Thursday, March 31, 2011

March in Review

I'm getting better about catching up on my New Year's resolutions.

1. Read the Bible. I have been reading, not exactly caught up to where I should be, but I finished Numbers, Deuteronomy, Judges, and Joshua. When written out that looks like a lot. But I'm still behind, I should be in 1st Samuel. Oh well, making Progress!

2. Go back to choir. Due to illness, both the choir director's and my own mental, the choir took a couple weeks off. But I did make 2 sessions this month. The most recent being last Sunday. I sight read the piece, which was a 2 parter, so I wasn't too alone...and at first the gals seemed glad to have me, for a bit anyway. I have been trying to find the best setup, whether to have Chris join me up in the choir loft...nope that didn't work, or to have sit in front and run up to sing. I tried this last Sunday, I told Chris to put his $1 offering in the plate, and sit and wait for me while I sang...for all of 2 minutes. In the middle of the song, Christopher's head popped up on the other side of the piano, bouncing Up and Down!, as he jumped up and down on the pews, while rows of people around him laughed - Detracted a bit from our somber Lenten piece. I was Fuming. He was looking right at me, smiling and jumping, so All I did was put up 1 finger.
The second the song was done, I came around the piano and found him on a churchmember's lap. I grabbed him and we left, left church, left the building. Left. Didn't even do communion. The smoke coming out of my ears, and my extreme anger at Chris, made for me to leave. I may not be going this week either. Butler is playing, and I may have a brunch date with a visiting Butler friend.

3. Join a Gym - Still only doing the yoga class, and I only did it twice this month. Once we went to a Third Day concert instead, and last night, I was too full from a scrumptious fish dinner, and too tired from boys gone wild.

4. Take a Photography Class- Still making progress here. Last month I did the Joy of Love class free online class and Loved it, so this month, I took her Joy of Luck, a week long class. And I've entered photos into a couple Pioneer Woman photo contests.

My favorites this month:




Snowdrops at the Zoo, we got an appetizer of Spring, so we took advantage of it.




And my Boyz!

5. Get Boys Healthy - More Progress Here too. First Sam, he's easier. We scheduled a Swallow study for him for April. He's now 2! So I'm starting him on some new foods like this week: Greek Yogurt with honey, and he loves it. Starting Peanut Butter next!
Chris is a bit more of a lengthy process. Met with a guy at Riley, in the Austism clinic, and I didn't like him. Just got bad vibes. He seemed to want to box Christopher in with labels of his newest diagnoses: Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ADHD, and Pervasive Development Disorder. Sure he's a hot mess, but is he that much of a hot mess? I don't know. So in an effort to get help somewhere, we met with a wonderful play therapist the following week. She was wonderful. Chris immediately loved her, and her office full of toys. He has major meltdowns every time we leave. The autism guy is very busy, wanting to see us every 2 weeks, but realistically it'll be more like every three of four, and we're trying to give him more of a chance, but planning on Supplementing with the Play therapist. We met a new Developmental Pediatrician last week, and she spent an hour brainstorming ideas, too many for hear, but she wanted to help, and that was wonderful. I left there feeling more Hopeful. We then went back to the Riley guy last week, and I felt better, felt more like he was listening. Chris responded really well to a Volume Thermometer, a piece of paper with 5 colored pictures and faces to describe various volumes of his voice. For example, we want to be with the happy face in yellow, but we talk about how sometimes Chris and Sam both tend to be in the red zone. Yesterday we went to Riley again to meet an ENT and visit an Audiologist. We were thinking he may be a candidate for hearing aids. He wasn't, but he told me today the Audiologist, Miss Monica, kept talking in the green. So cute. It was refreshing that the ENT didn't think hearing aids would work, and didn't think he was a good candidate for surgical removal of tonsils. Hooray! Happy days for doctors who don't want to cut on sweetboys, but who want to help. Help is coming baby!

The Pitiful Pooch

90/366



I told you about Fina, how she's dying and stuff. This week has been a rougher week for her. Her paw is getting uglier, and oozier, so today I tried putting a sock on her. She was Pitiful. She's starting to lose significant weight, and muscle tone. She's on a huge cocktail of drugs. I just didn't think I'd told you about her cocktail. Twice a day she gets: Zyrtec, an antihistamine, because the tumors ooze hystamine, Prednisone, a steroid, to make her feel better, and reduce swelling, and Keflex, an antibiotic, because on one of her feet, it's raw, fetid, terribly ugly and painful to look at,and when she's not on it, she gets smelly, which will probably result in sepsis sooner or later. Today we upped the anty to giving her the narcotic Tramadol three times a day, because she was extra antsy following us Everywhere, and starting to nibble on her foot. I've started wrapping the drugs in cheese...which she adores. You'd think we never fed her. But cocktail makes her hungry. Now she's hovering around the table every time we eat. And talking smack to us when we don't feed her the leftovers the minute dinner is done. God forbid we actually sit around the table and talk for a while. She loses it. I suppose being hungry and annoying is better than acting all sickly and pitiful. We figure the day she stops eating entirely, that will be her sign. And this is not that day.

Cool and Uncool



It's so cold this morning, my tulips leaves were covered with frost.



Didn't Mother Nature get the memo that it's Spring?!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Wordless Wednesday





Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Two for Tuesday

We stopped off at the Art Museum today to take some illegal pictures of Sam by his now appropriate Age, 2. We're technically not supposed to climb on the sculpture...I'd like to say it's hard to keep the kids off, but really it's hard to keep the Mommies from taking pictures.



Hooray! Sam is 2! He's all kinds of a big boy, looking all James Dean, wanting to wear his denim jacket and batman shoes...and telling us so. It's amazing the difference a few months makes.



2 AND under!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Happy Birthday Sam!

Can't believe my Sam is 2.

Something about this boy makes me get all teary and goofy.



His Birth Day.



His First Birthday.


And 2 from today...now that he's a Big Boy, 2 and All.



We're not exactly morning people. It takes us a little bit to warm up. But warm up we do.



Now he doesn't want to hold still, he wants to be living and loving, and loving life.

My word I am Blessed.

Happy Birthday Samuel Elijah!

Crying Over a Car

It's official. Yesterday Eric got home a little early, and we went over to the Ford dealership and officially signed over the old minivan.

Out with the Old and In with the New.



Here's a little irony for you. See that orange ribbon, it's from when the car was brand spanking new. Now it's 12 years old, pitiful and barely orange. And the way back is out of our garage and back in the trunk. Done. Finished.



We never removed it. This car has been good to us. Faithful, not breaking down and leaving us alone in the desert. Only a flat tire in Nebraska once. But it brought my Babies home safe, and kept us all safe on many trips, and through many storms.



We salvaged the last bits of 'useful material' from her, the license plate, and gave back that third row bench. And I cried. A lot. Is that weird? Maybe so. But it was a good car for me, and I'm sad that after so many faithful years, it's going to become a small cube of recyclable materials.

Thank you Bonnie Blue Butler. You were a good car.

And yes, saying Goodbye to her made me cry. I Guess I've watched Cars too many times. But the tears just wouldn't stop, right there in the dealership with Eric and the boys watching and asking why I was crying, and why we were saying Goodbye, and Chris very concerned we'd have to give up the new minivan. But no we're hanging on to Gordon "TooBigYou" Hampton for a good while longer. He's got big shoes (wheels) to fill.

Friday, March 25, 2011

A Silly Swan Story

Only those of you who know me will really appreciate this story. You know how I love to take pictures of the wildlife that crosses my path, especially on the rare occasion we get some nifty birds or something out on our back pond.

Yesterday as we were leaving to go watch the Game, I was backing out of my driveway and I saw a flash of white on the pond next to my neighbors. Oh. My. Gosh. It was a swan!

I was too excited, so I drove the car a little closer, and got out of the car... you all know all stealthy so as to not scare it away. I snapped a picture. I walked a bit closer and snapped another.



I was so scared I'd scared it away. I've never seen a swan on our pond before. In fact, I didn't think they liked it this far north, bit chilly and all that. But that swan didn't move a muscle. I got back in the car and drove around the pond, hoping to get a little closer. I'm on the hill, trying to be stealthy and not fall in the pond all at the same time.

I got my camera all ready, and walked closer, zooming in with the camera as close as it would let me. His beak was odd, and so was his face....I slowly, quietly, stealthy stepped closer. His feathers were a little funny too. I couldn't place what was odd, so I crept a bit closer.

I was in the neighbors yard, probably about 30 feet away from the bird, 10 feet from the water, when I realized what it was that was striking me so odd. Plastic. The swan was plastic. Those weren't feathers at all, it was molded plastic.

Yeah, I was all stealthy creeping along the pond with the kids in the car waiting on me, so I could take pictures of a Plastic Swan. I was making an idiot out of myself, "Suffering for my art".

You can laugh now. I haven't stopped laughing since. At least I can say I only took two pictures.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Joy of Luck, Day 7

Boy, this last assignment got me thinking. Our Personal Rainbow. "We all have something in our future to look forward to. This may be professional growth, spiritual growth, growth of our children, growth of our family, or whatever else in life that gives you hope. What will your luck bring in your future? What blessings do you look forward to? I like to think of this as your own personal “rainbow.”

What is this for me? For us?

Selling this house...



And moving into this one.



I'm so Done with Waiting. We're 3 1/2 months overdue, could possibly get in trouble with the bank, and I'm so stressed out, and so is Eric, and we're so sick of being stressed out. Frankly, I don't like me right now. If I could be Elvis and leave the building, or just take a vacation to fast forward to summer, when Chris would be done with his surgery and potty trained, and we'd be all moved in, I would.

But as a very wise friend told me last night...one more month. I can do one month. It's only one more month, and we're either going to be In or Out. And we'll know, and the worrying can be done.

On a similar note, Sam and I went on a Garden Walk this week at the new backyard. I had planted some daffodil bulbs in the backyard last fall, thinking that I'd be in our new house, sitting drinking coffee looking out my patio window, watching the flowers bloom in our new yard. Seeing flowers come back in our old yard, kind of has been making me a little crazy. It's good and bad all at the same time. But it was good the other day, when Sam and I found a few of the bulbs were coming up. It's Hope.

Hopeful flowers.

So I won't be seeing them bloom from my breakfast table this year, but next year... This yard is Full of Hope.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Wordless Wednesday





Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Joy of Luck, Day 6

Who is a Blessing?



Mommy's little yahoos, that's who? Their love, and their love of life bring me such joy, words can't even describe.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Joy of Luck, Day 5

Tough one today.

When, in your life, do you believe that your life became filled with luck, blessings and joy?

The obvious answer would be When I became a mother. And yes, that's true. My cup never overflowed like it has since I had Christopher. It's the hardest and best job ever. Ever.



However, my path never would have gone in this direction if not for this place. Butler University. My luck changed the day I joined the band.



Before the band, I was painfully shy. I went off to college, and through massively insane coincidence, which is another story, I ended up trying out for the band...for the flags. I was Terrible. They took pity on me, even offering me Flag Tutoring sessions. Who gets that? That's how sad I was. As a joke, someone I met said, Eh, if it doesn't work out, you read music, we'll put you on the drum line. So onto the drumline I went. And I played cymbals. And I loved it. I came out out of my shell and banged things together. And I made friends. Lifetime friends. What luck brought that about!

And the luck of the band, and the friends brought about by that, brought me my husband.

In evenings, I would walk down here to the carillon in the Butler gardens to focus, just run up and down the stairs, or just sit on a bench and watch the water flow, listen to the sound of the woods. Butler is the most amazing little oasis located and surrounded by downtown Indianapolis, but it doesn't feel like that down in the gardens. It was a place of peace for me. My friends would yell at me for going down after dark, but it helped me. Soon to 'protect me' they joined me. Then just one special friend in particular. My husband. Our relationship blossomed at this place.



And without him, without the band and without this place, becoming the woman I am today, the mother that I am today would not have been possible.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Joy of Luck, Day 4

Today's Assignment was a little Tricky. My 7 Favorite Material Things.
7 things I can't live without. Hmm...



1. Running Water - I'm so Thankful that we live in a home where I have clean, running water. All. The. Time.

2. My Camera - My Canon Digital Rebel. It was my 'baby' before I had babies. And I'm only now beginning to really use and enjoy it to its capacity.

3. The Bible - This year I'm reading the Message. I'm a bit behind, but already my bible is looking nice and used. Sam attacked it with his cocoa the other day, and he's pulling beads off my bookmark, and the pages are getting dog-eared. Good. That means I'm using it!

4. Butler ID - Some people use a purse or a wallet. But my freshman year in college I gave up the purse in favor of carrying my ID card and driver's license on my keychain. I've gone through about 4 of these since. Eric bought me 2 for Christmas this year, because now that I'm a grownup and carrying a few more cards than just my license. ;) And I can't live without it.

5. Crochet hook - Idle hands are the devil's playground. I've Got to have Yarn to work on, a project or two going at any given time, or I go a little nutsy.

6. Car - God Bless my new car. It's so pretty, so functional, and so capable of storing Children and Stuff.

7. Computer - While technically my netbook charger died, so I can't use it at this moment, I really thought I'd go a little crazy from withdrawal when it died, but I've been making due just fine with the computer in the basement. And Eric assures me a cord is coming. Someday.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Supermoon

Tonight was a big night for the moon. It was a Supermoon. (No I'd never heard of it either.) I tried to get outside to take pictures, after we were leaving our viewing of the Butler game, but it was a little cloudy, and we were surrounded by trees.



Still very cool.



Though by the time I got out to the middle of nowhere, or home to take more pictures, it was still too cloudy. Bummer.

Joy of Luck, Day 3

Today's theme is Lucky Charms...or in our Case...Don't Doubt the juju.

Butler is playing in the NCAA tournament. In case you didn't know...though around here, you'd kind of have to be living under a rock not to know. And we are not.

You have to understand, we are Serious Butler Bulldogs. My husband and I met through the Butler Band...and sat next to each other during year's worth of pep and marching band games. And that was way back before the teams were Good.

The Butler Basketball team made it to the NCAA championship game last year, losing in the last seconds by a single shot. And the same thing was happening tonight. It's enough to give a girl an ulcer.

We have our Superstitions about watching the Butler Games on TV. We got to my best friend Kathleen's house, and watch on her tv. She serves chips and Queso dip.



And last year, I discovered York Peppermint Patty Pieces...which just so happen to be Blue and White. I brought a game to Thursday's viewing...with Queso and Pieces in hand, we won. And again tonight, I had to stop and pick up some more, because the fraction of a bag was just not going to get us through the game. I almost bought two bags, but decided not to, seemed like cursing it. Now I see that was wise.



And as long as I had a steady stream of chocolates going into my mouth the second half, the team was doing well. It was a nailbiter, close down to the very last tenths of a second...and I kept the chocolate going. Every Time Out going for another refill, or sending Eric.

Oh, I feel like I'm going to puke. Or get that ulcer.

May have to book that endoscopy for after the championships are over.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Starbucks Days

Surely I'm not the only one to prefer a lovely green beverage on St. Patrick's Day. For me it was trying a Green Tea frappuccino.



I hadn't tried one before and turns out it is Not my favorite, but it was Perfect for a Green Day.

Unfortunately, I've been smacked with migraines the last two days. How Rude. Gotta be hormonal in origin as I just got my second shot this week. It's been a long time since I've had these, so much so that I didn't remember them being a side effect of the lupron until I remembered getting them while I was working at the mill, and sitting in my office with the lights off and my sunglasses on.

It started Thursday creeping up the back of my neck, and into my brain. And if I die here in the next couple of days you'll know it was a brain aneurysm and not a migraine. They kind of feel the same right now. It's been coming and going, and fortunately (or unfortunately) if I drink something big from Starbucks, it seems to stave it off for a bit.

We had a house showing today, which involved a lot more activity than curling up in a ball and going back to bed, crying, which is what I really wanted to do. But the sweetboys won't let me.

And apparently we packed up the Exedrine Migraine. Grr...

So I gave myself an ulcer and took a couple tylenol, couple ibuprofen, and chased it with a giant Caramel Macchiato. When we drove through, as you can imagine, Everyone in the car wanted something: Chris - his cocoa, and Sam - his Fafo (water). But what shocked me most of all was they even offered Fina a treat, A Pup Cup.




She was a big fan of the Pup Cup. It was a Cup full of Whipped Cream. She went bonkers and licked it Dry.



And we felt good enough to go back to the zoo to see play outside for a bit. We stayed away from the crowds, somehow just the boys outdoors, with my sunglasses on a really cloudy day was enough for the starbucks and drugs to work for a while...long enough for us to come home and Nap.

Hope this migraine business ends soon, I'm over it.

Joy of Luck, Day 2

Ah the Green. Some take it to be The Luck of the Irish.

Here are my boys yesterday all bedecked in their green.



Some just feeling the Spring greens. Oh yes. Me too.



More snowdrops from the zoo! (I so need to plant some of these in the new house yard!) We went back today for some quiet outdoor time.



And it was good. With even more green...



Hyacinths sprouting up. They are my favorite smelling flower!



And the last Green of the day...boys running wild along a vibrant green hedge.


So happy it's Spring. Maybe not officially, but close enough for me.

Beauty

So, this week The Pioneer Woman had a contest for Beauty. I entered a few pictures. I couldn't narrow down a beautiful picture of the boys. These being some of my favorite non-boy photos.

Bonfire from our ground breaking back in August. I didn't know fire could burn like this.



Bird's nest from the hoar frost last February.



Blue morpho butterfly



An orchid from the zoo last year. Makes me crave going to the zoo's new orchid exhibit opening today...just might do that. ;)



I guess I just love Nature, I find it to be God's most beautiful gifts of all!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Joy of Luck, Day 1

Our first day in my new class, The Joy of Luck. See the same teacher as the Joy of Love class I took in February. I enjoyed the first one so much, I was thrilled at the opportunity to take this quick one week freebie.

Our focus today was to focus on a Gift. Something we are Lucky to have, or Blessed by. It was supposed to be an inanimate object, that we love, and we were supposed to focus on different angles, but I didn't get something like that.

Instead today, my Gift that I was Blessed with (besides a Butler win in the first round of NCAA, Go Dawgs!) was the Gift of Time. Quality Time with my husband.

He's been gone a lot lately, working full time, and building our dream house for us. He stayed up way late last night, and just decided that this evening, he wanted
The Night Off. And my boys couldn't have been happier.

We took advantage of Members Night, and Daddy met us at the zoo, where they stayed open extra late to meet some new animals, but that's another story. We stayed until the place was empty. And that was so cool. Time at the zoo, stopped for us. It was some Great Quality Time for me and my boys. The zoo people let us shut them down, and as we were leaving, we felt like the only people in the world.



On the other hand, the zoo had something I didn't. Blooming Flowers.



I love spring, one of my favorite times in the world is when the bulbs start popping up. Their Snowdrops were blooming.



So, since we weren't in a great hurry, and got to experience these bonus blooms which were quite the happy gift for me, I took a moment to try snapping pictures of them at different angles.



Getting closer.



On the ground. And contorting the camera into ways I just don't bend.



And I got Lucky. These turned out really great.



Another Great Gift!