Yellow Watermelon

Catching up on the rest of the year

2011-12-31T14:42:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness! I have gotten so far behind, it's reprehensible!!!!! (Yes, it required that many exclamation points.) I'll blame prepping for the holidays, getting very little sleep due to an infant's growth spurt, and just trying to keep up with the demands of four children and a house for eating all my blogging time.

Granted, this "keeping up with the house" thing of which I speak has been stepped up a bit. A homemaker needs to have standards, right? And since I got pregnant with Ella, I had definitely let my standards slip. Now that she's a bit more independent, I have more time to devote to keeping this place clean, but I have a TON of catching up to do. It's getting better, though! There are days when I'd like to set fire to my home office, though. I've gotten help organizing it, I've rearranged it, and yet the paper still seems to be breeding. It's frustrating, but I'll get it under control. At some point.

Ok, so last time I wrote was end of November, right? Before Thanksgiving? What do you mean, I should backtrack and re-read my own blog? Well, I guess that does make some sense. Give me a minute, will you?

Wow! I didn't post Halloween pictures or even mention TJ's second birthday! My goodness, somebody slap me on the wrist. Suffice it to say, I put together the best trunk I've ever put together for the Trunk or Treat, but I feel my costume efforts suffered a bit as a result. So here's a picture of our costumes, duly labeled (I stole this from my own Facebook album):

And here's the trunk. It looked awesomer in person and with better lighting, just so you know:

After Halloween, this little bit of insanity happened. Mayhem turned TWO!!

It's a good thing he's cute, and that he mostly adores his baby sister. Otherwise, I'd be crazy right now.

See the cute? This is why I only complain about my lack of sleep (due to these two!) a few times a day, instead of all day long.

We continued our Thanksgiving thing theme again this year. Instead of turkey feathers, we did leaves. It was awesome to be reminded of all our blessings as we filled up the branches. How blessed we are!

When you let your sister-in-law play with your phone, you end up with photos like this.

My mom came for Thanksgiving!

The baby is learning how to roll.

The Baby laughs because she did not get back onto her back on her own.

Sometimes you just have to shake your head and sigh...
(That's my automatic hot chocolate whip stuck in Afton's hair.)

Cranberries--my favorite fall color!

TJ and Ella playing.

Impromptu family gathering.

Annika blows out her candles--she turned EIGHT. More on that in another post.

The Nativity Play at Nana's house.

More play!

What Ella thought of the play.

Annika as she plays checkers with Omay.

Ella IS a Christmas present!

Crazy Hair TJ in the tub.

And that's all for now, as this post has gotten too long. I'll cover the rest of Christmas, Annika's birthday and baptism (!!) in the nest post. Stay tuned!

Oh Help! I'm Becoming a Grownup!

2011-11-20T05:18:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, I felt true contentment for a few hours and I wanted to write about it here, to savor the moment. In October of 2000, President Faust said, "...we perhaps need to snatch happiness in little pieces, learning to recognize the elements of happiness and then treasuring them while they last." (Talk can be found here.) I remember being offended at the time (I was 22 and relatively inexperienced with life) that President Faust was saying we couldn't be happy ALL THE TIME. But now, as a parent and a wife and, well, a grown up, I understand what he's saying. At 22, I had very few responsibilities or cares outside of myself. Mat and I had just barely started dating. Happiness seemed to be something easily achieved on a daily basis.

But in the subsequent eleven years, as I have taken on a spouse, four children, and stewardship over my dwelling place, my perspective has changed. A perpetual state of happiness is impossible. Instead, I'm usually frustrated, worried, irritated, worried, laughing, worried, planning ahead, or just plain busy. And I understand more completely what President Faust was referring to: those moments of true happiness, when all is briefly right with the world and the Spirit is present.

Yesterday was one of those days filled with contentment. We started the morning by doing our family pictures, which went quickly and well. A quick stop at home for lunch and to feed the baby followed, and then I convinced the girls to get their shoes back on (I was trying to keep the event a surprise and they were NOT cooperating) and we met a dear friend from the ward at the stables where she boards her horses. I was able to help my girls, who are absolutely horse mad, meet some real live horses for the first time, and RIDE THEM. Now, granted, they just perched in the saddle and hung onto the pommel the entire time, but the little girl inside of me was so happy for them. I am so grateful to have a friend who was willing to provide that experience for my girls, and I'm glad I took her up on the offer. I truly hope to help my girls have many good memories in this life, and this was hopefully one of them.

When we got home, Mat and his dad and TJ were working on trimming the branches and logs of our former magnolia tree. The tree was absolutely baked by the heat this summer, and when it was cut down, I saw that some of the branches and part of the main trunk were diseased. I'm glad we were able to get it down before it decided to come down on the house!

Anyway, as I watched them working together, tidying our yard and creating order out of chaos, I recognized that strong, deep feeling of contentment. It doesn't come from watching TV or pursuing the mundane tasks of this life, for me. It comes when we work together for the common good, when we work together to serve others, when I forget myself for a while and focus on doing something wonderful for my children, or sometimes when I read a book of such outstanding presentation with a story that contains some of those former elements. I love that sense of strong rightness, of knowing that I had some part in the work that my Heavenly Father considers good. I treasure every one of those moments when those feelings come, when my work has paid off and I know that Heavenly Father is pleased with me. I certainly hope to feel that way at the judgment seat, to know that in looking over my life, my Father and my Savior are well pleased and call my life good.

The Things Small Children Say

2011-10-18T18:41:00.000-07:00

This is our Ella. I love this face.

My friend and visiting teacher wanted to practice her infant picture taking skills and I happily volunteered my infant because hey! Free pictures!

She wasn't pleased with all of them, but I found quite a few to love.

Such a Crawford at such an early age!

This is an ironic statement on oversized baby headbands. Because, really, what baby needs a pouf the size of her head?

Same with flowers.

There are other children in the family, too, as I recall:

TJ at the park a few weeks ago.

TJ's vocabulary has jumped lately and I thought I'd share:

"Shoe?" = "Are we going somewhere? Am I coming?"

"Go!"= "We're leaving now whether you're ready or not."

"gaga" = sister

"vroom vroom" = car

"Daddy vroom vroom" = truck

"tweet tweet" = "I hear a bird."

"woof woof" = "I hear the dog next door barking his fool head off again."

"neigh neigh" = horse

"leeeee!" = "I was playing with that lid!"

"beee" = bib

"baby" = Ella

And the girls are growing too. They're great helpers when they're inclined to be (whaddya know? They're normal kids! I have to remind myself of that sometimes) and LOVELOVELOVE to be around Ella. Unless Ella is crying, of course, or needs to be held so that I can do such mundane things as take a shower.

You'll notice that everything BUT Afton is blurry. Usually it's the other way around.

Also, Halloween is coming soon. There will be pictures, especially as there is a Trunk or Treat with a decorating contest involved. You know I can't resist THAT.

Making and Directions

2011-09-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

I usually wait until I have lots of pictures to post, because than I don't have to think too hard about the text I'm entering--I can just explain the situation surrounding the picture and I'm done. At this stage in my life, that's highly appealing.

But there are some things that you can't take pictures of, like sudden desires to change your life's direction. How do you take a picture of that? I don't know. Anyway, these last few months have been interesting for me personally. When I presented my paper at the Life, the Universe, and Everything conference back in February, I felt rather strongly that I had completed my academic road. I don't need a doctorate, apparently. As I had been looking forward to taking that step, I was rather startled by the impression to stop. It felt like the rug had been jerked out from under me. I had wondered how I was going to juggle homeschooling and my schooling, but I always figured that the timing would be made clear to me and that I could wait until it would all work out.

So I started searching for a new goal to aim at. I love my kids and I want to be a good mother, but as I've always expressed, I believe there's more to life than motherhood. Right now, with four kids under 8, there isn't time for a whole lot more, but in my rare free moments, I feel the need to pursue activities with purpose. As much as I love reading, I need to do something *more*, something to get me out of myself and accomplishing...Something. I'm still looking, still a bit directionless, but I have an idea of what it should be: homemaking.

No, not the Relief Society meetings where you make the newest popular craft or learn how to cook your food storage beans into a chocolate mousse pie, but *making* a home. I've taken steps here and there to figure out the style of decorating I like (Eclectic Country Modern Chic...sort of), how to feed my family well yet inexpensively (I'm still refining that), and so on, but now I feel like I should kick into a higher gear. And since Ella is my last baby (between potential health issues, a lot of prayer on my part, and just a general "I think I'm getting too old for this!" feeling), I feel like it's time to make myself into...myself. Homemaking and personal...making...seem to be tied together.

To that end, I've come across a few resources in that last couple of weeks that have helped me focus. First is this website: The Prudent Homemaker. The lady running this site is LDS and has refined her homemaking into an art! After having to live off of her food storage for more than two years, she has become an expert at inexpensive yet delicious meals, gardening, and prioritizing what should go into her pantry. While I have no desire to live to her extreme, I find the site inspiring. I've always thought that we spend way too much on food, but I've always been a bit confused as to how to fix that. Thanks to perusing her menu and recipes, I've come to the conclusion that we can have simple meals--a meat sauce over rice or pasta, accompanied by a vegetable--during the week, hamburgers on Saturdays, and a nice big meal on Sundays. My menu before was full of Sunday dinners and very few simple meals, so I'm doing my best to reverse the trend. I also hope to put in a garden very soon, but it will be small. I've got to research square foot gardening a bit more. We also purchased a membership to Sam's Club, because our family is just to that point where we need more in bulk than the local Walmart provides.

As for the personal making, I know I've documented my forays into understanding fashion and what I enjoy wearing. But this would be a touch less complicated if I could drop the weight I put on with each pregnancy. So I've downloaded the app for My Fitness Pal onto my smartphone. My goal is to lose 5-10 pounds by Thanksgiving and a total of 35 pounds by next Thanksgiving. The My Fitness Pal app is a calorie tracker/food diary/exercise diary that helps me keep track of what I eat every day and helps me know how many calories I should consume in order to achieve my goals. Since I'm very practiced at measuring out foods and counting carbs, counting calories is relatively simple. The kids have been a great help too--we've been taking walks every morning before breakfast for the past week, and TJ will stand in front of the door and ask "Go? Go?" until we leave. He was rather miffed that we didn't go for a walk on Sunday. With exercise partners like these, how can I possibly give up? (I'm just asking for trouble there, aren't I?)

On the fashion front, well, I still wear a lot of t-shirts and jeans. If I drop 10 pounds by Thanksgiving, I think my reward will be a better fitting pair of jeans! I already own all the black t-shirts I need, so really, I'm good on that front. At least they're black, right? And I like button-down shirts, but I have no need to wear those every day, since I end up covered in small-child-produced liquids on a regular basis. But I found this awesome black fedora at Hobby Lobby (I know!) that I love. I may not wear it to church, but I feel like it really dresses up my standard outfit a bit when we go out.

All in all, I feel good about the direction my life has taken. It's not a big, "look at me" type of direction, but it's Something. And I like the results I'm seeing so far (it helps that I lost two pounds in the last week)...(yes I'm bragging a little bit). I'll be happy to keep this up for a while, I think.

Momentous Occasions and Other Things

2011-07-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

In the last 2.5 months, quite a few blog-worthy things have happened in our lives, and yet it took me this long to have the energy/time to actually get to it. And that's only if Ella stays asleep for another half hour or so. Cross your fingers for me!

First, we'll get the silly photos out of the way:

TJ had a bib obsession one day and begged to wear all these bibs at once.

TJ's version of an itsy-bitsy spider.

Birthday girl waited until 6 am on the morning of her birthday to get her daddy to pull out this loose tooth she had. Apparently it was VERY important that the tooth come out on her birthday and not before.
Why? No idea.

TJ likes to hang out in the front window and watch the world go by. Fortunately we live on a very quiet street, so his world consists mostly of squirrels and the occasional neighbor.

Got the dining room wall decorated the way I like it, finally. The hooks were an awesome deal at Real Deal Decor and I used a Groupon. It may take me another four years or so, but I WILL get this house looking like the decorations happened on purpose!

For comparison:

Me, pregnant with Afton.

Me, pregnant with Ella.
(I let a certain 7-year-old take this picture.
She thought it was funny to do it when I wasn't ready.
Thanks, kid.)
I *know* I was huge with Afton--she came with her own swimming pool and weighed nearly 10 pounds! But did I get as huge with Ella? It certainly felt like it, there at the end.

Anyway, the last month or so before Ella was finally born, there was all sorts of fun. I ended up in the hospital twice for monitoring because I was in early labor and I got put on semi-bed rest for a few weeks. It was frustrating not to be able to DO things anymore, but I got through it and as soon as I hit 37 weeks, I was up and moving again, ready to have Ella make her appearance. The sporadic early labor continued, which was exhausting and frustrating and EXHAUSTING, so a week before Ella was due, I called up my OB and told her I'd changed my mind about being induced. She had me go to the hospital the next morning, broke my water at 8:30am, and after my shortest labor EVER, Ella showed up at 11:30am. It was a little weird because the epidural barely had time to take and MAN ALIVE, I was feeling the contractions!
Hurrah for drugs and other medical advances. I realize now that even if I had a gun to my head, I would not be able to handle natural birth gracefully.
And I'm the type of person that if I don't HAVE to do something the hard way, I certainly won't.

Anyway, Ella is here and beautiful. Her full name is Eleanor Grace, she weighed 8 lbs 10 oz and measured 20 inches, and has some dark blonde peach fuzz gracing her head.
She eats like a champion and has already gained a pound, 2.5 weeks after birth. She is relatively content, but get mad easily and quickly and goes to a full scream (no in-between warning cries) in 0.5 seconds flat. She turns a bright red when she screams, which makes her blonde eyebrows show up really well.
Heh.

So there we are. Who knows what the next 2.5 months will bring? Not sleep, that's for sure!

Easter and Bracelets and My Favorite Maternity Shirt EVER

2011-05-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

So a couple of years ago, when I was first pregnant with TJ, we didn't even have an Easter egg hunt until the week AFTER Easter because I was so tired and sick. Last year wasn't too memorable--we just hid eggs around the apartment and let the girls go at it. It was over in two minutes.

BUT THIS YEAR! Oh, the beauties of having an actual backyard! We had a real Easter egg hunt and it lasted at least 10 minutes! I'm pretty sure it was 10 minutes because that's how long it takes my ankles to swell up and tell me to go sit down somewhere. ANYway, I was the official photographer and Mat was the official egg-hider/rememberer of the eggs' hiding locations.

And the girls are off! (TJ was napping.)

Look at our green backyard! It may be landscaped with "native grasses", but I sure do love the color! Annika was a very intent egg finder.

Afton got frustrated with her basket's capacity after a while and started using her hands...

...and her cheek.

My Easter surprise! We have flowers growing in the most random places in our yard.

Mat conferring with Afton, trying to remember where he hid the last three eggs.

Annika and Afton comparing their bounty.

I love this shot of Afton. I am not a professional/trained photographer by any means, but sometimes I get lucky and end up with pictures that I love.

TJ, post-nap. He lets us mess with him. In fact, he seems to think it's funny. Will he think it's funny in thirty years, when I'm showing these pictures to his kids? Who knows!

Non-Easter stuff: TJ wanted to homeschool...

...just like his sister. I love it!

Also, I made a pledge in the beginning of the year that I'd make five things by hand and give them to my friends. Here's what I made--some waxed linen and bead bracelets, as inspired by this post.

Obviously, I created my own version of it--I can't help it. I just can't leave things in their original format! Mat's had to request, more than once, that I follow a recipe exactly the first time to see if we like it BEFORE I start modifying it.....

(Don't mind my pixelated face. I've got to quit being so camera-lazy.)
Lastly, I found this maternity shirt at the thrift store last week. It sums up my last trimesters quite nicely.

The Anomaly's Room

2011-04-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, I had a baby boy. Having had two girls previous to his arrival, I was a little mystified as to what to do with him. Pink and ruffles and flowers and horses just didn't seem to be his thing.

When we bought the house, the easy thing to do was paint his room blue. Boy=blue. But it just sat there, naked, with some curtains left over from dwelling in various apartments. I had vague ideas about painting clouds on his walls, but that's about as far as it got, as pregnancy interrupted my life again.

And then the dilemma came. This last baby of mine is a girl! I know girls. But she will be sharing a bedroom with her brother. No pink. No ruffles. No flowers. Uh oh.

The inspiration began in Hobby Lobby. Wandering through the clearance section, we came across this, mostly because The Boy kept making his sign for car and saying "vroom vroom":

The Boy likes cars! One mystery solved.
But there was a reason the picture was in the clearance section:

Hello, Big Ugly Gouge.
Enter scrapbooking paper picked out by the Oldest Sister and some Mod Podge and voila!

Picture looks brand new.

But there will be sharing of the room. That's when it dawned on me: The black and white checks looked a little like gingham. One of the crib sheets is yellow gingham. The crib bumper is blue and yellow. GIRLS CAN LIKE YELLOW.

So my genius mother-in-law tracked down yellow gingham for me and sewed some curtains. Now the room looks more like this:

Notice the walls:

Yep, those are clouds!

I think a boy and a girl can share this room for a while, don't you? She might grow up to be a Rangers fan who likes cars, but that's no bad thing....

Other things I have perfected in the girly department:

Birthday gift for the little girl next door. According to my girls, she loves them. It's nice to get something right every once in a while!

Bleachy Craftiness and Maternity Wear

2011-04-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

So I tend to spill a lot when I'm pregnant. And being no laundry genius, the stains generally remain behind. (Go me!) Anyway, being inspired by my last bleach-as-art experiment, I decided to distract the eye from my lovely stains with some freehand decoration.

There they sit, in their bleaching glory. I've found that a simple piece of cardboard (or apple holder material stuff) does well to protect the back of the shirt from accidental mirror-image designs.

(Taken on the crappy cell phone camera.) I rinsed the bleach off after about 15 minutes, then washed and dried with my normal laundry load. The design's a bit more subtle this time, but I like it.

(Small child not included.) I also added a ribbon tie to a super-comfy, yet super-large (1X! What was I thinking?) maternity shirt so that I wouldn't feel so frumpy when I wore it. And the brown shirt got lace added because the bottom band was a bit snug for my maternal frame...and the neckline was a little too free in showing off my *ahem* enhanced proportions.

What can I say? I was desperate for wearable items, and these fixes seem to have done the trick.

Featuring: The Children

2011-04-20T11:32:00.000-07:00

So, I have this awesome smartphone that I use all the time which has a really convenient, yet really crappy camera on it. And the children INSIST on having their photos taken just about every time I pull the darn thing out. So, for future embarrassment, I present....

The Grainy Non-Candid Photos!

Afton in the front yard.

Annika expressing her enthusiasm for the Rangers.

What's for dinner? TJ in a pot!

What you will find when the house is too quiet and you KNOW no one is sleeping.

The latest, greatest toy ever invented: TJ in a box!

The latest Toothless Wonder to grace our household.
The Tooth Fairy is going broke....

To Costco or Not to Costco

2011-03-26T07:39:00.000-07:00

We're hitting that point. With baby #4 on the imminent horizon and the mountain of diapers looming before us, with five mouths to feed and a stand-alone freezer that functions well, Mat and I are starting to wonder if it's time to switch back to the Bastion of Bulk known as Costco.

Thanks to my two new favorite sites (A Year of Slow Cooking and freezerdinner.com, in case you missed it), I know that cooking in bulk for easier prep later is in my future. We consume more milk, more cheese, more meat, more rice and pasta than I ever thought we could. At least the produce is fresh weekly through our co-op (bountifulbaskets.org for locations in your area), so we don't have to worry about that. And with three (soon four! Did you forget? I'm trying not to) kids in tow, one-stop shopping has become a necessity rather than a convenience. We've tried shopping separately, but when we aren't there to check each other, Mat and I are terribly prone to impulse shopping. TERRIBLY. Plus, everything I know about bargain shopping I learned by observation. Therefore, that's how my kids will learn.

But will it be worth the annual fee? Will it be worth the monthly 17-mile trek? Because if we do start to shop there, we will ONLY go once a month. What's been your experience, friends? Is it time for us to take the plunge? Are we way overdue for the plunge? I'd love to hear what you have to say.

Stream of Conciousness

2011-03-21T11:26:00.000-07:00

Cute sister picture, isn't it? It's from last November, when we had our family portrait done. I still like it.

This is the newest sister's leg. I can't find the CD with the other sonogram stills on it, and my only other option was the still that showed she's a girl. And, really, that doesn't need to be preserved for posterity.

Speaking of posterity, I should be recording our family history in this blog, right? Right. And yet, every time I open the "new post" window, I can't think of a thing to write. Today I decided to just start writing and see if what came out was post-worthy. I'll post it no matter what, so it's not like I'm being discriminating here.

My trip to Utah was excellent. I was SO glad to see old friends, not as nervous as I thought I'd be to present my paper, and all in all, I had a wonderful time. Just before I left for my trip, I gave the whole family haircuts, then neglected to take pictures. Suffice it to say that when I got home, no one looked like themselves anymore! That'll teach me to be bored before a major trip.

Ummmmmm. I've been busy around the house--that whole nesting instinct that kicks in around the second trimester has me in its grips. That's probably another excuse for not posting. I've been sorting through all our STUFF, eliminating excess and organizing the rest. It's been liberating, really.

You know, I shouldn't even be on here right now. The kids are watching TV, waiting for me to make lunch (not that they aren't perfectly capable of making their own), I should be getting dinner into the crockpot, and a million other things are demanding my attention. My goodness, I must be a grown-up! Moreover, a grown-up in charge of small beings! My time is rarely my own any more.

The other difficulty I run into is that since I strive to post a Facebook status daily, everything I write here seems redundant. Curse you, Facebook, for stealing my creativity! Also, bless Facebook for keeping me in better touch with my friends than I would be doing on my own.

Off to cook now. Check out these sites when you have time:
freezerdinner.com
crockpot365.blogspot.com

The crockpot one features gluten-free recipes too, for those of my reading audience of five who would find that helpful.

The end.

Valentine's and Other Silliness

2011-02-14T13:05:00.000-08:00

So around here, we're not big Valentine's Day celebrators. In fact, while frustrated during our homeschooling, Annika declared that today was the "WORST Valentine's Day ever!" Heh. I told her she was lucky we were celebrating it at all. What we do for our kids, right?

Anyway, before Mat and I and TJ caught rotavirus (a stomach virus--survivable, but definitely NOT fun), we got these pics of TJ playing in his favorite toy: the top to a cake preserver. As you can see, he ALMOST fits. Also, this is the face we get when we ask him to smile.

Aaaaand this is the face we get when we say, "TJ! Show us your tongue!" He's so cooperative.

Also, this is what we get when we allow the children to play with the never-been-used vacuum tube:

Now that we're mostly recovered from the virus (please pray the girls don't catch it--that is NOT something Mat needs to deal with while I'm gone), we have the girls decked out in all their Valentine's glory:

Announcements and Christmas and Chocolate. Yay!

2011-02-06T12:39:00.000-08:00

I should never be proud of myself for being all caught up, because then I have to do it all over again. Ah well.

Anyway, first things first. I'm pregnant. Due in July, right before Afton's birthday. My first trimester is finally over--yay! But I still lack energy. This building a human stuff really takes it out of you!! That's my excuse for the lack of blogging lately. More details to follow when we know gender.

On to the holidays!

So here's the Christmas Pageant at the Annual Extended Family Christmas Family Home Evening (known as AEFCFHE from here on out). We didn't do this when I was a kid and I think it's a hoot! Even when my youngest, who was supposed to be a sheep, refused to cooperate.

My girls were playing angels (thus the very necessary standing on the hearth, I was told), as well as my youngest niece, and Mat was selected to play the donkey. He's carrying sassy Miss B, who was Mary, while her brother attempted to lead him.

Note the reluctant sheep in the donkey's lap. I don't remember this being in the original story.

The littlest angel was quite attentive. And adorable.

Costume change! The littlest angel is now a sneak-attack present. Raaawr!

Christmas Eve we spent at the grandparents' house, just like Mat used to do as a kid. There was food, there was fire, and there were new pajamas for the littles. I like this tradition!

And sometimes, if I've been really good, I can get all the kids to look at the camera AT THE SAME TIME. Obviously, I haven't been good lately.

Don't mind the kid's weird face. Admire his pajamas instead, which say "Cool Like Dad".

Ahh, my little poser. She loves the camera. Her pj pants are brown and pink with cute dogs on them, but I think you'd rather look at her face. She seems to prefer that, anyway.

Annika pretending to be a dinosaur. What this has to do with Christmas, I don't know. I'm liking Aunt Elise's secret pink highlights, though!

Christmas morning, before the children wreaked havoc on the gifts and TJ pulled the tree over.

TJ playing peek-a-boo with a santa hat. Notice my awesome Christmas gift in the foreground--Mat got me a great bag to take tutoring and to church. It holds EVERYTHING.

Peek-a-boo! And notice the BYU tie that I ever-so-slyly had Mat's mom pick up at the BYU bookstore. I'm rather proud of my ninja gift skills.

So Christmas was fun and I was hardly sick that day, which was AWESOME. In fact, compared to being pregnant with TJ, this has been a breeze! *knock on wood*

Also, I managed to get this paper written over the course of the last year, on the feminism in the Twilight series. Since I never write just for fun, I submitted it to the Life, the Universe, and Everything Science Fiction and Fantasy symposium held at BYU. And to my surprise, they accepted it! So I'm presenting my paper on February 18th at BYU. I'm quite excited to go back to the old stomping grounds--I miss BYU.

Anyway, I also had a birthday. Mat made my birthday weekend very enjoyable, but the best part, which Mat managed to get on camera, was TJ enjoying my birthday cake.

Please note that we also had pasta alfredo for dinner. So glad we have evidence.

And that, my friends, is that.

A Whole Lot of Birthdays and Some Chocolate

2010-12-20T10:25:00.000-08:00

As you may recall, The Boy had the audacity to be born on his cousin's birthday, right during her birthday party. So rude! Therefore, the consequence is that we celebrate the birthdays together, but Miss B. gets to choose the location and food. This year, we went to Chili's.

As always, TJ's just happy for a little attention.

The cousins discovering the various properties of crayons.

Back at Miss B.'s house, eating the scrumptious chocolate birthday cake her mother made. Note the tentative first bite.

The second bite wasn't quite so tentative.

And then, he thoroughly enjoyed the cake, rubbing some onto his face to save for later.

Not a single crumb will go untasted!

The plate looks yummy too!

Happy birthday to MEEEE!

I'm glad that Mat's mom insisted on TJ trying some cake. That was too hilarious.

Anyway, a week or so later, Mat bought me a king size bar of Hershey's chocolate--reward for a very trying day. I ate about half of it that night (bad Karie!), wrapped it up, and absentmindedly left it on the end table in the living room.

TJ discovered it the next morning.

Ha ha! Silly Momma. You let me find chocolate!

Let this be a lesson to you: Always put the chocolate away!

I'm so glad he's getting to an age where I can caption his pictures--I love it when the little personality shows up. In other news, TJ's got seven teeth now and is apparently in a rush to get them in--he's cutting three at a time right now.

Now for the current events. (I really should blog more often.)
For instance, there's nothing like a little drama in life to remind you that sometimes, life just HAPPENS. Unfortunately, last week TJ got his finger shut in a door, removing the tip. There was no screaming, but there was plenty of the red stuff between said door and the couch, where I was napping when TJ found me. (I told Mat later, "Welcome to the CSI cleanup crew.") Anyway, I could tell that it was more than I could handle, so I bundled The Boy and the girls into the van and took off for the emergency room. (It was Saturday afternoon and Mat was out of town on business. He may or may not have fielded a mildly hysterical call from me as I reviewed the carnage. Blech.) The girls were fantastically well-behaved and calm and we got put on the fast track, since his finger never stopped bleeding, so we were in and out of the ER in an hour. I do believe the Lord extended us some tender mercies there.

TJ's doing just fine--the bandages and washings and preventative antibiotics haven't slowed him down one bit--but we are taking suggestions for nicknames once his finger is completely healed.
So far we have:
1. Stumpy
2. Stubby
3. Mr. Funky Finger
4. The Nail-less Wonder
Leave your vote in the comments section!
I'll post pictures of his finger once it's completely healed.

This week, Miss Annika has had the audacity to maintain that she is allowed to continue growing older. Mat and I have resigned ourselves to this fact and decided to throw her a little party.

We had coloring and games and a craft (a winter fairy made from pipe cleaners) and presents and FOOD. Since Annika is awesome, I was able to talk her into having baked apples with ice cream and mulled cider instead of cupcakes and soda. How cool is that?

We didn't get pictures of everyone, but here are some of Annika's Primary friends.

Miss B., Annika and Afton's cousin, surrounded by party aftermath (there may have been closely supervised fun with party poppers).

Annika riding the present that rendered her speechless.
Oh yes, we are awesome parents.

Birthday loot.

More birthday loot!

According to the feedback I got, everyone had a wonderful time!

There. I'm now all caught up, and Christmas hasn't happened yet! Of course, there's the extended family Christmas Family Home Evening tonight, Annika's actual birthday tomorrow, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's coming up, but RIGHT NOW, at this very MOMENT, I am caught up. Hurrah.

Becoming a Grown-up, or Why I Love Hobby Lobby

2010-11-07T12:17:00.000-08:00

Circumstances have conspired against me, and so I find myself home from church for the second time in two weeks (last week it was the diabetic's fault--she and her stomach were having a serious disagreement), this time because my upset stomach and raw throat are not socially acceptable. The Boy stays with me, and is asleep, and so I find myself with a little time to blog.

We start them early with the literary love around here. Note the upside-down children's version of Helen Keller's biography. I don't think anyone in the family has read it in its entirety, but we sure do like looking at it! Also, note the cute feet tucked under his posterior. Love them. This is a picture I will trot out fifteen years from now when he has big, stinky teenage feet so that I may sigh with nostalgia.

And this was the result of him noticing that I had the camera out. Are all babies such camera fiends at this age? I don't remember the girls being this way. Also, in my defense, his sister dressed him. I think.

. . .

Have you noticed that sucking on chocolate is very soothing for a sore throat? I have. In fact, I'm noticing it right now.

. . .

To motivate ourselves to get all the dang boxes unpacked and all the major cosmetic changes made, Mat and I decided to throw a thank you/housewarming party yesterday. Thus, Friday was full of hanging pictures and breaking down boxes for recycling, among other things. Happily, no one ever said "Why did we hang on to this?" I hereby say that we've purged all the non-essentials from our lives. For the moment.

Anyway. This is what we did:

In the kitchen, we covered the pale, stained laminate countertop with some fake wood contact paper. We intend to remodel someday, but this will hold us until we do. I like how the darker wood tones down the "look at me" quality of the gold tile backsplash. Also, I spray painted the baker's rack black. It used to be forest green with brass accents.

This is a napkin holder from Hobby Lobby that I've had my eye on for MONTHS now. It was finally marked down 50%, so I splurged. I love it! More on Hobby Lobby and finding my grown up style later.

The focus of this photo is what you DON'T see--the brick hearth. For our early Christmas present, my fabulous mother-in-law made a cushion to cover said hearth so that crawling/almost-walking little people wouldn't fall down and bash themselves on it. It has saved TJ's head more than once, I'm pleased to report. And it provides extra seating when we have company! A win all around.

Mat didn't like our stuck-to-the-walls furniture arrangement, so he shuffled a few things around until he liked it. I like it too. It doesn't feel cut off from the living room, but it makes the family room feel a little more open. Also, see the picture of the Bountiful Temple? Yep, that went up on Friday too. We were busy little bees, I tell you. Totally worth it.

See this awesome clock on the mantel, next to the harvest angel/harvest fairy from Hobby Lobby? Here, let me get you in closer.

Only marginally better--I'm wretched at focusing sometimes. But notice the lovely detail! The autumn leaves and winding twigs! Mat bought me this clock as a housewarming present. Didn't he do a good job? Yes, yes, he did. (His housewarming present is the HD satellite tv subscription--it's the gift that keeps on giving.)

This is the living room, which serves as our library and my office (which is surprisingly clean at the moment). The cheap bookshelves will be replaced with a not-quite built in set in the next year or so, and the empty area will be filled with comfy furniture on which to sit whilst enjoying a novel. The blank frame should be filled in soon with a family picture--I'm very excited for it. And the white leaves on the tree will eventually be painted red and orange and yellow. I'm a very big fan of fall--can you tell?

My side of our room. (Mat can blog about his own side if he wants.) Do you see what I have hanging on the wall? ALL of my scarves and shawls and hats! I love them, and I love being able to hang them up this way. Between that and the jewelry tree on my dresser and the gargoyle blanket on the bed and my pre-Raphelite prints on the wall (not pictured), this is looking like a place where I live. Oh, and the numerous books stacked under the nightstand. That would definitely be me as well.

This is the newly dubbed "Room of Requirement." Harry Potter fans will understand that reference. I never thought I would be so happy to give up a garage for a room that is a sewing/crafting room, a homeschooling room, and a general mayhem room. The girls love to go out there and play for hours. It is bliss.

I love my house!

. . .

Before we bought the house, Mat and I used to talk about the future when we would be "grown ups." This was code for when we bought a house, which presupposed that Mat would also have a professional career with an actual salary. We have been very fortunate this year to become grown ups, to embark on the part of life we've been planning for and imagining for many, many years.

However, in the previous years of impermanence, I never felt inclined to truly make a home of whatever apartment/space we were living in. We'd mark it as ours with family photos and favorite artwork, of course, but it was very hard to want to do anything significant, because who knew if it would fit in the next place we lived? And we could never paint walls--at least not as much as I wanted to.

But here and there, I'd gather a few things for "someday." The day when we would live in a place that was ours. It happened, more often than not, that I'd jettison those things that I had gathered because they didn't seem to fit in with my personal style. In fact, as long-time readers of this blog can attest, I spent many years figuring out WHAT my personal style was. Clothing-wise, I still haven't figured it out. But now that we're in a place of our own, where I feel free expressing myself through my home, I realize that I love fall. I love trees, I love leaves, I love deep red, sky blue, pine tree green, mahogany brown, and even yellow and orange in small amounts. I love the smell of nutmeg and cinnamon and allspice. As Mat's clock attests, my passion for the season has made it easy for him to get me spot-on gifts. I've always considered people who have always known what they love and surrounded themselves with it truly grown up--I'm happy to join their ranks.

How does this tie in to Hobby Lobby? Well, the clock is from Pier 1, but the other accessories that I have really loved I've found at Hobby Lobby. In addition to supporting my crafting addiction, the buyers/designers/powers that be at the store have figured out what I love and they offer it to me, often with a 40% off coupon. How perfect is that?

. . .

Long post, isn't it? Just a little more, and then I'll be done.

There's something about owning something that makes you want to mark it as yours. I always put my initials on my most favorite erasers in grade school. Ranchers brand their cows. Rich people put their initials on EVERYTHING--handkerchiefs, cuff links, towels, wrought iron front gates, various downtown or university buildings.

We've had our trusty van for five years now, and I thought it was high time I set it apart from the other beige minivans in the Walmart parking lot. So I tattooed the car. On both sides.

Now that we have a house, I've claimed ownership too, using a sign that was a wedding gift. It used to hang on Mat's grandparents' cabin. (I also tried to fix the apostrophe placement, with little success. Just know that the house belongs to all the Crawfords in it, not just the one Crawford.)

And that, as they say, is that.

TJ Got a Haircut

2010-10-05T08:12:00.000-07:00

So Mat decided in keeping with his new, grownup job, he needs to keep his hair trimmed and neat. That's my job, so we took care of that last night. The baby's hair had been bugging me for a while, so we trimmed his, too.

Voila!

He thought the buzzer was really, really interesting. I'm going to do my best to encourage that attitude, I think.

Isn't he a handsome fellow?

Here he contemplates the scene from our back window.

His two sisters are enjoying the crisp morning before I call them in for homeschooling.

Which means I should stop blogging and start teaching, I suppose. Also, *someone* needs to clean the fingerprints off the back window. They just happen to be at little girl height. Hmmmmm....

In Which I Ask For Money--But Not For Me!

2010-10-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

That last post was a doozy, wasn't it? So many good things happened all at once and I just couldn't bear to break it into separate posts!

Anyway, you all know that Afton has diabetes, right? Right. And you all know that I'm not terribly fond of JDRF's rather negative attitude, right? Right. Well, that doesn't mean I won't support them. In fact, the whole fam is participating in the Walk to Cure Diabetes in a couple of weeks. Afton's endo asked us to participate and I couldn't say no. Part of the point of the walk is to gather donations for research towards a cure, and, more importantly, towards making LIVING with diabetes easier. Now THAT I can support.

So if you happen to find a spare couple of bucks that you could throw towards a donation, that would be great. You *might* even receive a hand-written thank you note from the adorable diabetic herself.

In Which There Is Progress On All Fronts

2010-10-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

The painting is done! Well, barring a few touch ups and a color correction in the girls' bathroom, it's done.

On the door to the green bathroom (also referred to as the girls' bathroom, the kids' bathroom, and the guest bathroom), you will find this sign. I wanted to make sure the bathroom was clearly labeled.

THIS is the green bathroom. The green actually goes pretty well with the shower curtain (left behind by the heirs), but it tends to *glow*. In fact, when Annika first used the bathroom after I had finished painting, she said something along the lines of "Cool! My skin looks green in here!"

We knocked out the last remnant of purple awfulness this weekend. I think the bathroom looks lovely in blue and brown, and the shower curtain from Walmart certainly helps.

This is my room! Excuse the mess. I love the dark green--it makes the room feel soothing and cozy. Well, to me, anyway. Mat's still getting used to it.

As a compromise, we painted this wall all brown, to "take a break" from the green. The closet doors would be closed, but they're broken. The shiny gold curtains (one is in the picture), used over the patio doors in the apartment, will be replacing them.

Here's the red wall! And a silly Afton at our "new" dining table. I love that table. So big! So sturdy! The green baker's rack will be spray painted black as soon as I have time.

I'm likin' the red. I think it works.

The Room of Requirement (formerly known as the homeschooling room), with the help of many in-laws and an extended family FHE, is now blue. Hurrah!

It's not the bastion of learning I want it to be, but we're getting there! Homeschooling resumes tomorrow. Sewing resumed Thursday, when I decided that my bedroom sorely needed curtains.

And that's enough about the house for now. It consumes a goodly portion of my free time--my reading time has been cut in half--but it is SO worth it. On the to-do list for next weekend: wash the cars and start working on the yard.

In the meantime, TJ has not quit developing. He's a seasoned crawler at this point, but more importantly, he's started cruising along furniture. It's his second-favorite mode of transportation. His first favorite is me--on my hip, in my arms, whatever.

So I took this picture because I loved the contrast of small child and big boot.

Two seconds later, I had this:

The kid is SPEEDY!

Here's one of my favorite TJ faces. He's snorting. It's hilarious.

More cute baby!

It's not totally apparent here, but TJ adores his sisters. And they love entertaining him, even if their form of entertainment is to yell, loudly, their favorite songs in an attempt to calm him down.

In other news, Mat and I have/are starting new jobs. I started mine three weeks ago--I'm a private in-home tutor to three students through Club Z! tutoring. It's only a couple of hours a night a few nights a week, and the money ain't bad. More importantly, and somewhat surprisingly, it's something I really enjoy. Three students is a bit much for me--two of them are once a week, but the third is three days one week, no days the next week. She comes in waves. Anyway.... It's nice to feel like I'm contributing to our finances, but I truly enjoy helping these students improve.

MAT, on the other hand, IS A REAL GROWNUP WITH A REAL, GROWNUP JOB! On Monday, he starts as a counselor with LDS Employment Services. Here's an excerpt of the farewell email he wrote to his coworkers on Friday, describing what he'll be doing:

"They [the employment center] are implementing some new services, and I have been invited to come in and help them incorporate mental health services and build relationships with area job training programs so that we can help people who have been in long-term unemployment situations get back on their feet. Outside of a pilot program that has been running in Salt Lake City, this is the first place that the church is attempting the program, and I get to come in from the ground up. The intention is to run a successful program and help it get started in the other 114 employment centers around the country. I am very excited."

There will be some travel, obviously--Mat's responsible for the training in our region--but there will be the excellent benefits and the much-prayed-for increase to his salary, allowing us to finally pay our debts. As we were looking over these past seven years of sacrifice and learning, it became so very apparent how involved the Lord was in every detail, every decision, every trial and experience that we've had. Sometimes we would get frustrated when the timing would, for no obvious reason, be slowed down, but Mat was in the absolute PERFECT position to take this job exactly when he did. It also helps that he FINISHED the copious amount of hours required for licensing last Tuesday. Oh yes he did! And he couldn't stop grinning for two days straight.

So there are a lot of new, happy things going on in our life right now, we're busier than ever, and we are loving it!

Why Children and Scissors Don't Mix

2010-09-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

A few days before we moved out of the apartment, I was chuckling to myself, remembering a pair of girls I babysat back in the day who had cut themselves bangs with their mother's pinking shears. I was so happy that my kids had skipped that phase somehow.

Ha.

HA HA.

That night, I heard Afton say to Annika, "No, cut it here" or something to that effect, followed by a snipping noise. Suddenly, all the evidence from the past few days came crashing down on me--what looked like a lock of hair on their bedroom floor; Annika seeming to have shorter hair in the front in a couple of places; the constant, "Momma, can I borrow the kid scissors?" Mat and I both moved very quickly into the kitchen and found the culprits trimming each other's hair with the kitchen scissors.

There were lectures. There were tears. There was a removal of ALL scissors from the vicinity of the formerly assumed trustworthy-with-such-things children. And then there were the haircuts.

(pulled to one side, the way I like it)

Afton had seen her cousin's brand-new back-to-school haircut and wanted something similar, so we came up with this:

Here's TJ, who got a trim because his hair was hanging INTO his ears:

The moral of the story? Moving stresses out ALL of us, and we take it out on each other's hair.

The end.

The MOTHER of All House Posts

2010-09-12T19:13:00.000-07:00

The rumor is that we've moved into the house. Finally. And that all the plumbing and foundation repairs are done.

That is true.

The rumor is that we got a decent allowance from the seller's insurance to replace the floor torn up by the foundation and plumbing people.

That is true.

The rumor is that the allowance was generous enough and that we were diligent enough in finding and comparing carpet/tile people that we were able to accomplish some major work to the house as well, such as getting a new water heater, revamping some electrical to get the right kind of outlet for the range in the kitchen, and making a big hole in the wall between the living room and the family room.

That is true too.

What you HAVEN'T heard is that redoing the floors happened just this last week, so we've been living out of boxes and in relative chaos for 10 days. During the first weekend of those 10 days, we also had my dad, Paul, and Stephen and Heidi and Savannah over to help with the painting. (I would have pictures of their visit, but I couldn't find my camera. I knew it was in a box *somewhere*, but I just couldn't find the right box.) When we made this plan, we were supposed to have the entire month of August to move in and get things ready. Instead, we had the last day of August and the first two days of September, with the first of our company coming on the third day of September. It was some crazy and stressful times. (Major shout out to my visiting teachers and my in-laws--all of them--for all the help they gave us.)

Add to that the fact that we had no hot water and no functioning stove (though I did prove to myself that it is possible to feed people using a Foreman grill, a crockpot, and a microwave--thanks to Heidi for scrambling eggs in the microwave!), and I'm just grateful they're all still speaking to me! Though Paul did say that of all the cold showers he's ever taken, the ones in our house were the most refreshing. And thanks go to my fabulous in-laws for opening their home, and their bathrooms, to us and our guests during our time of need.

But we got through it. Half of the painting is done--turns out my dad is some kind of painting machine--and the floors are finally in and the stove, the all-important stove, is now functional. Wahoo! Normal life can begin in a few more weeks, once I have the painting done and the boxes unpacked.

ANYway. People have been asking for pictures. Let's do a before and after, shall we?

The kitchen before:

And after (note the red wall!):

(I got a little excited and started taking pictures as soon as the carpet was down--not everything had been put away yet.)

The living room before:

And after (same angle. Notice the hole in the wall?):

The garage conversion/homeschooling room before:

And after (still needs painting, but the wallpaper is down!):

The girls' room before:

And after (I know, I know, I need to take a better picture. Trust me, there will be another blog post when all the big stuff is done):

TJ's room before:

And after (don't mind the big pile of junk--it disappeared shortly after I took this picture):

And our room before:

And after, and still in need of a paint job:

It's starting to take shape! And I loveloveLOVE the new carpet. So soft! So pretty! So unstained!

There will be another blog post soon when I've accomplished the following:
-painting both bathrooms, our bedroom, and the homeschooling room
-putting up all the curtains
-unpacked a few more boxes
Now, if you don't mind, I'm off to enjoy the hot water some more.

Halloween Ideas -- 2010

2010-08-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

So. There are only approximately 9 weeks left until Halloween. If I'm going to be sewing any costumes, I'm going to have to start soon. Unfortunately, I've hit a roadblock. Well, several, actually.

Roadblock #1: Annika wants all the kids to match. I have no problem with this, especially as the girls want to be cowgirls and we have most of the necessities to pull that off. Minus boots. They've outgrown the boots and we only had one pair anyway. Perhaps I can make them sprats of some kind.

Annika was going to be a scarecrow (really not a far cry from a cowgirl, when you think about it) because she wanted to match TJ, whom she decided was going to be a pumpkin. Again, we have a pumpkin hat and I can do the freezer paper stencil thing on a white onesie and all will be well.

Where's the roadblock, you say? Annika wants the trunk to match the costumes. However, when it comes to pumpkins...

...been there (Halloween 2009)...

...done that (Halloween 2007).

I did it in 2006 too, and 2005, though I don't have any easily accessed pictorial records of such.

So, not wanting to do a pumpkin patch AGAIN--that's roadblock #1.

Roadblock #2: Costume indecisiveness on my part. As you'll recall, two years ago I wanted to make this cute little number:

But due to circumstances beyond my control, I was not able to. And last year I was hugely pregnant. Regency dresses are NOT for the hugely pregnant. So this year, I was going to make the dress in black silk (maybe--my silk's in nine-inch wide strips, so I'd have to do some interesting piecing) and decorate the trunk in Gothic style--black and subdued red with lots of spiderwebs and chandeliers and silver. You know, to match MY costume.

On the other hand, I've been dying to make a frock coat (a la Captain Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean) and I have the denim to do so. It could, by some stretch of the imagination, go with the pumpkin patch/harvest theme. Sigh. Paired with a white blouse and a denim skirt, it could be some kind of urban pirate/cowboy type thing. Sort of.

After the move I'll only have time to make one or the other, not both. I think.

Roadblock 3#: We're moving. It sucks up my time and I'm determined to have a livable house within a reasonable period of time. This will cut down on any free time I may have had.

What do I do? I know I don't HAVE to go with Annika's suggestions, but I love that she's so excited about Halloween and thinking about themes and whatnot. I could probably work out a compromise with her, but I'm not sure what that would be. Any and all musings, suggestions, comments, questions, and so forth would be VERY welcome.

A Housing Update

2010-08-21T07:32:00.000-07:00

I just realized that everyone who reads this blog--all 12 of you--thinks that we're homeowners at this point. Not so, my friends, not so.

You see, the foundation had to be repaired before HUD would approve our loan and let us move in. Not a big deal--the sellers had to pay for it and it's common. Texas soil, for whatever reason, leads to foundation sinkage if the foundation is not properly watered on a regular basis. Yeah, I don't get it either--I just know what I need to do to keep things level. ANYway, while doing their thing, the foundation people discovered that an exterior pipe had not been properly connected after a renovation 20 years ago and therefore "there wasn't a clean line in the house." Again, not sure what this means, but now we're getting brand new plumbing! The cost to us--time. The cost to the sellers--more than I want to think about.

Because of this and a few other matters, our closing date got pushed back to August 31st. Poof! There went our month to clean and paint before we actually moved in! Financially, it's a bit of a boon, really. But the whole process was a bit frustrating--there was a lot of non-communication from the seller's agent before things finally got moving again--and there was much throwing of the hands into the air and wondering if we shouldn't just back out. But every time I tossed out that possibility, it just felt wrong. THIS is the house, NOW is the time, and we just needed to see it through. If all goes well, we'll be able to get in and clean at the end of next week and move in on the 31st and 1st. Then there will be a family painting party on the 3rd and 4th of September, and then maybe I'll be able to breathe a bit easier.

So there you have it. It's been a long, frustrating process, but much good is coming out of it. And soon there will be pictures galore, and we'll collect the freezer that's waiting at my patient sister-in-law's house, the fridge and stove at my patient visiting teachee's house, the sewing desk at the patient Primary president's house, and the twin beds from my patient mother-in-law's house. And move things from our apartment, too, I think! Hopefully the next two weeks will be outrageously busy and full of positive changes.
___________________________________________________________________

On another note, I've finally gotten Afton's blood sugar under better control. It turns out that if you call the diabetes nurse educators regularly, they can help you make intelligent adjustments to your kid's insulin ratios. Afton's been more in range in the last month than she has been in the past year, really. It's been fantastic, though Afton will tell you that she likes going "low" because then she gets apple juice. Silly kid.

Doing the Hair Thing

2010-08-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

Some Sunday mornings, when I've timed things right and everyone's had their brunch and their baths and their naps on schedule, we indulge in some extra-curricular grooming.

I had some fun making these flowers, but I didn't know what to do with them, so we decked out the girls' headbands. Temporarily, of course, as we weren't sure if we were on board with the idea. They survived all three hours of church, so that's something.

Then The Boy crawled by the bathroom while I was brushing my own hair. I snagged a bit of Mat's hair gel and one of his combs and approximately 10 seconds later, The Boy sported quite the cute little faux-hawk. It stayed too! And it works with his not-short/not-long/not-quite-curly hair.

So here's two-thirds of the children in their Sunday finest:

I'm not quite sure what to make of Afton's face in this picture. She's contemplating something devious, I think:

Could Annika and TJ *look* more alike? I submit they could not:

Happy children! That's my favorite picture, by far.

And I did it all by myself. I have no idea what the kids are going to look like next year when we have 9am church and no Mat at home to help out. Good thing they keep getting older and more self-sufficient, yes?

First Time Around

2010-08-01T06:05:00.000-07:00

See what's consumed our lives for the past two weeks:

Annika was a little apprehensive before her first lesson, but by the next day she was begging to go back. And now that lessons are over, the girls want to know when we're going again. They LOVE swimming! Yay!

TJ Crawls

2010-07-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

First, a cute picture of the sisters so they don't feel too left out:

Because I will be the first one to admit that the baby now takes up the largest percentage of my blog posts lately. Not that anybody's complaining. Except maybe for the aforementioned sisters. They'll live.

So I was folding laundry the other day when TJ crawled over to investigate. Sooner or later he'll learn that you don't look cute while Momma's doing something boring or she might do things to you. To wit:

It's pure torture, can't you tell?

This is one of my favorite TJ tricks--The Sideways Binky:

He thinks he's quite funny.

Pre-bedtime shenanigans:

Note the baby's position. I put him there and then started taking pictures.

Hey look! He flipped over. Easily. He's had lots and LOTS of practice.

And now he's crawled over and found the Momma. That winning smile usually gets him picked up.

TJ in action....

Sticking out his tongue.

Crawling towards something VERY interesting. No idea what it is.

He also likes to pull himself up on furniture and cruise along. He's still working on landing on his diaper instead of falling straight backwards, though. I'm sure he'll get it. Someday.

PINK Party!

2010-07-25T06:38:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we had Afton's birthday party. (She turned 5, in case you missed the memo.) Originally, I was going to do a surprise birthday party in a ladybug theme, but then I decided keeping it a surprise was too much work. So I asked Afton what she wanted, and after some discussion we came up with a pink party (partly inspired by Pink Me Up by Charise Harper). I loved how the decor turned out, even though I'm not that big a fan of pink.

We kept it simple--had the party at a park with a playground nearby, colored pictures of fairies when it turned out to be too hot to play, decorated cupcakes, ate cupcakes, opened gifts, colored some more. (The coloring saved me--I expected them to play more than they did.) I do believe a good time was had by all. Afton certainly enjoyed herself!

(Click on the picture to see the album.)

Arkansas 2010

2010-07-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

So we went up for a quick visit to the Arkansas relatives and had a lot of fun! It was great to meet our newest relation, Savannah:

(TJ is fascinated that Savannah has a back to her head too. Every time he manages to find his, he'll grab the hair and play with it for a while.)

She and TJ are only about six weeks apart.

We also took a day trip out to Terra Studios, where the girls were treated like princesses (and my aunt took awesome photos with her awesome camera):

Afton peeked at some gnomes going about their daily business:

We all tried our hand at the Labyrinth:

And Heidi and I compared slings:

I love this shot of Mat and Annika:

The studios had some great picture-taking areas and my aunt was kind enough to take all the photos. The kids had a ton of fun--it was a great day!

The Baby Has No Teeth!

2010-07-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

It was a quiet Sunday morning. The boy and I woke up before everyone else and decided to eat by ourselves. Due to a lack of chatter or what have you, the baby decided to entertain himself. It was too funny not to record! Enjoy.

Pictures of The House

2010-07-14T18:30:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm playing with Picasa and learning how it works, so bear with me.

On the other hand, it was ridiculously easy to make this entry, even if I can't label all the photos. Included are pictures of the garage conversion (blue walls, blue carpet), the master bedroom (purple walls (!)), and the very mismatched kitchen, among others.

(Click on the picture to access the entire album.)

I'll learn, I promise.

Euless

2010-07-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

You see this, Arizona friends? GREEN! This park is a five-minute drive from my apartment, but the whole city looks like this. ALL YEAR. Same with the river--IT ALWAYS HAS WATER IN IT. What a novel concept.

I love it. It's totally worth the humidity. And the bugs, even. Being here makes me happy.

P.S. Don't mind my inability to take good pictures. I have no training. I'm just happy I can get the camera to focus on my kids' faces!

One of Those Days

2010-07-06T19:44:00.000-07:00

First, a quick note on Mat's birthday/Father's Day. I made these for Father's Day:

By the way, that is NOT my picture. Nor were my creations quite so perfect. (Perfection, and the recipe, can be found here.) But I didn't get a picture of them before Mat took them to PEC and shared them with some of the other fathers he serves with.

For his birthday, Mat got two certificates to a SCUBA diving intro class--he doesn't need the intro, but I do if I ever want to go SCUBA diving with him. So that should be a fun date. And I got him a copy of Surround Yourself with Greatness by Chad Lewis--a biography by a BYU football player. Could there BE a more perfect gift for Mat? I submit that there could not.

So that was fun. I'm glad to remember that, because today was a pooper-scooper for me in the diabetic field. We went to see Dr. Thornton, Afton's endocrinologist, and subsequently I was shown my many mistakes as the parent of a diabetic. THAT'S always fun. Now, we did switch basal (all-day/long-acting) insulins just three months ago, but I thought we had things more under control than we did. Afton's A1C showed us up--it was higher (by .2%) than it was last quarter.

Dang it.

So I've got to monitor Afton's numbers more carefully (including the dreaded 3AM checks for the next few days) and adjust her ratios accordingly. The hard part for me is that we just passed her one-year anniversary and I thought I had a handle on things! Obviously not. So frustrating. So disappointing! The diabetes nurse educator did say that things tend to get wonky around the one-year mark, as that's when the pancreas will give out completely. So between that and only kind of understanding the new insulin, that's where we ran into problems.

(deep breath) It'll get better. It'll get better. (deep breath)

Blerg.

News!

2010-06-27T06:10:00.000-07:00

It's official! We have a contract on a house! I'll post pictures later, I promise. Closing date is July 30th. We can't move out of our apartment until August, so we'll be taking that month to do things like paint and clean and what not.

Details:
Here in Euless, so we get to stay in the ward.
Three bedroom, two bath, garage conversion that will make a sweet homeschooling/sewing room.
Decent backyard--a bit overgrown and too many trees, so we have some work ahead of us.
White exterior, blue carpet, some painted walls, some walls with cheap wood paneling.
The kitchen is HILARIOUS--metallic gold tile backsplashes, laminate countertops in two different colors, peel and stick vinyl tiles on the floor, gingerbread trim on the cabinets. I have some work ahead of me there, but I'm still excited for it--it has a big eat-in area. YAY!

So stay tuned as we document our lives as fixer-upper type people. I AM SO EXCITED.

9th Anniversary

2010-06-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

I like this photo for many reasons, but for the purpose of this post, I'd like you to notice the arrangement of our family and who is in the center. That would be Mat. The kids love to play with him and draw pictures for him and listen to him read stories. He is their favorite toy, as I often tease him. I rely on him to bring sanity at the end of the day, and he often listens to my complaints while patiently doing the dishes. (You see why I love him!)

We didn't go anywhere exotic or do anything fancy, though we did get to go out for early dinner/late lunch minus 2/3rds of the children. And that night, we set up a movie in the girls' room, put the baby to bed, and played the games WE wanted to play and talked and talked and talked. And maybe we shared a very decadent dessert as well. It was quiet, it was low-key, it was just romantic enough for me.

Thanks for sticking with me for nine years, Mat, and for being my best friend. Here's to AT LEAST nine more!

The Toothless Wonder. Part Three.

2010-06-03T06:42:00.000-07:00

Annika's gone and done it again.

Afton wants to lose some teeth too; thus the despondent face. You see, all this tooth-losing has made her sister rich....

(Edited to make Afton visible.)

Oh, It's the Baby Again.

2010-06-02T06:20:00.000-07:00

I promised you, gentle reader, pictures of my third-born eating. It's a messy process, but his very youth makes these pictorial displays endearing beyond all reason. Enjoy.

Note the clean face. He's crying because the food has not made it to his mouth yet.

Waiting patiently for Mom to put down the dang camera already.

This is not the refusal of food that it seems to be. Oh no. This is a desperate grab at the spoon to get the food to his mouth FASTER. The first bite was tasty, I suppose....

Delicioso.

(Write your own caption here.)

So The Boy took to eating solids as if he had found his purpose in life.

Enthusiastic enjoyment of the oatmeal.

Patiently awaiting the next bite. Note the eyebrows. The Boy has very expressive eyebrows.

TJ decided he had waited long enough and started sucking on the tray. Plastic and oatmeal--mmmmm.

Again with the tray. Note cute chubby cheek.

And now you know that the food on his nose is NOT from my lack of baby-feeding skills. Oh no. He did that to himself.

Here's a little insight to our pre-dinner ritual. He's happy (i.e. not screaming) and entertained.

And to cap off our entry:

There are two things of note in this picture. First is the remarkably clean state of the girls' floor. The second is that the girls already know how to make their brother look oh-so-pretty!

From the Afton Files

2010-05-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

There exists a stereotype of the middle child: moody, whiny, acts out for attention. Barring the occasional whine, that couldn't be less like our Afton.

You can see it in her face, even when she's tired. She absolutely sparkles with fun and mischief (of the mostly harmless variety). Mat called her "bubbly" yesterday and I had to agree with him over her protests, because it fits her personality exactly.

She may have diabetes, but you wouldn't know it from her complaints. You'd know it by the bright way she announces it to every new friend she meets. And when she has to eat a little differently from the rest of us--a little more healthily, usually--she doesn't complain. (She doesn't complain when we find her sugar-free candy to eat either.)

Afton is fearless. She loves to lead, she loves to explore, and she often pushes her older sister to do the same.

Even if the end result isn't what she expected, like the end of the sidewalk:

She has no fear of heights, either, which caused me much trepidation until I knew she was big enough to be more cautious and had a better sense of balance.

Afton loves everyone. She counts among her best friends, aside from her sister, her little brother who lights up every time she comes into view:

Her daddy:

And sometimes me. Here she's singing the Ariel song to me (the "aaahs" that Ariel sings as Ursula the Sea Witch takes her voice):

She loves to sing and dance and pretend. She loves FUN! and she has more energy than I have ever had in my entire life.

We love our Afton Leigh.

TJ part 2

2010-05-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

What can I say about TJ? He's turning, quite fluidly, from his back to his stomach. He's learning to be content on his stomach since he hasn't quite mastered turning back over. And today he had his first cereal! I didn't take pictures because I was having too much fun feeding him. He kept grabbing the spoon and shoving it toward his mouth, as if he was trying to communicate "Finally! The good stuff! Gimme!" We'll see how round 2 goes tomorrow, and maybe I'll take pictures, but round one was fun and a big mess. I loved it!

Now on to the pictures, because that's what you all come here for:

TJ likes watching baseball with his daddy.

Afton loves using her newly acquired reading skills to entertain her brother. I think he loves her energy, as well. She fairly bubbles with it, you know.

These skyward-pointing toes are adorable. They are also TJ's signature move--neither of my girls did such a thing. I love them.

The boy is quite tolerant when I have camera in hand and decide to create a cloud of spots in front of his eyes. This is my favorite photo from the session.

Before we rearranged the room to put his crib up, TJ was quite enamored of his view from the changing table. He would tip his head back like that every time we put him on it. This is what he saw, according to my camera:

Colorful lines! What's not to be fascinated by?

The boy has the perfect storm on the back of his head, also known as The Continuous Cowlick. It's hereditary--from Mat's side.

One morning, I was holding TJ on my lap while I ate my breakfast. Now, let it be known that this boy drools. Copiously. Still, it was quite surprising to find that he had filled his own belly button!

And now, some pictures just for the fun of it:

(Boy loves being in the sling!)

(The bib? Is a complete lie. I've started turning it backwards.)

So there you go--a bit more complete documentation of my little man's life. He's six months old as of today, you know. Time flies when you're not getting any sleep!

The Oldest Child

2010-04-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

This is our oldest child. We've had her around for a little over six years, and we're pretty sure we like her:

She is, by turns, serious and silly, but rarely can I predict which one it will be until the mood is upon us.

I was going to chronicle a day in her life through pictures, but that turned out to be impossible. (For a reason, see Child #3. He's so demanding!) I did get a picture of her first thing in the morning, right before family prayer:

She may not be happy that I have that picture--or that I published it publicly!--in a few years. Oh well. She can get her own blog then and complain about it. In the meantime, it reminds me that she doesn't like getting up in the morning, and she has a hard time falling asleep, just like her father. It's worse when she's excited or worried about something. We've gone into her room just before our bedtime and been surprised by a whispered "hi" more than once.

She loves her sister--they are best friends.

They do just about everything together. They tell each other everything. They play together for hours on end.

But Annika has her own time too. She gets lost in a book as easily as her mother does.

Picture books, chapter books, cereal boxes, Dum Dum wrappers--she reads them all.

Sometimes, though, she can be convinced to set the book aside to do the humdrum things in life--chores, eating, using the bathroom, playing with her brother.

She doesn't always find life easy, but she does make it sweeter. I love my beautiful girl.

TJ part 1

2010-04-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER: The next series of posts, in which I try to highlight each child individually but the baby STILL gets the lion's share of the attention, will probably only be interesting to grandparents and great-grandparents (hi Grandma!) of said children.

We'll start with a couple of videos of the baby. In the first, video proof that TJ loves bathtime for when he turns on us and claims he hates it when he's about 2 (Afton, I'm lookin' at you).

And here are the many faces and noises of the boy. Thankfully, he compressed them all into about a minute and a half of time for me. By the way, he never comes close to falling--the angle of the camera doesn't show my arm supporting him. I promise it's there the whole time!

By the way, the lighting is much better on my computer. I don't know why the intermanets aren't cooperating. Ah well. Enjoy it anyway!

New Blog

2010-04-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

I started a new blog that won't really have any crossover posts here--it's more to document my (mis)adventures in crafting. You can find it here: The Hasty Crafter

And This is One of the Many Reasons Why Sara is My Friend

2010-04-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

She has an excellent post on motherhood not being 100% sunshine and and rainbows and THAT'S OK. Read it here.

A Rumor-filled Easter

2010-04-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

Rumor has it there was a major holiday last weekend. We celebrated it by lecturing the kids.

Kidding.

We did do our best to emphasize the Resurrection. We think the kids got it. Then we let them loose with some empty baskets.

We told them that they needed to find some hidden eggs.
They thought about it.

And did it, with some help from the parents:
"Hotter. Colder. No, hotter means you're getting closer.
Face the other way! NOW you're getting hotter!
*sigh*
No, that way is colder."

But finally they found all the treasure-laden eggs and were quite happy to share.

Mat and I don't go in for egg-dying--we're Easter grinches like that--so we decorated sugar cookies instead.

The girls were pleased with this substitute activity.
Annika doesn't like eating eggs anyway.

The artists with their works.
Afton looks remarkably like her Aunt Elise here.

And here's Annika, hiding the gap in her bottom teeth.

Rumor has it that TWO MORE TEETH are loose.
We've asked her very kindly to knock off this growing up business.
She grins at us and says "no."
Defiant child.

AZ Trip 2010

2010-04-06T14:21:00.000-07:00

I have an excuse for letting an entire month slide by without blogging--we were planning and executing a trip to Arizona! We had a wonderful time, saw many old friends, and generally enjoyed ourselves.

Because everyone asks, it takes 17 hours and change to go from doorstep to doorstep. We stayed with my dad and stepmother, who graciously allowed us to take up their spare rooms for ten nights. Thank you, Dad and Kathy! TJ especially thanks you for allowing him to cry loudly at 3am almost every night.

While we were there, we had playdates and dinners and activities galore. On Friday, we saw our friends the Greggs. We lived just two doors down from them in Tempe for a few years and Anna and I would often commiserate on our lack of a *real* house with a *real* yard. She is now living the dream--she has a real house with a real yard of her very own! Lucky. The kids had a great time renewing their friendship while I showed off TJ and we caught up on life.

On Saturday, we went to Goldfield Mine with Papa and Grandma (Dad and Kathy). We put Afton in jail, took a picture of Annika outside the jail she refused to pose in, and got a candid family portrait.

Sunday, we were able to attend the Alameda Ward again after an 18-month absence. We left behind so many good friends when we moved! There's room in Euless for you all, you know. It was good to see and chat with so many people that we had served with and had fun with for the four years we lived in that ward. It will always have a special place in my heart.

Monday and Wednesday were spent at playdates and dinners with old friends. I got to witness Gavin's fearlessness and energy in person, listen in on Mia and Annika talk about their imaginary pets, included some spotted dancing dogs. We spent FHE with the Hatches, playing Fruit Basket Upset (and I forgot to take pictures), and met the Fleischakers' newest addition to their family, the hugely tall Caleb (no pictures again! Slacker am I).

Thursday was our big event day. We went to the zoo with my friend Ruth and saw all the animals the kids wanted to see. I envied the orangutan her composure, so I took her picture. She remained composed. Perhaps when I turn 50, I'll share it.

Then we spent an hour in traffic to get into a Rangers' Spring Training game, which Mat thoroughly enjoyed (the game, not the traffic).

Friday was a playdate with the Rogers kids, but mostly it was an excuse for Jayne and I to get together and talk. A lot. Patient Mat sat in the car for an hour beyond the time I told him we'd be done, reading Return of the King and not complaining about how long we took. Have I mentioned how fabulous my husband is? Because he is.

We woke up later than we meant to on Saturday to leave, and we had to go back to retrieve Afton's spare insulin that we'd left in the fridge, but we still got home by midnight. It was a fantastic trip and one I look back on with a great measure of pleasure. With any luck and with a dint of good planning, perhaps we can do it again next year!

Sometimes Motherhood is a Big Confusing Mess

2010-04-05T12:21:00.000-07:00

So we went to Arizona. (Blog post on that forthcoming.) And we went to the park or a playdate nearly every day. And it was easy and Afton's glucose levels were some of the best they've ever been.

So Mat has encouraged me to get the kids out as often as possible now that we're back. And I've tried. But we're home now, where I'm responsible for household upkeep and homeschooling and the weather isn't 100% sunshine. But we try. But today it was supposed to rain (it didn't), so we went to walk around the Mills mall. But we got held up by snacktime (Afton's tummy hurt. Usually a sign of low blood sugar. This time just a sign of hunger. Lesson learned: Test her blood BEFORE buying the snack), a little shopping (always a danger when one goes to the mall), and a potty break. I'm not sure we got any real exercise from it and I wore the wrong shoes.

Add that to the fact that I remembered the way to and from the mall imperfectly (always stressful) and that lunch was late and the baby was crying and I haven't had much time to myself in a while and suddenly I was snappish for no really discernible reason. Poor Afton ended up in her room, crying, Annika stepped it up and entertained the baby while I finished making lunch, and I talked Afton out of her bed and to the table. Finally we have peace. Maybe we'll get the laundry and our regular chores done today too. Maybe.

Who knew that a divine calling could be so noisy and messy and guilt-inducing?

Afton-ism

2010-02-26T18:06:00.000-08:00

Afton to Mat after blowing in his ear: "Daddy, does the air come out the other side?"

Random Craft Link

2010-02-23T20:33:00.000-08:00

This pincushion is too cute. It's going on the "to sew" list.

Ridiculously Snowy Day!

2010-02-13T12:48:00.001-08:00

Disclaimer: I hate the Blogger picture upload function. Pain in the rear. Good thing I like you people.

Anyway.

Once upon a time, a little snowstorm decided to rest over a little part of the world called North Texas. It let its snowflakes go slowly, but gradually.

Mat came home from work while the snowstorm was still building up to its potential.
He created the miniature snowman (buttons, baby carrot, and pretzels) that shall hereafter be known as Little.

Little endured the constancy of the storm that had taken up residence in our section of the atmosphere. He lasted all night, subjecting us to his unblinking button stare. Good thing we have curtains.

Not that we needed the curtains for long. As you can see to the side there, the button stare was buried in the accumulation of snowflakes by about midnight.

By the next morning, Little was completely buried.
The roads were predicted to be frozen and icy.
Mat called in sick to work.

(Here you can play Where's the Car?)

Mat decided to thoroughly enjoy his sick day, building Little a big brother. Big Brother is a blue-eyed pirate. Afton skewered him--that is, she put his arms in.

Big Brother and sisters.

The snow day was completely enjoyed by all involved.
The end.

And to round things out, cute pictures of the kids.
Enjoy!

Annika-ism

2010-02-06T09:32:00.000-08:00

As the movie we're watching starts up, the Universal logo comes up and Annika says, in all seriousness, "That means the aliens can watch this too."

Birthday Thoughts and Accepting Motherhood

2010-01-26T17:34:00.000-08:00

Again, I've made it through another year. It's a miracle! And I managed to give birth in this last year--also a miracle in the usual sense.
Getting through morning sickness always feels like a miracle too.
Hurrah for the miraculous!!

Mat made my birthday perfect--we got to go grocery shopping ALL BY OURSELVES in the morning, he took me to Red Lobster for a late lunch/early dinner, and he made me a chocolate cake. This, combined with the exotic dark chocolate he'd gifted to me that morning, made my day. But my most favoritest part was his birthday gift--he's taking his gift budget and contributing it to my Renaissance Festival budget to buy his own ticket.

HE'S COMING TO THE RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL WITH ME!

I may be a touch excited by this.

It'll be the whole family at the Renaissance Festival down by Waxahachie (the Scarborough Renaissance Festival). We're going on the Highland Games weekend, which means that in addition to jousting and other merriment, we'll be able to watch caber tossing and Highland flings. Hot diggity dog! I'm thrilled. Yay for birthdays.

All righty, subject change.
The other day I posted this as my Facebook status: "Karie Crawford finally feels like she's on board with this whole motherhood thing . . . three kids into it." I have discussed my feelings about motherhood previously, in this here post. And I still stand by what I said. But my attitude has . . . deepened? I'm not sure that's the right word. It's just that I finally feel like I've quit fighting motherhood and come to embrace it as my current way of life. Yes. That's it. It's not my WHOLE life, but it is what I am currently pursuing. It's my priority. It won't always be my priority--when all the chicks have flown the coop--but right now it is. And now that I've made it my priority, things seem to be running more smoothly. Not all the time, but the majority of the time.

Scrambled paragraph, but it sums up my current revelation: It's okay to make motherhood the priority in the season thereof, allowing dreams and hobbies to develop in their own time, slowly, holding fast to the idea that as the children grow up, I'll be able to return more fully to doing the things I love.

I like it. Now I just have to live by it.

I leave you with cute pictures of the kids, just because I can:

The Relativity of Failure

2010-01-15T12:20:00.001-08:00

There is a time and a place for failure, I think. For instance, when I've been holding a fussy baby for an hour and Annika continues to bug me to assemble a craft that she's decided on her own to do, I can fail to meet my usual craft standards by substituting straws and duct tape for glue and a craft stick.

She was still pleased with the result.

On the other hand, this was a failure I was less pleased with, though I ended up with a very clean floor afterward. Note to self: Afton is NOT allowed to touch a shampoo bottle again until she is 35, whether I am nursing at the time or not.

You can tell they know they're in trouble, which they were. But they cleaned up without complaint.

I was first alerted to the trouble when I heard Annika screeching, "It's not working! They're getting higher. Turn it off. TURN IT OFF!" Apparently they thought putting more water in the tub would make the bubbles disappear.
Not so, my friends, not so.

Failure=lessons learned.
In that way, I suppose it was a success.

The only failure here is my inability to operate a camera using only my left hand.
This is what Afton wants her Halloween costume to look like.
It's the child dressed as a peacock from Eric Carle's Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

With the judicious use of felt, heavy-gauge wire, and perhaps some paint, it should be a success.
We can hope, anyway.

Unexpected

2010-01-11T12:41:00.001-08:00

We're not quite sure what Pooh Bear did wrong, but this is what Afton had done to him in the time between her going to bed and Mat putting Annika to bed (30 minutes--who knows what other tortures the poor bear had to endure?):

Apparently, you don't mess with the diabetic.
She believes in extreme forms of punishment.

Random Pictures with Text Filling in the Blanks

2010-01-09T14:45:00.000-08:00

Instead of going for a coherent themed blog post (don't expect THAT for a few more months), I'm going to label some pictures that may or may not be in chronological order.

To begin--we experienced a white Christmas, our first as a family. It was unique not only for us, but also for North Texas.

Secondly, Annika decided to grow up and become a real kid. How? By going and losing a tooth.
She got paid well--50 cents. The tooth fairy was feeling generous.

Here's Afton sporting my latest sewing attempt--fabric headbands. So far, so good! The girls even ask to wear them on occasion, and they're ridiculously easy to put together. I made four in about an hour, possibly less. Instructions here.

Proof that we definitely let Afton dress herself:

Also proof that she's definitely a four-year-old.

The light was good, the dress was pretty, and Afton was willing. This time I had dressed her:

And Annika in her new Sunday dress. Thanks, Nana!

Afton decided she needed new eyebrows and drew them in with a dry erase marker. The story is that she and her sister were playing "makeup" similar to this episode (scroll to the end). I found some makeup I wasn't using and gave it to them so that I wouldn't have to scrub her eyebrows off again.

Afton-isms

2009-12-30T08:02:00.000-08:00

To herself this morning in the bathroom:
"Afton Leigh Crawford Monkeyshine. That's my whoooole name."

Later:
"Tiggeriffic! Pooh-a-riffic. Darby-a-riffic. Busteriffic." Repeated twice.

A Blessing and A Birthday

2009-12-22T09:53:00.000-08:00

This is a story about a family's special days. On Sunday, this cute boy was blessed by his father, with his grandfather, great-grandfather, Uncle John, Bishop Walton, and his family's hometeacher standing in the circle:

It was a beautiful, spiritually sweet blessing.
He stayed quiet during the whole blessing and yawned when his daddy held him up afterwards for the congregation's admiration. They "awwwed" obligingly.

His Omay provided the blessing outfit. She couldn't be there, but we were very grateful for her contribution.

On Monday, this was discovered on Nana's kitchen table. Notice the number of candles:

Nana provided some fire, the rest of the family provided some singing, and the cute girl in the blue shirt looked on the proceedings with restrained amusement.

Then, in the space of two deep breaths, she blew out all six of those candles and made it official:
Annika turned six years old.
SIX.
She's taller, stronger, wiser than she was before, and she has a loose tooth on the bottom.
Her poor parents are beginning to feel quite old. Was it really six years ago that she was born? Where has the time gone?
(The cliched lament of all parents, but it's very applicable.)

The birthday girl and her sister consented to dress up in their Christmas dresses to be admired by one and all. And to have several pictures taken.
I love their identical expressions in this picture.

The Primary requested a picture of the family. We tried to pawn off our Christmas picture on them, but they wouldn't have it--it was oriented the wrong way. So we took advantage of the children's dressiness and took a picture the right way.

Merry Christmas again, from our family to you, with love.

Christmas Letter 2009

2009-12-14T20:47:00.001-08:00

For regular blog readers, the letter below might be a bit redundant, but I'm going to share it anyway!

Dear Family and Friends—

It’s that time of year again—time to account for the months we’ve spent since the last letter we sent out, to show that we’ve moved forward and done something noteworthy with the talents and resources we’ve been given, to mention the blessings that have graced our lives.

March brought change into our lives as Mat started work with Dallas Metrocare, working with children and teens with mental illnesses. It’s not Mat’s dream job, but does allow him to earn hours towards his professional counseling license. As of last week, Mat has approximately 2100 of his 3000 hours earned. At this rate, he should have his full license by the end of next summer, an event we both look forward to, as it means greater career opportunities for Mat.

With Mat’s job came the ability to live on our own and so we moved to an acceptable apartment in Euless, Texas. The ward is a mix of cultures, with a heavy dose of Tongans, and has been a pleasure to live in. Mat started as a Sunday School teacher to the 12-14 year olds, but soon found himself called as second counselor in the Elders Quorum. I would have had a calling earlier, but in April I came down with a serious case of morning sickness. When I recovered myself, I received the calling of Relief Society pianist. It’s not my favorite calling, as I tend to experience performance anxiety, but the chorister and I have worked it out and we’re in a comfortable place.

Annika has made fantastic progress with her homeschooling. During the beginning of the year she continued her interest in Greek myths, combining with some Norse myths. After I got sick, we moved to reading from the Magic Tree House series. That is, Annika is doing the reading on her own, quickly and happily. She’s also making progress with her math and art skills. She still loves the color blue, butterflies, fairies, and the movie Atlantis, among other things. She has a persistent quality about her that pushes her to move forward in her reading, but also gets her in trouble at times. She’s a bright light in our lives.

Afton caused us the most anxiety this year, but she makes up for it with her humor and exuberance. In June she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Living with diabetes was difficult at first, but it’s become a normal part of our lives, and Afton’s gotten as used to receiving insulin shots as Mat and I have gotten used to giving them. She’s doing very well now and is learning to read, to tell her right shoe from her left, and improving her art skills as long as I let her exercise them. We still have yet to come to an understanding on the walls not being her personal canvas. She still loves the color yellow, but claims to like blue and all the other colors of the rainbow. She also loves playing board games and dancing and singing to us whenever the mood strikes. Afton is a wonderful part of the heart of our family.

Torin Jacob decided to join our family two weeks earlier than predicted, and was my smallest baby as a result, weighing in at only 7 pounds 12 ounces. (Both girls were over 9 pounds.)Through a ferocious bout of eating, he has caught up to his sisters and as of last week weighed 9 pounds 10 ounces. TJ is a mellow baby except for when he’s getting a diaper change, a bath, or not getting fed fast enough. He takes the multiple kisses he receives from his adoring family very well, and sometimes he consents to sleep at night. He has Mat’s coloring—reddish blond hair—and a face very similar to Afton’s infant face. It will be interesting to see how he develops. We love him greatly.

So there’s our account, our blessings, our progress. We know that all of it comes from our loving Heavenly Father and we’re grateful to Him—even for the trials. This Christmas season brings a wonderful Spirit and we pray that it will touch your lives as we celebrate the birth of the Savior.

With all our love,

Mat and Karie, Annika, Afton, and TJ

Testing, Testing...

2009-12-13T14:14:00.001-08:00

Caught you looking!

Appeasing the Masses

2009-11-23T15:02:00.000-08:00

I know you're all dying with curiosity, eager to see my latest craft project. It was a little one, but solved a problem that had been driving me nuts--Mat needed a place to hang loose but important papers. He'd been tacking them DIRECTLY to the wall above his dresser, which bugged me. And when something bugs me, I fix it. Enter Hobby Lobby, a 40% off coupon, a corkboard, and some acrylic paint:

How could any BYU fan resist hanging this above his or her dresser? Not Mat! And I am grateful that he loves the handmade look. (My first gratitude post of the year! Oh wait--that was the last post.)

Speaking of the cuteness that dwells in the last post, here are some more recent pictures:

Silly sisters in the background. I like this one.

So there you go--one cute son/grandson/great-grandson/nephew/great-nephew/cousin/friend's baby. Enjoy!

In Other News...

2009-11-19T08:34:00.000-08:00

We've had some interesting things happen in our family this month. One of the first was this:

I woke up one morning to find Annika on the couch, quietly reading a book. How awesome is that?

A few days later, Mat and I encountered this:
A certain princess (and eventually, her princess sister) REQUESTED to vacuum the couch. Do you think Cinderella cleaned the castle voluntarily after she married the prince? Maybe she did.

But the most time-consuming, labor-intensive (ha!) event began on November 6th with some labor pains. After three days of it, I went to my regular OB appointment. Active labor in the waiting room landed me here shortly after my appointment:

A few hours later, I was tired enough to think that an epidural might be helpful, so then I ended up here:

The epidural didn't fully take--I could feel some pretty intense pain on my right side with every contraction, but it was endurable. After 40 minutes of pushing, in which a certain little boy thought it would be fun to play jack-in-the-box, we ended up with this:

The happy sisters:

The daddy who is relieved not to be the ONLY male in the house anymore:

The obligatory post-clean up picture:

Sisterly love:

Love from a besotted Nana:

And a dang cute TJ:

Vital statistics:
Torin Jacob
(to be called TJ)
Born November 9th
(during his cousin's 5th birthday party)
7:50pm
7 lbs, 12 oz.
(my smallest baby yet, by far!)
21 inches long
(this is more like it)

So there you go. For those who are keeping track, TJ did show up exactly two weeks early. Why? Don't know, don't care (I'm guessing some miscalculation of dates on my part or the OB's).
I'm just glad he's here!

Halloween 2009--Pumpkin Utopia

2009-11-01T12:32:00.000-08:00

I promised on Facebook that I would upload photos of my award-winning trunk from the Trunk or Treat. Here it is!

I think my cowgirl and my Tinkerbell were the best accessories. After gathering a modest haul for themselves, they were best entertained by handing out candy to the other kids. And they have already absconded with my award--a black and orange Slinky.

My costume this year was "What do I have in my costume collection that will fit over my huge belly?" The hat fits anytime, of course. Do you like the pom-poms on Annika's shoes? Costume-wise, that was all I had to make this year. Bliss.

These were the strange people in the van next to us, also known as the Blue Van Horn family, if you ask Afton. They might also be related to us. Maybe. If they choose to claim us, that is.

Last night we decided to hang at the in-laws and avoid answering our own door. The girls sat at the front door for about an hour and a half, eagerly watching for trick or treaters and dumping handsfuls of candy into everyone's bag. They had a grand time.

Patio Contest

2009-10-29T13:03:00.000-07:00

We didn't win. After driving around the parking lot and seeing what other patios looked like, we were fine with it. Not only were we missing the requisite spider webbing, but we didn't create our own graveyard outside the fence or replicate our favorite haunted house. Nor did we have a giant inflatable witch-kitten cuddling a pumpkin. Really, how were we to compete?

But we did get a "Thanks for participating" bag with an already-activated glow stick, a pencil with candy corn printed on it, and some generic candy in it. So, you know, it all works out.

Things We've Been Up To Lately

2009-10-27T09:06:00.001-07:00

As Halloween and TJ's birth roll nearer, we're finding ourselves up to our necks in creativity around here. I'm allowing my nesting instinct nearly free reign and the kids have really enjoyed our Art Project Fridays--so much so that they cheer when I tell them it's Friday. Which reminds me--I need to get some prep work done for this Friday, which means cleaning up my "creativity corner", a.k.a. my overflowing sewing/crafting area. I have GOT to find a solution for that corner's organization. But that's another post for another day.

Anyway, I was whining in the Wishing for Beauty post that I didn't have any artwork on my walls. So I fixed it.

The brown poster is a quote from Enya's "Only Time"--made it last week--and the posters below it I made a few years ago. They actually coordinate pretty well and I like how they hang in my sewing area. Clutter Corner. Whatever I decide to call it.

This is a collage I put together a few months back. I had these fall tree prints that I liked, but didn't *love*, so I recombined them into something I liked, then added my favorite J. Kirk Richards print. Someday I'm going to have a large print of that painting to hang over my fireplace, but for now this will do. I love how the colors worked out. I know the flowers block it, but it says "eden" in the upper left corner.

Also, I've been growing a human. Here's a picture from a couple of weeks ago:

Here's a picture from last Sunday. My mother-in-law swears I look much bigger. Perhaps. I did pass the 36-week (9 month) mark on Monday:
All I know is that I'm getting continually pummeled from the inside and weigh about four more pounds. Mid-November needs to come a little more quickly. Maybe.

Back to Halloween fun! Our porch decorations are a combination of last night's family home evening efforts and my desire to get everything up in time for a contest today:
We did the fake jack o'lanterns last night, but it was too humid for the spray paint to be very effective, so I gave them a second coat this morning. There's Tinkerbell on the left--Annika's lantern--and Ariel on the right--Afton's lantern. Mine are in the middle and spell BOO. We'll be putting fake candles in them tonight and hopefully the effect will be spooktacular. Ha ha ha. The kids were excited, though the adults decided that perhaps next year we'll carve artificial pumpkins for a better result.

Why no real pumpkins? They rot, they have slimy innards, and this year they cost more than the milk jugs and the spray paint put together. I think I'll call the theme of the porch "Simplify and Recycle." The only thing I purchased for the decor was one more leaf garland and the orange spray paint. Everything else I had on hand. Of course, that says more about how many fall/Halloween decorations I have than anything else.

The patio decorating contest should be judged today and the prizes are $300, $200, and $100 off rent. Otherwise, I don't think I would have gone to quite so much effort. I am nine months pregnant, you know!

Last Friday's art project was a cop-out--I let the girls color a lot of printed Halloween coloring pages with my colored pencils. They had fun anyway, of course. Two weeks ago, however, we made bat garlands with googly eyes. They thought the eyes were the best part. Here's Afton hard at work, gluing eyes on or threading the yarn through her bat (I can't tell):

Here's Afton's garland:
Notice how the bats and the grandparents are guarding the closet door:

And here's a section of Annika's bat garland:
They enjoyed the project and it was fairly simple to put together, so it was a win-win situation all around.

Finally, for your consideration, we have Afton's favorite face to make:

I'll let you know how we did in the contest (I don't expect to win, really, since I don't have any spider webbing up and the other decorated patios seem to think that's a necessary element) and I'll post pictures of our trunk after Friday. Yep, there's a Trunk or Treat on Friday. Yay! I love Trunk or Treats. Halloween's just not the same without them.

Happy Halloween!

Quick Cuteness

2009-10-26T15:27:00.001-07:00

I have other things to blog about, and I will get to them. Tomorrow. But I had to share an exchange with Afton I just had.

Me: Hey Afton! Did I tell you I got a shot at the doctor's office today?
(Afton looks up from playing with Annika.)
Afton: You did?
Me (pulling up my sleeve): Yep, a flu shot, just like you got.
Afton: I want to see your bandaid!
Me: All I have is the boring grown up bandaid.
Afton (touching my arm): Here's a fun grown up bandaid. It's NCIS!
Me: Thanks!

Sweet kid I've got there, huh? Also, I think they know I'm a fan of NCIS. Maybe.

Art Project Friday

2009-10-13T12:43:00.001-07:00

Fridays have somehow evolved into an art project day. It works for me, as I usually have my own projects to pursue, and I often find inspiration at oneprettything.com (last week's project came from here--I should read this blog on a regular basis. I find her projects inspiring).

I spent Thursday evening cutting out some spooky silhouettes from black construction paper and putting off answers to the question "Momma, what are you doing?" I like making the project a surprise.

The next day, we painted our paper in sunset colors, then picked out the silhouettes we liked and put them on. Yes, the girls had some help with the arrangement of their silhouettes, but they did all the picking and the majority of the arranging. We'll be hanging our pictures on the back window as part of our patio decorating for Halloween.

The happy artists and their finished works. Mine is in the middle. Afton's still wearing her giant painting shirt, also known as one of my old t-shirts.

Annika is rather pleased with how hers turned out. The lightning striking her "raven" was accidental, but it led to us shouting "Struck by lightning! Struck by lightning!" a few times that afternoon. For the quote's reference, you'll have to read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Afton insisted on giving me a goofy smile. Goofy kid. She's pretty pleased with her handiwork as well. I love that she chose to put the "raven" on the scarecrow's shoulder--that didn't occur to me.

My personal projects. I've been playing around with watered down acrylic paints and I wanted to see how things worked. I suppose I could just check a book out from the library, but experimenting is so much more fun! I also had some leftover polymer clay, so I decided to make some pendants. The unicorn ones are for the kids, the Celtic knots are for me, and the trees (they're supposed to be oaks--if you squint just right, they are) are for the sisters I visit teach. We really liked a quote from Elder Wirthlin in last month's visiting teaching message about being like oak trees, deeply rooted in the simple principles of the gospel.

This picture is for Abby. I wasn't able to open the boxes you sent right away. We picked them up from the post office right before the first session of Conference and they were immediately taken over by my industrious and insolent children.

I should also mention that I was reading some back entries dealing with Afton's diabetes, etc., and realized that I never let on how my own glucose tests turned out. I passed the three-hour test--went pretty low, as a matter of fact--and they had me re-take the one-hour test at 28 weeks, which is when a pregnant woman is supposed to take it. Passed this time, no problem. So, no solidarity with Afton, but also no gestational diabetes, which is good for me and TJ.

I should be off now to actually pay attention to my children and ponder on the activities I have left for today, like folding and putting away the laundry. And practicing the piano for the hymns that I have to play in Relief Society. You can see why I decided to write a blog entry instead . . . .

Transforming a Plate--Halloween Decorating at My House Begins

2009-10-01T14:46:00.000-07:00

So I love Halloween. I love fall in general, really, but I love Halloween. Anyway, the decorations at the top of our homeschooling/Church books/library bookshelves are all right, but the bamboo plate behind the bottle of potpourri was getting lost in the general wall color. So I decided to do something about it. I was inspired by the vintage pumpkin you can see here.

Here's the plate by itself:

We had too much brown paint left over from the fall tree paintings, so I painted a basketweave pattern on the plate, just to give it some color:

After deciding where the colors would go and tracing the image onto the plate and mixing colors and thinning them forEVer, I ended up with a reasonable replica of the cute vintage pumpkin:

Here's the inspiration piece that I printed out for comparison (and a section of my eight-month pregnant belly):

And here's the plate in its new home. I pulled the metal jack o'lantern forward from its hiding place to make the new vintage one feel a little less lonely.

And there you go.
Happy Halloween!

Getting Crafty with the Kids AKA Good Thing I'm Not All THAT Fond of My Dining Room Table

2009-10-01T14:24:00.001-07:00

First off, thanks to you all for tolerating my braggy post. Sometimes I just have to share what I've done.

Also, Aunt Lorena wanted to know what a crayon roll up looks like. Voila:

I found the pattern online--if you Google "crayon roll up" you'll get quite a few choices--and I was able to make it up in about an hour. Using felt for the front makes it pretty simple. I used a bandanna with that same pattern to make a crochet hook roll up.

Anyway, on to the painting with the children. I don't have enough brain cells at the moment to load the pictures in the correct order, but here's some we did just today--it's called Midnight Pictures and the idea can be found here.

These are Afton's creations:

And Annika's (note the little girl and the cat--you may have to click to enlarge the picture):

What we did last week--fall paintings that involve blowing paint around. Idea here.
Afton's creation:

Annika's fall trees:

Here's the whole row--I opted not to include myself in the picture because, well, it would have been difficult, to say the least. But mine's off to the left there.

Annika's tree before we pulled it off the table--the painter's tape made for a nice border around the picture:

Afton's trees:

The kids LOVED painting, thus the two projects. We'll probably have to do it again next week too. It makes for a great reward for good behavior, though, and I guess I'd have to admit that I enjoy it too. We'll be doing Halloween silhouettes in the next couple of weeks--keep an eye out!

In Which I Toot My Own Horn

2009-09-11T17:23:00.000-07:00

I've been busy lately--that nesting instinct has expressed itself in the following ways, and I thought I'd document it for posterity.

First, we found out on Sunday that Annika's Primary teacher wants her to start bringing scriptures to class. And if you have scriptures, you MUST have a scripture bag to carry them in.

Annika wanted a monarch butterfly on her bag. I thought I was going to have to paint it, but then I remembered I took art in seventh grade for two weeks. By copying a line drawing of a monarch and using a Sharpie or two, we came up with this very acceptable substitute to stenciling.

Annika thought her bag should have her name on it too, so we employed the Sharpie once more.

A good friend of mine decided to go and have her first baby, and I just couldn't leave her unequipped for the adventure. So I made her a diaper changing pad (which also wraps around to hold diapers and wipes--thanks to my sister-in-law Heidi for the idea!), a baby blanket, and a clutch ball. So the kid will be clean, warm, and entertained, if nothing else.

Then there's today. We received a birthday party invitation in the mail yesterday at 9pm (I may have checked the mail late...). Annika was invited to a classmate's party for THIS Saturday, so we had to get busy. We embellished a bag we just happened to have lying around, made a kerchief for the classmate (the green one) and one for Annika (the blue one), three barrettes, and a bookmark. Good thing we know this little girl likes pink!

We wrapped it all up and tied it with a bow--Annika picked out the ribbon! A handmade birthday card was affixed to the present, and now it is waiting next to the front door to be taken to a fairy tale birthday party.

This concludes this portion of our craft tour. There have been many, many other things, such as an afghan or two, a book cover, some tissue paper flowers, and some crayon rolls for Sunday use, but I didn't take a picture of them, so you'll just have to imagine the crafty fabulousness for yourself. In fact, please take a moment and do so. I'll wait.

And now I'm putting my horn away before my head gets any bigger.

Update on Living with Diabetes

2009-09-06T13:37:00.000-07:00

So it's been a little over two months now since Afton was diagnosed with diabetes and I thought it was time for an update.

We had our diabetes education class on August 10th, which helped us remember what we'd been taught in the hospital and expanded on what to do when Afton is sick. Mostly, it was along the lines of "If you can't figure it out, call the nurse." Since there's at least one nurse on call 24/7, I'm good with that!

We're still working on adjusting Afton's insulin. She hasn't had any scary lows in a long time (knock on wood), but it's rare for her to have a day when all her blood sugar values are in range (between 80 and 200). After messing with Afton's insulin a couple of times and not seeing much progress, I finally called the nurse, who reassured me that getting Afton's insulin dose correct is really difficult at her age. Between the growth hormones racing through her body, the cortisol (also known at the "stress hormone"), and her various activity and emotional levels, it's just impossible to settle on any one dose that will work for her. So we're left with doing our best.

Afton has been a pretty good trooper through all of this. Occasionally she'll balk at getting an insulin shot--she REALLY hates getting them in her rear, for some reason--but the threat of getting plain toast for a bedtime snack instead of ice cream usually makes her very cooperative.

Side note: A nurse told us that ice cream is the perfect bedtime snack because the proteins in the dairy help her sugar stay more in range during the night. It's the ONLY time of day she gets ice cream, trust me. And the rest of us too. We're taking more family walks to balance things out--or at least, we're trying to.

In the end, from nine weeks out and counting, diabetes has changed our lives, but it hasn't. We're more aware of what and how we eat, and we're definitely on a stricter schedule, but that's been for the better. We're in even better control of our finances than we were, to be able to work Afton's medical supplies in, and we've seen some great blessings as a result--breaks in our financial obligations elsewhere that make it possible. The Lord truly has His hand in our lives, making the small changes we need to get ourselves through this trial. I can honestly say that I welcome this trial and its challenges--I'm a better person because of it. Looking at the other trials in my life, I should probably try to apply that perspective to them as well. It makes my burden lighter.

Toes and Play-Dough

2009-08-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

We painted toenails this morning. Mine needed an update and the girls had been asking me, every so often, if they could get theirs painted too. Afton's reaction when we were all done was the best: "Thank you for the jewels on my toenails, Momma!" There was such sincerity and happiness in her voice that I can't help but think that she's my girly-girl. I still intend to teach the girls how to build a treehouse and throw a ball accurately, just to balance things out....

And don't mind Annika's poor beat up feet. She tripped during a family walk a few days ago and scraped up the one side. Then, yesterday, we were at the park and stepped off the trail and into the grass just briefly to get to the sidewalk. Unfortunately, Annika must have stepped in the midst of some fire ants, because a handful were quite offended at her foot's very existence. There was some screaming and "Ow, ow, OW" on her side, and some kneeling on the sidewalk and flicking/smooshing ants on my side (not easy when you're six months pregnant, let me tell you).
I think I need to get her better shoes, something that covers the top of her feet a little more.

Here are our adventures in Play-Dough from last week:
Annika built a desert island, complete with palm tree and giant duck.

Afton made an octopus. I tried to convince her it looked more like a squid, but she was having none of it. An octopus is what she intended, and an octopus is what it was.

And now I must go and finish my to-do list for today, so I can take my nap.

I Should Be Feeding My Children

2009-08-23T06:33:00.001-07:00

Want to get a definition of what your decorating style is? Go play here! www.sproost.com

I'm 60% Mountain Lodge, 40% Nantucket--and the Mountain Lodge description is dead on.

Update: I took it a second time and now I'm 40% Mountain Lodge, 40% Rustic Revival, and 20% Traditional Asian. This is a fun game!

And for those who are wondering, here's the Mountain Lodge description, as yanked from the Sproost website:

Mountain Lodge Style

You love nature! And really, how could you not? The more exposed wood (be it in log form or paneling) the better. And having natural stone in your home is a must! Especially at the fireplace, but stone top tables work too. If you could clad all the furniture in wood and stone you would, but splinters aren't fun and stone is cold! So when you need a place to sit (or recline in!), it should be comfortable and warm. Bigger is better when it comes to your favorite chair for watching TV or reading the newspaper. Leather is great (go natural!), but soft fabrics in warm tones also suit you well.

Materials

You prefer the simple things in life and you want natural materials over man-made whenever possible. The key feeling your space should invoke is warm and cozy. Whenever possible you let the furniture reflect the item it was built from - so come on, bring on the logs! But hey, where the full log isn't possible, at least expose the wood... the key here is to let it remain rustic when it should because nature isn't about being perfect, it's about being real! You enjoy patterns that highlight our natural surroundings such as plants, trees and animals. Because really - if you can't be outside, bring the outside in! Pieces should be large and sturdy, and encourage the whole family and all the friends to join in the fun.

Colors

When it comes to color you follow the same rules that apply to all other elements in the home: stay true to what is found in nature. You love earth tones, warm browns and reds that mimic trees and wooded forests, greens that reflect the leaves and grasses and dark blues that mirror the dark of sky and the deep blue of lakes and ponds. Colors that are dark and saturated are very appealing to you as they mimic the feelings of being in a heavily wooded area.

Space Planning

When it comes to arranging rooms, it's all about cozy! Combine a comfortable sofa with chairs that rock and/or recline and accessories that highlight the activities you love (fishing, hunting, hiking... you name it). You do not like ornate or frilly, and you avoid cluttering up spaces with items that are not necessary or do not remind you of the nature you love.

Wishing for Beauty, Revisited

2009-08-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

Wonderful friends, thank you for your comments! And just to make it clear, I do NOT want a showroom house. I prefer the lived-in quality too. But there is a line between functionally lived-in and "wow! How do you get anything done in here?"

After being whiny in my last post, I got my rear in gear and shuffled things around in my sewing corner, revamped the positioning of the artwork in my girls' room, and set up a music area in my living room--you know, actually rearranged our movies and freed up a shelf for CDs and a CD player, etc. Amanda asked on Facebook if I took before and after pictures, but I am just not that type. You'll have to trust me that it feels better in here, though. More functional, anyway, which is what I was going for.

I still long to have more beautiful artwork on the wall, and I will have it at some point. Part of my problem stemmed from the fact that it took me six months to accept the fact that we *live* in this apartment, whether we like it or not, and I may as well settle into it. If all goes according to my new plan (ha!--we know what happens to anyone's best-laid plans), we'll be out of this place in a year. A year is too long to have boxes lingering in the corners and artwork languishing in a pile on my desk. Eventually, when the child growing inside me needs to sleep in a crib, I'll have to revamp the girls' room once again. I'm not thinking about that right now, because I have NO IDEA where I'll put their toys. I guess that's what under the crib is for. It'll be easier to homeschool when the kid's asleep anyway. Yeah. That sounds good.

So thank you for bearing with my whining and suggesting solutions. They were all good! If I get around to beautifying my plain muslin curtains or making up the artwork that I want to make, I'll post pictures. In the meantime, there's the project list I *must* conquer before the small child is born. Artwork can wait.

Wishing for Beauty

2009-08-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

I need help. Possibly of the professional variety. Part of my dilemma stems from my nesting instinct, but some of the dilemma comes from my lack.... I don't know what it is I lack, but there's something.

Recently, I discovered the blog, oneprettything.com. I love trolling craft blogs, getting ideas for future projects, and One Pretty Thing brings them all together for me. And I love crafty decorating blogs, like Joys of Home, though she's a little ambitious for my taste! But somewhere, somehow, I got overwhelmed and sidetracked and my home is a cohesive theme of clutter--too many items for our tiny living space. And it stretches into my decorating theme as well--my bookshelves are stuffed with books and photo albums and nick knacks and so on.

Just in the last year did I finally figure out that I love autumnal colors--that's my living room now. Our master bedroom is now done in blues and browns (for the most part!), but I wish I could incorporate some dark green. The girls love dark blue, yellow, and pink, which actually works out fairly well in their room.

But it's more than colors. There's collections and pictures and balancing everything. My favorite artwork is by the Pre-Raphaelites. Mat's not so on board with them--he prefers bolder and more practical art, like Van Gogh or a picture of the earth's city lights at night. We do agree that we like nature artwork, so yay for mutual ground! I like trees. A lot. I would decorate with tree pictures everywhere if I could.

There's the balance of functions in my living room, though. My sewing supplies take up SO MUCH ROOM. That's the duty of fabric, I believe, to keep me feeling like I just don't have enough space. Add ribbon and beads and crochet thread and perl cotton and notions and patterns and projects in progress and there's a virtual explosion in one corner. And the office, in an opposite corner, takes up just about as much room. And homeschooling materials are starting to take over their own corner and it just ALL ADDS UP.

Maybe I really just don't have a lot of space. Maybe I should get rid of a few things. I don't know. All I know is that we have people coming over tomorrow night and suddenly I realize that our apartment isn't beautiful--it's cluttered and overflowing. Oh help.

TV is Not Evil

2009-08-17T07:47:00.000-07:00

So I was reading one of the "mommy blogs" I follow and today's entry was 20 things to do besides let your kid watch tv. The opening paragraph included the opinion that tv "can easily suck away imagination, energy, and the innocence of our kids."

IN MY OPINION, oh my goodness no. Granted, this all depends on what you let your kids watch. If I just left Nickelodeon on all day, I think I would deserve to have sarcastic, back-talking kids. But since I limit their tv-watching to PBS kid shows that emphasize vocabulary and problem solving, or Noggin shows that talk about ecological and cultural diversity (yes, that would be Go Diego Go), I'm often surprised by my kids' insights. One of their favorites is PBS' WordGirl, which emphasizes words like "incognito" or "redundant" and defines them correctly, multiple times, throughout the episode. And it sinks in! Annika may not use "incognito" in her everyday conversation, but she knows what it means when I use it. (She's even called me on being redundant before. I may have stuck my tongue out her, being the mature adult that I am.) And through the miracle that is the DVR, we have these shows recorded for the kids so that they aren't limited to whatever is currently showing.

As for tv sucking away my kids' imagination, I wonder what the blog's author would think if she could listen in on my kids' fantasy play for a day. They use the stories they've watched as launchpads for their own adventures, taking turns being the "hero" and saving the day. (I did have to teach them that it's not fun for one person to always be the bad guy. My brother Stephen probably knows that all too well.) But the play is not restricted to just what they've seen on tv--right now I have Afton as a cowgirl sitting on the couch getting ready for her first day at school. Annika is playing her mother.

The energy used in this imaginative play is astounding--there's lots of running and flying about, jumping over obstacles and climbing up bedframes. It's more energy than I can bear to endure sometimes in our small apartment. As for innocence, I'm not concerned. I watch the shows with the kids (unwillingly sometimes, but I do watch!) and I'm pleased with them. We've even had a good discussion on why Wordgirl has to keep her secret identity a secret from her parents to protect them from the bad guys and how that's different from lying to get away with something. We often have opportunities to discuss characters making good choices versus bad choices and the consequences. Since the kids are in the midst of learning how to make good choices, these are very helpful discussions.

So, Ms. Oxenreider, tv is not evil. Used responsibly and wisely, television programming can enrich our children's educations and imaginative play. But the responsibility lies with the parent to direct their child's tv viewing, to be involved with it, and to keep it to reasonable limits (two hours a day seems to be the right amount for my kids--one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. It's usually less, since I fast forward through commercials/promotional material/boring credits).

And now I shall step off my defensive soapbox and listen as my cowgirl/doctor gives her sister an insulin shot and some immunizations. I should also say that Ms. Oxenreider's list of indoor activities is pretty fantastic and a good resource. But I get so tired of the "tv is evil and rots your brain" position that I find myself needing to argue back every once in a while.

Annika-ism

2009-08-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

As we're unloading the dishwasher on Saturday, Annika turns to me and says, "You know, Momma, I'm really good at chores. You should give me more."

There, kid. It's down in black and white (well, brown and blue at the moment). I'm coming back to this in five years when she whines about all the dreadful chores I've given her.

Nothing Earth-shattering

2009-08-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

Annika the butterfly, also sporting a stylish scarf.

The butterfly and the Robin Hood/cowgirl/pirate, enjoying her birthday costumes.

Annika, post-haircut. This is a typical happy Annika face.

Afton, post haircut, pre-diabetes diagnosis.

Afton, pre-haircut. This was the length that inspired the sentence "Momma, I want my hair this short" with a finger pointing to her earlobe.

Afton in her birthday outfit with her birthday loot--a doctor's kit, a tiny Littlest Pet Shop, numerous books, and a sneaky sister popping up into the picture. (Hmmm....Afton still has thank you notes to write. Thank you, pregnant brain.)

Afton the cowgirl (thank you, Nana!)

Afton the Hood (or Afton Pan. Depends on the time of the day and how she's feeling at the moment).

The girls "camping" in the living room. This time around was much more successful, as it did not involve actual tents, bugs, or the outdoors in general.

Thankfully, not much has happened in the past few weeks, a precious quietness that I wouldn't mind continuing in forever. But nothing lasts forever--barring other events, a little brother will interrupt the serenity in three months (give or take a week). Anyway, I was a bit behind on posting actual pictures, so I just dumped the contents of the camera on this blog entry. Hope you enjoyed it!

I Forgot!

2009-08-05T12:38:00.001-07:00

I was reading through some old entries and realized I forgot to post something very important--the new kid's gender. More on that later.

Also, that paycheck I got a while back? Yeah, I totally got maternity clothes. Much relief to have clothes that actually fit over my expanding abdomen.

Anyway, yeah, Afton's diabetes has taken over our lives, but not completely. In case you haven't heard already, about a week after Afton got out of the hospital, we went in for the sonogram.

We're having a boy.

Not a Foodie

2009-08-05T11:51:00.000-07:00

First, an Afton update: She's fine now. After the bathtub entry, I consulted with the diabetes nurse and we took her off insulin completely while she was sick. We're still working her back up to normal insulin levels, but she got better much more quickly when she had control over what she was eating. What can I say? The kid's a control freak.

Speaking of food, I've decided I'm not a foodie (person who is very particular about the food they eat). I have cravings from time to time, especially now that I'm pregnant, and I've got a few preferences, but overall, I'll eat just about anything. This makes for conversations with Mat as follows (usually while we're driving):
Me--"Oooh! A Pakistani restaurant! We should try that sometime."
Mat--"I don't think so."
In Tempe, there was this fabulous Ethiopian restaurant I went to a few times with some good friends. I miss it. Miss the friends too. And I'd like to try Greek cuisine, more Middle Eastern cuisine, Indian cuisine...the list is long. I gotta find me some adventurous friends, too.

Here at home, I don't experiment much. Some of this is because if I don't know approximately how the end result is supposed to be, I tend to mess a recipe up. Also, there's a limited tolerance from all parties for "weird" food (that's how Annika would put it). Thankfully, I've been experiencing intense fresh fruit and vegetable cravings, which the rest of the family is more than willing to put up with, and for cream soups. Most of the soups I've made have had potatoes in them, so I just use the handy immersion blender my mother-in-law gave to me and presto-bingo! A nice, creamy soup. I've made roasted red pepper and potato soup, potato and mushroom soup, and a Spanish tomato-rice soup that Annika's actually requested again--twice! With slices of homemade bread or garlic toast, that's been our meal (so easy!). And it's been good. Sometimes I'll add a spinach salad--I don't care for lettuce of any variety, but spinach is great. Especially with a little homemade honey-mustard dressing. Mmmmmmm. I love simple meals.

I get most of my recipes at allrecipes.com. I love this site because the recipes are rated by people who have made them, so it's really hard to get a dud if you pay attention to the ratings and reviews. And you can search by ingredient, so if you happen to have an extra leek on hand at the end of the week, you can find a few recipes that will help you use it up. In fact, that's how I discovered the wonder that is pre-made pizza crusts. Wally-Mart sells them in a two-pack, sauce included, and we've been able to experiment with our favorite toppings for a couple of weeks. The hands-down favorite in our house is cheesy pepperoni, though I'm partial to roasted red pepper (had to finish off the jar!), mushroom, and mozarella. Maybe I'll try some spinach on there next time. Then I'll have a pizza guaranteed to be ALL MINE.

Afton-isms

2009-07-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

In the bathtub, singing to the rapidly dissolving baking soda I'd just poured in there to soothe her troubled bum:
"Baking soda, baking soda, where are you?"

_____________________________________________________________________

Afton: "Momma, why am I from the funny farm?"
Me: "I don't know, Afton, why?"
Afton (emphatically): "Because I'm FUNNY!"

Live Blogging from the Bathroom

2009-07-23T04:18:00.000-07:00

So our journey with diabetes continues. Afton had . . . internal issues on Tuesday, leading to the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) for the day. It's so hard to get a kid with diabetes to keep their carbs up when they don't want to eat anything. But between the juice, the Pedialyte popsicles, the toast, and the homemade pearsauce (she didn't want any more applesauce, so I had to improvise), she did all right. In fact, her blood sugar numbers were the most moderate they've been since her diagnosis.

Yesterday I started her on more complex foods--some cereal (no milk), more toast (no jam), then whatever she would eat at lunch, as she was fighting me on the whole concept. I need to learn to listen to her more. She ended up drinking a juice, having a fruit rollup and a crumbled granola bar. Snack was a bowl of chocolate chips (only 1 carbs' worth!), and dinner was broccoli. Broccoli. That's all she would eat. Bedtime snack was juice again.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand here we are in the bathroom at 6 in the morning, as her internal issues manifest themselves again. Her sugar levels are fine, but her intestines sure aren't. Perhaps the chocolate and the broccoli were a mistake. I don't know. I was just freaked out that my kid with diabetes WASN'T EATING ANYTHING. If she didn't have diabetes, I would have just sailed with it. But trying to keep her sugar levels normal while she's sick is so hard, especially when she fights me every step of the way. Add pregnancy hormones on top of that and I'm feeling kind of crazy right now. She's in the bathtub--baking soda bath to soothe her sore bottom, since I'm currently out of diaper cream--and I'm keeping an eye on her and helping her out of the tub every time her bottom hurts. Though, you know, I'd rather have this than all her food coming out the other way--that's worse, because it could really mess with her blood sugar (the adrenaline rush afterwards takes it on a roller coaster ride). My biggest dilemma right now is do I take her to see her pediatrician or her endocrinologist? Probably pediatrician first, endocrinologist if the nurse tells me too. So grateful for those nurses--they're so patient with my slightly frantic questions.

On a more cheerful note, she's being very happy right now, playing with one of her bath toys and keeping said sore bottom OUT of the water. Silly kid. I could be sleeping right now!

Afton's 4th Birthday

2009-07-20T19:18:00.001-07:00

Our (temporary) youngest is growing up! Yep, the diabetic turned 4 today. We would have had more fun if she didn't have to eat *all* her cake and *all* her ice cream. She is all carbed out for the week, I think. We and the diabetes team are still figuring out her insulin ratios, so she's been up and down today, blood sugar-wise, which really affects her moods.

BUT--she had fun in the meantime! We ate all her favorite foods (dinner was hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, and broccoli), watched her favorite TV shows, went shopping (one of her favorite activities), and went to the library. She opened her presents during dinner, and was very happy to receive some requested dress-up clothes (Robin Hood outfit and a COWGIRL outfit!), additions to her Little Pet Shop collection, a Dora the Explorer t-shirt from her sister, a medical play kit (including a fake needle to administer insulin to the rest of us), and a couple of Eric Carle books (Brown Bear and Polar Bear). All in all, she made out like a bandit.

This past year was rather quiet for Afton, up until a month ago. She's progressed in her elocution--she's much more understandable (or at least I translate a lot less)--she recognizes all her letters and knows most of their sounds, has colors and shapes down pat, and can count to 15 mostly on her own. We love her "Afton-isms" and I really should write them down more often, but she can really get us into the giggles at dinnertime with her off-the-wall comments. Her drawings are taking better shape too, especially with the recent addition of eyelashes to everyone's eyes.

Afton's current favorite movies include The Little Mermaid, Toy Story, and The Incredibles. She loves singing the songs from Little Mermaid, and sometimes bullies Annika into singing with her. The Kim Possible movies have also surfaced as a recent favorite--it shows in her playing, in which I've had to step in and stop Afton from practicing kung fu on her sister. She loves wearing dress up clothes, including princess dresses, and shiny things have a special place in her heart. She was excited to pick out her stainless steel medical alert bracelet with the heart-shaped diabetes tag and wears it happily.

Thank goodness for Afton's cheerful, enthusiastic spirit. It gets us through the tough days where nothing is fun, and is epitomized by her loud announcement to everyone she meets: "I have diabetes!" I don't know what's in front of us, but I know that her joyfulness will carry us through it all. We're glad she's our girl!

Trading

2009-07-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

Remember the fantastic 30th birthday party I had last year? And how it was Pirates of the Caribbean themed and all my gifts were related to the theme? Among those gifts was a great purse--black leather, brass chains, the Pirates logo on it, red satin lining. LOVE that purse and used it for a good 18 months. But it's not large enough to hold all the items I consider necessary as well as Afton's diabetes kit, her diabetes binder, snacks, orange juice, the glucagon kit (for an emergency--it's the diabetic equivalent of an epipen), the measuring cups (for accurate carb counting), and our carb bible--The Calorie King. I still love that purse, so I'm going to hang it on the wall as a piece of art, but art it will remain. I've got a snazzy new brown backpack with pink piping that holds all of the above with room to spare.

I guess that means we're adjusting. We said we wouldn't let diabetes stop us from doing everything we'd already planned on doing, and so far we haven't. We're on a more rigid schedule now, but the insulin and the blood sugar meter are highly portable, so Afton gets her shots or her blood tests poolside (4th of July celebration), at Nana's house (4th of July BBQ), or in Braum's (FHE treat after a library visit). This weekend we're headed up to Arkansas to see my mother and my aunt and her family. We'll take more breaks on the trip up so we can get out of the car and Afton can run around, burning off some of her sugar. The pregnant lady will probably be very grateful to stretch her legs as well. The trip should be a lot of fun and the girls are very excited to see their Omay (my mom)!

And Afton has stopped fighting me on the 3am blood tests! We pick the finger she's going to have pricked before she goes to sleep, and I just have to wake her up enough to give it to me. It's been an almost pleasant experience.

The downside so far is trying to get portions weighed or measured so I know how many carbs Afton's getting and the fact that Afton is ALWAYS HUNGRY. She lost six pounds in the weeks before her diagnosis and she's doing her level best to make it up now! We've gone through massloads of cheese and eggs and meat and sugar-free Jello for her in-between snack snacks, but she's still eating all the time. I shouldn't complain, though--it's staying down and doing her good. I can hardly remember the listless, labored breathing girl she was just last week. Honestly, that's one memory that I'm quite willing to let fade. Well, until she's a teenager and whining about taking insulin all the time. Then I'll have to threaten her with said memory and the potential for kidney failure and blindness if she DOESN'T CONTROL HER SUGAR! But those are things that we can prevent if we can just stay on top of things. I'm so glad to have the diabetes nurses for support--they answer my most inane questions so patiently.

Things to look forward to: 20th week sonogram on Thursday! Hopefully the fetus won't be shy and we can actually give this kid a gender. That would be nice.

3am Diabetes Post

2009-07-03T01:34:00.000-07:00

I should be asleep right now, but I've been buzzing all night, knowing that I had to test Afton's blood at 3am. It's done now, but due to my own ineptness with the meter and arguing with a very sleepy child, it took much longer than it should have, woke up her sister, and I had to poke the poor kid twice. I suppose the bright side is that she clots well, right?

Anyway, here's a little sample of what I've learned so far:
There are two kinds of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 is juvenile diabetes and is permanent. The pancreas shuts down and no longer produces insulin, which is why someone with Type 1 diabetes is insulin dependent for the rest of their life. Diet and exercise won't make the problem go away, and there are definitely no pills available.

Symptoms of Type 1 include frequent urination (Afton would wet the bed every night and was using the potty every 1.5 hours during the day), excessive thirst (Afton was sneaking drinks at night--I thought that she just thought it was fun), excessive hunger (Afton would eat a snack or a large meal and then declare "I'm even more hungry!" in a rather plaintive voice), listlessness and vomiting (that would be what I mistook for the flu), and weight loss (we thought she was going through a growth spurt).

The symptoms are vague, but when you put them together like that, it's easy to see what's going on.

Type 2 is different in that it's a "disease of luxury", according to the literature the diabetes education nurse gave me. Often triggered by a lack of exercise and being overweight, Type 2 diabetes is when the pancreas produces insulin but the body resists it. Thus, Type 2 diabetes patients can control their diabetes with exercise, diet, and pills that make them more receptive to insulin. This is the type that often strikes older adults and overweight adolescents.

In a way, Afton is not on a special diet. She eats everything she used to eat--nothing is completely off limits. However, we have to be strict about the number of carbs she consumes, which limits the amount of "fun stuff" she can eat. Take, for instance, a peanut butter sandwich. Say we have a 45 gram carb limit on her lunch. The slice of bread is 15 grams of carbs, the jelly is 5 grams per teaspoon, but the peanut butter is free (of carbs). So her sandwich is 20 grams of carbs, which leaves me 25 grams to play with. A serving of fruit is about 15 grams of carbs, so that leaves me 10 grams to give her. An 8-ounce glass of milk is 12 grams of carbs, so if I give her 6 ounces, we're fine. HOWEVER, Afton will be the first to tell you that a one-slice PBJ is not enough food, even with a serving of fruit tossed in. So then we look to the free foods. In this case, I would toss in some cheese and maybe a sweet pickle (anything under 5 grams of carbs is 'free', as long as you don't eat too many at once).

Understandably, Afton's a little confused and upset by this change in her life, but between blood testing and insulin shots, she's once again our happy little girl. I've been nervous all day today, mostly because I don't have a nurse behind me telling me that I've put the insulin in the syringe properly or adjusting the insulin according to her glucose reading. And I'm going to explore the flexibility of our finger poker--the instructions say that just about anywhere I can pull up a pinhead's worth of blood is an acceptable draw site. With Afton's tiny little fingers, she's getting tired of the pokes. I am too--it's hard to aim for the right spot away from the cuticle but not on the pad of the finger.

There are several ironies of this situation, but several blessings also. The ironies include the fact that I have to go in for my 3-hour glucose test "as soon as possible," according to my OB, because my 1-hour test results were "way off". I may be joining Afton in finger poke land very soon. There is also the fact that I've always shuddered a bit at the thought of joining the medical profession because I don't like dealing with bodily fluids. Whee. Though, since this is my daughter, it's different.

But the blessings have been amazing. The sense of peace I felt in the ambulance ride over as soon as the EMTs figured out what was wrong was amazing. The fact that Mat was able to take most of the week off because he had accrued so much personal time, and that his clients mostly chose to cancel on him anyway, is also a blessing. And since this trial obviously had to happen at some point, it happened at just the right time where I'm not too sick to help Afton, but I'm not so busy with a newborn baby that I'm overwhelmed. (It also happened at a time when I was pregnant, so I couldn't just say that I wasn't going to have any more kids. Trust me, I would have been very tempted.) The Lord has definitely had His hands in the details, and I've felt His peace and been given the strength to cope since we got to the hospital.

This is a very long post, but I've been meaning to do a brain dump since we left the hospital. I'm starting to get sleepy. A few last words, however: I am striving to avoid pity, but I will be posting about the downsides of our life adjustment as well as the upsides. This is a lifelong change that will take more than a little getting used to, and as I'm in the first week of it, there will be a lot of dumping on the blog. It is cathartic and you, my friends, have always been a great support.

Also, don't send me any JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund--or something like that) literature. I got plenty at the hospital and their attitude really bugs me, as it reads something like: "I may be living a normal life with diabetes, but it really stinks and won't get better until there's a cure." If a cure happens to be developed within Afton's lifetime, great. But having a lousy attitude and pinning your hopes on something that's still a nebulous dream as an excuse for said attitude makes me want to smack some people. (Remember, this is 4am--I have no filter at the moment.) Having diabetes just means finding a new way of staying healthy.

All right, I think I've said enough. Peace out, for the time being.

Our Crazy Day All Started When Karie Called Me to Tell Me Afton was Being Taken to the Hospital...

2009-06-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

Afton had a sick stomach early early Sunday Morning. She kept complaining about her stomach on Sunday and around mid-day she fell asleep, and just kept sleeping. Well, early this morning she got up, and wasn't breathing well. We thought maybe her stomach was still hurting and that she was trying to help it out by breathing shallowly.
Well, my very wise wife didn't let that go on too long before she decided to make an appointment with the doctor. They heard her breathing over the phone and told Karie to come in right away. According to Karie it didn't take long for the doctor to determine that he didn't know what was going on, and that Afton was in trouble. So Karie, Annika, and very sick little Afton took an ambulance ride into Ft. Worth to a children's hospital. On the way one of the EMTs checked Afton's blood sugar levels, and sure enough she was in the stratisphere! Her levels were above 500, when a child her age and size should be no higher than 100. Afton was in a Hyperglycemic (sp?) shock.
I got the call from Karie about 2 pm, in the middle of a session with a client, and that client was quickly shoved out the door. (I know it might sound terrible that I answered my phone in the middle of a session, but you have to understand my job and see on unformal the sessions are.)
I got the hospital to find my little family in the ER, Afton hooked up to all sorts of monitors and IVs. Annika was being very brave, and busying herself with a coloring book from the hospital. As would be expected Karie was very worried, but being strong for her girls.
We stayed in the ER for another hour and half or so, and then they moved Afton up to the ICU. That is where she will spend the next 24 hours or so while they stabilize her blood sugars. Then she will stay another day or to in a standard room while they monitor her and teach us all about managing diabetes. She has been diagnosed with Type I diabetes.
Of course Karie had left the van with the kid's car seats back in Bedford at the doctor's office (a good twenty minute drive from the hospital), and I had come in my little two seat truck. So I eventually had to leave my family, have my Mom pick me up at our place, and take me to get the van so that I could go pick up Annika and bring her home.
I also made a quick call to my Elder's Quorum President (church leader) after trying several other people, and asked him to help me give Afton a priesthood blessing. He was very kind to drive out and help me at a moments notice, I now owe him some service time in the quorum.
My mom was very kind and brought some dinner with her that I could share with Karie and Annika. We got to hospital at about nine, and after visiting hours, did some smooth talking to get President Packer up to Afton's room, and gave her a priesthood blessing. President Packer then went home.
I stuck around while Karie and Annika went to eat, since we weren't allowed to eat in the ICU rooms. Finally at about 10:00pm Annika and I left for home and I got her into bed at about 11pm, and I am finally getting a chance to eat.
I'm sure you can expect a lot of updates in the near future about how our lives and diets are about to change forever.

Not Much to Report

2009-06-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

The news around here comes and goes in spurts and right now we're in a lull. Unless you count Afton's stomach flu, which kept us up last night and which she has been sleeping off all day today. It's so hard to watch her be sick, feeling like my hands are tied. I feel that way every time one of the kids gets sick, as I'm sure most parents do.

Anyway, enough of that. We should be getting the gender-determining ultrasound on July 9th. Stay tuned!

Anniversarys, Birthdays, and Camping, Oh My!

2009-06-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

As of June 9th, Mat and I have been married for eight years. Eight years ago, we were still in college, still living in Provo, Utah, still contemplating the having of children, still driving in a little green 1989 Honda Accord, still dreaming of the house we'd buy someday where Mat wouldn't smack his head on the ceiling when he stepped into the kitchen. I like where we are now--our marriage is in a good place, we have great children with another on the way, and we're in the place we've wanted to move to since we got married.

Mat also has this birthday coming up that he thinks we should celebrate. He started the celebrations early by taking Thursday and Friday off. Since he had all this free time, we decided to take advantage of it by taking the girls camping. We have all this camping gear in our 72-hour kits, but we've never used it, so we decided it to break it in. We discovered that we like cooking out over a fire, and with enough bug spray the outdoors are livable, but our girls don't like the idea of sleeping in tents. Period. There were nearly hysterics when it was time to lay down on their sleeping bags, and within half an hour, we decided it just wasn't going to happen. Mat was the hero, striking the tents all by himself in the dark while I kept the girls calm in the car. There was much sleeping in this morning.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

It's interesting, what this pregnancy is teaching me. I was on the couch or in my bed for two months solid, hoping against hope that I was going to keep down my next meal. Hands down, it's the most wretched morning sickness I've ever experienced.

But I've learned. I've learned I can rely on my visiting teachers, who are wonderful ladies and stepped up with meals while Mat was working late hours, trying to figure out his new job. I've learned how much Mat knows about keeping house as he took my place and kept the apartment admirably clean. I've learned that reading is a fantastic distraction from pain and nausea. I've learned that children can be considerably patient and concerned when their momma is down for the count. And I'm learning, as I recover, to be patient with myself. It's okay if I need to rest after walking for 10 minutes. Sometime, hopefully by the end of this pregnancy, I'll be fully operational. But I don't have to be fully operational right away. My body is going through an amazing creative process that takes a huge amount of energy--my energy. I don't think I appreciated that fact as much as I have this time around. But, as always, the end product is worth it. A fact I'll recognize about a year after this kid's birth, when I feel like a human being again. :D

Usurping Major Holidays

2009-05-26T16:09:00.001-07:00

Well, somehow, we've managed it again. Of our three babies, one is a near-miss Christmas baby, one a near-miss Pioneer Day baby, and the third will be a near-miss Thanksgiving baby. Are we talented or what?

Torn

2009-05-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of a fabulous online friend, I've scored a couple of freelance jobs this year. The paycheck will be showing up soon and I have some decisions to make. I got a little too enthusiastic in my wardrobe purge and have very little in the way of non-casual clothing. (Oops.) Thrift stores abound in this area, so I should be able to make up the gaps quickly. At first I was going to sew all my clothes, but I've realized lately this is not a practical path for me--I don't have the patience to finagle the small details into something worth wearing. Well, unless it's an A-line skirt, but those aren't so hard, y'know? And purchasing the material makes it about as expensive as buying it new.

On the other hand, there are a few entertainment items I want. For instance, the newest BBC version of Sense and Sensibility. Or this kid's CD (fabulous piano work). There are a score of books I could happily add to my personal library, such as the rest of the Terry Pratchett Discworld series, and a few other albums I'd be happy to own, or even the Kung Fu Panda DVD for the entire family.

The sensible side of me tends to pop up and say evil things like "You could really use some bathmats for the bathrooms" or "Pay down your debts!" or "Save it for a rainy day" or "You could buy a new OS for the Mac for that amount." I'm quite practiced at ignoring that side of me. (Yes, our Mac is still ailing.)

Maybe I should talk this all through with Mat. After all, we spend all the money he earns on things like rent and food and such. My paychecks are our fun money--he should have some say in where it goes.

____________________________________________________________________________

In our house, bedtime is staggered a bit. We've found that if we give Afton about a half-hour head start, she won't spend two hours talking to, playing with, or singing to her sister. (It ends up being more like 20 minutes.) Anyway, last night it was Mat's turn to put Annika to bed. She'd talked us into playing a game of Sorry! with her--playing Sorry! with a tired 5-year-old takes FOREVER--so Afton had been on her own for 45 minutes. Mat says that as soon as he and Annika walked in, Afton threw her blankets off her head and said slyly "I hid!"
We just wonder if she'd been hiding for the entire 45 minutes! Silly kid.

An update on my job.

2009-05-03T13:32:00.000-07:00

Karie mentioned in a "recent" post that I needed to comment a little bit on my new job.

I am working for Metrocare Services in Dallas. They are basically Dallas county's mental health provider. I work for their Family Preservation Program. My basic job is to work with kids who have some sort of mental health diagnosis and who are having problems at home, at school, or with the law (most of the time its all three).

I can't really call what I'm doing counseling or therapy. I teach the kids and their parents skills that they can use, stuff like communication skills, anger management skills, and social behavior skills. I also do case management, which means I help the family link up with community resources they might need. I do stuff like help families find a doctor, or locate some possible places to live, or help parents navigate the educational system to get their kids the attention they need.

I go out and visit with the kids and their families in their homes or at their schools. I have no office of my own, I work at home or out of the car. I do get to determine my own work hours, but I'm finding that to be more challenging than I imagined it would be.

I am finding this job to be a great challenge. This job is really a social work job more than a counseling job, but I'm going to gain some great experience, and I'm really excited to be working with kids. I am so very grateful to have any job at this point. Even when the job is tough, it feels good to have a purpose everyday. It feels even better to see that some of my efforts are making a direct impact for good in other's lives.

Hijinks and High Tea (Image Heavy!)

2009-03-29T18:14:00.001-07:00

I've been promising pictures for a while, so buckle up, because here they are!
Be prepared for a lot of random stories.

To explain these first few pictures:
For the past few weeks there had been too much yelling (from the momma) and too many consequences (doled out to the littles)(generally involving toys and their un-picked-up state), so I decided we needed to have a fun day. No pressure and much indulgence of the imagination. Thus the Imaginary Friends Birthday Party was born.

Here Annika is enjoying a cream-cheese frosted raisin applesauce cupcake. She is a wizard princess, and her imaginary friend's name is Clarabell.

Afton the Cowboy Princess is enjoying a drink of pink milk (made with a generic Kool-Aid knockoff--it was too sweet but the kids loved it anyway)--having just told us what Sally, her imaginary friend, had to say about the party.
Hats, wearing one of Momma's necklaces, perfume, and costumes were mandatory.

Here's the setup--the girls helped me arrange the flowers in various containers and I even dug out one of my wedding presents to arrange the food on. Notice the tablecloth. I never use my tablecloth. This was DEFINITELY a special occasion.

A closeup shot of the goods: pink milk in one of the kids' teacups, the aforementioned applesauce cupcakes, lime wafer rolled cookies, and pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips. YUM!
I totally ruined their dinner. But Annika and Afton (and Clarabell and Sally) declared the party a success, so overall, it was a win.

As I was uploading pictures from the camera onto the new laptop, it pulled up quite a few blasts from the past, many pictures that I thought I'd erased years ago, including this one. Anyway, here's my crew wearing swimming diapers and a too-small BYU knit cap. Adorable, aren't they? This would probably be in the early summer of 2006.

A few days ago, Mat was giving me some alone time by watching the girls while I read in the other room for a while. He realized that he'd sent Afton to get dressed and she was
a) taking too long
b) being too quiet.
So with a little investigation, this is the small personage he ended up sending to my room. I had a very good laugh.

One of my breakfast specialties is chocolate chocolate chip scones. I don't make them often--no more than once every 10 days or so--and I tend to end up with unusually ornamented offspring.
Here we have the chocolate vampire:

And if you've seen The Dark Knight, you might recognize this chocolate imitation of The Joker:

And last, but never least, here is our Afton, being pouty. Pay attention to her choice of seating.
Yep. She's sulking in a Barbie horse carriage. And yes, the wheels managed to stay on.

So there you have it. We've been busy this week, making the house more homey--we now have curtains!!--and getting organized and being social. We haven't gotten callings in our new ward yet, though I officially have one visiting teachee. And we've joined the ward choir--that'll be interesting come performance time. Can you trust a five-year-old to keep a three-year-old contained in a pew for eight minutes while both parents are on the stand, singing?
I don't know either.

I'm off now to enjoy my peach soda and my slice of a giant chocolate chip cookie with nuts. Good night, and Good Eats!

The Other Rewards of Moving

2009-03-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

The past three weeks have been an education in paring down and truly living in simplicity. We've made two trips to Goodwill to drop off sizable amounts of Things We No Longer Need (though I am stubbornly holding onto the girls' baby clothes) and we're planning a third trip. Yikes! Why didn't I get rid of this stuff before we moved? NO idea.

Anyway.

Part of this purging was going through the girls' toys. My goodness, they had a lot of toys. That right: HAD. I involved them in the purging process and they willingly said goodbye to many toys that they no longer played with. Did my best to explain that their old toys would go to a place where children who didn't have any toys would have access to them. Hopefully we're getting the idea of charity across.

So as we went through the girls' toys, the thought crossed my mind several times that maybe a gift-giving suggestion list might be a good idea for me to post. Feel free to ignore it if you so desire or if you don't find the list helpful.

Gift Guide:

1. Homeschooling text books. (Email me if you want a list. Oh yes, I have a list.)

2. Wooden blocks--the shaped kind, not the alphabet kind. We already have the alphabet ones.

3. Dress up clothes--hats, gloves, fancy scarves, fancy dresses, fancy shoes, capes, masks, fabulous costume jewelry. Afton wants a Peter Pan costume, a pirate costume, and a cowboy costume for her next birthday--she's mentioned this several times in the past three months.

4. A chest to put all the dress up clothes in!

5. A globe. The one we have now is three inches in diameter--it's not easy to point out countries like Uzbekistan...can't see the name.

6. Quality art supplies--good paint brushes, paints, paper, colored pencils, and so forth. And a box to put them in.

7. Books, books, glorious books!

8. Bookshelves. (Just kidding.)(Mostly.)

9. Movies! Specifically, the kids love Toy Story 2 (Afton would watch it every day if she could), the Barbie movies (which are smarter than you'd think they'd be), Kung Fu Panda, and Meet the Robinsons.

10. Toys that allow the imagination to soar, crafts to stretch their creation skills, that kind of thing.

11. Stickers. I hate to say this, because then they end up all over the house, but the kids love them. Foam stickers especially.

12. Clothing, of course!

13. Anything handmade. We like reasons to be sentimental about gifts.

I really hope this guide is helpful. If it is, let me know and I'll keep it updated. Well, as updated as I keep things.

Anyway, so now we've got a manageable cache of possessions and nothing extra, which is nice. I like having closets that actually have a little wiggle room in them. (I should probably work on paring down my costume collection next. Gulp.) And look for pictures in the next entry! Afton's been amusing herself with foam stickers and impersonating The Joker from The Dark Knight (not that she was aware of it).

Things to Remember When Moving

2009-03-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

When you move, know that you will unpack in this order:
1. Toilet paper
2. Pots, pans, dishes, food
3. Toothbrushes
4. Beds

Everything else can wait a few days while you take stock of your surroundings. And with a little determination, a week without internet, and a box cutter, you can eliminate half of the towering cardboard stacks in your living room, especially if you already know where your tools are so you can reassemble your furniture.

It takes more than a week to get the stale smell out of your living quarters, but less than a day to get used to it.

When packing, WRITE DOWN WHERE YOU PUT THE REMOTE. This will save your sanity when you unpack.

As you fill the last boxes, don't leave things behind that you think you can easily replace. The more easily you think you can replace them, the more headache-inducing it will be.

Number your boxes. Label them thoroughly. Keep a list. Check it twice. Then, perhaps, you won't lose any boxes in your transfer between residences. Also, write down the stuff you got rid of as you got tired of packing, because after you move, you'll be convinced you're missing a box, despite the checklist, because you can't find such-and-such thing. Such-and-such thing is probably happily living at someone else's house, having been shuffled through the local thrift system.

We like our new apartment. We really like our new ward--they're very friendly, and very small. We'll be needed here for sure.

Mat's job is going well--he's been in training all week, and that's all I know. He'll have to post about his new job himself.

And there you go. We're happy, we're healthy, and we had to buy a new remote. The end.

A Short Update

2009-02-27T20:06:00.000-08:00

We found an apartment. We like it. We're in the middle of moving. We won't have internet until the end of next week. I apologize now to those I haven't replied to yet, but now it will be a week longer before I can get back to you.

Also, thank you for all the kind birthday wishes! It was a great day and I'm slowly getting used to the idea of being solidly in my 30s. Here's to 32!

Birthday

2009-02-08T07:07:00.000-08:00

I love January for many reasons--the fresh, new year smell that comes with each windy day, the reminder that all things begin again, and the fact that I was born in January and sometimes that fact is widely celebrated. And by widely I mean by my family. Scattered across the western United States as they are, it counts.

This year's birthday presents, celebrating my survival to my 31st year, were quite nice. I'd been drooling over two beautiful pairs of boots and my kind mother-in-law bought both pairs for me (the sale was pretty good too, if I do say so myself). My mother has gotten in touch with her artistic side lately and I'm reaping the benefits--I now have the pleasure of owning four brand new necklaces and three new pairs of earrings that are exactly to my taste. Courtesy of my aunt, my husband was able to take me to Red Lobster, for my love of shrimp knows no end. And my father and stepmother provided a purse hanger to keep my lovely Pirates of the Caribbean purse (a product of last year's birthday bash) off dirty restaurant floors. They were also the means of feeding my NCIS addiction. Heh heh heh. I own the first two seasons now. Mat tolerates my NCIS fandom quite well, even watching the occassional episode with me. I think he has a secret addiction too.

As I have solidly started my third decade of existence, I have no deep thoughts but this: If you can research it, you can do it. Family comes first and contentment will come second, if you remember to enjoy the moments. There can be peace in the middle of chaos. The gospel is true. The right kind of love--pure love, charity--truly does conquer all.

On to the 32nd year!

My aunt said I should post this.

2009-01-14T18:44:00.000-08:00

Here I said I wasn't going to blog much, and now I've blogged three times in three days. Something's backwards in my brain. Anyway.

So. Tonight. My mom was playing with Annika and Afton and called Annika her "coughing kitty". Then she told Annika that "coughing kitty" rhymed. Annika replied, "No, Omay, that was alliteration."

You see, Annika has a hyperactive English major for a mother.

About a year ago, when Annika was playing around with word sounds, we talked about words that rhymed. Then she would say things like "Nine numbers, Momma! That rhymes!" I corrected her and said that words that sound the same at the beginning were alliterative, whereas words that sounded the same at the end rhymed. If I remember right, she played around with alliteration and rhyming for a few weeks, then left it alone.

But she is one amazing learning machine. How funny that something I taught her so long ago would come up now! I'm glad she retained that little lesson though--it gives me hope that this homeschooling thing will work out. I'm excited to teach her, but if I'm honest, my true feeling is excitement to learn along with her. And to uncover the methods of teaching Afton best as well--she's so drawn to music and visual mediums that it will be a completely different experience. This is gonna be some ride.

Afton-ism

2009-01-12T19:35:00.001-08:00

Afton puts a slice of olive on her finger.
"Look, Momma, my finger has a suit!"

Overheard

2009-01-11T16:14:00.001-08:00

Aunt Anne: "Would you like some popcorn, girls?"
Annika (enthusiastically): "Yes, please! Popcorn is my favorite kind of corn!"

Bad Blogger!

2009-01-10T17:16:00.000-08:00

I have not been very posty of late, for which I apologize, gentle reader. I could offer the excuse that I have been buried in homeschooling books, which I have been, or that I am currently in Arkansas, which I am, but, as always, they are just excuses. Nota bene: I made the six hour drive--with children!--all by myself. Considering that driving is not my favorite exercise, it was quite an achievement on my part. And now I'm done tooting my own horn.

Anyway, I shan't be posting much for the next few weeks. Maybe something will come up around my birthday.....

Oh! Right. It's a new year. Happy New Year, everyone! My resolution: To be a better blogger once I have regular internet access once again. Thank you and good night.

Christmas has come and gone, but man, did we have fun.

2008-12-28T20:50:00.000-08:00

We’re still working on creating some traditions, and we were happy to participate in Mat’s parents’ traditions this year. On Christmas Eve we got together as an extended family, ate finger foods to our hearts’ content, and staged the Nativity. If I had gotten a picture earlier, you would have been able to notice that Uncle James got the very select role of the donkey.

The girls had fun playing the various Nativity roles with their cousins.

The next day was SOOOOOOOOOO relaxed. This is how we’re going to do things from now on. Mat told the girls they were not to come out of their room until we came to get them, even going so far as to make sure that the TV in their room was tuned to the Disney channel. The precautions turned out to be unnecessary, since they woke up about the same time we did—8:30 am or so.

Their first view of the tree.

The kids opened their presents first. That’s was Mat’s mom’s idea—she figured they could play with their toys while we opened our gifts, thus averting the boredom fidgets. It worked beautifully. After they were done, we had a huge, leisurely breakfast, then spent the next four hours chatting and opening our gifts. A good time was had by all.

Gift highlights: Mat got some movies he’s been wanting and some work-related things, like a planner and a business card holder, as well as a charging valet station and a fedora. I also gave him a lunch cooler and what he considers to be about six years’ worth of reading (the scriptures he got from his mother will be a lifetime’s worth of reading, of course). I got the first season of NCIS on dvd, Stardust, a beautiful shawl, some great jewelry my mom made for me (custom-made necklace and earrings!), and some books I wanted. Annika and Afton ended up with some excellent toys and stuffed animals, as well as several pairs of plastic sunglasses (since Afton is FOREVER wanting to “borrow” mine), a digital camera (blog entries in the making!), and a microscope that hooks up to the TV.

Oh, what can I say? We ended up with a lot of great things, courtesy of our wonderful family and friends, and thank you notes will be winging their way through the mail shortly.

It was a good day. I love the feeling of giving gifts to each other, and when I view Christ's Atonement as a gift, it changes my perspective completely--I feel more awe and have a greater understanding of His perfect love for us. I think, finally, I'm starting to understand what Christmas is all about.

Annika turned FIVE!

2008-12-28T20:33:00.000-08:00

The birthday girl celebrated in true Texas style—with family, with food, with horses and hats! With a little conspiring, her great-grandfather and I (mostly him) (in fact, almost all him) made her a rocking horse on wheels, per her request. She just didn’t know we’d actually go through with it.

Since the birthday was on a Sunday, we kept the party a family affair. That worked out well.

Annika was very grateful to the right person for her spectacular gift.

She got a hat and sparkly jeans to complete the ensemble. I promise, the jeans are cute.

I can’t believe my eldest child is five. At the same time, it feels like she’s been a part of our family from the beginning. She loves to read to herself. Sometimes she’ll read to her sister. She still loves dark blue and her obsession with horses is in full swing. She loves homeschooling, drawing, and anything else that allows her to express herself artistically. She’s very helpful around the house and will do almost anything I ask her to. Annika is a fabulous kid and we love having her in our family.

Seasonal Weather Expectations

2008-12-19T11:42:00.000-08:00

I had an odd realization the other day and thought I'd share. I remember when I moved to Utah, I began to have certain expectations about when the seasons would change from fall to winter, winter to spring, etc. I didn't have those expectations in Arizona, because there are no seasons there--just a change in temperature. (The monsoon was even redefined lately by dates instead of by temperature and amount of rainfall. How we thrive on predictability!)

My expectation for fall was that it would start to get cooler in September, the leaves would fall through October, and the first snow would show up in November. In Utah, I wasn't too disappointed, despite the high desert climate--that just made for hotter summers and a constant worry about drought.

When we moved to Texas, I had the same expectations, to a point. Mat had made it very clear that it doesn't snow often here, but does ice. And it rains at random times, instead of being neatly organized into one rainy season. But as I was raking leaves last week, I found myself muttering (in my head, anyway) that it was the first week of December, for pity's sake, and it should be colder now and the leaves all should have fallen in November! Because that's when leaves fall, right?

But as I've discussed the weather with Mat and my in-laws, I've come to the realization that my expectations are shaped by something other than actual weather patterns. At the moment, I blame the influence of Currier & Ives and movies on the collective cultural consciousness (because it isn't just me, right?). Currier & Ives gets the blame for showing actual snow during actual Christmas on their Christmas cards, leading other greeting card companies in the general weather misconception. Movies show time passing by showing seasons in the general order I described them before--cooler in September, leaves fall in October, snow in November, white Christmas assured. It's the movie shorthand for marking the year. (The caveat being, of course, if the movie is set in a specific, non-New England area. Like Arizona. Or India. Or if the plot requires uncooperative weather, as in White Christmas.)

Or do my unconscious weather expectations come from something deeper, like the fact that most of my ancestry is European and my ancestors marked time the way I described, passing that knowledge through their DNA to me? Or is it my own past and the fact that I haven't stayed in one climate long enough to let this weather knowledge sink into my bones? It's a conundrum.

A Follow-up

2008-12-15T14:25:00.000-08:00

Thanks, all, for your opinions. I have sent the family Christmas cards, complete with newsletter and cute photo of the girls that Mat took. The rest of you--watch your mailboxes around Easter. You will receive a present therein. Or at least a card.

It's frigid today--34 degrees with a windchill that takes us down into the teens. So what did we do? We went birthday-present shopping and Christmas package mailing, of course. With the children in tow, no less. We all survived, no frostbite, all cards and packages are sent, all presents are now wrapped, and I can move on to Christmas baking. Tomorrow. I'm tired.

For Family Home Evening tonight, we're having a short Nativity lesson (I think!) and heading down to a neighborhood that's famous for its Christmas lights display. Good thing gas is freakishly cheap now--I sense a LOT of idling engines in the near future. I may take an afghan to crochet.

Here's another thought: I'm pondering setting up an Etsy shop. This will definitely be AFTER Christmas and will probably include crocheted items like headbands and dishcloths. Maybe some handmade ornaments--they were pretty loved this year. I'm thinking of naming it something like The Dragon's Implement. I was going to call it The Dragon's Needle, but I don't use a needle when painting. Shocking, that. Oh! And bookmarks. Crocheted, not crocheted (involving the tricky use of ribbons and beads), that kind of thing.

Oh my. I just looked through Etsy a little more carefully. There were 1880 pages of crocheted items alone. CRAZY! Maybe I should come up with more products first, names later. Yeah, that sounds good.

Mostly, I just want an excuse to make stuff. Is that so bad?