November 2008

November 02

Just wanted to say....

check out Jerry's blog.  He's (finally) updated it and (I feel) it's worth reading!   Sorry... the link should be right now... sigh...

 

November 03

My six month old!

Holy Monkey!  Grace turned 6 months on Saturday.  I can't believe that these 6 months have flown by.  So the ladybug and I went to her 6 month well child check this morning and here are her stats:

Height: 25.75 inches (50%)

Weight: 17.4 pounds (75-90%)

Head: 17.5 inches (50%)

She's all good, except for her eczema, which is super bad.  So we got an prescription for that and some advice on other ways to treat it.  Poor thing her skin is all torn up and blotchy.  She got 3 shots and was a brave little girl.  She just woke up from her nap and has been fairly happy all day with only one dose of Tylenol.

We had a great weekend.  We went trick-or-treating on Friday and went to a party on Saturday and went for a visit to Jerry's folks yesterday.  Jerry took off today and tomorrow.  Today for Grace's appointment and tomorrow we were supposed to go to preschool day at the fair, but since it's going to rain they changed it to Thursday.  That sucks!  I just don't think that I can manage both kiddos by myself.  Mostly, because I don't think that Elijah will ride the rides without me.  Oh well, I suppose there is always next year.

I'll post pics later.  Right now, I'm being requested to play in the floor!

November 04

YES WE CAN!!!!!!

Holy crap!   I'm so excited!  History has been made and hopefully our country will turn around!  AMAZING!

November 05

The Day After (edited 7:03 11/5)

Can't Believe that my mother e-mailed me at 1:06 this morning!  I think that's the latest I have ever seen her stay up (that I can remember!)  It's awesome!  This morning I got a call from her and Rachel.  It is a great day!

I know that my republican friends are not as excited, and I am sorry.  But I was thinking.  Many have a problem with this whole insurance thing.  Do I feel that insurance is a right?  Well, I think it's a privilege.  Like your driver's license is a privilege.  Like privacy is a privilege.  I think that it's a thin line.  I think that many take for granted that they have health insurance provided by their work.  But what if you loose your job and have a pre-existing condition?  What if your child comes down with leukemia?  What if you're a smoker and your insurance company decides that you are thigh risk and they stop covering you?  I wonder then if there would be the same complaints.  So I hope that my skeptical friends will find the peace of mind they need.  I'm very happy with the outcome!  I am glad that there is actually an educated person stepping into the mess that is Washington right now.  Jerry has several blog entries in process, and I am sure they will be worth reading regardless of your point of view.  I know I read everything from all sides.

I will say that the dark cloud of today for me is California's vote to ban gay marriage and Arkansas's vote to not allow "unmarried" (I'm reading gay couples) to adopt or foster children.  It simply breaks my heart.  It is not my business who marries whom, and I don't think it should be up to the government to decide.  I think that if anything it should be left up to the church, but in reality, even that perturbs me.  And I won't go on about the fostering/adoption thing except to say that there are soooo many unwanted children in the US, that if people are going to be all PRO LIFE IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO... then they better freaking start adopting and fostering kids.  If there is a loving family or person that wants to help children why the HELL should they not be allowed to do so.  It pisses me off a bit.  The only glimmer in this is that it could be soooo much worse is Palin had ever made it into the controlling chair (Lord, please help us in 2012) but that is merely a glimmer in this sad saga.

On to happier things.  We went to Kate's house for a play date.  I had to stop to pick up some bread to go with the apple/pear butter.  As I got Grace out of the car, I realized that she had had a blow out...sigh... So I put her down on the already soiled sling and changed her in the car, only to find that there were no wipes... sigh...thank goodness for extra diapers.  Poor thing.  She had to have a whole clothes change and wipe down...with only a diaper...  While, on normal days, this would have put me in a foul mood and I would have cussed (in my head of course) the missing wipes, my whole mood through the whole thing was actually okay.  I mean I was annoyed, but I just am on this cloud.

Our state is still purple.  Even though Obama leads in the actual count by 11000 votes, they are calling it 50/50.  But I so don't care.  Dole is out of office (thank God!!)  and hopefully there is hope for our state to make some changes as well.  Okay, I must be off to add some pics real quick and get outside to play with the kiddos before it's dark (STUPID DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME!!!! sigh...)  Have a most joyous day!

November 07

The Fair among other things

Yesterday Jerry took the day off and we all wen to the fair.  It is a challenge for us to leave the house before 9:30 on any given day, but, amazingly, we were out the door by 8:45!  The fair here has a preschool day.  It's for kids 5 and under and their teachers or parents.  It was supposed to be on Tuesday, but since the weather was crummy they rescheduled for Thursday.  That worked out in our favor.  It seems that many of the area preschools decided to not reschedule, so there weren't that many kids there.  The fair only had the small rides open and the animal tent was open.  I was a little worried that Elijah wouldn't ride the rides without me, but after a couple, he was excited to do it on his own.  We rode almost every ride twice.  A drink and snack were included in admission, so we didn't have to worry about anything.  We put Elijah in a diaper because port-a-potties that haven't been cleaned in a while were not appealing to me.  But his diaper was dry when we got home.  I guess my little guy is growing up.  On the way out, Chic-Fil-A was passing out coupons for a free kids meal, so lunch was a big hit too!  I'll add an album with fair pics in a few.

So, for a while I have been feeling overwhelmed.  I really do love being a mother, but with Elijah reducing his nap to next to nothing and being with Grace 24/7 I have not been the best mother I feel I can be.  I feel like there is a lot of pressure to be this perfect mother and have the house clean and the food cooked.  It's not anyone in particular that puts this pressure on me.  It's mostly myself.  But I feel bad when I get upset with Elijah for doing something that is completely a toddler thing to do.  Anyway, it all came to a head a couple weeks ago.  I just feel really overwhelmed.  So after talking to Jerry and my folks, we have decided that when we go up for Thanksgiving, the kids and I will stay for a couple weeks.  Jerry will come back up to pick us up in mid-December.  It's not ideal.  Ideal, would be Jerry staying with us, or my folks moving down here... But having someone to help with the kids for a bit will be great.  I'll also be up there for the Christmas in the Valley Fair, in which my mom and I are sharing a booth.  So that's exciting.  I hope this helps me get things in perspective.  It's been nerve wracking with the prospect of grad school looming.  That whole process is sort of a pain.  I have to take 6 undergrad courses and in order to get into these courses I have to e-mail the department head on a certain day with my GRE scores and my GPAs from WWC and UNCW and the first 20 people who do that get into the on-line classes... it's all very odd.  I need to do some follow up work.  This is one of the many things I hope to get accomplished while I'm in the mountains.

I guess that's really it.  I'll go post the pics of the fair.

November 18

Colder than a polar bears toe nails...

That's one of my favorite lines in a rap...hehehehehe! But it's rather fitting today.  I don't mind the cold, but here it also gets windy and that's what I don't like.  Nevertheless, we ventured outside for a little playtime this morning.  Elijah came down with yet another cold this weekend and so we are staying at home for a bit.  He's feeling better, but I don't want to infect other kids with my kid's cold.

This weekend we were supposed to get the kiddos pics made, but alas, alack... I really didn't want a snotty nosed pic.  So we will go this coming Sunday.  Jerry worked Saturday and will work this coming Saturday as well so he doesn't have to take PTO for Thanksgiving.  A friend of mine lent me the first two books of the Twilight series... seriously bad idea.  I stayed up really late to read them.  I totally got sucked in (no pun intended...well, maybe a little!)  Jerry compared them to a good bag of Doritos...you just can't put them down.  It's not even that the writing is great or even that original, there just addicting.  I'm hoping to get the other two books before we leave for Thanksgiving.  I'm also hoping to see the movie Saturday with some friends.

I feel like I've been lazy about blogging lately.  But I guess it's because I'm sewing and knitting my butt off for the craft fair.  I have made several new designs.  I have some socks coming in to make more baby leg warmers (I hope they get here before we leave!)  I've designed some blankets, new hats, and these little teether/snuggle things.  I'm pretty excited about the fair.  I hope that it goes well.

Okay... I got some really good pics of the kids today and I'm going to post those, then off to make lunch!

November 28

The Mountains for Thanksgiving

So we left for the mountains on Wednesday.  I really don't know what I was thinking deciding that we should leave on the day before a MAJOR holiday.  What was I thinking?  We have to drive through major ACC country and EVERYONE knows that colleges are insane and play ball on the day before MAJOR holidays...sigh... We got stuck in traffic outside of Raleigh and outside of Chapel Hill.  But all in all, it wasn't too bad.  We stopped around 5 to eat and wait out rush hour.  Only to get in the car an Grace freak out.  We pulled over at a rest area and I nursed her to sleep and put her back in the car and continued to drive.  Elijah feel asleep about an hour before we got here.  Overall, it wasn't too bad.  We made it in 7 hours.

Thanksgiving Day, we really just hung out around the house.  I made cookies and a pumpkin mousse trifle for today.  It was good to just have the day to acclimate and rest.

Today the fam arrived.  I think we ended up with 22 people here.  It was nice.  Elijah and Grace were overwhelmed, but handled the day really well.  We ate (too much) really yummy food.  We took a walk in the woods and came back to too many choices for desserts (had to try them all!)  The weather was actually pretty good.  It started off chilly, but warmed up to a balmy 60 degrees.  It is going to get bleeping cold tomorrow and possible snow on Monday, but that's okay.  The kids all played.  Elijah is only 10 months older than the youngest cousin, but they are still too little to really play with the older kids yet.  This will come about within the next couple of years though.  We did some Christmas gifts and then, after everyone left, relaxed.  Elijah passed out quite quickly tonight since he didn't take a nap today.  Grace fell asleep fairly easily as well.  Overall, a good day.

Tomorrow, Jerry and I are going to try to get out to see a movie and dinner (new place in town that does both at the same time).  I have to get my fill of him in since he leaves on Sunday for two weeks!  This is the only thing that I am not liking about this plan...Jerry's absence.  I will miss him desperately.  To the point that it hurts to think about it.  But I really do need some time to relax and have some help during the days.  I am excited about the festival and I hope to make some money.  Double edged sword I guess...

Okay... that's it for now.  I am going to try to blog a little more while I'm here, so hope to be back here soon!