Save us from our wealth

I was reading through the blog that Pioneer Woman had linked to. It was about Compassion International. I have read other blog posts about it and know people who sponsor kids. Anyway, in one of his posts he was talking about his own issue with holding on to his money. Right then and there I decided to sponsor a child. I had tossed the idea around for years and just kind of put it off. It helped that through reading through many of his posts and other linked blogs I found more about the organization. I love that it isn't just food and medicine. It is education and life skills. It is giving the child's family the ability to move themselves out of poverty.

When you go to Compassion International's site you are able to search through profiles to pick a child or you can have them pick one for you. I was going to just do that because I have been known to cry hysterically after trying to decide which kitten to adopt. (How can I pick just one? They all need homes! I don't want one to think I didn't think it was cute enough!) I tried to have Ava help me but she was not in a friendly state of mind and she was the opposite of helpful. In the end, I just happened upon our girl's profile and picked her. So we are now the sponsors of an 8 year old girl from Kenya. I am really excited to get the intro packet so we can send letters and whatnot. I was really into having penpals in other countries when I was in high school or middle school. This will be even cooler!

By the way, I was really hesitant to even write this post. I didn't want it to be a braggity brag brag post about something nice that we have done. I am hoping that maybe someone who reads this will think about sponsoring a child too. I am not on the awesome blogger tour with beautiful pictures but they are so give them a read.

tea cup pig

I am currently watching a show with a tea cup pig. I thought it made a nice title. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a tea cup pig.

Anyway, my class has finished up. I am still waiting on my final grade, but my final project paper was a success. The question is...did I blow my A with my final. I don't think I did, but you never know. I have started my next class already. I like having classes that only last 8 weeks. For one if it is horrible, it is over quickly. For two, I get the motivation to be ahead in the class, to actually do the reading and actually get a lot done before that motivation is lost.

I have finished Ava's bag, within in allotted Olympic time slot. She has at least liked it enough to carry it around for a couple of days, which means it has been a success.

I am currently working on another handbag, but not for me. Someday, I will make something for me again. Maybe some socks! Good news is my hand hasn't been hurting as much. I think that is because of two things. I have stopped playing farmville on facebook. I have also actually made an appointment with the doctor for Wednesday.

Two weeks until vacation! I am so excited to go. I am looking forward to the adventure of a 9 hour drive with children... Well not really, but I am up to the challenge. I am looking forward to hiking and hot tubs and hanging out. Bummer about the scheduling of vacation, I have a midterm that week. I am going to have to go crazy and get stuff done in addition to the packing, so I can get it all done before we leave. Then I will have a full vacation of no work or homework!

What car snacks should I pack for the kids? I wish there was a net I could put around Rhys' seat to catch all the toys that he will throw down repeatedly. I wish I could get a sound shield like in limos...it is going to be an awesome trip.

The wall

Today's Mommy Monday involved my sister coming over to play. We had plans to make donuts. This did happen but she will not get to sample the fine end product because she slept in. Her fault, oh well! More for me.

Anyway, we decided to go to the mall in search of a particular make up and Ava wanted to go to the Disney Store. She had some small bills burning a hole in her pocket apparently. By the way, taking Ava into a Yankee Candle Store is very amusing. She takes her candle sniffing very seriously. Justin met us there after work and we decided to have dinner out. The hostess decided we would have more room if we just had a big booth and Rhys had a booster. He didn't quite balance right in the booster and had to be held the whole time. He got passed back and forth over the table a few times. The last time, I was attemping to keep his feet from knocking over drinks so I was holding his upper body with one hand and his legs with the other. I then completely forgot that there was a wall behind me and rammed him head first into wall. I had been looking out across the rows of booths and there weren't any walls behind anyone else! He didn't cry at all. It was just a loud thunk that made people look at the horrible mom ramming her child into a wall. I of course laughed quite a bit. So then I got to look like the psycho cruel mom who thinks it is funny to ram her child into the wall.

ravelympics and food

So this weekend I was in someone else's kitchen and looking for ingredients to put some type of food together. It got me thinkingabout what my staple items are. There are some things that I generally always try to have in the house for either regular snacking or I use them in a lot of recipes.

Our standards are:
chicken breasts
ground beef
mac and cheese
milk
stick butter
flour
sugar
yeast
black beans
kidney beans
salsa
frozen veggies
diced tomatoes
spaghetti sauce
pasta
chedder cheese
cheese sticks (ha almost had the typo of cheese stinks!)

What is your standard list?

On to ravelympics.

I am a little behind in my project for the ravelympics. I didn't start until yesterday but as long as my hand doesn't fall off, I should finish before the closing ceremony. I am making my first attempt at a felted handbag. For those who don't know, "felted" refers to the process of shrinking wool. It kind of turns it into...felt. So I am using that cheap, cheap wool I got a while ago to make a bag for Ava. She loves to carry things in bags, so I figure she can take my first attempt. So far it is super easy and going well. Hopefully I don't ruin it when I shrink it. If it all goes well, I want to get some really pretty yarn and make a bag for me.

I am seriously tired of my hand hurting though. It is bad. I have cut out as much of the typing that I can, most mouse activity, and I haven't knit anything in like three weeks. I sleep with a brace on, where something on my hand when I do knit and take a ton of alieve and it still kills me just after one evening of knitting. I am not sure what I am supposed to do about it. I kind of need my hand.

Here is the bag so far, though you can't tell it is a bag yet.

nap time disasters

Yesterday Rhys had a bad run of trying to take his nap. It took over 2 hours and still no nap actually happened. He cried for about 45 minutes off and on and seemed to get more upset so Justin went in to calm him down, make sure he had a pacifier and all that. He discovered that he had a poopy diaper and that was probably part of the problem. So he changed it and apparently left the old diaper on his dresser.

Rhys was quite for a few minutes and then started crying again. After about half an hour it stopped being fake whiney cry and turned into really crying. I mentioned that he was really upset and maybe we should go get him and end this whole nap taking idea. Justin goes in to check on him and I hear, "Oh Bubba. What happened? What did you do?" Rhys had gotten ahold of the poopy diaper. I am so glad that Justin was here for the day that Rhys apparently ate poop. He had poop all over his face and in his hair. He had stepped in it and danced all over his crib. Justin wiped his face and head off first and then gave him to me and I gave him a bath. I could not believe that I was cleaning poop out from under his nails. Justin took care of the crib mess and it has since been thoroughly sanitized.

Shortly after his bath and getting dressed he was still acting tired, so we tried for the nap again. 20 minutes later I hear him start crying again. I was pretty much thinking it wasn't worth it at this point since it was almost dinner time and he would just go to bed early. I go into his room and he had his head stuck in his shirt. I really wish I had taken a picture. He had pulled his head out of the headhole and had the front part of his shirt stretched and stuck on the top of his head. It was hilarious.

So Rhys learned a new word out of this whole experience. This morning I go to get him out of bed. He is standing in his crib, pulls up his shirt and points to his diaper and says, "Poopoo!" He was correct.

Rhys, remember that it has been true at some point when we call you a poop face. And...you probably have eaten poop.

doughnuts!

So I saw a post on Pioneer Woman's blog about her homemade doughnuts. I got inspired and we had a snow day (means that Justin is working from home since we don't have school or anything yet) so obviously that meant that I should make some doughnuts.

It was a family event. Everybody was running the cut out dough over to the tray before it started to rise. Ava stirred up the glaze and dipped some. Rhys and Justin ate them.

I am so often disappointed when I make things for the first time that I love. I have very high expectations. I don't like cakey doughnuts, so I was a little worried. I knew everybody else would eat them but I wasn't sure I would. Can you see them? Can you see the fluff? The were light. They were fluffy. They were amazing! It was like elephant ears mixed with Krispy Kreme doughnuts. They were bliss.

Some of them got a little messed up because they stuck to the wax paper. They tasted fine though. We will bringing some holes to playgroup tomorrow so be ready. We will definitely be making these again.

By the way, Pioneer Woman takes nice pictures of her food. I use Justin's cell phone to take my pictures.

Dropping the kids off at the pool

We braved the storm today and Ava made it to swimming lessons, only five minutes late. There really wasn't much of a storm to brave. The roads were all pretty clear, Ava was just taking her sweet time getting ready. Every week Ava's friend Annika screams through pretty much the entire swimming lesson. It is kind of funny because she does everything she is asked to do. She kicks when she is supposed to. She jumps in when she is supposed to. She just cries the entire time. Last week they moved her to a different group just to see if it helped with the crying because they were afraid she would throw up on herself. Her mom agreed that it was a definite possibility since she gags herself when she cries a lot. So this week we see them all get out of shallow pool and hold hands and start moving to the shallower end of the deep pool. We also see a lifeguard coming over to where they had been with a skimmer and a garbage bag. We were sure Annika had puked in the water when we weren't looking. Then they still had Annika swimming and stuff, which we thought wouldn't have been the case if she had thrown up. Then we were left wondering what else they could be fishing out of the pool. Sure enough, Oscar the swimming instructor, gets out of the pool with the clear garbage bag with one little turd in it. Some kid dropped his own kids off in the pool! I was so afraid it was Ava. Her suit is baggy enough in the butt that if she had pooped, it would have just floated on out. I asked her when she was done and she said she didn't poop in the pool. That is actually a huge relief. Nobody wants to be the parent of the kid who poops in the pool, really.