Dinner and day 2

I am definitely not a chef, I can cook a few meals, the fave ten as my family likes to call it. Well really I can cook more than that but one night when my family was making fun of my cooking we came up with a list of the ten meals that my mom made growing up that my sister and I can both cook now.

To me its hard to come up with new things to cook. Yeah, yeah, I know how in this day and age with cookbooks, the Internet, and a little thing called Pinterest  which is a plethora of delicious looking photos with recipes attached on how to recreate them, can I have trouble finding things to cook?

Well a lot of those recipes call for odd ingredients that normal people dont have just hanging around in the cupboards. So I look for easier recipes with normal ingredients but most of our meals look just like this

Meat and vegetables, add a little seasoning and bam! A meal is made! It's pretty easy, doesn't require much prep, cooks for an hour, and dinner is ready. 

This is also day two of T25 and the speed workout was pretty awesome I specifically likes the stretching in between the moves. I think that really helped the soreness. 

Recipe- all adjustable add more chicken or veggies if you have more people to feed. 

Preheat oven to 350

2 chicken breasts (or how ever many you want) 

1 cup carrots 

1.5 cups of zucchini 

2 cups whole green beans

1/2 cup chicken broth if you have it. Water works as well.

2 tablespoons minced garlic (1 for each chicken breast.)

Original Mrs. Dash seasoning (however much you want.)

-Chop the zucchini into bite size pieces 

-you can cut the beans and carrots if you want 

-put all veggies in a baking dish

-pour in the chicken broth or water

-season chicken breasts with Mrs. Dash and garlic

-I put more garlic on my veggies because I like garlic

-place seasoned chicken breast on top of the veggies

-cover with foil and bake at 350 for an hour 

BAM! Easy healthy dinner! Remember every oven is different and eating raw or undercooked meat is not advised so check yours before you serve. Enjoy!

T25

A friend of mine is a beachbody coach and she and I often talk about our fitness journeys and how far we have come as well as where we want to go. She talked me into buying T25 and shakeology well; actually I was looking to buy something off of the Black Friday/Wednesday because it started on Wednesday.

                    Although T25 wasn't on the sale she gave me a deal that I just couldn't pass up. So here I am starting T25 and drinking shakeology. I have to admit that the first time that I made the shake I made it with water, too much water. When it recommends 8-12oz stick with 8 you'll thank me later. The second time I made it I made it with almond milk instead of water and I stuck to the 8oz.

I ordered the chocolate bag of shakeology and I think it's pretty alright when I mixed it with the almond milk. It will take some getting used to but I think that I can handle it. I also made some cucumber, lemon, and mint detox water in our old Brita water pitcher. It's also pretty refreshing.

          Especially while actually doing the T25 work out. Not counting that I spilled my first glass but hey no one needs to know that. The second glass was just as delicious. The first day/video was cardio and I think that I did pretty well for not having exercised in a very long time.

 I am realizing that weight loss doesn't mean that you are fit. I expected to have a lot more endurance for having lost as much weight as I have. I’m actually about 16 hours post workout as I'm writing this at work and my thighs are actually starting to hurt.

           I am looking forward to doing the workout tomorrow and then really stretching after maybe the kids and I will even catch a class at the YMCA while Ron sleeps. I feel like I have been really burnt out on work lately and I am excited to have two days off from work, more like two and a half days off really.

 I have some crafts planned for the kids and some dinner prep to work on for the next few days and of course I have tons of laundry to fold, as always. I am very much looking forward to just wearing some sweats and hanging out with the kiddos. Maybe I'll even catch up on some shows that I have let get by me since I started this new schedule.

Can I brag for a minute?

This is our amazing, smart, wonderful, evidently empathetic, 5 year old. Do 5 year olds know what empathy is? Let alone how to show it? She is really great she amazes me with all that she knows everyday and how easy going she is with her brother and how she approaches life. She will be an amazing young woman.

Thanksgiving, Christmas trees and Sparkle!

We had a great thanksgiving day with an amazing feast prepared by my mother in law. After the feast we sat down for a rousing game of LIFE, well not really rousing but it was fun. The kids really got into it and helped us spin for our turns and move our cars. They really thought it was funny when I landed on twins twice as well as having one single child and them not all fitting in my little car.

And the best family photo for the day. Ronnie was grouchy, it's not flattering for any of us but oh well I'm still crazy about our little family!

I was lucky enough to be off Thanksgiving as well as the two days previous. I had to return to work on Friday night for two nights. Work always ruining the weekend! This is the beginning of my yuck rotation so in between work days I was only off one day…Sunday… ..which we filled up! 

We went to Hurd Holley Farm where we picked out and cut down our Christmas tree. The kids loved being out on the tree farm, trekking through the woods, and posing for pictures. I do have to say that I was able to take some pretty nice pictures while we were there.

 

This beauty came home with us for the front door! ------>
 

We also swung by target and picked up some things for our tree because we weren’t exactly sure how well our lights were going to work this year on the tree they are pretty old. I’ve never seen so many choices for Christmas lights in my life! Indoor, outdoor, twinkling, flashing, green cord, white cord, regular bulbs, LED’s, big and small. Oh my! You’d think we were picking out a college for Evee with all the time we spent there looking and reading about all of the different styles.

They are some good looking guys wouldn't you say?

Finally we agreed on some bought them and got the heck out of Target before we went broke. It turned out that the three boxes of LED lights we purchased was not nearly enough for our ginormous tree. So we ended up having to use some of our old lights as well. Luckily some of our old non-LED lights still worked and I was just able to use those instead of running back out to Target.
 

So on with the decorating! Its really rather interesting to decorate with a 3 and 5 year old because they are just tiny compared to the tree. All of the decorations that they place are all in one spot and not above a few feet off the ground. Ron and I had to do a little ornament moving but it was a fun experience with the kids. Ronnie kept declaring "That's awesome!" about everything. It just melts my heart when they see something new that they are thrilled with. It brings such pleasure to me to show them something new. 

On December 1st Sparkle our Elf on the Shelf made her return journey to our house for the Christmas season. Look for future posts about all the antics that she performs around the house.

Cricut craft day!

Yesterday was Cricut craft day at our house. What is a Cricut you ask? A cricut is an electronic personal cutter! AKA the most amazing crafting tool ever! I have the original Cricut Expression personal cutter, since I bought my machine four years ago they have released a Cricut Mini which is a smaller and simpler machine and also the Cricut Expression 2 which is a new and updated version of the Cricut Expression. The Expression 2 also comes in a few different colors. I love to use my Cricut for paper crafting, scrap booking,card making, and even vinyl letters, shapes and such.

What inspired Cricut craft day is the lack of Thanksgiving decorations available in the commercial stores these days. We happen to think that Thanksgiving is a very noteworthy holiday here in the Abbay household and feel that decorations are an easy simple daily reminder of the holiday itself as well as everything that we have to be thankful for. So of course I started browsing Pinterest for awesome homemade decoration ideas and although I am no Martha Stewart I can craft with the best of them. So on our outing to Joann's and Micheal's the "staple" crafting stores here in town, the kids and I picked up all the necessary supplies to make a "Happy Thanksgiving" banner.

With all the supplies and my trusty Cricut I set out on a mission. I used the Celebrations cartridge in my Cricut to cut out the triangle banner base, set on 7". Then I used the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge to cut out the letters for HAPPY THANKGIVING, set at 2.75" and all capital letters. I used the Accent Essentials cartridge for the background leaves in various sizes and combinations. To tie it all together I just used some orange bakers twine from the pack I picked up a Micheal's and Ta-Da! we have a neat, easy,and simple, Thanksgiving banner.

Can I just say again how much I LOVE my Cricut?!?! Ron loves my Cricut too. I've cut him vinyl letters out for his hard hat at work, or shall I say hard hats and probably about 15 of his friends hard hats as well. The cricut machine is one of the things in our household that if it broke tomorrow we would go out and buy another right away. Not so much teh blender, waffle maker, popcorn popper, or microwave, but the Cricut, I'd have a spankin new one the same day. I highly recommend any level of crafter investing in a Cricut. It is going to be priceless for all of our school projects in the upcoming years.

IEP, 123, ABC

We got through our IEP meeting! Another weight lifted off my shoulders! Now just to take what they wrote and what we want and put them together to make an awesome education plan for Ronnie. 

I am very excited for Ms. Jones to be Ronnie's teacher. She seems very excited to work with Ronnie and assured me that she thinks we can meet our goal of Ronnie going to kindergarten IEP free. The occupational therapist (who's name I can't remember.) seems like she is on the same page as Ms. Christine our current occupational therapist. I think that this preschool is going to be a great fit for Ronnie. 

Lately we have been trying to ignore all of the Christmas decorations and such that have been plaguing the store since early October and teach the children more about Thanksgiving. After surviving the IEP meeting and getting a little rest in we went to pick Evee up from school and headed to the craft store to pick up some supplies to make some homemade Thanksgiving decorations. W got stuff to make felt  turkeys and supplies to make a Thanksgiving banner kind of like this.

This is my project for Sunday while the kids make the felt turkeys. I refuse to start decorating for Christmas this early. The children need to know the meaning of Thanksgiving. They need to be thankful for the things that they have, for the freedom of our country, for the basic freedoms that we take advantage of everyday. At our house Thanksgiving is a big deal.

Today I am thankful for...

Today I am very thankful for therapy days and getting 45 minutes of quiet time that I can sit and ponder things. There happen to be quite a few things that I am thankful for, not just today but everyday.

1. I am thankful for my family. Ron, the kids, my mom, dad, sister and brother. 

I learn new things from the kids everyday. Now smart they are, how much they care, even though they are a challenge they challenge our lives for the better. Ron, because things are a challenge everyday with life, our kiddos, Ronnie's needs and everything else we deal with but we continue to grow and learn about each other and life every single day. My family because they always sick by me and get me through the tough stuff, and that they always stand by me through the good stuff as well. For always being supportive, loving, and caring. 

2. That we have the means to make the life that we want. 

I'm thankful that we both have great jobs and love what we do and that we are able to provide each other and the children with the life that we want. I'm thankful that we have the means to get Ronnie  the help that he needs in therapy and school. I am thankful that we both get to work at night so that we can spend time with the kids when they are awake and home. 

3. I am thankful for hot food on cold days and warm clothes when its raining.

 I urge you to clan out your closets this season and donate the clothes you no longer want or wear, not to goodwill, but take the time to find a shelter, hospital, nursing home, somewhere in need of clothing. Don't donate last years cocktail dress, stilettos, or other items of the like. Donate that sweater you don't wear or doesn't fit. Donate that pair of jeans that doesn't fit you just right but you hold on to. Someone out there doesn't have the warm clothing that you do. 

I am thankful for so much more than I could ever put in to words. I am thankful for thanksgiving and down right irritated that I can't find any thanksgiving decorations at the stores to decorate our house with the kids, I am more than outraged by stores being open for shopping on thanksgiving day! The people who have to work at those stores on thanksgiving day have families who I am sure they would rather be with. I know. I worked retail for a few years. 

So before you go out there and shop on thanksgiving day, stop, think about all you're thankful for and have already. You do not need to rush out and buy a cheap tv, or an iPod, or a Barbie doll. You have a much to be thankful for already. Take the day and express how thankful you are to your family. Whether it be with a meal, a card, or a phone call from far away, let it be known what you are thankful for. 

Helping out a friend and karma in a good way

In August I accepted a new position at work. One that would take me off call and onto a regular set schedule. At our hospital when you work on call you get paid 15% more a hour in lieu of benefits and paid time off. Well two weeks ago I got a call from our HR department saying that when I accepted my new position they forgot to take that extra 15% off and that I have been getting paid extra for the last oh almost two months and I would need to pay it back. 

Well bam that puts a smack right in our holiday! Just about $700 I owed them back for something that wasn't my fault nor did I have any control over. You can believe that this left me fuming! But oh, that's ok, payroll has decided that they will take it out over the next 4 pay periods for you. Awesome! All 4 checks right before the holidays yay!  I contacted my union representative and put her on the issue because she agreed with me that it wasn't fair to make me pay back another persons mistake. More on this later.....

Another friend at work has a son who has some heart problems and will be heading to Southern California later this month so that he can undergo his second valve replacement surgery. I have organized a fundraiser for their family and a gift basket for him to help keep him busy during the month long stay. Our fellow employees have gotten together and donated a nice sum of money to help them out with costs while they are down there, as well as donated some paid time off to her so once she used all of hers she will have more paid time off instead of unpaid. I have put together the most awesome gift basket with Legos and games and such for her son all donated by fellow employees and myself. Right now I'm working on a hospital gown for him to wear during his stay to put in the basket. 

More on my work issue...yesterday I got a call from an HR manager acknowledging that it was their mistake for the error and that the one payment that I made to pay back the money was they only one I would be responsible for and that the next three would be forgiven and that I would not have to pay them another dime back towards it! So yay!!!! This made my entire day better. 

I am a firm believer in karma of all kinds and that the universe works in all ways. This just goes to show that its true!

Therapy, neurologist, a sleep study, I'm surprised I still have hair.

Things have been rather rough at our house lately. It seems that as Ronnie gets a little bit older our days are full of different struggles. Some of the new things we are dealing with are screaming, bitting, hitting, latching on to things, all out refusing to do things, especially eating. 

Everyday is such a hit and miss with how it's going to go that each one isn't a bit like the day before. A few months ago the OT and I talked about a sleep study to see if he is really sleeping well when he sleeps. So yesterday we went back to Mary Bridge neurology to consult on the sleep study and saw a wonderful neurologist named Dr. Makari. I was very impressed with the way that he listened to me and didn't brush off the things that I was saying. He did agree with me that a sleep study was a good next step for us and referred us to the sleep clinic. 

Now it's more hurry up and wait for the appointment while they collect everything they need from various Dr.'s that we have seen along the way. But as soon as they get those records we can get our appointment on the books!

In the mean time let's just hope I don't lose all of my hair! I have to remember that we will get there in the end and we are very lucky to be where we are today. 

It also helps that we live I. Such a beautiful state! Look at this picture I took on my way home from work the other morning, its simply breath taking. I love the cotton candy clouds of sun rides and sun sets in the PNW. Oh and a cute picture of the munchkin. 

Playing catch up...

To catch up the last two weeks happenings, Ronnie’s SPIO came in the mail on Tuesday and he hasn’t taken it off since then but to wash it one day. I find that it has been helping him sleep at night and he has even taken a nap a few days this week! So I think that so far it has been helpful. He did take it off again tonight so that I could wash it. I’m not sure that it’s really going to last for a year if he wears it all day everyday though. 

 On Halloween I made an appointment to take my car in to get some work done and when Ron picked me up we decided to stop at Truck Town and test drive a new truck. We’ve been talking about buying a new truck for him for a while, one that would actually fit our entire family. Come to find out that a bunch of people that my dad used to work with now work at truck town. The first trucks that we look at are Dodges and although we like the way they look they are really small inside. Then they showed us a GMC and it was very nice and roomy, so nice in fact Ron decided he wanted to take it for a test drive. He then liked it so much and liked the deal that they threw at us so much he decided to buy it. So we have a new truck now. It was so cute when we picked Evee up from school that day her and Ronnie had a cute conversation.

Ronnie- Evee we went to truck town today!

Evee- Wow! Was there a lot of trucks there?

Ronnie- Yeah! And a lot of cars too!

Trick or treating went very well this year. We went to our usual housing development and ended up with a bucket full of candy and saw tons of cool costumes. The kids even took a picture with an awesome minion costume. We all went home that night tired and ready for bed.

Feeling less than adequate.

Lately I have been feeling very inadequate at home. Really its nothing super major but the kids had McDonalds for dinner one night last week, the laundry is piling up, our house is just generally a mess, and the days just keep flying by. With work, sleep, or lack of because of all the appointments that have to be scheduled during the day I get to sleep for like 3 hours then I’m up for the day. 

 We did get some news about all the evaluations for Ronnie though. He scored a 77 on the paper test part. Which is basically a booklet of questions for me to answer about him, the school Occupational therapist said that she would be able to write her program off of the information that she already had from Ms. Christine at our outside therapy. I’m not completely sure how the speech therapist felt after our time with her. We have one more cognitive evaluation tomorrow in the morning and then all of the specialists and the teacher get together to score all of the evaluations. After they all talk and determine how to move forward we then schedule a meeting to talk and get on the same page to write his IEP. 

 I’m still not 100% sure what to think of it all. Although it’s happened really slowly, it’s actually really fast in my head with everything else that’s going on. I guess just wrapping our heads around all of it has been kind of overwhelming. So I am told that an IEP will be like the directions on how to get to our education goals. 

 I am thankful that I have a friend who has gone through this with her children and can help walk me through it all. Although she is now home schooling and that is working out way better for their family. I don’t know if homeschooling is the right path for us. So for now my goal is to finish this year and next year in the special education program and then for Ronnie to go to Montessori kindergarten like Evee does now. I do have a plan really I do, I have to have a plan or else I will go crazy. 

 I guess that I really shouldn’t feel as bad as I do about our messy house or, McDonalds for dinner. The kids are happy, growing, learning, and being kids. Feeding them McDonalds one night for dinner is actually probably the least of my worries. At least they actually ate it! Because they sure don’t eat the majority of what I actually cook! Definitely not the acorn squash I prepared the other night.

 Miss Evee saw the customary bin of squash at Fred Meyer and decided that we needed to take one home. So we picked out an acorn squash that was on the smaller side and it went home with us. Honestly it sat on the counter for a good week and a half before I actually decided to cook it. I cut it in half with a really sharp knife really I could have used a rubber mallet too, that sucker was hard to cut in half! Once I halved it I scooped the insides out like a cantaloupe as Evee said. I coated the inside with butter and brown sugar and sat the halves in a square glass baking dish with about ¼” of water in the bottom, then baked it at 350 degrees for an hour. To serve it I scooped the meat out with a spoon and served it. Really it was ok for a squash. I’m not a huge fan of the flavor of the meaty type squashes like that, but it was ok. I probably will not make it again though because the rest of the family didn’t like it.

The Pumpkin Patch.

So I should be sleeping for work tonight but I am just not tired! We went to the pumpkin patch yesterday and then out to dinner with some friends and their kiddos and we all had an awesome time. We went to Hunter Farms, the patch that we have gone to for the past 6 years. It’s a really nice farm, they have cattle, the pumpkin patches, a corn maze, and various gardens. When you get there you pay to get in and then you get a tractor hay ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick your pumpkins. After you have them all chosen you load them back up on the hay ride and go back to the main barn. This year has been really weird for crops and such and we found that most of the pumpkins that were left in the fields were already rotten. But we went walking around looking anyway and found a couple good little ones to take home but we found our two big pumpkins right at the beginning of the field where they put a bunch of the good ones that they cut already and drug out of the field.

After we returned to the barn to pay for the pumpkins there is a bunch of animals to look at. Sheep, rabbits, chickens, pigs and even a creepy looking emu. We walked all through the animals and then the kids played in the hay maze. They loved going down the slide. 

Ron and I went to go look at the general store for some fresh produce and found huge tomatoes, a huge head of cauliflower, and yummy white corn. They were also having a salsa tasting while we were there and of course we bought two jars. It was really good homemade salsa. 

By now we are all starving so the plan was to head to Smokin Mo’s for lunch. Smokin Mo’s is this amazing BBQ place that we love to go to in Shelton and it was only 12 miles away from the patch so uh yeah we are totally going!! My favorite thing about Smokin Mo’s is that the meat is sauce-less so you get to choose how much and what kinds you want. I am not a fan of BBQ that is smothered in so much sauce that you don’t taste any of the flavor of the actual meat itself and the flavor at Mo’s is amazing! 

 All in all it was a great day, we left the restaurant stuffed and loaded down with pumpkins to carve.

 

One tired mama!

This week has been very challenging at our house. It actually started last week when Evee got sick at school and spent a couple days home. Now Ron has had it this week starting on Sunday. Luckily it hasn't hit Ronnie and I as hard as it has the other two....yet. I'm waiting really just waiting, because I work every day but one this next week and have multiple appointments during the day some days, I will for sure get the worst of the cold right in the middle of my busy week.

This Monday we were supposed to have our evaluation with the school district. It was Columbus Day, I thought for sure she made a mistake and we weren't supposed to actually go on Columbus Day. I mean Evee was out of kindergarten and none of the other schools had school, so I was for sure that we must have made a mistake in scheduling and she would call us on Tuesday and say sorry and schedule. Well boy was I wrong! 15 minutes after sitting down for lunch the teacher called us to see where we were. Crap! I profusely apologize because now I feel horrible. We have waited so long for this evaluation and there I go missing it completely! Luckily she was understanding and rescheduled us for as early as possible, which was this morning at 9:30.

Yay!!! We had our first evaluation this morning! We met with the school speech therapist, the school psychologist, the preschool psychologist, and special education preschool teacher. The school occupational therapist wasn't able to be there today. We scheduled appointments next week to do further evaluation with the school psychologist and the Speech therapist, that's good I think? After we all talked the preschool teacher had me fill out some standardized booklets to score Ronnie, kind of the same was Ms. Christine did for OT in the beginning. She played with Ronnie while I did this and I'm sure doing further evaluation of him. She noticed that he likes to sprawl all over the floor without me saying anything, and pretty much agreed with me that that is just a battle not to fight. Hey if the floor is clean, whatever makes him happy! So this up-coming week we will go back for more evaluations that will help with deciding placement and possible IEP writing. YAY!! For progress getting Ronnie help!  

Miss Evelynne has her very first field trip this Wednesday. Her class is going to the pumpkin patch. I'm excited for her to get to ride the bus since I haven't let her at all yet this school year. So I am sure that it will be fun for her, I'm also almost positive that she will come home wanting to ride the bus to and from school and I dont know if I'm ready for that!

Awesome, amazing, back to school pictures!

For Evee's first day of school we wanted some special photos to help us remember the day forever so I enlisted the help of a friend who has an eye behind the lens to rival many. Wesley at Penumbra Productions #penumbrapro is amazing to work with and has an exceptional creative personality that makes him a pleasure to work with. I cant say enough good things about him and his work. I am in love with our photos and will remember the amazing memories he created for us for years and years to come.

I also saw an idea on Pinterest #pinterest +Pinterest Fan Page to order a shirt in a size that an adult would wear and take a picture of your child in it every first day of school and last if you wanted, to show how they grow each year. The idea is that when they are a senior in high school that the shirt will fit for the last first day of school picture. So I ordered up a shirt from #zoeysattic on Etsy and had it personalized with Evelynne's name and graduation year. You can purchase your very own here Zoeys attic. I paid the extra $5 to have it be a woman's fitted shirt instead of a regular tshirt. 

You can see in the last picture that it was super cute and I have no doubt that the shirt will last the next 12 first days of school. Ron was even excited about the idea too. He was telling friends about it before it even got here.

Life update!

Yay for another down time night! Not really, it’s such a pain in my butt to do downtime at work. I’ll be so happy when we go to epic and we won’t have to deal with stupid downtime. 

Updates in the life of us are, we FINALLY have an appointment for special education pre-school! It only took two months and a ton of paper shuffling. So this up-coming Monday after therapy we will go to the elementary school and met the special education teacher. I have to say that I am a little scared of the whole process. I’m really hoping that all goes well and they don’t fight me much about him going. Especially now that the behaviorist told us that he wasn’t going to be able to see us because his case load was too much. It’s frustrating because something like sensory processing disorder isn’t as recognized as a lot of other disorders like, ASD, ADHD, ADD, and or OCD. 

So Monday can’t come fast enough for us. I also am getting very worn out very fast from the sleep/work schedule that having Ronnie home creates for us and my new work schedule rotation one day off then doing a stretch of four nights just is taking its toll on me. I’m ready to get into a schedule that is easier on all of us.

 Ms. Evee is getting ready to go on her first field trip to the pumpkin patch with her kindergarten class and hopefully it will be at a time where one of us will be able to go with her. I’m going in to talk to her teacher to see about helping in her classroom once in a while. Evee has been sick the past two days with something in her sinuses. She sounds funny when she talks and says that her throat hurts. I’m guessing that it will pass in a couple days. She just feels miserable and it makes me feel bad for her so I let her stay home from school. 

Made it through another downtime night yay!

It's coming up fast!

Things are a bit challenging around our house these days. With Evee getting ready to start kindergarden (where did the time go!?!?!?) and Ronnie reverting back to almost the way he was when he was a baby but in a more vocal way now that he is three, things in our daily life are pretty interesting.

I'm very excited for Evee to go to kindergarden the year. We are blessed to not only have free all day kindergarden in our school district but to have so,e other specialty programs as well. There is the Spanish immersion program that they offer at Navel ave., the STEM academy offered at West Hills (science technology engineering and math), the Montessori program that is also offered at the West Hills site, and Crownhill elementary school which k just an award winning elementary school year after year. 

As you can Imagine with all of these wonderful choices how the heck were we supposed to choose one? Ron and I thought long and hard about it, spent a long time talking about it, we of course didn't want to pick the wrong school for her that would surely mess her up forever! We chose the West Hills site but instead of the STEM program we chose the Montessori program. I went to a Montessori school for preschool and my brother and sister did as well. It's a very hands on, free play, less structure, learn tons environment that we think Evee will thrive in. 

Another interesting thing is that both schools at the West Hills site are strictly uniform dress code. We have been having an interesting time finding some uniform pieces in an area that doesn't have but two schools with that kind of dress code.

Last night we attended a meeting of the Bremerton Montessori Parents Association, which is kind of like PTA just for the Montessori parents. It was a nice meeting and I really look forward to being able to participate in a close knit group who is actually very involved in their child's education. 

 

Down time.

Tonight is my very first ever downtime at work. That means that our entire computer ordering, charting, etc. is down for three whole hours tonight. We are back to paper charting and faxing orders to various departments in the hospital.

It’s very interesting to have to do everything like this. It makes me like our computer program even though it has tons of flaws. At least it finally gives me some time to update the blog!

Ronnie has been put back on the waiting list for speech/discharged for now but we also have started OT for his sensory processing disorder. We are seeing a wonderful therapist named Christine who really listens to what I have to say and is really working with Ronnie and us as parents to try to make our daily life run a little smoother. It doesn’t have to be perfect but less fits and easier transitions would make a world of difference.

One of the first things she has tried to some compression clothing made by SPIO. They are almost like a wet suit kind of clothing that provides a consent pressure to his entire body kind of feels like a hug all the time. They have also been working on doing things that make him feel his body like a lot of big play and crashing into things and such. Ms. Brenda said that getting him for speech after he has spent time with Ms. Christine for OT she has noticed a difference in how he can concentrate better, seems calmer, and can sit still for longer.

Its progress in a long list of things we are all working on but, hey progress is progress.

Evee will be starting kinder garden in just a few short weeks which is HUGE. She will be going to a school that requires a uniform so earlier today we went and picked up some things for her wardrobe. I have been picking up pieces here and there but today we mostly finished it. Black, blue, white, and tan are the colors that she is allowed to wear to school with any kind of shoes she would like. It’s so weird to think that she is going to be gone all day to school! The school she is going to offers a free all day Montessori kinder garden so when registration opened I hurried and got her on the wait list for that program. A few short weeks later I heard from the school district that she was pulled off of the wait list to be in the Montessori program. Yay! Wasn’t it just yesterday that I was in labor with her? That we were bringing her home from the hospital after having to stay there a week? Time seems to just fly by. Before we know it Ronnie will be starting kinder garden himself.

I have also taken a full time permanent position as the over night ER Health Unit Coordinator as well as keeping my ER Tech per diem position. I am very excited to finally have some set hours and a schedule that will stay mostly the same. My hours are 22:00p-06:30a so it works out nicely with Evee going to kinder garden all day I can sleep while she is in school.

The kids both went to the lunch bunch summer preschool at the Sycamore Tree this June and July. For Evee this was her third summer going to lunch bunch as well as during the school year preschool at the sycamore tree, Ronnie on the other hand, this was his first school experience ever. I do have to say that he did quite well and I always got excellent reports from the teachers about him. But I could tell that by the end of the two and a half hours it was just to much for him to have to focus and sit still with the other students for story time and such. Which has led me to consult with Ms. Brenda and Ms. Christine to get their opinion on a different preschool that would be more suited to Ronnie’s specific sensory and behavior needs. I just don’t feel like I can send him to a regular school where he would be forced to focus and sit down and not be able to wiggle and do the things that he really has no control over needing to do with his body. So I have contacted the school district about getting him evaluated for special services preschool. It’s a preschool through the school district that has PT, OT and, a speech therapist all on staff and people who know how to deal with SPD and the things that Ronnie needs better than a run of the mill preschool would. I just want to exercise every resource I can to make his day to day life as easy as possible for him to process and I think that a special ed type preschool will do that.

So many things have happened in just a short time I didn't realize! 

FitBit

On Tuesday I started Insanity at home because I just couldn't drag myself to the gym. I should have just went to the gym! I was so sore from just the fit test! On Wednesday I decided to tackle day one of Insanity, I was still so sore from the fit test but I got through it. It was hard, and it sucked but I got to the end. Then on Thursday I decided to just go to the gym and hour on the adaptive motion trainer and I was beat. I find that really the only was to become un-sore from working out is to either A) workout some more, B) do yoga. Well since there wasn't any evening yoga classes the AMT it was for me. It really did feel good, really it did, or at least I'm telling myself that it did.

Now back to reason I sat down to actually write this post.....

I got a FitBit! Whats a FitBit your asking? and why would I need it? Well its this amazing pedometer, sleep tracker, food tracker, calorie tracker, stair step tracker, man I don't think that there is a thing that it doesn't do! It was only $99.99 and I picket it up at my local Best Buy . In the package it comes with everything you need. The module, silicone case with clip, and the sleep strap to wear when you're sleeping. I decided it was something that I needed to invest in because I was doing all of this hard work I wanted somewhere to keep track of all of my progress.

To start you sync the module to your Ipad, Iphone 4s or above, computer, etc. There is an app for the apple devices, I cant say if there is for any of the other sync able devices because mine are apple. So I downloaded the app for my Ipad and it found my now little module right away and I got started setting it up. The setup was way easy and I was done with it maybe three minutes, module synced, info entered, and ready to go.

I started off with the sleep cycle because by the time I actually got time to sit down and sync my new toy it was about the same time to go to sleep. For sleep mode you slide the module in the sleep band that comes in the package and then wear it around your wrist. To put your FitBit in sleep setting you push the button so that the flower shows up on the display, then just wear the band all night. Friday morning I literally jumped out of bed to check my sleep pattern on the app. It said I was awake/restless 17 times! The first little bit i could see was because I was restless going to sleep and then the part before I officially woke up because I woke up before My alarm went off, but all the time in between holy cow! I thought I had slept pretty well! Low and behold I was a lot more restless than I had ever though. No wonder I feel so tired everyday.

Today marks the end of my second night wearing the FitBit to sleep and I only was restless/awake 8 times. That is a mass improvement from the night before, but I still had a restless period between about 03:00 and 05:00.

So far I am loving having the FitBit. While I am wearing it I don't notice it at all and I love being able to track my food, weight, water, steps, calories, distance, and sleep all in one handy app. The only downside is that it doesn't sync with my Iphone 4. Iphone 4s is the oldest software supported. The app will update though whenever I sync with my Ipad, so while at work I just enter my water and food intake on the app on my phone and it updates it to my Ipad as well.

I would highly reccomend the FitBit to anyone at any fitness level, from just wanting to track your steps daily all the way to the experienced daily 10 mile runner.

First Insanity fit test results.

Uh yeah there is a reason that this workout is called Insanity it is crazy insane! I made it through the fit test and almost had a coronary but survived! These are my results.....

Switch kick- 73
Power jack- 21
Power knees- 63
Power jump- 25
Globe jumps- 6
Power jumps- 8
Push up jacks- 3
Low plank obliques- 15

I will do this fit test again in two weeks to see how the workouts have been helping! Hopefully I can get Ron to do it to and Ill post his results.

"Green" Lawn care

We have a yard that is pretty over run with weeds and I am sick of it, but with two little children and a string of 70 degree days how can i even think about dousing my lawn in weed killer? So I turned to Pinterest to find a greener approach to weed killing. I found a recipe that I had all the ingredients for just laying around the house.

Fill a spray bottle up with white vinegar
add a generous squirt of regular blue dawn dish soap
add 2 Table spoons of sea salt (Regualr table salt will be fine if you dont have sea salt.)
Shake spray bottle a little to mix all together but not really hard because it will make it really foamy

I then put my spray bottle on the stream setting (not mist) and headed out to the lawn to start spraying weeds! I sprayed them and then left for a couple hours, and by the time I got back these weeds were dying if not dead already! So I whipped up another batch and headed back otuside.

This time it seemed like the weeds died even faster. My reccomendation would be to spray them in the morning and then by noon the sun would have cooked the heck out of them and they will be on their way to, well where ever weeds go.

This mixture worked so well that we went to Costco and got 2 more gallons of vinegar so that I could fill up the spray backpack with the mixture and I wasnt continuosly squeezing the spray bottle. This mixture worked great in the spray backpack and it was way easier on my hand. I will need probably about 4 more gallons.

The only down fall is that it kills (well I don't know if it kills it for sure just deadens so far) the surrounding grass as well. I think that after Ron mows the lawn and the weeds are gone I will use the Dr. Earth organic lawn fertilizer and it will hopefully bring us a nice plush lawn. 

Topsy Turvy Planter Tutorial

Items you will need-

1- 1/2" piece of rebar (mine came in a 10ft piece we cut 2.5 feet off)
1- 10" clay pot 
3- 8" clay pots
2- 3 or 4" clay pots 
2- Bottles of an outdoor worthy spray paint (you might need more if using bigger or more pots)
1- Large bag of potting soil
20ish- Of your favorite flowers (I got a few pony packs with the 6 in them and then a couple singles)
1- Larger flower for the top pot (if you want)

I started by taking my Valspar out door spray paint and pots to an area away from the kids, house and cars to paint each of them inside and out.

                                                        This particular Valspar brand of outdoor pain was very easy to work with and the spray nozzle and cap were very nice.

I really like the yellow!

We cut roughly 2.5ft off of our 10ft piece of 1/2" rebar with the sawsall, then took that rebar to the place where I wanted the planter and started working/pounding it into the ground. We could twist it a little bit of the way and then we got out my step ladder and rubber hammer to pound it in the rest of the way. I held on to the rebar its self to steady it while Ron pounded and it went in a lot smoother than when I wasnt holding it. I suggest you wear gloves when holding it. We pounded so that about 3 feet was in the ground.

After the rebar was pounded into the ground it might still feel a little wobbly to you but that is ok. As you add the pots and soil it will start to feel sturdier.

 Next I started feeding the pots on to the rebar through the hole in the bottom. I filled the bottom pot with soil and then fed one of the 3" pots on to the rebar but gave it a tilt and then filled it with soil as well.

Keep doing this with each of the pots until the top of your rebar is buried in the last pot, my last pot is a 3" pot because I wanted to put one big flower in it instead of many little ones but it doesn't have to be. As you go up the rebar tip each pot the opposite way of the one below it to get the topsy turvy look.

Then continue to fill each pot with soil and you should feel the structure starting to stabilize and be less wobbly.

The next thing to do is to start adding your plants. I got a few different kinds. Some of mine will be trailing and will spill out the sides of the pots as they grow and some will not. I picked some pansies, verbena, petunia's and for the top a Gerber daisy. Many of these are available in what they call pony packs which is a pack that has 6 plants of the same flower in the package. More bang for your buck with those! I also got some on sale at Lowe's for $1.25 a pack.
       
I am really happy with how it turned out and encourge you to make one of your own! It was very easy to make!

Two weeks!

I can't believe that it's been two weeks since I've written anything! So much has happened in two weeks! We decided that the windows in our house needed to be replaced and set up consults with Lowes and Sears to come and give us estimates on how much it would be to get them replaced. We decided that the value and warranty was better with Sears and decided to have them complete the project for us. So now we are just waiting for them to come and take the measurements and our windows will start to be built!

Ron and I both joined the 12 week program at the YMCA, which is a free program where they help guide you in some workouts that meet your goals. The first thee weeks are focused on cardio, the next three focuses on weights targeting the large muscle groups and the final three weeks focus on smaller muscle groups bringing it all together for a well rounded 12 weeks of workouts. So far we completed our first week and things are going well.

My seedlings are almost all sprouting now and growing like crazy! We have had a couple really warm days and I think that they gave them a real boost. I picked up bigger biodegradable post for them so I can transplant them when they get a bit bigger, I also picked up some organic fertilizer today that they will get when I transplant them. I'm loving the pots because after this transplant I can just pop the pots right into the garden and they will compost up and keep on growing. We also got the trellis up and the posts into the ground, now just to add the screws and make the netting then it will be all ready to go when the plants start growing.

We have also been trying to clean up outside around the house and do some landscaping so that the outside looks better when we get the windows put in. Ron has been working really hard at digging up all the old bushes and weeds and grass or whatever else was growing. We chose three hydrangea bushes and picked them up at Costco for pretty cheap for the size of them.mi think that we also decided on some sort of rose bush as well but haven't picked one out yet. I think a trip to one of the bigger nursery's will be in order to pick one out.

My mom and I both decided to tackle a project that I saw on Pinterest, a topsy turvy flower planter. I have no idea if that's actually what it's called but it turned out great! I took pictures through the entire making of it and my next post will be a tutorial on how you can make one of your very own.

My training for my new job is almost finished, two days is all I have left then I will be in charge and on my own. It's kind of scary but very exciting! I've worked so hard for a long time now to actually be in a position that puts to use all of the stuff I have gone to school to learn for the past almost four years to learn is just amazing!

Gastroenterologist

What a word! Kinda glad that isn't my job title! Today we went to see Dr. Abdullah, he is now known as "the belly doctor" at our house. We used to see him a lot when Ronnie was little and had really bad reflux but now since the reflux has resolved we only see him when I'm concerned about something. Lately I had been concerned about Ronnie's height to weight ratio because he is so skinny! We are in the 42% for height and 32% for weight, both of which are vast improvements from what we had been in the past. My concern was how Ronnie eats, or how little he actually eats. It never seems like its very much or even at all, which is concerning because "the belly doctor" had told me before that if kiddos are still experiencing reflux they might not eat because it still hurts and although because he isn't projectile vomiting doesn't mean that there isn't some reflux still going on. Dr. Abdullah must have though it wasn't necessarily reflux but something else so he sent us for so e blood work, a CBC, CMP, and a vit D level and, also prescribed a medication to boost his appetite because although Ronnie has not an ounce of fat on him, as the summer months come closer and he is more active he doesn't have anything to loose either. Cyproheptadine or periactin is what he prescribed for us to try. I think we might wait till Monday after speech school to start it. I want to talk to miss Brenda about it since she works with kiddos and feeding daily.

The second half of our day was spent gathering information on schools for Evelynne to attend kindergarden. I never knew that it would be such an overwhelming choice. Regular kindergarden, Montessori, Spanish immersion, STEM academy. What every happened to just going to school? Taking your folder, pack of stickers, and a box of Kleenex to the teacher on the first day and that's the start of school. I think that we are going to start with Montessori and if we don't get in (because there is a waiting list) our second choice is maybe the STEM academy, not dead set on that yet though. When Ron gets home from work tonight we will talk about it more and probably make a final choice then. Where did the last 5 years go?

My days off always end way to soon. I am excited for work tomorrow though! So I'm going to lay here watch some mindless tv and hopefully go to sleep early enough that I don't feel like a truck ran me over tomorrow. Oh and enjoy a blue moon.

YED

Today was our yearly education day in the ER. We learned a bunch of nonviolent techniques to deescalate potential harmful situations as well as some nonviolent ways to get out of controlling positions when a person has laid hands on you, other wise known as some nonviolent self defense techniques. I found it to be very informative as well as helpful in situations other than just at work. Then the second half was focused on pediatric emergencies, which I found very informative because sometimes emergencies involving children are not as clean cut as adult emergencies. Our guest speaker was a retired flight nurse and she was a plethora of valuable information. I had a great time at my first official ER training.

Tomorrow we are heading over to Mary Bridge to see our gastroenterologist and get a check up. I've been a tad concerned about Ronnie's weight and height and how much of a picky eater he really is. So I am consulting our GI for his opinion. Then after that appointment is......

THE KINDERGARDEN FAIR!!! Oh my gosh I can not believe that it is time to register our little girl for KINDERGARDEN! Where In the heck did the time go? So tomorrow we will go to the district building and check out all of the representatives from all of the schools, because there are four of them that we could easily send her to, and hopefully we will find the one that is the right fit for Evee and our family.