We have been working on potty training, but for a while it was tough going.  So bad that one day she had been sitting on her potty for over an hour  with no success, and less than 5 minutes after getting up off it, she had an “accident”.  Needless to say, I wasn’t so thrilled with all of this.  It felt as if she was being deliberately obstinate.  We had tried telling her that if she went an entire day without any accidents we’d buy her some more big girl panties and/or go to the “indoor park”. Then suddenly last Thursday she just decided that it was time apparently.  She had no accidents on Thursday at all.  Shane and I were both incredibly proud of her.

On Friday, we had a long day planned.  Shane was autocrating the May Day Pie Snit aka Pie Snit III, in Taylor, WI on Saturday.  We had some shopping and two people to pick up that day before heading up to Taylor.  Since it was easier to spend the night on site than go up on Friday to clean it and back early Saturday for the event.  One of the things we did was purchase Allyssa some more big girl panties, while we were taking care of our other errands.  And while we had long periods of time while driving and doing other things where a bathroom wasn’t available, she did extremely well on Friday as well.  No accidents at all!  Another proud day for Shane and I.

With the event on Saturday, Shane and I were busy.  While I was needed indoors, Allyssa kept wanting to go on the play equipment there.  Luckily for her, there was a girl at the event who agreed to play outside with her.  On the flip side, because Shane and I were so busy it was hard for us to reminder her to go to the bathroom.  In fact at one time, when I went out to reminder her to try, she had just had an accident.  Later, she was coming to get me, didn’t quite get to mom in time.  Therefore another accident.  But I really couldn’t blame her, she was in the early stages of training, and did need reminding.  She also tried to tell me, but wasn’t quite quick enough.   But today has been good.

Well, May Day Pie Snit was a really small event.  We had thought we would have more attendance then we did since the Queen was there, but at the last minute a number of practices and moots and turned up in the areas where we would normally draw our attendance from.  Even though it was small event, I believe it was enjoyed by all who attended.

I am going to try and make this the second to last move we make for a while. I am tired of moving and always wondering where my next paycheck is going to come from. So this time I am planning to make this job work long term. I will be working part time while I continue going to school. This will be the second to last move only because we decided to put all of our stuff in storage in Minneapolis and rent a room for a couple of months while we look for a place we can call home for a few years. The timing is perfect, with college students all gone for the summer there are lot’s of cheap rooms available. We’ll be able to save a lot of money this way with no ulitilies and cheap rent.

We originally planned to get a large enough truck to pack all the stuff here in Kansas City, then stop in Wisconsin to get the rest of our stuff in storage there and take it all with us. However, I really don’t want to have to move the stuff in Trempealeau twice, and it’s only two hours away from where we will be so we will likely wait until after Labor Day to deal with that stuff. Besides, our camping gear is there and we will be camping at Autumn Rose in Galesville, WI this September, so it will be near by. It will be nice to get all of our stuff together again, and to have a nice paying, albeit part-time, job that will likely become a full time position, if and when I want it to.

Changes at School

This move will effect the degree path I am following in school. Unfortunately, Minnesota does not allow the Elementary Education degree that the University of Phoenix offers. Though I still think it might be fun to be a teacher, reality has made this decision a lot easier. The highest paid elementary school teachers barely make $40K, and if I am already capable of making near $55K in the IT industry without a degree, think if what I could make with one! I will take a week off of school so we can move and get settled, and start back up on May 29th, with an emphasis on Information Technology, hopefully leading into a Bachelor’s Degree for System Analysis. I will keep you updated as I continue my education.

He talks about doing dinner, but he enjoys that (usually) and find it relaxing.  But don’t worry he doesn’t do all the cooking.  I make the lunches for the 3 of us since he works and will be going to school from home.  While some might thing that lunch is a lighter meal, it’s still important to keep it balanced.  My theory is that we’d be better off if lunch is a bit heartier and dinner a bit lighter since most don’t have a lot of physical activity in the evening.

Shane has also started doing weekly fighter practice for SCA.  This is once a week on Wednesday.  Allyssa and I go as well, we talk to others and watch him get hit with sticks.  It’s good to get to know the other SCA folks in the area.  And we have several events we are talking about going to in the near future.

We have found two parks in the area which Allyssa enjoys.  Of course we’ve also found out that as long as the park has slides it will be one that she enjoys.  She is a huge fan of riding the slides.

I have found a cross stitching shop in the area.  It wasn’t easy but I have finally figured out how to find shops when you new to the area and have no idea of what they are called.  It’s hard to do an internet search for them without a name, and harder still to do a yellow pages search because often the shops are so poorly categorized on the online yellow pages.  I was on a website of a company that dye their own fabric colors for cross stitch.  They are a wholesale company so when I asked them about shops in my area they were able to give me the name of two within 21 miles of me.  So now I know how to look for shops in the future.  Go to the wholesale suppliers and ask them who is in my area.

Why worry about giving a local shop?  Well I try to support the local shops whenever possible.  I have a simple view of things.  If I don’t do my part to support my local shop, when I need to pick something up quick they won’t be there.  The day after I received the information about local shops, I went to the closest one and checked them out.  It was good to be in a shop dedicated to needlework.  Not one where it’s just shoved off into a small corner of the craft store, which keeps getting smaller.

I finished the birth announcement I was working on for Allyssa.  Please click on the image to see the entire piece.  Now I’ll have to clean and mount it.  Of course, since that one is done, I had to start another project.  This new project is one of Santa looking at signs to check his directions.  It’s on a black background and is originally from an old postcard.  I have an entire book of Santa’s from old artwork it’s called Santa Remembered from Leisure Arts.

Allyssa is growing in leaps and bounds, but lately it’s been hard to get her to sleep on her own.  She wants to be attached to momma when she sleeps.  She just doesn’t want to let go.  Lately it’s been if she won’t let go at nap time, we get up.  It makes her more tired in the evening, but she has to learn that she can’t stay attached to momma.

When she falls asleep at night, she also wants to stay attached also.  This makes things hard for momma.  While I don’t mind taking an afternoon nap with her (actually I usually enjoy a good afternoon nap), I like to get up for a bit after Shane and Allyssa are in bed.  It’s a good time for me to have some private quiet time.  It’s my ME time, and I have learned that I need it.  If I can’t have my me time for I get more irritable and much easier to annoy.  I have also found that if the housework isn’t done before they go to bed it’s not going to get done that night.  My time is for me, not for housework.  (Doing housework during that time is a sure fire way for me to get extremely annoyed.)

Well that’s all my thoughts for now.  I’ll try catching people up again soon.

Now, don’t you wish you were there?

Work: I have been working for the same client since late last year and in February went to direct deposit payroll, so I don’t have to worry about getting paid. This is a huge stress off of us and there is no more running around to the bank. Well, at least their isn’t’ supposed to be. The first payment they didn’t get the bank information right, so they Fed Ex’d a check to me. The second payment they forgot to enter an hourly rate so they sent a payment via PayPal. Third time was a charm, we thought. That payment went into the account just fine. However, this fourth payment, there was a problem. A check was sent, it never arrived, so another PayPal payment and another $21 fee to them for it. Hopefully future payments will work fine so we can pay our bills on time.

Baby: We are still anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new baby. You would think that this late in the game we would have the baby’s room done and ready for her arrival – but that still isn’t done. I do have the network hardware set up to get network access to the upstairs via wireless, but I am still working to get the old office moved out and the baby’s stuff moved in. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. However, we do have an appointment tomorrow along with an ultrasound to make sure the kid is head down and ready to go.

Trains: I am still actively operating with the RiverRail group as always, but events with the SCA are starting to interfere. It is going to be fun to balance the two groups and enjoy both activities. No, I don’t have room yet to build my railroad, and probably won’t for a few years now, but that doesn’t stop my from acquiring new equipment.

SCA: Two weeks ago we were in Wautoma, WI for an event called Bardic Madness. We really enjoyed the songs, stories and of course the tons of food that was available. For those that don’t know, bardic activities include singing, story telling, instruments, and anything involved with communicating your thoughts to other members. Although I personally do not participate in the bardic activities, it was still a lot of fun to sit around the bardic circle and join in on the fun. This weekend we are off to Rochester, MN for Spring Coronation. Yes, I know that it is very close to the due date (April 25th), but if you look at a map, it’s really not that much farther from here to the hospital as it is from Rochester to the hospital – and it’s all highway driving either way.

Life: Life stinks. Oh wait, you knew that. It seems that just when things start to look up and life is going to get better, something comes along and knocks you back down to zero. Oh, and this snow we are getting today ISN’T much help with that.

Oh well, enough of my complaining, back to work…

What is our Kingdom? What is Spring Coronation? Oh, that’s right, you may not know that Laura and I are members of the Society for Creative Anachronism, where we reside in the Kingdom of Northshield as a part of the Shire of Rokeclif. You will learn a lot more about this activity through this blog since we intend to continue going to events even with the new addition to the family. We are already planning the garb for baby.

Why a new blog?

Well, quite simply, I think we need to have a special place to share the story of our new family with the far too many people we need to share it with. I don’t like writing Christmas novels, er, letters, so this is how we will share our lives with our family, friends, and the rest of the world, for those that care. We’ll share news about baby, ourselves, and other useful tidbits we find along the way. Of course there will be photos so look out for those – that is once we get our Digital Camera so we can TAKE photos. Hopefully that happens before the baby is born.

Don’t know who we are?

Then what are you doing here? No really, welcome, and we’ll try to include helpful posts for new families, child care, parenting, and so much more. That is, if we find the time after spending time just being a family.

P.S: I am replacing my old personal blog with this, and all of those old posts will just be gone. Nobody sees them anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.