YouTube

My husband helped me put together a video for my online class over the weekend and it came out pretty good.  We think it is so cute that maybe we will start creating some more videos because they are great to share with family and it allows us to take all the videos we have of her and just pick those perfect priceless moments out of each video.  Then we put all the awesome pieces together and we have a great video!!

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be either.  The most time consuming thing was going through each video and picking the time periods to include in the YouTube video.  Then we just had to upload each piece into the editing software, add some music, mess around with volumes, fading, etc.  It was actually kind of fun.

And this is the final result:

Word Crush

My husband created this awesome game called Word Crush for Android and he recently released it on the Android Market.  It can be found here:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mlove.wordcrush&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5tbG92ZS53b3JkY3J1c2giXQ

It is a game that I played a lot when he was developing it.  I helped find bugs and give advice on ways to improve the usability and make the game better.  Creating it was something my husband really enjoyed and I had a great time making myself feel useful by playing the game nonstop because I was "helping."  But really, I just love the game and would play it anyways!

It's a free game that anyone with an Android device can download and it is lots of fun.  You basically play with words by using 6 letters to create word combinations.  You get more points when you use more letters.  So you can create 3 letter word, 4 letter words, 5 letter words, and 6 letter words.  Of course, if you always manage to find the 6 letter words in every game then you are either amazing or you are cheating!  Because that part is not easy.  But it is so much fun to try and get them all before the clock runs out!


He also came up with different backgrounds that would be available during the game.  You could choose beach, city, or lake.  You could customize the buttons a bit, by deciding where you want the clear button and whether you want it to clear one letter or the whole word.  You can also choose the type of game you want.  Some people like to be scored and race against the clock.  But sometimes if you want a more relaxed game, then you can just keep trying to find words until you fill in the whole board.  The game will time you, but you do not have to try and finish in just 3 minutes.  You can take all the time you need.


I highly recommend the game if you love playing with words.  I used to play Word Whomp occasionally on Pogo and this is similar. So if you like that, then you will like this too.

Give it a try!  Maybe you will love it as much as I do!!

Thank You Cards...and Life

Oh thank you cards.  I know that you are necessary, but that does not mean I have to like you. 

I feel like I am going a bit crazy during the end of the semester, leading into Christmas, time.  Reading, writing, doing thank you cards, entertaining Kaylee every minute she is awake, shopping for Christmas gifts, hoping the gifts will be delivered on time, cooking, cleaning, decorating (which I have not done), getting a tree (which we hope will be delivered on time), watching Doctor Who (very important!), etc. 

Not to mention the fact that I have to do a video for my online class this week.  Everyone agrees that the class is not going well.  But none of us can do anything about it.  Unfortunate, but such is life.

Christmas

I've been thinking about Christmas gifts today.  And I can never think of what to tell people when they ask what I want.  And now I have to tell people what to get for Kaylee.  Once I've covered the basics of what she needs, which go to the grandparents, then I am not sure what to tell people.  What do you give a 9 month old for Christmas?  She has tons of toys.  And people never really want to get clothes.  At least, they never only want to get clothes.

And do I bother with a giant tree?  I mean, I realize that it is her first Christmas.  So I definitely want to get a tree.  But I don't think it's necessary to go all crazy when she is not even going to realize what is going on.  Next year, she will be old enough to really take everything in.  So I want to make it special and really go all out.  I think I will stick to basic decorations and a tree that is not over the top.

First Christmas in the new house!  Exciting!

Going to class until December 22nd?  Not exciting at all...

Mom's Birthday

Today is my mother's 65th birthday.  She would probably kill me for admitting her age.  But I do it for a reason.  I am 23 years old.  Do the math.

My mother was in her early 40's when I came along.  A little surprise to keep the family on their feet.  That having been said, my mother is amazing.  Somehow she kept up with me, gave me what I needed, and took care of me.  I'm sure that at that age, the last thing she wanted was to care for a screaming infant.  But she did it.  And she always said that I kept her young.

Now that I have my own little girl, I think she might have been telling a little white lie.  Maybe when I got a bit older and wasn't as much work.  But when I was little, I don't know how she did it at that age.  Like I said, she is amazing.  I hope she knows that, but maybe she doesn't think of it that way.  And that is why I am putting it out there.

We fight, argue, yell....well I fight, argue, and yell.  She just shakes her head and keeps her lips locked as much as she can.  Even when she knows that she is right and I am wrong.  She lets me learn that myself.  And then waits for my apology, which I inevitably make.  Once my wounded pride at being wrong will allow me to apologize that is.  She waits patiently and never gets mad at me, no matter how mad I get and how much I yell.

My point here is that I love my Mommy.  And the older I get, the more I realize how important it is to say it.  So Happy Birthday Mommy!!  You are an amazing woman and I love you with all my heart.  Thank you for everything!

Holidays

This week is going to be crazy, but so much fun.  Mike and I decided to have Thanksgiving at our new house.  So we are going to have his family, my parents, and my best friend.  So many people.  So much food.  It's going to be a great time.  We are all really looking forward to it.

It is so hard to balance holidays when you are married.  And it gets even harder when you have a baby.  Everyone wants to see her at Christmas, but you have no choice but to disappoint someone.  Each person wants to be with his/her family because that is the tradition.  What to do?  It's pretty much an impossible situation.  My family has a little family party just after Christmas.  So I guess that's close enough to Christmas.  It's still sad not to be with my family for the actual holiday.  But I suppose I'll get used to it doing it every year.

I would like to hope that things will get easier as Kaylee gets older, but I doubt it.  When she gets older, we'll just have to worry about making the long trip with two children instead of one.  That is not going to be fun.  I thought when you had kids, people were supposed to come to you, instead of you coming to them!  Haha  If only that was true! 

Websites

In the last couple of days, I have realized that creating an awesome website is almost impossible unless you have expertise in that area.  Google sites lets you do some things, but not others.  Other generic website creating software has limits too.  Basically, I have been doing everything possible to figure this out and have gotten nowhere.  I want to put some photo albums in and a calendar.  Which you can do on Google sites....but you can't change the formatting...like putting text next to the picture as opposed to under it...

Anyways, I don't know what I am going to do at this point.  But I know that eventually I will figure it out.  It may not be the best website, but I will definitely get it done.  Fun, fun, fun.

Fiction

I was reading for Fiction Writing today and it made me think about how interesting the workshop process is.  Reading other people's fiction and critiquing it, analyzing the plots and characters. Finding out a writer's strengths and weaknesses and trying to help them improve.  Having others tell you your strengths and weaknesses and learning how to be a better writer - a better storyteller. 

Good writers in a general sense are not hard to come by, but weaving together a web of details and descriptions, plots and people....well, the thought is kind of overwhelming.  That is why walking into Fiction Writing when it is time to review your own story is terrifying.  All you can do is hold your breath and hope that at least one person in that room liked your story.  And that no one tells you that you are wasting your time because you are horrible.  (Which no one would ever say because they are not evil, but it is still something that as writers, we constantly fear.)

I keep thinking about how different each writer is and what their process might be like.  How do they come up with their story ideas?  Why do they write about a specific subject?  Does it have to do with their past?  Is it just something they happen to be interested in?  Why?  I think it is all so fascinating.

If they chose to write about something different, to try something new, is it because they want to?  Or is it because they think that they should?  For example, if someone tells you not to write fantasy, do you listen?  Even if it is what you enjoy writing?  Or do you continue on writing what you love and ignore them? 

If a writer chooses to write something outside of their comfort zone for the sake of learning, is it really a good thing?  Or will their experimental writing pale in comparison to the stories that they took pleasure in writing because it was their passion?

Just some thoughts.

Writing

In fiction writing last night, we did a great exercise that really helps with creativity and coming up with story ideas.  I loved it.  All it takes is a few index cards and a pen.  I mean, come on.  It doesn't get any easier than that.

We wrote some kind of identifier on one card and some kind of action on another.  The identifier could be something like: the milkman, the maid, the accountant, etc.  Anything.  The action should not be something simple (tied her shoe) or something completely outrageous and impossible.  It should be something unique that is possible, but also not something that happens every day.  Some examples from last night's class are: slashed his tires, put the hamster in the microwave, and punched the librarian (thank you Evan!)

We took our identifier card and passed it to our left and then took the action and passed it to our right.  Everyone was left with new cards.  Nothing that they actually wrote.  Some were boring and did not make sense, but some were so funny and just amazing.

So you then ask yourself: why did the identifier do this action?  For example, my combination of cards left me with this question: why did the investment banked punch the librarian?  Think about that question for a minute and try to come up with the story.  It's awesome.

Now I will be getting a stack of index cards and filling them out.  I might even have some of my friends and family fill some out.  That would give me some options that I would not think of myself.

Life

We are officially in the new house and I absolutely love it!  Of course, we just moved in on Tuesday so there is stuff everywhere and nothing is set up.  But still, it's ours.  Our home.

Kaylee is comfortable here already, which is wonderful.  She loves her room, particularly the multicolored fan.  The people before us must have had kids.  All of her toys and things are here so she has plenty to play with.  We've got her jumperoo, which she still loves, and she doesn't even need a pillow underneath it anymore.  She can touch the floor!  I can't believe how fast she is growing.  I'm looking at her in the jumperoo right now and she is just so adorable!  She definitely has me wrapped around her little finger.  When she smiles and giggles, I'm gone.

I keep looking around the house thinking about all the things that need to be baby-proofed.  A gate for the basement door.  Padding around the fireplace.  At least we don't need outlet covers.  Mike put tamper resistant outlets in the majority of the house already.  And he'll be replacing the rest of them when he has time.  Time is hard to come by right now.  We've done so much to the house already, but there is always more.  Most of it can wait, but some things need attention now.  Like the baby-proofing.  Looking at Kaylee, I can tell that we will need to baby-proof very soon.  I feel like she could stand on her own any second now.  And I feel like she is going to skip the crawling stage.  She hates being on her stomach.  Maybe she will be one of those babies that just butt-scoots across the floor.  That would be hilarious. 

Power Outages

I have lived in NH since January.  And now we have lost power twice.  Last time, it was out for days.  Days.  And it sucked.  The thing is, we didn't even get that much snow! 

Tonight, we have lost power once again.  Leaves are still on the trees and now the snow is making them even heavier.  So they are falling everywhere and taking power lines out with them. 

The worst part is that my husband and I were supposed to complete the move into our new house tomorrow.  But right now, we don't know if there is power at the house since it is on the other side of Merrimack NH.  I guess we will just have to wait until tomorrow to find out what our plans will be.  I am a sad panda right now. 

Luckily, the house we are in now has a generator to power certain parts of the house.  So if we don't have power for a few days, then we can just stay here.  But it is definitely sad.  We were so excited about getting into the new house.  But with a baby and no generator at the new house, there is no way we will be moving in with no power.  Oh NH.  I so do not like you right now.

Keys and Locks

I've been thinking about locks and keys today.  My husband and I just bought a house recently and we are not quite moved in.  But after the closing, we went to check the house out and start cleaning.  The seller's agent gave us the keys to the front door and told us where to find the rest of the house keys.  In a drawer in the kitchen, we found more keys than we knew what to do with.

The problem was that some of the keys for the house were still missing.  We had 6 keys to one door, 4 keys to another door, etc. and then no keys to other doors.  It was ridiculous.  So we decided to start by replacing all the exterior doors - doors to the backyard, the front door, exterior doors to our breezeway.  We went to Lowe's and picked up a set of 2 locks which will get us started.  Then we have to pick up 2 more locks and get the re-keyed so that we will have the same key for everything.  Because as it is, we have like 10 keys to the house.  Not cool.

How did the previous owners keep track of so many keys?  I'll tell you.  They didn't.  That's why we are missing so many keys!  But we want to make sure we can have the house locked up when necessary and not need a million keys to do it. 

And if anyone else goes through a situation like this, here is some advice: get your new locks at Lowe's.  Home Depot charges $5 per lock to re-key.  But if you buy the locks at Lowe's, then they only charge you $5 total to re-key.  The woman told us she doesn't like to go nuts overcharging people because it is unnecessary.  Lowe's = win!

The Walking Dead

I decided to check out The Walking Dead today since it was available On Demand.  So far, I really like it.  It reminds me so much of playing Left 4 Dead.  Besides having the "special" zombies of course.

Basically, it's the typical story.  There is a virus that is spreading and a group of people sticks together trying to find safety and a possible cure.  The characters are interesting and each episode so far has had a pretty good plot (besides the obvious "don't let the zombies eat me" plot). 

I didn't get to watch the first episodes, but I did find out that it is available on Netflix streaming.  So I plan to look into it.  If you like zombies, you should definitely check it out!

House Update

Yesterday was furniture move in day.  It actually went really well.  The difficult part was that we had to pick all the furniture up in Lynn, MA and bring it to Merrimack, NH.  So we needed movers in each place.

That having been said, our friends were absolutely amazing.  We had several friends in Lynn helping and the majority of them (everyone who was available for the rest of the day) came to NH to help.  Plus, we had friends that came to help in whichever area was closest for them.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, we are so lucky to have the friends that we have.  They are the best!

My parents also came to help with some things that needed to be done: cleaning, furniture assembly, some painting, and helping take care of Kaylee so I could tell the guys where the furniture had to go.  They have been absolutely amazing throughout this move.  And to top it all off, they are coming back next weekend to help us paint the master bedroom and the living room. 

We still have some smaller furniture and some boxes to move in, but the majority of the bulky stuff is now in the house.  Next weekend, we will move our bed and Kaylee's crib and that will be it.  We will officially be moved into our new house!  And just in time for Halloween!

Our First House

Well, we did it!  This morning, we signed all the papers and we now own a house!  Our first house!  Watching all that money disappear from our bank account was admittedly scary, but it was worth it.  The house is so beautiful and we cannot wait to move in!

Today, I cleaned the kitchen, scrubbing every drawer, shelf, and appliance until they were squeaky clean.  My husband started replacing the outlets in Kaylee's room and the room that will be our office.  A lot of them were not grounded correctly. So since he was going to be messing with them anyways, he figured we might as well put in tamper resistant outlets.  It's just safer for when Kaylee starts running around.

Mike also had Comcast come to get our Internet going.  That way, he can get started wiring the house with ethernet, since he wants to have hardwired connections in several rooms and he wants it done correctly without it costing an arm and a leg.  Which is yet another reason that my hubby is amazing.  He can do all this stuff himself.  He's smart like that!  And he has ridiculously amazing friends, most of whom know a little something about everything.  Combined, they are a serious force of nature.  We are so lucky to have them.  And so lucky that they are all amazing and willing to lend us their expertise in improving our home.  It's so great saying that.  OUR home!

We have had a hectic, but awesome, day and this weekend will be more of the same.  My parents are coming to NH tomorrow to help us clean and to help take care of Kaylee.  Furniture move in begins on Sunday and we should be officially and completely moved in by Halloween.  So exciting!

Lunch

Today I took Kaylee to see Mike at work in Manchester and we went out to lunch with some friends.  It was so great to see Mike during the day and I think he really enjoyed getting to see Kaylee. 

I know that it makes him sad to be away from her all day, which is why he goes into work so early.  That way, he gets to see her for a long time in the afternoon.  He is so amazing for doing that.  Also, it is awesome that his work lets him do that.  Companies are getting so much better at working with their employees, striving to achieve a work/life balance that is the best for everyone involved.  Mike is able to adjust his schedule, for the most part, to fit our life and our family.  In turn, he is a happy, efficient employee who does amazing work, which benefits the company.  It's a win-win situation.

Grooveshark

First, there was Pandora.  I used to listen to music on that all the time.  Pick a song you like and Pandora would play songs that it believed to be similar.  Great.  I loved it.




Then, there was Slacker.  Pick a station and songs of a certain genre would play continuously for your listening pleasure.  There was an occasional 30 second commercial, but it wasn't too bothersome.  You could pay a small price for the year to have those pesky commercials taken away if they really bothered you too much.  Also, you could skip through songs if you didn't like them or tell Slacker not to play them anymore.  Favorite them if you really loved them and they would play more often.  But unless you paid for the service, you did not have the ability to skip an unlimited amount of songs.  It could be annoying if you really had some specific songs in mind that you wanted to hear.

Now, there is Grooveshark, which my husband recently introduced me to.  Like Slacker, you can pick a genre and those are the types of songs that will be played.  You can also pick "Popular Songs" and you will get almost 500 songs on one playlist, able to work your way through them and never hear the same song if you don't want to.  The difference with Grooveshark is that you can skip as many songs as you want, create your own playlists, search for absolutely any song you want to hear, share your playlists with people, and so much more.  It's pretty awesome.

The more I think about it, it's actually a lot like iTunes.  Except you have access to an unlimited amount of music.  And you don't have to worry about having your music imbedded with DRM (Digital Rights Management), like the majority of iTunes music.  Of course, they offer some DRM free songs now because they have realized that Amazon is so much better.  My point is that with Grooveshark you get all the awesome things about iTunes without having to deal with all the crappy things.  Sweet deal.

Amazing

The video chat last night was phenomenal.  Mike and I really think that Kaylee is starting to realize that it was Daddy's face on the screen.  Not only was she smiling when he made faces at her, but she was making the funniest noises. 

She has started making double sounds.  You know?  Not just saying "ahhh."  She has moved on to a noise that sometimes sounds like "raaa" and other times sounds like "waaa."  Except not the crying "waaa" sound.  Just an adorable noise that makes me giggle because once she starts making it, she won't stop.  It's hilarious!!

Also, we went to the apple orchard for the first time yesterday.  We only stayed for a few minutes, but my mother-in-law and I really wanted Kaylee to be able to see the trees and the apples.  So we got some cute pictures of her trying to put the apple in her mouth.  Of course, it was not exactly clean so I didn't let her have it!  But it was a fun trip and I think Kaylee really enjoyed it.  And we got to buy some awesome apple cider!  Yummy!!

Video Chat

Video chat is pretty much amazing. 

Today, my husband left for a conference in PA.  He's really looking forward to it, but at the same time, he is sad because this will be the longest time he has gone without seeing Kaylee.  So this afternoon when he had some downtime because registration hadn't started yet, I used my laptop to video chat with him.  Kaylee got to see him and he got to watch her try to play with my laptop.  It was so funny and he loved getting to see her even though he is not home.

Using Google video chat allows him to see her pretty face even when he is away.  I think it makes going to the conference a little bit easier for him.

Got to love technology!! 

Fountain of Pee

People always tell you that when you have a baby boy, you have to worry about them peeing on you.  "Be careful when you change that diaper!  Make sure you keep something over that thing or else you'll be sorry!"  What they don't tell you is that some baby girls have the ability to pee like boys!

Last night, Kaylee peed on me yet again.  This is the second time it has happened.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  Somehow, she has the absolute best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) timing. 

When we get her ready for her bath at night, she is only naked for a few seconds before she gets in the bath.  I feel like she must love the feeling of the air on her privates and it makes her feel like that would be a great time to pee.

I got her out of her clothes and her diaper while she was laying down, then I pulled her up to a standing position, ready to sit her in the bath in just a second.  She chose that moment to start letting go of her fountain of pee.  It sprayed all over her bath towel, all over the floor, quite a bit got on my pajama pants, and some even found it's way onto my slippers.  And it made its way onto all of these things even though Grandma tried her best to block the fountain with her hand.

But no, Kaylee would not be thwarted.  Somehow, the spray made its way all over the place.  And of course, Kaylee smiled and laughed the entire time, as though she knew exactly what she was doing.

She is adorable, but it does drive me nuts when she chooses moments like this to spray pee all over the place.  Luckily, I have a sense of humor.  I laughed when it happened and I am laughing thinking about it now.  If you can't laugh about these things, parenthood would be quite difficult and miserable.

Children are wonderful and amazing.  And yes, sometimes they drive you nuts.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.