Basketball

So, today we bought the Moose an indoor glow-in-the-dark basketball set (hoop & ball).  SOOO awesome!  Yobo, being the handy kinda guy he is, just happened to have a handheld black light & was able to super charge the set & made the house all dark... we had our first ever family glow-in-the-dark basketball game!  It was a blast!  The Moose really digs it.  She screams out "ball!" every single time she sees a round object  :)

every part that's white glows in the dark!

see our awesome new furniture?!  we got 2 bean bag chairs for Christmas (BIG on our list)

 

Merry Christmas, Day 3.

What's my name again?!  Ha!  It's been a crazy week already - we at least finally got some of the house cleaned up after 3 days of not being home very much and a whole lot of new stuff accompanying us when we did return.  All in all, this was a most excellent Christmas.  We saw family that we hadn't seen before the Moose was born & were blessed to meet new family  :D  It's lovely being home (I'm on vacation until next year!), being able to just take the aftermath of Christmas Chaos in stride (cleaning & finding places for new things, purging some of the old, saying hello to everyone, playing almost the whole time with this super awesome kid!, and not being overwhelmed with rushing through all of it).  This is the first time I've ever taken a Christmas vacation and, so far, I'm rather liking this taking time off at Christmas thing!  

We went to lunch today at Mema's & picked up the Moose's Big Wheel bike she got yesterday (she's been playing with it at Mema's since Mimi bought it, but was finally allowed to take it home for Christmas LOL).  Tonight we cleaned up the living room so she has a straight shot from her bedroom, down the hallway, through the kitchen, down the other hallway, and into our room!  Now, if she could just reach the pedals, she'd be golden.  We dropped off lunch to Mimi & said hello to everyone at the shop.  Yobo, the Moose, & I went for a walk, shoveled some snow, went shopping, ate some pizza together.  We watched Arthur Christmas, had a poosplosion-necessitated bath, and danced a whole lot.  When SOMEone's been asleep, I've been glued to my new Kindle - I'm currently reading the Alchemyst on it, not bad :)  Happy day after Christmas!     

Merry Christmas, Day 2

At Nana's house for the morning!  She made it a whole 15 minutes before getting into a chocolate donut, smearing chocolate all over the front.  pretty sure that's a record!

SO cute!  Santa nephew passing the Moose a present  :D

me & Yobo <3

Back at Grandma's... the Moose refuses to get on the horse, but she loves it because it whinnies & makes rhythmic trotting noises.  Pooh rode the horse while she danced around them to the horsey noises.

Instant love.  The Moose & her Uncle J - this was the first time they met (he lives out of state) & she was all over him.  She rarely gets this comfortable with someone she's just met, but she let him pick her up, flip her all over, and then they snuggled together watching TV - it was awesome. 

After a long day, she finally let us get a picture of her WITH the Santa hat on!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

 

Triumph!

I got an A on my final!!!  Yay!  My overall score for the class was 97-something  :)  Alright, Intermediate Algebra down, now on to Class #3 - College Algebra.  w00t!

I did it! Yay!

That was her first sentence.  Last Friday night, the 3 of us were on the floor, talking & playing; Charles was helping the Moose get in & out of her hammock.  She finally got out on her own, for the first time ever, stood up & shouted "I did it! Yay!" and gave herself a round of applause/  It was so cool because both Yobo & I were sitting right there with & both witnessed the whole thing.  Such an awesome moment! 

Last week, she informed us that she will probably spend some of her adult life as a DJ.

And today, little Ms. Helpful finally let me take pictures of her doing laundry  :)  She loads both the washer & dryer and shuts the doors.

Today was a good day

So, it's in the middle of Sew Mama Sew!'s Giveaway Day (a week of fabric & handmade giveaways right before Christmas).  And it was Secret Santa at work - I got a box of Haagen Daz dark chocolate & almond covered peppermint ice cream bars.  And the peppermint ice cream wasn't crazy sweet - it was a lovely vanilla with a bit of peppermint (super yummy).  And it was lovely massage day.  And she only charged me $25!  And, even though the massage was 1 1/2 hrs long & I talk a lot, the ice cream was totally fine in the car because it was only 4ºF outside.  And, even though I forgot the ice cream in the car when I got home, it was totally fine when I went back out to get it 2 hours later.  And the house was cleaned & dinner was on the table when I got home (I was SO hungry)!  And the Moose was so very cheerful & full of good belly laughs tonight.  And she says "cookies" as "caca" & that cracks me up EVERY single time.  And she was super tired from not taking her afternoon nap & went to bed early & I had more time to work on Christmas presents.  And Yobo & I got some "future home" stuff planned out.  And our awesome neighbors stopped by with a card & crazy generous Christmas presents.  And the migraine never arrived.  And there's a new episode of Castle - it's called Secret Santa  :)  Thank you.

Love.

My Packard Bell Teledyne console we picked up at a garage sale for $5.  It was the find of a lifetime - excellent condition, oak console with wicker front panel.  It was missing the record player, but Yobo picked one up for fairly cheap & replaced it.  I got to break it in with a little Bruno (Bruce Willis)  :)  LOVE.

Sunday

Winter!

winter is the time for building indoor baby hammocks

and wearing poofy jackets

or reading up on electricity atop a warm kotatsu

and definitely for playing in the snow!

In the bottom 2 pictures, you can see the Moose's fashion sense.  She loves to wear overalls & my slipper socks and refuses to trade in her rain coat/boots for the winter set. 

the Halloween Post

The Friday before Halloween, the Moose & Yobo got dressed up and we went to my nephew's school's Fall Carnival.  That was pretty fun - we played some games, ate pretzels, shopped a book fair, and won some cookies  :)

Yobo did an excellent job of setting up lights & decorations at our house for Halloween night.  He made it super easy, too!  I only had to unplug 2 things to shut everything down.  He set up a space heater & chairs in the arctic entry for easy door answering; made it all dark & spooky! 

We didn't think she'd really be into trick or treating yet, so we just passed out candy.  The Moose answered the door with me, but then she froze when she saw the kids LOL  she was done after about an hour and ended up sleeping REALLY well that night... which was  great because the power went out about a 1/2 hr after she went down and stayed out until about 6pm on the 1st.  From what we understand, it was just in the park we live in.  We did notice a shredded bumper next to a newly replaced transformer box at the front of the park when we went out for breakfast... Yobo & the Moose spent the day at Grandma's house, warming their toes & filling their bellies.

November had kind of a sucky start - no power, then I got sick & migrainey for a week  :(

Big Wheels & Superman

So... next Friday, we're going to meet the surveyor's out at the property & have the lot lines recorded.  I think we may try to knock out some clearing while we're there.  Yay! for progress!

I went out with some friends last night to see a live performance of the Rocky Horror Show at Mad Myrna's - it was FANTASTIC.  We had SUCH a good time!  The show was amazing -  laughed & smiled so much, my cheeks are still tender today  :D  My hands & throat were sore from a whole lot of clapping & call outs.  B & I even dressed up a little - black blazers & leggings with colorful undershirts & boas  hahaha so much fun!

The Moose has been taking off at break-neck speeds.  She has learned to vault - she now vaults bath tubs & tables.  Yay.  She is starting her "no" phase.  Apparently this is a thing most kids go through.  Hers is actually more of a "nah" phase.  She shakes her head and says "nah."  Sometimes twice even.  LOL so far this only really gets annoying when she says she wants to watch Yo Gabba Gabba and then 30 seconds into it says "nah", so I turn it off & she says "nah, nah", so I turn it back on and she says "nah."

A couple of weekends ago, while at Mema's, auntie Mimi visited with us & brought the Moose's Christmas presents.  She figured the kid wouldn't remember, so they opened presents  :)  The Moose is getting some Superman pajamas (with detachable cape) and a Radio Flyer Big Wheel.  Sadly, the Big Wheel's a little big - the Moose can't quite reach the pedals.  Luckily, it's a problem that won't last for long!  By the time it's summer, this kid's going to be racing everywhere.  Oi vei.

The Moose & Auntie Mimi building the Moose's early Christmas present from Mimi

I think she likes it.

Trying Mimi's Christmas present pajamas a little early...

I love that you can really see her curls in this one

w00t!  Christmas in October

Super Moose!

Even the Tater Tot's playing with it

A Moose & a Tater Tot   :)

Paradise Valley, Meadow Lakes

Doesn't that just sound lovely?  We closed on Friday and should record tomorrow (seller dude lives in Vegas).  Once we get the call saying it's legally ours, we'll call the surveyor to flag the property line - make sure what we're going to cut down is actually ours to cut.  Then we'll get some tools and start chopping away! House-building dreaming officially commenced.

The Moose has added 2 new phrases to her vocabulary:  "uh-oh" and "wazzat? or "whozzat?"; with none of which does she use discrimination.  She doesn't fully understand "uh oh", so it's used for everything.  It took me a couple of days to stop thinking it really meant UH OH!  And I am sure almost every parent says these, but... I can't believe how much she knows & does now!  Or how happy she is almost all of the time!  We just keep telling ourselves "we must be doing something right!"  We wonder how long that will last... however long, we're definitely enjoying it while we can  :)  Tonight she threw away her diaper, put her dirty clothes in the pile, pushed her toy bin back to the living room, put her toys away, grabbed her blankie, laid down to get changed for bed, came and sat on my lap to get her teeth brushed, said good night to dad & kitty, then put her head on my shoulder, thumb & blankie in her mouth when I scooped her up for night night time.  Certainly a most excellent way to end this weekend  :)

     

Firestarter

So... the Moose started her first fire on Saturday.  Not just any fire, but a plasma fire!  She waited until Yobo was indisposed in the bathroom, pulled the cooler that we keep the kitty's food in from the pantry to in front of where the microwave sits on the counter, climbed up the cooler, put paper trash in the microwave & pushed buttons.  When Yobo came out of the bathroom, he heard the "wom wom wom" sound and ran around the corner to find our kid standing on the cooler with a big smile on her face.  Luckily, he is so cool under pressure!  He flew across the kitchen and dumped out the paper flame into the sink.  No damage done.  The door to the pantry will now be shut at all times.  Crafty little bugger.

We got word last night that the realtor got the signed offer papers back from the seller!!!  We officially close on the 19th and will be property owners no later than the 23rd  :)  Happy Halloween!  There are some serious wheels turning in our heads now LOL

House of Mau5

We're coming to a lot near you!  Yesterday, we met with a real estate agent & signed offer papers for a 1.68 acre lot in Meadow Lakes, Wasilla   :D  If all goes well, we will close on the 19th & officially be land owners on October 23rd (weekend, bank holiday) - holy crap.  This is just the property, no house; we plan on building.  We plan to start clearing in November, maybe even put in a driveway; saving up all the money we can over the winter; then definitely put in a driveway, a foundation, and start the fence & greenhouse next summer.  Hot dog.

Part of the plans include a large greenhouse (larger than the house house?  with hammocks and banana trees!  Oh!  being fanned & shaded under a banana tree while looking at the snow through the windows - yes, please), the house house, a garage kind of thing, and loads of trees.  Maybe someday we could even get goats.  I want a sheltered walkway to walk between the house, the greenhouse, and the garage.  It should be translucent, like rather lengthy windows.  That would be cool.  And, once it's fenced, we can run out in the woods with the city twist - low on the wild animals, high on the playability.

If you'd have asked me where I'd be in 5 years 5 years ago, this was nowhere near it, but is (mostly) way better.  My original plan probably had something to do with working a day job to support my TV-watching-while-eating-cheesy-poofs habit, not having a care in the world; optimistically slacking my life away.  I mean, I still do that, but just on a less than daily basis now.

The Moose had her 18-month check-up at the doctor's today.  She walked herself into the building, all around the waiting room, down the hall, past the bathrooms, and right passed the patient room.  In fact, she kinda refused to walk into the room herself - she knew what that room was all about.  She decided to show the doctor exactly how... developed her gross motor skills are by repeatedly climbing into and out of an empty shelf, then up the chair to the windowsill where she crawled (because she knew she'd get in trouble for trying to walk) across it to the other side to get what she wanted.  She also crawled onto the doctor's rolly chair (you know the ones without backs or sides, kind of look like an ottoman on an office chair base), pulled up to the computer, and started typing away at the keyboard while occasionally moving the mouse.  She's seen us on the computer occasionally, but we both have laptops - I have no idea where tapping the mouse came from, but she knew what was what.  Oi vei.  And we didn't let her see computers or TVs until just recently.  The poor kid also flipped a nut every time someone other than me or Yobo tried to touch her too much.  A hand on the shoulder was sort of ok, but trying to hold a stethoscope to her?  She just kept shaking her head, saying "uh uh" and wiggling around, pushing the stethoscope away.  When the doctor tried to check her ears?!  Crying, shaking her head, "uh uh", and trying to wriggle out of dad's arms. Poor, poor baby. 

When it was time to talk communication skills, they asked if she knew more than 8 words.  I asked "in what language?"  The Moose speaks Moose.  She has words, a lot of them, but most of them are not English.  She can carry an entire conversation, but most of her current English consists of "Mama!", "yum yum", and "hoo hoo".  I am not the only "Mama!"  Yobo is "Mama!"  Monkey, the cat, is "Mama!" when she finds him.  Every balloon she sees is "Mama!"  All food is "yum yum."  When she's REALLY hungry, all food is "yumyumyumyumyumyumyumyum".  Monkey, the cat, is "yum yum" when she's looking for him.  Her water cups are "yum yum."  The blankets are "yum yum."  Her toy dog Violet is "yum yum" but Violet can "hoo hoo".  Dogs are "hoo hoo"s, Yobo's mom (Grandma) is "hoo hoo" - she has many dogs & is (almost) always with at least one of them.  Kids are "hoo hoo"s.  Moose are "hoo hoo"s.  Airplanes are "hoo hoo"s.  Cats other than Monkey are "hoo hoo"s.  Birds are "hoo hoo"s.  Sensing some reason here?  She's also fairly adept at "uh huh" and "uh uh", as well as her versions of "thank you" and "you're welcome."  The rest of it is... I can't even explain.  There's no imitating it.  She is so very sure of it and, somehow, it actually sometimes makes sense  :) 

Today is (Possibly) the Biggest Day of My Life #4-ish

If it all works out well, it will soon be bumped to #5 - will have more details later this afternoon!  Excited & a little skeered :)

P.S.  still sick, still home  :(  going to class in an hour though, then off to Wasilla to see what's what.  I was going to skip class, but I didn't go Monday & I'm afraid of falling too far behind.  Thankfully, what I missed seemed to be easy enough to do on my own (I think I kind of love multiplying & dividing exponents - is that weird?), but don't suppose that luck will hold out.  Plus, I need to find out when our Chapter 3 test is due - I expect this week for sure!  I think I'm finally ready for it - been studying like mad all day yesterday & this morning.

Oh!  The Moose is awake!  I have LOVED being home with her the past few days - this kid just seems to know :)  Every time I'm the one to go get her out of bed, she just seems to have an even bigger smile on her face.  Talk about an much needed ego boost! 

Need a feel good moment?

Click here!

You should NEVER let your pets play with wild animals like this, but, at the same time, for some people, it's just kind of how life is  :)  Respect nature.

It is OFFICIALLY winter.

I feel like poo, Yobo feels like poo, the Moose feels like poo.  Everyone's sick.  I just woke up because I was hungry; got on Facebook and saw a bunch of posts about SNOW.  So, looked out the window, and, sure enough, the ground is littered in the white stuff.  Of course we would be sick this weekend - there are SO many things that must be done!  I actually like the snow, don't mind it at all; but could sure use being healthy this weekend to ensure crops are changed over & things are put away & tires get changed over.  Hopefully we're not too bad tomorrow & can convince me ma to take the Moose & I shopping for snow boots...  :D

New (not necessarily exciting) things

OK, well some of these are exciting, though it's not the Wednesday exciting news (it is only Friday, after all)...

I just made my first ever international call!  I had to google how to make an international call hahaha thank you Google!  Yes, it is only capitalized in the "thank you" as an entity; I'm pretty sure verbs aren't capitalized.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

The Moose has been learning all kinds of fun new things; for instance: she can now push a chair to where she wants to go, like the bathroom sink, get into the chair & use it to stand on, allowing her to cause proper mayhem, like turning on both sides of the sink full blast & soaking herself head to toe  playing in said sink.  She also learned how (I showed her ONCE) to take a pencil and push, push, pull it through one of the 3 holes punched in a spiral notebook - pshaw at all of you who gave me crap about not getting her those all important crappy shape toys, she's got this down.  As Yobo said, we can have her weaving rugs in no time!

I got my very own spinning wheel!!!!!!!!  It's an Ashford, it's new to ME :)  The previous owner said it was an early 80's model (so am I!) that had been recently tuned up.  It was pretty amazing how it all happened - new they're like $600.  A friend sent me a Craig's list ad for a $200 wheel here in town (this RARELY happens, and when it does, it's usually junk), so I called the lady up and we ended up gabbing for about 10 minutes.  After talking with Yobo later that night, it became apparent that this was still, very unfortunately, not affordable.  I called the nice lady back and let her know.  She called me back the next morning to tell me that she just couldn't sell it to this other lady who wanted because she just didn't sound like the right person; she couldn't explain it, but she had a gut feeling this wheel was MEANT for me.  Nice lady offered to take payments for the next 8 months to help make this ALL MINE.  Holy Toledo.  I couldn't say no!  So later that day (last Saturday), I went and picked my new baby up  :)  When I brought it home, I made sure to have it all set up & let the Moose explore it on her own terms.  She had about 10 minutes and then I brought out a chair & showed her how it all worked.  Nice lady also gave me a niddy noddy, but I already had a much nicer one, so I gave it to the Moose as a distraction toy (this worked wonderfully).  I am in heaven  :) 

Sadly, however, my choice to get the spinning wheel meant compromising and giving up some other stuff - I did not get to go to the apple pressing last weekend; I will not be at the Flogging Molly concert tonight (little cry); and the Moose & I will not be buying /making the Rainbow Brite & Twink costumes.  It's OK though, because I am still convinced I made the right choice  :D

Gooseberries are AMAZING!  I totally want to grow some now - I can't even believe I've never eaten them before.  They were SOOO good.  Surely it's just the variety as stories have been told by others of not such exciting flavors, but this one... this one was like an apple, peach, sour apple, cherry, and kiwi all together.  It was an explosive burst of wonderful!

Oh!  And on Tuesday, I saw my first ever wild ptarmagin (I've only ever seen them in pictures, or cooked in a yummy pot pie).  That was pretty cool.  They really are rather stupid LOL we almost hit it with the car because it just kept walking in the roadway, looking at us like "well, hello there."

Exciting Things!

Exciting things are happening!  More details to come on Wednesday  :)

Dates & Numbers

I just realized that the Moose's birth date, 3-31-11, has 3 3's in it - 3 twice & 1 three times!  Pretty nifty!

Some updates

So, we're buttoned down & ready for this storm!  I really hope the rest of Anchor Town listened this time & actually prepared this time.  http://www.wunderground.com/US/AK/101.html?MR=1

We've lost the camera, so... well, we've lost the camera LOL  if we can't find it in a week, Yobo says we can replace it for about $50, so we may as well.  It's pretty weird not having a camera/video recorder now.

I took my first Algebra test today & am feeling pretty confident about it, so here's to hoping reality matches perception  :)

I went to a new neurologist a few weeks ago; had my first follow-up on Thursday - LOVE her.  She said most people only see her 2 or 3 times & then they're done with her; said her job is to get me back to my life, not to hang out with her.  I thought she was nuts, but am pretty sure that my follow-up in a month will probably be the last time I see her.  AWESOME.  I have not had a migraine for TWO days now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This is AMAZING and WONDERFUL.  It's astounding how much I got done today   :D

Yobo pretty well sold out at market today.  He thinks today was the last one - after the storm last week & then what's supposed to happen tonight, there will not be a lot left to harvest so there won't be any excess to sell.  It's all good anyway because...

Next weekend, Yobo & I will be attending a conference on growing hardy fruit in Alaska & all about growing apples, as well as our first apple pressing!  SO excited for the apple pressing.  Yobo's super stoked about the conference because it's some dude named Dr. Bob Bors is coming up from Saskatchewan to present.

While the Moose still doesn't "talk" talk, she is able to hold a complete conversation in her own way  :)  We had a good talk last night, she was sitting on the kitchen table, playing, and discovered some batteries in a container.  I showed her how to use the little battery tester & she sat there, trying to test the batteries LOL  of course she couldn't quite get the battery into the tester and she was telling me all about it the whole time!  It was amazing to watch her, seeing the baby wheels turning in her baby head  :) 

Oh!  And I tried quail eggs for the first time!  There's a family at market that sells bunnies (I'm trying to convince Yobo that we need one... or two or three) & quail eggs.  They're pretty awesome and also hooked us up with some eggs.  Anyhoo, I finally tried some last night, hardboiled, and they were actually rather tasty!  They gave us another dozen today  :D  The Moose isn't really fond of eggs, but maybe she'll like the quail variety...  she sure does seem to dig the bunnies LOL 

We got some duck eggs from another market person today, as well as some gooseberries  :D Yobo's going to make some jam out of the gooseberries.  I'm also excited to try them plain.  Two more new things to try!

Well, it's officially 1 hour, 33 minutes past the start of the storm and it's definitely raining, but, thankfully, there's no wind yet!

Swinger