Moving into the new house

So we are officially moving tomorrow, Friday morning. Earlier tonight (Thursday), I went to the new house to unpack some of the boxes that Austin moved over yesterday and put in the
storage shed.

I read a book where is was apparently a custom in medieval times to perform a sacrifice and place the body under the hearthstone. Horrible, right? Well, times have changed but I still found a was to give a blood sacrifice.

As I was carrying a stack of dinner plates from the storage shed into the house, I tripped and fell to the concrete outside the shed, landing on top of the plates, which, of course, shattered into a zillion pieces and cut my hand in 4 places. So I panic, and run into the house and try to wash my hand, which is gushing blood, so I call Austin, who is at home putting Amelia to bed, and manage to tell him that I cut myself badly. He's trying to calm me down and figure out how bad I'm hurt. I run to our future bedroom, open a box, and wrap a tshirt around my hand.

I stumble over to the neighbors, and awkwardly introduce myself and ask if they will call security and notify them what happened, because if they drive past an empty house at night, with every light on, see shattered plates outside the door and blood everywhere, they will probably panic. The neighbor wants to take me to the hospital, but I really want to drive myself because I don't want to leave my car there.

So I drive myself to a nearby hospital emergency room. The doctors decide not to do stitches, saying that steri-strips will heal faster and don't involve needles. 10 steri-strips, 3 gauze pads, 1 roll of tape, 1 ruined tshirt, 1 dead cell phone battery and 3 hours later, I'm released, with 2 small cuts and 2 deep, 3/4" cuts. It's so gross. I can't wait to post pictures in a few days when I can take the bandage off!

My new obsession

My friend Thu-Mai reminded me today to update my blog. So here it goes. Thu-Mai is an expert crocheter and convinced me to give it a try. I wanted to make an afghan with different colored squares, and she made me believe that I could actually do it. So last week, while I was working in Virginia, I picked up a "how to" book that came with some crochet hooks. I spent about an hour learning the different stitches before settling on the "afghan" stitch, because I liked the pattern and figured it would make a nice heavy afghan. I bought a few shades of yarn and got started, and have barely stopped. Luckily, I have plenty of time in airports and on planes to work on this. My squares are about 4 inches, so I figured that I would need about 275 of them (figuring in a extra 25 squares for a 10% error rate) to make a big enough afghan for 2 to cuddle under. Each square takes me about 30-40 minutes to finish, and if I do an average of 2 a day, might have the afghan done by late spring. Wish me luck!

And I should add that Thu-Mai needs to update HER blog. Check out Thu-Mai's blog, "Ben short for Ben" in my blogroll.

Fun with Stickers

Since Amelia screams bloody murder whenever I come at her with the safety scissors to trim her bangs, she is left with crooked hair for pictures. I give up.

Austin bought her a Dora the Explorer coloring book that came with stickers. We had a fun time while I decorated her with the stickers and then she peeled them off and threw them on the floor. But if I post the pictures in reverse order, it looks like she is sticking them on herself.

Here's where I would put the Christmas pictures...

...if I had any. Sorry. We kinda skipped Christmas this year. I was traveling for the 2 weeks before Christmas for work, and we're moving in like 2 weeks, so we just kind of postponed it. Oh, enough! Mimi doesn't even know was Christmas is. Well, we thought she didn't, until she saw a gift bag with Santa Claus on it and she yelled "SANTA!" Oops...oh, well. I wonder if we can pull off a Christmas-free Christmas next year too?


Amelia loved the presents from her grandparents. My mom sent some clothes from the exclusive clothing line from Yo Gabba Gabba, a Foofa sweatshirt and a pair of Brobee pajamas. Of course, the Cavegirl isn't down wit' clothes these days. She is happiest in just a diaper (potty training isn't going so well). In fact, when I try to put a shirt on her, she grabs it and flings it away. And then if she doesn't fling it far enough away, she will grab it again and fling it into her bedroom. Anything requiring clothes, like...say...a trip to the store, will result in a volcano of screams and tears. But only if I do it. She will allow Austin, the love of her life, to dress her in all sorts of cute clothes. So, Sal...I wasn't able to take a picture of her in the clothes you sent.


Amelia's Grandma Kathy sent a My Little Pony baby, named Pinkie Pie, who is a talking crawling Pony. Amelia loves Pinkie Pie. Here's the pictures!