Miles To Grow

Goal Check In

2012-01-30T07:23:00.000-08:00

Here is a review of this year's goals and where I am...

*Weight Loss:
~I will lose 10lbs in the first 3 months of 2012
I haven't lost any weight really, but haven't gained any either. I'll call it even!
I will do this by:
Eating strictly Plaeo for the month of January
Planning paleo snacks
Completing the 100 pushup program
Working out at least 3x a week after the program
We haven't been strict paleo, but better than the last few months. I did a couple of days of the pushups, but stopped. I need to get back to it. I have played around with workouts, but no program yet.
* Cleaning Goal
~I will keep a cleaner home
NOPE!
I will do this by:
Helping Miles pick up toys every night before bath/bed.
Giving Miles chores and stick to them
Sticking to a cleaning schedule
Keeping floors clean (swept & mopped) - I've done really well with this in the past, but not so much recently
We are getting pretty good at having Miles pick up, but I am not on a cleaning schedule.
How nice to have a home where you are never worried about opening the door.
* Picture Goal
~I will take more photos this year
I will do this by
Complete 52 of 52 challenge.
Try to take pictures of Miles at least three times a week.
Take Mother's & Father's day pictures this year!
I didn't find a 52 of 52 this year. Sad! I am taking more pictures though. Also, Miles is asking me to take pictures of him too. That is fun!
* Bible Study Goal
~I will have a daily Bible study and I will read the Bible in a year.
I have a Bible in a year program set up, but I'm behind. I'll catch up though.
*Christmas Goals
~I will have a low stress Christmas this year.
I have 3 stocking stuffers! Yay!
I will accomplish this by:
Hand making at least 5 Christmas gifts this year. I will work on one every other month.
Trying to have complete list by early/mid October.
Buying 3 stocking stuffers a month (15 stockings to stuff).
Completing Advent activities.
*Family Goal
~I will go on a field trip with Nicholas each month this year (and take plenty of pictures helping my photo goal).
We have gone to the zoo, the Kimbell (a bit of a trip), the airplane museum, and his first Dallas Stars game. I think at least one of those qualifies!

Progress Report

2012-01-24T19:11:00.000-08:00

We have been having a bit of a tough time lately. Miles received his mid year review (progress report) on Friday. It wasn't great. He happens to be in a very advanced class, but he is behind where he should be. We have decided to redouble our efforts. This is nothing we can't overcome. His teacher mentioned possibly holding him back to K4 again net year. He is in a class where all the boys are much older than him, and they would be with him every year. He is beginning to read, which is exciting! I think we are going to be just fine. It has been emotionally exhausting though. Most everything else is on hold. There are some really big gaps in his knowledge.

As a break we are looking forward to Miles' birthday party. It is monster themed. We sent out regular fill in the blank invites, and it is going to be really small. We are only inviting the 3 other k4 boys, one k5 (good friend), and the neighbor girl. 5 guests total if all show up, but we did include their siblings because the party will be at noon on a Tuesday (right after school). I can't wait to post some pictures!

My weekend is going to be busy. My mom and sister are "hosting" a table at a women's luncheon on Saturday and I'm attending. Then on Sunday I'm going with my MIL to my husband's cousin's baby shower. She is having her 4th! The first girl! I'm sure it will be fun.

How we have been spending time...

2012-01-09T18:37:00.000-08:00

We have done a few things recently where we haven't taken photos. I wanted to jot down a few thoughts about them quickly so they aren't forgotten.

On Saturday we went to an afternoon Dallas Stars game. It was great. We got the opportunity to take Miles to his first game, and sit in box seats and have platinum parking all for free (thanks Randy)! It was so great! We all really enjoyed it, especially Miles. He loved every moment of it, and started asking about 5 minutes in if we were going to win and what was the name of the bad guys again? At the beginning of the third period the score was tied 1-1. By the end of the game the Stars had won 4-1. It was great, and Miles was so glad they had won.

On Sunday it looked like we were going to be very busy. It was going to be church, then quick lunch and off to Jared's parents to help them install a water heater which everyone assumed would take all afternoon until Miles' bed time. Instead the in-laws decided to do something else and put off the water heater install. At the last moment we decided to run out to view the last day of the Caravaggio exhibit at the Kimbell Art Museum. It was incredible! They only had 10 Caravaggio pieces there, however, with only 75 remaining that is a pretty good ratio. They also had about 40 pieces by followers of his in Rome. The art was great, and it was laid out really well. You didn't have to stick with the same crowd and file through. They also had several pieces which were inspired by another piece there, or two pieces echoing another piece by Caravaggio. These would all be hung in the same area where you could see them at the same time. It was so cool to compare how different artists view/think about things.

Today I took Miles to gymnastics, then we picked up his Uncle Erich and took him to a dental surgery center. Aren't you glad I didn't post a picture. He was having all 4 of his wisdom teeth removed. Ouch! They asked that a family member wait during the surgery. It didn't go too well, and ended up taking 2x their time estimate. Then he was a mess after. They said that he wouldn't go under, and gave him way more meds than they usually do. More than enough for 4 guys, and he fought them in the surgery. Gah! I took him back to his place to get his dog (in case he needed to stay the night somewhere) and took him to his parents. We were supposed to work on the water heater, but didn't. Doris & I spent all of our time taking care of Erich and getting his prescriptions filled. She and I did share a really good bottle of wine and a bit of brie cheese. That was nice. It was a long day though!

Dallas Stars logo curtsey of stars.nhl.com &
picture of painting curtsey of www.canvasreplicas.com

Spring Cleaning

2012-01-07T20:22:00.000-08:00

Are you going to do it?

Have you started?

I have not. My Christmas decorations are boxed up, but the boxes are not put away. Yours?

January 2nd

2012-01-06T18:59:00.000-08:00

I've been having some technical difficulties downloading the pictures from my camera onto my laptop. After some work and diagnosing by Jared, I think we are back on track!

Here is a photo of the New Years bunting I mentioned before. Sadly, it only stayed up a couple of days. Now that it is made I can put it up just after Christmas and still have it up a while before I pack it away with the Christmas decorations! This year I plan to use those beautiful arches much more often. I'm hoping to have something up for at least part of every month. I just love them!

Here is one of my silly little boy. I can't believe how he is growing! He was wearing 2 of his dad's hats. I didn't get a very good pic of the other one, but it is a big floppy sun hat which in this photo is hanging behind his back.

My fantastic in-laws gave us a year membership to the flight museum not too far from the house. We have had a membership there before, but we were not planning to renew. I'm so glad they did this for us. The museum has made many great improvements since we were there last (almost a year ago), and Miles is older and interested in many other things now!

Monster Party

2012-01-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

I'm planning a monster party for Nicholas this year. It will just be a little thing with the other K4 boys. We had a relatively big party last year, so this year it will be much smaller. However, I'm getting carried away with Pinterest planning. *sad face*
How could you not, I mean look at this...

and this...

and of course...

It might be hard to keep this small(ish). I'll let you know!

2012

2012-01-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome 2012, you have been much anticipated!

I made a beautiful bunting style sign and cleaned up the house nicely for a little New Year's get together we had last night. It was just my parents, and in-laws, and everyone was gone by 10:00 (we were exhausted). I felt so happy this morning when I walked in and saw my clean house (I took time to pick up again after everyone left) and that beautiful sign. It says "For Auld Lang Syne" and I hung it on the arches into the dining room right over the Christmas flower swag. I'll take a picture before I take it down. I think I'm saving this one!

I have a few goals for 2012, and here they are:
*Weight Loss:
~I will lose 10lbs in the first 3 months of 2012
I will do this by:
Eating strictly Plaeo for the month of January
Planning paleo snacks
Completing the 100 pushup program
Working out at least 3x a week after the program
* Cleaning Goal
~I will keep a cleaner home
I will do this by:
Helping Miles pick up toys every night before bath/bed.
Giving Miles chores and stick to them
Sticking to a cleaning schedule
Keeping floors clean (swept & mopped) - I've done really well with this in the past, but not so much recently
How nice to have a home where you are never worried about opening the door.
* Picture Goal
~I will take more photos this year
I will do this by
Complete 52 of 52 challenge.
Try to take pictures of Miles at least three times a week.
Take Mother's & Father's day pictures this year!
* Bible Study Goal
~I will have a daily Bible study and I will read the Bible in a year.
*Christmas Goals
~I will have a low stress Christmas this year.
I will accomplish this by:
Hand making at least 5 Christmas gifts this year. I will work on one every other month.
Trying to have complete list by early/mid October.
Buying 3 stocking stuffers a month (15 stockings to stuff).
Completing Advent activities.
*Family Goal
~I will go on a field trip with Nicholas each month this year (and take plenty of pictures helping my photo goal).

Happy March

2011-03-01T18:40:00.000-08:00

February 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge

2011-02-27T05:22:00.002-08:00

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

I was so excited when the challenge was announced. We were having a bit of a snow day, and I happened to have all of the ingredients on hand for the cookies! I whipped up a batch that very morning. The photo above is my son enjoying the "fruits" of our labor! The cookies came out pretty well, and I even practiced making them into a bowl to potentially make the panna cotta into or unmold it into a cookie bowl. Florentine cookies are not the type of cookie that my family particularly enjoys, but they are ok. I put Nutella in them because I thought we were out of chocolate. And because Nutella is yummy.

I didn't make the panna cotta until the evening of the 19th. We were going to take it to the in-laws for after church lunch the next day to say thank you for helping with Miles' birthday party. As a last minute thing we had to leave the house for a good bit of the afternoon when I was planning to make the dessert. Needless to say I was more rushed than I'd planned. Making the actual panna cotta wasn't too hard. I was nervous about layering, but I really wanted it layered. I ended up making the panna cotta, putting most of it in the freezer, then making the gelee right away. I covered the left over panna cotta with a cloth to keep it from getting a skin. When the panna cotta was set, I covered with the gelee. Set that and finish with the last of the panna cotta. I started with some chopped strawberries. Apparently they float though. In the end you couldn't see the strawberries at all. I thought they would look really nice. If I were to try again, I'd put only a little panna cotta over the strawberries, cool, more panna cotta, cool, then the gelee and the last of the panna cotta.

The dessert was really good. I'd recommend covering in plastic wrap before cooling, and probably each time just to be sure. It had nice presentation, even without the strawberries showing. The taste was good. I don't love gelatin desserts, but it was good. I made the Florentine cookies to take too. This time they didn't hold their shape at all, and were really greasy. I did run out of quick oats and use a little less than half a cup of rolled oats. I'm not sure if this is what caused the problem. All in all it was a good dessert, but not of the style I prefer.

Airplane Party Round Up

2011-02-24T07:48:00.000-08:00

I finally have photos of the invitation and thank you notes from the Airplane party, and I thought I'd put the pics up in one post.

Here is the invitation. We made it look like a plane ticket and the envelopes are made from maps. I brought them from vljasper on etsy.

These are the room markers for the parties. They were cute, but didn't prevent people from coming past the other party room to ours who were for the other one.

Food and dessert tables. We had way more stuff than we needed!

These are the give-aways that we made for all the kids at the party. It was fun, but Jared said that he will never again be roped into cutting out 15 anything. Yeah, we cut those out. Bigger job thank I'd have expected. Oops. The museum gave each of the kids a little airplane too. I got the pattern from PepitosRoom on etsy.

Here are the thank you cards that were sent too all his friends. We requested that no one bring gifts, so we sent thank you cards to everyone who came. This time I made my own envelopes. They were pretty easy.

I did get my dad's photos from the party. There are some pretty cute ones! I won't bore you with another party post, but I'm really glad he brought his camera. I just didn't take anything worth while, and Jared didn't take any at all! Enjoy and hope you got some good ideas!

What are you reading?

2011-02-20T12:00:00.000-08:00

Right now I'm reading The Girl Who Played with Fire.

I'm a little less that 100 pages from the end, and I left it at my mother-in-law's this afternoon. I'm glad I'm going back tomorrow. I really am enjoying the books and want to finish. I do plan to read the third one too. I want to see how the series ends. Now that I'm thinking about it, I may go ahead and start the third one tonight and finish the second one tomorrow night after I get it back. Apparently the first one has a title in Swedish that translates to "Men Who Hate Women," and it's an apt title.

Some other things I've been reading this year are here. I posted this a couple of days before Bonnie put up this idea.

Photos

2011-02-14T20:27:00.000-08:00

What photos do you have of your child's milestones?
Miles' 4th birthday was last Thursday. We gave him his gift in the morning. We had a slow one and it just seemed right. I told Jared we had to clean the game room before we could give it to him...Here I am picking it up.
Here is Miles just after opening it. It is a Playmobile castle. He really liked it.
Here he is playing. We'd had snow for several days before his birthday. We had his well child check up scheduled, but they changed the date because of snow. It ended up scheduled on his birthday. How did that go?
Here he is the next morning. Poor kiddo. We don't do more than 2 shots at a time. This is the next morning, and he hadn't taken a step all day. If he couldn't convince someone to carry him, he crawled where he needed to go. The day after his birthday also happened to be his party.

This is the food we had for the party. The party was at the airplane museum at a local airport. I thing everyone had fun. Several people didn't come even though they sent RSVPs.
This is Miles, his aunt and some kid that was obsessed with this ride. I can't complain, some other mom has the same pictures with her girl and Miles climbing on.
This is the only picture I have of Miles with a party guest. This is my boss' daughter. She is a sweetie!
This is the next day. The neighbor's girl playing with the gift they gave Miles. He loves it and she does too. They are cute together, and this was too funny.

Those are all the pictures I took over the 3 day period represented. My dad has some, but I didn't take any more. Tell me you do a better job documenting your child's milestones.

Mid Feb

2011-02-13T18:07:00.000-08:00

It is February 13. The day before Valentine's Day. Do you celebrate Valentine's Day? We never have. I usually give Jared a card, and this year I got one for Miles too. He's going to a Valentine's Day party at Mother's Day Out tomorrow. I'm sure he'll love that!

Mostly I've been reading and prepping for Miles' birthday party. The party was Friday evening. It was lots of fun, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Unfortunately my dad has pretty much all the pictures that we took. I'll post some later.

I need to get to work on my Daring Baker challenge. It is due on the 27th. I still haven't printed off the whole recipe to even look at all the ingredients at once! I did make part of the recipe already. Actually I made it on the first, the day the challenge was announced. We had a snow day here, and I happened to have all the ingredients at home. It worked pretty well. I'll tell you more on the 27th!

Not Much

2011-02-03T06:18:00.001-08:00

Wow, I just downloaded pictures. Apparently I haven't done that since the end of November.
Want to see? Nothing too exciting.

Here is our Advent candle calendar. White for Sunday and Christmas. BTW we forgot to light the Christmas one until several days later.
We made treats for the birds (pine cones covered in peanut butter and bird seed).
They were eaten by the squirrels.I guess we played games in our raincoats...but I don't remember really.
We made Christmas presents.

Then there was this...
Miles was in a play! It was so cute, he missed his queue, and came out with Jesus. Then he tried to sleep on the railing.

I walked in on this...too sweet. Miles' great-grandmother reading to him.
This is Christmas morning after gifts before leaving for my Aunt & Uncle's house.
We saw the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band practice for...uhh, whatever bowl game they were in.
More pearler beads...this time with tweezers to really challenge the fine motor skills!
And apparently I fell asleep on the floor of Miles' room while/after playing with him...Yeah, I'm a good mom. And thanks Jared for the pic...not at all embarrassing.
I promise that we decorated for Christmas. I guess I just didn't take any pictures. I actually did something really different (from my norm) that I loved, and I'm sad I didn't get a pic. We had a lovely Christmas, but those pictures are on another camera.
We also had a New Year's party at our house...you guessed it, no pictures. I have got to do better.

January Wrap-Up

2011-02-01T06:35:00.000-08:00

It's February first! This is the official beginning of "busy season" in my work. I shift my work schedule from 2 days a week to 3, and Miles goes to a Mother's Day Out 2 of those days. Well, today the weather didn't cooperate. It sleeted from about 2am to 6am, and it's snowing now. Everything is closed today!
January was a busy month here. I completed 2 books which I posted about earlier this week. A dear friend also had her first baby. The baby's name is Riley, and she was born 6 weeks early! She spent the month in the NICU. The mother is dong extremely well. The stress is wearing on her, but she's holding up. Her baby shower was mid month. We really value reading around here, and she's come to me asking about reading, and telling me that the nurses are really encouraging her to read to Riley. I knew we wanted our gift to center around reading. I went to a used book shop, and bought something between 10-15 board books for her. Some were ones that we enjoyed, others were by favorite authors, and others just looked really good. I also made her some burp cloths, and a baby blanket all out of fabric I've had laying about the house for far longer than I care to remember! I really enjoyed sewing again, and I'm looking forward to another project.
Miles' birthday is February 10th, so we've been busy planning a party for him. I have lots of neat ideas, and I'll start posting about them as soon as they start coming together. The party is on the 11th, so I don't have too long to make that happen!
I've all but stopped taking pictures this month. I have to get back on top of that.
The Daring Baker's Challenge was posted this morning, and I'm so excited! I think it won't be too hard for me, which makes me glad. I was worried that the I'd be so in over my head, I wouldn't be able to be creative with it at all. This one I know I can do, and I've already started thinking of creative execution ideas!

Book Recommendations

2011-01-30T09:46:00.000-08:00

I didn't particularly make it a goal this year to read more, but it wouldn't take much to read more than last year! Here is where I'm at so far this year...

The Devil in the White City is the first book that I read this year. I zipped through this one really quickly, and I loved it! I first heard about it from Bonnie of The Boatwright Family. Its about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the architects that put it together. It was a fascinating read. I may have to find another of Eric Larson's books to read.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the next book I read. My brother-in-law gave it to his mom for her birthday just before Christmas. As he was describing it to her, both my husband's and my interest were piqued! After she finished, she loaned it to him, but as he was still reading another book I took it first. It wasn't what I would normally read, but I really enjoyed it. It is about the first human cells to survive in culture. Also, it is the story of the woman they came from and her family. They are a poor tobacco farming family in Baltimore in 1951. It was an interesting story, and well written. There was a fair amount of science, but it was not written in a way to be over anyone's head.

I've started another book, but I'm not even a quarter of the way through so I have nothing to say about it yet!
Oh, one more...

I read Real Food: What to Eat and Why at the end of the year last year. It is a very interesting book, and has me looking just a little into the Paleo diet. That would be hard to do while doing the Daring Baker's Challenge though!

Are you ready to be Daring?

2011-01-27T12:50:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited! I just found a baking challenge website! The Daring Kitchen! Every month there is a baking challenge. It isn't released to members until the first, then no one can post about it until the 27th, when you are to have completed the challenge! Woo-hoo! I'm so glad that I found it, and what luck that it was today. I think, since I registered this morning, that I'll be able to participate in February's challenge! I can hardly wait!

Sneak Peek

2010-10-30T16:52:00.000-07:00

Want a sneak peek at Miles' Halloween costume?
We went to a little Halloween party put on by the Early Childhood PTA. They had some games, some food, decorating sugar cookies, a bounce house, and a bounce slide thing.
Needless to say, much fun was had, much energy expelled and everyone took home tired children. Miles seemed very tired. Did he nap today? Uhh, no. Not my child. I could have really used a nap. Jared has been gone since Wednesday morning, and I'm not sleeping well. Oh well.
Here is a bit of a better view of the hat. I hope to get some really good pics of him in the costume tomorrow. He'll be trick-or-treating with a sweet friend from across the alley, and maybe another friend too.

Happy Halloween everyone! I know I'll have a good one because Jared will be home tomorrow mid afternoon.

Rough Day

2010-10-27T19:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry I lost my temper Miles, I love you!

Jack-O-Lanterns

2010-10-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

I found a cute Halloween craft here.

I changed it up a bit and we ended up with these
Here is how we did it...

I mixed a little water with white glue (just to dilute a little) and Miles painted it onto the milk jug with a foam brush.
We applied orange tissue paper. By the way, do you have any idea how hard it is to find orange tissue paper? After 4 stops I learned that Hobby Lobby has it.
Let that dry.
Smear glue all over the table while mom cuts out face shapes from construction paper.
Glue those on.
I do plan to cut the backs out and put in Christmas lights like they did, but I haven't made it up to the attic yet for them.

That's it, enjoy!

How's the quilt coming?

2010-10-17T13:48:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad you asked!
It's coming along pretty well.

Here is a photo taken on September 7. This was how I picked it up at that time.
Here is one letting you know what still needs to be done. Click on it if you want to read the text.
Now, here is where I am now....
Again with the labels.
I have a couple more hours before I'm ready to quilt the border, but I'm getting very close!
Currently I'm planning to do the border by machine, but I'm also going to go by the quilt shop where I had the class and talk to them first. This is about the last chance I'll have to work on it until after Christmas. I want to be sure to save time to work on gifts!

September/October Goals

2010-09-06T18:35:00.000-07:00

I think overall I did well on goals for the month during teh begining of the month. I really petered out at the end of the month. In fact I had a real motivation problem toward the end of the month that I'm still working on getting over. I've had a post with these pictures ready since the 7th of the month, but no words to put in it. Here is hoping this doesn't last much longer. The goals for September were:

Personal Goal: I'm going to work on the Bible study again. I'll combine this with the nails. That will give me a good 6 weeks with no biting. I did pick back up on my Bible study. I was able to finish Luke and begin on John. I also stopped this about mid month so I'll continue to work on that. I also did well on the nail biting for the first half of the month. I needed to get another manicure. That is where I always fall off the wagon, I never get the second one soon enough.
Fun Goal: I'm thinking we'll try roller skating this month. We are also going to go to each of the museums we have memberships with as well.We didn't go roller skating. We did go to both of the museums though. I think we might go back to the flight museum tomorrow.
Teaching Goal: Potty training! Yikes! We began last week, but that is what we are learning this month. I'll also continue with the letters. I think potty training was a success! He's doing great now and even tells me when we are out and he needs to potty. Letters are also going well. He knows all the capital letters. We haven't worked on lower case at all.
Resolutions Goal: I think I'll pick back up on my sampler quilt. No reason to drag that project into next year! I didn't start back on this until a week into the month, however when I did I was pleasantly surprised at how much was already done! I have another several days to finish the inside of the quilt, but I hope to begin the border of the quilt this month. I'm planning to do that on the machine.

Next up? October's Goals!
Personal Goal: NAIL BITING!!! I have got to stop this nasty habit!
Fun Goal: I am not really feeling this one right now, what with the lack of motivation and all, but I think we will try to take the light rail one day. I know Miles would love that!
Teaching Goal: I think we will work on numbers. I need a break on letters. He is loving books right now. We are really in to Uncle Wiggly. Those stories are so sweet, but we need more of them.
Resolutions Goal: I need to keep going on the quilt. I think I'll also work on helping Miles pick up his toys every night before bed. We've been pretty good about this for a day or two, but we need more structure around here.

Potty Training: Day 6 & morning of Day 7

2010-09-01T05:27:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we had no accidents! I'm so proud of him!
This morning he didn't want to put underwear on (I still have him in a diaper overnight), but after he got it on he played happily. Then he told me he needed to go to the bathroom again and went. Today he goes to Mother's Day Out so that I can go to work. I hope all goes well there. I'm basically expecting at least one accident. Their bathroom isn't very close to the classroom, and the teacher has several other kids she's helping too. We'll see though. He's surprised me before.
I can't say how proud I am of him. At the end of the day today we will have been at it for a week, and he really seems to be getting it.

August/September Goals

2010-08-30T19:15:00.000-07:00

August is ending and September beginning. The weather is beginning to cool too (thank goodness). It's time to review monthly goals!

Here is what I had for August:
Personal Goal: Bible Study daily. I'd like to pick up where I left off on the gospels.
My Bible study was a bit hit or miss. I did begin again. I also decided to bring up reading through Mark as a family on vacation. We got a bit more than half way though and...well, you know how family vacations are. After about a week him I continued it. Doing good!
Fun Goal -Camping vacation.
Well that one was easy! We'd already planed the trip before the month began. We went, and had fun.
Learning Goal -We are going to work on potty training, but that is likely not to be finished. We won't work on it until we are back from the trip. I think we'll work hard on letters this month.
This is coming along. We did several letter activities on the trip. He is really more interested in letters now than he has been. He's doing pretty well with capitols, but we haven't worked on lower case. We also started potty training. *sigh*
Resolution Goal -I'm going to have to figure out where we are, but I want to work on the Christmas goals. I don't think I'll have time for this with going out of town. Perhaps we'll work on the nail biting.
I'm doing well on my resolutions goal! I stopped biting my nails on the trip. It took a week after we got back to get in for a manicure, but my nails are looking good now! I just have to make it to get a "refresh" in a week or so.

Now for September goals.:
Personal Goal: I'm going to work on the Bible study again. I'll combine this with the nails. That will give me a good 6 weeks with no biting.
Fun Goal: I'm thinking we'll try roller skating this month. We are also going to go to each of the museums we have memberships with as well.
Teaching Goal: Potty training! Yikes! We began last week, but that is what we are learning this month. I'll also continue with the letters.
Resolutions Goal: I think I'll pick back up on my sampler quilt. No reason to drag that project into next year!

How about you? Do you have any resolutions you are just beginning to remember? Do you have a goal for the month?

Potty Training: Day 5

2010-08-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

Saturday there were plenty of accidents. Nothing remarkable other than trying to poop in the back yard. Sunday morning I woke up and felt very little stress about the potty training thing. He had a couple of accidents in the morning, and it didn't really get under my skin. I knew we'd get there. Then *presto* he tells me he needs to go, we rush to the potty, and he did it! Three times! There was an accident in the middle somewhere, and I think one after that too. It didn't matter...he'd done it. After that I realized that part of the stress was that I was afraid he wouldn't go on the potty for me, then I'd take him to Jared's parents house and he wouldn't have a single accident. Well he finally went for me and the stress was off. This morning he did it again. Then I took him over, and he had an accident and then peed in the front yard. When I got over there to pick him up I took him to poop in the potty and that was it. I know it can't all be downhill from here, but I do think the hard part was the first 3 or so days.

Potty Training: Day 2

2010-08-27T19:52:00.000-07:00

Oh man!! Potty training sucks! We are on day 2. I am having him clean his own messes, and it's a good thing too. I don't know what I would do otherwise.
Today we had 5 accidents. I asked him every 5 minutes if he needed to go to the bathroom. That means that 5 different times I'd just asked him if he needed to potty when he peed on my floor. Argh! This is worse than yesterday!
Yesterday I don't actually remember how many accidents we had. I have got to think it was less than today. I can hardly stand to hear myself talk this evening. Certainly not him. Bah! I have no idea how much longer this will take. I will have Monday half off though.
Jared's mom gets him on Monday. What do you want to bet that he has no accidents AT ALL then. Jared and I never fight. We are really easy going, but this is getting under both of our skins. I'm so exhausted tonight.
I hardly have energy for anything. Sorry this post sucks. If you are still reading, I'll leave you with the good stuff.
Man, I love him so much! Bedtime always brings it into perspective too. Hopefully we will be done soon and I'll have something to say.

Vacation

2010-08-21T18:39:00.000-07:00

To do this weekend (so far)

2010-08-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

Edited: I'm crossing items off as I complete them, and adding items as I think of them.

Sweep/Mop: *Den *Kitchen *Dining Room *Game Room *Entry *Hall *Bathroom *M’s room *My room *Office
* ~~Change sheets~~ * ~~Pickup~~ * ~~Laundry~~ * ~~Clear Table~~ * Call Bank * ~~Dishes~~ * ~~Dump packets~~ * Clean bathroom * Put Away Laundry * ~~Clear counters~~ * Clean laundry room * Clean off futon * ~~Litter box~~ * ~~Post Pictures to blog~~ * ~~Download photo book software~~ * ~~Work on photo book~~ * ~~Download dad’s pictures~~ * ~~Get Diapers/Wipes~~ * ~~Meal Plan~~ * ~~Grocery Store~~ * ~~Visit mom & Dad~~ * ~~Return Hard Drive~~ * ~~Art exhibit for Jessica~~ * ~~Make baguettes for Monday~~ * ~~Talk to J about motion detector for Mamaw & us~~ * ~~Change Tablecloth~~

It is now the end of the day Sunday, and I completed most of the list. Not too bad. I didn't do any of the sweeping and mopping so now the house needs it more than ever. I'll have to do it tomorrow.

We've been on vacation!

2010-08-15T07:18:00.001-07:00

We had a fantastic time, but no posts. No internet, or phone service! Yeah, I'm one of those who thinks that makes a good vacation. I'm slowly getting pictures downloaded, and I'll post about it this week.

Resolutions Revisited

2010-08-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

In my last post I said that I wanted to look at my resolutions again and see how I was doing...Here it is!
(I haven't looked at these in months! Current progress is in blue)

* Meal Planning Goal - I already do well with this, but I'm not ready to drop it from my goals yet.
~Meal plan for each week.-Doing great.
~Plan a vegetarian meal once a week.-Doing ok here. It's rather unintentional, but it happens.
~Plan for leftovers.-I've really gotten back in the swing of this one. No problem.
~Cook once every 2-3 months for the freezer.-I don't do this at all - need to work on it.
* Weight Loss Goal
~Plan healthy meals and snacks. We eat healthy, but I don't plan snacks. I need to.
~Weekly weigh ins.-I'm weighing in almost daily.
~Weekly photo of progress (at least until goal is reached).-Not happening. I did for a while, but talk about depressing.
~I have a goal for 15lbs in the first 3 months of the year.-I've lost about 6 pounds this summer. Nothing before that really.
~I think once I hit the 15lb goal I'll have 5 more to go, but I'll re-evaluate.
* Cleaning Goal
~Help Miles pick up toys every night before bath/bed.-We are doing this every couple of days instead. He's doing really well.
~Give Miles chores (put away jacket, clear place after meal, unload his cups from dishwasher).-I'm still inconsistent on this. I need to work on it.
~Keep floors clean (swept & mopped) - I do this pretty well, but needed it in writing.-Still doing ok. Not great, but ok.
~Keep horizontal surfaces cleaned off. - Jared has a tendency to move things from Miles and put them...wherever. This makes it hard, but how nice to have a home where you are never worried about opening the door.-This will need work for a very very long time.
~Schedule? Monday/Thursday laundry Tuesday floors Wednesday work Friday pickup for weekend? - Six lists?-Nothing here. I had one up and running for a while, but then I upped the days I was working.
* Bible Study Goal
~Have a daily Bible study.-I did well with this for a while. I need to get back to it.
~Read the Bible in a year - after having trouble getting started I've decided to begin with the minor prophets.-Nope. I did the gospels daily for a while, but not anymore.
* Stop Biting Nails
~Paint Nails.-I need to work on this more. They are really bad right now.
~Stop biting for a week or two.
~Grow enough nail to get manicure without embarrassment.
~Get manicure.
~Maintain manicure every 4-5 weeks.
* Work Goal
~Set up childcare for Monday and Wednesdays.-Done
~Work!-Done
~Think of this as time to do something different but less important than my "full-time job."-My boss commented the other day that she thinks I still identify myself as a full time mom. I told her I really like my job but for now I do.
* Picture Goal
~Complete 52 of 52 challenge.-Nope.
~Try to take pictures of Miles at least three times a week.-I'm probably doing this but haven't used this as a yard stick like I should have.
~Take Mother's & Father's day pictures this year!-Mother's day - check - Father's day - nope.
* Gardening Goal
~Use garden for each gardening season of the year.-So far so good. I have a small fall garden already planted.
~Use items grown in the garden for food and gifts.-Done.
~Make home made jalapeno jelly for gifts!-Not yet, but we'll see.
* Budgeting Goal
~Jared and I still need to sit down and work on this one! I think we are going to make a full budget soon. We are dragging our feet.-Still dragging our feet.
* Sewing Goal
~Finish quilt sampler.-Nope. No progress here!
~Take another quilting class?-I'd like to get back into this but I want identifiable progress in the other quilt first.
~Finish Miles' baby blanket (now that he's no longer a baby).-Haven't touched it.
*Christmas Goals
~Hand make at least 5 Christmas gifts this year.-Haven't started.
~Work on one every other month.-Nope.
~Keep running Christmas gift list all year.-Not really.
~Try to have complete list by early/mid October.-I wish!
~Buy 3 stocking stuffers a month (16 stockings to stuff).-Nope. I really really need to do this one! I have 16 stockings to stuff!
~Create Thanksgiving Tree/Jessee Tree.-I haven't started this, but I still have time.
~Complete Advent activities.-Same here. Haven't started, but I have time.
* Organizational Goal
~Simplify my space (I.E. have a closet with some space in it).-I've cleaned out my closet. I need to clean the bookshelves too.
~Work on closets this year - I'd like to have a place for everything. Everything may not always be in it's place, but at least it will have one!-Still working on this.

August has begun...

2010-08-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

I'm always for trying new things. I wasn't big on New Year's Resolutions, but since I've had this blog, I've done it for two years in a row. We'll see how that's going later this week. For now I'd like to think about some goals for each month. I'm thinking a personal goal, a goal of something fun to do with Miles, a goal of something to teach Miles, and a resolution goal to work on. I'm starting to really work on the resolutions late so I know they won't all be reached this year, but I can work on them. That is what they are for though, isn't it?
Personal Goal -
Bible Study daily. I'd like to pick up where I left off on the gospels.
Miles' Fun Goal -
Camping vacation.

Miles' Learning Goal -
We are going to work on potty training, but that is likely not to be finished. We won't work on it until we are back from the trip. I think we'll work hard on letters this month.
Resolution Goal -
I'm going to have to figure out where we are, but I want to work on the Christmas goals. I don't think I'll have time for this with going out of town. Perhaps we'll work on the nail biting.

My week and the bathroom

2010-04-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday evening Jared was taking a shower, and I was picking up. I went to put something in the bathroom, and Jared asked if I knew what was on the wall. It looked like a little gob of dirt, so I knocked it down and tried to catch the gob of dirt in a tissue. When I looked at the tissue, all I had was a termite! Eek! I called the exterminator, and he came the next morning. Yup, it was a termite. The first thing he said when he saw where it came from was "hmm, that's strange." Yeah, fantastic! Apparently they are coming up through the foundation on the outside of the drain pipe for the shower.

The exterminator says he'll need to drill a hole in one of the tiles in the hallway, a tile in the bathroom, and through our wood laminate floor in the bedroom. *sigh* At some point Jared and I say we were thinking about redoing the bathroom, how about if we pull out the shower pan? Yep, that will do it and save the floor too! Well, we are now remodeling the bathroom!

I'll post some pictures soon. Apparently when they built our house it was common to put up sheet rock in the whole bathroom, then sheet rock where you are going to put up tile. Then apply the tile with liquid nails glue. Yeah, that's pretty special! The shower is out down to the studs, the exterminator comes tomorrow to get rid of our friends, and a contractor comes on Friday to talk about replacing the shower.

Easter

2010-04-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

We tried a couple of fun things this year. I don't have pictures yet because Jared's dad was taking them. This year I told Miles that his Easter basket was hiding, and he'd have to find it. I gave him an egg and inside was a clue. He (with the help of his aunt) had to follow the trail of clues to find the basket. At first he didn't understand, but near the end he was really getting excited to find the clues!

After he'd found the basket and looked at what was inside we went to a neighbor's house. We took dessert and some campaign over for the egg hunt. I'd dropped off eggs earlier in the day and her husband hid them in the yard. It was fun to let the kids hunt together. We didn't really have any problems with fights over eggs either. In fact, the kids were pretty slow to find them. Miles stopped after every egg to eat the candy, and Malory is 20 months and doesn't quite understand. At some point when they'd slowed down, we just picked up the rest of the eggs with candy and put them away!

A jelly sandwich

2010-03-30T18:18:00.000-07:00

The other day we saw a woodpecker when we were on a walk. I'd heard it and told him to be quiet so that we could find it. Once we found the bird we watched for a while as it pecked the tree. Miles asked why it was doing that, and Jared said he was looking for lunch. Miles said, "a jelly sandwich?"

Tonight's dinner

2010-01-31T20:13:00.000-08:00

Tonight we had Miles' birthday party. His birthday isn't for another 10 days. Yeah, I know, but next weekend my parents are out of town. Then that Sunday Jared leaves town for three weeks! He's going to be out of town for Miles' third birthday. :( I'll post pics tomorrow (or Tuesday, Monday's are busy), but we had lots of fun. It was just a small family get together...lots of fun though.

Another day, another post!

2010-01-29T20:28:00.000-08:00

Well, how time flies. It's been 8 days since I posted. I was doing so well too! We just haven't been doing too much. Today we did something. Something big! Miles went to Mother's Day Out for the first time today. I have never left Miles in the care of someone other than my immediate family while I wasn't in the same building. The ONLY exception to this is when Jared and I wanted to drive our friends sports car (Lotus Elise *drool*) and there was no room for a car seat. We left him for about an hour with our very dear friends who have a child less than 3 months older.

Before we left for the MDO, and the whole way over we were talking about the toys that would be there and the other kids. He was pretty excited to go. We had to fill out a little paperwork in the director's office, then it was off to his classroom. He was ready to run in, the director opened the door, he saw the other kids, then ran back and grabbed my leg! It was so sweet, but he was a little scared. We got into the room and somehow he saw, on the top of a six foot tall cabinet, a front loader! I have no idea how he saw it. I didn't even see it at first. He asked to get it down and another little boy got excited about having it too. I sneaked out. I knew he'd do fine. When I got home, I cried and cried. All I wanted to do was go back to bed! Four and a half hours later I picked him up, and it was like he didn't even miss me! His "teacher" said he did well, but didn't nap...Good enough for me!

On working out

2010-01-20T18:50:00.000-08:00

Today was much better. We mostly just laid low and hung out at the house. We did go out to an indoor play area at lunch.
During nap I worked out. I haven't worked out since I got sick on the 9th. I'm glad to be back at it, but I feel like I'm at square one. Before I started working out I messaged a friend to see if she wanted to go for a walk when the kids got up from nap. She didn't text me back so I assumed she was busy and worked out. When I finished she replied with "sure, tell me when you are ready!" We had a nice 45 minute walk too!

The best thing about today...

2010-01-19T18:30:00.000-08:00

is that it's over!

What a disaster! Today was a total nightmare. I slept poorly and had a hard time waking up. Jared got up and got ready to leave for work. Miles was stirring, but not really awake yet so we left him alone. Jared pulled out of the driveway, and in less than ten minutes he was back. He said that he drove to the freeway, and it was bumper to bumper and really slow. Even the HOV lane was slow. He just decided to turn around and come home.

After a conference call this morning Miles was in the office with Jared and managed to put a huge scratch in one of the flat panel monitors. Super upsetting! He knows better than to touch them too. This afternoon he accidentally scratched the tank on Jared's motorcycle.

All day he was testing his boundaries. If you would tell him no more of something he would say just a little more? It was so aggravating! The day ended with kicking and screaming and was punctuated throughout with the same.

Along the lines of "if you have nothing nice to say..." I'll stop talking now. Where is my glass of red wine?

Our Day Yesterday

2010-01-18T06:29:00.001-08:00

I guess we are all beginning to feel better (although don't ask before the morning decongestant)! For some reason we took a lot of pictures yesterday, so here is a post of our day in photo form....

Miles helping to make breakfast.

Our breakfast. Yes, I know it isn't on the diet...don't look at what we ate for dinner!

Miles pretending to be asleep. This was taken mid snore!

We decided everyone needed to get out and it was warm enough to go to the park.

Here I am pushing Miles on the swing.

Jared thought it was fun to slide on his back head first...Here Miles came down right after him and they crashed.

This was how we found Miles after nap time. His crib does not go on that wall. He moved it overe there and got a book off of the shelf to "read" during nap!

After nap there wasn't much. We got up and headed over to mom and dad's house. They'd invited us over for chili the day before. We hung out there, played The Settlers of Catan until too late and came home!

Shoot Me #3

2010-01-17T13:44:00.000-08:00

Sorry this post is late. I've been sick. Today Miles and I both felt better, and all three of us went to the park (Jared isn't sick). We had lots of fun...Here is Miles on the swing!

Goals Sharpened

2010-01-15T08:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, we are two weeks in to the year 2010. I've given my goals a lot more thought. At the very beginning of the year I had some general areas that I wanted to work on. Here they are in a much sharper form. I'm not saying that I'm going to meet all these goals (there are a lot), but it is something (big) to strive for!

* Meal Planning Goal - I already do well with this, but I'm not ready to drop it from my goals yet.
~Meal plan for each week.
~Plan a vegetarian meal once a week.
~Plan for leftovers.
~Cook once every 2-3 months for the freezer.
* Weight Loss Goal
~Plan healthy meals and snacks.
~Weekly weigh ins.
~Weekly photo of progress (at least until goal is reached).
~I have a goal for 15lbs in the first 3 months of the year.
~I think once I hit the 15lb goal I'll have 5 more to go, but I'll re-evaluate.
* Cleaning Goal
~Help Miles pick up toys every night before bath/bed.
~Give Miles chores (put away jacket, clear place after meal, unload his cups from dishwasher).
~Keep floors clean (swept & mopped) - I do this pretty well, but needed it in writing.
~Keep horizontal surfaces cleaned off. - Jared has a tendency to move things from Miles and put them...wherever. This makes it hard, but how nice to have a home where you are never worried about opening the door.
~Schedule? Monday/Thursday laundry Tuesday floors Wednesday work Friday pickup for weekend? - Six lists?
* Bible Study Goal
~Have a daily Bible study.
~Read the Bible in a year - after having trouble getting started I've decided to begin with the minor prophets.

* Stop Biting Nails
~Paint Nails.
~Stop biting for a week or two.
~Grow enough nail to get manicure without embarrassment.
~Get manicure.
~Maintain manicure every 4-5 weeks.
* Work Goal
~Set up childcare for Monday and Wednesdays.
~Work!
~Think of this as time to do something different but less important than my "full-time job."
* Picture Goal
~Complete 52 of 52 challenge.
~Try to take pictures of Miles at least three times a week.
~Take Mother's & Father's day pictures this year!
* Gardening Goal
~Use garden for each gardening season of the year.
~Use items grown in the garden for food and gifts.
~Make home made jalapeno jelly for gifts!
* Budgeting Goal
~Jared and I still need to sit down and work on this one! I think we are going to make a full budget soon. We are dragging our feet.
* Sewing Goal
~Finish quilt sampler.
~Take another quilting class?
~Finish Miles' baby blanket (now that he's no longer a baby).
*Christmas Goals
~Hand make at least 5 Christmas gifts this year.
~Work on one every other month.
~Keep running Christmas gift list all year.
~Try to have complete list by early/mid October.
~Buy 3 stocking stuffers a month (16 stockings to stuff).
~Create Thanksgiving Tree/Jessee Tree.
~Complete Advent activities.
* Organizational Goal
~Simplify my space (I.E. have a closet with some space in it).
~Work on closets this year - I'd like to have a place for everything. Everything may not alway be in it's place, but at least it will have one!

Those are my refined goals. Now it's time to attack!

FYI, feeling much better. I'll be working out again this afternoon. I'm thinking about adding a daily walk...at least as weather permits!

Sharpening Goals

2010-01-13T21:22:00.000-08:00

I'm working on sharpening my goals for the year. In the mean time, I found this "2010 Handbook." It's very cute and has some great ideas!

But first, along the same lines, check out this Valentine's Day dare.

The 2010 HANDBOOK

Health:
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants..
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy
5. Make time to pray.
6. Play more games
7. Read more books than you did in 2009 .
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:
11. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don't over do. Keep your limits.
14.. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need..
18. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness..
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.. Don't hate others..
20. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23.. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree...

Society:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything..
28. Spend time w/ people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. GOD heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change..
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come..
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

A post for the sake of having a post.

2010-01-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

Can't write a coherent post today...All foggy and congested...Check back tomorrow.
BTW, I did get dressed because people say it helps...it didn't and now I'm old. Bah!

Edited: That should have been cold, but today old works too.

Ack!

2010-01-11T06:34:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning and had no voice!
I usually work Monday mornings, but not today. I didn't want to infect my friend and her 2 kids with whatever stole my voice. Doris has kindly said that she'd still love to play with Nicholas for the morning, so I have a quiet morning to myself...emphasis on quiet!

Here are a couple of pics from Friday when we helped my friend Elley work on her condo that she rents out.

I sanded baseboards and painted them while watching Miles run her puppy around the condo. Here is Miles helping paint (he loved this)

And here is the puppy after Miles ran it all out of energy...he was too cute, and Miles loved him.

Feeling mostly better

2010-01-10T18:38:00.000-08:00

I'm still running pretty slow today, and my throat hurts. I'd hoped I could work out today even though it would not be super intense, but that didn't happen. Tomorrow should be fine though.

My hubby is so sweet

2010-01-09T16:43:00.000-08:00

For the last several days I've felt an illness coming on. I didn't think it was anything major, but I'm just not 100%. This morning I was feeling like I was run over by a truck. Jared let me sleep in a little and got Miles out of bed. I got up to help him with breakfast and ate with them. He said that he was thinking about going to an electronics store with my dad and he'd take Miles so I could rest some. After breakfast I felt worse that I did when I woke up. I went back to lay down and he got Miles ready to go. I asked for a decongestant, and he said why don't you take NyQuil and get some rest. I hadn't realized it, but his plan was to take Miles and pick up my dad. The three boys would go to the electronics store and browse around. Then pick up lunch for them and my mom. Jared said he was hoping that Miles would fall asleep in the car on the way home after lunch...and he did! I took the NyQuil, slept ALL morning. At 1ish I decided I should eat even if I wasn't hungry. I texted Jared and he said he was on the way home with a sleeping Miles and lunch for me too! I really haven't done much else at all today. No working out either :( I'm hoping to reserve energy and be back at it tomorrow.

No pics today

2010-01-08T19:52:00.000-08:00

Just sore.
Two days ago I started working out during nap time. I did it again yesterday. Then in the evening we unexpectedly went to help a friend sand/paint baseboards. Tired. Sore.

I'm working out again today though! Go me!

Ok, just one picture.

This is from last weekend. Jared and I bought and are donating to the church 8 cameras, a computer to store the data on, and the instillation (with his dad's help for the labor). We had just received the cameras and were testing them out. Jared left the room to check on something and called me back to him. When I went to check on Miles I found him making faces into the camera and laughing at himself on screen. Too cute! Sorry for all the junk in this pic. We have got to do something about the game room!

I added a weight loss ticker at the bottom of the page. I'll try to update it at least once a week through the beginning of April at least. I'm currently in 2 weight loss contests and they both run through then. For posterity, here is what it looks like now...

Shoot Me! #2

2010-01-07T06:29:00.000-08:00

Miles and I went to the science museum yesterday. We had a great time. In the kids area they have an infrared camera and a screen to display the video. I thought that might make a fun "shoot me" picture.

I couldn't get Miles to pose, but I think it's a fun alternative for the challenge. I promise not to use it every week!
For more go to:

Science Museum

2010-01-06T13:08:00.001-08:00

For Christmas I asked my parents to give us a family membership to the local science museum. They were happy to do it! We've been once so far (forgot my camera) and Miles and I went again today. They are supposed to have story and craft time on Wednesdays. Either I wasn't in the right area, or they didn't have it today but we had a lot of fun anyway!

Miles playing with their huge water table.

There were not a lot of people there and seemingly all of them were there for the children's museum. It was not crowded at all, but there were enough other kids that everyone got to share and enough other moms to be able to make small talk.

Miles playing at the sand table

They have lots of little areas set up for kids to play, learn, touch, and participate. We started off in a little area where you can play house. That didn't last long, then we headed through an area with exhibits on electricity, heat, sound, and some gear toys to their water play area. They have a nice water table set up with lots of smocks. They have scoops, waterwheels, and ducks. We didn't play long there when Miles decided he was done. As we were looking for the next thing to play with he found a sand table. We played there for a long time.
He would scoop, pour, dump, pile, and rake the sand. He was really loving it. Other kids would come in and play for a bit then wander off. Not Miles! He knew right were he wanted to be! He did a great job sharing with the other kids, but I think he was never sad to see their parents take them off. Eventually he decided he needed to climb on the table. I told him that if he wanted to do that we would go upstairs where they have a paleontology exhibit. They have two huge sand boxes with shovels and brushes where you "discover" some cast dinosaur bones. We'd walked through this area coming in, so he'd seen it and was all for it! We made it upstairs (with detours to see the snakes) and he was in heaven! We spent the rest of the time there and he had the sand box to himself. At some point several other kids came in and used the other sandbox in the room, but he had the one to himself.

After playing for a little short of three hours we left the museum. On the way home we called grandma to say thanks for the gift and see if she wanted to go out to lunch. She was thrilled to get away for a while and we had a nice visit. Miles fell asleep on the way home, and I'm off to work out!

I want salad

2010-01-05T14:15:00.000-08:00

1:30 A.M. ~ I hear screaming...what is he saying?
I went into his room and he is throwing a total temper tantrum demanding salad! He even knows it is in the refrigerator, and he wants it now! What on earth? He's been waking up once a night for a while now.

Here is hoping for better sleep tonight!

Weight Loss Goals

2010-01-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

I posted a while back about a weight loss challenge (#5). There were a lot of things going on in everyone's lives at the time. We decided to hold off and start over on the first Monday of the new year. Guess what? That's today!

We are starting the three month weight loss challenge again today and we'll go though March 31, 2010. My goal is 15 pounds. I'll work on keeping track of it here!

Wish me luck!

Photo Book

2010-01-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

I'd forgotten last year that I blogged about making a photo book. It was a bit of trouble because I ended up trying three different places before settling on one company. After deciding not to hand out the books to the grandparents at his birthday party and instead have the book include photos of this it got back burner-ed (I thought I just made that word up, but spell check put in the hyphen). We ended up not ordering them. Around Thanksgiving blurb.com sent out an email with a 20% off coupon code and free shipping! I'd been on their mailing list for a year and hadn't seen a coupon! I was so excited. We received it in time to give them out at our St. Nicholas Day get together!

At any rate, I said I'd upload pictures of the book when they came. Here they are! I can't recommend blurb.com highly enough. I'm not getting paid to say this, and I'm (sadly) not getting any discounts either.

What have we been up to?

2010-01-02T09:10:00.000-08:00

Here is a December month in review...photo format.

My dad bought his own Christmas present early in the month. A Traxxas remote control car.

It is super fun to drive!

We always have a get together on St. Nicholas day. From his first December I told the grandparents that they didn't need to get Miles anything for St. Nicholas day, but if they did decide to we didn't want anything more than books. This year for St. Nicholas day we surprised both sets of grandparents a photo book of Miles' first two years. It was great fun to make, and even more fun to give!

Of course I didn't get any pictures of Miles opening his books. Jared and I gave him a compilation of Little Bear stories, and one called "Santa's Favorite Story." One set of grandparents gave him a book about St. Nicholas' life, and the other set gave him Growl Tiger!

We got our tree up, then wrapped presents.

We had some weather which didn't permit outside play, so we made do.

We also managed to make it outside some in little better weather.

I asked Jared and my dad about setting up a different
camera solution for Christmas morning, and they got right to work with a little help from Nicholas.

It didn't end up working out, but we are looking forward to using it on another get together.

Jared's mother's birthday is Christmas eve, so we always have a little family thing that day.

We have Christmas morning at our house.

Here is grandpa and Miles having quiet time before bed.

Fun the morning after Christmas.

Miles napping .

Nana and Grandpa took him to see a train exhibit on the thirty-first.

That and a couple of crafts pretty much sums up the whole month. We had fun, but it was busy. I also started working this month. What a blessing. Jared's mother had just offered to take Miles on Monday mornings when this opportunity opened up. For a couple of months I'll be able to keep it at one day a week. After that I'll have to work out care for him another day a week too, but that time will come.

Goals

2010-01-01T13:19:00.000-08:00

I've given just a bit of thought to goals for 2010. So far I've really only come up with general areas in which I'd like to set a goal. Here are my thoughts...
* Meal Planning Goal
Continue meal planning - occasionally cook for the freezer
* Weight Loss
I have a goal for 15lbs in the first 3 months of the year. I need a plan.
* Cleaning Goal
Nothing specific here. I've done a very good job with the house over the past two or three weeks. I need to keep it up and probably set up a schedule or something.
* Daily Bible Study
Nuff said! I would like to read the whole Bible this year.
* Stop Biting Nails
I did a great job with this during this summer. I got a manicure with mom for her birthday, and didn't bite for about 6 weeks. I think after that I needed another manicure becauce I was getting hang nails etc. I'd like to grow just enough nail to not be embarassed about a manicure, then try keeping it up every 5 or so weeks for a few months to see how I do. I'd love to be rid of this one this year!
* Work Goal
I've started working again. It's going well, but I need to set up some child care for about one day a week. I want a goal in this area for hours to work/balancing time with Miles. I don't want to give up any of the good stuff with him, and I'd like to use the time away to come back refreshed if a little more tired. :)
* Picture Goal
I'm not sure what this one will look like. Before I've wanted to take a picture either every day or every day that Jared had to travel. I recently found the 52 weeks challenge. I'll have to think about this one. Right now I'm thinking I want to take pictures of most of the projects that Miles and I do, and have a picture of me every week for the challenge.
* Gardening Goal
Last year I resolved to make a garden. With Jared's help this one was done in fabulous style and in time for the summer garden. This year it's going to be about not missing a gardening season and using what I grow. Our winter garden is doing great.
* Budgeting Goal
We are working on setting up a budget in a few areas. We will have to both determine a budget amount, and then stick to it!
* Sewing Goal
I'm not sure what all will be here. I did no work on Miles' baby blanket last year. I took the quilting class and really enjoyed it. I have done a lot of the hand quilting for this, and would like to finish it. I may have the border done by machine. I'm also considering taking another class. I'd like to make some gifts by hand this year. This will need some refining.
* Organizational Goal
Simplify my space (I.E. have a closet with some space in it)

Shoot Me! #1

2009-12-31T22:35:00.000-08:00

My mom makes calendars for the family every year with pictures of each family member. She goes all out and even puts little pics on the day square for the birthdays and pictures of the couples on their anniversaries. They are so fun, and new every year. She tries to use no picture older than 12 months. It's very impressive. This year she called asking for a picture of Jared and I together. Well....let me look...uhh...in the same picture? Come to think of it, there are very few pictures of me at all!

Shortly after that I found Forever in Blue Jeans and a meme she was just wrapping up She says "We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. Now she has a picture of herself from every week of this year. What a great motivation to use your camera, capture what your family is doing, and manage to squeeze into a few pics yourself!

Although, I have to tell you, if I'm goint to participate in this, I've got to figure out how my timer works!

Not a great picture, but it's a start. We took it right after breakfast. Miles wanted to cut and paste, so he was doing that and I snapped a shot of the two of us!

Letter Game

2009-12-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Miles and I have started playing a new game. We got the printables here (a fantastic blog too). I printed out the alphabet, and cut out some shapes for him.

He loves this game. We play one letter at a time, and he loves figuring out which shapes to use. I'll tell him the name of the letter and the sound it makes before he starts and he'll frequently ask the name of the letter after he's done too. He's pretty quick with it too.

Here he is wearing the big curve shape (like for a "C" or a "D") on his head.

Bounce House

2009-12-01T13:28:00.000-08:00

Today we went to a bounce house place. Miles had a lot of fun! Here are some pics.In the car on our way.

Peek-A-Boo

Up, Up, Up!

Here I come!

Weeeeeeee!

He spent a fair amount of time staring at this video game.

Sorry for the poor photo quality. I think (hope) it was the lighting.

What? It's been more than a month?

2009-11-30T19:30:00.000-08:00

I wonder what I've been doing. I can't really remember because my camera broke again! Aghhh! My camera has broken twice in less than ten months. Frustrating. The exact same part broke both times. After a couple of calls to customer service I did get them to promise to fix it for free although I haven't gotten the refund on my credit card. We'll see though.

We've had a lot going on, but I have no pictures to show for it. We had a great Thanksgiving. As usual we went to my grandmother's and had actual Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. It was a lot of fun! They live out in the country, and have a bunch of goats. We opened the goat pen and let Miles go a little crazy! He had so much fun.

Jared's mom asked about taking Miles on Monday mornings and doing a little preschool. We are going to work together to figure out what we want to teach him. I'm hoping to start taking more pictures of Miles. It takes me a bit to get back in the swing of using my camera after I get it back.

Jared is out of town most of this week. He just left tonight, and won't be back until Thursday around noon. I'm planning lots of activities to keep Miles busy. Hopefully wear him out a bit. After we got back from the airport we did our usual routine, and I got him in bed. I still heard him in there talking almost an hour after bed time! Wow!

Gift Giving

2009-10-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

I've been getting ready for and thinking about Christmas for a while now. I'm still working on the HGP. I'm planning and slowly purchasing Christmas gifts. The big "question mark" has been a gift giving philosophy. How are we going to handle giving to my son. Do we give him everything he asks for at Christmas/birthday (they follow in close succession)? Do we set a budget and either give one thing or stacks of things as long as it is in the budget. Do we go with one gift and just leave it at that?

I just read something I'm really happy about for this problem. At Mom's Marbles there is a post today about gift giving philosophy.

Heather says
"Something you want,
Something you need,
Something to wear,
Something to read."

I like this idea. It's built in limits, and fills several areas. This way he doesn't just get things he wants, or just socks and underwear. I've already begun directing his grandparents in their ideas for gift giving so that we don't end up with piles of toys he won't play with six months from now. I think this will be great for us!

Funny things he says...

2009-10-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

I just got Miles up from nap time. I knew he wasn't napping while he was in bed. Jared and I went in to get him up and the first thing Jared saw was his blanket on the floor and he asks what happened. Miles says "oh, it just fell." I saw his diaper laying on the crib mattress and asked what happened. He said "it just fell off!" Laughing we asked what happened to the pillow case which was off of the pillow. He said, "it just fell off!" I asked if it was at the same time as the diaper and he says, "it just fell off at the same time as the diaper!"

HGP Check-in

2009-09-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

We are sick, how are you?
I could give you the whole disgusting story, but let's just say that Miles threw up on me yesterday, and woke up this morning with a fever of 103.2! Yuck!

Miles in the sand box at a friend's house

Back to the HGP check-in. The week of September first was for the front porch. I'd planned to focus my efforts on the front garden. This has been a problem area since we bought the house 8 years ago. I didn't do the windows when I cleaned out there, and I only got 1/2 of the front garden cleaned out. This weekend Jared decided to buy a tree for the front and bushes for the half of the garden that I had cleaned out. I was ecstatic! That meant that I'd have Jared's help pulling up the roots of the volunteer trees that were growing right at the foundation of the house! It was slow going, and I cracked the sprinkler line which of course set us back. We did finish though. There are now 4 lovely holly bushes growing in front of my house!

The tree we bought for the front yard. It will be planted for us next week.

The next week was the office. I convinced Jared to work on the office with me that week because he had it off. We traveled and some other things that took a lot of time away from working in the office, but we got a good start. We even emptied out the closet and bought a wire shelving unit and put things back in. Before I get Jared's help with other rooms, we are going to have to finish the office. I'm fine with that, but I wish he would be a bit more motivated!

Gymboree had free sample classes at the PTA kickoff party

Last week was entry way/foyer/hall closet. I don't have much of an entry way, but my china cabinet is there. In the hallway, I have two closets; a coat closet, and a linen closet. I had intended to clean out the coat closet and the china cabinet and the regular cleaning of the spaces too. I ended up doing the medicine part of the linen closet, and the other spaces too. I didn't do a great job in the coat closet. I pulled out the boxes in there and decided I didn't need to keep many of them, but between Miles getting into everything, and Jared coming home I just put them back in the closet.

Mom & Dad's new den. They've had so much work done.

This week is the master bedroom. Yesterday, Miles got into his closet and pulled some things down on his head. This prompted an immediate clean out of his closet. I guess that means that this week I'll be doing his room. There isn't too much more to it, and it'll be a nice break while everyone is sick. With some luck this weekend we can finish up bits a peices of the things we have started and not finished, and I'll be able to get back on track next week!

Overall I'm pleased with my progress, how are you doing?

Chemo has begun

2009-09-17T04:48:00.000-07:00

Riding a small guage train in Austin last weekend.

My mom had her first round of chemotherapy yesterday. They told her that she probably won't begin feeling the effects for a couple of days. She says that she still feels pretty well. In fact, she's looking forward to getting out for a little while today, so Miles and I are going to head over there in a little bit. One of the chemo drugs is supposed to make her lose her hair. I'm really sad about that. I'm not looking forward to seeing my mother with no hair, but I've realized that dwelling on it too much is not helping and it is really a selfish standpoint anyway. At this point I'm not looking forward to it, but prepared that it will come.

Riding a small guage train in Austin last weekend.

It's still raining here. We had a good part of one day with no rain, I think it was the day before yesterday, but other than that it's still very wet.

Also, I'm trying to enter a contest to win a gallery wrap canvas. It's being hosted by Tidy Mom. I'm really excited. Come join in, and good luck!

Fantastically Wet Morning

2009-09-14T07:56:00.001-07:00

It's been raining since at least last Friday and off and on for about a week before that. Jared was off all last week which was very nice, but we knew it would be a little rough getting everyone back in the swing of things. This morning Jared is finally ready for work, and heads out to the car. He asks me if it smells. I did think it smelled a bit, and he decided that a drain under the hood must be plugged. He said that it happens sometimes and in this particular car it can overflow and leak on the transmission computer. This, of course, fries the computer. So, he pulls some stuff under the hood (stuff I believe is the technical word for it) then pulls the battery! He looks at the drain and it is clear. He's also parked uphill, so pulling the drain wouldn't help anyway. We take a second look at the car and realize that a water bottle had been left in the car on it's side and leaked. Well, at this point, he's about 40 minutes late to leave for work, and the battery is out of the car.

Miles playing in light rain with bubbles a week ago.

I told him that he could take my car so that he could leave and we'd vacuum the car tonight. He agreed, and I pulled the car seat so that I could do something today if someone was willing to drive. I called mom, but her car is full of flooring that they are having put in this week. Now, we are here, no chance of getting out, and Miles is a little stir crazy. We are watching Veggie Tales at 10 in the morning, and I'm not sure what we will do next. I hope today goes quickly!

Christmas Gifts

2009-09-03T08:08:00.000-07:00

Have you started shopping for Christmas gifts yet? I just started last month. I've already purchased something for my sister, gave my mom an idea for my other sister, something for my son, and stocking stuffers for all the kids, and maybe the boys too (depending on distribution). If you are doing the Holiday Grand Plan then you are beginning to think about it. They have you divide up purchases between now and Christmas. One of the things I don't really like about this plan is that they have you make your Christmas gift list now. I have a terrible time making Christmas gift lists. I really have to come across some thing that makes me think of the person and purchase that. The only way I can make a list is to have something running all year, and just jot down things they mention. I do have that going, but haven't updated it very much this year. However, I do have an idea already for my mother-in-law's birthday (on Christmas eve) and for my mother & father-in-law. Their Christmas gift is a shared gift and I know they will love it! Now I have to think of the hard one...Jared!

A New Month, A New Me?

2009-09-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

As you can probably tell by by blog attendance, and my goals for this year, I'm not great at following through on whim goals. Here is what is going on:

1) Today is my 8 year anniversary! Yay me! My parents were married for 32 years this year. My grandparents (both sides) were married from a young age until my grandfathers died. I've been married eight years today, and I have so many more to look forward to! It's a beautiful thing to be married to your best friend and know that he will be there forever! This weekend his parents came over to watch Nicholas and let us go out for a while. I love times like that. I love Nicholas, but I love spending time with my husband alone too!

2) I'm a nail biter! It's a terrible habit and disgusting. I've wanted to quit for a very long time. Before I went to CT, I decided that for mom's birthday I'd take her to get a pedicure. While we were gone she got the cancer diagnosis. When we returned I took her out the first weekend (I think that is when it was). We got the pedicures and decided to go for manicures too! I haven't bitten them since. I'm really hoping that I can keep it up. I've stopped biting a couple of times for a week or a couple of weeks at a time. This is the longest that I've ever gone without biting. My fingers an finger nails are still in my mouth more than I'd like, but I'm working on that. I just run my nail over my teeth or chip at nail polish, I don't bite.

3) My face has been looking terrible for some reason lately. I've heard great things about Mary Kay's Timewise system. I bought some recently and just started using it yesterday. I've never found something that really works for my acne, I'm hoping that this will work.

4) Today starts the Holiday Grand Plan. I've tried to participate in this a time or two, and haven't been successful. I'm hoping to do well this time. We'll see. I'd been hoping to get mom to do it with me, but that isn't going to happen now.

5) Two weeks ago I posted about it being 14 weeks until December. I also emailed my sisters and asked if they wanted to do anything with me. I thought the three of us could challenge each other and the two who lost could buy the winner a pedicure. Something small but none of us spend the money on it for ourselves. One of them replied and said she wanted to take it bigger. She wanted to charge an entry fee for the competition thereby creating a real "pot" for the winner. This would also open it up to the men in the family to join.

I'm including our rules if anyone is interested in starting their own competition. The prizes are going up, because we have another person participating. If you do make your own competiton, I'd love to hear about it. Of course I'll tell you how this goes. Wish me luck, I'm gonna win!

Rules:
1. Entrance fee for the challenge is $25 per person. I have a paypal account I don’t use, but is set up to receive money. We’ll just have everyone paypal in their entrance fee to xxx@gmail.com. If you don’t know how to do this or don’t have a paypal account, let me know, we’ll work it out.
2. The contest will run from September 1 to November 30, 2009 (three months).
3. We will each create a goal for ourselves over this three month challenge. This way the challenge is personalized for each. We’ll then do prizes off of percentage of goal reached. The goals will be public (to the group) and need to be stated by September 1.
4. We’ll do mandatory weigh ins at the end of September, and the end of October. The challenge will end with a mandatory weigh in at the end of November (right after Thanksgiving, yikes).
5. This one might be confusing, but I think it would be good to allow one goal change, on September 30 (the first weigh in will be judged off of initial goal). This allows us to modify our goals if they seem to not be as realistic once we’ve started. The modified goals will need to be announced by October 1.
6. For each of the first two mandatory weigh ins we’ll have smallish prizes (of $20 depending on how many people enter). The prizes will be based off of percentage of the goal reached.
7. For the final weigh in on November 30 we’ll have three prizes.
Prize for most inches lost from waist (boys, let me know if that doesn’t seem fair I’m not sure)
Grand Prize for percentage of goal reached.
Second prize for percentage of goal reached.

Prizes:
We have the following people currently considering joining the challenge:
Dad, Sister1, Sister2, Sister's Husband, Sharon, Jared, Mother-In-Law

At $25 per person that is a total of $175. I’m thinking the prizes will be as follows:
September 30 $20 for percentage of goal lost
October 31 $20 for percentage of goal lost
November 30 $30 for inches lost
$40 for second prize percentage of goal lost
$65 grand prize for percentage of goal lost
The final prize amounts will be changed based on the total number of participants and amount received.

Short and Sweet

2009-08-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

Mom seems to be doing much better. She looked great today and had eaten actual food. The x-rays came back and everything is fine. We took in dinner, and she hopes to be released this week. Miles has been waking up very early every morning. He is going back to sleep in our bed, but that is not conducive to Jared's and my sleep. Today after nap he woke up with a runny nose. I started the humidifier before bed, but I've heard him cough a couple of times. I'm off to bed...goodnight!

14 weeks until December!

2009-08-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

It is 14 weeks until December. Can you believe it? At the beginning of the month, a week and a half from now, the Holiday Grand Plan starts. I'm excited about this. I really hope to get a lot of work done around here this year. Also, I really need to throw some things out!

So, back to 14 weeks. I think it is totally reasonable to lose 20 pounds between now and then. I'd be thrilled if I could lose 20 pounds before December starts. Jared is beginning to get into working out. I've been working out a fair amount more than I had been. I'm trying to get to the rec center for the workout class as often as possible. I haven't been eating well, and that is why I'm not losing weight (I think). So, I'm going to do it. I'm going to lose 20 pounds by December. I'm going to weigh myself tonight, and start now. The 14 weeks actually starts next week, but what's a jump start going to hurt?

Monday I went to the work out class at the rec center. Today Miles and I went to Sara's for a fast walk over reasonably hilly territory. I need to continue that...activity every day and eating well. It is going to be hard with mom's stuff going on. I'm cooking and taking food to the hospital at least every other day, visiting the other days. I'm trying to cook and fill their freezer and I'll be working to keep reasonably healthy food on their table (and ours) when she's released. We have family birthdays and anniversaries coming up. All this will make it a little more difficult, but here we go!

About mom, she's doing ok. She was pretty sick all day yesterday with quite a bit of throwing up. They put her back on IV fluids. The doctor isn't too concerned, but sent her for x-rays to be sure that nothing is blocked. It isn't too unexpected. He had to do quite a bit of cutting when she was in surgery. He said the cancer was attached to everything. All the cutting means that it is a bit harder for her digestive system to get going again, but she's doing ok.

This was long and rambly, but I'm posting it anyway. I'll do better next time.

Another day in the hospital

2009-08-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

Mom is still in the hospital. The doctor originally said that although the cancer was in her ovaries, it was not the "typical" ovarian cancer. As in, not going to spread like that, and apparently the "typical" ovarian cancer spreads quite rapidly. Today, however, dad said that they have partial results back from pathology and it is ovarian cancer. He also said that he thinks he got it all, but on Wednesday after the surgery he said that there is no way to tell if he got every cell.

Today I'm thankful for...schedules. Having a pretty good schedule means that my household keeps moving. I keep doing things, and getting tired and going to bed and getting up...every day. That being said...I'm tired. We had a nice breakfast this morning outside and ran Miles around some. After that, we took him to the park to run him around some more. Then we went to the hospital and took dad and Mamaw some food and visited mom. Then we let him play with a merry-go-round thing at the hospital. He fell asleep in the car on the way home. After nap there was more play and running. Then we all went on a walk, shower, bed for Miles, TV for Jared and I, and now...bed.

Day three

2009-08-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

Mom was in a good deal of pain yesterday when we went to visit her in the ICU. Today she seemed much better. In fact, shortly after we arrived a nurse came in and was checking up on her. During the course she asked about pain level. Mom gave it a level 2. I'd say that's great. A day and a half after major surgery and the surgery results that she had to say that she isn't in much pain. Sure she has good pain drugs, but I know she tries not use them all that much.

Things I'm Thankful for Today...
1) Mom seems to be recovering well
2) My grandmother arrived in town today, and I've been able to spend a bit of time with her
3) Miles behaved much better today.

My dad asked about mom being released. The nurse wouldn't make a prediction, but did give a few things that they would look for before release. She also said that most of the signs that mom is showing are great and she is on her way!

Today is a little harder...

2009-08-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

It's a little harder for me to come up with things I liked about today.
Yesterday, shortly after posting my last list I left for the hospital to sit with dad while mom was in surgery. I took Miles with me. My in-laws had offered to watch him, but the timing didn't work out right and I wanted them to sit him today. I was about a block away from the hospital when my dad called. He said that the doctor had called him in the waiting room to let him know that both ovaries were cancerous. I was able to sit with my dad until her surgery was over and the surgeon came out to talk to us. I don't care to go into details (too tired today). We know nothing yet of it it has spread or what kind of cancer it is, but the surgeon took lots of samples for pathology and even a few lymph nodes.

So, things I liked about today...
1) I got to go to the hospital to see my mom, and take dad out to dinner when he wasn't allowed in ICU.
2) Dad said that the surgeon told him that even though the cancer was in the ovaries, it is not the more aggressive type of ovarian cancer.
3) My in-laws are THE BEST!!!
A) They came over to sit with Miles (giving him dinner and putting him in bed),
B) they brought a meal for me to put in my parents freezer,
C) and they want to go to the hospital to visit tomorrow when they'll be in the area.
4) All this communication with my family is...uhh...good.
5) I got Miles out to the park this morning (it was a really bad morning before that) and he ran and ran. I'm thankful because he'll sleep well tonight (I hope).

The church that posted about this "Things I Liked About Today" list isn't my church. I don't live in or near the location of the church. I just thought the project was interesting and good timing for me to be mindfully grateful. The church's goal was to have people post every day until Sunday of this week. I'm going to try to do that.

Things I liked about today...

2009-08-12T14:35:00.000-07:00

Today I've read two posts about being mindfully grateful. Keeping track of what God is doing in your life.

Today is particularly hard for me. My mom is in surgery right now having a hysterectomy, and I can't be at the hospital. I'll go up there later, but probably will not see her today. Her surgery was scheduled for 2, and pushed back almost 2 full hours. That was still after the none too easy morning I had with Miles, and the nap he almost screamed through. Today I really need to be grateful!

Which brings me to "Things I liked about today..."

1) Mom is having surgery today and we'll finally know for sure that it isn't cancer (I hope).

2) I kept busy this morning (as much as possible) and the house is reasonably clean.

3) Miles did end up napping (almost an hour and a half).

4) I don't have one for this, but with mom in surgery, I still came up with 3!

Vacations and Hysterectomys

2009-08-06T06:24:00.000-07:00

This is my cat doing what I wish I was doing now, cat nap in a comfy spot.

The trip to CT was great and at this point seems long ago. We had a fantastic time visiting my sisters and their family. While we were there I helped my oldest sister shop for a suit for an interview. The interview was for a job that would take her to Tennessee. She still doesn't have word that she has the job, but it is looking pretty good. Also while we were there we got word that my mother may have cancer.

Miles playing peek-a-boo.

It was a strange deal. My father called my husband and gave him the briefest overview and told him to have my sister and I call when we returned home for the errand we were running together. We got back and ate lunch then Jared told us what my father had said. We had many questions, but didn't want to make my parents go through it more than once. We called my oldest sister and asked her to come over without telling her what was going on. Unfortunately she was busy and didn't think she'd be able to come over at all that day. We ended up giving her the very little information that we had at the time and she agreed to come as soon as she could. We went ahead and called my father back. He answered and sounded fine (normal for him, nothing shakes him). He said that mom was fine. She'd received the diagnosis on Friday when she was in for a physical (this was Sunday). He didn't really know much, and suggested we call mom. We asked if they were not together. Oh no, he assured us, they were home. He was downstairs and she was upstairs. You know how it is. I do? I sure hope if I ever receive that terrible diagnosis that Jared would not allow me to tell my parents or children without him being there to support me!

Doris and I made Blackberry Preserves and Blueberry Jam as well as some pie filling.

We called my mother, and she'd been crying. She didn't say as much, but we knew. She said that she'd had some spotting and she was post menopause. That was all that it took for the doctor to tell her that she may have cancer. They had done blood tests and scheduled a sonogram and a next appointment to go through the results. That was all that she knew at the time.

The three cousins playing nicely.

Well as you could guess, that didn't much help the vacation. There were no further doctor's appointments scheduled for while we were out of town. There was nothing anyone could do at that point, so we stayed.

At the zoo.

Since returning home, mom has had the sonogram. Results inconclusive. The day they had her scheduled for the results appointment they instead had her go in for a CT Scan. That was a Friday (7/24) and the results appointment was that Monday (7/27). The results were better than I was prepared to receive. After waiting at the doctor's office for 2 hours she said it appeared it may not be cancer! I've since read that only about 20% of post menopausal bleeding is due to cancer and I wonder if they said that it may be cancer to spur her into action. They did, however, see that she had a cyst on each ovary and she'd probably need to have a hysterectomy.

Man, I look fat here. Another pic from the zoo.

An appointment was scheduled for a gynecological oncologist for this past Monday (8/3). He does want to do the hysterectomy, it is scheduled for Wednesday (8/12). It took a bit the scheule because they needed a urinary specialist to be on call during the surgery incase they needed to place a temporary stint due to some problem they had seen with the urinary tract. They are planning to take the cycts, and immediatly freeze them and send them to a pathologist. The pathologist will then look at them under a microscope to determine if possible what they are (cancer or not). If there is anythin suspicious with them he will then call the surgeon (still in surgery with my mother) and tell him to take many more samples to be sure that there are no other cancers. The hysterectomy will then be performed and hopefully all will be well!

The two littles at the zoo.

We are just trying to make it from day to day until next Wednesday. I'm hoping to be able to put away several meals for them between now and when she gets out of the hospital five days after surgery. I'm also helping to get her ready for the hospital stay and she's asked for a bit of help with housework type things.

My parents dog feeling the wind in her ears.

I don't think I'll be able to go to the hospital for the surgery. It begins at 2, and the afternoon is not always a great time for Miles. Although my in laws will be happy to watch him, I feel that I'll be leaning on them enough for that in the near future. Right now I'm thinking that if dad goes to work in the morning, I'll go over and help mom get ready and take her to the hospital to check in and meet with dad there. Then Miles and I will hea home for lunch and nap and afternoon activities. Then Jared and I may ask his parents to come over for dinner and bed time with Miles so that we can take my dad out to dinner and back to the hospital. Then we can stay with him for a while and hopefully see mom when she gets out of recovery. I understand a normal hysterectomy is about 5 hours. That puts her in or getting out of recovery at 7. We'll see how things go. I'm tired just thinking/writing this much about it. If you are still reading, please pray for my family. It is a hard time, but I know we will make it though!

My grandmother, Miles, and my parents dog Heidi at my grandmother's house.

How do I count this?

2009-07-04T19:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Friday, I didn't work out. We got up, made breakfast and drove south to visit my grandmothers. I just didn't get it done. Today, I did work out. Jared didn't join me. He had spent an hour in the garage (it's about 100 degrees outside, not counting how the garage traps heat) and didn't have the energy. Apparently he also didn't have the energy to keep Miles from climbing all over me while I worked out.

We had a nice visit, saw both grandmothers, and played a lot. Miles really enjoys visiting there I think. In other news, we booked plane tickets. For this Wednesday. We are flying to CT to visit my sisters for about a week. Yikes! It's about a 4 hour flight and we have layovers both ways! I have no idea how to keep Miles entertained all that time. Wish me luck! On a positive note, my sister has a girl about Miles' age, so there are lots of toys there.

Day 4

2009-07-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

Ugh, is it only day 4? These things get easier as time goes on, right? I'm mostly kidding. I'm still in the "this is relatively new and interesting" phase. I told Jared earlier that we hadn't worked out and that stunk. He said we could after we put Miles down to bed. Then as we cleaned the kitchen I mentioned it to him and he said that he was just going to stretch. I started getting ready to work out and he decided that he didn't want to be "upstaged" by me. :) I told him I wasn't trying to upstage him, just work out. I weighed myself just after the workout, and I haven't lost any weight! I've been weighing myself in the morning, so that might be different. Also, I need to measure myself so I can really see the results.

The pictures are just because I haven't posted any recently. They have nothing to do with anything.

So Exhausted!

2009-07-01T15:58:00.001-07:00

I got up this morning and first thing I did my workout! Yay me! I'm hoping to lose some serious weight sooner or later, but I'd better not first admit that Jared is on his way with a pizza. Oops!
Today was the big canning day. I called my neighbor first thing this morning, and her phone went straight to voice mail. I called her when Doris got here, and it went to voice mail right away again. We weren't planning on starting until one, but Doris wanted to start early because she'd have to leave at 4:00. It's a god thing we did because we didn't even get all the berries processed. I called the neighbor again at one, and still went right to voice mail. I hope everything is ok with her. When I was buying jars, I decided to buy enough in case the neighbor had purchased the wrong thing. So, between Doris and I we bought all the berries hoping to be paid back for some, and enough jars to process all of them hoping that we'd be able to take some back if the neighbor bought the right kind. It turned out to be a good thing, otherwise we would have run out of jars way before berries! As it is, we have 75 jars of jam and pie filling, 4 flats of jars, and a bunch of berries left over that we split up.

Day 2

2009-06-30T13:21:00.001-07:00

I just finished the work out again. Day 2! Today was harder because I'm a bit sore from yesterday, but there were a few parts that were a (little) bit easier. My left upper arm is especially sore for some reason. I haven't figured that out yet.

Blackberry season seems to be over, so picking our own is out. Boo! I'm so disappointed about that. I talked to Doris and she suggested that we go to the Farmer's Market and see what we could get there. We went by this morning after a fiasco with my car keys, and found large baskets of both blue and black berries for $4 each. We bought 8 baskets! That should be enough for all three of us to end up with a good quantity of jam and pie filling etc. I need to get off of the computer and weigh them so that we will know how many jars etc we need. Hopefully I'll post pictures of the canning tomorrow. I haven't decided if I'm going to pull my camera out and look like a fool in front of my neighbor.

A Beautiful New Day

2009-06-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

I started today very sluggish. In fact, recently I've been very tired with no real explanation. General aches and pains. Today I was talking to my sister who's birthday is on the 10th of July. She said that she plans to lose ten pounds between now and then. That is twelve days from now. I can do that - I think. Jared and I are going to try to be there for her birthday (he has a work trip and we'll tack a vacation on to the end). I weighed myself this afternoon, and I'm 8lbs over a round number. No, I won't tell which one, but lets call it round because that is how I feel! I can reach that number by the tenth I think. Eight pounds in twelve days. That's 0.6 pounds a day.

I started by doing "Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred." I made it through! I can't say much else for my performance, but I did it. I think I will try to stick with this for the 30 days. I was checking it out online and found a woman who is posting video of herself every week for 12 weeks and she is doing that program. She is on week 8 and looking great! I don't know if I can do this every day for 8 or 12 weeks, but I have to start somewhere! I've been feeling terrible recently, so I have to do something!

On another note, we are going Blackberry picking tonight. I'm really excited about this, although I don't know if my arms will work! I'm already a little sore. I reached way out of my comfort zone and sent an email to a girl that I'm on a volunteer board with and I recently discovered that she lives in the house diagonally behind me. I told her that I was going blackberry picking this week and would can a bit later in the week and asked if she would be interested in going too. Sure enough she said she'd love to go and loves blackberries. She has never canned before and I've only done it once, so my mother-in-law will go picking with us and help us with the canning. I'm so excited. In fact, I leave in a half and hour, and I need to get ready!

UPDATE** I called the berry place just before we left, and...They were closed for the season. I'm so bummed. I thought of this idea before the season even started, and I tried to get it in early enough. Most places said they usually close Aug 15. Rats!

Whiny mood brightened

2009-05-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

I was just about to post a very whiny post about Mother's Day, and what a poor one I'd had. Then I clicked to my blogger page and saw three comments including one from a very funny lady who made me laugh today.

Anyway, I won't say that it doesn't matter that everyone is getting sick, or that the day really kinda stunk and the best thing I did was get my house clean, but it's nice to focus on the positive. Especially at the end of the day. Yes, 9:40 is bed time, and should have gone earlier.

Working so hard!

2009-04-14T05:59:00.000-07:00

This is what I call progress. Right at this moment I'm vacuuming the kitchen (Roomba), washing clothes (washing machine), reheating coffee (microwave), downloading pictures, and blogging (laptop). All this while I should be working! Oops! :)
Hope your day is starting out as productive as mine!

Pipe Cleaner Fun

2009-04-09T19:40:00.000-07:00

I just came across a great new carnival! Run the Earth, Watch the Sky is starting a carnival with ideas for free ways to have fun with your kids. What a fantastic idea, right?

I didn't think I had anything good to post just yet. I just found this carnival tonight, and it should be tomorrow. Pretty quick turnaround. But I did think of something that we did a few months ago. My sister was in town with her daughter and we took a road trip. My sister had mentioned needing more ideas for the plane trip home and I told her that on our recent plane trip I'd packed but not used pipe cleaners. We packed them for the road trip, and ended up needing them. When the kids started to get cranky we pulled them out for some pipe cleaner art.

This was a huge help and kept the kids entertained for a good while. And, if nothing else, your kid does have feet to keep him entertained.

This week in pictures and some lamps

2009-04-09T12:12:00.000-07:00

We are having Easter lunch at my house. I wanted to use my china for Christmas, but we had breakfast and left town right afterword. It seemed easier to keep it a bit casual. I really want to have the table look nice. My mother-in-law is the type that always sets a fancy table. If we were to give her 20 minutes notice that we were crashing her dinner, she would have the china out and a nice dinner ready to go on the table. She certainly doesn't demand that from others, but she says that she enjoys setting a fancy table to show her family she appreciates them. I can't see myself doing that too frequently with a toddler in the house, but I do want to make holidays special. Anyway, I'm spending a bit of time this week planning the menu and table.

Here are some pictures from the week. I'm getting better at taking pictures frequently again!

A sleeping bag we got from a garage sale the weekend

Wearing a crown (made from a pant leg I cut to hem)
"Hi Mom!" Wearing gloves.

Also, Jared installed lamps for me this week. I fell in love with these lamps a month or so before Christmas. They were pretty expensive, so I didn't think I'd be able to get them. I wanted to hang them above my sewing table for task lighting. My sewing machine has been in a room with no overhead lighting since we moved back home. It's hard to sew with no lights, but it isn't necessary to have two expensive lamps either. :( Anyway, for Christmas my parents gave me a gift card for a little over half the cost of the lamps! Jared and I went ahead and ordered them, and I was so excited! However, since the room has no overhead lighting, it was going to be quite a chore to get them up in the vaulted ceiling and figure out the switch. Well, he and his dad took care of most of it this weekend, and Jared and I finished it up Tuesday! I LOVE THEM!!

My lamps!

Sent this email to my Mother In Law (subject: Ransom)

2009-04-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

I, the eyeless bandit, am holding your hat for ransom. Meet me at my house, and bring with you, your family (including dog), hugs and kisses. We will meet tomorrow after church. Be there or never hear from your hat again! (insert maniacal laughter here)

Love Miles (the eyeless bandit)

P.S. My mom updated my website with February, March, and April pictures (I should hold her hats for ransom to get it done sooner)

Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

The playgroup/Early Childhood PTA that we are in had their annual Easter egg hunt today. Jared and I were going to take Miles, but last week Jared got notified that there was a work day at his shooting club. He had missed the last one and felt like he needed to make this one. I called in the backup. My mom took him with me. He had so much fun! We got there early enough to play on the playground before the hunt began.

So did everyone else! There were so many kids there! Miles still had fun. For the most part I was able to hang back and just let him play. Finally everyone started lining up for the hunt. We went over there and found out that they were going to begin by age groups. The little kids (one and under I think) were first. Ten minutes later Miles' age group was to begin, and ten minutes after that the oldest kids would hunt.
On the way over to the hunt area, I was telling Miles that there are surprises in the eggs, and explained to him that he had to find them and put them in his basket. I may have done too good a job getting him excited. When we got there and I told him that he had to wait he was not happy and a tantrum ensued. Anyway, he managed to wait and they started his group. He did a great job "hunting," and had fun.
As a side note, even for the oldest group, they didn't hide the eggs. Everyone had to bring two dozen filled eggs and they just tossed them out on the ground. It was fine for the age group Miles is in, but I think it would have been a let down for the older ones.

We took advantage of the other kids preoccupation and went back to the playground. He had fun, but at some point picked up his basket and started back for the area where the hunt had been. I followed him and he shouted "fun" and went to the area where his age group had hunted. He was disappointed that there were no eggs left, but then spied the ground where the younger age group had been. It looked like they hadn't hunted at all! He ran over there only to be disappointed again. I guess the parents had set their kids down in an area and let their kids pick up, open, and explore. Then put back down. All the eggs had been opened. He still enjoyed sitting and going through them. After that we went over to the Easter bunny. Miles actually went up to him for a little bit. Then it was time to head back to the car.

2009-03-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

I signed up for a quilting class today. When does it start? Oh, I do things in advance. I have a ton of time to pick fabrics. It doesn't start until tonight! :) My sash-ing is blue and I have corner squares of yellow. Here is my main background fabric.

Jared has started to get involved in more and more "extra-curricular" activities. Things where I have to watch Miles on the weekend or later on weekdays than normal. I don't mind too much, but I want some "me time" too. A quilting class is probably not my ultimate idea in luxurious time wasting activities, but I have been interested. The two main reasons I picked this class are that the shop is very close to the house, and it is a very low cost for what you get.

This weekend we went to my grandmother's house. For Christmas we gave her new linoleum tile for her kitchen and told her that we would replace it for her. The house she is in is the only home I remember her and my grandfather living in, and this tile has never been replaced. It was not in bad condition. We went this weekend and scraped it off the floor. It was hard, and we didn't get much help from my parents for a couple of reasons (understandable, but that didn't make the job easier for us). After we finished we realized that we would not be able to replace the tile on this trip. We needed some tools and supplies that we didn't have. Also it had taken longer to remove the tile than we had planned. I feel terrible, but we left my grandmother with no kitchen floor. She said she was fine with it. She doesn't have company over often, but still I feel bad about it. My parents go every other weekend, and Jared and I try to go with them as often as we can. The will not be going two weekends from now as they will be out of town and it is the weekend of Easter, but they will go the weekend after. We are going to have to be sure to go that time and be prepared to lay the tile.

2009-03-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

Miles on St. Patrick's Day at playground

I've had no real progress on the spring cleaning this week or last. Breaking the house up into a room a week makes it a very long chore. Next week is to be the front porch and front garden. If it were not for the garden out front I wouldn't have made the porch a week. My front garden is a mess! I can't wait to get it in shape, but it is going to be a LOT of work. I'll post pictures for before next week before I start. The real issue with this is when my house was built someone decided it would be a good idea to plant crape myrtles as a bush right near the foundation of the house. Yeah, I have a tree growing right next to my house. Several actually. They need to go.

Miles playing in puddle in front of Nana & Grandpa's house

This week has been really hectic. Monday I helped my MIL go through an Aunt's things. They needed financial proof of expenses to get her into a bed at a retirement home. Tuesday was St. Patrick's day and Miles' playgroup had a picnic at the arbouretum. Apparently it's also spring break. The line of cars to get in was crazy and when we finally got there, the parking lot was full and we were late. We opted for a park, but our favorite was full. Kids everywhere, every picnic table was taken. I thought if all the school kids were at the arboretum or our park there should be no one at the school. We had our picnic there. It was very nice and quite with a great playground.

Nana, Grandpa, & Aunt Jessica playing with Miles

Wednesday a new grocery store was to open. It was not overly close to my house, but I was interested. They are a competitor of Whole Foods and are supposed to be cheaper. My MIL was going to go, and I found a mediterranian restaurant not far from there. We made a nice afternoon of it. I left Miles with his grandfather and Aunt and my MIL and I went to the store and restaurant. Miles had so much fun!

Thursday we stayed home and played. He still took nap and was very exhausted. Thats really all I remember, I was so tired.

Miles sleeping off the excitement on the way home
(all his clothes were wet and he put the jacket on)

Today was pretty good. Miles played independantly very well this morning and I got a ton of work done. I'm all caught up on laundry (it's even almost all put away)! Around 11 he was ready to leave the house for a while. I had ordered new drip pans for the stove top and some things for the garden and they were in so we went to pick them up. I made a wrong turn but saw a sign for an estate sale so we went there. I found a cute pair of boots, then we went to get the drip pans and garden stuff.

This weekend is shaping up to be crazy. Hopefully I'll get to take lots of pictures though! Hope you have a great weekend!

It's begining to look like spring

2009-03-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

It's been two weeks since I posted anything, and I've hardly taken any pictures! Oops! I really need to get back into doing that. Everything is going pretty well here. It's been raining a LOT! The sun finally started shining yesterday. Today it warmed up and dried out a bit. Just before the rain began we got some real progress on the garden. Of course that all came to a screeching halt with the rain. This afternoon when Miles got up from his nap he caught me watching T.V. He'd fallen asleep in the car so I laid him on my bed and he just gets up from there when he's done. Because Mommy had the T.V. on he wanted to watch one of his shows. That was fine and I put it on for him and got to work another 30 or so minutes. After that we actually got to go for a walk and I pulled out the tiller to till the garden. By the time Jared got home, I'd broken the tiller. He fixed it, tilled, and wanted to go for a walk too. We did, and came home to grill dinner. Then we ate outside just like summer!

On the down side, I completely ignored spring cleaning last week. What? I really didn't want to clean the den! This week is a really light one (if I skip the den from last week), so I may try to force myself to do both. This week is the Entry, and I don't really have too much of one. The only furniture that's in there is the china cabinet. That won't be too hard to clean.

successful week

2009-03-02T05:15:00.000-08:00

This was a great weekend. We go so much accomplished! Saturday we went to Lowe's and bought a new microwave and wood to get my raised vegetable garden together. I'm so excited about both of those things. I had found a 10% off coupon and Jared had gotten a $50 American Express gift check as a reward from work, so we saved a little. The microwave had to be ordered but we could pay for it so we were still able to use the coupon. It will be in this week. We also went to a Korean market near the house, and picked up carry out from our favorite Italian restaurant! Yumm! Lasagna and minestrone soup. Does it get any better? Oh yes it does! I also had washed the duvet cover earlier in the week and finally had a chance to iron it and get it on the bed. Then in the evening we were reading to Miles on the bed and he coughed up a little phlegm. Jared grabbed a tissue for it and cleaned it up. Then he held it under Miles' chin (in case he had to cough more) but I think Miles took it as a queue that he should cough more. So he did. He coughed a couple of times and threw up! On my freshly washed and ironed duvet cover! As well as his pajamas, my pajamas, and our blanket.

Sunday we mowed our weeds and did some trimming on the trees in the back. We cut the wood to make the raised vegetable garden, and laid that out. I ran basically all the laundry (including the comforter & duvet cover) and put most of it away.

So far this week I've done almost nothing except spring cleaning of the kitchen. The good news? I'm basically done. I scrubbed the baseboards today. I need to finish a bit of putting away, and I skipped the drawers and spices. I recently did the spices so they are ok. I really need to do the drawers, but today is only Wednesday. Oh, one more thing...I'm almost done with the dining room too! I don't keep things in the dining room. Just a table, chairs, one picture and two windows. While I was scrubbing baseboards in the kitchen I went ahead and did the dining room too. Just a couple more things and I'm done in there and a week ahead on the cleaning plan! Woot!

Tomorrow is playgroup. We haven't been to anything for Miles in weeks. He got sick around 2/13, and then Jared and I got sick. Now it's basically a month later, and we CAN NOT STAY IN THIS HOUSE A SECOND LONGER!!! Ok, not really, but yeah. We went to Jared's parents house today for lunch, and we saw my parents this past weekend; but it's not the same. It isn't getting out with other kids. I think he's going to enjoy (I hope). This playgroup is at an indoor playground with bounce houses. He never enjoys that as much as I think he will. Hopefully I'll take and post pics too. I have got to get back into the picture thing!

My camera is back!

2009-02-27T18:38:00.000-08:00

I'm so happy. They returned my camera today! They replaced the mother board and a connector (that I think is for the power). Anyway, it works now. They gave me a 3 month warranty from the date of repair which is only one extra month over the one year factory. I'm kinda bummed by that, but so thrilled to have it back!

Anyway, next week is spring cleaning in the kitchen. I'm not too excited about that because it will be hard to keep Miles occupied. That may in fact be the hardest room. I'm excited to have it done though. I guess that's what makes it worth while for me...getting it finished and enjoying the results.

Game Room Done!

2009-02-26T19:10:00.000-08:00

Miles playing in the Den with the trains he got for his birthday.

I'm so excited. I've finished spring cleaning the Game Room (also my sewing room). I pulled all the furniture out from the wall and scrubbed the baseboards,then rearranged everything. It looks so much better. We still have to get rid of a really heavy desk, but before that can go, we need to buy a new microwave. When we moved back to this house the lady who had been renting it didn't bother to tell us that the above the stove microwave was going out. We kept the little microwave we'd had in San Francisco, and put it on the desk we needed to get rid of in the game room. Now we need to replace the vent-a-hood microwave and get rid of the desk.

Next week is the kitchen. I'm really excited about this too. I want to order pull out drawers for at least one of the shelves in the pantry. That will be the shelf for my baking goods. I'll just end up adding that to the list of to do and to buy things I have from all of the rooms for now, but it will be near the top!

Spring and Spring Cleaning

2009-02-23T18:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I think we are reasonable safe to be around now! Jared and I are all feeling pretty well. We both still have ear infections, and an almost constant ringing. Nicholas seems to be doing well. He was still coughing this morning, quiet all day, then a little coughing this evening. I'm still thinking about skipping playgroup tomorrow to be in the safe side.

Enough about my health, or lack thereof. I've started spring cleaning today! I love spring. I'm using the Grand Plan Challenge. I'm altering it a bit for my home. I figured that since I had to change the dates, I would change the order of the rooms too. I'm starting in the game room. That means beginning with both Miles' toys and my sewing machine and fabric stash. I haven't really ever really culled through Miles' toys. I've donated a thing or two, but that's about it. This time I'm trying to take a discerning eye to the items he has. Does he play with them? Are they age appropriate? Will this toy grow with him? I'm only saving a thing to two "in case" we have another. Just a couple of things that I don't want to have to buy again or were unique. It's a fun exercise.

I was going to wait to go through my fabric stash until tomorrow or Wednesday, but I accidentally spilled an entire cup of coffee on it today! Oops! I washed everything, and it all came clean. I'm horrified by how many projects I have most everything for, and just need to sew. I think tomorrow I'll really get down and dirty with this. My mom is going through hers now too. I imagine we'll have quite the get rid of pile when we are done.

2009-02-21T18:48:00.000-08:00

I think the quarantine is near being lifted. However as I type this I am in a NyQuil haze. Miles seems to be getting better, although his cough is worse. He's now been to the doctor 3 times. Jared and I both went on Friday and the whole family is happily on antibiotics. We are really hoping to be better by the end of the weekend. Jared's mother was talking to the pastor of the church we all attend, and he kindly invited us not to attend on Sunday. :) Some people. Anyway, here are some pics of the Valentine's Day party Miles & I took my grandmother to on his birthday (which I think is where he picked up this nasty bug). The lady in the blue jacket in both pictures is my grandmother. She is so fantastic and loves Miles so much!

So I'm off to sleep (yes, I know it's only 9pm). Health to you all!

Another day another doctor's appointment

2009-02-16T18:37:00.000-08:00

I think we are on the downhill slide of this illness. Miles has had a fever every day for 5 days, and I took him to the doctor twice. Does that make me one of "those" moms? Yeoch! I hope not. Anyway, the weekend was not pretty. We did have his party on Saturday, but there was not much partying to it. It was just family and we built the play structure. I did get the card reader and I'll post pictures soon, but I broke my camera. Right now Miles has only been down for about 45 minutes and he's already up crying. He was more sick this weekend and was having copious amounts of mucus secretions through his eyes! Come on now, who's hungry? He has pink eye, but the doctor said that is basically just irritation of the eye and can even be caused by an allergy. Anyway, this is basically a cold or something viral, and we are getting better. I can't wait. He thinks two or three days should do it.

Anyway, I'm going to go lay down with him (the only way to get him a decent night's sleep when he's sick) and spend my minimal sleep time dreaming of when he's better and sleeping through the night again (and I have my camera back)!

Ahh, sweet dreams dear blog land!

What a day

2009-02-13T19:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Miles had a runny nose all day. Then around 5:00 he developed a fever. Poor guy. I waited until bed time to give him Tylenol. He coughed a couple of times in bed and woke around midnight. He was very upset and we brought him into bed (we usually try to wait until 5am to do this). He developed a fever about every 3 or 3.5 hours and we kept him up on Tylenol. We had scheduled haircuts for this morning. We called the lady who cuts our hair and updated us on the situation. She said to come in. We also called a peditrician (we don't have one currently as she closed her office) who was highly recommended by friends and got an appointment for this morning. After making both appointments and getting a little work done too, I was pooped! We put Miles down for nap time, but after a short while he woke due to fever. I went in and cuddled with him and read to him until we both fell asleep. I think we were out for about two hours. This afternoon we just vegged out and watched TV and played trains.

He was put to bed about two hours ago now and is up crying. Hope tonight goes reasonably well. His party is planned for tomorrow. Everyone knows that he's sick but I think everyone had decided to come anyway. It's only family and no children. I really hope this doesn't last.

Birthday and missing card reader

2009-02-11T19:31:00.000-08:00

So, Miles' birthday was yesterday. I have a bit of mixed feelings. I'm happy, but my little guy is growing up. I would have what I hope are some good pictures, but Jared's brother borrowed our card reader last week "for a day" and I haven't seen it since. I'd like to say that is why I haven't had many pics recently, but really I suck at taking pictures every day (or really frequently) but I'm working on it.

Instead of having a very photo heavy post, I'll just tell you about his birthday. On Monday I finally got confirmation that my grandmother was coming to town this week and would be here for the party we are throwing Miles on Saturday. She's staying with my parents, but they both work during the day. I had to go to the grocery store and get a couple of things for the party. Miles and I went up to pick her up so we could run errands together. It wasn't very exciting, but there you go.

As part of the errands on Monday, I got a Coffee Cake (which Miles loves). So, on Tuesday (his actual birthday) we started the day with oatmeal and coffee cake. Jared had to go to work which was fine. He's trying to get Friday off or at least work from home to help prep for the party so it was no big deal. Knowing that Jared would be going to work, I wanted to do something to make the day special. Our playgroup was throwing a Valentine's Day party. We went up to my parent's house again to pick up my grandmother and took her with us to the party held at the recreation center. I think she had fun just watching her great-grandson run around and play with all the other kids. They had a little craft for the kids and a "heart healthy" snack first. Then in the gymnasium they had a bounce house, a slide, they pulled out a bunch of bouncy balls, basket balls and soccer balls, a couple of scooters, and some tumbling mats. It was super fun! Miles really had a great time. He got a little over stimulated at the end and when my grandmother, Miles and I came home, he refused to eat and tried to scream through his nap. I don't usually do this, but knowing how tired he must be, I went into his room and held him and swayed with him until he fell asleep. He only slept for an hour, but I'll take it!

While Miles was asleep, I called my parents, told them that I had brought my grandmother to my house, and invited them over for dinner. We are having a heavy dessert on Saturday for the party so I asked mom to bring something light like berries and angel food cake. She did, and we had pasta with veggies etc (it was on the meal plan before I invited them) and some veggie bread I made. It was pretty good, and we all had fun. My sisters had sent Miles a present, and Jared and I had gotten something for him too. We told everyone that they shouldn't bring gifts on Saturday, so we had him open the few things after dinner. I hope we got some cute pictures!

Anyway, today I didn't go see my grandmother. I probably should have, but the playgroup had a meeting with a guest speaker that I really wanted to hear. So, we went to that this morning, had another rough nap, and watched one of his new videos in the afternoon.

Thursday we are getting wood delivered for the play structure so we'll be home at least until that comes. Friday we hope that Jared will have a light day, and be home all day but we'll see. We all have haircuts in the morning and he'll at least be able to make that (we all REALLY need it). After that we'll be getting ready for everyone to descend on our house the next morning. And to top it all off, Jared wants to take a bike ride almost twice as long as we usually take on Saturday before everyone shows up. At least he plans to have my mother and grandmother watch Miles so we don't have to pull him in his trailer.

Sorry for no pics. I'll try to get the card reader back on Saturday.

Busy making a book

2009-02-09T18:15:00.001-08:00

I thought last week while Jared was gone that it would be fun to put together a photo book of Miles' first two years and have it at the little party we are throwing for him this Saturday. I was both right and wrong. It's fun to put it together, but also a pain! I should have done more research before I started, but I assumed they were all basically the same. I started with Shutterfly.com. I think I switched because I was irritated that I couldn't order the uploaded pictures by date (in their defense the pics were exported from another program and no book program got it right) so I started looking at other sights and found a book cheaper at Snapfish.com. I had trouble getting the picture in the right order here so it took some time to make a photo book. After Jared got home I finished up the book and went to show him. I was pretty disappointed that by the time I got done it had so many pages it was over $40. Jared gave me a place to look for reviews (a private message board he uses with very picky photographers). After looking through I found Blurb.com. I think their book layouts are much more artistic. Their binding is also more "bookish" in that they have a hardcover that they can print pictures directly on or create a dust jacket (cheaper).

Blurb.com has software that you install in order to create the book then upload it to their site. The software is a little cumbersome, but I think it'll make a great book. I had problems with it crashing for a while but I think that was on my end.

I had hoped to have the book at the party and even considered presenting a copy to my mother and mother in law (and probably my grandmother who will also be there). Sadly because it has taken so long start to finish, I will not be able to receive the book in time. I think what I'm going to do is order a bunch of prints locally and have those at the party. Then after it's over I'll add a page or two with pics from his actual birthday and the party and order the book after. There is no discount on Blurb.com for ordering more than on book (discounts start at 10) so I may order one and wait for any additional. All in all I think I'm happier that the book will eventually have pictures of his birthday in it so that it will be a complete two years in review (more or less). Anyway, I'll post pics when it's done and here! I can't wait!

Oh, about the cost, they GROW on you! I think all the books with the length it will take to get the two years in there will be $40+.

Four days down, and he's finally home!

2009-02-06T05:47:00.001-08:00

Whewh! I'm so glad it's over, and he's home safe and sound. We had some fun this week and tried out a few new things. Yesterday we just hung around the house, and didn't do much. It was a reasonable day, but Miles was a bit like Jekyll and Hyde. Fine one moment, and screaming for no reason the next. I think he was a little over tired from the nap boycott. He napped very well yesterday too which was a relief.

I saw this on Woot this morning. It's a sympathy card for someone's New Year's resolutions. Funny! Just print and fold.

Three down, One to go!

2009-02-05T11:47:00.000-08:00

Ok, it's actually lunch time on the final day, but I didn't get a post done yesterday. It went well yesterday though. In the morning we went to pick up Miles' Aunt Jessica and took her with us. We went to an indoor play place that has several of the inflatable bounce houses. Miles had fun. He always takes a while to warm up to new places, but once he did he had fun. After that we dropped Jessica off and went home for lunch and a nap.

Jared's brother came over to pick up something about 5 minutes after I got Miles down. He never fell asleep. Grr. Then, his brother had a friend meet him here, and I think Miles heard the noise and wanted out. He started screaming. Blah. I ended up getting him up and deciding to try again after they left. They were here about an hour, and we tried again. He never fell asleep the second time either. Blah.

Anyway, in the evening, Jared's mother invited us over for dinner. On our way out of the neighborhood we ran into the neighbor that I was trying to get in touch with a couple of weeks ago! She apologized for not emailing earlier. We had a nice little chat. I hope that we do end up getting together some time soon. Dinner went great and we visited and came home for bed time. That's it! Pics tomorrow.

Two days down, two to go

2009-02-03T19:00:00.000-08:00

Well, we have a return date. He'll be back late Thursday night. I have to figure out what I'm going to do. It is far enough after Miles' bedtime that I want to put him down in his crib normally. But then I have to get him up, take him to the airport, drive him home, and put him back in bed? He's been sleeping terribly for several days. I hate to do that to him. Jared's flight isn't too late. I may see if my parents or his parents would pick him up. We'll see what the next couple of days bring for his sleep.

Today went ok. I heard about a playgroup that meets at the rec center near our house. It is supposed to be for preschool only, they close off the gym, throw out some tumbling mats and balls and let the kids go at it. It sounded like fun but when I called to get the time, I was told that it started some time after 9. When I pressed for...you know, a time you could find on a clock, I was told 10:30. Well, yes, 10:30 is after 9, so you have to give him that.

Anyway, we took our chances and showed up. I peeked into the gym and didn't see anyone. I asked at the desk and they said, yes, the playgroup is now and there is one mother and kid in there. Great! We go in and I start playing with Miles and the basketballs and two other mothers and kids show up. I never got the scoop, but I think that the first mom and one of the ones who showed up right after me are usually the only ones there. Their kids were a little older (3 and 3.5) but not terribly rough. The mom's knew each other well so I didn't talk to them much. The other mother had the only girl and she seemed nice, but the girl was timid and didn't really want to play with the other kids.

After playgroup we had lunch with my mom which was great. My parents are good with Miles too and really love him. After lunch we just headed home for nap and regular afternoon activities. Nap time didn't go so well, so the afternoon was cranky. All in all, it wasn't as bad as I would have expected after an hour and a half of crying in the middle of the night and about 20 min of nap. :) I can't wait until Jared gets home. Here's to hoping that the sleep issues are caused by daddy being gone.

One day down...

2009-02-02T20:01:00.000-08:00

I'm so glad it's February! I've been crazy busy working, but the major deadline has passed. Yay! Now it's just the cleanup, follow up. In fact I was so busy that I missed the date for our first playgroup. (oops) Yeah, I was almost done working on one part and told myself it was the next day. We drove over to the house it was being held at, and I'm thinking "it should have started about 5 minutes ago, there are no cars, and the shutters are closed." I even had it right in my day planner.

I feel a little bad that I'm so glad that it's February. Jared had to leave town on a business trip! Yikes! He left on Sunday night, and he'll be back Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. Yeah, I know. He was going to come home on Friday, but accidentally got the tickets for Saturday. Now that he has to switch them anyway, he's going to try to come back on Thursday night (late). So, one day down, somewhere between three and five to go! The day before he left, he told me that his boss wants him to take a training class. For three weeks... In Seattle. Hmm.

We have activities planned for every day. That way Miles and I have the option to get out of the house every day if we need it. Today was going over to Jared's parents house. They love Miles and love spending time with him. If too much time goes by they call and say that they need their fix. It's really cute. The day was fun and not very stressful.

Ouch!

2009-01-20T15:00:00.000-08:00

What am I doing this very instant? I'm sitting on the couch with a bag of frozen mixed vegetables on my nose. Why, you ask? Miles just landed on it. My nose, not the mixed veggies. We were rough housing on the bed and he fell backwards and landed right on my nose. It immediately brought tears to my eyes, and blood to my nose. I wondered for a moment if it might be broken, but I don't think it is. Even if it was, there wouldn't be much that doctors could do for it. I looked in the mirror and it is swelling a little, and my eyes have circles under them. Hope this doesn't last, Miles and I are supposed to go to a new play group on Thursday!

Here is miles eating a pinch of pizza dough from the counter while I prepped the bowl for it to sit in while rising.