Mommie Marzie

I love Google. My oldest was eating a banana and asked where they come from—this is a new obsession of his “where do eggs come from?” “Where do pork chops come from?” And he’s not at all bothered by the answers when we say chicken or pig. Sounds good to him. So I tell my GB1 that they come from trees. Then I Googled a banana tree image. (first I had to spell banana right. I ended up relying on Gwen Steffani lyrics: “B Bananas B-A-N-A-N-A-S”. Thanks to her millions of kids everywhere now know how to spell banana. Millions of moms too.)

Him: “Mom. They are green.”

Me: “Yup. They start out green and turn yellow.”

He’s happy. Eating his banana. Now if it’ll only warm up enough so he can play outside without complaining about the cold. Isn’t it amazing how after a warm spell 50° feels cold?

BTW, we started painting last night. Wahoo!!! The walls look good but need a second coat. The Country Beige was looking a little yellow-ish to me while we were painting. But it looks so good. Much better than how the walls looked before we started this whole process.

I’m going crazy this week and it’s only Tuesday! Goofball #1 doesn’t have school all week. His preschool follows the school district’s schedule so he is off for Spring Break. And I say Bah Humbug to that! If I would have been thinking ahead and if finances were better I think we would have gone to the coast. I started looking Sunday to see if we could find an economical place to stay this coming weekend. But no. I’m not paying over $100 a night for cheap motel! And Joe says he would rather wait till the summer to go to the coast. That sounds good to me. But now I feel like I’m getting cabin fever!

Yesterday the weather was so dreary. Grey and rainy and too cold to send the kids out to play. First they colored all over their arms with markers. Then they played in their rooms and made big huge messes! All the toys and books were all over the place. And to top it off I was grumpy. For some reason Mondays are the hardest for us… Joe goes back to work and the boys and I get on each others nerves. Maybe if GB1 weren’t so much like me we wouldn’t butt heads so much.

The good thing about yesterday was all the phone calls. I talked to my Mom, my sister Dena, my sister Nann, and my friend Khris. I’ll go days without a call and them wham-o! Maybe they knew I wasn’t having the best day.

At least we have sun today so maybe we can spend some time outside. I just don’t know what to do to keep them both busy. And I want them busy so I can sew. I’m itching to pull out the sewing machine. Maybe after lunch… If the weather keeps nice they can go play out back (thank goodness for a fenced in yard!!!) and I can sew inside.

I’m amazed every day about how much my Goofballs are growing and learning. Goofball #1 is just so smart. A few days ago I was wearing a sweatshirt that had “BOSTON” on the front. He was able to name all the letter except the N. I was amazed. And in preschool he is working on beginning math. I’m glad we were able to find a good preschool. I just don’t have the patience to try and teach him this stuff. Before I enrolled him in preschool I would try to teach him stuff but it got to the point that he wouldn’t even want to color with me. (I’m very thankful he’s not a girl because I think the head butting thing would be much, much worse!!)

Goofball #2 is smart too! His vocabulary is growing like crazy and it’s getting a bit easier for me to understand him. And now he will talk on the phone. Of course, the only words he uses while on the phone are “hello”, “uh-huh”, and “bye”. GB2 is also going through a stage involving shoes. Last night I took off his shoes so I could put his PJs on and he had a little fit. Then this morning he wanted his shoes on and got mad when I took off his PJs and put on his pants before putting on his shoes. Sheesh! I think he just loves being outside and shoes = outside to him.

This post is inspired by Randi at i have to say… Her theme today is spring cleaning. The two worst spots in my house are in the kitchen/dining area.

Just look at that picture! The top part of the picture is a counter in my kitchen. It accumulates stuff. Joe and I try to clean it off but it just accumulates more and more stuff. I keep thinking that if I buy/make some sort of organizer I’ll be able to keep it clean and clear. It’s just such a convenient spot to drop the purse and whatever else when I walk in the door. You’d think that since I have so little counter space in my kitchen I would try even harder to keep this nice but no can do.

The bottom part of my picture is my sewing stuff. I had it all put away for a few weeks. But if I want to sew I need my stuff handy. And now I think I have so much stuff that it’s not going to fit back into the bottom of my closet. At least it won’t if I plan on keeping my shoes in there too! Just yesterday Joe made a comment about my mess. So I guess it’s time to seriously put it away again. Who knows how long that will last, though.

BTW, we saw the TMNT movie Saturday. The boys LOVED it. I liked it too. Joe and my Goofballs wore their eye masks. But they won’t model for me to take a picture.

The boys are playing with cars and Star Wars figures. It’s so cute to see them play together. Silly boys!

But they are annoying me by playing with the texture on the wall (little white flakes on the floor in the pictures). They’re scratching it up and peeling it off. I have to buy paint today and get busy painting the walls so they will leave them alone! Home Depot here we come!

Seriously. I can’t be the only one who sees this? Surely Addidas hired a man to design this. No woman in her right mind would design a logo for soccer balls and apparel (it’s even on one of my son’s soccer shirts) that looks like it has a feminine hygiene product stuck on it. ‘Nuff said!

I thought the saga of the truck was over, but I was wrong.

Joe’s gout is acting up really badly—so bad that he can’t even walk. He stayed home from work today and I took him to the doctor’s office. (Yeah, we are insurance-less for about another month. But I’d much rather pay for a visit to the doctor than have him miss work for the rest of the week. Plus, he needed some pain meds so he can try to sleep.) I was feeling like the mom of three by carrying coats and opening doors and doing all the mom things for my two Goofballs plus Joe. And the boys were so hyper! Waiting for Joe’s scripts was not a fun thing. Plus GB2 had a little freak-out thinking we were at the doctor’s office for him. After his last visit I don’t think he’ll ever happily go to the doctor again!

We were finally done at the clinic and we all trooped out to the truck and piled in.

The. Truck. Doesn’t. Start.

AAAAHHHHH!!!!! I popped the hood and tried to do something. I took the connection off and put it back on but it was a no go.

I tried calling my friend to see if she was at home for lunch. No answer. I called a lady from church. No answer. I handed the phone to Joe and told him to call the auto shop because I was fighting back the tears and just couldn’t make the call. The guy from the shop, Todd, came to our rescue. He came to the clinic and worked with the truck to get it started. Then we followed him to the shop. He re-cleaned the battery connections and put new bolts on. All for only $35. I would have paid much more because he came to our rescue.

I hope that’s the end. I’m not up for more truck drama.

Gosh! It’s been one of those productive sewing days which means I’ve not been very productive elsewhere in my life.

I started out making the eye masks for my guys for the TMNT movie. We’re going on Saturday so I figured I better hurry and make them. It took some trial and error but I finally got something that seems to work. I tried to get my Goofballs and Joe to model them for a picture but it quickly turned into the three of them playing Ninja Turtles and jumping and yelling and having fun. So no picture today. Maybe I can get one on Saturday.

I also made wallets for my Goofballs. I just made simple tri-folds with Velcro out of a Superman print and tie-dye print (once again, left over PJ material). They were pretty excited. But I think one of them has already lost the dollar I put in them.

As an added bonus the UPS guy came by. I totally wasn’t expecting it. If I would have read my e-mail earlier I would have had a heads up. My sister Carrie sent me a nice surprise! Her note said that she sent me some “orphan projects” that she abandoned, some patterns she got for free from the store she used to work at, felt and patterns for puppets from my mom, and treats for my boys. AWESOME! I am still so happy. It’s enough to keep me busy for quite a while. WAHOO!!

And then there is the story of our truck… Yesterday we got in it to go to church and it wouldn’t start. My uneducated guess was that the started needed replacing. So we piled in our second car. (We hate our second car. We bought it soon after moving to Oregon and we had a small budget so it’s not a fabulous car.) My job for today was to call the auto repair shop to get it in and fixed. I did it. And arranged for them to come tow it. I had to drive around in the car to take GB1 to school. It’s sad, but I was kind of embarrassed driving it around. So the guy comes to tow the truck which was parked in the garage. The first thing he did was try to start it. And guess what. You guessed right if you guessed that the truck started. I felt like an idiot! 1- I should have tried starting it. 2- I drove around in the crap car for no reason. 3- I wasted the guy’s time. 4- Hallelujah I don’t have to pay to fix it! The guy said that it was probably bad battery connections that need to be cleaned. I’m not mechanically inclined so can I be blamed? I think not. Thanks for cleaning the battery Joe!

I saw this way cute doll quilt on Vicki’s blog and it got me to thinking… My Goofball #2 has been carrying around his bear in a much folded up receiving blanket which gets bulky and the bear falls out and all sorts of stuff. I had an internal debate about making a doll quilt for a boy. And if I do it for one boy I have to do it for both boys. (Thanks to Michelle of Green Kitchen for her thoughts on it) So I did it. Not a cutsie pieced one—I thought Joe might think of that as being too girly. I pulled out some fabric that I used last year to make PJs for the boys. (I seem to have an issue with buying too much fabric for PJs.) I didn’t have any leftover batting so I used some flannel as batting, heck, it doesn’t need to be super soft and comfy. I just sandwiched the flannel between to pieces of the fabric RST and sewed around. I turned it, did a zig-zag top-stitch then straight stitched some concentric rectangles and Voila! The boys LOVE them! GB1’s is Star Wars and GB2’s is dinosaurs. I was constantly re-wrapping the bear and pony so I ended up using a safety pin to secure the blankets. I’m happy to say that Joe didn’t seem bothered by the boys having doll blankets. Because really, they aren’t for dolls, they are for one bear and one pony.

I also but together a blanket top yesterday. My sister Nann sent me these pre-cut 5” Moda squares. So soft and pretty. I put it together yesterday. It’s going to go with me in a few months to Utah and I’ll have my mom help me tie it into a cute little baby blanket.

And then I had read in the paper of a lady selling fabric for $1 yard. I had to check it out. The lady said that her eye sight is so poor now that she can’t sew any more. I felt terribly for her! She was mostly selling off knits and poly-icky-ester. I did grab three pieces of fabric, though.

The two floral prints were just about the only cotton fabrics she was selling. I thought they would make awesome bags or lining for bags. The yellow/green piece has three yards, the white with blue/red flowers has two yards. (Joe said “What are you going to do with it? More bags? What are you going to do with the bags?” Does he not realize that a girl can never have too many bags or shoes? So maybe I’ll send them to my sisters and/or nieces.) And then I picked up a piece of poly-icky-ester. I just L-O-V-E-D the print. It’s kind of a Mexican looking print. I brought it home thinking “What the junk am I going to do with that?” And then I thought it would make a kickin’ skirt. And I have a pattern so… The only probably is that I would have to wear a slip and I don’t know that I have a half slip that will be long enough to go with it. Hmmm… Oh, and I also got these craft magazines for free. Most of them look older than me but I thought I might find something cool in them. I was pretty happy with my finds.

My sister Carrie sent me this quote. It’s something I need to remember when I’m having one of those “bad” days. 

Courage does not always roar. Sometimes, it is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow”. – Anonymous 

I’M FETCHING TIRED! Last night, as I sat on GB2’s floor trying to sneak out of his room without waking him, I realized that I haven’t slept through the night in more than two years. AND I’M FETCHING TIRED OF IT! (Fetching. It’s a Utah word.)

Let me give you the example of how my night was last night. The boys were in bed by 9. I didn’t go to bed till 11. GB2 woke me up at 1:30. I took him back to his bed. I was pretty tired so I squished in his bed with him and fell asleep for about an hour. But I then spent the next 2 1/2 hours awake trying to sneak out of his room without waking him. Finally I went back to my bed around 5 and fell asleep. After Joe went to work, which I’m sure he gave me a kiss good-bye but I was so DANG tired that I can neither confirm nor deny if he did, GB2 woke up and came into my room. I put him in my bed and rolled over to Joe’s side of the bed and slept until 9 when GB1 woke me.

I know GB2 does not have good sleep habits. He was not quite two-months-old when we sold our house in Utah and moved to Bend, OR. In Bend we rented a two-bedroom apartment. We put the boys together in one room. MISTAKE. GB2 would wake up every two hours (this happened until he was 9 months—then it switched to ever three to four hours). I had baby monitor in the room and would hurry up in there when he would wake. If I didn’t he would wake up GB1. GB1 would yell “BE QUIET BABY!” (Yes, we don’t say “shut up” in our family so he yelled “be quiet.”) We told GB1 to not yell at GB2 so that resulted in GB1 crying instead. Enough was enough and Joe and I moved GB2 into our room. Where I would wake up with him quickly so he wouldn’t wake Joe up. GB2 has his own room now, but he has never learned to fall back asleep on his own and now I’m paying for it.

As if I don’t have big enough sleep issues of my own (went to a neurologist for an overnight sleep study back in ’04 and was diagnosed with insomnia, mild sleep apnea, and periodic limb movement disorder), I have to deal with this. It’s exhausting. Really. I don’t know what I would have done if I would have gone back to work after he was born. I’d be a walking zombie or something.

I’ve come to the realization that this may be why I drink so much Coke. Caffeine. So I can somewhat function.

I’m tired.