Fun with friends

I can't believe it's the end of July already

7/27/08

I don't know what's happened to my summer. Here it is the end of July, and I haven't the slightest idea where the time has gone. Now everyone's gearing up for Christmas. Don't believe me? Wal-Mart is currently getting rid of all their plants to make room for their holiday section. The Hobby Lobby down the street wasted no time getting out their stuff in the middle of June. Has the world gone crazy?!? (OK, I'll admit, I already have a lot of Christmas presents stowed away. But I'm not about to break out my decorations...)

Anyways, Happy Birthday to my best friend Jaki, who turns 27 today! We have been friends since the 4th grade and I miss her so much. She just had her first baby, a girl named JayLyn Felice on July 14th. I am sooo excited! She is so tiny and cute and I am mad that she will be 5 months old before I get to meet her in person.

Me, Madelyn (2 1/2) and Jaki. She got me into the Beatles (thanks, Mo)

Also, I feel I have to clarify the last picture I posted of Madelyn standing in the toilet. It said, "Don't leave your child unattended." Not because they might fall in the toilet as they're going potty (if only that were the case), but because they might decide to strip off all their clothes, take off their diaper, and then climb into the toilet for fun...which is what happened with Miss. I don't know where she gets her mischievousness. Honest, both me and Mark were good kids.

I have been meaning to tell you all something exciting and glorious--when Mark was transferring files over from our old computer to our new one a couple weeks ago, lo and behold, there in iTunes were all these songs that we had never been able to listen to because they were in the wrong format. But when Mark had them switched over and copied onto the new computer, THERE WERE ALL MY BEATLES ALBUMS!!!!!!!!!!!! (You recall the CDs were all stolen a few months ago.)
So now I am happily listening to them again (The White Album! A Hard Day's Night! Rubber Soul! Sgt. Pepper! Revolver! Magical Mystery Tour! Abbey Road!!) So now all I need are Please Please Me, Beatles for Sale, Yellow Submarine and Past Masters I to make my collection complete from what I had in cassette tapes (Help! Let It Be and Past Masters II were spared from those filthy thieves). Plus, I just bought Live at the BBC for Jaki's birthday, but before I sent it to her, I copied both discs onto my computer. Bwa, ha, ha, ha, ha!!

Whew. OK. That was quite a bit of rejoicing. Here are some pictures of our silly goose daughter (you were waiting for them, weren't you?)

Madelyn wanted to put on some rouge.
I guess the rosacea look is in right now.

Admiring her handiwork

This is one of the plastic totes we keep her bath toys in. Now that she has figured out that it can hold water and she can squeeze in, she wants to take "tiny baths" from now on.

Well, that's what we've been up to. I put a slideshow up of Madelyn having fun with two of her best friends, Beckham and Ravi Richards. They are ages 4 and 2 and they and Madelyn play together a lot. We always love it when they come over. The kids run around and then their mom Nadia and I (we're the same age) can gripe to each other about how our husbands are always gone. Her husband is a doctor doing his residency in psychiatry, and Mark has been doing his clinical rotations. It's great. I love how Madelyn was showing the boys the finer points of Barbies and tea parties last time they were here ("Here, let me put my finger in your tea").

Also, Nadia sat down and made me sign up on Facebook. So if you're on there, too, look me up and I'll be your friend.

Have a great week!

Don't leave your child unattended

7/22/08

...Or else this is what will happen. At least it will if you are my child.

Time for another bath...

Desert Rain Designs

7/22/08

Hi Y'all,

Well, I finally did it--set up my own online shop to sell the jewelry I make. Mark has been encouraging me (we are always having money problems due to being on a fixed student loan income, and I guess me spending a gazillion dollars on my jewelry habit wasn't helping...). So instead of just giving it all away, I thought I'd try my hand at selling it. I'm not expecting friends and family to buy everything, so don't feel pressured, but I do want to get the word out as much as possible.

I've signed up with a website that is a forum for buying and selling handmade items called etsy.com. I spent half of Sunday morning trying to come up with a username that hadn't been taken yet. I had wanted to name it Esperanza, but after several other attempts and perusals through baby name books (Mark comes in: "What are you looking at those for??"), Dancing Rain came to mind, but then I thought Desert Rain might be better since a lot of my stuff is Southwestern. So the name of my shop is www.desertraindesigns.etsy.com

I finished listing my first 10 items at around 1am this morning, and already had a lot of hits. (Apparently, there are a lot of insomniacs who stalk the website waiting for new stuff to pop up) I looked just barely, and now it's up to 80 viewings! Woo-hoo! But anyways, you'll never find my stuff by random scrolling. Just today there have been about 100 pages of new jewelry postings, so just search for desertraindesigns. I am excited and hope I'll be able to be successful. I have already noticed things I need to do better next time I take pictures, etc., but at least I've got my toes in the water.


Well, in other news..Mark's car needs a new transmission, so we're going to be out another $1,000 in addition to the $500 we just spent on new tires, rims, and alignment. Sigggggghhhhh (Although it has motivated me to get my behind in gear, jewelry store-wise). We would just make do with one car, but Mark is leaving for his OB/GYN rotation (in Silver City--230 miles away) in 2 1/2 weeks and Madelyn and I will be alone in Albuquerque for a month and a half. There is NO WAY I'd be willing to do that without having a car. I can tell you right now I would go insane. I've just gone one week without one and I'm ready to go AWOL.

Oh, well. We're plugging along the best we can. And now for the random pictures of the week:

Madelyn scaling Mt. Garagepileofsuff Mark stacked super high a few weeks ago. I knew this would eventually happen.

So, this is how she fell asleep last night. No clothes (at least the diaper is still on), covered with more marker scribbles (trust me--they're there), with an open can of crunchies. Now can you see why I thought she had fallen asleep on the potty like this?

Speaking of Little Miss, I've got to run and see what she's up to. Last time I saw her, she had ditched her diaper and had gotten out the toilet plunger....

Memories

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I/Mark or Madelyn had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Can't wait to see what memories you have of me!

Have Mercy!!

7/17/08

I hate to gripe in every post, but what on earth has possessed my sweet daughter lately? Today after lunch, she wanted to wash the dishes, which I concluded was a fairly benign activity, and at worst she would get wet (She went through 4 outfits yesterday. I didn't figure this would be a big deal in comparison). So I went back into the office to burn some more picture CDs for my dad, and then got a call from my sister Maria who just went to Florida to visit her boyfriend who's there for the summer. I wandered back into the kitchen a few minutes later and...

Madelyn is sitting in the windowsill, legs dangling out, and she has ripped out pieces of my house plant by the root and chucked them onto the ground outside. She's crying because I've just shouted at her (and right into the phone--sorry Maria. I was startled).

Siiiiiiigggggghhhh! At least she didn't fall out of the window, right? We keep it open for the swamp cooler. I hope this doesn't become a new antic of hers.

My poor plant!

I have caught her ripping flowers to shreds before on our plants outside and even flowers that are in a vase. So I shouldn't be too surprised. Still! Give me a break, Madelyn!

We have been without a car this week while our mechanic friend tries to figure out what's going on with the rattling in the front wheel of Mark's car (he says it's not the bearing as we previously thought), and Mark uses my car to go to work at his rotation. So I guess the fact that we've been cooped up at home has spurred Madelyn on to greater rapscallion heights.

Have mercy!!

And they call ME Messy

7/16/08

Madelyn has been giving me a lot of blog material lately. This is how my day has gone (all before 1pm, mind you. There are still many hours yet to fill.):

Two bowls of Coco-Roos (and milk) all over the floor, cushion, Madelyn's outfit (already taken off and on the table), and a book her grandma Yoder sent her yesterday (hastily removed and wiped down. Hope the pages won't stick together).

I go to investigate a clunking sound. Madelyn is taking out her anger (from getting in trouble from previous incident) on her books. Green snake is not taking any of the blame this time.

Hiding in shame? Oh, wait. She doesn't care if her baby cards are all over the floor! It's one of her favorite places for them!

Siggggghhhhhhh.....(I've been sighing a lot these days.) My Grandpa Wally used to call me "Messy-lissa" or just "Messy". I don't think it's because I was actually messy. Just his sense of humor. I think God must also have a sense of humor, for sending me this child who loves to do stuff like this, when I am such a neat freak.

On the other hand, look what I made! I have to brag because not only did I get my pile of mending done on Monday (I'd been putting it off nearly 2 months), I finished Madelyn's princess quilt.

I found the panel as a remnant at Hobby Lobby for like, $1.50. I got some batting and backing material, and so for less than $10, she has a new blanket. It doesn't look like much, but I quilted about 40 stars into it with my sewing machine. If you could see them properly, you'd be very impressed, I'm sure. Madelyn is a Disney Princess maniac, so she is so excited about this. She told me she couldn't use the quilt Aunt Sheila made for her anymore. "Princess bwanky", she said.

Pleased as punch

Detail of quilting

I came in to find that she had put all her Barbies to bed under the tiny blankets and pillows I had made for them, and they were having a slumber party. Cute.

Well, I'm hearing more suspicious sounds coming from Messy-lyn's direction. Better go...

Mark's Manly Acquisitions

7/13/08

So, my last post was probably very uninteresting unless you're a member of my family. Oh, well.

Mark has had quite the past two weeks. He is now the proud owner of a new computer that he built himself (smoking fast, I might add. That much I can appreciate.), four new tires (intentional), with new rims (not intentional, but necessary, come to find out), a rifle, and a receiver. I had him jot down some notes so that you could be duly impressed:

"AMP Quad Core, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB of hard drive, 8800 GS video card, Windows Vista Home Premium, and lots of Awesomeness!" (That's his direct quote) We don't have a new monitor or keyboard to show off. I'm asking for them for Christmas.

"R-15 aluminum rims." And ironically, with 4 new tires and rims and a fresh alignment job, this still careens around like a squirrelly go-cart on a washboard dirt road and goes WOM WOM WOM WOM WOM WOM. The rims were bent and the tires shot, thanks to Mark being rear-ended last year, but as it turns out, a bearing also needs to be replaced. After $900, I hope it drives like a frickin' Cadillac.

"30-06 Springfield bolt-action sniper rifle." Used to be my Grandpa Wally's. It's the same type that was used in WWI and WWII, but we're not sure how old this one is. Mark has always wanted one of these.

"Pioneer 7.1 Dolby Surround Pro-logic receiver." Mark won this at the family reunion's raffle last week, and only paid $1 each for his 2 tickets. Thank-you Nathan for your generous donation!! (We seriously scored a ton of loot at that raffle, and we only spent $7. Not to boast.)

And lest you think that our Madelyn has been resting on her laurels this week...

"Who, me?"

She has been a little mischichi lately. "Mischichi" is what my Grandma Nora calls mischief makers. (Not sure how to spell it. It's Spanish slang.) I think Madelyn deserves the title. What do
you think?

Mark let her come up on the roof with him while he fixed a leak in our swamp cooler. I was not a proponent of this. After telling her a dozen times to stay close to daddy and not get close to the edge, she had to be handed back down to me kicking and screaming. Just imagine if we didn't have a flat roof...

This was about an hour after we got home from church today (during which she made such a scene in Primary that she ended up back in nursery with me). I went into my craft room and discovered her under the table, covered in marker scribbles and playing with my needle-nosed pliers. She is hiding her head in shame because she knows she's in trouble. Siiiigggghhhh... An hour later:

She has been practicing sitting on the potty (hasn't gone yet). She can just hang out on there for ages, so I went into the office to check on a picture CD I was burning. I came back to find this. I thought she had fallen asleep, since she often falls asleep in the stinkbug position (although I realize the potty is an odd place to fall asleep). But nooo...

Can you see what's really happening here? She's got both arms stuck down into the bowl, nude from the waist down, no less, splashing around in the water!!! (Toilet water is actually quite clean, from what I've heard. Please tell me that's true.)

Oh, Madelyn. The things she does make me laugh, despite the trouble she causes. And then I have makings for a good post. (Plus I want proof of her behavior for when she gets older.)

Well, I need to get back to my Christian Bale movie fest. Yesterday we watched Batman Begins (drool), and I've got Little Women waiting for me. Now if I can only find a copy of Newsies...

Check out my Slide Show!

"Seize the day and throttle it"

7/9/08

Well, that pretty much sums up last week. I am only getting around to posting now because of the company-fatigue-induced coma I've been in, as mentioned in my last post. Actually, I'm really glad that everyone came, but holy mackerel, even I can't keep going at that pace for more than a week. I have been trying to catch up and clean up and so forth, but mostly what has happened is I've been super lazy. I even indulged myself last night and watched one of my favorite 3-hour-long movies, "Sense and Sensibility" and ate a whole bag of popcorn and a root beer, while the bathrooms still sat there dirty and the trashes and laundry were overflowing. Aaahhhhhhhhhh...

So anyways, I guess I should tell you what we all did. "All" meaning: me, Mark, Madelyn, my parents Rich and Carolyn, and Tyler, Monica, Nathan, Kevin, Lori, baby Hattie, Maria, Megan, and 60 other members of my extended family from my mom's side. (8 of them were staying with us, at least for part of the week...) Mark had to work at his rotation and so missed out on a lot, but he was there for the evenings and all of Saturday.

Monday: My family arrives from Utah around 6:30. All the meticulous housework I'd been doing for the past few weeks is obliterated within the first 5 minutes. We have dinner and call it a night.

Papa Rich reading to Nathan and Madelyn

Tuesday: In what turned out to be the hottest, stickiest day of the summer, we decide to go walk around outside all day at the zoo, aquarium, and botanical gardens. I was sweating in ALL the wrong places. I found myself looking wistfully at the hippos chilling out in their pond. That's how hot it was.

Later, we managed to take some family pictures. Madelyn, of course, kept trying to run away. One of the best shots of our family ended up being the one where we're holding her upside-down to prevent her escape (see sidebar). Go figure. Look how Chinese her eyes look!

Kevin and Lori went out to celebrate their 3rd wedding anniversary that night. They dated in high school and it seems like they've been together for ages. I wish I had their prom picture. But I digress...

Baby Hattie, Kev, Lori, me and Madelyn, who thinks the zoo is fun because she can climb on stuff

One of three different peacocks Madelyn chased that day

back l-r: Maria, Monica (5 months pregnant with baby girl), Nathan, Tyler, Kevin, Hattie, Lori, Melissa, Madelyn and Mark

front: Rich, Carolyn, Megan

Click the photo to enlarge and see how cheezy my smile looks up close, and see that Madelyn is laughing and not crying.

Wednesday: We spent a lot of money, as I recall. Lori and I raided the clearance racks at Target and got some stuff for carnival games for the reunion. Then most of us trekked to the Cottonwod Mall, which is on the west side of town. Maria was on a quest to get some cute clothes, since the only mall in St. George is miniscule and thus everyone is wearing the same thing all the time.

That night we had an early celebration for Tyler and Monica's birthdays, and Madelyn had to throw her requisite fit that she didn't get to open all their presents.

Madelyn trying on stilettos at Wet Seal with Auntie Meg and Auntie Maria

Having some b-day pie for Ty and Monica. There's more than one weirdo in my family. See if you can pick them out.

Thursday: A small group of extended family went to a morning session at the Albuquerque temple, which was really neat. The kids played in the backyard with our water thingy and had a great time.

That evening, the actual reunion began down in Los Lunas at the church for a raffle and dinner, and naturally, an exhibition of a large, hairy arachnid and a giant long-horned beetle. You have to know my Aunt Shannon.

This girl is so happy when she's in water. She takes after her dad

My nephew "Cousin Nathan" Murset. He and Madelyn got along really well, surprisingly. You never know with those two...

I knew Madelyn was into bugs, snails, snakes, lizards, frogs, etc. but even I was surprised at her enthusiasm for this tarantula. I don't know his name, so I'll call him Creepy. Aunt Shannon, who is our family's resident entymologist and biology teacher, was raffling off Creepy to help raise money for our family fund. My cousin Ethan was the lucky winner. His parents didn't seem too thrilled.

Madelyn held Creepy three or four different times, and then spent the whole ride home shouting, "I WANT TO HOLD THE SPIDER!!" Mark and I also found a long-horned beetle that was over 3 inches long, which we showed to Shannon and she took it for her bug collection. Madelyn wanted to hold that, too, but it had nasty pincers.

Friday: More shopping. (I really loved that part of last week.) My mom and I went to some bead stores, and I got a ton of supplies, because I'm going to be selling my jewelry wares online soon. (You''ll be hearing an earful about that for sure.) Then a few of us braved the heat again and went to Old Town. It's the original part of Albuquerque, and it's a bunch of shops centered around the 300-year-old San Felipe de Neri church. You should have heard this mariachi band that was playing there (at the plaza, not in the church...). They could sure belt it out.

The whole Chatwin flock (herd? gaggle? hoard?) descended upon a city pool Aunt Lorri rented out for a couple hours. It was the first swim for Hattie and her two other baby cousins, and a welcome reelief for the poor saps who decided to go trudge around the zoo, aquarium and botanical gardens that day in the sultry heat.

That night we went to my Aunt Susan's house for a huge dinner and fireworks shindig. Some of us were fairly eaten alive by mosquitos.

Albuquerque Old Town and San Felipe de Neri church

Lori and Hattie, 3 months old. That baby is so deliciously cuddly. I wanted to eat her up.

Saturday: My mom and I hosted the reunion's Jewelry Fest, which despite our best efforts still took like, 6 hours. But we helped the ladies make some cute stuff. (Thanks, Aunt Susan, for hosting everything at your house in Peralta!)

Then, with a couple hours on our hands, me, Maria and our cousin Chrisanna decided to go back to Albuquerque to go to Target to go shoe shopping. If you don't think driving 30 miles each way was worth it, then you obviously don't understand the love affair that many a woman has with Target. I think it was the third time I had been there that week. But so what.

That night we had a big ol' dutch oven dinner and hung out as a clan, and then eventually said our goodbye's and went back home collapse. Madelyn wore her swimsuit from about 11:00am to 7:00pm that day. It was a good day for her, running around outside, getting wet and dirty and shunning her afternoon nap (although that backfired and by the end of the night she was a beastly troll from being so tired).

Jewelry Fest 2008

babies!!

Cousins Hattie Murset (3 mo.), McKayla Barton (4 mo.) and Noelia Peterson (3 mo.) Hattie and Noelia were born on the same day!

Cousins Nathan, Lily and Madelyn having fun together

Me with my sister Maria and sister-in-law Monica. We're in the brunettes club.

Sunday: Got up at the crack of dawn to see everyone off. Spent the rest of the day in a discombobulated stupor.

So there. Now you know what happened. I think I just set a record for longest new post. So until the 4th of July weekend 2010, that's it for the Chatwin reunion. PHEW!