Watermelon The Tutorial

I stole this watermelon.  Okay I didn't steal it.  Stealing is wrong.  My friends left it here.  We didn't get around to eating it last night when we bbq'ed.  So they forgot it and I ate it.  Well I had help.  And I would have gotten away with it too had I not felt the need to take pictures so I could show you what I was talking about.  I got asked how I cut up my watermelon.  I tried explaining my technique but sometimes I have trouble with words.  So here is my pictorial.   Please follow these instructions VERY CAREFULLY!  This comes from someone who cut up their hand on a pumpkin.  Veggies can be dangerous.  

Mmm Watermelon.  Knife and spoon.

Cut watermelon in half.

With a knife slice horizontal lines down about an inch apart.  And here is where my daughter 

reminds me "Don't cut yourself MOM!"

When you are done with your lines it will look like this.

Then turn your watermelon and make the same lines and you will end up with a grid.

Kind of looks like graph paper.

Then take a spoon and dig it in.

Scoop out.

Keep going.

You will have little rectangular chunks of watermelon.  This technique works well for me with minimal juice on the counter.  

Ps.  Thanks for the watermelon!  

Trinkets and Other Pretties

Crafting time comes in spurts with me.  Hubby was out of town for a night last week and I found myself with a few hours of time with nothing planned.  I posted a pic of the aftermath of what my counter looked like.  I am happy to report that it has all been cleaned up and balance and harmony has been restored.

It all started with a trip to the hardware store that morning.  I love LOVE love going to the hardware store!  I love the faces and the quizzical looks I get when I ask employees about stuff and they have NOOO idea what I am talking about.  For example:

Me:  Excuse me...Do these washers have lead in them?  The package would say right?

Nice Employee:  Yes they would be clearly labeled.  Those are zinc coated.  They do not have lead.  Uhhh what are you using it for?  (Here is where they want to impart some of their hardware knowledge on me)

Me:  I'm going to make a necklace out of it.

Nice Employee:  (Nodding head)  Okay then...

And then they usually walk off because they have no idea what I am talking about and probably think I am crazy.  It happens a lot.  I'm used to it.

Duct Tape is awesome!

I found that my cricut cuts rectangles out with holes in the corner that is perfect for making little book pendants!  

Just add a cover and a jump ring!

Tada!  Cute right?  I love this one!  

That was kind of a surprise craft.  One of those ones that just comes to mind and the Heavens sing type of a moment.  

Here are the books stacked.  

I had originally went to the store to buy washers for necklaces because I wanted to make something a long the lines of these.  

"Mother" in different languages.  Looks fuzzy in the picture though.  

This one was made with a Pirates of the Caribbean themed scrapbook paper. It has the Pirate code of Captain Jack on it.  I loved the last one which was IX.  Ye shall wear clean underbritches.

I had made some more washer necklaces but I had made them with paper I had printed on my inkjet printer and heartbreak followed because the ink ran.  I wasn't a fan of how the others turned out.  Like I say for every cool craft I do there are 5 in the garage no one sees.  

I also worked on perfecting my Tree of Life pendents that I saw on Craftster.

This one was the one I made for my Mom with some Turquoise that they had picked up for me a few years ago when they went through Arizona.  

Overall I think it was a great use of my free evening which spurred three days of crafting off and on.  

What Do I Do Now?

Both of my lovelies are asleep already.  The house is quiet and once again I am left with one of those quiet contemplate-able (<--spell checker just told me thats not a word) moments.  So what am I doing with my free time?

Sitting here.

I would be all about the thinking except that the cold medicine I am currently on seems to be turning my brain to mush.  I feel better today than I did yesterday and I felt better yesterday than I did on Tuesday.  Everything in my head was swollen on Tuesday and I didn't feel like doing much of anything.  I still did the usual Laundry and Dishes routine.  But I was a mess.  At first I was convinced that it was allergies but since it has gotten worse and everyone in the house seems to have it, I am going with cold.  Colds in the Summer suck!  Not like they are a picnic during any other season but it's more comforting drinking hot tea when it's not in the 90's outside.

It has seemed to knock poor Hubby out too.  He was up in the early hours this morning because the cold had woken him up so tonight he headed to bed at 8!  Clover was in bed at 9 which is late for her but she had a nap in the car (the ONLY place she naps) on the way home from the splash park today.  She is a bit sniffly but doesn't seem to be as bad as Hubby and I.  The rest will do them both some good.

Since Hubby is out in dreamland that frees up the airwaves in the house so I can listen to whatever I want.  I don't really feel like listening to anything though.  It's on as background noise for now.  That and the drippy bathtub which I should really get fixed.

So I could go and clean something although I don't want to make too much noise, and I'm tired so I don't really feel like cleaning although it might be easier without someone walking behind you messing it up again.  I could browse the internet although when I do that I just find projects I want to add on the never ending list!  Speaking of the list, I knocked off some projects while Hubby was out of town the other day.  When he is gone I get restless...so I craft.  Some projects came out of no where and turned out great and some didn't turn out so I scrapped them.

This is what my kitchen counter looked like.

I don't know why he hasn't left me either?

I know you all feel bad for my poor Hubby now huh?  I had every intention of cleaning it all up before he got home but I just didn't get to it.  Part of it was that I was in the zone and the other part was that I was to sick to care.  

I was amazed that he didn't say anything when he got home.  I think he realized that it's just better not to hassle me while I'm in the zone.  Kind of like how you shouldn't take a bone from a dog.  I think he might have been afraid that I was going to bite him.  

Still sitting here.  The cursor blinking at me.  I think that it would probably be a good idea to call it a night and get some shut eye.  Or possibly browse the web some more.  Who knows.    

        

Conversations with 4 Year Old

Last night we were reading "Where The Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak.  There is a line in the book when the forest starts to take over Max's room: "until the ceiling hung with vines..."

Clover pops up "Mom there aren't even any vines in this story!"

Sure enough we finished the book and she was right.  There is not a single vine in any of the illustrations. I guess as an adult I am too focused on the words of the story and not the pictures.  You would  think since it was published in 1963 someone else would have notice that?

********************

Clover:  Mom help me with my bathing suit!

Me:  It's too cold to get in the pool right now.

Clover:  But I want to do the hula!

Me:  What does that have to do with anything?

Clover:  Because you do the hula at the beach...and you need a bathing suit at the beach.

Me:  But we are not at the beach.

Clover:  But I need it to do the HULLLLAAAA!

At this point I figured it was useless to argue with the logic of a four year old.

********************

Hubby:  I don't know what I want to do today.  I want to go to the movies...or maybe shopping.

Me:  You're just restless.

Hubby:  Maybe

Me:  We could go to the (I spelled it out because I was just throwing it out there and didn't want Clover to get too excited) D-I-S-N-E-Y store and spoil your daughter.

Clover:  I LOVE GOING TO THE DISNEY STORE!  CAN WE GO?!?

I'm dumbfounded.  When did she learn how to spell Disney?  I'm not sure if I should be proud or scared?

In Season

One of the great things about living where I live is the fresh produce from farms literally right down the street.  It's awesome.  The sucky part is dealing with the allergies from the pollen but right now even though I can't breathe through my nose until my zyrtec kicks in, I am choosing to focus on the positive.

We hit a strawberry stand on Thursday.  My eyes were way bigger than my stomach which has been a problem for me.  As soon as I got out of the car, I could smell the warm strawberry scented air.  I just stood there and soaked it in for a minute.  When I got to the counter I had already made up my mind that I wanted a full flat.  Twelve baskets of farm fresh literally just picked from the farm strawberries.  Twelve baskets for three people.  As we were driving back home I realized that I bought to much.  Then I felt bad because I didn't want to waste all that goodness.

We had to stop by Osh on the way home to pick up a toilet flapper to fix the ghost toilet.  While we were at Osh I found the canning isle and decided that I could make jam!  I got really excited!  And then immediately really intimidated.  I skipped the canning process and went for freezer jam which is pretty easy to make and I don't have to worry about sanitizing and properly handling jars and boiling and all of that.  What I should have picked up was Pectin.  Since I have never made jam before I didn't realize I needed it.  So in the end I got a thick strawberry sauce/spread.  Which is still very tasty.  

Hull the berries and put them in a pan.  Mash.  I added an apple for natural Pectin and some honey for sweetness.  I cooked until the apple was mush then I hit it with a stick blender.  I added another basket of mushed strawberries back to the mix for some chunkies.

Once it was cooled I added it to the washed freezer jars.

I still had six baskets left.

So I whipped up some cream and we went outside after dinner.  

I've got three baskets left...what else can I do with them?

The Cricut Came Out

The other day I found myself without internet.  Hubby had to demo some gear and needed a piece of our home network.  Somehow before he left the router went down and we were left with no Internets!  I remained calm and knew we would survive.  I didn't realize how productive I would end up being without my computer distracting me.  My Cricut came out and I actually made time to get crafty.  Getting crafty while Clover is awake can be tricky but if I wait until the end of the day after she goes to bed I'm usually to tapped to work on anything.  It felt good to get to some of the projects I had on my list to finish.

A while ago I had seen some art on website that I was interested in.  They where silhouettes of the Disney Princesses on canvas.  They were simple but pretty and twenty bucks a pop plus shipping.  If I wanted all four I would have shelled out about a hundred bucks for art to put on my daughter's wall.  So I told myself I could do the same thing but cheaper.  On one of our craft store trips I found some canvas on sale.  Since it wasn't on top of my craft list they sat in the corner for awhile.  I wanted to finish them in time for Chlover's birthday but that didn't happen.  Since the internet was out I didn't have any excuse not to work on them.  I borrowed my friend's princess cartridges to cut out the princesses.  The original plan for the canvases kind of morphed over time.  They went from silhouette boards to quote boards.

Tiana

I paraphrased this one a bit so it would fit on the board.  

I love that scene from the movie!

Belle

"I want adventure in the great wide somewhere"

Cinderella

"Have faith in your dreams and someday your rainbow will come smiling through"

  
The longest part of this project was glueing all the words done.  Letters done with the Plantin School cartridge.  The fourth board I painted with the same pink as the Tiana board but I used it as a picture board.  I put some of our character pictures from Disneyland on it.  Or at least the ones that the printer would let me print before it started eating all of my paper.

I also was able to whip up a dance bag for our Dino loving pal!

 
The dinos are from my Create a Critter cartridge.  I cut the letters and shapes out on contact paper and then use that as a stencil.  Next time I will pick another color than black.  Even though I used white as a base first I still had a hard time trying to get the colors to pop out.

The Cricut has since been put back in it's special spot but I did find another cartridge I liked so it may be coming back out from hiding.  

Another Chapter: We Bought a Cake!

It's probably something that someone should never have to buy a cake for.  We wanted to celebrate.  It's not necessarily the end of our journey but it is a milestone that we wanted to celebrate.  To us it's kind of a big deal.

It says "Yay No More AFP Tests!"

Clover got to pick the cake out and she wanted the chocolate chocolate cake with the pretty pretty flowers on it.  I wanted to draw a needle with the big NO sign through it but it would have gotten lost in all the pretty pretty flowers.

Thursday we got the call that her Tumor markers were down.  They have been down for awhile but we were still testing to make sure.  The doctor said last year that we were testing too often to this was the first test we had done in six months.  Since they have been down she said we should stop testing all together.

It is great news and a huge deal for us.

Our little roller coast ride started when my darling Clover was born.    

Every month for the first two years of her life we spent an hour in a lab waiting to get her blood taken.  It was a monthly ritual that I dreaded.  The first time we went to lab at our local Children's hospital only to find out that they didn't take our insurance.  They told us that any of the labs on under our insurance should be able to get her blood taken.  This proved easier said than done.  I went to a lab that said they were capable of taking blood from a newborn.  I held my daughter down as the tech tried to take her blood.  The needle was so large that if she missed she was going to push that thing right through my baby's arm.  She tried four times and then yelled at me because I wasn't holding my screaming baby the way she wanted me too.  I went home and balled.  During our check up with our surgeon I told him about the trouble I was having finding a lab and he told me how important it was to get her tested and then said he would call the insurance for me.  I gave it one more shot and called every lab in the town and asked them if they had specifically pediatric experience.  I found one guy.  He was able to take her blood with one poke and with a much smaller needle.  He was our guy from then on and I would call every month to find out if he was in and if he wasn't in when he would be in.  Once a month I practically stalked him.

When her first test was taken her AFP numbers where in the 400's.  A normal person's is under 35.  They steadily went down until she was ten months where they mysteriously spiked.  They went from 127 to 215.  Our small team jumped into action and scheduled an MRI to look for signs of growth.  Handing my daughter over to the nurses was one of the hardest things we have ever had to do.  We waited for hours in the waiting room.  When we got the call back that there was nothing there we were a bit surprised.  They could never explain the spike in her markers.  We were also a bit taken back when they said that she possibly had a collapsed lung.  At first I stressed out but then staring at daughter I knew she didn't have a collapsed lung because she was very good at letting me know when she wasn't happy.  She has always been a very loud child.  There was no way she wasn't using both of her lungs.  We went back for an X-ray and hearing her yell about putting her down on the X-ray table the tech told me that as loud as she was she probably didn't have a collapsed lung.  I laughed.  I already knew that.  They called back and said that it was probably due to shallow breathing due to the anesthesia.  She was fine.

Before she was three they said that we were testing too often and that we could back down to every three months.  This was good news to me.  It meant that I would only have to stress out every three months instead of twice a month.  Once to go and get her test and then the three days after waiting for the results.

As she got older she become very curious about the blood test.  At one point she told everyone she wanted to be a doctor.  There was one time where she was so interested in what the Phlebotomist was doing that she didn't notice that she was getting poked.  That was the only time she didn't cry.  I think I felt worse.  I felt like had gotten so used to it.  I took her to go and get ice cream because I felt so bad.

We've always been very honest with her about what happened.  She was very curious at a young age to why she had to go to the doctors office and the lab so often.  We told her that she was born with a large tumor on her butt-butt and that she had surgery on the day she was born, and that the blood tests were to make sure that it wasn't coming back.  She seems okay with that explanation.

Last year her numbers were under 18 but would bounce around a bit.  The doctor didn't seemed to worried about it since they were still under 35.  She consulted an Oncologist who said that once again we were testing too often and to wait six months this time.  She also said that if her numbers were still down this next time around that we would be done with testing.  Fast forward to last week where they were down.

There was a big collective "Yaaaaaaaaaaay" and a chocolate chocolate cake with pretty pretty flowers.  I know that this is always going to be something that we have to check up on but it's nice to have it in the background and not having to constantly worry about it.  It's nice to worry about normal kid stuff like making sure the slice of cake she gets isn't TOO large!  Not that it really matters, she only eats the frosting anyways.