Bye bye, Lil Loaf.

We spent most of this week in NY with Andy’s family, and we did lots of neat things like visiting the Bronx Zoo and going to the beach. Alas, all the photos from those things are on Andy’s computer. The only photos I have are from our last day there, when we decided instead of going to the Big City we’d do yard work. But I’m not going to show you pictures of us doing yard work because I’d rather show you these other photos.

Here I give you my brother-in-law impersonating Andy. I think he did a pretty good job except he should be a little more stoic.

Anya was a little unsure of Kenny at first, but he’s a great big brother and pretty soon they were having fun.

Our last night in NY, we celebrated Andy’s birthday with Thai food and a yummy chocolate cake from a local bakery. MMmmm… I miss the bakery what with its cinnamon logs turned into french toast.

Oh heck, I guess I’ll give you one “yard work” photo. This is BIL saying, “Hey, I told them they didn’t have to work, but they insisted. Look, they even made the teenager help!”

Earlier in the month, Anya and I went to visit my family. Before we left, I gave Andy a huge to-do list and told him if he finished everything before I got back, he could buy a big tv. Andy made a valiant effort, but he didn’t finish. No big tv for him, but Anya got a sandbox out of it.

While we were visiting, Anya and I got to pick out a slew of fabric for my Mom to sew up into dresses and shorts and shirts. Anya didn’t really do much picking; mostly she ran around with my Dad. But, she did emphatically insist we get some yellow fabric full of stars. I paired it up with some pink with frogs, and my Mom whipped up this dress.

In other Anya news, she said her first sentence the other day. Andy asked her to find something blue, and she looked and looked and then stared out the door, “Sky is blue.”

Last night it was time to unload the dishwasher, and I put the Paint Your Wagon soundtrack on the iPod speaker thing in the kitchen. Anya immediately started twirling around in happiness until she could barely stand up.

Then ‘ol Clint started singing, and she felt the sudden urge to poop. And to think, she hasn’t even seen the movie yet!

Anya is now two years old. She had lots of fun for her birthday, which lasted pretty much all month what with all the nifty goodies in the mail and all her grandparents visiting. And then there was Easter, too; it pretty much started everything. Here’s a bunch of photos from the last few weeks.

A quick summary of what has been going on since Easter:

• Pumpernickel had one baby, also white.
• The roof was put on the sunroom. Much of the face boards have been installed on the room to make it look a little nicer.
• Cabol’s dad and I fixed an old door.
• Cabol’s dad was attacked by a ram. He reciprocated by throwing it through the air in a demonstration of top secret military sheep fu.
• Andy learned it is hard to rip a 12′ board by yourself.
• Andy learned to refer to himself in the third person.
• Anya has lost both her working cups-with-straws. One at daycare. The other…?
• We bought lots of bright colored paint for Anya’s room. And a fan. A groove may have to be cut in the wall so the fan can spin.

Week five saw a trip to the doctor’s office for Anya and the corresponding Rx. Plus the cocoa butter and sticky bandage the doc told us to put on her sucky thumb…which had become her boo-boo thumb. Silly doctor. A sticky bandage is no match for a toddler.

Non-essential spending:

– $4.43 for lunch ’cause Andy is a goober butt

My parents are here this week, and so that means all sorts of crazy spending on stuff to finish up the kitty room. That stuff was on the moratorium okay list, though, so no violation.

Andy took some photos of Anya in a tree. Maybe he’ll post one some day. She was helping me prune one of our apple trees. Pruning is addictive. Ya start cutting and just don’t want to stop. Next thing you know, you’ve pruned the tree, the shrub next to it, the cat, the kid, and your leg hair.

I also cleaned the duck house. The question of the week: why did the ducks turn one of their nest boxes into a poo box?

May we please have a moratorium on the moratorium? I want to buy garden stuff like plants and bricks and mulch and plants and did I say plants? Darn moratorium keeping us from buying fun stuff but allowing us to buy non-fun stuff like tires. Darn states that require annual vehicle inspections that make us buy new tires. Safety-smafety. I want plants!

Non-essential spending:

– Eating out to preserve our sanity: $8.39
– Super-cheap chocolate on clearance: $35.00 (see note about sanity above)

Raisin update: name-brand raisins were on sale for only twenty cents more than the generic, so I bought some name brand. WOOT!

So, we’ve been doing this moratorium thing for a month now, and I’d like to say that we’ve saved a bunch of money and paid a nice chunk of that credit card off. Nope. I’m not quite sure how this whole thing works that we seem to be spending less but in reality are spending about the same as before. Would someone please explain that to me?

Oh well. We got some free rocks yesterday and will get more today. A family moved into a new house last fall and wants to turn a shady spot under their deck into a turtle habitat. The previous owners had put down a ton (or three) of river rock stuff. The new owners took about half of it out and put it somewhere else, but they didn’t want the rest of it. So, we went over yesterday and shoveled about half of what was left into the truck. Andy will go get the rest today. Not sure where it will all go, but some will go into a shady flower bed under our deck.

It’s interesting how much we spend each week on things we really do need. This week we had to buy all three types of cat food: Sana’s prescription food, canned food for the toothless cats, and dry food for the rest. That was half of what we spent this week. The rest was regular stuff like gas. Andy did break the Moratorium once. He and Anya went to town to get some things while I was at a MG meeting, and they went to Wendy’s. The worst part of it was that Anya hid bits of chicken nugget all over the back seat.

Non-essential spending:

– Wendy’s: $4.73

There is a an update on the raisins. I think maybe I got a bad batch before because this container I have now has very few twigs in it. Or maybe this is just a really, really good batch. I wish raisins didn’t look so much like engorged ticks.

One weird thing about this moratorium is people keep trying to (and sometimes succeeding) buy me things. Like lunch (thanks P!) and green rice krispie treats (thanks S!). It’s sort of like when someone goes on a diet and everyone tries to get them to eat a piece of birthday cake.

We went to HD today because we were in town and Andy wanted to. We walked out empty handed, but it was hard. I wanted to buy plants and paint, Andy wanted to buy a clearance fountain, and Anya wanted to buy a digital rain gauge. Nothing we needed, though. We already have lots.

While Anya was napping this afternoon, I folded some laundry and went to put mine away. All my clothes really should fit in the dresser, so I pulled a few things out that I never wear. Then I went up to put Anya’s clothes away, and all her stuff didn’t really fit either. I took everything out and sorted into three drawers: what she’s wearing now, what she’ll be wearing spring/summer, and what’ll be for winter or next year. I also pulled out a pile of things that were too small. And then I sorted a heap of clothes on her bed that were in the trunk. I probably sorted out two large bags of things we don’t wear or need.

We’ve not only got plenty of stuff, we’ve got lots of stuff we don’t need. We don’t need to be buying more. (Well, except maybe toys for Anya, and that paint for her room, and plants and turtles and rocket ships and bagels!)

This week we spent ten times what we spent last week, but we spent less on non-essentials. No, the “new” dryer didn’t go kaput. We had to pay the registration for the car, and we also decided to buy a CSA share from Good Food, Good People. It isn’t one farm like I’m used to seeing for CSAs; it’s a group of local farms pooling together. We bought a vegetable share and a fruit share. So, while there is a big upfront cost, we won’t have to buy any produce for a long time.

Here’s our non-necessary spending for the week:

– $0.65 for a coke at work because Andy couldn’t stay awake
– $5.72 for stuff for the bake sale at work (green krispie treats!!)

That’s it. Yay!

It was hard not to agree to go out to lunch with coworkers on Friday. In the end, we all just ate the lunches we brought. When I think of the blogs I was reading a few weeks ago before we started this, our moratorium seems sort of lame. These folks were used to buying books and magazines and clothes and lattes and meals out all the time. Me? I’m all “Yay! I didn’t go to Wendy’s one day!”

In other news, Anya has become a bit of a cleaning freak. I blame daycare lady. Anya will grab a towel or sock or whatever and start “cleaning” the stairs or her step stool or the bathtub. Nothing wrong with that (even if it is weird), but she also gets upset if she spills something and can’t clean it up that very second. She loves to help empty the dishwasher and puts the silverware away on her own. Yesterday she helped me vacuum, and she carries dirty clothes to the hamper. I foresee a day soon when she can start to earn her keep!