We moved. Still in Columbia, just a different duplex with more space in a better neighborhood. We still have piles of stuff all over the house. I like that we have more space, a fenced backyard with a huge tree (shade!) that Riddick LOVES to play in, an eat-in kitchen, space for a craft area for me downstairs, and more cabinet space. What I do not like is the set-up of the upstairs living room, the fact that our queen box springs do not fit downstairs where the master bedroom is, having to get rid of ants, and not having a dishwasher. The landlord says he will put in a dishwasher in a couple months, so here’s to hoping. It is too late now to change, and we are NOT moving again until I graduate and we buy a house. Then we will pay movers to move it.
Riddick is speaking in 4, 5, and 6 word sentences. Yay for language development! There are still a lot of pronunciation issues and words we do not recognize, but he is getting more and more clear everyday.
Trinity is almost crawling and pulling herself up on things. She can get around by doing her little butt-scoot, rolling, and moving backwards. She also slept for 7 hours straight Friday and Saturday nights, but not last night.
I recently finished another cloth diaper, and I think I like it better than previous “prototypes”. My friend Katy and I are going to make one together, complete with pictures so we can blog about it.
I do not like the taste of plain cream cheese, but I think the prices for flavored cream cheeses are ridiculous. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before, but I bought some plain cream cheese (store brand, super cheap) and mixed it with some sugar and vanilla…and I had cheesecake-flavored cream cheese. Which is wonderful for breakfast on graham crackers and bagels with a great cup of coffee.
I am still working on Trinity’s baby blanket. I had two pink squares done, only to realize I knitted them one row short. I have yet to decide what to do with these squares. I think I should have enough yarn to replace them with correctly knitted squares, but I won’t know until I get done with the other pink squares. I think I can give her the blanket as a graduation gift…
Wayne loves the new place and likes to grill outside now that we have a little privacy. He grilled 4 out of 7 nights this past week, and he is a grill MASTER.
Kelsey, my sister, is coming to visit soon!
Wayne and I are going to start the P90X workout this month. It may be a slow, painful death for me, but I will try my best.
My brother is going to Korea. For the third time. Potentially with his wife and child, but we won't know for sure for a couple months.
Things I have recently discovered:
Ants do not like cinnamon. I read this on the internet and decided to try it yesterday morning. They refuse to cross any cinnamon barrier. We tried Terro recently, but I am too impatient to wait for it to work, so I killed all the ants in the kitchen yesterday and did the cinnamon thing, and it worked marvelously.
Riddick only likes fireworks if he can play with a flashlight at the same time.
Trinity likes fireworks, but jumps every time she hears a loud one.
It only takes 2.5 beers for me to be “lit” and only 4 for me to forget where I took off my wedding band. This is also known as being a "lightweight" or a "cheap date".
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Monday, July 6, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
A busy start to our summer
I love summer. There are always so many possibilities. There’s baseball, softball, and great weather. Plus, there are special events, like graduations, birthdays, concerts, barbeques, parties, weddings, family reunions, festivals...
So here’s what went down last week.
Monday, May 18 was Cody’s, our nephew, 8th grade graduation. We were the last of our family to get to the middle school in Centralia (we are usually the last to arrive anywhere), but they saved us some seats. As we waited, Trinity got fussy and wanted to nurse, and of course that was only moments before they started the procession, so I couldn’t see Cody because I was sitting. Cody got a couple of academic awards, though, and when he walked up to receive them I could see how handsome he looked! He seems so grown up now, as I am sure his mother would completely agree. The 8th grade band members also performed a song with the rest of the band, and they sounded great (much better than the rest of the band performing Pomp and Circumstance without the 8th graders).
It was a very to-the-point ceremony, lasting about 45 minutes, which was great because it was getting warm in the auditorium and Riddick was getting restless. Speaking of Riddick, he went to the ceremony wearing underwear and told Wayne twice that he had to go potty, and did not have an accident! Woohoo!!!
Afterward we all went over to the pool hall and had a dinner that was truly amazing. To steal a phrase from Katy, my sister-in-law is a domestic genius. I wish I had half the cooking talent she has!
On Wednesday, May 20 it was my birthday. Wayne’s parents bought us tickets to the Willie Nelson concert. My sister-in-law came to babysit and brought a Pyrex dish variety pack for my birthday present, which I LOVE because the dishes are glass. She also brought me some scissors that work great as a seam ripper (I’ve already tested them out!), and a magnetic pin holder so I don’t have to worry (as much) about dropping pins on the floor. Anyway, we went to the concert and had a great time. Willie puts on a fabulous show!
Saturday, May 23 we went to a wedding. It was interesting. A Catholic priest came to a Presbyterian church and split the ceremony with the Presbyterian preacher (?). It was a nice ceremony nonetheless, and I hate to make fun, but I have to. Apparently at Catholic weddings, the priest raises his right arm to bless the couple, and everyone in the audience follows suit. In this particular ceremony, the priest did that, and a lot of people in the audience did the same. Except that the people who weren’t Catholic were also doing this…with their arms straight out…like Nazis…as the priest was giving the blessing. To see this en masse at a wedding was absolutely hysterical.
In other news for that day we went to a BBQ after the wedding. It was quite enjoyable, even if I did have to hold Trinity 2/3 of the time. Everyone brought a side dish and the food was all good.
Sunday, May 24 we went to my dad’s for another BBQ, this time with my brother and his family. My brother was assigned another tour in Korea (this will be his third tour in Korea, and he has been to Iraq twice), and wanted to visit before he has to leave. We hope this time he will be allowed to take his wife and young son with him, but I am not sure if it will happen or not due to the escalating situation with North Korea. Anyway, we all had a pretty good time, once again, good food. I learned about a recipe for dump cake from my dad’s fiancé, Rena. How could I have not known about this wonderful concoction? It is so delicious and EASY! I am totally going to try it out. Also, I learned that for some reason, Riddick does not like to go pee in the potty at my dad’s. I have no idea why.
Monday, May 25, Memorial Day, was our day to finally rest. I think I did a load of laundry. Maybe picked up a few things off the floor. That was about it. It was a fun, crazy week and we were exhausted, but it was a great start to the summer!
So here’s what went down last week.
Monday, May 18 was Cody’s, our nephew, 8th grade graduation. We were the last of our family to get to the middle school in Centralia (we are usually the last to arrive anywhere), but they saved us some seats. As we waited, Trinity got fussy and wanted to nurse, and of course that was only moments before they started the procession, so I couldn’t see Cody because I was sitting. Cody got a couple of academic awards, though, and when he walked up to receive them I could see how handsome he looked! He seems so grown up now, as I am sure his mother would completely agree. The 8th grade band members also performed a song with the rest of the band, and they sounded great (much better than the rest of the band performing Pomp and Circumstance without the 8th graders).
It was a very to-the-point ceremony, lasting about 45 minutes, which was great because it was getting warm in the auditorium and Riddick was getting restless. Speaking of Riddick, he went to the ceremony wearing underwear and told Wayne twice that he had to go potty, and did not have an accident! Woohoo!!!
Afterward we all went over to the pool hall and had a dinner that was truly amazing. To steal a phrase from Katy, my sister-in-law is a domestic genius. I wish I had half the cooking talent she has!
On Wednesday, May 20 it was my birthday. Wayne’s parents bought us tickets to the Willie Nelson concert. My sister-in-law came to babysit and brought a Pyrex dish variety pack for my birthday present, which I LOVE because the dishes are glass. She also brought me some scissors that work great as a seam ripper (I’ve already tested them out!), and a magnetic pin holder so I don’t have to worry (as much) about dropping pins on the floor. Anyway, we went to the concert and had a great time. Willie puts on a fabulous show!
Saturday, May 23 we went to a wedding. It was interesting. A Catholic priest came to a Presbyterian church and split the ceremony with the Presbyterian preacher (?). It was a nice ceremony nonetheless, and I hate to make fun, but I have to. Apparently at Catholic weddings, the priest raises his right arm to bless the couple, and everyone in the audience follows suit. In this particular ceremony, the priest did that, and a lot of people in the audience did the same. Except that the people who weren’t Catholic were also doing this…with their arms straight out…like Nazis…as the priest was giving the blessing. To see this en masse at a wedding was absolutely hysterical.
In other news for that day we went to a BBQ after the wedding. It was quite enjoyable, even if I did have to hold Trinity 2/3 of the time. Everyone brought a side dish and the food was all good.
Sunday, May 24 we went to my dad’s for another BBQ, this time with my brother and his family. My brother was assigned another tour in Korea (this will be his third tour in Korea, and he has been to Iraq twice), and wanted to visit before he has to leave. We hope this time he will be allowed to take his wife and young son with him, but I am not sure if it will happen or not due to the escalating situation with North Korea. Anyway, we all had a pretty good time, once again, good food. I learned about a recipe for dump cake from my dad’s fiancé, Rena. How could I have not known about this wonderful concoction? It is so delicious and EASY! I am totally going to try it out. Also, I learned that for some reason, Riddick does not like to go pee in the potty at my dad’s. I have no idea why.
Monday, May 25, Memorial Day, was our day to finally rest. I think I did a load of laundry. Maybe picked up a few things off the floor. That was about it. It was a fun, crazy week and we were exhausted, but it was a great start to the summer!
Monday, May 18, 2009
Update on the to-do list
So a couple of blogs ago I listed many things that I was hoping to accomplish. Here’s an update.
1. I got another cloth diaper made for Trinity. I now have the prototype and one that actually fits her. Wayne and I have both noticed that these diapers are rather bulky. Too late to switch materials, I already have several old T-shirts destroyed to make the diapers and I WILL make more of them. The one I did finish worked just fine yesterday. Apparently Trinity likes to save all her poop for one diaper, and it held it all nicely.
2. I did get finished with the massive amount of reading I had to do for the meeting in which I was supposed to present two papers. On the day of the meeting, as I was walking into my office, my advisor called me to tell me that the meeting was postponed. This was about 10 minutes before the meeting. We have yet to reschedule…Fred (my advisor) is in Denmark this week, and the other person we are meeting with is doing something that takes up so much of his time that he can’t even send me a quick email.
3. The blanket I am making for Trinity is a rather simple one: four colors, 9 squares of each color sewn together. I have completed 6 of the 36 squares, and I am almost done with number 7 of the purple.
4. Yesterday after I did a pitching lesson I went to the store for a few things and bought some sweet potatoes for Trinity. I got 2 pounds at 65 cents a pound. I used ice cube trays to divide them up once they were all pureed and froze them. They work quite nicely and I think two cubes are probably close to one jar of baby food. So this is definitely WAY more cost effective than buying it in jars.
Trinity is so funny when she eats solid food, especially sweet potatoes. It’s like a dog getting a treat. She sees the spoon, and gets all wiggly and giggly with excitement, and her eyes and mouth get all big, and she grabs my hand to get the spoon to her mouth. It makes me laugh every time.
5. I am currently in a frustrated mode regarding making butter. I did try it the same weekend I made the yogurt, but I bought ultra-pasteurized half and half, failing to notice that the instructions said not to use ultra-pasteurized cream to make homemade butter. I realized this after half an hour of the cream being in the mixer doing nothing but swirling around being cream. Today at the store I noticed ALL the heavy whipping cream there was ultra-pasteurized, as was most of the half and half, causing me to curse under my breath. It’s a damn conspiracy!
6. I got a little more done toward the project I am working on at school. It seems like I should already have all the data collected, but then I remember that I am only in the lab part time and I have only been working at it for a few months. It just seems like it is taking forever.
7. I have made no progress on the container garden or the hats I am supposed to be knitting for my brother and sister. I do not feel upset by this in any way.
8. I have started a rag rug with the scraps from making cloth diapers. Because everyone knows I need another project.
Other news: Riddick is almost fully potty trained. It is truly a miracle. I never thought the day would come. He still wears a pull up at night because he isn’t night trained yet, but he has had only a few accidents since the last blog, none of which involve poop. He has been to the ball field during one of my games with underwear and did not have an accident, but this was because my husband taught him how to pee outside at the playground at the ball field.
And Riddick is talking. A LOT. I even get the play-by-play from the bathroom (Mama, pee! Mama, I done! Mama, I flush! Mama, pants!). Most of it is comprehensible, but he still has those words that he says that make Wayne and I look at each other with that question in our eyes, “Did you understand a word he just said?” And then we just smile and say ‘ok’ or ‘yeah’. He loves to watch Diego and Dora, the Backyardigans and Wonderpets, and any cartoons involving superheroes. He seems to pick up new words every day when he watches morning cartoons.
Trinity is rolling from her back to front and back again in both directions now. She is getting closer to sitting up on her own, and is also getting closer to pushing herself up on all fours. At her 6 month checkup on the 12th she was 20 lbs, 6 oz., which puts her in the 97th percentile for weight. Still. She was 26 ¼ in long, putting her in the 58th percentile for height. Her first “word” is ‘dada’ which she says NONSTOP. She has started getting upset when she can’t have/reach an object she wants, and gets even madder when you take something away from her. She is sleeping “through the night”, which basically means she sleeps for a 5 hour stretch (like 11p-4a), which also means I am still tired.
So that’s the update on my to-do list. Although it is slow, progress is being made.
1. I got another cloth diaper made for Trinity. I now have the prototype and one that actually fits her. Wayne and I have both noticed that these diapers are rather bulky. Too late to switch materials, I already have several old T-shirts destroyed to make the diapers and I WILL make more of them. The one I did finish worked just fine yesterday. Apparently Trinity likes to save all her poop for one diaper, and it held it all nicely.
2. I did get finished with the massive amount of reading I had to do for the meeting in which I was supposed to present two papers. On the day of the meeting, as I was walking into my office, my advisor called me to tell me that the meeting was postponed. This was about 10 minutes before the meeting. We have yet to reschedule…Fred (my advisor) is in Denmark this week, and the other person we are meeting with is doing something that takes up so much of his time that he can’t even send me a quick email.
3. The blanket I am making for Trinity is a rather simple one: four colors, 9 squares of each color sewn together. I have completed 6 of the 36 squares, and I am almost done with number 7 of the purple.
4. Yesterday after I did a pitching lesson I went to the store for a few things and bought some sweet potatoes for Trinity. I got 2 pounds at 65 cents a pound. I used ice cube trays to divide them up once they were all pureed and froze them. They work quite nicely and I think two cubes are probably close to one jar of baby food. So this is definitely WAY more cost effective than buying it in jars.
Trinity is so funny when she eats solid food, especially sweet potatoes. It’s like a dog getting a treat. She sees the spoon, and gets all wiggly and giggly with excitement, and her eyes and mouth get all big, and she grabs my hand to get the spoon to her mouth. It makes me laugh every time.
5. I am currently in a frustrated mode regarding making butter. I did try it the same weekend I made the yogurt, but I bought ultra-pasteurized half and half, failing to notice that the instructions said not to use ultra-pasteurized cream to make homemade butter. I realized this after half an hour of the cream being in the mixer doing nothing but swirling around being cream. Today at the store I noticed ALL the heavy whipping cream there was ultra-pasteurized, as was most of the half and half, causing me to curse under my breath. It’s a damn conspiracy!
6. I got a little more done toward the project I am working on at school. It seems like I should already have all the data collected, but then I remember that I am only in the lab part time and I have only been working at it for a few months. It just seems like it is taking forever.
7. I have made no progress on the container garden or the hats I am supposed to be knitting for my brother and sister. I do not feel upset by this in any way.
8. I have started a rag rug with the scraps from making cloth diapers. Because everyone knows I need another project.
Other news: Riddick is almost fully potty trained. It is truly a miracle. I never thought the day would come. He still wears a pull up at night because he isn’t night trained yet, but he has had only a few accidents since the last blog, none of which involve poop. He has been to the ball field during one of my games with underwear and did not have an accident, but this was because my husband taught him how to pee outside at the playground at the ball field.
And Riddick is talking. A LOT. I even get the play-by-play from the bathroom (Mama, pee! Mama, I done! Mama, I flush! Mama, pants!). Most of it is comprehensible, but he still has those words that he says that make Wayne and I look at each other with that question in our eyes, “Did you understand a word he just said?” And then we just smile and say ‘ok’ or ‘yeah’. He loves to watch Diego and Dora, the Backyardigans and Wonderpets, and any cartoons involving superheroes. He seems to pick up new words every day when he watches morning cartoons.
Trinity is rolling from her back to front and back again in both directions now. She is getting closer to sitting up on her own, and is also getting closer to pushing herself up on all fours. At her 6 month checkup on the 12th she was 20 lbs, 6 oz., which puts her in the 97th percentile for weight. Still. She was 26 ¼ in long, putting her in the 58th percentile for height. Her first “word” is ‘dada’ which she says NONSTOP. She has started getting upset when she can’t have/reach an object she wants, and gets even madder when you take something away from her. She is sleeping “through the night”, which basically means she sleeps for a 5 hour stretch (like 11p-4a), which also means I am still tired.
So that’s the update on my to-do list. Although it is slow, progress is being made.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Too much stuff
So yeah, I am not so great about keeping up with this blog. My life is literally a whirlwind of activities, only a few of which get accomplished, and blogging is a pretty low priority. Here is a list of things I am trying to get done:
1. reading a massive amount of material before I have to present a couple of papers tomorrow to my advisor and a collaborator so we can talk about a thesis project. I was the last to find out about this meeting, but I guess that is what happens when you are low on the totem pole.
2. making cloth diapers for Trinity. I have a prototype completed, but cannot get the others made because I cannot get any sewing done without my husband taking care of the kids.
3. blanket for Trinity that I started knitting 9 months ago.
4. knitted hat for my brother that was supposed to be a Christmas present, and now is looking like it will be a Christmas present this year.
5. knitted hat for my sister that matches the scarf I made for her, also was supposed to be for Christmas.
6. making baby food for Trinity. She REALLY likes sweet potatoes.
7. starting a container garden. I think I’ll start with tomatoes and green beans this year to keep it simple.
8. making butter.
9. data collection for the current research project I am doing.
10. blogging about all these things, complete with photos.
11. keeping up with household stuff.
I have mentioned in a previous blog that mornings are pretty much only good for a couple things—keeping kids entertained and maybe doing a load of laundry…blogging if I get lucky. Afternoons are spent in the lab or reading stuff pertaining to research. So that leaves evenings, which involve very little of the things listed above. Maybe I will try to incorporate a day into my week where I try to do something that gets me closer to completing the projects listed above. That means sacrificing a research day, though, and I don’t know if I can afford to do that at this point.
Not being able to get these things done sometimes stresses me out. It stresses me out because some of the items will save us some money if I can only get them done.
In other news, Riddick is no longer fighting with me to wear underwear and is going pee in the potty by himself regularly. And he has to inform me every time that he has to go pee. And he also has to inform me that he needs to turn on the light, when he has finished going pee, that he needs to flush, and needs to wash his hands. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes exasperating. However, he still refuses to poop in the potty. Completely exasperating. Trinity no longer hates being on the floor on her belly and is trying to get up on all fours. She still only rolls from her back to front in one direction, but she is almost sitting up by herself. She is also easily distracted, and we have lots of distracting things to look at and examine, especially when she is nursing. I love the feeling of warm breastmilk dripping down my side while she squirms around to look at her brother. And when I say love, I really mean hate. But like anything else, this too shall pass.
So as soon as humanly possible, I will post about my recent experience with making homemade yogurt (hint: it went great!), which will be in a few days, at best. We have the baby dedication and a wedding this weekend, so maybe early next week.
1. reading a massive amount of material before I have to present a couple of papers tomorrow to my advisor and a collaborator so we can talk about a thesis project. I was the last to find out about this meeting, but I guess that is what happens when you are low on the totem pole.
2. making cloth diapers for Trinity. I have a prototype completed, but cannot get the others made because I cannot get any sewing done without my husband taking care of the kids.
3. blanket for Trinity that I started knitting 9 months ago.
4. knitted hat for my brother that was supposed to be a Christmas present, and now is looking like it will be a Christmas present this year.
5. knitted hat for my sister that matches the scarf I made for her, also was supposed to be for Christmas.
6. making baby food for Trinity. She REALLY likes sweet potatoes.
7. starting a container garden. I think I’ll start with tomatoes and green beans this year to keep it simple.
8. making butter.
9. data collection for the current research project I am doing.
10. blogging about all these things, complete with photos.
11. keeping up with household stuff.
I have mentioned in a previous blog that mornings are pretty much only good for a couple things—keeping kids entertained and maybe doing a load of laundry…blogging if I get lucky. Afternoons are spent in the lab or reading stuff pertaining to research. So that leaves evenings, which involve very little of the things listed above. Maybe I will try to incorporate a day into my week where I try to do something that gets me closer to completing the projects listed above. That means sacrificing a research day, though, and I don’t know if I can afford to do that at this point.
Not being able to get these things done sometimes stresses me out. It stresses me out because some of the items will save us some money if I can only get them done.
In other news, Riddick is no longer fighting with me to wear underwear and is going pee in the potty by himself regularly. And he has to inform me every time that he has to go pee. And he also has to inform me that he needs to turn on the light, when he has finished going pee, that he needs to flush, and needs to wash his hands. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes exasperating. However, he still refuses to poop in the potty. Completely exasperating. Trinity no longer hates being on the floor on her belly and is trying to get up on all fours. She still only rolls from her back to front in one direction, but she is almost sitting up by herself. She is also easily distracted, and we have lots of distracting things to look at and examine, especially when she is nursing. I love the feeling of warm breastmilk dripping down my side while she squirms around to look at her brother. And when I say love, I really mean hate. But like anything else, this too shall pass.
So as soon as humanly possible, I will post about my recent experience with making homemade yogurt (hint: it went great!), which will be in a few days, at best. We have the baby dedication and a wedding this weekend, so maybe early next week.
***Update 9:45AM***
Riddick did it! He went poop in the potty by himself while I was laying down in bed with Trinity trying to get her to sleep. He didn't say anything, he just went in the bathroom, sat down, pooped, and then yelled to me that he pooped.
I wonder what else will suddenly happen if I blog about it...
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