Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Robert and I have been busy readying Emily's room and the basement. I have her new furniture almost complete, I need to add some new pull hardware, and paint the mirror. We are having problems designing the layout for things in the basement. The new shelves are in place and very functional, but we want the entire basement to serve several different purposes, so we have been figuring out what to put where. I think we want a small space to do everything. We are hoping for an office, some play space, I would love a place to put my sewing machine... drum set, storage, did I mention storage, while still accommodating the washer/dryer, and furnace. We Americans have too much stuff.

We are trying to keep our projects to a minimum for the rest of fall, get some outside stuff done, but we want to have a couple of weeks to sit and enjoy our family of three before Christmas comes.

Sponsered by the letter A, featuring Alzheimer and Apples

We met April and Dallas in DSM at Water Works Park to participate on Bickford Cottage's team to walk for Alzheimer's cure. It was a great morning weather wise, and we had never been to WW park, we completed a 1.6 mile loop, with Emily insisting on walking a good portion of it, holding onto daddy and grandpa's hands. After the walk we went on to enjoy AppleFest at Living History Farms. April had researched all of the fun things there. We toured many of the homes and stores that were not yet open for the season when we were their for Easter. Those not two years old or pregnant got to sample some hard cider, Em and I stuck to the apple fritters and apple butter.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Walking with daddy

Robert has been spending the last several Mondays home from work with Emily. This is part of their day.

Momma's shoes

ISU vs. Kent State

Josh and Emily hanging out in our row (not watching the game)

Emily, me and Lynne tailgating


Robert and Emily on the field waiting for the team to run out of the tunnel

Frugal post of the day

I am having issues embedding videos, again. I must have something formatted incorrectly. Today Em and I ran a bunch of errands. I recent article I read got me off my tired duff today. It hit with me on several chords, its trusting God, which we do with "his" money anyway, its green and frugal. I got my act together and made this great freezer spaghetti sauce, I have had lots of tomato's sitting around from my garden. I also made some chicken stock with my leftover roasted chicken from Sunday. I was able to freeze 5 quart size bags of sauce, and four (3 cup) bags of broth.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Rainy day update



Potty training is still going well. She is getting used to "other" pottys. We have successfully used the potty at the gym and hobby lobby, but not the library.


I have been busy with a couple projects, I have been sewing some gifts for friends. I am trying to practice for a couple of Christmas presents I want to make. I also have started painting/restoring furniture for Em's new room. All the directions for painting wood furniture say sand, prime, paint, sand and paint... buff with auto wax if desired. I have the bed started, a stool and a couple shelf's almost finished. It started raining right at nap time so I didn't get to work on that project today. The dresser and vanity will take the bulk of work, as there is lots of detail to that. Anyone want to help?

Robert has begun the hard work towards re-organizing the basement to move the office down. He has a bunch of stuff to take to the free dump day on Sat.


Saturday, September 6, 2008

oh Yeah...

We won,
ISU 48 - Kent State 28, what an improvement, we can play sloppy, make mistakes and still pull off a victory.

Can I even call this Boot Camp anymore?

This morning went well. It seems that Em has to re-learn first thing, and is most resistant, but the rest of the morning was stellar. She went to the store with Robert and came back dry and peed in the potty right away when she arrived back home.

The thing is I still don't have the hang of it. We haven't worked on different types of pottys, just our "blue potty". After nap we headed to the stadium to tailgate, she obviously needed to go about an hour into the tailgate (she had a diaper on). She kept doing the potty dance and finally asked me to go. What to do? I told her we would have to try a new potty, we went to the Port-o-Let and she was not going to have any of that, do I blame her? So how confusing is it when your mother tells you its ok, pee in you diaper, while we are PT....


Edit: I think I am going to become the mommy who carries a potty with her, she didn't go for the unfamilar looking, yet blue potty at church

Friday, September 5, 2008

Day 3 PT boot camp

Not much was accomplished today in the PT department. I had a an appointment this morning. Em went on the potty after her morning juice. We put on a Dora pull-up (free sample from Pampers) and went out. Afterward we headed to a friends to discuss a church project. We tried to go potty there a couple of times, they had a nice step stool so Em could wash hands fairly independently (this was a huge attraction). Many times she requested, I was pretty sure she just wanted to wash hands, but I can't turn down a request now that I want her to ask! No success in the potty. After nap we went back to undies, we had several misses this afternoon, mostly because we were not fast enough to get there!
*New progress has been noted though... when wearing a diaper she will do the little potty dance, get nervous and tell us she needs to go.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Day 2 PT Boot Camp, evening edition

I am considering today a total success. After nap, which was 2.5 hours long, we put undies back on. Went pee twice in the potty. I wanted to run a quick errand at 5:00 which involved purchasing this for
http://ames.craigslist.org/fuo/826819716.html
Emily's big girl room. (I think it is a neat style and will look great once cleaned up) I couldn't decide whether to go out with a diaper on or just run with the PT. We ended up traveling out in undies and kept them dry, went pee once we got home. She did have an accident after dinner, but I am blaming that on us. We were upstairs working on getting into a diaper and PJ's for bed and playing around, she was giving me the warning signs and we just didn't get there soon enough...

Day 2 PT Boot Camp, morning edition

I just put Emily in her first diaper for the day, and down for nap. We have had two accidents this morning. The first right away, I wasn't expecting it so soon, since she hadn't had anything to drink yet. and the second after we were running around the house doing laps (she had just got up from her obligatory 5 minute sit).
She did go three times in the potty this morning, which is one more time than yesterday. I would say things are going well, she doesn't seem to mind sitting anymore either. I think we might have to get a different kind of seat though, she likes to sit side saddle to avoid the little hump in the front (splash guard for the boys, I think).

We'll see what the afternoon brings.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

It runs, and how...

The Chevelle is beautiful. The engine is everything Robert was hoping for and more.

Em, Bo and I in the car ready for our first spin, notice the ever present DC on the hood
Dave and Robert, posing, Dave has been Robert's accomplice in fine tuning the motor... and an all around great guy full of hot rod knowledge

Day 1 PT boot camp

Emily went twice in the potty today, is that a success? We'll call it one for motivation purposes. I can read all the signs and know when she is ready to pee, its all about convincing her to sit there, and release. I either need better incentives or a different tact. She loves wearing her underwear and looks super cute in them. I just sent Robert out for some vinyl undi covers, in hopes of reducing cleanup (seems I can't stand carpet cleaner smell right now!)

The pros are Emily can hold it really well, she only seems to go every 2 hours or more, we only used two diapers today, nap and night-time
The cons, she doesn't seem to like it very much, regardless of all the potty party business, singing and dancing I did to make it "cool"

I am giving it my all again tomorrow. Friday I have a Dr. appt in the AM, plus a couple of other errands I could show up for, Sat. we are taking her to the ISU game, so if we don't see improvement tomorrow, I think we might take the weekend off and try again later.