Too hot to blog.

Holy cow, I don't think this summer is EVER going to end. (Of course, give it another six months and I will be whining about winter.) Here's what we've been up to...

• My little sister Laura came for a week-long visit, which was filled with fun, sunscreen, and pancake mix. People, I have the BEST sisters. I didn't take enough pictures, though.
• We went to the State Fair. It was the hottest day in recorded history, and we all basically died of the sweats.
  
  
  
  It took milkshakes from the Dairy Barn to restore the natural balance (and chocolateyness) of the universe.
• The kids started school on, consecutively, the two hottest days in recorded history. Porter actually began kindergarten the day after Betsy commenced second grade, so I didn't get to take an official 'first day of school' pic of them together. They are both pretty cute, though. The year is still new enough that they are actually excited about school. And Porter shocked the heck out of me at his 'kindergarten orientation' that I went to with him... his teacher asked him to write his name on a piece of paper and draw a picture of himself, and he actually did it. (This is the kid who usually throws a fit if you get him within ten feet of a crayon.)
• Then, on the hottest day in recorded history, we went to Conner Prairie. Laura and I each brought an American Girl doll in historical garb, and we had lots of fun setting them up for photos.
• I've been to the pool a LOT - we went four times in a week while Laura was visiting. I've actually gotten a tan line, something I usually avoid by deploying the SPF A Zillion.
• I'm completely earwormed with this song. Curse you, Amazon and your free MPS downloads! It's just a gateway drug!
• I've watched a lot of TV miniseries/movies this summer. I went through all of Band of Brothers again, then Lost in Austen (it wasn't good, but they managed to make Wickham really sexy), then Little Dorrit (it was so cute), plus Matt and I watched the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended edition, of course).
• I wrote some fanfiction, too.
• I've been doing a lot of sewing, down in the basement to avoid the highest temperatures in recorded history, although I would do it anyway. I actually made a dress for myself: Seen here against the lovely backdrop of my shower curtain. But look at that fabric! It's all sewing notions! And it's Alexander Henry, of course.
• I'm sewing a lot of doll clothes, too. Actually,August has been a really good month for me, sales-wise. I've been selling them on both eBay (woo hoo free listing fees) and Etsy, and I think I have shipped like ten dresses this month. I made this one for a summer-themed sewing swap on American Girl Playthings, and as soon as the recipient posted pictures (her photographs are much better than mine) I had like three more people contact me and ask me to make them one. So I've been working on that.
• My little girl's hair went curly this summer. I'm not sure if it's due to the hottest summer in recorded history - we'll see if it stays that way when autumn hits - but boy is it cute. Amy's completely fixated on baby dolls, and she's also been practicing her animal noises. This video was taken when a bunch of Blinns were here for the day (watch to the end for bonus Miles!)
• It's been an exciting summer for my side of the family. One of my sisters got engaged, another one found out she's having girls (plural), my sister-in-law is having a baby pretty much any day now, and after thirty-one years Dad got the fat envelope from Kodak. As for us, we are working on getting Betsy prepared for her baptism in December, and planning our trip to Disney at the end of October. I'm sure this heat will end soon!

It's the (second) most wonderful time of the year

What, you thought I meant Christmas? I'm talking about clearance time! January/February and July/August are when I do most of my shopping for the kids: when the previous seasons are being cleared out of the stores (to make room for, y'know, swimsuits in January) I buy up all their clothes for the next year and store them in those big Rubbermaid totes, along with all of my Goodwill and garage-sale finds. I get a lot of good stuff for ridiculously low prices and my kids haven't figured out yet that their clothes are always a year out of style. Generally, something has to be at least 50% off to catch my eye (unless it's something that's harder to find, like coats or pajamas). Today I went to Target, Old Navy (all their baby clearance is an extra 50% off!) and Walmart (I know! I hardly ever shop at Walmart. I'm not one of those anti-Walmart people, I just don't like their stores. Although the gear oil lawsuit thing is probably not necessarily their fault. When quality control analysts do their job, everybody wins. But I digress) and brought home a seriously good haul. And since I had nothing else to blog about except complaining about all the snow, I thought I'd share.

I came home with a huge pile of clothes for Porter - adjustable waist cords, buttondown shirts, a hoodie and some other goodies - for like twenty bucks. Given that he hasn't outgrown all of his size 3's yet and they may be good for another year, I think his fall/winter '09 wardrobe is pretty much set.

Betsy is a little more difficult, since she's at the awkward age between toddler and tween. Call me crazy but I don't like the idea of decking out my little six-year-old in Hannah Montana or High School Musical. It's hard to find anything good for her, let alone on clearance. But I picked up some cute velour trackpants ($5) and a huge stack of long-sleeved T shirts ($3 each) at Walmart. Since the shirts are plain, I think I'll dress them up with some of my scrapbook supplies. Goodness knows I have enough foam stamps, ribbons, and buttons laying around that I can spare a few. Who wouldn't love to have a bunch of unique, custom-designed tops?

Okay, these were for me. I couldn't decide between the black and the yellow, so I got them both. In my defense, they were five dollars a pair (which is the exact same price of a pair of shoes at Goodwill). A little different from my usual style but I think they're so cool and vintagey-looking: you'd have to be dead inside not to love the little ruffles on the vamp! My sister Emily is always telling me that I need to get over my fear of ballet flats (Emily loves ballet flats. Emily got married in a pair of ballet flats. Even though her husband is like eight inches taller than her) and that there's nothing wrong with a little toe cleavage. I'm not sure if these technically qualify as ballet flats because they have that darling narrow strap and a kitten heel that you can't see but I'm not a shoe person so I don't know what else you'd call them.

So, just when I thought I'd get away with a minimal amount of damage, I discovered the toy clearance at Wal Mart, which was marked down an extra 50%. I thought I'd take a peek and see if there was anything worth putting in storage for a future gift giving occasion. I ended up having so much that a complete stranger (a really nice lady) went to the front of the store to get a cart for me, because I couldn't put it all in the stroller.

I picked up this neat, insanely detailed jungle playset for Porter's birthday in April (fifteen dollars). Check out the spider web! And the rocks shaped like a gorilla!
A radio-controlled car, also for the P-man's birthday (fifteen bucks). I think it will be a lot of fun in the basement, where there's hard floors and lots of wide open spaces. And being that he's a guy, he does love the remote control.
A ball-rolly thing for Amy's first birthday (twelve-fifty). It plays really annoying music when you roll the ball down the track. Think I'll be taking the batteries out of this one.

Oh, and the much-coveted Barbie MyHouse that Betsy originally wanted for Christmas but didn't get because Santa didn't feel like buying all the little furniture sets separately. (Don't feel to sorry for Betsy - she got a bunch of art stuff instead.) It was packaged together with the living room and dining room sets for a whole seventeen dollars, and I got the last one. Poor Betsy is going to have an awfully hard time waiting for her birthday to get here.
So, blog-readers, what are you shopping for these days? While you're at it you may want to pick up some mouth socks, which is what all the cool kids are wearing these days. Everyone knows only lame-o's put their socks on their feet...

Random things I'm loving right now

1. My new job - I get paid to do lab stuff all day! I've learned a bunch of new tests (they have an automatic titrator! I guess a QC lab has slightly more budget than an environmental lab) and I more or less know what I'm doing. If I had to go back to work it's nice to have something I actually enjoy.

2. New products from American Crafts

3. My minty new sewing machine: It has a blindhem and a stretch stitch! It has a light and a built-in thread cutter! It does zippers and buttonholes! (Meaning I no longer have an excuse not to make dresses for Betsy.) And it was on sale from Hancock's with free shipping. I just wish it would have arrived sooner so I could play with it more before I started working, but I'll deal with that. I think I need to find a sturdier workspace than a cheapie card table in the corner of my bedroom, because once this machine really gets going (variable speed! how 'bout that?) the whole assembly starts to shake violently.






4. Baby fat - hers, not mine.


5. Last Comic Standing on Thursday nights - although I can't believe the Israeli prop comic didn't make it to the next round.


6. My organized kitchen, now that I finally put all this stuff up last week.

I think we only spent about $15 at IKEA for all the parts (and I still have an extra wire basket that I will mount directly on the wall once I get some more wall anchors). I think the whole system would work great for a craft room, too, if you're lucky enough to have a craft room!

7. Baby elephants

8. Cheez Its - I hadn't eaten them for years and I've recently rediscovered how delicious they are. How crazy is that? They have to be the real thing, though, and not Cheese Nips or the store brand.

9. Betsy's new obsession with numbers. She took 11 bites of her scrambled eggs last night. The other day she hopped on one foot 33 times. Why 33 times? Because her daddy is 33, that's why. She's figuring out addition, too. We did some adding and subtracting with M&M's a few days ago but I think the only lesson she learned is that chocolate is delicious.

10. Blogger taking four or five attempts to publish my post (Oh sorry, this was supposed to be about things I love. That was a thing I don't love!)

I also have a son.

Looking through this blog I realized I haven't posted any pictures of Porter in, like, forever. Seeking to remedy that, I have this to share with you:
It's like a whole bunch of pictures, shown in rapid succession to create the impression of motion! And with sound, even!

Oh Danny boy, oh boy oh boy... oh Danny.

I don't really get into St. Patrick's Day, and how could I? There's no chocolate involved. I don't have very much green in my wardrobe, and none of it fits my rapidly expanding girth anyway. I can't tell the difference between Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly. I've never drunk green beer, and I never will. But THIS is pretty much the funniest thing I've EVER seen.

In other news, Betsy lost her other bottom front tooth last night. It didn't really seem like it was loose enough, but apparently it was. I'm glad that the tooth came out because it's been bothering her lately - I actually had to put Orajel in her mouth the night before (thank goodness I have, like, three half-used tubes of the stuff).

I felt one of Amy's toes last night - how weird is that? She gets really active when I lay down to go to bed, and I like to amuse myself by playing Guess The Body Part. She was kicking, and I got ahold of something tiny and round - I've never felt anything like that before. I can only assume it's one of her piggies. I'm guessing it's the one that went to market, but until modern medical science figures out a way to install a Plexiglass viewing window in my womb, all I can do is poke around a whole bunch. I've also discovered that Amy doesn't really like me using my belly as a table. Whenever I rest a book or a plate or something on top of my girth, she tries her hardest to kick it off. Gee, baby, I'm sorry if I've inconvenienced you.