Paying Our Dues

Talk about weather extremes! Friday we enjoyed nearly 60 degree weather. Oh boy! We played outside for hours enjoying the sunshine. Today it was only about 30 degrees outside with frosty trees. For some reason (the wind?) we don't get frost very often. This morning we woke up to "princess trees" clothed in a delicate layer of white frost. Tomorrow we are forecasted some snow and temps around -4.

I am continuing my quest to clean closets and hidden places around the house. This week I tackled my craft room (yikes) and went through my fabric. I cleaned out our bedroom and bedroom closet. While decluttering the store room I decided to either throw out or utilize our 10 gallon fish tank. Amelia voted to set up the tank. We now have 4 new platy fish swimming happily in our dining room. Phillip loves to bang the glass and give the poor fish heart failure. I made another couple trips to Salvation Army to donate stuff...and collect some more stuff. I found an entire collection of pristine Bernstein Bears books on Tuesday and a couple fun toys. My prop closet got a little organization as well. Luckily, Family Dollar has their organizing totes on clearance so I picked up quite a few new plastic boxes to organize stuff in.

My dang hand is giving me more and more grief. Crocheting is impossible...I had to make a couple newborn hats this week for an old order. My hand is still numb! I tried embroidery, that was even worse. Cutting, sewing, playing piano, typing on the computer, cooking, driving, anything that I close my fingers around is highly uncomfortable. Needless, to say I am going crazy not being able to do my normal activities. Last night I made some fabric flowers using silk left over from Amelia's princess dresses. I must say the flowers are darling!

Alison watched my kiddos again on Thursday. I really needed a break this week. With Justin gone all day and into the night getting a tag team break is impossible. Phillip is a holy terror lately. Can't take that kid anywhere. So, with the kids gone I took a nice nap. After lunch my new monitor and computer books came in the mail. I organized the computer area while setting up my new monitor. It took me a while to get the new monitor calibrated. I hope to work on a chapter a day in my new books to figure out Lightroom and Photoshop. Then, I went to the chiropractor again for acupuncture, massage, and an adjustment. Ah! Bliss. Alison, you are a life saver.

I tried to forget about Monday night. One of my photographer friends here in Nebraska opened a new photo studio in her backyard. She held an open house Monday night. I really wanted to go and see what she had worked on for so many months. We drove 40 minutes to her new studio. Within three minutes of arriving Phillip discovered the pulley and weighted chains. He tangled all her cords in just seconds. Amelia made about three plates of food for her stuffed animal and spread them all over the floor. Then she started to bite cookies and put them back on the serving dishes. While I wrassled Amelia, Phillip moved on to find the only toilet in the building. He had one foot in the toilet and almost had his hair wet by the time I got to him. During that time Amelia started talking to all the folks in the building, dancing, and pestering the guests. Phillip went on to smash his face into the coffee table. All this in only 4-5 minutes. We left. Grrrrr.

Justin thought it would be fun to have a nice sit down restaurant dinner on Friday. Oh man...not a good idea. Phillip was all over the place. He put the utensils in the lemonade carafe, dipped his crackers in Justin's salad (very messy), and commenced to enjoy his dinner by dipping his chicken into anything near his plate. In between that we somehow managed to keep him inside the booth trapped between Justin and I. He was not happy about that and let everyone know. Little soul is now grounded from excursions until he is about 5. Amelia was never that crazy. Right about now I am really hoping for a girl! Thinking about having a boy is making me tired.

**Stay Tuned!!! Wednesday is our ultrasound!! Will we welcome more pink or more blue??
***I am also uploading more new home movies of the kids this evening. YouTube, my "channel" is jolligirl77