Hey everyone! Things are super chaotic around here. I've decided to stop apologizing for not having time to blog, so you just get me when you get me. :-) Before we even hit Thanksgiving it was nonstop for us.
Karina turns 5 this year on the 26th of December. Traditionally we hold her friends birthday party early in the month to avoid the rush. We've found this just works out best for everyone. This year, Bill also wanted to go to Chicago to visit his sisters who still live there (where he's from). I've been so hesitant to go with Elena, but when Madeline (almost!) found a replacement Ducky (so close...) I figured we would just have to go so I could thank her in person for her efforts. So we talked about driving (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! It would have been about 3 days in the car both ways because of how often we'd have to stop with the girls, and by "girls" I mean "Elena's screaming fits") so in the end we decided to fly. It worked out pretty well, actually, and ended up costing less than it would have cost us to drive (with hotels and gas and all). The flight there was fine, and Elena was really good. It's only about a 2 hour flight, thankfully.
The first day we went to the Shedd Aquarium to see their amazing jellyfish exhibit. Karina is obsessed with jellies and sea creatures, and it was even the theme of her birthday party. We went through the jelly exhibit twice, and probably could have gone 3 times, but we left Elena's stroller at Madeline's apartment by accident and it was way too far to go back for it. So we just took turns carrying her and letting her walk. She was a trooper! The aquarium was phenomenal and they both loved it. It was definitely the highlight of the trip. We also visited one of Bill's oldest friends, who recently adopted his own little girl Karina's age, so we went out to his place and stayed the night. Karina and his daughter got along great. They came into the city later and we all went to the Lincoln Park Zoo together. That was really cool, too. We also went to Navy Pier and the Brookfield Zoo. The Brookfield Zoo I have to say was rather disappointing overall, but they did have a brand new baby gorilla which was adorable! Elena was great the whole trip, although the stress started to get to her near the end and she started waking up in the night throwing up. She'd be fine during the day and then wake up at night and throw up. Then she threw up alllll over the place on the plane. That was so awful. I ended up having to change into one of Bill's shirts because it was all over my sleeve, and we didn't have a spare shirt for Elena (just pants) so we put her jacket on her as a shirt. Karina slept through the whole plane ride home. I was SO glad to be home. We had a good time, though.
Once we got home, Karina had one day of preschool before Thanksgiving break, and that was the day of their Thanksgiving feast at school. I helped out with that because I am one of the two room moms. The other lady actually headed most of that up herself because I'd been out of town. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the day after Halloween, literally, Karina got strep throat and was out for a week (sick as a dog) and then Elena got croup at the same time. Luckily they were both healthy by the time we left for Chicago.
For Thanksgiving we usually have a big group of family but this year it was just my mom, grandmother, Bill, the girls, and me. We went to my mom's house and it was quiet and small but really really nice. I got to have a whole conversation with my mom that was not interrupted once by any small sweet children!
Then we had Karina's birthday party the first weekend in December. I like to decorate for Christmas right after Thanksgiving, but having a pile of kids in the house makes that pretty much impossible. So instead we decorated with jellies and seahorses and sea turtles and sea stars for her underwater themed birthday. I think it went well, too. We made jellies out of squeezy-fruit lids and jellies that light up out of inverted bowls and stick on tap lights. We hung jellies and sea creatures all over the house and I made a cake and decorated it with icing jellies and fish sprinkles. There were more kids than we've ever had and it went great. One interesting thing was that a friend gave Karina an Anna doll, from the movie Frozen. Some of my friends with kids had gone to see it but we couldn't go, and honestly, I thought it was going to be awful so I wasn't too upset about missing it. But they raved about it at the party and finally Karina wanted to go see it, so I caved. I am SO glad I did! It was amazing! I think it's probably going to end up being one of my favorite Disney movies. Anyway, before we even saw the movie, I decided that I should go get the Elsa doll for Elena because she, poor thing, didn't understand why Karina was getting all this stuff and she didn't get anything (because, Mommy fail, I forgot to have stuff for her to open!). Imagine my surprise when Elsa turns out to be sold out....everywhere! So too bad, but then we saw the movie and that made me wish to find it even more! The thing is SOLD OUT!!!
Today was Karina's Christmas pageant at preschool. It's a short little telling of the Christmas story and the kids ring bells and sing songs. It is adorable. My mom even got to come and that was great because Karina will be going to public school next year and so she probably won't be in any more Christmas pageants, not religious ones anyway, so my mom was really happy to see her. Elena was, too, and she was a really good girl. When my mom held her up to see Karina, though, she screamed out, "INA!!! INA!!!" a couple times. It was pretty funny though.
Well today before the pageant I ran some errands and went to my usual places, and I checked for Elsa but of course no luck. I did pick up a color change Anna doll and a Merida doll for Elena. Then after we finished we had a little time left before we could go to the pageant so we went to another store nearby, one I don't go to often and frankly it's having trouble competing with the other two big box stores around. So I thought there might be a chance I'd find one there, maybe the color change one that's more expensive. BUT. They had Elsa! The less expensive one! And they had FOUR of them! I just got one, because that's all we needed and other people are looking for them, too. I sent a friend of mine there later to get one. I hope she was able to find one!
Karina doesn't know about it. I'm saving it for Christmas. She keeps asking me every day to check for Elsa online. I just hope I can hold her off til Christmas!
Hope you are all doing well!
Friday, December 13, 2013
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Winter sick season before it's winter? say what?
So this has been a week. We had a Halloween party at Karina's preschool on Wednesday, with a costume parade and little party. It was fun, and the kids are so cute. The next day, Karina was so excited about trick or treating for Halloween that she dressed Elena in her costume early in the morning and I had to leave her in it because she's so fussy about getting dressed. Luckily, she didn't mess it up! We went out as a family and saw lots of our neighbors and had a wonderful night. Karina said, "Mommy, Daddy, trick or treating is just like going for a walk in your neighborhood in the dark and getting candy."
The next day was Friday, and that morning, Karina was really tired seeming, but I figured it was all the excitement from the day before. I am so dumb. On the way home from preschool, she suddenly started crying and said her neck (meaning her throat) hurt. As soon as she said it, I thought, Strep Throat.
We got home, I called our pediatrician and got an appointment for later that afternoon, and they confirmed that she did indeed have strep. Great. So, we got some antibiotics, I dropped the prescription off on our way home, Bill went and picked it up and we gave her her first dose Friday night. She threw it up 30 minutes later. And then spent the entire night throwing up every hour. EVERY HOUR. ALL NIGHT. It was one of the worst nights ever. Finally she got another dose of medicine into her in the morning and we both slept til after 10. I think she stayed in bed til 11. Elena was great and really well-behaved.
We spent the weekend battling strep. It knocked my little girl slam out. She had no appetite, no energy, and continued to have episodes of throwing up here and there most of the weekend. Since the doc had cleared her for school Monday, and she was in no shape to go back, and Elena was beginning a really nasty sounding cough, I brought them both into the doctor's on Monday. I was told that Karina was doing much better, and her throat was looking much less red, but Elena had croup. So more meds, but at least Elena has not felt bad, she just sounds horrific. But she's on the mend, too. Karina stayed sick until this morning. Tuesday we went to my mom's for dinner and she was fine until we were sitting at the table to eat. And she threw up. I wanted to cry. But this morning she woke up like a new kid, ate her whole breakfast, and ate a normal lunch, too. Dinner she wasn't interested in, but I didn't push it at all.
So this has been a mess of a week. I'm exhausted, drained, and stressed. We're going to visit Bill's family soon, and I'm trying to prepare for that, plan ahead for Karina's birthday party in early December, consider Thanksgiving plans, and make sure I'm getting my Christmas shopping done. I am making a quilt for a friend as a retirement gift, I don't have all the stuff I need for it and haven't really been able to go out to get the stuff due to sick children, haven't been grocery shopping in a serious manner in a week, and oh, our fridge is messing up. It keeps freezing up. Bill thinks it's because the vent is messed up but I think it's because he keeps setting both freezer and fridge to the max cold setting. I keep telling him the refrigerator is not meant to freeze your food and keep it indefinitely. That's what the freezer is for. Sometimes that man has no common sense. Anyway, he's dealing with that and I may still get a new fridge out of it.
My car still needs an alignment. It's ridiculous how long that's been put off.
And now I think I might have caught Elena's cold. So not what I need. My pediatrician said croup is one of the hundred or so strains of the cold virus, and that there are a couple of strains that cause kids' voiceboxes to swell up. He said that's why they sound funny, and he said adults can get it too but our windpipes are bigger and can deal with the swelling better. Never knew that. I love that he explains stuff to me when I ask, and sometimes when I don't, it's so awesome. I learn a lot. We are lucky to have a really great pediatrician.
I hope everyone reading this is doing well and NOT sick. And sorry for all the vomit talk. I'm too tired to care about it too much. I'm not even sure why I'm awake right now. So I should go sleep. Good night!
The next day was Friday, and that morning, Karina was really tired seeming, but I figured it was all the excitement from the day before. I am so dumb. On the way home from preschool, she suddenly started crying and said her neck (meaning her throat) hurt. As soon as she said it, I thought, Strep Throat.
We got home, I called our pediatrician and got an appointment for later that afternoon, and they confirmed that she did indeed have strep. Great. So, we got some antibiotics, I dropped the prescription off on our way home, Bill went and picked it up and we gave her her first dose Friday night. She threw it up 30 minutes later. And then spent the entire night throwing up every hour. EVERY HOUR. ALL NIGHT. It was one of the worst nights ever. Finally she got another dose of medicine into her in the morning and we both slept til after 10. I think she stayed in bed til 11. Elena was great and really well-behaved.
We spent the weekend battling strep. It knocked my little girl slam out. She had no appetite, no energy, and continued to have episodes of throwing up here and there most of the weekend. Since the doc had cleared her for school Monday, and she was in no shape to go back, and Elena was beginning a really nasty sounding cough, I brought them both into the doctor's on Monday. I was told that Karina was doing much better, and her throat was looking much less red, but Elena had croup. So more meds, but at least Elena has not felt bad, she just sounds horrific. But she's on the mend, too. Karina stayed sick until this morning. Tuesday we went to my mom's for dinner and she was fine until we were sitting at the table to eat. And she threw up. I wanted to cry. But this morning she woke up like a new kid, ate her whole breakfast, and ate a normal lunch, too. Dinner she wasn't interested in, but I didn't push it at all.
So this has been a mess of a week. I'm exhausted, drained, and stressed. We're going to visit Bill's family soon, and I'm trying to prepare for that, plan ahead for Karina's birthday party in early December, consider Thanksgiving plans, and make sure I'm getting my Christmas shopping done. I am making a quilt for a friend as a retirement gift, I don't have all the stuff I need for it and haven't really been able to go out to get the stuff due to sick children, haven't been grocery shopping in a serious manner in a week, and oh, our fridge is messing up. It keeps freezing up. Bill thinks it's because the vent is messed up but I think it's because he keeps setting both freezer and fridge to the max cold setting. I keep telling him the refrigerator is not meant to freeze your food and keep it indefinitely. That's what the freezer is for. Sometimes that man has no common sense. Anyway, he's dealing with that and I may still get a new fridge out of it.
My car still needs an alignment. It's ridiculous how long that's been put off.
And now I think I might have caught Elena's cold. So not what I need. My pediatrician said croup is one of the hundred or so strains of the cold virus, and that there are a couple of strains that cause kids' voiceboxes to swell up. He said that's why they sound funny, and he said adults can get it too but our windpipes are bigger and can deal with the swelling better. Never knew that. I love that he explains stuff to me when I ask, and sometimes when I don't, it's so awesome. I learn a lot. We are lucky to have a really great pediatrician.
I hope everyone reading this is doing well and NOT sick. And sorry for all the vomit talk. I'm too tired to care about it too much. I'm not even sure why I'm awake right now. So I should go sleep. Good night!
Friday, October 25, 2013
Just a little update-y post
This is just a post to update everyone on my life. Because it is ever so exciting. He he.
1. We had mice. UGH. Somehow a mouse or a couple got in, and even though they weren't in the house for long, they made a big mess and it was the most disgusting thing I've ever dealt with and I swear they better not ever get in my house again. We have traps everywhere now and are leaving them up probably all winter. Possibly forever. We also bought some of those ultrasonic things, just to see if they work. Not holding my breath, but hey, if they end up working, great.
2. Karina loves preschool. She loves it so much that she asks every day if it's preschool the next day. She only goes 3 days a week, but I think she would have been happy going 5 days (I wouldn't have been though!). Today when I picked her up, she told me she had a great day. Not just a great day, but a FANTASTIC day. She is so adorable.
3. We are going to Chicago later this year to visit Bill's family, and we'll be flying with both girls for the first time. Please send positive thoughts our way so that maybe Elena will not spend the entire flight crying and/or screaming, thus getting us kicked off in mid-air. That would be bad, even if gave us parachutes.
4. We updated our kitchen a little and got a new dishwasher, sink, and counters to match the other ones we put in (nothing exciting, just laminate, but they're much nicer looking than the ones we had before. I have plans to share photos soon.)
5. Karina and I have been working on plans for her birthday party, which we will do in early December as we've done in the past. This year she's having a sort of undersea theme, with jellyfish, starfish, seahorses, and sea turtles. The girl loves jellyfish, it's the funniest thing (yes, she knows they sting, she doesn't care). Anyway, I want to make it a really great party, and really go all out, as much as I can handle, because she'll be 5! Bill and I offered to let her have a party somewhere else, like her friends sometimes do, since it was her 5th birthday, but she just wanted a party at home, and that was fine with us. So I'm going to try to make it extra special in other ways. So far, we have some pretty neat invitations (I'm not bragging, I'm just proud that I came up with a clever way to incorporate her favorite toys and things while sticking to the party theme) with some clipart of her favorite characters standing on a beach, with words to the effect of, "From under the world of all her favorite things comes Karina's 5th birthday party, in the coral reef". Inside is a beautiful picture of the coral reef with all her favorite animals. I wanted it to look like the same characters were peeking into the water from above, but that was really hard and I couldn't make that work quite right, but I'm still pretty pleased with the result. We got some bowls and stick on tap lights and we're making some light-up jellyfish to hang. We took the lids to those squeezy fruit pouches that most moms are familiar with and tied some thin ribbon to them and made little jellyfish. We found some window clings at the dollar store with sea creatures to put in the window. And I have plans for a cool coral reef centerpiece. I want to make a cake for her and have the same characters from the invitation on the cake to look kind of like they're on a beach. But I might have to do cupcakes if she would rather have those. Anyway, that's been fun to work on with her.
6. I am making a quilt. Really. I'm so excited, too. Our friend is retiring this year and she is going to sail around the world, so I have already done the quilt top and it turned out so great! I just need to find a backing material and a binding, and then buy the batting. Then I can smash it all together and start the part I like least, the actual quilting part. I have actually made a couple of what I call "fake" quilts, because I usually sew a straight line in a + shape across the whole thing and maybe a few other straight lines to hold the batting in place, and that's it. Can you say L-A-Z-Y? Yep, that's me! But this is fun, and it was fun making her quilt because it's small. It's only about 4'x5', just a lap quilt. It has some 12" squares and some 12" 9-patches (which are blocks made of 9 squares that make a square that's 12" across in this case). Then they're just placed in a checkerboard pattern and it looks pretty cool. I'll take pictures. I haven't finished it yet, though, so I don't have any yet.
7. My 15th college reunion is this weekend! I am going to see my college roommate and another very good friend of ours, as well as some other friends this weekend. Things have changed a lot at William and Mary since I graduated, but in many ways it never changes. I can't wait to get back and walk the campus and remember all the fun times. Roomie and I are going to go to the reunion year mixer, where alumni can get together with other alums from their graduating year, and then to a big tailgate thingy. I wonder if I have to print something and bring it with me. Hm, I guess I'll be looking into that later. :-) I'm so excited to be spending literally the entire day at my old school, without the girls or Bill, as much as I love them, but just me! I get to be JUST ME for a whole day!! This is nearly unheard of. Usually I'm someone's mommy or wife, but tomorrow I get to be just plain old me. I think one day of that is enough. You know I'll miss those little cuties at home. (I've already been thinking I should have gotten them tickets, too, so I could see my girls run the Sunken Gardens and stand on the steps of the Wren Building....but I'll take them another day). Guess I should head off to bed. Lots to do early in the morning before I head out!
1. We had mice. UGH. Somehow a mouse or a couple got in, and even though they weren't in the house for long, they made a big mess and it was the most disgusting thing I've ever dealt with and I swear they better not ever get in my house again. We have traps everywhere now and are leaving them up probably all winter. Possibly forever. We also bought some of those ultrasonic things, just to see if they work. Not holding my breath, but hey, if they end up working, great.
2. Karina loves preschool. She loves it so much that she asks every day if it's preschool the next day. She only goes 3 days a week, but I think she would have been happy going 5 days (I wouldn't have been though!). Today when I picked her up, she told me she had a great day. Not just a great day, but a FANTASTIC day. She is so adorable.
3. We are going to Chicago later this year to visit Bill's family, and we'll be flying with both girls for the first time. Please send positive thoughts our way so that maybe Elena will not spend the entire flight crying and/or screaming, thus getting us kicked off in mid-air. That would be bad, even if gave us parachutes.
4. We updated our kitchen a little and got a new dishwasher, sink, and counters to match the other ones we put in (nothing exciting, just laminate, but they're much nicer looking than the ones we had before. I have plans to share photos soon.)
5. Karina and I have been working on plans for her birthday party, which we will do in early December as we've done in the past. This year she's having a sort of undersea theme, with jellyfish, starfish, seahorses, and sea turtles. The girl loves jellyfish, it's the funniest thing (yes, she knows they sting, she doesn't care). Anyway, I want to make it a really great party, and really go all out, as much as I can handle, because she'll be 5! Bill and I offered to let her have a party somewhere else, like her friends sometimes do, since it was her 5th birthday, but she just wanted a party at home, and that was fine with us. So I'm going to try to make it extra special in other ways. So far, we have some pretty neat invitations (I'm not bragging, I'm just proud that I came up with a clever way to incorporate her favorite toys and things while sticking to the party theme) with some clipart of her favorite characters standing on a beach, with words to the effect of, "From under the world of all her favorite things comes Karina's 5th birthday party, in the coral reef". Inside is a beautiful picture of the coral reef with all her favorite animals. I wanted it to look like the same characters were peeking into the water from above, but that was really hard and I couldn't make that work quite right, but I'm still pretty pleased with the result. We got some bowls and stick on tap lights and we're making some light-up jellyfish to hang. We took the lids to those squeezy fruit pouches that most moms are familiar with and tied some thin ribbon to them and made little jellyfish. We found some window clings at the dollar store with sea creatures to put in the window. And I have plans for a cool coral reef centerpiece. I want to make a cake for her and have the same characters from the invitation on the cake to look kind of like they're on a beach. But I might have to do cupcakes if she would rather have those. Anyway, that's been fun to work on with her.
6. I am making a quilt. Really. I'm so excited, too. Our friend is retiring this year and she is going to sail around the world, so I have already done the quilt top and it turned out so great! I just need to find a backing material and a binding, and then buy the batting. Then I can smash it all together and start the part I like least, the actual quilting part. I have actually made a couple of what I call "fake" quilts, because I usually sew a straight line in a + shape across the whole thing and maybe a few other straight lines to hold the batting in place, and that's it. Can you say L-A-Z-Y? Yep, that's me! But this is fun, and it was fun making her quilt because it's small. It's only about 4'x5', just a lap quilt. It has some 12" squares and some 12" 9-patches (which are blocks made of 9 squares that make a square that's 12" across in this case). Then they're just placed in a checkerboard pattern and it looks pretty cool. I'll take pictures. I haven't finished it yet, though, so I don't have any yet.
7. My 15th college reunion is this weekend! I am going to see my college roommate and another very good friend of ours, as well as some other friends this weekend. Things have changed a lot at William and Mary since I graduated, but in many ways it never changes. I can't wait to get back and walk the campus and remember all the fun times. Roomie and I are going to go to the reunion year mixer, where alumni can get together with other alums from their graduating year, and then to a big tailgate thingy. I wonder if I have to print something and bring it with me. Hm, I guess I'll be looking into that later. :-) I'm so excited to be spending literally the entire day at my old school, without the girls or Bill, as much as I love them, but just me! I get to be JUST ME for a whole day!! This is nearly unheard of. Usually I'm someone's mommy or wife, but tomorrow I get to be just plain old me. I think one day of that is enough. You know I'll miss those little cuties at home. (I've already been thinking I should have gotten them tickets, too, so I could see my girls run the Sunken Gardens and stand on the steps of the Wren Building....but I'll take them another day). Guess I should head off to bed. Lots to do early in the morning before I head out!
Click here to view these pictures larger
A note about these pictures. The white dishwasher is not the one we kept; it wasn't working and we got another one, and when we installed the new one, Bill figured out what was wrong with the white one and we could have kept it after all. Sigh. The picture of Karina holding the drawing--those are the planets. Check out Jupiter. She used a poster as a guide, but still. Proud mommy. And the duck is the replacement ducky that's too big and has essentially been rejected at this point in favor of the smaller ducky we got at the baby store. But it's all okay. As long as she's happy.
A note about these pictures. The white dishwasher is not the one we kept; it wasn't working and we got another one, and when we installed the new one, Bill figured out what was wrong with the white one and we could have kept it after all. Sigh. The picture of Karina holding the drawing--those are the planets. Check out Jupiter. She used a poster as a guide, but still. Proud mommy. And the duck is the replacement ducky that's too big and has essentially been rejected at this point in favor of the smaller ducky we got at the baby store. But it's all okay. As long as she's happy.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Ducky Update (and a few other things)
This is for those of you who read about Elena's lost Ducky and felt as awful for her as I did. Or close to it. I took her to a couple stores over the weekend but they didn't have a good selection of stuffed animals to choose from, so on Monday while Karina was at preschool, we stopped in a big baby store up near Karina's school. They had a whole shelf of stuffed animals, including a couple of Huggybuddies (no ducks of course). They even had a plush Gund duck (not Huggybuddy), but the first duck I showed Elena, she squealed with joy and grabbed it. "Ducky!" she cried. That was that. The best part is I got two of them because they were inexpensive store brand ducks. She loves her new ducky. I don't think it's the same kind of love, but she's happy and that's what matters. She also became quite lovey with some of her other stuffed animals, so overall we have a pretty happy ending, all things considered.
Thanks to all of you who actually read that massively long post. And thank you very much to those of you who expressed concern for both of us and offered some much-needed advice and insight into things (that would be you, Liz). You were so right, and I never realized it til you said it, but I do feel guilty about a lot of things with Elena! I'm working on that.
Thanks all you readers out there!
Oh and I have to share the weirdest small-world story with you! I was at my book club (okay it's not my personal book club, and I'm a new addition, but still) the other night, with my friend from my teaching days and her sister. The other ladies were sick or unable to make it, so it was just the three of us. We were talking for hours, and somehow the subject of blogs came up and I had said in passing that I had one. My friend's sister asked the name, and I was laughing because of course the blog name has changed but the url is still the old name, daydreaming of cloth diapers. So I told her, and she said, "I know that blog! My sister in law uses cloth diapers and she sent me something from your blog ages ago!" How funny is that??
We bought a new dishwasher this weekend and it was delivered today. Hopefully we'll get it installed tomorrow. Wish us luck!
Have a great week everyone!
Thanks to all of you who actually read that massively long post. And thank you very much to those of you who expressed concern for both of us and offered some much-needed advice and insight into things (that would be you, Liz). You were so right, and I never realized it til you said it, but I do feel guilty about a lot of things with Elena! I'm working on that.
Thanks all you readers out there!
Oh and I have to share the weirdest small-world story with you! I was at my book club (okay it's not my personal book club, and I'm a new addition, but still) the other night, with my friend from my teaching days and her sister. The other ladies were sick or unable to make it, so it was just the three of us. We were talking for hours, and somehow the subject of blogs came up and I had said in passing that I had one. My friend's sister asked the name, and I was laughing because of course the blog name has changed but the url is still the old name, daydreaming of cloth diapers. So I told her, and she said, "I know that blog! My sister in law uses cloth diapers and she sent me something from your blog ages ago!" How funny is that??
We bought a new dishwasher this weekend and it was delivered today. Hopefully we'll get it installed tomorrow. Wish us luck!
Have a great week everyone!
Thursday, October 3, 2013
The last month...
I realize I don't post very often anymore. But it looks like roughly once a month could happen. Here's what I've been up to the last month.
Planned with other youth advisors for the first half of the "school year" as I think of it. Hopefully when our pastor comes back from her time away (due to chemo--she's okay, but she had to take time off to go through it) we'll plan the rest of the year.
Got Karina started in her last year of preschool. Now that nearly had me in tears. My little baby is almost in Kindergarten? How can that be??? She is LOVING 4 year olds though! I'm so glad. I wasn't sure how she'd do, because I knew her best friend was going to be in a different class (Karina goes 3 days a week and her friend is going 5 days) but it has turned out to be a great thing. Karina still sees her friend on the playground, so they play together then, and in the classroom, Karina has been making more friends and playing different games and just having a great time. Her three year old teacher is the assistant in this class, so that was a great wonderful thing to have happen! She is getting used to her new regular teacher, too, and they have started joking around together. The other day when I picked up Karina, the assistant/former teacher, Mrs. B told me that Mrs. E loved Karina's dress so much she was teasing her that she wanted to borrow it. Karina looked at her and said, "This dress will not fit you." She cracks me up. She's so smart sometimes. She read the word 'sun' in a book about the solar system. I think she can read some simple words, but she is like me and is so afraid to be wrong or make a mistake that I think she's second-guessing herself. But I'm not pushing her or pressuring her, I just ask her sometimes if she knows what this or that word is. Sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't. If she does, I praise her and get all excited and if not, it's no big deal and we figure it out together.
Recently we went to our State Fair. We had a nice time, but we did have one bad thing happen. Elena lost her Ducky. You all (my regular readers) know about Karina's Lambkin, right, and how special it is to her? Well, Ducky was like that for Elena. But Elena's duck was smaller and she'd drop it or it would fall out of the stroller and I wouldn't notice. If Lambkin fell out, he's so big you'd feel it when you rolled over him, or you'd physically feel him fall out of the stroller. Ducky, being smaller, was hard to notice. Here's what happened. I took a few members of the youth group, some of their friends, and my girls up to the fair in the church van. My advisor friends were camping that weekend so they were meeting us up there. There were no other available adults. So it was just me. It was fine, really, just I felt like I needed to hurry so they could all start having fun. Being the only adult, I had to do everything on my own, which normally does not happen. There were only 2 youth and 2 friends. They were no trouble at all, as I expected they wouldn't be (we have the BEST kids). So when we got there, Elena had just woken up from a nap in the van and was being a little cranky. She didn't want to let go of Ducky while I put her in the stroller. So I just let her hold onto her, thinking I'd just get Ducky back in a minute and put it in the van. I didn't. In the rush of getting the stroller, the right diaper bag, the wallet, the water bottles, the children, the camera, and all the youth, then locking up and making sure I had keys where I could find them again, I didn't put Ducky back in the van. And we never saw her again. I didn't even realize it until we were driving home. But I figured that, as awful as it was, I would just order a new one when I got home. I wasn't happy about it, but I knew Elena would probably not realize the difference. And then I started looking for it online. It is discontinued and NO ONE has it. Not One Single Retailer on the Entire Internet. Ducky is gone. Every day, Elena cries for Ducky. When she gets upset or scared or tired, or when she wakes up, she looks for Ducky and Ducky is not there. I try to keep her distracted and she has some other stuffed friends in the crib, but they aren't the same. Last night, after thinking I might have finally found one and having it fall through (The people at Peachtreeplaceonline.com were so kind!!! Thank you so much), and then literally checking every single retailer that showed up and using several different variations of the key words and finding absolutely nothing, I cried myself to sleep. My heart is just breaking for her and I feel so responsible. My mom is so understanding and has been great at helping me realize that it's not my fault really, that it was bound to happen (she'd had several close calls beforehand, and why I ask did I not have an emergency spare backup already???), and that she will eventually forget, but still, it hurts my heart. She will not have her special lovey from when she was a baby. Karina does. I guess part of what bothers me about it all is that Elena has been shortchanged in a couple of important ways. We take plenty of photos of her, and I make sure she has an equally prominent place in the hall for her portraits. I have equal numbers of photos of her, I saved all her little hospital mementos (although not in a pretty box). But her first weeks...months even...were not the same. She was NOT fun. We did not bond the way Karina and I did. That took a long time to happen. Because her personality is different, the interactions she and I have are very different from what happens with Karina and me. Bedtime is completely different. There's no sitting and snuggling for Elena, it's diaper, jammies, and into the crib. She can't have it the other way, I tried. It doesn't work. But I feel she's being deprived of that special time. I am not nearly as patient with her as I am with Karina. Not even close, and it's because Elena cries SO much, and Karina doesn't. The crying just wears on me after a little bit, and I am simply not the same parent with her as I am with Karina. I try to show her how much I love her, I do my best to appreciate her for who she is, and I don't want a second Karina. But I am just worried that she will someday feel that I don't love her as much as I love Karina, and I do. I love her dearly. But I would never have let Lambkin get lost. And I let Ducky get lost. It just kills me inside.
Other than that, the fair was fun. Karina rode the ferris wheel (with her "aunt" Kelly), she rode the giant Super Slide twice, all by herself, we rode the carousel (all three of us, poor Elena wanted to ride rides so badly but she's too little for most of them), and Karina rode a fishy ride. We ate delicious, unhealthy fair food, bought some little sand-filled animals for Karina and Elena to share (but really they're just Karina's), we saw some animals but not many because the way they had the fair set up was very different, and the animals weren't anywhere near the rides and things.
Today, Bill and our friend are replacing our old dishwasher and countertops and sink. They got almost all of it done today, but the dishwasher really gave them a hard time. The former homeowners installed tile and didn't remove the cabinets and appliances when they did it. So the old one was basically trapped between the counter and the floor, and the floor is like an inch thick (we discovered today)! So installing the new one was a real pain! Cali was on the floor on her side trying to get it all installed (Cali can do anything, this woman is amazing). Bill helped a little, but he's no handyman. The counter is on, and the dishwasher is in, and tomorrow they will install the new sink and test it all out. I can't wait to use a dishwasher that will actually clean my dishes, rather than simply redeposit the random food particles onto different dishes, thus forcing me to rewash them. Over and over and over and over. Such a waste of time, money, electricity, hot water, soap, etc. Plus we were having to use the heavy wash cycle or the pots and pans cycle just to get the dishes even remotely clean. It was like the regular cycle was just sort of dripping water on them and then laughing. The new sink will have a sprayer that doesn't leak (thank goodness!) so I'll be able to actually use it, and it's one of those ones that's really part of the faucet itself so there's no separate hookup for it. Should be really cool. We considered getting a sink that was just one big single section, because we do use the dishwasher for most of our dishes, and there are a couple of large cookie sheets I have that I like to hand wash, and they barely fit in the sink. But the cost was going to be about $100-$150 difference (more expensive), and we finally just decided it wasn't worth it. So I'm happy with the new sink and I'm excited to see how it all looks. I took some 'before'ish pictures and I will share those and the 'after' shots, well, after it's all done.
I almost forgot! I also went to Howl O Scream at Busch Gardens with two friends of mine and we had such a wonderful time! We all had babysitters/husbands to watch the kids and we stayed out super late and were soooo tired and sore the next day, but it was so worth it!
I hope your September (which is already over, how does that happen so stinking fast??) was fun!
Trying something different with my pictures. I hope this works for you guys. These were from the fair.
Planned with other youth advisors for the first half of the "school year" as I think of it. Hopefully when our pastor comes back from her time away (due to chemo--she's okay, but she had to take time off to go through it) we'll plan the rest of the year.
Got Karina started in her last year of preschool. Now that nearly had me in tears. My little baby is almost in Kindergarten? How can that be??? She is LOVING 4 year olds though! I'm so glad. I wasn't sure how she'd do, because I knew her best friend was going to be in a different class (Karina goes 3 days a week and her friend is going 5 days) but it has turned out to be a great thing. Karina still sees her friend on the playground, so they play together then, and in the classroom, Karina has been making more friends and playing different games and just having a great time. Her three year old teacher is the assistant in this class, so that was a great wonderful thing to have happen! She is getting used to her new regular teacher, too, and they have started joking around together. The other day when I picked up Karina, the assistant/former teacher, Mrs. B told me that Mrs. E loved Karina's dress so much she was teasing her that she wanted to borrow it. Karina looked at her and said, "This dress will not fit you." She cracks me up. She's so smart sometimes. She read the word 'sun' in a book about the solar system. I think she can read some simple words, but she is like me and is so afraid to be wrong or make a mistake that I think she's second-guessing herself. But I'm not pushing her or pressuring her, I just ask her sometimes if she knows what this or that word is. Sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't. If she does, I praise her and get all excited and if not, it's no big deal and we figure it out together.
Recently we went to our State Fair. We had a nice time, but we did have one bad thing happen. Elena lost her Ducky. You all (my regular readers) know about Karina's Lambkin, right, and how special it is to her? Well, Ducky was like that for Elena. But Elena's duck was smaller and she'd drop it or it would fall out of the stroller and I wouldn't notice. If Lambkin fell out, he's so big you'd feel it when you rolled over him, or you'd physically feel him fall out of the stroller. Ducky, being smaller, was hard to notice. Here's what happened. I took a few members of the youth group, some of their friends, and my girls up to the fair in the church van. My advisor friends were camping that weekend so they were meeting us up there. There were no other available adults. So it was just me. It was fine, really, just I felt like I needed to hurry so they could all start having fun. Being the only adult, I had to do everything on my own, which normally does not happen. There were only 2 youth and 2 friends. They were no trouble at all, as I expected they wouldn't be (we have the BEST kids). So when we got there, Elena had just woken up from a nap in the van and was being a little cranky. She didn't want to let go of Ducky while I put her in the stroller. So I just let her hold onto her, thinking I'd just get Ducky back in a minute and put it in the van. I didn't. In the rush of getting the stroller, the right diaper bag, the wallet, the water bottles, the children, the camera, and all the youth, then locking up and making sure I had keys where I could find them again, I didn't put Ducky back in the van. And we never saw her again. I didn't even realize it until we were driving home. But I figured that, as awful as it was, I would just order a new one when I got home. I wasn't happy about it, but I knew Elena would probably not realize the difference. And then I started looking for it online. It is discontinued and NO ONE has it. Not One Single Retailer on the Entire Internet. Ducky is gone. Every day, Elena cries for Ducky. When she gets upset or scared or tired, or when she wakes up, she looks for Ducky and Ducky is not there. I try to keep her distracted and she has some other stuffed friends in the crib, but they aren't the same. Last night, after thinking I might have finally found one and having it fall through (The people at Peachtreeplaceonline.com were so kind!!! Thank you so much), and then literally checking every single retailer that showed up and using several different variations of the key words and finding absolutely nothing, I cried myself to sleep. My heart is just breaking for her and I feel so responsible. My mom is so understanding and has been great at helping me realize that it's not my fault really, that it was bound to happen (she'd had several close calls beforehand, and why I ask did I not have an emergency spare backup already???), and that she will eventually forget, but still, it hurts my heart. She will not have her special lovey from when she was a baby. Karina does. I guess part of what bothers me about it all is that Elena has been shortchanged in a couple of important ways. We take plenty of photos of her, and I make sure she has an equally prominent place in the hall for her portraits. I have equal numbers of photos of her, I saved all her little hospital mementos (although not in a pretty box). But her first weeks...months even...were not the same. She was NOT fun. We did not bond the way Karina and I did. That took a long time to happen. Because her personality is different, the interactions she and I have are very different from what happens with Karina and me. Bedtime is completely different. There's no sitting and snuggling for Elena, it's diaper, jammies, and into the crib. She can't have it the other way, I tried. It doesn't work. But I feel she's being deprived of that special time. I am not nearly as patient with her as I am with Karina. Not even close, and it's because Elena cries SO much, and Karina doesn't. The crying just wears on me after a little bit, and I am simply not the same parent with her as I am with Karina. I try to show her how much I love her, I do my best to appreciate her for who she is, and I don't want a second Karina. But I am just worried that she will someday feel that I don't love her as much as I love Karina, and I do. I love her dearly. But I would never have let Lambkin get lost. And I let Ducky get lost. It just kills me inside.
Other than that, the fair was fun. Karina rode the ferris wheel (with her "aunt" Kelly), she rode the giant Super Slide twice, all by herself, we rode the carousel (all three of us, poor Elena wanted to ride rides so badly but she's too little for most of them), and Karina rode a fishy ride. We ate delicious, unhealthy fair food, bought some little sand-filled animals for Karina and Elena to share (but really they're just Karina's), we saw some animals but not many because the way they had the fair set up was very different, and the animals weren't anywhere near the rides and things.
Today, Bill and our friend are replacing our old dishwasher and countertops and sink. They got almost all of it done today, but the dishwasher really gave them a hard time. The former homeowners installed tile and didn't remove the cabinets and appliances when they did it. So the old one was basically trapped between the counter and the floor, and the floor is like an inch thick (we discovered today)! So installing the new one was a real pain! Cali was on the floor on her side trying to get it all installed (Cali can do anything, this woman is amazing). Bill helped a little, but he's no handyman. The counter is on, and the dishwasher is in, and tomorrow they will install the new sink and test it all out. I can't wait to use a dishwasher that will actually clean my dishes, rather than simply redeposit the random food particles onto different dishes, thus forcing me to rewash them. Over and over and over and over. Such a waste of time, money, electricity, hot water, soap, etc. Plus we were having to use the heavy wash cycle or the pots and pans cycle just to get the dishes even remotely clean. It was like the regular cycle was just sort of dripping water on them and then laughing. The new sink will have a sprayer that doesn't leak (thank goodness!) so I'll be able to actually use it, and it's one of those ones that's really part of the faucet itself so there's no separate hookup for it. Should be really cool. We considered getting a sink that was just one big single section, because we do use the dishwasher for most of our dishes, and there are a couple of large cookie sheets I have that I like to hand wash, and they barely fit in the sink. But the cost was going to be about $100-$150 difference (more expensive), and we finally just decided it wasn't worth it. So I'm happy with the new sink and I'm excited to see how it all looks. I took some 'before'ish pictures and I will share those and the 'after' shots, well, after it's all done.
I almost forgot! I also went to Howl O Scream at Busch Gardens with two friends of mine and we had such a wonderful time! We all had babysitters/husbands to watch the kids and we stayed out super late and were soooo tired and sore the next day, but it was so worth it!
I hope your September (which is already over, how does that happen so stinking fast??) was fun!
Trying something different with my pictures. I hope this works for you guys. These were from the fair.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
I get all nostalgic and weepy before I ought to
When I was a kid, between the ages of about 10 and 20, we had a great dog, I adored him. I loved that dog so much I couldn't even imagine loving anything more (of course now I can but that's beside the point). I used to lay in bed at night and worry about how awful it would be when this dog eventually and inevitably died. I would cry myself to sleep over it. Looking back, it was such a waste of time and emotional energy, but I couldn't help it.
Fast forward to my life now, with two sweet girls. Not dogs. Actual children, who I love more than my own life. A million, trillion times more than I loved that dog (I still keep photos of that dog up around my home, I loved him so dearly). I find myself doing the same kind of thing, no not the scary what if they die stuff, because that is just too much. No, I start thinking about how quickly they are growing up. How Karina's not a little baby anymore. How she's growing SO fast.
So today, I got to sleep in a little later than usual. I did wake up at 630 (Thanks, Elena) but drifted back off. I'm not sure if I was completely asleep and dreaming, or if I was just half asleep and sort of half dreaming, half imagining. I'll call it dreaming just for ease of writing. So I started dreaming about what it might be like when Karina is older, a teenager. Coming into the kitchen for breakfast, dressed all crazy, like punky sort of 80s teens. In my dream, I'm making sure she's not wearing anything risque, inappropriate, that sort of thing. I imagine her saying good morning, but grudgingly. (She would do it because she's polite, you know.) And then suddenly, in the middle of this dream of Karina the teenager, just as she's sitting down to the kitchen table, she becomes superimposed over Karina the 4 year old, sitting at the table the way she does now. I see Karina the imaginary teen, and Karina as she is now, but in the dream it's like 4 year old Karina is only a memory of her as a little girl. I was awake so fast, BAWLING my brains out! What a horrible way to wake up!
I hope I have explained that image well enough for you to imagine. Sort of like in the movies, when they do those weird flashbacks, think "Father of the Bride" type stuff. Yeah. Exactly.
I have to find a way to stop doing this to myself because I can't spend the rest of my life doing this. It's dumb. It's annoying, and it bothers me. And apparently it also ruins the one morning I get to sleep late!
Parents who might be reading this, does this kind of thing happen to you? How do you make it stop???
Fast forward to my life now, with two sweet girls. Not dogs. Actual children, who I love more than my own life. A million, trillion times more than I loved that dog (I still keep photos of that dog up around my home, I loved him so dearly). I find myself doing the same kind of thing, no not the scary what if they die stuff, because that is just too much. No, I start thinking about how quickly they are growing up. How Karina's not a little baby anymore. How she's growing SO fast.
So today, I got to sleep in a little later than usual. I did wake up at 630 (Thanks, Elena) but drifted back off. I'm not sure if I was completely asleep and dreaming, or if I was just half asleep and sort of half dreaming, half imagining. I'll call it dreaming just for ease of writing. So I started dreaming about what it might be like when Karina is older, a teenager. Coming into the kitchen for breakfast, dressed all crazy, like punky sort of 80s teens. In my dream, I'm making sure she's not wearing anything risque, inappropriate, that sort of thing. I imagine her saying good morning, but grudgingly. (She would do it because she's polite, you know.) And then suddenly, in the middle of this dream of Karina the teenager, just as she's sitting down to the kitchen table, she becomes superimposed over Karina the 4 year old, sitting at the table the way she does now. I see Karina the imaginary teen, and Karina as she is now, but in the dream it's like 4 year old Karina is only a memory of her as a little girl. I was awake so fast, BAWLING my brains out! What a horrible way to wake up!
I hope I have explained that image well enough for you to imagine. Sort of like in the movies, when they do those weird flashbacks, think "Father of the Bride" type stuff. Yeah. Exactly.
I have to find a way to stop doing this to myself because I can't spend the rest of my life doing this. It's dumb. It's annoying, and it bothers me. And apparently it also ruins the one morning I get to sleep late!
Parents who might be reading this, does this kind of thing happen to you? How do you make it stop???
Saturday, August 17, 2013
The Great Yard Sale Post
Hey everyone, I'm belatedly posting some pictures and an update on the yard sale my youth group had last month. It took 2 weeks of prep work, and then right after that my best friend Danise came to visit with her kids, and when she left, the yard sale seemed like an eternity ago. So it slipped my mind until today, when I was uploading a lot of pictures so I could get some free prints. (Oh, the things that motivate me...)
So here we are. This is my friend who does youth group with me. We're in the church elevator bringing stuff up from our youth room and the storage room in the basement of our building, to the first floor where the gym is. After we get out of the elevator, we go left and down this big ramp and then down another long hallway. It was quite a process. We did have some great help though.
Below: stuff in piles where we tossed placed it after carrying it upstairs. I have always wanted to type something with strikethrough. :-)
Starting the sorting process. This corner will become electronics and pets. Trust me. It makes sense to us later.
Now here's some of the cool or interesting stuff we got this year. These chairs are legitimately old. They look so cute, but they are covered in some kind of plastic-y material, and would have been so much more awesome if that was a soft fabric. I think they would have been cute in a little girl's room.
Just a cool old table. I like old furniture. The fold-out mechanism on the leaves was pretty cool.
We have had this china set for over 3 years and no one would buy it. Most of the pieces are marked Limoges. We looked it up and researched it the first year we had it, hoped to sell it for about $50, and when no one wanted it, we held it and reduced the price the following year. And the year after that. Green isn't my favorite color, but I thought it was so pretty anyway that I decided if no one bought it this year, I would. It sold, of course. I was actually very happy about that, and told the lady who bought it how glad I was that it was finally going home with someone who appreciated it.
A gorgeous set of Noritake china. It was donated by one of our youth kid's grandparents, and when the youth's mother came in and saw it, she was so upset that she bought it back! Mom and I had tried to get my grandmother to buy it but she preferred to stick with her old, ugly, mismatched stuff instead. Too bad. It was just as beautiful as you please, a full 12 piece set. But it had a happy ending, going home with the person who probably should have had it in the first place.
Check out all the bikes! We've never had that many bikes. Over there you can see our lazy helpers. They aren't really lazy. We were just done for the day and waiting for parents to pick them up. But it was funny to me to write lazy. They were anything but.
Some of the containers we had, plus you can kind of see some of the appliances, and in the background a rack of clothes that one of our awesome helpers put together for us.
A bunch of dolls were donated to us this year. We actually had 2 Pillsbury Dough Boy figures, the one in this photo and another I didn't get a shot of for some reason.
Baby and toy section. I didn't even get a chance to take pictures of the Legos we had. We had about 10 boxes of the huge 600-800 piece sets, plus a giant bin of more sets all combined, with instruction booklets. We probably made about $1000 off the Legos alone. You can see a Star Wars toy here though.
Games
We had a couple of nice bags this year, including this one.
We always get some unique stuff. I think you can see the standing cardboard cutout of the Nascar racer whose name I don't know. She sold. We had two antique sleds this year, too. In fact, our sporting goods section was overflowing.
A shot of about half the space. Clothes, household, furniture (from near to far). And the lazy helpers.
Now these sideways ones, I'm sorry about them. I really thought I had figured out how to turn them in my posts, but now for the life of me I can't figure it out. So I apologize and if I get around to figuring it out, I will fix it. For now, just turn your heads. :-)
This is a view of our book section, which was rather small this year.
Health and Beauty section. Always some interesting stuff there. Always a lot of stuff getting thrown out, too. Ick. Opened bottles of old shampoo? Um, no thanks!
Garden section, next to sporting goods. There's that Nascar lady again. We had two or three fountains this year.
One of the old sleds.
Christmas and holiday section.
Old boat motor.
Lazy helper.
Jewelry. Nothing amazing this year.
An unusual piece. It sold.
Antique desk. It sold.
Finally, just some of the pretty dishes we had. I like that kind of stuff, too.
So here we are. This is my friend who does youth group with me. We're in the church elevator bringing stuff up from our youth room and the storage room in the basement of our building, to the first floor where the gym is. After we get out of the elevator, we go left and down this big ramp and then down another long hallway. It was quite a process. We did have some great help though.
This will become the linens section.
And, thanks to Blogger uploading my photos incorrectly, here are the linens looking quite a bit nicer.
Starting the sorting process. This corner will become electronics and pets. Trust me. It makes sense to us later.
See? Looks better now.
Some of the containers we had, plus you can kind of see some of the appliances, and in the background a rack of clothes that one of our awesome helpers put together for us.
We always get some unique stuff. I think you can see the standing cardboard cutout of the Nascar racer whose name I don't know. She sold. We had two antique sleds this year, too. In fact, our sporting goods section was overflowing.
This is a view of our book section, which was rather small this year.
Overall, a pretty great sale. I think we raised almost $4500 this year. So many people helped, and of course, I can't wait til next year's sale!
Friday, August 9, 2013
Love Hate Relationship with Facebook
Some days I love Facebook and other days I despise it. Most of the time, I like the way I can see what people are up to, without having to commit to a full-blown phone call or letter. Totally lazy, I know, but if I tried to keep up with that many people with phone or letter, I would have no time for my kids, and I pretty much put them first. I like seeing snippets of people's days. I like that I can get in touch with friends from way back. I like that I can find them again and know they are okay. And happy.
But sometimes I seriously hate Facebook. It brings out the worst in people sometimes. Including me, which I hate even more than I hate Facebook, on my Facebook-hating days. Here's what I see happening, and my opinion about it.
Someone posts a comment, link, or photo about some topic. Someone else disagrees. Massive fighting ensues. People write things they might not otherwise say to them face-to-face. Because they aren't face-to-face.
Friendships are destroyed with a few moments of typing insanity. Friendships that, had the conversation been in person, might have made it.
It's like the technology is granting us this imagined anonymity. Like we can say things to people because it's not 'real'. It's only cyberspace, right? It's just Facebook. I think that's really the problem. If we wouldn't say it to their face, then we shouldn't write it on their wall or their post, either. Right? People just seem to lose the ability to filter what streams out of their brains when they're on Facebook sometimes.
Just because I think it doesn't mean I should say it....or write it.
And I learned this from personal experience. Twice. Yes, I'm that dumb. (Both times it turned out okay, but it could easily have gone very badly. I just don't want you all to think I'm spouting all this in a self-righteous kind of way; I'm not. I'm totally guilty of this, like lots of people)
I wish there was a way to fix this. (Wait. Why do I feel like I've written this post before? Okay, well, maybe I have, with different words, for a different situation, but it really bothers me and I guess I feel strongly about it, maybe because I'm guilty of it too and I hate messing up.)
Sigh.
Let's all just try to be nice out there if we can, okay? Life's already hard enough.
But sometimes I seriously hate Facebook. It brings out the worst in people sometimes. Including me, which I hate even more than I hate Facebook, on my Facebook-hating days. Here's what I see happening, and my opinion about it.
Someone posts a comment, link, or photo about some topic. Someone else disagrees. Massive fighting ensues. People write things they might not otherwise say to them face-to-face. Because they aren't face-to-face.
Friendships are destroyed with a few moments of typing insanity. Friendships that, had the conversation been in person, might have made it.
It's like the technology is granting us this imagined anonymity. Like we can say things to people because it's not 'real'. It's only cyberspace, right? It's just Facebook. I think that's really the problem. If we wouldn't say it to their face, then we shouldn't write it on their wall or their post, either. Right? People just seem to lose the ability to filter what streams out of their brains when they're on Facebook sometimes.
Just because I think it doesn't mean I should say it....or write it.
And I learned this from personal experience. Twice. Yes, I'm that dumb. (Both times it turned out okay, but it could easily have gone very badly. I just don't want you all to think I'm spouting all this in a self-righteous kind of way; I'm not. I'm totally guilty of this, like lots of people)
I wish there was a way to fix this. (Wait. Why do I feel like I've written this post before? Okay, well, maybe I have, with different words, for a different situation, but it really bothers me and I guess I feel strongly about it, maybe because I'm guilty of it too and I hate messing up.)
Sigh.
Let's all just try to be nice out there if we can, okay? Life's already hard enough.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Visit from my best friend
Last week my best friend and her two children came to visit. I've talked about her on this blog before, here and here. Danise and I met years ago when we were new teachers and then after her son was born, she and her family moved back home to New Mexico, where they're from. I traveled there many times when I was single, but only once since Karina was born (the time she got strep throat!). Now, she and the kids and sometimes her husband come this way. I'm hoping after Elena is older, we'll be able to go out there again too.
They were only here for a week, but we packed a lot in.
We rented a car since Danise has trouble driving due to her neck injury from the car accident. (The last news I got on her condition was that the neurosurgeon says she's doing better, but the spine doctor says she isn't. She isn't feeling as much pain as she was, which is good, but she's still experiencing it in her body, which is bad.) Then we went to the beach, caught Elena's arm between the carseat and backseat that had to be put down to let the kids out of the way back and ended up at the doctor's office (I LOVE my pediatrician and he saw us right away and fixed her arm which luckily wasn't broken! It was the absolute worst experience of the week) but after that, everything was fun. We went to a local museum that also has live animals that have been rescued and rehabilitated, the beach again (on a perfect day), and a local aquarium. We also went shopping at a nearby outlet mall which was so much fun for all the girls but I don't think Danise's son enjoyed it quite as much. He's 11 going on 12 and hitting those preteen funks. Karina loved having the kids here, and so did Elena. She was enamored with Colin and Karina pretty much wanted Paige to play with her constantly. She was so upset when they had to leave that she was crying and wouldn't come outside.
This visit was kind of different in that it has hit me really hard after she left. I just break down crying at random times because I miss her so much. If any of you have a friend like this, who feels like someone you've known forever, like more than family, who is just some kind of kindred spirit, you understand.
Hopefully though, next summer Elena will be more mature and maybe we can fly out there to see them. I would really love to go back to New Mexico and hopefully not have any sick kids! The things to see out there are just so different from Virginia, and now that Karina is older, I think she would appreciate it a bit more, too. It would be so cool to show her the petroglyphs! And eventually Elena, too of course but now she's just a little too little. But in a year, she'll be 2 1/2! That's a huge difference from 18 months. So we'll see. Til then, hopefully a lot more phone calls!
Hope you guys are all well! (And hey, pictures! Woo hoo!)
My girls at the aquarium
The older three checking out the fish.
Isn't that sweet? Oh, and when we went shopping, Paige picked out matching skirts for her and Karina to wear. No wonder Karina loved her so much!
The four kids. Look at little Elena just trying to be big!
They were only here for a week, but we packed a lot in.
We rented a car since Danise has trouble driving due to her neck injury from the car accident. (The last news I got on her condition was that the neurosurgeon says she's doing better, but the spine doctor says she isn't. She isn't feeling as much pain as she was, which is good, but she's still experiencing it in her body, which is bad.) Then we went to the beach, caught Elena's arm between the carseat and backseat that had to be put down to let the kids out of the way back and ended up at the doctor's office (I LOVE my pediatrician and he saw us right away and fixed her arm which luckily wasn't broken! It was the absolute worst experience of the week) but after that, everything was fun. We went to a local museum that also has live animals that have been rescued and rehabilitated, the beach again (on a perfect day), and a local aquarium. We also went shopping at a nearby outlet mall which was so much fun for all the girls but I don't think Danise's son enjoyed it quite as much. He's 11 going on 12 and hitting those preteen funks. Karina loved having the kids here, and so did Elena. She was enamored with Colin and Karina pretty much wanted Paige to play with her constantly. She was so upset when they had to leave that she was crying and wouldn't come outside.
This visit was kind of different in that it has hit me really hard after she left. I just break down crying at random times because I miss her so much. If any of you have a friend like this, who feels like someone you've known forever, like more than family, who is just some kind of kindred spirit, you understand.
Hopefully though, next summer Elena will be more mature and maybe we can fly out there to see them. I would really love to go back to New Mexico and hopefully not have any sick kids! The things to see out there are just so different from Virginia, and now that Karina is older, I think she would appreciate it a bit more, too. It would be so cool to show her the petroglyphs! And eventually Elena, too of course but now she's just a little too little. But in a year, she'll be 2 1/2! That's a huge difference from 18 months. So we'll see. Til then, hopefully a lot more phone calls!
Hope you guys are all well! (And hey, pictures! Woo hoo!)
I'm so glad Danise wasn't afraid to go in the water. I do NOT like going in the water, am terrified of jellyfish, but Karina really wanted to go in! Danise went out with her and I was able to stand in ankle-deep water with Elena instead. Phew! Karina just had the BEST time!
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Possibly the weirdest post I've ever written because I'm tired, rambling, and off on tangents
*Edited to add after I finished writing this* You followers and readers are so wonderful. Thanks for caring even a little about my silly little life. This post is weird, rambling, and hits on so many topics I can't keep them straight. This would be because I am very tired. It's been a long day, it's very hot here, and I seriously considered not even posting this. But then I thought, hey, it's just who I am. Tired=rambling. Sigh. So that said, read on if you want, and hopefully some parts of this will make sense!
Several years ago my friend started a blog. Then she convinced me to start one. At first I was so afraid to make it public. The idea of people reading stuff I wrote was scary! But I got over my fear and since then, I have met a lot of people through the blogging and general online world. Some have even become friends of mine, even though we've never met. I think that is so cool.
But there's a weird downside to meeting people online like this. And that is that sometimes they disappear (ahem like me maybe?) and you have no idea where they've gone, if they're okay, if they'll ever be back. And no way to contact them. And most of them, really, would probably be completely creeped out if we (collective "we", like "we, the bloggers and blog-followers of the world") started calling them at home and stuff. I would be.
Still, sometimes I'll realize I haven't read a post from someone in a while. Or suddenly they're gone from Facebook and I can't help but wonder if it's me, or them, or neither. Or their Etsy shop has no action for months and those convos stop coming.
I also realize that I overthink pretty much everything that happens in my life, usually putting myself in the negative position. Don't try telling me to stop. I do it without even realizing it. It's just part of my nature. Anyway that's kind of beside the point. The point was supposed to be that as awesome as it is to get to know people who, really, we don't actually know, it can be kind of stressful when they disappear.
I don't know that there's any remedy for it. I think of myself, how infrequently I blog these days. Now granted, this blog does not exactly have a worldwide following of thousands of people, but that doesn't make you guys any less important. If anything, it makes you more important, because you all think this blog is worth sticking with, even if you don't read all the posts. Or read them all the way through. I know you do, but even if you don't, you're still over there on the google friend list thingy. :-) And I think that's really fantastic and hey, thank you for that! So anyway, thinking of myself, I know that I have become very scattered with my posts. I know why, too, and I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but when you aren't hanging around with me or talking to me on the phone or something, you don't really know what's happening in between these posts. (What's usually happening is: Karina is begging me to play dolls, horses, or cars while Elena begs to play with "wawa" in the sink with the faucet running on ONLY the spray setting, or begging to go "dy" (outside) even though it's 99 degrees with what feels like 300% humidity, or begging to be held constantly...you get the idea) Sigh. I know this is what's going on. But still...there's always the element of the unknown for you (and me, on the blog-reading end of things). And unfortunately, there's nothing any blogger or Facebooker or tweeter can do about it, at least not that I can think of. Sure, I can promise to do better. Of course I can. But things happen. Who's to say what's going on in the spaces unless you're standing next to me, right?
So I guess I'll end (edit: ha ha ha, this isn't the end, I'm just trying to trick you!) with this thought: I'll try to be better. I'll try to check in more often with at least a little something. But I won't promise. I can't, it wouldn't be fair. I just don't have the time I once did, unfortunately. But I still value my blog and your company, just as I value the blogs and shops and FB pages and emails of my other online friends and acquaintances-who-feel-like-friends.
Isn't it funny how strangers begin to feel like friends? Even when I know that to them, I'm not because a lot of them are blogs I don't interact with as much as others, to me, they still feel like someone I know.
Okay holy cow I am so seriously rambling. (Edit: ha ha ha ha ha ha it took me this long to figure it out! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!) Abrupt change of topic before things get worse (Edit: wait, this is the topic change? I've already done that like 3 times already, but now I'm going to tell you I'm going to do it. Because that makes it better. Oh, I just crack myself up): I took my girls to a major theme park near us today. We're having company come this weekend and we'll be busy so I wanted to squeeze in a day before they come. It was supposed to be slightly cooler today than the last few days. Um, it wasn't. We got there at 10 and left by 1:30, and it was probably almost 100 degrees. We mostly did the water stuff, and Karina rode a couple rides (Elena rode her first ride ever, the kiddie swings!), but mostly we sweated. Okay, I sweated. Sweated SO BADLY that I had to buy a towel so I could keep wiping the darn sweat out of my eyes because it was making my sunscreen run in my eyes and it was stinging so bad!! It is so hot that my AC can't cool the upstairs off. It's 9:45pm and my baby's room is still 82 degrees! And our AC is set almost 10 degrees lower than that! So I'm explaining all this because I think it's why I'm rambling. I ramble when I'm tired (Edit: okay, we get it. Sheesh. I should really proofread more and then post actually edited versions of my posts. But this is kind of funny to me tonight, so I'm going with it).
So there we go. A weird, rambly, divergent, bizarre post to keep you going until my next rambly, divergent post, ha ha!
You guys are the best. Look what you put up with!
Several years ago my friend started a blog. Then she convinced me to start one. At first I was so afraid to make it public. The idea of people reading stuff I wrote was scary! But I got over my fear and since then, I have met a lot of people through the blogging and general online world. Some have even become friends of mine, even though we've never met. I think that is so cool.
But there's a weird downside to meeting people online like this. And that is that sometimes they disappear (ahem like me maybe?) and you have no idea where they've gone, if they're okay, if they'll ever be back. And no way to contact them. And most of them, really, would probably be completely creeped out if we (collective "we", like "we, the bloggers and blog-followers of the world") started calling them at home and stuff. I would be.
Still, sometimes I'll realize I haven't read a post from someone in a while. Or suddenly they're gone from Facebook and I can't help but wonder if it's me, or them, or neither. Or their Etsy shop has no action for months and those convos stop coming.
I also realize that I overthink pretty much everything that happens in my life, usually putting myself in the negative position. Don't try telling me to stop. I do it without even realizing it. It's just part of my nature. Anyway that's kind of beside the point. The point was supposed to be that as awesome as it is to get to know people who, really, we don't actually know, it can be kind of stressful when they disappear.
I don't know that there's any remedy for it. I think of myself, how infrequently I blog these days. Now granted, this blog does not exactly have a worldwide following of thousands of people, but that doesn't make you guys any less important. If anything, it makes you more important, because you all think this blog is worth sticking with, even if you don't read all the posts. Or read them all the way through. I know you do, but even if you don't, you're still over there on the google friend list thingy. :-) And I think that's really fantastic and hey, thank you for that! So anyway, thinking of myself, I know that I have become very scattered with my posts. I know why, too, and I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but when you aren't hanging around with me or talking to me on the phone or something, you don't really know what's happening in between these posts. (What's usually happening is: Karina is begging me to play dolls, horses, or cars while Elena begs to play with "wawa" in the sink with the faucet running on ONLY the spray setting, or begging to go "dy" (outside) even though it's 99 degrees with what feels like 300% humidity, or begging to be held constantly...you get the idea) Sigh. I know this is what's going on. But still...there's always the element of the unknown for you (and me, on the blog-reading end of things). And unfortunately, there's nothing any blogger or Facebooker or tweeter can do about it, at least not that I can think of. Sure, I can promise to do better. Of course I can. But things happen. Who's to say what's going on in the spaces unless you're standing next to me, right?
So I guess I'll end (edit: ha ha ha, this isn't the end, I'm just trying to trick you!) with this thought: I'll try to be better. I'll try to check in more often with at least a little something. But I won't promise. I can't, it wouldn't be fair. I just don't have the time I once did, unfortunately. But I still value my blog and your company, just as I value the blogs and shops and FB pages and emails of my other online friends and acquaintances-who-feel-like-friends.
Isn't it funny how strangers begin to feel like friends? Even when I know that to them, I'm not because a lot of them are blogs I don't interact with as much as others, to me, they still feel like someone I know.
Okay holy cow I am so seriously rambling. (Edit: ha ha ha ha ha ha it took me this long to figure it out! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!) Abrupt change of topic before things get worse (Edit: wait, this is the topic change? I've already done that like 3 times already, but now I'm going to tell you I'm going to do it. Because that makes it better. Oh, I just crack myself up): I took my girls to a major theme park near us today. We're having company come this weekend and we'll be busy so I wanted to squeeze in a day before they come. It was supposed to be slightly cooler today than the last few days. Um, it wasn't. We got there at 10 and left by 1:30, and it was probably almost 100 degrees. We mostly did the water stuff, and Karina rode a couple rides (Elena rode her first ride ever, the kiddie swings!), but mostly we sweated. Okay, I sweated. Sweated SO BADLY that I had to buy a towel so I could keep wiping the darn sweat out of my eyes because it was making my sunscreen run in my eyes and it was stinging so bad!! It is so hot that my AC can't cool the upstairs off. It's 9:45pm and my baby's room is still 82 degrees! And our AC is set almost 10 degrees lower than that! So I'm explaining all this because I think it's why I'm rambling. I ramble when I'm tired (Edit: okay, we get it. Sheesh. I should really proofread more and then post actually edited versions of my posts. But this is kind of funny to me tonight, so I'm going with it).
So there we go. A weird, rambly, divergent, bizarre post to keep you going until my next rambly, divergent post, ha ha!
You guys are the best. Look what you put up with!
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
News; some random, some sad
I think I've mentioned my dad's wife on here before, but if not, I'm sharing this anyway. She passed away last night, the night of July 2nd. She was not well, and we knew the end was coming, but I don't think anyone expected it quite this quickly. My dad is okay but very, very upset. They were not married an overly long time, I'm not even sure how many years. Fewer than 10 I'm almost sure. She was much older than he is, but he didn't care. He adored her. Since my parents divorced when I was five, my dad dated off and on, and always hoped to remarry some day. But like most people, my dad has his quirks and nothing seemed to work out quite right. Then he met Louise and they hit it off. He was SO happy to be married again, and to be married to her. When her health began to deteriorate, he kept her at home as long as he was able. When she was so physically weak she could not sit up unassisted, he finally had no choice but to put her in a nursing home type facility. He spent most of every single day there. He was there every single day. He took amazingly good care of her. Unfortunately, she had had a series of mini strokes that ultimately added up to the equivalent of a major stroke. She had Alzheimer's and at the end no longer remembered her home, my dad, or anything else of importance. I'm told that she did recognize him in some way, but could not tell him his name or who he was. But she would hold his hand and seemed to know he was important. I believe they did have some good moments together at the end and from what I can guess, she must have passed away in her sleep.
My brother and I went to see her and my dad once, not long after she went into the home, and had plans to go back and see her again. That had not happened yet. She was not there very long. It's only been a few weeks. On one hand, I'm glad she didn't linger. To me, that feels cruel to all parties involved. On the other, I know my dad wishes she had been with him longer, and so do I. I wish I could have seen her one more time, but I am glad that when I saw her I did tell her I loved her. I did, too, not like a close relative, but I did love her. She was a very very sweet woman. Very kind, quiet, sweet. She went downhill very quickly.
Thanks for 'listening' to me share that. I think everyone needs to be remembered. She's anonymous in many ways on here, but still, in another way she'll be floating around in cyberspace (or whatever they call it these days) for a long time.
Today was my grandmother's birthday. She's 87 today. Saturday is my brother's birthday. He'll be 34. That's just crazy. He should still be 16!!
We have made excellent progress on our yard sale and all we have left is pricing the items. We don't have as much as in past years, but it still looks good. Hopefully we'll still do well.
I hope that all of you celebrating the Fourth of July tomorrow will have a nice day, pleasant weather, and lovely company. I am just planning to have a hopefully restful day, and to see how my dad is doing.
Happy Fourth and tell everyone you love that you love them!
My brother and I went to see her and my dad once, not long after she went into the home, and had plans to go back and see her again. That had not happened yet. She was not there very long. It's only been a few weeks. On one hand, I'm glad she didn't linger. To me, that feels cruel to all parties involved. On the other, I know my dad wishes she had been with him longer, and so do I. I wish I could have seen her one more time, but I am glad that when I saw her I did tell her I loved her. I did, too, not like a close relative, but I did love her. She was a very very sweet woman. Very kind, quiet, sweet. She went downhill very quickly.
Thanks for 'listening' to me share that. I think everyone needs to be remembered. She's anonymous in many ways on here, but still, in another way she'll be floating around in cyberspace (or whatever they call it these days) for a long time.
Today was my grandmother's birthday. She's 87 today. Saturday is my brother's birthday. He'll be 34. That's just crazy. He should still be 16!!
We have made excellent progress on our yard sale and all we have left is pricing the items. We don't have as much as in past years, but it still looks good. Hopefully we'll still do well.
I hope that all of you celebrating the Fourth of July tomorrow will have a nice day, pleasant weather, and lovely company. I am just planning to have a hopefully restful day, and to see how my dad is doing.
Happy Fourth and tell everyone you love that you love them!
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
A Little Bit of What We've Been Up to Lately
Hi all, I know I'm not very good about posting regularly. Thanks for sticking around anyway! Here are some of the things we've been up to around here.
First, we went to my mom's for dinner last week and found these birds in the front yard. It was a mother and father protecting a too-young baby. They are apparently some type of Towhee--one friend said Eastern Towhee and a book claims they're another type. Anyway, they were birds I had never seen before, and very brave. The baby was literally 12 inches from my car when we went to leave in the evening. The mother never flew away when I had to go on that side to buckle Elena into her carseat. Mom made sure I backed out safely!
We've been drawing with sidewalk chalk (a huge container that Aunt Madeline gave the girls when she was visiting--props to Crayola who made tons of colors and they aren't too pricey!) (NO people, Crayola didn't pay me or give me anything to say that.)
Elena has decided it is fantastic fun to sit and play in the sink. She will scream, "Wawa!" and reach for the sink now. Silly girl.
And this one is of Karina drawing. She's done a lot of that lately, and playing with Legos, which I don't have a picture of.
We went to a swimming pool birthday party for my friend's son who is turning 8. I almost didn't even bring Elena because I wasn't sure I could handle both girls in a pool by myself. But Karina had floaties and the party favors were pool noodles, how cool is that? So she was fine and Elena I just held as she splashed.
I know what this looks like. It's not that. Elena is trying to step either onto or over the flippers. Also, check out how I had to cut her bathing suit. That's because I decided to bring her literally 10 minutes before we left, grabbed the first suit and swim diaper I could find, and it turns out it was too small for her! So I borrowed my friend's scissors and chop, chop, now it wasn't so tight. And the swim diaper is cute, so it didn't matter.
And this...THIS I am so proud of. This is Karina's drawing of the pool where we went. The pool was indeed shaped like this. The part at the top was the area with the diving board. On the top left are some party things (that is where the party was). I can't remember what she said those were. The pool noodles, maybe. On the right the striped things are the lounge chairs (you know how they have slats?). I drew the pink ones at her request. Notice that Karina's are better than mine. Ahem. The black things in the pool are all different floaty things, rafts, etc. And finally, in the bottom left hand corner we have a fabric store. Yes, you read that correctly. We've been spending some time there lately. I guess she figured her ponies (she drew this as a place for her ponies to go) would need some fabric for something in a hurry.... After the party she spent the ride home telling me all about what she imagined her ponies did while she was at the pool.
And finally, this is what is going on currently. That would be streets in our neighborhood being repaved. Why? I have no idea. They aren't bad. I think it's a huge waste of my taxpayer money, but anyway that's going on. That big thing is the asphalt scraper-upper machine. I don't know how it does it but it's amazing to watch.
The girls looking out my bedroom window at the construction on our street.
Here is where they have scraped close to the curb but haven't gotten the middle of the street yet. Notice how tall our grass is. That is because it has not been mowed in approximately five million weeks. Bill had surgery and right before he went we had a ton of rain, so he didn't mow before the surgery as planned and now he can't. I could but it's so hot.....
I don't know why I put this picture (above) on here. It's just the street all messed up looking.
Here's Elena on the bed. Can you believe how big she's gotten? Sheesh.
The view of the corner from our house. See the scraper machine? It follows the dump truck and that arm thing dumps all the asphalt it rips up into the dump truck. Look below and I think you can see it a little.
Turning the corner....
Starting the process...
There, can you see all that black stuff? That's our old road shooting into the dump truck. I think they went through about 10 dump truck loads at least just for our small cul-de-sac.
Here's a better view of the stuff shooting out.
And here's Bill and Karina down at the corner watching it all. He has been going to work a little here and there as he feels up to it. The surgery was fine and he's okay, just a longer recovery than expected. But all's well, no worries. :-)
The signs on our street suggest they will be finished in early July. I sure hope so. It's kind of a pain.
So that's pretty much it. Oh, that huge yard sale starts up soon. We don't have as much as we have in years past. Not even close. It's pretty disappointing. Hopefully we'll still do well though. Take care, all!
The signs on our street suggest they will be finished in early July. I sure hope so. It's kind of a pain.
So that's pretty much it. Oh, that huge yard sale starts up soon. We don't have as much as we have in years past. Not even close. It's pretty disappointing. Hopefully we'll still do well though. Take care, all!
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