The Green World

Valentine's Day & Another Page

2012-02-15T11:19:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day yesterday! Ours was wonderful. My husband came home from work with his arms full of flowers (peach roses, my favorite!) and chocolates (Lindt truffles), two bottles of white wine and the sweetest card:

It almost made me cry.

The girls and I had fun getting things ready for him. We went in the morning and picked up a couple bottles of wine and a new variety of beer for him to try with dinner. Then we went to the library and found a few books for Brandon, a few for Elora, and one for me. Elora and I both made cards for him while Kaylie was napping. Then I cleaned off his desk, and set out his books and cards where he would be sure to see them. And in the evening, I tried out a yummy new recipe for dinner.

There were no fancy restaurants, neither of us spent a whole lot of money, and we had to trade off holding Kaylie during dinner so we could eat, but it was a nice, relaxed evening spent enjoying one anothers' company, and it was perfect. It was exactly the kind of Valentine's Day I was hoping for, and I wouldn't change a thing!

I finally got around to finishing another scrapbook page.

I had a hard time with this one, too. I got the lay out done pretty easily, but I just couldn't choose a background or elements. I actually had to just put it away and ignore it for a few weeks, but when I came back to it last night, it came together for me.

Elora's First Real Drawing

2012-02-14T13:19:00.000-05:00

Elora brought this to me the other morning. Know what it is?

It's a face! This is the first time that she's ever drawn something like this, and I was seriously impressed. She showed me all the parts, the eyes, ears, nose (with nostrils!), mouth and hair, but she drew it so well that I didn't need her to identify it for me. I know I'm biased, but I think she did a phenomenal job. I'm just sad that it was on the magnadoodle, rather than on something that I could save forever.

She was justifiably proud of her effort.

And then, because I had the camera out, she had to make faces at it. Silly girl.

Miss Kaylie is doing better with the solid foods. At most meals, she gets some sort of finger food that she can feed herself, like rice biscuits or yogurt bites, and then she I give her some pureed baby food.

She loves to feed herself. I usually have to give her her own spoon when I'm giving her the puree. This time, I just handed over the spoon and bowl when it was about empty, and she went through the motions of feeding herself with the spoon, sticking it in the bowl and then back in her mouth. It may just be that she has her big sister as an example, but she seems to be picking up on a lot of those sorts of things faster than Elora did.

My babies are so smart. I'm totally in love with them, can you tell? :)

PS: Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

The Cupcake Experiment

2012-02-06T14:31:00.002-05:00

I did a trial run of Kaylie's birthday cupcakes on Friday, just in case. I'm glad I did! Adjusting this recipe to make cupcakes rather than a bundt cake was easy. All I had to do was to use mini chocolate chips in place of the regular ones, and cut the baking time down to about 24 minutes (for a pan of 12 cupcakes).

I used an ice cream scoop to portion them out, and ended up with about 30 cupcakes. Elora and each did a taste test, just to ensure quality. They were delicious, just like that. After all, when making the bundt cake, all I do is to sprinkle the top with a bit of confectioner's sugar and it's ready to serve. But I want to make these cupcakes over the top, so I chose this frosting to go on top.

This is where I became very glad that I was doing a practice run. First of all, the recipe makes a TON of frosting. The recipes says that it makes enough to frost 36 cupcakes, but I think I could have done nearly twice that many. (I guess I just don't use as much frosting as Amanda does.) Unless you have a very large food processor, I'd recommend cutting the recipe in half, or doing it in 2 batches. I ended up doing the first part (creaming together the butter, sugar and cocoa) in two batches in my food processor, then dumping it all into my big mixing bowl and doing the rest with my mixer. It made a giant mess, and I got kind of frustrated with it there for a while, but my-oh-my, was it worth it! "Decadent" is the first word that comes to my mind. These things really are sinful. And I had nearly 30 of them? I was already planning to share some with Rebekah and her husband, but I decided that I needed to take a plateful over to my neighbors as well. They're just too dangerous, and I don't have that much self control.

A word to the wise, though. I'd suggest storing them in the fridge (did you see how much butter went into the frosting??) but they aren't as good when they're cold. Either let them come to room temperature before serving, or if you want only one, try warming it up a bit in the microwave. 15 seconds at half power does it for me.

I so love my girls.

Around the House

2012-02-02T22:48:00.004-05:00

January was quiet around here. We didn't do anything exciting. The first part of the month was spent recovering from our trip to Florida, and being sick. I did spend my gift cards, though, which actually is exciting. For me.

You see, I asked for Bed Bath & Beyond gift cards for Christmas, because I've been coveting my friend's Shark steam mop ever since she got it last year, and I always have a ton of 20%-off-any-item BB&B coupons. Not only did I get enough in gift cards to get myself a mop, but I had enough to get the handheld steamer too! And, bonus, my mop is green. I love, love, love my steam mop!! The hand held one is a little unwieldy, so it isn't quite as awesome as I'd hoped, but the mop is amazing. Do you see how clean my floors are? Who thought I'd ever get so excited over a mop? Thank you to my benefactors!

I've also been working more on getting things put together for the girls' birthdays. The decorations from Elora's first birthday weren't where I thought they'd be, so I had to go exploring in my spare room closet to track them down. I did eventually find them, but before I did, I found these:

They were in a box full of childhood keepsakes. I'm pretty sure they're hand made, but since my mom doesn't even remember where they came from, I couldn't begin to tell you. I do know that they hung in my room for as far back as I can remember, when I was a little girl. They're a bit faded now, and the big purple one has a tear at the top of one wing, but still pretty.

Now they hang in my daughters' room. When Elora saw them all up on the wall, her face lit up and she gasped and covered her mouth and said, "Butterflies! Oh, mama, they're so pretty!" (Just so you can really hear it in your head, you should know that she shrieked a bit on the "pretty" part.) I love that my girls can enjoy things from my childhood, like the butterflies and the poster that Sara and I colored in high school, and the table that my grandfather made (all of which can be seen in the above photo). It makes my heart happy.

The girls have spent a lot of time on Skype recently, mostly with their Gigi. They sing songs and tell stories and talk about all sorts of crazy things. Elora loves it! And of course Kaylie wants to be in the middle of whatever her sister is doing, though I had to stop putting her in the chair like that once she figured out that she could crawl onto my desk.

Kaylie is getting close to walking independently.

What is the fascination with toilet paper?

I have no idea how she got into that box with out flipping it, but she's done it more than once. They certainly do keep me on my toes. And once Kaylie gets to walking?? Yikes!!

Toy Story Birthday Invitations

2012-01-27T22:05:00.003-05:00

Since the girls' birthdays are only about 2 weeks apart, we'll be doing double birthday parties for them until they get old enough to want their own. This first time around though, I going to have a few of the "1st birthday" things for Kaylie, like chocolate cupcakes in addition to a carrot cake for Elora and set up a special spot for her with the appropriate decorations. But for all practical purposes, this year's party will be Toy Story themed. Elora loves Toy Story.

found here

No, you don't understand. Elora loves Toy Story. If I let her, she would watch all three movies, in reverse order, every day. (When she was sick over Christmas, and we let her vege in front of the TV? Yeah. All 3 movies. And the time that she was sick before that? You get the idea.)

found here

It's hard to say which character she likes best, but I picked Jessie as the central theme for her invitations. I'm no Jessica, (you really should go look at hers, she designed those from nothing!) but I decided to design and print my own, rather than buying them pre-made. I found this image online, and downloaded it. Now I have to wait for the ink I ordered to get here so I can print them out.

I had a hard time choosing between doing a flat card or folded card, but in the end went with the flat one for the invitation,

and made the thank you cards folded. Now, where is that ink??

'City View Park' Page

2012-01-25T11:13:00.002-05:00

http://52sketches52weeks.com/

This time, instead of trying to make 2 sketches work together for a double page LO, I chose one and expanded it; and instead of using the sketch as a blueprint, I used it as more of a guideline. It came together much easier.

At least until it came to doing the title. I think I spent as much time trying to do that as I did on the rest of the page combined.

'Picture Perfect' Page

2012-01-22T23:22:00.002-05:00

I started with these, for inspiration:

http://52sketches52weeks.com/

And came up with this:

I don't believe I've worked from a "sketch" before, and I'm not sure that I liked it. I'm also not sure that I'm done playing with this one, but it is time and past that I went to bed.

Edit, 1/23: I had to mess with it again this morning. Which one do you like better, yesterday's (above) or today's (below)?

'Oma's Visit' Page

2012-01-12T09:40:00.003-05:00

'Elora's 2nd Birthday' Page

2012-01-10T10:32:00.004-05:00

Elora's birthday page. I don't know that I'm completely happy with it. Suggestions?

Edit: At Kelly's suggestion, I broadened the tiny white borders I had on the photos, and added the drop shadows, which I'd forgotten, and I'm liking it better, but I'm still open to your thoughts. :)

Second edit: I found the elements I'd originally intended to use on this layout, and what do you know? I'm happy with it now!

New Year's Eve 2011

2012-01-07T23:56:00.001-05:00

There was the usual New Year's Eve party at the Gager's house. There was good food.

There was a fire in the fire pit.

There were people being silly.

There were a ton of people having a good time.

Here's Staria with all of "her" boys.

These guys have been coming to her house to hang out with her sons for years. It's no wonder she feels proprietary. Now she's started a collection of ladies to go with those guys. Next year, we'll have to get a shot of us, too.

Happy New Year, everyone!! I hope that 2012 will be a year of joy and blessings for us all!

Old Friends

2012-01-07T22:19:00.006-05:00

My long-time BFF organized a play date at the park for a bunch of our home-town friends and their respective children while we were all home. There were a few people who couldn't make it (we missed you Billy and Angie!), and a few people who didn't get invited but should have (I am such an idiot, Rex and Kelly, please forgive me!), but it was still fun.

There were so many of us, we took over the entire row of baby swings.

I finally got to meet Sara's boyfriend.

This will need to happen again, but next time we will need to include Billy, Angie, Ava, Rex, Kelly, Olivia, and Dominic. :)

Our 2011 Christmas Story

2012-01-06T14:01:00.001-05:00

We had a topsy-turvy Christmas this year. We went home to Florida, as usual. We made the trip down in our new car, and the most notable incident was that our touch-screen console went down for several hours, taking the radio with it. Once we realized that we'd have to wait until we stopped to try restarting the car to get the system to reboot, Brandon looked at me and said, "Great, now we're actually going to have to talk to each other!" and I laughed.

Our first few days there were uneventful. We spent our time with his parents mostly, since my dad was taking care of my ill grandmother, who wasn't up for company, and my mom was busy fulfilling other familial duties, including being with my other ill grandmother at the hospital. (We did make it over there for a couple hours a couple of times during those first days, but I forgot the camera both times.)

We went to Merritt Island to take the girls to see Santa, and got lunch at the Hooter's across the way.

The girls and I went with Mom and Wade to see my step brother and his family.

We celebrated Christmas with the Gager's on Christmas Eve. The girls, of course, got the bulk of the gifts, but there were also original paintings by Elora, and fridge magnets that Elora and I painted together for Papa and Gigi, and Aunt Carrie and Uncle Jamie; Staria and Carrie got purse-and-pouch sets, to be posted later.

I really made out. In addition to the One Yard Wonders book, I also got a really nice cast iron skillet, a set of Pyrex bakeware, and a set of tupperware, and a gift card toward the steam mop that I've been lusting after.

We had lots of plans for the next day, but a really nasty stomach bug hit Staria, Carrie and Elora that evening and all three were sick all night, while Jimmy, James and Brandon stayed up all night to take care of them. We scrubbed going to Mass and and to Orlando, but went ahead to my mom's in the evening on Christmas Day, to see my mom's side of the family.

Shortly before we left my mom's house, Brandon started feeling sick. When we got back to the Gager's, we discovered that James and Jimmy were right there with him, and so began round 2 of the stomach bug. (Mercifully, Kaylie and I continued to be well, and everyone at my mom's house had already had it, or never got it.) It was the 28th before we were able to make it to see my dad and grandmother. We almost didn't go, because by that time, we'd started coming down with a cold, but Grandma said to come on, she'd take her chances with it. I'm glad she did; if we'd waited for us all to be healthy we'd have never seen her. It's always so good to see her, and I'm increasingly grateful for every year that she's still with us.

It was a good Christmas, even if things were crazy and everyone did get sick. We got to be together, and see our family, and so it was good. I hope you all had wonderful Christmases, preferably without the germs!!

Official 2011 Christmas Photos

2011-12-24T19:07:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the radio silence recently, but we've been busy doing the Christmas thang. I've been reading all my blogs, I just haven't been taking the time to comment. Please forgive me. As proof of my recent busy-ness, I offer the first of our Christmas photos, starting with our Santa pictures from Wednesday. As before, Elora was all excited about seeing Santa until we put her on his lap, and Kaylie was never excited about it at all.

Did you notice that Kaylie is now wearing the special red Christmas dress that Elora wore last year? Crazy.

We had better luck doing some home-shot Christmas portraits, using a fuzzy blanket, a large piece of fabric, a few thumb tacks and some ingenuity. After the Santa hats, we did some in their Christmas dresses.

And we did some in their matching Christmas pajamas.

We've taken a bazillion pictures recently. It's going to take a while to sift through them all. I'll share them once I do. In the meanwhile, merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you're all enjoy a safe, blessed and happy holiday season.

Kaylie: 9 Months

2011-12-16T15:13:00.000-05:00

My Kaylie girl is already 9 months old. She just keep growing and growing. The 9 month stuff barely fits her anymore, and I've got her wearing mostly size 12 months. She's got 4 teeth now, though numbers 3 and 4 only cut through the gum yesterday. She is into absolutely everything, and everything still goes in the mouth. She loves bath time, because she LOVES to splash in the water.

Her hair is getting long, and it looks as if it is going to be straight rather than curly. She's already down to one nap a day. She's finally coming around to solid foods, though she's still mostly nursing.

She's pulling up on things, like the coffee table and the side of the crib.

She's still a very happy, easy going baby. We're not far from the toddler stage; she won't be a baby much longer. Where has the time gone??

The Command Christmas Party

2011-12-05T21:36:00.000-05:00

The brilliant mind behind this year's Christmas party combined the children's and adults' party into a series of events over a single day, with great success. She managed to secure a hotel ballroom with a buffet dinner for the grown-ups, pizza and child care for the kids, and a night's stay at the hotel in the Outer Banks for only $50 per family. (It was $65 for E-7 and above, but still.) An additional, adjacent room with a connecting door was only another $59, so we went for it (yes, that's party, dinner, babysitter, and 2 hotel rooms for $109) so that Brandon and I could have a room to ourselves.

The day started with a meet and greet with Santa at a fire station near the hotel where we would all be partying and staying the night, followed by a tour of the fire house. Elora covered her face as we were walking up to Santa, and hardly took her hands away they whole time she sat with him. Kaylie was fine at first, but started screaming as soon as she realized I wasn't right next to her. (I didn't get a picture of it, but I think someone else did...I'm looking forward to seeing those pictures!)

I wasn't surprised that Elora went all super shy with Santa, but I thought she would be more excited about seeing the fire truck. I guess she was a bit overwhelmed by the all the people there, like she was on Halloween. See the picture in the bottom left? Brandon had to get down on her level because she wouldn't speak above a whisper.

This was Kaylie's favorite part: exploring the textures on the back of a uniform.

Back at the hotel, they'd arranged for one of the guys to dress up as Santa and give presents (provided by the parents) to each of the kids. From the time that we left the fire station to the time that we went to see Santa again, she asked about Santa almost constantly.

"Where is Santa?"

"Are we going to find Santa?"

"Is Santa lost?"

"I want to look for Santa!"

This is what happened when we got to Santa.

Elora covered her face again (the silly girl) and Kaylie started screaming immediately.


In case you're wondering, Elora got a Sid the Science Kid microphone from "Santa".

The adults' party kicked off at 7. Did I ever mention that the party was 80's themed? Oh, well, it was.

A lot of the people there went all out for the 80's theme. There were several pairs of brightly colored leggings worn with leg warmers, mini skirts and boat neck, off-the-shoulder tops. I normally love to get into costume, but in this case, I'd had my heart set on wearing this sexy little black dress that I found at a thrift store months ago. (It represented my initial get-healthy goal: slim down and tone up by the night of the Christmas party, so I could rock that dress.) So I went with 80's inspired big earrings and bracelets as a nod to the theme, but wore my dress anyway. Brandon wore his shirt un-tucked, popped his collar, and wore his sunglasses all night.

The party itself was great. There were raffle drawings done all night (we won an 80's themed package with a rubix cube and an Atari shirt, among other things) 80's music blaring through the speakers, and a slide show of movie clips, commercials, and photos from the 80's. The food was good, the company great. We're such homebodies that we rarely interact with the other families, but it's silly because I really like them a lot.

There was much silliness, as I'm sure you can imagine. There was a cash bar, after all, and some of the guys brought stuff with them.

During the party the kids were looked after in a suite of rooms right down the hall from the ball room. They got to eat pizza, watch movies, and for those old enough, do an art project or two. Brandon checked on them regularly, but I made myself stay away. I'd given my number to one of the sitters, and told her to call me if either of them needed anything. So long as they were happy, I didn't want to risk making them unhappy by showing up and then leaving again. I am still nursing, though, so I did go back once to feed Kaylie, but even then, I tried not to draw Elora's attention. Both girls did just fine until we picked them up and headed back to our rooms at about 11.

Good times.

Want to Smile?

2011-12-02T17:13:00.001-05:00

Watch this.

The poop face is the best part.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-11-29T11:00:00.001-05:00

My sister, Alanna, came up to visit over the long holiday weekend. It was the first time in a very long time that we'd gotten to just relax and enjoy one another's company. She flew up on Wednesday. Thursday was, of course, Thanksgiving. I was ~~running around like a mad woman~~ flustered about trying to get the huge meal put together, so that part wasn't exactly relaxing. Thankfully, I wasn't alone; Rebekah and her husband were also there with us. Alanna played with the girls and Rebekah did the lion's share of the cooking. She'd already prepared all of her side dishes the day before, so they only had to go in the oven; the only pre-cooking I'd done was to make my pie (pumpkin) and my cornbread for the stuffing. We tag-teamed the turkey that morning, and once it was in the oven, we started in on the other stuff. I kept needing to leave the kitchen to change diapers, feed babies and run to the store. Twice. And did I mention that I made yeast rolls from scratch?? That was certainly interesting.

Everything worked out well, though, and our Thanksgiving dinner was delicious. We stuffed ourselves silly, watched a movie, and then topped off with pie. In addition to the pumpkin that I'd made, Rebekah brought a chocolate bourbon pecan pie that was to die for. I almost did, I ate so much.

Friday Alanna and I braved the crowds and spent the day shopping. Saturday we went to Colonial Williamsburg and had dinner at one of their authentic colonial taverns. (We'd wanted to do the tours, but we got too late a start.)

On Sunday, Alanna taught me to make sushi.

And on Monday she had to go home. I was sad to see her go, but so very, very happy that she got to come up and see me.

Top 10 Reasons to Exercise, for the Ladies

2011-11-18T12:01:00.004-05:00

This was taken to show how much water the girls had splashed on me from the bath tub, but when I looked at it later, I realized that it also shows how much progress I've made!

I just completed Day 30, of my 30 Day Shred. In 4 weeks, I've lost 10 lbs and 3.5" from my waist. Jenny's lists always crack me up, so I decided to do one of my own in honor of my accomplishment. I know, I know, you're probably sick of me talking about exercise and such, but it's been on my mind a lot lately, and even though I've been making a ton of stuff, I can't post any of it yet because it's all for Christmas. So, here are my Top 10 Reasons for Ladies to Exercise: It....

10) Keeps you regular, if you know what I mean.

9) Improves cardiovascular health, but you knew that.

8) Improves grace and balance. (I've noticed a huge improvement in my balance over the last month!!)

7) Gets you back into those "skinny" clothes you almost gave away, but didn't, just in case.

6) Improves your mood, and even better, studies are showing that it can help combat depression, too!

5) Gives you something to be proud of, when you meet your personal goals.

4) Makes him do a double take.

3) Boosts brain activity.

2) Speeds your metabolism.

1) Makes sex better! Core work strengthens your pelvic floor, which has all sorts of benefits in addition to better sex and orgasm. There are too many to list here, so seriously, click that link.

It seems that I've already managed to inspire a few of my friends to start exercising and treating their bodies right, which is wonderful! Thank you ladies, you know who you are, for letting me know. It's made me feel even better about my decision to get healthy, and given me more encouragement to meet my own goals. It's easier, when I feel like there's someone is doing this with me.

Inspiration

2011-11-07T07:57:00.001-05:00

My husband has been so very supportive of my new be healthy project. He's been on that path for quite some time now; he's lost 15 lbs and has improved all of his PRT stats. That in and of itself is a great motivation, but added to that he's been very encouraging, and has given me a lot of helpful advice. He's the one who brought home to me just how badly I've been treating my body, by letting me know that not only had he noticed, but that it worried him. He's the one who told me to track not only my weight, but my waist and hip measurements as well, to help me get a clearer idea of my progress. I text him everyday when I'm starting my workout, and he almost always texts me back with something funny and encouraging. It's a small thing, but it really makes me feel good.

Elora is also a big help. Most days, she does the beginning of my workout with me. It is so stinking cute that I want to do it just to see her attempting jumping jacks. And then there are the days that she sees me start in on the exercises with the girls in the video, and she says something like "Yay, Mama, you're doing it!" or helps me count my reps. She's my own personal cheerleader.

And then there's Evie. I've known her since forever; we grew up in the same church community and our mothers were involved in a lot of the same ministries. She's a few years older than me, and smart and pretty and just one of the most genuinely good people I've ever met. As a child, I always looked up to and admired her quite a lot. Life carried us in different directions, and I lost track of her for a while, until I found her blog about year ago. She posts mostly about her children, so I had no idea she was working to lose weight until I saw this post in August. I was stunned and so impressed! She lost 52 lbs, not by using some miracle diet pill, but though more than a year of hard work, and dedication to a permanent change in her diet. Her goal is to be healthy, so she's made permanent life changes to make it happen, and she stuck with it. And darn it, if she can do it to lose more than 50 pounds, then I can do it to lose 10!

And finally, there's Pinterest. It's like a Rolodex for all my favorite things on the internet, and it's my new addiction. You'd think that something that tempts me to waste time on the computer would hinder me, but no. I keep finding all these great motivational posters with quotes and pictures to keep me moving. It sounds kind of silly when I write it out, but then, why would there be motivational posters if they weren't useful? So I read through them periodically, and add to them when I find a new one that speaks to me.

And right now, I'm needing all the motivation I can get. I stalled out over the weekend... I missed my workout on Friday, because I was so preoccupied with cooking down and pureeing my pumpkin, and I missed Sunday because the girls and I have been sick and I just couldn't marshal the energy to make myself do it. Even worse is that I've slid back into some of my bad snacking habits.

But today is a new day, and another opportunity to succeed.

Personal Goals

2011-11-03T10:43:00.004-04:00

Or, Growing Up and Buckling Down.

People tend to get mad at me when I start talking about needing to get in shape. After all, even at my heaviest (135-140 lbs in 2009) I was still petite. But the truth is, I am woefully out of shape. Yes, I know, most people call me "skinny". I'm a small person, and I'm supposed to be small. I'm 5'3", I have a very small frame, and my ideal body weight is around 115 lbs.

But I'm not just talking about weight. I'm talking about being healthy. I haven't gotten any regular exercise since high school, when I was on the dance team. Back then I was very definitely in shape. Now? Not so much. I eat way too many sweets and I've done no more than flirt with exercise for the past 4 or 5 years. Taking a single flight of stairs quickly is enough to leave me out of breath, I'm always tired, and I'm squishy everywhere.

I'm closer to 30 than to 20, I have children for whom I need to set a good example, and it's past time for me to start exercising some will power. So I've set some goals for myself.

Goal # 1: Eat smarter. I've cut myself back to only a single serving of sweets per day (I stumbled over Halloween), and I've gone back to snacking on fruits and veggies. I've also become aware of my portion sizes, and stopped eating after I'm full just because it's good.

Goal #2: Exercise daily, to improve my cardiovascular health and tone my body. I started the 30 Day Shred two weeks ago, and I've only missed one day. It's only 20 minutes a day-- totally do-able! I've already seen a huge improvement in my endurance and flexibility, and now, instead of feeling like I'm about to die at the end of a work out, I feel alive and energized! All totaled, I'm down to 118 lbs, and I've lost 1" each from my waist and my hips. I'm feeling so much better! I'm needing less sleep, I feel more confident, and--bonus!--my headaches are less severe.

I am not focusing on losing weight or inches; I'm using those measurements to help quantify my progress. Being trim will come naturally from meeting those 2 main goals. I'd be lying, though, if I told you that I'm not excited about being able to wear my tight jeans comfortably, or about wearing my little black dress with confidence to the command Christmas party, or the appreciative "damn, baby!" that I got when my husband smacked my bottom the other day. No, I'm focusing on being healthy--but all those other things are keeping me motivated.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T12:42:00.002-04:00

The girls were fairies for Halloween this year. The original plan was for Elora to wear the official Dallas Cowboys cheerleader uniform that her Aunt Dawn got for her, but the outfit is still way too big for her. It worked out well: I'd been wanting to make tutus for them anyway, and I had 2 pairs of wings that I could remake for them.


What the wings used to look like.

What they look like now.

The tutus were easy-peasy, (I used ribbon instead of elastic) but those wings were a royal pain!!! At first I though I could just throw some tulle on there and gather it at the inner sides, but that was simply not going to work. Then I tried using pantyhose, but it squished the wings too much. I was able to make it work on Kaylie's wings, but then I ruined it by trying to paint them and had to start over.

Finally, I wrapped the wire forms with long, narrow strips of tulle, then cut more tulle to fit the wings and stitched it on over the wrapped frames, and used puffy paint and glitter to decorate them. They're tied on with another set of long ribbons of tulle.

"Really? You're going to make me wear these stupid wings? You do know I am going to try to eat them, right??"

Kaylie merely tolerated her costume, but Elora had a blast getting all dressed up. I painted her nails and did her make up, which she loved. She was super excited about putting her tutu and wings on (I hadn't let her play with them so she wouldn't mess them up) and was very good about letting me do her hair. When they were ready, we took them outside for pictures...

...and then took them to the mall for trick-or-treating.

Elora didn't seem to like the trick-or-treating. I think she was overwhelmed by the crowd; there were a ton of people there. Once we got out of the crowd, she perked up again. It also helped that "aunt" Bekah met us at the mall just as we were finishing up.

Then we had Abuelo's for dinner, just like we did last year, and Rebekah joined us there too.

Hair Cuts & Pumpkins

2011-10-22T11:22:00.001-04:00

Elora got her hair cut for the first time on Thursday. I only had the ends trimmed a bit, in the hope that it would make it easier to brush out her hair. Those baby-fine ends tangled so easily!

Brandon thought I was ridiculous for taking a 2 year old to a salon for a hair cut, but there was no way I was going to risk ruining her gorgeous hair by trying to cut it myself. She was really very good through out the whole process. She was too busy watching the stylist to squirm much. She would never have stayed to still for me!

Kaylie watched quietly from her stroller. She is such a good baby!!

When we were done, the stylist gave Elora a ribbon. On the back, it says "First Haircut" along with her name and the date.

Yesterday, we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin.

Elora loved it! She was excited when I told her that we were going to pick a pumpkin, and when we got there she said "Look, Mama! Look, Da-y! Look at all the punkins!" She picked this one out first, but the stem was too short to make a good handle.

We decided on this one, because it has a good shape, a pretty face for carving, and a nice, long handle. We're going to wait until next weekend to carve it, and then I'm going to cut it up and cook it down right after Halloween so that it doesn't have a chance to get all yucky. We'll have the fun of carving the pumpkin, we'll have a jack-o-lantern for Halloween, and I'll be able to use it to make bread and pie for Thanksgiving! Yum!

The Last Few Weeks

2011-10-13T09:24:00.001-04:00

The last few weeks have been rough for Kaylie. 2 Fridays ago, she randomly started throwing up until she emptied her tummy, then it passed and was back to normal. On Monday, she started coming down with a cold. On Tuesday, she had her 6 month well baby check up, and got the appropriate round of immunizations, including a flu shot. On Wednesday she started vomiting again around 4:30 in the afternoon, and by 5, she was ashen and listless. She was like a little rag doll, except when throwing up. But even that, she did weakly. It was scary. Rebekah came over to stay with Elora, and then Brandon and I took Kaylie to the ER.

Over the course of the next 5 hours, they gave her a Tylenol suppository to bring down her 103° fever, they did a chest x-ray that required us to put her in a clear cylinder that pinned her in place and held her arms up out of the way, they took a urine sample using a catheter, and they put in an IV port to draw blood and get her rehydrated. It took them 3 tries to get the IV in successfully, during which time we had to hold her down while she screamed. It was awful. I kept my face right next to hers, talking and singing the whole time. I definitely cried. She had the most pained, bewildered look on her face. I had to keep reminding myself that it was ultimately going to help her. They finally got it in to her hand, and had to strap her arm to a board to keep her from moving it.

That was the turning point in the evening though. After that I was able to feed her, she was able to keep it down, and between that, the Tylenol and the fluids from the IV, she started to perk up. She even started trying to play with the IV tube. They sent us home around 11 with Tylenol, Motrin, and something for nausea, just in case.

We spent Thursday recovering. (Her voice was hoarse from screaming.) On Friday, I got a call at 5 in the morning from the hospital, saying that her blood culture came back positive for a bacterial infection, and would we please bring her back in for re-evaluation. She still had the cold symptoms, but the fever was gone and there'd been no recurrence of vomiting, so they gave her an antibiotic shot and a round of antibiotics to do at home, and sent us on our way with instructions to follow up with the pediatrician on Monday.

We are still not really sure what caused what. We're fairly sure that she had a cold, caused by a virus. This weakened her immune system, and allowed the bacterial infection to happen. But who knows where the vomiting came from. Personally, I suspect that it had nothing to do with either infection, but that her system rejected the oatmeal cereal I'd given her prior to both vomiting episodes. The pediatrician said that it's possible, and so it's a good idea to stay away from the oatmeal for a while. All I really care about is that she seems to be doing ok now. She still has a nagging cough, and she's still a bit fussier than usual, but no more high fevers and no more scary vomiting.
Thank God.

Bark in the Park

2011-10-05T11:48:00.001-04:00

Rebekah invited us to go to Bark in the Park with her Sunday, and so we went. It's an annual dog fair at the park to raise money for the local Humane Society. I'd been hearing about it, but hadn't thought to go because we don't have a dog. I'm so glad we went! It got us all out of the house and in the fresh air, and it was a lot of fun. There were so many dogs!

So, so many dogs...

All the area shelters brought in animals available for adoption. Most of them were dogs, but there was also one very large rabbit, one frightened guinea pig, and one brave kitty.

There were also a handful of reptiles, from VIIPER.

I'll apologize now for any misspellings, or errors in identifying the dogs. Can you tell that I lost patience with it?

Anyway, we had a really great time. Both girls were really good the whole time we were there. I hardly heard a peep out of Kaylie; I guess she was just busy trying to take it all in. I think the most amazing thing might be that we were there for almost 3 hours, in a park full of dogs, and not once did we step in any poop! I'll be taking the girls back next year, fo' sho'.

Pictures That I Forgot About

2011-09-28T11:17:00.001-04:00

Cyber Safety

2011-09-21T11:43:00.001-04:00

Meg over at Shabby Blogs posted this heads up on internet safety, and I think it's something worth passing on. I know there have been a few times that I've posted innocent pictures of Elora, and Corinnea has kindly sent me a private message with the reminder that there are people who would view them with something other than innocence. I think I've learned to consider that before I post, now. I've also learned to be careful not to post my travel plans until after we've returned home. But I've wondered too, should I set up a PO Box for my Etsy shop, to protect my home address? After all, it isn't just my home anymore, it's my children's home, and I'm not sure I like using it for my public shop.

Thoughts??

Beach

2011-09-14T18:22:00.035-04:00

We packed up the new car and headed out to the beach on Sunday. This has been a very, very long time coming. It was the first time that I'd been to the beach since moving to Germany--4 years ago! We've been meaning to go all summer, and it took us until now to finally make it. Now that we've been, I think it made better sense than I realized to wait. It would have been rather foolish, and a lot less fun, to go in the spring, when Kaylie was tiny. Really, beaches are not infant friendly places. They're too hot and too sandy for tiny babies. But at 6 months, it was perfect! The day was beautiful, the girls were very good, and we all had a good time.

Brandon and Elora played in the water. I'm not a strong enough swimmer to feel comfortable taking her out there, so it made more sense for me to stay with Kaylie. He took her out there twice, and even with the water spraying in her face (she normally hates that) and even though she was shivering cold, she didn't want to come out of the water.

We all played in the sand. Even Kaylie managed to get her hands on some, despite our efforts to prevent it. Elora couldn't even wait until we actually got on the beach to start playing. She squatted down right by the car, started playing in the little bit of sand there. (I was too busy putting sunscreen on Kaylie to get a picture.) She had a very thorough bath last night, but I'm pretty sure she still has sand in her hair.

While Elora played in the sand, Brandon and I took turns keeping her company and entertaining Kaylie on the blanket. She's getting good with a bottle, and getting better at sitting up. I worried about her getting too much sun, especially in her eyes, but I couldn't keep the hat on her. Next time, we need to bring an umbrella.

Before we left, we asked a fellow beach-goer to take a family picure for us.

And on the way home, we stopped at a mom-and-pop seafood restaurant for dinner, where stuffed ourselves silly on a sampler platter for two (Elora nibbled on it too). It was a good day.

6 Months!

2011-09-12T21:32:00.001-04:00

Kaylie hit the 6 month mark on Saturday, and to celebrate, she got her first taste of solid foods! (I'm not counting the time a few months ago when Elora tried to share one of her goldfish crackers with her sister.) I put a piece of watermelon in one of these and helped her get it in her mouth. The watermelon got mixed reviews.

Elora, on the other hand loves watermelon. She requested it specifically when we were at the store, and she asked so nicely that I very promptly put one in the basket. It's all gone now.

We also got a new car seat for Kaylie this weekend. Target had an awesome baby sale going, and had their MyRide65 car seats marked down from $160 to $100. That's the seat I'd planned to get for Kaylie anyway, so I went ahead and grabbed one on sale even though she hasn't quite outgrown the infant seat.

I'll probably go ahead and switch over now, anyway. It's a pain to get her in and out of the infant seat, and she's getting too heavy to tote around like that. We'll just keep it rear-facing for a while.

T-shirt Re-Do

2011-09-11T23:31:00.002-04:00

So many things to blog!! I'll try to break it up, but I'll be posting a lot over the next few days.

I've been wanting to try sewing on knit for a long time, but I've been too chicken to do it. I finally decided to cut my teeth on something that wouldn't matter if I fouled it up. I found a pain green t-shirt at the Salvation Army (Tuesday is military discount day at the lone up the street, how cool is that?) for 50 cents, and snatched it up without even trying it on. When I got it home, I decided to play with it. I also had a shirt of Brandon's that he was going to throw away, because it had been ripped when a dog jumped up on him.

It sucks about Brandon's shirt, because it was one of his favorites, but I'm salvaging what I can from it. Anyway, the green shirt was a little tight and I can't stand to have anything tight around my neck, so I started by cutting the bottom hem off of the grey shirt, and the neck out of the green shirt. Then I stitched the already-hemmed-strip around the new, still-raw neckline.

It turned out alright, and was definitely much better, but it was still tight around the arms so I played some more. I cut one of the sleeves off, then folded the shirt in half and used the first side as a guide to cut the second. I cut another strip from around the bottom of the grey shirt, and found that it was long enough to do both arm holes. I folded it in half long-ways, and stitched it on the same way that I did the neck line.

It's so much more comfortable now, and is kind of cute too! It doesn't quite lay right, either because the green shirt was stretched out to begin with, or because I goofed something when I was adding the grey trim. I don't care. I plan only to wear it to bed, or around the house with the girls, and it gave me the opportunity to get a feel for working with knits. I'm calling it a successful endeavor. :)

Milestones!

2011-09-08T21:57:00.002-04:00

I got my video camera charged and started taking video of the girls about 2 weeks ago. Last night, I downloaded a nifty little video editor, and now I can share my videos with you.

Kaylie is now sitting up unaided for short periods of time, and she's started getting up on her hands and knees and rocking. She'll be crawling very soon, and I am not anywhere near ready for it. Why does it have to go so darned fast???

Enter Kaylie

2011-09-06T23:48:00.001-04:00

I might have gone a little crazy.

New Wheels

2011-09-06T12:12:00.001-04:00

We spent the holiday weekend car shopping. The plan was to do some leg work now, then buy a car in December, unless we found an amazing Labor Day weekend deal that was too good to pass up. Well, we found one!

It's a fully loaded 2011 Ford Edge. It was more expensive than I'd wanted, but it was the car that Brandon really, really wanted, and it really was a great deal, so we went for it. I think I was charmed as much by the immediate gratification as anything else. It has been hard only having the one car, because I've been unable to run errands or make doctor's appointments unless Brandon was off, or could get off, from work. (We've had to cancel a lot of appointments because he wasn't able to get away.) And to have a car big enough to seat all of us comfortably!! Brandon and I will actually be able to put our seats where we want them, rather than moving them uncomfortably close to the dash to accommodate the car seats in the back. Not to mention the generous cargo space in the back, for strollers, groceries, and whatever else we want to put back there.
Oh, it is so very exciting! Just this morning I had to take Elora to see the doctor (minor, but persistent, cough; she's fine), then we went to the Salvation Army store next door to look for treasures (Tuesday is military discount day), and this afternoon we're going to run to the grocery store.

And all before Brandon gets home from work. Hooray!

A Few New Pages

2011-09-01T21:12:00.002-04:00

Natural Disaster Week

2011-08-26T21:25:00.002-04:00

Doesn't that sound dramatic? Natural Disaster Week. It's a bit misleading, though. Brandon experienced a slight tremor in his building at work during the earthquake, but the girls and I were oblivious to it. I had no idea that we'd had an earthquake until a good 2 hours after the fact.

Brandon said that this is pretty much the same as his experience of the earthquake as well. It was subtle enough to make them all wonder if they'd really felt what they thought they'd felt. His text to me said "I'm not on any drugs, but I think we just had an earthquake."

And then there's Miss Irene. Earlier this week we were expecting to tangle with a category 3 or 4 hurricane this weekend. Thankfully, the storm has lost strength as it moved north and now they're projecting that it'll be down to a category 1, or even a tropical storm, by the time it reaches us. I haven't relaxed completely yet, and I'm not going to until after the storm is well beyond us, but at least my stomach and shoulders have returned to normal. In the mean time I will continue to prepare and pray that our hurricane experience will be as uneventful as the earthquake.

PS: Irene passed by us on Saturday. We fared very well; we never even lost power. Yesterday was a gloriously bright, sunny day, and today promises the same. I think we're going to the beach.

Rug Making

2011-08-24T17:11:00.002-04:00

Back when I was pregnant with Elora, I learned about rug hooking and decided to make a rug to go on the floor in the nursery. I ordered an entire roll of rug warp ( I just know Corinnea was thinking I was crazy for that one), cut a bunch of fabric into strips, and got busy making a 45"x54" rug. I spent only a few days on the project before I got bored with it and moved on to something else. It then sat untouched for almost three years, until I pulled it back out a few days ago. I put several hours' more work into it, and started another, much smaller rug to put in my kitchen. Or maybe by the back door.

I have this much done so far, and would like to continue working on it, but Elora has misplaced my locker hook. In an attempt to find it, I straightened the living room and the den, moved and cleaned under all the couches and checked all the cushions, to no avail.

This is what my living room looked like an hour after straightening it. It looks like this pretty much all the time. Unless it's worse. Actually, it's usually worse. Anyway, I'll need to check in all her toy boxes next, to try to find that hook. I'm sure I'll find it as soon as I put the rest of the stuff away and move on to another craft.

Kaylie started rolling over about a month or so ago, but I just got around to trying to get it on camera today. I got some good pictures of her, though none of them are of her rolling. I did get some video; if I can figure out how to get it on the computer, I'll share it with you.

August 26: I found my locker hook this morning, when I was cleaning in the girls' room. Elora had dropped it in her catch-all basket. I've already gotten another dozen rows done. :)

New Shelves & Adventures in Toddlerland

2011-08-22T11:57:00.003-04:00

There has been a giant clutter on Brandon's desk, and a giant blank space on the wall above Brandon's desk, ever since we moved in. Then, my computer died, and Brandon's desk suddenly became our desk, and both things started to bother me more than they had before. This is not to say that my desk (now my full-time craft table) was never cluttered, because is often was. Is. But it always reaches a point at which I have to clean it. Brandon's desk was at that point.

The answer?? Shelves. We had a gift card from Home Depot that we hadn't used, and I thought this the perfect opportunity to get it out. They had just the thing: black shelves with decorative silver brackets, to match his desk. He hung the shelves Saturday, and today I moved the paper bins and wooden puzzle box up off of the desk, and raided our box of homeless decor items. Then I cleaned the desk. I really like the results. I think the shelves could be a bit lower, but they were such a pain to hang that I'll not be asking him to move them.

Oh, so much better!

Life with the girls is always interesting. I was here at the computer, checking my e-mail Saturday morning, while Kaylie played in her exersaucer and Elora went back and forth between watching tv and playing with her sister. Out of no where, I hear Elora say "Oh, Kaylie, you look so beautiful!" I look over and see that she'd put her Firehouse hat on Kaylie, and I laughed. Kylie turned toward me at the sound, and I saw that Elora had put her sunglasses on her as well.

Oh. My. Word. I had to take pictures with my phone and the camera, it was so cute. Then, today, I left Elora at the table in her high chair to eat while I fed Kaylie. The child loves peanut butter, and often eats it by the spoonful, so I thought nothing of leaving her with a spoonful of peanut butter. This is what I found when Kaylie was done.

~~My first impulse~~ Let's just skip that. I snapped a few pictures, and got her cleaned up. I tried wet wipes first, but gave up and just put her in the bath. I didn't want to reward that behavior, so I didn't let her play. It was just get in, get clean, and get out.

Ugh. What in the world possessed her to rub the PB all over like lotion? Maybe because it is a bit like lotion. Especially Kaylie's Cetaphil... Oh well. I'm sure I'll be able to laugh about it, later.

Maybe tomorrow.

I've Been Busy

2011-08-16T22:09:00.001-04:00

Who knew that running a small Etsy shop would be so time consuming?? I've been putting all my spare time into mine. I've been ordering supplies, making jewelry, listing new items, itemizing materials, and...shipping orders! That's right, I finally made my first Etsy sale. It took a while, but then I made 2 sales in one weekend. Hooray!

5 Months and Peguy's Visit

2011-08-11T20:11:00.001-04:00

Little Miss Kylie is already 5 months old, and growing growing growing! She's growing and changing so fast, I can hardly keep up. She went for a check up on Monday, and is as healthy as can be. She's up to 16 lbs 11oz, and is 26.5" tall. That puts her in the 90th+ percentile for both weight and height. (In other words, she's heavier and taller than more than 90% of other babies her age.) She's still exclusively breast fed, but we'll be starting her on solid foods next month. She cut her first 2 teeth only a few days apart in the past week or two. She's getting more stable when sitting up every day, she's started scooting herself backward when on her tummy, and she can roll almost all the way over--she just gets her arm stuck underneath her.

Peguy came down to see us again last week, and we had a really great visit. Neil stayed home this time, but Tyler came with her, and she brought along her cousin, who is visiting from London. It was a very lazy couple of days, in that we didn't really go anywhere or do anything. But, sine we had a 2 year old, a 12 month old, and a 5 month old to look after, I'm not sure that "lazy" is the right word. We spent a lot of our time refereeing between Tyler and Elora. If the experience taught me anything, it's that we need to wait at last until Elora is in kindergarten before having any more children. :)

We went for a walk late in the day on Friday, and ended up at the little neighborhood play ground. All three of the kids got to swing, but we had to cut our play time short when it was discovered that Tyler needed a clean diaper. (It wasn't until we got back that we realized that Elora needed one too.)

It's crazy...when we met 4 years ago, we were both newly arrived in Germany. Neither of us had children. I'd already been bitten by the baby-bug, and Peguy was telling me that I was crazy to want a baby so young. Now she's in Maryland, I'm in Virginia, and we both have kids. Where will we be 4 years from now??

My Second and Third Entries

2011-08-03T14:12:00.001-04:00

I made time today to put together 2 more entries for the MADE blog header contest. Kelly was adventurous with her designs, and started from scratch. I chose to use photos from the Made blog, and I did my best to make headers that would blend with the overall style and feel of the blog for which they're intended..

The third one, in particular, is quite a departure from my normal style. I would love for her to select one of my designs (the photography book she's giving away is particularly appealing to me) but entered more for the fun and experience of designing for someone else. I think it was good for me to work outside my comfortable little box. :)

MADE Blog Header Contest and New Pretties

2011-08-02T23:35:00.001-04:00

I'm entering the Made blog header contest! Here's my first entry:

Each person can enter up to 3, and I plan to enter 2 more, but first I have to find an opportunity to design them. Thanks Kelly, for the heads up on this!

A recent special order had me going through my beading supplies to take stock of what I have, and what I needed to order. Seeing all of my beads left me with ideas rolling around in my head, so I just had to set aside the sewing machine for a bit and make some jewelry. I'm pretty sure that this is the first time I've made any jewelry since we moved here, which is crazy! My fingers remembered what to do, but I've lost my callouses. Oh well. Anyway, look for these pretties in my shop. :)

Learning to Knit

2011-07-31T11:02:00.001-04:00

My first "real" attempt; I'm not counting my initial learning bits.

Rebekah and I took a Beginning Knitting class this past month, and along with the other two ladies in that class, we've decided to take a knit-a-cowl class in August. Knitting is one of the few skills my grandmother couldn't teach me as a child, so I'm kind of excited to be learning it now. Even more exciting is that Brandon is staying home with the girls during these classes, so I'm getting the opportunity to get out of the house and spend some time with other adults.

Happy First Birthday, Cecelia!

2011-07-27T17:05:00.001-04:00

I made another cute little smocked dress for my "niece" Cecelia, this time in yellow gingham. Now that she has it, I can post it!!

She's promised me pictures of her wearing the dress, I'll try to post them when I get them.

Furious

2011-07-26T20:13:00.002-04:00

My grandmother's house was burglarized yesterday. She and my dad had gone out to lunch, and surprised the kid before he was done, but not before he'd ransacked the bedrooms. He managed to make off with some jewelry, a ton of quarters (she's been trying to put together multiple State quarter collections for years, for the grand- and great grand kids), and a gun, among other things.

It wasn't my home, but I feel violated all the same. When my dad was telling me about it, I felt helpless and angry and heartbroken. I have so many cherished memories there from childhood. Everything in that house, every room, is tied to some memory of mine. I used to sit for hours on Gramma's bed and oh-so-carefully go through her jewelry box, trying everything on and modeling it in front of the full-length mirror on her bathroom door. To think that some punk kid went prowling through her house, rifled through her things, and unceremoniously dumped all of her jewelry into a back pack makes me livid.

The good news is that he didn't find my grandmother's wedding rings, as they had at first feared, and he didn't have time to find any of the other valuable items he might have if they'd been gone longer. The best news is that neither my father nor my grandmother were hurt. Daddy might have been, if the burglar hadn't been able to escape out the back door like he did. If he'd had to go back through the house to escape, he'd have run smack into my dad. That meeting would not have ended well.

They did see him as he was running out of the back yard, as did their neighbor, so they had a description to give to the police, who found 4 good finger prints left behind by the burglar. What's more is that this kid has been seen riding around that neighborhood many times before, so there's a good chance that he lives near-by. It's not very bright of him if that's the case, but it will make the detective's work easier. I sincerely hope that they get him, but it's very unlikely that my grandmother will get any of her things back.

I'd really like to throttle this kid, whoever he is. Not only did he have the effrontery to invade my grandmother's home and steal her things, but he even flipped my dad off as he was riding away. The icing on the cake? Daddy is now afraid to leave Gramma alone, so he's canceled the visit we'd had planned for August.

Alabama Highlights

2011-07-21T12:38:00.002-04:00

Now that we've been home for 2 weeks, I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of our trip to Alabama. How does time go by so fast??

Elora and Papa exploring the garden.

We spent about a week out at Mommom's farm. And, I do mean "farm". A couple of years ago, she bought a small, 10 acre farm with a house and a barn on it. It was trashed and over grown, but she and her children have cleaned it up and made it into a truly lovely place. Each of her 3 sons now has an RV or trailer on the property, and Mommom herself now lives in the house.

Some of Mommom's produce.

She has a very large garden that supplies them with all sorts of lovely yummies for the table, and a pen full of chickens to keep them in fresh eggs.

Elora and Gigi feeding the chickens.

Tiffany (cousin) collecting fresh eggs.

Chicken fun fact #1: the bald ones are the hens most favored by the roosters. The bigger the bald spot, the more "favored" the hen.

A lot of what we ate while we were there came right from the farm. Like this delicious country breakfast. My mouth is watering, just looking at this...

The first part of the visit was oppressively hot. The sun was brutal...we kept Elora slathered in sunscreen (Kaylie stayed in the shade) but she still acquired a gorgeous tan.

Elora and Uncle Jamie.

Of this non-rocking horse, Elora said "it's not working!"

Kaylie and I pretty much kept to the shade.

Late in the day on the Fourth, we got an intense thunderstorm with high winds and hail that we worried would rain out Mommom's party. But it quit raining by 6, and cooled things off enough to make the evening very nice. It rained a little bit every day after that, which kept things much more moderate. The party on the Fourth was another great success, despite the rain. There were a ton of people there, including some party crashers that no one knew. Mommom had 3 of her sisters there, so we made sure to get a picture of them together.

Nelda, Nita, Fran & Paula

We got to catch up with a lot of family and friends that we rarely get to see, and we had a great time doing it. I'll let the photos talk.

Late nights. (Dawn, me, and Staria.)

Must-have-coffee mornings.

Uncle Stan and Kaylie.

Aunt Sheila.

Fun with Gigi.

Fun with Aunts Carrie and Dawn.

Relaxing in the hammock.

Brandon's personality perfectly captured in just 4 photos.

Aunt Dawn and Kaylie

Jeremy and Casey.

Aunt Tammy and Uncle Todd

Papa!

Tony (one of Bran's childhood friends) and Sam (Carrie's college roomate) will be getting married next summer.

I have no idea what inspired that face...

Thomas.

Krystal and Thomas. They took most of he pictures that I didn't take.

Like this one.

Paul and Krystal.

Matt

4 generations: Mommom, Staria, Brandon, and the girls.

Another set of 4 generations: Mommom, Sheila, Krystal and Thomas.

Aunt Mel, Staria, Jimmy, Mommom and Carrie.

Elora passed out next to her "uncle" John after a hard day of playing.

Brandon, John, Tony, Jeremy and Matt are "The Guys". They've all been friends since high school, and though various members of the group have moved here, there and yonder, they've all stayed close. This was the first time all 5 of them (6, if you count Brandon's brother James, which they do) have all been together in years. I'd wanted to get a shot of all of them together, but it just didn't happen. Maybe next time.

Wow, that's a lot of pictures. But then again, I started with about 2500.

Pillow Re-Do

2011-07-15T13:45:00.003-04:00

Before

I didn't particularly care for the pillows that came with our couch set, especially since they matched nothing in my house. I've been wanting to re-do them for as long as we've had them. I've been going through my crafts stores recently, and found the perfect thing among the fabrics that Mommom gave me while we were in Alabama last year. The only problem was that it was a sheer netted fabric, and I needed something to go with it. I went with Rebekah and the girls to JoAnn's the other day, and scored some brown/beige lining fabric exactly the color of my couches on clearance for just $2 a yard. Happy dance!

After

The original pillows were only wonky on the front; they were backed with the same material as the couch, so all I had to do was to take the old ones apart, set aside the front piece, use the back piece as a pattern to cut out the new fabric, and sew it all back together.

Awesome, right? I now have two professional-looking pillows which exactly match our couch set AND the other decor in the room. Thank you, thank you Mommom, for the fabric!!

In my sewing frenzy, I've started on curtains for our back door, but the fabric is such a nightmare that I can only stand to work on them a little at a time. I've now been ignoring them completely for 2 days. Instead, I pulled out that big blue "mermaid" purse I made last spring and tweaked it. I'd decided that I didn't like the zipper I put on it because it made the top awkwardly stiff, and I'd made the shoulder strap without any interfacing and it was entirely too floppy.

So I got rid of the zipper and replaced it with just a loop-and-button closure, and remade the shoulder strap with interfacing. Then I made a matching pouch to go with it.

Now they will live in the spare room closet until Christmas time.

The Mysterious 'New Project'

2011-07-12T09:54:00.003-04:00

Is a memory book for Brandon's grandmother. I took the combined pictures from our 4th of July party last year, designed a simple page template, and put it all together. Now that she has the book, I can post a sample here without ruining the surprise. :)

I'll be doing another one for this year. :)

Elora Meets Microphone

2011-07-11T08:15:00.003-04:00

I got a ton of amazing pictures while we were in Alabama for Mommom's big Fourth of July party, but my lap top died. The good news is that the hard drives are ok, so I can get all of my stuff off of them. Here's a little something to entertain while I'm trying to get myself organized.

Elora already liked to pretend that she had a microphone, using a maraca or her finger, thanks to Sid the Science Kid. Then she got her hands on a real one.

Now she loves microphones. We're going to have to get her one.

Gerber Photo Search

2011-07-07T23:46:00.005-04:00

I entered my girls in the 2011 Gerber Generation Photo Search and the voting has begun! Please, please, please follow these links and vote for my girls! You can vote daily, so please vote as often as you think of it! Thanks for your help!!

Elora: entry ID 164192

Kaylie: entry ID 164209

July 11- I can't get the links to work, so I got rid of them and added buttons to the side bar, to make it easy. The buttons definitely work for me, let me know if you have problems with them. Thanks everyone!

Papa's Father's Day and Birthday

2011-07-03T11:38:00.001-04:00

Elora painted a coffee mug for her Papa for Father's Day, but he didn't get it until we saw him in Alabama, She also painted a little plaque for his desk for his birthday, which is at the end of July.

He also got that while we were in Alabama. He's Texan...can you tell?

Super Easy Pleated Pouch

2011-06-30T13:19:00.001-04:00

I've had this tutorial linked in the side of my blog forever, but I just haven't gotten around to doing it, until now. And now, I'm kicking myself in the bum for not trying it before! It's an excellent tutorial, the pouch is fun and easy to make, and the results are adorable. I made this one last night, for myself.

Then, this morning, I was telling my sweet mother in law about it, and how I wanted to make more, and she volunteered as a recipient. I said Yay! and proceeded to make another one.

Then I had to put my sewing machine away, because I have a ton of things I need to do to get ready for our trip. (Did you notice that I am now posting to my blog, rather than working on that "ton of things"? Maybe I should get on that.) I want to go on the trip, but I did not want to stop sewing. I'll be posting more of my recent labors soon.

In the mean time, have a safe and wonderful Fourth of July weekend everyone! Happy Independence Day!!

My First 2011 Scrap Pages

2011-06-27T12:06:00.001-04:00

Now that I've finally wrapped up 2010, I got started on 2011.

I'd intended to do more before posting them, but I got derailed by a new project.

Father's Day, and Other Stuff

2011-06-21T12:34:00.001-04:00

We spent most of Father's Day just lazing around, because that's what Brandon wanted to do. He did want to go out to dinner, though, and since he was in the mood for seafood, I poked around online and found a few local seafood places. We ended up at Rose Bay here in Chesapeake. The food was good, if a bit over-priced.

Elora smiles and says "cheese" for the camera, now. It's an hilariously awkward, fake-looking grimace, but I love it.

It was my idea to get a little dressed up, and good man that he is, Brandon humored me even though it was his day and not mine.

Cool story: On the way to the restaurant, Elora saw one of these:

and she said "S-T-O-P, stop!" Brandon and I looked at each other for a moment in stunned surprise, then started laughing and praising her. I'm telling you, my girl is crazy smart.

As I mentioned before, I made Elora's blue dress longer than I meant to, and when she wore it on Saturday, I realized it was too long. Yesterday, I hauled the sewing machine back out, chopped 5" from the bottom of the dress, and added a yellow ruffle. I'm liking the results.

The ruffle doesn't exactly match the yellow ribbon I used for the belt, so I'm chalking this up as another experiment. I'm not sure if anyone else will even notice. Maybe I shouldn't have pointed it out? I also wanted to show a size comparison between the dresses I made last summer, and the ones I made this year.

Both were made to fit Elora, and to fall at mid calf. The green one, made for Elora at 17 months, now fits Kaylie and falls to her ankles at 3 months. I wonder if Kaylie will continue to grow so fast???

Another Dress, and the Christmas 2010 Series

2011-06-19T10:56:00.002-04:00

I made another little dress for Elora! This one came out a lot better than the other one, because I learned from the mistakes I made on it. Overall, it's the same design. This time, though, I included the belt in the construction of the dress instead of just tying it on her afterward, and I was a lot more careful about my hems. (It's amazing the difference that ironing makes, and I knew that! I have no excuse for not doing more ironing on the first one.) I did mix up the measurements, so it's longer than I'd intended it to be, but that's no big deal. All in all, I am thoroughly pleased with my results.

Anyway, I also got straps put on the green dress that I made last summer. Elora didn't exactly cooperate with me when I was trying to get pictures, but Kaylie did!

Both girls got to wear their new dresses yesterday, as we went to another cookout hosted by one of Brandon's friends. Sadly, I have no pictures from this event. There were a bazillion great photo opportunities, but my battery died as soon as we got there and I didn't have the charger with me. I didn't get to take even a single picture. I must be obsessed with taking pictures; I felt naked and incomplete without a functioning camera.

This morning, I finally got the last of my Christmas 2010 scrapbook pages done. I got the Santa page done 3 or 4 weeks ago, but I've been putting off the rest because of the sheer volume of pictures. In the end I decided to do a different spread for each portion of the family. When I print the books, Bran's family will get the Gager spread...

...my mom's family will get the Wright spread...

...and my dad will get the Buckner spread.

My book will have all 3. If I ever get around to printing one for myself, anyway.

Elora's Dress

2011-06-13T10:35:00.004-04:00

Faded Daydreams action from thecoffeeshopblog

My mom gave me some gingham fabric back when I was pregnant with Elora, with the intention that I should use it to make things for her or for the nursery. I never did anything with it, though, and I've been toying around with ideas for it lately. So, I went a little crazy yesterday, and turned my computer desk into a sewing station. It made me nuts not to have my computer set up, but I so enjoyed the sewing I did, that it didn't matter.

Faded Daydreams action from thecoffeeshopblog

I decided to make a little another little smocked dress for Elora. She never really got to wear the ones I made last year, but they'll work for Kaylie this year. Kaylie is a lot bigger than Elora was at 3 months, and while she isn't nearly as big as Elora was at 15 months, she's big enough that the dresses look ok on her. (I'll photograph the dresses side-by-side later, for comparison.) I have three more gingham fabrics to play with, and lots of elastic thread, so I think I'll be making more of these...for both the girls.

Winner!

2011-06-11T21:47:00.003-04:00

Thanks for your comments, everyone! I used random.org to randomly choose my winner:

Rogue Woman said...

Long necklaces work so well for me and

I really think that they are more in style

right now. Congrats at getting your shop

open!

Congratulations to Rogue Woman!! Please contact me with your shipping information, and I will get this in the mail sometime this week. And since pretty much everyone voted for "long necklaces" I'll even lengthen it for you!! (If I don't hear from you by next Saturday, I'll select a new winner.)

These are a few more of the things I have available in the shop, and I'll have more up soon!

Locked Out

2011-06-10T15:52:00.003-04:00

I had something of an adventure this morning... I'd gone outside to bring the trash can in from the street, and when I tried to come back in, I found myself locked out. I knew I hadn't locked myself out, because the knob was turning. It seemed as if the dead bolt had been locked, but Elora isn't tall enough to reach it. Right?

Reaching for airplanes.

Anyway, I couldn't get in, and I knew all the windows were locked, so I ordered myself not to panic, walked next door, and asked to use the phone. I called Brandon first, which was pretty silly, in hind sight. He was too far away to be able to help. I went back and tried to get in one more time, going so far as to slam myself into the door several times in the hopes that there was only something blocking it, and that I could force it open. I still couldn't get in, but I could hear Kaylie crying, and I could see Elora's frightened face. I repeated my order not to panic.

Back at the neighbor's, I called a lock smith, but they said I'd have to wait at least 25 minutes. I said no thank you, and called the police. They had an officer at my house within 5 minutes. He couldn't get it open either, so he went to check the windows while we waited for the fire department to get there. By some miracle, he was able to open the first window he tried. I was a little embarrassed that it had been so easy, and that I had to climb in through the window in a skirt, but those feelings were completely eclipsed by the relief I felt at being able to get in to the girls.

Once assured that we were all ok, the neighbor and the cop left. I called Brandon back to let him know I'd gotten in, then I shook and cried and hugged the girls. I fed Kaylie. I called my mom. Eventually, I stopped shaking and calmed down. I checked all the windows, and found that they had all been locked, but on that one, the locks hadn't engaged properly. I never thought I'd be so grateful for an unlocked window. Personally, I believe it was by the grace of God. If we'd had to wait for the FD, they would have been alone longer, and there's the possibility that Elora could have been hurt in breaking down the door, and we would have had to replace the door... I never thought I'd be so grateful for an unlocked window!

Apparently Elora is tall enough to reach the deadbolt. At this point, I'm fairly certain that's what happened. I took her to the door to see if she could reach it, and she proceeded to turn the lock right in front of me. I can assure you, I'll not be leaving the house without my keys any more, not even to check the mail or get the trash can.

PS: The pictures are completely unrelated. I just wanted to share them.

Summer Fun

2011-06-07T11:11:00.003-04:00

On Memorial Day, we went to the pool with my friends Rebekah and Josh, and then we came back to my house to make burgers.

We had Rebekah take a picture of all four of us, but Elora didn't exactly cooperate. (She was mad that we weren't getting back in the pool.)

This past Saturday, we went to a cook out with some of Bran's co-workers, and their families. Brandon forgot to tell us there would be a pool, so poor Elora was wearing a borrowed floaty vest and a borrowed pair of boy's swim shorts to play in the water. She had fun, and it didn't matter that we didn't have suits because she only wanted to play on the steps.

This time, Elora let us get a nice family picture, though she still didn't smile.

Kaylie is getting so big, so ridiculously fast. The days are just melting away, faster than I can keep up with them. Anyway, she's already big enough to use the exersaucer, though her feet just barely touch the bottom. So crazy!!

If you haven't already, don't forget to enter the give-away in my last post! I've extended the deadline until Saturday!

Grand Opening Give-Away!

2011-06-02T13:44:00.004-04:00

All Wound Up has finally opened its doors on Etsy! So far, I have only a few things listed, but I will be adding many more over the next week or so. To celebrate the grand opening, I'm giving away this little beauty to one lucky reader!

It's a fun, simple 15mm pearl drop pendant on a 16" antiqued brass chain, with a matching lobster claw clasp. To enter, just leave me a comment on this post, telling me what necklace length you prefer to wear: Do you like short, choker style necklaces? Mid-length necklaces that fall between the collar bone and the bust line? Or long necklaces that fall below the bust line? You have until noon on ~~June 7~~ June 10 to enter! I will choose a winner at random that afternoon. Good luck, and remember---go check out the shop!!

At Long Last!

2011-05-29T23:05:00.004-04:00

My Etsy shop will officially be opening its doors in June! I was going to wait until then to say something, but I'm just too excited. Be on the lookout for my grand-opening give-away!! I'll post the details here, once the shop is up and running. :)

Kaylie's Name Plaque & Veronica's Box

2011-05-24T11:46:00.010-04:00

I dragged out my paints and brushes last week to make Kaylie's name plaque (I did Elora's last spring) and I ended up painting a box for my niece as well. These pictures aren't the best, maybe I'll try to get better ones later.

Digi scrapping is fun, and has been keeping me sane, but sometimes I need to do something hands-on, with tangible results. I was waaaaaay overdue for some hands-on crafting. It was worth it to have my dining table look like this for 2 or 3 days.

I ran to the store by myself on Sunday, and this is what I came home to.

And this is from this morning.

My Kaylie girl loves to smile, but it's hard to catch her smiling with the camera. As soon as I bring it out, she stops smiling to stare at it curiously.

For All the Disney Fans

2011-05-23T21:35:00.002-04:00

My husband shared this with me today, and I thought it was amazing! I smiled through the entire thing, and laughed-out-loud a few times. I had to share it, too. Enjoy!!

Santa/Red Dress LO

2011-05-16T22:21:00.004-04:00

I got this LO nearly finished yesterday, then decided that I didn't like the color scheme. I saved what I had, and came back to it today. I kept the overall design the same, and only redid the colors. I like it sooooo much better now. :)

What shall I scrap next?

A Gathering of Gagers

2011-05-14T18:11:00.004-04:00

Warning: This is a family-photo-heavy post!

We were quite happily invaded by Brandon's parents, and his brother and sister-in-law this past weekend. The visit was far, far too short (only 4 days), but we had an amazing time while they were here.These are the photo highlights.

Brandon and James always have a good time together. (I hope Elora and Kaylie will be such good friends!)

Elora loved having all the extra people to play with, especially her Gigi. As I said, the visit was way too short. But, we'll be going back to Alabama again this summer for his grandmother's July Fourth party, and we'll get to see them there, along with most of the rest of Brandon's family. Yay!

I got another page done!

2011-05-13T18:56:00.004-04:00

New Page, New Title

2011-05-11T14:22:00.000-04:00

Now that we've added Kaylie to the family, I can't very well continue to call my digi scrapbook "the Elora Book", but I'm at a loss for what to call it instead. I could just call it The Green World, and at the moment, that's what I'm leaning toward. Unless, of course, one of you can come up with something better. Please leave your suggestions in the comments, even if it's only to vote for "The Green World" as the new title. Thanks!

Kaylie's Announcement

2011-05-07T20:34:00.001-04:00

I finally got Kaylie's birth announcements done.

Ironically, I did them this morning, even though we have a houseful of visiting family here. Or maybe not so ironically, since I currently have 4 extra pairs of hands in the house. Pictures from the Gager family visit, up next.

Eternal Calendar, September-December

2011-05-04T19:20:00.003-04:00

It's done!

Eternal Calendar, May-August

2011-05-03T21:46:00.001-04:00

Kelly said "yea" to the vellum, and "nay" to the lines, which is cool because I liked it better with the vellum, too, and I didn't feel like making the lines. Here are the next 4 pages.

Eternal Calendar

2011-05-02T15:42:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine has been looking for an eternal calendar to keep track of birthdays and anniversaries, so I offered to make one for her. I'd already made the keepsake calendars for Merryn and Peguy, so I knew I could just adapt them to this new calendar. This is what I have done so far.

I put a "vellum" mat on the February page, just to show what it would look like. I was also thinking of adding lines for writing in each of the date blocks, and in the "notes" spot. What do you think?

Generations LO

2011-05-01T08:38:00.003-04:00

Is it too hard to read?

Family Fun

2011-04-29T22:46:00.002-04:00

Here's another photo-heavy post, this time about what we've been doing over the past couple of weeks. :)

Elora likes to play guitar with her dad. Sometimes they both play, sometimes she just sings and dances while he plays. We're going to have to make sure that she really learns to play at some point. It's something of a Gager family tradition. :)

We took the girls to the playground again.

Bran and I took turns with them, one of us playing with Elora and the other hanging out with Kaylie in the shade.

We've been playing outside at home.

My mom bought the hat while she was here, and Elora just loves it. For that matter, so do I!

And we've been watching Glee on Netflix.

I love my family. :)

Spring Portraits

2011-04-22T21:20:00.001-04:00

When Elora was born, we shelled out the cash to have professional maternity and newborn photos done. They're amazing, and I would have loved to do the same again with Kaylie, but it just wasn't in the budget this time. So while mom was here, we took apart the den and rearranged it into an improvised photo studio. My pictures are no where near as good as Leslie's, but they'll do. These are my favorites:

I need to just go ahead and sign up for some online photography courses. I really enjoy doing it, and I would love to have a better idea of what I'm doing.

My Mom's Visit

2011-04-20T09:06:00.002-04:00

My mom came up to see us at the end of March.

Brandon and I are still operating with only one vehicle, so Mom rented a car to give us some mobility while she was here. It was great that she did! There wasn't a day that she was here that we didn't go running around, at least a little bit. I was still fatiguing quickly, so we would go out for a few hours and come back to the house to just hang out and play with the girls.

One of the days, Rebekah came over and went with us to check out a little pottery studio in our area. Neither Mom nor Rebekah painted anything, but as it turned out, the girls and the cameras did a perfectly good job of keeping them both occupied.

I helped Elora paint a Father's Day gift for my dad,

and we got some footprints from Kaylie.

The ones that I did are barely recognizable as baby feet, but the ones that the guy did turned out great. I think I'll let them help me from now on.

We had a great time! I wish we'd taken more pictures, but we kept forgetting about our cameras. Mom was only here for a week, and it went by way too fast. At least now that we live closer, it will be easier for her to come and visit. :)

Elora's Birthday

2011-04-17T10:59:00.003-04:00

Not surprisingly, I'm way behind on posting. A lot of my time and energy goes into keeping Kaylie fed, clean and diapered. Most of what doesn't go to Kaylie goes to Elora, and Brandon and I get whatever is left over.

I'm loving it. But I know the family has been asking for news and pictures, so I thought I'd make time to catch up a bit, starting with Elora's birthday. She got a HUGE box of goodies from her Gigi and Papa a few days before her birthday.

On her birthday, we made cupcakes...

...we sampled cupcakes...

...we picked out and set up her new aquarium...

...and we sang Happy Birthday.

Then, Oma (my mom) took Elora birthday shopping while she was here, Rebekah continued her campaign to keep Elora in fabulous shoes, and we'll be having an official party for her when Brandon's family gets here. Elora is well on her way to being Seriously Spoiled, if she isn't there already.

Homecoming

2011-03-19T12:18:00.002-04:00

Our goal was to get out of the hospital sometime Saturday morning, and we made it---but just barely. Kaylie's discharge came through with out any trouble, and if it had been just her, we would have gotten out of there a lot earlier. They hemmed and hawed a bit about letting me go, but in the end they told me to just make a follow up appointment and sent us on our way.

Kaylie's discharge weight was 7lbs 4oz. It surprised me that her weight had dropped so much, but she's steadily gaining it back. (I took her for a weight check on Monday morning, and she was already back up to 7lbs 8oz. She has another one this Monday, to make sure she's still gaining like she should be.) She looks so teeny tiny in her car seat; it's hard to remember Elora being dwarfed like this.

When we got home with Kaylie, Elora came running to greet us at the door. Or, more specifically, she came running to greet her baby sister.

I had no idea that Brandon had gotten all that on video with his phone until later, but I am so glad that he did! I look terrible--please pay no attention to me in the video. But I had to share it, it's just too sweet not to.

helping Daddy play Fable II

Since then, we've just been lazing about, getting to know one another and adjusting to the changes in our family. Brandon is on paternity leave until next Friday, which has been wonderful. He's gone out of his way to spend time with Elora, making sure that her needs are met and that she hasn't felt left out so that I have been able to rest and focus on Kaylie. We trade off when we can, but resting and nursing has taken up most of my time.

Elora seems to be adjusting well, so far. We were told to expect a "honeymoon period" of about two weeks before Elora starts to get bored and jealous. We're about halfway through that time now; I wonder how it will go?

In the Postpartum Ward

2011-03-17T23:12:00.001-04:00

They got us moved over to the Postpartum ward around 10 or so, and Rebekah got there with Elora round 1. (The intervening time was spent with my new nurse, getting the run down on what to expect, and getting lunch.) I wish I had a picture of Elora as she was first walking in. She had a bouquet of roses clutched in one hand, a bunch of balloons in the other, and she had a huge smile on her face as she said "Mama!!!!!" It was so sweet I almost couldn't stand it. But if my head (or my heart) were going to explode from over-exposure to extreme cuteness, the hospital would be a good place for it, right?

Elora was immediately taken with her baby sister. She wanted to touch her, and kiss her, and identify all the parts of her face. Then we let her "hold" Kaylie, with lots of help from me. After that, that's all she wanted to do. She kept holding out her arms and saying "Hold it!" (She's now learned to say "hold her".)

The three of them stayed until 7 or 8 that evening, and then they had to leave. Both Bran and Rebekah had to work on Friday, and while Brandon could have stayed with me, Elora could not. I'd expected to spend the night catching up on rest, but that just didn't happen. Between feeding Kaylie, and the endless parade of doctors and nurses throughout the night, I didn't sleep much. Fortunately, though, I did get to sleep in the morning.

Brandon didn't fare much better at home. Elora didn't sleep well, and so neither did he. He told me that she woke up screaming for me in the middle of the night, and pulled him from room to room in the house looking for me. (It made me feel warm and fuzzy that she missed me, and terrible that she was so upset, all at the same time.) Then they --yes, they-- were up at 5, getting ready for work. Brandon had a few things to wrap up in the class that he was taking, and in the absence of someone to keep Elora, he had little choice but to take her with him. He did what he needed to quickly, then headed home to change out of his uniform and to wait for the morning traffic to die down before coming back to the hospital.

He and Elora got there shortly before 11, and spent the entire day with me. I was excited for them to get there-- not only because I'd missed them, but also because I finally got to take a shower once Bran was there to keep an eye on Kaylie. I always fell better after a shower, but I don't think that I have ever felt so refreshed and rejuvenated by a shower as I did that day. (Except, perhaps, my first shower after Elora was born.)

Elora was so good! It's hard enough for an adult to be stuck in a hospital room for hours, let alone a (nearly) 2 year old. She played with "my" balloons, she watched the little mini TV, she teased to hold Kaylie. Late in the afternoon, Kaylie took a nice long nap in her bassinet, Brandon fell asleep on the pull-out cot, and Elora climbed up on the bed with me and fell asleep drinking her juice. I was the last one to fall asleep, but it gave me a chance to look around at my family and enjoy the moment. I think it's one of those that I will treasure for a long time to come.

Rebekah and Josh came by Friday evening to visit for a bit, and they took Elora with them so that Brandon could stay with me that night. I was worried about Elora being without us again, but it was wonderful to have Brandon with me all night. We fell asleep that night curled up together, and I can't tell you how nice it was to be able to snuggle up to him without my giant belly in the way. I think it did the both of us good to be able to just hold one another for a while. And, as it turned out, Elora and Rebekah were fine.

Hearts for Japan

2011-03-17T22:00:00.000-04:00

My friend Jenny over at Pearlswirl Journals has has a big heart. She's designed these sweet little Hearts for Japan necklaces

and all proceeds from the sale of these necklaces in her Etsy shop will be donated to aid in the relief efforts. Even better, all proceeds from all sales made in her shop during the next month will be donated as well. You can check out the details on her blog or at her Etsy site.

Labor and Delivery

2011-03-16T12:17:00.002-04:00

I didn't go into active labor on my own, so we went back to the hospital and checked into Labor and Delivery around lunch time on the 9th. By mid-afternoon, they had me settled into a L&D room with the Pitocin running.

We had Elora with us all afternoon. She was really good, considering that we were there for 3 or 4 hours without any of her toys (we'd thought she'd be in a day care facility, until they told us we could keep her with us) before Rebekah came to pick her up. Rebekah stayed to visit for a few hours, then collected Elora and headed to the house for a slumber-party.

Sometime around 8, I think, the anesthesiologist came in to do my epidural. About an hour after that they broke my water. The rest of the night was just a waiting game, punctuated by dilation checks every few hours (those were a lot more pleasant after they got the epidural going, let me tell you!) and frequent adjustments to the fetal monitors because Kaylie wouldn't hold still.

Brandon and I both slept between interruptions, which surprised me. I was having regular contractions, but thanks to the epidural, I was only aware of them if I paid attention. Brandon didn't even realize that I'd finally gone into active labor until I was ready to start pushing, because I was so relaxed. When it was time to push, I felt completely serene. That didn't last through the whole delivery, but it lasted through most of it, and it was wonderful.

I started pushing at 6:25 on the 10th; Kaylie was born at 7:08. My serenity evaporated in the last 15 minutes or so, to be replaced by agony. I'm not sure if there was a problem with the epidural, or if I'd become accustomed to it, or if it's always that way, but it wasn't at all fun. They ended up calling the anesthesiologist back in to give me something stronger after she was born because I was in so much pain. I can't complain, because it was only about 30 minutes to an hour out of hours and hours that I could have been hurting, but wasn't.

I don't believe I have ever been so grateful to live in our age of modern medicine. I cannot imagine going through that without the security of well trained doctors and effective pain control. If anything, that 30 minutes taught me to be even more grateful.

Brandon was great through the whole thing. He was very quiet; he just held my hand and did as the doctors and I directed to help move things along. He saw a lot more of the process than I'd intended for him to see, but I ended up not minding and neither did he. He got to cut the cord when she was born, which is something that he didn't get to do with Elora.

I do wish that things had been a bit calmer after she was born. There are no pictures of him holding her, and I hate that. We had a good hour after Elora was born for just the three of us to sit and spend time together once they finished my sutures, and even then, Brandon held her next to my face while they did that, so it went really quickly. This time, it was completely chaotic. There was the afterbirth to see about, I was in a lot of pain, and there were a ton of people in and out of the room taking care of things. (Apparently, I delivered her right at shift change time, and that accounted for a lot of the confusion.) Once things finally died down, I started to shiver uncontrollably. They piled heated sheets and blankets on me, but I continued to shiver so badly that I could barely talk, much less eat or try to hold or nurse Kaylie. Then it was time to move to the postpartum ward, and we had to get all checked in and settled there...

But that is for another post. The important thing is that my Kaylie girl is finally here, and my little "fambly" of three is now officially an fambly of four.

Introducing Kaylie Renee

2011-03-12T22:34:00.001-05:00

Born 7:08 am on March 10, 2011

7 pounds, 15 ounces; 20.75 inches.

We're home now, so I will be able to post more--tomorrow.

My Last Pre-Baby Post??

2011-03-07T17:38:00.006-05:00

So much for coming out of the weekend with a baby. I'm still pregnant and still antsy, but all I can do is wait. I have my last (!) prenatal check up tomorrow afternoon, and since the doc made it clear last time that I need to deliver before my due date, I know that we'll be scheduling an induction at that time. They may even want to get me checked in right then and there, so I'm going to bring my bag just in case.

Unless I go into active labor on my own before then. But, since I've been in latent (and sometimes false) labor for the better part of a week, with no signs of progressing any further, I'm not going to hold my breath. Either way, though, my next post should be filled with pictures of the new baby Gager, with her name featured in the title. (No promises on how soon that'll be, you might have to be patient.)

***March 8 Update: As of this afternoon, I've dilated to nearly 4cm, and the doc is optimistic that things will progress on their own. If they don't, and I haven't gone into active labor by about midday tomorrow, he said to come back and check into Labor and Delivery, and they will help to movie things along. So it looks like one way or another, I'll be having this baby in the next day or so.***

The delay, though, has given us time to get the nursery done! (Well, for now, anyway. I have a few things in mind for down the road, but I always have a few things in mind. I'm just excited to have gotten done everything I wanted to before Elora's roommate arrives.) Here is 360° around the room, starting at the closet and working around to the left.

There are still some pretty glaring bare spots on the walls; we'll fill those in as time goes on. The wood toy box (made by my grandfather) is full of stuffed animals and baby dolls.

The dresser I picked out got here on Tuesday, and Brandon got it put together that night. It matches the crib perfectly! (I was a little worried, since I'd ordered it online.). I do wish that I'd spent the extra $40 and gotten the 5 drawer dresser, but this one is working out fine. He put those white shelves up for me last night, and I finished getting all the knick-knacks situated this morning.

Eventually, I'd like to replace the changing table with one that matches the crib and dresser. This one is pretty beat up, but for now, it serves the purpose. I'm hoping to get to a pottery shop shortly after the baby gets here to get a plate made with her foot print, to join the lonely-looking plate and canvas up above it. The bottom shelf is now home to the 2 canvas toy bins: one for Elora's toys, and one for the baby's.

This is the corner that still needs its second coat of paint. We'll get to that, one of these days. The growth chart was in the latest box of goodies from Gigi, too cute! I had to hang it right away, and then get Elora's first measurement (just over 32") on there.

This ~~book~~ toy shelf will probably end up out in the hallway, right outside her door. We have some more things coming up from Florida, and we're definitely going to need to shift some things around to make room.

Things Are Happening!

2011-03-04T21:09:00.001-05:00

As of Wednesday afternoon, I was 3cm dilated and the doctor said she could feel the baby's head in place. Since then, I've been having periodic contractions, and a whole host of "early labor" symptoms, but no signs of active labor. It feels like I must be getting close, but that could just be because I'm getting antsy.

Really antsy. I've packed my bag for the hospital, packed a little diaper bag for the baby, done the laundry, changed our sheets, re-read the labor & delivery section of What to Expect, resisted the urge to clean the floors, and done a lot of resting. Tomorrow, if I'm still waiting for active labor to kick in, we're going to the Commissary to stock the pantry and freezer. (Otherwise, Brandon will go on his own. I know we should have done that before I got to this point, but this kind of sneaked up on us. After all, I'm not due until next weekend, and this is our regular stock-up-at-the-Commissary weekend.)

Anyway, chances are very good that we will come out of this weekend with a baby. We haven't chosen her name yet, so we will be announcing that along with her birth. All love, luck, prayers and blessings sent our way will be welcomed!

Sara in Germany LO

2011-02-27T00:01:00.006-05:00

I'm on a roll. :) This one actually goes right before the Ritter Sport LO I did before.

And this is what I decided to do with the Halloween spread I posted last time; thanks for the comments and suggestions!!

Halloween LO

2011-02-26T09:45:00.001-05:00

I got this one done last night. What do you think, with or with out the little witch on the left?

Brandon likes it with the witch, but I just can't make up my mind.

Happy Birthday to Me!!! and A New Digi LO

2011-02-25T16:00:00.001-05:00

Tuesday was my birthday, but I've been having a whole birthday season. I've been getting cards and packages in the mail all month, and even though some of it has been for the baby, it still feels like it's for me. :) We got the car seat last week, the stroller came Wednesday, and the dresser should be here today. I got a giant box containing a super soft, super cozy, pale green blanket for our bed and some new towels to match my newly painted bathroom from my wonderful mother-in-law last Friday, I got the box of Girl Scout Cookies I ordered from my cousin's daughter on my birthday, we ordered my new glasses (and dropped my wedding ring off to be repaired) on Wednesday, and the box from my mom got here yesterday.

On my birthday, Brandon came home from work early because I had another OB check. Usually, he stays home with Elora but this time they came with me to keep me company. On the way back, we stopped by Lowe's to try to exchange the broken fan, and even though we had no box or receipt (it was purchased by the guy who remodeled the house, shortly before we bought it from him), they swapped out the motor unit for us and sent us on our way. How's that for great customer service? When we got home, Rebekah came over and brought me a slice of my favorite cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, and stayed here with Elora so Brandon could take me out for a romantic dinner. He'd found a restaurant with incredible reviews only a few minutes from the house, so we tried that. The reviews were spot-on; Passion is a very elegant little restaurant with a decadent menu and superb service. It's too pricey to be a regular haunt, but it's perfect for a special night out. We were stuffed after dinner, but he still took me to Applebee's for their brownie-a-la-mode; it's my current favorite, and it's perfect for sharing with someone.

Oh, my, word. Can we say spoiled??? Thank you to everyone who contributed to spoiling me, I love you!

I just did this today. I have 2 more LO's in mind that I want to do, and my goal is to do them before my little one arrives. My countdown says that I have 15 days; she's the only one who knows what her countdown is at. :)

Play Time!!

2011-02-23T19:18:00.002-05:00

On Saturday, Brandon took apart the fan and light fixture in our bedroom to see if he couldn't fix the fan. As it turns out, he couldn't, because the motor in the fan was completely blown, so I got this box out to contain all the parts and pieces until we figured out what to do about it. Obviously, though, Elora believed that I got the box out for her.

What is it about boxes and baskets that make them so irresistible to kids and cats? Han and Elora both will get into any container left on the floor, if there is even the remotest possibility that they'll fit in it. (The laundry basket is a favorite.) I remember being equally fascinated by them when I was a kid. So much fun to be had.

Anyway, this is what happened once we got the fan in the box, and shut away in the guest room:

I love to watch them playing together like this. He tickles her, and throws her, and swings her, and flips her, and she just laughs and laughs and laughs. You know, a child's great big belly laugh, the kind that is so absolutely contagious that you'd have to be dead not to laugh too. And then to see the delight on his face in being able to make her laugh like that, I just love it.

Monday we took her to the park. It isn't all that far from the house; it's too far to walk, but it's only about a 10 minute drive. She was rather timid at first, and just walked around the perimeter of the playground with her fingers wrapped around Brandon's.

But then she saw other little people like her. She's so social! She said "Hello!" and "Bye!" to everyone she saw, and chatted with anyone who stayed still.

Brandon started out by putting her at the top of the small slide, and she did that a few times. Then she did some exploring and discovered the big twisty slide.

Then she did a bit more exploring and realized that she could climb up to the top all by herself. After that she wasn't interested in doing anything else, and she definitely wasn't interested in any help in doing it. Brandon shadowed her as she climbed, and I sat on the side near the bottom to keep an eye on her as she ran back around. The best part?? I got to see this every time she came down:

The more she did it, the more static-y her hair got, and I just kept cracking up. It was great until time to go home. We were only able to stay about 45 minutes, and she was no where near ready to leave. Next time, we will make sure to go at a time when we have more time to play. I'm hoping for more warm weather soon. It was 73° on Monday; yesterday and today, it only got up to about 40°. It isn't nearly as fun to go out when you have to bundle up to do it. More Spring please!!!

A Taste of Spring

2011-02-18T22:18:00.002-05:00

Brandon took Elora for a walk while I was at my OB check on Monday. This is what I found when I got home:

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous for the past few days, and we've done our best to get out and enjoy it.

The high for today was 76°F. We went for our walk in short sleeves, capris and sandals, and we opened all the windows in the house.

Brandon found this little playground the other day when he went for a run, so we went to check it out. It's way at the back of our housing development (and I mean waaaaaaaaaaaay at the back) so I strapped her in to the umbrella stroller instead of letting her walk. It was fine on the way there, but she was not happy about getting back in it for the walk back. Oh well.
I'm really excited about this little play ground. I just ordered my double stroller today, and I can see myself bringing the girls out here together often this summer. Perhaps I'm being too optimistic in thinking that I can handle seeing to the little one and playing with Elora, but darn it, I am going to try!

We're coming down to the wire, when it comes to this baby. As of Sunday I have only 3 weeks until my due date. Things are coming together, though. The car seat got here yesterday, and along with the stroller, I ordered a dresser and crib mattress pad today. I still want to get a bouncer and a new changing table, but those things can wait. A little at a time, right? It will be a huge relief just to get the dresser in there, and all filled up. They should be here in a week, I can't wait!