Entropy

Blanket's new nickname is Entropy. He takes anything he can get his hands on and makes the biggest mess possible with it. I helped him with this mess. I put the blocks on the stool one at a time, and he knocked them across the room. I remember Tiger went through this phase and I didn't like it at all. I have accepted the mess this time, but I will be happy when this phase is over.

Blanket has another new nickname: Scooter. He doesn't crawl, but he has finally learned to scoot around on his bum. He pulls with his hands and wiggles his feet. He can get as far as he wants, but it takes a long time to go anywhere like that, so he mostly stays in the same room. This new skill makes him a more dangerous disaster maker.

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Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to You, You, You.

My Baby Blanket is 1 year old today.  I promise to post pictures of the party and the boy after all the craziness happens today and tomorrow.  I did want to take time to remember my Blanket, when he was so tiny.  I miss him that small.

Happy

"I'm happy.  I'm sick!!!"

That's what I said after I got off the phone with my doctor yesterday.  I never thought that I would be so happy to have a diagnosis.  After being miserable for a few days I had actually started to feel a little better yesterday, not right, but better.   I know the doc told me the official name of what I have, but I don't really remember.   It is some sort of amoebic parasite.  Supposedly, it is really common if you drink the water in the mountains.  Every year a handful of people along the Front Range (the name for the area that I live) get it although they didn't drink the water.    Officially it falls in the "amoebic dysentery" category, but I am not that sick.  In fact, I feel better just in time to pull off Blanket's birthday and Thanksgiving.

I do have to take 10 days worth of medication I have to take.  All is not perfect, but it is looking  a lot better.  

I am glad I asked to be screened for botulism.  Although that is not what it turned out to be, it is that wide-spectrum test that found my illness.  I am not sure I would have the patience at this point to keep looking for a cause.  I am thankful for medication and for a diagnosis.  I am happy even if I complain about how nasty my medicine tastes.

Malaise

Sorry, I have been missing from blogland lately.  Thursday I woke up very lightheaded and feeling like I had food poisoning.  Since then I have not been feeling myself.  I still don't feel right and need to go back to the Dr. before I feel worse.  I haven't had much to blog about and promise to write more when I feel better.

Frankenfinger (grossness follows)

I'm sitting here looking at my finger in its new form.  The last of the sliced skin has been removed and I have been contemplating my new "frankenfinger."  I noticed that most of the repaired area of skin is still void of fingerprints, though they are starting to develop out where the old joins the new.  I notice that I am missing most of my feeling in the repaired flap, but right at the tip of my finger all the nerves work overtime.  The Dr. did warn me that it may take a year to regain total feeling in the repaired part, and until then I would have strange sensations as the nerves find each other again.  It does appear all the bruising has cleared up and blood flows normally again.   It is still very grotesque so I am not ready to take a picture of it yet.  I will post one when I feel it has normalized more.

Maybe the best part is: it will make a great conversation piece for the rest of my life!

The Contest.

I am still running my contest through the end of November.  I am still looking for more entries. I will choose two winners.  One boy name and one girl name.  Hurry and get your entries in befofre it is too late!  If you have already entered please make sure that you have requested a prize in case you are the winner.

My year's supply at work.

Most of you who read this are aware of the admonition to have a year's supply of food and other neccessities for your family.  Thursday, Tiger helped me realize that some of it can be saved and used at the same time.  

I have heard of people making end tables out of 6 cases of #10 cans or other ways to store it and use it at the same time, but I couldn't believe what Tiger did.  I gave him 2 rolls of paper towels to restock the kitchen with.  He started stacking them up "to build a tower."  I gave him the rest of the Costco pack to build with.  He knows they are "wipes" but they are "blocks" until they are unwrapped.

They have been towers, trains, walls, and pillows over the last 3 days.  Endless fun with "food storage."  Who knew?
This was my project this afternoon: homemade finger paint.  It was really easy.  I got the recipe here.  I did the original one because I thought that cooking it would give it the consistency I wanted.  The only thing I would add is cook it just until the mixture turns to pudding.  It happens really fast and it takes longer than the directions say it will.  I used food items that I had on hand for "food storage."  It isn't toxic and is made with food coloring, cornstarch, sugar, salt and water.   Your kids can eat it and you don't have to worry about what chemicals it was made with. 

I am so excited to try it out.  Tiger saw it before he went to bed and he really wanted to play with it too.   I don't know how well it is going to go though.  He doesn't like gooey things on his fingers and is always wiping PB on his shirt while he eats his sandwiches.  Maybe I'll give him an old shirt to wear to avert disaster.

In other news, today I took the boys outside to play and was raking leaves.  Tiger wanted to help so I raked him a really big pile to run through and to unrake.  I raked a small pile around Blanket.  Normally he eats leaves when there is only one or two near him, but being seated in the middle of a pile was enough for him to make a "leaf angel" and shriek wildly about how much fun it was.   I reraked the pile around him a few times to continue the fun.  Tiger helped me fill a garbage can with leaves.  His favorite part was getting to jump on the leaves to tamp them down.  He was such a big help and didn't even care about getting to "play" outside.

Election Reaction

I have much to say on the topic that I could say here, and much more that I think should be said on my other blog so I said it all over there.  Please follow the link to continue reading.  Click here, here   here

here   

 or  here.

4-4-4 Tag

This is from the summer we spent in VA. This is from the little trip we took to the Sandbridge area of Virginia Beach. It was late afternoon on a Saturday in May.

These are the rules:
1. Go to your pictures.
2. Upload the fourth picture from the fourth folder.
3. Post.

Iff'n you feel like it do it again.

Vanishing Act

The vanishing act really started as an "appearing" act. Our friend (Herrod) asked if we could put up his parents overnight while they drove across the country. That was a couple of weeks ago. I remember because 2 hours after they vanished I cut my finger. The whole situation was a little wierd, but we did have 2 days notice, sort of. L and K did say they would need a place to stay on the way back (whenever that was going to be).

At 5:00 pm on Halloween B.A.R. tells me L and K are arriving in an hour. I was a little put out because I had already made dinner for us (and not them), my house was still a disaster, I had lots of unfolded/dirty laundry. The appearance of L & K was so going to put a damper in my holiday. Then the other shoe drops.

B.A.R. says that their car needs to be fixed. FIXED? Are they staying with us until it is fixed? I'm so going to kill Herrod for this!! They had borrowed Herrod's Ford Focus for the trip and B.A.R. works for the blue oval, so he has tools to diagnose this problem.

He finds out that it needs a fuel pump, and that we can definitely get one on Saturday. :)) So while I am trick or treating with the boys, and passing out candy after we came back, B.A.R. is out in the garage making a smelly, grimy mess getting the tank empty and the pump out. BTW: my garage and washer still smell like gasoline.

At 7:50 am he leaves to go get the pump (another nightmare) and returns at 8:45.

At 9:30 am I put Blanket down for a nap and a movie in for Tiger. I commit the vanishing act and go to get my stitches out, finally. I wish my stitches had joined in the vanishing painlessly. When I returned at 10:15, L & K were gone (and Tiger had just figured out that I had vanished).

HOORAY HOORAY for B.A.R. That car couldn't have been fixed any faster if we had taken it to the dealer to get it fixed. He made them disappear just 2 hours later than if they weren't having car trouble.

B.A.R. suggested that Herrod and his family come visit us for Christmas as payment for fixing his car. Can I make them vanish too?