Looks like everybody is busy...

Thought I'd make two updates... As of this Friday (local-Korean time) I will officially be putting up my 100-week countdown board...that's right...dipping into double-digits before this wild ride is officially up. So cheer or fear...I'm heading home eventually... And...I survived a pretty serious food poisoning bout this past half week. Ate a large portion of dalk-galbi on Sunday night. Jihye is a practicing vegetarian, so she didn't eat any meat, however she still threw up once Sunday night...I spent Sunday night tossing and turning and thought I was just restless. Woke up to 12+ hours of vomiting, 36+ hours of diarrhea, and no food for more than two days. Heckuva way to shed 7 lbs. in 2 days. I have had one very serious bout of food poisoning, however this time added a new level to it... Wikipedia includes this in its definition of dehydration: Symptoms may include headaches similar to what is experienced during a hangover, muscle cramps (especially leg cramps), a sudden episode of visual snow, decreased blood pressure (hypotension), and dizziness or fainting when standing up due to orthostatic hypotension. Untreated dehydration generally results in delirium, unconsciousness, swelling of the tongue and, in extreme cases, death. The symptoms become increasingly severe with greater water loss. One's heart and respiration rates begin to increase to compensate for decreased plasma volume and blood pressure, while body temperature may rise because of decreased sweating. At around 5% to 6% water loss, one may become groggy or sleepy, experience headaches or nausea, and may feel tingling in one's limbs (paresthesia). With 10% to 15% fluid loss, muscles may become spastic, skin may shrivel and wrinkle (decreased skin turgor), vision may dim, urination will be greatly reduced and may become painful, and delirium may begin. Losses greater than 15% are usually fatal. groggy-check! headaches-check! muscle cramps-check! dizziness when standing-check! severly darkened urine-check! no urine-check! delirium-check! death- This was my first experience with delirium...I wasn't sure what I was experiencing, but I tried several times to explain to Jihye that I was losing control of my mind and it was rather terrifying. It was like having a movie screen pulled directly out of your mind to a fixed position about 12 inches in front of your eyes playing images of your real life, past, a scrambled present, and imagined future, so while you're watching the images on the screen, you're living in your own mind, and sensing the chasm between, leading you to feel lost and vacant, all the while getting washed over with waves of body heat like tides and breaking out into hot anxiety sweating episodes. The closest analog I could come up with was the effects of Scarecrow's spray had on victims in the new Batman movies...it is like that. I was not figuratively losing my mind...I wasn't controlling it anymore... Note the Wikipedia definition again, the last line and a half: "...and delirium may begin. Losses greater than 15% are usually fatal." But...I didn't die..so..hurray! Umm..anybody else doing anything interesting lately? April...house photos?!?

Good look 4?

Good look 3?

Good look 2?

Good look?

Volkswagen Commercial: The Force

Can't help but think that could be Jadan in his costume. LOL

Heating Bill Update 3

Oct. '09 - 20 units of heat ...............................Oct. '10 - 0 units of heat
Nov. '09 - 155 units of heat.............................Nov. '10 - 0 units of heat
Dec. '09 - 116 units of heat..............................Dec. '10 - 0 units of heat
Jan. '10 - 73 units of heat.................................Jan. '11 - 0 units of heat
Feb. '10 - 35 units of heat
March '10 - 0 units of heat
Despite the coldest winter in over 50 years...I am PERFECT. Next year's mission will be to reduce the number of hours I use the stand heater, although that is made more difficult by having to keep puppy warm while I am not home. All in all..cannot beat PERFECT.

Cowgirl

Just because HOW CUTE IS SHE! She did this pose all on her own, and picked out the outfit herself too....we should all be worried!

Mustaches are AWESOME

These are in right now and I saw the cutest post on using porcelain paint on mugs. Pretty much paint, wait 24 hours and then bake them in the oven and you have the most AWESOME mug EVER! I know you all want one!
Jadan's teacher and our babysitter Twylla will be getting one for Valentines day with some coasters I make on plain bathroom tile, paper and mod podge....I know you can't wait to see those :)

Babycake

We went to my nieces 15th birthday party the other night, she had asked for $ to by an Ipad, but Auntie April for 1) doesn't like to give cash 2) why does a 15 year old need an Ipad?! so instead we bought her an i-tunes gift card.....when we got to the party I realized I hadn't bought a card or anything for it to go in and I don't think gift cards are that cool and wanted something cute....so I had made some zipper pouches the week before (PROUD?) and had one in my purse so I took my stuff out of it and slipped her gift card inside. Now mind you my niece is not really a girly girl, high school freshman who plays varsity soccer, on the Black Hills community team and another one that she travels all over with....she got cash from everyone else including a $100 bill from Grandma and she FREAKED out about the pouch! She was going around showing everybody "look what my aunt April made me!" So.....who would have known that my sister Wendy who owns the craft shop told me that I pretty much have no choice but I will be selling them at her craft shows!! WHAT! I was actually going to ask if I could but didn't want to be rude, or butt in on her thing, but now it looks like my crafts won't just be excess around the house...but selling merchandise!

Got Crafty for the Husband

If you ask the men around this house I have crafts ALL over the place and nothing seems to go untouched :) Including Randy's camera strap. This are the hit around the crafting blog world and I had to try one out! I thought is was nice that I choose manly fabric at least....the one I wanted to make has ruffles down the middle, so I will have to make that for a girlfriend of mine instead....

Poor Spiderman

So like all of you know.....last Monday as this mom of three with 3 weeks lift till I go back to work got a lovely phone call from Jadan's school explaining that a few boys were shoving each other which led to Jadan getting knocked over hitting his head on the rough school walls or cement....they said they were observing him for a concussion but thought he was okay and would call me if things changed. I decided, knowing my little sensitive man, that I would just walk over there really quick and make sure.....but instead I got a screaming princess yelling "spiderman is in my nose!" WHAT!! I was so confused to I went to the other room where she had been playing and sure enough spiderman was missing a hand. She kept changing her story, not in her nose, in her nose, I couldn't see it but I could tell she sounded stuffy. I called the pediatrician and they had me rush there. Sure enough they could see the hand, with 5 nurses including me pinning her down, with HUGE tweezers coming at her and a light Ella was SCREAMING bloody murder! Our doctor seemed nervous and then once the nose started bleeding all over the place she said she couldn't do it. NICE! Luckily while I was on the way to the doctor I had called Randy and told him about the kids and his boss had him leave so he was able to meet us at the other doctor who had to numb her nose and they with one little grab got it.....I have never had either of the kids stick things in places and I don't think miss Ella will EVER go though that again :)

never again...

I never want anything simply or easy...I want to die fighting...

Easy Birthday Present

Jadan came home yesterday and said it was his teachers birthday today....so as we were walking home from school I was thinking, what am I going to do? I didn't want to go anywhere, I didn't want to go spend $, I knew I would end of going to Target which only leads to a bad place for me, I LOVE that place! Then I remembered I have been making my crafts, and learning new ways to package things to sell at the shows etc. And wallah! April had a FANTASTIC b-day gift any girl would love!

The magnets are made out of glass bead things you get at the craft store to put in a vase with scrapbook paper mod podged on and then a magnet on the back. I then had Randy get me a box of washers from Home Depot which are glued on the back of the card stock and then the magnets sit on top not moving...CUTE!

The necklace is a scrabble game piece that is glued on the back side (so you can see the letter) once that is dry I use a glue called Diamond Glaze that I put on top of that. It dries clear but has the same texture/feel of glass. That takes about a day or two to dry. Then I went to Shipwreck Beads and bought the balls that go on the back to hold the chain and then you have a cute, one of a kind necklace!


I made the little flower too :) Which is on a hair clip with everything clipped together with Jadans little note!

House

Here is the house from last weekend. The inside view is from the loft area looking down over the family room. Dad is our fantastic model on the stairs :) We will go this weekend and take photos with the walls up in each room, it will make more sense then the ones I have where you see through everything into the other room....they might even have it painted if it stops raining around here today!

Tracker's sleepy friend

Mr. Tracker is by far my most snuggle baby yet. He needs to be help, touched, kissed at all times. Usually he just needs the momma and will sniff me to make sure it's me and then he is perfectly content. This also leads me to the concern that this little mister would rather sleep right next to me then in his crib! Which I love, but pretty soon momma goes back to work and I won't be here to snuggle through every nap, and I have a feeling Daddy, Yia Yia and Twylla will all be cursing my name the first few days...sorry in advance! So I found this on a ladies blog, she made one of those rice bags you warm up as big as the length of the baby and place it next to them and they think it's the body heat from momma. It does work as long as he falls asleep before it cools down :)

:::sing::: The weather outside is frig---

genUNBELIEVABLE!!!! forget frightful for frick sake! A quick glance at the thermometer reads -25 degrees...that is not a hyphen...it is 25 BELOW zero outside...
I tried to crack open my windows to feel the air, but I can't, my windows are frozen shut. Brrr...

UN LOCK THE BLOG!!

I have spoken!

Jadan's new scooter

Jadan got one of those Razer scooters for x-mas from Randy's mom that spark. He has always wanted one but it only has two wheels and since Mr. Scaredy pants still won't ride a bike without training wheels (even though the one on his bike don't touch the ground just kind of wobble if he tilts) I didn't think he could do the scooter....but he is a PRO!





Ella didn't get hers for x-mas....but look at that cute face!

Crafty handmade hair ties and flowers

I did the button covered hair ties up in just a few minutes. I got button making kits at the craft store and then used scrape fabrics to make them and then added Ella's little hair ties to the part you would actually sew onto the cloths for a button.



The flowers are made out of strips of fabric that are sewed together at the top and then braided together. Then the long strip of braid is rolled up stitching them together as I roll. ( I did this during a football game with the boys) Then I hot glued them to felt, then hot glued them to hairbands which fit miss Ella and myself :) Any time either us wear them we get tons of compliments.

Crafty!

I made these bags (designed and painted) all on my own! I bought the canvass bags at the craft store with a coupon for 3 for about $5 and then used some fabric, felt, paint, glue and a sharpie marker and got busy. Took only 10 minutes to paint all the bags we only had masking tape so I roughly measured out lines and painted in the middle. Put them out on the porch over night and then designed and cut out felt and fabric and played around for a little bit and came up with these beauties for the kids!




Jadan's is the orange
Ella's in the dotted one with the bow
Tracker's is the one eye monster

Dreaming Rudolph...

is the name of the ice cream cake we had. A Korean tradition for Christmas and New Years are cakes....there are literally just piles of them stacked up outside of bakerys and inside the ice cream shops like Baskin Robbins 31 where we bought ours. Three different flavors inside...was pretty good...but I realised from the previous post you might not recognize what it was...so we performed an oral autopsy on this specimen for you...

Oh my Cham-lord...

Here's some shots of our first night of 2011...making Chambord cocktails...

Goodbye unruly beard...hello, err..beard...

What happens after a three months of untamed facial hair gets trimmed...well, I look just slightly more presentable for public consumption.