Friday, November 30, 2007

A fine balance

Liam has had this thing on his foot for a while. It appeared when we went camping in September with all his other cuts and problems. I have been watching it and wondering whether I should call the Doctor about it. Yesturday, I poked it a bit to see if anything was going on. It was sore and he did not want me to touch it, but I decided to wait and see what happened.
Tonight, he was playing on the floor barefoot and his foot looked weird, so I went up and looked at it again. It was swollen, the little sore was now purple and he had spots on his foot. It was like a picture from the rash section of a kids health book.
I grabbed the boys and took Liam straight to the urgent care. When the doctor looked at his foot, she said it was an infection (which I already knew since I have memorized the rash section of the books) and she started asking me how long he has had the sore, if anyone in the house has open sores or infections (answer is no). She also observed that he has a nasty case of athletes foot.
I find it difficult trying to find the balance of helicopter parent who runs their children for a hang nail and parent who lets things go too long. I wish kids came with some kind of alarm or color code system like the department of homeland security had. Maybe it could be green = fine, yellow = make an appointment, but no hurry, orange = make apointment for today and red = go to urgent care or hostpital now.

Here is a layout using Last Christmas by Baers Garten Designs at Scrapbook Graphics

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

What we learned at church

Tonight, Christian was sitting on the couch with me looking through his Curious George Book. There was a picture of a hospital orderly in scrubs and Christian pointed to the man and asked me if then man had a baby in his tummy. I told him that I do not think so. Then he went on to tell me that he learned about how babies come from people's tummies at chruch.
I am assuming that they were discussing the Christmas story and how Jesus was born.
He went on to ask me a couple more questions so now he understands that only woman can have babies.

Monday, November 26, 2007


I used Warm Winter by Baers Garten Designs at Scrapbook Graphics
Today David had the day off and he went to a dentist appointment in the late afternoon. I often tell David how hard the later afternoons and early evenings are and how the boys are very fussy and moody. The boys were fighting over trains for a while until I grabbed their basket picked up all the trains and put them in the garage and then Liam cried about his trains and for food for a while. I got up and made them pasta and cut up apples for them to eat while the pasta cooked. They actually sat at the table and quietly ate the apples while I made dinner.
After dinner I sat down to read, Christian grabbed a book and was looking through it and Liam was just sitting quietly on my other side. David came home and was scared what he would walk into. He was quite surprised to find us all quiet on the couch.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

We had a relaxing Thanksgiving weekend. The only shopping we did was a quick run to Michaels by me to use their Saturday only 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm 50% off coupon to pick up a train from the Thomas collection for Liam for Christmas. We had so much food left over from Thanksgiving, we did not even go to the store the weekend.
We did go to Dim Sum this afternoon and the boys loved it. I only need to get them a bowl of noodles to share and they are happy. We seem to do okay if we go to any place that serves us quickly, like Dim Sum or buffets. Liam just does not do well if he has to wait for his food. Christian saw the big Jello cups and had to have one. It worked well, I told he him could only have it if he sat quietly at the table and waited, so he behaved. We walked over to the train station after lunch and the boys got to see the Amtrack trains.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Turkey re-cap

Here is a little recap on our turkey....
Here is the turkey in our garden during his last week.

I brined the turkey last night in a maple/apple cider brine, stuffed it with herbs, apples and celery and rubbed it down with an herb rub

The finished product. It tasted very good. Between the brine and my constant basting it was nice and moist. I saved the bones in two seperate zip lock bags and put them in the freezer so we will have a couple of soups.

We had dinner at our friends Lisa & Gloria's house tonight. We also had ham and some yummy side dishes. Christian ate bread, green beans (under duress) and apples for dinner. Liam enjoyed grazing the snack table all night and ate about a pound of carrots and olives and he was very fond of the green beans. Early in the meal when he wanted seconds, he asked us for more worms.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving. Here are a couple of pictures from my baking this morning. The Turkey is bringing right now and I will start the stuffing soon.




Here are the place cards I made using Happy Fall by Baers Garten Designs at www.scrapbookgraphics.com

These layouts are using Wish Flowers by Baers Garten Designs


This layout is using About a Boy by Baers Garten Designs

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Holiday preperations

I finished printing Christian's Birthday invitations and mailed them out today. I am glad to have that hot potoato off my lap.

I dug the Turkey out of the bottom of the freeze this morning and almost got frost bite. One of David's co-workers told him he was a Turkey killer since we raised our own turkey this year. The odd thing is that she eats meat. I can assure that our turkey led a happy life and was well fed. I am looking forward to getting my garden back that he ate last summer.

I am watching the "Festivus" episode of Seinfeld today with commentary....who can ask for more.

Our chickens got a big harvest treat yesturday. One of our pumpkins on our front walkway had rotted out on the bottom, I tossed it in the hen house and this morning there were only a few scraps left.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Birthday plans and sleep in scare

I have said in earlier posts that Christian has been planning is 5th birthday party for a long time. We are now less then a month from the big day. (I plan to finish printing and mail invitations this weekend) Our nephew's party last night gave him more birthday inspiration and he has now decided that he is going to get 100 presents and has picked out the friends he will allow to help him open the presents.
I did go to Party City today and pick up Batman plates cups and party favors. He has told us that he wants every piece of clothing of a Superman or Batman theme. I was able to pick up a couple Batman things today as well as a Bat Belt.
Liam slept in until 8:00 this morning and it really freaked me out. I was wondering if he has slipped into some kind of coma or something. It is pretty sad when we can't relax when our kids sleep in late. I do know one thing....I am buying a pass for the kids to JJ Jump. If it will get us more mornings of sleeping it, it will be worth every penny. I can take them in the afternoons when I have to open the next day and they will fall asleep easily and sleep in late for David.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

crazy woman in a mini van

We have two new(er) Starbucks drive-thrus in our area. This is a wonderful blessing since I can go with the kids without the troubles of getting the boys and myself out the the van and I do not have to deal with them running wild, trashing the store.
All the windows except the front windows in our van are darkened, so you cannot see the back seats or that there are passengers in there.
So....I drive up to the window...Veggietales, the Wiggles, Seasame Street or some other kids music is blaring and I am either talking to or yelling at the kids that the people working at the drive-thru cannot see kids in the back, so I must appear to be some kind of crazy woman.
I was telling all this to one of the woman who works at one of the drive-thrus and she told me that when you drive up to the window with a white mini-van and kids music, most people just assume that you have kids somewhere in there.
That was of some comfort that I went from being a crazy woman to a soccer mom (probably the same thing)
We went to my nephew's birthday party tonight at JJ Jump, which is gym with infatables. I am hoping the boys will sleep extra late tommorow, since they played so hard tonight.
After the jumping, we all went upstairs for snacks, cake and opening presents. When we got there Liam went up to the woman who was organzing the party for JJ Jump, grabbed her sleeve and said "Hi, I'm Liam, this is mommy and this is Christian" I am not sure if she understood him, but it was funny. They must do introdutions like that on one of his PBS shows. It kind of reminds me of a dialogue in my Spanish and Japanese classes. Although we all felt stupid having the conversations there, where it is cute from a three year old.


Here are a couple of layouts using designs by Jannylyn
this is from part of her grab bag

This layout used Autumn Wonder

Friday, November 9, 2007

day of beauty

I went with a couple of friends from work to the International Beauty School for a day of beauty. When I say day, I mean day. I had a manicure, pedicure, eye brow waxing, scalp massage and haircut for $30. Everything looks great, but it took quite a while. They had a difficult time keeping track of what I wanted done.
Elemental Scraps is celebrating their two year birthday tommorow. Stop by for various activities. I did this card as a quick page and it should be available there tommorow
I used Party in the Playroom - Digital Designs by Jannylyn

I used Summers Gone by Baers Garten Designs for this layout

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Another Cold

We had a store meeting on Sunday night that ended at 10:00 pm and then I had to be back at work at 4:00 am. I think that it killed my immune system and I have another cold. Today was Christian's snack day at school, so I was with him there all morning. I took some pictures and will post them later. They had a grain grinder in his class and the grinded corn and wheat. Today they made corn muffins with the corn they grinded up. I have never been able to get Christian to eat my homemade corn muffins and he has never enjoyed them, he did not seem to like these either. Some people say that allowing your kids to get involved in the cooking process will induce them to eat more foods. I do not find that it helps Christian. He knows what he will eat or not eat and nothing is going to change it.
The kids are taking a while to adjust to daylight savings time. They wake up at 5:30 and Liam is in melt down by 6:00 pm. I will not turn on the TV or feed them until 7:00 am, I hope that this will help them revise their sleep schedule. It has worked in past years. I have them play in their room and let David and I rest.

This is a layout using Aiden's Dumptruck, Digital Designs by Jannylyn

This is a layout using Pink and Ink by Pyralis Designs

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Trick or Treat and Chuck E Cheese

We had a fun halloween yesturday. As soon as Christian came home from school, he started asking if it was time to go trick or treating (12:15 pm) and kept asking all afternoon. Liam was in meltdown phase by about 4:30 and I did not know if we would even be able to go out for more then one or two houses.
As soon as we got out and started going to houses and Liam understood what Trick or Treating really was (they seem to figure it out at this age), he was pumped and ready to go. We were able to go around the block on our usual loop. It was hard to convince to boys that we do not go into people's houses and that we do not raid the candy dish and take all the candy.
We live in a neighborhood where many of the neighbors love Halloween and go all out, but there are not as many kids as their are people who love to decorate and have trick or treaters, so it is a major score for the kids who do go out and everyone is nice and happy to have trick or treaters.
Today we went to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese (always a good time) Christian loves playing the video games, especially anything involoving driving cars, boats or planes. There were balloons and that was all Liam could think about. I finally gave in and bought a balloon for each boy so Liam would not raid the birthday balloons. Liam popped his before I had a chance to give Christian his, so I gave Liam, Christians balloon to prevent a melt down, but he popped that one too, so then he did proceed to go into a HUGE, everyone staring at us, louded then the background noise of Chuck E Cheese meltdown. David took him to the car where he went to sleep after a few minutes and took a nap.
Christian walked out of there on his own accord, which is an improvement over last time, but he did have a lot of 'tude in the car. He also fell asleep on the ay home.
Here is Christian's Birthday Invitation.