My Crafting Addiction

I love to craft, even though I'm really not that good at it. I've found, however, that having a 1 year old to intrude upon everything I do makes crafting difficult.

Fortunately, I found something I can easily put down and hide from her as the need arises: Crochet.

My mom started teaching me to crochet many, many years ago. I walked away from it and forgot about it, only randomly picking it back up to get busy again with other things. I've recently picked it back up again and have managed to actually finish a few projects!

So far, I've made Addy a hat and a matching scarf, and I made an adult hat for my friend Jimmy complete with a puff ball on top. Now I'm working on learning how to make slippers/socks and snowflakes.

I've decided that I really like this new hobby, and since my projects are starting to look like what they're supposed to be, I'm going to start getting adventurous with it. Who knows, I might get good enough to make hats & mittens to donate to charities to help keep people warm. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

My Weird Addiction

I'm addicted to Degrassi. I admit it. From Degrassi Junior High all the way to the currently running Degrassi: The Next Generation. It's ridiculous, I know, but it's my guilty pleasure in the world of melodrama.

A few years ago, the tagline for D:NG was "Degrassi. It goes there." Since I've been sick with a sick kid, I've been watching a lot of the whole saga recently, and I've noticed a few random patterns than any hardcore nutjob like me would know, but that I feel like putting out there. So, for your amusement, my list of completely random Degrassi trivia! (And some opinions).

In all of Degrassi, there has only been one suicide. 

Claude Tanner committed suicide in the Degrassi High bathroom back in the episode "Showtime." Snake found him.

There have been 2 abortions, 2 babies kept, and 2 put up for adoption. 

 We all know that Christine "Spike" Nelson was the first Degrassi pregnancy, and she kept Emma, after all, despite a slight fudging of the timeline, Emma is a big part of Degrassi: The Next Generation. The second Degrassi pregnancy was Erica Farrell, also on the original series. The difference here is that Erica had an abortion. Also, if you want to truly appreciate modern pregnancy tests, check out the complicated contraption Erica has to use (and wait 3 hours) to find out she's knocked up. Degrassi pregnancy number 3 is also the 2nd abortion: that of everyone's favorite school slut (hehe) Manny Santos. An impulsive night with someone else's boyfriend led little Miss Santos to the clinic. Pregnancy 4: the first adoption. Liberty Van Zant, the last girl you'd expect to wind up pregnant, does. After much drama, her son is adopted and ultimately moves to Seattle. Pregnancy number 5, only sorta counts as we didn't know about it until after the fact. Lakehurst transfer Mia Jones has a beautiful little girl named Isabella that allowed the show to prove just how tricky teen motherhood can be, as with Spike a generation before. Pregnancy #6 is the one that pisses me off, and I blame the fact that I watched those episodes when I was pregnant/had a newborn of my own. Jenna Middleton, of the latest group of Degrassi kids, gets pregnant, denies it until she's nearly 6 months along, has the baby, and then gives him up several months later because she just couldn't hack it. I get it, she did what was best for the baby, but hormonal, sleep-deprived, newborn having me was not amused. I still kinda hate Jenna.

There has been exactly one accidental death.

The most infamous Degrassi death is the only accidental one: that of school shooter-slash-everyone's favorite punching bag: Rick Murray. A struggle for the gun left Sean convinced he'd pissed himself. Turns out Rick's gun discharged into Rick's gut.

There has only been one major car accident. 
Sure, JT wrecked the bus stop when Liberty said she was pregnant, and Sean hit that guy during a street race. Heck, even most recently Ali fell asleep at the wheel and hit a parked car. None of those come close to the supremely heart-stopping moment that defined the end of the Degrassi High series. Drunk off his ass, sweet guy turned screw up Wheels went for a drive. OK, so he and Lucy were on a snack run for the party at the lake house, but still, he was DRINKING AND DRIVING. Sure enough, they wreck. Wheels, naturally, gets only a scratch. Lucy was paralyzed and *drum roll* the little kid in the other car DIED. Yes, a main Degrassi character directly caused the death of someone. Wheels served 10 years in prison for that one, and made one appearance on D:NG when Snake had cancer.

**EDIT: It can be argued that the car accident that killed Wheels' parents is a major accident, but as we never see it and had relatively little knowledge of them before the accident happened, I'm not counting it.

There has only been one murder.Next Generation fans were beyond pissed over the craptacular way the writers decided to bring drama into season 6. They killed JT Yorke, resident comedian, by stabbing him in the back. Seriously, were the classes of 06 & 07 all just doomed?



2 Characters have done jail time.


Derek "Wheels" Wheeler and Sean Cameron. Oddly enough, both for hitting people with cars. Wheels killed a kid in a drunk driving accident and served 10 years. Sean was run off the road during a street race and hit a jogger, who as far as we all know survived. Sean served several months then received two years of probation.

Toby Isaacs is the most tragic character ever.

This one is Gospel Truth in my fandom. Think about it. He has a self-absorbed "career woman" type mother who is rarely around (although he does have a pretty cool step-mom), and, get this, his best friend is killed TWICE. First, Toby had become close to school outcast Rick Murray. If you've been following this rant, you know Rick was the school shooter responsible for Jimmy Brooks being in a wheelchair. Rick died. Fast forward a couple of years and what happens? His best friend since elementary school summer camps, JT Yorke, gets stabbed in the back and killed. WTF, Degrassi? Can't you cut a cute nerd some slack? I like to think Toby came into his own in college and is starting his own engineering firm.

Just an opinion here: I can't take Drake, the rapper, seriously.
I'm sure Aubrey Graham (AKA rapper Drake) feared this just a little bit when launching his music career. I can't take him seriously as a rapper. Every time I hear him, I think of this: (apologize for the quality, it's all I could find!)

5 Months

This past Sunday marked Addy being 5 months old. I can't help but wonder where the heck the time is going!

Quite a few of my mommy friends have been talking about sleep training. I just have to say I have been blessed with a kid who sleeps through the night and has since VERY early on; she may go on nap strikes which drive me insane, but she will still sleep at night. I count my blessings on that one.

At 4 months I got clearance to start her on Vitamin D enhanced rice cereal and then to slowly add in stage 1 fruits and veggies. Well, I finally got around to starting veggies. Sweet potatoes were well received, but the kid went ape over peas. Yes, peas. I have no idea where this child came from considering Nate absolutely hates peas, as I only tolerate them when mixed in with other things.

As most people know, I'm what is known as an "exclusive pumper." It means Addy gets breastmilk from a bottle due to complications with getting it straight from the source. It's very discouraging to be attached to a frigging pump so often, so I've been setting myself little goals. At first I said 8 weeks, then 3 months, then 6 months. So far, I've made it 5. She's taking to foods extremely well, so if I make it to six, I think I'll go for 9. My ultimate goal it to make it one year, wean myself from the pump, use up the freezer stash, and start transitioning her to cow's milk. So far she shows no intolerance, so it should be very reasonable.

I was getting nervous since at almost four months old she was showing no signs of rolling over. I should know better than to doubt her. Out of the blue she started rolling from back to front, and then within a week was rolling front to back. Now she rolls across the living room floor to get things she wants.

Our most recent skill has been sitting up. She can't push herself up from the floor yet (but oh how she tries!) but if I sit her down, she will stay there playing with toys and reaching for them. According to the literature, she's actually on the early end of this skill, so I'm thrilled. My 5 month old is ahead of the curve :-D

Still no teeth, although the little miss is obviously teething. Boo to cranky baby with nothing to show for it yet. I can see little white spots where those two bottom teeth will ultimately be, so it's just a matter of time. It could be days or still a couple of months.

Now, because I can, here are a couple of pictures of my punk:

Walk MS!

Just a reminder- help me raise money to fight MS!

Projects

I've decided to take a few ideas I found on Pinterest and combine them with my own idea to create a nifty (I hope) craft project. I'm about halfway done with it, and when I finish it I'm going to blog it. Right now I'm kinda stuck because I'm not nearly as creative with words as I thought I was; as least, not in this respect.

But yet. Once I finish it I will share it. I'm not sharing it yet for the simple fact that it is a gift and I don't want the person figuring it out.

My kid is freaking weird.

That picture was taken a little over a week ago. That was the first time she'd fallen asleep mid-bounce.

Now, however, as she spends more and more time in that jumparoo, it's happened at least 3 more times. She'll throw a fit until you put her in it, and she will bounce herself to exhaustion and fall asleep mid-bounce. Normally I just scoop her out of it and put her in her bouncy seat or on the floor for a nap and it works out.

Today, however, she threw a huge fit when I pulled her out. So I put her back in, she bounced a couple of times and fell back asleep. Yes, I let my child take a nap in the jumparoo. She was only out about 10 minutes, and after that was a heck of a lot more pleasant.

So, I guess I'm a bad mommy, but at this point she's teething and showing signs of needing to start on real food, so I'm one tired momma. I'll take her napping for 10 minutes any way I can get it.

It's funny how things change sometimes

February 15th came and went this year, and I managed to not burst into tears at all for the first time in 8 years.

Feb. 15, 2004. The start of the crappy things that happened in 2004. Long story short: there was a bunch of drama, a huge fight/gunfight broke out. At the end, 1 was dead and 2 were hospitalized. By 8:30am a second man, Mike Jessie, had died. Mike was a good friend of the family. What they had originally thought was a bullet wound to his head turned out to be trauma. He was beaten to death. A 3rd man was so severely brain damaged that he will live out his life in assisted living facilities. I haven't seen him but once since that night.

Usually, I would think about that and cry a bit. This year, I had something good distracting me. My beautiful daughter was 3 months old that day. I wrapped myself up in taking care of her, and I didn't even fully realize the significance of the day until the day was nearly over.

I think Mike would've loved to see my little redhead. Hell, he's even missed out on his own grandchildren.

I think, at this point, it's wrapping my mind around the fact that it's been 8 years since that happened. Which means in June it'll be 8 years since the AEP truck hit my Intrepid, 8 years since I graduated from high school, and 8 years since my parents' nasty car accident. Man, 2004 pretty much sucked.

Slightly more positive: this past week/weekend marked 4 years that Nate & I have been together. Yay!

Super Easy Spinach Dip

So, for quite a while I've made this really awesome spinach dip. It's always a big hit, and until now all I've said about making it is how easy it is to make. I love to cook, but when I can slap something together that is super tasty very easily, it's a double win for me. Lazy & delicious, yes please!

Anyhow, I've been promising to share this one for quite a while, and with the Super Bowl tonight, I figured now was as good a time as any. So, finally, here is how to make my Super Easy Spinach Dip.

 This is it. All you need. 4 ingredients. Told you it was easy.

Thaw & drain the spinach. Make sure you get all the water out, otherwise your dip will get runny.

Put the mayo in a bowl.

Then add the sour cream.

Toss in the onion soup mix.

Give it a good mix. You can stop here and have a good onion dip, but I can't handle that.

Pile in the spinach.

Mix the ever loving daylights out of it. Mix it until every tiny piece of spinach is coated in that pretty beige mixture. Then mix it some more. Cover it, toss it in the fridge.

You can use it right away, but I've found that it's better if you can let it sit in the fridge for at least a couple of hours. I like to try to do mine overnight, which is a huge feat considering I just want to dive in and eat it right away. Put some wheat thins with it, or make something. I was going to make pita bread but I was far too lazy for that...especially when triscuits were on sale at Meijer. Here's the recipe for a standard batch; I made a double batch in the pictures.

1 box (10oz) frozen spinach
1 packet dry onion soup mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayo

Thaw & drain spinach thoroughly. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Cover & refrigerate before serving.

Walk MS!

Every year I do the MS Walk. It started out as me doing it in support of one of my dear friends, whose mom has MS.

Now, one of my dear friends has MS. Even if I didn't have a personal connection, I believe it's extremely important to research this disease. It may not be as common as others, but it is still debilitating. So, here I am with my annual plea:

Help me raise money to fight MS! If you'd rather donate cash than online, hit me up and we'll make arrangements.

Zoloft while Pregnant

So a major disadvantage to being home all day and being me, my TV is almost always on. I need background noise even if I'm not actually watching it. Recently I've been popping in a random DVD and letting it roll.

Some days, I just leave the TV on, and I have learned quite a bit about advertising. Example: The "bad drug" lawsuit commercials only air before 4pm. I've never seen one after that. I suspect it's because the people who would want to sue based on a TV commercial are home on disability.

Two of them really bother me, though. The first is the Zoloft/other antidepressants one. I was on Zoloft my entire pregnancy, and am still on it. Guess what? My daughter is perfectly healthy. No defects. I realize that there are some cases, but my OB found the studies for me and let me read them. We all decided that the risks for my health by quitting my medication were a lot higher than the risk of me continuing it.

But, there were a handful of cases over the past several years as antidepressants have become more common, and until they can conclusively prove that it *isn't* the antidepressants, they have to be cautious. I understand that.

The one that bothers me the absolute most is the Tylenol one. We've know what acetaminophen can do to the liver for generations. There have been warning labels and education about taking medications as directed. People didn't listen, their livers got fried, and now our delightfully litigious society has something new to fear and sue over.

I really despise people who see those commercials and then freak the hell out when they find out that you take that drug or someone you know takes that drug. ALL MEDICATIONS CARRY RISKS. The thing is that you need to be your own advocate and decide with your medical staff what is the best option for you. Knowing I was delivering my daughter at one of top hospitals around with a state-of-the-art NICU at our disposal made the very slight risks presented by my Zoloft seem very minor compared to what would happen with me without it.

I'm not trying to dismiss the fact that some drugs carry heavier risks than what are acceptable in average situations. I'm not dismissing those people who are genuine victims of medical malpractice. What I'm saying is that we all need to be responsible for our own health and work WITH our heathcare teams to make sure we are making smart decisions.

Adelle: A mini-timeline

Ultrasound at 20 weeks pregnant.

My Adelle at just a few hours old.

One month old, starting to show some attitude :-)

2 months old! Where the heck is the time going?! I also love that I got nearly the same expression out of her as in her 1 month photo :-D

If only

If only I had been more mature, I wouldn't be in the financial mess I'm in now.
If only Nate's job payed more, I wouldn't have to work.
If only I could stay home with Addy instead of trying to find a new job since my HR department is screwing me six ways from Sunday.
If only I could just buy a damn house now and be done with it.

Growin'

I can tell Addy is hitting a growth spurt this week. She's sleeping and eating way more than usual.
My kid is already a little beefcake, so I'm kinda hoping this one is a brain spurt instead of a weight spurt.

Good news: I'm going to develop some actual upper body strength thanks to this kid :-D