Picture of the Day

Here's some cuteness to start off the month of September

We recently came into a haul of baby clothes from our friend. Her daughter had outgrown the clothes, so we inherited them. Our friend brought them over when she came by on Monday, and our toddler daughter was intrigued by the headbands. So, we just had to put it on her!

A flower child in bloom

Needless to say, it didn't stay on very long. Rubber bands, barrettes, headbands, nothing keeps my kid's hair out of her face! My mother keeps nagging us to trim her bangs, but I don't want to. Her curls are too cute to cut!

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

A Trip to the Dentist

It has been a long day, dear readers.

Today, we had to be up early because the baby had a dentist appointment. The pediatrician wanted her to see a dentist before her next checkup, so we contacted the local low-cost community dental clinic and got her appointment scheduled for today.

Gotta make sure my kid has strong teeth, just like my favorite baseball player from my late teen years, Carlos Quentin!

There weren't many people in the waiting room when we arrived, but because we were new patients, we had to arrive extra early to fill out the mountains of paperwork that come with that designation. I checked the baby in and was about halfway through filling out the paperwork when the baby was called in to be seen. I followed the hygienist to the suite while my hubby stayed behind to finish the paperwork.

Being a dentist's daughter, I'm no stranger to the dentist's office and chair. But, because my father was my dentist, I had very little exposure to what other dentists offices looked like. I was quite surprised how clean and orderly the dental suites were. My dad's office suddenly felt dingy and obsolete compared to this one. Then again, it's been years since I last saw my dad's office. I have no idea what he's done with it since. He's remodeled it once before.

We met the dentist, a kind Filipino who advised me to brush the baby's teeth twice a day instead of the once-daily night brushes I'd been doing and to limit her sugary juice and food intake, but otherwise her teeth looked good. The baby has never been into bottles and she wasn't real crazy about pacifiers, so that probably saved her mouth some serious damage in the long run. He gave the baby a quick brushing with some kiddie toothpaste and a quick fluoride treatment to strengthen her teeth. The dentist finished up the visit with some brushing instructions, a goodie bag with a toothbrush, toothpaste, some floss sticks, and a sticker for the baby, who put up a loud squall as he did his work. After he left, the hygienist was kind enough to set up the next appointment six months from now.

Time for a boo-boo treaty! Not this Crapple pie, but something better!

After checking out, I went back to the waiting room with the baby to collect my husband and leave. We then went grocery shopping where we bought the baby some fruit for her being a good patient today.

And that was how I spent my Friday.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

The Fashionista

Hi everyone!

Here's a cute pic from the weekend.

Glam girl

Even though my daughter is only a little over a year old, she's already wearing toddler-size clothes (that shirt is 5T and the pants are 4T). In alot of ways, I'm not surprised by this. My husband and I are both large people, and as children we were both wearing clothes fit for larger individuals. Naturally, she too follows suit. I don't mind her clothes being a little loose on her. When it's hot out, you don't want any material sticking to your body.

Besides, jeans are good in any weather.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

Some Updates

Hello dear readers!

As you may have noticed, things have been a little quiet here on the blog. This has largely been due to husband being out of town for a few days at a time over the course of these past two weeks. His job sent him to a small town near the US-Mexico border and with him not home to watch the baby while I cook and clean, I just haven't had the time or energy to write. One good thing about his business trip is that my husband got to stay in a historic hotel. A friend recommended the restaurant in the hotel's lobby, which my husband ate at and approved of mightily. It's said to be haunted (the front desk lady told my husband that an entity from the hotel followed her home and tried to strangle her in her sleep, and the colleague my husband was rooming with in the hotel room woke up in the middle of the night screaming from a terrifying nightmare. Coincidence? You decide...), but my husband hasn't seen or felt anything out of the ordinary. His demon-meter is fine tuned, but he's also well protected by the Lord.

Boo!

I also have an update on the car. It appears that the bothersome electrical short which caused spluttering upon acceleration and prevented us from going up our friend's very steep driveway for fear of burning through yet another set of wires when going over to visit her, has finally been fixed! My husband, while diligently looking over the wires in both the engine and the dash, discovered where the insulation had worn off in some wires leading to the wiper blades. He fixed it and the car seemed to behave for a few days, even with him being a leadfoot. A few days ago, he went to visit our friend on the hill and made it up her beastly driveway with no splutter or fried wires. I still get nervous going up her driveway, but now I don't have to walk up it anymore.


Also of note, I've been getting to exercise my cooking skills lately. I made some more pita breads, this time using whole wheat flour, and I rolled them to be very thin, just like how my hubby likes them. They weren't fluffy like what I'm accustomed to seeing with pita bread, and were actually quite dense. I wonder if this is characteristic of whole wheat flour, or if I didn't let the dough rise enough, but I'll try again sometime soon. Also, after collecting the last of the harvest from our tomato garden (the damn things went absolutely gangbusters!), I made homemade tomato sauce from the overripe and sun-scarred tomatoes in the colander my hubby was using to hold them. I also used plenty of fresh basil from the garden (another plant that has a tendency to go gangbusters out here), but I used too much initially and had to take out most of the leaves once the sauce had cooked down. Once it was cool enough, I jarred the sauce up and put it in the freezer. It'll make for excellent pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce once I get around to making these respective dishes.

We knew this was inevitable. Pennywise Trump finally got his coronation and shattered the GOP while doing it

Finally, if anyone cares to know, I have been keeping up with the dumpster fire known as the Republican National Convention. Like most apolitical people, I've been kicking back with my beer and popcorn, watching the shitshow rage on. I despise the walking ballsack called Ted Cruz for a whole host of reasons, but I will give him due credit for doing the equivalent of defiantly sticking his middle finger right in front of the GOP's face at the Donald's coronation. But then again, I've always subscribed to the idea that Donald Trump isn't in it to win the presidency, he's running as a troll Republican to destroy the GOP and clear the way for Hillary. I don't support Hillary for a whole host of reasons, but she's much more qualified to run this country than Trump. Besides, if she's elected, then we won't have to flee to Mexico to escape the coming hell that is a Republican presidency. Bernie did what he was supposed to do and pulled her to the left.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

The Pita Breads

Good evening, dear readers.

After a fulfilling afternoon spent helping a friend and former neighbor fix up a trailer for her son, I had a hankering to make some more bread. Bread making, as I've come to figure out, isn't that hard. It can be time consuming, yes, but you're letting chemistry and physics do most of the work for you.

Playing with the curtain door at our friend's home

Since we had some leftover hummus in the fridge, I decided that pita bread was in order for dinner. Thanks to that amazing culinary school known as Youtube cooking tutorials, I found an easy and not-so-time-consuming recipe for Greek pita bread from my favorite Greek chef, Akis Petretzikis. I didn't have any fresh thyme, which the recipe called for, but since we have loads of Italian seasoning which we've acquired from moving inheritances and trailer cleanouts, I used that instead. It had thyme in it.

After kneading, rolling flat, and grilling them in my trusty cast iron pan on medium heat, the resulting pita breads were absolutely divine. They were soft and tasty with a bit of crisp on the outside. Since they were homemade, the pita bread loafs were different sizes and thicknesses, which gave them some variety. The Italian seasoning I added to the dough made a tremendous difference and gave the breads a very nice aroma in addition to a subtle taste. My husband really liked the pita breads too as he broke apart the piece and dragged it through the hummus.

My beautiful pita breads (note: I have no idea why the image is rendering sideways. It was taken right-side up!)

Akis was right: once I made homemade pita bread, there's no going back to store bought. It didn't even take that long to make, from activating the yeast to plating the finished breads, it took probably about an hour and a half total. It was a breeze compared to English muffins, which when made fresh is pretty much a whole-day affair.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

First Steps

Greetings, dear readers!

Today marks a momentous milestone: the baby took her first steps!

Not quite walking, but she could pivot on one leg (which is what she's doing in this picture)

I knew this day was coming. For the past two weeks, when she'd crawl, the baby would crawl with her butt high in the air and her feet flat on the ground instead of on her knees like she normally would do. Today, when my husband took the baby out in the morning so that she could have a zoot and burn off some energy, she took three steps on her own towards him on the patio. Of course, when I went to go and observe the event, she wouldn't repeat it. Later on, however, as the baby was playing on the bedroom floor, I saw her stand up and take three steps toward the bed on her own before she reverted back to her normal crawling mode.

Monkey crawling

What makes this day even more special is that she figured out walking more or less on her own. She refused to be put in a walker, and while my husband and I would walk with her around the house holding her hands or letting her cling to our legs, there's only so much you can do to teach a kid to walk. Our pediatrician also said that when it came to walking, that it was a mind-over-matter kind of thing; even though they have the muscular ability to do it, the babies prefer crawling over walking because it gets them from Point A to Point B faster. Either way, I'm proud of my daughter. She's developing right on her targets.

Soon enough, she'll learn how to run. And that's when the real fun will begin...

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

Picture of the Day

Happy Thursday, dear readers!

On Saturday, my husband came home from Walmart with a small inflatable kiddie pool. Since the weather had become so beastly hot (like over 100 degrees Fahrenheit!), my husband decided that a small kiddie pool was a good investment for keeping the baby cool. He'd planned to buy a small plastic round pool, but since he didn't have the means of transporting it home (no room in the car and it wouldn't tie well on the roof), he decided that the inflatable one was better in terms of price and storage. On Tuesday, he blew up the pool on the patio and filled it with some water. He and the baby then went for a little swim, from which I got today's picture of the day.

Swimming with Daddy

I joined in shortly, but we didn't stay out long because a storm rumbled in and we had to go inside. But, it was nice to have a pool for a bit. Nothing like low-budget ways to have fun and stay cool in this desert.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

Picture of the Day

Greetings, dear readers!

My daughter has learned a new skill: climbing! It began with her climbing up onto a small stool that my husband keeps near his desk in his work area which functions like a small table and holds random stuff like extra wires and gadgets. First, she would knock the stuff off the stool, then climb up onto the surface and proceed to either try and get at the stuff on my husband's desk or just chill on her new perch. Needless to say, baby-proofing my husband's work area became priority number one for an afternoon.

Well, just after she learned to climb the stool, the baby then proceeded to climb on top of one of the side tables here in the bedroom! The baby had cleverly figured out how to use the lower table as a stair to get to the higher table. So in celebration of my little mountaineer, here she is at the summit for today's picture of the day.

I'm coming for you, Mt. Everest...

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

Puppy the Kitten

Hello everyone!

I've decided to post some recent pix of our rescue kitten. The baby decided to name the kitten Puppy, because everytime she sees the kitten, she says "puppy"! While I normally wait a bit to see how the kitten's personality develops before bestowing a name on them, I conceded to the baby's choice of cat name because I'm all for unique and unusual pet names. With the exception of Dreamboy, who was named for his uncle, all of our cats have unique or unusual names.

Playmates

Anyway, some updates on the little girl. Her eye infection is gone, but she has a mad appetite for Vienna sausages instead of pate cat food or my husband's various fish pastes, which he shares with the big boys as treats. She is also very playful, always wanting to play boot-n-bite with us, especially at ungodly hours of the night, as well as always getting underfoot whenever we are walking around our home. As our scratched up hands and arms attest, she is a true kitten. She is also now potty trained, and has not had a single accident since the day after I brought her in.

Her eyes are pretty well cleared up. She's got almost all of the remaining tough guck off

Puppy and the baby have a special bond too. They both like playing with each other and Puppy doesn't get mean when the baby manhandles her, as babies are apt to do. Fortunately, with some vigorous instruction, the baby is getting better about handling Puppy more gently.

Playing with the drawer handle

Our remaining big boys are also tolerant of the new addition. Its not unexpected, since one of them is obviously Puppy's father (only an orange tom can father a calico). In fact, when they feel like it, they will sometimes play with Puppy. I've caught Pest rolling around with and batting Puppy in play, just like how he would do when he was a kitten. When they're done, the big boys then just up and leave. They generally aren't aggressive towards the kitten, but when they're annoyed with being around another juvenile, they'll make sounds telling her to back off.

Time for a cat nap!

Overall, Puppy has now become well-integrated into our home. Now that its no longer necessary to quarantine her in the bathroom anymore, she can zoot around our home to her little heart's content. We've had a few scares when we couldn't find her and thought she'd gotten out, only to find her sleeping under the side table in the bedroom where she can wiggle her tiny self into or under the server rack in the living room. She tries getting out when the door is open, but we stop her. She's not ready for the big, bad world yet. Eventually, we will let her out, just like our other cats are. We generally don't like our cats to be kept perpetually indoors because my hubby feels it makes them stir crazy. Each cat has their own territory, and being outside helps.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

Birthday Baby

Greetings, dear readers!

Today was my daughter's first birthday! Though my husband had originally been scheduled to work on this day, a providential scheduling snafu led to him having the day off today. We could celebrate our daughter's birthday as a family!

One year ago. From this...

To this!

We started off the day by going to the clinic so that my husband could get his methadone. The staff was delighted to see us and some of our patient friends there wished the baby a happy first birthday. After a bit, we went to church so as to give thanks to God for our baby and express gratitude that she's made it to the one year mark, as well as hopes that there will be many more birthdays to come.

Playing with the bead and wire toy at the clinic

Owing to tight finances, we couldn't really DO any activities for her birthday (given how blazing hot today was, I thought about a day trip up in the mountains, but the car still needs some work done before that can happen). And with it being so blazing hot, none of us really felt like doing anything anyway. But, I was determined to get her a cake. I couldn't get the Rolling Stones t-shirt for her that I wanted, but a cake was non-negotiable. So after church, we went and got her a cake at the grocery store.

When I saw this cake, I knew it was the right one. It was white cake with buttercream filling

After a light lunch and relaxing for the afternoon, we had a delicious dinner of tacos (homemade seasoning makes a world of difference!) and finally, our delicious cake! Hubby and I sang "Happy Birthday" to the baby and he cut the cake, each of us getting a piece.

Hubby cuts the cake

Given that just about every baby I've ever seen with a slice of cake usually proceeds to mash it into pulp before body painting themselves with the cake, I thought for sure our baby would do that. It is a classic image, after all. Even though our baby is not known for neat eating habits (no matter how much I try to minimize the mess!), she wasn't as messy with her cake as I thought she would be. Cleanup did not require a power wash or second bath.

Being dainty

Trying to feed herself with the spoon!

Not quite covered in cake, but close enough. When she starts playing with food and reaching towards either me or hubby from her chair, it's her way of saying she's done eating and wants to play

Now that our daughter has reached the magical age of one, my husband and I will start trying to make her a sibling in earnest. After she was born, my husband and I agreed to wait until the baby was at least a year old before trying for another because I wanted sufficient time to recover from that pregnancy before undergoing another one. Also, by holding off another pregnancy, I feel like it gives the baby sufficient time to bond with me and know that I am her mother. While I would like a large family (my husband likes to say he wants 10 kids, but we agreed that three would be a good minimum), I don't want to have more children than I can care for at one time. I don't want to offload childcare duties (at least more than what is appropriate) onto my older children because that will not only confuse the hell of my youngest children, it will make my oldest children resentful towards me because I made them surrogate parents to their younger siblings before they were mature enough to handle the responsibilities of raising children.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

The Kittens

Greetings, dear readers!

While my Mother's Day this past Sunday was uneventful, my husband made an amazing discovery.

It started on Sunday night, when my husband heard high-pitched, infantile mewing coming from outside our home. He went outside to investigate, and saw there were kittens running around on our property!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pix of our kittens, so this will have to do. The kitten in this picture is about as old as the kittens we found. Pic found here

My husband spotted three kittens. One was orange and white, the other is cream-colored and white, and the last one is black. He tried to catch them and bring them inside, but they got away. Later on, he managed to catch the cream colored one and bring it inside the living room. However, by morning, the kitten had gotten out. My husband suspects it was rescued by its mommy, even though I was waking up every couple of hours because I could hear it mewing, so I would go into the living room to check on it and make sure it had food and water. On Tuesday afternoon, while I was outside doing the laundry, I spotted the black kitten. I tried to coax it to come to me and be fed, but it was skittish and ran away. I would see the kitten intermittently while I was hanging up the diapers, as it would come back in and out of the yard, running under our trailer.

This is as close a pic as I can find of what the black kitten looks like. Pic found here

As for where the kittens might have come from, there is a Siamese minnie (girl cat) that likes to hang around our home, and being the big softie for felines, my husband feeds her. She was feral, but has gradually become tamer with prolonged feeding and contact. When she first started coming around, she was pregnant. She disappeared for a while, emerging much slimmer than the beach ball with legs she had initially been. We knew she had her litter, but we could not find the nest. These kittens that my husband discovered are very likely her kittens.

The kittens appear to be about 4 weeks old (as is evidenced by their still baby-blue eyes), so their ages match up pretty well to coincide with the minnie's return, though if she had them under our trailer (as my husband believes), I was bewildered as to why we didn't hear mewing earlier. My husband told me that minnies can silence their kittens, though I find that a little hard to believe because every batch of kittens I've encountered/raised ALWAYS made a racket of mews when they're born and need tending to.

Because we love animals, hubby and I will try to find and tame these kittens. They don't have to be indoor kitties; our cats are largely outdoor kitties anyway. Since I don't believe they've had much in the way of contact with humans, I don't think these kittens will be adoptable, but it's ok. I've missed having kittens to care for. I must be coming down with baby fever, haha.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

The Crib: The End

Hello again, dear readers!

After about a month of hard work, the crib is finally done! It's been sanded, painted, reinforced, mounted on caster wheels, and is finally ready to be put to use.

Head and foot boards assembled

Unfortunately, the stretcher bar at the bottom was missing a screw. No worries. My husband's hoarded hardware took care of that little problem

Ready to paint

In a significant deviation from the original plan, I assembled the crib first before painting it. This was my husband's bright idea because he wanted to see where reinforcements would be needed in the overall piece. Though this was primarily my project, I did let him do the planning and some of the reinforcements. Due to his engineer's brain and decades of carpentry experience, this was the only part of the assembly that I let him handle. But, for the purpose of gaining experience, I helped by measuring, cutting, and mounting an extra plank on the back bottom of the crib, borrowing my hubby's skill-saw and drills for the job. Despite gorilla-ing the bolts for security and sturdiness, the back bottom part of the crib felt a little too wobbly for my liking. Since it was going in the back of the crib where nobody would see it, I left the reinforcement unpainted. The other side felt fine, and I will be taking the front side of the crib down when the baby is big enough so she can have a toddler bed.

All painted! One coat was enough

The paint I used was a water-based latex paint. Everywhere I looked online and at Home Depot, for the purpose of painting a crib, latex paint was recommended. The first coat was pretty opaque and I debated on whether or not I should do a second coat. I still had some paint left over and the 150 grit sandpaper for this purpose, but after my husband looked it over, he told me it wasn't necessary. One coat was sufficient. He told me he thought it looked better now than it did in the online pictures or store models.

The reinforcement. This is on the back side of the crib, so nobody's gonna see it.

Before bringing the crib into the bedroom, there were three final tasks that needed completion: installing the caster wheels, attaching the springs, and one final cleaning. Though it took me a bit to figure out how to separate the caster's socket from the wheel, my hubby handled the drilling on the legs. I'd planned on doing it, but he insisted on doing the drilling because the bit was larger and he had better control of the drill.

Man at work

Wheels on!

The spring

The rest of the final assembly was tolerable, though annoying. After wiping down the springs with bleach and getting it ready to attach to the frame of the crib, I had two hiccups occur here. The first hiccup was because one of the holes for where the bolt was supposed to go and attach the spring to the frame had a messed up thread and no matter how careful I was, I just could not get the bolt to take. My husband solved that problem by drilling another hole right about at the same level and inserting a carriage bolt and nut into the arm of the spring, but not before cursing the manufacturer for making the bolt holes in such an inconvenient place. This was due to the second hiccup: having allen wrenches that were too long to fit in the narrow gap where the bolts attached the spring to the frame. If my hubby hadn't searched the tool drawers for the L-shaped allen wrenches and found one that fit, I honestly don't know how I would have finished the installation. Hubby or I would have had to drill extra holes for new screws, thus further delaying completion and being an overall pain in the ass to do.

The crib is complete. Now time to bring it in

I finally wiped down the whole crib before calling it done. Since the crib sat outside and was assembled outdoors, I wanted to be absolutely sure the crib was clean of any outside pathogens. I'm a huge stickler for cleanliness, especially since a baby will be sleeping in that crib. While she's never been a sickly child, I don't want to take that risk. She'll have plenty of opportunities to build up her immune system as she gets older and more active.

After my hubby helped me to put the crib in the bedroom, I was pleasantly surprised to find that a crib mattress we had been given by a family friend about a year ago fit perfectly in the crib! Though our church friends gave us a mattress to go with the crib, I planned to use the one our family friend gave because that mattress was already inside our home (we used to play with the baby on it), but I was concerned that it might be too large to fit in the frame. Imagine my delight when I saw how perfectly the mattress lay on the spring. However, thanks to my neurotic cat, Pest, I discovered that the bottom of the mattress was covered in cat pee (there's nothing physically wrong with him. He just feels the need to pee on everything because he's territorial. It's a never-ending job, cleaning up after him) after I took it out of the closet where I'd been storing it. Needless to say, after a cursing tirade directed at Pest while he roosted on top of the car, I took the mattress outside and bleached the hell out of it. Experience has taught me that there is no substance more pervasive than cat pee, but I was thankful that the mattress was made of plastic and was easily cleaned.

All done. A baby can sleep here now

After the mattress was cleaned, dried and eau-de-tomcat free, I finally dressed the crib. Mattress, waterproof barrier, cover sheet, and I was done. It sure looked pretty. I haven't decided if I'm going to add a pillow in there or not (I have a small, flat one that would give her some padding without sinking her head in). Guess that'll be something to bring up at our next pediatrician's appointment.

But the most important question remained unanswered: what did the baby think of her new bed?

At first, she was unsure about it and wanted me to pick her up

But then, after her bath and night feed, she went to sleep. I was especially thrilled to see that her diaper and blanket baskets still fit easily under the crib, thus saving us space. Her cradle was arranged in a similar way

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with the outcome of this project. I got to flex my DIY muscles and build something practical. This gives me a big confidence boost for future projects. That being said, if I was going to redo this project, I would first use the right tools for the job (sanding wheels save arms!) and paint the pieces separately before assembling. I'd planned on doing that, but my husband talked me into going a different route. I would also probably tape over the holes where all the hardware went, since I think my paint played a part in that one spring hole's thread being messed up.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

An Update on the Crib

Hello again, dear readers!

I thought I'd take some time to let you all know how the crib is coming along. A few weeks back, I wrote about how my daughter had outgrown her baby cradle and needed a bigger bed. Some friends gave us their daughter's old crib, but it was in need of a paint job after being exposed to the elements in what was once our poorly-roofed shed (that problem is now fixed, thankfully). I have the paint, the sandpaper, the caster wheels for mobility, and brushes to complete this project. Now, I present my progress.

At the beginning, this was the crib

For the past few weeks, usually in the evening when the sun is setting and there is more shade in the yard, I've been diligently sanding off the old paint using some 60 grit sandpaper. Due to the way the crib is designed, I've had to sand it down all by hand because a sanding wheel would have been too impractical (and costly). Let me just state that anyone who tells you that sanding is easy should be smacked BECAUSE MY HANDS AND ARMS ARE SORE!! I think I'm turning into an old woman and getting carpal tunnel syndrome in my hands from this project. Also, there's alot of dust that gets kicked up with sanding furniture. Thank goodness the paint is non toxic!

My sandpapers. 60 grit is for getting the old paint off, 150 grit is for roughing up the paint between coats

Well, today I finally finished sanding. I used up all five sheets that were in the little package and got about half the old paint off. My husband had to remind me not to go too hard on the sanding because the paint that wasn't easily coming off was just going to be painted over. The crib will still be white, but the surface paint will be roughed up enough to get the new coat of paint to stick.

Part-way through. Sanding furniture is alot harder than it looks...

Before I paint on the first coat, though, a bit of reinforcement is needed on the head and foot boards of the crib. Either the weather or rough handling caused it, but a side of the headboard is coming apart and the foot board has a side that is split near where the holes to insert the screws bolting the leg to the board go. I am NOT letting my kid sleep in something that could become a safety hazard down the road (hell, I'D be apprehensive about sleeping in a bed which featured these structural defects too), so I'm taking care of this now before I go any further. The rest of the frame is alright, though. Some strong glue and a few well-placed screws should take care of this problem.

All done! My arms hurt...

So this is where I'm at now. I'll keep you all updated as this project progresses. This is the first big DIY project that I've done, so I want the results to be a point of pride. Stay tuned!

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

Rearranging

Happy Monday, dear readers!

Today I began the formal rearranging of the bedroom to make room for the new crib. Unfortunately, my husband didn't get a chance to get the paint and wheels for the crib because he had to come home and scream at the insurance company. Like most insurance companies, they're playing games with our payout and delaying its send out for various BS reasons or another (note to everyone reading this: Omni Insurance is the car insurance company from hell and should be sued out the ass for fraud). The agent told my hubby that the check should be coming by the end of the week, but we'll see. I have the contact information from the Southern Arizona Legal Aid Society on hand so we can take these motherfuckers to court and make them pay up once and for all.

While my husband dealt with the insurance company on the phone, I began taking apart the cradle. It wasn't hard to do, but I felt a little sentimental doing it because I remembered borrowing my husband's ratchet and putting it together when we moved in. It really put into perspective how much time had flown since the baby was born. One thing I'm truly grateful for is that we even got to use it. It would have been absolutely devastating to have gotten the cradle, put it together, and then have to take it apart again because the baby did not come home from the hospital alive.

Work in progress

All done. The cradle is no more

After I put the remnants of the cradle in the shed, covered in a plastic garbage bag to protect it from the elements and the cats, I proceeded to take down the religious pictures and sacramentals that hung above where the cradle once was. I then cleared everything off the top of the dresser, took out the drawers, and moved it to the spot where the cradle used to be. It was not easy because the dresser is heavy, but I managed to pivot it and walk it over. I suspect the original occupant of this trailer had a dresser in this same area too, since the layout of the room limits the way it can be arranged. At any rate, it was nice to be able to see the window across from our bed again, and also to see that we had an extra outlet which I had forgotten about. When my husband came back into the bedroom and saw me putting the drawers back in, he was surprised and pleased by my work. Together, we found new places to hang our religious items back up.

Physics is your friend

Though she didn't like it at all, thank goodness for the baby jail because it kept the baby out of the way while I was moving furniture around the room. Once I was finished, I let her out of the jail and allowed her to come back into the bedroom to continue playing.

A friend gave us this play mat. There are supposed to be things dangling from the bars, but she couldn't find them when she gave it to us.

Tonight, I'll research what kind of paint to get and how much it will cost. I want something non-toxic since this will be going on a crib and the baby will likely chew on the sides as her teeth grow in.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

Palm Sunday

Happy Palm Sunday, dear readers!

Today marks the start of Holy Week, a week of intense prayer, fasting and abstinence as a means of preparation for Easter. On this day, we commemorate Jesus' entry into Jerusalem where He was greeting with palms and shouts of joy. His fellow Jews thought He was going to liberate them from the Romans and upon realizing that was not what Jesus was about, they had Him executed a few later on Good Friday. It's quite bipolar when you think about it, how quickly He went from being celebrated to crucified. It really gives an insight into the mindset of humanity post-Original Sin, as Canon Bill phrased it during his sermon today.

Daddy and the baby, looking cute for church

As is customary, we got palm leaves and went on a procession around the church. It was nice to be able to witness our faith being displayed for all to see.

Follow the priest and altarboys!

Canon Bill (in red) and the altar boys leading the procession

The choir

Kids with palms

Home stretch towards the front

Follow the leader

This part is where the priest and the choir recreate a dialog between the Roman guards and Joseph of Aramathea to seal the tomb where Jesus is laid

Back inside. Notice how the statues are shrouded. This is done during Holy Week as for devotions and the statues are then unveiled during the Easter Vigil Mass.

Canon Bill reads the Gospel.

This was also the first day we got to drive our cholomobile to our Latin Mass church and show it off to our friends and fans there. There was another debut too-we finally upgraded the baby's car seat from the baby carrier to a proper forward-facing car seat. We knew the time had come when the baby's feet started hanging over the edge of the carrier and it was getting harder to buckle her in. Since the carrier has been retired, she now gets to ride sitting up and facing forward in the stroller like a big girl.

In Arizona, primo parking is wherever there is shade. Our cholomobile is in primo parking under the palo verde tree

Cruising in style like a big kid

Unfortunately, the baby became very fussy during Mass so we had to go up to the kiddie ghetto. It was just as well that we did, because my husband spotted an ex-associate of his tailing along at the end of the procession and going up into the kiddie ghetto was the most convenient way to get away from her. This is not the first time this woman, or another crazy person from my husband's past showed up at our Latin Mass church, likely to spy on him. The University draws alot of people like them to the area, but I also think of the Parable of the Two Churches. Where God is present, the devils swarm like flies because He is there.

After Mass, we joined our longtime family friend at a nearby Waffle House for brunch. This may be the last brunch we all have together because a serious issue that had previously been quietly simmering in the background with our relationship is beginning to become more and more prominent. My husband is doing a novena to the Holy Spirit to discern how to proceed with this matter, but it will have to be confronted soon. For now, however, we wait and pray.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!