Stepping back

Well friends, I am going to be offline for the rest of the week. I just need time to step back and think about things for a while. So much is going on in my life, I am feeling overwhelmed.

• Mom is holding steady. Things aren't as good as she was hoping, and they held off on her treatment for 10 days because she is so tired. I anticipate going home soon, if only for the fact that I want to spend time with her and don't want to get a middle of the night call saying I need to come home that minute. Last minute flights off of this rock aren't cheap.

• Connor has decided that he no longer enjoys sleeping through the night and has been getting up every 2 hours for the past few days. Joy. We were spoiled since he had been sleeping through the night starting at about 7 weeks old. I honestly don't know what the deal is, if it is teething or what, but I am so pooped. Our day today started at 4:30 am since he wouldn't go back to sleep.

• The cats have decided that they no longer enjoy living in the lap of luxury and being strictly indoor cats. So, they both live outdoors now. At night they would tear open a screen to get out and roam around. I am tired of being stressed out wondering where they are and having the screens ruined. I know it sounds harsh, but I don't want indoor/outdoor cats. Either one or the other. We are responsible pet owners, so they are both spayed and both still have their claws front and back. We just feel that it is the best route to take in this situation. Of course I am sad and a little scared for them, but the only other option is to close all of the windows in the house at night and that is so not happening.

• Other random stuff going on right now is really giving my brain a good workout. Family grumblings in the Mainland, wondering what will be on our list to choose from next month in regards to where we are going next year, etc.
  

I have so much on my plate right now that the overwhelmed feeling is coming back. I promise to post next week with lots of pictures of crafty stuff that I have been working on, including a couple of PIF's. Yay.

In the meantime, if you like to read (I know there are quite a few of you), this is a neat bookworm networking site: GoodReads . If you want to be my friend, this is my profile. Jenn, I hope that you will check it out.

Also, for a neat-o finishing idea, check out this stitcher's book...it even gives the instructions. Wow!

And finally, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Aunt Tamie and Carol. Hope that you ladies have a wonderful day!

FOUND!!!

Seriously, not even 10 minutes after I published my post, I heard a little squeaky meow at the back door. She's home!!! She's a little funky and very hungry but seems to be in one piece.

Yay! Away you clouds, away!

Peace.

New StartsMissing

This is supposed to be a post about the new things that I started in the last couple of days. But, I really don't feel like chatting about it now. I have just realized that our little orange kitty, Bella Baby aka Slinky is missing. And the last time that I can honestly remember seeing her was yesterday. : ( It isn't unusual for her to hide under the bed all day, so I really didn't think anything of it when I didn't see her all day. But dinner time came and I still didn't see her and I thought that was odd, but then the baby needed my attention so I didn't think anything more of it. Until a while ago when it was bedtime and she is still nowhere to be found.


So, if you are in Saipan (specifically San Roque area) and see a little orange cat that is very shy and timid, please let me know (mhighfill at gmail.com). She is almost 2 years old, orange tabby, spayed, not declawed, and not wearing her collar. She is in the background of the picture above. It is the only picture of her that I have on this computer. Other pictures can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, you get the idea.

I see the clouds rolling back in.

Peace.

She lives up to her name

This is Killer Lily....and her tail-less lizard. I have a feeling that the tail is in her belly. Poor thing was a scrawny little lizard. She really isn't as evil as she appears.

Peace.

Happy Mother's Day, my dog is a loser

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms out there, including you some-day-Moms and pet Moms. I hope that you are all being spoiled rotten!

We had a nice relaxing day yesterday (it is Monday here). We DH packed up a bunch of boxes for our big move in a few weeks. I wish I could say "we"...but with a demanding 4 month old, it is hard to get much accomplished with one hand. I made breakfast : onion, spinach & feta omelette, and DH made dinner : ribs (dry rub just like I like), baked potato, squash and more spinach. Hershey's Kisses for dessert.

****************

On Saturday, we took our dog to the PAWS dog show. It was a nice day for it and there was a pretty good turnout, I must say I was impressed. I entered Lady into the "Booniest" category and "Best of Show". She was skunked again, just like last year at the GAIN dog show in Guam. Maybe it was the cat scarf around her neck? Angelo was one of the judges and I *think* that he showed Lady some love with a 9...I am so bad, I wasn't paying much attention. (P.S. Check out his blog for a great videos of baby turtles making their way to the Ocean after hatching Video 1. Video 2.)

I am looking forward to next year's show. I need to start feeding Lady some more though...I want her to win something! The dog that won the "fattest dog" award totally killed me. She looked like my Mom's old dog, Little Red, but taller and longer. She had the same sausage body and lumps on her torso and her face was similar. When she was parading past the judges, I kid you not, she sat down 3 times-not on command. I think that she was tired. I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

Good times.

I would like to start helping out with PAWS, and have thought about going to their meetings, but it seems like they are always in the evening and that is Connor's witching hour. I was glad that the dog show didn't last past 6pm, that would have been pushing it. He just gets so darned cranky and fussy.

****************

I have been crocheting & knitting a little bit. Just simple little dishcloths with 100% cotton yarn. I can usually do a few in the evenings after Connor goes to bed. I like to tuck them into gift packages for my friends. Mom seems to think that people would buy them, but I think that she is crazy.

**************

One day last week, I took Connor out for a stroll around the American Memorial Park to try to capture some pictures of the Flame Trees before the flowers completely die out. Of course I had to take some pictures of the Plumeria trees (my all time fave).

**************

Connor is rolling over now. He was 4 months old on Friday. And he is drooling like a madman. I am hoping a few teeth make an appearance soon, I am ready to be done with the crabby-ness for a while.

*************

My new fave snack:

Dried Fruit & Nut Mix from Costco. The bag is $16 something but so freaking tasty! Apples, Mangoes, Pineapple, Kiwi, Bananas, Cherries, Strawberries, Golden Raisins, Papaya, Walnuts, Almonds, Peanuts. Deeeee-lish! Thank you Costco for this gastronomic treat.

************

I started "The Boleyn Inheritance" by Philippa Gregory. So far it hasn't disappointed. I have loved her other books about Henry VIII and the Boleyn/Howard families so this one should be right there as well.

Peace.

Finished my 19th book for the year

Today I finished "Inheritance" by Lan Samantha Chang.

It was just okay, didn't exactly keep my attention and draw me back to it with each free moment I had like other books have. I would give it a B-. I really enjoy books set in China, especially ones that deal with women/mother-daughter relationships. I read one last year called "Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter" that really has stayed with me. It might be my favorite so far in the Chinese Mother-Daughter category.

So, I started "To The Nines" by Janet Evanovich. Should be done in the next couple of days, they are quick easy reads. Then I am trying to decide on reading either "Mirror Mirror" by Gregory Maguire (I have already read "Wicked" and want to see the stage performance next year when we go home), "The Boleyn Inheritance" by Philippa Gregory (still need to get "The Constant Princess"), or "The Kitchen God's Wife" by Amy Tan.

Recently I finished reading "Hard Eight" by Janet Evanovich - part of the Stephanie Plum series. The book isn't in good enough condition for me to offer it for swapping on Paperbackswap.com, so I am offering it to anyone that wants it. Gratis. Just email me. It has a cracked spine. The pages are all there, it is just a little worn. I think that it has been read by many people before me.

Last year, I read 53 books. I hope to top that this year, even if I only get through 54 books.

**************
This weekend, we are planning on going to the PAWS Dog Show : The Best of the Worst! on Saturday and hopefully hit the Taste of the Marianas Festival sometime. I am hoping that Lady can bring home the "Booniest" title at the dog show.

Wow, this post has alot of links!

Peace.

I am weird

Kim recently tagged me...6 Weird Things About Me:

1. I LOVE to do laundry. Seriously. I especially love to fold sheets. DH taught me how to properly fold a fitted sheet so that they are uniform every time. Who needs Martha when you have Jim?



2. I could eat homemade popcorn every day. And peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. Yum!



3. I have to rotate things in the house. I am a fanatic about it. Almost OCD about it. From sheets to dishes to glasses to shampoos to towels. Otherwise you end up using the same 2 cups and plates all of the time. Most recently used things go on bottom or in the back. And when you have 6 sets of sheets, you need to use them all.



4. Speaking of sheets, I have a "Monday routine" that I do and if I can't get to it (like this week) on Monday, I obsess about it. What is the "Monday routine"? Strip the sheets on the beds and wash them, replace them with a fresh set from rotation and also replace all towels and washcloths/dishcloths that are out with fresh ones. I do replace linens as necessary during the week, but Monday is the day.



5. If I am going to cook or bake, I have to clean the kitchen beforehand. Not seriously clean, but clean off the counters and do the dishes and wipe the stove. I can't cook in a dirty kitchen. Ick.



6. Most of the time when I am driving, I have the radio off. I have a thing with turning the radio off before I turn off the car and I usually forget to turn it back on when I get back into the car. But, if the radio is on, chances are that I will sing along to the song that is on. Cause I just hafta.

Yeah, I am weird. I could go on and on. I won't get into the foods that we eat besides #2 above. Cabbage, black beans & rice is a perfectly normal dinner at our house. That's all I'm saying. (shush it, Staci)

****************

Happy Valentines Day to everyone who observes this Hallmark Holiday. We don't really do anything special for each other. DH usually buys me a stuffed red dog, but I think that there might be a stuffed red dog shortage on island, so I am not counting on one this year.

I just don't see why you have to go all out on ONE specific day to express your undying devotion and deplete your wallet. If you love someone, you should do something small everyday to let them know that they are loved. Even if it is just refilling their glass of ice water without being asked to.

************

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is today. I want to know where the Boonie Dog breed category is...? I always root for any of the Terrier breeds because I love them all. But, if there were a Boonie Dog category, then Lady would be the superstar...

Peace

Naughty babies

We have to keep an eye on the cats during the day, otherwise they would sleep all day and wreak havoc on our house at night while we try to sleep. So, every couple of hours I go around and wake them up. Sometimes it is challenging trying to figure out the hiding spot of choice.

Take today...this is what I saw when I opened up the linen closet:
Those are legs in the middle of the picture...and I am really anal about my linens, they would never be this messy if they hadn't had some help.


The "I've been caught look":

This is where my cat is calling me a rat bastard in cat language, right before she gives me the evil eye and I give her the boot out of the closet:
Naughty babies!

Speaking of naughty babies...we are still pregnant. The due date is 2 days away and no signs of labor.

I can tell you that if I thought it would help, I would saw my legs off at the hip, they hurt so freaking badly. It is practically impossible to sleep for a period of longer than an hour at night. Last night I had to break out the heating pad and alternate it from my left hip to my groin muscle. Feels like I have a permanent pulled groin.

This is the crib tent that we bought. Whomever designed this thing has got to be a millionaire. It is to keep 2 legged babies in and 4 legged babies out. A necessary purchase in our house.

We went back to the same Midwife / Nurse Practitioner yesterday that we saw last time. She is great. I asked her what she thought it was since last time she said she had an idea, but I didn't ask. So, this time she said that she thought it is a boy, just like she thought last time. It's a 50/50 shot, so we will see. I am still secretly hoping for a girl though. The only reason being is because it is a serious PIA to get a baby boy circumcised here. You have to make a $200 "donation" to an indigent fund for medications, besides what they charge insurance, and there is only like one doctor that will do it and he isn't here all of the time. Sounds like BS to me. And, not to offend anyone, but our son will be circumcised. Hopefully I won't have to make a trip to Guam to the Navy Hospital to have it done.

We go back next week and since I will be overdue, they will do a non-stress test and also an ultrasound to check the fluid level. They will let me go 2 weeks past my due date before we do an induction. I don't want to be induced.


I crocheted a diaper cover the other day. It is made out of Bernat "Cotton Tots" yarn. Really cute. I had to learn how to do the front post double crochet and back post double crochet to do it. It gives it the "stretchy" ribbing at the waist band. DH asked me if I was making a hat with ears. Funny guy. Then, I started a small child sized scarf for the Project Baby Care Afghanistan box out of the remainder of the yarn. I was so excited, I figured out how to do a "center pull ball" with the yarn so that I didn't have a ball of yarn rolling all over. Of course, DH didn't see that as such a big achievement...he looked at it for a nanosecond and told me exactly how to do it. Thanks alot, DH...now you tell me! I am waiting for some wool yarn to come from Mom to make another cover and felt it.

I am just going to throw it out there and tell y'all how much I *love* CUC (our electric company). On Sunday, a truck hit a power pole and knocked out our electric. For ELEVEN HOURS!!! The paper said that it really only affected Kagman, but we don't live in Kagman. I suspect that it was the whole feeder along Isa Drive that was affected. Why don't they have a backup plan for these things? We looked like a couple of monkeys trying to get our *2* generators figured out. The first one never would start, then the second ones pull cord broke. DH got that repaired, and it started but we could never figure out how to get the power transferred from the generator to the house. I am sure that there is some switch that we just weren't seeing. So, we played Yahtzee for about 5 hours straight. Good times, good times.

Yum, homemade lemon bars (from scratch)!

Peace

SBQ & Went to the Beach

This week's SBQ was suggested by Carol and is:

Do you have any good internet links to tutorials for your favorite finishing techniques that you would like to share?

I usually just go with ideas and a "vision" of what the finished item should look like...but I did buy Summer Truswell's Ultimate Big Book of Finishing last year. She used to have the tutorial online *for free*, but I guess that it got so popular that she realized that she could make money off of it from idiots people like me. It does have some great ideas in it and I think that if you are at a total loss, it is a good deal. I do like how it is spiral bound, so it lays open flat.

Other than that, I just kinda wing it. I like seeing pictures of other finishes and figuring out how to do them based on a picture.

********************

The weather was nice this weekend...scattered showers, but what can you do? We decided to take the dog to the beach. Because she loves it we think that it is good for her to get out of the house & yard every now and then. Aren't we nice? She doesn't particularly love swimming, she does however love to ride in the car. If you leave the car door open in the garage, she will get in and just sit there. If you haven't caught on yet...Lady is not so smart. But she is a good dog and will be great with our kids.

DH also took my new camera for a test run and since I don't have any flattering pictures of this pregnancy yet (only ones I take in front of a full length mirror to track the belly growth), he wanted to get some shots of me. I guess that this is as good as it gets.

This is a local fisherman, he was walking the beach when we first arrived. I think that they just look for good spots where they think the fish are and throw their nets out and hope for the best. I don't know. We use fishing poles at home. And I have yet to actually catch a fish using a pole, so maybe a net is a better deal.

This one might be my favorite:

Of course, I had to take some of DH & the dog.

And these are the hermit crabs that I just love to watch. They are everywhere on the beach and on the rocks.



****************

I finished "November Twirls" snapper from Bent Creek. I started it a couple of days ago. It is part of my 50 project challenge. Now on to December. I want to be caught up through January when the baby comes. I already have February, March & April done so I can take a break then. I stitched this on some kind of ivory 28 ct evenweave that I won in a lot off of ebay. My plan is to take the ones that aren't finished yet (Oct, Nov, Apr) and stitch them into a pillow case and then just make one form and slip it into the coordinating case for the month. That way I don't have 12 pillows sitting on the shelf taking up valuable room.

I have also started to crochet again. I am obsessed with baby hats. Why? I dunno. I have 2 skiens of baby yarn and don't want it sitting around so I have been making all sizes of hats...mostly preemie and newborn though. Believe me, I have enough hats for the baby treehugger already in it's dresser, so these along with the scarf (and any other ones I finish up) are going into a flat rate box and going to The Baby Project. I put a couple of the hats on onions just so you could see how small they are. I know that babies come in all sizes. Hopefully they can use these for someone that really needs them. Or someone that has a doll with a cold nugget.

*******

I noticed that BlogRolling has taken a vacation again, so I have been trying to keep up with GoogleReader. Sometimes I forget though. Whoops.

*******

My Granny sent us a tin of home made cookies that she baked with my Aunt J and the girls. Oh Mylanta, were they ever good! She sent spritz cookies and I ate them first. Sad to say that they are almost all gone : ( But, I did talk to Granny yesterday and asked for some of her double layer rice krispie treats. She makes a batch of red (more like pink) and green (like mint color) and then in between them she puts melted butterscotch chips and peanut butter...holy cow they are deelish. I miss those alot. I think that she will send me some in the next couple of weeks. Granny rocks!

*********

Not much else going on here. Can I just say that not "doing" Christmas has been so freaking stress free? No cards to mail, trees to put up, last minute shopping to do, worrying about going over budget or if the recipient will even like what is picked out for them...I might be able to get used to this.

We are seriously considering buying a new dining room table though. One of the furniture stores here is relocating to Guam at the end of the month so we went in and looked around and found a nice Teak set that we like. I think that we might go back today and take a closer look at it now that we have talked about it more. I will for sure post pictures if we decide to go for it. It really is pretty.

Peace

Nothing Special

Well, my Christmas stitching is done. Since we aren't doing "gifts" this year at the House of Grinch, the family is just getting the usual ornament.

They are now winging their way across the Pacific. I hope that they make it in time for Christmas so that they can be on the trees for the actual day.


The ornaments are all from different JCS Ornament Special Issue magazines. I don't have my list in front of me right now.


*******************


I am not in the best mood lately.


Mostly because I am so frustrated with the mail system here. There is no home delivery on island so everyone goes to the post office. Well, the little branch that we go to seems to have some kind of impediment with getting our packages to us in a timely manner. When packages come in, they write on the package what box it is for and what date it comes in and then they are supposed to put a slip in the box to let you know you have a package.

I had ordered my sling rings a few weeks ago and was waiting on them...DH brought the package home on 12-7 and they had written on it that it was there on 12-2.

Mom ordered something for us off of ebay (organic sage) and the tracking shows that it was delivered on 12-4...do I have it in my hot little hands? Nope.

Wonder where my new camera is that was shipped 2 weeks ago yesterday?

DH is going to have to do some investigating and see if he can figure out what is going on.


**********************


Friday was "Constitution Day" here on Saipan. There are more holidays here than I have ever seen. DH only worked a half day, so that afternoon we went to a barbecue. It was with a bunch of locals that DH knows through work and their families. I have to say that they are just the nicest people. We spent Easter with them as well. I made my Chocolate Chip Coconut (fresh) Oatmeal cookies that morning and took a gallon ziplock of them for the party as well as 2 gallons of homemade caramel corn. The cookies disappeared in a flash. I think that the caramel corn was put away for later. That's okay though because we still had 2 gallons here at the house. I say "had" because it is the past tense. Not so much anymore. The baby craves it, I think. I know one thing, I will never buy store bought caramel corn again!

************************


And for more crazy pet adventures...presenting Bella Baby in a diaper cover....

Not only do we torture love our kitties by putting them in baby clothes, we also go around waking them up during the day because they think that night time is for tearing the house apart. I think that they have a conspiratorial gleam in their eyes.

Viva La Revolution!!

That's it from me, not feeling exceptionally chatty lately. Too much going on in my head.



Peace