Plagued . . .

Ugh.  It's been an awful week and a half.  Ok maybe only a week, but it feels like longer.  Chopper and I have both been plagued by some kind of cold from a very evil place.

Last night I had very little sleep because I had several severe bouts of coughing.  Like half hour, 45 minute stretches of coughing.  And unfortunately, thanks to Lloyd Voldemort in there, that means I pee a lot too.  Sorry for the info.  It's just really annoying.  

So what do the girls do during all of this?  They watch TV.  I am a terrible horrible mother who needs to engage with her children more I think.  It's just hard right now.  It is better when I'm not sick though so maybe I need to cut myself some slack.  It's the germ bugs talking right?  The nasty, evil germ bugs.

But I have felt lately like maybe we need more to do.  Not in the sense of keeping busy because there is plenty there but more that we need to do and less free time.  Like raising chickens, or planting a garden, or art projects or something.  Of course we're not allowed to have chickens, I don't have the slightest green thumb or desire to have a green thumb, and my artistic skills are severely lacking.  Maybe I should do more preschool activities.  That's something I could probably be decent at that would give structure to our day.  Admittedly though, I like not having deadlines and schedules and stuff.  I am a horribly lazy person.

That is not the germ bugs talking either.

I need to think about this though because really -- children should work.  And maybe that would help around here.  Anyone have suggestions on how you get your children working when there's nothing to take care of (garden, pets, etc.) and I am NOT getting a pet.  No way.

More Dance Videos

Megan got really mad today when I told her that I took video of her in dance class again.  But then, she gets really mad at me for just about everything lately so I'm posting them anyway.  My favorite thing about both of these videos is that even when the music stops (although you can't hear it) and the teacher stops, Megan starts improvising.  I have to say that these dance classes have been really good for her physically I think.  Now if I could just find a class that would help with her attitude . . . 

I know it's hard to tell but she's the one in all black (no skirt today surprise surprise) and the pigtails.

Tap Dance

Ballet

This afternoon she had a mega fit and lost control of her bladder.  Sorry if that's too much information but if anyone knows how to clean leather ballet shoes I would love to know.  Otherwise I'm going to have to buy her new ones.  Sigh.

Diet Change . . . Maybe

So I'm looking into the possibility of going gluten-free.  I should also be considering going sugar free but that feels next to impossible.  Not that I have any perceived sensitivities to gluten, but just some general health concerns -- my thyroid and infertility (I know I know, I'm actually pregnant but there are issues there).  But I'm nervous about changing our eating lifestyle like that because I anticipate a few things:

1.  husband resistance (we BOTH love our bread)

2.  children resistance -- although they resist about anything I put on the table so I guess this wouldn't really be a change

3.  difficulty of dinner time prep

That last one I think is the worst.  I HATE dinner time prep.  In fact, I kind've detest the whole end of the day.  I'm tired, the girls are hungry and maybe tired and I need to spend time in the kitchen fixing food that everyone but myself and Chopper is going to turn their noses up at.  Not to mention that today was an absolutely horrible day in the parenthood arena and how easy was it to pull frozen broccoli and ravioli out of the freezer and have a decently healthy meal on the table in like 15 minutes with minimal energy on my part!

So I don't know if I can do it.

I'm put Elizabeth Hasselbeck's new gluten-free recipe book on hold at the library and I'm anxious to take a look.  And my sweet mother keeps sending me stuff about gluten free and stress management and I'm too tired to look at it.  And I have a Relief Society presidency meeting tomorrow night and a talk on Sunday and just lots of things I need to do.  And I'm seeing the wisdom in the prophets and apostles telling us to simplify our lives and I kind've wish maybe I could have been a pioneer woman.  But I know that they were also incredibly overwhelmed with their responsibilities and no air-conditioning or bug spray to boot so I don't really want that.

So after my battle with Megan to go to bed I think I'll eat one last ice cream sandwich and watch something completely pointless on tv and then go to bed early.  Because tomorrow is another day and I think I'm done with this one.

Spring Is Here!

Our Arboretum membership is expiring at the end of March so we're getting in our last visits before then.  We took a friend of Megan's today and even though it was windy and a little chillier than the past few days (upper 60s -- oh dear) we had a good time.

 

I pulled out some cute dresses that I was saving for this spring and summer and she has been in heaven!!  She loves to be in skirts and dresses.  I don't think I'm even going to buy shorts for her for the summer -- skirts all the way!

 The girls both wanted to dress up.  Abby loves skirts that have a little tulle layer (or whatever that is on the bottom) because she calls herself a ballerina.  And she tells everyone!!  It's really cute.

 For 2012, the Arboretum is doing houses dedicated to famous artists.  We didn't make it to all of them but the ones that we saw were adorable!  I can't remember whose house this was except that with the bridge over the pond and the picture on the wall I'm 90% sure it's Monet's house.

 Picasso's house -- notice the huge sunflowers out front (not real).

 Yes, Megan got her face painted AGAIN!  But she strayed from her normal kitty cat face and got a princess face.  

 So then all the girls had princess faces.  Including Abby!  She did great for getting her face painted for the first time.

 Typical Arboretum day really!

 This was a BEAUTIFUL house dedicated to Georges Surat.

And then Vincent Van Gogh.  You know what?  I take that back -- this is Picasso, the one with the sunflowers is VanGogh.  Oh my sister-in-law Denise is writhing on the floor right now at the agony that I do not know my artists . . . 

 Abby, in the bushes.  Surprise surprise.  I had all three girls by myself and no stroller (one more thing to keep track of you know) and I tell you what, 3 girls by myself was not the problem.  The problem was this little bugger going anywhere she darn well pleased and not listening to her mother AT ALL!  

 Tulips of course were out in full force but also budding trees, hyacinths (they smelled SOOOO good), daffodils, camellias (which grow on trees, I didn't know) and pansies.  Abby loved the pansies and kept calling them "monkey-face flowers".  I am not kidding.  I made her repeat herself to make sure that's what she said.  

 To me this is a very Sound of Music moment only without the spinning, the Alps, or the music in the background.  Huh, maybe it's not very Sound of Music after all!

 Look at all the beautiful flowers.  Oh wait . . .  no no . . . what's down in this grate mom?

I tell you what, March is a beautiful time to visit!  Hint Hint!

Oh the dilemmas

Knowing me, I will obsess about these two things until they are resolved.  Yes, mother I am going to look into the breathing thing and the yoga thing and the chiropractor thing.  That might help.

But in the meantime . . . 

21 weeks and an ultrasound today.  It wasn't as detailed as others have been but I trust my doctor and she says everything looks good.  This little boy (so definitely a boy now -- 110%) is only 15 ounces (which is a good size at this point apparently) but kicks the heck out of my lower abdomen right now.  Which is NOT creating washboard abs by the way.  Apparently his exercise doesn't count . . . 

Anyway, the placenta is riding low and if I were to deliver today, it would be a C-section.  Mostly likely, as I grow (and I know I will even though I told someone I was only halfway and they looked very surprised by that) it should move upwards.  If not, well we cross that bridge when we get there right?  Except C-sections are pretty close to my biggest delivery nightmare EVER.  I'm afraid of the epidural and they want to do a C-section?  I better be out cold.  For days.  Oh I shudder just thinking about it.  

And sorry, no pictures.  I have some that I was going to scan in and the parts are clear (face, feet, stuff), but they're not very high contrast so they're hard to see.  I think something's wrong with their printer.

So I'll try not to.  Instead, I'll think about the multiple projects I've given myself to accomplish in the next few months.  Not sure how I'm going to accomplish everything with the calling and the kids and the . . . oh yeah the husband and the house -- what it needs to be clean?  But I did get Abby's quilt top done and am wondering -- do I spend the money and send it out to be quilted or save the money and do it myself -- cursing the whole way.  Because I really need a longarm.  But that's a little out of my price range right now.  Stress or money?

Yes, mom, again I will read the article on the breathing!!  When I have time . . . come visit me and you can help me learn it!

Things That Don't Work Right

#1 --  Getting into My Little Pony Cars

You would think that this would be obvious but apparently not.  And I took the picture right before she threw a fit about not being able to fit in the car so I know that she was serious.  Notice that it is only now, at nearly 2 years old, that Abby is finding herself too big to fit in things.  

#2 -- Willow trees in Texas.

 

Yes, that's the rest of it.  Last summer (hottest on record in something like 75 years), 75% of the leaves died and fell off of the willow tree.  One little section held stubbornly on until December and we were hoping that with the amount of rain we finally got in January and a mild winter (or lack of winter really) that the whole thing would come back.  Not so.  That one little section has budded out and the rest has definitely not.  Notice that the tree behind the fence is almost fully budded out.  Chopper researched it out and found that willow trees are water guzzlers and require quite a bit of maintenance so we made the decision to chop it down.  Literally.  Chopper took a hatchet to it today -- I'm not sure what he's going to do with the stump.  We plan on replacing it with a tree that will be better for the hot weather and lack of rain but it makes me sad to see a good-sized tree go away and I know that it will be years before anything that we plant gets to a decent size as well.  And I so love trees.  Sigh.

#3 -- The SNOOGLE!!!

Right before Christmas I told Chopper I wanted a body pillow for this pregnancy.  True to his nature, he researches it out and then buys me the Snoogle -- a massive body pillow that curves on both ends as you see above.  I slept with it a few times and was getting headaches (which I attributed to pregnancy hormones because I get them between trimesters anyway) and then Megan confiscated it as her nest.  Now I'm starting to get big enough that I need some more support in bed so 2 nights ago I took it back.  Yesterday morning I woke up SORE!  My neck and shoulder were awful but in a crampy, knotty, I need a good massage kind of way.  Live-able.  Last night I did not sleep with it and felt better this morning.  Until I brushed Megan's hair of all things.  Then my whole left side seized up and I literally ended up prone on the floor crying and had to call Chopper to come home.  Thank goodness for sick leave.  So we dropped the kids off (thank goodness for friends!) and went to urgent care.  Surprise surprise the only real thing they can do is give me pain killers -- which aren't really working.  But I don't want to take more --I'm always wary about drugs during pregnancy. Anyway, it's not a big deal but I'm so glad Chopper was able to come and very glad for the weekend where hopefully I can recuperate while he takes care of the girls.  

But I totally blame the Snoogle and it has been completely banished -- possibly  never to return.  Maybe someone else will want it.  But this is just ridiculous!

Little Projects

I probably should be posting more when these things happen rather than catching up all at once but I've been busy with little projects that don't really need doing so I haven't had time!  Haha.  I SHOULD be working on a list of things that need to get done . . . Oh well.

Last weekend Chopper had the monthly boy scout camp out and they did a hike.  It rained on them and was pretty miserable so I think that means that they actually camped this time!  But in anticipation of the rain, Chopper got out his Goretex and boots and all of his military stuff for bad weather.  This was a particular joy for Abby who had some new shoes to tromp around in for a while.

The shoe thing has really become a problem lately because I can never find them when I need them . . . 

One of the projects I've done that was completely unnecessary was a wreath for the door.  I've seen these yarn-wrapped wreaths all over the internet and love them.  Plus, if you just pin in the flowers, you can easily change them out for the seasons or holidays and it doesn't cost hardly anything.  Thank you pinterest for the tutorials! 

 So I wrapped a straw wreath with twine because that's what we had in the house.  I thought it turned out really cute and then Chopper and I started smelling this odd burned rubber smell in the house.  We could NOT figure out where it was coming from and were worried about wiring and electronics bursting in to flame when we managed to discover that it was this wreath!  I don't know why but something about plastic wrapped straw and twine stinks really bad.  So the wreath is in the garage and the flowers are awaiting a new home -- maybe on yarn-wrapped Styrofoam!

We have had some really amazing days this week -- in fact, amazing enough that I actually had the urge to pick weeds!  Yes, that amazing.  So we went into the front yard and I pulled up all the weeds from under our hedges and Abby discovered that there's a nice little depression under there that is perfect for rabbits or little girls who are smaller than they should be.

Of course once Megan realized what was going on, she wanted in on the action but she just barely fit.

I tried to get a picture of them both together but Abby refused to look at me.  She kept saying "cheese" though.

Last but not least, the warm weather has been freaking me out about being pregnant until late July.  Megan and Abby were winter/early spring babies so my maternity wardrobe is all cold-weather clothing.  But I hate to spend a lot of money because maternity clothes are expensive!  Plus, they all seem to be sleeveless and want to show off the cleavage for the summer so it's just a nightmare to shop.  I've been really wanting a maxi dress and Old Navy had a great one that I tried on that was SOOOOOO comfortable -- but a little low.  So I gave up in frustration and used an online tutorial to take a t-shirt and some knit yardage and make this: 

It's not bad really but it works and it is really stinking comfortable.  Besides, it's not like I look like a fashion plate when I leave the house anyway -- I only really dress up for church.  I am just getting more and more lazy the older I get and the more children I have.  Maybe when I'm forty and done with having kids I'll invest in cute clothes.  Maybe.

Bad Dreams and Other Horror Stories.

Abby woke up crying at 5 a.m.  That's really unusual.  When I went in and picked her up and asked her what was wrong she very distinctly said "a eagle mommy.  A eagle, it hurts."  Poor thing must've had a nightmare.

And then today she said something funny and I can't for the life of me remember what it was!  I need to write these things down when they happen although I tell you what, part of the charm is in the sound of their little voices or in Megan's case, the hand gestures.  I love their personalities.

Megan refused to let Chopper listen to country music or Mark Levin last night while he did the dishes.  She insisted on "dance music".  Which is classical by the way -- not club dance music!

Oh and I had to share this -- Abby is a defiant little bugger.  If you tell her no, she goes further.  Yesterday at Megan's dance class I picked her up so she could watch through the window and she started sucking on the ledge (she always has something in her mouth or is putting things in her mouth.  I am NOT kidding).  I told her "no" and "yucky" and when she did it again I told her she would have to get down if she continued.  So she persisted.  And when I put her down, she promptly opened her mouth and began licking the wall.  Not a lollipop lick, a drag your tongue along that disgusting surface lick.  And then she walked the entire length of that wall with her tongue out and looked at me the entire time.

And I wonder why she gets sick all the time.

Dancing Queen

It's not perfect, but dance classes are going so much better than they started.  Last week Megan had a meltdown about putting on her tap shoes and cried through the whole thing, but this week she was excited and really did everything.  They even threw in a little tumbling today!  Lately she wants me to video her all the time and then watch them so I told her today that I would take some video of her dancing in class.  The first one is at home but the last 3 are class.  Sorry they're dark -- I can only video through the mirrored window.

I have seen so much improvement in her dancing as well.  She's gone from standing and watching to actually doing.  Her teacher told me today she's doing it like she's done it her whole life so that is fantastic.  Now on to find her a preschool for next year!

On a sad note, I think my mom is putting the dog, Arthur, down today.  They've had him for nearly 12 years and there's been a lot of joking about when he'd actually kick the bucket but now that the time is here, it's really very sad!  Unfortunately, he's developed diabetes and apparently taking care of a dog with diabetes can be expensive (they have to be on insulin) and time consuming so my parents made the decision to let him go.  Overall I think it's the best decision but I wish I could be in Michigan to distract mom from not having him around for a while.  He could be a real pain and he was NOT good with children so he was having to go to a kennel when we came to visit but he was a loving dog (to all except my dad!) and funny.  I'll miss his bullet run and his 3-legged walk (he did have 4 legs though -- that's why it was funny).

Because you love my children as much as I do!

Or at least I think you do.  Happy Valentine's Day!  For my less-than-motivated day, I uploaded some very random videos that needed posting.  Ok, maybe not NEEDED.  They're really nothing special.  But you get to see the girls in action and that is something to love today!!

This first one is Chopper chasing the girls -- however, note that Abby's ability to run is severely hampered by her shoes.  Which are not her shoes.  Because she wears anyone's shoes she can get her hands on but her own.  I suppose she feels pretty!

Abby also has taken to saying that things are so cute.  "Mommy, baby.  It's so cute.  Mommy, a teeny tiny sugar ball.  It's so cute.  But I had to prompt her to say it for the camera of course.

Side note, not only is she obsessed with shoes, she is obsessed with babies.  And half of them are her size!  My friend who runs the junior nursery at church told me today that Abby's the only girl in there are all the boys are bigger than she is but none of them talk while Abby does full sentences!  She does talk a lot.

Megan of course wanted to get in on the action.  So I asked her for some dance moves -- this is what we get!

She looks like she should be on the red carpet!  

A Quilt for Project Linus

I know, I know, it's about time.  Or at least you'll think that after I tell you the whole story.  Which I am going to do by the way.

I've been following the blog of fabric designer Pat Bravo and her Art Gallery fabrics for some time actually.  And I drool a lot.  But even though I have several wonderful quilting shops within about a half hour of me, they don't carry about 90% of her fabrics.  And in all honesty, I hate buying online for the first time because you're never quite sure of the color and the scaling of the pattern.  Sigh.

So when she offered to send bags of scraps to whoever wanted them to use in a quilt for Project Linus, I sent an email right away!  Yes please!!!

And right after I got back from the Quilt Festival in Houston, guess what came in the mail?  Glory hallelujah!

First things first of course: sorting, ironing, some arranging.  Look at these beautiful things!

And then I encounter a problem.  Well, several really.  

Problem #1:  I don't work this way.  I tend to find the pattern and then go for fabric.  Looking at fabric and determining pattern?  Well, my brain doesn't work that way.  I also tend to work with monochromatic colors and prints and small scale prints.  There were so many geometrics, large florals, multi-colored prints that I kind've felt lost.

Problem #2: I find out I'm pregnant.  Now that's not a problem in that we're very excited but I tell you what.  The day after I find out I'm pregnant (almost literally), I get a cold.  And the day after I get over that cold, I get morning sickness and exhaustion big time.  So quilting ANYTHING kind've gets pushed to the back burner -- especially with the holidays coming.

Problem #3: The holidays are coming.  My parents will be here for Thanksgiving and MY ENTIRE FAMILY will be here for Christmas.  I have a lot to do!!!

So the fabric sits until Christmas and then my sister-in-law, Denise, saves the day.  Literally.  Because you see, she is a professional artist.  And she's fabulous.  And her brain works in ways that mine doesn't.  So when she's here for Christmas we spread all the fabric out and start discussing.  And not only is she getting colors together, she's mindful of my "condition" (don't know why they call it that but what else do you call it?) and suggests that I do a quilt like the one I made for her son Liam when he was born.  That quilt is Elizabeth Hartman's Charm Squares baby quilt and it is super easy and stinking cute.  And it's about showcasing the fabric, not the pattern, which was perfect.  

I did tweak the idea and created color strips in both 6 1/2 inches and 4 1/2 inches with the white sashing between.  And I didn't measure the width of each piece -- I just cut them in sizes that I liked for the fabric and started going to town on my design wall.

 My daughter got into it too.  She LOVES playing with my fabric and she really enjoyed "quilting" with me.

Anyway, voila!!  I shall call it, In A Pinch.  So yes, it took me approximately 3 months to finish a lap size quilt done with strips.

But I love it.  And I want to keep it.  But I won't because that's not right. 

 But doesn't it look great draped on a chair next to my bookcase???

I am not showing you the back because it's just pink Kona cotton but also because I quilted it on my home machine and there are some wrinkles.  I hope they don't look at it and think it's terrible but I really need a long-arm quilter.  Really.  Too bad Christmas and my birthday have already gone by!!

Sigh.  So worth it though.  And yes, now that I have seen these fabrics in person, I have purchased others by her online.  They are beautiful!!!!