Reasons for my absence

These are my extended absence excuses.

1. I have 3 children that are home all day and demand my attention (refereeing) most of that time.
2. Blanket got potty-trained.

3. Mac army crawls.

4. I read 19 books last year.

5. I sewed and sewed and sewed (see upcoming post).

6. I watched every episode of Glenn Beck since June. Most from my DVR while I sew.

7. I survived Christmas, and all the preparations.

8. Mac had a baby blessing (way back in May).

9. I haven't slept 8 hours in a row in more than a year and a half. I am generally tired.

10. I keep finding interesting books that I don't have time to read or even listen to (audiobooks).

11. We are painting our main floor and spent all of last week painting all the walls save one (I don't think I can take the TV down w/o breaking it so B.A.R. is asking his coworker to help him move it, paint behind it, and put it back).

12. It seems like Mac has had a cold since Labor Day (save a week or two) and has been cranky, consequently.

13. I have been following the news, not writing my own.

14. I stayed up all night watching election returns. No, really.

15. I applied for, and obtained a CHP. I even went to the courthouse twice.

16. Two of my kids had birthdays.

17. I made a Halloween costume.

18. We did family pictures in October.

19. We replaced 2 couches and a chair with a sectional (free of course)

20. I looked high and low for 2 chronically missing toys (parts to shape sorter and alphabet toys) without finding them.

21. I found the two missing toys deep in the recesses of my mauve lay-z-boy (a month or so after the great toy quest). I also found a tube of neosporin, 2 spoons, a pencil, a sucker stick, a dozen Q-tips and lots of unmentionables.

22. We disposed of the Lay-z-boy before it could hide any more treasures.

23. I changed out all my kids clothing for the next size (Tiger 5t, Blanket 2t, Mac 12 mo)

I hope to blog more regularly in the coming months, but I realize I am a busy mom who likes sewing and reading as much as blogging (and sometimes more).

Mommy, I want to go there! {pointing fingers}

I often get this remark when we drive by the toy store (on our way somewhere else) or when we drive by a friend's house or generally anywhere they enjoy being, and recognize. Blanket, however, said this to me this morning before I had gotten dressed.

He ran up to me and pointed at my shirt "Mommy, I want to go back there!" I looked down to see what shirt I was wearing and saw him pointing at the IN-N-OUT logo on my shirt.

My response: "I really want to go back there too. I am glad you remembered."

I miss living in IN-N-OUT country.

Turn about is fair play

If you don't know, my kids LOVE adult cereal. Grape Nuts, raisin bran, frosted mini-wheats, and granola. Seriously, I am the one who eats Cheerios, and B.A.R. eats Froot Loops and Lucky Charms. This is necessary information for the following story (which just happened).

Tiger and Blanket like to eat granola without milk for snacks/meals. Earlier today Tiger poached the unfinished granola out of Blanket's bowl while Blanket was napping (saving his own unfinished for later). I refilled the bowls after Blanket woke up. The fresh fillings went 80% consumed (normal). A couple of hours later (just a few minutes ago), Tiger was playing somewhere else and Blanket took Tiger's unfinished granola and poured it into his own bowl. Tiger returned and complained to me (in his whiny way) that Blanket had stolen his cereal. I explained to him that I had no compassion for his situation as he had done the same thing to his brother only 4 hours before.

Now I'm off to make Mac 'n' Cheese for them for dinner.

Out with the old...in with the GOLD

Make new friends,

and sell the old.
one is silver,
and the other (Pueblo) gold.
Or, as B.A.R. calls the color, "baby poop brown."

Meet the newest member of the family:

• It weighs twice as much as the Jetta
• It has 3 times the power.
• It seats 8 comfortably instead of 5 uncomfortably.
• It gets 1/3 the gas milage.
• "Mama new truck" is the topic of conversation around here with the little ones.
• It is 2 years newer and sports 3 times the milage of the Jetta.
• It barely fits in the garage.

One of many changes to come.

Change in Life

No, not the Change of Life just changes in life. You know, when things happen to change the direction your life is going. Things that change some of the choices you make on a day to day basis. Changes can be good, but nonetheless mean you have adjustments to make and new things to get used to. These changes have been taking up much of my time and most of my attention these last few days since I got back from vacation and found my routine again (sort of). Thus, I have not been blogging. As my life changes I am sure I will disclose more about my changes, but for now it is just change.

Note: This is not Hope for Change, nor Change for the sake of Change. Both of those topics belong on my other blog.

On Discovering Yummy and Becoming Truly Coloradan

A couple of weeks ago we (the whole family) went up to Evergreen, Colorado to return a meat grinder we had borrowed.  Since we were that far from home, and that close to Idaho Springs we decided to head on up to Beau Jo's for lunch.  I was going to order kid food for the kids, but Tiger was sure that he wanted pizza, so we just ordered the Motherlode to share.   Beau Jo's is good pizza and good whole wheat crust.  They actually have a bottle of honey on every table to top your crust.  It was good lunch.  Just ask the boys.

I gave Blanket a crust to munch on, and he had a bite or two before he demanded honey for his crust.  Yes, he wouldn't touch the crust until I had duly dabbed each piece with a touch of "yummy."   Then Tiger got in on the action and asked for "yummy" on his whole pizza. 

My kids are now truly Coloradan, they love Beau Jo's and they have to eat it with honey.

There is another benefit to this discovery: they want "peanut butter and yummy" for lunch everyday.  I used to make PB 3 times a week or so.  I usually left out the jam because it made a mess, and didn't increase sandwich consumption.  Now, PBH is eaten without complaint day after day.  In Tiger's words, "With yummy please."  At least now my honey won't get crystallized before I use it all up.

Random happenings about the house.

Tiger has a new word for "yes."  This goes very well with his "not really" and "maybe not" instead of "no."  He says "of course."  I asked him the other day if he wanted his breakfast and he answered, "Not Really."  B.A.R. asked him a few minutes later and he said, "Of course!"   "Yes was a word he did not want to learn.  He rarely says it, even now.  Usually it is "Ok," "that's great," or some other phrase of agreement.

Blanket failed to take a nap the other day and so was extremely tired at 4 o'clock.  I figured I would give him dinner and put his pajamas on that way he could go to bed on a full stomach as soon as he was ready.  He ate about half his dinner and then fell asleep in his highchair.  (Sorry there is no photo.)  He had one hand hanging over the bowl and his other grasped a spoon.  His head flopped to one side and he snored quietly.  After about half an hour he stirred and lifted his head. He then put his hand in the bowl and continued eating.  I was reminded of the scene in Disney's Sleeping Beauty when the spell is broken and the king wakes up and continues his meal and conversation right where it left off.  I WISH I had it on video it was priceless.

Missing.

Yes, I have been missing.  Absconded?  No, just not in that blog frame of mind.  Feeling like I have lots of little things that could be blog worthy, and then not at the same time.  The Christmas guests and excessive vacation time that B.A.R. gets left me all out of sorts, and out of ideas.  I have been reading quite a bit, and gaming a lot more. I did finish a sewing project, and should share that.

I have been planning a post for next month for some time now, and I think that my thoughts on that are really interfering with my daily blog abilities.   Maybe I should just write that and get it over with.  Then maybe I will find the daily writings to flow more freely, or maybe I'll curl up and forget I exist for a while.

I have a couple of things I am going to borrow from my friends' blogs.  I'll share those.

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!

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.

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?

Nancy Drew strikes again

I must have turned into Nancy Drew, because I have solved two mysteries involving the same toy in the last 6 months.  

Grandma gave Tiger the Edward train from Thomas and Friends for his birthday.  Edward and his tender accidentally got thrown away more than once, but they always got plucked from the trash.  In April or May Nancy took on the Case of the Missing Coal.  Edward's tender was missing its coal.  Gone.  Nancy looked for it from time to time, and then one day she moved the trash can.  The coal dropped to the floor.  After some glue to repair a crack and to prevent further accidents, Nancy considered this case: closed. 

About a month later Nancy was put on The Case of Blue Tender.  Blue Tender went missing. After her previous success, Nancy looked in odd places for Blue Tender.  She even looked in the trash can.  Nancy spent 20 minutes or so a day for more than a week working on the case.  Eventually she concluded that Blue Tender must have been thrown away.  There was no finding it.  Nancy and her husband, Mr. Hardy, would ask, "Where's Blue Tender?" but Tiger didn't know.  Tiger started asking us and we would respond in kind.  Nancy was off this case.  

Last night Nancy opened a new case:  The Case of the Missing Photo Album. Mr. Hardy needed some information that was in it.  Nancy looked in all the usual places.  Books tend to wander under our couches, so that seemed like a good searching spot.  Though she did not find the album there (it was in the toy box) she did find Blue Tender under the couch. 

Wow. One good search of the house solved two cases.  Nancy is getting really good at solving cases.  Maybe she should take up cold cases for other people while luck is still on her side.

Sidney, Nebraska.

One might wonder what there is to do in Sidney, Nebraska. Well, there is a rare experience, that's what. You are looking at photos of the Union Pacific Challenger locomotive. Currently, the largest operating steam locomotive. (No Big Boys are track-ready at this time.) For those of you who care it is a 4-6-6-4 configuration that has been converted to run on oil (no longer on coal). It was a bit dirty, and was stopping in Sidney for a grease-up before finishing its journey back to Cheyenne. It is housed in Cheyenne but was out for some special tour.

It was unseasonably cold, so we left Blanket in the car. After about 20 minutes of being alone he started to object, but it was so cold and windy I didn't dare take him too far from the car. We figured we might not get this chance again before the kids get a lot bigger, so we went. It was 2.5 hours or so to get there. Then I was asking directions to the train station and the girl at the gas station pulled out the phone book (all 30 pages of it) to look at the map. She was having trouble with the directions, but I looked at the map and figured it out.
After watching the train finish maintainence on-the-go we went to Cabela's for lunch. This is right next to Cabela's world headquarters. It isn't very big (as far as Cabela's go) but it does have a polar bear, and an elephant on display. It is also the nearest Cabela's until the open the one in Wheat Ridge (if that ever happens). Then we came home and got home about 4:30. Not a bad way to spend the day. Blanket did want to be held a bunch after we got back, but he had spent the entire day in the stroller or in his car seat. If that were me, I'd want to be held too.

Watching the numbers change.

The numbers on the clock that is.  My night didn't  go so well.  I almost blogged about it earlier, but I was much more asleep than I am now.  Let's start with yesterday afternoon.  

1:00:  Both boys went down for naps

2:15:   Blanket woke up.  He was awake and crabby because he didn't sleep long enough

4:30:  I woke Tiger up so that he would actually go to bed before we did. 

6:30:  I put Blanket to bed because he was so crazy tired.

7:15:   I put Tiger to bed concerned that he would not go to sleep, but hoping that he would.

7:45:  Tiger got up and watched the football game with us.

8:15: Tiger threw a fit about not getting to continue watching this locomotive website we found.  He went off to bed.

8:45: Tiger got back up and watched more football.

9:25: The game ended and Tiger was put to bed and locked in his room.

10:30: I checked on both boys, and they were sleeping. I went to bed.

12:30: I got up to use the bathroom and went right back to bed.

1ish: Tiger crawls in bed with us noiselessly (I was too asleep to object) and falls asleep in my arms.  More like ON my arms.  I woke up to reposition them and crawl away from him 3 or four times before

4:44:  Blanket wakes up shrieking.   No amount of comforting or clean diaper changed his desire for a bottle.   I gave him his bottle and went back toward my bedroom.  I contemplated my options:

A: Crawl back in my Tempurpedic with my husband and Tiger.

B: Put Tiger back in his own bed before retaking my own.

C: Get into Tiger's  bed and try to sleep. or 

D: None of the above.

I seriously considered C before choosing A-the path of least resistance.  A couple of minutes later Tiger started moaning. This is normal nighttime noise for him.  I am surprised this is the first time that I heard it considering how long he had been in our bed.  I fulfilled B.  I was hoping that I was going back to sleep when I learned my morning would be filled with D.

5:15: Blanket finishes his bottle, and is sure that he is ready to be awake.  He wanted to play, really.  I brought him downstairs and poked around on the computer for a few minutes.

5:30:  I put in a Harry Potter movie so that I can remain half awake while Blanket plays on the couch.  I watched for a few minutes.  I closed my eyes and listened for a few more.

6:47: Blanket declares his need to go back to bed.  Smiling, I went and put him back into his own bed.  I sought my own bed and sleep rapidly thereafter.

7:35: (15 minutes after B.A.R. wanted to be awoken)  He rolls over and asks me what all happened last night.  At least I had found some sleep.

7:45:   I went to check on Blanket and found him happily awake in his bed.  Knowing he wouldn't want to be left alone I put him in the bathroom because B.A.R. was still taking a shower and went back to bed.  I knew Tiger would be getting up soon, and I wanted anymore sleep I could get.

7:50:  Tiger came in and crawled on the bed.  We asked him why he got in our bed in the middle of the night.  "Were you cold?" "No." "Were you scared?" "Yes."  Mystery solved.  Now if I could just solve the mystery of sleeping while I clean my house, run my errands and make my phone calls I could have a very productive day.

12 hours of work around the house

Saturday is usually the day we have no plans, and spend the day letting the kids run the show and getting a bunch of nothing done.  To our credit, we tend to do very spontaneous things on Saturdays.  About a month ago, B.A.R. decided that the deck looked really bad and he was going to stain it.  We had some leftover, and he spent the afternoon making the deck look great.   Sometimes we go for a walk, or go somewhere we want to go but have been putting off until whenever.

Yesterday was no different.  Except that it took until 10 or so before we got dressed and began our productive activities for the day.  Friday B.A.R. actually repainted the stairs to the basement (but we already had the paint).  They had been pretty beat up with all the moving of stuff into the basement.  That put him in the mood to repaint the walls and ceiling down there.  They had sustained some damage too.

We had been discussing repainting our bedroom too.  I wanted a color that matches our decor better.  Trying to explain what color I wanted, I was told to go get some samples at the store (at some later date).  

Friday B.A.R. took a home office day, and worked in the office most of the day.  He did also look into the leaks that our windows randomly exhibit.   He cleaned and resealed the window joints in two of the windows.  Apparently the windows were dirty, so dirty that he thought we should get some window washing stuff so that he could remedy that.   

So yesterday we worked (after being lazy for a few hours) on the house.  I vacuumed the carpets and hard floors, I vacuumed the ceiling fans, and B.A.R. vacuumed the window tracks (this window thing must really have been getting to him.  Later he even vacuumed the basement!  I did a couple of loads of laundry, and shopped online for vanity lights (another future project).

After lunch we went to Lowe's together to get prepared for our projects.  I picked up about 20 paint samples for the bedroom, and white paint for the basement stairwell.    

While B.A.R. washed the windows I started making pizza for dinner (from scratch).  A few minutes into that the baby starts screaming for dinner.   I placated him for a while, until daddy could sit and play with him.  I went in with some baby food, bib and a spoon, but realized that I needed to finish cutting stuff up for the pizza, and take the crust out of the oven so I just set it on the table.  About the time I was putting the toppings on the pizza B.A.R. comes in and says, "He is so your son."  

I respond with,  "He is a gauntlet to feed.  The hands going so fast that it becomes impossible to get the spoon to the mouth with food still on it."

"You mean what just happened is normal?"

He helped me with the toppings and I popped the pizza in the oven.  When I went in there the container of food was gone, and there was less food than I imagined on his tray and clothes.  There was none on the floor or walls.  I was so impressed with how much dad actually got in his mouth.

B.A.R. helped with the bi-monthly ritual of calming Tiger while we cut his hair.  After the boys were in bed, B.A.R painted the stairwell walls and ceiling.  I made cookies for my primary class, and shuttled juice up to Tiger (who didn't eat dinner and won't go to bed hungry).  Then I cut B.A.R.'s hair.

Being Prepared

I'm  the kind of person who has to be prepared for EVERYTHING.  When I was younger I had tons of stuff in my car, just in case.  I carried backpacks with all my books to all my college classes in case I needed to use them.  As I have matured, and married a minimalist (at some things) I am improving my need to be prepared for every possible eventuality all the time.  I only take things on outing with the kids that there is a 10% chance I will need.  For example: I no longer take 3 extra outfits to the grocery store.  

Since our marriage we have only given a half-hearted effort to ensure we were totally prepared for emergencies and had complete food storage for one year.  On Sunday, there was a tornado in our area.  It was visible from our front yard, but was about 2 miles away.  The funny part was the sky was blue over our house, and the leaves were barely rustling.  Baseball size hail was seen 5 or 6 miles away, and we got nothing!  For more information and other pictures check out The Wealth of Home, or her friend's blog.

B.A.R.'s friend called to tell us to bolt for the basement because of the tornado, which we did.  Suddenly, I was surprised at how prepared we were despite our lack of effort.  Until then, we hadn't been watching the news (the sun was shining and the wind was hardly blowing), but when we got downstairs I realized that we have a small TV, a phone, a box of toys for Tiger, all of our food storage, all of our camping supplies (except the stove and fuel), 5 gallons of water, all the kids clothes not currently in use, the extra chairs, a small fridge with soda, a large chest freezer with food, our 72 hour kits, and for 1 day only: Blanket's favorite bouncy chair.  

It seems that my old instincts have served us well. While we weren't down there for very long, and it isn't likely that a serious tornado will have us in our basement more than once every few years, it is nice to know that we were prepared for an emergency even if it only lasted 20 minutes.

The furniture repository

I must confess that we are not your run-of-the-mill furniture/appliance buyers.  We are the kind of people who believe: "If you are going to do it wrong, do it right!"  Which means if you are going to buy something, buy the one you really want.  Buy it once, don't skimp and you will be happy with it, instead of wishing you had something better.  If we don't have the money, or can't find what we really want, we will spend as little as possible to acquire something we need until we can get what we want.  You must know that we have not purchased any furniture for our house ever except the bedroom set and mattress set that we bought right after we moved to Colorado 2.5 years ago.   We did buy a fridge for our house in California, and have it here, and then we bought a new dishwasher for this house.   We did buy our vacuum.  We are on our second free washer/dryer set.  We just recently replaced one long couch with a love seat and chair (again, free).  We had 2 free beds (that came complete with serious problems) before we replaced the second with our Tempurpedic and lots more sleep.  We have 3 TVs (all free) and one that we disposed of already.  Even our DVD player, VCR, and crib were gifts.  Our stereo equipment, dining table, coffee table, floor lamps, even the bunk beds were free. We are not above free anything.  That said, I need to tell you about our newest acquisitions (free, of course).

The office at B.A.R's employment was getting new furniture.  This has been an ongoing project over the last few months.  6 months ago he came home with waiting room chairs (for hosting parties we will never have because he hates them).  He told me that he was going to get one of those steel cubicle desks for our office when they became available with rolling chair, hutch, and additional bookcase and upright filing cabinet.  It isn't as though we need office furniture (a 2nd chair would be nice).  Our office used to be just the safe, the small filing cabinet, a plastic filing cart, a floor lamp, one old folding relief society chair (blue padding) a keyboard table, and two well used desks about 18"x24".  Considering he works from home some days and we have 2 computers, one printer, and 7 years of paperwork, 3 house purchases, lots of stuff for his job, and all of our side business stuff stored in there I wasn't looking for MORE furniture for the office.

So Thursday he came home with the aforementioned steel desk and hutch.  We moved the piles of stuff and furniture around and got the desk in there.  There was much consternation involved, but I will save you the dramatics.  B.A.R. did flush out one desk into the living room (to find a home somewhere else in our house).  After the desk was moved we decided to move the chest freezer B.A.R. acquired from his friend who was moving (the same one who gave him that huge chair).  It has been in the garage being cleaned for about 3 weeks.  That involved moving a few things around in the basement to accommodate it and more drama getting it into place. 

B.A.R did say he might be able to get me two more of these steel desks for sewing if I wanted them, and a rolling chair too.  Wow, 25 sq. ft to sew, cut, quilt, craft and store my stuff so that it is not all piled haphazardly in a closet I will need in the future, or overtaking my dinner table.  Yesterday he came home with those two desks.  I helped him unload them into the garage,  and we discussed the location of the new furniture.  I figured the location most cordial today would be in the basement.  This means a lot of moving stuff around down there.  Not 10 minutes of box shuffling.   No, trash can filling, box dumping, relocating  your work tools to a different address, putting the clay thrower in the crawl space kind of moving stuff around.  Today I meant to vacuum the house and steam clean two or three rooms where Blanket commonly barfs.  Instead, while B.A.R. was home this morning, we worked for 2 hours in the basement.  We will probably need to work for 2 more hours just to make the room for the desks.  We have decided to move a larger dresser upstairs, and a smaller one back to the basement and I am hoping to spend the rest of today on mommy tasks as B.A.R. is off practicing for the upcoming deer hunt.  Maybe after this week is over and B.A.R. comes back from his business trip to avoid the DNC I will have a new sewing space and dinner on my table for a change.  Until then, tho, my sewing is on hold.

Potty successes

Blanket successfully used the toilet for the first time just 3 days after I first let him sit there.  He seems unfazed by the new sitting space, and is not afraid of the flushing noise.  He should not develop fears if we keep this up.

If you know my big push to get kids out of diapers fairly quickly this shouldn't come as a surprise to you.  No, I am not one of those natural baby, cloth diaper, potty trained before walking  at any cost kind of moms.  I am of the opinion that a little practice and lots of success before we ever decide to venture out of diapers goes a long way.   

I started with Tiger at about 7 months.  He could sit very well, and the first time I put him on the toilet he went.  Lots of sitting w/o success in the beginning turned into potty trained before his second birthday.  He is still lazy about saying that he needs to go at home, but always stays dry in public.  We have changed to a time-limit between potty breaks this week, and he is having great success.