Christmas!

I made them all pose prior to opening presents. :)




Christmas in the Arevalo household was really nice. Adan was home for once so we got to do all the santa chores together. I did not make it to be until about 2 AM, but the kids let us sleep in until 8 AM, and then only one was up.

Santa was very nice to us this year! The boys got bikes from Santa, and Lucy got a lap table with art supplies from Santa. I got a brand new digi camera and a wireless printer. From us, AJ got his first cell phone, and Alex got a PSP. Lucy got a tag reader and 4 books. We also do a secret santa in our family. Everyone draws a name, even the kids and everyone has a chance to pick something and give it to another person. AJ got $20 bucks from grannie, Lucy got an easy bake oven from me, Alex got a transformers game for his PSP from AJ, I got a tote bag that says I grow my own food from Katie, and Adan got a bunch of tool sets from Jerry. All of the secret Santa gifts were perfect and suited the receiver so well!

We had a really relaxing day. Mom and Jerry and Grannie came over about 11:00. We ate homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and had chicken, ham, potatoes, jello salad, green salad and rolls for a late lunch or "linner" as we like to call it. The boys and Adan took a bike ride. Lucy made us all some itty bitty, teeny weeny little easy bake sugar cookies. Grannie took naps in the "box room". My mom and I sat and knitted and crocheted while we watched various Christmas movies... of the muppet variety. I lurve me some muppets.

I haven't blogged in foreeevvvveeerrrr, my imaginary readers won't know, but in the intervening months we have moved again and are in a new house. More on that later.

Want some trashy jelly?

I made some.. okay my mom made some while I did English homework. See linky

http://grammie710.vox.com/library/post/apple-waste-jelly.html

Gardening!

the garden is doing fantabulous and I an in love with it.. i wish i wasn't married so I could marry my garden. I could be so much in love because of how bad I failed with last year's ghetto garden. Maybe.. maybe my garden just rocks. How is everyone else doing? Melissa... if you read this.. tell me how your garden is doing. My pictures suck arse because it is so humid here that my lens fogged up. I will try to take some new ones soon and add them here.

We have eaten all the sweet peas.. in fact, none even made it into the house. They were that good. One side note to peas, eat them while they are little.. they get a tad bitter and hard if you wait too long.

We planted two kinds of green beans, purple pod, and green lake or something like that... the purple pods produced earlier and about twice as much as the green ones.. those are definitely a keeper. Next year I will plant twice as many!

Our broccoli did not do well at all.. we got 2 tiny little heads and it took way too long.. so they probably don't taste very good. Also the carrots.. out of 170 planted, I think we have 5!! I need to work on those again next year.

the tomatoes are rockin the house.. we ate our first garden tomato 2 days ago and it was so yummy I wanted to curl up in bed with it. I can't wait for more tomatoes to be ready to eat.

We have eaten 5 small strawberries, and i expect them to rock next year, with our blackberry bush.

Our watermelons and cantelopes are vining and flowering, and look good.

The zucchini is going to produce a ton of squash, which is good, but it looks weird to see all the baby zucchinis on the plant, very phallic.

We only have 1 little summer squash which is sad. He must be very lonely...

Food Friday - Fettucine Alfredo, Susie Style

This is so good, all 4 of the kids ate it up and requested more for lunch the next day!


Ingredients:
1/3 +/- cup of margerine (I use a big scoop of spreadable margarine and it looks like 1/3 cup LOL)
bunch of fresh asparagus, the green kind, break off the woody bottoms and then snap into bite size pieces
4 ounces or so of fresh mushrooms, washed and sliced
3/4 c. SHREDDED parmesan cheese, not that fakey stuff
8 ounces of evaporated milk (I use fat free)
italian seasonings to taste
16 oz. fettucine noodles, but anything you have on hand will work.


Directions:

Note- I made this recipe up (based on another recipe, but i changed it all up) and I don't measure ingredients often. So please note that you are free to fiddle with amounts and stuff.

Note again - The sauce appears very thin... let it stand for a minute and it will thicken or just toss noodles with thin sauce.. it is suprisingly tasty and light!


Cook noodles. While noodles are cooking, melt margarine or butter in sauce pan. Add mushrooms and asparagus. Saute for a few minutes until they look yummy. Add shredded parmesan cheese and evaporated milk (If you buy a 12 oz can just eyeball it and pour in 2/3 of the can). Stir until cheese is melted.

Drain cooked noodles. Toss noodles and sauce. YUM!

Angela's Baby Shower gift

I haven't actually had a chance to give this to her yet, but here is what I made for Angela. It is a tad big, but the baby won't be able to wear until fall so I think it will be a perfect fit then. This was super fun and easy to make! I found the pattern online here:

http://bellabambinaknits.blogspot.com/2007/03/kellys-sweater.html

I used stash yarn to make this - 4 pts for yarn, 1 pt for buttons total 5 pts - and it is for #6 in 1001 things :)

Cortney's Baby Shower

This carrot is a rattle and has 2 bells in it. It is soft and chewy and not annoyingly loud.

While I was in California I went to my good friend Cortney's baby shower. It was amazing fun and her mom made so much fantastic food. Here are pics of what I made her.

(This is #6 in 1001 things. Stash Game: Carrot - 2 pts for yarn, 1 pt for fiberfil, 1 pt for bells, total 4 pts, Bunny - 3 pts for yarn, 1 pt for fiberfill, total 4 pts, Blankie buddy - 8 pts for yarn, 1 pt for fiberfil, total 9 pts. Grand Total: 17 pts.)

This little knitted bunny is soft and fuzzy and the perfect size for small hands. Only downside? I just realized I forgot to put it's puff tail on. ARGH!

This blanket buddy is way more blue than it appears in the picture. It is made from soft fuzzy yarn and is sure to be a favorite of Gavin's!

Update to PVC bike rack

Don't be a cheapskate like me. Spend $5 on some PVC glue and glue your bike rack pieces together. If you try to save the dollars and just fit the pieces together, you will have a cute little pile of PVC pipe sticks with in 2 or 3 weeks.

Breaking Blog Silence

I have decided that my sabbatical is over. Life just became too much for me to handle and I had to crawl under a rock for a few weeks :)

I just spent 4 glorious days in California. I spent the days with my best friend from high school, Cortney and we went shopping, ate out, saw a movie, went to the salon and had a baby shower. Tons o Fun! I wish I could have stayed for weeks instead of days. Of course I did have some family obligations, but the friend fun was more fun than the obligations were no fun. More later!

Say good-bye to your garden.

Apparently it is against the rules to have a garden in your front yard. You can't even have a cute garden with a cute picket fence around the whole thing, and nifty blue planters hanging from the outside. It doesn't matter if you really really love your garden, and gardening makes you happy. It doesn't matter if you spent A LOT to make that garden pleasing to the eye so no one will complain. It also doesn't matter if you have already started planting vegetables and you now have to kill all your future salads, side dishes, and sandwiches with strawberry jam as you take it apart and put the fence away.


Have I mentioned lately how much I want to buy some land in the country? Like 25 acres, with a house smack in the middle, and no drive way?

Crazy Neighbors make me bitter

So the mean neighbor has decided that he wants the parking spots closest to my house. It is hard to explain but we live in a cul-de-sac with 3 buildings. They form an upside down U. We live at the bottom of the U and they live on one of the sides, closest to us at the bottom. The only parking is on the sides, so we have to park in front of their house. Instead of giving us the first 2 spots, which are closest to our house, they take them and won't move their cars for days. For a while, they were taking the first THREE spots. Normally, I don't mind. They have small children and the first 2 spots are closest to their house as well, so I just "give" it to them. When I "give" it to them, they haven't stolen it from me and I am not mad. But today it is pouring rain. Really pouring. It has rained since last night and their are big puddles all around. And I had to go grocery shopping, and park way far from my house, and splash all the way to the house... 10 trips. IN the rain... When I am sick. This makes me feel bitter. Why can't they be nice SOMETIMES and let me park close when it is raining?????

Competitive Sports

I will not ever be a sports coach again. I also think I should not attend the games. I am just not competitive. I have an inner sense of justice that says we should help the less talented learn, and bench the better ones until everyone plays well. I don't like the feeling of striking out or missing the pop fly in left field. I don't like to see other people experience those feelings. I am just not a competitive sports kind of gal.

So how do you reconcile your non-love for super strong and competitively driven coaches with your children who love sports, and your child who wants to love sports but isn't good? How do you "go with the game" while feeling bad for your benched child? The mother in me wants to come out and say.. Hey stupid head coach.. HELP him get better at the game instead of benching him!! But that's not how the game is played. Team over individual. :P

Maybe I should just put Adan in charge of the sports?? Got any tips for a for a sensitive mommy?

Homestudy... Check!

Our homestudy is officially complete. that's right folks, we have officially been cleared as ready and able to adopt. That is a scary thought! Our time with the foster child has led me to realize that a younger child is what we need. Maybe 7 or under. I have realized I don't want to adopt more than 2 children. I have realized I need to know their complete background and behaviors before we agree to anything. ANYTHING.

Lu has been saying she wants us to adopt 2 girls and 1 boy. When I asked her why, she told me it was so we can have 3 boys and 3 girls. She is so silly. She said it with a big old grin on her face and a little half laugh.

Little Lu

Is not so little anymore :( I was sick in bed on Tuesday and she ran up the stairs to me all out of breath and excited. "MOM! Great News!" I asked her what the news was and she replied "MY TOOTH is LOOSE!" She allowed me to feel the wiggle and if I squeeze my eyes really tight, I can feel a tiiiiny bit of movement. Go Lu!

Sharon's Photo Quilted Wall hanging

this pertains to 101 things #81 and the year of the FO.

Back in December, Sharon asked me to make this photo quilted wall hanging for her sister. Her brother and both parents died last year and it was something of a tribute to their memory. She wanted this for a Christmas present, but I only had 1 week to get it done and just did not finish. So it sat, half finished, in my craft room for 2 months. In March, she asked if I could have it done for the next trip she was making to visit her family. Here is her finished project. I am really happy with how it turned out, and most importantly she said she loved it and her sister loved it.

Our Garden is working!

it's not broken this year!!!!

Here is what we have so far:


9 Little bitty baby pea plants per square. We planted 6 squares.



16 Little bitty carrots per square - We planted 4 squares so far, will have 12.


8 youth broccoli - We will plant pumpkins here this summer



4 baby lettuce plants per square - Will have 6 squares.



These are #10 cans painted blue with rust paint. I am going to plant herbs and flowers in them and hang them off the fence and screw them into our brick wall. I made sure not to get any paint on the inside so it would not pollute our herbs.


Do you think housing is going to like my new lawn decorations?

Thinning Seedlings

I planted 2 or 3 seeds in each peat pot. And actually almost all of the seeds have sprouted. Yesterday I decided it was time for thinning. Remember to use scissors and snip out the seedling you don't want. That way, you won't disturb the roots of the other seedling with your yanking!

Easter is coming

Easter has ambushed me. Did you know that Easter is this Sunday?? As in 3 days away? I haven't gotten any Easter basket stuff. I have cooked any eggs. And I certainly don't have time to make the living grass baskets I want to make. Pooey.

We went to a new church last weekend. It was an apostolic pentecostal church. Interesting. I don't think it quite lines up with my beliefs though. They put heavy importance in talking in tounges and they believe in oneness doctrine..

from Wikipedia

The major doctrinal difference between Oneness Pentecostalism and mainstream Christendom is its teaching on the Godhead, which is popularly referred to as the Oneness doctrine.[2] This dogma states that the Godhead consists not of three separate persons, as in classical Trinitarian theology, but rather one person alone who manifests himself in three separate ways. This places them at odds with the members of most other Christian churches, some of whom have accused Oneness Pentecostals of being Modalists and derided them as "cultists".

Current 101 things in 1001 days

2 blogs I follow have started their own 101 things in 1001 days projects. I started this in Nov. 2006 and my life just completely got in the way, and it was abandoned. Here is my new and updated version that I will start now. :)

101 things in 1001 days
The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days. I will be posting an update as I finish each task. Completed tasks will be red and in progress tasks will be blue.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (i.e.. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (i.e.. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as new year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

Begin: April 2, 2009
End: Oct. 1, 2011




My List:

Focus on God:
1. Devotions daily for 1 month.
2. Read the Bible all the way through and keep a journal of my thoughts along the way.
3. Organize my prayer list and remember these things in prayer daily.

Focus on Others:
4. Host a BBQ for our friends each month that it is not snowing.
5. Host the stitchy monthly
6. Create a baby gift for each new baby in my life during the 1001 days.
7. Pay for someone's lunch at the drive through 1 x per month.
8. Find a local venue for volunteering, soup kitchen? food pantry? volunteer once a month with the children.
9. Do something nice for a different neighbor 1 time a month, even the ones that hard to love.

Focus on Family:
10. Go hiking 4 times during each summer
11. Go camping
12. Start a gratitude journal. Have each person make an entry every night at dinner time for 1 month.
13. Read and put into practice "21 Rules for our house"
14. Learn to cut everyone's hair
15. Go bowling twice a month for 3 months.
16. Learn Spanish
17. Visit California to see family
18. Plan and take a family vacation to Disney World.
19. Take a local family trip every other month. Dinosaur world, the zoo, mammoth caves, etc.

focus on ArmyMan:
20. Take dance lessons together. Learn to 2 step, waltz and swing.
21. Rent a motorcycle for a weekend and take a romantic getaway.
22. Write him a note before bed, for him to find the next morning, weekly.
23. Renew our vows in a private ceremony. Maybe that motorcycle trip?

Focus on Children:
24. Build new bunk beds for the boys, 2 sets.
25. Build an entertainment center for the video game room.
26. Sew bean bag chairs for the video game room, 4 of them.
27. Build new dressers for each of the kids.
28. Read a bedtime story every night for 1 month. Long chapter books.
29. Hug, cuddle and say I love you to each child twice a day at least.
30. Research and start a hope chest for Drama.
31. Build a new bookcase for Drama and a bookcase for the boys.

Focus on the household:
32. Get a safety deposit box and fill it with all important papers we would need if there was a fire.
33. Get dressers for ArmyMan and me.
34. Plan decor for each room of the house, decide on a color scheme
35. Make pom pom rug for video game room.
36. Make kitchen table rug, curtains, 25 placemats, 2 couch blankets, table cloth and chair cushions and covers, 2 matching chairs.
37. Make/buy braided rugs, curtains, canisters, kitchen towels, 15 knit and 15 crochet dish cloths for kitchen
38. Make a braided rug for the laundry room.
39. Make curtains for master bedroom, and a rug
40. Make curtains for the boys room, and rug.
41. Make curtains for Drama, and a rug
42. Make afghan for First born
43. Make afghan for Gogo
44. Make afghan for Drama
45. Make afghan for our bedroom
46. Make quilt for first born
47. make quilt for go-go
48. make quilt for drama.
49. make quilt for master bedroom
50. Make summer wardrobe for kids.
51. Make a 4 week rotating summer menu.
52. Use the menu for 8 weeks, taking out yucky meals as needed.
53. Make bread daily for 1 month.
54. Organize the outside shed.
55. Plant large kitchen garden.
56. Can the abundance.
57. Learn about chickens.
58. Purchase land.
59. Plan house.
60. Build house on our own land.
61. Research family tree
62. Finish Firstborn's photo album
63. Finish Gogo's photo album
64. Finish Drama's photo album
65. Finish family/vacation photo albums
66. make crocheted tree skirt and matching stockings
67. Reduce debt by 50% by the end of the 1001 days.
68. Start school back up.
69. 2 classes a block
70. Study for 30 min. a night for an entire block.
71. Make my own soapy soap.
72. Make a list of all, even remote relatives, birthdays and anniversaries and send out cards on the first of each month.
73. shower, Get dressed, blow dry hair everyday for 1 month.

Focus on Me:
74. work out 6 x a week; ride daily for 30 min.; lose 30 lbs.
75. Go to bed by 10 PM every night for a month.
76. Wake up by 5:30 AM every weekday morning for a month.
77. learn to spin.
78. Learn to shoot, buy a gun.
79. ride my bike for anywhere under 2 miles if i don't have to drag kids along.
80. Take a girls weekend once a year.
81. finish all UFOS.
82. Organize my recipes... decide on a system and then run with it.
83. Work on one project at a time; use existing stash for all new projects.
84. Do dishes after dinner for 1 month.
85. No puter till 1 PM for 1 month.

Focus on Preparedness:
86. Put together 72 hour emergency kits.
87. Put together Food Storage for 3 months
88. Put together Food Storage for 1 year.
89. Practice Drills
90. Teach children gun safety.
91. Read one book each quarter about self sufficiency


Focus on Business:
92. Read 1 business book per quarter.
93. Ongoing SEO - 1 page per month.

DD
94. Re-organize the website
95. Redesign forum
96. Write or delegate to be written 1 article per week.
97. Streamline sponsor sign up and back-end paperwork

PPW
98. Market locally to gift shops, floral etc.
99. Attend 4 craft shows as a vendor

Yarnish
100. Prepare patterns for publication.
101. Stock one knitted item per quarter.

101 things in 1001 days

2 blogs I follow have started their own 101 things in 1001 days projects. I started this in Nov. 2006 and my life just completely got in the way, and it was abandoned. So I am posting what I had then, and will make a new post with my new and updated version that I will start now. :)

101 things in 1001 days
The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days. I will be posting an update as I finish each task. Completed tasks will be red and in progress tasks will be blue.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (i.e.. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (i.e.. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as new year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

Begin: Dec. 1, 2006
End: Sept. 28, 2009


Updated: 12/12/06

My List:

Focus on God:
1. Read Created to be his help meet.
2. Devotions daily for 1 month.
3. Read the Bible all the way through and keep a journal of my thoughts along the way.
4. Organize my prayer list.

Focus on Others:
5. Host the stitchy monthly
6. finish Katie's baby blanket
7. Finish Heather's Baby Blanket
8. Finish Erika's Baby Blanket
9. Finish Amanda's Baby Blanket
10. Finish Gina's Dress
11. Start/Finish Melissa's Baby Blanket
12. Visit an assisted living facility 1x a month and bring treats.
13. Do something nice for a different neighbor 1 time a month.

Focus on Family:
14.Take a train ride through the royal gorge
15. Go camping
16. Start a gratitude journal. Have each person make an entry every night at dinner time for 1 month.
17. Read and put into practice "21 Rules for our house"
18. Learn to cut everyone's hair
19. Go bowling twice a month for 3 months.
20. Start a Spanish Language program. Power glide junior?
21. Visit Kentucky to see family
22. Plan and take a family vacation to Disney World.

focus on ArmyMan:
23. Take dance lessons together. Learn to 2 step, waltz and swing.
24. Rent a motorcycle for a weekend and take a romantic getaway.
25. Mail a letter or package every payday.
26. Send an email to him each night for a month.
27. Renew our vows in a private ceremony. Maybe that motorcycle trip?

Focus on Children:
28. Buy new dressers for each of the kids.
29. Read a bedtime story every night for 1 month. Long chapter books.
30. Hug, cuddle and say I love you to each child twice a day for a month.
31. Research and start a hope chest for Drama.
32. Buy a new bookcase for Drama and a bookcase for the boys.

Focus on the household:
33. Get a safety deposit box and fill it with all important papers we would need if there was a fire.
34. Get dressers for ArmyMan and me.
35. Plan decor for each room of the house, decide on a color scheme
36. Make/buy 2 kitchen table rugs, curtains, 15 placemats, 2 couch blankets, table cloth and chair cushions and covers, 2 matching chairs.
37. Make/buy braided rugs, curtains, canisters, kitchen towels, 24 knit dish cloths for kitchen
38. Make a braided rug for the laundry room.
39. Make curtains for master bedroom, and a chain rug
40. Make curtains for the boys room, and braided rug.
41. Make curtains for Drama, and a chain rug
42. Make afghan for First born
43. Make afghan for Gogo
44. Make afghan for Drama
45. Make afghan for our bedroom
46. Make quilt for first born
47. make quilt for go-go
48. make quilt for drama.
49. make quilt for master bedroom
50. Make summer wardrobe for kids.
51. Make a 4 week rotating menu.
52. Use the menu for 8 weeks, taking out yucky meals as needed.
53. Make bread daily for 1 month.
54. Organize the outside shed.
55. Buy a Colorado gardening book or research this online. Also research container gardening and moveable gardens.
56. Make a list of flowers for the front yard.
57. Make a list of veggies for the back yard.
58. Buy gardening tools.
59. Clear flower beds, veggie beds or purchase containers for the container gardening.
60. Plant!
61. Research family tree
62. Finish Firstborn's photo album
63. Finish Gogo's photo album
64. Finish Drama's photo album
65. Finish family/vacation photo albums
66. make double hook crocheted tree skirt and matching stockings
67. Reduce debt by 50% by the end of the 1001 days.
68. Start school back up.
69. 2 classes a block
70. Study for 30 min. a night for an entire block.
71. Make my own soapy soap.
72. Make a list of all, even remote relatives, birthdays and anniversaries and send out cards on the first of each month.
73. shower, Get dressed, blow dry hair everyday for 1 month.

Focus on Me:
74. Buy a core sculptor and work out 5 x a week.
75. Go to bed by 11 PM every night for a month.
76. Wake up by 7 AM every weekday morning for a month.
77. Quit Smoking
78. Get my eyes checked.
79. Get my sanity checked.
80. Finish braces.
81. Fill cavities and beautify my teethers.
82. Organize my recipes... decide on a system and then run with it.
83. Blog 4x a week for a 1 month.
84. Do dishes after dinner for 1 month.
85. No puter till 1 PM for 1 month.

Focus on Business:
86. Read 1 business book per quarter.
87. Ongoing SEO - 1 page per month.

DD
88. Re-organize the website
89. Write all of our own content. No outside links; Make a list of all articles we need to write.
90. Write or delegate to be written 1 article per week.
91. Make a list of all the diaper hunt program changes.
92. Hire a new programmer to make the changes.
93. Re-organize the diaper hunt application process.

JOD
94. Market locally to adult shops (adult candy)
95. Market locally to gift shops, floral etc.
96. Monthly or bi-monthly about candy and gift giving.
97. Attend 4 craft shows as a vendor

BB
98. Stock up on ribbon
99. Organize all materials
100. Make 6 bows per week.
101. Stock bows every Thursday on site and on CMA.

Thoughtless Thursday

it's kind of like wordless wednesday.



Don't you hate it when you stand up after sitting on the toilet, and the toilet seat sticks to your butt a bit and lifts up a few inches and then it slams back down to the rim making the loudest possible noise, that proceeds to echo around your bathroom? Don't you hate that?? And do you then wonder why on EARTH your butt cheeks stuck to the toilet seat?? I mean what was on there that made you stick? That is a question that only the brave should ask, especially if you live in a house with 4 boys.

Fires don't go near grammies

Lucy has become obsessed with fires. Apparently she has been having bad dreams where our house catches on fires and turns black. It has her super freaked out. In her dreams we evacuate to Grammie's house. She has taken to packing bags of belongings and leaving them near the exits, just in case. She tells me that the bags are packed in case we have a fire, we can grab then when we leave. (She says "grap"). She has asked us a few times if the firemen are at the station, and when it closes. Yesterday, she asked me if she could pack her bags and I could drive her to Grammie's house and drop her off when all the daycare kids leave.

She won't talk about this at all. When asked what she is afraid of, she just says she doesn't want to talk about it. When I asked her why she wants to go to Grammie's house so urgently, she just says she misses her. I asked if she would miss me and she said "I have an idea! We can both go to Grammie's house!"

I feel so bad for her. She is obviously scared to death of a fire and thinks the only fire-safe place is Grammie's house. :( She is scared to go to sleep at night and has an absolute fit if I don't make it up right away to say a no-bad-dreams-prayer with her.

I scheduled an appt with the fire station for next week. I am hoping they can put her mind at ease. Anyone else have any other ideas on how to ease her mind??

Crazy neighbor #467

If there is one thing you can count on as an Army family, it's crazy, sometimes scary neighbors. I have once again found joy in living on post. sure.

I am going to document this here, not quite sure if that is a good thing or not, but I suppose I can always come back and delete this post if I need to. Yesterday about 1645, M and A were digging in their usual spot between cars 2 and 3. They sit on the sidewalk and dig in the place where the asphalt meets the curb. They get little sticks and pry the stones out from the crevice where the parkinglot doesn't quite meet up with the curb. M says he is a geologist, so he collects rocks. I was standing about 10 or 15 feet away, at the table filling out my meal count sheets.

Our new neighbor's husband (I met her, but not him) came out of the house and went over to the boys and was talking to them in low tones. I could not hear his words but I could hear his voice. He was standing with hostile body language and his tone of voice wasn't friendly either. I started to walk over there and as I walked, I asked him what the problem was. He shouted at me, possibly due to distance, using a hostile tone of voice that he has only lived here since Friday and already his car is scratched. He tells me that the boys scratched his car with a stick. I tell him that if there are any future problems, to just let me know because I am always out wiht the kids and I will take care of them. He starts freaking out about how he has only lived here so long and already his care is being damaged. So I asked him if he saw who did it, and he said pointed at M and said him. Well M has a condition that causes him to have poor muscle tone and he can't even walk with out a walker. He has problems pouring his drinks from the half size pitchers. I highly doubt he has the strength to actually scratch this man's car. During this exchange I am getting the boys up and directing them to another part of the yard to dig in.


This guy doesn't go back in his house, he just continues to harrass me about this. I can't even tell you what he was saying because I was so upset. He just keeps going on about how I am obviously not supervising them enough, how his car has been scratched etc. He has started calling me "Hey, Lady". Finally I just turned around to him and told him not to call me that. I told him it was rude and he was being a jerk.

At this time, S. and C. show up, M, A and A's mom and aunt. When the guy sees me having back up, he goes back into the house. S asks what is going on and I give her the run down and she is all upset. M is all upset thinking I am going to get in a fight. It was nuts. So I get them taken care of and they leave.

Crazy is standing inside his house with the screen door closed staring at me. I go up to his house, and he is on the phone. He does not even acknowledge that I am there so I tell him that as soon as he gets an estimate to let us know and we will pay for the damage. He again starts "yelling" (talking in a very hostile manner, not really loudly) at me, saying he knows my husband, and he would not do that to my husband, as if I was a small child who has misbehaved! I told him that I would just give him money then and he said he would give it back, so I walked away with a loud "whatever." **So many things wrong here. The first being that he doesn't know my husband. Anyone who did would NEVER freak out on me. Adan can take many things in stride but he gets really heated when he thinks someone has done me wrong, especially another man. The way he knows my husband? He came into the ER with his daughter and Adan was their medic. He doesn't KNOW my husband, he just knows who he is. Secondly, I am not a child, and if my children are responsible for damage, the responsible thing is to pay for it.

So I go over to the van in questions and I look at the scratches. They are very small, and curvy, and to me they look as if they could have been made by road debris rather than a muddy stick. But I don't know one way or the other.

I called up adan, in tears, and asked him to come home. Of course he can't. I told him the whole story and went and got my camera so i could take a picture of the damage. As i squatted down at the side of the car, Crazy comes racing out of his house with a hammer in his hand yelling about what the hell am i doing. I told him i was just taking a picture so we could get an estimate, and he starts yelling at me about how he doesn't want an estimate blah blah. Adan is on the phone yelling at me to get out of there and i am like, he has a hammer! CHAOS! People start coming out of their houses. Lisa and Ray, and Mary all come out to see what the commotion is about. I am thoroughly shaken and just so disappointed.

I tried to do the right thing at the beginning by telling this guy that I will take care of any problems that arise. I try and do the right thing by asking him for an estimate. I try and do the right thing by getting my own estimate. I get threatened with a hammer.

He came out one time later, while I was playing basketball with Lucy in the yard. I don't remember what he said to me, but I told him he was an ass. He told me I was a bad daycare provider for saying ass in front of my daughter. he also said that we aren't allowed to park in our parking spots, that he is going to always park in them every day and we are out of luck.

I seriously don't understand this. Why do people act like that? When his wife was moving stuff in, I made sure to keep the kids out of the way. I gave her our parking spot because it was closest to her front door and she has 2 little ones. I talked to her and welcomed her to the neighborhood. He hasn't even ever said hello to me, yet he is going to be mean and rude and threatening.

Adan got home at 1800. He went over and talked to the guy and told him to not speak to me. I hope he doesn't ever speak to me again. I am not that lucky.

Now I am worried that this guy is going to try and run me out of my own yard. We have a courtyard and we put out our basketball hoop for all the kids to use... in just our 3 buildings, not counting her 5 children, that is 17 other kids. We put out our soccer net and keep all of our balls accessible to everyone. We put in a huge garden... I am a social creature.. i don't want it to be miserable here.. not to mention i don't want to be in fear for my life or afraid to go outside.

Knitted Shag Rag Rug Update

Update!! 3/20 This rug pattern came from a book called fast and fabulous low sew bathroom projects by Reader's Digest. This rug is neither fast nor very fun but i feel committed now. DARN IT! I am currently only working on this rug as i wait to pick up kids from school so I do MAYBE 2 rows per day. My goal for April is to finish this dastardly piece of no fun knitting so i can move on to something i might not hate.

New pic for ya! Please ignore my messy dining room table, and my shoes. I stood on a chair to take a pic from above. Yes, my tape measure is missing inches 1 - 3. I burned them with the iron. I don't like beginnings. The rug currently measures about 25 inches wide by about 9 inches long. After 6 weeks. I rock.

Seed Starting and Storage

This morning we started all the tomato plants, bell peppers and various other herbs. We just purchased peat pots so we can plant the whole pot into the garden and not have to fuss with transplants. I feel all gardeney and official now.


Starting the seeds got me to thinking about my seed collection. I had quite a few packets of seeds from last year, and this year I ordered a LOT more. Gurney's had a hiccup and sent me twice my order. Since I am doing Square Foot Garden, I am only using a few seeds from each envelope. I probably have enough seeds to last 5 more years! I decided it was time to educate myself on seed storage.

Seeds need to be stored in a cool dry place, with as little moisture as possible. Canning jars are ideal.. wide mouth is easiest but since i had regular mouth in my cupboard, that's what I used. If you have any of those little "do not eat" packets that come in your jacket pockets and with electonics, throw one in each jar. If you don't, take a small amount of dry milk powder and wrap it in a small square of tissue or kleenex. Toss that in the jar to absorb any moisture. Label the lid of your jar with the types of seeds in the jar, and store in the fridge until next year! Most seeds will last 3-5 years if stored properly.
See my pink kleenex dry milk packet?

Facebook User...

the one from Louisville who visits my blog regularly. You always visit after facebook, and seem to know my husband. You like to look at our pictures... WHO ARE YOU? Post in my comments.. come out and play!

Garden Beds....YAY!

We spent this weekend planning for our garden and building our garden beds for our square foot garden.

We built 8 3'x6' garden beds and placed them in the front yard we share with the neighbors. The garden beds were very simple to build! We also added a picket fence around this part of the yard to keep random deer and children out of the veggies.

So the final planting list is as follows:
(This list is plants, not veggies or fruits)

168 carrots
48 strawberries
27 green pole beans
27 purple pole beans
54 shelling peas
1 summer squash
19 vine tomatos
2 watermelons
2 giant cantalopes
2 zucchini
6 lettuce (salad bowl variety)
4 pepper
2 white pumpkins
2 orange pumpkins
1 cherry tomato
1 yellow cherry tomato
2 roma tomato
8 broccoli

So we built the boxes, and started on the fence.. BUT the fence is unfinished because I thought the planks were 6 inches wide. I told Adan how many to buy... and the fence planks were really 4 inches wide... so yeah, we did not buy enough.

We also still need to buy the materials for the soil, and for the trellises... we need 9 trellises. This is turning out to be a bit more expensive than I had hoped, but I have to remember that these initial purchases won't have to be repeated. That makes them cost effective in the long run, but oh-so-painful now! LOL

Pics of the building process!

Compost yer diapers

in no. california!

http://www.earth-baby.com/home.php

CPSIA and books

Most people who know me, know that I have a love for books. As an teenager, I would go to the library and buy the used books from the booksale. Books are such an amazing part of my life, and I especially love OLD books, CLASSIC books. One of my favorite authors is Daphne du Maurier, who I found at one of those old library book sales. I hurt for what the CPSIA is doing to our children's products businesses, but even worse is what is happening to libraries, schools, charities in regards to used books. It scares me to think that our libraries may no longer be haven to our young people. Maybe it will come about that we will have a whole generation of children that have never read many many amazing books, just because they went out of print in 1989 and had to be dumped in 2009. I found the following post heart wrenching.
http://heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com/2009/03/cpsc-childrens-books-not-useful-after.html

Garden Time!

Everyone is talking about seed starting and gardens.. so it's my turn. Hopefully I can get Adan to build the garden boxes this weekend.. I am going to order my seeds today. What are you all planting?

We are getting:
Roma tomatoes
cherry tomatoes
slicing tomatoes
zuccini
summer squash
pumpkins
sweet peppers
peas
watermelon
cantalope
lettuce
cauliflower
carrots
broccoli
pole beans

I miss Tina!!!

tonight, the first night of the year of the FO, i broke my vows and went to Walmart for the fabric sale. You see, Walmart is closing down the fabric section, and all the fabric is going bye bye. At. 50%. Off.

Naturally, I headed down there as soon as Adan got home. Then I wanted to cry because my Walmart buddy isn't here.

Walmart is Tina's store. I will forever think of Tina everytime I go to Walmart, no matter how much time goes by or how old I get.

In CO, Tina and I were close. We did almost everything together. Our ritual was to leave kids behind with their respective fathers or at one or the other's house, and go to Walmart. If she needed something, she would call me and we would go. If I needed something, I would call her and we would go. And we would eat french fries.

I needed tina tonight. If she had been with me, I might not have bought 100 yards of fabric. She would NEVER have waited in a 2 hour line for cutting.

And if i somehow convinced her to wait with me, I would not have had to talk to the crusty old ladies while I waited for the sales people to cut my fabric and drag it all over the floor in the process.

Year of the FO

A little lingo lesson first.

UFO=unfinished object
FO=finished object

So anyone who knows me, knows that I am a global crafter. I think I like to plan and start things... not so much on persevering. Right now I am actively working on a knit shag rag rug, a braided rug, a knit dish cloth, a crochet dish cloth, a scrap ball afghan, a mosiac gazing ball, curtians for the kitchen, and another braided rug. This does not count the other projects that i have started and set aside in the last, oh, 20 years. I am going to call this the year of the FO. This year, I vow to work on only projects that have already been started, or materials have already been purchased for. If i MUST start a new project, I will use at least 50% materials that already exist in my crafting closet.

There! I said it. Now i have to follow through! I will be posting my FO's as I finish them.. so stay tuned!

Chores

I was talking with the mom of the children I watch and she was telling me how her oldest is really, really disrespectful to her. She does have some extenuating family circumstances that I don't have, but I have to wonder if it isn't partly because she doesn't expect him to be respectful. For example, he really has no chores around the house. He does one thing, clean the cat box. It made me think about the chores my children have.

I think I must be a slave driver. My kids have a LOT of chores.

Now, the boys do sleep in the same room, so the bedroom chores are split between them as opposed to both having to mop the whole room. Also on busy weekends, we may not get all the Saturday chores done because we just aren't at home. But we try to stick to this plan.

For our system, we have a master list that is on the fridge. It includes all the daily and weekday chores. It is laminated, and each day they check off what they completed.

We also assigned each child a room, and that is their Sat. chores. I have a list with all the chores for each room, laminated, posted on the door to that room. As they do the chores that day they check it off with a projector marker that is hanging from a string on the door. So far this works best for us.

I found the nifty chore charts at Chart Jungle, http://www.chartjungle.com/chores.html I found this site about 7 years ago, and have loved this zone cleaning type of system ever since!

What chores do your kids have? What are your thoughts on children having lots of chores vs. not many chores?

*edited to add in response to comments*
I really feel that it is important for the children to help out because they live here as well. I don't pay allowance for doing chores because chores are just something you have to do as part of a family. Sometimes family duties aren't fun, but you do them anyway! LOL

The kids don't enjoy doing chores and generally don't do them unless told to. Everyday we have chore time, and we all go down our checklists and do our respective tasks. The 5 year old is a pain about this, and occasionally spends 4 hours on one item, but she doesn't get to do anything else until those are done.

We started handing out chores at age 2. Something simple like feed the dog, or put the shoes in the shoe closet. It helps to have the chart, that they can check off when a job is done.

Lucy, age 5

Everyday:
Brush Teeth
Clean Room
Make Bed
Take Bath
Feed Dog
Sweep Upstairs Hallway #1(We have 2)
Take Out Recycling

Tuesday:
Empty Dishwasher

Saturday:
Sweep and Mop bedroom
Dust bedroom
Clean Doorknob and light switch
Wash Window
Clean bathtub in bathroom #2
Clean Sink
Clean Toilet
Clean Mirror
Clean Doorknob
Wash out Trash Can
Sweep and Mop
Clean Light Switch
Wash Window


Alex, age 8

Everyday:
Brush Teeth
Clean Room
Make Bed
Take Bath
Empty Upstairs Trashes
Clean out Cat Box
Sweep Kitchen
Sweep Landing of Stairs

Wednesday:
Empty Dishwasher

Saturday:
Sweep and Mop bedroom
Dust bedroom
Clean Doorknob and light switch
Wash Window
Clean bathtub in bathroom #3
Clean Sink
Clean Toilet
Clean Mirror
Clean Doorknob
Wash out Trash Can
Sweep and Mop
Clean Light Switch
Wash Window

AJ, age 10

Everyday:
Brush Teeth
Clean Room
Make Bed
Take Bath
Empty Downstairs Trashes
Feed and Water Cat
Clean up Dog poop
Sweep Stairs #2
Sweep Hallway #2

Thursday:
Empty Dishwasher

Saturday:
Sweep and Mop bedroom
Dust bedroom
Clean Doorknob and light switch
Wash Window
Dust Living Room
Clean TV Screen
Straighten Bookshelves
Clean Door Knobs
Clean Light Switches
Clean Walls
Wash Windows

Our foster son, age 15, also has a similar list, but I didn't list because when he leaves it will go back to being my list LOL.

Thanks to Swiffer...

Human League is here to stay. I caught the 8 year old singin this one today.

PVC bike rack!

We built a PVC bike rack to house our bikes. It came out outstanding and was super inexpensive to make. I believe it cost us about 30 dollars to make 2 bike racks that hold 3 and 4 bikes respectively. We followed the instructable here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Bike-Rack/

I modified it a bit to include spots for more than one bike. If you want our modifications, let me know and I will write them out!

Updated June 09:

Don't be a cheapskate like me. Spend $5 on some PVC glue and glue your bike rack pieces together. If you try to save the dollars and just fit the pieces together, you will have a cute little pile of PVC pipe sticks with in 2 or 3 weeks.


Parts cut out!


Adan putting joints together


One finished bike rack


Front yard before nifty bike rack. Note bikes thrown haphazardly around yard, just begging to be stolen.


Bike rack placed behind fence set a few feet out from the front of the house.


Bikes in rack! Beautifully put away!


Bike rack for adult bikes in the shed.


Bike rack in shed filled with adult bikes! Beautiful!

homestudy is almost done!

Yesterday I went to the ACS office and tracked down the last background check that we needed for our homestudy. They finally faxed it in to our case worker. That means she started typing everything up today. 6 weeks or less we will be done. I am filled with anxiety at this prospect. How many children do we want? 2, 3, 4, 5, 6? Do we want to go out of state or through KY? Do we have the patience? the funds? the space? a big enough car? We found a sibling group of 3 and one of 6 on the web, and I think we will put in our homestudy for both if they are still waiting for adoption in 6 weeks. It seems like this could be a reality so soon!

I am so scared about it though! I was not happy that our family stopped at 3 children, but i was okay with it. Now we are a point where our family could double or more within the year. I think I will be heartbroken if we have to turn from this path now.

Baby Cradle project

Today, we made a cradle with the daycare kiddos. It was super easy and a lot of fun!
We followed the plans found at www.kidscanmakeit.com/WW0001.htm.

I estimate that the overall cost was $15.00. This cradle is STURDY! This is not plastic piece of junk that will break in 5 days leaving you out 40 bucks.

Adan cut out the wood and sanded, and the kids and I assembled it. The kids ranged in age from 3 to 11 and all had a great time.