I Win

Nora just went down for nap number two of the day. She's a stinkin' sweet baby. This afternoon, I may get her out of the house to scoot over to the hardware store. I still need to get some screws for my hardware project. (Plus, I'm getting a twinge stir crazy because I haven't left the house since -like- last week.)

I totally won today. I was sick and tired of my Mini Shower dripping rusty water all over our upstairs bathroom. (The Mini Shower is an attachment you can hook up to your toilet to use as a bidet, etc. We use it to spray off our cloth diapers into the toilet.) So, I went to their website, found their contact info, and I wrote them an email about it. I even included these photos:



I can't believe I never thought to do this sooner. We've had this thing for four months, and it's been leaking rusty water for four months! Believe it or not, they're sending me a new Mini Shower as we're speaking. They're not even making me send this one back! How sweet is that? That's some good customer service right there. Thumbs up for Mini Shower! It's amazing what you can get done if you can just find a minute (and remember, of course).

By the way, isn't our upstairs bathroom nasty? I hate having carpet in the bathroom. We are so gutting that thing this fall. I'm busting out that carpet, getting a new toilet (I HATE that toilet that's in there now), and tiling in there. I'm going to put in a shower up there, too. I'm so excited to do it! First, we have some outdoor projects we want to tackle while it's warm, though. We're going to put in a brick patio soon, for one.

Alright. It's time to get out of my office and have some fun with my little girl. (Some major time has elapsed since I started working on this post. She's totally awake now.)

I Really Like My Little Girl

Oh, man. Things are taking seriously long to load on my work computer today. It's brutal. I even restarted it today.

So, to pass the time, I've taken to uploading some videos and sounds of my beebee. Here's Nora in her Johnny Jump up from this morning.




And here she is on the changing table this morning.

I really like this little girl. She's so neat. I love her faces and her noises. I love the way she smells. I love the way she squirms all over the changing table. I love how she moves her hands while I'm nursing her. I love it that she sleeps. I love it that she's happy most of the time. I even love it that she yells when she's starting to get mad at me  (she gives me about five minutes of warning yells that seem to say, "I'm about to freak out here, Mom!").

She's been a serious napper lately, too. I think she might be having a growth spurt again. I know I'm going to miss her being this small.

This morning, after Willi's alarm went off, we heard Nora cooing from her bed. So, I got up to go get her, and the sweet little rat smiled at me. I just love that. Every morning is a good morning with this little thing. Squish, squish, squish!

Two-Coke Afternoon

It's been a two-Coke afternoon sort-of day.

Nora's on nap number three at the moment, and I'm just sitting here waiting for stuff to load on both computers. Bah.

I even tried replacing some hardware on a big dresser to keep myself alert. Criminey. It turns out, I need to get some new screws because they never give you screws that are long enough when you're replacing hardware on something, it seems.

On the upside, though, the big dresser that we got for free is -like- real, solid wood. I thought it was a veneer or laminate finish, but I think this puppy is real. You don't find that sort of thing anymore. Its hardware is crap (probably from use), but at least it's a nice piece of furniture.

The weekend was seriously eventful. The Kaedings came into town Friday evening and stayed with us until Sunday. Nic had a bridal shower to attend in Schererville on Saturday, so they decided to make a weekend event of it over at our place.

Saturday morning, I made some parfaits for the first time for Nic, Jason, Willi, and me. I think I'll be making those a lot now because I really, really liked it. I'd never even had one before, but I decided to try it for a quick breakfast for the four of us on Saturday. I just used some frozen fruit (raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries that I defrosted slightly by putting them in a strainer and running cool water over them), plain yogurt, and granola.

The Campbells and the Cooks came over Saturday afternoon, and we decided to have a cookout to feed everybody. Much to our dismay, our food turned out terribly. I made a homemade coleslaw and potato salad, and I added a little white onion (half of a small onion per salad). That white onion was -like- nuclear. It was so stinking harsh that it pretty much destroyed those salads. I've never had such a hot onion before. I swear I've been using those onions in other dishes and didn't come across one so hot. Maybe I've cooked them this whole time? It was serious. I think Willis must've been a little distracted while cooking the chicken 'cause that ended up fairly overcooked as well. It was kind-of sad. Luckily, we had some good desserts because Kelly and Bethy brought some over. Ay yay yay. I'm sure everybody probably went to bed hungry that night. I know I did. Well . . . almost. I went down and finished off the coleslaw later on that night. I had a glass of milk afterwards to calm down the fire that was roaring in my belly from those onions, too.

Sunday, Willi made biscuits and gravy for Nic, Jason, and me, we socialized with them for a bit, and then they took off. The rest of the day, Willi and I were pretty lazy except for when we ran outdoors for about an hour to plant some grass seed while Nora napped. She actually took three naps yesterday, too. During one of those naps, we napped for a bit on the couch ourselves.

Over the weekend, I think I discovered that I have seasonal allergies. So . . . that's fun. I've been getting sick like this every year for as long as I can remember. I bought a Neti Pot the other day, and I've been using it quite a bit. I think it's actually helping with sinus issues. It's not necessarily the sexiest thing in the world, but this lady really tries to make it sexy.



I mean: that's about as sexy as you can get with a Neti Pot right there. You go, girl.

I ran over my big toe with my office chair today. That hurt.

Oh. Speaking of klutzy things, I definitely broke the chimney on an antique lamp on Friday for the second time. I picked it up while I was cleaning, and it rattled off the stand. I, of course, tried to catch it, and, being the klutz that I am, I accelerated it towards the table instead of saving it. I totally lost. Twice. I had broken it before and replaced the chimney, and I found myself ordering a new one on Friday afternoon. It was sick. It was even more sick because the cost of that chimney has doubled since January. This could get expensive if I keep doing it. This is why we can't have nice things.

Nora has gotten to a point where she gets really fussy when she's tired, and the only thing that I can do to get her to calm down (besides nurse her, but when nursing doesn't work, I have to resort to this) is bounce on my big ball with her and squeeze her. It works like a charm every time. It also burns some serious calories, too.

I left some hardware out in the hallway up here, and the cat keeps attacking it and making all kinds of racket. I swear he's gonna wake up Nora. I've already punted him twice to keep him away from it. He is hardcore.

Okay . . . Willi's home. I've gotta get going. In the meantime, enjoy these recent photos.