Gracie Lou

Once upon a time, Adam and I had two cats fur babies - Gracie Lou and Chuck. Then we decided to have a real baby. Gracie was the jealous type, who would have probably used Ryne as a scratching post. Chuck was absolutely nuts and probably would have jumped all over Ryne and in the crib. So shortly before Ryne was born, we had to find new homes for Gracie and Chuck. Adam's wonderful Aunt Donna took Chuck (aka: Chuckles) and Mom took Gracie. Even though we don't have the cats anymore, they still mean the world to me.

Last night, Dad called me to tell me that he and Mom were taking Gracie to the vet because she was showing signs of weakness on her left side. Gracie has a strange aversion to men, but she was actually letting Dad pick her up and hold her, so I thought she must be dying! Mom and Dad thought she might have had a stroke. Makes sense - if a human has a stroke they can have paralysis on one side of their body. Anywho, we waited for awhile at the Animal ER in Farragut (apparently, Tuesday nights are the busiest - who knew?!). When the vet assessed Gracie, he said that she had ataxia, which is the wobbliness she was displaying, which could be caused by several things. The vet was thinking that Gracie had most likely ingested something poisonous. We decided to take her home because she was acting like she felt a little better by the time the vet saw her. The vet said that if she was still showing the same symptoms in the morning to take her back to her regular vet for a follow up.

Mom and Dad kept Gracie in the bathroom overnight so she would be easier to observe. Mom said that Gracie didn't make a peep and was very well behaved. Again, I'm thinking she must be dying because usually she meows ALL night long and tries to scratch a hole in the door when she's contained. Mom took Gracie back to the vet today and they have diagnosed her with feline Idiopathic Vestibular Disease (at least I think). Mom couldn't remember the "scientific name" but she said it meant that there was an issue with the middle/inner ear and the cause was unknown. So I put my medical terminology course to good use and found a "scientific name" for it!

Basically, Gracie acts like she's drunk. She would NOT pass a sobriety test. She collapses some on the hardwood floor because of her balance issues. My poor little fur baby girl! I hate that she is not her usual self, but she has calmed down a little, which is a good thing!

11 months!

As of last Monday (oops, a little late with this post), Ryne is 11 months old! I can hardly stand it! My baby is growing up! We have been incredibly busy lately. Business has picked up for me -YAY! I need the weekly girl time! We have been doing some home improvement projects around the house, planning Ryne's first birthday party, and raising a high maintenance little boy!

Ryne took his first solo steps the day after he turned 10 months, so we figured he would be walking within a few weeks! He would take two or three steps and then sit down, fall or reach out for the couch, table, leg, or whatever he could grab on to. Then almost two weeks ago he took about five or six steps when I had some girl friends over for my Color Certification Class. One girl (an experienced Mom with two boys) said, "he'll be walking within two weeks." She was right! This weekend, Mom, Ryne and I went to NC to visit Mom's family and Papa, since he is in the hospital (PRAYERS NEEDED!). Ryne quickly took to Grandma and he started showing off his 'walking' skills. Before the weekend was over, Ryne was truly walking - across the room, on his on volition, instead of us constantly having to coax him into walking! It was so exciting! The sad thing is that Adam didn't go on the trip with us, so he didn't get to see it. Adam did get to see him walk some last night when we got home, so that was a nice little Father's Day present!

Ryne is also talking a lot! He says my name, "boy," "I do," and "hey there!" And no, I'm not one of those silly mothers that thinks any syllable out of their baby's mouth is a word. I don't think Ryne always knows what he's saying but he is saying it - mostly mimicking things he hears a lot! It's nice that other people are starting to hear it as well, so I don't feel like such a looney! Adam asked Ryne if he liked the fish that Aunt Vicki got him and Ryne said "IIIIIIII do!" Adam asked me if Ryne just said "I do" and I told him that he had been saying it all weekend!

I'm so excited to see what the next month holds, but I don't want Ryne to grow up...too fast!

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

By mirror, I mean that mirror cheap piece of glass that was glued to our bathroom wall. Saddlebrook provides no fancy frills unless you shell out some clams! Well, several months ago, I noticed a tiny crack that started creeping up the mirror. At first we thought the mirror cracked and then stopped cracking. I marked the top of the crack with some eyeliner (MK, of course!), to see if the crack was continuing to creep. It gradually started getting worse and worse - more and more of an eye sore. We talked to some contractor-esque friends to see what they suggested. Adam and I thought the mirror would just pop off easily, but we were told that may not be the case, depending on how the mirror was attached and how much glue was used. Crowbars and holes in drywall were mentioned. Ummm, no! Not to mention that Lowes and Home Depot, neither one had a piece of builder's mirror cut to the size we needed. Custom cut mirror - so that's why our house cost so much to build!

So a few weeks ago, I was blog stalking a friend of a friend's blog and somehow magically made my way to a blog, Sabby in Suburbia, where she was currently in the middle of framing her builder's grade mirror. I think Sabby got the idea from Domestically Speaking, who has a great tutorial on how to jazz up a builder's grade mirror! So, anyway, I thought this would be a perfect way for us to "fix" the mirror without replacing it and crowbarring a hole in the wall! Who would have ever thought to do that? Obviously not me! Interestingly enough, after mentioning this to my mother, she said that when she had her house remodeled back in 2002, that's exactly what the contractor did. Her advice: paint the back side of the frame too!

This project was very easy to do. Adam and Frank used Frank's (grandfather's????) one hundred year old miter saw to cut the frame. We still need to fill in some of the little gaps with calk, but it has made a HUGE difference in the way our bathroom looks!

We are tackling the guest bathroom next!

The Crack

Before

After!

More Crafts

I've been in craft mode lately! It feels good to get in the zone when creating something...it's sort of my therapy! Adam and I have also been wanting to jazz up the house a little bit, so my crafts are being put to good use.

This past weekend, I decided to paint some letters for Ryne's room. He originally had a mobile attached to the wall above his crib, but the weight of the Cubs mobile caused to mobile to start coming out of the wall. So the mobile had to go. It's tough being a Cubs Fan! Afterwards the wall seemed so bare, so we decided to put some letters up!

I have done some crafts before with paper mache boxes. We found some paper mache letters and I broke out the ole craft paints! It only took about two hours from start to finish - enough time to get burnt on my upper back and shoulders and sweat through my entire outfit! I originally wanted to match Ryne's room colors - a mixture of various reds and blues. However, the red on the letters did not seem to work well, and neither did my original design for the letters. So polka dots it is!

The Letters. I think they are a little crooked, but whatev!

Bake It Till You Make It!

Last weekend was the Knies Wedding Reloaded, as Adam likes to call it! David and my new sister-in-law, Sarah got hitched over Memorial Day weekend! I guess when there is only one Catholic Church in the entire county and only a few local reception sites, it makes for a deja vu kind of wedding!

I have dabbled in cake making for the past few years, and as most of you know, a wedding cake can be expensive! David and Sarah asked me if I would make their wedding cake for them, and I excitedly said YES! Sarah sent me a picture of a cake with some color swatches. The cake was covered in fondant and I do not work with fondant as much, but I figured practice makes perfect (or as Adam says, "perfect practice makes perfect"), so I should have no trouble working with fondant by the time the wedding rolls around! The design of the cake seemed fairly simple (technically speaking), but ohh was I wrong!

After two three meltdowns, missing the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and arriving at the wedding with no time to spare, the cake was finished! It wasn't perfect, but it still looked pretty good and tasted good as well. There may have been a few real tears baked into those tiers, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat...for David and Sarah!

The Cake!

David and Sarah cutting the cake