Tag Archives: Summer

November – Holiday Season begins

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Holiday Season is right around the corner. It’s November now, which means in our household we have Thanksgiving and then our DD’s Birthday, or visa-versa, depending on the year. (She was born in 1998 on the 25th, the day before Thanksgiving.) This year Thanksgiving is three days before her b-day.

It always makes for a more hectic last-half-of-November than ever since 1998.

I’m in the mood for Pumpkin Pie, which it doesn’t have to be Turkey Day, November or December to have, but I haven’t made any “out of season” this year, I haven’t done much cooking overall (with a new baby in the house!) At this point I consider it best to wait until Thanksgiving Day to have Pumpkin Pie, but the urge is so strong to have some NOW so I don’t know what I’ll do in the coming days leading up to TD. Why do I consider it best to wait? So I’m not “Pumkined OUT” by TD, which is possible if I give in to my urge now. FWIW. :blush:

The weather has been cooler lately. Finally Summer has broken in NE Georgia. It’s still getting quite warm, into the 70′s, some days, but getting down in the 60′s at the most at night, all the way down way into the 40′s many nights. This makes things seem more Fall-like, and gets me in the mood for Autumn/Winter thicker clothing, crisp new clothes that just wouldn’t work in the Summer, no way. Boots are my love, for instance, and jackets.

I’m still not fitting into my old things to wear, post-pardum 4-months, so I’m going through my things and trying to figure out what I’m going to do about it. I hate buying “fat skirts” and such, when I know they won’t be needed. I’ve gotten away with wearing my summer skirts just not done up, they stay on and the openings don’t show with my Nursing (BF) Blouses usually covering them up fine. That won’t cut it for the cooler times outside, nor inside the house eventually (as Winter sets in.)

I’ve been Dresses/Skirts only for quite a few years, and did cave to wear pants sometimes when I was pregnant (starting in late ’06) and have a couple of pairs of jeans now for the “transition” but I don’t like them, I am supposing I wouldn’t mind some jeans now if they fit me nicely, but none actually do (since I’m still toting baby fat, which is alright since I am BF the baby, of course. It’d just be nice to have something to wear that looked good and fit nice. :rolleyes: Especially for “winter” wear.)

My DD got a toy sewing machine last Nov. for her BD, but since I was newly preggo then and since and also now have a still “little” baby, I hadn’t showed her how to use it yet … but the other day she was bugging me about it and I told her to just get it out and read the booklet about it. So she did that and started pestering me about this and that in the booklet, and I finally just had her get the machine by me and I showed her some stuff … and thus I now also have the ‘sewing’ bug and want to find a place to put my big machine so that i can use it. Lastly I used it way back in 2000/2001 when I had my 3rd baby, to sew for.

I have had the idea to make nice simple things for DD and myself all along, but I just “haven’t” done that. I really want to and now that I am so blah shaped, it’d be nice to have skirts that worked the way I need them to, you know, custom made by one’s self. I’m going to do that, therefore. I have gotten my DD to want to make T-Shirt Dresses since I told her how easy they are to make, and she wants to get a purple T-shirt for that purpose and is nearly wearing me thin talking about it, so I will have to be sure to find her one ASAP – and get to a fabric store as well.

I did get some Hanna Andersson dresses and tights and leggings and socks and clogs, this week, for DD. Every thing like that has “Blossoming Pink” in it. Also got another skirt and blouse that are not “pink” at all. So a custom made T-Shirt dress that has a purple top will have to have NO PINK in the skirt at all, IMO. In any case, the HA stuff is really nice, a good base for getting more things to mix and match with, every day wear. The blouse I got is has a peter pan collar and buttons up the front. It’s white Pima interlock cotton, long sleeves, very fine yet not “too fine” and will go well under the winter jumpers she has (I bought them a couple of years ago, big on purpose to have later, and later is now!)

We got the boys a few new things from Osh Kosh this past week, as well. Jeans and shirts. The baby too, as well as Carters for the baby. All three of the boys have shirts from Osh Kosh that match each other. A is 7 years old and I have determined (since last year) that he actually looks great in Orange, so he has an orange plaid flannel shirt, R is 11 years old, he and Baby Q both are blonde haired with blue eyes and have fair blue-toned skin and look awesome in blue, so they have the same dark blue plaid flannel shirt as each other, in respective sizes, R has 12 and Baby Q has 6m :) All three have neat Osh Kosh jeans too, so I hope to get a nice Brothers photo with them wearing all that stuff, very soon.

I haven’t uploaded any baby pictures to the web still, as I haven’t yet gotten those announcements sent out :veryshocked: I’m appalled at myself for this. I have finally determined that I like one photo I have from September, right after Baby Q turned 3 months old, which I like enough to duplicate, so I’ll use that one, or maybe take something in the next couple of days that will be good enough, and more recent … and have wallet or some other small-ish size photos printed out at a shop, to include with the announcements. I really, really, really intend to get this done THIS COMING WEEK!!! I hope I can do so.

So with all that pressure, needing to get some sort of warmer clothing figured out for me, get the right clothing ready for the children, and get the announcements mailed, and plan Thanksgiving and V’s 9th Birthday, plus wishing to really start sewing parts of us girl’s wardrobe, and bake for the holidays and get things ready for Christmas, which hopefully will be a Christmas Card that will get mailed this year (for the first time in many) … pressure … it’s heavy, tight, pressing down.

On a good note though, I have a more comfortable bed now: we got a topper for the mattress at Costco this week. It’s a micro filled top with something like 3 inches of memory foam beneath that. It was a pain to open and unfold … the foam was vacuum sealed into a tiny (for it) package. Literally the hardest work I’ve done all week, or in many, many, months. That is on the mattress and I have a waterproof/allergy cover over that (it goes around the whole mattress, zips up to keep all ickies out of the bed) then a thin mattress cover and the sheets. The next thing I want then is a memory foam pillow (with an allergy cover sealing it) as the memory foam is a dream to be on, no pressure points. Lovely to sit up in bed and feed the baby now, just need to get the pillow situation fixed to complete the comfort. Sleeping is nice too, no need to shift around finding a comfy way to be, I mean, just choose what direction to lay in, and if it’s the way you want to be, it’s comfy now.

A second good note: I now have a chair in the “dining room/living area” next to the kitchen. The couch was moved downstairs and I was without a nice place to be with the baby (not liking the “basement” as it is currently) and wanting to be on the main level with the baby mostly anyhow.

So I now have an Ektorp chair and a Bromma foot stool, with white covers. From IKEA, for those not familiar with those product names. Our couch is an Ektorp Corner sofa 2+2. (corner seat with 2 seats on each side, a couch with 5 seat cushions that can hold up to 6 people if you don’t mind sitting right by someone, not bad for visiting, just annoying for basic TV watching, reading, with children, everyone wanting lounging space.)

What is so great about that IKEA Ektorp line? The styling is classically beautiful, in my mind’s eye, and the outside of the couches and chairs are slipcovers entirely, so it’s easy to get a clean couch when needed or wanted. Unzip all the cushions and take the cover off of the frame, into the washer, then drier, then back onto the frame and cushions. It’s work, but worth it. The chair is even easier since it’s just a chair, compared to the corner 2+2 couch. Not only that though, the next best thing is: extra slip covers. The white is cheap, $29 to get an extra set. Other colors start at $79 and go up. The couch, we can get a color we like for $199,a complete new set of slipcovers, making the couch so versatile, brand new-like when wanted. We only have one set of slipcovers for the couch and also the chair right now, but will be getting extra’s sometime sooner than later, I hope. I also want to get an Ektorp Loveseat, which has a really cheap white slipcover set, just $11 … FWIW

To have all this furniture it will be separated in the house we live in now, but I hope to have a house with a very large family room someday …

For now though, I’m more comfy in the main living area again. A place to rest, feed the baby day or night other than in bed, watch TV, read, or even nap … a nice chair that is Mama’s and no one else may sit in it unless I say they may, which is no one. :smile:

Things about September

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It’s September now, my oh my, time sure as flied.

Baby Q is 2+ months old and getting cuter and cuter, of course. He’s getting longer and fatter — smiles a lot, and laughs. He’s very active — very strong. He holds his head up, just isn’t a pro at it yet, but his daily strength conditioning exercises are working out well for that and his legs and arms. :) He’s able to push himself here and there while on his back, nearly able to turn over at times, it won’t be too far down the road for that.

We had been traveling a lot, and finally are home for a time. Baseball (MiLB) was our August pastime which took much of our IRL time. We saw games in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina. 3 different leagues — The International League, Florida State League, and The South Atlantic League.  We mostly combined that traveling with hubbies work travel needs.

The MLB season is getting nearer to the end, while the MiLB (minor league teams) regular season is now over and in playoffs — we have thought of trying to see a playoff game in Augusta, but don’t know if we will. We do watch our favorite MLB teams on TV and PC and are happy to see our favorites each (Him – Det. ; Her – NYY) doing well as can be, still “in it” but not “on top” — yet. NYY is the leading AL-Wild Card of late, though :) The last two games have been fun to see, with Seattle falling apart in the 7th. They are the team to keep down on both sides of the AL-Wild Card game … NYY is on top of them and Det. is right below them. NYY took 2 of 3 this week. Det. took CSW last night in extra innings, which hubby is happy about. They have one more game in the series today — NYY is off today. Det. starts a series with Seattle on Friday. So I am rooting for Det. in that case, but don’t want them getting too rowdy less they try to really take over the AL-Wild Card. Things are possible for Det. to take the AL-Central Division — and for NYY to take the AL-Eastern Division — but it’s not a sure thing, and since NYY is on top of the AL-Wild Card it’s just important to me that they stay on top of that while trying to rise up to the top of the AL-Eastern Division. Of course, hubby wishes for Det. to do that in the AL-Central Division. :shocked:  :wink:

Little niceties: Boston lost last night, while NYY and Det. both won. And Joba Chamberlain got his first W in the majors with that NYY win (with the Yanks taking the lead in the bottom of 7th while Joba was the pitcher of record, having pitched a 1-2-3 top of the 7th relief session.)  :) A-rod got two homeruns in the 7th as well. Yup, they batted around and he led off with a single homerun and then had a 2-RBI homerun near the end of the inning. Fun stuff to watch the MVP of the AL *the Should Be MVP* that is.

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7 years ago today I was about 3 days “overdue” with baby #3 — and had another week to go, though I didn’t know it then. So that means my “baby” — who had that status his whole life, until just recently –  will be 7 years old in a week. He was my 1st homebirth baby, something that was so wonderful. He was a great baby, easy, and turned into a tornado, being very extroverted, while my first two are introverts (which doesn’t mean they aren’t “tornatic” themselves, just not “most of the time” like their little brother is.)

I never imagined back then, 7 years ago, that I’d have a newborn in the house 7 years later. Not that I didn’t think I’d have no more children, I have always thought I’d have more than 3, but letting it happen in God’s timing, it just didn’t happen until much later than earlier.

The years in-between were somewhat hard, with getting pregnant finally after 4 years, then losing that baby very soon after finding out. After that it was harder, not knowing what would happen, and feeling the loss deeply, so the joy of finding myself expecting not long after I turned 40 was so lovely. :)

So, I have a little baby to take care of while I have a child’s birthday party to plan … it’s been a llloooooooonnnnngggg time since that was the case. I also STILL have to create the baby’s birth announcement :blush:

I didn’t get that annoucement made in the first month, and knew it’d be hard, so I didn’t do it, but also knew I’d be traveling to FL just after the first month of the baby being born, for a wedding, and figured I’d get the annoucement made after that. BUT … we have ended up doing more and more traveling since then, the work/baseball travel … and I’ve not been home long enough to do anything with it, though I could have gotten it some or mostly done if I’d wanted to I bet, but I haven’t wanted to, not having a clue what picture I want to use and how to use the cards I got for the announcements (blank to print/stamp/scrap onto.) I had ideas, but since getting the supplies I needed haven’t liked what I got to make what I thought of … having changed the ideas around and just phooey-ing the whole thing hoping to get “inspired” by something all of the sudden, and waiting and waiting … so today it’s bugging me more than ever, and waiting must end and I HAVE to force spontaneous creativity today. –eewwww.

Summer ends this month. I’ve got to get that announcement done this month. My previous baby turns 7 this month. I’ve got to get stuff done for that really soon. And there is just so much more about this month and the time is flying. :shocked:

A/C of August (problem solved)

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We were in Florida last week, got home on Saturday, and walked into a very, very, very hot house. We knew while we were away that the temperatures had gone insane at home … but inside the house they shouldn’t have, we did leave the A/C on –in the mid-to-high-70′s — but it was so hot that the thermostat couldn’t register the temperature (it’s highest temperature showing on the dial is 90 F. It’s a mercury thermostat.)

Outside it was over 100 degrees f. and inside it felt hotter than that, fwiw.

The A/C just wasn’t working right, so similar to what it was like a few years ago when we had problems with it in another HOT August and eventually abandoned using it in September when I had bad allergies … we had turned it off in August, there was ice in the pipes and once it melted the system worked fine again … but I connected my allergies to the A/C system in September of that year, and when we turned it off my symptoms reduced massively

We didn’t have A/C the next year, and the year after that we got window units for the kitchen and master bedroom and then later a smaller one for the “basement” area. Those 2 and then 3 cooled sufficiently, while being fairly costly, but worth it. The year without A/C was tough, just the Summer, mind you. The next year, which was last year –2006 we used the window units again, but I was tired of using them, the noise being so high, and the blocking of light to much — so I turned the A/C Sytem on and it worked, and I wasn’t getting “ill” from it, so we stopped using the window units and that was fine.

This year, 2007 we have used the A/C fine until now, this heat wave is when it decided to stop working fine and to freeze up again.

We haven’t had it looked at by a professional ever, though we *should* but it’s just too much to consider paying for, as long as we can get it keep running as much as we need until something breaks entirely, or we have the funds to upgrade everything. The whole house can’t be A/C’d or Heated with the system, we have a 3-level house with one small system. Two major rooms downstairs are not even connected to it. Anyhow, we know we need to upgrade everything and will have to do that “when we can” whenever that is. So for now, it just has to work the way it is.

So in the case of the non-correctly-working-A/C recently, I was looking at it outside, and playing with the thermostat to turn it on and off and such, and it seemed that it was iced up somewhere but I never saw any ice, just more water than is normal to be coming down the pipe out there, and under the outside unit as well.

All evening it didn’t work right, just blase cool-ish air, but not A/C’d air really. DH and I decided to put the window unit in the kitchen earlier, just because it was so hot, so very hot and we had to get the house cooler.

Also, earlier I did know we needed to change the filter, and had known it for a couple of weeks. It gets dirty fairly fast in our house. It’s just a matter of buying new one and someone climbing up to the ceiling in the hallway to get out the old one and put in the new one (not horrible, but bad enough and can barely be done by me, and easier done by my DH, but our 11 year old is too small to do it still.) When DH finally got a filter that very day we returned, he took the old one out, and the date I had written on it was May 31. Whoops! We really need to change them out at 1 month — no wonder it was so dirty.

Having a baby threw everything like that for a loop. :blushing:

So the majority of the time I was fussing with the system, there was a new filter in. The window unit cooled the main floor of the house decently, but upstairs was still so very, very warm. The next day was Sunday, and I fooled with the system some more, with out it working to produce “cold” air … but then I thought it wasn’t as warm as it had been all day and had the system on that night, just to do the little it could … and during the night I had to pull the covers up on me, when I hadn’t used them at all due to the warmth in the house at bedtime … so later I got up and checked the thermostat and it was going down in temperature, yay! I went to the kitchen window unit and turned it off and went back to bed. In the morning it was nice in the kitchen still and pretty cold upstairs (upstairs is cold and the main floor just cool enough, traditionally with this system.)

Ever since then it runs nice and cold despite the raging temperatures and humidity outside, like yesterday it was 99 at one point with a “feels like” of 105 degrees. You’d never know it from inside the house.

So this time, the dirty filter had something to do with the system warm-up … maybe there is something else “wrong” that needs fixed, but for now it’s as cold as ever, and working. I’ll hopefully be sure to get that filter changed before it’s too far gone (dirty) this next time. By then the temperatures outside should be getting cooler, and it won’t be long before A/C can go off until Spring ramp-up of temperture and humidity. We still have hot temperatures to get through for the next few weeks, and beyond that still, but it’s most likely to be a lesser need for A/C and that is that.

Time flies — didn’t Summer just begin? Ah, it’s not over yet, but is going fast.

Baby Q is doing great, 7 weeks old, turning 8 weeks tomorrow. See, it is going fast! His birthday was just a few days after the official Summer Solstice. Speaking of Baby Q, I’m overdue in feeding him, so I’ve got to close this post. I’ll just post it, and post again later with the other things I was going to write about. That’s fine anyhow, as this post is LONG ENOUGH already! :) It’s better to split up topics and put them into their own posts, after all. KWIM :wink:

Baby Q – 6 wks old

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Baby Q turned 6 weeks this past Saturday. Today, Tuesday, Aug. 7th, we saw a Ped. for the first time, and all seems fine, as we knew it was. We don’t immu. and that Ped. is OK with it and also with homebirth, and knows we’ll look him up on occassion as needed and that’s alright.

We are going to FL again … don’t know if the baseball game attendance I talked about in the last post will occur for us, probably won’t work out this time … but we’ll do something around the SE sooner than later, as there is only a couple of months left in the season.

It’s been really HOT lately, the house can’t handle it at all, it’s cooler in here than out there — sure, but out there it’s in the high 90′s at the least, just actual temperature, not factoring in the humidity or “how hot it is when the sun is blazingly hitting the side of the house” or in ‘full view’ standing out in it. Ugh. FL is worse though, with the sub-tropical thickness of the humidity and temperatures, it’s worse, to me, with the same readings as anywhere more Northern.

We set the A/C really low and it still is in the high 70′s at best in the house all afternoon, and it takes all night to cool down closer to 70 degrees … by morning, and then it all starts all over again … July in NE GA was so nice, August has been a bear to deal with.

We have had rain of late, some nice homegrown thunderstorms with lots of rain in them, and a couple of trees that weren’t looking so good since that April 2007 late freeze are looking better now. Case in point is the Crepe Myrtle we planted in early Spring, it was coming along, growing with the wonderful Spring we were having, then that Freeze hit and all the leaves and growth was turned to black mush. I ended up having to cut it back and we waited for lovely growth again, but had only some leaves come out and the “growth” we expected just sat there and barely started just “sat there” atrophy-ing-ish, and the leaves that were out seemed lax and so tired, in spite of the decent watering we had given it and starter and all that. So with the last couple of weeks, the rain increased and one good storm last week VOOM! the leaves all perked up green and perky and now the “growth” has finely begun, and I hope it continues, it’s the most promising it’s been since early Spring when it first came alive after planting/winter.

That’s it for now. I hope all goes well for the landscape this week and looks great when we return. :)

Baby Q 5 weeks and baseball

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Baby Q is 5 weeks old now (going on 6 in a couple of days. ) Everything is going good thus far. I still don’t have any photo’s of the baby online. I know, I know, everyone wants to see him!

I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do about a birth announcement (I create my own — not for my 1st baby, but ever since, yes.) I have things I am going to use, but have to experiment with the printer we now have, and also decide between a few other ideas once I have the printer end figured out. I’m kind of “old fashioned” about this, I want to show him to family and friends with a memorable thing that can be held, saved, put in a scrapbook or box for the future. THEN I’ll upload photos to Flickr and then post them here, there, where ever.

We went on our first “trip” since Baby Q was born, just this past week. Our nephew (my hubby’s) got married this past weekend, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. So we drove down on Thursday and came home on Sunday. It turned out alright, the wedding events were great, the trip itself alright, but overall a bit more than desired stressful on me/baby. It is good to be home, but Hubby went out-of-town Tues thru tonight, so that homecoming turned out to be restful yet not at all. If that makes much sense.

Hubby needs to go to Florida off and on for his work, and needs to go back to where we just were for the wedding last weekend … this next week. We are toying with having us all go with him, and try to get to see some baseball, Minor League most likely (we like Minor League B-Ball and the pricing is in our ballpark as well, needing 5 seats for the family the past few years … not that we don’t like Major League, we sure do … do the math though.)

So if we can go, we’ll find a team in the west coast of Florida area. It’ll be Baby Q’s first baseball game attendance. If not, we’ll find a team around where we live sooner than later. There is Major League in Atlanta, but I don’t like the Braves really, and don’t particularly like the NL. I am an AL liker. I also really do like Minor League ball, and we enjoy collecting hats and stuff, though we haven’t done that much over the years, mostly not, mind you, but would if we could. Anyhow, last year we did get to a game in Charleston, SC and one in Seiverville, TN. The team in Charleston is the River Dogs, and they are a Single-A Yankee’s affiliate. The TN team is the Smokies … I don’t recall their current affiliation, they are Single-A as well, I think. The teams around here are in “The Southern League” of the Minors.

Years ago in South Florida me and my now hubby used to attend Ft. Lauderdale Yankees games frequently, before we were married. In the beginning of June it was 15 years since he asked me to marry him, right before we went to a game. He was going to do it there, but got excited and asked me in the car in the driveway of my parents house instead.

That was Single-A ball. There is no Minor League team there any more. Those were the days when NYY (Major League) Spring Training was held there in Ft. Lauderdale.

So then, where we are now there is nothing very close, but a grand amount of teams a few or more hours of driving away. So plans must be made to attend, last minute isn’t very doable, unfortunately.

My birthday was on the 18th of July, and my hubby finally got me what I’ve wanted for years, a fine wool fitted NY Yankees cap. :) I have “always” been a Yankee fan, something I got from my Daddy, though he wasn’t a die hard fan, but liked them. He wasn’t a sports guy, liked baseball and mostly that was all. I am also mostly just baseball friendly, but do like watching Golf, and can tolerate SOME football, but grow weary of it fast, and don’t like that other B-ball game which I won’t mention. I’m not very sports inclined, except for baseball though, it’s my first and only love in “sports” of that nature.

My main idea of “sports” is what one does in nature, climbing, hiking, boating, running, etc. for fun mostly. Organized sports are not kindly considered by me. Baseball somehow doesn’t suffer that fate in my mind. Anyhow, we hope to get some good baseball game viewing in person done before the season is over, now that baby is here and older. I just need to get him a Yankees cap and outfit to wear. :)

So along those lines, the Yankees are doing well, and I’m enjoying watching them on TV most every game that I can. We have DirecTV and the MLB EXTRA INNINGS and the Sports channels upgrade … so I can watch Yankee away games on the MLB channels and home games on YES Network … also hubby has an MLB.com subscription, so we can watch games on the computer via the internet if they aren’t on TV for some reason, but aren’t “blacked out” … or if they are blacked out we can listen to the audio online, leastwise.

Right now there is a game on YES network, an afternoon game. It’s not really good right now, Top of the 2nd and CHW has 6 runs and 2 on, and just got another hit and those 2 on came in, so there’s 1 on now … on 2 outs … pooh. 8 to 0. Ah, well, Yankees have been hitting up a storm of late, and hopefully we’ll have some good bats in the bottom of the next several innings to make up for this horrible Top of 2nd, poor Clemens.

Well I’ve not paid such good attention to this game while posting this, and now Clemens has been pulled from the game. Whoa. Mike Meyers is in, and so I now will just watch the game and close this post.

One of these days I’ll get a Baby Announcement created and then have the freedom to post pictures. My Baby Q is really cute and getting cuter. He wasn’t so cute for awhile, with some skin condition, but it’s cleared up enough for him not to look so icky now. Phew!