8/52 photo challenge

one for the road. that is, signs, streets, traffic, etc.

i had a good idea for this category, but our 3 inches of snow this morning threw a wrench in my plans...

until we went out and drove in it. what a perfect opportunity to show y'all what happens to the traffic around here when we get a measly 3 inches of snow!

when ben went to the post office this morning, this car had apparently just gone in the ditch since the driver was still in the car.


it must have been a little fender-bender that sent this car into the snow. all i saw was a broken tail light...


...and a 30-day temporary tag in the back window. youch! too bad he was driving a new car!


the category for next week's photo challenge is objects that tell something about you. oh boy, where do i begin?!


have a good weekend and drive safely!

thankful thursday

on monday i took ryan to children's mercy to get his hips x-rayed, as requested by his doctor on our last visit. because he's not walking yet, she wanted to make sure he doesn't have hip dysplasia, which is a deformation or misalignment of the hip joint.

thankfully i was able to walk into the clinic and get it done without having an appointment. unfortunately, i went right during his nap time. so needless to say he wasn't very happy with me or the technician who was getting him all lined up correctly on the table. after about 3 minutes the x-rays were done, then it was down the hall to get his blood drawn to check his lead levels. i figured we might as well kill two birds with one stone* if he wasn't gonna be happy anyway!

he disliked the phlebotomist even more than the radiologist. (and yes, i knew what a phlebotomist was and didn't have to look it up!) i had to bear hug ryan so he wouldn't squirm when she was drawing his blood, and boy was he strong! it didn't take too long, but by the time she got done ryan had been crying so hard that he was having little crying spasms. you know the kind - when you've been crying so long and so hard that you can't stop? and then when you've almost stopped crying it all starts up again?! so the lady reached out in the hall, grabbed something and shoved it into my hand and said "here, he can take this home."

i waited until i got to the car to check out what this something was. it was scary and cute all at the same time, and i definitely knew it was blog-worthy! i can just picture a little old lady making this or some school kids sewing these in home-ec for the sick little kids that practically live at children's mercy hospital.

anyway, today i am thankful for the call i got today about ryan's x-rays - his hips are normal - yea! i'm thankful that he won't have to have any therapy, and i'm thankful that our trips to children's mercy usually aren't bad enough to receive an amish smurf-like gingerbread boy-looking doll!

what are you thankful for today?!


*no birds were harmed in the making of this post. :-)

i aim to please, apparently.

otherwise WHY would i be posting these pictures of me?!

[alternately titled wordless wednesday, erin has too much time on her hands, i might probably will regret this, and thank goodness you can't see the zit on my forehead!]

oh the beauty of a five dollar headlight...!!

click here if you missed the story behind the headlight pictures!

tuesday tip

your mom may have told you, your doctor most likely told you, and now i'm gonna tell you my tuesday tip:

don't use a q-tip to clean out your ears.

or your daughter's ears.

i had done this since samantha was little. after her bath i'd gently twist the q-tip in her ear to get out the "sunshine" in her ears, or earwax. :-) well last year when i took her to the doctor for her 4 year well check they said she had a big buildup of earwax and instructed me not to use a q-tip because that compacts the earwax in your ear.

so i haven't. but in one year no earwax came out.

until a couple weeks ago. one day before the kids' appointments, the light hit samantha's ear just right and i could see something in it. so i got the flashlight and started looking in her ear. it looked like her whole ear was plugged with earwax. so i got a toothpic (probably not a good idea) and tweezers (again, i should have probably left this to the experts) and tried to start moving it around. i got a few pieces out, then ben insisted that i just let the doctor look at it in the morning.

when the nurse looked at it the next day she said they'd have to flush her ears out. then dr. o, you know, the doctor who isn't our doctor that i liked better, dug around in her ear with what looked like some kind of crochet hook and pulled out a big piece. he was even a little grossed out.

dr. b decided not to flush it out, but to just have me put mineral oil drops in it every night to soften it up. hey... did you know that the ear naturally pushes out the ear wax that it doesn't need? all those little hairs move it along the ear canal to the outer ear.

anyway, i put drops in her ears every day in addition to toothpicking her ear! (man, i wish i could've seen how idiotic i looked. ben has this flashlight thingy that fits over your head with elastic. it's like a miner's light. so i'd wear the hands-free light to see into her ear while prodding around with the toothpic.) then finally one day i was able to stick the tweezers in her ear and grasp a gigantic chunk of sunshine. and then an even bigger piece after that!!! fast forward about three days and i was able to do that to the other ear. gross and facinating all at the same time!

so because three of you wanted to see the picture, and because no one objected, here it is.

CAUTION!!

close the window

if you get

grossed out

easily!

see the lighter half of the huge chunk? i got three of those out of each ear before the huge chunk came out. and the dark part? it totally plugged up her entire ear canal. in both ears.

legal disclaimer: consult your physician before starting any exercise program sticking toothpicks and tweezers in anyone's ear. (unless, of course, you have a steady hand and a still child!)

not me! monday

happy not me! monday. this blog carnival was created by mckmama. head on over to her blog to join in on the fun and read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week!

this past week...

...i did not cry about dinner. long story. but really, i didn't cry about dinner. that would be incredibly childish.

...ryan did not have 3 if-this-was-a-smidgen-more-runnier-it'd-blow-out-the-diaper poops in one day. THREE times people!

...i did not celebrate ryan's achievements in pooping. no, in the midst of 3 of the worst diapers ryan has ever had, i was not praising Jesus!

...i did not hear samantha whisper from the backseat of the car "abra cadabra...abra cadabra... turn this mom in to aaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy................. monkey." i did not then start acting like a monkey just to make her day. i was not practically jumping up and down in my seat, flailing my arms in the air, and making monkey sounds while i was driving with my knee. so if you saw the woman driver who was doing that, it wasn't me!

...i have not gotten so addicted to a new game (called ticket to ride) that i've dreamt of it for the last 4 nights.

...i have not procrastinated on giving ryan a haircut that his hair has gotten so long that his cousins have resorted to giving him this hairstyle. it is absolutely positively not time for a haircut!

what have you not done this week? join in on the fun and write your own not me! come on.... i know you wanna! happy monday!

7/52 photo challenge

this week's photo of the week category is ONE object shot at 5 different angels or distances. i kinda sorta cheated and used the same subject from last week. but at least i took new pictures!

thankful thursday

i got an update about my friend jessica's dad. here is a copy of the email i got:

Just to update you on how God is working in this situation...
Jessica's dad had emergency surgery which, praise God, was successful. He is staying in the hospital for continued observation as he recovers. Pray for God to open her dad's eyes and heart as he will be visited by Pastor Bob in the next few days.
Jessica wonders today why it is these times of tragedy that we feel the immediate need to speak of Him, I told her these are eye openers that God wants us to act on, and Praise God He has given this man another chance to seek Him.
Let's continue to pray for Jessica as she has unsaved family that I'm sure she is feeling conviction to speak truth to.

today i'm thankful to be a part of the body of Christ. how awesome is it that we have an opportunity to pray for and be an encouragement to our brothers and sisters in Christ, even those we may not even know! yesterday i was told that she could totally feel everyone's prayers.

thank you all for praying!!

wordless wednesday

ryan: origin - irish, meaning - little king!

tuesday tip

here's my tip for today:
make sure you listen to ever word your waitress says, so that you won't be totally surprised when a bunch of servers come over to your table and sing happy birthday to you.

here's the story:
today ben turned 30. awwwww....happy birthday honey!

anyway, we didn't do much today until ryan got up from his nap. we decided to go out for dinner and ended up at red robin - yum! - which is a burger restaurant. so we ordered and when the waitress brought out our food i asked her if they do anything for birthdays to which she replied yeah. i told her ben turned 30 today and she just kind of smiled and said "ohhhhhhhhhhh... i won't tell anyone!" i figured she was talking about not telling anyone his age. but ben thought she was talking about not telling anyone it was his birthday. then she proceeded to say "i'll bring you a sundae when you're done with your meal. and we'll sing happy birthday. don't worry--it's not too bad--it's fun!"

well i guess ben only heard her say "i'll bring you a sundae blah blah blah blah blah blah it's fun!"

so while we were eating our dinner another person, who was celebrating a birthday, got sung to. ben didn't say anything like, 'i'm glad they won't be singing to me' but come to find out, that's exactly what he was thinking! then four of our friends walked in and talked to us for a little bit before sitting down.

then when we got done with our meal, a whole herd of servers came over to the table, gave ben his sundae and two balloons, and said "we have a birthday!!!!!" *clap*clap*clap*clap* "HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WE'RE GLAD THAT YOU ARE HERE........." and on and on. ben looked embarrassed to say the least. and i was loving it! :-)

when they walked away he just gave me that look. the look like he wanted to be mad but the only expression he could give me was a smile. then he told me that he thought they weren't going to sing to him because the waitress said she wouldn't tell!

oh, but he loved it anyway. you know they always do, but just can't admit to it! ;-) i told him to smile if he loved it. and then to frown if he hated it. and he couldn't pull it off! but i think the sundae was totally worth it!

not me! monday

happy not me! monday. this blog carnival, which was created by mckmama, is the perfect way to admit to whatever you've done this past week that you'd rather not admit without actually admitting it! (10,000 bonus points to anyone who understood that last sentence!) head on over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week!

here is what i really did not do this past week!

on my birthday, ben did not take me to go see the pink panther 2. and i did not walk out 30 minutes into the movie to get a manager because a lady did not bring in 2 kids under 2 years old and they were not so disruptive that we couldn't even hear parts of the movie. we did not go see the rest of it yesterday. :-)

even with my love of picking scabs and popping pimples (yeah, i know i'm gross), i certainly did not get grossed out by the incredible amounts of earwax i pulled out of samantha's ears. (although it was kinda cool at the same time!) no wonder she couldn't hear! and i did not use a toothpick and tweezers to get it out. and i did not take pictures because it was just too unbelievable.

you learn from your past, right? so that's why i definitely did not forget my memory card for my camera once again while we were out for my birthday. my old age is not affecting my memory at all!
it surely wouldn't have been me who googled 'how to pronounce paraskavedekatriaphobia' just so i could sound smart and call my dad and tell him.

i did not ironically blog about how my husband and i don't do anything or get each other anything for valentines day just a few hours before he brought home flowers for me and my daughter. awwwww....!

i'm always the graceful one, so i did not almost break ben's nose last night while we were dancing around in the kitchen and he was twirling me. my elbo did not meet his nose quite hard...

i wish it wasn't me who find out yesterday that my friend's dad is in the hospital with a bleeding brain aneurysm. please, please, please uplift jessica and tim and her dad in your prayers.

please pray

tonight i found out some sad news about my friend jessica from church. her dad is in the hospital right now with a bleeding brain aneurysm.

i don't know about her dad's relationship with God. jessica and her husband tim both came to faith in Jesus Christ around a year ago.

i ask that you please intercede for this family in your prayers. please pray for strength for jessica and her family, healing for her dad, and that jessica would be able to talk with her father and his relationship with God.

6/52 photo challenge

we're already on week six of the photo challenge. and believe me, this week was a challenge. botanical february was the category. i had no idea what to do. there is nothing botanical about february, except for a couple years ago we had really nice weather for a while and i actually had flowers coming up in late january/early february! so after our week of 50-70 degree weather i was searching my flower garden for any sign of green, but no luck there.

but then i remembered that february is a very botanical month -- hello!? --valentine's day flowers! so during my trip to the grocery store i pulled out my camera and snapped a picture of a rose. that would work just fine...

until ben got home.

he was working most of the day finishing up the job he's been doing for his friend. he got home right before supper and surprised samantha and me with flowers. but not the $50 roses that will die in a week. i found it quite funny that he brought me flowers after my post earlier about us not doing anything for valentines day!

anyway, he brought us some plants. pink, purple, and light pink cyclamens and a pink calla lily. they're beautiful! now i just have to keep them alive. so.... here's my botanical february photo of the week.

happy valentine's day!

i used to not like valentine's day. even when i had someone to spend it with, i don't know why we single out one day to show our love. ONE day?!

we don't celebrate valentine's day around here. well at least ben and i don't. we get the kids a little present, but we try to show each other love every day in the big and little things we do for each other. and i surely don't want ben to go out and spend $50 on roses for me--i'd rather take the money and go shopping! :-)

but i'm beginning to like valentine's day a little more, because now i try to take this day and really reflect on what true love is. it's a perfect love. a sacrificial love. a love non-existent in our culture today. a love only God could give.

God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

I John 4:9-10 NLT

so whatever your circumstances are today -- if you're going out on a date with your boyfriend/girlfriend, if you're spending the night at home with your spouse and kids, or if you'd rather not think about valentine's day at all -- please remember that God has shown us the greatest love of all!

drumroll please...

the contests have come to a close!

with her guess of 10:43 am for my time of birth, photoqueen wins the mary kay eye set! my actual time of birth was 11:03 am. great guess, photo!

and to pick the winner for the fireproof dvd, i put all your names into a bowl and let ben draw the winner. here's the proof!

congratulations winners! and happy lucky friday 13th!

paraskavedekatriaphobia

happy friday the 13th! anyone out there superstitious?

later today my contest will end. and two of you will find out if you're lucky on friday the 13th!

and there's still time to enter! so whatever you do, don't walk under a ladder, don't go to work, don't get married, don't kick a black cat, don't cut your hair, and don't travel. but go ahead and make sure you're entered in the contest!

click here and scroll to the bottom to see how you can enter to win a mary kay eye set or fireproof on dvd.

oh, and some useless trivia for your pleasure: the fear of friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia!

thankful thursday

for the last two weeks it seems like ben has been working non-stop. he works during the day, then after work and on the weekends he's been going to his friend's house to do some work. and he usually doesn't get home until after 11pm every night.

i've been missing him and so have the kids. but i have found a couple reasons to be thankful that he's not home:

~he still comes home every night! i'm so glad my husband doesn't have a job where he has to be gone for a week traveling, or especially that he's not overseas. i definitely couldn't handle that.

~he hasn't been home to make any messes. (he's not that messy though... we just have a lot of stuff!)

~less laundry. when he gets home from work he changes out of his whites into regular clothes. but every day that he works late is one less change of clothes for me to wash!

and the best thing...

~i haven't had to cook a real dinner in weeks! the kids and i can totally get by with a turkey sandwich on a paper plate for dinner!

but really ben, i'm looking forward to you being done with that job soon! :-)


what are you thankful for today?

tuesday tip

we had a blowout here yesterday. i mean a BIG blowout. and actually not one, but two.

yesterday ryan experienced the extreme opposite of constipation (hallelujah! and ewwww... that's nasty to clean up), which inspired me for my tuesday tip:

~double diaper a baby who's teething and is on miralax. ryan wears size 3 diapers, but i also happened to have a pack of size 4. so i just put one on right over the other. :-)

~be smart enough to double diaper the child before their two blowouts!



the contest ends in 3 days!

not me! monday

it's a happy monday....

make sure you visit mckmama's blog to play along and to read what everyone else has not been doing! but for now, here's what's not going on with me!

i certainly did not take advantage of the 70 degree days we had this week. i did not walk with the kids to the park in hopes of taking some great pictures. and, thinking ahead, i did not check the camera battery and change it before we went. then i did not walk 15 minutes to the park, get ready to take some pictures, and notice that there was no memory card in the camera. nope, not me! if i'm smart enough to check the battery i'm definitely smart enough to check that there's a memory card!!

while driving in the car with the kids, samantha did not notice some litter on the street, then proceed with this lecture while sounding entirely devastated, "oh no mom! someone littered!!! and this is the only world we have, mom!! we need to keep it clean for our kids... yep, it's our only world..." nope. my 5-year-old is not a green freak!

if anyone saw me at church on saturday, i was not dropping off samantha for sparks-o-rama practice which i found out doesn't start until NEXT saturday. nope, definitely not me. i'm way too detail oriented to skim over the flyer that had the times and dates!

i absolutely did not clean up drying paint on my floor at 11pm last night. my son did not tip over a paint bucket which did not create a lake of paint on our floor. and i did not blog about it before cleaning it up.

aannnnnnnddddddd..............

....last but not least.

today is not my birthday, so instead of giving myself a present, i am not gonna give you the chance to win one!

here's what you do: leave me a comment with your guess of what time i was born. whoever is the closest gets this lovely mary kay prize consisting of an eye essentials set, oil-free eye makeup remover, age fighting eye cream, and soothing eye gel!

sorry family, you can't play on this one!

and this is also not my 100th post, so i'm not gonna have a double contest!

to win a dvd of the new movie fireproof, you can get one entry for following my blog, one entry for following me on twitter, and one entry for leaving me another comment about your favorite thing about my blog. (you automatically get an entry if you follow my blog or twitter.)

family, you can play along on this one!

make sure i have a way to contact you if you win. and sorry, i can only ship to the 48 contiguous states! the contests will end when i post the winners on friday, february 13th!

happy monday!!!

does your child eat paint chips?

my husband is a painter. and every time i fill out one of those information sheets at the doctor's office (you know, the one with the questions like 'does your child eat dirt, cigarettes, paint chips, etc.') i can't help but wonder if my children really do eat paint chips. i'm sure some some little pieces of dried paint fall off of ben's whites since he doesn't change right when he gets home. so there's that huge possibility that they do, in fact, eat paint chips. but of course i never say that when i'm at the doctor's office.

but after tonight, i'm not gonna second guess myself when it come to that question, because my son drinks paint. you see, my husband is a painter. yes, i know i already stated that, but he is. and what comes with having a painter husband is dirty brushes, pots, and 5 gallon buckets with paint in them that need to be cleaned.

so a couple weeks ago he brought home a 5 gallon bucket with a dirty grid, roller, and some leftover paint in it. he filled it about halfway with water to keep the roller wet, and set it on the floor out of the way. and there it has sat.

until tonight.

i don't know how many times i have walked by it thinking, "man, that's just the right height for ryan to pull up on," or "man, i hope ryan doesn't get into this."

tonight my thoughts turned into reality.

it was way past the kids' bedtime, about 9:50pm, and i was getting them ready for bed. samantha went to the bathroom (which is off the other side of the kitchen) and ryan followed her. but a basket of clean laundry blocked his path to the bathroom. so as i was picking up toys in the living room i heard samantha scream, "MOM!!!! I NEED YOU! OH, I NEED YOU RIGHT NOW REALLY FAST!!!"

as i ran into the kitchen samantha was pleading, "mom i promise it wasn't me. i was going potty, really. it was ryan." and there stood samantha on one side of the laundry basket, with ryan sitting on the other side in a lake of watered down paint next to a tipped over 5 gallon paint bucket.

you can imagine how badly i wanted to run and get my camera... but ryan's hands were going back and forth from the lake of paint to his mouth. to his hair. to his mouth. to his face. to his mouth. to his eyes. to his mouth. i hope latex paint isn't harmful to injest. so samantha stripped down and held his hands while i grabbed the pile of oversized paper towels (you know, the ones from this post).

(just imagine the paint all the way to the bottom of the picture with a diaper-clad ryan sitting in the middle of it!)

so i got ryan out of the lake and onto some paper towels. and while i was cleaning him up samantha said, "boy, i wish i could step in the paint and make my footprints on some paper...." so being the cool mom that i am, i grabbed a piece of paper and said go ahead!

then it was off to give the kids a quick bath, get them dressed and in bed, and now i am sitting here blogging about the mess that awaits me in the kitchen. yes, as it states at the top of my blog, this is another way to procrastinate!

5/52 photo challenge

it's time for photo of the week! this week's category is sports. thank goodness it can be anything related - equipment, teams, players, etc. i don't know why this category wasn't left for summertime, but i guess that's what makes it a challenge!

i was going to take a picture of samantha this morning at her sparks-o-rama awana olympic practice, but i read the information sheet wrong and practice doesn't start until next saturday. hmmmmm....

so then i had to get creative! i don't play sports, and goodness knows i'll have plenty of pictures of ben playing softball here pretty soon, so i didn't want to take a picture of a bat and ball.

so i decided to go shopping at target and try to get some inspiration. after moseying through the toy department i came to the sporting goods. and there lined up in a big long row were all the bikes. i thought that would be a good picture. after all, that was probably my favorite thing to do growing up. but then it dawned on me. i do have a sport....

SHOPPING!!!

well, target clearance shopping, that is!

my equipment... (the cart)


...and two of the best team players!

71...

...was our high today. it was a beautiful sunny day, so we had a playdate at the park! the only downside was that it was super windy. but i CAN'T complain!

we packed our lunch and met at the park with at least 7 other moms and their kids. samantha had so much fun playing with her friend toni and her sister tori, and ryan had fun playing with his friend isaac.

isaac helped ryan by pushing him down the slide!

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

cutie pie!

samantha and her friend carter eating lunch.

samantha's friend toni. isn't she cute?!

the only picture i got of samantha playing. she was too busy running around!

now i can't wait for spring!

thankful thursday updated

i forgot to say that ryan has to get a hip x-ray. since he's still not walking dr. b wants to make sure that he doesn't have developmental dysplasia of the hip. and also, on top of her cataracts, samantha is developing far sightedness so hopefully she doesn't have to get glasses!

thankful thursday

today i am thankful for God-things, or God-incidences, or whatever you may call them. basically, i'm thankful for that feeling you get after experiencing something like that. you just kind of sit back in awe and say, "thank you God! i totally didn't expect that, but how cool that You did that just for me!"

i had a God-incident today. but first, the story behind the story... (*spoiler allert: stop reading if you don't like poop stories!*)

one year ago, january 2008, ryan somehow developed a bad case of constipation. he was 6 months old and out of the blue this happened. i hadn't started him on any solid foods yet, but he was a bottle baby and the formula sure didn't help with this. so the first time he went to his doctor, dr. b (who i really like, by the way), she told me to start giving him pear juice and that should help.

well it didn't help and three months later i went back and told her he was still having problems. she didn't want to give him any medications if it weren't necessary, which i was grateful for. so i still tried to tweak his diet to help his bowel movements. this still didn't help so we went to the doctor three months later. "well hopefully since he's starting to crawl around and move a little bit more that will help his bowels get going," she said. again, no help.

the last two times i've taken him to the doctor i've gotten really frustrated with her. she keeps saying that she wants to change it with his diet and keeps asking "have you tried giving him any pear juice?"

YESSS! you told me to do that 9 months ago and it STILL ISN'T HELPING!!!!!!!!

actually, the last time i took him in i got really mad. i asked her if i could switch him to 2% milk to see if that would help with his constipation. and her reply was, "no, he really needs the fat from the whole milk until he's two. why? does he have little bouts of constipation every now and then?"

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! don't you people write this stuff down in their charts?!?! and YES I'VE GIVEN HIM PEAR JUICE!!!!

yes, she really did ask if i had tried giving him juice. come on lady, this is the 4th time i've talked to you about it. write it down. i'm not a first time mom, i know this isn't normal.

so now on to the God-incident story...

both of the kids had their well checkups today. and i had already decided that if ryan didn't get any help or if anything didn't change today that i was going to find another doctor. i had already called a pediatric GI (from children's mercy hospital) to make sure they take our insurance and to see if i need a referral. and i had my mind made up that our pediatrician was going to have to earn her right to remain our doctor. bottom line, give me some answers, and get ryan some help, or we're outta here!!

after the nurse checked the kids' weight and height and asked all her questions that needed to be asked, a 30-something year old doctor, dr. o, came in the room and told me that he was a doctor from CHILDREN'S MERCY HOSPITAL and that every couple months they go to different offices to see how things are going, etc. so he checked out both the kids (and i have to add that he was waaaaayyyyyy more thorough) and asked if there were any other problems or concerns. so i told him that ryan's had chronic constipation and that i wanted to get a referral for a GI and that he's had it for a year and that i've tried to fix it with his diet and that hasn't helped. so then he actually asked me what his diet was like (dr. b never asked that) and then he asked me what his bowel movements were like (dr. b never asked that either. she'd only ask if i'd given him pear juice! lol). and to tell you all the truth, he screams bloody murder almost every time he poops. his poop is hard like dried clay, it's usually the size of a silver dollar, and it usually has blood in it. he can't even poop on his own. we always have to take his diaper off so that there's a place for his poop to go. after all, it can't smash into his diaper... and we always have to hold his legs to help him push. this is definitely not normal.

so dr. o asked me if i had tried miralax and he told me that the GIs at children's mercy would start him out on miralax to clean him out and that i should try that first and save a trip! so later when dr. b came in she examined the kids also and might i add that both doctors were floored by how smart samantha was. and how stinkin' cute she was. she was actually answering all the questions that they asked me about her. "nope, no fever or colds or anything this week!" she said. =)

but anyway, when dr. b was done checking out ryan dr. o said that i also had a concern about constipation. and dr. b looked from ryan to samantha and asked, "for which one?" lol. i don't expect her to remember everything, but seriously. look in the chart once in a while! that is, if you wrote it in the chart! so i told her again that the diet hasn't helped and she also recommended miralax since he's a little bit older now. she explained to me what to do and i asked her what we'd do if for some reason this doesn't help after a couple weeks and she told me to call her right away and we'd pursue it more. well THANK YOU for finally doing something about this!

so the kids had a good checkup (and dr. b avoided the wrath of erin!). samantha weighs 35 lbs and is 42 inches tall. she's finally moved out of the 10th percentile for her height and weight!! and ryan weighs 25 lbs (50th percentile), but i'm not sure how long he is. he's grown though... he moved from the 75th to the 90th percentile for his height!

as we were walking out of the building i couldn't get over how awesome it was that God had put dr. o there today. and that he was from children's mercy and he knew what the GI there would do. ryan actually had an appointment last wednesday, january 28th, but at the last minute i changed it to today so that i could bring samantha at the same time.

no coincidences here! ...thank you God!

what are you thankful for today?

wordless wednesday

once again, God, You have left me wordless...

tuesday tip

if y'all are like me, you suffer from the same thing as i do..... too many plastic wal-mart, target, or grocery store bags hangin' around! (i have a huge trash bag full of them to recycle right now.) but a few here and there can really come in handy. especially in the car!! and to easily store them without having a wal-mart bag full of bags in your car? use an empty kleenex box!

shove a bunch of plastic bags in there, then toss the kleenex box in your trunk or back seat. grab a bag when you have a lot of trash in your car, or when you have a lot of little stuff to bring in from your car, or when your grocery bag rips and you have canned goods all over the trunk!

now i just hope you don't end up needing kleenexes while you're driving around!

visit becky's blog to read some more great tuesday tips!

not me! monday

time again for not me monday! check out what everyone else has not done this past week at mckmama's blog. but first, here's what has not happened with me this past week.


my husband does not love listening to talk radio. so one night last week when he got home from work he definitely did not rush into the house, frantically turn the radio to AM, kiss me, tell me he loves me, then turn up the radio for me to listen. the broadcast was not about a pastor in our city that has issued a 28 day sex challenge for the month of february.....

...i did not roll my eyes.

*side note: sorry you not just have to read that, dad!*

i have not been taking pictures of my son's bowel movements for the past 2 months to show the GI. that would just be downright disgusting. and if i'm anything downright, it's not disgusting.

i have not been reusing some of our lightly used dishes because i didn't want to dirty another dish. i have not been using the same plate that i used at lunch for dinner. nope.... not me! i wash all the dishes right after every meal.

i do not procrastinate so much that i still have 3 boxes of Christmas presents to go through. and speaking of procrastinating, i still haven't blogged about our trip to minnesota at Christmastime. and speaking of minnesota, i still haven't posted about our trip up there in october even though i've had a draft saved for 3 months. no, my friends, i'm not behind on anything!

i did not get all excited when i checked my email and mckmama had replied to one of my comments. nope, i was cool, calm, and collected, especially when she replied to another one a couple days later!

what have you not done this week?

25 random things about me

here's my list of 25 random things about me. most of you will see this on facebook, but for those of you who aren't on facebook (becky), read my list and then make a list of your own!

1. i’ve played the piano by ear since i was 4, but i still really suck at sight reading music, even with my 10 years of piano lessons.
   
2. i’m homeschooling samantha and i love it!
   
3. i sound like my mom more and more every day. and i have come to realize that’s not a bad thing. i have an awesome mom! (and dad too!)
   
4. i hate living in kansas city from april to june. the thought of a tornado terrifies me.
   
5. i hardly ever capitalize anything when i’m typing. and i often start a sentence with a conjunction.
   
6. i clench my teeth all the time. and i have had more than 24 fillings and 2 root canals.
   
7. i never thought i’d like blogging as much as i do.
   
8. i met my husband on the internet. i was 15 and he was 18. we will hopefully come up with a different story to tell samantha…
   
9. i am definitely a night person and am in no way a morning person. because of that i have trained my children to sleep in.
   
10. i am in love with my camera. after my husband and my kids of course!
    
11. i don’t watch the news anymore. in fact, i hardly watch any tv anymore.
    
12. i used to hate baseball and love football. now i’d rather watch a baseball game than a football game. i still like football though!
    
13. i don’t use conditioner in my hair.
    
14. i never attended a public school until i went to college.
    
15. i am an ebay wife
    
16. i don’t believe in childproofing the house. i believe in teaching my kids what they can and can not get into. no outlet covers, cabinet locks, or babygates here!
    
17. i severely dislike the majority of forwards. especially the false ones that people haven’t researched before they forward them. however, i agree that there are some funny ones that need to be passed on!
    
18. i know how to butcher a chicken. from chopping off the head, to plucking the feathers, to taking out all the guts, i know how to do it.
    
19. i procrastinate. i started this list about 5 days ago and have put off getting it down to 25.
    
20. i have been a born again Christian for almost 23 years and have never read through the entire Bible. i am going to do it this year. even if it takes me more than a year!
    
21. my house is never clean. and i would be quite embarrassed if any of you came over right now.
    
22. i’m very naive. and gullible. so if you tell me something untrue that i don’t know i’ll probably believe you. example: ben got me to believe that there was such a thing as 4% milk and that it was half milk and half orange juice.
    
23. i love ice cream. like really really LOVE ice cream.
    
24. when i was 3 or 4 years old i acquired the nickname ernie because i wrote my name erni. my dad still calls me that.
    
25. i have crazy dreams all the time. and they scare me. not because they’re scary, but because i wonder what my subconscious must be thinking.