It's Been Ruff, Ruff, Ruff

It's been a rough couple weeks in the Sarandipity household. It started out like this...Last Monday Baby Girl was dropped off and she had a head cold. Nothing major, just a little bit of a stuffy nose and the occasional sneeze. I'm not too concerned about Bug being around head colds, cause, come on...he's gonna have a zillion of them when he starts school. Best to get some of the minor bugs out of the way now. By early Wednesday morning, Bug woke up crying and saying his nose hurt. And it was no wonder his nose hurt...he had enough snot in there to sink a battleship...and I'm not talking one of the little plastic ones from the Milton Bradley game. He eventually went back to sleep and seemed ok come morning; Still stuffy, but nothing we couldn't handle. By Thursday around 2am, the cough had set in. In the morning, I get a call from Baby Girl's Mommy. Apparently, Baby Girl is having some trouble breathing and the earliest doctor appointment she could schedule wasn't until 1:45. She hated to ask me to watch her being that Baby Girl obviously wasn't feeling well, but she had a meeting that had already been blown off once and Baby Girl's Daddy was out of town. I agreed to watch her and made sure I kept her and Bug separated to make sure nothing else was exchanged between them. She ended up taking an early nap and ate most of her normal lunch and was in good spirits, despite the breathing difficulty, when her mom picked her up around 1. Turns out she had an ear infection and just a bad chest cold. They gave her antibiotics and a nebulizer (which went over like a ton of bricks) and by Saturday she was acting like her old self again.

Saturday at our house the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs decided that it didn't want to remain hanging where it was and fell completely off the wall, landing on the dogs in the dog bed below it...No one was hurt. Sunday morning, Bug decided that it was "I'm not going to listen to Daddy" day and went downstairs alone. Daddy told him to stop, but Bug pulled his "bye" routine and started rushing down the stairs. In his hurry, he tripped on the last 2 stairs and fell face first into the side of the plastic dog bed. For the record, the dog bed is a plastic storage container without the lid and a hole cut in the side. I was still in bed and heard a thud, some crying, Daddy going down and coming back up the stairs and telling Bug to sit on the toilet so he could check him out. I go running in there not knowing what to expect. Turns out he busted the inside of his mouth open pretty good. There was lots of blood, but thankfully it stopped pretty quickly. No loose teeth that I could determine. He has a slight bruise (very faint yellow) on the right side of his mouth and the scrapes are getting better. The inside of his mouth looks better too, although he won't let me get a really good look. In a way, I'm glad the baby gate wasn't at the bottom of the stairs that day and that the dog bed stays there. If it the gate was there, he probably would have bounced off that, too before landing in the dog bed. And, without the dog bed, it would have been a face plant on the hardwood floor...who knows what kind of damage that could do from that height....I shudder to think...

So fast forward to last night. After dinner I helped Darling Hubby upgrade the power supply and the video card for the computer. Then my stomach started hurting. Don't worry, it wasn't the nauseous feeling, but more of a pressure, like gas but worse. I've had this feeling before on several occasions and it seems I just can't pin point when or why its going to happen. For a while we thought it might be a lactose intolerance, but even if I don't eat cheese or milk, it still seemed to happen. I seem to think it may be a menstrual thing, but sometimes it happens around that time and sometimes not. It's very annoying. Last night was a very bad episode. My stomach hurt all night long, no matter what I did. I took Tums, drank water, drank hot tea, tried all different positions in bed and eventually took an Excedrin around 5:45 this morning. That seemed to help, as it has in the past. I think I jinxed myself by talking to my friend Fried PorkChop about this issue last night. She has a similar tummy problem...It's frustrating for both of us, to say the least.

Then, this morning around 9, I get a call from Baby Girl's Daddy. Apparently Baby Girl has a case of the "Return of the Last Meal Eaten," so she's not here today. In a way, I'm glad because I'm very tired from not getting a lot of sleep last night. I just hope that we keep all the sickness away from me. I'm actually getting tired of disinfecting everything. My house is one big ad for Lysol.

Anyway...I'm knocking on wood for good health.

And, on a good note, I finished Bug's 2nd (larger) sweater as well a the one I made for Baby Girl. I've started working on the one Fried PorkChop has requested for her son Buckwheat. I finished the front panel this morning...only the back panel, 2 sleeves and a pocket to go.

Oh, since my friends Fried PorkChop and T-Bone got new banners for their blogs, I thought I'd redo mine as well. I made it myself. I'm pretty proud of it...if I do say so myself...

Food For Friday 1/21-1/25 & 1/28-2/1

So I'm having the worst time getting this weeks menu sorted out. My newest Kraft Magazine arrived in the mail the other day and there are a ton of recipes that I want to try, but the every looming questions are, are they going to be easy, will my family (and myself) like them and when do I have the time to actually make them...Here's what I've come up with so far.

Monday - Burgers and fries
Tuesday - Mustard Crusted London Broil in the crock pot
Wednesday - Shipwreck Dinner
Thursday - Game Night
Friday - Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu

Monday - Craft Night - My turn to cook - Chili
Tuesday - Cheesy Manicotti
Wednesday - Bug's 3rd Birthday dinner - Spaghetti with homemade sauce
Thursday - One Pan Pork Dinner
Friday - Almond Chicken Dijon served with rice or pasta and broccoli

Now to sort out the grocery list....and then off to retrieve Bug from upstairs. He's refusing to nap today, although it's obvious (to Mommy at any rate) that he needs it since he was up several times in the night coughing Publish Postthanks to this lovely cold he managed to get from Baby Girl...I hope it's a short lived cold...

Feelin' Crafty

Yesterday was Monday and I was feelin' crafty.

It's been several weeks since I completed the quilt (I'll eventually take pictures) that I was working on with my friend Rose and now I'm moving on to bigger and badder things...well, not really bigger and it's actually much easier. I'm crocheting. Yep...that's what I'm doing. I recently broke out my crochet hooks and balls of yarn in the hopes of making a cool scarf and hat for myself...not that I need another scarf or hat, but hey. I rather do something constructive with my hands while I'm plopped on the couch practicing all manners of silence while Baby Girl naps in the next room. This is much better than noshing on potato chips and chocolate.

So the scarf and hat didn't pan out. I just wasn't happy with the pattern I had nor the color yarn I was using so I decided to attempt one of the few patterns I had and make Bug a sweater. I figured it would be fun to make as well as functional. Now the pattern I used was one from an I Taught Myself to Crochet book that I swear got all it's patterns from the 1970's. But I figured I could always modify it if I wasn't happy with it...So, after about 3-4 days of steadily working on it, here is the end result.

Showing off the kangaroo pocket.

And a bonus shot of him being goofy...

Bug loves it. He wants to wear it all the time, even before I had it totally finished. He has even started attempting to put it on himself. He had to wear it over his footie pajamas the other day...too cute.

Since I've been bitten by the craft bug and want to share the wealth of my craftiness (and since Darling Hubby has practically forbidden me to make another blanket), I've made a sweater for Baby Girl. It's pink with purple stripes and a pocket. I still have to put the buttons on the neckline (I didn't have the right needle last night) and it will be done. I think it looks very nice and I hope she likes it, too. I'm going to give it to her as a going away type present. She's going to be moving to an actual daycare after the first week of February when she turns 18 months.

Oh, and since Bug's first sweater was a little on the snug side (I made the middle size (2-3T)) I'm making him a slightly bigger one in blue and green (he picked the colors). Today he actually told me he wanted me to make him pants...I may have to come up with a way to make him some pants...we'll see...lol That would be totally crafty...crocheted pants!

I think once I'm done with all this crochet craftiness it will be back on to learning how to knit. Then I will make my scarf! Only, I probably won't need it by the time I get good enough to produce something worthwhile...lol

Goin' Old School

So every other Thursday a group of friends get together at my domicile and we role-play. If you are new to visiting my blog, you will know I'm not talking about dressing up like our characters and swinging foam swords around (although I have swung a foam sword around at a picnic once), I'm talking just sitting around a table rolling dice and saying we are doing things. Tonight we are going old school. I'm talking dusting off the Dungeons and Dragons core books (Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide and Monster Manual) and creating Elves and Dwarves and Pixies.

I've been sitting around for the past 2 days trying to come up with the perfect character for me...I've finally decided that I'm a magic weilding Elven Druid. I've never played a magic user before, only Scout/Thief type characters. Darling Hubby felt it was time for a change of pace for me. Although, I think I'm going to stick with my favorite weapon, the bow. I like being the ranged attacker. I guess that will probably never change.

With help from my friend Bernie I think we've created a decent character for tonights initial game. Now I have to take time to equip her with all sorts of goodies like armor, weaponry, cool magic items, supplies and a faithful animal companion. Since we are starting off at 8th level I have 27,000 gold pieces to play with. What's an Elven Girl to buy? Maybe a cool cloak or some nifty magical jewelry...I can't wait to go old school. Who knows what adventures we will have after dinner.

Part Deux of the Christmas Update

When we arrived at my parents house it was late and I figured Bug would be wrapped around my leg like he gets when he gets "scared" or shy. I was really amazed when he went running right into my parents kitchen and right up to my mom to show her his new Hess Truck. That really melted my mom's heart. Anyway, like I'd said before, Bug refused to sleep in the playpen as we'd planned for him to do so it made for a LONG night of him sleeping between Darling Hubby and I in a full size bed...It doesn't help that I'm a spreader and sleep in the middle of the bed and that Bug likes to sprawl out, too. He's definitely my son in that regard. On top of it, he kept waking up and crying. I think the night light was too bright for him (he's used to it being dim in his bedroom) and he was in a strange room with all sorts of weird shadows everywhere...despite the fact that he was laying between Mommy and Daddy.

After a restless night, we woke up around 8 on Christmas Eve for some breakfast. My mom made pancakes, which Bug enjoyed very much. A little later we sat down in the living room to open presents. As a combination Christmas/Anniversary gift we got my parents a couple old movies on VHS (yes...although it is REALLY DIFFICULT to find movies on VHS, it can be done.) and a 2008 calendar that I made on Shutterfly with pictures of Bug throughout the year. We got money, a Flue Renew log for our fireplace, some craft type books and the best thing of all....a can of SPAM in a SPAM keeper. lol I had been talking with my mom a few days before Christmas that I hadn't had SPAM in a long time mainly because Darling Hubby isn't a huge fan and it would go bad if I left it in the fridge. So, mom gave me a SPAM keeper so my SPAM won't go bad.

Bug got a Thomas the Train toy that when you pull back on the car on the bed in the back it runs across the floor and the best toy...a bowling set. He's been asking for a bowling set for ever. He kept flipping through the K-Mart flyer pointing to all the bowling games. He even tries to set up wooden blocks and bowl them over with a beach ball...Now, he has an official bowling set.

We had a nice quiet lunch with my parents with a delicious ham and all the fixing. Bug ate his fill. So did the rest of us. We didn't want to get home too late so during the early afternoon we headed for home. And arrived around 6. We lugged all our loot inside and started making preparations for Santa's arrival before putting Bug to bed. When I checked the mail I found a package for Bug with lots of glitter on it. It was his Magic Key to let Santa in through the front door. Then we made sure we hung it outside the front door and left out cookies and homemade hot chocolate mix (with a note telling Santa the milk is in the fridge and to go ahead and use the microwave). We want Santa to warm up, not drink cold milk. We read The Night Before Christmas before snuggling Bug in his bed for the night.

By morning, Santa had come, left presents under the tree, a thank you note to Bug for the nice warm hot chocolate and a reminder to keep his Magic Key safe until next year. We started opening presents. Bug got a DC Super Friends Batman, Superman and Flash as well as the Batmobile. He also got a couple books, too. So far, the Super heroes have been a big hit. Darling Hubby got a Nalgene water bottle for his iced tea that he takes to work, Call to Arms 4 for the DS, and a collection of Sherlock Holmes movies on DVD. I got 2 books (You Slay Me by Katie MacAlister (read my review of it here) and Summer Pleasures by Nora Roberts) and a pair of warm fuzzy pajamas.

No one opens Christmas presents faster than the Flash!

Max supervising the opening of Superman

What is in this big box?Playing with all his new toys

After that we had brunch. Guess what Mommy cooked...yep, you guessed it. My SPAM. I love me some SPAM fried crispy (like my bacon) and served with a sunny side up egg and toast. I love to dip it in the runny yellow goodness. Mmm! Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how Christmas turned out overall. Despite the zoo at the beginning, it was nice to have a quiet Christmas on Christmas day with my own little family. I hope things work out as well for next Christmas.

Finally A Christmas Update...

Nothing like a week after New Year's Day Christmas update...Let's just say, I've been busy and haven't had or felt like having much in the way of computer time. Darling Hubby was on vacation from Christmas 'til New Years and with the cold spell we've had all I really wanted to do was curl up in front of the fire. Plus I was feeling a little down in the dumps, but all that is past now.

Anyway, Christmas was the same as always...a total ZOO! Darling Hubby's brother and family were planning to come in to NY from New Mexico (we haven't seen them since June) and despite their visit, I was adamant that we were going to be home so Bug could have a proper Christmas eve, complete with leaving cookies out for Santa before going to bed, so we crammed a lot of Christmas into 2 days. Sunday before Christmas, we drove down to Darling Hubby's Grandfather's house. With the family growing exponentially the house seems to get smaller and smaller with each visit. Try dealing with too many cooks in the kitchen and then fitting 21 people into a small room for dinner...It's no easy task, let me tell you, and lots of toes get stepped on and people get annoyed...but hey, it's family...they are bound to be annoying, right.

Bug had a good time playing with his second cousin, Brynne. Here they are "napping" under the throw rugs. They're just weird.

After some QT with Grandpa and the various Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and whatnot, we ventured to our little hometown to spend a little time at DH's sister house with her, her 3 kids and his dad (who napped for much of the time we were there since he drove most of the trip from NM) before heading over to DH's mom's house for dinner and presents. Bug had a good time rough housing with his younger cousin, who is a little bruiser...lol He can hold his own with an older brother and sister, that's for sure.

After that, it was on to DH's mom's house. We dined on Grilled Cheese sandwiches and I have to say, it was the best possible meal to have on Christmas...Don't ask me why. Then it was time to "Bring on the Zoo!" When there are 6 small kids (ages 18months to 10 years) and 8 adults all attempting to open gifts at the same time, the noise in nearly unbearable and it's amazing that something doesn't get thrown out accidentally, broken, or opened and taken home by the wrong person. I just think we need to come up with a better way for everyone to go about the whole opening process. Right now someone hands out presents and one person may get 4 gifts before another gets any. To make matters worse, poor Bug kept getting toys that he couldn't play with right away because of space and mess factor and he was very upset about that...and the fact that none of his cousins would let him share in their new toy fun...Plus, I don't even know what people thought of the gifts that we gave because we didn't see if they opened them or not. I like to see the reaction people have to our presents because we do put some amount of thought into what we are buying...I'm digressing...Anyway, we came away with (for Bug) A couple play-doh kits with tons of molds and accessories, footie PJ's, tons of Matchbox cars and little Tonka trucks, and a firehouse Matchbox play set, The Wiggles Getting Strong DVD, a book and a box set of Curious George cartoons and other movies from Scholastic. I got a 7 quart crock pot, 2 crockpot books, an Eeyore sweater, a shirt with a cardinal on it. Darling Hubby got sheets for the bed, a hooded sweatshirt, and The Fantastic Four dvd. I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting...but you get the idea...we needed our big huge Santa bag to bring all the loot home in.

Here is a picture of the whole family after dinner has been eaten and the presents unwrapped.

Since we didn't get started with presents until nearly 8pm it was quite late when we left and despite Bug being obviously tired and only taking a 20 min nap in the car he didn't fall asleep on the way to my parents house like we'd hope. And, upon arrival, wouldn't sleep in the playpen like we'd planned...But that's all for part 2 of the update which will have to come later...So until then....

Food For Friday 1/7-1/11 & 1/14-1/18

So it's time for another installment of my Food for Friday. Umm..yeah, so I missed last week's menu because of the holidays and boy, was that ever a mistake. I honestly had no clue what I was going to be cooking until a few hours and sometimes mere minutes until Darling Hubby walked in. I blame it on all those Christmas cookies and candy. They totally messed with my mind. Anyway...I really want to write about the zillion things that have happened since Christmas, but that will have to wait. I need to get a menu planned so we don't go over budget this shopping trip. Gotta make sure I have the money to cover the $370 vet visit when the credit card bill comes due...

Monday - Vegetable Minestrone - I'm cooking for craft night this week
Tuesday - Breakfast for dinner - probably French Toast or SPAM and eggs
Wednesday - Oven Fried chicken fingers and fries with honey mustard
Thursday - Game night - Dinner to be determined later
Friday - Tacos

Monday - Craft Night - Rose cooks
Tuesday - Rotisserie Chicken with veggies and mashed potatoes
Wednesday - Homemade Chicken Pot Pie
Thursday -CrockPot Pot Roast with carrots and potatoes
Friday - Homemade pizza

OK, I promised Bug he could play on PBS.org, but I really want to search the web for crochet patterns for a sweater...I'll be a good mommy and let him play for a little while before Darling Hubby gets home and wants his burgers and fries...