Christmas Time!

So my plan for Christmas was to make most presents. What I didn't make I wanted at least handmade, preferably local, but handmade in general. And what I didn't get handmade I at least wanted made in the USA, definitely not Made in China.  This worked mostly. In the above picture you can see what I made for my mother in law, Lynda. G's family is so hard to buy for. Segen wants everything, Bill doesn't really want anything, and Lynda buys everything she wants. So what do you make/get the lady who can buy it all herself? Bags to help with her purchases. I thought it clever. I have also made sock monkeys, finger puppets, and etched glasses and I'm planning on making today or tomorrow some bracelets.

The last part of my resolution, the whole all USA nothing China part, was really freaking hard! I honestly believe that the ammount of items we buy that are imported is a large factor in why our economy sucks so much. Why do we send our money overseas? Why don't we help our own people and buy local more? G was talking to his mom about it and she made the point that our country is programmed this way and me trying to shop local (US local) isn't going to make a difference.  I'm not going to the change the world. Here is my disclaimer: I am not planning on changing the world. I am not trying to change the world. I'm trying to change myself and teach myself and hopefully my children in the future smarter shopping habits. It's the same reason I recycle and save things I can't recycle to use in crafts. It's the same reason I'm trying to become less materialistic. Why do we have so many things? And why are a large majority of these things Made in China?

As it stands Amber's present was made in Germany and I got some Lego's for Russ (couldn't help it) and a game made in Mexico. And, 3 days before Christmas, we have 6 presents left to go AND we need to get something for my sister for her graduation, which was last week, yes I suck I know. But we are getting there.

Cord Blood

So I've been meaning to do a post about CORD BLOOD for a while now, but I haven't wanted to put the effort into it so this will just be really short.

You know what cord blood is? It is your babies raw genetic material, plain and simple. Stem Cells are a big issue of debate, but they shouldnt be. There are so many stem cells thrown out every time someone has a baby. Most people don't know you can save/donate your cord blood stem cells because it is illegal for doctors/staff to broach the topic to you, which again is stupid! There is nothing unethical about cord blood stem cells! If anything, it is good because it saves that much from going to wherever genetic waste goes! If you don't save it or donate it then it goes into the waste bin. Personally, I think that is ridiculous. I have saved it from both of my children. Here is a good site to get more info on what can be done with Cord Blood and what they are trying to do with it: blog.cordblood.com

I got a call from CBR-Cord Blood Registry, where we saved our kids' cord blood-about our collection for Alice. Turns out you need at least 100 million stem cells to creat a viable collection. Average collections run about 250 million, which means Russell's collection was just about average at 290 million. Alice has a count of 1,502,000,000 cells. That's over a billion! That's 15 times the minimum! Isn't that great? I am so happy.

Wish List Meme

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme
TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year? 

  1. Spinning wheel (or at least a pretty drop spindle from http://www.etsy.com/shop/zebisisdesigns)
  2. Some pretty rovings to go with said drop spindle (from my favorite etsy yarn shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/knit)
  3. A full night's sleep
  4. A yard
  5. A place to store all of my crafty stuff.
2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received? 
  I can't really think of any at all.
3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle? 
  Resin.
4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
   My alarm clock. I asked for it in 3rd grade and I still have it and use it 16 years later. Shyeah, I'm a nerd.
5. What items are on your kids' wish lists this year? 
  Russ wants the Handy Manny Play Set they have on display at Target. I think Mimi and Grandpy are getting it for him. Alice wants her real food supply to stop running out every few days. That Silimac stuff doesn't make her happy, and it doesn't make her poop happy either!
6. What is your favorite holiday food? 
  Ham. I love ham.
7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays? 
  I learned how to etch glass and one of my sisters is getting a set of glasses. And I'm crocheting a bunch too. Some of our neices are getting some crocheted finger puppets. They are so great RUss wants a set for his stocking.
8. What is your favorite holiday movie? 
  Nightmare Before Christmas - I always thought of it more for Christmas than Halloween
  The Muppet Christmas Carol - Hello! Muppets! Christmas! Can it get any better?
9. Favorite holiday song? 
  TSO has some great music, but the latest Mighty Mighty Bosstones CD has a great song on it about being together. Love it! Totally recommend that album for everyone. It is very happy compared to their old stuff.
10. Favorite holiday pastime?
  I like to to do the tree. Fun stuff! Last year I made a bunch of ornaments that weren't really fragile and wouldn't hurt Russ if he ate them, which he did, and that was a lot of fun. I think I need to do that again but he can help this year!

Halloween was almost cancelled

but I'm glad I got feeling better because otherwise I wouldn't have gotten this shot!

Alice

Here she is! Sorry this has taken so long, my computer is over heating.

Alice Lynn Hansen

 Born October 9, 2009 2:06 am

8 lbs 6 1/2 ozs; 20 1/2 inches long

Lots of brown hair (?) and looks just like her daddy's baby pictures. 

Birthed without real drugs, btw. That's right: I'm a real woman 

Cricut Meme and room

This is contest entry for those crazy folks at TodaysMama and Cricut. Be sure to check out Cricut's cool new cartridges and the chance at $30,000 in travel for you and your friends at the Great Gypsy Escape site! http://bit.ly/FWcud

Great Escape Meme
1. If you could escape to anywhere in the world where would it be? 
Somewhere new, Oregon maybe. Always wanted to go to Oregon. I think it's the hippy in me trying to escape.
2. What song do you play when you are by yourself in the car? 
Cindy Lauper and Madonna (What can I say? I'm a girl. shh... don't tell)
3. If you had a night to yourself, and money was no object, what would you do? 
Currently I would say SLEEP but I know that's not what the question is asking so...
I am assuming they also mean I would NOT BE PREGNANT so again...
Go to a concert (Toadies, Chili Peppers, I wouldn't be too picky), hang out in the mosh pit the whole time, and if I had the energy afterwards, lots and lots of sex. They want honesty, right?
4. What is your guilty pleasure? 
Creating for no reason. Oh, I already have a bag full of bags that I don't use? Heck, let's make another one!
5. What is the farthest place you have traveled away from your home? 
In recollection, Philadelphia last September. I thought being in the middle of downtown would really not be cool, but it was. We walked EVERYwhere.
6. Last book that you couldn't put down? 
Terry Gross' "All I Did Was Ask" 
7. When you want to escape into another time, what movie do you watch? 
Well this is a gay question. At our louse, we like to escape into the future: the post-apocalyptic future! We are now making sure Russ in bed before we watch them, but we like stuff like the "Resident Evil" movies and vampire movies. Woo!
8. What is your favorite local escape? 
The internet. Roswell doesn't have anywhere to escape to.
My favorite NEAR local escape, however, would be Ruidoso which is about an hour away. Casinos, put put golf, a nice strip to walk up and down window shopping... All things Roswell doesn't offer.
9. How do you escape on a budget? 
Dessert. Dessert is always a nice escape. Throw out what we know and go for the Mile High Ice Cream Pie, heck yeah. If there is ice cream involved, I have escaped, especially if there is peanut butter involved.
Best food you've ever had while on vacation.
Chinese food at a mall in Cancun. Amazing! Five course meal, peppermint tea, shark fin soup... Like I said, it was amazing




And since I should have had this on my last post and don't want to overpost myself, here is the finished room for our Alice. Man, we sure are hoping this is going to be a little girl. G would be so upset if we did all that work with the fairy wall paper and it turned out to be a boy...

News and fun things

Russ has been saying some awefully funny things here lately...

-He refers to himself as "Shull," as in he's speaking in the 3rd person. While this would bother me with anyone else, this is my kid and he's not even 3 yet so...

-One thing he does say that bother the heck out of me: He calls me Jessie now, or "Sheshie" in his terms. AH! I almost want to scream at him, almost. He gets corrected every time he does it, though sometimes I make the mistake of answering to it before I correct him. 

-He has added the word "so" to his vocabulary as "So tired, mama" or "So sorry Daddy! So sorry!" 

-Last night while we were playing Rock Band (for the first time in months) he took the mic from me and shoved in the cats face and said "Sing, Eddie! Sing!" She was unamused, but I had to laugh. 

Oh, and he already holds his pens/pencils like his dad does.  

     As far as the pregnancy goes, I saw my midwife yesterday and she said this little girl is going to be probably 1 to 1 1/2 pounds lighter than Russ. Everyone has been telling me how little my tummy is and it's really bugging me. I hate it when everyone repeats the same thing. I am not too little! Bugger off, people. (Hee hee, I recently found out what the term "bugger" really means.. hee hee!)

Also, my friend Leah and her sister came over the other day and dolled me up and we took prenatal pictures, similar to the ones I did when I was large with Russ, but with a short black wig and pink fake eyelashes. Sweet! Preview for you, but that's all you get unless you are a sister of mine:

 Doesn't really look like me but whatever. 

Leah is also helping with my baby shower and we were making jokes about having some of these photos up at the little shin-dig! HA! I can just see her mom's face. Hell, Sariah's face would be enough for me.

     On the crafty front, I finished G's rug. Did I mention that before? He got new shirts for work relatively recently and while I was planning on ripping the old ones up for rags, I decided to rip them into strips and crochet a rug instead. Oh yeah, I think was complaining about the hooks breaking. Well, I went and bough some large metal hooks and this one turned out MUCH better than the one I have in "Alice's" room. Very uniform, very comfy. Eleven shirts made a rug about 30" x 42". I am please with myself. My right hand was swolen Monday because of it, but it was totally worth it.

     Also, I am signed up for my first swap on Craftster.com. Already got my partner! AH! I am so nervous! I made sure to sign up for one that the birth of my child will not interrupt my participation in too much: the send out date isn't until November 20th so whenever this kid comes I should still have time to work on my goodies for her. It is a Christmas stocking swap, and I was thinking of doing one of my "burlesque" stockings but her favotire colors are orange and lime-green so we'll see what I come up with. Ah! So intimidated!

     And G is going to have to go back to working every other Saturday which means the work we do around the house will be almost coming to a halt again. *sigh* Two weeks until that starts again, but each of these weekends there is an aution in the AM so we probably won't get much done. Poop and stuff!

     And I have a house I have been putting off cleaning so that's all I've to say for now.