Sept. 2007 - Happy Holidays! - Page 5

[*jeanine*]

Let's see - I've been vegetarian for .... well, since I was 18. I'm not going to tell you how many years that is . Growing up we had "meat, potato and boiled-to-death veggies" for dinner. But I didn't really like meat. If it was in a hamburger, along with ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickles etc it was fine. Or on pizza, or in tacos... But if it was *just* meat, I didn't eat very much of it. It was very hard to be vegetarian with my "if you don't eat meat you'll die" parents - but I went to a *very* liberal college and was able to become vegetarian while there.
My whole family is *not* vegetarian. But, dh eats what I cook. He only gets meat if he cooks it or we go out. DS was vegetarian until about 5. DD1 started eating meat when she was three. I'd prefer they don't eat it until they're older - but..... . They don't eat it very often, since I don't cook it. Jamison is vegetarian. I don't know for how long.

I need to strip my dipes too. I just don't know how.

In our last house we had the world's largest hot water heater. Now we don't, but we have the world's largest tub. It seems our tub and water heater are about the same size. I'd like to get an on-demand water heater for the tub. Generally, the hot water heater is fine. Just not when I want to take a big ol' bath (not like that really happens. I think I have 17 more years before I'll actually get to do that regularly. Gives us time to save for the on-demand heater I guess ).

[*jeanine*]

Mommajb - here's another thing we have in common. My dh tried to burn the house down the other night, too. His mishap involved a bucket of what he thought were *cool* ashes from the woodstove on the carpet. Luckily I smelled it. And it was on a remnant on top of the real carpet. So while it did melt a 4-inch by 6-inch whole in the remnant, at least the real carpet is unharmed.

[mommajb]

We are all veg of some sort here. Some of us eat healthier than others, some of us are closer to vegan, some of us are pigs.

There are some things we do not want to have in common. Burning the house down is one of them. I will assume from the lack of info that everyone is okay.

I could help with the stripping but so can the diaper forum. Do you have a dishwasher? (We live in the stone age without a dishwasher, ice maker, microwave or garage door opener.) Apparently we also live without a sump pump or solid subflooring. All that and my wish list for a new house starts with things like a mailbox at the front door instead of at the curb.

[HeatherB]

:: It's snowed here!!!! ::
:::::

That's what we've been doing outside - dancing and running around in the snow. Gabriel had classes at the science museum today so we were further north and east, in town, when I heard word that it was snowing on the northwest side. Not long after I heard it was snowing on the southwest side, where I live! But I was in the central part of town! So we skipped going to (my beloved) Container Store and headed home. NO precipitation for most of the drive. Then, right at the edge of our city limits, blowing snow!! REAL snow!!

Yep, we live in Texas and it hasn't snowed since December 24, 2004. So we're very excited to actually see it and run around and play. Even if it didn't stick to the ground. Much. But it stuck to the roof line! And a few tree-mulch areas...

Here's proof of our wintry precipitation, which really was SNOW:
http://flickr.com/photos/jeremey/3099173142/
:::::

[mommajb]

Heather that center snowflake is incredible!
Christopher Robin and friends are adorable!

I need to call my brother. He lives in Dallas or is it FW? I don't really know. I have an email in to find out so that I can mail Christmas cards. He bought his house a few years ago and I go through this every year.

[*jeanine*]

Originally Posted by mommajb

There are some things we do not want to have in common. Burning the house down is one of them. I will assume from the lack of info that everyone is okay.

I could help with the stripping but so can the diaper forum. Do you have a dishwasher? (We live in the stone age without a dishwasher, ice maker, microwave or garage door opener.) Apparently we also live without a sump pump or solid subflooring. All that and my wish list for a new house starts with things like a mailbox at the front door instead of at the curb.

The house and people are fine, just a big melted hole in the remnant-rug.

I've gone to the diaper forum to try and find out what to do, but there's so many ideas I don't make any progress. We do have a dishwasher. [No icemaker. We have a microwave. We have a garage, but no doors yet, and so no opener . No sump pump - but no basement, either. The subfloor is all good - as you'd expect from a one-year new house. Our mailbox is at the PO. There are some mailboxes at the "entrance" to our "subdivision" but there's a waiting list. The PO is actually closer to dh's office than the mailboxes are to our house, so it's not as inconvenient as it sounds. We're in the stone age because we have no cable/satelite tv, no radio stations, no caller id or call-waiting, we have dial-up (, and no cell coverage at our house. A friend gave us an extra dvd players of hers, or we'd probably not have one of those yet ]


Yay for the snow! : It's just cold here - but no snow yet. I should check the forecast. OOH! Chance of snow for the weekend! :

[mommajb]

no cable or satellite, no caller id or call waiting, we do have dsl internet and cell at home but not on the road between home and dh's office. how does that work? I can't call him and ask for things on the way home. How did he get so lucky? We do have also have a wii. That is Wendi's influence. No grand-babies yet and no kids past puberty either.

It is going to hover around freezing and precipitate tonight which means simply a cold wet mess all over the place but I'll probably have to scrape windows or drive v-e-r-y slowly in the morning.

I have a very cute little cape cod from 1950 and I am craving a 1 year old house right now. Tomorrow I get a hole in my bathroom to the outside. Yea for me.

On the skinny pant issue I measured ds1. He is 5'3", not quite 80 lbs, and has a 23.5" waist. He needs a 14 super-duper extra slim pants and they are only long enough because they hang so low. If they fit he would need a 16. When we met dh wore a 29 32 pant. I think he is a 32-34 now. My brother is 6'4" and 165 - my mom says their legs look like spaghetti noodles.

[~Katie~]

Woohoo for snow!

We're getting a rain storm here currently, I don't know if they expect snow or ice tonight but its been so warm lately I doubt it.

Stripping diapers - This is what I do, nothing fancy at all. First, check your laundry detergent. My website has a good list located under washing instructions of diaper safe laundry detergent. Next, it could be that the detergent isn't washing out properly, so throw everything in the washer and run several hot washes in a row. If your water is like mine it will probably take you all day to do it. You can put in a squirt of dish detergent during the first initial wash and that really strips any stink out, then just do 2 or 3 (or 4) hot washes without soap. If you go a few days between washings, take a wipe and put a couple of drops of tea tree oil on it and that should help. If washing isn't an option you can boil water on the stove top and clean them that way.

Also, do you know if you have hard water? Sometimes that can make them stinky as well, so cleaning the inside of the dryer and washer periodically can help because that can make diapers smelly over time.

[*jeanine*]

I looove my new house! I guess in some parts of the country manufactureds aren't any cheaper than a stick-built house, but here in CA they're sooo much cheaper. Granted, the flooring is cheap-quality. But we have small children, so we'll just let them trash this cheap stuff, and then when they're older we'll get something better (hopefully hardwood). I imagine your cape cod has a lot more "personality" than our house, though.

We might still have dh's old Atari . I can't remember if we got rid of it or not.

How convenient - outside access to your bathroom

Skinny pants - I wouldn't be surprised if ds winds up 6'4" and 165 lbs. When one of dh's co-workers first met ds, she wondered what kind of illness he had that made him so skinny . I think I'm going to look for girls' stretch pants next time we're in a city. At least for around the house.

Katie - thanks. I'll check out your site for soap info. I've washed them (without soap) in hot water repeatedly. I've even heated water on the stove to add to the washer so it's super hot. That improved it, but I can't rememberr if it solved it. It was a while ago - I think I did it right before I put the dipes in storage between dd1 and Jamison. I'll try the dish soap. Any kind? Or does it have to be Dawn? (We use Palmolive.) We do have hard water. Not crazy hard, but hard. You want me to wash the washer?!?! I think I'd rather have stinky dipes, .

There's one spot on the highway between here and town that's on the north side of a hill (mountain). It's very iced over - I'm not sure why (no snow yet). I don't know if it's cumulative frost, or dh thinks maybe there's a spring there (it is called Spring Garden - hmmm) but it's in such a cold area that it's been frozen 24/7 for a couple weeks now. I have to remember to slow it down to no more than 50 on that part of the highway. dh, who actually leaves the house in the morning, says he's been getting squirrely on it. And I think the guard rail has been hit a couple times already.

Y'know, I think we're doing a darn good job keeping the thread going. It's nice when there's others, but I enjoy Katie, Mommajb and Heather too!

[~Katie~]

Originally Posted by jeaninevp922

Katie - thanks. I'll check out your site for soap info. I've washed them (without soap) in hot water repeatedly. I've even heated water on the stove to add to the washer so it's super hot. That improved it, but I can't rememberr if it solved it. It was a while ago - I think I did it right before I put the dipes in storage between dd1 and Jamison. I'll try the dish soap. Any kind? Or does it have to be Dawn? (We use Palmolive.) We do have hard water. Not crazy hard, but hard. You want me to wash the washer?!?! I think I'd rather have stinky dipes, .

Any dish soap will work. And yes, I know it sounds insane but using a de-greaser spray inside the dryer will clean it . Just spray it on the cloth itself and wipe out the inside, a lot of dirt and gunk can get stuck in there and cause smelly diapers. Cleaning out the lint vent with one of those pipe cleaner things can help also. To clean the washer, there's a product called RLR that you can use to strip your diapers as well and it will lessen the hard water, it will also help to clean the inside of the washer. Using a 1/4 cup of vinegar in your rinse cycle will also help with the hard water. I've seen others swear by Diva Detergent which you can make at home for cleaning diapers because it helps with hard water, but I recommend stripping diapers with RLR first before using it. I can PM you the recipe if you want it.

[*jeanine*]

I checked out the how-to-wash section of your site (super-cute dipes, btw ) and I'm doing everything "right". I do a cold pre-wash, then I wash on hot with a little All Free and Clear, cold rinse, then another hot wash with no soap, and another cold rinse. I put vinegar in the rinse when I remember, which is more often than not. What is RLR? Is that something i can get in a regular store? We don't have anything fancy around here (cue backwards, podunkville music).

[*jeanine*]

Oh, and what kind of de-greaser spray?

[leanbh]

: dd walked off with our mailbox key.

someone tell me where it is.

i want my netflix.

[HeatherB]

Try under the couch cushions. That's where my house/mail keys were LAST time they were lost. They're gone again, though. : And, yep, it's all DS's fault!

Love your avatar! What a cutie Ro is!

mommajb, I end up with the same people with missing addresses every year, too. And DFW is all one big thing, really. Not been up there much, but you'd never know you went from one area to another! Though I think they're all pretty persnickety about making sure you know which one is which.

So nice to see everyone's posts, even though I'm not taking time to reply. : I feel a bit like a troll, popping in to say something quickly, and then running off again to the real world!

Trying to wrap up things that are late in getting done and MUST be done tonight... Ugh...

[mommajb]

Originally Posted by KatieJD

Also, do you know if you have hard water? Sometimes that can make them stinky as well, so cleaning the inside of the dryer and washer periodically can help because that can make diapers smelly over time.

We have crazy hard water. In my top loader I used to use dish soap every now and then but now I am not sure. I use to use exclusively charlie's but it isn't magic and is hard on darks so now I switch back and for th with 7th Gen. I never thought to clean out my washer. thanks Katie.

Originally Posted by jeaninevp922

We might still have dh's old Atari . I can't remember if we got rid of it or not.

How convenient - outside access to your bathroom

Y'know, I think we're doing a darn good job keeping the thread going. It's nice when there's others, but I enjoy Katie, Mommajb and Heather too!

Unpack the atari and teach the kids to play pong!

The outside access will be through the floor so I need to make sure and remember not use that bathroom or let crawling babies in there. He is working me in around other jobs and hopes to get new subfloor in as soon as possible. I have to pick a new floor out and I don't have any ideas. I wanted laminate and he saidnot in a bathroom. Tile or vinyl. I suppose tyle, Now what color? It is currently cream with tan grout but I don't like it. I don't like how the grout absorbs pee smell. Can it be sealed? All good questions to ask. Oh yeah, my thermostat is right outside the door to the bathroom. I am so upset about this.

Originally Posted by leanbh

: dd walked off with our mailbox key.

someone tell me where it is.

i want my netflix.

Did you find it?

Hi Heather I may be off co-op hiatus soon. I have to wait for my big package from Tina. I had too much money wrapped up at her house. (Nobody tell dh about enwrapture from Wendi. )

[~Katie~]

It definitely sounds like a hard water issue, that was my problem at the last house we lived in (remember the old coffee smelling diapers?) and I tried just about everything until I realized it was the water. This is a thing I found about using RLR: http://homemanagement.suite101.com/a...nt_for_diapers

I would wash once with it and then strip your diapers. I know you can find it on Ebay and in certain stores, I think Walmart sometimes carries it. I saw it on Ebay for $9 for a 4 pack of the treatments. They come in big gumball machine balls. Any kind of household degreaser should work, whatever you would use in your kitchen I assume. It was emphasized to me that you want to spray it on the cloth you'r cleaning with and not the inside of the dryer itself, not sure why.

[Sabo]

Originally Posted by mommajb

Does this mean that you did finally wash the diapers?

I feel whiny. I'll spare you the details but if somebody doesn't run away from home soon I will. If somebody does come home from work soon I am going to seek out paying work with a long commute and even longer hours.

Repetitive can get frustrating. :, diapers, :, dinner, :, homeschool, :, home maintenance, :, laundry, : I am not sure why that woman is winking.

On a brighter note, nope, can't think of anything.

This sounds like me these days . . . substitute going to the office for homeschool and it is me. I haven't been here is such a long time, trying to get all kinds of things done for Christmas and dealing with my unbelievably clingy little girl.

So, I missed a lot!! Belated congrats to Grandma Wendi and EricaE.

I love language aquisition and it amazes me how quickly a developing brain learns. The other day, the cat lost its footing on the couch and fell off; Aili said, "Boom!" Also, all fruits are apples to her right now. The other day, she came up to me and said apple after lunch. I thought that she wanted milk, so I brought her in the kitchen, pointed to the apple and said, "apple or milk?" as I tapped my chest. I did this a couple of times and she looked and me like I was crazy and repeated, "Apple!"

So I saw that someone asked to see newborn pics of our babe and current photos:

newborn Aili
newborn Aili and I
Happy and older
Happy hat model

I hope to stay in contact better. I've missed our little community.

[SweetTexasgal]

Hola Mammas

Lucy and I just got back from a week in North Carolina. First half of the trip was enjoyable and then she came down with the nasty stomach flu that is going around. Nothing like a puking child in a hotel room away from home. The only thing I was thankful for was...not having to launder the many sheets she went through :

She has finally stopped puking...but now has the runny nose, cough and watery eyes.

I am off to read and catch up with you ladies.

[~Katie~]

Adorable pictures, Sabo!

I hope Lucy is feeling better soon, Michelle!

I will be without internet starting tomorrow until Wednesday, so I won't be here to keep up the convo

[mommajb]

My house is in pieces and I hope the contractor returns today. he always has in the past but yesterday was a doozy.

very cute photos Sabo!!

Come back soon Katie.