Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Snow Day

This morning, I woke up a little bit early so I could start the beef stew in the crockpot.

I turned on the TV to see if schools were closed. I watched as every school in a 150 mile radius scrolled by. I waited and waited - and yup - eventually our school hit the screen too. For reasons I couldn't explain, I decided to wait to see if the university was closed too. To my amazement, it was.

So, I walked into Sarah's room and told her to go back to sleep because school was close. I walked into our bedroom and told DH to go back to sleep because school was closed. Then, I managed to sleep in until 9:30!!

It was so needed because I had been up until 2:00 am working on Sarah's birthday party invitation and reading a story so I could tell her what was going to happen. I'll post the invitation another day - it's pretty cute.

Today, DH and I chose new lights for the dining room and front entry way. We just need to chose a new bedroom fan and bedside light for Sydney's room and we are done. I need to order them now.

Today, I did have to drive out in blizzard conditions to take Syd to a new ENT. She had been having some bloody noses and I needed to have it checked out since they started after her surgery last May. I didn't want to go to her original ENT - Mr. everything is related to allergies. I liked him. He said her bloody noses are probably just due to healing after her surgery and if she gets anymore, he'll work on fixing it, but thinks it may be almost healed.

He also didn't think her cough last year was related to peanut allergy and thought she'd be OK having some again. Sydney was very happy when she was able to have a PB&J for lunch. We are going to ease her into it, but when her cough started this spring and was managed with asthma meds (the same way mine are), I really started to doubt the original dianosis.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Week in review

Most weekend mornings, Sydney wakes up at 7:00 (and I get up with her so I can help keep her quiet enough so her sister can sleep). Then when Sarah wakes they play until about 9:30 when DH wakes up and we get everyone dressed and laundry gathered so when he fininshes breakfast he can start the laundry. Between 7 - 9:30, I usually drink my coffee, read blogs and other assorted things and do nothing.

Yesterday morning, DH commented that it seemed that nothing was done until he woke up. Yep!! It's true. After all, why should I work if he gets to sleep in.

I usually have Tuesday and Fridays to get things done, but this week didn't go as planned. Tuesday I accomplished almost nothing and on Wed our manager for one of my jobs said that we needed to turn our annual report (which we usually print as a plain white (with photos) into a glossy magazine. So, I rearranged things and moved some stuff, designed a cover and back page and moved some of the words about our financial accomplishments into graphs for the inside back cover. It took me Wed (working an extra 1.5 hours) and Thursday to finish and I took it to the printer Friday morning (on my day off). Unfortunately, I didn't realize that we were two pages under for the layout we had. I had to either add two pages, or remove two pages. I also had to modify the glossy cover. That took me from 8:30 - 2:30. So, I worked almost a full day on my day off! (so now I won't feel too guilty when I have to be off 1/2 day Wed.).

The best part was our boss was in Paris, so we didn't have to clear every decision with him. So, the process went much smoother. We know that his response will be "well, it's not what I would have done, but it'll be ok, it's too late to do anything else now." But, there are things I would have done differently too - had we designed it this way from the start. But, it's nice and I'm proud of it.

Tuesday, I went to tap lessons for the first time since my ankle operation. I was thrilled that my ankle held up the way it did! I was able to keep up with the class and decided to see if I could do a 'pull back' and managed to do one or two correctly!

Wednesday, when I thought my day was going to be normal, I put my Christmas cards and a package in the car to drop at the post office. It took me until Friday to get there. But, the package was mailed and today (Sunday) I finished putting stamps on the cards. They will be dropped in the mail on our way to church.

Friday night, Sarah and I went to the first meeting for a mother/daughter book group. We have a wide range of ages, so there will be some months the older girls will read a different books and some months we will all read the same one. Our current plan is to meet Friday nights and everyone bring some finger food for a pot luck dinner. We've promised Sydney that we will read the book as a family so she can be part of it even if she's too young to come to the group meeting. But, I think it will be nice as Sydney and DH can have date night once a month.

Yesterday, I started cleaning my room. I found myself vaccuming all the dust under and around furniture, cleaning out the bottom of the closet, and dusting the room. It's so pretty!! Then, I cleaned out the fridge. I still have a few more containers to wash, but it's so much better. Then, I made pasta from scratch using the pasta attachment for my kitchen aid that my parents bought me for Christmas. I just need to figure out how to get the leftover pasta to separate while it dries (but I'll probaly just make a 1/2 recipe in the future.) The girls seemed to like it and Syd announced that now we can "keep the pasta in the drawer for emergencies."

The other thing I managed to do was to wash down most of the windows. Our house was built in 1948 - so our windows aren't as tight as we need. As a result, in the winter the condensation can turn to a bit of mold. Monthy, I wash the windows down with some bleach water to kill all the germs before they can develop into anything. Yesterday I got about 1/2 the windows done. It dawned on me this fall that if I took out the screens from the windows, the water could evaporate better and I've seen an improvement this year. I'll finish the rest today and maybe this week I can work on sewing projects on my days off rather than cleaning!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Important lessons!!

We talk alot about fire safety, but occasionally things get forgotten. My dad emailed me some information about the fire in his house. I wanted to share some of them as they are too important to not.

"I have learned three lessons:

Clean the lint out of the dryer vent hose periodically (that was thecause of the fire).

Make sure that your house is up to current smoke detector code: detector in every bedroom, every level (we didn't have one downstairs), and living space; interlinked so if one goes off, all of them soundoff.

If you have two or more computers, check your homeowners policy. Ourpolicy is limited to $3,000 for computer equipment!!! And evidently this is the norm in the industry."

He sent me a link to pictures from the fire. It is truely amazing. The firemen tried to go in to put out the fire, but had to quickly evacuate moments before the roof caved in.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The unexpected

Tonight I went to dance for the first time since my surgery this summer. I couldn't wait to come back and tell you all how wonderful it felt to dance and that for the dance show we get to tap dance with canes!!

But, as I walked in the door DH mentioned to me that my one dad called and that he didn't catch everything because the connection was really bad. DH said that "something happened last night, everyone was safe, the insurance would cover everything." I looked at the caller ID and saw that he was at the Aunt's house I was most comfortable with, so I called back to find out what happened.

This is the Dad who was my biological father. There were many years that we only saw him once a year. Once he got married, we saw him a bit, but we never really felt welcome. Once my brother and sister were born, it was more of a "his family/my family" treatment by my dad's second wife. I'm more comfortable with my sister than my brother. My brother is a bit emotional and has a hard time understanding that we don't have this brother/sister relationship based on birth. My sister seems to be more willing to have a "friend" relationship rather than this need to be in extremely close contact whenever we are in town.

Anyway, it seems that my sister's boyfriend was over last night and heard a strange crackling sound in the floor and quickly got everyone out of the house. It had been on fire and now the house is gone. I'm really glad BF was there as I know my brother would never have woken up alone, and I'm not sure about dad. I don't know if the smoke alarms had even gone off yet. I also think that the cold weather had something to do with a water issue for putting out the fire.

So, today they only have they clothes they were wearing when they walked out of the house with last night, but they are safe. Dad is suppose to call me at work tomorrow so I can get more of the story.

Things to do today

To Do List:

1. Finish Christmas cards.
2. Clean main bathroom.
3. Clean all piles of paper in dining room.
4. Pay bills.
5. Take return box and christmas cards to post office.
6. See if I can download checking statements into Money online.
7. Sign up for bill-pay at bank.
8. Put away laundry.
9. Get last few things from grocery store.
peanuts
grannila bars
index cards
10. Clean fridge (trash day is tomorrow).
11. Create 7 unique things about me that Kelly tagged me with.

I think that might be enough for today.

I just watched the meter reader walking past the front window. We have enough snow now that she needed ski poles to help keep her stable in the snow. I guess it's a little too much work to put snow shoes on and off at each house.

Later I'll post the accomplished list. But first I'm going to finish my cup of coffee and have some breakfast.

Oh, and as I was faliing asleep last night, I had a brainstorm of how to make learning subtraction facts fun for her. I've been stuggling with this since she has to be able to pass a time test and that means she has to be able to recognize the visual problems.

Anyway, she loves to play memory. I decided I could write the problems on index cards and she can make matches when the answer is the same. She has to be able to calculate two problems in order to determine if she has a match. I think she will really enjoy it. She's been asking for a fun way to learn subtraction. I really want her to pass the subtraction time test. She never quite managed the in-class one (she could do it at home when we were sitting next to her to re-focus her when she would start to stare at her pencil), but I think she needs the success for her ego.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

The gift of life

It was almost two years ago to the day when I first posted about blood donation.

Seeing that January is more than half over, I wanted to post this now. January is an important month in my life. Not only do I get to celebrate my anniversary, but the birth of my two daughters. I also celebrate my "live" anniversary. This was the day I defied the odds and lived. After Syd was born, I had complications that almost cost me my life.

The doctors did a great job of doing what they could, but without the donation of blood products by the community in the months before, I would not be typing this now. At Sydney's first birthday, I organized a blood drive. My plan is to do one drive for each unit of blood products I received. I've started to organize one on two other occasions, but I realized that I'm still too close and I end up fighting depression for a while just by starting the process. So, I've put them on hold for a while.

January is Blood Donation Month. I may not be up to organizing a blood drive, but I will happily encourage others to donate. Join me in helping save the life of others.

http://www.redcross.org/donate/give/

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Not her birthday present, but. . .

DH has been working on a bed for Sydney for the past year. It's been done since summer, but Santa's workshop meant that he didn't have time to paint it.

But, this weekend, we finally moved Sydney's bed into her room. This is DH's own design.

So, I give you the birthday girl and her very special bed!


Monday, January 14, 2008

Words

DH just informed me:

"The day before your daughter's fifth birthday, she used the word 'imperative' correctly."

"Daddy, it's imperative that we get to school on time."*sigh*

Friday, January 11, 2008

If this is her logic at almost 5, I'm in trouble.

Sydney will turn 5 on Tuesday. Today, I kept little bug out of preschool today so we could go to our last playgroup. Because of the grants used to fund playgroup, they can only serve children 0-4. Once they turn 5 they have to graduate. When Sarah turned 5 (also in January), she was so upset about losing the ability to see her friends and go to a place we would visit 2-3 times a week they decided to have a graduation ceremony for her. Today was Sydney's turn.

After playgroup, one of my friends (who's daughter also graduated today) and I went out to lunch with the girls.

Sydney decided she was done, yet I was trying to finish talking to C.

I told Syd we were going to head out in a minute. She asked if we could get some purple Gatorade. I told her that I had some blue at home and I'd make her some. She hit a all out tantrum. [a little background here. I get dehydration headaches because I forget to drink during the day. So, to counteract my headaches, I sometimes drink Gatorade. The girls know this].

She kept asking and crying for the purple Gatorade and said that she didn't want anything else to drink. She finally started saying that she needed purple Gatorade to help her headache. When I continued to tell her that I wasn't going to buy purple Gatorade she finally looked at me with tears in her eyes and said:

"Don't you want my headache to go away?"

*shakes head*

I almost caved at that moment because I couldn't believe she would put together that I was denying her medical care by not buying purple Gatorade.

As we walked out of the coffee shop, I reminded her that throwing a tantrum will not get her what she wants. So, she calmed down and stopped crying as we walked toward the car hand in hand. After a few minutes she says "Have I been good enough to get the Gatorade now?"

*le sigh*

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Birthday Wishes

Today is my dear sweet friend Kelly's birthday.

Kelly and I found ourselves thrown together by fate, at a time that I had just moved from one coast to hers. Amazingly, I've now known Kelly for almost 8 years (yes, really dear). She is one of the most amazing people I've ever had the honor to know. And when she met me, she didn't know that she would fit right in by being part of my collection of people born in January (what happens in April, I'll never know! - I mean besides myself, of course.) LOL.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRL.

Monday, January 07, 2008

Things I have to do tomorrow.

1. Take big girl to school. DH took her.

2. Make birthday cake for Big Girl.

2a. Remake birthday cake remembering to spray the NON-stick pans and add water.

3. Buy number 8 candle for Big Girl.

4. Frost birthday cake for Big Girl.


5. Clean all 4 bathrooms.

6. Make Birthday card for Big Girl.

7. Wrap presents for Big Girl.


8. Make dr. apts for girls.

9. Call party venue's for girls birthday parties. Info gathered, now to book parties

Anything else?

Sunday, January 06, 2008

I'm speechless

I came home from church to discover that my gift in the SS/HG exchange was posted today. One of the things I do in my spare time is write Harry Potter Fan Fiction. This is my second time participating in the Hermione Granger/Severus Snape story exchange (you post story or art ideas that someone does for you, you write/draw based on the suggestions someone else has requested). I won't know who drew it until the end of the month.

Even if you are not interested in fanfiction, you really should go check out my art. It is an amazing pen and ink drawing that can be appreciated on its own.

http://community.livejournal.com/sshg_exchange/103889.html#cutid1

S/he drew a scene from the story I wrote for the last exchange.

http://owl.tauri.org/stories.php?sid=5869

I'm not sure I completely what I envisioned for the story - but WOW, s/he captured it perfectly!

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Various things

* I didn't end up getting DH a card. Some years he remembers, some years he forgets. I wanted to find the poem to make one, but I couldn't find it online and I didn't get back to the store. Ran out of time to make one, etc. So, last night he arrived with a card to me. It was just a wonderful card - celebrating 25 years of marriage. (we are currently at 11 so it was so cute.) I did show him my post from today (he doesn't read my blog) as a offering of how much the day meant to me.

* I decided for some really strange reason to try on my wedding dress yesterday. Not sure why. I'm about 3 lbs too heavy for it, 7 for wedding day weight - but with my wedding day foundation wear, it would fit. DH rolled his eyes when I told him about this. It wasn't all bad that I pulled the box out, I learned that the desiccant pack needed to be recharged and so I did that last night. I'll pull the box back out today to replace the desiccant and show the girls.

* At dinner many times, DH will start to mouth the words for the song 'Tomorrow' when I say the word. The other night I was avoiding saying the word. So, Sydney looked at me and said "mommy, do I have school the day after today." I quickly realized what she was trying to do and answered in a way that avoided the word 'tomorrow.' After Sydney asked several questions in a way that the answer 'tomorrow' would be correct, I finally looked at Sydney and said "Sydney, are you trying to say the word?" She got this great grin on her face and confirmed that yes, she was trying to trick me into saying the word. She is just too silly.

* Today, Sarah asked if they could decorate their bedrooms so they would look like a princess room. I asked what this would entail. Sarah wanted Ribbon around her room and Sydney wanted Princess Pictures put up in her room. Silly girls.

* DH is about 1/2 done painting Sydney's bed. Unfortunately his paint gun doesn't seem to be working all of a sudden. He is not sure what is wrong. I hope he figures it out because I hate seeing him so frustrated and Sydney has been so patient waiting for her bed. He finished building it this summer but hadn't had time to paint it.

Friday, January 04, 2008

It was meant to be

On Valentine's day, 15 years ago, I stood in a card shop trying to find an appropriate card for my fairly new boyfriend. We had started chatting more regularly after a party in October, started going out dutch in December, I ended a fledging relationship in early Jan and we started dating a bit more regularly. So, there I stood, two weeks after the first time he told me he loved me looking for a card.

I found one that was perfect.

It started "I love you not for who you are, but for who I am when I am with you." I had found this poem years ago and decided that I wanted to give it to the person who was - mine. I only wanted to give it once. A friend of mine was with me and she talked me out of it; she said it was too soon. So I picked two cards that were more appropriate - one romantic, one funny.

We exchanged presents, and DH had bought me two cards, one funny, one the poem I wanted to give him.

I can't find that card, nor the paper I copied it on to. But I remember it often.

So, today we celebrate our 11th Anniversary.


Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Sarah's golden birthday is this year. I woke from a sound sleep to the idea of doing a bound photo book (digital scrap style) for Sarah's special day.

Should I:

Do a book of her first seven years to give to her now - "My Golden Birthday"

OR

A book that is pictures of the year to give her next birthday - "My Golden Year"

What do you think?