Pink eye

Collin somehow managed to pick up pink eye last week and give it to his brother. We have been quarantined for the last week waiting for their eyes to clear up and I am once again reminded why I love preschool so much!

We went to the doctor to get a prescription for antibiotics, as it turns out, Collin is allergic to the most common eye drops (Peter is not) and was prescribed an ointment. I really thought that the ointment was going to be a huge pain to administer but quite surprisingly it has been much better than the drops. First it only needs to be used twice a day rather than every three hours for the drops. Second, it is nice and thick so that when you put it on the inside of the lid it actually stays there. The drops run right out especially when the child is not happy about the drops being put in his eyes. If you have the option get the ointment for your kid.

Goodbye Car!

About six years ago when we first moved back to the US from England we bought this little Ford Escort for less than two grand. It has been a really good car and has served us well. It has had very few major problems and has gotten very good gas mileage. Recently it reached 200,000 miles and failed a smog test. We heard about the program here in California that pays $1000 to retire older, polluting cars. We looked at the current value of the car, the cost to get it fixed so that it would pass the smog test, all the other repairs that the car needed and the guilt I would feel selling an unsafe (bad breaks and cracked bumpers and bald tires) and slightly scary car to some poor student. So we decided to retire the car. Des was very sad to see it go. It has been his car and I think he is a little embarrassed to be driving a Buick (my Bonnema gave us a Buick to use that is much safer and has much lower mileage) but I think he will learn to love those nice soft seats and the enormous trunk.

We let the boys play in the car after Des had cleaned it out.

Here we are waiting for the people to come and take the car.

Goodbye Car!

Haircut!

Peter's hair has been getting really long. He hates having his hair cut so I usually only cut the back and around his ears. It got too long for that so I pulled out the buzzer and very quickly cut his hair. Here he is before:





And after:

Collin has been pretending to be a cat lately. He found the baby leash that I bought right after Peter was born and he loves to wear it and be lead around the house.

Bookshelves

Yesterday I got tired of seeing this:

So I went and bought some wood and built this:

It needs a few supports in the back and sanding the edges wouldn't hurt but not bad for a couple hours. I also made these felt eggs. I saw some online and they looked like fun. They were really easy to make. I put one in an old plastic Easter egg and the boys are having a great time with it.

Art and Crafts

As a Christmas present for a member of my family I asked my uncle if he could make prints of a couple of my great grandmother's paintings. He is an artist, an inventor and generally a genius. The prints turned out so beautifully that I thought I would post a picture here! They turned out so perfectly - I actually kept the trial copies, the duds - they look great!




I was about to write that because my next class (Anatomy) doesn't start until the end of the month I had time to catch up on my quilting. The truth is that my dear friend Care is pregnant and I lost track of time (and her due date) and was shocked to learn on Wednesday that her baby shower was on Saturday. I panicked and rushed to the fabric store to buy fabric. I had the monkey squares but nothing else. That night I cut the fabric and pieced the quilt top and the next night I bound and quilted it. That's right. A two day baby quilt that I absolutely love and if I didn't love Care so much would have kept.





After I finished the monkey quilt I figured that since I had my machine out I might as well finish the Christmas quilts that I didn't have time for before Christmas because of that lovely trip to the emergency room. Just in case you think that I am really great or something I should mention that the small wall quilt was supposed to be Amanda's Christmas present LAST year. In truth I am a horrible friend. And Amanda, I mailed it yesterday, Merry Christmas!

Grocery Bag Review

It is the New Year and the time for setting new goals. I only have a few this year. I want to get my kids to eat something green by the end of the year. I want to get though the vegetables from my CSA before they rot (I compost a lot of local organic produce, mostly beets). I will also make a bigger effort to remember my reusable bags and not leave them in the car! I have made some progress in reducing the cupboard full of bags in my kitchen but I want them gone!!!

On that subject I have been meaning to do a review of reusable grocery bags for a while. I started buying them last summer and bought a bunch of different kinds. I have been using them and some are better than others. They all cost a dollar each apart from the bigger Trader Joe bag which cost two dollars. So here they are starting with my least favorite.

The Albertson’s bag is made of a fabric-like recycled material (as are the Von’s and Target bags). It seems to be a bit sturdier than the Von’s and Target bags but it is on the small side.

The Vons (Safeway) bag is big and holds a lot but a few of mine have already gotten ripped. It is also on the ugly side. It does have nice long handles that fit over my sholder.

There are two kinds of Target bags. One is very similar to the previous two but the other is really great. It is smaller than the others but it folds down and zippers into a wallet. I really like this because as far as I can tell the biggest problem with all of these bags is remembering to bring them into the store. I keep these little Target bags in my purse.

The Trader Joe’s bags are by far my favorite. They are made out of a much stronger plastic, they are big and they look great. These are the ones I grab first.

So if you have been meaning to buy some of these bags definitely go for the Trader Joe bags!

Happy New Year!

We had a nice trip to Arizona for Christmas. There was a little bit of snow on the ground and it was very, very cold. We are lucky that the boys are really good travelers and are generally very good in the car. It is so nice to be able to play movies in the car!

It was good to relax and hang out with my family. We finally got a good family picture taken. Last year was really blurry and unusable. Brooks leaves for his mission next week so it is extra good that it worked out!



We had fun Christmas morning, Collin and Peter are finally old enough to understand what is going on and enjoyed opening their presents. Here is Peter with his stocking.



I got to see my friend Christine and her adorable family.



Colin and my mom made the most of the snow on the ground. They built lots of little snowmen and Collin loved it! I think it was below freezing for the entire trip but he didn't seem to mind!

Mom introduced Collin to the snowball fight. Bonnema couldn't resist the temptation of all that cold snow and joined in. I made the mistake of going outside to get clearer pictures and became a target myself.

Collin's eye is healing nicely but you might notice bandages on Peter's chin. In an effort to keep band aid companies in business he slipped on the stairs and split his chin open. Fortunately we have a very well stocked first aid kit!

We had a very nice trip and were very happy to get hope to our own beds!