mostly unimportant – Page 15

May 18, 2010

“Is it a PONY?!?”

This past weekend, our landlord, Phil, brought over a few of his family’s horses to graze in the area just around our rental property for the next 6 weeks or so. The “painted” one is Buster (~24 yrs old) and the brown one is Pistol (a yearling). We’re told that Buddy is a relatively tame one, and Phil said we could probably put Meg up on his back. I think we’ll be waiting awhile before doing that, though. 😛

It’s the first time either of us have ever been this close to horses. We’ve certainly seen then before, but never for an extended period of time. Certainly, Edie is not amused by their presence and frequently feels like she must bark at them in an effort to scare them off. Pretty sure it wouldn’t take more than a swift kick from either horse to do some real damage to the beagle.

In other news, Brooke (and I…) did some yard work this weekend. I mowed the lawn and helped turn the soil in the garden, while Brooke planted some stuff in preparation for the growing season. To my knowledge, there are tomatoes, green peppers, onions, peas, soup beans, and an assortment of herbs planted already, with more to come in the next few days. The weather this week seems to be pretty conducive to gardening, so I imagine most of it will be planted shortly. Phil did recommend that we plant tall-growing items further from the fence so that the horses can’t get to them.

Overall, it’s been nice being able to go outside and do things. Back in Soulard, there wasn’t much (productive) to do outdoors, aside from going on walks, etc. While I’m sure we’ll be tired of yard work shortly, it’s kinda nice to be able to go outside and plant things, mow the lawn, wash the car, etc.

Considering that winter starts in Iowa around, oh, mid-September, we may as well enjoy it while we can. 😉

May 11, 2010

Progress and a Belated Thank You

First, a picture of our now in progress garden:
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As soon as the weather warms up a little, some plants will go in, but it’s looking like that could be at least the weekend. A huge part of that was done by Andy’s dad on Saturday afternoon, so THANKS Jim!!

Second, we received an awesome baby gift awhile before we moved from the Nicholsons and I know they read this occasionally, so thanks Don and Kathy!
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Since Meg’s a girl, I know I won’t have any problems convincing Eagle Scout Andy that she should be a 4-Her (not that there’s really any comparison!)!

May 7, 2010

Unsolicited Parenting Advice, Part 1

There are a few things we’ve learned in Meg’s short 2 months and since no one really likes to hear other people’s opinions about raising their child unless specifically asked, I’m just going to put it out in internet-land in case you do want to know.

When Googling a problem or an ailment (like my recent “well water breastfeeding runny poop”) ALWAYS click on the link to the forums for other people’s experiences. Read the posts, then do the exact opposite of what they say. Those people are idiots! Hilarious, but idiots.

March 24, 2010

Cloth Diapering

This is yet another baby-related post. Since we’ve both pretty much been home for the past 3 weeks, we don’t have much else going on, but I’ve been listening to a lot of NPR while breastfeeding, so there will most likely be some other commentary coming soon! Also, I’m determined to see Hot Tub Time Machine sometime soon, so Andy will review that when we get around to giving Meg up to one of my sisters for a couple of hours!

We decided to use cloth diapers early on in pregnancy, mostly because we’re cheap and disposable diapers are super expensive, but the “green” aspect is also nice. I perused Amazon for reviews of different types of diapers and diapering systems and ordered a few sample packs of different types, including a couple of All-In-Ones and different types of covers and inserts. In the end, we decided to go mostly with prefold diaper inserts and Thirsty Duo covers, both for price and ease of use. We’ve had lots of questions about how cloth diapering is going (several people doubted we would actually stick with it, but we haven’t used a disposable since the hospital!), so here’s what we’re doing:

The whole process needs a prefold diaper, a cover, and a Snappi.

The prefold gets folded into thirds, which we do when we take them out of the laundry. Then the top part is sort of unfolded a little and goes around Meg’s back and the rubber Snappi is used to keep the diaper together the way pins used to be used.

Not my best job, but when you’re dealing with a squirmy baby, sometimes you have to take the best you can get.

Finish by covering the prefold with a cover!

So far, we’ve only had a couple of “blow outs” and are washing diapers about every 3 days. We put in a “doubler” liner at night when Meg sleeps longer and we don’t want to wake her up to change her to help prevent leaks. I think I might be able to make some more of those myself, just like the wipes I made. Otherwise, we won’t have to buy anything else until Meg weighs 18 pounds, so we should be set for awhile. I ended up finishing the rest of our supply of diapers and covers at Cotton Babies in South County and have been really pleased with their helpfulness and willingness to only sell you what you want and not a bunch of other stuff! Also, it seems that their in-store prices are quite a bit lower than their website (the Thirsty Duos are $12.75 in the store!), so unless I find a better source in Iowa, we might have to make a run back to St. Louis to restock when Meg is bigger!

March 14, 2010

“(It’s been) One Week…”

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Well, we’ve been at home for just over a week, and Meg is 9 days old. Time certainly flies! And we want to thank everyone for all the well wishes and the visits over the last week!

So far, everything’s going shockingly well. We had Meg’s first pediatrician visit last Monday and she checked out just fine. All of her reflexes, color, etc. are within norms, if not above average. Meg’s also been kind enough to let us get a reasonable amount of sleep every night, with Brooke getting around 6 hrs every night and me getting closer to 8 hrs (Brooke has things to do over night, after all). Meg has been pretty good about sleeping through most of the morning, while we do our best to keep her awake over afternoon and into the evening.

On other fronts, I’ve had a cold for the last few days, likely induced by the horribly dry air at the hospital last week. I think my cough is starting to go away (finally), but it’s been bad enough that I slept in the other room for a few nights this week in order to limit my disruption of the baby and Brooke. Brooke has been sore for most of the week, but she’s to the point now where she can walk around without being in much pain.

Not too much scheduled this week, aside from the annual St. Patrick’s Day festivities in my department. We’re hoping to make a trip up to Louisiana, MO so Meg can meet her great-grandparents (Brooke’s side). It’ll be our first extended car trip, although we took a little field trip to Old Navy with Aunt Kristen on Saturday. So far, Meg’s been pretty happy in the car seat – let’s hope it stays that way!

February 16, 2010

“You were 2 ft away from Jon Foreman once, kiddo.”

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Brooke heard awhile back that loud music and subwoofers are good for helping “coax” your child out of your womb, so in looking into concerts coming to St. Louis, she found that Switchfoot was going to be putting on a show at The Pageant on February 15th. This is now the third time we’ve seen the band live – the first two were in outdoor settings, and we weren’t all that impressed (one concert was free), but this one was far and away the best of theirs we’ve seen, and amongst the best we’ve seen, period.

Interestingly, as the picture (from my cell phone…sorry about the poor quality…) above documents, their lead singer, Jon Foreman, came out into the crowd twice. On both occasions, he walked on the table directly in front of us while singing songs, so I think it’s safe to say this is the closest I’ve ever come to a famous person.

And, consequently, my baby girl already got close to a rock star. I’m not sure if I should be worried or not. 😛

February 5, 2010

Chocolate Cheesecake

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Earlier this week when I was looking for something to make, I remembered this really easy recipe from an old Arch UMC cookbook, but I couldn’t find it. After a frantic search of my recipe box, I finally located it and promptly made it! So, just in case I ever lose the recipe again, I’m putting it here for your enjoyment and posterity’s sake.

Ingredients:
1 box chocolate cake mix
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
16 ounces cream cheese
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Process:
Separate 1 cup of the cake mix and set aside. To the remaining mix, add 1 egg and oil. Mix well and press into the bottom of a greased 9×13 pan. In a mixing bowl (an electric mixer really does best for this one), cream sugar and cream cheese. Mix in 3 eggs, then add milk and the 1 cup of cake mix. Pour over mixture in pan and bake in a 300 degree oven for 55 to 60 minutes. Let cool at room temperature, then refrigerate to serve cold with Cool Whip (real whipped cream would be a waste for this one).

February 2, 2010

Thwarted

I set out to make a whole bunch of baby paraphernalia several months ago, knowing that I wouldn’t find what I wanted for a price I was willing to pay in a store. So, I picked out dollar-a-yard fabric from Walmart, made my list of projects, and got started. As usual with a project, I jumped in full steam ahead only to be sidetracked by one small glitch after another, slowing me down and causing me to lose any motivation I had to just finish and clean everything up. The biggest problem I had was that the sewing machine my mom gave me for my 18th birthday froze and was not worth repairing. The extra machine my grandma gave me a few years ago because she didn’t like it has been broken (totally my fault for trying to fix a small problem myself on that one) and sitting in our basement for over a year, so it wasn’t an option unless I decided to invest more than either machine is really worth in repairs. Anyway, I ended up ordering a new Brother machine from Costco, at the suggestion of one of my coworkers. Aside from being impatient about waiting for it to be delivered, it was a great deal for a machine that has a few more bells and whistles than my previous machine. Since we’re also using cloth diapers, I decided to try my hand at making some reusable wipes as an additional project after I finished everything else, mostly to have a reason to try out some of the stitches the new machine offers. Andy was kind enough (dorky enough, really) to play around with the camera to get some shots of the various stitches and I’m quite happy with the wipes…even though I know they’ll be pretty gross and will be thrown away eventually, I got to play with my new toy!!

December 3, 2009

Changing (because of) Babies

Well, we’re moving forward with all this “baby stuff,” especially making room for new things in our Soulard apartment. The weekend before Thanksgiving, we switched our bedrooms such that our old one will house the baby and all her stuff, and our bed got moved into what was (or “is still”) the office. The futon is in the Baby Room (“Nursery?”), but who knows if it’ll get used. Right now, we’re planning on keeping the bassinet in our bedroom with us initially, and considering that we’re hoping to move sometime in May, the baby may only ever sleep in our room with us and won’t ever sleep in the Baby Room.

Speaking of “bassinets,” we brought the Plochberger family bassinet with us from Columbia. This particular one has been passed down longer than my Mom can remember: Mom most certainly used it, and so did my eldest aunt, Doris, but we don’t know if it came from the previous generation or if Aunt Doris was the first one to use it. So yeah, the baby will sleep in the bassinet initially before being moved to the crib we inherited.

We also painted the old dresser in our room white, so it’ll match the bassinet. The crib will get painted at some point, also white.

Speaking of cribs, we’ve started accumulating various baby-related furniture items now. As mentioned, we inherited an old crib from Brooke’s co-worker that seems to be in pretty good shape (and before you post, no, I have no idea if this crib was recalled…so don’t ask!!). We had our first baby shower this past weekend with my side of the family, where we got a play pen, high chair, a travel high chair, and a stroller/car seat combo (the latter of which came from Brooke’s parents, actually, so technically, we got it before the shower).

To make room for all of this stuff, we cleared 20+ shopping bags of clothes, shoes, etc. from our closets and took them to Goodwill. They also take textbooks, so we got rid of those as well (apparently, textbooks are a heavy seller at Goodwill…who knew?).

So, in summary, we own too much stuff, and even when we get rid of some of it, we end up accumulating more. It’s the American way, eh?

November 20, 2009

One more off the list…

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Brooke mentioned a few weeks ago that we hadn’t made it to a Blues game yet while living here in St. Louis. We’ve attended many Cardinals games in our years here, and one Rams game, but the Blues had eluded us so far. Really, neither of us have ever had any interest in hockey, so it wasn’t exactly a priority. Still, it’s one of those things that people tell us is fun, so we wanted to go at some point.

Well, as it happened, the Graduate Student Association at SLU (of which I’m President) was hosting a social event where we could get student rate tickets. Due to high cheapness, we got both or tickets for $30 (total), and that included a hot dog and a soda for each of us (about a $10 value). So yeah, a great deal! The seats weren’t anything spectacular, but the view was surprisingly good. It doesn’t seem like there’s a bad seat in that rink, honestly. The seats we had were something like $35 normally, so those “nosebleed” seats are still a far cry from the over $60 “nosebleed” seats at a Rams game.

A hockey game, it seems, is also tremendously more entertaining than an NFL game, as well. The action was constant, there were some fights breaking out, and overall, the speed and pace of the game was faster. Of course, the scoring doesn’t happen all that often, but with all the shots toward the net, it still gave us much to pay attention to.

Anyway, that’s another event we can cross off the list. We had a good time, but left early. Apparently, we should have stayed longer, as the Blues ended up winning (!!!!).

Maybe next time! Believe you me, I’m much more likely to go to an NHL game in the future than any NFL game.