What I've Been Up To: Photo Dump

Recently, one of my friends convinced me to open up a "shop" of sorts on facebook. Basically all it is, is a page where I put up pics of things that I've made that I'd be willing to make for other people and/or their kids and then people comment on the photos saying they'd like to purchase one. They pay me through paypal, or if they are local, they come by the house and pay in cash or check when they pick up their items. I never thought it would go anywhere, but so far, I've had quite a few "customers." Heh... it feels weird saying that. I'm not swimming in teh mon-hay or anything, but I've had a steady-ish flow of about 2-3 orders per week. It's kinda neat! And not more than I can handle so that's cool.

Also, I'm mostly just exhausted and bitchy most of the time, so I've been very hermit-ish the last few weeks. I feel like a scum bag for not getting out to see my friends more or taking my kids to see theirs... but honestly just the thought of loading everything up in the car to go anywhere makes me want to hide under the covers in my room with the AC on sub zero and nap all day. .........not that I've done that recently.........more than once a day...........

The thing is, I'm tired all the time, and then when I try to nap or sleep at all for that matter, an idea will pop into my head and then I cannot sleep no matter what I do, until the idea has been realized. Completely. Not even with benadryl. So here's all the stuff I've been churning out when I should have been, but couldn't be, sleeping. At least most of it is stuff I can be proud of. In fact, everything pictured here has sold to at least one "customer" aside from the top I made for B out of some left over fabric I found.

Made this Birthday dress for a "customer"

Made some Minky Baby Loveys

Made this ruffled onesie for Baby Lena

Made these photo block/keepsakes. One for each of the kiddos.

Made a Top for B.

Made her a dress.

Made some clothes for other people

OW! OW! OW!!!!

I woke up this morning to terrible, "charlie-horse" type leg cramps in my right leg. The muscle would just sieze up and you could actually feel the leg heat up from it. I wasn't even doing anything! I was just laying there and BAM. Pain.

So ready for this baby.

WOW! I WON!!

I never win online blog giveaway things. Actually, I never win anything. Not even Bingo. But I entered this little give away over on Made anyway because I figured: "What the heck?" and also I have a hard time staying away from the home improvement scene. Seriously, if my television is on, 95% of the time it's on HGTV. I can spend hours of time in stores like Lowe's and having a semi-local IKEA would be like my dream come true.

BUT, I'm getting off topic, because I ACTUALLY WON!!!! I won a $100 gift card to LOWES!!! I am sooooo stoked. We have been working on the house little by little since we moved in, a little over 5 years ago, but have really been getting into it the last few weeks or so. We've been picking out new furniture for the kids' rooms. I have one really cute dresser set that my Papa made over for us before we moved in that will be going into the girls' room, but I need a dresser and bed set for the Boy-Bob. I will most likely spend the entire gift card and then some on paint since I'm planning on painting the little front room for the boy, and then the back larger room for the girls. The back room and hallway are both currently the same ugly pink beige as our bathroom USED to be, so both HAVE to be repainted.

This card could not have come at a better time. The last trimester for me is always full of "I've GOT to get this DONE. NOW!!!" and "Quick! We must throw EVERY THING AWAY!!" hormones to make way for the new baby, punctuated by crazy OCD cleaning fits involving toothbrushes, bleach, and corners. *shudders* Last year I bought new living room furniture. This year it's the kids' rooms that have been keeping me up at night with wheels turning non-stop. Also, this past year has been the first year that we haven't had someone or someone else's stuff staying at our house. It's the first year that we have TRULY LIVED in every room of our house, so I've been doing a lot of purging and re-organizing and furniture moving anyway. Seriously. Tim has taken apart and moved Calvin's crib about 4-5 times in the last year. And that's just moving it from room to room. That doesn't include me wheeling it from this side of the room to that side.

Remember, not that long ago, I had him move the boy out of Nadia's little room and into the back larger bedroom? And then I put up another crib for Baby Lena in the big room? Well, now I've changed my mind. AGAIN. And decided that with Nadia being in kindergarten in the fall, it will be easier to have the babies in separate rooms in case one needs to fuss a bit during nap time. That way they aren't waking each other up. SO. I'm moving Calvin's crib. Again. Into the little front room that he'll end up in eventually anyway, and putting the girls in the back room. We always co-sleep the new baby in our bedroom for the first 4-5 months anyway, or until they start sleeping for longer stretches of time, so I don't see that being a problem.

BUT! Anyway! I WON!!! I WON!!! WHoo-HOO!

Book Review: But Inside I'm Screaming

I just finished reading But Inside I'm Screaming by Elizabeth Flock, and I'm kind of undecided about it.

The book is about a TV news anchor named Isabelle who suffers a psychotic break on the air and ends up in a mental institution. Throughout the story you learn more about her history: her alcoholic no-show father, her physically abusive high school boy friend, her emotionally and physically abusive husband, her divorce, her job.

It's an interesting story, that much is certain. I guess I'm just unsure of whether or not I liked it because it was almost a little TOO real. I got sucked into Isabelle's story enough to be really unsettled by her experience with Electroshock therapy. Her disgust with and fear of the idea of undergoing that treatment when she hadn't even yet accepted there was anything wrong with her was palpable and disturbing. So, if realism is what the author was going for, I'd say she hit the nail on the head.

I'm also not pleased with the ending. I wanted more satisfaction from it. I wanted to read about her finalizing her divorce with her jerk of a husband. I wanted a "Then Isabelle walked off into the sunset" kind of ending. Instead the author ends it with her telling her group therapy com padres that she's leaving the next day. That's it. You have to take the rest on faith, and in truth it just kind made of me angry. Like, "What the heck did I just read all this for???? All this depressing and unsettling journey for nada? Nothing? GEEZE!"

At least I didn't chuck the book across the room, though that may just be from lack of the energy to actually do so. So yeah, that's what I think about this book. Humph.

Update-ish-ness

I don't know what's been up with me lately, but my focus has been completely elsewhere and the last thing I've felt like doing for awhile has been blogging.

*Nadia has been doing pretty good with camp! She gets up in the mornings and rides the school bus just like a big girl. One thing is for certain, it is going to be an adjustment for her to get used to going every day. On the third day she missed the bus and Tim had to drive her to school. After that she has been more reluctant about the whole bus riding deal. However, considering that in September I will have a one year old boy and a brand new infant baby girl, loading everyone up to take her to school in the mornings is going to be a no-go, so we are definitely doing the bus ride. At least in the mornings. I really like her school. They do an art project every day. Every day she brings home some really cute project that she got to make and I know that she is enjoying the heck out of it.

*I'm enjoying her being at camp. Not that I don't love her to pieces; not that I don't miss her while she is gone. But, holy cow I can get a lot done because when Calvin naps, it's just me here and I don't have to come up with a zillion and one things to entertain Nadia's constantly running brain. I realize that when she actually starts kindergarten, what with the TWO babies, this little bit of quiet time I've been getting every morning (and AFTERNOON because when she gets home she has played so hard that she passes out!) will likely cease to exist. That's okay. I'm living it up now while I can.

*Baby Einstein ROCKS. They have these silly little puppets that don't even talk. They more or less just squeak. But they are cute in a baby way, not all creepy like some other puppets. And Calvin thinks they are the funniest thing on the face of the Earth. Every time they pop up on the screen he drops what he's doing and laughs and claps and bounces up and down until he's gasping for air. Even Nadia doesn't seem to mind them. She likes watching and copying them do the sign language for the different words and has already picked up quite a bit of it. It's pretty adorable, and these little 30 minute digi board books have become part of our wake up and night time routine. One after breakfast, and one after dinner and a bath. Awesome.

*It's HOT. It's HUMID. I'm pregnant and swollen and sweaty and uncomfortable, and, at this point? I've been pregnant for almost 2 years. I'm just ready to get this over with and have this baby. Not that I want to do the pre-term labor gig, which we are all kinda worried might happen. Dr. B seems pretty optimistic but he's already seeing me every two weeks (I'm 27 and 4 days along) and has ordered another diagnostic ultrasound in a couple of weeks just to keep an eye on things. I just frankly haven't been in the mood to be all smiley and "pregnancy is the most wonderful time in a woman's life!!" happy and junk. It's hard to be that way when your ankles slowly disappear up until lunch time, at which point they are officially gone and your toes are touching together. Also? I know there are some yellow box flip flop dislikers/haters out there, but I have to say that I am currently extremely grateful that my mom got me a pair. They are very cushy, and they are big. They are the ONLY pair of shoes that fit comfortably after about 11 am, the only pair that doesn't cut off the circulation further in my feet, and they still look "nice" enough that I don't feel like slob wearing them to the store.

*The huge gash I got on my hand/thumb last Monday is starting to close up and I can finally get through the day with out needing about 3-5 band aids. Dr. B and the nurse had a bit of freak out over at my check up today because they thought I was going to try and climb through the window. Apparently I haven't explained myself well enough. See, I was trying to reach THROUGH the window around to the lock on the door so I could WALK through it. I had no delusional thoughts about trying to crawl through this window. A)I know climbing and junk is bad for pregnant ladies. B)My currently round baby belly was never gonna fit through that hole.

That about sums up my last week or more. Even though I haven't been posting, I've still been trying to keep up with all of your blogs and goings-ons!

Just Another Monday Morning

Yeah... whatever. This monday morning was like the monday from Hell. For those of you keeping track, today was Nadia's first day of kindergarten preview/summer camp stuff and we had to get up early for her to catch the bus for the very first time! We were so excited that none of us slept at all last night! No, seriously. Nadia was up and down all night. The baby was up and down all night. So of course, was I, taking care of the kiddos. Tim was on night shifts, so he was up and working all night.



Nonetheless, we got up on time and things started out pretty well. Nadia was dressed with shoes tied and hair fixed in no time, and then insisted on waiting outside for the bus for the next 30 minutes. This was fine, as the baby was still sleeping (finally) in his crib. We headed outside and after about 5 minutes, I sent Nadia inside to get the camera so I could take some pics of her getting on the bus. On her way back out, she LOCKED. THE. DOOR. She locked it, with me outside, with the baby inside still in his crib. We have no hide-a-key because the first year we lived here we came home while someone was in the process of robbing us. For the same reason, we keep all the windows and doors locked up tight. Especially when Tim is on night shifts. So I had no way in and no phone.

I tried not to let my panic show because I really didn't want to ruin her big day by taking out my frustrations on her for an honest mistake. We all do it. It's a force of habit, but inside: I was FREAKING OUT. I set Nadia up on the front steps to wait for the bus and instructed her not to move and to yell for me if the bus should come while I was looking for a way in.

In the process of trying to open one of the firmly locked windows, I then, being a clumsy woman at the best of times, sliced open my hand, just on the back of my thumb. Not just a little slice, mind you, but a BIG ONE. So, now, I'm locked out of the house, the baby is locked in the house, Tim is still at least an hour and half out at work, I have no phone, and my hand is literally pouring blood down my shirt.

Allow me to pause and mention that Nadia FREAKS out and has hysterical fits over TINY paper cuts that look even the least bit red. If she spills so much as a spec of blood she is over the top and sobbing. Combine that with her having been VERY mommy clingy ever since the whole ER trip for the baby several months ago, and I knew that if she got one look at my hand there was no way I was getting her on that bus.

After saying several swear words and having a bit of a cry, I pulled my self together and started looking for some way to bind up my hand AND cover the blood that was now soaking the front of my shirt. Luckily there was an emergency beach towel still in the trunk of the car, so I wrapped a portion of it around my hand and started applying pressure. I used the rest of the towel to cover my shirt. She knew I had a "boo-boo" but since she couldn't see it, she was okay.

I kept my smiling brave face on until she was safely on the bus. As it turned to pull away, I saw her little face looking out at me from the window, just ever so concerned, and then she waved at me. I gave her a big smile, and waved back, but as soon as the bus was out of sight, I lost it. I'm talking big hiccuping panicked sobs.

After I had calmed down a bit, my across the street neighbor pulled in his driveway. I swallowed all of my pride and walked over to ask if I could maybe use the phone. Bless his heart, he took one look at me, and the mess that I was and even called the hubby FOR ME. I was surprised Tim answered the phone considering he rarely does if he doesn't recognize the number. Since Tim works around a lot of very noisy machinery, all he managed to make out was "wife is locked out. Needs to go to the hospital." My poor neighbor was pretty insistent that I was going to need stitches.

While Tim was panicking and racing home, my neighbor walked back over with me and tried for ten minutes to get into the house. By this time, the baby was awake and playing happily in his crib. When the man got to his windows, he got really excited and started bouncing up and down and shouting "Ba! Ba! BAahhhh!" at him with big two teeth smiles and everything. At least he was ok!

I was exhausted physically and emotionally so when Tim pulled in the driveway, I just came straight inside and cried some more in the bathroom. I cleaned up my hand and changed my clothes while Tim fed the baby breakfast. I called my mom and filled her in and then called my friend Beth and unloaded on her a bit more. After which, I was at least able to find humor in the whole ordeal and get through the rest of my morning.

Thankfully, I didn't end up needing stitches, though it was still a pretty nasty cut. My thumb is all wrapped up with gauze and paper tape, but otherwise in tact. I'm hoping that I didn't totally ruin Nadia's first day at camp and that she was able to forget the whole morning. She has a tendency to mull things over for awhile before reacting, so it's entirely possible that she doesn't get upset about it until later in the day.

I get to pick her up in a couple of hours, so we shall see! Also, Tim called in to work tonight, so at least I can take a much needed nap later on. *sigh* Also on the up side, at least now I can sleep easier while Tim is on night shifts since apparently the only way to get into our house when it's locked up is with a crow-bar or a key!

Rules For My Sanity:

Over the last few years or so, I have come to realize that I have, at the least, a tiny case of OCD. I am fully aware and accepting of the fact that not everyone operates on the same level of crazy that I do, so allow me to present

RULES FOR MY SANITY
The Laundry Edition:

Rule Number 1: If you aren't going to do things MY way, then please, for my sanity, DON'T do them.

This rule is pretty much the most important rule for my sanity. Period. There are some things that I can deal with as long as I don't watch. For example, I can't stand the way in which my husband makes sweet tea or kool-aid. As long as I don't watch, it doesn't bother me, but if I happen to catch him at it... it makes me twitch.

Laundry is not one of those things that I can just turn around and ignore while someone else is doing it. Your laundry? Do it how you want, but MY laundry? Ha.. that's a whole other story.

First of all: Do not wash laundry unless you plan on putting it through the drier. I would rather laundry get dried and not folded than to sit in the washing machine until I happen upon it and then have to RE WASH it because it got all yicky sitting in there. Washing a load of laundry is NOT the same as DOING the laundry.

Next, I have a certain way of folding things. All things must be folded to these specifications or I start twitching and get a head ache. I'm serious. I ALWAYS fold things the same way and it drives me crazy that after 5 years of watching me fold laundry and always finding his laundry folded in the same manner, that my hubs DOES NOT fold the same way I do.

Do NOT begin folding a load of laundry and then stop half-way through and pile it all back into the basket. Finish what you start or just leave it alone.

If the laundry is a load of towels then just DON'T. Just WALK AWAY. I will do it. I just RE-FOLDED an entire load of towels that the hubby "folded" and then re-folded every towel in both bathroom cabinets. I can't stand a sloppily folded towel. I just can't. It's a rectangle. It has corners and flat edges and for it to be slopped together is just intolerable. All towels should form a nice and neat square or rectangle once folded.

I fold towels in half short ways first, then long ways, then short to make a square. Hand towels get folded in half short ways, then long ways to make a rectangle. Bath cloths get folded into squares UNLESS it is a baby bath cloth. They are so small, they don't need folding. I just stack them into a neat pile. I do this EVERY TIME I fold towels. EVERY TIME. I stack them so that the rounded, folded seam is facing out, and if there are more than one of a certain color I stack them on top of each other. I told you, I like neat towels. I always divide the towels into the same stacks according to which bathrooms they go in. I put the SAME towels into the front bathroom EVERY TIME. I put the same towels into my bathroom every time. Based on what color they are. Our bathroom gets the neutrals. The front bathroom gets the bright kid colors.

BUT, no matter how many times I have shown the hubs my towel folding method, no matter how many times he has watched me do it, he still slops them all together. Long ways first and the corners all askew and cattywonkers. Folding up baby bath cloths into tiny little squares that won't stack. Shoving them into the cabinets any which way. Towels all in the wrong bathrooms.

And, also?! There is a difference between a wash cloth and a bath cloth. Wash cloths are what get used to wash things in the house. Like wiping down counters or tables, or for dusting, or for cleaning out bathroom sinks and tubs, for wiping up spills. Bath cloths are used for bathing one's body. If you cannot tell the difference between a bath cloth and a wash cloth, even after using them and pulling them from their respective places for years, just DON'T do the towels. PLEASE. I beg you, at least, not at my house anyway.

There is this one wash cloth in particular that keeps finding it's way into the bath cloths and the shower despite my having held it up numerous times and declaring it a WASH cloth. A DISH RAG. A PLEASE DON'T BATH YOURSELF WITH THIS THING!!!! So today I just tossed it. It's not worth the twitching and the headaches.

Now, as I mentioned, I understand that not every one operates at this same level of crazy. I am even able to see the humor in my worrying over such things. I get laughed at for it, and I can totally laugh at myself for it, so feel free to tease. I don't nag Tim to do the laundry and then bitch at him for not doing it right. He just has a tendency to be helpful and do things without my asking. I know, right? It's almost blasphemous to complain about such things, but all of this brings us back to rule number 1 for my sanity.

If you are not going to do things my way, then please just don't do them.

Bathroom Reno:

Ahh... well it's good to see the nesting hormones are now in full swing! Last year about this time in the pregnancy I sprung for new living room furniture. This year I just decided to update our "master" bathroom a little. I use the word "master" kind of loosely. Try not to picture some grand huge bathroom with a huge deep tub or anything. The only thing that makes this bathroom this "master" is that it is attached to the "master" bedroom. Heh. Anyway, moving right along.


There wasn't a whole lot that really needed to be done. The shower and the vanity and such were all in good shape so there wasn't any ripping out or huge demo. However, there were things that just weren't awesome like so many of the other rooms in our house. I've mentioned it before. Those people, they cut corners and apparently were just sloppy all around. For example, the floor in front of the shower wasn't finished properly or sealed, so the moisture from the shower was causing the linoleum to roll up.


That was a simple enough fix. We had the local Marvin's pre-cut a piece of strip molding, which Tim then used to tack the linoleum back down and then caulked around it to seal the moisture out. The other big fix was the light fixtures/mirror. Bad, bad me forgot to take any "before" pics but we have the same ghastly light fixtures in the front bathroom too so imagine two of these:

On either side of a mirror in what appeared to be just a white picture frame. The lights, aside from being ugly, are impractical. It took 8 light bulbs to fill it up and even then the bulbs were just kind of hanging there. As for the mirror, well apparently they hung it there to hide the huge square hole they hacked into the wall in order to do the wiring for the lights. And once we removed the light fixtures, there were MORE huge holes behind them. Um.....it looked kind of like they couldn't figure out how to get the wires through to where they needed them, so they just punched one through with a hammer. Way to go guys, way to go. Other than those things, the walls were a very ugly shade of like beige-ish pink. Kinda like this:

So, we replaced the light fixture and bought a new, larger mirror to cover all of the holes. We fixed the floor in front of the shower, and then painted the walls a more neutral color called "Bleached Wheat." Everything from there on was just decorating. We framed the mirror on either side with a matching set of wall hangings, and put up a bin/shelf organizer for all of the things that normally clutter the counter in there. Then I got some new chocolate brown bath mats, a new shower curtain and liner, and a set of chocolate brown "decorative" towels. And YES, I know that decorative towels are silly and serve no purpose, but they were cheap and they look pretty!

So here is a shot of my finished "new" bathroom. I really, really love it. I like that it's finally finished and that there aren't little tiny irritating things like the floor bothering me whenever I go in there, so now I can actually relax and take a shower in there and enjoy having our own space away from the kids' bathroom which is about to be, very soon, over-run with THREE kids.

So, for the interested: Here's the tally:

Paint and supplies: $20 (and I have enough paint that I could probably repaint the front bath the same color!)

New Light fixture: $16

Wall Art: $12

New shower curtain and liner: $12

New Mirror: $12

New Bathmats: $6 x 2= $12

Decorative Towel set: $10

Bin/Shelf organizer: $12

Strip Molding and Caulk: $6

Total Makeover: ~$115.

Not too shabby!

Random Things

1. My memorial day was great. We spent it in the company of our closest friends and swam in the pool, grilled lots of yummy food, ate too much of said food, and just had an all around great time.

2. I really want to meet the Dali Lama. My brother sent me this really cool video after an awesome conversation he and I had the other day, wherein he informed me that yoga is an important part of his day. Lemme just pause a second and tell you how weird it is to have very mature, philosophical/theological discussions with my "baby" brother. It's weird. But very cool.



3. I'm in love with the whole instant streaming gig from netflix. It's no wonder our local movie gallery is going out of business, since apparently I'm late to the table again on this one. *shrugs*

4. I love thunderstorms. We've been having them off and on for the last three days, which is why this is my favorite time of year, hands down. It's one of the few things I really LOVE about living in the South that I think I would miss if we ever should move. The BIG HUGE AMAZING thunderstorms.

5. My nails are getting too long to type comfortably thanks to vitamins. It's actually kind of annoying but they look so pretty I don't want to shorten them. I used to be a horrible nail biter until finally a little over a year ago, I kicked the habit. I'm oddly proud of my long, yet annoying, nails.

6. I'm thinking of going back to school again in the fall. I saw a flier that said the local community college will be offering classes for a Bachelor's in Business Admin, so I wouldn't have to go out of town to do it. Plus, it only takes a year to earn it if you already have at least two years of college completed, which I do. I'm very interested.

7. It's been a long, long weekend. I'm very tired but still have lots to do. On the agenda for tonight is to fold all the laundry I washed while watching episodes 3&4 of Season 1 of True Blood with the hubby.