Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
******************

Ever feel guilty that you skip a nightly bath time simply because you can't take one.more.minute of fighting siblings, or have a "make your own PB&J" dinner night, or maybe even think "God Bless Teachers" as your loud children run off to the bus? Well stop feeling guilty and join in on "Not Me" Monday where we can be brutally honest about our imperfections. Here we go.

We did not take a road trip this weekend which may have consisted of 22 hours in the car in a 72 hour period. Something of that manner sounds like absolute torture to anyone of child-bearing age so we certainly wouldn't think that would be a better idea than sending our children to school.

We did not comment 40820 times about the fact that the state of Iowa is about 4 different shades of brown. We might have said the words tan, brown, yellowish brown and dark brown so many times that I now think the word brown sounds funny and well, just not right. We also may have said the words soybeans, corn, soybean field and corn field about the same number of times we said brown. Those words may or may not be followed closely by the phrase "Look! A combine- guys right over there....LOOK!" After the tenth time my children did not start saying "Yes, they all look the same!"

Emily did not make a comment that sounded something like "I think Iowa is a state you only drive through; because if there aren't any towns people can't actually live here." I did not laugh and completely agree with her.

I did not say "quit fighting" or "stop arguing" or "if you fight one.more.time" at least 384 times in 72 hours and I would certainly never think to myself, "if these kids don't stop their freaking arguing I'm going to pull over and give myself a time out." And as a good mother I would never stop at Wal-Mart (remember, I ♥ Wal-Mart) and buy a bag of Charm Blow-Pops with the thinking if they have a blow-pop shoved in their blow hole they can't argue and fight as much. Nope, I would never do that!

We did not find it absolutely amusing that we had a corn field directly outside our hotel window the first night and then parked among the corn the next day at our lunch stop, in the middle of town. We did not tell everyone about this amusing fact and watch their faces say "well, yes, that is how it is here in Iowa."
After looking at so much brown we did not squeal with delight when we found a wind farm with 158 wind turbines. We did not venture off the beaten path to try and get up close and personal with the gentle giants; that would only add more time to our amazingly long road trip. I did not listen to my husband say he wants one of these in our backyard for the next two days. I did not take my city kids and plop them on a farm for 24 hours and let them run around frolicking in soybean fields and climbing silos. That kind of activity would have lead to muddy shoes and one freaked out mother contemplating the many safety violations of children on silos.

I did not listen to my city kids telling me they wished we lived on a real farm when I tried bribing them back into the car after such a short visit. Little do they know they would be doing far more work if they really did live on a real farm.

Something we did do this weekend...
We did get to visit two grandparents in one weekend and our children got to spend some quality time with their great-grandmother whom they've never really met, due to our frequent country-hopping moves. So despite the very long road trip, this weekend was priceless for all of us.

Mini made-to-order

If your house is anything like ours, a full cooked-to-order breakfast is the very last thing on your mind on weekday mornings. No, instead something like "comb your hair, did you brush your teeth?, get your bag ready, find your shoes, THE BUS IS COMING" is more like what happens daily around here. I just need to get a tape recorder and place it at the bottom of the stairs; maybe even add a countdown and then I just have to push play at the same time each morning. Hmmm...maybe I need to work on an invention.

Anyway, I can't take full credit for this idea but that doesn't stop me from sharing it with you. You know those yummy breakfast casseroles/quiche/souffle' thingermajigs? Whatever you call them they usually consist of eggs, a bit of milk, cheese and a meat; and if you are over the age of 12 you might throw in some onions and peppers. Well, I heard of the idea of making these casseroles in muffin cups and then freezing them. My children were so excited to try something other than frozen waffles, cereal, and instant oatmeal that I had to keep them from eating all the egg cups in one morning; pace yourself young grasshopper.

Disclaimer: I'm not an exact measure type of cook. No, I'm more of an "open the cabinet and throw in whatever looks like it isn't beyond the expiration date" type of cook. I did measure out what I included in these souffles but next time it might be totally different. Adapt this to your liking.

Ingredients

6 eggs
4 oz. sausage (cooked)
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used colby-jack but use whatever kind of cheese you have in the fridge)
1/3 cup milk
salt
pepper

1. Cook your sausage and then let it cool on a paper towel. This will soak up a bit of the grease and allow it to cool enough so you don't scramble your eggs prematurely.
2. Add all the ingredients together and stir. Pour into greased muffin cups. (I made another batch with bacon to fill up the muffin pan)

3. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes. (If you use a metal pan or fill the cups less they may cook a bit quicker.) When you remove them they will be all inflated and beautiful looking. They will deflate when cooling and won't be as pretty but they taste the same. If you think they are ugly, blindfold yourself for breakfast (or your kids.)

4. Remove from pans when slightly cool (you like your fingerprints after all, no need to singe them off now) and place on a cooling rack. Once cool transfer to a freezer Ziploc and freeze.

Warm up your mini cooked-to-order breakfast in the microwave until hot.

Note: If anyone in your house is trying to lose weight like I am you can also make these with Egg Beaters. I made some yesterday using Egg Beaters and added some onions and peppers and they turned out well. Of course, Egg Beaters doesn't mean much when you eat ice cream daily. I wouldn't know anything about that though.

Tips on Tuesday

If you lose something do not spend a day, or two, and definitely not an entire week of your time searching. No. Just don't.

Look for maybe 30 minutes. If you do not find it get yourself into your vehicle and drive to the nearest store that carries the item you have lost cleverly misplaced and promptly buy yourself a new one.

I now offer you a money back guarantee* that you will find the item you lost cleverly misplaced less than one day after your return home. If you are smart you will not open the new item for 24 hours because the lost cleverly misplaced one will show up to the party, albeit a bit late. For me? I've learned to carefully open packages so that my money back guarantee is still valid.

*Money back guarantee is only valid at the retailer you purchased your item and only if you save your receipt (do it, you will find your lost item) and carefully open the package as instructed.

Wordless Wednesday

Pictures from our real picnic this weekend.

Tips on Tuesday

Today I'd like to offer up a few tips for your upcoming dental appointment. You see, being on prednisone for 5 weeks wreaks havoc on your teeth and I've spent enough time in the chair to hand out a few tips.

1. Most important- Don't ignore your teeth even though they don't hurt. Once they hurt your time in the chair will be nothing short of a trip to hell and back.

2. Try to get yourself some anti-anxiety medicine prior to your appointment. Even if you don't think you suffer from dental anxiety, that all changes when the drill happens to punch through your tooth to the root cavity.

3. If you don't have any anti-anxiety medication and can't get any beforehand raid your medicine cabinet and find some pain killers. Pain killers will work in a pinch to help make you a little loopy...loopy is always good in a dental chair.

4. Dental offices are always cold; bring a sweatshirt or just wear long sleeves. Who cares if people look at you funny for wearing long sleeves in the summer; once you try to smile and only half your lips work they will look at you funny for much different reasons; the long sleeves won't matter anymore.

5. BYOS: Bring your own socks. Refer to #4, dental offices are like mini-refrigerators and even though I'm wearing long sleeves, I want to wear my flip flops. Socks on the feet cut down on the shivers tremendously.

6. Tell the dentist right off the bat that you are hard to get numb. In my case it is true, (thanks Mom for that wonderful trait!) but even if it might not be true for you; a little extra anesthesia is never a bad thing. Heck, even raise your hand once in awhile to signal you felt a little something and they will most likely stop and give you more.

7. Pray. Pray the entire time. Please don't let her hit a nerve, please let me be numb, please don't let her drill spinning 10,000 rpms slip off and slice straight through my gums...etc. etc. etc.

8. If you stop praying think of a very happy place; the right pain killers will help you out with this.

Good luck!

"Not Me" Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
******************

Ever feel guilty that you skip a nightly bath time simply because you can't take one.more.minute of fighting siblings, or have a "make your own PB&J" dinner night, or maybe even think "God Bless Teachers" as your loud children run off to the bus? Well stop feeling guilty and join in on "Not Me" Monday where we can be brutally honest about our imperfections. Here we go.

It was not me calling my dentist at 9 p.m. on a recent Friday night, even with full knowledge she was on vacation. I did not apologize about 5 times in the first 30 seconds for calling her cell phone so late and on a weekend while she was on vacation. (Thankfully I have found a wonderful dentist who called in prescriptions for me and even called the endodontist for me on Saturday!)

It was definitely not me crying in the endodontist chair the next Monday morning about to undergo my very first root canal. I would have no reason to be nervous when my tooth was still not numb after 10 (yes, 10!) shots of anesthesia.

It was not me who was looking forward to Jacob's "meet the teacher" night and then completely forgot about it, only to remember it two days too late.

We did not circle the city and drive over 100 miles on Saturday to visit 5 fabric shops in seven hours to look for the perfect fabric to contribute to Claire's quilt. We did not come home and find the perfect fabric online and order it.

It was not me getting schooled by a 7 year old that a real picnic does not involve eating fast food on a picnic table. He did not guilt me into packing a real picnic basket with food from home so I could give him a "real" picnic.

I did not do the dishes one handed last night because I had a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie in the other hand. I was definitely not trying to get my snack fill last night because I am recommitting myself to Weight Watchers today. I did not eat three cookies in the time it took me to fill the dishwasher, one handed.

I am not completely giddy about the fact that I am only four days away from dropping my children off with one of the best grandma's in the world (Hi Meme!) and spending the weekend with my wonderful husband in a quaint, quiet inn that does not allow children. I did not dodge the question when the children asked me "are you going to miss us?"

And the best bit of news:
I am NOT the least bit gloriously happy that I have been without hives for 4 days; but who's counting.

Wordless Wednesday

"Not Me" Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
******************

Ever feel guilty that you skip a nightly bath time simply because you can't take one.more.minute of fighting siblings, or have a "make your own PB&J" dinner night, or maybe even think "God Bless Teachers" as your loud children run off to the bus? Well stop feeling guilty and join in on "Not Me" Monday where we can be brutally honest about our imperfections.

Monday was Jacob's last day before middle school so I let him pick where we had our last lunch together. I was not happy in the least bit that he chose Culvers because I was dreading another dish of frozen custard covered in cookie dough.

It was not me who recoiled in horror as I watched a child hit her mother because she was not taking new clothes off the rack fast enough. I most certainly would be able to control my facial expressions when watching interactions between other parents and their children.

I did not choose to make cupcakes 45 minutes before the kids arrived home from school so I could lick the bowl and not share it four ways.

After my husband's clean clothes built up next to his side of the bed for a week, I did not threaten to put him on "Not Me" Monday if they were still there Sunday night. He did not laugh and blow me off. These are certainly not his folded, clean clothes right next to his dresser.

I did not spend the entire Sunday in my pajamas. That would require someone to not step one foot outside the house and I wouldn't be so unproductive.

And lastly, I am not the least bit jealous that my husband is spending the week in Ft. Lauderdale, sans kids.

Prayers for a friend

My friend, Jodi, and her family are very much in need of prayers right now. Jodi's husband, Ryan, was in a motorcycle accident one week ago and has suffered critical injuries. He defied all the odds and lived through the first night but has since been sedated to try and help his body heal. He has been diagnosed with permanent paralysis from the chest down and he is still not "out of the woods." He is currently fighting injuries to his lungs and heart and was also diagnosed with pneumonia, which is delaying his spine surgery. He is also at risk for losing his right lower leg due to the severity of his wounds.

Jodi and Ryan have two young children who also need prayers in processing this huge change to their family. Jodi is currently focused on helping Ryan survive but we all know that this is going to be a very long road for them and the prayers will be needed for a long time. Will you please add Ryan's recovery and Jodi's strength to your prayer lists?

Ryan's family is keeping a Caring Bridge page to update others on his progress; you can click on the rainbow button to be taken there.

Wordless Wednesday

The Bed
White, soft and fluffy
Calls your name all of the day
Horizontal bliss

I finally saw the allergist today. The hives eventually relented a couple days ago but as he put it, "You are on an enormous slug of Prednisone" so they should be gone.

"Not Me" Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
*****************************

It was not me you may have seen feeding her kids fast food for dinner because I was still covered in hives after 9 days and coming down with an infection. Nope, even if I were covered in hives and getting an infection, I would make sure my children eat a well balanced meal every evening.

It was certainly not me you saw in the grocery store the next day buying two Totino's pizzas and a box of Kraft macaroni & cheese. Frozen pizza and boxed macaroni and cheese is only one step better than fast food and still far below what I find acceptable for an evening meal so there is no way I came home, talked the kids into helping cook dinner and then allow them to eat on a blanket in the living room so I could lay on the couch. Nope; I would never do such a thing.

It was not me who skipped curriculum night for both Emily and Matthew due to hubby being gone for the week and my body still covered in hives after 11 days. Even with all that going on I would most certainly secure childcare for my children so I could take my itchy self to school for an hour right at dinner time.

There has not been an overflowing laundry basket of towels sitting in my living room for nearly a week. Nope, I am very efficient and organized with our laundry and would definitely put those towels away in each bathroom while they were still warm. I certainly did not put the towels away the morning hubby came home and smooth out the indentation in the carpet just so he didn't think they sat there the entire time he was gone.I did not eat half a watermelon the night before my weekly weigh-in to try and naturally flush the excess water from my body. Since we only eat healthy, balanced meals with limited amounts of salt, I would have no reason to be retaining fluid.

It was not me chatting it up with a curly haired, adorable 4 year old at Six Flags who proceeded to tell me the reason I couldn't ride the little kids rides wasn't because I was no longer a little kid but because I was (insert big tummy hand motion here) "too big." But she can't say that word or she'll get in trouble.

I did not make a trip to Sam's Club over the weekend and proceed to come home and feed the kids a dinner straight from my Sam's Club cart which may or may not have consisted of 7-layer taco dip, tortilla chips, yogurt and watermelon. I certainly did not make myself feel better by pointing out that they were actually receiving a food from every food group.

It was not me who decided to can 5 quarts of dill pickles only to realize my quart jars would not fit in my biggest stock pot. I am not the least bit happy that I got a new stainless steel stock pot out of the deal.

It was not me who had a mini freak out when the YMCA called to say another child in camp this week has been diagnosed with H1N1- or the piggy flu as we call it. (This wouldn't bother me except I've been taking mega doses of prednisone and can't be around anyone that is sick.)

I did not attempt to make up for my mommyhood failures this week by making To Die For Blueberry Muffins, cut and can 5 quarts of dill pickles, make my own knock-off of Panera's new strawberry poppyseed salad AND a homemade apple tart in one day. That much work would require you to stay in the kitchen for 5 hours and that is definitely not me.

So, what didn't you do this week?

Wordless Wednesday (sort of)

I'm going to try and get my blog up and running again so I'm catching the coattails of many other bloggers and posting a "Wordless Wednesday." I'm not sure if any of mine will actually be wordless but I'll shoot for less each week.

Golf bag party in the parking lot! Jacob is taking a golf camp and it surprised and delighted me to see all the junior golf sets when I came to pick him up.

Yesterday was schedule pick-up for the new middle-school babies. It is hard to believe I have a child old enough for middle school; my parents were old when I was in middle school. Oh, how perceptions change!
Jacob and I walked through his schedule a few times and after practicing his lock a few times he finally got it. He seems more excited than scared so that makes the transition a bit easier, for me.

Up all night...

And unfortunately it isn't followed by "sleep all day."

Yesterday I was back at the doctor's office for this awful rash that has consumed my body. I was given a powerful antihistamine and was warned it would "knock me out" for 6-8 hours. I was apprehensive to take it because I have to get the kids up for school in the morning so I took it earlier than my bedtime so there was plenty of time for it to wear off.

Bedtime rolls around and I'm pretty awake, OK wide awake. I'm one of those weird people who has an opposite reaction to a medication. If I wasn't worried about waking people up I could have used my time productively and cleaned. OK, I wasn't really worried about anyone waking up; I was just being lazy and spent my time surfing the internet and updating the adoption blog in complete silence.

The best part of being awake all night? No, not all the noises that the house makes which I normally don't hear, and no, not the infomercials on every channel (did you know they have an adult toy home shopping show?! Who knew!).
It is the opportunity to see your children in their most angelic state of the day- ASLEEP.

Itchy Itchy

I'm covered in a rash
That's both speckled and red;
The worst time of day
Is when I'm lying in bed.
I've been to the doc,
And called on the phone.
Three visits and three calls,
I'm becoming well known.
They can't seem to figure out
Exactly why I'm itchy.
I hope they figure it out soon,
Because I'm getting quite bitchy.

Swimsuits

Today I offer you some advice, simply because I have nearly abandoned my blog recently and I am trying to make up for it.

Tip:
Do not call a store and trust the word of a male retail clerk when shopping for a little girl's swimsuit. Just don't.
If a male answers the phone when you call to check on sizes promptly reply with "sorry, I have the wrong number" or "oh, I was trying to reach the XYZ department." Be sure you pick a department that is far different than the little girls department to ensure he doesn't say "Oh, I can help you in that department too" because that is what will happen if you call unprepared. It is almost guaranteed that a clerk working in the girls department will not be handling air tools or appliances; then promptly hang up in mid-transfer.

As I'm sure most women understand a swim set should match. Pink tops with blue flowered bottoms is not what I consider a matching set. To his credit, they did have size 6 in a few pieces but not one of them made a matching set.

Berry Picking

I found a pick-your-own berry farm nearby so the kids and I set the alarm and got up early to go pick berries. Oh my, you can get way more berries than you intend when you have 3 kids picking! We ended up with 2 pints of raspberries and 8.5 pounds of strawberries! So right after picking we headed to the store in search of jelly jars and pectin. Emily and I spent the afternoon making 4 jars of raspberry jam and 8 jars of strawberry jam. It is seriously the best jam I have ever tasted, and not just because I made it. I'm really thinking about going back and picking a ton more berries and making jam to sell it; we are always looking for ways to raise money for our adoption.

Raspberry picking



Strawberry picking




All of our wonderful jam!

The Anniversary

So today was our 12 year anniversary. We reserved a babysitter for last night, enjoyed wine and chocolates after a fancy dinner and watched a great play at the Fox.

Insert record screech here...
Au contraire, mon frère.
Here is what we really did. I called four babysitters last week; one had her phone disconnected (how awesome are those parents?! Abuse it and lose it, which really sucks when that is the only number listed for the babysitter.), one listed phone number went to a business (and it wasn't the babysitting kind of business) and a set of twins didn't return my message. So, no babysitter for us.

We started today with no real plans but Emily talked us into loading up the bikes and going for a ride. We were all hungry and planned to eat at Subway prior to our bike ride but there wasn't a Subway around. In fact, the only restaurant around was an old, run-down Burger King. We did get to eat alone though, the kids wanted to sit at the "bar" adjacent to us. We got to pretend we were on a high school date at Burger King; burger shots are so fancy and all.

We then headed into the park and started riding. The weather wasn't bad, a bit warm and humid but such is life in these parts. Then, as I was trying really hard not to look like a pansy and walk my bike up a steep hill I stood up to pedal. Big mistake. I thrust my leg down and directly into a sharp point of my water bottle holder. It reads like a really lame story but it really hurt like... well, let's move on. As I sat on the pavement nursing my bleeding, bruised leg my wonderful husband of 12 glorious years cleaned me up and bandaged my leg. He even threw in a "Happy Anniversary" to make it all feel better. I pulled up my big girl pants and carried on.

We took a trail that led us through some very dense (HUMID!) woods and then let the kids play at a playground while we took an obligatory sweaty self-portrait, before heading back. We've picked one or two ticks off of ourselves but at least three off each child; the kids must taste better. So, Happy 12th Anniversary to my wonderful husband. Thank you for always rescuing me when you sense the chaos is about to dunk me underwater. You are the life ring I can always reach out and grab and know I am safe; I simply can't imagine life without you.

Cool Video

This commercial was shown during the American Idol finale.

Happy Birthday Jacob

Today my oldest "baby" turns 11. He's transitioned from asking for cars and trucks for his birthday to asking for I-Pods and CDs instead. When did all this happen?! I simply can't be old enough to have a child starting middle school in the fall.

A few things we love about Jacob:

* He remembers every.single.thing he reads or learns. This comes in handy when you are wondering how many light years separate the Earth and Jupiter or just how many teeth a shark has.
* He loves learning about how things work.

* He can be extremely helpful around the house; he'll even start laundry on his own sometimes!

* He is very passionate about what he believes in.

* He is very concerned with doing the right thing. We hope and pray this will help him overcome bad peer pressure as he matures.

* He is extremely intelligent and we know he will change the world in some way.

* He loves to mow the yard!

* He loves to read and will out read J and I any day of the week.

* He loves to act and entertain; he's a great storyteller too.

* He is a great big brother to Matthew, even though we know younger siblings can be annoying sometimes. Matthew looks up to Jacob for everything.

Jacob made his splash into the world 3.5 weeks early to two very young parents that had no idea what they were doing. The first time he cried J and I looked at each other and said "Now what?!" Somehow we've muddled through and I don't think we've messed him up yet; I credit that all to Jacob's resilience and forgiveness! Jacob teaches us that we all love in a different way and Jacob has already touched many people in his short 11 years.

Big News

Go check it out!