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Category Archives: House & Home

Now THAT’S a garage sale!

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So we finally had our garage sale today—we’ve been wanting to have one ever since we moved back to Jacksonville but just never got around to it. If you remember, our last garage sale was a complete dud and we pretty much vowed to never have another. But we just had SO much good stuff to sell that we decided to take the chance.

And we’re glad we did.

Yes, it was a bit of legwork to get ready for it—and I pretty much ran the whole day by myself as Tom was in taking care of the kids—but it went really well. I didn’t get TOO terribly aggravated with people making deals (because we wanted the stuff GONE!) but I did draw the line a few times—of which these two cases were the most memorable:

  1. One guy at about 7:15 (we officially opened at 7 but of course had people shopping in the dark at 6:45) pointed to all the stuff he wanted and it totaled $45 and asked if I’d make him a deal. I said sure, $40. He says “How about $30?” Uh, sorry, NO. Not at 7:15am on popular items (like a pack-n-play and space heaters) and certainly not that big of a deal.
  2. An obviously English-understanding but Spanish-speaking only woman (her young daughter was translating between us most of the time) who drove up in an [Escalade or Excursion or something] and was talking on an iPhone thought that $2 was too much for a two-piece baby outfit—which I had already discounted from $4 (I had all baby clothes marked at $2 per piece). She made a big stink about how that was just TOO. MUCH. MONEY. Really? SERIOUSLY?

But otherwise I was giving out good deals.

It was pretty busy all day but no matter how much stuff people bought, it never looked like the stuff was dwindling! NEVER! (Unfortunately, that just goes to show you just how much stuff we had. And sadly, the garage is still FULL of boxes we have to sort through and reorganize.)

When it was over, I was eager to count our stash and see how well we did. I was excited to see that we made $539—until I looked back at the total for our last garage sale (that I complained was a complete dud) and saw that the difference was only $239. But, it just felt like it went SO much better—and, if you go back and read the old garage sale post, you will see that I said another $200 would have made it better. One shopper even commented that it was a really nice sale! Yay, us! (And I have to give a huge thank you to our friends who loaned us tables and signs!)

So, in the end, we made about $300 for about 18-20 hours of work (prep, sale, clean up) which just sooooo doesn’t seem worth it. I mean, it’s better than working that long for nothing…but had we sold another $200 worth I’d be more amenable to having another garage sale sometime during my lifetime.

So I guess we did okay. Not awesome, but okay.

And everyone who drove by? They actually stopped…even if they didn’t buy anything! 🙂

Why didn’t we think of this before?

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I have no idea why I didn’t think about doing this before… We desperately need more cupboard space, and we have an empty wall over a storage rack. So…we put in a 36″ upper cabinet this morning!

20121009-082947.jpg

We still need knobs and it looks a little strange with empty space on both sides, but I don’t care. Eventually, before we sell/move again, we’ll install a matching base cabinet with a short piece of counter top, and it will hopefully look like it’s always been there.

Parenting Tip #53

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Never schedule a doctors appointment for the day after you get back from a vacation.

I was still so apparently out of it that I forgot to pack extra underwear for Owen at daycare (though he did have pull-ups) and I forgot an extra bottle for Katie (though I did grab the bottle with the leftover 2oz from her last feeding). Then I wasn’t really paying attention to the time and I left about 15 minutes too early (not the end of the world, but why sit in a doctor’s office with a baby any longer than necessary?).

It all worked out okay in the end (Owen didn’t need the extra undies and Katie was happy with the 2oz) but it could have just as easily gone south.

Pooping

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Oh, the things you talk and write about when you’re a parent. 😯

You should see the size of Owen’s poops, which are about every 3-4 days (which is why they’re so big). 😯

They are ALWAYS too big to flush—we joke that it’s the size of a sweet potato but it’s not quite that big—but it always needs to be broken up into pieces. /gag/ I have no idea how he can, um, contain that much OR get rid of it without pain (he’s usually whining when he poops, but it’s not a pain cry and he never says it hurts).

So anyway, not only will Owen NOT poop on the potty until it’s dire….now he apparently has the poop dribbles. Like diarrhea consistency but not quantity. Lovely. So I Google and…he’s just, um, FULL. So the liquid parts are coming out around the solids.

I had asked friends for advice and, unfortunately, most of their suggestions were for different foods—which, if you know Owen, is NOT going to happen. However, they did remind me that we’ve been traveling (not really conducive to drinking a lot OR being on a regular schedule OR being able to run around all day to get things moving). And of course he’s JUST potty training so it’s still new and probably scary (even though when he DOES poop he seems very excited and promises to do it again). So we have been promoting as much liquid of whatever kind he wants…

We were on our way to getting really worried and were about a half day away from taking matters into our own hands (with a bit of Miralax in the morning) when he finally did poop tonight. Phew! BUT! We are now going to be watching his diet more closely—adding more of things he already likes (like nuts and Fiber One granola bars) and adding more stuff he doesn’t even realize he’s eating (like flax seed in his peanut butter).

Isn’t this fun?! 😐

Front seat rider!

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We only had to travel about two miles down back roads so we were going to let Owen sit in the front seat. He has never even sat in the front seat alone (even just parked in the driveway). He was GIDDY with excitement, which you can sort of see here.

And here, he’s pointing to everything on the center console saying “Check! Check! Check!” 🙂

We never did end up driving with him in the front seat… But the scary part? Look at how perfectly he fits? The seatbelt is in the correct spot!!!

WE HAVE POOP IN THE POTTY!

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Oh. My. Gawd.

Owen just pooped one of the biggest poops I’ve ever seen. IN THE TOILET! ENTIRELY ON HIS OWN!! (He claimed he did once before but he flushed before we saw it, so we aren’t 100% sure.)

He had pooped in his underwear twice this morning so we kept him naked (on the recommendation of a friend who went through this recently with his son and claimed it worked wonders). So Owen was playing out of sight (naked) while we were watching the MSU/CMU game…then suddenly came running in “Mama! Daddy! I pooped in the toilet! All by myself! C’mon! Come look!”

So I followed him—downstairs!—and I’ll be damned…he did. But it was SO huge I honestly thought it might have been Tom! So of course I called Tom to check it out (it wasn’t). And I took a picture for posterity (no, I won’t be posting it!).

We lavished him with praise. He seemed thrilled.

We said “Wasn’t that easy?” He said yes!

Then he says “You happy now?” We said yes!

Then he picked out his reward and I asked if he was going to keep pooping in the potty…and he says no. 😐

Failure at the dentist

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I had really high hopes for today’s visit to the dentist since it went pretty well the last time and now he’s six months older.

Ha.

Things started well enough—he went potty right after we got there. He had fun counting chairs and running around.

But then he started to have a meltdown because—are you ready?—he wanted to take his shoes off and I wouldn’t let him. I tried all my normal tricks to get him thinking about something else and nothing was working. I looked around. AHA! A water fountain. Something completely new. That got him excited, got his mind off his shoes, and kept him busy until we were called back. The front of his shirt was also soaked from trying to learn to drink!

He climbed up in the chair no problem so I thought things were going well. I told him to just sit back, relax, put his arms out, and say “Ahhhhh!”

Then he did really well wearing the lead cape (a superhero cape!) on the first x-ray (they put a piece IN your mouth and you have to stay still) and then it started to go downhill. He didn’t want to sit still and of course didn’t like the thing in his mouth…so that was the end of that. One of five x-rays. But it was one more than we got the last time so okay, fine, moving on.

The dentist had to look in his mouth (at his superhero teeth!)…which took some cajoling, but it was managed without much issue.

Then it was time for the cleaning, and that’s when the MELTDOWN started. He wanted NOTHING to do with ANY part of it—which was extremely frustrating because he did JUST FINE with the cleaning on his last visit. He finally agreed to touch the brush, but then still didn’t want it to come near him. He agreed to watch her use it on me, but again refused to let it near him. I tried to reason with him, but you can’t reason with toddlers, let alone one in meltdown mode.

So that was it. Pretty much a complete waste aside from the one x-ray and brief look by the dentist.

Good times. :meh:

Potty Training: Day 3

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Since Owen pretty much has the basic hang of peeing in the potty, we’ve downgraded the cost of the toys in the jar—we started with real die cast Cars cars and are now down to chocolate candies, dollar store trinkets, and Matchbox cars. 🙂

Also, Tom had regaled me with tales of Owen doing everything perfectly by himself. But with me? He apparently can’t ever get his undies off and when he does he pees all over everything. So now, in addition to the cheaper toys, he only gets a toy if he successfully pees in the potty and keeps his undies dry.

About half the time we still have to ask him if he has to go potty. Today I asked him and he said no (he was watching a TV show) but he was crossing his legs so I actually said “OWEN GO POTTY RIGHT NOW” at which time he ran in there and peed just fine (Tom ran in right behind him and I think he may have helped a bit). So our biggest obstacle seems to be him not wanting to stop what he’s doing.

And then there’s the poop. UGH. We knew he was going to have to poop today since it’s been two days…so we were watching him very closely and making him play in the same room as us. Whenever we asked if he had to poop, of course he’d say NO! and then say “NO poop on the potty!” |-| He peed just fine.

Fast forward to this afternoon when I discovered a tiny little nugget in his underwear…which, of course, he hadn’t told us about. So we made him sit on the potty, letting him play with his cars (and future reward) but he pretty much spent the whole time saying “NO POOP ON THE POTTY!” and saying he was going to poop in a diaper. 😐 I told him we were going to try to poop every 15 minutes and sent him off in clean underwear. On our next trip to the potty? Poopy underwear again. >:XX I know pooping is the hard part, but OHMYGOD one of us might not survive this.

And I really don’t know what I’ll do when Tom isn’t around all day…

Owen peed in the grass!

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Owen and I were in the pool and he was naked and we’ve told him you can’t pee in the pool. After awhile he says “I need a diaper” and grabs his penis. I make a big deal about him letting me know and tell him he can go in the grass—and then I put him there! He wasn’t too sure. I told him he could pick one of his new cars and he was super excited about that. It took a minute with some cajoling, but he did it!! :up:

We celebrated, he was excited, and he got to pick his car! I said going pee in the grass was just like going in the potty…but he wasn’t falling for it.

But it’s a start, right? I think we’ll do a naked weekend soon.

7 Things You Should Never Say to Your Toddler

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http://blogs.babble.com/t…o-your-toddler/ [Link dead as of 6/9/2016.]

The list, condensed so you don’t have to click through all the pages (though the pages explain WHY you shouldn’t say those things):

  1. Stop crying.
  2. Hurry up.
  3. You’re so… [“Why are you so mean to Katie?” Or “How could you be such a klutz?”]
  4. Leave me alone!
  5. Don’t touch this!
  6. Why did you do that?
  7. Wait until mom/dad gets home.

My favorite part of today…

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Owen was in the pool and I was holding Katie because Tom wasn’t home. He kept saying “Mama come in? Mama get your suit?” and of course I couldn’t. Tom got home and Owen kept asking, so I just hopped in—clothes and all—and he was soooo excited! And we had soooo much fun. 

He says “I’m Tony!”

Tony? Huh?

“Owen, who’s Tony?”

“IRON MAN!” (For those who don’t know, Tony Stark is Iron Man.)

So I was the Hulk and chased him around the pool. And he reenacted parts of his favorite Avengers movie. 

It. Was. Awesome.  

Happy 11th Anniversary

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Eleven years. Wow. It just kinda sneaks up on you every year (and even moreso this year since we’ve been a little busy with Katie).

We didn’t even try to get a sitter to do anything this year, though I’m sure our friends would have obliged. Instead, we made a family trip to Wilmington to go to Costco…and have our traditional Chinese meal (we did lunch instead of dinner, though).

Katie was a complete gem, sleeping the entire hour ride down, our entire hour in Costco, and about 75% of our lunch…then took a bottle and slept the entire way home. Of course, Owen was just as awesome, sitting in the cart with stuff piled all around him, not even noticing really because he was having fun with daddy’s phone. 🙂

We had a slight brush with fame at Costco…we saw Keith from Top Chef Texas fame (we’ve eaten at his restaurant, Catch, before). That’s as close to famous as I’m likely to get living here. And he said hi to me in passing, likely because I was staring at him. 🙂

Our lunch was really, really good. I picked a place off Yelp pretty much at random…just going by reviews and proximity to Costco…and we couldn’t have been more thrilled. Everything on the menu at Double Happiness was tempting, but I ended up with the Dry Wok Chicken and Tom got the Coconut Shrimp with Candied Walnut (and we got a Double Steamer dim sum basket). And surprisingly good Hot & Sour soup—as close to mine as we’ve ever had. We definitely want to go back there to try more of the menu!

All in all we had a really good day. How can we not when we have such a great little family?! 😀 (The only downside is that I forgot to take a picture of us to celebrate the day!)

Triple batch!

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I have basil coming out of my ears, so I’m making pesto like a madwoman. (If you come to visit, you might get some sent home with you out of the freezer!) This was the triple batch I made today…soooo pretty!

And I don’t even use a recipe anymore. I just toss in some garlic. Roast some pecans and toss some in. Fill the food processor with basil. Add salt and pepper and olive oil. Voilá! Since I’m freezing it, I don’t add the parmesan until it comes out and I’m ready to serve it.

Facebook Status Updates

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  • There’s nothing quite as disheartening as losing weight, going to buy new pants, and NOTHING fits—even in your old bigger size. WTF?!
  • I’m ready to call it quits already today. Everything is driving me insane and I want to scream. It’s a good thing these days are rare…
  • I just watched Brokeback Mountain. Welcome to 2005.
  • I finally finished a book at Shutterfly only to realize upon final edit that I had two empty pages in the middle. #firstworldproblems
  • One thing I miss about Michigan? Not being able to easily get my favorite Traverse City wines.
  • How long would 25# of rice last in your house? Our last bag was about three years. Recipes, anyone? #samsclub
  • Oh my gawd. 21 Jump Street was freakin hilarious.
  • It wouldn’t be a normal night at our house if we didn’t have to go in and get Katie at least four times after we put her to bed. I don’t know HOW she can store burps like she does…
  • I never imagined the most productive hours of my day would be from 6:30–9:30am.
  • Where do all the pacifiers disappear to?! We started with four and are down to two. In two weeks.

project365

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http://www.iphoneproject365.com/photos/hudson2001

project365

Project 365 is an iPhone app designed to help you document your life by taking one photo a day for a year. I’ve been using it for just over two years now, and you can see all the photos at the link above or at the static link in the rightmost column.

Here is the first month (July 2010):

Here is the last full month (June 2012):