Here's Kaliana in her outfit

Here she is in all her cuteness. The pants are way too baggy for my taste. She loves the outfit so that is always a plus. She gets so excited when I sew for her now. I love it.

Personal update:

Been staying away from the puter this week. I am battling depression big time and the only way for me to beat it is by staying as busy as possible. I will not let myself go into the dark hole! It is the medication Dr. prescribed me for my neck issues. I started taking a half dose on Wednesday. Starting to feel more like myself already. I am only feeling some withdrawals late afternoon and if I stay busy all is good. I am on a small dose so that helps for sure. I am also feeling a little discouraged and crazy when it comes to my neck pain. Physical therapy isn't helping. The only thing that helps is when he is doing the cervical traction (lifting my head up) and that is only when he is doing it. Feels like a nerve is unpinched when he is doing it. The pain I feel is on the right side but the herniated disc protrudes to the left as well as the bone spurs. Hmmm. The most pain I seem to be dealing with is in my right arm lately. Physical therapist did some tests and said the pain has got to be coming from my neck and not my shoulder or wrist. Dr.s have been saying maybe I have carpal tunnel and that is where the pain is coming from. HELLO..I have a pinched nerve from the herniated disc. I can feel it. The physical therapist is the only one who has acknowleged what I feel so that is comforting but not making me feel any better at all. I have an EMG and nerve conduction test on Tuesday. These tests will help determine where the nerve tingling is from as well as the muscle weakness. Physical therapist tested that I have forty percent strength in my right arm so there is something. there is this loud voice in the back of my head that says I am crazy and it is all in my mind but the tests show i am not but what if nothing comes back on the tests on Tuesday. I am going crazy I tell ya. I am 32 and can not imagine living my life like this. It brings me to tears thinking about living like this. I blow dry my hair with my arm propped up for goodness sakes. I am in pain sewing from looking down. I do most things with my non-dominate hand. The whatifs have been taking over me and I am just tired of my brain that never stops. I have said too much already....don't like complaining but I have become real good at it.

On another note: Mother in law is coming next weekend. Peter work so hard and built me the fence for me so I have slowly been trying to paint it. Not an easy task because I have a hard time keeping a grip on the brush but have a third of it done so far. Spent an hour and a half cutting the grass by hand around the bottom so I can paint the bottom portion today. I must have looked so silly out there with my paper scissors...lol. I only got half way at that. Haha. Going out this afternoon after the fog lifts hopefully (ya never know...which is another thing I have been fighting trying to paint it.)...to finish my job...pics to come shortly.

Garden:

Seeds are coming up. Gopher is tearing up our lawn but hasnt broken through the garden yet. Chicken wire is working. We had a couple nights of freezing and the plants made it through...yah! I went out yesterday to plant some more. The only seedlings I planted indoors that seem to be doing well are my cukes, zukes, cilantro and some cosmos. I am not sure when to set out my warm weather plants here. I suppose I could look for the number for my local county extension office and find out. The nursery didnt have them out though....although there were tomatoes. Supposedly they are impossible to grow here. This girl loves a challenge but hates risk so I will only experiment with one early variety and one cherry tomato. they will not have the privelege of my nice raised beds either. One will get a tire around it....not sure if that will help keep the heat in but honey got me one so I better try it. The other one is gonna get plopped in the ground somewhere. Our dirt is beautiful here but we'll see if it just gonna be gopher bait. Being outside so much has been good for my soul and mind. I haven't felt like doing it but i have to keep pusing myself. I am just physically tired!!

boy what a long and scatterbrained post this was. In fact, I wore out the batteries in the wireless keyboard. :) Better take care of the dog and chitlins because I just noticed it is two hours past breakfast! Bad momma!

Sewing for my girlie

Peter took the kids away for a few hours on Saturday. I have the most caring and understanding husband...by the way. I needed some me time. I put sewing off for so long. I used to sew most of K's wardrobe. It feels good to get back into the swing of things. I have had my embroidery machine since K was a baby, well now she is four, and I don't think I have used that thing more than 10 times. I need to get a basic book on machine embroidery. I do love my serger though. Things go so fast with my Babylock Imagine. I am going to have to do some altering of the pattern though. The shirt is really wide, as well as the pants. Will take pics tomorrow of K in it. I just got back from physical therapy and dont feel like fighting her to change. She has been testing me and really pushing buttons this last week. She is happily plopped in front of the television. Bad mom but a happy one right now so it is all good. Better get back to reality though and do some sort of school to get Baby : a.k.a. Kaliana ready to go to kindergarten next year. I am afraid to move...for the first time in months I have some sort of relief in my neck. I have a bulging disc, two bone spurs, osteoarthritis and too much pain. Physical therapist did manual cervical traction today (sort of moved my neck up to relieve pressure on the nerve that runs down arm which causes a lot of pain) and it feels good to have that elephant off my head...a.k.a. the pressure I feel on my head. Awww....life feels good right about now.

Garden Helper

Here's what I found Sunday lapping up some water on my rhodedendron. Isn't he bright???

Finally starting to sew again

I have really gotten out of the habit of sewing. I could make a million excuses but it feels good to create again. Really good for my soul. Creating things is what I do and good nourishment for my soul as well. I am redoing the colors in my living room. We bought this house last summer and the purples I had in the rental don't feel right. I want a subdued bright (is that possible?) beachy living room. This will be a wallhanging. Been working on it little by little this week. I plan to do nothing but sew today. There are other things that need my attention but I am ignoring what my mind says today because my heart needs some uplifting. :)

When vacationing at our favorite house in our favorite place to vacation...Fort Bragg, CA (pure heaven) I grabbed some seeds from their nasturtiums that covered the whole backyard. Started them in pots by a sunny window about 3 weeks ago. I need to start hardening them off because they are growing like weeds. After we paint the fence sectioning off the garden, I am going to let these climb over it in a fashionable manner to soften the edges. Making sure to prune and catch all seeds to the yard doesn't get taken over!

K's preschool teacher gave me some breadseed poppy seeds. Started them the same time as the nasturtiums above. They are coming along nicely. The flowers will be pink. They get really big and leaves remind me of cabbage.

Here's a pic of all the seeds I am starting indoors...cosmos, basil, cilantro, cukes, zukes..that's it for now.

All of my lettuce is coming up, as well as carrots and radishes. The dirt we got had a lot of weed seeds in it so I am having a hard time deciphering what is what. I am weeding is the open spots that are waiting to be planted and leaving the rest alone until I get a good idea of what is what. Peter will be setting traps for me tonight. Woke up this morning and there are like 6-7 mounds of dirt in front yard. Of course two of the mounds are in some decorative rocks so I will have to sift through that dirt. Our neighbor across the street chased this gopher into our yard...think I will have bring over a pot of gopher soup as a nice gesture....kidding.

Pics from the outside of our house....

I couldn't get the whole house in one shot without getting a ladder to step on neighbor's roof because our street isn't really that wide. So here's the front of our house pieced together. Our house is long and really is straight in the front. It's not all that big...I think the square footage is almost 1400. It is a light yellow/ offwhite with a dark grey trim. .....

This is a covered carport off of garage in above pic. It has Peter's bug he has dreams of redoing.

and to the right of the carport is the "back yard" where the garden is and there is a little potting shed as well......

A side view so you can get the idea of how it looks....

FRONT YARD>>>NARROW ...........

If you walk around the left side of the house here is that yard area....the side road there is actually our address road but the front door is on another street...??. The side road is busy because across the street there are a bizillion apartments.....

Walking along this yard around the back of the house....

Walking through the privacy fence there this is what you will see but opposite....I took it from the other part of the yard..... (our only trees..two plum and one chinese maple).....

Looking other direction by the plum trees by garden area...other side of garage/carport/shed...

So there it is....it was hard to accurately photograph everything due to the length and narrowness of it all.

OUR NEW VEGGIE GARDEN

We finally got done building the veggie beds. I dug a hole 6ft by 20 ft. Laid down chicken wire to *hopefully* keep the gophers out. Peter built 4 boxes for me out of cedar. 3 of them are a6ft by 6ft. The one closest to the fence is 3 by 3...strawberries from my Dad's garden are in that one. The box next to the strawberry planter is fully planted with seeds (some spaces are left open to for a consistent supply). That bed has baby bibb lettuce, spinach, mesculan mix of lettuce, radishes, bush snow peas and some sweet baby carrots. The bed next to that one has sugar snap pole beans and some carrots seeds so far. I have some seeds started inside to plant in the other boxes but have heard it is best to wait to plant in our area (Humboldt County, ca) at the end of March. Started inside: bush cukes, zuchinni, basil, cilantro, and some cosmos to plant elsewhere. I put some rocks and bricks on the end, hoping to disperse the water that collects there. Our house is lower than the other houses so I yard gets all of the water run-off. We call our driveway "Lake Brown".





A close up one of the boxes...




Peter built these out of cedar. 2x6's with 1x2's in all four corners for support. We are hoping they will at least last 5 years because we spent a good $100 on the supplies. Peter picked up a compost/ dirt mix from a local supplier for $45. The dirt here is awesome...soft, full of worms, dark so I plan on starting a compost bin for next year. I have access to yard clippings from Peters work and a local vet has a place where you scoop horse poop. Yeah.





Freecycle fence.....
You gotta love freecycle. Someone posted a huge section of a regular 6 foot fence. Peter went a got it for me (gotta love him too), dismantled it, denailed it, cut it and renailed it with the salvaged nails. He had to go and get some clamps because it is staked in the ground with metal poles about 3 feet deep. Supplies as well as a rental of a post hole digger were under $20 I believe. We had to put the fence up to keep our dog from walking all over the garden. I have a nice sized area to do more boxes but for now I am going to stick with what I have got. SO many people keep wishing my luck gardening here with the gophers and dampness. I will not let all of the neagative comments stop me though! When there's a will there is a way. I am determined....

Street view.......

....... A view from the street so you can get a better idea of the space I have. Am guessing it is about 15 feet x 30 feet??? I have the whole yard to do too but this is my place where I don't have to worry about the kids or dog trampling all over my babies. This is really our back yard. Our yards are set up wierd.

Productive Saturday

Woke up went grocery shopping. $ Spent $200 $ Went over budget. Although, I do have enough dinner meals for three weeks. Starting on Weight Watchers upped my budget a bit. It will be a good thing. I better come check in later....woke Peter up!

My first blog entry

I just started a blog over at myspace...decided I had to learn too much and really just want a place to share about my everyday life without having to fancy things up. I definately like this one better.

Poor K is was sick all day yesterday. R went to school but he was looking pale so I am expecting a phone call. He is getting a mind of his own and picking mine and his dad's smart mouth. I was telling him where the toothpaste was and he wasn't going, said it again...so he says "What do you think, I speak another language or something....I'm going!" Little stinker. Had to put his hands at the door and couldn't play this morning because we had a talk about respect.

I am feeling run down today and have a killer headache from my neck since I have slept on k's floor the past two nights since she has been sick.

Spent all day yesterday coming up with a menu for the next two weeks. Starting weight watchers again and i have to get off on a good start or it won't happen. Here it is. Just copying what I posted on another board.
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Tonight: ???
Friday: Papa Murphy's Pizza so I can go grocery shopping
Saturday 3: Chicken Burritos 4pts / Baked Corn tortilla strips 1pt / Spinach Salad
oranges
Sunday 4: Pumpkin Soup 1pt / Pork chops seasoned with lime pepper 5pts / Raw 0 PT veggie/ Kids will have noodles and baked beans with theirs since they dont like pumpkin soup
Monday 5: Chicken Fajitas 6pts/ tomato soup pt / opt raw veggies and quesidillas for kids
Tuesday 6: Leftover Tomato Soup opt / grilled lemon shrimp 2cup 4pts/ green beans
Wedneday: Open faced grilled pastrami sandwich 4pts/ Baked seasoned potato wedges 3pts
Thursday 8: Spaghetti (marinara homemade), salad, cooked broccoliFriday 9: Homemade pizza/ Mine will be on halved pita bread, ff cheese and veggies
Sat 10: yogurt marinated grilled chicken 3pts/ rice 2pts/ veggies 0pts
Sun 11: leftover chicken salad 3, orange 2ptsStill working on it and figuring out all of the points....am also planning out breakfasts and lunches...at least those are my good intentions.

*When I was doing once a month cooking we would rotate a menu weekly. This really helped the kids try new food. I thought Dh hated it, he told me last night to just rotate the menu weekly because he liked it that way....so he could help me out. Yahoo.
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So doubling the menu and gonna plan on preparing as much as I can beforehand. Contemplating grilling the chicken all at once and then freezing but worried it will be too dry and R doesn't like chewy things. I plan on going shopping tonight after peter gets home from work if he gets home on time.

I have been down in the dumps this week for various valid reasons I thought....then my monthly friend came to visit and it all made sense! Sometimes its like I get possessed and someone else talks for me...lol. Back 2 me, bet the household is happy...or not. Lol