Pictures!

The first pictures I've taken of this girl in a WEEK! I think it's a new record. Harp just made me a frappuchino. Yay!

Randomness

Harp brought one of his co-workers, Kevin, over for lunch. That was fun. I was gone for a bit though because I had to run to Walmart and get fried chicken. I had kinda eaten a lot of the leftovers from last night for breakfast. And I'd had a chicken leg right before bed last night, lol.

I don't think Emily considers hip-hop music. She always wants to listen to music and gets very excited when I turn it on and impatient between songs. She doesn't feel that way about Toby Mac. =)

We went to the scrapbooking store this morning and took pictures with us so we could pick out paper. I don't think I've ever actually taken my pictures with me, but it worked a whole lot better. I have brought home some papers that didn't go with anything. So now I'm scrapbooking. =)

Ta Daaa

I still haven't done the binding, as you can see... But I sewed it onto the long sides and it's ready to hand stitch.

Mister 2 Pics

So I needed the fisheye, but I was too lazy. =)

=) =)

::Singing:: Do you know... where you're going to? Do you like the things... that life is showin' you? I'm in a hip-hop, Toby Mac kinda mood. =) Gotta dig through some CD's and find that one. =)

So Emmy and I went to Dillon's, they had artichokes, and we rejoiced. =P They had one of those car carts and I put Em in it and she had a blast. Those carts are cool! It feels like they almost float. If there was enough room, I'd be fishtailing her all over the place. =P We did a little in produce and it was fun, lol.

They didn't have wine, so we found a liquor store and got a tiny bottle of white wine. There are only a couple of ounces left the the bottle or we'd have it with dinner. Maybe I shoulda gotten something bigger. But I don't often cook with wine or drink it so I guess the $1.99 one was a good choice. =)

I am so excited for Harp to come home and have a yummy dinner. I am making chicken and artichokes with lemon dill sauce. I like any recipe that calls for lemon juice and twelve cloves of garlic, lol. =) I think I'll make lemon dill couscous, too.

Gonna go mop and take a picture of Quin's quilt! Still no binding done, I was busy making the marinade and cutting up a chicken (which was totally fun! I'm going to buy whole chickens more often).

Why Plan? =)

This morning, Em got up at 7:15. Lately, I've been getting her up (she usually wakes on her own) around 6:30 and we see Daddy off to work and have milk and then go back to sleep until 8 or 9 and then start our day. It's a weird schedule, but better than not seeing Daddy in the morning and better than starting the day at 7:00. =) So this morning she slept until 7:15, so I decided we should run to Walmart to get my thread and paper towels and some food for a special dinner because Harp's coming home today (he's been in Georgia since Tuesday). So we went to Walmart, got all the stuff we needed (except that the artichokes were nasty so we'll have to go to Dillon's later), and checked out and NO KEYS! I had let Emmy play with them. They were Harp's keys, with the only key to the MR2 on them. I had left my keys in the car, so after looking for 30 minutes for Harp's keys, I called AAA to let me into the car so we could at least go home. So at 9:30, someone got there to let me into the car and at the same moment, someone came to the front of the store with Harper's keys. =P I was SO glad his keys were found. So then we left and I was starving. Like pregnant-lady starving like I'm gonna throw up if I don't eat a hamburger within the next 10 minutes. So we went to Sonic even though Em was exhausted. She got a second wind and had fun playing in the passenger seat while I ate a burger and then we got home around 10. She's having a nap, I sewed that seam around Quin's quilt, and now I'm going to go cut the strips for the binding. What a morning! =) Can't wait to see Harp. He gets home around 4. =)

Quilt

Bah, rah, who haa, yamma, dootel, snart. I have no words. I am DONE with the quilting! Okay so I ran out of thread as I was stitching around the border close to the pattern. But it won't take long to do. I went to Nancy's house and Em played with Josh and Raven and just played with toys and stuff while I talked to Nancy and cut off the backing and batting. We spread the quilt out and it looks GREAT! I hope it still does after it's washed, but I have fresh confidence about it. =) So tomorrow it's off to Walmart to get thread and do the binding. Then there's Killian's quilt... =) But that is so small in comparison that I'm not even thinking about it. Now, I'm thinking HOW expensive is it going to be to get this thing to Colorado? It is SO heavy! Eeeee, I didn't think about that before... It was supposed to find a way there other than USPS. Too bad I took so long! Gonna go sleep!

Sad Day

Well last night, Emmy woke up coughing. She coughed and coughed and I gave her some cough syrup and tried to get her to sleep on the couch with me so she could be propped up, but it didn't work. She can't sleep with anyone around. We were up for about an hour. I finally nursed her and she was able to fall back asleep not too long after that. She has woken up coughing from every nap she's had today and there have been lots because she just isn't sleeping well. I was going to go to Nancy's house tonight and put Em down there, but I don't know if I should. Guess I'll work on Quin's quilt while I can.

What I Sould Have Done

So, I took Em to the library tonight. They have a 1-year-old story time, but there is a waitlist to be allowed to go to it and we are number 7. Crazy, no? Anyway I was looking at quilt books and found my answer. So if you ever wanted to know, now you will.

When you are quilting just straight lines (channel quilting), you should:
(a) Start in the very center of the quilt and go straight down. Then make lines parallel to that, to the right, so you fill in the bottom right quadrant with vertical lines.
(b) Turn the quilt 180 degrees. Again, start in the center of the quilt and stitch the vertical lines in the diagonally opposite quadrant.
(c) Turn the quilt to one of the quadrants that hasn't been quilted. Start in the middle and quilt that quadrant. These are now horizontal lines, not vertical, and nothing has crossed.
(d) Do the same thing in the last quadrant.
(e) Then you can go and stitch the lines going in the other directions in whatever quadrant order you want.

I suppose what I did didn't ruin anything and my little corner mess-up could have happened either way. I started at the top middle and did the vertical channels down the entire right half of the quilt. Then I turned it 90 degrees and did half the horizontal ones. Another 90 degrees and did half the vertical ones. And now I need to turn another 90 degrees and finish the horizontal ones. So I sort of did the middle-out thing only it may have turned out a little better if I'd done it the other way. Oh well! At least I know what to do next time, right?

Swingin'

Today it is so nice outside, so Em and I went to the park. She had SO MUCH FUN swinging. She giggled and laughed and just thought it was great. I relaxed, sitting on the ground in front of her, pushing her from the front and laughing with her. It was really fun.

I am SO proud of my girl today. We went to Walmart and she got sleepy (she was up until 9 last night and 9:30 the night before, so she is quite messed up schedule-wise) and I was looking through quilting magazines and she just sat there so sweetly in the cart, not complaining at all. Then after her nap, I sat on the floor and did a scrapbook page while she had blanket time and she did SUCH a good job. She played sweetly most of the time and only tried to crawl off the blanket a couple of times.

Nancy, the pastor's wife, had an extra copy of To Train Up A Child, so I'm reading that and SO glad to have it. She has the help meet book too and is giving it to everyone for birthdays. =) She reminds me of Janet in so many ways, but her personality is more like Deb's or Ginger's, I think.

I did a dumb thing to Quin's quilt. Well, not to it. But I just did a dumb thing. The batting had a little wrinkle in one corner and as I quilted, I smoothed it out, not thinking the backing was wrinkled with it. Well, it was. It's not horrible, but when I stitch the lines going the other way, there will be puckers on the back. It's not a whole lot to rip out inch-wise, but the stitches are super-small and it's flannel and the color of the thread perfectly blends in with some of the fabrics. So I'm just going to leave it. Maybe I will put a quilt label thing over it when I am done because I don't think it will be too big of a yucky area. We'll see. I am officially 3/4 of the way done with the quilting. Woo hoo! I was thinking about it and the way I am quilting it is the (time & effort) equivalent of stitching every 1.5 inches across a queen-sized quilt. Both ways. Crazy!

Fun, Fun Time

Last night, we went to the Wisners' house for dinner. They are a really cool family. The dad is the pastor at our church and they have 10 kids. Three are far away - 2 married and one engaged. There is one living at home that just graduated college and one that's a junior that comes home on weekends. And then Nellie is done with high school, but lives at home and nannies during the day for 1 1/2-year-old triplets. And Luke, CK, Jed, and Raven are homeschooled. They are all so fun. I may go over tomorrow night and hang out with Nancy (the mom) because most of her kids will be at the youth Bible study and her hubby will be there, too. I'm planning on finishing Quin's quilt by Thursday. We'll see. =)

Mister 2

Today, we bought a car. I seriously think there was divine intervention, here. Harper wanted an old Toyota MR2 because they are cheap and get good mileage. And it's only going to increase our insurance like $10/month. Well he looked all over the place online. He found them mostly 3-4 hours away and mostly going for about $2,000. Some more. And not all in very good condition. In fact, most needed some big work right away.

Well a guy a work knew a guy selling an MR2. We called him and it's in better condition than most of the ones we found online. It already had the common MR2 problem with the alternator and it was replaced. When the guy replaced it, he didn't put the axle on tight enough and it broke so there's a new rear axle, too. So this car is exactly what Harper wanted. The guy had been "trying" to sell it for 3 months. He didn't have it listed anywhere or online, just sitting in this guy's used car lot that was really a body shop. And it was ONE MILE from our house. Oh and the best part: Harp got it for $500. Can you believe it??? Awesome! That's just crazy.

So now Harper has some fresh motivation to clean out the garage. =) He's doing that and Em's taking a nap. I was taking a nap but Em went poo poo and woke up so I went and changed her and put her back down but I stayed up. Don't know why because I'm exhausted.

My poor girl has horrible diaper rash. I have been giving her lots of oranges and clementines in the past 2 days and they really hurt her bum. No more of that! But she ate almost two whole clementines this morning before I made the connection, so I think she'll be rashy for a couple days. It looks like it's about to bleed, so I really hope it doesn't. =( =( =( My poor girl.

Guess I better work on Quin's quilt.

Other Recipes

From Family Fun:
2T sugar
1/3c cornstarch
2c cold water.
Cook over low heat. When cool, stir in 1/4 cup of liquid dishwashing soap.

From Creative Kids at Home:
1/2 cup cornstarch
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups cold water

From Kinderteacher.com:
1/2c flour
2 c water
cook over med heat

Other random recipe:
Place about a tablespoon of light corn syrup for each color you want onto separate plates or bowls. Add some food coloring to the corn syrup. Mix with fingers, cotton swaps, etc. Paint.

Other random recipe:
1c flour
1t salt
1c plus 2T cold water
1c hot water
heat over medium heat

From Super Baby Food:
1/4c cornstarch
2c water
boil until thick
optionally add a few drops of dishwashing liquid (not detergent) to make cleanup easier
She suggests painting on a countertop, cookie sheet, white shelf paper or on the glossy side of freezer paper. I didn't even know there was special finger paint paper but she says it's much cheaper to use freezer paper.

Also in Super Baby Food, she suggests coloring vanilla pudding and finger painting with it. I saw on some other website that they used plain yogurt. Some people use shaving cream, which sounds really fun. And someone said she couldn't stand the smell of the shaving cream, so she whipped shampoo until it was like shaving cream.

Ooh! Found some other fun stuff in Super Baby Food. Using the shaving cream finger paint to paint the walls in the shower and bathtub. And this: pour 2-3T of Bon Ami (which is non-toxic) non-abrasive household cleaner into a cup and add enough water to make a thick paste. Add food coloring. She said this rinses off easily. And it cleans your walls, too, lol. =)

And bathtub soap crayons. Mix about 1/2c of soap flakes (available at natural foods stores, some supermarkets, or make your own by grating a bar of mild soap) with 1-2T very hot water, dropping water in slowly while stirring. Stir well, which is difficult because the mixture is very thick. Mix in food coloring and put in molds (candy molds, ice cube trays, whatever). Let dry until very hard (may be 1 week or more). Let your child have fun drawing on the tile wall, the side of the tub, or on herself! =)

Okay if you try any of these, let me know how they work out. =) Maybe I'll start making a different one every day and see what works best. =) I have never used store-bought finger paints (at least, not that I remember!) so I don't know what they should be like.

Finger Painting

So, the original idea was to make these really cute Valentine cards I saw in Family Fun while we were at the doctor's office yesterday. You let your kid finger paint, let it dry, and then cut out hearts from the painting and make your cards. I thought, great!! Em loves messes. =)

Well I learned a thing or two about finger paint. I think I don't like Martha Stewart's recipe. I'll have to look around. It was 4T sugar, 1/2c cornstarch and 2c water. Anyway I didn't realize it would get clumpy if you didn't stir it nonstop so it had some icky clumps. And I thought the colors looked pretty but they didn't show up much on the paper. Guess you have to use TONS of food coloring. Or else a different recipe?

Well anyway it was basically just colored, tasty goop, which Emily quickly figured out. So... Maybe the cards are not a good idea for a one-year-old. =) lol

Em's Turtle

We found this turtle on the clearance aisle at Target. We wanted some sort of extra chair for the basement, it's comfy, and we can pretend it's Emmy's. =) It was $6.48 and way too cute to not get. It was actually from Grandy because she gave us a gift card there. =) Em loves to be tossed onto it.

Woo Hoo!

Okay I am finally getting caught up with everything. The kitchen is clean, even after we fingerpainted (hehe, I'll have to blog about that later). I have the laundry almost totally done (some in the washer though). Not put away but that's pretty easy to do with Em up so I'm going to wait on it. I think I'm going to make Em's baby food now because that's a little harder to do with her awake. Harp came home for lunch and that was fun. =) He had a good presentation this morning, which is exciting because it was kind of a big deal for McCauley. They sell lots and lots of governors and Cessna was considering letting this other company in Germany make a bunch of them for one of their planes. Which would have been dumb because they own McCauley but they didn't care. But they've been convinced McCauley can do it and should do it so now they all have to work their butts off to get it done in time. But at least they get to do it! So yeah I should get to work.

Plans

It's been almost a week since I got Emmy tons of greens and veggies to make baby food. I still haven't done it! Guess that's the plan for today. And ironing. And washing sheets.

Doctor's Visit

Em weighed 20 pounds and was 29.5" long. She used to be in the 95th percentile for height and weight, but now she's in the 40th. Guess it doesn't really matter because she's growing at exactly the rate I was when I was little. She has weighed 1 pound more than I did at every visit. I was 19 pounds at a year and 24 at 2 years.

Lilypie Things

Well, they are there, but way long. I don't know if I can stick them somewhere else or widen the pink part of my background or what. They look ugly.

CNM = ::Sigh::

Well, darn. I called the practice that Stewart emailed about and it costs more for the CNM than for most of the docs I found out about. Actually, I think more than all of them. So I was going to call Dr. Jensen's office and make an appointment when I realized that was the same office. I don't get it at all. Why at the same office it's more for the CNM? Well anyway the CNM only delivers at the hospital anyway so if we do the hospital thing, it doesn't matter how much the doc costs because we'll max out our out-of-pocket amount with the hospital alone. So I got an appointment with Dr. Jensen, but it's not until Jan 31, so we're going to find out more about lay midwives. Or we'll get prenatal care with Dr. Jensen and drive to CO to deliver if that can work out better.

I threw up this morning. I hadn't eaten anything, fortunately. But I can't believe it! I'm 11 weeks pregnant. This is when I stopped throwing up last time!! If I throw up again, I'm going to cry. It's hard to throw up with a baby. Harp was here and I handed her off quickly, but what happens next time? Eek.

Midwives

Ooh! So I'm never going to get away from this computer. =) I've been messing with the lilypie things, which I think worked, but they don't load every time. But they aren't loading right now on Dana's site either so I guess it's just bogged down or something. But Stewart found an office by the hospital with certified nurse midwives. So I'm gonna call! =)

Baby-Havin'

So there is not a single certified nurse midwife anywhere near Wichita. There are a few lay midwives, but it looks like in Kansas, you can call yourself a lay midwife without even being registered and without any education whatsoever. You don't even have to know how the baby got in there. Heck. Why in the world would I pay someone with no education when I have a husband who can catch? Ummmm????

So I'm a little stalled on the baby-having decision. But I need to get prenatal care. I don't even have prenatal vitamins and I can't find chewables in the store and I don't want to throw them up (and I probably will if they aren't chewable).

So, these lay midwives have some sort of relationship with an ob/gyn. This guy, Dr. Jensen, has been recommended to me by two women. He's okay with natural childbirth and delivering on the floor or however if it's more comfy. And he won't pressure anyone to have drugs. Which I like because Dr. Mauldin was kind of like you have to have drugs or you're crazy... If I use him, he would deliver if I want. He has a partner but he's on call all the time anyway because he likes to deliver his own babies. If I used him, I suppose it would be a hospital birth or at the birthing center that's across the street from the hospital (which is probably no cheaper than the hospital).

If I used one of these midwives, I could have the baby at this house they named the Birth Inn. We meet there, have the baby, and then the midwife leaves and we spend the night. So no menu and nothing in the kitchen... And I don't know how accessible the doctor really is. I guess he is the one to ask.

But it sounds like it's pretty hard to have a baby at home around here and it wouldn't be so great anyway if I did that because we're not so close to the hospital if there was an emergency.

We talked about going to Colorado again and having one of the midwives (from Harp's dad's office) deliver, but she would have to do it at the hospital and we think the charge is high enough that it wouldn't make much difference. We're finding out. But then we'd be apart for a week or so because I would drive out there early. Fortunately, Harp gets 5 days of paternity leave so it wouldn't be a big deal to be in CO. Although I would kinda rather be at home this time. There were lots of people around all the time in CO and I sorta just want to be with Harp and Em and the baby.

Well... Today's laundry day. And Em has her 1-year checkup today. Not going to do any shots this time. She's still coughing (and woke up twice last night, ack!) and I just don't want to do that to her. I can't wait to see how much she weighs. =) She's a big girl. =)

I am still not done with Quin's quilt, but I have made lots of progress. It is almost half quilted. I finished Grandy and Bill's scrapbook (but I still need to mail it!) and I just need to finish two pages of Nonny and Poppy's. And I still need to finish quilting Lorna's quilt (which was supposed to be for her birthday - sorry, Hannah!) and finish jackets I was making for Em and me and some shirts, but I think I may just forget about the shirts for a while because it's too cold to wear them anyway. But the jackets will be cute. Okay so I better get to work. =)

What, What, WHAT?

Having a baby is ridiculously expensive. I think we're seriously considering the no-hospital option now. The cost for the doc is from $1800-2500 and the hospital charge is $6-7,000 if all goes well. What??? That is NUTS! Our insurance pays the first $2200, we pay the next $2400 and after that everything's covered 90% and we can't pay more than $750 of the 10% (did that make sense?) so our max out-of-pocket for the year is like $3150. But that is SO MUCH! How much is a midwife? I haven't even been able to find one online. Yikes!!

Beer!

Harp came home from lunch and surprised his girls! =) He took a hydrometer reading and it was the same as yesterday's so that means we can bottle beer tonight!! It tastes really good and I'm excited!

Exciting!

So, we went to a church in Derby on Sunday. It's called CrossWinds Community Church, which we thought was kinda funny. =) We just picked it out of the phone book, praying that God would lead us to a church that we'd stay at quickly. We really like it there. It's a lot like Crossroads only much smaller. It's a sort of new church plant. The whole church directory is the front and back of an 8.5x11 piece of paper. =)

The pastor and his wife have 10 kids. The oldest I think is my age. A few of them are already out of the house. I think the youngest kid in the church is 4 other than Em, so everyone is super-excited about having a baby around and of course TobyLaine on the way. =)

Last night, I went to women's Bible study and it was SO GREAT! We just had a great study and talked a whole lot and encouraged each other and it was so good. There were 7 of us, which is almost everyone, hehe.

Tonight, Harper's going to a men's study & accountability group at the church. And Thursday is a mom's group that meets once a month to talk about our kiddos and parenting. I'm excited about that. =)

There are "small groups" but that really means there is another time that everyone meets, hehe. The whole church is one small group. Sunday nights we meet at the pastor's house, but this week it was canceled because they had a big leadership meeting.

And what else? A lunch at the church every month. Yay for that! =)

Anyway, we like it. They're all about preaching the Word and they're on a series about holiness right now. I don't know if it's usually like this, but there were no musicians during the singing part. =P Just one woman singing in a microphone to lead us. They said they were having technical difficulties, but that can mean anything, lol. Like that there aren't people that play instruments, maybe? Hehe, I don't know. It was good though.

So today I need to get my kitchen clean. I have the same problem as Dana. It doesn't look so bad at night. Then it makes the next day seem impossible. And it makes the bathrooms seem dirtier and the vacuuming seem harder and... Yeah. Not fun. Harp was home yesterday so I didn't do much. I don't clean when he's here. =
Oh, yesterday we tried to take Em to have her picture taken and it took so long (we didn't call for an appt because there's usually nobody there) that she got dark circles under her eyes. So we made an appointment for after a nap and gave her a nap, but then she was so tired, she wouldn't smile except for a "what are we doing?" kind of smile that looked really goofy. We wandered around for a bit, hoping she'd wake up, but then the same thing happened. So we came home. Still no pics.

Gonna go clean!

Dates and Dates

We got some dates at the Whole Foods store the other day and I want to eat them all SO bad. They are for oatmeal cookies, though. They are sweetened with the dates (pureed) and they have nuts and raisins and some apple juice concentrate in them. And water and I think that's it. And of course oats. But I want to eat all the dates!

And here's reason #62,483 why I think dating is a dumb idea: It really does damage to your list of available baby names. We can't name a girl Stephanie or Jessica, two of my favorite names. I would actually do it anyway but Harper says nu uh, no way! And I could never name a boy Matt, Paul, Joe, Noah (a name I really like - darn!), Jack, Eric, Robert, Brandon, Jeff, Adam and I don't even know how many others. Toby's good, though. I'm glad we like Toby. =)

Totally Fun Day

We accomplished pretty much nothing today, but it was great! And it's only 2. =) We went to 4 moving sales, trying to find a lawnmower and bookshelves (mostly for Em's room). All we got was a caulking gun. =) Then we went to Walmart and I got stuff to finish Quin's quilt (more spray basting 'cause there's not enough to finish and some basting pins because I don't trust the spray basting I already did because it's a little weak since it was almost empty). We got some trash cans and food and a sprayer to wash our car. I guess that's it. Last night we went to Target and got a bunch of stuff with a gift card we got from Grandy. It was a lot of fun. We kept Em up for her last nap, though, and she coughed a lot last night. =( Poor lady. We got up in the middle of the night to give her some cough medicine. I had really bad allergies yesterday and woke up feeling sick today, but I think some Zyrtec-D did away with it all. And lots of hot tea. I'm going to check out the Hobby Lobby sale online and see if I want to go there today. =) I want to paint some wooden crates and make wooden animal faces and tails and maybe feet for storing Emily's toys. They'll just go up on the shelf in the closet, but I want to make them fun. K I guess that's all. =)

Pics

This was just too cute to not take a picture. Emily was watching the beginning of Finding Nemo while I was folding clothes.


Em playing with Farmer Tad. She will point to it from her high chair to ask me to press Tad so he'll play a song on his banjo. She loves music.



We went to Chili's on Monday and Em got a big girl cup. She loved being a big girl.


I think this is Em's very favorite book. She likes to feel this bear's paws and the last bear's ears. Most of them in between, she doesn't care to look at long. Maybe it's just easier for her to open to the first or last page. =)

Orange Jello

Couldn't think of a title. Well it's Friday. Hooray! Harp comes home at 3:30. One part of the 9x80 that I like! =) Next week, he has to give a presentation on Friday, so he's going to see about getting Monday off instead. I'm so excited! He has been going to CATIA training (a modeling program) most days but he pretty much already knows everything they are teaching because it's a lot like SolidWorks and ProE. So some days he doesn't go because there's more important stuff at work. Anyway I have gotten SO much done unpacking-wise and cleaning-wise and stuff. But you can hardly tell! It is so sad. I just keep going and eventually it will look like I'm doing something, right? =) I got Em's baby clothes sorted by size and put in boxes in the closet in the extra bedroom, which is huge progress because a bunch of them were just all over the floor in that room. Still have some boxes in there to deal with, though. We have too many books and there's almost no point in bringing them to the basement (where they are supposed to go) because I know they won't fit. And then there will just be more piles down here. But maybe that's the way to do it and then go through them all in one room and get rid of stuff. Anyway gonna go fold jeans and get stuff done. =)

Drug Recall

My mom just sent me this email about the FDA declaring phenylpropanolamine unsafe for OTC use. It supposedly increases the risk of hemorrhagic stroke in women ages 18-49 in the three days after starting use of the medication. It sounds like they have known about this for a while (since 2000) and it's been removed from most stuff, but still check the drugs you have. It was used as a decongestant and in weight loss drugs. Here's the FDA site.

Monster, Monster, Monster!

Emily is being SO cranky today! She freaks when I put her down. She freaks when I pick her up. She screams in her crib. She throws her food on the ground. She slams her head into her high chair. She hits her spoon full of food. She smiled when Daddy came home for lunch. All she says is Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad and she screams. She is only happy if we are dancing in the living room. I can't dance all day. I'm not going to dance all day. I'm going to turn the monitor off and let her scream because I can't help her. YIKES.

Punky Brayden

Out of sheer boredom... Yes, I do have things I should be doing. =) It only took a minute.

Distraction

I have been sitting here reading blogs and eating way too many corn chips. I have Quin's quilt pieced and I can't find my spray basting. I would start finishing another sewing project, but I don't have to have to change feet and thread and needles only to change back right away. That's so lazy, huh?

Harp came home for lunch, so that was fun. I was totally surprised. Good thing we had some frozen dinners from when Food 4 Less closed. =) Oooh, speaking of dinner, I need to start making it. I'm making navy bean soup and rolls tonight and the soup will take a while. Better go undistract myself. =)

Stuff

So yesterday we started some beer. That was quite an adventure. I hope it turns out. =) The only real issue is sanitizing everything and I think we did a good job. We used some corn sugar, even though it would be richer with all malt extract, but this was cheaper and probably smarter for a first batch. Harp was boiling the wort and it bubbled over the top and burned really nasty. The house totally stunk so we opened some windows and went to Braum's once we had the wort in the carboy. We got a huge chocolate malt and a burger to share. We took a banana for Em but then I ate a bunch of it because it was so good with the chocolate malt. =) Emily held her banana while we were getting ready to go and then was very upset that I took it away in the car (I just know it would have gotten squeezed or she would have taken a bite of the nasty top). So she got it back when we got to Braum's and was very glad. I guess she feels like a big girl carrying a banana around, lol.

Tonight we are going to go to Chili's with a gift card my grandma gave us for Christmas. And probably go to Best Buy because we have a gift card there and maybe Barnes and Noble (we have one there too). And we have to do some grocery shopping. It will be nice to have a second car someday so Harp doesn't have to go to the grocery store with me all the time. =)

I have still been nursing Em because my milk supply got better and I stopped feeling so tired and weak. And she wouldn't drink anything else. But now I have no milk again and my poor girl doesn't have the patience to let it down, but she wants it enough to ask for it. She'll just suck like twice and then try to escape and play. I have tried soy and cow's milk and I think it's time to try goat's. I haven't because there isn't organic goat's milk here. We only have a Dillon's (which is Kroger, but this one is small and hickish with not a lot of selection and a lot of things past their date) and a Walmart Supercenter. I guess non-organic is better than nothing. I think she thinks if she holds out and dehydrates herself, I'll give her yummy sugary juices or something. She usually likes eggs for breakfast (especially the yolk) but this morning I had an English muffin with jelly on it and I gave her some and then she refused to eat her egg and wanted my food. What do I do with her? She has to eat! I should never have given her anything sweet. She shouldn't even know she has those taste buds yet. Sigh...

Harp's home!!! Yay!!!!!!

Dining Room

My mom taped all the stripes at the bottom of this room, too. It took a while, but it was so worth it. Every time she started a room, I didn't want her to because I thought it was pretty just white. But every time, it turned out so pretty that it was my new favorite room. =)


Through the little archy door is the butler's pantry and a big walk-in pantry to the left and then it goes into the kitchen. And those are the stairs right when you come in the door that go up to the place the dog threw up. =)


Lots of cool windows in this house.




And with the curtains.

Becker House Pics

Now these are really out of order. I didn't realize when you add more pictures, they go on top. This is the music room. There are quite a few pictures of it. My mom taped all those stripes! She used two different kinds of paint, I think. But the pearly paint is on both stripes, just double the paint on the darker ones.


A pic of the front with the garage and my much-missed Eclipse!


My mom working on the living room. I wish I had a better picture of this room because it was really cool. The ceiling went all the way to the second floor and where you see the railing on the right was a big kind of umm walkway/balcony (I'm pretty sure there's a word for it but I can't think of it) that went to my room and my sister's room and a guest room. One time, the dog threw up a 5 pound thing of gummy worms up there and it ran down the wall... lol I know you wanted to know. =)


Music room


Music room


These are in a weird order. Oh well. This is part of the back yard...

The back of the house...


Oops, I didn't notice this is pretty much the same as the first one. A closer-up pic of the little walkway thing and bench.


The front of the house. Um, the garage is chopped off. I'll find the other pic in a sec.


This is the dining area and half the kitchen. My mom covered the barstools and made the valences over the windows. The whole house was just white when we moved in.

Finally Brewin'

We're going to start some beer today! The house is - you guessed it - still a mess, but we're going to do this anyway. It's the first time we've really had time to do it. Harp's anxious to start, I can tell, so I better go. =)

Cool Fossil

A fish eating a fish. How cool is that?

Feeling Lousy

Okay so it's been about a week since Emmy started having a cough. I got it maybe a day after she did and we both still keep coughing. This morning, I was coughing and gagging and I almost threw up three times so I just went and made myself throw up before I ate anything so it wouldn't be bad. I just almost threw up again. This is totally gross and not fun.

But my mom made Seven Layer Bars and sent them to me, so I'm really excited for Harp to get home and check the mail. I left my key in the car and our mail is in a box thing at the end of the street. I hope they are here!! =) =)

Emily

My mom got her these cute clothes from Gymboree. A bunch of shirts and pants that all match. They are so cute!

Painting Pics

Baby Mike

Meet Ryan Michael, my cousin's freshy. His big sister Kyla is very excited about him. I'm glad because I thought it would be rough - she's 6, I think, and has been the only one all these years. Mike, my cousin, said he was a basket case. I don't know if he still is, lol. He asked his dad how he was supposed to feel and his dad said he didn't know because he was 1800 miles away for both of his kids' births. I don't know why he isn't more excited. This is his first baby, by the way, if this isn't making sense. He and Chrystal got married a couple years ago and Kyla is hers (but Mike is Daddy now). Anyway, he's a cute little baby! I think he looks a whole lot like Mike and his brother Russ, even though I don't remember any of their baby pictures. Yay for babies!! =)

Hooray!

Hooray for babies! Stephanie just had Zachy and my cousin's wife had a baby yesterday. Makes me want another! Oh wait, I'm pregnant! =P I'm still forgetting I am...

Snowlady Girl