Swaps are fun!

So, I am a moderator on a group on Ravelry called Caffeine Addicts. One of my jobs as moderator is to co-run swaps a couple of times a year. The hard part for me on this is not "cheating". It would be very easy for me to pick out who sends to me and who I send to. Instead I had Owen help me!

Well anyways. It came to be time to ship out swap packages. I sent mine off to Vegasdealer78. She was alot of fun to shop for. She and I have similar taste in things, and some of her favorite places to visit are some of my favorite places from my past! I actually had a hard time trying to stay in my limit! I started to spend closer to $100, and Owen reminded me that as a moderator, spending twice the limit I helped set would be setting a bad example! Spoilsport! If you wanna see the package I sent, you can check it out here!

My package came to me all the way from Australia!!!! I have always wanted to go to Australia, but for now a package from there will be just fine!



This is before I opened my package. Please ignore the hole in the wall behind me!

Then I opened it!



There was some soft and pretty redish/hot pink fingering weight yarn, a box of chocolates, which was consumed by my family (I got a few pieces) within the hour, some heart shaped chocolates, a box of loose leaf tea and a tea strainer ball. The tea is very floral and sweet. I drank a whole pot by myself in under an hour!

Thank you Liz, AKA Rickielee1985! My package rocked!

I won!

Every month Ginger, AKA Momma MC, runs a contest on her blog. She gives away some new cool thing she has made. I have always faithfully entered every month, but have not won since she picked 7 winners for her birthday contest on 7-07-07. (I think that is right!)

This month, I was the big winner! Wanna see what I won? Cause I am gonna show you anyways.





These are three Valentines Day cards with matching lavender filled sachets that Ginger hand made. I already know who these are going to this year for Valentines Day!

Then there are these:



Three more sachets, which also match, but I am thinking about keeping. I am not sure though. I may send each of the card recipients 2 sachets each.... I may save the three to send out to other people. I haven't made up my mind yet what the fate of these three is going to be.

That is all I have for now... unless you, for some reason, want to talk about my new cream colored sheets...

As one door closes, Another opens.

See that? That is Mikaela's brand new big girl bed. We have known for a couple of months now that it was time to move her out of her dilapidated old crib and into a brand new big girl bed, but had to put it off for several reasons. One of those reasons was, in all honesty, money. The biggest reason for me though was me. I wasn't ready for my sweet baby princess angel to be a big girl.

It was time for me to face the facts though. She is potty training,(which for the record she initiated. I am not pushing her in the slightest!) She can talk in coherent sentences, and most importantly, every time we went to Ikea she begged for a big girl "jump-jump" of her very own. I let her pick her bed and she chose this bed. We purchased it at Ikea. It is adjustable. It starts out a toddler length/twin width bed and can be extended two times until it is a standard twin sized bed. The mattress even comes in segments so that you don't have a bunch of extra mattress hanging around.

Mikaela even picked the bedding that she wanted. She picked it cause it had a hippo on it. What a cute way to pick your bedding!

Owen and I put the bed together in the living room while Mikaela slept in her crib. Then we moved it into her bedroom while she slept, and transferred her into it. Of course the noise of moving a bed into her room woke her up, so she knew exactly what was going on...

The conversation pretty much went like this:

Me "Mikaela, your bed is ready. Do you wanna sleep in your big girl bed?"
Mikaela "Jump-jump?"
Me "Yep. Do you want me to move you out of your crib now?"
Mikaela "Up please."



She immediately made herself comfortable.



We tucked her into her bed.



She was asleep in her bed before I even stopped snapping pictures. Goodnight my sweet big girl princess angel.

76-100

Ok, so it just occurred to me that once upon a time I started a meme that was 100 facts about me. 1-25 were about my life pre-high school, 26-50 were about my life in high school, 51-75 were about my life after high school but before Owen. I promised that 76-100 would be about life now. Then I never did 76-100. This is going to change that!

76. I met Owen at Shinai. I saw him first. He was wearing khaki pants and a shirt with two dragons intertwined to make a yin-yang symbol. The first thing I saw of him was his back. I have a thing for the back half of a man. If he has strong shoulders and a great butt, I am doomed. The view was fantastic. My first thought was "I wonder if the front is half as nice as the back." Then he turned around. My second thought was "Holy crap. The front is even better!"

77. The first thing Owen ever said to me was "Hi, I'm Owen. You are probably gonna slap me for this, but I was just wondering if your breasts are real cause they are amazing!" The first thing I said to him was "Hi! I am Jaclyn. Yes they are real, wanna feel?"

78. I wanted to date Owen right away. I was already starting to date Eric, but I figured that I wasn't in an exclusive relationship with him, so I could date both. That lasted for about 3 weeks.

79. Owen and I spent the majority of our first date on the roof of the school across the street from his parents house. Earlier that night we did spend some time at a park. Then we ended up at his house, and on the roof of the school. We sat there until the sun came up. We talked about everything. I waited all night for him to kiss me. Finally as the sun came up over the hills, I got tired of waiting. I kissed him just as the sun broke the horizon.

80. Not to long after that things got serious between Eric and I and for the better part of the next year I only saw Owen 4 or 5 times.

81. After the crazy year of dating Eric and Paul, Owen and I finally started dating, but not exclusively. He was dating two other girls. One was totally in love with him, and also totally insane. The other was just to moody.

82. Owen tried to break up with all three of us. It was just to hard to juggle 3 girls. Especially since all of our names started with J. He tried to break up with me last. I asked him if he had waited till last to break up with me. He said yes. I informed him that we were not breaking up then. We were gonna date exclusively. He told me I was delusional. By the next Friday we were an exclusive couple.

83. After all the chaos that I talked about at the end of 51-75, Owen moved me into his parents house. They were not happy and forbid us to sleep in the same room. I slept in Owen's room and he slept on the couch. If we wanted to both sleep in the bed, the door had to be open. They thought it would keep us from "fooling around" in their house. They were wrong. VERY WRONG.

84. After a while it became obvious that living with his parents was not gonna work for me. His dad and brother didn't get along with me very well. So Owen talked to his friends. His friends Ling and Neal were willing to take me in. They lived in a 1 bedroom apartment with their 18 month old son. At the time I had no job, but I was looking. I slept on the floor of their apartment. Most nights so did Owen.

85. After a while I got a job. Then things started to go badly between Ling and me. She was unhappy that I wouldn't do what she wanted me to do when she wanted me to. If I was going to a party, she wanted me home by 10. If I had to work, she wanted me home within an hour of getting off work. I didn't drive. I was at the mercy of the public transit system or friends for rides. I reminded her that I was an adult and that since I had gotten a job, I had been contributing to the house. I told her she needed to back off. She showed me the door. (For the record, I am not the only one of our friends to have issues trying to live with Ling.)

86. During the last few weeks of me living at Ling and Neal's house Owen and I fought alot. He didn't know if he should side with the girl he was in love with or his friend of more than 10 years. During one of our fights, I was packing my stuff up cause I figured that we were breaking up and I wasn't gonna live at his friends house if we weren't together. All of a sudden he stopped yelling. I turned around to see if he had left the room. He was right next to me. He said "stop. Don't go, I love you and want to be with you. Forever. Will you marry me?" I couldn't believe it. Here we are breaking up and he is proposing to me, with a black hair tie for a ring????? I said yes. Ling and Neal thought we were crazy.

87. Apparently Ling and Neal weren't the only ones who thought we were crazy. Everyone had something to say about us getting married and almost none of it was good. My parents were worried that if I married a Pagan, I would fall away from God. His parents were worried that we had only been dating for a few months and that we just didn't know each other well enough yet. There were other opinions too... we ignored everyone.

88. After we got engaged Owen's parents stopped fighting us sleeping in the same room. Around that time I admitted to Owen that the condoms we were using were making me progressively more and more sick. I knew I was allergic to latex, but at the time I didn't know that each exposure makes the allergy worse. We discussed it and decided that since we planned to spend forever together, we were gonna stop using protection and just see what happened.

89. One night while we were lying in bed we decided right then and there to get in the car and drive to Vegas. We decided we were gonna move there and so we drove out to look for jobs and an apartment. Two weeks later we lived in Vegas in a studio apartment about 3 miles from the strip.

90. Shortly after we got to Vegas we found out we were pregnant with Alexander, although at the time we thought he was gonna be an Anastasia. We decided to get married before we gave birth. We called our parents and warned them that in two weeks we were gonna get married, and that if they wanted to be there for it, they could, but we only wanted parents there.

91. On May 15th, 2003 Owen and I became husband and wife at little chapel called Wee kirk O' the Heathers. It was beautiful. The guy who filled out the paperwork looked like Ryan Seacrest. Half way thought the ceremony I asked the minister to stop. My moms camera had run out of film and I knew it would take forever for her to change it. I had them wait for her. Owen thought it was funny. When the Minister told Owen he could now kiss the bride, he headbutted me. Not hard... but still. Then he did kiss me.

92. Shortly after that we decided to move home to SoCal. I was pregnant and homesick. We moved into a one bedroom apartment in Anaheim.

93. On November 21 2003, Alexander was born.

94. On December 16 2005, Aeddon was born.

95. On February 6 2006, Owen joined the US Army. He was gone at basic until April. I drove across the country to Ft. Sill OK to see him graduate all by myself in 2.5 days. I had the boys with me. It was chaos.

96. Our first duty station was in El Paso, Texas. I hated El Paso, but absolutely treasure some of the people I met there.

97. On April 24 2007, Mikaela was born.

98. In March of 2008, Owen re classed to become a Medic in the US Army. He went to school at Ft. Sam Houston, which is in San Antonio. He graduated from school in July of 2008. I drove across Texas to watch his graduation. The night before we left, someone broke the back window on the van we owned. I drove across the state with a piece of plastic taped over the window. The kids thought it was great. They didn't care what was going on around them. They had daddy back!

99. After graduation, the Army moved Owen and our family across the country again, to Ft. Lewis Washington. We love it here and are trying to figure out how to stay here.

100. We are expecting Liam sometime in May. I am gonna fight my doctors to not have him until at least May 1st. This should be fun.


So that is my life from start till now. I moved quickly though the stuff I have already blogged a little about. I hope that this list of 100 juicy tidbits will help you all understand what makes me, well me.

Blah.

I have the blahs. I have had the blahs for almost two weeks. The weird thing is, I shouldn't have the blahs.

Everyone knows what the blahs are, right? Yeah. I figured you all would.

See here is the thing. This is an exciting time of year for me. Owen gets enlistment bonuses and tax returns (we are getting the most this year that we have ever gotten by quite a bit!) New furniture is being purchased. This includes, but is not limited to: a new desk, a big girl bed for Mikaela, a new entertainment center (and a flatscreen to go in it!) and book shelves. All of our bills are being paid off. Nobody should be calling us anymore asking "when are you going to pay us?" Baby Liam will be here in about 3 months. I have lots of things I want to make and do before he comes.

See exciting stuff. Instead I can only focus on the negatives. We broke the last snappi and Mikaela is having to wear disposables, which give her a rash. Getting new furniture means moving stuff around to fit it in. This means I have to unpack all the boxes I have been ignoring since we had nowhere to put the contents.

I have a swap that I am helping to run on Ravelry. Each package going out contains coffee/tea and yarn and other valentines themed goodies. This should be a good thing, right? Well I dont wanna mail out the stuff I got for my swap partner. She and I have similar tastes in things (except that she doesnt like the smell of vanilla and I would make the whole world vanilla scented if I could) and I love everything I got for her and love the handmade item I am including.

Owen started letting me go to a knit night at my LYS (local yarn store for you non-knitters) and while I love the group, I hate having to drive myself. I hate driving!

I realize how whiney this all sounds, which is why I havent been blogging. I am wondering if this is a pregnancy thing. I know each pregnancy is different, but I have always been excited at the end of my pregnancies, so I have no basis for comparison! What do you guys think? Do you think my blahs are pregnancy related, or is just how alot of people are feeling right now? IS there a blahs epidemic similar to the tummy bug that has been going around?

What do you think?

Shun the Nonbeliever!

Owen once told me that nothing good would ever come fro all the blog reading I do. And then I won a contest on Paige's blog.

This is my package that she sent me.



The card is super cute! And the Toffee is really yummy. I could sit there and eat 5 or 6 packages a day!

The hat, well that is special. It is for Baby Liam. It is tiny and adorable. By the way, Paige, the other kids all want one too! The hat is the first handmade thing (besides from me) that I have received for Baby Liam. It is probably the only thing I am going to receive since I don't know enough people here in Washington for anyone to throw me a baby shower! So this hat is going into the drawer full of special things I am collecting for Liam. I will post pictures of him in it as soon as I can put it on him!

Take that Owen! I told you good things come to Bloggers and those who read Blogs!

A mellow weekend.

So we had a mellow weekend around here at the Bailey household. I cleaned the kitchen, which is good cause I think some of my dishes were going to have a town council meeting to propose a dish washing ban to save their civilization. I nipped that one in the bud!

I spent part of the time knitting my first (successful) pair of longies for Baby Liam (yes we settled on Liam. We liked it as much as you all did!)



Aren't they cute! They are so tiny. They are a newborn size. Any other longies made for Liam will be a bigger size. My babies come out big. Aeddon weighed 10lbs 4oz at birth and Alexander weighed 8lbs 10oz. So the likely hood of Liam having need of anything smaller than a 0-3 months size more than once is pretty small. I am actually hoping that they will be part of his homecoming outfit. The yarn is a colorway called "Splash" from Yarnlust on etsy. I have knit with her yarn before and will no doubt use it for as long as she keeps dyeing it.

Also, when I cleaned the kitchen I got to put out the spoon holder I made when Owen's parents let us go out for a date night while they were visiting for Christmas.

See here we are out making our art at "Painted Plate" in Olympia.




And here is our finished art:


Owen's cup.


My spoon holder.

The spoon holder is actually rather fantastic. It holds even my largest spatulas and spoons. Less mess! YAY!

So yeah. That was pretty much our mellow weekend highlights.

Mikaela and the Banana.

Mikaela loves bananas. It is one of the three fruits she knows by name. (The other two are apples and oranges.)

Today a sad saga unfolded involving Mikaela, a banana, a key and the Dora the Explorer special called "Dora Saves Three Kings Day".


Mikaela, What are you doing?


MIKAELA! What are you doing to your banana????


Are you seriously eating your banana with the spare key to the van?


Poor banana! What did you ever do to deserve this treatment? All you wanted was to be a tasty snack!


Ok. I can see how sucking on a banana coated key could make a girl thirsty.


Poor abandoned banana. I wonder if Mikaela will ever actually eat you.


My guess would be no. A mangled banana is no match for "Dora Saves Three Kings Day".

$5 says that Mikaela will either feed this to the dog or he will just take it while she is distracted. I didn't even know dogs liked bananas until Riley.

Happy Anniversary!

This is Don and Carole. They are Owen's parents.

Today is Don and Carole's 36 th wedding anniversary. They have stuck together through thick and thin.

When Don had to stop working for the steam fitters union just weeks before being eligible for his pension, Carole said "Don't worry Don. Everything will work out fine" and then she kept working at as an executive secretary for the Vons/Safeway office in LA until she was eligible to retire.

When Carole's mother, Nanny Joan, could no longer live on her own Don helped Carole prep their guest room for Nanny Joan to move in. He never once complained about taking her to a doctors appointment, or about her constant presence in their home. (A huge part of that could just be because she was so thankful and sweet that she never felt like a burden to anyone, more of a feeling of joy with her presence... but I digress.)

Don and Carole have been there for us a lot over the (short by comparison) years of our marriage. If we were going through a rough patch and couldn't afford to pay our rent and still buy food, they would give us groceries.

They even packed up our apartment for us. When it was time for me to leave California and drive to OK to get Owen from basic training our apartment was less than half packed and still uncleaned. They told me to go and then they packed and cleaned our apartment for us. They packed all of our stuff into our storage unit I had rented and then when it was filled paid to upgrade us to a bigger unit so that all of our stuff would fit.



The point is that they are a wonderful couple who is an inspiration to all couples. They have a fantastic marriage based on trust and communication. I have never once seen or heard them have a major fight. When they do fight, they excuse themselves to their bedroom and then have their fight in hushed tones. They always emerge a few minutes later on the same page.... or at least with a compromise.

I only hope that one day my children will look at my marriage and think that we are as good an example of what marriage should be like .

Which fits better?

So we are having a boy right? Well we cant decide on a name. Actually we can't decide on a first name. Originally we had planned to name him Devon Ian Bailey. Devon is the first name of one of the boys I talked about here. Ian is the first name of the other. But the more I though about it, the more I disliked the idea. I didn't want to get a little sad everytime I saw or heard my babies name. Owen agreed. So now we have to pick a name.

We have the middle name and the last name. (DUH.) What we are having trouble picking is the first name. I think we have it narrowed down to two names.

Liam and Mason.

So when you put it together you get either Liam Rhys Bailey or Mason Rhys Bailey. What are we gonna pick?

Which fits better with our family?

So far we are:

Owen Trevor
Jaclyn Aurianna
Alexander Logan
Aeddon Trevor
Mikaela Leigh

So which one fits best?
I can't choose.
Owen can't choose.

DO YOU HAVE ANY INPUT?