Dream Weaver

I have the strangest dreams. I have always had the strangest dreams. Pregnancy did not make my dreams any more vivid or strange--I'm not sure that is possible.

Anyway, I've had a few lately that have been really cool and would make great scenes in a movie or a book or something. I have had some like this in the past, too, but I never wrote them down and as time passed they faded a bit. 

Last week I decided to keep a dream journal. I now have a document on my computer that will house all my dreams. Someday I'd like to go through and look at the possibility of turning one or more into books. Isn't that how the Twilight series was started? 

You can like the Twilight series or not, but you can't deny that it was a successful seller. Maybe that's how I'll make my millions and have my 15 minutes of fame. 

I don't want to post my dreams on the internet anywhere in case somebody steals my idea and publishes before I do, but last night had to do with morphing from human to animal...it was pretty cool. 

Crazy Neighborhood Take 2

Remember in August, 2009 I posted about the crazy drunk lady that came to our door, and the police came, and there was all that excitement?
The previous February there was a fire across the street from us.
We have paramedics on our street on average about every other month or so. We have some neighbors that have some serious health problems. I can't imagine what their medical bills are like.
A while ago someone tried to rob the grocery store up the street and was shot by police.
A few months ago my brother-in-law wrecked his bike up the street on his way home from work, so we had flashing lights for that.
Yesterday morning there were fire trucks at the fabric store on the corner near our house and the alarm was going off.
Honestly, it gets hard to keep track of all the times law enforcement, fire fighters, and paramedics come to our street.
Last night we were coming home from the grocery store and saw flashing lights down the street. We took in the groceries and then decided to walk down the street. As we got closer we could see there were a LOT of police cars, and the whole street was blocked off with caution/police tape. There were people standing all around, so we started asking around to see what was going on. Of course the stories varied...even the people who were out there when it happened had different accounts. I can see how difficult being a detective could be when even eyewitnesses don't witness the same thing.
What we could gather was that there was a car that had been chased/followed by police and that car had run into 3 or 4 cars along the side of the road, was sitting there idling with a sheet draped across it because the driver had died somehow or another.
The people living near there said they heard the crash or the police loudspeakers and looked out the window to a whole bunch of cops running down the street with guns out. People that were outside were ordered back into their apartments at that time.
Anyway, after chatting with our neighbors for a while, we went home, scoured the news for any information (no news crews were there that we could see), and then went to bed. In the morning I found this article posted about it. What a sad story.
What a crazy neighborhood.

You know you're out of shape when...

You drive to a campus you used to walk to, you walk around a little bit, and drive home, and are sore for two days.
On Tuesday, I decided to go up to campus for the Dance Devotional. I figured it would be fun to watch and a good excuse to get out of the house. Besides, while I was there I could visit my old work and professors.
The plan was to walk up there, make the stops, and then walk home, but Joshua decided it was nap time at 10, so we didn't leave the house until quarter after 11.
Even though we were late, we got to watch more than half of the devotional. Joshua was enthralled the whole time even though we were sitting up in the nose-bleed bleachers. He didn't make a peep.
After that was over, we drove over to where I used to work and brought some cookies to my old coworkers. I got to chat a while with some of the people I used to see almost daily and realized how much I don't see people now that I stay at home all day. A lot had changed. Some of the desks were rearranged, and a lot of the people I worked with no longer worked there.
I also went to go check out the damage caused by a crane tipping over. They are building new dorms around my old office, and one of the cranes tipped over onto the building. I forgot to check out the damage while I was there, but here's a picture someone took of it: (Link to facebook picture)
Then I drove to another part of campus. I dropped off a Milka bar to my aunt at her office since it was her birthday. Then I took the rest of the cookies to the German department to see if any of my old professors were there.
*Note: I was planning on bringing my little travel stroller with me, but I forgot it, so I was carrying Joshua, the diaper bag, and a plate of cookies the whole time.
The professor that went on study abroad with us to Vienna in 2006 was the only one around, so I stayed and chatted with him a little while. It was fun to see him and catch up a bit. I really should go visit more often.
After that I had to book it back to my car since I had parked in a 30-minute zone. I'm not sure why I didn't just park in the visitor lot. "Old Habits," I guess.
It was a fun little visit to campus, but I need to get out and do that more, for sure.

Yard Sale

Last week I tried to go through my whole house and purge all my junk. Well, I did some, but I didn't do my whole house. Remember how I posted that I was going to finish up the living room by doing the magazines? Well, I never got to that.
The next day (Tuesday?) I was cleaning my kitchen and decided to attack it. So I went through every cupboard and got out all the things I never use (e.g.: lime press, tiny frying pan, old frying pan, extra turkey baster (who needs 2!?), extra knives not matching set, old water bottles) and put them in a box. I also cleaned off and around the microwave, which is my "hot spot" in the kitchen. I put all the baby bottles, sippy cups, garbage, pots (for flowers), etc. away or in the yard sale pile that was accumulating. I even cleaned off the toaster and toaster oven! My kitchen is so clean now! :)
Last time I posted, I had decided to postpone my yard sale because of General Conference. I later realized that I have plans for this Saturday that I can't postpone or multitask. On Friday, I decided to go for it, so I bought some poster board for signs and put them up. I had to have a yard sale now that the signs were up. (I put the signs up on the busiest streets at 5pm - Friday evening traffic and game day traffic! Win!)
After Joshua was in bed, I gathered up all my thrift store and yard sale stuff, labeled it all, told my neighbor/sister-in-law about the yard sale and invited them to sell stuff, too, and got to bed by 2am! I thought I was going to take all night. At 7am I got up, set everything set up, and sold stuff all morning!
I have some great stories about people offering $2 for $100-never-been-worn-leather-reeboks (seriously!?) and other things. I never realized how cheap yard sailors are. I didn't sell as much stuff as I had wanted, but I made more than $200!
I'm thinking I'll have more yard sales next summer!
As for this year, I still have a ton of stuff that I'd like to get some $$$ for if possible, so we're going to have another yard sale in two weeks, weather permitting. I still have a whole storage room of stuff that I need to sell (the people that lived in the apartment below us left all their stuff and owed us money...long story, not for this post.)

9 Months

Whoops I skipped the 6 month update with doctor stats and all. Oh well. Here's the 9 month one.
Today was Joshua's 9 month well-check appointment. I'm thinking with following children I may skip this one. It's kind of pointless unless there's something that you're really worried about. They poked his heel and his blood levels look great. They looked in his ears and listened to his heart and the like.
He weighs 18 lbs 9 oz. and is 29 inches long. I can't remember the %'s so I'll have to update that later. He's waking up from his nap currently so off I go!

By Request

I've had requests to bring back the sink chronicles. Well, if you read my novel from yesterday, you know I'm not sink chronicling any more. Does that mean I'm not trying my darnedest to be cleaner, de-junk, and organize my life? No...I feel that is a talent I was not blessed with and have to work every minute to perfect it and will probably have to keep perfecting it even in my mansions above...or get a house keeper for my mansions above.
I've decided to postpone the garage sale until next week, weather permitting. Weather not permitting, I'm not sure what I'll do. Maybe I'll wait until next Summer. Isn't there a saying about garage sailing after Columbus Day? "In 1492, Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue. If you garage sale after Columbus Day...?"
To get ready for the garage sale, I need to go through all my stuff and get rid of things that I don't need, don't use, shouldn't need, shouldn't use, etc. This is very difficult for me. I always get the feeling, "Well, someday I might need it" or "What if I go looking for this tomorrow and realize I got rid of it?" or "I can't just throw it away, someone could use it!" I'm not sure if it is nature or nurture or a mixture of both, but it's a real problem.
Yesterday I started my house purge. We had some neighbors (Google wants me to spell it "neighbours"...I'm not going to!) who were moving so they went through their house and took bags and bags and bags of stuff to the thrift store. It makes me anxious just thinking about it.
I'm starting small. I don't know if you know, but my hamster, Squirt, passed away last month while I was out of town. I guess furry little rodents need air conditioning in our oven of a house just as much as we humans do. Poor guy. So I packed up all the hamster stuff, even the stuff from when I had a pet rat back in the day, and it is ready to go!
I got some new books for my birthday, so I went through my book shelves in the front room and nursery and rearranged and made a stack of books to get rid of.
I figure I've got a start on the living room, so I will work on that room again today. All I really have left in that room (the least cluttered room in the house) is magazines.
All day yesterday I thought about going through my box of hair-things (bands, clips, bows, etc.) but never got around to it. Today is the day for those as well!
Random thought: Can one sell vitamins at a garage sale?

Post Title

I couldn't think of a title that would be an appropriate thesis of this post...
Well, I bet you have noticed I haven't posted in a while, eh? Yup. That's me. The blog slacker.
Good news though, my sink is still clean...but that's about it. I decided that the flylady stuff just wasn't for me. I mean, I like some of the things, and there are some good principles, but my life just isn't routine enough to have a routine like that. Possibly when all my children are older and in school and not teething I can do a morning routine. Possibly I'm just making lame excuses.
Anyway, I'm still working on making my life more productive. I just am not very productive at doing that very often. Arg. Oh. Well.
Right, well here's an update.
I have been trying to spend less time on the computer, which is one of the reasons I haven't blogged in a while. Some days that means I wander around trying to figure out what I'd like to work on that day, until the day is over, then I try to hurry and do something, and then I end up staying up late and hating myself the next morning. My goodness, I must be in a mood. This post wasn't supposed to be so whiny.
Joshua has 6 teeth now and has been working on the 7th for. ev. er. It's to the point where it's almost through, and hurts him a lot, but that seems to be all the progress its willing to make. His 8th tooth is coming in, too and may surprise us and make it in before the 7th...which would make it the 7th, and the other one the 8th...uhhh. I have my suspicions that his molars may be coming in, too because he's been chomping on his fingers in the back of his mouth lately. The silly kid doesn't chew on teething toys at all, but he'll chomp on his fingers and chew on his wrist any time of day. Today I resorted to giving him some ibuprofen because he just seemed to be in so much pain that it would be worth it.
Besides teething, Joshua has some fun tricks that he's been working on perfecting. He will sit anywhere and play with toys and turn around and around on his bum. He's been reaching further and further, which sometimes means he dives head-first for things and ends up on his tummy, screaming to be rescued. I think crawling may be on the horizon finally.
Side note: this is another reason why I need to get my house cleaned up and out! baby proofing!
While he's happy and playing with toys that little boy can jabber up a storm. It used to just be "mamamaamamamammm" or "blablablablablabbblab" (yes, he says blah blah blah, it's cute.). Now he's working more on the "Guh" sound and the "th" (voiced and unvoiced) and "V" sounds. He'll slip in a "Da" every once in a while, too.
His favorite toys are toys with wheels or toys that rattle when shaken. His favorite foods are anything but baby food meats (gross, who would eat those!?). He loves fruits like peaches and pears and can eat them well un-mushed.
He bobs and dances, smiles, laughs, and sniffs with his nose (see video here) when he's excited. He will also kick his legs like crazy while on the changing table. I think he's trying to go from lying to standing like a break dancer. I have yet to catch it on video because he stops doing it whenever I try to video him.
(KNOCK ON WOOD!) Joshua has been sleeping wonderfully for a week or so. He's starting to sleep on his tummy, and I think that's one reason why he sleeps so nicely. His naps are still less than an hour long, and he still has 3 of them per day, but at night he will go to bed between 8 and 9pm and will sleep solid until about 6am, nurse, and go back to sleep until 7, 8, or 9am. It's heavenly. The funny thing is that he'll roll over onto his tummy while he's sleeping, but once he wakes up and realizes he's on his tummy, he screeches and squeals and hollers until I come rescue him.
Is this post getting too long? mind if I keep writing? no? great...
Dave has had a change in his work schedule. He's working one more shift per week and does a double shift on one of the weekend days. The residential tech support store that we acquired is moving locations next week or so, so that will make him a bit busier for a while with the company. It's tough being apart so much, but we make do.
It was my birthday last week and I got food poisoning the day before. I was in bed for almost 40 hours straight (minus trips to the bathroom), it was miserable. Luckily I started feeling better at about 3pm on my birthday, and felt completely better by my party the next day. I had a few friends over on Friday and family over on Sunday. It was great to celebrate my birthday with people. I'm thinking we need to have people over more often. Our house is clean and the back yard is presentable!
Right, well, I better get going on my day (confession: still in pjs!). I'm hoping to have a yard sale on Saturday of all the things that we don't need in our house, which means I have quite the week ahead of me. I'm a little worried it will be poorly attended because of General Conference. What do you think? Do people still go Garage Sailing (spelled like that on purpose) on GC weekend?