In the Bedroom

I don't know what's happening, but the list of blogs on my page won't refresh which means I don't have a clue who has updated recently.  My not seem all that important unless you're sitting in a dark living room with your husband who is playing Xbox and it's either sit there and watch him play or catch up on your blog-reading. 

David and I bought our laptops at almost the exact same time.  We weren't even dating yet.  In my little mind we were good friends and we really liked spending time with each other.  Meanwhile, the more time we spent together, the more he liked me and wanted to date me.  But that's another story for another time.

Our engagement photo. 

Wedding guests signed the mat and now it hangs in our bedroom.

Anyway, we bought our computers in August of 2005.  I only know this because of when David and I started our friendship (July 2005) and when we started dating (September 2005).  My point is that, in laptop years, our computers are old.  Way over the hill.  As a matter of fact, mine is literally falling apart and David's doesn't even keep a charge anymore unless the cord is held just a certain way which requires it to be held down underneath the computer and tilted just so on the table.  Once, a couple of years ago, we had a guy come to our house to give us an estimate on what it would cost to replace the aluminum windows on our house with vinyl.  He was an older man, and I remember feeling sorry for him that he had to spend his post-retirement years driving around being a salesguy.  I tried to stay as uninvolved in the bidding price as possible, but they still won't do a bid unless the spouse is in the room so I had to be in the vicinity, pretending to listen.  I was sitting in an overstuffed chair across from where I would usually sit on the couch, my laptop perched on my legs which were folded under me.  My laptop was plugged in because, as I remember, it was almost out of battery power.  Only problem was that it was plugged in over by the couch where I usually sat and this poor old man decided to walk to the bay window in our living room without watching where he was going.  He tripped on the cord and my laptop went flying.  Luckily, the old man was okay if not a little embarassed (as was I), but my laptop suffered a couple of minor casualties.  Among them, a piece of plastic broke off the corner on top of the laptop and the portable USB adapter (my laptop is so old that it doesn't have a USB drive) bent and was never the same.

My corner of the room. 

I was so proud of myself for picking out and deciding where those shelves should go. 

Notice we don't have window treatments.  Sigh.

Not to bore you with our laptop woes, but my laptop is incredibly slow and doesn't hold a charge for longer than 20 minutes.  David's hasn't held a charge for quite a while, but only recently has he had to finagle the cord a certain way to even get battery power to his computer.  I'm pretty sure his battery is gone. 

So, in November we bought a PC.  I went back and forth about whether I actually wanted a PC or a laptop, but in the end we decided on a PC because of how much it would store compared to a laptop.  We need the space because we are parents.

David's grandma B made this for me and I absolutely love it.  It fits between the box spring and mattress to hold magazines, notes, whatever!  I'm so glad I don't have to keep my magazines on the floor anymore.

I did fight where David wanted to put it:  in our bedroom.  Our bedroom is so ghetto-fabulous right now.  We have, literally, 3 different styles of furniture in our bedroom and 7 pieces of furniture.  My husband has a lot of clothes.  He actually wears the same rotation of about 8-10 shirts and 3 pairs of pants, but he keeps 80% more clothes than that "just in case".  Just in case of what, I don't know.  But anyway, the desk joined the Bedroom of Misfit Furniture and is now happily residing squished in here with everything else.  We are a Realtor's nightmare.  The simple truth is that there wasn't another logical place to put the desk & computer.  The desk used to sit idly in the upstairs guest bedroom, collecting old issues of Real Simple and acting as a catch-all for whatever our guests decided to put on it.  We couldn't put the computer in a guest room - it might be a little rude to barge in on guests when they're staying here so that I can check Facebook or write a blog.  I mean, I'm no etiquette expert - I'm just guessing.

The desk. 

The bows and clippies I've made hanging tackily on the wall.  I need a designer or something.

It's not a bad desk.  I have dreams of sanding it down, painting it, and replacing the knobs but it's a family desk and I am not allowed.  Same goes for the dresser and nightstand that match.  So, I learn to appreciate the charm of a mismatched room. 

I've been sitting here trying to figure out why, A) Blogger keeps turning my right-side-up pictures sideways when I upload them (annoying!), and B) How to add captions to pictures in Blogger.  Too frustrated to keep messing with it.  It really should be easier. 

It's late and I'm going to bed.  Thankfully, David has tomorrow (today) off work.  A perk of being a government employee.  Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

He knows me very well

David came home on Wednesday with a gift for me.  In case you're wondering, yes, he does read my blog so he knew I was having a fat day.  He also knows that the way to make me feel better about my fat day is to bring me the biggest cupcake he can find.  What a guy!

Behold, Trophy Cupcakes.

And the red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

I was planning to eat half of it and save the rest for later.  But then I took a bite.

Seriously.  I ate it all.  Actually, I'm not completely barbaric - I did give David a bite.  Just one bite.

It was delicious. 

On the sleeping front, we're doing better.  When Amelia started feeling better we began letting her cry again.  She never has a problem going to sleep initially.  Naptimes are great, bedtimes are fantastic.  It's that she wakes up an hour after we put her to bed and she's mad that we don't come get her up to play.  So, the night before last she fussed/whined/cried for an hour before finally falling asleep.  Last night she woke up 45 minutes after I put her to bed and she cried for 20 minutes before falling asleep.  Hopefully it's working.  I haven't been leaving her for the full 8 hours.  She seems to want to wake up around 1:30am every morning and since it's been 6 hours since I put her to bed I feed her.  I know she could go longer, so I guess I'm waiting until she doesn't wake up that first hour then we'll work on the rest of the night.

My sister, Carrie, started her blog again.  I hope she keeps it up now...I really enjoy reading her posts.  Her blog is here if you're interested in reading it and/or saying hi. 

And, just for fun, look how big my baby is getting.  This picture really makes her look huge.  Pardon the sweet potatoes stain on the front of her shirt.

David has a 4 day weekend (a perk of working for the government) this weekend, so I plan to work on more bows and post them and he plans to get some things done around the house.  Amelia plans to be cute.  So far, so good.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Dear Valerie,

I'm really happy for you that you lost all that weight on Jenny Craig.  Really, I am.  Forget that I weigh what you did when you were "fat".  My only saving grace is that you're 4" shorter than me, but even then I'd be in denial if I said I wouldn't love to lose 30 lbs.  Love.  It.  But, anyway, we're all real happy for you that you've kept the weight off for 3 years and that you are still eating the Jenny Craig food (yuck!), but can you please go be your perky, slimmer self somewhere else? 

Signed,
Resentful Fat Girl

I'm not really resentful.  And I really am proud of Valerie and her blue bikini - I'm just tired of looking at it.  I don't really make resolutions at the beginning of a new year, mostly because I'm constantly thinking to myself "I should do this" or "I'm going to commit myself to do that" and then I falter and, ultimately, fail.  Every time I try to watch what I eat, my milk supply seems to decline.  I couldn't tell you what my milk supply does when I exercise, but then what excuse would I have?  David has been kind enough to offer to exercise with me which I think will really help.  And, nice weather would help, too.  I am excited to get out and go for walks to the park with Amelia this spring/summer.

Speaking of lactation and weight loss.  Okay, not really speaking of weight loss.  But tell me this batter doesn't completely blow your mind.  I could live off of it.  Or die off of it - whichever.  But I'm prescribing myself cookies and it doesn't get much better than that.

I call them lactation cookies even though I didn't follow an "official" lactation cookies recipe. I just made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and added coconut like my mom used to do in her oatmeal cookies.  Little orbs of perfection.

Oatmeal and flax seed are supposed to aid in increasing milk supply and I put both in these cookies, so here's hoping.  Even if it doesn't help, they sure are fun to eat.  I only made two cookie sheets worth and put the rest in the freezer for a later time.  I love having cookie dough in the freezer.  I mean, obviously not more than I love having it in my mouth (hence, the Fat Valerie dilemma).

Amelia's congestion seems to have improved but she still struggles with it, especially at night.  Tonight, for no good reason at all, she woke up about an hour after going to bed, screaming.  She was pretty much inconsolable until I stuck my finger in her mouth and stuck a couple of Hyland's Teething Tablets under her tongue.  Nothing says reality like someone's finger jammed in your mouth.  I think she must have had a nightmare and then stayed in a daze for a while.  After the Hyland's incident she seemed fine if still not really congested (even more so now, after crying).  David's dad used to be a pharmacist in the Army and recommended Benadryl to help her breathe better and to help her sleep.  Since we already have the cool mist humidifier going at full blast in her room and that doesn't seem to be doing a whole lot of good, we decided to try it last night.  She slept for 5 hours straight, which is far longer than she's been sleeping with the cold (or without it, for that matter).  We tried to hold off giving any medication to her tonight but she was just miserable.  She fell asleep shortly after I put her down after the nightmare episode, but slept fitfully and would whine/fuss in her sleep before finally waking up.  That's when we gave her the Benadryl.  She played happily in her crib with a tag on her blanket (we have video monitors - thank you, Lord, for video monitors!) until finally turning over and zonking out.

One more note on the sleeping thing.  Last week on our first night of Ferberizing Amelia, she woke up at 1:15am which was too early.  She wouldn't be fed again until 3:30am, so I laid in bed and watched her on the 7" screen on my nightstand, cringing and hoping for only a few minutes of Angry Baby.  She barely woke up, reached for her pacifier which I had put beside her in the crib, put it in her mouth, and fell back to sleep.  Seriously.  I wanted to go into her room and wake her up just to give her a high five or kiss her chunky cheeks.  But that would defeat the purpose, so I just woke David up and told him about it instead.  He appreciated that.

It was out-of-control cute last night when David was playing with Amelia on our bad.  Tess, the dog, decided at that very moment that she needed to be pet.  She nustled up next to Amelia, turned on her back, and put her head in Amelia's lap.  I grabbed the camera just as Tess decided she was done being cute, so these aren't the best representation of the scene, but they're still cute.  P.S.  I know it's not in good form to not use a flash when shooting a very quick moving dog and baby, but when I use the flash Tess ends up looking like Demon Dog and I try to avoid that.  Amelia still absolutely loves Tess.  I have to send Tess out of the room when I feed Amelia, otherwise the child won't eat because she's too busy staring down the dog.  I'm still thinking Tess gets the most baby giggles.

Millie's Bows - NEWS

Now available:  You may opt for a thin piece of velcro to be applied to the inside of the alligator clip for no additional charge.  This is especially helpful for Moms who have babies with thin hair or very little hair to keep the bow in.

Also, new to the shop (both will be posted tomorrow 1/12)...

The Dainty Mini.  $4 for a set of 2.

Also, the Big Girl Bow.  Approximately 4 1/2 inches in length, perfect for post-toddler girls.  Soon will be available on a french clip.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

My baby is sick

She is.  This is a whole new arena for me.  For 6 months she's had nary a sniffle but now, all of a sudden, she has horrible sinus congestion and today has been consistently running a 99.7° fever.

Have you ever nursed a baby who had sinus congestion?  Not fun.  Amelia would try to nurse then she'd choke because she couldn't breathe.  I mean, imagine your worst cold where you couldn't even blow your nose because nothing would come out yet you were so stuffed up that it hurt to blink.  Now imagine your food source being something you have to suck on at a 90° angle.  Talk about impossible.

I tried pumping and giving her a bottle in a more upright position but she would take maybe 2 small gulps and refuse it.  Again with the sucking thing.  She looked at me like "Seriously, Mom?  Are you trying to starve me?"  So, I took what I pumped and made a yummy green bean, oatmeal and milk pile of goodness for her.  She was slow at eating it but she ate it.  Then she took a nap and slept for 3 hours.

The pediatrician wanted to see her when I described her symptoms so I scooped her up right after her nap and took her in.  Just a cold.  Scooped her up and took her back home. 

She's just been cranky, tired, and miserable today.  She took 3 naps, none of them long, and I put her to bed at 6:50pm because of how tired she was acting.  I hope she starts feeling better, although truthfully David and I both aren't feeling 100% tonight, either. 

In other news, David spent a lot of time today entertaining the very grouchy Amelia so that I could create my shop on Etsy.  It's a lot more of a time-consuming process than I originally thought but it feels good to have it done!  David made me some bases with dowel rods sticking out so I can stack my ribbons on them.  Makes me feel a lot less cluttered. 

I spent some time the other day reading through posts I wrote right after Amelia was born.  I wrote about sleep then, too, only not as much.  You'd think lack of sleep would be more prominent in those first few months, but apparently I was too busy being grateful and stuff.  Also, I used to be kind of witty...I don't really know what hap-- wait, what was I saying?  Oh, yeah...I had a baby and my brains fell out.

Gotta go check on my baby.  And clean up my ribbon mess, or at least organize it.  Wish me luck and an early bedtime.

A New Hobby...For Sale

Because I need a new hobby - I don't already have 5 hobbies with supplies for those hobbies stacked up in dark corners of my house.  I guess I should look at it as gaining another valuable skill rather than taking on yet more craft supplies that I'm still not sure where to store.  I'm having a lot of fun with this, and I am genuinely hoping to attempt contributing something financially to this family with my new hobby.

 In other words:  I'm selling them.

I'm working on opening my Etsy shop at the moment so I don't have anything posted online, but I'll post pictures of what I've done and tell you that I'm constantly creating and churning out bows.  I'm not completely out of my mind thinking that making bows is a novel idea.  I realize that the market is competitive.  I also realize that I'm just getting started and, while I think my bows are lovely, I know others have been doing bows longer and are better at them.  Which is why I'm not selling them at boutique prices.

SO...  all of this is on a trial basis.  I want to sell my bows for a very reasonable price but I also want to hear feedback about them from people who have them. 

Now, on to pictures of the bows.  Realize I'm not anywhere near a professional photographer and don't own a nice SLR camera with which to take pictures of my products.  All of my photos have a yellow tint because of the harsh lighting above my dining room table - and there's my disclaimer about the photos!  I will probably apologize more than once about the quality of the photos...

- What you see above is just the ribbon I have on hand, but I have access to every style under the sun and every color of the rainbow.

- I can also make them whatever size you need.  3/8" ribbon, 1" ribbon, etc.

- I also have the following resins on hand: ladybug, strawberry, cupcake, and daisy, but I have access to many more and can show you pictures of other resins if you're interested.

- All bows are on lined alligator clips, but I can also make them on alligator clips with teeth, ponytail holders, etc. 

These bows are some of my first attempts, and I do get better with each bow I make.  You'll notice the butterfly clip.  I can make that in any color and can also make a bumble bee and a ladybug...I just haven't made either of them quite yet.

And...just in time for Valentine's Day...

Pricing

$4 per large bow

$4 per set of mini bows

$3 per insect bow

$2 per mini bow

Shipping not included.  Buy 5 or more bows, get free shipping.

But...I will match any competitor price.

I'm just starting out so I don't think it's fair that I price my bows higher than anyone else's right now.

Here is a photo of the bows I made for my nieces.  Already, looking at the pictures I took I can see a lot of errors that I know how not to make anymore.  Again with the lighting - sorry!

I have another style of bow to show you, too, but I'm still trying to figure out what to put in the middle of it.  Maybe I'll post a picture when I figure it out.

Like I said, I know the bow market is a competitive one and that I'm just an amateur, but I'm getting better by the bow.  I hope you'll think of me when considering ordering a bow.

I'm also working on nylon headbands for alligator clips.  I made some for my sisters' babies but I'm still trying to round up the supplies I need to make them.  I'll let you know.  Here's a picture - let me know if you'd be interested in them so I don't round up all the stuff then no one cares (the one with the bow is actually a single bow with an alligator clip - it's just as an example)...

Sorry to market my wares to you.  I promise it won't happen again.  Unless I want it to.

If Amelia had enough hair, I would have her model some of the bows for you.  Oh, if you scroll down to the previous entry, my nieces are wearing the headbands I made for them.

Ah, need to go to bed.  We let Amelia figure out the sleeping thing relatively on her own tonight and it went pretty well.  Of course, she went down easily, but she woke up an hour after that and stayed awake for another hour and a half.  She never got angry...just whined/fussed and played with her pacifier and rolled around her crib.   

By the way, my little girl is sitting up SO well by herself now.  I took a picture a couple of days ago...  It must have been about time for her to eat.  She gets to be like Pavlov's dog with the drooling around mealtime.

Have a great Friday!

Christmas in Pictures

I got so used to making enough coffee for 8 adults that I accidentally made my coffee the consistency of tar this morning.  That's what a week in Oregon does to me, I guess.  I don't mind.

I'm going to summarize the Christmas holiday in the only way that isn't over-the-top wordy and completely boring to all of you (and saves me from a lot of proofreading)....in pictures.

On Christmas Eve, Amelia got to play with cousins Lucas and Isaiah that she hadn't seen since August...

When we got home that night, Amelia mostly enjoyed chewing on wrapping paper while we opened a few gifts for her.  Here she is in her snowman pajamas playing with a Christmas present from a friend.  She's laying on a quilt made for her by her great-great-aunt Nan!

On Christmas Day, we delivered treats to our local fire department before heading to David's parents' house for Christmas breakfast made by the guys.  They made breakfast sandwiches on croissants.  Yum.

That morning, Amelia got to try on a hat made by her aunt Stephanie and a bib that David's grandma made and that David wore when he was a baby!

She also got to see her cousin, Nora, who is David's cousin's 3 month old baby girl.  I have a feeling they'll be friends when they're older. 

The QT with cousins didn't stop there.  We decided to head down to Oregon on Christmas night instead of our original plan of waiting until the following Tuesday.  Amelia slept the entire way and we got in really late.  In Oregon, Amelia...
...got to defend her pacifier from her cousin, Kate, who was very curious about the plastic object protruding from Amelia's mouth.

...got to play with Kate (when the paci battle was over, of course)

...play with both of her girl cousins!  (Sorry the picture is blurry.  I loved it too much not to post)

...got to go to the baby Bible class for the first time (since she's the only baby where we attend up here, there isn't a Bible class for babies)!  Even though she was tired I think she really loved it!

...got to see her very first snowfall since Hillsboro got 4 unexpected inches of the white stuff (notice out the window behind Millie and her Granddad)!  She didn't care much.

Millie and I were in Oregon for a week.  We had such a great time.  The longer I was there, the longer I wanted to stay!  Carrie and Chris bought a house at the end of November and, because it's a "fixer-upper", they're staying with my parents until the house is actually liveable.  So the guys spent every night (and day!) over at the house fixing it up.  One night, the guys stayed at my parents' house with the kids and the girls all went over to the "fixer-upper" and primed doorways and window sills.  We worked a lot but we laughed even more. 

Speaking of Chris & Carrie, I'm going to be an aunt again!  Anna is 8 1/2 months old so she'll only be about 16 months older than her next sibling and Amelia will only be a little over a year older than her next cousin!  Does it get any better than that?!

David had to work the Monday and Tuesday after Christmas, so he went back home on Sunday night then returned late Tuesday evening.  While he was home after work on Tuesday evening, he and his brother-in-law, Jake, worked on our master shower.  I'm happy to say that I think it's nearing completion.  David tried to put up sheetrock tonight but it was really loud and the baby was asleep.  She woke up so he stopped.

We got back to Washington in time to see David's aunt and cousin from Chicago.  While we were there, Amelia got her first look at Sage, Jake and Stephanie's lab.  I can't get my baby away from the animals - she wants to love on every dog and cat she sees, and Sage was no exception.

Here's Amelia's 5 month shot and 6 month shot next to "the pig".  My dad won that pig for me when I was 2 and except for the stick-on black nostrils that got lost in the wash, I'd say it's in pretty good shape.

I think month 5 was a huge growing month for her.  Now that she's on solids, she's really beefing up.  So far she's had...

- Peas (loved them)

- Green beans (loved them)

- Squash (yum)

- Applesauce (absolutely)
- Pears (nom, nom)
- Prunes (out of necessity...she ate them fine)
- Peaches (not a fan of peaches.  Who doesn't like peaches?!)

Tomorrow is her 6 month checkup.  I've got my questions for the doctor written down.

Seriously.  See, this is my problem.  I start a blog and can't shut up.  I need to work on breaking up the posts.

Have a good Wednesday,

I'm laughing at myself

I fully intended to write a new post tonight but, if you can even read this, you'll see that I'm having complications.  If you get my posts via email, come over to my blog and have a good laugh.

My train of thought:  I want a simpler blog layout.  I'll just pick one of the Blogger templates and start over.

What actually happened:  It was too simple.  Decided I needed 3 columns instead of two and started playing with the HTML coding to change some fonts.  Wound up with itty bitty writing.  I'll be working on fixing it tomorrow.

I have so much to share that I'm thinking my entries just from the holidays will spill into February.

For tonight, I'll just say that I'm so thankful for this blogging world.  If it weren't for the blogging world, I...
...wouldn't have started to "follow" Diane's blog
...wouldn't have known Diane when she and her sweet family picked up and moved just 15 minutes from me!
...wouldn't have had the complete delight of meeting Diane and her lovely husband and adorable children this evening!

It was such a great night getting to meet Diane and her family!  Hopefully we can get together and be crafty soon!

Signing off for tonight!