I have a silly dilemna

Rats, this is somewhat embarassing, and I am slightly hopeful my mother doesn't read this.

I was just upstairs clearing out Cooper's closet and sorting through sizes and clothes that don't fit him anymore. Just when he was getting a lot of use out of his 2T jeans, they're now all too short for him. And I simply can't send him out into Public with jeans that are too short. They look dumb.

There are six rubbermaid containers in his closet, with various seasons and sizes of clothes his brother is going to wear someday. Well, I got to the last rubbermaid and lo and behold...it was all girl stuff.

Some of you may recall that I had a stash of girl clothes that I'd collected over the past few years. Usually they'd be on clearance at the end of a season and I'd snatch them up, hopeful for a daughter to wear them.

I have no daughter! I have two fantastic boys that I wouldn't trade for a girl for the entire world and no plans of ever having another baby. I thought I'd gotten rid of all my girl stash. Apparently not.

Here's the problem...as I was looking through the things I have left, it was very hard for me to commit to giving them away. I know baby girls now that I could gift them to, and of course there's always The Scholar Shop that would gladly take donations of clothes with the tags still on them!

I guess the insane part of me wants to hang on to them because there's a dim chance my life will change and I'll have another baby. But even if that were to happen, it's at least a 50/50 chance that it would be another boy. And frankly, that would be awesome! After having Griffin I just had this odd feeling that I would love to have three boys.

So...do I give the clothes away? Do I keep them? Will keeping them be some sort of sick way of hanging on to a dream I need to let go of? *sigh*

I wish I had a crystal ball.

Behold....

THE TREE. I love it, it is a spectacle of beauty and if it survives the next three and a half weeks with two monkeys pulling the ornaments off at every chance they get, it will be a Festivus Miracle!

I'm already scouting out what Target has that I want to buy the day after Christmas. For me, Christmas is really just a prelude to The Day After Christmas, when I can run out and get all of my Christmas decorations for half off! And then if I'm lucky, they go to 75% off a few days after that. But you really have to get there early because ladies like me are super wise about this sort of thing and fill our shopping carts when the stores open.

Roll me to bed, honey

Oh my goodness, I have eaten way too much. I'm not even pregnant or nursing this year, I have no excuse! No, today took the cake. Not literally, literally we had pie.

My dad's birthday was yesterday and before we decided to go to Doug's for Thanksgiving, Neil has ordered a fresh Nebraska turkey from Straub's. Ordinarily I won't shop at Straub's because of the old guy who works there. For those of you not familiar, their food is ridiculously expensive, gourmet and whatnot. It's a small, hoity toity grocery store next door to the Bread Company in Webster Groves. They have a gigantic parking lot, despite the fact that they rarely have more than five customers at a time. But by golly, they will NOT allow anyone to park in their lot unless they're shopping at Straub's. So more than once an old man who works there has come out to my car and asked me if I was parking in that spot for Straub's. "Of course I am!" I replied, storming into Straub's. No, I was really parking for Bread Company, but I felt the need to buy Advil so I didn't get my car towed. Anyhoo, they employ this man at some cost and it seems as though his entire lot in life is to patrol their parking lot. You know, their groceries might be a little cheaper if this guy weren't on the payroll. And I'm also willing to bet that Bread Company actually brings business to Straub's and not the other way around. Wow, that was some tangent!

So as I was saying, we had a fresh bird and we didn't do Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year. So we cooked it tonight complete with entire holiday meal for my dad's birthday celebration. And I made one of those vanilla pudding/cherry pie filling pies, and mom brought a pumpkin pie. So now I feel like I could puke, but all of the boys are in bed and I have a little time to myself. So that's nice.

The house is looking really lovely. We put the tree up today and decorated it. I went with a red and white theme this year. The lights are clear and all of the ornaments are either red or white or some combination. And a few green ones because since the tree is green, I figured green is OK. It looks really nice! Last year my mom totally outdid me with her tree and I vowed never again! Of course, I did have a baby the day before Thanksgiving last year, but whatever. No excuses for crappy decorating!

I even took the boys out to Target for more red ornaments because I felt like it was lopsidedly white in color.

Mom was impressed tonight, I could tell.

I'm going to google how to photograph a Christmas tree to capture it's beauty best. It's not as easy as one would think. The current pictures do not do it justice, although no pictures from our home look very good because of the weirdo lighting.

I decided today as Cooper and I decorated the tree (he did a great job of handing me red and white ornaments, I was really impressed) that my dream would be to have a tree in each room, and to have each tree have its own theme. I'd love a tree with birds and fruits! I love bird ornaments. And a white and silver tree, and a cartoony tree for kids. You get the picture. I just love Christmas trees.

Oh, and Santas! My collection of Old World Santas is getting to be really impressive. Except for Broken Neck Santa, all of them have found a place in the house this year! Neil didn't like White Wonderland Santa sitting on the bathroom vanity, so I had to move him to the kitchen. He said it was "unhygienic." Ha!

Tomorrow I believe I will take a break from decorating and fold the thirty seven loads of laundry that are waiting for me downstairs. Fun fun.

My model is up

I got my model to wear the Santa Suit. I didn't make the hood right. The pattern I used was wrong, I don't know what baby has a tiny enough head to have this thing cover it? Then again, Griffin may be small, but his head is off the charts big. Speaking of heads, I cut mine off on purpose. It's early and I look like death warmed over.

Oh, well. Sara, it's on its way. (I think Angela will love my use of apostrophes in that sentence.)

Holiday House Tour

I started decorating today! I'm so excited, I really want the house to look super festive at the holidays now that we have kids. I don't exactly know how to work Christmas decorations in with seventeen loads of laundry and constant JUNK everywhere, but I'm going to try.

I started pulling out my decorations and so far I have the mantel done and my angel collection up. And the kitchen windowsill is nice and festive! Oh, and my wreath is on the front door. Neil pulled up the tree but we have yet to put it together.

AND, I finished Lily's Christmas mai tei. It's supposed to look like a little Santa suit, but with teddy inside....I don't know. I'll have to see how it looks with an actual baby in it tomorrow. Griffin skipped his morning nap today and went to bed at 6:30 so he wasn't up to model for me.

Black Friday Redux

OK, so mom and I went out at about 10:00, and now it's 2:15 and I'm home on the couch with my shoes off. No blisters, no bruises.

I got almost all of the Christmas shopping done that I needed to do and while there were a lot of people in the parking lots and at CPK, there weren't a lot of people buying things. Although I did hear an employee at a Walmart in New York was trampled to death this morning at 5 a.m. Now, that's pathetic. There is no plasma screen t.v. or LCD t.v. worth someone's life, people! Sickens me.

Now I have a little time before the boys come home so I'm going to start pulling out Christmas decorations and getting this place yule festive!

Black Friday

I was at Walgreen's at 6:56 a.m. waiting for the deal on the videocam ($79.99 until 2 p.m.) and 10" LCD tv for $99.99 (also until 2 p.m. but no online link, sorry)! I got them both, although there was a limit of one per shopper so that stinks. I'm not necessarily planning to give them away, so maybe one is plenty. I could go to a different Walgreen's on a different street corner if I need more than one. But I gotta hurry, the deal is over at 2 p.m.!

I also got an email from Amazon that I've been chosen to get the special deal tomorrow on three items. Two of them look super cool and Brett's kids would love them, so I'll be online shopping tomorrow. Then I'll only have to find one more gift, shouldn't be too hard? Gehrig, what do you want for Christmas, buddy?

Happy Thanksgiving and a bunch of other stuff

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! We had a lovely day complete with eating way too much excellent food prepared by somebody else, and then sleeping really late into the evening, and then lounging around trying to recover from both of those things. Perfect Thanksgiving, if you ask me.

I finally got fifteen minutes to finish Sara's prototype Obi. I hope it's right? It's really comfy, I'll have to make one for my chunkalunk and wear him around. I think mine needs to hang a little lower, I'm a little taller than Sara.


I made it reversible - bam! Remember that Eddie Murphy movie where his father in law said you have to co-or-din-ate? Bam! I can't remember the name of it and have no interest in clicking over to imdb right now.

Tomorrow mom and I are going shopping for nothing in particular, just deals. Deals, deals, deals. Wish us luck!

Denied!

Well, of course the bank declined our initial offer. I expected that, Neil did not. In his fantasy world, whatever price he settles on is the Right Price, regardless of what the market is doing. In the bank's fantasy world, the listing price is the Right Price, regardless of what the market is doing. So now my goal is to get these two fantasy worlds to meet in some sort of paranormal Twilight Zone. Wish me luck!

We're counteroffering this afternoon, so the delay continues...we will know something sometime before Cooper goes to kindergarten.

Turkey Wrasslin

My brother posted this on his blog and I laughed so hard I cried. So, in the spirit of the holiday I am sharing (or stealing, whatever)!


I don't know if this is going to work?

And here are some interesting myths about Thanksgiving, courtesy of an article that is courtesy of aforementioned brother...

Here are the Top 10 Myths About Thanksgiving.
1. The Pilgrims Held the First Thanksgiving
2. Thanksgiving Was About Family
3. Thanksgiving Was About Religion
4. The Pilgrims Ate Turkey
5. The Pilgrims Landed on Plymouth Rock
6. Pilgrims Lived in Log Cabins
7. Pilgrims Dressed in Black
8. Pilgrims, Puritans — Same Thing
9. Puritans Hated Sex
10. Puritans Hated Fun

Yay! Housing sales plummet!

I'm so excited. There's a story in our local news today that St. Louis' housing prices plummeted the highest amount in the nation in October! Why the glee, you ask? Because I sent the article to my real estate agent to forward on to the Countrywide people who are mulling over our lowball offer. They're in Cal-I-Forn-Ay-Eh, what do they know about the St. Louis market? Squat! Well, they're a gonna know sumpin about it now.

After sleeping on our decision one more night and going out for Mexican food right down the street from the New House last night, we are both fully engaged in owning that home. So it'll be a sad day in our house if we don't get it. I know we'll have to negotiate. I just hope it ends up favorable for us. I don't care about them. I want us to be happy.

And I want to be able to landscape that house! There's not one planting. Not one speck of living things other than grass has ever been planted on that property. Do you know what that means to me???!!! That's like walking into Nordstrom's with someone else's credit card and being told "just get whatever you want, it's on me." Or Target, or Walmart, whatever.

My point is, it's perfect for me. And now we have the great idea of adding cute Swissy shutters to the place to add some charm, and getting a gigantic new puppy to add some chaos, and the whole thing is just too much to stand! So we probably won't get it. But I'm maintaining cautious optimism. They're supposed to reply by tomorrow night.

This is why the financial sector is crashing

I think this story is so funny. It's totally emblematic of the entire failure of the mortgage and banking sector.

Neil and I put an offer in on the aforementioned Saint Albans house. It's owned by Countrywide right now, so one of their requirements was that we get a Countrywide pre-approval letter to accompany our offer.

I called Countrywide this morning and obtained a pre-approval letter for the highest amount we'd be willing to pay for the house. My friend Sue, who is also acting as our real estate agent on this deal, said it would be fine to do it that way. After all, that's not saying that's what we want to spend on the house, just what we can spend. She turned in all of our paperwork to Countrywide's agent.

And then he called her back.

Apparently, the representative at Countrywide said he wouldn't even look at our offer unless the pre-approval letter was for the exact same amount as the offer. Even though the pre-approval was for more than our offer, that wasn't OK with him. So I called the loan officer with Countrywide, explained the deal, had a good laugh with her, and sent them the letter with the lower amount.

Now, if this is how banks are operating, it's no wonder they're all going under. This was a perfect example of the complete loss of common sense in business. In place of common sense, they're more concerned with some imaginary game of...what's that card game where you have to match up the items that are turned upside down? Whatever that's called. It almost sounds like something a crazy OCD person would do. "No, I can't even step out the door unless my underwear and my bra are in matching colors!"

The even more ridiculous part is that if we go back and forth on negotiations, we may be required to submit pre-approval letters for higher amounts each time we go along. This is why banks should not be in real estate. They suck at it.

Oh, and despite my having a real estate license, this is why I hire Sue to do my deals. This kind of idiocy would cause me great distress. Plus, who wants to work with the public? Yuck.

My birthday boy

I'm sure I'll add more pics tomorrow. For now, it's bedtime so here's the highlight of today's party...

BIGGER GULP

We just faxed in our offer for the Saint Albans house. Now I won't sleep for three days, or until we hear back from the bank. And if we get it, I'll never sleep again. I don't think we'll get it. But there's a small chance? Excuse me while I go throw up.

GULP

Neil wants to write an offer on the Saint Albans house. I am panicked. It's huge, and it's in Saint Albans. Which is like moving to The Country when you live in The City. We live ten minutes from the airport. Saint Albans is like six hours from the airport. Not really, more like 45 minutes. But still!

The house is phenomenal. I do love it, what's not to love? But it scares me, too. The size is intimidating. The taxes are intimidating. And we'll have to lowball the bank who owns it and just wait. Most likely they'll say no. So I guess that would be OK too, except I think it will be hard after this place to find a place that Neil likes as much.

By the way, the party wasn't a total disaster. Neil's mom hasn't called for Griffin's birthday. Not on his birthday, and not today at all. Oh, well, I guess we just move on, right? Keep on keeping on.

**sigh**...**sigh**

Ugh, I have ugliness in my heart today. Why? I'm being selfish for my baby. Today is the day of Griffie's birthday party. It was a lame party to begin with; we only invited family. That's primarily because Griffin hasn't formed any strong friendships yet.

Then Neil's grandma got very sick in hospice on Friday night and she's not expected to make it much longer. It's basically a waiting thing now. Which is morbid and very sad, but she's been in hospice for six months so it's also a blessing for her, to be able to go home.

The real problem here, is that her passing, even the threat of her passing, suddenly raises up all the old questions (most recently dormant, thank God) about Neil's mom's behavior. His uncle still doesn't know about the theft. His cousins don't know. His mom is now going to miss Griffin's party to be with her mother at the nursing home those two hours.

Now, I'm not saying it's not right that she should be there. It is right. But it's also right that she should have been a much better person all along than she's ever been. She never should have left her up there for weeks at a time while she spent her free time on the gambling boats. She shouldn't have used her money to gamble. She shouldn't have lied about it for so long, or hidden it from her brother and his family. They are, after all, Grammy's kids too.

So she chooses this one two hour window to suddenly do the right thing? No. Sorry, that's not what's happening. What's happening is she'd rather avoid seeing any of us who may or may not know about what she's done. So once again, Griffin gets the shaft. My BIL is also on some hunting thing today, so he won't be here either. And my own brother will be coming early with his family and leaving early because God forbid anyone actually block off a portion of time (two hours) for my kids. The same thing happened on Cooper's first birthday; they came an hour or two late and stayed 20 minutes.

Ugh. So I just wish I could crawl in a hole with my boys and pretend the rest of the world wasn't revolving. It's awful for me to feel this way, I know that. I need to work on it, but it's my gut instinct. I am mad right now.

28 hours

That's how many hours in the day I need, especially today. There was just so many things I wanted to do today and no time to do it all! Here was my crazy list when I woke up:

• Breakfast at Bread Co. with Griffin while Daddy takes Cooper to Starbucks
• Go look at a house in Saint Albans that's a possibility
• Go to the fabric store for my ongoing projects
• Sew on a couple things, my obi project and the Christmas Mai Tei
• Start knitting on the sweetcase headband
• Get the house ready for Griffin's party Sunday
• Finish all the laundry and put it all away
• Work on my real estate license continuing education online (yuck)
• Finish expense report for work, as well as doing email and syncing, etc.
• Spend time playing with the boys while they're awake

So...I did a few of those things. The breakfast thing is a daily routine, but everyone slept until 6:45 so we didn't get there as early as usual.

Then Neil really wanted to see the foreclosure in Saint Albans so from breakfast we drove out there and went through it. Of course, he loved it so now we're actually talking about leaving Webster?? It seems so strange, like we'd be moving halfway across the state or something. But the house is awesome.

I did make it to the fabric store. I did sew a little, but not enough. I didn't put away any laundry or do any new laundry. I didn't do any of my CE for the real estate license renewal. I did do my work email but didn't even start the expense report!

The house is still a wreck, luckily it's only family coming over. Neil's grandma isn't doing well, she's probably not going to make it to Thanksgiving so this will be a sad holiday for him. She was very special in his life, like my Grandma Clare. Cooper seems to have a real fondness for her, too; he talks about Grammy Jay all the time.

Well, tomorrow's another day so maybe I'll get something done tomorrow?

Spitty, Gassy, Gaggy

**copied from Baby Doo Giffie Loo's blog**

Happy Birthday, Big G!!! It's been one year today since you graced this family with your sunshiney presence.

I'm working on a photo retrospective of the past year, but I mistakenly moved all of our pictures onto an external hard drive and now I have to move them back and sift through them! Dang the efficiency.

I was reminiscing today at lunch about my hospital stay with Griffin. Those of you who know me know I loved being in the hospital delivering my boys. Such wonderful sense memories! One of those memories is the night nurse from my second night with Griffin. She was a wonderful lady with long brown hair. She was wearing a fleece jacket over her nursey outfit. She had a great way of holding and burping Griffin, who was already a burpy kid. He swallowed a lot of fluid on his momentous last moments with mommy, so he had a hard time getting all of that out of his belly the first few days.

I remember nursing him almost constantly until that nurse (can't remember her name!) suggested I supplement a little formula because he was such a big baby. So I did, he took an ounce and passed out for four hours! She woke him up to bring him to me, and he started gagging and choking. She burped him, taught me how to burp him sitting up, and handed him off.

I turned to look at his bassinet and on his little blue name card, she'd written "Spitty, Gassy, Gaggy." After we left the hospital the next morning, I felt sick that I hadn't taken that card with me for his baby book. I'll never forget those three words emblazoned on his card!

Honestly, he hasn't changed too much since then.

A little less gaggy, a little less spitty, and no one could have predicted how stinking sweet he'd be.

God Bless you, Giffie Loo! I love you.

One year ago tonight....

I was getting out of the bathtub, as I just did a little bit ago, but the journey out was a lot harder. I was due with Griffin on this day a year ago. My little big baby boy hadn't already come on his own so the next morning (tomorrow morning) we were going to the hospital to be induced. [Little did I know he'd weigh 9 lbs 8 oz and partially explain my 50 lb weight gain. That, and all the Sweet Tarts I ate.]

This was a bittersweet night for me. It was the last night of our family as we knew it. I was so worried about what Griffin's arrival would do to Cooper, who was still a baby at 20 months old.

And I was scared! What was I going to do with two babies at the same time? With your first you have the luxury of letting that newborn baby consume every breath of oxygen you draw. With the second baby, it's a miracle they get fed on any regular schedule! Especially if your kids are close in age.

So I hauled my gigantic body out of the tub and went to bed, scared to death.

And look at us, one year later. I cannot imagine my family without my Giffie Loo. He's the bright ray of clear sunshine that we need! He's always happy, even when he's struggling to feel better, like today.

As for Cooper, I don't think he even remembers his life without his baby brother. We hear a lot of "Griffin's touching me!" and "Griffin's screaming at me!" and "No, Griffin, that's my baby lambie!" but there's a lot of sweet kisses and hugs and "I love you, brother"s mixed in there, too.

Griffin looks at Cooper with such awe, such infatuation, it's amazing to see. Everything Cooper does is fantastic to him. And he's not intimidated at all. He'll take on Cooper at any opportunity, try to play the same games, try to steal toys from him.

Griffin is the baby who made me long for lots more babies. This won't be happening, but that's some feat!

So I took a bath tonight in honor of Grif. Well, that and because I never did get a shower today. No sleep, a trip to the ER in the middle of the night and a sick baby do not add up to shower time some days. Some form of bathing was much needed.

I hope Griffin feels better for his big day tomorrow. We were going to have a party at school with cupcakes for everyone. Right now it looks like it might be cupcakes for everyone and Griffie home with Mommy again tomorrow. But that's ok. One more day with just me and my baby doo is ok with me.

DON'T Google it

I talked to Griffin's pediatrician a little bit ago. His bloodwork from last night came back fairly normal....with one exception. His neutrophil count was low. We're going to recheck it on Monday at his one-year appointment.

There should be some sort of law. When you get some potentially scary medical information, you should not be allowed to Google the possibilities until you know for certain what you're dealing with.

When I googled neutropenia in babies, the first and most prolific topic that popped up was leukemia. Now, my Griffie doesn't have leukemia. I know his counts on Monday will be back to normal. He just goes wild off the charts when he gets sick, that's my gut feeling. But reading those things did some major damage to my heart.

Hypothermia????

Griffin and I spent some quality time in the pediatric ER last night. He'd been running high fevers (104-105) for a few days, then woke up at midnight last night and he felt really cold. Scary cold. So I took his temp and it was 95.5. Then 96.2. Then 96.4. All the while I was bundling him in blankets and holding him against me. He wasn't shivering or anything, he was just crying. He downed a bottle and his temp hovered at 96.4 while I called the nurse on call. She said to monitor it and if it didn't come up past 97 to bring him in. Well, in we went.

Of course, by the time I layered him in his sherpa hat and snow bear coat in a warm car, he was 97.7 upon arrival. I'm sure they wondered why this crazy woman wanted to come to the ER at 2:30 a.m. with a perfectly happy baby (yes, he was laughing and schmoozing up the staff by this time). They ran some more tests, took some blood (miserable slippery baby veins, damn you!) and sent us home.

The doc said 96 is considered hypothermia. He hypothesized that maybe his room is too cold. He's right, it's frigid. I have a ceramic heater in there and he had three blankets on top of his fleece footed sleeper. Apparently, the room is still too cold. Of course, Neil doesn't think that could possibly be it and he resents the implication that this house might be adding to Griffin's illness. Because of course, that implication means that we should have moved two years ago, but his resistance kept us here, keeping Griffin sick.

So, we're home again. He's been sleeping all morning, grouchy when he is awake. If you're one of those people who actively prays for someone's recovery, please add Griffin to your list. He can sure use it right now as no one seems to know what's wrong with him. Thank you.

Oh, Santa

Griffin is still sick. I took him to the veterinarian...err..pediatrician this morning and she ran all sorts of tests. And she sent us home not knowing what is wrong with him or what's causing his high fevers. With any luck, he'll be better tomorrow.

Then my saint of a mother came over to watch him so I could go work for a little while. The weather was really nice today so they got to take a walk with Binnie and enjoy the sunshine. He still feels yucky, but hopefully he's turning a corner.

As I was driving, I listened to an interview on NPR with a man who works as Santa Clause in the U.P. of Michigan at Christmas. The show was devoted to how people are adjusting to Christmas in a bad economy. Santa's story was so sad! He's had kids sit on his lap and tell Santa they just want to have food in their bellies for Christmas. Or they just want their dad to get a job for Christmas.

Oh my, I found myself tied up in emotional knots again! I simply cannot stand the thought of children going hungry at the holidays. Or kids with nothing to open on Christmas morning, or even kids with no family to be with that day. Maybe it's the 36 years I've spent watching my own mother give of herself tirelessly that's created this urge in me. I have to help somebody.

Those of you who know me are probably laughing incredulously because you all know I'm bordering on Libertarian. So you're probably thinking "What? Heather thinks people need help, but she's the same person who would vote against welfare programs!"

Yes, but you see, I think charity is something to be left to individuals and churches, not for profit organizations. I don't think the government is good at much that it tries to do with the exception of military defense. So I'd really rather people's welfare not be left up to such an inept bunch of yahoos.

Oh my, I've totally gone off on a rant about the government when I was really wanting to talk about helping others this Christmas. I don't really know what I'll be doing. There's plenty that needs to be done, that's for sure! I'm sure I'll start with adopting a family for Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas for kids. If anyone has any great ideas, please feel free to share them!

Welcome to my world, baby girl

My Compassion packet came today! I am now the proud "parent" of a little girl named Lesly Coral, from the Dominican Republic. She has the cutest braids that stick horizontally out from her head, and the look on her face in her picture was a mixture of irritation and distrust. I love her!

I'll have to go to Target and get some cute stationery so I can write her a letter. They gave me a form thingy I can use for letters, but that seems so...cold. Besides, I'm always looking for a reason to go to Target.

My baby doo is sicky today. After yesterday's adventures in pediatric dentistry with Cooper (I'll have to update his blog after this), I picked Griffin up at school at 3:00 and he was sickly. Poor guy! By the time we got home, he was breathing heavy and you all know what that means....fever. An hour later, sure enough he was 102. I battled it all night, I could get it down to 100 but at its spike it was 104! True to form, though, he was a trooper. He just made this pathetic little mewing noise when it would spike, so I'd strip off his clothes and cool him off again.

I stayed home this morning with him and we both went down for a two hour nap at 8:30. Not together, because I'm still a paranoic, but whatever. This was one of the very few times I was thankful that his room (and mine) are freezing cold this time of year. At least it helps with his fevers. Then we met Grandma for lunch at Bread Company, so he got to whine to her and shake his head "no" at everything she said to him. Very cute! His cheeks were rosy but otherwise his fever seems on the wane, so that's awesome.

We stopped at Hancock to pick up knitting needles (curs-ed Christia and her knitting contagion!) and I got some cute fabric to make Lily's prototype Obi. I couldn't just make it out of crap fabric; what if it turns out nice and she can actually use it? How would I feel then?

Now baby Doo is sleeping again (get well, sweet peets), and I have a little time to catch up on the thirty five loads of laundry I didn't finish folding this weekend. Nah, I'll just surf the net. Oh, there's Giffie now, gotta go.

**I took this picture of Griffie after his noon nap today. He was so happy and so sick! By 4:00 his temp was up to 105. So we're going to the doc's tomorrow.

Knee highs

Who would have thought that the year I turned 36 would also be the year I fell in love with knee high socks again? I bought a bunch of them to wear with my cute red Anthropologie boots. Well, this morning it was freezing here, very very very cold. I went into my sock drawer to find a pair of socks to wear, and none of them from last year were sans holes.

So even though I wasn't wearing my cute boots, and I had jeans on, I pulled on a pair of my stripey knee-highs and Griffie and I left into the white cold morning to go to Bread Company.

Let me tell you...those calves of mine were warm! The entire morning. In fact, I still have them on and those socks are like little leg warmers. Which is good because I've felt yucky all day like I'm coming down with something. So, I give knee-highs a thumbs up and now I think I might wear them everyday no matter what footwear I have on.

Neil set up my new sewing table yesterday, and I finally started using the Artista! Yikes, that is one intimidating machine. They don't even call it a sewing machine, it's called a sewing computer. I was going to take the dvd tutorial and teach myself, but it's literally impossible. So now I have to find some time to sit with an old lady at the fabric store and let her train me at her pace. This is going to be sheer torture for me. I absolutely hate learning at someone else's pace. I always want to shout out "YEAH YEAH, PICK UP THE PACE!" I may have a touch of ADD. Maybe more than a touch. I can concentrate, but it has to be at warp speed. I can't even take slow talkers.

Tomorrow morning we have to take Cooper to the dentist for some sedation dentistry. Apparently his teeth didn't form correctly at some point in his infancy and they aren't right. So some of them are softer than normal and one of them got a cavity. So we have to have it filled and have his teeth polished and a treatment done on them to try to prevent more decay before his adult teeth come in. Looking for ward to it!

Cabela's is super big, and AT&T U-verse is freaky smart

OK, first up: AT&T's new U-verse service (especially the tv) is awesome. I know, I've written about it before, but then yesterday its limits were tested...Griffin got a hold of the tv remote.

Griffie is affectionately called a "bruiser" around here. He stood there, heavy-handing the remote until our tv no longer had a picture. It was purple, blue and green fuzzy things, reminiscent of the days when our tv's had antennas and we had to sit next to them to change the channel, remember that? Sara probably doesn't. But I digress...

We tried everything, we reset the u-verse box, we changed the tv's channel, switched from cable to dvd back to cable. You know, the works. Then I finally got on the phone with u-verse tech support.

It's a Festivus Miracle that the freaky voice recognition computer lady on the other end of the line even understood me through the background noise of "NO, GRIFFIE, that's MY blankie!! AHHHH" from Cooper and "eeehhh da da da eeehhh aaahhhhh bla bla bla" from Grif.

But she did apparently.

Because as I was holding, after I had told them my account number and the fact that I needed tech support for my tv, the screen on the tv mysteriously changed from techno fuzz to a black screen with a gear, a "fix it" symbol. Then the symbol got bigger. Then the box clicked off and then on and reset itself. Seriously, by this time I'd hung up the phone as it was clear Poltergeist was fixing our tv. Needless to say, ten minutes later we had a working television again.

I love U-Verse! *sigh* Best thing that ever happened to this household.

Tonight after picking up the kids, Neil and I drove them in the rain up to Cabela's. Has anyone else ever been to a Cabela's? It's the freakiest place for non-hunters and fisherpersons like myself. It's enormous, and all around you are stuffed deer, elk, bear, raccoons, stuffed fish, stuffed bigger fish, stuffed ginormous fish. Then they have these floor to ceiling fish tanks with HUMONGOUS fish, freaky looking freshwater fish that would haunt nightmares if you were afraid of freshwater fish. I'm not, but I still don't like swimming in lakes.

I lost my family in that place. They were sitting near the gigantic Dead Bear exhibit, but I couldn't find them after trying to find the clearance Frye boots that I'd overheard someone at my hair salon talking about. She might have bought the last pair, who knows. I never found them.

So we had a lovely outing, complete with fish 'n dead mammals and guns 'n ammo. And then we ate at Steak 'n Shake. And now the kids are in bed, Neil is sleeping somewhere, and I'm about to. God Bless America.

I'm famous!

I made it on Big Mama's Fashion Friday page! I sent her a note asking her about leggings at my advanced age, and she used it as her first question today!

I'm a little jealous because she just got a Nordstrom Rack and we will never have one here, but whatever.

I'm going to update his sparse little page, but baby Griffie is now a walker. That's right, last night he finally decided he could make it from the coffee table to the easy chair without dropping to his knees first. Where did my newborn go? *sniff*sniff* Give me a second, I'll be ok.

The cowboy mai tei

This is the rootin tootin mai tei I made for Griffie. Unfortunately, he doesn't like to be carried this way, he likes a hip carry so now I have to learn how to make padded ring slings, yay.

Effluvia

You know when you buy a new coat or a new skirt, how the manufacturer tacks down the vents in the back with big cross-threads? Yeah, when you buy the coat, you're supposed to cut those threads. That's one of my biggest pet peeves, seeing someone look really great in their new duds, only to turn around and look like they've been tied up or something because the vent doesn't open when they walk! It's weird. It's like wearing pantyhose with sandals, and your toes look like they're trapped in these little webs.

I finished my cowboy mai tei tonight at Mom's house. I think I'm going to send it to Sara for her Babywearer's Convention this weekend. Maybe she can find a good home for it. I made it for Griffie but now that we have the hip carrier, I think that's better for him. I can't seem to work a back carry on my own and he won't do a front carry inward anymore.

My sewing table came today, yay! I can't start using my embroidery machine until I get the table set up, so I've been dying to get it. Tomorrow night Neil is going to put it together so by this weekend I should be able to embroider some stuff! I have a great idea for a monogrammed mai tei for a certain someone having a baby girl in a month or so? Should be cute!

Mom called me in the car today and told me Harold's filed for bankruptcy and is closing all of its stores! I can't believe it, they seemed to be a retailer for wealthier buyers (cause their stuff is ridiculously expensive) but apparently this economy has affected them, too. I went by there on my way home and got a new top to wear under some suits, but I think the stuff is still too expensive! Yikes. I like my Target tops. I tried to check their website but they aren't even selling off the stuff on there. Bummer.

Thank you, Veterans

My brother put together this homage (click on the link below) to my Grandpa Gene, who served in WWII. I got choked up reading it, especially the pictures at the end. Grandma Clare died when I was 30 of ovarian cancer, and Grandpa Gene passed away in his chair a little over a year later, of a broken heart. I miss my grandparents daily. A better set of people I've never met.

Happy Veteran's Day, Grandpa Gene

Hah! I beat her to it!

I know Angela's been waiting to post her Christmas music on her blog. I couldn't wait any longer, so it's possible that I jumped the gun a little early.

Merry Christmas, Baby Jesus!

Why blogging is dangerous

Blogging is dangerous to your wallet and your free time.

If it weren't for blogs I read from people I like, I wouldn't have ordered a knitting kit (the Annie Amelia Sweetcase!) and pledged to start knitting again.

I would never have heard of Compassion International and felt so bad about the kids who are being raised in poverty I had to sponsor a little girl from the Dominican Republic (her name is Coral, how cute is that?).

And thanks to BigMama's blog, I've also tried on some Privo shoes, but I didn't buy them. They just aren't me, thank God, because I don't need another shopping addiction!

And it's not like I have a lot of free time. Neil took the boys to Starbucks this morning and I literally dashed to my bedroom to get dressed so I could surf the net and blog for fifteen minutes before they came back! Pathetic. Oops, I hear them in the driveway.....

Don't blink

I also posted this on Giffie's website....where does the time go? How did my baby get to be a year old? I am going to go cry right now, carry on without me.

The fam

We got our professional pics back this week, the digital versions. The prints won't be ready for a while, but I was happy to at least have some proof that we took pictures one day. This was the best family shot, we were sitting by a waterfall. Why won't my oldest child smile?

Some silly girlie things

I keep meaning to write this stuff down and I never get to it. Especially now that I've taken a vow to stay off the internet anytime someone in my family is awake and in the same vicinity as me.

I found some awesome tights. I got them at Target, they're the Assets brand - knock-off Spanx? Anyway, I put them on today and then put on a skirt that I fully expected to be too tight on me. It zipped up with extra room. I thought "Huh, this must be one of my post-pregnancy skirts, what size is this?" I actually spun it around to see the tag. It wasn't a fatty skirt, it was a skinny skirt! Those Assets tights literally sucked my girth into one of my skinny skirts and gave me room to breathe, too! Manna from heaven.

And what else....Nordstrom's sale started this week, that's always good news.

Ohh, I remember! I got the cutest flats on sale at Ann Taylor. And they're comfortable. I wish they had the zebra print ones in my size, too, but I guess one pair of animal skin flats is enough? Did I just say that? I must be really tired. I better go to bed.

BINNIE!!!!

Oh my, I can't stop laughing. I just went out to my car to get my fob for my work laptop (crazy security obsessed companies!) and I had heard Binnie barking a few minutes earlier. So I tromped through the backyard yelling "BINNIE!!!!!"....."BIIINNIIIIIEEEEE!!!!! Look, Binnie! Squirrels! Rabbits!....BINNIEEE!!! I've got BREAKFAST!"

Nowhere to be found, Binnie never showed. So I tromped back up to the back door, and guess who was dancing in the storm door, so excited that there were squirrels, and rabbits, and I was going to give her breakfast! I bust out laughing, it was a nice relief from the news of the morning. The Obamathon has begun.

The vomitorium

Remember that Mel Brooks movie that had the Greek vomitorium? That was our house last weekend, and then again last night. Griffie started it, then we all got into the gastroenteritis act. Cooper threw up for the first time in his life! He has told me since then "I spit out and I was scared!" This morning Griffin is sporting a cute mohawk. He threw up in his crib at 2:30 a.m., so I rinsed his head off but apparently enough was left to act like a baby hair gel.

So....the election is over. I did vote for John McCain and I still like him, but he didn't win. So we move forward with Barack Obama and pray to God he doesn't tax us into poverty to try to raise us up out of it.

But honestly, it doesn't bother me too much. I guess we'll see how comfortable the country is being governed almost entirely by Democrats. That's the part I don't get, don't voters want a balance of power? Don't they see that's how Bush's administration got us into the mess we're in now?

OK, I must go recite the serenity prayer a hundred times. Now I'm anxious again.