Happy Halloween - Day in the life of a Mom.

Happy Halloween! Our town had our trick or treating last night. Lil Mr. V is still so small that we didn't do much in the way of trick or treating. We went to his Uncle DonBob's house and to my Mom's house. But that's what happens when he's not yet 2. He was so cute as the zombie army guy. :) Then today we went to see the Veggie Tales Sing Yourself Silly Live show. :) It was fun! And he wasn't afraid at all. He fell asleep for the last few songs, but other than that, he was up and dancing and trying to sing along. He came home and his Dad gave him some Powerade, and he got all wild and crazy, screaming and yelling and shaking his fists at the TV. So we know to not give him Powerade any longer. Also, his Dad has been working his new job long enough that now when Lil man goes to bed, his Daddy has to be here. Sometimes his Daddy is in bed before he goes to bed, however, he ALWAYS gets hugs and kisses night night. Well, tonight his Dad left to a friend's house since he's having a long weekend. I had to call and get him to come home, because Lil Mr. V wasn't going to bed until his Daddy came home. So thankfully his friend lives just across the street and he can come over and tuck Lil man in bed. Now he's sleeping peacefully. :) The past few weekends it's been go go go go go go for Lil Mr. V. And next weekend he is having an early birthday party. Since his birthday is a couple of days before Christmas, we're having it early so we don't have to worry with the Christmas brewhaha. We'll still throw him a private family party ON his birthday. But I hope he enjoys his party next weekend. :) I hope his friends do as well. :)

Something that I'm working on...

My friend Kellie has made a pledge to show her quilts in progress. I thought it would be a good idea as well, and though I'm not the quilter that she is. I do want to try my hand at it. I know that Christmas is rounding the corner quickly and I wanted to make my son a quilt for Christmas. I'll admit...I'm daunted. I have ideas though for how I wanted it to look. Yay! But I wanted to sew something up first before I tackle that. So I purchased a 5" square stack for $2. I'm not going to cut down the blocks, I'm just going to get comfy working with my machine. So yesterday while wee man was sleeping, I took out my squares and started playing with a design. And this is what I have come up with.

That's only half of it, because the largest available space I had was my coffee table. But the dark purple squares are to make an "x" on the quilt. Now all I have to do is go to my local fabric store and get some border fabric, backing and binding. Then I will need to sew it all together. Yay! 

You got to know when to hold 'em...

...know when to fold 'em
know when to walk away
and know when to run...
-Kenny Rogers "The Gambler"

So, that's the premise here in this post. That stands for more than just poker or rummy or whatever game you're playing. This also applies to appliances and other things around the house. When something gets a hole or messes up, we have to determine if we can repair it, have it repaired, re-purpose it or send it on to the garbage. And there is a difference in repairing something yourself or sending it out for repair. There is a financial difference and paying for someone else' expertise. A few days ago, my washing machine exploded and water poured from it. And since I'm one of those that does laundry on one day I had piles in the floor where I was sorting the clothes. Needless to say, all these clothes got soaking wet while we were trying to shut down the water to the washing machine. It hadn't been turned in so long, it was quite stuck. We were stuck with the idea of possibly having to replace the washing machine. So since it was messed up, and after the initial stressful moment, we could evaluate the situation better. No one in my family has experience fixing plumbing or washing machines. Especially those that are post-80s models. We weren't comfortable taking the body off of the machine and we couldn't get the back to come off easily. So we called a repair company to ascertain if it would be cheaper to fix or if we should just buy a new one. Thankfully, this is an old enough model that we don't have motherboards and thousands of bells and whistles to fix. It was a simple valve that broke in two. Which since the cold water valve is the one that broke, but is attached to the hot water valve, they have to replace both. Overall it is still much more than I like spending, however, it's MUCH cheaper than the cost of a new one. And finding a new one that doesn't have a motherboard is pretty hard to find.

Found out something interesting from the repair man. His washer died last night and he has one of the top of the line fancy washing machines. He said he was buying a new one instead of fixing it because it was going to cost more to repair than to replace. Sad to me. But it confirmed my views on simplicity is truly better.  And sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and pay for the repair or the replacement.

New bed and colds - Day in the Life of a Mom

So this past weekend, Lil Mr. V ran a fever and on Sunday night was up all night long with some complaint that I'll never understand. On Tuesday I was at the doctors office because I was so sick, and I walked out with a zpac because I had a double ear infection and sinus infection. That very same day Mr. V goes to the doctor because he was having the stomach bug that Lil Mr. V and I had the day before. Because he works with raw foods, he had to miss work and go to the doctor. He has a very bad upper respiratory infection. And on Wednesday we had Lil Mr. V at the doctor because he was real wheezy and was coughing. Since he has asthma we try to catch this as soon as it shows itself. He got a zpac and inhalers. So this week has been  healing week for the lot of us. He also moved from his crib to a toddler bed. The first night he was up all night long wanting to play. Eventually he found his way to his bed and passed out. Last night though, he was so good, he was in his bed, and other than getting up once, he crawled in bed and fell asleep. :) So this week has been full of meltdowns and temper tantrums and lots of medicine. I hope over the next week, it all calms down, so that when I come back from fall break I'll be feeling better.

Day in the life of a Mom - Birthday parties and fevers...

So last Sunday, Lil Mr. V and I went to our cousin's 4th birthday party. Lil Mr. C's Mom and I are first cousins, and even though our sons are pretty far removed, they look like brothers. It's uncanny! They had a pony, a HUGE blow up slide and they grilled out and had Halloween bags for all the kids (Lil Mr. C wanted a Halloween birthday.) Lil Mr. V had a good time. :) He played with the kids and enjoyed riding the pony. He liked the slide until he went down it. This week was an exciting week for him, there was that birthday and he had a play date with Lil Mr. B and Lil Miss B. They played at the park. There he discovered his love of swings and slides.

I guess all this excitement has caught up with him because suddenly last night with no warning he started to run a fever. For a child who's normal temp is between 96-97°, running a temp of around 101° is very high. As a matter of fact, this is the highest his fever has ever been. It's never went over 100° before. So we're piggy backing motrin and tylenol and making sure he's as naked as he can get without getting chilled. I still have no idea what's going on with him. He's napping right now. Which is good, sleep is healing and that's what he needs.

I just love how sudden this stuff can come on with no forewarning.