Jam Tomorrow, Jam Yesterday...

Sick of Blogger

2008-04-30T07:03:00.000-07:00

Since I was one of the first people to ever sign up on Blogger I got a pro subscription free for life. Now, I am thinking of switching even though it is free. My posts often don't publish and it's getting FRUSTRATING. I am going to check out some other blog sites and see what I think. This message will probably not post today. Yesterdays still hasn't.

baby toofs

2008-04-30T06:59:00.001-07:00

Poor Lydia is teething. She's getting her right bottom molar and it refuses to come out. The gum there is just ballooning up and getting more and more tender. I put her to bed at 7 and she keeps waking up screaming bloody murder. It's horrible. I gave her tylenol, which I hate to do because she had a 103 temp yesterday so I was forced to give it to her a couple of times then too. Fifth's disease was going around Lilly's classroom so I think Lydia got it. Her cheeks were red and now she has some mysterious spots on her butt. Sounds scary but it's a rather harmless childhood virus with a stupid name. It's named because it was the Fifth childhood disease with a red cheek rash discovered. Dumb right?

In other news: I won a giant wooden tiki fork and spoon on ebay! Score!

Also, I ordered my Laptop Lunchbox! I did great on my eating today until Lilly suggested we visit the chocolate aisle on a trip to the store to get craft supplies. DOH! A bag of dark chocolate almonds later my good job today feeling is ruined. I will try to get it back tomorrow by walking my street and eating my delicious spinach chestnut dip with celery sticks for lunch tomorrow. Man, Brian really doesn't help me out by leaving, not one, but two giant bowls of potatoey goodness in the fridge. One of potato salad and one of mashed potatoes. I resisted and didn't touch either one at dinnertime but it might be harder tomorrow to sit at the table with him at lunchtime while he chows down wide load. I'm going to chant "LARD ASS LARD ASS" at him every time he lifts his spoon to take a bite. I just realized that having two refrigerators would be wonderful. Mine would be all clean and full of healthy goodness and his would be full of cherry limeade, various potato dishes and chocolate milk. Maybe I'll start looking on Craigslist for a small one for me for reals. Then I wouldn't have to look at his shit food and be tempted. Not that I am blaming him for my weakness. I have a total food addiction and being here alone every night it is really easy to just sit here and snack. I just know if I buckle down I can lose those 50 lbs by August for Jill's wedding. Man, some popcorn would be good right now... AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

baby toofs & food problems

2008-04-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

Trying to blog...

2008-04-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

I really would like to blog more. A lot of the time I have just felt like there is nothing worth writing. When I sit down to write it, that is. Stuff is happening of course. For example:

1. Lydia does a million wonderful things per day.

2. I've been bird watching and animal watching around my neighborhood.

3. Brian and I are going on a crusade to get organized and be all around a happier people.

4. I just hit the 3/4 mark to being done on my advanced certificate in digital media design, also I changed my concentration from illustration to digital photography focusing on photo editing. Though I still get to fit in my advanced illustrator classes by using my electives, also it would be nice to have a nice SLR camera but that is going to have to wait for now. Also, because they love me my school is sending me a $200 Amazon gift card so I can now get

5. the storage ottoman we want to make our living room the coziest place for a family EVER and some other swag as well! (Professor Layton and the Curious Village y'all!)

6. Anyone else into bentos? These are so cute! I think it's very necessary for what I am planning to be a very active/healthy summer.

So, there are 5 topics I can start with and next time I can pick one and elaborate.

Long time, new year.

2008-01-04T18:34:00.000-08:00

Wow, I think about stuff I want to blog all the time, then I get home, do a little schoolwork and play Tile Towers on Webkinz. BTW my username is mamaducksaysquack if you want to be my Webkinz pal.

Christmas was Lovely. Lydia had a cold but still seemed to enjoy herself. I got a good week and a half off which was nice. Started getting my office together finally. Got an easel so I could complete the painting for Lydia's room. I previously painted on the floor with my canvasses leaning against the wall but unless I want little hand prints to be part of the art I needed an easel badly. I got a nice one too. I feel fancy.

We got a ton of snow in the beginning of December and have pretty much been buried in it since then. There's about 2 feet still in the yard. Temps are supposed to get into the 40's this weekend so that balmy weather will have us swimming in the yard soon. I'm really excited about the garden(s) we are going to have. I will have a tea garden to the right of the front door and ornamental flowers to the left and at the front of the house. Then in the yard there will be a few veggies. Luke said he wanted to plant some corn and Lilly a watermelon and I want PEPPERS! It's hard to find poblanos around here and I want some chili relleno!

I know I should try to blog more but I really just am not in the mood lately. I'm going to go update Lydia's page though. Then....TILE TOWERS! I need to buy my raccoon, Frehley, a bathtub.

I think we're alone now.

2007-11-30T11:09:00.000-08:00

After catching 5 mice in a 48 hour period I think we got them all. I also found the hole where they were getting into the drawer and plugged it up. Hopefully that will be the end of the mice in the drawer saga. I have disinfected and put my chopsticks in that drawer. I will be mad if there are mice on my chopsticks. I have nice chopsticks in there.

We are planning on going to Chicago next weekend to the Winterfest at Navy pier. It should be really nice. We are working on the details. Hotels are pretty expensive and ideally we would stay overnight on Saturday. It's only a 2 hour drive though so I think going at morning nap time and letting Lydia nap in the car, seeing the aquarium and Winterfest and skipping afternoon nap and then coming home with baby asleep again. Life takes so much more planning nowadays.

I made a couple of movies last night when Lydia couldn't sleep due to congestions. Keep an eye out for them on her site which will be updated sometime soon.

Mouse Attack

2007-11-28T18:11:00.000-08:00

In the last 36 hours I have caught 5 mice in our kitchen drawer. The first one was very, very ugly and looked more like a little opossum. The others have been smaller and less gross but still, pretty nasty. I am not someone who is grossed out by mice usually, or any other animal that people usually scream about. I play with spiders as a hobby for effsake (Lydia and I had fun with a little bold jumping spider in the bathroom yesterday, the big ones have awesome iridescent green fangs but this one was too small to see them well). I also feel very guilty about falling into the catagory of people who base the worth of an animal by how much it is useful to them. These mice, however, are disgusting and fortunately (for them) Lydia is around or the poison would already be in the garage. I'm afraid to put it anywhere though. I guess I'll just get a bigger trap and keep letting them out in the cornfield.

Shudder. There's one waiting for Brian in a bin on the porch right now.

Mouse in the house!

2007-11-26T07:06:00.000-08:00

I opened the drawer where I keep my oven mitts the other day and noticed crumbs of silicon all over the drawer. I told Brian that I think we have a mouse but he didn't believe me. Then on Friday I opened the drawer again and my lovely silicon oven mitt had a hole chewed through the thumb. It's a mouse.

I really don't want to have to kill a mouse so I went out and bought two of these safe traps. I spread peanut butter on a cracker and put on half in each trap and put them in the drawer. The next morning one of the crackers was gone and there was a little smear of peanut butter on the door of the trap where the mouse had obviously pulled it out. The other trap seemed untouched so I decided to give it another night and see what happened. This morning there was half a cracker left in the second trap. Seems like I'm working with the Brain half of Pink and the Brain. Brian is ready to use the poison but I am going to find another safe trap I think. I really don't want to kill a mouse and also I don't like having poison in the house with this little taste testing cruiser roaming around.

I'm thinking if I put the trap at an angle maybe the gravity door would work. I guess I'll try that tonight.

Snow!

2007-11-21T19:59:00.000-08:00

It started snowing right when I got off of work tonight, around 5:30. It's really pretty. The little apple tree outside my kitchen door is especially nice. I'll try to take a photo in the morning before it all melts. I was disappointed that the kids I take care of seemed to care less about the snow. When I picked up the little boy at school there were some teeny flakes coming down and he was just sulking and telling me he hated me because I asked him to carry his own jacket outside if he wasn't going to wear it. How DARE me. This is the first snow of the year and they don't even care. I hope Lydia doesn't do that.(Whatever Mom, it's JUST snow) Brian assures me that he was always excited about snow. I will always be excited about the first snow. It means Christmas is coming for christsake, and it's beautiful! I don't even mind driving in the snow or walking in it. I actually miss walking half an hour in the snow to the subway and bus stops in NYC. It was like by the time I got to work at 7 I had already won the amazing race everyday. If it's going to be this cold anyway shouldn't there at least be pretty snow to look at? The drive to Brian's parent's house tomorrow morning should be lovely.

Check out this week's forecast!

2007-11-18T21:37:00.000-08:00

Here comes the blizzard!

Lately...

2007-11-18T18:34:00.000-08:00

The internet has been down! We needed a new router. Now that we have it my internet works great again (wireless on my ibook) but Brian gets the blue screen of death if the router is even plugged in even though he is not using wireless! Anyone have any clues why?

The house is getting it's shiz together. After a fruitless search for curtains I've decided that the only solution is for me to make them so we will be visiting the fabric store, probably on Friday.

I covered the ugly, old brown oven hood over the nice new white oven with stainless contact paper and it looks AWESOME. I am considering covering the entire refrigerator. Contact paper has been my friend ever since I covered my guitar with pink floral version back in the early 90's.

Lydia's baby mittens don't fit her anymore so I am in the midst of knitting her some new ones. I had one almost done but it was too big and I had to start over and get some new bamboo double points in a smaller size but they are now coming along nicely. I let her try on the thumbless failed attempt and she loved it and just kept clapping her hands. That one will get unraveled and I will make mitten #2 with it's remains. I'll post a photo of her wearing them once they are done. I guess I should do a matching hat as well, eh?

It's freaking cold here now. I got a coat, it's a lovely citron puffer. Not too puffy. I've always hated puffers but this one is a good color and it's WARM. There's feathers in there!

I've been a little depressed about Thanksgiving. I really, really wanted to cook a Thanksgiving dinner and no one has been very co-operative about it at all. It always sucks at Brian's parent's house at Thanksgiving. His dad decided to stop having a whole turkey a few years ago and only buys a turkey breast now. Basically a turkey with the good parts cut off. I like dark meat and I like smoked turkeys, they are my very favorite. He cooks the stuffing in the cavity which you are not supposed to do as it is dangerous because it keeps the bird from getting thoroughly cooked. Last time he made it I was still eating and he started tearing the remaining meat off the bones and referred to it as "cleaning the carcass" which totally grossed me out. They don't have side dishes except mashed potatoes. My family is all about the side dishes. We usually have about 20. Usually we are all squished in their small living room which smells like old dog, because of the old dog. They buy shitty bread and only have Country Crock to spread on it so I pass on that. This year we will be going to my SIL's house so we will actually have chairs to sit in! Though, I am allergic to her upstairs because of her (evil)dogs. Man, all I do is bitch! I am homesick and like GOOD food ok. I hate sucky Turkey days. If I didn't get them they wouldn't even have cranberry sauce. Though it doesn't matter if they do because I won't eat the poison, dry turkey anyway... I will try to get some side dishes together and bring them. Ruth V.C.s lima beans and cheese is one of my favorites. Brian will make some devilled eggs. I think I will bring my own bread and butter. I wish I had time to make some yeast rolls but I work all day Tuesday and Wednesday as the little girl has no school Wednesday.

Ok, venting done. Heh.

I will try to get some side dishes together and bring them so I won't be just eating mashed potatoes. Ruth V.C.s lima beans and cheese is one of my favorites. Brian will make some devilled eggs. I think I will bring my own bread and butter. I wish I had time to make some yeast rolls but I work all day Tuesday and Wednesday as the little girl has no school Wednesday. Maybe I can even throw together a mince pie. MMMMMM!

IN OTHER NEWS... I had to file for an extension on two classes but should be finished with them soon. Still worrisome though as I have tried to go back to school so many times. I am more than halfway done though so WOOT for me.

The job is going ok. There have been a couple of shitty days. The little girl has some vicious mood swings sometimes but I am noticing that most altercations happen when the kids are playing computer games. She is very bossy with the little boy and he gets anxious and she gets mean. I told them that I am considering cutting out all computer time when I am there and she did a bit better. We have bonded over Webkins (I have a reindeer named Anner) so that is nice and she had an early release day on Friday so I took her to eat chinese food. She and Lydia love each other as well so that is really nice. She is always holding Lydia's hands and walking her around and carrying her around.

THERE'S A POSSIBILITY THAT I MIGHT GET MY GOAT SOON! The little boy goes to a new preschool out in the country and they have land surrounding it and are filling it out with animals a little at a time. I'm going to talk to her and see if I can get a dairy goat and keep it there. I've been reading abour making goat products off and on for years now. I'm going to talk to her tomorrow and I am confident she will be receptive. They have one horse and two Llama's already. Neither Brian and I work until afternoon most days so we could feed and milk her then, and Lydia could hang out in the preschool while I take care of her everyday.

This babbling entry has gone on too long. I need to update Lydia's site. Also a name change is in order. She no longer says "Hi" all the time. Check her site soon for the new name/her favorite word.

Anyone looking for a waste of time come play gin or canasta with me and my mom on pogo.com. We love it. We are duckykramp and donnaboyce. We're usually on from 10-11 or some Central US time.

So much...

2007-10-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

I'm so lazy about the blogging lately! When I get on the computer it's either schoolwork or mahjong for me. Not much else. No one emails me now that I live up here in the fly-over.

So we are in our new house. We got a nice sofa which almost didn't fit into our house but now we have a whole sofa, for awhile it was just half of the sectional, which was worrisome to me. Our house is coming together nicely. There are a lot of farm animals down the street, the lake across the street and geese and ducks flying over the house honking and quacking. I love it when they do that. I keep hoping a whole mess of them will decide to land on the house but so far none have. Maybe I should throw some corn cobs up on the roof. Sometimes in the mornings we hear gunshots. I guess it's duck season. Probably turkey season too. I haven't seen any wild turkeys but I'm sure they are around.

We have been plagued by ladybugs for the last week. Yes, you couldn't ask for a more pleasant plague I suppose. They mostly stay near the door and sometimes congregate on the kitchen light but don't venture much into the rest of the house. They are pretty and usually quiet.I've only seen one or two upstairs (this was the one loud one that was flying into the door over and over when I was putting Lydia down to sleep) so I'm not really worried, although we were out at an orchard last week and a ladybug landed on my arm. I felt a pinch and flicked it off and it had taken a little chunk out! Apparently when it gets warm and ladybugs get thirsty they try to eat people. I did a ladybug study at the Wildflower Center in Austin with Maeve and never learned that ladybugs bite. It freaking hurt and there was actually a small hole in my arm. Crazy.

What else? I'm working 30 hrs a week, only 2 full days, T and Th. So this is a welcome change from the last 7 years of 55+ hour weeks. I'm making almost as much as I was working those crazy hours in Austin so woot for me. This is my reward for 10 years of super duper wonderful doting references.

I haven't been doing so well on the healthy eating. I mean, I always stay away from unnatural stuff and preservatives, white flour, white sugar, etc... but there is lots of yummy preservative free cookies with lovely dark chocolate in them.... Brian is starting to get call backs to start jobs now and the stress is lifting from us. My nails are starting to grow back and the urge to crawl in the corner with a cup of soy and some num nums to dip them in is not as great. Brian and I will not be going to work until 2 most days so we are going to have family exercise times, or you take her and I'll work out and then I'll take her times.

One of my big "things" is I wanted us to have meals together at the table, with the baby. Brian's new job will have him working until 10:30pm M-F which upset me at first because I am really into this "family dinner" thing. We've been doing it every night and I love it. I actually get home early enough to cook and everything. We are going to do family breakfast or lunch everyday instead and have dinners on the weekend for now. This job Brian is starting is only going to be the until something better comes along job. We are still hoping for the library job to come through, though we are not sure how good the benefits are for that one. I want maternity and my current insurance doesn't cover maternity. Of course, I have to talk Brian into having another one. He is now saying he doesn't want another one. We will be in discussions I suppose in a few months. I'm getting too old for this shit so we need to get this straightened out soon!

That's all for now. I'll get around to posting on my Flickr one of these days. I have photos just not the time.

In Transition

2007-10-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

We've finally moved in to our new place! It's lovely, the redone wood floors are so nice, much better than we expected. We just keep saying "I really like this house" Lydia likes it too now that we have installed a hall baby gate and a living room gate she is free when in either area. She can crawl into her room or the sleeping room or my office at will, though I keep the loo door shut as toilet play is too tempting.

I will try to get some photos and write more this weekend. It's been a busy week. I started my new job, which is only 30 hours but after being totally schedule free for 3 months hard to get back into the swing. I only work early on two days and we have a great route to get there through corn fields and small farms, we don't even have to get near the hwy. This may change with snow but we will see. They are usually pretty good at getting everything shovelled up here and if it's too piled up we get to stay home! I don't have to work until 2:30 tomorrow and Monday so we will get a little rest now until Tuesday. Actually this job is working out really well. The parents are a dream discipline wise, all Love and Logic based just like me. The little boy seems to play a lot of computer games and this probably directly affects his mood/energy outbursts. I'm going to try to wean him off the boob tube and computer and get him into some rock climbing classes and some nature hikes etc...

Oh yeah, they also have cabinets full of preservatives and chemicals but I can bring my own stuff for me and Lydia. I actually cringed at all the white flour in there. I had to give the little boy a bagel and it was so white and pale and icky. Maybe I can try to sneak some whole grain stuff in when I grocery shop for the kids and they won't notice.

More later, sooner rather than later, though I have to go buy a new modem. We got the internets hooked up in Brian's office downstairs but when my router is on it totally slows down his internets. So I need a modem just for me upstairs. In order for me to use the internets he has to hook the router up at night. I can't really do more than a quick Google map check or email check unless Lydia is sleeping anyway so at night will be fine. I love my office, maybe some day I will actually get to set up my art table in here and my sewing machine, etc...

We've only had half a couch all week as the other half won't fit through the door with the legs on. Brian got the right tools to do the job now he just needs help lifting it. I tried but with my weakling, failing wrists cannot do it at all. I WANT MY NEW COUCH! It's lovely and light blue and, um, made of dead cow. I'm sorry veggies. I had to get it. It's so comfy.

Bedtime now.

Things

2007-10-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

We are still in the basement, though a lot is about to change.

On Monday we signed a lease for the house by the lake. We move in on the 13th.

Brian is having a hard time finding a job and is super stressed about it. I really want him to get something decent and not end up taking some horrble 3rd shift gig so I went out and saved the day and got myself one. It will only be 30 hours per week and the family is OUTSTANDING! Attachement parenters, breastfeeders, consistent choice givers, etc... When I told them I was still breastfeeding and asked if that was a problem the mom said "I would be more offended if you fed your baby with a bottle in front of my kids." Ok, so they had me right there. They really seem great. Plus I will have full use of a mini van so I don't have to go out and buy a new car right away.

Also, they are paying me very well which really is the point, is it not?

I'm going to update Lydia's page soon but right now I have to log onto NBC.com and watch The Office and 30 Rock because Lydia decided not to sleep last night and she is napping right now.

Appleicious

2007-10-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

It's apple season. Went apple picking. Lydia loved it and there were lots of kids there all picking apples and squealing and running around. We heard one little boy who had climbed to the top of a tree exclaim "This is the best day of my life"

Across the street there is a store full of apple goodies as well as other good homemade countryfied things. A bakery etc... I got a cranberry apple muffin to share with Lydia on the ride home. I also ate some pulled pork which was pretty good for yankee pulled pork. Who knew? It sounds like I have been chowing down but really it's been quite tame. I've been losing weight and feeling healthier. Well, except that Brian's dad keeps bringing those apple squares over. Those are really bad. He goes to an orchard on his weekend drive and gets them and last week no one else wanted them so I had a couple. O.K. 4. NO NOT AT THE SAME TIME. I ate them one at a time for breakfast last week. I'm going to tell him that no one is eating them so STOP THE MADNESS.

In the last few weeks we have had in this house:

apples
apple crisp
apple pie
fried apples (Laura Ingalls always had these with breakfast when they had a feast and they always sounded so good so I was making scrambled eggs and using the leftover potatoes to make potato patties and threw these in the pan)
roasted apples
caramel apples
apple squares

and my favorite so far: Lydia and I had my own version of Apple and cinnamon oatmeal this morning. It was DELICIOUS!

I bought on of those apple peelers that you mount to the table by suction and turn the crank. It peels, cores and slices the apple, and it's FUN. I just made some oatmeal and threw the sliced apple in. I practically melted in there. Lydia liked it too.

I've also used it for potatoes. I don't even break up the spiral of potato for my veggie roast. I just pull the middle off of the corer put that in the bowl, put the potatoes in the bowl and add sweet potatoes too, whole garlic cloves, asparagus, chunks of onion, fresh brussles sprouts (sliced in half), slices of big ol mushrooms or some little ones, and last week I threw on some spiraled apples. Toss everything in olive oil and pour them out on a big cookie sheet, or I prefer a baking stone, the onions caramelize better on this. Sprinkle everything on both sides with a little salt. Kosher is better. It has to do with the shape of the crystal. The salt helps the veggies to "sweat" so they melt a little and get sort of creamy and nummy. Then stick the pan in a 375-400 or so oven until they look done. Usually about 20 min. The asparagus is my favorite part. Sometimes you have to take them out a little earlier than the rest because they can burn.

This is really good piled up next to a big steak...eh, but I'm supposed to be cutting down on that so some fish or shrimp can actually be thrown in the oven wrapped up in a foil pouch and cooked along with the rest.

I lived on this when I was pregnant and had it at least a couple of times a week before we moved. We've made it a couple of times since we've been in the basement but their pans and kitchen SUCK here. Jessica doesn't cook AT ALL. As a matter of fact she has said that she doesn't know how to make mashed potatoes and when I was making blue corn black bean and corn nachos last week she said "How did you get the cheese like that?" Ok. SHE DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO GRATE CHEESE. She just buys it in the bag already grated. Yes, it does cost the same nowadays but did you know that they add a "mold retardant" to that grated cheese...

ANYWAY....see next post.

It's coming!

2007-09-27T13:04:00.001-07:00

I was trying to hurry and go out to run some errands before the inevitable happened, baby poops, or gets tired or hungry etc... when, the other inevitable happened. Ice started falling from the sky! Oh man, It's coming. It's going to get cold and I am going to freeze my ass off. I guess I should think about investing in a coat type garment. Hmmmm....

We are steeped in apples around here. It's apple season and we went apple picking on Sunday. It was lovely, and crowded with other apple pickin' peoples and a lot of kiddos which was nice. One little boy was up in the top of a tree and as we passed we heard him exclaim, "This is the best day of my life!".

In other news...Big news over on "HI!". CHECK IT OUT!!!

It's a TWISTER!

2007-09-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

THIS happened 2 years ago in the area we are most likely moving to.

Not to make excuses but...

2007-09-18T23:02:00.000-07:00

I got sick. I ate a lot of rice pudding. Then today...a pumpkin pecan shake. MAN. It tasted just like pumpkin pie filling. I could have gone and gotten a can of pumpkin and blended it with some soymilk and been cool, but we were on the road so...

Try, try again.

I'm such a brat that I will still probably get my Nano for my birthday though. I will have to rely on sheer willpower alone. (was that redundant?)

Well...

2007-09-18T22:50:00.000-07:00

Unless the owner finds in our background checks that we are escaped criminals we are probably moving to the house on the lake. I went to check it out today. the stairs are totally work around able, and might even be fun for Lydia when she gets a little older. The yard is adorable. Places for planting both flowers and veggies and room for the dumpling to play. There is no fence in the front yard but there is a small flood ditch all across it so if she takes a running leap and gets too far ahead of me she will fall in before she reaches the street. She most likely wouldn't be hurt but would be stopped. There is not a park right across the street as I had mis-understood but there is a small park with boat access down the street about 100 yards. No playground, however there are a lot of parks with playgrounds all around and I intend to get a little tykes one for the yard.

The main problem right now is that we can't move in THIS WEEKEND, and that is not really a problem because the reason is the owner is going to refinish all the wood floors, put in all new appliances, a new bathtub, slightly renovate the kitchen so that there is a wall where I can set up my hutch and adding a pantry. So, we are looking at the first of October, hopefully. That means my birthday party will be at our house. Yay.

Keep fingers crossed for Brian. He has another test for the Property Clerk job in Madison tomorrow.

See "Hi!" for baby updates...

Gracious but GOOD GRACIOUS!

2007-09-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

I am so grateful that my sister-in-law is letting us use her basement until we find a place, which is taking a LOT longer than we anticipated, HOWEVER I have a sick baby (See her website, "Hi!") down here and she is yelling at the top of her lungs upstairs. Nothing ugly, just playing with her baby, squealing and singing at the top of her lungs, but she is so freaking loud. (O.k. forget the "nothing ugly". She just yelled "Mother Fuck Stick" at the top of the stairs to the basement. Does she have turrets?) Lydia is obviously sleeping down here. I know, I've said it before, but I have GOT to get out of here.

Speaking of which the lovely cornfield house was a no go. The owners never would call us back after many, many calls. So we are on to another place. This time in a small town called McFarland. There is a lake across the street. That could be scary if I let myself think about it, but it's beautiful. Public access to the lake is walking distance. It's a 3 bedroom with another room downstairs for Brian's records. So we would have our communal sleeping room and each of us would have our own "play" rooms. The owner seems genuinely nice and looking for a long time tenant. The only drawback is a stairwell that goes from the split level living area, from the kitchen down to the living room, doesn't have a rail along the edge, so Lydia could fall down off the living room floor on to the 5 steps. I think they will allow us to put in a rail though, or they will build a half wall there. We're in discussions about it.

So, keep your fingers crossed for us and we will invite EVERYONE to our place for a white Christmas.

Barf!

2007-09-13T12:45:00.000-07:00

Lydia's birthday was sweet. I will post photo's on "Hi!" as soon as I am...not...barfing anymore. Brian and I went on an impromptu date last night since my Mom was here to babysit for Lydia. I believe I contracted the food poisoning. That'll teach me to order shrimp in Wisconsin.

Getting Fit

2007-09-07T21:18:00.000-07:00

Mike just made a new weblog to help him achieve his fitness and healthy life-style goals. I am going to follow his lead and add a daily log here of what I did each day to further my goals. I guess first I should set down what my goals are:

1. Eat more fruits and veggies, and organic ones at that. At least 5 per day.

2. Exercise at least 30 minutes each day, even if it's just a walk with the baby. I want to do the Zoo Run Run 5K walk at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison at the end of September so I need to get walking.

3. Keep avoiding those preservatives and additives! I am pretty good at avoiding the fast food but do have a burger every once in a while. That reminds me...

4. Avoid the red meat.

5. and finally, no more custard. If you don't know what Milwaukee frozen custard is you don't know how hard this is to do around here. I've had quite a few turtle sundaes and root beer floats (made with a local brew, Sprecher's) to relieve the stress since we've been here. This has to stop.

I will not, however, give up my chocolate. I will cut back to just a couple of small pieces of very dark chocolate every day.

I love Mike's extra incentive idea so I'm gonna do that too, mostly because I like to get more stuff. If I stick to my goals until my 36th birthday on Oct. 6 I will get an Ipod Nano Video, the green one, which looks to me like it matches my mixer!

Thank you Mike for the kick in the pants.

More house hunting

2007-09-07T20:28:00.001-07:00

We saw a cute little place today. It was in Oregon, WI which took us 15 minutes to get to from the southeast side of Madison. There are cornfields directly across the street and to the side of the house, actually a duplex. It's on two acres and there is a nice yard and shed. We haven't gone inside yet but it's a 3 bedroom with a full basement. The only problem I have is that it is on a road where cars drive rather fast. It's not particularly busy but the speed limit is 55. I would have to get the o.k. to put up a picket fence or something like that before I would agree to move in. Horrible visions from the book/movie Pet Sematary keep flashing through my mind. A fence would really be necessary to keep me from having a brain hemorrhage from stress. Brian is ready to move in tomorrow even though we haven't seen the inside. He kept saying, "We could get a trampoline!" so we see where his priorities are! It is a really pretty place and the price is right in our range.

It's going to take Brian 18 months or so to finish getting his teaching certificate at Concordia and I should have my design certificate in the next year so we are probably just going to rent and then see what happens after that. We just won't think about having to move again right now, we'll think about it tomorrow.

Interesting...and annoying.

2007-09-06T16:39:00.000-07:00

Brian and I are in the middle of a(n) discussion/argument. He asked me yesterday if I wanted to make a bagel pizza for dinner. He pronounces bagel "baggle", like Fraggle. When we go to the grocery store he puts the groceries in a "bayg". A slur for a gay person is "fayg". He also insists that "wagon" rhymes with "Reagan". We were in the car when I realized that he doesn't just pronounce bag wrong, he hears the difference between "bayg" and "bag" and he thinks that "bag" is the wrong pronounciation.

As far as "bag" is concerned I may be wrong I guess because in the Webster online dictionary it says it's pronounced "bag" or "bAg". All the other words we discussed were pronounced as I said. I read Brian this list from the web page of a linquistics buff and he said that most of them had the same vowel sound:
banger cater wager rag rake dragon drag wagon rage bagging bang blank flank range rang brag hang rank plague clang lagging crag crane dragging flagged flake gangly hanger plank lag fanged deranged plagued crank rank gauge

A lot of them have very different vowel sounds so this makes me crazy. He even said aloud "rake" and then "dragon"( almost sounded like draygun but leaned toward the correct pronounciation) and he insists that they have the same vowel sound.

Apparently he thinks I am making fun of him by going on about it, but it's gone past that now. I just want to know how he thinks certain words are pronounced. It's really interesting to me, though it's sometimes annoying.

So now the argument has evolved to be (somehow) about beliefs. Brian says that he doesn't "believe" that anyone can trace how an accent in a certain region evolved. I say I don't really know if they can but suspect that they may be able to trace some aspects of a regional accent by the languages that the areas inhabitant's ancestors spoke. I don't have any linguistics knowledge at all really so how could I possibly have any beliefs about the subject? So then it just turns into an argument about how can you have a belief about something that you know nothing about...Wow, This whole thing sounds even more stupid when I type it out. Can anyone recommend a book on the subject? If you can figure out what the subject is that is because I don't actually know.

DISCOVERED

2007-09-03T15:29:00.000-07:00

It seems my little blog has been discovered. Ha. I didn't mean it to be a secret but I forgot to tell anyone about it. I meant to work on it more but between baby and school and house/job hunting where DOES the time go? It isn't really so attractive, however it does match my Kitchenaid Mixer which is packed away, and I miss. Oh all the loverly attachments that go with it. Le sigh...

I think I will keep it mostly the way it is for now with maybe some minor adjustments.

Brian and *Iggy went for a walk and I got to go do a little birthday shopping. Very little actually. I don't want to spoil all the surprises but I found a really cute little MP3 player for babies. It actually plays 14 entire songs with actual children's voices singing them AND the children have little british accents which is completely adorable! Brian's mom is queen of the yard sale and will buy anything with a button that makes noise...(trying not to complain, grumble grumble, trying to be gracious...) I think quiet toys that allow the babies inner voice to develop are better for the most part however this was so perfect for Lydia, who loves to sing and loves to hear children, that I couldn't resist. Also, we don't really like the idea of her having a toy cell phone. Actually I don't mind all that much, except for all the horrible noise they make, but Brian is adamant about it. (he won't carry one himself btw) Every time Lydia goes upstairs she and her cousin fight over his toy cell phone (which was actually a re-gift that we gave him, maybe she knows that even though she was 1 month old when I mailed it to him). I think she will like her MP3 player just as much.

*When Lydia is upset and complaining she talks. Pretty much the only words you can distinguish are "Nigh Nigh" which means my boobs, and "Iggy". We don't know why she says "Iggy" but now she has been dubbed "Iggy" by the fam. I asked Ingrid if she minds and she loves it, so "Iggy" it is.