On a Lighter Note

Okay so yesterday's post was not all happy thoughts and such, so today I will post about my lovely family.  Sometimes I just look at my gorgeous baby girls and think how stinkin lucky I am and how much I love them.  BOOM, then Willow does something naughty and it makes all those unicorns and rainbows disappear.  I do love them immensely though. 

Charlee was 9 months last Tuesday.  She weighed in at a whopping 18lbs and 12 ozs.  She was 50% on weight and 90% on head and height. Guess who she gets that from?  Both her and Willow are like their dad.  He has this ginormous head. I can't find him one of those cool looking fedora hats to wear. 

Charlee is moving around all the time and has the walking thing down in her walker.  She will chase you around in it and run into your ankles if you are just standing there.  I feel like need to wear boots so it doesn't hurt.  She is babbling a lot now.  Her first word was mama, then ba ba and then she finally said dada.  Willow heard her say mama and would tell me every time.  She was even telling Charlee, "say Willow".  It was cute.  She is a little porker with food.  She will eat mostly everything I put in front of her.  I gave her a hard boiled egg a couple weeks and ago and she ate it while making a mess.  Then this last Sunday I gave her a fried egg, yolk not runny and she broke out in hives.  Poor thing, it was all over her body.  Then to top it off the day before she started having diarrhea and developed a major diaper rash.  The diaper rash could not get better with the diarrhea.  Thankfully it has cleared up and the rash is getting better.  She has such sensitive skin.

Just when I think Willow has the potty training thing down she gets these setbacks.  She will go a little in her pants and then decide she needs to go to the bathroom.  She is constantly changing her undies.  I am not sure if she is getting them a little wet on purpose so she can go change into a new pair because we bought her new undies or not.  Has not had a pooping incident for a LONG time.  She always tells us she has to go like she is asking for permission to go to the bathroom.  She will stay dry all night but once in awhile we get a wet bed but for the most part she has done really well with nighttime.  

We have been doing more things with the MOMS club now since I am not babysitting anymore.  It has been nice to get out and have Willow playing with others and doing a fun activity.  it also gives me some adult talk while the kids play.  All the ladies are really nice and helpful.  I guess every month they have a DADS night out and Tim is looking forward to that so he can get to know some people outside of work.  If he could find a brewing buddy I am sure he will be in heaven.  Maybe he can get some started in the brewing thing. 

We made the final decision to rehome Frankie.  We had tried and paid for a dog behaviorist to make it work but it just wasn't.  I can't say I totally gave up on him.  I think about him all the time and I hope the new family is enjoying him.  He is a good dog when it doesn't come to the ball obsession and his new obsession of food.    I was wondering what Willow would say when she came home and didn't see him.  She never said a word to me, but that night out of the blue she told Tim Frankie had to go bye bye because he was naughty.  Not sure if she heard us talking about it before hand or not.  Then last night she said she wanted to sleep with Frankie and I told her she couldn't because he had a new home.  She didn't understand. 

So all in all we are doing pretty good here in the desert.  Looking forward to the cooler temps so we can be outside without melting like a popsicle.  It just feels weird to me knowing the Huskers play this Saturday and it is HOT out.  I am used to it being cool for football season.  Don't know if I will ever get used to that. 

Today at the splash pad.  It was hot, look at her red cheeks.

Big blue eyes

Cute little nose and long eyelashes.

Feeding the cows at with Josh and getting to pet them.

Baby ducks at Uncle John's.  Always an adventure there. 

Trying to get the cows to come over to fence.  With 92 yr old great grandpa.  I love this pic.  Also like seeing all the green trees in the background.  I sure do miss that.  GREEN!

One month

Has it really been that long since I have sat down and spouted off my life happenings here.  Wow!  I truly have thought to myself, hey I need to write something out, but life gets in the way sometimes.  I love how people say that you should just leave the mess and not worry about it.  Let the kids play and spend time with them.  Well, sometimes I just can't do that.  To me when I have a messy or dirty house it just stresses me out. Plus if my house is clean and picked up I know where all the bugs are and if there are new ones coming in the house.  Case in point, today while sweeping my bathroom floor I found a baby scorpion.  It was alive this time unlike last.  It was a little thing and I hear those are the worse for stings.  They will sting and just release a ton of venom.  What is most disturbing about this scorpion is that the exterminator was here not even a month ago!

I will use nap time to get some cleaning done or do something that I have really wanted to do or sometimes just take a nap myself.  There is one thing that I REALLY need to sit down and do since it was started a year ago.  That is Charlee's Christmas stocking.  I didn't feel bad for not completing before Christmas since she was basically just one month old.  Lordy, thinking about getting that project out again is daunting.  I am scrambling to get this birthday memory book done for Willow's 3rd birthday.  It is a book that starts at age three and that age is approaching in less then a month.

Tim and I have also been busy making this house into a home, our home.  I didn't know how to describe the feeling we got when we were done with a lot of painting, until I got in touch with my window coverings guy.  His business is called House to Home.  That just hit the nail on the head.   It was a house when we moved in but didn't become a home until we put our personal taste and decorating into it. 

There is so much that has happened that I might have to break this up and write separate posts.  I am not promising anything but I will try my best. The one thing that I struggled with this month is death.  These thoughts were brought on by the death of my Uncle Jim, uncle by marriage.  He had been ill off and on and beat some great odds.  Working in the health care I have seen death but never once have I really thought about it in such a manner.  I think when you are around it with your job you kind of detach yourself from it a bit, plus the person who is or has died is not a family member. 

My uncle had gone to the hospital for some fluid retention in his legs.  He was found to have some pulmonary hypertension and was getting some fluid in his lungs.  With my background, I knew this was not good.  Eventually it came out that he really couldn't win this one and he was looking at death.  This is what bothered me, that he knew he was going to die.  I couldn't even imagine what was rolling through his head all the time.  How could one sleep?  Then on the other side of it how was his wife, my Aunt, dealing with the news.  Your husband is going to leave you forever.  Just counting down the days would be extremely hard not knowing when exactly it was coming.  Could you get out all the "I love you's" in that amount of unknown time. Did you let people know you were sorry for that one thing you regretted? Ahhh, this really ate at me. 

Then I couldn't stop thinking about if death just happened out of the blue.  Bam, one minute you have your loved one then out of nowhere they are gone.  This is what happened to my mom, my real dad.  At 28 my dad was killed in a car accident.  A drunk driver hit his truck that was carrying him, my pregnant mom ( with me) and my sister.  My dad was killed instantly and my mom and sister were thrown from the truck.  Here is a young woman who's husband who died, had a little 5 year old and another child on the way.  How do you pick up and go on?  Did you get that one last I love you out and let them know how much you love them?  What about the plans you had for that weekend to spend together?  What is worse, not knowing or knowing death is near?

Okay so maybe this post ended up being a little heavy but it has been on my mind and just made me think about things a little differently.  I promise the next post won't be such a downer.  

40 Years

Man, I am getting old, my husband too.  I can remember when my dad turned 40 and that seems like yesterday.  I can't believe Tim turned 40 this year.  I know he can't believe it either, when I mentioned it awhile back he didn't think this was the year.  Why is it that like once we hit 30 we kind of forget the exact age we are and we have to think about it?
For Tim's birthday I flew his best friend in.  They went to the Diamond Backs and Cubs game with Willow that night.  Tim had taken Willow to the little kids play area and I guess she peed on the guy manning the area.  Tim said the guy totally freaked out!!!  Kind of makes me giggle.  When Tim got home he found a surprise in the pool.  It was his surrogate parents and our old neighbors from Gretna.  They came in to help celebrate this monumental birthday.  So basically this weekend was filled with lots of drinking and cuss words.  I think we were all exhausted on Sunday.  Too much sun and too little sleep.  I loved how no one listened to me about wearing sunscreen.  Some people went home a little crispy.
We tried the jalapeno pickled eggs that I made up a couple weeks ago.  I personally did not like them but everyone else did.  I thought they were a little tough or chewy.  I am sure they gave some people some real good gas for the plane ride home. 
Willow has been really good about going potty and even pooping in the toilet except these last few days.  She has earned stickers and all she needs is just one more and she gets a poopy present.  So of course the day she would be getting a present she poops her pants.  Then last night she poops in her swim suit just outside of the pool.  Gaaah!
This is my last week of my babysitting gig.  Praise the Lord.  School starts next week here.  I learned they start early because they have long breaks.  They get 2 weeks off in October and 2 weeks for Christmas and spring break.  Then all schools here go all days except for Wednesdays it is a half of day.  Kind of strange to me.
I am going to look into enrolling the girls in a special swimming program.  it is called Infant Swimming Rescue.  It teach kids from 6 moths to 5 years.  It teaches little ones to learn to float on their backs until help arrives or they can float to rest then turn around to swim to the edge of the pool.  It looks really good and I have heard good things about it.  I just need to get someone to call me back about my inquiry.  Once again the customer service around here is lacking.

The whole gang with our party hats on for the special day. 

Charlee loves to play in the toy room with all the toys.  She will spend a great amount of time in there.  I wish I could block it off to really keep her in there.

Willow helping daddy wash his truck.

Chad in his outfit he wore to the game.  Tim told him he didn't need to wear his jammies to the game.

We left these two with Willow while we went to the store real quick.  She made them some lunch.

At the restaurant the night before Tim's b-day.  We were minus the little ones.

The HUGE amount of cotton candy we got at the end of our meal.  This is something they give to every table for free.

Charlee relaxing in the pool having a good time.

Tim's girls.

Miss Big Blue Eyes

Birthday boy

Bummed this one is blurry!

Tuesday

Okay so I have been slacking on the new recipe thing.  I just haven't really been into trying out new recipes let alone cooking.  It is to hot out to eat and my jaw hurts so much chewing food is painful.  I had some hot hot roasted chilies in the freezer that I bought awhile back for Tim.  When his brother was here I decided to do something with them, since they both love hot stuff.  I just put some in a crock pot with pork roast and onions, voila.  They loved it and said it was really tasty, but I will never know.  It was too hot for my liking.  I had some left over chilies to use, so I tried it again yesterday with a beef roast.  Again, I didn't try it, but Tim said it was good; Gringo Carne Asada, but it was "Bomb" (according to Tim).

I do have something in the works or rather marinating so I don't know if it is good or not.  Not sure if I will know personally since it is something HOT.  It is jalapeno pickled eggs.  It did not smell good when I was boiling the juice for it, that is all I can tell you now.  It will be ready just in time for Tim's 40th birthday.  He has a friend coming to town to help him celebrate this momentous occasion.  He too likes HOT stuff so I had to give this a try.

We have been using the pool as much as we can.  It kind of depends on if Willow has pooped yet for the day or not.  She has already pooped in there once and got out to poop in her swim suit just outside the pool.  I think we are getting close though to being fully potty trained though.  Last Saturday so told me she had to potty so we came in to go and she actually went poop in the toilet.  I say by the end of this month she should be good, lets keep our fingers crossed though. 

Not sure how much I am going to use the pool with this rash on my hands.  I went to the doctor and he told me it was a form of eczema, which is caused by stress and swimming in pools can aggravate it.  I have always had it but I just thought it was from washing my hand so much at work and using hand sanitizer.  This past week it has been horrible to the point of being painful at times.  The steroid cream he gave me is not working the greatest either. Getting old you gotta love it. 

My little dirt eater, Charlee.

My oldest when she first ate dirt, Willow. 

Everyone in the pool but mom.

Had to post this video because it gave me a good laugh it brought tears to my eyes.  I need to look at funny videos like this more when I am having a bad day.  Why are farts so funny?

Tardy Tuesday

June was a crazy busy month for us here at the Polson household, and July is shaping up to be similar.  No new recipes to report because I haven't really been home and it is too hot to really eat anything. We are mostly eating salads since Tim has this affliction with lettuce. 
We, yes, all 4 Polson's, went back to Nebraska for a wedding for our good friends the Hoffman's daughter Paige's wedding, Willow was the flower girl.  I stayed longer then Tim since I didn't have anything I needed to rush home to.  We had so much packed into the short time that Tim was there (Thursday - Tuesday) it was exhausting.  Going here and there seeing family and friends made me want to have a vacation from my vacation.  After Tim left Nebraska I took it a little easy and just loafed around.  I did take a trip to Missouri to see family there, on our road trip there about an hour in, Willow got car sick.  I had even given her some Dramamine, it was awful.  My dad had given Willow some milk before we left so it was all curdled and nasty smelling.  Willow had also gotten car sick on our way to the airport in Phoenix. I think I am fully stocked up on Dramamine now.
My mom came back home to Phoenix with me to help with the girls on the plane and to hang out in the desert for a week.  They were both pretty good, the flight to NE was better though, they both slept.  We didn't do much when my mom was here, I had something going on everyday it seemed that didn't allow for us to go out and do something fun.  My mom just enjoyed her stay spending time with the girls.  She sewed some really cute dresses for them while she was here.  I had suggested and coaxed her into a tablet so she could skype with us more.  I had to give her mini lessons on how to use the thing.  I hope she gets better with it and realize it is not really that hard of a concept.
When we were home Tim's sister took some really good pictures for Charlee's 6 month.  It really turned out to be her 7 month pictures. She did a really nice job that I didn't think they needed much touching up.  Really impressed with her talent!

When I got home to Arizona I was disappointed that our pool was not finished.  It had been over 2 months when we were told that it would be 4-5 weeks, SO frustrating! I know Tim was frustrated too and I let them know how I felt about their job on getting things done.  The pool has water in it now but there are some loose ends that need to be done and we are waiting on that as of now.  I just want them out of my hair.  Needless to say I will not be recommending them to anyone.

We are trying again with Willow to use the potty.  She has been better about it though this time around.  I think the pool helps because we won't go swimming until she uses the toilet.  After she swims though is when it all break loose.  That girl does not close her mouth when she goes under water and swallows about 1/4 of the pool water.  Then later on she pees like no other.  All in all it is better and she is not fighting us when we tell her to go.  I just am waiting for the day when SHE will tell us she has to go and when she will poop in the toilet and not her pants.

Yesterday we went to the Circus.  Tim called it the real circus too, not sure why though.  I am assuming because it was not the Shriner circus that always came to Lincoln.  It was the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus.  It was a good show but the sound system was horrible!  Don't think they were so concerned about that aspect of it considering their target audience was little kids.  They had some neat things to watch which were probably the boring parts for the little ones.  It was over 2 hours long.  Willow hung in there and so did Charlee.  She took a little snoozer.  When Charlee did cry I wasn't to worried about it because it was so loud no one could really hear her and be annoyed by it.

I made a dentist appointment for Willow next week.  It will be her first time going.  I told her that she was going to see the dentist and what he will be doing and want her to do for him.  That got her all excited and she keeps telling everyone that she is going to the dentist.  She would like to go right now is possible.  I hope she still feels that way when we leave!

We have another visitor visiting us this week for the 4th.  Uncle Brian has decided to make a trip out to see us again and check out our pool.  We just found out last night that he bought some tickets.  I love how he waits to the last minute to come and tell us.  (insert sarcasm)  He is going to learn real quick that when there are kids involved you can't just up and go do things.  I think he is going to be surprised by a lot of things when the little one arrives.  Lets see if I can get him to change a diaper for the first time while he is here.  Got to get him ready.

Until next time and until I try a new recipe.  Happy 4th and stay cool cuz I know we will try in our luke warm pool. 

One Year

June 1st marked the day I put away my Respiratory hat and put on a new one of a SAHM.  Wow, not sure how I have survived this new job but I am still alive, for now.  I actually have added a new hat into that mix; Babysitter.  More on that later.  This last year has been a crazy and a trying one to say the least.  I am learning new things as well as about myself.  I know for sure that I will never home school.  This SAHM job does not really allow for time for myself and I miss those days of getting everything done that I set my mind to.  I just have to readjust the time table on projects now.  Instead of getting it done in a day, I plan on a week or so. 

I need to relish in the fact that I do have the privilege to be home with my girls and watch them grow up because it will go fast; it already has.  Some people don't have the "luxury" to be at home with their kids.  I think I know the ins and outs of my girls better then anyone.  I am Willow's translator for Tim most of the time. I know how long her tantrums last and just let her go, anything after that is unacceptable and she is being naughty.   I am Charlee's everything!  I know what each cry means, which I always thought people were crazy when they said get to know your babies different cries. It's amazing how on schedule she is about things, I guess that is because of me though. 

One thing that I have been trying hard to do like my mom is fold a fitted sheet so it looked all nice and pretty like the fitted sheet when folded.  I just remember my mom always getting it perfect every time.  I never actually watched her do it or asked how she did it either.  Well, I have finally mastered it on my own.  Yes, I know this seems odd but I am self proclaimed to be odd myself.  I wonder what else I should try mastering?

I have tried to be more crafty with things to keep my mind busy.  Somethings have gone better then others, but I tried at least.  I have gotten or tried to get into my sewing more.  I don't think I will ever be like my mom though. (maybe this is what I should master next?)  She was the sewing queen when I was growing up.  She would make most of my clothing right down to my undies.  I never appreciated it as much as I do now.  I specifically remember a pair of red and white polka dot undies she made.  I really remember these because one day when I wore them Luke Ropte saw them and yelled out to everyone what they looked like.  I was mortified and never wanted to wear them again. Not because he saw the undies but because my mom had made them.  I know now how much time and effort my mom put into everything she has made.  I think sewing is a dying art and my mom is a great sewing artist.  I strive to be like that. 

The first thing I tried to make was a tablecloth.  Seems simple enough right?  Wrong.  I think I made it more hard myself then it needed to be.  I have a square table and it is hard to find a square tablecloth.  I, of course, picked a printed material that needed to be matched up when I sewed the 2 pieces together. Bad idea.   I think that was the most challenging part of all.  I don't even think I could tell you how I did it now, but I got it done and it matched up pretty darn good.  All was good until I washed it.  That is when I saw everything I did wrong.  Some of my seems came apart, which was due to me not getting the thread in the right spot when I thread it on the machine.  (did that make sense?) When I fixed it, I just went over the ripped out part but then that made the pattern not match up as well.   When I made my hem around the square I just folded it over once instead of a double turn back hem.  You would think that would be okay but the material frayed and I have these strings hanging off all around it. It gets worse with each washing too.   Lesson learned from this project.  Order that table cloth off the Internet and pay shipping.  The price comes out the same anyways.  Material is not cheap anymore!

The next sewing project was a car seat cooler.  When it is so hot here, the inside of the car gets REALLY hot.  Someone told me about these coolers and when I saw it I once again said, "oh, I can make that."  It looked easy enough and there are tutorials all over Pinterest. It turned out good.  The bias tape around the edges could have been a little better but it works. The back is a different material and I need to cut all of them together instead of seperate so they match up when sewed together.

I made Charlee's bed skirt for her crib.  I learned from Willow's crib skirt that when you lower the mattress, the skirt needs to be shorter as well.  I just made 3 separate pieces  the length and width of the side I was putting it on and made little ties on top that could be tied to the frame. Then when I need to lower the mattress I just move the ties up to where it isn't bunched up on the floor.  I suppose you could use velcro and go with it that way too. 

One of the things with not having a basement was where we were going to put the litter box?  I wanted it out of the way so it was not really visible.  I didn't want it in any bathroom because I hate walking on litter that has been flung out of the box.  I didn't really want it in the laundry room for the same reason and if I dropped clothes on the floor from the washer to the dryer I didn't want to get litter on it.  I just get grossed out by that darn box.  For awhile it was in the laundry room and it bugged me the whole time it was there.  Finally I redid this cabinet to hold the litter pan. I just painted it, added new doorknobs and had Tim cut a hole in the side for the cat.   No one sees it and really knows it is a litter box. The hardest part was finding a cabinet that fit a litter pan.  It works out perfectly.  The spot at the end of the hallway was perfect too!

My latest project I did was not so fun.  It was a desk/table for the computer.   I wanted to get a table, paint the legs a turquoise color,  stenciled the top and stain it a dark color.  Well when it came down to it, none of that came about.  First off, I couldn't have the turquoise color I wanted because it would clash with the color of walls Tim picked for the computer room.  That's what I get for giving Tim free rein over picking paint for that room.  So I decided on white legs with the antiquing look.  The stencil didn't happen because the stencil pattern I picked was horrible for getting the paint through the cut outs to paint the table.  I tried several times and when I applied a lot of pressure to get the paint through the small little openings on the stencil it just got blotchy.  So I scrapped that part and just stained the top.  That turned out to be a pain in the rump.  We got a stain that also contained the polyurethane in it.  It didn't go on really even and you could see the brush parks and some areas where darker then others.  I sanded that table top so many times I think Tim was wondering if anything would be left of it.  I just finally gave up and went with the unevenness of the stain and we vowed to never get the 2 in 1 again.

I have been watching 2 girls twice a week for 4 hours a day and I am wondering what I got myself into. It has only been a week.  The mother is the Pilates instructor at the gym.  I am trading her this for private Pilates classes.  It could not have come up at a better time because I was longing to get back on that machine due to my back just giving me trouble again.  I hated how the Pilates was extra $ on top of your membership.  Hannah approached me about it and I jumped on it.  It is only 10 weeks, so it is not forever, thank god.  I don't know if I would be able to handle more then that.  The oldest girl, Ava, is 7 and the younger one, Karah,  is Willow's age.  Willow and Karah fight over the same toys, are hitting on each other and just being nasty.  Ava is constantly tattle telling when they are not sharing or when one hits another one.  Yesterday I had to put the 2 little ones in time out.  I just need to tell Ava to stop being a tattle tell but I just feel weird about getting after someone else's child.  I guess it is my house and I am watching them so I have a right to do it.  I thought that this would be a great opportunity for Willow to get some play time in and I wouldn't have to entertain her or really keep an eye on them and I could do my own thing.  So far that has not happened.  I am constantly telling them to stop and be nice to each other and share.  A daycare provider I am NOT.  I just am not cut out for this.  Sometimes I can't even control my own children. 

Who knows what this next year is going to bring.  It will be my first whole summer here in the dessert.  I think we will be spending a lot of time in the backyard in our new pool, if that even gets done.  (That is a whole other story.)  I will probably get some new moles and increase my chances of skin cancer but at least I will stay cool.  This heat is so hot you don't want to go outside unless you are in water to cool off.  It is like what we did for winter in Nebraska.  You just don't go out, you stay inside and find indoor activities to do outside of the house.   Since I don't have a real paying job, next summer I should just go back to Nebraska for a month and cool off there.  I don't know if Tim would go for that or not. In the meantime, I have some rooms to decorate and a backyard to get landscaped.  I will start a new garden in October so we will see if that one makes it unlike the first one we did.  It is a whole new world of gardening here in the dessert. 

Try it Tuesday

Mini Carrot Cake Cups

I am a huge fan of carrot cake, it has to be super moist though.  I would rather have this then a birthday cake any day.  Someone sent me this recipe and it was from Pampered Chef.  You know how those recipes go, they throw in what Pampered Chef item you must use to make this recipe.  Well guess what?  I had every tool they talked about.  Not sure if that is a good or bad thing. 

 Original recipe, link

1 small pkg (9 oz/250 g) yellow cake mix

1 1/2 tsp (7 mL) allspice

1   egg

2 tbsp (30 mL) vegetable oil

2 medium carrots, peeled, divided

 As you can see I used the Jiffy yellow cake mix.  It is exactly 9 oz.  I thought this would be easier then getting a Betty Crocker or something and measuring out 9 oz then having some left over for I don't know what.  For some reason, Jiffy mixes remind me of my mom too.

 Mix in the ingredients to get the cake mix wet.

 Shred your carrots and fold into batter.  I didn't fold per say because I felt maybe my mix was a little dry after mixing it up. 

 Spoon mixture into well greased mini muffin pan.  Trust me I greased this baby up!  Can you even see the spray on the outside of the mold.  Cook in oven for 10 minutes at 350°.

 In the meantime, play with the little sous chef while it is baking.

 Check for firmness before removing.  I had to wait about another minute before I removed it.  I then used my tart shaper to press down the tops of the cake.  I missed the part about lightly flouring the end and some got stuck and peeled a little bit. 

 I then removed my mini cakes oh so gently, at least I thought, and they still stuck to the edges!  I actually thought I had too much spray in the time due to some of it pooling.  Oh well.

 This is how much it stuck to the muffin tin.  I think next time I am going to use butter instead of cooking spray. 

I didn't show the frosting process because I didn't do it.  These were good little bites on their own.  Just a tad bit dry, maybe a tad but more oil would do the trick.  This is a good dessert to have that you don't have to cut up and you don't have to hear people say, oh just a little slice for me.