Heathie's Homemaking Hints

I'm no Martha Stewart or anything, but here are a couple little things I learned today while performing my housewife-y duties:

--If your house seems stuffy, just open the back door and sweep the kitchen floor. The moment you start sweeping, a nice breeze will come in and scatter all your dirt, but the house will feel much better.

--If your cat is missing, just start mopping your floors. Your cat will show up immediately, with his dirty paws, and might even bring a grasshopper friend or two.

--If you notice your dog running back and forth from the house to the yard and seemingly eating grass, there's a good chance someone left the pantry open, and he's going to town on the milk bones.

--I read somewhere that automatic car washes are more eco-friendly than washing your car at home, but chances are if your kids are still afraid of the vacuum, they will not like the car wash. They will cry [Drew] or give the car wash dirty looks [Owen] throughout the whole experience and be very glad when it's over.

Some Owen Videos.

I don't have any up-to-date Drew Videos, because he's been acting too scared to do anything.

This is Owen jumping on the trampoline.

This is Owen's new favorite activity: playing with the hose.

Our Basement Smells Like Booze

The restoration guys just came in and painted the mold-room. It stinks. It smells like beer, which I will assume is paint smell and not painter smell. We went and picked out carpet yesterday, which will be installed on Friday, so the room is getting really close to being finished. Yay!

In other news Happy [belated] Birthday to Kevin! My little brother turned 20 yesterday! It's so weird! We went to visit on Sunday, and had a little party for him with presents and yummy food, and a cake which I made. I'm pretty proud of it, even though I didn't come up with the idea myself. Here are some pictures from the party:

This is the cake that I made for Kevin. He went to the Special Olympics basketball tournament, so I made him a little jersey.




This is the mess I made making Kevin's cake. It was as much fun as it looks!

Here's a [partial] family photo: Drew, me, Owen, Mike, Casey, Lura, Marcus, Westley, Andy, Kevin.

Owen loved jumping on my old trampoline. Drew, of course, wasn't so fond. He wouldn't even

stand up on it.

Diamonds, Shmiamonds.

I went and got some Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, the other day. I decided to tackle my kitchen with them, because I'd heard great things about their powers. It turns out, those things were true! I previously thought the front of my microwave was white with beige-ish detailing. I was pretty surprised (and a little disgusted) to learn, after really scrubbing it, that it's just plain white. I also spilled some bright blue food coloring on my counter tops, and the erasers got it right off when nothing else would. Those Magic Erasers are my new best friends.
They do, however require caution, especially around kids. I got an email from a friend today, that told a story of a gal whose kid got really bad chemical burns from the Magic Erasers. The Scotchbrite brand can cause the same problems. So if you let your kids use them, have them wear gloves, and make sure they only use them on the walls or stove, or whatever; they're definitely not for use on people!

An Update

I don't know when this blogging became a once-a-week thing for me. I think it started when I decided to try to keep up with things around the house, rather than let stuff pile up and deal with it all at once. In a way, it's nice that my house stays cleaner looking, but in another way, it seems like I have less time to do fun stuff. I think I probably have the same amount of free time, it's just more scattered throughout the day in many tiny snippets, rather than a couple big lumps like I'm used to.

We did take a bunch of time yesterday to go on a fun outing with the boys. We took them to Tautphaus Park, the zoo in Idaho Falls. It is a really nice zoo for the size of town that it's in. The boys really enjoyed seeing all the animals "in person;" we've been reading about different animals, and they know all the sounds, like ducks quack and lions roar, so it was fun for them to see it all live.

In my mind, the highlight of the zoo was the monkeys, because they were the most interactive. Even though they were behind glass, they were very curious about the boys, and vice-versa. Drew and Owen put their little hands on the glass and were thrilled when the monkeys responded by putting their little hands on the other side of the glass.

The only down-side to the excursion was when my camera battery died while taking a picture of said monkeys. It was right at the beginning of the trip, too. I went to all the trouble of making sure we had plenty of memory for photos, but didn't bother to glance at how much juice the battery had. Grr. But we're hoping to go back in September, on one of the Free Admission days (assuming I can still walk at that point; it'll be about 4-7 days before Baby-Day), so if we do, I'll be sure to have an empty memory card and a full battery!

Today was also exciting, but not so much of the good kind of excitement. Today marked Drew's first trip to the emergency room. He had been playing in the back yard, and was running toward the deck when he tripped and fell, his little forehead landing right on the bottom [cement] step of the deck. The gash wasn't huge; about a centimeter long, if that, but it seemed really deep. It gushed a bit, then stopped after I cleaned it with a washcloth, but by the time we got to the hospital, it had started bleeding a little more. So I'm glad we went to get it checked out.

The cut required just two little stitches, which ended up being quite an ordeal, especially for a frightened little Drew. He cried while they applied the topical anesthetic, which was in the form of some goop placed on a cotton swab and bandaged to his head, then left to sit for about 25 minutes to "work its magic." The nurse said this was easier than a shot, but I kind of wonder. Shots don't take long, and that bandage (which went all the way around Drew's head--twice) was a major pain to put on and take off. It caused a lot of crying and wailing. On the other hand, it didn't hurt like a shot would, it was just scary.

Drew had to be "mummied" while they stitched him up. That scared him a lot, too. It involved a pillow case wrapped around his shoulders, which was also Ace-bandaged to stay in place. Of course he screamed while that was put on him. The nurse was really great, though, and sang little nursery songs and told him a story about a snowman. But then the doctor went and put a cloth over Drew's face and head to keep the hair away from the wound, and that started Drew screaming all over again.

He screamed through the remainder of the procedure, but when it was all finished and David mentioned going to get ice cream, Drew stopped screaming long enough to say through his tears, "Ice cream, please." After that he just kind of whimpered on the way out of the hospital, but was brave enough to say "'Bye" to all the nurses. Once again, I'm amazed at how resilient little kids are. The rest of the day, Drew was his normal self, running and yelling and carrying on.

I think it was too much excitement for Baby and me, though. I've been having little contractions off and on since the incident, and Baby has been kicking and poking my insides with extra force. I hate to say this, but I'm kind of glad David's working tonight; it means I get to really sprawl out on my bed and [hopefully] get a good night's sleep!

Mold. Ick!

What a fun weekend we had! For the most part. We did go wakeboarding on Friday (just boat-riding for me, though). It rained a little as we were starting out, then cleared up into a perfectly warm, gorgeous day. David got a few runs in on the wakeboard. Drew and Owen were fascinated to watch him. Drew kept saying, "Where are you Dad? Right there!" He'd point out to the river where David was riding behind the boat. It was so cute. Owen kept saying, "Ride? Yeah? Ride?" I think if we actually got him out there riding though, he wouldn't really like it.

The nice weather held up for about five hours. Just as we were getting ready to haul in, rain started falling in huge drops, and lightning started striking the nearby mountains. So we high-tailed it right out of there. It rained buckets, which was really great because it cooled things down, and we really needed the water. Except on the inside of the house.

We discovered mold in the room that my nephew is staying in. Turns out one of the sprinklers was watering the window well and into the window. So we had to call up our insurance company to see if they cover it; they don't cover mold, but they do cover water damage. Luckily for us, they will fix the walls (replace they drywall and the insulation) and replace the carpet and pad. It'll cost a couple grand, but we only have to pay a fraction of that--just the deductible. Whew. And on Labor Day weekend, my dear old Dad gets to come work. He was going to come and finish painting our deck, a project that he started a few months ago, but now he gets to help me fix a sprinkler as well. Good thing he and I have some landscaping experience (he more than I). A few years ago, we worked in Sun Valley, Idaho, for a summer (it was more like two weeks for me) putting in sprinkler systems, lawns and sagebrush* for the rich and famous. I imagine I'll be the foreman on this project; I'll just stand around giving orders and watching to make sure everything is done correctly. I don't visualize myself really getting down and digging pipe and filling in holes with gravel and dirt. I don't want to actually go into labor; Labor Day would take on a whole new meaning then, one for which I'm not quite ready! But I did get some really cute crib sheets today; pink striped ones. So I'm one step closer!

*True story: We did some work for the President and the CEO of a very large company (it starts with a 'D' and rhymes with "Ow Chemical"), they happen to be husband and wife; she inherited the company from her dad. Anyway. She was super nice. Reminded me of my mom's mom except she didn't bake us cookies. Probably too busy running her company. I never met her husband. Their house was massive, of course, as was their yard. But there was no lawn. You'd think that would make it easier to take care of, right? Not so much. She had my dad make a little booklet with samples of which plants could stay and which ones had to go. They all looked like weeds to me, but some were "wild flowers" and "wild grasses." And lots and lots of sagebrush. And the sprinklers we put in had to be buried just so, without disturbing at all the existing flora. It was kinda tricky, but we got it done.

Glad I Checked

I'm pretty much a proponent of the Ferber Method when it comes to bedtime. I make sure the boys were safe and OK, then I just let them fall asleep on their own, even if there is a lot of crying involved. I used to go in and give the boys their pacifiers if they lost them during the night, but I don't do that anymore because I'm trying to encourage them to be more independent, and hopefully not need the pacifiers at all anymore. Drew is usually fine with this, but there are nights when Owen will cry (as in, scream and wail) for an hour, sleep a little, wake up, cry some more, sleep some more...all night long. And in between wailings he'll yell, "Pa'fier!"

Tonight after I put the boys to bed, I was doing some laundry and I heard Drew crying, which is rare for him (I mean, it's rare for him to cry much at bedtime. He cries plenty during the day when he doesn't get his way). At first I thought, Oh, he just wants his pacifier. Well, he can do without it. Then I decided that it was still early enough in the evening and I'd give him one more chance to fall asleep with the pacifier. I went into the boys' room and when Drew heard the door open he said, "Tucks" (which means "stuck;" the boys have this cute way of taking the 's' off the beginning of words and putting it onto the end). As I got closer to his crib, I noticed his little leg was caught between the bars in a crazy position. I carefully maneuvered it out. Drew said, "Teak-oo" (which of course means "thank you") and then he said, "Night" and snuggled up with his blanket. It was very cute.

As I was leaving the boys' room, Owen, who had been standing in his crib, put one of his legs between the slats, wiggled it around and said, "Tucks." So I pretended to get it un-stuck for him. He was appreciative. It cracks me up how Drew and Owen are so different, but they both want equal treatment, even at their young age.

Our bedtime routine goes something like this: I say prayers with Drew, then I give him his pacifier and a sippy cup with water. Then I do the same for Owen. When I'm done, Drew says, "Prayers!" So I go over and let him say his own little prayer (when the boys say their own prayers, it involves them sitting with their little arms folded, squinting their eyes, peeking up at me, giggling, then yelling, "May-men!"). By this point, Owen has thrown his pacifier and/or sippy out of the crib. I pick it up for him. I go to leave, but Drew has thrown his pacifier and/or cup out. I get it for him, go to leave, Owen wants to say prayers again... I find it cute and fun, but I'm getting better at resisting the boys' charm. Otherwise, I feel like the bedtime routine could drag on for hours.

But at last, the boys are snug in bed, and I'm on my way. It frustrates me how tired I'll be all day, but I have too much to do to sleep, and when I finally get a chance to go to bed, suddenly I'm wide awake. I guess I'd better at least try to sleep though, 'cause we're going wakeboarding tomorrow (weather permitting)! Yay!

A Picture Post

Well, I did manage to get my kitchen cleaned today, and I even got all the toys shoved into one general corner of the living room. I was going to have Drew and Owen help me put them in the toy box, but we never quite got that far with our day. At least the kitchen is livable again.

I took some pictures while we were in Coeur d'Alene, so I thought I'd post a few along with some other pictures that show what we've been up to these days. So without further ado...



We took a little cruise on Lake Coeur d'Alene. The boys were pretty excited to be on a big boat.














Here are some of the cool buildings around the lake. On the left is a hotel that I plan on staying in when I'm rich. On the right is a house built entirely on a rock. It used to be maids' quarters, but I think it's now owned separately from the main house. Almost makes me wish I had been a maid...










Sadly, I only got to take pictures of Sandpoint at night. But it was so pretty, even then (and my camera skills don't do it justice)! I loved the mini Statue of Liberty on the pier. I can't wait to go back and take the Sandpoint Lake cruise, too!


Taken at the mall, this picture is so classic; Drew is freaking out, Owen looks bored to tears.

Grandpa Mo got the boys these awesome four wheelers for their birthday. He was so excited about them, he couldn't wait 'til their birthday to give them to the boys; but it works out better this way--they'll get much more play-time on them now than they will in October.

With all those great toys they have, the boys would rather play under the kitchen sink.

Chalk Lines

I've been working on some quiet books to take to church to keep the boys occupied. I found a couple CD Roms that have different topics for toddlers to learn: things like the Creation, Animals, Our Bodies, Jesus Loves Me, et cetera. I just print them out, color and cut, and tomorrow I'll take them to get laminated and put them into booklet form. I'm pretty excited about them.

I ran into a tiny problem in the coloring phase of my project, though. I have a little art set with oil pastels and paints and colored pencils, but it doesn't contain all the primary colors; it has random colors like peach, which is helpful for faces; it has five different blues; it has no true red or green; the orange and yellow pencils turn out to be the same color on paper. It does contain a really good giraffe-y tan, though. So the boys and I made a run to the store today to get some "regular" colored pencils. Amongst all the wonderful Crayola products (I would love to own one of every product they make; art supplies are so fun), Drew noticed a little tub of sidewalk chalk, pointed to it and said, "Peeaase!" How could I resist that? So we bought the chalk, too.

The boys were pretty jazzed about getting to color on the sidewalk without getting scolded. I showed them how to trace their hands and feet (kind of tricky with those fat pieces of chalk). Owen didn't really understand what I was doing; he started coloring on his feet instead of around them. I had Drew lay down on the sidewalk and I traced all around him. It looked like a crime scene, so I improved it by drawing hair, a face and some clothes. I thought it was hilarious; Drew was indifferent. Owen knelt on the sidewalk and tried to trace his little knees and legs.

The fun didn't last as long as I'd hoped (though we did get about 20 minutes before they got bored); Drew grabbed a piece of chalk and ran for the car, finding it a more interesting canvas than the cement. When I told him "No!" he ran into the neighbor's yard. I was afraid he would try to color their sidewalk (or even their car) and that they wouldn't appreciate it, so I had to grab him and make him go inside--that's the standard punishment for leaving our yard. The problem with it is that he can reach the door handle now and let himself out. So we just bagged the whole project and hung out in the back yard for the rest of the evening. It was pretty fun, too, and the boys can just run and do whatever they want and I don't have to worry about them getting hurt or vandalizing the neighbor's stuff.

On a totally unrelated topic: I'm wondering about this nesting phase of pregnancy. I've heard about the big burst of energy women get the last couple months, and I feel like I've either been misled or I misunderstood, or I'm just weird (well, I am weird, but anyway...). I was under the impression that the energy was somewhat on-going til the end. Mine comes in little one- or two-day spurts, and then goes away for weeks.

I had lots of energy last Friday and Saturday, did all kinds of cleaning and stuff. Then I had my day of rest on Sunday, making all kinds of plans in my head about what I would accomplish Monday. Well, Monday came and went, as did Tuesday, and here's what I got done: I got dressed and put on some makeup, went to my OB appointment, bought some colored pencils and sidewalk chalk. That was done Tuesday. As in, I did absolutely nothing on Monday. So I'm hoping Wednesday will be better, because I have 2+ days of dishes stacked up, waiting to go into the dishwasher, which is full of dishes that got washed on Sunday.

Seeing as how it's midnight, I think I'd better get to bed or I will almost certainly not have any energy to do anything. The problem with that is I'm not sleepy, just tired. And Baby is definitely not sleepy; she's her most active at this time of night. I'll do the best I can... Goodnight!

I Look Like Who??

My 100th Post!

Wow, does this make me a Blogger veteran? Probably not, and that's OK, because that wasn't my goal when I started blogging, anyway. All these posts have helped me keep track of important things that have happened; I'm horrible at writing things in a diary or journal--typing is just so much easier. So I'm right on track with my never-ending goal.

Today has been pretty eventful for me. I got all my laundry finished (I had about a month's worth piled up, and I did it all today and yesterday)--folded an put away, even. I pulled a ton of weeds out of our back yard and a few more out of our driveway. I cleaned my room (there were lots of crayons strewn across my floor for some reason, and the place really needed a good vacuuming, which it got). I tidied my kitchen (I had done the bulk of the cleaning yesterday, but there was the usual post-meal cleaning that needed to be done. I'll never understand where all the dirt comes from; I've swept the kitchen floor at least eight times today and I think it needs it again). I even watched some football (this game involved the Pittsburgh Steelers--our favorite team--and the New Orleans Saints). This day of mine probably sounds boring to most, but I felt quite good about all that I accomplished because usually a "good day" for me involves not staying in my pajamas all day, and that's about it.

Today was also eventful for Drew, who said his first "sentence*." It went like this: "Wow bob! Cheese Owen!" He had just given Owen a piece of cheese and was congratulating himself. "Wow bob" means "good job," and he says it a lot after he does something he thinks is good.

David's Grandma is doing a lot better, too. I heard that yesterday she was coherent enough to ask for some water, and ask where Grandpa was, and to ask that her hands be untied (they had been tied to the bed so she wouldn't rip out her IV again). Today, she actually opened her eyes, and a physical therapist helped her stand and get into a chair. She was able to eat ice chips and drink water. The doctor said they'll probably be able to move her out of ICU pretty soon.

It's a good end to a crazy week!

*I guess, technically, Drew has been saying "sentences" for a while. He has two favorites that he uses a lot: "What is that?" is the preferred distraction sentence, which he uses when trying to get out of trouble or if he's in an uncomfortable situation. "No know is" (which means, "I don't know where it is") is his answer whenever I ask him where something is, even if that something is right in front of him.

Owen's sentences are "No know" and "No more." He says "No more" after he does something he's not supposed to, or if Drew or I do something that makes him mad.

Good To Be Home

We've had a crazy week. Last Thursday, we received a phone call from David's uncle. David's grandma (not the one we went to visit in American Falls) had been hit by a car that morning, and was in pretty critical condition. We weren't sure she'd recover, so we packed up and drove 8 hours to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where she was in the hospital. We got to Grandma and Grandpa's house at about 2 a.m. so we had to wait to go visit her.

Come daybreak, David and I had gotten about 20 minutes of sleep; Owen hadn't gotten any sleep, because he was busy scratching his fingernails on the mesh side of the play pen. Scritch, scritch, scritch. All night long. He also did a little jumping and even knocked something off a near-by dresser. David went to the hospital to see Grandma, but I stayed put and slept some more, while David's sister hung out with Owen, who finally went to sleep an hour later. Drew slept through everything (he was extra tired, because he didn't sleep more than 3 hours of the ride there. At midnight, as we were driving through the mountains in Montana, we heard him yelling, "Whee!" every time we accelerated or went around a curve).

Grandma was still in bad shape, but the doctor was pretty optimistic. She had blood clot on her brain that was removed with surgery right after she got to the hospital. There was a lot of swelling on the brain, which was to be expected, so the doc kept her sedated to prevent any activity which would increase the swelling. She was really lucky that there happened to be an ambulance in the area when she was hit; she actually lives in a town about 15-20 minutes outside of Coeur d'Alene, and apparently there are no paramedics or anything in town. But there was an ambulance that had just dropped someone off or was making a pick up or something, and they were able to get her on right away to take her to the hospital.

We didn't end up staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house; there were a lot of reasons why it wasn't a good place for us to stay--mostly there were lots of breakables that the boys were tempted to touch and pick up. Also, the dog was having a hard time after seeing Grandma hit by a car, and not knowing what was going on, and seeing lots of strangers around, so she was really on edge and snappy. She bit Owen once (it didn't break the skin, but left some bruises) and lunged at him another time, but luckily someone was between her and him. So we went and stayed with our friends Seth and Abby up in Sandpoint, about 45 minutes from Coeur d'Alene. Seth and Abby were great hosts, and even watched the boys a couple times so we wouldn't have to drag them with us to the hospital.

Sandpoint is a cute little town and I wish we'd been up there under different circumstances so we could've had time to play and tour around, and go to the beach (we did go for a walk on the beach, but it was too late in the day to swim. I would love to swim there, because the water was clear and there were no mysterious floaties in it).

Driving back and forth from Sandpoint to Coeur d'Alene every day made for a long five days. I had just started weaning the boys off their pacifiers, but the trip pretty much un-did any progress we'd made. So we'll have to try again when things get back to normal.

Monday was Grandma's 76th birthday. It was pretty hard on everyone to have Grandma in the hospital for the occasion. We couldn't bring her flowers because she was in ICU, but she hadn't opened her eyes yet, so she wouldn't have seen them anyway. Grandpa joked with the doctor that we were going to have a big party for her and bring hats and cake and hooch. The doc said that would be fine as long as we didn't try to slip Grandma any, especially through the IV.

We stayed in Northern Idaho through part of Tuesday, getting home late Tuesday night. Yesterday was spent recuperating; lots of napping. Today will probably be spent in a similar fashion, with a little grocery shopping and maybe some laundry. My baby didn't appreciate all those car rides, and has been kicking and punching more than usual. There have also been some minor contractions (not the labor kind, but still uncomfortable). It's kind of draining.

We're really glad to be home, and we're relieved that Grandma is starting to recover. At last report (we heard from David's aunt late Tuesday), she was responding to familiar voices--turning her head. She can make purposeful movements with her hands, fingers and legs. I don't know if she's opened her eyes on her own yet, but when the doc tried to open them for her she fought it, so that seems to be a good sign. I think it will probably be a long road, but she's going in the right direction.