Gi-Gi Roxx - The Ravings of a Lunatic

Things have been going fairly well in the Roxx house.  Leelu has two molars and a third on the way.  She's been really fun and playful and straight up goofy lately.  She's really developing quite the personality.  We have cuddly days and days when she just wants to play alone.  She's become OBSESSED with Frozen and Despicable Me 2.  She asks for things that she wants now and her vocabulary grows every day. It's amazing how quickly she's growing and learning. Now if we can just teach her a good safe way of getting DOWN stairs.  She's an expert at going up them, but going down... not so much. We've officially moved into our new kitchen, by the way.  Amazing! And we've started work on the first floor to get the living room and dining room in order.  I hope we can move into those rooms by Thanksgiving.  In the meantime, we are just plucking along.

The past couple of weeks have been rough on us here in the Roxx home.  Leelu is cutting molars which is making her a whiny, slobbery, often intolerable, mess.  Then there was last Tuesday. One of the local cinemas has a free movie every Tuesday and Wednesday throughout the summer that starts at 9:30 AM. We decided to skip the usual Tuesday library story time and check out the movie. Plus, I figured it would be a cheap (free) way of finding out how she would do in the theater.  She did better than I expected, honestly.  She sat on my lap picking at the popcorn and laughing at the appropriate moments.  We saw Despicable Me 2, which we had watched twice before at home without paying that much attention to it really.  But she seemed to thoroughly enjoy it on the big screen. We managed about 3/4 of the movie before she started getting too antsy to get on her feet and move about.  So we left early. When we got home things took a turn for the worst.  We hadn't been home 30 min

It cracks me up (and can be kind of embarrassing) when Leelu calls pretty much any old(er) man she sees "pawpaw".  I guess it's good that she makes the connection that her multitude of grandfathers are older, have grey or thinning hair and are called pawpaw. But when she points at complete strangers in public and exclaims "PAWPAW!" its a little awkward. Of course I usually just tell her something along the lines of "yes honey, he might be someone else's pawpaw" and then I try to redirect her attention. She's a hoot. We've spent a fair amount of time with my sister and nephew this week.  Leelu and I went to their house and went for a swim in their pool earlier in the week and then yesterday we met out and about for a day of just loafing at the mall.  When it was time to part ways, poor Leelu didn't want it to happen.  After dropping my sister and nephew off at their car she cried and cried on the way home, alternating whines and

Many of you know I took up knitting quite a while back. Some of you know I also recently learned to crochet. I've been having loads of fun with both of them lately and decided to start a blog about the projects I get myself into.  If you have an interest in this, feel free to check it out .  I've added links to both my Ravelry site and my Pintrest Knit & Crochet Board on my sidebar as well. 

I think this whole teething thing is for the birds.  I want my happy, giggly, fun to be around baby back. Since about this past Friday, Leelu has transitioned into a whiny, slobbery, crying mess of a child.  It looks like she's got about four teeth trying to come in right now.  One is barely peeking through on her upper right gums, but the others are just below the surface making her gums all swollen and sore. We've given her cold things to chew on, popsicles and the like. We have provided her with plenty of teething rings and such.  She finds some comfort chewing on her fingers as well it seems.  But when it going gets tough and she's in too much pain to tolerate it, we've given her some Children's Tylenol to ease her pain.  Today I'm going to get some Children's Motrin too, for a change of pace and to see if it will help with her swelling.  I feel soooooo bad for her.  I can't imagine what she must be going through.  She has moments where she

The other day we finally tried out the baby pool Leelu's Aunt Jessi got her for Easter.  It was a hit! A bag of beach toys only cost us $1 at the piece goods store and provided endless entertainment while in the pool. The pool is big enough for baby and mommy, so I got in a bit of a soak and splash too! I think Leelu really likes the water, she splashed and played and had a grand old time. The only trouble had with our first day in the pool was my own bathing suit being a bit too small. Butt cheeks kept popping out all over!  I was glad that I'd not decided to take Leelu to a public pool before this test run of our baby pool. You see, I've not purchased a new swim suit in probably the better part of 6 years.  But then, the one I have I've only worn a handful of times. I'm not a big swimmer really.  I bought the suit pretty much just to wear in a creek at our favorite camping location in North Carolina which we frequent all of once a year.

So I've been trying to replace my old worn out sneakers for over two weeks now.  I fell in love with a pair like these that my sister bought and let me try on one day.  No pain, no gain...Super fun, but not if you have a jacked up foot. They're so lightweight and comfortable.  Except when you have a foot that's being a jerk.  Yes, that's right.  My foot is a complete and total jackass right now.  My right foot, specifically. When I purchased my own pair of these Nike's I didn't expect to have any problems.  But then I took them on a test drive walk one day. Agony.  Utter agony. Turns out there is an issue with the placement of one of the leather "straps" across the toe that is aggravating what I can only guess is the beginnings of a bunion or whatever on my right foot. It HURT... BAD. I tried loosening the laces to the laxest point possible that would still let me keep the shot on my foot but it didn't help.  I took them out fo

I was just organizing a mountain of paperwork that needs to be filed away in the filing cabinet we keep our crap "organized" in.  Next I have to actually take some time to organize the files in the cabinet so they're more user friendly. Right now everything is in wild disarray in there.  It's what I'd call "amok". I hate it.  But I also hate standing there for any amount of time trying to get it in order.  I will dedicate myself to the task one day soon.  I swear it. I realized how much filing there is when maintaining household records AND business related records here in this house.  I used to do that sort of crap when I was being paid to do it by various jobs over the years. I'm not getting paid for this however, not legitimately anyway. Sure I get a roof, food, water, and the occasional new pair of shoes or a fancy new bit of bling.  But I don't have to pay into FICA or SSI or any of that crap, so I guess I'm coming out ah

I've been a horrible blogger.  Heck today was the first time I've logged on since I posted the previous entry about Leelu's First Birthday. Since then, she's started walking, running and trying to jump and climb. Her vocabulary is ever expanding and she is quite the little ham.  She makes me laugh, a LOT. Little Miss Cool Beans We've been working on learning letters and numbers and she loves pointing out A's, E's, O's and L's everywhere we go. She also loves giving hugs and being chased around. Hearing "I'm gonna getcha!" makes her squeal with delight. I cannot believe in a little over a week she's gonna 14 months old.  Time FLIES! I've been doing well, keeping up with Leelu, housework and business stuff keeps me busy. When I make some personal time I am still playing with needles and hooks and yarn, learning new tricks with crochet and knitting.  I've made a few little doodads but nothing seriously produc

While Leelu doesn't officially turn one until tomorrow, we have already celebrated her big day.  Yesterday our family and closest friends joined us in our home for a birthday party in honor of Leelu. There was pizza and cake and ice cream and fun.  It was such a fun afternoon. Here are a few highlights from the pictures that I was able to snap on my camera.  My brother-in-law took LOADS more pictures that he'll get to me eventually and I can update this post or create a new post with some of his pictures.  Until then, enjoy seeing what I can offer. The house was still kind of a mess, but we managed to make the party space look a little festive. Take a favor and leave a wish, I made the party favors out of baby food jars and thought it would be a cute idea to have everyone leave a special birthday wish for the birthday girl on a mat for a picture frame. The cake table.  The cake was fantastic and made with love by my sister, Leelu's Aunt Jessi. It smelled so

I may have mentioned before that we are in the midst of a full kitchen remodel.  Well today the guy from the Granite place is coming to measure and do the layout for our counter tops.  Soooo excited.  Last week we ended up at the Granite shop where we threw three years of searching and finally picking a style of granite out the window and went a completely different direction with a different stone entirely. If the truck didn't have any trouble getting here, we are also able to go view the slabs that we will be getting our cuts from.  I'm seriously excited.  The counter top is the last major purchase and nearly the final piece of the kitchen puzzle.  After the counters are installed we can do the tile back splash and then drop in the cook top, sink, and connect all the bits to make our kitchen complete.  Sooooo exciting! Here's a little sneaky peeky:  There will be double ovens on the end , then a drop in 5 burner stove top next to that. Here is the wall

I've got other things I could and probably should be doing.  But here I am anyway. Today we found out that our car is in need of repairs, the blower motor for the interior temperature controls is kaput. It also looks like it's something that we will have to take to a dealership to have fixed.  Of course that  means that something that could be somewhat affordable to fix ourselves will instead be astronomical in cost.  Not cool. But the universe is smiling upon us a little (possibly) in the area of employment for my hubby.  He's been riding the unemployment train since late October after getting laid off from a company that promised him the moon and the stars and endless work being available..... all lies.  But there has been rumor that a great company is looking to hire him for a temporary job that could turn into a permanent job. We're not holding our breath, but we are crossing our fingers. Leelu had a kinda-sorta check up when we went to the WIC office this w

With the light of the construction of the new kitchen being visible at the end of the tunnel, I can now safely assume that the house will be in some sort of order when its time for Leelu's first birthday. Which means that we can have the small family party here instead of paying for a party room elsewhere. Of course, with a first birthday looming in the near future, I've turned to Pintrest in search of ideas for a subdued yet unforgettable party. It's overwhelming, the amount of information and ideas available on a single site.  But I think I've got a basic idea of what we can 1) afford and 2) pull off in the confines of our humble home. Aside from party planning, I've been watching my sweet little Leelu go through some terribly tough teething for the past week or so.  Her top two fronts are trying their darnedest to come in.  A couple days ago she even spiked a fever of nearly 102 that turned me into one worried mama bear.  But two doses of Infant Tylenol did

Today is Sunday January 5th 2014.... I had my second shower of the year today.  Yeah, I said it.  But before you get all grossed out please understand that two showers in 5 days is pretty good considering that when I was an OTR trucker there were times I went 4+ days between showers.  Due to time constraints on load/travel time and poor planning in the dispatching process.  It wasn't for lack of trying sometimes, but often the need for adequate sleep and food consumption outweighed the need for a shower.  But this having been my second shower of the year didn't mean I was completely dirty, I did wash my hair between showers.  I enjoyed the shower thoroughly, finishing it off with a slathering of lotion to battle the dryness that this winter weather is causing and I even tried out my sister-in-laws homemade sugar hand scrub that she gave me for Christmas. I was kinda freaking out when it appeared that the dye she used to make it pretty was appearing to settle into the

These gloves are great and fit most adult women's hands pretty well based on this pattern.  I made several attempts before finding a good fit for a "One Size fits most" pattern and this is what it looks like.  If you make yourself a pair of these gloves, please let me know! I'd love to see your work! Just email me a picture and I'll happily applaud you for your efforts and maybe even show off your work here!   You will need US Size 9 (5.50mm) straight needles, one darning/tapestry needle for finishing and one or two colors of yarn. **Color A in this pattern is referencing the picture above wherein the cuffs at the top and bottom are hot pink and Color B is the yellow portion of glove. ***I'm not sure how much yardage I actually used for each glove, but I can assure you that the single skein of yellow yarn (used in the glove pictured above of which there are two) has PLENTY left for more projects.  So this might be a great way to use up leftover yarn

As part of my own twist on New Years Resolutions, I've uninstalled the Facebook app on my phone and plan on resisting the urge to log on using Chrome on the phone as well.  I figure my time is MUCH better spent with my baby girl, my hubby and my home.  Cutting back my social media interactions will be a good start to this new year.  I had also planned on cutting back on Instagram, but seriously this kid is too photogenic NOT to keep sharing with the world.  I would like to apologize to anyone who texted me with New Year tidings last night (there were several numbers I didn't recognize and I ended up deleting all incoming texts by accident when I thought I was only deleting one from someone I did know...oops.) So if you sent it, Happy New Year to you too. I trust everyone had a safe and happy holiday celebration last night.  I'm still waiting to hear from the hubs, who stayed at his brothers' house last night.  Natalie and I visited until we were too pooped to vi