Hello my lovely blog readers. I wanted to let you know that I have bought a domain and am now blogging over at www.astimeflies.ca. So if you wish to continue receiving email updates when I post a new blog head on over there and type in your email address on the right hand side, or subscribe via RSS at the top of the page. If you have never subscribed before and are just reading this by chance feel free to subscribe.

Let me start by saying I have lived in 14 different houses since I was born. The first 9 were before I was 17, the last 5 have been since I got married. In each house we would stand against the wall and see how tall we had grown, and when we moved to a new house those marks would stay with the new owner. I decided I wanted something we could take with us if we move to a new house so I could always see how my girls have grown. I found this blog post on Over the Big Moon on how to make a movable measuring stick.

A wonderful lady in our church brought me over two 1×4 boards that are 5 feet tall. I had a bunch of small bottles of acrylic craft paint but not enough to do both boards with one bottle, so I mixed a red, pink, blue and white together to get a nice purple color. I painted the front and sides of the boards. I took a black paint pen and marked off 2-6 feet on the board (we hung it 1 foot off the floor) and put in lines for every inch.

After I printed letters onto scrapbook paper and cut them out. I mod podged them onto the board and put a layer of mod podge over the front of the board so it was all the same shininess. After it was all dry Stefan put a picture hanger thing on the backs of them and measured 1 foot off the floor and hung them up for me. I love them, and I love that each girl has their own. They are hung up in the playroom. Though I might re-do a couple of the letters because they don’t stand out very well and it has been bothering me, we will see if I ever get around to it.  

 

Imagine your house catches on fire and you lose everything you own. Now add up the cost to replace everything. Sucky huh?? Last night I was talking on facebook with one of my really good friends, and she stopped talking mid conversation, which was no big deal she has a 1 year old and is 19 weeks pregnant, sometimes you just have to go. But within the hour I found out she left mid convo because their apartment building had caught on fire. I know this apartment well, because we lived in it for a year and half and just moved out 2 months ago. It is OLD the fire spread fast, a lot of peoples homes and businesses were lost in a matter of hours. My friends got out safely but now they have to start from scratch on everything they own. They need a new crib, change table, furniture, household items, kitchen items, clothing and so much more. This is a huge financial burden. They lost so much, but we are all thanking God that they are safe and no one was hurt in the fire. I am asking if you are reading this to donate a few dollars to them to help re-build what they have lost. You can pay-pal the money to me and I will give it to them (I promise). You can send paypal to deborahruth42@gmail.com. They are ordering new cloth diapers this week (let me tell you how much that would suck) and are currently looking for a new place to live. If you can donate please do. If you live in the Sussex, NB area please fell free to donate anything you can to this family. You can contact me if you need more information.

You can see in this picture the before and after. The building that is torn down is to the right of Matt and Kim’s apartment. They tore it down to stop the spreading of the fire. You can just see their apartment on the right. The room is gone and there is nothing left inside.

So go to paypal and send anything you can to deborahruth42@gmail.com

I can’t get the video on my blog but here is a video of the fire https://www.facebook.com/deborahgilbert/posts/141622762647496

Today I went to our super sketchy thrift store with my mom. It is called Nu-2-U and is apart of the Hospital Auxiliary and is run by volunteers. It always has super random stuff and is really cheap. I ended up getting 15 things and only paying $3…but there is a story to go along with it. I needed to find some pants that actually fit Capri so that was my main goal of the trip and I was able to find a pair of cords and a pair of jeans that should hopefully fit her. They have kids clothes marked at $1 for a grocery bag full, but I really didn’t need more clothes so I just got these pants and a pair of super awesome shoes for Capri.

I got her a pair of Keds, and I love them. They are so cute and will only fit her for a little while (but that is okay because she has some rocking Converse in the next size up from another thrifting time). I felt like she was a big kid in them and that made me sad. She is beyond adorable.

I also got a really cute plate for Capri and this really cute fabric. I have no idea what to make with it but I love it. I love getting cute dishes for Capri to use that I won’t be upset if she breaks. She has a little plate she uses now (again thrifted) but it is getting a bit small for her big appetite, so this is a bit bigger.

So just before leaving I decided to check out the book section because I am trying to find some old Dr. Seuss books to make a collage out of for the playroom. Well I was looking and could not find any Dr. Seuss books but I did find an Amelia Bedelia and a Madeline book which I have on the girls book wish list. I also got them a new Christmas book, a whale book, a Sesame Street book (which we have 16 of so far in our Sesame Street series). As I was looking a lady was asking the volunteer if they were taking donations at the time, and said she would bring all her stuff in. I asked her if she happened to have Dr. Seuss books and she told me that they did but was not sure when the ladies at the store would unpack everything. So I bought my stuff for $3 and went out to my car.

The lady and her husband were parked right next to me with a pick up truck fill with stuff to donate. They handed me three Dr. Seuss books (Hop on Pop, In a People House, and Bears on Wheels) and told me to look around at what else they had. I found this cool art thing that is a piece of metal with holes in it and painted and a Cuisinart coffee maker and hot water maker. I am not really sure what I will do with the art work, I am thinking of putting it in the playroom.

I think I did really well; if you add up the things I bought it would have cost well over $200 new and I only paid $3.

Capri keeps stealing our cloth diapers for her dolls. I had been letting her use one of the swim diapers but it is a bit big and I would rather her not loose it or hurt it. I wanted to make some diapers for her dolls but I am not the best seamstress, and lets face it I don’t really have the time to do anything fancy. So I found this awesome blog called Happy Together and on it she has a great tutorial for these easy felt diapers. 

I wanted some cool felt with different patterns but I live in a REALLY small town (like not even a Wal-Mart small). So I had to suck it up and buy plain colors from our local dollar store. I decided to just pick up 3 colors to see how well I did. On the Happy Together blog she has a pattern you can print off and trace onto your felt. Once that is done you just sew or glue your Velcro into place. You could start and finish this project easily during a nap time. Mine would have gone faster if I had found my Velcro when I started the project, if my machine had not jammed up 4 times and if Payson would have kept napping instead of screaming. But in the end I made three cute little diapers for the girls dolls and whoever else gets diapered. I love how easy they were. I am going to buy some more felt and make some for a couple of friends. These diapers fit a good range of doll sizes as well, the ones in the picture are 15 inches, 18 inches and a monkey.

I hope you enjoy and are able to make some easy diapers for all the dolls in your life.

Last month we found out that Capri had Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA). She started on a medication called Naproxen that she takes twice a day. Thankfully we have a really strange kid who loves taking medicine, we actually are able to get her to eat more of her meals by saying she can’t have her meds until she has a few more bites.

Unfortunately most kids with JIA need more than just oral medication to help their JIA so yesterday we went into the IWK Children’s Hospital for Capri’s first steroid injection into her knee. This was kind of scary because she had to be put out with sleeping gas. But I am getting ahead of myself. She had to stop eating at midnight the night before and could only have clear liquids until 8am that morning. She doesn’t get juice normally so we let her have apple juice and she drank 2.5 juice boxes in 1 hour. 

We first got to the hospital and our awesome rheumatologist Dr. Huber took a look at Capri to make sure her other joints were still doing good, and thank God they are. Her Naproxen has done a great job with her knee and she can bend it, but she still cannot fully extend it. After we saw Dr. Huber we went and waited in the waiting room where she was able to play with toys, and during that time she also was weighed, measured and had her vitals checked.

The nurse wanted to listen to her breathing because Capri was a bit stuffed up but she was okay enough to still have her procedure (which is good because it is a 2 hour drive for us to get to the hospital). We also met a little girl who has had JIA for 10 years and was also getting a joint injection that day. She said it was something she got used to and it was not very bad. It was really good meeting her and seeing a healthy and active 12 year old.

They took Capri back to the room and Stefan was allowed to go with her while they put her out. They said that most kids her age cry and scream with the mask and asked Stefan to hold her down. Stefan held her hand and told her she had to lay still so that is what she did. The doctor commented that he couldn’t tell when she was out because she was not doing anything and they actually had to close her eyes when they realized she was out. After that Stefan had to come back out with me and we waited until they called us.

As soon as she started to wake up they brought her out to us and we were able to hold her and spend some time in recovery while she woke up. She was allowed some more apple juice and then we went down to see our physiotherapist CJ. She said that we could start back up with her physio at home on Saturday. So we left the hospital and are now back home. For 48 hours she is not supposed to do a lot so that the medication will stay in her joint. Dr. Huber said it is not imperative that she stays perfectly still because she is 2 and that won’t happen. So we have been doing our best to doing activities and watch some movies.

So that is an update on our JIA adventure. We get to go back to the IWK in 2 months for another check up.

This lovely little gem of a picture is from 1990 when I was only 3 and my brother was 5. I decided to write this post after reading another post here about how to bless your young adult children. The author lists different ways that she blesses her two kids, such as taking them out for coffee or doing their laundry when they are having a stressful week at school. She has some awesome things listed and I highly suggest going over and reading it.

So it got me thinking about how awesome my parents have been. I am not going to lie, but my dad made my lunch and breakfast up until the day I graduated high school. He knew that I liked to sleep in and most likely would have gone to school hungry and without lunch if it were left up to me. And yes my husband says that I was spoiled but you know what, I am okay with that.

My mom knew that I didn’t always want to go clothes shopping with her as a teenager, but she always did her best to make sure I had the money I needed to get clothes and was more than willing to drive me to the mall.

When I was in University my dad used his many contacts that he has to get me mail. I would get random postcards from all over the world from totally strangers. He didn’t have to do this, but he knew that I loved getting mail. And anytime that he came up my way he would stop in and take me out for a meal or coffee.

One of the biggest things that my parents did for me was pray for me every day before I went to school. If we were running super late and I was out the door before we had a chance to pray I knew that they still prayed for me and my day.

Even to this day my parents continue to bless me and my family. Not only are my own two daughters spoiled rotten by them but Stefan and I are as well. They still take us out for coffee or a meal if we are in the same area, and they always make sure to make our favourite foods when we come to visit. They continue to bless us in many ways and I will forever be thankful to them for all they do. I hope that Stefan and I are able to bless our kids in the same way and make them feel beyond special (even if other people think they are spoiled).

I don’t know if you are like me or not, but I LOVE to get things in the mail. I do a large majority of my shopping online just so I can get mail. When I was in University I always complained to my parents that I didn’t get any mail. So one day I got a postcard in the mail, and I just kept getting more and more postcards from all over the world from total strangers. You see my dad has a lot of contacts and he started asking people to send me a postcard or a note so I could get mail. It was AWESOME. I loved it so much. The top photo is just a handful of the cards I got, I cannot find the others right now.

So I thought I would do the same for Capri with her recent diagnoses of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. So if you would like to drop a note in the mail to her giving her words of encouragement, or a cool postcard for her wall that would be great. She is only 2 and won’t fully appreciate this right now, but soon she will and will love it. Feel free to send something to Payson as well so she doesn’t feel left out.  Also we live in Canada, I forgot to add that to the end of the address.

You might have read my post last month about our trip to the ER with Capri. If not you can go read it, but here is a quick re-cap: Capri started limping really bad and could not straighten or bend her knee, it was swollen and hot. She had x-rays and blood work done and nothing showed up. A week later she went and saw an orthopaedic surgeon and he had no idea what it was. And then we moved to a new province.

So since that time she has been limping very badly and her knee has not gotten better so on July 21 we took her to our local outpatients where she had more blood work done (and they had to stick her 5-6 times to finally get a vein, which happened the first time as well, and she didn’t cry at all). So they still didn’t know what was wrong so they contacted the IWK (which is a large Children’s hospital) and we had an appointment to see another orthopaedic surgeon.

So we made the 2.5 hour drive to Halifax. Thankfully we didn’t have long wait times and our friend Jen stopped in while we were in the waiting room to say hi and gave me a present with tea and candy.

The ortho sent Capri for more x-rays and said she didn’t know what the cause was so she referred her to a rheumatologist but we were not sure when we would get in. We went to have lunch with my parents before the 2.5 hour drive home. While having lunch the hospital called and said they could get her in the next day. So we decided to stay at my parents for the night.

So, today we went and saw the rheumatologist. Within a few minutes the doctor told us that he was certain that Capri has Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Thankfully she has the lowest form (4 joints or less that are affected), and it is only her knee right now. We saw the physiotherapist and she did a few exercises with Capri that we will do with her at home to help loosen her knee up, and she has been prescribed an anti-inflammatory drug. We will be going back to the IWK in September where she will have a drug put into her knee via a needle (she has to be sedated for it). This will help her knee to heal and will take away any pain.

So that seems to be the answer to all the questions about what has been wrong with her knee. Hopefully the medication will help with her movement. She makes a great patient and was willing to let the doctors poke her and bend her knee a lot.

I found out about Nic and Elli through Bundles and Buzz. This company creates a lot of beautiful handmade baby items such as; quilts, security blankets, change mats, baby blankets, bibs and more. I was able to try out one of their bibs (well Capri did, I am pretty good at not getting food all over me now).

When they first told me that they were looking for people to test bibs I agreed but was not really sure about it. You see I am not one of those moms who has a bib on my kid…ever. Why? Because they annoy me and I find they don’t do a lot. You see I either have bibs that have that plastic type backing that melts if you accidently put it in the washer, or bibs that are too small and don’t save the clothes or those really gross bibs that catch the food (makes me want to throw up).

Anyway, the bib from Nic and Elli arrived in the mail and it is HUGE and awesome. The front is a cotton print and the back is a nice terry material. It covers Capri so well and kept her dinner off of her shirt. It also has to snaps to adjust for size and the snaps allow for grownups to take the bib off but not for toddlers (which is how I like it). The snaps are on the side which means that it doesn’t get caught in her hair when snapping it. Also what I loved is that when it got dirty I just tossed it in with the kitchen towels and didn’t have to remember to grab it before the dryer.

Each bib costs $7.00 and if you do laundry like I do you would only need 2-3 bibs. This bib measures approx 15 1/2 x 11 1/2. Nic and Elli are located in British Columbia, Canada (I love using products made in my Country).

Her work is excellent and I have been drooling over her quilts (I love handmade blankets…hint hint to anyone out there that makes blankets of any kind).

So go ahead and check out their Etsy page and buy something. Their stuff would make awesome baby shower gifts.