My Maw-Maw

Happy 80th Birthday! We had a great time celebrating this milestone with my maw-maw last Sunday night. The whole family was getting together for Thanksgiving dinner so we decided to combine her birthday celebration with it too. The girls in the family planned some special things to honor Maw-maw. Margaret made a poster full of pictures of Maw throughout her life. That was neat. The best part of the night was that every 8 minutes each one of us shared a special memory we have of Maw-maw. Then depending on what string you drew out of the pitcher you also shared a favorite gift from Maw or a favorite food she makes or one of her best qualities. It was so neat to listen to all the memories and special things about Maw-maw. It meant so much to her too as you can see in the picture above, she is listening to one of us talk. Allison sent in a special memory that Margaret read- it was so good and Justin called as well as Doug, Susan, Ashley and Matt. It was a very special evening. I'm so glad we were able to celebrate with you Maw and looking forward to many more!

Which holiday is it?

Driving down my street I get confused. I see pumpkins at one house. Then a couple doors down I see hay and gourds. The next house I see has a scarecrow and christmas lights (yes, both) and others have Christmas trees in the window. What holiday is it?! See how I get confused? I guess I'm the type who likes to finish one holiday before starting the next. You see, a few days after Halloween, when the pumpkins start to rot I throw them away. Then I'm ready to gear up for Thanksgiving. I don't have any TG decorations but we did hang a turkey on the door that Wilson made at school. So right now I'm celebrating Thanksgiving. Then probably this weekend we'll set up our Christmas tree. I guess I'm a one holiday at a time kind of girl. What about you?

5 Blissful Days!

We are so excited to be on Thanksgiving Break! Lots to look forward to. Today Wilson told me his ear was hurting around 4:40. I called the Dr. right away and they fit us in. I didn't want him to be sick over TG. When we got there I realized that his ear was red all around the top- inflammation. So anyway he has a bad ear infection but is now on antibiotics. While we were there I made him get a flu shot. That was rough. Me and the nurse pinned him down after trying to talk him through it and tell him about it. The nurse was really good with him. I told him he had to get one for Ty so we don't get him sick, Drs orders. Then after the crying and panic on his part while waiting for the nurse I finally used bribery - legos. I knew there was a $5 one that he wanted and I knew we were going to Meijer to get the presecription so that helped, a little! Wilson and I left the house around 4:45 and returned at almost 6:30. Had to wait for the prescription and everything. When we rushed out of the house to get to the doctor it was already time to feed Ty so Wilson and I took him with us. We got to the office and I was going to feed him in the waiting room. I picked him up out of his car seat and he had poop all up the back of his outfit. So W and I went to the bathroom and changed his clothes. Of course they called us back while we were in the bathroom. Then I fed Ty while we were waiting on the Dr. Sorry that is kind of out of order but I can't cut and paste on blogger! With 5 days off I'm looking forward to sleep! Time with the boys! Time with family! Board games! and yummy food! Have a great Thanksgiving!

A Glimpse from Today

Highlights from the Day:
- After breakfast Luke decided to color. He then threw away all the white crayons because he said they don't work. Hilarious!
- I bribed the boys with a treat and said if you're nice to each other and don't fight while I'm in the shower you can have a small treat when I get out- it worked! Ty was napping in his swing with his door shut!
- Went to lunch at Ma-Maw's. This was nice and gave me a chance to relax a little. While we were there Wilson gave a speech. He pulled out a foot stool to stand on and had a notepad on a music stand in front of him. His speech was about music and he said the words to Twinkle Twinkle!
- Let Wilson feed Ty a bottle- he did great!
- Visited with mom and Terry.
- Gingerbread Latte from Starbuck's
- Boys are finally quiet and asleep.

Low points from the day
- Waking up at 7am. Luke wakes up like clockwork
- Looking up from cracking a nut to eat at Maw's to see Wilson and Luke putting dirt from the plant on the carpet so that they could vacuum up the dirt. Wilson had cracked a nut by himself and gotten it all over the floor. So we had gotten out the hand vac. He was having so much fun using it he thought dumping dirt out so he could vacuum it was a good idea.
-Cleaning up a spilt applesauce cup (Carpet and wall)
- Bedtime. It was rough.

The rest of the day was filled with picking up the house, changing diapers, playing with the boys, giving all 3 a bath, making dinner, ending fights, and reading fire fighter books. Overall we've had a good day! Last night I went out with my family to celebrate at Jalapeno's. Yummy! Tomorrow my family is getting together for our Thanksgiving so I'm looking forward to that. Plus only 2 days of school this week and then I'm with the boys for 5 whole days!

Ham & Pineapple Bake

This is a super easy recipe that we have enjoyed for several years. It looked so pretty when I was making this week I thought I'd post it on the blog! Then I forgot to take a picture when it came out of the oven...oh well! Imagine a lightly browned top covered in a sprinkling of melted cheese!

Ham & Pineapple Bake

1 1/2 cups chopped cooked ham

8oz can crushed pineapple, drained

4 green onions, chopped

1 cup bisquick

1 cup milk

2 eggs

2 teaspoons yellow mustard (dry or regular)

1 cup shredde colby jack cheese

Heat oven to 400. Spray pie plate. Sprinkle ham, onions, and pineapple in the pie plate. Mix bisquick, milk, eggs, and mustard until blended. Pour over ham mixture. Bake uncovered about 25 minutes or until knife comes out clean. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake uncovered until cheese is melted.

Here is what it looks like before you bake it!

Big News!!

I passed!!!!!
I am now a National Board Certified Teacher!!!!!
I am SO excited :)
It's time to celebrate!!!

10 weeks old

Our little Ty is 10 weeks old today! Time has FLOWN!! He is doing well. Not much has changed in the past two weeks. You know he weighs 15lbs and loves to eat. I can't reach around his thigh with one hand! He's like a baby sumo wrestler his legs are so chunky! He is sweet as can be. I love him so much. He and Daddy have really bonded these past two weeks with me back to work. I think it is so special that each of our boys have been taken care of by daddy while mommy is working. As much as I miss Ty everyday it is so comforting to know he is with his Daddy. I heard from Cincinatti Children's on Wednesday. They were just letting us know that his paperwork had been reviewed and that Ty will be seeing the neurologist and opthamologist when we go. They are to call early next week to give us our appointment. I'll let you know when we do!

It's almost time...

So, I got this email today from the National Board people:

November 20, 2008
We are pleased to inform you that you will be able to access and view your score results on Friday, November 21, 2008.

Oh. My. Gosh. I'll know tomorrow. I'm nervously excited!!!

8 week visit

Ty had his 8 week check up today (though he was 9 weeks old on Friday). He did great! He was a whopping 15lbs 5oz. Wow!! That's in the 97%ile. His height was 84%ile. The doctor said he looks great and that it is totally normal for a breast fed baby to still be waking up 2 times a night. :( Ty was such a trooper with his 3 shots. Poor thing. He didn't cry very long. The tylenol seemed to help and he has been very sleepy. We have a healthy, happy boy! (Around this time Wilson weighed 13 lbs and Luke weighed 14 lbs.)

7 more days

One week down! So hard to be away 5 full days. Wednesday I cried the whole way home - I'd had enough being away but I was able to get through the last two days without anymore tears. Unfortunately I'm getting slightly more used to being away during the day. Even though I hate it. I have my daily call to Andy to check in while I'm pumping and he will often hold the phone up to Ty so I can talk to him and hear him grunt! Some days Wilson or Luke talk to me too. That does help, just knowing what they are doing and how Ty is eating etc.

School has gone well, just getting my feet back on the ground STILL and there is always so much to do. It won't all get done. I'm doing the things I have to do to do my job well but some things just won't get done. And I'm learning to be ok with that, even if the rest of my teammates do get it done! I'm always eager to leave and come home to my boys. At this point it's hard to even bring work home because once Wilson and Luke are in bed I still have Ty. I refuse to give up any more time with him. Plus Andy and I need time to talk and hang out. So, with my bedtime goal of 9:30 there just isn't much free time in the evenings. Andy and I are getting our routine down of laying out the boys outfits, making lunches and coffee, and washing the bottles/pump at night. It sure makes the morning go smoother for both of us.

I've been so tired. Painfully tired. Waking up around 1am and 4am to feed Ty is kicking my butt. Then the alarm sounds at 5:15 (don't usually hear this one) and again at 5:30 when I have to get up. I'm still up right now so I can feed Ty again in a few minutes and hopefully only have to wake up once in the middle of the night tonight. Andy's uncle came over so Andy and I went to Chili's and I had a Mango margarita and chips and salsa. Andy got dessert. Then we went to Wal-Mart and bought some things. We got back home around 11:00. It was nice to have a "date" (hard to count Walmart as a date!). Ty slept in his carseat at both places and never made a peep!

Waiting Game

Taken from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standard's website:

Score Release

Score results for 2007-2008 candidates will be released on or before December 31, 2008. Continue to watch the NBPTS website for updates and information.

COME ON! I'm ready to know if I passed or not!

Wilson - The Builder!

Wilson loves Legos and I am amazed at what he is able to do with them! I had my first few experiences building legos by following the picture directions in the last couple months. I built a farm and racetrack with Wilson. I found it is really fun building legos with the directions for me - I hate building legos without instructions. I'm not that creative! Wilson has been buying Legos with his money whenever he can. He is also asking for Legos for Christmas. Andy still has lots of his legos from when he was a boy so we have some of those here at home and Wilson plays with them too. Andy has taught Wilson to go from a pile of lego pieces to building a lego thing. See, look!

Just a pile of Legos!

Following step by step directions - all by himself!

Ta-da! It's a fire truck!

Yesterday on my first day back to work Wilson had a thoughtful idea for me. When Andy picked him up from preschool he said that they should get me a plant for my first day back. So they went and bought me a rd Gerber Daisy plant - my favorite flowers and had them for me on the counter when I got home. I thought that was so sweet. Then Wilson dictated the following on my card: Dear Mommy, We got a surprise for you. It's from Wilson, Daddy, Lottie, Lukie, and Tyler. We missed you and we love you! Then he traced his hand on the card! It made my day :)

First Day Back

I survived! Leading up to this day was harder than the actual day itself. I cried several times in the last week over facing today. This morning my eyes teared up when I was feeding him and teared up again when I got home and scooped Tyler up and squeezed him. I missed my little sugar lump so much! I am much more accustomed to being away from the bigger boys but after 8 weeks of seeing them a lot I missed them too. The alarm sounded EARLY! 5:15 and again at 5:30 when I got up and ate breakfast and got ready. Right on schedule to feed Ty at 6:30 and walk out the door by 6:45ish. The morning worked out perfectly. Wilson and Luke stayed asleep which is the norm. I fed Ty around 3:30am last night so that was great too for him to be ready to eat at 6:30am. The school day was ok, I'm a little out of the loop and trying to get caught up on how some things are working now. My students were good and so glad to see me. I put on a smile and kept thinking of the verse from Sunday (which is now in my heading at the top) "This I know, that God is on my side."
Andy and the boys did great today! He said the day went very smoothly and little TW was great. He ate his bottles and let daddy get some work done. Wilson and Luke had good days at school. Thankfully I pulled leftover Shepherd's Pie from the freezer yesterday so dinner is easy tonight. I haven't set Ty down since I got home. He's sleeping in the Bjorn right now. Thank goodness for those!

Ty's birthmark update

We heard from Cincinnati Children's yesterday. The first step is to fill out the paperwork and fax it in. Once they receive the paperwork and review it they then schedule the appointment. So I was on the Hemangioma and Vascular Malformation Center's website quite a bit last night. Very informative. Looks like they'll know a lot and really be able to help us. We are so fortunate to live near such a big hospital. It was a little upsetting to read much of the info on there but I want to be informed so that I understand what they are telling me when we go. PLUS I keep telling myself every day I cannot worry until I know there is something to worry about. But let's be real. I am worried. But I'm controlling the worry with that statement above so that I can keep living in the moment. I have 3 boys and a wonderful husband that need me! Anway, the packet is very detailed. We're talking 13 pages. I'm almost done filling it out so I can fax it on Monday. The only things left to do are measure the birthmark, attach a picture of the affected area, and measure the affected area so they know the size. The rest of the packet is medical history, personal info, referring doctor info, etc. Thank you for praying for this situation. I'll let you know when his appointment is scheduled. I hope it isn't too far away because I'm ready to hear their opinions.

8 weeks old!

Tyler is 8 weeks old today and I have big news! He is smiling!!He is smiling! It is absolutely precious. It was so hard to choose which pictures to post on the blog today. I wanted to post like 299 because they are all slightly different but I didn't think anyone other than mommy and daddy would appreciate that! So I chose a few. (and by the way, Andy's new camera takes GOOD photos! Plus he's a good photographer!) Wednesday night Ty slept from 11-6:30. It was a miracle! And it didn't repeat last night. I was so hoping we were starting the new trend of sleeping through the night. No such luck. That would have been perfect timing for my going back to work. We'll keep working on that! Other big news is Ty does well drinking his milk from a bottle. He doesn't seem to care if mommy's milk comes directly from the source or out of a bottle. As long as he gets to eat every 2 1/2 to 3 hours he is a happy camper. His 8 week appointment isn't for another whole week. I'm hoping I'll somehow be able to leave work for a bit and meet Andy at the appointment. I hate missing dr appointments. I have loved being home and caring for Ty these 8 weeks. The last 4 have been so enjoyable since my recovery after the c-section. I'm trying to enjoy the moments I have with him and not stress about the hours I'll be away at work. And no matter what they tell us at Cincinnatti Children's hospital - he's perfect.
Absolutely perfect.

The Celebration Continues!

Tonight I had a surprise birthday celebration for Andy at youth group. I think everyone who reads this knows Andy is a youth pastor. The youth get together every Wednesday night so since his birthday fell on a Wednesday I definitely wanted them to celebrate! I was so sure Andy had figured out that I had planned something but he promises he had NO idea! Woo-hoo! A big thanks to Holly for helping me pull it off! Here's what we did: I wrote 30 questions about Andy and cut them apart. I rolled each question up and put 1 question in a balloon. So there were 30 questions in 30 balloons about Andy. The youth were to pop a balloon and try to answer the Andy trivia question. The person who knew the most answers won a Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate bar! Way to go Daniel S! So when we got to church there were 30 green and blue balloons on the floor of the youth room. I secretly put the game together on Tuesday when Andy was gone and hid the balloons in the back of the van in large trash bags. The other decoration was streamers hanging in the doorway. This morning while the boys were at school and Andy was at work I made two pumpkin desserts for the youth party. Then when I went to church with Wilson to pick Andy up to take him out to lunch I snuck the desserts, balloons, and streamers in Holly's car. When Andy left work for the day Holly did the decorating! I couldn't have pulled off the surprise without her! Thanks, Holly! So when we went to church tonight I just got in the van like normal. Andy didn't suspect a thing!I had a small bag in there with candles, matches, etc. but Andy didn't notice that. I always have lots of bags! Anway, I'm glad Andy had fun at his youth party and thanks to all the youth who came tonight! Look at that glow!

I managed to get 30 candles in the shape of 3-0!!

Happy 30th Birthday Andy!!

Andy is 30 today! Last night we celebrated with my family at my mom's house. We had a delicious dinner- pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, rolls, green beans, salad, and chocolate cake! Andy has 1 candle per decade :) in the pictures above! All the kids had fun celebrating and eating cupcakes! Andy is celebrating at home tonight with pancakes and breakfast casserole for dinner. I also made him a Mountain Mama Mudslide dessert, one of his favorites. Hopefully he's having a great day! More pictures later!

Here are the pictures from our birthday dessert at home this afternoon!

Halloween

Better late than never! Only thing missing is trick or treat pictures. They are on Andy's camera. On Halloween both boys had parties at school so you can see those pictures! Wilson was very insecure at his party- not wanting anyone to look at him in his one man band costume. He did wear it for the parade but that was about all. Luke's school had a pajama party for Halloween. He was so excited! He wanted to bring muffins so I made pumpkin muffies (just the tops) for him to take to school. He had a great day! In case you missed their costumes, check out the post from the Harvest party at church to see them!

Season 5

Best episode of Season 5 is The One Where Everybody Finds Out. Chandler and Monica have been secretly dating since Ross's wedding to Emily. At the beginning of this episode only Joey and Rachel know of their secret relationship Chandler and Monica only think Joey knows. By the end, all of them know and Chandler tells Monica he loves her. Ross is currently living with Joey and Chandler but is trying to get Ugly Naked Guy's apartment to rent. Ross decides he is going to get that apartment- he sends mini muffins and even goes to UNG's apartment and hangs out with him in the nude, which gets him the apartment. When he goes over to fill out an application Phoebe and Rachel go with him. They check out the apartment and Ross goes down to apply. While Rachel is in the bathroom Phoebe looks out the window and sees Monica and Chandler together. She starts screaming and then Rachel comes back and tells her she knows, they are together. She tries to calm Phoebe down before Ross comes back because they don't want him to find out yet. Phoebe and Rachel decide they are going to mess with Monica and Chandler since they don't know that the girls know about their relationship. So when Monica says she's going to do 'laundry' Rachel gives her a big bag of dirty clothes and Phoebe supplies plenty of quarters. Then Phoebe starts flirting with Chandler. Anyway, Chandler and Monica realize the girls know and decide to play along. So Chandler acts like he is interested in Phoebe and they plan to get together later that evening. They are both hoping the other will back down - Such a funny scene of Chandler and Phoebe. Chandler is the one who breaks down and says he can't be with Phoebe because he is in love with Monica. So then 5 of them know about the secret relationship. The trailer is of Ross in his new apartment telling his boss that his rage is under control and he is ready to come back to work when all of the sudden he looks out the window and catches Monica and Chandler and yells "Get off my sister!" Don't think he got to go back to work right after that!

With 3 kids...

the pj tops don't always match the pj bottoms anymore.
my shower probably won't happen until nap time.
there will be less sleep.
there will be more chaos.
your patience will be tested continually.
and apparently Luke will poop in his pants almost EVERY OTHER DAY. (Regardless of how long you make him sit on the potty every other day to try and prevent this.)

your love will grow more and more!

-Random-

This post is going to jump from one thing to another- just a warning. I didn't want to do a bunch of separate posts. Yipee! Our oven is working again! So I have had an easier time making dinner. Got to try a new chicken pot pie recipe and a twice baked shortbread recipe. Both were yummy.

We went to Andy's parents house for the last time on Thursday evening. It officially sold. Andy was a little sad, that had been his parents house for a long time, the house he grew up in. He took a bunch of pictures while we were there.

The boys had fun trick or treating last night and handing out candy. It was fun! Uncle Bill and Dan came over and ate pot pie with us and hung out during trick or treat time. Then my mom, dad, and Terry stopped by to see the boys. Mom and Terry did a little trick or treating with them so that was fun too. Today I had the boys lay out a blanket each and dump their pumpkins out. We had fun going through their stuff to see what they got. I threw a few things away and took out all the hard candy. I can't wait until they are old enough to trade candy - I remember doing that every year with Cara. We would either dump it out and look at it at Maw-maws house or on mom and dad's bed. I'll try to post halloween pics soon.

You know Luke's Halloween costume? It was pretty awesome. Well, funny story. Andy told me about one of his halloween's where he wanted to be a robot. Here is his story- on halloween his parents found a box and cut out holes for his head and arms. Then it was covered in foil. He said he was bummed about his costume but what was so awful was that a one of the houses another little robot came up to trick or treat in a totally awesome robot costume. Andy said he felt like his costume was so stupid in comparison. So maybe that's where the inspiration for Luke's robot came from- with old computer parts, lights that actually lit up and the black pipe. I told him I had to tell this on the blog! He was so cute telling me the story too!

We're all fighting colds. Ty is better though!

One more week of maternity leave. I'm sad. Don't want to go back. I love being at home with the boys.