So I KNOW that ya'll think I am dead....

But I am not. Really. I am just keeping up with a household that includes two very hairy and stinky dogs and one very very fast crawling- TEN month old (almost!) And she is REALLY working hard on pulling up to stand, she does it frequently now and it won't be long until I think she'll be taking steps!

AND I have been a sewing maniac. Maniac I tell you. I reorganized the entire sewing room. I went on a trip to get a bit of fabric and some elastic that I needed to finish the tank top and came back with this:So I got the tank top finished. It's stinkin cute. Then I cut out a tank top in the fireworks fabric to make for the 4th. We have been invited to four cookouts in three days, and will attend at least 2-3 of them, so I can't wait for her to wear it... but first I have to get sewing.

I wanted to cross the back of the tank top because it would look SO cute, but I didn't want to go to the trouble of how in the world I would get it over her head without adding elastic to the straps, which I didn't want. So it has straight straps in the back.

I am waiting on some Organic Sherpa Fleece that I had to order online (a trip to four different fabric stores resulted in many perplexed looks and one woman telling me there is no such thing) and then I will cut all of the flannel I got and some of the stretchy cotton knits into squares, back them with the sherpa fleece, and serge to create more wipes. I have been using baby washclothes and they worked excellent up until now. Of course they still work but I have to use more than I would like to because as a child's diet increases and expands into new tastes, her diapers expand and increase also... So a little textures Sherpa goes a long way on the ol bottom. I can't wait to get sewing those new wipes. I have ONE sherpa wipe backed with a cotton knit and I love it. I got a cotton knit fabric on clearance for $2.00 a yard, and the fleece prints were on sale too. LOVE it.

I have also been madly sewing fleece diaper soakers, with are super wonderful and I adore them. I will add some pics here of the ones I have sewn this past week. Actually I sewed all five of them in one day. Hee hee.

My favorite is the one with the skull tie-dye- I love the skull on the butt. And I do like the one that I got crazy and did some appliqué on.

I wrote a blog post in the middle of last week but never got to finish it, so I never posted it, but I will do that now.

I am getting ready to start making the cupcake invitations for Ardyn's First birthday party. That should be fun. I can't believe she will be a year old in two months. Doesn't seem possible of course!

I have a sink full of dishes to do. But I am ignoring them. Really ignoring them. I made organic spaghetti for Ardyn yesterday, except I used Couscous because I have such a hard time finding the spaghettio noodles... they are only at one store in our area, and it's an hour away so that just doesn't always happen. I need to freeze those tonight into portions.

For some reason I have been having this constant chest pain all evening. Hope my arteries aren't clogged and that it goes away SOON. It is bugging me and making me feel all icky and panicky. No one wants to have chest pain. So I looked on WebMD and I am sufficiently convinced that's it's just some phantom pain or perhaps muscle pain... and I am not having a heart attack... So on with my blogging.

Ardyn and I went outside and I pushed her in the swing, boy does she love that Step2 Toddler swing. The first time I push her she always gets this look of panic on her face and it stays for a few swings and then is replaced by peals of giggling laughter. Then she grabs onto the ropes and kicks and kicks her legs and feet and squeals with delight. I love seeing her so thrilled!

We entered the Goodmama photo contest on Saturday, and I was hoping that yesterday she would announce the winner, but it's Monday evening and I am still waiting on pins and needles to see if we had a chance at winning. Here is the photo that we entered (you have to be a flickr friend to view it because she is in a diaper and I am protecting her from the pervs on the internet) We also made copies of it for family as her 10 month photo. I took the picture, and it was my only real photo shoot attempt since the teacup pictures, so I was pretty pleased with the results. My new camera is too awesome for words!

Ardyn's newest accomplishments in the past few days include a few new words. Pretzel (Insane I know, I know- but she was repeating me, it was plain as day, and Evan heard her too.) and Roxy (my parent's dog) and she now barks like a dog and pants like a dog.... whenever she hears a dog, sees a dog, or sees a dog on TV, or in a picture. It is especially evident when she reads books. Today she saw a cow in a book and she said "Arf arf" and then DOG and Evan said "No thats a cow" and Ardyn looked at him and shook her head no and said "Arf Arf!" Hee hee.

Today I ordered myself a tie-dyed Bravado Nursing bra. It's the first expensive nursing bra I have bought and I have been nursing for 10 months now. I feel like I need and deserve a comfy cotton one for summer. And it's pretty and makes me think of how happy tie dye makes me. So I can't wait for it to get here. I hope it fits well and is a favorite. Everyone raves about them. I had two that I bought on ebay when I was pregnant but my milk came in and my ribcage expanded too with pregnancy, so it was WAY too small. I traded them to a mamma on diaperswappers for custom dyed and knit wool shorties for Ardyn. It was an awesome trade!

Well, I am outta stuff to talk about for now. Have a great night!

Dishes Suck

If I ever get divorced, it will be because I can't deal with the fact that Evan always puts dirty dishes in the sink. I spent over an hour yesterday, hand washing dishes and cleaning everything out of the sink. Then putting them all away. It sucked. Our dishwasher is on the fritz and I have a "fund" that I have started for a new one. Saving Saving Saving. Evan is one of those people who believe that dirty dishes should be filled with water and put in the sink. I am one of those people who believes in "rinse"and then stack neatly alongside the sink until it's time to wash. I hate dishes in the sink. I hate dishes in the sink filled with water. I hate dishes in the sink with that old disgusting water that has food floating in it. I hate having to sort through and separate spoons and forks out of bowls soaking in old icky water. But Evan believes that dirty dishes belong in the sink. So last night after his late night stir-fry episode, the sink was full of dirty pans and the vegetable steamer, and the other side had all of the things that I hadn't gotten to yesterday (all Ardyn's dishes from the day. My fault that I didn't get them done before bed) and so before I can wash Ardyn's tray and her dishes, and get us both breakfast, I have to go in and clean out the sink AGAIN and do dishes AGAIN and sort through all the gross dishes and cold water and food bits. Ick. Please dishwasher. Come quickly.

I have started a massive redirect of things. I tried the yard sale thing. Now my garage is full of unsold things. I have this desperately underlying feeling that we have outgrown this house and that no matter how hard I try, I will not be able to get around that fact. I had to bring home all of my stuff from my office at work, and unfortunately I have NOWHERE to put them. Three boxes of stuff with no home. The scrapbook room and office are repeatedly disasters because I can't fit everything anymore. It's time to purge and reorganize.

It's easy for someone who is not crafty to look at my house and say "you have too much crap." Of course I have too much crap. I know that. It's not like I am blind. But the point is that when you do crafts, and you sew, and you scrapbook, the more things you have, the more successful you are at your crafts. And as a crafty person, almost anything can be turned into something fabulous. A messy house is the price I pay for being creative and artistic. And life without creative and artistic would be HORRIBLE. I can't even imagine.

Last night I started reorganizing the toys, the office, the sewing room. Not a complete reorganization, but a better situation of where things "belong." I had a cabinet in the scrapbook room that was full of toys, mostly older kids toys like play-doh, water balloons, sidewalk chalk, etc. I moved that into drawers in the sewing room along with the little tykes desk that I got or $10 last week. (Couldn't help it) That made some more room in the office/scrapbook room to put away some of the stuff that I brought home from work. Ugh. Then I moved the board and card games into the office, onto two shelves that I cleaned off on Sunday. Then I put all of Ardyn's little people in the big basket in the living room. Whew.

THEN I went into the sewing room and cleaned off my sewing table (yeah. It was a mess of projects and upcoming projects.) I moved all the wrapping paper and gift bags onto the one table that is designated for gift wrapping. I put a tablecloth on the sewing table, and organized my folded fabric into a three drawer unit. Then I created a drawer just for WIP (Work in Progress) and separated projects into labeled ziplocs and put them into that drawer. Then it was 1am and Evan came down to see what in the world I was still doing down there, so I went to bed. Today I plan on cleaning up the gift wrapping table, organizing it, and putting the toys in the drawers under that table for storage. I have always had an area down in my sewing room with a wooden kids table, and crayons, markers, paints, and coloring books. I have expanded that and added the little tykes desk and all the play-doh. Hopefully that will be a nice place to play... when Ardyn gets bigger.

In the meantime, I am starting a new adventure this week. I will have a 7-year old girl coming twice a week, while her mom is at work. She is the little sister of a friend, and I am excited to have her come over. If it works out well, we will continue having her twice a week for the rest of the summer. I think that Ardyn will really enjoy playing with her, and watching a big girl. I am hoping that when Ardyn naps, I can do a few crafty projects with the big girl.

So rearranging that really needed to be done anyway, will be even nicer when everything is in a logical place and we can all hang out in the sewing room and play too.

Shhhh She is asleep!

Today, the motto is RELAX. And by relax, of course I mean do laundry, prep fruit, feed the baby, and wash and lanolize 15 wool diaper covers. Then attend a breastfeeding mother's meeting.

Ah. Relaxation. I am SO GLAD that weekend is over. It was. Pure hell. I mean, there were good parts. But it was way way way too much going on. I have gotten most of the pictures up from Ardyn's first ride on a carousel, and her first taste of Strawberry Daiquiri Shaved Ice. I also uploaded the reunion pictures. Yesterday was "cleaning people Monday" so that meant that on top of everything else to get done for the silly crazy weekend.... I also had to have everything picked up.

Saturday night after the deadly lack of sleep/yard sale/family reunion combo, I was very very very not feeling well. Stomach. Ick. Tired. Ick. all of us weren't feeling well, and we all agree that it was something we ate at the reunion. I went to bed at 8:30 with Ardyn and finally started feeling better at 10:30, when I got up, made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for supper, and watched my evening addiction of Nick and Nite (George Lopez, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Home Improvement.) I slept for a very long time that night and felt more like myself on Sunday. We were all pretty run down, as Evan had a band gig that night and didn't get home till late. We just stayed around home, laid low, picked things up.

Yesterday I evacuated with Ardyn for the afternoon while the house was made spic and span and sweet smelling. We went to my mom's and then we all went to get groceries. On the way there we decided to stop at the cleaners to pick up my winter peacoat and then at the resale shop next door I got lots of 18 months size jeans for this fall/winter (Childrens Place, Old Navy, Gap, and Gymboree) and got a fisher price vacuum cleaner for just under $2 (to the attic with you! until she can clean the house!) and my mom got some good toys too, including a Fisher Price "Store" that looks like a kitchen-set type thing, with shelves for food, a scale for produce, and a cash register.... all for $4. Yeah. Good deals. She also got a potty chair/step stool and a push behind toy and some interlocking blocks with a matching lidded tote. It was a good trip. As we crammed all these good finds into the van, I discovered a nearly FLAT tire, and we drove to the dealership in the town with 30 minutes until they closed and discovered that when I went to the bank drive-up that day to deposit yard sale money (my bank is getting a new roof) I picked up a nice shiny nail in my tire. So. We waited to get that fixed. Then on to Aldi's and Wal-Mart to get groceries.

Monday night I stayed out at moms later than I should, came home at 10:45, ready to crash, only to discover that the SHEETS were still in the washing machine and the mattress pad needed to be washed along with the blanket for our bed. Did I forget to mention Ardyn gulping down her morning helping of boob-juice, settling in for a nice nap right along side of me, and then 4 minutes later puking up all the milk she just drank with the most startled look on her face, soaking both of us, and the entire bed, AND then smiling and laughing as the two of us had to step into the shower to hose down? Good fun. So Evan found me at 3am, asleep on top of an unmade bed, in my underwear, wrapped in our comforter, with the light on. Yeah. I tried to stay awake, I really did. But I just couldn't do it anymore. I even ate an ice cream bar for good measure. AND did a foot fixer. AND ate a bowl of honey nut cheerios. Nothing. Still fell asleep.

So it is BEAUTIFUL today. And I am staying away from it. We went outside for a little bit. And then we retreated in. For lunch. And I let Ardyn feed herself with the spoon. It was very successful. She fed herself her entire bowl of Butternut Squash. I would load up her spoon, she would grab it from my hand, suck it clean, and hand it back. And repeat. She was thrilled.

We have considered going outside to lay out on the blanket. Might just still do that. And read. because this day is all about lazy and recuperating. Because the weekend. Really sucked.

Blogging at my Yard Sale

Well, today I am monitoring my yard sale. There is no other reason that I would be awake and dressed by 8am with nothing better to do than blog. :) Ardyn is in the house with her dad for a while, and will come outside with me a little later. The crazy thing about it all is that this weekend is probably THE most busy weekend we have had in a long long time. Friday I had the yard sale for part of the day, and went to a few sales myself. Friday night we took Ardyn to Sheffield Homecoming to ride the carousel, and she tasted a strawberry daiquiri shaved ice, and some breading from a corn dog. This morning we begin the garage sale again, and at noon we have Evan's family reunion at the park here in town, and tonight Evan's band has a gig. Tomorrow is Father's Day. AND Friday was Kyle's 30th Birthday. Whew. If I was working my head would have exploded already. But despite all of the activities, I managed to wash diapers and hang them on the line, and make Ardyn a smocked sundress for the reunion today (although I am very disappointed that I ran out of time to make her the matching hat I planned for.) I am thinking about not putting her in the dress until I have the hat made, so she may be wearing it for another occasion. I actually did all the smocking myself, which was AWESOME. It took some time, so I am not sure how often I will be doing that, but it IS Stinking cute!

So I guess let's start by mentioning what has been going on lately around here. Not much! LOL. Well I mean really life as usual. I have gotten myself back into sewing, and made time for it. I grabbed a second excersaucer at the garage sales earlier this week, and have been putting it in the sewing room along with her mat of toys that is usually down there. I Have made her three new hats (all pictures here) and have lots of projects on the table, including some cute babydoll tank tops and a few dresses. I also made her a pair of recycled pants, out of some old lingerie of mine. They are SO cute and don't even require a pattern!

Uncle Kyle has a huge garden this year that I can't WAIT to see the results from, I am really getting excited about canning this year. I want to make my own spaghetti sauce in addition to the usual stewed tomatoes that I can. Besides that I usually freeze most of my things... and that will be great for future meals for Ardyn.

Speaking of which, the baby food making has really ramped up a bit. Last week I made 16 more meals for her, including Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli, Chicken Mornay with Vegetables (leeks, carrots, parsnips, broccoli, and chicken in a homemade cheese sauce), and homemade Spaghettios with organic Tomato paste and home canned tomatoes. She is a great eater. She loves whole wheat bagels, cheerios, goldfish crackers, juice, biter biscuits, baby mum-mums, Gerber's star Poofs and pinwheels, and lots of other things like fresh nectarines, bananas, and strawberries. She is to the point of wanting to eat everything that I have. It is good because it makes me much more conscious of what I eat. For breakfast we often sit down together and split some fresh fruit, and I will have cereal and she might have yogurt, and we will split a mini wheat bagel. Sometimes I put a little fruit yogurt on her bagel. She likes the fact that she is eating some of the same things as I am and she eats much more and much easier that way. She went through a phase of trying to resist vegetables to get more fruit, and Evan would try feeding her and she would turn away and he would just look at me and say "She doesn't want it" and I would be like- Bullshit, she's gonna eat it. Eventually she got out of that phase.

This past week we went to the Pediatrician for her 9 month visit. She is 18 pounds 4 ounces, just under the 50%. What kills me is that we often see people who say "How Old is she?" and when I respond 9 months, they say "Oh My God she is HUGE" and then things like "I thought she was two!" and I just look at them like they are Martians. If you don't know what size a baby is/should be, then keep your mouth shut. Otherwise you just look like an idiot.

She is now saying a few words, her top word is "dog" and other than that she can say daddy and now "girl" and we have also heard things like "uh-oh" and apparently everyone but me has heard her say "mommy" or "mom mom mom" - apparently she only says it when I am not around and she wants me. I long for the day when I hear her say it, but usually I think she is a little confused because she often calls me "daddy" or "dada" and I think that she thinks that Dada means both of us. Who knows. She has done a few signs, but mostly she just knows what they mean and doesn't sign them herself. She has signed both "milk" and "more." She loves to clap, especially if you start to sing pattycake. Last night she was clapping along when the band at homecoming started getting the crowd to clap. She saw them and just joined right in. She also does "So Big" and gives you "one" with her one finger to your one finger. She is HUGE about pointing right now. She points at everything. This is a good thing because then we can tell her the names of things and point to them, and name things that she points to.

Her favorite things are dogs by far, and animals that resemble giant dogs, like horses, cows, and zebras. She loves to watch Zaboomafoo on Sprout, which is a zoo type show that gets up close with lots of animals. She loved the cows at Grandpa Daves. She can also make a clopping sound like a horse, and I am trying to get her to associate it with the horse, but so far she hasn't really made the connection. She giggles extensively when you bark like a dog, especially if you toss your head back and howl.

We still haven't made it to daycare to visit yet. Last week I was all ready to take her, she was dressed, I was dressed, we were packed up and planning to visit and go get groceries. She went down for a 1pm nap, and although it USUALLY lasts about 45 minutes, she slept for almost 3 hours, which is unusual, and then didn't get up till half of the daycare crowd and at least one of her teachers would have been gone for the day. It made me sad. But we did get groceries!

I visited a health food store in LaSalle that was nice. I liked the fact that they carried lots of the products that I order online, for the same prices that I paid online. They had Nordic Naturals Fish Oil Supplements, Ecover cleaning and laundry products, Tazo cold teas, Burts Bees, Dr. Bronners, Jason products, and lots of food products also. It was a nice store and I got some Jason Natural Bug spray, and some Ecover Bac-out for the diapers, and some mixed brown rice. Really everything was very reasonably priced. I also discovered a new addiction. Tazo Peach Green Tea. I have some Ginger Peach Green Tea from the Republic of Tea that I really love, and had considered making it cold too, but hadn't tried it yet. Now that I have discovered this bottled Tazo Peach Green Tea, I am thinking I need to buy it in bulk. Ha.

The garage sales are REALLY slow. I have been open an hour and a half and have probably had 5 people, and have sold TWO things. For a total of $1.50. Yeah. I hope I am not stuck with all this stuff. I think it is mainly because instead of doing the usual townwide they have started participating in the "more on 34" yard sales that stretch for miles. And that means that FOUR local towns have townwide sales today. And that seriously takes away your crowd. People really seem to just be hitting the main drag and avoiding all the other side roads, which is sad because there is lots of good stuff in town. Yesterday I got a Fisher Price Little People Noah's Ardk playset for $2, and two wilton cake pans for $1 each (Mickey and Pooh) and a Fisher price Baby Gymnastics Bounce and Spin Zebra ($44 retail) for $10. AND A playskool ride and walk behind car for $5. Good Stuff! Oh and an excersaucer that folds flat for $25.

I was hoping to make enough money at the sale to put towards a new dishwasher, but seeing as how it's totally DEAD I am not convinced that that is even possible. Damn economy. Ha.

I'm even seling a digital camera, a diaper genie II, A brand new sealed box of Huggies, an air purifier, an answering machine, two wine bottle racks, shoes new in the box with tags, a graco vibrating bassinet, TONS of clothes that are all on hangers, about 25 pair of jeans (most of which are like brand new), new in the box Avon jewelry, two boxes of books, playstation games, Xbox games, computer games, and a basket of Victoria's Secret pajamas, a basket of just tank tops for 50 cents each, and a whole tub of sports bras and swimsuits. Seriously people. This is good shit. And. Nothing. No people!

I am really happy that the weather is nice today, but because there is such a small crowd, it makes me think that I would be better off fishing or reading a book in a hammock. I guess I could go get a book to read for the rest of the morning. I recently read Water for Elephants for my may book club, and am going to read Julie and Julia for June, and we are SUPPOSED to read Love in the Time of Cholera for July, but I started and was NOT enjoying it at all. It is so verbose and it just bored me to pieces. My life is too short to force myself to read something that I am not interested in. There are too many books out there to read something that isn't my cup of tea. Especially considering my reading time is limited.

Well, since people continue to drive by and gawk at me, I feel like I need to find a book to read, so everyone have a great weekend and a Happy Father's Day. More later I hope!

So much to do!

Well, this afternoon Ardyn officially pulled up to standing. Several times. We were excited. We almost missed it entirely, as we were putting lightbulbs in lights. She was right there in the room playing, and we looked over, and she was standing! Go beebs go! She had been up on her knees, and ALMOST got completely standing in her crib Friday (her legs weren't entirely straight.)

Yee! Looks like she might just go ahead and skip crawling after all! I have pictures but not very many because the camera wasn't in reach and she was only up for a little while before she saw that we were looking at her and sat back down. She's also a drool monster today, so I am wondering if we have top teeth coming in soon? Shes also working her gums pretty good.

I bought a new card reader at Target on the way home from Chicago a couple of weeks ago, but it worked for 8 days and then quit, Since the SDHC Card takes a special reader, I have a bunch of pictures on the card that I can't get off yet. Evan is exchanging the card reader today for another one.

Our cleaning people come tomorrow, and our house is a WRECK. We had band practice here Friday night, and all afternoon Saturday. Then Saturday night they played in Princeton and my sister and I went to watch. Today we slept off the late night (even a sober night can be exhausting when you don't get home till 2:30am) and then I went to my moms for a bit, and then home to do laundry, feed Ardyn and I lunch, and eventually take a nap with Ardyn. So I am pretty well behind here at home. Oh well. Most horizontal surfaces are covered with projects of some sort. I am cleaning my scrapbook room and organizing stuff to start a scrapbook for Ardyn (ugh) and I am also trying to get through stacks of magazines that I haven't had time to read, and get things ready for a yard sale in two weeks, which includes cleaning out closets. Ack. I wanted to put my garage sale stuff in the garage on a table as I get ready, but with the band practicing in there all this week too, that just isn't going to happen. So I decided to take it to the basement, and I know that's gonna be icky when it's time to take it all out to the garage, but that's about all I can do with it all for right now. This week I intend to fully focus on tackling some projects at home, and hopefully we at least get to visit Ardyn's daycare class this week, as planned. I have a computer user group presentation to give in two days and I haven't written the presentation or practiced, or researched, or tested the proxima with my laptop. Eeeew. Tomorrow. Or tuesday. he.

So that's all that's going around here. Busy as usual, and enjoying every spare minute I can with the baby. Who isn't much of a baby anymore!

eBay Drama

Ahhh. Sunday again.

This past week I logged onto ebay and found that a seller I had left neutral feedback for was contacting me to complain.

I purchased the little tykes tunnel and paid immediately. I paid $25 for shipping. A week after I paid, the item hadn't shipped yet. When I contacted the seller, she didn't respond. I contacted her twice via myeBay, and once via email. I was just getting online to get her phone number when I saw that she had finally responded. She told me that she was having problems "finding a way to ship the item because of it's bulk." Unfortunately, she was selling MANY other bulky little tyke type items, and was shipping them, and had been for what looked like years. She also had two other negative or neutral feedbacks from other members who had the same problem with her. She had either backed out of the transaction stating that she couldn't ship (after she said that she could in the listing) or she had held their items and not shipped in a timely manner.

So she told me that she would be shipping on a particular day, and that she would provide me with tracking information. I waited. That day came and went. No tracking information. This was when I was still working, and I was very concerned that this big item, which was nearly $100 after shipping, would be left outside of my house and would either be rained on or stolen before I could get home. I was worried that she wouldn't ship or that she was taking my money. I asked for tracking information from her again, and never heard back. When the item did arrive, the actual shipping only cost her $21 and the time it took to get from her to me was just 4 days... but it had taken two weeks to receive after I paid.

I was frustrated by her lack of communication, by her promising shipment by a certain date and then not shipping on time, and by her overcharging me on shipping. I wouldn't have minded a few extra dollars on shipping had she gotten it to me on time, but it's even more frustrating to pay that much and then not receive it for two weeks. If you are going to repeatedly sell large items and advertise that you will ship them, I would expect that you would have checked shipping costs and venues before you list the item and make that promise. And if you feel that the item needs to be disassembled (mine was not) then you should probably be sure you can disassemble it without damaging it BEFORE you tell the buyer that you will ship, tell them how much it will cost to ship, AND take their payment.

Instead of immediately leaving feedback, I decided to mull it over. In the end I decided to leave her neutral (not negative) feedback, about a month after the transaction. Immediately she thought that NOW it was okay to contact me in a timely manner and ask why I left her neutral feedback and why I didn't contact her to let her know I was unhappy.

Hello, just a note to ask you why you did not contact me to let me know you were dissatisfied with the transaction, I try to respond to all emails in a timely matter and before this neutral feedback I had a perfect 100%, I would have refunded or partially refunded your shipping charges, are you sure your remembering the right transaction as its been quite a while, please email me back and let me know how I can make this right. Thanks

This also frustrated me because it seemed like once her reputation was on the line, suddenly she was all about customer service. I explained to her why I was unhappy and that I felt it was my duty to leave this feedback so that other buyers knew what to expect from her. Since she primarily sells large items, and has, at least three times, refused to ship or complained that she couldn't ship the item, then I can see a pattern here.

So I let her know exactly why I was upset about the transaction:

I am sorry but I thought that you understood when the transaction took place that the shipping took too long. I remember it distinctly because I not only emailed you but sent you two myEbay messages also. I didn't hear from you for almost a week after paying. I was ready to look up your telephone number- but then you emailed and told me that you were having problems finding a way to ship the item because of it's bulk and that it would ship a particular day, and it shipped almost 4 days later. It was extremely frustrating to buy such an expensive item and be worried that it wasn't going to get here at all. I didn't receive it for two weeks after I paid but the actual shipping only took 4 days. You promised a tracking number and never send it. I had seen your previous two customers who were dissatisfied when you held an item and when you refused to ship another item that was listed as shippable, and I assumed that this was an ongoing issue for you as a seller. I felt others should know.

So below is the email that I got back from her, after telling her why I was upset. I have to admit that it really made me chuckle. Every time someone on ebay screws you over, it inevitably comes out that someone was sick, had surgery, or something. I understand that life happens, but if true customer service and satisfaction is your goal, and you make a mistake or have extenuating circumstances, then you should take care of those right away and make sure the customer is happy and taken care of. And if you've been selling on ebay for two years, and you haven't figured that out yet, then yes, you probably need some neutral feedback here and there.

I am a mom selling kids toys on ebay, my own and those that I find at resale shops, garage sales, etc., I do this as a supplement to our income as I have a daughter with special needs that requires me to stay home and thats not to try to get the sympathy vote. I am not an expert shipper yet, I do my best, sometimes I sell an item that proves a problem such as disassembleing that item might have caused damage to the toy which I do believe I emailed you about, I do my best to ship it as timely as possible, if something proves a problem I usually email and offer a full refund or shipping fee , a discount, I have never left anyone bad feedback, I would try to speak of my dissatisfaction first to that seller. I am so glad you are here protecting fellow ebayers from such unscrupulous sellers as myself. I will try to rectify my ongoing issue ( more than 2 yrs ago, and at the start of my selling.) and hopefully be the perfect ebayer you seem to be. Good day.

So I responded

Don't waste your time yelling at me. I don't really want to hear about it. I am a WAHM too. Sorry to hear of your difficulties and I wish you luck in the future.

I hope she figures this out. LOL. And just for the record, she didn't try to "make it right" and refund a shipping fee, or give me a discount, as she mentioned that she wanted to do in her very first email. Empty promises. LOL. And I was also pretty frustrated that she said those feedbacks were "over two years ago" because last time I checked, August of 2007 isn't even one full year ago. She must have her time mixed up. He.

Productive Day

So. I am trying to relax tonight. Which brings me to my current position. Doing laundry and watching Purple Rain. Which I have never seen. When I was a kid we didn't have cable or anything. I have never really been a prince fan. But I figure it's something I should at least attempt to see. LOL.

Today I bought Six Fattycakes Fitted Diapers off Diaperswappers, because the Bum Genius 3.0 One Sizes aren't holding for night anymore. Especially when she is in it for 12-13 hours. Last night she woke up at 1am and had leaked through. Some nights she is fine, but others she leaks, so it's time to upgrade to something that can absorb more. The Fattycake Fitteds by Butterfly Baby and others like in the Inspired Stores... mostly have double soakers for heavy wetters, and seem to really work well. She wore one last night and tonight she is in a goodmama organic Bamboo Velour.

I have been pretty busy today! Ardyn and I met Cari for lunch and then I went to visit some others, particularly my friend and midwife, who delivered Ardyn. Then we ran to Wal-Mart to get some essentials, and I got potting soil and two planters for out front. The two that I have are almost 8 years old, and faded and cracked... so I figured I would splurge the $12 to get two new ones. LOL. After our trip today, we washed the van and then came home. I forced Ardyn to take a nap because she had swimming lessons tonight and I knew if she didn't take a nap it would be a nightmare. She slept for almost a full hour, and was STILL cranky after lessons. It was the last lesson of her two month session. We took tons of pictures, but I can't get them all off the card until I get to Target and return the card reader that quit working after 8 days. While Ardyn napped, I made tags for all of my laundry soap and also decorated a bucket to collect dryer lint for composting. Composting is my newest "Going Green" Goal. The Soilsaver composter and a Norpro stainless steel kitchen bucket, as well as the book "Let It Rot" should be arriving any day now.

Tonight while eating at Subway, I was painfully aware of how many food establishments, and OTHER establishments, don't recycle. It kills me. Tonight at Subway I wanted to take my plastic milk bottle home to recycle it. Then I wanted to start a campaign asking Subway stores why they don't all recycle (I know that each store is independently owned, but still) and the more that I thought about it, the more infuriated I got that more businesses in my area don't provide customers the opportunity to recycle on premises. Of course my wheels are turning now.

I got the schedule for Festival 56 this summer, and plan on attending a few theatre performances. Last year I badly wanted to go, but the one day that my schedule meshed with theirs (I was very pregnant and very much working full time then) It was like 100 degrees outside and I was very dilated and also pretty uncomfortable at the time so we decided against it. I have a lot of friends who house Festival 56 staff and actors over the summer, so I have really been wanting to go. I think Ardyn would enjoy it too, she just loves watching people!

So tomorrow will be an at home day. Lots of laundry to do, as I am cleaning closets and organizing the laundry room to it's fullest potential. I also have a new friend to email tomorrow, I met a mom who is also going green and who wants more info on cloth diapers.... she uses a few at home. I was so excited to connect. Cloth Diapers can certainly be conversation starters! I am making tags for the totes that go on my laundry room shelves, where I keep washing supplies and fabric dyeing supplies, etc. I am messing up the dining room table because my scrapbook table is still 3 feet deep in shit that I brought home from my office at work, and that I haven't found a place to put yet. Argh. Oh well. I have the rest of my life to figure that out. He he.

Once the band gets out of the garage, I plan on starting to haul garage sale stuff out there. I was hoping to do it sooner, but hey... no big deal. It will happen eventually.

I just finished all of Ardyn's laundry, and now I am washing blankets and sheets. I found a couple of sheet sets that I need to get sent over to my sister, we gave her our old Queen Bed and mattress, and all of the bedding for it. I have been holding onto a few queen quilts, and the flannel sheet set, and I am just ready to get rid of the sheet set and considering getting rid of the quilts, although I will probably sell the quilts instead of giving them away. Unless my mom could use them. They aren't really my sister's style, although my mom might be interested for her guest room.

Well, that's all my excitement for the day. It's officially tomorrow, so it's time for me to drink some tea, take my medicines, and go to bed! Have a nice Thursday since I won't be back till it's over!

Stain Removal is the New Crack

Didn't you get the memo? If you are going to be an addict, you might as well pick something that is productive. I am addicted. To stain removal. I realized this as I scrubbed a spot the size of a pinhead, that no one else would EVER notice, from the hem of a pair of Ardyn's $2 resale shop pants. With a nailbrush. At 12:22am.

And now I am writing about it. Although I love it when someone else feeds Ardyn so that I can do something else (or the occasional but rare NOTHING else) I also dread it because I KNOW that no matter what bib is put on her, whenever anyone else feeds her, her clothes get stained. It is so entirely annoying. My mom is the only person besides me who has ever fed her and had her come out stain free. It must be hereditary. Or it's our insane perfectionism and attention to detail. I hate stained clothes. I am constantly removing stains from her clothes. Her clothes are worse than her diapers, I swear to you. The utility sink and the soak cycle on the washing machine are my weapons. That and Oxyboost.

On a lighter note. I should be sleeping. So I feel that I will make this as brief as possible. Last night we got the cops called on us. He. Because Evan's band was practicing in the garage. They were 6 feet from Ardyn's bedroom and she was asleep in her crib at 8:30 with both her windows open (boy was it hot) and I walked outside to listen for a while. The guys said "last song, then we pack up" and it was like 8:35 and the county cop pulls up and tells us that someone has complained about the noise. Bummer. Party Poopers. It was Memorial Day. It was only 8:35pm. They were on their last song. Apparently the county doesn't know what the town's noise ordinances are, but we were told that 10pm was the cutoff time. Now we need to investigate that.

What else is new. Hmmm. We love the Roomba. For a couple of days there he seemed really confused. He didn't clean at his scheduled time. He couldn't dock on his own for some reason. One night I came home at 11pm and found him perching between two rooms, stuck on the door jam. But he seems to have gotten his head back, and cleaned as scheduled as well as docked himself for the past two days. Smart little guy. He is the COOLEST thing. I have him scheduled to vacuum each morning at 10am. He drives out, vacuums, and then docks himself again. It's freaking awesome. It's not a gimmick. He cleans better than my Dirt Devil upright does. Ardyn loves to watch him.

I also love my new camera. I got a Nikon D40. It's awesome. I have taken over 2500 photos this month alone. I don't have them all on Flickr quite yet, but I am working on it.

Over the weekend Ardyn and I went to Mom and Dads and went out to the pasture to visit the cattle, and she saw the calves, and got a close-up look of the one that was born that morning. I have about HALF of those pictures uploaded. I have a 4MB SDHC (SD High Capacity) Camera card. Only certain cameras will use this HC Card, and you have to get a special card reader. I bought the card and the reader at Target last week. The reader quit working, so now I have photos that I can't get off the card until I take the reader back and get a replacement. I took some EXCELLENT photos of Ardyn and a daisy.... outside... and have to get them off the card and uploaded still.

I also got to spend some time with Carrie on Sunday, and Angela. That was nice. Carrie sells Scentsy, and I got to look at a catalog for the first time.

Saturday night Lisa and I made a LATE night run to Princeton for ice cream. Ardyn slept in her carseat, she was already there and crashed out from a long day on the farm, and so I figured I might as well get to talk to a friend and eat ice cream before I went home and put us both to sleep.

Besides that, everything is pretty normal. Ardyn is suddenly getting very anti-nap again. She will be just exhausted, and will then only sleep for 20-40 minutes. Like once a day. Today she woke up after about 30 minutes, and I was entirely annoyed because she was still tired and cranky. I spent from 3 till 6pm laying down with her, playing and watching TV, and nursing, and finally getting another 20 minute nap and a 30 minute nap out of her in that time frame. The catch was that I had to nap too. Which isn't bad. I can't complain... except that if I am going to take a nap, it had better be longer than 20 minutes or I will just repeatedly feel like a pile of shit, which is pretty much what I felt like all afternoon and evening.... because I only got two VERY short naps with her. It's better for me to not nap than to take a nap any shorter than an hour. And honestly, two hours is ideal for BOTH of us, but she seems to be La Resistance lately when it comes to naps. My mom says I was horrible that way and that she begged for me to have payback someday. Thanks mom.

So that's it. Pretty exciting. I am loving being home. Loving laundry and stain removal and all that jazz. Tomorrow we meet a friend for lunch, and make a trip to Wal-Mart for a few things we need. And turn in paperwork for my IRA Rollover. And return a big bag of baby clothes to a friend who let us borrow them. And try to get home for the afternoon stocking of hyenacart... and a nap before the last day of swimming lessons.

My New Nikon is Wicked Awesome. And Other Monday Magic.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE and ADORE my new camera. Holy crap. I think I might take it to bed tonight. Today was a nice and busy day. I stayed up WAY to late last night (1:30am- this morning I guess you could say) watching all the TIVO Episodes that I missed since I was gone over the weekend. Holy COW on the 2 hour Desperate Housewives Finale! Jeez! I cried twice! When Susan cried over Julie going to college I almost freaked out thinking about Ardyn going to college someday! I mean, the kid isn't even a year old and I am already panicked about her moving out? Whoa. I also uploaded all of the photos from the Chicago trip and also the hundreds (seriously) of photos that I have already taken with my new camera. I took another two hundred today (seriously) and have to upload them.... hopefully tomorrow.

I also had cleaning people coming today, so I had a bit of tidying up to do, and about 5 thousand dirty cloth diapers since we were away from home from a while, so I did laundry and unpacked, and all that jazz. All this after we got HOME at almost midnight the night before and slept in as late as we could (although the phone started ringing at 9am and didn't stop until noon.) I need to learn to use my vonage to my advantage and turn the voicemail on in the morning and force all calls to voicemail until we wake up for the day. Ardyn and I were BOTH Exhausted from the long trip and we would BOTH have slept longer if that phone hadn't rang so much yesterday morning.

Today Ardyn and I went out and about. This morning I loaded the dishwasher and tidied up the kitchen, and put away Ardyn's clean diapers and such. The new Roomba iRobot vacuum came and I have to say that the entire world would own one if they knew how awesome they are and how they really DO work. It's not a scam. They pick up everything. It's amazing. I will dedicate a whole new post on that later. Tonight I taught it how to clean once a day without my assistance, and set up the virtual lighthouses to guide it from room to room. Totally simple. Came fully assembled and with spare parts and filters. I love it. It might be the best thing I have bought in a long time for this household.

We picked up my mom this afternoon and went to Kewanee. I had three braided rugs to pick up at the dry cleaners and we also went to the kids resale shop, where I found an Incrediblock, which I have been wanting since last December and I wanted someone to get Ardyn for Christmas. It was only like $27, and it retails new for $50 plus shipping as you can only get it online from Fisher Price. It even came with 23 blocks, which I am sterilizing right now in the Germ Guardian. Then we ran to Wal-Mart and Aldi's for my mom and then to Sunnyfield Greenhouse for some annuals for our planters. Then we got Ice Cream at Dairy Queen and met my sister at her work for a little after-work chat. Then Ardyn and I ate supper at my parents and played with the new toys (used toys) that mom got for her house, including the fisher price piggy bank and a winnie the pooh rocking "horse" that was actually a big stuffed pooh bear that plays music when you press his ears (tons of pictures of that!) Then we spent about an hour trying to coax Ardyn into crawling. She got closer than I have ever seen her before (pics of that too!) We watched some of the NEMO read along CD/Computer Book that we got at the resale shop (Ardyn LOVES Nemo for some reason, and she has never even seen him on TV.)

I was counting today, and realized that Ardyn has Five Swimsuits and Two Swim Diapers in various sizes. She had a 12 month size pink bikini but we can't keep the top down during lessons, so I grabbed an elmo one-piece at the resale shop today. Evan and I saw an adorable suit at the beginning of the season and bought it in next year's size. Then a friend gave mom three bags of clothes to pick through and we grabbed what we wanted (tons) and paid her for what we took, and inside that was a nemo swimsuit and coverup (imagine the irony of that!) and a stars n stripes suit that will fit her probably this summer and then over the fall and winter (as we intend to continue taking her to swim inside.) She has SO many swimsuits! Good thing she likes to swim!

I also got her a few more pair of shorts that will work well as play clothes and were like $1 each at the resale shop, and 4 pair of lightweight pants for the summer, as she only has one pair of jeans for a cool day and has outgrown everything else. She has lots of shorts and dresses and skorts, but for cool nights and rainy days, she still needs pants to wear. That's Illinois for you!

Our electronic stimulus check from the government finally arrived last Friday, TWO WEEKS LATE. Ugh. I was so frustrated. But I am glad it is here and now I can pay off our furniture loan completely, and about half of the hospital bill that's left from Ardyn's birth. That will be fabulous. I just paid off a HUGE Power bill (the last of the high winter bills that we will see this year) and also paid my first Van payment! Woot! I almost forgot to pay the van payment because it has been so long since I have HAD a car payment it almost slipped my mind.

The van was awesome for our day out today, I was able to carry everything we needed, and pick up the rugs, and everything my mom and I got at the resale shop, at the stores she visited, and at the greenhouse. Plus the stroller and the baby and all her usual supplies. I am loving that she is getting so much more comfortable sleeping on the go. I have discovered that sometimes she won't nap in the stroller (sometimes she will) but she will always nap in the babyhawk if she is tired. She took two naps in the babyhawk at the Green Expo, and one today at the greenhouse in the babyhawk. That carrier is the ONLY one that I can stand to wear without getting a horrible back strain. One shoulder slings and hotslings are great for little babies, but once she got older I couldn't take that twisting and one shoulder wearing anymore. I vow to break out the ring sling and test it again, but the babyhawk works so well, I haven't really had the desire to try the ring sling again. I just don't want to test it and perhaps be in pain for a couple of days if she is too heavy for me to carry on one shoulder.

Tomorrow I will be doing LAUNDRY. Don't try to stop me. It has to get done since I have tons of clothes from the trip and haven't been able to get any washed since last Wednesday. I generally do 1-2 loads a day as part of my schedule, and therefore I am like 7 loads behind or something. Plus I try to do an extra load on Sundays to wash bedding and such, but I was too wiped to do that. So I have some catching up to do. I am hoping for great weather so I can get some things out on the line, but since it is raining tonight I am not holding my breath.

Being at home I am a weather channel addict. I watch it every night and every morning, and sometimes even in between if I am curious as to the forecast. Ardyn and I plan our activities and outings, our wardrobes, and our laundry schedule by it. Sometimes people try to tell me the forecast and I argue with them because I KNOW it by heart and see the most updated. My mom might say "last night they said" and I will say "Oh, that's OLD. This morning they said (this) and at lunch they said (that.)" She finds it exasperating. Damn me and my "know-it-all-ness."

Well, that's all if I want to be in bed before midnight tonight! It's already 11:30 and I still have some peek-a-blocks to sanitize and a few more things to do before I crash. Have a great Tuesday!

Chicago Green Expo

Ardyn and I are home from the Chicago Green Expo. We left Friday just after noon and drove to Woodridge to meet Angela and pick her up from work. Then we went into the city and to our Hotel. We stayed at Hotel 71, right on the river, just a few blocks from the lake and 1 block from Michigan Avenue. The new Trump building was going up right across the river from us and was right outside our hotel room. Ardyn did okay traveling, but she did cry enough on the way up that I had to pull over about halfway there to nurse her and comfort her. The van is a godsend. I can't imaginging traveling any other way. I can just pull over, walk right into the back, and sit down on a spare seat and nurse her or change her on the floor where I have a seat stowed. It's awesome. I can easily hold all of our luggage and the stroller and supplies, and toys for Ardyn to play with.

We hit a little bit of traffic on the way into the City on 90/94, but it wasn't half bad. The hotel was really nice, and was Angela's treat, so I really have to thank her for that. What was amazing was the "complimentary valet service" that was linked to the "$43 a night parking in the hotel garage." Um. Yeah. Valet service should be complimentary. I do have to say though, that I am the kind of girl who better travels a few levels down on the luxury scale. It bugs me to have strangers handling my bags and having to tip them when I really am not comfortable with them helping me. I feel much better doing it myself or letting Evan handle it. I don't like being at the mercy of calling someone else for "help" to check in or check out. I find it annoying, not luxurious.And of course, being a small town girl, I am also always annoyed with the fast pace of everything in the city. I am a fast paced person, but one day in Chicago makes me feel like I NEED a vacation, not like I have just been on one. When I was trying to unload and unfold the stroller, and get Ardyn's things situated in the stroller, and unbuckle her and crawl across the van (because the driver's side was on a busy street, I was unloading onto the sidewalk from the passenger side) and get her in the stroller and comfortable.... the valet guy was standing over me hovering, and he said "Can I take your van ma'am?" and I remember being exasperated, turning to look at him, and saying "Right now I really need to concentrate on getting my daughter out of the seat and situated in her stroller, but as soon as I am finished, you can have the van. But PLEASE just give me a few minutes so that I can get this accomplished first." I think he was taken aback because I assume that he is praised for promptness, and while I can appreciate promptness, I can also appreciate wanting to feel relaxed and leisurely, not pressured and rushed.

Ardyn loved the view from the hotel room. She spent lots of time squealing and talking out the window at the cars, boats, people, and buildings below.

Friday evening we walked the Magnificent mile and out to Navy Pier. Then we walked over to the lake. We walked quite a while and then we came back to a neat little Italian restaurant next to our hotel. We sat out on the patio to eat and had wine and cheesecake, and pasta and pizza. Ardyn and I had our first Chicago Style Pizza, Stuffed Spinach and Mushroom. It was delicious. Although I have to say that I adore Maria's or Angelo's Stuffed Pizza just as much. The dinner was fabulous and I ended up nursing Ardyn on the patio too. Then we went back to the hotel next door and got settled in for the night. It was especially nice to have wireless internet included in the hotel room. Angie did some online planning for our next day.

We got up on Saturday and got ready, and ordered rooms ervice for breakfast. Angie had oatmeal and I had special K with Skim Milk, and we split a fruit tray that Ardyn enjoyed too. Then we packed up, checked out, and drove to Navy Pier for the expo.

The expo was great. The parking was $23 for the day at the pier, and they had a good food court there and awesome ice cream everywhere. The hardest part of the day was FINDING the expo in the pier, it was WAY down at the end, which we knew. But it was also difficult finding an elevator. Out of all the Expo staff and volunteers that we asked, only one person actually knew where the elevators were. One woman looked right at me with the stroller and then pointed out the stairs and escalator. Angie was exasperated with this, and we really had to search ourselves to find the elevator. So when we finally found the elevator, we had to walk DOWN to the elevator, go up a level, then walk all the way back to the one expo entrance. Then we discovered that you didn't buy your tickets at the entrance, but we had to go all the way back and PAST the elevators to the end of the pier to get our tickets. So we did. And we grumbled about how poorly it was marked (it wasn't) and how we had to walk clear down to the end of the pier to get our tickets and then walk BACK to the entrance. Ugh. So we got our passes and then had to walk back to the door. I was kinda confused how there was only once entrance to use, yet all you had to do was walk through it with a pass around your neck. Couldn't they have had a few more entrances if all they had to provide was a person at the door to see if you had a pass around your neck? I know, I just like to tell you how it was. the expo itself was awesome. We didn't listen to any speakers. They were in the same room as the vendor booths, which we thought was kinda strange and unexpected. We thought it would be much more conducive (not to mention polite) to have them in a quieter room. There were so many excellent vendors there. I got tons of literature and lots of activist and organic clothing. Ahhh. I took pictures of all our loot. I have LOTS of websites to visit and things to think about.

The highlight of the day for me was seeing the ONE cloth Diaper vendor that thought it was worth their time to attend the expo. BUM GENIUS! Good for them. I was highly disappointed to not see more cloth diapering vendors at the expo. G Diapers was there also, but I honestly don't know that I can consider that cloth diapering at it's fullest extend. I think they are actually more work than cloth, AND more expensive because you still have to buy the liners. Plus you have to flush each one, and let it disintegrate (poop AND pee)- and they aren't approved for home septic systems to my knowledge. I took photos of a few things that I wanted to remember. I was interested in the kitchen composting- and since I have been thinking of composting at home and wondered how I would do it with not much yard space, it was interesting. But I am wondering if composting is a necessity for me since I use a garbage disposal and what is organic (food scraps, etc) goes back into the sewer system. I need to do some research.

I bought a pair of simple shoes that are so comfy, and two pair of the most AWESOME organic cotton pants that I have ever touched. I put one pair on in the parking garage for the ride home and I am wearing them again today and am not sure when anyone will be able to pry them off me. As a matter of fact, I liked them so much that I practically took my shorts off in the middle of the parking garage to put them on, when I realized that this IS Chicago and I would likely get arrested for being in a parking garage with no pants on. So I came to my senses an changed pants inside the van. I brought home their card so that I could get more if I liked them, and boy do I ever. I bought them from B Green Apparel (www.bgreenapparel.com) I bought an awesome headband from the Hemp Queen (www.hempqueen.com) and she had some other awesome clothes that I adored. I was pleased to see a few companies that I purchase from regularly, like Herb Pharm, Reusable Bags, and Nordic Naturals. And most of all was pleased to see Dr. Bronner's and laughed to see that they were GIVING AWAY the coexist bumper stickers that I have on the van. Damn. But they convinced me to take a free one and I gave it to Evan. Dr. Bronner's had two new scents. A rose and a citrus... and the citrus was TO DIE FOR yummy. I also enjoyed the booths of Toys with Integrity (www.imagiplay.com), and Barefoot Books (www.ReadingBarefootBooks.com). If I didn't have reusable bags already, I would have purchased the entire set from www.loadmygroceries.com - those bags are adorably perfect! There was also a great wool yarn and felting booth by Esthers Place (www.esthersplacefibers.com) and a home cleaning product booth that I intend to look into more (www.blissfulhomeproducts.com)

There were some other very cool clothing booths, several of which I adored but found to be WAY overpriced. A few that I thought I might actually purchase from in the future included chapteroneorganics.com (adorable but expensive. Neat baby clothes), www.moretreeshemp.com (high priced), & www.esperanzathreads.com.

I bought Ardyn a bunch of stuff from Happy Green Bee (www.happygreenbee.com) which I had always seen advertised in my Mothering Magazine. I also got her some shirts (and one for myself) from Green Label Organic (www.greenlabel.com) and they had some really nice shirts and somewhat reasonable prices. They had specials for the expo, but I am not sure that otherwise I would have spent that much.... but their sale prices were good. I also liked the shirts from www.babyblendtees.com but I only bought one because they all were so similar and their prices weren't to die for. Also enjoyed www.organicfred.com and itsacoolerplanet.com (which was one of my favorite booths and the ladies there were SO nice and informative.)

So that was the expo.

Now about last week. Last week I sold my car. And I bought an iRobot (Roomba) and I also got a new digital camera. A Nikon D40. Which I took to Chicago. And I am learning to use. It is awesome. The Roomba should be here this Monday (tomorrow) and I can't wait to program it.

This week I have a breastfeeding group to attend, swim lessons, and Evan and I are going on a date. I am also going to start preparing for a yard sale, taking stuff out to the garage and pricing it as I go through closets and things. I am overwhelmed with the amount of things I need to go through, but I told myself that there is no reason to have to go through everything this summer before the sale in June, but that I can get through whatever I can this summer and have another one in the fall for whatever I couldn't get through this spring. No pressure, I have some time on my hands. But amongst all that, we are also supposed to try to get together with CB, my sister, go to Kewanee to pick up our rugs, and also visit and deliver mother's day gifts to TWO of Ardyn's great grandmas. I am not sure that we can accomplish all that (nor that we want to accomplish all that in one week.)

What amazes me the most about being home, is that people literally think that Ardyn and I have nothing to do. It never fails that people always are "stopping by" when I am trying to get out of the house and go somewhere. I have to admit that this frustrates me. While I do like the occasional surprise visitor, I don't like them before 10am, and I really do appreciate people who call in advance. Ardyn and I frequently spend our mornings leisurely, in comfy clothes or pajamas, eating our breakfast, playing, singing songs, doing laundry, and taking baths and getting ready for our day. Sometimes we tidy the kitchen, sometimes we vacuum, sometimes we do nothing. Sometimes we lay in bed or on the couch and giggle and clap and try to say new words. Sometimes we read a book. Or three. Nothing is worse then a knock on the door when your hair is sticking up on end and you have mascara rings under your eyes and Ardyn is wearing a diaper with no cover and her shirt has applesauce or rice rusk goop on it. Of course, sometimes we will get the knock on the door while we are in the bathtub, or 10 seconds after we have gotten out of the bathtub and are wearing towels. And I know that people say they don't care if we aren't "presentable" but I have to say that I do care, and it bugs me. It's not that I don't want to see anyone, but I like to have my teeth brushed and my pants on! Part of the fun of being home is that Ardyn and I operate on our own schedule and don't have to answer to anyone. If we want to go out and about for a day, we do. If we want to stay home, we stay home and be relaxed.

Here's to a relaxing week. Ardyn and I will be unpacking, relaxing, and recuperating. And you will probably find us in our underwear. Or me wearing my comfy organic cotton pants and a hemp headband. Here's to hippies. They were the nicest people at the expo, and I loved talking to them and laughing with them.

Pure Enjoyment

I feel like a kid who just did something very very wrong. And who might get their ass beat if they get caught. This is all my father's fault. He always raised me to think that it is WRONG to put a sticker anywhere on a vehicle. Anywhere. However I do recall that he had a bumper sticker on two of his cars. I think that he was trying to instill in me that once you stick it on, it's hard to remove. But he put the fear of god in me. I did put a sticker on my first car. Just one sticker. But the car cost $1000 so it probably wasn't a big deal. I also put a cool sun sticker on my second car. And I sold it with the sticker still on it, so... I guess no big deal. But my last car, was all shiny and cost me more than 10 thousand dollars, so I was always scared to put a sticker on it. I remember once after 9-11 that I had a flag magnet on my gas cap area, but it was mickey mouse behind the flag. I thought my dad was going to have a coronary when he thought it was a sticker. Mind you I of course paid for the car myself, was 22 years old, and also lived in my own house by then. But I will never forget the anger when he thought I had stuck the sticker on my car. So. Tonight I snuck outside, into my own garage, as a 29 year old mom and wife, and put two brand spanking new stickers on my brand new (to me) van. I have to admit that I kept looking over my shoulder to see if I was going to be caught. I lowered the garage door and thought with the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach "who is going to yell at me first, my husband or my dad?" and I agonized for the entire day about whether or not to actually put them on... and then WHERE to put them on. And then "should I put them BOTH on or just one?" Jeez. Why do I let other people cause me stress? One sticker is a white square that says "One Less SUV" and is a nod to the pollution that I am not causing by driving a van over another SUV. The other is the word "Coexist" made up of various religious symbols, which is the icon that I use in my signature to all my online message boards. So now I am making the statements that I want to make. I just hope I don't get grounded when they find out.

So what else is new? Hmmm. I am in the process of selling my car. YAY! I had two calls and one test drive yesterday and another person drop in today. A relative has decided to buy it and I hope that it is all taken care of by the end of the week.

The "schedule" that I want to keep up on has been going really well, up until this past weekend when I had places to be and the house got pretty crazy. I should be picking up tonight, but I am just fine with not picking up. I did load the dishwasher and clean up in the kitchen. I also did some laundry today.

Mom and I took Ardyn to Hornbaker Gardens today and I got a few dwarf plants and a Big Daddy Hosta. I have been after a big daddy for YEARS. 5 of them to be precise. And I haven't bought one yet. But now I have decided to just do it since I want one so badly. I just think they are awesome. We ate lunch at Townsend Coffee House and then went to Wal-Mart for a few things. We took TONS of adorable pictures at Hornbakers, they are all in my flickr photos, and there are some posted here too.
Last Friday we started making our Mother's Day gifts. We used Crayola Air Dry Clay to make Heart shaped handprints and then painted them and strung ribbons and fibers onto them. We made 8 of them, for each grandma, great grandma, and for Aunt Liz. Saturday I was up at 6:30 with Ardyn and when she fell back to sleep I couldn't, so I got up and painted the hearts while she slept. Then that afternoon she and I went to my parents house to setup a wireless network and that night we had them over, along with my sister, to celebrate mother's day with spaghetti pizza and garlic bread, followed by Ice Cream Waffle Bowls from Dairy Queen and then we watched the movie Juno, which I loved. Sunday we took a nap from 10-12noon and then went to Evan's grandma's house for Mother's day. We delivered hydrangeas for Mother's Day to Ardyn's grandmas in addition to the finished handprints.

This week I am getting a haircut, going to TWO computer meetings, Ardyn's swimming lessons, and packing for the Chicago Green Expo with Ardyn and Angela. And hopefully cleaning the house, working in the yard, mailing a few packages, finishing Dotty Owl for Ardyn, and gathering estimates to fence in the front yard very shortly. I also need to get 27 dresses watched so I can return it to my sister, and hopefully also trim Hadley's nails.

One pair of Ardyn's custom shorties (wool) arrived today. They are adorable, but they look small. I measured her and I HOPE they fit perfectly. They are SUPER stretchy. I hope that they work out for us and need to try them on tomorrow before she starts knitting the second pair. The pair I received are purples and greens and have adorable ruffled bottoms. The next pair will be pink/orange/yellows.

So there you have it. I am sure there is tons more, but we have been busy around here and I forget what we did yesterday sometimes. Good thing I am taking lots of pictures! Sunday morning we woke up and noticed that the stop sign in front of our house was snapped off from the wind we were having. It is crazy! Today I called the county highway department to report it. Evan dug a hole and propped it up temporarily after he saw two people blow it today and almost get into an accident. I also met with a guy who measured for our first fencing estimate. AND we mowed, trimmed some things in the flower bed, swept off the sidewalks, etc.

Shiva is the only person I know with enough arms to apply diaper ointment to an 8 month old.

I am loving. Staying at home. I have so much that I could type here, but I still have several things to do before bed so I will make it short and sweet.

I have been hella busy. I have barely been online *gasp* and that's okay. Evan took pieces from his computer and put them into my computer, doubling the memory and adding another hard drive and a DVD Burner. We reformatted the machine and I am in the process of installing new software, the Adobe Creative Suite (CS3) and Microsoft Office 2007.

This past weekend we had alot going on. I don't know that I checked my email at all until briefly Sunday night. We were without power for 4 hours on Saturday, and I spent the time picking up the house and playing with Ardyn. I had the dryer going, the washing machine, the dishwasher, had JUST put the baby down for her nap and was going to sit down and pay bills online, and vacuum the house, when the power went out. That was a bummer. Saturday night Evan's band (Driftwood) had a gig and my sister and I went to watch. I was busy clear up until the moment I walked out the door that night and didn't get home till 2:30 in the morning Sunday, and then was up with the baby at 5:45 again, and at 7:30. Sunday I was pretty much zombie- and Evan worked in the yard (mowing, etc) and I did more laundry and washed diapers, cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher twice, made my grocery list for the week, picked up Ardyn's room, and then Ardyn and I took a late bath together. She stayed up until 10pm (stinker) so I was up until 1:30 am because I had so much to accomplish before today. I had cleaning people coming, and because we had already been so busy, and I brought home everything from my office, and unloaded everything from my car when we bought the van, AND had the computer tore apart and software and hardware strewn all over.... I really needed to clean up. I felt like if I could make it through this weekend with all the things I needed to have done by Monday, then I would survive.

Today I woke up and cleaned more (this place was really a wreck) and Ardyn and I got dressed and packed the van up for a grocery trip. We ate lunch and I did lots of preparing for errands, packages to mail, stops to make on the way to get groceries, etc. I needed to refill all my perfume at Good Scents and make an appointment for a haircut. I wanted to wash the van and open Ardyn's savings account at the bank. I needed to get the mail (software for the computer had arrived) and drop off a UPS package. Then we had to get groceries. And get home in time for making supper and seeing Evan before he went off to band practice. I also had to call the Dr.'s office and get a prescription for Ardyn (she got a yeast infection diaper rash right before leaving daycare, that miconazole wouldn't clear up, so we needed Nystatin) and then had to pick up the prescription.

So we made it to everywhere we needed to be today, and also had an oreo blizzard and got $216 worth of groceries. It made me sad, but I had to buy my second pack of disposable diapers this week, because the creams and treatments we are using on her would ruin her cloth diapers. I feel terribly guilty about that. I know that I can use lay in liners for the diapers but they always seem to "move" in there, and I also want to eliminate the possibility that the yeast could be growing in her diapers (which I proved that it isn't, I was pretty confident in my very strict and efficient washing routine, not to mention my soap and oxyboost) She wears disposables 4 times a day and overnight when I put the cream on, but wears her cloth diapers for the rest of the day. She also has been going naked as much as possible to help clear it up.... she was naked for 3 hours straight on Saturday.

My milk supply is way up now since I don't have to pump all day. When she goes to bed at night, I pump once before I sleep and I am getting more than twice what I was getting when I was working full time. Wonderful. Building up my freezer supply feels good, although I feel like I might never need it! It should help me out when it comes time to wean though.

I am also really enjoying NOT washing pump parts and bottles every night. What a pain in the ass! The dogs are thrilled because instead of being in the kennel all day long, they have been out laying in the sun in the yard. They are enjoying it thoroughly.

I was able to get some jeans out on the line last Friday, which was awesome. I am working on carrying Ardyn AND a laundry basket outside with me. It's not hard when the basket is empty. I put her in the carrier that Amy bought me, because she loves to face forwards and look around, and it's the only carrier I have (out of 5) that allows her to face out. then I sit her in the grass and she plays and watches and grazes (ha) while I hang things on the line. She has been especially grabby lately. She can get into anything within 3 feet of her body in like .3 seconds. Today when I was getting groceries, she was trying to unload the cart as fast as I was loading it. She threw (literally threw) a tub of hummus (my favorite red roasted pepper) onto the floor and it went like 5 feet from the cart and broke open all over the floor at the end of the aisle. I looked around for a salesperson to help me, and per usual, when you WANT one there aren't any (damn *Mart*) so I just ran like hell. Does that make me a bad parent? Probably. But after I waited 50 minutes for my daughter's prescription to be filled and then 10 more in line with 9 other people while she screamed and fussed and kicked at me.... just to finally pick it up.... and 20 more minutes in the checkout line and then put everything onto the conveyor one-handed while she whined in my ear.... I didn't give a rats ass about that hummus anymore.

She was hungry because she hadn't eaten since like 1pm and it was 4pm, and she had skipped her naps because she refused to sleep when I put her down for her regular nap, and although I have breastfed while walking the aisle of Wal-Mart before, I am not able to do it when I am alone because I can't feed her AND push the cart at the same time. Today (while changing a diaper, holding two kicking legs up with my left arm and two flailing hands out of her crotch with my left hand, holding the diaper down flat under her with the other arm while I used the right hand to squeeze out ointment onto my index finger AND apply it) I asked my husband what kind of cruel sense of humor God must have to give us moms only two arms. Honestly. Shiva has 8, and that bitch is wicked awesome. (I say bitch because I am referring to Shiva in the form of Ardhanarishvara, half man-half woman. And I don't mean bitch to be derogatory here. AND I should also clarify that Shiva can be depicted with anywhere from 2-8 arms, but usually at least 4. Wiki it if you are not sure what I am referring to.) Are 8 arms to much to ask? Octo-Mommy sounds pretty cool to me. I mean, wouldn't they go well with those eyes we get in the back of our heads?

So as I write this I have finished my night. I have put away all the groceries. Made Spaghetti and Garlic Bread with Cheese for supper. Fed the baby and myself and my husband. Rinsed the dinner dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher. Nursed my daughter and put her to bed. Helped my sister shop online for a doghouse for Arnie. Washed two more loads of clothes. Taken the tags off Ardyn's 4 new pair of summer shortie pajamas. AND checked my email and decided that I have time to either blog or respons to emails, but not both. I bought the remaining supplies to make Dotty the Owl... and hoped to do that tonight, but at this point in time, it's already 10pm and I still have to unload stuff from the bed, put away laundry, make my list for tomorrow, read the book on how to set the water softener, let the dogs out one more time, brush my teeth, take my medicine, and go to sleep. AND probably pump and switch the laundry one more time. So, Dotty will have to wait. Another day.

I hope everyone is enjoying their spring. I know that I am!

Ode to the Van

Wednesday. One week. Five Work days. Till I get to be a Stay at Home Mom. I guess I should correct and say "Work at home Mom." The weather is fabulous here! It's very difficult to concentrate at work. Today at lunch I spent time out on the patio eating lunch and enjoying the sun. This morning when I dropped Ardyn off at daycare, the kids were playing outside. When I took Ardyn out to her teacher, Ava came running up to me from nowhere. I was so impressed that she knew right who we were! I didn't even see her until she was right in front of me. She said "Hi!" and I said "Hi Ava!" and she pointed at Ardyn and smiled and said "Baby!" and I said "yes! What's the baby's name, do you remember?" and I thought for just a second that I would have to remind her, and I could see the wheels turning, and she suddenly looked up at Ardyn and then at me, and said "Ardyn!" and I said "Good job! Her name is Ardyn!" She was so excited to see us. I wanted to scoop her up and give her a hug and kiss but thought that I might freak her out so I just grinned at her. She was so thrilled to be outside when Ardyn was. It was cute!

I am reading Water for Elephants for my online book club, which was started by the group of moms that I belong to (our kids are all the same age.) So far it's a good book. It's intriguing and I can't help but think something big is at the end. Or perhaps that the end explains the beginning. I also have a stack of about 7 parenting and kids magazines that I have to read, and since I keep not having the time, I made myself carry them around in my shoulder tote for three days, as penance. I feel guilty, but keep telling myself that soon I can relax and read up. I thought maybe if I carried them with me that I might have a minute here or there to pick one up, but no such luck. So finally I gave up and left them at home instead. Besides those things are HEAVY!

Last night we signed the paperwork for our new VAN! Can you believe it! After all those posts about how I will NEVER Drive a van, it came down to me begging for a van. Ha. Can I just say first of all that I heart Stow-n-Go? Ohhh Do I ever. So it's a navy blue 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan. We found it at Browning Dodge, locally, which was also nice. We bought it for about $4000 less than it blue books for, which was amazing. It has 25,000 miles and still has factory warranty. They sold it brand new off their lot to their office manager, and she turned around and traded it in for a new vehicle, so it has been taken excellent care of and has had all it's work done right there since she works there. I am thrilled. We looked at 2007 and some 2006 Models in Peru and they wanted OUTRAGEOUS amounts of money for them, and they were so basic with no options, AND they were filthy! Cigarette burn holes in the floor mats and carpet, stains, ACK. Not something I would pay the $20-27 thousand that they were asking! It was insanity. That's like $5-12,000 more than we paid! It has full stow-n-go, captains seats, power drivers seat, power sliding doors, CD and cassette, dual climate control, rear heat/air, read defrost, cruise and radio controls on the steering wheel, the whole deal. It's immaculate and Ardyn's car seat fits so wonderfully! And the stroller. I could actually GET groceries in this thing, and we can all fit! Right now, whoever rides in the passenger seat of my car, has to have their knees touching the dash and their head touching the ceiling/visor. It's crazy. So Saturday we pick up the van. Can't wait! The payments will be less than half what my car payments were. Ahhh. Now I get to sell my car! Today I called my insurance agent to add the van.

I am waiting on two Little Tikes toys for Ardyn. I sold some diapers on diaperswappers and had paypal, so I grabbed up a couple of used Outdoor toys online. Of course they are more indoor/outdoor toys, and I don't anticipate that we will ever leave them outside, because of their value and that we want to keep them clean and free of fading. I got two retired items, which were hard to find. The Little Tikes Peek-A-Boo Tunnel, and the Little Tikes Activity Garden. I remember babysitting for kids who had the Activity Garden and they LOVED that thing. I loved that thing! It's perfect for Ardyn right now, and the Peek-A-Boo Tunnel is great for crawlers and I think she will enjoy it immensely this summer. The Activity Garden I am tracking through FedEx. I feel like if I even SEE A fed-ex or UPS guy on my street I might tackle him. I saw one earlier in the week and it was all I could do to stay in my car. He.

Also new is Ardyn's 2nd tooth. Last weekend and the beginning of this week I made mention that she was really gnawing on my hand, and that the first tooth must be pushing through the rest of the way. Well, last night she smiled at me and there were two bottom teeth instead of one! I know for a fact that there was only one on Sunday night, so it must have came through either Monday or Tuesday. She also has started to make a pig sound in her throat, the first time I heard that was yesterday. It's too cute.

This weekend I am excited to see Carrie, and perhaps Angela if she ever gets her act together and calls me. We are supposed to get together this weekend and go out for supper, since Carrie will be home and Angela will be having the big 30th birthday next Tuesday. I bought her a card back before Valentine's day because I found the PERFECT one. Then I thought that her birthday might be March 28th instead of April 28th so I called her that day and she clarified. I sat right down, filled out the card, addressed and stamped the envelope. Then Evan kept asking me if I wanted to mail it, and I kept saying no because I wanted it to arrive close to her birthday. And now, I can't find it. Ugh! Did I mail it? Did I lose it? Jeez this is insane. I know she will laugh when I tell her this, but really, It's embarrassing.

Today I also grabbed Ardyn's newest shot records from the Dr. Office so that we are ready when we switch to a pediatrician this June. I also got paperwork to fill out for my exit interview at work. Paperwork Paperwork.

I have a new plan. Although I think it's probably too good to be true, I have used a giant wipe off board and tried to schedule certain tasks on certain days. I am hoping that this will keep me on track and doing a bit of things each day, instead of running around too much on one day. If I wake up in the morning and say "all I HAVE to accomplish today is vacuuming and washing diapers" or "All I have to do today is wash jeans and clean out the fridge" or "All I have to do today is get groceries and wash fruits and vegetables." I don't know how it will work. Or if it will work. But I will give it the best try I can. I have it pretty strategically planned. Clean the fridge out one day. Make the grocery list the next day. Get groceries the following day. Wash each type of clothes once a week so that I only have to do a load or two of laundry each day. Wash Diapers every other day. Wash the Dog Bowls once a week. Give them baths every two weeks. Change the bedding every two weeks. That type of stuff. And of course there will be instances when the plan won't work. When I have something going on and won't be home, when Ardyn doesn't allow me to accomplish much. But I think that I feel good about having a plan. Once I feel like the whiteboard plan is finalized, I will transfer it to paper and give it a trial run for a week or two and see if it is feasible or if it needs tweaking or trashing.

Been a while

Hi folks! It's been a while since I have written a substantial post. The internet via Comcast is still very poor and so I really don't turn on the laptop much these days... although they are supposed to be sending ANOTHER person out tomorrow night to assess the situation and fix it. If they don't have it resolved by May, I will probably switch to DirectTV or something like that.

Today I started reading Water for Elephants for a book club that I belong to online. I got really lucky and had an online mom friend who had the book and wanted to swap for a Jodi Piccoult book that I had already read and wanted to get rid of. Since Media Mail shipping isn't half bad, we just mailed them to each other. Water for Elephants arrived today, and I am already thoroughly enjoying the tone of the book, and so I have a feeling I will have it finished before May, although it's supposed to be discussed by the end of May. As long as I can remember it by then! Ha. I had visions of Ardyn and I lying in the hammock in the yard, staring up at the blue sky and reading. Ahhh. Peace and tranquility.

We had a good weekend. I had a gift certificate that I used to purchase a food processor and also some Ball Freezer containers (have you seen those? they are awesome) so that I cn make and freeze some purees and some baby meals. I have been on the search for tiny pasta stars, but have yet to find any. My mom believes there may be some at the store in Sterling where she shops... so in the meantime I will use Couscous. I am hoping to try it out tonight to slice some Strawberries that I bought. I usually would use the Pampered Chef Egg Slicer, but I would love to try out the food processor. I haven't had time to take it out of the box just yet.

Saturday we went to Peru to peek into a few vans, and also to go to Menards to get the hardware to hang Ardyn's swing, and to Target to grab a few things we needed. That night Evan stayed home after Ardyn went to bed, and I went to get groceries. at 10pm. I got home and had everything unloaded by about 11:45, and boy was I Pooped! We desperately needed groceries, but I think I spent too much. It's hard to make food a priority sometimes. Good thing is those groceries will last at least a month I hope. I had to get some things to keep at home for me to eat at lunchtime, seeing as how I will be home soon and need to eat my meals there.

Sunday I pretty much cleaned and played with Ardyn. Last night I cleaned the back porch (FINALLY!) and organized shoes on the shoe shelf. I ran the dishwasher, washed diapers and three other loads of clothes, cleaned Ardyn's room, washed all her 12 month size clothes and hung them up in her room (Evan added the second bar to her armoire yesterday) and I also fed the dogs, cleaned off my bookshelf, and scrubbed Ardyn's Foam playmat in the shower with the hose and some Clorox Green Works cleaner... and then dried it. I cleaned off the dining room table, washed and sanitized all the bottles and pump parts and Ardyn's food bowls and spoons, and unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. I hung the rugs on the clothesline and put Garters on the sheets to keep the top two corners from popping off. I took a bath and Ardyn tried the Yo Baby Yogurt for the first time (It's crazy but the day Mylie's mommy was posting a comment here about trying the yogurt, I was already out buying some! LOL.) Sunday evening we went over to Evan's parents and cooked out and sat outside and enjoyed the weather. It was just beautiful and today was even BETTER.

I got the money from my nursing swimsuit refunded into my paypal account and was able to turn around and buy 6 more Thirsties AIO's in size Medium, which will bring the total up to 12. Thank God. I am so sick of washing diapers every night. We wear prefolds and MEOS at home, but if she wants to wear shorts this summer, they are wayyy too bulky to get her bum into unless she has the Thirsties on. Plus Thirsties are the diapers that dad can handle well, and babysitters, etc.

So tonight I am going to get a van to keep overnight on a test drive. I am really excited about the van that I have found, so please wish me luck that all goes well. I am really hoping that I can get it... and that everything falls into place. Everything ELSE has fallen into place lately, so I almost feel like it's not possible to have one more thing work out this well.

Random Update

Tomorrow is Friday, but I am more excited for May 1st to arrive. I have given my notice at work and April 30th is my last day. The day after I told my boss I would be leaving, she approached me and asked if I would consider continuing to design and update our website from home, as a contract employee. This, of course, is my every dream come true. I didn't mention it to them because I seriously thought they would never even consider it as an option. It has been approved by the CEO and Human Resources, and they are in the process of determining how to handle the pay scale and things. I will connect via a remote connection and do the web design and updates. Since then, they have decided to have me do some redesigning of the internal website as well. I also have a friend who has closed her own web design business and will be directing some of her clients to me for updates to their current websites. Evan and I will be working to put some more memory and a dvd burner in our home PC. The hospital may be providing me with the software that I will use to do their web design, which is wonderful. I am so excited about this... everything is working out wonderfully!

Ardyn is so amazing! Her babble "da da da da" has turned into a full blown daddy, and we are sure now that she has connected the word with the person. Of course we have been trying to get a "mamma" out of her, but she forms the 'm' with her mouth and then makes fart noises... so I guess we will have to appreciate that her first and only word is "daddy." She is clapping all the time now, and bopping to music. She also tries to snap her fingers, it's the cutest thing. She has really started to become mobile in the last week or so, rolling all over and trying to "get" to things. Evan and I are convinced that she will be crawling very very soon. She has especially shows a real interest in trying to get to me, wherever I am, and of course that's a great feeling. Lately she and I have been reading books before bedtime and then she sits on the couch and nurses and then falls asleep in my lap. She's at a very fun age right now. I can't believe she will be eight months soon, and a year isn't far behind!

We are about to add breakfast to her schedule, with some fruit and cereal, and probably baby yogurt. She enjoys pieces of fresh zucchini, apples, bananas, and the Gerber Puffs in fruit and sweet potato flavors. Last week she had some fun with a pickle when Evan and I took her to Townsend for supper after "school."

Last night was our second swimming lesson, and I got to be in the pool with her, which was fun. Twice I blew in her face to get her to take a big breath, then put her under the water. The first time she popped up and was surprised and giggling. The second time she wasn't as thrilled, Evan said she opened her eyes under the water and the chlorine burned her, and that might have been what made her angry. She wasn't doing as much kicking and paddling this week, but I think it's because it wasn't as new and exciting as it was last week. She did grab the boogie board, and the floating dumbell. They also did a "race" where all the kids tried to blow a piece of foam noodle across the water. She was more interested in getting it INTO her mouth. She can pretty much tolerate about 30 minutes in the water and then she seems to be ready to get out, I think last night she was just plain tired. As soon as I got her home and fed her supper, she was rubbing her eyes and falling asleep. That swimming is hard work!

I am packing up my office this week. This weekend we are planning a trip to Menard's to get a few things we need, especially some hardware to hang Ardyn's new swing (Thanks Grandma Deb and Grandpa Dave!) in the front yard. My dad also had a friend who gave him a rickshaw (a baby bicycle trailer) so I need to get myself a bike so I can pull it! Ardyn and I will really be living green now!