It’s been a busy weekend!  Matt spend the entire day Saturday rebuilding a fence.  Dad was around and Bailey helped too.  I spent the day as errand girl!  The guys at the fence supply store were amused after the first four or five trips there.  I wasn’t so much…

We went to mom and dad’s house for a birthday party for dad.  73.  He is young for 73.  We took a little walk after dinner and then headed home.  I took Amanda and Bailey to the store to get the ingredients to make fettucine alfredo (amanda’s favorite) for lunch after church Sunday and her supplies (like capri sun and granola bars and light fixtures).   I enjoyed having her home for the night, but was sorry that she seems to have caught the bad cold going around.  I really hope she feels better this week.  I know classes keep her moving and stressed.

They had a teacher appreciation day at church today.  Then home to make fettucine.  It was so good!  Amanda made chocolate chip muffins too.  I guess it’s a free day …

Amanda just called and said her car was over heating in Norman and she is pulled over not back to her dorm.  I wish it had acted up at home where we were close to help.  I hope it’s no big deal, although it had trouble doing this before and we replaced the radiator and some other things… ugh.

update***

We had to tow amanda’s car home.  Looks like the water pump has gone out.

Since being a vegetarian our meal plans are pretty boring.

I usually make beans of some sort to keep as a backup (black beans, small red beans, or brown beans).

I also keep a chickpea fake tuna salad mixed up for matt’s lunch.

We have fresh raw veggies at dinner with hummus or dip.

So that and whole wheat pastas thrown in…

We really enjoy eating indian food at Goporum.  They have a buffet with tons of vegan options… (I am not vegan I eat cheese) but don’t eat meat at all.

chick pea salad
1 (19 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained and mashed
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons spicy brown mustard
1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
2 green onions, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

mix together well…

Now going to write a post on term life insurance rates.

And…here we go!

1. One week ago I was doing the same thing as now.

2. I loved it when I was young.

3. Mama told me never to sit on public toilet seats. ew.

4. just between you and me.

5. Take your time and do it right.

6. this too will pass!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to staying in, tomorrow my plans include dad’s birthday party and Sunday, I want to go to church! and do a post on malignant Mesothelioma

Today is a birthday kind of day!

My favorite and most sweetest daddy is having his birthday.  Love you dad.

We got him an ipod shuffle because he enjoyed mine so much on our trip to Missouri.  Bailey helped me load up all his cds on it and I know he’s going to really love it!

Today is also Izzy’s teacher Melanie’s birthday!!!

Melanie had a procedure done on her shoulder Monday and is out this week getting better (and we miss her!!!). 

Happy Birthday Melanie!!!!  Hope it’s a WONDERFUL day!

It’s been busy as usual around here… Izzy had been wearing her afos at night so well but yesterday a spot showed up so we are proceeding with caution and keeping them off a few days… she’s getting over a cold/flu (same one I had last week and has the cough that doesn’t want to leave me). I have to play catch up on posts like this one for a diet pill review.

Bailey and Emelia are busy, keeping up with school work etc.  They both enjoyed the fair.  I think they enjoyed the food more than anything, but isn’t that what the fair is all about?

Amanda is stressed.  She spent the night here Saturday. 

I guess that’s about it!  Happy Wednesday!

So I feel pretty good today. I made it to the park to run/walk everyday this week. I almost didn’t go today because a) it’s friday; and b) it’s friday. I decided that I would be glad to get it done so I pushed through. I have some elastic bands I’ve messed with some and plan to do that in a bit. Having Iz in school all day really frees up time to do things like exercise and have a weight loss diet. Now if I can just kick my coke (a-cola) habit!

I took Iz to the orthotist Monday to have her SWASH checked and see about her AFO’s which she would not tolerate more than one hour.  She wore them while sleeping when we first got them for a few months and we saw such great gains in her feet but then she got a pressure spot and things went downhill from there.  It was one of those one step forward, two steps back moments.  So after Gary and I thought and talked about the situation we both agreed it could be an issue with the SWASH.  He said the tone starts at the hip and goes down to the foot.  So he adjusted out the SWASH which had really stopped working to abduct her hips like it had in the beginning.  Camilla had mentioned it but when we went to the Orthotist he just worked on the AFOs.  I am happy to report that Iz has slept in her AFO’s all night the past two nights!  The first night she woke up after three hours and I took them off, but since then she has slept fine!  So lesson learned and we will keep an eye on that swash to make sure it stays where it needs to be. 

I have a cold. 

I wanted to make this.

I saw them in the Pottary Barn window and loved them!  They are $59 each.  I couldn’t find the teddy bear sunflowers, or the pots like that… so I ended up making this.

 I still plan to go out to find the right supplies for the original plan as soon as I feel better.  I put this on facebook and several asked about cost and how to…

The flowers were 10.99 for two bunches at half price at hob lob

The pot was $4 at walmart

peats moss was .99 at hob lob

styrofoam was about $4

The peats moss would make many of these… so I would say I saved about $41.00.  Although it isn’t exactly what I wanted.  I pulled the flowers off the stems and hot glued them on the styrofoam ball.  I cut a piece of bamboo outside and stuck it into styrofoam in the pot to secure.  Covered styrofoam in pot with the moss.  Took about 10 minutes all together.

I’ve been walking/running daily. I’m really interested in fitness equipment.

Which this week means normality. Matt was off work all last week (he had scheduled the week of vacation).  Is it just me or is it really hard to get things done when your routine is interupted?  We had a pretty  good weekend!  Saturday we went to Mardels to get a bible cover to replace the one I had that just kinda fell apart last week.  Well, the handle fell apart … stopped at Jason’s Deli for a salad to go (they have the BEST salad bar ever!). 

I’m reading the second book in the Abram’s daughters series as suggested by Gail.  I am enjoying them ! Thanks Gail. 

The kids went to a saftey course at the church on Saturday… 

I guess Monday is a good day to think about appetite suppressants. . . lol. Even with all the exercise and not eating meat I have to really consider each bite I take!

So my site was totally hacked!!! It took me hours to get trouble tickets generated because they even changed my log in info.  What a pain!  Anyone else get hacked today?

Mean hackers

Anyway, I won’t let it ruin my blogging although blogging has been few and far between. I still need to do a quick post mentioning refrigerator water filters and then hopefully get a few real posts written very soon.

I need to work on getting my passwords all secured so I don’t get hacked again. Ever.

Oh my!  What a couple of busy days we’ve had. 

Friday (yesterday) started at 6 a.m.  Got kids off to school, Matt off to work, cleaned for a while… got Izzy to school, went to work, ran errands, went back to work, ate lunch with my brother Mike, raced to take Emelia’s fundraiser form to her school before they were collected, went to the church for a trial decoration run of the FLO stuff since I was put in charge of decor Tues. night, picked iz up from school (she had another great day!), picked up Emelia from home and went to beauty supply for jane ann’s (matt sis) hair color, by panda express for some side items to go with our veggie asian burgers, by sonic for ice, by ups store to return shipment of coffee beans (sure hope they don’t send more), home to cook dinner, mom starts iz’s therapy, eat dinner, feed iz dinner, laundry, took em to skating rink, home to put iz to bed, to mikes for a sweet run (his pantry is loaded with good snacks btw), home for about ten minutes, off to pick emelia up from skating, back to greet jane ann just arriving from dallas, did jane ann’s hair (cut and color and highlights), bed at 1:15 a.m.!!!!!

And then today …  me, jane ann, and emelia went to Penn Square Mall for some shopping.  Found the CUTEST purse ever at coach.  Can’t get it out of my head!!!  UGH.  Hit VS, B&B, Aeropostle, and then Borders bookstore (new fav is choc covered sunflower seeds).  Came home and fed iz, and then we all headed to eat Indian food at Goporum.  Yum.  Emelia loved it there!  Matt’s fav is carrot halwa.  Went to Marshall’s and Kohl’s.  Home to get iz fed and ready for bed… now Bailey just informed me he needs to run to Wmart for a fuse or something???? My goal is to read and be asleep by 11 after finishing a post on porcelain tile!

How’s your weekend so far?

Looking ahead

Tomorrow is church.

Monday mom and I are heading to Norman to let mom see Amanda’s dorm and have lunch with her! FUN!

Life is good!

I’ve been terrible about keeping up with the blog!  UGH.  Here’s what’s going on with the fam…

Amanda.

Settling in at OU.  Getting adjusted to sharing a tiny dorm room with another person and a bathroom with three other girls (one of whom likes to spend the entire morning doing her makeup in the ONE bathroom and two put their nasty food trash in the bathroom trashcan).  She spent Saturday with us at home.  We shopped for shorts and a printer… and snacks.  She wanted to stay home and loved her newly decorated (smaller) room.  It was nice to spend the day with her.  Some texts I recieved from her last week:  “I think I’m joining the rowing team;” “I joined the pre-med club lol.”  I miss her.  Tonight I keep thinking I hear her come in and when I hear the fridge door open and close I expect to hear her say hello mah. 

Bailey.

Getting adjusted to high school.  He is loving drama class which is a big surprise to both of us.  He is driving a lot with his driver’s permit.  He is learning quickly and my brother Mike has enjoyed taking him out on the weekends to drive.  They took a break Sunday afternoon and went to the driving range for a while.  He has been really focused on keeping up with school work because he knows the only way to avoid paying his insurance (when turning 16) is to have straight A’s.  That’s the rule.  Such a good boy.  We went to ortho appt. yesterday and are trying to decide what to do.

bluray.

Emelia.

Got all her hair chopped off today.  I just took her to a random salon because when Emelia is fixated on something she doesn’t stop until it is achieved.  So it is done.  We lucked out with a very precise thorough stylist.  She washed her long crazy hair, then spent about thirty minutes untangling the mess of long hair, cut and thinned her hair, dried and then straightenend it.  (I have to put in at this point that this was a very pretty/nice salon)… I was impressed with the finished product, emelia loves it.  I was more impressed when she said the price was $10.  $10? Yikes!  After watching her attention to details on em’s hair I asked her to wax my eyebrows knowing she would be good at that too.  I have a new brow girl! yay!  (don’t worry I tipped her nicely.)  Emelia is also adjusting to middle school and has been a social butterfly!

Isabelle.

Wow.  So many good reports for Iz this year from school.  Today specifically she worked on math and Melanie reported that she did really well with simple addition problems using her yes/no communicating.  She was also very verbal from the time she woke up.  She called out and I asked if she was ready to get up and she said something that sounded like, “let’s go.”  She rode the bike at school and pedaled!  Camilla said she worked really hard and speaking of Camilla, Margaret said Izzy tried really hard to say her name when looking at her picture in speech therapy.  They are feeding her lunch at school and she is doing really good.  It is a relief to take her and not worry about rushing home to feed her.  They truly are the best group of teachers/therapists ever!  I heart them.