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Time Stretch

This week has gone slower than the week before and the week before and the week before and the week before. It’s just perspective, but even so, it’s as real and anything can get.

A new year dawned 6 days ago. Christmas even longer ago. Getting to each event was fast. Now with this one new week, they seem so distant, removed and far away. At some point in the last two weeks in our house we were talking about the PS Vita “that it’s only … away!” when we’d get ours. Now it feels stretched out of reach, just over the horizon, something that was right in view all the time, anxious for the day to arrive, now it seems further away than ever.

It’s only perspective. It’s been one of those weeks, this and that, news of internet stuff, be it threats of one group or another, to make things unpleasant for many, many folks. These times are insane, it doth seem.

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Christmas and New Year

Happy New Year y’all!

Christmas was nice, though we didn’t have a big tree, nor any decorated tree … with a baby again, and all the stuff that comes with one, with the way our main space is these past few years … there was just not the space for a Christmas tree, nor the energy to “try to fit one in anyhow”. 🙁

Hubby got me a PSP for Christmas, bundled Lmt. Edition Darth Vader (as sold at Costco). It’s cool, though I’ve done more “web browsing” on it than anything. I got Atari Classics, and Star Wars Battlefront Renegade Squadron, and a couple of movies. I didn’t have Memory Stick Duo for it right away, so I didn’t play games much. I got a Memory Stick a few days after Christmas, and it’s nicer now, I have bookmarks for the web browser and saved data for games, etc. now. I haven’t taken the time to play any games really though. I was able to buy another game and another movie the day we went out and got the Memory Stick Duo. Oh, that is a 4GB Memory Stick Duo Pro, btw.

It’s nice to add more electronics to the stash.

The children got me something too, a new Betta fish. It’s moreso blue all over, with a little bit of orange on the bottom fin area. He has a nice plastic house (it’s an angled betta “bowl” with a blue cover.) I haven’t named him as of yet. He’s so very plain looking, compared to Thaddeus, who has been with us for 1 full year now, and looking good.

The new betta isn’t a Crowntail, as Thaddeus is.

I noticed that the “back” of the new “bowl” is totally flat, and the widest part of the “bowl” and perfect as a place to put something colorful … so I fitted a piece of Christmas wrapping paper to it, and that set him off nicely. He has blue stones, and he’s blue, the top is blue, and the paper is a dark but bright cranberry-ish red with “Merry Christmas” written in gold horizontally all over the paper. I can change that out when ever I desire. I’ll make up a template to make that easier (I didn’t think to do it originally until I already had the water and the betta fish in the “bowl” :rolleyes: )

Our new year is alright, nothing spectacular thus far. I wrote more about it on my other blog.

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Holiday Season 2007 – What To Wear

The initial “holiday season” is over … which is Thanksgiving, which brings in the “Christmas Season” practically, and in our home there is also something else, before or after Thanksgiving. It’s a birthday. This year it was the Sunday after, so “Christmas Season” for us feels like it doesn’t start until after that, and so it is such now.

There is a wedding later in December for us to get ready for, and I can kill two birds with one stone this year. Getting something for each child to wear for Christmas and the wedding, just one outfit, holiday nice-enough for a wedding, Christmas Day just to look nice and for pictures that day, and we usually go out to the movies as well, dressed nice. I will hopefully be able to get the clothes and something for me too, and do it soon enough to get a family picture to send around. Oops. I can’t believe I wrote the above and totally forgot about the baby! I didn’t really in writing, but did forget about him in thinking about the “outfits” in my mind.

I had gotten nice flannel shirts for each boy from Osh Gosh, and thought about having them wear them with Osh Gosh jeans for a picture, but that doesn’t really go with the “holiday nice-enough” idea of “wedding”-able. So I have to re-think and do something else. My thoughts have been to find nice winter sweaters and turtlenecks with babycord pants. Of course, we don’t have any of that, except one boy does have a black turtleneck he could wear if we found a sweater to go with it that is good for his “Spring”-ish (not sure if he’s a true Spring or a mix with Autumn perhaps … but maybe not) coloring (black just being a very small accent, to wear underneath something more colorful.)

The baby does have a couple of turtlenecks he could wear, but no “nice pants” nor any “sweater” of any sort. Nor any “nice shoe-things” either.

I have such “casual” stuff for all the boys. Not that I’m looking for “formal” anything, no, just “moreso dressy-er” — and for my girl, she has had dresses every year for quite a few now, that are lovely, from Strasbourg Children, but I don’t have anything that fits her that is even a “tad” dressy that isn’t summer-y.

Now then, it’s me that’s the problem. I’m 5 months post-baby-born, and not able to wear many things either because I’m breastfeeding or just weirdly shaped still. So most of my stuff I have to wear that I CAN wear is non-holiday, and not very nice over all. Very, very, very casual.

So now I’m wondering just how I’ll be able to pull this off. The only thing I have that I could do, if it fit, which it doesn’t, is a lovely wool skirt and blazer “set” that I got at Dillards a couple of years ago. It’s a blue and black plaid pleated fairly long skirt and a solid blue blazer and they don’t, as I said above, fit me now. The blazer, sure, I could wear it, but it’s the skirt that’s the problem, just not able to get it put together right still. If I could, then it’s just a blouse I’d need to find.

We’ll have more money to burn come 2008, but January is too late to have anything to do with December clothes needed. Oh, well. So I’ll just have to wait until the end of this week and see what we can squeeze out of everything to make something do-able in the clothing department. The hardest part though is going to be finding a solution for me at all, and being able to afford the girl solution (which I could find easily at the SC store, mentioned above.) Then next in line is finding the right thing for the boys to wear.

I wasn’t into “matching” things for the boys before, just co-ordinate nicely enough together — that was with 2 boys. Now there’s a third boy, though he’s still a baby, but he has the same coloring as his oldest brother, and so it’s kind of nice to have them matching and then have the other brother in the same sort of thing but a different color. He’s a “Spring” as I said above, and the other two are blond, blue eyed “Summer” boys. It’s possible, just might be hard to pull off that way.

So I’m anxiously awaiting the end of the week to start solving this puzzle.

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Allergies and house stuff

Goo … I feel miserable. My “normal” allergies have just been la, la, la all along this Spring, until about a week ago. They ramped up, but even moreso this week.

So here I am, 36+3 (wks+days) pregnant and it’s hard enough to get the energy I need to do stuff … forget it now. 😉

It’s my eyes, they feel big and swollen and red, just the rims look it though; my nose is goopey drippey stuffy, not dry, very, very wet; my throat is scratchy, it’s getting more sore on one side, as it does in heavy allergy times (like in my earlier years in Florida); my nose is itchy as well. I’m sneezing off and on and always, always dripping.

Hubby is coming home tonight and so I hope I can get some Benadryl soon. I have a small amount of liquid Benadryl that I have started to take itty bitty bits of here and there since yesterday. I only take small amounts of it in the first place, as a “usual dose” knocks me out or over. I take a child’s or even a half-child’s dose and it’s bad enough.

I need to get the house A/C filter changed out again. It’s an allergenic sort, with a high value for use, but this house is full of dusty dust blobs, so it needs to be changed out more often than it might in another house. It’s not as big a deal when allergies aren’t high, but when they are … it’s a huge deal to get a new filter sooner, way sooner than usual.

Today I’m getting all the bedding washed and changed, I hope. I need to. One problem I have is changing the bedding, it’s difficult for me usually, being smaller than most “Normal” folks, as well as now being bigger bellied 🙂 Another one is that our bed is a Queen size. We had used this one for awhile, then got a King size, and over the years the Queen size was rarely used, and the King size wore out, so we are using the Queen this past year or so again … hoping to get an entirely new setup ASAP from IKEA. As well, we have King and Queen sheets, and the labels are all worn down and so it’s like “Which size is this one?” and if hubby puts the sheets on the bed, he puts whatever on. If it’s a King bottom sheet, it’s too loose width-wise and comes off easily, which I dispise entirely. I am also realizing that the most sheets we have purchased in the last 5-years or more are flannel King sheets for the previous King size mattress set we had.

The other thing is that there is one sheet set that I know is Queen. The bottom sheet I have on the foundation. So it’s unavailable (the foundation looks hideous and needs covered.) I don’t have a dust ruffle for a Queen either, and as well the foundation rests on the floor, we took the old H-frame out a few months ago, it was so rickety and I knew it’d be easier for me to get in and out of bed with it on the floor anyhow.

So yesterday I was in the hall closet looking for pillowcases & sheets, and found one ugly dark green sheet (which I had for a Queen futon “couch” that we don’t have a futon mattress for anymore) and one pillowcase for that, and another pillowcase from a nice white pair with a pretty eyelet thick edge but I have one covering a window.

I need more than that, and it comes down to looking and pondering and knowing that there must be more somewhere, but where. Ah, some are worn, ripped, or just hideous (as in “why did we ever buy that color, pattern, etc.”) and are probably in some of the stuff in the garage, or in the laundry room, buried.

Our master bedroom has no finished floor and is supposed to be quite the opposite by the end of this holiday (Memorial Day) weekend. This should aide somewhat in the dust and blech in the house. (The other thing is to get the basement ceiling finished!) We have 8″+ wide unfinished Heart Pine. It’s so pretty. We are going to do all 3 bedrooms eventually, as well as the hallway, but will just do our bedroom and the hallway for the time being. The children have Pergo currently and that is sufficient for the time being (though it’s not very nice IMO.)

That is that –for now. 🙂

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New Years Day

Yesterday we watched football Bowl games on TV. We also went into the backyard and threw around my new football as a family. I also brought out about 6 firecracker thingies to light up. I did 2 separately, then later hubby doubled the remainder and lit them up, that’s twisting two sets together –by the fuse, and lighting for a double banging. [He did one double, then after that the last double.]

We hadn’t thrown a ball around as a family for a long time, since our other balls have been chewed up by the dog. This new football is being kept in the house and not allowed to be left anywhere the dog will have access to it. The children are much older now, compared to when we last did have a football. Our eldest, boy, 10, needs to work on things a lot, our middle, girl, 8 is a bit more natural and showed vast improvement with the little we did yesterday. Our youngest, boy, 6, is a natural but still very young, so not able to throw far and all that.

One thing hubby and I did was some drop kicks, and I was pleased to find I did great with that once I found the spot on my boots that I was wearing to actually kick with.

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Christmas Day 2006

Ah, Christmas is over … well, not over, but it’s the inevitable “let-down” already, not that it’s just now started … it’s been so for awhile. What is the “Christmas Let-down”? It is: After opening presents, spirits eventually fall to a lower level. It’s different depending on the year, who’s there, what was gotten under the tree, etc.

Basically for us, we spend Christmas together, immediate family only, that’s Hubby, Me and our three children. So there are no visitors and it’s “just the regular us” together.

The anticipation for the gift opening part of the day is usually high, and was quite so this year for the children. We take things in order, having a time announce to sit on the floor around the tree and then gifts are passed out by Daddy or Mama, or both, in stages, and then only opened when we say, “go ahead” or something similar of an idea. This keeps everyone watching and seeing what is what and just keeps the peace overall, and doesn’t detract from excitement one itty bit.

I myself recieved something I’ve wanted for over a year, an i-Dog … a white one. I wanted a black one, ever since they came out with it more recently. A black one is spiffier looking, to me, and goes with my HP laptop nicely, as well as my Sansa e260 (mp3 player) both being black devices.

Hubby often lets our daughter in on what he get for me, and lets her help wrap sometimes. He said that when he showed it to her this morning (when he finally wrapped my presents) she said, ‘Mama wants a black one.’ 🙂

So I do have a return to do, to replace white for black. Unfortunately hubby then told me that there was something called an i-Cat too now, but that the store where he got the i-Dog and had had the i-Cat was out of them and so were their closest other stores. He thought I might like it better, so holding out for it would be good … I looked it up online and found an article from Feb. ’06 about it coming out in the Fall, and new colors for the i-Dog as well. I have seen the new i-Dog colors in several stores, but no where did I notice an i-Cat.

The article seemed to show it as “white” like the original i-Dog, with no other colors. It sounds like something cool, the i-Cat, but in white, that’s not for sure what I want, though it could be cooler than the i-Dog in some ways, or many ways, me being a total cat person. I’ll have to reserve judgement until I see the i-Cat physically and can see it in action.

We got a Sansa m230 for each of the two oldest children. I had trouble with my Audible Manager when I tried to use the new ones. I ended up finding a reference to a similar problem with a different device on their website help, and found that it solved my problem to follow the directions. Basically deleting a ‘content’ file in the Bin folder for Audible in Program Files. [the file being corrupt, deleting it, then starting Audible Manager, the program asks you about the file, and choosing the option there to “create new” is the right thing to do. Then one needs to make all their audible audio files imported anew into the Audible Manager library.]

Once I did that it was like magic, I was able to move things onto my own Sansa m230 again (why the file corrupted right then, when I had something new to do, don’t ask me. It worked ), and also easily got the two new ones friendly with Audible and filling up with Eragon (though there is plenty of room for other books, or music even.) The m230’s are a 512mb device, nothing huge, just have it for ‘Audible’ audio books mainly.

DH got me a football too. It’s not just for me, really, but I am the one that wanted it. It’s a Junior sized ball, easier for the whole family, only DH has big hands.

Other things were opened, but I won’t go over everything. A tradition we started a few years ago when Peter Pan came out on Christmas Day was to go to a movie on Christmas Day afternoon, something new, family fair. This year we are going to see ‘A Night in the Museum’ in Imax format. We’re leaving soon. We would have gone earlier, but Imax showings of this film aren’t starting until 5pm-ish.

So I’ve got to go get my boots on and get ready otherwise. I took a short nap in the middle of writing this post, so hopefully it all makes sense. 🙂

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Merry Christmas

May you all have a very Merry Christmas!

I still have to put decorations on the tree, my husband got the lights on it yesterday late afternoon. A lot of the presents are wrapped, but not all as of yet.

I’d like to make some more cookies this afternoon, and hope I can. I had made a batch of Spritz the other week, and carefully dolled them out, making sure no one hogged them away in their innerds. Unfortunately that ended up happening a couple of days ago, when hubby pulled the bag out of the cookie jar and brought it to the couch where he and I were watching a movie. :rolleyes: So accordingly, we are out of Christmas cookies and that’s not a swell thing around here. [we aren’t looking for fancy, just a good cookie, spritz, ginger snap, tollhouse, snowball, etc.]

I’ll try to elicit the help of others to make tollhouse and one other type, at the least, today.

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Early Christmas Present

[NEW: Picture added to post December 23, 2006]

Hubby brought me a Christmas present yesterday. He couldn’t hold it over … why?

It’s a Betta (fish) and a really cool glass “bowl” that is blue and shaped like a big fish with a wide open mouth at the end, which is the “top” of the bowl, though not the “top” but is the opening.

I’m having to create something to cover that mouth, to keep fishy in, and kitties out. It’s an artistic piece, the bowl and really nice. I saw it in the store (PetsMart, earlier this month, Dec ’06) and oohed and ahhed over it. I didn’t want to put a fish in it, really, but now I have it as a present and it’s alright. I’m trying to make it work.

I love aquariums and haven’t had one in so long. This is a different sort of thing, a betta is something I’ve not had, but have wanted. It’s a nice present.

If the betta doesn’t work out in the bowl, then I’ll have a nice glass fish to put glass marbles in and have as a pretty accent piece.

[Edit: Dec. 23, 2006: Here is a picture of Thaddeus in his bowl. I had to put him in last night, Dec. 22, when one of the cats knocked over the store container he was still in, and most of the water drained out immediately. I don’t have a good cover for the “fish mouth” yet, and it troubles me. I have plastic wrap stretched tightly over the mouth, but left open at the top for “air”. The cats didn’t bother it last night, we have stuff on each side of the bowl so they can’t get to it. Also, the fish bowl is sensitive to tipping to the right, unfortunately. So the food processor is hugging it on the right, and boxes of crystal glasses on the left to fill up space. One cat is interested thus far, in the fish in his new bowl. Blueberry Bear sits on the table across from the fish bowl and stares and stares. That’s it.]

My betta is a crowntail sort, very fancy tail and fins. He’s sort of blue and orange-ish, I think. I can’t tell exactly, he’s in his little container from the store, and the water is blue tinted. I’d prefer a more blue fish, but it’s OK to have this guy, he’s pretty. I haven’t named him yet. That is to come. Well, as I wrote that a name popped into my head. It’s Thaddeus –why? I don’t know. It just popped into my head. I haven’t read anything recently or less recently with that name per se. FWIW So my betta is “Thaddeus” 🙂

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Weather Dull Gray

Ah, weather. It’s not “cold” but it feels a tad chilly in the house, with the weather the way it is. Currently it’s overcast and usually raining –drippy or steady or pouring (since sometime in the middle of the night.) I’d love to have a fire in the fireplace, not a huge hot one, but a little nice putt putt one (for a little extra warmth, with the major plus being the “emotional warmth” a fire brings, so cheery and bright.)

I wrote above that “I’d love to have a fire” going –but I can’t. I have a few larger pieces of wood in the house, they are ‘seasoned’ but not to my standards of preference, they are hard to burn without a very hot fire going with a ‘ton’ of embers glowing to keep it going. Everything else is outside. Yes, out in the rainy weather. If I had kindling in the house it would be easier to try a fire, but all the kindling is definitely soaked through with no hope of sun to dry it out anytime today. The “logs” are on the side of the house, sort of, probably protected a bit, but overall maybe not much. I’m pretty sure most of them are very wet from this rain today, and since that whole load is from the same place, not seasoned to my preference, mostly all are difficult to burn without really well seasoned things and kindling galore to keep a hot fire going to steam out the water and burn the wood. :rolleyes: All in all, too much to consider doing with rain saturated kindling, and the main wood for burning being what it is already and with the added rain, nixing the whole affair.

The temperature outside is around 60 degrees F. Not cold at all. It just “feels” worse in the house. Sort of drafty chilly, and probably too dry, and no sunshine outside, no blue sky, just gray, gray, gray, dull. It’s the kind of day, this WINTER (yes I can actually consider it Winter now, it is officially since yesterday, Dec. 21. 🙂 ) on which temps outside vary greatly day to day, and with the lesser degree of daylight, dull gray skies are really that, and having to have lights on all day in the house, ugh [yes I am a crazy lover of firelight, candlelight, lamplight. Not electrical light.]

It’s supposed to not rain tomorrow, “they” say. Maybe some sun later on tomorrow too. Sunday and Monday, the actual “holiday” days, it’s supposed to rain again. Bah, Humbug. I want dry wood.

I’ve tried to keep the boys bringing wood upstairs and also stocking it down in the basement, enough for a couple of days or three this month. It’s not been that cold lately, so I slacked off on bugging them to do it (it’s a lot of work to bug them enough to get it done) and now I’m paying the price, no dry wood today.

Our Christmas tree is undressed still. Waiting for the lights. Somehow my good lights are not to be found. So DH went to Home Depot yesterday to get some, and came home with three boxes of “50 light” strands. 🙁 That’s not enough. That’s the only type of white mini lights they had, he said, but he’s not the tree guy, I’ve been the light and tree lady all along, and so I can’t fault his picking of what he did. He’s learning though, and that’s pure pleasure for me. I’m giving this job up and going to make sure others can do it from now on, put on the lights, that is.

Having a lighted, decorated tree in here would be nice too, the lights on it would be electric lights, sure, but they are different from the big bulbs that we use to light rooms, they give a wonderful glow to things, without the “interior house lights” on.

I hope to get these things straightened out today. DH is out getting milk right now. When he gets back perhaps the lights can go on, and more gotten and gotten on, and the boys and he can find some drier wood outside, and hopefully we can have a decorated tree and a fireplace fire on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. FWIW it would be nice.

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Christmas is coming

It’s Monday, December 18th. Just a week until Christmas Day.

We finally got our Christmas tree on Saturday night. It’s in the house set up, but I haven’t the lights to put on it. They are “somewhere” and hubby isn’t here to fetch them out for me. I used to love decorating trees for Christmas when I was younger. I still LIKE the look I could make, but find it more tedious and tiresome to do than I can stand the last 5 or so years.

Of course, our house is still in ‘disarray’ due to not yet having the new cabinets and sink and all that for the kitchen. We still have the old ones sitting in different places. It might not be that far away that we’ll get some of the cabinets and things will turn around a bit for ease on my part in the kitchen. It would have been better for this all to have been done before now (this is really tough with me being pregnant too!)

I’m now 13 weeks, going on 14 later this week. Time is starting to fly. It crawled for the first trimester, let me tell you. (It’s the first time ‘time’ has slowed in flow for several years for me, growing up is not all it’s supposedly cut out to be :LOL: )

We ordered things from Vision Forum and are awaiting their arrival by the 23rd. I don’t want to be up wrapping presents late Christmas Eve, or the eve before that. I really like having it all done beforehand, I love shopping completed in November, in fact, but things being as they are, I’m stuck with how they have been. 🙁

We still need to get something for our youngest. Mr. Super Active doesn’t need anymore toys really, and he’s still too young for much of anything else (just 6-years-old.) I don’t like “going shopping” per se, and really dislike it during the holidays, crowds, crowds, crowds. I don’t look forward to going to Toys R Us or The Disney Store, or where ever. This week is THE week to stay home and bake cookies. I’ll do that for now, since hubby is out of town, but he’ll be here for going out on Wednesday, ugh. Too close to D-Day.