life, was changed

"You had me at Merlot"

2011-11-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, actually, my drink of choice is a full-bodied cabernet. But these days I'll drink nearly anything that's red and ends in "wine".

So while doing the dishes (ahem, hand washing the crystal wine glasses) I got to thinking about all of my favorite wines and thought that perhaps I'd list them on paper. Since virtual paper is eco friendly and easily transmitted, the blog seemed like a perfect fit. I'll add to this list as time goes on. So here goes....

***Disclaimer: Since I am only an enthusiastic wine drinker, rather than a true "wine enthusiast", I'll shy away from listing the actual vintages unless a particular vintage is noticeably outstanding to me.

Whites -
ummm.... guess I kind of have to be a white wine drinker for this one, huh?

Reds -

Joseph Carr, Cabernet Sauvignon: MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE. Medium-bodied with a silky finish, semi dry and under $20 per bottle typically.

Bogle Vineyards outs out a fantastic blend of old vine zinfandel, petite sirah & old vine mourvedre with their "Phantom" wine. Runs about $20 per bottle. I was told by another customer at the wine store where I purchased this bottle that it's only available this time of the year.... not sure if it's true, though.

J. Lohr Estates Seven Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon: Medium-bodied with an oaky flavor, smooth finish and semi-dry, also under $20 (can usually find it for about $15 at discount wine stores).

Josh Carr, Cabernet Sauvignon: I go with this one if I want the Joseph Carr but want to save a buck or two. Similar in blend and body.

Cupcake, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007

Casillero del Diablo, Cabernet Sauvignon: Great price, smooth taste. From Chile.... pretty much can't go wrong with anything from Chile but this is one of my favorites.

Barefoot, Cabernet Sauvignon: Great wine with medium body and semi-dry for only about $8-10 per bottle. GREAT VALUE.

Rex Goliath, Merlot: Also great price point with good flavor for a semi-dry.

Box wine..... (go ahead, roll your eyes) When I want to get the most bang for my buck, I was actually impressed with "Black Box Wine" Cabernet. Was able to purchase a box at Empire Wines in Colonie for $18 (= 4 bottles).

Long time, no see!

2011-10-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

Whew!

It's been a long time since I've written an entry and, well, for quite good reason. Life, simply has caught up with me. My journey through life with three children, a husband & a dog while maintaining a safe and clean home, and not to mention my own sanity, has been a challenge over the last year!

Alas, I feel as though, maybe, just maybe, I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. So, here I go again.... alongside my hubby who has recently decided to start blogging, I'll attempt to keep my thoughts and life in balance for those of you who are interested.

I continue to focus on my marriage, our children, and my close family and friends; helping out where I can but for the first time in my life, learning to say no when I just can't and finally attempting to "take care of myself" along with everyone else. I figured out how to ask for help a while ago, which was a good start. I've honed in on how I want to spend my career days and am actively pursuing a career change that I think will leave me with a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment at the end of the day. And I'm working on something that I think has been missing for a very long time; emotional confidence and strength.

Mooseman Ironman.... check!

2010-06-06T17:46:00.000-07:00

Hello All! This is Beth writing in for Tara. What a crazy and long weekend it's been but I couldn't be any prouder of my sister than I am today! Tara finished the Mooseman Ironman 70.1 this afternoon sometime around 3:30pm, which brought her to complete the endurance event in under 8 hours. The fact that she was able to complete it at all, especially given the conditions of the course today (extremely cold and wet) is nothing short of amazing to me. Tara was in great spirits as she crossed the finish line and she looked terrific. I especially want to thank ALL of the members of Team In Training for their hard work and effort.

HAPPY EASTER!

2010-04-04T05:36:00.000-07:00

Aaron Self-feeding

2010-02-21T16:36:00.000-08:00

Once again, the video quality is poor here because I've compressed it for web streaming. Nonetheless, you get the idea. Today we started to introduce some table foods and he is doing much better with self feeding than he did during our initial attempts. He actually ate an entire banana during dinner this evening! I would have restricted his intake but he's had banana baby food without negative reaction and he thoroughly enjoyed feeding the little pieces of banana to himself!

Baby Shower Gift

2010-01-21T06:05:00.000-08:00

How fun is this?!?! I copied the design from a site that I found online and will be giving this to a friend for a baby shower that I'm going to soon. :)

On the Move!

2010-01-07T05:14:00.000-08:00

Aaron began crawling between Christmas and New Year's. I knew that he'd become proficient quickly at crawling but I was shocked yesterday when I walked into his room after he awoke from a nap to see him standing in his crib!

Holiday Shopping Deals

2009-12-09T16:11:00.000-08:00

Greetings!

I've been online shopping and recently came across some great deals that I thought I'd share. I just love it when merchants give away free money!

First off, the best place to find valid coupon codes for merchants is savings.com

Check out buy.com for items at great prices and if you select the "eBillme" payment option, and enter promo code "buy10dec" you'll get $10 off your purchase of $10 or more. I found a gift that I'd been looking for that normally runs about $20-25, but I paid $14.99 through buy.com (no tax or shipping charges) minus my $10 savings with the eBillme code and my final cost for the gift was $4.99!!! The only confusing part was that I had to select the "Place My Order" button before I entered the promo code, but the discount shows up when you get the eBill from eBillme.

At Gap.com, you can get 20% off your entire order by entering promo code "GAP20"

If you're shopping at the store and you want to bring some coupons with you, I found a great website a long time ago that has consistently provided me with coupons that I can print from home, http://www.wow-coupons.com/all-printable-retail-coupons.php

Happy shopping!

Aaron has discovered his feet!

2009-08-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

Life has been crazy and busy as usual, which, if I'm truly honest with myself, is the way I like it! The kids & I are excited for the start of the new school year in just under 2 weeks. Our new neighbors are moving in this weekend and Alex & Emily are on cloud 9 now that their new friend is in the neighborhood for good (who just so happens to be at the perfect age of 1 yr younger than Alex and 1 yr older than Emily). Meanwhile, Aaron is doing the usual baby things of growing like a weed, waking a couple of times at night still, and discovering new things (like his feet!). Tim & I have resumed our battle with the lawn attempting to grow grass in the front. This attempt has entailed a weekend (or two) of rototilling, raking, seeding, etc. Testing of our soil revealed that it is highly acidic, so we treated with a dose of lime and are hoping that this will help the new seeds germinate. I've also been working on creating a perennial garden in the backyard, and although the front of the house lacks lustre and curb appeal, the backyard is quickly becoming a place of play and peaceful enjoyment.

Some video of Aaron...

2009-08-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

Summer begins

2009-06-23T04:50:00.000-07:00

Summer has officially begun and we finally know for certain that we will not be moving to Ireland for the year. While we are a little sad that we won't be moving, and frustrated with the prospect of a potential job lay off, we are happy that we can finally plan things for our summer. It's a little late for planting a vegetable garden now, so it's not likely that we'll have home grown vegetables this year, but we plan to continue work on the exterior of the house (mainly getting the grass established) and small projects around the house.

Aaron turned 1 month old last week and caring for him will, no doubt, consume much of my time this summer but I hope to be able to spend a lot of time playing with the kids and doing activities as a family. I took Aaron for his 1 month check up (at 5 weeks) and is now 10 lbs., 9 oz. and 22 1/2 inches long. He is growing and gaining weight at a steady pace and even offered his first smiles last week! He still seems to be pretty fussy, constantly wanting to be held, and hasn't gotten into a good routine with his sleeping patterns. But he did offer me 2 nights last week each with a 4 hr. period of uninterrupted sleep. During his first couple of weeks, he spit up quite a bit but that has slowed down significantly (which helps a little with the amount of laundry I've had to do!). We took him to get his 1 month portraits at Sears last week as well and so I'll post them once we have them.

Many of you know by now that our initial plans of moving to Ireland for the year have been trashed and I'm happy that, at least now we can start putting things on our calendar for the summer. There is so much uncertainty in life, I'm learning, and I am once again being forced against my natural instincts to control and just "go with the flow" of life! We are now trying to shift our focus on saving for improvements to our home (that we really wanted to complete in 2008 during construction) and filling our calendar with events that will create many family memories for us.

And baby makes five ....

2009-05-19T01:36:00.000-07:00

Well, life certainly has changed for us again! Very early Sunday morning (5/17/09) at 12:16 am we welcomed Aaron Patton into our family (yes, that's his middle name!). After over a week of false labor days, he was nice enough to bless me with a quick delivery at Samaritan Hospital. Many of you have inquired about how things went so I'll recount our story here. I began having regular contractions that were 10-15 minutes apart around 9:30 pm on 5/16. By 10:30pm the contractions were a little over 5 minutes apart and getting stronger. We called the doctor at 10:55pm and were on the road within 10 minutes. The hospital is only 15 minutes away but we sped down Rt. 7 (passing 3 cars in the turning lane and running 2 red lights) because my contractions were coming 4 minutes or less apart and very strong. We arrived at the hospital at 11:25 (ish) where the nurses told me I was 7-8cm. After several more contractions (they were coming 1-2 minutes apart now) my water broke, I was 10 cm and the nurse was telling me that she "could delivery the baby if needed" since the doctor wasn't there yet! As soon as I heard the doctor's voice I began pushing, which was somewhere around 12:05am and within a couple of pushes, Aaron was born! He was 8 lbs., 2 ozs. and 21 inches long. I was so surprised as, given my pregnancy size, I was sure he'd only be 7 lbs.! The doctor was able to get some cord blood into the collection kit and the courier arrived to collect the cord blood within the hour! I am so thankful to have our new baby boy finally here with us! He is healthy and, so far, has been relatively easy-going (I know, it's early still!). We arrived home yesterday from the hospital at 4:30pm and are getting settled in! People have asked who we think Aaron looks like and I would have to say he looks a lot like Alex when he was born. Both Alex and Emily have been SO happy to have a baby brother and have been so well behaved throughout the last couple of days! We are truly blessed!

As many of you know, we are most likely going to be moving to Ireland for about a year beginning this summer (probably July). I've been informed that the job of documenting our travels has been officially given to me so I'll use this blog as a primary sounding board and resource for getting info out to friends and family.

As I look back on the years we've had together as a family, I originally thought that 2007 was a crazy year of change with the construction of the house and job changes for both Tim and myself. Little did I know that 2009 would trump that year ten-fold! Thank you to everyone for your continued support and prayers for us as we continue on our journey.

Keep checking back in the coming weeks for more photos and stories of our new adventures as a family of five.

Still here, still pregnant!

2009-05-12T05:29:00.000-07:00

At the request of a fellow mom friend, I'm letting you all know that I'm "still here and still pregnant"! Although I thought for certain I would have this baby over Mother's Day weekend, I was wrong! Life is always teaching us things, right?!? Well, the lesson I'm learning here is that each pregnancy is different! I've never had the pleasure of experiencing false labor, until now. While the contractions haven't been terribly painful, I've had several days in a row with a few hours at a time of on and off contractions that are uncomfortable. Every time they start, I think "okay, this is it" and just wait for them to get stronger. To my disappointment, they just go away. I remember very clearly when I was in labor with Emily, I awoke in the middle of the night with one contraction that felt much like the contractions I've been experiencing lately. Twenty minutes later, I felt another contraction that was noticeably stronger, and then 8 minutes after that, yet another one even more strong. It was clear that I was in labor. This time around, it's different! I keep expecting that same course of events to unfold as it did 4 years ago, but nope! This one is just taking its time getting ready! I'm anxious for my next drs. appt. to find out how much more I've progressed. With all of the pressure and contractions I've felt, I keep thinking to myself, "I MUST be more than 3 cm by now!". I keep trying to tell myself that it's still early yet (I'm not due for another week) and to let nature do its thing. It's difficult to maintain that perspective but I'm trying!

Baby will be here soon!

2009-05-07T14:07:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: If you don't want to read about the stuff that happens before a woman goes into labor, stop reading now, although I promise it's not too graphic!

Well folks, with any luck, this will be my last post before you get to see a picture of our little bundle of joy! I had an appt. with my doctor's office this afternoon and to my delight, the doctor informed me that I'm 3 cm dilated, 50% effaced and the cervix is soft (which we knew from 3 weeks ago). I went to the appointment hoping that he would tell me I was 1-2 cm dilated and was prepared to be happy with that. I suspected, though that much more has been happening since I've felt a lot of pressure really low for the last couple of days. The Braxton-Hicks contractions have continued to occur often as they have since the fifth or sixth month of this pregnancy. Now, technically, I could go another 1-2 weeks without dilating any more (so I have to put in that disclaimer) but my prediction is that we'll have our baby in the next week. I'm hoping for Mother's Day!

Simply put... life can be crazy!

2009-04-19T05:55:00.000-07:00

Crazy almost seems to be an understatement. Just when you think you've got control of life and things are going great, life whispers "ha ha, that's what you think" into your ear and turns your world upside down, and then upside down again.

Of course we knew that the arrival of our third child would likely change our routine and make life a bit crazier. We still have yet to experience this pleasure in roughly 4 weeks (or less). But Tim's diagnosis of lymphoma/chronic lymphocytic leukemia has left us dumb-founded and filled with emotions. For those of you who have not yet heard, the diagnosis came about three weeks ago after Tim had a lymph node removed from his neck. Ironically, he probably would not have had the node removed since a previous needle biopsy came back negative. He decided to have the node removed because he was already scheduled for surgery to repair a deviated septum. So that's basically where his/our journey into the next chapter of our lives begins. I'll call it that because I've always viewed my life as being in chapters. You know, Chapter 1 - Childhood, Chapter 2 - Self Discovery (Teenage/College Years) and so on.

There is much to be written about what life has been like for our family over the last couple of weeks. While I don't want this blog to focus on Tim's cancer, I will provide an update from my perspective from time to time. Tim has made mention of the possibility of starting a blog himself, and so I'll post a link to that once he's up to getting that started. Some recent activities include a trip to NYC to meet with a specialist at the Weill-Cornell Medical Center. We were accompanied by my sister and mom to help out with the kids (a HUGE THANK YOU!) while Tim and I met with the doctor. The kids really enjoyed the train ride down and after the appointment we took a taxi to the NY Museum of Natural History. Alex and Emily both wanted to know immediately when we can go down to NYC again!

One aspect that I've been working diligently on is getting information about Cord Blood banking and if/how it may benefit us/Tim in the future. It turns out that the list of diseases regularly treated with stem cells from cord blood includes Tim's cancer. Whether our baby's cord blood will be a match for Tim is yet to be discovered but it's worth saving if there's a chance. The first problem I discovered was that the cost is rather high (although we agreed we would bank the cord blood regardless of the cost at this point because of it's potential benefits). Most companies charge roughly $2100 for processing the blood and then a $125/yr. fee is charged for storage. After some info-hunting I discovered that there are federal programs designed to provide financial support for pregnant mothers that want to bank their baby's cord blood to be designated for use for a sibling or other relative with a disease that's treated with stem cells. My first phone calls into the federal programs were unsuccessful, however, I came across a list of family banks that offer "charity" programs similar to the federal programs. The first family bank I called was the Cord Blood Registry, which, as I understand, is a cord blood bank that has been banking cord blood for one of the longest amounts of time comparatively. The representative that I spoke with was friendly and, although I felt as though I was listening to a sales pitch at times, I agreed to enroll with the company for family/private banking with the intent of applying for the "Designated Transplant Program". I was sent the application for the program via email within minutes of talking with the rep and had all of the paperwork completed (by us and Tim's oncologist) within a week. On Tuesday of last week I faxed the paperwork to the rep at CBR and asked that he put a "rush" on it since our baby is due in just a few short weeks. I was pleasantly surprised when I received a phone call the following morning from my rep stating that our application was approved and that we would only be charged $150 for the shipping of the blood to their facility on AZ when the baby arrives! I've had my cord blood collection kit packed in my hospital bag for a week now and informed my OB & midwives about our choice to bank the cord blood.

If you want more info about cord blood banking, you can visit CBR's website: http://www.cordblood.com/

Updated Nursery Pictures

2009-03-17T13:36:00.001-07:00

HAPPY St. Patty's Day! We had a very busy and fun weekend celebrating Mom P's 50th birthday, which is today (Happy Birthday, Mom). Tim also arrived home late Friday night from his 5 week long trip to Virginia. The kids and I were missing him very much and are happy to have him home again for a few more weeks before he'll need to travel again.

Meanwhile, I've taken some more (updated) pictures of the nursery. I finally added a second book bin on the wall next to the window and applied the phrase lettering over the ledge shelf. I also installed some blinds. There is still a few things left to do (like add more lettering under the ledge shelf with the baby's name) but most of the little touches I've planned for will be done after the baby arrives, which, will be in about 8-9 weeks!

Another update on baby:

2009-03-04T13:00:00.001-08:00

Today I had another ultrasound and appointment with the midwife and Mom L was able to join Emily and I for the visit. It was nice to see the baby again on the monitor and No..... we are STILL not finding out the baby's gender! ;-)So basically everything looks good. The technician said that the heartbeat was normal and all of the baby's limbs/organs looked good. They estimate the baby's weight to be 2 lbs., 13 ozs. today, which puts our little peanut in the 41st percentile. The due date is still unchanged (5/19/09) and the baby's head was down. I visited with the midwife after the ultrasound who indicated that all of my bloodwork is "right down the middle for values" so basically, I'm average! I'm down to scheduling appointments with the midwife/doctors now for every two weeks. The picture below is of the baby's face (although it's probably hard to tell for most people). The forehead and eyes are to the right of the image and the nose and mouth are toward the center from the right. The blurry spot in the middle of the image is an arm that was sort of crossed over part of the face. At one point, we could see the baby opening and closing it's mouth, which was neat!

A room to call his/her own ...

2009-02-13T11:49:00.000-08:00

Yay! The major work has been completed on the nursery and now it's just a matter of finishing the room's color scheme by adding wall decor, accessories, bedding and window treatments. Unfortunately, we won't have a truly "finished" product until the occupant itself is "finished" growing! But for now, you get the idea with these pictures. The picture to the left is a "before" shot. The rest are pics of the semi-finished result.

The room was painted with two different shades of brown/tan and all moldings were painted in a creamy white.

I constructed and hung a book bin below the chair rail on the wall in which the closet door swings into (and will add one more above the chair rail on the same wall). The idea with this was that since the room's size prohibits a lot of furniture (including a book shelf), I wanted the baby to have some place to put his/her favorite books.

I made french message boards (2 boy, 2 girl) to hang

over the changing table as a place to put notes & clippings and to add a touch of the accent color to the wall. I'll use the extra fabric from that project to make accent pillows to put on the glider rocker. I've hung a nice ledge shelf above the crib to place a few frames and keepsakes and to add a focal point to the wall. In a few weeks, I'll add a phrase in vinyl lettering above the shelf and a monogram of the baby's initial's below the shelf after he/she is born. I have a few other ideas for bringing the accent color of either pink or blue into the room but for now, the room must be as it is. I really think once it's all "put together" it'll be the perfect place for our little one to spend time! :-)

Simply, an update ...

2009-02-10T12:20:00.000-08:00

Our house and calendar have been bustling with activities over the last couple of weeks and a quick glance at the near future indicates that it will be more of the same! On Friday, I had my monthly check-up with my midwife and although things went well, he indicated that I'm "measuring small" for how far along I am in my pregnancy so he's ordered another ultrasound in a couple of weeks just to be sure that the baby's growth is okay. I seem to remember this sort of occurrence when I was pregnant with Alex..... (any indication that it's a boy? hmmm... well, my gut has always "told" me girl but that's off the topic!). So I'll go for my ultrasound and another appointment with the midwife in about 3 weeks. From there, I'll meet with the midwife every 2 weeks.

I've been diligently working on readying the nursery. With Tim's portion of the work done, it was time for painting and it's seems that the painting hasn't stopped in the last 2 days. Today my task was to complete painting of the crown and chair rail moldings. I also began a project a few days ago of constructing wall mount book bins to hang on the wall behind the closet door, which I was able to get painted today as well. I'm hoping to have the moldings in place and the room somewhat put together by this weekend so that Tim can see an almost finished room when he arrives home from Virginia.

On Sunday we attended the Cub scout Blue & Gold Banquet where Alex received his Tiger Cub badge and 1 year pin. We were very proud of how well behaved both Alex and Emily were during, what turned out to be a long banquet. Of course, it helped that they ended the banquet with a 30 min. presentation by a magician!

That's all for now... check back again soon!

Looking for opinions

2009-02-04T07:06:00.000-08:00

I've spent hours looking online for decorating ideas for the nursery (mostly viewing others' ideas on www.roomzaar.com), and I really like the idea of using vinyl lettering on the wall. My current vision is to have the crib & a ledge shelf centered on the longest wall in the room. Below the shelf will be a monogram of the baby's first initial along with the first name written in a different color & font over it (see photo from roomzaar.com at left). Then I want to place a phrase on the wall above the shelf. My question is, do you think that this font is too girly for a boy? (see below)

I plan to use the same font for the phrase text and the baby's first name (like shown in the picture to the left). But since we don't know if it's a boy or girl, I need to make sure that whatever text I use is suitable for both. Also, which phrase do you like the most for both genders?

Let them be little ...

Play, Laugh, Giggle ...

A dream is a wish your heart makes ...

We made a wish and you came true ...

Honest Opinions/comments (even if they're negative)?

The latest Preggo Pic!

2009-01-29T16:36:00.000-08:00

Well folks, here it is.... I'm about 15 weeks away from the end of my last pregnancy and here's a picture of me and my baby bump! The four of us are all getting excited about our impending arrival and I think it's been more pronounced lately because the belly's more noticeable now than ever. Let the stretching begin!

Picturesque Home Ice

2009-01-09T05:42:00.000-08:00

Anyone that loves pond skating will appreciate this photo I took this morning of our home ice rink. Tim has spent hours working on the ice after each snowfall in an attempt to "clean" it up and get it smooth again. It's a lot of work and when I looked out the window this morning while eating breakfast and saw the sun risen over the hills with its reflection on the ice and the glistening snow, I just had to capture the moment.

UPDATE - Getting ready for baby

2009-01-06T17:38:00.000-08:00

Okay, so here's an update on our adventure of getting ready for the baby. This past weekend, we slowly continued our attempt at moving things out of the office and to, well, whatever place we could find for the stuff. Tim spent at least 2 hours moving and cleaning the freshwater tank from the impending nursery to a relatively permanent location in our bedroom. I actually think this will be a better place for it, since he (we) may actually look at and enjoy watching the fish from our bedroom more than the glimpses we were getting while passing the office before! The next step is to figure out an appropriate location for our computer server and to run the wiring to that location. After that, Tim will patch a couple of spots in the wall and I can finally begin painting.

Which brings me to my next topic.... painting. Emily and I spent some time this afternoon at Home Depot looking at paint swatches in an effort to determine which shade of brown would be the best for the baby's room. As I mentioned in my previous post, I had two bedding sets picked out (one boy-centric, one girl-centric). After hours and hours of searching the internet for just the right combinations of blue/brown and pink/brown, I thought I had it just right with the bedding that I mentioned in my last post. Originally, I had anticipated that the manufacturers of the bedding sets would be able to provide me with fabric swatches. However, I've been unable to get them and when it comes to picking paint colors, I feel most comfortable when I have a fabric of inspiration to work from. Not to mention that, in this case, I need to pick a color that will go with both bedding sets! UGHH!!! So we trekked back up to Babys'RUs in hopes of finding something that I could live with. I still love the girl bedding that I'd chosen and since that's available at the store, I'm sticking with that choice. However, the "Baby Noah" design that I choose for the boy bedding is only available online so I've settled on an altogether different bedding set, which still has the brown tones but MUCH less of the blue (boo hoo). I'm hoping to make the blue more noticeable by using a coordinating blue crib sheet and other blue accents throughout the room. The latest selection in baby boy bedding is called "My First ABCs" by Kidsline. Here's some pics:

Getting Ready for Baby!

2008-12-30T13:34:00.000-08:00

Now that the holidays are over and life is beginning to get back to normal, I'm turning my focus on the next few projects for the year. One of which, of course, is getting ready for the baby's arrival. Today Alex & Emily and I went to BabysRUs to register for a few items that we will need for the baby. Although we have a lot of things that are needed, some items are nearly 7 years old and are either in rough shape or simply not recommended for use (like the infant car seat that is only rated for 5 years because, according to the manufacturer, the plastic quality degrades after that length of time). Anyway, the main purpose for creating a registry is to take advantage of the close-out program that the store offers, in which they'll send me a coupon good for 10% off my purchases from the registry. Keeping this in mind, I've included things on the registry that ARE gender specific, so that I can buy them after the baby arrives and still get the discount!

I have two sets of bedding picked out for the baby's room. The plan is to wait until our little one arrives to purchase the bedding and use the bassinette until the bedding arrives.

If it's a girl, we'll get this bedding: "Butterfly Meadow" by Kidsline, Inc.

If it's a boy, we'll get this bedding: "Baby Noah" by Bananafish

For anyone interested in taking a peek at the registry, it's registry #94774637 at BabysR'Us.

Winter Adventures

2008-12-06T08:19:00.000-08:00

For those of you that haven't heard yet, Tim and I decided a couple of weeks ago to build an ice rink in our backyard this winter. We ordered some greenhouse covering plastic to hold the water in and grabbed some boards from Dad P. to create the frame of the rink. The weather has fluctuated recently with some below freezing weather but not long enough to allow for the ice to remain frozen in our rink until.... this morning. Tim tested the ice and although it wasn't strong enough to hold the weight of an adult, it was strong enough for the kids! Here's a video of our children spending their first moments on our home ice!

Helping out in tough times... (Part I)

2008-11-21T10:52:00.000-08:00

Okay, so everyone knows that the economy stinks right now and that most everyone is feeling the financial crunch. Our family has been no exception, however, we've recently had some good fortune that has allowed me to breathe a little more freely. Everywhere you turn, you see that food pantries and charities are having an increased demand in need for services/help, yet there's a decrease in organizations/individuals capable of helping out. And with the approach of the cold weather season and the holidays, I tend to think of this sort of thing more. Now, anyone that knows me knows that I don't have a long history of charity work, but that, in general, I try to at least help my friends and family when I can. One of the values that I hope to instill in my own children is that of being thankful for what we have. We've been talking more lately with the children about the difference between "want" vs. "need" and of course, this plays into the idea of being thankful for what we have. I want my children to see that there will always be someone with less than they have, and that helping them out can make a difference. So when I heard that Toys for Tots was going to host and event at the Desmond, Breakfast with Santa, I thought it would be a good opportunity to work on this value with the children. I was disappointed when I called yesterday to make a reservation to learn that the admission was nearly $20 per adult (kids are free with toy donation). Our feeling is that, we don't need a breakfast at a fancy place to teach our kids this valuable lesson. So we decided not to do that and instead, I've found a local food pantry that's looking for people willing to sponsor families for Christmas. I called and explained that while we can't sponsor an entire family, we'd like to donate a toy for a specific child on their list. The representative called me back immediately and asked that our children purchase a toy for a boy 7-10 years old. Our plan is to have each of our children take $1 from their piggy banks and use that toward the purchase of the gift. For anyone that's interested in doing the same, the place where we are donating our toy is the food pantry/thrift shop at the four corners in West Sand Lake (behind Subway) on Rt. 150. Their # is 674-4048.

PPD Test... is it safe for me?

2008-11-09T16:08:00.000-08:00

Well, this seems to be the question of the week for me. It all started with Part I of my physical exam required for my employment at Samaritan Hospital. Employees are required to take a PPD (Tuberculosis) test unless otherwise noted by their physician. I was advised by my future director to discuss the PPD test with my OB to determine if it's safe during pregnancy. The director has indicated that other employees had opted to wait until after their babies were born to have the test done. So I went online to do some research and found some sites that stated the test was completely safe and valid during pregnancy. Other sites recommended against having the test because they stated it was a Class C injection, which meant that animal reproduction testing had not been done for the substance. I also talked with a friend who is a nurse who told me that she waited with both of her pregnancies to have the test done. Now, I've always taken a "better safe than sorry" approach to my pregnancies so I decided not to get the test done. No problem, right?!? WRONG!!! I went to my routine OB visit on Friday and everything went fine, despite the rather monotone bedside manner of my physician, until I asked him to write a note excusing me from the test. He refused to write the note and explained that the test was completely safe and he felt he couldn't lie and recommend that I not have it done.

Well, needless to say, I was extremely upset when I left the office. I'd had problems with scheduling of appointments with the practice in the past and was met with resistance by my doctor at another occasion and ultimately felt that I couldn't trust that my doctor would be on my side and communication with me throughout the pregnancy. So I choose to request my medical records and now I'm in the process of finding a different OB and a different hospital. I'm so frustrated because I feel like I've gone out of my way to ensure that everything goes smoothly with my doctor's office, yet it seems that no matter how much I try, it all ends up a mess anyway! I just hope that I can find a doctor soon that will be supportive and informative so that I don't have to worry about all of this crap! The doctors that delivered Alex and Emily gave me a hard time about WHERE I was going to deliver and tried to scare me into going to Albany Med instead of St. Peter's. I even had to lie to my OB when I was in labor with Emily because she was arguing with me at 2am about which hospital we were meeting at (despite the fact that I made it VERY clear during the prior 9 months where I would be going). I had hoped so much that I wouldn't have to deal with that sort of thing for this pregnancy, but sadly, it seems that with the way our healthcare system is run these days, my hopes may never be a reality.

Change is in the air.....

2008-11-05T06:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was an historic day for our country, as we elected our first African American President. And although I didn't vote for Barack Obama, I hope that he make decisions for our country that will not negatively impact our own futures.

So it seems as though change is upon us, and for my family, in more ways than just one. Today I accepted a position as a per diem PTA with the Samaritan Hospital Physical Therapy department. I absolutely love being a stay at home mom and, particularly with the impending arrival of a new family member, am looking forward to hopefully continuing to stay at home with my children. Although I did miss working with patients over the last year, my primary motivation in searching for work has been a financial one. Extra income from this position will afford us a bigger cushion to our budget and allow us to live a little more stress-free (in the money department). I anticipate that I'll mostly be working Saturday and Sunday mornings, but not every weekend, and possibly some hours during the week while Emily is in school.

HALLOWEEN Festivities ...

2008-10-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

After SEVERAL grueling hours of paper mache-ing and creative costume making, we finally were able to unveil our brilliant (okay, I'm being a little dramatic) idea for a family costume, which we wore at my sister's Halloween Party last night. I was a jar of Prego sauce (get it!?!?), Tim was a box of spaghetti, and the kids were meatballs. Of course, the kids weren't all that enthusiastic about our family costume idea, so they happily trick or treated in the costumes of their choice (Curious George & Fairy Princess) on Halloween, and were asked only to dress as meatballs for the party on Saturday!

And what would Halloween be without a culinary creation from yours truly?!?! Okay, so it wasn't an original, more of a copy-cat from something I saw in one of my Taste of Home Magazines, but it still looks cute! Here's a picture of my "Cheese Mummy Man", which is

basically just a cheeseball mix made to look like a mummy.

Growing Pains ... (or lack thereof!)

2008-10-23T05:10:00.000-07:00

We awoke this morning with some excitement in the house. Apparently, while I was in the shower, Alex awoke and made his way downstairs where Tim was getting ready for work. Alex told Tim that his tooth felt REALLY loose this morning (it's been loose for about 3 weeks now). Tim replied, "Well, then pull it out!" To our surprise, he did! Alex came upstairs extremely excited and as I was stepping out of the shower came barreling into the room with a ziploc bag containing his first tooth lost. I was excited for him and surprised at the ease with which this new milestone has come and gone. As a child, I remember days, even weeks, of playing with the loose tooth and dreading the day that it was time for it to come out. I remember my father tying floss around the tooth that, really, was only barely hanging on by a hair and I was just too scared to pull it out myself. He'd say he was going to count to three but pull it out on two instead and it worked every time! When Alex came home from school one morning announcing he'd had a loose tooth, I anticipated weeks of "it" being the topic of his every conversation. I anticipated a solid week of him terrified to have us help pull it out. To my amazement, he's be so cool with it, that you'd almost not even know he had a loose tooth. And the way he handled himself this morning just makes me so proud, and breathe a sigh of relief that maybe, just maybe, this whole business of loosing teeth will be different for him than it was for me. But then again, he's a boy and maybe boys are just different about these sort of things?!? Time to prepare for the tooth fairy!

First Ultrasound of Baby #3

2008-10-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

Today I had my first ultrasound done of baby #3 and it was exciting for us. I was happily surprised when Tim showed up for the appointment, which was not planned since the appointment was in the middle of the day and he had to get out of work for it. We arrived at Seton's Imaging place a little early and the technicians took us back quickly. There was a more experienced technician training another technician so I think we spent a little more time "learning" about the baby (and me) than we normally would have, which was nice. Overall, I'm a pretty happy camper, now that I've seen the baby in there, and saw the little tiny heart fluttering! They said that the baby is measuring on target for what we had predicted my due date to be and that they consider me now at 9 weeks and 1 day pregnant. Here is a video and picture of our first ultrasound. Enjoy!

First OB Appointment

2008-10-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

Well, today I had my first OB appointment and it was somewhat anticlimactic. Since I'm a new patient to my doctor's office, I wasn't sure of ALL that I could expect from the appointment. The doctor seemed nice enough, although very monotone and serious, and the nurse was very friendly and chipper. The doctor was relatively thorough in going over my medical history and following our discussion, he completed the exam. He said that it seemed as though I'm around 8 weeks along and so he wouldn't even attempt to look for a heartbeat with the Doppler since he would likely NOT hear one (the instrument usually isn't sensitive enough to pick it up until 10 weeks). He scheduled me for an ultrasound next week just to get an accurate due date and check things out. So I walked away from the office, happy that I met the doctor and encouraged by his promptness in getting me in to the exam room, but disappointed that I didn't get to even hear a heart beat. Oh well, I guess it will be worth the wait another couple of days to get an ultrasound and see everything and hear a heart beat that way! Another disappointment - I learned today that they do not allow videography during delivery..... something that I was hoping to capture in a relatively non-graphic form since I wasn't allowed to tape Alex's birth and we accidentally taped over Emily's arrival! Hmmm..... Maybe I can get my sister to somehow sneak some shots of labor.... (wink wink) if she's there with us!

Baby Names and such ....

2008-09-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

To my disappointment, my doctor's office called yesterday morning and cancelled my appointment for the afternoon. After some difficulty and frustration, they were able to "squeeze" me in for my first prenatal visit on Oct. 10th. I must admit, besides the disappointment I felt, I'm also worried now about my decision to switch doctors. It was a necessary evil to switch since my former OBGYN docs don't even have hospital privileges at St. Mary's Hospital. But the cancellation concerns me, especially after a friend of mine mentioned a few weeks ago that she had issues with the office consistently cancelling her OB appointments when she was pregnant with her last child. I guess I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and try it for a couple of months, but I don't want to get too far into this pregnancy feeling a lack of confidence in the medical care I'll be getting.

So on to a happier note..... in thinking of our future arrival yesterday, I spent a half hour or so searching online for baby names. While on vacation this summer we compiled a list of baby names (mostly girls, though) from a geneology database that Tim's Uncle and Aunt have been working on (Thanks Dean & Laura!), and I thought I'd look for some other names last night. Here are some of the names I like so far (in no particular order):
Boys - Aaron, James, Evan
Girls - Anabel, Evalyn, Charlotte, Sarah, Adeline (pronounced with the long "I" sound), Juliet, Sonia

Update on Medical appointments

2008-09-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

Well, we've had a busy month (and it's not over yet) for follow-ups on medical issues but this seems to be the month to clear the air! Alex had his 6 year old checkup a couple of weeks ago with his pediatrician and everything seems to be normal. We brought Alex on Tuesday morning to Dr. Bulford to get the lab results and follow-up on the minor lesion removal from his lower lip. Dr. Bulford said that, as suspected, the lesion was a mucoscele which he described as a spit gland that got clogged with saliva. He said it shouldn't recur and we don't need to see him again. Also, this afternoon, we visited with Dr. Cevera (ENT) to re-check Alex's ears. Several months ago, Alex developed fluid in his ears that caused a very mild hearing loss. It's taken many months of wait and see and a long course of Nasonex, but today the doctor said that all of the fluid is finally gone (Yay... no tubes!) and that we'll just re-check again in 3-4 months to be certain that the fluid hasn't come back. He'll go back to the doctor in January which will be a good time since that would probably be the timeframe (cold season) for the fluid to come back if it were going to.

And lastly, I have my first prenatal visit with my new OB/GYN doctors this coming Monday. I'm excited about the first visit. Although it's all sort of "old hat" for me, this last pregnancy will be different in some ways. The first difference is that this baby will be born at St. Mary's Birthing Center instead of at St. Peter's Hospital and the doctors/midwives that will deliver the baby will be from a different practice. My first appointment next week has been scheduled a little early (with my last two pregnancies, I didn't have the first appt. until I was about 10 weeks along) and so I'm not sure that they will do much more than review my medical history and confirm the pregnancy with a test. Normally they'd listen to the baby's heartbeat but, again, I don't think you can hear it until around 10 weeks so I'm not getting my hopes up for anything too exciting. I should be about 7 weeks pregnant at my first appointment and if my calculations are correct, the estimated due date is May 19th, 2009.

Chaos vs. Control

2008-09-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

You have to check out this video that I made! It's about a subject matter that is very near to my heart and I think you'll find it interesting and fun!

More Bargain Shopping Tips

2008-09-09T18:35:00.000-07:00

In the past I've posted about bargain shopping but I realized today that one of the things I didn't talk about is a method that I've been using for a while now for planning my meals and purchasing my meat. Although I've been slacking lately, I usually have my meals planned out for 2-3 weeks at a time. I even have a calendar file on our home server that's titled "dinner" that Tim can access from work (or anywhere) and see what we're having for dinner that night! Creating a schedule of meals has really helped me to reduce our family's food waste, eat healthier and save money. To start, I use the calendar of planned meals to determine how much chicken/ground beef/pork/etc. that I will need for that time frame. I rarely purchase my meat from the local grocery stores unless I see a REALLY good deal advertised. The reason for this? Because I've found that most often, even the major grocery stores' best price is STILL not nearly as inexpensive as the local deli/meat stores. When we lived on Plank Rd., I traveled to Halfmoon/Clifton Park weekly and did the majority of my grocery shopping at the Walmart SuperCenter for my non-perishables, and then I would head to Sorrentino's Delicatessan for my deli/meat purchases. On average, their boneless/skinless chicken breasts are $1.99/lb and on sale as cheap as $1.69/lb. Fred the Butcher is currently running their chicken at $1.69/lb. if you purchase their 10 lbs. bag. Since Clifton Park is a haul for me now, I'd decided to have a little chat with Jeff Kissinger, the owner of Route 66 Meats & Smokehouse. He told me that he'd match his competitor's prices if I purchased a high quantity from him. Today, he sold me 10 lbs. of chicken for $1.79/lb and I was happy with that since I didn't have to drive up to Clifton Park. So the bottom line is, do your homework, call for prices and talk to the owners of the local owned places. I find that their meats are often fresher, better tasting and I feel good knowing that I'm giving the local guy my business.

So the next step... once I've got this meat in large quantity sitting in my fridge, what do I do with it? Usually if you buy in bulk, each type of meat comes in one big bag/package. So I have my trusty Ziploc Freezer bags and sharpie at my side and I start trimming the fat and dividing the meat.

If my calendar says I'm going to cook Stir-Fry Chicken & Veggies one night, I'll cut up the meat in little pieces and label the bag "stir fry" so all I have to do when it's time to cook is thaw the chicken and dump the bag in the wok! Sometimes I'll package one single breast in a bag for that occasional time when we'll have an unexpected guest for dinner. This way, I don't have to worry about thawing an entire bag of 4-5 breasts for the one person!

In the summer time, when purchasing ground beef, I often divide 3-4 pounds into two 1.5 lb packages to make meatloaf and then make hamburger patties out of the rest. Everything goes into my freezer and I've found that the freezer bags generally do a great job of keeping the meat from getting freezer burn for a good 2-3 weeks.

I try to use what I have within 3 weeks, although I'm sure it will keep longer than that! It's a lot of work initially to tenderize & divide the messy chicken, package & label it all, but it's totally worth the 30-60 minutes of my time on one single day to be able to avoid the meat prep part of cooking every day.

An eventful week.

2008-09-04T03:57:00.000-07:00

This week has been a relatively full week, especially for Alex! We began on Monday with a party to celebrate Alex's 6th birthday with our close family. Tuesday was his actual birthday and Alex had a wonderful and fun day, which was spent mostly with his Uncle Mike. Mike took Alex rock climbing in the afternoon, which he enjoyed immensely. Alex seemed to be a monkey on the wall and I think he did much better than I did at attempting the bouldering area, in particular. He made three attempts at the Large wall and made it to the top on the last attempt without getting tired or scared. He loves his Uncle Mike so much and was upset when we dropped him off despite my reassurances that we would see him again before he leaves the state.

Yesterday I put my newly 6 year-old on the bus for the first time this year and, despite my own excitement for the potential of a relatively "quiet" day at home, I actually began to tear up a little. Somehow, it seems different this year. I just can't believe that I am a parent of a FIRST GRADER! Maybe it was the lack of his nap mat, or the teddy bear missing from his back pack that made the difference. Or perhaps the lack of fear and trepidation over what this new day/new year would bring for him. Either way, to me, it's like he all of a sudden just grew up... from a toddler/little boy, to an independent "big boy". And it really hit me when he arrived home in the afternoon, very much in good spirits after his first day, and pulled out his folder which contained a teacher's note. The note made mention of daily homework and a weekly spelling list. A SPELLING LIST?!?! Wow.... he's officially beyond just learning his ABC's! I realized then that "that day" has come where I would be sitting at the breakfast table listening to him recite spelling words and encouraging him as he attempts to sound out some of the more difficult words. Oh.... so now the journey through first grade has begun for Alex and despite my slightly melancholy mood accompanying my growing realizations, I'm VERY excited to witness the growth and learning that Alex will experience this year!

Moxie's closed... (frown)

2008-08-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

I know I had read somewhere recently that Moxie's would be closing near the Labor Day weekend, however, I guess I assumed in my mind that they'd be open still today, being the Saturday before Labor Day. Wrong! We mistakenly told the kids that we had a surprise for them after dinner and the only hint I gave then was that we were taking them to a place where they could play. We were all disappointed when we pulled in and saw that they were closed until next Mother's Day. We ended up stopping at a little corner stand near Bubie's Garage in Poestenkill and enjoyed some hard serve ice cream. And since the children were looking forward to being able to "play", we took them to Tamarac's playground for a 1/2 hour of play afterward. The sun was setting, so we decided to stop at Blockbuster and pick up the original Willie Wonka movie. All in all, despite the lack of fresh homemade ice cream, it was still a very nice evening with the family. Now off to watch the movie! .....

Pecan Cinnamon Buns

2008-08-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

This has been the summer of bread & cake making from scratch. It began one morning in the early summer when Alex asked me to make pancakes for him. Eager to please my recent graduate of Kindergarten, but lacking the staple box of Bisquick, I thought "wait a minute, can I make pancakes from scratch?". So off I went to my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and amidst the recipes for pancakes and waffles was a plethura of bread recipes. I realized I'd never made any sort of bread from scratch which required the use of active yeast. So I made the pancakes that morning and began a new challenge for myself, that of bread making. That week we picked strawberries and made jam (another first for us... the jam-making, that is). Hmmm... now what will go well with fresh strawberry jam? Aha! Croissants! How hard could those be to make? Turns out, after searching online for a recipe, that in order to make a true croissant, it takes hours or prepping the dough and days of work. I discovered why croissants are so buttery and flaky in layers.... purely the result of "folding" the dough in layers of butter multiple times over the course of a day or so. I found a recipe that was a nice compromise between the very first recipe and a no-labor required/open the tube and bake recipe for croissants. The result was relatively time-consuming but wonderfully delicious! I've tucked this recipe in my files under "worth the effort, but save for special occasion"!

I had a packet of dry yeast in my fridge left over from the 3-pack I bought last month for the croissants that was screaming at me to be used, thus my project for today unfolded. I debated on doing dinner rolls (which would have made 24 rolls and I would have ended up freezing some for later use) or cinnamon buns. I'd never done either, but was hoping to make something with a punch of flavor. Cinnamon rolls it is! The thing that's nice about this recipe is that you can make the rolls ahead of time, plac

e them in their baking pan, cover and refrigerate them to bake the next morning. I made a Caramel Pecan version this afternoon (which are SO YUMMY) and I have a batch ready for tomorrow's breakfast that will be the cinnamon with sugar glaze variety. The recipe makes 24 buns, which is too much for us to eat, which is why I've saved half of them for tomorrow. They end up baking relatively small, about 3 inches in diameter, so the 12 should be just about right for our appetites in the morning!

Check and check...

2008-08-28T09:24:00.001-07:00

Two things "checked" off our summer to-do list....

I finally finished staining the children's wooden swing set. We purchased the Rainbow play-system 2 years ago and I knew that it would require biannual maintenance in order to keep it in good shape. At first glance I thought, "this should be easy; I can get this done in an afternoon". WRONG! When you look at it, it doesn't look like there's much wood but once I got started, realized that there's much more to it than I had thought. Every side of every piece of wood had to be stained and trying not to get any of the hardware or accessory pieces stained was tricky. All in all, I think I did a pretty decent job and I'm happy that it's FINALLY done! I'm hoping that it will last another 2 years before it requires re-staining.

The second sigh of relief is that we picked up a new (to us) used car to replace Tim's truck which has put in a good effort in its last months. We purchased the 1994 Ford Ranger truck from our best friends, about 5 years ago. We only held a loan payment on it for a few months and we got several years with minimal repair costs.... the truck had served its purpose and didn't owe us a dime. We'd been trying to squeeze every last week out of it and this time last year, we weren't quite sure it would even make it through the winter. With its inspection expiring at the end of this month, and a heavy repair bill to get it to pass, we decided it was long overdue to get a more practical car for Tim. We have the minivan now, so if we need to haul bigger items, it's almost as big as the bed of the pickup is, so we'll use the minivan now. Tim's commute to work is roughly 45-55 minutes and the truck's gas mileage was less than desirable. We spend hours searching online and basically concluded that our goal was to get something small, inexpensive to fit our budget, good gas mileage and 50K miles or less already on it. We emailed and called on a lot of cars but the best deal that we found (looking at affordability as our primary priority) was a posting on Craigslist for a 2002 Hyundai Accent with 53K miles on it, one owner and a clean title. I noticed that there were quite a few postings for the same vehicle with around 90-120K miles on it.... seems like that's when people are dumping them, my guess, for mechanical reasons. So we figured that we ought to be able to get another 40-50K miles out of it before it needs any real major work done on it (we hope!). That said, we should get 2-3 years with it... and for $4500, it was the most affordable option for us. The gas mileage for highway is expected to be about 34 mpg. We anticipate that Tim will only spend about $150/month (at the current gas rate) on gas commuting to work compared to the $250-280 he has been spending. So Tim is happy that he has a newer vehicle to drive that he doesn't have to worry about breaking down and we're both happy that we found something that fits our budget pretty well.

Update on Terrible 6's

2008-08-22T08:10:00.000-07:00

Okay... so here I am over a week later from my recent post regarding 6-year old behavior and I have to say that this past week has been MUCH better and we are, in fact, heading to Hoffman's Playland this afternoon! Although Alex has lost his opportunity to have a chapter of Harry Potter read almost every night this week, that is the only thing he's lost each day, having no warnings or second chances given throughout the day. This said, I think being more strict with him has paid off. This means that he's only done, really, one thing each day that would be considered "bad behavior" (enough to warrant punishment, anyway). The attitude that he exhibited last week has diminished substantially and our trip to the grocery store was much more successful.

I began our trip by telling them, once we were in the parking lot, that we would not be using the car cart as we had the previous week because both of the children showed me through their behavior that they could not be trusted to use one. I continued by telling them that if they argued with me about not using the cart, they would loose storytime that evening, but if they were good, we could get a car cart for the next trip. They were both well-behaved for this trip and I was quite pleased with their behavior.

Of course Tuesday would have been the day for good behavior since Alex was much too lethargic to be bold due to his minor surgery. But for the rest of the week, both Alex & Emily have played well together, sometimes going for hours of pretend play without one of them running to mommy with a problem. I've baked a cake, gotten caught up on the laundry, and witnessed some truly wonderful sibling play time. The major thing that I've changed in my parenting this past week has been not to give in, even the slightest, to Alex's wheelin and dealin with his punishments. I haven't given him any second chances. And most of the time, he doesn't even get a warning because I feel that he's old enough now and knows what good/acceptable behavior and bad/not acceptable behavior is. The next thing that we are working on now is having respect. We've worked on it a bit and I think the attitude has improved, but he has still raised his voice at me a couple of times in a sort of disrespectful & "blaming" kind of tone. I hope that my children will, throughout their lives, be respectful and kind human beings.... thus, the foundation must be laid now.

Carrot Cake

2008-08-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

We're having dinner with my brother & sister-in-law this evening and I offered to make a dessert. I guess baking cakes is sort of my forte this week because it was decided that I would make a carrot cake. I was anxious to begin my baking this morning as I've never made a carrot cake from scratch. Several months ago, I found a classic carrot cake recipe in an edition of Taste of Home Magazine and wanted to try it then but never did. This was the same edition of the magazine where I was introduced to the (now infamous) Layered Mocha Cheesecake and Tiramisu brownies that I've made. The cream cheese frosting is very creamy; perfect for smoothing on the cake but not very good to work with for decorating the cake with borders, etc. I'm pretty happy with the way the cake came out. I just hope it tastes as good as looks!

Our little Trooper!

2008-08-19T11:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm going to make this a quick post as an update on how Alex is doing. Alex had very minor surgery done at the doctor's office this morning to remove a small "lesion" from the inside of his lower lip. The little spot formed over a month ago, most likely the result of a cut on the inside of his mouth that didn't heal properly. Unfortunately, the doctor recommended that he have it removed and removal required use of general anesthesia. Alex was extremely sluggish and sore this morning and got sick from the anesthesia, but he is feeling MUCH better now. He seems to be much more alert and has started making jokes with his sister. Emily has been quite nurturing as well. Having never seen Alex in that sort of "state" before, she became concerned and was mimicking some of the behaviors I exhibited, rubbing her hand over his hairline, etc. Alex has had lots of hugs and words of encouragement this morning. It's difficult as a parent to see your child in discomfort and know that there's little that you can do to comfort them. We've been fortunate that we've only had to go through this sort of thing a handful of times in the last 6 years! I think I can count on only 1 hand the number of times I've even been up at night with either of the kids due to illness. It makes me really thankful, and my heart goes out to all of the mothers/fathers that have children who are chronically ill.

Boob Cake ***CAUTION - Not for little eyes!

2008-08-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

So here was my "project" for the day. Yes, you read the title correctly, I made a "Boob" cake. And despite a slightly collapsed left breast (there were issues after getting it out of the pan), I would say that it almost met my expectations. I underestimated the amount of flesh toned frosting I'd need, and wasn't able to create an upper chest area and slight shoulder line for the straps to rest on. But despite this, (and the collapsed breast... did I mention that?) I think it looks pretty good. All complete with a heart "tattoo" that reads the guest of honor's name and a sexy bra to go with it! This project came about after talking with my friend, who's husband is hosting a bachelor party tomorrow night that hubby will be going to. The food will be BBQ style and I offered to make something for hubby to bring.... aha! How about a cake? And not just ANY cake, of course... something appropriate for the occasion. I hope the guys like it!

Mary, Mary, quite contrary....

2008-08-14T05:39:00.000-07:00

How does your garden grow? Well, as for OUR garden, it could be better, but it could also be worse! Despite the apparent lack of nutrient that stunted the growth of our corn, and the abundance of rock/shale and clay, we DID manage to grow some veggies this year. We began harvesting green beans and cucumbers a few weeks ago. Recently, we've picked squash, zucchini, tomatoes (viva italia & cherry), and peppers. The corn was growing well, then tassled before it was tall enough to assume we'd get any kind of harvest, but, believe it or not, we've actually picked a couple of ears, albeit, they are very small. Our entire carrot and lettuce crop became dinner for some lucky bunny that had an open door to the garden 2 weeks ago. And we have 2 watermelons that we are hopeful will mature to an edible size. All of the rain we've had seems to have put a damper on our pumpkin crop. Any time there's been even the slightest hint of a small pumpkin formation, it rots within a day or so. You can see how rocky our garden is by looking at the pics. I'm amazed that anything grew at all! And the last picture is what I harvested yesterday. We enjoyed a yummy salad and breaded zucchini for dinner!

More Free stuff

2008-08-13T08:25:00.001-07:00

I recently stopped by the Freegrabber website and found some other offers for "FREE" stuff. Check out the links below:

Sample of Sundance Organic Superfruit Tea Blend.

Welcome Home Pack from SC Johnson Companies. The first 10,000* registrants only will receive a free 10-count pack of medium Ziploc® Brand Zip 'n Steam™ Microwave Steam Cooking Bags and one Glade® Air Infusions® in Clean Linen™ fragrance as well as $7.60 in coupons to enjoy.

Free bag of Iams Premium Protection dog or cat food. Coupon sent via email. http://www.startsampling.com/sm/100323

Free Pampers Potty Training Kit.

Free Orville Redenbacher's Popcorn Cakes sample.

BPA-free Baby Bottles

2008-08-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

After a recent discussion with another mom-friend about nursing and bottle feeding, I've decided to do some light research on BPA-free products and found that there's a few companies that make BPA-free baby bottles. One that I found, called "Born Free" can be found at BabysR'Us. Medela is also making a baby bottle that is BPA-free and I just came across a promotion to get a free bottle. Check out this link:

BPA-Free Bottle

I just registered to get one for free and it said it may take 4-6 weeks for delivery, but all I had to do was register with their site! Enjoy the freebie!

Terrible 6?!?!

2008-08-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

UGHH!!! I just don't know what to do anymore. Maybe it's because I'm not used to having Alex home 24/7, and he's not used to being bored, but these mental games that my soon-to-be 6 year old has been playing with me have got me fed up! Over the last week, in particular, Alex has been playing games with me, changing his mind about what he wants to eat for lunch and then pitching a fit when he doesn't get his way, lying to me when I ask him a simple question because it might mean that he might actually have to get off his butt and do something, or just plain not listening to me. His sister often acts as partner in crime but not NEARLY as often as he is! Ironically, they are playing relatively well together, with few arguments and cries of "Mommy, Alex did (fill in the blank) to me". So I guess I should be happy about that. But what to do about my little/big first grader who is once again, testing his boundaries?!?! Yesterday we went to the grocery store and I let the kids have fun with the "car cart" (it's the grocery cart that has a car in the front for the kids to ride in). Although they weren't fighting, they were being VERY silly and tickling each other. I allowed the tickling to continue until arms, legs and head came flying out from the sides, posing a potential hazard to their limbs as I wheeled through the aisles and passed other carts. I asked, Alex and Emily both nicely to keep their hands to themselves and explained to them why they needed to tone the silliness down. To no avail, they continued. I repeated this several times until I finally had to tell them that we wouldn't be going to Hoffman's Playland this week if they continued (which they did).

Our next stop was Walmart to get school supplies for Alex. He was in good spirits and excited about our trip "for him" at first. But he quickly became disinterested in looking for things on the list and remembered that I had told them we wouldn't be going to Hoffman's this week. Once he got the idea in his head that we wouldn't be going, it was all over! He began to whine and stick his biggest pouty lip out as I was browsing the Kleenex's. Then the tears came. I warned him that if he continued the poor behavior, he'd loose Hoffman's for next week. Fortunately, we were just about done with our shopping.

Today at lunch he changed his mind 3 times about what he wanted to eat. (He ultimately got what he want, thus, I feel as though I gave in and was manipulated)

While bringing laundry upstairs, I noticed a lollipop stick on the carpet, this, after I specifically asked them to put the sticks in the garbage when they were done with their special "treat". I questioned both children and here's how the conversation went:

Beth: "Alex & Emily, do you know who's lollipop stick is on the carpet upstairs?"

Alex: "It's Emily's"

Beth: "Emily, is that your lollipop stick?"

Emily: "No, I put mine in the garbage"

Beth: "Oh really? Which garbage?"

Emily: "In my bedroom"

Beth: "Alex, did you throw yours out?"

Alex: "Yeah"

Beth: "Which garbage did you use, tell me the truth?"

Alex: "well, um, mom, it's mine, but you know why I told you it was Emily's? Because I didn't want to get up and throw it away".

So, I try to calmly explain to him that he wasn't going to be in trouble if it was his, that all I wanted him to do was to throw it away.... that lying to me about it was bad and that I'm disappointed in him for lying. I tell him to go upstairs and throw it away, to which he replies (whining) , " but I don't want to, I'm not gonna".

So..... what does a mother do? Do I threaten no ice cream tonight at Jumpin Jacks? Do I take Hoffman's away for next week too? I can't let him manipulate me and speak to me in the tone that he did... but this, all over a silly little lollipop stick on the floor!?!?!

The game continues..... stomping and pouting his way up the stairs, he tells me he's "not gonna throw it away". 5 minutes later he returns to the kitchen and says "I didn't do it". To which, I reply "I'm going to ask you once and if you don't tell me the truth, you won't be eating ice cream tonight; did you throw it away?" He nods his head, yes.

HELP! I know this is normal, I just can't tell if I'm really in control of it or not!

Hilarious, yet potentially immoral?

2008-08-08T08:48:00.000-07:00

I am a member of the Bzzagent website and I just came across this website that is SO FUNNY, but I have mixed feelings about it because it's sort of one of those services that could be helpful but has the potential for being very naughty. It's called SlyDial.

Check it out:

Visit slydial

Smart Shopping

2008-08-08T07:12:00.000-07:00

I've posted on our 4livingstons.com site in the past about this, but I was so proud of myself yesterday for the great bargains I got, I decided to write about it again today. I've been so frustrated with the rising cost of living lately that I've really been thrifty about my spending habits, particularly when it comes to groceries and household items. Since March, I've been clipping coupons weekly, scouring the Sunday paper's ads for deals & looking for ways to cut back on expenses in general. So let's get down to the nitty gritty of my shopping trip yesterday.

Can you believe I got all of this stuff for $14.74?!?!?!

Here's what I bought:

Price Chopper

$5 (2) boxes Raisin Bran

$4 (2) boxes Froot Loops

$4 (2) boxes Apple Jacks

$4 (2) 2 packages Keebler cookies

$4 (2) packages Keebler cheese/crackers

$2 (1) box Crest toothpaste

$4.99 (3) boxes Puffs Tissues

$3.99 (1) Lysol spray + wipes

Rite Aid (all FREE after rebate)

1 Gillette Fusion Razor

1 package Old Spice Disposable razors

1 bottle Gillette shampoo

1 Revlon Nail polish

So here's the catch, my out of pocket expense was $40.21 but I will be getting back $25.47 in rebates in the next few weeks, which is how I arrived at the total final cost of $14.74. The first 10 items on the list are part of a promotion through Kellogg's. If you purchase 10 Kellogg's/Eggo/Keebler products on one receipt, you get $10 back by mail in rebate. I had coupons from this week's paper which brought my initial cost for each of these items down from $21 to $17. Then, Price Chopper is running an additional program where if you purchase those 10 items, they also give you a coupon good toward $10 off your next purchase at Price Chopper. So I turned right around and bought the 1/2 gal milk, 3 Oikos yogurt & 2 frozen lemonades..... basically, all for FREE!!! The Crest ended up being FREE as well after I doubled my $1 off coupon, the Puffs 3 pack was $2.99 after I doubled my $1 off coupon and finally, the Lysol spray + wipes was $1.99 by using a $2 off coupon. Most of the coupons I used I found in this past Sunday's paper.

Pre-Nesting Possibly?

2008-08-07T15:30:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of weeks, I've been on a mission to finish unfinished projects around the house like reorganizing our filing system and finally completing Emily's baby book (she's almost 3 1/2 years now). I've been paying particular attention to reducing daily clutter and doing things I'd never worried about before like making the beds (even the childrens') before noon. I started to think about this new "mission" that has overcome me and pondered, "could this be a sort of 'pre-nesting' state? In case you need some clarification, yes, that means we're working on baby #3 ....

A little bit of history

2008-08-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to keep up with our family blog site (www.4livingstons.com) since the construction of our new home began last summer. In an attempt to "learn" more about the ever-changing world of blogging, I've decided to start from scratch again and stumble through as time goes on. This blog will mostly be posts about random topics that come into my brain as I'm meandering through my daily routine of childrearing and housework. Some of the topics that may appear include recipes, fun quotes & parenting tips, parenting issues, books, craftiness and of course, pictures of my wonderful family! Perhaps you'll find a topic of interest or some useful information that will help you in your life. Either way, I hope you enjoy and please comment often as I'd love to get some feedback on my thoughts!