5 Random Facts Tag

Okay, I was tagged by Stephanie! Post 5 random facts about yourself... hmmm....

1. I bought roses today. Big ones with flowers already in one gallon containers (the expensive ones). Beautiful red ones with a hint of fuschia and lots of petals. Why? Because they were having a closeout and all the plants are half off at the store I was at! Score! (Now I just have to get them in the ground.)

2. I am on my second round of fish in our little aquarium, and half of them are already dead. It would probably help if I cleaned the water occasionally or fed them regularly. Can we say "impulse buy"? Good!

3. I used to hate pink. I didn't want anything to do with it. Now I have 3-4 pink shirts and tanks for wearing under other shirts, pink Crocs (the knockoff Walmart ones), pink socks, white socks with pink edges, brown and pink striped socks... I bought a plant today that came in a pink plastic container. I liked the plant, but the pink container sealed the deal. Do you think I need a girl?

4. I am both scared and relieved to be on medication. Scared because I have to be on these pills the rest of my life and they are expensive if I don't have insurance, so if anything happened and Mark left the Air Force I am in big trouble. Relieved because I am finally starting to feel normal again. No more jumping from project to project. No more interupting people because I literally can't help it. Maybe I can be a better mom now.

5. I spend way too much time on the computer. I watch movies or tv shows, blog, look at blogs, look at recipes I could never afford the ingredients for, look up medical stuff relating to either my condition or my kids' issues. Looking at plants and window shopping my garden. Researching different breeds of dogs that would fit my requirements of low shedding, not huge, not yappy, no wierd eye or ear problems or prone to sneezing. There is an imprint of my bottom on the computer chair and I want to put extra padding on it, it's only 6 months old.

Let's see. I tag Rachel and CissaLynn!

My new favorite thing!

You know, I love France. The language, the food, the history. I took two years of French in high school, and would have taken more if they had offered it. The cuisine is regarded as some of the finest in the world!

The point of this is our family's Around the World food tour. So far we have done Austria and England. This week, we are exploring France! After doing lots of research for traditional dishes that complement each other and don't take too many fancy ingredients, we settled on a menu. Blancs de Poulet au Fromage (chicken breasts with cheese), Ratatouille Nicoise (prepared the original way- without eggplant), Baguettes made from scratch, and crepes with sweetened whipped cream/cream cheese mixture and raspberries in sugar. We are very excited!

We are enjoying learning about new countries and sampling their food. The kids are expanding their palates and experiencing new tastes and textures. No picky eaters here!

Stay tuned to my food blog tomorrow for recipes and photos!

My own little nap

I wholey agree with Rachel's post about her Sunday nap. Mark, for reasons known only to himself, chose to let me zonk out for nearly 2 hours this afternoon. I am not even sure why I laid down on the bed in the first place, but I awoke 2 hours later a tad disoriented, and slightly worried what he'd done to the children to get them to leave me alone for the whole time. That was mostly because our bedroom door was open and they have a tendency to go in there and play when we aren't looking.

It is now 12:20 am, and my eyes are finally getting tired. I should have been in bed hours ago! Mark did. I didn't even get anything done, just sat and watched a movie on the computer, with headphones as to not disturb anyone.

I did get 4 loads of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away, with another load to be folded, one to be put away, and Mark's uniform to be pulled out of the dryer and hung.

My house needs to be ready by Friday. Mom and Grandma Danes are coming down to pick up Grandma's meds and they like to stop in and have a quick lunch. And of course, due to my insane appointment schedule and the need to run errands all day leaving me too tired to clean up the messes in the short bursts of time I was home, even though the boys were trashing the place, my house is a Disaster! We have been eating off paperware for the last several days. Going camping didn't help either, between the chaos of packing and then returning home.... The car isn't even unloaded.

What an awful housewife I am. If only people really knew. (It doesn't help people only show up when it's a mess.... of course)

But because I had such a long nap today, and am therefore up so late tonight, I will be super tired tomorrow. My children will wake at the same time they always do, and I will be exhausted. It's going to be a long day, we have errands and therapy in town tomorrow.

Actually, I just remembered we are feeding the missionaries Thursday. Great, one less day to get ready... But I don't mind feeding them, hearing all kinds of stories, watching people genuinely enjoy their food. (cooking for others is one of my favorite things to do, the more people over for a meal, the better!)

I think I will go toss and turn for a bit and maybe, just maybe, I can get to sleep.

Goodnight!

My beautiful boys

I know every mom thinks their children are beautiful. I do. I love their sweet spirits and how their personalities differ from each other. I admire their patience with a sometimes grouchy mommy. I revel in their complete joy of something as simple as playing outside.

That's what we did today. Being a pleasantly warm afternoon I sent them outside to play. They were having so much fun, I wanted to try and capture it on film (okay, SD card, but hey....) I took lost of pictures, but these were my favorites of the afternoon.

Is there anything better than watching your children grow up? Oren amazes me with what he remembers and how fast he is learning. I can carry on actual conversations with him, and he is so observant about the world around him. Nathan is as easygoing as Oren is vivacious! He follows his brother willingly, although it often gets them both into trouble. He has such a sweet way about him, and I love how his top lip is crooked when he talks and smiles. And William? What a tiny bundle of energy! He pats our cheeks softly after accidently banging us with his head. He has started using more and more words, his current favorite being "help dadda" although I repeatedly emphasize the fact that I am Momma. I don't know if not-quite-two year olds can carry a tune normally, but that boy sings the alphabet song (the melody at least) like nobodies business!

I am so proud of my children and all that they are learning and doing. I only hope that I am worthy to be a mom to such amazing children!

We're Back!

And we survived! Thankfully is wasn't as hot as we thought it would be. Friday got about 95, but there was a nice breeze and a lake for swimming. Saturday only got up to 87...\

We had a lot of fun. We decided (after lots of mind changing on Mark's part) to visit the Bruneau Sand Dunes about 30 minutes away. BIG sand dunes. We got to the campground about 2:oo and got everything set up. It is a fairly nice campground, numbered areas for tents and seperate spots for rv's, every section has it's own picnic tables. Ours had a shelter over it! We were able to grab a spot with shade for our tent, close to the men's side of the bathroom so we could watch the boys come and go.

Then it was time to beat the afternoon heat and head out to the lake!

William was exhausted and fell asleep in the car over there. So we tucked him in the stroller and parked him in the shade next to the shore. Poor thing hasn't had regular naps much this week. He enjoyed having one today when we got home.

Nathan played it safe and stayed close to shore. A family camping in the next spot over had 2 little boys, and they shared their water toys with him. He thought it was fun to crawl around in the water to his knees and "swim".

Oren was a little braver, and let Daddy walk him way out. The lake was pretty shallow, and you had to go out kind of far to get over Mark's head. You can see how far out they are and it is only to Mark's waist. But that is a little high for Oren, who doesn't swim, so Daddy carried him.

I have a really good zoom, this was while they were all the way out there. Oren was holding on for his dear little life! Later, Mark borrowed a floatie thing and he and Oren drifted (paddled) out to the other side of the lake. Mommy watched quite nervously the whole time.

William finally woke up and splashed in the water for a while with Mommy before climbing out and playing in the sand to dry off. Here is Daddy trying to convince him to come back in the water. William wasn't excited about the idea.

We didn't fry, and we used plenty of sunscreen so we didn't end up all red. The boys had a blast, I remembered how to get a fire started back up from warm coals into a nice blaze, we borrowed salt to cook our tinfoil dinners in our skillet since I forgot both the salt and the tinfoil, and we spent some nice family time together. We hit Mountain Home on the way back for smore's fixing, which we had forgotten to get before, and had a picnic lunch at a park in town. Let the kids run off some energy.

My house is a disaster, I haven't been home to clean it, just home long enough for the kids to make messes in between appointments and errands. But it was nice to spend some time as a family and enjoy our tent and make a big fire and squish around in the muddy lake bottom. All in all, a nice weekend!

Roughing It

I am going to be gone for the next couple days, we are going camping until late Saturday. This time is also Mark's idea. There are several places within an hour of us, and he wants to make good use of the tent.

The problem is that today was 106, and this weekend is going to be almost as hot. OUCH! So, armed with sunscreen and plenty of ice, we are braving the great outdoors. We are borrowing a camping stove, scrounged wood for a fire, got pokey fork thingies for roasting marshmallows and cooking hotdogs. There had better be trees at the camping site or I am turning around and going right back home. Too hot without trees!

Today was spent in Boise going to a doctor's appointment. They said my Lamictal seems to be working fine so far, and they are going to start me on Concerta next week. Oren resonds very well to the Concerta so they figured I would too. I get to play with the dosage myself, increase it until I feel good. Or notice I am less hyper and temper-tantrumy. (I'm just making up words right and left aren't I...) We went and ate pizza, a big treat for the boys, and buzzed to Home Depot for some plants. Went home, gave William a nap, ran to the store for food stuffs for the weekend.

I will be returning red as a lobster, even with the sunscreen. I burn through spf 80, done it before. Maybe I should wear green on Sunday, cancel out the red of my face and chest. Oren and Mark will be tan, Nathan and William will hopefully not be as red as me. I will sleep well on our air mattress, which is suprisingly comfortable, but the kids will be up very late. Hopefully there is a body of water nearby for cooling off, and the bug repellent works. We just got over the last bug bites...

I am glad Mark suggested camping. We thought it best to begin small, and close to home, and gradually work our way up to 3 days or so, a little farther, like 3-4 hours away. I always enjoyed camping with my family, and I am a little ashamed that when we went with my folks, it was the first time Mark and I had ever been camping together, and our kids' too. How sad. We'll have to remedy that...

What's another name for Busy?

I swear, how many of my posts have the word "busy" in the title?

I had an appointment at 10:00 this morning at the hospital. Not a big thing, just a routine checkup. The kids got all packed up and we prepared to walk, since it's just a 15 minute walk and we may as well save the gas. Halfway down the street, Nathan is screaming and crying about his eye and couldn't open his eyes. (he hasn't figured out how to open just one yet)

Last night he got a little sawdust or dirt in his eye while playing outside. I was planting daylillies, and Mark was sawing wood, so we don't know exactly what got in there. I tried to flush out his eye with water, but that made him cry harder. I tried saline drops, and he calmed down a little bit. But he was still rubbing his eye and wouldn't leave it alone. He seemed okay by bedtime so I wasn't worried. This morning he was still complaining that is hurt and was tearing up periodically. I figured we'd give walking a shot anyway.

That didn't happen. How could he walk without opening his eyes? Oren was holding his hand, but that only works on the sidewalk. We have to walk on the street for part of it and I can't risk him not being able to see. So we turned around and got in the car. While at my appointment I called the appointment line to see if they had any same-day appointments left. (It's like an urgent appointment if you aren't bad enough for the ER) Luckily they had one at 1:15 this afternoon.

So we finished my appointment and headed to the library for some new books. I found a couple of cookbooks to browse through, and the kids piled on the children's books. Next came lunch, then off to the commissary for some stocking up. (We are working on our food storage, so half of what I bought was for that. It's hard on a limited budget.) We made it through in a record 30 minutes! Hurray!

We went home to unload perishables and ran over to Nathan's appointment. That was fun.... (read the sarcasm.) Our doctor had a baby and moved away. So we have had a series of temps for the summer. I am sure they are fine doctors, the last one was really nice and knowledgable. (sp?). But the one we had today? Picture a monkey with one eye open really wide and the other almost closed with his tongue hanging out, mouth open, saying "duhhhhhh". (I know that's probably mean, but good grief.)

"What seems to be the problem?" (note-he had the file and PA's report right in front of him)

"My son has something in his eye, got it last night, and I can't get it flushed out."

"Okay, let's check his eye. Hey bud! I'm going to listen to your heart first, okay! Now I am going to look in your ear. Looks good. Can I see inside your mouth? Alright, I am going to look in your eye now." (not in the singsong little voice, teasing to make the patient comfortable. Totally serious.)

He pulls the eyelid this way and that way. Stands back. Then goes in for another look. "hmmm, I can't really see anything". One more look. (I TOLD him it was either a little sawdust or some dirt. What did he think he was going to see? A clod of something?)

He hems and haws for a bit about options, like using dyes and special equipment he doesn't know if the clinic has. I had to straight out ask him if he could flush the eye, since they have the stuff to do that and are more skilled than I, and then I would wait and see if it still bothered him tomorrow. (We have to pay for emergency eye appointments unless the ER sends us there.) If it still bothered him it would mean he has an abbrasion. He finally agreed that would be a good thing to do. Finally!

The nurses came in to do that for us. Aparently a doctor can't be bothered with kids eyeballs. The nurses did great, Nathan did great. They put in a prescription for an antibiotic eye ointment just as a preventative measure, to prevent infection. So we picked that up and had to run right in to town for his therapy.

So then we had therapy, then Walmart for things that are cheaper than on base. William had missed his nap and fell asleep sitting up in the cart in the parking lot while I was unloading the couple things I picked up. One more stop at the hardware store for some screws for Mark.

So, we left at 10:00 this morning, and we didn't get home until 5:30 in the evening. Busy? Just a tad. But the boys behaved suprisingly well, all the appointments went good (in the end), and I was able to get most of what I needed. I'll be back down there tomorrow for another therapy session, and will hit the other 3 stores then.

I hate having to pull days like this, but I can't afford extra trips to town, and have to squeeze in errands when I can. And I couldn't help the appointments. Nathan's eye isn't as red, so hopefully they got the stuff out and I won't have to make an urgent visit to the eyedoctor. Tricare will pay for one regular visit per year unless the base deems it an eye emergency (like the eye has been skewered or something). Then they do an emergency referrell to the eye doctor and pay for it. We'll see what happens.

Always something going on at our house!