I just don't know when to give up

Tonight I decided to start working on the bag from the pattern I ordered. It is the strangest pattern I have ever used. It's a booklet with hand-drawn illustrations. And it lists the measurements for 3 sizes. I was going to find a highlighter to mark the measurements I needed, but then decided I didn't need to. So I got the main pieces cut and then cut the smaller pieces. I used the wrong measurements for the smaller pieces. I have attempted to piece some things together and it should work. So I started cutting the interfacing. With my rotary cutter. I made a cut, bottom to top to be safe. When I brought the cutter back to the bottom for the next cut, I knicked my left hand. Thankfully, it's not deep, and I missed that little greenish blue line just under it. So. I'm done for tonight. I need all my fingers.

Of course, if I were hurt more seriously, I could call and reschedule or cancel my dentist's appt. for tomorrow! hmmm. I don't think my injury is that serious. :0P

Can you say, "EWWWWW!"

Ok. For those of you who live in Northern Wisconsin, you've probably never encountered the ugliest "bug" I've ever seen. But this is what I found in my tub yesterday morning.
















Every time I see one of these, I completely freak out. I sprayed the one in the tub with Tilex many times. When it finally quit trying to climb the sides of the tub, I used half a roll of TP to pick it up and in record time flush it down the toilet.

I get the heebie jeebies just thinking about it.

What's worse than finding one in the tub? Seeing one crawling on the ceiling. Yea. Blahhhh.

Just thought I'd share. I'm sure my nephew EJC will think it's cool. Baby thinks it's "Scusting!"

First Swim Lesson

Wow. Where has time gone? It was like 5 weeks ago that we signed up. DH was off work today (crazy swing shift!) so we both took Little Boy to his first lesson. I was really afraid that he was not going to get into the water.


He fooled us. He was a bit apprehensive, but he was very willing to try what the teacher wanted him to do. He even jumped off the side of the pool into the water twice (holding the teacher's hands)! He was upset with us at the end; we were so mean! We wouldn't let him stay and play in the water! Sigh.


We also ordered his big boy bed today. I had found one I liked online, and stopped at the furniture store to see if they carry it. The have to order it, but it ended up being about $350 cheaper than if I had bought it online. So in a couple weeks, we'll be graduating to a new bed. This picture is of a full-size bed; he is getting a twin size. I can't wait to have storage in his room!


It was 75 degrees outside today. So beautiful. I'd get excited, but I heard there's a frost warning tomorrow night.


Gas is $3.40. Crazy.

Abadabba, Abadabba, Poof!

That is what my Baby told me while I was changing her diaper. It was accompanied by waving arms and an imaginary wand, I think. I was thinking, "Please!!!!"

My disaster in the kitchen has moved to the hallway. I am about 90-95% done with sorting clothes. I will be so happy to get it done and moved downstairs. Somewhere.

I need to work on VBS stuff so this will be short; I didn't want to forget Baby's words.

The other day Little Boy started talking about birthdays. He said that G & G don't have very many birthdays left, that Daddy and Mommy don't have as many birthdays left and that he and Baby have lots of birthdays left. He got very quiet and I looked at his little face and he was so sad. I asked what was wrong; he wanted to know what would happen to him and Baby if Mommy and Daddy die. OH MY WORD. Where on earth did that come from?

I held him and told him that I couldn't promise that Mommy and Daddy wouldn't die, because Jesus decides when we go to heaven. I told him that Jesus loves him, G&G love him, his aunts and uncles love him, Grandma Judy & Grandpa Lowell love him, etc. That there would always be someone to take care of him. He said, "I guess we'll have to live with G&G." (He did say it sadly; that was a small consolation.) I told him that if something happens to Mommy and Daddy, he was going to live with Uncle Luke and Aunt Anna and Ethan and Alex, and they would take good care of him and Baby. He started getting upset. I thought he was going to say how much he would miss G&G. His concern was, "How are we going to get there?" I tried to comfort him that these were all things he didn't really need to worry about; that the big people would help make everything happen and that Mommy and Daddy were going to be here as long as he needs us.

So deep. Daddy was upset that he was even thinking about it and wondered where he got it. I have a pretty good idea. The whole "not many birthdays left" thing sounds like G & G.

Ah, the joys of living next door.

Cleaning Baby's Room

Well, today I started cleaning out Baby's room. I had all the baby clothes from both kids in boxes stacked in her room, and just all kinds of infant stuff in her room. I'm trying to purge the kids' stuff, but I spent half the time crying. It's tough. I know I don't want more babies, but I miss having a little baby. While I was looking at a picture of me holding Little Boy when he was about a month old, I started crying. He was so sweet. In the meantime, realtime Little Boy was in his room, sitting in the naughty chair throwing a fit. Brought me back to reality.

My goal is to get things arranged for a rummage sale. I need to find some tips on getting things set up efficiently.

It's a beautiful spring day here. High 60s. Flowers up, shrubs getting green. Buds on trees. Both kids are napping. I really need to run to the store for groceries. Sigh.

What is going on?

DH came in this morning to say good-bye before leaving for work. About the time I heard the basement door close, Baby started crying. I got up to check on her and she wanted to rock. I changed her and put her in bed with me. What was I thinking? She gave me about 50 smooches, patted my arm, patted my hands, poked my eyes, kicked me, pulled the sheet, sat up to make faces at herself in the dresser mirror, bounced around. Meanwhile, I lay there hoping she would settle down so I could get just a little more rest. HA HA HA HA HA. What a joke.

So, finally I got her and took her into her room to rock. As I passed through the hall, I noticed Little Boy's light was on. Sigh. About a minute after we sat in the rocker, he came out. He was looking into my room to see if I was still in bed and Baby called his name. He about jumped out of his socks.

I give up. It's a dreary day and all I really want to do is climb back into bed. Mornings stink.

I finished crocheting the hat!

It is so cute. It turned out really nice. Ask Baby. It fits her little head. :0( So, I'm crocheting another one that will hopefully fit me. Oh well.

Sticky, Pokey Butterflies

My son is running around the living room sing-songing, "Sticky, pokey butterflies" in a high-pitched screechy voice. I feel like my brain has melted and is about to run out my ear. How can I possibly think with that kind of nonsensical noise filling the room? I finally told him he HAD to stop. He just looked at me with that innocent "WHY?" look. It could be a long day.

I am currently feeling like my nephew who wanted to try to juggle hop balls. How on earth am I going to pull off everything I have in the air? And I keep adding to the list. Yesterday I bought yarn to crochet a hat that I won't need for many months, but I just have to make. And I bought fabric to make Baby some clothes and more fabric and trims to make a bag. I found some cute fabric at Wal-Mart that was inexpensive and am looking forward to trying to sew something that is not clothing and not as huge a project as a quilt. Maybe I can bring myself to actually finish it.

So for quite awhile now, our dryer has been not working that great. I've been telling DH that we really need to replace it; that I do NOT trust it. I've pulled clothes out that were too hot to touch, so we hang all the kids clothes that are cotton to keep them from becoming doll clothes. And then it started screeching. Loudly. It was this loud, rhythmic, intermittent screech. I had quit letting it run if I was leaving the house and I wasn't letting it run if I was going to bed. I think he thought I was being a bit paranoid.

Well, Saturday, he finally decided to pull the top of the dryer and take a quick look. He found lots of lint inside. That didn't surprise me. He found metal shavings around the main axle that the drum turns on - thus the screeching. He also found, oh, about 4 burned wires! 2 or 3 of the wires were burned where they plugged into the board and the board was scorched and a bit melted. Hmmm. OH MY WORD. I never said, "I told you so," but he KNEW I was thinking it.

So now what do we do? We were going to dinner at Baby's SS teacher's house at 5. He was not happy we were going in the first place, and was being a bit passive agressive. I told him to call his mom and see if she'd watch the kids that night, and we could run to Sears after we got home from dinner. He said we wouldn't have enough time. I had to look up the store hours and show it to him - they were open until 9:30. It would NOT take us that long to find a dryer and come home. I really think he was hoping I'd call and say we couldn't come. Like I would do that to another woman. He just has no idea what we women put ourselves through for company. So we gave the kids their baths before their naps so we wouldn't have to worry about it when we got home.

Well, we ate dinner, visited, and the kids tormented their poor kitty. Baby got nipped at least twice. We left a bit after 7 and dropped the kids and got FIL's truck. We were home at 9:05, and we quickly got the kids home and in bed. It was later than usual, but they did ok.

So, now we have a new dryer. I guess that means I need to wash the pile of Little Boy's undies in the hall. I have GOT to clean his room. Maybe when I finish my hat. Ha.

Tag-team

Little Boy and Baby have decided to tag team me this week. Each morning, they have woken up wet. Jammies, sheets, blankets. Sigh. And this morning they were both up -wet- at 8:15 am. Double Sigh. I am going to have to restrict their water intake at night. I guess it would help to serve dinner earlier than 7:30. And it is even worse when they wake up from their naps wet, too. Sigh, sigh, sigh.

I've resorted to TV sitting today. I keep changing from the regularly programed shows to find something they don't usually watch to keep their attention. How sad. But it's that or scream myself out of a voice. I do not understand why Little Boy cannot just leave her alone. Ever. He just constantly pesters her and she hates it and I end up yelling. I'm so glad it's Friday. That means tomorrow morning, I get to sleep in.

So, I think I've done more laundry this week than I have in a long time. I am going to buy a 3rd set of sheets and matress covers this week for each of them. I need to have a back up so I'm not so stressed.

Last night was the ladies' fellowship meeting at church. It really irks me that our meetings take at least 3 hours. These ladies act like they don't have anything better to do than sit around and yack for a half hour, meander through prayer requests and devotions, blather on about things coming up, etc. My stomach was rolling through the whole thing. By the time I left early, they were just sitting down to eat and had not begun to crochet. I left my papers there and rushed home to use my own bathroom. I was really afraid I wasn't going to make it. But before I left, I asked the pastor's wife - again - if she could locate the VBS information from last summer. I need to get some idea of how many kids to plan for for crafts. I've asked for the cards since the last day of VBS last summer. She keeps saying she'll look for them. I pressed for them last night and she reluctantly looked for them and found them. I entered the information into a spread sheet this morning in about an hour.

I need to fix lunch for the little monsters. They are driving me this.

He won!

All the new people running for union positions won. How's that for a coup?

He heard the guy running against the president won by 26 votes. Good thing DH was telling people to vote for him, too. I think that probably helped since few people knew who he was.

That means the former president has to go back to his old job in the warehouse. Ouch.

TTYS.

Oh, I forgot to tell you. . .

Last night DH handed me a receipt from something online. I was hesitant to look at what new gadget we now own. It took me a minute, but finally the words on the page made sense. It was a receipt for a sewing machine. DH knew that the sale was ending Friday and that there were chances we weren't going to get there in time to save $20. I am excited; now beautiful clothes will just flow from the machine. Yeah. I know. The operator has a lot to do with it, unfortunately.

Today is the election for the Union at DHs work. He's running for 2nd Vice President. I think it's exciting. DH says he isn't so sure he wants it, but I think he really does. No one really cares for the guy who is currently in that position, and everyone keeps stopping DH to tell him that they are voting for DH. A guy from our former church is running against a "lady" (DH says that word is a huge stretch), and it's pretty certain he will win, too.

The biggest IF is the president's spot. A guy who works in DHs department is running against this guy who's been in there for a long time, hasn't done much, and is planning to retire next year. He's running on the campaign line that since there's a union contract negotiation this year people should keep him in. Well, DH, of course, says that is baloney. First off, the national reps do the negotiating. The local people are just there basically for show and reference. Secondly, when the new members are voted into the union, they are sent off for training. The negotiations are going to be held in Las Vegas this year. I told DH that I would go with him for a couple days, but I don't think that will pan out. He said that since the guy from our former church will be there and the two of them could hang out. I'm ok with that.

Tonight I get to play teacher, again. The ladies in our ladies' fellowship want to learn to crochet. I'm not an expert, by any stretch of the imagination, but I think I can share some basics.

Little Boy just walked in with a pen. He wanted permission to write his name on something. I laughed and told him to put the pen on the table and to leave it there. Oh boy.

Dead Batteries

Yesterday, a graffiti phantom wrote his name in several places in our house. Large, scrawley capital letters. The same four-letter name. Hmmm. At least when I questioned Little Boy, he admitted it was him. Good choice.

So, I wanted to take pictures of the name art, but our digital camera beeped rudely at me and said the battery was empty. I found a spare battery on DHs dresser. I put it in, walked over to take the picture and "BEEEEEEEP" again. By this time, DH walked in and found the third battery and it was good.

So, I went back into Little Boy's room and the flash kept washing out the picture. DH walked in with the new digital camera and snapped some pics. I thought I'd post some pictures here for you all to see, so I took the new camera, walked into the living room, hooked the cable to it and to my computer. I tried to open up the file, but guess what? The battery on the camera was dead. I give up.

I guess that's why I keep my laptop plugged in.

Who's pounding on the door?

Oh. Is that actually my head pounding? That's how I woke up this morning. I think it's sinus related, but am not 100% sure. Can you catch that kind of thing over the phone? Luke? I knew I should have sprayed the phone with Lysol and used half a bottle of Purell! Ha ha.

Little Boy went with Granddad today to dump yard waste at the dump, and Baby spent the morning with Grandma. Mommy spent the morning in bed with an ice pack on her face and a heating pad on her head.

I ended up calling the pharmacist to find out what pain reliever I could take with my new arthritis meds. Since the Indomethacin and Tylenol both are dispensed from the liver, I have to be careful. I didn't have any Extra Strength Tylenol, so I had to take the generic, cherry-flavored kids acetaminophen - yumm. >:-P I woke up and looked at the clock. "Why did it say 2:00?" I guess I got a little rest. My head felt weird when I woke up. Like there was just the slightest remnant of a headache way deep inside my head. It has started to come back and it doesn't help that Little Boy keeps asking every 2 seconds if he can go outside.