Greasy food and goats

Must be State Fair time again!
We've done the fair so many times now that Matt and I don't even need to look at a map or consult each other to plan out the day. It goes: kill time in Pioneer Village until Little Hands opens; Little Hands on the Farm; the rest of Riley Fun Park; mini golf in the FFA building; look at fish in the DNR building; ride a midway ride or two; eat some greasetacular foods for lunch; Mom hits the used book sale in the Home and Family Arts building; then the animal barns and finally the exhibits in the Grand Hall.

We sure do love us some fair food. Elephant ears, cheese fries, pulled pork and as always the delicious milkshakes from the Dairy Bar (which are only $2.50 and worth every brain-freezin' penny).

New this year, Porter got to go on a ride with Dad, and Betsy is big enough to ride all by herself. We let each of the kids choose one - Porter went with the bumblebees while Betsy chose the faux-hot-air-balloons before we even got there (don't ask me how she remembered them from last year). Because the tickets are only sold in fours, Betsy got to go on the bees too. Yes, this is fundamentally unfair; fortunately, Porter hasn't cottoned on to the fact yet.

Also, this year I availed myself of the 'Lactation Stations' thoughtfully provided by the Indiana Milk Bank and La Leche people. They set up a few tents scattered around the fairground with fans (although it wasn't too hot yesterday - I think it only got up to 82) and a changing table and rocking chairs and FREE BOTTLED WATER, because as you may or may not know, nursing makes a person KILLER THIRSTY. And while I'm not shy about nursing my baby wherever it needs to be done, I do appreciate the thought. Although I still think that they need one inside of the Dairy Barn.

I let Amy have a few tastes of vanilla milkshake - she really seemed to like it.

I always look forward to the used book sale - I have no idea who sponsors it or whom it benefits, but there's always a smallish room full of shelves and it's a quarter for paperbacks, fifty cents for hardbacks. I always find something good - I've gotten Hannah Fowler and A Tree Grows In Brooklyn and All The Trouble In The World and a lot of neat vintage sewing books. (I seem to have inadvertently started collecting old sewing books - goes along nicely with my old chemistry books. Or actually, has nothing at all to do with my old chemistry books.) This year I found the 1960s revision of a really cool 1950s sewing book that I got last year, and also The Bishop Method. And some novels which I'll read at work, although I'm only four chapters into Breaking Dawn so I really have no business reading anything else (except for the scriptures OF COURSE.)

I also got A LOT of scrapbooking done this weekend. Only for some reason Blogger won't let me add any more images to this post, so you'll have to wait on my creative genius. I think we're getting a new scanner later this week, anyway, so I will have lots of pages to share!

Happy

Amy knows how to laugh now. She was looking at me the other day and just busted out chuckling. It's the best sound in the world, is it not? Actually, science needs to find a way to bottle babies' laughter, because in pill form I'm pretty sure it would actually cure cancer.

I'm glad that Amy is happy, because she's had a pretty rough week. She pretty much refused to take any bottles from the sitter, so she was RAVENOUS by the time I got home each day. She's had a pretty nasty diaper rash so maybe she was too upset to eat, or maybe it's my newfound love of onions that's the problem. I've recently discovered that I can make caramelized onions in my own kitchen - the trick is to use a lot of butter - and I can't get enough. The other day, for example, I did the onions and tossed in some black beans, cut up chicken, barbecue sauce and cilantro and made it all into quesadillas. YUM. But I don't think Amy enjoyed it so much.

I finally took the plunge last week and got all my hair cut off. SHORT. I will post a picture as soon as I figure out where I left the camera, but I also need some blonde highlights pretty badly. Porter told me that it looks "horrible" (did he mean adorable? I don't know) but Betsy was more diplomatic. "I love you..." she says, all serious-like, "but I don't like your hair." Personally, I'm a bit on-the-fence about it. I was going for the Mia-Farrow-in-Rosemary's-Baby cut, which would look really cute but I seem to have the wrong hair for it - it keeps trying to poof up in the front, early-nineties style. Maybe it will look better when the front is longer. At any rate, it's much, much easier to deal with when getting up at four-thirty in the morning.

Porter has actually started to use the potty a bit - many of his compatriots are already fully trained but he's light years ahead of where Betsy was at the same age, so I feel all right about it. We went to Target today - because it's a Friday and that's what we do on Fridays - to pick him out some big boy underpants. Porter chose Buzz Lightyear, same as his Halloween costume (that I bought him in January).Of course it wasn't until I got home that I realized, due to a grave design flaw, our favorite space ranger only appears on the BACK of the underpants. Seriously, what genius thought of that? So, Porter has to wear them backwards and with no pants on, so that he can see Buzz, and he looks really funny running around that way. The whole backwards-underpants thing could cause a real wedgie problem, if he had a butt, WHICH HE DOESN'T.

And Betsy? She starts kindergarten in TWO WEEKS. How is that even possible? And we still haven't gotten her supply list - we don't even have her class assignment, I have no idea if she'll be in the AM or PM class - so I have been deprived of the eraser-sniffing fun of back-to-school shopping. Only in Betsy's case it's not BACK to school but I'm pretty sure you catch my meaning.

Allow me to take a moment to share my newfound love for "Snacktime," a new album of kids' music by the Barenaked Ladies. Sheer brilliance. We got it from the library but I will - nay, I must - own it soon. And the answer to the question "That's all very well and good, Joni, but is there a song about ninjas?" is Of course there is.

And squee! It's only one more week until the Olympics start.

New

Check out our new baby niece! This is Abby, the firstborn of Matt's little brother Morgan (although his wife pretty much did all of the work). Pretty cute, huh? I only wish they lived closer so Abby and Amy could play together.










I finished this blouse a couple of weeks ago but just recently got around to taking a picture of it (in my smeary bathroom mirror). It's really much, much cuter in person. I got the fabric at Hobby Lobby either right before or right after I had Amy. I was down there on Friday, wearing that exact top, when what should I spy in the paper section but patterned paper in the same design! The background is a different color but it's otherwise identical. They're really getting their money's worth out of that in house designer, huh?

Speaking of which... Michael Miller did it, Amy Butler did it, and now Heather Bailey's Fresh Cuts line is available as scrapbook supplies. That's right, people, just keep feeding the addiction. I'd just better hope that Alexander Henry doesn't clue in to this idea, or I will be COMPLETELY BROKE. (Yes, I know that Alexander Henry is just the name of the company, and not an actual person. Let's not shatter the illusion, 'kay?



And last but not least is Betsy's new 'do. I was getting mighty tired of those wispy bits in her eyes that will not stay in a clip for love or money (she has my uselessly fine hair, poor girl)... so now she has bangs. They're kind of short (although the angle of the photo makes them look shorter, and actually, her head is not that big in relation to her body) and slightly uneven, probably because it was a hack job twenty minutes before we left for church this morning. But I think she's cute enough to pull it off, don't you? She looked at herself in the mirror and said,"I look sweet!"

Roll call!

Have you noticed the 'Swell People' links on the side of this page? No? Then this post is for you. I tend to put a lot of links on my page for my own personal convenience (like, I can never remember if it's Dress A Day dot com or A Dress A Day dot com)but also so that I can share the pages I like with the people I like, mainly the readers of my blog. So let's have a quick run-down of who all is in there, shall we?

Amy (Not the baby one): One of the Scrap Etc. girls, I met her when I was down in Alabama last year and she's a real sweetie. Check out the photography blog too: I am in awe of her camera skills!

Beth and Susan: The fabulous Opel sisters, lately of Fort Wayne (now in Utah) who I met via the late lamented Luv2Scrapbook site. Their love of Meijer, organization and rock music is what endeared them to me in the first place. The girls are real movers and shakers in the scrapping world and their blog is a great read!

Carolyn: Also from Luv2Scrapbook, and I've never even met her (even though I've been through Buffalo kajillions of times). We had our babies on the exact same day! How cool is that?

Disney Scrapper: One of the Scrap Etc. ladies, I met Cyndi (and her daughter) at the Event and she is the nicest person! And somebody who loves Disney World even more than I do (which is really saying something).

Jenny Lynn: My sister-in-law who lives in Texas (sob!) Jenny had a stroke about four years ago but she can use the computer now; at first her husband wrote the blog but now Jenny mostly does it. Jenny was the one responsible for getting me hooked on scrapping!

Katie M: Another Scrap Etc. connection (I hadn't realized until now how many of my links are scrap related!), a librarian, mom of three cute girls and Esther Williams devotee! Her blog always cracks me up.

Laura M: The newest addition to my Swell People lineup (only because I was too lazy to add the link!), she is dating my baby brother Robbie and I will be seeing them next month (yay!) People, Laura IS ALSO A SCRAPBOOKER!

Mark And Anna: I've known Anna since we were tiny! Totally lost contact after high school but she looked me up again (gotta love the internet!) Check out her cute crocheted animals.

Mom: She brought me into this world, and she can take me out of it.

Monique: The Scrap Etc. store blog, and a great place to check out sneak peeks of the latest and greatest scrapping supplies!

Tracey: Another Luv2Scrapbook gal. Check out her story, it's a real tear jerker. (But there is a happy ending!)

I think that's it... for now. But I think I am probably missing some links because I know that there are more than 11 Swell People in the world. Leave me a link in the comments section, if you'd like!

Edited to add... Ladies and gents, we have a late breaking entry to the Swell People roll! My sister in law Mandy has finally hopped on board the blogging train (I'm mixing my metaphors horribly, here, aren't I?) so if you want to see my adorable blonde nephew in the cutest pajamas ever, then clicky clicky!

Nothing to cry over.

We had a pretty fun, relaxed Fourth of July... saw the parade and never did get around to going downtown to see the fireworks. A lot of our neighbors were shooting off pyrotechnics of their own so we had a 360-degree view, and our next-door neighbors had sparklers which they shared with our kids (and we passed around a box of popsicles, later, so it all works out.) And then on Sunday I broke out in HIVES, which was weird because I'm not really allergic to anything, but I Could. Not. Stop. Itching. I took Benadryl which provided relief only in the sense that I took a pretty hearty nap while Matt and the kids were at church. I finally got some real, actual medical advice and they told me to take Zyrtec - only problem with that is that it's a Category B drug, meaning you shouldn't take it while pregnant/nursing unless you really have to. So I've pump-and-dumped the last few days, but the itching (oh, and my eyes were all swelled up - I looked really funny) is all gone so I don't have to do that any more. It's not inconvenient to dump milk down the sink but it is sort of hard, emotionally.

I never did figure out what triggered the reaction - the doctor told me that most of the time, you never know. I do know for sure that I am not allergic to non-adorable, slender babies who can't roll from their backs to their tummies. Because we certainly don't have any of THOSE around here.