Saturday, May 31, 2008

In the Air Tonight

So, are we silly or what? Outside today it got up to 84, inside our house, it got up to 81. I don’t know why I had this thing about not turning on the air conditioning until June, but we had put it off. Perhaps an internal contest, see if Spring actually could last until June. See if Summer wouldn't start in May? I was putting laundry away yesterday and it included long sleeve items and jeans, and the temp in our house was 78. It officially went from cold to hot. Where's my lovely 70 degree days, I think we might've had three.
We finally fessed up and turned on the air...and nothing happened.
Happy Vacation and Happy Anniversary, we're getting a condenser fan for the air conditioner.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Peony Season


Peony Season has begun. It's the Indiana State Flower. Let the budding begin!

Friday Fill-Ins

1. For me Napping is the opposite of creativity. Right now, the strong desire for a nap is definitely impeding my creativity.
2. Pigs Love Potatoes was the last excellent book I read. It's Chris's favorite this week. Harry Potter 7, was last Truly Excellent I red. But for myself, I've started 3 books:Crystal Cave, 10 exercises to a Pain Free Life, and The Curse of the Hope Diamond, enjoyed them, and still have not completed. That's troublesome because Hope Diamond is now overdue at the library. Guess if it's longer than 60 Dr. Seuss pages, I have trouble.
3. I like fill-ins because Fast, Easy, and I don't have to think too much.
4. In nature I like looking at the flora and the fauna. Nature is the epitome of God's Miraculous works.
5. Ron Paul should win the US elections. But, he won't.
6. The last time I laughed with all my belly was when Christopher was chasing Fina around the house yesterday running with a ball, the plastic Pooh Basketball, and giggling like a madman. His full body laugh is so infectious, he forgets to breathe sometimes. I can't help but laugh right along with him, and my whole body smiles. I feel the warmth and love in my toes.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward todinner with the Fam at Frank and Mary's, tomorrow my plans include Possible lunch with my friend Caryn, or at the very least a nap and Sunday, I want to nap of course! Seeing a common theme here? Beh-as Chris would say to go to bed.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Thursday Thirteen

Today's Thursday Thirteen is brought to you by the Letter T!

1. Two- The number of Hours Chris has been awake. Two Trying Hours!
2. Time Outs-See number 1, Two Timeouts in Two Hours. It's going to be a long day.
3. Toss-Tossed in a load of laundry. Can actually see my closet floor again, how refreshing!
4. Throw-Chris and Fina were having a fine time this morning, throwing, chasing, catching one of the balls to Chris's other toy. So Cute. Chris is getting bossy and saying, Fina No Chew Ball, but then he turns around and throws her the bloody ball!
5. Take Temperature-I restarted taking my basal body temperature. It's the first thing I do before getting out of bed in the morning. I was proud I only forgot to take my thermometer with me to the hospital. Inconvenient sure, but scientifically interesting, reveals lots!
6. Trash-I was clearing off the kitchen table, and I have thrown away my 27 pieces of trash today!
7. Taters-We went to the store this weekend, but ironically didn't get any healthy, fast breakfast food. So, it feels like, when I go for breakfast, the cupboards are full, but there's "nothing to eat". So, I broke into a bag of barbeque potato chips for breakfast.
8. Taste-Oh, and I sampled a bit of the Iced Triple Chocolate Brownies I made last night....breakfast of champions.
9. Teach-Christopher brought me a book to read, some letters to put into their giant puzzle, and he repeated A, P, and H, remarkably clearly. I was in the shower, and he came in, "Help A." I looked and he had the letter P with the inside popped out, and needed me to put it back together. So, brought to you by the letters A, H, and P...and T!
10. Tweak-I tweaked my back yesterday. Chris had a urinary incident in bed, and I was trying to prep the crib for naptime, by changing the sheet. Remind me to NOT change the crib sheets. When done, my back was angry. It was a good thing I had a chiropractor appointment, but since my spine was a tense mess, I actually felt worse leaving than when I'd gone in. First time for that. Today, my back is a back on the edge, like one wrong move will set it off again, and as usual, we're too busy having fun to take the good drugs and render myself stupid. And along with being stupid, what do I do?...
11. Tidy-Today is the day the house gets cleaned, so I picked up, did dishes, put laundry away. It's not yet 10, and I'm exhausted! And my back is not happy.
12. Tamsin's Trick-My friend Tamsin told me a story of a trick she does in the morning. I do it most days, as I have little time for getting ready leisurely, and I think of her Every Time. As we know, Moms have little time for soaking in the shower, not like some husbands who like to soak for 1/2 hour as we're trying to get to the 8 o'clock Church Service. We're lucky enough to get time to shower at all, and since there's NO soaking time, she told me about this trick she does. Take an effecient (brief) shower, then at the very end, kick up the hot water, not enough to scald, but enough to relax the muscles into liquid as the new level of warmth pours down the back. Stop and soak for 30 seconds. 30 seconds is all I need to feel the same level as if you had taken a long soaking shower.
13. Think-I was thinking in the shower what to post today.:) Couldn't decide whether to do a Top Thirteen of pictures from where I was last year, or this list. We were at the Grand Canyon last year at this time, last week I wanted to do the Top 13 pictures from our trip of the Badlands, but when I started looking, I realized I'd never labeled all my pictures... a whole other project. I Think I choose wiser, it would be a monster to try to pick 13 pictures amongst the over a thousand I took last year.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Wordless Wednesday


So, I know "not wordless", but Amy and Jen do this is as a "Please add a comment" to the picture, either as what someone is saying, or general commentary.
So, Please Do. I'd like to hear what folks have to say about this picture, as it's my new favorite.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Kocoa Bears



I used to have a Koala bear, named Cocoa, because Koala looked like Kocoa to me. They're all Kokoa Bears now. Is that why we love the stuffed ones so much, because they look like stuffed animals in real life. Chris won one of the new stuffed ones when we were at Sean's Birthday Party at the zoo in March. I hate to see how much they're asking for that stuffie there now. We went to the zoo yesterday and got to see the Koalas. Very cool. Very very cool, and they weren't even awake. They sleep 18-22 hours a day, so it's likely we're not going to see much in the way of movement out of them. What I really thought was cool, was how nice it smelled there. I made the comment, it really smells lovely, Kathleen turns to me, in all mock seriousness, You think that could be the eucalyptus? Oh. Yeah. But it did, it smelled really nice. When one is at the zoo, one treasure pleasant smells. But I brought my handy dandy zoom lens and got 2 cool shots of Sleepy and Sleepier. I don't lug out the Big Boy very often, but I'm very glad I took him yesterday. Handy to have Eric handy to wrangle Chris while I play paparazzi. Yeah, very cool.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Creeping Phlox


A friend asked me for a groundcover idea, and this is one of my favorites, creeping phlox; it comes in lavender, hot pink, white, and I even have one that's pink and white striped, but it hasn't survived very well. Evergreen most of the year and lovely even when not in flower. This was taken last year, it was overflowing onto the sidewalk, and we had to trim it back with the bricking project last fall, but this year it is still happy.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. On my laziest day I like to sleep in, take a soaky bath, take a nap, and eat well!
2. Throwing 27 pieces of trash, like the flylady suggests makes me feel like I'm being productive.
3. I love little baby feet and big baby hugs. I must confess to want steal the same one from Amy P. about sloppy kisses and charging baby hugs.
4. This summer I want to get my baby healthy.
5. Getting pregnant with Christopher made me start my blog. But then, I started this one, because I actually had the desire to talk about more than just Christopher.
6. Red roses and orange tulips are some of my favorite flowers.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Alexandra bringing mastoccioli for dinner, tomorrow my plans include actually nothing, which means a big, fat, 2 hour nap, and Sunday, I want to have Game Night! I've missed Game Night, and I'm relishing normalcy.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Thursday Thirteen

I've been giving a lot of thought this week as to where we were last year at this time. We'd begun our cross country trip, 2 1/2 weeks to go as far west as we could go. It was an awesome trip, once in a lifetime. So, to honor it, I'm going to post 13 pictures from what I was doing a year ago.
13 Pictures from the Badlands of South Dakota. I still haven't gotten around to editing or making an album for them, but I will.

1.  Sneaking in the Badlands from the back door.  Apparently, my map reading 'shortcut' took us through a gravel outer road around the southern edge of Badland's National Park.  I was a little worried there for a while, especially when it started to rain.  But we were ok.


Daddy and 17 month old Christopher on the edge of the Badlands.  

2.  Rain washes the dust away. Sneaking a view of the edge of the Badlands park.  


Wow. 

3.  Chris picks a souvenir.  We had gone into the Visitors Center, and had lunch in their little shop. We were avoiding the crowds being there before summer crowds showed up.  I was introduced to Indian Fry Bread - both Chris and I loved it!   And as we were leaving, Chris picked up a stuffed Prairie Dog off the shelf in the gift shop while we were shopping for souvenirs and Takes Off.  He ran.  It was rather hysterical, so we looked up that giggling shop girl, and told her we were just going to have to buy the Prairie Dog too.  He doesn't ask for much.  So why not grant his wish, and get him a stuffed prairie dog.  He held on to it for the rest of the day, every time we got in the car, he'd grunt, grab it, and giggle.  


His prairie dog makes him happy. 

 4. View haloo.  Now we really got sight seeing in the Badlands.  After our lunch, which was on the low end of the park, we were able to get driving, closer to the points.  


The recent rain really made the grass look green, we were really luck, it's all shades of brown by the end of summer. 

5.  Funny dog bones.  We stopped at a boardwalk path.  Turns out it was a fossil trail or bone walk.  It was very quiet, as we all walked and read.  Chris was getting tired.  It was windy so we tried to cover him up a bit.  But he found Pooh.  He has this keychain of Winnie the Pooh that plays an annoying music.  And I don't even hear it anymore, but when we were out there, in the quiet, when suddenly the only noise was that musical Pooh.  It spooked me.  Still he liked seeing the dog bones, at least it was a fossilized ancient dog relative.  


6.  Mommy and the View - I love this shot and how the lines of sediment vary, it's Awesome.  


7.  Prairie Dog.   The tops of the badlands are prairie.  So the prairie dogs can be found making neighborhoods on top. 


Aren't they cute?!

8.  Mommy and the Big Mounds - I climbed a Mound.  One path that we were driving along went through a layer of sediment that was very yellow, hard claylike.  It was beautiful.  I hopped out of the car and climbed up a way.  I'm scared of heights.  So getting up on his yellow mound took a certain of bravery.  


I conquer part of the yellow mound. 

9.  The Bighorn Sheep Family - We were driving around the Pinnacles and we saw a few cars pulled over, so I stopped and snapped a few pics as a pair of Bighorn Sheep as they hopped over a hill.   When we drove down and around the other side, we found more cars pulled over.  And we were able to get an even better view of these sheep.  Except with this better view, it was clear to us that there were Baby Bighorn Sheep.  They camouflage with the dusty background.  


Can you see the Baby Bighorn Sheep?  It's a family of 6!

10. Eric wanted to see some buffalo!  So we took another gravel road path to find some.  And find them we did.  


Can you spot both buffalo?

11.  Prairie Dog Town - we found this too.  And they were Right up next to the car.  This one was chirping at us, he had a lot to say about us invading.
 

I didn't even get out of the car to make this picture. 

12.  My favorite buffalo shot.   There weren't fences on this barren stretch of road, so we stayed close to the car.   I love the look of this prairie.  It reminds me of a painting.

Using the Zoom lens I got this buffalo.  Wow.  

13. Back home again in our hotel.  Christopher discovered a new trick, playing in the cabinet.  


This boy still had a lot of energy, so we went for an evening swim and called it a day.  
The Badlands were Bad - like Micheal Jackson Awesome Bad!  And I can't wait to go back. 

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Wordless Wednesday

Fivers

OK, I got tagged, and so I shall continue it.

What were you doing five years ago?

May of 2003....Working in the corn mill. Eric was miserable working at E-souce. We were trying to get pregnant, having no luck, drugs, Cathyzilla. Ugh.

What are five things on your to-do list for today? (really it's just my list for this evening, since it's already 9.
1. Blog about Chris
2. Blog here
3. Watch the last episode of Christy, the series we got from Netflix so we can send it back.
4. Offload pictures, and post them
5. Laundry..if I'm lucky

What are five snacks you enjoy?
1. Anything chocolate
2. Chips and Eric's Mexican Dip
3. Cookies and Milk
4. Kettle corn
5. Graham crackers and icing

What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1. Pay off all our debt
2. Do my own Big Give
3. Build a wing for Riley
4. Form an adoption agency that didn't cost an arm and a leg, and maybe take home a few kids myself
5. Go to Disney World!


What are five of your bad habits?
1. Eating too much
2. Complaining too much
3. Losing my temper with Chris
4. Blog-stalker
5. Chronically participating in email based surveys

What are five places you have lived?
1. Brownsburg, IN
2. Valencia, CA
3. Long Beach, CA
4. Carmel, IN
5. Indianapolis, IN


What are five jobs you've had?
1. Jewelry Salesgirl
2. Mary Kay Lady
3. Quality Assurance Tech at the Corn Mill with Cargill
4. Laboratory Regulatory Specialist (QA queen) at the Marion County Health Dept.
5. Mommy -

What five people do you want to tag?
1. Amy W.
2. Corie
3. Kathy
4. Jen J.
5. Tamsin
And YOU!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Things that suck

1. Stomach contents-on me, or on Chris, on the floor, on the dog, yeah, anywhere, spewage sucks.
2. Diaper contents-post-consipation spasm, post-suppository, post extra large Miralax dose...woo dang.
3. Insurance companies
4. Uterine difficulties-crappy enough for me, but unbearable in those I care about.
5. My baby in Pain- I hate when my touch cannot comfort him. I hate that he is in so much pain, he doesn't want to be alone, but he doesn't want to be picked up or moved either. I hate I can't just "Fix the Baby".

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Riley Venting

So, Chris is almost asleep with Dumbo playing in the background, Daddy is out for a run, he thought he might check do little exploring, maybe run the canal-1 perk.
I thought I'd take a few moments to do a little therapeutic venting.
1. The Roommate Situation: Our roomies this time are SO much better than last time. I didn't write about it last time, but in May 2006 when Chris had his last surgery we had more than just a little drama. Parents of a 3 month old were having unknown feeding troubles and they'd admitted him, dad's mom tagged along. Apparently she'd been tagging along since birth, and Mom was more than a little tense. There were numerous verbal spats, but the night before we left, it all came to a head with a shoving match in our doorway, so much so that security had to be called, and all three were hauled away, leaving baby alone. Oh, and Pastor Bill was visiting us at the time. It just left us all in shock. Blessedly, Chris slept through it, but he was 5 1/2 months old at the time. This time, he's not. I did NOT want a roommate. Our first trip, we had 10 roomies in the NICU, then we had our own room, which was AWESOME! The second trip our roomie had a shunt in her head that she had to have a CNA monitor her all the time, which really meant whoever was on duty was watching tv for 23 hours and actually doing something for maybe 1. Anyway, this time, our roomies are nice, no fights, they like to go for walks, only the extended family staying at the Ronald McDonald house can get a bit noisy during visitation when we're trying to get a boy to sleep.
2. Getting Chris something to eat or drink. We swabbed him, and he sucked all the water off the swab and wanted more. He hasn't been allowed to eat or drink, I get the impression he'd like to, everytime I break out a drink, he asks for some. But first we had to get a plan from the doctor. The resident on call didn't show up until 10, and then he was like, looking at us, so what are you feeding him? What's he eaten? Hello?! These guys were clueless. It really felt like he was just wanted to pass the buck to someone else. My head says, they are just the surgeons, they cut, they don't know the whole scoop or story, but I know Dr. West usually follows up pretty thoroughly. She said yesterday we'd have like tube feeding training class. Well, it's almost noon, not only has he not had anything more than saline, and I've only had a smoothie that my MIL dropped off in a cooler. If I'm hungry, I KNOW he is.
3. Chris won't pee. Chris hasn't had any significant urine output since the surgery. We've only changed 2 diapers since we got here: a fresh one right before surgery, 9 p.m. last night, and 9 a.m. this morning. There were only smudgies of poo within, so he's probably getting plugged up too. The nurse called the resident at 9, saying he hasn't peed, and they suggested "changing his tube". She came in, set up to do some procedure, starting pulling the bandages off (making Chris object highly), and said, Oh, he doesn't have a button? No. It's going to be 3 months before he gets a button. So, she says, hmm, I'll have to see what the doctor wants to do about that. Dr. flakey resident didn't do anything about it when he was here. He just said, oh, order a bladder scan. The nurse clarified, one of the other units has a bladder scanner, that the nurses can use. So, they're asking this poor nurse to leave her patients and come scan Chris. I'm thinking that's going to take a while. Dude. I could walk down to radiology faster. Then again our nurse is inclined to cath him, but she is iffy on doing that before/after the bladder scan.
In the mean time, Chris is spacing out watching TV, I suppose as long as he's resting quietly, he's healing, and that's good. But Mommy is just getting tired and snippy. I'm a woman of action, I want my boy fixed. I want to go home. I am perfectly capable of sitting in a bed, and watching movies all day from HOME!
Daddy had the right idea: run.

Friday, May 16, 2008



Thursday, May 15, 2008

Lamentations and Laundry

I am so blessed. Chris hasn't even HAD his surgery yet, and we are overflowing with offers of help. I can’t tell you how valuable it is to have such a wonderful support system. My wonderful friends are Already extending their supportive arms. I’ve had a plethora of people tell us that they are praying for us, and it’s so wonderful. And as if that wasn't enough. My friends help and support my effort to keep busy, playing on the spur of the moment. There's a list of folks who want to supply us with food. In case I haven't mentioned, I never realized the value of Church Women Home Cooking, until we had Chris. Priceless. Truly a God-Given Gift.
So, I have this friend, and she felt bad that she was skipping town this weekend, and unable to be at the hospital and help immediately. Honestly, my head will be so engrossed at that hospital I don't expect to see daylight until Monday anyway. We used to refer to the NICU days as getting sucked into the Black Hole of Cuteness. But there really is this certain Black Hole factor. Anyway, she came up with this great idea. She knew I had a man eating pile of laundry. (Truly, a good friend knows that you haven't seen the closet floor in months, and knows that you call the Man-Eating pile of laundry, but that's another blog...signs of a good friend.)
I've decided there's like exponetial growth in laundry. Here's my laundry theorum, one must do more laundry in a day than one wears, otherwise one will never catch up. Ay, there's the rub. I usually take more than 1 day to do a load. If you are 1 person, it will take you a good few days to wear a single loads worth of clothes. Even if you are 2 people...watch, 2 people-2 outfits a day, 4 pieces of clothing, 2 days: 8 pieces total. But 3 people (check out the exponetial growth of laundry:) 3 people 1 day 6 pieces of clothing, 2 days: 12 pieces total. That's like a load, but of course it's not all the same color, so instead of a simply in 2 days you have a load, by the 3rd day you have 18 pieces of clothing and so 3-4 days you have 3 loads! Exponents! Aye Carumba!
Anyway, she volunteered to take all my laundry off my hands and do, so that I wouldn't have to worry about it for our trip. How fabulous is that?!
So, Tuesday, I bagged it all up, and took it over. I realized after doing so, one huge reason I don't do lots of laundry, and have trouble keeping up with laundry, is it hurts. The bending, the awkward angles when one sorts, they hurt. I never put the two and two together until I got home after moving the aforementioned man-eating pile of laundry. Motivated by my other girlfriend, Eric and I had been productive out in the yard, (OK Eric planted, I deadheaded some plants and chased Chris, but I think we were equally worn out) and once back inside found that Fina had peed in the house. She peed in the living room. She peed in the entry to the bedroom. Ugh.
I could see my closet floor, but I still had a ton of clean stuff piled on the chest to put away. Eric and I decided to put it away. That was unwise, my back was so sore when done, I collapsed down on my bed, flapping my arms by my side. My right arm went flipping right into another flipping pile of pee. I finally have NO laundry, and suddenly the dog deems me worthy with an entire bed's worth of laundry. And so I did laundry anyway. Drugs help back pain, and luckily it has cleared up by today. Though I saw my chiropractor yesterday, that might've helped some too. Unfortunately, Senorita Snot Boxer peed all the way through to the mattress, finally getting (she's come close a couple times) the heating mattress pad, which needs to be barely washed in a washer, and get this, Air Dried. Flipping Dog. So, I couldn't remake my bed until it air-dried for a day.
The next morning, I hop out of the shower, and shoo Fina off the bed again. She'd snuck up and curled up for a long morning's nap. As is customary now, when I sweep her off my bed, I sweep the spot where she was, just touching the bed's warmness. There wasn't warmness, there was wetness. Twice in 24 hours!!!! I flipped out. OK, the first round was pee, the second round was from her getting Licksy Chopsy, which is when she gnaws on her foot or a belly and totally slimes herself and anything she's touching, and she was touching my bed. More laundry, but at least the slime layer didn't contact the mattress. But Jeez Fi!
Oh well, I didn't not speak to Fina for long. Just long enough to kick her off the bed for a few nights. She's still not allowed on the bed, but it's hard to stay mad at her for long, she gets the sweet puppy dog eyes, the same ones that schnookered us into getting her in the first place. Dogs today.
This evening, I got to have a mini-Girls Night Out. Amy and Ben, requested that Suellen and Alicia, and Eric and I meet them at the new chinese place, Hoo Wha or somthing close to it. Not a bad place, good eats. The babes got done at 8, and we were hearing the call of Chocolate Lava Cake from Applebee's. Un-American to ignore the call of chocolate cake. Actually, Kathleen told me today they were doing a fundraiser of sorts for one of their employees and $1 from every margarita went to the cause. I'm up to drinking for the cause so we did sort of progressive dinner. Chinese followed by drinks and desserts at Applebee's. So really by going there to drink, we were Good-Deed-Doing. It's amazing the feeling of relief one can get in an hour...Fabulous. The pretty stripey one I got Mango-some berry was so pretty, and not heavy on the boooze. I don't usually like margaritas, tequila tastes like liquor and I like things that don't taste boozey, I'm all about the tutti fruittis. I felt like my grandma, who upon traveling to the Caribbean for the first time, told my mother she could get her own drink then said, "I'll have the Red and White one." The bartender didn't even blink, he knew exactly what she wanted, and Grandma got it. My mother stood silently in awe. Thank Goodness for Good Bartenders.
Just the same, when all of this insanity dies down a bit, I'm going to need a serious good old Moms Night Out, and I really enjoy the Progressive Dinner approach.
Things to ponder....

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Wordless Wednesday

He is my Light in the Darkness.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Sidekick to Crazy

Eric came home early today, actually he had a rough morning, and worked half of it from home. So, since he was home, I got schemey after swim class and we decided to go to dinner and a movie. We were going to see Horton Hears a Who. Since Chick-Fil-A is right across the street, and we've got friends right there, the plan just fell into place. As we were driving to the dinner and a movie this evening, I could tell Eric was not as interested in the festivities as Chris and I were. I must confess I primed Chris, and asked him the loaded question, Do you want to see the elephant? Do you want to see Emily? Of course he did. Once he started talking about the elephant, he didn't hush up about it. Eric was like, I was really looking forward to winding down this evening. Well, when I'm not actively doing something, my mind wanders to places I don't like, so I want to keep busy. Eric just smiled and said, well you if you want to be Crazy. I laughed and told him, you knew I was crazy when you married me. Heck you signed up for the job, Permanently! So, your role is everymore Sidekick to Crazy.

Hmmm. Catchy. Luckily he's not alone. I'm so blessed in having many friends and family members who love to volunteer for role as Sidekick to Crazy. Thanks guys.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Tink Happy Tawts

1. Vacation Toes (or in this case Birthday Toes).


I meant to post this earlier, and lost track. But now seems a great time to post happy thoughts. Mommy took advantage of Daddy being home on her birthday last week to go out and get her nails done. When the nice nail lady found out it was my birthday, she put happy little flowers on my toenails and my fingernails too. Chris immediately noticed, pointed, smudged, and said, Happy Feowers.

2. Happy Feowers. Christopher fell in love with the tulips on our walk. He has begun to make rounds around the house, daily really. Happy Feowers is what he calls these flowers in bloom. We were able to plant all our garden flowers along the front walk on Monday evening before the rains (that have now been going for the past 4 days). Apparently Happy Feowers are not limited to tulips, but can also be petunias, geraniums, impatiens, and snapdragons. I love that he loves Happy Flowers too.

3. My Favorite Birthday Present. No, my favorite birthday present was not the scrumptious smelling coffees, Disney Movies, The Magic Bullet, getting my nails done, or any number of fabulous dinners. All wonderful. But no. It was a homemade birthday cards from my nieces. Below is the poem from my 6 year old niece, Alexis:
To Aunt Kathy, Hi! Hola! Happy birthday. Felis compleonos! You are one of my favorite people on Earth! (flip over, wrong side)Once again, happy birthday!
roses are red, violites are blue, It's you're birthday here...and mind will be soon!
huh? what did I just do? I'm a poet? are you sure? you're mistaken. I sware! huh? I'm blushing?

Seriously, my favorite birthday present. I'd scan it in to post it if I could, but I'll just file it away forever.

4. Chocolate covered brownies.

5. My 1989 Hard Rock Cafe Jacket in the lightest bleached denim. The 80's called and they wanted their jacket back. They're going to have to find it on ebay. But when Amy and Ben saw it, Amy started laughing, and then I started laughing, and we laughed so hard, there were tears...and maybe some snorting.

6. We met our family deductible for the year on our health insurance, so we shouldn't have to pay hardly anything for Chris's surgery...and MRI...and all the goodies that go with it all.

7. Dr. West, our surgeon from Chris's previous surgeries, and the surgeon for the G-tube insertion, has the advantage of already knowing Christopher, "inside and out".

8. "Silent Aspirator." When muttered, it sounds like a swear word, doesn't it?

9. I have to "post a blog". Eric mentioned that he thinks it sounds like a euphemism for going to the bathroom.

10. Green Apple Martinis. Don't really need to say more.

Friday Fill-In

1. The Cake had an extra secret ingredient; it was Beer!
2. Peeking through my window. Both Chris and Fina like to peek through the bedroom window at passers by.
3. Right now, I need To Go back to sleep, but I have to pee. Don't you hate when you roll over in the wee small hours of the morning, and have to pee, so you can't go back to sleep. That was me moments ago.
4. Amy Pfanschmidt's House is where I went Thursday night; it was Just what I needed. After getting the news at Riley yesterday, I went to Amy's house to drown my sorrows in chocolate/wine/and enchiladas. Chris meanwhile, played with Bryn like nothing was wrong. He's so good at that, it's like he says, Don't Worry Mommy, I'll be fine. It was just what we needed.
5. Why does Learning I was right hurt so much? But Mommy was right about something being wrong with Chris. Mommies always are. But now that we're facing major surgery, victory is bittersweet. If you haven't read Chris's website for the details, please do so. Though I'll probably post more here too, as I learn the details.
6. All I can think of is theSurgery.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Dinner with the Fam after all of us have Chiropractor Appointments, tomorrow my plans include Seeing SuperWhy at the Zoo and Sunday, I want to either sleep or drink heavily, maybe a bit of both!

Thursday, May 8, 2008

God With Us

Such a Tiny Offering, Compared to Calvary, Nevertheless, I lay him at Your Feet.
-God With Us by MercyMe

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Wordless Wednesday


Christopher's Flower Arrangement -April 26, 2008

Monday, May 5, 2008

Cinco de Drinko

So, today is Cinco de Mayo. When we lived in L.A. Cinco de Mayo was a big deal. We called it Cinco de Drinko. A celebration of Mexican Freedom, but hey any celebration of freedom is a good one. OK, it was an excuse to get rip roaring drunk, starting with lunch. We didn't do that. But Eric made some fabulous enchiladas tonight for dinner. We ganked Amy P's recipe, and made slight modifications, and yum-o.

E's Enchiladas Verde
1 Can Chicken: dump, juice and all with 1 Tbsp of Taco Seasoning (or however much to make taco-ey flavored goodness) into a bowl, heat up 4 minutes. Put a Tbsp or two into a low carb tortilla. Drizzle a spoonful of Green Enchilada sauce and cheese on top, before closing tortilla. Place half dozen, or however may fit, in a casserole dish and cover with remainder of sauce and cheese. Bake for 30 minutes at 359 degrees.

Dude. Oh and we followed up with Homemade Green Apple martinis. Not Corona, but Yum-O. It is after all, Cinco de Drinko!
God Bless Freedom!

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Time To Get Serious

My friend Kathleen took on the huge challenge of organizing her office. Motivated by her, I decided to start with something too. Corie did her pantry last week too. She and I were talking at her Spa Party the other night about the shelf life of make up, perfume, and girlie lotions. Yeah, it's like no more than a year. Does that make anyone else blush? Yeah. I swore off most perfumes and lotions when pregnant and when Chris was tiny because he would snip at me if I smelled funny. I haven't bought myself more than a few bars of soap since. In my prior life, I often drowned my sorrows at Bath and Body Works. Don't get me started on candles. So I had 3 shelves full of, for lack of a better word, crap. Today, I pitched 3 plastic bags full of old makeup, perfume, and lotions, and paraphernalia, narrowing it down to only 4 B&BW scents: Cotton Blossom, Plumeria, Sweet Pea, and Gardenia Lily. You can tell a lot about a person by what their favorite scents are...What are yours?
Anyway, so motivated by this productivity, this evening, I also feed and watered my flowers, my annuals and perenials that are sitting out on the edge of the driveway, because I've lacked the strength to plant them. That's my next big step. But first I had to do some weeding. Weeding is my downfall. I love gardening, I don't even mind harvesting. But I hate weeding. So, I've found a method that's more realistic. I take one plastic trashbag, Kroger size, and pluck weeds until it's full. That's all, I stop. It's about all the physical activity I can handle. But I'm back on the bandwagon!
So...Grr!

Friday, May 2, 2008

My Sweet Dogwood


This was a dogwood I bought in spring 2003, and it bloomed in 2004, was only green in 2005, and a dead twig by 2006. I've always wanted a red dogwood. Twas sad to lose it. Every spring, I miss it. Mommy says I didn't plant it in an area where it was sheltered enough. I suppose that's true. I need a bigger yard. -Gonna need a bigger boat.
Interesting things about dogwoods, those bright colored things are not technically flowers. They are leaves, they're the base leaf to the flower which here is the yellow green central portion. I forgot what that base leaf is called. But it's cool, the colorful part isn't the flower. That's why I love dogwoods, heck that's why I love plants. Just when you think you have it figured out. You don't.
For example, the other day I posted those 2 tulip pictures. They were the same flower taken on 2 different days. That flower started out yellow with a hint of orange, then went orange with hint of yellow. Cool. Anyway, Tulips and Daffodils are actually Monocots, which means their flower petals are in 3 or multiples of 3, see below. Dicots are groups of 4s or 5s, like a rose. In the tulip's case it's usually a 6 pointed flowery star of david sort of thing.

I had to double check which was which, I am NOT so awesome as to remember the terminology of which had which, I just knew that one was goofy, it didn't group 6 like the others. The aforementioned tulip was a lovely Gift of nature creating 4 petals and 4 petals, creating an 8 point cross instead of the customary 6. A Blessing of Nature. Then again, aren't they all.

Friday Fill-In

1. Two of my favorite ingredients in a drink are Chocolate and Milk (especially combined with coffee or alcohol, or even plain)!
2. My son often amazes me. He is the strongest, bravest boy I know. Only he would find getting getting his blood drawn intriguing, chanting Blood Draw "Bud Daw" along with us as we enter, and saying "Cup!" when they replaced the full vial with a fresh one.
3. You can keep doing that forever, the dog is oblivious. Fina sleeps a lot. She's also super patient, letting Chris chase her, play with her ears, climb on her,and he'll do that forever. What a good girl she us.
4. Jello, cool whip, cottage cheese, and peaches, mix it all together and voila! You have the perfect church pitchin jello salady thingy! I love church pitch-in food.
5. If I had a yard with a garden, I would love to grow a mulberry bush. I'm able to get away with lots of my favorite flowers in our yard, but I really would need a bigger yard to do bigger bushes or trees like a Weeping Cherry, or a Dogwood, or a Mulberry Bush. I have visions of sending Chris (or kids) out to pick berries and I'll use them to make jam or a pie.
6. Kissing babies is best au naturel. I have to steal that one from Amy. I do love me some Naked Baby Syndrome. Although I've heard that my grandma used to Can au natural. Not only is that a fearsome vision, I would worry about Boiling liquids! Ouch.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a visit to the chiropractor and Corie's spa party, tomorrow my plans include the 10th Street Nazarene kid's resale and a Graduation supper for my brother in law Karl (I can't believe he's old enough to graduate college already!) and Sunday, I want to Take a 3 hour nap! Would you believe I had the opportunity to sleep as long as I wanted yesterday, and I couldn't, only 1 1/2 hour.
July 2006 Chris on Nana's couch