I am CodeGear!

Well,
Borland (where I worked) finally decided to make a decision *gasp*. DevCo /DTG/Developement Tools Group is now a wholly owned subsidiary. We basically write a big fat check to Borland at the end of the year and otherwise go in our own direction.

I am CodeGear! Hear me roar! More as I understand things better

Holy twin bed MOMMA!!!!

Well, I have to say that we have never had such a wonderful time as we have getting Irene into a twin bed. Yes...I said twin bed. :) She's been in a toddler bed since January of this year. That one was a battle convincing her that sleeping in her toddler bed was ok.

We had taken a different tact this time and decided to "discuss" the matter with her earlier on in the week. Dadda took up the conversation first:

Monday:
Dadda: "So..Irene...would you like to get into a big girl's bed?
Irene: "Suuurrrreee."
Dadda: "Ok. Momma and Dadda will get something setup next weekend."

Wednesday:
Momma: "So..sweetie, Dadda said you'd like to get into a big girl's bed. Would you like that?"
Irene: blank look
Momma: would you like Princess'? or Buzz? or Tinkerboo on your new bed?
Irene: TINKERBOO!!!
Momma: "OK, love. Momma will see what I can find"

Thursday:
Momma: "Ready for a girl's bed?"
Irene: "NO!!!"
Momma: "um..okkay..we'll talk about this later."

Momma decides to take to the winds and stop off at Kmart and see if I could find Tinkerboo. My GOD! I hit the jack pot. I not only found the flannel sheets, I found a comforter and dustruffle. If I get the guts up on the $$$ I'll go back and get the valance for it too..but $15 each and I need 4 to make it worthwhile started to make me feel just a bit unhappy. :(

I stop off at home and "display" the tinkerboo treasure right at the front door. I run back to work totally excited and dancing for the afternoon.

Irene gets home and see Tinkerboo. The immediate "ooooo..it's beeeuuutiiiiffuuuull !!!" came out. Dadda pipes up with "So, Irene. Would you like to get your big girl's bed set up?"

Irene: "NOO!!"
Momma and Dadda look at each other and Dadda says: " ok sweetie. we'll wait. "

We get past dinner and things are calm. Irene goes and discovers her sheets again. She looks at me. I said to her, "You want to pull your sheets out?" Irene's eyes brightened. I figured she'd go out to the living room and pull her sheets out. She instead takes it in her bedroom. Thinking nothing of it, I go to clean up dinner.

Suddenly I get a holler from Marcus of "ummm sweetheart. You might want to see this."
I rush into her room and nearly fall over laughing. She has stripped her toddler bed down to the mattress pad and is trying with all her might to get her new tinkerboo sheets on her bed. Marcus and I look at each other and sigh. We ask again "Sweetheart, do you want your new sheets?"

Her eyes brightened and nods. We end up on Friday night at 7:30 (1/2 before bedtime) setting up the big girls bed. Unfortunately, after trying to wash the sheets out, the smell was so bad still that we opted not to use the new flannel sheets. Ended up taking those back to Kmart today after 2 washings. The smell was that of someone having dunked the sheets in petrol..it was awful. nothing but the sheets were affected. :(

The rest of her bed, came out wonderfully. Needless to say, she didn't want to leave the bedroom much less the house today *sigh*. The bed is adorable and it works really well with her butterfly/flower garden room. :) Will try post a pic or two as soon as I pull them off the camera.

I repeat: Holy twin bed, MOOOMMMAAAA!!!!

PS: she's not cried or argued once about going to bed this entire weekend.

A wonderful dinner

Well I have to say that La Fondue is one of the best places to go to celebrate. Regardless of whether you're celebrating life, birthday, anniversary or just another day. To all of you who made dinner last night such a treat, Thank You.

You will always make my life full of spice and enjoyment.

Other things in life

Well, now that the Halloween post is complete we can go on to other things. Well, I've been working on the cross-stitch piece. For those that don't remember, I've been stitching a butterfly switchplate for Irene's room. I am about 1/2 way through and have learned a load about stuff about what not to do when it comes to working on them. Ex? never do the cutting to remove the holes where the switch & the screws go until *after* you're finished stitching. It's been challenging. :)

Am trying to decide if I am going to do a couple more huck towels after this or if I will start in the big one I want to work on or to continue work on Repunzel for a while. We'll see. Crochet has been calling my name lately and I have a lace piece that isn't finished yet. Thank god I keep maps to know where I left off. :)

With the weather change comes fires in the fire place, Thanksgiving and Christmas, The Nutcracker. It brings with it all things cozy and the enjoyment of cooking, baking and making things for people. We'll be home this Thanksgiving. It's looking to be small so far and then going to my parent's place for Christmas this year.

So all in all, hopefully this will be a calm holiday season (yeah..right..what planet am I on????). :)

Halloween - there and back again quick???

Well, we've moved on through Halloween, and our story is short and sweet. :) The story? The conversation went on like this:

Momma: Sweetheart, ready to go trick or treat?
Irene: NO Trick or Treat!!!

This conversation went on, over and over for about a week prior to halloween. The day of? The same. We even went so far as to take her next door to try it out. My god, you'd think we were killing the poor kid!

Thus the end result: 1 house, 1 candy and all done. She didn't even want to hand out candy or go to the door! She was ALL DONE with halloween. :)


Welll...better luck next year!

Birthday Tidings and Events

Well, my birthday has come and gone and the day was WONDERFUL! I had so many well wishers it was amazing! The most amusing of the day: My mother forgot that it was my birthday - she remembers everything else in the world so something has to give in this push and pull of life. :) Needless to say I was amused when she figured it out.

Another event! My little one had her first field trip that day! I decided to take a 1/2 day off to go and be a driver/care giver if I could. Turns out I took 4 children, including my own plus one of the pre-school teachers. IT WAS SOOOO much FUN!!! We went to Gizdich Ranch on the outskirts of Watsonville. I had never been there and had only heard about it recently. There were a total of 24 kids. It was amazing how these teachers were able to get the children to respond to them and listen. They sat through a 30-45 minute tour of the area and got to pick out pumpkins at the end. Needless to say, Irene wants to take her pumpkin everywhere these days. This morning she asked if we could open it so she could see the seeds. :)

Anyway I took 2 boys and 2 girls and it was GREAT to listen to them chatter and talk about things. Irene I think was in shock to have other kids in the car with her and so was quiet through out most of the trip. Needless to say it was fun and funny and a great way to spend my birthday.

I ended up picking up 3 pies + syrup + jam + teas. I had way too much fun. I got a Very Berry, Apple, and pumpkin pies. The Apple and pumpkin had just come out of the oven and they were amazing. I had quite the time picking up stuff there at that ranch. By the end of it though, Irene was in pieces and tired. She didn't want to eat while we were at the ranch but chowed the entire way home. We got all the kids back to school and I figured Irene would crash.

Guess WHAT! She skipped her nap all together *sigh*. She was in a good mood right up till about the last 10 minutes while trying to get ready for bed. It was a crying fest until we had a story and then she crashed in bed. Her little face was so tired looking I was amazed she didn't just crash on the couch long before 7:30.

Anyway, it was a wonderful evening. I even got a new video game (Dragon Quest VIII for the PS2). Irene *loves* watching us play now. So I'll have to play some more tonight *rolling eyes* gee..you can seem me fighting that one, can't you ;-)

Cross-Stitch update

Well, I thought I would post a quick one before I leave for the night. I am making excellent progress with the switch plate now. I have also learned something else about them. Turns out that if you were to buy switch plate items (without a pattern) they come with this Vinyl Weave "fabric" to cross-stitch on. The "fabric" I guess is what is safe to stitch on if you should ever have a spark on the switch it won't catch it on fire (at least not due to using this stuff I guess). So now I might be on a Switch plate craze after I finish my huck-towel craze.

It's quite an amazing process, but it's definitely harder to stitch on because the vinyl doesn't give like regular Aida or linen cloth.

Just had to share my tidbit on that. When I get more of the piece done, I'll post it here to show what it looks like. Because the other pieces were gifts, I couldn't show mid-process what the product might look like ;).

Off to pick up the little one!

She's discovered Little Ensteins....

Well..my little one has discovered the wonders of The Little Ensteins. *rolling eyes*. She's got momma and dadda doing the "pat pat pat" on the knees and making squeezing with patting to the shoulders to help Rocket (yes..that's it's name) get between tight spaces. So if you're looking for birthday ideas, this is one as we have nothing Little Einsteins yet (only what we get off of cable with the DVR).

just had to share

Inspired by Music

The Immortal Bell

Ringing of the bell this night, a sign of dread to come.

Continues tolling out the time, a sign to flee for some.

Daylight slinks away in haste, as midnight undertakes

Darkness creeps on silent wing, the shadows are awake.

Undead return to mortal haunt, staggering lifeless things.

Floating ghosts move and jaunt, without the use of wings.

Doors remain closed and locked, against the fear of death.

Mortals huddle, close to sleep, shivering with frosted breath.

Candles flicker with the wind, bringing with it fear.

Signs are brought in hope of light, reflecting like a mirror.

Join the bells in immortal song.

While sleeping souls wake ere time long.

Respond ye well, the bell that tolls.

And save ye all, immortal souls.

(c) 2006 SE

Harvest Festival things to do...

Just a quick post, but another outting I needed to share that might interesting to look at

MSN Travel, posted this. It caught my eye because of the pumpkin pic but the ideas were interesting. Had to share.

enjoy

Pumpkin eating :)

Well, it's that time of the year where Pumpkin is popular. So (heaven forbid) I have to go searching for recipes. :) I therefore I went to my favorite web site for food. :)

Cooking Light :)

Have a look at this.

Enjoy! Time for bed now!

Found some neat web sites

so I found a couple of web sites that seem quite useful for those of us with children (see previous post if you're interested in what sparked this).

http://www.santacruzparent.com/

and

http://mbparent.com

Ran across these while watching a commercial in the middle of Mythbusters. :) I *have not* perused these sites much other than to say "oooo pretty colors". But they looked like they had good things in it. Enjoy

What a Weekend!!!`

Well, Saturday was quite amazing. Our little princess of "I must watch my movie a million times" actually didn't want TV on Saturday! Talk about being in shock. I found her instead knee deep in all her toys in her room when I went to bring her food. We had a wonderful day by going to the Farmer's Market, where she was happy to walk around rather than ride in the stroller. *gasp*. We had bought a portable potty for Irene and she used it! Will wonders never cease?? The afternoon wasn't as interesting..but still...it was fun and filled with family and friends.

Sunday, we went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Talk about a wonderful day! The day was gorgeous...warm without a jacket but not hot. It was clear and sunny and not very crowded. We parked on the warf and walked down to Boardwalk central. This was her second time going to the boardwalk itself. The first time, she only made it 1/2 way through before she was tired and ready to go home. Needless to say she didn't ride anything. This time we came a bit earlier (around 11am) and brought lunch with us etc(we've found much better success doing things this way lately). She road the carousel (I had to look up the spelling of this!), the Cave Train, and a ride specifically made for tots - a whale ride that was just the right size. She rode on that one all by herself! I got pics and a movie. :) will post later. She was so excited though, she didn't go to sleep till nearly 2:30 this afternoon. Fortunately she slept 1.5 hours still *sighing in relief* and woke up happy for the most part.

We've decided we need to do this more often. She's so happy and enjoys stuff. I am thinking another visit to the zoo or to Happy Hollow is in order. In August she was so cranky that I thought it wasn't time (as in she was too young), but I really think it had to do with the time we arrived. We didn't get there till lunch time(12pm or later if I remember correctly). We need to be at places by no later than 10:30 - 11am in order for Irene to not be cranky I think. Just too close to nap time. Anyway other suggestions of outting would be useful (also thinking about monterey bay aquarium too). :)

Needless to say this weekend has been WONDERFUL and I just had to share while it was still in my mind.

oh! Getting farther in the new cross-stitch piece. Using the smaller needle is MUCH better. Thank god for supplies. :)

That's all for now!

OK..this is a cool web site.

As I am sure you can see..I decided a change was in order. :) Like my new template??? :)

The piece is delivered. :)

Well of course you people know I can't wait to give the pieces away the minute I finish!!! :) Amber received her towel Thursday at lunch. As usual, I had to tell her about all the mistakes I made. ;) She was a wonderful love and still said she loved it. :) Oh! Right! You wanted a pic, didn't you? heheheh. Ok. Well I put up some pics to flickr today of it. I have to admit..the pics themselves are not good. I've asked Amber to send me a few more from her camera. I think mine is dying a horrid death. Not sure though. *sigh* No more gadget spending this year though after that laptop *shudder*.

So, a picture. How about this:

also..I moved my cr0sstitch pics over to flicker. Click here if you're interested.

New cross-stitch piece already in works

Well..now that the latest birthday gift/house warming gift is complete (see previous post), I am now working on Irene's Switchplate for her room. I have to say, I am moving into new ground.

a) I have never crosstitched on a vinal canvas (which this is)
b) I have never made a switch plate before...so far it's been interesting on the setup. I have to make sure I take into account room where the screws are going to go in and the light switch gap.
c) As a result of (b), I am having to stitch an outline of where the center of the piece is plus gaps where the screws are supposed to go and the switch so that I make sure not to stitch close to those areas.
*biting nails* I hope I do this right.

This post has been in process for 2 days now. So in the process, I've actually started to stitch it. Man!!! Vinyl is really tought to get a needle through. Thinking I might have to go a size down from what they went with the project.

The package came with a foam template that I could use to determine where the holes needed to be. I was originally going to cut the holes first. But starting to do that, I realized I would be loosing some very important things (like the center of where the project starts) doh!. So I stopped clipping and went back to using small thread to do the outline. So far, so good. I have small piece of leaf and the beginnings of the flower made. Again...need smaller needle *sigh*. Will keep you posted.

Well..it's finally complete. :)

I have finally finished the latest cross-stitch piece. Boy, this one for some reason was harder. It didn't seem as complicated as the last one..but man..finishing it was painful. Took me a lot longer to fix the mistakes too.

So all that is left, is to take pics, post them and then to work on getting them posted. :) I also need to make a delivery..but am wondering if I should wait. ;) *wide evil grin*. I could wait till the Nov. 4 fondue date...since it is technically...the birthday dinner. *very wide evil grin*.

Pre-school

Well..it's been a week now since we started pre-school. I feel like I can now blog about it without blubbering all over myself ;). Besides...my machine is rebooting on the other side of me and I can't do anything till it comes back anyway.

The little started pre-school last Tuesday. The first day was the hardest (as expected) although a bit differently than originally thought. All 3 of us went for the first day of drop off. When we got within viewing distance, Irene was already saying buh-bye to us and ready to climb out of the seat. As much as I was feeling a bit shunned..I was happy because that meant she felt comfortable. She put on her backpack (tinkerboo..BTW) and walked holding Dadda's hand into school while momma shuffled behind. I was hanging in there though!!! No tears yet!

We got in and "Teacher Viki" met us at the door and helped us to sign in and where to find Irene's hook for her backpack/lunch as well as where her cubby was for her sleeping stuff ( we needed to bring a pillow, crib sheet and blanket each week). We got everything in place and before we could turn around, Irene was out the door. Whooosh!!! I saw the streak of blonde hair through the door..but that was about it. I started going to pieces at this point. Marcus put his arm around me though and that helped aLOT.

We walked around the room a bit and came to the volunteer section. Apart of our obligation as parents is to make sure to volunteer 10 hours to the school (on various things). So I signed up to bring flowers starting the 12th (today). There were other options, like laundry, playdough etc. I figure I will move through each of the items..but I get the feeling that not many parents bring flowers to school (based on how much the teachers gush about them). So I think that might be something I will always do once a month (unless of course other parents actually decide to this as well).

Marcus went out the door, and I followed. I looked around the school yard trying to take it all in. The yard is wonderfully large and has guinea pigs, and chickens along with trikes, play structure..the whole 9 yards.

Irene suddenly came over and wrapped herself around me, and said "Bye bye momma!". I looked down at her and then over at marcus. He nodded, so I knelt down gave her a kiss and told her I would pick her up soon. Marcus and I left hand in hand and just as we got near the gate, I turned and looked. There was the look of sheer devistation that I had been waiting for. She realized that we were ACTUALLY going to leave her there. Marcus told me in a strong authoritative voice, "Keep going" as she started to scream and began to cry. We walked through the gate and Marcus led me back to the car. Tears were running down my face and her crying in the background only made it harder to leave. I turned again to find that Teacher Michael was there kneeling with her and we climbed in the car and left.

I called about 5 minutes after that, and found out that she was fine..the episode was over. She was on a trike and playing happily. I began to feel much better at that point. Pick up was wonderful, Irene was exhausted from having played so much and worked so hard.

The rest of the week has been pretty much a dream. Drop off was a breeze and I come and get her and receive a boat-load of enthusiasm that she did so much that day.

This morning was no different. This pre-school rocks!

Laptop - update

Well..it was previously noted in a comment that some could not see the link I posted. Therefore, I will happily post a picture. :) It's...sooo... pretty

A new fondue place

Well..this little place called The Melting Pot came down the grape vine as a place to go. The link there is for the San Jose restaurant, down off of First Street. A little farther than La Fondue, but from what I hear, just as good taste wise, and easier by $20 - $30 a head on pocketbook.

Thought I would pass this on to those cheesy fans ;)

enjoy!