Phone call

We finally bit the bullet and bought cell phones. We are not cell phone people, as we dislike the idea of being tied to a phone. We had one years ago, but quickly got rid of it. However, since Luis is working in the field now instead of in the warehouse like his old job, we've come to the conclusion that he needs something. I can't reach him if there's an emergency, he can't call me if he has to work late, etc. Not being people to be tied to a contract, and since the phone is only for quick calls, we just got a Tracfone. They were running a web special of a phone plus 200 minutes for $50, so we bought that for him and one for me too. Luis worries about me and the kids driving to Madison, especially in the winter, without having the ability to call for help if something would happen. Bleh, I'm not thrilled about having one of these things, but I can see how it is useful.

Vincent has been driving me crazy at night. For the last three nights, he's been nursing for hours on end again. I've lost the ability to sleep though the extra-long nursing sessions (happened with the girls too around 18 months). I took him back to the chiro today, so hopefully that will help with his sleeping. I also realized that he hasn't been eating many solids in the last week, so I made it a point to offer him more today. I can't believe how much he ate! He had been napping earlier lately, as he's been waking up earlier with it getting light sooner, and so he hadn't been eating lunch with us. He's been nursing like a pig for a few days now, and even with eating more solids he still marathon nursed today. Growth spurt, eh?

We have been loving the spring weather here. The girls are spending a couple of hours outside each day already, and it's only been in the 50's and 60's. We got out their outside toys yesterday, and all three were thrilled. Vincent was so funny. He stood around in awe as we brought the toys out of the hay mow, just looking at each one for the longest time. They have been playing so hard that Isabella has even taken a nap a few times. I love the transition seasons - fall and spring. Our crocus are popping up and the snow drops have been blooming for a while now. The daffodils, lilies, blue bells, peonies and other spring flowers are peeking up through the soil, and the rhubarb is starting to push through too. I can taste the rhubarb dream bars already!

My Dancing Goddesses

I'm dancing right along with my goddesses today. I love love love this tattoo! Many huge thank you's to Lynn/sweaterhag for letting me copy her. :)




(the white spot in this one is lotion)

I'm still deciding if I want some blue shading on the waves. I want to live with the tattoo for a while before I make that choice. I had him make the head of each goddess a slightly different color, so they range from nearly white to turquoise.

Affirmation

I am a woman. I am not a pre-pubescent girl or teenager. My body has curves. I have hips, a bust and a soft belly. My legs have shape; they are not meant to be sticks.

Healthy is more important than being a walking clothes hanger. I eat well (and am improving my diet constantly), and I live an active lifestyle. I am modeling true health for my children. I wear a size 12, and that is okay right now. Yes, I have a bit more fat hanging around at the moment, but I know that as the weather warms up and I get outside and moving even more, that will change. I needn't obsess over it. Living a healthy lifestyle is more important than a few extra pounds.

Just because American society has decided to idealize the body shape of pre-pubescent children doesn't not mean I am not beautiful. Women do not need to have flat stomachs, toothpick arms or bean pole legs to be sexy or attractive. All shapes are beautiful. If someone is truly healthy - eating well and living actively - then it shouldn't matter if they are a size 3, size 8 or size 14. Every woman deserves to find her own healthiest body shape and size and feel gorgeous at that size.

This'n'That

My poncho is seamed and I'm working at attaching the fringe. I've come to the conclusion that I intensely dislike attaching fringe. I've seperate the front and back of Rosemary's Sweater (it's knit in the round from the bottom up until the armholes, then seperated into front and back), and I'm working on the upper back. There's a neat cable and rib detail at the armhole that really dresses it up a notch from your basic sweater.

Remember the ankle tattoo I posted about, like, a month ago? I'm finally going in tomorrow evening. Woohoo!

We ripped the carpet off the front stairs and decided to refinish them. Uh huh. Yeah, we're selling the house and not only do we finally repaint, but Luis decided to get bring back some more of the wood floors too. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? ROFL Speaking of the house, I spoke with the realtor from last week's showing. He said the people really like the house, but are a couple of weeks away from making any decisions as they had to iron out a few details (sounded like financing stuff to me, but he didn't say that). He also was quite impressed with the house personally. *fingers crossed*

What is it with six? My sweet Abigail is becoming such a KID, and frankly is down right obnoxious sometimes. As for the other two, Isabella has been growing tremendously in her counting skills, and she doing pre-reading stuff like making up stories for books and pretend writing. She showing more interest in how I write her name these days. Vincent isn't really starting to talk yet. He communicates perfectly, but he will only say a few things - dis (this), shoes, door, yeah. He has been the perfectionist baby, not sitting up, crawling or walking until he could do it without error, so I suspect that he'll want to be that way with talking too.

I need to order some more flower essences for Isabella. I hope I can scrape up a wholesale order. Now that I'm not selling the rescue remedy anymore, I have no need to order much, but it kills me to pay retail when I know I can get wholesale. Impatiens and mimulis have helped her so much. I'm thinking of trying some water violet for myself too, along with impatiens for me. Flower essences seem like the most quirky alternative medicine to me, but boy do they ever work!

I can't believe it

Last Wednesday afternoon, I lost the main diamond in my wedding ring. I was at a store when I noticed it, so I immediately let them know so they could look for it, and I searched too. I searched my steps outside, call the chiro where I'd been two hours earlier, searched the house and the van. We even took all of the carseats out of the van, took off the covers and searched them. We'd given up and were thankful that it was insured. Last night, Luis found it! It was in the upstairs hall carpet, and as he came up the stairs, he was looking at something on the floor by the top of the stairs, and the glitter caught his eye. We can't believe it. All of that searching and still we could have just vacumed up a $2k diamond and tossed it out if the light hadn't hit it right last night.

I'm almost done with my second poncho. The pieces are knit, and today I hope to seam them and start on the fringe. Rosemary's Sweater is to the point now where I need to seperate for the sleeves and start the cable detail there. The next project I want to add to my WIP list is a simple short sleeve summer sweater for me in DK yarn.

I went to Madison yesterday, so I stopped by my favorite yarn store/coffee shop, The Sow's Ear. I love this place. The girls each get a cookie and eat it on the coffee shop half, then play with the toys there and I can shop in peace with Vincent in the sling. They love it and so do I. I was looking for the pattern for the aforementioned sweater. I had no idea that such a simple, classic sweater would be so hard to find! I searched through three pattern binders and five magazines. Then the owner finished up with someone else and started helping me. She searched through some files, then started in the pamphlets. We finally found it in a Jaeger pamphlet, a simple crewneck short sleeved sweater with a bit of ribbing on the hem of the sweater and sleeves, slightly shaped through the waist. I love at least three other sweaters in the pamphlet too, so I happily bought it. I can't wait to cast on!

Milestone

My first baby turned 6 yesterday. Where have the years gone? May each year be filled with joy for you, my sweet Abigail.

Whine

Stomach flu sucks. Especially when the todder starts puking at midnight. At least his older sisters can warn me and throw up in a bowl or the toilet. I changed my pajamas and his 3, maybe 4, different times last night.

Then this morning I had to do my best to confine him to the kitchen or bathroom with their easy to clean up floors because I needed to get everything ready for an 11 am showing. Thank goodness he was in pretty good spirits most of the time, and I managed to get the house sparkling with no time to spare. I was putting the kids into their car seats when the people and their realtor arrived. The realtor was from a higher end realty firm in Madison, so we've got our fingers crossed yet again. We rather doubt the house will sell to anyone locally, but expect that someone relocating to the area will buy it.

I just finished Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. I liked his The Da Vinci Code better, but this was a very gripping book too.

A grumpy little boy calls...

Back later because I feel like talking more. We used part of my Sweet Pea's money to buy a quarter beef from a local farmer that raises free-range, hormone-free, antibiotic-free beef. It cost more to purchase from him, but it is so worth it. The TASTE! I grew up on a farm, and dad always had his one of his beef cattle butchered for our family's use. I'd forgotten about how wonderful free-range, natural beef tasted. Dad always had natural beef, not because of a belief in organic foods, but rather because it was easier and less expensive. ;-) It is so gooood.

Since I've got all this beef in my freezer, I've started planning ahead meals again. I plan out the entire week, exactly what we are having for dinner each night. I'm also doing more batch cooking, not really once a month cooking, but I'll make 3 or 4 dinners on the same day, then freeze the ones we aren't having for dinner. Planning out the meals relieves the late afternoon stress of "What am I going to make?" because each morning, I just look at my calender and thaw out the frozen meal. It makes grocery shopping a breeze too, and I always know I have the right ingredients.

If only I could get the rest of my life this organized. :)

Deal's off

I've been meaning to post this, but bummed so I kept putting it off.

We were expecting the husband on Tues with a written offer to purchase. Instead, he comes over, looks around the house and waffles. "Oh, I'm nervous about the age of the roof/furnace" "We just aren't sure we want to spend that much" Hello, you made a deal last night and you were all excited, mister. The other house they were looking at, the one the wife told us they were settling for, is only $5K less. He left saying they would call us by that evening with the decision on if they wanted to buy our home. They called with a no that night.

I'm feeling totally frustrated and hurt. WHY come look at the house if you don't think you can afford it? Why did they tell us they could spend X if they didn't want to actually pay it? We even lowered our price 10K for them because they were SO excited about the house and she was such a great person.

Back to square one.

Sold!

I'm doing some positive thinking. We might have a buyer for the house. We relisted it last week with a new company, one that does flat fee mls. $400 and they do a yard sign, put your house on their website, MLS and realtor.com. Everything else you do yourself - showings, open houses, any print advertising, etc. Since we weren't paying 10K to a realtor, we were able to lower the price. We listed it on Tuesday night, had an interested email on Saturday from someone who saw it on realtor.com. The woman came yesterday and videotaped the house for her husband, who was out of town until last night. She fell in love with it, we knew that before she left. Her husband adored it too, and she phoned us this morning to talk money. We've reached a verbal agreement, and the husband it coming tomorrow to see the house in person.

*fingers crossed that this goes through smoothly*

Geez, selling big things in our lives has been dominating this blog for a bit huh? On a related note, we got rid of all the sponge painting and it looks fabulous in here now. I told Luis that the painting worked, LOL. :D Plus we've still got some paint in the basement that we never got around to using a couple rooms upstairs, so we can use that for the new house now that we have lots of practice. ;-)

The weather was cold today, but the promise of spring is here!

I put tons of new things onto PBK again. Woodkins (Chantele, Abigail loved the one she played with at your house, I had to add them), Haba toys and furniture, Sew'n'Sew, Pommawanga, tons of new art supplies. Sometimes I think that wholesale buying appeases the shopaholic in me....