In Bloom

Just enjoying the beauty of all that is in bloom in my front yard, and thought I'd share. Enjoy!

Baby Mama

I went out for a much needed Girl's Night with some friends this weekend. We had dinner at Bonsai (kind of like Benihana) and went out to a movie. We saw Baby Mama, which just opened this weekend. My stomach hurt for 3 hours after, I laughed SO hard. It was a great flick, especially for those of us who have experienced pregnancy or been married to a preggo. I definitely recommend it! HiLaRiOuS.

Apostle Song

Maybe it's only normal in my community that this would be circulating on email, so I thought I'd share it with all of you. I know that I can memorize things really well when set to music, and I think this might be a good tool to help the kids learn about these great men who serve us within the church. Possibly it can help you too :)

Baby Sale

I have been meaning to do it for a while. I guess I could say that about a lot of things lately..... But in this case I'm starting to clear out the baby gear that Syd is quickly growing out of. ...sniff...sniff....

I just put 9 posts on Craig's List yesterday. I'm clearing out my Baby Bjorn Carrier, Hiking Backpack (the infant size, we still have the toddler one), Johnny Jump Up, 2 walkers, Baby Swing, Bouncer, Safety Gate, and my awesome, can't live without Pump In Style Dual Breastpump. If any of y'all are interested in any of these items I will offer a friends and family discount :) Everything's marked less than 60% of retail to begin with, so they're all pretty good deals.

I also have SO many baby clothes to go through and decide what to save for KC....hint hint....and what to sell or donate. Like I said I've been meaning to do a lot lately, but with pennies getting swallowed and being the soccer mom that I am, you know how it goes. One of these days I will be totally organized and in control. It might be 20 years down the road, but I WILL get there!!

My Savi Arteeest

Savannah received the Panther Pride award at school for her Bamboo Watercolor. Her artwork was posted on a board outside the main office for a week and she was presented with a certificate, and some vouchers for free kids meals at a couple of local restaurants. She was pretty proud of herself, and so are we!! This girl loves to create with all mediums and she just keeps getting better. Keep up the good work Savi!

Home Improvement

Well, it must be Spring because the last couple of weeks have been filled with one project following another. I have to say most of this has been Chris' work, but I've even had a chance to do some things that are usually his domain.

He's built a raised flower bed by our front porch, which I will fill with annuals this week. He's removed the swamp cooler (which we haven't used in almost 5 years since we installed a new HVAC) from the roof piece by piece and patched the roof (not a small feat). He's also patched, resurfaced and painted the hallway ceiling where in vent was and replaced the antiquated smoke detector. He repaired the braces on our poorly constructed (not by us) deck and next weekend plans to stain said deck.

I've replaced the broken light kit on our loft's ceiling fan and had a nice neighbor that lent me scaffolding and another nice neighbor who helped me put up the scaffolding and replace our old fan on the vaulted ceiling in the living room. The new one has a light on it which adds a nice ambiance, especially because it can be dim or bright depending on the "mood" you want to set. ;) You may not be able to tell in the pics, but the glass is tea stain which gives a nice warm glow when the lights are dimmed. I just love what it adds to the room! Most people won't notice it, because it's kind of a standard fan, but it'll be nice to not have a fan that only serves it's purpose (moving air around) and is kind of a blemish otherwise. If that makes sense...

Old Fan-

New Fan-

Freaky Friday

Don't even think about using spell check !

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

If yuo cna raed tihs, laeve a cmomnet.

Never a dull moment...

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 1998) — CHICAGO -- When a child swallows a penny, it can react with stomach acid to create a toxic mixture as corrosive as car battery acid, leading to severe stomach inflammation and even ulcers, physicians at Duke University Medical Center have discovered.

Sydney has had quite a busy week! This morning she stuck a penny in her mouth. I was right by her and went to sweep it out just as she gagged on it, then turned her over and tried to get it out with the help of gravity, but GULP, down it went. Since she's pretty small I worried that it would get stuck in her esophagus or bowels, so I called the Dr and asked if I needed to do anything other than wait and see. Our Dr wanted an x-ray just to make sure it wasn't lodged anywhere (I guess it could've ended up in the lungs too, but that would've been immediately apparent) and that it hadn't done any damage along the way. So we went up to Primary Children's Hospital. We were relieved to see in the x-ray that the penny is already on it's way OUT of her stomach into the intestines and it appears it will pass within the next 24 hrs. So, we have a plastic butter knife at the ready on the changing table. The things we do for these little ones....

Toothless Wonder

Well, it finally happened. After a long month of, "my tooth is loose, I can't eat THAT!" it finally came out. It was a long awaited moment for her. She's one of the last of her friends to lose a tooth and now she finally feels like she fits in, her words. However, it wasn't all she imagined. It actually had the nerve to bleed once the tooth was gone, gasp! She was crying and saying this wasn't how it was supposed to be, etc. Goodness, you'd think she'd had a limb amputated. After 5 minutes the bleeding slowed and she calmed down. Oh, the drama of it all.
The best part of this whole fiasco was the day she came home from school to announce the loose tooth and said, "Mom, you were right and the dentist wasn't." What's that? "HE said I would lose a tooth when I was 6, but YOU said probably not til I was 7, and YOU WERE RIGHT." I know I won't hear that phrase very often. At least I know to relish it now.

Nose, meet sidewalk.

Poor Sydney went chasing down our lawn on Saturday afternoon. We have a fairly steep hill at the front of the yard and as she started running down her little feet couldn't catch up. She rolled and most of her fell on the grass, that is, except her nose and forehead. The forehead actually looks better now, and the nose is worse (picture above was taken Monday am). The first layer of skin scraped off and was raw, but now it is scabbed up. The forehead rapped pretty good and had a goose egg that has since gone down. It's amazing the difference an ouchie makes on our outings. Before it was, "Aww, she's so sweet, I can't stop staring at her." now I get mixed looks of pity or disgust that I could possibly allow my baby to fall and do that to herself. I'm just glad it's temporary. Only a week or two and she'll be good as new. It's amazing how the body can solve these issues with a little time!