Jinxyisms

September 2010
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Fracture – A new way to print and display photos

Posted in Lily on 08/24/2010 02:39 pm by Jinxy

I’m super excited to try this new photo processing that I’ve heard about. It’s called Fracture and they print your photo right on the glass! It makes it easy to display and all the sharp edges are removed so it’s safe to touch. The glass is shatter proof and the images will not fade for years beyond average prints.

If I’m one of the first 100 people to blog about it I’ll be back at a later time to follow up with a review of a Fracture product. With all of the great pictures I take of Lily I would love to get a beautiful print, but it will take some time to find the perfect one.

“I wrote this blog post in response to a TwitterMoms RAMBO alert, making me eligible to get a Fracture picture frame for review. You can learn more about Fracture at http://www.fractureme.com.”

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The one about Goals

Posted in Life, Some stuff on 08/17/2010 12:44 pm by Jinxy

I have never really made a written list of Goals for myself and the other day I was ready a blog (sorry I don’t remember which one) and she was talking about her “life list) and it got me thinking. Oh yeah, I was reading She Likes Purple, I just love her and her son. I’m going to start small with my Goals. If this goes well maybe I’ll move on to larger, loftier goals.

Open a local bank account. Okay, I actually mean a Credit Union account because after working at a great Credit Union for 6 years I don’t think I can ever bank at a bank again. I don’t even know if we need a local account but I feel like we should get one. I have no intention of closing the account we had at my previous place of employment, all of our bills are set up for auto debit and our checks get direct deposited. Our debit and credit card is there, I know how it works and I know a lot of the employees. I feel it would be good to start an account here for little things and maybe start a relationship that might work into a house someday.
Find out about first time home buyer loans and get the loan app. I’m starting small with just the loan app. I’ll add buying a house to a longer goal list someday.
Visit family or friends for at least 1 hour a week. I know that doesn’t sound like much of a goal, but I have found that between working, Lily and her nap and everyday life visiting anyone at all is a challenge.
Blog more. I really want to get up to 3 posts a week, if not more.

z ‘p17160;[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[””””””””””’;'/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/;’/???????????–Lily says HI.

I think this is a nice little list of Goals. I’ll revisit it in a month and see how I did.

Tags: Stuff
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Swim class

Posted in Friends and family, Lily on 08/13/2010 01:34 pm by Jinxy

A day or two after we told everyone that we were moving back to Cali my sister Jolene texted me to see if we wanted to go to Mommy and me swim lessons with her and Olivia. I almost said yes but my fear of a bathing suit in public stopped me. After a few days thinking about it I texted her back that we’d love too. I decided it wasn’t fair to deny Lily because of my body issues.

The swim lessons are 30 minutes a day Monday through Friday for two weeks. At first I was kind of ticked that I had to schlep all the way across town, grease Lily and myself up and stuff both of us in swim suits for 30 minutes. After the first day I was so glad it was only for 30 minutes and was happy to schlep, grease and stuff for two weeks.

Our class got pushed back a couple of weeks so by the time swim lessons started I was really looking forward to it. It was a great excuse to spend time with my sister and niece and play in the water a little. There were 5 or 6 kids in Lily’s class. Two of which were tiny 10 month old twin girls with some of the cutest bathing suits I had ever seen.

Day 1: (5 minutes late)
float on belly with Mama’s support – Aces

adding kicks to that – Aces

floating on back with Mama’s support – no go, but I get that, I can’t float on my back either. None of the kids like it.

Blowing bubbles – Aces. She didn’t blow any actual bubbles but she tried and I’m pretty sure she’s the only kiddo that even tried.

"Mom don't let go"

Day 2: stuff from Day 1 – Aces

Then they told us to do this weird pushing the baby under the water and toward the side – the first time, fine. The second time – no go in a huge way.

The rest of the class time was spend crying and signing to nurse. We got out of the pool after a few failed attempts to have fun again.

I got home and started thinking about being a swim class drop out. I didn’t go into this class expecting Lily to be a full fledged swimmer when we were done, I just wanted to have fun with my Girl and my Sister and Niece. This was so not fun.

Day 3:

After lots of thought I decided to give it one more try. Waldo tagged along to see what it was all about.

Not much fun was had this day. All the babies were crying, Lily just wanted to nurse. Disaster.

On the drive home Waldo said he had a lot to say about the swim class and none of it was good. He also said if I wanted to drop out he would totally back me on it because if it was him he would.

Day 4:

We took the day off from swim class and instead went swimming at my aunt’s house. It was so nice and relaxing. I did encourage Lily to blow bubbles, float and kick. I also tried to get her to jump into the pool which I guess we missed on day 2 after we got out of the pool. We had a great time and YAY! swimming was fun again.

Day 5:

I still really wanted to give up but Jolene texted me that day 4 had been a lot of fun for Olivia and we should keep coming and just do what we are comfortable with. Which is exactly what we did. We went back for the next few days and practiced all the fun floating/kicking/ bubble blowing stuff and by the last day Lily didn’t want to leave.

"Hey look I got it!"

I felt this was a huge success and swim class ended up being exactly what I wanted it to be. I don’t think the instructor liked me much or maybe she was a little intimidated with my Mama Bear impression because of the last day the kids all got certificates except Lily and Olivia. Jolene asked Monica (instructor) about it and she said she still had to fill them out. So Jolene went with her and a few minutes later handed me Lily’s. I read it and laughed. It said she hadn’t advanced to the next class, Jolene asked Monica why since Olivia did. Monica said that Lily just wasn’t ready, I totally agree with that, but I think Monica was a little scared to give it to me herself, like I was going to be upset or something.

Starfish to starfish

I’m sure next year’s class will be much more useful, but I’m so glad we did it this year. Lily loves to swim and I feel more comfortable in the water with her.

Grandma Gail (my Mom) and Lily

Kick, kick, kick

Jolene and Olivia

More kicking

Tags: Friends and family, Lil
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Summertime

Posted in Cloth diapers, Friends and family, Lily on 08/12/2010 05:19 pm by Jinxy

We’ve been in California for about 2 1/2 months and it has been so nice. Yes some days the weather is too hot but the mornings and evenings cool off nicely. Other then the heat (and a little too much traffic) things are great and one our favorite things is spending time outside in my Father-in-law’s wonderfully taken care of yard.

Snacks outside are the best

Lily and Grandma Rita

Sparkly eyes

I want to go in there

Hello

Happy girl

Cloth diapers FTW

These next few are some of my favorites of all times

Deep in thought

Oh Hi

I just love that smile

Trying to pick peaches (taken with my new phone)

Kitty approves too

Tags: Cloth diapers, Friends and family, Lil, Us
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Ditching the Poo

Posted in Me time on 07/21/2010 04:48 pm by Jinxy

Today I washed my hair for the first time with baking soda and rinsed it with white vinegar, that was it, no chemical laden shampoo and conditioner for this girl. After about 7 hours it’s dry and not nearly as frizzy as normal, it’s also fairly soft. I’m pretty please with the results overall but it will take some time to see how my hair reacts to it and tweak it to perfection.

I asked Waldo if I smelled like vinegar and he said No. I asked him if it was soft and he said it had a dry quality about it. This set off a 10 minute super fun conversation about making homemade hair masks and me deciding to try an avocado mask along with maybe a leave in spray of diluted green tea.

Today was also the fifth time I used oil to clean my face and a green tea ice cube as a toner. I poured a teaspoons worth of almond oil into my palm and massaged it all over my face for about 1 minute then I took a warm damp washcloth and laid it on my face for 10 to 15 seconds and then wiped the oil off. I rinsed the washcloth and repeated three or four times. Then I grabbed a green tea ice cube and ran it all over my face, this is a little lot cold so I don’t let the ice cube sit on my skin in one spot for too long. I don’t want to do any damage with the ice. I pat my face to keep the tea from dripping on the floor and then I’m done. My face is already looking much better and I feel good for doing something for myself.

I have made homemade hair masks (bath fizzies, face masks, bath salts, body splashes, bath cookies, etc) and used the Oil Cleaning Method in the past but for some reason (fell in love and lost track of time) I stopped making and using them, even though I love the result. I’m on a quest to get back to making these wonderful (sometimes easy to make) masks, salts, etc and taking better care of my body. I haven’t used baking soda in my hair before but I haven’t been happy with how my hair is reacting to store bought poo lately so I thought I’d give it a try.

Tell me, have you ever made a hair mask or stopped using shampoo? Do you have any questions or tips for me?

Tags: Mama stuff, Pantry potions
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Life’s a beach

Posted in Friends and family, Lily, Us on 07/17/2010 12:46 pm by Jinxy

We spent last Saturday and Sunday morning in the adorable little coastal town of Cambria. I love it, I want to marry it and move there. Or just move there so Waldo can come too. We were there for Waldo’s cousin’s baby shower so just about all of Waldo’s family was there too. We all had a good time and we got some great pictures.

Lily played with two of her little cousins, well she played near them and talked to them in some unknown language two or three times.

We're at the baby shower.

We went to the beach. It was Lily’s first time. It was magnificent. And it was a little painful. The beach has a lot of rocks on it and they killed my feet, but one look at the water splashing on the bigger rocks make up for it.

Lily didn’t hate the beach but she wasn’t sure what to do with it. Maybe next time we go it will be warm enough to swim in, that might make her realize how fun it is.

Lily's first time at the ocean

I'm trying to explain why the ocean is so amazing. I think I failed to get my point across.

After we got tired of trying to impress Lily we went to the little play area.

Lily got to swing for the first time since her real first time last year and she was loved it.

"Oh this isn't too bad"

"Oh my, I'm going so fast, this is pretty darn cool"

"I LOVEEEEEEeee this"

Do you see the ocean through the fence. The playground is at the top of the beach.

We took her down the slide and then I had the crazy idea to see if she wanted to go into the tunnel that connect the two sides of the play thingy. I was a little worried that she wouldn’t like it but she loved it. She was a little sad when we wanted to go back to the swings. But once she was swinging she didn’t care anymore. Swinging is good stuff.

Bean, Lily Bean.

She loves these tunnels.

I think the best part of the whole trip was sitting up late into the night with Waldo’s brother, sister and their families. Hanging out with our families and getting to know them is one of the biggest Pro on the list so it was really nice to really be experiencing it.

Lily's very first time on the swings. She was 8 months old.

Tags: Friends and family, Lil, Us, Waldo
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Curls

Posted in Lily on 07/08/2010 12:49 pm by Jinxy

She has her Daddy’s curls.

And I love them.

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Catch up

Posted in Friends and family, Lily on 07/02/2010 10:26 am by Jinxy

I have fallen so far behind on my Monday pictures of Lily that I don’t know if I’d ever be able to catch up. I haven’t stopped taking pictures of Monday but I did miss 1 week. One day I might try to figure it all out but for now I’m just going to post some pictures that I’ve taken but never put up here.

Very serous about her water after the zoo

Max and Olivia (my nephew and neice)

Connor and Brayden (my nephews) practing their modeling.

Lily in her toy box.

Double picking and proud of it.

Here Mommy smell this.

Such a cutie! We love my father in laws backyard

Lily's first time in a baby pool

Tags: Friends and family, Lil
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Upside down

Posted in Friends and family, Lily, Us, marriage on 06/30/2010 04:40 pm by Jinxy

My world is a little upside down and I am loving it.

I moved from my Dad’s house in Central California to Northwest Montana almost 14 years ago. I was “in love” and I had always hated my hometown so when I was asked to move to Montana by my then boyfriend I jumped at the chance. I grew up in the same town as almost all of my family and I was pretty close with most of them. We had holiday traditions and parties and someone to pick you up when you needed a ride; all that stuff that makes family so important and special. This same closeness can seem suffocating sometimes too. I was 20 years old and living on my own sounded good.

I loved Montana. I made a life there. I had some really great friends and knew all the good stores. I loved the mountains and trees. I loved looking at the snow, but I really hated being out in it. I knew how to drive in the snow like it was no big thing. When people asked me if I’d ever move back I told them that I’d never move back to California. Montana had cold winters but the summers are pretty darn nice. California is too hot. California has smog and graffiti. Montana has clean skies and walls (mostly).

A cute alley that was part of our almost nightly walk.

A street on our walking route.

After Lily was born I had moments of sadness that she wasn’t going to grow up knowing her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins like I had but still didn’t want to go back to Cali for all the reasons I just listed and many more.

Then on May 1, 2010 we got some news from a family member that made us think long and hard about life. I believe the conversation went sort of like this**:

Waldo: So this stuff is happening.

Me: Well, that’s something. It’s at times like this that I hate being so far away.

W:…

M: !!!

W:???

M:…

A few days later

W: So…

M: Well I guess we’re moving back.

During the few days that it took for us to vocalize our decision we made a couple of pro/con lists and it was just about all that we talked about. The only pro/con list that got written down was made that first day. At the top of the pro side was FAMILY. The pro side also had things like going to the zoo on it. The con side was pretty short and lost out no matter what because “family” was hard to beet now that we had Lily.

We had already been planning to drive to Cali for a vacation in mid June so we already had the money for the move put away. Our lease was to renew in June so I was able to put in almost a full 30 day notice. We both work for the same company and really didn’t look forward to getting new jobs. We figured Waldo would be able to find something in the web development field just about anywhere as long as people were hiring. But we doubted we’d be able to find me something comparable; I work a couple of hours a day from home for a good hourly wage on my own schedule, you can’t beat it. Since we both work at computers all day Waldo asked our boss if we could keep our jobs, we didn’t expect them to say yes but we figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. When Waldo’s text came through that they were going to let us keep our jobs I’m pretty sure I had to physically lift my jaw off the floor and then did a few happy-excited screams. Everything fell into place so easily it was like the move was meant to be (if you believe in that kind of stuff, and I do).

On May 24th our friends helped us load the U-haul with the last of our belongings and we left Montana.

All of our stuff.

We took 4 days to drive and it wasn’t too bad. Lily hates being in the car or her seat or not being held or all of it. We bought Lily a few new toys, I made her some snacks and we had some videos for her, this was our strategy for the drive. She played with the toys a little, ate some of the snacks, watched a few minutes of video (she doesn’t really watch tv and we packed the cord so we couldn’t recharge the netbook oops), but all she really wanted was to be held and nurse. Obviously we didn’t taker her out of her seat but her seat was facing the back so it was pretty easy for me to nurse her so we did that a lot. Luckily we didn’t get a tick for me not wearing a seatbelt and I’m pretty sure I didn’t flash anyone. We had all three of our cats in carriers (well one was in a cardboard box but that’s not important) in the car which we were towing. Thankfully we couldn’t hear them because two of the three hate being in cars and yell the whole time. We had to find motels that allowed pets and that was a little pain but doable. We were very glad to get to Waldo’s parents house.

At a reststop outside Dillon MT

Do you see the little foot?

To be continued…

**I guess I have blocked out that first conversation because I have no earthly idea who brought up moving back or how the whole thing really went. This was my best guess.

Tags: Friends and family, Lil, Us, Waldo
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Pictures in the park

Posted in Friends and family, Lily on 06/28/2010 12:43 pm by Jinxy

While my sister Jody was visiting from Oklahoma we took pictures in one of our local parks. It’s so rare for all three of us (sisters) and all of our kids to be together we had to take advantage of it. Our Aunt Kk took most of the pictures.

My sisters are twins, Jolene is 4 minutes older then Jody. Jolene’s kids are Max (13) and Olivia (22 months). Jody’s kids are Connor (7) and Brayden (5). Lily was almost 18 months in these pictures.

We printed this first one off for our Dad and Grandpa (Pop) for Father’s Day.