Terrible Five's?

Is there such a thing as the "terrible five's?"  Now we've all heard about the "terrible two's" and how a toddler tests the sanity of her parents, but at five years old?!?  If this continues, I won't make it through the teenage years.

Yesterday as I picked up the girls at daycare, one of the teachers walked out with a sad expressioned Grace.  The teacher explained that Grace had a very good morning.  But things took a turn for the worse at naptime.  Grace explained that she was trying to put her boots on, the teacher saw her kicking a fellow child.  Then the teacher opened a baggie with a big ol' chunk of hair in it and said Grace had pulled this out of another little kid's head.  Now we've had some tangles in Grace's hair that took out a sizeable chunk, but nothing nearly as big as the wad of hair in the baggie.  Grace would not explain why she did these things.  I loved the way the teacher talked to her...with not even a bit of tension in her voice, even giving Grace a kiss when she was done explaining.

On the way home, I'm in the car asking myself what I'm doing wrong, what's not working.  Perhaps I need to head my heine over to the library and check out some parenting books....what I'm doing ain't working for her.  Deep breath in....and out....

Christmas 2010

We opened some presents at our house before we went over the river and through the....prairie to Douglas.  Santa brought each of the girls a pillowpet; a ladybug for Grace and a bumblebee for Anna.

 Anna seemed to be more interested in the peanut M&M's that she found in her stocking than her pillowpet.

Anna in her new boots reading one of her new books.  She wasn't all that interested in opening all the presents.  Once she got some good stuff, she was good to go.

As usual, I forgot to take pictures during the chaos that is opening presents at Grandma and Grandpa's.  The girls got quite the haul of goodies and Jeremy and I didn't do so bad either J

On a totally unrelated note, we refinanced the house, dropping 2% on our interest rate, which was our little present to ourselves, I guess.  Dave Ramsey and I need to get reaquainted again after the new year.

Another one?

I believe I may have harlot tendencies...now before you go to yourself, "Oh, My God, Jeri's gone off her rocker," read this blog.  It's a hoot!  Anyway, I started another sweater.  This one is a baby sweater in sock yarn in a lovely yellow color....baby is still in the oven and the timer should ding in April....so I think I'll have plenty of time.  I'll get a pic posted once you can start seeing the pattern.

I had to make a phone call to Santa the other day.  Grace is on the naughty list....

Christmas program

We did a pre Christmas program "photo shoot" so we would have some pictures of the girls in their pretty Christmas dresses.  Be prepared for cheesy smiles in the following photos!  We took video of the entire program (well most of it, technical error on my part at the beginning).  So if you want to see little kids sing, 2 year olds fight over a microphone and lots of waving to mommy's and daddy's, come on over and I'll show you the video.  J   

 With Daddy...seriously, does the man ever smile for a picture?

 With Mommy

 Outside the auditorium, Anna in her "costume"

Grace has been talking about wanting to talk to Santa.  So we went to the mall and she talked to Santa.  She didn't sit on his lap, but told him she wanted cowboy boots.  Santa suggested some songs because she likes to sing, especially Taylor Swift.  I think Santa's a mind reader or he really does exist....how did he know she likes to sing and likes Taylor Swift?  Anna said "no way" at the prospect of sitting with Santa.  And Santa, if you do exist, I realize after taking some more pictures lately, I sure would like an SLR camera.  I have been good.--Jeri

Ice Fishin'

Just some random ice fishing pictures from the last excursion during Grace's birthday.

 I don't think there's much fishing going on in this picture, just a lot of movie watching on the portable DVD player!

 A whopper of a walleye that Grace caught.  Notice the beer can for scale.  I'm assuming there were a lot of empty beer cans laying around as it was the most handy thing to measure scale with.  That fish sure was tasty a couple nights later with some bacon and butter!

 What a beautiful sunrise/sunset.  Not sure which.

 This picture was after they got home, Grace on the back seat out of the Expedition, laying with Clyde.  Please do not notice all the other junk in the background of the picture!

Grace and her birthday cake after a good scrubbin' to get all the dirt off.  Again, please do not pay attention to all the junk in the background!

All the pictures are courtesy of Jeremy.  I still can't find the fun in sitting on a block of ice waiting for the fish to swim by the bait you threw down a hole.

I think I might need to start a serious declutter campaign in the house.  The basement's out of my control, but seriously, something needs to be done upstairs.  I need another closet to cram all the stuff into, HA!

Pictures, Pictures

Not much exciting or news worthy has been happening here lately.  I thought maybe you'd like a picture post instead.

Here's a picture of Grace modeling some socks, but I think they might be a bit too small for her and will become Anna's sooner rather than later.

I'm working on a sweater for Anna.  Not much to see yet.

I'm working on a sweater for myself.  I'm working on the body now.

Our Christmas tree, look at all those presents underneath!  The bottom half may be more highly decorated due to the majority of the people decorating were short.  But it sure is a good-lookin' fake tree.

Maybe they watch a bit too much TV.  When I went to download pictures, there were several that looked similar to this.  They love Dora and Diego!

They have a Christmas program through their preschool on Tuesday.  There has been a lot of practice singing around here lately.  I'll probably be able to sing along to all the songs.

Happy Birthday Grace!

Five years ago today I became a mama. Today my Grace turns 5 years old. I remember it snowing that morning as we went to the hospital, then it being bitterly cold, below zero cold, after she was born. I could see the bank thermometer from my room window. She requested a purple cake for her birthday. Here is the purple cake, ready to be dug into whenever they get home.

Milestones

There are days when a mother is so proud of her children her heart just bursts with pride. I'm sure the accomplishments will get bigger as my girls get bigger. Now they are small things like getting dressed themselves, brushing their hair and teeth (by golly, not with the same brush!). Someday it'll be driving, graduating, the first job. But hold on to that, I want them to be little for a little longer yet.

Anna is on her way to a milestone. Remember about the potty game. Yesterday she peed in the potty at preschool. Her teacher was so excited to tell me about it! I brought some bribery candy to preschool for her teacher to use when Anna goes. However, last night at home, she sat on the potty and nothing happened. The day of no diapers is looming large.  I'm so proud of my Anna!

Locking Doors

Oh, man, I forgot to mention my great story of the weekend. I went to let the dogs out at my parents house in the middle of the night. You have to go through the garage to let them outside. They have those "trick" doors that you can open and the door still stays locked. I remembered this from the days I still lived at home, so I left the door between the house and garage wide open while I went to let the dogs out to the outside. I didn't take into consideration the settlement of the house. The door swung shut as I was opening the outside door. Here I am, no clue what time it is, in my pajamas without my glasses on….and the…door….is…locked. After searching the walls and corners of the shelves for a key and pausing while debating if I should pound on the door, I decided to check the other garage. Praise God, Mom had a key on her keychain hanging out of her ignition that looked promising…and it opened the door. Making sure it was definitely unlocked, I returned the key and got back in bed. It was 1:00 in the morning.

Thanksgiving catch up

My mom ever so subtly said I need to update my blog more. So I'm gonna try to do at least a twice a week thing, you'll have to keep me honest.

We went up to my parents for Thanksgiving. The feast was a fine meal, as usual, even if my rolls looked like crap, everybody said they were tasty. Jeremy even made, ahem, bought a coconut cream pie to go with the homemade cherry and pumpkin. I think my girls were a little too loud, a little too energetic, a little too much like kids for my parents. After seeing the mound of laundry on my kitchen floor and the feeling of wearing out a welcome, perhaps we should have came home on Saturday instead of Sunday.

We got some of the tree decorated last night. We need to find a new topper as last year's seems to have gone missing. And it's already got a bunch of presents under it. And now that Grace can spell her name, she was pointing out all the packages that were hers.

Anna has been on a kick about going to the potty. She loves to take off her pants and diaper and sit on the toilet….no potty seat there, she just holds herself up. And nothing ever, ever happens. I imagine one day there will be an epiphany. I realized I've been changing diapers for 5 years straight now.

Speaking of 5 years, I will be the mommy of a 5 year old here in a week. I guess her and Grandpa Y and Uncle Wade and Jeremy are going to Ocean Lake this weekend. Leaving on Thursday, back on Tuesday, maybe? Perhaps I should get started on the pillowcase she said she wanted for her birthday.

On a crafty note, working on a sweater (I'll get a pic later this week), mittens, and a quilt among a myriad of small stuff….see ya in a few days.

Knitting Fetish?

Jeremy now has his CPAP machine for his sleep apnea. There was much fuss about adjusting the mask the first night. So far, he says he doesn't notice a different, but the pressure seems much lower in the morning that at night. So a service man is supposed to come and check it out on Monday.

I've had a yarn and knitting fetish lately. I don't want to work on the 2 baby quilts I gotta make sometime before February. And I think I've finally graduated and am ready to start on a sweater. I found some patterns that you knit from the top down and there's no seaming. This sounds simple enough and knit in the round, who doesn't like that! I tell ya, I'm a knitting geek… So the website had a freebie pattern for a baby cardigan. So I'm knitting one (actually two for some twins in the spring) (Seriously, what's with all the babies lately, but that's another post!) to kinda get the feel for it. I bought the yarn for my sweater, go figure, I bought a neutral color. I've already knit up a swatch, but am trying to finish a few things before I start the sweater. I'm also trying to increase my knitting speed so it doesn't take me until spring to finish the dang thing! Making less movement and practice, practice, practice.

We are heading to my parents for Thanksgiving next week. I always get so excited to see my mom and dad and sister and her family and my grandma because we live just annoying far enough apart we only get to see each other a few times a year, if we're lucky.

And I can't believe my daughter's 5^th birthday is coming up in less than 3 weeks…is she seriously gonna be 5, holy cow!

Latest projects

Jeremy took the girls to Grandma and Grandpa Y's this weekend.  Jeremy's helping his dad install a gas line to the shop and the girls are entertaining Grandma, I'm sure.  I got to go shopping by myself, granted it was just the grocery store.  And then I did a little Christmas shopping.  My side of the family is mostly done....Jeremy's, eh, not so much!  The house is nice and clean and I can enjoy it until the entourage shows up this afternoon.  I made an apple pie and I actually got to watch a movie the entire way through without interruptions.  It may sound like I like my family to be gone, but I do miss them very much.

I thought I'd show you some of the things I've been doing lately.  This is just a baby quilt for my stash.  It seems there's a few on the horizon.

This is Grace in her new jammies.  She chose the fabric and it's quite...er...loud!  She struck a funny pose for me.

This is a scarf I started last night.  After knitting socks for so long, this yarn feels like rope and the needles feel like tree trunks!

Just a collection....

Clyde

Jeremy'd been looking for a little ankle biter dog.  After some searching, he emailed about a craigslist puppy.  Turned out, Jeremy's works with the guy.  So we went and looked at him and couldn't pass him up.  He's a 10 week old chihuahua and weighs 3 lbs.  He's quite the cute little devil and full of energy.  After days of deliberation, or procrastination, you choose, we decided to name him Clyde.

And do you know how hard it is to get a decent picture of an active little dog?!

W....i....n.....d

I jinxed it, it's all my fault.  In this post, I just happened to mention how the ever incessant wind had yet to crank up.  Yesterday it cranked up and it's blowing full force now.  Last I heard 45-50 mph was expected.  And it's all my fault.  I shall fall to my knees and repent.  We also got our first snow of the season, which came horizontal and was a measly amount.

On a more fun note, I have a surprise to share with all 4 of you tomorrow, my faithful blog readers....

Teddy Bear Mittens

Just because she was being so cute, I had to add this.

Pre-Halloween

Finally, a post with some pictures of the stuff I've been doing. First we have some jammies I made the girls.

Then we did a dry run of our Halloween costumes, making sure everything was good to go. We don't want any wardrobe malfunctions J

Otherwise autumn is in full force. We have had some rain, cool temperatures and the ever incessant wind, although it hasn't cranked up yet…we still just have a breeze.

Ssssssssnoring….

It seems over the last several months Jeremy's snoring has gotten worse and worse and worse and, well, you get the idea. One time last summer he woke up feeling out of breath, so he called our family doctor and made an appointment. He ended up having a sleep study in early October. They reviewed his results and he has severe sleep apnea. A total of 117 episodes in an hour…incredible! So he had a followup sleep study to fit him for a CPAP machine and a mask. They are coming to install this thing and get it all adjusted sometime in the next week. It will be wonderful to sleep in the same bed all through the night without one of us going to the couch. This has been the case for months now.


I haven't been great at posting the things I'm creating right now because most are Christmas presents. I do have a baby quilt, for my stash, no specific baby yet, that I'm working on the binding now. So hopefully I'll be posting that here soon.

Middle of October, already...

Wow, life has been passing us by. I looked at the calendar a few weeks ago and asked myself, "Where the heck did September go?" I'm looking at the calendar again wondering, "How did it get to be nearly the middle of October, already?" And long time, no blog.

I have been busily sewing Grace's Halloween costume. After unsuccessfully finding a suitable witch costume, I found a super easy pattern for a basic dress. She picked out some pinkish/purplish fabric and I commenced sewing. It was pretty quick and decent looking, however, it was HUGE! After some alterations, it was proclaimed to be a witch dress. I found some fun fabric, shimmery purple with spiderwebs on it, and on sale, for the cape. Then we found out she cannot be a witch for the Halloween party at her preschool, too scary for all the kids. So she's going to be a witch when we're trick-or-treating and a princess at preschool. All we needed to buy was a crown and a magic wand!

Anna is going as a monkey for trick-or-treating and a ladybug to preschool. The only reason she has two is because the monkey outfit it heavy and warm, not something she can wear indoors all day long.

Since Grace's costume was fun, I decided to make the girls some jammies with a pattern I had. The jammies are turning out very cute, but I got a very sore shoulder. It feels exactly like how my RA feels before I went on medication. Of course, it's the right shoulder. I figger it must be the way I hold my arm when I'm sewing un-straight lines. I never have problems when I work on quilts….So I'm taking it slower on the finishing touches on the jammies.

I got to work on Monday, with a sore shoulder, cranky kids that weekend, and non high-quality sleep, only to be given the news that a coworker had passed away on Saturday very unexpectedly. It sure makes you stop and think…about life insurance, living life to the fullest, enjoying every minute with the ones you love.  He was only 54. Rest in Peace, Ken, I'll miss the chocolate!

I'm back

Wow, I know I’ve been gone a long time! To catch you up….I went to Park City, Utah (where the 2002 Winter Olympics were held) for a week for a National Hydraulic Engineering Conference. The resort the conference was at was, wow!, pretty classy. It’s the off season, so the rooms were reasonable and it was pretty deserted. In hindsight, I should have taken the family as Jeremy took off work to watch the girls while I was gone.  Here's a shot of part of the resort.

My parents came up for a visit last weekend. It sure was nice to see them since they live so far away and we don’t have the best accommodations. Sorry for the air mattress on the floor, Mom and Dad.

I’ve had some proud moments on the Mommy front lately. After preschool one day, Grace came to me and said, “Mommy, watch me write my name.” And she did an Excellent job. I have also heard her saying her Pledge of Allegiance. New daycare/preschool is doing great things for her! And then I’ve been halfheartedly trying to potty-train Anna all summer. I put her in undies and tell her to not get them wet. The other day she was running around the house in her undies and told me she had to potty. We ran to the bathroom and we both heard the tinkles and Anna got lots of praise and some candy for doing such a good job. I hope she’s like Grace and once the deed was actually done, it was a downhill slide to complete potty training from there.

And you gotta have the Burger Queen shot.

Socks, Canning, Preschool…that about highlights my life these days

Here's my first place ribbon with my socks. These are the ones I entered in the Laramie County Fair. I entered some in the State Fair and know I got a first. My mother-in-law also said I got a gift certificate for Superintendent's Choice (or something like that)…YEAH!!

I've been pretty busy canning this weekend. I canned some chokecherry jelly and syrup (thanks to my mother-in-law and Lloyd for the chokecherries), peach butter, and sweet pickled green beans. Jeremy still wants me to can some meat and some chili, so maybe next weekend.

We I have recently decided to quit buying paper napkins and I'm making some fabric napkins from my stash. We've got some blue camo, cherries, and stars. I'm just doing a quick zigzag around the edges and, Voila!, napkins. We've had arguments over who gets which napkin….

Next week a coworker and I are going to the National Hydraulic Engineering Conference in Park City, Utah, where they had the last winter Olympics. It is work related, but my coworker and I are pretty excited to get out of town.

The new daycare/preschool is going pretty well. There were no tears on Monday, tears from Anna on Tuesday and Wednesday, tears from both girls on Thursday. Yet on Friday, Grace smiled and waved from the window. Anna didn't go on Friday as she was running a fever. Of course, the fever broke by 8:30 that morning and I decided not to take her to the doctor. Almost like a wasted day off, but not really because I got to spend it with Anna and we never get Anna-Mommy time all by ourselves very often.

New Daycare

We have finally said enough is enough with our daycare and found a new one. The new one is a facility with 118 kids! Grace will be in a preschool setting learning her abc's and getting prepped for kindergarten. Anna will be in with other 2 year olds that are actively potty training, as we're trying. She'll be learning some things like colors and counting. They have fun days with slip-n-slides or the ice cream truck comes by. The hours are more flexible, so I'll be able to sneak in the gym a few more days a week. And the price is comparable to what we are currently paying. And no more closed days.

I thought we needed some little girl pictures, so here we go….

Sunset Socks

I took my Sherbet Socks into the county fair and lol and behold, I got a first place!  My mother in law suggested I enter them in the State Fair.  However, they don't release the exhibits until later on Saturday afternoon, when we had already planned to be in Douglas.  I'm going to enter the recently completed My Sister's Sunset Socks.  For those of you who care about the stats:  2.25mm needle, Bubble Wrap pattern, took exactly one month to make with Patons Kroy Socks FX color "Cameo Colors"  I started another sock, but this one is hush-hush for now.

I've also been the crazy canning lady.  So far I've canned apple cinnamon syrup, applesauce and peaches.  I also plan on canning dill pickles, peach butter, carrots, and beans except I have run out of jars and do not have any dill.  However, I will be gathering both from my mother in law this weekend.

Garden Produce

The garden is actually producing green beans this year…yet we only have one lone pea plant. Last year was quite the opposite. It's wonderful to be able to have a salad straight from the garden.

We have let the chickens roam around the property in hopes of keeping down the grasshoppers and other bugs. Lately I've noticed they come a'running when somebody goes outside, especially if you have a bucket or two in your hands. Check it out.

one chicken

more have materialized

almost everybody

everybody's here!

and they followed me all the way to the coop...

Out of the mouths of babes….I was getting ready to give Jeremy a haircut using the clippers and I was trying to figure out which one was the shortest we'd been using. Grace asked me which one I use to "mow" daddy's hair. We got quite the chuckle out of that.

My kiddos are currently pushing a baby doll stroller around outside.....in only their underwear/diaper.  Gotta love the country and lack of close by neighbors!