Beauty From Chaos

Yah, I’m the author of this blog. I’ve been missing for months now and I am sorry. There were all sorts of weird issues that took a couple people a month or so to figure out how to fix, and during that time I couldn’t even log in to write to you! Then it got fixed thanks to Ashley’s husband and my husband! and then we got busy.

So to catch you up on life real quick…

Christmas was great, New years was great…. and that brings us to now.

Lexi is getting so smart, she’s really taking an interest in letters and writing them. She knows how to spell a few words, like Farm and Hello, and will write just about anything if you tell her what letters to write.

Caylee is making progress on the sleeping, for about 5 nights in a row she pretty much slept through the night. Sometimes she’d wake up around 5:30, but we were able to get her back to sleep, if she sleeps through the whole night then she’s normally up for good at 6ish, which is earlier than I like to wake up!

I’m training for a half marathon, I’m still not certain I’m going to run it, I’m having IT band issues.  I’m quitting my facebook addiction. I know too many people (Me included) who have been having issues with their computers since they started using facebook. Mine is so bad I will type a sentence and often have to wait 2-3 minutes before it will show up.

My hubby is still unemployed, he’s been trying to get into graphic art stuff, until yesterday morning when his computer decided to die. And with the issues mine is having he can’t even run the programs he needs on it.

Yesterday was an interesting day, between both of our computers being out of service (mine we got back working) and the toaster broke and to top it off our car stopped running.  Eugene went to a store, and when he went to start it it wouldn’t start. He knows what the problem is, it’s the starter, and we can fix it for free, once he takes the old one off he can go get a replacement for free because it’s under warranty.  There are just a few problems, the car isn’t here, it’s our only car, and it’s raining and nasty outside.  So it looks like we might be stuck at home for a few days until we can either get the car here, or get to the car!

The biggest piece of news I have is that we’re moving!  We’ve been struggling to pay our bills each month for a few months, and we’ve also been wanting to be closer to family. It just so happens that the cost of living is a lot cheaper up by Eugene’s family. We found a 3 bedroom house, with a livingroom and den for $125 less a month than we pay for our 2 bedroom apartment here.  I’m super thrilled to have SPACE. oh and a house where we don’t have to worry about loud neighbors, or being too loud for neighbors. I’m also going to be watching Eugene’s niece and nephew, so that will be fun! The niece is homeschooled, so I’ll be taking care of teaching her which will help me stick to a schedule of teaching Lexi too.

I have a slightly funny story… The store that the car is sitting at is a liquor store. Eugene went to pick up boxes for us to start packing. Talk about a good place for our car to break down!!!

It’s been about 1 month since I was able to login and blog, but I’m back, and I’ll be updating and filling you all in on what’s going on here next week. I promise!

I actually didn’t get around to crafting any yesterday or today while craft day was supposed to be going on. Well, I made another tutu. But here’s what I did a week or so ago..

Dora and Map for Lexi, a Christmas stocking for Caylee, a quilt for the doll bed Lexi’s Uncle is making them, I managed to sew two years worth of hands on our tree skirt, and made a reversible cape and mask for Lexi’s friend. He can be super J or batman, whichever he wants!

I apologize that my words are not near the pictures. I’m still working on figuring out why it’s messing up like that. Sorry!

Check out The Natural Mommy for other crafts!

We were superheros

attacked and captured the evil villain

cut off all my hair

found Caylee in the dryer

and the dishwasher

Went to Tennessee and jumped in leaves

some of us didn’t like it at first

but then it was ok

we got to play with KK,

Meatball

and pops

Then we got to meet Savannah!

and papa, Grammie, Aunt Bethany, Uncle Ken, Aunt Karra (and all her kids) came to visit!

aunt Bethany brought Abbie, our favorite puppy

We played Boccee ball!

Watched the movie UP with all our cousins

spent lots of time with family

went to the park with Grammie and papa!

took a rest

went down slides with Aunt Bethany

and got attacked by Uncle Ken!

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It was a great month!

Last night was a little better than the night before. She woke up more times, but fell asleep a little faster with less screaming.

Today was ok I guess! There was a lot of whining by both girls, which made mommy in a less than great mood. However, The hubs went to go volunteer at The Upper Room tonight, which meant I had to put Caylee to sleep for the first time since we weaned her. I must admit I’ve been enjoying not having to do that! I was a little nervous, but she didn’t even ask to nurse! She snuggled for a minute, “talked” to me, then I laid her in her crib and she was out! Lexi threw more of a fit about going to bed!

Actually, I am concerned about Lexi… We’ve been letting her sleep on our floor for at least part of the night each night since Monday. We don’t want Caylee to wake her up with her screaming, so we thought that would be the best way, but now she’s wanting to sleep on our floor and not her bed. Hopefully once Caylee is sleeping better we can get Lexi back in her room all night. I am excited for the night that Caylee sleeps all the way through it and I can remember what a full nights rest is all about!!!

The weaning is going great, I guess. Â The second night was even better than the first, she slept until 3am. Â She’s never slept that long! Â She felt right asleep after just a few minutes, woke again at 6:30, fell right back to sleep and then was up at 8 for the day.

Yesterday afternoon/evening was a little rough, she was pretty whiny and asked to nurse a couple times. We were strong though and didn’t cave. She woke up at 1ish and nothing would calm her down. She ended up not falling completely back to sleep until almost 3, then woke up again around 5ish and gave us more trouble.

When she woke up at 1, I sent my husband in to comfort her, and I don’t know if that is what made it that bad, or if she’s just finally realizing that she hasn’t nursed in a while. Â Nothing was working to comfort her, so I left her in her room to cry for awhile. She kept dozing off and then waking up screaming again, She never screamed for more than 5 minutes at a time, and we went in 3 times between 1 and 3 to comfort her. She did the same thing at 5 when she woke up but it didn’t last as long. On a good note, she woke up at 8 happy and saying “momma! momma!” which she’s NEVER done. She always wakes up screaming.

I’m proud that I managed to not give in and nurse her back to sleep, but I really hope tonight goes better. So far today she’s been kinda fussy too, I’m starting to wonder if there are some teeth coming in causing part of the fussing. We’ll see!

My Uncle just arrived back from doing missions work in Nigeria, and he came home with several stories. This one amazed me and I really wanted to share it. I asked his permission of course. So here is an awesome story straight from my Uncle’s mouth. or um.. fingers since he typed it.

When we arrived in Enugu , the SSS questioned us about our activities. They were ordered by the governor to keep tract of us because of concern for our security.

A couple days later we were in a minivan with tinted widows about 1 hour into a 20 minute drive to a village when we were stopped by young civilians with heavy guns. We knew it was either a robbery or a kidnapping. Either was bad!

After some tense discussion in Igbo with the Nigerian driver and Nigerian lady in the front seat, the lady searched through her purse and handed over some money.

They politely said thank you and God bless you and let us go.

We were so relived to pull away with all of us in the car. After we were out of gunshot range, we asked her how much she gave. We knew she was carrying at least 150,000 naira ($1000) and we would be responsible to reimburse her.

She told us she gave them a 200 naira bill ($1.25)!

They never looked in the back of the van so they did not see our white faces.

We had about $8000 in US cash, cell phones watches wedding rings and so much more.

That night we remember that in the morning we read Psalms 27: In the time of trouble, I will conceal you in my sanctuary. In the secret place of my tent, I will hide you.

He hid four white faces that day,

We don’t know what happened to the SSS who monitored our every move and were responsible for our safety!

Last week I decided I’ve had enough of Caylee waking 3-5 times a night and the absolute refusal to go to sleep unless she was nursing so I decided Sunday was the last day of nursing. I spent all weekend telling myself that no matter what it was going to be worth it, in the end I’d be able to sleep through the night without a little one between my husband and I.

At first I was going to let her continue nursing during the day (not before naps) and just stop the night time feedings, but then I had a couple thoughts #1- why make both of us miserable twice. and #2Â it might confuse her if she can nurse during the day but not at night therefore making our weaning process even longer.

So we bit the bullet. Monday morning at 7am she nursed, and she hasn’t nursed again since. The days are pretty easy, when she asks to nurse I can usually distract her with something else, unless she’s too tired and just needs to go to sleep. We’ve been putting her down for naps without nursing here and there, so they are pretty easy, and she has even gone to sleep two or three times at night without nursing (as long as someone other than me puts her to bed).

Last night was not too bad at all. The worse part was the first time she woke up (around midnight). This was mostly bad because we weren’t ready for bed yet and had no plan as to what we were going to do when she woke up. Well, I had a plan and Eugene had a plan but neither of us made our plan clear to the other. he he.

So she woke up and started screaming, I went up there, picked her up and tried to cuddle her she started screaming more and since I was int he room where Lexi was sleeping I took her in our room. That just made things worse though. Eugene came in and took her from me and laid her on our bed. She continued to scream as she dozed in and out of sleeping. I eventually decided I’d take her back in her room, he could bring Lexi in ours and that’s how it would be. As soon as I laid her in her bed she fell asleep, so Lexi stayed in their room. the second time she woke up I went in, Eugene took Lexi to our room, I picked Caylee up, snuggled her and laid her back in her bed. She screamed and threw a huge fit, but I left and she fell right asleep. We continued to do the same each of the other two times she got up and each time she screamed less and less.

Hopefully tonight will go even better!

Just thought I’d take a little break from my crafting and cleaning and organizing to blog a little!

There are a few reasons I haven’t blogged too much lately, #1 is that my computer has decided to start working at turtle like speeds, and since hubs is still out of work and I crashed the car…. looks like I’m stuck with this one for awhile.

Another reason is I’ve been doing a lot of crafts lately! I’m making gifts for the girls, I started before thanksgiving, then we had a lot of company the week of thanksgiving, and then I started crafting again. I’m almost done and as soon as I figure out why wordpress is messing out the layouts of my blogs that I post pictures on, I’ll post some pics of the things I’ve made.

Lately I’ve been really focusing on organizing and sifting through the stuff we have. We don’t have that big of an apartment, and I know that nothing bigger is coming any time soon. However I’m getting really depressed looking at all this clutter everywhere. Yesterday I focused on the girls closet and the hall linen closet. Each time I go through the girls closet I get rid of more and more baby stuff (mostly clothes). I really want another kid some day but we just can’t keep storing things. If only I could get my husband on bored with the thinning out…

And there is one more thing going on… but I’m saving that for another post.

I decided to take part (a small part) in the online once a month cooking. My freezer is full of left over turkey, brisket and roast, so I didn’t make meals this time.

So far I’ve made two loafs of pumpkin bread,

a bunch of cookie dough balls that are frozen for later,

and a loaf of french bread (in the new from freecycle bread machine).

Also in the bread machine right now is dough for soft pretzels.
I also finished up some of my yummy mint melt away brownies,

and hope to get some corn bread mixed up (the dry ingredients).

I also made sweet potato fries with the left over sweet potatoes. no one in my family liked the fries. (we don’t eat sweet potatoes)

Some of my family was here for Thanksgiving, we had a blast, pictures will come. Once of my sisters just moved to PA near Amish country and brought down some yummy foods for us. Lots of cornmeal, nuts, cheese, molasses and even some spices. Next time we go up there or she comes down I will be filling up my spice containers, well, really replacing them. I can’t believe how cheap they are!