stuff

There is a reason my blog is called Stuff and Nonsense. Don't get mad at me... you clicked it!

--Today I finally called the pediatrician who I've been thinking of switching to. I only got the number from a friend like... 3 months ago or something. Anyway, she is taking new patients and takes our insurance. We've used the same amazing ped practice since I became a civilian when Jessi was a tiny baby but his office is in Va Beach. That was far enough when we lived in Hampton, but now in N.N., it is prohibitively far. The kids are SOOOO behind on well-child checks (although I figure I can tell if they are well or not), but with a new baby coming, I figured I did need to find a local Doctor that I will actually go to, you know? Anyway, this Ped practice is very "natural family" friendly, in fact your first new baby appointment, even before the two week check up with the Dr., is with their lactation consultant. She also has a reputation for not freaking out if you don't vax on schedule, which will be handy. And, she is not 45 minutes away through bridge/tunnel traffic, that is the biggest plus of all. So it took 30 minutes on the phone to get the kids into the system and schedule new patient/well-child checks for them all, but that is done.
--I was planning to call the violin teacher and interview her/ make arrangements for a visit, but am still hoping for a little more feedback in all the places I've posted.
--I sewed on the kids' badges for Rainbows and Rangers.. although I think I may be missing some for Jessi. The teacher told me once that they should have 19 badges when they finish, and I only have 15, unless they are counting the club patch and the Rainbow patch, which is 17, but still, they are on their last badge before graduation, so I would still be missing one. I know Jessi has earned them all, but I was SO behind that I sewed on 5 just today and there could easily be some lost.
--We took Jeff in to work and then went and picked him up (he's working partial days again post surgery) and stopped at a thrift store to check the price on a bookcase they have outside. I was thinking $15-20. Ha. The guy claims it's solid oak and it's $80. Well... if it's solid oak and worth $80, he needs to strip the 23 layers of white paint off of it so it will look like it!
--We played outside for a bit, how lazy am I? I got one of those battery operated bubble blower wands so I can sit my fat pregnant self in the shade and with a push of the button generate 100's of bubbles. Seriously, the other week they wanted bubbles and I got light headed trying to blow that much. There is not much lung room left in there. When they were done with that, I turned on the sprinkler and pretended like I minded that I got wet.
--I cut off a pair of jeans that Joey had completely split the knee on and hemmed them for shorts. They were way too short anyway and made the boy look like he was going crabbing, so they are better as shorts. That child is so big. I can't keep him in clothes. Most of his pants are too short, not only in length but sit low on his waist, and most of his shirts are too short also, so there is frequently a good amount of Joey showing around the middle. Unfortunately, we were given a large quantity of underwear (new) for him and it is a tiny bit large. You are getting the picture, aren't you? the shirt rides high, the pants ride low, and all around the underpants show. Hey, that rhymes. I'm so clever. Anyway, we are just going to have to deal with it until it's time for new fall clothes. I think I'll just pin his shirts to his pants and tell him he can't raise his arms under any circumstances.
--I made a master list of all the half earned badges Joey has for Ranger Kids so he can finish those badges before we get out for the summer.
I made (and explained to him) a family tree for one of the badges. My dad would turn 104 this year. Isn't that crazy? To me it seems normal, but then I grew up with it. It just seemed funny putting all the grandparents' birth years down, 1947, 1946, 1940, 1904... I bet Joey's Ranger Commander will think it's a typo.
--Oh, thanks to my frozen meals, we had dinner tonight. Last night, no lie, and I'm woman enough to admit this out loud, we had pudding for dinner. It was layers of chocolate and vanilla, and made with real milk, but still it was pudding. Don't roll your eyes at me. If I posted that I had a girls night out and Jeff had fed the kids pudding for supper, we would all chuckle indulgently and declare that one night of pudding wouldn't hurt. So chuckle already.

Funny stuff:
Joey wanted to discuss baby names for BabyJ, I told him the boy name and some of the possible girl names. In all seriousness he said, "Mom, actually, I was thinking something more like 'Dinosaur'." I, in all seriousness told him that "dinosaur" was not acceptable because it doesn't start with J and we can't mess up the Christmas cards. He replied, "Well, how about 'Jinosaur'?" Hmmm. I had to think fast to try and get out of THAT one. But Jessi, dear Jessi, she saved the day. She informed him that that was a CRAZY name and we should of course, name the baby "Jelly", you must understand that she doesn't even LIKE jelly (texture issue), but still, somehow this was a much less crazy name than "Jinosaur." With my lightening like mental reflexes, I told them that we would not be naming the baby "Jelly", however, they could CALL the baby Jelly and that would be its nickname.

More funny stuff:
I'm having a lot of trouble with my pelvis this pregnancy as it has been trying to separate since about 25 weeks or so. Some days it is really bad and not only painful, but I truly can't walk. The other day I was walking through the house and something "went out" and I couldn't put any weight on my left leg. I stood there and experimented for a while, and said outloud, "Oh dear, I can't walk". The only person in hearing distance was Joy, who looked up from her coloring and said, "Mommy can't walk? Oh Mommy...." then very excitedly she thought of a solution and said, "Mommy RUN!". Very sweet and all, but still not too useful. My continued lack of locomotion cemented for her the notion that mommy was indeed in a bad way, so she proceeded to demonstrate. "Like this mommy." ("wike dis mommy") and she got up from her playing, and in slow motion, "ran" across the room and sticking her little hiney out, showed me how to "Sit down" in my chair. It was classic I tell you, just classic. Such caring and problem solving from a 2 year old.
So with that sage advice I'll close for today - if you can't walk, well then, just RUN!

Suzuki Violin

I'm seriously considering this for the two older kids. The cost is going to be a bit to swallow, but I REALLY want to get the kids into music. I always assumed it would be piano lessons, but I've heard such wonderful things about the Suzuki method that I'm willing to give it a whirl.

If you have any experience with this type of music learning, positive or negative, please comment!

So one of those quizzy things is going around, only the catch is you have to answer in one word. I cheated a few times, but hey, it's my blog.


1. Where is your cell phone? nonexistent
2. Your significant other? Jeff
3. Your hair? curly
4. Your mother? amazing
5. Your father? glorified
6. Your favorite thing? creating
7. Your dream last night? weird
8. Your favorite drink? water.
9. Your dream/goal? healthy
10. The room you’re in? Living
11. Your church? homey
12. Your fear? hurt
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? elsewhere
14. Where were you last night? home
15. What you’re not? organized
16. Muffins? blueberry
17. One of your wish list items? spinningwheel
18. Where you grew up? Florida
19. The last thing you did?pizza
20. What are you wearing? pj's
21. Your TV? internet
22. Your pets? old
23. Your computer? argh
24. Your life? waiting
25. Your mood? full
26. Missing someone? Libby
27. Your car? Sienna
28. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
29. Favorite store? CestariFarms
30. Your summer? hot
31. Like (love) someone? hubby
32. Your favorite color? green
33. Last time you laughed? dinner
34. Last time you cried? yesterday
35. Who will repost this? ???

Picture catch up, part four, the end.

I haven't downloaded pictures in ages because the USB port on the front of my computer died and I wasn't in any mood to climb on the floor and crawl around back to plug the cable in. Today the fact that I had 436 pictures on the camera overcame my certainty that if I got down I would never get up, and I did it.

These are pictures of my diaper stash for the new baby. I do of course still have the ones from Joy but they are bigger, I figured I had better make some smaller ones.

This is a stuffable fitted, it has a woven cotton outer and a full suedecloth inner. The diaper is serged.

This is a non-stuffable fitted, flannel inside and out with sewn in layers of flannel inside and a sewn down suede cloth area. (the suedecloth wicks moisture away from the baby and gives a stay-dry feeling.) This diaper is sewn and turned.
This is a stuffable fitted, outer flannel, inner cotton terry/velour with the velour side to the skin. the stuffing is several layers of the same terry.
Stash of ten size two diapers. They are a combination of fitteds, stuffables, flannels and wovens, some sewn and some serged.
Stash of ten size ones, again a combo of styles.

Joey's bear modeling a one pin fitted.
An infant prefold and a regular prefold.

A flat diaper.

Bear modeling the flat, folded origami style and fastened with one pin. Bear modeling the prefold. This one takes two pins.
My size three pattern fits a good range of sizes (they fit Joy from 8 months through 18 months), but I did want to have some smaller ones for newborn stage. On the other hand, that's a lot of work to make diapers that may only fit for 6 weeks. I figured I did need a few more user friendly dipes though for grandparents etc... so many people get freaked out by cloth and a pin that I wouldn't think of adding folding to the picture, LOL.
I am loving the versatility of flat diapers so I think I'll be making up a bunch more of them--that and the fact that they are simply a hemmed square!

when i get all my wool washed and lanolyzed, I'll post pics of that too.

Picture catch up, part three

Hopefully of more interest, pictures of the kids.
This is Joey and Jessi getting their soccer trophies.



With the whole team (plus a few extras)

I know this is awfully blurry, but the look on Jessi's face... she's a monster out on the field. At the end of the recital the teacher gave each kid a certificate and a little prize. I couldn't tell exactly what they got, but could see that Joy was very interested in whatever it was. Here she is opening something.

In this picture, I could tell she was eating something, but again, couldn't see what it was.
Of course once we were told to come up to the front and collect our kids, it became quite obvious that the mystery treat that so interested Joy was... Chocolate! This is my sister Julie holding her.

picture catch up part two

More Crafty stuff:

A prayer shawl I made for a dear friend of mine. She "retired" from our MOPS Leadership after founding our group and leading it for the past 6 years. The yarn is Lion Homespun in two colors, which I don't remember, it was a purple tweed and a white tweed. The top picture is still in progress. Finished shawl laid out.

Close up of the stitch pattern.
I haven't appliqued in ages. This was birthday gift for a little girl who loves all things pink and pony.

picture catch up, part one

This set is probably not of too much interest to most of you. It's various projects on my new serger.

A dress up skirt, the edge is not quite a rolled edge, but is a very narrow seam.





















Close up of the edge on that skirt.

Skirt I made for Joy for the dance recital. Note the rolled lettuce edge. This is a double circle. It was my first project.









Edge on this costume/dress up skirt with my old serger...
Rolled edge on the same skirt with my new serger, isn't it beautiful?

















A skirt for the girls, again the rolled/lettuce edge. The girls like that.






















For some reason the text isn't always beside the proper picture. Hopefully you can figure it out.