Another Party Idea

This Friday/Saturday our church is having a Ladies Slumber Party (slumber optional). There will be lots of scrapbooking going on over the two days, as well as some eating and fellowship. This is my idea of a girls-only party - food, friends, and crafts. I am a big craft person, but I rarely have time to do it. I actually haven't even started AJU5's scrapbook. Luckily for me, she wrote a letter every month for the first year and then one at 15 months. This is going to make it easier for sure!

Another thing I have done is create a collage (using Picasa) for each month a major event. I am having 28 (8x10s) of these printed a Costco (I pick them up this afternoon). I still need to go through here and pull of all of the major milestone dates (as well as emails of these as well). Hopefully I will be able to at least get a good start on the scrapbooks this weekend!

Do you scrapbook? Are you crafty? How far behind are you on your kids' baby books?

Partying Some More!

So, this has been a weekend of partying!

Saturday, AJU5 was invited to a 2 year old's birthday party at Chucky Cheese. It was CRAZY! But, she seemed to really like it. She loved playing with the balls (Skee Ball) and riding some of the rides. She even left the group (while I was turning in our tickets) to play skee ball on her own (luckily we found her quickly). We lost one other kid- he was hiding in the tunnels while Chucky was on stage (he is aftraid of Chucky). Luckily, after about 5 minutes of looking, he came down (as Chucky was done on the stage).

Yesterday was AJU1's 30th birthday. I ordered him a cake Saturday and had a friend pick it up so we could have it at church. It was good to surprise him! He didn't want anything for his birthday (he had already bought himself stuff a few weeks earlier), so that was all we did. But, it was fun none the less.

Have you done any real partying during the Ultimate Blog Party?

What is a perfect party for you?

Home Improvement Saturday - Grout

Well, last week a took a week off from the Home Improvement posts to ski. Can you blame me? There was no home improvement going on at the house, so I didn't post about any of the projects we had completed. But, it is back again!

The last two posts have been about tiling. The last step in tiling is grouting (and sealing). Grout it the stuff between the tiles. For really small grout lines, you use unsanded grout. But, we have only used the sanded grout since we have stuck with the larger grout lines (all floor tile should have sanded grout). The first thing you have to do is decide the color of the grout. There are lots of options! One thing you might want to do is see if the brand/color comes in caulk as well, as it may come in *handy in the future.

Now, for how to grout. First you have to mix the stuff with water (and the big beater bar you used when you mixed the thin set). The bag will give you proportions. BUT, I recommend not adding that much water to begin with. It is a lot easier to add more water as you go until it gets to the right consistency. You want something that is a brownie or cake batter consistency - something that you can move around but isn't too thin. Once you have it mixed (and waited and mixed again according to the bag directions), then you have two options for application. You can put the grout into a bag and squeeze it into the cracks like a pastry bag or you can use the grout floats and just cover the floor. Personally, I like to just cover the floor. But, if you are doing a small area (like an entry), it might be easier. Either way, the goal is to fill the grout lines so that they are level with the tile. Then you want to let it dry a LITTLE. Once a haze appears on the tiles, you can start cleaning them. Use a tile sponge - removing as much water as possible before wiping the tiles. Move diagonally across the tiles so you don't remove too much out of the grout lines. For the first pass, you just want to smooth the grout lines out and get some of the excess off the top of the tiles. Then, once another haze appears, you can focus on getting the tiles a little cleaner. Rinse the sponge out more often and replace the water more often to get a fairly clean looking tile (it will still have a haze though). Let it dry for a few hours and then go back over it again. After 3-4 sponging ones, you can mop it with a fairly dry mop.

The grouting itself isn't hard. But the cleaning can take a long time! It can be a fun party activity though! Just make sure your guests don't like to throw mud...

Up next: Cabinets!

* We are using the caulk where the new floor meets the tile to fill the gap. We also used it in the bathrooms around the tub, etc.

PICTURES TO COME LATER (my computer is fighting a nasty Trojan, so getting to the files is a pain).

Ultimate Blog Party 2009

First, let me introduce myself and the other main characters in this blog.

I am AJU5's Mom. Yes, I do have a name, but I like to keep my blog as anonymous as possible. I teach online math classes for the local community college (I worked full time before becoming a mom). I am also a Christian and very involved in my church. As for hobbies, our house remodel has taken all of our time the last 16 months. But, I used to love hiking, skiing, and crafts (including scrapbooking).

AJU5 is my 15 month old daughter. She is our first - but hopefully not our last here on earth. She is already a big sister with a baby brother or sister in heaven (miscarriage). As for her hobbies, there is the daily walking, playing, eating, and sleeping. She loves to have all of Mommy or Daddy's attention or to play with other kids.

AJU1 is my husband. He works. He is a dad. He enjoys the same hobbies as me (except not the crafts). Other than that, he stays out of the blog...

I have a second blog - http://ssumusings.blogspot.com - where I post about more controversial topics - faith, religion, politics, etc. This blog is a mommy blog. I limit the posts to family, work (since many of my readers are also involved in education), and home remodeling.

Now for some partying!

Get your favorite drink and snack.
Turn on your favorite music.
Dance with your kids and have fun!

The Whole U Gang Last Weekend
(we are on the far right)

Cross Post...

I thought I would "promote" a post I made on my other blog on birth control. The point of this post was not to say one method is best or one method is wrong. Instead, I wanted to inform others about the moral objections some have to different forms of birth control. The idea came after reading two blogs. One was about the Duggar family and the wedding episode. I read some of the comments, and although I definitely don't want that many kids, I felt the comments were a bit harsh. The commenters didn't seem to understand at all any of the moral issues the Duggars had faced in the past about birth control. The second post was by someone I know about how they got pregnant while not trying. She explained some of the struggles they had morally deciding what birth control to use, etc.

So, please read it and see if there is anything in the post that you didn't know. I don't care if you have no problem with any of the forms of birth control. But, I wish people weren't so rude about others not wanting to use certain methods.

Girlie-Girl or Not

AJU5 has some girlie-girl in her, but not completely:
She loves to play with her doll these days - she holds her, hugs her, "feeds" her, etc.
She had ZERO interest in dresses at Target yesterday. She was a lot more interested in the pants, skorts, shorts, and t-shirts.
She loves to play outside.
She also loves to just sit in my lap and snuggle.

So, will she be a girlie-girl or not? I am actually hoping that it is not. I am not a girlie-girl. I don't mind dresses/skirts when I am dressing up, but day to day I prefer pants or shorts. I love to do active things like hiking and skiing - especially over mall shopping.

Are you a girlie-girl? If you have a daughter, do you wish that she will be a tom boy or a girlie girl?

Big Girl Car Seat It Is

AJU5 had her 15 month check up today. She is now 20lbs 8.5 oz! That is a big gain - jumping the curve a little even. Her height jumped curves too - she is now 30in tall. Her head is 48cm - large as always. So, as a result of this big weight gain (even in the last month since she was sick), she is no longer within the weight limit for the infant carrier. So, while she slept in the infant carrier (in the car), I installed her big girl car seat on the other side. She has ridden in this car seat in AJU1s car around Christmas and this past weekend. So, she is "used to" it already. We are going to let her face forward, as she seems to be strong enough and all.

When did you turn your child around? When did you go from the infant carrier to the big kid car seat?

P.S. I do listen to AJU5 regardless of what she said in her last post. I just don't always do what she wants me to do!

Why Does Mommy Not Listen?

Hi. Mommy doesn't know I am on the computer right now. So, I thought I would make a quick post about her inability to listen to me.

Why can't she understand that I don't want to use my sippy cups? The cups Mommy and Daddy use are so much more fun. They let me drink out of them sometimes, but they are always watching me. Can't I drink in private?

Also, why won't Mommy let me go without my diaper? It is very annoying to always have that thing attached to me. I try and try to get away before she gets it completely on, but she is too fast/strong for me. I have taken it off a few times, but normally she puts clothes on me that make it very hard to get to the diaper. It just isn't fair...

Finally, why won't Mommy let me run around outside? She always has to be right next to me. Something about a street is normally what she says. But, I like my freedom. I like to walk around outside in the nice warm sun. People out there always comment on how cute I am. How can I get those comments if I just stay next to Mommy?

Well, I think Mommy is coming to find me, so I better go.

Love, AJU5

Great Weekend!

We went on a trip this past weekend. We met AJU1's family in the town that his brother (AJU3) lives right now (he is a ski instructor). We left Thursday and came back yesterday. Here is a run down of the weekend.

Thursday:
Less than a mile from home I realized that I didn't have my wedding ring on. We returned to home in hopes of finding it. After twenty minutes we gave up. The finger is smaller now than it was when I got married, so it can slip off. I don't want to get it resized until I am done with kids though, as it could get larger again!
AJU5 did pretty good on the trip. She slept/played for the first 3 hours. Then she wanted to eat. Unfortunately, there wasn't an open fast food restaurant open yet. So, she had to wait until about four hours in. Then she made it the last five or so hours without stopping (we stopped about 45 minutes after lunch for gas). She would have been more than happy to stop about an hour earlier, but there aren't good places to stop!
Once we got to the hotel and checked in, we emptied the car. While I was emptying the back seat, I found my ring! I was so happy. Shortly after getting everything to the room, AJU3 showed up and we went to Olive Garden for dinner. Then it was back to the hotel to hang out/rest until more of the family showed up (around 11pm).

Sleep: AJU5 ended up in our bed in the middle of the night. It is SO much fun to have a little one sleeping on your head/shoulder...

Friday:
After breakfast at the hotel, we got ready to go skiing. AJU5 stayed with her grandma - shopping, etc. It was great to ski since I hadn't in almost two years. Skiing is like riding a bike - you don't forget how! I was surprised that I didn't get tired or warn out before the guys!
After heading back to the hotel, we hung out and had dinner. Then we headed to Cabela's for a while. AJU5 fell asleep in the car on the way there. She stayed asleep in AJU1's arms until we tried to switch (AJU1 was getting tired). Then she rode around in the cart. She was happy as long as we were looking at the animals/fish. But, she was exhausted! She didn't fall asleep on the way back to the hotel because she saw her cup. She wanted her milk, but the cup was empty! It was not a fun 10-15 minutes ride back to the hotel.

Sleep: AJU5 slept like the night before - in our bed by around 2am.

Saturday: Around midnight, the other two showed up (AJU2 and his wife- they had to work on Friday). The rest of the day was somewhat like Friday. Skiing for the guys and I, AJU5 with Grandma and Aunt K. This time the "girls" went up to the mountain to ride on the tram and look around. By the end of the day though, I was tired/sore. My shins got bruised as usual, so I was worn out for sure. Back at the hotel, we had dinner and watched TV as a family. There was some picture taking, but as usual they are still on the camera.

Sleep: Same as before, except this time she was thristy as well at 1:30am (and 6am).

Sunday: After breakfast, we packed up, said goodbye, and hit the road. The others headed to church, but because it was in the opposite directions of where we were headed and it would make us get home quite late, we just left. AJU5 did fairly well this way as well. She wished to get out more, but it wasn't too bad.

One thing I did learn on this trip is that I am glad to be a stay at home/work at home mom. It felt weird not knowing what AJU5 was doing during the day. I missed seeing her experience the snow/tram ride. I missed being with her. Skiiing was great. I got to spend time alone with my husband on the lifts quite a bit. But, I missed my little one!

Now life is back to normal for a few more months probably - no trips scheduled/planned until May. Home Improvement Saturday will return this Saturday with grouting.

Product Review Friday - Toddler Chairs

AJU5 got one of the Wal-Mart plush toddler chairs for her birthday. She loves it now! She sits in it and reads books at least daily. If we try to use it as a pillow (it is the perfect height), she will lift our head (by the hair) so she can get in. Although I don't necessarily love that they only come in commercial characters, for $20, I can live with that. There are also other kinds of toddler chairs out there. At church, there is a rocking chair her size that she likes as well as a table and chairs set. The one problem with the table and chairs set is that she can climb on top of the table (by climbing on the chair first). So, I am going to wait and buy her a table and chairs when she is older (and won't climb on the table hopefully).

My recommendations:
Buy some sort of toddler chair for your kid.
Let them try out chairs at a store, library, or where ever else you can find them first.
Decide what looks best in your home/what you want to look at all the time!

Hi!

It's AJU5 here. Yeah, I know it is 8pm and I should be sleeping, but I don't want to sleep. See, I got cranky and sleepy at 6:30, so Mommy put me to bed. But it was still light outside. So, I didn't want to go to sleep for the night. I wanted to play! So, I cried and cried and cried. Eventually Mommy felt sorry for me and got me out of bed. We have been playing for about 30 minutes now. and I don't know if I am going to want to go to bed soon or not. Sunday night I didn't go to bed until 7:30 because we had church until 7. Last night Mommy and Daddy had class, so I got to stay up until almost 9pm. So, tonight was the first night I could go to sleep before 7 since this Day Light Savings thing happened. I don't know if I like it. It is dark when I wake up now, and it is light when Mommy tries to put me to bed. This is just wrong. It should be the other way around!

Well, I better go play some more. If I spend too much time just sitting here, Mommy will think I am tired and put me to bed again! Bye!

Situational Awareness and Naps

AJU5 has some situational awareness, but she is lacking in some areas! She is very cautious around male strangers. Today we had three men in our house installing a fireplace insert. She would stand frozen when they came into the room (for at least a few minutes, then she would warm up). But, she isn't so aware of her height. Last night at class she hit her head at least four times. Two of those were on the tables. She used to be able to walk under them, but now she has to duck a little. She often forgets this fact and bangs her head. Hopefully she will be over this soon, as her head probably was getting a little sore last night! She hasn't gotten any battle scars on her head lately, but she still cries a lot when she wacks her head!

As for naps, it seems like we might be going to one nap. Sundays and Thursdays she ends up with one nap normally anyways because of morning activities. It might just be easier for me to have her take one long (2-3 hour) nap after lunch then to have to try to get her to take two naps, one after breakfast and a little play and one mid afternoon. But, I did like two periods to get things done. I am just going to have to play it by ear.

Edible?

AJU5 is trying to eat everything these days. She is NOT HAPPY when I tell her she can't put something in her mouth or if I take something away from her. Today's candidates for edible or not are:
Twistable crayon (luckily these aren't as bad as regular crayons, but she is still getting some in her mouth)
Hair clips
Pennies

The hard thing is that I can't find the hair clips and change when I go to clean up! She is great at finding hidden things. The hair clips are the hardest though because she pulls them out of my hair sometimes. So they end up all over the house! I guess I need to baby proof some more!

Last Sunday I think she ate a pencil eraser at church (someone left it in a pew, and she found it and chewed it off). She also got some crayon ingested on Wednesday and Thursday (at church and story time). Luckily she has yet to choke on anything or eat anything too hardful for her (she did eat some Desitin, but at her age, it isn't a poison issue per se).

Off to go check and make sure she isn't eating else she shouldn't be!

Home Improvement Saturday - Wall Tile

We have tiled the walls in three bathrooms (one int he old house, two in this house) and also tiled around the fireplace in this house. We choose to use floor tiles in each case, but you can use any tile on the wall really. The difference between wall and floor tiles is the quality/strength. Floor tiles are stronger and normally heavier and bigger as a result.

Tiling walls isn't much different from tiling floors. You use the exact same tools and same order of steps. The only difference is that gravity is no longer your friend. The thin set will slide down the wall if you aren't careful. Tiles can slide as well, so spacers are definitely necessary. You may also need supports for tiles if there isn't going to be a tile below them (or you haven't cut that tile yet). Small jobs like a back splash should be fairly easy because you are starting with a level surface (the countertop) and aren't going very high. Showers are a little harder because of the amount of tiles that will be in a column. We did our showers over a few days, building up a few rows and letting the thinset dry before going too high.

If you want a decorative border, you can go with listas. But, they are expensive ($5 a foot or more)! So, for this house we did the border using other types of tiles. In the master bath, we cut the corners off of a different style tile and used the triangles as the border. In the full bath (AJU5/guest bath), we used tile squares that come in 12x12 sheets. I liked the idea of this, but it turns out the height of the tiles was different, which made it look a little off in spots. So, be sure to check the thickness of the tile if you are going to use different ones on the same area!

Pictures:
Top Row: Master Bath (Back Wall), Full Bath (Shower Area) Full Bath (Shower Area)
Middle Row: Full Bath (Shower Area), Full Bath (Shower Area), Fireplace
Bottom Row: Shower in Old House

Product Review Friday - Picasa

Okay, I know some of you already use it, but Picasa is an awesome free program from Google.

Here are the features I use a lot (and love):

• I'm Feeling Lucky (auto color, etc)
• Batch Edit (with above most of the time)
• Black and White/Sepia (pretty cool that you can do this to any picture!)
• Collage
• Blog This
• Movie/Slide Show
• Red Eye
  

All of these are very easy to do as well. My current project is getting collages made for AJU5's scrapbook (we are having a ~36 hour scrapbooking marathon at our church on the 28th). I can star photo, then preview and edit them, and then make a collage. It will make the scrapbooking easier because I all have 8x10 sheets to just mat and journal, instead of having 50 million individual pictures to work with.

Have you used Picasa?
What do you like/dislike about it?

No More Unsipervised Play

I have been letting AJU5 play unsupervised downstairs. She only has access to the living room, kitchen, dining room, and entry/hall. The doors to the family room (which is still not done) and the bathroom are closed. There are a few cabinets she can get into, but they only have Tupperware in them. The living room just has her toys and the couches/recliner in it. The dining room just has the tables, chairs, and shoes in it. So, I wasn't worried about her getting into anything that would be too difficult to clean up or that would hurt her. This was the case until yesterday afternoon. She is now strong enough to open the freezer. We have a bottom freezer, so it is the perfect height for her to empty it. She had pulled out a bunch of ice cubes, her vegetables, and a few other items that just had to be put back. The ice had melted some on the floor, but it actually cleaned that area. She carried the bag of vegetables (corn, carrots, and peas) to her chair and then proceeded to empty the bag (there was a bit left in the bag - but there was definitely more on the floor). So, I had to clean all of that up too! I guess I should have checked on her sooner, as she had been quiet for longer than I expected (we had just had a snack after playing in the park). But, she has been known to sit and read her books for a while before coming and finding me. She then tried to re-empty the freezer while I was making dinner. I wish there was a way to lock the freezer, but I can't figure out an easy way for doing that. So, until we are ready to buy a new one or she learns to follow the rules, I am going to have to be on my toes!

Wordless Wednesday Take 2 - Shoes and Park

Wordless Wednesday - Big Helper!

Computer Issues...

The USB port on the front of my computer no longer works. It actually hasn't worked since we set it up in this house a few months ago. That means I can't easily plug in anything USB - pen drive, camera, MP3 player, etc. As a result, AJU1 is in charge of removing pictures from the camera. But, getting him to do this isn't always easy. It isn't that he refuses, but it involves me reminding him when he is at the computer. I have been wanting to get pictures off the camera for a while, but it just hasn't happened. There are som great pictures on there that I want to share with everyone, but they will have to wait!

I am due for a new computer once we stop the flood of money out of our accounts for the home remodel. AJU1 actually builds all of our desktops. My current one will probably got to AJU5 so she has her own (and stops beating up on ours). This computer is fine, but it gets a little slow when I try running a bunch of things at once. So, the new one will have a better processor (duh) and possibly more RAM. But, that is about all I need in terms of new things!

How is the computer situation at your house? Do you have your own? Is it a desktop or a laptop?

(I do have a laptop from work, but it is really slow. I just use it for the internet when I am down stairs mainly. AJU1 has his own computer, and we also have a server and HTPC.)

Rambling Again

I am pretty sure AJU5's molars are about to pop through. I can definitely feel the bottom ones through the gums. We think this is the cause of the slight sleeping issues. She woke up at 5 am on Saturday and Sunday. She laid in bed with us for about 20 minutes each time, then got some milk and went back to be until close to 7. Last night (Sunday) she woke up around 9:30. Milk wasn't enough, so I also gave her a dose of Motrin and she slept until 5:45ish. Then she got her snuggle time and milk before going back to bed until 7 again. Luckily this isn't too hard on us! Five isn't that early.

She is also a huge lover of the park these days. She didn't get to go yesterday (Sundays are weird with church, etc), but we went the four previous days. Saturday she got cold, so we didn't get to play as long as normal (bad mommy for not bringing her coat). She hates leaving the park though - there is a lot of screaming as we walk home.

I can't believe how much AJU5 eats for breakfast! She eats a whole package of apple cinnamon oatmeal (Quaker Oats) and about four or five frosted mini wheats (from my breakfast). She doesn't always eat as much at other meals though. But, breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

I think that is it for now.

Oh - the next few weeks of Home Improvement Saturday will also be on tiling (walls and grouting). THen I dodn't know where I will go!