Patience and Patients

Tonight Dean was "escaping" while I was going to get them water after they were in bed. I have had a horrible hacking cough all day and I just plain don't feel well, so I said, "Dean, please get back in bed. I don't feel well and I don't have the patience for this tonight."  Dean replied, "Dean have lots of patients. You, Dad, and Walter are all sick. You are all Dean's patients."

HAHA!


I also love it when he tells me, "Don't worry mom, Dean will take care of you."

And today after I made homemade bread for the first time in weeks (no I didn't buy regular bread, we just didn't have bread in weeks!) he said, "Oh, thanks mom! This is so de-LISH-ous."  That made me feel good. He also said dinner was delicious (homemade tomato soup, salad with lettuce from our garden, and grilled swiss cheese sandwiches on the bread I made), and after dinner he peeled his own carrot and said that was delicious also. He's usually not so generous with his food compliments. =)

And since we're talking about bread making, I did make a decision on my grinder. I decided to go with the wooden German mill, the Fidibus 21. So far I love it! I loved the direction booklet. "Plug in the mill. Turn on the mill. Put grain in the mill. Adjust the hopper to how fine or coarse you want your grain." That was it!  It should have included "Don't use the first X cups of flour due to grit from the stones." like my hand mill said. Our first batch of pancakes tasted more like sandcakes. After ginding 5 or so cups of grain, no more grit.

I love, love, love that I can grind every bit of my flour when I need it. I don't have a bucket of ground flour in my fridge because I can grind 1/2 cup of flour if I want it when I want it.  I'm happy with my purchase, even if it isn't the most "practical" of the options. Sometimes I just want something nice, and I want what I want. Ya know? It's the least annoying sounding mill I've ever heard! It has no whiny pitch when it doesn't have grain, and the frequency of the grains being ground is lower than other mills, so it's not nearly as ear piercing.  I figure by making my own bread and pancake mixes and muffins etc., I will have paid for my mill within a year easily, and I plan on having it much longer than that.

So what would YOU do?

I have wanted a grain mill for a long time now. I had finally convinced myself to buy one for my birthday. I couldn't choose between the Nutrimill or the KoMo Fidibus 21 so I haven't actually made the purchase yet.  Then last night I drove an older sister to a Relief Society meeting and the topic somehow came up. She told me she had a brand new (refurbished) Whisper Mill that I could possibly have. Their old Whisper mill caught on fire (yikes!) and the company replaced it, but they ended up buying a Nutrimill instead so they didn't actually need the new Whisper mill. They had already promised it to someone who failed to follow through and pick it up, so she said she'd ask her husband if she could give it to us. She called me today to tell me I could have it if I wanted it. So the boys and I went and picked it up.

Pros:

• It's a NEW $240 grain mill that I'm getting FOR FREE if I choose to keep it.
• It's a top brand
• It mills very fine flour because it pulverizes rather than grinds

Cons:

• There are a lot of parts. Parts to clean. Parts to break. Filters, buckets, etc. etc.
• There are super strict rules about turning it on and off with grains in the hopper. I'm a little worried about screwing something up.
• I kind of feel bad taking a brand new mill from someone, even if they're not using it. (I did ask if they wanted it back if I decided to purchase a different one, or if they wanted me to pass it on to someone else who needed a grinder, and they both heartily said to bring it back to them...)
• It's bigger and uglier than the KoMo. There are 2 parts to it, so I guess you could store the mill on the counter and just bring out the bucket when you wanted to mill, but still. It's a big bulky plastic thing.
• It doesn't grind grains coarse enough for cracked wheat or muesli. 

My biggest hang up: I had just convinced myself to buy the KoMo right before she offered me this one. The cheapest I've found it is $320.  It's a small, simple, and pretty wooden object I wouldn't mind sitting on the counter. Nothing to clean. Nothing to break really. You can turn it on and off with or without grain in the hopper. Did I say nothing to clean? No filters. Pretty much as low maintenance as you can get. 

So what would you do? Take the free one? Or give it back and buy the one you really want?  Seriously. If you read this post I want to know.

Granola girl

I think I've somehow turned into a granola girl over the years, and I have to say that I like the lifestyle I lead (most of the time). Cloth diapering, making my own bread (and granola, and snacks, and most meals from scratch), heavily limiting my kids' sugar intake, cutting out margarine (how in the world did I think it tasted better than butter??), not shaving frequently enough (once when I was teaching Dean to draw stick figures, he insisted I put poky hair on the woman's legs! hahahaha), not wearing make up 99% of the time, etc. It's true I'm no longer a vegetarian, but I think I am at heart. It just makes my marriage run a whole lot smoother incorporating some meat. But c'mon, I still feed my family of 4 on 1 chicken breast or 1/3 lb. beef in most meals...

My latest addition to this "natural" things is my recent running shoe purchase. I just decided to keep them today, so I can't tell you how totally awesome they are just yet. I'm just now testing them out.  I got some vibram 5 finger Bikila LS shoes. You don't wear socks with them. They double as a water sock. You can wash them in your washing machine.

To explain the theory behind it, I"ll include a blurb from their own site, " Imagine footwear that can actually help make the foot healthier, that can strengthen muscles in the feet and lower legs, improve range of motion and increase sensory reception important to balance and agility. Imagine footwear that might just make running safer and healthier, by encouraging a forefoot strike and a more natural running form that creates less impact on the knees, hips and lower back. That is what Vibram FiveFingerscan offer.


We are not saying that Vibram FiveFingers® is the only footwear you will ever need. There are times when we need the protection and security of a boot or shoe. Like all things in life, there is a balance, and Vibram FiveFingers® offers an alternative to traditional footwear. Wearing FiveFingers for fitness training, running or just for fun will make your feet stronger and healthier – naturally. ."

I've been having some knee problems recently, so I was interested when I heard a friend of mine talk about these shoes and how they helped her knee and hip problems that resulted while wearing regular running shoes.

I will let you know how I feel about them after trying them out for awhile. I ran 1.5 miles on the treadmill with them yesterday and 3.5 miles on the road today. I can tell they work my calf muscles more than a regular shoe! I want to go further tomorrow, so we'll see if that's practical. Like any new shoe, it may require a little getting used to.

The rest of the...clothes

Ok girls. Here are the rest of the clothes I purchased in the last 3 weeks! I hope you enjoy your virtual fashion show. =) Overall I got 20 pieces of clothing, 2 pairs of shoes, and 5 necklaces for around $300. Considering I heard on the news yesterday that the average parent spends $450 on EACH child at the beginning of every school year, I think I did ok. I mean, c'mon. I've never really shopped in my 29 years of life. Hopefully now that I have some staples I shouldn't have to purchase much more...so long as I can keep this shopping monster under control!! =) The only outfit I can still take back is the brown patterned skirt and sweetheart neck brown shirt. The rest are mine for keeps.

White shirt and dressy brown shorts
Brown Asian inspired top (with same brown shorts)
Maroon Shirt and black pencil skirt
Turquoise skirt (and shirt, though you've seen that before)
Yellow and green shirt (this was purchased on my own. I wasn't so sure of it, but it was kind of fun and bright, and I wanted something not so dark)
Brown Shirt and Patterned skirt (Too old lady?? This is the one I'm on the fence about. Matt says he likes it.)
Black and green paisly shirt and black dressy capris (one of my favs)
Purple and black shirt and black pants (my favorite of all the outfits I think)
Black blousey shirt (gray capris purchased earlier this year)
Royal blue shirt and black casual capris (I think I might use this for family pics...what do you think, this or the turquoise shirt?)
Purple dress and black shoes (pictured in previous post)
Hot pink skirt (pictured in previous post)

My fashion progression

I've never really considered myself a fashionable person. Cute, but not quite fashionable. In high school I kind of did my own thing. As far as I remember I didn't really dress like my friends. Maybe I did, and I just think I was "original". I did, however, wear make up at that point. (1999)



In college I started toning it down a bit. The fantastic thing about college clothing was living with 5 other girls!!! The cutest outfits I wore were rarely owned or purchased by me. The bad thing about that was the [lack of] clothing shock when I got married! I never really recovered from that.

Right before Matt came home from his mission, I remember going shopping with my sister in VA at Kohls. It was the first time I'd heard of that store. Anyway, I bought myself some orange plaid capris. When Matt saw them, he told me that they looked like pajamas and that it was almost embarrassing to be out with me while I was wearing those. Ouch! haha. I got rid of them pretty quickly, and honestly, I think that was the beginning of the end of colorful clothes. (Looking at an old pic of them, they were pretty ugly, so don't judge Matt too harshly. I was trying to be fashionable, but just didn't know how, so I basically just gave up the notion.) Oh, and once he mentioned that I looked better without make up and I stopped wearing that! I figured it was cheaper and easier, so I was on board!!

In the last few years, I've ended up going with the most very basic of basics. Solid, fitted knit shirts from Target or Walmart. Kahki capris and shorts. I'm talking basic. The only dress/skirt purchases I've made in the past 10 years were during pregnancies. And when I bought those I got nice and stretchy dresses so I could wear them when I was not pregnant!

When I went to Phantom in Feb. with my friend Kirstin, I realized that I didn't have one decent shirt. Not one. After that I bought a few shirts from Target (all the same shirt in different colors!) and slacks from Old Navy to tide me over.

It wasn't until a week before our scheduled family pictures that I realized that even those weren't quite cute enough to be professionally photographed and documented for posterity's sake. So, as part of a trade for piano, I asked my friend Kary (who loves fashion and helps mainly frumpy mothers find a style) to teach me to shop.

Being from rural Snowflake where we don't even have a Walmart, I've never really known how to shop. I didn't know where to shop. I honestly don't think I've ever known what size I am. I couldn't ever find pants that fit both my waist and legs. I've always felt like the women's section was too "old lady" and the juniors/miss section has just gotten uglier and uglier every year (um, maybe that's a sign that I'm not a 'junior" any more and that I'm out of touch with the young kids now a days. hahahaha.)

2 days before our pictures we went shopping for 3.5 hours straight. We hit 6 stores. She had lists of things I needed. We were in and out. No messing around. Most importantly, I found out what size I am, what sections and stores to shop, and general ideas of what looks good on me. Pencil skirts. Wedge shoes if I want some height. Skirts just below or in the middle of my knee or to my ankle, but nothing mid-calf. I'm generally a size 4 petite in pants and a small in tops. It's nice to be able to go into a store and grab a wad of clothes and have the majority of them fit properly! Oh, and I found that when you shop a little higher quality than Old Navy, Target, and Walmart, pants actually fit me properly! We got me make up, jewelry, shoes, dressier shirts and pants and skirts. I felt like I was channeling my maternal great-grandmother when I bought my hot pink skirt.

So, in the past 2 1/2 weeks I've purchased:
2 black capris, black pants, dark brown dressy shorts, hot pink pencil skirt, black pencil skirt, purple dress, a patterned skirt, 8 or so shirts, black wedge sandals, light brown strappy wedge sandals, 5 necklace/earring combos (from the dollar store till I figure out what kind of jewelry I actually like), 2 eye shadows, mascara, lip gloss. Am I missing anything? It feels like it...

These aren't great pictures. I had Matt quickly snap them when I got home from shopping so I could see what photographed ok. I wasn't smiling in any of them, so I cut off my head! =) I've been trying to photograph my other clothes, but Matt's been working tons and I don't have a tri-pod, so I've been pretty unsuccessful. My shirts are where all the pattern is lest you think I got all solids...




I didn't feel like I'd quite gotten what I wanted for pictures, but I felt more confident in my ability to shop, so the next day I went out by myself. I felt like a contestant on What Not to Wear, trying to follow rules and find things that were out of my comfort zone but cute. I found this shirt and I felt happy enough with how it worked with the clothes I got for Matt and the boys. Paired with a cute necklace and dressier capris it makes a pretty cute outfit.



Our pictures got rained out and rescheduled for August. But that was fine. I felt like our outfits needed a little fine tuning anyway. I went shopping again. For a person who hasn't done much shopping at all in my life, I have been a shopping maniac the last few weeks!! I actually want to go again tomorrow to find a few more casual, yet cute tops that I can wear on a daily basis.

I have to admit, I am kind of liking wearing a little make up again (mascara and very subtle eye shadow and lip gloss), and I've really enjoyed (*gasp*) shopping. It's fun looking cute. I hope I don't start enjoying it too much!! Being a plain Jane has definitely been kind on the pocket book.

In between the illnesses...

So, I realised I hadn't posted much this past month. We've been sick (mostly Walt) with 2 double ear infections, a viral infection (Dean), 2 eye infections, and I had a cold. Walt's ears are still infected, even after being on antibiotics for 24 days, so we're going to an ENT (our bishop who did Dean's tongue surgery) on Tuesday to see what structurally might be wrong. Adenoids maybe? Hopefully something "easily" fixable.

We purchased a playset from Costco this month and Matt finished putting it up a week or two ago. We've really loved having a "park" at our house! Dean's gotten really good at swinging in a big kid swing. He LOVES to go high and throw his head back and close his eyes. I try and spot him when he does this, because he is just a beginner, but that boy has always loved big movement and a thrill.

Walter has started climbing. And climbing more than Dean ever did at this age! We might just be in trouble with this one. I think we'll actually have to secure bookcases and dressers to the wall.

We also went to Lake Ray Roberts (a state park) with a huge group of friends last week. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera so I don't have any pics of that. We had a lot of fun, and I impulsively bought a Texas State Park Pass (non-refundable impulse purchases are not usually my thing, so I don't know why I did it), so hopefully we'll go a lot more this summer and get pics!

Taking the plunge

And yes, pun intended.

Wish me luck.

I just bought an entire cloth diapering system. I went with Gro Baby Live system. I ordered it through a great online store (DiaperCo) that happens to be located in the next town over from me. The ladies who run it are great. The owner isn't LDS, but her daughter is. They're both really nice. They let me come to their house and look at all the different diapers and answered all my questions.

I thought I received my answer last fall that I wasn't going to do cloth, but it kept bugging me. Every time I read something from the church about being prepared (which is quite frequent these days), it comes to my mind that I need to be prepared on the diapering front as well. Not sure why. Not sure if it's going to be a necessity at some point. I just know it keeps coming back to me. So I am going ahead with it. Who am I to fight a prompting?

I won't, however, need to dunk the diapers since I bought a diaper sprayer.

I'm hoping that I won't have to custom make Walt's pants now. I have a hard enough time finding clothes that fit him with disposables since he's such a little chunk. Now with cloth it will be a little bulkier still...

We'll see how Dean does with the switch. Maybe it will help motivate him to fully potty train. Maybe not. I'm ok with it either way.
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On another purchasing/preparedness note, I decided to go with a Wonder Junior Deluxe hand mill wheat grinder. I was going to do an electric Nutrimill, and I still may later on, but buying both at the same time felt too frivolous. I felt like it was more important to have a decent hand crank in case power is down and we need it. This one can also grind oily things like peanut butter, flax, and herbs etc. Now to go to the cannery and get us some wheat!
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Oh, and did I ever mention I purchased a double jogging stroller after 8 months of searching? I bought a Baby Jogger Double Performance with 20 in. tires. It was about $150 cheaper on Ebay than I've ever seen it, so I went ahead with it. I had gone between the Tike Tech Sport and this one. This has a better frame (with a life time warranty), but I was a little disappointed that the seats didn't recline fully like the Tike Tech. So, I won't be able to take a new infant out like I could in the other. I didn't realize that before I purchased. But I'm still happy. It's a good jogger and it's nice to be running (...jogging...) again.

"Riding" his bike

Here are a couple of videos featuring Dean with his new balance bike. I would have mashed them together in photobucket, but they took away video editing! Arg.

This morning when he woke up, the first thing he said was, "Arm better! Ride bike." And he did. He rode it right through the living room where Grandma was sleeping and even rang his bell a couple of times for good measure. He kept running back and forth between all of his new toys. It felt like Christmas. It was fun to see him so excited for his own toys.

The big 2

Dean is 2 years old today.

Grandma Bras(s) has been here since Wednesday, and we've loved having her here to help us celebrate. We didn't do anything with friends this year since he still doesn't quite get the concept of friends (he mainly just wants to go play with people's toys at their houses), so it was just us. We were glad to have her here.



We had our ups and downs today, but overall it was a fun day. This morning I was swinging him around and somehow hurt his wrist. He was crying and whining about it for a little while before I really believed it was really hurt. Daddy rigged him up a sling and iced it for a couple hours (He stayed in one place on the couch for about 2 hours which is a SURE sign he was hurting. He never stays still.) When I gave him lunch on the couch he said, "arm better!" and took off the sling.



After his nap we opened up presents. He got a good load! The big present from us was his balance bike. I've been going back and forth about what kind of wheeled item to get him. He loves, loves, loves anything with wheels and has been begging for a bike for a couple of months. I first considered a trike, push car, plasma car and scooter. I ran across a balance bike as I was searching out trikes. It's a little light weight 2 wheeled bike that has no pedals. It's for kids appox. 2-5 yrs. He was a little short for it, but we took off the seat and he was able to walk around with it. You start out walking it, then push, then glide, etc. as your balance gets better. It's a European concept and it seems like a much better system than tricycles and training wheels. He loved it. He got other cool presents like an awesome train set from G&G Bras(s), daddy's old tool set (that was in pristine condition), play dough, a cool shirt from the "Thteed" cousins, some new construction trucks, etc.



After presents came the cake. I am by no means a cake decorator, but I've had this construction cake in my mind a couple of weeks. I made a chocolate cake and some peanut butter frosting from scratch. I used peanut butter cups and oreos for rocks and dirt mounds and bought some new construction trucks. He really liked it and I loved that he drove the trucks all over the cake. He even used the digger truck to dig him up and feed him some cake. That was super cute.




After cake we went to Celebration Park. It's a bit of a drive since it's in the next town over, but I think it was well worth it. I want to go back tomorrow. Dean loved it.




We had hamburgers and fries at Scotty P's for dinner. As we were leaving, he tried to escape from holding my hand in the parking lot and hurt his wrist again. I felt so terrible and sad for him. It didn't stop him from trying to play with "Old daddy's tools" when we got home! He also wanted to play with his balance bike and even said, "arm better!" to try and con us into letting him.



All in all it was a good day. Happy Birthday my little Dean!!

Cloth in action

Yesterday when I had Walt in cloth, Dean was a bit jealous that he had on an orange diaper. (Orange is his favorite color.) I told Dean I'd let him try it out today. He hated cloth the last time we tried, but he seemed just fine with these. I don' t know if it was the fact that he had to have what Walt had, or if it was more comfortable than the others, or both. I really WOULD save money if I got diapers they could BOTH use!! Definitely makes me consider it more seriously. After seeing how they fit on Dean, I decided Walt could wear them clipped down once. Isn't it amazing how cloth diapering has evolved?

Christmas in September

Well, not really. Just booking flights and committing our time for Christmas today. Though I guess that is our Christmas gift to ourselves since it's more than we would have spent on a family gift. It will almost positively be our last Christmas spent with our parents. After October Dean is an adult according to the airlines, so we bought 3 tickets. We went with Southwest and it saved us over $450 (kept us under $1000)! The tickets were cheaper to begin, plus they don't charge for bags. The other airlines had as many or more stops/plane changes, so it was totally the way to go.

At least we won't have to try and keep Dean satisfied on our laps! I'm hoping by then he'll show some interest in watching tv/dvds and we'll buy a portable dvd player (are we the only people who don't have one of these by now? along with cell phones?) so he'll be occupied. But that is a long shot. And Matt doesn't want to buy a dvd player since he doesn't think it would help at all.

We'll have a nice long stay there. December 17th-January 4th! Hopefully the boys will be able to adjust and do well...

Some people just have issues

You remember our fence issues? Well, after pricing it out and having 5-6 companies give us estimates, we found a company. They weren't the cheapest nor the most expensive, but they seemed the most professional and thorough. We decided to get the rot board on the bottom and have them stain it, so for our 130' of fencing it's going to cost us $3969 total. Not a small chunk of change. Plus, half has to be paid up front when they start and the other half has to be paid upon completion. So, it's not like we're financing this or anything.

One of the two sections we're replacing is totally ours since it's the front of our house facing the street.

Originally I thought the other section of the fence was totally our neighbor's responsibility. I figured that whatever side the posts were signified ownership of the fence. I was wrong and found out that it is legally a shared fence. I know this because the last time we had fence issues and received a letter from our HOA, I double checked legal responsibility. It was discovered that it was a shared fence, so they then sent her the same letter they sent us. After she got the letter saying the fence needed fixing, she came over and went off on this rampage about how it's not her fence and she'd had fence problems in her back yard and the people sharing the fence wouldn't help and blah, blah, blah. I tried to be really nice and non-defensive. By the time she left she had diffused a little bit and later when Matt was fixing the fence, she came out to see if he needed any help. Finally, I thought we were on the same page (or at least close to it) about the legality of the shared fence.

Before we got the fence replaced this time, I thought it would be best to run it by her, especialy since we'll be staining it. Anyway, I tried going over and chatting with her, but no one was home. So I made a copy of the estimate invoice and wrote a little note on the back. I explained we were getting the fence replaced and that it was a little more expensive than we expected. I let her know that the shared fence portion was costing us $1736. I tried to keep it from sounding like we expected them to pay half for that section, but that anything that they could contribute would be greatly appreciated. I gave her my number and said if she had any questions or concerns to either call or come by.

Tonight while I was out, Matt received a nasty call from her. She went through the same things she did the last time, claiming it wasn't her fence because of the positioning of her house, so she shouldn't be responsible for anything. Matt explained that according to the platt that it was legally a shared fence. He said that we can't force her to pay anything, but that seeing as though it was a shared fence and bordered her yard, it would be nice if she could help with something. She was defensive and belligerant until they hung up. So no help there. Honestly, we wouldn't have blinked an eye if she called and said, "You know, I really wish I could help you out, but I'm really strapped right now." But her tone and quarrelsome nature make it so much more annoying. Especially since we've been through this before with her.

The funny thing is, she was soooo mad about her back door neighbor not helping when their shared fence needed to be fixed. Um, hello lady. Don't you see you're doing the same exact thing?

Necessity and Excess

I have decided I'm just not a fitness center kinda person. While I'd like to work out at a gym, I honestly can't imagine leaving an infant or toddler in their daycare. I also don't like paying a membership to exercise. So, that leaves jogging and walking and home exercise. Because of this, one thing I really, really want is a good double jogging stroller. I've used our single jogger more than any other stroller. It was a cheap In-Step jogger I got off Craigslist. I didn't absolutely love the stroller itself, but it has worked well enough for $60.

During my stroller research, I have found there are only a handful of double joggers that can accept a car seat on one side. These strollers are not cheap. They run between $500-700 new. I've decided I REALLY want a Bob Revolution Duallie, but it's one of the most expensive with the accessories I want. I've found one here in town on Craigslist for $350. I was going to look at it tomorrow, but I realised that I would have to buy the car seat adapter if I want to use it before the baby is 6 months. That is an additional $90!! Now it's up to $440 and I feel like that's past the point of reasonable and entered the realm of excess.

There isn't a whole lot I need to get for this second baby since we already have a lot of boy stuff from Dean, so a part of me thinks, "What the heck. You don't have to buy all that other stuff. Just get it." But then I think about the crappy economy and what a necessity really is. We've been lucky to avoid job and financial problems thus far, but you never know what will come down the road. It's better to save and be prepared than "live it up" and be caught unaware. I keep trying to tell myself that.

I guess I don't really have a reason for posting this except to voice how frustrating it is to find something I want and would use that goes against my financial conscience.

How to win my business

1. Have a kind, easy going, no pressure disposition right off the bat.
   
2. Tell me how cute my child is when I walk into the store and actually greet him as well.
3. Ask his name and gush over the fact that it's a good, solid, traditional name that he won't have to share with 5 other kids in every class.
4. Tell me to go ahead and set my 18 mo. old down in your shop full of breakable stoneware since you "haven't broken anything all week" and you'll just "write it out in damage if anything happens."
5. Constantly reassure me that it really is ok for him to touch things and lift the lids off of the little pots and move things around and make little messes.
   
6. Give my child a sucker and little spatulas and silicone bowls to play with as I browse.
7. Compliment my child on how smart and good he is.
8. Have the items that I've been wanting but couldn't find elsewhere (long wooden rolling pin with no handles, a butter dish with a handle, etc.). Also, tell me where I can find items you don't carry.
   
9. Show me other cool items without making me feel pressured to buy them.
10. Reassure me once again that it is ok for my child to play with your breakables.
11. Give me a 20% off coupon I didn't know about that can go toward my most expensive item.
12. Tell me if I don't like one of my sale items to just bring it back after I've tried it out once, even though sales are generally final.
13. Remember my child's and my name long after we told you them.
14. Tell me to come hang out and bring my child back any time I want.
    

We went to a baking/stoneware shop called Le Crueset in the outlet mall near us and the lady was awesome. I was a little nervous taking Dean to a shop with lots of breakables and no shopping cart, so I didn't set him down until my arm felt like it was going to fall off (and after numerous reassurances from her that it was perfectly all right). I meant to only buy a rolling pin and butter dish if I could find them, but she was so nice. I didn't feel like I had to keep Dean on a tight leash, so I allowed myself to browse her other items. I found a couple other things I could probably find elsewhere a little cheaper, but I went ahead and bought them because she was so accommodating and nice. Plus I could tell they were all really good quality items. Not all shopping experiences are positive with a very curious, very busy little boy to look after. It was nice and refreshing to have a good experience. And Dean didn't even break one thing (and he played with a lot of little stoneware dishes!). She will have my future business.

Maple Shortage

I just found out today that there is a maple shortage this year. The cost is about $70/gallon some places. That's about twice the price as last year.

Costco isn't currently carrying real maple syrup because of it. I ended up buying Mrs. Butterworth today for Matt and a sugar free syrup for Dean and me since I couldn't stand the thought of high fructose corn syrup as the #1 ingredient. I don't mind it in small amounts, but Dean and I have been eating waffles or french toast a couple times a week. We'll see how the sugar free syrup tastes. I'm super sad about this. I've become really fond of the good stuff.

Down East Basics Modeled @ 22 1/2 wks pregnant

Ok. My sister J. lives close to both a Shade and Down East Basic (outlet) store and offered to go and buy shirts for me and ship them. Shade was having a sale on their undershirts for $10/shirt (or so it seemed), so I took her up on it. When she got there, there were certain stipulations in order to get the $10 price, so I passed on it. She then went to Down East Basics and bought shirts for me there. They didn't carry any maternity at that store (except tanks), so she got me regular mediums. Thanks J.! I appreciate it.

All were size regular medium. Three were the crew neck and two were the undershirts. I decided that they're not real careful on their product control (is that what it's even called?) because they all fit me a little differently. The brown shirt fit the best, and the green shirt was the tightest resulting in some minor love handles...Notice the necks of the 3 crews were all a little different. One sleeve on the black is slightly sticky-outy.

Overall, not a bad shirt for the price (especially since some were on sale), but don't expect every shirt to be exactly the same. Also, if I had to do it over, I'd probably get the regular large from them as opposed to the pictured mediums. I also have to say that I actually prefer the feel and fit of the Shade medium maternity to the Down East regular medium, but my camera battery died so I couldn't get you a picture of the Shade. Unfortunately the Shade shirts were nearly twice the price. The material and quality is better, imo, so I can see them being more expensive. Twice the quality to justify twice the price? Not really, but I'm still glad I have a few Shade.

If nothing else

Making that one diaper inspired me to try a cloth trial before I make any more diapers, just so I can know first hand what's out there. I just purchased it from Jillian's Drawers. There is an initial cost of $100 plus shipping, but that's all refunded back to your card, minus the $10 trial fee and the shipping (both ways). (I decided to also get their detergent sample.) So, I'll be out about $35, but I'll gain a lot more knowledge. Of all the trials I found, this one looked the best for me. Most only give you store credit or half your $ back in cash, but this one gives it all back. Plus it included the 2 diapers I've wanted to try the most (Bum Genius 3.0, regular and organic). It only has 7 diapers, so it's not quite enough to do it exclusively (even washing every night) for the 2 week trial, but that's ok. At least I'll get a better idea of "modern cloth diapering". If I do switch I'll for sure get one of these little sprayers so I don't have to mess with dunking on those less than easy diaper clean ups!

Maternity Shopping Online: Part 2

I just got my shirts from Down East Basics. Unfortunately the sizes ran smaller than Shade! So, my Maternity smalls that I ordered are skin tight. They are smaller than my Shade regular small (a little longer but tighter)! Doh. And I'm also sad that the crew neck that I ordered was out of stock so they just refunded my money and didn't send it. So, I'm not sure how the size compares on that. The 2 shirts I got will have to be returned. I don't even know if the mediums will fit me now! I hate clothes shopping online. It's nice that it gives a variety, but unless I know the company and the sizing, it's neigh unto impossible for me to find the right fit on the first try.

Oh, and those Shade mediums have a slightly better fit after having washed them.

Maternity shopping online

Ok. Well, I got my Shade shirts today in the mail. Super fast (and it better be since it cost nearly $8 for shipping! I missed out on the free shipping for orders over $50 that they're doing now.). I have a really hard time ordering stuff online because it NEVER is quite what I expect it to be. I was also worried because I couldn't try the stuff on and they didn't have a sizing chart or anything, so I just had to guess. I bought 2 mediums and 1 large, thinking I'd just use the large at the end.

The medium fits fine through the body and I'll be able to wear it the rest of my pregnancy, but holy crap are they long! I am 5'3" petite person and the medium comes down to mid-thigh! And I definitely have a baby bump already in the equation (updated picture to come this week). The large was ridiculously too long for me and maybe a little too big through the top/shoulders. So, I guess I'll try and sell it on craigslist or ebay or something. Any tall pregnant friends interested in a large white maternity baby tee? They're normally $24.50 but I'm going to be selling it for $18 since I got the "buy 3 get them for $18/shirt" deal. Brand spanking new.

Now that I know kind of know what I'm looking at, I'm going to now try a couple shirts from Down East Basics. This time I'm going to go for the small!!

Also, I finished sewing one maternity skirt and am close to finishing a second. When I finish the second I'll post pictures of both. I'm also going to try and make a "mini undershirt" like this mini-molly. I often need an undershirt for low cut necklines, but I don't want a full undershirt because it just creates too many hot layers, especially during the hot summers here. If knit proves too difficult to sew without a serger, I may just buy that mini-molly.

Sometimes it pays to be nice

Last week my mouse started shorting out and then died. I was a bit miffed because it is a brand new mouse (within the last month), but we didn't have the receipt or box for it any more. I tried plugging it into the back and front USB ports, but to no avail. It was dead.

Or so I thought.

I went and bought another one. I took it out of the box, plugged it in and it didn't work! Ack. So, I tried it on Matt's computer (what I should have done with mine in the first place!) and it worked. That meant my USB ports were just plain toast. My computer is falling apart piece by piece. Partially because it's old. Partially because of Dean playing with it. Luckily we just have to get a new case, a few parts and rebuild one of Matt's old computers which will end up being better than mine anyway. So I repacked the mouse and took it back that same day. (Matt got my mouse to work using the adapter and the PS2 plug in. Unfortunately, however, I can't access any pictures from my camera until we get my new computer.)

That cashier must have been fairly new because as he scanned it he said, "Oh, we can't put the money back on your card the same day. We'll have to give you a gift card." I didn't want a gift card so I said I'll come back another day.

That day was today.

Upon arriving at the store, the cashier returning it said, "Oh, we only do exchanges on opened electrical stuff. That's our policy." I had Dean on my hip (who was snuggling right into my shoulder) and I said something like, "Oh man. I took it out of the box once and realized it was my USB port that was the problem, not the mouse. I tried to return it that same day, but there was some confusion. That's really too bad." I think he felt sorry for this pregnant little mama and he said, "Well, we could call a manager and see if there's anything we can do." I kind of hesitated because I didn't want to be one of those annoying customers, but it was over $20 so I figured I'd just see if there was anything that could be done.

He called the manager and I hear, "Yes I explained the policy. She just wants to see if anything can be done." and then he moved away a little and said something else. The manager came over and looked at the box, made sure everything was there, explained the policy and said, "Well, the box still looks new and nothing is wrong with the merchandise. I can still sell this, so I will go ahead and take it back this once. Just know that our policy is blah, blah, blah for future reference." Woohoo! And just like that. $20 back on my card.

As the cashier was finishing up he said, "You know, I wouldn't have called the manager if you hadn't been so nice and understanding in the first place. I told him that everyone needs a break sometimes." Haha.

Well, here's to not cussing out the cashier when things don't go your way!