mis-heard

I just mis-heard something... and maybe it's TMI for the reader who is easily embarassed... so - sorry if I offend...

What did I hear?

My husband was making himself a snack in the kitchen, while I'm on the couch working and listening to American Idol... and what I think I hear him say is:

Big E (oldest son - nearing puberty, who told me about his two zits today and how that's part of puberty) is concerned about penis hair.

I almost choked. I said "what? he told you that? are you serious? when did he mention that he was concerned about....."

What did he really say??? After we laughed at my mistake in hearing.... he ACTUALLY said...

Big E is concerned about PHOEBES hair..... {Phoebe is our dollface Persian cat, who is matted and needs a shave and grooming}

Wow - I REALLY got that wrong!

giveaway

I just completed an entry for a giveaway... and I'm adding a link to the it here so I can get additional entries!! I love the idea of this product!!

25 things

I've been tagged on this on Facebook a couple of times... and decided to post my reply here. You're supposed to write 25 random facts, goals, habits, etc., about yourself and then 5 or more people to do the same.

I tag, Julie over at coolmomguide, Heather at ItSpewsForth, Jennifer, Amy, and Ryan at cooldadcentral.

25 things about me

1. My first car was a VW Beetle. My brother wrecked it for me.... so I never actually got to drive it! I had a sweet personalized tag for it that said "SARAH2-2" because I once took ballet... I guess that was payback enough for his wrecking it. He had to drive it with that tag on it.

2. I started working a 'real' job as soon as I was of legal age, prior to that I babysat some children that went to our church, or worked little odd jobs at the church office, or for a local business office with filing or key entry. I never felt like my parents were mean for requiring that I work in order to pay for gas, etc., for the car I drove (and also helped pay for!)...

3. I've only had 4 jobs in my life (and have been working since 15.5 legally - that was when 'work permits' were issued!), and worked at each place for no less then 2 years. The longest employment was 8 years, and I still work for them.... just from home, independently.

4. When I was little, I wanted to be Wonder Woman. Somedays, I still do.

5. Growing up I was a Prissy Tom Boy.. I say that because I'd play chicken w/ my brothers on REAL motorcycles... and I had a hard time being the chicken. I climbed trees, shot bb guns, and had no problems at all keeping up with the big boys.... but I did tend to love my dolls, cabbage patch kids, and ballet slippers. I guess it was a good mix.

6. I have never been overseas - but want so bad to go to Ireland, England, and Greece. Maybe someday.

7. I love Capn Crunch... and Im not ashamed.

8. The first car I 'financed' was a red Geo Storm. And I rocked it. HA.

9. I was named after Hall&Oates Smile Sarah... most people who know my family think there was some deep biblical meaning behind my name. But really, it was all about Hall&Oates.

10. I am a preachers kid (number 9 makes more sense now, right?)

11. I know more about automobiles then the average man.... not bragging, it's just true. I work for Ford and Toyota, and once worked for Goodyear - and it's sortof a prerequisite. I do administrative work and it requires my being familiar...

12. I'm quite frugal - most wouldn't know it but it's so... just ask Julie, and Jennifer....and my husband. HA.

13. I like pimento cheese.

14. I also like dipping Wendy's fries in a Wendys Jr. Frosty.... HA - the inner child in me will live FOREVER.

15. I didn't weigh over 100 pounds until after I turned 23, not sure why - genetics, metabolism, etc. I tried my best to gain weight, and never could... sometime around 23 my metabolism changed!

16. I had chicken pox twice, and the 2nd time was 2 weeks before my Junior prom. That rocked. Thank goodness for Glamour Shots makeup!

17. I didn't go to my Senior Prom - I went to the beach with friends instead.

18. I almost became a widow at 29. A miracle happened, and my husband survived a massive heart attack and triple bypass surgery - 5 short months later we had another miracle to be thankful for - we were pregnant!

19. I'm living proof that the .01% chance of becoming pregnant while on birth control is not a lie. (see #18)

20. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a Veterinarian.

21. My vision is so poor that if I'm not wearing my contacts, in order to read something, it LITERALLY has to be pressed to my nose to read it. No Joke. My contacts prescription is -8.50 and my glasses are so thick AFTER the super thin lens option that I still get wise cracks like 'you could burn ants with those things'...

22. I love funnel cakes. I haven't had one in several years... but MAN they're good!!! Thank goodness they're not regularly available... I'd be a fatty.

23. I have never rode a Ferris Wheel. They scare the heck out of me... but I've rode pretty much everything else there is at a theme park!

24. What scares me? The thought of something happening to my kids, petifiles, cancer, heart disease, and anaphalaxys. Otherwise, I'm not very fearful.

25. The best and worst things I've experienced in my life.... best - becoming a mother.... worst - losing my brother.

thanks US Mail!

To anyone of the 75 people we sent a Christmas card too.... we did NOT send it after Christmas!!!

Interestingly enough, my uncle just received his YESTERDAY!! I also received 3 back last week for address correction....

I'd love to know the post dates on the cards that arrived this week.... the ones I received back are post dated 01.09.09!! Maybe they got lost in the drop box I put them in, who knows! I sent ALL of them at the same time!

Next year I suppose I'll send them out at Thanksgiving to ensure delivery by Christmas!!

comfort food swap

Life As Mom is having a comfort food recipe swap! I posted this one back in November, and thought I'd post it again. It's become a family treat! We do our best to modify it to make it 'less fatty'.... fat free cream, fat free evap. milk, low sodium chicken stock.

Click HERE for the recipe link!!

Enjoy!!

book review: The Last Child in the Woods

"Healing the broken bond between our young and nature is in our self-interest, not only because aesthetics or justice demand it, but also because our mental, physical, and spiritual health depend upon it."—from "Last Child in the Woods," by Richard Louv.

I finished reading Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder. It really is eye opening when you think about it... when WE were kids, we played outside until our parents BEGGED us to come in!! I remember playing outdoors with mud pies, climbing trees with my brothers, going fishing with cane poles, finding leaves and acorns, using a magnifying glass to discover, and creating my own outdoor adventures. There was no sidewalk chalk in my childhood! I've fell into the trap as a parent. We're reversing our ways, we're taking more time as a family outdoors.

We're down to egg timers on TV and Xbox time... and it's very minimal. I remember watching cartoons on Saturdays and Sundays, and as a preschooler I would watch Mr. Rogers or Captain Kangaroo in the mornings on weekdays after breakfast...after that brief TV time, I remember a day filled with endless possibilities of imagination in the yard, or doing things with my mom, or playing in my room on rainy days. We V-Chip the TV upstairs to only allow 'decent' cartoons and educational children's TV or we will watch Discovery or Science together as a family after dinner on rainy days. Our kids do NOT have TV's in their rooms... I hope we're on the right track. Living in the city, without a huge yard and woods, we're being as creative in our endeavors as possible. Most children I've personally talked to (neighbors, friends at school, and kids at the church) DO watch more TV then play outdoors and/or with their parents.... so we're really encouraging our kids to be a little 'different' these days!

snowy day

The snow was pretty while it lasted! I guess we ended up with about 2 inches total. The boys played outside for a bit this morning, it was so very windy and cold!!

what's been going on...

Not much, I've been doing some serious catching up on work after the 2 week long adventure with little J's virus. Thankfully no-one else in the house got it!! I thought I was catching it, and may have had a tiny touch of it, but it was only 2-3 days for me. Otherwise, we're fortunate we passed that one by.

A few random things from our interesting lives....because I haven't been 'into' blogging lately. (been more into taking care of the sick, catching up with my work, and my health... oh - and in my bath, reading books as often as possible - HA!)

• I officially missed 2 of my families Christmas gatherings, because of that stupid virus, but I'm not bitter we'll make it up sometime hopefully... we did get a little time w/ my family (just E and I) I don't think the parents of 10 other small kids would have appreciated the virus.


• little J is becoming such a little 'guy'... conversations are becoming 'conversations' and it's weird and wonderful all at the same time.


• big E moved from a 7.5 to an 11.5 reading level in AR... this means he's reading at a grade level equivalent of an 11th grader... and we're proud for him! he's helping other students in his class who struggle with their reading skills.


• little J turns 3 in just over a week... that's unbelievable...


• it was 5 degrees here last night


• our dryer broke... $162.00 later, it turns out a 29.00 belt was the deal... but there was no way we could have fixed it ourselves so that's that.


• while the dryer was broke, I hung close in to dry (yes, IN) on our banister... thank goodness no one came by to see our undies lined up the 2 sets of stairs!!


• little J has some creative language substitutions for words... gas (sorry) is grass... ?? and kiss... is piss. funny huh? give me a piss? I think its hilarious. he says kiss on occasion, but mostly defaults to piss. oh well.... there could be worse things he says....


• worse things he says : holy crat (holy CRAP) because I said that once when I slammed on brakes recently and it stuck with him. now, everytime I have to tap the brakes the slightest to stop quick, he says 'holy crat'... we're doing our best to ignore it and hope that it goes away. we've tried telling him to say 'oh goodness' but that has it's own story. I'll take my mother of the year award now, thanks.

• I do think that little J wants to be just like his big brother most all of the time... sometimes big E gets frustrated w/ that... but the video below I call "copycat" is too funny to us.... little J mimics every word and sound that big E makes during video game time. When big E plays game, it's usually for only about 30 min each day and that's before little J's bedtime. Little J wants to sit beside his brother and participate somehow... we always think it's fun to watch how he focuses on big E's every move.

That's about it for us for this week.

I plan to get back into blogging someday soon. I need to journal in order to remember stuff!

book review: Creative Family

I wanted to do a quick review of "the creative family", by Amanda Blake Soule; her blog has been inspiring me for a little under 6 months now so I can't wait to see what the book has in store for ideas of simple crafts and activities for the family.

A quote from the book, and it hits home. I'm not going to make it seem as if I have it 'together' all the time, I could stand some improvement in this area!

"A sad product of our modern world is that our children are taught early on to over consume and want more, more and more. Chances are that they do not need more toys, but fewer. When there are too many things around, there's little room for imagination. "

I'm guilty, and plan to manage this better! I started already by using storage bins to rotate toys. I went to target and grabbed some 10gallon bins and seperated toys into 'themes' and he LOVES getting a new tote each day!

overheard

by little J: "Percy, play nice or timeout."..... pause and playing.... "ok Percy, timeout, 1-2-3".....

I sure hope Percy plays nice next time...

Four Years!!

It's been 4 years since Jonathon's heart attack and heart surgery!!! Hard to believe four years. He's been keeping up with doctors orders, and so far has been told he's right on track with everything!

Last year I posted some details about that day... I can close my eyes and remember every last detail like it were yesterday. We're so grateful that he was in the right place at the right time and that all of the necessary people paid very close attention.

So, with that being said... you should go get your cholesterol checked. My husband is living proof that you don't have to be obese, or even eat really bad, to have heart disease... we didn't eat too terrible before this happened - it was genetics that played the role in his case.

A new year...

Here's a photo from New Years Day when we went out to the airport for a break... it seems like every other day has been a sick day for this little guy with this nasty stomach virus. This day he was feeling a little better and wanted to see the airplanes. It did us all some good to get out of the house...

He's planning out his new years resolutions... that's my guess.

Below: A little video of little J saying Happy New Year to all....

grinch

Dear Blog... you may have wondered why I've abandoned you... well, here's the deal. I've been hanging up my Internet blogging during the holidays - I guess that's the obvious part. I will catch up on the photos of that soon (I did upload to smugmug, notice the date finally changed on that link to the right) and I'll post some of the 'what we did during the holidays' soon enough....

This week has been filled with crazy schedule changes, time with my family (husband was off 1/2 day Weds - Friday) and then the grinch that stole Christmas came to visit us late... how is that possible you may ask, well here's how: MY family did Christmas THIS weekend, it's just the way scheduling worked best for everyone. The grinch = the FREAKIEST stomach virus EVER! Little J got hit with it. Thurs night middle of the night woke up puking (sorry for that, but it's how it goes) did that for about 2 hours and then was fine... all day the next day - FINE. Then, Friday night, midnight - blam, puking again and the OTHER TOO.... 2am-5am, sick boy. Then the next day FINE AGAIN!!!! Saturday was planned w/ my dad - 20+ people to attend. We didn't go, husband and I both cleaned puke and the OTHER all night for 2 nights, so we were exposed and didn't feel right carrying that over. It was appreciated by the family with kids (12 kids or so there under 16 years old!) So I felt bad, went over with E and he spent some time w/ them before all of the family arrived... Came home, and ALL night little J was FINE... then 6am - BLAM puking again!! 6am-1030am.... We did go to the doctor on Sat, was told it was a virus that could last 1-2 weeks . I've been so distraught about this freak virus that I polled moms on a local forum that I frequent and hear that this is very common in my area right now.

Today, mom/stepdad and neice/nephew came over around noon - all afternoon little J has been FINE again!! Weird freak virus. He's been puney from all of the puking, but in terribly good spirits overall... even during the sickest moments he told ME it would be ok.

In the photo below you'll see what I've named as the the "sick bed"... it's where I've put extra clothing, several diapers for (THE OTHER sick) wipes, cold wet wash clothes for after puking soothing on the neck, puke can, blanket for me and boy, pillow for boy, and a towel for him to lay on in case the OTHER is a blowout...

One last note... this has been a rude awakening to a spoiled family... little J will be 3 in just weeks and has NEVER EVER had "the OTHER" outside of teething changes with that, and has NEVER puked outside of reflux as an infant up until about 11 months old... insane. We've been very fortunate.

So darn you stupid virus, you stole our Christmas with our family.

Above: daddy and boy snoozing... daddy stayed up til 4am to make sure little guy was ok...

Below: sick boy :

book review: The Green Book

I figured if being a little more environmentally conscious means being a "hippie" or being a "tree hugger" then sign us up. It's no secret that it's easy to be wasteful, and reckless with our environment, and I'm guilty in so many ways! We're trying our best little by little to make a difference in our house, in our little world... hopefully what little bit we do somehow makes a dent in the big picture. When I read 'The" Green Book' I found some more simple ways to do our part. I thought I'd post 5 interesting bits of the book:

1. Dishwasher - By running full loads and not pre-rinsing you can save up to 20 gallons of water per dish load, or 7,300 gallons over a year. That's as much water as the avg. person drinks in a lifetime!
2. Refrigerator - Don't linger in the fridge! It's the single biggest energy-consuming kitchen appliance, and opening the door accounts for between $30 and $60 of a typical family electrical bill per year. The amt. of energy saved in a year by being more efficient with the fridge could be enough to light every house in the US for more then 4.5 months straight!!
3. Dryers - Clean the lint screen (daily!) and don't overload the dryer. You'll save up to 5 percent on your power bill. If everyone did this, we'd save the energy equivalent of 350 million gallons of gasoline per year.
4. Organic - Lower your exposure to pesticides by 90% just by choosing organic varieties of certain fruits and veggies. If just 1% of the Nations farmlands converted to organic (non chemical) agricultural systems, it would remove 26 million pounds of pesticides per year from the food we eat AND from the environment! Each time you chose organic, you encourage this type of farming!
5. Toys - Look for toys made from materials other then plastic. Many plastic toys are made from PVC and contain toxins known as phtalates that are potentially harmful to both the environment and children's health. If every child under 12 received just 1 alternative-to-plastic birthday gift this year, not only could an estimated 25 million pounds of plastic toys be diverted from landfills, but the total energy savings could bake 31 million birthday cakes!

The book is loaded with nifty and thrifty ideas on how just taking simple steps with choices makes a huge difference in both our health and environment! We already eat organic mostly, and do alot of recycling, and buy natural soaps and cleaners, but this book opened my eyes to even more possibilities that are costy worthy!