My .Mac / MobileMe subscription is up and I can’t see a reason to spend $100 to renew it. As such, the videos on gallery.mac.com/agensler are no longer visible. I’ve moved all the videos over to YouTube. You can see the entire collection here – http://www.youtube.com/celeron463 . Any and all new movies will be up on YouTube from now on.
Monthly Archive for February, 2009
I apologize that it has been so long since I’ve uploaded pictures (and that I have so few to upload now!). With not feeling great I’ve been trying to focus the majority of my time and energy on Addie because I feel really bad for the days that I want to do nothing more than stay in bed. Then whatever is left after playing with her gets devoted to the house which isn’t much which the dishes, bathrooms and floors can all atest to. Oh well, they aren’t going anywhere! 
The past couple days I’ve felt a bit better so here are some new pictures! Not many but a few, we just haven’t done a ton of exciting things to post pictures of.
- Addie919 and 920 are outtakes from the Valentine’s Day card picture session. Who knew it would be difficult to get a toddler to pose with a prop!
- Addie921 is what happens when I let Addie pick out her own clothes.
- 922 and 923 are her fishing in her boat. We stole the idea from a friend Isaac (and his mom Jenny). She thinks its a blast. I tied a piece of yarn to the end of a wrapping paper tube and then tied a chip clip to the other end. Addie climbs in her boat, puts on her fishing hat and we put the “hook” into one of her toy bins. I clip some little thing to it and tug so she knows to “reel” her fish in. She is always excited by what she catches and even sometimes requests to catch certain items such as a hippo. Too bad real fishing doesn’t work like that! You can see in 922 that she has caught a turkey.
I can’t believe it is already time to post the 23-24 month album! Where in the world has 2 years gone!!!
In other news…today is 10 weeks for baby! 1/4 of the way there! lol, is it too early to start my countdown? Addie loves looking at the ultrasound pictures (which I’d post but our scanner is buried in the closet and probably doesn’t work with either of our computers). We’ve been getting “big sister” books from the library each week when we are there for story time and read them throughout the week. Transition has never really been easy for her so we’re trying to make this as easy as possible. Fortunately we have a couple friends with babies and she loves going to visit them. I think she’ll be a good sister *fingers crossed!*
Other than that…not much new. We’re just pluggin’ along down here in the south.
As I look around my living room and see evidence of a small tornado it has made me think about Addie’s birthday coming up.
We’ve decided to request outdoor toys, arts and crafts items, books and clothes for Addie for her birthday if you want to get her something (don’t feel obligated, she certainly does not want for anything). We just don’t have room for many more indoor toys and since it will be getting nice out soon I would love to spend more time outside. If you need ideas let me know! Obviously if you already have something or really have your heart set on particular item go ahead but the more limited we can keep things the better.
Also, as far as stuffed animal go, I would love to request that everybody only get her one per year (if you feel the need to buy any). Our house is so overrun with animals already and she isn’t even 2! By her third birthday we’re planning on instituting a rule that for each new stuffed animal she gets she needs to pick one old one to be donated to charity. By then she should understand the choice she is making, it will help keep our house from looking like a small (or large!) zoo, and she’ll have the opportunity to learn about giving to those less fortunate. I know they are soft, cute and cuddly which is why we’re not saying no stuffed animals but limited stuffed animals. If you want to get them for her and keep them at your house to play with when we’re there go ahead and collect til you’re heart is content!
Thanks for your cooperation! If you need ideas let me know. And if you could pass this along to anyone who may not see it here I would appreciate it.
About a month ago I was talking to my friend Terra about switching to a laundry detergent called Charlie’s Soap. According to the instructions you are suppose to wash a load with a couple rags and double the normal amount of detergent prior to washing any clothes. She had already started using Charlie’s and I was waiting to finish up the rest of the detergent I had before I made the switched. When I asked her if the rags were gross when she took them out she said no but that she cleans out her washer every once in a while. I chalked it up to her being a cleaner person than me and didn’t really consider washing ours. It is afterall a washing machine, doesn’t it wash itself?
Well yesterday was finally the day that I got to start using my Charlie’s (I’ve been looking forward to this a little too much). Remembering what Terra said I figured I’d go ahead and clean our washer before I switched because part of the idea behind Charlie’s is that it gets rid of the build-up left behind by other detergents and fabric softeners.
Oh my God, it was the GROSSEST thing I have ever seen!!
This is the bottom side of the fabric softener cup.
This one grossed me out the most it is the inside of the agitator just below where the fabric softener cup sits. The black you see down in the hole was 1/8″ thick gross, dirty fabric softener build up. It took me a good 20 minutes just to clean this out.
Sorry this one is so blurry. This is a big clump of fabric softener residue that I scraped out of the inside of the softener dispenser. I got about 8 toothbrush fulls like this!
And finally, what it should look like!
So as it turns out…you ARE supposed to wash your washing machine. Who knew!
