Archive for October, 2008
I’m glad that our family and friends are coming to visit us this weekend … that way, they can feel my wrath! LOL! :) Just kidding. My PMS has become full force today, unfortunately. I’ve been impatient with the kids (which I *absolutely* hate … I just apologized to both of them for my short temper). I’m just trying to keep the house clean in preparation for everything going on this weekend, but it’s difficult. There’s a lot that I intended to do beforehand, but time just kind of slipped away from me. I need to focus on the things that I *have* been able to get done, though, which is quite a bit. I just can’t wait to see everyone.
Here’s something that’ll make you laugh. Someone at my husband’s work put a life-size cardboard cutout of Sarah Palin inside his office. So, Jeff just called a second ago and said, “I’m bringing Sarah home with me.” Evidently it’s causing quite a bit of disruption in the office. :) So … what the heck are we going to do with a statue of Sarah? Maybe she can help hand out candy on Halloween? :) I actually think that I would *rock* the entire Sarah Palin Halloween costume thing. I’d need a black suit, black heels, an American flag pin … I already have the black glasses … I could wear some pearls and put my hair up … don’t you think that would be a great costume for me? :) Anyway, I told Jeff to stick her out the window as he’s driving home, to make it look like she’s waving to the people as he drives by. :)
Well, I have a three-and-a-half-year-old who wants to watch “Curious George,” so I’d better get going. And there’s more laundry to fold. And I need to take 15 minutes to save money on my car insurance. LOL! :) Oops, I almost forgot that Wordless Wednesday is today. Here’s a photo:
I’m unfortunately skipping my MOMS group meeting this morning because both kids have bad colds. :( Green stuff keeps coming out of Meredith’s nose, and they both have coughs. Right now, Lucas is relaxing on the living room couch underneath a blanket, which he hardly ever does. Meredith is also very snuggly (which I love, of course!). I have a *ton* of things to get done, and it’s a very rainy, dreary day ~ so it’s a good opportunity to be at home working on stuff and just hanging out. I have to call the printers today to touch base with them about this calendar that I’m designing, and I’m also interviewing a lady over the phone for a feature story that I’m writing ~ not to mention it’s preschool day!
Many thanks to Cheryl, who *so* generously sent a wonderful Tigger costume for Lucas in the mail! He looks *so* freaking adorable in it (and it’s warm, which is a requirement of Halloween costumes here in upstate New York!). I didn’t get to see the costume on him for long, though, because he refuses to put it on until Halloween gets here! :) I couldn’t find a Tigger costume except for on Amazon.com, and it was $50! Crazy. Thing is, I should have started looking for the kids’ costumes earlier. Note to self … start in September!
I’m in the process of making a grocery list for the items that we’ll need when our families are here. Thursday’s dinner will be roasted butternut squash soup, crusty bread, a mixed-greens salad with walnuts, pears, cranberries, and apple slices, and maybe some green beans; Friday’s dinner will be homemade pizza with salad and possibly breadsticks; and then Sunday through Tuesday will be meat and potatoes/slow cooker meals. It’ll be a huge grocery shopping trip, but I’m *so* looking forward to cooking! I just hope that the weather will be nice this weekend for her party. I heard a rumor about the “s” word ~ snow! Hope not!
Whew, was I uncomfortable at this time two years ago! We were about to meet our precious daughter so very soon, right on her due date! I had been hoping that our “baby boo” would actually arrive on Halloween, and I remember how excited I was when the nurses in the delivery room told us that she was born at 10:55 p.m.! No tricks … just a sweet, beautiful treat! :) I’ve been especially enjoying snuggles with Meredith this week as I think back to when she was born and how much she has changed over the past two years.
Some of my favorite words of hers are “scug” (meaning “snug” or “snuggle”), “scrunkies” (meaning a “hair scrunchie”), and “flowies” (meaning “flowers”). She’s talking up a storm. If you ask her to say a word, she’s really good at repeating it. She’s into “Dora the Explorer,” My Little Pony, Mickey Mouse, stickers, purses, shoes, barrettes (a recent phenomenon), dresses, blankets, playing outside, and reading books, to name a few. (She frequently comes over to us with a book and says, “Please read!”) Her favorite foods are apples (which she eats the inside of but then spits out the peel!), yogurt, cole slaw (she ate a *ton* of it the other night at dinner!), fruit snacks (of course!), cereal, toast with butter, and basically anything we’re eating. She doesn’t care for bananas, though. She says that her favorite color is green (like Lucas’s), but she also seems to love pink. :) She’s also very good at singing the alphabet song, even if she doesn’t make it to the end just yet! Oh, and she *loves* to dance! She’s also such a “little mama.” She feeds her Learning Puppy and makes sure to cover him up with a blanket at night, and she brings Blue over to Lucas if he has laid her down somewhere. She also brought Lucas’s sippy cup over to him this afternoon! She definitely has such a caring, loving, kind spirit.
Her two-year checkup isn’t until next week, but she has been wearing size 2T and even 3T in some cases for quite some time now. For Halloween, she’s going to be a “youngling” (in other words, a tiny Jedi in training!). I am so in love with this little girl ~ words just can’t describe it. She is such an *amazing* blessing to us. I can’t wait to see what this next year has in store for her!
Someday, down the road, I’d love to start my own bath and body business. I’ve been making soaps and other homemade toiletries since December 2000, but of course right now with two small children I don’t have much time to craft anymore. I miss it. :( Anyway, when I *do* have some free time to sell my things at craft shows, festivals, and online, I plan to give away some neat promotional products along with my goodies. I’m such a sucker for those! It would be fun to design my own logo to include on pens, notepads, etc. People love free stuff, and I think that it’s a good thing for a business to do. It’s always neat at home shows and other exhibitions to pick up freebies that companies are offering, such as pens, magnets, etc. I’ve actually thought about offering some freebies like those for my note card business, Shining Moments ~ but I have to get it off the ground first! :) Anyway, at least for the moment I can dream and plan!
Is anyone interested in receiving a coupon for $1 off any StarKist Tuna Creations or StarKist Tuna Pouch (4 oz. or larger)? I received four of them in the mail and actually don’t like tuna. These little booklets have a yummy-sounding recipe for tomato pesto bruschetta, though. Just leave a comment here or e-mail me and let me know, and I’ll send you a booklet in the mail.
Speaking of cool stuff … check out the Tea Collection of children’s clothing by Forest and Zoe. Totally expensive ($73 for a hooded sweater tunic!), but look how adorable this floral knit dress is. I can see Meredith wearing that this fall. I love this one, too ~ pretty stripes! And this dress is adorable for autumn. In fact, check out all of their new arrivals. I could seriously go crazy shopping … better hide my wallet! :) By the way, if you’d like to spend $271.50 on a navy-blue dress for your little sweetie, here you go. It’s gorgeous! They also sell diaper cakes and knit toys. Cool site!
I feel much more accomplished now that I’ve purchased the supplies to make Meredith’s birthday cake. I found a cake pan, cake board, pink and clear edible glitter, and pink icing coloring at the local cake decorating store. We have a Pinkie Pie to go on top, and I’m thinking that maybe we could create a “meadow” with green-colored coconut? Maybe also a blue stream? Thank goodness I’ll have a lot of help with this. LOL! :)
Here you go, Sweetie ~ an entire blog entry about you! And I’m not even venting about anything ~ imagine that! :)
1. He’s sitting in front of the TV. What’s on the screen? Some kind of science-fiction show that he has DVRed (”Chuck” comes to mind).
2. You’re out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? I *guarantee* that he’ll order non-creamy Italian or a fat-free vinaigrette.
3. What’s one food he doesn’t like? He *hates* mustard. (OK, so that’s a condiment. He dislikes mushrooms, as do I.)
4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? A Sprite because he doesn’t drink. And chicken-noodle soup. :)
5. Where did he go to high school? In northern Indiana.
6. What size shoe does he wear? 12, I think.
7. If he were to collect anything, what would it be? He used to collect “Star Wars” stuff when he was a kid. But now, I’d say that he collects books. He loves to read. Oh, and I think that he enjoys collecting CAT5e cables, LOL! :)
8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? “Thanksgiving on a sandwich”: turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, etc. (in other words, “The Gobbler” at the Albany Pump Station). I’d have to agree.
9. What would he eat every day if he could? Chicken, spaghetti, frosted cherry Pop-Tarts, and orange juice (to name just a few!).
10. What is his favorite cereal? Apple Jacks.
11. What would he never wear? Pink. I really do think that he would look handsome in a pink tie!
12. What is his favorite sports team? Everything Indiana/IU.
13. Who will he vote for? I have a pretty good idea, but I’m not going to say in the interest of his privacy.
14. Who is his best friend? He has a lot of close friends, and we got to see most of them a few weekends ago when we attended our friend Chuck’s wedding.
15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do? Have an anxiety disorder (and flake out on things sometimes).
16. How many states has he lived in? He was born in Oklahoma, then lived in Indiana for a long time, and now we live in New York. So that’s three.
17. What is his heritage? Mostly Finnish, German, Danish, and a tiny bit of Irish.
18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake? He loves chocolate and raspberry together and also adores carrot cake. This year, I’m thinking about making him my mom’s apple-raspberry tart (a favorite of my dad’s).
19. Did he play sports in high school? Yes, he was on the basketball team.
20. What could he spend hours doing? Working! haha :) Being on the computer and playing the Wii.
Greetings from the land of the stuffed up, clogged, congested ~ whatever you want to call it. Yes, I’m still not quite 100 percent ~ but I’m doing much better now, thank goodness. I can hear a little more, and my head doesn’t ache like it did before. One of the moms at Lucas’s preschool had this same virus, and so did the husband of the teaching assistant. Yesterday when I dropped Luke off, they were both going on and on about how bad the virus was (especially the vertigo that comes with it). They understood perfectly why I wasn’t able to get into the car and drop Luke off at school last Thursday.
Anyway, today will be spent going to the post office to mail a few eBay packages that are completely late, working on designing this 2009 calendar for our town, setting up interview appointments for two feature stories I need to write by the end of the month, and doing whatever cleaning I can. It’s hard to believe that our families will be here next week! Yikes ~ so much to get done.
Today is Wordless Wednesday, so I’ll leave you with a picture from our recent trip to Canada. I think that some Picnik is in order for this shot, although I haven’t had a chance yet!
I woke up this morning feeling much better, but now my ears are all stuffed up and I can’t really hear things very well. Don’t you hate that? It’s like living in a fog. I’m desperately trying to get my ears to pop! I can’t wait for that “ah-ha!” moment when they finally do and I can hear things like a normal person again. When Meredith cried this morning, it literally sounded in my head like the batteries dying in Luke’s fire engine. LOL! :) I’m so relieved to be feeling better now, though.
At some point during my time “out of commission,” I happened across a TV show that I definitely won’t be watching again. Evidently it’s a reality show where Paris Hilton is auditioning candidates who want to become her “BFF.” Come on … seriously?!? That’s crazy. What’s up with television these days? I seriously think that I would find one of those weight loss pills infomercials more exciting to watch than that! :) She did fly the contestants to Tokyo, though, and I’ve always thought that it would be neat to see Japan someday.
I’m not coherent today (as you can tell from my ramblings), so I’d better make this blog entry short. Plus, there are huge piles of laundry to be taken care of. I hope that you guys have enjoyed your weekend and that this next week will treat us all well! :)
I’ve been battling a nasty virus for the past three days. That’s why I haven’t been on the computer in a while ~ I literally couldn’t see straight to look at the computer screen. Thank goodness I’m finally starting to feel better now! My nurse practitioner friend told me that this particular virus mimicks the flu but actually attacks your inner ear ~ hence the reason why I felt like I had the flu but my head also felt incredibly strange. Now I know what it feels like to have a migraine. Worst headache I’ve ever had in my entire life. With both of my ears screwed up, I threw up quite a few times because my equilibrium was off. So, I spent a lot of time lying down with my eyes closed. I started sipping water last night and continued throughout the night, and I also took allergy medicine to help fix my ears. That worked great, because when I woke up this morning, my head/vision wasn’t all funky anymore. My head still hurts, but I’m thankful to be able to eat and drink now and actually get up and move around. So that’s where I’ve been lately … just wanted to let you know!
I’d intended this morning to write a blog entry about our weekend trip to Cobourg, Ontario, for our friend Chuck’s wedding. But instead, I need to complain. (Here’s one picture, though ~ a family portrait that our friend Matt took in Victoria Park near the beach. So pretty!)
My head feels *so* freaking strange right now! I don’t know what’s going on, and it’s kind of weirding me out. It feels like I’ve downed a bunch of Nyquil or enjoyed way too many glasses of wine, but there’s also a headache feeling. Sometimes when I move around (walking up and down the stairs, bending down and then standing up, etc.), it’s like it takes my head a while to “catch up.” I know that I’m not describing it well. I think that I feel basically fine other than that. But … maybe it’s from the cold/flu that I had last week? I’m still trying to get over it. On Saturday and Sunday during our trip, my body ached *all* over and I felt pretty crappy. I was shivering at times, too. Thank goodness I was able to take a nap with Meredith on Saturday. I just kept popping Tylenol and didn’t tell anyone about how I was feeling, though, because I wanted to hang out with our friends and have fun discovering a new place. I did OK, and I do feel better than I did, but I feel like I’m in a fog today. I don’t feel lightheaded like I’m going to pass out, but my head does feel like a balloon filled with helium.
Well, enough venting. I know that you don’t want to hear about my aches and pains. I just hope that it gets better soon. Hopefully it’s just a sinus thing left over from this cold/flu bug and nothing serious. I’ve uploaded all of our Canada pictures to Flickr if you’re interested in taking a look (there aren’t *too* many). We had fun! Recap to come!
