The Adventures of Lil Mouse

I saved all the paper and bags from my baby shower, thinking somehow I’d be able to ‘recycle’ them for a town festival, giveaway, etc. anyone have any ideas? That way they’d get more than one use and maybe get totally recycled.

I wrote this in January..

“I don’t really have any hope that she’ll be able to nurse like normal so that I won’t have to rely on the breast pump, she just is too flaky for that (yes, I called my infant flaky, deal with it) — but, she is healthy, happy (if the coos and smiles are anything to go by) and gaining weight and inches steady as she goes.”

All I have to say is HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! 8 months (5 months bottled breast milk free) and going strong!

I know of 5 items that are lost. They are related. There may be other lost items of which we are not aware. We KNOW that these items made the move, as the apartment was clean the last time we moved. We would NOT have thrown these items away. They would be considered ‘books’ and ‘baby’ items simultaneously. The main baby stuff was in large grey totes, we found about 30 books, but 3 are still missing. They should have been in there together. I swear they should have. But if not, where would I have put them. What catch all box, that may not be unpacked, might I have thought I would open and see them and yet, somehow, I can’t find them. We’ve gone through all the baby totes and nada. Any clue? The only baby thing that was really put separately was the breast pump bag and the stuff wasn’t in with that. What items do you start needing after 6 months, perhaps and you think maybe you might be able to use later so you pack them away in a separate box? Argh. No clue. But it’s very frustrating. 2 more closets full of boxes to go through.

Click on over to visit Wilma and check out her Giants! They’re even bigger than KJ and you know, she is pretty darn big for her age, and they shared a womb, never known twins to be so ‘large’, ha, well anyway, go visit and say hi!

8 months old  -  so big!

Where has the time gone?

By.

Just by.

An 8 acre plot, absolutely gorgeous, sure there are neighbors nearby, but not enough to be a nuisance.  There is city water and power close by. No dealing with a well, I suppose we still have to have septic dug. There is already a big building so we could get the crap out of mom and dad’s yard, attic, and so forth, and the in-laws, too. The water and power need run to the building and the house. There is that, we weren’t thinking of putting the house near the shed, that might be trouble, as that would mean basically double the trenching and water installation.  The price is ‘fine’ if we can get the loan. We don’t have anything substantial as a downpayment so that kind of nixes most loans, we CAN get a VA loan, but they don’t LIKE to do a new house (why not, I have NO idea), they want you to buy something already established. The VA loan would work well, or something similar if we could get it all wrapped up. I’m tired of all of this, but the property, well it is really gorgeous. Everything we think we want which means a lot of work. I am really very tired of this apartment living thing. We also need a car. We need a house and a car at the same time. It’s very frustrating. We feel like one false move could shatter everything. It’s not that we can’t afford it, it’s that we just don’t ever seem to get lucky breaks when it comes to big things. We’ve had pretty rotten luck and no amount of prayer seems to fix anything. Maybe this will be it. Maybe even though the stupid interest rate is now up a full point, we’ll find that it works out okay. Maybe.

One year ago, we got this picture taken…

Not the baby, the man. Seriously, he’s been hunting around for a new car for a while. He finally asked ME what I thought was the requirement for a new car. Stunner! Of course I don’t give a crap about horsepower or whatnot.  I do think we are narrowing down the field though. It just feels like we’re walking on this huge treadmill. Do we buy a car if we’re getting ready to buy a house, or wait? Why can’t we find a house? We’re so sick of living here, and yet the perfect property isn’t showing up, should we buy and live somewhere for a few years until we can find that perfect piece of land, at least then we’d be out of town?

The main course is easy!Pizza, without a doubt. You can do pizza so many ways, on pita bread, on crust, on biscuits or tortillas, the list is endless. You can also get pizza out, buy it frozen to bake or microwave, or make it at home so it’s not like something that is terribly difficult. It’s also a kid pleaser, and great for leftovers, so an all around family favorite would be great to have calorie free. I can’t find the picture right now, but I’ve made ‘homemade’ which means homemade sauce and a packet of dough mix that I add water to, and then we split some string cheese and put it in the crust and wrapped it around for a ’stuffed’ crust pizza at home. Worked well, really!

The dessert took me a little while longer. I pondered and finally came up with…chocolate chip cookies. They may not be my FAVORITE dessert, BUT–they are my husband’s and if I could make him chocolate chip cookies whenever he wanted and not be afraid to eat too many myself?!? Wow, we would both be in bliss!

I’ll try and jam in everything I can into a quick update post.

• Bye grandma, so many people came to see you off, many more are there to greet you when you arrive. You shared love with a lot of people, I hope you can see that where you are.
• Please continue in prayers for the rest of the family.
• On the other hand, saw family we wouldn’t have seen otherwise….
• Matthew’s back is doing a lot better with the visits to the chiropractor.
• We both need dental appointments, doctor’s checkups, and to get Keeley in for her 9 month appointment in a handful of weeks. She’s not 8 months until next week, but still, these things do take time.
• On that note, my tooth which needs a crown is hurting me now, even when I’m not eating. First it was cold, then it progressed to chewing, now it’s full time.
• My cold seems to be over with for the most part.
• We have more errands that we need to run than we can count.
• Keeley has successfully eaten sweet potatoes, banana and about half a peach. She also got some water from her sippy cup last night.
• My shopping trip with the girls was a huge success, I am loving the new clothes I have, however I still only have 2 pair of shorts.
• For the love of God, anyone have suggestions on a diaper bag? I keep asking but don’t really get any good answers. I don’t want to pack a duffel bag for a day trip, but that’s how it’s ending up. Any name brands anyone can throw out there that will hold 9ish diapers (so 18 disposables basically), some wipes, toys, and a blanket? Anyone? Or do you know anyone with twins that uses a particular bag?
• Harry Potter movie comes out in about 5 weeks. Do we split and each go at a separate time, or try and get a late late movie when Keeley will be asleep and ask a parental unit (or grandparental unit as the case may be) to watch her for 3 hours?
• Reading when Keeley is napping or playing quietly. Hopefully this will be good modeling and increase my vocabulary. I feel quite dumb when all I do is stare at stuffed toys all day and repeat ‘blue elephant, look, he’s got stars on his feet’, ‘what color is the giraffe?’ But the reading seems to help.