Mt. Shasta

Here's a blast from the past. Mark and I visited my grandma a few years back and while we were there we went camping for a few days near beautiful Mt. Shasta. I was about 5 months pregnant with Hayden at the time.

The scenery is gorgeous and we had a great time fishing and hiking.

Posts to Come

So I've been thinking about my 2 1/2 week trip to KY. I think it will be a wonderful break from all things "technical". A lot of reading, relaxing, and coffee drinking are in my future (my parents are big time coffee drinkers).

Plenty of one on one time with the kiddos. Lots of movie renting to be had.

And little or no blog reading, email reading, or just plain blogging.

But thanks to the wonder of schedule posting, I'll leave you with some fun posts to keep you company while I'm away.

Think of my today as I board my 6:45am flight and travel to Nashville with the two kiddos. I hope they are sleepy enough to be "chill" during the flight. I bought lots of toys and some snacks to get us through.

Quiet Hours

It's midnight. Babies and hubby are in bed.

House is quiet accept for the radio, I like that.

I spent a little time straightening up for a couple friends coming in the morning.

I pulled out the tea bags and cleared the table for a little "girl talk" tomorrow.
My gathering of 7, has now dwindled to 3 I think, but that still sounds good - maybe even better.

Community group was good tonight. We're telling our stories. Real honesty about where we came from, and who we are.

I dread my turn. Not because I don't like "presenting" or talking in a group - cause I actually enjoy that - but just because my story is so ugly and unfinished. It's not ugly enough to be "inspirational", but just ugly enough to be, well, ugly. I guess we all have our junk.

Childhood junk. Insecurities. Heartbreaks. Betrayals. Lies. Disappointments. Confusion. Misunderstandings. Imperfect people.

Dredging it all up feels poisonous. I've buried it for my own protection. Some people say it's "healing" to talk about it. I think it embitters me. I remember things best forgotten. My mind has safely tucked away things I just can't handle. But for my group, I can unpack it. I can tell my story if asked. I've moved on from many parts of my story, but I suppose it makes me who I am.

I tried talking to my mom once about some stuff. She trivialized it. Or ignored it. Or defended it. So I packed it away. What's the use of remembering something that will never be validated, never acknowledged. Seems purely painful.

I can't think about these things right now, I'm visiting them next week and it will throw a cloud over the whole visit if I pull out these memories. Must pack it all back up. Stop thinking about it.

It will nice to get away from the computer for 2 weeks. I'm afraid to admit I might have a slight addiction to blogs and facebook. ACK! It will be a good detox for me. I might check in here and there, but hopefully no more than once a day. My parents computers are a lot slower.

I will definitely not be blogging during that time. I wouldn't want to leave any history of pages for them to stumble upon. What a mess that would be. I don't generally talk about family stuff on here, but I've mentioned stuff here and there.

But, I still have 5 days in the blogging world. I'm sure you'll get one or two more posts before I go!

Intervention

Help! My baby is addicted to tearing up, chewing on, crumpling up paper!!

And my toddler ... he's an enabler. Willing to bring his brother any paper he finds in the house.

It's time for an intervention.

Thing To Do at 3am

So let's say your up at 3am and can't get back to sleep from some killer back pain. Cause it happens. What do you do?

First you...

Stay in bed. Maybe you can sleep through it. Hmmm...no.

Take all medications available. Maybe you can wait it out. Fast acting right? Should be good in 30 minutes. Hmmmm...no.

Read the next chapter in a book. Luckily, I have the next Twilight installment (Eclipse) and set out to read another chapter. But...no, I could not focus past 3 pages. Must get up.

Mess around on Facebook. I'll whine to the world about my hard luck and late night. Crap...no one is on.

Go back to bed. Might as well hang out in my room on the off chance I fall asleep or pass out or get hit on the head with a falling light fixture - either way I'm out of my misery. Alas, no falling fixtures or sleep to be had.

Catch up on some prayers. I got lots of friends with lots of prayer requests. Shamefully, I don't get to them as much as I should. I've nothing better to do, might as well get to it.

Sometime after that my pain reliever kicked in and the pain was quiet enough to fall asleep.

I awaken multiple times to Mark's repeated snoozing of his alarm - BAH!

So, what I've learned? Long night + pain + reading + drugs + Facebook = Melissa prays more.

Airing Out

Check out my babies "toofers". You may have to click on the picture, but I assure you, they can be seen.

Corbin has refused all proper teething methods, and will only chew on wooden blocks, the tail of his stuffed dog, or random tags or plastic. ACK! We compromised on a wet washcloth with a tag.

Somehow, I think letting my 9 month old chew on plastic bags would be frowned upon in most circles.

I cannot believe he's gotten all these teeth in one week. He's also gotten a lot more vocal. Random grunts, Aaaagh, and dat dat dat are heard all ... day ... long.

We leave for KY in a week, and I'm starting to get nervous. Visions of Hayden running through security and being tackled by airport personnel are invading my mind. Although, from what I've seen today, I find it unlikely they will catch him.

When I announced it was nap time, he scurried out the back door (pantless of course, cause that's just how we roll) and made me chase him around the yard to catch him. This is going to get interesting, if I'm gonna need to do this whenever I want him to do something.

We've instituted the "no special meals" policy for Hayden. In other words, he is served the same dinner that we eat, no special "Nug nugs" or any thing else. In fact, I haven't bought chicken nuggets in 2 weeks. We are still working through it, there have been a few nights where he's not eaten what's been served, but we're holding firm. I'm extremely happy that he's not living on chicken nuggets anymore. Even if we did buy the "good" ones, it's still processed crap.

The weather is gorgeous today, so I have both doors open so I can air out the house. I also get all the great outdoor noises - chimes, birds, okay yes and a truck driving by.

Today Hayden had a reaction to some bread I had bought (it had sesame seeds on it). Since I had planned on serving that bread all week, it looks like I'll have to bake some bread. And soon. Toast is apart of Hayden's breakfast. He gets toast and fruit. It's also frustrating to find yet another allergen. That brings the total to 3 - peanuts, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds. Luckily I had Benadryl on hand for these kinds of situations.

Kitchen is still going. We have tile on the walls now. But still need doors and drawers + a few other things.

Sunday Shopping

Sorry for the lack of posting. Corbin has decided to finally get some teeth, and he's an overachiever so he'd like to get all 4, right now. Two on top have broken through, the bottom two are still coming.

If you have kids with teeth, you know teething is no fun. So last week my primary goal was to survive the day, not blog about it. HA!

Hayden's speech pathologist was here last friday, I told her about the change in hearing loss and she was pleased. She explained that 10 dB loss translated into Hayden might have some articulation problems and may need to sit at the front of the class or pay closer attention to whoever was speaking so he could "tune out" ambient/background noises.

We will probably meet with the school district the end of May. His current program only lasts until his third birthday. After that the school district takes over. They have a meeting with the parents 150 days before their 3rd birthday. Since school is letting out, we'll need to get that meeting done sooner. From here, if he qualifies, he can possibly get preschool classes once he turns three. But it depends on how they think he's developing.

Today is Sunday! So that means grocery shopping. I'm really taking this budget thing to heart and have really started to enjoy saving money and getting deals!! Well, I'm not even "getting deals", I'm just shopping smarter.

This week's total was 77.36. My budget was $80. BUT...this was no typical week. We're throwing a little party for a family birthday on Saturday, so I bought all that we'd need ahead of time. Most of these items were not cheap, and not something we'd typically buy: Pre-seasoned chicken and beef fajitas and sausage links alone were $21. Plus $5 for chips and salsa.

That brings my total down to around $52. AND...I bought a bulk item that will last me for a couple months. A large bottle of olive oil for $15. And a large bottle of vinegar for $1. And a special spice that will last years for $4

So that means there was really $32 of food. EXCEPT...I wanted to make a cake for the birthday, which was another $5.

So now we're looking at $27. YET AGAIN...we're going to a dinner party on Friday where I wanted to bring a special dessert, so that added $6.

Which gives us $21.

HA! But yes, I spent $77. I spent $77 and will still be able to throw a nice birthday party with good food. I can still buy bulk items and not break the budget. I can buy special ingredients for desserts and new recipes I'd like to try, and still make it work.

And no, we're not eating bread and water for dinner.

Monday: Ground turkey, potatoes with cole slaw (I had cabbage left over from our soup this week and carrots to use)
Tuesday: Tacos (need to finish off our tomatoes and lettuce) I buy the 3 lbs of turkey in bulk this week to make 3 separate meals.
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Chicken Fried Rice
Friday: Dinner Party
Saturday: Birthday Shindig
Sunday: Pizza (my dough recipe makes 2 pizzas, so I froze half after pizza this past friday) for toppings I'm making ground turkey with taco seasoning and cheddar cheese for a "taco" pizza.

Anywho, I was REALLY pysched that I came in under budget with such pricey items.

Having a budget really lets me splurge for special occasions with out feeling guilty AT ALL.

I love it.