I'm a homeschooling mom of 2 great kids. I've been married to my wonderful husband since 1997. I love to crochet, knit, and digi scrap. So, you never know what I might post about!
Koala is coming along nicely. I've got the head and body and both ears completed. Now I just need arms legs, nose, and a few stitches each for the eyes and claws. If I could just find someone to sell them to, I could make a while bunch of them! lol We borrowed some money from some friends today, which we'll be paying back $100/paycheck. Paid the roofers today, and some of the mortgage from what was left over, plus a post-dated check. Hopefully that will satisfy them until the next paycheck in 2 weeks and we can be all caught up. Then we have a $730 car insurance bill due on the 21st, but as long as we're paying them something, they don't mind how long we take to pay the balance. We went to Connections today. I've heard other homeschoolers mention it before, so the last time I saw Dru, I asked her all about it, then went to their website. They're kinda like a library, but you can check out toys, puppets, audio/visual stuff, etc, as well as books. We checked out 5 books: The Korean Cinderella, a book all about skeletons, Giant Panda, a book about butterflies and moths, and a book about chimpanzees. We also got 2 toys: a 2-way microscope (really cool) and a big bok (like to read to several kids at once) called Let's Measure It! If we can keep from losing the lens to the microscope, this will be really cool. We can keep the stuff for 2 weeks, and I have a feeling we'll be going there a lot! Well...I'd better go make arms for my koala.
11:58 PM
Thursday, October 31, 2002
Woohoo! Halloween! It's some people's favorite holiday, but I'm not that crazy over it. I haven't dressed up the last 2 years, but that's mainly because of lack of creativity and money. We just weren't feeling it last year, a month and a half after Sept. 11, and this year, we're 4 months behind on our mortgage payment and just had a $2000 roof put on our house that we still have to pay for. (They finished today and will bring the invoice by tomorrow.) H dressed as an angel this year and she made a haul trick-or-treating. We only made it halfway around the block before the bucket was too heavy for her to carry. For the past 3 years she was a hot pink butterfly because she just loves butterflies. Every time we'd ask her what she wanted to be, she'd say a butterfly, so since her costume was always too big, until last year when it fit perfectly, we just let her go in the same costume. She was very cute as an angel (read: devil in disguise), and sometime this weekend we'll upload the pics from the camera and I'll post some here. We collected about $17 for UNICEF, including the $7 B scrounged from his coworkers. So, we'll be going to HEB tomorrow to put the change in the CoinStar machine, and mail the receipt to UNICEF. And I've got to get a haircut! It's looking really shaggy and flipping out in strange places. Though it would save money, I don't trust B with the scissors, and he doesn't trust himself with them, anyway. Luckily, my hair is short, in a basic man's cut, so it's pretty cheap. I'm sure they still charge more for mine than they would if my hair was on a man's head, but at least we're saving on B and H. Of course hers isn't but a couple of bucks right now anyway...most people don't charge full price for a 4-year-old, but some do. Anyway, I'm rambling now...I think I'm getting sleepy. I got the yarn for the koala today, so I get to start on it tomorrow!
11:52 PM
Wednesday, October 30, 2002
Yay! The roofers came today! They were a little late, so they didn't finish like they said they would, but it should only take them an hour or 2 tomorrow to finish up. There are shingles on the front of the house, so they just have to finish shingling and clean up. Henry didn't like all the hammering, so he got some extra attention and some extra time in his hidey box. H kept wanting to go outside and talk to the roofers, but we couldn't let her do that, of course, since 1) they had work to do, and 2) we didn't want her stepping on nails or getting hit on the head by falling shingles, etc. Hopefully they'll be done by the time we want to go to the park tomorrow, since their debris trailer is blocking the garage. Ah, what the heck, we probably won't be going 'till 1 or so, so as long as they get here before noon, we should be fine. If not, I guess we'll just have to wait 'till they leave. We also have to go gracery shopping tomorrow, so hopefully we can get yarn while we're out. Ok, H loves salt. She just came in here and picked up the salt shaker and shook some into her mouth. She's been doing that a lot lately...at CiCi's Pizza last week...I don't think it's possible for her to have a sodium deficiency, especially since she's been eating saltine crackers for the last 1/2 hour, so I don't know what the deal is. We carved our pumpkin today. I guess I should say B carved it. we bought a "carving pumpkin" from Wal-Mart this year. It's made of hard foam rubber, so we don't have to worry about that rotting business. It's pretty cute...used one of those carving kits... My (paternal) grandmother used to buy me a pumpkin every year, and then my (divorced) mom would have to carve it. This was before carving kits, so we always did it freehand. Well, not totally freehand...we'd draw on it with a magic marker first. lol We never made pumpkin pie, though, or even pumpkin bread (That's what canned pumpkin is for!) but we did roast the seeds once or twice. H asked me while B was carving if we could make pumpkin muffins. I said, "Not with this pumpkin, but at the store they sell cans of pumpkin goo that we could get and make muffins with. Only problem is I don't have a recipe for it." I guess I could find one online with no problem, though. Oh, well, I'd better go try to make koala ears out of the white yarn I have.
7:13 PM
Tuesday, October 29, 2002
I'm going to get this entry written while today is still today! H woke up at 6 something (3 hours earlier than normal) with an upset tummy. She was up before B had even left for work. So, I'm going to try to get to sleep pretty soon. My eyes are already so tired I can hardly see. She was feeling better a couple of hours later, so I guess it was something she ate last night. So, we stayed home from the park today, even though she really needed outdoor time after all the rain we've had. 12 days of no sun! I figured the park was still probably pretty wet, anyway, so no big deal. I let her play in the backyard this afternoon, since she was feeling fine. We'll be headed to the park on Thurs instead. I have a feeling I'll have windows and doors open all day tomorrow.
The roofer called this morning to say that they were finishing up a job they had started before the rain came, and that they'll be here tomorrow morning and do ours. YAY!! There are supposed to be more cold fronts coming in, and at least if they bring rain with them, it won't be dripping on our heads!! B has personal hours at work and he has to take them or lose them, so he's only working 2 hours tomorrow morning, then his weekend starts. It'll be nice to have him home an extra day. Besides, he has stuff he needs to do during business hours to set up his classes for his new career. :) I finished the red, white and blue blanket tonight, so next payday I can go get more yarn and start on my mil's b-day present.
11:44 PM
Monday, October 28, 2002
My blog seems to be lagging somewhat. I'll make an entry and it won't show up on the page for several hours later. I wonder if this has anything to do with the hack of a few days ago. Well, I've *almost* got the afgan finished. I think I've said that already... Anyway, I have 3 more strips to sew on, then twice around the edge and I'm done. Hopefully I'll be finished on Tues. I didn't spend much time on it today, and I won't get much of a chance tomorrow because of co-op, but I've got plenty of time on Tues between lessons. Maybe Wednesday... After I finish it, I'll be using some of our precious money to buy yarn and stuffing for a koala I'll be making for my mil's b-day. I'm hoping it'll be pretty easy. Her birthday is in March, so I can't spend forever on it, like I can the blankets. I got some new patterns, and I'm really excited to start on them, too.
12:48 AM
Sunday, October 27, 2002
Henry's doing great! H and I took turns holding him for a while and he was chirping at us, ate some of the little treat we have for him. Then we put him on the floor, with our legs as a barrier, foot-to-foot kinda thing. He ran around jumping and going kinda crazy...dunno if it was popcorning, or if he just really needed to poop, which he did a lot of, too. He cleaned his face, and ate some more of his treat, so I know he's getting really comfortable with us. He started looking around, and finally managed to hop over H's leg, so I got him and put him back in his cage. I think he was making the "feed me" noise, wanting water and real food, and sure enough, when he got back into his cage, he went for the water and then the food. This seems to be going quite well. B can't wait to get home so he can play with Henry, too. It finally didn't rain at all today, but it's Sunday, so still no roofers. *sigh* Supposed to rain tomorrow and Tues, so hopefully they'll come to work on Wed. Not much else going on today. We got some books from the book club in the mail yesterday, but not my From a Buick 8 that I'm expecting. I guess we'll have to call them and see what's up with our order. B took the UNICEF box with him to work today and says it's half full. I'm almost finished with the red, white and blue afgan that I've been working on forever. I like it a lot, but I'll be glad to have it finished so I can work on some different patterns. B's been looking into the Paramedic thing, sent off for his transcript from SWT, and is going to take the Healthcare Worker CPR class in a couple of weeks. So, everything's looking good, except the mortgage company keeps calling. They keep getting the machine, though, and we keep not calling back. I wonder how long it will be 'till they decide to foreclose....hopefully long enough that we can come up with the money by then. Co-op's being moved tomorrow to one of the member's houses. I'm trying to think of something to take with us that M & C don't already have to play with. I'm sure H will want to take Henry, but we'll be leaving him at home!
10:27 PM
