12 September 2008
More Posts Than You Wanted, I'm Sure
I don't know how my plethora of readers actually read my blog. Do you do it by an RSS? Google blog reader? Or just type in the URL? It really doesn't matter since I'm not sure how each of the different ways would address what I just did. What did I just do? I moved all of my sewing projects from my "Made by e" blog to here. I kept the same dates of original publication and labeled them all "crafting." I just thought that since making things is a big part of my life, it should be with the rest of me. So if you want to see my (re)creations, then scroll down a bit and click on the "crafting" label on the right side. Otherwise, stay tuned for what I'll crank out next!
11 September 2008
Too Bad I Don't Know How to Can
Do you ever have one of those days that you wish you could replay over and over? Not in a "Groundhog Day"-Bill-Murray sort of way, but rather because it was perfect? I had that day yesterday. I wish I could bottle the day and reopen it again and again and again.
Although it didn't start ideally (Rhett woke us up at about 4:45 a.m. and then permanently at 5:15 a.m.), I got up and checked email, began reading the newspaper, and started a load of laundry all before Rhett was brought out of his room at 6:00 a.m. Achieving this meant that his morning wake time could be spent one-on-one with him. We went outside and felt the beauty of the cool, crisp air. We played inside and I helped him get oh-so-closer to crawling (even though I have to ask myself why?!). We even took fun pictures to send to Chuck at work. When it was nap time, he went down beautifully.
During his nap time, I was able to get more laundry done and myself taken care of. I also opened the house as the weather was simply awesome. I could feel the fresh air in my toes. As soon as Rhett awoke, I strapped him into the car seat to run errands. When we got back, we played a little more and then he went down (beautifully again) for nap two. He stayed asleep long enough for me to get the house back to order (the shopping trip required much to be done), and for me to start working on a sewing project (pictures to follow in a couple of days). When he woke up, we took Bruno to the park near our house and enjoyed the beautiful weather again.
Soon Chuck came home and I went to the gym. My run was good and I came home to an almost-done dinner, complete with pasta, this totally yummy alfredo sauce, and leftover bread. We followed dinner by our usual walk with baby and dog and on return, it was time to put Rhett to bed. (We are LOVING this new early bedtime!)
Once the baby was in bed, we straightened the house, got things ready for today, and then retired to the basement to unwind. I continued to work on some sewing while Chuck comforted our healing dog. Physical dessert was a skinny cow; mental dessert was watching Project Runway.
I just loved everything about this day. I loved feeling productive. I loved spending time with my little boy. I loved being outside with temperatures in the 70s and low humidity. I loved running errands and shopping at Target. I loved sewing. I loved Project Runway. I loved being a mom (this might be the first time I've ever said this.) And I loved the quiet time with Chuck at the end of it all. Again again please!
Although it didn't start ideally (Rhett woke us up at about 4:45 a.m. and then permanently at 5:15 a.m.), I got up and checked email, began reading the newspaper, and started a load of laundry all before Rhett was brought out of his room at 6:00 a.m. Achieving this meant that his morning wake time could be spent one-on-one with him. We went outside and felt the beauty of the cool, crisp air. We played inside and I helped him get oh-so-closer to crawling (even though I have to ask myself why?!). We even took fun pictures to send to Chuck at work. When it was nap time, he went down beautifully.
During his nap time, I was able to get more laundry done and myself taken care of. I also opened the house as the weather was simply awesome. I could feel the fresh air in my toes. As soon as Rhett awoke, I strapped him into the car seat to run errands. When we got back, we played a little more and then he went down (beautifully again) for nap two. He stayed asleep long enough for me to get the house back to order (the shopping trip required much to be done), and for me to start working on a sewing project (pictures to follow in a couple of days). When he woke up, we took Bruno to the park near our house and enjoyed the beautiful weather again.
Soon Chuck came home and I went to the gym. My run was good and I came home to an almost-done dinner, complete with pasta, this totally yummy alfredo sauce, and leftover bread. We followed dinner by our usual walk with baby and dog and on return, it was time to put Rhett to bed. (We are LOVING this new early bedtime!)
Once the baby was in bed, we straightened the house, got things ready for today, and then retired to the basement to unwind. I continued to work on some sewing while Chuck comforted our healing dog. Physical dessert was a skinny cow; mental dessert was watching Project Runway.
I just loved everything about this day. I loved feeling productive. I loved spending time with my little boy. I loved being outside with temperatures in the 70s and low humidity. I loved running errands and shopping at Target. I loved sewing. I loved Project Runway. I loved being a mom (this might be the first time I've ever said this.) And I loved the quiet time with Chuck at the end of it all. Again again please!
08 September 2008
Saddest Puggie (and Puggie Parents) Ever
Chuck's birthday weekend pretty much sucked. On Saturday, Tropical Storm Hanna paid us a visit and dropped about five inches of rain. Although the rain got Chuck out of class early, we still sat at home and did nothing as it was simply too wet to go outside with a baby with a cold. (Fortunately, though, we got his birthday dinner taken care of Friday night since we knew Hanna was on her way.) We also got in one Scrabble game, but his dear wife is too proud to throw games, especially a game that she is going to win.
Sunday started a little better with a visit to Pug Group. Bruno always has such a great time playing with other puggies and we enjoy the hilarity of it all. Even little Rhett seemed to enjoy watching all the dogs.
But then it got worse. Bruno was showing evidence of some sort of eye problem and by the time I got home from church (the boys all stayed home given Rhett's cold), Bruno looked miserable. He wouldn't come out of his crate when we called (not even when Chuck called--WHOA) and looked like he wanted to die. His left eye was swollen shut and he looked incredibly pained. I took him to the emergency vet and turns out he has a corneal ulcer. For some reason, pugs just can't seem to heal these things properly. He was given some meds (which thankfully included a pain med) and I was told to take him to his regular vet today. The best outcome is that the meds heal the ulcer and he's fine. The worst outcome is that the ulcer ruptures and requires expensive surgery to remove the eye. The thought of this makes me cry (as if looking at the poor dog doesn't do this already).
We love Bruno; he's a part of our family and we want him to get better NOW.
Update: After spending four hours with two vets, one of which was a veterinarian ophthalmologist, we have good news: Bruno will continue to have TWO eyes! Can you imagine if he had lost it? Only one eye and the longest tongue you've ever seen? I think that would have been too much character, even for Bruno.
Sunday started a little better with a visit to Pug Group. Bruno always has such a great time playing with other puggies and we enjoy the hilarity of it all. Even little Rhett seemed to enjoy watching all the dogs.
But then it got worse. Bruno was showing evidence of some sort of eye problem and by the time I got home from church (the boys all stayed home given Rhett's cold), Bruno looked miserable. He wouldn't come out of his crate when we called (not even when Chuck called--WHOA) and looked like he wanted to die. His left eye was swollen shut and he looked incredibly pained. I took him to the emergency vet and turns out he has a corneal ulcer. For some reason, pugs just can't seem to heal these things properly. He was given some meds (which thankfully included a pain med) and I was told to take him to his regular vet today. The best outcome is that the meds heal the ulcer and he's fine. The worst outcome is that the ulcer ruptures and requires expensive surgery to remove the eye. The thought of this makes me cry (as if looking at the poor dog doesn't do this already).
We love Bruno; he's a part of our family and we want him to get better NOW.
Update: After spending four hours with two vets, one of which was a veterinarian ophthalmologist, we have good news: Bruno will continue to have TWO eyes! Can you imagine if he had lost it? Only one eye and the longest tongue you've ever seen? I think that would have been too much character, even for Bruno.
05 September 2008
Helpful Household Tip # 2
One fear I have is my house burning down/flooding/being destroyed by falling airplane parts...you get the picture. I know we're not supposed to be materialistic. But I'll admit it: I really like my stuff.
This is where the insurance companies say, "Well that's why you have us!" Thankfully, yes, we have homeowners' insurance, but that would do me no good after the trauma of one of the above events. There's no way that I would be able to accurately document my entire household contents during the upheaval that a disaster would cause. Nor do I have time to go around and create a list of everything in the house now. So what to do?
Take a picture! Take lots of pictures! Instead of listing on paper every DVD you own, just snap a picture of the DVD shelf and voila! You'll be able to tell the insurance company that they must replace that prized copy of "Cabin Boy." (Thanks, Angie, for that treasure.) In this age of digital cameras, cataloging your house is now totally possible and, even better, undaunting.
The final, but really really important part, is then to email these pictures to yourself. Or put them on a CD and mail them to family or friends. But do not just keep them on your computer in case of fires/floods/falling toilets. (Uhh..what?! I wrote this a couple of days ago and have no idea why I wrote "falling toilets." But thought I'd leave it in anyways.)
Given the forecast for the East Coast this weekend (Hurricane Hanna), I'll have plenty of inside time to do this. And good reason.
This is where the insurance companies say, "Well that's why you have us!" Thankfully, yes, we have homeowners' insurance, but that would do me no good after the trauma of one of the above events. There's no way that I would be able to accurately document my entire household contents during the upheaval that a disaster would cause. Nor do I have time to go around and create a list of everything in the house now. So what to do?
Take a picture! Take lots of pictures! Instead of listing on paper every DVD you own, just snap a picture of the DVD shelf and voila! You'll be able to tell the insurance company that they must replace that prized copy of "Cabin Boy." (Thanks, Angie, for that treasure.) In this age of digital cameras, cataloging your house is now totally possible and, even better, undaunting.
The final, but really really important part, is then to email these pictures to yourself. Or put them on a CD and mail them to family or friends. But do not just keep them on your computer in case of fires/floods/falling toilets. (Uhh..what?! I wrote this a couple of days ago and have no idea why I wrote "falling toilets." But thought I'd leave it in anyways.)
Given the forecast for the East Coast this weekend (Hurricane Hanna), I'll have plenty of inside time to do this. And good reason.
02 September 2008
Our Toothbrushes are Seeing More Action
Remember when Rhett was born and I nearly cried writing about how great Chuck was and how much more I loved him because of that experience? Yeah, so do I. But only barely.Don't worry. Chuck's still the same awesome helper and I'm still extremely lucky and happy to have him. But lately, so much of our love and our focus is on little Rhett that I feel like we're forgetting about our love for each other. It's as if we're more roommates instead of lovers. And I hate it, almost as much as I hate the word "lovers." Ha.
But I'm not sure what to do about it. When Rhett's sleeping, we're busy doing household stuff (this may or may not include things like just eating dinner). And when he's awake, we're either both playing with him, or one is playing with him while the other is busy doing the remaining household stuff.
We tried implementing a new rule that says, "At 9:30 p.m., drop whatever household stuff you're doing so that we can spend at least 30 minutes a day together." But 30 minutes?! That's not enough. Especially since most of the time we want to use that 30 minutes for additional sleep. And even now that Rhett is asleep by 8 p.m. and we have two hours together, it still doesn't seem like enough.
So what do you do? How do you not let kids take over your relationship with your spouse?
30 August 2008
26 August 2008
Plan B: Put it in a Paper Sack on Their Doorstep and Light it on Fire
Our neighbors have a large dog (we'll call it "LND" for Large Neighbor Dog, creative, I know). We think it's a mix of pit bull, maybe boxer, and something white. It seems to be a fairly well-behaved dog and hasn't bothered Bruno one bit.
Our concern is this: LND is defecating in our yard. As you can imagine I'm upset. As responsible pet owners, we always clean up after Bruno. Newspaper bags are awesome for this (providing protection to my elbows!). But anytime we are outside with Bruno, we have a bag with us. Our neighbors? Never. In fact, usually they just let the dog out of the house to do his business and then bring him in a few minutes later.
Admittedly, we're not 100% sure that the newly-found poo in our yard is LND's. But as we've not seen any other dogs and this has become a fairly frequent experience, I'll say that we're 98% sure. And it's pretty big poo, meaning it's coming from a pretty big dog, which LND certainly is.
What to do? I do love the Plan B option, but that seems likely to begin a Hatfield-McCoy situation and frankly, I don't have the time. How do we handle this without involving the use of paper bags and matches?
23 August 2008
Things That Must Go
Grocery stores that don't let you take carts to your car. I'd never seen them until I moved to the East, but I still can't figure them out. Am I just supposed to leave my already-purchased groceries just sitting there, unattended, while I go get my car? I don't think so! It really makes me angry. By the time I got to my car, I was kicking the toilet paper while the bag holding cans broke. It was really as pathetic as you picture it.
Things that Must NOT Go:
Clementines. Along with bananas, they are the perfect fruit.
Things that Must NOT Go:
Clementines. Along with bananas, they are the perfect fruit.
19 August 2008
Helpful Household Tip # 1
Apparently a birthday isn't all I have in common with Martha Stewart. According to a couple of my friends, I am one organized woman. And it's true. You know those "get to know you emails" that you see every so often? I received one the other day. One of the questions was, "What do you usually eat for breakfast?" My answer was, "Mondays: toast; Tuesdays: instant oatmeal; Wednesdays: english muffin; Thursday: yogurt; Friday: banana bread; Saturday and Sundays: sugary cereal!" You think I'm kidding. That's right; I even plan my breakfasts. Why? Because it's easier than having to think about at 5:45 in the morning.
While I don't advocate this level of organization for every person, I thought I'd share some of the things that I do to help keep my house organized.
Today's tip: The Chore Calendar.
I use a free one sent to us from a realtor, but any yearly calendar will work. I like using the yearly calendar rather than just a weekly calendar because I can use it for the everyday things as well as the not-everyday things. For example: the batteries in the smoke detectors. I know we changed them when we moved into the house in June, so I wrote on the calendar, at a date six months later, that they'll need to be changed again. Also, the air filters. They need to be changed every three months, so I mark down those dates as well. And what about turning those mattresses? If I only had a weekly calendar, special projects like these would never be accomplished simply because I'd forget them. The monthly calendar also lets me keep up with chores that are done monthly. These monthly jobs include: laundering the towels, vacuuming the couches and books on shelves (they get really dusty if I don't), cleaning the cars, and washing the inside of the washing machine (my machine has a cycle specifically for this).
The extra mile: I used to color code who did what by varying the color of the pen I used to write on the calendar. Chuck's jobs (trash, bathrooms, and some special tasks) were written in blue while mine were in pink. However, it only works if your husband actually looks at the chart, so I stopped doing this. Instead I just tell him that he has a chore to do and usually he'll do it.
Helpful or no?
While I don't advocate this level of organization for every person, I thought I'd share some of the things that I do to help keep my house organized.
Today's tip: The Chore Calendar.
I use a free one sent to us from a realtor, but any yearly calendar will work. I like using the yearly calendar rather than just a weekly calendar because I can use it for the everyday things as well as the not-everyday things. For example: the batteries in the smoke detectors. I know we changed them when we moved into the house in June, so I wrote on the calendar, at a date six months later, that they'll need to be changed again. Also, the air filters. They need to be changed every three months, so I mark down those dates as well. And what about turning those mattresses? If I only had a weekly calendar, special projects like these would never be accomplished simply because I'd forget them. The monthly calendar also lets me keep up with chores that are done monthly. These monthly jobs include: laundering the towels, vacuuming the couches and books on shelves (they get really dusty if I don't), cleaning the cars, and washing the inside of the washing machine (my machine has a cycle specifically for this).
The extra mile: I used to color code who did what by varying the color of the pen I used to write on the calendar. Chuck's jobs (trash, bathrooms, and some special tasks) were written in blue while mine were in pink. However, it only works if your husband actually looks at the chart, so I stopped doing this. Instead I just tell him that he has a chore to do and usually he'll do it.
Helpful or no?
14 August 2008
Utah Wrap Up
We just returned from our week-long trip to Utah. Since we're still of the "freaky new parents" variety, we didn't dare try anything too crazy. Mostly we hung out in Midway and relaxed. Since there's not much I love more than a summer's evening in Utah, this was easy.
Rhett was able to meet his cousins (on my side) for the first time. He's still a bit young to enjoy them, but I think they enjoyed him.
Some of the other highlights include: a trip to Cabela's in an answer to my nephew's prayer. Visiting old friends and even older family. Trip to the Park City and its outlets. Trip to SLC's farmers' market. Getting a hair cut and color (pics later). Swimming and hot tubbing. A baby who seemed to be a natural at flying.
The lowlight was: running what-was-supposed-to-be-8K-but-ended-up-being-an-8-miler. Sigh. Next time we'll find an easier-to-find race to run. I was just happy Chuck didn't puke in my dad's car.
A note about Rhett's headband. Since giving birth to a boy, I've been slightly jealous about all the headband-ery that I'm missing. All it takes is one look at the very top picture to see how cute Emmy's headband is. So I set out to find one that would be suitable for a boy, and what you see above is what I found. I'm in love with it.
Rhett was able to meet his cousins (on my side) for the first time. He's still a bit young to enjoy them, but I think they enjoyed him.
Some of the other highlights include: a trip to Cabela's in an answer to my nephew's prayer. Visiting old friends and even older family. Trip to the Park City and its outlets. Trip to SLC's farmers' market. Getting a hair cut and color (pics later). Swimming and hot tubbing. A baby who seemed to be a natural at flying.
The lowlight was: running what-was-supposed-to-be-8K-but-ended-up-being-an-8-miler. Sigh. Next time we'll find an easier-to-find race to run. I was just happy Chuck didn't puke in my dad's car.
A note about Rhett's headband. Since giving birth to a boy, I've been slightly jealous about all the headband-ery that I'm missing. All it takes is one look at the very top picture to see how cute Emmy's headband is. So I set out to find one that would be suitable for a boy, and what you see above is what I found. I'm in love with it.
09 August 2008
I'll Have the Atacama, Please
Whoa. If you're in SLC this weekend, get thee to Park City NOW. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the Zona Rosa restaurant is offering a free desert to its patrons. There are just so many from which to choose! How's a girl to make up her mind?!
One note about Utah: if I have to see one more truck with a completely exaggerated lift kit, I think I might gouge out my eyes.
And just for fun...Rhett meets cousin Jonas...
One note about Utah: if I have to see one more truck with a completely exaggerated lift kit, I think I might gouge out my eyes.
And just for fun...Rhett meets cousin Jonas...
03 August 2008
Inaugural Breads and Spreads
For my birthday this year, I wanted to do something that I really wanted; shocker, I know. My birthday falls in my least second-least favorite month of the year (July being the worst) and most birthdays include some type of barbecue. This year I wanted something different. My first thought was to have a candy party. But other then myself, who could eat a meal of Runts and Hot Tamales? No one. My second favorite food is generally any type of bread. Yep, that's right: I'm an anti-Atkins-ite. So Chuck had the great idea to have a bread party. Breads and Spreads was born.
And it was AWESOME.
The best part about it? All the leftovers! Thank goodness for that upright freezer I have. I'm sooo doing this again.
*And not in any way related to this post at all, but if you want to be creeped out for a couple of hours or want to creep out someone else, read this. HOLY MOLY. However, after my severely cynical husband told me to check its validity, I found this on Snopes. I'm resting only slightly easier.
And it was AWESOME.
The best part about it? All the leftovers! Thank goodness for that upright freezer I have. I'm sooo doing this again.
*And not in any way related to this post at all, but if you want to be creeped out for a couple of hours or want to creep out someone else, read this. HOLY MOLY. However, after my severely cynical husband told me to check its validity, I found this on Snopes. I'm resting only slightly easier.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
