filled two cookie sheets to dehydrate apples in the oven. That was 10 apples - I didn't quite make a dent in my box of apples. LOL I'm planning to make 4 or 6 quarts of apple sauce. Apparently a bushel of apples makes 15 or so quarts. So then maybe I'll make some apple butter. And maybe some apple pie filling. And then maybe I'll dehydrate some more. I'm gonna be swimming in apple juice by the time I'm done! And I might be able to get berries from the same source... Guess I better hurry up with these apples!

And a quick pic of Li'l Miss in her Hula Baby costume for the dance recital she had on Saturday. I didn't get any shots of her in action because I was video taping it instead.


'Tis all for now. Gotta go take care of this fussy baby and convince her that she really does want to sleep.