Marble Painted Shamrocks

I'm hosting a meetup group for St. Patrick's Day and decided to do some marble painted shamrocks.

I found shamrock images on google and resized and printed. There are so many shamrocks but I found one in the look I liked and the clarity.

This is an example of a sheet I printed. I printed on cardstock so it is thicker. 

I didn't have more than 1 marble so I used some beads I had on hand. I have 3 different sized round beads and 1 marble.  I put the shamrock into a container with the marbles.

I bought my paint at Target since my movers wouldn't move any paint I already owned. But Amazon has various whites and greens you can buy. 

Then drip some paint onto your shamrock. I wanted less paint but that's how fast it came out. After the first one I got smaller drips.

 Put the lid on and shake! This is the fun part for the kids.

 If you use less paint, it is not as wet. Carefully lift out the shamrock and put it somewhere to dry.

Now we shall see how this goes with 15 kids in 2 weeks.  Ella used a hole puncher and punched a hole into it so she can put hers on a necklace.   Let me know if you try this craft out. 

4.25.17 Dallas, TX to Austin, TX

Three of us woke up early and stayed up to try to get a move on it early. But it failed since Ella would not wake up.  Dave and I took turns going down to grab breakfast and bring it back up so that she could still sleep.

Near 9, Dave went to Target. We had a small list.  I felt like he took a long time and Ella was still not up and ready. It took her a long time to get up and then a long time to get ready.

We took Dave to the National Videogame Museum and then I took Ella and Miles to the park.  We went to Frisco Commons Park or also Hope Park on the map. It was so hot that it was hard to spend 2 hours there. Ella even asked near the end to go to the car.   Miles and Ella played.  Ella made 2 new friends spinning.  Later she made 2 other friends. Miles and Ella were swinging for a little but it was just too hot.  They went down the slide together. It was a long walk from the bottom to the top so that killed some time. Ella would get ready to go and then I'd sit Miles down between her legs. She would hold him and they'd go down. He loved it.  Sometimes he didn't smile going down but smiles right after. And when he was about to go down again he'd smile.

We went to Hard Eight BBQ place for lunch. Ella was so excited to get some cut fruit! The food was so good.Dave says this was the best food the entire trip.

Then we were on our way to Austin.

The supercharger near Waco, TX was in a bakery parking lot. They had a sign that said to show your Tesla key and you'd get free coffee. Dave went in and got his free coffee but then also spent $36.

We got to the hotel and then went out to dinner. We went to a Tex-Mex place.  My mouth was on fire. My nose was running. But it was good. Miles was so tired so that made it tough. Heading out to dinner near 8 PM is rough! Ella ordered her own drink and her own meal. She wouldn't even show us the kids menu. Then when the meal was over the waiter asked us if she got her dessert or if it was too late then asked which dessert she wanted. We didn't even know it came with dessert because we never saw the menu.  She got vanilla ice cream. Dave made her leave before she was done because he said she was taking too long. I thought she was eating it so well so I felt sad for her. I know how it is people wanting to leave before you are done.

We got back and it was time to get Miles to sleep. (9:30)  It was after 10 PM by the time this happened. I had to set some things up before nursing him so then it was even more delayed.

Then we had to get Ella to sleep. We tried. Dave did her bedtime routine the same time I did Miles but she was still awake and causing trouble at 11:30

Ella was still up at 12:30.

Dave went out because heard her dragging bag. She said looking for scissors. She was also poking holes in fruit cake package he said. She ended up with a late night snack of Doritos.

Happy Hollow Video (2.22.19 Instastories)

I took some videos for instastories then I saved the story. Here it is. I have other horizontal videos and other pictures that will hopefully get posted eventually since they are better.

2019 Week 8/52 Photo

We did a lot of stuff this week. I have videos from Happy Hollow but they were still my favorite pictures for the week.  Look how Miles doesn't smile! Then for comparison look below at the big smile on Ella.  The kids had so much fun. There were 4 kids and 2 adults. We had a blast. They didn't want to leave!

Photos Taken February 22, 2019

33 Weeks (February)

The pic above is from the Baby Center app on my phone. I'm about 20 weeks behind. It's so difficult. I hate how you have to use the phone.

I've been drinking less water than normal just because I'm so sick of having to go to the bathroom so much and also so sick of the peeing when I'm coughing. I'm on day 31 of my cough.

I feel like I waddle a bit or maybe look like I do but mainly I think it's a limp. Sometimes one side of my groin or one side of my back hurts worse then I limp.

Turning over at night is a hardship. Actually getting situated with lots of covers is very tiring at night.

Excruciating back pain started this week. Then it hits daily at 5 PM or earlier. It's rough rough rough. Miles will ask me to hold him and I won't. I will hold his hand. he's getting better at understanding. At night I don't lie down beside him but I just sit in the chair.

I noticed I had to loosen my watch. I did read that your wrists can retain fluid.

I keep forgetting. I need to fill out the hospital form or whatever it's called. I keep not doing things I should be doing. I need to find a new cleaner. I need to fill out the preschool enrollment forms.

I'm still in shock at how much weight I gained this week.

I had my first baby sprinkle. Time flew. I feel like I didn't get to talk to anyone enough. I'll do a separate post. I would have thrown a pic or 2 here but then the kids took like 380 pics with my good camera so I figure there are enough pics for another post.

I couldn't get a good comparison of all 3 pregnancies. The black shirt is slimming so it throws things off too.  161.3 (2 lb loss from being sick), 160.6, and 166.3. I weigh more now. Starting weight was the highest when I got pregnant with Ella but I was only just a little lower than that this time. I was a lot lower when I got pregnant with Miles.  

I made a quick collage of some random weeks throughout and then I added my weight at the bottom. 

Size of baby: Pineapple, 17.2 inches long from head to heel. My app on my phone says the baby weighs about 4.5 pounds.

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  31.2 lb gain overall. I gained 2.9 lb in the past week. It's shocking to me how the first trimester I can lose so much weight and yet still gain so much more than all the apps say. My one app says normal weight gain is 8-16 lbs at this point. 

Maternity Clothes:  The same as it's been. Still wearing non maternity PJ pants and athletic pants. The tops are maternity and some are too short to go over this belly.

Movement: The movement is fairly quick so I don't even think to tell people about it when it happens because if they tried to feel it, it's gone already. But there is lots of movement. Times I see the covers or things on me move from the movement.

Sleep:  It's pretty crappy. At least 3 days this week Miles slept through the night in his bed. I have been awake numerous times  in the night and then am awake for 2 hours because I can't fall asleep. Then I get so mad I waste time trying to fall asleep. Some of those times it's from Miles and other times I just can't get comfortable. I feel like I've been drinking less this week and my leg cramps are more often but I wake up less often to pee. Poly is still waking me up trying to cuddle with me. 

What I miss: Running, crossing my legs, getting up off the ground easily, functioning without back pain, comfortable sleep

Aversions: Nothing I can think of.

Symptoms: Back pain, groin pain, leg cramps while sleeping (mostly my right quad), nose bleeds (is that a symptom of pregnancy), exhausted, trouble sleeping.

Best moment this week: baby sprinkle

Looking forward to:  Something magically happening so I'm not in back pain every single day. 

Exercise:  I used the elliptical once and 11 minutes of weights once. I went to Happy Hollow for 5 hours. 

Same this time: I had back pain and groin pain when pregnant with Miles.  Some maternity clothes stopped fitting. I wore non-maternity athletic pants.  With all 3 pregnancies the movement would be quick so then by the time someone would try to feel it, it would be gone.

Different from last time: When pregnant with Miles, I was researching what people put in hospital bags. Well I didn't even remember I should think about such a thing until I read the post from last time.  When pregnant with Ella, I had had a birthing class already.  They don't even tell you about them after you already have a baby. 

33 Weeks with Ella

33 Weeks with Miles

2019 Week 7/52 Photo

 At preschool Miles was loving playing with the legos. He played with them for so long. I took quite a few pictures. At some points there were 4 or 5 kids playing with legos, too.

Photo Taken February 15, 2019

Cleaning (2.19 and 2.20.19)

Sometimes I record myself with timelapse while I clean up. Maybe it makes me be less distracted. I don't know. It's fun to watch later. I always forget to do final videos before it gets trashed again. I can't quite catch up though so it's always a little messy and then gets messier.

My belly is so big that things are a struggle.  On Tuesday starting around 5 PM I was in excruciating backpain until I was asleep. I woke up Wednesday without pain and then around 5 PM it started again until I went to sleep. I guess I'm over doing it even though I want to do more.

I spent 19 minutes cleaning up the floor and vacuuming and I was out of breath for a good 15 minutes after!

2.18.19 Adventures Video

We decided to take the train station to Menlo Park and go to breakfast at Stack, the book store, and walk around a bit. The kids had so much fun and want to take the train again. The library was closed or we would have gone there. I made a video. Hopefully I'll post pictures eventually.

4.28.17

I was so tired. Ella was up past 2. Then Miles was awake in the middle of the night. Then he woke up at 6:20 for the day.  I tried lying on the floor while he sat and played. I was cold and then he fell over and hit his head on the desk chair so that didn't work.  Finally I got him to sleep for his first nap. I got pillows and propped them up and just had him sleep on me. I got a 45 min nap that way.

I took many pictures of Miles in the awesome lighting while Ella slept.Ella did not want to wake up.

We ended up leaving at 10:50.

We stopped at this small place for lunch that was good.

Then we drove to New Orleans. I managed to nap about 10 minutes in the car.

We arrived near 4 and missed the last hop on hop off bus of the day. Ella never napped. Everything got horrible. Finally Ella napped and then we went to dinner really late.

Ella enjoyed making her own pizza. We were talking about how she’s a California girl and misses broccoli. Then when she got her pizza she said they forgot the broccoli. It made me sad.

I tried to do laundry after I got back and both washers were in use.

It was a late night. I finally got back down and could do 1 load (not 2 that I had to do).

Ella didn't want to go to sleep. Miles got to sleep so late.

I did knee exercises after I put clothes in the dryer.

The dryer sucked and wasn't done when the time ran out.

Photo of the Day: Cooking (1991)

Photo Taken December 14, 1991
I started using the new google photo scan app on my phone so I went and scanned a few old pictures. I realized I had a picture already scanned from the same day. The bottom photo was scanned with a scanner and the top photo was scanned using an app on my phone.

Fire Station Tour (2.9.19)

Miles was so excited about the tour. The firetruck wasn't there when we arrived. On our way we saw it going out on a call. Then the call got extended so they got a truck from another fire station. Before the end our truck came back too.   Ella wanted to wear her Elsa dress since later she'd be wearing it at a birthday party. I tried to tell her it was too long to deal with but she wouldn't listen. Then she got there and wished she had something else on. She didn't like that the ground was wet so she was always holding it up to walk around. Going up and down the steps were a little more of a challenge. 
Miles head bumped me and I told him not to do that. It was an accident. But Ella decided to poke him in the eye telling him he was bad. So she started crying. Then she cried for a good half hour. We left the fire station to try to get her to calm down but then Miles was missing out on the explanation of equipment so we went back in while she was crying. She hated people looking at her and asking what is wrong so then she just kept crying.  There was another Elsa there who was making friends with Ella before the whole crying ordeal and then when she was crying the other Elsa came over trying to comfort her and hug her but Ella didn't want anyone around.

We ate immediately before we left the house. Then mid tour the kids were begging for food.
By the end, Ella got better and was having more fun posing for pictures and looking at the fire trucks.

Dave didn't go because he had a going away brunch to go to. It would have been better with 2 adults but we managed. Miles isn't too upset about missing a little of the tour. He barely even noticed.  He would not look at the camera for pictures saying he wanted to look at the truck.

The chief ended up giving most of the tour when he wasn't originally going to.

Raddish Kids (January 2019 Part 2)

 We finally did more of the Raddish Kids. The kids love to cook but don't love to eat it!

The dessert was so good. Miles didn't help make it so then I didn't end up recording very much. The kids only wanted ice cream or ice cream and chocolate and not the delicious cream puff part.

Valentine's Day Parties

We attended a bunch of parties this year.
South Bay Moms Group - February 4
MVPA (mom group) - February 12
LACP (preschool) - February 14
MVPNS (preschool) - February 15

The kids had so much fun at the meetups. They liked decorating and crafting. They also liked eating. 

 I used my hearts to make the photo booth here. We took class shots.

Miles didn't want to decorate his bag.  Then I coaxed him into it. He could have just glued on 1 heart but then he had to glue on a ton!
I took many pictures but I was trying to be careful not to post pics of all the other kids.

32 Weeks (February)

I finally got my wedding rings off on February 13. My finger was a bit dented.

Miles is having such a transition to the bed and he wakes up in the night a lot and wants me to sleep beside him. He'll be up for hours sometimes too. Then I'm up for hours.  Also sometimes he wakes up at 5:45 and I get him back to sleep then I cannot fall back to sleep. I try the entire time though so I don't get anything else done in that time. I mainly don't even grab my laptop that is beside me because Dave has said in the past typing wakes him up. Except right at 7:20 when his alarm goes off he turns on the TV and it's very loud and then it wakes me up and also wakes Miles up so maybe I should quit being so considerate.

On February 13, I had an OB visit but this time with a nurse practitioner. She seemed more concerned about my lightheadedness than my actual doctor.  My BP was 104/62 and the nurse who took it said "your BP is 104/62 and that's just ... OK." I'me always told my BP is good from my normal OB's nurse even when it's lower or higher than that.

I feel like my belly is more round and not down as low as last time but it's hard to tell because different pictures probably just might show differently. 

We moved Miles's clothes from his current room to his new room but then he still wouldn't sleep in there so she slept on the floor in his old room. But perhaps we are one step closer to having the room ready for the baby.

It's getting harder and harder to bend down and pick things up. I get so out of breath. It's so hard keeping the house clean without a cleaner and also trying to organize and go through toys keeps making a bigger mess than I started with and then it's tough.  I can't squat the entire way down because my belly is in the way.

I updated graphs I had last time. The quality when saving the png is no good but you get the idea of how similar or not similar things are. I know I'm way more lightheaded now so not able to move around like my normal self so I'm burning way fewer calories just in general not counting the lack of actual exercises. 

Size of baby: Bok Choy, 16.7 inches long from head to heel. My app on my phone says the baby weighs about 4 pounds.

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  28.3 lb gain overall because I gained 2.6 lbs this past week. I was even lightheaded daily.

Maternity Clothes:  All tops are maternity. Workout pants are still my normal ones. My hoodie and coat are not maternity and they don't zip and it's cold when we are outside. 

Movement: I feel like he moves in spurts. My belly will crazy move but as soon as I'd go to tell someone, there is no movement. My entire belly will move but as soon as I try to tell Ella or Miles to feel it, there is no movement. As I write this I have a book on my belly and it's moving up and down because of baby movement. 

Sleep:  Sleep is horrible. Poly wakes me up nightly because she wants me to reposition. She also tries to lie right on my belly and I have to move her off. Miles is waking up every day near 2 am and 5 am now that he's not in his crib. Then he runs out to get me and asks me to cover him. The only blankets he will use are small and he cannot get them on him well. Then there are times I have issues falling asleep after I get him back to sleep. One night he was also up for 2 hours in the night. 

What I miss: Running and exercising. Oh I wish I wasn't so lightheaded all the time. 

Symptoms: Minor groin pain, back pain, exhaustion, lightheaded.  I also sat down on the ground 2 different times and had shooting pains go up my back starting in my butt. 

Best moment this week: Valentine's Day parties with pictures. 

Looking forward to:  Getting the nursery situated. The stressful part is getting Miles out of there but it's "his room" and he's not going for it.  Also looking forward to my baby sprinkles. It's more like a drizzle and hanging out. In a week there is one that kids are invited too. 

Exercise:  I did weights for 11 minutes with Miles and I used the elliptical for 15 minutes. My exercise sessions are super short and I barely have them. It sucks. 

Same this time: Last time Ella's sleep was horrible and now Miles's is horrible. (It's horrible for different reasons but still horrible. ) Weeks ago I got the paperwork I have to fill out and mail to the hospital and I haven't done that yet.  At least this time around they have an online way to fill it out and submit it. I know when I was pregnant with Ella, I mailed it in and they still asked me all the same questions when I was at the hospital.  Poly woke me up back then to reposition for how she wanted me to sleep and she still does that. I don't like it because turning over is a hardship. She always likes it when I am positioned a certain way. I had back pain all 3 times.

Different from last time: I already stopped wearing my wedding rings this time. Last time they were just tight. Unsure what week I stopped wearing them when pregnant the first time.
Last time I did a little number compilation of some things and one of them was miles run since being pregnant with Miles and the total was 106.41.  With Ella, it was a total of 41.8 miles. This time I'm at  69.76 miles.

32 Weeks with Ella

32 Weeks with Miles

5.11.18 Roadtrip Day 11

7:40 something Mile woke. Dave already up. He got Miles and woke me. I was so tired.
I went to the car to get Miles’s soap. I gave him a bath in the sink.

Miles really hates baths as you can tell by the picture. 

Packing and getting ready take forever as always.

9:16 still packing
10:05 left hotel
10:27 McD’s quick
10:50 parked
11:01 museum

Everything is the worst for me. Neither kid wants to be there. If I try to look at anything I carry Miles while pulling a wagon. It’s very crowded. I have no free hands to adjust the wagon or adjust how I’m carrying Miles. I have no free hands to take pics. And Dave is off looking on his own. 

Snacks twice while there. I was dying of thirst but we were not allowed our own water in.

We got a penny press. We try to get them everywhere we go but rarely find them.

I was so done by the end. There was also a statue fiasco with the kids. I tried to have them stand by it so I could take a picture and my camera wasn’t working so I was trying to kill the app and reboot my phone. Apparently even though there were no signs you were not allowed to touch the statue and Ella got yelled at.  And I didn't get a good picture by the time the camera worked.

We ate lunch at the Long Nine Junction. Both kids ate my turkey. I had ⅓ of it, if that.
1:50 left Springfield
1:56 Miles fell asleep.
2:22 rest stop
2:28 rest stop

I was barely left with any turkey in my sandwich. I guess the kids were hungry for lunch even though they snacked a lot. 

3:40 hotel

We went to Sugarfire Smoke House for dinner. 

Miles ate mac n cheese, pork, turkey, and brisket. I thought he was done but he wanted a rib, too.

 

 

6:25 back from dinner.

Ella and Dave went to the pool. Miles was in bed.
He cried. He was awake. Diaper change. Then he was still up.

9:13 another diaper change.

This is Miles in his pack n play popping up to look at us. (Nightlight is reflecting in the mirror behind him but after the pic I closed the bathroom door to make it darker.)