The package finally came! August 28, 2008

So if you’ve been reading up on my blog at all, you will know one thing… we have a lot of poop stories.  With a baby, a potty trainer, and several other kiddos around, there seems to be a lot of it.  So, I decided that really does it matter if I use cloth or disposable?  I can’t get away from it, so I guess I may as well save money and the planet and use cloth.  I’ve been using them for a few months, but only with a few diapers so it hasnt been full full time.  Well, today my package came with 17 All in One cloth diapers!  So, it looks like today is the beginning of my full-time cloth diapering.   I’m very optimistic, and I’m sure there will be plenty of fun accidents and messes, but obviously I cant be spared otherwise!

Oh Dear Lord, Will it Ever End? August 24, 2008

The funny thing about that title is that all too soon it will end, and then it will mean that my Ella Butt is a big girl.   And so we begin, ANOTHER poop story!   (I should have just called this blog “Shit Tales, by Ella”)

 

Thursday night we left for our family vacation to the Twin Cities.  This is a whole different story.  I just wanted to preface this story by saying we left our house at 7pm thursday night and were gone and BUSY ALLL weekend!  Our last stop was at Walmart, 30 minutes from home, to pick up some groceries.  For some reason, I’m guessing pure exhaustion, Ella has been having more accidents than normal the past couple days.  So, she had peed her panties bit while we were travelling.   I told her we could take them off and that she’d just have to go without panties under her dress until we got home. (Yes, I was THAT prepared!)  At Walmart, we were trying to get everything done as fast as possible.  I was emptying my camera card onto some picture cds, and hubby was off getting “man stuff”.  While selecting pictures I hear Avali say, “Mom, Ella pooped on the floor! Mom, Mom, LOOK!!”   Sure enough, I turn and just in front of our cart, my darling little Ella had dropped a deuce right there on the floor of Walmart electronics department!  Seriously  people, you cant make this stuff up!!!  So i did what every parent would do, grabbed a wet wipe picked it up, dropped it into the nearest trash receptical, and walked away.  (Sorry walmart electronics associates, for the weird smell in your department.  I’m sure no one could even GEUSS that there would be a turd in the can!)

Ahh, yes…  like I said, I’m sure all too soon, this will all just be a faint memory (if that) and she’ll be heading off to school like her big sis.  But for today,  its just another Shit Tale by Ella!

“Like da shickens” August 20, 2008

So, as many of you already know, Ella is our wild child.  We love her to pieces obviously, but she is a wild one.  If someone is going to make a mess, break a bone, or say something that will make your jaw drop.. it will be Ells!

Ella is potty trained now, well for the most part anyway.  She is so stubborn though, that sometimes she just refuses to go in the house to pee, and before I know it she is in a corner of the lawn with her panties around her ankles peeing. Nice huh?  So, two of my day care kiddos were getting dropped of the other day, and the mom said, “Ella did you just pee in the sand box?”  I looked and her was Ella walking away from the sandbox with her panties around her knees… Her response was, “No, so… *insert several shoulder shrugs here* I not.  *very sweet and innocent smile with a few blinks*  “I just pooped, like da shickens.”  Oh yeah, thats my girl!  I had to clean up some chicken poo in the yard this week *gross enough in itself*   so she must have thought it was a good place to go!!!

 

I will spare you a picture!

Hi Jen! Welcome to 2008… August 14, 2008

           

 

Well, it was quite some time ago when I switched to the energy efficient light bulbs.  There were a “few” that I was waiting to replace until they burned out.  Today I finally decided it was time to replace… whether they were ready or not!  Seven bulbs later I realized there were more than a “few” in our house!

After reading Resource Hogs (August 4th post from A Crunchy Life) and getting our energy bill and usage report in the same day, I realized that I need to do what I can to drastically reduce my energy usage!  She was able to use 400 kWh!!!  That is amazing to me!!! My lowest month in the past 12 months was June… 875 kWh.  My goal this month is to be under 800 kWh.  August of last year was 1150 kWh, so it seems like a pretty big goal for us anyway.  I would love to be able to really get it down LOW… but this is a start for us! 

 A few blogs that are motivating me…  (Tara of course you are a great motivator too!)

http://thinner-greener-richer.blogspot.com/  Thinner, Greener, Richer…

http://gotmusic69.livejournal.com/ My cloth diapering Buddy!

http://willowluna.wordpress.com/  A Crunchy Life

School shopping with my “baby” August 13, 2008

Well, no matter how much I wanted to fight it, delay it, deny it… the time is coming!  Avali is going to school! 


Okay okay, to some of you two days a week may not be all that much… but I’m dying here!  What kind of basket case, overprotective mom takes pictures of their kid school shopping for the first time?  What kind of mom, I’m horribly embarrassed to admit this, nearly cries…in WALMART… while buying crayons? Well… that would be me. 

There are moments where I do feel ready for this.  The girls are fighting, a LOT, lately!  Whenever one of those fights breaks out I think, “This will be so good for them!”  Shortly after though, I just wonder how it is that my first little baby is going to school already!  Ava and I had our “special day” today and got to have some one on one time. (Well I offered her one on one time, but she said, “I love Cooper and I want him to come with us” … but that’s what she wanted at least!)    Wow what a GIRLY-GIRL she is though!!!  She wanted to try on EVERYTHING!  And she wanted to buy everything glittery!  These are just a sampling of the outfits she modeled for Cooper and me today!  You must take note *in the first picture* of the barefoot redneck baby in the cart slurpin his bottle!

            … 8 glue sticks….                                                …. ♫ Lovin the glitter notebook ♫ ….

            “I never had one of these before!”                      And a packer jersey for Dad!!!

    The “pose”                                                              Holding up well for a full day of shopping!!

The Great Powder Disaster of 2008 August 8, 2008

I can describe this with words, and I can be elaborate and dramatic… but no matter what no one fully gets just how bad this was.

While on the phone working on our new “park project” (will explain more on that later) my girls were unattended in the kitchen.  They were alone for all of 3 or 4 minutes.  I’m sure you would fully expect a container of powder to make a huge mess… but this is beyond expectations!  Of course when I seen the mess, I decided to go ahead and take a picture!  Messes that bad must be documented!!!  I came back to the kitchen with the camera and those stinkers were….

Making snow angels!!  There really were no words to even begin to describe my thoughts at that point!  So, I did what any stay at home mom who has completely lost her mind would do….   laughed!   At that point what could really be done?