Thursday, April 30, 2009

Two down, one to go

I have ONE more final left. This one is tomorrow at 7 A.M. SEVEN. I mean, really? The earliest classes they offer don't even start until 8 A.M., so I don't know where the administration is going with this one. We shall see. This means I have to get up at around 6 A.M. Yeah...fun! Thank god it's only a math final. It should be easy breezy. I'm going to study here in a few minutes, but only reviewing and doing a few review questions from each chapter.

I sold my textbooks back today. $100. That's it. And I think I paid well over $300 for them at the beginning of the semester. I didn't sell one back, because I need it for my summer classes, but the three I did sell back, $100, total. I think one was only $10. What a joke. Got to love inflation!

My Juvenile Delinquency final was a joke. There was so much to commit to memory, it was impossible to remember everything. I shall see how I fare in that class.

My dad has been doing a wonderful job of watching Brooke. The other morning Brooke woke up and I could here her yelling at me from downstairs. I know this happens to other moms where you just can't seem to drag your ass out of bed, no matter how loud they are yelling. Sometimes it takes a little more time to pull yourself out of that deep sleep you were wallowing in. I knew she was O.K, that's why I didn't jump at the sound of her yells. I heard my dad go get her, and I thought I better get out to go see if he was O.K. So I get up and head downstairs. Right when I get to the bottom of the stair, my daughter comes running out of her room with her diaper on BACKWARDS. Yes ladies and gentlemen, her grandpa put her diaper on backwards. It was so funny I couldn't help but laugh. God bless his trying. :) So then yesterday grandpa watched her while I went to take my Lifespan Development final. I get home to a pretty funny story. Apparently my dad went downstairs momentarily to throw some laundry in the washer. He called up to her to make sure she was doing okay. She replied that she was so my dad decided to do one more thing while he was downstairs. When he got back upstairs, guess where my wonderful daughter was. At the pantry with the door open. My dad notices that she has something in her hand, but can't quite make out what it is. So he asks her. Her reply, "Cookie!" Well, my dad said it didn't look like a cookie so he went over to investigate. It was a chunk of brown sugar! My daughter had opened the brown sugar bag and was sucking on one of the hard lumps of sugar. That's my kid with the sweet tooth. Just like her mommy and daddy. My daughter would never pull that stunt with me around, but she knows that she has her grandpa wrapped around her little finger and because of that, she can get away with murder. Oh Brooke. He also had his first encounter with a poopy diaper. I'm not even going to get into that one. Let's just say that her changing mat was out on the balcony drying and smelled like bleach cleaning solution.

I need my dad to come visit more often. I was worried that he would get bored because at home he is such a busy body. Apparently my worrying was unnecessary. Since hes been here he has cleaned and reorganized the garage, organized parts of my house, washed both cars, changed the oil on Eric's car, cleaned and vacuumed my car, fixed things around the house, and he still has a list of things he wants to do. I love that my dad is a fix it man. :) I told him our Toyota is due for it's 100,000 check-up. He decided he's going to do it himself. Now I remember why I loved living at home. It was funny, when I lived at home or in Minneapolis, if I was having issues with my car I would call him up and imitate the sound it was making. I'm sure I sounded quite special, but he was able to diagnose the problem by just me sputtering a few sounds into the phone. I told my dad he can move in and take care of all the manly things around here. It's nice to have someone here taking care of that stuff, even if it is only for a few weeks.

It's gorgeous here in Anchorage, and I'm am completely bummed I can't enjoy it because I am constantly studying for finals. Hopefully the weather won't be as rainy as it's predicted to be next week. I'd really like to enjoy some time outside. We shall see!

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Quit stealing my life!

I have three more days of school. That means three days of finals. Gah! I have been studying my little tail off and hardly feel prepared. Most of it is my Juvenile Delinquency class. You know how most normal teachers test their students every few chapter throughout the semester? Nope. Not this one. Our final is on THE ENTIRE TEXT! All fourteen long chapters. So I have been studying my arse off for the past few days ('cuz he only gave us a study guide last Thursday) and I am so overwhelmed. Hopefully he'll realize what a pain this is and let us use our notes, then I'd be set. I have Lifespan Development terms and Juvenile Delinquency terms intertwining in my brain and it's getting me all muddled.

My dad is here! He got in last Wednesday. He got in the day before Brooke's 2nd birthday. The next day I had Brooke's party. We had it at House of Bounce. It's a place full of inflatable jumping apparatuses. Brooke had a blast (as you can see in the third picture). We had a great turn out and everyone had a lot of fun. My dad enjoyed meeting all my friends and they enjoyed meeting him as well. One of Brooke's little friends really took to my dad. It was super cute.




Apparently the twos bring very annoying stages. The latest one is, "Mommy...mommy...mommy ...mommy...mommy...mommy..." I think you get the point. And when you respond to her, she just gives you think blank stare. It's wonderful. :) You know what else is wonderful? Your kid finally going to sleep at 10 P.M. and then waking up bright and early at 7 A.M. WONDERFUL. I think lack of sleep is making me unusually sarcastic. :)

I listed some economy friendly booties! I mean, with the economy being so crappy right now and people still wanting their babies to look adorable, why not give back a little? These booties are super cute and very fashion forward and a steal! They are super lightweight for the summer coming up and are kick proof because of the ribbon. :) I honestly can't wait to have another little one so I can cover them in my crocheted items. Hahaha!


Someone wants to live my life. It's actually very irritating. I had taken pity on a mom when I lived in Louisiana. She was a new army wife and was clueless as to what the army life was like. So I befriended the girl and added her as a friend on Cafemom. Well, we move to Alaska and we stop talking, or she stops asking for advice. I didn't take her off my friends list either. A few months back I noticed that she had a baby girl and named her Brooke. Now, I know this may not seem very serious, but when we were talking (before she had her daughter) she gushed on and on about how cute my daughter's name was and blah blah. So it surprised me to all of a sudden see her newborn daughter's name was Brooke. I let it go. No big deal. We weren't even in the same state anymore. So yesterday I was browsing my friends profiles and came upon hers. I was scrolling down and read her blurb about her, and this is what I read (note the part in bold and in red),

"Hi,I am 23 year old I am a mother of 2 boys.Married to the love of my life who made me a Army wife.I am a SAHM .My older is walking and runing and jumping and my little one is stand and walk all by himself.He is also climb all over everything.I get along better with boys than girls. They cause too much drama.I am pregnancy with baby # 3 now!"

Ok, now this is MY about me, note the part in bold and in red,

"Brooke Anne was born April 23, 2007 and is absolutely perfect! I'm a Minnesotan to the core. I get bored easily and hate petty people. I'm blunt, comical, outgoing, over analytical, anal retentive, over achiever, perfectionist, a movie buff, I love to read and I get along better with boys than girls. They cause too much drama. I'm a hardcore Vikings fan and love the Wild. I could eat Korean food everyday and my new obsession is making hair bows! I love to travel. I love meeting new people. I make mistakes, but never make the same one twice."

Ok, so now you may say, "Well, it's simply a coincidence." Take a look at her grammar and my grammar. HUGE difference. My statement doesn't even FLOW with her statement, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Ugh. This is so irritating. I know it's only two lines, but they're mine. It irritates me that people steal other people's words.

Anyways. I had to rant.

Ok. I have to go shower then fed my kid. Then go take an excruciating final. Yay! (NOT!)


Thursday, April 23, 2009

My dad is here!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Crochet Crazy

This is my last week of school before finals. I am super excited to get done with this semester. This is the first year I have accomplished as a full-time student without failing a course. Ha. I know it may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but I drank myself out of my first year of college and then when I went back, I went back as a part-time student. It feels really good to be on my way to a degree. Finally. This summer I'm taking a math and English, and those classes start two weeks from finals. YIKES!

My friend Jenn and I went to see "17 Again" on Friday night. It was super duper cute! And we weren't the only twenty somethings in the theater. We were actually trying to figure out why there were a pair of guy friends sitting in front of us, and then one seat over there was a twenty something single guy, at the movie by himself. We came up with several different scenarios, but we really couldn't fathom any of them. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Haha. Anyways, the movie was super cute and not too teeney bopperish. Zac Efron was totally adorable. I would feel a lot better about my little crush if I were a few years younger. :/ Ha.

My dad comes to town on Wednesday and I have so much to do to get ready for him. I have to clean out my craft room because that's where I'm stashing him for the three weeks. I bought a twin sized blow-up mattress so that I'm still able to get in there if an order comes up. Speaking of orders, I got two of them in the past couple of days, so I worked on them a bit today, but the pressure of homework kept nagging my mind, so I finally went upstairs to get started on that. Back to my dad...I went to Barnes and Noble the other day and picked up Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist. Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's a few year back and this is one of the books he wrote about his journey. I thought it would be a good book for my dad to read. I asked if he had read any of them and he said no but that he wanted to. So I went and bought it for him as a little present. I hope he likes it. It looks like a very positive book, despite having such a debilitating disease. My dad is coping fairly well, but I think reading about someone elses obstacles will help him in his journey.

I've been super-duper busy this past weekend. I have gotten bored with the two afghans I started, so I went on to some other projects. Oops. I had some other projects I had completed but hadn't taken pictures of yet, so I finally got those done.

This is a set of dishcloths I made. I thought they turned out really well. They are super thick and nice. They are both made out of 100% cotton and I love the color combinations.
This is a pattern I bought off Etsy from ThreeAM. I ended up changing it a bit. I added a couple more rows so that the hat was a bit longer because I wanted the ears to be covered. But that's about the only thing I changed. It worked up fairly fast so I'm excited to make a couple more. The first picture is before I added the band. Both ways look super cute and the hat is super thick and warm. I know it's starting to warm up, but hey! I live in Alaska! Who knows! Haha.


I've also had a hankering to make a hat with a brim. Like a cloche/bucket hat. I couldn't find any patterns I liked, so I kind of crafted it from a couple of different patterns and then did my own thing as well. The second picture was actually the first one I made, and the hat my daughter is wearing is the second one I made. I actually like the style of the pink one better. I will have to add a couple rows to it the next time I make it because it wasn't as long as I wanted it to be. They look super cute on and are perfect for keeping the sun out of the eyes. These hats could easily be worn by boys as well, like a cute blue and white one would be adorable.


This is a pattern I use often, but I used a different yarn. I went to a high end yarn store with a friend of mine and found this super soft alpaca/bamboo blend. I wanted to buy all the colors, but at $10 per skein, I only chose one. I chose this one because I thought it would make a beautiful baptism/Christening cap. It is super delicate and would add that extra something sweet on that special day.


I also made a yellow beanie using the same pattern as above. That one would look super cute as a summer hat. It's also very airy so the little one wearing it wouldn't get too hot.

Anyways, I should get back to my homework. I really need to get this project done, even though it's not due till Thursday. I do have another assignment for another class due tomorrow, so I need to get that done as well.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

I need your votes!

Hey guys! I need you to go vote for my item in our ACT blog contest! I am the Springtime Clippy. :)

(Click the picture to take you to the contest!)


Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Excessive Stress= Eye Spasms

I've been living in a fog the last month or so. My daily life has been on auto drive and I've just been plowing through very ungracefully. I tend to put on a happy face, but I don't know if I can even do that anymore. I know I need to stay positive, but it's hard. The last couple of days my left eye lid has been spasming constantly. I finally googled it on WebMD and apparently they're caused by stress.

"Most of us have had these uncontrollable eye lid spasms ("blepharospasms") at one time or another. The triggers for eye lid spasms are fatigue, caffeine use, stress. Some treatments are pressure applied near to the twitching muscle, or even botox."

Botox? Really? Crap.

Hopefully I can settle when my dad comes and this semester is over. And yay to me being an overachiever and taking summer classes. Granted it's not a full 12 credits, but it's still time and stress. My friend says I need to drop something, but I don't think it's possible. I need to get my degree as soon as possible, that's why I'm trying to fast track. Eric has his career plans, so we're putting them on hold until I get my degree. (Can someone please make my eye stop twitching?)

There's a new show on T.V. called Southland. It's a cop show, but it seems different than the other ones out there. I tuned in because of Ben McKenzie.

He was previously on the television show "The O.C." Loved that show. Yes, I'm a teeny bopper in a 26 year olds body. It's my guilty pleasure, what can I say? Anyways, I tuned in and LOVED it. I like how there's a couple different story lines happening at one time. It will be interesting to see where the show goes from here. There are a couple of other great actors in this series, Regina King and Tom Everitt Scott.

This Friday I'm hoping for a girls night out. Every week I get together with a friend of mine and we either get the kids together to play or if there's a Parent's Night Out on base, we put our kids in child care and go have a cocktail or ten. This weeks Parent's Night Out is full, so we're trying to tie down a babysitter. We both really want to go see "17 Again" with Zac Efron.

Jailbait. I know. But he's adorable! (And he's 21 so he's really not jailbait) The movie looks cute with light hearted humor that will take our minds off of our stresses and our romance free life. :) Living vicariously through fictional characters seems to be a very prominent theme in my life lately.

I signed up for a Costco membership. I had a Sam's Club membership a couple years ago, but let it run out because 1. the nearest Sam's Club to us in Louisiana was an hour away and 2. we were moving. So I had thought about renewing but never got around to it. Well, the other day ago I got a coupon booklet in the mail from Costco and decided to go in to see what they were all about. Twenty minutes later I stroll through the entrance with the executive membership. Yes, I got talked into the $100 membership versus the $50 membership. Their selling points? 2% annual cash back with a minimum $100 check (if my 2% doesn't reach the $100 mark, I automatically get $100 back), a $20 Costco card, and monthly coupon booklets PLUS additional coupons for being military. We'll see if it's worth it. If anything I can use the $100 I get back and put it towards renewing my membership. Brooke and I wandered around for about forty minutes and I was completely overwhelmed with the excessive bulk items. But I was able to use a few of the coupons and completely forgot to use the cash card they gave me.

I have so much to do before my dad gets here. I really need to clean the house. I mean, the whole house. I try and keep the upper living area clean, but my downstairs is a completely different story. We don't do anything down there but come and go, so the clutter doesn't really slow us down. But now that my dad is coming and going to be staying in the third bedroom/craft room, I need to make sure he can get to the bathroom without tripping. That will be my weekend project. Maybe. Oh dear. I hate cleaning.

Ok. I really should get to my homework. Only two more weeks of stress and headaches. Maybe my eye twitches and stress will go away? One can hope right?


Thursday, April 9, 2009

Thursday = 4 day weekend!

I have two weeks of school left before finals. This semester flew by. Eric left in the middle of it, so maybe that's why. I registered for classes on Tuesday. It took me two hours to figure out my schedule and what classes in wanted/needed to take. It's hard to block your schedule a certain way. I try and schedule all my classes in the morning so that I have time to study in the afternoon while Brooke is sleeping. Two days out of the week I keep Brooke at daycare for a full day, just so I have a few hours to get homework done. It's impossible to get anything accomplished when she's awake. This summer I'm taking two classes. I'm taking an English class and math class. In the fall I'm taking math, intro to logic, another English, and history. Wow. I'm kind of rethinking the history. Its funny. I think it took me so long to pick my classes because I choose my professors from www.ratemyprofessor.com Funny and neurotic I know, but I don't want to end up with a biased/unfair teacher. I did the same thing when I registered for these spring classes, and so far they are spot on. We'll see. I have to do fall semester with Eric gone for the whole thing, so hopefully I won't be too overwhelmed.

I'm having a couple friends over tonight. Every weekend a couple friends and I get together to just hang out. It's nice because my friend Jenn's husband is deployed as well, so this gives us time to socialize and just take our minds of things while our daughter's play. Tonight it's my night to host, so I'm making this garlic, vegetable, shrimp pasta dinner with caesar salad. I've never made it before, so if we die...Happy thoughts!

I felt my first earthquake the other day. I was sitting in one of my classes and all of a sudden it felt like someone had just kicked the back of my chair really hard. I asked the girl next to me if she had felt it, and she had. She then confirmed that it was in fact and earthquake. YIKES. So not only do we have volcanoes erupting, we have the earth shifting. And if the earth shifts in the ocean close enough to the shoreline, we could have a tsunami. NEXT PLEASE!

Brooke is really starting to talk. She was talking before, but now she's starting to put sentences together. Her cognitive abilities are growing too. She has this tendency to put things in her mouth (I blame that on her dad's genetics as well) so she'll often pluck her hair bows out of her hair and stick them in her mouth when I let her watch a show. I notice, tell her not to do it, but she'll keep doing it. Finally I just turn the t.v. off and tell her why I did it. Well, she's two, so she pitches a fit. About a minute later I ask her if she knew why I turned the T.V. off and she replies, "Hair bow. Mouth." That's pretty dang good for a two year old. :) Anyways, Brooke has her favorite sentences like, "Uh-oh! I messy!" She loves, "Uh-oh!" and usually proceeds to add something else to it like, "I messy!" or "I drop!", or "Help! I stuck!" It's hard to keep a straight face and be serious because her face is so expressive.

I made this chicken stir-fry the other night, and I had to take pictures of Brooke eating because she was too comical. She LOVES noodles, especially the long noodley kind. She slurps them right up and doesn't even bother chewing. I blame that on her father's genetics. :) Brooke is a VERY good eater and isn't too picky.

This is her getting frustrated because the noodles weren't staying on her fork...

She's pouting because I wouldn't let her have any of my pop.

"Oh-oh mommy! Hands messy!"

"I've gone cross-eyed looking at my cuppo."

Brooke in the sweater grandma knit for her

The view from our balcony


Saturday, April 4, 2009

I can't believe the weekend is almost over...Really?

Tomorrow I am going to the most delicious brunch EVER. A hotel in town has the best buffet brunch ever with desserts to die over. I am so excited!

I joined a new group on Etsy. It's called EtsyBABY and they seem like a great group of artisans! I am super excited to really get involved and get to know some of these wonderdful ladies! This group caters towards babies and young toddlers. They are a very talented group of crafters who specialize in high end boutique quality items.Just search " etsyBABY team" (without the qoutation marks) and you will get a wide variety of great items for baby!

Ah school. What to say about school. I just have to finish this one paper, and my stress level will hopefully plummet. I am so burnt out, I need a long vacation. Thank goodness my dad is coming to visit in a few weeks, maybe then I can get some breathing time. Brooke will love having Grandpa Tom here, for he is one crazy, funloving Grandpa!

And now for some ADORABLE pictures of my daughter. Hard to resist, isn't she?


This is my monkey wearing some of my unsellable creations. She loves mommy's castoffs!

My daughter is a strange cookie. She's sitting in an empty laundry basket watching Sunday morning cartoon...haha.


One of her pretty face.

Going down the huge inflatable slide at one of friend's birthday party. Love the face!

She insisted that she needed her legwarmers on. (Purchased from Fategoddess from etsyBABY!!!)

And one of her beautiful, crooked, toddler smiles.



Friday, April 3, 2009

A giveaway! An Adorable Beanie!

My Artfire (a site to sell handmade crafts) group is having a giveaway! They are giving away a hand crochet pink beanie for your little one! Go check it out! It's pretty cute! And spread the word!


***** Click the picture! *****