Gakked from Jessie, 'cause I'm exhausted but bored:

Empire Magazine has revealed its list of the 50 Greatest TV Shows ever.
1. Bold the shows you watch/used to watch.
2. Italic the shows you've seen at least one episode of.
3. Post your answers.
4. Underline the ones you own


( The (awesome) list )


Okay.  So does this mean I am a sci fi nerd, watch too much TV, or both?  I officially feel lame, but damn B5 and X-Files are awesome!

Yes, I must be crazy. But I am tired of mental atrophy and I am tired of ALL the financial stress being on my (wonderful and longsuffering) husband. So I'm starting back up with production fiber arts through Etsy and my website.

Right now I am offering handpainted yarn and roving as well as custom colorway commissions if anyone is interested. It takes startup money, it takes time, and since I am doing this with the intent of meticulous and long running practices (which I was NOT firm in the last time I did production work) it is far more work than it was before. Add two children under the age of two into that mix and I really must be off my rocker. But if I can cut a modest profit, with enough of a personal slush fund to keep my requests from crossing my husband's accounts, I know it will help. We're doing well financially, on track and paying off some of the debts we accrued through the wedding, the girls' births, and home remodeling among other things. But it would just be nice to not be on the cusp or slightly over our budget each month, and with higher food costs adjustment need to be made. So I am relegating non-essential (food, mortgage, health and utility costs) purchases to my profits from the shop, and just reinvesting the rest until I hit a comfortable balance of time into the craft and profit out of it.

So yeah, f-ing crazy, equally busy, and quite hopeful for this whole thing. For the built in traffic I am just doing stock orders through http://aurorafiberarts.etsy.com and all other orders through my website http://www.aurorafiberarts.com which is where my blog and galleries are located, too.

Obviously this isn't my main blog but I will update general news here occasionally :) Wish me luck! It's not the first time I've done this, but it is the first time I've made a full commitment to it. I will likely be obtaining an actual business license in 2009, if my volume is moderately high. I have always considered myself a fiber artist, but to actually have an official business is funky. I am a work-at-home mom, now, not just a stay-at-home mom. EEK!

I haven't posted in a looong time.

To make a long story short I am NOT busy - au contraire life is extremely boring and thus nothing to write about.

Callie is 16 months old now and getting into everything, tantruming, all the good toddler stuff.

I gave birth to our second daughter, Lilah Aubrey G., on July 23rd at 4:27 am. She was 8 lbs 4 oz and 20.5 inches long. She, thankfully, came by VBAC instead of a repeat c-section. It was QUITE a victory for me, I'd say.

Still married and chugging along, really not much to report. Life is GREAT, a little tight financially and a little stressful, sure, but overall I can't complain as I have been HUGELY blessed.

Unfortunately this isn't the blog I regularly update though I am ATTEMPTING to change that. For regular family updates on the girls go to either http://callie.giessel.org or http://lilah.giessel.org.

Here's some recent pictures of the girls, in closing:

Callie getting into trouble:


Sleepy newborn Lilah:

My little baby is 1 year old today! Where the heck did the time go?!

Happy birthday Callie! You're a big girl now.

Then:



Now:



Some days it goes so slow but really? WHERE DID THE TIME GO?! I swear I was JUST pregnant!



In other news, 24 weeks and some days pregnant with baby #2. Otherwise known as sweet viability, and a countdown to the end. Baby is happy and healthy, kicking away from cake sugar crossing the placenta, and all is generally right with my world.

Oh, did I mention I got a 96% on my math test and have a 97% overall with just one test to go? Considering I am a complete retard with higher level math this is a HUGE victory -I have the highest grade in the class that I am aware of. WOOHOOO!!!!

*ahem* That is all.

These just made my day, and sums up what I have difficulty conveying to some of my non-married, kid-free friends beautifully.


"Homemaking--being a full-time wife and mother--is not a destructive drought of uselessness but an overflowing oasis of opportunity; it is not a dreary cell to contain your talents and skills but a brilliant catalyst to channel creativity and energies into meaningful work; it is not a rope for binding your productivity in the marketplace, but reins for guiding your posterity in the home; it is not an oppressive restrain of intellectual prowess for the community, but a release of wise instruction to your own household; it is not the bitter assignment of inferiority to your person, but the bright assurance of the ingenuity of God's plan for complementarity of the sexes, especially as worked out in God's plan for marriage; it is neither limitation of gifts available nor stinginess in distributing the benefits of those gifts, but rather the multiplication of a mother's legacy to the generations to come and the generous bestowal of all God meant a mother to give to those He entrusted to her care."

-Dorothy Kelley Patterson


No real updates from me, life goes on as it always does. Callie's getting bigger, Peter's busy with work, somehow I seem to have NO time and yet get nothing done at all. And we keep chugging along. Getting increasingly pregnant, and increasingly NERVOUS about trying to get used to a routine with TWO babies instead of just one. I know I'll manage one day at a time, but it is quite a daunting thought. Thus, I try not to think too hard about it!

My goals for the upcoming months are as follows:

1) Spend more time in daily bible study
2) Keep a cleaner house (oh geez, writing it down makes it so official)
3) Spend MUCH less time on the computer or watching TV
4) Finish my current UFO's, including my mom's sock that I owed her two Christmas's ago
5) Try a little harder to NOT be a frumpy housewife
6) Not laugh my ass off at the list I just compiled and give up before even starting.


Yeah, wish me luck!

So. TO make this short and sweet, this Thanksgiving sucked.

First off, I am pregnant again. Which does NOT suck, and is actually a great thing, but entails icky feelings which I didn't miss.

Add to that one Broccoli Salad that happens to be tainted with E-coli and what do you get?

Two grown adults with the worst case of food poisoning either has ever seen. We're talking diarrhea, vomiting, severe subsequent dehydration, fever, chills, body aches... just lovely stuff.

The Grandparents, who we were supposed to spend Thanksgiving with, took the baby all day long so we could rest but our home renovations which were going to take major strides that day were summarily called off.



IT WAS AWFUL! In addition, I was heaving so hard I actually started spotting. I think I may have ruptured a small blood vessel or two. It wasn't enough to0 cause me major worry, but definitely frightening/annoying.

We are feeling (somewhat) better, but Costco Broccoli Salad is officially off my yum-yums list.

Following a new hobby I have acquired, I managed to create a SUPER cute Turtle from this lovely free pattern.

These cute little crocheted creatures are called Amigurumi, or Ami, for short. They're tight single crochet animals or objects made with the goal of being "chibi", or cute and little. There is a certain style to them that is emblematic of Ami in general, but patterns such as this Turtle don't fit the rigid definition.

However, they are still quite addictive and I would say extremely cute. This little guy was the first thing I have crocheted in over two years, and for that, plus wrist problems and TEENSIE crochet hooks I am extremely proud of him. He is modeled after Tama the Turtle (Tamago Onsen) who is a flying hotsprings turtle from the anime Love Hina. He was made by specific request from my husband and despite some things I would do differently next time, I am very happy with the way he turned out.





Tama the Turtle
Yarn: leftover bits of Rowan Tweed, Cascade 220, and Debbie Bliss Cashmerino
Crochet Hook: 2.75 mm
Creation time: roughly 8 hours













All in all a successful project. And what can I say, something quick, cute, and in compliance with my yarn diet? I am hooked!

Click here to create your own painting.


Ooooh, I'm so creative, I have to have a website make art *for* me! ^_^

I is a special breed of n3rd. Wow. You know, I'd have scored worse on this before marrying my hubby. I bet he'll outnerd my ass any day.

Okay, nobody told me that having a baby meant falling off the face of the earth and web.


Seriously, you'd think that sitting at home all day with a happy little baby would mean, well, that my laundry would be done, or the kitchen would be clean, or I could at least get on MSN and chat occasionally... you'd THINK being a stay-at-home-mommy would give me OODLES of time to do my stuff.


HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! BWAAAAAHAHAHAH!!!! *giggle giggle*......


*snerk*



BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!!


*ahem* Sorry, but um, You would think wrong. I love Callie more than anything, despite her conspiring to kill my social life, but MAN she is high maintenance. Her attention span is shorter than she is, and that is saying something, and if she sees mommy head for the shiny white box with the glowy dot she WAILS. Why she would be jealous of my Mac I have no idea, but I have to stay awake until all hours of the night to get proper adult time in (and then I am sleep deprived and crabby!)

Babies are real time warps... one minute she's sleeping like a little angel and just as beautiful as can be and then BAM, screaming at me for boob, spitting out her pacifier every three seconds and then whining about it, but alas, cracking the most beautiful smile I have ever seen to make it all better. Rinse and repeat fifteen times and where did the day go? Why is my kitchen in bits and pieces, a dirty diaper half-folded on the bathroom floor, or hungry squeaking guinea pigs? Why am I up at 3:00 am typing this?


Baby love, the most addicting of them all.... I just wonder, if my life is eaten this badly by ONE n00b, how will it fare with others? Despite my sore boobs, exhaustion, spit-up stains and total inability to carry on a conversation without baby talk anymore, I am SO in love with my baby and my life and I can't WAIT to have another (just waiting for AF now ^__^ )


And even when I am about ready to scream my head off and send her off to Grandma's, she gives me THIS look:










Doomed, I say. I am doomed.

Okay, I am sure I am not alone here. Does anyone else float in and out of fandoms? I will find that for two or three years I am EXTREMELY interested in some show or some set of fanfiction, only to find that between long updates from authors or just life happening my interest wanes and shifts to something else. Then, without warning, sometimes several YEARS later, my interest returns with a vengeance.

I think the reason for this, however subtly, is that it seems like the quality of fanfiction, in general, is on the decline. With the exception of a few roving packs of talented authors the internet is overbrimming with proverbial literary JUNK! And if I wait enough years, a fandom usually turns itself over enough that a few more talented authors emerge from the rubble and produce a fic or two worth reading. It's like I run out of material and just get tired of reading _______ amount of badfics to get a few decent ones.


Case in point, my original fanfic love - Sailor Moon. Oh yeah, waaaay back in the day, a little 7 year old Taryl discovered badly fansubbed Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon S VHS tapes, and fell madly in love (with...well, every male character in the series :) Right up there with Zack from Saved by the Bell!) I shortly after discovered the beginnings of fanfiction on the, then-fairly-new internet. Yeah, the first non-text specific version of Netscape had JUST come out and already the fans were posting. I remember when the website A Sailor Moon Romance LAUNCHED.... and yes I am old. So I loved this fandom and watched others come to love it as well, and back then the fanfiction was GOOOOD. It was mostly the dedicated few otaku like myself who taught themselves Japanese just to see their favorite series, and this was back before anime became 'big'. We were still the weird, the few, the nerds with a Japanese fetish.


But then came DUBS! Yes, the dubs, the American-tv airings, and the FANGIRLS. Not the fans like I had grown up with and loved, but the Marysue-writing-canon-killing-grammar-inept-we-post-nekkid-pics-of-ourselves-on-myspace-at-school rabid fangirls who flamed all the great authors off of ff.net when they decided to create a literary police state. Yes, those fangirls. And I became disgusted, jaded, and just fed up with my half-decade long obsession with Sailor Moon. And Tenshi Muyo. And Rurouni Kenshin. And Tsubasa, Pet Shop of Horrors, Akira, Slayers, DNA(squared), AD Police.... the lists go on and on. All these fandoms I adored had been killed by overexposure, victims of their own success. While I was SO happy that anime went mainstream it meant thyat every Tom, Dick, and Harry could post whatever badly-written NC-17 non-consen romantic comedy of errors in French they wanted and basically create an internet cesspool of crap masquerading as 'fanfiction'. The wonderful labors of love that a dedicated few slaved over for years became plagiarized, muddied up and lost in the whirl of success of fanfiction.net and mediaminer.



And dozens of fans, like myself, just had to walk away. And many more, I know, sucked it up and dealt with it, waded through then junk because they loved their fandoms so much.


So years passed, and all the sudden I decided to revisit my old haunts and see what was up. I checked some favorites lists of fanfiction, saw that my old favorites on ASMR were now being called "legacy fics" because they were so 'old', and discovered, to my amazement, that there was something once again worth reading on the net. Just a handful, mind you, of gems among the rabble, but gosh darnit it got the little fangirl in me, the one who had abandoned those genres so long ago, jumping for joy. It made me feel like the whole thing might just have some hope.



And then I read them all and was out of material again. And then I got married, had a baby, moved, gained hobbies other than reading, watching anime, and doing nerdy reenacting. But I am resolved, someday, to check out these fandoms again in hopes of a few more good stories. Am I alone in my hope? Am I fickle for giving up on these groups of stories for so many years because they frankly suck? Is it bad that, unless there is a hugely positive recommendation from a favorite author or friend I refuse to read any new material for fear of wasting yet another afternoon of my life?


I actually find myself going out of my way to watch DOZENS of new anime JUST to have another fandom to exhaust, because it has and will always be my first love. Fanfiction is just a passion of mine, but one that seems to be in the decline as far as quality is concerned. So floaters, unite, and make me feel less like a traitor for leaving behind my precious fandoms because they have turned into crap.

Okay, I AM NOT DEAD! I am SOOO sorry for the long pause between posts, things have been crazy and Myspace is my main journaling site.


A brief summary of things that happened:

Got postpartum depression
Got better from postpartum depression
Moved from Juneau
Moved to Anchorage
Stayed with DH's parents
Callie laughed
DH's parents hated on me
I hated on them
Bought new house in Eagle River
Left Dh's parent's house
Went to Michigan
Came back from Michigan
Painted new house
Floored new house
Glared at to do list of new house
My mommy came into town
My mommy is leaving town (tomorrow)




And that's a VERY brief summary with lots of stuff missing. I have posted some junk here and there, read a fanfic or two, baby sleeps through the night now. Umm..... Life is good and boring, and Lord knows I will TRY to post more often. Callie.Giessel.Org has more updates than here, even.



Oooh ooh, tell you what - Shiin, if YOU update *I* will update ;) I am missing the fiction!

I'll make this short for now, but after three weeks of prodromal labor and 68 hours of induced labor, Callie was born on April 5 via c-section at Bartlett regional hospital. She weighed in at 8 pounds 15 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.

We're doing well now, despite a somewhat bumpy start and quite a change in plans for her birth. Don't expect to see too much of me in the coming weeks as we're now endeavouring to move. Our house just went on the market today and we will be on the ferry out of Juneau at 7:30 am on May 14th. We're in town *just* long enough for me to have my 21st birthday bash with my friends (and baby -_-' )


Pictures and updates for Callie are available at http://callie.giessel.org/

Okay, so the ultrasound was a SUCCESS!!

Despite the fact that I swear this kid does turtlespins every time I lay down, she was head down with her mouth right against my cervix, posterior....her placenta looked good, her cord looked good (though she was yanking on it for all she was worth during the scan).

They have me dated a few days later than I have my calculations at, and based on the scans it looks like I can expect her right around her due date of the 24th, or possibly a few days later. I wonder about this, however, because last night and today at church I was having a LOT of regular, strong contractions. They did taper off when I rested instead of walking around, but between that and some of the pain I have been having I wonder if I won't dilate out a bit sooner.... That'd be VERY nice!

Either way, after tomorrow there should be no complications with the homebirth. My dates are a little further ahead than the birth center has me, but by all accounts I am 37 weeks tomorrow, thus full term! YAY! Victory party!





On a side note, the foot-rib dig is getting a *tad* old. Perhaps, though, that was why this breech scare occurred - now I find I am appreciating her high kicks and cervix-hiccups a LOT more, because the alternative is NOT good. I think I may have been taking her health and mine for granted, so for that I am grateful for a little shakeup.




*physiological TMI warning*




Oh, and on a side note I *have* been losing increments of my plug, but my cervix is still 3.5 cm. So it has been shortening, but not very much. Again, this is both a good and bad thing. Additionally, she is DEFINITELY a girl! I had a few lingering doubts after the last ultrasound because it wasn't medical, it was a vanity ultrasound (despite the fact that the sonographer was certified) but at the last ultrasound she was textbook. I have never been so happy to see a crotch in my LIFE! Because Lord knows if the sonographer was wrong we already have WAY too much invested in pink >_<

Also, she has hair!!! It was flowing around in the amniotic fluid, as plain as day! So obviously Callie takes after her daddy as I was bald for the first few months...apparently he was hairy. It was just so amazing to see how big she is compared to the 20-week ultrasound or even our 28 week 4-d ultrasound. Her lungs and kidneys looked great, she was right on for her size... despite my bellyaching I really couldn't ask for anything better.





In addition to the ultrasound, I had my homevisit on Friday. Basically, it is the Midwife making sure that our house is suitable for birth (phone, heat, running water, no maggots) and talking through the specifics of my birth plan for a last check.

The homevisit went really well. My fave midwife, Jenny, was the one who came along with a visiting CNM from Texas named Megan, who is looking to move up here and work with the birth center. She really seemed great and like Jenny, even though she is a nurse midwife she has a very positive and healthy outlook on a woman's ability to birth naturally, and has a very gentle air about her - - - which, for a mommy as uptight as me, is key.

So right now I am just gathering the last of my birthing supplies and trying to think of ways to start labor effectively, being the impatient person I am.

I have the okay for both 100 mg. vaginally of Evening Primrose oil as well as Raspberry leaf tea, and I am hoping that those measures will turn the BH I am having into effective contractions.

Any centimeter I can get without heavy labor is a boon to me!




So with any luck, the next post will be about how I
a) have dilated out a few centimeters
b) am documenting my labor as it is occurring
c) have a new baby girl, and hello here she is *insert adorable wrinkly tomato pic here*

OR

d) how my hubby loves me so much he bought me a new pony, spinning wheel and SUV that seats 8 :)


I think D is the most probable, don't you? ;)

*backdated news, but I forgot to post to *this* blog*
February 27th




So I went in for my routine, now-weekly checkup and there were several problems that annoy me.

1) Baby seems to have flipped breech, after staying head down since 28 weeks. I cannot have a breech baby homebirth, they won't let me.

2) Blood pressure was rather elevated, at 128/80 rather than my usual 115/70.


I am scheduled next week for the official; home visit where the midwife checks out my digs, discusses the in-depth birth plan, does the strep-b swab, and all that good stuff. But prior to that on Tuesday morning I have an ultrasound to check out Callie's positioning, and see if the inversion exercises I am supposed to try will have flipped her, or if the midwives actually made a mistake in feeling her position (which I hope is the case).

If she is still breech when I go into labor, not only do I have to go to the hospital, our stupid regional hospital will airlift me all the way down to SEATTLE to give birth -_-' I am in Juneau, AK and it is a 2 hour flight to the Seattle med center. I REALLY REALLY want my homebirth, so I will be extremely disappointed if I can't have it.

I hate the fear that vaginal breech births are dangerous - it's outdated, being proven more untrue with each additional study, and quite frankly if the baby is completely breech it may be a longer labor but the chances of shoulder dystocia at that point are nearly nil. However the insurance policy of the birth center doesn't allow the midwives to even attempt them, even if they want to.


So lots of prayers and good thoughts would be appreciated. I really really really do not want to end up in L/D instead of at home for something as silly as a stubborn baby!!!


Oh, and the inversion exercises? Talk about bloodrush to the head!!! I have to keep my pelvis a foot elevated on a hard surface every day for 10-15 minutes. Problem is, the baby is so big that I can't BREATHE when doing them. :(

My one ray of hope in this...she is currently doing turtle-spins every time I lay on my back and has gone head down and transverse more than once in the past few days. So with any luck we can get her to stay pretty much head down until she engages in my pelvis for labor. Either way, I'll post an update after Tuesday!

Well it's a new year, and it has hit me just how huge it's going to be.

While down in California for the holidays I was able to obtain a 4-d ultrasound, which was a LOT of fun and got exactly what I was looking for and then some: the baby's sex (for SURE, not just speculative) and its position.

We're expecting Callie Marie in March which is right around the corner and if the ultrasound and her horrendously strong kicks are anything to go by, she is head down and ready for birth with a little more baking! Peter and I are absolutely thrilled and yes, before anyone asks, the name is FINAL!

I can't believe it's only 70-someodd days before she is born, the time has flown. I fear I spent so much time worrying in the first half of the pregnancy I worried precious adjustment time away! It seems overwhelming to me that it is about to happen, my life will never have a bigger change, nor will my marriage, and somehow soon God will let Peter and I meet our beautiful daughter, the first of many children we pray we are blessed with. I am just in awe of the whole thing, and when the logistical junk kicks me in the butt that awe turns to a small bit of panic. Somehow though, we'll manage and she'll thrive!

I am so ready for the change, so entirely ready to meet her and move on with our lives as a complete family, rather than a couple. I still get frustrated as family second guesses our commitment and maturity and a million things need to happen before we can move forward. I know I just need to pray for patience.

Our to-do list is a mile long and my mobility (and ability to roll over in bed, tie my shoes, and eat free of heartburn) is severely limited...please forgive Peter and I ahead of time if our corrospondence is brief or non-existent.

Life will hopefully settle down into routine sometime by May, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's all just begun!





In summary:


A GIRL, FOR SURE! Oh God, here we go!!! Mommy's sure got her work cut out for her ;)

PS: Peter posted some of the 4-d ultrasound pics on his site, some are better than others but they are up for browsing enjoyment! http://www.leela.ws/~leela/gallery.php?id=1&g=42

Due to the prodding of my mother and my boredom (avoiding sleep) my registry for the as-of-yet-untitled baby is now up and running.

It's a normal Target registry and can be accessed online at the following location:
http://www.target.com/gp/gift-registries.html/ref=nav2_registries/602-9531121-3031823

Type in Taryl Giessel as the name, March and Alaska as the date/location, and it will lead you right to it. Thanks in advance for helping us out, things are tight since we didn't get much financial recovery time from the wedding. Every little bib and bootie helps ;)

8 inches.




In one day.



No, not an 8 inch penis, and 8 inch sub, or 8 inches of solid rope gold.







no no no.... 8 inches of *snow*. Which is good, yeah? I love snow, it keeps the dumb hippies in their houses and lets us go skiing...

But it also means shoveling action. And while my husband takes care of this particular task I must say his whining really grates on my nerves.

The amount of snow, in and of itself, isn't unusual. It's just so *early* for it! We get snow in November every year, but it is a smattering and melts in hours. Usually snowfall like this isn't seen until January. We'll see how this year's weather turns out - thus far it has been pretty god-awful so if this is the season's indicator, it is snow tires clear until April.


But that's okay, you see, because I haven't a care in the world.....








As long as he wields the shovel. :)