$1 + elbow grease = very happy toddler

DD loves the play kitchen at her cousins' house. She opens the "microwave", closes it. Again and again and again. Friday morning, my sister-in-law and I went to her mother-in-law's church rummage sale. And I found.....a Little Tykes play kitchen. For a dollar. (I think new it probably sold for about $70) Woo-hoo! All it needed was a thorough cleaning--it looked like it had been stored outside. I cleaned it while she was napping (took almost 3 hours--it was very dirty). I've never seen her eyes so big or smile so wide! She spent at least 45 minutes opening the doors--"microwave" and "oven", then closing them. Over and over. That's pretty long for a 17-month old! Now I just have to find a good deal on play pots/pans/dishes/food. But for now, she' s very happy just opening and closing the doors. And I'm happy that she's happy. Could be the best dollar I ever spent.

TV Time

Thursday night is....TV heaven. Survivor, Grey's Anatomy, My Name is Earl....we Tivo'd the new Six Degrees, but we haven't watched it yet. Actually, out of the list, we only saw Survivor last night. We started watching G.A. over the summer, so Wednesday night was the previous season's 2 hour finale. Which we only got to watch half of on Wed. So we watched the rest last night, then Survivor, then it was time for bed. I love Survivor. DH and I have a "contest". We each pick a person and we see who outlasts who. DH has picked Ozzy, and I picked Yul. SPOILER ALERT: After last night's episode, Ozzy may not have been the best pick. But guess who found the Exile Island Immunity Idol? Oh Yeah! My Yul! Pfffttt to DH. SPOILER OVER! Of course, every once in while I have to remind DH that the people I pick usually last longer than the ones he picks....and that I picked Tom a few seasons ago...you know, the Tom that won the whole thing. (I'm not really a gloat-y person--I just rarely win at *anything* against him) We do this with Amazing Race, too. (He's got Erwin & Godwin, I've got Kandice & Dustin) In the family race a few seasons ago, I picked the winners (Linz family), but he won last last season with BJ & Tyler. (I hope he forgets that!)

Floss!

I got some floss! 5/$1 at Michaels. Not the best price I've seen around here, but it's less than 25 cents a skein, which is good enough. I got what I needed for Chatelaine's Spring Roses, and a few for Stroke of Midnight....DD started screaming, so I had to get out of there pronto. Maybe they will have another sale soon. Or maybe ACMoore will. Now I just have to decide on a fabric for Spring Roses, and order that.

And CHG is starting to call out. I haven't worked on it since before DD was born (April '05). Too afraid I would mess it up, with being tired and everything else that goes with having a newborn. Especially with those tiny, pale yellow Jessica stitches. I don't like those. They are pretty, but...maybe if they were bigger, with a more contrasting floss color, I would like doing them better.

One of these days, I'll have to take some pictures. I've never photographed anything I've done over the past 20 years. I need proof of how insane I was back in 1996. TW's Spring Carousel Horse on 18 count Aida. Yes, Aida. Before I knew better--ok, the truth--knew of the existance of evenweave fabrics, and where to purchase them. I even started the Winter horse on Aida too. And stopped. I'll start again on an evenweave someday. And I'll probably re-stitch the Spring one. (It ended up being a gift for my niece, who wasn't even a glimmer yet in her parents' eyes when I stitched it. I wasn't even married to DH yet, although we were engaged.) I'm another victim of the various stitching BBs and the enablers. I found out about Lugana, Linen, silk flosses, hand-dyed fabric and flosses, beads.....Oh boy! My stash has grown considerably in the last 5 or so years. And I'm nowhere near what some of the ladies have collected, despite what DH thinks.

Books

I went to the bookstore to hopefully find some of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books that I'm missing. Found one. "Dragonseye". And one hardback that I can't remember the title. I prefer paperbacks, so I passed on that one. (I carry a list with me of the Pern titles that I have. They're all so similar that I can never remember which ones I've got!) But I did buy the other one, and a M.Y.T.H. book by Robert Asprin that I missed from a few years ago. Yay! First time I've seen this one in a store! I also bought " 'Salem's Lot" by Stephen King. Since I'm reading the Dark Tower books and he refers back to " 'Salem's Lot" in "The Wolves of the Calla" I should read it. Eventually. Probably after I finish the Dark Tower series. I don't like reading more than one King book at a time. They creep me out a little.

Small Annoyances

They're laying fiber optic cable in my neighborhood. Which will be nice in the future, but right now it's a pain. Yesterday was trash day, so we had trucks and trash cans lining the street. And noise. Lots of noise. And dirt, from the holes they dug (and left). They parked close to our mailbox, so we didn't get any mail. (If there's anything on the street near our mailbox the letter carrier will just drive on by.) Sigh. So I have to watch for them today, so I can ask them to park a few feet back if they park in the same place. (I didn't say anything to them yesterday because I thought there was enough room for the mail truck. I guess I was wrong.) Very annoying.

Jumping in....

Ok. So when I first heard about blogging, I thought "What's the big deal? Why would anyone want to do that? Why would anyone else want to read it?" Then I read a blog by someone who frequents the same message boards that I do (No, I don't remember whose it was). Huh. More insight to who this person was--thoughts, feelings, life situation. More information than could be conveyed on a simple message board post. It's funny--get a group of people together, and if it's a big enough group, you'll have representatives of all life stages. Young, old, married, already divorced, getting divorced, having babies, going to school, losing jobs, getting jobs, moving.....the list goes on. People cycling in and out of misery/happiness. And the group of people, the community, offers support and advice, shares the joys and heartaches. No matter what the situation is, be it major or minor. Being a part of the community means sharing. Giving for the greater good. Receiving help when needed.

So, What's the big deal? Sharing life. Because we're all at different stages. And we can tell others about our experiences. And maybe, someone else is entering a stage that we just left. And we can leave a light on so they can find their way. That's the big deal.