Thursday, January 29, 2009

To Nathan Elliott on His First Birthday

It is true, no one can really tell you what it is going to be like to bring a child into your life. It is also true that you can’t really prepare. Oh sure, you think you are prepared, but you aren’t. You are not prepared for the chaos. You are not prepared for the fatigue. You are not prepared for all manner of bodily fluids to find their way onto your clothes and into your hair. You are not prepared for how much “free time” you actually had before you had children and how much you will yearn for 1/10th of that time back. But most of all, you are truly NEVER prepared for how much your heart will grow and how much love you will have for this little stranger.


Happy first birthday, Nathan. Mommy has no words to describe what you mean to her or what she would do for you.

I love you, Natey-Bug!

Monday, January 26, 2009

New Camera

Although many of the pics I post on my blog are taken with my iphone, I am making a more concerted effort to use my new camera:

It's a Nikon D200. Hubby upgraded himself to a D something or other and I got his hand me down. :)

"Batter Blaster" in Pictures

This is the product in question:

Squirting some pancake batter into a hot pan: (It is hard to squirt and take a picture with a iphone at the same time)


Bubbling away:


Flip!


Cut into little pancake squares for Natey's breakfast (I use a pizza cutter. Thank you Jon and Kate + 8):



Nate LOVES these pancakes. I tried them and they taste like the pancakes you get at a diner. Not bad at all for coming out of a can! Plus... they are organic.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

I Can't Believe I Bought This

but I did.

I was in the supermarket yesterday and saw this in the refrigerated section. it was the "Organic" label that made me pick it up and put it in my cart.

It is completely not frugal but it doesn't have a lot of junk in it and now that Nate is eating real grown up food, it makes work mornings a whole lot easier. After he fruit and yogurt, I can squirt him a pancake before heading out the door.

I made one this morning and they even taste good too!

Friday, January 16, 2009

FYI

Target now sells BumGenius and Babies R Us sells G Diapers. It looks to me like alternative diapering is catching on in the mainstream.

MOLD Update

The cleanup is complete! The demolition and removal of debris was finished yesterday. The guys were back today to finish cleaning up and clean the carpets today. The were finished by noon... we have a semi functional, certainly non-toxic room again... YEAH!

A contractor is coming tonight to look at what needs to be replaced and hopefully he will be working this weekend to get the room put back together. If all goes well we can paint next week and have a brand new room before Nate's birthday.

Two funny things about yesterday: While the guys were ripping the walls out they found a few things stashed behind them. Dead mice (which is to be expected) and library books, OLD library books. I think it is completely ironic that they found library books stashed behind the walls in a librarian's house [NOTE: these were not my library books].

While they were taking their lunch break at the Domino's Pizza up the street from my house, it was robbed and they were witnesses!

I have been taking pictures of the process and will post them when the room is completely finished.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

A Day Off...

is never actually a day off. I apparently lack the gene that allows an individual to sit on their butt all day and veg out infront of the TV.

I am off from work today because the mold remediation (AKA family room demolition) is in full swing. I took Nate to my mom's for the day which leaves me all alone in my house... ok, the dogs are here too.

So what am I doing? So far I have made a gingerbread bundt cake with crystalized ginger, turtle bars, and cinnamon scones. As soon as the scones are out of the oven I will be heading upstairs to do a little cleaning and then I will be writing out our birthday cards for the year and perhaps even doing a little card making to boot (Thanks hubby for the idea).

Tonight I will be making sourdough bread with my starter and a tomato cream sauce for my lobster ravioli, yum!

My baking so far:

Turtle Bars

Gingerbread Bundt Cake

Cinnamon Scones (uncut and still baking)

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

MOLD

So, our little Natey-Bug turns 1 this month and like all good parents we planned a first birthday party for him. We thought it would be small gathering but somehow the guest list ballooned to 57 people. Oh well, right? He only turns one once.

We were starting to get the house ready for this party when we decided that it was time to take down the wallpaper in our family room and repaint. Some of the wallpaper had fallen down over the summer so the room looked a little shoddy. We decided to do it this week. I took a few days off from work, we lined up the painter, we were ready to go.

Sunday night hubby and I were clearing out the family room, moving furniture to the center of the room, putting Nate's toys upstairs when we decided to pull more wall paper off the wall. It is UGLY wall paper and I was so excited to see it go that I grabbed a corner that was peeling and pulled... it should have been a wonderfully cathartic moment, a cleansing moment really, out with the old, in with the new, a rebirth if you want to take it that far. IT WAS NONE OF THAT because under that butt ugly wall paper was... M O L D.

When I took down that section of wall paper I had uncovered a big section of mold on the drywall. Hubby proceeded to take down the rest of the paper on that wall to find the entire 23 feet stained with mold. Oh crap! what now!

First I canceled the painters... well, put them on hold really. Then we called out insurance company (THANK GOD for the mold rider) and started calling mold remediation companies. We also relocated Nate's birthday party to my mother-in-law's house.

So tomorrow the demolition begins. My family room will be turned into a hot zone and the walls taken down to the studs. After the demo and cleaning is finished we have to find someone to put the dry wall/sheet rock (is there a difference?) back up. Only then can we have the room painted.

This is not the planning and preparation I thought I would have to do for a first birthday party but it will make it a memorable one.

So tomorrow

A New Year

So I am back. I had a very restful three weeks off, wonderful holiday celebrations with family and friends, and even got some things accomplished around the house.

I am pleased to announce that I have officially finished my second master's degree which makes me an M.S, M.Ed. Maybe it will even get me more money at work, who knows, but at the moment it just gives me more letters after my name.

I was able to get my ironing finished and 2/3 of the leather furniture conditioned, I cleaned out the closet in question, and moved some things to the shed. I will be tackling the homemade laundry soap tomorrow.

I did try another experiment, making a sourdough starter. As far as I can tell I have a viable starter ready and waiting. I am going to try and make a loaf of sourdough bread with said starter tomorrow. I'll let you know how it turns out.