A Very Good Week

This last week of March has been a very good week for our family. We have seen good news everywhere we turn.

1) Emily got her report card this week and she scored "Satisfactory" (the best!) in every category! Last time, she had some "Developing" skills and she improved in all those categories.

She is reading really well and is the teacher's little helper. We are so proud of Emily and how well she is doing in school.

2) Mike found out this week that he is getting a very large raise at work. This is actually the third raise he has gotten this year. One was a large raise related to a promotion and the other was a small cost of living raise.

We are very proud of Mike and all the hard work he puts in to support our family. Thank you!

3) I found out that I am getting a small raise at work as well. Okay, the correct phrase is probably "very small" but we will take what we can get in this category.

4) We thought our car insurance premiums would probably be going up this year, but we found out this week that they are actually going down. That is a surprise and a big praise.

As you can see, some really exciting things are happening in our family. The Lord is blessing us in ways that we could not even imagine.

Glory be to God!


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Wordless Wednesday - Baby Toes

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Someone Cute

Noah loves riding in the buggy at the grocery store. Isn't he cute?





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Kids Make Me Laugh

Noah and Emily were playing together on the floor. Noah was pulling Emily's hair and laughing about it.

He is probably going to annoy her very much when he gets a little bit older. But right now they have so much fun playing together.

They make each other laugh. And they make me laugh too!







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Ginger and Jack

Tonight, Emily and I made Gingerbread Girl cookies. We made some Gingerbread Boys too.

Aren't they cute???










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Red Flag

Today was a red flag fire danger day in Oklahoma. When we got home tonight, there was a police officer blocking our road about a half mile from our house.

The officer told us that there was a fire north of our house. Thankfully, it was moving north away from our house. He let us go on to our house.

When we pulled up, we could see the red glow in the sky. That is not a good feeling even if the fire is moving away from us.

Mike is out in the yard monitoring the situation. I think I am more worried about it than he is, but he is indulging me this one.








This night reminds me of April 9, 2009 when we had that huge wildfire moving toward our house and all that smoke.

Here is my post from two years ago.

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Pigpen

I swear we don't live in a pigpen. But judging by the way our child looks when she comes home from school, it looks like we do.






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Wordless Wednesday - Blossoming Beauties

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Heaven

I don't know if you knew, but it was a rainy, dark and dreary day around these parts. I drove to and from work in light drizzle. It was cold and wet and gloomy.

After I picked up the kids and got them buckled into the car, I walked around to the drivers side of the car and thought to myself "Come quickly, Lord Jesus." I don't know why. That's just what crossed mind.

I got in and buckled my seatbelt and the sun suddenly started shining SO brightly. It was just blinding light out to the west. It was shocking. I thought "Is this it? Is Jesus coming back right this minute?"

I sat there a minute just looking up at the sky. It was bright and beautiful to the west and still dark back to the east. After a minute or so, I decided that Jesus was not coming back right this minute so I better go ahead and drive home.

As I backed out of the driveway, I thought about a bumper sticker I have seen a few times: "In case of rapture, this vehicle will be unmanned."

If Jesus were to come back tonight, I would be ready. I know that I am going to heaven and I'm ready. What about you? If you have any doubts, I encourage you to get right with God now. Don't wait. Don't wait!


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Monday Funday

Boy, Mondays are always so hard.  I was scheduled to be on vacation today, but I was able to go on in to work.  It was so so hard to get out of bed knowing that I was not really expected to be at work today.  It just felt so wrong!

But I got up and got myself ready to go.  Noah slept  until I was ready to leave so I got to wake him up and get him ready to go.   He cried when I dropped him off today and I don't like that at all.  It makes it very hard for me to leave him.

Noah had a good day today.  I can tell that he feels better.  He drank his milk better today and smiled and laughed a lot more.  I was tickling his little fat thighs tonight and he was just laughing so hard.

Oh and want to know something else fun that happened today?  Well, on my way home with the kids, I was following a Sherriff.  There was a truck, then the police car and then me.  And we were going the speed limit - like 50 mph.  And all of a sudden, the police flips his lights on and pulls over to the right side of the road.  And I stoooooop in the middle of the road.  And he pulls across the road and then backs up and then takes off in the opposite direction.  Oooookay, was that really necessary to stop in the middle of the road? I think that was awful dangerous.  Is it worth causing an accident just to give some guy a ticket?

Lets hope for an easier Tuesday ....

Nuff said!!!!!

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Sunday - Feeling Better

Noah and I stayed home from church this morning so that he could get some extra rest and wouldn't get the church nursery sick.

I think Noah is feeling better today. He is eating better and playing more. Last week, we did not get many smiles from Noah but he seemed to be better today.

Noah still sounds stuffy and rattly in his chest. Sometimes he just needs to cough to get that stuff up.

Yesterday, we bought Noah a mesh feeder. You put different types of food in it and then he chews and sucks on it. The first thing he tried was apple slices. He really liked them and hot mad when we would take them away. When he was done with it, there was not much apple left in the feeder!






Today we tried watermelon in Noah's feeder. He liked the watermelon too! He ate it until it was pretty much all gone.





After he was done eating, he had to go get a bath. Emily helped us. I kept having to remind her to give him a toy too. She even stayed in the bathroom and played in the water after Noah got out.

She finally joined us in the living room and she and Noah played in the floor for a while.

Overall, it was a good day. I fixed a roast, mashed potatoes and carrots and Lima beans for lunch. It was all pretty good. I got up at 4am to put the roast and carrots in the crock pot.

I do my roast pretty simple. I put the carrots in the bottom of the crock pot and the roast on top. Then I sprinkle a packet of onion soup mix over the top and pour in a bit of water. I normally cook the roast on low, but my roast was still frozen! So I cooked this one on high for 4 hours then low for four hours. It still turned out nice and tender.


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PETA Would Be Proud "Part Two"

Hi honey. There were a few details that you may have forgotten to add to your post last night. The raccoons over the last few weeks have been scattering trash in our backyard. This has been very frustrating for me, because I'm the one who has to pick it up. Also, I contacted the animal control center and they advised me that they would not come and take care of the problem. I also contacted the wildlife law enforcement and they would not answer their phone. My laughing was due to your facial expressions when you discovered there were two raccoons. I love you!

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PETA Would Be Proud

This afternoon, I went out back to throw a bag of trash in the Big Blue. When I opened the lid, it smelled really strange and I thought I saw something in the bottom of the can. So I threw in the bag of trash and slammed the lid!

But I had to look again and see if I really saw something. So I opened the lid again to look. I thought maybe I could see an animal under the edge of the trash bag. Maybe a cat's ear?

So I went to get a flashlight and looked again. I could not really see anything. So I reached in and pulled out the bag of trash. I looked again and a raccoon was looking back at me! Ack!!!!

Mike wanted to trap him in there and let him die or let the trash truck pick him up. But I couldn't leave him in there possibly dying while I went about my business in my house.

So I went back out there and tipped the trash can over to let the raccoon out. I stood there the longest time waiting for the raccoon to run away. It finally started peeking out at me.




Then it finally ran off around the corner of the house. I walked around the house to make sure I ran off and was not messing with anything.




Then I went back to the trash can to set it back up right and throw away the trash. But there was another raccoon in it!!

I waited a long time for that one to run off. I eventually shook him out of the can and he ran off toward the well house. I could not tell for sure, but he might have gone under the well house.

So I did go back and set the trash can back up and secured the lid with some bungee cords.

And as I type this blog post, the raccoons are back and trying to get into the trash can again. They sure are persistent! But they are not getting any free food from us any more!

And where was Mike during this whole raccoon fiasco? He was standing inside the house at the kitchen window, laughing at me. Nice.


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Still Sick and an Anniversary

Yesterday afternoon, Mike and I took Noah to the pediatrician. He had been wheezing and he was not able to keep down his bottles.

Dr K said that Noah has bronchiolitis caused by a really nasty virus, most likely RSV. There is not much you can do except wait for it to run it's course. We have to watch out for really fast/hard breathing and dehydration.

Since Noah is not drinking much milk, we have started feeding him smaller amounts more often. We also tried to give him some pedialyte, but he hated it! So we gave him some little sips of water instead. He did fine with that.

Noah seemed to sleep better last night. We were up a few times, but not nearly as often as the night before. He did not throw up today so that is another good sign.

Hopefully Noah is on the road to recovery. I hope he sleeps even better tonight and starts to get his appetite back tomorrow. Dr K said his cough could last 2-6 weeks though.

Emily seems to be feeling better today. She still cough some, but seems to feel better otherwise. I will be glad when this bug leaves our house for good!

Anniversary

Yesterday was our 9th wedding anniversary. We went out to dinner at one of our favorite mexican restaurants. It was nice to go out just the two of us again, but it has hard to leave my sick baby.

Last night when we were getting ready for bed, we talked about what all we remembered from 9 years ago. Our wedding ceremony that Mike happily chomped gum throughout! The cold weather and snow that day. Our awesome cake at our wedding reception. Our honeymoon to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Coming home to live together in a one bedroom apartment. And so on and so forth. And here we are 9 years and 2 kids later.

Love you babe! Here's to the next 9 years!



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Sick Kid Updates And More!

Noah and Emily are both coughing today.

Emily did okay after she finally went to sleep last night.  She had a hard time going to sleep, but did not wake up during the night.  She went to school today, but coughed a lot and told her teacher that her throat hurt last night.  She told me last night that her throat did not hurt so I don't know.  I got her some different cough/cold medicine and some cough drops for tomorrow.  They are strawberry flavored so she seemed excited about that.

Noah did not have very many smiles today.  He coughed a lot during the night and so we were up most of the night.  I think I got two straight hours of sleep and then a few other little bits here and there.  Noah didn't drink his bottles very good today.  When I was feeding him a bottle tonight, he started coughing and threw up all over my shirt .. and my pants .. and his clothes ... and my chair.  It was a big one.   Tonight, I slathered him in Vicks Vapor Rub and put him to bed.  He is still coughing so we might be in for another long night.

In Other News ...

Today, we registered Emily for a summer activity program at a local church.  It's a full day program and the kids are always busy.  They get to do a lot of different activities during the summer.  They have a huge, beautiful playground across the street from the church.  They go swimming at a couple different pools.   And they go on several different field trips.  We don't have a list of all the field trips yet, but it sounds like a lot of fun!  Emily's two cousins will also be going to the same place so it's going to be a good summer for them.

And Also ...

Mike found out today that he got a promotion and a nice raise at work.  He will have a new title, but the job will basically be the same.  We are so proud of him and so thankful for all his hard work.  We love you!!!

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My Babies

Not much to report tonight.  We had a good weekend, but now both kids are not feeling well.  

Emily and Noah both developed a bit of a cough yesterday.  Noah had a hard time last night.  He just kept waking up coughing and coughing so hard.  I probably got up to check on him a dozen times during the night.  He had a good day today, but he still coughed a lot.  Even when he's not feeling well, he still has smiles for everyone.

Emily woke up coughing this morning and has coughed more today.  She still seems to feel pretty well even with the cough.  I gave her some cough medicine tonight, but she is having a hard time going to sleep because of the cough.  

I hope both my babies are feeling better in the morning.  It's so hard when the kids are sick.  I hate to hear them coughing and know that they are not feeling well.  I would much rather it be me who was sick!

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Mason's 5th Birthday Party

This afternoon, we went to Mason's 5th Birthday party at the Oklahoma Science Museum.

I did not manage to get any pictures of the birthday boy or his cupcakes or his presents because I was feeding Noah during that part of the party.

But after he opened his presents and we ate our cupcakes, we got to go out and play at the science museum.

We had a good time!

Here are some pictures from our afternoon.



























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Happy Presidents Day

Mike and I were both off work on Monday for the Presidents Day holiday.  Sadly, Emily had to go to school that day for a make-up snow day.  So that meant we all had to get up early and get Emily ready for school.  Since we were all up, Mike and I decided to go out to a breakfast date with Noah.  
So we went to Cracker Barrel and had pancakes.  Noah slept through most of breakfast but he woke up as we were finishing up.  I let him have a tiny taste of my orange and he seemed to like it.
After breakfast, we stopped by Walmart and bought a bunch of prizes for Emily's Reward Chart.  She has earned 22 stars so far so we thought we better get some prizes for her to choose from.  More on the prizes later.
Later in the afternoon, I was playing with Noah and I sat him down in Emily's pink princess chair in the living room.  Emily's Cabbage Patch doll Stephanie was sitting there so I picked her up and put her in the chair beside Noah.  I was laughing so hard, but here's kinda how it went down.

"What's up, Mom?"

"Oh, cool.  Another bald headed kid."

"Looks like fun, I can yank her around." (And check out that raised eyebrow!!! Where does he get that from???"

"Maybe I can throw her over my shoulder.  Nope, too heavy."

"Fine, then I'll just push baldie down on the floor"

"Well that didn't work.  I'm outta here!"

Poor Steph.  I showed Emily these pictures when she got home from school and she thought it was pretty funny that Noah was sitting in her chair and playing with her doll.  I don't know if Steph thought it was funny or not.



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Potluck Or No Luck?

Last Friday, my department has a potluck lunch at the office. My coworkers are mostly male so the result of our potlucks can be a bit of a mixed bag.

If we are lucky, the guys will bring something store-bought. And if we are really lucky, sometimes the wives will fix something. But these guys are a pretty smart bunch. They have a few ladies from other departments that they routinely invite to our food days.

So I brought a couple different dishes for food day. I fixed a chicken cheese ball and a double batch of Peanut Butter Cookie Cups. The double batch makes 48 cookies and there was not a single one left. So clearly that was the favored dish.


A contributing factor may have been the fact that my cookies were the only dessert present that day. But in any case, they were a hit!

My mother made these cookies for us at Christmas. I loved them then and I still love them now. I loved them so much that I made another batch this afternoon since we did not get any of the ones I made the other day.

Want the recipe? Okay, here goes!

Peanut Butter Cookie Cups

Ingredients:

Peanut butter cookie dough
Peanut butter cup candies

The first time I made these, I used a roll of refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough. Today I could not find the peanut butter variety in the refrigerated section so I picked up this packaged mix. You could also make your own dough.




I prefer the refrigerated cookie dough over the mix for this dessert. The mix seemed to have a grittier texture than I would have liked.

I used the Great Value brand of peanut butter cups. They have a creamy texture that I really like. Make sure you freeze the peanut butter cups ahead of time. This will make them easier to work with.





So, put mini muffin cups in your mini muffin pan. I suppose you could skip this step if you'd like. You might want to lightly grease the mini muffin tin before you start if you are not using liners. I used foil liners for mine.

Put about 1 tablespoon of cookie dough in each mini muffin cup. This amount seemed to work well with both the refrigerated dough and the packaged mix.

No need to roll the dough into balls or press the dough into the bottom of the cups. The dough will melt and rise perfectly inside the wrappers.

One package of refrigerated dough or one packaged mix both makes enough dough for 24 cookies.

Bake cookies at 375 for about 10 minutes. Cookies should be slightly brown but still soft when they come out of the oven.

While the cookies are baking, unwrap the candies and return them to the freezer.

As soon as cookies come out of the oven, press a peanut butter cup into the center of each one. The cookie will come up around the side of the candies.





You can put the tray of cookies into the refrigerator to cool or let them cool on the counter. The peanut butter cup centers will be quite soft for a while, but they eventually firm up.




Eat and enjoy!




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Fave iPhone App - iRewardChart

The other week, I was browsing the iPhone app store and I ran across an app called iRewardChart. It is basically a way to keep track of and reward good behavior.






You can set up daily tasks for each child and they are awarded stars when they complete the task or display the appropriate behavior. The app gives you a lot of tasks to choose from or you can make up your own.

For Emily, I used some of the presets and made up some of my own. One of my custom additions is "Good Family Member Award". This is where she can earn stars for going above and beyond. This could be things like helping mom and dad or being extra helpful with Noah.





Then after she earns stars, she can look at the list of rewards and choose what she wants. This list of awards is also customizable.

I have not set our rewards and their values yet. Really, the stars themselves seem to be a good motivator for Emily. But we will set some rewards soon.





One thing I don't like about this app is that Mike can't see the reward chart from his phone and we can't view it online. It would be nice if Mike was able to update Emily's chart too.

Emily really likes checking her chart every night. We talk about her behavior and decide which stars she has earned.

So far, it is working for us. Emily has only come out of her room after lights out one night this week. I like that improvement!

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