Donna's Thoughts

Dairy Free....

2012-01-24T15:08:00.002-06:00

I have been attempting a dairy free diet since September last year. I have my ups and downs with actually being able to do it, but it has made a significant difference in my original reason to go dairy free. My conclusion is I have a dairy allergy. Why because one of my symptoms is not listed on the intolerance symptoms. Simple right? Anyway that is not what this is about.
This is about your reaction. If I tell someone that I am dairy free, the first question is why. My answer is I think I am allergic (if I know you) or I am allergic (if I don't). Some leave it at that and some say why do you think you are allergic, and since I am not one that really like "bathroom" talk I just say it messes me up. Most are satisfied with this answer and still others press. I go ahead and tell them the problem if they press and I know them well enough.
The next concern is one of two choices. The person will then ask if I am taking calcium, or they will be concerned with making sure I can still have treats like ice cream.
Those that are concerned with my calcium are quick to tell me about viactive or other calcium supplements. I smile and nod, and know I should have been taking calcium for years I have never liked drinking a glass of milk. Honestly it will take a doctor to get me to take calcium supplements. I am sure to get extra calcium in anything where that is an option, and I know I probably need it, just haven't gone there yet.
The people who I enjoy the most are those that are so concerned with my ice cream and treats consumption. They are sure to tell me about various non-dairy ice creams. I smile look at them and say really it's a good thing I can't have ice cream makes the diet easier! You see I am also on a weight loss journey.
So if you see me and we happen to be on the subject of my diet, please know I have my reasons (of which I don't like sharing), I will be fine without ice cream, and I am waiting for the doctor to prescribe supplements. Thank you!

Church Hunting...

2012-01-15T19:21:00.002-06:00

We moved in early November to a new side of town. It's far enough that places you want to attend on a regular basis must change. This includes church.
I have never been one who likes church hunting. It's hard, and it takes a long time. Add in the fact that we moved right before the holiday season, and that makes things even more difficult. One of my main requirements for a church is that the preacher preach from the Bible EVERY Sunday. That is hard to determine or know about a pastor when it's Christmas, if they aren't preaching from the Bible at Christmas then I am probably not in a church.
The holidays also make it hard because people vacation and people are visiting from out of town, so you don't know if the group you visited always has that dynamic or if it's a little different from someone who is in town or out of town that week.
So we have visited 3 churches in this area. The first is the closest in proximity to our apartment, we could walk if we wanted to. It's probably the most "hip" of the churches we have visited. The music is great. The preaching is good. The reason this isn't the church for us is that out of four visits two sermons were about sexual immorality. Not that I don't think this is an okay topic, and the pastor had great things to say, but one of those was on Christmas Eve?!? Also the pastor is whisked away or disappears during his prayer at the end of the sermon leaving the sanctuary for unknown places. He leaves the "Jones Road" campus pastor to finish up and actually be a pastor and not just a speaker. Also they pray the sinners prayer each week and then just ask you to go see someone in the hallway if you prayed the prayer, no actual invitation. These are all little things, but they are also odd to me.
Church number 2 is a church that I already know two families at from our homeschool group. My issues with this church are smaller. The first being they are currently without a pastor, not that a pastor makes a church, but he can make a difference in a church. The other issue is more that my husband doesn't love this church. I could probably settle here if he felt comfortable.
Church 3 we visited once last week. The church is huge, they only have one worship service on Sunday morning (if you don't count the one for those who work in childcare etc while the service is happening), but it is also the largest of the actual church buildings. This church had a million dollar surplus in their budget last year. They put it towards paying off the buildings they built recently. My husband made the comment that he could not see a younger grouping of adults in the whole church it was a sea of blue hairs. He was also overwhelmed by the size.
So this is where we stand with our church hunt. We are all tired of it, but feel no closer to a home than when we started.

Snacks and appetizers for 3

2012-01-12T13:33:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite blog reads is when the 4 Moms and 35 kids team up and I get 4 opinions on one subject. The problem is they have 35 kids between 4 moms. I have one. So sometimes the advice is great for me, what applies for a crown should apply to one on occasion. Other times I enjoy the read and go on. Today they are doing a linky which means I get to participate. So to follow their rules I am linking to their site(s).
Raising Olives is talking about hot wings
Smockity is talking popcorn
Life in a shoe is talking Bacon wrapped jalapenos which she says aren't too spicy, but I would challenge that since I have 0 spice tolerance!
The Common Room has some uncommon Nachos

I would like to say I have some great snack ideas, but really we are bad eaters and snacks are the easy go to things in the pantry or fridge that have no purpose in cooking. This includes chips, cheese balls, yogurt, and a random assortment of bagged items. Currently in the pantry are some pretzel shaped graham crackers, tortilla chips, fruit chews, dried cranberries and who knows what that has been forgotten way too long. In the fridge is my daughter's yogurt enough juice to float a cruise ship, and various kinds of individual cheese snacks.

The new dilema in snacking at our house is my discovery of my body's dislike of dairy. So my favorite lower fat go to snacks are out. The replacement has been fruit! I am in the middle of a weight loss journey and this is my new love. An apple a day or every 2-3 days is helping me stay away from the high fat snacks. In addition we got a popcorn popper from my sister for Christmas. It's still a learning curve on how to get the flavor to the popcorn, but so far I am enjoying what I create when it is not burnt.

So a recipe for a snack? Go to the store find one thing for each family member that requires no prep or work on your part put it in the pantry and call it snack food. I understand for the large families might have to limit the choices to 5 or less. I do limit the large open bags to 2 in our family. It's what we do, how about you? What are your favorite snack foods?

2012-01-10T22:02:00.001-06:00

Joy started gymnastics!! Finally she is enrolled in a class! I have wanted this for her since she turned 3, which happened about the time Rob got a 10% pay cut at his old job. It is one of those things that I wanted for her. I want her to explore different options in life, like gymnastics and dance, maybe even a sport or two. Extracurricular classes are one of those things that I wanted as a child, and something I want for my child.
I want my child to have opportunities in life. I want her to be smarter than me, and I want her to be able to do what she wants and not be held back because she didn't get something in her education. This to me includes gymnastics/dance/sports. She loved her first class, I can't wait to take her to the second one!

Trying again?

2012-01-06T09:36:00.003-06:00

If you didn't know I started a second blog about our homeschooling adventure. It's at Homeschooling1 hop on over if you are interested in that adventure.
I can't say I am great at blogging anywhere, but I am working on all the things in my life I feel like I don't do well. This includes blogging. It's something I like, it's something I admire when others do it well, and it's something I would like to say I do. So I am starting over (again). I don't know what this will mean. I don't have a vision for this blog, it's more of our family life share blog so here it is back up and running. I am sure you are all dying to see pictures of Joy so here you go her 5 year pictures by an amazing photographer Rosie. She is in the League City area, but her prices are great and she is a military wife and I like to support our military however I can.

Above is the photo that is now a canvas and hangs above the piano! I love it, it's a natural smile with a carefree fun pose. Below is my favorite "Mickey" picture this year. If you don't know we take a picture with big Mickey each year as a record of Joy's growth through the years.

We will see if the blog continues or dies out again next week!

A little Cooking

2011-02-12T13:50:00.003-06:00

No I haven't stopped making Homemade Gourmet products just I have found the ones I like and I am already in a rut! That and life has been happening so I haven't really blogged about what I am making. So here it is a catch up blog...
Tomato Basil Bread This month Breads are on sale so I thought I would try the bread that I have in stock. It sounded like it would be okay, not a favorite but I wanted to try it. So I mixed it up (as always super easy) put it in my bread pan and baked for the desired time plus a little plus a little more. My oven isn't that great, it came with the house. In the end the bread was very dense and well my allergies are acting up and it just didn't work with the taste in my mouth. Sorry can't give it a great recommendation, I will try it again to see if it was me or the allergies that it wasn't working for.

The next new thing(s) I cooked were for an impromptu dinner party! One of my high school friends and I along with her youhger sister and another high school friend have had a standing date for dinner on Thursday nights. It started as dinner at our homes switching off every week then evolved into dinner out all the time. Since my husband is job hunting and we have no real income to speak of, I haven't been doing this, but I still wanted to get together with my friends, so I asked them over. I was going to make the Old Fashioned Meatloaf for dinner anyway. I just added some salad with the BLT dressing, some canned cream corn and a dessert which I decided to make the Silky Chocolate Mousse Pie. I also made Velveeta shells and cheese for our overly picky kids I hate fighting about food with company over so I give her an out.
I started making the meatloaf first because I was about to make it anyway when it was confirmed they could come over. I cheated because I hate the feel of raw meat and I put it in my mixer. The recipe calls for 1.5lbs of ground meat. In an effort to be a little healthy I did a half and half mix of turkey and beef. I think that worked out well. So I first mixed the meats because they were in 1lb each I mixed the meat and pulled out half a pound for later use. I then dumped the mix one egg and the ketchup in the bowl and mixed until it looked well combined. I then had no choice but to touch it. I used my hands cut it in half and then thirds to make 6 balls (it's how the recipe said to make it, sounded a little better than just a loaf so why not). I then mixed some more ketchup nutmeg, brown sugar and ground mustard for a "topping" I always like toppings, but was unsure what everyone else would think so I did 4 with and 2 without. In the end they turned out great! I put a little too much of the nutmeg in because I graded it fresh and get a little crazy when doing that (it's fun). I could also do without the ground mustard, but those are my preferences, which when I make it again I will try and remember.
Next I made the dressing. This was a simple mix of mayo, vinegar and milk with the BLT mix. I thought I put enough milk in to make it good and runny, but after awhile in the fridge it thickened up a little more and needed more milk. The taste however was great! If you like the BLT dip this is a dressing for you!!
Last I made the pie, it only needs to set 30 minutes and I had to run to the store for a pie shell so that is why it came last. It as all things Homemade Gourmet are was super simple to make. I put milk and the mix in the mixer and mixed on medium high til I got soft peaks. Then I added the cream cheese, and mixed on high until it was mousse consistency. I then dumped all that in the pie crust and my husband ran off with the bowl and spatula. Personally I think it needs more chocolate, It has too much of a cream cheese taste and not enough chocolate. My husband says he was expecting something like a jello and cool-whip flavor, but was happier with this. He agrees it's not as chocolate, but he thinks it has a better flavor than the jello version. In all it's a hit at our house and it will probably show up again and again :)
In addition to the above mentioned I have made more of the Chicken and Rice Creme Soup which I am in love with. I have made it with and without the chicken and it really did not matter to me. I have some of the Potato soup and the Italian Mozzarella Meatloaf also ready to be made. I will keep you updated as we try things out. Also if you haven't heard Homemade Gourmet has their own blog now also, they are better about posting than I am, so check it out www.homemadegourmetblog.com

It's a party!!

2011-01-21T23:59:00.003-06:00

So I had my first party Thursday night. I know a little slow getting started, I'm not a great salesman and not pushy at all! So This is my first party, and overall I would say it went well. My hostess cooked the host pack of Garlic Lemon Chicken, Taco Soup Dip, and Mini Pecan Pie Muffins. I didn't taste anything, but I heard rave reviews. I try and not taste something unless I know we have more than enough to go around I would rather the guest get to taste it than me. Plus I am fairly confident a guest won't ask if I have had something if it was on the menu that night! I can always refer to the hostess for questions on cooking those items too.
Are you familiar with a Homemade gourmet home show? If not let me do a run down! (If you are skip this paragraph!) The host is in charge of making the food for the party. This gives the host a chance to sample cooking the products and know how easy it is to do! This also saves me from being the only one who has cooked anything HG. The show itself can or does have 2 components if you so choose i can do 4 meals in 4 minutes for the hostess. I provide a shopping list and then at the party I do the prep for 4 meals in about 4 minutes. Since I am talking through this it might be a little longer, but you get the idea of how quick and easy these meals are to make! The other part of the party is typical of most home parties where someone is trying to sell you something, we talk and talk and talk about the product, my job and how you can learn more and get more! Then we end. My order form is super simple so anyone can fill it out! You list your product (by name please) and then how many and the price then add it all up add 10% for shipping and you are done! NO TAX!! No odd numbers to add up, I love it!!
So my first party hostess earned 2 meals (it was a January special) the leftovers from her party (which I don't believe she had any because she had a large group), 10% of her sales which at this time is a little over $40. A chance to purchase our host special dishes, and a chance to get 35% off this month's HG Preferred dinner meals, and since her sales are over $400 another item at 35% off! I would say she did a great job for one night and all she had to do was cook a couple things and clean her house! I even lent her my steam mop! (She wanted to try it out).
Are you interested in hosting a show if so let me know I live just south of Houston but will go anywhere in about a one hour radius!

Tacos!

2011-01-18T14:19:00.004-06:00

Tacos are a staple in our house. Over the years I have done various things to season them. I have used different packets, my mom just uses Chili Powder. Mostly I bought the individual packets or when I find it a large container of the seasoning. Last night I was at a loss on what to cook, so I decided tacos, it had been awhile, and although it was 30 minutes from dinner and no meat was defrosted I decided I could do this. I have a packet of seasoning, but since I was looking through my recipe cards I decided to try the Taco Soup Seasoned Meat for our tacos. Once my meat thawed I cooked the meet with the seasoning, unlike packets where you drown the meat in water and seasoning at the end. The taste is not that bold taco flavor, so personally it was just okay. My husband also liked it as a good change of pace. My daughter (super picky eater who it takes much encouragement to eat a taco) ate her taco in a quarter of her usual time. She didn't even freak out when the shell broke (that usually ads 5 minutes to the taco eating time!) So another win for Homemade Gourmet! Bonus if you order now Taco Soup Seasoning is on sale!!

Soup's On!

2011-01-14T18:17:00.005-06:00

This month the soups are 15% off so I decided that we would try a few. I asked my husband to pick some out and he picked the Chicken and Rice Creme Soup, Bonnie's Blue Ribbon Chili, and I picked the Taco Soup Staple (it was actually cheaper since the staple was on sale to get the refill and buy the container and the recipe cards separate).
Dinner tonight I decided I would try out the Chicken and Rice Creme Soup. I didn't have any meat thawed or precooked, so around 3:30 I put 4-5 frozen chicken breast along with a can of Chicken Broth in a pot on the stove. I let these cook for about an hour and then used the Pampered Chef Mix n Chop to cut up the chicken. I then poured it into a strainer saving the broth for my soup. The recipe calls for 6 cups of water, but like I have said before when you can substitute broth for water go ahead it usually turns out in your favor. The recipe for the Chicken and Rice Creme soup is the mix, 6 cups of water and 12oz canned chicken or 1 cup chicken. I ended up with 2 cups of the broth so I did 2 cups of broth with the mix and 1 cup of chicken. I put all the ingredients back in the same pot I had just cooked the chicken in (I took the other 2 cups of chicken and put them in the fridge for my next recipe). Then whisked as stated on the directions to combine, and then brought to a boil and simmered 20 minutes.
The verdict: I liked it, although it was a bit salty, probably from the broth, might go ahead with a lower sodium broth next time. Hubby liked it and got a second helping. My daughter did not want soup and so she opted for an Easy Mac. I did make her try one bite, she was already convinced she would not like it, so she did not like it (or so she says, she did not spit it out!).
In all I would say it was a total success! Dinner in 20 minutes if I had the chicken pre-prepared, which I do for next time. We also have 2 servings left for another day.

Another Opportunity...

2011-01-11T15:22:00.004-06:00

I have a friend who sells Creative Memories, and since I LOVE to scrapbook and Creative Memories is my preferred product I try and go to her events. I have been to one scrapbooking day with her and remember their being some snacks there, which is great while scrapbooking. She had another event coming up this past Saturday so I asked her if she and the other CM consultants would be interested in my providing the snacks. It could save them time and money. It was agreed that I could provide for them. So I decided on some BLT dip (my favorite and I have a pantry staple!), Mock Spinach (it sounded good and I wanted to try it), Jalapeno Bacon Cheddar (a friend had bought it and decided it was too spicy so traded for something of equal value something you can do with any HG product you don't like, burn or whatever) and Roasted tomato Salsa (I had a few on hand so I knew I could make one and possibly sell the others). For dessert I had a Cinnamon Sopapilla dessert and Apple Crisp.
The prep was super easy as always. The dips were all mix and chill. The Salsa was a can of Rotel and a can of tomatoes and the mix put in blender and blend for a little bit then chill and serve. I decided to go ahead and make the cinnamon sopaillas ahead and serve chilled. The apple crisp I did that morning and actually melted a part of my new rolling cooler (oops!).
In all I think it went well. The CM consultants were glad not to have to think of that portion of the prep and doings for the day, and I was glad to get my products out there!
If you don't already know the soups are on sale this month! I bought for myself the Chicken and Rice Creme, Taco Soup mix and Blue Ribbon Chili! I can't wait for it to come in later this week! I will let you know how those turn out!!

Enchilada Soup on a not so cold day

2010-12-22T23:25:00.003-06:00

I live in Texas and if you listen to the complainers on facebook, it's a million degrees too hot outside. Personally I am enjoying it. I got to wear a polo today and didn't need my jacket, perfect weather. It's not really soup weather, but ever since I saw the Enchilada Soup Mix I have wanted to try it. I LOVE enchiladas and any way to get that flavor in my mouth makes me a happy girl. I also thought this would be a soup my hubby would like. He was not a fan of the Taco Soup made for the open house, because it had beans and corn in it. The enchilada soup has tomatoes, but he will get over it. So the recipe was 7tbsp of the mix, some milk, water, a can of tomatoes and some pre-cooked chicken, simple like everything else! I threw it together in the pot gave it a couple stirs and left it to heat up then simmer 20 minutes. I love it!! My husband approved of it, and my daughter didn't try it. The tomatoes I used I think took away from the actual soup texture and flavor. I think I will try some rotel next time! I think this soup really captured the enchilada flavor without being too much of anything. I also think I would have liked some cheese on top of it, because every enchilada needs cheese! In all I was a happy camper and will gladly have more for lunch tomorrow even if it is 80 outside!

Skillet Chicken and Rice

2010-12-14T20:42:00.003-06:00

I received my package from the Christmas Open House to find that one of the products had spilled. Now I can't give that to a customer so I did a damage report to get a new one. It had not spilled so bad that I would deem it unusable though so I had to sacrifice myself and my family to try it out. This was a good idea, except that it's a Skillet chicken and rice and my husband recently discovered that my skillet's coating was coming off, so it's not going to be used again (don't worry my sister bought me a new one at her job for a great discount!). So luckily right on the Homemade Gourmet package they had an alternative recipe for casserole Chicken and rice! Awesome, even better I had all the ingredients on hand! It called for a cream of soup (I had chicken it asks for mushroom) and some water and some chicken. I mixed the water and the soup and the rice together put them in the 9x13 pyrex, then placed some frozen chicken on top. Now the recipe just said chicken and I am lazy so I tried the frozen, can't hurt right? I do believe it would be better to go ahead and take the 5-10 min while the oven preheats to thaw the chicken, so lesson learned. I put this all in the oven for the required 40 minutes (I am doing this from memory so forgive me if I am wrong!) When I checked it at the time it said the chicken was almost done, but the rice was still fairly raw, so I threw it back in for 20 minutes. That did the trick.
The opinions of my family on this new meal: My daughter liked it with some hesitation, so not real sure if she really liked it or was just wanting us to be happy she was eating it. My husband thought the rice was over cooked. I can blame this on my extra 20 minutes (maybe should have been less) or the loss of some rice in the original spillage. I loved it, and have had most of the leftovers myself! I did like the flavor of the rice more than the chicken, but since the chicken just laid on top it didn't really get much flavor. We both agree we will try it again, but attempt the skillet version with my new skillet when it gets to me! All in all it was a success! Go ahead try some yourself!

Christmas Open House

2010-12-05T21:59:00.004-06:00

I have a friend who sells Scentsy and she decided to do an Open House at her home for Christmas and invited myself, Jillybeans Treats, Avon and Pampered Chef to come set up a table and sell our stuff. So I got to try a couple more recipes!
I decided my menu on Friday for the Saturday Open House. I decided to go with things I had the stuff for and would not be opening new containers more inventory in hopes of selling that instead of taste testing it all! So the menu for my table became the Garlic Lemon Chicken and Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake Ball. The menu for stuff to go on the food table with everyone else's stuff was Garlic Basil Dip and BLT Dip.
Friday night I put together the 2 dips and mixed the cheesecake ball. Now I know from experience you can cheat with cream cheese and "soften" it in the mixer. I learned you can't cheat with butter this same way, but if you mix and find it doesn't work just leave it on the counter to soften the long way and mix again and all is well. This was thankfully my only snag in making my foods for the open house. The cheesecake ball was super simple cream cheese, butter (softened) and the mix. If you really soften the butter and cream cheese first it would take only the time it takes your mixer to mix these 3 things. If you try and cheat like I did it takes about an hour cause you have to let the butter soften. The two dips were equally as simple, and since I have the pantry staples for both it was measure mix and done!
The hardest part was that the open house started at 9am. First I had to decide if I should even bother with something like chicken or if it would be wiser to just do the dips. I went with the chicken hoping it would inspire more in sales. I did get one comment from Jillybeans treats about the smell of garlic at 8am (while we were setting up), and not everyone tasted the chicken, but that was a risk I took, not sure if I would have done better with different choices or if it was a mute point. Anyway the chicken I chose was the Garlic Lemon chicken. I partly chose this because it was my only pantry staple I had not yet used, and in case I didn't like it I could give it away to my host or one of the other ladies there. I was worried about my liking this one because I don't like lemon as a primary flavor. Thankfully it's not an overpowering lemon flavor. If you like lemon the 4 meals in 4 minutes recipe you can use margarita mix which I am sure will accent the lemon flavor. Back to what I actually did. I used 2tablespoons of butter a quarter cup of water some of the seasoning and then 3lbs of chicken. I went ahead Friday night and put the butter, water and seasoning in the crockpot, then set my alarm for 5am to wake up dump the frozen chicken in the pot and go back to bed. That is exactly what I did, and I think it turned out well. If I were doing it again I would have put water, butter and seasoning in on top of the chicken so it would maybe get more of the seasoning flavor, but when I am thinking about doing something in the middle of the night the less I have to do the better!
In all the open house went well, I got a few orders and possibly a few new customers that may or may not become regulars. I also decided I would "trade parties" with the Scentsy consultant to possibly help both of us out, and I want some Scentsy, but can't think about spending money on it right now.

Spaghetti even my husband likes!

2010-12-01T12:50:00.003-06:00

One of the problems in our marriage is the food I like and the food my husband likes aren't the same. I am okay with veggies (although my mom wasn't great at feeding them to us because she doesn't love them) and I am okay with odd foods (Spam is yummy!). He likes things spicy and the fewer veggies the better. One of my favorites from childhood is my mother's spaghetti sauce. It's great and it's what I grew up with so I love it. The problem is it's very tomato heavy. This is not okay for my tomato hating hubby. So I make it he tolerates it and I have a week of leftovers. Sometimes this is great, sometimes this is not so great. Now for the Homemade Gourmet solution. When I got the Pantry Staples for myself I was excited about two (the two I already tried) and could go either way on the other two. The Homestyle Spaghetti Seasoning is one of the ones I wasn't sure of. I love my current recipe for Spaghetti sauce why mess with it? Well I will try for my husband this new recipe. So yesterday about 3 hours before dinner I know it's too late to do some chicken (not to mention we didn't have any). The dinner choice then becomes Spaghetti Sauce. I decide to try the new seasoning for dinner tonight, worse case I don't like it and I eat plain spaghetti it would not be a first. I read the recipe 15oz tomato sauce 6oz paste and 2 cups of water with some of the Homestyle Spaghetti Seasoning. Easy dumped it all in the slow cooker (too early for the stove and although it says 4 hours I know it will not hurt us to eat it in 3). I did ask my husband if he needed meat in the sauce and he did so a run to the store was in order. The sauce cooked up easily and about 5:00 I cooked the ground meat, threw some water on to boil. I added the cooked meat to the crock pot and when the pasta was ready made some garlic bread (butter, garlic powder and bread) then we ate. The result a husband happy with the spaghetti sauce! My personal opinion it's not my mom's but nothing ever lives up to mom's! My daughter also was not a fan, but she eats the plain pasta so that's okay!
On another note Monday I received my free Homemade Gourmet cooler for having $1000 in sales my first month!! Thanks to my customers! I can't wait to show it off at an Open house this Saturday. If you are in the Houston Area I would love to see you there!

Thanksgiving and the Day After

2010-11-26T19:15:00.003-06:00

I am not a huge fan of the whole Thanksgiving meal, it's something I could easily (and have in the past) missed. I don't like turkey and I can make my own mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes anytime I want and well I want them like I want them, so it's easier to make them on my own. So Thanksgiving is my sister's holiday to host. This works out well for me so I don't have to fuss over a meal I don't care to eat. I also decided this year that Thanksgiving to me is allot like Valentine's Day for some people. Why am I being told to be thankful this one day shouldn't I always be thankful? I am a glass half full type of person, and I believe God takes care of His own. He won't let me down, and if He does it's something I just don't see at this time. So Thanksgiving is a non-holiday holiday for me. All this said (sorry I ramble) I was told this year to make an appetizer. Great! My Homemade Gourmet dips are on sale this month (you have 4 more days) and I ordered a bunch with my first order to have on hand. I asked my husband which he would like and he picked the Gusto Garlic Pesto Cheese Ball. It was super simple I left 2 cream cheeses (one 1/3 fat and one full fat) out to soften and then dumped them and the mix in the mixer beat for 1-2 minutes and dumped in a container. I was done! I got some wheat thins to go with it and cut up some broccoli (for my sister the health nut). It did not pair well with the broccoli after it set it was too hard to eat with the broccoli, and really I had that to appease my sister. The dip was what it's name says it's GUSTO! I could easily have made it into a cheese ball, but since I had to travel with it both to and from the dinner I chose to just leave it in the bowl. It had set nicely in the fridge overnight and would not have been too difficult to make a ball out of. So that was my Thanksgiving contribution.
Today (Black Friday) I actually thought ahead for dinner around 9am! I was looking in the freezer and saw some pot roast I had bought on sale. I decided that was what was for dinner tonight! So I pulled it out (frozen) dumped it in the crock pot added 4 Tablespoons of the Sunday Roast Seasoning and 2 cups of water and set it for 8 hours on high. This is not the exact recipe from the recipe cards or from the Keys 2 the Kitchen website. This was my rendition of what I had and what I wanted. I didn't have any root veggies so they could not go in. The pot roast itself was small so I didn't want to use the recipe for the 4lb one. So I improvised. Now if you know me you know that's not always smart, but this time it was great! Seven and a half hours later we had the pot roast with some Mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and rolls. I asked my husband truthfully what did he think of this roast vs the ones I had done before (I used bullion cubes and a cup of water) and he was in favor of the new Sunday Roast Seasoning over the bullion cubes. I also preferred this as it had more flavors but did not overpower the roast itself. In all tonight's dinner was truly our family Thanksgiving dinner. My hardest critic my 4 year old child actually admitted to liking the meat! Now if you have a picky eater you are thinking no way, me too! I can't believe it she liked and wanted more meat and more of the potatoes! I know even picky kids like mashed potatoes, not mine! This was a breakthrough meal, if she will eat a meat that isn't processed, flattened, breaded and deep fried I am happy! That was the true success of the meal. I was told even picky kids will eat Homemade Gourmet, I am now a believer!

First Family Meal

2010-11-25T08:15:00.004-06:00

When I did my first order for $400. I made sure to get a Pantry Basics Collection. This is both so I can taste many meals without purchasing the items individually, and because it's the base for the 4 meals in 4 minutes. I can showcase these meals at your home party so you and your friends can learn more! The Pantry Basics comes with four Pantry Staples, the cute little containers, scoops and recipe cards. You save almost $20 when you buy the collection instead of buying the items individually.
The recipe I decided to try first was the Garlic Basil Seasoning meal which is one of the 4 meals in 4 minutes. The intention of the 4 meals in 4 minutes is to have meals in your freezer, but they can also be cooked immediately. I decided to do mine immediately. The recipe was Garlic Basil Seasoning, 3 pounds of Chicken and a can of tomatoes. I dumped the frozen chicken in the slow cooker (one bag from the grocery store) the can of tomatoes and the seasoning. Done. Cook 4 hours and enjoy!
My daughter is not a fan of new foods so I try and always have something on the table she will eat. That night I decided to make spaghetti with the chicken. The reasoning behind this is i figured it would make a good match, and my daughter would eat it. We ate and it was pretty good. I think I would have preferred it if the chicken had been thawed and the seasoning could get more into the chicken, but for a meal that literally took less than a minute to throw together it was great!
You might have noticed I did say I used 3 pounds of chicken. This is what the recipe calls for so that is what I did. I will probably go ahead and cut recipes in half in the future because we ate on this all week! Here were the leftover meals:
1. I took a piece of chicken and mixed it with the leftover spaghetti. This was okay, but dry. My husband doesn't like tomatoes so in saving the chicken leftovers I did not save many tomatoes.
2. I cut the chicken (mashed it really it was very tender) and heated it along with some Orzo pasta on the stove. This was a good pairing. The orzo is a small pasta and so unlike the spaghetti it was not as overwhelming and since it was fresh it wasn't too dry. I also added a little chicken broth to the chicken as I re-heated it. This was good but a little bland. Don't worry we had lots of leftovers!
3. I put the chicken and the orzo together to save and this was still enough to get another meal out of! The third (and final) meal I made was the saved chicken and orzo plus some velveeta cheese. I put in about 4oz of the cheese and melted it while heating the leftovers in the oven. When I went to stir it I made a bad) decision that it needed more cheese. I added another 3-4 oz and stirred that in also putting it back in the oven to melt the cheese and heat the chicken and pasta. I should have stopped with the first 4oz. We did eat the cheese chicken and orzo, but it was a little more cheese than it should have been. I don't mind the taste of velveeta, but I would have liked to taste the chicken and orzo also. The leftovers from this (about one more meal worth) went down the drain no way to save it from the cheese.
To recap: The Garlic Basil Chicken made 4 meals for a family of 3 and could have done one more if not for the invasion of too much cheese. I would say we liked the chicken and will most likely repeat this meal in the future, but with less cheese on the last rendition.

Open House cooking!

2010-11-22T22:48:00.002-06:00

I will start my chronicles of my cooking Homemade Gourmet with my first experience and that is my Open House. I made a menu of Taco Soup, Dip made with the Taco Soup mix, Texas Cornbread, and Cinnamon Sopapillas. I made these selections based on what I got in my starter kit (Taco Soup), what looked good paired with it (cornbread) and what I have been told is a great seller and just looked yummy (cinnamon sopapilla).
What I did not realize when I scheduled my open house is I would be busy until noon that same day. So this became a real test of the simplicity of the products! I started with gathering the ingredients to be sure I would not have a last minute run to the store (did I mention I was also busy the whole day before the party, and half the day before that). Once I knew I had everything together (Thursday night) I made my game plan. I decided I would do the Taco Soup (literally a dump and heat) the hour before the party started. The cornbread and the dip would somehow be made before I went to bed on Friday. Last the Cinnamon Sopapilla was put together the day before and cooked literally minutes before the party.
The cornbread was my actual first product I made. It was a very simple put the ingredients (eggs, milk, butter and the HG mix) in a bowl stir portion into the pan. I used mini muffin pans since this was for a tasting. Then cook. Simple! I will admit I overfilled the muffin cups, but that is no fault of the product just me. The mini muffin tins actually belong to my mother and grandmother and I don't borrow them too often so I don't know what "full" looks like on them. The cornbread still turned out great. I am not a huge cornbread fan, but these were moist and the right amount of sweet. I had no problem eating the leftovers!
Next on the list was the taco dip made out of the HG Taco Soup Mix. This was also very simple and I used the recipe on the back of the box. This calls for Taco Soup Mix (half a packet) Sour Cream, Salsa, Mayo and Cream Cheese. I dumped it all in a bowl and stirred. I then left it in the fridge overnight to set. I don't know about you, but I have a couple of dips that when I find them I can't stop eating them, this was one of mine! I am so excited to now have the recipe and it's simple!
I then prepared part of the Cinnamon Sopapillas. I lined my 9x13 with crescent rolls, mixed the HG Cinnamon Sopapilla Dessert Mix with one brick of cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat) and then topped with another tube of crescent rolls. I refrigerated this overnight.
When I got home at 12:15 (Open House starts at 1:00!) I started my taco soup. I dumped one can of corn, one can of tomatoes, one can of green chilies, one can of pinto beans and one can of water along with some precooked chicken I had sitting in the fridge and of course the HG Taco Soup Mix into the crock-pot and turned it on high. I did realize this would not heat it fast enough so I took a little more than half out to heat on the stove which took less than 15 minutes to a good warm temperature.
After dumping the taco soup together I melted some butter and mixed with the second packet from the HG Cinnamon Sopapilla Dessert Mix. I poured this on top of the 9x13 I had prepared the night before stuck it in the oven for 30 minutes and waited for the result.
Now if you aren't already impressed with the ease of making these things, I will tell you in my humble and honest opinion it was all really good! The Taco soup, which I am not typically a fan of was just right. I might add more beans next time and less chicken, but that's my preference. The cornbread as I stated before was just the right amount of sweet and moist. The dip was my problem all day I had to control my staying away from it! The cinnamon Sopapillas, well let my sales of that product speak for itself - of the 12 people who came to the open house 10 ordered some, the total order for the Sopapillas including 1 order that came from a friend at a Bible study the next day totaled 15. I would say they were a hit!
Are you interested yet? Check out all the above mentioned products and more at my website www.homemadegourmet.com/donnacooks

Homemade Gourmet

2010-11-22T22:28:00.002-06:00

Well you have learned I am not the best at keeping up with the blog. Could be cause my only readers are my family. I am actually going to take a little different turn to the blog now and tell you more about my new home based business. Now if you know me you know I have tried and failed at the home based business route before. I attribute this to picking a product that my friend sold and going under her. It's a great product and I still use it, but it's just a saturated market at this point. Now I have started fresh with something I don't actually know anyone who sells it. It's a consumable product so if you like it you will come back to me for more. Now if you don't already know I am selling Homemade Gourmet. It is food based and basically meant to make your time in the kitchen less while still getting a great meal on the table for your family! Yes I have a website where you can find out more www.homemadegourmet.com/donnacooks You will need to sign up as my customer and make your orders with that account to give me your business. Thanks in advance!
Now for my story...
I went to a friend's Mary Kay open house and she had a food product there for sale. I was wanting to try hard this year not to return to my seasonal job which overworks and underpays me, so I had a far fetched idea about starting up a new home based business for extra cash. The food product she had was pretty good and we talked about it some and I liked the idea of selling a food based product. I looked into this company and it didn't sit right so I dropped the subject. I did tell my friend and she said try a different food based one called Homemade Gourmet. Immediately I liked Homemade Gourmet! The mission statement is "With God's help, Homemade Gourmet strives to bring families back to the dinner table by providing quality, affordable, easy to prepare meals, education, and direct sales business opportunities." First thing I loved is the second word is God! The next thing is getting families to the dinner table. I don't know about your family, but we had breakfast and dinner at the table every day I liked it, and hope for my family to do the same. Next I had to look at the start up cost, $39! I can afford that! I then called the company found someone to be my upline and asked a million questions and decided to jump in with both feet!
At this point, you may or may not realize I had never tasted anything Homemade Gourmet and my upline is a stranger in another city (Waco). That's okay I am ready.
My friend (the same from above the Mary Kay consultant. Already had a party for another product planned and she agreed to be a test host for me. So I gave her my host kit from the starter kit and she cooked it that day for her party. It was delicious, (phew!) I got no sales that night, but some interest. I then planned an Open House for a Saturday afternoon. I realized when I went to order a few extra dishes, bags, order forms and catalogs I had to make a $400 order to qualify and make any order. So I went ahead spent more money I did not have and jumped into this now with both feet! The open house was a success! I have now qualified for my first prize as a consultant and feel this is a successful start!
What I plan to do now with this blog is to follow my tastings of the various things I make with my Homemade Gourmet products. Stay tuned!

2010-05-29T15:36:00.001-05:00

Contest

2009-11-19T12:00:00.002-06:00

Okay I am not usually the one to go for the contest, but I love Melissa and Doug products so I can't pass this one up. Melissa and Doug is having a contest for their play kitchen. The current plan for Joy's Santa gift is the Cook's Corner Kitchen which I have been eyeing since this time last year. So one of the ways to add entries is to blog about the contest, please don't also sign up for the contest unless you also want to give it to Joy. Either way she's getting a Melissa and Doug Kitchen for Christmas, and will love it, but I could put more in savings if she got it for free!!
That's all. Sorry no pictures of Joy as the Mac is still unplugged (I don't know why though).

3rd Year Pictures

2009-09-23T16:12:00.003-05:00

Joy turned 3 on Saturday and we went for her 3rd year pictures today. You can see for youself how they turned out.

Pretty little girl

Who me?

Don't make me laugh

Loving on my Mickey

1st day of school

2009-09-10T15:09:00.004-05:00

It was a success! When I picked her up, after almost crying when she saw me, she said "I love my class" I then took her for a treat at TCBY.

This is right after I sat down after paying. I could see we were in for a real treat, glad I brought the camera!

She is trying to be neat, she has a napkin.

Mid lick.

Yummy!

The final product. Yes she has some on her nose.

Her smile

While she ate we talked about school, and that she gets to go back on Tuesday. She was glad she gets to go back, but disappointed that she doesn't go back every day.

Did you miss me?

2009-09-10T10:14:00.016-05:00

Did you miss me? I took a hiatus. Actually what happened was the computer desk got built, and in the process computer shuffling happened. That and I took Joy out of daycare cause I didn't love subbing and financially it wasn't working either, we lost money on that venture. So this year Joy is in a 2 day a week Mother's Day Out program on Tuesday and Thursday. This is much needed Mommy alone or with Daddy time. This also allows me to switch back and forth along our lovely new computer desk from the Mac to my computer. So here is a snippet of what life has been like the last 6 months.

This is one of two Easter cakes I made one for our Sunday school the other for
our family Easter day.

I let Joy dye eggs this year, I had her take off her clothes cause I would rather stain her than her clothing. I know how to get it off her!

A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go!

Her bounty at least some of it.

She and Daddy got Chocolate Bunnies

Simple Project: I always see bow hangers at craft shows and never can pay the crazy prices they ask, so I made my own and it's perfect for her future room. I am imagining pink for the future. I know it doesn't match Mickey, but she will eventually give up or grow out of Mickey (well at least the room).

Plenty of room for more bows (Santa?)

A little summer fun.

Our Icemaker no longer dispenses ice since Hurricane Ike, so every now and then a dumping of the ice is necessary, where better to dump it than in a water table on a hot day?

We visited the firestation with our Mom group this summer, this is Joy "driving" the firetruck. Watch out fire she is looking mad!

We renewed our Moody Garden's Membership instead of the zoo, trying to get a little diversity in our lives. This is a skull in the lobby there, I guess she is a booger?

A short tree frog.

A growth chart of penguins.

This is from earlier in the summer, I think she's grown a bit this summer what about you?

Our day trip to Brenham!

Daddy too!

Miniature horses or as Joy says "Joy sized"

Since the real horses are not trained for riding she rode the statue.

That brings us to today... The first day of MDO/Preschool/"school" for Joy.
Getting in the car.

Finding our cubby!

She's ready to go, Monkey backpack and lunch are in the cubby.

Sitting down at her spot.

Mommy I am ignoring you would you leave already!

So that has been our summer. We stayed at home all summer and enjoyed being just us. The "big" news in our family is Rob's job has cut his pay 10% and "given" him one day each pay period off. So I signed back up for subbing and will do my 1st job tomorrow. He will stay home when I work so we don't have to find a daycare or someone else to watch her. That's all folks! I will try and keep better updated, but who knows!

Livestock Show and Rodeo

2009-03-06T18:56:00.008-06:00

Well it's that time of year again! The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. I took Joy last year with a friend and she liked it, although still kinda young and didn't fully understand everything. This year she had allot more fun and enjoyed a little more, and we had more to do! On a side note the picture uploading for blogger is very frustrating to me at times, and I forget this and don't load the pictures in the right order so sorry, but these aren't in any great order, but I did group them in like pictures. Enjoy...

Cowgirl Joy, I bought this outfit when I went back to the Rodeo Wednesday night to see Alan Jackson. We went today to get the boots from Cavenders!

You could say Joy was a reluctant model for the pictures, no smile, but she loves her new outfit and boots even if it doesn't show!

One of her favorite things at the rodeo was sitting in/on the big tractors! I made her cry when I got her off both times!

Hmm what does this switch do?

Big Tractor!

The one thing I promised her about the rodeo and she would tell you anytime you asked was she was going to get to ride a pony at the rodeo! So here she is on her pony ride (only one at $6 a ride!)

Waiting in line for the new farmer experience for kids!

Sitting on the hay was the most exciting thing!

More Hay sitting

We have our basket and we are ready to be farmers.

Joy wanted to go see the pigs, but some schools were there and not real friendly/good about being in line or letting you back in so I just took a picture from afar. The look there is come on Mom.

Feeding the chickens

Waiting in line with the apron on.

Baby piglets at the birthing center.

Beauregard Elsie's son. (If you don't know Elsie she's the Borden cow if you don't know Borden you're not a Texan)

A cow eating hay.

Miss Moo and Howdy dancing.

Joy shaking Miss Moo's hand, I had to tell her to let go!

Miss Moo and Howdy saying hello to eachother.

Joy would not see Howdy by herself so here we are together with Howdy.

Howdy The Houston Livestock show and Rodeo bowlegged H.

That is our pictorial of the day and our new cowgirl outfit. I think Joy is a proper Texan now and has something I don't think I ever had, a pair of cowboy boots. Liz and I are going to take care of that detail later this week/month with our own trip to Cavenders or somewhere else to get some boots of our own!

Updating...

2009-02-24T14:51:00.011-06:00

Okay so maybe it's not all Rob's fault that I don't post too often. Nothing much happening in our lives of great signifigance so not allot to post. I think that is good means things are happening as they should. So here are some pictures to update you on our lives.

This is Joy being cute in her adorable red dress and black shrug, just had to share.

Here we are at the zoo apparently I am taking a picture to see if something is caught in my teeth?!?

More zoo, we were there with our Mommy group first time to go with a group and let her out of the stroller. We learned 2 things, taking the stroller is a good idea, going with a group and letting her go ahead while Mommy is the back of the line going through the children's zoo crazy doors is a bad idea. My timid shy never leaves Mommy's side child ran from the crazy doors down the otter slide and was on her way to the playground when I finally got out of the crazy doors. I guess we have been to the zoo enough she is comfortable there and usually I am right there following her because it's just our family or me and one other person so she did what she usually does. I don't think she even knew I wasn't right there with her, but she still got a good scolding and we went back to the group. She didn't leave my side again. This is my angel sitting on a bench at the zoo.

Riding the carousel, a must do we rode the polar bear this time.

This is Tucker, we like him, but we miss Mac.

Excuse the PG-13 shot, but she put on Daddy's socks and pulled them up then put on his shoes all by herself and then Daddy took the picture! Too cute!

This is her new swing. Hurricane Ike made us take down the old swing, and Rob just never put it back and she has been begging for it to go back up. The problem is it's lopsided and hard to push, it's just difficult to push her for the 10 seconds she wants then take her out again. So he offered the idea of a single rope swing. I went ahead and got it, and this is what she does with it. She stares at it. She tried it once with Daddy, but didn't get the concept. The good news is she isn't asking for a swing anymore?!?

If Joy catches you laying on the floor she will usually say turn over I want to ride you. So sometimes we let her and other times it's a no go. On this day she was being particularly cute/funny about riding Daddy so I took some pictures. This first one is how she gets you to get up, she pulls on the shirt until you relent and get up.

Along with this smile is an infectious laughter so even if you are the horse you are getting the benefit of knowing that she is having a great time!

My project. So we have been working on and off on the front lawn/gardening beds for awhile. First we had the million bushes that attacked you onthe way in. Rob pulled those out (amazingly hard work) and we were left with the long bed, which I then decided to pull the railroad ties off of. Those things are huge and heavy and I had to be rescued about half way through that project. Since then that bed has stayed pretty empty we ocassionally took some dirt out of it, and then planted some monkey grass along it to make it look like we cared. It really evolved into a nice weed bed. We got one letter from the home owners association and pulled the weeds, but like good weeds they came back. So I finally borrowed Elizabeth's cultivator so we could really do something to that bed. This weekend we cultivated, weeded and planted that bed with some bulbs of caladium and cannas. I have no idea what will happen but I hope it looks good. Next project is I wanted to take the railroad ties off from around the Magnolia tree in the front yard (I really do hate those things). Rob and I talked about it Sunday while working on the other bed, but he said no not to start another project. Fine I didn't that day!
Today I started that project. I dropped Joy off at daycare and since I couldn't find a sub job I went to Home Depot to get some dirt, marking spray paint, possibly some more monkey grass and a shelf for our laundry room. Step 1 remove railroad ties. Now the others had started no problem because they terminated at the wall. This was a bit more of a challenge. In the end I used the circular saw to cut through them then hand sawed a little further then picked them up and dropped them by our trash spot. I had forgotten that they are not 2 deep as it looks, but 3 deep, but I did manage to get it done. This is a picture of step 1.

And the railroad ties waiting for someone to come take them either trash on Thursday or some crazy person between now and then.

Next I marked the new bed size.

I removed the grass from one side

then the other.

I also planted the Mondo grass (the closest I could find to what we already have) obviously I still needed more.

Finally I went back to Home Depot got some edging and more mondo grass and this is the result... My square bed is now round. I still need more dirt, but I must say it is very much an improvement. I also bought some annuals but waiting to get the dirt in before I put in the flowers.

Are you Ready?

2009-01-27T14:36:00.014-06:00

For those of you who are wishing I was better at posting pictures you are in luck. Rob has installed a switch on his computers to share the monitor so now all I have to do is push a button and stop pushing Rob's buttons!
Here you go some pictures from before during and after Christmas...

Joy taking a nap, yes she is actually asleep like this!

Making sure Santa had cookies and milk!

Her new playdoh kitchen! She is also wearing her Tinkerbell from Paw Paw.

This is her tutu I made for her. Not to bad if I do say so myself.

Opening a present with Mommy's help.

For Christmas we got a new living room fan, while Daddy was putting it up this is what Joy was doing. Very serious about her writings!

Vicki and I had the chance to go to the KSBJ Girl's Day Out which was added when the Night out filled up. This better fit our schedules so here we are!

This is Jen Driskill from KSBJ she's the evening DJ and very sweet, so I decided to be the dork with the camera and here we are with her.

This is Ayeisha Woods and James Woods they sang at the Girls Night out, if I can I will upload a little of one of the songs she sang! She rocks!

This is Kate Gosselin from Jon and Kate plus 8. I was glad we were at the Daytime show I never would have waited in line if it was the evening sold out show!

Okay back to Joy, This is her in her first Night Gown! Isn't she pretty and all grown up looking?

I took this picture to get the shoes in, and yes she wore them all night! The funny smiling face was a bonus.

Well I guess this is her picture smile for now, I can't help but to laugh at it, but it is cute! Oh and I took the picture because she is wearing her birthday crown from her 1st b-day and looked so cute! (Yes she is holding her night night diaper looking to throw it away, she is fully trained for awake time, not sleeping time.)

This is a better picture of the dress and the crown, they kinda match!

So that updates us on pictures I think. These last 4 were taken this past weekend. As far as what's happening in life, it's not much. We are getting into a routine of me working 0-3 days a week depending on other circumstances like going to the Girl's Day Out or not getting jobs or Joy not feeling well (she had a fever yesterday but seems better today) I have not been working as much as I want so hopefully the next couple of weeks I will be able to work full 3 day weeks. I have made some good use of my time and finished Joy's first album pregnancy-3months. I have started on the second and will get a second wind of scrapbooking soon I hope. I also finished my college graduation album (only took 4 years). I have a long list of to do in the scrapbook area, and hope to get more done sooner than later! I guess that really does update you, have a wonderful day!

Is it over?

2009-01-06T15:32:00.002-06:00

Well, I have failed in posting anything for over a month, but if you know what my month was like you will extend forgiveness. It was a month filled with work, work and more work. I worked at Toys R Us up to 2 days before Christmas. Am I done? I wasn't on the schedule last week and no one has called complaining I am not there this week so yes? Do I miss it yes, it's like someone hit the breaks on me going 100 miles an hour but forgot to tell me. Would I do it again, probably, it depends on the circumstances of the next couple of years. It paid for all of Christmas and we paid off the credit card and half the roof. The other half is going on credit, but should be taken care of in 2 months or less (we hope). We are trying to do things the Dave Ramsey way. No debt! We have been trying on and off for over a year to do this, various things happen and mess us up (IKE!) but this year we are trying again. Also happening this year is I am going back to WW. I have wanted to for awhile, and just not figured out the way or time to do it. Well Joy goes to "school" 3 days a week, if I can take Tuesdays for myself to go to WW, clean house (don't laugh too hard) and do other errands, then the other 2 days I will sub. If I need to then I can easily work on the Tuesday also and go to the 6:00pm meeting instead of the 9:30 meeting. For now this is the plan.
Well I know what you really want is pictures from Christmas so here are a couple, and the rest (as usual) are still on the Mac and I will try to get Rob to leave the Mac up again tomorrow so I can indulge you all.

My present from my hubby, singstar for the Playstation 2. Let me know when you want to come over and embarrass yourself! I am ready to challenge you!

My Joy, my Tink! She got this from her Paw Paw and wore it most of the day (over her clothes of course!) She loves it and don't even think of taking off the wings or adding the wig!

Potty Training...

2008-11-22T21:37:00.003-06:00

So we started Monday 2 weeks ago with underwear anytime we are awake. We have done well, she will go to the potty even on big potties if she has to while out. That was my biggest worry and we sometimes still go places and she sees the potty and decides to wait longer. She doesn't like big potties and really doesn't like loud flushes. Last week we had a minimum of one accident a day. The weekend was back in a diaper because we went to the Renaissance Festival and well I was just being lazy Sunday cause I was home alone with her (and unsure how she would do at church). So Monday back in underwear and one accident. Tuesday dry all day. Wednesday dry all day. Thursday 2 accidents one during nap (teacher forgot naptime diaper) and one while drinking at snack. Friday no accidents. Saturday no accidents. YEAH JOY!!!! I am very proud of her and interested to see if the "training" is mostly done or if we are going one step forward 2 back. I am keeping my finger crossed and praying that we are mostly done!

Other news...
The job at Toys R Us is what I wanted, it keeps me busy and it has paid for Joy's Christmas presents, and is on it's way to pay for the rest of Christmas. Then we will have to pay for Ike. We still need a roofer to do our roof, but I am in no hurry even though we already have the money from insurance. I am hoping that in the end the Toys R Us job will get the credit card fully paid off and all the Ike stuff taken care of, then we can be where we were financially before Ike and Christmas.
Subbing, is not too bad. So far I have subbed at 2 schools in 3 classrooms for 5 days total. The first day subbing I was in a Kindergarten and the other teachers in K who are all around me, said I did a great job and one asked for me to come for her on Tuesday the next week. I did then a 3rd K teacher asked if I could sub for her on Friday, I said sure. On Wednesday the Principal of that school called said the Friday job was canceled, but the teacher I 1st subbed for needed a sub Thursday and Friday, so I was there for 2 days. I loved it. The kids did very well for me, and according to the other teachers and the para in the room I had better control than the regular teacher. I was glad to know they were happy with me. I enjoyed the kids too, they were very sweet. The other day in the other school was 3rd grade, which was also a good experience, I enjoyed that school and classroom also.
I think that is all I still owe you all pictures, but I just haven't gotten there. I started to get them off the camera one day and it froze up, not sure if Rob finished for me or not? If you really want pictures bug me and I will get them up. If you stay quiet I forget in my busyness.

0 to 2...

2008-10-26T15:51:00.002-05:00

So it finally happened I got jobs! Yes I wrote that and you read it right jobs. I am now both an employee of Toys R Us across from BayBrook Mall and CCISD. Well the CCISD will be official this coming Tuesday. I am not crazy and we are not broke, we are being proactive and trying to avoid being broke or going crazy. I started Joy in her daycare in September thinking I would already be subbing then. Well 2 months later I am going to start. In addition that little storm named IKE hit and between the extra eating out and the future new roofing and fences we are trying to not go into more debt. Then this little holiday called Christmas is coming. I am a giver and love presents so it's hard to budget for them when really I know when I find something for someone and it's just right that's what they get. My Mom's Love Language is gifts, I try hard to speak her language (although I don't always quite get it right). So really the 2 jobs are to breakeven and not be in debt. I started my first real shift on Friday and it was rough on my feet, but a new pair of shoes which I needed anyway should help that. The subbing will start next Thursday not sure if I will attempt a sub job on Halloween?!? So that's it, that's my insanity of the moment.

Songs by Joy...

2008-10-14T21:05:00.002-05:00

Here are 2 of the songs I have heard Joy singing lately...

The itsy bitsy spider did fall
Falling down falling down

(Please note that as she changed songs she changed tunes also.)

The other is a little more subtle...

The mommy called the doctor and the doctor said no more monkeys sitting in the tree.

We got really lucky other day and caught her in a singing mood and she sang a few songs for us, mainly Happy Birthday. She has become proficient with Happy Birthday, but also expects to blow out candles no matter who she sings the song to. In fact at a birthday party for a little boy (he turned 5) she was across the room sang the song and then blew and told me she had blown out the candles!

In other news, since I have been unable to this point to work for CCISD as I had hoped (although I have been told I will be in the Oct 28th orientation) I am also looking for a side job to cover the extra daycare costs up to this time and also for just some extra cash and maybe to not have a credit card bill after Christmas. I applied at Toys R Us and Kroger and they both called me back I had an interview at Toys R Us yesterday and one is scheduled for Kroger Thursday AM. I will try and remember to let you know if I get either job. If I do then don't expect a blog for awhile!

Today

2008-10-07T21:46:00.002-05:00

This morning as I am sitting at the computer catching up on some morning things Joy walks in and her morning greeting to me is not a friendly Good Morning Mommy or even a hello. It's "Mommy this sock is icky." I scratch my head and send her back to her room to put it in the laundry.

Another conversation was after school she was eating a snack at home and I told her we were going to the park for a "fair" and we were going to see a pony. She then says "I have a pony." I then realized she only knows pony as the pony tail on her head. I quickly amended my comments to talk about the horses.

The fair was our neighborhood's National Night Out meet your neighbors thing. So Joy and I started to the park. The best way to do this is start with her pulling the wagon. When she gets tired she will push for awhile, then maybe pull again. She does all this and we are about 5 houses away now and Ike debris blocked the sidewalk so we crossed the street then she tried to convince me to go home. I promised her their was better stuff at the park than home. So she climbed in and rode the rest of the way. At the park she found 2 moon bounces (one of the obstacle course type and the other a regular moon bounce. She happily played in the obstacle one until some bigger kids started running past and running into her. So we moved on to the second one. This lasted until again big kids invaded. So I asked her if she wanted to see the horses. She agreed and climbed out of the moonbounce and we walked toward the horses and petting zoo. Last time I tried to get her to ride a horse she cried, this was in February. Today she was begging to ride it, I said sure (it was free) so we tried it. She got on the horse sitting on the sadle and pulling the horn and going back and forth trying to get the horse to move (this was to the amusement of all 3 of the horse leaders). She rode that horse then went over to the petting zoo animals. They were in a nice little caged area where if you are brave enough you can go in too. Joy was brave enough and walked right in and up to a goat a little bigger than her and petted it. Of course the goat moved a little and this frightened her off a little. She gathered back her courage by looking at the turtle and the bunny in the cage. She then asked for another horse ride. No line so I said sure, and we rode a different horse. After the horse ride a line had formed so I did not allow a 3rd right off. We instead went to get some food then visit the fire truck. She wasn't sure about the truck at first and didn't want to go in, but I put her in anyway and she enjoyed it. Then she saw the steering wheel and wanted to drive it. That was not allowed and that upset her a little so we went back to the petting zoo. She had found her courage again and walked right up to a goat and gave it a hug. It was very cute, but also a little weird as this is a very new courage to her. We somewhere in all this also got a balloon puppy with leash. We finished with the petting zoo and went for one last moon bounce (again disturbed by older kids) and then one more horse ride (the 3rd one, she had to ride all 3 ponies!) Then we came home. On the way home in the wagon she kept saying I wanna go that way and pointing back at the park. I think she liked it! I was even good enough to take the camera in hopes of getting her to sit on one of the horses. I did get a picture of her on each one, although the quality is still to be determined as I would not go far from her side while she rode the horse. The pictures will be up when the Apple Computer comes back. Email Rob to ask when that will be.

2 Year Pics

2008-10-04T12:48:00.003-05:00

Before Ike we had pictures set and scheduled for the Wednesday before Joy's birthday. The studio called on Tuesday and said they didn't have power and some of their stuff was damaged so the appointment was canceled, and they weren't willing to reschedule at the time.
I decided to check into the Babies R Us near us since they recently (okay probably not that recent but still new since Joy was born) put in a little picture studio there. I went in on Friday and scheduled an appointment for Monday. She did really well and we got some cute shots here they are:

These first two are the second in a yearly event I have begun, not the Minnie dress, but with the giant Mickey. Last year she had her 1year pictures with Mickey and now she has a 2 year picture with Mickey. And yes that is the same Minnie Dress as last year, why buy a new costume for Halloween when last year's fits?

The ducky pictures are because of her love of ducks this year and her party was Ducky themed. The majority of these ducks are ours. The one in the tub is from Great Grandmother when Joy was born, so if you don't like all the ducks blame her.
These last 2 are just Joy the more traditional 2year shot. The dress (which Joy calls her party dress) is a hand me down from Lily, we love the dress! I saw it in Dillards when it was originally for sale and almost bought it except for the high price tag. When I saw Lily had it I hoped it would come to us, and it has! I love it! If you can see in the pictures where the balloons gather their is a number 2. It has multiple other numbers and a couple other shapes too. You will probably see this dress again.

Joy's 1st Blog

2008-09-27T09:27:00.001-05:00

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Joy Speak

2008-09-26T16:14:00.002-05:00

Joy speak: I want a polypop.
Translation I want a lollipop.

Joy speak: I need an issue.
Translation: I need a tissue.

Ike, 2, and life...

2008-09-23T14:31:00.002-05:00

Well here we are a week and a half since Ike came through and left a little bit of destruction in his wake. If you aren't in the Houston area you probably have regular programinging and haven't seen the new news and more news we are getting so here are some good photos of the hurricane and aftermath. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html I can actually recognize a few of those places in Galveston which is kinda weird.
For our Ike story it is thankfully uneventful and lacking in excitement, just like I want it to be. We left on Thursday when they announced our zip code was part of the mandatory evacuation. We packed up Joy, clothing for everyone toys for a couple of days, the scrapbooks and the computers and headed to my Mom's house in Houston. The news was saying if you are in a mandatory evacuation zone to go further away, but we felt paying for somewhere to stay further away was not something we wanted to do, nor were we interested in leaving for long (at least until we knew more about the storm and/or our home). So we spent Thursday night and all day Friday waiting for the storm to come. Joy wanted to go home and asked a few times during the day Friday, but we just told her a big storm was coming and it was safer at GrandLady's. On Friday night before the storm was really here we lost power around 9:30pm and went to bed early. The actual storm hit at night, so Joy never had any fear through it, she slept like a baby! I slept most of the night, but woke up a few times to noises and howling winds. I believe the same is true of Rob. We woke up Saturday and spent all day Saturday at my Mom's with one short trip out to see my grandmother and her home. Everyone was well, and my sister and her home were also safe. Sunday we deicded to go ahead and try going home since we were anxious to hear/see anything about our home. Rob left first and then gave an all clear and Joy and I followed. At home we found 5 shingles or less off the roof, all 6 trees standing with many missing branches, but standing and our backyard fences down on 2.5 sides. Clean up began and we spent the next 2 days outside cleaning up the debris, playing with Joy and chatting with the neighbors. We got our power back on Tuesday, and have been trying to regain normalicy since then.
Joy turned 2 on Friday after the storm and her party was planned for Saturday. She was very excited about the party and since we had power we went ahead with the plan. I was thankful for my pre-planning and only had a couple of things to finish to execute the party. The party went well and this week Rob is back at work and Joy is back at school. I will post pictures as soon as Rob puts the Mac back up and running, maybe he can make it my computer so I will have access all the time, and just maybe blog a little more!

Big Girl!

2008-09-02T10:20:00.003-05:00

The Big Girl Bed #1 (crib without side rail)

Mommy say night night to very excited big girl.

Night Night
(this is how we left her)

This is how I found her a couple hours later

This is how I found her in the morning

Notice not only is she on the floor but so is her pillow, blankie and puppy

Talking on one of her phones

Conversation over.

Double checking last years halloween dress still fits, it does and you will be seeing it again with ears this time (we hope)

Posing for the camera

Look Daddy, I'm wearing the ears!

So that basically tells the last few days. Things are going well. She is in her big girl bed and loves it. The first day (we tried it at nap before all night) Rob told her when he got her up from nap she could get up on her own. I think that is what happened that night she got up on her own, and then found the door blocked by the baby gate. She could not get up onto the bed so she went ahead and fell back asleep on the floor. She has not gotten out on her own since then until we come in the room. Last night I put the bathroom step stool in front of the bed and that made her very happy to easily climb in and out on her own. I think today I will be purchasing another step stool for her room.
School is going... I can't say well because she has not adjusted yet and neither have I. I am giving it another day or two before I make a rash decision but we may be changing plans this year.

Pictures!!

2008-08-28T11:15:00.007-05:00

Beginning with July 4th, Vicki and Ice Cream!

Playing Ball with Great Grandmother

Checking out Meercats at the Houston Zoo

Watching Giraffe's with Daddy

Silly Giraffe got his horn stuck!

Baby Mac (he is one month younger than Joy)

Some backyard swimming

Showing off the pony

kisses for mommy and again showing off pony (I have gotten better since this picture)

A pony and a bow!

Can you tell I am proud of the ponies.

Joy's outdoor sidewalk paint art

Wearing Daddy's socks

Daddy's socks are fun!

Talking to Tracey's kitty (she later told it while it sat on the couch to "go home")

checking out the tent

pushing her stroller

At the downtown aquarium with Lily

A little deep sea diving

Ahhh Tiger attack!

Chuck E Cheese riding the pony

Joy Burrito

And that concludes this summer's highlights. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

She didn't cry!

2008-08-26T10:05:00.002-05:00

Today is Joy's first day of school, well daycare/school. This morning I walked my excited but somewhat reluctant child into the school and we sat together in her room meeting her friends and talking to her teachers (Ms. Lori and Ms. Faye). She looked a little stunned and was sitting in my lap for awhile. The teachers got some links down, but that did not interest Joy. Then she saw the bus! Yes, a school bus, our current fascination. She got very excited took it off the shelf, looked at me and said "up" indicating she wanted a little person to go up the steps, so I asked if she saw any people, and one of the teachers very graciously got up and found some for her. She then had a handful of people and a school bus. I had told her a couple minutes before this Mommy would be leaving in a minute (I was prepared for a sad farewell). She however was very into and excited about the new school bus, so seeing this was the moment to flee I did. I told her I was leaving she said okay gave me hugs and kisses and I walked out. No tears, no looking back at me forlornly, just see you later.
Now what? Well the original plan was I would be subbing in CCISD. However, the lack of returned references delayed this until next month. So until September 25th I have Mommy time. I have grand plans for this time. Today it included a bath (check) and updating the blog (check). Next I tackle the house and Christmas presents. I started a little while ago on some Family gifts, and I will be finishing those and making more. Since Rob and I are trying hard to budget and be debt free (Dave Ramsey type plan) I am attempting a more crafty Christmas than purchased one. I will still give a few purchased gifts, but most will be handy crafty creations from me or Joy. The house, well I need to do a through cleaning, dejunking and organizing. My craft room is project #1. So off I go to finish getting re-dressed for the day and begin the organizing and dejunking of the house. Oh and Rob, it will get worse before it gets better but it will be wonderful when finished!
Pictures of Joy from the summer will happen as soon as I get to that on my list (it's a mental list so it might be awhile!)

The Things She Does...

2008-07-26T20:57:00.003-05:00

Joy does many cute things, I can't always remember them all when I sit here to type. I am going to try to at least get some tonight...
Conversations we have had:
Joy: I luv it!
Me: You love what?
Joy: I luv school bus (you can replace school bus with just about anything she has seen or heard in the past couple of weeks, she luvs everything!)

Another Conversation:
Me: Joy, do you have an opinion on what you want to eat for lunch?
Joy: Hmmm *serious thinking look on her face* Quesadilla

Her vocabulary has increased exponentially this summer which if you had heard her talk before it's amazing really. She is talking to her animals sometimes if I catch her I just smile cause she sounds just like me! She will answer questions when you ask. She can sing her ABC's most of the way through most of the time, and count to 10 when she feels like it. People do a double take with her size still being a little on the small size and her vocabulary so big. Tonight at a friend's party she was playing and another baby came beside her and Joy was telling the Mom she was bouncing and the Mom looked at her and said "Wow I didn't expect her to talk so well" Her son is 14mo old, and from the looks of things just learning walking.

This past couple of weeks she has really gotten braver than ever, although she is still my quiet reserved girl. Last Friday at a friends she actually petted the puppies and the kitty! She was also telling the kitty who was sitting on the couch to go home, we tried to tell her it was the kitty's home, and she was the one out of place! That same day she went swimming. Up to that point swimming meant getting her feet wet and screaming or just being very nervous if she got water past her knees. Well at Tracey's house she about jumped in the water! It was great, but I had to have both eyes on her at all times! She got out of the pool and went to the hot tub and "got in" on her own, luckily she hit the step just right and only got a small mouth of water, and didn't freak out at least not as much as I did! Then tonight at the party, she was not her usual shy self. She started out that way, but then made friends with the girl who was working in the room with the party. She was crawling on her and talking to her! I was amazed! She also had a great time with Mary's crew (Mary's boys, her nieces, her cousin's child and 2 more adults Renee and Tia) she was talking and playing with the girls like she has known them forever!

The other big event of the summer has been her introduction to and trying out of the potty. She started the summer only being interested on occasion. Then we had the 3 kids over 2 of which are actively potty training, and she sees Mom give them attention for going, and they get to wash their hands when they go (a reward in her books). So she is trying it out more. Tonight she was getting ready for bed and I was about to put a fresh diaper on, and asked if she wanted to go potty, she jumped (literally) at the chance and ran to the potty. She sat for a little bit, and said she went poopy. Now she has said this many times, so I said you went pp? She said yes, and I told her to come get her diaper (I was in the living room). Then Daddy went to check the potty, and announced she had pooped on the potty! Yeah Joy!! This is the milestone I needed to really think about the potty training. I am done with the other kids in 2 weeks, so maybe we will try it out in 3 weeks? If things keep going in a positive direction, no promises!

My other news is we registered Joy for "school" in the fall at a local daycare. She will go 3 days a week while I substitute teach in the school system. I was hoping to get into an August training, but didn't get an email on Friday, which would indicate I got in. I am going to wait and see if something comes on Monday and if not, then I will call and see what I need to do. In some ways I am unsure of the substitute thing, but I also know I don't want to be away from Joy full time, and it will let me know allot about the schools in the area. It's not bad money either. So I begin my adventure hopefully sooner than later!

For those of you wanting pictures tell Rob, he has on monitor and 2 computers so I have to move the cord to get to the mac which has the pictures, and well he's on the computer every night! Sorry maybe someday I will get more up here!

More Summer

2008-07-09T16:20:00.002-05:00

Summer is still happening and we are still having a grand time. Joy is getting use to her new pool and playing in the 4 inches of water there. Today we had a big adventure to a friend's house for a pool party. First Joy played with the little swing and slide, then moved to the water table. Finally she was brave enough for the kiddie pool (which was very cute with an elephant face on it). Then as others were in the big pool we decided it would be okay to check it out. First I got in and just chased her around from inside the pool as she played with things outside the pool. She finally let me get her in the pool and hold her. We were even able to use our floaty device from last year. In all she did a great job, she napped extra long, but I believe I hear her now so the blog over :) Maybe some more summer pictures including our newest hairstyle will come soon.

Summer Fun

2008-06-24T18:33:00.006-05:00

So far this summer we have learned about some new summer activities:

Popscicles

Okay not really a summer activity but Lego opened a store in our mall and we helped build a giant Yoda to celebrate the opening. Here is the master builder working on the head.

Here is Joy enjoying the Duplo table

Yoda getting the top of his head

Fixing the ear they knocked off while getting the head on

Yoda and his Mini Me

Joy's new pool

Eating corn and a hot dog bun in her swim suit

I like the back as much as the front of the swimsuit.

Eating at the windowsil

A Week of VBS...

2008-06-21T12:38:00.002-05:00

This week as I stated before was VBS week. I had a good time doing the crafts with my friend Michelle. I was a little disappointed with Joy's class. The preschool VBS director thought she could do it after asking and getting turned down by multiple people she quit asking and decided that she would do the Toddler class. Well on Monday she tried for a little bit then between the other kids not staying in the wagon when she got stopped (Joy stayed in, she loves the wagon at church) and getting pulled in 100 different directions she finally found some reluctant volunteers. I don't remember if it started Tuesday or Wednesday morning, but as we were driving to church when we got to where she could see it or if I told her where we were going she would start no church no church. This broke my heart. This also frustrated me. I am volunteering at the VBS something I love to do and is simple for me to do the only thing I need is someone to care for my child. I was asking and wanting her to have a curriculum this year, and I understand not everyone is great with toddlers, but in the whole church no one would do it? Anyway by the end of the week she was okay with the situation and we are done with that for now. Next week is a free sew camp at church and I have arranged a teen to take care of Joy and one other child. I am going to do my home care on Tuesday, and be at the church the rest of the week. I will let you know how the sewing goes later!

This and That

2008-06-17T14:32:00.005-05:00

Well it is VBS week and Joy is not sure about going to church again every day this week. This is only day 2 but Sunday and yesterday she has woken up from her nap in a bad mood. She wants to do everything and nothing at the same time! Then when you get her set to do something (that she begged you to do) she refuses to do it! That is when I give up and say your on your own you can come do this with me, or you can play by yourself. That gets me about 10 minutes of no whining, then it starts over! I am hoping she will do better today when she wakes up because she was a grump this morning!

I do have some pictures for you so here instead of me rambling how about some pictures!

This is how I caught her sleeping one day, criss-cross applesauce with her legs in the air! Just a fun outside picture!

Happy Daddy! That was all I could get from her on Sunday in an attempt to say Happy Daddy's Day.

They like to play piano together on Daddy's piano.

Other happenings, our Moody Garden's passes will expire at the end of this week so we went for one last time this weekend. We had a good time, and I am sure we will miss the fishies this year. We did renew our Zoo pass so I can still go to the zoo and take one other person in for free, and get a discount on additional beyond the one free. Wanna go to the zoo?

No Geneva I haven't stopped blogging...

2008-06-11T19:08:00.002-05:00

It however is summer, which means more home time, which means more mess which means less time on the computer, and when I do get here I prefer to do other stuff first. So for now blogging is on a back burner, but if something exciting happens I will let you know.
As for our recent excitement, I started watching 3 other kids this past week. It went well except that 2 came on one day and one on the other, and it made it more difficult on the day with only 2 kids (Joy and one other). This week they are all coming on Thursday, which will I think be better as it will keep me more focused on what we are doing. This week is beach/ocean week so we will be painting the ocean and putting fish in the ocean. I guess I need to make those fish!
So far from this Joy has learned she doesn't want to share. This week at the library on Tuesday she was very adamant in saying that the library's toy was hers and she would not share with another child. Then today at the beach she was again very sure she did not want to share her sand and water toys with the other kids. I told her it was fine and she allowed it begrudgingly. She has also learned "hold you" from one of the other girls. I will call her "C" so she remains anonymous. C's Mom had just dropped her off and she was a little sad, although never full out cried about it, and so she asked me "hold you" and I told her I would be glad to hold her. Now Joy says "hold you" when she wants you to hold her. If Daddy happens to pick up and she wanted Mommy she will say "Hold you, Mommy" I don't correct her yet, as I like this grammer mistake, it's just sweet and cute!
I think that is about it. We have been to "the beach" which is really Moody Garden's white sand pool beaches a couple times this summer, and we tried the pool once. She is not a fan of the water right now, but we can't really do swim lessons as it isn't in the budget, and I would hate to pay and then her hate it the whole time! We will do the swim lessons at some point, just not this summer.
The next 2 weeks will be busy, I am doing the VBS at our church again this year and I am in charge of the crafts, which I am very excited about. Then the following week I am attending "Sew Free Day Camp" where I hope to learn a little more about sewing. One of the Mom's from my Mom's group will also be going and her child is one I watch once a week, so I look forward to getting to know her more.
I think that is all... let me know if I forgot something!

It's Official

2008-05-28T21:26:00.002-05:00

It was voted upon tonight at the church business meeting to close the PDO. I am saddened, however I also believe that the the program or the church had to change to be a true ministry of the church. I am not saying that it was not a ministry to the families that attended, the children heard of God and Jesus on a daily basis, some whom may never have heard of him otherwise were taught about God. This is the part that is sad to me, however these parents sought out a church for their preschool and their are many others on the same road which also teach the same basic principals. God will provide for those families.
Some teachers were upset, and I can see their point they poured the last 1, 2, 5, 30+ years into the program. They have every right to be upset with the church for not properly supporting the program. I hope that the church sees that preschool and children's ministry is a need, and we can't grow our church without having something for the children.
My opinion, it's a good thing. I told the children's minister after the meeting that my heart is for kids. I want the best for the children. I chose to put my ministry into the PDO this past year. I won't say it was a wrong decision. I don't regret it, other than the time lost with Joy and the issues with Joy's classroom. I am now going to turn my efforts and my focus back into the church and find ways to serve to grow the much needed children's ministry. This is my 3rd summer at this church, and my 2nd one to work at the VBS (the 1st I worked summer school). I mentioned to the children's minister that I have 1,000 ideas running through my head and I hope to start something next year for stay at home mom's. Keep tuned in and we will see where God leads!

Is Blogging Gossip?

2008-05-22T21:42:00.003-05:00

Is a personal blog such as mine gossip? I tell stories from my life as I see them. Completely my point of view my opinion and my understanding of things. Then you read them, you may share with someone else something you read on my blog, it's hearsay and can quickly become gossip. So is it wrong to share personal experiences that involve others? Should a public blog be only personal antidotes that involve no other people?
I try hard not to go into "rant" mode and I try to never post a blog when I am heated up and upset over something. However, it was pointed out to me today that something I said on this blog got back to a person that I had blogged about it (unsure if she has read it or not). Then the statement was made that people made decisions that could poorly effect this person's let's call it a business based on what I had said in this blog. I am sorry for being cryptic, but I am curious what you think, is blogging gossip? Should I return to the original purpose of the blog to just update everyone on Joy (btw she said luv you for the first time today!)? In review of the situation and the blog I posted talking about it I have one statement that I will apologize for, but first I want to know what is your feeling on the blog.

Some Video...

2008-05-21T13:36:00.009-05:00

Today at water day I took some video and since Rob is not home to be using his computer I am working on downloading today and well a lot of other videos onto YouTube. So here it is some video from anytime this year!

Another Potty Story

2008-05-20T21:52:00.003-05:00

After bath as I have said before we allow Joy to walk to her room to get her diaper. I have also been encouraging her to sit on the potty while she doesn't have a diaper (she really wants to run around the house, but we won't let her). Last night she was sitting on the potty for what seemed like an unusual amount of time for her (more than 10 seconds) and then next thing I hear she gets up yelling "Mess, Mess, Mess!" I was at first confused what where is a mess (her definition of mess is spilled liquid). Then I realize the mess is in the potty! She had peed in the potty! I was proud I told her it's good to go pee in the potty and then poured the pee in the toilet, rinsed the potty with some water and poured that in the toilet then we flushed and put the potty back together. I think she understood we were happy for her. Makes me think that this summer might just be potty training summer?

Sleep

2008-05-20T13:24:00.001-05:00

When Joy was younger she would sleep anywhere, then again most newborns do. Then somewhere along the way it became sleep in the car seat, crib or playpen. She is slowly getting more selective about where she sleeps. Now I am also more selective about where we are at nap time. I am not a nap nazi as one of my friends calls herself, but I am pretty sure she needs one each day and I do my best to give her that opportunity in an appropriate location. I prefer her naps be in a "bed" either the playpen or crib, but on trips I schedule the trip to have her napping at least part of it in the car. Well anyway my observation is these kids I see out and about sleeping ANYWHERE! Saturday at a restaurant a family of 3 comes in child is 2-3 years old and out like a light! They ordered sat down and were eating with the child sleeping on the bench between them! If Joy was that tired I would head home or wherever I was staying at that time, I would not let her sleep on the seat at a restaurant, if I was hungry and had no food that's what drive thrus are for! Then take her and put her to sleep in her bed.
I have also seen kids in grocery carts between the ages of 2-4 nodding off! I don't understand? Joy doesn't do this, is it because I am trained to take her home at nap time to let her sleep there? Or are these kids just able to sleep anywhere and the parents take advantage of that? Now Joy gets pretty cranky come time to rest. Her toddler side comes out with full force. Do these other kids not have sleepy tells? I can tell when Joy is tired, and I usually do something about it. I either do something to energize her or she goes to bed. It's not that hard to do! Isn't the child's sleep more important than your eating out or grocery shopping? Mine is!

Don't Read the Book

2008-05-19T18:27:00.002-05:00

I love it when a book becomes a movie, I am even more excited when the movie matches the book. Before this week I was only throughly disappointed with one of these instances, it was the John Grisham book about the Jury, the book is about a Jury selection for a big tobacco trial, the movie was about a jury selection for a gun trial COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! This was very upsetting as this was my first John Grisham to read and see the movie in the theater.
Where am I going with this you ask? Well Rob and I had the rare opportunity to go see a movie this weekend (thanks Grand Lady). We chose to see Prince Caspian since Rob had gone to see Ironman on Thursday night. Well if you are a reader of the Narnian series then you will be dissapointed with the story line as although they start in the same place and have the same ending as the book, the middle is WAY off! I don't understand why either. I did enjoy the movie, but really wish they had stuck to the real storyline.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow!

2008-05-16T13:49:00.002-05:00

Okay, I don't fancy myself a singer of any great magnitude. I do however love to sing (if you have ridden in my car you know this). So last night my friend Jen has a brand new Wii (Happy Mother's Day to her!) and so of course our Thursday night dinner group has to check it out. We played the Wii doing the bowling and the tennis and a fitness test first (don't ask how I did!). Then we broke out the big guns, American Idol. Now as much as I love to sing I hate to watch other people sing, unless it's a live concert, so I am not a fan of the show. Anyway basically what the game is is glorified karaoke. I have been to a karaoke place once and except for my shyness of singing in front of people I enjoyed it (there you go Nikki the truth comes out). Last night I have known these girls well let's just say we don't say how long anymore it's a long time so they already know my singing inability so the shyness thing did not come into play. We played the actual game American Idol and I won! I was having so much fun at this point (and had great confidence) so I kept going trying to "unlock" different things by getting platinum on songs. I sang many songs and unlocked Somewhere Over the Rainbow. At this point I say why not it's 12:00 at night let me see how bad this is going to be. Well it was PERFECT! You heard me right 100% correct (at least by their standards). Because of that I had to sing it again with the judges (I had started playing in a mode without Randy, Paula and Simon). When I did Simon said "I cannot say anything good about that performance (some other fluff) because it was amazing (or some other nice word I forgot since I got home so late)!" Anyway I had to share my accomplishment and new found love for the American Idol game. Karaoke anyone?

Scary!

2008-05-12T19:26:00.002-05:00

Oh I almost forgot the cutest thing she did yesterday. After dinner at Cafe Express we walked outside and she was walking away from us when a pigeon flew towards her. She yells scary and turns and runs away while looking back at the other pigeon still there making sure it did not also try and fly towards her. Poor thing, she was definitely shook up by it, but Rob and I were smiling because it was so cute!

Mother's Day The actual event...

2008-05-12T13:52:00.003-05:00

Mother's Day turned out nice. The dedication was very nice, the pastor looked up the origin of each baby's name and Joy's is Pure Joy (Katherine means pure). Although the name meaning is not something that helped influence Joy's name it is something that could change our minds. I have always liked the meaning of my 1st name (lady) and so I want my kids to have good meanings too. Anyway his looking up the meaning of her name was special to me. Then he prayed for her with her hand on her back. I was surprised she let him put his hand on her, she isn't one to like people to touch her especially if she doesn't know them. He did say near the end of the prayer she was lifting his hand off her head. 2 other children were also dedicated and it was a nice event. After the service we came back to our house and had lunch. Marty cooked a brisket, which was perfectly done, Frenchy (my uncle) did beans with an ingredient list longer than my arm. I did some pasta salad, and my mom made a lemon cake. It was all pretty good. After lunch everyone visited. Joy was amazingly awake and happy the whole time! Usually I can barely get Sunday lunch in her before she gets ready to crash, but yesterday she was raring to go until around 2:00 when the crowd departed! Unfortunately that did not mean for a longer nap, just a later one!
When she woke up we went to dinner at Cafe Express one of my favorite places to eat, and then back home and I put her to bed for the night.
Presents... From Joy and Rob I got an Apple TV, I love it! I can play our iTunes music on the TV, really anything on itunes is now on the TV! In addition we can watch movie trailers and YouTube. It's great now if I can only learn from Rob the details on which computer and itunes etc. This is also the first step of 2 taken on Saturday to remove cable from our lives! We watch maybe 3 shows on cable, and we can get them either from streaming video off the internet or itunes. So with the apple TV and the antenna we purchased Saturday (stimulating the economy with our check). We are ready to cut the cable. I guess I can go call them now!

Mother's Day

2008-05-06T15:15:00.002-05:00

The original plan for Mother' s day was to have a relaxing non-exciting day with no commitments and no worries. Well things always change. Our church just got a new pastor after being without since Last February. Since we didn't know the old pastor that well and didn't ask the interim Joy was never dedicated. Not to say we don't want her to grow up in the church or anything like that, just the formal "dedication" never happened. So another couple in our Sunday school mentioned they were dedicating their daughter on Mother's Day, I mentioned we had not dedicated Joy yet and Mother's Day would be nice (the church secretary is also in our class). So next thing I hear is in the announcements they are asking for all children who have not been dedicated to be dedicated on Mother's Day. We are now signed up. So my uneventful Mother's Day has become Joy's baby dedication day AND Mother's Day. The good news is my sister is cooking a brisket, my mother is cooking potatoes and dessert, and that leaves me with house clean up and a salad. I guess I can handle that. Now to figure out a family picture for them to display. I guess I shall raid Rob's computer now. Maybe I will get those bath pictures up too!

What you really want...

2008-05-01T06:52:00.007-05:00

Some at home pics

Some out and About pictures from San Jacinto/Battleship Texas, Moody Aquarium, and the Wild West Something in League City last weekend...

I'm convinced she's genius...

2008-04-30T20:28:00.003-05:00

Okay I know every parent is convinced their little one is a genius. This is my latest clue for Joy: This morning on our way to school were were listening to her songs on my ipod (I think it's my iPod but she has more music on it than me!). Anyway as we are going along it's between songs which usually elicits a "more" from the back seat (she signs and says it). This time instead of more I hear "climb climb" Huh? Why does that make her a genius, because the next song on the iPod was Climb Climb up Sunshine Mountain! Tell me she's not a genius for that!
In addition each week after church the volunteers in her class almost always without fail say how verbal she is. So I guess my constant blabbering to her has done some good.
Oh she is also into counting I think she has gotten to 6 on her own. When we play the ABC's on my computer (http://www.fisher-price.com/us/fun/games/abczoo/default.asp) she knows many of the animals and the sounds they make before they come up. She knows more animals than I can keep track of now. She can even distinguish between a fish and a whale.
So in conclusion my child is a genius, you can agree or not, but for me I say she is!

A conversation with Joy

2008-04-29T18:41:00.002-05:00

After Joy got up from her afternoon nap this is the conversation:
Me: Hi Joy
Joy: Blanket
Me: No leave the blanket in the crib for night nights.
*noise from door shutting*
Me: The door made a noise
Joy: Mower
Me: Yes, mowers make noise.
Joy: Hat!
Me: *thinking* Yes, Daddy wears a hat when he mows.
Joy: Dada hat

See she's like me it may seem random but it's all logical going through her head!

Things that make you go hmmm...

2008-04-28T21:32:00.002-05:00

I was filling out one of those lovely little time wasters this afternoon on CafeMom. One of the questions was a standard which I usually just throw in the first thing that comes to mind. However, today, it made me go hmmm.... The question was, if you were a crayon what color would you be?
I am sure if you haven't already given up on this post because it has no pictures you are thinking I am as crazy as I know I am. However this question today really made me think and I had no answer!
What went through my head? Well I thought I do not want to be the color that the child uses to where their is no longer any crayon left, it would be a great life, but end too soon. I do not want to be the crayon that is left in the box all the time and never gets used either. I want a healthy amount of use but I don't want over use. What color would that be? I don't know what that color is, but that is what I want to be. Loved but not the spotlight or the forgotten one.
Crazy survey!
Oh and if I can ever get my husband off World of Warcraft I think I have some great Joy pictures to share.

Potty story...

2008-04-17T21:44:00.002-05:00

So we bough Joy her potty a little while back. She enjoys sitting on it (closed and clothed) and taking it apart, and other curious things. Sometime last week or so she finally started sitting over the hole and not just on the edge. Then a couple days ago she finished her bath, and I went ahead took her towel off and hung it back up and naked Joy went to say hi to Dad in the office (within view of the bathroom and potty) she then started peeing, he and/or I surprised her saying stop or something to that effect and she did! So I said let's put your pee pee in the potty, so we went and she sat on the potty and went some more, but then I think we startled her again praising her for doing it on the potty so she stopped and got up walked 2 steps and finished on the bathroom rug. I just laughed, at least now we know she has control over her pee! Potty training may or may not start this summer!

Catch- Up

2008-04-09T22:11:00.002-05:00

Okay so here is a little catch up on what has happened the past couple of weeks:

Trip to Dallas: My friend Nikki from college is moving back to New York since I don't know when I will ever get to see her again I arranged a weekend where we went to Dallas to meet with 2 other college friends and have a good time. We went March 28-30th. I got Joy ready and we left after work/school on Friday and picked up Nikki at her parents which is about half way to Dallas. Then we went on to Mary's house and basically just got to hang out together all weekend. It was nice to visit with Nikki, Mary and May. The toll that took on me traveling alone with Joy made me very tired by Sunday afternoon, but we survived and had a good time. Nothing huge to report but a good trip with no pictures because as always I forgot the camera when traveling alone (it's Rob's job to get camera equipment!)

The only news for during the week was on Friday I was walking through the hall by Joy's class and the teacher tells me that Joy didn't like her lunch so she gave her some of another child's. *Stunned look* I could not even say anything at that point. Then I go to pick her up and she had a poopy so I go in her room to change her (she was playing across the hall) and I notice what I am sure was the wipes I purchased for my child were in another child's container which I can only assume is communal. As this was the last straw for me that day I walked over to the office and promptly told the assistant director that if it were not for the fact that I am a teacher in this PDO I would have pulled Joy. I then told her of the above two things and we chatted for awhile. The unfortunate thing is that she's not the one who needed to hear it all. *sigh* I do have my final formal letter written to the director and the PDO board as why I will not return next year.

Then this weekend started Saturday morning with Joy feeling warm, I checked her, temp was a low 99. Hmm... maybe it's the teething? She seemed to be "normal" for how she has been the last 2 weeks. So not a second thought. Then my friend Jen calls and asks if we want to go to the San Jacinto Momument. I ask Rob sure we are up for it. Great when they get ready they will call and we will meet there. Good for me. Well that was around 9:30am. We finally get there around 12. Joy manages to be wonderful even though it's her lunch and nap time she does the Monument and then the battleship fairly well, we were impressed. Then we really test her by taking her out to lunch at a sit down restaurant. She not only sits nicely she eats! Wow! Finally we get home around 3:00 or so and put her down for the rest of the nap she started in the car. Exciting day right! Let's add my Dad coming into town.

So my Dad calls about 20 minutes into the nap and we decide he can come over that evening to play etc. Joy wakes from her late nap eats a small dinner and I get her excited that Paw Paw and Grand are coming. So excited that when they actually pull up she was running to the door to see who it was, then she saw and backpedaled as fast as she could! I scoop her up and go out and get my hug and say our hellos. Joy all evening sat in my lap across the room not even wanting to acknowledge their presence. This is typical, so I let her be who she is, I don't force people on her and let her warm up at her own pace... And warm up she did after Paw Paw and Grand leave and I am ready for bed I check on my darling as I do every night, she's warm. I check the temp, 101.3, so she gets some tylenol, and we go to bed.

Sunday my sister comes over to see our Dad. We talk we play we visit the motor home and then we go out to dinner. Joy is still not warming up to my Dad, and although she talks big about puppies she prefers them stuffed, on TV or at a distance. My Dad's dogs were a little intimidating for her when they came close, which is hard not to do in a motor home.

Monday we go to the park then meet my sister, Dad, Cherry and Rob for lunch at Jason's Deli. Joy seems more herself, but still not real warm with her Paw Paw and Grand. After lunch we all (minus Rob) pile in my car and head to Moody Garden's Aquarium. I chase Joy around the aquarium since I knew she would not want to stay in the stroller and with 4 adults we had plenty of eyes on her. She unfortunately still wanted nothing to do with the other 3 adults (even Aunt Vicki was getting shunned a little?) So she is attached to me, and we all have a good time, and manage not to buy any overpriced souvenirs.

Tuesday, the plan is I will go to work till noon, which is usual. I wake up with this intention, I go to get Joy and see green snot. Now I am not a believer in the snot rules for diagnosis (green = sick) but my PDO is so I call in and take another day off, and make an appointment at the doctor for her. I take her to the doctor and it's possibly viral, no signs or symptoms of anything else the blood work shows a high virus count. No meds, and no real answers. The rest of Tuesday is spent at home napping and well, I napped to. Tuesday evening Joy finally warmed up to my Dad and Cherry and then we had to say Goodbye! Sorry Dad! I will say she took twice as long as usual to warm up probably due to the unexplained illness. So for anyone who is wanting to come visit know, to get Joy to warm up it takes about 2-3 hours regularly, and 4-6 when she is feeling out of sorts.

Wednesday I went back to work Rob took a half day. Only reason I went was my kids went on a field trip. Joy got a new outfit for her Build A Bear "Baby Lybear" It's cure I will try and get a picture of her and the bear. Oh and for Rob she was fine, for me she was grumpy and moody! Even in her sleep she was crying so I checked on her she asked for milk. I go get it, she won't touch it, and asks for "night night and points to the crib. *sigh*

Okay I know this post is forever long, I will get some pictures up tomorrow if I can. For those of you who made it to the end of this I am impressed! I don't think I would have! Gold stars for you!

My Name

2008-04-09T21:39:00.002-05:00

My Name:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
7
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

My husband's name:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
40
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

My Daughter's Name:

HowManyOfMe.com

There is
1
person with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

See she is #1!

It's been a week...

2008-04-06T21:29:00.003-05:00

Well I have nothing to really say, but I thought it has been a week so an update might be nice. My Dad came into town on Saturday after an impromptu visit to the San Jacinto Monument and Battleship (pictures to come). Joy is very stranger shy, and not to call my Dad a stranger although he can be strange (hi Dad!). She has been very weary of him. In addition to this she has a slight fever (started at 99.2 and climbed to 101.2 and seems to be going back down). Today she did finally let him hold her, I was putting her to bed as he came over and so I went out to let her say goodnight to Paw Paw and she reached for him (anyone to save her from the night!) he held her for a little bit and put her to bed. I have learned something about me as a Mom, I am not a pushover when it's just me and Joy or just Rob and Joy and I. However you add company to the mix or she is in a strange situation I let her get away with more. I also let her get away with more when she doesn't feel well. She has a fever and we have company, she was spoiled this weekend! Yikes what will I have on my hands next week?!

I don't Wanna!

2008-04-01T20:53:00.002-05:00

Okay I have a bad case of the I don't wanna's. It's not an uncommon disease in my life it creeps up every few days. Usually I hold it at bay and go ahead or a night out takes care of it and things get done the next couple of days. This case is bad! I don't want to cook, I don't want to eat, I don't want to do laundry, I don't want to unpack (had a great weekend though) I don't want to deal with the fussy toddler, I don't want to pay bills, I don't want well you get the point! I just don't want to if it is in need of being done right now I really don't want to do it. These are the times in my life where paying someone some amount of money which we don't have to do things like th laundry and cleaning the house really sounds good. Then I remind myself about the bills being paid which just makes that fantasy go away. So at this moment in my I don't wanna sickness I am avoiding the pile of paperwork that I need to go through to be sure their is not some major important bill that has slipped through my hands and gone unpaid this month. *sigh* okay I am convinced I will go do that, but I won't like it!
(Now who is the unhappy toddler!) Oh and Happy April Fools day, G I expect a blog about the joke I played on you and if you followed up with your mom!

Spring Break Slide Show

2008-03-27T15:10:00.000-05:00

I could not figure out how to do both slide shows on one post so here are 2 posts for 2 slide shows enough pictures to last awhile I hope.

Slide Show Easter

2008-03-27T14:50:00.003-05:00

Weather, Teeth, and waking up!

2008-03-25T06:52:00.002-05:00

OKay I have been stalling because I really wanted to put some great Easter pictures on here. However Rob's latest home project is he has a PC running and sharing the monitor with the mac. I don't know how to switch between them so I can't get to the mac to get the latest and greatest pictures off the camera and into the blog! So with that said I shall bore you with what has happened in the last week....
It was Spring break last week, so we did not have school. We were able to go to Book Babies at our library twice last week. I really enjoy it although I wish they would read a book! They sing songs and do finger plays. I did realize that the Book Babies is for newborn - 18 months, and Joy did turn 18mo on Wednesday last week, but instead of being the youngest at Toddler Time we went ahead with the easier to do Book Babies (time is better and I don't know what to expect at Toddler Time).
On Tuesday we went to the Rodeo Carnival and Livestock show. Joy rode a few of the rides and seemed to have a good time. I told myself all morning before we left don't forget the camera, but you guessed it I forgot the camera, so no pics of Joy on her first Carnival rides.
Joy also had her first guest sleepover in her room. Lily came and spent the night on Tuesday- Wednesday so that her Mom could attend school, since they had seperate Spring Breaks she needed someone to watch Lily so she could go to classes and not have her sister take off work. Since Lily wanted to sleep in Joy's room I let her knowing it would most likely mean that Joy would wake up in the night. She did around 5:00 she woke up and I went and rocked her and gave her milk. Then she woke up again around 6:30 at which time I just gave up and got her up. What's a half hour anyway?
On Wednesday we went to a park then Monkey N'Around we met Rob for lunch at Taco Cabana then the 3 girls came back here so Joy could nap and Lily and I watched a few movies. After nap we went to the Library's Fun Day which included Clifford, Lilly and her Purple Plastic Purse, balloon animals, face painting and some other stuff which we did not do because we got there later in the day due to the necessary nap. After the library we went to another park this one across the street from the library. We then returned home since it was after 5:00 and Rob was home already. I then left Joy with Rob and Lily and I went to a bookstore then to dinner with her Mom and Aunt. I figured out I can do 2 kids so when Joy has a sibling I think with more confidence now I can manage.
Thursday we took it easy and did the Book Babies and then lunch with Rob and a quiet afternoon at home. Friday was a lazy day at home. The library was closed and doesn't do Friday book babies anyway, but Joy was also acting very tired around 9:00 and she was extremely fussy so I sent her to bed. She slept for about an hour. This is good because every day last week she was up around 6:00, I think she is teething and the weather has been extremely cold in the mornings. So between those 2 things she hasn't slept well all week. This also means I did not sleep well all week! Sorry if I have been a grump to you this week now you know why. Again on Saturday she took a morning nap for about an hour.
Easter well that will have to wait since it is time to get Joy up. Oh the reason I am posting at 7:00 in the morning is Joy was up at 5:00 crying on and off. I finally got up around 6:30 to straighten my hair since I can't just wash and wear my hair. When I was finished with my hair I went to check on her and she was laying down asleep again or at least quiet so I left her there, and came in here. So that is my story for this morning. I hope your days are better than mine is starting!

Happy Blog Birthday to me!

2008-03-17T22:10:00.004-05:00

I realized at some point in the last week that it has to be close to my anniversary/birthday for blogging. I just looked it up and it was actually one year ago Friday I wrote my 1st blog. So Happy 1st Blog Birthday to me. Now I am curious since I added my counter who is reading this. I know I have some family that are lurkers (Dad, Mom, Cousin Lynn, Sister-in Law Dotty). I also know I have some friends who read (Michelle, Geneva, Scott, Electric Monk) now who are the others that are lurking? Go ahead just curious who you are and what you like/why you continue to read. Here's something fun (for me at least) come out of your lurking and let me know who is here, and what your favorite post is. What you like and what you want more of. I am not a writer, but I do like to keep my audience happy. So go ahead let me know what you like, and if you want what you don't like, but please keep it constructive criticism!

Speaking of Birthday's my Mommy just had another one, and the birthday dinner was here at my house. If you look back a year you can see her big birthday bash from last year part of the reason I remembered my blog b-day. I actually think I finally pulled off a family meal without getting frustrated with anyone from my family. Now unless you are Rob you are thinking what you get frustrated with your family. Yes, I do quite frequently, we all have our quirks and mine is easily frustrated with family (okay one of my many, many quirks). I actually actively did things a certain way so that my frustration level would be low to begin the dinner. I set everything, and by everything I mean EVERYTHING up during Joy's nap. I had the condiments in containers, I had the table set, I had the burgers ready to be cooked, every little thing was thought out and done before anyone would arrive. This prevented my sister who is Martha of our family to not take over or feel she needed to in my kitchen. This was my dinner not a joint effort so I did all the work, and I believe I did okay. The next frustration I sometimes have is my Mom and Grandmother whom I love come early to everything! By early I don't mean a few minutes I mean a couple hours sometimes. I understand, they want to see Joy, but I am usually not prepared for them when they arrive. Well on Friday I had everything done ahead of time like I said and I gave the dinner time as 6:00 and said come when you want before that. So whenever they arrived was fine. I also did some pre-checking into when they would arrive. Oh and for my Mom and G-mom I don't mind you arriving early just let me know so I can be prepared! The evening went well and with few glitches I still had to get up from the table a few times to get things, but mostly because the table is not wide enough for all the stuff and the people! I do love my table though. My mom took a picture while I was finishing up, but I don't think I got one on my camera so sorry no pictures from dinner. I do have some Present pictures though, maybe some will make it on here later.

Well another thing that reminded me that it was my blog's b-day was our church's Easter Egg Hunt. Last year I sat Joy in front of an egg and let her pick it up on her own terms. This year I prepared her for the hunt! Yes I actually bought an Easter basket a little early and we practiced. So it's finally her turn to really hunt for some eggs, and her age group always goes in the playground area. I never thought of this as a problem, it was actually a great idea. Well let me explain what happened to change my mind... Joy was geared up we talked about eggs and she knew where they were, she was ready to hunt. We went into the playground with all the other 3 & under kids and we were doing good, she picked up 4-5 eggs then she was there in the shadow of the new playground equipment. She went from saying eggs, to saying wee (her word for slides and all things that you say wee on). Uh-oh come on Joy focus Mommy wants the stuff from inside the eggs. I moved her to near where the tunnels are, she thought about it and started into a tunnel. No, Joy eggs, remember eggs? Finally we go to the last unrecognizable to her play structure area and I think we got a second wind, and she picked up one more egg, or maybe a really nice older girl felt pity on me and handed it to her, either way we had more treats for mommy. In the end I also tossed a few more eggs in the basket since the area was full and most of the kids had lost interest. It was fun, we had a great time, and I can't wait til next year, maybe she won't be as distracted by the wee. Rob videoed the whole thing and I got a couple pictures. Oh and she did get to play on the wee after words. In all it was a successful egg hunt. I hope she has a little more focus next Sunday! I might let her keep what is in her eggs here! Although the Easter Bunny has some specifically for Mommy and Daddy!

When I get a chance most likely not before Thursday I will get the pictures up. Until then let your imaginations run wild with the pictures in your head.

If I must...

2008-03-14T14:15:00.004-05:00

I must say I am debating posting these pictures for 2 reasons; 1 I don't really love the cut. 2 I just look bad in the pictures. However I know Geneva kindly asked, and I do have some pictures of Joy and her latests "toy" So here it is pictures I don't want to share, but I will but G you owe me, you must now put some pictures on your blog!

This is the reason I am not happy, you can kinda tell here that he butchered the sides, when he "thinned" my hair he really just created this really short layer that already annoys me. I am thinking in a couple months I am calling a lady from church who is a hairdresser and asking what she can do to help me fix this. I just fear if I don't like what she does I see her every week! *Sigh* this is why I never get my haircut!

Here we are in the bathroom our new favorite play place.

This is Joy's potty. She will lift the lid, she will sit on the edge, she will take apart the potty. However, she will NOT sit on the potty over the hole. That's okay I wasn't expecting her to go potty today, just want to get the idea in her head for later.

She will also apparently put her foot in the potty. I told her no on that one, thus the surprised look.

Now when she realizes I am taking pictures she will ask to see the baby on the camera. I was trying to keep her from doing this until she was much older. Someone else must have showed her the baby. Oh and the video camera she also wants to see the baby on, but we can turn the viewer around on it, so she can watch herself. It's actually kinda funny.

I got a hair cut!!!

2008-03-11T21:36:00.002-05:00

Okay this may not be as exciting as it sounds, but it's rare for me to get them. If you have seen my hair lately you will understand how bad I need one, but I just can't figure out the time to do things for myself. I get a weekly dinner out with friends, and I feel guilty if I take more than that. I also dread doing it because I never know the person who is going to cut it and I just get nervous they won't do what I want. I also hate sitting there with virtually nothing to do. Well tonight was better than some. I got there and kinda told him what I wanted (shorter and easy to care for). He chopped some off before even washing my hair I think he said pre-cut I dunno. Anyway we went to wash it, and this is one of those things I like but I don't. I like someone massaging my head, I don't like when the chair and the sink and my head don't fit right. Tonight it was all comfortable, I actually got to enjoy my little head massage, all while watching a strange ad/runway show. I was actually not thinking about the hair washing but the strange things happening on the tv. Then it was time for the cut. He seemed to know what he was doing, he asked some more questions, he commented 100 times on how much hair I had. He said some things I agreed to but have no idea what he said. Finally he was done and I am semi-happy at the moment. He straightened my hair, which I like, but I am not sure if it will look good not being straightened (goodbye sleeping til Joy wakes up). We will have to wait and see. In the mean time, it does look good at the moment. The rest of me does not look so good I think I forgot my Claritin last night grrr, I hate it when I forget it, I suffer for days! Anyway I will see if Rob will take pictures and if so I will scrutinize them to not find one I like and then that will be the end of that thought. It's the thought that counts right?

Plagiarized Blog

2008-03-09T21:18:00.003-05:00

Okay I was curious today about a friend's blog history so I went back in time 2 years to see what she was blogging about at the time. I continued to read for 2 more "months" then had to go help Rob with more of the yard work (the last bush next to the house is gone!! No more attack bushes! Anyway in January '06 about 3 months in to her blogging experience she wrote the following. Yes I am stealing it from you Michelle cause I love it! I agree with every word and like she says if you don't like it you can unbookmark me now. I didn't want to just put a post because some people (my Mom) I know would not be able to follow the link, that and I could not get just that one entry to come up to link to. So here is my plagiarized blog for today! My comments are in purple!

From Michelle THEY OUTNUMBER US NOW
i've done some searching today, and for the life of me i can't find any site that explains the "rules" of blogging. what are the grammar requirements? how long or short should a blog be?? what can you post?? what should you post?? do you know if you are "blogworthy"? I never actually searched for the rules, but sounds like something I would do if I started blogging for a reason other than updating family & friends.

in no order, here are some insights into me & my blogging. (but for those who know me the first should come at no surprise)

i was NOT a english major in school, nor did well in the required grammar class i took; i barely scraped by with a 70. my blogging will reflect that. if you are a grammar whiz, un-bookmark my blog - i promise i'll disappoint you. I am with you there Michelle, but I cheated and took regular English instead of the honors English so I could do better than a 70.

a big reason i blog is to get out feelings my three year-old and my almost two year-old just can't understand. most days they are the only two people i talk to, and not to slight them, but they just don't get what i'm saying sometimes. forgive me (not really) if i do post something i'm feeling that day about losing my only sibling, my brother (50 days ago today). honestly i'm pretty messed up about it, so i us MY online diary to express myself. My reason to blog started as an update for friends and family, it's slowly becoming my journal of life.

i may post twenty random thoughts without one of them being funny. and if they happen to be funny, kudos to the way i typed it out, because most of the time nothing i post is intended to make you laugh. i don't post to be funny - if you only want to read posts that make you laugh, don't expect my blog to fulfill you in that way. Ditto!

also, i'm not trying to impress anyone - even my fellow bloggers on my links list. i'm certainly not trying to lure others in to reading my blog with my creative writing skills - i ain't got any. i know after a while, my "link friends" will stop reading & commenting. one day our blogging fun will end, and i'm cool with that. in reality, i blog to procrastinate my time away. the time i spend blogging should in reality be spent on cleaning my house, or spending time with my kids. so in other words, i know someday my blogging will stop abruptly - probably when i kick out this third kid.... i'm not posting to have lots of people i don't know read my blog. if i bore you, let this be the last post you read. but honestly, i don't think i've lost my audience - stacy and bufkin are still reading.... Michelle I am glad you continue to blog, sometimes I wish for more updates than you give me, and if anyone (Geneva) ever wants more updates from me just give me a poke, I have just forgotten or feel nothing is exciting enough to blog on. I am working on not caring, but that part is a little against my nature. I care, but I am enjoying my more random blogs more than my strictly Joy updates of the beginning.

another thought on how long someone reads a blog/has a blog. a few years ago, about 15 girls from the BSU years of 1993-1997 participated in a yahoo group. we loved the group. we had tons of interesting conversations. well, sadly, members of the group stopped posting and it died. may p31ladies rest in peace. we are joyful though - most of the girls who were a part of p31ladies blog now!!!! Can someone please convince more of my friends to blog, I do enjoy reading them so much!

so, here's what i believe blogs should be about: any darn thing you want it to be about. please blog about things that are not funny, grammatically incorrect or just plain dumb. tell me about the things you are struggling about in your walk with the Lord - because trust me, i'm going to tell you. tell me about the stupid kids who live next door to you & how fun it is to be a homeowner. tell me about how ticked off you are your car is a broke-down mess. or, tell me how exciting it is to watch your six month-old get up on all fours and rock back and forth. know that i'm there with you; i've been in the working world and know how stupid people are; i've had a car i wish i could have traded in - and odds are i've just finished cleaning up poop that leaked out of ethan's diaper, or have just sneaked in to watch my kids peacefully sleep. Here you go Michelle, I am very frustrated with my car, and the fact that their is no chance in sight of getting a new one short of going back to work full time. I don't want to do that because I want to be with Joy, but that is a huge frustration in my life right now. I see so much I want and we need, that we can't take care of because I choose to stay home. I don't see this struggle with some other families and it feels a little lonely at times. That is my struggle at this moment. That and stupid people at the grocery store. Luckily Joy keeps most of her poop in her diaper, although I think she is back on the slightly constipated side (the little balls of poop!) She drinks juice every morning and eats fruit all day! What can I do to help this!

so anyway, there are no rules i've found. blog away about what you are all about. Thank you Michelle, you put it very nicely! You can look forward to my quest to find a grocery store that does not upset me.

Oh and for randomness I have an appointment at a hair salon on Tuesday at 8:00 YEAH I am getting a hair cut!!!!!

My Grocery Store Rant

2008-03-09T08:00:00.004-05:00

I am one of those people who choose their grocery store by location. I want to go to the store closest to me, and unless that store has a bad smell, sticky floors or some other very obvious reason not to go there I go there regularly.
My current grocery store is the Kroger that if I was crazy enough I could walk to, and probably get home with the ice cream still frozen on a mild temperature day. I also liked the store when I first started going there. The HEB down the road, which I have only been to once. I was not impressed by, no reason just really didn't want to be there, why go twice as far for the same stuff?
With that said let me tell you the things I don't like about my grocery store:

It doesn't carry YoBaby yogurt the yogurt I want for my child, because it is whole milk yogurt and no added sugar.
It also does not carry the new "snackable" lunchables, which are the right size for an easy Joy lunch.
My bags each week weigh a ton. You think I am exaggerating? They have on more than one occasion decided to put the half gallon of milk with the gallon of milk. Sobe's which are made of glass and about 4 is a good bag of them, they will put 6-8.
The bags have mixed content. Frozen items will go with canned goods. Canned goods will go with dairy things. Meats will go with fruit (that one weirded me out and I washed the fruit 10 times better than usual!). In general when I come home I never know what I will find in what bag. So those days when I am in a hurry to just get the cold stuff in the fridge or freezer I must go through EVERY bag to be sure nothing frozen is with a pantry item. No quick glances because I will and have missed items that way. That is my biggest pet peeve with the store.
I am also no longer fond of the employees they have I can't recall the last time one has started a friendly conversation with me while they check out my groceries or whatever. I am lucky if they even talk to me at all. I think last night all the girls said was do you have a Kroger card.

Now I can overlook most of these things. I go to Target for the food I can't find at the grocery store. I no longer live in an upstairs apartment so the heavy bags are not as detrimental as they use to be. The rude employees, they are everywhere so I guess sometimes you just have to hire these people, but they could at least try and train them to be nicer!

On top of all this I went grocery shopping after putting Joy to bed last night. I get there (7:45 on a Saturday) and first thing they don't have many carts in the store. If I had been thinking I would have gotten a gallon of milk and left to try again another day. So their is one line of carts I wait while the woman in front of me gets her cart. I was standing at a polite distance but anyone who looked would have known I was next in line. So she has her cart and this couple comes up and walks within two feet of me and gets their cart! HEY I WAS WAITING PATIENTLY! (Did I mention I was already in a mood?) Whatever, I hope their cart has a bad wheel, and move on to get my cart. I meander through the cheese and deli section, and get to the cooler with the berries. Joy loves berries and I like to get her some fresh fruit so I was aiming for blue berries. The same couple was standing with their cart blocking the entire cooler! Grrr, finally enough space to get the blueberries and go. Onward, no other major issues, the shopping is going okay, the TV's in the aisles baffle me, they could have spent that money on something like product research and asking me what I want in the store. I get to the baby aisle, I don't need anything but to go up the aisle to get to the dairy cheese case. I notice a fallen wet floor sign and as I get closer notice a yellow liquid puddled what would have been under it. I will let you guess what you think it was I am pretty sure I know (it's the baby aisle, you know diapers etc.) A little grossed out by the fact that no one seems to be around taking care of this immediately I keep going. The next happening was a mother and son team are shopping together. The son is about 13 in my guess and they both have carts. Neither looks full enough to warrant this but whatever. That is until the completely block my path to the aisle I am headed to. I did a little thumb twiddling until they finally noticed and moved on. Next I encountered a child skating around the store on those annoying skate shoes. She is pretty adept but is cutting people off left and right. I finally found the parent, it was a dad with his 2 kids (the girl and a younger boy) shopping alone, and obviously with a list mom made. The girl was the errand runner for all the missed items and dad and the boy were in a race car by the way the dad was driving (in fun for the boy, which I actually found cute). Anyway I finally finish my shopping and I go to check out. This is where I encountered friendly the cashier. No hello, no how are you, no did you find everything you were looking for, just when she was done in a somewhat rude tone do you have your Kroger card? I felt like she was reprimanding me for not having it out, and putting her out for having to even say that to me. Don't think that she was not capable of speaking due to some laryngitis or something, because she was constantly talking even answered the phone at her station to talk about a previous customer with whoever called. I leave the store without a goodbye. I was cold, I was tired and I am thinking of going twice as far down the road to check out the HEB. Maybe they can say hello. Problem is I get a discount on my gas for shopping at Kroger, is it worth the $0.10 a gallon?

Pictures, because I know why you really read my blog...

2008-03-03T20:27:00.006-06:00

Okay here it is the reason why you came pictures of my Joy.

Let sleeping dogs and babies lie. But occasionally take their picture cause it's just so cute!

Remember this? Well here's the before....

And here it is with Giant baby in the middle of the village.

She did like the Noah's ark the best that day, she does love her animals!

The birds are allowed to be on top, but not the giraffe as Dad found out later.

See I really did some of the work in the yard! Be proud of me. (I don't think these pictures do it custice but can you see the 6in wall of dirt? It's now at the level of the sidewalk. Oh and we need gutters along there if we are serious about planting it! Ugh another cost!

Those dern railroad ties that started it all!

After Rob and I were wearing hats in the yard Joy decided to wear Daddy's hat. She will also now wear her birthday crown.

My little reader's library of books! She loves to bring a book to you and read. I have put a 3 book limit on bedtime. Usually one fun book and 2 night night books.

She is such a big girl reading and rocking herself at night!

Okay really what happened is she needed milk and so I put her in the chair while I went to get it and I came back to this cuteness! That's my Joy!

And so ends another blog of Joy. Enjoy!

My Job

2008-03-02T20:52:00.004-06:00

It's official I told my boss I won't return to my current job next year. I don't think this was a complete surprise because I just don't fit in with the crowd of teachers they have there. I don't want to say anything against the program since it is my church, however it's just not the one for Joy and I. I don't know if I am being a bit of a snob since I got my education in Connecticut and therefore have many of those Yankee ideas in my head. However, they seemed to do it right. They followed the research and well Texas just seems far behind. I was in a preschool in CT where they tried for and got their National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation. This is a big deal if you are ever looking for childcare outside of home care then I recommend NAEYC accredited centers. I am now spoiled by this and believe all centers especially where I take my daughter should live up to this standard. I also like a little more communication about things, like at the beginning of the year letting me know what goes on and then updating if it changes. My two biggest complaints are they allow Joy to watch TV (something she does not do at home) and they give her a morning snack (again not at home). I also did not know about either of these things. I found out about the snack by looking in the window randomly. I first believed it was just that my looking in randomly found them eating snack randomly because some kid didn't have breakfast that day. I know I am naive. The TV just blows my mind, I see no reason to have a TV on for these kids. The crazy thing is when I mentioned one day that my child was watching tv with the 2's, the director was more concerned with the 2's watching it than Joy. I know I read too much and I follow what I read, some of it's a little crazy but the no TV for under 2 is something I really like, and have adhered to in my house. However, the policy of the PDO is that the kids under 2 are allowed to watch the Baby Einstein videos whenever, where the rest of the kids aren't allowed to watch anything other than the Christian ones. Now I am not complaining about the content just the fact that I DON"T WANT HER TO WATCH TV! Is that really so hard, it's in practically every parenting book you read these days no tv for under 2, and limited after that. *sigh* Okay I am done now before I say more than I want to. You may like the center I work at, you may think it's the best in the area. If it is I am disappointed in the area's PDO options. I do have my loyalty issues and most likely won't go to another PDO in the area. I may try the one right by my neighborhood, but not this week.
I am thinking of looking into a 2 day thing and doing sub work in the public schools in this area. I think I can handle 2 days now to find the right person or center for those 2 days!

My Baby Story...

2008-02-25T21:16:00.005-06:00

If you haven't figured it out already I have become an avid blog reader. I enjoy reading other people's blogs specifically the ones that I now have links to on the side. Well on one of these sites the woman has offered a contest for baby stories. I know my story is nothing compared to the ones she has been posting, but it's my story and I want to share.
I found out I was pregnant pretty much as soon as I could. We used the ovulation pee sticks for the first time and I was anxious to know. I managed to keep it a secret long enough to buy Rob a little card that I have no memory of what it said, but something to the effect of you're gonna be a daddy. Then we waited 3 months to tell anyone else. We told them at my Mom's b-day party at my house by setting up place cards for everyone with their name from the baby's perspective. It took a minute for my mom to realize that she was the Grandmother and Grandmother was the Great-Grandmother. It did work and it was exciting.
Fast forward 6 more month. Rob and I had taken every baby class available and applicable to us from our hospital. Then about 2 weeks before our last class we learn baby is breech. We kept the sex a secret so we could get all our stuff neutral since I want more than one and really want one of each. I researched all the ways to turn the baby and decided for the baby's health and my sanity the best option was to pray the baby turned, and opt for the c-section. This was a disappointment as I am a little weird and was looking forward to labor (which I wanted without drugs). 2 Ultrasounds later, (which really tested our not wanting to know) the baby was still breech. So the c-section was scheduled for Wednesday Sept 20th at 8am. Everyone in the family tells their bosses, and schedules to come spend the day that day. The baby had other plans. Monday the 18th, I HAD to clean the house it had to be clean I mopped, I swept, I vacuumed, I almost cleaned the tubs! Around 11:00 Rob and I were laying in bed and well that feels odd. Let me get up and go to the bathroom. Next thing Rob hears "Umm honey, I think my water broke." I think he said something to the effect of really I was almost asleep. Then he went into first time Daddy mode. I kept trying to finish packing (it was scheduled so I had waited to pack). We finally got everything we thought we needed, we had called the doctor and off we went to the hospital. Somewhere in there I stopped for a second and told Rob "I think that was a contraction" (his now favorite quote). He then diligently got out his watch and started timing them. What I didn't tell him is I was only telling him about every other one.
We left home Rob ran a light and two minutes later we were at the hospital, we went to the 2nd floor. I told the ladies I was scheduled for pre-op at 8:00 the next morning because the baby was breech. I got into a room they hooked me up. I signed my life away. A nice man with a big needle came in. I met the not so friendly doctor. I got wheeled into the operating room. A blanket was placed across my neck. For some this is not a big deal, I can't stand things on my neck! It was killing me to have that there, but I was too nice to tell anyone and I knew Rob would be there in a minute. Rob finally came and I told him he fixed it best he could. They finished drugging me and the surgery began.
I can hear them talking and they apparently have half the baby out but something was stuck. It took what seemed like forever to get the baby out. They kept saying turn this way no, hold on, I got it, no how about now, wow, this baby's really in there. Yeah thanks I know I could feel the head in my ribs the past month! Is the baby okay!??!?!?!? Finally I hear so Dad you want to tell Mom what it is. Now in my head I was thinking why didn't you just tell me hurry tell me the baby is okay and if it's a boy or a girl. My husband then says it's Joy Katherine! I smile and strain to see her. I don't know if I said anything I just want to see her. I can now hear her, she has good lungs!
After the initial stuff Rob brought her to see me, I smiled I wanted to hold her so bad, but I was still laying like they were going to crucify me after this. They whisked her away to the nursery and Rob went too. I went back to the room and waited. When Rob came back I wanted to know where she was, she was warming and would be there any minute. We waited. We waited, we waited. Finally they are ready to move me from the labor and delivery room to the other side. Joy was also ready at that time. We move and then we get her. She's perfect.

Dirt

2008-02-24T17:36:00.004-06:00

They say that some dirt is good dirt, some dirt is bad dirt, I say dirt is dirt and after today no dirt is good dirt! As a child I did the occasional mud pie and I dug to China (from Abilene where when I hit the red clay I knew something was special!) I have nothing against a little dirt under the fingernails, a little dirt in the lawn, or a little gardening. What I do have is something against too much dirt in the wrong place and being packed together like one of my mud pies! I am sure those of you who know me are wondering when and were I have encountered this dirt, well let me tell the story.
I get bothered by some projects not being done, so in an effort to speed things along I work on them. Now if I really thought about it I would know the project is too big for me, but I try anyway. I am an independent woman and I can do anything I want! Well this project started just that way. I want the planting bed next to my garage to be something other than a weed bed. We have talked about removing the railroad ties and planting it nicely this summer. Well it's warm so I decided to check on the ability of moving the railroad ties. They were fairly easy to move. I managed to get them in only one or two tries. OOPS! Now what! Let me explain I could remove them, but their laying in my lawn was not an option! So next I had to removed the nails holding them together or at least get them apart so their is a chance of the trash guys picking them up. This proved to be where I was in over my head. I needed leverage I could not get with only 2 legs and 2 arms. I approached Rob and asked if he had anything I could use for leverage, he opted to come help me. So the railroad ties are on the curb waiting for Monday trash.
The next part of the project the part where I really was in over my head was the railroad ties were a damn of sorts keeping back allot of dirt. The same dirt that housed many weeds, worms and roots. Lots and lots of roots. You see when we purchased this house the bed we are now working on was filled with very large bushes, VERY LARGE bushes. We got the majority of the bushes out and some of their roots. It has been about half a year since we got the bushes out so some of the roots have decomposed others are still there. So we needed to remove the dirt. Problem 1 we have no wheelbarrow. Problem 2 I am a wimp. Problem 3 where do you put this dirt? Long story short we have 3-4 piles of dirt in various low spots in our back yard. We are praying the weeds don't take over, and the grass will grow again in those locations.
So the state of things now is the front bed next to the garage is ground level with the exception of around the remaining bush and it's root system. The back yard has multiple dirt piles some in good places one just in a place (it's a Joy hill I keep telling myself). If you are ever in need of motivation getting a project started let me know I am great at starting things I get in over my head with so invite me over ask for my help and I will start your project for you. Luckily I am surrounded by friends and family who are great at finishing my projects. Thank you Rob, I love you!

My Quest

2008-02-23T18:57:00.004-06:00

I am on a quest to become more financially savvy. Since having Joy we have had more than one month where out output was more than our input. I know these things happen occasionally and especially with kids and an 8 year old American car (Rob's 10 year old Honda is in better shape). However, it has been more months than I would like to admit. I am sure that some of these were my fault as I don't always want to eat at home, I am terrible at cutting coupons, I buy things for Joy when I think she needs or I want them and as long as they are under $20 I think nothing of it. I am terrible at just getting things at Target and not really seeing the bottom line. So I am on a quest. Well to be honest it is a forced quest, Rob finally looked at the bank statements and saw what I already knew was happening. So he told me until the credit card is paid off no second child. This I can agree with and was in my head as a goal. In my head as a goal and in his head as a goal are 2 different things. My goals come and go his are put in stone. So my quest to be a better steward of our money in an effort to pay off the credit card possibly build a little more back into savings and have my second child that I want so badly.
So far I was very lucky and happy to be the recipient of the many toys that were passed down to Joy. This is a great blessing as some of these things are things that I truly wanted or needed for Joy. The next thing is I am looking into summer clothing now and I have already received some hand me downs from Jen/Lily and someone from one of my Mom groups that are 12mo size what I think she will be in this summer. To my amazement they are also summer clothes, in the past the few hand me downs we have gotten seem to be for the wrong season! My mother also was generous with some clothes for Joy as a Valentine gift. Then today I went to Kohls to see what they had and to get a present for my Mom's upcoming birthday and I got a few mix and match short sets for $5 a piece. I have also inquired of Michelle who I know frequents area resale shops for the good ones in the area. I look forward to shopping at the 3 she let me know about in the near future. I also know she didn't hide one from me since her youngest is not the same size or sex as Joy.
In addition to my new quest for lower priced stuff for Joy I am also going on what I have heard referred to as an "all cash diet". Basically I have told Rob I will leave the debit card at home, write checks at Target and Grocery shopping. I will then only spend cash on any food or other frivolous things. I will keep the credit card in my wallet for occasional need, and for gas since I hate to go inside at gas stations.
So there it is my new quest to get the credit card paid off and the savings back up. I know it's not an impossible quest, but I know a few habits will have to change. I am sharing this with you in hopes you will share with me your money saving tips. Also know I have tried and failed at the grocery game, and I just buy more than I need when I coupon clip, so although the receipt may say I saved $10 with coupons the truth is I spent $20 on things I would not have gotten if it weren't for having the coupon.
In this quest I am also looking at and thinking about options for next year. I already have the summer planned to have 3 kids here 2 days of the week. They are paying for care, and I look forward to seeing how it works out for me and for their parents. I have already somewhat decided not to return to my church's PDO next year for various reasons (#1 as a teacher being pay). I am thinking of looking for someone or an extended PDO so I can substitute which makes decent money. I have also thought about trying out other PDO's in the area, although being the loyalist I am I feel like a traitor not supporting my church's PDO. Right now it's all a big blur and I hate thinking about it. I also really miss having other Mom interactions during the week so I am hoping to have Wednesdays available for my mom group's playdates. I really like and want to be a stay at home mom, but have yet to find the right niche to contribute to the money situation and stay at home full time. If you know of a good legitimate easy money maker for me let me know, I am interested.

Thanks Michelle!! I was tagged

2008-02-18T20:28:00.003-06:00

Okay so apparently in blogger world their is a game of tag happening, and Michelle who is a very nice person and otherwise a good friend tagged me. I being a rule follower am playing along.
Here goes:

Rules:
1: Link to the person that tagged you.
2: Post the rules on your blog
3: Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
4: Tag at least 3 people at the end of your post and link to their blogs
5: Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog
6: Let the fun begin!

Me Following Rules:
1. Michelle's Blog
2. See above
3. See below
4. It's not the end but here they are: Geneva, Electric Monk (my Sunday school teacher, I hope he tells me about the name sometime, and I am only keeping it anonymous since he does), and Krista (I just want something new to read on your blog!)
5. Done.
6. This is fun?

Okay my six non-important things/habits/quirks about me:
1. In grade school I figured out if you stand still and don't look like you are playing tag you can play tag and never be tagged (it's true it was my method).
2. I hate people playing with my hair.
3. I bite my nails and crack my knuckles or any joint that I can pop I will.
4. I hate cleaning my ears, I cough when I do a nasty dry painful cough
5. I have texture issues
6. I over-think, over-plan and obsess about little things, especially when it comes to being a hostess something I love to do, but feel inadequate doing.

Okay it's over and I apologize to Geneva, The Electric Monk, and Krista, but Michelle made me do it! Oh and Michelle it wasn't that bad, I enjoyed reading yours and look forward to reading the others.

Okay and now for a fun little story about friendship... (Sorry about the formatting it's just that way and I didn't want to get into the HTML).

"True" Friendship

None of that Sissy Crap

Are you tired of those sissy "friendship" poems that always sound good, but never actually come close to reality? Well, here is a series of promises that actually speak of true friendship. You will see no cutesy little smiley faces on this card- Just the stone cold truth of our great friendship.

1. When you are sad -- I will help you get drunk and plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.

2. When you are blue -- I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile -- I will know you are plotting something that I must be involved in.

4. When you are scared -- I will rag on you about it every chance I get.

5. When you are worried -- I will tell you horrible stories about how much Worse it could be until you quit whining.

6. When you are confused -- I will use little words.

7. When you are sick -- Stay the hell away from me until you are well again. I don't want whatever you have.

8. When you fall -- I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass.

9. This is my oath .... I pledge it to the end "Why?" you may ask; "because you are my friend".

Friendship is like peeing your pants, everyone can see it, but only you can feel it's true warmth.

Remember: A friend will help you move. A really good friend will help you move a body. Let me know if I ever need to bring a shovel...

Picturepalooza

2008-02-17T15:43:00.003-06:00

Okay here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks:

Lily and Joy in Lily's wagon at the zoo February 7th

Joy's new kitchen, she loves it Michelle thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Daddy and Joy buckling the baby in the stroller. She loves the stroller Jen, thank you thank you thank you!

Joy in her new outside chair (she kept wanting in the big unstable ones) Notice the chair is inside! She also has a "sweep" (broom) and a rake. When she sees them she says "sweep" or "rake" in a cute little questioning mode.

Joy's Valentine from Daddy.

We just had to order the heart shaped pizza, even though it was thin crust, it wasn't too bad.

Rob, my flowers which he got me, thank you, thank you, thank you, (I think he did a perfect job this year I love the colors!) and the pizza.

Little People Village! Joy hasn't seen it yet as I set it up while she has been napping this afternoon, but I am sure she will love it. I do! With the exception of the house and the bus these are all part of the freebies from Jen! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Oh and the preschool is in her room so it's not out, but otherwise those are all her Little People. Please stay tuned for Rob's version of the Little Village People.

As far as news in our little world I have none other than my sister, brother in law, and husband all have tomorrow off and I will be at work. Isn't that supposed to be the other way around I am the teacher for goodness sake! Please play a sad tune now.

I'm a grandma!

2008-02-15T22:54:00.004-06:00

I am a grandmother to a sweet diaper-less baby. The baby's name is officially Molly, but she is just baby to her Mommy, Joy. The baby can ride in her stroller (thanks Jen) and she can eat in her high chair (thanks Jen) and well, that's all for now. The baby has ridden in her stroller out to the car each morning this week so in addition to the sleeping baby, 500 bags and whatever else I bring home from work I must now also remember to bring the stroller and the baby back inside. It's cute, Joy is a good Mommy, that is if you don't really watch how she carries the baby (by the bottom). The baby is fed every day multiple times in a ten minute period. She sits in very interesting positions in the stroller and in the high chair. All in all the baby is the new object of our affection. Oh we still love our puppy but baby is quickly becoming more interesting. I guess if puppy got a collar and a leash he may also become interesting, but she got a stroller and a high chair for baby. So the baby is our new love. She has shown she has a few more words in her vocabulary because of her love of her baby she now knows for certain, ride, eat, and buckle. Yes, I said buckle and oddly enough in her ever growing vocabulary this has to be one of the clearest words she says! It amazes me how clear it comes out. Where stinky is still ninkey, and chocolate is gotlet, buckle is clear and precise. She can also scream buckle and no at the same time if you try and buckle her into something she did not intend to be buckled into. Just fair warning for those of you out there wanting to buckle Joy, good luck!

Free Toys Rock!

2008-02-09T21:51:00.000-06:00

Poor Joy has not been very joyful this past week, she has been ill with what we learned on Friday is/was a left ear infection, fluid in the right ear, fever and a bronchial cough. None of which is really contagious just icky and no fun! Especially since this is the first real sickness we have had and it includes 3 different medicines! Poor baby starts screaming as soon as she sees me and Dad pins her down. Anyone want to volunteer for the noon pinning when Dad goes to work on Monday? She is doing better and by the looks of the crust I took out of her ear this morning her left ear is draining now. (Sorry Vicki for the TMI).
Anyway the real reason I am posting tonight is to say friends with kids are awesome and I love you Michelle and Jen! This week Joy really scored some great "new" toys. At the football party hosted by the wonderful Michelle (They Outnumber Us) I came home with a small kitchen which Joy has not stopped playing with since I took it out of my trunk on Thursday. Oh and I made the mistake of telling her the blue square cube was ice so now she goes to our fridge and wants ice while playing with hers. Then Thursday Jen gave Joy a stroller, high chair and I got a caterpillar piano/bell (I will let Joy borrow it on occasion). Then today when I went to help Jen and Liz move (YEAH it's finally done!) I got 2 boxes of Little People. I can't wait to set it all up in the entry and have Little People town! Then maybe I will let Joy play with that too! I am going slow on the showing Joy all her new toys so she doesn't go into overload, especially since she's ill. I will post pics as I get them with the new stuff oh and keep it coming I am always willing to receive, and promise to pass on that which I receive!

Bathtime

2008-02-05T14:01:00.000-06:00

Bath time has gotten a little better, but not much. The dreaded water on the head is hard to get through without tears, but we manage. I finished getting the shampoo out of her hair last night and decided she would look cute with a mohawk. I was right. You don't get the full effect with the pictures but she's cure with the spikey hairdo!

I'm bored...

2008-02-04T14:39:00.000-06:00

I am bored, I have 100 things I could be doing 1,000 things I should be doing so I googled bored and this just made me smile, now to see if I can get my list to 999. (oh and sorry about the original image, not my favorite although funny!

Eating at the Table and other Exciting News!

2008-02-03T14:25:00.000-06:00

Well I went and did it I sat Joy on the window seat and put her food on the table, and now she refuses to eat when in the high chair with the tray. The good news is that the high chair is set to the height of the table and she can and is still strapped in for her meals just without the tray. I did manage to get a couple pictures of her eating cheese while sitting at the window seat.

The next thing I did was finally bring in the Mickey Table Rob and I made (he made I decorated). She likes it! At first we just used a stool from my Maw Maw and Paw Paw's house which fit perfectly, now I have purchased a couple chairs from Ikea.

My lovely friends Liz and Jen purchased for me a great looking picture mosaic of Mickey from Fantasia. It's beautiful, one BIG problem it's a puzzle!! Rob and I let Joy use the box as a stepping stool for about a month then finally got the pieces out and although we loathed Jen and Liz the whole way we finally have our beautiful picture, now where's the puzzle glue and frame shop?

Okay if you don't know me too well, you don't know I am a craft-a-holic, if it's an available craft I have probably tried it. Most recently is the above table for Joy, that was a new endeavor with the decoupage, which I am in love with, but now it needs to be shellacked or something so when we spill it's okay. My continuing craft thing is scrapbooks and stamping, two very exciting things I almost never get to do, but I do have a craft room for it. Other things I have dabbled in include crossstitch (although I have yet to finish a project) I did a brief stint with plastic canvas, I have stenciled, I am working on m sewing abilities, and last but not least I have done ceramics. Now I know your thinking who hasn't these days with painter potter and other chain bisque ware painting places around, but no I really did do ceramics when I was in Middle School. My Grandmother had a group every Tuesday at her church and I don't know if I asked or she offered, but for at least one whole summer every Tuesday night I was with her and 5-6 other ladies painting ceramics, I loved it. I don't have room in my life for all the things I would like to create, but I enjoyed it, and now I have a place I can go (although she has a cat and that's bad news, but I might get over it). This is my first creation from this ceramics studio, it's a piggy bank if you can't tell! That was long winded but I am avoiding cleaning something (really everything!)

a Little bit for G!

2008-01-31T22:08:00.000-06:00

Okay since G asked here are 2 random and short stories for you.
Today Joy was in her crib having just woken from her nap and I hear her playing, I like to leave her a little bit so she adjusts to being awake, she is not a morning person! Anyway I all of a sudden hear a very odd and sad cry (like she is stuck or something is wrong. So I jump up to see what's the matter. At first all I see is her sitting facing the wall. Odd, so I quietly listen and watch as I creep up on her. Then I see her lean forward and do something and say uh-oh. So I ask why uh-oh (by the way startling her is the funniest thing) and she points to her shoe which is stuck between the slats in her crib. Somehow it is not falling behind the crib as it usually does (now I know how she gets it off and back there). So I ask what happened and she tugs and pulls at her shoe again. I ask is it stuck, and she just looks at me like why are you asking these questions you know the answer to and I don't yet have the words for silly just get me my shoe! Yes she said all that in a look! So we got her shoe and put it back on the foot.
Random story #2
So I am trying to teach joy to sit at her table to eat, so far just for snack, but we have to start somehow. So I am using my Grandmother's (Maw Maw)) footstool with an Eagle on it, we had it it's the right height so we are using it. However I don't have anything to sit on so I was on the floor, and I was feeding her the yogurt and she was happily eating sitting on the stool. She starts to get up, and I start to shovel the yogurt faster so she will finish it before she is up. Well I did not manage, but instead of just wanting to get up she was wanting to sit like me, on the floor. So she sat in front of me and finished the last 2 bites of her yogurt. I went and bought 2 chairs for the table this afternoon. Sorry Rob's on his computer and it's past my bedtime so no new pictures!
Almost forgot! I start sewing lessons on the 25th (Thank you Grandmother!) and can't wait to show off the beautiful easter dress I am sure I will make!

Randomness

2008-01-21T21:50:00.000-06:00

OKay few times in my life do I really wish I had one of those camera phones. Today I had one of those moments. I went to the grocery store tonight and it was normal (other than the tv's they keep adding?!?) until I went out to my car. What was in the parking lot, but a car with a flannel jacket as a window, all I could think was well now that's ingenuity!
Okay really that's it sorry.
On a much more interesting note I cleaned the craft room and started again working on Joy's album, she is now home from the hospital and almost a month old, but I ran out of the tape I like, so I need to talk to one of my creative memories people and see what they can do for me!

Picture Time!

2008-01-20T15:51:00.001-06:00

Okay I know you really just want to see pictures so here you go!

In other news: Well their is no news. Since she said she was ninkey 2-3 times she hasn't been cooperative on that front since, but I expected as much. She is still mimicing almost everything we say so I don't know how many words she has in her vocabulary anymore because she will seem to have a word but then not. She is working on her vocabulary always. I can't imagine learning as much as she does each day/week/month. She's a smarty!
Another cute things she does, which I think her Daddy taught her is Oh No! That may not seem as cute as it really is but now you have to know as she says it the hands go on the head and she shakes her head no.
She is also continuing to tell us nooooooooooooooo. I usually ignore it or say in a sweet voice no what. I know she isn't really telling us no, just having fun with a word she knows.
She did other day experiment with what would happen if she lifted her arm high and then bring it down on Mommy's face. She learned that Mommy would tell her in a not so nice tone that she doesn't like that. She also learned that when she gets her sad face after being told something in a not so nice tone that her Mommy still loves her, just doesn't like what she did. Hugs and kisses were exchanged.
She and Rob had a fun weekend while I went to San Antonio for a conference. I learned about Handwriting without Tears, which I think is a great program. I was very happy to learn finally how to teach handwriting as the kids messy handwriting would bother me to no end, but I never had the tools to teach good handwriting. Now I feel equipped. I enjoy my days/weekends away, but I miss my baby while gone, but I know her Daddy is a good Daddy and they need their time together.
Well I guess that's all if you need handwriting instruction for your kids let me know, the other 2 teachers I went with and myself are thinking of a summer camp for kids who finished K-2nd as we all need/want some summer income and the PDO doesn't go all year.

I ninkey

2008-01-14T16:03:00.000-06:00

Last week I started to ask Joy if she was stinky. She just looked at me and would let me change the stinky diaper. She eventually started saying I ninkey (nin rhymes with tin and key is like the ones you open doors with), but only when asked and prompted. That is until today. During her snack she points to her diaper and says I ninkey. At first I didn't get it, but then I saw the look on her face and knew, so I praised her for telling me and told her finish snack then we will change you. Whatever right one time, it's just a happenstance. I was hopeful but not convinced she knew (I am sure sitting in the highchair makes it more obvious what she did?!) So later she and I had been playing and she was in the kitchen getting a drink and when I went to check what she was doing she said I ninkey. This time I got it and asked are you stinky? She repeated I ninkey. So we went to change her and she was again stinky! Maybe it's only something a mom can be proud of but I am proud! Now I know the next question is when are you potty training. Well at this time we don't even have a potty. So the answer is not now. My plan (as I always have a plan) is somewhere in the next 2 months I will find and purchase our potty chair for Joy. At first it will be a novelty when she gets in and out of the bath (that is if she ever bathes again, but that's another story). This summer is when I am thinking we will begin to really do the potty training. I will do like I did with my toddler at work. The diaper changes will happen in the bathroom with the option of the toilet or not. When it seems she wants to and can tell me before she goes potty (or I just decide I am ready) we will go ahead with underwear (NO PULLUPS!) but for now and possibly the next year it's just about not being afraid of the potty and knowing what our body is telling us when. I know potty talk like I ninkey is the first step.
So the bath.... It's an evil thing if you ask Joy. She has decided to strike and is succeeding at this point because I refuse to put a screaming scared child into the bathtub. I know she hates getting her hair washed, although that is usually the reason she needs a bath so I can't ever seem to give her just a fun bath no hair washing. I can't get in the tub with her until 3 weeks after my surgery (which is thankfully this week). And her dad does not give baths (although I think if he tried she might like him better which is probably why he won't). Anyway for now she is getting doused with a washrag when I can and she desperately needs it. I am trying with the baths as much as I can, but again I will not put her in the tub when she is screaming scared. Maybe she's manipulating me, but I do know she HATES it when I wash her hair, really it's the rinsing that is the evil part so any suggestions on how to rinse without getting her face wet are welcome. We already have the bucket with the flexed side to go on her forehead but she won't tilt back for it, I am pondering a visor, but she won't keep any hat on for 10 seconds why would one in the bath be better? So until further notice Joy is getting sponge baths!

Overnight trip

2008-01-05T19:51:00.000-06:00

Last Summer My sister and I met our cousins in Salado Texas, a very cute, quaint town that is all Texan. We really enjoyed it and found a great little stamp store. I actually did all my Christmas shopping for my Grandmother there that weekend. I also enjoy stamping and got myself some really cute stamps. Now I know my Grandmother is 90 and has not gone on many trips, but this town is not too far away, and one or two nights should be manageable for her. So I suggested while everyone was on vacation after Christmas we should take a family girls trip to Salado. IT was talked about a few times of canceling between my sister actually getting one of the girls in her house back on the 3rd, and my knee, and ... We thought about postponing, but then I was feeling fine, my sister's husband can take care of the one girl, and the weather has not been too cold so we decided to go on Thursday, January 3rd and return Friday, January 4th. So here is the story of our trip...
Joy and I started out at 8:30 Thursday morning we picked up my Grandmother from her house around 9:00 and went to my Mom's. At my Mom's we switched all Joy's stuff, my stuff, and my Grandmother's stuff to my Mom's car. Including the car seat. I was a little nervous about this, but my Mom has a new car and therefore has the latch system and now I desperately want a new car just for the latch system! So that was an easier than imagined task (it took me at least half an hour to wrestle the car seat into my car the first time). We then headed North to my sisters where we picked up her and her luggage (she wins the prize for the most luggage after Joy). Finally we are on our way. Vicki (my sister) and I had discussed a few days before that the directions from her house took us through College Station, and I figured by the time everyone was in the car and we were on our way College Station would be the perfect lunch stop. My sister notified her friend Tracey who lives there and we decided we would contact her to let her know when we were in the area. So when we got close to CS my sister called Tracey and we decided to meet at Cheddars for lunch. My Grandmother also has a friend who recently moved to CS and she called her spur of the moment and also invited her. So the 7 of us stopped for lunch in CS at Cheddars. Vicki and Tracey caught up, Grandmother and Dixie caught up, and Joy got out of the car seat only to be buckled into a high chair (although I did let her wander through the restaurant before and after the meal since this was her only free time so far that day). After a long lunch and much visiting we got back on the road and again headed north. We debated over directions, I had some printed from Google, but my mom asked Dixie about how she would go and although Dixie did not have clear directions it was decided to not use my directions. Now you see I get car sick, you would think a 31 year old would have grown out of it, but hand me a map or anything to read in the car and puke will follow. So that left my Grandmother and sister to figure out the unclear directions. After many small (no dirt, but one without a center line) roads we made it to Salado, and first stop was the stamp store. My grandmother was happy and we looked around a little. Joy finally got to walk around a little and was very happy playing with the baskets. She also enjoyed terrorizing the "most handsome store kitty". Joy was very interested in the kitty or KIT as she would say. The cat however was a little terrified of the tiny person. Now Joy is not bold enough to go up to the kitty, but she will get within a couple feet and corner the poor thing. This adding to the fact that no one in my family likes cats nor can we breath around them. My allergy being the most severe, then my Mom's coming in a close second. Anyway since their are few fabrics in the store the kitty did not bother our breathing too bad. Joy did like watching it from about 2 feet and by the time we left was ready to pet it if it would let her. Anyway my grandmother filled one basket but left it for tomorrow to only check out once. We then did some other shopping and checked into the hotel. After checking into the hotel we did a little more shopping and then the town closed down at 5:00. Dinner then the hotel was the decision made (for Joy) and so we found a little BBQ place and had an eh dinner then went back to the hotel. At the hotel I let Joy play about half an hour before putting her down and going to my Mom and G-mom's room for a little while to chat and whatever until we got tired. So day one was over and everyone survived.
Day 2: Joy got up around 7:10 her usual, and I just let her play in the dark in the room (since my sister who gets up at 4:30 every morning was still sleeping). When Vicki woke up Joy continued to play. She finally did realize that she had not eaten and was hungry so I fed her a few snacks (she had the option of Cheerios or goldfish and she ate the fish). She continued to play and eat while we got ready with visions of breakfast buffet dancing in our head. At 8:30 when we got to the Coffee Shop we found the buffet is weekends only! This was very sad news. Next we learn they have no fruit. At this point I might as well have taken Joy back to the room to eat her canned fruit and more fish, but I was also hungry so I ordered her a pancake (which she eats at home). Breakfast was good except Joy did not want to be there and was not interested in the food ordered for her or given to her off others plates. Finally breakfast was over and we headed back to the rooms to pack up and get ready for some shopping. I had already asked Vicki (who doesn't care about stamps) to watch Joy while I shopped the stamps. An hour later we were done, but G-mom of course was not so we went off shopping while G-mom stayed shopping at the stamp store. Around 12:30 my Grandmother called to let us know she was done (with a hefty bill I am sure). o we had lunch, Vicki continued to shop a couple more shops and then we headed home. This time I drove my mom's car and we took highways. It wasn't my original directions and who knows how much extra time we were on the road, but I drove and their was no drama about the route. So we dropped Vicki off first, then G-mom and then we stopped at my Mom's house around 6:30 to again move the stuff and the car seat. The car seat did not take 30 minutes, but I realized too late and too tired to fix it I made a small mistake. That and I didn't feel I could putt it tight enough since I could not properly lean on my right knee. Rob will be fixing that in a couple min now that I remember.
All in all the trip was fun, I won't suggest another for a few years, and maybe then Joy will want to stay with a friend for a couple days instead of going with us. It was nice to be with family and my Grandmother was ever so grateful for the idea and the trip. Who knows I may forget the little things in another few months and offer another small trip somewhere for my Grandmother, she did love to travel at one point in her life.
Okay this blog really went nowhere, but I wanted to share my little story of our trip. It's always good to be home after a trip. And after a few weeks it's always nice to think fondly of the trip! For now I am still worn out and poor Joy is afraid every time we put her in the car seat it will be another 3-4 hours before she gets out, or worse it will be 2 minutes in 2 minutes out 2 minutes in 2 minutes out. Needless to say she got whatever she wanted today since she had to put up with so much the previous 2! Now I am off to fix the car seat and see about actually making a path in my craft room so I can use some of the new stamps I got!

Christmas Pictures

2008-01-02T21:44:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas and a Happy Surgery...

2007-12-28T20:02:00.000-06:00

Christmas was great! Joy was getting into the excitement and enjoyed getting presents. By the end of the day all you had to say was Joy present and she would come running ready to open. I will get some pictures up as soon as I can get Rob on that (next year sometime!).
Surgery went well as far as I can tell. I went in with Rob around 9:15 and did my paperwork and pre-op stuff (the nurse was sure to tell me I am not pregnant) and then Rob got to come and sit with me while we waited for the doctor to show up. The surgery was scheduled for 10:30 and last I heard it was about 10:35 and the doctor was there not long after that. So I went into the operating room fully awake and then I moved to the table and I remember seeing a syringe putting something in the IV line, but then next thing I remember was waking up. Apparently I was smiling allot when I woke up and I chatted with the nice nurse who was there in the recovery room. She gave me lots of water (which I later learned was a bad idea). I was doing very well and so she said she would go tell Rob I should be ready to go in about 15 minutes. Well then she sat me up, and nausea set in. She laid me back down for another 5 minutes then I sat back up finished getting dressed and then she moved me to a "recliner" next to the bed I was in. She then went to get Rob because it had been about 30 minutes to the original 15 he was told about. He sat there with me for awhile, and I apparently was looking very tired (I might have dosed off again) and another nurse asked if I was ready to go home. I went with a yes on that. So the nurse and Rob loaded me into the car (not hard as I literally walked from the wheelchair to the car about 5ft). Then we took off toward home. Now I failed to mention to the nurse and Rob that I still had some nausea, and not even to the corner I managed to get all that water Sprite and a cracker they had given me back up. Then I felt much better! We made it home, luckily Joy was sleeping so I didn't have to worry about her seeing me and wanting to play. Vicki stayed with me while Rob and Marty went to get me some lunch. I ate and slept the rest of the day. Thursday morning I woke up in pain!! I managed to get up and to the couch, but no further. I pretty much stayed there all day. Not sure now why it was so painful, but it was painful! I took my medicine every 4 hours and made it through the day. After Joy went to bed I started to try and clean up some of the Christmas mess that we brought home after Christmas at my Mom's. I did real good I got things into piles all in the middle of the floor and then I could do no more. So the piles stayed. This morning I managed to get the piles out of Joy's way (at least the ones that needed to be) and I had a good day. I only took my pain medicine this morning, and have been pain med free the rest of the day. I don't know if it was the medicine or just the lack of food, but I was having that nausea feeling again. Anyway we got out twice today, and I am feeling fine. I even took my bandages off this evening and examined my stitches (I think they are cool). Anyway that's my story for now. I will try and do more about Christmas later with pictures!

Pictures (Finally!)

2007-12-22T14:18:00.000-06:00

Okay so I have been promising pictures but anytime I can get on my computer Rob is typically on his and the pictures are on his and it's easier not to bother him to get the pictures so anyway finally here are some pictures!

These first two are of Rob's office for Halloween. I don't recall if I mentioned he did the Matrix theme with a couple other guys from work, well I never got the pictures of all of them, but here is his office. Yes he hand painted all that, and each one is a letter or number, a few coded for me and him to understand.

So Halloween night here he is in front of our home. He brought home the panels from work and hung them in the entry way, you can kinda see it in the pictures, but not really great. Basically you could not see into the house just the Matrix panels.

Switching Holidays, right after Joy was born my dad was here and bought this from a lady down the street. We didn't get it up last year, and it's not lighted at night, but it's out and Joy loves to play with it!

Now this is the Christmas Program at our PDO. These are the best 2 pictures (the only ones where it's not the back of her head.) She came out and jingled her bell for the song, but was a little surprised by all the extra people in the Sanctuary (those people were not in practice!) She did okay cried a little but was still the cutest one!

This is just a random picture, Joy got the top (along with some pants that are too big) for Christmas from my friend Mary. She's in the laundry room refusing to come in the house. Just being herself and cute.

Now here is THE dress! She hasn't tried it on yet (I fear more tears when she does) but it is as done as it gets and I am okay with it. If you look close you will see the mistakes, but your only allowed to say wow you made her a dress what a great Mommy you are! I think I might get my friend Michelle to embroider that into the dress. It's done she will wear it twice then it will hang in the closet until I am willing to toss it out. I am really hoping for some sewing lessons next year so I can make all her special dresses preferably with a little less tears. (The blood is inevitable I prick myself all the time!)

Well I do have some news also. I went to the orthopedic surgeon on Thursday. He agreed it was a meniscus tear, and then saw the MRI report (I guess no one told him it was there so he examined me and then when he came to his conclusion I told him about it.) So he said surgery is the thing told me about the surgery and I asked about the alternative and he said it would be like it is now, which is okay as long as I don't squat, go up or down stairs, or walk more than 20 feet. So The scheduling nurse came in and was looking through the calendar. She was in mid January when she asked how soon I wanted it. I mentioned Rob has off work next week, and she flipped back to December 26th, said she had a cancellation and would see if she could get the space back from the Surgery center. Long story short I am having surgery on December 26th at 10:30am. My sister will watch Vicki that day and Rob will be home all week just for safe measure. The doctor said I would be able to walk out of the surgery (after I wake up) and I should have little to no restrictions. I will have some at home exercises to do, but I should be better than now by this time next week. So that's my story this week. I hope to get some Christmas pictures of Joy in the dress and then on Christmas Day, doubt I will get them up for awhile though so be patient with me :)
Merry Christmas!

Not a dressmaker

2007-12-18T21:20:00.000-06:00

Okay so I had this wonderful idea to make my daughter's Christmas dress. I even went as far as buying a pattern, material and the things that went with it. I have sewn before, I made myself a shirt (that I actually wore) at one point. I have made other things too, I did all my living room curtains, I have done other little crafty sewing things. So why not tackle a dress.... Let me tell you why not, the directions are written in a foreign language, they say it's English but I didn't understand it! In addition they are asking you to do things that just aren't humanly possible at least not by this human. I called my mom on many occasions asking what's this, what's that. She finally came over (a week after I gave up) and fixed some of the problems. Oh by the way I am doing this on her high school graduation gift/sewing machine. Well when she left on Sunday *all* I had to do was the side seams and the hems on the sleeves and the bottom then put on the cutesy little things. Well I managed to get it done (screwing up the sleeves but fixing with rickrack). Then I notice a few things I had not before. The dress is done (and a picture has been taken but our camera or computer did not delete the pictures last time we downloaded them so Rob didn't want to wait out the download of 230 pictures a second time for really only one picture.) Joy will wear the dress to church on Sunday, then to my Uncle's party and then again to the church's Christmas Eve service. Is it perfect, NO! Is it handmade with blood, sweat and tears absolutely! Merry Christmas Joy, I promise this is the last dress I make until after someone give me sewing lessons (a great Christmas present if you haven't already bought one for me!)

Better than Santa

2007-12-16T21:40:00.000-06:00

Okay so I admit my computer time is not spent blogging because I am on CafeMom reading other Mom's issues and writing about my own or MySpace lurking it's amazing who is out there and what they are doing! Anyway this post is only going to be a stolen item from CafeMom, I loved the message and wanted to spread it. Hope you like it!

WHY JESUS IS BETTER THAN SANTA CLAUS

Santa lives at the North Pole...
JESUS is everywhere.

Santa rides in a sleigh...
JESUS rides on the wind and walks on the water.

Santa comes but once a year...
JESUS is an ever present help.

Santa fills your stockings with goodies...
JESUS supplies all your needs.

Santa comes down your chimney uninvited...
JESUS stands at your door and knocks, and then enters your heart when invited.

You have to wait in line to see Santa...
JESUS is as close as the mention of His Name.

Santa lets you sit on his lap...
JESUS lets you rest in His arms.

Santa doesn't know your name, all he can say is, "Hi little boy or girl, what's your name?"
JESUS knew our name before we did. Not only does He know our name, he knows our address too. He knows our history and future and He even knows how many hairs are on our heads.

Santa has a belly like a bowl full of jelly...
JESUS has a heart full of love.

All Santa can offer is HO HO HO...
JESUS offers health, help and hope.

Santa says, "You better not cry"...
JESUS says, "Cast all your cares on me for I care for you."

Santa's little helpers make toys...
JESUS makes new life, mends wounded hearts, repairs broken homes and builds mansions.

Santa may make you chuckle but...
JESUS gives you joy that is your strength.

While Santa puts gifts under the tree...
JESUS became our gift and died on a tree.

It's obvious there is really NO comparison. We need to remember WHO Christmas is all about. We need to put Christ back into CHRISTmas, JESUS is still the reason for the season!

Yes, Jesus is better, He is even better than Santa Claus!!

Not a good Blogger

2007-12-07T12:33:00.001-06:00

Okay so it's overtly obvious I am not good at this blogging thing. Well just add that to the tally of things I am not great at, cleaning house, cleaning laundry, just cleaning anything, keeping up with my scrapbooking (Joy's is at least a year behind, and the "family" one is even worse!) However, I am keeping up with Joy's moods and her schedule, she has yet to go unfed (although sometimes the meals aren't that great. I know all the mom's who are great at the cleaning and you can eat off their floors sometimes wish they had more time to spend with their kids. I wish I had more time to clean because I would rather spend my time with my kid. I hope that makes me a great Mom. I know sometimes I feel it makes me a great Mom but not a great wife. First thing when we win the lottery (that we don't play) is we are hiring a maid and a lawn guy, then Rob and I don't have those weekly things that keep us from Joy! Until then sorry no eating off the floor! I am not sure where that came from, but there it is.

In real news at our home everyone is sick! Last Wednesday night in the middle of the night Joy woke up crying, something she hasn't done in 4-5 months! I would like to say I rushed into her room, but I let her be for a few minutes until it was obvious that something was wrong and it wasn't just a random small cry. I get in there and she had thrown up all over her bed. I yell into the monitor to wake up Rob and together we clean the baby and the bed. Joy did not seem to phased by this other than it disrupted her beauty rest. When she was all clean and her bed back together we rocked her for a couple minutes and then I laid her back down. Rob and I headed back to bed. about 2 minutes later I hear her coughing, well I had to go check and be sure she hadn't thrown up again, and sure enough she had thrown up a little more. It wasn't much and it was high on her bed so we rocked a little then back to bed she went. Again a few minutes later she was coughing so since Rob was still up and had followed me last time anyway I let him take care of her. Until I heard her upset over the monitor. I went in and we all rocked. I think this happened one more time, and Rob took care of her that time (he was up no reason for everyone to be in the room). Joy and I stayed home from Parent's Day Out and she was fine all day. Friday again fine. She was fine all week, she was pooping more than usual (a good thing) and on Wednesday this week got a not that said she had a loose poop (unusual, but no worries). So Thursday Rob isn't feeling well and I leave him at home, with him thinking he will go to work just an hour late, Joy and I went to PDO as usual. I get home at noon to find out he never made it to work and is feeling pretty miserable. So Joy and I just do our usual thing and Rob stayed in the bedroom being sick. This morning Rob is feeling better but unsure about his prospects so Joy and I head out. Just past the mall Joy starts to cough, I check the mirror and she looks fine, but starts coughing again. I keep watching as much as I can while driving, next thing I know she is throwing up. I call Rob ask him if he is well enough to take care of Joy since I have to go to work since 2 other teachers, in my room, are out that morning. I bring Joy home drop her and my car here, then go to work in Rob's car. I get to work tell Donna (the Director) the story and we decide I can go at 10:30 when my kids will be covered by other teachers. I get home and Rob is still ill feeling, but Joy is no worse for the wear! I already have a doctor appointment for her this afternoon, so we will see if anything else is known, or if we just keep going as we are. I am glad to know that she is like me and just takes being sick as a minor nuisance, but it makes it hard to determine when she is sick! Is she sick? Has she been sick this whole time? *urgh* I can't wait till she has more words to tell me how she feels! Oh and in all this I don't like taking her temp, I refuse to do rectal, until I have been shown by someone who knows what they are doing and the underarm doesn't seem reliable, and we don't have an ear thermometer yet. So that is where we are now. *sigh*

News about me... My knee which has been hurting since Joy's b-day and I went to the doctor about took an x-ray said it was fluid, it still hurt but I didn't call until it was killing me after spending 3 days at my sister's 2 story house. I called and the doctor scheduled an MRI, and I did it last Saturday. Side thought that thing is loud, and although I am sure it really was 25 minutes it seemed very short. I decided going in that I would say a quick prayer to make it not seem as long as it was and God really answered that because when the tech said 6 minutes left I thought he was going to say 10 minutes passed! So the results were given to my doctor on Tuesday and I have a torn medial meniscus, and I was referred to an orthopedic surgeon. I have that appointment on the 20th, which was the first new patient available appointment. I decided it's not killing me now, so I can wait. I will let you know when I know more. Until then if you see me hobbling you will know why.

Other babbling because I can... I am over ambitious this year in my thoughts for Christmas, I have a pattern and material to make Joy a dress. It's still just a pattern and material. I do have a backup dress, but hope that everyone will be well enough soon enough that I could get it worked on soon. What this means is she has not yet seen Santa, and our mall is a no go now because she would never be good enough for the line and then sitting in a stranger's lap. So if we can we will go to the Texas City mall, where Santa actually dresses like Santa, and it's a dead mall so that means little or no line. *shrug* we will see. Again needing the time we don't have. Oh my other bother this weekend is that we have 2 things scheduled to do with others, and I really want to do both but now may not be able to do either. The first is my friend Mary, her husband, her twins (2years) and her baby (7 mo?) will be here at Moody to see the lights etc.. I really want to go with them tonight, but if Joy is sick I don't want her to forever hate me getting her boys sick! Although her boys have recently been sick also. Then Saturday is our Christmas Party for our Sunday School. Also my sister is taking her residents (the teens she is house mother for) to Moody on Saturday so that's another thing we could possibly do if time allowed. *sigh* the ONE weekend the rest of this year we have stuff planned and Joy decides to be sick for the first time!
OKay that's all my ramblings, it any of it made sense I am impressed. I will try and blog more, but in reality it's not high on my list (although it does rank above cleaning the kitchen floor!)

Pumpkin Picking...

2007-11-01T15:52:00.000-05:00

Last Friday Joy and I went to the Pumpkin Patch while waiting to go visit Daddy during his office Halloween party. We had a good time, I was impressed with her reaction to walking on hay and seeing ALL those big orange balls! The pics show the story!

I just let her out of the stroller (in the background) and put her down to see what she would do...She wasn't sure what to do with the Pumpkins at first...

So She decided to walk around them...

I kept pointing out different things I was trying to get her to notice the pallet of gourds behind her, but she was more interested in the giant pumpkins (and the other kids running around)

I think her eyes stayed this big most of the time, she was amazed with the pumpkins!

She was showing me the little pumpkins in front of her...

So I gave her one, she wasn't sure what exactly to do with it,

So she dropped it only to pick it up again, and again, and again...

I put this one down for her to inspect, we got it for Daddy.

I could not resist trying the little photo opportunity they had, I was impressed she wasn't screaming or trying to get down,

Until after the first picture!

Oh and she never got back in the stroller it got commandeered by the pumpkins!

So that was all the Friday before Halloween. I think we will go back to this Pumpkin Patch again next year, but maybe a little earlier in the season as the Pumpkins had been picked through allot! (I had gone on Wednesday with my preschool class and between then and Friday they were down quite a bit!)

Halloween was last night and we again put on our Minnie Mouse dress, and occassionally I could get the ears on (sorry no ears in the Pumpkin Patch too much to do by myself!). Joy "Trick or Treated" at 3 houses, our neighbors, and 2 Grandmotherly (about my Mom's age) ladies across the street. I knew they would love her so we went to see each of them. She wasn't sure what to think, but Rob and I are enjoying the little candy that got us :) I will try and get the pictures up soon.

Rob was also a great Halloween participant this year, he did a Matrix theme with 2 other guys from work. He even won the office decorating contest with his Matrix walls! He then brought those walls home and decorated the entryway for our trick or treaters! He was Neo and a couple kids even recognized him! Pictures to follow later this week...

Other news....
I am working at our church's Parent's Day Out/Preschool/Kindergarten I started out 3 days a week full days 9-2 as one of the 4's teachers. Then many things happened and now I am working 5 days 9-12 as a 4's teacher and the Kindergarten teacher. This is good and bad. I enjoy the consistency this gives me and Joy, and technically it's the same hours, and we get to see Rob everyday for lunch. The bad is it is 5 days, and this is only week 2 of the new schedule, but it's making for long weeks. I also don't have much planning time at the school so it is causing me to do some work at home, which I don't want to do. I will say my allergies/sinuses have been INSANE these 2 weeks so that could be part of the issue and being new to the positions also creates more work, but only time will tell. So that's all my news.