Minor Snaffu and Big Roar

Ok, it's a yawn, not a roar, but who can tell. We hit a minor snafu in our countdown to costume. Our knitting coach came by today to show us how to bind off, fix dropped stitches, and attach the legs and such with a cast from her shoulder to finger tips. She has to have it on for three weeks. It is up to use to do the work by word instructions now and not watch and learn. One more day. Here is Link as a tiger with his Link belt. This costume is cute but has one negative thing with it. I heard someone say Tigger. No thank you.

Enjoyed pumpkin donuts from Pedretti's today.

Knitting vrs. the elephant

Knitting vrs. the elephant, originally uploaded by Shannon Marye.

Link's green hat is being sniffed by Linconephant. We acquired this elephant costume from Mason Durbin. I saw him last year in the outfit and I do not remember him swimming in it the way Link is here, but maybe I am wrong. Anyway, it is absolutely adorable.

Link is sleeping away today. Growing those big brain cells. Check out flickr for his latest new skill set. Imitating hand motions.

Knitting vrs. Purchased

Knitting vrs. the neckless giraffe, originally uploaded by Shannon Marye.

We are kitting Link's costume for Halloween. Nonetheless people have boughten us costumes because they don't think we are going to make the deadline or we have simply acquired them. I will post daily to show our progression on the costume and Link's other costumes and we will find out this Saturday what we go with.

Here is Link as a no neck giraffe. Sitting by the pants Bryce is knitting. This costume had a velcro tail which he is very much enjoying to suck on.

mini-makeover

Front of the House mini-makeover, originally uploaded by Shannon Marye.

We have yet to patch the whole in the screen, or weed the landscaping, power wash the siding, or rip up the rugged green turf material on the porch, but we did do some front of the house changes that I think make the house go from a D to B+. We painted our ugly blue pillar black, found another flag pole (this time on sale for $5 so it is ok if the school kids steal it), put in a seasonal flag, painted our door red, and set up a display for my photography in the big picture window of our living room. It is a perfect location being next to the school. Hopefully it will bring in some traffic.

Down to zero

We sold the malfunctioning Honda (bottom rusting off) to pay our midwife bill. We borrowed the van from my parents until it broke down (unknown, while they were driving it). We borrowed the Lumina until it broke down in Shell Rock (alternator, we were driving it). We came close to a break down in Wisconsin with it previously. Yesterday on my way to Cedar Rapids, I had to pull the blazer over and quickly get my son out of the back seat as smoke came billowing out from under the hood. The man behind me called the local fire department. The second person behind me put Link and the car seat in the backseat with her two occupied car seats and brought us to the neighboring house where we sat for a while why my car was towed and Amber came to pick me up. We are now down to zero. It sort of makes you feel like a bad a bad car caretaker, but I remind myself that I bought a used 1993 Tempo in 1996 and I had no problems with the car until 2004. (Minus the broken electronic seat belt from when a deer came plowing into the side of my car.)
We are thinking of either buying a conversion van or a truck with a extended cab (and later an rv insert for the back). We are itching to travel again and the timing feels right. But our vehicles are letting us know they are not the right cars for the job.

World's Cutest Baby Winner

World's Cutest Baby Winner, originally uploaded by Shannon Marye.

This was such a funny photo I had to post it. As you can see we are going through a gentian violet treatment. Used the cream, the olive and oregano oil, acidopholis, still nothing is working.

Link is really enjoying his oral fixations right now. He is making new noises, deep squaks and high yelps. He loves putting anything soft (skin and cloth) in his mouth. He loves watching people eat, drink, and talk on the phone. He is a thumb sucker, which I adore because I have seen very few babies actually do a real thumb suck. Sometimes he gets the pointer in there too and can't figure out what is gagging him.

there was a young lady

There was a young lady who saw so many animals in one day. I don't know why she saw all those animals in one day. Perhaps they'll go away.

1. Entryway ceiling is bearing the insects of harvest. Asian Beetles.
2. A gigantic spider with "wolf" like print (but not a wolf spider) on my rear view mirror. That was an unexpected fright while driving.
3. A dancing little snake, black with yellow stripes crossed our path
4. A member of the large cat family. That was a dosey.
While walking on Pony Hallow Trail we went to sit down at the bench at a mile marker. All of the sudden this large animal jumps from behind the bench and makes its way up the large limestone cliff. At first Bryce said "Cyote?" because of its size. Next I said "Fox?" because its tail was fluffed out and its coloring was turning while from a warm tone. Finally we both said "Large cat" by the way it moved with its big shoulder movements and jumps, but we were not sure what it was.
Made the walk home fairly interesting, looking over our shoulders often.
Bryce said "There are many scenarios I ave thought about what to do if Link was with me, but escaping from being attacked by a large cat was not one of them"

P.S.- We decided not to take our camera on this walk since the leaves have dropped. Big bummer.

Erin from Harmony

At the Vintage we ran into Erin from Harmony, MN. We do not know this girl whatsoever, but Link has seen her once a month since he has been born. At the Green Expo we talked as we both nursed our babes under a tree. At the tomato tasting event at Seed Savers we stood behind her and her little girl for over an hour. Then at our dinner in Lanesboro she is seated right beside us with her date. We talk each time and probably should do something together sometime, but like I said we don't even know each other.

parenting today

The other day I was changing Link's diaper at a gas station. The changing table was out in the open, not in a stall. A guy drying his hands said to me, "Parenting today, huh?" which I thought was one of the weirdest things you could say in that situation. All I could think to reply was, "Yep, every day."

Diana and Link stutter alike, but eat differently

Last night Dustin and I took my mom out for her birthday, with everyone except Amber who had class and Paul and Vahida, who were at work. We went to Leo's in Oelwein. While we were there Lincoln and Diana noticed each other across the table without us realizing it. Soon they were gabby up a storm to each other, shreiks and laughs, it was fantastic.

Afterwards we went to Grandma Koch's house so she could see the kids. My grandma is the queen of old wives tales and bad advice. Last night I learned that besides not picking up my child when he cries, not letting his suck on anything, and not letting him sleep with us I should also not tickle him because it will make him stutter. Where do people come up with this stuff.

I have been really good about keeping my tongue held though and not letting things bother me so that I get all heated underneath. Instead I just blog about them. I am also proud of myself for not saying anything when Dustin was talking about jars of baby food and how they are probably better for the baby than real sweet potatoes, for example, because they probably stick good stuff for babies in them.

Anyway, besides those two little points to bitch about, everyone had a really good time.

Crawling through Art

Link visiting Community Sculpture, originally uploaded by Shannon Marye.

The Northeast Iowa Art Crawl is also always during our anniversary weekend. Since we were North, we decided to visit Northern artists on the map. (It is impossible to do them all.) Before we left Lanesboro we did the search of community iron circles done in 2001. This is link at the Community piece. There were 5 throughout the town. (Lunch was at the pastry shop.)
We then went to the rural New Ablin artists, both artists. We didn't have to, but decided to go into New Albin (the town) since we never have and Bryce's Godmother is from there. After taking a few photos by New Albin landmarks we went to Lansing and visited those artists. We ate at Milty's, thinking we might do a dishntunes review but Link decided we needed to leave early. (AKA- fit.) We went to Lansing and Decorah for our second anniversary, when we didn't have much time since we just took over the newspaper. We went on a Monday then, so I thought the town wasn't that great because nothing way open. In reality, the town is really just not that great. I'm not sure what the appeal is or if they are just not there yet.

The Vintage and The Rainmaker

The Calling of St. Lincoln, originally uploaded by Shannon Marye.

Our lifestyle gets us out the door at about 11 am each day. Vacation is no different. Therefore we end up getting early lunches and end the day with a late night snack. We started our day at Pedal Pushers, a 50's type diner. It was quaint. The nice thing about the green movement is almost all restaurants in Lanesboro use local produce and livestock. I had a BLT, which I mostly enjoyed alone because Link had a blow out pretty early on. We went home to change him and then got out again at about 1. We walked around town visiting the little shops.
We got local rhubarb wine at the winery, a great shell rattle for my practice at a Native American store, and went to several great galleries. The Cornucopia was by far my favorite. We were greeted by an artist I have been wanting to own for a long time, Kelly Jean Ohl. We loved so many different pieces of all the artists but we ended up buying a Ohl wall piece for our yearly art piece.
We also popped into Slant Avenue which was my favorite store. It is like the Patina of Lanesboro. We got a skybar and looked at a lot of tin toys and great books. Lincoln got a great fall jacket. It is knitted with a hood, a wolf and numbers on it. We also found his a great knitted brim hat with a train on it.
That night was a planned evening. Reservations at the vintage produced another amazing meal. This restaurant has experimental food and the menu changes daily. This photo is of Link in front of one of the murals.
We followed up the evening with walking next door to the Commonweal Theater. We had tickets for The Rainmaker, which is similar to the Music Man only set in the dust bowl and with one family. The Music Man is replaced by the Rainmaker. Link was pretty good throughout, but we had to go out several times because of too loud of babbling. We took turns. It wasn't too bad going outside the theater as you could still hear the actors in the lobby and the art in the lobby was fantastic!!! The show was great, I loved the dad in the show and the stage set work. When I opened the program the first two names I saw I knew. The Assistant Producer was a kid I worked with at EWALU (Andy Bakehouse) and the costume designer was Lisa Lantz (a member of my baby group).

Carmel Apple and Chai

Carmel Apple and Chai, originally uploaded by Shannon Marye.

After biking we went to dinner at Riverside on the Root. We sat on the patio with the outdoor furnaces a blazing. The food was amazing, the venue very dive looking from the outside. It was immediately across from our hotel, but I had to check the online directions 5 times before I could believe it was the place. Outside there are bikes, kayaks, and firewood and a huge Budwiser sign saying check out our martini bar.
Well in the end we did and we did not regret it. Several great martinis, baked brie, take a trip on our flickr set to see all the delicious food. (We are obsessed with the macro feature on our camera.) We should have stopped at the meal though because our creme brulee was cold on the bottom and had a massive glob of whip cream on it. Not a way to end a great meal. The photos loaded kind of funny so there are some in weird places.
A late night ended with Bryce working on the laptop, me watching hgtv, and Link talking non-stop to the fan.

Biking the Root River

Biking the Root River, originally uploaded by Shannon Marye.

This week we went on a 4th anniversary / Link's conception birthday vacation. We took off Wednesday and went to Lanesboro, MN which was only about 2 hours away. Our first day consisted of getting into our hotel. Brewster's Red. The hotel was odd, but great for anti-social people like me. There was a sign on the door reminding you of what room you paid for and telling you the key was in the door. To check out you just leave the key in the door and no small talk need be made.
Since Lanesboro is known for its Root River Bike Trail, we immediately went and rented bikes from one of the several locations. See my life as a cyclist for more information on this adventure.

My life as a cycalist

I received my first bike for Christmas when I was 5. It had a long purple banana seat, basket, and training wheels. It spent the first years of its life being ridden in the basement. Then we moved and no basement was available.
My next milestone was teaching myself to ride without training wheels. It took a while. I think I was in maybe 3rd grade. I took my brothers smaller dirt bike and kept riding it down the driveway until I got it.
The rest of my life was random bike rides on old bikes (I never got another bike) on the gravel roads. A couple of spills on the corner between my house and my grandmas. All in all not much riding. One tandem bike ride on Mackinac Island and a few yellow bike rentals at college.
After college I came back to Iowa and rode about 5 min with my sister when my legs stiffened up and I could hardly even walk the bike back.
That leads to today. We are in Lanesboro, MN for our anniversary/Link's conception birthday. Lanesboro is known for bed and breakfasts and biking. We rented bicylces and a kiddie cart. I was hoping to do a tandem with a connection, but that was not doable so I flew solo why Bryce took the cart. After 10 minutes of hysterical screaming by Link in the kiddie cart we finally realized he needed more neck support. We got his car seat and put it in and he fell right asleep. Then we biked for another hour.
I love the ride. It is amazing what a good, well-maintained bike can do for a ride. Not driving on gravel was great. The whole path is paved and very nice. The bike I had was a Fuji crossroad. It was a little shorter than the man wanted to give me, but I wasn't comfortable on anything where just my tippy toes touched. It was my first bike with hand breaks, which wasn't to hard to adjust to. It also had speeds and gears, which I had no idea how to work. I noticed the difference in looseness when slipping into a lower gear but I couldn't tell if that was making it easier or harder to bike.
If the weather is nice maybe we will go again. Oh, also if we are not in pain from the stiffness.

Weather Predicitons

I can always compare the coming of fall from year to year based on our anniversary. This year it is very early. It has been rainy and cold for over two weeks now. The trees have all turned and they usually are just starting around now. This is one of my favorite times to live in Iowa because it is visual ecstacy. Besides the trees changing colors the ditches are filler with pillowy white weeds and when the sun hits the hills it is like being surrounded in pure gold from the corn and soybeans.

Halloween is going to be so cold this year. I keep thinking if I even knew how to get my ideas made I could make a good profit. My idea of snowsuit Halloween costumes is going strong this year. I don't remember how many times I shivered up and down the streets trick or treating.

We had the same kind of weather last year when we went to Clear Lake. It was mostly rainy and cold. Tomorrow we are taking off for Lanesburo, MN. They have great bike trails. Looks like we might not be spending much time on them if this persists. I was originally thinking of just Bryce and I going, but with Link breastfeeding it doesn't seem possible. My consultant says I would have to be able to pump as much as I feed him and there is still a chance he would have to have a formula supplement when returning. Anyway, it doesn't matter anymore because I only have one bottle in the freezer. I did end up purchasing an electric pump and have mastered that pretty well. It does cut down a lot on time but being a multi-tasker and having to hold both bottles I get a little anxious looking around at what I could be doing if I was hands free.

Precious

This morning as I was getting ready to go to "work" Bryce and Link were still sleeping in bed. Link had his eyes open and was looking at the fan. When I would enter the room he would not move his head, just his eyes toward me and give me the smallest little smirk. It made my day.

Link is also starting to laugh when tickled. You have to say "Bzzzz" like you are electrocuting him.

My dad loves Link's smile. He was shocked the first time he saw it and said "Holy cow, his whole face just lights up!"

All these things are so precious and beautiful.

up and down the financial rollercoaster

So I haven't been wanting to pay this hospital bill, because of the bad feelings I have in going, because my midwifes still did almost all the work, and because paying it all at once would take all we have and max out our credit cards. So since we qualify for Medicade and Charity Care we applied. Charity Care turned us down. I think our last years taxes is what throws everyone for a loop, since we would have not qualified last year. Medicade denied us because Bryce forgot to send something important, but we appealed, sent it back in and got accepted. Yippee! I am not one of those people yelling at health care reform and first in line for Medicade. I am for health care reform and last in line for Medicade, but still needing it.

I also am moving forward with my own occupations. I am getting locations for my art/spiritual direction and getting my home studio cleaned out so I can make products too. I had an idea for an etsy shop that I would really like to do. Despite all these things going well for me I keep looking in the help wanted section. I guess the imidiate need for money sometimes overrides the patience I have in watching my own businesses grow. Yet I am totally a person who should be working for myself. I have good ideas, a good work ethic (despite the last wasting time post) and I need a flexible schedule to be with Link. If I did go back to work full time Bryce would get hardly any work done and be way stressed and I would not see him at all Thursday and Friday. Or we would have to do day care and with paying for that and disposable diapers (since they don't allow cloth here) it would just be about the same as me staying home and taking these big once in a while jobs. Bryce and I love being able to work from home and spend so much time with Link. I have become a big supporter of government assistance for stay at home moms. It is almost like the government paying you to be a mom. I can't remember if it was the feminine mystic or something else we read in Feminism Honors Class, but something we read laid out how women could get paid for being stay at home moms and the country would improve. WIC and Medicade is about as close as they come right now.

Time Wasters

I like it when I used to get paid to waste time like I do at night, but at least I did for a little while. At the current time I am following funny amazon product comments. There is a new craze to write really funny reviews. I also love that most of these items also have funny things in the "customers who looked at this also recently viewed this." I was taken from a wolf t-shirt to a gallon of milk to a book called "How to Live with a Huge Penis" to inflatable toast. Boy this world is crazy.

I also am following blogs called "Not Always Right" which is funny customer saying reported by the people they say them too and "Awful Library Books." I think Debbie started me on both of these. She must waste a lot of time as a librarian. However she is getting paid. I need to find me a librarian job. Maybe even school librarian since they have the summers free.

10 weeks

Link at 10 weeks weighs 17.2 lbs and comfortably fits in 6 month clothing. He likes mirrors, shinny objects, Dancing with the Stars, the cat and swinging. He no longer dislikes his stroller but he has changed his mind about getting his diaper changed and does not like it at all. He is still a great sleeper but is having a harder time getting to sleep at night (I think it is because he dislikes the wedge thing we bought so he doesn't scoot around and kick at us. However mom and dad love it so it stays.) WHen he is really tired he likes to be held and bang his head into your shoulder until he falls asleep, curling himself into a ball.

I love mirror play with Link, he is very reactive. The best part is when the cats are in the basement meowing. The mirror is on the basement door so it seems like the baby is meowing at him.

On Tuesday he visited for the first time Paper Moon in McGregor and The Irish Shanti (Gunder Burgers) in Gunder. It was our first time out again with Frederique and Brian and it went pretty well.