Sittin'

I have no idea what to do with myself. Harp is camping with Jesh and Phil and maybe Jordan tonight. This morning, Em slept until 10:20 after I put her back down when Harp left. I slept until then, too. =) Then we went over to Katy Kelton's house at 10:30 and talked and played and had lunch and talked and played more and came home at 2:00. Em was wiped. She slept until 5:00. I painted some more while she was asleep. Then she got up and we ate some and she wanted to swim (we got an inflatable pool for the deck yesterday) so we filled the pool up, got our swimming suits on... And stepped in and BRR!! It was like ice water. So we decided to paint our toenails instead. I asked Em if she wanted to swing at the playground or do our toenails. She wanted to do toenails. =P So we did that and watched the birds in our back yard and ate a bunch of SweetTart jelly beans. Then we played a little, got dressed, and went for a walk. We walked over to the playground and played on the swings and merry-go-round. Then Em wanted water so we came home and had dinner. She was tired so she went to bed a little early, like 7:10 I think. So now I could paint... I could do laundry... I could work on the giraffe room... I could sew... I could scrapbook... I could just go to sleep. I am way tired and I have a headache, so that seems like such a great option but I just don't want to waste my time when I could get so much done. I also thought about calling Nellie and CK and Katie and Emily and seeing if they want to StepMania. But I don't think I'm up for a late night at all. So... I'm just sitting here wishing my hubby were here too.

=)

I painted a bunch today. I went to ladies' Bible study, which was really good. And stayed for lunch, which was really good. Em skinned her knee and it's sorta cute. =) I wasn't there because it was during the study (some 18ish yo girls watched the kiddos), so I don't know if she cried, but probably not. =P Today, she asked me to help her take her shoes off. Sign language is so cool! Tomorrow we're going to Katy's house for lunch and to hang out, so that will be fun. I held Silas today and he is SO sweet. 13 pounds feels so light after carrying Em around. =) We went to Applebee's for dinner. Mmmm! It was 99 cent kids' meal night, so we got Em a corn dog. I think it's kinda gross that kids' meals always have chicken nuggets, corn dogs, grilled cheese, and mac & cheese. Even if it's a cajun place. =P Anyway so I'm really really tired and I think I'm gonna get ready for bed. =)

And Also

And I forgot to say that Harp's presentation went really well! He said he wasn't nervous at all and everything just went great. He got an email later from his boss's boss's boss (who is over all single-engine stuff) telling him what a great job he did and how it was obvious that he was well-prepared and knew what he was talking about. =) Woo hoo!!

And

And she is signing 'help' pretty often now. Like when I go to get her from a nap, she asks me to help her get out of her crib. =P And one time after I gave her a bath, she was cold and shivering while I was getting her diaper on and she signed 'help!' And today she asked Harp to help her a couple of times. And she pulled her straw out of her cup and couldn't get it back in and asked for help. =) I love sign language! And this is way cute. I told her not to touch the pins because they would be owwie. So every time she noticed the pins, she signed the pain sign. So adorable! Anyway gonna go do some StepMania. =)

Mac & Cheese

Oh yeah. =) And I was gonna say... Emily really doesn't like pasta. She also really doesn't like melted cheese. But she is absolutely crazy for mac & cheese. I couldn't believe it! She ate SO MUCH mac & cheese last night and she had a bunch for lunch today, too, even after she had a burrito. =P

Sailor Girl

Thanks, Grandma, for another super-cute dress! =) Em picked this to wear this morning. I let her pick my shirt, too. =)

That last pic is Em cleaning the floor. She really likes to do this, so today I let her have a paper towel handy all day. =)

Anna came over today to sew. I fixed Em's mattress pad. The sides of it were that fabric that kind of pulls apart. I don't know how to describe it, really, but I think they're pretty much all like that so you probably know what I'm talking about. It was destroyed, so I got some fabric at Walmart and made new sides to it. Then I worked on Em's pants but stopped when she got up from her nap. I almost finished her hat that goes with her pants. I just have hand stitching left. And I painted most of 5 walls blue. Two were the short walls on the side of the stairs, two were the big walls by the stairs, and one was the wall at the front of the house in the living room. It's still sorta bright (Harp told me last night he was a little freaked about the colors), but we're going to finish and see if we like it. We think it might look good when it's all done and the striped wall is painted. =) We'll see.

Milkless Munchkin

Today was the first day Em had NO Momma's milk. I don't think she actually got any the past couple of days, but today we didn't even try. For the past few days, she'd sign milk and I'd ask where the milk went and she'd sign all gone. She doesn't seem to really mind, but she talks about it quite a bit. =)

Pics O' Cutie

Kissing the baby.

Look at all those teeth!! =)

Cool Stuff

www.eyeletoutlet.com
has lots of cool stuff

But then I found www.scrappopotamus.com, which has lots of cool stuff and is WAY cheap. Like 50 rivets for 79 cents and 25 eyelets for 39 cents. I'm goin' shoppin'!! =)

Fun Day

So! I pulled (picked is more like it) a bunch of wallpaper backing off the wall. It wasn't good and Harp said to stop and let him check it out when he got home because he suspects that drywall paper is coming off with it. And it looks like it's drywall under there and you can gouge it easily with a fingernail. But there is some paint under there in places that is peeling some with the paper backing. He'll deal with it for me. =)

Em and I went to Walmart because she grabbed one of my cookbooks and carried it all over the kitchen and living room so we decided to look at it and I saw mac & cheese and I thought boy do I want that. =D So tonight we're having homemade mac and cheese and burgers. We killed some time at Walmart getting fabric for the valence in the giraffe room (which I'll probably make tomorrow because Anna is coming over to sew). And I looked at CZ wedding rings because I'm getting a little plump =) and when I was pregnant with Em, my fingers got so fat I couldn't get my ring off and at the very end I couldn't even turn my ring and it was uncomfy. So I might get a bigger ring for the next 4-5 months.

Then we went to the park and I took tons of pics. I deleted a bunch but I kept 42. I'm crazy camera Mommy. =) I think Em likes it though. =) So I will post some pics.

Sooooo Glad! =)

I talked to Hannah today for almost an hour!! Yippee!! It's been a while since we talked for a long time. I can't WAIT for Easter when they come. =) =) =) Lorna and Emmy are going to have so much fun together. And I can't wait to see Hannah and Harper can't wait to see Clint. =)

Emmy has been disobeying left and right today. I wonder if it's because I let her hold my cell phone to talk to Hannah. It's normally off limits, but I handed it to her and told her she can hold it right now but that it's still no touch unless Mommy gives it to her. She's been touching things she shouldn't and opening cupboards and I told her not to stick her toast in her water because I could totally see it coming and she put it right in. Aah!! =) I'm glad God's given me patience today, lol. =)

I tore off some more wallpaper in the kitchen and Emmy helped until she discovered that the tot lock magnet (which unlocks the cupboards under the sink) sticks to the screws on the light switch cover. =) But then she helped me pick up all the wallpaper pieces and put them in a trash bag. What a big girl! Then she "helped" me hang her laundry up. =) She really likes to play with the hangers. And she wiped the floor with a paper towel so I told her to wipe the floor where she had thrown her wet toast and she did it. =P lol, Of course, it smeared all over the place and I got to clean it up for real, but I thought it was really cute that she was cleaning. =) And we played some piano together and now she's napping.

Harp's giving a super-big presentation right now so pray for him! It's for 15+ big, important guys at Cessna and he said there were a lot of problems handed down to him with this project that he has to justify to these guys and they aren't friendly guys. So he's been a little nervous about it. So mostly pray for peace, but for clarity and an effective presentation and favor with the Cessna guys.

Ladies' study was fun last night and Nancy and Lin and Deanna stayed late, so that was extra fun. It was fun just having people over! =) We need to do it more often. =) We might have a small group at our house, but I don't know when it would start. Harp and Jeff talked about it on Sunday and Jeff seems to be really excited about it. =) It would help keep this house really clean! =D

Gonna go have some coffee and spray the wallpaper to get more off. =)

Stuff

Aaaaah (that's a happy, relaxed sigh, not a screamy thing)... =)

So I've got dinner in the oven and water boiling, ready for the noodles, which are cut up and sitting in a pile on a cutting board... I only have towels left to fold and put away. I did another coat on that kitchen wall and I like it, although I'm not sure anyone else coming into our house will think we are sane... =D I wanted to paint some blue in the living room but restrained myself. =) I painted a couple of coats of orange on the shelf for the closet in Sholamech's room. Should only have one coat on one side left. And we Googled a nursing home and went to visit for about 45 minutes. Nobody really wanted to talk a whole lot. They were all watching Dr. Phil in the common area. We talked to a lady in her room for a bit. She shares a room with her hubby, but they still have that divider thing between them! I didn't ask if they wanted it there, lol. I think it's sad, though! But she mostly wanted to talk to her hubby because they hadn't seen each other all day. She had a feeding tube taken out.

My mister is home!!!

Tiny Muscles

Okay, so I started to paint the ceiling. LOL. =) It takes a whole lot more effort than I thought to paint a ceiling. I don't know if I'll be able to pick Emily up tomorrow! =) I got the places I could reach easily. I could get more but I was tired and sweaty (eew). And now I already covered the roller and paint and everything and put the plastic away. Don't wanna get it back out. But I might paint some of the walls because I want to see the colors. I used a brush to paint the kitchen side of the little divider wall but it really needs another coat before I can tell what it looks like. I made butterscotch chip cookies and used this cookie scoop thing that I found in the cabinets in our garage. It was new in the box and everything. After a long day of garage saling Saturday, I found free treasure in our own house, lol. =) I only made 16 cookies and put the rest of the dough in the fridge. I have eaten 4 already and Emily will have one and then maybe we'll take the rest next door and hang out with the neighbors for a bit. I am making rouladen tonight and I already cut my meat and rolled everything up and it's sitting in the fridge waiting to be cooked. And I made egg noodles and they are drying out so they'll be easier to cut. And I did dishes. I came down here though to the basement and realized I forgot all about the laundry. So I think I'll go get some hangers and do that.

La La La =)

So I'm trying to decide what to do right now. I have lots of laundry on the couch in the basement ready to fold and put away. And bathrooms that could use a little cleaning. But I kinda want to start painting the ceiling. We put plastic over stuff yesterday, thinking we were going to paint but then we needed those other rollers and it just got too late. So I either take down all the plastic (which really isn't a big deal) or I paint some and then take it down. We're having the ladies' Bible study at our house tonight so I want it to be kind of clean even though the walls are ugly and stuff. =) And I sorta want to make cookies. I went and bought all the paint for the walls and trim and WOW is it going to be bright. =) Hehe, I hope we don't repaint it all. =) =) Anyway I think I'll see what I can do with the ceiling. I know I can't reach all of it and I don't want to be high on the ladder with my little TobyLaine taggin' along. So I guess there's not much of a point in doing it but it will leave less to do later...

Hi =)

Not a whole lot to post, but yesterday we drove around Wichita going to garage sales. We got some stuff from a guy who buys from estate sales and then resells at his garage sale. A bunch of tools. And we ate Chipotle. Mmmm! Em thought it was great. And then we had Sonic jr banana splits for dessert. Today Em wore her monkey backpack to church. She played with the big kids, running around and having a blast. Today was the church potluck, which was fun and yummy. Then Em slept for a while and we went to Lowe's and got rollers for the textured ceiling. We got ceiling paint yesterday at Walmart. We picked colors today. They are kinda happy but not too happy for Harp. I hope he likes them when they are on the wall 'cause I'm kind of afraid he won't. =P He picked them though. Harp fixed that spot on the ceiling and you can hardly tell it was there. I think once it's painted, you won't be able to tell at all. Small group was fun tonight and we didn't want to leave. My hubby's the best. =) Guess that's all. Gonna get ready for bed.

TobyLaine

This child has a unidirectional kick. Seriously, almost every single kick I feel is right in the bladder. Hope s/he decides to change things up a bit... =)

Pics

Em's first sucker. Not counting licks of mine... =) This is the first time I gave her one of her own.


She can almost wear pigtails. =P If I find her butterfly clips, I can probably get it all up with the back clipped up.


Em and Daddy swinging. This was Mar 12, I think. When we were finally not so sick. But we didn't go to small group because we didn't want to pass it on. The weather was so nice then!



Harp's mom bought Em this dress and sweater and hat. She looks adorable in them. =)


So today Em and I took Harp back to work after lunch and we went to the mall and had a pretzel together and looked at Old Navy to see if there were any good deals. =) I wish they made really tiny flip flops. =) Katherine Arce had some, I think when she was about 2. I think Brenda said she got them at Target. Don't remember. But I'm on the lookout for baby flip flops. =) Then we went to JoAnn's and checked out 3 home decor fabric samples that I kinda knew Harp wouldn't like anyway. =D I was hoping. Then we went to Walmart and got some yogurt and granola bars and ate them at the McDonald's at the front of the store. And then it was time to pick Harp up. Em fell asleep on the way to get him. SO cute. =) Then we took the fabric back to JoAnn's because Harp said eew!! lol =) We found a fabric we liked, but it wasn't home decor and they didn't have enough of it. So then we found this cool denim with stitching on it and some was printed but would have been cooler if it was stitched... And buttons on it and it looked really cool but was the wrong shade of blue (too happy-trendy for Harp). So we're going to get denim at Walmart or maybe even use old jeans (because if we do the denim thing Harp said I can put that Martha Stewart rug in the kitchen by the sink!!!! woo hoo!!!) and I'm going to use my nifty embroidery machine to decorate the denim. And put buttons on it. I'm excited. =) =) =) And Harp wants to paint the ceiling this weekend so I'm really excited about that. About getting it done, not so much doing it. =) But then I get to paint walls and that I am VERY excited for! Okay gonna go update our envelopes thing. I am so bad about that...

Monkey Backpack

My first year of college, I lived in the dorms and there were exposed pipes all over the ceiling. So I bought this monkey with velcro hands and feet and he hung from the pipes in my dorm room. He's been in a box for a loooong time and I unpacked him and laughed and gave him to Emmy. =) He's just the right size for Em to give him piggy back rides.

Belly Pics!

The whole time my parents were here, it was freeeeezing, so we didn't go take any good pregnant pics. Sorry! =P But here are some pics Harp took last night - 5 months!

Tick, Tick, Tick!

Oh! And yesterday was half way for TobyLaine! =P We were going to get ice cream or a cake or something but we ate SO much dinner that we didn't feel like it. =)

Hola!

I'm back! =) My parents are on their way back to Colorado. It's lonely already and it's only been 50 minutes since they left. =
We got the walls sanded down and I got so much in my hair yesterday and didn't take a shower last night because we were up late watching a movie... So I had dreams all night about breathing yellow paint dust (it looked like a Longview pollen storm in our house and all over us) and having it in my nose and hair and dreaming that we missed spots and had to make more dust. =P Ick! This morning I realized there was a section that I couldn't reach and forgot to tell anyone about so it didn't get done. Oops! Harp can do it later.

We have a section of ceiling that we need to retexture. I hope it looks right, but even if it doesn't, it will look a TON better than it did before. The people that lived here before just kind of spackled really thick over it and kind of glopped it and tried to make it look textured. It looked awful. My dad scraped it off and spackled flat over it and we have some texture spray to spray on it today. Then we can start painting! I know Harp's not looking forward to painting the ceiling. I can't say I'm looking forward to it either, lol. =) But I will be excited to get to the walls once the ceiling is done!

The plaid wall is done in the giraffe room. I need to caulk some of the baseboards and paint them. And finish the circle wall. And still paint the shelf for the closet. It's getting there!

I have more than a week's worth of laundry to do today, so I need to get busy! =) Harp gets off at 3:30 so I probably won't work on it after that. =)

Long Time

Long time no blog. =) We have been detexturing the walls in the living room and peeling off wallpaper in the kitchen. The walls we are actually just sanding down. We're leaving some texture, but it was really bumpy and now it's not so bumpy. There's still a lot to do because it takes a while to sand and my mom is doing it during Em's naps. =)

My dad replaced our faucets in the kitchen and the downstairs bathrooms and they look really good! =)

My dad had some piano movers come bring the piano in yesterday, so I played for a while last night. I think Em likes having a piano. =)

I have all but one pinstripe painted on the plaid wall. That means I can have it finished today. Woo hoo!! =) The closet still needs another coat just around the very top with the brush. Harp's dad did it without taping and I tried, but I just can't cut it that close. =P My mom said she can so she'll do it later. And I need to paint the shelf that goes in the closet. Then I can start stashing things back in the closet and clearing the room out a bit. I can't wait! =)

The weather here has been sad and cold. It had been so nice for weeks!! Friday it should warm up again. I can't wait! =P

Does anybody happen to know the ASL for strawberry? My dad bought strawberries and Emily thinks they're the best. I think they're the new banana in this house. =)

My fabric came in!!!! 22 yards of black fabric. Crazy that a quilt could take so much fabric. =) But then it has no batting or backing and really technically isn't a quilt... =) It's for Em's cathedral windows quilt. Now that we have all these projects going (and my mom brought some red fuzzy fabric that I want to make her an apple jacket out of and a whole bunch of other fabrics.... and I'm not done with the butterfly outfit.... and painting....) I'm not sure I want to go pick it up, hehe. But there is a 40% off coupon this week, so I'm going to use it! Their site is down though so I haven't been able to get it. I called Anna and when (and if) their site starts working again and I get my coupon, we'll meet over there. I kinda want to go to the scrapbooking store up there too. =) Mostly, I want to cut out titles and stuff with their Sizzix machine. =P

Em has been saying 'dog' and 'Mac.' She used to say 'Ben' but I guess she likes Mac better now. Mac and Ben are my parents' dogs. And Em has been saying 'hop, hop, hop' when she hops her new stuffed kangaroos. =)

She has started signing 'banana,' but it doesn't look like the real sign. =) But she is very serious about communicating that she wants a banana, lol.

I guess that's about it? Gonna paint that last stripe.

=)

We had a great weekend with Harp's parents. They are headed back to CO right now and my parents are headed here. Yesterday, we went to this store called The Spice Merchant downtown. They sell tons of spices and teas and coffee and gourmet sauces and stuff. And doo-dads. Kinda like Barron's. Then we went to a Japanese steakhouse. I had meals planned for every night and I didn't cook once. The fridge filled with leftovers and food I had bought for meals. =P We've eaten most of the leftovers (we all have a leftover lunch yesterday), but the fridge is packed. =)

We worked on Sholamech's room some and got two coats in the closet. It needs one more, at least at the top. And I still need to paint the shelf. We just took it out. I got the pinstripes done in one direction except for the one part that I was fixing. And that is painted. I can do another coat of orange and peel that tape up. And when it's dry I can do that pinstripe. It's looking pretty cute! I know, I still haven't taken pictures. But it will be cuter when it's done. =)

Em showed off at church this morning, walking for everyone. =) I forgot they hadn't seen her really take off because we were sick last week.

I'm doing a little turbo-scrapbooking. I got some stuff yesterday and I got that library book the day before Harp's parents came so I have all these ideas now. =) I think I'll go do some more.

Umm, Stuff? =)

I never have a good title. =) Anyway Harp's parents are here. We have had fun going out to eat and playing Rook and Blokus and Racko and we went to this glass shop yesterday that was really cool. My parents get here Sun night and we are going at 6am Monday to watch them blow the really big pieces. They let you hang out with the artists while they work and ask questions and it's really neat. My mom is thrilled, I'm sure. =) We went to this cool restaurant for lunch (and dinner, we were so full!) yesterday called Serengeti Grill. They had some authentic African dishes and the place had animal print everywhere and lots of pictures and it was just really cool. And African drum music playing. Fun place!

My parents are bringing a sander and we're going to de-texture the walls in the living room and kitchen and paint while they are here.

Quin has a bunch of leftover laminate flooring from a house he did. There's 270 square feet of antique cherry and I don't know how much of an oak color, but it's really light and Harp doesn't think he'd like it as much. We were thinking about the cherry for the kitchen, but then we thought about our bedroom because it would probably help my allergies to not have carpet. Harp likes carpet though so I'm not sure the decision is final. But he thinks it's a good idea to help my allergies. =)

Sholamech's room is kind of at a stop with everyone here. I hoped to get the plaid wall done before Harp's parents got here but I still need that one line chalked. Maybe Harp will run up and do it with me even though his parents are here. =P Well my mom would help me finish I'm sure but there is a ton of stuff in that room. =) But I guess it would be good to finish one project before starting another, hehe.

Poor Em has had a cough for a few days. Last night, she was up coughing a bunch. Sometimes I wish I had a rocking chair. Maybe when the rooms are done and we have TobyLaine...

We found out Mamoo's memorial service is going to be May 5. That is a Friday - a really weird day considering people are coming from out of town. So I don't know for sure if we can go. It's not a 9x80 week, so Harp would have to take 2 days off work. He gets 5 days off for the death of a family member, but we're not sure a great-great-grandma really counts. =) And she died in Feb, so it would be kinda silly to ask for that much time off. So, by May 5 I will be so pregnant that by then, we sorta feel like we might as well wait until TobyLaine's born to find out if it's a Toby or a Lainey. =P Is that silly? Last night Harp said he kinda didn't want to know if we wait that long anyway and I was already thinkin' that. So maybe it will be a surprise!!! =) =) =) I so can't wait. =) =) =) =) =) =) =)

=)

So I'm supposed to be cleaning, but my paper towels went to work with Harper. =P I never took them out of the car. I do still have things to put away in the basement though. Last night while he was preparing his presentation, I organized my craft room. I have two super-tiny loads of laundry to do. And some things Harp will have to do like carry my sewing machine to the basement. I have had no caffeine today and it was my goal for it to stay that way but I think I'll get this done faster if I wake up a bit. So I'm going to go have some coffee and an ice cream cone and get to work. =)

Oh! But I was going to blog about how I went to that women's study this morning and it was good, but I'm more excited for next week. They alternate weeks listening to tapes and having discussion, which is a cool idea but the speaker on the tape just wasn't all that good. Kinda long-winded and not the sort of voice you just love to listen to. The message was good, though. Em played with a little boy a month younger than her and some older kids (like 3+ older, not old).

Last night, we went to the library (ooh! I forgot I got a scrapbookin' book!) and ran into my neighbor Lori/Laurie (??) that I met the day I was out painting Sholamech. Em played with Alyssa for a bit. We're going to go over today after Em's nap (assuming that's not during their nap - I shoulda checked - don't have a phone #). Anyway that means I should really really get workin'. =D

She's Back

My girl was a sweetheart today. =)

Goin' to bed! Harp had a presentation to prepare for tomorrow (for a class, not normal work). It's about why people should have lots of babies. =)

A Really Good Hat

Em has always liked being a hat. Ever since Michael Bourcier put her on his head when she was really little, it's cracked her up. Yesterday, I was making her my hat and I started saying "Hey, Em? You know...you'd make a really great hat!" before I did it. Now she cracks up if I even say that. Last night, we were praying before bed and I said "thank you for Em being a really good hat" and she started cracking up. =) What fun. =D

Pregnant Pics

Tomorrow will be 19 weeks, I have a cute little belly, and there isn't a single pregnant pic. !!!!!! We never remember when Harp gets home. The sun is so low by the time we think about it that the pics really wouldn't be good outside and I don't know where to take them inside. So I'm thinkin'... If Harp says okay, maybe I'll take Em to the portrait studio at Walmart and have our picture taken together and have pregnant pictures done. We always get two poses (the package one plus a free 8x10) so it would be 10% off of $7.88. So, it's not free but it would be kinda fun. Really, I'd rather just know someone that takes good pictures and have them take lots so I can pick. Hey, wait! Haha. =) My dad is coming on Sunday. =) =) =) =) =) Forget Walmart!

=D =D =D =D =D

It still DELIGHTS me to pull tiny pants out of the dryer. =) I hope it never stops making me smile! =) I remember the first time I did laundry after Em was born and how fun it was pulling out all the tiny socks and sleepers and everything. Babies are SUCH a blessing. Even when they're cranky-weird! =P

lol, She's back in bed because she just wouldn't stop cranking. If I even set her down, she would throw her head into the ground and cry and then try to get up and take a few drunk-looking steps and fall into something and hurt herself. I think she's actually sleeping this time, though. =)

=)

Em slept last night! Yay!! I heard her wake up once but not for long. Pretty amazing after she didn't have a single good nap. Today, she's still acting kinda cranky. She is in bed, not sleeping again. =) She has been acting SO weird, like she'll sign 'all done' and then I go to get her out of her high chair and she signs 'eat.' Or she will sign 'water' but then not drink any. She was saying 'all done' 'all done' and I know what she was trying to do is ask for milk. Her brain is mangled. =P If I didn't know better, I'd think she was a little tipsy!! Her signs for 'hot' and 'water' have kinda morphed together, which is really funny. But we always know which one she means.

Today I'm doing laundry early because I'm not usually done by 5 on Thursdays and Harp's parents will get here around then. So I'll try to only have 1 or 2 loads for Thursday. I'm going to paint some in giraffe room. I think I'll make banana blueberry muffins at some point. I can't wait until Em can cook with me. When I watched Jessie and Jazzie, we had so much fun baking and making sun tea. =) They would always dump the stuff into the bowl (handed to them over the bowl, hehe) and stir a little. I miss those cuties! The house is fairly clean. Well but the basement still needs work. Like unpacking even. Maybe I'll do some of that today. Or tonight when Harp's at men's group. I want to get things back into giraffe room that are in the hall, but I think some are too heavy for me an' TobyLaine to lift. I would have the plaid wall mostly done today (just have the pinstripe left) but one of our lines needs to be re-chalked, so there is a whole line that's not ready for the rhombuses.

Whose Child Is This?

Whose child is this who will not rest
But acts like she needs to be sleeping?
Who isn't sweet and kicks her feet
And throws her head down, weeping?

Em was up SO many times last night, freaking out for no reason. I got up twice and Harp got up once. Both times she told me she wanted water. The first time, she refused to drink it when I got her some. The second time she took a little sip and pushed the cup away.

She has not napped well today and she is not being very nice. Not eating well, either. Guess she just feels kinda lousy. No fun! But keeping her up is no help so she's in her room, not sleeping.

I guess I'll scrapbook some...

Prayer Request!

A woman in our church, Valeri, went to the hospital yesterday because her arm felt funny. They found a brain tumor and are doing a 2.5-3 hour long surgery today at 1:00. She just had a hysterectomy because of another mass and was kind of freaked out about ovarian cancer (which it turned out she didn't have, but her mom died from it, so she was concerned). Her family has been through a lot with the first mass and a long recovery and her daughter Shauna had been sick for months (I actually just met her last week because she hadn't been to church the whole time we've been going there) and her husband is working 10 hour days every single day. SO not fun. Just want to spread the word so we can cover them in prayer. Thanks!

Amelia Bedelia

Do you all remember the Amelia Bedelia books? Harper remembers them well enough that he doesn't want to name a girl Amelia. I think it's a great name. =) But anyway... Amelia Bedelia always got things confused. She was just pretty much a stupid blonde. But not a hookery, flirty stupid blonde. Just a plain, old stupid blonde. Like in one book she was babysitting I think and she was asked to dust the furniture. So she found the woman's dusting powder and put it all over the furniture. And she was supposed to draw the curtains in the afternoon and she drew a picture of them. And in one book she was a substitute teacher and she was supposed to call roll, but she got a roll (as in bread) from a kid's lunch and said "Come, roll!" or something like that. Anyway if you didn't know who she was, now you know, and now I can tell you why this post is called Amelia Bedelia. =D The other day, I said I was going to weed the pictures I had planned to scrapbook. I did the job in the Amelia Bedelia sense. =P I ended up adding more pictures than I took out. I planted weeds! =) Hehe!! Only I think I want them in there anyway. They were pictures from Mexico that I just didn't have on the computer. They were from my dad's camera and the files are SO big that I just left them on the DVD he sent and didn't put them all on the computer. I found tons of graduation pictures and Mexico pictures to add. =D Good thing I found that website, huh? I hope I can do some good, simple layouts. I'm working on figuring out what pictures to put together and how I can make pictures small (and which ones they should be) to put on a page together. Like kind of how I did the cute little tiny bits page. I'm doing one with small pics at graduation with the big picture of Harp and his diploma and then various pics of us with family and my mom and Em and stuff in small squares. And I'm going to do boogie boarding pics the same way. That page will be cool and I'm excited for it. I actually wasn't even going to scrapbook that (aaah, talk about a weed!) because we were never all out boogie boarding at the same time (we only had 2 boards I think). But one of the books I got at the library had a really cool boogie boarding page that I'm going to use some ideas from. Steal them more like it! =) Only not the whole page because I don't want to get some of the stuff they used. I'm cheap and I think I can make it look good without them.

One of the fastest ways I think to make scrapbooking go quickly is to put borders on the pictures before they are printed. Whether they're colored or black or white or fuzzy or plain... That way the pictures look great even if you don't mat them. Totally speeds things up for me because I can't stand a page without matted pictures! I don't know what it is, it just always drives me crazy. Admittedly, I may be spending enough time playing with GIMP and Photoshop that I might as well just print all the pictures and then spend the time scrapping... But I'm having fun and it's changing the way my pages look, which is fun. And it's not messy to edit pics on the computer. =) There's never any clean-up when Em wakes up or I have to go make dinner or whatever.

If you have any cool GIMP script-fus or border ideas or whatever, let me know! =)

Rib Crib

Today we didn't go to church because we still feel kinda lousy and we didn't want to pass this along. =( Bummer! And we're going to skip small group tonight, too, which I'm even more sad about.

But today we watched the end of the dinosaur video and then we watched Em's birth and some of the video from when she was really tiny. That was fun.

While we were watching that, Matt and Renee stopped by with Rib Crib! Yummmm! It was really good.

Guess that's all, folks. =)

Baby Bumps & No Puke

None of us threw up today! Yay! But we don't feel so great and are still weak and don't feel like doing anything. My throat is actually starting to hurt a whole lot.

Em was SUCH a sweet girl today. She sat on the couch watching Kent Hovind videos with us for hours and even put her head on my chest for a little bit. She is not much of a snuggler (but is getting more snuggly!) so that was GREAT!! =)

TobyLaine was thumping a bunch and I told Harp to feel and he got to feel a whole bunch of kicks. That made him glad because he was kinda mopey about being sick. =P

Nellie called last night and said she's not busy today and she could come and paint with me in the giraffe room. I was sad to have to call back and say no, we have germs. =( Maybe another day...

I think I'm going to get to bed. Harp's going to finish watching the video about dinosaurs before he goes to bed. These videos are more than 2 hours long and we are almost done with the third one. I can't stay up any longer, though. Night!!

Blech!

Well yesterday before Harp left for work, I threw up. I hadn't eaten anything so it wasn't bad and I was glad I'd gotten my puke out of the way (Harp and Em had each puked once). Harp said all day at work, he was thinking this is not over. Not long after he got home, we both started throwing up. Aaaah! Our poor girl just had a granola bar for dinner because we could hardly move. I got nasty cramps in my belly every time I threw up and couldn't straighten out for a while. Not fun. I threw up about 6 times I think and Harp threw up all night long. Today, we don't feel pukey, but very weak and tired and not much like eating. I made a Walmart run this morning for Gatorade and Jello and Alka-Seltzer. I got us frozen dinners too and Em some baby food in a jar. And I got her some 67 cent plastic Easter eggs that have done their job entertaining her all morning. Now we're going to have a Kent Hovind marathon. Pray for us.

Gold Mine

www.simplescrapbooksmag.com

Why buy the magazine? =)

Scrappin'

So tonight is the craft night at church. I am very excited. But I don't know what to do. I am tempted to just get pages done, even if they're not exactly what I want or even really look good. I have done that before and I always want to go back and fix those pages. And sometimes I do. But I think at this point in my life, I'll never go back and fix a page again. With as many pictures as I take of this kiddo, I'll never be lacking in scrapping material. I may always be behind. So. Do I make pages I don't much like just to get them done and get caught up? Or do I make them all nice and not worry about being behind? First, I think I need to do some weeding and not scrap everything I wanted to. I have already done some of that, but maybe I need to more. Maybe what I should do is get one of those magazines with simple pages for ideas and just find simple pages that I like and scraplift them. But that's like $5 and I have $7 in my hobby envelope right now. Hmmm. I don't want to spend the time surfing the internet for them, but it's free so maybe I will. Anyone have cute simple layouts? You could send me pics. =)

Funny

Harp: Em's tired.
Kate: What if I go make the cinnamon rolls and you go put her down for a nap? But check her diaper first, ok?
Harp: For poop??
Kate: Yeah.
Harp: What if we check her right here and if there's poop, we rock, paper, scissors for it?

18 Weeks

I'm 18 weeks pregnant today. It seems like it should be some cool point in pregnancy or something. I don't know why. But it's not and I can't believe it's only 4.5 months. What?? =P

I was thinkin'... Tomorrow night is scrapbookin' night at church. I REALLY hope I'm not sick! There will only be four more before TobyLaine is due! Will I ever get caught up?

Piccos & Sickos

She wanted her shoes on. =) She tried herself and then came and asked me for help.


I think Em looks like my little girl pics in this one.



Last night, I made Em this little purse and she thought it was great carrying it around. She's actually carrying it around the living room right now. =) Putting bathtub letters into it and Kleenex and whatever she finds. So adorable!

After we put her to bed, we called Matt and Renee and they came over and did StepMania with us for a few hours. Then we just talked for a really long time. They left at 11 and we went upstairs and we heard Em make a peep. Harp said he really wanted to hug her, so if she made noise again, he'd get her out of bed for a snuggle. Well about 5 minutes later, we heard another noise, so he went in to get her. She was covered in throw-up!! It was in her hair and all over her jammies and there were four piles in her crib. We didn't even have a monitor in the basement because she never wakes up and we can usually hear throughout the house anyway. But not with StepMania on. =( Poor girl!!!! I wanted to take a picture because she looked really cute, sleepy with puke in her hair. =P But Harp said no! So I gave her a bath and Harp took a shower because he got it all over him when he picked her up.

She wasn't acting sick or like she felt bad at all, so I thought maybe it was because we fed her McDonald's at lunch. But then this morning Harp threw up on the way to work and came home. I was so tired this morning that I went right back to sleep when he left and I woke up with him in bed with me. LOL, I was so confused. I said "What are you doing?" I didn't even remember that he had left for work, but I knew he had taken a shower and was running late. So I thought he just decided to go back to sleep, lol.

Em didn't wake up again last night and she's acting fine today. Harp said he feels a little icky but not really bad otherwise. But his boss said DO NOT come get us sick if you think you're sick. So we're just hanging out today. We spent a lot of time in bed and now we're just kinda lounging around the living room. Oh, here's one more pic:


This is Em getting her teeth brushed. Whenever we brush her top teeth, she does this thing with her arm. I think she really dislikes having the top teeth brushed, but she is super-sweet about it and always opens up happily.

Our Fun Day

Em and I went to Walmart and got paint to finish the giraffe room. The plaid anyway. And then went to the playground but only had a few minutes because we were going to meet Harp for lunch. We went to McDonald's. Why, oh, why? =P It always makes me feel sick. Then Em had a much-needed nap. I painted the plaid and some circles and put another coat around the edges of some of the orange shapes. A couple of them still need it. I sewed a little and I really don't remember what else. Then Em and I went back to the playground and I took tons of pictures. Then she signed that she wanted water, so we came home and got water and then played with chalk in the driveway until Daddy came home. Em actually drew with it this time and didn't bust any! Wow!

Swimmin'

I just got the Derby Rec Center program guide for this spring and there's a baby swim class starting in April. One of the classes is during the day and one is at night. Maybe Harp would want to do that.

I read all the stuff Kathy sent me home with and I like her even more now! =) I'm so excited.

Then I talked to Katy for 20 min on the phone and that was fun. I found out where the ladies' study is on Thursdays so I am going to go this week.

I ended up grilling salmon and putting a basil-mint-tomato sauce on it. It was yummy. And made asparagus (which Em really liked for the first two spears, but then suddenly decided it was gross) and braided French bread. Mmmm!

Harp's at men's group and I finished up Kevin Scherm's wedding video. It's rendering right now, so I guess I shouldn't say it's finished. But I finished editing it.

I think I'm going to relax in the tub until Harp gets home. =)

Waaaa-HOOOOOO!!!

Oooh, ooooh, oooooh! =) I SO like Kathy. Harp actually got to come with me to my visit and it was GREAT! We both really like her. She is very professional, has a cute exam room in her basement (her whole house is totally cute too - SO Texan, but I don't know where she is from), and we just like her so much!! Harp said he feels like this is what we should do, so I'm getting my records sent from Dr. Jensen. Kathy said he will know that he is on call because I'm using her, which is cool! The whole birth and prenatal care is $1800 and our insurance covers it. We probably won't pay a dime out of pocket. Well except the supplies are like $50. It's another $300 if we use the Birth Inn, which we haven't decided about yet. We'll just wait and see and if she thinks there's no reason we should be concerned about a home birth, Harp says we'll probably do it at home. The Birth Inn is 4 minutes from the hospital and we can go see it sometime if we want. Kathy has another midwife working with her and a girl that is almost certified and I got to meet both of them today. We did a prenatal visit just because I was already there and talked about Em's birth and that pregnancy and then some about this one. Katy said Kathy is kinda bossy about weight gain, but she didn't mind too much that I had no idea how much I weighed before I got pregnant. I was 118 today. That doesn't seem like much but I don't remember what I weighed last time at 18 weeks. So we said 105 was the starting weight. =) Em was quite a TOOT while we were there. This girl needs more sleep than she's willing to get. I think she's going to bed early tonight... I haven't decided what's for dinner, so I guess I should start thinking about it. Maybe lasagna and salad and breadsticks. Oh but I want asparagus. Maybe salmon and asparagus and some kinda rice. Mmm, but braided French bread sounds SO good... I have pizza dough in the fridge, so pizza would be easy... Butterscotch chip cookies for dinner? Snickerdoodles? Okay really, I better decide what's for dinner. =) Gonna go shopping in my kitchen... =)

Swinging & Leche

Last night, I went to the La Leche League meeting again. This time we met in the nursery, so no artificial trees were placed on tables, lol. The meeting itself was silly and I have no idea where these women get their information, but I think they pick a study they like the result of and ignore all the other studies that contradict it. I want raw data and to see all the details before I'm going to believe that cosleeping is a good idea and reduces the risk of SIDS. Pssshhht! I couldn't even sleep with Em in the same room, the little wiggler! They say you get used to it and I took her out of our room too early. Whatever. She's fine - happy, adventurous, healthy, usually sweet. But one thing I did learn is that around 20 weeks of pregnancy, you don't actually have milk. It's back to colostrum. So if your baby nurses through pregnancy, it's getting just a small amount of colostrum for the last half. They said after you have the baby and your milk comes in, the toddler will usually gain a pound or more because they're getting real milk again. Interesting!

Anyway the best part of the meeting is that Katy came!! I was so excited to see her come in with baby Silas. Eeeeeeeek! =) He is SO adorable and so tiny!! She told me all about the birth and I am really excited because today I'm going to see her midwife. It was coincidence that I picked the same doctor she used and then I picked the same midwife, too! It's not like I searched for them, but they were recommended by other people. Nancy Wisner was at a homebirth that Kathy delivered and liked her a lot, so I called her and I'm meeting her at her house today at 2. Katy actually used Kathy and Dr Jensen because she wanted the midwife there because she liked her and she wanted Dr Jensen because she had had complications with her first two babies (and Dr Jensen is quite laid back). Silas is so cute, I just wanted to snuggle him the whole time. =) I can't believe Em was ever that small! Usually when I see a brand new baby, it really is smaller than Em ever was, lol.

I am SOOOOOOOO excited for TobyLaine to come now. The girl name (I think!) has been finally picked. It is Elaina Kate. Kinda funny to have ECA and EKA. But if we used Catherine, I would want it spelled that way and I would have two ECA's. Mine is spelled Kathryn, but I think my grandma's middle name is Catherine. And I didn't want it to be the same as mine. I don't think Harper minds the Lainey Kate and Lady Kate thing anymore because we ended up with so many other names for Emily that we probably won't even call her that. =) The most-used names now are Emily Claire, Lady Fair and just Lady Fair. =) I don't think I ever call her Emmy anymore. Do I write Emmy on the blog? I don't think so. Just Em or Emily. I'll have to look. Sometimes I just call her Claire, but not when I'm talking to someone about her. Ya know, now that I think about it... We talked about Alaina and I don't think we ever picked. =) So maybe there isn't a name.

So what do I have to blog about? Em is walking confidently now. She still falls sometimes, but gets right back up and keeps going. She's had a rough couple of days with church on Sunday and small group and the LLL meeting last night. We got home I think at 9. She is napping now and will probably get up soon and be cranky at my midwife visit. =P I was going to keep her up longer to try to time things so I'd have a happy baby at this visit, but she got really mean and dramatic when I told her from the other room not to touch the trash can. This child acted like she had stepped on a wasp or something the way she flipped out. Last night at the meeting she freaked because a door was closed that she wanted opened. I thought she smooshed her hand or something but nope, it was just that the door was closed. Sleeeeep, sleeeeeeep, my baby, and wake up sweet!

I made an embroidery design from a book I got at the library. I think it was Better Homes and Gardens and it was patterns for appliques and painting and all sorts of different crafts. There were some cute butterflies that were supposed to be for some painted Noah's ark curtains, but I made an applique embroidery design. The fabric I used for the applique was a really loose weave, so I actually let it stick out of the satin stitching and then trimmed it and frayed it afterward. I think it's cute. I put butterflies on the knees of some jeans I'm making her (I'm at a stop because I need my serger, which is in the garage and I don't think I should carry it) and my test butterfly turned out so I'm making Em a little purse with that. And I'm making some hats (with straps so maybe they'll stay on) to match. And eventually, a shirt. But I don't want to cut everything out and then get bored before I get the serger out. =) I can work on the hats, I guess.

The giraffe room is at a halt. I just ran out of the paint that I mixed to do the diagonal plaid, with I think 4 more sections to paint. I have to get two things of that color to make it look right because it's part flat and part satin. Too bad I didn't mix more but I really didn't have much more to mix and I needed the orange and yellow for Sholamech. Who is also just sitting in our living room, needing another coat of yellow. Poor neglected giraffe... And I need the orange for the diamonds (I can't believe I am using that word. It's a rhombus, a rhombus, a rhombus!!) on the plaid wall. I think I may run out of that too. =
Well so I guess that's about it. Maybe I'll start thinking about lunch or somethin'. =)

March 3 Pics

Roomba, goin' to eat up the wheat crumbs. Em making sure it's okay in the safety of Daddy Land before she ventures off to poke and smack the Roomba.


Em doing This Little Piggy.




The new popcorn, the new O's... Puffed red wheat, mmmm! We all got addicted. Then Em dumped the whole bag out onto the floor... =)