Things I love Thursday

So, we'll see how long this posting meme's go on. Monday is "Not Me." Tuesday is "Tackle It" (if I can manage to get a post ready before I work). Wednesday is "Random Dozen," Thursday will be "Things I Love," and Friday is, as always, "Friday Fails."

 So, I love my sewing skills. Just look:

I love making things that I can use. Granted, the first time Brendon pees in it, I have to change it, but it's cute for what- 7 minutes?!

see? adorable!








and this? it's an old picture, but the quilt is almost-ish finished! And looks so much nicer finally pieced!



I love my sewing machine. Thanks, Mark, my darling husband for buying it for me for a birthday present.

Random Dozen

1. Do you do garage sales? If so, tell me about one great find. If not, tell me why not.
    Not really, because I can't seem to make get a hold of good sale days when I'm not working
2. Name the last thing you fixed.
    oh! the automatic blood pressure cuff in  room 7 wasn't...wasn't. I fixed it, so it was. :)
3. Name your A) Favorite item of makeup OR B) Favorite tool
    my favorite tool is the electric screwdriver/drill that MCM bought "me" but he leaves it home so I can use it if I need it
4. Which room in your home needs organizing more than any other?
    Every room but the....nope, every room. Ugh, I think the living room. It's got our suitcases, a stroller, multiple dishes, dirty laundry...basically everything BUT the kitchen appliances.
5. Which room could use re-decorating?
    Every room. We rent, so the only room that is painted is Brendon's room, and only because no one stands up to a nesting pregnant women. How about the living room, you could hang the mirror we got for our first anniversary in 2008...
6. Share something unique about your town.
    unique?! we have a ton of bridges and tunnels, not just the concrete overpasses, but the high rise James River Bridge, the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge Tunnel, the Hamtpon Roads Bridge Tunnel, the Coleman Bridge, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the Midtown Tunnel, the Downtown Tunnel. Sheesh, I'm sure there's some I've missed too
7. If you could send a one-sentence message to your great-grandchild, what would it be?
    KEEP YOUR FIRST CAR/DVD/BLU-RAY/LAPTOP!! They will worth millions when you're 80!
8. Do you Facebook?
    Did you hear that YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are being bought out and rolled into one? Yeah, they're going to call it YouTwitFace
9. Describe your favorite shoes.
    Brown, shoelaces, "Champion", worn, comfy.
10. Do you listen to more talk radio or more music radio? What kind of station is it?
    Music, because I can't find any good talk station for my drive to work, it's a country station. But I usually plug my iPhone in and listen to that
11. How far would you travel for a really good (favorite) meal?
    Depends, on how much I really want it, but it wouldn't be far. I'm like that.
12. If you were totally honest with yourself (and us) what should you probably be doing right now instead of blogging?
     Ugh, tackling Mt. McLaundry. or putting the suitcases way. But I think I shall go sew!

Traveling and cups, but not really traveling cups

 NOTE:: This was written on the way home from our Labor Day weekend vacation, and I forgot about it until now.

So, we're on our way home from our great vacation. It was an experience, one that will need some serious tweaking before we embark on our post-Christmas travels. We're insane. We're planning on going to Mississippi for the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. One the way down, Brendon fell asleep pretty easily at first. He slept for about 1 hour. Bummer. But I was a good mom and brought SNACKS! and DRINKS! and TOYS! that only kept him occupied while the drink/snack was in his mouth. But we managed to sneak in two quick rest stops to run off some energy. He proceded to keep himself awake until about 10pm. That's way past any semblance of a bed time, and way after he was due for a nap. It was torture. He wanted my hand, he didn't want it, then he wanted his milk, but then he didn't want it. We played the guessing game for a long, long time. Then he fell asleep about an hour away from our destination. But he did go back to sleep when we got there. *whew* The only thing, he managed to eat most of the snacks I brought....So I had to scrounge around for some more for the trip home. We've got grapes and rice cakes and cookies. And juice boxes. He drank all his milk before we started though :( But most food places sell milk as a drink option, so we should be good there.
I don't remember any significant events when we drove down, but since I'm "real-time" blogging now, I should be able to give you some fun stuff.
First, we almost witnessed a wreck. This one blond chick almost merged into another car's bumper. They both were little silver cars, so I guess neither of them would have minded the other's paint or bumper, but I expect it would have bothered the tires a bit, if they had to share car frames.
Then, this brown chick (yeah, her hair was brown, but so was her skin. I can't call her African-American, because I don't know if her ancestors were from Africa, right?!) was talking on her cell phone (I guess SC hasn't gone hands-free yet) and was in the merge lane from the entrance ramp. Except, she wasn't merging. She got to the end and started putting her brakes on. What in the world!? We were coming up on her at 70mph-yes, that was the speed limit!-and she decided the best course of action was to stop. Not to gain speed and merge, but to STOP as she was at the end of the merge lane. You know, where there's only about half of the lane left, so you're forced into the traffic? Yeah, that lane. SHE STOPPED!!
We're in NC now, nothing too exciting. I haven't seen any interesting signs--OH! We drove right by the Outlets in Gaffney, and Mark didn't even blink. I so wanted to stop, but since Brendon was asleep, we didn't. I like when he sleeps on the car rides. I guess we'll have to venture to the ones in Williamsburg, because coming down here to go shopping kinda negates the money saved at the shops.

Can I just say that I am in love with Playtex's insulated cups? Brendon really hates room temp milk. He'd rather have it warmed. Otherwise, just on the cool side is second best. They really do their job. I really like the twist-n-click too, so that I know it's on tight enough, but be careful, if you twist it too tight, it leaks, too. Guess how I know. Go ahead guess. :D
When we moved from bottles, we went to the soft spout cups. That worked for about few weeks, because Brendon was chewing on everything! Then they leaked when they were standing straight up! After the soft silicone spouts, we went to the harder ones. We still use those ones, and now we've added the hard spout ones.

I had lots more written, but since I was wright on MCM's computer as we were driving home, and after I lost internet, it didn't save. And I'm assuming that he closed the window and lost my post. But I forgive him and love him still!

Think you're safe? Think again!

We are in the middle of our Missions Conference. Tonight was our International Banquet, and tomorrow is the last day the missionaries preaching and stuff. Anyways, I was feeding Brendon his food, and I put some potatoes on his high chair tray. He did not like them. He spit them out almost instantly. It was funny to watch. I left them there, because I didn't want his slobbery potatoes on my plate. Every once in a while he'd try them again. and would get the same surprised look on his face each time. It was pretty funny. Once, he did that with some whipped cream, and tried to spit it out. Yeah, not so much.

At work this past week. I worked two days in a row. The first day, I had three patients. One had a private sitter that I pretty much forced to help with her "sittee's" care. Another one would not shut-up or stay in bed or answer questions. Third, was pretty good, but was sitting in this sand trap of a bed and needed to be pulled up every 15 minutes. My patients were OK, it was TallSkinnyChick's patients who gave trouble. One was Houdini and pulled a sutured central venous line out (the sutures stayed in his skin, still attached, but the line was GONE!). Her other patient decided to stop breathing and needed emergent-elective intubation. AT THE SAME TIME THE OTHER GUY DID HIS MAGIC TRICK! That totally topped anything else that happened that day.

Then, I came back for round too. I figured since all the excited happened on Thursday, Friday would be safe, right? WRONG! Oh, Friday started out all innocent, one empty bed, one nursing student. Miss SandTrap even had transfer orders. So I would only be left with Sir TalksALot. Except, he wasn't talking. Maybe he was only tired?! Oh, he wasn't breathing (effectively) either!? Crap! So, we more-emergent-than-electively intubated him. Everyone's like, "but you didn't call for the code team!" and "you didn't code him!" No, duh! He never coded. He still "breathed" minimally, but it was only a matter of time. So we caught it soon enough. He left to go to ICU, and Ms SandTrap left. I had zero patients.
I searched for jobs to do. I restocked rooms, I made lots of bathroom trips, I filled water pitchers, I helped clean poo and give meds. I wished I could leave. There ended up being only 4 patients on the floor for 3 nurses. Any other team leader would have sent a nurse home, but the one we had doesn't manage very well. About 4pm, I got word I was getting a patient. FINALLY! But I didn't get report until 615, and the patient didn't come until 640. I did all my good nursing stuff and tucked her in to her room, did all the right things, and still left on time. Guess how many nurses came in for night shift? Oh, two. Why? Because there were only 6 patients. Oh yeah, my patient arrived right on the heels of another one.
And that is why I don't like to work two days in a row.

Fall showers bring puddles and snuggles

Nap time with daddy? Nah, just post-nap winks

So, Brendon really wanted to get up on the couch. I plopped him on top of Mark, and he laid his head down. He stayed like this for, oh, 3.2 seconds. Then he wanted to climb on the back of the couch, on Mark's head. Basically anywhere but laying still. Then we went outside. The rain made lots of puddles, that Brendon discovered today!

He realized that if he stomped his foot, he'd splash himself. He thought it was so funny. Then, he wanted to touch it. He likes to touch things. Like, everything needs to be touched.

See, touching the ground is irresistible. Go ahead, see if you can resist! He once looked up under the truck, and it was so cute, but he moved before I could snap the picture.

And of course, the flowers. I've got my dad to thank for this one. He came over one day and let Brendon sit in the dirt, IN THE DIRT, and pull up my flowers (granted they were dying) and now, Brendon thinks that he can pull anything in my garden. Flowers, mulch, dirt, rocks, sticks, thanks, Dad!

PICTURES!! (lame, right, I know)

So I've pretty much failed on this blog thing. I'm trying to attempt to keep 20 posts in 60 days, at least, so I can qualify for Social Spark. So far, I'm failing.

Today, my package came! I ordered some fabric, some elastic and some velcro from that one site (another fail, I know) and it came today! I'm super excited. I took a picture of it all, but it's not uploading correctly. I've already done it twice. I got some red terry cloth, two polyester fabrics for outside, three "mystery" fabrics. For each yard of fabric, they sent another yard of fabric that is basically something that no one else bought. LOL. I'm thinking of finishing these few covers I'm currently working on and attempting a all-in-one diaper. But I really need to finish that quilt most importantly. Can I quit my job and stay home and sew all day?

 I mean, look at that face, wouldn't you just LOVE to stay home with him, too?

 I also  bought some fleece the other day (I had a coupon!!) and using the Katrina soaker pattern, I made this adorable soaker. It's not a cover, because it's one piece, like a pair of undies. Except to put it on, I have to practically shake him into it. But once it's on, it fits nicely, well, a little tight around his thigh rolls, but I expected that. I put a couple layers of flannel inside the soaker, to make it more water proof, and it worked! He napped in it, and when he woke up, the outside felt a little cool, kinda humid, but not wet. If I held him against my clothes, they ended up a tiny bit damp, but that's it.

This is one I'm working currently. I'm lining the inside with a flannel, so that the plasticky side of the PUL isn't against Brendon's skin. I don't really like feeling it, either, so we'll see how it works out. I'm sure I'll only be able to use it once before having to wash it, because the liner will absorb the pee and start to smell.  I also have one cut out with a fleece outer and PUL inner.  I've got some snaps, too! Anyone looking to buy one? Someone on babycenter.com was asking me to make one, she said she has the material, but I haven't heard back from her yet about the measurements or sending me the fabric or anything.

Oh, here's the front of the fleecie. It reminds me of the game frogger. You know, all those moving highways you have to hop across? Brendon kept on feeling it, you know, cause it's soft, like his favorite blankets.

I'd rather be sewing, than blogging, but 1) I need to get more blog posts, 2) we're watching "Percy Jackson and the lightening theif" and it's hard to hear over the swing machine's noise.

the big plan

Wow, I just noticed I hit 200 posts with my last post! Yay me!

I just ordered some diaper making materials from... a website, I already forget which one! I know, awful of me, no? Anyways, I got some colored fold-over elastic, colored velcro, some terry cloth for fitted diapers, and two polyester/cotton prints (I forget which one it was, hey, I'm on vacation!), and three "mystery" clothes. I'm excited about them. I've got to hunt down a Joann's coupon so I can get some more PUL without making us bankrupt.

I did go completely cloth one day, and it was so nice to not have to throw anything away, but on the other hand, I had no clue what to do with the wet stuff. I ended up soaking them in hot water and letting them dry until I washed them. I could just get a pail, but I have like 5 things to wash, so I might wait until I've got a bit more of a handful.

So far, I've used Chloe Toes diaper cover, Ottobre diaper design (this one made it HUGE so, watch out for Godzilla!!). The Chloe toes one is my favorite (maybe I could get a free diaper for saying good things about it :D nah, didn't think so), right now. But I've got a few more patterns in my print queue for when I get home to try. I'm thinking I could draft my own pattern and try to sell it. I mean, I probably wouldn't get much, but I can try, right? I could put them on my Etsy shop that has closed down because I decided to have a baby instead of make cards. Brendon likes to eat too much paper. LOL. Of course, I'd re-open the shop, duh!

Until I can get my hands on that stuff (I do have some diapers cut out, just ran out of elastic) I will enjoy my vacation in South Carolina with family. I won't be able to do anything until at least Wednesday because I gotta work as soon as we get home. Either Wednesday or Thursday or Friday because (can you guess it?!) I forget which ones I work. Hey, I've got my schedule written down so I don't have to remember it!