Whipped Cream!

.: 08:11 :.

With Logan unable to have cows milk products, even if they come to her through my diet (yes, of course she's still nursing.) I haven't been able to have some of the delicacies in life like parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese with apple pie, cream puffs or even whipped cream.

There's a patisserie shop in Eugene that makes vegan items, with something remarkably like whipped cream on them. And I kept wondering what they were using. Yesterday it finally occurred to me to investigate the whipped topping in a can section of the supermarket. And there it was "non dairy" whipped cream stuff. And I checked the ingredients. Nothing from a cow! So I got some. It's got lots and lots of ingredients. I wouldn't normally buy it. But this morning Logan and I are having Whipped Cream on top of our tea or cocoa (made with goats or soy milk). It's a good thing.

For any of you wondering what to get John for his birthday, he just wandered in to the room and said "New Thorlos". Those are the heavy weight socks from the hiking and camping type store. (If you're wondering why you didn't notice this link when you looked the first time, it's because it's been added after the fact. They are spendy, but they last a while and are nicer to wear. He wears size humongous. Or something that fits a 10.5 EEE foot. And I usually go for the heavier weights of them. Thorlo with wool for example. You can also get more information here which will take you through links for all their socks, or for finding a shop that sells them, etc. I also have John's general wish list maintained on the computer, so send me a note if you want or need other suggestions. :-)

Pictures again tomorrow or sometime soon. Robyn took some good ones yesterday, but I don't have time to get them up here at the moment. We're off to swimming again this morning.

Pictures, maybe

.: 07:57 :.

Good morning all. If I can get through writing a bit, and resize a few pictures, you might get to see what we did all last week. I have pictures from most days, coincidentally, so I'm going to try to get them edited and set to post. All while Logan is still asleep of course.

We're continuing to jump through hoops on the house buying thing. The latest bit is the loan company saying basically "why didn't you tell us that when you said the house was a 'geodesic dome', you meant it was a Geodesic Dome..." Don't ask me why they've ignored those words until now. They've also had the enlightening discovery that while they've been stalling for the past four months as we wait for our Year and A Day house to sell, they could have scheduled an appraisal of the dome. Now, when they are trying to schedule it, for our closing in less than two weeks (which we were supposed to be able to move up, but they couldn't manage that), it takes six to eight weeks to get an appraisal. John is following up with a complaint that is traveling up the chain of command at the loan company. We'll see what happens. The lowest staff seemed competent although there is doubt about that now. The middle staff is doing a fine imitation of completely incompetent. The next level up, well, we're waiting to see what they do. John says this level is doing a good imitation of groveling, which may be a good start.

One of the things we're doing this month is taking a 4 week gymnastics class for Logan. It's the lowest level, where parents are encouraged to participate. So every Saturday John and Logan head for "Gym Mini Crickets". Yes, that is the name. No, we just call it Gymnastics. And John gets to participate in class, while I sit on the sidelines and knit and watch. I really enjoy the class. This also means that John and Logan are practicing at home.

Stretching with Papa


Helping Papa Stretch


Logan is learning to do summersaults (better than she did before), back flips (with help) walk on a balance beam, and skin the cat on the uneven bars. She's also really enjoying it. We'll probably keep on with gymnastics, if I can figure a schedule out that will work. If I can do anything to help her get John's balance and large muscle coordination instead of mine, I'm happy to, and gymnastics seems to help.

Somersaulting


Donkey Kick


Extreme Donkey Kick


On Wednesdays we're still going to Kyle's (which is really called Lorene Little School). This week it's in the afternoon because of morning swimming class. I knit a catnip mouse. Logan painted.

Some got on the picture too


And the swimming classes - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings, for about half an hour. Robyn came and took pictures for us. There we are both learning to blow bubbles in the water, hum under water (makes air come out your nose - why didn't someone tell me this when I took my own swimming lessons?) kick, move our arms in big arm scoops, and to float using pool noodles and marshmallow sticks. (I'll see if Robyn will take pictures of those today.) For now just one pic from our first day, cause Logan's up and John wants to leave for work.

This is the way we kick our feet...


That's all for this Tuesday morning. If it doesn't all show, check back late tonight. We've got a busy day, again, and I don't know when I'll get a chance to fix it.

I know, I know,

.: 19:51 :.

I said I had pictures to put up, and I still have them. It's just been a hell of a week. Tonight, if I can stay awake longer than Logan, or tomorrow, if it's half way calm at some point, I'll see what I can do. We're all still here. The dog doesn't have a bladder infection. The goat doesn't have a skin infection but does have one between her toes. John and Logan and I are health, just tired. And we're feeding the neighbor's horses, so Logan sits on one daily and loves it. I'll try to remember to take a picture of that too. Eventually there will be a ton of pictures all put up at once and it will take forever to load.

Bite my Blog?

.: 19:09 :.

Andrea asked what Bite my blog is. You've got me. I'd never heard of it before seeing her mention of it. But I tracked it down and there's the link if anyone else is curious.

Soon, tonight, or tomorrow, or this weekend or something like that, I'll get some more of what we're up to posted, and some pictures. I'm just managing to stay a bit short on free time somehow. Now we're feeding the neighbor's horses once or twice a day until sunday, or maybe monday when they get back from a trip. And their dog will be staying with us once she decides it's lonely at her house - tonight or tomorrow I think.

Monday, Monday

.: 08:42 :.

Hi Folks! We've had a quiet week here. I haven't managed to take much in the way of pictures, so I'm resorting to old ones I hadn't posted yet. This is Neysa the mini mule, with Kendall and Logan. Logan was very happy to finally meet a "horse" that was her size. Although she did get to see the bigger mules at Kendall's house too. When? This was back in May when we were in Florida. I just haven't posted all the pictures yet. Hardly any actually. I never heard from Melissa whether it was okay to put pictures of her kids on the web, so those aren't up. I did put some Logan and Ryan pictures up, way back when. And then there are the Kendall's house pictures. Oh, and the Bernie and John pictures. Maybe I'll get some more set to post some day soon.

Things are moving along on our new house. We might close as soon as the 15th, but it depends on the speed with which an appraisal can be done or waived by the bank. We're packing things up at Year and A Day, with quite a bit of help from Miss Logan. Yesterday we packed the excess of dish towels, sheets, and towels. Logan pulled the silverware to pack, and I had to explain that we'd be using it for a while more. She checks about each thing as she thinks of it. "Will the fish go to the new house?" Yes, once we are ready to move the fish will go. "Will my toys go to the new house?" Yes. "Will the toy box go?" Yes, we can move the toys in the rubbermaid bins they live in.




Logan and I spent a chunk of Friday over at the Dome, with the owners, Jim and Olivia, and the whole house inspector. Andrea and Aidan came along to keep Logan busy, which let me actually pay attention to what the inspector was saying. Now we have a lovely emailed 20 page report of what state the house is in room by room, indoors and out. And we've started our To Do lists. Today John is talking with the bank, the title company (who for some reason addressed a preliminary title report to us, at the new house, and mailed it with no cover letter and unsealed!), the vet (goat smells bad again), and, um, someone else about a house related thing. The realtor maybe about things to send back to the bank with our signed loan contract. And I'm expecting a call back from the insurance agent about setting up a new insurance policy for the house.

Also today, Logan and I have to stop by the post office to mail Tim's sun glasses, if I can remember to take them along (at long last!), and collect whatever mail piled up in the second half of last week. We went Wednesday, I think, but not since then. Our schedules haven't worked out right. And we go to our swimming lessons, again, for the first time. At least Logan's cough has subsided a good bit. Then we'll zip back home after eating lunch with Steve and Joana's dogs Zoe and Jasmine (S&J have been out of town, so we've been visiting the dogs,) and hope that Logan naps some at home so I can pack another box. John manages to pack even with Logan swinging from his neck (literally at times), but my concentration becomes too fractured. So either she and I sort, or I pack when she's sleeping or distracted. Needless to say John is managing more packing than I am at the moment. I think Robyn is coming back from Eugene with us to help keep Logan busy when she's not asleep this afternoon, and to help me dismantle a couple things for packing.

picture fixed

.: 21:51 :.

Thanks to Ruzz, The Blog Guru at Big Blog Tool, my picture is fixed. I have to change what I type a little bit - but it shouldn't be a big deal, if I can just remember the details the next time I put a picture here. I'll try to get another one up soon.

brief update

.: 11:49 :.

   John spent the morning up the hill at our neighbors, with another neighbor, finishing some fencing so we can move some goats and sheep to the neighbor's land for brush clearing. He was up and gone before Logan and I woke up. Logan and I had an exciting morning picking up the house, watering plants and so on.

   Then Logan got "dressed up" in a dress, under a T-Shirt, under her swimming coverup, with two pairs of pants on and her winter slippers, and announced she was going to walk out to where papa was fencing. So I gave up on keeping her entertained until John got back and loaded her and the dog up and drove the mile around the block to see how the fencing was coming. Almost done, which is good. Now there just needs to be water there, and several of our ruminants will move next door for a while.

   We went and saw the paediatrician again of friday to see what she could figure out about Logan's cough. First she'd thought it might be whooping cough, which would get that out of the way, but means keeping track of who she might have exposed. Friday the Pedi decided that it's probably not whooping cough, but might be a mild form of asthma. So now we have a breathing thing, which has a proper name that I haven't figured out yet. And although Logan is to young and the symptoms are too mild to tell if she does have asthma, the Pedi thought that testing me might tell something. We'll see what comes of that. I'd be interested to know if my frequent winter cough and some of the seasonal allergies are actually related to asthma. Although I'm still betting that Sleep Apnea is affecting my life, and I need to find a new sleep doctor to discuss it with. I canceled an appointment with the original one to go to Pennsylvania when Grandpa Alfred died, but I didn't expect to stay with him at that point anyway. His best solution to my complaints of continued sleep apnea symptoms after my tonsils were removed was to offer me sleeping pills. I didn't take any. No one has convinced me that it would be helpful, if I stop breathing in my sleep, to take sleeping pills so that I'm less likely to wake up and start breathing again.

   Now John is back home and we're going to go out to brunch with Ron and Carol, in honor of Carol's birthday last december. We asked to reschedule doing something at that time, and then forgot about it for a while. :-)

   Oh, and I don't know what's going on with pictures here. I'll get some put up as soon as I get it figured out and fixed though.

Napping

.: 12:46 :.

This is how John and Logan spent Thursday afternoon, after John's early day at work, and during Logan's usual nap time. I used the time to enjoy some peaceful knitting! [This picture isn't showing up either. With luck it will be here a little later!]

Today she is ready to go out to "fly my airplane" which looks to me like two pieces of telephone pole sitting in the yard. We're set to go to the pedi's office a little later today to see how her chest sounds since her cough hasn't gotten any better yet.