Two Wheels!

Melodie can ride a bike! She falls more often than she goes, but she can pedal a 2-wheeler by herself! (Of course, just now, I realize, gee, I should have taken a picture! doh! I will get one this afternoon. We will be practicing some more.)

She got a new 2-wheeler for X-mas. She hadn't tried it AT ALL. Yesterday, I finally casually suggested it, and she ran with the idea! I still won't let her ride on the sidewalk by herself, but hopefully soon she'll be able to zip up and down at least part of the block on the sidewalk and have some fun with it. Could she finally be starting to get a teensy bit more "normal" and less gifted-flighty?

Atley was very jealous of her riding her bike. He was jealous of Charlie's gifts. We skipped the terrible 2's with him. Are we instead getting the ferocious 4's? Mr. Evel Kneivel seemed hell bent on flying down the driveway. (Our driveway is very steep, and obviously as it's a driveway, goes right into the street.)

Ari went to a little friend from school's birthday party yesterday. It was the first time she went alone to a party. She had a blast! And, it turns out her friend lives just a couple blocks down the street! (none of their school friends live near us since we're supposed to go to the other school.) So, her mom and I talked, and we'll hopefully be getting the girls together over the summer. Yay! That is the only thing I really don't like about this neighborhood. It's mostly elderly people. It's nice and peaceful and safe, but a complete lack of neighborhood friends.

The people across the street from us have kids, little boys even, that are Atley's age and probably about 1 1/2, but they are never outside. We are outside alot, and I know they've seen us. I figure if they would want to be friends, they would have said something. I guess not. :0( Maybe they are just unbearably shy like me and I should go knock on their door sometime. I don't know if I can get up the nerve! Honestly though, I didn't even know they had a kid until I saw the older boy outside once when he was about 2. I've seen them outside less than a dozen times, I'm sure. Just last week was the second time I'd seen the little one outside.

Oh, and wouldn't you know it, Fasty Bocco is doing well. He is swimming around, eating, and checking out the pirate ship wreck. Hermione(Ari's fish), on the other hand, has taken a turn for the worse. I think she has ick. I just changed their water last week, and it said a temperature change or stress can cause it. Maybe from the water change and the 40 degree weather one day to 80 the next could have done it? I put an ick tablet in the water today. We'll see how she does. Thankfully, Ari didn't care. She said that's okay, I'll just get another one. My mom said they're just immune to fish-death now, after the Bocco saga.

Sunny Day!

Yay! It's FINALLY going to be nice out! Today, tomorrow and Saturday especially are supposed to be awesomely beautiful!

I can't believe I forgot to blog about it yesterday....we got Bocco Fasty II on Tuesday. This time, we went for a Danio, promised by Auntie to be a hearty fish. So far, so good. On the bright side, Pet Smart has a 14 day return policy, as opposed to Walmart's 3 day. Hopefully, we will have better luck, or at least be able to replace said fish more easily.

I'm baking Charlie's cake tonight! I know, the build up is horrible. I can't wait, myself. I promise, I will add pictures of everything after "the big day." :0)

The VW toy is turning out okay. I'm not as happy with it as I could be, but it's not done yet, so I'm hoping the shaping will get a bit better when I put everything together. We shall see!

I sold my first pattern! Someone bought "Bite Me" yesterday! I was so excited!

Happy Easter!

Well, we got eggs dyed, and bunny nests and speckled eggs made. I didn't get the poke cake made. I'm waiting for the dishwasher to be done (any minute now) so I can use my pan, and then I'll get it in!

Ah, another hectic day. I've got work, today is my grandpa's birthday (who thankfully lives about 2 blocks down the road), and the in-laws are coming over at 4. Oh, and I still have to make a cake and my Easter bread. Dan's making the pasta sauce. (We're having pasta. We had our ham on Ostara.)

I'm beat. I stayed up too late watching Moses last night. I set my alarm for 6:10 to hide eggs. The kids were up by 6:45...close call! They had all of their eggs found before they even came in to wake us up!

Atley freaked me out yesterday. The whole side of his neck was swollen! Today, it's gone down a little and I can feel it's a lymph node, but if we would have had insurance, I would have had him in the ER last night I was so freaked out. I'm going to try to get them to fit him in with Ari on Tuesday, just to make sure that's all it is. I already know they're going to say his tonsils need to come out. They've been huge for at least a year now.

Oh, and if you can believe this, Fasty Bocco died yesterday! I swear, why him? Is it just because Atley cares the most? For crying out loud. I think this time, one of the big goldfish tried to eat him, though. So, we'll try again. I haven't had the heart to tell him yet. "Hey Atley, Happy Easter, and, oh yeah, your fish died again!"

Dare I Say It??

Good things might finally start happening to me!?!?

Yesterday after our weekly grocery trip, I decided to finally stop at the florist's on the way home and talk to them about their "Crafters Wanted." I think I'm gonna do it! I need to get some inventory made up. My mom said she would spot me at least the first few months of space rent to get me started and see how it worked out. I'm so excited! Dan's kinda wishy-washy about it. The way I look at it, is this could be my only chance, and it's been practically thrown in my lap. I've really got nothing to lose, because if the shop space doesn't do good (they're a small florist, but they're hoping to expand in a couple months and be more flowers and a craft boutique kind of thing) I can always do craft shows or put more effort into my Etsy shop or on ebay.

Thanks for all the kinds words about my car! I'm still in mourning. It took every ounce of self restraint I had yesterday when I told my SIL they were invited down for Easter/Dan's birthday Sunday, and she asked if she should call their other brother, and I said yes not "No, car-killers aren't allowed!" One of Dan's friends came over last night. He and his fiancee restored her 65 Mustang last year. He was horrified to hear about my poor car.

Oh, we finally have 4 fish! *knock on wood* Atley picked out a new fish yesterday. This time, it is just a run of the mill goldfish. He named it Fasty Bocco. He's whitish with an orange dot on his head. He's so happy. He watched it for a couple hours last night.

Bocco

I know, I've been awfully quiet. Things have been, surprisingly, rather dull around here! We do have bad news to report. Poor Bocco lived a short life. He started acting odd Saturday, and this morning, he was a floater. We think he may have had ick. Dan went to the store yesterday and got ick tablets and 2 more Bocco's (1 for Atley and 1 for Charlie.) For about half an hour, we thought Bocco might have been pulling through, but he went back to his little corner he had been in and stayed there. As soon as we put the ick tablet and the new fish in, he had started swimming around like his old self again. (I was convinced he was depressed and lonely because the big goldfish ignored him.) Atley's handling it pretty well. Dan and I were just as sad as he was. We had grown quite attached to the cute, spunky little guy in his short stint in the tank. RIP Bocco. We hope Bocco #3 and 4 will carry on your name well. (Because of course Atley said Charlie wanted his fish named Bocco, too.)

The most amusing part of all of this is when Dan was getting the fish, the lady asked him what he was going to name them. (For those of you who don't know, Dan is 6 feet tall, 330, jeans and T-shirt wearing car guy.) He said he wasn't, and she said, but their fish, fish have to have names! Then, he had to proceed to tell her that they would most likely be named Bocco because that's what fish #1 and 2 were named. I wish I could have seen Dan telling strangers about Bocco. Priceless.

I did get a couple more projects done. I crocheted a Little Ditty Bag for my DADA homework, and I knit Ari a pair of mittens, because she has no gloves! They are like Atley's, but they match her Herbie hat...purple with a pink stripe. I'll try to get some pics up later. (Yeah, I know, mittens are uber-interesting.) I am about halfway done on the leg of my second pair of socks for me! I'm doing Hedgerow and using my Palette in Tidepool Heather.