a whole bunch of stuff, including a surprise visit, a rant, and some things about my baby

I am happy to say that Miss E was in much better spirits yesterday, and she was completely exhausted from her days of crankiness. I spent the morning cleaning up my house--I fell off the bandwagon last week, having Mom here for two days and playing nurse to M. I even got to sew! Mainly, I was just cutting fabric. I never really realized before my sewing spell came upon me how much cutting is involved in sewing. I need two sides of fabric for the wipes I am making, and I cut out squares for ages trying to get it to work out evenly--equal numbers of front and back pieces, while still trying to maximize the usage of fabric. I finally gave up, but I have 35 wipes cut and stacked. That is almost as many as I started out with! I did think that the three dozen we started with was somewhat too few. I really didn't need double that amount, though! But, at least I have my rotary cutter so it goes quickly. It often makes me think of carrieb when I use it, as she is often threatening someone with one. They really are dangerous so I see her point.

I was in the middle of trying to decide whether or not to go eat lunch at work for the monthly birthday lunch, and had pretty much decided that I would, when my mom called to ask what I was doing. She ended up coming down to go have lunch with me, along with her two sisters and my grandfather--they'd been taking him to the doctor in Lexington, which is two thirds of the way here. So, we went to eat, and then they left. My grandfather so does not travel well, so he pretty much called the shots on when they left. I am quite a lot like him in some ways--he absolutely hates being away from home too much. That's me, too.. though I'm not quite as bad as he is. It was an unexpected twist to my day, but oh so nice.

Also, can I just say that I freaking hate this living ninety miles from my family crap? I generally try to keep a positive outlook on it and keep those thoughts to myself and all that but honestly, I'm so sick of it. I love my house, but it's still the only thing I feel tying myself to here. I think I could find a new house without too much grief if it meant we could just go home. I guess I should say something about my job, too (sorry, girls) but right now, I am not even thinking about work. Besides. It's nice there and all, but it's still just a job, in the long run, and not something that makes me adore living here.

Speaking of family, M's parents have booked a trip to visit for September. M is creating a list of suggestions of things for them to do. I have spent a good deal of time in the past planning visits with foreign persons so I'm not too stressed about it. I should be back at work when they're here, so they're going to be spending the days by themselves, for the most part. I think they're going to rent a car. I'm guessing we'll let them choose what they want to do, and then help them prepare for going off to do it. The only thing I feel strongly about is that they should go to Natural Bridge (which is.. you know. A natural bridge.) because it's pretty and they like to walk. I figure they'll hit a bourbon distillery, maybe Woodford Reserve because that's the one we've been to and it was nice. Any other locals have must-see recommendations for the last half of September?

The Evelyn Report: I went in to check on her this morning because she had woken up and was at first cooing over the monitor, but then she started sounding irritated. She tends to scoot around a bit, and sometimes she'll get an arm "stuck" in the bars of the crib, or push her head against them. (If she knew what her arms were, she'd know how to get loose, but currently they are just those flappy things that sometimes get in her way and never quite manage to grab those things she's looking at.) This morning, she was laying on her side at the bars, and it looked very much like she'd have been laying on her belly if not for the bars in her way. I'm not going to count it as her rolling over for the first time, but it was OH so close.

Secondly, while I went off to find her some socks, my aunt noticed that her second smallest toe (the one that had no roast beef) on her left foot had a hair wrapped around it about a dozen times, cutting off the circulation and making it all red and swollen. Eeek! We finally managed to unwrap it, but it still looks a touch swollen and the red line around it is still visible--I guess it cut into her skin a bit. Poor baby! I have no idea how it happened... I'm guessing it was in her sleep sack last night.

And now it's just about time to go feed her again and let M go off to the basement to sand stuff. I hope she's in a better mood than she was when I handed her off to him a few minutes ago. ;)