Last night we went to Ben's 5th birthday. Shawn and Jenni were there from Alaska on their way to a long vacation. SO GOOD TO SEE THEM! I adore them both! And I'm not just saying that because they said they read my blog ;)

Today we didn't do much. I went grocery shopping and carved two pumpkins (I'll post pics below), but that was about it. Tomorrow everyone is coming here to trick-or-treat so I'll have to whip the house into shape. It'll be a busy day.

Gwendolyn is soooo close to crawling. She can get on her hands and knees, but she her legs slide out before she can get traction. I recall that we had to leave Ethans legs bare at first so he could get enough traction to move around. We may do that with Gwen.

Tonight, Gwen was reaching for and hugging Ethan in the tub, and then later they were cuddling up on the floor. Ethan got a big kick out of her drool bubbles. However, Ethan thought it was quite fun to push her face away with his hand. I would take her away and he would pull her back, then push her face away with his hand. he thought it was the funniest thing. She was hugely patient though. Didn't complain once. Ethan even laid his head on her lap and she pulled his hair and grabbed at his bink and he was patient. So far we haven't seen any major jealousy or dislike for each other, but its still so early :)

Our pumpkins. The first one is "The Cheat" from one of Jasons favorite online cartoons, Homestar Runner. The second one, obviously, is a flag :)

So a further note about that bread I made yesterday. Yuck.

After having my second piece I decided to toss the entire thing cuz it was so chewy... like gum! And the texture was super dense. Bleck

Today I tried the same recipe again. The results were better. The crust is VERY good. But the darned thing is still super dense and short. I give up on this recipe. Usually I can make a halfway decent loaf of bread in my sleep, so for this to fail on me twice is insulting!

That is all. The bread has ruined my day!

Today I gave Ethan a haircut. He was fairly well behaved. I however completely suck at giving haircuts! As you can see, I got carried away in the back...



and then I tried to get fancy and use the clippers, which resulted in me taking out a huge chunk of hair (well, he DID move)...


Overall its not too bad, but I'm obviously still a rookie.

Jason stayed home today to build his new computer (he did work too). I won't go into specifics, but this computer has been a whole lot of hassle from the get go. Something was broken on delivery, parts don't fit like they should, etc. Usually he can put these together in about 20 min and this has taken ALL day and he's still not done.

I'm on day two of Zoloft. So far no change, except that my appetite seems to have decreased. Everything I've read said that anti-depressants can cause weight gain, but hey, if I lose some appetite, I'm totally cool with it.

I made some bread today. I had high hopes for it. Alas, it started badly because (I thought) it rose so perfectly, then I went to slash the top and it turns out what I thought was a rise was actually just a big air bubble. Due to other things needing the oven, I had to put it in anyway. Then it burned. I'm not sure how it burned... the oven was correct... but it ended up getting very dark and being done temperature wise 10 min early. It resembles a heavy, dark, thick Frisbee. The taste is ok. It would probably make excellent breadcrumbs or crutons. Nothing pisses me off more than dumping 4 cups of flour and high hopes into bread and having it end up worse than something you would buy. Just looking at the darn thing on the counter makes me feel indignant.

Its 12:13am.

We've been trying to get Gwen back to sleep for over an hour now.

J and I are in the living room, Gwen in the bedroom. We go in there every 5 minutes or so, replace the pacifier, pat her back, speak soothingly to her, come back to the living room. Repeat endlessly.

We are at wits end. We don't know how to fix this problem. How much longer can this go on?

Today Gwen is 6 months. Can't believe it! She's maturing so fast. I didn't say grow because she's not growing so fast :) Here are her stats:

Length: 25 3/4 inches (50%)
Weight: 12lbs, 14.5 oz (-5%)

No folks, that's not a typo. Gwennie is in the -5% for weight! Her pediatrician is not concerned. Its obvious that Gwennie-pooh is thriving and growing, meeting every milestone and even getting ahead on some. She's just a petite little thing. We've decided that we can't call her 'peanut' anymore because she's too small. Sesame seed seems to fit :) I also noticed today that her eyes are still a denim blue. Starting to think that they will not change. Ethans were well into green/brown at this stage, but, little sesame seed has been so different than her brother, who knows!

After Gwens appt, I had my appt with the OB about the depression thing. We had a nice chat about things that were going on and I was very frank with her. I got a little choked up. Its hard for me to talk face to face with someone about the specifics, and I very much wanted her to know EVERYTHING about how I was acting and feeling. We discussed the specifics: was it to a point where I felt physically dragged down by the depression or was it still on an emotional and mental level? Was I anxious or more sad? These types of things. Finally, she concluded that Zoloft would be the best choice based on my particular symptoms. She did say (and I fully agree) that the best remedy is to get consistent sleep. However, that is simply not going to be an option for a bit. Bless her heart, she cleared out every single sample in the office and gave it to me so I wouldn't have to fill a prescription. I got 12 weeks of samples! It will take about 15-30 days to see results.

Mom was sweet enough to tidy the house for my return. She is my lifesaver!

For dinner, I was rather inspired. I made homemade fettucine (I always forget how darn easy it is to make fresh pasta, especially with my KitchenAid) and had it with a delicious Chicken and Bell Pepper Cream Sauce. Bad for the diet, oh so good for the tastebuds :)

I need to create a macro for my blog. Hit a key and these words would magically appear:

No sleep last night. I'm cranky

Haven't I uttered some form of that in every single blog?

Anyway, we didn't do much today. Our day was thrown off because Gwen got up at 5 when Jason got up and wouldn't go back to sleep but since she'd also been up at 2 and 3 I was so not ready to get up. We kept working at it and finally at 6:30 she went back to sleep until 8. That threw off the rest of our schedule, but we got by. The kids, thankfully, napped well.

Ethan turned 19 months 2 days ago, and tomorrow Gwennie turns 6 months. Wow. Tomorrow I take her in for her doctors appt, then afterwards her and I go to my OB's about my depression. Mom is coming to watch Ethan while we're gone.

I watched a good movie called Crash. Its hard to explain, but its about racial biases and how the lives of like 15 people interweave with each other and how their actions result in other actions. Ok, I'm not making it sound that good, but it really really is. Highly recommend it.

I'm becoming addicted to my message boards. Its not posting, just reading. In fact, I've had very little motivation to post, but I just can't stop reading. Sometimes I have to force myself away. Its because I've set up my computer to be my stress reliever so I strive to get to it whenever I can. Trying to wean myself a bit :)

Right now I'm staring at my knitting and wondering when I will ever finish Gwens blanket. I've been working on it for well over a year now. It really should only take like a month to finish, but I just can't get more than a few rows in before I fall asleep or get interrupted.

Off to bed to get as much sleep as possible before Ms. FussyPants wakes up.

Bad bad bad sleeping again. Very little sleep last night, but they did nap decently today. I can feel my mood slipping back to the dark side. Its shocking how much lack of sleep demoralizes me. I know I say that like every day, but really it surprises me a lot.

Good news. The people across the street who have beaten each other up and had that big old police bust have moved! Two days a 'For Rent' sign went up and today they finished moving out all their stuff. I'm really hoping we get a normal, quiet family in there now.

Last night was bad. Both Jason and I went to bed later than usual. Gwen woke before I'd even gone to sleep and wouldn't go back to sleep for about two hours. So, at about 2:30am we finally got to sleep... till 5:45am when Gwen decides she's up for good. We lolled around in bed as long as we could, till about 7.

Gwen also did not sleep during her morning nap, at all. Ethan however slept like a rock. The hardest I've ever seen him sleep I think. We even went in there to wake him and he would not wake! We rubbed his back, said his name, nothing. He was out like a light. After 4.5 hour nap we finally pried him awake so we could go to the pumpkin patch.

We went to this place out in Snohomish (a part I'd never been too). It was a real, working farm and there were lots of people there. You could pick a pumpkin from a big pile or hop on a hay ride over to the U-Pick. We did that and Ethan had a great time running through the field. He fell a lot though.. those vines are tricky.

I had so many great opportunities for pictures but neither of the kids cooperated. They were highly distracted by all the new sights and sounds. Also, it was unseasonably hot and we'd forgotten the stroller so I was toting Gwen in the sling and was soooo overheated. We did not really think about the logistics of each of us having a baby, camera AND trying to carry pumpkins as well.

Anyway, here are the pics.

Sitting on a pumpkin...


He did NOT want to get back on that hay ride and go back!



Back at the barn


There was a noisy horse distracting them both.


Finally, a halfway decent picture... but no smiles!


Gwen was asleep when we got home so we left her in her seat, hoping that she'd stay asleep. Well, she did for about 30 min and then was up. We tried letting her cry a bit, but she just would not stop. I had a little breakdown about it because it had been non-stop baby all day and that just is really hard on me.

I was too worn out to make dinner, so we had McDonalds and Jason got me a McFlurry to lighten my mood, which it did. I declare, you cannot be upset if you're eating ice cream. Well, for me at least.

Oh, we fed Gwen some green beans tonight and although she was skeptical at first, she ended up really liking them. So much that every time I moved the spoon towards her she'd flail her arms about wildly. One time, she ended up getting it all over her face... check it out:















Here is my blog tip of the day

Click on a picture to see a larger version of the picture

Today for breakfast we tried something new. A fritatta. Its like an omelet that you start on the stove, but finish in the oven. And you don't fold it. Its just flat, then you cut it into quarters. This one was a basic version. Just parm, onion, eggs, s&p, and basil. It was really good and I think will go into our normal breakfast rotation. It only took about 7 minutes to make. There is another version involving ham that would be very delicious.

Pretty unproductive today. We all slept awkwardly for some reason and woke fairly early. Gwen refused to take a morning nap. We did the sleep for 5 min, wake, cry, soothe, sleep for 5 min, wake, cry, soothe thing for over 2 hours. Finally at 12 I gave in and just got her up. Not 5 min after I got her up she zonked out so I laid her back down and voila. She was out for two hours!

This of course messed up her afternoon nap. She slept maybe 30 min.

However, Michelle called and wanted to know if she could take Ethan down to her school. She's been wanting to do this for awhile, so I agreed. She got him at about 2 and he got back around 6:30. Supposedly he had a great time playing and eating and all sorts of fun :)

Eew. Tilli just got majorly sick and puked all over the floor. I noticed great piles of icky outside earlier, but had hoped that whoever did that was done. Obviously not. Ugh. Generally I'm quite stoic when it comes to doggie messes, but this one nearly had me gagging.

Anyway, tomorrow we are going to get pumpkins. We should have some super cute pics from that. Hopefully all will be good tomorrow and it will be a fun experience :)

Oh, forgot to add. Ethan went potty on his chair again today. Lots! In fact, his diaper was completely dry for like 3 hours and then he went on the chair. Woo hoo! We find its good to distract him while he's on the chair or he wants to get up. So, we grab a family picture collage and go over everyones names and other things in the picture (waterfalls, etc). He gets a major kick out of it and it seems to work. He LOVES flushing his potty down the toilet too. In fact, he's tried to just cut right to that part more than few times :)

One more thing... If you can (and dial up viewers, I understand if you can't), occasionally click on my ads, puhleese? Your clicks add up to change for me, which allows me to indulge my foodie habit.

Today was the cooking class and it was very interesting. It was not what I expected and exactly what I expected, if that makes any sense.

It wasn't really hands on. We sat in front of their cooking kiosk (complete with plasma screen and nicely set tables with flatware). There were about 12 people there, though 19 were registered. Everyone knew someone... most came in pairs. None appeared to be stay at home Moms. Two were elderly women, two were co-workers from a nearby office, one was an aspiring chef, 4 were visiting from England and I'm not sure what they were doing here. The only person who was alone was 'creepy guy'. He was maybe late teens or early 20's and very... eww. Just strange, and totally not a person I was interested in being friendly with.

There were three people leading the class. One was a semi-famous sausage maker originally from Germany. He told us a very funny story about Emeril came to meet him and film a bit in his sausage factory and how he travels with 3 bodyguards. I totally see Emeril as someone who would not have bodyguards. The other two leaders were extremely familiar looking to me. Given their backgrounds, which were high level in big restaurants and food companies, perhaps I'd seen them on FoodTv in the past or something. It was amazing how these people came to work for Central Market and were soooooo into the store. They really loved their jobs. I found out that this store also has a culinary education department. I totally dig this store.

We made two full meals. Jaegersnitzel with spatzel and veg and saurbraten with cabbage and red apples. Homemade strudel for dessert. If you were forward enough, they totally let you help out. Creepy guy did a few times. I didn't have the guts, but maybe next time. We didn't actually make everything that was on the schedule... AND we ran an hour late :) They fully admitted that they are still working out the kinks. I think I'll be going to more classes. They were entertaining.

Mom, Aaron, Jenni and Becki all came over and watched the kids while I was gone. By the time I got back, Becki had already left so I didn't get a chance to say thanks (thanks Becki!) for the beautiful job they did on cleaning my house. It looks so nice! Thanks to you too Mom and Jenni. Aaron, you did a great job on the yard and I know you worked SO hard. Thank you :)

Ok, thank you's are done... I need to get to bed.

Let me tell you about Ethan's "things"...

To sleep he requires the following:

Pacifier
Two blankies
Sippy cup of water
His bear
and occasionally a toy or book

Upon leaving his room after a nap, he requires the following:

Blankies
Sippy Cup
Toy (if any) he brought to bed with him
Pacifier

He also immediately requires a snack of some kind.

While he has his morning and night time bottle he requires that the purple blanket be placed over him. He must also be the one to grab his bottle off the counter. Otherwise, its not drinkable.

When passing pictures in the hallway, he requires a run down of who the people are and to point out the birds, waterfalls, etc that are also in the picture.

If you hold him while in the kitchen, he must examine the contents of the cupboards, then open and close the cupboards himself (don't you think about helping!).

He must be given a peeled banana and he will break it into chunks. He likes to eat his chicken strips whole. He must have a fork.

This is just a small run down of the things that crack me up about this kid. He's becoming so independent. He likes things to always be done the same way, every single time.

Today we ventured outside into the rain. Our yard is just filled with poop right now, so Ethan got a great big shoe full of it. However, he really did enjoy himself. Here's a pic:




















I got some stunning pictures of the fall leaves in our backyard. They are just beautiful in color, and piled up in these lovely, colorful bunches. I'm thinking of blowing them up and hanging them in the living room.

Tonight we had a delicious Thai red beef curry over rice. SO simple, yet so good. I put a bit too much red curry paste though and wow, was it hot! It had thinly sliced flank steak, sliced red bell pepper, snap peas, lime juice, coconut milk and fish sauce. Yum.

Tomorrow I go to that cooking class. I'm so darned nervous about it. It seems that since having kids I've lost my confidence to socialize. I feel so awkward around strangers now. I just hope that it all goes smoothly and that perhaps there will be lots of other Moms there for me to meet. Since its from 12-2, I can't imagine that there would be many there besides Moms and retirees :)

Oh, last night was a bit worse, but not bad. Gwen woke up to nurse, and didn't seem to want to settle down. I tried laying her on my arm, laying her on my chest, but she just wasn't comfy. Finally I put her down in her bed and she just zonked out. Sheesh. Guess she didn't want to sleep with us... she likes her own bed now! :)

We had another good night of sleep. The kids woke up once, but it was at the same time, so I was able to quickly put them back down and get to bed. We were able to sleep in till 7 too, which was a nice treat.

The kids and I went out to the grocery store early, before first naps, to get various things. It was an easy trip, primarily because I was feeding Ethan raisins the whole time. The trick to keeping that kid happy and settled appears to be snacks :)

We've been struggling so much with getting Gwen to sleep. I'd asked on one of my message boards for advice in getting her to go down easier, as working 2 hours to get her to sleep 1 was just not working. I got tons of really great advice and using a mixture of different ideas I was able to see an immediate improvement. The first nap took about 15 min for her to go down, the second took about 10 and bedtime was about 10. This is totally ok and fine with me!

After the kids got up from nap, we put away the piles and piles of laundry that had accumulated. Ethan is very helpful and will take clothes and put them in various drawers. I just don't have the heart to correct him when he's trying to be helpful, so I just follow him and resort everything :)

We had a delicious meatloaf, with mashed potatoes and peas tonight. Gwen had some sweet potato, which she adored. Check it:















Gwen majorly digs her bathtime with Ethan. She goes crazy over the bath toys and even splashes. She was kinda timid about the water when she bathed alone, but she doesn't seem to have any fear when she's in with Ethan. Cute.

I'm going to start more aggressively working on potty training with Ethan. I think he's ready and I'd prefer it to be sooner rather than later. If anyone has tips or ideas about the best way, let me know!

The good news is that we got to sleep through the night last night. 'Twas lovely. I almost didn't believe it when I woke up. However, I did wake up with a horrible headache that did not go away. I was somewhat glad of this though, because I got to use my migraine med samples to see how they worked. Wow. Just wow. I took it and within an hour, it was gone. Completely, absolutely gone, including the neck ache. Good stuff.

Yesterday we went to Costco to get stuff. Honestly, its no fun to shop at Costco when you're on a strict budget because you can't buy the random cool stuff that you see there on occasion. Its good to have some flexibility, but alas, this time we did not. While we were there, the fire alarms went off. The place was packed and everyone stopped, looked at each other, waited for a second, then continued on their way, as the fire alarms continued to ring. Eventually they stopped ringing. It cracked me up that not one person seemed worried or scared. Thinking about it later, it kinda freaked me out because if there was a fire, all those people would be heading for the doors and there could be a major jam. I don't like to think about those things.

We got some pizza (surprisingly good) and one of those berry-frozen yogurt sundaes on our way out. Holy smokes, those sundaes are deeeeelicious. Jason had never had one, but he really liked it. Remember when we had those Mom? Gosh, we ate them so fast and couldn't believe how good they were. Cheap too. That night we had homemade eggrolls, rice and apples. Num.

We started Gwennie on a bit of a routine. She now eats some food when we eat, then bathes with Ethan. We did this last night and she went to sleep no problem and slept through the night. We did the same thing tonight and she nursed to sleep easily. We'll see about sleeping through the night... I don't want to get all excited about it because it could be a fluke, but hopefully the routine method will be effective.

Here's a pic from bath tonight. I apologize for the corny editing, but I've recently been reminded that anyone can view these pics and well, perhaps its just not wise to have nakkie parts showing with an online pic, know what I mean?

After a dreadful night last night (up many times), we had a good day.

I went out and did some grocery shopping. Michelle was coming over and I wanted to make a big meal. I made a big pot roast in my slow cooker, and whipped up an apple crisp for dessert.

Shelly arrived and it was so good to see her! She played with the kids and Gwen just loved her Auntie :)

I invited Mom and Dad (who were at the church gathering firewood) to come join us for dinner and they did so. We all ate and visited and played with the kids (who were in excellent moods) and had a very good time.

Gwen is now doing a military creep... backwards :) Just today we really noticed her doing it. We'd set her down on her tummy and next time we glanced at her she'd be off her blanket! She can move pretty fast when she's focused. Must be irritating because she's trying to go forward, but keeps moving away from her goal! I still think this girl will be walking before a year, easy.

Ethan has been having a bit of a diaper rash, so I've been letting him run around without a diaper. Today I got him some little boxer-briefs to wear so that just in case he did do something, there would be something there to catch it. It also makes our informal potty training efforts easier. He looks ADORABLE in these undies. Take a look.


















(check out the buddha belly)
I've been letting him run around without a diaper for a couple hours at a time with NO accidents, until tonight when he did go potty. I think this was my fault tho, as I didn't try to get him to go before or after his bath, as I normally would. This indicates to me that he's pretty capable of holding it.

We just layed the kids down and are hoping and praying for a good nights sleep. At this point, 1 waking per child is considered a good sleep!

Due to all the stress here, Jason and I are kinda at each others throats a lot. Its very hard to be sleep deprived and dealing with the kids/work all day. Some days we barely say 10 words to each other it seems.

Long day. We got better sleep last night. Ethan had just a couple coughing fits, but never cried. Gwen woke up once (I think...).

Unfortunately, our day was rough tho. Everyone was in a dreadful cranky mood and we set each other off all day.

Just have to keep repeating, "it will get better, it will get better, it will get better". Jason says that I'm the type of person who can never be happy, but I really think I'd be happier if I could sleep through the night regularly.

I don't get how people with twice as many children manage and actually enjoy things. Just two completely overwhelm me. Its not how I imagined having children would be. Nothing has turned out the way I thought it would be. I wonder if all these other Mothers feel the same as I do, but we turn on the happy face when we're out in public.

I have no real reason to be unhappy. In fact, most would say that I have a very good life. And yet, when I do go to sleep I very much dread waking up. Back in the day, I would literally jump out of bed... a total morning person. Now, it takes a lot. Even if the kids are fussing I'll hide under my blankets as long as possible.

Off to bed. Too tired to write more.

We had a truly truly horrible night last night. It started off well, though J and I were so pooped that we were in bed by 9. Gwen started waking up, then Ethan started waking up. Repeat that about 100 times. Oh, and then Gwen decides that she MUST sleep in our arms. Not in our bed, not in her bed, in our arms. She could be sleeping for an hour in our arms and we would oh so gently lay her down and the head would pop up and she would start crying. I reached the complete end of my rope. I was yelling and cussing and stomping around. As I've said many many times in the past, sleep deprivation (this time, spanning many days) makes me a monster. Its not pretty. My issues last night made Jason force me into seeing a doctor about PPD and some potential treatment options. And here I thought things were getting better.

One of the things keeping Ethan up last night was his cough. We ended up taking him into the doctor today to have it looked at. This was the first time EVER we've had to bring him in outside of his well-child visits. We are proud of that! The doctor thinks its just the remnant of a virus. If he still has problems in a few weeks, we should bring him back in.

While we were waiting for Jason to arrive at the doctors, Ethan and I played outside in the leaves. He was quite enthralled and excited to kick through the leaves and then did his typical Ethan thing and picked them up and brought them to the other side of the sidewalk... Over and over again. The boy likes to move things from pile to pile :)

Hopefully we'll get some better sleep tonight.

Today is our 3 year wedding anniversary. Wow, thinking back 3 years would I have imagined where I am now? Nope. Funny how life works :)

I did 25 min on the treadmill today, though I couldn't do my other exercises because I couldn't find the DVD remote. Ethan later found it... I can't imagine where since I tore the house up looking for it.

You must try this peanut butter fudge. It is spectacular, and could not be easier to make. It may kill you from all the fat and sugar, but it will be a pleasant and delicious death.

I finished reading a very interesting book. Its called, "Down Came The Rain" by Brooke Shields. Its about her struggle with postpartum depression. Wow, it was very hard for me to read. I could relate with much of what she went through. I think this book should be required reading for new Moms.

Tonight for our anniversary, we were going to get some BBQ from Big Al's. Mmmm... so good. Jason stopped by there on his way home though, and much to our dismay they are only open on Saturdays during fall/winter!?!?!? So disappointing! So we ended up with pizza :) We're going to go to dinner, probably on Saturday, to this place called Charles on Smugglers Bay in Mukilteo. It was recommended by a local girl on my babies board. Its a French style restaurant in a remodeled mansion. Should be interesting!

Yesterday I managed to jog/walk on the treadmill for 20 min. Yay! I also did a 10 min stretch and 10 min arm thing too, so I was pretty proud of myself. Unfortunately, all that working out made me ravenously hungry and I had three tacos for lunch. I've been sooo hungry since. I don't get it. How exactly am I going to lose weight if I'm so freaking hungry after every workout?

Today Mom, Jenni and Great-Aunt Margaret (and her adorable puppy Kimchi) came over to watch the kids. I really couldn't think of anything to do. I went to Fred Meyers and wandered around, then came home. They were very kind and cleaned up the house, which was really nice.

For dinner we had one of my favorite meals. Parmesan breaded pork chops, baked yams, and garlicky spinach. Its attractive on the plate because of the variation of colors, and everything compliments each other well.

Ethan has been very dramatic of late. Throwing major fits over nothing and really working it for all its worth. We usually just ignore it, but geesh. Gwen has started creeping. I wonder how long it will take her to crawl? Not long I'd guess.

As you can see from below, we fed Gwendolyn some cereal today. I was really aiming for the 6th month mark to start, but it was hugely clear she was ready. That girl went aggressively after anything we were eating or drinking and would get miffed if you didn't share :)

She took to it well and ate a good portion!






These are some pics that I took the other day when we were all outside setting up the dog run. Grandma Betty, do you recognize that hat? You made it!
























We experienced some sort of miracle this evening. I laid Gwen down fussy and awake (I just needed a break!) and she put herself to sleep. Now, I don't count on this happening all the time, but oh, how nice it was.

We had a very good dinner tonight. Tacos. I made my own seasoned ground beef with fresh spices, then fried up some corn tortillas (formed into shells) and had it with cheese, avocado, tomato, lime juice and sour cream. SO good. The shells in particular were worlds better than the kind you buy. They were crisp and fresh tasting. A lot of work, but num.

Today we got some stuff done... more laundry (though none of it put away), finished setting up the dog run, grocery shopping. Jason and I were both tired as Ethan and Gwen woke up repeatedly last night. I will never ever take for granted again a night that they both sleep through.

I'm really down right now about stuff I can't put on here.


Today we putzed around the house... cleaned it up a bit, worked on the dog kennel, caught up on TiVo.

The kids took really good naps (and both slept through the night, yay) and were in decent moods all day, which was a nice break.

Gwen's earring don't seem to be bothering her at all, but Ethan noticed them and keeps trying to touch them, which makes me nervous.

Gah. We are exhausted. Jason came home today and we left Mom's, made a stop at the mall, then came home. All of us arrived at the same time, which was convenient.

Unfortunately, neither the kids or I slept at all at my Mom's. If it wasn't some dog barking constantly, it was Gwen waking up every hour, and Ethan waking up every hour or so complaining cuz Gwen was waking him up. I do not know if I got more than 2 hours of sleep in a row those two nights.

When we got home, both kids were completely worn out (they missed their morning nap) and massively cranky. Ethan went to bed, but Gwen refused to sleep. Her screaming and crying got so bad that I took her for a car ride, something we've never had to do before. She was in a better mood when we returned, and did end up taking a 30 min nap. However, once Ethan woke up he was a terror until we put him to bed. The worst I've seen him behaved, EVER.

The reason they missed their morning nap was because of this...















Can you see them? :) We got her birthstone, which is diamond (lucky girl!). She did ok... cried hard, but not for very long. We had quite an audience while it was being done, and everyone oohed and ahhed afterwards.

Jason was a sweetie and got me a cookbook while he was in Cincinnati. Isn't that nice? Its one that I had wanted, but he didn't even know that... Just a lucky guess! I made dinner from it tonight. Crispy chicken strips with a honey-mustard dipping sauce. Num.

Too tired to type more, though there is lots to say. I'll try to remember for tomorrow :) Off to bed.... and hopefully some sleep.

Yay, I have a lovely new smooth, un-crumbed keyboard again. Ah, the joys of typing with keys :)

Tonight I made Beef Daube, Provencal. Its basically a French style beef stew. It has nicoise olives, orange zest, anchovies and a whole bottle of wine in it. Unorthodox ingredients for a beef stew! It came out good. Different than what you would imagine beef stew to taste like, but good.

Jason is leaving tomorrow for Cincinnati to install some servers. Well, that is if the servers show up. They're two days late now... Not good for things that cost $20,000 each! I'll be staying at my Mom's so who knows if I'll have time to post.

Gwendolyn has been sleeping better, thank God. This means I'm in a much better mood overall.

I'm also kinda excited because I've registered for a cooking class! When we were out on Sunday (oh, we went to a movie, Serenity, on Sunday. Twas good), we stopped by my favorite grocery store, Central Market. They had a little advertisement for cooking classes, run by Cascadia Community College. I checked out their schedule and signed up for one to start. If I like it, I'll do more.

I was bummed cuz the first one is on Thursday for Sushi, but it was too late for me to register for that one. The one I did get was Bavarian Cooking, which should be interesting. There are like 8-9 classes total and you just register for the ones you want. Should be fun!

I'm afraid this will have to be short as Ethan ripped keys off my keyboard, making it extremely difficult to type. Dell is sending us a new keyboard piece for the laptop... hopefully it will be here tomorrow.

Tonight we had very nummy chicken enchiladas. Really, QUITE good. I decided to be brave and went to the store and library with both kids. Ha! When will I learn?? I'd tell you what happened, but it would take too long with this dang keyboard

More tomorrow!

Last night was very wearying. Gwen and Ethan woke up just about every two hours all night. Ethan has another cold, so he's not sleeping well. Gwen, well, I don't know what her problem is. They both rose at 5:45am. J and I are pooped.

Gwen didn't sleep more than 30 min the entire day. It was unbelievable. She's finally asleep now and I have high hopes she'll sleep through the night.

Les, Karen and Nicole came up today and it was soo good to see them! They brought some toys and clothes for the kids (adorable!) and we had a great time visiting.

Heading to bed! Tomorrow we're going to church, then after Becki is coming to babysit while we go see movie. I just hope we get some sleep tonight or we may call off everything...

Oh, I exchanged Ethans original Halloween costume (tiger) for a new one (dinosaur) and it still is too snug! Sheesh! However I think this one will be ok through Halloween. I have some pics of it I'll put up tomorrow.