Since we’re getting our floors redone and rooms painted while we’re out of town next week and the garage is full…we needed somewhere to put the entire first floor. Also, I’m guessing it will stay for a few months—since we’ll be moving this summer and want to sell the house, it will be beneficial to declutter the house and keep lots of stuff in there.
One hour in a 126° circulating hot water bath then one minute per side in a screaming hot pan with a butter/oil mix and seasonings.
Mmmmm.
I am loving my Sansaire that I got via Kickstarter!
There’s just something about having Tom home, a nice breeze blowing through the open windows, music playing, having a drink, and getting dinner ready together…to make things seem just about perfect.
Soooo…we discovered a leak on the garage ceiling—about a 1’x6′ wet (and partially dried) brown patch. Tom pulled off the sheetrock and water poured off the insulation when he started pulling it out. Ugh. Luckily not much else is wet and there’s only a few spots of blue-green mold.
After some investigation it turned out to be the incoming water line to the MBA toilet. Tom can easily fix that (and did)…but not the drywall in the garage which we have to hire out. At least we have a contractor we can call—the guy who is installing our laminate floor in a few weeks.
So…the Dharma pantry is being disassembled so they can get to it to fix it. Of course, we can’t move select shelves because we hooked them all together for stability.
Good times.
After my eye appointment today on base, we had a 40 minute drive home…right around Katie’s naptime…so yep, she fell asleep. She does not transfer well—a five-minute car nap means her real nap will be postponed for a few hours. If we were going to be at home, we’d try again, but that wouldn’t be possible today because we have Owen’s valentines party.
What was really surprising is that she didn’t wake up when the car stopped OR when I opened my door…either of which typically happens. So for the first time ever, I left Katie in the car to take her nap. (Actually, it was the first time I’ve ever done it with either kid!) And while I know she’s safe—it’s sunny and warm in the car plus I keep checking on her about every 10 minutes (and she hasn’t even moved)—it still feels weird even though I know people do it.
That said, she slept about an hour. I had hoped for even more but an hour was pretty good and better than nothing—and likely as best as I could hope for today. 🙂
And it was warmer in the car than I thought—she was a little sweaty. 🙂
>>> New mamas get nothing done (and other untruths)
A blog post definitely worth reading at big city moms. Here’s a snippet:
Mamas, I want to tell you the truth. And here it is: You will not get anything done when you are home with a baby. And anyone who told you otherwise is not being very forthcoming (or perhaps they just have a lousy memory). You might get yourself fed. You might get yourself dressed (then again, you might not). You might take a walk (it makes baby happy). You might have a short phone conversation or start a load of laundry, neither of which you will finish. This is your new mom normal.
So what are you doing all day? Not much that can be measured, really. You’re simply responding appropriately and with patience (through fatigue), to smiles, to tears, to hunger cues, and to drowsiness, teaching your baby how to navigate this complex and (to a baby) highly emotional and raw world. You are keeping your baby clean, which on some days involves more costume changes (for both of you) than any non-mother can begin to fathom. You are teaching a tiny, helpless person all about the world—at least the important parts, like how we treat each other and what it means to be connected to a family. You are creating a foundation of love and trust between you and your baby, one that will help you set your parenting compass, inform your future interactions, and provide a basis for the way your child relates to the larger world.
But that’s about it, really. That’s your day.
There is no greater task than the nothing you did yesterday, the nothing you are doing today, and the nothing you will do tomorrow.
We had our infrared laser thermometer out to check the air temp blowing out the vents (same old story with the upstairs living room being hot in the summer and cold in the winter) and the cats caught sight of the red dot. Then watch what happens.
I was washing knives this morning—being careful!—yet I still stuck myself. Right in the middle of my right palm right down a major line. Ugh. I kept pressure on it and didn’t think it was all that serious, so I posted the above question on Facebook. These were my favorite responses:
Can you see thru it? 🙂
A little duct tape will take care of that!
If you have to ask, you probably need stitches.
In all seriousness…between all the responses, a quick Google, and talking to David (my ex-PA stepdad), I decided to go to the ER. However, there was one problem—all the roads were still completely covered in ice. I had a brief thought that maybe the main roads would be better (like at home, Roberts Road can be horrible, but once you cross North Down it’s clear) but DUH, this is North Carolina. I felt okay going slow (25 in a 45) but as I got closer to town, I saw a line of cars slowing down, some stopped, and some turning around. I wasn’t even halfway to town by that point, so I just turned around and went home. (Come to find out later, it was at least a tractor-trailer accident and someone caught another accident on their phone while stopped for the previous accident.) And the police were telling people to stay off the roads. So I made the right call. If my hand had been lots worse, I may have pressed on—but it wasn’t.
However. The more I waited and watched, the more paranoid I got. It hurt—but it was most likely just normal bruising and not (my paranoid side) that I cut a muscle or nerve. It had stopped bleeding—but started again when I opened my hand too much. By this time it was after dinner and dark and there was no way I was going out on the roads…which meant even if I decided to go to the ER in the morning, it would be past the general 12-hour cutoff for suturing a cut. Ugh.
So I popped some more pain pills (a naproxen at first this morning, then a hydrocodone this afternoon, now Tylenol tonight), slapped some Neosporin and a bandaid on, and called it good for the night. If it’s still oogy in the morning, Tom will take me to the ER. He wouldn’t have to take me, but he has to report to work tomorrow at 11…unless, of course, he’s dealing with me. 🙂
P.S. I just realized the pic makes it look like one big hole. Trust me, it’s not a gaping hole…it’s just blood making it look that way.
A TiVo friend of mine throws pottery and has an Etsy store. I’ve been looking at this large vase for over a year but couldn’t bring myself to buy it because I just didn’t need a vase. But I happened to be on Etsy recently looking at something else and thought if it was still there, it was meant to be mine. Amazingly it was, so I ordered it! 🙂 He threw in the small vase as an unexpected bonus! (As a side note, he’s the same guy I did the smoothie in a bread bowl for and the same one Tom and I got our gnomes from. Which reminds me I haven’t told you about the gnomes yet. That will be another day.)
Everything was preventatively cancelled for today because of the threat of snow and freezing rain…and nothing happened until about 3:30 when it started getting colder and the freezing rain started. I thought the table looked cool—it’s a sight you won’t see much in North Carolina!
It’s a long story, but yes, that’s a smoothie in a bread bowl at Panera.
Katie had fun wandering and climbing.
Because your toys aren’t already taking over the playroom, the living room, your bedroom, and the upstairs living room…
I had an oil change this morning, and Katie was awesome. Pulled out the chairs at the kid table and drank her milk and ate her crackers.
She did play with the iPad, wander a bit, and “talk” to some of the other customers, but she was very cute (and quiet) so no one was annoyed with her. Most actually stopped to chat with her!
“It’s all crackery!”
And he liked it! 🙂
One of my mommy group friends invited a bunch of people over for Christmas dinner, so we all went! I made mashed potatoes and peas and peanuts. I forgot my phone (EEK!) so didn’t get to snap any pictures. I grabbed my friend’s phone to take a cute picture of Katie eating a candy cane, but long story short I didn’t end up with it. The kids had a blast running around playing with other kids—and Katie tested my nerves by wanting to go up and down the slippery wood stairs by herself! The dinner was delicious and there was about as much dessert as dinner!
When we got home, I managed to snap a few pics of the kids with Gramma—but we didn’t get any with me and the kids. (We had planned to before the party, but it was chaos trying to get out of the house on time.)
It’s time to make Katie some small Bs…
Tomorrow’s project is to redo Owen’s pants—Grannie Lin hemmed them when she was here in October, but he’s grown enough to let them out already!
Of course, his help involved stirring for about 13 seconds total. 🙂
And on poop patrol:
We were invited to a friend’s house for a pre-Christmas chili dinner today. This is before we headed out. Yes, it was unseasonably warm.
Owen accidentally found his old Buzz Lightyear that I was going to surprise him with on Christmas…so I made him “help me around the house” to earn it—and he never set it down except to get dressed! (We just watched Toy Story for the first time a few weeks ago and he loves it!
Katie wanted to go outside.
Owen had fun playing with all the kids there—running around outside (with Buzz, of course!). And Katie had fun wandering in a new house. There were enough other parents there that you didn’t actually have to keep a dedicated eye on your kids so it was more enjoyable than I thought it would be.
We originally weren’t going to stay for the parade because it started at 7 (Katie’s bedtime) but they changed it to 5:30 so we were able to go! Our first parade! And a small-town parade at that! It’s been A LONG TIME since I’ve seen any parade—let alone a small-town one—and I was reminded just how interesting they were…about five police cars (county and city from surrounding areas), six fire trucks, ambulances, people who were running for mayor/commissioner/whatever, girl/boy scout troops, etc. Blah. Let’s just say I’d never have gone except I wanted Owen to see it since he’s in love with everything Christmas. And it was warm (it was 65).
But I have to say a parade in the dark is kinda crap. There’s lights on the trucks/floats/etc. but you can’t see any of the signs. But Owen had fun so that’s what matters!
Waiting for the parade to start:
The posse we were with (not everyone):
Yes, Buzz came with him. Owen never set him down all night.
Clapping!
Waving!
They were throwing candy and Owen got a raspberry lemonade sucker that he didn’t like—but Katie did!
The fire trucks were loud!
Happy boy!
Santa ending the parade!
Then it was a quick walk back to the host’s house, goodbyes, and we were home by 6:40!
It’s a clean out weekend (hence the pull-ups) and it’s 64° (hence the no clothes). 🙂
Looking for cars.
I bought some pre-lit garland at Target today. Owen liked his surprise—he had to keep going outside to look at it. 🙂
I’m about ready to leave a passive aggressive note in our neighbors mailbox… They’ve left this pool out for garbage pick up for a month now. After it wasn’t picked up the first week, you’d think they’d realize it wasn’t ever going to be picked up. It’s really getting annoying. And it’s unsightly.
This is our holiday display. It’s not quite up to my usual standards…but at least it’s something. 🙂 (My pre-lit garland all died last year so I finally tossed it and haven’t found any decently-priced stuff to replace it. And I was going to string lights on the porch and bushes, but the lights I was going to use ended up on the house. And I don’t really feel like buying new lights.)
Our neighbors, however, surprised me—they’re renters, so I didn’t expect much—but they went all out. 🙂
I am just stunned at how it happened! I was sliding the screen door open and my hand got wedged between that and the sliding glass door. It barely even rubbed. It was obviously enough for me to notice, though, which I’m glad I happened to look down because that’s when I noticed the missing diamond (it was in the tracks).
And I’m pretty sure this isn’t a wait-while-they-fix-it fix. It’s a tension-mount, which I remember them saying was a much more rugged setting…and hence more difficult to fix if it did come loose (and I specifically remember them saying if I ever needed it resized, they’d actually have to melt the gold and redo the entire ring…or something along those lines).
Like I needed this to worry about right now.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to get the lights up this year…it’s hard enough to do inside stuff…but outside stuff? Requiring a ladder and four arms? Plus the tree? Ugh. I had managed the mantle and was just going to plod along as much as I could during Katie’s naps and possibly skip the outside lights…until Owen asked when we were putting them up because he liked them. Cue mom guilt. So I posted my lament on Facebook and a friend graciously offered to help (they’re moving soon so aren’t decorating this season). Boooo for them moving, but woohoo for her offer to help!
But what a debacle. (Granted, a minor debacle or two in the grand scheme of things, but still a debacle typical of my life.) My friend is now the outside proof that STRANGE THINGS really do seem to happen to me.
First.
We plugged the lights in before we got started and they worked. By the time we got to the end, they were out. Huh? We look again. Yep, out. This can’t be, we think—we both saw them lit. RIGHT? Maybe it was the extension cord? We tried another. Nope. The outlet? Nope, another item plugged in and worked fine. Reset the outlet. Nope. Tried about six rearrangements of extension cords and direct into the outlet and…nothing.
WHAT. THE. HELL?
We took a step back off the porch and—AHA! It was only the last 4′ of lights that were out—the section right above us that we were looking up at. The rest were on. But seriously? They were brand new expensive LED lights last year. GRRR. So our options were to leave them as is or restring the whole house again with some old-school multi-colored lights that are many years old that were just extras. And I’m sure you can guess what option I chose. I couldn’t leave the mantle garland uneven…you think I’m leaving up lights that have a section burnt out? 🙂 So we restrung the whole house (at least we had the system down by then!) and I chucked the “old” ones.
Second.
This one should really be filed under YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. I wouldn’t have believed it if it didn’t happen to me—but I had photo proof and a friend watching. So there.
I think it was actually quite impressive:
Yes, that’s a light completely wedged in the sole of my flip flop. What? How? I mean really? I was just walking along and it got jammed in there. JAMMED. Like we needed to use pliers to get it out—and of course it broke. Which meant I had to take a light out of an extra string of all-blue lights. And then we had to replace a few other burnt-out lights with…blue lights.
Fixing the dips.
By the time we got to the end of the house, we had enough extra to put on the bushes…except we noticed that most of them were burnt out as well. Ugh. By that time I was burnt out on lights myself so I just let them hang down the side of the house and that was that!
Then Ruth, saint that she is, asked if there was anything else I needed help with. Well, I said, we could put the tree up… So we broke open two wine coolers as our celebratory drink after the escapade that was putting up the Christmas lights (plus we were both sweating from doing the lights—it was 72°!) and put the tree together and decorated most of it! (We left the bottom undone for Owen to finish.)
I can’t begin to thank Ruth enough. Really. She helped me not lose my shit when all kept going wonky. If I had been doing it by myself, the swearing would have been in utter frustration instead of in humor. 🙂
As soon as she left, someone was already making herself at home.
And her sister checking things out, too. Thankfully, this is as much interest as they both show.
As if the kids didn’t already have enough toys—and with Christmas right around the corner—I unearthed two big boxes of Owen’s old toys that I’m guessing we put away for Katie…or maybe just put in boxes temporarily because ironically, I had been wondering where some of the things had gone to…
Of course I can’t let Owen see them because he’d HAVE TO keep them all. But I can’t just get rid of everything because there are some good toys in there… So I think I’ll wrap up a few for Katie and hand pick a few for Owen to have. His school might get some donations as well.
I hate cleaning the floors because everything has to come off the floor. I usually put the chairs on the table so I have to clean off the table first—which is actually the worst part of the dining room. Today, however, I could have gotten away with not cleaning off the table (because I just put all the chairs in the foyer) but the table REALLY needed it. And the floor was awful since it has been a good month since I’ve cleaned it—and then Owen spilled apple juice all over the other day.
I had to take a picture because it was just so…clean…and…pretty.
Of course 10 minutes later at dinner there was strawberry, ham, and yogurt on the floor… 🙂
I usually don’t repost these types of things that I read on Facebook…but after a day when most of the stuff on the list has been irritating me, I really needed to see it to get a grip.
