Oh, small wedding *thing*

So we discovered a little park around the corner from us. Literally, 2 minutes away. While there we saw a trail through the woods, so we took it. There's a small cemetary back there that some boy scouts were building a rock wall/fence around. There was a small creek in the wooded part too. When we got out we went to the front and saw a garden (flowers and herbs) and people setting up for a reception of some sort. We started talking about it and went around the corner and saw it was actually set up for a wedding. It dawned on both of us... this would actually be a pretty cool place for a wedding! It was pretty, no doubt. I wish I had my camera so I could have taken a picture. It had an arch for the bride/groom to stand under. It wouldn't work for a large wedding, but neither of us want that anyway. I doubt a lot of my family will come (obviously parents and siblings will, I doubt aunts/uncles/grandmas will) and he's not got a large family (mom, dad, half brother). Jason's got a lot of cousins/aunts/uncles but not too many that he's close with. Some close friends would be coming. But, not a huge wedding by any means. So.... this is definately in the running for a wedding location. We've not found anything like this so we're happy we stumbled upon it today. We talked to one of the people who works there and he said it's actually a pretty popular place for a wedding.

Maybe if I put it in writing it'll make me stick to it?

Put what in writing? Those 2 dreaded words.... "diet" and "exercise". Shudder. I'll admit it. I've gotten lazy the last year and I've really packed on the pounds (about 15-20 in the last year!). When O and I were living in the apartment I had a good exercise routine down. I was jogging about 4-5 days a week. I was eating semi-healthy (easy when you can't afford to eat out. LOL!). And then we moved here and it all flew out the window. I stopped jogging regularly. We can afford to eat out so we do (way more often than we should, considering I *can* cook so we don't have any excuses). The high heart rate/pulse was a good excuse not to work out.... until the dr said it's fine. So, really, I have no excuse anymore.

I put on my swim suit the other day and.... well.... we'll just stick to I was a little shocked at how I looked.

So..... "diet" and "exercise" are my new best friends ;) I just got done jogging to the store with Owen to get some stuff for dinner. Look at that... combined both of my new favorite words! Today we are having Basil Chicken over Angel Hair. I'm altering the recipe a little and adding a can of diced tomatoes along with a fresh tomato, spinach and mushrooms (and fresh basil from my garden!). We've never tried this recipe before so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out!

Jason's one of those freaks that can eat whatever he wants to and, as long as he's still exercising, he doesn't gain weight. Freak. LOL! So he's great with the exercise part. He likes taking walks/jogs with us (we are trying to do it a couple nights a week usually). But when it comes to the eating part... he's lost. He doesn't get why it's not okay for him to ask me (more than once) if I want a brownie. My answer is no. Don't make it any harder on me to say no! Then today he was offering me some fries. Uhhh.... no, thanks. I'll stick to my grapes! But, I admit it, I have a sweet tooth. And I'm a sucker for a nice cold ice cream cone in the summer (it's getting hot here already!) so I bought some sherbet during our jog today. Yum!

Anyway.... I thought writing this all down might hold me accountable for it. Now it's out in the open and I can't deny it! I may periodically post recipes that taste good and are good for you. If anyone else has any please post them!!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Weekend pictures!

Here are some pictures from the weekend :)

Grandpa and Owen

Owen was having one of *those* days where we had to pull out the leash. He asked "am I a doggy now, mama?". LOL! For anyone wondering- he loves the leash though and loves the freedom that comes with it. We're down to only using it once or twice a year as he normally does well without it. But it's there in case we need it.

Sam feeding a giraffe.

Holly, Sam, O and I. O's a little sleepy ;)

Owen, Jason and I. Again, O's a little sleepy ;)

O again. I swear he did sleep at night! He was just so tired at this part of the zoo.

I had to post this picture..... there's a tiny green worm on Jason's shirt. I pointed it out to him and then snapped the picture.... I swear he's not crying though!

Sam and Scott

That's it for now!

Oh, for some sad news.... Tuesday Owen was getting done with therapy and walking/running towards me when his Lightening McQueen shoe broke! He fell flat on his face and busted up his lip :( So, after cleaning him up, we went to get him a new pair of shoes. The silly boy wanted the exact same ones. Uhhh... nope. They hurt you once, we don't get them again! So we came to a compromise. He got a pair of sandals with Lightening McQueen on them. He likes them and wears them so.... woo-hoo! I was afraid we wouldn't find anything he would wear (those lightening mcqueens were very much loved and worn pretty much everyday because he's still on a "no sneaker unless I really really have to" kick).

Oh, and another sad note.... we noticed this weekend that Greg (the build a bear Owen made before his surgery) came unstitched! So, Owen and I are on our way back to Build A Bear so Greg can have surgery :) He'll also get a new outfit because Owen insists that he can't wear his scrubs (which Owen says are his pj's) during the day. He NEEDS clothes. What was I thinking?!? LOL! It'll be interesting to see which outfit he picks.... stay tuned!

Garden pictures

Here's my sad looking garden pictures. They were taken right after we got home from a long weekend away. Jason's parents were supposed to water but I think it must have gotten warmer than expected and they didn't water enough because everything is turning yellow/brown! I'll have to really baby them this week to try and bring them back to life. Sorry for the crappy pictures, I was trying to take them in the dark!

Cucumbers at bottom, parsley and chives, green pepper next to cucumbers, red pepper at top and early girl tomato. The pepper leaves are turning inward and just look sad :( The cucumbers look really sad, but they've been having a hard time.

Red pepper and early girl tomato

Yellow squash at top, zucchini (not doing too well) at bottom and cherry tomato and basil.

My little tomato!

Zucchini flowers! And brown leaves :(

Boo

Nevermind... nothing to see here :)

I had something posted, but then the video didn't work. Bummer.

Have a great weekend, everyone! We are headed up to Michigan for the weekend so I'll update next week :)

Owen pictures!

Since Owen was feeling better yesterday we had a fun day out :)

It was his last soccer for this season. He *insisted* on wearing Lightening McQueen. He was having a rough morning as it was, so I agreed to let him. I explained that they would get dirty and his feet might get wet but he didn't care.

Trying to reason with him, after Lightening McQueen got dirty. We managed to just have a little meltdown before he agreed to me getting his sneakers out of the car and wearing those.

Liking his trophy (it's a stimmy dream.... it has one of those cool things where as you move it, it looks like the ball is moving and eventually it gets to the goal and says "GOAL". Yeah... he loves it).

Oops! He might have climbed a little higher than he planned. When he got down he sighed a huge sigh and said "I'm safe!". LOL!

After soccer we went to IHOP, which presented it's own challenges. We were trying to get Owen to try hash browns. He was being stubborn. So he sat there doing nothing while we ate. He eventually figured out that he wasn't going to get his own way (he wanted "long fries") so he tried the "breakfast fries", and loved them. But he wanted to scoop/shovel them into his mouth using a fork and spoon, while Jason squirted ketchup onto each bite. LOL! It was cute.

Then we went to play mini golf. Owen had a BLAST! I think that's one of the most fun things to me.... watching him play mini golf. It's so cute!



Then we went home and did some other stuff, but no pictures of that. He did put a bite of steak in his mouth though! HUGE progress for him! He spit it out, which is fine because it's still huge progress. Maybe next time he'll chew it once before spitting it out!

Garden pictures

I fear this is turning into my gardening blog. I'll have to post pictures of Owen a little later to even things out. LOL!

The whole garden (notice my new plant??)

Cucumber (finally showing a little growth) on upper left, parsley and chives (growing well) upper right, and green pepper (growing well) on bottom.

Red pepper (growing well) on top and my new tomato plant on bottom! I just planted him yesterday. Sue (Jason's mom) had one more container for me and I really wanted another tomato. I'm going to risk it and plant a tomato in that pot, even though I'm wary about whether it's big enough. We'll see! It's an "Early Girl" so the fruits won't be that big. I need to stake both of my tomatoes soon.

Yellow squash (doing fine) on top and zucchini (doing fine) on bottom.

Tomato and basil, both doing well.

Here's my little tomato, growing nicely! There's also quite a few flowers on that plant.

Lots of flowers getting ready to bloom on my yellow squash.

And flowers getting ready on my red pepper.

And on the green pepper.

Sleep.... I need sleep.....

Seriously. Last night was just.... argh! He was up so often I didn't get any sleep after 3am (the first poop incident). Fortunately we got a lot better at getting it all in the toilet though! Between 5:30-7ish he had a random weird fever of 102-103ish. By 7 he was up for the day. So I took him downstairs and he watched a movie. He had another incident at 7:30, but after that he perked up and started asking for food. He ate like a horse! He had about a dozen of those little pancakes, a french toast waffle, a bunch of cheez-its and some water. Then at 11 he had a banana too. His fever went away and he said he was feeling better. He had a dr appointment (genetics) scheduled for 11:30. Fortunately Jason was able to stay home this morning so he took Owen downstairs while I slept from 9:40-10:45. Woo-hoo! A whole hour! When I got up, he was feeling fine, hadn't pooped since 7:30 and was eating and drinking. So I risked it and brought him to his appointment.

His appointment went well. The chromosome testing we had done all came back normal. WOO-HOO!! She believes at this time it's likely he has Neurofibromatosis. She, again, offered us the blood tests (there's 2) to see what it says. But, again, I turned it down. The tests (both together) catch about 90% of NF cases. Which leaves that other 10%. So, basically, even if it comes back negative she's going to tell us to continue doing exactly what we're doing (yearly eye exams to look for Lisch nodules (freckles in the eye), keep an eye out for freckles in the groin or armpits, tumors and scoliosis) since she can't rule out a false negative. While it would be nice to know, one way or another, it's not worth sticking him, in my mind, for those kinds of odds. She did say, however, that he fits the model for it and that all of his "issues" can be explained by NF (that there isn't anything going on with him that isn't consistant with NF). So for now it's a waiting game. If the eye doctor finds the Lisch nodules at any time, he'll get the NF diagnosis. If we find freckles growing in his armpits or groin, he'll get the NF diagnosis. Those are the two most likely things to happen. Of course, if tumors start growing he'll get the diagnosis and if his legs start bowing he'll get the diagnosis, but the two later ones are less likely to happen than the other two. I did tell her that if he needs blood drawn for another reason then I'll consider adding on this testing too. But I can't think of a reason he would need blood drawn anytime soon so it probably won't happen.

Now I need to convince Owen he wants to take a nap.... LOL! I took the afternoon off work so he can stay home and get better.

Parenting tip #164....

Even if your child is potty trained and out of diapers, it is wise to keep a small back-up stash of diapers/pull-ups/depends, just in case.

My poor baby. I think he may have rotavirus. First the vomit episodes earlier this week. Now he's got massive diarrhea starting tonight :( Fortunately I had a few swimming diapers I had just taken out of the closet to bring to mom for Noah (since Owen doesn't need them anymore). I just threw one on him, just in case. I told him they were his "special underwear" for when his butt is sick. Sorry Mom- you may not end up getting them afterall. But my carpet will look better! LOL!

Like I told Jason- I think God is laughing at me up there. This week I started something called flylady (www.flylady.com). In an effort to keep our house clean I wanted to try this (our house isn't dirty, I just needed help organizing my cleaning and what I clean when). So this is the first week. Every week it focuses on a different room to do the deep cleaning (every weekday is a different room that you do the "everyday" cleaning, like vaccum and stuff like that). So this week the focus is on.... the bathroom. Monday was clean the toilet day. So I did. And then Owen puked all over it Monday night. I commented to Jason about how unfair that is that I had JUST cleaned all the toilets. Ha. Shouldn't have said that. So today He decides to spread exploding poop all over my bathroom. Ummm... I won't complain about the vomit anymore, I promise!

Ah well. Excuse my poop post. It's now 5am and I can't sleep. I'm sure as soon as I fall asleep I'll need to get up and clean again.

Shoot....

I spoke too soon. Last night he was up with an upset stomach again. All over my nice clean toilet! NOOO!!!! LOL! I've been following www.flylady.com, it's just a fun way to keep your house clean. Yesterday was toilet cleaning day. And, of course, Owen didn't actually make it *in* the toilet. Oops. He's missing therapy today (OT and feeding). Don't want to risk him getting an upset stomach there!

Explorium

For Mothers Day I took Owen to a hands on kids museum here. We've never been there before, but mom's got in free so I decided why not. He LOVED it!

Looking at rocks inside a cave.

Water play! This thing was cool. It was really long and there were boats and houses. You could control the river flow by wheels that would make it flow faster or slower. Basically experimenting with droughts and floods and what happens when the river gets blocked. He LOVED this part.

Another water play area, obviously loved also!

Being silly in a mirror. In a mouth.

Bubble area!

One small step for man....

Yup, NASA will surely be hiring him in a few years. Come on.... he can already fly a spaceship with his feet!

He loved this thing too. It's like those zoo things where you put a penny in and it goes around and around. Only this one used balls.

Rock climbing. He had a blast, until he fell. Oops!

Resting up....

And one last time with the balls. Notice the new shirt? Yeah. Lesson learned- bring a spare pair of clothes for your sensory sensitive child when water play is involved. I bought the new shirt, instead of driving home to get another one, but made the rule that water play was DONE for the day! The shirt only cost $10 and considering the cost of gas.... not a bad deal (it would have cost me close to that much to go home, get a dry shirt and then go back).


Anyway, the kiddo isn't acting like himself the last couple days. Saturday morning he woke up and went downstairs (he almost always comes straight to our room). I heard him crying on the stairs so I ran down to find him puking on the stairs. Great. He said he felt fine, he was just upset that he couldn't find me. Cleaned him up and he rested a bit. He said he still wanted to go to soccer, so I brought him. When we got there he said he didn't feel well and wanted to go home, after sitting on the side for a few minutes. So we went home. We ended up staying home for much of the day. Sunday he seemed to be feeling better so I took him to the Explorium. As you can see by the pictures, he had fun and seemed to be feeling fine. When we left he said he wanted pizza and breadsticks. Fine, an easy Mothers Day dinner for me. No cooking! So we got them and went home. Usually he'll eat 1-2 slices of pizza and 3-4 breadsticks in a meal. He ate about 1/2 a breadstick then didn't look too good. He said his tummy hurt and he might puke (he didn't). Bummer. Stayed home for the rest of the night. Today he's not really eating much and is really whiny. He goes back and forth between saying he's sick and saying he's fine so I have no idea what's going on. Hopefully he wakes up tomorrow feeling better!

Garden pictures

Here's today's garden pictures. I'm going to try to take them once a week just for fun to track the growing :)

Tomato and basil. I think my tomato plant has a bit of transplant shock because it's not really growing much.

But it does have a tiny tomato!!!

Zucchini (growing strong!) on the left and yellow squash (doing okay) on the right.

Parsley and chives, both doing good.

Cucumbers in back (not growing at all. But there were 7 in the little thing I bought. I plucked 4 of them this morning so hopefully the other 3 will start growing well!), green pepper in front left (growing well) and red pepper (growing huge already!) on the right.

My red pepper has the starts of little buds already!!!

I'm excited that things are actually growing! We'll see how they do as the summer goes on. I'm afraid it's going to get too hot/humid here. I've already been warned that with the weather, along with it being a container garden, I'll probably end up watering them twice a day. But, I'm hoping this will help us cut back on our food budget. I can't believe the price of food sometimes when I go grocery shopping. Last week at the store red peppers were almost $4/pound! I couldn't believe it. I like peppers, but not that much!

Hmmmm.... okay.....

Interesting news article. LOL! And Columbus is number 2 ;) I don't know why this is news but.... uhhhh.... whatever.

Pictures!

I've been slacking on the pictures, I admit. Here's a catch-up post!

These first pictures were taken at the zoo a couple weekends ago when we went to Columbus for the walk.

This was a dancing tree (and I'm not crazy!!). Thought the boys might like it but, instead, they both tried to attack it at the same time! Poor tree!

"What a fun ride!"

Silly grin!

A rare family picture. Thanks Allison!

I can't remember what the name of this thing is but he has a HUGE tongue! Here's Jason, trying to compete and see who has the longest tongue.

I swear we didn't drug the boy, despite the look on his face and the tongue hanging out of his mouth. He was just tired. Really. LOL!

Lunch time! Owen called it "Snake and Shake"!

Sleeping through dinner at Ihop.

Garden pics! These were taken a couple days ago. Green pepper on the left, red pepper on the right.

Cucumber (yes, I have since added more dirt. I ran out of one bag and didn't want to open the other until I had the rest of the plants/pots ready). Parsley and chives on the bottom (they have since been planted).

Yellow squash on the left, tomato and basil on right. I have since planted the zucchini too.

It's hard work gardening! We came inside, he grabbed his blanket and fell asleep. I thought we were in trouble, since he NEVER naps unless he's sick (or in the car) but, he felt fine when he woke up.

Playing hopscotch and enjoying the warm weather.

This picture was also taken at the zoo. Zoomed out it looks like a picture of a little boy resting on his mama's lap with his Aunt beside him. Zoomed in is a totally different story. I swear my little boy isn't evil! LOL! The look on his face is priceless!

That's all for now. Have a good day!!