Busy and productive day!

Lots of good things going on! I finished the Niabi Zoo Picture Frame for Ardyn's room. It's super cute! The picture is done at Wal-Mart, but I haven't picked it up just yet. Here is the finished project! You can view it larger here.)


I also recently cranked out a few Minkee and Flannel Burp rags. I needed then badly, and so I made a few. I have more to make, but I paused to work on Christina's boppy covers and wouldn't you know that my sewing machine BROKE Again? What is it with my luck?!


I was so frustrated. I have all this fabric sitting here, and these projects to work on, and I finally just decided that I would take the Sears gift card that I have had for a while now, and go look at Sears for machines. I went in looking for a backup machine in the $100 range, but I couldn't find one with a horizontal bobbin. The salesman suggested the machine that they had on closeout for $159. It had the horizontal bobbin. The only other horizontal bobbin machines were Singer's at $129. When I expressed my displeasure with Singer because of their poor quality these days, and my recent experience with the Serger, I told him that I don't want to purchase another Singer product as long as I live, and he offered to sell me the Kenmore machine for the price of the Singer, $130. I thought about it, and asked him to half the difference with me and sell it for $115, and he did! So I got the machine for $114.99 and with my gift card it only cost me $63! It was originally a $179.00 machine. To get my older Singer repaired, it cost me $65 last time, and it's doing the same damn thing again. So I started to think that maybe it's going to continue to do this, and so for less money, I got a new machine, with more stitches and such. I hope that it lasts! I may still fix the one that I have, just for backup, but we will see. I am DYING to take it out and play, but I need to go to bed tonight! It's sitting on the couch next to me, in the box. I will be especially interested to see if it has a stretch stitch (I bet it does!) because that will come in handy on my upcoming training pants with the knits. Also hoping for a 3-step zig-zag.

Both kids are in bed, and I have diapers washing. I am eating Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream and waiting for them to be ready to put in the dryer, and then I am down for the count.

Today was EXHAUSTING!

It started off with baths for Ardyn and I, followed by getting everyone dressed. The kids and I went for a walk uptown, hit the post office and the bank, and then went to the Locker to get meat for the next two weeks. Ardyn was so funny. She LOVES meat. She was fussy and impatient when we were there, and so I said "Just wait please, and when we get the meat, we will go outside and walk more." and she said "Yay! Meat! I eat the meat! I chew it up!" People in the locker were cracking up. Only my child would express her love for meat like that. he he. And then she was counting metal stars in the store, and counting them IN SPANISH?! Holy cow! Diego and Dora really do teach her so much. I count spanish to her but she has NEVER attempted to count or repeat numbers in Spanish... so I was pleased! And glad I took a year of Spanish in High School!

After our walk, we ate a picnic lunch in the front yard, that Grandma Susan had sent over for us. We watched Daddy and Grandpa Bob putting in fence posts for our new fence. When we were done eating we packed up and took off to drop Ardyn at Great Grandma Mona's house for the afternoon, while Marek and I ran errands and got groceries. It took us 4.5 hours! Jeez. It was exhausting! I took my wedding ring/set to the jeweler to get it sized down AGAIN. When we got married, I had it sized up from a 9.5 to a 10, because when putting the two bands together, they are wider and therefore fit a bit tighter. After having Ardyn it went from a 10 to an 8.5 and today they fit me at a 7.5 but I decided to get an 8 in case I swell over the summer. I have NEVER been a size 7.5 in my life. Not even in High School when I was 135 pounds! Amazing what breadtfeeding and childbirth do for my metabolism!

We got the machine at Sears, and then I tried on a few Shirts in Bergners to kill the time while my jewelry was being cleaned and inspected (i took my earrings in too.) When we got to the mall, I went to the family room and changed Marek, and sat in the rocker and nursed him. We went from there right to the jewelers, where the lady who was helping us told me that when Marek cried (he wanted to be HELD and not in the stroller) that he sounded like he was HUNGRY and I told her that I just fed him, and she said "well to me he sounds hungry!" and I wanted to smack her and tell her that he's my kid and I don't need her opintion on how he sounds because I know him better than anyone. WHY do people make comments like that? Seriously?

So after getting those errands done, we went to target to get snacks. They have the best snack foods without dairy, and so we grabbed those, and then on to get groceries. We were in Super Wal-Mart for like TWO HOURS. Oh my god. I had HUGE list, as we hadn't gotten groceries in two months (seriously) and I was doing meal planning and getting a few ingredients that I hadn't even HEARD of before, let alone knew where to find. There were a few things I did NOT find, and they were out of red bell peppers unless you bought a big bag of assorted peppers, so I need to get one of those elsewhere. Groceries are SO expensive! It costs a ton to eat well. I am doing several new recipes in the next two weeks, especially from the Rachel Ray cookbook for families (Yum-O is the name of it.) Like Meatball Orzo Soup, Transylvanian Ghoulash, Monkey French Toast, and Italian Wedding Chicken Soup. When Ardyn goes to school later this week, I will do some prep of veggies and meats, and hopefully do some pureeing so that next time I can make some recipes from the Jessica Seinfeld Cookbook. I am really wanting to get Ardyn to eat more veggies! All of us need to, really.

You know, as I am sitting here, I am realizing how awesome Marek is for a baby. He is 8 weeks old today, and when I wanted him to go down for the night, I just nursed him, changed his diaper, swaddled him, and laid him down in the cosleeper... and walked away. He puts himself to sleep every night! What's UP with that? I guess it's just because I have been doing it that way long enough that he knows what being swaddled in his bed means. As long as his belly is full, he's cool. What an awesome kid!

Well, today I did forget to pick up Marek's prescription and my photos before getting groceries, and by the time we got done, everything was closed. So I am trying to figure out if I want to do that tomorrow morning, or what. In the afternoon Ardyn is spending time with Grandma Deb while Grandma Susan and Marek and I go to the sewing machine shop that I use, to drop off the broken machine and look at Sergers. I have yet to replace mine. I am excited to see the Janome models and have the shop give me some demos. Wish us luck that we find something!

Well,I am out of things to say, so maybe I will take this Kenmore out of the box, or at least open it and read some of the book to get a feel for what it has to offer.

I will get Christina's boppy covers done if it's the last thing I do!