December 12 of 12

Here's my blog entry for December 12 of 12 - see Chad Darnell's blog for the specifics...after all, it was his idea!

12:15 PM - Got a late start to this month's pictures. I had gone to Trader Joe's for some groceries. I needed more of my favorite lavendar shampoo and conditioner.



12:16PM - Home with E who was talking about Santa and munching on an apple. She was a real trooper on our extended trip to a variety of stores over the course of the morning.



12:16PM - This is my latest obsession - the third book in the "Outlander" series by Diana Gabaldon. (Can you tell by the times on my photos that I was working hard to catch up after a late start?)


1:18PM - A view of our decorated Christmas Tree!



6:36PM - Bedtime stories. I was on my way out the door to run an errand and then go to a meeting so Rick was in charge of bedtime.


6:46PM - Quick stop at the craft store to get an item I needed to finish a Christmas gift that needs to get mailed out soon. Of course, as luck would have it they did not have the necessary item so I ended up having to go out today to a different store to find it!



7:16PM - The shopping trip took longer than expected (if you are a CMAD sufferer like me you know why a trip to Michael's is never as quick as it should be!). So, I arrived a bit late for the meeting at church.


9:08PM - Back from my meeting and in need...well want is probably a better term... of a little refreshment.


9:15PM - Checking on some blogs...including the one that had reminded me, earlier in the day, of the fact that it was a 12 of 12 day (Thanks, Tux!).



9:45PM - I finished the third book in the 'Outlander' series! On to the fourth (well, after I read the quick book I need to read for book club which meets this coming Monday). Yes, I'm obsessed. I've already admitted that, haven't I?


10:14 PM - Or as it reads on the wall oven clock - 22:14 - and time for me to go to bed.


10:23PM - Brushing my teeth in preparation for bed with some Christmas decorations for company.



BONUS picture with the theme "Believe"... I believe in Santa! Here's a cross-stitch piece that I did quite a few years ago that I hang up at Christmas time...it reads "Father Christmas bring your peace to every creature - man and beast."


Hope you enjoyed my December 12 of 12 - and again, be sure to check out Chad's blog for a list of other participants this month! It is fun to see slices of another person's day through this kind of picture blog!!

Sick and Tired...

I'm sick with a bit of a head cold - nothing major but enough to make me draggy and cranky.

And my 2-year-old has been on a sleep-deprivation torture campaign for quite a while now.

I'll be back when I'm more like my usual self. I won't bore you with the whiny-ass details.

Over and out.

November 12 of 12

My first 12 of 12! You might be asking "What is that?"

Good question!

Well, I'm no expert on the matter but I do know that 12 of 12 is the brainchild of Chad Darnell. Basically you take 12 pictures (and a bonus 13th, if you so choose) on the 12th of each month and then post them on your blog. Check it out here.


Jeanne's First "12 of 12"

8:04 am
My latest knitting project. Socks for R - one is completed this is sock #2. I had a few moments of quiet time and decided to knit a few rounds.



8:16 am
Rick made a pot of tea and delivered this cup to me while I was on the couch knitting.
He's my sweetie and he treats me right. :-)



11:05 am
I got a ton of vacuuming done with the help of my little shadow E (seen in the picture supervising to be sure I had done a good enough job behind the couch).



1:19 pm
Bags are packed and ready to go to the Y! The plan? Leave early enough so I could do a workout before I had to get the girls to their 4:15 swim class.



1:20pm
Just after dropping the bags by the back door I went to check on the two older girls and found them happily making a mess in their room.



2:11 pm
Obsessing on Catching up on Grey's Anatomy (Season 2: Disc 3) before we had to leave for the Y. I had never seen the show and decided to tune in a few weeks ago when I found the recent episodes online. I enjoyed it so much that I ended up renting the first...then the second...season from Netflix and it has become a very baaaaad habit. Help!



5:36 pm
A and E being big helpers and setting the table for dinner. Yeah, OK...A was being helpful and E was just climbing into her chair demanding to be pushed in and banging on the table with her silverware and insisting on having her dinner NOW!



5:37pm
Checking on the dinner Rick was making. It was a very thick, hot, yummy chicken stew which we ate with crusty bread. Sooooo good. And made even better by the mere fact that I didn't have to cook!



5:41 pm
Laundry time! I went downstairs to pull this laundry out of the dryer (and put it elsewhere to be folded later) so I could put the wet clothes in the dryer and start a new load in the washer. Laundry - the chore that keeps on giving.



5:44 pm
Visiting Iris and Sadie. While I was downstairs checking on laundry and figured I'd see how the girls were doing. They were eager for treats and crowded near the door hoping I'd throw them a few cheerios or maybe a piece of apple. How could I say no to those cute little faces? Sadie is the all white one and Iris is the black and white one.



9:44 pm
I found a few moments to work on the sock here and there throughout the day. Socks are very satisfying projects because just a short amount of time and you can make significant progress!
See?



9:50 pm
In the bathroom getting ready for bed. Notice the desperate need for a haircut. I'm going to take care of that tomorrow. Seriously.




Bonus Photo: Grateful for my man. He loves me unconditionally and he is truly my soul mate. I love him more than words can say.

Fear of Change

I know that R has a hard time with transitions and with change. It has been a source of tantrums and defiance and lots of tears and frustration. She gets anxious before the start of every school year because she knows that she will be in a new situation with new kids, new teacher and new expectations. Most mornings are rough because she becomes very tense when she has to transition from home to school. She is fine once she gets on the bus and is on her way but the tension is thick here in the morning when it comes time to get ready.

I tend to think of R as more of a tomboy than a girly-girl - although she does have an attraction to sparkly things - and I think she would tend to describe herself the same way. In fact, she recently told me that she likes J and S at school because they are "not too girly." However, she also seems to have a strong dislike of being thought of as too 'boyish' and she seems to think that long hair = girl whereas shorter hair = boy. This is her perception even though we know plenty of males here in the hippy, happy valley who wear their hair long and an equally large number of females who have hair cropped very short and 'boyish' - her teacher included. So, she is very attached to her long locks, as evidenced in her 2nd grade picture:



So, the combination of her perception of self, of boyness vs. girlness, and her difficulty with change means that haircuts are to be loathed as evil and unnecessary torture the likes of which are only rivaled by early bedtimes, having to share with ones sisters, and the foolish and utterly futile concept of "clean up time."

For the last month or so I have been having battles with R about her hair. As it is has gotten longer it has become more and more a magnet for snarls, knots and wickedly clumped 'bed head'. Any suggestion of a haircut sends her into fit of screaming and wailing about injustices if life, yet trying to get her hair brushed in the morning is likely bring on tantrums of epic proportions and ear-splitting shrieks that can be heard in the next county. After a few days of this behavior and having my patience worn to a thin line, I would argue that the only way to avoid the pain of removing the snarls would be to cut it shorter. She would heed this warning for a short while and I'd have a couple of days of reprieve from the caterwauling, but inevitably it came back once the fear of actually getting her hair cut was but a distant memory.

I finally decided to stop threatening to cut her hair yesterday and told her that today was THE DAY. I was going to put a stop to the insanity and cut her hair in the hopes of making both our lives a bit easier. She would be in a lot less pain from the daily brushing and my ears could stop rupturing every time that task was undertaken. She wailed and carried on about how she hated short hair and she even pulled out her "no friend card" which is getting pretty darn old. I have a theory about this "no friend card" thing. At first I took her complaints very seriously when the issue came up last year. She would often complain that she had no friends at school and everyone ignored her. My concern was such that I think she enjoyed the attention. The teachers have not reported the same issues from their perspective and feel that R is well-liked in school. And I have found over the last while that the complaints about "no friends" seems to coincide with R's need for attention...or love...or...something. She gets my attention with this complaint and I've begun to wonder if it is a ploy...a way to shift the subject and the attention directly onto herself. So, when she was upset at the thought of having her haircut she decided to bring up the friend issue again and told me that her friends won't like her with short hair and that even now they ignore her and won't play with her. I decided not to buy into it and cut the conversation short. I had not heard this complaint for many, many weeks and the timing just seemed to reinforce my theory (not to mention the mixed-up argument she was using whereby her friends ignored her now with long hair and would surely hate her and refuse to play with her if she had short hair). I've worked hard since the beginning of school to invite her classmates over to play so that she could get to know then in a one on one situation - it seemed to be working well and she was no longer complaining about being friendless...until she felt cornered yesterday.

After breakfast, I got her straight into the tub and washed her hair. I let her play for a bit and then told her that it was time to get out and get dressed and to meet me in the kitchen for her haircut. She was none too pleased and refused to comply at first. Then I told her that she had a choice. I could cut her hair or I could bring her to my hairdresser and he would do the dirty deed. She decided for some reason that I was the better choice. I guess it's easier to hate your own mother for 'ruining your life' - an easier target because you live with her and can spend more time making her realize how really horrible she is. Perfect fodder for future therapy sessions.

Whenever my hairdresser, David, has cut R's hair in the past she has sat calmly and demurely without uttering a single sound and let's him do his thing. I am never so lucky. I get the complains about the chair being too hard, the task at hand taking too long, and the itchy hairs that land on her face or neck. Maybe she likes the fact that she can keep herself entertained more easily when I cut her hair because she is never too shy with me to share her pain and grief. I feel so special.

After I finished cutting I made her wait until I dried it with the blow dryer before I let her take a look in the mirror. On her way to the mirror A walked by and told R how much she like it and that R looked "cute" (which was the exact wrong thing to say according to R who equates "cute" with "babies" and she certainly was not wanting to look babyish or at all younger than her 7 and 3/4 years!). R went to look in the mirror and she was pleasantly surprised by her new 'do! And I was even more pleasantly surprised that I was not going to have to deal with an epic meltdown for ruining her life and her hair. I think she was more afraid of the change that a haircut would bring than of the haircut itself. Once all was said and done and the transition from long locks was complete she could look at it on the other side and realize that the change wasn't so bad after all. In fact, she kind of liked it and decided it maybe even made her look a little bit older!

See and decide for yourself...presenting the more mature Rebecca in her new (and hopefully less tangly) 'do!

Another Milestone...

E took another step towards 'big girlhood' this weekend!

She said good-bye to her baby jail crib...




And hello to her toddler bed!



In the first picture she is standing on the toddler bed that we had set up next to the crib for a couple of nights to be sure she was willing to give the crib the old heave-ho. Indeed she was! After two nights I asked her if it was time to put the crib away and say "bye-bye" to it and she gave a resounding "YES!" and said "tib go 'way"..."bye-bye tib!"

She had a great first few nights in her new bed and the transition is going pretty well. Last night was a bit rough because she did not take a nap until late in the afternoon and it screwed up her sleep patterns. All part and parcel of the transition process (what with the newfound freedom that means she doesn't HAVE to stay in her bed at nap time...sigh...) but we are hoping for a better night tonight. I just need to try to find a way to ensure a timely nap! Wish me luck, I think I'm going to need it.

Oh, and if you know of anyone in a market for a nice, gently used crib let us know! After nearly 8 years of having babies in the house we are more than ready to say "Bye-bye crib!" for good.

In which I finally get around to sharing some pictures I've been meaning to post...

I'm obviously not participating in NaBloPoMo this year since I haven't posted a damn thing yet this month. But there are a few participants I'm rooting for this year and will be stopping by to check on them daily (just giving them fair warning....if they happen to stop by here).

I have yet to post pictures from my October girls' birthdays! Horrors! And then of course there is Halloween. I'm slacking off around here. I guess I've been a tad busy with other things - sewing for the church fair, reading The Outlander (instead of the book I'm supposed to be reading for my book club**), failing miserably at learning to crochet (OK, so I did teach myself the basic stitch but the 'square' that was supposed to 13"x13" came out as 11"x12" and I decided to just ditch that project for now...I don't need that kind of stress! I want my projects to be fun and I use them to reduce stress, thank you very much), and just generally surviving our crazy fall schedule (I'm happy to report that this was the last week for session one of swim class - I have the girls signed up to take their swim lessons on the same day at the same time for session two - Phew!).

So, without further ado, here are a few shots from October that I wanted to share...

HALLOWEEN

R dressed as Violet from The Incredibles. Her personality changes completely when she dons this costume.

A as a Barbie...gag...cheerleader. Not my choice for a costume and I made her wear a leotard underneath for warmth and modesty. She was originally going to be a pink fairy but then found this evil lovely get up and decided to spend some birthday money on it. Her personality was not a whole lot different, just notched up a bit when she put this costume on.

Little Miss E dressed as a Ladybug - but hard to tell since all she was willing to wear was a pair of wings clipped to the back of her jacket. The cheesy grin speaks volumes about her personality.

The Thrilling Threesome ready to go get CANDY!


E's 2nd Birthday!

The birthday girl - see? there's that cheese-factor going full force again.

However, since we are talking about a 2-year-old, that cheese-factor can swiftly change to Major Meltdown in mere seconds.

E has never seen a single Dora episode, but thanks to the whacked-out world of preschool marketing she can certainly recognize a Dora figure 13 aisles away. So, I figured she would appreciate a little Dora-themed family celebration this year.

Happy Birthday, E! She did a great job blowing out her candles this year...even if she did try to actually eat the wax Dora candle later. Notice the wine in the foreground - I was not to be outdone by E's earlier whine, you see. Mothers have a way of getting by. Seriously!

Sisters three.


This year - as compared to last - there was no question in E's mind about what needed to be done with the brightly wrapped packages. Riiiiippppp!!!

A's 5th Birthday!

A chose a puppy theme for her party this year. I found a dog bone cookie cutter and the gingerbread doggy bones were a big hit!

Pink being A's favorite color, the pink poodle cake was a must-have for the party!

Oh yeah, and there isn't much of it left in this shot but I also made the girls pink poodle pancakes for breakfast that morning.
At five, she is a pro at blowing out the candles...

And she certainly knows how best to rip into the brightly wrapped packages. She had a total of five friends at her party and they all had a great time. She was thrilled with all her gifts and she is already thinking ahead to next year and coming up with party-theme ideas!

OK, enough is enough. I think I've got the October celebratory pictures covered now. I'll be back soon and next time I'll try not to inundate the blogosphere with so many pictures at once!

---------------

**Update on the book club comment! I'm glad I put my book club book aside because I just received this email from a fellow book club member:

At church today several of us were discussing the difficulty in getting ahold of this book/as well as not being crazy about short stories. The suggestions we came up with was to change the book to another one of Sena Jeter Naslund about Marie Antoinette . How does the group feel about that? Is it too late to change (believe next meeting is 11/19). Reply all with your thoughts,

Inger

I had only read the first short story in the chosen book so I'm glad I didn't invest too much time in it! Now I just need to get cracking on whatever book they decide on because Inger was wrong and our next meeting is actually scheduled for next Monday (the 12th)!

Got Blood?

I donated my first bag o' blood today.

In the past, I had been excluded from donating because of my time spent in Denmark in the 80s. I was told a while ago that they had changed some of their restrictions so I checked online and realized I was no longer "blacklisted".

The last time they had a blood drive in the area I was unable to attend due to childcare issues and an evening meeting. Friday I happened to drive by the sign alerting me to a blood drive being held at my church today and figured I would do my best to get there. After dinner was finished and the girls were in the midst of their bedtime routine I left Rick in charge and headed off to church.

I have actually given blood samples on numerous occasions - a large percentage of them during my traumatic experience with an ectopic pregnancy back in 2004 - but I had never before donated a large quantity of blood. I found it was not really that much different from giving blood samples except that they ask you a bazillion questions, check your vitals (I had a respectable 13.8 for my iron test, a pulse of 60 bpm, and blood pressure of 98 over 66) and the time to actually give the blood is obviously longer. I think it took about 10 minutes to get a full bag o' blood out of me.

I felt no ill effects once all was said and done. I was required to sit at the 'snack table' with the other recent donors - some of whom were fellow church-goers - for about 15 minutes before I was allowed to leave. But it went well and now I'm no longer a blood-donation virgin! It was quick and relatively painless and it feels good to know that I've given to the community in a meaningful way. If you are an eligible blood donor and have not given blood recently I urge you to do so. Let those 'vampires' suck your blood this Halloween season. They will thank you for it and you might even walk away with a cool T-shirt like the one I got tonight!

A Weekend of Celebration!

This weekend we hosted a lovely brunch for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. The night before we had a delicious time with just my siblings, their spouses (or significant other, in one case) and my parents at one of their favorite local establishments. It was a fun and festive night and a great prelude the event on Sunday afternoon. My niece, Hilary, and her boyfriend, Anthony, babysat my girls that evening and did a fabulous job! I was nervous about how E would handle being in a somewhat strange place with babysitters that were not that familiar to her but they handled it all so well and she did great! They helped the girls decorate mini pumpkins, ate cupcakes and popcorn, and watched a movie together. I think the girls had as much fun as we did!

Sunday was the day of the big brunch and we had a total of 58 guests in attendance. I have not seen a lot of the people there in quite a while so it was nice to see them all. It was wonderful to have them all there to celebrate and honor my parents on such a momentous occasion! Everyone was very festive and happy and the day was such a bright, crisp, beautiful fall day. My sister, Diane, (my partner in crime event coordination) had put together some beautiful scrapbooks to commemorate the day and everyone had a great time looking through the pictures and signing the book. My parents renewed their vows and reaffirmed their love for one another with my oldest brother, Jim, as "officiant" and my brother, Bob, provided us with a heart-felt and comical toast.

It was special and inspiring to celebrate with my parents and realize that they have been together for fifty years! They have had their joys and their sorrows during the course of their marriage. Their love has stood the test of time and they have been through all those years together, side by side. They are an inspiration and a testament to true love and devotion.

Happy 50th Anniversary, Mom and Dad! We love you very much and hope that we created a day full of love and memories that you will cherish! Here are a few choice photos from the day of the brunch!

Mom and Dad arriving at the restaurant

The scrapbooks and photos.



The toast!



The bride and groom surrounded by Jim the officiant
(far left), and their best man and matron
of honor for the day!



Cutting the cake!