Halloween 2007

Well, at this time last year, there was "much ado about nothing" to quote a phrase. Last year was the kicking and screaming child of 3 who was afraid to even go to the door to hand out candy. This year, you ask? Perhaps a pic would be helpful:


Yup..she's a happy camper. Needless to say we went to The Vineyards with Amber, Chris and the girls. It was adorable and fun. I had not been into Skypark or anything remotely similar so was not prepared for what I was going to encounter. It was truly a lot of fun. We went down only one square block of the place and still came out with a large stash. :) She came home and said, " Momma, I am veeerrrrry hungry." I asked her if she wanted a sandwich. She looked at me with a serious face and said, "Yes momma, I would please." And she snarfed and entire peanut butter and jelly sandwich. :) We then had to hit the neighborhood for a small amount of time after that.

Oh, during this time, we ended up leaving candy out for the kids asking them to take 2 per person. We found we were cleaned out when we got home (fortunately we didn't use the entire amount so we could still hand out some more). When moving around to the other houses around the neighborhood we talked with friends who said we didn't have a lot of kids...so we were cleaned out by ones that didn't understand the concept of honesty :(. Oh well. it's what I expected. I know Marilyn said last year they had even taken her nice bowl she had left out. I left out a ziplock container. That was left :)

OH!!! Pumpkins! I have to post our pumpkins! I did two this year.

Tinkerbell:














Malificent

Change and worry

So I have determined that Fate/God/ conspires to make sure that our household is shaken up when things are relatively calm and complete feeling. What is the point of this other than to create angst? To make us learn that change is a good thing?? What the heck!? All it does in my case is send my blood-pressure through the roof and bring the household down to it's knees because it's so disorganized I can no longer cope because change conspires to make me feel that this is so.

I know I don't make sense, that I am just rambling, but am trying to get the angst of change and the worry that goes with out out of my heart so I can think clearly. I really do love the people around me but every now and again there is something that goes astray and I just can't handle it.

I think it is time for Dark Shadows and cross-stitch to reenter my life again. I've lost my center of being.

4th birthday pics available

Well I finally got my act together and got Irene's 4th birthday pics up from a week ago Saturday. Still need to do the thank you notes - hopefully Sunday. I am making progress finally. Here is where to find the pics.:

Irene's 4th Birthday

Enjoy!

and yes..I am working on getting the La Fondue party pics up as well. Patience...patience

Getting excited about Irene's birthday

I am about ready to run around screaming I am so jazzed about our little one's 4th birthday. :) This morning I was way stressed out worrying about food and organizing everything. This afternoon after having a good lunch at El Palomar Taco bar, going over the list with Amber, and going to Trader Joes to find alternative lower fat foods for the party, I am finding things are much better now. :) Still debating on getting my entenmann's cream cheese coffee cake - we'll see who wins out...will power/pocket book or my need for my favorite coffee cake in the world! :)

Anyway..back to the grindstone..but had to pass it on. :)

Amish Quilt Picture

Well, here we go! Here is one of the latest pieces. This is the Rainbow Amish Quilt. I've added it to my Flikr photos. Hope you enjoy! Click here.

BTW: It ended up not staying in my house for very long. I ended up giving it away as a gift this weekend. :) I think I am destined to never keep the pieces I make. Oh well. I enjoy making them.

I was not ready for October!!!

Normally I am fully aware that October is coming upon us - Irene's Birthday, my birthday, Amber's birthday, Halloween and all the school stuff in between you would think I would have a clue. This year? nooooo *sigh*. Monday, Oct 1, 2007, my husband came to me in the bathroom while I was frothing at the mouth with toothpaste and said, "You do realize that today is the first of October, right?" My brain came oozing out of my ears at that point and my brain took a nose dive. "Yowww kiibbing meee.. write?" I say with toothpaste drooling down my chin (I know..you don't need these images, but I had to do it.).

He shakes his head at me and my head starts to whirl as all the things come down around my ears. I clean myself up and realize that there is *no* way we're doing Irene's birthday on the 6th (less than a week away) and her stuff from Birthday express had not yet arrived. At least I was sorta on the ball. :)

I begin to panic. Then I took a deep breath and hollered, "We're moving her birthday party to the 13th!!! I can't do it soon enough."

Hubby holler's back "why not?"

I rolled my eyes, thought of the 10,001 reasons why not and resorted to "Because no one will come to if they don't have time to prepare themselves." Seriously, wouldn't *you* need a weekend in between to go birthday shopping if you wanted to attend? I tended to not go to the one's that didn't give me a week in between time to do the shopping etc. Seriously.

I know I put my honey into a large amount of stress by changing the date, but I seriously could not get thing together that quick. He's got the party, a game tournament, and a hockey game that day. Oh well. These things happen. So I have my brain back now. Got written invites out. Now we just need to do the evites to everyone else that has a computer that I can be sure of. :)
Her birthday express stuff came in last night *thank god*. Depending on the # that say they'll be there, I may end up at K-mart making more goodie bags to send home. I am tempted to order like another pack of 8 at Birthday express but between order and their shipping it with a 3 day max ship time, it still took 7 days to get to me. Not going to risk the stress. Party store and K-mart..here I come.

Marcus wants to take me out for my birthday. Personally I don't think it's worth it..but he's cute that way. So we're shooting to go to Hula for dinner and get a babysitter. We'll see if that works out.

20th: La Fondue - girl's yearly night out.
26th: Field trip to Gidzditch Ranch - yumm...fresh pumpkin pie. This year, I am just getting 2 pumpkins. :)
Nov 2nd: Pampered chef party - Dessert party as usual. This is the time for the Christmas orders. :) Write the date down. If you're reading this, then you're coming.


Anyway...I think this a sufficient post..what do you think? :) Enjoy!

To the people I am grateful for

Enjoy!

Shake Shake Shake!!!

This weekend

Well, it RAINED!!! Yay! Saturday was a glorious pour down of rain (sorry Amber. I know it was a pain to drive in, but the first rains always make me happy). I took Thursday and Friday off of last week in order to finish cleaning my house and putting it back to the point where I could at least function again. I also got in the last of my cross-stitching in for my latest project. I finished! I'll take pics and post them to flickr soon. I have to say I am quite pleased.

Since we last talked about cross-stitch pieces and what I was going to do, I have since gotten furniture to go on the wall. I now have a nice cabinet that holds a lot of my nice crystal. So I don't need nearly as much in the way of needlework pieces to fill up the wall. I've since hung the newest piece (the amish quilt piece), on the handle of my cabinet door of one side. It definitely needs another piece on the otherside. So I am thinking I'll do one more amish quilt. After that, I might actually tackle my season pieces. We'll see. Right now I am working on some small halloween kits that would take a couple o days to finish to hang around the house. I have about 8 of them :) I'll take pics of those when I am done as well.

Anna Moo - Makin Moosic

I had a great experience of late with a company that distributes a wonderful CD called Anna Moo's Makin' Moosic. It's a great album. Irene LOVES it. If you want to hear it, Rapisody has a free listen... Click here. NOTE: This is *not* a religious album as Rapisody puts on the header. I found that halarious. It's just a great kids album.

You can actually purchase these as MP3 downloads though at another site. It was $9.99 for the download or you can get the CD for $13. I chose the download. When I first got the download I found that one of the songs (about subtraction) called Ten Fingers had a skip in it. First I sent email to them on their website but I don't think they got it. Two weeks after that, I called their phone # on my order. I called at 9pm my time which was midnight their time. I told them the issue and my order # in order to prove I did indeed order it. I got an email from them the following day, that they had pulled the download themselves and found that they too had the skip showing up for them. They were going to fix the download and send me an email asap.

Needless to say, the following day, I had that new download. What's more, they updated the entire download so that it updated CDDB so that the album cover showed up in ITunes and everything. I loved quite a few of their other albums. And will probably order another album soon. If you like the music from the link I highly recommend buying at: Songs for Teaching.

Click here if you want the Anna Moo: Makin Moosic Download

Now to find Laurie Berkner - Irene Loves this person. Marcus gets her showing up on his satellite radio all the time, on the kids radio section. It's great.

Picture to the first day at school

Ok. Here we go...here are the pics I got this morning :D

enjoy!

Why? Why? Why?

Well..it started this weekend. Irene's started asking Why? to everything we talk about. Mother of god don't let me loose my sanity now!!!!

Where's the book that answers all the why questions of the world?

*sigh*

It has begun.

First day of school - again???

Well, I have to do this..even though Irene thinks she is just going back to school. Today marks her completion of her first year of pre-school and movement into year 2. Can you believe this??? I was a nervous wreck this time last year. I think I decided to go into work that day after dropping her off..but man that was a hard one for all of us I think. This movement into the next year was marked with the use of a new school lunch bag. I know, you're saying yeah..big deal..but this one was a big deal believe it or not. Irene's been using the same lunch bag up today since she was 3 months old!!! yeah..it lasted that long. I am amazed too.

So this morning with as much grandeur as I could muster, I had her stand at the front door with her new lunch bag to take a picture. I actually have the camera here with me..but I've had no chance to get the pic off the card. :( I'll update this tomorrow with the pic so you can see.

I swear she grew another several inches it seems. Last year at this time, she couldn't reach the sink at school and only barely could reach with the stepping stool. She couldn't even see herself in the mirror when she first arrived. Now..*sigh* She can do both without the use of a stepping stool. I am truly amazed at the movement that has occurred in this year that has gone by.

Fresh change

Well I had to go and change my template again last night. I've been playing around with where I wanted my weather beacon to go there, and found that I just didn't have the right colors all the way around. Like it? I know..I am a geek. But this is quick satisfaction for those days when I am far too busy to do be able to do anything more intricate.

I'm at home this afternoon. Little one is napping and I am working on database and installs. How is that anyone thinks I am competent at the database thing? I worked on it for a cycle with BDE and IBX. I still know nothing but somehow I am here... Not sure I am happy to have ever volunteered for it. I guess that it's a good thing from the perspective of...if they wanted to move me out of IDE, I have another place to go. Although in all honesty..I would just prefer to go learn Java and try out JBuilder with Eclipse at this point.

Yeah..I am burned out. What can I do? Blog.

Reading is fun again!

Well..over the past three years, I thought that I didn't like books anymore. Reading was a chore - no matter what I did. I had struggled through Book 5 of Harry Potter, the 6th book seemed like a fast read but still took me weeks because of interruptions. After I had finished the 6th book I began to think that I just couldn't read anymore. Too many other things interrupted and when I read, I sink myself into the book. When it's interrupted when I am not ready to be so, I find it is very difficult for me to get back into the book. Of course, I didn't realize this at the time. It's only now after having finished HP 7 - The Dealthly Hallows in the space of 2 1/2 days of glorious uninterrupted time that I now understand. My hubby was fully aware that when the Harry Potter book came out those oh so many weeks ago that that weekend was *mine*. He was fully aware that he would be a "Harry Potter widower" (as he put it) until such time as I got to the end.

What an eye opener it was to realize that it wasn't that I didn't like books anymore. It was just I loved them sooo much that I didn't cope with being torn away from them when I wasn't ready. Let me tell you, that reading HP 7 rekindled my love for reading again. I was on fire to find other books I had not read yet. This last weekend, I found 3. It's very evil to go to Costco (on so many levels). I picked up 3 books. The first one was The Gilded Chamber - story of Queen Ester. It's historical fiction based on a Jewish girl taken into the Persian royal court to be a concubine and ends up being Queen. A great read (am about 1/2 way through now). Another I picked is another historical fiction book. Unfortunately, my brain escapes me what the title is or what's it about. :) I'll update this post when I get home. The last one was one I have been dying to pick up along with it's predecessors and successors: The Confessions of an Ugly Step Sister . This one I just couldn't pull the trigger at Borders cause of cost ($14.00 for paperback, $3x.00 for hardback). Amazon's price was great but I wanted instant gratification. Turns out Costco has it for $8.69 for paperback. Even better than Amazon. :) heheh Needless to say, I am very content. I haven't been stitching, or watching TV, or playing games these past week. I've been happily reading.

BTW: Harry Potter 7 is GREAT! I finished my first run through that first weekend. I just finished listening to the audio book edition yesterday in the car. I seriously need to get the rest of the audio books. It's the only way I'll be able to take time with those books for now. Reading from a book seems to be only for the first time read it seems right now. Going back to book 5 has been really hard.

UPDATE: The last book is called The Garden of Ruth. It looks fairly interesting. Both this and The Gilded Chamber were $8.69. Turns out Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister was $10.88 or something close to that. About the same price as Amazon - but no need to wait for it to ship. Almost done with The Gilded Chamber - about 3/4 of the way through the book in 4 days!!!

Bedroom completed - mostly :)

Well here are the pics of her bed room. I have to say I am quite pleased. It came out really well. I just need to add some splashes of color in the form of room wall stickers with the different fairies of Tinkerbell. It was a bigger undertaking than I thought. It took us 2 full days to really complete. My dad was sweet enough to re-paint marcus' old toy box he had as a kid to a deep powder blue (she asked for blue). And then he put up her canopy. Thus the pic below


Ok. This one doesn't show the glory of the canopy though...so how about this one? :)

You'll also notice that she no longer has any of the little lady bugs/flowers etc on her walls. I decided to pull those down. I went to Disney Store and got her the Tinkerbell screen you see in the above pic (was on sale amazingly enough). I'll also be getting some of those sticker decals for the walls that are easily removable. Her room walls are still a bit stark for my liking. Below are the rest of the pics of the other sections of the room.


We switched where her chalk board is now to the other corner and then moved some of the toys from the living room to there. I then put her lamp over to the right of the book case (it used to live to the left of it - where the dresser now is).



The dresser did a 180 degree switch. We put it under the window and moved the bed over giving some space plus it keeps her further away from the window for winter purposes. And last but not least....

Not sure if we're going to keep the floor seat you see there. But it's a cute spot for "Bear" in any case. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

As I move towards vacation

Well finally! Summer vacation is here! I am so burned out you can find me no longer moo-ing out on the prairie. ;) . Mom's due out on Tuesday afternoon. The schedule? Get Irene's room reorganized. Her room is organized half way between little girl and baby/toddler due to left overs of baby changing station etc still there, but a bedside table and a wood play trunk sitting in the main living room waiting to be used but not enough energy on the weekends to get things moved around. I am seriously on a mission that this gets done. Am really looking forward to it. I hope the ideas I have make Irene excited about being in her room. I'll do before and after shots. Will post them so you can see what I did. :0)

I sit here watching my automation run and decided to fiddle with my blog page again ;). Like it? I think I need a new color setup and change again. Feeling like I need a fresh look. Can you tell I am so in vacation mode it isn't even funny anymore? :D If you don't see me for a few more weeks, it's because I never got off the vacation bus. ;)

It's amazing what you learn, just by reading other blogs

Well I've been so much fun with Google Reader that I found a nice little analog clock that Nick Hodges' blog had. So I added it to mine as well. It's got customizable colors and choices between 12 and 24 hour times. Ok..so I am easily amused. It's that time of ship hell...so I am easily amused while I wait for a download to finish.

Much has occurred since last I posted. Dealing with new concepts: cholesterol *gasp*. Found out Wed, that beyond going back to Weight Watchers to loose my weight, I need to actually choose different foods than what I am used to. :( Fortunately it is a situation and problem that will cause me issues 20-30 Years down the line, so the change I can make can be gradual. The 3 biggies:

* Lessen Starch *the hardest one for me*
* Get rid of stuff that contains the partially hydrogenated veg oil (some of the stuff in my house actually surprised me that it had it)
* Eat more veggies (this one will be hard too..although some things like pre-cut veggies will help).

There were additions too:
* Soy protein (YAY!!! I finally get to keep somethign I enjoy. BTW: Amber introduced me to the most awesome Soy milk called Soy Dream. Also advised the vanilla which I can sooo enjoy now.) * Irene LOVES Edemame so back to Trader Joes I go to get a couple more bags o that.
* More Fiber... Going to try that Fiber that ends up being clear in the glass.. See how that is.
* Dr. Suggested also oat bran. Not sure if that is just to add more Fiber or if it is for another purpose.
* Fish Oil tablets. Interesting. Guess Costco has a vat that works out well. I already take a ton of vitamins...guess it won't hurt to add one more *sigh*

So that'll be a big change. Hopefully it will help resulting in my weight loss a bit quicker than I anticipated as well. So we'll see. I have to go back in 6 months for another test to see if my changes will make a difference.

Let's see..Parents are coming out next week, so I'll be on vacation. Much needed before the big push. Looking forward to that.

Outside of that, the world is calm. :) Wow. Knock on wood.

Success in the backyard pool

Well, I have to say, I think swimming lessons are paying off. We had a major success during Marcus' birthday party on Saturday the 7th of July. At our house, we have her in a swim suit that has "floaties" built into it. She discovered the fun of an inner tube floating toy. She decided that Dadda didn't need to hold onto her, so that she could move the inner tube around in circles.

Well, Dadda was holding her and she wanted to get to an inner tube she wanted to get into. Instead of helping her get there, he simply let her go on her own. He then told her "Irene, look at what you're doing! " Realizing she could do her swimming on her own essentially dog paddling, she decided that she was going to stay in the pool forever :). We had to have several people switch off with us so that we could take breaks with following her around while she swam. Adding to the fact that she didn't nap that day, she fell asleep at 7:15. :)

Seeing this happen, though makes me glad we decided on the swim lessons this year. I just want her to learn to swim properly so she has no need for "floaties" come next year. We'll see.... It's a MAJOR breakthrough though. It's the first time she hasn't been clinging to us for dear life...again..not sure how I feel about that ;)

Swimming Update

Well we finished our first set of lessons the Friday of the 4th of July week. Since the 4th landed on Wed, they postponed the class to Friday due to the holiday. I, in my mush filled brain, didn't realize that the classes ended that week and scrambled to try to find a new class. We talked with her teacher afterwards and were told she was sooooo close to floating on her own that she could move to Level 2 if we wanted. I opted to be safe and stick with Level 1 once more. I didn't see her looking nearly as confident as the teachers did and with having the pool in our backyard I didn't want any false hopes.

I left a message with SV Rec Center, fully expecting that all sessions were full, but I got lucky. There was a 6:30 level 1 still available (she got the last spot!). So Monday we started another 6 class session. Her teacher (Teacher Peter) this time was one I saw working with Level 2's during session 1. I thought he was talking way too fast for the kids but they seemed like they were getting it. He also does different exercises that Irene hasn't tried before. As a result, I was very happy that she did level1 one more time. She's with a "gaggle of girls" this time where as the last sessions there were 2 boys and 2 girls. The poor guy teaching this class isn't quite sure what he got himself into. :) It was quite hilarious to see the differences between the 2 groups.

As I result, I am going to sign her up for Level 2 for Session 3. *sigh*. Expensive, but if this keeps swimming a happy thing for Irene and she learns to swim better with greater confidence, then I'll take it. Here's hoping.

Women in Art / Painting Mona Lisa with Mspaint

Emeli pointed out these two you tube videos, which were very entertaining.

The first is Women in Art. A wonderful morph of various women in paintings showing art history very nicely.

The second is: How to Pain the MONA LISA with MsPaint . This just blew me away. :)

Enjoy!