housekeeping

Things have been a little nutso here for a few days.

Firstly, I've either got some sort of internal bruise left by the rugrat who decided that tap dancing on my stomach was a great idea on Sunday or I've got a gallbladder issue. Not really sure which it is, but I actually went to the doctor, which means that I am at least taking my internal organs seriously. I have an ultrasound Monday morning. I'll keep you posted on the state of my insides. Pins and needles, I know.

Secondly, we're getting ready for M to go out of town on business for an entire week. It's been awhile since he's been gone that long, and he's super busy trying to get ready to go, and he was away for a night already this week...so things are, as always, a little different without hubby/padre around.

Thirdly, we finally got someone to deal with our insulation conundrum. Sort of. Our attic is now home to 18 new bags of eco-friendly (or so I'm told) insulation. Underneath the house is still a lost cause, though. R, our fantastic handyman/painter, and his son got all suited up and dragged a bunch of rolls of insulation to the access point at the side of the house, crawled in and promptly got stuck (well, stuck-ish.) Apparently, about 15 feet in, the crawlspace becomes about ten inches high. They can't get through. So, they packed it up. They're returning the insulation, then giving us a refund for materials. M is not happy. He did, however, inform us that the bottom of the house was very solid and that he doesn't really think insulation is our major issue. He thinks there's a leak in a duct under the house. So, now we'll have to have someone come and check that out. And we just need to deal with the front door. I really don't want to freeze or have to move to the poor house when winter comes 'round.

Next on the list: our new shampoo. We've finally started emptying our house of unfriendly health and beauty products (unfriendly both to us and the environment). Is anyone else hooked on this website?? Anyway, I picked up some Burt's Bees Grapefruit and Sugar Beet Shampoo. This is my first foray into sulfate-free hair cleansing. I think it's going to take me awhile to get used to the lack of suds. Granted, there are some suds, but not the streams of bubbles that you're used to seeing flow down the drain. The problem is, those suds help spread the shampoo around. Now, I am literally tearing my hair out to try to get the ol' scalp clean as a whistle. My hair is breaking so badly that I'm worried I'll have to get another pixie-cut just to cover up the damage. I don't think M is having the same experience as his hair is so short anyway. I'm really at a loss for what to do here. If anyone else has already gone down this road, advice would be appreciated.

That's likely enough for today. I have a million things to do, and there is supposed to be someone here in an hour to look at the AC.

I'm out, peeps. Have a great Thursday.

too much excitement??

The P family traveled to Memphis again this weekend. It was my step-great-grandmother's 100th birthday. It was a very sweet party, chock full of family members I'd never heard of or met. They were all super nice, though, and one couple with twin boys only lives about an hour from us. I'm hoping we get to see them again as they seemed very cool.

After the party, which S spent napping in the hotel room, M took her swimming. We practically had to shoehorn her into her swimsuit. It was a 2T, but it was monumentally too short, so her boobies kept trying to squirt out of the front. She was cute, though, and once she got used to the water and got over the initial shock of a face full of water, she enjoyed herself.

Last night, the Feathernester fam came over for dinner, and that was really the most exciting part of the weekend. Not only did my child eat a plateful of chicken curry that did, in fact, turn her poop a bit yellow this morning, she got her first swig of rum. It was bound to happen sooner or later. She picked up a drink off of the end table and managed to pour it all over herself and the floor. I'm not actually 100% sure she got any in her mouth. The rum incident led to an immediate need for a bath as she was coated in sticky soda and spiced rum, so we invited L to take a bath with S. They were very cute...then S crapped in the tub. Again. Mad dash to get the girls away from the rapidly disintegrating poop.

After the girls were dried off and dressed, they made up a new game. L held onto a blanket while S pulled her all around the house. They both giggled nonstop. Cutest ever...but no pictures or video. Of course, I'm not sure that I want video evidence of my child looking like a hulking beast of a body builder.

That was our weekend in a nutshell. Hope everyone else had as much excitement as we did. I'm out, peeps. Enjoy the pics in all their un-doctored, red-eyed glory.

the decidedly un-green browning of my hair

I've got a few minutes to kill while my trusty box of hair color does it's thing, so I thought I'd post. I know, I know. You're shocked at the fact that I'm sitting at my computer soaking my head in all manner of non-eco friendly chemicals. Since I'm admitting that kind of thing, I just painted my nails with chemical-laden paint, too. I like to get all my earth-damaging primping done at one time as I have little patience for it.

While I do plan to green my nail polish as I run out, I don't think my choice of hair color is going to change, and it bothers me a little. I did look into some greener options, but I have what beauticians like to call "resistant gray" and henna and natural ingredients won't touch that. So, as I'm not really interested in looking like I'm pushing 50 instead of 30, the vicious cycle continues.

Anyway, that's all there is today. A ridiculous admission that I have copious amounts of gray hair that I cover up. Al Gore would shun me fo' shiz.

Have a great day filled with lots of medium maple brown happiness. I have to go lather, rinse, and condition.

tonight we're gonna party like Mr. P is 85

I don't have a lot of time to post as I spent the first two hours of S's nap curled up in the bed taking a lovely nap.

Anyway, we successfully threw a raging party for M's daddy Saturday evening. Not really so raging, actually. Just a bunch of people hanging out eating catfish and ice cream cake. Oh, and wearing hats as party hats were required. All-in-all, it was nice, and Mr. P was very happy. Here are some pictures. A longer post later...

Unfortunately, you can't see my sister S's Sorting Hat. She won the best hat award.

The birthday boy.

D made the mistake of letting us pick out his hat. I laughed out loud when M brought it home.

I am so happy we took this picture. S's grandpa and mine.

more than i can chew?

I've spent most of the past several days slumped over my sewing machine. Considering I'm somewhat less than an accomplished seamstress, I'm not sure exactly why I've attempted to tackle so much so quickly. I finished S's curtains, and I can tell you that I did that because I was too cheap to pay for custom curtains for her oddly sized windows. They need a little tweaking, but they turned out just fine. They're seersucker with pompom trim. They'll do.

Then I made cushions for the porch swings. Again, they aren't anywhere near perfect, but I like them. I was trying to be intelligent and make the covers removable so I could wash them, but I got too excited and cut the material without thinking it through, so I just had to leave one seam open. I basted it shut, so I'll just need to snip the thread to take the cushion apart. Not perfect. But I really like the material I picked out much better than anything I found pre-made...not to mention that we bought the long swings, and you really can't find cushions long enough for them. No one but my daddy will probably even notice that the imperfections. Actually, Mr. Feathernester will probably notice them, too.

Now I'm tackling the third, and most daunting, task. A slipcover for the wingback chair we brought over from Mr. P's house. I really don't know why I'm even trying this. It's not really going so badly, but sewing in three dimensions on a large scale is a serious pain in my neck. I've got the back of the chair, including the wings, and the seat finished, but now I have to figure out the arms, which will likely drive me bananas, but if I was able to figure out the wings, I'm sure I can do something with the arms. Then I just have to finish the bottom and cover the ottoman. I'm pretty sure I can finish the whole thing tonight with any luck at all. I just have to keep reminding myself that I'm not attempting to reupholster the chair, I'm making a slipcover, and slipcovers aren't supposed to fit perfectly. That's a good thing, because this is nothing like perfect.

I promise pictures of all the little projects soon. Until then, I'm out. I'm trying to straighten out my back, which has developed a little hump from leaning over to pin and sew, pin and sew.

Oh, we rescheduled S's photographs for this week, and I picked up a super cute dress for her this morning. The one I bought was blue with a cream sash and cream lace tatting at the neckline. She's going to be so sweet.

peas and carrots

So, I've come to the realization that S's diet needs to expand to things beyond grapes, blueberries, bananas, and one waffle a day. Actually, that's not a fair assessment, she asks for a cookie every night after dinner. Really, I know her diet isn't bad. She does generally eat what we eat for dinner, though she still refuses to eat meat. However, our days consist mostly of the child running around begging for grapes.

Look, I know they're just grapes. I know that she isn't begging for Starburst, so I should count my blessings. If you think that, I invite you to witness the "grape sh!t."

(Ouiser moment..."This is football, Clairee. All people care about are touchdowns and injuries. They don't give a d@mn about that grape sh!t.")

Anyway, S's poop is out of control. It is a very, very blackish purple. (I know that some of you out there wish that I would learn the concept of TMI.) She has to have more variation in her diet. It's been this week's quest. Luckily, they had organic apples for the first time in ages at Kroger last weekend, so I got some of those. (Don't even ask me how far they had to travel to get to our house. I don't know, and at this point, I can't think about it.) So, she has had at least one other fruit this week. I'm able to cut the apples into chunks, so she can carry them around and eat them out of her little snack cups. That seems to make her happy enough, but when she runs out, she still asks for more "gapes." Yesterday, however, I successfully got steamed carrots into the child, along with some peas, so I felt like I had just won a heavyweight fight. I've gotten her to eat a little more cheese by learning that she doesn't like cheese cut into cubes, she likes it in thin slices. She's also been drinking chocolate milk like it's going out of style, though she doesn't seem to take down Ovaltine as well as Hershey's syrup. Go figure. (Can anyone explain to me why Ovaltine gives the milk a slightly pink tint? Creepy.)

Basically, most of my week has revolved around S's digestive system, but not in the nasty way it did last week or the way Feathernester's did this week.

Okay, hours later...I'm back to the computer. I'm sure I won't be doing S's tummy any favors with the super-ripe blackberries that I picked up this morning from the Farmer's Market. I got them from a friend of my granddaddy's, which I thought was fun. I'm going to try out these muffins with them. I'm off to shower, peeps. Have a lovely weekend.

FIVE SENSES FRIDAY
Sight: red juice oozing out of cherries, the inside of S's mouth stained purple from last night's blueberry pancakes

Sound: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (S has become obsessed with "Poppins." That's my girl...practically perfect in every way.)

Smell: blueberry pancakes

Touch: S's sticky hands from ice cream cones

Taste: cherries, hot fudge sundaes, those yummy blueberry pancakes

where in the world are the ouisers?

Sorry I've been MIA for awhile. The Ouisers have been busy. It's not been terribly exciting around here, just busy.

We finally got around to fixing up Mr. P's house. We figured that three-and-a-half months was long enough to keep the place looking like the movers had just left. In our defense, we were waiting to have the walls painted, which happened the week of Scarlet Lily's wedding...and we had to wait on the custom blinds for all of his windows, and, yes, I realize that these are excuses. Either way, M and I spent all day at Mr. P's on Friday as S was at my daddy's house. Aside from still not finding the glass shelves for one cabinet, we are pretty much done with the house. The garage is another thing entirely. We'll get there, but at least we don't feel like deadbeats anymore.

We spent Friday night and Saturday morning working on our house. We hadn't really touched the upstairs, and we got most everything up there done. I'll be packing a couple of things away this afternoon, and then I have to make a decision on window treatments and a slipcover for a chair, and we'll be totally done with the rumpus room. I've also got to make curtains for S's room, and I need to get something on the walls in her bathroom. The list never ends.

The really big thing on our agenda is our insulation problem. Have I mentioned before that we basically have no insulation? It was a problem in the winter because the downstairs was so cold. Now we're roasting S. The poor kid is soaked in sweat when we get her up from her naps, and she gets pretty sweaty at bedtime, too. It makes window treatments upstairs seriously critical, too, as we know that curtains will help to reflect the heat back outside. I'll be working on the curtains for her room during her nap today. Hopefully, the curtains will also stop her newfound habit of waking up with the sun. Since she slept like a rock at my daddy's house in a cool, dark room, we're coming to the realization that we've got to do something for the kid. Our laziness is the reason she's not sleeping the extra hour in the mornings. Once again, I guess we're out of the running for Parents of the Year. Not like that's uncharted territory for us.

So, boxes, pictures, insulation, curtains. That's enough for one week. And S is having her picture made Thursday morning, so I need to find a dress. And M and I are trying to decide on a mini-vacation just for us in September or October. We were already thinking about Maine, and based on MoWask's rave reviews, I've been looking into it more thoroughly. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, it's almost naptime, which means I need to dig out the sewing machine. Have a great Tuesday, peeps. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

The Ouisers were out of town again last weekend. For a wedding. What can I say? We're popular wedding guests. This week's wedding was in Memphis, which meant that S finally got to meet the Memphis peeps. Unfortunately, she managed to have some nasty poopers while we were gone, but I think things turned out just fine.

She made a new friend. She had a blast playing with H, and she showed it by kissing him about a dozen times. Seriously, kid, don't give away the farm. Here are a few pictures...I don't really have time to write today. I've got to do some research on why my beans aren't growing.

Have a great hump day, peeps.

M and S checking out the church.

Pre-breakfast snack in the hotel room.

Showing off her new disgusting habit. That could've been a great picture.

Splashing in a puddle.

Questionable moral character?

Loving the polar bears. She got super excited every time they swam by.