ahem, yes, it's been another month...

I've been busy. Completely my 500 hours for my lactation mentorship, studying for school, reading for the lactation exam and shuttling my kids around.

Nora started back to school and is doing well.
It's her second year of preschool and I was initially apprehensive about the fact that the school switched teachers, but so far, it seems great. Nora grew socially last year, but there wasn't really an academic focus for her, since it was geared towards things that she already knew. This year, she's starting to identify lowercase and uppercase letters. I can tell that things are clicking with her when we're reading books now! She can recognize letters and even a few words (mom, dad and her name for now). It's so exciting!

She misses our school districts cut off for Kindergarten next year by 9 days, as the cutoff is Aug 1. They'll test her, but from what I understand, pretty much no one passes their tests. One woman told me her daughter was short for her age and didn't get a point for height and ended up one point short. For reals. I am a public school product and really thought that we would go that route, but it's now looking that at least for Kindergarten, she'll be going to our Parish school. I'm not entirely upset about this for now. It's five days per week full days, whereas the local school district is split into two groups, the Monday/Wednesday class and the Tuesday/Thursday class. They go all day on their assigned days, plus every other Friday. Can you say scheduling nightmare? Especially since I should be in nursing clinicals by then?

Josh is still receiving early intervention through the Help Me Grow program, for his speech delay. Cognitively and Gross Motor skills are ahead of the pack, Fine Motor skills are the only other area that he is even close to borderline on, and I'm told that it's common for a speech delayed child to have some Fine Motor skills that are slower in emerging. And, let's face it, this boy is all about the Gross Motor skills at this point. He climbs, jumps, does stairs, etc. Josh has several words that he uses very regularly: mommy, daddy, 'kay, go, kitty and his new word that emerged this weekend was sissy! Yay, so happy to hear that one. :) He also signs, with his big ones being please and more. The EI Specialist and his EI Coordinator are impressed that despite his speech delay he is able to readily communicate his needs. They note that he shows his emotions well (his smile does light up a room if I do say so myself) and he's generally just good about pointing and letting people know his needs.

All is going well with this pregnancy. I think I'm 23 weeks along (yes, I said think....that's what happens when you have a few to chase down, you can't keep track as well). We're members of Team Green (and no, I'm not talking earth friendly here, rather the want to wait and find out group). :)

I skipped a whole month, oops

So, apparently, I haven't posted since June. Ooops. That's what taking microbiology in an 8 week summer session does to one, I guess. That class kicked my rear end. Thankfully, I passed (with a C, which I normally would have been upset over, but oh, heck no, it was just fine!). I got sick one week, then Nora, then Josh, then Nora got it again. Did I mention it was an 8 week class? Yeah, that's a lot of sickies in 8 weeks.

I haven't been doing much in the way of projects or craftiness. I plan to remedy that. :) My fall term looks pretty mellow - all online classes. I still haven't finished the couch, though it's a big part of this month's plans. I will finish in August. :P

I guess the only think that I've been working on this summer is baking. Baking a new baby. ;) I'm 15 weeks pregnant (heard the heartbeat today!) and due in January. I plan on a few projects in anticipation of the baby arriving. You know, things like moving rooms around to make room for a new little one. :)

Progress on the couch

The actual couch portion of the slipcover didn't take me too long and I think it turned out fantastic! The seat cushions, however, are way more time consuming! I've been working on one this afternoon. ONE. It's done, minus the closure (and I haven't decided how I'm going to close it). Sean thinks that I should close the backs with snaps, but I can seem to find the actual snap press to do so. I'm sure I'll find it, it's just that currently my sewing stuff is in two different rooms (well three, since I took over the dining room too!). :P





Each seat cushion has been double stitched, which also adds to the time investment per seat cushion. I'm sure being as it was the first one, made it take longer as well.

I think I'm going to work on the back cushions next because I think they'll go way quicker than the seat cushions and at least I'll feel like I've gotten more accomplished!

Please ignore the fabric mess in the second picture. :) I'm still working now and that's my great cutting surface - the floor. ;)

A project finished

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Slightly under nine years ago, Sean and his dad built a new porch, really small, just to enter and exit the kitchen because the cement stairs there at the time were just not cutting it (no hand rail, not even, separating from the door, etc). Well, they built the stairs and they built the floor, but never put any side rails on it. With Nora, she always stayed close and we never had any fears of her jumping. But, with Josh, well, we did. So, Sean finally built the rails to surround the porch. It's fantastic, now I don't need to wonder where Josh is while trying to unlock the door! Now he just needs to build a nice handrail to match!


In the next few days, I'll have some pictures of the basement - as we've been working down there as well. All we're working on is walls and floors, not getting too fancy with a ceiling or anything. ;) We've set him up an office, just in case he gets a job working from home (and also to get all his stuff in one place - anyone with a husband in the IT field can understand that you have lots of crap, particularly if he does both hardware and software). We're also going to work on the main area in the basement, tossing up a few walls (to block off the sump pump, water heater and furnace) and finish painting walls and floors.

So there's a party going on....

And it's for the ugliest couch. I'm pretty sure that I've e got it. The thing about this ugly couch? It's so comfortable. I adore it for it's comfortableness. It's also very old, it was Sean's great Aunt and Uncle's couch. It's solid. None of that cheap crap that they make today, kwim?

So, what makes it so ugly? Well, clearly the pattern is old and dated. I'm sure it was fantastic during it's prime. Also, notice that it's white? Well, it should be white, I know, it's pretty dirty. We used to have a 90 pound black lab that would jump on the couch - especially when the couch was in front of the front window because then he could see (and bark at) his squirrel friends. Add in a few kids and well, the couch is now stained and even torn (part dog, part kids). But there are parts that are worn through (like on the arms) that clearly were not caused by kids or dogs, but rather, probably just age of the material. We try to position the torn cushions upside down so that it doesn't look totally hideous, but if the kids put it back together (because the love tearing it all apart), you never know what you'll walk into.

Here it is.


The torn arm.



Notice the marker here?


And the many tears....




It might be the last time anyone sees the ugliness though, since I bought some fabric yesterday for a slipcover. I'll be slipcovering the main part of the couch and also making individual cushions. Everything will be removable, because, as most of my momma friends can attest to, kids make messes. ;)

Five years ago...

I became a mom. After 17 hours of labor, I ended up having a c-section for fetal distress and failure to progress. We spent two days with our little man.

The Dance, by Garth Brooks always makes me think of my little boy.

Looking back on the memory of
The dance we shared beneath the stars above
For a moment all the world was right
How could I have known you'd ever say goodbye
And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain
But I'd of had to miss the dance
Holding you I held everything
For a moment wasn't I the king
But if I'd only known how the king would fall
Hey who's to say you know I might have changed it all
And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain
But I'd of had to miss the dance
Yes my life is better left to chance
I could have missed the pain but I'd of had to miss the dance

Happy Heavenly Birthday, Andrew Wyatt.

School's out for....

Well, school's out for a few weeks at least. I have an online medical terminology class that will start the end of this month and last for ten weeks. I'm also taking Microbiology, but that doesn't start until June 7th and lasts for 8 weeks. I have a feeling it's going to kick my butt this summer. I might be slightly possessed to be taking it over the summer. I'm also going to take a one credit, two day course in cpr for healthcare workers in early June.

Sean has a few more finals this week, but he graduates on Saturday! I'm so proud that he went back. He'll graduate with two associate degrees, one in software development and one in web development. I hope that at some point he'll go on to finish up his Bachelor's degree.

As for me, I'll be renewing my name on the applicant list this August, but I'll also be applying to a few BSN programs as well. It'll take a year longer in most cases (3 versus 2), but since I don't know when I'd start the ADN program, it might work out to less than 1 year.