Happy Halloween

I have offered many a times to help with Halloween costumes for friends and relatives. Usually no one takes me up on this offer. So, with great delight, I just couldn't wait until the girls were here so that I would finally have someone to make costumes for. However, being pregnant has definitely put a damper on things. Also, the girls are not quite of the age or interested where they can tell me what they WANT to be for Halloween, so I am left trying to come up with something on my own.

Well, I have to say that I cheated this year. I couldn't help the ridiculous sale that disneyshopping.com was having - about 5 months ago - so I bought a Tinkerbell outfit for Anna - complete with leotard/tutu and wings. It is rather cute. We are finishing it off with a white turtleneck & tights underneath. I made her a white and silver bag for her candy loot. There were not any costumes in Celie's size, but I did find some Pocahontas accessories that were on a super duper sale. So, I bought her the Pocahontas headband & necklace and the Pocahontas boots - moccasin like boots. Then I did make her costume from a pattern I bought at Joann's. Her dress is all handmade, including stitching all of the various trims and individual leaves on the front. We finished her costume with a brown long sleeved shirt & shorts. I also made her a matching bag for her treats.

Since Bob was home this year for the big Halloween Event, we decided to go out for the first 1/2 hr or so with the girls to our neighbors and then spend the rest of the time at our house passing out candy to those that came to our house. There weren't as many kids around the neighborhood as there was last year. The girls had a great time and even Anna was getting into the whole thing saying Trick or Treat and thank you. I was trying to get them on video saying it to post, but they were too fast and I was too slow. It was nice to see the neighbors that we knew. A few of them thought that girls were so adorable that they gave each one of them HANDFULS of candy. Lucky for us, they are purists, they really only eat solid chocolate and that is it. They won't even eat M&Ms - whose kids are these?????

Anyway, here are some pics from this evening. The house picture is of our neighbors the Gritti's. I loved their house & decorations.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Glucose results

I received word from my Dr. that the results came back and I do not have gestational diabetes. Phew. I am glad to hear that one. She said that 1 out of the 4 markers were high, but to be considered diabetic during pregnancy 2 out of the 4 have to be high. So, though I am not, she suggested that I watched my sugar intake. So, that is what I will be doing.

Glad I have one less thing to worry about.

Ridiculous & other miscellaneous items

This is what is ridiculous.
Yes, that would be snow on our deck. Ah, a light dusting you may say, well, as I sit next to the sliding glass door that looks onto the deck, it has hailed, the size of peas, and is currently snowing a light fluff of flakes. Joy!! It is October!!! I am NOT ready for this.

* * *

I spent 4 1/2 hours at the hospital on Saturday. Nothing serious, but I did have to do an extended 3 hr glucose test because my initial test came back high. So, hopefully, the results will come back some time this week and be o.k.

* * *

Jake continues to move around and I am thinking that he is growing pretty well. However, he likes to move around, just as I am about to settle down for awhile, trying to relax. Having him use my stomach as a punching bag isn't very relaxing, but at least I know he is doing o.k.

* * *

I am really trying to take to heart the recommendation of my doctor - she at least has gotten me to quit drinking diet pop. I haven't had one in 29 weeks and don't think I will go back to them. I am trying to relax more and not do too much. However, for me, that is difficult. I really feel guilty and lazy if I am not doing something. But I know that it is in the best interest of Jake and Me to keep low key about everything. So, I am really trying to focus on 1 thing a day that I will let myself do - whether it is laundry, cleaning the kitchen, cleaning off the desk, making pants for Celie, etc. and the rest of the time, I am trying to relax with my feet up.

We will see how long that lasts.

My next Dr. visit is on Monday. Details to follow.

Halloween Pics will be up, hopefully, over the weekend.

Happy Haunting!!

This one is for Uncle Tom

Jake Update

I went for my 27 1/2 almost 28 week visit this morning. Everything seems to be o.k. However, my blood pressure was a little high 130/80. I am usually 120/70 or lower. So, my Dr said that she would like to see me every 2 weeks from now on just to keep an eye on things.

I have been experiencing some numbness in my arms and hands, like I did with Celie. And last night, I had some weird vision things happening. Hopefully, it will just pass, but the Dr. suggested that I just try to relax, but keep aware of the symptoms of pre-eclampsia.

Jake sounded great and he is definitely moving around quite a bit.

Our next milestone is 34 weeks.. That is when the Dr. said she feels comfortable - depending on the situation of inducing me. So, that means, that Jake, could potentially be a December baby. That would make Bob happy - tax deduction.

We are just hoping that things calm down a little bit and he stays in his incubation state as long as possible.

A New Anna Phase

The weather here is now cooling off. We are not supposed to get above mid 50's today. Perfect fall weather. However, for some reason, Anna does not like to wear her pants. She will tolerate her pj bottoms for sleeping, but as soon as she is awake, she wants them off. It is hard to get her dressed to go anywhere, she screams and has a fit. It is not fun.

Well, this morning, I came down from doing laundry (our laundry is on the 2nd floor) and this is what I saw. I know that it is blurry, but I wanted to capture her with her hat that she put on sitting on the pillow watching TV.
Here is a side profile of Anna in her hat.


Anna saying Cheese for the camera. Usually I can't capture her because she is moving all of the time.

I missed it

I can't believe that in 5 short days, it has peaked and I missed it.

Last Sunday, we took the girls to Kent State University to see Katie - the girl that babysat for us this summer. She plays soccer for Eastern Michigan University and they were playing Kent. On the way home, the girls fell asleep and to take advantage of the time and to let them sleep, we kept driving, just driving around the area. The sun was out. The leaves were glistening in their fall glory and I thought, excellent, next weekend, I will have the chance to get out and take some photos of the fall foliage.

Nope. In the past 5 days, we have had rain and a cold snap and a little bit of rain. All of which has contributed to the colorful leaves to exit their branches and find their way to the ground. The scenes are definitely not photo worthy now. Bummer.

From my Previous Life

There once was a time when I was a grungy art/sculpture student. As I have posted prior, an influential figure in my life as an art student began with Charles Hook, my undergrad sculpture teacher. He died this past St. Patty's day of Pancreatic Cancer.

This past weekend would have been his 60th birthday. In celebration of him, there was a retrospective of his work and an Iron Pour in his honor. Also, a sculpture park was dedicated in his name at Railroad Square - a long tradition of artist studios, galleries, etc. in Tallahassee, FL (where Florida State is located and where I went to undergrad). I so wanted to be there to participate in the weekend activities. However, being pregnant with Jake would have made for a very tiring and trying weekend. So, I opted not to go. Luckily, Deborah, his wife, completely understood and has sent me a link to a video that was made of the Iron Pour.

Just a little information for those who may not know, when you are casting metal, whether it is aluminum, bronze or iron, you must melt the metal in a furnace. There are a lot of different types of furnaces and ways to do such a thing. However, iron has the highest melting point of the 3 most common metals used in sculpture, therefore, the process is different than for aluminum or iron.

As you will see in the video, the upright tube in the picture is the furnace or cupola as it is called. Also what you will see are people holding a "bucket" with long handles under the tap hole of the furnace. They are going to catch the molten metal coming out. Then, a person will take an instrument looking like a hoe and scrap off the slag or the impurities from the molten metal that is on the top. Then the metal will be poured into the various molds that are on the ground. If I remember correctly, that furnace, when tapped full has about 100#s of molten metal coming out at a time. Yes, it is very hot. The starting melting point for iron is around 1800 degrees, but most of the time what is coming out is more in the 2200 range. That is why everyone around the furnace is wearing leathers. Yes, I have a pair of those along with a Fireman's helmet that I wore when I poured iron.

There is a lot more technical stuff to it as well. And it amazes me that I remember so much of it. I owe that to my great teachers Charles Hook & George Beasley (my graduate instructor).

I hope you enjoy the video. The music may be a little loud - but the video is definitely the type of pour that I experienced in undergrad and grad school many times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqx3rBQ_7xM.

Jake's Room

Well, we definitely accomplished quite a bit this weekend. We have started about 6 different projects and none of them were finished. So, we decided that it would be a good idea to concentrate on one thing and then the rest would follow. So, the first thing to do was Jake's room.

I started painting his room on Wednesday night and was finished by Saturday morning. I had to wait for all of the coats to dry so that I could apply multiple coats. It saddened me to be getting rid of the fairies, but as I painting over them, I knew they had had their time and it was time for something else.

After the paint went up, I used my cool Cricut cutting machine to cut out outlines of puppies and paws out of vinyl. I then stuck them in the border around Jake's room and paw prints up his walls. I am very happy with how it turned out.


I couldn't resist putting his name somewhere in his room. I also liked the sleeping & waking up (as Celie calls him) puppies along his crib wall. Yes, I did that on purpose.


This dresser was Papa Tony's and Celie has used it since she was born. Now, Jake will use it and Celie will use another Papa Tony piece in her room. Yes, those are bone & fire hydrant drawer markers. I made them with my cool machine as well. Yes, they serve as labels for what are in the drawers. I am too forgetful these days to remember everything, so hopefully, they will help out a lot.
This is the artwork that is above Jake's dresser. It is an original print from an artist here in Brecksville. He had a bunch of different dogs, but I liked the pugs the best. It is what inspired the theme for the room.

I am feeling more settled knowing that his room is done. I am hesitant to open up the diapers and put them in his organizer because I have a feeling that between Anna & Celie, they will end up all over the floor. So, I will wait on those types of things. But for the most part, we are ready for him. Though since I am only at 27 weeks, I think it would be a good idea for him to stay in there for awhile.

However, I do have my days where I wish he were here. He can really serve up a good whallop.

Tramatic

That is the only way to describe yesterday.

I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to make the girls appointments to get their hair cut. I knew that it would be a challenge as neither of them will really sit still and I have been doing the hack job of cutting their hair ever since we moved to OH. When I try to cut their hair, they really don't seem to mind, so I thought, well, maybe they are out of the tantrum stage. I was wrong.

Yesterday, the girls and I went to Cuts N Curls in Solon, OH, about 35 minutes from our house - Why not go locally? because they were featured in an article about Salon's specific for kids. They had the cars that you ride in lifted up on chair hoists. Each cutting station had a dvd player and/or video game player. Really, it was pretty neat. So, I made the appointment for each girl at the same time so that if they were terrible, they would at least be over at the same time.

As soon as the brush came near Celie, she threw a fit. That made Anna just go off as well. Anna at least stayed in her car with a few attempts to get up. The woman that was cutting Anna's hair did an o.k. job considering she wouldn't sit still and she kept bowing her head. She cried the entire time - no juice, no goldfish, no nothing would soothe her - other than getting out of the car. Celie kept flailing her arms and was not cooperating at all. So, I took her out of the car - that was difficult - she is EXTREMELY heavy these days. I sat her on my lap and wrapped my arms around her like a straight jacket. She kept crying and screaming, but I was determined not to leave with out her hair cut. Kara, her stylish, did a great job of giving her a cute haircut and adding some layers to it. She did get about 2" cut off her hair, but she really needed it. We also took care of the knots that she got while she was in her cast and I still hadn't managed to get rid of.

It was a very trying day for my nerves. Actually, I should say morning, because all of this happened before 10:30am. Oh yeah, and it was raining all morning too.

Luckily, they did not ban us from the Salon forever and since it was Anna's first haircut, they took her picture, gave us a locket of her hair and a certificate. It was actually really sweet & cute, but unfortunately, it was all lost on the moment. Next time, the girls are going separately, and only one at a time.

Here is Anna at the Salon - I couldn't get a good pic because she wouldn't stop moving and trying to get out of the car. She wouldn't stop crying either, until we got back out to the van.
I took the long way home - so I could decompress. Today is much calmer. Thank goodness.