Stuff With Thing

I think I’ve mentioned before I’ve got an online friend who writes books. Her first novel is out in stores on Dec 1st.

Here is the blurb on the back of the book:

quote:

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On the run in Washington, D.C. from a cop who cares more about inflicting pain than serving justice, Remy Capra grabs a handful of coins and jumps out a window. She lands seventy-five years back in time and across a continent in Los Angeles–at the feet of bounty hunter Nathan Pierce.

Remy isn’t like any woman he’s ever met. She’s street-smart and sassy, but she needs help, and Nathan, against his own better judgment, offers it. Danger looms on all sides: Remy might be whisked back to her own time at any moment, a murderous gang lord is after them, and then there’s the mystery of the Silver Maiden, a mystical coin with strange powers. Remy and Nathan may have a future–if she can evade her own past, and if they manage to keep alive in the ever-threatening present…

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There is a competition running to get a free Jamie Craig book - check it out.

Got some stitching done. You should see the back though on the bits I did last night, a mess. I try to keep my stitches vertical and neat on the back (read somewhere vertical stiches on the back cause less sagging long term) but yesterday I ended up with big lumps of thread caught under other bits. Depressing.

Ooohkay this post is going to be brief because I’ve only had a couple of hours sleep. Heidi is summarily banned from the shops for the month of December, she is just not coping with the Christmas crowds.

Today is tree putting up day. Joy. I await meltdown this evening.

Gluten and dairy free pumpkin pie a bust - something not right with the crust apart from it being a little burnt on the edges it tasted blargh. Going to try again with a cornflake base.

Thank you everyone for your support on my last post. It is kind of funny in retrospect. Just not so much at the time.

Been meaning to say the finger print scanner on my computer is just a tiny little 1cm long scanner right on the front of my laptop. It scans my finger at start up and windows will not load up if it does not recognise the fingerprint. Way better than a password.

Today has been crappy.

The edited highlights - Annie pee’d in my face (not intentionally was trying to collect a urine sample) and the washing line collapsed when the girls were hanging off it. Those two events tie for top billing in todays drama’s. Apparently the girls were pretending to be washing whilst hanging off the line - because being washing is soooo much fun!

Sometimes you just have to leave the room so as not to laugh in front of them.

At bathtime the girls flooded the bathroom for the second time today. Annie justifies it to me “But Heidi and I did it together. Its team work.”

Team work, makes all sins forgivable.

And then there are the moments that leave me struck dumb.

Putting Heidi to bed tonight and she is pointing at mossie bites on her arms “1 boo boo, 2 boo boo”.

“Thats right” says I in the middle of putting on her nappy/diaper.

Then she points at her naked butt and says “1, 2, 3 holes”.

:EEK:

“Thats right” says a surprised Mummy and continues to put the nappy / diaper on.

God this kid can’t even answer a direct yes or no question but she has already figured out there are 3 holes in her bottom.

Kids!

Anyways I’ve uploaded some pictures to Picasa -
http://picasaweb.google.com/leechbabe/RandomStuff

Firstly - Stitch Pink are running a competition - check it out.

Secondly - not getting much sleep again so my head is kind of spinning. Life has been full of the girls needs and I’m struggling to get my stuff done. No stitching in ages and its been 2 weeks since the bathroom was cleaned - guess which one I’m wanting to do more :grin.

Thirdly - I’m attempting to bake a gluten and dairy free pumpkin pie - this is the pre-Christmas trial run. Just shoot me now!.

Tuesday

Took Annie to Kinder on Tuesday morning and then went off to childcare with Heidi.

She would not stay there, so instead we went to the Autism Outreach Services playgroup that is held at the same center on Tuesday mornings.

Was great because no-one else showed up, just Heidi, myself and the two Autism Outreach Workers, including Naomi who is our case worker. For an hour and a half we talked, I drank coffee, Heidi got some one on one time with the outreach workers and I got lots and lots of helpful advice.

First step is to start up daily schedules for Heidi. Naomi thinks there is just too much sensory input for Heidi at the moment which is causing Heidi to regress. And she really is regressing, back to walking around underneath her blankie like it is a ghost costume.

Heidi has been offered a place at 3year old kinder for 2008 at the center Annie currently attends. I was going to wait until 2009 for her to do 3yo kinder but Naomi thinks I should send Heidi next year.

Then instead of doing 1 year of 4yo kinder we should do 2 years of 4yo Kinder with Heidi. 4yo kinder is longer hours, better funded and we can get an inclusion support worker which is not supplied for 3yo.

Not sure what I will do about childcare then. Currently Heidi is enrolled in childcare 1pm to 4pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next year. Kinder would be 9-11 Tuesday morning and 1-3 Friday afternoon. Technically she could do both but it is a lot and the $s add up.

Decisions decisions.

Wednesday

Paed visit about Annie and her vomiting - it went well.

Annie’s vomiting suspected to be mostly behavioral as it has calmed considerably since I changed the way we interact. Apparently all the behavioral stuff I decided to do on my own at home is just perfect so no new info/advice there.

Still some medical concern for vomiting after parties / soft drink. So giving her zantac to see if that helps.

Discussed Heidi and daily schedule. All is good.

Apparently I’m doing everything right. Which is really frustrating because why is stuff still going wrong. Ah well one foot in front of the other and repeat and some where along the way the big picture will improve.

Spent some time at Childcare discussing Heidi’s schedule with the coordinator. A detailed schedule is too much for them to handle with all the other children around as well. So I’m doing a basic addition to our daily schedule. Seemed to work okay - although I had to go pick Heidi up early as she’d fallen asleep during snack time.

Came across a great idea to promote happy family’s*

http://dancingwithfrogs.blogspot.co…/our-books.html

quote:

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Each person has their own book. Only positive things must be written in another person’s book. Things about what that person has achieved, great things about their personality, acknowledgements about funny or nice things they might’ve done with/for someone else… the list goes on.

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My girls are too young to write in the books but I could still write in their books and so could Ralph.

* I’m almost sure that apostrophe is a mistake. Not sure enough to take it out though, because it might not be.

You start with apples

and you finish with apple butter. Mmm good.

Yesterday was a really good day that was ruined by Chrisco.

Don’t know if I have shared my Chrisco drama’s here.

My Chrisco hampers were due to be delivered on Friday 23rd Nov.

Then I got a letter saying I’d have to drive to Knoxfield (over an hour away) to pick them up myself. There were 8 boxes I’d ordered - 4 of them freezer boxes full of meat.

So I rang and said that with two toddlers that was not happening. 2 hour round trip plus loading time. I couldn’t fit it all in my car so I’d have to make at least two trips.

Lady was lovely and changed me back to delivery on 23rd Nov. Which is part of the whole Chrisco hamper deal - they make Christmas easier by delivering the food to you, no fighting Christmas shopping crowds.

Then I get another letter that I supposedly owe them $300. Nope I had paid in full. Ring Chrisco again.

Guy apologises for the mess up and fixes it all. Good, but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. This is the second year in a row there has been a financial stuff up on their end. I’m just glad I keep good track of my money. What if I hadn’t?

Yet another letter arrives saying my Chrisco hampers will now be delivered on the Monday the 26th.

So I decided to cancel next years order, this was Wednesday last week.

I try calling the Chrisco office 1800 830 830 number just beeps out.

Their Sydney 02 8718 8600 number is ‘ disconnected or unavailable’.

I keep trying to call right up through to yesterday when our delivery was to arrive.

I waited all day stuck at home with the girls going stir crazy. No delivery times, just the date. Hampers show up at 7.15pm

One box is missing.

Two of the freezer boxes are broken - meat is defrosted and unsafe to refreeze - more meat than I could easily cook and refreeze, and I’m not sure it is safe to eat either.

The packing inventory is missing from another box, I’m not able to check off and make sure I received everything.

After 5 years as a happy Chrisco customer this is certainly my last year with them.

I have emailed them to cancel the order and also listed my problems with this years order. Such poor customer service is unacceptable.

Interesting Choice Magazine article about the value of Chrisco hampers Vs putting the same amount into an interest earning savings account.

Thankfully the girls kept me entertained with music from their ‘Kitchen Band’

I used to make this fairly often but stopped for some reason. Going to give it a go using the slow cooker tomorrow. Thought it would make nice gifts for friends.

Ingredients

2.25 kg Granny Smith Apples
2.5 cups Water or apple cider
2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup golden syrup
2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground Cloves

Method

Peel, core and thickly slice apples.
Place in a large saucepan.
Add water or cider.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat.
Cover and cook until apples are soft, about 30 minutes.
Stir occasionally.
Press through food mill or sieve (or use a stick blender), and return to saucepan.
Boil mixture gently uncovered for 20 minutes, add sugar and syrup.
Continue to simmer stirring frequently with long handled spoon until mixture is of desired thickness about 1 hour.
Stir in spices, cook and stir for 15 minutes more.
Pour into 9 small hot jars
Adjust lids, process and label.

Got my act together last night and created one of the mini scrapbook albums for my grandma’s - see here for pics.

My fav. page is the centre:

I’m not so thrilled with the last couple of pages (8 and 9). By then it was getting late and I just wanted to get the album done.

Tonight I need to duplicate the album for my other grandma. Thankfully last night I cut two of everything so all I need to do tonight is glue and stick.

Was planning on going to Church today but only managed a couple of hours sleep, so no driving for me.

Fred is behaving well. Uninstalled the Microsoft Office trail pack this morning. Need to download a copy of Open Office and then I’m set to go on that side of things. Apart from that I’ve got to instal Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird onto Fred and get her fully wireless then she is set to go.

I love the finger print scanner, that is so cool, no need to remember a password, just swipe my fingerprint across the scanner to log in. The remote control is still weird though, Funny to have a computer with a remote control.

ETA - Fred is short for Winifred and yes she is a girl

Heidi

Tried shopping yesterday with Heidi using a schedule AND a picture shopping list. We did great, she would point to the picture and say its label ie “apple”. Then we’d find the apples in the store, put some in our trolley. After which she’d put the apple picture into the ‘finished’ pocket at the bottom of our list.

A few problems - she didn’t like me getting things that were not on the list. Worked around that by pointing at these items ie ‘celery’ and saying “Celery, Mummy want celery’ and putting it in the trolley.

Having the list kept her much calmer, gave her a sense of ‘this will end when we have all the things on the list’.

Going to start snipping labels off food packaging and just using those to create shopping lists. Saves time and printer ink.

The schedule had some flaws. I think I need to be more specific about which shops we visit. I had:

Shops
Playground
Home

Heidi got very cranky when we went to three different shops before the playground.

Scrapbooking

While at the shops I got a few more pictures made up at the Kodak self serve kiosk. So now I just have to find the time to make up 2 mini scrapbook albums of 20 pages each for my grandmothers Christmas gifts. I figure neither of my grandmothers ever see each other so I will make the identical albums, saves time thinking about the layout twice.

Computer

No progress with the Notebook/Laptop. I have to get a wireless hub/router/thingy before I can use it online. Thankfully Excel is working very well so I can balance my accounts and stuff on there already. Need to get online to register all the software though.

Think I will call my Notebook/Laptop “Fred”, it seems smart enough to be a Fred and I saw Amy Acker on an episode of Supernatural I was watching on Thursday. She played Fred in Angel and Thursday was the day I got the Notebook/Laptop, so Fred it is.