My Grandma

My Grandma made me a quilt. Each piece is either a hexagon or pentagon (I would go look, but I would wake up the girls). I remember being with her when she was cutting and piecing this quilt when I was a little girl. Each piece of material is from clothing that was made by her, for herself, for me, for my mom, for my dolls. This quilt brings back a lot of nice memories. The back side is a pink rose material; this is the same material as the curtains that still hang in my bedroom at my mom's house. In one way, my life goals are directly influenced by her. One of my greatest desires is to continue her sewing heritage. She sewed and loved others through her sewing. That is my goal, too. Happy Birthday, Grandma

Berenstain Bears

The first Berenstain Bears book, "The Great Honey Hunt," was published in 1962.
Today's post is a memorial to one of the founders of the Berenstain Bears stories. Dancer Girl loves the Berenstain Bears, and we love the books and the show. It is always sad when someone dies. Hopefully, his wife and children are finding comfort for their sorrow in the One who is the Comforter. It is also interesting to note that Stan & Jan Berenstain worked with Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) to develop the Berenstain Bears series of books.

http://www.berenstainbears.com/
http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/berenstainbears/
http://pbskids.org/berenstainbears/
and for those of you who still need need to buy me a christmas present, autobiography of stan and jan berenstain....Down a Sunny Dirt Road

Time for Bed

Alright, everyone. Time for bed. Jammies on? Teeth brushed? Go pick out what books you want me to read....

what is your favorite bedtime book?

Fun E-Cards

Well, Dancer Girl, Little Sister Girl and I have found a new hobby. We like to look at e-cards together. Last night we sent one to my brother (Happy Birthday, Unca Eee-eye), a get well card to Long Hair Daddy, and one to Grandma. The girls and I love scrolling through the cards and watching the previews. Little Sister Girl tries very desparately to click the mouse. We have one of those fancy mice with extra side buttons and a scroll button in the middle, and she has a very difficult time clicking the correct button. Then again she is doing great for being only 20 months old. The popular "I do it!" is heard many times around here. This week she decided she was going to pick her own clothes, and put them on herself. She is very curious, and wants to zip zippers, flip light switches, press buttons, and climb into her car seat all by herself. She is also learning to take turns with her sister, because they inevitably always want the same toy or doll. She is learning to use words to tell us what she wants, because I just can't understand "Aaaaagghhh!" or "Waaaaa!" It is also very cute to watch her play Patty Cake with her dolls. She'll get a doll or stuffed animal, try to pat their hands or paws together, and say "Pada Pat, Pada Pat, Pada Pat". I have got to get some more tapes for my video camera.

Dancer Girl has been.....dancing. Surprise, surprise! She has been making me sit down to be her audience for various recitals, even more than usual. I think she is having withdrawal symptoms, because her ballet and gymnastics classes have been cancelled or postponed recently due to tornadoes (2 weeks ago), and the Thanksgiving holiday. She is also so, so, so excited because Long Hair Daddy decided to move all of his stuff out of his study, and give this room to the girls for a playroom/schoolroom. Dancer Girl calls it her Schoolroom, and loves it. She and Little Sister have been spending a lot of time there. So, if you come to my house, you will notice a considerable difference in the number of toys in the living room. Hurray! I also moved a lot of things out of their bedroom into the Play-School Room, and that room is less crowded now too. The only big thing left to do is finish reorganizing (okay, okay....cleaning) my bedroom. In my defense, I have to say, it didn't help when we had a Tornado Warning a couple of weeks ago. We unloaded my whole closet, and guess what? Well, it'll all get done eventually. I was talking to a friend on the phone last night, and she said there probably going to be tornado activity moving into our area today. So there, I have planned ahead. My closet is already ready, in case of a tornado warning. http://www.weather.com/

Not a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Come on, sing along with me...

On the third day of Christmas, my White Cat brought to me...
Two Dead Mice
One Snake Head
And a Dead Bird on the Carpet


True story of the last 3 days. I am sure it was grosser for me that for you, as I had to clean it all up. I just finished steam cleaning the carpet. Needless to say, the cat door is locked again. When will I ever learn? Note to self: cats hate hairball cat food, never buy again.

Ok, here is something to get that out of your head:

http://goingpostal.cc/goingpostal/blog/
Click the link for Christmas T-Shirts

That Monkey Looks Like He's Having Fun!

You Should Get a MFA (Masters of Fine Arts)

You're a blooming artistic talent, even if you aren't quite convinced. You'd make an incredible artist, photographer, or film maker.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

Songs in My Head

Show Me from My Fair Lady "Words, words, words..."
Peter, James, & John in a Sailboat from Cedarmont Kids (to the tune of Ten Little Indians)
Hot Potato from the Wiggles
I'm an Ordinary Man from My Fair Lady "But, let a woman in your life..."


I am thankful for songs

Thanksgiving Cometh

Well, I have worked hard to prepare for Thanksgiving, and though I haven't gotten every little thing done that I expected of myself, I am very happy. I am happy that family is coming to our home. I am satisfied that I have done the best that I can and I am not going to worry about all the little things that did not get done. My children are happy and excited, and my husband is anticipating our first Thanksgiving at our home, too. My heart is filled with thanksgiving for many things, and I hope every person who comes to our home will be filled with hope and thanksgiving, too. I am thankful that we have a home that can be open to anyone who wants to come in and be thankful with us. Don't be nervous, Motherkitty, everything will be wonderful! We will have fun preparing for guests on Thursday. We will relax and play and talk together and have a great time. I especially think Dancer Girl and Little Sister Girl will really enjoy helping us and watching.

Little Sister Girl is saying new words and singing new songs every day. She surprised me this morning with "Gobble" and "Office." I am so glad all the family will be here to see hear her baby talk and songs. Dancer Girl is very excited about all the Grandparents coming, too. I am sure there will be a recital, pretend restaurant, and many demonstrations of the many things she is learning in her ballet and gymnastics classes.

Inbox

I just deleted over 200 messages from my inbox, leaving me with a total of over 800. I guess I have been letting this get out of hand for a while now. Each day I process the new e-mails thinking that I am culling out the unnecessary ones. I still have lots of work to do, but I feel better now that my inbox is slimmer! I knew it was bad when I got to a Happy Thanksgiving message from 2004 from a friend of mine. Don't worry, I didn't fret, though. I just used it as an opportunity to send them a 2005 Happy Thanksgiving message. Hopefully, it was their most current address, but I guess I will find that out later. It is almost silly how much joy I got out of clicking Delete so many times...

Don't forget to click the picture to read some funny Spam Reduction Notes.

Surprise!

Ooh, I love surprises. And I have some for my Thanksgiving guests. Of course, they are not huge ones, but it is very exciting getting them ready. My husband surprised me this week, and I loved it. Maybe I should give a couple of hints for Motherkitty, because she is more curious than any cat I know. Will she want to know, "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" Hmmmm...let me see.
Naah, she'll have to wait. Sorry, motherkitty, you'll have to wait two whole days.

Hurray!

Only a few more days until Thanksgiving! Hurray! Very exciting!

One Good Thing

breasts are for....
http://www.fencer.org/kittenyarn/Why_Mom_Cant_Do_Yoga.wmv

Ok, I don't know where this video came from, but as a nursing mom, I find this hilarious. I guess most people who are into labels would call what I do something like Ecological Breastfeeding or Attachment Parenting or something like that. I think nursing babies is the best, it's what God designed Mamas to do. However, I understand and sympathize with anyone who has tried and found it overwhelming, challenging, painful, and discouraging enough to give it up. I have found that determination and education and (the right) womanly support is essential (thank you, Motherkitty). I also realized that all the nurses in the hospital that you meet may not have been nursing mothers, so though they may have a medical education, they are not really equipped all the time to help a new mom(light bulb moment for me). I say, if you are pregnant, and really want to nurse your babies, you should read, read, read, and line up some mamas to call upon who have successfully nursed a baby. I have friends who have had preemies and tried to nurse, and despite everything their milk didn't come in. I have a friend who wanted to nurse, but a severe recurring case of mastitis when the baby was three weeks caused her to quit. For times like these, I am glad that there is formula. I have also watched friends who said they really wanted to nurse their babies follow well meaning advice, and I could see that it would lead to very early weaning for them. But sometimes, you just can't butt into other people's stuff. I also know of one marriage that was severely affected because the wife was into attachment parenting and ecological breastfeeding and the husband didn't wholly agree and felt neglected enough to start an online relationship with another woman. This of course is just my opinion, because I don't know for sure why their marriage split up. But then again, common sense says that one of the most important things would be that the husband and wife agree on the care of their child. It is also important to protect your relationship with your spouse. So anyway, Long Hair Daddy and I try to re-evaluate our parenting choices every so often, and recalibrate. If it weren't for his support and love, I don't think nursing would have gone as well for me, or parenting in general, for that matter. For the most part, we are extremely happy with our parenting choices. Our reward is our two beautiful, healthy, and intelligent daughters. Who could ask for anything more?

For breastfeeding information and support, check out the La Leche League site, and don't forget to see if there is a group near you. When my babies were born, there was not a group in my town, so my friend started our own nursing moms group. Though it wasn't La Leche, it has been one of the best resources I have had for parenting. Click on my picture nursing Beautiful Baby to get to the La Leche site. Or click here http://www.lalecheleague.org/. For attachment parenting info, check out pediatrician Dr. William Sears site http://www.askdrsears.com/, or click the baby-wearing Mama (coming soon...that picture apparently not scanned in).

Tick Tick Tick Tick

One week to go....I guess Motherkitty is getting pretty nervous about now. She keeps calling and asking if I have bought all my ingredients yet? I am pretty excited about having Thanksgiving here, despite the nervousness I feel from others. It will be nice to have a house full of people. Dancer Girl is still asleep, and Little Sister is nursing quietly on my lap. So all is quiet for now. Hurray, Long Hair Daddy was able to boot his post-surgery laptop at about midnight last night. Many thanks go to his trusty sidekick and brother, Good Ol' Uncle Brent. I wonder if you can put successful laptop motherboard transplant on your resume? We prayed for the success of that operation like we pray for other operations....."God bless the surgeon's hands," "God help the laptop to survive," and "God thank you for a successful operation." Now is the usual wait and see how the patient is doing period. I think Little HP is in stable condition, so keep him in your prayers ;) Oh yeah, and don't forget to pray for worried Little HP's Long Hair Daddy, while he takes Little HP through the recovery & reloading process.

This surgeon is not Uncle Brent, of course. You can see more still life photography by Glenn Przyborski here http://www.przyborski.com/glenns_images.html

What do you say?

What kinds of things do you tell yourself?
What do you say to yourself when things go wrong?
What do you say to yourself when you things go well?

Crispy Cookies, Fried Hard Drive

Well, the girls and I have had a lot of fun trying out the new stove. We made chocolate chip cookies after dinner last night. I was celebrating because I actually had all of the dishes done before dinner, and you could see both sides of the sink!!! :o Applause!!!! Thank you! Thank you! And the new stove cooks very quickly. This just confirms that my old one was very quirky, and didn't cook very well. At least two different times I had to use an oven thermometer to figure out how much hotter my oven was cooking. The first time I set the oven for 300 degrees, and the thermometer said 375. So for a while I did this funny oven math to bake things. So thank you, Motherkitty, we love the new stove. Long Hair Daddy has had a terrible week because his laptop died, and is now going through an excruciating resurrection/transplant. Being a software developer, and totally depending on his laptop, my husband has had a difficult time sitting idle while he waits to see how the patient will do, and will he come out of surgery with all of his memory? Let's see....power supply --replaced, motherboard--missing in action, hard drive-- recovering data (hopefully). Enough said, I guess. Those of you who know computers or know my husband will know how devastating this is. Anyway, he was still very, very happy to come home to slightly crispy, almost burned chocolate chip cookies.

We love Cookie Monster, by the way.

Fall Festival

We went to a fall festival last night, and the girls had lots of fun. Horse rides, roasted marshmallows, hayride, grilled hamburgers, horseshoes, bonfire, music.....It was a late night but we had a lot of fun. Little Sister Girl met a Golden Retriever named Rusty whom she loved. Every time she saw him, she yelled out, "Dog! Dog! Dog!" We had a good time with friends from church on the hayride. Just ask Long Hair Daddy just how much fun! Wheee! Let's just say hay is slippery....and we were going up a hill. Dancer Girl loved taking a ride on Buttercup the horse, and eating grilled hamburgers. She sat snuggled up in front of the fire roasting marshmallows. Dancer Girl slept on the way there, and Little Sister slept on the way back. Now for Saturday.

Veteran's Day

Check out my mom's post on her blog today http://motherkitty.blogspot.com/. She has done all the research most of us don't bother with. A list of all the wars the U.S. has been involved in, including a casualty list for each is included. I, for one, appreciate our armed forces and all those who participate in maintaining our freedoms. I want to thank all of those in the armed forces, and those who are veterans of the armed forces. I like being part of a country whose ideals line up with helping those who cannot help themselves. I believe strong, rich countries should help those who are not. I personally want to thank these people, friends and family, who have participated in the United States Armed Forces (hopefully I will remember everyone I know):

My Dad, my brother, my Grandfather Diaz, my friends Bobby and Reid, Kris's husband Greg....

Well, I was just about to type something about my real current feelings, not something superficial, and my computer just crashed. Just shut off all by itself. Unfortunately, my first thought was, Did we forget to pay the electric bill? but I saw other lights on and wondered what happened. Just another thing to report to Long Hair Daddy. Long Hair Daddy, by the way, is very intelligent, and I look up to him very much. He is a software developer, as I have learned to call him. Most of us would call him a computer programmer. Bonafide computer geek. Proudly wears a business mullet. Anyway, all of this is a distraction from what I was going to say, though I am not sure what that really was. I just know I had it in my head that I was going to write some real thing that was happening, not just fluff or filler. In a few hours my mom and dad will be here, not just to visit, but to buy me a new stove. I am filled with anxiety and dread and at the same time joy and excitement. There is nothing really like a new something coming sparkling into your home. Is my stove broken? Nooo. Do I really need one? I don't think so, but Motherkitty does. And, this was one concession to help her with the transition from Thanksgiving at her house to mine. Oh, well. On a similar vein, Thanksgiving at my house will be open to anyone who wants to come. It will be potluck or not potluck depending on how you feel. If you are hungry or by yourself, join our family. If you want to bring food, go right ahead. If not, it doesn't matter to me. The more, the merrier. I also want to say how thankful I am for my husband. He cares for me like no one else I know. This past week he has done some very special things for me and I really don't know how to say how much it means to me. Mostly, thanks for noticing how stressed out I have been. I appreciate the love and support, and I know Baby Girls loved, loved, loved the extra time with their Daddy.

Mermaid

My Dancer Girl is the little mermaid on the right, the one with the beautiful flowing red and purple mermaid hair and red sparkly shoes. Here she is pictured with one of her little best friends at a mermaid birthday party. This picture was taken in March and really does not Beautiful Dancer Girl justice. I just didn't have time to scan a better one. Dancer Girl saw Little Sister's picture on Motherkitty's Blog and decided she wanted one of her dressed up too...

Fun at the Park

Long Hair Daddy's Mom (aka Grammy around here) came over yesterday for a nice visit. She got us lunch and then we headed to the park for swinging and sliding. It was lots of fun! I am so glad we live close enough to all the grandparents that we can see them fairly often. When I was little, I remember driving to my grandparents' house on Alice Avenue in Hammond, Indiana (8 hour drive back then---different speed limits) once a year or so. I am so thankful that Dancer Girl and Little Sister Girl are close enough to really get to know their grandparents.

I am also very thankful because my friend from New Orleans is finally headed back to see his home. It makes me wonder how many others who were displaced from Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita are still going to be homeless for this holiday season. I read on this New Orleans news blog (http://nola.us/) that there are still major sewage disposal problems in New Orleans--yuck. That would make me want to move. My friend said he would decide what to do after he saw what was left. I can't imagine how difficult that must be, not only for him, but for all the families who were affected. Still, I am thankful for his safety, and for all those who were protected and rescued.

note-- pix found at http://www.philomenaoneill.com/Philomenas-site/pon-port2.html
http://www.philomenaoneill.com/index.html. The illustrator's name is Philomena O'Neill.
reminds me of my girls, and we do have 2 pretty white kitties...

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. I love getting together with family. I love the food. I love the noise. I love the cooking. I love the eating. I love everyone sitting around watching football or movies. I love playing games with family and talking. On this note, I think this is the year when we officially start having a big Thanksgiving at our home, instead of just going to all the grandparents' houses. I think Motherkitty is finally ready to relinquish a small part of the traditional duties to me, even though I think she might change her mind at the last minute. We might even have the celebration at our house....this sounds better and better all the time. It will be a good motivation to get my house all cleaned up. I have really gotten behind lately with sick kiddos, and busy schedules, etc. None of us really know what the etc. is, but it really does a whopper to my house. Anyway, the big to do list today includes hiding all the leftover candy from yesterday, putting away lots of laundry; and, drum roll, please... finding all of the living room floor.

to do list update (Friday am): I can see most of the living room floor, hurray! I am going to vacuum today. Yesterday I cleaned the bathroom,got the dishes caught up (if you went in my kitchen you can see the almost all of the counters-- I am not counting the one covered in art supplies and coloring books and mail, oh my!), bagged up the garbage, and washed some towels. Dancer Girl and Little Sister Girl were a BIG help! Thank you, Sweet Girls!