End of the year...

I have been really busy since that last post....and we have all been sick. I was sick on Christmas eve til the day after Christmas (I still have a migraine, actually). Cassie was sick Christmas eve, Lino was sick the weekend after Christmas, and Maggie has been sick since yesterday. Blah. I am ready for us to be healthy!

Despite all of that, the kids really enjoyed Christmas. Santa brought them lots of new things. Lots of Sleeping Beauty for Cassie, Tinkerbell and Diego for Maggie and Stickers (Lightning McQueen) for Nate. I have no idea where we are going to put it all. In fact, due to my migraine issues, most of it is still around the tree.

I sewed a total of 10 tote bags...1 for a friend, 3 for teachers/principal, and 6 for Lino's mom, aunt and cousins. I forgot to take pictures of the cousins bags. I broke plenty of sewing needles, found a new place to get twill tape and poked my fingers more times than I care to remember. (It is nearly impossible for me to sew with bandaids on, and I can't use thimbles....) I got a thank you note in the mail today from the principal, she really likes hers, and all of the cousins seemed to like theirs. Yay.

I was able to get the family jammies done, and am pleased with how they turned out. Eight yards of red flannel, 5 white tshirts, 5 yards of white fuzzy trim, elastic and drawstring. Easy peasy. I might even try doing some for Etsy next year. Nice simple design that I can do in some common sizes ahead of time.....we'll see.

Nate is doing great with no more Mama drinks. It went much easier than I thought. He still needs either me or Lino to lay down with him til he falls asleep, but we expected that. No tears at all about stopping nursing, so that made it a whole lot easier.

I hope everyone has a super safe New Year's Eve, and a very blessed 2009. I tend to not make resolutions, because it seems as though I never keep them, but I do hope to 'stress less' next year. Enjoy all of the little things, and not be so anxious. (I do worry a lot, and it isn't good.)

Merry New Year!

9 days left til Christmas!

I still have 10 tote bags to make (the embroidery machine is going as I type!). I have the fabric cut out for some, will cut the rest later. I think if I prep as much as I can, it shouldn't be too stressful. Though, I need to have 3 of them finished by Thursday. I also cut the fabric for jammie pants for our hliday tradition. They go together fairly easily, so that shouldn't be too stressful.

We still have to figure out what to get my dad for Christmas. I just don't know. He is a Yankees fan, but that seems to be our last resort theme for birthdays/Christmas. Not enough time to do a photobook (which I wanted to do for his birthday, so I can make it really nice) He has a digital camera and nice printer, so a little portable photo printer is out. We've done a fun snack basket before. He doesn't do chocolate. He has a Playstation that we (my sister and us) got him a few years ago. I don't know how often he does that anymore. He is colorblind, so that lets out fun little games....it is stressful. I want to do something he will like, but just have no idea.

This Saturday is the last of our gift wrapping fundraising dates. At the first PTO meeting I attended, they talked about various fundraisers, and also mentioned that the library just needs help. There are books that are so old, pages fall out when they are opened. Numerous shelves are empty. Well, when I heard that, I started thinking. Childrens books are my 'thing'. I just love them. Books have always been a big part of my life, my mom was an elementary school librarian. So I feel very connected to libraries.

I came up with the idea of contacting Borders bookstore in our area to see about charity giftwrapping. The manager at the store closest to us gave me a complete brushoff. So, I called the store in a city about 10 minutes away. The coordinator at that store was super friendly, and set us up with 3 dates! Borders supplies the wrapping paper, table, tape, and scissors, we just need to bring bows, tags and donation buckets, and we keep anything we raise.

Our first date was the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It wasn't too busy, as far as wrapping goes, we did maybe 7 things. We still collected $170! Not bad for 5 hours of mostly people watching. We had our 2nd date last Saturday, and we were much busier wrapping, and collected $282! I think that is fantastic. One more day to go. I am hoping that we can do $300-350. Wouldn't that be great? This is free money for the library.....I am so excited.

The kids are super excited about Santa coming. Santa needs to have his elves start wrapping things. I am excited to see their reactions this year.

Nate is adjusting to 'no more drinks' happening soon. There have been some nights when he has fallen asleep on the couch, and doesn't do any. He is also sleeping through the night now with more regularity, and if he does wake, he usually will settle himself back to sleep. (Those first few nights of no more middle of the night drinks were hard....) He also talks about when he will need to stop altogether.

Yay, the first bag embroidery is done....9 to go!

Viruses and dents, oh my

It has been busy. On Saturday we brought the kids to my dad's so they could help him put up his Christmas decorations. It also gave us the chance to run our big errands. About 9 hours later we picked up the kids, but I think we were very successful. More importantly, the kids didn't give my dad any trouble at all, he said they were great all day, which is a relief. They do have fun when they see him.

The rest of the weekend was spent battling computer viruses and malware ads. I have been going to Baby Center since the girls were little, and have made some friends on the March board. Well, the powers that be at Babycenter have bought another online community and have been working to switch over since spring.

About a month ago or so, the 'old boards' was apparently hijacked by pretty malicious viruses, and it was only after some members complained that they started to do anything about it. We got hit with Antivirus 2009. It is persistent...really hard to get rid of. Well, this weekend, I went to check the March board and Bargain board, and almost immediately after logging onto the bargain board, our computer was attacked. I get that it is the computer owner's responsibility to have virus protection software, however, this is a major company (Johnson and Johnson owns Babycenter), they should be able to prevent it from lurking on their site. But, they are closing the old boards in a week, so they apparently aren't focusing on it at all.

I ran our AVG scan no less than 4 times on Sunday, and again yesterday. It seemed to be better, except for some takeover ads. Lino ran adaware last night, there were 20 malware things....

No more old boards for me... :( . Maybe once we get the computer all set I can check in on the new boards. I really enjoy staying in touch with my March mom friends. We have a group on Facebook, and I hope that they all check in there, and there are blogs that I follow, so I won't lose touch completely. I just don't love the new Baby center boards, and if they are going to be a target for viruses, I can't go there.

As for the dent....on Sunday Lino was headed outside to return a movie (Wall E, which was super cute, by the way!) when the son of our across the street neighbor came to the door. Now, keep in mind, that in the 5 1/2 years that we have been living here, we haven't ever really spoken with him. He will maybe wave when he comes to visit, but his dad hasn't ever really talked with us. The grandmother lives there, and she will come over once in a while when we are outside, but she is only comfortable speaking Portuguese, so I can't really talk with her.

Anyhow, the son comes to the door. Apparently when he was backing his very large pickup truck out of his dad's driveway, he was too busy talking on his cell phone to notice that Lino's car was parked in front of our house. He told Lino that he hit it, and 'hopefully the scratch will buff out'.

It isn't a scratch...it is a major dent!! I guess he told Lino to get an estimate and that he would pay for it, but Lino is ticked. It isn't going to be a quick little fix, the dent needs to be popped back and then the whole rear quarter panel will need painting.....so the guy is going to need to get Lino a rental. Lino can't take time off from work, and with the girls in school, I can't not have the car, in case I need to go get them.

So, now Lino needs to spend part of his day off on Thursday at the mechanics. Hopefully the neighbor's son doesn't try to skip out of paying for the damage. Lino is willing to wait until after Christmas, we realize that money can be stretched at the holidays (he has a wife/girlfriend and a daughter). He needs to fix it though.

Sigh. Lots of sewing to do still, the tree needs to go up (which I wanted to do on Thursday, because we have school stuff Friday night and Saturday, and Lino works on Sundays).....

Weaning is going okay. Nate still does drinks at bedtime, but he has slept straight through the night for nearly a week now. That is good. He seems to be a little clingy some days, though, which is to be expected, I guess.

Anyhow. I think I need another chocolate milk.....

Cassie's New Look

Doesn't she look adorable? She has been saying for a couple of months now that her eyes are 'kind of foggy' when she looks at things. At first, I wasn't sure if she meant it, because she didn't really act as though she was having trouble seeing. However, I called to make the appointment when I noticed she would stand right next to the tv to watch and still said her eyes were foggy when she tried to look at things.

We had the appointment yesterday. Lino went into the exam room with her. Apparently she has astigmatism in both eyes, and she is farsighted. She was very brave when the doctor put the drops in her eyes, and patient while we waited for them to work. The doctor told Lino that the prescription she gave her isn't full strength, I guess that if she gave her the full strength, it would be too much for her eyes. So we go back in three months to recheck.

We were all very excited that they had those pink frames. They are perfect for her. She wasn't sad at all about needing glasses, and picked that shirt today because it matched her frames!

Stuff

Three weeks or so until Christmas. Lots to do. We still have to do some sort of Christmas card picture. Then, order and send cards. I would love to do Holiday Mail for Heroes. So I need to get some boxes of cards for that.

Family jammies. I have the fabric and shirts, now I just need to make them. Maybe by this weekend those will be done.

Set up the Christmas tree. In order to do that I have to take control of the chaos that seems to always control the house. Hopefully I can get the upstairs 'tree ready' by the end of the week, so we can assemble and decorate the tree Friday/Saturday.

Making Christmas gifties...I am thinking of doing those canvas tote bags. But what to embroider on them? I like the recycle earth design, but will the recipients? Would a monogram be better? the last name initial? Or some fun phrase, like: go green; reduce reuse recycle; big green bag (the canvas I have is natural and black) .....

I also want to make some stuffed bears to donate to an area shelter for victims of sexual assault. But, that can't be first on my sewing list, that will be if I have extra time...

There is just a bunch going on, my mind is always racing, and it gets me down...so trying to put on a cheerful face, too.

i miss my mom and my aunt......

Monday musings

I think the cold/sickness that has been in the house for the past 3 weeks or so seems to be clearing up. Poor Nate was sick for the whole week before Thanksgiving and only on Friday started to feel better. We ate our Thanksgiving meal at Lino's parents house, and then went ot my dad's for dessert

On Saturday, we did the first of 3 PTO fundraising dates at Borders. We have the opportunity to man the gift wrapping table and have donation buckets. Our first shift went well. We wrapped maybe 7 things, but raised $170.38! Isn't that amazing? I found it very interesting, all the different people who would walk by and put money in the buckets that the kids were holding. There were also people who would double back to donate after hearing our cause, to put books on the empty shelves at our library. We have 2 more dates, the 13th and 20th of this month, and I am very hopeful that we will raise as much if not more each time!

After the fundraising, we met with some cousins who were up from New York. We went to go see the Christmas lights at LaSallette Shrine. I took a bunch of pictures using the night mode, but not that many turned out. I will have to post some in a bit. It was fun though, hanging out and we are excited to see them again at Christmas.

I have begun night weaning Nate. He is not happy at all about it, either. Poor little guy. I just figured that I need to start stopping the middle of the night drinks, so by the time Santa comes, stopping the falling asleep one shouldn't be as difficult. I feel so bad, when he is crying and screaming....but, I am sticking to it, I am mostly(98%) ready to be done, so it is time. :(



I need to start jotting down what I want to post about. I know I had other stuff to mention, I am drawing a blank right now, though.

Anyhow. Happy December.