updates...

krista is doing better; doing a little bit better each day. last i talked to the family, she will not have to have dialysis. so that is good. she and her husband are both in the air force, and their commander gave her husband 60 days off to be with her and the baby. so that is good.

echoe, my friend who just got diagnosed with guillian barre, is also doing better. alot better, considering the circumstances. she is out of intensive care, and the other day, was able to walk (with assistance) 50 ft. to the shower. that is really awesome and we are all so happy about it (she wasn't able to walk at all before or even feel her legs, so this is great progress).

thanks for your prayers, everyone!

my kid is a vegetarian

i swear, clay is going to be a vegetarian if he keeps up with his current eating habits. he is getting to the point where he refuses almost all meat, but he loves his veg. the other day, we tried hummus, and he totally devoured it.

and he likes tofu. he loves guacamole. he even likes raw potatoes. he steals them out of the potato bin and takes little bites out of them. so i cut up some raw potato and let him chew on it and he actually liked it.

so, right. i'm going to have to learn to cook vegetarian, because he needs to get his protein somewhere! or maybe this is my cue to go veggie.

although i don't think nick would go for it. he likes his steak and ale pies too much. and his bacon. so he probably wouldn't cooperate with the idea of becoming a veggie.

he (nick) already thinks i'm a crazy hippy. who, me? surely not. :O

water baby

so last week, clay cried for the full 20 minutes of his lesson and i was thinking it was going to be a waste of time and money. but this week he's done much better and he's even progressed to kicking! he lets his teacher hold him on his stomach now, too, so that's progress.

after the lesson, he says "thank you" in sign language to his teacher and waves bye bye. so yeah... he's still not to excited about going in the water, but he's very excited to get out and wave bye bye.

so... progress.

more adventures in hicksville

nick was mowing the lawn the other day and the wheel came off! he was not very happy. he said, "good thing i wasn't going down a hill!" this was not the thing to say, because i got a mental picture of him tumbling down the hill, bouncing like a rubber ball on the grass. which made me want to laugh, even though nick didn't think it was funny. so.

we had to get the stupid thing up the hill (nick was, of course, at the bottom when it fell off). but when we pushed it, the wheel would work its way off again. so one of us had to get on our knees and go along side the mower and push the wheel back on when it started to come off. guess who got that fun job.

yes, me. it was one of those days, i was really glad i lived in the country, because i looked like an idiot.

to make matters worse, the dogs seemed to have designated part of that area as their bathroom, so while i was awkwardly walking on my knees and trying to watch the wheel, i was also trying to avoid dog crap and watching for that too.

i probably looked like i was doing one of those complicated ritualistic dances you see on those national geographic shows. a dance dedicated to great and mighty lawnmower (which is not, in fact, so great at all). there i was, walking back and forth on my knees, and stopping and waving my arms (i had to wave for nick to stop when i had to push the wheel back on).

at any rate, the great and not so mighty lawnmower is sitting in the garage. and that's not the only problem it has. the lever to engage the mower keeps slipping, so that's held in place with a bungee cord. otherwise, you'll be mowing along, and the lever will slip, and the blades will go up. of course that gets annoying when it happens every 50 ft or so, hence the bungee cord. by the way, the mower is not a john deere. if it was...

so anyway, nick actually fixed the wheel, but now the grass is so high in the back yard, i'm not sure we'll be able to mow it anyway. maybe we can sell it as hay.

perspective

my friend echoe is also in the hospital with guillian barre syndrome. it happened so fast. last weekend, she was mowing the lawn and afterwards, noticed that her toes were tingling. but she is also 35 weeks pregnant, so at first, they assumed that it was just the baby pressing on a nerve. that's what the doctor initially thought, as well, but when she couldn't walk and was in severe pain, they realized it was more serious.

right now, she can't walk, can't feel her legs, and needs help just to turn over in bed. she has no feeling in her hand either, and can't grasp objects or hold things.

she has a 34 month old little girl at home, too, who doesn't understand why mommy can't come home to be with her.

so she and her family are going through alot right now, so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers as well.

please pray

my neighbor's daughter, krista, just had her first baby this week, and she is not doing well at all. although the baby is okay, krista is not. she developed pre-eclampsia and it did not get better; when she had the baby, she hemorrhaged quite badly and her platelet count dipped into double digits instead of the normal 400 range of a healthy person. she hasn't been getting better; in fact, her liver and kidneys are bleeding and although they think they got the liver to stop bleeding, she is starting renal failure and they may have to do dialysis.

everyone is quite scared at the moment, as they are not sure she is going to pull out of this. so i wanted to ask everyone to pray that she will get better and make it through this okay.

thanks

tantrums

so my son is on a shuttle -- we were in rochester today to see a friend in the hospital -- and as we were getting off, he sees a green froggie keychain hanging from above the door. immediately, he reaches for it, and i say no, and we continue on our way.

clay starts screaming and throws a mini-tantrum. i ignore him and he stops, only to throw another tantrum when i put him in his stroller.

the shuttle driver was super nice and came down and gave clay the frog! i thought it was really sweet of the driver, but at the same time, didn't want to teach clay to throw tantrums to get what he wanted.

but he was thrilled with his new frog toy. so i didn't take it away. then he fell asleep in the car, just before we stopped to eat. nick insisted on stopping at a store anyway, or we could have skipped lunch and gone home.

but since nick had to stop anyway, we stopped and ate. and clay decided to keep climbing out of his chair, grabbing for my glass, and trying to pull his straw out. after thirty minutes of this, i was kinda worn out. and he showed no signs of being tired anymore.

typical.

so then, he finally fell asleep, only to wake up about half an hour later, screaming and ornery because he was wet and tired. it took me ten minutes to calm him down.

needless to say, by the time we got home, i was exhausted. clay on the other hand, was completely rejuvenated from his tiny nap and ready for action again.

now i'm ready to throw a tantrum.

but i had to make supper (after shopping for groceries) and he decided to cry incessantly until i fed him...

but then he threw all his food on the floor and refused to eat it.

then he refused to pick up his toys.

then... he screamed while i tried to brush his teeth.

very candidly, nick commented, "he doesn't seem to like that too well."

right. i think i got that, nick.

finally, we reach bedtime. clay actually goes to bed quite happily, but the bloody cat sneaks in. i chase him around the room like five hundred sixty thousand times, and every time i almost catch him, he escapes and dashes somewhere else. finally, i manage to chase him out the door and trudge exhausted down the stairs.

so its now like ten p.m... and someone is hungry. no... not clay. nick. he wants me to fix him something to eat. because, he reminds me, that's what wives are for.

what do you think i told him?

in which clay learns a word he shouldn't...

so i was trying to change clay the other day and realized i had his diaper on all lopsided. so, under my breath, i said, "oh crap..."

and this small voice says, "aww cwap!"

i couldn't help it. i laughed. so for the rest of the night, he ran around the house saying, "aw cwap," and then he'd look at us and giggle.

he is such a turkey.

not funny

so nick coached his soccer team today; they had a game. and he comes home and tells me:

"i made a few kids cry and three of them quit. so they told me not to bother coming back."

"what, what what??!!"

"yeah," he tells me, "they aren't serious enough players. so i yelled at them"

"they're KIDS," i say, horrified, raising my voice. "i can't believe you yelled at kids. it's just a game..." i babble on and on about how you have to nurture talent and teach someone to play, they just don't know it and on and on...

he lets me go on for a while and then calmly tells me,

"i was just winding you up. no one went home. they actually played quite well tonight, and we won the game."

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

so i got some cool free stuff

so i had a lia sophia party last night, and only three people showed up out of the thirty some people i invited. and one of them was my mom.

actually, alot of people had stuff going on, but it was just my bad luck that i picked a date that everyone was busy.

but i still got like $74 in free stuff, just from three people ordering, so like, order some stuff from the link i posted (where it says lia sophia in blue) and i can get more free stuff.

so i'm going to order this green necklace on the left. its called "jasmine". its much prettier than it is in the picture.




and, i got a $78 necklace for free, just for hosting the show. so i couldn't lose, even though only like three people showed up.

on a downside, i ate waaaay too many sweets at the party (doughnuts and m&m's) and was sick all night. so yeah, the next time i have a party, i think i'll do a veggie tray instead.

swimming lessons

i signed clay up for swimming lessons and yesterday was his first day. he was okay with it, and i thought he had fun. today... today was a totally different story. he screamed as soon as he hit the water and wouldn't calm down until i held him. *sigh* so yeah, the lessons are twenty minutes, and he screamed and cried for the whole lesson -- until i finally held him. but then when he calmed down, and i tried to give him back to the instructor, he started screaming again.

so, not sure how this is going to turn out. guess we'll see. don't think he'll learn how to swim if he doesn't leave my arms...

oh well, today could have just been an off day. *fingers crossed*

hotter than a sumo wrestler's armpit...

in a sauna. yes. its that hot. and about as pleasant... at the moment, i'm attempting to stay cool, but there's not much you can do, short of immersing yourself in a pool of icy cold water. which we don't have. clay's wading pool has water in it, but its warm from the sun, and full of bugs.

so anyway, the pool's out. maybe when clay goes to bed, i can take a cool shower. at any rate, its hot.

he blew me away today...

clay was with me in the store, and i cooed, "i love you," and he said, "i uv oo" back to me. it melted my heart. its so neat when you hear that for the first time. i just had to post and share. :)

too hot

the heat here is terrible. i actually sat in clay's wading pool today. the neighbor lady gave us an old wading pool, and it has a slide in it, so clay thinks that's fun.

i signed him up for infant swimming lessons, so that should be fun. i'll have to get some pictures. my little baby is growing up!

when i get the pic resized, i'll post a pic of him in the water. he's a fish -- totally loves the water!

i've broken a new record for myself...

so yeah, i've accomplished something today that i didn't even thing was possible. while working on a sewing project today, i accidentally sewed through my finger. yes, i learned; it is possible, because i have done it. i may be the only person on the planet who has done it, but i have done it.

i was doing something rather tricky, and the fabric kept wanting to move, so i was trying to hold it in place with my finger, and all of the sudden, my finger hurt dreadfully, but when i tried to jerk it away, i realized i couldn't -- because there was a great big needle in it. this was also the time i realized my foot was still on the pedal, and that i should probably take it off.

after pulling the needle out (it went all the way through), i still couldn't pull it away, because there was thread in it! so i had to cut the thread and actually pull it out. thankfully, it was just one stitch, so it wasn't too much of a headache.

if i'd had the presence of mind, and hadn't been reeling in pain, i should have taken a picture to post for you, my faithful readers. i'm sure you would have been thrilled (insert sarcasm here). you are lucky, though, there is no pic of thread coming out my finger.

for crying out loud though, i've been sewing since i was thirteen, so more than half my life. you'ld think i'd do something that stupid when i was just beginning.

oh well, whoever i was making the item for, i can truly say it was made by blood, sweat, and tears.

new challenge

i'm going to try something this summer. no t.v. i'm not going to watch any t.v. shows all summer and do other things. it should be a busy, fun and interesting experiment. t.v. is such a waste of time.

i'll write all about my new (and blogworthy) adventures.

God has a sense of humor.

i've given in. i've bought a bathing suit. that's not the ironic part. one month before realizing i was preggers with clay, i splurged with my birthday money and bought this great two-piece bathing suit... which, i didn't really get to wear!

by the time summer rolled around, i was hugely pregnant, and looked ridiculous in a two-piece. after having clay, i looked ridiculous in a two-piece and still do.

so i finally bought a one piece suit the other day. the phrase, "its the thought that counts," does not apply to bathing suits and me post-partum. i can put on that 2 piece suit and think "sexy" all i want, but it ain't gonna happen.

so. i seem to have ironic things happen to me alot. however i could look at it from a different angle:

perhaps if i want to get pregnant, all i have to do is buy a bikini at TallGirl. hmmmmm...

a new trick

clay has discovered how to take his nappy off. he is ever so proud of himself. so i put rubber pants on over the nappy, and they puff out. it reminds me of a ballerina's tutu. i call him mr. puffy pants.

but, it keeps the nappy on. as you might have guessed, he doesn't like clothes and likes to take them off. he sees you coming with clothes and runs in the other direction. when you catch him, he protests loudly.

at home, he runs in his nappy, but you can't take a naked baby shopping, so he has to endure the horror of wearing clothes.

my job doesn't pay me enough for this...

and it wasn't in the job description.

so. i work at a mental health facility, and alot of interesting things happen in a day, and you take it all in stride. most things. but today, someone had shoved a huge wad of paper towels down the toilet and flushed, resulting in an overflowing toilet and a flooded room. they were the heavy brown kind, that you find in most public restrooms.

guess who got the job of removing the paper towels? so there i am, armed with gloves, pulling this huge wad of towels out, and then i saw a smaller wad of paper towel, that fell out of the big wad. so, without thinking, i picked it up. about the time i realized it didn't really feel like the other paper towels i was holding, i smelled something "pongy" (nick's word for bad smelling). it only took a few seconds for the horrible realization to hit me: it was not paper towel i was holding; it was poo!

i washed my hands a million times and still feel compelled to wash them again. yeah, and the other girls thought they were having a bad day because they had to mop up toilet water.

like i said. i don't get paid enough.

the straw that broke the camel's back...

...or nick's back rather.

so the other day when i go to water the horses i notice the flies are horrible and thick, so i picked up some fly spray.

so, after i bought the fly spray, i waited until clay was down for a nap and went down to spray the horses and steer. however, on my way down, i noticed something strange about the steer. either he was not where he should be, or the fenceline had moved. since the latter was rather unlikely, i went with the first conclusion and got nick. we decide to leave the dogs inside so they won't chase the steer off and head down the hill for another adventure.

the steer had simply wanted to be on the other side of the shade, and had broken through the fence. and he didn't want to go back in. after getting down there, nick asked me to run for some rope. after getting that, we had to move the horses, so i coaxed them into another area, while nick made sure the steer didn't run off. then, nick needed the wire cutters, because he couldn't see where fence had been broken; the steer had just pushed through. so he wanted to cut the wire and then re-do it. once he had cut the wire, and after some coaxing, nick got him back through the fence, but chewbacca was not happy about it. he head butted nick!

then nick asks me to go get the barbed wire. which is of course up the hill in the shed. so i run BACK and get that. because of course nick must guard the steer from running out. so i get teh wire. so, once the wire arrives, nick is fixing the fence. he tells ME to go in with the steer and make sure he doesn't try to get back out!

"so you want him to headbutt me?!" i asked.

"no," he says impatiently. "i want him to stay away from me so i can fix this fence!"

chewbacca does not headbutt me. for which i'm grateful for. he even lets me spray fly spray on him (which is more than i can say for the horses). so while chewbacca and i are bonding (okay, while i'm watching him eat grass), nick is grumbling over at the fenceline and getting more irritated by the second.

the dog is barking frantically in the house, because of course he can't stand being in when we're out. this wakes the baby, who starts screaming. but we can't leave until the fence is fixed, unfortunately.

the tree that gave chewbacca shade also serves to get in the way and the branches keep wacking nick as he tries to fix the fence. then, as he's stumbling after being attacked by the tree, he steps in fresh cow poo. this really does not brighten his mood at all. and of course, the flies will not leave him alone. i offer to spray him with the fly spray, but he declines.

(oh, did i mention it felt like it was 100 degrees out?)

he finishes fixing one area, and i realize the cow actually pushed through a different section. i point this out to him. he looks thrilled. however, we (okay, he) manages to get it done, and we trudge inside.

but now of course, the baby is awake and NOT going to sleep. in fact, he's a bit pissed off. when i get upstairs to get him, i find out why. he's got a totally RIPE nappy. i'd scream too if i had to wear that. ughhh! so much for relaxing. of course, when nick got in, he immediately grabbed a drink and collapsed in the chair.

precisely what i wanted to do, but with a baby to take care of and supper to make, it didn't happen.

and nick wonders why i'm tired all the time.

so... that was our latest adventure. but i have to run now, because clay wants "up" from his high chair and has just thrown his cup to catch my attention.

so i'm off.