Cool Garden Tool

I am in love with this trimmer!  It's the SKIL 8120 3.6-Volt Lithium Ion Isio 2-N-1 Cordless Shrub And Grass Shear.  Yes, I copied and pasted its name.  This thing is so cool.  It was already carrying a charge when it came, and I couldn't put it down!  I had Bill keeping Karina away from it and I was going after all the stupid grass and weeds in my yard that don't get cut by the mower.  Finally, my yard won't look like crap.  It has another attachment, too, that I can't get a picture of but you can see it if you want to by going here.  It was really easy to change the blade, too.  I can't wait til Karina wakes up so I can go outside and play with it some more.  I just have to keep her distracted so she doesn't come near it. 


Oh, and this isn't a review like on some sites where the company sends you  a product for free or gives you money.  No.  I just like this thing.  My husband bought it and I used it and I love it.

Weekly giveaway at Diaper Junction

Love this place and they're local to me!!! 

Why are they in my house?

What are these tiny little beetle-bugs and why are they in my house?

I have a confession, and it's not about diapers

I watch DOG the Bounty Hunter.

I admit it.  For a long time, I denied it.  I denied that I like the show, that I even watched the show.  Sometimes, if someone caught me with it on, I'd say, "Oh, there was nothing on, I was just watching it for laughs...".  Lies.  I love this show.  I don't know why, really, but I suspect it's because it is the complete, polar opposite of my life.  My life is not exciting, I do not curse and swear like a sailor (most days), I don't chase bad (innocent until proven guilty in a court of law) guys, I don't wear a bulletproof vest, and I don't know a thing about bounty hunting.  I am just fascinated by the excitement and fast pace of this show.  I love watching them hunt down these people, sometimes physically chase them, subdue them, try to talk some sense into them and make them cry in the car, and then take them back to jail.  The yelling, the running, the handcuffing, the tattoos...I love it all.  Because it's far removed from the reality of my life.  I recognize that for some people, this is the reality of their lives, and I hope that for those people there will be positive change and better days.  But I'll keep enjoying this show anyway.

The best episode I've seen so far was when all the guys--Dog, his two sons, his brother, and also Beth, his wife--were up on the 14th or 40th or something floor of an apartment building trying to catch a guy, having left Dog's little 22ish year old daughter Lyssa downstairs talking to the girlfriend of the suspect.  Suddenly there he is, downstairs, and Lyssa, who probably weighs about 110 pounds if that, grabs him.  All the guys start down in the elevator which is so slow, and the suspect, a guy named Jay, starts shaking Lyssa off, because she doesn't have any handcuffs or anything, she's just trying to hold him herself.  Finally he throws her down, and she gets up and chases him!  I couldn't believe it!  Finally the guys get out of the elevator, and Leland goes tearing off down the street after him.  When he catches up to them, Lyssa has caught him again!  Leland jumped on him and handcuffed him and he was screaming at him about pushing his little sister down.  It was the best.  I was literally sitting bolt upright in my bed gripping the covers trying not to yell, "GET HIM!" at the top of my lungs.  I'm sorry, but you just can't get that kind of thrill changing diapers.

So, there you have it.  I admit it.  I love this show.  Normally, I'm an HGTV kinda girl, but on Wednesdays, I love to watch this exciting, crazy show.

I Need To...

1. Sew straps on some of Karina's hats so they don't blow away while we're out walking through a shopping center, where they will fly under the wheels of a car, and then down the street, where some guy on his 5 minute break from a restaurant will gallantly run after them for me (DONE!)

2. Clean up my bedroom, Karina's bedroom, the new spare room, and David's room.  hahahahahahahahaha!

3. Weed the flower beds outside (WORKING-thanks to the awesome new power tool I got for pre-mother's day from Bill!!!  I love this thing; will post later about it)

4. Clean up the laundry room...a monthlong project, at least.  Needs to be cleaned out, organized, and painted.  It is currently a storage zone for a bunch of random tools and junk.  Junk, I tell you.

5. Buy or make an insulated bag to keep Karina's EpiPen and Benadryl in, so I can transfer just the one bag from diaper bag to diaper bag (I have a big bag and a small bag) instead of the EpiPen, the Benadryl bottle, and the medicine dispenser.  (does having a non-insulated bag count?  No?  Crap.)

6. Take more stuff to church for the Youth Group Yard Sale this summer so I can get it out of my house now.  Sick of looking at clothes that will never fit me again as long as I live since my hips are just not what they used to be.

So there's a partial list, yet here I sit.  Playing around online.  Oh how lazy I am...

Some People in My Life

I don't like to share too much personal information here, but it is a personal blog, so there's some.  I talk about some people on here a lot, and I thought I'd take a minute to just sum up a few of the people in my life.  This isn't everyone, but it's the people I spend the most time with.

Mom: the greatest woman ever.  I think that sums her up.  My parents divorced when I was about 5 and my brother was about 2 1/2.  She was a stay at home mom, so she quickly found a job she could do at home.  It didn't pay enough, so we moved to an apartment.  That place was a craphole, so we moved in with my grandparents.  5 in a house was tough with only 3 bedrooms, so my mom paid for an addition so I could have my own room and not have to share with David anymore.  She paid for my first wedding, my divorce, as much of my college as she could, part of my second wedding, and countless other things, even though she never has had a lot, and doesn't have a lot to this day.  She sacrificed for us, every day, and I hope and pray I can be one tenth as good a mom to Karina as she was to me.  My mom understands me, loves me unconditionally, and she's often the only person who can calm me down when I'm really upset.  I'm so glad to have Mom as a best friend now that I'm all grown up.

Nana: My grandmother.  We moved in with her and Pop when I was a kid, and I grew up in her house.  She'll be 84 this summer, and I am a lot like her in some important ways.  She likes to be busy.  She has a quick temper.  She's extremely loyal.  Nana and I fight if we aren't careful, so we're careful.  We're just so alike.  She came here from Scotland on the Queen Mary when she was 19 years old.  She had married Pop the previous year, and came over alone after the war.  She didn't go home for 20 years.  I don't know how she did it.  Living in Florida for 18 months was hell on earth for me, being away.  I hated being away from my family and friends, and the community where I grew up.  She is amazing.

David: My brother.  Love him so much.  He'll be moving in here in about a week, for the duration of his radiology schooling.  He is funny and smart and puts up with me, thank goodness.  I talked about him a lot recently, so I won't now.  He rocks.

Bill: My husband.  An engineer and oh, such an engineer.  He loves watching TV and listening to the radio.  He is a great dad and hubby but procrastinates the heck out of everything.  He rode his bike across the country when he was 16 with his grandfather for Bikecentennial.  That was the year I was born.  Yeah.  He's a little older than me, but it works for us.  He'll be 50 this year.  Wow.  You'd never think it if you met him.  He acts like a kid! 

Karina: of course.  My beautiful daughter.  She was born the day after Christmas.  That was interesting, because I was awake for 36 hours, which was less than fantastic.  After she was born, they kept asking me things and all I would say was, "I just want to go to sleep."  I kind of remember holding her after she was born.  My brother and mom stayed at the hospital the whole time I was in labor (no, not in the room) and after she was born, and they were allowed to come in, I vaguely recall saying something to David like, "I can't look at you because the room is jumping" and then handing her to him.  I was a little loopy.  Now she's 16 months old and I don't know how I lived before she existed.

Daddy: Yep, still call him that.  I don't know why.  We've been through some tough times and some hurt feelings (like when he forgot my 30th birthday--ouch) but we're close again now, and it is really nice.  He's a really handy person and funny, like David.  I'm lucky that when my parents divorced, my dad realized that he wanted to remain part of our lives, and once he made that choice, he has stuck by it.  

Danise: my best friend who lives out of town.  She's on this list because, though she's far away, we're close at heart.  I've known her for 11 years.  We met when we were both in new teacher orientation.  She thought she was late and I was under-dressed, so I was at the back.  She sat down and asked me what she had missed, and we started talking.  Then we discovered we were both newlyweds and lived about 5 blocks away in a neighborhood that was 30 minutes from where we were teaching.  She's been my friend through it all, even though she moved across the country in 2002.  Her kids are my godchildren.  She has become more like family to me and I miss her like crazy being far away.

Steph: my best friend who lives in town.  She is my scrapbooking, cardmaking, rubber stamping, shopping buddy.  We used to teach together, and now she is still teaching at the same wonderful school while I'm at home with Karina.  I've known her almost as long as I've known Danise.  We have a lot of fun all the time, and I wish we had more time to do stuff together.  Steph was there through my bad times (hello, divorce!) but we weren't as close back then as we are now.  Still, she was really great and supportive.  Now she's still hanging in there with me, even though I've taken a step back to stay home with Karina. 


Kelly: my best friend from church.  I have known her forever.  Our birthdays are off by 2 days and one year.  We are youth advisors together with her husband Erik and our pastor, PG.  We have a lot of fun doing the youth events, and we are really good at complaining to each other.  She's Karina's godmother.  I pretend that Karina is only allowed to marry one of Kelly's two sons.  She pretends to go along with it.  Her family has known mine since my mom and aunt were kids in youth group themselves.

Now, I have a lot of other really wonderful friends, and I'll write about them another time.  I just thought I'd get started with some of the people I'm with most often, and my family.  I just keep thinking, how did I get so lucky to have such amazing friends and family?  I love them so much!

Shopping Day of Fun and Stephanies!

What a wonderful day!  My friend Steph, her friend Steffie, and I went shopping at the outlets, and Stephanie from my church babysat Steph's daughter.  Karina stayed home with Bill (and apparently woke up from her nap hysterical.  Poor thing.  I counted 3 molars coming in tonight, plus another front tooth.  Anyway, shopping!) 

We went to the Bare Escentuals store first, and I was very tempted to buy some eyeshadow in these really pretty, shimmery lavender shades, but I couldn't justify it since I don't wear a lot of makeup.  Then we went to the Carter's outlet, and oh, the adorableness of it!  I could have spent a thousand dollars in there (I didn't).  They had some beautiful dresses, one was white with yellow sunflowers on it (which I'm normally not the biggest fan of, but these were really cute).  Since Karina already has so many dresses, the price wasn't quite low enough to get any of those.  Then I saw that they had summer rompers in the same sunflower pattern, so I got her one of those for only $7. That was definitely doable.  I got her a pair of pink shorts, a play shirt with bright flowers, and an outfit:  a fuschia shirt with a hula-skirt-wearing monkey on it and a skort with brightly colored tropical flowers all over it.  I had not been to the Carter's outlet in over 5 years.  Drool.

Then we walked on to a shoe store and then into Gymboree.  Not as much really super-good stuff, until I spotted this sweet romper in the back.  It is so ME...if they had had it in my size... ha ha!  No, it's white with little pink flowers all over it...so adorable...and a matching hat.  I thought it was $20 for the romper alone but it was less than $20 for both pieces, so I was happy.  Poor Karina, subjected to my fashion sense til she's old enough to fight with me about it.  I do let her help choose her clothes most days, though.  She likes that.  (She likes T-shirts with dogs on them).

We went into a few other stores, a chocolate store (mmmmmmmmmmmm), a sunglasses store, The Children's Place (didn't find anything in there at all; very disappointed), and Bath and Body Works.  I was tempted in there, too. They have these room fragrance plugs and of course they come in the signature scents.  The plug itself is usually white, but now they have them in colors, including pink, and boy, was I tempted!

Steffie is over 6 months pregnant, and I'm not sure how she made it through the day still standing.  I was exhausted!  But such a good kind of exhausted!  What a wonderful day spent with my friend and a new friend shopping with NO CHILDREN!  Ahhh, contented sigh.

A Great Post About Diaper Fabrics at Thanks Mama Blog

http://blog.thanksmama.com/2010/04/cloth-diaper-fabrics.html

Diaper Announcements, and I Hate Changes

I heard the GroBaby/Natural Baby Company announcement from them through Facebook, but I heard about the bumGenius announcement on The Cloth Diaper Report from Emi.  Thanks, Emi, for the heads-up!

First, GroBaby is changing its name to GroVia, and as a result a lot of their affiliated brands, like Dream-Eze and Wonder Wraps are being affected.  I have never used the Dream-Eze because I don't use fitted diapers, but I hear a lot of good stuff about them.  I believe (to the best of my knowledge but I could be wrong) they are being discontinued.  I was told by GroBaby on Facebook that Wonder Wraps will no longer be wholesaled, but will only be available on their website, http://www.thenaturalbabyco.com/ and consequently, a lot of retailers are starting to put them on sale.  I only wish they had some other colors.  If you read my blog much you know I am not a fan of the current solid colors.  Anyway, get 'em while you can.  They are on sale at their site.

Now this announcement from bumGenius, I did not know about.  They are, according to Emi at The Cloth Diaper Report, discontinuing all the bright colors.  That would be Zinnia, Moonbeam, Ribbit, and Clementine.  So if you like those best, go get some cuz they won't be around long.

All this on top of the horrible changes Stampin' Up just made to their line of inks and colors, and it's too much for me to take!  I don't like change.  I know it can be for the best, but I still hate it. 

Karina did a cool thing today

Well, I was impressed.  I didn't know she knew what I'm about to share with you.  We were reading one of her books (she loves her books and we read a LOT of them, allllllll daaaaaay loooong) about animals, and just on a whim, on the farm page, I asked her, "Karina, where's the pig?"  And she pointed to the pig.  I thought it might just be luck, so I asked her, "Do you see a cow?" And she pointed to the cow.  She then pointed to the horse, and the sheep, and then on another page, not as surprisingly, she pointed to the dog and cat.  Mom and I think that she's processing all the stuff she hears, and that might be partly why she doesn't really talk much.  (But she's improving there, too.  I think she's trying to say, "read").  Pretty much all she says right now, regularly, is "Da" which is Daddy, "Mama", "Duddy" which is doggy, and "Ba" or similar sounds to "ba".  "Ba" can be blueberries, bananas, bottle/drink, or elaborate things like, "I want to go down the slide now" or "What is Daddy doing up there that's taking him so long?".  Oh, I forgot, "Ma" is milk.  But other than these few things, which she really rarely says, she doesn't say much most of the time. 

Well I guess this post sort of dragged out longer than I intended.  Shocking, me typing too much.  Ha ha!  I just thought it was really cool that she knew those animals.  I had no idea she could do that.  She amazes me every day.  I just love her that's all.  :-)

This week's giveaway at Cloth Diaper Blog

Here is the latest giveaway at Cloth Diaper Blog, 

the blog affiliated with Diaper Junction. 

I actually have one of these diapers in Pomegranate, 

but have not had a chance to try it out yet. 

It's different--the insert is attached. 

It's really soft inside, too.  I have high hopes!

I am so bored.

Bill is at a concert with a friend.

Karina is asleep.

I'm just sitting here, with nothing at all good on TV to watch.  I just want to watch some good TV.  I do not want to watch HGTV's "Selling New York" show.  I don't want to watch the stuff that's on my other usual channels.

Nothing. 

There is n o t h i n g on.

Second Time Around's Birthday Bash Event

Well I've been trying to get this little button added to my sidebar, but for some reason it's just not cooperating.  So here, it's in this post.  I did it like a picture.  Please check out Second Time Around's Birthday Party BASH from May 9-June 9.  If you go to the site, be sure to grab her button (hopefully it will work for you!) and add it to your site, too.  You can get extra entries that way!  This is a great blog, and Rachel has been really friendly, and even responded to some of my comments, which I thought was really nice.  Here's a link to the blog.

Update:  I just got the button to work, yay!  Scroll down and you'll find it just above the button for her blog.

Karina is my little helper

Karina likes to help me do almost everything. She gets upset if I do laundry without her and she sees me (I'm not making this up).  She will drag a full, heavy bag of laundry down the hall, grunting all the while, until I make her give it to me.  She tried to carry a full laundry basket the other day--she was really trying to pick it up!  She also helps me put dishes away from the dishwasher, by handing me silverware one piece at a time (except knives which I grab up quickly).  She will sometimes try to use the little hand vac to clean up the enormous quantities of tiny food particles she leaves under her highchair, but she can't turn it on yet.  She just holds it up with all her strength, grunting, until I take it from her.  She helps me shop by holding the list.  She helps me carry groceries in, too, and will try to lift these heavy bags.  I have to save a light one for her just so she can help me carry groceries from the car to the kitchen.  She loves pulling clothes out of drawers, but will "reorganize" them later for me.  She likes flushing the toilet.  She sweeps and tries to use the dustpan.  She helped me rinse out the bathtub after I had washed it.  I was rinsing it out with a cup and she went and got another container that I usually use but couldn't find (I guess she had stashed it somewhere) and started filling it up with water and rinsing the tub with me.  Oh, and tonight, Bill's at volleyball, and it was time to put on pajamas.  So I told Karina I was going to go put mine on first.  She made a beeline to my jammy drawer and pulled out jammy pants and a top that matched!  I do not have a lot of matchy-matchy pajamas.  Mostly I sleep in T-shirts, but I do have some, and this set has pants, a tanktop, and a little cardigan-like part.  She pulled out the pants and cardigan.  I couldn't believe it.  So of course, I had to wear them!  And she likes to help me find socks, but that might be just because they are scattered all over the floor of my closet.

It is so cute how she's my helper.  Wow, once I started making this list of all the cute ways she helps me, I kept thinking of more, and the list has grown since I started typing this post!  I'm astounded at all the ways she tries to--and often succeeds in--helping me.  She is so amazing.  Wow.

UPDATE: Today (Thursday) I thought of something else she does--she likes to close the doors to the microwave, dishwasher, front door of the house, bathroom doors, car doors if I'd let her (I don't), and dryer door (also don't; I have a fear of her fingers getting chopped off by it slamming shut).

Diaper Junction giveaway: GroBaby set

Tinkerbell Diapers? On Etsy at Summer House Designs!

I was just browsing Etsy while Karina's napping, and look what I stumbled across!

I am not a big huge Tinkerbell fan or anything, but even so, this is too cute.  I saw this at Summer House Designs on Etsy.  They sell clothes and accessories, too.


Here's the front of the Tinkerbell diaper.

Here's a cute little onesie.

I think this little set is adorable.  How cute would my girlie look in this???  Find it here.
Here is another diaper.  This could be for a boy, or even a girl.  Girls could wear Toy Story diapers!

Here are some of the cutest bloomers I've ever seen:

Again, I found all these on Etsy at Summer House Designs shop.

Couple more pages from the book

Here are a few more pages from the book.  I'm sorry it's hard to see them.  That eyeball creature is Piper Henry. 

The Book David Once Wrote for Me

My brother, who was recently accepted into a radiology program and will be living with me for 18 months, has had a bumpier road than I have.  Despite the ups and downs, he's always kept a good attitude, stayed positive, and found a way to show how much he loves his family.  David loves to read and write, and unfortunately has never been able to find a job doing either of those things.  Over the years, David has done the following things for me:

1. He drove from his college town (3 hours away) to my school for the afternoon just so my students could have the reward they had earned (a visit from David--they loved when I would tell stories about him).  He was only there for about 2 hours because he had to go back for his job later that day.

2. Right before my first marriage fell apart, we had just put our dog to sleep because of seizures he kept having.  I was not interested in celebrating my birthday, but I went to my mom's anyway (the husband did not come).  David drove from out of town (college--he's 3 years younger than me, and was in school for 6), again, 3 hours away, to surprise me at my mom's house for my birthday.

3. (This is the one this post is supposed to be about.)  One year for Christmas, David wrote me a book.  It's a short book, probably closer to a short story than a book, technically.  On Christmas Eve, he had not finished writing the final copy and illustrating it, so he stayed up until 3am to finish.  It was the most amazing present I think I've probably ever gotten.  It was called "The Wrong Island" and it was about a teacher (my profession) who has a horrible class (I had a horrible class at the time) with one really good little girl in it (my class had 4 girls total, all really good, but he told me later he didn't know my class was so bad...I was teaching out of state).  The teacher in the story is a witch, literally, and one day when her class is particularly badly behaved, she accidentally casts a spell that sends the kids to this "wrong" island...where they all start disappearing.  The one good girl befriends this little creature who says he can take her to the wizard who will send them home.  No, it's nothing at all like "The Wizard of Oz" I'm just really bad at describing it.  The wizard's a bad guy, the creature isn't what he seems, the scary creature they talk about is not what he seems...It has a surprise ending, it's funny, and it's amazingly illustrated.  My poor mom was SO jealous that he gave me his first real book/story.  But she was also really touched that he gave it to his sister.

David and I are so different, personality-wise.  He is super laid-back, and I am soooooo high-strung (think Sally from "When Harry Met Sally"...only worse).  I know a lot of siblings don't get along well, or not even that, just don't really talk or see each other much.  I am SO lucky that my only sibling, my brother, likes talking to me, enjoys seeing me, puts up with my quirks (which include my husband, haha!), and says "I love you" to me on the phone.  Always.

Fantastic!

MY BROTHER GOT ACCEPTED TO HIS RADIOGRAPHY PROGRAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I am so excited!  He will be living with us for 18 months.  I can't wait.  My brother and I are really close, and I am so happy that I can do this for him, and so happy that I have a husband who supports the things that matter most to me.


If you don't already know, my poor brother has been out of work for over a year now.  He was working in insurance and hating it, so getting laid off was a slightly okay thing...except for the part where he couldn't find a new job.  He really wanted to do something related to writing/editing, but there was nothing.  He finally even started looking in insurance again, so he'd have A JOB, but still nothing.  Then his girlfriend suggested he look into radiology/radiography, and he thought it sounded really interesting.  He started researching it more, got really interested, found a program, and now he's been accepted!  Yay!  It just happens that this is a great field to be going into anyway, it's a field I'm told is still hiring and has good pay.  The freakiest thing to me is that when he graduates in 18 months, Karina will be 3 years old.  Aaaack!  There might even be a second baby!  Bigger AAAAAACCCKKK!

All good acks, though. 


I hope everyone had a good weekend and a nice Easter.  Mine was just okay, until today.  :-)