mandalei

But what I can’t handle is the sight of a pinky nail peeled back to the cuticle line at a 30-degree angle.  excuse me while I throw up just a little in the back of my throat.

Well, I was off visiting Ben’s family in Michigan for the week, and Ben’s cousin was getting married, too, so there was alot of celebrating to be done!

Jack had a fantastic time on the farm, and spent almost every waking minute outside looking at the corn and/or soybeans, riding in the gator out into the fields (he even steered it himself… watch out for that boy!), and helping Grampa pick up apples.  He loved his time there, and I can foresee many happy summers for him in the future, as he goes to visit the family farm.  Ben and I also got to hang out with Jeff (Hi Jeff!), which was awesome.  At one point during lunch he said, “It’s happened: we are now the kind of people who get together and talk about our kids.”  We talked about other stuff, too, promise… but there was alot of comparing of stories, probably because parents always tend to wonder whether we’re doing things right (even the ones who don’t admit that they worry about that).

Our Tuesday evening flight back was OK but delayed by an hour, so we didn’t actually get back in the door until about 1:30 Wednesday morning.  After a day of recovering, I was looking forward to a day of normalcy.  Until (cue forboding music) Seamus had to go in for a follow up on the cut on his face.  He came back from the vet wearing a floppy collar, which he proceeded to work over his shoulders until it settled on his waist.  He ran around the house with it like he was wearing a tutu.  I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Then… Jack has had a slightly yellow pinky nail that I have noticed for the last few days.  Today, he reached down to pick something up, and it ended up peeling back almost to the nail bed–my boy is about to lose his nail.  I called his pediatrician, explained that it was pretty far back there and I didn’t know what to do, and they told me to take him to urgent care, since they didn’t have tools to remove the nail.  I go to urgent care, pay a $75 co-pay (since it’s considered emergency room care) and they tell me they won’t remove the nail.  Which I am sure my pediatrician would have said if my pediatrician would have let us come in like I ASKED.  for $15 co-pay.  ARGH.  Jack’s now on keflex for the infection.  Fun and games at our house!

Anyway, pics to follow at some point, once I a) find my camera and b) locate the card reader.  Hope my readers reader (?) is faring well.

Anyone who is a fan of Joss Whedon’s work should go directly to this site, Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog and watch the episodes that are up for viewing.  I love Nathan Fillion, too boot.  Make sure you read the master plan, too.  BRILLIANT.

I am an aunt!  Hurrah!  Of course, it also means I need to make a quilt for my new niece.  To keep me honest, I am going to start blogging my progress.  Here goes!  Today I prepared and cut the main colors:

I have never worked with triangles on the bias before.  This could be interesting…

No, not the kind where I am being forced to post, but quick snippets since I can’t seem to find time for longer stuff it seems.

• When going camping, take a separate tent for the kid and pack-n-play.  This ROCKED.  Our first camping trip was a success.
• I finished the quilt for my grandaprents after 2 years.  I sent it next-day because I really wanted them to have it ASAP
• I am working on organizing my creative life, including starting a personal journal of projects and notes.
• This also means I am organizing my craft room.  heh, “organizing”.
• our third anniversary is tomorrow.  Well, I am sure our anniversary is tomorrow, but I don’t really remember how many years it has been!
• chipmunks are cute until they start destroying your property.  Then you start thinking of interesting ways for them to die.
• Jack will make a great umpire some day, since he can make the “safe!” sign when we yell it
• I need to do one creative thing a day, one housekeeping thing a day, and one outside thing a day.  And I need more day in my day!
• I got my first speeding ticket.  I know for a fact I was not going as fast as they say I was.  Suck

Sometimes I think we need a kickstart to get going.  We’ve been planning things to do for Jack’s room for so long now, but the last time we started painting, I was 7 months pregnant, we were up at the house for the weekend, and we couldn’t get the trim finished before I just couldn’t take the bending and leaning with my gargantuan belly.  When we made it back up to the house the next time, it was the day of our final move-in, and was  2 weeks after Jack was born.  The trim?  Yeah, it’s still not painted.  (FYI, if someone tells you not to pick paint colors when you’re pregnant, believe them.  Or decide on a complete decorating scheme from a distance. What once was a solid stained wood is now striped with glossy paint.  Oops.  We also learned we have to prime everything first, and since it is Jack’s room, we’re not in any rush to do that.).

Anyway.  As I was saying.  Kick in the pants, right.

I changed my mind, too.  I had this whole plan to get going on a pirate-themed room, but just couldn’t commit.  It wasn’t the pirates, it was me.  Sorry about that, I still think you’re swell guys, but *everyone* was into pirates (and I was, but not because of those movies–one of Jack’s ultrasounds looked just like a Jolly Roger!  Of course, one of them looked simian, too, but I hadn’t considered Planet of the Apes.  Go figure.)

Ahem.  So I changed my mind and settled on rockets and robots.  I had found this great fabric from Australia, and then spent weeks tracking it down in the U.S.  It and some of its complimentary fabrics are now mine!  I also found a rocket-shaped corkboard from PB Kids on sale for stupid cheap (15 bucks, originally 70) as well as 2 blue curtains (also on sale–marked the same color, and I thought they were the same color, but um… they aren’t.  but I couldn’t tell right away so most people won’t notice), and a series of hanging panels with rockets at Home Goods, and last weekend, Ben and I found a painting at that same Home Goods with a robot and planets AND a space ship (months after the initial purchase of the rocket panels!)!  Keep in mind, this collecting spree was only spree-like in that it was all cohesive in terms of theme; the buying process spanned several months.

It was the robot painting that really did it for me.  Now I had A Theme.  A Motivation.  We hung the rocket panels and the corkboard and the robot painting two days ago.  Today, I cut two strips of my rocket fabric, and sewed them to the curtains, and we hung them tonight.  I won’t go into the second embarrassing curtain story here.  One embarrassing curtain story is enough for now.

And now… now I am really inspired.  I have decided there’s no better reason to start painting again than to make something for my sweet boy’s room.  I sketched out some plans, and hope to transfer them to canvas tonight.  By golly, it’s a triptych, no less!

In the meantime, I have to finish gramma and grampa’s quilt, I have three more quilts promised elsewhere and planned,and we still need to finish painting the house.  On that note, I am going to go finish reipping out the quiltling I don’t like on Gramma and Grampa’s quilt, and get that finished tomorrow or Thursday at the latest.

Pics to follow at some point.

Jack hasn’t had a middle of the night feed in the last three nights, and last night he slept from 7:45 or so until about 7:45 this morning.  No waking to fuss, or complain or anything.  It was so very, very nice.  And this morning?  He’s the sanest and happiest I have seen him in a while, so I think the uninterrupted sleep is doing good things for him.

And for us.  Hurrah!

At least, enough to have started eating crayon.

MMMMmmmmmm.  Crayon.