Crunch Time
Friday, September 26, 2008
My mommy and my grandma are going to drive down to visit us next week and I'm so excited! Actually, they'll be leaving from my hometown up North on Sunday and then they'll get here sometime Monday afternoon. It's a 900 mile drive, so it'll be much easier on them to split it up into 2 days of driving. My mom is loading up her big red truck (probably as we speak) full of crafty items that she's been making over the last several months because we rented a booth at the local craft festival that's happening a block from my house in a week and a half. We've been planning this for months and I JUST NOW started making things for the booth. That's right, folks. I am the queen of procrastination. Actually, it's not that I haven't had the desire to sew. I just haven't made the time. I'm always so behind on my house work and busy taking care of Scout, that I can never justify taking time to get out my craft supplies and make another mess. Well, since the cleaning lady came on Tuesday, I've been doing a pretty decent job of maintaining the order around here, so I didn't feel bad about dragging my sewing stuff out today during Scout's nap. I made a little credit card pouch with an appliqued bird. The stitching is a bit wonky, so I'll just keep it for myself. LOL :) I hope I can crank out several more of these, as well as some bags and change purses before the fair. It just so happens that yesterday while Scout and I were taking a walk around the neighborhood, I popped into a local thrift store and found a gigantic pile of vintage fabric. Looks like a lot of it dates back to the 70's. I grabbed up all I could carry. I just couldn't help myself. It was 50 cents a yard and I bought $21.50 worth of that retro textile goodness.
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 1:34 PM,
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Nuthin' Special - Graham Cracker Treat
Scout usually has toast w/ eggs or oatmeal w/ eggs for breakfast. But this morning, I wanted something sweet with my coffee, so I made us some strawberry banana graham crackers. I just spread some cream cheese on a plain ol' graham cracker and added strawberry all-fruit spread and banana slices. Simple, cheap, and yummy. Scout likes them too. She also thought the cream cheese would make a great moisturizing leave-in hair treatment.
Labels: food, nuthin' special
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 10:14 AM,
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Dear Random Dad at the Park,
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Please, for the love of everything good and holy, have some common sense. When my toddler is running to your toddler's sippy cup that is sitting on the ground by the slide, DO NOT pick it up, open the spout and hand it to her while chuckling and saying "Aw...you want some? Here ya go".
That is not cool AT ALL.
When I first saw you pick up the cup while smiling and opening the spout I really thought you were KIDDING around. If I would've known that you were being completely serious and actually going to hand my child your child's cup, (hello, we're COMPLETE STRANGERS!) I would have run a lot faster to get it out of her hands. Unfortunately, it did make it to her lips for a brief second before I got to her and told you "No, she can't have that". That really sucks. The next time you do that, don't look so puzzled when the child's parent looks at you like you're crazy and takes their child someplace else to play. Just so you know, it is NOT okay to share like that. I know you were trying to be nice, but drinks are not for sharing with strangers. You're at least 30. How did you miss that little tidbit of info along the way?
Sincerely,
Woman at the park who doesn't know whether or not your kid has cooties.
Okay, now that I have that little gripe out of the way, onto a few pics of my darling girl exploring the playground. Poor thing kept tripping over the barriers surrounding the wood-chipped play areas. She ended up with a pretty yucky bump/road rash on her forehead. Hey, at least she held on to her hamburger as she was falling. Man, she had a kung fu grip on that thing. She may not have gotten such a nasty bump had she dropped the burger and braced herself for the fall. Silly burger-lovin' girl.
I think this is the only pic where you can kind of see her bump-on-the-noggin. Apparently, hitting her head transformed her into a chill pimp who walks with a gangsta limp to the tune of Stayin' Alive.... or so this pic would have you believe.
Labels: doh, general complaining, griping about people, health, holy crap
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 9:51 PM,
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Ugly Timeline
Monday, September 22, 2008
4:30 AM - Scout wakes up crying
4:35 AM - I wait for a few minutes before I go in there because sometimes she fusses a little then falls back to sleep on her own. I could tell she wasn't going to go back to sleep, so I go in to nurse her....which doesn't work. Much to my dismay, there is an hour of squirmy nursing, pinching, kicking, playing with toys, climbing all over me, and more nursing.
5:38 AM - I give up and let my cheerful and talkative toddler out of the room to wander the house while I make DH's lunch and fix us both something to eat. She eats some shredded wheat with milk and a piece of toast with homemade apple butter while I fight back tears of exhaustion (have I mentioned that she has been doing this for the last 3 or 4 days?)
7:15 AM - Scout starts doing the sign for nurse and saying "nigh-night" while rubbing her eyes. It takes me 15 minutes to nurse her back to sleep.
7:30 AM - I make some coffee and down 2 cups.
9:00 AM - Scout wakes up and is in a very good mood. Good. I'm glad someone is. We eat and play and horse around on the bed while watching Elmo's World and then play some more. I pop her in the stroller and take a very long walk around the neighborhood.
1:30 PM - Scout is yawning and wanting to nurse. I lay down with her and her blanky bear to nurse her to sleep. I try and try to get her to go to sleep to no avail.
2:00 PM - She is apparently not tired enough for a nap. I figure that she is probably hungry and start making her some lunch. She throws a fit when I try to strap her in her booster seat and starts doing the sign for nurse again. She does the sign for blanket and says "Nee nee" (which is what she has been calling her blanky bear). I take her back in to her room and she immediately runs from me when I put her down to nurse. I am about to scream and pull my hair out. I need her to sleep before I start crying. I put up the gate and leave the room. I hide in the kitchen while she screams and cries at the gate. I never do that, but I just had to escape the situation for a moment.
I sort of lost track of the time and chain of events after that. I know that I went back in her room after just a couple minutes and tried to get her to go to sleep AGAIN. When she got up and went to her toy box and started throwing toys at my head as I laid on her mattress in the fetal position, rocking back and forth and shaking (just kidding) I decided to leave the room again. This time, I shut the door and let her cry for about 5 minutes. They were sad and panicky cries. I felt so bad for doing it, but I could not take it anymore. I went back in and told her that she HAS to go to sleep and then I laid with her and nursed her.
At 2:53 PM, she is finally asleep. Great. Now she'll sleep until close to 5:00 and won't want to go to bed until 10. Then she'll be up again at 4:30 (for whatever reason) and we'll start the whole flippin' process all over again. Uuuughhh.
My little girl used to sleep. She used to like bedtime. I'm afraid that me leaving her in her room to scream for a few minutes when I am frustrated is probably not helping her enjoy bedtime any more. {sigh} Shame on me.
***ETA***
I was determined to get a little sleep while she napped, but had a hard time winding down. The last time I looked at the clock before I finally fell asleep it was 3:48 PM. She woke up at 4:07 PM. I feel so incredibly great now that I've had a restful 19 minute nap. < /sarcasm>
Labels: baby sleep, general complaining
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 2:21 PM,
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Extreme Home Makeover: Pig Sty Edition
A friend of mine, who cleans houses for a living, gave me a gift certificate for one free house cleaning back in July for my birthday. She made me promise that I wouldn't be too shy to cash in on it and that she really loves to clean houses, so it would be a pleasure for her (and then I checked the back of her neck to see if there were any hinges, screws, or tentacles because I was sure at that point that she must be a robot or from another planet or something). Anyway, there weren't any tentacles or anything (that I could see) and I thanked her for her awesome gift!
Her hubby and I write music together on occasion and DH has also been wanting to collaborate with him when it comes to making music on the computer and recording stuff, etc so he was over one evening last week to play with DH's new Pro Tools/MBox thingamahoozit. Our house was a total embarrassing pit of refuse and I joked with him about how I would feel way too awful to have his wife come and clean for me. Then I got a text message from his wife telling me that she would love to come clean for me this Monday or Tuesday if it's okay. I had to giggle. I imagined her husband going home and telling her, "Honey, you have GOT to get over there. They need help. BAD!" Okay, I don't really know if he did that. Probably not. But I thought it was amusing that she texted me like 2 days after he had seen our vile house.
So, we made a date for her to come over at 9:30 tomorrow morning. She wants to clean our ENTIRE HOUSE and she is planning to spend the whole day here. I am trying not to spaz out and be one of those people who clean before the cleaning lady comes. I've always thought that was silly and ridiculous, but now I can see why people do it. Not only is someone coming to clean my house, but that someone is my friend and she is doing it for free. I just don't want her to regret ever giving me that gift certificate and then going off and telling everyone what sloppy pigs we are. (not that she would do that, but still)
She wants me to make a list of the things that I want her to focus on the most.
Ummm....how 'bout the filth. That is all.
Scout and I need to make ourselves scarce while my house gets a makeover, and I'm not sure what to do. We are poor, so there aren't a whole lot of options. I don't live in an especially cultured area, so it's not like there are scads of museums and free attractions around here. I foresee that we will end up at the toddler play area at the mall, despite the fact that there are always big kids who exceed the height limit running around like crazed monkeys knocking into the sweet little babies and toddlers. The last time we were there, Scout sat in a puddle of pee in the middle of the big padded donut and I had to buy her some new pants at a nearby store. Yuck.
But it's free.
Labels: friends, gifts, holy crap, household chores
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 8:39 AM,
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How could we?
Sunday, September 21, 2008
I'm more than a little upset about the ongoing disagreement DH and I have over our dog. I want to keep her. He wants to get rid of her. Our dog is seriously one of the best dogs in the world. She practically potty trained herself. The only time she ever has accidents in the house is when she is really sick and can't help it. She is FANTASTIC with Scout. Scout adores her. She is a friendly and affectionate dog, but she also has a ferocious bark and is very protective of her family. Sure, she has taken a backseat since Scout was born, and we really don't spend time with her and play with her like we should, but I still enjoy her companionship and couldn't imagine our home without her.
DH says she is nothing but a liability. She serves no purpose. All she does is cost us money and we don't get anything in return. We spend money on dog food, keeping her up to date on shots, and occasionally getting her groomed. We recently realized that we've both been getting some little bug bites and are suspecting fleas. The groomer saw a few when she was bathed a couple weeks ago, but I think DH has only actually seen one in the house and when I search her white fur, I don't see any at all. Still, we need to take care of it. Anyway, we were discussing what we need to do about said fleas and came across some negative info on flea meds like Frontline and Advantage. We started Googling more natural options and before we got very far in our search, DH threw up his arms and started talking about getting rid of the dog again.....that it's stupid to have to spend money on flea treatments when he doesn't even know why we have a dog.
You know, every single thing he says is factual. No, our dog does not give us any kind of monetary or material compensation. I suppose she is technically "worthless". Yes, sometimes we do have to spend money on her to keep her healthy (although it's not a very frequent occurrence - she's actually pretty low maintenance as far as pets are concerned, in my opinion). Yes, we do struggle financially and so I can see why it can be frustrating to DH on those rare occasions when we do have to shell out a little bit of money on the dog.
But the dog IS worth something to me. I spend a lot of time at home and therefore I spend a lot of time with the dog. She traveled with us out of state when DH was working long periods of time in Denver and Chicago. She has been with us for most of our marriage. I can't just toss her by the wayside. I can't just give her away. I know that she is not a human being, but in my mind she is a part of our family and I DO NOT WANT TO GET RID OF HER. I am frankly sick of hearing about how stupid it is for us to have her and how it only makes sense to get rid of her. I am tired of it. I will freakin' find a way to make some extra money in order to pay for her expenses if that's what it takes to end this debate. Some way, somehow. Heck, I will ask my parents for money and tell them that it's the only way I will be able to keep my dog.
DH and I don't have disagreements about things very often. I am telling the truth when I say that we fight and bicker a billion times less than most couples I know. But this topic seems to be a sore subject for the both of us and it just keeps popping up. I hate to say it, but there have been times when I've actually thought that he might take her somewhere or do something with her without my knowledge while I'm not looking. Oh gosh, I hope I'm way off-base with that idea.
Labels: being sappy, dh, sadness, the dog
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 7:46 AM,
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Stuck on you
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Scout has become pretty clingy when around large groups of people. I can't say that I blame her. It would be very intimidating to be a tiny person with limited communication skills among a throng of loud strangers. This has been making our regular duties at church a little difficult lately. Scout used to let me hand her over to Pretend Grandma or any of the other sweet doting-grandma-type ladies at church when both DH and I need to be up on the platform with the band. Not so much anymore. It's Scream Fest '08 if I even WALK toward someone she knows used to watch her during the song service. Last Sunday she started pouting her bottom lip and tears began to well up in her eyes the moment we stepped into the sanctuary. I felt so bad for her. I'm very thankful that the leader of the praise and worship team doesn't mind me holding her while I sing. Although, I admit that I can see how having someone holding a toddler on stage during the song service could be a bit distracting to the worshipers and I wouldn't at all be offended if I was asked not to do that anymore. At that point, I would tell the leader of the band that I can't come up on the stage to sing until I get her calmed down and settled in with whomever is watching her. He would definitely understand, but we are already a little short on singers, so my presence is MUCH appreciated. There have been times when I have handed Scout over to a friend right before the song service even though she was screaming bloody murder. Everyone says that once I am out of her sight and she is outside watching the big kids play or in the nursery playing with the toys, the tears dry up and she is her old chipper self again. She ends up enjoying herself much more than if she would've stayed Velcroed (is that a word?) to my neck. My mommy instincts seem to always tell me when it's NOT okay to hand her over and let her cry. Sometimes I just feel like she needs me. But honestly, sometimes I hand her over while she's crying and I don't have any reservations doing it - like I just know when she's going to be fine once she's distracted and can't see me anymore.
So, what do you think? Do you think it is cruel to make her go through that initial bout of crying and being upset even though she usually does fine once she's away from me? Most of the people at my church are in the "She's gotta learn to be without mommy /let her cry" camp. I have some other friends who are in the "never do anything to make a child upset / you must always respect the child's feelings" camp.
I see the benefit and need for both approaches. I'd say that I'm somewhere in the middle of the two camps. (I know that some of you are probably gasping in horror right now) I feel like I am very tuned in to what Scout needs. I do my absolute best to try and understand what's going on in that little brain of hers and I make it my job to help her understand what's going on in this crazy big world around her. I do try to be sensitive to her feelings and know that her emotions are very really and shouldn't be ignored or belittled.
My blood boils (okay, well maybe it doesn't boil - it just kinda simmers) when a well-meaning friend jokingly says "Aww - suck it up and quit your cryin'" or "That sounds totally fake. We're onto you!" to Scout when she is upset. I know they're just poking fun and kidding around, but I also think that deep down they really believe what they're saying and that makes me mad. How would THEY like it if they were obviously upset and crying about something and I went up to them and told them to suck it up or that they're faking it - even jokingly?
And the flipside? While I firmly believe that children are people too and we need to respect their feelings, sometimes I think it is necessary to do things as parents that might not make our children especially happy. Because we're their parents and we have life experience and knowledge that they don't possess. It's so tough sometimes to find a balance....to be gentle and somewhat accommodating, while also trying to give boundaries and making the tough decisions
This is a stupid example but it comes to mind first because it is an issue I deal with daily here in the Unkempt Family household. Scout will eat an infinite amount of raisins and prunes if I let her. I'm sure she would keep eating them until she was doubled over with the monster of all belly-aches and diarrhea that is too explosive for any diaper on this earth to contain. It's my job as her mommy to cut her off when I feel like she's had her limit. Does she get the most heartbroken look on her face which is followed with a meltdown of epic proportions when I stop tossing fistfuls of dried fruit into her snack bowl and then try to explain to her that she can have some more later? Yes. But it must be done.
Maybe comparing her love affair with raisins with her desire to become my own human necklace on Sunday mornings is a little silly - but maybe it isn't. I swear, sometimes she screams harder when the raisins are gone than she does when I walk up on the stage and pick up my microphone.
Labels: controversial topics, pretend grandma, tough parenting decisions
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 7:43 AM,
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17 Months
Friday, September 19, 2008
I always forget to do birthday posts for Scout, but for some reason, I remembered that she is 17 months old today. This is at such a fun and exciting (yet somewhat challenging) age! In the last few weeks she has learned so many new words:
Glasses - "slassy"
Raining - "mingning"
Doggy - she says this one perfectly now - it used to just be "Dah!"
Truck - "cock" (tee hee :)
Outside - "side"
Socks - "soss"
Eat - another one she says perfectly.
Keys - sounds alot like "cheese"
Pee-U - "pay-oh!"
I see you - sounds a lot like "see ya"
Owl - "ow"
Toes - "towel"
Nose - "no"
No-no - "now-now"
Bug - "bope"
Words already in her vocabulary were: mommy, daddy, home, nigh-night, hi, bye-bye, baby, cheese, peepee, potty (pronounced "pah-pah"), cereal, hat, ball, hot, see ya, mouth, and eye
She does repeat words/sounds sometimes without knowing the meaning and then she'll never say it again, so I don't count those words. When I read the Dr. Seuss book Hop on Pop to her, she repeats me when I say "hop", "pop", "pup", and "up"...but otherwise, she doesn't say those words on her own.
She puts a few words together, like: "Daddy home?", "Daddy bye-bye?" and "Bad dog!"
She's still signing, but we haven't taught her any new signs lately...I suppose just out of laziness. She knows: potty, eat, drink, more, bath, diaper change, cereal, daddy, (never does the sign for mommy for some reason), nurse, milk, water, ball, and play.
Scout's been having some pretty horrific tantrums, but I hear that's common around this age. Her fits usually don't last long and most of the time it's fairly easy to distract her from whatever she was screaming about with something else.
She's pretty headstrong and will fight for what she wants...at least when it comes to the things that she shouldn't have and I'm trying to take away from her. Something feels so silly and comical about wrestling a toddler to the ground, trying to pry an open tube of lip gloss from her white-knuckled fist. And yet scenes like that happen around here all the time. It's funny though, when she's playing with other kids she is much more passive and usually won't put up much of a fight if another child tries to take what she is playing with. Go figure.
She can also be very affectionate and sweet. We get hugs and kisses from her all the time (okay, well sometimes we have to coax her) and it melts my heart.
Car rides and errands have become a breeze with her. She was a total car seat hater during the first year of her life, but now she doesn't seem to mind it. She happily rides in the stroller and shopping cart for long periods of time about 80% of the time.
She nurses about 4-5 times in a 24 hour period: when she gets up in the morning, when she goes down for her nap, when she's up from her nap, and when she goes to bed. Sometimes she gets up once (or twice - but that's VERY unusual) in the middle of the night and needs me to nurse her back to sleep.
Something that's been on my mind a lot is how we're going to transition into falling asleep without nursing. I'm not sure when this should happen and how to go about doing it. Today, I was thinking that now might be a good time to take steps in that direction because she carried around a "My Banky" bear (that she had never shown much interest in before) all morning, hugging it and rubbing her face all over it. She kept wanting me to spread it out on her back, then she would say "Nigh-night", and I would rub her back while she batted her sleepy eyes and sighed. I nursed her down for a nap shortly after that while she had her blankie clutched tightly in her fists. If this new found fondness for this blankie continues, I'm wondering if it would be smart for me to take this as an opportunity to transition her from nursing to sleep to snuggling with her blankie.
I am surprised I am even typing those words right now. I have always had a very relaxed attitude toward the idea of weaning and thought that she'd be a lot older before I started tossing around the idea of night-weaning her. I don't want to wean her altogether. But for some reason, I just have it in my mind that we need to start moving towards getting her to sleep without nursing.
That said, if I start trying it and she flips out and is not willing to let her blankie replace nursing while falling asleep, I don't think I could push it. I don't think I could force anything. I want it to be as slow and natural as possible. I guess we'll see.
Anyway, Happy 17 Months to you, my sweet little girl! It's been the best 17 months of my entire life.
Labels: being sappy, breastfeeding, scout talking, sign language, travels
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 7:19 AM,
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Wordless....Thursday?
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Labels: being silly, pics of scout
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 11:00 AM,
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I mean, seriously.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
How on earth do I let things get this bad around here? Trust me - these photos don't even capture a fraction of the disaster that is my house. If I would've taken a picture of the floor, someone would surely turn me over to CPS for letting my poor child crawl and roll around in such filth. My kitchen looks a lot better this morning than it did yesterday when I took these pics, but still. I just hate it when I get so behind on things that it's hard for me to care about the wad of dog hair and cheese cracker remnants over in the corner or about the fact that there's a weird smell coming from my laundry room and I'm pretty sure it's because there have been some wet towels chillin' in the hamper for ages. When things get this bad, it's hard to know where to begin. I know the obvious answer is to get up from this keyboard and start trying to deal with the craziness that is my house right this minute instead of blogging about it, but let's be real.
Scout just went down for her nap and I've been chasing her around all morning. Mommy deserves 20 minutes of down time here and there.
How do you other blogging moms do it? And it's not even like my blog takes up that much time. I have ONE child and an 1800 square foot living space. Should it REALLY be this tough to keep up on regular day to day chores? I'm pretty sure I've posted about this before. Please excuse the redundancy. I'm just still at a loss. Does it get better when they aren't toddlers anymore and they are a little less destructive? I swear, I can be folding laundry while trying to keep Scout entertained and then she makes some enormous mess that takes twice as long to clean up as it did for me to fold the laundry. So I guess I'm just better off if I NEVER do any chores while she's awake because the aftermath is simply not worth it.
Labels: doh, general complaining, household chores, my house
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 9:11 AM,
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House Arrest
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Scout's nap schedule keeps me confined to the house some days, which can be a little frustrating. Depending on what time she gets up, she has been taking her nap from about 1-3 PM. Yesterday, it was actually an hour later than that. We live about 30-40 minutes from every place worth going to so running errands in "town" is never just a quick trip. Sure, we have a couple of mom 'n pop burger joints, a coffee shop, and a small grocery store where everything is overpriced, but one can only frequent those places so many times before it gets old.
If I go into town sometime in the the morning before Scout's nap, she almost always falls asleep during the drive home which ensures that she will NOT take her regularly scheduled nap once we get home. Depending on how urgent my errands are, I usually opt to stay home (or at least close to home) until after Scout's nap because I am too selfish to give up that 1.5 - 2 hours of alone time I get when she's sleeping. I normally use that time to clean up the kitchen, fold laundry, or just relax and eat lunch while wasting time on the computer. When I don't get that time, it seems like the rest of the evening is much more stressful. Scout is crankier because she only slept for 30 minutes in the car, so she clings to me and I can hardly get dinner fixed.
So, we end up missing out on some fun things as a result. I know there are some mommy groups and play dates "in town" that usually take place around 10 AM. There is also story time at the library and other activities around the community that I'm sure Scout would enjoy. The parks and playgrounds are nicer and more toddler-friendly than the one trashy graffiti and broken-glass laden one we have here in my podunk town.
We usually spend our mornings around the house, playing and trying to get a few chores done. We go out in the yard and take walks around the neighborhood a lot. Every couple of weeks or so, we meet up with a friend of mine and her 2 year old son to play, which is nice but I'd like to have Scout around other kids more often than that. I think we both get pretty bored sometimes. When I wait until after her nap to drive into town, there is not much time left to do anything. By the time we get there and go into one store, or play for 20 minutes at the park it's time to go home so I can make dinner.
While writing all of this, I realized that I'm the one who needs to be proactive and do something to change this situation instead of whining and belly-aching about it. I should make an effort to get Scout involved in more activities even if it means that I'll have to miss out on some mommy-time some days. Or maybe I could try to organize a play group here in Podunkville.
And then, before I got this post published.....
I spoke with previously mentioned friend on the phone who said that she, her MIL, and a couple other mommies are all going to start meeting up at her gymnastics studio here in my podunk town on Mondays, Wednesdays, and possibly Fridays at 10 AM to do some workout videos while the kids run around and play together. Score.
Which only proves to me that whining does work.
Labels: general complaining, outings, playing
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 8:35 AM,
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My New Cheap Glasses
Monday, September 15, 2008
I know I usually review baby products, but I just had to write my two cents on my new glasses.I went to the eye doctor for the first time in like 4 years a few weeks ago. My lens prescription hadn't changed much, so the the optometrist left it up to me to decide whether or not I wanted to get a new pair of glasses. She knows that we don't have vision insurance so she said it probably wouldn't hurt to keep wearing the ones I have now since they are not too scratched up and are still in decent shape, but getting new lenses would definitely "crisp things up a bit". I tried on a few pairs of frames while at her office, but didn't end up getting any. I was going to think about it.
Then, DH told me about a site called Zenni Optical that sells super cheap prescription glasses. He had just ordered a pair of sunglasses from their site and I thought it would be worth a shot to go ahead and order some glasses for myself. I ordered 2 pairs of glasses and 1 pair of sunglasses all for about $50!!!! Then, I started reading all kinds of negative reviews about the company's poor customer service, people never receiving their orders, etc. I got nervous and wondered if we had just squandered our money away on some cheapo pieces of crap that would either never make it to our house or would have the wrong prescription or something. You know, 'cause it's really smart to google reviews on a company or product AFTER you've already ordered from them.
Well, we were pleasantly surprised. DH got his sunglasses about 2 weeks after he had ordered them. They seemed to be decent quality, the correct prescription, and came with a hard case and a cleaning cloth. I think they cost him about $25 total! (Turns out, they looked completely stupid on him, but that wasn't the company's fault. He was going for the big chunky retro aviator look, but instead got the I-play-Dungeons-and-Dragons-and-I'm-scared-of-girls look) Even though they were the same exact width as his current frames, the lens part just wasn't as big and aviator-y as what he was expecting. Meh.
Mine took about 3 weeks to come in and while they do feel a little cheap and chintzy, they look decent. I mean c'mon, what can one expect for $50 for 3 pairs of prescription glasses!? All in all, I am happy with my purchase, except....
The piece of paper that the optometrist gave me w/ my prescription on it did not include my pupil distance. Instead of being smart and calling our optometrist to find out our pupil distances, DH and I measured our OWN pupil distances. Stupid. So, the pupil distance number I gave Zenni was 4 mm off for 2 of the glasses. BUT the sunglasses ended up having my correct pupil distance because when I was ordering them, a little box kept popping up saying that the pupil distance I entered was too small for the style of frames I had chosen. The lowest pupil distance it would accept was 4 mm larger than the pupil distance I had measured for myself. DH convinced me that it would be okay and wouldn't screw up my vision too much. He had read somewhere that if you have a relatively low prescription (which, I do) the pupil distance can probably be a couple millimeters off with little consequence. I was reluctant, but I did it anyway. How ironic that the sunglasses actually ended up being the only pair that has my correct pupil distance. And they make me look a little like Katie Holmes....or the girl on the cover of Sonic Youth's Goo, take your pick.
I'm wearing the other 2 pairs of glasses around the house today (which are admittedly a little bit Sally Jesse and The Church Lady, respectively) trying to decide if the pupil distance being off by 4 mm is screwing things up. They do feel a little weird to me. Crap! Oh, and I forgot to mention that Zenni did notice that the pupil distance I gave them for the sunglasses was different than the other glasses so they contacted me to make sure that wasn't a typo. Seemed like decent customer service to me.
So, my verdict on Zenni Optical is that they ship when they say they're going to ship and their glasses are super affordable. However, don't expect the same kind of quality you would get from designer frames from your local Optometrist's office. The metal frames DH got do seem to be of higher quality than my plastic frames. I'm actually anxious to see how these frames hold up because they seem like they could break pretty easily. I guess time (and a couple of grabby toddler hands) will tell! Also, make sure to get your pupil distance number from your optometrist instead of trying to measure it yourself like a dang fool.
Labels: product reviews
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 2:54 PM,
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Under Construction
Sunday, September 14, 2008
I'm doing a little renovating around here - please excuse the dust :)
Labels: blog talk
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 3:35 PM,
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Well, I tried.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Today was DH's birthday (well, it technically still IS, but he already went to bed) and I hope he enjoyed it. I wasn't able to do much for him because of our finances, but I still wanted to make him feel special. My efforts to buy him a gift were sort of a bust. This is embarrassing to admit, but I actually went and sold off some of Scout's toys/clothes to get the money to buy him something.Wait, that sounds much worse than it really is. She has a big pile of toys that she doesn't play with anymore and shows absolutely no interest in, so I thought I might be able to turn them into a little cash at a local resale shop. They only ended up buying $14 of my items and that made me very sad. We seriously had NO room in our budget to get DH anything, so I charged the gift on a credit card. I got him Gu1tar Her0 Aer0sm1th for Wii because he had mentioned that he thought it looked fun (not that we're all that hung up on Aerosmith - he just loves anything and everything Gu1tar Her0). I fretted and had buyer's remorse on the way home because I felt like it was a dumb move to use the credit card and I also remembered that DH recently figured out a hack that allows him to play all the Gu1tar Her0 songs on his computer, so the game might not even be useful to him.
Turns out, he seemed surprised and happy that I got him the game instead of irritated for spending money we don't have. I was glad. But then he broke the bad news to me - He couldn't play the game without the guitar controller because we own R0ck B@nd, not Gu1tar Her0 and they are made by different companies, so the guitar controllers are not interchangeable. Doh!
But then he checked the mail and found birthday money from my dad and my sister and decided if he returned the game I got him, he'd have enough money to buy a Midi keyboard. He's been wanting one of those for a while now, so I'm happy he's finally getting one. Who needs a fake guitar when you can have a real instrument, anyway?
I grilled us some steaks, since I knew we wouldn't have the money to go out. The steaks were discounted because they expire tomorrow.
Yeah. That's how I roll.
DH does like rare meat, but the steak I cooked him was freakin' raw. He was a good sport and kept eating it, despite me asking over and over if he wanted me to throw it back on the grill.
I dubbed this cake "Worst Birthday Cake Ever" because it was sugar-free (he recently found out he is glucose intolerant) and decorated with construction paper. I bought an angel food cake sweetened with Splenda from Wally World's bakery, made some cream cheese frosting (I use the word "frosting" loosely because it was only sweetened with a tablespoon of honey) to top it, and then thawed out some frozen raspberries that we've had in the freezer for 2 months. Sounds appetizing, eh? It actually wasn't half bad. We usually don't do fake sugar, but DH has made a few exceptions here and there since finding out that his blood sugar is wacky.
He loved the cake, by the way. I think it was special to him because didn't think he was going to get a birthday cake and because Scout decorated the giant construction paper cut-outs with her very own supreme scribbling skills. Thank you, DH, for liking and appreciating the ghetto cake, the almost-raw steaks, and the un-usable gift!
Happy Birthday, sweetie! I love you!
Labels: birthdays, dh, doh, food, special occasions
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 9:46 PM,
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Jinkies!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
I got my hair cut Monday night for the first time in months and months and I just realized that I look a little like Velma from Scooby-Doo when I have my glasses on. Ha! I just need an orange turtleneck and some brown knee-socks and I could be off solving some mysteries.
Labels: hair, pics of scout
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 8:57 AM,
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Oh, forget it.
Monday, September 08, 2008
This is how DH found Scout this morning when he got up to get ready for work. It's the second time this week we've found her sleeping in her bedroom doorway. I guess she wakes up sometime during the night, opens her door, stands at the gate, and then decides that she's way too tired to get up. She's so tired that she doesn't even make it back to her bed! I always have the baby monitor blaring by my head and we keep our bedroom door open, so I know I would've heard her if she had fussed at the gate. She must not have made any noise at all. It's so cute, I couldn't resist snapping a picture. She is still snoozing away in the same spot as I type this, so I guess the flash must not have bothered her too much!
Labels: baby sleep, pics of scout
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 7:49 AM,
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My New Soccer-Mommobile
Friday, September 05, 2008
We just got a new-to-us van. See how happy it makes me? It's a 2002 T0yot@ S1enna that's in really great condition. It is definitely the nicest vehicle I have ever owned. My MIL bought it for us!!! Seriously. I am soooooo thankful.That said, I am very thankful for all the vehicles I've ever had. My first car (an '88 Chrys1er LeBar0n convertible) was bought for me by my parents when I was 17 years old. It was decent (especially for a first car!), but had a few cosmetic and mechanical issues. I sold it for the money to move across the country to live near my internet boyfriend (who is now my DH) when I was 19. When I got here, I bought a gigantic boat (I think it was a Crown Victoria) for $200. It definitely had its share of problems, but got me from point A to point B for a while. Soon after DH and I got hitched, he bought me a '91 (?) Ford Tempo. It was pretty nice. It only had 40,000 miles on it when we bought it from a 90 year old lady who only drove it back and forth to the post office and doctor appointments. Some idiot smashed the front bumper when it was parked outside our apartment and took off right after we bought it. Then someone else smashed my door with their giant Yuk0n Denali (again, while parked. Ggggrr) and we were poor, so we didn't use the insurance money to fix the door. The power windows and the air conditioning stopped working. Our pastor and his wife felt sorry for us, so they bought us a '94 F0rd Tauru5 super cheap at an auction back in 2004. It wasn't very pretty cosmetically, but ran great and had ice cold A/C (for a while, anyway). Because it already looked kind of junky, we decided to trick it out by adding flame decals, plastic spinner wheel covers, tassels along the front and back windshields, and white fur on the ceiling. It was mainly just a funny ha-ha joke type thing to do and I liked it for a while, but eventually grew tired of riding around town looking like a dang fool. That's the vehicle I've been driving for the last few years. I recently took down the tassels and tore off the decals. All the plastic spinners fell off or broke. The whole back end is covered in some sort of mystery tar/paint and was like that when we got it. Junky. I'm kind of embarrassed to drive it around, especially if I am meeting someone new or going someplace where I want to make a good impression. It looks like trash. Again, don't get me wrong - I am thankful to have it. It's not too often that people just give away vehicles! Oh wait, that's actually happened to us 3 times now! DH's sister gave us their early-90's Buick a few months ago because she and her hubby don't drive anymore. And though I am so thankful (DH's truck has no A/C, so it has been nice for him to drive this Summer), it does have some mechanical problems and somehow water is constantly soaking the floorboards (from the heater core?) and the whole car reeks of mold and mildew. Yuck.
So, yeah.....
At this point, a 2002 T0yota van that looks practically like it was just driven off the showroom floor might as well be a Rolls Royce to us! But I'm thinking it might look even better with some tassels and flame decals....maybe some ground effects and hydraulics. What do you think?
BTW, Scout rode foward-facing in her car seat on our maiden voyage, but I have since turned her car seat back to rear-facing like it was in my car. I just decided that I am not comfortable with her riding forward-facing yet even though she meets the minimum age/weight requirements to be forward-facing. Most of my friends and family think I am being ridiculously paranoid by keeping her rear-facing, but I still have this nagging voice in my head that is telling me not to install her seat facing the front. Keeping a toddler rear-facing in their seat for as long as possible (most convertible car seats have a rear-facing weight limit of 30-35 lbs) is the safest thing to do. It is much better on the neck and spine to be rear-facing if involved in a collision.
Labels: car seats, family, my car, safety, the van
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 9:00 AM,
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Stand in the Place Where You Live
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Scout loves to stand.
She loves to stand up in the bath tub. in fact, she refuses to sit down in the tub for some weird reason.
She loves to stand when she pees. She will gladly go sit on her little potty, but never pees a drop....and then will get up 2 seconds later and stand in the middle of the room and pee on the carpet. She has also done the same thing with poop. Uuugh.
She loves to stand when she eats.
(Please excuse the colorful drawings all over her and her lovely greasy hair. We didn't leave the house yesterday, so we had fun being delightfully messy slobs. In fact, 5 minutes after I took this picture, she purposefully took a glop of yogurt and smeared it in her hair and all over her belly. But hey, that's what being a toddler is all about, right?)
I guess she is just way too busy to sit down.
Labels: bath time, food, pics of scout, potty talk
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 10:00 PM,
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Congrats!!!
I just want to say a big congratulations to my girl Danielle over at Gladiator's Mommy! I have not been so great about keeping up with reading blogs, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw her pregnancy ticker over on her sidebar while I was commenting on her bum Crockpot this morning. LOL :) Woohoo! She's got a really neat blog about her homesteading life. All the different things she can do amazes me. The woman makes cheese, for cryin' out loud. I love cheese.
Labels: blog friends, blog talk, congratulations
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 8:59 PM,
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Labor Me-Me
I stole this from Harmony in Motion. Leave me a comment and let me know if you decide to tag yourself. I'd love to read your labor me-me!
*****
How long was your labor?
15 hours: from about noon until 3:13 AM
How did you know you were in labor?
I had a big cramp that felt like a period cramp times ten, went to the bathroom and saw some blood. Went to the bathroom again and took a gigantic crap. My body was obviously getting prepared by clearing things out for the big event.
Where did you deliver?
At the hospital across the street from the birth center where I started out. I labored at the birth center from 5 pm until 11 PM, but then transferred to the hospital because I got dehydrated and exhausted from pushing (I dilated to 10 fairly early, but Scout's head would not descend). I kept puking up everything I would drink, unfortunately. Licensed midwives in my state cannot administer IVs, so I had to go to the hospital for fluids. Dang it.
Drugs?
Nope. Just some stool softeners afterward to make my first poop after labor less scary :)
C-section?
Nope. I believe that any other doctor would've pressured me into a c-section due to the several hours of exhausted pushing without the baby's head descending. But the doctor I had used to be a midwife and is very dedicated to natural childbirth whenever possible. She said as long as the baby's heart rate was okay, I could keep trying for a vaginal birth. Let me tell ya, though.... I was BEGGING to be cut open toward the end.
Who delivered?
A doctor who has since gotten in trouble for secretly performing a tubal ligation on a woman while she was on the table for c-section, apparently because she thought the woman's life could be in danger if she ever got pregnant again. How horrible is that? I'm not sure how the woman found out, but I would be so angry and devastated if I found out I was sterilized without my knowledge because some doctor thought it was best. Seriously. Uh....hello? Informed consent, anyone? It really surprised me because I thought she was such a great doctor.
Labels: me-me
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 9:59 AM,
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The Most Important Milestone of All
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Don't worry, she didn't have a whole doughnut by herself and she ate decently healthy throughout the rest of the day. I swear that I don't let her eat junk like this all the time. But Krispie Kreme? How could I deprive her of that? I'm pretty sure the clouds in heaven taste just like an Original Glazed.
Labels: firsts, food, pics of scout
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 8:24 AM,
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Mrs. Thrifty
Monday, September 01, 2008
I am currently obsessed with buying used things for Scout. I feel so proud of myself when I come home with 2 toys, a grocery sack full of clothes, and a pair of shoes all for $10. No joke. There is a thrift shop a few blocks from my house that periodically has "$2.00 Sack Sales". You can cram whatever you want into a plastic grocery sack to the point of overflowing and only pay $2.00 for it! I have even picked up articles of clothing for Scout that might have a small stain but are in otherwise perfect condition, because most of the time I can get the stains out. The sack sale never includes shoes, but that doesn't really matter. All of their shoes are only $2.00 a pair. What a deal! Sure, there are a lot of beyond-crummy worn out shoes that should have already found their way into the trash years ago, but there are some real jewels too. I found a pair of 7.5 M Stride Rite sneakers that I'm hoping Scout will be able to fit into someday (she's currently in wide width, so she may not) that look almost perfect and came in their original box. Those suckers are $48 brand new. I'm getting a shopper's high just thinking about it. I guess I feel like I'm "sticking it to the man" or something. There's also a sense of pride that comes from saving used items from the landfill and giving them a new home where they can be useful again. But mainly, it's just that "sticking it to the man" feeling I like.I also bought a Fisher Price Incrediblock including 10 Peek-a-Blocks for $15. I have been watching them go on eBay for much more than that and the shipping by itself is usually $20! Scout already had about 20 Peek-a-Blocks (another thrift store find!), so I thought it would be fun for her to combine them all in one big activity cube. Well, I've been having fun playing with it, but Scout only seems mildly interested. Doesn't she know what a fantastic deal I got on it?? Sheesh.
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 8:00 PM,
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