Friday, February 22, 2002

 

Well, last week we came home from Arkansas with a new computer. 950 mhz, 30 GB hard drive and 128 MB of RAM. Nice. Plus a Cannon scanner/fax/copier/printer. With a computer desk and printer stand; all for only $400! Nice deal. So, it's taken us a while to get it set up.

I'm still using my laptop, but the thing frustrated me so badly that I finally used the recovery disk and wiped the hard drive back to the way it came. After I backed up files, address book, inbox etc. But I forgot all the music I downloaded from Napster. Uh-well, it's probably better that way anyway.

So now I have very little music. Since most my CD's were stolen last year and all the Napster stuff got wiped, I'm down to a few CD's by artists that aren't my favorites. I'll live I guess. :)

Oh, I just thought of something... I might have those Napster songs after all. Hmm...I wonder if they got put on a backup CD I made and then decided to back up a different way. I'll have to check there.

Well, Xander is still growing. At his last appointment this past week, he weighed 13 pounds and measured 23 inches! It's going by so fast. He's sleeping almost 9 hours at night too. I just wish I'd sleep that long. He's got me trained to wake at 6 even though he sleeps til 7 now. LOL.

My work at the library is slowly increasing as the summer inches closer. I'm beginning to get things ready for the Summer Reading Program. ::sigh:: My work is never done!

Dawn posted this at 6:31 PM.

Thursday, February 07, 2002

 

The new story is finished, roughly speaking of course. The hubby read it through for me. I asked him to just read it for pleasure and tell me what he thinks about it first, before really diving in and hacking it up. He said he thought it was cute. Hmm, well, I thought W.G. Rowland's story, "The Great Wizard Joey" was cute and it won GRAND prize at WotF. Heheh. I could only wish my story would win that. ;)

But I'm way, way, way ahead of myself. This story has a long way to go before it's even ready to think about being sent away from my hard drive. :) A long way before it's even sent to a crit group. I'm trying to constantly remind myself that it is a work in progress, a diamond in the rough so to speak. A lot of work left to polish it up.

We're going to visit James' parents again this week for a couple of days. We're trying to work around feeding schedules so that James and I could get away for dinner and possibly a movie while the grandparents watch Xander. I'm looking forward to it. I just hope Lord of the Rings is still showing so that I can at least see one of the two movies I've been wanting to see. I guess I only have to wait till May before I can see Harry Potter. I saw that it will be on video May 23rd. Hmm, does Pay-per-view on Dish Network show movies earlier than the video release date? I'll have to keep my eye out for it.

In an effort to more wisely use my time, I've started watching either news (can they talk about anything other than the 'war' or Enron?) or PBS University channel while breastfeeding. I'm watching shows on Writing, History and government. Occasionally I've watched some language shows, but if you don't catch program one and follow the entire series, it can get very difficult. The trouble is, though, that I'm learning so much, my brain can't process all of it, so I'm forgetting a lot. Uh-well, even if I only remember bits and peices, that's something.

Now I'm off to finish a crit for my group!

Dawn posted this at 5:56 PM.

Wednesday, February 06, 2002

 

::sigh:: Xander is still teething. He's fussy right now. Wouldn't you know it, just when you get in the middle of something...

He slept 8 hours last night! Whohoo! He did wake up around 11 and cried briefly for his pacifier. But, he'd been waking up around 3 or 4 and doing the same thing. I was worried about him when I woke at 6 and hadn't heard a peep from him. He's growing so much. I took him to the health dept, where a friend of my works, on Feb. 1. He weighs 12 lbs. 10 oz. already! His doctor predicted that he'd be twelve pounds at 6 months. He's gone from being at about the 20th percentile, to nearly the 50th!

We went to see James' parents last week. They paid for our gas so they could see their one and only grandson. Since then I've been trying to find a balance between writing, reading, Xander-time, hubby-time, housework and pleasure time for myself.

That's right, I've been writing again! 3 days worth this week and 2,200 words. I have to admit, I'm not pleased with it, but I'm trying to keep a good attitude about it. It's a work in progress. I didn't think about this before I started writing, but I realized that the piece is difficult because it's set in a time long ago. It's a "Once upon a time..." piece.

I've discovered the best time to write is in the morning, during Xander's second nap. I'm more alert and so far, Xander does not fuss during these two naps. As the day goes on, he becomes increasingly more fussy. He wants to stay up longer therefore causing him to be tired more therefore causing more fussiness. I've worked out a system where I let him stay up from 6:30. I get him up at 6:30, feed him, let him play, feed him a bit early at 8:30, then bath and massage, devotional and bed around 10. I've managed to find the right balance where he's not too fussy and yet tired enough to sleep.

'Balance' that's my new word for today. I'm constantly trying to find balance. If I spend too much time on housework, I'm too tired to funtion as a wife and mother. If I spend too much time being wife and mother then the housework piles up. If I spend too much time on all that I lose my sanity 'cause I'm not spending enough time relaxing and just hanging out with me. I think I've found the right balance, at least for now.

Dawn posted this at 6:10 PM.