Cool Tricks

Abby learned how to use a drinking fountain on our trip to Florida - she thought it was really fun. Abby is back into good girl mode today. She must be feeling better. She also got what she thought was the best present ever today - my old cell phone. Steve and I have new phones, so we let her play with one of the old ones. She really thought she was getting away with some great trickery when she got to hold the phone on the whole car ride back from the Alltel shop.

We are still looking for that new car - today Abby and I went to talk to the Jeep dealer. We are going to do some more investigating and hopefully will have a decision (and a new car) soon. And now... back to shoveling out the driveway, dealing with the mail, and cleaning up all of the things we brought in and dumped on the dining room table.

Mission Complete

Removal of the porch bird is now complete. It is a very good thing that Abby has a soft side collapsible hamper, which worked well as a net. We are now back to 3 people and a dog in the house. No pests (knock on wood).

Here's another cute Abby in her Brazilian outfit. She is going to start packing her bag for Florida as soon as the 10 day forecast for the 24 comes out. We can't wait!

We started the car hunt yesterday. What a monumental task! Right away our first pick became close to our last pick. We took a Jeep Patriot out for a drive and decided quickly that it was a little too narrow in the backseat for a car seat and an adult (or in the future for two car seats and an adult or a car seat and a dog or any other combination). If it weren't for the cramped back seat, then it would still be a good choice. We also climbed into a Jeep Compass, which had less leg room in the backseat than the Patriot and was a no go. The Jeep Liberty seemed to be about right size wise, but we didn't drive it, just climbed in, so we don't know how that would ride. We also checked out a Ford Escape and thought it was pretty good, except that it wasn't as nicely made as we'd hoped (some wires and such were visible in the back and there wasn't as much space under the front seats for the backseat passenger to use for stretching out legs). It's a good thing Steve and I aren't too picky - we will be happy with whatever car we manage to find that has the space we need and falls into our budgeted amount and mileage (odometer, not gas mileage) requirements. Abby was a very good test rider yesterday, except that somewhere at the Jeep dealership she lost a boot and we were never able to find it. So, after all the testing we ended up at Walmart to buy a new set of shoes for Abby's little feet.

We are also cleaning for company. Those of you who know me well know that I don't place cleaning in my list of priorities very often - I'd rather spend time with people and helping others than being meticulous about having sparkling clean floors, counters, etc. In my mind there isn't going to be a crown in heaven for the person with the cleanest house, so I might as well focus my attention in areas where I can make an eternal difference. That being said, we are having company up next weekend, so cleaning is temporarily on the priority list. While we were cleaning out our single downstairs closet to make room for the Christmas decorations I found two old afghan starts. One was already big enough for a crib afghan, so Abby won that maroon and white beauty (the pattern isn't finished, so it looks a little odd, but then again I like odd, so it works). The other is being pieced together and stitched up, since it was a large granny square pattern. It's not quite baby colors, so we will have to see what I can do with it when it is done. And now... back to all that cleaning.

Eruption!

Abby's top left tooth is just about to break all the way through into her mouth! We all hope that will help with some of the general crabbiness we have been experiencing lately. And hopefully she starts getting to bed better at night. We had another late night last night, but while she was crying I was figuring out how to make a baby "Ugg" bootie, so it wasn't totally unproductive.

















We've been testing out my new sewing machine lately - it makes incredible stitches, like the flowers that we trimmed Abby's blanket with. The pattern is just as cool on the backside of the blanket as it is on the front. We can't wait to take a trip to JoAnn's Fabrics to pick up some more flannel to experiment with.

We've also been experimenting with our new camera reflector (that Steve got me for my birthday). We tried hard to get some cute pictures of Abby in her Brazilian outfit from our friends Fred and Vanda, but the little squirt wouldn't sit down and was wiggling all around! She is officially an escapee as well. I have to get all of our downstairs clean since Abby can now cruise from the living room into the dining room at record speed. We've also got to get the baby gates and cabinet locks up as soon as possible.

We barely got the Buick home last night. Since it was running straight off the battery, we knew it would be close. Steve made it all but the last 6 blocks with headlights and taillights. Good thing I was following him! God was also on our side - the car made it into the driveway and died before Steve could turn it off. It was a very exciting adventure! And now we are on to the next adventure - catching the European Starling that somehow flew into our back porch and now is stuck. The fact that it got in there says we may have a hole in the wall or something. Yikes! I almost had a heart attack when it flew up into my face while I was trying to do a load of laundry (since our washer and dryer are also living on the back porch). This could be a real trick...

Terrible Tuesday

We are having one of those days today - the terrible kind. The kind where you didn't get enough sleep the night before and the day starts way too early. Also the kind where your dog wakes you up from your nap right after you get to sleep. And the grouchy kind - we are all grouchy. And the cabin fever kind, with the weather too cold to leave the house and no car to leave anyway. And finally the kind where you don't feel good, but you still have to do everything you normally do because there is no one else around to do it.

This afternoon has to be better because it can't get worse!

And so that I don't have more of these terrible days, just a friendly reminder about the rules for calling our house.

1. Please try to avoid calling during nap times. They are always the same time of the day, every day, like clockwork. 10 am to noon and 2 pm to 4 pm are Abby's naps. Unless it absolutely can't wait, I'd appreciate your assistance in keeping her asleep by keeping our phones quiet.

2. After 9 pm we are all trying to get ready for bed and to get Abby to sleep. Unless the world is going to end if you don't call us right then, we would all appreciate our quiet, uninterrupted time for our nightly routine and Abby's bible story. One phone call when she is just about asleep adds 30 + minutes to our routine while we get her calmed back down and asleep again.

Now we know all of you, our family and friends, have watches and clocks and such, so if you want to avoid reading grouchy posts in the future, check them before you call!

We are going to make attempt 2 at getting the Buick back into our driveway. There was too much ice on the windshield for Steve to drive it last night, and, since it will be running straight off the battery and not recharging it, we won't be able to run the defrost on the drive home, so getting the ice off has to be done before the car is started. We will see if we can get it done tonight, otherwise we may be having it towed again. Then is the big process of trying to decide what to do with the poor old girl. If anyone wants a project and wants to tow the car away from here, let us know!

11 Degrees and Sunny, Wind Chill - 15

That is our forecast for today. No snow, we hope. We had a good day yesterday on my birthday. Abby was a little crabby, but when you are getting a new tooth that sort of thing happens. She also ate Shrek (or a whole mouthful of green beans without swallowing any of them). She is a really silly girl and she really, really loves her green beans!

We got some projects started yesterday and Steve finished a major one. We now have shelves in the bathroom closet that had previously been totally empty. It was a tricky fix, with it being a triangular closet and all, but Steve did a great job at getting 3 usable shelves into it. He's pretty handy, even if he doesn't know it!

We also started the new car search last night by driving around our local dealerships so that we can hopefully take a few vehicles out for a test drive next weekend and figure out what we like and don't like. So far the Ford Escape is our favorite from the outside, but just like people, the inside is usually most important. It was hard work scraping the snow and ice off the windows in the car lot to see what was available. And tinted windows over the spec. sheets wasn't too helpful! Plus riding around in the car was a good nap time for Abby, and she really needed it.

Abby learned how the ride the horse both forward and backward, but it is still bucking her off every once in a while. She is still learning that you can't lean over to grab things while riding the horse, so we've had a few bumps along the way. She always wants right back on her pony though, so she must be pretty tough!

Clean Sweep

We did a little (okay, a lot) of cleaning and reorganizing today to make room for new things and put some old messes away after 6 months of laying around. It was hard work. Abby's room is now sparkling clean, toys on the shelves, clothes in the dresser, too small things in the box. Whew... She was a great helper! Not only that, we got our room clean too and Steve is working on a set of shelves for the bathroom closet that was empty (just a big open waste of space). Soon our towels and sheets will be moving out of my bookshelf and into the closet so that our books can move out of Abby's room and into our own. That's a lot of moving for a little place like this.

We are retiring the 1998 Buick LeSabre that I've been driving since law school started. It died in the driveway before we could leave for the Christmas holiday and the repair bill was to close to the value of the car to make it worth spending the money on the poor old thing. So it is on to the great car hunt for us. So far we've decided we like cars and suv's better than crossover vehicles, so I don't think a Ford Edge or Flex will be ending up in our driveway anytime soon (unless we get a great deal that is). We are going to have to plan some extra time to go out car shopping since there aren't too many options up here. And test driving things with a toddler carseat, which is harder to switch from car to car, is not going to be that fun either. Poor Buick... we were planning to keep her around for a few more years.

Tomorrow I hit 27 - no big plans for my birthday since there isn't anything all that exciting we can really do up here. Maybe a baby free trip to the grocery store and some chinese takeout. Have a wonderful Sunday :-)