Amstershiresauce

Make it work!

Oy! This phrase could be applied to nearly every aspect of my life right now. So much for posting more regularly. Let's give it another go, shall we?
Well, the most exciting thing I've done lately is to go and see Tim Gunn speak at a local college. Wow! I am not a fan of reality television for the most part and have only seen Project Runway a couple of times,  but I really enjoyed hearing his presentation. And I felt so fortunate to have been there. Apparently he only accepts one to two speaking engagements at universities per year. I half expected to see Patty there as she is such a fashionista and lives nearby.
He just seemed like the most sincere, genuine, NICE and intelligent person. Someone I'd love to know in real life. He spoke personally about difficulties growing up and the circuitous career path he's had. Did you know he was a sculptor?
There was also a fashion show put on by the design students at ISU and it was super fun to watch. Of course Tim only had great things to say about it but it was really interesting to see the wide range of abiilities and design sense among the students. If you click on the first link I included there's a newspaper article that tells all about it and here's a link to the video of the fashion show. All in all it was a great night out with some girlfriends.
And oh, how I needed to get out. Things have been poppin' around here in addition to the illnesses that seem to keep spreading amongst us. The biggest news is that my stepsons are going to live with us full time which is awesome. And the girls are going to flip over being able to spend so much time with them. However, this means we will be moving to a neighboring town to keep them in their school district.
Let's just say I don't do well with moving. On the second walkthrough of our current house I broke down into tears just from the overwhelming stress of it.
The first house I purchased on my own was even stressful and I wasn't selling one at the same time as it was my first. So while things are going to get even more crazy around here, I am determiined to visit this, my happy place, more frequently and touch base with you friends. Wish me luck!

Can I just brag for a tiny second?

No, I did not make this beautiful thing. My dad carved this sculpture from italian alabaster. It's called "Sound of Ice" and it WON the grand prize in the Galex exhibit this year. Galex is a local show in my hometown, but is juried by on outside party and is actually quite prestigious. I'm so so proud of him. Go, Dad!

Kneedeep in the Hoopla

Hello friends, I've missed you! I can't believe it's been so long. I'm not entirely sure what happened, I think I just lost my voice for a while.
Things are a bit overwhelming at times with four kids and all of life's responsibilities. But I have a birthday coming up and my present to me is to take this time for myself and get back into the blog. I really need this space to feel like I have my own thing that is just for me.
Not much is new around here except for the world falling apart and everything. Okay, maybe that is a slight overstatement. But when the president flies into town to visit your husband's company and speak with the president of said workplace about layoffs, you know things are kinda bad. So yeah, we're just living on pins and needles over here, desperately hoping for a better economy. Soon.
The photos of the girls were processed with Poladroid's free software. Fun!
Phi's star hairdo was for "space day" at school and Frankie is sporting Phi's old kitty ear hat that I knitted myself.
I feel happier already making this first foray of '09 into the blogosphere. It's good to be back!

We're just hangin' out, bein' mavericks

Wow, what a way to take a bloggin' break! Have we been busy? You betcha!
Thanks so much for all your concern about Ted's disc herniation. His surgery went just according to plan and his recovery rate has been amazing. He went back to work after only two weeks and it's so great having him back to his old self. He's even been buildin' things and doin' light projects around here. Chronic pain can really eat away at your happiness quotient.
Typically when he's off work I don't get much done because we're doin' stuff together n' whatnot. This time I got tons done because he was able to watch the girls a bit, so that's part of the reason I haven't been on the c'uter. The other three reasons are 1. this gorgeous fall weather has not made being inside very attractive, 2. I got a new MacBook, so my workflow has been somewhat interrupted and 3. Halloween. Need I say more? Halloween is sort of a big deal aprés kids. It's a lot more work now that I don't just hand out candy, but we loved every minute of it. I'll post some pics in the next day or two.
Who's excited about today? It's so weird how I've kinda buried my head in the sand about this election. I haven't even allowed myself to hope that things could change for the better in this country and I realized only today how deeply scarred I was by the hanging chad incident. I have to say I'm way more psyched about the current candidate than I was that year, but it was still very disheartening for me in a way I hadn't even realized until now. And also too, I would like to reiterate the plaintive query that comes back every four years: why the freak do we still have the electoral college? Really, I want to know.
I'm finally just today allowing myself to get excited. I'm actually sort of emotional about the whole thing and can't wait to see the numbers start coming in. Hope I haven't jinxed things by saying this.

Trying to focus on the good

of which there is plenty. But poor Ted has to have surgery on his upper spine next week. There's no way around it. He has pretty extreme compression of the spinal cord and it could lead to bad things. He's already lost feeling in a finger and it may not come back. Argh! This is so scary. The surgery sounds pretty safe and has a very good prognosis. He'll probably feel good as new after, as opposed to the pain he's been living with for quite a while now. And our doctor seems really great and cutting edge, as it were. But jeez. It's his freakin' spine, for god's sake. It's still scary. And I don't want him to have to go through it. And I can't even imagine if anything ever happened to him. Who else would I ever find to make me homemade yogurt and side our house and be our kids' daddy and make me laugh with his twisted humor? Nobody. Well, we're just going to stop thinking like that right now. Because it's going to be fine, right?

Guess who's 6 months old?

Our sweet little Frankie Bean! I can't believe she's half a year old! I had the girls' photos taken the other day by a sweet photographer who just happens to have been Phi's old teacher's aide. I haven't gotten to see the whole slideshow of all the pics, but here's one she put up on her blog.
It's always such a hassle getting pictures taken, making sure everyone's happy and that their outfit stays clean, etc. But I'm always so glad when I get the pictures that I made the effort.
I really want to get the boys' photos done too, but I'm afraid they might feel the whole thing was dorky. They are going to have to submit to a holiday card family photo, but I'd love to get some freestyle outdoor shots of them like the ones I just got for the girls. Teenage boys...hmmph. I just found out my older stepson isn't even ordering any of his school pics this year. When I told him I wanted to buy one, he tried very valiantly to convince me they weren't good and that I could take a better picture myself. So I'm going to have to think of a bribe to get them in front of a camera lens.

Postpartum Hair Loss

… it was cool for summer, but now it's time to grow it back! I'm posting this here, on what is rapidly becoming the Blog O' TMI to give all you new mamas hope that your hair WILL come back after it has fallen out. I knew about this phenomenon from my first baby, so I cut my hair into a shorter bob after Frankie Bean was born. Such an epic volume fell out this time that I was forced to cut bangs and get it even shorter so it wouldn't hang there so drably. Yikes! Every time I would show someone my hairline I would get the same exact response: OH MY GOD! It didn't look too good, to say the least. I must say that it was sort of a pleasant feeling having the wind on my scalp when it was really hot, though.
So my little chubbie is six months old tomorrow and it's finally starting to grow back. Woo hoo! And the Phi'f will randomly now say every so often, "Mommy, I think your hair's growing in." Don't ask me how she even knows to say that. But THAT is why I had kids. I love having my own little Ed McMahon!

 

Some things really shouldn't go on the blog

But that's never stopped me before, right? By way of explanation of where I have been, here is my disgusting chest freezer awaiting your judgment and disapproval.
Go ahead... I'm sickened by it myself. If it's not the fish sticks for which I have gotten much crap from Ted for giving to our daughter (yeah, that was almost gramatically discernible) then it's the chemical laden ice pops. Or maybe the mysterious goo on the bottom. Yeah, we eat stuff out of here. Yum!
Anyway, back to my point. This is what I've been doing - cleaning out gross crap like this and getting rid of stuff. Earlier today there was much more stuff in here. I'm getting ready to defrost the whole thing, clean it and get ready to start "putting food by" for autumn.
Also, the wee one is nearly six months old. Don't even get me started on how that happened so fast, but it's time to start thinking homemade baby food. So I'll need to have room for her food to be stored. She's still exclusively breastfed, but the time is coming. I can feel her eyeing my yummy big people food.
Which leads me to a question: is there not a better way to organize these things? Clearly, our current method of just dumping things in and forgetting them is not working. Is there something that can be purchased to better segment a chest freezer? Come on, give me an excuse to shop at the Container Store! I'm thinking I definitely need to keep an inventory of what's in there. I've been pretty good about dating things which helps a lot, but I need to keep track of what is in there so I can plan meals better. Since I've started my meal log for 2008 it's really helped me plan my meals and shopping better. Every day I'm just a little more organized. Yay me!

Café au Lait or Epidermis?

Where have I been and what have I been doing? Well, in addition to swimming lessons and end of summer playdates I've been doing another massive divestiture of stuff. I realized I still have way too much and am tired of trying to find places to put things away. So more must go. Also we're getting ready for a big reno of the main floor which includes tearing up all the carpet and instead of that and linoleum we will have hardwood flooring. Yay! I'm so excited. Eventually this also means that the kitchen will be gutted and redone which has been a long time in coming.
So. We had decided that the entire main floor should be one color for unity and a cohesive feel. The downstairs family room area is yellow and I wanted a warm color that was different. It's green right now and feels somewhat cold in the winter. I determined that a light terra cotta would be nice and neutral. So I bought a can in a color I thought would work. It didn't work. Back to Lowe's. Another can. Too dark. A third can. No. This isn't working at all. And in fact, you know what? These all look like the freaking skin colored crayon in the crayon box. Ted's comment: I feel like I'm living in a skin house.
Back to the drawing board. It's going to have to be tan. After much inner debate, as he had washed his hands of the process at this point, I chose five (yes five) colors to try in the newly discovered $4 sample sized cans. More debate and waffling. I finally settled on a color and was pretty satisfied with myself. It then sort of dawned on me that the color's name sounded very familiar, so I referred to my text file with all the house paint colors in it. Um, yeah. It's the exact same color we have in the master bedroom. I guess I must like it! It's the one in the center on the bottom photo.

Summer Lovin'

We're having a blast!
Hope you are too. Am going to try to post more this week. I have lots to talk with you about! In the meantime, we're just trying to enjoy the last bits of summer 'cation before school starts next week.