Craft Day Project

I hosted Craft Day on Friday, and we made Big Bend snow globes. The dinosaurs were a little big for the baby food jars, so I had to cut off the tails. I made my sample snow globe using those tails and called it a 'tailings pile' globe. I think the kids liked the finished project, but it was one of those projects with limited kid work, mostly moms doing the craft. The hot glue hasn't really held tight, so all the dinosaurs are coming off the lids already. So I guess the lesson is that we could have just let the kids put the dinos loose in the jar, add glitter, water, let mom glue the lid, and presto. Originally I thought we should glue rocks onto the lids, but it was a little boring, so I added dinos, then the rocks weren't glueable. (is that a word?) Sam and Awyn like the globes I made, even if the dinosaurs don't stay glued. At least they don't float. 

Tie Day

Today I put a dress shirt on Sam to see if it still fit (it's been hanging in the closet, so I forgot he had it) and when Eric came home for lunch he added the tie. Don't they look spiffy? 

Standing Tall

Awyn is standing all over the place. She pulls up, and almost lets go. She wants to cruise, but hasn't entirely figured out what to do with her legs and feet, so sometimes she moves, but she still resorts to getting down and crawling when she wants something out of her reach. She'll also climb. Sam wasn't much of a climber, but Awyn sure is. Today she chased the dog all over the house trying to climb on her. Poor Tasha kept having her naps interrupted. Sam is trying to feed Awyn, and tell her what to do. 

Employment

I accepted a job on Thursday. Another VUA job opened up, again part-time. (fee collecting, aka ranger-in-a-box) I'm thrilled, because it will get me out of the house from time to time, and get the kids used to following somebody else's rules. Sam seems to behave better when he's been going to Lily's house regularily, he loves and listens to her. Also, I'm glad to get this job because it will put me back in contact with people, and I enjoyed meeting all the people from all over when I was at the front desk at Fort Smith National Historic Site. I won't be working often enough for it to get tedious, just enough to enjoy it. A paycheck won't hurt me either. Now I just need to convince my darling husband to let me put my uniforms in his uniform closet...

Bat

Sam learned a new word on this trip, Bat. He really liked this sign. I think we all had fun on this trip. If you can tell from the posting issues, earlier I'd posted some family pictures we'd taken while driving around taking shots for our photocards. I deleted them after they were seriously affecting my blog settings. Anyone who knows how to download pictures BACK to the computer from photobucket should feel free to let me know. I have several pictures there that just won't fit right on my blog and I no longer have anywhere else. Tasha went with us on this trip because we can't afford to board her and couldn't find a dog sitter. 

Sleeping Princess

This was how Awyn was through most of the cave touring. Isn't she precious? And before you ask about a hat, it was a little chilly in there, but not cold, and she wouldn't keep the hat on. I just kept her little head covered by the shade flap on the carrier. 

Nutella even goes well with vanilla wafers! Actually I just liked this trippy picture of Eric. 

I saw this picture after I posted that other one. This is a great shot of both kids getting lunch. 

Awyn liked her pears and chicken. She slept through my lunch, and woke up around the same time her brother did, so we all got to eat. Notice the bib, Keri. It's the same one that you sent for Sam while we were living up in the Basin in the motel two years ago. We still use the plate, cup, bib, and whatever else you sent. In fact, these items inspired us to get more of the same later on. 

Lunch!

Sam really liked his bread and nutella. We took 'sandwich' makings with us into the cave. Instead of buying a lot of processed meat or taking along peanut butter and jelly, we thought that nutella not only tasted better than all that, but couldn't be much worse for us. We also had crackers (see my sponge bob post), apples, carrots, cookies, raisins, water, cokes, and mini snickers bars. 

This is just a cool picture, so I thought I'd share it. It's actually the base of a very large stalagmite. Sam loved the agua in the cave. He learned all about caves, and was talking about bats and caves and trying to talk softly. 

Here I go again with another picture. I think this was taken in the Big Room, but I don't remember. We didn't take very many pictures, as it was rather hard keeping the flash from washing out all the color. Also we've been fighting red-eye, something that Picasa allows me to correct a little, but it isn't perfect, especially with Awyn's very light blue/grey eyes. 

Carlsbad Caverns

We decided to take advantage of Eric's three day weekend and go up to Carlsbad Caverns. The original plan was to camp at Guadalupe Mountains, but the high winds, cold temps, and blowing snow kind of had us a little worried about the stability of our sanity and our tent. So we stayed at the motel at White's City right outside the entrance gate. We hiked down the natural entrance of the Cave, and then followed the self-guided tour around the Big Room. We ate lunch in the cave, down in the lunchroom. Awyn liked looking at the top of the cave but slept through most of it. Sam fell asleep towards the end of the Big Room, and woke up just in time to eat some lunch.
I'll be posting more pictures. This one is a test because I've tried changing my posting options and resizing the pictures. I like it when you can click on the picture to enlarge it into something printable. 

Bob Esponja

Eric and I bought some cheezits for our short trip up to Carlsbad Caverns, among other grocery items. They were a nice themed box, Bob Esponja, even shaped like the character. I was reading the box, after we'd eaten most of them, and the box was all about the new movie, coming soon only to theaters! For anyone in the know, the movie came out in 2004. So I looked for a date on the box, none printed or stamped. I have no idea how old the crackers were, but unless there's another Sponge Bob movie in the works, I think they were around 2 years old! Good shelf life, dude!

Crawling

Awyn has finally figured out the movements needed for crawling. She's now crawling all over the place. I guess now I actually have to clean up the living room. Before we could get away with clearing off a patch of carpet, but now she can get to that used tissue and eat it too.

Not to be out done, Sam decided to take over the neighborhood watch from Tasha. While Tasha sat quietly and patiently in her corner, Sam ran barking to the door when a maintenence guy walked up the driveway. Sam did a fairly good impression of his doggy, low pitched wuf wuf noises instead of high arf arf ones.

Raspberries

Raspberries

This is a test to see if this will actually post a movie. If not, I'll try it the other way. 

Antler Boy

Sam took a liking to this antler. We thought it was cute enought to warrant a picture. 

River Road West

I can't remember the name of the mountain right in front of the jeep off the top of my head. Eric will tell me tomorrow, I'm sure. This was a great trip, we had lots of fun driving. Most of the road was in really good shape, only a few rough spots. Still nothing I'd take the van on, as I like my suspension too much. Sam and Awyn seemed to have fun. Sam kept trying to tickle Awyn, and Awyn would let out her patented "He's touching me!" shriek. She likes to laugh at him, but not when she's trying to take a nap. 

Gingerbread boy

Sam licked the beater after I made ginger bread. Hey, I've noticed that these pictures aren't posting quite as large as they used to, and I'm not sure how well they'll print out. If you, and I do mean Joyce and any others, want a higher more printable resolution picture, let me know, and I'll e-mail it to you. I'm sorry about this, I'm still learning all the workings of the new software I'm using. The bummer is that I don't think it will let me increase the resolution by much, if at all. I shall try. Right now I'm just happy that all the pictures I posted before our computer died are saved in that old high res format, as I'm downloading them to our new computer. 

Cup!

Awyn loves taking sips from cups, especially her brother's cups. We have to check what's in the cup, sometimes he's got water, sometimes juice or milk. This time it's watered down apple juice, so we let her take a few swigs before giving the cup back to Sam. 

Off the Road Again

Today we drove the river road, starting on the Glenn Springs road, turning east on the river road, and all the way west to Castalon. It was a great drive, took about 4 hours, I think. I'll post the couple of pictures we took later, as it's late, I want to go to bed, and I still need to get a grocery list made up for tomorrow. We're headed up to Midland to take one of the SCA's to the airport, get Awyn her second flu shot, do some shopping, and head home.

I need to change the oil in the jeep. This means I have to go buy oil. We don't have a manual, so I don't know what kind of anything to buy. So I'm adding to my birthday list of things I want. I want a repair manual for a 1998 jeep wrangler, 4 cylinder/4WD/manual transmission. I can always take it to a friend to change the oil, but I think somehow I should be able to do this myself. I've been taught how to do it, but it's been many years. (For some reason, dads who change their own oil insist their offspring learn basic car stuff, like changing oil or tires when teaching offspring to drive) Now I think an oil change is a nice easy way to start basic car care on my own, and the jeep is nicely off the ground for me, no jacks required. (gotta love high clearance off road vehicles!) So, basic question is what kind of oil and filter do I buy, and how much? Poor jeep needs it desperately, as it's been nearly a year since the last change.

Yes, Sam is sniffing a flag. Isn't he cute? During the Christmas season, we were putting up a Snoopy Christmas flag every day and Sam got a bit attached to the routine, so Eric now has to hang flags pretty much every morning before going to work, and he takes them down after he's home for the night. Sam likes to help. Anyone want to guess what kind of flag this is? For extra credit, tell me the date it was used... 

I thought this would give a good sense of the chaos that has descended upon our 'study'. Right now there are boxes everywhere and I can't find my sewing machine, it's buried under the piles. Luckily I did manage to finish one of the baby carriers I'd been working on so I can send it to the volunteer who bought it at the aution. It was really the carrier I'd been saving for myself, but she really liked it and I won't have the others ready in time. 

Awyn and a Panda

Awyn is showing off her new pink dress and panda bear. Actually, I put it on her to see if it was too big. I think she'll have a long use time out of this dress. The fabric is very soft and it's a pretty shade of pink for her, but the dress is a bit large and I had to keep pulling it back onto her shoulders. I love the style, wrap around kimono style. 

Three Martini Play Date

For my birthday, Eric gave me a book called, "Three Martini Play Date". An hilarious example of parenting skills, it includes a martini recipe to teach your child. Look it up on www.amazon.com, seriously, I laughed constantly while reading it. Any parent who is currently struggling through the early years of parenting will love it. I'm still not sure how serious the author is about all of her suggestions, but I think she actually means most of it. Anyway, I'm not sure how Eric discovered this book, but I'm glad he thought to get it for me for my birthday. Last night we went over to a friend's house to watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica. Netflix is supposed to have the first half of the second season starting January 10, but I still want to own it! It's only $30 or so on amazon, $50 elsewhere...

Sam's Ball Pit

Sam loves his new ball pit. It was our big Christmas present this year. He had a neat inflatible banana boat ball pit that he got for his 1st birthday from Alisha and family, but inflatible and cactus/desert don't do well together, especially when the dog brings thorns in on her paws... Sam loved that ball pit. So when we saw a neat looking one in a catalog, we thought it would be a great use for all those balls we already had.

Now all I have to do is tell him to go jump in his balls, and he runs to the 'house', as he calls it, and dives into the 200 balls and swims around. Today he even invited Awyn. He said, "Awyn sit. Awyn house. " Then actually chanted her name a few more times. How could I resist? So I put Awyn in the ball pit, and soon got sucked in myself, as Sam was going to go in too, and he's a bit rough with his sister. He's finally calling her Awyn, not just Baby. 

 

 

Awyn likes the balls from Sam's ball pit too. There's something irresistable about those plastic balls. I've seen many babies play with these silly plastic balls. They try to eat them, throw them, roll them, chase them, or just pick them up and hold them. 

Maybe I'd like socks...

I want season two of the show Scrubs, and season two of Battlestar Galactica. We've been watching these shows through netflix, and I wouldn't mind just owning them. Of course, netflix doesn't have season 2 of Battlestar Galactica. And the studio has only released the first half of the second season, as the second half is only just starting. Maybe that's why netflix doesn't have it. All I know is that I don't have the disposible income available to purchase these things for myslef. And I need some more cotton socks. My mistress is yowling for attention. I went outside with Sam, left the dog in the house behind the screen door, and she started barking, woke up miss cranky pants, and now Awyn won't settle into anything, she's just too tired, won't fall back asleep, isn't hungry, has a fresh diaper, etc. She's cranky because she had a very short nap and woke up without mama in the house to rescue her as fast as she would have preferred. I know, I want a sound-proof box. I'm not sure if I want it for me, or for the kids...

Blogging Fool

Today I think I am a blogging fool. Give me back my internet access, and poof, I'm online. So I'm now going to talk about me. Yesterday was my birthday, and I was asked what I wanted for presents. I'm terrible at remembering the little things that I don't buy for myself, but I really want to have. I tend to fixate on something wildly expensive or very difficult to buy for somebody, you know, the sorts of things you really have to be there to purchase for yourself, like pants. Right now I could use some new pants, but I'm kind of an in between size, and I HATE shopping for pants. My favorite jeans, worn for about 4 months of the year, are Wrangler's stretch jeans, classic cut. I don't do boot cut, or hip hugger. But as I said, I have to buy those for myself, the size thing is just too much of an issue. Besides, that's like asking how much I weigh, and dude, just don't. I'm still terribly self conscious about my body and it's shape, after all, I had a baby in May, and I wasn't in fabulous shape to begin with.

I also have some fabrics I'm drooling over. I want some hemp or silk twill. It's usually available online. http://www.dharmatrading.com/fabric/silk/twill.html although they tend to be out of some of the hemp fabrics that I want. My wish is to make baby carriers out of the fabric. That and that silk twill is just fabulous stuff. They've sent me samples. I love hemp fabrics because they are so stain resistant, durable, usually lightweight, but strong. The hemp jersy knit would make a nice baby sling. Actually, just do a google search on hemp twill. I like the lighterweight fabrics, sturdy, but light. I also am out of some of my favorite Thai food ingredients, like powdered coconut cream, Tom Kha soup base, and some of the spicy sauces. I love making pad thai, but getting the ingredients out here means yet another web site. http://www.importfoods.com/ I have a few things I'd like from ebay, like this tapestryhttp://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4430186161&ssPageName=MERC_VIC_ReBay_Pr4_PcY_BID_IT, (this seller lists some really pretty things) and I can turn the tapestry into a baby sling. I would love rings for ring slings, and they can be found at another website! http://slingrings.com/sunshop/

I also like shopping at www.motherwear.com and www.expressiva.com where I can get nursing shirts/bras. This stuff isn't cheap, but it's decent quality. I've shopped both sites, so I know which shirts actually look nice, and which shouldn't be listed. I'm a 2X because of my rather large bust, and I like the stretch shirts because they don't hang off me all over the rest of my self. I'd like a nice UV protecting long sleeve white shirt, but I don't have a website to offer you for that.

So for those of you still struggling with ideas for birthday presents, I've given a few ideas. I also would like some seriously expensive things too, but I'm not going to bug you for them now. Happy shopping, or hey, just give me a call and wish me a happy birthday. I'm 32 yesterday!

Family Pictures

We had family portraits taken in November. Sam is 2 1/2, Awyn is 6 months. Really we had a lot of fun having them taken. We sent the pictures to grandparents as Christmas presents, so that's why I didn't post them. I'm sure I'm breaking some sort of Sears copyright policy, so I have to ask that you don't print these out yourself. I can send you the Sears link and you can order them if you wish. We do have a very limited supply of these prints to give out. We are more than willing to share them around, but once we're out, we're out. I'm debating on replacing the personal profile picture I'm using with this one.