same_sky: (Default)
Do you hear that? Blessed silence. The noisy members of my household are off to Lowe's and I am home nursing my headache and enjoying a wee bit of solitude. I haven't had much of that in a couple of weeks! Which,that isn't a complaint because last week was so great. M had the whole week off and we had so much fun! I think I wrote about the first part of it last week, minus the pictures. Speaking of which...I should transfer those while I type this.

Anyway, the rest of the week was taken up by M's birthday (happy birthday, boyo! belated here, but that is because I was hanging out with you all day on your actual birthday.) and us heading up to spend the weekend with my parents, where we had a fantastic two-day yard sale. We sold $840 worth of stuff, so we're pretty happy with the outcome. Well, I was actually hoping for $1,000 for the weekend but honestly, I just ran out of stuff. I wish we'd taken "after" photos, but it started sprinkling at three on Saturday so we just threw everything in boxes and called it a day. I really can't believe how much stuff we sold. At this point, I am actually considering my shopping hobby a part-time job. It isn't much compared to an actual job, perhaps, but it is saving us huge amounts of money, and brining in a considerable amount, too, especially since shopping like this is in large part a hobby. I could totally use coupons and save money without going the extra mile, but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun. (I also wouldn't need to spend hours on it every week, so there is a trade-off, I suppose.)

So anyway, there's that. Poor Evelyn has had a pretty rough week. First, her fingernail fell off on Friday. We really had begun to think it wasn't going to... she got it smashed in the kitchen gate last month. Being a mom is not always fun. This nail was holding on only by the skin flap on one side of her nail, and we knew it had to come off because if we left it, it'd just get ripped off when she caught it on something. Volunteers for the task of clipping it off of her were non-existent and thus, I found myself removing my child's fingernail. Actually, she was extremely brave about it and barely protested until the very end. By then, I had clipped enough of it of that I could just put a Band-Aid on it and leave it alone for a while. On Saturday, she fell off the swing and landed on the foot rest of the glider thing, on her face. It didn't bruise as badly as we feared it would, but she has a noticeable bruise on her cheek. (Really, officer, I promise that we don't beat her!) I don't remember anything particularly painful for her yesterday, but today, she has been so clumsy I have talked about padding our entire house. She tripped and hit her forehead on the table leg, and fell down in the shower, and while carrying M's sandals (perhaps the smell rendered her momentarily unconscious?) and while stepping down onto the back porch... I was holding her arm in preparation of that one, at least, or she probably would have hurt herself. I hope she moves out of her clumsy spell soon because she's beginning to look pretty rough. Oh, and she woke up with a scratch on her chin, as if she was not already banged up enough.

Hi.

Jul. 23rd, 2008 10:03 pm
same_sky: (Default)
I need to not get behind with my photo uploading again. It has been pretty busy lately and I haven't had time (or the inclination) to fiddle with pictures, which means that it takes ages. I try to keep E's gallery pretty current since M's family gets to watch her grow up mainly in pictures.

New milestone today--she stands! She's acting like she has been doing it all the time. That is, she stands up from the middle of the floor without pulling up on something. It's seemed pretty close for the last few days and she might have done it once or twice, but we weren't quite sure. No question today. She can walk for quite some time, too, though she still prefers to crawl most of the time (it's quicker!) She has been somewhat on the slow side with the whole walking thing, which doesn't bother me at all because she's still well within the range of "normal" and all. I can't imagine thinking of her as an eight-month-old already walking around. My brother was running at seven months. Can you imagine? When she was seven months, she was still a little wobbly with sitting sometimes. ;)

My mom and niece came down yesterday and spent the night, so we have been running all over town and having an excellent time. We ate well and shopped hard (harder than I really wanted to, in truth, since my poor hip is still out of commission.) My niece is awesome. I love it when she comes over. She has been taking mandolin lessons for a while.. if you remember, last year when she was down here, M started teaching her to play, and then she started going to lessons from an actual teacher once a week. Last night was the first time that M and her were able to really play together. It was the first time that M had really played with anyone else at all. It was so neat! They were so cute! And they sounded pretty good, too! It was great. :)

Let's see, what else is going on? I did a bit of freelance-ish work for M's company this week. He says I am too dumb to know a good thing when I see it because I took an easy data entry job, looked at it (taking certain info from a few thousand emails) for a minute and said, "uh, no." I spent an hour or two busting out the mad programming skillz and screwed myself out of making much money from it in the future. ;) Yay fun! I miss being a programmer sometimes. Not enough to want to go back to a full-time job but I do miss it. I did get a call from my previous employer a while back asking if I would be interested in coming back. I had to say no but it was fun to think about for a few minutes. Oh, and speaking of work, M is no longer working two jobs! That's good and bad, of course, but we are thinking mostly good. The money was good but it was pretty hard on him and also on the family, in some ways. He finally has a little bit of time to himself, though, and that is a great thing. Now let's just hope that we are not soon starving in the streets. ;) I jest! I jest! It was always a temporary thing, though, of "up to one year". He got the email on his birthday, though. Nice, huh? Still, as we said, we're pretty glad it's over with.

Funny story. M took Evelyn shopping on Sunday. She harassed him the entire time they were in Lowe's for food. Crack-kuh! Crack-kuh! (Everything is a cracker to Evelyn. Crackers, Cheerios, even her water is a cracker. Usually it's a cracker if it's consumable in any way, but her aunt Kina also seems to be a cracker.) She ate all the snacks that he had with him, so apparently she was hungry. As they headed into Walmart, a young lady was walking out. This young lady was blessed with very generous bosoms. Evelyn's eyes lit upon this innocent bystander and threw her arm out, pointing to her massive rack and said loudly, "NUMMY NUMMY NUMMY!!" Yep, that's my baby, not afraid to say what she wants... ;) (The young lady did much blushing, and scurried off.)
same_sky: (Default)
I am unemployed.

Ha!

Today felt momentous, beforehand. Leaving my baby, all day! I woke her up this morning to eat before I went to work, and she was soft and sleepy and I held her and felt all sad about being gone all day long. M left the house about twenty minutes after I left, and she was already asleep. She slept until Mom woke her up to come have lunch with me. I fed her twice during lunch--once before, once after. Mom took her home, and she got a little bit demanding--but not screaming--for a while, but she settled down when I came home during my afternoon break to feed her. She was asleep when I made it home at the end of the day. In short, she was an angel for her granny. I would have said a perfect angel, but she forgot what to do with a bottle while I was gone. She has never been a huge fan but she has always perfectly well sucked on the thing, but today she was chewing a little and looking like what is this new madness I have never seen such a thing what shall I do with it I know I will hold it in place with my jaws and both of my fists that will be pleasant, but when can I eat? Mom described it to me, using other words, and when I came to feed her, I offered her the bottle just to see what she would do, and that was just what I described. Silly baby.

This post was interrupted by M, who was calling for me to come see that Evelyn was standing. He was balancing her, but she was supporting her own weight. It was pretty cool, really. He then tried to teach her to walk. What was even cooler was that she started trying to move her legs, one at a time. I am not a troll here to tell you that my three month old baby is walking by herself but she so clearly was enjoying the attempt. How do I know she was enjoying it? Because she was giggling the entire time, at nothing other than herself standing up in the world. Oh, she is sweet.

Anyway, as I was saying. After I got started on the day, it felt much less weighty than I was afraid that it would. I was calmer about her being with my mom. I was comfortable with my decision to leave. I really love the people I work with. Worked with. They're both sad that I'm leaving and happy for me, and that's exactly what I am. Okay, I'm mostly just happy, not so much sad--I should be honest because it's not nice to lie to your journal. There are definitely things I'll miss, but of course the happy parts carry much more weight than those sad parts (obviously. otherwise I wouldn't be quitting at all.)

This post was interrupted again by Evelyn, who was wailing her displeasure, so I had to stop writing so we could give her a bath. It's our sweet little family bonding thing--bath time at ten. Did you know that motherhood is all about interruptions? Because it is.

So, I went to work. I cleaned out my desk, deleted my unnecessary files, threw everything that didn't run away into the recycling bin, and even had a token meeting about insurance with people named Karen. No, I never tire of that joke, the one about the Karens. I'm sure they do.

This post is being interrupted again by Evelyn, who is again wailing her displeasure. This time it's about the hungry, and I fully intend to collapse into bed as soon as she's done, so I must be off. G, D, R and K, who all read this occasionally--thanks again for lunch. I love you guys and I'll miss working with you, but only a little because we'll still keep in touch, right? :)

token post

Sep. 4th, 2007 11:07 pm
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Busy day, lots of work. First it was cleaning before my mom got here, then it was off to a great big dollar store on the other side of town, and then it was cooking dinner, and then baby things and preparing for tomorrow, my last official day of work. It feels so weird to be thinking about going to work in the morning. I wonder where my keycard is? And more than that, will it even work? They disabled it after a while. And will my sweet baby be okay without her mommy all day? Of course she will, I know. But I will still miss her.

I really have to go to bed now because morning comes very early when one sets their alarm clock. :) I love not waking up to the bleeping of an alarm...
same_sky: (Default)
Evelyn has been asleep for three hours. She hasn't been napping as well as she usually does this week. I think she thinks she's ready to sleep less during the day, but she is just not quite ready to give up all the naps, either. She gets cranky and worn out if she doesn't sleep much during the day. I guess it caught up with her. I covered her up with a little fleece blankie and it seems like that really helps her sleep. I don't like doing it, though, because I'm afraid she might suffocate, and so I only cover her legs up when I'm able to keep close tabs on her. Yes, I know that generations of babies have slept just fine with a blanket, but now They tell you not to use the stupid things. Even if they help the baby girl sleep. For three hours.

Anyway, I would like to say that I was super-productive during her nap time, but I was thwarted constantly, and so I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I tried to sew, and I did get one new diaper finished. Unfortunately, most of it was done last night and I should have almost had time, in the amount of time I was in there, to sew another one. I was amazingly inept, though, when sewing one of the leg elastics in place. I had to take out the first attempt completely and start over, and then I screwed it up again, and then my bobbin ran out of thread, and then when winding a new bobbin, the spool started throwing itself off the holder when it would get caught on something. What was it getting caught on? Who knows? So I finished that, and did a... repair.... on the Hawaiian shirt diaper, and called it an afternoon before I messed up something else. As it turns out, there are a few GOOD REASONS that one should consider not making a diaper out of fabric that is completely worn out. I mean, M tossed it because the fabric was thin and fraying at the folds. Looks like that would have been a clue for me, doesn't it? But no. I am a moron, and when stuffing the diaper yesterday, the whole thing ripped down the back. Oops! So, I sewed it back in order to make it usable again, but it is no longer cute in the slightest. Of course, it is there to collect poop, so it doesn't actually have to be that cute. There's a bonus of sewing diapers right there. :)

Also, I found out today that I am still invited to the IT company picnic next week with my soon-to-be former employer. Yay! :) I'm kidding, of course. Well, I'm not kidding about still being invited. We are, and we're planning on going. I am kidding about finding out that I'm still invited, because I was pretty sure that I would be. It was already on my calendar and everything, since we started planning it before I left for maternity leave. :) I just had to give G a hard time when she called. She also let me know that I do not post enough pictures of my baby. I told her that I was afraid that everyone was getting tired of seeing pictures all the time but she assures me that not everyone is tired of them. So I shall close this post with the picture that is currently my desktop background--this is especially for [livejournal.com profile] starrflowerr!

evelyn
same_sky: (Default)
[livejournal.com profile] georgiamars asked me how they took it at work that I wasn't planning on coming back. Again, it's important to note that I work with wonderful people. They were so nice about it. During my maternity leave, I got a new boss. (I might have talked about the tatting guild at work, which was more of a crafting guild that started with me teaching them how to tat, and later one of the ladies taught us how to knit, and a couple of them how to crochet--the new boss is the knitting instructor.) So, although I have never actually worked for her, I called her yesterday afternoon to tell her I wasn't coming back. She was super nice about it--having five children herself, she was pretty understanding of why I was leaving. ;) Then I talked to the director of our department, and he was also very understanding--he had gone through the same situation when one of his children was born and they made the same choice. They both said that I may be able to return at some later date if I wished--no guarantees or promises made or requested on either side, but at least they didn't tell me that I smell funny and would be glad to see the last of me! ;) I really will miss my job, if not the actual part of going there every day. Being able to stay home with Evelyn is a huge weight off my shoulders, though.

I talked to K, who is still in the trenches there, and we went out to lunch today. She talked me into stopping in at the workplace on my way back home. Evelyn was good as gold during lunch, only crying a little bit at the very end. She was not terribly happy by the time we went in at work, though she did smile a little at [livejournal.com profile] queen_b980 and a couple other people. It was hot outside, she was tired, needed a diaper change and she thought she was starving. She was screaming her little lungs out when I put her into the car seat, but she promptly fell asleep a quarter of a mile away. Poor little baby, her mommy is very mean to her and takes her out on the hottest day of the year. I think it really did wear her out, though, because she's been asleep since we got her home and fed. I have taken the opportunity to get a bunch of sewing done. I am actually still enjoying the sewing hobby, although I wish I was better at it. I guess that will come with practice--it already has, to some degree.

There has been a lot of stuff going on here in the last week or so, because organizing our new life is rather a full-time job in itself. I am not exactly trying to be a perfect housewife here, but I have been keeping up with the house pretty well since I've been home. There have been a lot of phone calls to make and issues to research. M's group insurance is prohibitively expensive, so we've found an individual plan that's cheaper. By the way, even if you get health insurance from an employer, it may be interesting to look into individual plans now and then. They're not as expensive as I thought they'd be. I might have switched my plan even if I did go back to work.

At this point in this post, the doorbell rang twice. I ran to see who was there.. and opened the door to my parents. Surprise! They had certainly not let me know they were coming! So that was a pleasant surprise. I would say that it was a risky thing for them to do but really, I don't go much of anywhere so they were pretty much guaranteed that I'd be home. :)

Hey, did you know that Sunkist has caffeine in it? Those bitches. See, there's this thing--I love Pepsi. While I was pregnant, I tried to avoid drinking too much caffeine even though Pepsi has never tasted so very good in my entire life, so I started drinking orange pop instead, because it doesn't have caffeine, yo. After I had the baby, I really stepped up on the Sunkist instead of the Pepsi because I didn't want her to be irritable and caffeinated. We had a few instances where we thought it really did affect her when I had caffeine, and I have been doing without through cravings and hard times, but at least I had my Sunkist to get me through. In all that time, I had never bothered reading the label, though, until tonight when M pointed out that caffeine is listed as an ingredient. I looked it up and as it turns out, it actually has MORE caffeine than Pepsi. I have been craving Pepsi all this time but resisting it in favor of a drink I don't like as well, but on the bright side, I've been drinking it like there's no tomorrow and I still have a pretty good baby, so apparently it really doesn't bother her and dammit, tomorrow, I am going to have as much Pepsi as I want. (and i am not even going to tell you about how we would laugh at how the baby would start dancing around from all the sugary goodness when i drank it while pregnant. i guess that explains exactly why it made her so hyper. argh. I tried, at least. I really, really tried. EVERYONE knows that orange pop is caffeine free! Oh, and incidentally, apparently everyone knows that iced tea is caffeine free. Did you know that? Because I certainly didn't, until I started asking waiters about what they had without caffeine. 'what I learned is that wait staff cannot tell the difference between caffeine and carbonation. I would comment on the stupidty thereof, but you know, I have been drinking Sunkist for months thinking it had no caffeine so wtf do I know?)

*yawn*

Aug. 8th, 2007 10:27 pm
same_sky: (Default)
Today is just a day like any other. You know, Evelyn took a couple of really good naps. I watched daytime television while I took care of a little laundry. I improvised and made a homemade beef stew for dinner (strangely, it is the hottest week of the entire year, perhaps the hottest week in the last five years, and I have made soup twice so far and it's just Wednesday.) In the afternoon, I puttered around in my sewing room/dining room, cutting out fabric for future projects. Then I took a break from all of that, checked on the baby, and then called to quit my job.

!!!

I quit my job! Eeek!

Despite all of the complaints about the fact that I had to go there all the time, I really do like my job. Did like, anyway. It was interesting, I felt like I was working for an agency that did something that mattered (the state retirement system) and most of all, I love my co-workers. And yet, I have been dreading going back to work because I cannot bear the thought of putting Evelyn in daycare right now. I know that I would get used to it, and that daycare wouldn't make me a bad parent--I know excellent parents who work outside the home. I have always wanted to stay home with my babies, though, and it broke my heart that it wouldn't be financially possible.

But then we won the lottery!

Okay, no. That was a total lie but wouldn't it be a great story?

The truth is just that I started doing the math last week, and when I had written down all of our income and expenses, M and I looked at it together... and decided that we can do it after all. At least, we should be just fine for an extended period of time--we think it'll be easier for me to go back to work when she's a bit older, and when I don't have to envision her just laying listlessly in her crib all day. How long is an extended period? Dunno, really. We're talking about a year or two or maybe longer. If something expensive happens, it may be less than that. It will involve some financial sacrifices, but, as we're big dorks, we're kind of looking forward to that part, though it will be hard at times. What it comes down to, though, is that there are some things that are worth much more than money. She will only be little once, and I am so unbelievably happy that I'll be right there for all of it.

And that I won't have to pump.

June 2015

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