Cookie Chaos (Who am I kidding, my life is always like this)

There's something that happens during cookie season, if you're a scout leader, a cookie coordinator for your troop, and even sometimes if you are a cookie mom with inventory on hand. You go a little crazy. And I don't mean the cookie sales crazy that you see as an innocent bystander. I mean the internal "I'm trying to keep it together while constantly tallying and subtracting and balancing bank deposits and inventory and cookie supply and demand information in my head." I've already gotten there, on day two of cookie sales, when usually I don't get there until a couple of weeks in. I am disturbed. My brain won't shut off. The house has long ago fallen apart, and I just need to clear my head.

Blogging, is the way to clear your head. I don't get to do it much anymore, but this morning, on Sunday, I decided I would just sit down and dump my brain, pour my heart out, and feel much lighter.

I realized that I needed my laptop, which was in the van, in the locked-up-like-a-fortress garage, and that I wasn't dressed. I tried to get dressed, which became a huge chore. My jeans are all dirty. Like so dirty I won't tell you how many times I have worn my favorite one pair of jeans without washing them. Nope. Won't say. Can't tell. So I gathered all the jeans up to wash a load, at which time I realized I needed to throw in the new boy scout uniform pants of M's. I use the term "new" lightly. I am trying to be money conscious (always) and so instead of dumping the ridiculously outrageous $24 on a pair of blue pants, I found a pair on ebay for $10. M doesn't like jeans and has been begging me to buy him uniform pants because they are more like khakis and less rigid. Sometimes jeans make him freak out with the rubbing on the skin and the rawness on the waist. So I found the $10 pair on ebay. Then they arrived. Then I saw that the seller did not disclose the poorly hemmed bottoms, and the fact that they were 4" shorter than any average. They were also really washworn and not nearly as new blue as the photo showed. I spent the morning watching M in the tub while I used the seam ripper to tear out the hems and then discovered that even if they are now long enough, they have been worn and faded enough to have two very white-ish horizontal lines across the legs where the hems were folded. Ugh. In the process of getting these pants ready for the wash I thought I would open A's new swimsuits. I never buy Justice clothes. They are too much for me and I usually have a great friend (two actually) who sell used Justice clothes at a price I can handle, and then I don't have to shop. But I saw an advertisement for a cute swimsuit that's right up A's alley, and I thought, I will get that as her "good swimsuit" for this spring. So I ended up ordering two suits and a rashguard that matches both. She has a used Justice suit that was a size 12 and it surprisingly fit her perfectly. It's the only justice suit she has, she normally wears a 6/7 in suits and I thought we might finally get into an 8 this summer. She's slim. But since the Justice suit I have is a 12, of course I ordered all size 12's from Jutice. They swam on her. We were both so sad. I wanted to return them and exchange then for an 8, but of course they are "online only items" and the return form is just a return form, not an exchange form. And I call Justice and they "don't process returns" but would be happy to make my life a living hell by placing a whole new order where, you know, I pay them again with my unlimited funds and then later on (you know like two months from now when they get through their "processing time" i can have my original money back. Good times. I may lost it just a bit and tell the woman on the phone that if she can't process a return I don't want their junk and I will just send it back. Yeah. This is because I am supposed to be blogging by now but I haven't even gotten dressed.

I package up the RETURN and take the load of jeans and boy scout pants down to wash. At which time I am interrupted by kids who want to talk about Spirit Week. Which starts tomorrow. Because on Friday when I picked them up from school, M gets into the van and says "I can't wait to see all the costumes you are going to sew this weekend for us" and I think he is confused because HALLOWEEN IS NINE MONTHS AWAY and I swear I thought I got a year before I have to do that again. Then a paper is thrust at me with excitement and I see that on top of the TWO cookie booths we are running this weekend, the birthday party, and the Girl Scout meeting to prepare for World Thinking Day, we now have Super Hero Day, Disney Day, Mismatch and Crazy Hair Day, School Spirit Day, and Blast to the past day. I digress. (That's the moral of the story, you see.)

So the kids get told that their mother is offering no assistance for Spirit Week. It's every big kid for themselves. Their outfits have to be decided and laid out the night before. Mom isn't sewing, buying, or crafting ANYTHING (hear me, ANY. THING.) for Spirit Week. That's not very nice of me, is it. Not very spirited. But I grew up when Spirit Week was in high school and the participants were self sufficient enough to figure it out with minimal help from parents. I want my kids to start this self-sufficiency early, like they are starting Spirit Week early. I explain to them that they can create their own super hero! Won't it be fun! and M starts literally crying, and telling me that his teacher told him he has to be a boughten super hero and that it has to be a real one not a made up one (which I absolutely know isn't true, but he takes things very literally and is always concerned that he will be in trouble) and so eventually the tears get calmed and today we are tearing the house apart (more) to find costume pieces. We have one spiderman glove and one spidey suit. The mask is missing but I declare that *not my problem* because It's not my job to keep track of masks and the only real reason there is one glove and a suit is because of my attempts to organize and keep things in labeled bins (which means those two important pieces were in the costume tote where they were supposed to be.)
A Plays along beautifully and creates her own superhero, Called "Anime" pronounced AnnaMae.... who is a Japanese Anime Artist who can draw things and snap her fingers so that those things come to life. She finds an Indian/beaded/silkish gown from the Goodwill Halloween Costume buying spree, puts her hair in pigtails and sticks pencils in them, and takes paper and colored pencils in hand. I'm so proud of her own creativity and my lack of involvement that I go right down and put on a t-shirt and my clean pair of unflattering black fleece pants, my sweater slippers, and slip outside to the Fort-Knox Garage to get my laptop from the van. In my haste to finally get home last night, and out of my clothes and into my bed, I didn't pull the van up far enough in the garage so the back hatch is too close to the door so I can't open it to get the laptop out of the back, but eventually I get the laptop into the house and onto the sticky and overcrowded dining room table.

I open it, I log on to blogger, and I am READY! M comes out and says "are you hungry mom? I will make you some cereal" (So sweet is he. Always my helper. He loves me, this I know.) I tell him, "sure buddy, I would love some rice chex!" and I thank him and sit down. And he says "Hey mom, we are out of milk." So I have him just make his own cereal and I will run up to Caseys in a few minutes and get more milk. (you know, I was JUST out in the van. Seriously. JUST.)

"Anime" comes out in full costume, and suddenly wearing the pink pair of glasses that she *lost at school* two months ago, that I cleaned her locker and her desk and crawled under part of the dirty bleachers in the gym and looked in the smelly lost and found box and begged the office to look out for and posted on the school facebook page. They are ON HER FACE as if they never left, and she is a nonchalant about it as though I didn't just go on a month-long rampage looking for them. I just look at her incredulously and say "where did you get those glasses" and she responds with "I don't know, I just found them somewhere." Yeah.

All of this, and I haven't written a word. Then E tears himself away from Planes Fire and Rescue long enough to have an argument with me about why he wants to watch more music videos on You Tube, and then to ask for a snack (he hasn't had breakfast, we don't have milk) and he announces that he will eat pretzels for breakfast and I say "fine. Eat whatever. I don't care." and start to write.

THIS, Is why I never get to write. This is my life.

I love my life, I truly do. I am surrounded with people who love me, even if they also sometimes drive me entirely insane. We are healthy. We have a warm place to sleep, even if it's a disaster.

The laptop is surrounded by dirty dishes, the paint for the Little Free Library I haven't gotten to paint yet, the Mod Podge and supplies leftover from the Pinewood Derby car two or three weeks ago, Three opened cereal containers getting stale, a role of paper towels, an IH tractor, an open container of pretzels with a missing lid, a letter that my recent PAP came back clear, The offending list of Spirit Week activities on yellow paper, A hanger, and a bowl of slowly rotting blood oranges that my kids HAD to have and then REFUSED to eat. I look on the floor and I see a page of Christmas Stickers, a piece of aluminum foil, a non-winning scratch lotto ticket, a ring from a milk jug, a foil peeled back top from a to go butter container, a sprig of grape stems with no grapes attached, and a green top from a squeeze applesauce container, one child slipper, and a ziploc bag of markers.... all within two feet of my person. Where do I start? Who can I hire? How would I pay them?

Maybe I just need to eat some Girl Scout Cookies?

Mini Mei-Tai / Babyhawk "Picture-less" Tutorial

This tutorial is for sewing goddesses who will be able to piece this together in their mind if I give them a brief description of my measurements and steps. I meant to take pictures while sewing, but since I was throwing it together from scratch myself, and had no pattern or tutorial to follow, I was (stupidly) too worried that I would make mistakes and not have the steps correct to make a full picture tutorial.

So.

I wanted to make a baby carrier for Ardyn, so that she could carry her dolls and animals around like I carried her, and like I wear Marek. I didn't like the idea of a doll sling because I don't think it's secure enough for the babies to stay in with all the wild and crazy Diego-inspired adventures she partakes in on a daily basis.... plus I thought the Mei-Tai would be so stinkin cute. The Babyhawk is by far my favorite baby carrier, and at $119 for a custom reversible babyhawk, it had better be. I also have 2 hotslings, a Mayan Ring Sling, and aMoby (which I also really like, except it's HOT to wear) and an evenflo carrier. I wanted to mimic the functionality and pretty design of my babyhawk.

So, Ardyn is a 2T, with a 19" chest. I decided to just start measuring her and use my instincts to create my size. This is what I did. YOU will need to measure your child and alter the pattern accordingly if you think this size is not going to work for you. I did find that Ardyn prefers to wear her dolls in the back, so she can stuff Oreos in her mouth without getting crumbs on the doll (I struggle with that myself, LOL) and also because she has poor depth perception and seems to trip on things that she can't see when she is wearing her baby in front. (She IS my child!)

I started with the following:
1 Waist Strap- measuring 44" long x 4.5" wide
2 Shoulder straps measuring 44" long x 4.5" wide
Outer Bodice (Body of the carrier, not including headrest) 10 x 10" square
Bodice Lining (I used a pretty flannel) 10 10" square
Outer Headrest- 9" wide by 4.5" tall
Headrest Lining (same flannel) - 9" wide by 4.5" tall
PADDING for inside headrest (optional. See info in directions)

Now. I also used contrasting fabrics for the straps and the body. You Could use contrasting fabrics for the headrest and lining, or just coordinating.... whatever suits you. You could also put a pocket on it, like the babyhawk, but I have found that even though I paid a BUNCH extra to have TWO pockets (one on each side) of my reversible babyhawk, I really don't use them because we don't use disposable diapers, and because I like to tie the shoulder straps around baby's back instead of under his butt, to give me more mobility and support a younger OR heavier baby. Tying the straps around the back pretty much limits the pocket access.

I could have made the shoulder straps longer in proportion to the waist strap, but I didn't want her to pee on dangling straps (potty training, ugh) or trip on them.... also, having exactly 1/2 yard of fabric at 44" wide, it worked out perfectly to use my fabric at maximum efficiency. Because my fabric is not used for draping, or weight bearing (this is a TOY carrier) I didn't pay any attention to the selvages or grain of the fabric, I just maximized it's use because I was using Michael Miller Fabrics that are pricey and I ration them as it is.

I wanted a "padded headrest" because I like that it will mimic the babyhawk style mei-tai, and so I grabbed a microfiber automotive towel that I had laying around (get a whole bag cheap at Wal-Mart) because I use them as absorbency in my cloth diapers and trainers. I just cut TWO rectangles the size of the headrest and used it to sandwich between. I will get to that later....

My "finished" Bodice is 8.5" wide x 9" tall without the headrest. I expected it to be 9x9 but I had a sewing error and had to trim and re-do, so it actually works just fine either way.

Step 1. STRAPS:
Fold each Strap in half lengthwise, with right sides together. Serge (or sew, your preference) the long edges. on the SHOULDER STRAPS (2 of them) serge or sew ONE END closed at an angle, forming a point (looks nice and pretty, professional, etc.) If you serged, put some Fray Check on the 2 corners where the serging meets and at the "point". I suggest leaving both ends of the waist strap open so that you can close them as the final step, after you have attached to the bodice. This allows you to try it on the child and take off any excess length to prevent tripping!

Turn the straps rightside out. I then press with an iron, and topstitch each shoulder strap.... so that they look finished and lay flat, like so:

Step 2. HEADREST:
This is designed to be flipped up or down depending on the age of your baby and their head control, or depending on their status (awake or asleep!)

This was my favorite part. You could leave it out altogether as it is purely eye candy for a doll carrier. But I love it just the same. Okay, so I started by angling the ends of the headrest layers, so they looked just like the headrest on my babyhawk (which was in the van, so I couldn't even LOOK at it! Just from memory...) I just used my rotary cutter and a olipfa ruler (strightedge) and my cutting mat. I eyeballed it. I don't know the measurements. Use your judgement (I know some of you hate me for saying that. Sorry!)

Then I put the lining and outer fabric together (good sides of the fabric facing) and serged (or sew) the top and sides together. I put fray check on the corners. I turned it rightside to. I pressed with my iron. Then I cut the Microfiber layers for my stuffing, identically to the headrest pieces, but 1" shorter on length and width, so that I could "stuff it" inside the headrest pieces. Once I had it all inside, I topstitched the headrest with the microfiber inside, and stitched at 3/4 inch-ISH intervals to mimic quilting (as in my real carrier) Voila- Finished Headrest. Nice and cushy!

Step 3. HARD STUFF!- attaching the headrest!
This is where things start to come together. Very gratifying, but confusing and not sure how I will describe this without pictures. Oy. Okay I lay out the two bodice pieces wrong sides together so it looks just as it will when finished... and I put the lining piece face down on the table. Then I lay the headrest piece on top (meaning ABOVE the bodice on the table, like it will look when assembled), with the lining facing down against the table, like my bodice pieces. Now I use my common sense and sewing experience to determine that I need the headrest to be sandwiched between the bodice outer fabric and the lining, with the narrowest "top" edge of the headrest down INSIDE (between) the bodice layers. This is so that when I SERGE the top seam of the bodice, I sew the headrest inside it, and then when I turn the bodice right side out, the headrest "pops out beautifully" and is all inside the top seam of the bodice.

This is something that you either know how to do, or you don't. I learned all about it in high school home-ec when I put the arm on my teddy bear, backwards, about 4 times in a row until I wanted to cry. Now, I finally get it. LOL.

So, basically before sewing, the widest "open" end of the headrest will be facing UP and matching right along the top seam of the bodice. The headrest will be (right sides to, with microfiber quilted between) down inside (between) the 2 layers of your bodice. The bodice layers should be RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER and if you pin the two layers of the bodice and the open end of the headrest together, you can peek inside from the BOTTOM of the bodice and see that the right side of the OUTER bodice is touching the right side of the OUTER headrest... and the right side of the INNER LINING of the bodice is touching the right side of the INNER LINING Of the quilted headrest. If that is the way it is, you should come out allright in the end. Whew. Serge across the top seam (or sew.) TURN the bodice right side to. The headrest will pop up beautifully, attached! If it doesn't, then rethink your process!

Step 4. SHOULDER STRAPS!

Attaching the shoulder straps is also a bit complicated. Getting the angle correct on them is the tricky part. But if you accomplished the headrest, no fear.... you can do this part too!

Just like before, the OPEN end of the shoulder straps is going to get sewn into the side seams of the bodice. The best I can do for showing placement is to show you my finished product. I lay the straps out on the table. I paid close attention to the POINTS on the straps. I wanted the softest edge of the straps to lie against my DD's skin, so I put the folded edge (not the sewn edge) towards the headrest. I lay them onto the bodice piece- right sides together-and put them at the angle that I desired. Then I TURNED THE STRAPS INSIDE so that the straps were sandwiched between my bodice pieces. The bodice pieces rightsides together, the straps sandwiched between (just like the headrest was!) and then I pinned the straps in place before sewing/serging. I suggest you do one, then turn it rightside to, then check to see if it's where and how you want it before sewing the second. I also suggest that if you are worried, you BASTE the straps in between the bodice pieces, turn rightside to, and then turn it back and sew or serge it once you are confident. :)

Once you have both sides sewn and the shoulder straps in place, you are almost done! The hard stuff is over!! YAY! All that is left is the bottom of the bodice and waist strap!

I turn the bodice right sides facing out. Then I fold the raw edges under and inside so that the bottom looks finished, and pin. Then I TOPSTITCH the entire bodice, below the headrest and in a perfect square. Bodice FINISHED! hooray!

Next for the bottom waist strap. At this point I tried this on DD to make sure that it wasn't too long. you could do this before closing up the bottom, if you are worried about length. I determined how I wanted to attach my waist strap based on how much length I needed. I decided to attach the waist strap OVER the bodice bottom, making the bottom bodice hem and the botton of the waistband fluch with each other. This meant that when I topstitched the bottom waistband strap, I was also attaching the bodice to the waistband in one easy step. (see pic!)

Then I tried it on DD and checked the length of the waist straps. They ended up being perfect, so I just folded the edges inside and topstitched each strap end. I did not do these to a point. Just my preference. there you have it! Feel free to reinforce any stitching that you feel might need to be stronger!

Hope this helps someone who wants to make one, and if I make another in the future, I will take pics and update this tutorial!

Decisions Decisions

Do you know how hard it is to drag your ass out of bed and be motivated when you know you will go to work and bring home the equivalent of $1.25 and hour? And this is in the good Ol USA, not Mexico. No Third World Country. Ugh. Dramatic. I know. But man is it hard to feel motivated to give 100% of yourself when you could be home in your stretchy pants eating cereal and playing with your kid all day.

My mind has been ROLLING with what I will do. ROLLING with ideas. Dollar signs. Business Opportunities. SAHM and WAHM thoughts. It's so hard for me to get to sleep at night. Ever since feeling the pain of a postpartum paycheck, I have gone to bed at 12am or 1am instead of my usual 10 or 10:30. Even when I lay down, my mind swims for another hour at least. Frustrating. My husband just says "Don't worry. Don't stress" and while I appreciate his comforting comments, if it were that easy to turn MY brain off, I would have done it by now. In talking with CB I got to the bottom today, determining that you can't really make the "right" decision in this situation because you can't know the outcome. You just can't know what will happen 20 years from now, and whether or not either decision is the "right" one. So I am going to try to not let this eat me alive for a while. Speaking of eaten alive.... I swear something is biting my back.

I have been investigating Sergers. The Husqvarna has the best reviews, even over most singer models I have read about. Although Brother gets fairly good reviews. I think I need to go to a sewing store and see them demonstrated. But those are few and far between these days. The closest one is like 45 minutes away. Trying to figure out if I should have Evan take me, go by myself, or what.

Ahhh.... Decisions. Life is full of them.

Ardyn and Mom

I have so much that I wanted to write about tonight, but it's past my bedtime and I have spent the ENTIRE night uploading photos to Flickr because I was so behind! If you want to see new pictures, it's the place to go. For those of you who don't know, I have made Ardyn's photos all private, and only my friends and family can see them. So if you want to see them from this point forward, you will have to join Flickr (or just login if you have a yahoo account) and then I will have to add you as my friend... so shoot me a Flickr mail once you are logged in and you can see all the new pictures once I add you. There has been lots of recent activity with photos of children on flickr being stolen and posted on websites for pedophiles. Yes. Therefore Ardyn is now private.

We have photos of her being bundled up for winter, playing and laughing, being held by family members, with mom, with dad, and out and about. Plenty to check out.

Tivo shows are getting pretty good. How about The wolves surrounding Marin on Friday night? I think that it's CASH that will be hospitalized, as he walks back to Marin's cabin and tries to save her from wolves. Or perhaps his health issue causes a problem when he encounters the wolves and that's why he goes in the hospital. Speculation. Which I am good at. And How about the Tornado on Wisteria Lane? Victor being found? Lynette Crying and bloody? Whoa.

Today was pretty productive. Ardyn slept through the night in her crib last night. 8 hours. That was the first time I tried putting her in her crib to sleep. She's also been in there since 7:30 tonight when she fell asleep. Poor kid was exhausted tonight as she fought a nap all day and finally took a one hour nap. So she was awake 12 hours with only a one hour nap. Wow.

I picked up a bit around here, loaded and ran the dishwasher. Made myself cereal for breakfast, soup for lunch, and mexican rice for supper. Watched some TIVO. Spent the entire day trying to lay Ardyn down for her nap after she fell asleep 524 times only to have her wake up in 5 minutes. Talked to two friends on the phone. Checked my email. Sold 13 items on eBay. Uploaded all of Ardyn's photos from the end of October and November so far. Organized all those photos into folders on the computer. Damn Firetrucks keep going by here with lights and sirens and so far they haven't woke Ardyn up. Hope they don't.

Evan and his dad finished plastic on the windows. I took a bath. Wrote in Ardyn's baby books. Made a haircut appointment for this week and asked Evan's mom to babysit.

I also had to confront an old friend today. Someone who I have known since kindergarten showed up on my doorstep today to see the baby. Instead of letting them in, I had to ask them to leave and let them know that I never wanted to see them again. That was difficult. I felt badly but I knew that moment was coming. It's hard to see someone that you care about constantly make bad decisions. It's even harder to see those bad decisions become worse decisions. But there comes a time and a place where you realize that you can't jeopardize your family and that it becomes more stressful to be friends with someone than it does to cut those ties. I have never even broken up with a boyfriend, let alone a friend. I think that's the first time I have ever had to do that. But the line was crossed when this person hurt one of my best friends and did something that is unforgivable (not to mention illegal.) Because it's not my story to tell, I will leave it at that. Hopefully having this all over can bring some peace to all of us and I can stop worrying about how it will all play out. I tried to remain calm and just state the facts, and how I felt, and to be very clear that this was the last time we would talk. While I didn't want to hurt an old friend, I didn't really have a choice. I am proud of myself for making a decision for my family and myself and sticking to it despite being uncomfortable.

Oh and this photo is of Ardyn and I tonight, in our pajamas.

Down with the Sickness

I should be in bed. I should be in bed.

1am. Told you.

In all fairness, I spent from 8:50 till 9:30 getting Ardyn ready for bed, nursing her to sleep, and putting her in bed. And then I spent 9:30 till 11:45.... putting her to bed. Again. And Again. And Again. Shushing. Nursing. Popping the pacifier back in her mouth. Rocking. Jiggling. Bouncing. Walking. Talking quietly and reassuringly.

Then I drank a cup of tea and finally finished the magazine that I started to flip through at 1:00 this afternoon. And I didn't read anything. Just flipped through it.

Then I went through a bag of clothes that I had bought at a garage sale a while back, all size 3 months to 2T... took off the tags (which they STAPLED to the clothes thanks) and placing them in the hamper along with the tote full of 3-6 months clothes that I went through today that a friend sent me.

I also scrubbed out the car seat and soaked a sleeper that had more poop in it than the diaper did. When grabbing some food at a restaurant this evening, Ardyn had a major blowout in her carseat, leaked out the diaper, through the sleeper, and all over everything, clear down to her little toes. That was a fun cleanup. Wipes head to toe in the bathroom that HAS no changing station. Yep.

Then I went down and did a few loads of laundry, and was down there so long that I literally got three loads done... because I was CLEANING the laundry room that is horribly terrible. I hate the laundry room. No one that lives here ever puts clothes away. Ever. It's a nightmare. We live out of the laundry room. Except Ardyn. I am too particular about her stuff.

Then I refilled my pill case. Then I sterilized breast pump parts, bottles, and pacifiers in the micro-steamer. Then I called my husband, who is so so so so sick that when he went to McDonalds at 11:30pm he never came home. But he is so so so sick that he complains every 4 seconds. And the cold that he has- Ardyn and I had first. And I was operating for a week with the same cold and in addition a sore throat, with an average of 2-4 hours of sleep a night for that entire week, and also taking care of a sick baby who couldn't breathe. And suctioning her nose out while she screamed every single hour during every single night. And that. Sucked. And no one else cared. And he is so so so sick. So sick that he told me he would just have to lay around tonight and be on the couch. And now he's missing. That's how sick he is. Very sick. I feel bad for him. Really bad. So bad that I might wait by the door with a frying pan to put him out of his misery.

The husband and I got flu shots today too. I was a big girl. I got a candy bar from the plastic pumpkin when I was done. I stood still. I didn't cry. It didn't even hurt. I have never had a flu shot in my entire life. I work in healthcare and they offer them free to us each year as employees because we are around sickness and disease and INFLUENZA! I never get one. And this year, even though I hate needles, I got one. For my daughterThe things you do for your kids. Now I know all abut what my mom always told me. But the shot was nothing. Because once you work in a hospital and have blood drawn on a regular basis and then go through labor and childbirth and an epidural and 6 tries to get an IV into your veins and a tear in your undercarriage followed by a postpartum hemorrhoid.... a little flu shot seems awfully petty and small.

Well, if my arms wouldn't just get tired from holding that frying pan over my head in anticipation, I might just stay up even longer. But I am all out of electricity and it's time for this mom to recharge. But by the time I get the dangerously broken out face washed and toned and moisturized with the proactiv trial kit and put some chapstick on and a sleeping bra... I assume that it will be 2am. Another thing I figure. I might not ever sleep without a bra again. As long as I live. When I was little my grandma told me that if I wanted to keep perky breasts I would have to wear a bra every night. I was like "Uh. no." but now it's all about keeping the leaking at bay. Which I almost never leak. But the night I don't wear a bra and breast pads to bed is the night I will wake up swimming in warm milk. And that's just wasteful. By the time I get done nursing babe #1, I am sure to be well on my way to babe #2... and so on, and so forth. Evan says five kids. I say "great. where do we put them and who pays for daycare? And who takes care of them when I go crazy?" He says they are stackable.

Told You So

See, I told you I can't make myself sleep before 1am! Damn! Ardyn went to sleep at 9pm. At 10pm I looked at Evan and said "I am so tired!" at 10:45 I swore I was going to bed in 15 minutes. Now it's quarter till 1. I am really going to bed. I did get 4 ounces pumped and added to the freezer stash. I shopped online and did research on a few kids/baby products that I have been looking at. I restored my laptop to a few weeks ago, before my iTunes decided to give me an error and not open. I did loads of laundry. I drank Tastefully Simple's Chai Tea, setting off the smoke detector when boiling water (yep.)

I looked through two catalogs, but still have 5 new magazines that I haven't cracked the covers on. Martha Stewart Living, Midwest Living, Parents, Mothering, and Baby Talk. Oh make that 6. Brain Child Magazine too. I put away 4 pair of baby tights and all of Ardyn's clean laundry. Why is it that baby laundry is so stinkin fun to wash and fold? I love it. I had a onesie that was soft turquoise and it had a poo stain. I washed it 5 times before I got it to come out. I soaked it twice in OxiClean baby. Spot treated it once with Spray and Wash, Once with a stain stick, and once with color safe Clorox Bleach. I checked it after each wash and never dried it, just kept on washing it in various cycles and with various stain treatments or combinations until FINALLY the stain is gone. Whew! And it was like a $5 onesie, and I probably spent like $12 in stain treatments and time trying to get the stain out. Mom conquers poo stain!

I have really begun to wonder where my exchange order from Motherwear is at. I had Evan mail the return like 3 weeks ago and still haven't seen my exchanged merchandise. I have a sickening feeling that maybe it got lost in the mail? I hope not because there was about $86 in merchandise in that return. I bet Evan didn't insure it because I didn't specify that it needed to BE insured because I never even really thought about it. I hope that they have received it and are just slow in the processing. Ugh. It just makes me sick to think it could be lost! I could use more than the three nursing shirts that I tend to wear everywhere. They came in handy last week when we nursed in the middle of the SouthPark Mall in Moline twice, and in the men's section of Von Maur. They keep everything neatly covered.

Okay, enough freakish brain activity. It's 12:50am. WAY past bedtime!