He's OK

Brian flew down to Chile on Thursday to look at his winter nursery. He was suppose to email me his contact information but didn't get around to it before the earthquake struck. I was freaking out for an hour and a half this morning after I saw the news on yahoo, but one of the Monsanto higher-ups called and let me know that they had been able to text out and everyone in the group is ok. They don't have power or running water right now but the Monsanto station they are at has drinking water stored there. Another plug for emergency preparedness. They are out in the field right now looking at plants - don't need power for that. It sounds like they will have some "roughing it" type adventures but nothing dangerous. He flies home next Friday/Saturday so hopefully things will be stable enough by then that he will even be able to take his scheduled flight. Yeah! I can stop planning out my life as a single mom and get back to business as usual. :)

Official Pot Stirrer and Editor Extraordinaire

Long story short: So, we were visiting with our friend and neighbor, Mike, and he told us how the city was planning on buying Regency Trailer Park (a hell hole of a trailer park) and developing the area into mixed Low/Moderate income housing. That evening he forwarded some emails he had sent back and forth with Marge on City Council about the plan. I think this is a BAD idea - a good idea for someone to do it but not the tax payers.

Anyway, I am blown away again by how little communication there is in this town and start My Huxley - Our Local Online Newspaper. I went around and put up fliers for it and talked to the Librarians, High School English teachers (left teachers a flier and emailed them), and City Hall. While I was at City Hall I also talked to them about the plans for the development of the trailer park. The official line is there is no plan they are just feeling the waters (they ok-ed an environmental study of the land - rubbled-asbestos-filled trailers anyone?). They said they were going to have a press release about it this week and I asked if they would send me a copy of the press release to put in my Online Newspaper. She (psudo city clerk) almost had to pick her jaw off the floor and said yes.

This is the weird part I talked to her at 1:30. At 2:30 John, the City Coordinator, called and talked to me about my concerns and I got some more info about the project. At 4:30, Mike called me and said, "I hear you are a pot stirrer." Marge, on city council, had heard about my concerns and had asked Mike if he had talked to me about the plans. Yup. I find it ironic that for a plan that is so "open" that "everyone" knows about it they were able to trace my source of information and did so in such a speedy manner.

Check out My Huxley! If you lived in town I would make you submit something but no such luck. Can you believe it though? There are three other followers! I don't even know them!

Want to Win This?

Go to Food Storage Made Easy and leave a comment.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We Love You!

Planning It Out

Brian submitted our tax return this week! There will be enough for a car. So now I need to get into gear and get our long term food storage purchased.

1st Step Inventory:

I thought we had a lot of food storage - we do have more than we have ever had before but boy do I still have a lot to get.

I have:

770 lbs wheat

50 lbs rice

20 lbs beans

5 #10 cans salt

9 #10 cans powdered milk

5 gallons oil

Recommended for one year:

(based on 4 adults)

1200 lbs grains

240 lbs beans/legumes

Not quite enough to say the least.

Step 2: Plan

I discovered that you can type in your order on the actual Food Storage Form. Swweett!

It even adds it up for you. Gasp! Choke! Question my commitment!?!?! Suck it up and realize if my tax return is enough for a car (and maybe a couch!!!) I had better buy my food storage.

Next, 72 hour kits!

Have you turned in your taxes?

Do you have any food storage/preparedness plans?

Dress Up and Pretend

I am soooooo lucky! Aleah and Colleen really play well together. They play dress up and pretend for hours a day. Aleah will tell Colleen what they are pretending and Colleen will go along with it for the most part or say, "no" and start screaming. :) But really I am amazed at how well they play together. They like making forts under chairs and desks, playing with pretend food and making beds/houses for their babies. I am hoping that come fall, when Aleah goes to kindergarten, Kate will be old enough to play with Colleen.

P.S. I've been posting like crazy today (while they play) so keep on reading!

Colleen's Words

Colleen still isn't talking much but I am sure she is on the verge of taking off. Or maybe it is just wishful thinking. We have a lot of temper tantrums because we just don't know what she wants...or won't give it to her. I thought I would document the words she says now.

1. No = yes and no, slight variations in tone will let you know which it is. One of our main problems communicating.
2. Yeah - a recent and seldom used addition to her vocabulary
3. Me, Mine and My
4. Da-da, Daddy
5. Ma-ma, mommy
6. Wa-wee = Emily
7. Da-bee = Aleah
8. Baby = Kate
9. Why?
10. More
11. Cut = cut, scissors, and knife
12. Tape
13. Spoon
14. Bowl
15. Aww = drink, cup or with a slight tone variation hot
16. Num-nums = food
17. Nummy
18. Nack = snack
19. Pie = cake, cookie or sometimes the verb cook
20. Tee = tortilla, one of her first words. With a tone variation can also be cheese.
21. Cook
22. Cookie
23. Car-key = candy, we thought this was really 'car key' for awhile, but it isn't
24. Ready = raisins/berries
25. Church
26. Car
27. Work
28. School
29. Store
30. Purple = is usually pink but can occasionally be purple or other colors
31. Pretty (I love it when she touches my hair and says, "Mama, pretty.")
32. Ow = out or ow
33. Cow = cow or horse
34. Ra-ra = rabbit/frog/jumping bugs etc.
35. Ducky
36. Kitty
37. Ball (usually with a 'mine' in front of it)
38. La-la = song (she is sooo cute when she sings in church with her made up sounds)
39. Tall - she says this when she sings, "tall, tall, tall" and "small, small, small" in 'Once There Was a Snowman'
40. Two (will stand against the wall and say, "two, two, two" and then run) knows how many two is
41. Baa =bath
42. Hi
43. Bye
44. Hawr-ra = telephone
45. Wet - Colleen has a zero tolerance attitude toward water on her clothes. One drop from washing her hands and the shirt has to be taken off.
46. Back
47. 'kay/OK
48. Tank You = thank you
49. Da-dough - or something like that for Amen
50. Various animal sounds

I am sure there are more and I will add to this list over the next couple of days as I think of them.

Emily's Valentines

Last year Emily made her own valentines and this year she did it again. Her black and white valentines have that distictive Emily style and humor. Here are some of our favorites (she made 24).

Mopping and Quilts

Yesterday I mopped the floor. It had literally been 3 weeks. We had had two families over to eat dinner with us. I didn't mop before they came over. Needless to say it was getting bad. What made me finally do it? My quilts. I want to finish three quilts by March 10th. Two were pieced and I needed to pin the front, back and batting together - on the kitchen floor.

So, what I wouldn't do for friends or family I did for my quilts. This one is another wonky log cabin destined for Katie who works with Brian. They didn't want to find out the baby's gender so it is primary colors with one square of pink and flowers in some of the prints. The backing is a blue batik with flowers. Love it! Aleah couldn't wait until I was done so she could take of the tape and make a tape ball (think LOTS of whining). I think un-taping it is a pain so that worked for me. I also pinned a quilt top that I finished years ago for Colleen. I had put it off because I couldn't decide how to quilt it - and now that I basted it I discovered that it isn't pieced perfectly and will be a pain to quilt without getting puckers in it. Ugh! My camera ran out of batteries before I could get a picture if it so you will have to wait until it is quilted - the suspense!

Kate's Got a Tooth

None of the other girls got teeth until after their 1st birthday but Kate cut her first one yesterday and it looks like the second one won't be far behind. She loves gobbling her oatmeal baby cereal now and will gnaw on thick pretzel sticks. She still has goopy eyes from plugged tear ducts and some cradle cap (thankfully the hair covers that) but we still think she is cute as a button. I can't wait until it warms up and she can wear little onsies so we can see her cute rolls all the time. Oh, to be a baby and have your rolls be cute.

This Post Is For Josh

Sorry Josh,

I didn't mean to ask you.

I know you are busy.

And this isn't your cup of tea.

But then I realized this was my last chance.

I realized how much this fabric is being marked up.

How much shipping costs.

I know you don't haunt the hottest Japanese fabric stores.

But if you could hook me up with some Japanese fabric goodness,

I would pay you back,

Love you forever,

Owe you forever,

Just remember, No Hello-Kitty-Big-Google-Eye-Character-Prints.

Quarter meter cuts of whatever you find would be good.

Don't pay over $8 a meter.

I like the fairytale stuff and small nature/vintage fabric. If you don't have time don't worry, I would just kick myself if I didn't ask.

Daddy's Girl Part 4

Don't you love the "vintage" ball toy. We had one as kids so I had to pick one up at a Goodwill exchange back in Indiana

Kate has started to turn into a Daddy's Girl. She will reach and fuss until Brian holds her if we are sitting on the couch together, turn on her belly towards him if she is on the floor, and she started crying the other day when he was playing the violin and would leave the room. I don't know why they do it. Aren't I fun? (don't answer that) I mean, don't I feed you the best milk ever - in the middle of the night even? (YES) The big problem is that Brian now has 4 Daddy's girls. Emily isn't very demanding but still laughs like he is the funniest thing ever when he tells jokes. Aleah loves him more that "100 fools golds." (Saying she loved him more than a rotten apple somehow backfired even though it was true...) Colleen is 100% Daddy's girl. She won't let me change her diaper when Brian is home. Love it! But can he handle two little ones? What will I do? Have another baby? Ha, ha, just kidding. I am sure I'll think of something...

Close Call

A few weeks ago Brian tore up the front rooms trying to find something that was burning. We could smell it but there wasn't anything on the heaters. A few days later I was looking up at the light and noticed a stuffed animal had gotten thrown up there. When we got it down, we found the light bulb had melted a huge hole in it. One more reason to use florescent.

Good Clean Fun

Recently Colleen discovered the fun of soap and water. She will pull up the stool and wash her hands over and over until I take the soap away. Same with the toothbrushes and toothpaste. On the plus side, she also loves having her hair done and toenails and fingernails cut.