Saturday at Home

Listening –  Pandora, my Jewel station.  Making me happy and mellow, kinda like a Kahlua and cocoa on a Tuesday night with my baby!

Drinking – water with apple flavored Crystal Lite (actually the Wal-mart version of Crystal Lite)  And it’s GOOD…  if you like apple juice.

Eating – Mock chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes tonight!  Was gonna make this last night and just couldn’t muster up the energy to get it going…

Wearing – jeans that are feeling roomier lately.

Feeling – thankful…  and I feel a little like dancing on a mountaintop…

Weather – still too hot for my liking.  “Give it another month,” I keep telling myself.

Wanting – to hug my husband and give him a kiss that’s just a few seconds longer than he was expecting…

Needing – good health for all of us!

Thinking – of all the possibilities.

Enjoying – True Blood, the books and the t.v. series and a recurring dream that I’ve been having where my guardian angel looks like Eric Northman…

Wondering – what my baby’s doing right now…  hope he’s having fun with his sister and his mom.

Friday and I Feel Fine

I have a few more scrapbook pages to share from the virtual crop a couple of weeks ago.  I’m starting this post with a very happy page because I’m pretty happy.  I got the results of my thyroid biopsy this afternoon.  They found no cancer!  I’ve been so worried and down all week, waiting for the results that I knew my boys were not getting the mommy they deserve.  I knew I was quiet and distracted and just not engaged.  I’m feeling tons better today!

Actually even feeling like doing something fun tonight.  I haven’t had the energy to do much of anything the last few days.  I’m thinking of knitting needles tonight!  The boys are both in great moods because today’s FRIDAY, which means no homework, late bedtime and they get to sleep together!  They’re happy boys!  Scott’s having fun, visiting his sister and Mom.  I know they’ll have fun.  (ok, yes, I’m already ready for him to be home with me, but I’m trying hard not to be so selfish…)

So, yes, this photo is old…  at least four years old, because this picture was taken in our front yard in Iowa.  It was fall, because I can see all my fall stuff by the front door, but there’s also a dusting of new snow.  I miss Iowa.  I miss that big, Blue Spruce tree in the front, I miss having baby boys who go to preschool.

This page also makes me think of my little celebratory shopping trip today…  (I’m celebrating not having cancer…)  I bought a couple cute, plaid shirts:  one is fall colors and one is Christmas colors.  Can’t wait for the weather to cool off enough to wear them!  (It’s 100 degrees today…  YUCK!)

 

And look at that…  speaking of Christmas.  Here’s a Christmas page from last year.  For the past several years, I haven’t gotten many pictures of Christmas because my camera wouldn’t take good pictures in low light.  Now this year, I have my new Canon… and it takes beautiful low light pictures and boy, is my family going to be sorry!

Last page to share for a while…  He didn’t know I was snapping pictures of him.  He was very engrossed, almost scientific in his efforts to blow bubbles in his milk.  I thought it was great!  Silly boy!

Right Now

It’s just me and my monster puppy today.  The two little puppies are at the doggy spa, getting spruced up.  I have some errands I’d like to run, but I’m not sure if monster will handle being home alone very well…  Of course she’ll be in her condo (kennel) but she has pretty bad separation issues…  (meaning her condo will be a stinky mess when I return, if she gets too upset.)

Did these pages a couple of weeks ago, during the online crop at www.acherryontop.com .  I had so much fun, playing with all my stuff again.  I love this sweet picture of Scotty.  Sadly, I just gave that shirt to Goodwill…  too small.  sniff, sniff…

Got a lot to do today.  I’ve let myself fall behind due to traveling for doctors visits and such.  I’m happy today, though and I feel pretty good, except for a dull ache where I had a thyroid biopsy yesterday.  Everything with our health issues is on track to be fixed.  It’s just going to take a little time to fit it all in.  Just gotta be patient, which apparently isn’t my strongest attribute.

This last page documents our most current trip to our condo in Vail.  This most recent trip wasn’t as much fun as it always has been in the past. Several things contributed to that fact:  1. we went too late in the year and couldn’t do all the outdoor things we like to do. 2. we were trying to go on the cheap. 3.  a neighbor in our complex had a serious domestic dispute and we had to be relocated to another building, for our safety.  NOT a fun situation.

After that trip, Scott started talking about selling the place.  I convinced him that now is not the time to get rid of it, after just having had a bad experience there.  So we’ll have the place for at least one more stay…  Hopefully it’ll be better next time.  We’ve sure made some awesome memories there so far.

Back Home

 

In between this…

And lots of these…

We managed to find time to go here.

And we had some of this!  Yum!

Did the mall too.

It was not a fun week, but I loved hanging out with my man.  I’m so thankful that I could be there with him, the whole time.  So thankful that Guh and Umpa took care of the boys and our pups so that I could be there.  Now we wait for results.

Gonna be a Full Week…

I was able to play quite a bit the last three days, participating in lots of the fun going on at www.acherryontop.com and their Summer Online Crop.  I entered several challenges, that I think will be judged and awarded prized next week.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Been busy today, trying to get everything in order to be out of town most of the upcoming week.  Tomorrow the boys and I are heading out at 6am for an eye doctor appointment in Scottsbluff.  The boys are already complaining about the early hour, but they’ll live.  I was just thrilled that the doctor could get me in so quickly.  And hopefully they’ll have good news about what’s going on with my eye.  (We did get good news:  all the tests that my general doctor ordered came back normal.)  So I’m really hoping that it’s just a weird, little freakish eye thing that doesn’t require surgery to fix…  maybe even it’ll fix itself?  God, that would be awesome!

Then we should be home, if everything goes well, around lunchtime, at which time I’ll finish packing suitcases and getting pups ready to go to Colorado.  We’re taking off when Scott gets home from the office for his week-long evaluation at National Jewish Hospital in Denver.  We’re both ready to really be on top of his condition, to know what’s going on and how to keep it from getting any worse and hopefully even make it get better! 

It’s not going to be a lot of fun, hanging out at the hospital, but maybe we can find time to relax and enjoy each other’s company.  I’m taking something to knit and a good book too.  (I’m thinking even a week in the hospital might be a nice break from his job right now, which is VERY DEMANDING, approaching the deadline for a huge, 4-year-long project!)

Not sure what’s going on after Thursday.  Might need to come home right away because of Scott’s project at work, might talk him into staying an extra day and doing something fun.  The boys are excited because they’re going to stay with Guh/Umpa a couple of extra days without Mommy and Daddy.  (first time ever)  My folks will bring them home on Sunday.  I just hope they don’t kill each other…  It’s going to be a long week for my folks too, who have volunteered to keep two boys and three additional dogs all week and the boys a few more days after that…  They’ll be glad to be rid of us when school starts up again!   Don’t know what Scott and I will do, all by ourselves next weekend…

More Pages

I had time to play with my scrapbook supplies one day this week.  All the supplies are still sitting around on my desk, in an effort to make myself use them some more.  I know I’m going to do some this weekend, because I’m participating in a virtual crop at www.acherryontop.com .  Going to join a friend tomorrow and crop together.  I’m really looking forward to it.

So this first layout has pictures of Boo from last fall.  We don’t keep her that fuzzy in the summer and she’s much bigger now.  She’s brought so much joy to our family.  We all love her so much.

Got to play with paint!  I always love the look that paint and plain ol’ cardstock create.  I really should do it more often.  Thinking of my next Fort Collins shopping trip, I need to make a stop at a scrapbook store for some basics:  paint, glimmer mist, cardstock, patterned paper.

I don’t know if it’s the overwhelming amount of time together our boys have had over the summer or if it’s just their ages, but THEY DON’T GET ALONG WELL.  They fight ALL the time, over every little thing.  When there’s a rare moment of peaceful cooperation, like this one, I take note!

 

I love this shot of Scott.  He looks so sexy.  (doesn’t hurt that he’s cooking dinner…)  So this is just a mushy layout to document how much I love him. (and when he cooks!)  lol

And last but not least, this is an older shot of the boys, taken the last day of summer break in 2009.  We had a fun day, playing at the park.  I remember the weather was a little on the cool side that day – we lucked out.  Might try to go back to the park this year, or the pool.  Something fun, for sure.

Thursday and I’ve got a little something on my mind

 

I’m a little worried about me.  Got something unknown going on with my body and can’t find out what it is quickly enough for me to be happy.

Monday afternoon, I had what I thought was a small migraine.  It was a 30 minute long visual distortion that looked like I had been looking at a light bulb and looked away.  It was only in my right eye.  It got less intense and I figured it would go away.

Next morning, I have a blind spot in the center of my vision in my right eye and it hasn’t gone away since.  It gets more intense in bright light, or maybe I’m just more aware of it when I’m looking at bright light.  I’m not sure.

Went to the ophthalmologist Tuesday, who discovered that there are several arteries on my right retina that aren’t getting adequate blood flow.  His first thought was cholesterol and an arterial blockage, but an ultrasound yesterday said that was not the case and my cholesterol is good.  My MD, upon examination, has discovered that my thyroid is enlarged and I had an ultrasound of that today.  They did a bunch of lab tests yesterday also, the results of which we should have tomorrow.

Messing with one’s vision is a scary thing!  I’m ready for this to be fixed!

16 Days Left

We have 16 days left of summer break.  It’s gone by so quickly, even with the constant bickering and playing too much X-Box, it’s gone by too quickly.  I’ve LOVED having my boys home with me.  We have a little over 2 weeks left and I’m trying to think of ways to savor it, trying to think of ways to make this transition a fun one for my boys. 

When I was a little girl, this was one of my favorite times of year.  Getting ready to go back to school meant shopping trips to buy new clothes, get a pretty new haircut, buying all those school supplies.  I loved it.  I have great childhood memories of school and even doing homework and  hanging out with my parents in the evenings.  I had a blessed childhood.

On this one of the last summer break weekends, we ate out a lot.  It was fun.  Friday night, we went to Bee’s favorite restaurant, here in our little town, Oya Grill.  Daddy’s been working very long hours, but on Friday, he took the time to have dinner with us.  Saturday we ate at Buffalo Point, sadly, it was not a great experience.  And yesterday we took off to Cheyenne and had a great dinner at the Olive Garden and coffee afterward at Starbucks.  (made up for Saturday night.)

Another thing we’re enjoying about these last days of summer?  Rupa has been sharing zucchini from her garden!  We’ve been baking chocolate zucchini bread and sharing it.  The boys have grown very fond of it!  I substituted apple sauce for 1/2 the oil this time and Scotty said it was even better!  I’m thinking about sneaking in a cup of shredded carrot next time too…  I was a little upset that it didn’t rise well the first time I made it, but it did rise better this time and was very good.  If you’d like the recipe, you can check it out here:  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Zucchini-Bread-II/Detail.aspx  The only other things (besides the applesauce) that I changed were:  we left out the walnuts and I only had to bake them for 45 minutes.  The cinnamon makes the house smell awesome!  So it’s fun to make!

Loving the harvest from our garden right now too.  I’m having a lot of trouble with grasshoppers in the garden right now and not sure what to do about that, but I’m still getting enough tomatoes to freeze a batch every other day.  So that makes me happy.  I don’t feel like the garden was a great success if I ever have to buy canned tomatoes…

It’s not summer if we don’t get the big water slide out at least once!  I’m hoping to do it at least one more time before the cool weather starts coming in…  This picture was taken at Tim’s birthday party on Saturday.  Everyone had a ball!  Thanks, Katherine and Nick for hosting!

And there’s been lots of swimming for the boys this summer.  They’ve lost most of their fear for the water and are exceeding our expectations.  We went, all four of us, to the pool on Sunday and had a ball.  Scott and I can enjoy it now too, since we don’t have to spend every minute holding them or watching every move they make.

We have 16 days left.  If you have any end-of-summer traditions that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear them!