Couple of FO's

Thought I'd go ahead and post a couple pics of things I've finished recently - the PINK things Chloe picked out.

Here's the skirt. Truly a pleasure to sew, very little thought went into it, it fits beautifully and I'm happy with it. And I really, really love this picture.



Here is the Dress From Hell. :oX Truly, this pattern sucked. I doubt I'll ever sew anything from this pattern again. Not to mention - pin tucks, folds, pleats and a zipper - and there are supposed to be buttons too but I did away with them. I think I'll add decorative buttons down the front and possibly a few rows of ribbon above the hem. And I haven't hemmed it yet. Thankfully, she loves it, and that is all that matters. She said she's going to wear it when she gets married. :o)


Stay tuned for tomorrow - I took about a zillion pictures today plus some video that I will (hopefully) be sharing.

G'night!

and... the AI results

This is the last one today, I promise!

Did I not totally call the girls? Ha! I'm cool. :o) I was happy with those results. But what's with David A. and Alexandrea? He was totally bawling, and they were hanging all over each other while Robbie sang. Wierd.

As for the guys, I'm glad Mr. Blonde Tuft guy went home, but Robbie, I'm disappointed with that. He was SO much better than Luke. I think though that teenage girls with their cell phones are very powerful in this competition, and Luke looks like the guy from Dawson's Creek, so he's probably got a fair chance, unfortunately.

Do y'all read the BuddyTV commentary about AI? I read it after each show. It's often hilarious, and he usually says everything I think, only he has way more writing talent than I could ever hope to possess.

the AI Girls

Yeah, lots of blogs today. And there'll be another after this.

I know, I know, you all know who got cut already. But I'm a slacker and I tape them and watch them when I have time, so I just watched the girls. Here's my take:

Brooke and Kristy (sp?) both impressed me tonight. I am actually really starting to like Kristy.

Amanda and Carly were my faves... Amanda disappointed me, and Carly did too. I still like Amanda though, I hope she makes it past this. I'm kind of bored with Carly.

I really would like to see Alexandrea, Kady, and Alaina go home. Alexandrea... something about her I just don't love. Kady has the personality of an eggplant - did I say that already? I think I did. Alaina comes across as a ditzy blonde, and that's not my favorite type of person. Syesha doesn't really do it for me either, but I know a lot of others like her.

Who else is there? I dunno... I guess they didn't make enough of an impression for me to really remember them. :oX

Now I'm off to see who goes home tonight!

Chloe-isms

"Awww, Mexican cats are so cute Mom."

(The next door neighbors are Mexican. Apparently their cats are too.)

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I was wiping down all the doors in the hallway. The basement door in particular has lots of dirty fingerprints about 3 feet up. Chloe was helping me clean.

"Geez, what dirty little kid was going into our basement?"

She was serious.

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Spelling with a kindergartener

Thank you = than q

Cavity = cab d (she says b instead of v)

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So, my sweet little girl is turning into a liar. Please, please tell me this is just a phase. She's lied a couple of times to try to get herself out of trouble, and a couple times just for the sake of lying, I swear!

She came to me and said "I can't find the lid to my marker." I asked her to please make sure Cora didn't have it. (I was on the toilet or I'd have looked myself. LOL) She came back and said "I found it!" When I asked if Cora had it she said "No, it was under Milo." She handed me the lid. It was covered in a clear, slimy substance - better known in our house as Baby Slobber. I told her I could tell Cora had it, why did she lie to me? Anyhow, I just gave her a time out.

The other one was the other night when she was playing with some of those shiny craft marbles. I told her not to get them all over, she did, so she got them taken away. Later that night, she goes "Oh! There's a..." and then she just grabbed it and walked to toward her room. I said "Chloe, please bring me the marble you just found". About that time you could hear the 'plink' as she set it on her shelf in her room. Then she came out and said "I didn't find anything, Mom."

Another time out.

My goal with time outs is to make her realize that lying is wrong. She's obviously experimenting to see what she gets away with. I just hope I always catch her in her lies to prove to her she won't ever get away with them! I'm pretty certain she understands now that it's not okay to lie. I just don't know the proper way to discipline this!

Mindless Wednesday ramblings

I previously compared 6 month old babies and kittens. My point finds itself being proven over and over again. I'm trying to cut out the Pattern of a Million Pieces. (My daughter and her taste in dress patterns, argh.) Pattern paper, if you've never had the opportunity to work with it, is basically tissue paper that comes in the size of queen-sized sheets, which you are expected to wrangle and wrestle and cut out just the pieces you need. It's great fun, let me tell you, especially when you have to locate 15 different pieces. Tissue paper - it makes that fun crinkly sound that is often found in infant toys. And apparently that crinkly sound is just as fascinating to kittens as it is to babies. And so I just spent the last hour not only wrangling three sheets of pattern paper, but doing it all while a small gray striped kitten wrestled amongst all the pieces. My favorite phrase these days is "Izzy, get the cat!" :o)

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Yesterday was Michael's craft class. Sadly, they are discontinuing classes at Michael's, so we'll have to find something else to do on Tuesdays - probably some crafting at home instead.

I struggle sometimes in craft class. I am a creative person and I intend to help develop the creativity of my children, in hopes that they will have the same gift I do. But it is SO hard sometimes! It's hard just to sit back and let them do whatever they want to do, and not try to tell them how it ought to look. Yesterday they were painting little 8x10 canvases. Chloe found a paint sponge roller, thought it was really cool, and roller-painted who whole canvas over and over again with several different colors. As a finishing touch, she smeared her finger around in the paint, then made a hand print in the middle of all of it.

I was really hoping she'd paint something like a cat, or herself, or whatever... sometimes she draws the coolest stuff. But no, she was more interested in seeing what colors mixed together to make something else, and how cool that roller was. :::sigh::: It does take a lot for me sometimes just to let her go at it, and not say anything about it.

Her drawing skills are kind of amazing. Compared to other four and five year olds, her pictures are very detailed - noses aren't just a dot or anything, they are actually shaped, with the bridge of the nose and nostrils. She counts fingers on hands, draws stripes and whiskers on cats, etc. It's awesome. She drew a picture a few days ago of our house, with Izzy and Milo next to it and me, Andrew, Cora and herself in front of it. Then she labeled all of us, and spelled it all right! I should take a picture of that drawing, it's a neat one.

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Blah, I stayed up till 11:00 last night. I never stay up that late. I'm tired.

I was trying to sew this dress she picked out. It's awful. Pin tucks AND pleats in the same dress, plus a zipper. I spent more time ripping out seams than I did sewing last night, finally got the bodice tucked, and now it doesn't match up to the facing, which means my tucks are off a little bit. Ugh. I'll try and fix it, but I'm annoyed with it. And it's rather dull anyway - she picked this hot pink fabric with butterflies on it (something I never would have picked) and refused to pick anything else to use as a contrast fabric, so it's going to be kind of.... pink, and butterfly-ey. Ah well, anything to please the little girl. :o)

I casted on and knit up to the crotch for some longies for Cora. It occurred to me the other day that I have a baby, in the winter, who does not own any longies. :::Gasp::: (longies are like wool soakers, but they are pants. And they are cute - very, very cute.) So I think they're going to be about big enough to fit a two year old. I may rip it out and start over, or I may just keep going and let them be big this year and fit next year too. We'll see. I'm not really using a pattern, just making it up. I'm using stash yarn, but realized I don't know where my 10.5 double pointed needles are, so I'll have to get some. So much for not buying craft supplies!

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I really shouldn't blog first thing in the morning when I'm so tired. All I do is ramble - blech!

AI Week 2 - boys

A quick note about my AI opinions...

David Archuleta is seriously just a doll. His performance tonight was by far the best. I LOVED his song choice, and he sang it so beautifully. He's not a guy I'd probably ever buy a CD from, but I think he is my fave in this competition after tonight.

Another favorite was Jason Castro. He didn't wow me tonight like he did last week. I was kind of disappointed. I did however find his pre-performance interview to be absolutely adorable. David Cook (is that his name?) I thought did alright. I disagree with Simon, I love any man that has a love for words. :o) He's up there on my list of faves. And the Aussie, he didn't thrill me much.

Chikezie (sp?) blew me away - I didnt' expect that. He was on my list of least favorites last week, but that's changed after tonight's show. David Hernandez was the same - I was so surprised by those two performances. I'd like to see them both stick around awhile if they keep pulling off stuff like that.

I really wish Luke and the Jason with the blonde tuft would go home. They bore me, they aren't spectacular, and I'm done with them. :oX

"Multi-tactic entertainment technique"

Dani asked how I manage to get any knitting done. I employ what I like to call a "multi-tactic entertainment technique."

I start by getting Chloe doing some worksheets or any other project that requires only verbal participation from me. She's easy.

I've come to realize that 6 month old babies are a lot like kittens. If it flops around and they aren't really supposed to have it, it will entertain them for quite some time.

There's nothing so tantalizingly floppy as the ball of yarn attached to whatever it is you are currently working on. Baby will be happy to knot and twist and mangle the yarn, keeping you extra busy trying to untangle while squeezing in a few rows' worth of knitting time.




The ball of yarn tactic is generally good for 10 or 15 minutes, especially if it's got some shiny threads in it or appears to taste particularly good.

Once you hear the "ahhhhhhhhhhh" that signals the end of this round, move on to tactic #2: the cell phone. Another one of those fascinating items they aren't really supposed to have, good for at least another 5 minutes. Just make sure you're not too attached to that phone - I've heard baby slobber has been known to render a cell phone battery completely useless.



By this time, hopefully you've managed to knit a few rows. When you see this face:

... you know it is time to hurry up and finish that last row before you reach 'baby meltdown phase' which is to be avoided at all cost.

Do that a few times a day for 6 weeks, and you just might be able to finish a sweater! :o)

Monday ramblings

Andrew's back to work again, so it's another start to two weeks of him being gone alot. Poor guy - he didn't feel real good for this whole week off (which was actually a short week off) and I was kind of crabby... I don't think it was the best break. It just kind of felt 'off'. And his next week off we're going to Kansas City, which really is quite a lot of work too. Ah well, come hunting season he'll get plenty of quiet time away from us! :-P

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I made a couple pairs of pajama pants for Chloe yesterday. Isn't that rainbowy one the most gaudy thing you've ever seen? LOL Bubblegum pink and rainbows - her perfect combination. Actually, it looks like something Dani would like too. :-P I almost finished the skirt she picked out, and then I have a dress to make. I look forward to having these finished. I've sort of challenged myself not to buy any fabric, scrapbook supplies, or yarn for a month. In all honesty, I could probably go a year. LOL I have so much stuff. I'm trying to clean out and organize the craft/computer/play room though, and I'm realizing that I might actually have TOO much stuff. I should take pictures. You would all laugh at me.

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I think we're staying home all day today. I hope we're staying home all day. I have a lot to get done. My floors are filthy and need some serious attention from a mop. (I try. I honestly do. But with a big dog and lots of rain, you just can't avoid dirty floors sometimes.) I'd like to get more done on the craft room, get a bunch of stuff put away in here so it doesn't look so awful. I need to organize a bit of Chloe's school stuff, and make some plans as to what we're gonna learn from here - we've got a good track laid for math and reading, but I need to pick out some good social studies and science subjects to work on.

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Cora has reached that stage where she doesn't fall asleep easily unless I'm snuggling with her, and doesn't stay asleep for long unless she's in my bed next to me. It makes it hard to get much done at night or early in the morning. Chloe went through the same phase. Sadly, she still hasn't really left it....

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Wow, today isn't looking good so far. I just got up to refill my coffee, dropped my cup on the floor, cut my finger while picking up the pieces, and I'm still bleeding. How's that for the start of a day?Maybe I should just go back to bed!

W00t! CPH is finished!

I don't take good pictures. And I hate having my picture taken. So please look at the sweater, and not the goofy expressions on my face.

Isn't it gorgeous though? Ahhhhhh I'm SO glad it's done. My first 'real' grown up sweater. I've knitted a couple of sweaters in Wool Ease Thick & Quick on size 13 or 15 needles, but those don't really count.

Stats:

Central Park Hoodie, 36" size
Yarn - Vanna's Choice, Olive, 7 balls, only used about 1/10 of the last one. For a super cheap acrylic, I like this yarn. It's soft and it knits up nicely.

Needles- size 9 and 10.5

Took about 6 weeks, but that was with lots of slack off time.

I'm so thrilled with it. It fits perfectly, it's comfy and warm. only thing I'd have done differently was maybe graft the shoulder seams. I did make it about 2" longer than called for, and the sleeves are about 2" longer too, because I like sleeves that hit my fingertips. They fold back if I want them to. Super easy pattern, but very satisfying. I totally recommend it. :o)

:::squeeeee!!::: I'm SO glad this is finally done!

Pretty outfits - sew fun.

"Chloe, where is your other sock?"

---"Cora ate it, Mom."

:::sigh::: "Well if you'd stop sticking your feet in the baby's mouth, she wouldn't eat your socks."

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I finally finished the outfits I was working on for the girls.





Yesterday Chloe and I went to Joann's and picked out a couple of patterns for dresses and some fabric. Lots and lots of PINK. We're gonna start cutting today, and I told her she can help me sew. That should be fun, if not challenging.

And my CPH hoodie is almost done. We're talking 8 more rows - half of a button band. And a whole lot of loose ends to tie off, but oh my goodness, I'm so in love with this thing! I want to finish it today, but Andrew's going out hunting coyotes so I probably won't get to until tomorrow. We'll see. I'm very excited to see it finished though.

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Alright, my man wants breakfast, and my baby is fussing. Guess that's my cue!

The AI girls

Okay, so I should've blogged about this before tonight, but I actually haven't watched the cuts from tonight yet, so I'm gonna share my opinion now. We Tivo'ed it, and will watch it tomorrow.

Of the girls, I dig the rocker Amanda chick and Asiah Epperson. I've liked Carly, but she didn't thrill me terribly last night, and I have the same problem with her that I do with Michael Johns - it's AMERICAN Idol. Yep, I'm mean like that. They are both talented though.

Syesha annoys me. I can't put my finger on it - maybe it's the over-dramatic thing. She can sing, but I just don't like her much. Kady Malloy has the personality of an eggplant. The only time she has any personality is when she's stealing someone else's. I think my husband will like Amy Davis, just cuz she's cute and brunette, but I don't think she's great. I kind of think Joanne sang really well, but our TV station lost sound for all but the first few seconds of her performance, so I don't really know what happened. Ramiele surprised the heck out of me with her voice, and I think she's alright. I know the judges thought Alexandria's song was great, but I honestly though it kind of sucked.

For me, honestly, of all the top 24, Jason Castro is the only one I'd buy a CD from. I re-watched the guys on Tivo today with Andrew (he works weird hours and hasn't seen the girls yet, hopefully tomorrow). I'm dead set on Jason as my fave.

So, without watching the first cuts, I'm going to guess that the guy with the blonde tuft of hair and Luke something or other got cut, and for the girls I'm gonna say Amy Davis and the Alaina girl get cut, though it's harder to guess on the girls. I think Chikezie, David Hernandez and Garrett will be close behind on the guys and I look forward to the flaming Danny Noriega's demise as well, though I think it'll be awhile before he goes.

I wonder who's on votefortheworst.com. I'll have to go look at that. I almost bet it's Garrett. Andrew and I both thought they should've kept that geeky Kyle kid over Garrett. At least he had a personality....... I just looked. It's Danny. LOL That's funny. That kid is awful. I'm all about gay pride, but he's gay obnoxious. :-X That was mean. Ah well, it's my blog, I can say what I want.

alright, I'm going to bed. there's my thoughts. Would love to hear what everyone else thinks, but dont' spoil the cuts for me till I watch 'em tomorrow!

Since I know you all are dying to know what I think about American Idol...

After tonight, there are exactly four boys that I even care about. David Archuletta - that boy is flippin' adorable. He's got a good voice, he's not over confident, and he's cute as heck. David Cook - something about him makes me like him. Jason Castro - he actually rather thrilled me. The guitar, the song... yeah. He was great. A little goofy looking, but it made me love him all the more. And Michael Johns - he kind of creeps me out, he's kind of overconfident, but he has a damn good voice. Those are my top 4 favorites, and not necessarily in that order.

And for the record, I'm convinced I'm raising a future American Idol. My little 6 month old, every time the music starts up, she starts singing. "Ahhhhhhh ya-ahhhh ahh ya ya yaaaaaahhhhhh". It has a sort of Tarzan-ish quality that is acquired only by singers of her range and caliber.

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So we ended up missing Michael's craft class yesterday. Miss Chloe had a bit of a problem with her attitude. I asked her to turn off the TV and get dressed so we could go, and she got all pouty about it. I set the time for five minutes and told her she had that long to fix her attitude and get dressed or she wouldn't be going. At the end of five minute, she was still sitting there pouting. So we didn't do the class. The hard part was that I had to go to Michael's anyway, so we went, we just didn't do her class. It was kind of cruel, but I think it made the lesson sink in that much better. I had being the mom sometimes. Hopefully next week we'll not have the same problem.

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We're working on her concept of the proper order of numbers - i.e. 1 comes before 6, etc. It's harder to teach than I thought. Yesterday I wrote out 9 rows of three numbers each on the sidewalk with chalk. I had her jump from 1-9 in order over and over again. Then we started jumping on the smallest number in each row, then the biggest. It actually went over well. She does great with super active learning games like that, more so than just sitting doing worksheets. And it was nice to be out in the fresh air.

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Today is library day. I hope the morning goes a little smoother than yesterday did!

Monday was a good day.

I slept in a little late this morning - it was almost 7 before I got out of bed! I'd have slept longer, except Chloe woke up, looked around, announced "Mom! It's morning." loud enough to wake both Cora and me, and then promptly fell back asleep. Thanks, kid. I hadn't realized it was morning yet. :oP

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First, the Izzy update. We have good news. The spots have now spread to her paws. What that means is that it nearly can't be cancer. I took her in again yesterday, he gave her some antibiotics and sent us home to wait for him to call after he talked to the pathologist. The pathologist says he doesn't think it's cancer - there were a few hystiocyte cells (the benign skin cancer) but not enough for him to think it was actually the cancer. There were not mast cells, which was what we were really afraid of. So now - we have no idea really what could be going on. They're thinking some sort of rare bacterial skin infection that is spreading rapidly because of some sort of autoimmune problem. They did a culture of the sore on her head and will test it to see if it's particularly sensitive to any certain antibiotics, and might change what she's on. and then we just hope she gets better. :-\

A note about feeding a dog an antibiotic pill: it's not easy. I put it in a piece of roasted chicken breast. She devoured the chicken, and promptly spit out the pill. I cut a slit in a piece of cheese, hid the sucker in the cheese. She ate the cheese, and spit out the pill. I pried her jaw open, shoved the pill inside, and held her mouth closed till I was sure she had swallowed it. I walked away to get her a milkbone. When I came back, the pill was on the floor. I put the pill into a bowl with some dog food. She ate every last piece of food - and left the pill.

I tell ya, I tried like 5 times. Finally I tried the shoving it down her throat thing again, and it worked.

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Yesterday was SO nice out. I was actually wearing a tank top when we walked to the park. I'd had every intention of jogging around the park with Cora in the stroller while Chloe played, but then discovered Cora things the stroller is some kind of medieval torture device and screams bloody murder as soon as I set her down in it. So we just sprinted to the park, and called it good. LOL Chloe had a great time playing with another little five year old girl, running around and rolling down hills. When we came home, I sat Cora on a blanket outside and played with Chloe in her playhouse. She's so darn excited to paint the silly thing pink. Blech. Cora and I played fetch with Izzy, for which Izzy was rewarded fits of giggles every time she brought the ball back. It was just so beautiful out! I can't wait for spring. I kept eyeballing the garden, kind of desperate to dig my hands in, except that it's more of a mud pit right now than a garden.

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Today is Tuesday - Michael's craft day. We'll go do the craft class, do a little shopping in the area, and then stay home for the rest of the day. Hopefully it's as nice out today as it was yesterday, if it is we'll have a great time!

Izzy's tumor on her head has about doubled in size, it's all dark purple and oozing still. I've been waiting for 8 o'clock Monday morning since Saturday evening. I'm hoping they'll get her in first thing, and that he can do something. You can feel how swollen it is all around it. I'm having such a hard time with this. She's still acting completely normal - chasing the cat, stealing pizza slices, tearing up tissue paper... I'm so worried about my puppy. :o(

A sweet picture of a girl and her dog:



So the girls and I went to Disneyland yesterday. It was great fun. We went on Small World, the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Carribbean, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Dumbo... we got to meet Cinderella, and we stopped for strawberry ice cream before we watched the parade.

Here's a picture of Small World:



Even Cora got in on the action:


I couldn't believe how long Chloe played that. She came up with everything on her own. We sat in a laundry basket on the living room floor and she put all her stuffed animals around us. "Off to the right, you'll see a big red and white elephant family. And up ahead is a group of bears. And over to your left, a big, hairy black lab-lion." :o) It was hilarious. When she said we needed to go to the ice cream shop, I played the ice cream man. She thought we were pretending, but I gave her a real bowl of ice cream. She was pretty happy about that since she wasn't expecting it.

Not too many kids get to go to Disneyland for free!

Here's Cora, lounging in her kid-sized recliner. This baby loves this chair. You can set her there and let her watch her sister play and she's happy for the longest time.


And here's a picture of what bathtime looks like these days. Yes, that's shaving cream on the side of the tub - we practice writing words in it.



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So I finished both sleeves of the Central Park Hoodie and am almost done doing all the seams. Now I'll just need to pick up stitches for the hood and then the button-band/ribbing. There's no way this sweater should really take 6 weeks to make, but that's what it is taking me. I can't wait till it's done. The one sleeve that I did finish, when I tried it on, fit perfectly. I've never knit anything bigger than a hat that's fit just right. I'm excited.

My sweet puppy dog

:'o(

My Izzy dog has cancer.

They don't know yet if it's something she'll survive or not. We'll find out more on Monday. She has three skin tumors on her head and face, the most recent of which is a big gaping wound on her head by her ear and is oozing blood. She doesn't act like they hurt, but they look awful.

It's either a type of cancer that will correct itself after a few months, and she'll be fine, or it's a malignant cancer that "doesn't have a good prognosis" as the vet told me.

I can't tell you how much I love this dog. Losing her would be so heartbreaking. I've just been moping around the house all day, occasionally applying more antibiotic ointment to the spots, which she promptly licks off.

The cat did it... or did he?

Isabel has turned into a fairly trustworthy dog. We leave her with free reign of the house when we go places, sometimes for as much as 6-8 hours. She hasn't chewed anything up in a long time - hasn't gotten into anything really, except an occasional tissue that's left lying around. She can't control herself around toilet paper, it's just too tempting.

Lately though, she's not been so good. One morning I found her walking around with a turkey beard hanging out of her mouth. Yes, a turkey beard. The one from Andrew's spring turkey last year that was (he says) sitting on his desk. And there was Cora's little baby shoe. We bought her cute little Robeez-style shoes at Target. That afternoon, one went missing. When we found the shoe in question, it looked like this:




So Andrew's decided that it's all the cat's fault. The cat must have dragged the turkey beard off his desk and handed it to Isabel to chew on. The cat must have teased the dog with the baby shoe, causing her to destroy it.

It sounds a little far fetched, but I almost wouldn't put it past him. The little goober torments that poor dog day in and day out. The last couple of nights Andrew's been in bed early and the cat has been instigating a game of chase that involves our 100-lb moose running up and down the stairs at top speed. It more resembles a herd of elephants traipsing through the house. And if it weren't for that cat, Izzy would be lying down sleeping like a good dog.

I tell ya, that cat's an evil little thing sometimes! But would he have you know that? Absolutely not. Look, isn't he so sweet and innocent?


Here's a picture of the beloved puppy with her littlest girl. I love this picture. I wish you all could see how good she is with Cora. She totally loves the baby... and loves Chloe too. We have the best little puppy in the whole world.


Not sure if I've shared this picture or not - here are the two fur balls sharing Izzy's dinner. Funny, the cat prefers the dog's food, and the dog prefers the cat's food. Maybe we should switch.


I suppose that's all for today! I'll try to come up with sometime interesting to say tomorrow. :-P

Valentines

Here's Andrew's bouquet :o)



He's just getting into archery, so I thought some arrows would be appropriate. Arrows for my cupid, ya know? ;o) There's an arm guard hanging there too, kind of hard to see, and the arrows are stuck into a pair of rolled up pajama pants that he'd said he wanted. I thought it turned out pretty cute.


Also wanted to share this frame that Chloe painted. I thought it was pretty good for a five year old! Michael's didn't have craft class last Tuesday, so we just did our own at home.


And now let me tell you just how spoiled I am. :o) He brought home roses on Wednesday (you can see them in the pic above). He gave me pretty aquamarine stud earrings that look perfect next to the sapphire ones from Christmas. (I have a total of 8 holes in my ears - I can wear a lot of earrings.) Then we went out to dinner at Old Chicago's, so I didn't have to cook. And THEN when we got home, he gave me a pretty silky black nighty, a big box of chocolate, and a teddy bear that matches the one he gave me our first Valentine's together.

Yep, sweetest guy ever, I tell ya.

I used to hate Valentine's Day and saw it as a stupid, consumer driven holiday. My policy was "If you don't show a girl you love her on more than one day a year, you don't deserve to have the girl." Well, he shows me he loves me every day of the year, but sometimes it's kinda nice to be able to celebrate the fact that we love each other so much.

Awwww! How sweet. And gooey and mushy. Blech. Alright, I'm done being a twitterpated sap.

Hope everyone else had a great V-day too!

Happy V-Day!

I love my girls. :o)

I'm not going to write about Andrew's gift until tomorrow since he sometimes reads my blog during the day and I don't want to ruin the surprise. But it is definitely a pretty cool one - at least, I think so. I hope he agrees.

==


Ah, I love American Idol. I think I'm rooting for that David kid - the 16 year old whose vocal chord was paralyzed. He's a cutie and very impressive overall for a 16 year old. I was utterly bummed to see Drew Poppelreiter go home. He had me twitterpated. Anyone who sees not missing turkey season as the silver lining for not making it is pretty flippin' cool in my book. The Josiah kid was pretty great too - his song writing ability was incredible, but all that crying did kind of irritate me.

==

I finally finished the first sleeve of the CPH. I sure am knitting slow these days. The second one should go faster since Andrew's at work. He always distracts me when he's home. :oP I need to sew up a pair of pants to match the halter top I made for Chloe, and the girls' outfits will be done too. Hopefully I have some good crafty pics for you guys tomorrow.

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I have so much housework to do today. My poor house - it looks like a tornado hit it. I'm not sure why. I guess I've been slacking off a lot. The computer room has dress up clothes strewn all over it - the child has as many dress up clothes as she does regular clothes. My floors need to be mopped, laundry needs to be folded, I should probably vacuum, clean out the fridge, and dust. I should probably get busy!

Stalkers and such

How cool is this? My ex-mother in law cares so much about my day to day life that she (probably among others in the family) reads my blog! Isn't that so sweet? I feel loved. :o)

Unfortunately, she apparently doesn't take kindly to having her son spoken ill of, and sent me a rather rash and distasteful e-mail letting me know. Along with telling me what a wonderful, great person her son is, she informed me that she thinks I am the worst mother in the whole world, and that she hates me and hopes she never sees me again.

Damn.

So... I guess I have to move my blog again. I swear, I move more than an army brat. I guess we'll go back to Myspace for awhile, until I can locate another place that will let me have a private, but tag-able blog. If anyone has any suggestions on where I should relocate to, let me know.

If you don't have my myspace blog address, feel free to email me and I'll send you the address. And if I don't know you, please tell me who you are, so I don't think I've got any other stalkers. You'll have to be on my friends list in order to read anything I write, but I'll try to make it worth it. ;o)

My mother, the hostile combatant

I'm kind of frustrated with my mom. :o\ And I think she's kind of frustrated with me.

My dad's PSA count was up last time. He fought prostate cancer 5 years ago and has since been cancer free, but the PSA going up isn't a good sign. My mom now has diverticulitis and was having some pretty bad stomach pains there for awhile.

After learning so much about eating healthy, I've come believe that they could probably have a huge impact on their own health if they'd just change their diet a little bit. Okay, more than a little bit. My dad sounds like he's all for it, but my mom, when you bring up the subject, becomes mildly combative and hostile. "I'm not going to start eating vegetarian" she says. "I know all kinds of people that eat healthy and they die of cancer anyway." I wish I could tell her everything I've learned, convince her to eat a few less steaks and cookies, and add more salads. But it won't happen, and she gets kind of mad at me whenever I bring it up.

After hearing about my dad's PSA count, I decided that if someone's going to help get him healthier, it'll have to be me. So Chloe and I juiced a pound of carrots today, put the juice in a mason jar, and walked down to his work to deliver it. He called a bit later to thank me, and said it was good. We'll be going down again tomorrow morning with another dose of carrot juice for him. I figure it can't hurt, at least.

All I want is for them to eat healthier so they live longer lives with fewer health problems. But I guess she doesn't care that much. :o\

Wii Fun... and other pics

Sundays are always spent at my parents' house. We go for breakfast, and end up staying through lunch too sometimes. Yesterday my dad took off to Best Buy first thing in the morning to buy a Wii for my uncle for his birthday. Except that he walked in the door with two of them. :o) He told my mom it was her Valentine's present. We all thought that was a little silly, but she ended up having quite a lot of fun with it. She especially likes the bowling game.



And here's my husband, boxing:


I'm not usually *that big on video games, but this thing is pretty neat! I rather liked golf and tennis. We need more games. It was an awesome way to spend a day with my family though.

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A couple pics from when we went sledding earlier in the week: (it's very hard to take good sledding pictures.)



Cora has about as much use for snow as I do. It's fun for about ten minutes, and then we would much rather sit in a comfortable, warm place and have a snack. LOL She did think it was pretty neat at first though.


The tape measure again. If the cat doesn't have it, either Chloe's using it to tie something up, or the baby is eating it. I think everyone in this house needs their own tape measure.



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We had a great week off. Now it's back to the grindstone. I have a million things to do today to try and get caught up, starting with washing diapers and grocery shopping. Chloe will be back from her dad's in a couple of hours probably, so I guess I better get off this thing and start moving!

Gossip

I thought I'd blog a bit about the latest gossip about my ex husband, because I thought you all would be fascinated by it. Okay, not really - I'm just thinking about it, so it has become the subject of this blog.

Pics

I have discovered that my impatience leads me to post many a blog that are photoless. I hate sitting there waiting for pictures to upload from my camera. How terrible is that? Anyhow, I uploaded some pictures last night so they'd be all ready for me this morning. :o)

Our neighbor came over the other day with a bag full of old hats and aprons and such for Chloe, things that were her grandmothers. There are some very neat things!



Tea party:


Every time I go to use my tape measure, I have to search the house for it too. Here's the little thief taking off with it.



This is what creativity looks like:



I'm making a wedding album for us. I'm very excited about it - I'm hoping to be done by the end of the week. All that mess, and so far, I've made one page. :oX

Fried

Oh man, I need a break. I'm just feeling so drained right now. :-\ I could really use just a couple of hours of time by myself to do some 'me' stuff. It occurred to me that I haven't left the house by myself for at at least a couple weeks now. Sometimes a mama needs that, I think, just to regroup.

Cora cut her first tooth on Sunday. I'm happy for her, it's really exciting, but that always makes for a rough few days. And I'm just not ready to think about her being that grown up yet!

Yesterday it seemed like every time I sat down to do anything that I wanted to do - scrapbooking, knitting, or whatever - I was interrupted after about 5 minutes. I kept setting my knitting down mid-row, or stopping after I put a picture on a piece of paper. I never did get much accomplished as far as any of that goes.

I was hoping today would go a little better, but so far it's not looking too good. I always get up around 6 or 6:30, have my coffee, and spend an hour or two in the quiet house getting a start on the day while the kids sleep. I was up at 6:05 this morning, and by 6:22 both kids were whining and the dog and the cat were bugging me for breakfast.

I think I'll go back to bed.

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Isabel is a very smart dog. She sits, lies down, shakes, and gets down when we tell her to (unless she doesn't feel like it, then she argues with you.) But she has never been very good at the "come" command. She knows perfectly well what it means, and what she is supposed to do, she just doesn't want us to know that, so she never does it.

All of that has changed since Milo came along. All you have to do is open the door and yell "Milo! here kitty kitty!" and she comes tearing inside without a moment's hesitation.

Last night, Chloe wanted Izzy to sleep with her, but the dog was downstairs watching TV. Chloe kept calling "Izzy! IZZY!!!" to no avail. Then I heard her yell "Milo! Kitty kitty kitty!" and that dog was on Chloe's bed within seconds.

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I'd like to point out that during the writing of this blog, I have gotten up 6 times. Point illustrated.

Hubby's home!

With two little girls, it can be quite difficult to actually do that thing adults do when they find themselves scantily clad together in bed at night. There's always a hungry baby or a bad dream to interrupt, or never let it start to begin with. (How do those people who have 15 kids find time to actual create those babies? They are my heroes.)

But nevermind the kids - the animals add a whole new dimension to it! When Isabel was a puppy, she had a thing for bras. As soon as my bra went flying to the floor, she was shredding it to pieces. We soon learned to make sure my bra ended up on top of the tall dresser so she couldn't get to it. Now, it's the cat. Any time he sees something move under the blankets, he pounces. There's something quite distracting about having a kitten attacking your toes while you're in the throes of passion. Isabel is very polite - when she realizes what we're doing, she usually excuses herself to the couch so we can have our privacy. Milo? He thinks to himself, "Wee! it must be play time!" and dives on in.

And once again, he found himself locked in the computer room.

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My man is home. I'm so glad. What I'm not so glad about is the fact that he's already on his way to work after having been gone for a week. He only has to work a couple of relatively short days today and tomorrow though, and then he's off for another week. Maybe I'll be really nice and try to get him to help paint my kitchen cabinets. I'd offer to give him some lovin' in return for manual labor, but based on the above paragraph, I'm sure we all know the likelihood of that actually happening.