Wednesday, January 16, 2008
What do you want to see on my blog?
I love finding and sharing information with people. Please tell me what you would like to see on my blog? What information do you look for? Parenting? Animals? Just more of the day to day stuff? Let me know!
10 months old and going on a Schedule!!
Well I think it is time to start getting Miss Nora onto a schedule. Our lives are going to get all topsy turvy in the next couple of months, so if I get her onto an iron clad schedule now, hopefully it will make the transitions easier.
Right now she wakes up between 6am and 6:45am. I can't really control when she wakes up if she wakes up earlier other than just ignoring any non frantic fussing until "getting up time". I like to take her out of her crib at 6:45am so I can just slip her into the car seat and away we go to work.
Once we are at work she normally plays for about half an hour to an hour before getting breakfast. Some days this doesn't work, but it seems to make her concentrate on the food more when she does eat so I like this. So breakfast will now be at 8am.
Then she plays for a bit more and goes to sleep anywhere from 9am to 11am. This is the first thing we are going to work on. Nap time is now going to be 10am. No excuses or exceptions. If she isn't tired yet, she will get quite time in the playpen or crib alone for at least half an hour, if she isn't fussing then I will let her have quiet time for an hour.
Then she can play until noon which is lunch, play until 2 and then down again for a nap or quiet time if not sleepy. Then she can stay up until 7pm which is going to be bed time.
So:
Awake at 6:45 am
Breakfast 8am
Morning Nap 10 am until awake, minimum 30 min.
Lunch at 12pm
Afternoon nap 2pm until awake, minimum 30 min
Dinner 6pm- bath, lotion, clean diaper routine
Bed time 7pm- might get changed to 8pm.
I know this seems pretty structured, but that is just what I am going to work towards. I am first going to start enforcing the morning nap/down time. Today I put her in the portacrib and let her put herself to sleep. She is pretty good at this if the house is absolutely silent. Once she is asleep, noise is okay, but it's getting her to put herself to sleep that is the problem!
Wish me luck!
Right now she wakes up between 6am and 6:45am. I can't really control when she wakes up if she wakes up earlier other than just ignoring any non frantic fussing until "getting up time". I like to take her out of her crib at 6:45am so I can just slip her into the car seat and away we go to work.
Once we are at work she normally plays for about half an hour to an hour before getting breakfast. Some days this doesn't work, but it seems to make her concentrate on the food more when she does eat so I like this. So breakfast will now be at 8am.
Then she plays for a bit more and goes to sleep anywhere from 9am to 11am. This is the first thing we are going to work on. Nap time is now going to be 10am. No excuses or exceptions. If she isn't tired yet, she will get quite time in the playpen or crib alone for at least half an hour, if she isn't fussing then I will let her have quiet time for an hour.
Then she can play until noon which is lunch, play until 2 and then down again for a nap or quiet time if not sleepy. Then she can stay up until 7pm which is going to be bed time.
So:
Awake at 6:45 am
Breakfast 8am
Morning Nap 10 am until awake, minimum 30 min.
Lunch at 12pm
Afternoon nap 2pm until awake, minimum 30 min
Dinner 6pm- bath, lotion, clean diaper routine
Bed time 7pm- might get changed to 8pm.
I know this seems pretty structured, but that is just what I am going to work towards. I am first going to start enforcing the morning nap/down time. Today I put her in the portacrib and let her put herself to sleep. She is pretty good at this if the house is absolutely silent. Once she is asleep, noise is okay, but it's getting her to put herself to sleep that is the problem!
Wish me luck!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Thank you to my Readers!
Hey Thanks for reading this blog!
I have had people drop by from all over the USA and internationally:
Canada
UK
Germany
Kuwait
Austrailia
And
South Korea!
Thanks for reading! I really appreciate it. It gives me such a thrill to see my blog be international! :D
I have had people drop by from all over the USA and internationally:
Canada
UK
Germany
Kuwait
Austrailia
And
South Korea!
Thanks for reading! I really appreciate it. It gives me such a thrill to see my blog be international! :D
Snow + Wind= Drifts
I went to bed pretty early last night. I was just over come with the sleepies. In fact, Doug had to wake me up twice as I fell asleep on the sofa reading a book. I knew there was a wind advisory but it wasn't too bad out when I went to sleep.
As I went back to the bedroom to lay down, I saw the glow outside that usually means it's snowing but I was to tired to be curious so I just went to sleep. This morning I could barely force our front door open. There wasn't tons of snow, but it had been blown up against out door and then frozen solid. Ick. I hate the metal scratching on frozen snow sound. Like nails on a blackboard.
Then of course it was interesting trying to break into Fort Knox...aka My Car. Melting snow had welded my doors shut in the freezing temps and I finally had to ask a neighbor for help. Man muscles and all.
I scraped about 8 inches of drifted snow off the top of my car and finally was ready to go, and the road was to slick. My car couldn't get any traction. I had to end up going the long way to work. As I was about half way to work my "check gages" light came on. Crud. I had been too late after getting my car out this morning to stop for gas. I knew that I could drive about 30 miles on empty so I felt fairly okay about going out. But you know it was on my mind from then on!
The road down to work was SCAREY. All Caps. The drifts were basically acting like launching ramps for the blowing snow. So instead of ground blizzarding, it was wind-shield level blizzarding for me.
So it looked like the road had been plowed so I was thinking I was going to make it to work... Wrong. So very wrong. The snow plow had only done PART of the road and was turning around to do more of the road I had just came down instead of going further down the road.
So I had to turn around and follow him out. The snow plow even got stuck at one point and had to keep backing up and moving more snow. Guess who was right behind him. Good thing my parents taught me to never follow too closely.
As it was the snowplow gave me a few heart attacks. They back up way too fast!! I was honking my horn and backing up as fast as my little car could on the snow.
Once we got past the Snow plow it was scarey just getting back into town! I saw one car that had gone off the road sometime in the night and was completely drifted in and a truck that had attempted going on an unplowed road. People were trying to tow it out of the drift with little to no success.
Finally, Nora and I were able to make it out to work about 2 hours late. Yesh.
I am SO glad that I got the studded snow tires put on the car. I would be terrified to drive in this weather without them!
As I went back to the bedroom to lay down, I saw the glow outside that usually means it's snowing but I was to tired to be curious so I just went to sleep. This morning I could barely force our front door open. There wasn't tons of snow, but it had been blown up against out door and then frozen solid. Ick. I hate the metal scratching on frozen snow sound. Like nails on a blackboard.
Then of course it was interesting trying to break into Fort Knox...aka My Car. Melting snow had welded my doors shut in the freezing temps and I finally had to ask a neighbor for help. Man muscles and all.
I scraped about 8 inches of drifted snow off the top of my car and finally was ready to go, and the road was to slick. My car couldn't get any traction. I had to end up going the long way to work. As I was about half way to work my "check gages" light came on. Crud. I had been too late after getting my car out this morning to stop for gas. I knew that I could drive about 30 miles on empty so I felt fairly okay about going out. But you know it was on my mind from then on!
The road down to work was SCAREY. All Caps. The drifts were basically acting like launching ramps for the blowing snow. So instead of ground blizzarding, it was wind-shield level blizzarding for me.
So it looked like the road had been plowed so I was thinking I was going to make it to work... Wrong. So very wrong. The snow plow had only done PART of the road and was turning around to do more of the road I had just came down instead of going further down the road.
So I had to turn around and follow him out. The snow plow even got stuck at one point and had to keep backing up and moving more snow. Guess who was right behind him. Good thing my parents taught me to never follow too closely.
As it was the snowplow gave me a few heart attacks. They back up way too fast!! I was honking my horn and backing up as fast as my little car could on the snow.
Once we got past the Snow plow it was scarey just getting back into town! I saw one car that had gone off the road sometime in the night and was completely drifted in and a truck that had attempted going on an unplowed road. People were trying to tow it out of the drift with little to no success.
Finally, Nora and I were able to make it out to work about 2 hours late. Yesh.
I am SO glad that I got the studded snow tires put on the car. I would be terrified to drive in this weather without them!
Monday, January 14, 2008
Weekend At The Ranch
Nora and I went out to help out at the horse ranch this weekend. We love going out. Not only do we get to help do chores which makes me feel good, but I get to see the horses and my friends. I can't think of a way it wouldn't be fun to go out to the ranch.
Someday, I would love to have a ranch of my own. I want to breed and raise (and hopefully sell!) Straight Egyptian Arabians. Why Straight Egyptian Arabians (SEAs)? The Straight Egyptian Arabian is one of the most pure-blooded horses in the world. There are no other breeds of horse mixed in with it. And while there are several types (differences that give different shapes to the head, neck, back, eyes etc), they are all descended from the same horses.
In terms of Evolution, all horses descend from prehistoric horses which originally were only the size of a small dog, had paws instead of hooves and were swap dwellers. As the evolutionary gears changed the horse from the swamp dweller to a plains runner there were basically two familial branches that separated. The half that stayed in the cold and snowy north ended up growing taller, bigger bones and heavier skin. The half that headed south became quick and agile, capable of surviving on little food and less water.
The Arabians are descendant from the second half. The Bedouin tribes of the Middle East bred these horses for centuries. They kept only the smartest, strongest and swiftest. Contrary to popular children's literature, Mares are actually more valuable than the stallions. A stallion can breed as many mares as it has the energy for, while a mare can only carry a single (rarely twins) per year.
When the desert warriors raided another clan, they did not ride the stallions, but rather the mares. Stallions, while essential to species propagation are not necessarily the most tractable or trustworthy animals. All that testosterone gets in the way :p Where as a mare might be thinking about the survival of the herd, grazing, and protection of the young, a stallion basically has two thoughts in his head "Can I breed you?" and "Here let me kill that for you- Now can I breed you?"
Anyway, there are several strains of Arabian horses out there. There are what I call "backyard" Arabians that don't have any specific geneology to keep track of. The owners know the dam and the sire, but that's about it and there are probably some questionable breedings in this horse's history. Then there are Arabian strains such as the Polish Arabian, the Crabbett Arabian etc. Then there are the Straight Egyptian Arabians. There are several qualifying factors to be considered "Straight Egyptian" but the biggest factor is they have to be traced back to one of three famous stables in history that has the purest blood in them or they have to be able to be traced back to the desert breeders.
Straight Egyptian Arabians are beautiful creatures. They are very intelligent and really love to be around people. They are quick and agile, have amazing endurance, and show aptitude in all equine sports from jumping to racing to dressage. The Islamic people believe that God gave the Arabian as a gift to man and that He created the Arabian horse out of the Wind.
Someday, I would love to have a ranch of my own. I want to breed and raise (and hopefully sell!) Straight Egyptian Arabians. Why Straight Egyptian Arabians (SEAs)? The Straight Egyptian Arabian is one of the most pure-blooded horses in the world. There are no other breeds of horse mixed in with it. And while there are several types (differences that give different shapes to the head, neck, back, eyes etc), they are all descended from the same horses.
In terms of Evolution, all horses descend from prehistoric horses which originally were only the size of a small dog, had paws instead of hooves and were swap dwellers. As the evolutionary gears changed the horse from the swamp dweller to a plains runner there were basically two familial branches that separated. The half that stayed in the cold and snowy north ended up growing taller, bigger bones and heavier skin. The half that headed south became quick and agile, capable of surviving on little food and less water.
The Arabians are descendant from the second half. The Bedouin tribes of the Middle East bred these horses for centuries. They kept only the smartest, strongest and swiftest. Contrary to popular children's literature, Mares are actually more valuable than the stallions. A stallion can breed as many mares as it has the energy for, while a mare can only carry a single (rarely twins) per year.
When the desert warriors raided another clan, they did not ride the stallions, but rather the mares. Stallions, while essential to species propagation are not necessarily the most tractable or trustworthy animals. All that testosterone gets in the way :p Where as a mare might be thinking about the survival of the herd, grazing, and protection of the young, a stallion basically has two thoughts in his head "Can I breed you?" and "Here let me kill that for you- Now can I breed you?"
Anyway, there are several strains of Arabian horses out there. There are what I call "backyard" Arabians that don't have any specific geneology to keep track of. The owners know the dam and the sire, but that's about it and there are probably some questionable breedings in this horse's history. Then there are Arabian strains such as the Polish Arabian, the Crabbett Arabian etc. Then there are the Straight Egyptian Arabians. There are several qualifying factors to be considered "Straight Egyptian" but the biggest factor is they have to be traced back to one of three famous stables in history that has the purest blood in them or they have to be able to be traced back to the desert breeders.
Straight Egyptian Arabians are beautiful creatures. They are very intelligent and really love to be around people. They are quick and agile, have amazing endurance, and show aptitude in all equine sports from jumping to racing to dressage. The Islamic people believe that God gave the Arabian as a gift to man and that He created the Arabian horse out of the Wind.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
