Happy Birthday, oh never mind . .

(Peeking out of the box)

Ahem, is it safe to come out there? I'm really not sure, you see, I'm now only 2 years away from entering the decade of the 30's! That's right folks, I'm now 28 years old. Just typing that last word made my knees start creaking and my bones start aching. I don't think I'm ready for this. It's a good thing that my family is taking me away for a little birthday/Labor Day weekend celebration. Its just what the Dr. ordered to take my mind off the 'aging situation' we have going on around here!

The right decision

The other day Brianna brought up the subject of school and was talking about some of her friends that are in school. She asked when she would be starting Kindergarten and I told her she would start in a few days. She then started to get really teary and with her little voice quivering asked me, "Are you going to go with me and stay with me all day?" I quickly reassured her that she wasn't going to the public school, we were going to learn to read here at home. She immediately brightened up and went on to the next subject, i.e loose tooth, playing a game on the computer, whatever. It got me thinking though, so many times we as Mothers second-guess ourselves about our decisions for our children, afraid of what others are going to think or say. I am so glad that I listened to that third sense we mothers have and decided to homeschool her this year. She just simply isn't ready to face the big, bad world by herself just yet. And thats ok with me, she doesn't know just how very much I would miss her. For once, I made the right decision, and I'm so glad I did.

Moments in time. . .

Tyler-Style!

"Really, Mom? Haven't you taken enough pictures already today?"
"OK, just for you, (and because I am just so adorable to photograph""Um, Mama? I think I'm about done with this photo session."
"Yeah, all done, except , before you go, could you open this string cheese for me? Thomas the train is just so incredibly fascinating that I can't seem to drag my eyes away from him, even for a minute. Whad'ya say? It doesn't look like my tummy could hold any more right now? Oh, you'd be suprised , there is always extra room for cheese!"

A little improvement . .

We're starting to see a small amount of improvement in Brianna's eye. The swelling seems to be going down slowly, we're just happy that it's not growing any bigger right now. I'm still hoping that the meds she is on right now will continue to heal the abscess.

Off to finish up the lesson plans for next week, we start Kindergarten on Sept. 2nd!

A little relief, please?

Doctors, you just have to love them, right?! Not really, at least thats not what I'm feeling today anyway. We've returned from our visit to the eye Dr. not knowing much more than when we went in. For starters, the Dr. had the personality of a bedpan, maybe worse. She then proceeds to barely glance at Brianna's eye and decides that another round of the same antibiotic that Brianna just finished, was in order. I explained to the Dr. that her eyelid just continued to look worse on that medicine, was she sure she wanted the same stuff again? Yes, she was going to call in another Rx for me to pick up and start all over again! She did give me some cream to put on the eyelid saying that she doesn't like to do surgery on children if she doesn't really have to. She seems to think it will 'burst' on it's own and resolve itself. Uh-huh, that would be great Doc, really, that sounds like a perfect plan, except my primary-care Dr. said that it would need to be taken off! I am having a really hard time trusting this new Dr. when she gives me an entirely different story than I just heard from Brianna's PCP. Maybe I'm just being a little too dramatic and overly protective of my child right now, I sort of have that tendency because my children are so rarely sick or need medical attention. We usually only see the Dr. a couple times a year for well-child visits. The optometrist told me to call back if she is not any better by next week, by then she will have 3 days of antibiotics in her system and should be showing some improvement. Right now I'm inclined to call our primary Dr. if there are any more problems, not the bedpan-personality Dr!

An update on Brianna's eye -

As you can see, the 'bump' on her eyelid has gotten bigger, even with 5 days of antibiotics, turns out it's an abscess. We have an appt. with an eye Dr. tomorrow to look at it and I'm assuming we will make an appt. at the surgery center to have to taken care of. Please remember her in your prayers as she is very freaked out by blood and all things "Doctorish"!

Here we go, again!

I took Brianna to the Dr. this past Wednesday because her eye had been looking like this for the past couple days:

We have no idea what happened, whether it was a bug bite or what, and of course Brianna doesn't either. She has been on a 5-day oral antibiotic, and eye drops 3 x's a day for the last 4 days and it just hasn't helped at all. I haven't taken any pictures of her today but the red bump is actually a lot bigger. This is not something I want to mess around with, being her eye and all, so we have another Dr.s appt. this afternoon, hopefully we can get to the bottom of this and get my little girl all better!

Olive -Onion Cheese Bread

It should be illegal to make and eat this stuff, but thank-goodness it's not!
I made this amazing concoction tonight and it was so awesome I just knew I had to share it with everyone! I have tried a similar recipe before but was not impressed, this one has just the perfect amount of everything in it, delicious! I got the recipe out of the Aug./Sept. issue of TOH, but for those who don't get that mag., I'll write it out. (BTW, Calista, I renewed my subscription to TOH the other day and was offered 2 free sub., I put your name down to get a free year!)

Olive Onion Cheese Bread

4 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup mayo
8 green onions, thinly sliced
1 sm. can mushrooms, drained and chopped
1 sm. can chopped ripe olives
1 loaf unsliced French bread

In lg. bowl, combine the first 6 ingredients. Cut bread in half lengthwise, place on baking sheet. Spread with cheese mixture. Bake @ 350 for 15-20 minutes.
Enjoy! (Yes, I know it has an insane amount of butter in it, just don't eat the whole loaf and you'll be fine! :) Live a little!!

To go Organic or not, that's the burning question!

I've been thinking a lot about this whole organic thing, is it just a hype, just a ploy to get us to buy more expensive things in the hopes that they are better for us, or is it really legistic?

Everything from produce, baby wipes, baby food, even towels and sheets, are claiming to be organic. Is it really worth the extra money to buy all natural? After all we've been eating this way for years, it's ok to keep on, right? I 've even wondered how many companies are slapping on the label "Organic and all Natural" just to make an extra buck, are they really being truthful when they say that their product doesn't have preservatives or hasn't been exposed to pesticides?

Ok, now my opinion on it all. It has taken my a while to sort through all of this. I am by no means going to throw out all of my family's bedding to go buy Organic sheets from Pottery Barn. Neither am I going to purchase my children Organic pajamas from The Company Store. What I am doing is taking baby, more realistic steps toward that all-natural way of living. I have started buying organic milk and just reducing the amount that my children drink so that we don't end up spending $12.00/weekly just in milk. My kids eat plenty of yogurt and cheese so I'm not concerned about their daily calcium intake. I have also started buying eggs from someone out of town, they raise their own chickens, those eggs are just about as fresh and organic as you can get! And at $1.50/dozen, I think I'm getting a pretty good deal. I plan to implement the all-natural way of living a little more and more as I find things that I truly believe will be healthier for us and will impact our daily life.

Now, I would love to hear from all of you out there! Have you gone or are thinking about going organic and why? Do you think it is beneficial?

Blog under construction -

Edited to Add: Ok, I think I've gotten the new look put back together. I might add a few things in the future but for now I think I've spent my allotted time on the computer!

Don't be confused by all the different looks you'll probably see here today. In between deep-cleaning and extra organizing of my house today I'll probably be trying out a few different designs on here. Let me know what you think!

Things I've learned lately : (from experience)

1. A betta fish does not need fed every day, not even every other day. They seem pretty cool with food a couple times a week.

2. I never thought I'd ever be saying this, but we're actually excited about starting Kindergarten around here! I found a neat teachers's supply store the other day and picked up a few things, Tim is going to paint a chalkboard in the playroom this weekend, it's going to be so cute. I had the paint tinted blue, I'm anxious to try it out!

3. When the seeds on the pkg. say Giant pumpkin seeds, they aren't joking! A couple of pumpkins out in the garden look like they are ready to be picked right now, of course we know that they aren't. Tim and Brianna have dubbed the largest one, "The prize pumpkin"!

4. Once your 5 yr. old has lost the first tooth, the others seem to decide to let loose too! The other day she asked me if she was going to start talking funny, I told her not until she loses the front ones, which don't seem to be lose at the moment. Check back tomorrow!

5. Spaghetti and Tyler don't mix well. It's great going down, but well, not the much on the other end! Lesson learned!

Introducing -

My newest little nephew - Karter Franklin Eugene Dykes - born July 19, 2008. Weighing in at a healthy 9 lbs. (?) oz. and 22 inches long. He seems to be taking after the Dykes side of the family already in his height!

A very proud Big sister and Big brother look on as Karter gets a little TLCCongrats to my brother and sister-and-law, John and Lea, on the beautiful new addition!