Picasso Maybe

Tonight after I fed Julia her dinner, I sat down myself to eat as she
toddled around playing and such.

After a bit, I realized it was quite quiet and I became concerned as
to where Julia was.

I stood up... and there she stood in the corner of the dining room,
drawing on the legs of the island/table with her crayon. Apparently I
missed that one when I picked them all off the floor the other
day...!!!

Thank God for Magic Eraser. She sure seemed proud of her work!

erin

Hey, Baby!

Today was my 2nd OB appointment with my Awesome Doctor and Saint of a
Nurse. *sigh* They are wonderful.

A few things I noted today:

-- Regardless of the amount of stress or how wildly my emotions swing,
I still manage to maintain a good blood pressure: 112/70

-- This baby is going to be a stinker and from here on out will be
affectionately known as The Stinker. It took the doctor about 5 - 10
minutes (okay, I am guessing, because it felt like an ETERNITY) to
find the heartbeat today. Silly Little Bugger. Heartrate today: 170
bpm

-- I gained 4 lbs this last month. Whoops. I attribute this to:
drinking soda (bad), not sleeping enough (bad), and being a bit
stressed (bad).

-- I love my nurse. As in, I really love her. She may as well be
family. When a different nurse came to get me today, I about crumbled
to the ground (emotional much?) and started crying. I kindly asked
where Joan was and the nurse said she was busy and she would be with
me soon. (Whew. Sigh of Relief.)

-- My doctor is wonderful. Aside from taking care of the normal
doctor/patient stuff, he was kind enough to listen to me about Life
Stuff, and kindly and with assuredness reminded me that God is my Rock
and He is in Control. I needed that reminder today. Thank you, Dr.
C! (Ditto, Joan!)

-- Right now I am 14 weeks and some days along. I feel GREAT (other
than the lack of sleep thing). I am pleasantly surprised at how good
I have felt thus far in this pregnancy.

-- My next appointment is April 22. Woohoo!

erin

Postcards

You may or may not know this about me...

I collect postcards.

I am probably not a True Postcard Aficionado in that I do not keep them in binders, keep track of who gave them to me and when, or even take very good care of them. I have even been known to take a postcard from my collection and send it off to another person in the mail.

But, all the same, I love postcards and find that it is a fairly easy collection to maintain and all of my postcards are on a cork board in my office or in a drawer. (I would guess the cork board holds ~100 and the drawer contains ~300 or so.)

I thought to post about this, because as I was cleaning the dining room and the Horizontal Surfaces in the dining room (the clean of which is Long Overdue), I found a postcard that Adam (my husband) had brought home for me from his latest mission trip to Texas back in February. Adam tries very hard to find me a postcard from each trip he takes. One of the last mission trip postcards was of a bull of some sorts and the postcard was from Oklahoma. The postcards he finds for me on these trips have become a joke between us of sorts... I think that now in his quest, not only does he try to find me a postcard, but one that is... not necessarily of True Postcard Material. We have a good laugh when he brings home postcards.

I thought I would share with you the latest... and maybe you'll get a good laugh too when you realize why I say it is not of True Postcard Material. But, all the same, it is a postcard, and maybe one day it will make it on the board.


Maybe in the future I will post pictures of some of my favorite postcards. And, if you are ever on a trip and are near postcards or want to hunt and find me an obnoxious one, I'd be most grateful.

erin

On My List

I have decided that my blog needs a banner. What's that you say? Well, it's the pretty or cute or neat or awesome or whatever piece stretched across the top of the blog site. Mine is pretty Boring right now... it simply contains the title of my blog.

So, that is now on the list of Things to Do... create a cool banner for my blog site.

I'm projecting completion round about August 2011. I suppose it's the thought that counts for now, though.

(P.S. If anyone is interested in helping me create a banner, as I really don't know How to go about creating one, I would appreciate any insight. Or, if you just want to do it for me, that's cool too.)

erin

Seeing Red

For you Men of the World, this blog entry will probably make no sense to you.

For the Rest of You... here's hoping for a good laugh or at the very least, a little sympathetic nod of the head.

A few weeks ago I decided to start couponing. Not in a Big Bad Couponing Way -- I have no intention of stocking my shelves until they are overflowing with Things We Have Never Used In Our Lives on the off chance that we might use them -- but, I am willing to try new brands of products we always use -- Charmin is on sale? Sure, we can use Charmin. Dove Body Wash? Sounds like a winner. Huggies instead of Pampers and I can get those Huggies at 1/3 the cost of the Pampers? Sold.

So far, I'm pretty happy with some of the deals I've gotten. Relatively "good" shampoo for $0.99. A big bottle of Dawn dish soap for $0.99. A bottle of Spray 'n Wash for $1.00. These are all things I love and my goodness, have been spending on the order of $2.50 - 3.50 per bottle for the last X years... ludicrous!

Last week I decided I was going to scour the ads for coupons for razors -- yes, the razors you use to shave hair off one's body. I had run out, and while I had been using the Rather Expensive Variety, I was willing to sacrifice and try something new for the sake of the budget.

Now whether you know much about razors or not, they have come a long way, baby. And while I sometimes think the general public is fooled by how great the swiveling head and multiple blades must be, I have to admit, the better the razor, the better the shave AND the longer the razor lasts. So, you really DO need to compare quality vs. cost in this case.

BUT... I had a $2.00 off coupon for the Bic Soleil , and based on the original price, one had to imagine they were relatively okay razors. Imagine my surprise when I found they were ON CLEARANCE at Wal-Mart, so with my coupon, I was able to buy these razors at 1/4 the original cost! Oh, joy! Oh, rapture! I had just saved our family money on something I desperately needed!

And then I shaved.

Ladies, I am proof that the swivel or tilting head DOES do wonders for ones lumpy and bumpy legs. Little did I know that the lack of this razors mobility would cause it to not just remove the hair from my legs, but also level each and every tiny little bump, resulting in a Spot of Red Otherwise Known as Blood. I can't say that it hurt very much, but you all know what a pain in the behind it is to deal with bleeding legs after a shower. At any rate, it was not a overly fun experience, though the shave WAS relatively smooth.

Now, this will not deter me from buying the razors that are a good deal. Saving money is more important right now than worrying about a few nicks here and there. But just know, in the world of razors, you ARE getting what you pay for.

erin

Proof

Need I say more?

All right, well, there isn't an actual picture of me eating it, but I did.

Between me, Adam, Julia, and our guest, we ate 6 pieces -- 2/5 of the
pan. I hope Adam wants to eat the rest of it for lunch.

Ha.

Note to the Lasagna Makers of America: Eating my own lasagna does not
automatically mean I will eat YOUR lasagna. I don't do mushrooms,
olives, large chunks of tomatoes, or other weird or "fun" lasagna
additives that people seem to assume make lasagna taste better. Take
notes: Eggs, ricotta, parmesan, mozzerella, spaghetti sauce or FINELY
PUREED tomato sauce, hamburger or Italian sausage, and lasagna
noodles. Spices like oregano and basil... and of course, garlic is
good too. That is all that a lasagna requires.

erin

What's for dinner?

When I was pregnant with Julia, the first time I noticed "morning
sickness" (experienced at 4:35 pm ish) was when I opened the
refrigerator to take out the lasagna I had prepped the day before for
dinner. The smell wafted out, hit me square in the nose, and had it
not been for my strong constitution, would have sent me straight to
the bathroom.

Suffice it to say, the smell (and thought) of lasagna had thoroughly
grossed me out in about 0..2 seconds.

However, we were having company for dinner that night, and seeing as
how I didn't have anything else to throw in the oven, in went the
lasagna. I choked it down and swore never to eat lasagna again.

Fast forward two years. I have only eaten lasagna twice since that
incident, and they were mainly vegetarian lasagnas, so they did not
have the same impact. Last night Adam suggested that we add lasagna
back into the menu rotation. The look on my face prompted a "What's
wrong with lasagna?" from Adam and I was forced to regale him with the
story from Pregnancy Past. I. Was. Not. Making. Or. Eating. Lasagna.

Today we decided to invite a friend over for dinner, and this morning
I was frantically searching my brain trying to determine what I might
possibly have in the house that could be thrown together and have it
appear as an Appealing Dinner. Nothing would come. Nothing sounded
good.

That L word started to chant into my head...

... make Lasagna... Adam likes it!
... make Lasagna... it's easy!
... make Lasagna... I bet Julia would eat it!
... make Lasagna... I bet Jesse will like it!
... make Lasagna... perfect excuse for garlic and cheese bread...!

SOLD.

So here I am, pregnant again, and preparing to make Lasagna yet again.
The "morning sickness" has all but passed and as long as it is
covered sufficiently, the smell shouldn't cause any unpleasant
reactions once it is introduced into the refrigerator.

So much for saying I would never eat or make it again.

erin

Random Thoughts for Today

The Mouse Surgery was unsuccessful yesterday and so for $10.96, I am
the proud owner of a new mouse and the old one may well end up in
Julia's toy box (no worries, there are no wires attached -- it was
wireless).

For the last few days, it has been a balmy 70 some or so degrees and
quite beautiful outside. I had the windows open and the heat off.
Today, however, is a bit chillier than yesterday -- say, 41 degrees.
However, my stubborn self thought, "For sure the temperature will go
up... give it a few hours!" and I left the windows open.

Fast forward a few hours.
1. The sun still has not come out. In fact, it appears as though
we've gotten some rain.
2. It is still 41 degrees.

Adam just called me and I looked at the thermometer in the basement
and it said 64. Hmm, no wonder I am chilly. After discussing this
with Adam, I decided it would be prudent to close the windows and turn
the heat back on. Not a bad idea after all. While it may have been
64 in the basement, it was only 59 on the main floor, and worse than
that, only 48 degrees over by the sink. Whoops!

The windows are all shut again and the heat is back on.

Other random news...

I realized that I haven't really provided much update on Julia lately
in terms of what she is doing.

I posted back in early January that she took a few steps. Well, for
the last 2.5 months, she seems to have taken a few steps every single
day... and just this last week, at home at least, we have turned the
corner of "walking more, crawling less". However, at daycare, she is
still the Master of the Crawl. (Mistress of the Crawl? Whatever.)
She continues to prove my point, also, that she KNOWS how to walk but
simply chooses not to. We were at friend Rach's the other night, and
Rach asked if Julia was walking more yet. I said, "Oh, hum, yes, but
not that much really." Julia then proceeded to show me up by walking
around Rach's living room -- no crawling for that kid. A defiant one
right there... or at the very least, likes to prove me wrong. Hmm...
she DOES take after her daddy..... :)

Julia is quite the chatterbox as well. She talks... A LOT. However,
she talks in "baby talk" (and apparently only my niece can decipher
her words). It's rather cute, though, and she has specific phrases
she says over and over again. She still knows "mama" and "dada", but
has seemed to throw "bye bye" by the wayside (in both word and action,
UNLESS she is talking to Paul and Judy in her "Pat the Bunny" book)...
and "hi" has turned into a shy peek while nuzzling her head into my
neck.

But, last night, we were playing in her room, and I realized that all
this time, when she was saying "boo" (as in "book"), she was ACTUALLY
REFERRING TO A BOOK! She would walk around her room, pick up a book,
turn to me and say, "boo?" It was quite cute. Then she found "Pat
the Bunny" and opened to the Peek-A-Boo with Paul page. I said,
"Peek-A-Boo!" and she said, "Bee-A-Boo!" It was so cute! So I
repeated it a number of times and she said it back to me... so cool!
"B" seems to be her favorite "sound" (other than meowing) right now,
though, so after a while, i couldn't tell "book" and "peek-a-boo" and
whatever else she was spouting as she rocked her sheep across the
room... but it sure was a precious time with her!

Today when I took Julia to daycare, she immediately spotted Romeo
(daycare lady's cat) and meowed at Romeo. Much to her glee, Romeo
meowed back at her. Julia meowed again... and so did Romeo. I am
sure that it was the highlight of Julia's morning... she STILL loves
cats, meows whenever she sees pictures of them or real ones, and here
the cat "talked" back to her today. How cool is that?

Well, the temp in the basement has gone from a chilly 64 and has
already reached a balmy 66. Off to check the weather radar and then
get back to work. :)

Have a blessed Wednesday!

erin

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to my darling husband, Adam!

He turns 32 today.

Tonight we have a babysitter and will go out to eat in Knoxville
(about 15 min away) for dinner at The Swamp Fox, one of our favorite
local eateries.

If you have a chance, wish him a Happy Birthday today!

erin

Where does this go?

When I created my blog, I used a different email account to do so.

Did you know it is nearly impossible to change the username of a Blogger blog once it is set (if you used a Gmail username)?

Anyway, after some forwards today, I realized that when people received email updates about my blog, and then they hit "Reply", it went to my OTHER email account... which I never check.

So... I did some work, and HOPEFULLY I have figured out how to get the "Reply" emails to go to my "regular" email address...

... here's the test! Let's hope it works!

Erin

2009 Pella Area Quilters Guild: Raffle Quilt Tickets for Sale!

Hello, my friends and family!

It is THAT time of the year again... the sale is on for tickets for the Pella Area Quilters Guild Raffle Quilt!

 

If you are interested in tickets, please let me know.  Tickets will be on sale for $1 a piece through Saturday, May 9, 2009.  The winner will be drawn at 6 pm on Saturday, May 9, 2009, at the end of our annual Tulip Time Quilt Show.  You do NOT need to be present to win!

 

Last year one of my friends DID win the quilt... how fun is that!  So, it CAN happen to you too!

 

I hope you like it!  Each year our guild produces something beautiful... extraordinary... and different!  :)

 

erin

mouse

Don't mind me.

I fully plan to start posting absolutely random things on my blog. I don't blog enough.

My next post for today: my mouse.

Yesterday, with all the force she could muster, Julia threw my computer mouse on the ground.

As was typical with my "old" cell phone, this type of act normally does no damage.

Well, the last time she threw the cell phone, I needed to pay to REPLACE the cell phone.

So, I shouldn't have been surprised when I picked my mouse today and realized that MY ROLLER does NOT work anymore...!

Ugh!

Do you KNOW how much I use my roller on my mouse? Apparently A LOT more than I ever thought.

Kind of like the time I spilled water on my keyboard and realized I used my "L" and "K" keys a lot more than I thought too...

... so I have been contemplating surgery on the mouse today. Either that, or buy a new mouse.

Note to self: Don't let Julia throw technological devices around the house anymore.

erin

8/19 or 8:19 or… 8… 19…

For a few weeks now, I have considered writing a blog about the numbers 8 and 19… and, more specifically, those two numbers together.

 

I was born on 8/19… or August 19… in 1978.  'Twas a good year, I think.  

 

In the past few months, I have noticed that I always seem to notice the numbers 8 and 19 together… most specifically on clocks, but this last week I noticed it in several other places, and now I'm starting to wonder if I am predisposed to noticing these two numbers together.

 

The first time I really noticed that I was noticing it was with clocks.  I would seem to notice 8:19 AM pretty much ever other day or so… and often it seemed to coincide with my work schedule.  And, it wasn't as if I was deliberately looking at the clock at 8:18 or 8:17 and waiting for it to turn… no, I would be doing something, glance at the clock (either overhead or on my computer) and there it would be, 8:19.

 

Then I seemed to notice it on Sunday mornings.  Maybe it was simply when I was coming downstairs for the first time… and one of the three clocks in our kitchen showed 8:19?  I have no idea.

 

Then yesterday I saw it when Julia and I were eating breakfast… and then today I noticed it yet again…

 

… talk about coincidence.

 

And, as I said, it is not simply with clocks.  I'll notice it in street addresses from mail I receive… and goodness, last week while reading my Bible, I flipped right open to a passage and bam… there was 8:19.  So, I had to blog about it. 

 

I know.  It sounds weird.  I might be a little odd.  But it's all good… ;) 

 

Erin

Surprise!

Hello!

 

If you couldn't tell from the "Take a Close Look…" t-shirt, our family has some news to announce: come September, Julia will no longer be an only child but will become a big sister!  YAY!

 

Adam and I found in January that we were pregnant with another babe.  We are very excited!  We hope that Julia will be excited too when her new baby brother or sister is born… but for now we simply try to teach her the word "baby" and play with babies and such.  She loves her "stuffed" babies already… here's hoping!

 

I am 12 weeks along.  Our due date is September 19, but due to various reasons, I will be having a scheduled C-section.  My first appointment was last Wednesday, February 25.  We had an ultrasound for dating purposes and to find the heartbeat.  The little bean had a heart rate of 175 and was dancing around like crazy.  It is amazing that you can already see the head, face, legs, and arms at that point – amazing!  (I've attached an ultrasound picture!)

 

We hope you are excited along with us!  We are very much looking forward to meeting the newest addition to our family in a little over 6 months.  Wow!

 

Hugs & Love,

(Adam &) Erin

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*** Visit my Blog at: erin-quilter.blogspot.com ***

Take a Close Look…

Take a close look at Julia's shirt… she has a new favorite one she wears these days…

 

(see attached)

 

(ha, don't mind that she doesn't look overly happy or alert... she has the flu or something... again)

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*** Visit my Blog at: erin-quilter.blogspot.com ***