Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy Birthday Megan!

Today, my first baby is 7 years old. I can't believe how fast these past 7 years have flown by. It seems like only yesterday we brought that little 6 lb, 14 oz baby girl home. That was the scariest night of our lives, but also opened our hearts to an all new kind of love. One that we've been blessed to repeat 2 more times since then.

We had a great day of celebrating. Meg opened up her new pair of roller skates and has had a blast rolling around the house with them. We watched "Bolt" in Owensboro today with all the kids and bought some party supplies for her party at the local skating rink planned for Saturday.

Now, Bryan and I are munching on veggies, homemade buffalo chicken dip, summer sausage, cheese, and crackers. At midnight, we'll pop open the sparkling grape juice and welcome in the new year. I pray you will all have a good one.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Remembering Mama

Today, I woke up a little bit depressed. I thought to myself, "I wish I could just relax and enjoy Christmas without having to wear myself out preparing for it." And I missed my mama.

She's been gone 5 years now. I still miss her so much. Looking back, I remember how much work she put into making Christmas special for us. Money was always tight, but mama put her special touches into Christmas, making wonderful things for all of us.

This year, I felt more in touch with her as I made homemade ornaments and cookies with my girls. I remembered all the times mama and I spent hours making cookies, candies, angels, and other homemade gifts. We'd stay up to the wee hours of Christmas morning dipping peanut butter balls and making mints. It was exhausting, but so fun. I wouldn't trade that for the world.

So, mama, I thank you for all the hard work and love you put into Christmas for us as I grew up and even after I was grown. I hope I can pass on cherished memories like that for my own kids.

I hope you all have a wonderful, memorable Christmas and if you still have a mama around, hug her or call her and let her know how thankful you are for all the love she put into Christmas for you. God bless you all!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Twas the weekend before Christmas

And all through my house....3 kids are stirring and the place is a wreck. Hmmm, doesn't rhyme. Oh well. Here's my weekend in review for your reading pleasure.

Yep, my house is a wreck and I'm really glad I don't have to host any dinners or parties or anything like that. I honestly don't know when I'll get the time to actually clean. I haven't wrapped anything yet, and I still have 3 recipes to make. Gift baskets to get together. A few more homemade gifts to make.

Oh, and the laundry to catch up so I can pack our bags to travel on Christmas Day. And the "three" take so much of my time and energy, it's hard to fit anything extra in the day.

I finally finished up some forgotten gifts at Wal-Mart this afternoon. Thought I was going to be ran over. That place was packed!

The stuff's still in the car and we just finished some delivered pizza. But I'm taking "Maggie's" advice and I'm sitting down drinking some hot tea and blogging for a little rest. Then it's off to laundry and carrying in groceries.

The weekend's been good, really, though busy. Last night, we took advantage of "Parents' Night Out" and left all 3 kids at the church with the teenagers and raced off to O'boro to use a restaurant gift card we received. We were not more than 5 minutes from the promised land when my cell phone rang. Zach was screaming his head off and they couldn't calm him. So, back we went, plopped him in the car and it wasn't long at all before he had snubbed himself to sleep. When we finally made it to Olive Garden, he was happy as could be. We enjoyed a rather quick dinner, but at least he was happy and ultra-cute during dinner. He does this cute little thing where he snurls up his nose and blows out of it. It's so funny. The kid better be glad he's cute--that's all I can say! :)

Then this morning at church, Zach and I were blessed to play Mary and baby Jesus for an interpretive dance. No, we didn't dance. Are you kidding? I'm as graceful as a drunk rhinoceros. We sat in the center of the stage as Melanie B. danced around us. Zach did really well. I think he was a little freaked out by the bright lights and dancing but at least he wasn't fussy. That's the first time I've been Mary. I've been an angel and a boy in previous Christmas productions, so I guess I'll add that to my resume :)

Friday, December 19, 2008

Ooo, my kitchen's smellin good!

I've made two batches of my chocolate chip pumpkin bread today. This time, I've used two mini loaf pans that make 4 mini loaves each, and each batch fills up both pans nicely, so I'm ending up with 16 mini loaves to give away. Well, 15 actually. I'm eating one :) Oh, and I shortened the baking time to 45 minutes for both pans in there. I'm working on getting gift baskets ready with some homemade gifts to give away. Guess I'll be playing Santa Claus in a couple days!

Woo! Y'all were blessed with 2 posts today...aren't ya thrilled?

Just around the corner

I can't believe Christmas is just 6 days away. I'm trying not to freak out trying to finish up all the baking and such. My poor blog has been terribly neglected, as is my rest and recreation time. Trying to steadily keep at it so I won't have so much to do early next week.

This morning, Zachary had his 9 month checkup and an HIB shot he was behind on. Zoe has an ear infection, so I took her along to get checked out and she and Zachary both got a flu shot too while we were there. She did so well. Didn't cry at all, though she's spent the morning rubbing her "boo-boo". I hope she'll do ok with her 4 year old boosters in about a month. We dropped by Sonic for some milkshakes afterward. That seemed to help :)

I can't believe how quickly these past 9 months have passed. It seems like yesterday we brought that little guy home, and now he's a big baby, crawling, starting to walk and babble. If I got nothing else for Christmas, just having these past 9 months with him are enough. I've so enjoyed watching all my babies grow, and as this year comes to an end, I feel like I'm moving into a new era of simply doing the mommy thing. And it's ok.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

My first ENT visit

As if Christmas coming wasn't exciting enough, today I had my first visit with an ENT (ear, nose, throat) doctor.

For several years, I've gotten sinus infections from almost every cold I catch and they go on for weeks at a time. And I'm very grumpy and irritable for that whole time. It's not happy times when mama's sick around here. Every now and then, I give up and go get an antibiotic to clear it up, but inevitably, here it comes around again.

So, I decided enough was enough. I'll see if there's something wrong with my anatomy that's making the ick stick around. Hence, today's visit.

After looking in my ears and at my throat, he sprayed an anesthetic nasal spray up my nose and ran a thin little scope all through the nasal passages and sinus areas.

The conclusion for now: my nose is C-shaped, and my right sinus is not draining properly because of that. He thought it looked like my nose had been broken in the past. I know I've always had a crooked nose, but I don't recall it ever being broken. I was almost a month late being born, so maybe my nose got squished up in the womb or something :)

Anywho, he sucked some of the ick out with a neat little vacuum thing (they DO have nose vaccuums..now where to get one?) and is sending it off for culture. He says he'd like to see if he can target some antibiotics specifically for whatever bacteria is lurking in there. Then, if that doesn't help, I'll be back for a CT scan to see if surgery might be an option.

So, in the meantime, he wants me to rinse out my nose with a Neti pot or the sinus rinse bottle and see if that will get some relief. And, then I guess it's back to more antibiotics...sheesh. Hopefully we'll get the right one this time. Wish me luck!

Oh, and my nose is and upper front teeth are numb from the anesthetic spray. Wierd!

Monday, December 08, 2008

Still around, but barely

I've not been in a bloggity mood at all, and have really been focusing on other areas lately. Sorry if you've not seen me around in blog-world for a while. I'll get back eventually. For now, some bits to update:

Zach is 9 months old today and has taken his first step a couple days ago (we were all present to witness it..he stepped to his daddy!).

My cold is still hanging around and I wish I had a vaccuum cleaner for my nose and sinuses.

My Christmas tree is finally up.

We got our Christmas pics made Saturday, so hopefully they'll be back in time to send out.

Still have a few odds and ends to buy for Christmas, but the shopping's pretty much done. Still need to bake...gotta hit the grocery this weekend. And I need to wrap...I hate wrapping :)

Monday, December 01, 2008

Happy Holidays?...*sniff*

Thanksgiving is over, and Christmas is around the corner. My annual Christmas shopping is almost done and I'm looking forward to my traditional Christmas cookie baking. I'm not, however, enjoying my annual cold/sinus problems that seem to put a damper on each holiday season....especially since we have 3 little petri dishes that keep bringin in the germs!

However, I'm really looking into more preventative, natural measures to tackle these bugs. One thing I like to avoid unless absolutely necessary is taking antibiotics. Today's antibiotics are growing less and less effective because of over-use. Too many doctors are prescribing them for the common cold when the cold really just needs to run its course.

Doing my online remedy research today, I ran across this interesting article that sums it up better than I can. If you can ignore the annoying sidebar links, read it and see why you should probably delay that doctor visit the next time you get a cold. I'll just sip some more hot tea while you read, ok?

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/1998/03/wellbeing.html