Monthly Archives: August 2010

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friday night

August 27, 2010 8:19 pm \ 2 Comments \

Eek. Sorry I haven’t really been updating here. I was busy this week working on a project for a new writing client, some other articles, and… I don’t really know what else, but the time did go by. I think I’ll just do a bulleted entry to catch up.

  • Monday I had my endocrinologist appointment. She was all right. I guess she was good as far as doctors go; so few of them have much personality. There wasn’t a whole lot to discuss since I’d had all the tests and I was very easily diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, which is an auto-immune disease. Basically my body is slowly destroying my thyroid. (What did my thyroid do to deserve this?) It sounds incredibly scary, but apparently it’s very common. She put my on 100 micrograms of Levothyroxine, which essentially is a synthetic version of the hormone your thyroid produces. In about 6 weeks I will have labwork done to measure my TSH, free T3, and free T4 levels, and I go for a follow-up appointment in November. The first day I took the medication I was somewhat jittery and had a metallic taste in my mouth, but those side effects didn’t last. I feel… pretty much the same, which is good since I felt fine before. Some doctors believe that dietary changes (particularly reducing the amount of gluten in one’s diet) can help, but she (expectedly) waved that notion away. I’m going to look into it further, though. Too many people are content just taking a pill for what ails them, but if some kind of change can organically improve my condition, it’s worth investigating.
  • Noah had kindergarten orientation this week. His teacher and the aides seem great. He was right at home in the class and I doubt there will be any issues. He was thrilled that a preschool friend is sitting right next to him :-) I had to chuckle because it was painfully obvious who was sending their kid off to school for the first time. The level of anxiety showed on their faces, but they’ll learn there’s nothing to fret over.
  • The weather has been beautiful lately. We had several days of gray skies that necessitated breaking out the rain boots, but I welcomed the change. Yesterday and today were gorgeous, but it’s going to start heating up again early next week. I’m already in an autumn mindset, so I’m not happy about that.
  • Next week I need to spend some time making sure we have everything set for school and getting familiar with the old routine again. I’m so ready for school to start.
Posted in: This & That \ Tagged: , ,

safety first

August 26, 2010 3:24 pm \ Leave a Comment \

Disclosure: I was sent a safety vest from Care Cleaning and Protection, at no charge to me, in exchange for a review on my blog.
As a mom, you can imagine that my family’s safety is a priority. So I thought it was neat checking out one of Care Cleaning and Protection’s safety vests. This particular vest retails for around $20 and features fluorescent yellow and orange for high visibility as well as reflective tape so that you can be seen in low-light situations. It meets ANSI 107-2004 standard. This vest is a size L and it’s very generously sized. Drew usually wears an XL and it fit him fine. The material is comfortable and not rigid. The reflective tape seems more like a reflective fabric — it moves easily with the vest.

We have a couple acres of woods, so I think this vest would be great for when Drew heads out to chop wood, especially during deer season. Granted, no one is supposed to hunt on private property but… you can’t be too careful. It is not a bad idea to make sure a hunter does not confuse your moments for a deer’s. It would also be perfect for dog-walking in the early morning or evening, when the lighting is dim. I shot a cute video of the boys wearing it, but for some reason I couldn’t upload it. So then I made one with Laura. Babies’ opinions count, too!

video from

I’m no expert on safety vest, but this appears to be a good-quality product. It’s comfortable to wear and the appearance seems a lot brighter than vests I’ve seen on road workers. I think it’ll come in handy.

Posted in: Reviews

etsy shop update!

August 19, 2010 7:37 am \ Leave a Comment \

Earlier this summer I started to slowly trickle a few items into my Etsy shop but it wasn’t until recently that I’ve been able to really start cranking out products. Yesterday was my first big update and it included a variety of adorable hair bows: classic bows, fun korker bows, and sweet little bitty bows! You can see a preview right over there in the sidebar.

I hand-sew all of my bows to ensure that they won’t fall apart, and I also make my own korker ribbon, so I know it’s high-quality. We’re sending the kids back to school soon (if not already!), so if you’re looking for fun hair accessories, I hope you’ll check out what I have to offer. I will be adding new bows weekly, and my next update will include some adorable navy and white bows to coordinate with standard school uniforms. Of course, I also do custom orders, so if you don’t see exactly what you’re looking for, just let me know!

Posted in: Etsy Update, Hair Bows

a tale of two birthdays

August 18, 2010 12:11 pm \ 5 Comments \

Over the last few days we celebrated two big birthdays: Jake turned 8 and Noah turned 5! Because their birthdays are just a couple days apart, it’s easy to lump them together, but this year we made a real effort to make them to very separate days. We celebrated Jake’s birthday in WMass at my parents’ house. But before we left we had to have our annual special birthday breakfast, complete with sugar cereal and presents!

august birthdays 008

It’s just a fun way to begin the day. :-) Jake requested a pizza party and that made it easy for me. We just ordered a couple pizzas and that was that. Instead of a cake he wanted me to make a cookie pizza. It might not have come out perfect, but he was thrilled with it and that’s all that mattered!

august birthdays 050

He got so many great gifts: lots of clothes, books and toys. Enough to keep him busy for a while (at least I hope so!). Yesterday was Noah’s birthday and we started the day the same as Jake’s: special fun cereal and birthday gifts:

Noah's Birthday 022

Then it was off to swimming lessons at the pond. The boys had a good time splashing around and playing with the other kids. They played around at home all day and Noah requested breakfast for dinner, so we made eggs, bacon, homefries, and fruit salad. Noah wanted “Dirt Cake” — again I got off easy! I threw it together in the morning and my little guy was so excited.

Noah's Birthday 048

Noah’s such a happy-go-lucky kid. The simplest things make his day! I think they both had fun birthdays. I sure hope so because I tried to make them great!

Posted in: Family

eight is great!

August 14, 2010 1:29 pm \ 2 Comments \

It’s hard to believe we have an eight-year-old little boy today! He woke up to confetti, his favorite cereal, and a bunch of presents, including a custom t-shirt. He had drawn a really cool picture that was supposed to be the cover of a comic book he’s working on, and he desprately wanted to make a shirt of it. So the other day while I was out shopping I bought some ink jet transfer paper. It’s so neat — you just need scanning software, a printer, and a dry iron to make your own iron-ons. Why haven’t I done this before? Drew doctored up Jake picture to really look like a comic book cover and we made the shirt. Jake was totally thrilled with it! I’ll be sure to post a pic later; right now I’m just taking a quick break from the birthday festivities. We’re having a pizza party tonight and the “pizza cookie” I made (in lieu of a cake) came out pretty well. Jake gave a big thumbs-up and that’s all that matters, even if it’s not as perfect as I’d like it to be. OK, back to doting on my birthday guy!

Posted in: Family

looks like a vacation-less summer

August 14, 2010 1:24 pm \ Leave a Comment \

And honestly, that’s OK with me. August is winding down, and since my brother-in-law got a new job, we won’t be going to NC this summer. Of course, he said we’re welcome to go down to his place, but I feel weird going without him, you know? When he was looking for a job, we wondered if he’d expand the search from NY/NJ down to North Carolina and were trying to find out what the health plans are down there. I know that Blue Advantage is one of them. In the end it didn’t matter because he was finally hired by a company in the city. I’m sure he was quite relieved! So maybe we’ll be able to go down at some point next year. Something to look forward to :-)

Posted in: Travel

how do they do it?

August 13, 2010 8:57 pm \ 2 Comments \

One of my friends got a new-ish treadmill off of the local Freecycle list the other day. Another friend gets great stuff all the time — dollhouses, yarn, sewing patterns. I wish I had their luck! I see lots of offers for various car parts, industrial handles, auto magazines, and random camping gear, but nothing I’m personally interested in. Do I just check in at the wrong time? There’s got to be a trick to getting the good stuff. I just need to figure out how to do it.

Posted in: This & That