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!

Success!!!

Well as you can see above, I am not the one in the pool :) . She went all by herself. We are SOOO PROUD! I am amazed. She LOVED it. We were worried for awhile that we wouldn't get her out, but she listened to the teacher and got out when asked. WE WERE SOOOO PROUD!!!

Talk about fun! More pics to come!

Harry Potter - discovery of the need for Audio books

Well, in the last 2 weeks I finally having great excitement toward getting the last Harry Potter book coming out on July 21. I pre-0rdered the book down at the Mall at Borders (first time ever ordering it locally. Usually get it at Amazon). That being said, I have very little recollection of the previous books now. I haven't had the time (can anyone relate :) ). I am though discovering the joy of audio books in the car. Now that I am taking Irene to pre-school, my drive tends to be a bit longer than dropping her off at daycare. As a result, I pulled out the only Harry Potter audio book I have ever owned (Book 6 - The Half-blood Prince). I am finding it such a joy to listen to that I am seriously beginning to look at getting the previous ones. I can't believe I did it, but I spent $75 on the Book 6 audio book because they were the CD editions (not download). I went to Itunes in the last couple of days and found they were much less expensive(by $32). I was amazed. So if you have an Ipod or don't mind burning your own CD's go Itunes. worth it IMHO

Swimming lessons begin today

Well, we're going to see if Irene is going to freak out going to swim lessons and going in the pool with a teacher and not momma. *shudder*. Tonight is the first night. I am expecting the worst (kicking, screaming, no no no!!), but hope that maybe she will want to get right in and do her thing. Last night she was dunking her head in upside down at the pool steps :) She wanted to go streaking into the pool and go swimming to which I put a an absolute *NOT* to. :) Here's hoping this enthusiasm continues.

I am going to be the pessimist here now.

Contemplating my week

Well, this week has been very very full. I won't say stressful, but more just full of those little details you have to get through in order to feel satisfied that you completed your "job". When I say "job" I mean all those things that not only include work, but taking care of the dogs, mop the floor to remove the last traces of doggie diarrhea from the previous week, dust bunnies out of the corners, boxes off the floor that you've been tripping over for weeks, vacuuming because your cleaning lady hasn't been here in 2 months due to surgery, and taking care of the incidentals like a 3 year old, and a husband going to a gaming convention for the 3-day weekend and your parents and grandmother coming to visit to keep you company and give you a bit of a break. Busy huh? :)

I have to admit, I did it all this week. That and more. Dio has decided that along with our next door neighbor that he has a vendetta against gophers and fully intends to dig up our entire grassy area to get at them. As a result, last weekend I came home to find he had dug 3 - 2 foot deep holes in various places across the grass. Talk about ripping your hair out. Then the gophers go at during the week buy putting up 5 more mounds throughout the grass. Got those cleaned up, the left over mounds of dirt went to fill the holes Dio created and all I have left to do there is re-seed and compost - our gardener didn't have time to do that sort of stuff this week. Another thing that had to get done was to put a nice looking fending unit in to bar off the new veggie patch. We're not sure what is causing Dio's digestive issues - dog food or the stinky soil that all dogs in our family so far seem to just LOOOOVVVEEE. We barred off the grassy area until I could get the fending in, and the grass repaired. I was fully intending to get it done before my parents arrived. Another one checked off the list - approximately 2 hours before they were due today.

Now I sit, basking in the glow of my accomplishments. I realized I hadn't blogged a lot lately and realized this would sum up the week fairly well. Parents and grandmother are due in any time now so I sit for the first time since getting up this morning with my 5:50 wake up call from my little one and enjoy a moment of silence while she naps in bliss.

Work is nearing completion on the latest project. C++Builder 2007 I think will be pretty good. I hope anyway. I have my own opinions about projects in general and have learned to keep them to myself - reason? It happens over and over again no matter how much I b****, moan, and groan. So why waste the effort? Some things are improving, but other issues appear to remain in the fold of so much tradition that I doubt anyone realizes it's a problem anymore. We'll see. I like being a peon - and plan to stay that way for a while I expect. Have been desperately trying to get to the gym. Succeeded fairly well last week. I hope for better this week as well.

Well..time to get away from the computer again. But thought I would check in and say "Happy Memorial Day"

I ALMOST FORGOT!!!

Well, geez. It's been nearly a month and I haven't mentioned the new addition of a family member. :) Please welcome our new puppy dog! His name is Dio and he's part lab-retreiver, part Border Collie. He's amazingly sweet but extremely timid - especially around men. We adopted him through the Animal Services group here in Scotts Valley. He'd been given up for adoption the month prior and had been there for quite some time due to the fact that he was so afraid of people. We adopted him on Monday April 23rd after I spotted him on Saturday afternoon during a walk. He's the sweetest baby in the world and is getting very good at using an extremely large and cold nose to flop your hand on his head for a good petting. :)

Also the other thing we were not prepared for: HE LOVES THE POOL!!!! We're still unable to get a lot of pictures of him. He's extremely scared of people with things in their hands - even me still. But he's coming out of his shell slowly but surely.

We're going through the growing pains but overall, life is getting better. Lady loves her new companion and is no longer afraid to go riding in the car when she knows Dio is going along. Hopefully more pics soon.

Logic and a 3 year old

Ok, I seriously don't think I am ready for this, but this last weekend showed me just how smart a child of 3 can be. *shudder*. The family went to the mall to get Momma some shoes (was at death's door when it came to my feet). We did our shopping and during our excursion she was constantly touching things. The day before, when we were doing our errands she was doing the same thing and we had had a talk about the fact that we were not supposed to touch things.

So I reminded her (I thought) by saying: "What are you not supposed to be doing? What did we talk about yesterday?"
Irene: "Not to touch anything". She yanks her hand back from touching all the socks on the wall
Momma:"That's right. Why were you touching it?"
Irene: "Because we didn't talk about it." (referring to the fact that we had not talked about it *today* yet). *rolling eyes*

I was so flabbergasted that she had actually come up with a completely logical reason for this, that I nearly tripped over myself. I also completely lost my mind at that point and simply stopped the conversation. I didn't respond. I just couldn't fathom that a 3 year old had come up with as logical an answer that an adult would.

I am not ready for this.

Update to getting up on her own

Well it's been quite a while since the last post. So I thought I would follow up on our latest story. News flash! Child got out of bed on her own 2 days later to go potty at 1am without Momma!!! wow! I still went in to help with the toilet paper..but still. I was amazed.

She stays in bed when we put her there for bed at night, and will of course tell us just as we are ready to shut off the light "Momma, I have to go potty.". We roll our eyes and allow her to go do her thing.

Oh..the other "funny" thing although I don't think we've seen the last of this. Marcus found her on the potty in our bedroom bathroom cause the toilet paper is easier to reach. He watched in dismay as she flushed 1/4 of a roll of toilet paper down the potty cause she decided she didn't want to pull off a little bit. She (of course) thought this was halarious. Marcus and I are still wondering if the toilet is going to still work in the next couple o days. *shudder*

An era is over...

Well this morning brought an end to the era of "Moooommmmaaa!!! Mommmaaa!!" over the baby monitor to come get the little one out of her bed to come to snuggle.

This morning, we heard a KATHUNK! as the door to her bedroom slammed open and I groggily opened my eyes to find a little blonde haired, blue eyed girl standing next to the bed eagerly awaiting to climb in to get to "her spot" between Momma and Dadda for a family snuggle before getting up and starting the day. I am not entirely certain how I feel about this. I am happy because I don't have to get up out of a nice warm bed now, but my baby is becoming more and more independent. Plus what will this mean as we tell her about bedtimes and staying in bed and going to sleep. :) We'll see. It's and end of an era though.

My husband agrees.

Having way too much fun with these templates :)

Well, it was time for a face lift again! :) The light blue was nice and all, but it didn't show URL links very well and it was almost too mellow. So this template is called "Son of Modo". We'll see how long it lasts. My favorite is still the one that looks like writers script - which is of course called "Scribe". I might return to that one if I don't like this. One of the reasons I had to change was because I switched my account login to get the new features Blogger.com offered. Now it looks like the person that originally did the "Scribe" template ported to the new edition, so I am happy.

It's still fun to play though, right?

Easter weekend
It's Easter weekend and we just finished the 2nd Egg Hunt. Turns out the school had one yesterday too. Irene I guess had quite a blast. So by the time went for this Egg hunt, Irene was totally ready for "hunting". I got pics both inside and out. The first thing that happened was that she, Brooke (yes Brooke was there), and Madisyn all got dressed up in Madisyn's dress up clothes. That was adorable to watch. Then more children arrived and we headed outside. Soon it was a zoo! Supposedly there were 20 children coming. Some with both parents some with only 1. It was still a zoo. :) Amber and Chris did a great job getting that all put together. It spurs me to want to do something a little more extravagant tomorrow..but now she is down for a nap (she was soooo tired). I might go out after Marcus comes home and get some more stickers and things to stick in the eggs..but we'll see. I haven't made up the Easter basket yet!! *ACK!* Ok..guess I know what I am going to go do now. :)

Pictures later!

New Cross Stitch piece update.

Well, yesterday the bug had bitten me so bad, that I went to Beverly's during lunch after my allergy shot and got the supplies. What's amazing to me is that I have a ton of threads. Seriously..I kid you not. I'll show you the next time you come to my house or we hold a girls craft night ;). It amazes me, however, that when I go to do these projects where it is not the kit, I *still* have to go out and buy 5-9 skeins of the cross-stitch thread for each of these projects. Did I mention this just amazes me? This project was no different. This time I was missing about 9 needed colors and black 14 ct aida cloth. Last night I began the organization process of cutting the thread, putting a couple of blocks into the project card and the rest into the repository for future use. I got all but 2 done... then I got distracted that it was time to go to bed...so I have a bit more to do tonight before I get to start the project tonight. :)

BTW: I highly recommend using Patterns Online.com. This is where I got my latest pattern for $3.95. Personally now, because I do have my stash of colors, I much prefer the patterns over an entire kit. They are easier to store (computer), and you can do as many of the projects as you might like - just print out a copy of for that next project. The pattern is not as easily lost, and the big one: If you have a toddler running around with their favorite marker and want to color on "mamma's coloring sheet" you can just reprint and continue where you left off. :D Can't tell that has happened to me, have you? ;)

Anyway..that's the latest. Will hopefully have this piece done a lot sooner than the previous switchplate now that I am back to real fabric :).

Butterfly Switchplate Cross-Stitch is complete.

Well I finally finished Irene's piece for her room. The picture to the left is one of the sharper editions of the pics I took. Additional photos can be found here. I have to say that this was a lot harder than what it looked. Cross-stitching on vinyl is going to be a rarity for me. It gets harder to work with as you add more detail. Getting the backstitch into it was near impossible after doing the cross-stitch. Reason: Vinyl has no "give" or stretch. Fabric stretches as you add the additional floss. Vinyl won't do that. It's been a good learning piece on things I need more data about cutting fabrincs though. It's something you have to be very precise with I think. I believe I fudged this piece well enough here on the cutting out of the holes and around the edges but it's not easy and most definitely not perfect. :-S

Anyway..the reason this suddenly appeared was because I have been "bitten" by the cross-stitch bug again. I found this new piece I am going to work on. Reason? My grandmother gave me her collection of thimbles which I have hung in the dining room. There is a picture of them here. It's not the greatest way to show them off mind you. You notice that they are dwarfed by the enormity of the wall itself. So my thought, the new piece is one of several that are about 4 1/2 inches wide by 6 inches long. Several of those posted around the thimbles would help make the wall "disappear" so to speak and provide a way to help bring out the thimbles. I expect I'll be doing about 6 - 7 of those type of pieces :). Insane you say? We'll see. :)


Enjoy