Journal: Nov. 5

Today

Outside my window: Mid 50s, gorgeous autumn-colored trees.  Our maples out front are especially beautiful right now.  One is a shade of reddish orange that could only have come from the mind of the Master Painter.  Seriously, even Crayola couldn't come up with a name that is worthy of the color of this tree.  It makes me happy each year to watch it turn.

Clothing myself in: Black long sleeved shirt, jeans with a belt.

Around the house: I did actually clean a lot of the house on Friday.  Still haven't cleaned the swamp aquarium.  I scrubbed the floor last night.  That made the house feel a lot cleaner.  It's odd, but if the kitchen isn't clean, I don't feel like the rest of the house is (even if it is.)  Andy replaced the light pull switch in the kids' fan.  It'd been dark in their room for a couple weeks!

Ruby: Still not potty trained at naps/night - on my mind b/c I had to buy diapers today - I was hoping I wouldn't have to buy them again.  Speaking of naps - she's at that point where taking a nap during the day makes bedtime a total circus.  So we're trying to figure out exactly what we want to do about that.  She was a total riot trick-or-treating.  Totally got into it this year and struck up conversations with everyone who answered the door.  Someone asked her who she was (dressed up as) and she answered with her first, middle, and last name.  She was also really good at getting extra candy by asking "What's that pink one right there?"  "Oh this one, here you can have it too!" Latest phrases: "Dad do you know what's in there? (her cup) It's chem-i-lade!"

Ira: Is all too content to pay me to do his chores.  Something must be done about this...  Was a scuba diver for Halloween.  Did an awesome report on St. Joseph for All Saints day.  Asked what "circumcision" was (part of the research on St. Joseph had about when St. Joseph named Jesus on the 8th day after his birth, the day he first shed his blood for us.  And of course, Andy is not home for this conversation, so I get to answer it.)  There was lots of wincing and grimacing involved when I answered.  LOL.  Still has his very very loose tooth.  Would not allow Grandpa to pull it - even for $10.

In the Kitchen: Spaghetti & Meatballs with green beans; Pumpkin Pancakes with eggs, bacon, and fresh apples; Chop Suey American with california medley; Cheese Pizza with lettuce salad and fresh fruit.

My Hobbies: Well, the gallon and a half of yogurt that I made last Tuesday is totally gone!  As is the granola!  Looks like I'll be making some more of each this week.  Edited some more photos.  In editing, I'm realizing that I need to pay more attention to exactly which of the 9 focus points is/are focusing, and/or changing them to suit my needs.

Bringing me Joy: After never really having a jacket that fit (other than hoodies) I found a Columbia jacket for half price at Marshalls today.  The sleeves are long enough and it fits perfectly - and it's a women's jacket to boot (I may or may not end up in men's jackets/coats most of the time.)  Getting the ball rolling on going to PPVI.  It will still a number of months before we go there, but I am so glad to be getting started.  Having a "clean soul" after going to confession.  Celestial Seasonings "Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride" Tea.  It is SO good!

Thinking About: The election.  And praying so hard for the future of our country.  Also, I'm reading a book about pathogens (bacteria, infections, etc.) affecting fertility.  It is incredibly compelling and I also found out (happily, because some of the stuff in it really hits close to home) that Dr. Hilgers has studied under this doctor and applies his theories in his own practice.  Hooray!  I am so hopeful that we will get solid answers at PPVI.

Pictures to share:

All Hallows Eve, a week late

Goodness, it's been awhile since I blogged!  I do have an excuse though! 

It all started when we got a note from school saying that Ira would need a saint costume for the All Saints Day party at school.  Being the over-achiever, can't-ever-do-anything-halfway type that I am, I decided I would make him a cassock for his St. John Baptist de la Salle costume.  He also wanted me to make him a ghost costume for Halloween, which I thought would be easy enough... unless you're me who has to complicate everything...

Initially, I thought I could make up my own cassock, but after looking at more pictures of them online, I decided they were actually kind of complicated and I might want to go off an actual pattern.  Problem being, there's not much of a market out there for size 5 cassocks... who would've guessed?   I did find a Butterick pattern for a men's cassock, however, and I knew with Andy's mad spatial skills that he would be able to modify the pattern down to Ira's size.  So I bought the pattern and fabric the same day as our zoo trip and Andy set to modifying the pattern that night.  When he finished, he let me take care of shortening the pattern pieces to Ira's height.  Now mind you, the only things I have ever sewn have been for myself, and you can guess that the direction I need to go with patterns is not shortening...ever.  I lengthen... shortening is a whole different ballgame, and I obviously missed something, because although I tried to make it so that I had 6" to take out at the bottom and 4" at the sleeves (you know, so I don't have to go through this rigamarole every year) it ended up such that it just fit him this year, and unless he doesn't grow at all, it will most likely not fit him next year... grrrr....  See, I do not have mad spatial skills like my hubs does.  I'm just special...

Cutting it out wasn't too awful bad, it's just my least favorite part of sewing.  I just like to sew.  Laying out, cutting out, lining up, pinning, blech... I mean, I deal with it, because you can't really sew without doing those things (I've tried. It doesn't work.)  I just don't like it, and there might have been some cursing involved...  Sewing it together went pretty well actually, modifications and all (which is crazy because we and by we
I mean my husband had to take 10" out all the way around)  Some things were literally lost in the translation (like a lot of the notches and markings) and it was tough because there were pleats, which I've never done before and they were tiny because they were for someone with a 20" waist, but all in all, I'd say it turned out really well.  The pattern definitely left some questions as far as finishing the sleeves and the bottom hem, but I figured it out well enough to make it look good.

Needless to say, it took about 2 weeks of finding time here and there during the day and after the kids went to bed to finish, then it took about a week afterwards to catch everything that I'd let slide (like housework, laundry, etc.) back up.  Finally this week we're starting fresh with a clean house and not much on the to-do list, so I thought I'd catch up the old bloggeroo.  I'm hoping to get back to the Photo of the Day type posts because they're just less overwhelming to me, but what do you all think of them?  Are they too boring/uninformative?

In the meantime, here are some pictures from All Hallows Eve!

Okay, this one isn't from All Hallow's Eve, this is Andy modifying one of the 6 pattern pieces

St. John Baptist de la Salle was not acting very saintly while I was trying to take this picture...

A back view so that you can see the pleats on which I worked SO diligently!

Classic Ruby face. Pardon the red-eye.  I don't have photo software on my laptop and did NOT feel like turning on the beast just to blip out a couple red eyes.  And in case you're wondering what the red streaks are all over our pumpkin, those are Ira's doing.  He said he wanted to put chicken pox on our pumpkin... not sure why, but who am I to stop him?!

Ira ghost and Ruby "lily bug" (as she says it.)  Ready to go trick-or-treating.

 

A Random Update

Yes, we are all still alive and kicking here... (especially baby, well and Ira sometimes too, depending on what kind of mood he's in.) What can I say, I haven't felt like blogging lately. We've been good this last 6 weeks, not a lot has happened, which is a good thing if you ask me. I'll update you with some random ramblings and pictures.

Halloween:
Ira was "Tigger" for Halloween. He trick-or-treated his little heart out and got enough candy to feed the children of several small countries. Needless to say, we are still eating Halloween candy a piece at a time (and probably will be until March when the baby comes)

Baby:
We had a great OB appointment last Monday. Everything appears to be going well. This baby is certainly a mover, which is oh so reassuring to me! I go in on Monday for bloodwork, glucose screening, and a full sonogram. We are excited to peek in at baby again. In 2 weeks, we'll begin having sonos (Biophysical Profiles) every week to make sure that everything with the placenta/baby is as it should be. With being on heparin (a blood thinner I'm on b/c of a clotting disorder in case you forgot) there is always the concern of blood clots especially in the placenta, which would deprive the baby of the nutrients he/she needs to keep growing. So, each week starting at 28 weeks, we'll have a sonogram to check that baby is still thriving. If at any point one of the sonos shows that the baby is not thriving, then we will have to deliver him/her then. I am staying positive though, and plan on carrying this baby a full 40 weeks, God-willing! I have definitely been feeling Braxton Hicks contractions lately, but apparently that's very common with your second to feel them earlier and more frequently. Here's a recent pic of me (taken around 24 weeks.)Photoshop:
I got Photoshop Elements for Christmas last year and had never been able to figure out how to use it really. I thought it was something that if I just got on there and dinked around with it enough, I would start figuring out how to do things. I was wrong - Photoshop is not an incredibly intuitive program (if you ask me) but recently, I found a really helpful website with great tutorials for photoshop and photoshop elements. So, I've been polishing up some of the amateur photos that I've taken. It has become very fun (and kind of addicting... maybe that's why I haven't had time to blog...) and I am certainly grateful for such a great Christmas present!

New Niece:
The day after Thankgiving, my baby sister gave birth to her first baby (I feel OLD!), a beautiful little girl, named Anna Marie. Andy and I got to go to the hospital to see her the day she was born and Ira got to go meet her once they got home from the hospital on Sunday. He really loves his new cousin. He also loves to hold her! It makes me SO excited for him to be a big brother here in a few months!

Other Random things that didn't fit in the above categories:
-I ordered a "Hotsling" to use with our new baby. I got to try it out last night with Anna Marie and WOW does it work nicely! It will be so nice to have for shopping trips, church, and just around the house so that I can have my hands free to play with Ira, etc.
-Ira is finally done with his round of shots (all four of them) to be vaccinated against the seasonal flu and H1N1. It was a decision we didn't take lightly, but in the end, felt it was the best for him and for our new baby to have him vaccinated. I only thought it was difficult to see your baby get shots (as in when they are tiny.) It is much more difficult to see your 3.5 year old who knows what is going on and can anticipate/worry about how much it is going to hurt. GLAD to be done with THAT!!
-I guess I didn't talk about Ira much in this post. He is doing well. He definitely has his days (as we all do) where he is kind of difficult to deal with (we had one such day on Tuesday - UGH!) but I think part of it is my patience is not near what it was before I got pregnant, and partly because he is 3, and that's just what you can expect when you have a 3 year old. So this Advent season, I am praying to be a better and more patient momma - what a perfect season to practice patience!

That's about it I guess! A blessed Advent to you and yours!