The weekend to do list was at record breaking lengths this weekend. We are truly exhausted.
Here's a snippet of what we ticked off this list:
*Unscrew 36 ugly cabinetry knobs in the kitchen and laundry room*Screw back on updated cabinetry knobs *Plant (including a re-tilling of the space to plant them + adding soil to each spot) 7 privacy trees *Plant 1 Lilac *move one rose bush and one hydrangea to get more sun *sweep and mop three bathrooms *hang/install the following: one tool organizer, one new shower head, one shelving unit, one enormous clock, one set of drapes *vaccuum stairs (trickier than it sounds) *refresh soil in veggie garden, mix it in gingerly *move furniture to make more space in the entry way and create a make-shift entertainment center in the office *vaccuum entire house *laundry (two loads with one more ready to go) *clean toilets (3)
All while juggling a 19 month old! I don't know how we fit it all in (thank goodness she's such a good napper!!) but we did AND we made it to the beach and the park!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Hovander Park
A few weeks ago, we revisited Hovander Park to check out the farm animals there.
Clementine has been very "into" animals in general lately, pointing out every animal we see, saying their name if she knows it or making it's sound. It is extremely adorable.
We thought the farm would be an exciting trip for her.
But the thing that she was most excited about wasn't the animals...it was the park benches! There were three in a row and she spent ages climbing up one, sitting on it, climbing down. Onto the the next bench.

We finally got her to pay attention to the animals. There wasn't a lot there to see (maybe that's why she loved the benches so much), but we did like the turkeys.
We thought the farm would be an exciting trip for her.
But the thing that she was most excited about wasn't the animals...it was the park benches! There were three in a row and she spent ages climbing up one, sitting on it, climbing down. Onto the the next bench.
We finally got her to pay attention to the animals. There wasn't a lot there to see (maybe that's why she loved the benches so much), but we did like the turkeys.
Garden Tour
When we moved into our house, we soon realized that yard work hadn't been a big priority for quite some time.
Our back yard was over run with weeds and grass. All along one side we had what we called Jurassic Park weeds; weeds that looked like they had been there for centuries and had mutated into behemoths. Some of them had roots as thick as my salt shaker! It was treacherous out there.
But in the last week, we have cleared out most of the unsightly weeds and have started putting in our own gems.
Here is the sunniest side of the house: my vegetable garden!!
Look at these beautiful tomato plants!
This is our front porch. But you see this green bench? It was discovered in the backyard nearly covered by weeds. It works out perfectly on the porch holding my watering pot and geraniums.

This was the worst area of them all. I cleared out two totally full garbage bags worth of weeds from here this week. Now look at it! (I planted a lilac here today--and see where the cinder blocks are? That's where my composter is going to go.) This side of the house is opposite my vegetable garden--the shadiest part of the yard.
Our back yard was over run with weeds and grass. All along one side we had what we called Jurassic Park weeds; weeds that looked like they had been there for centuries and had mutated into behemoths. Some of them had roots as thick as my salt shaker! It was treacherous out there.
But in the last week, we have cleared out most of the unsightly weeds and have started putting in our own gems.
Here is the sunniest side of the house: my vegetable garden!!
This was the worst area of them all. I cleared out two totally full garbage bags worth of weeds from here this week. Now look at it! (I planted a lilac here today--and see where the cinder blocks are? That's where my composter is going to go.) This side of the house is opposite my vegetable garden--the shadiest part of the yard.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Babies Gone Wild!
Ordeal
While I was pregnant with Clementine I noticed a ton of little changes on my body: the thicker hair(yes!!), the wider hips (boo!), the longer nails (YAY!) and one tiny little cyst that grew in my neck (huh?). It was itty bitty--the size of a lentil bean--but I pointed it out to my midwife and she gave the all-clear.
Fast forward to this spring. Dermatologist looks at my moles and lentil bean sized cyst. He also gives the all clear but says to call if anything changes.
And change that bugger did! Last Tuesday I woke up feeling like I'd been kicked in the throat. The lentil bean had at least doubled and it hurt like hell! Woke up Wednesday and it was worse; I had at least an almond in there and now it was purple and bruised looking.
I called the Dermatologist (who I will not name but plan to send angry letter to later) who wanted to see me immediately. Made an appointment for the following morning. But before I could even leave work on Wednesday, Dermatologist's nurse April (DAMN YOU APRIL!) called to tell me not to come in; they could already tell this was a slight infection and had called in some antibiotics. This made me bristle for two reasons:
1.) Why not see me? WHY APRIL???
2.) I am not a fan of antibiotics just for the sake of antibiotics
I should have raised hell right then and insisted on coming in, but I believed April's story and went along with it. I even started antibiotics that very night!
Fast forward to Mother's Day when this cyst was now the size of a mandarin orange, angry red and produced enough heat to warm the whole house. The antibiotics were making no difference and I was in excruciating pain.
Dermatologist reported that now they couldn't see me until mid/late-June. I called BS on that one and after some choice words Dr. begrudgingly booked an appointment for May 19th.
However, Monday I was in such extreme pain I drove my hot, red bumpy self to the hospital (Cam stayed home with Clem) where I spent most the night.
I had a CT scan (which I threw up inside, of course), half a dozen pokes to get an IV started, as much laughing gas as one nerdy teacher should ever have and a little procedure to get the cyst out and the gunk around it drained. The Doctors at the hospital said it was a good thing I didn't try to wait until the 19th for my Dermatologist's appointment--that this infection was looking for new areas to take over and was thisclose to getting under my breast plate into my chest. Phew! Close call!
The hospital sent me home at 1:00am and after a quick stop at the pharmacy, I was home in a percocet coma. Good times.
I've spent two days at home catching up on all the sleep I've lost in the last 18.5 months, reading and watching bits of movies. Tomorrow I'm going to see how working feels. Wish me luck!
Fast forward to this spring. Dermatologist looks at my moles and lentil bean sized cyst. He also gives the all clear but says to call if anything changes.
And change that bugger did! Last Tuesday I woke up feeling like I'd been kicked in the throat. The lentil bean had at least doubled and it hurt like hell! Woke up Wednesday and it was worse; I had at least an almond in there and now it was purple and bruised looking.
I called the Dermatologist (who I will not name but plan to send angry letter to later) who wanted to see me immediately. Made an appointment for the following morning. But before I could even leave work on Wednesday, Dermatologist's nurse April (DAMN YOU APRIL!) called to tell me not to come in; they could already tell this was a slight infection and had called in some antibiotics. This made me bristle for two reasons:
1.) Why not see me? WHY APRIL???
2.) I am not a fan of antibiotics just for the sake of antibiotics
I should have raised hell right then and insisted on coming in, but I believed April's story and went along with it. I even started antibiotics that very night!
Fast forward to Mother's Day when this cyst was now the size of a mandarin orange, angry red and produced enough heat to warm the whole house. The antibiotics were making no difference and I was in excruciating pain.
Dermatologist reported that now they couldn't see me until mid/late-June. I called BS on that one and after some choice words Dr. begrudgingly booked an appointment for May 19th.
However, Monday I was in such extreme pain I drove my hot, red bumpy self to the hospital (Cam stayed home with Clem) where I spent most the night.
I had a CT scan (which I threw up inside, of course), half a dozen pokes to get an IV started, as much laughing gas as one nerdy teacher should ever have and a little procedure to get the cyst out and the gunk around it drained. The Doctors at the hospital said it was a good thing I didn't try to wait until the 19th for my Dermatologist's appointment--that this infection was looking for new areas to take over and was thisclose to getting under my breast plate into my chest. Phew! Close call!
The hospital sent me home at 1:00am and after a quick stop at the pharmacy, I was home in a percocet coma. Good times.
I've spent two days at home catching up on all the sleep I've lost in the last 18.5 months, reading and watching bits of movies. Tomorrow I'm going to see how working feels. Wish me luck!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Always an Adventure
We don't do things the easy way in this house. Everyday is an adventure for all three of us as we stumble our way through each new experience.
Every morning is pretty hectic as the three of us try to leave by 7:45 am each day. Gone are the days when I had literally sweat my make-up off by 7:30 in an effort to make lunches, locate shoes, change diaper (which always seemed to become magically full again just as we were walking out the door), find cell phone, etc. We seemed to have hit our stride, each of us our own tasks to do and 7:45 had started to seem easy.
Until this morning....the routine morning went just as planned. We were actually a smidge early for once! Cam and Clementine were walking to the car as I locked the handle on our front door and closed it. My hand may have been off the knob for just under a millisecond when Cam said "I don't have the keys."
I didn't have them either.
And my coat was in the car.
So was Clementine's coat.
Did I mention it was raining?
Luckily our neighbor was home. She lent us a baby girl coat sized Clementine and a phone book to call a locksmith. While Cam made the call, Clementine discovered the neighborhood cats laying in the middle of the road. Why, oh why, couldn't they be in a yard? Clementine would not take "We don't play in the road with strange cats" for an answer. So she proceeding to have a major temper tantrum on the sidewalk. She dramatically rolled around in the cold wet pavement as I shouted "CAM! Tell the Locksmith to HURRY!" (My favorite part of the morning had to be when the folks across the street left for work and were witnesses to Clementine rolling on the ground, screaming bloody murder. The neighbors seemed to get a real kick out of this as they drove past us, waving and laughing.)
The three of us waited for the Locksmith on our front porch. We pulled out all of our distract-the-baby tricks: cell phone, apple, peekaboo. It took the locksmith nearly 45 minutes to get to our house and less than a minute to open our door.
Good times.
Every morning is pretty hectic as the three of us try to leave by 7:45 am each day. Gone are the days when I had literally sweat my make-up off by 7:30 in an effort to make lunches, locate shoes, change diaper (which always seemed to become magically full again just as we were walking out the door), find cell phone, etc. We seemed to have hit our stride, each of us our own tasks to do and 7:45 had started to seem easy.
Until this morning....the routine morning went just as planned. We were actually a smidge early for once! Cam and Clementine were walking to the car as I locked the handle on our front door and closed it. My hand may have been off the knob for just under a millisecond when Cam said "I don't have the keys."
I didn't have them either.
And my coat was in the car.
So was Clementine's coat.
Did I mention it was raining?
Luckily our neighbor was home. She lent us a baby girl coat sized Clementine and a phone book to call a locksmith. While Cam made the call, Clementine discovered the neighborhood cats laying in the middle of the road. Why, oh why, couldn't they be in a yard? Clementine would not take "We don't play in the road with strange cats" for an answer. So she proceeding to have a major temper tantrum on the sidewalk. She dramatically rolled around in the cold wet pavement as I shouted "CAM! Tell the Locksmith to HURRY!" (My favorite part of the morning had to be when the folks across the street left for work and were witnesses to Clementine rolling on the ground, screaming bloody murder. The neighbors seemed to get a real kick out of this as they drove past us, waving and laughing.)
The three of us waited for the Locksmith on our front porch. We pulled out all of our distract-the-baby tricks: cell phone, apple, peekaboo. It took the locksmith nearly 45 minutes to get to our house and less than a minute to open our door.
Good times.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Oh, No
Clementine has been adding a lot of words to her vocabulary in the last few weeks. Last week, she learned five new words (see below). This week she only learned one new word, but it's a doozy. It's one I'd hoped we could put off for awhile.
This morning I asked Clementine if she was all done with breakfast. She looked at me like I was crazy, powerfully shook her head and said "No!"
Oh lord have mercy.
This morning I asked Clementine if she was all done with breakfast. She looked at me like I was crazy, powerfully shook her head and said "No!"
Oh lord have mercy.
Naturally
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