January House Decs.

Each month I decorate the kitchen, which is sort of easy since its just a boring, white wall on one side  

Here's a little picture tour of the decorations I made for January.  The theme is BLUE, which is basically the only color my son likes right now and this prevents him from freaking out and trying to rip down the decorations.  Plus, its frosty outside and totally works as an appropriate theme.

There are a lot of photos, but I liked this decor a lot.

Here you go.

You know, just in case you wanted to pin it. ;o)

The sparkly spikes are ornaments I bought on January 1st at our HyVee.  A box for a dollar.  I love them.

I strung them on aqua ribbon I already had and attached them with a little hot glue.

To make the garland, I used a one inch circle paper punch and four or five sheets of scrapbook paper I already had.

Another Night Of Insomnia (And Project 52, Week 4 Out Takes)

I don't know what is up.
Its after midnight and I've decided to go the route of Tylenol PM and a kids' cup of wine.

Last night it was the same, but without the drowsy-meds and juice, and I tossed and turned until 2 AM.
I don't know how Dan slept through that -I guess the same way he can sleep through baby monitors alerts.

I think I was nervous about the upper abdomen ultrasound I had today.
Which would make total sense because after lots of internet research, it seems like the likely thing that will happen is gallbladder surgery, which seems unpleasant.

It was not an unpleasant test, but it was a little odd because when I look at the screen, I am usually seeing a baby, and here I just saw blobs of intestine or liver.
I've probably had one hundred ultrasounds because of my pregnancies, so it makes sense that I am just trained to search expectantly for the flicker of my child's heartbeat.
But no babies in this ultrasound.

I had some gift cards to spend and ordered these leggings and a tunic.

I rocked a baby who was unusually fussy, probably because she ate too much mushed spaghetti for dinner tonight and had a belly ache.

I stripped diaper laundry, a process that isn't too complex but requires a lot of time.

Man, I really miss the ability to take Ambien at night.
I took it during my first year of teaching when I discovered my sleeping patterns were irregular - no sustained sleep longer than 2 hours - and I miss that sleep.
But I think it would be inappropriate for BOTH parents to be totally conked out and unaware of the kids at night, so Tylenol PM it is.

My dad told me that my Grandma Douglas, who's first name was Gertrude and middle name is my daughter's middle name, had insomnia an she would write letters at night and do her household cleaning.
Those are nice ideas.
She didn't have facebook or online shopping or 700 unread posts in her Google Reader, and I know she didn't keep wine in the house.

DDD and EE January 30, 2012

We love sunny days in January with temperatures so high we only need a
light jacket! With two days over 60 in a row, we spent some quality
time at our park this week. The sunshine freshened everyone's mood.

Project 52: Week 4: Pose

I enjoy a good candid shot as much as the next person, but sometimes I just want the kids to face the camera and grin gosh dang it.  They were being squirrelly and silly and so I grabbed the camera.  I said, "Kids, say cheese!" and both kids looked straight at me and said some kind of an eeee noise that I am counting as the right on camera response.