Jury Duty Time Expired.

Today was the last day I was on-call for jury duty. I never got a call or anything since that first letter. Whew.

Plant a Row for the Hungry

I saw a commercial for this on HGTV. It is Plant A Row for the Hungry. You donate your extra fruits, veggies, & herbs to a local food shelf or soup kicthen that participates. I don't know if there is one in my area. I have emailed them to find out. My herbs seem to be tolerant to the cold so far and I have some oregano, sage, & mint that I can donate (not sure about the chives.)

I wish I would have seen this earlier as I had TONS of cucumbers (both long green cukes and yellow round ones) and tomatoes & jalepeno peppers I could have donated.

If they don't have a committee in my area, I don't think I have the time or energy to start one. I read about it on the website and it sounds like more time & energy than I have to give. I would rather spend the time with Isabel. But if someone else already has one going, I wouldn't mind helping out a little bit or donating.

My School Picture

Here is my school picture. I took the liberty of drawing in the devil accessories to see what I could look like in a year book. Actually, I work will only about 25 kids at a time, but they are coming and going. So, I may work with 40 kids total a year, out of a student body of over 1600. And my kids like me, so I don't really think I will get the devil outfit. But I did want to see what I would look like with it. I get a free package, because I am staff, and what do you do with all those free pictures? Well, I gave some wallets to my siblings, parents, husband, & baby. But then I still have 2 5x7's....Hmmmm...one of those gets marked up. Fun!

Actually, this is the first one since I have been working in the school that I think I look halfway decent, even if I am wearing my hair in a ponytail and look like I have no hair.

NEW THINGS

Newly Sealed Driveway: Finally! Completed this week. In the past we have done it with our neighbors. This time we paid a lot of money to have someone else do it. It is supposed to last longer 50-100% longer than if we would have done it ourselves. It better.










New Sidewalk (part of): Now that the city finally changed the layout of the street to the North of our house, our neighbor can finally put in the rest of his lawn, his driveway and extend the sidewalk from our house to the curb. He’s doing all the work and we don’t have to pay a cent. A rather long story why everything has worked out the way it did, so I won’t bore you with it.








New TV: AhhhhH! Plasma! HDTV! 42 Inches!

Project Restoration

BEFORE: Dingy, yucky and torn.

















MIDDLE: Here I was decoupaging (is that a word?) the top with crumpled pieces of brown paper bag. This is the top of the trunk. Then you stain it your preferred color and it will have a letter look to it. And finally you give it several coats of poly to seal it all in and make it water proof. And then you enjoy.

I saw this on Design ReMix.







DONE: The finished product. This is the top finished.











The Whole She-bang. Finished. It is acting as a side table/toybox for the sunroom/playroom, a room with dual purposes, where everything has dual purposes.

Pronunciation?

So, everytime I take the back roads from the North, my eyes catch a glimpse of a name on a mailbox in big, bold letters that says DUHME.

Now, I think to myself, how is this pronounced? Could it be pronounced “dummy”, or possibly “do me”, or maybe even “doom”, or lastly “dumb”. Any ideas?

I almost want to stop at their house & ask them.....But I don't, and won't.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

I'm talking about business coming to the area.

Let's start with losing, because that isn't much. We are losing the Bread Store. It closed rather suddenly. I guess they are tearing it down and putting a strip mall there. We (even though it's the neighboring town, I still say we, our little town has nothing, so basically we do everything there.) I don't know what is going in that strip mall.

But the strip mall by Cabela's has 3 out of 5 tenants. They are Subway, Sbarro Pizza, & Caribou Coffee. Subway just opened on Tuesday, and it's one that also serves breakfast. Caribou looks like it is ready to open anyday. Everything is ready inside & the drive-through is ready too and the signs are all up. Sbarro's looks like it should probably be open sometime next month. I don't know what is going in the other two.

And there is sometype of other strip/block mall that is going up by Lowe's. Speaking of by Lowe's, Kohls & Office Depot are both now open.

Hmmmmm.....anything else? Oh yes, next summer they start construction on the outdoor waterpark, so that won't be open until 2008, which is perfect for us. All we need is a kiddie pool next summer and we have one of those in our town. No sense paying for all the frills when they aren't going to be used. Our local pool (which is 2 outdoor pools, a regular pool & a kiddie pool) only costs $65 a summer for a membership for the whole family. Not a bad deal. Since I don't work during the summer I am sure we'll be going there quite often.

Post Pregnancy Woes

The squishy belly is annoying. Those last few pounds are just not coming off. I was couting WW points and adding in extra points because I am breastfeeding, but I feel like my milk supply has dimished some. Now, I don't know if it's because of the WW or if it's because I went back to work at the same time and started pumping a couple times of the day or if she is just drinking more and it feels like the supply has diminished. Being able to brastfeed is important to me and I want her to have all the benefits that accompany breastmilk, and I am not vain enough that I will compromise that to lose a few pounds (just as long as I don't gain more.)

Also, pumping sucks. I shouldn't complain because some people spend a long time to just waiting for their let down to kick in. I go to my office, set up the horns & bottles & pump and get going, put the milk in containers to bring to daycare and get my stuff all cleaned up.....all within 10minutes, 15 minutes tops. I know some people spend 10-15 minutes just waiting for letdown and then another 10-15 minutes pumping. Like I said, providing her breastmilk is important to me, so I will continue to pump. But it's not that fun to have your nipples artificially sucked.

The other thing people don't tell you about (& don't talk about) is that sex after delivery (even 4 months later) can and does hurt. I think how Andy said it the other day sums it up best. He said, "It's like putting on a glove that is one size too small." That's great for him, not so great for the glove. One person told me it took a year after birth for it to stop huting. It just sucks, that's all. It just means I need to be on top so that I can control it all, Andy just has to sit back and let me do my thing.

I checked out the book Spilled Milk from the library. I am almost done reading it, 1 chapter left. I wish I would have checked it out earlier, like when she was only a couple weeks old. But it is still very useful. I think anyone who is breastfeeding should definitly read it. It helps you realize that everything you are going through is alright and normal.

Stupid Bugs

This first one is a a Asian Lady Beetle. They are so annoying. They bite and when you kill them they stink.

We put 6 new windows in the house in the last year and guess what - they are not in those rooms. Which means, not in the kitchen, our bedroom, or the baby's room. We are replacing 7 more windows here in the next month (the window guy is coming Wednesday to do meaurements), and he can't get here soon enough.



This is a Box Elder Bug. There are a few in the house, but mainly they are covering the outside of the house & garage. I have not seen such a bad infestation of these, ever. They are all over the ENTIRE town. Its gross.

Fall is my favorite season, but fall also brings along these bugs. And when it gets warm like it is this week, it's just awful.

Even right now there is one of those stupid asian beetle crawling across the computer screen.

I had planned ahead for them (the bugs, well, the Asian beetles) and I bought a canopy (pictured below in a picture from the catalog) to put over Isabel's crib so they wouldn't drop on her. But it looks like since she got new windows they won't be bothering her. So, maybe I'll just save the canopy for when she gets a little older and wants to have a bed like a princess (or like mom & dad since we have one over our bed.)