Arts and Crap

The time had come to organize the closet under the stairs, and the art cabinets. My family has become the default to absorb all our friends' and family's "retail therapy".

An example: Every year, Walmart drops the price of their backpacks to $1 a couple weeks after school starts (they put Back-to-School stuff out in July, so I assume this price drop is to make room for Christmas merchandise). At only $1, that price is too good for all our friends and family to pass up, so they buy several styles and colors. When I say, "We don't really need backpacks, though..." they say, "It was only a dollar. And you never know when one will come in handy!"

So I take them home and put them in the big bag under the stairs, with the ones from last year, and the year before...

The kids treat them as disposable. If they are too lazy to unpack their backpack, they just grab another one from the closet. Weeks and months later, I open up 20 backpacks and sort through dirty clothes, rotted food, and find the missing mp3 player, the retainer, the lost homework, the library book we already paid for in fines...

Expand this idea for marked-down Easter decorations, 'extra' Christmas trees, coloring books, diaper bags (my 'baby' is ten!), craft supplies, beads, fingerpaint, fabric, t-shirts, party supplies, placemats, artificial houseplants, pillow stuffing, plaster, quilt batting... and various "mostly finished" projects that people think I have the copious free time to complete.

"You never know... a long winter night, by the fire, you might need a little project like this latch-hook rug to pass the time. I already got all the black done on it."

Long winter night? By the fire? Do I look like Caroline Ingalls?!

Closet under the stairs, Before

Art table, Before

Along the way, I discovered...

Glitter really is the STD of arts & crafts; it gets on everything, it never goes away, it spreads to everything you touch and it's very hard to get rid of. You can tell everywhere you've been in the room after touching it just once. And everybody has a random, because it's even on my Q-tips and toothbrush.

Anyone who gives a mom with five kids a 5lb bag of beads has no soul.

Pom-poms breed in dark corners. With pipe cleaners. They make baby felt squares.

It was suggested that I have a give-away table at my next social event. It's risky. Folks might recognize their stuff. They'd be all, "Hey! You can't give this away! I dumped this crap on you out of the kindness of my heart!"

So, for now I'm sorting into piles, and burying stuff deep when no one is looking.

Closet under the stairs, After

Closet under the stairs, After

Art table, After

Art Room, After

Art supplies, After

A Birth Told in Statuses

Without naming the facebooker who posted these, I'd like to tell the familiar tale of birth in the US:

June 28- I don't have my non stress test until Thursday, but anytime I've had monitors thus far they say he looks beautiful and is a happy baby! Lol.

June 29- Ultrasound Biophysical Profile- I was surprised they did the 3D but it was awesome :) trying to decide who he looks like. Haha.

Apparently they had my due date wrong...new due date? July 8th. It was July 17th or 18th.

July 1- They changed it again yesterday. They're getting on my nerves, it's back to the 17th. maybe he will decide to be early anyway. I'm not dilated any yet though. :(

‎2 more weeks!

July 4- Coming to (hometown) to wait for the baby.

July 5- 7:03am- That's the plan, unless they wanna induce me or do a c section.

1:57pm- protein +1, BP 140/88...

4:21pm- They told me I had a contraction...lol, 38 and 3 days

5:56pm- Anyone wanna roll me down a hill...or let me borrow a trampoline...?

6:09pm- Protein was higher than normal. BP was up. They did a biophysical profile and said my fluid is 'on the low end of normal.' Sent me to the hospital to tell me everything is ok. They are wasting our time. They tell me how emergent it is, and yet, when I go to the hospital absolutely nothing is done. I'm irritated and ready to have this over with.

9:27pm- There's not much I can do at this point but go home to (hometown) and hope I go into labor. A week and four days. At this point though I will try anythinggggggggg. I'm ready for this kid to be OUT!

July 6 - Get to go to the doctor on Monday to talk about possible induction. Maybe we are getting somewhere?

July 7- Okay, little "practice" contractions. Get stuff moving, so this kid can come out.

July 7- Apparently it (birthing ball) helps bring on labor too. I wish I had one. :(

July 8- We'll find out Monday if I can pop him out sooner!

July 10- Plan for today: Find motivation. Go bounce on exercise ball at gym, and walk on treadmill.

July 10- bounce, bounce, bounce... Evidently it's a possibility it could help towards labor? So i'm bouncing on an exercise ball. Lol.

39 weeks today. ... Bouncing didn't help. Got one heck of a headache and feel like crap though...yaaaayyyyyyy.

July 10- Appointment tomorrow at 2:30, finding out about possible induction then.

July 11- Gonna be induced. Just waiting for the phone call to find out what time/day!... Oh man. Scheduled for tomorrow at 9pm.

July 11- Bed, then just waiting around tomorrow!

July 12- You know...I intended to be sleeping a lot today...but wake up at 6? :/ Hopefully I manage a nap before this evening? Haha... Plan: nap, get little stuff together, shower, dinner, then off to the hospital.

July 12- Getting ripening agents, probably won't have too much going on until morning. I don't get food. Just ice chips. :( ♥... Waiting for baby to arrive!

July 13, 2:28am- Evidently not much progress yet, but the contractions are certainly keeping me awake.

3:47am- Nubain...thank you.

6:11am- Getting pitocin now, epidural soon, they said he should be here by this afternoon!

9:07am- Epidurals are gifts from god.

12:10pm- Just had my water broke, hopefully things will speed up!

6:00pm- I'm 4cm 100% effaced last they checked

8:50pm- ‎24 hours later...still no baby. Just exhausted and mad.

9:40pm- Probably going to need a c section. :/

12:45am- Baby born July 13th, 2011 7 pounds 4 ounces.

July 14- Really sore from surgery...got to stand up for the first time. Enjoying time with the little one though. ♥

July 15- We are doing ok they took my bandages off so i'm in more pain today than yesterday. Baby went to the nursery for testing and measurements. They gave me a binder...it helps a lot...Waiting for the doctors to bring Baby back, get to go home tomorrow morning. :) ...He has been going to the nursery for a few hours each night since its kinda hard for me to get outta bed.

9pm- Gonna try to get some rest soon. Getting discharged tomorrow morning. :)

July 16- Waiting to be discharged from the hospital, then taking the little one home to (hometown).

July 16- We are home.

Appalachian Tommyknockers

The Tommyknockers was written in 1987 by Stephen King. In the story, Bobbi Anderson stumbles while walking through the woods. When she looks to see what caused her fall, she finds a metal object, like a rim of a large barrel. She touches it and it 'hums' with a sort of energy that possesses her to unearth the entire thing. It turns out to be a spaceship that sends out the "energy" and takes over the entire town.

Ron was mowing a few summers ago, and the blades would hit something metal "tinggg!" on this one pass. He finally decided to dig the object out of the ground.

"Guess what it was!" he called out.

"A spaceship!" I answered.

"Uh, no. A dryer."

"A clothes dryer?" I asked, in disbelief.

"And a typewriter!" he added.

You see, in WV, people will just push their old appliances off the porches of their mobile homes into the ravine below. Your own private landfill was just a dryer-push away! In fact, that's why it's so hazardous to run off the narrow twisty roads and into the creek or down the embankment; not the wreck itself, but the real danger of a kenmore coming through the windshield at you.

But wait- there's more!

Many moons later, he was back at it. This time, I joined in, using the van to help with the extractions.

My point of view from the driver's seat.

I caught one!

"This one has a hornets nest in it." (bang- bang with the shovel) "Oh, don't worry; they settle back down."

Trailer full of metal pulled out so far.

Water break.

We pulled out a stove...

In the foreground, a dishwasher, and still hooked to the chain- a fridge.

Most men in WV pose next to deer.

This poor guy was rudely evicted.

Never in my life would I have believed Ron would help his daughter catch a snake, but he did and she was very excited.

I wonder what we'll dig up next?

Random Pics on My Camera

Teen girls destroy furniture not by wrestling on it.


Hair dye and toothpaste oozing out onto my leather sofa.


Camp Crap- This is just one kid's stuff. I still have two more kids' stuff to load up!


Harris and Tess caught a snake.



Tess digging a hole to plant the rhododendron.


Planted!


Past his bedtime.


Obstacle course at a birthday party


When the cat is away, upstairs, cleaning the kitchen...
The worst thing is that glass door leads to my bedroom, and I really had to pee.


It's a hard life, spending my days by the pool.


Pax, our 6th cat. She's very shy. Only Harris can catch her.


Someone spilled poppy seeds on the door of the fridge, and they sprouted!