Just a Kitchen Slave Today

Time Log -
7:00 am - woke up, wanted to go back to sleep, just lay in bed, and finally got up. Talked to Zen, then helped Emma, and got Dani off to school, watched a little Twilight with Zen. Puttered around the house, doing this and that.
9:40 am - exercised, Gazelle 31+ min. resistance #2, 1.20 miles, 145.1 cal. I got a new monitor for my Gazelle, when the old one broke, and the new one gives me more calories burned, which is nice, but it still doesn't factor in the resistance level, so I always feel like I did more calories than it said.
10:15 am - Upstairs, helped Emma & Connor, did various things. Ate breakfast. Zen and I went over our budget. We lost about $2000 of income when I had to quit daycare, so we've been going in the hole every month. That's why I've GOT to get this eBay store running like I need it to. I also did research on banana cookies before I went shopping.
12:30 pm - went shopping to get ingredients for this new potato goulash stew Gil wanted me to make. Then, I spent the rest of the day standing in the kitchen cooking banana cookies, cutting up a seven-pound pork loin roast to make the goulash, and to have extra meat to freeze for later meals. Also made rolls. Sometime in the afternoon I did some brief things in my craftroom.
5:45 pm - done prepping all the food. Came downstairs to my craftroom to work on some things while dinner finished cooking
6:45 pm - served dinner, came back to my craftroom & watched Supernatural
8:15 pm - went upstairs to grab my coat for ice show practice, and Dani showed me this pic she just took:

Kids sleep in the funniest positions sometimes.

Went to ice show practice, then came home, read scriptures with the fam, put Emma to bed (she woke up while I was gone), and got everyone else in bed.
10 pm - finish blog post, watch Supernatural & go to bed

Food Log -
10:50 am - Malt O'Meal cooked with frozen strawberries
12:00 pm - 1 mini Baby Bell cheese, about 1/5 to 1/4 bag of tortilla chips
3 pm - about 6 cookies, then I snitched pieces of fried pork trimmings while I made the stew, 1 light vanilla yogurt
5:45 pm - one bowl of peppermint ice cream, a few more cookies
7 pm - two bowls of stew, 2 rolls, a few more cookies
10 pm - more cookies, a glass of milk

Hungry Hungry Hippos

A new background for your viewing pleasure!

Katy, have I always been misspelling your name, or did I just have a brain cramp yesterday? I'm glad you got some scrapbooking done. Jenn, don't worry about Coal. He's a good dog, and gassiness is all part of the fun package. Ask Sue. It's just an excuse to tell our favorite kind of jokes.

Time Log -
8:15 am - wake up, get dressed to exercise, talk to Emma & Zen
8:50 am - exercise 20 min on Gazelle, reistance #2, I was running late, or I would have done more, showered & dressed
9:45 pm - arrived at podiatrist dr. appt for my foot, he gave me a steroid shot in my right heel, it feels so much better, but that's mostly the numbness for now.
10:30 pm - back home, fed Emma, then I ate breakfast, balanced my checkbook, did the bills, went through a big stack of mail, sorting things for the shredder, filed papers. Zen also had a dr appt. this morning, just general health stuff, and he volunteerd to take Connor. But he had to bribe him to get him out the door. He told Connor he would take him to Wal-Mart, and buy him Hungry, Hungry Hippos. Connor saw it on a commercial, and told us he wanted it. Now, I generally don't buy my kids candy or toys at the store, EVER, except for birthdays and Christmas, because I'm not plunking down a gazillion dollars everytime we go shopping. There has to be a clear pattern of non-spoiling, or the whining at the store increased exponentially. As if shopping with kids wasn't hard enough! So, Daddy was a pushover today, and bought Connor a toy. They had fun setting it up together:


If he wasn't feeding the hippos, he was trapping his blue Lightning McQueen. Once in a while, he would tell the hippos, "Don't eat Lightning, eat the food." Never mind that Lightning was Hippo lunch by his own decree.

1:20 pm - down on my computer, checking email, started my blog post for the day to get a head start
2:05 pm - after valiantly trying to stay awake, my eyes just kept drooping shut, and I gave up and took a nap. Zen is home until Thursday, so I have the luxury of doing that.
3:20 pm - kids came home from school, so I kicked myself out of bed and started prepping my eBay orders to ship
4:55 pm - ran to the post office
5:05 pm - came back, and started cooking dinner. Played Hungry, Hungry Hippos with Connor for the tenth time, at least. Zen told me the hippos tend to break easily. I have a feeling this game will break sooner rather than later, and may not entirely be Connor's fault. That's all I will say about that.
6:00 pm - doing my follow-up emailing for eBay orders, then started a Supernatural episode.
7:00 pm - eat dinner, then I drove Dani to ice show practice. Came back, and watched some more of Supernatural. Then I gave Emma a bath, and put her to bed.
8:25 pm - left to pick up Dani
8:45 pm - back home, and we read scriptures. Now I'm sitting at my computer bringing my post up to date.
9:25 pm - stop and read Connor a story.
9:40 pm - work on a new blog background, because it's fun.
12:25 am - done dinking around, I'll go to bed after I finish my Supernatural episode, about 10 min. At least I improved on my blog-post finish, which was done by about 10:20, for all intents and purposes.

Food Log -

10:40 am - bowl of Malt O' Meal cooked with frozen Strawberries, 1 stick of a Kit Kat bar, two bites of Hershey's Cookie white choc bar, 1/3 of cheese baby puffs (like rice puffs, almost no calories)
1 pm - about 12 cracked wheat crackers, about 1 cup pineapple lowfat cottage cheese, two scoops peppermint ice cream
5:50 pm - ate two plain lasagne noodles w/a big spoonful of filling on each
7:00 pm - one serving of lasagne, one piece garlic bread, one serving salad w/ranch dressing, one 12 oz. glass choc milk

End Post #49, 2009

Missed You, Sue!

You get a little extra tonight. I had this interesting conversation with Sue, about the differences between personalities. I was thinking about Girls' Weekend, and how it seemed like we didn't do as much talking as we have in times past. I think Sue is somewhat the life of the party, in the sense of being able to get us talking more deeply, digging past the casual, surface stuff, and getting down to the nitty gritty.

My personality tends to be reserved, to err on the side of caution. I'll be curious about people, but be afraid I'll start poking around where I'm not wanted, so I'm not able to form very close, intimate friendships with people, even though I would really like to. I offend less people than if I were more outgoing, but I have less friends, too, and probably do less good in the world, not knowing what people are really feeling and thinking. I feel like, socially, I have too much fear. I think about people all the time, wishing I could be of help, but too shy to put myself out there. I think I would obsess about what I said, and what the other person thought. I'm trying to come out of my shell more, but it's a long, slow process.

I'm sure Sue could say all that more eloquently. When she writes, she makes her point so well. Frankly, it makes me depressed sometimes, and a little jealous (sorry, sis.) It's ironic, thinking about my own writing. I studied English, and wrote a gazillion papers in college, but I really hate my writing. It makes me giggle to say this, 'cause it sounds kinda nuts, but I have a ton of imaginary friends and stories in my head. I'll mull over something for a few days, then finally let it go when I get bored with it. But I never write anything, because to me, I sound so unpolished and stupid when I write, and just basically boring. I have funny little conversations with myself sometimes, with my imaginary characters. I'll be cooking, or doing something mundane, and I'll say a sentence or phrase outloud from my thoughts, and Zen will say, "What are you talking about?" I have to tell him, "Never mind, just having one of my imaginary conversations again." I once read Terry Brooks' non-fiction work about his process of writing, and when I read about this weird thing he has going on, of imaginary people and places he visits in his head, I thought, "Oh. My. Word. That's me!!!" I'm a weirdo too, not successful or famous, just a weirdo. See, don't I sound like I'm 12, or something. Ughhh!

But, if nothing else, I can be a prolific blogger. Boring sometimes, but prolific.

A few last notes on Girls' Weekend:

Pics I wish I'd taken this weekend:
1. A group shot of all of us Friday night. I should take a tripod next time.
2. A wide shot of us watching Twilight.
3. Jenn and all her pets.
4. Jenn's whole scrapbook, which I think is awesome. Jenn, you have a wonderful sense of space and design. If you feel up to it, take quick pics of all the pages, burn them to a disk, and mail it to me. It's just the kind of style I'd like to emulate.
5. Cruising the aisles at Pebbles.

At Thanksgiving, it seems like we got more scrapbooking done than we did this weekend. Any suggestions? Maybe we could designate a project, like a mini-scrapbook we could all do in a few hours, then work on our own stuff, too. But then, maybe that was just me, I should have brought one specific project, instead of practically everything I own. Spending all Saturday morning blogging didn't help, either, I'm sure. And do we want to start planning the next weekend, or is that too far off? Speaking of which, what are we doing for Family Reunion?

End Post #48, 2009

Home Again, Home Again, Riggity Jig

Time Log -

9:05 am - got a call from Mom, who was worried about the weather. I lay in bed, considering. It's no small joke to think about how bad the snow and wind will affect Wyoming roads. I finally got up, and checked the forecasts for Salt Lake and Rock Springs. It was just snow flurries, no big deal to me, but I decided I wanted to be home before dark, so I started packing up all my stuff. Showered and dressed for church. Jenn's shower is awesome. I couldn't get a very good pic, no matter where I stood, but you will just have to imagine being surrounded by three showerheads, if you wished to turn them all on:

I know Jenn bemoaned the irony of having cleaned all the rooms in the house, except for her bathroom, but it was okay. It's nice to go from a closet (the bathrooms in my house) to a real room, when showering & dressing. Thanks for sharing, Jenn!
I'd missed getting pics of Cole, who we laughed at a lot because he was so stinky, but cute besides. So, Jenn and I tried to get him to hold still for a pic, but he was feeling way too spazzy this morning:

I wish I could have gotten a pic of Jenn and all her pets, but maybe another time. Besides, it could be next to impossible to get 3 cats and 2 dogs to sit down all at once.
Anyway, finished dressing, and Jenn and I went to her sacrament meeting. Then, we left right afterwards, packed my car, and I headed out:
Bye, Jenn's house! Thanks for a wonderful stay!!!
Then, I headed over to Mom's to drop off her folding table, pillow, and blanket, which I borrowed because I forgot mine. Thanks!

On the way out of town, I ate one of the cupcakes Katie made, and after the first bite, this is what I found. It's a grand tradition to bake coins into a birthday cake, as well as one button. Does anyone want to tell the backstory behind that, in the comment section?

I couldn't resist taking more pictures through Echo Canyon. I just stuck my camera out the window and pushed the button while I drove. Mom, I know you're wincing just reading that. But I kept my eyes on the road for the most part, and let the camera do the work. I figured at least one of them would come out, and I was right.
4:10 pm - back home and I unloaded the van. Whew! Zen later asked me, "Is it too much to hope for that you unloaded your van already?" "Done, babe!" He was very relieved. He helped me load it in the first place, but he forgets that I work out everyday. I appreciate his help, but I'm tough enough to do things myself, if I need to. "Help me, or get out of my way" is generally the way to deal with me. I was glad to be home. It's nice to visit, but then it's always nice to be back in your own space. Zen and the kids got home around 5pm. I hugged Connor and Foofie-Loo. We were all glad to see each other. Foofie took a little while to warm up to me. What am I, chopped liver? Didn't you miss me? But it was still a good reunion. Connor snuggled up on his favorite chair and Sponge Bob on tv, Zen and Gil basked in the warm glow of World of War Craft (sarcasm deliberate), Dani watched Twilight for the zillionth time, and Foofie and I had our silly Mommy/baby talk time. I cleaned dishes and made dinner, chicken stir fry. Then, I got my laptop set up, and read family blogs, of which there wasn't much action. Hmmm...
9:00 pm or so - I went upstairs when Foofie got cranky, gave her a bath, and put her down for bed. I talked to Sue on the phone for a while, and then cracked the whip with everyone. I'd heard enough complaining, mostly from Gil, about how dirty the upstairs bathroom was, so I instructed him how to clean it. People who gripe about something they won't fix, don't get me started! Dani cleaned the kitchen completely, not very willingly, and Zen vacuumed. Then we read scriptures.
10:20 pm - work on blog posts
12:20 pm - to bed, to bed, lots to do tomorrow

Food Log -
1:15 pm - 3 Heath Klondike bars, 1 cupcake, 1/5 to 1/4 bag of Nacho Doritos, 1 16oz. Dr. Pepper
4:30 pm to 7 pm - 2 peanut butter cookies, about 12 cracked wheat crackers & about 1 cup pineapple cottage cheese (love that stuff!), popcorn (1 to 2 cups), and a bowl of chicken stir-fry w/white rice, crystal light to drink

End Post #47, 2009

Girls' Weekend Part Dos

Hold on to your britches, girls, because I've got 20, yes 20, pics in this post!

Well, Katy and Chris were up at 7 with Sedona, I kept my eyes closed, and dosed on and off, and finally got up at 8:40 am. Chris and Katy made breakfast - pancakes and scrambled eggs:


I got a kick out of watching Sedona. She's an independent little girl, and also kept avoiding the camera. I kept trying to catch her, and she'd turn away from me:



The dogs were funny, pacing around the kitchen, desparately waiting for scraps. I love goofy pics, and goofy pet pics don't disappoint:

"I'm getting tired waiting for scraps. This bites!!!"

After breakfast, it was time to get dressed and get going. I took a shower in the "surround" shower in Jenn's bathroom. I'll take a pic tomorrow, if I remember to. Then, it was get dressed, and everyone worked on projects for a little while. Mom showed up, and we all decided to get our shopping errands done. But first, I finished my blog post for Friday. It took longer than expected, of course. Then we went to Pebbles a little after noon. I picked up cardstock for Sue, using the "honey-do" list she emailed to me. I was going to take pics of us perusing the aisles of gorgeous paper and embellishements, but of course, I forgot. I did take a few pics of mini albums to inspire me for the mother's day mini-albums I want to make for a Relief Society project:








Then it was off to Robert's, drooling over beads, and picking up some more paper for Sue:



Then, I had another Dad moment, admiring the Wasatch Mountains, and took pictures in the middle of traffic:



Then, lastly I stopped off at Wal-Mart. Jenn's Wal-Mart is shockingly clean, staffed with helpful people, and I didn't even have to wait in line for 20 min. I felt like I was in America, instead of Communist Russia. Amazing:



Back to Jenn's by 3:30. Got to work helping Mom fix one of her favorite necklaces, making two sets of earrings, and converting another:



There's a neat story with this bracelet. It's made from the handles of two silver spoons, which were Aunt Sneath's, I think. Mom, you fill in the story in the comment section.

We also sang happy birthday to Katie:



Sedona had a blast crawling around, digging in new things:

She saw me coming with the camera, and turned away. But it was like wildlife photography - I just waited for my chance, and sooner or later, she turned around and I caught her! Ha, ha, I win!

Jenn, I think, pointed out that Sedona was going to town on my ribbon stash. I had a moment of panic, then I thought, "Oh, why not? It will make a cute pic." But, a few minutes later, when I went back to take a pic, I found it all cleaned up by Chris, which was a good mom thing to do, but bad for the blog.

And Liz picked up a bunch of ribbon out of my stash:

See, bringing all this stuff wasn't totally useless.
Then, everyone except for me Mom, and Jenn, left around 8 pm. Mom stayed and ate dinner while we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The, Mom was gone too and it was just me and Jenn. We sat, doing our craft thing, me fixing Emma's binky clip and Jenn scrapbooking, while we watched The Wedding Date, and started Spanglish. Then, Jenn went to bed, and I got busy on my blog post. Here's the page I helped Jenn finish, by designing and cutting the flowers on my Pazzles Inpsiration diecutting machine:



Now, at 2am, I'm done, and going to bed. See you tomorrow!
Food Log -
9:30 am - a little scrambled eggs, a bowl of fresh strawberries
6:30 pm - a barbeque chicken sandwich, some artichoke dip and chips, some veggies and ranch, orange juice, apple juice
10 pm - 2 Heath Klondike bars

End Post #46, 2009

Girls' Weekend Part Uno

Sorry, a little late on the post for Friday. But I was too tired last night, and Jenn doesn't have wireless internet. But, I'm on her computer this morning, so here goes:

Time Log -

6:30 am - alarm went off, lay in bed like a slug
6:50 am - finally got up, talked to Zen, started getting ready to go. Skipped the exercising, because I thought I could go faster. Slacker! Well, um... pretty much packed my whole craftroom, minus the stuff I neeed to sell, helped Zen a little with get the kids ready to go, then I headed out on the road. Zen and I were talking on the cell phone as I left, and Connor had to talk to me to tell me, in a mopey tone of voice, that his feet were cold. He'd been romping around in the snow in his socks and crocs, it's a little kid thing. So, I told him to take off his socks and put his blankie on his feet. Packing is always funny, because something is always forgotten. I was going to give the spare camera to them so they could take pics in Star Valley, but I forgot to give it to them. MONKEYS!!
12:25 pm - finally pulled out of Rock Springs, jammin' to tunes, singing along with no one to yell at me to quit singing. I love driving, jammin', and singing. It's on my top five list of relaxing things to do, a great destresser. Along the way, I did a naughty/dangerous thing. I stopped along the side of the interstate in Echo Canyon, and took pictures of the rocks. It was a totally Dad thing, taking pics on the side of the road on road trips. We HATED it when we were kids. "Awww, Dad!" But now, Sue and I are totally picture hounds. David is, too. Is Don? Here are the red rocks in Echo Canyon:



Someday, I want to make a photo trip to photograph Echo Canyon. I got a feeling I'll be alone on that trip! Unless, Sue, you want to make a daytrip with me?

2:45 pm - blew into Salt Lake, and headed to Sandy, to go to a bead show with Mom. Turns out that it was cancelled because the crew got stuck in a snowstorm in Denver. Rats. So, we turned to plan B, met up at 90th South and State, Mom jumped in my car, and headed to a bead store in Sugarhouse, called String Beads. It's like being a kid in a candy store. So many choices. Makes my brain hurt! Here we are:




5:15 pm - Mom was done pretty fast, but of course, I took forever, trying to narrow my choices. I gave up, bought a few beads, and headed out of there. Fought rush-hour traffic. Stopped at Smith's on the way to Jenn's, picked up the stuff for my guacamole.
6:30 pm - Arrived at Jenn's, unloaded my car, with the help of my Mom and Jenn, who I just know were thinking, "Why did you bring so much crap?!!!!" Can you blame them:

Sue, you weren't there at my house to veto anything, sorry!

My AccuCut diecutter, so I can make some cards, and you know I like sharing, I think that's the problem with all the stuff: I think everyone will want to use at least a little of something.


Then it was deciding what to order from Pizza Factory, then Jenn and Chris picked up everyone's order, and when it got here we filled up our plates:





Then, it was showtime, baby! Twilight, some good eye candy, and that's all I will say 'bout that. It was about 10:30 pm by then, my Mom and Liz went home to sleep, and we carried on. Everyone asked me about Supernatural, I caught 'em up to speed, and we watched a few episodes on my laptop. Some nice eye candy there, too, of the hottie variety. I fell asleep in the middle of the second episode. That's it, tried to make it short and sweet.

End Post #45, 2009

Say Your Prayers... I'm Saying Mine

I-80 was closed in spots today. I just checked, and they're open, and will probably stay open, but I'm nervous. The forecast says it will be sunny in the morning, so I think I'm good. There's a webcam on Wyoroad.info, which I'll check in the morning, too. I will try to go to bed tonight by midnight. It's 10:25 pm right now. Can I get to bed before midnight? I have just one pic to post, so maybe I've got a chance.

7:30 am or so - woke up, checked my email (I check for comments in the morning, just like you guys check for my posts.) Then I went back to bed.
8:45 am or so - got up, played with Emma, did laundry?
9:25 am - exercised, 30 min. Gazelle, resistance #2
9:55 am - seriously, I don't remember what I was doing when, for the next four hours, I know I wasn't goofing around, but it was stuff like doing laundry for the weekend trip, checking on this big project I have in mind for the future, which I'll be blogging about more later after I sell a bunch of stuff, checking email, having an online chat with technical support at eBay about html and css code for my eBay listing. Turns out I can't do much more than I'm doing now. I'll update my code, but I'm not allowed to do the really special things I was going to do. Monkeys!!! But I'll be able to implement the new code for my website, so it's still useful. And hey, I can now be a layout blog queen, if I wish, just like Matie Kay. I already have several backgrounds I want to post. Seriously, Chris, would you let me fix your blog time/date issues at Girls' Weekend? I bet I can!
3:15 pm - went shopping for hamburger to put in the spaghetti sauce I was taking to Enrichment. Also found mint cookie ice cream. This is way better than mint chocolate chip. What's my favorite flavor of ice cream? Is this a trick question? Honey, to one degree or another, they're ALL good! It's one of my weaknesses. That, and buffets, but more about that later.
4 pm or so - got home, took Gil to the mall to get his hair cut. Zen and Connor went in the morning. There's a particular lady they request all the time to do their hair. She does a good job. See:

I keep telling these people they need to be patient and give me good pictures, because they last forever. But do they listen? No!!!!! DEEP. B R E A T H. Heathens. They were just not in the mood. But their hair still looks good. There's some good genes floating around in Zen's and my gene pool, if I can biasedly brag for a minute.

Okay, I also did laundry, helped kids, etc.
5 pm or so - started dinner, tried to do some on my computer, but mostly cooked dinner and talked with everyone.
6:05 pm - went to the Relief Society Enrichment dinner social. I had fun, good conversation, laughing about this and that. I'm determined to do a Mother's Day mini-album with everyone. Will have to work up a sample this coming week, so I can show it on Sunday, April 5th, collect all orders by Sunday April 19th, and hopefully do it on Saturday, May 2nd. We'll see.
7:45 pm - came home briefly to drop off my leftover sauce, and grab what I need for skating ice show practice. I briefly debated whether I should go or not, because I have so much to do, but in the end, I decided to go.
8:05 pm - arrived at practice. I was glad I went. It was a good time. And I'm better at moon-walking now. I still move like a white girl, but you know, it's not bad, for me anyway.
9:00 pm - back home, Foofie is fussy in her crib. I'd washed her bedding, and it was still down in the laundry room. Zen didn't bother to put it on, he just threw a blanket down for her. Plus, she hadn't had a bath, and she was in a t-shirt, no pants and no jammies. Jeez, I have to leave her with these people for three days?! Poor baby. So, I fixed her bed, bathed her, put on her jammies, gave her a bottle, and put her back to bed. Then, I helped Connor with various issues, and got him ready for bed
10:25 pm - started my blog post, then read stories with Connor
11:15 pm - have to list a few items in my eBay store.
12:50 am - done with that, now I have to add Zen's baby instructions. I told him I'd put a note in her bag tomorrow, but he said, "Just put it on your blog. Then I know where to research it." Funny.

How to Take Care of Emma -
1. She poops 3 to 5 times a day, so you have to check her diaper frequently, especially after you feed her. Use diaper cream and baby powder as a preventative. Make sure her skin is dry before you put on the cream. Use a hair dryer on low setting to dry off her skin faster. Hold it at least 8 inches away from her skin, so it doesn't hurt her.
2. Feed her baby food three times a day. Her tummy wakes up 30 min to an hour after she wakes up. First thing in the morning, give her a bottle, then about an hour later after she plays a while, you can feed her jar food. I know she's a moocher, but it helps to give her baby food. It fills her tummy up. She's less thrilled with veggies and meal combo flavors, but if you heat them for about 20 seconds in the microwave and stir, she'll eat more of them. She often wants a bottle at night in her crib.
3. She loves her red snowflake snuggle blankie, especially for naps. Fuzzy monkey is a good friend, also.
4. Watch her on the stairs. Your Mom's stairs are especially narrow. It might be a good idea to block them off.
5. BINKY BINKY BINKY - you lose it, you will be sorry! Ditto on her blankie.
6. Oh, we left her fuzzy sheep feet slippers last time. Would you make sure they come back?
7. She naps anywhere between 11 and noon. It just depends on when she wakes up. I usually check her diaper, and put her in her crib with her binky, bottle, and red fuzzy blankie. She might nap again later, but as you saw the other night, this tends to make her cranky. See if you can string her along until 7:30 or 8:00 pm, then put her down for the night.
8. Play, play, play with her. She's going to miss me a lot, and you can make up for that by snuggling with her a lot.
9. If you teach her how to walk or something, take pictures, or you will pay!!! I'm giving you the spare camera, just in case.
10. GOOD LUCK!!! Love you!!!

1:05 am - done with blog post, go to bed, say prayer for me that I'll make it to Salt Lake tomorrow. Love you guys!!

Food Log -
9:30 am 16 oz. water with exercising
12 or 1 pm - half a peanut butter jelly sandwich, milk, a few peanut butter cookies
4 pm - ice cream, about two scoops
6:30 pm - two plates of pasta, salad, bread at the R.S. dinner, 1 piece of choc cake with whip cream frosting
9 pm - glass of Crystal Light

End Post #44, 2009

Emma is Almost There...

Just one more day 'til Girl's Weekend. Zen vetoed me taking Emma to Utah. He wants to take her to Star Valley this weekend, so she can see the grandparents, along with everyone else. I feel trepidation. Poor Foofie, at the mercy of non-anal, non-mommy-brained people. They better not teach her how to walk while I'm gone with my camera. Sigh...

Time Log -

7:15 am - Foofie woke up, so I got up with her. I decided to let Dani stay home from school, because she was coughing up a lung, and I figured she'd be better off here, getting some more sleep. I told her to go back to bed. I helped out Foofie, and turned on the computer. Emma headed for the bathroom door mirror first thing, so I took a pic. Just one of her little things she likes to do, giggle at herself in the mirror:



7:45 am - A little while later, Dani came upstairs and said she couldn't fall asleep, so I went back to bed. She could be the baby wrangler, and I'd get some more sleep (what's up with these late nights?)
10:15 am - got up, fed Emma, decided I'd get some stuff done before Foofie took her nap, then I'd exercise. So, I fixed one of Connor's drawers, and folded his and Emma's laundry. I folded towels, and did a load of my laundry. Then, I sat down at my clean sewing station in my craftroom (Yeay!) and did some mending.
12:30 pm - Foofie had been quiet for awhile while I was mending, and went upstairs to see what was going on. I found her asleep in the toy room with the door shut. Connor said he closed her in there because she was trying to eat his dice. Well, I'm glad he was watching out for her, but I wish he hadn't shut her up in a room.
12:50 pm - 30 min. Gazelle workout, resistance #2, then I did some stuff upstairs with the kids. Showered & dressed.
2:15 pm - went out grocery shopping at Smith's and Wal-Mart
3:15 pm - came home, put the food away, fed Emma, and took these pictures:



She's been letting go of things for days now, and standing without help for a few seconds. But today was the first day I saw her just stand there for 10 seconds in a row. She'll be walking within the month, for sure.


4:30 or so - then I ate lunch downstairs at my computer, watched an episode of Supernatural I downloaded from Amazon.
5 pm or so - really, really wanted to sleep, but I wanted to be useful, so kept going. Probably helped the kids some, changed Foofie's diaper, etc.
5:45 pm - went to my craftroom to make cards for visiting teaching
6:45 pm - went visiting teaching, took Connor with me again, because he begged. On the way out of the last house, he had the most unholy temper tantrum because he wanted to stay. He gets so stubborn sometimes. I had to carry him kicking and screaming out of the there, and he whimpered at home for the next 30 min or so. Booger! I told my partner, Katherine, to remind me of this the next time we went visiting teaching, so I wouldn't cave and take his little "but-I'll-be-good" puppy-dog-face self with me.
7:25 pm - back home, cooked dinner, fed Emma, etc.
8:25 pm - back to my laptop, started my blog post
9:15 pm - back up stairs to read scriptures with the family. It was total chaos. Connor was bouncing off the walls. Emma was screeching, not crying, but screeching at us because she'd cruise around the room, trying to rip at the pages of our scriptures, but we wouldn't let her. At points, we couldn't hear each other read out loud. Whew! It was over, so I put her jammies on, gave her a bottle, and put her in bed for the night. Back on my laptop to finish my blog post.
10:45 pm - finish cards I started earlier, and that led to organizing my ribbon, eyelets, and brads. Then it took me forever to decide on colors. Why do I craft? Here are the pics:

My cards. I'll bring them with me. They look better in person.

Sue, these are the mini-albums I made for my Relief Society lesson. They are about 3-1/8" square. I've got plenty left, I'll bring those, too.
12:50 am - tack on the last pics, and go to bed. Think I can go to bed by midnight tomorrow?

Food Log - boy, today proves why I still haven't lost my 10 holiday pounds, even though I exercise every day:
2 pm - 4 1½" peanut butter cookies
4 pm - bowl of broccoli potato bacon cheddar soup, about five to eight more cookies, a glass of milk
5 pm - a big piece of poppy seed cake & a glass of milk
7:30 pm - 2 to 4 more cookies
8:30 pm - two tacos with guacamole (yum!) and a serving-spoon size of red enchiladas
10 pm - about 8 to 10 dried apricots

I gotta quit baking.

End Post #43, 2009

Craftroom Fantasy & Brothers Are Boogers

Whoa, starting this one super, super late, 1:30 am, so might have to cut to the chase, if I'm capable. Besides, I can't remember half the little things I did today.

8 am - or so, woke up, gave Emma her bottle, checked my email to see if anyone had seen my new blog design. Yeay! You're so awesome, chicks! "You like me, you really, really like me!" Thought I would go back to sleep, but of course, the kids needed me, so I abandoned that idea. Let's see, I spent the morning mostly taking care of the kids, but I started cleaning my craftroom because it had reached critical mass:

Yep, I had just about every square inch in the room covered. I took this pic AFTER I had picked up all the diecutting scraps off the floor. That's why there's even a little patch of carpet showing. There's usually just this little pathway for people to get to the laundry room to get their clean clothes, because I hardly ever get around to folding them. Laundry is my favorite.

The sad thing is, this is the CLEAN version of my craftroom. But now I can work in here. I might make some cards tomorrow, if I have the energy. Speaking of which, I'm only bringing 1/10th of my craftroom with me (as opposed to the 1/20th I was going to bring, Sue, ha, ha), because as I was cleaning, I found so many odds and ends that I can't really sell, so I have this idea of bringing a "Cardmaking Challenge" pile of stuff with me, and you can totally dig through my stuff and make some cute cards. I know I'm dying to.

Here's my fantasy craftroom:


This stuff is by a company called Scrap N Cube. I love their stuff: simple, yet beautiful wood stacking cubes. Of course, it costs a small fortune, but a girl can dream. Is there such a thing as craft fairies? I have this idea of making my own wood cubes, because there is a lot of vertical space in my craftroom I'd like to take advantage of, but I don't know if I'm going to have the time.

Emma fell asleep on the floor in the tv room, sometime between 11 and 11:30, fussing for a while (I'm coming baby, I'm coming, just a minute), and suddenly she was quiet. I found her on the floor, holding her snuggle blankie and sucking away on her binky, so I put her in her crib. Then I made lunch for Connor:

Connor likes to dip his grilled cheese in the tomato soup AND the applesauce. Mmm...
12:30 pm - exercised on my Gazelle, 30 min., resistance #2, oops forgot to do my ab exercises. Must remember to do those tomorrow. Emma woke up after I started. She kept wanting to climb on the equipment, so I put her upstairs with Connor. That was a mistake. This is what Connor did:

Little booger took his sipper and shook milk all over her head, and then it dried like that. Poor crusty Foo. "Why did you do that?" "Because it's fun." "That's not nice." "But it's fun." "It's not fun for baby." "Yes it is, it's fun!" Yesterday when I picked her up from her nap, there was a toy car stuffed down the back of her shirt. Guess who did that?

This is the face he makes when he does something he knows he shouldn't, but he thinks it's fun anyway. Here, he's trying to hide his grilled cheese sandwhich, because he's not supposed to be eating in the tv room.

I showered and dressed, checked email, made some cookies (peanut butter which peanut butter-flavored chips, Gil's favorite) for Dani and Gil, as a bribe. I was totally going to nap when they got home from school. I cleaned some more in my craftroom, did laundry, got an eBay order ready to mail, went to the post office. I didn't take a nap until 5:30. Then, I woke up at 7:05, and rushed Dani off to ice-skating practice, came home, helped Emma and Connor, cooked some pasta, then Gil came home, I picked up Dani & took her home. I made it to my ice-skating practice by 8:30. Regular lessons are over, but we are both doing the ice show this year, and these were the practices for that. The theme is "Things That Fly." I've got to make Dani and eagle costume. Darn it! I don't even know how to do that. Crud. Mine is balloons, and we are just supposed to dress all in one color, which will probably be black. Simple. Practice was fun. We tried to learn how to moon walk in ice skates. Sorry, guys, I'm a white girl, with no dance skills on my own two feet, let alone on skates. But it will still be fun. Came home by 9:30, got the kids ready for bed. On the computer by 10:30, dinking around with my blog graphics. I made a few subtle changes. Then I finished cleaning my craftroom, and wrote my blog post. Wah-lah! Good night, see you in the morning - sign-off at 2:30 am

Food Log -
16 oz. water with exercising
1:30 pm - 1 grilled cheese sandwich, a bowl of tomato soup, and applesauce, which I shared with Emma. Had a piece of lemon poppy seed cake and vanilla ice cream, also shared with Emma. Moochie girl.
3:00 pm - about 3 or 4 1½" peanut butter cookies, I think I had milk
5:30 pm - another couple of cookies
9:30 pm - bowl of pasta with spaghetti meat sauce, 6 or so cookies, big glass of milk

End Post #42, 2009