A Mom's Life

7 Quick Takes Friday

2013-05-24T09:01:00.001-04:00

1. The kids only have two weeks left of school until summer vacay starts! No more tests, projects, reports, etc. I think I'm as happy as they are.

2.The BFF has convinced me to do the Mud Run again. It's next week and I am probably in worse shape this year than I was last year. I've got one week to gain a ton of upper body strength or I am going to be heading around a lot of obstacles instead of over them. Dan says I better start doing some push-ups. I think I should have started doing those two months ago.

3. Memorial Day weekend already? You know what that means, right? I'm going to blink and it's going to be Labor Day weekend. The older I get, the faster the days go by.

4. The garden is already being overtaken by weeds! Dan has a lot of work to do this weekend. :) I may be a nice wife and help him.

5. Sarah has a sleepover at her BFF's house this weekend. She is thrilled. Me, not so much. The last time this bunch of girls had a sleepover, there was a lot of drama and the mother (different mother was hosting the other sleepover) said, "That's it! No more sleepovers! I'm done!" And she meant it too because this year, she had a bowling party for her daughter. All bowling, no drama. Works for me!

6. Sarah's birthday is coming up in a few weeks and she wants to have a sleepover. She asked how many girls she could invite and I said, "Um, ONE!" Because, y'all, I'm no fool. In order to minimize the girl drama, you have to have an even number of girls. Otherwise, someone will be left out, someone will have their feelings hurt, and someone will want to go home. That's just how it is. So, it's Sarah plus one makes two and that's an even number and we should be all good.

7. Peter had to memorize "The Self Esteem Creed" and has to recite it in front of the class today. In fact, all the kids had to memorize it and must recite it today. Peter was less than thrilled. He called the Creed "stupid", "dumb", "useless", :waste of time".

Here it is. What do you think? (By the way, I'm not sure who wrote it because the hand out the teacher gave him, doesn't credit it to anyone. I did a search and found it in several places on the web with no author credit.)

The Self-Esteem Creed

God made me; I was no accident.
I was in God’s plan
And He doesn’t make junk…ever,

I was born to be a successful human being.
I am somebody special, unique,
Definitely one of a kind,
And I love Me.
That is essential so that
I might love you too.

I have talents, potentials
Yes, there is greatness in me
And if I maintain my specia ness,
Then I will write my name in the sands of time
With my deeds…

I was born in God’s image
And likeness
And I will strive to do
God’s will.

Kind of dorky, isn't it? But I understand what the teacher was trying to accomplish. Unfortunately, according to Peter, "Learning this just makes me mad."

Mission not accomplished.

And with that, head on over to Jenn's place where the Quick Takes are plenty!

A little getaway.

2013-05-22T12:14:00.000-04:00

We left for a long weekend at the beach bright and early on Saturday morning. It was a much needed break after all the traveling my husband has been doing lately.

Last week was a rough week. A mom from the MOM's group I belong to lost her 15 month old baby. She died unexpectedly in her sleep. Another mom from this same group has a 5 year old who underwent a bone marrow transplant last year in an attempt to prevent leukemia. Everyone thought she had beaten it until last week when tests revealed that she has AML leukemia. The doctors said she had a slight chance to beat the leukemia with 3 times a day chemo treatments or they could send her home with hospice and 3 weeks to live. Needless to say, the parents chose to fight and we have been praying fervently for a miracle ever since.

So I spent this past weekend really thanking God for my husband and my kids.

Here are a few pictures from our time at the beach:

7 Quick Takes: Mary Mary Quite Contrary...

2013-05-17T06:13:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I promised you all a riveting 7 Quick Takes post. Well, I probably lied just a teensy bet. It's not so much riveting as just pictures of some of the things we have growing around here. What? You don't find pictures of things growing at someone's house riveting? Well, in any case, that's what I've got today so here we go...

1. My beautiful Lollipop Daisy. Pretty, no?

2. A pretty mix of flowers...petunias and what not. You wanted something more technical than "what not"? I don't claim to be a botanist or a good photographer for that matter.

3. I planted a boatload of Gerber daisies around this year. Here is just one of the many...

4. Corn! We are growing corn again this year! We don't plant enough of it to make it worthwhile but it looks cool growing in the garden so we thought we'd try it again.

5. Carrots! We've grown them in the past with mixed results but so far they are coming up gangbusters. And if I remember correctly from years past, this is going to be a problem because we haven't thinned them out yet. And by "we" I mean "Farmer Dan". I handle the flowers, he handles the crops.

6. Beans! One thing we can grow is green beans. The only problem is that we don't particularly care for green beans so we give them all to my mom.

7. Tomatoes! We've got lots of tomato plants this year. I do love me a good mater sammich! Fresh tomatoes, salt, pepper mayonnaise and white bread. It don't get much better than that.

8. 8? Clearly I'm not a mathematician either... but look! Blueberries! We planted blueberry bushes last year and I think we might get a nice little crop this year. Key word being little but you've got to start somewhere with blueberry bushes!

9. Rose bush! Our rose bush is already going to town with pretty blooms.

Head on over to Jenn's for more Quick Takes and have yourself a great Friday!

It's a bit of a stretch but there was a segue...sort of...

2013-05-16T08:29:00.001-04:00

Sarah continues to have poop issues. She was complaining of stomach pain all weekend so I called the doctor bright and early on Monday morning.

Apparently (either the nurse didn't tell me when we were discussing the initial Miralax-Gatorade Cocktail or I totally spaced and didn't follow through) but I should have continued giving a daily dose of Miralax for a week to make sure she was "emptying". Whoops!

So, five days after the initial cleansing, we started back up on daily Miralax. Last night we finally made a nice "breakthrough" if you will and I am hoping things will continue to flow freely.

I had a nice lunch with several ladies from my former MOPS group and of the 6 of us, 4 have children who struggle with constipation. Apparently it is a harder issue to deal with than I realized.

Harder. teehee (Harder...like Sarah's poop! Get it?)

Sometimes I think I'm 13. And speaking of 13...

Peter has had a bit of a bad attitude lately. Not sure whether at 10 1/2 it's hormones (is it too soon for hormones? I don't think so because some of his friends are starting to get - hair. Body hair, if you know what I mean. I was not expecting that quite so soon!), the end of the school year approaching,or just his general nature but I really do feel like I'm living with a teenager already.

And that's really about all from around these parts.

I have a riveting 7 Quick Takes lined up for you tomorrow so please, don't be a stranger!

WIWS - More Pink and White

2013-05-12T09:23:00.002-04:00

It's What I Wore Sunday and I'm wearing pink and white again this week!

(And for anyone that remembers my outfit from last week, I'm talking about my pasty white legs!)

Onward and upward with actual white pants covering my legs this week!

Shirt: Target (Clearance!)
Capris: Kohl's
Sandals: Target
Jewelry: Kohl's

These pictures don't highlight the fact that this shirt comes way down in the back which I think is pretty cool.

I wish these capris were just a wee bit longer. I wanted pants that came down more to my ankles but the only white pants I have been able to find that come down to my ankles are skinny jeans and I am NOT I repeat NOT squeezing into to skinny jeans in the summer. It's just not going to happen! So, I was left with these too short white pants. Oh well...I will continue to search.

To see what all the rest are wearing, head on over to Fine Linen and Purple!

7 Quick Takes Friday

2013-05-10T10:07:00.000-04:00

Woo Hoo! It's 7 Quick Takes Friday!

And why are you so excited about 7 Quick Takes Friday you might ask.

Well, I'll tell you! My husband has been out of the country for the last twelve days and I'm ready to see him!

1. Sarah and I were in Wal-Mart the other day perusing the book section when a youngish girl(maybe 20-something) rushed passed us. She was a "big-un" as my kids like to call the larger folk and of course, she was squeezed into some skinny jeans and squeezed into a too tight, too short shirt.

And of course, there were a good 2 - 3 inches of her plumber's crack showing. Yikes!! I was embarrassed for her.

Moral of the story - Momma's don't let your big-uns wear skinny jeans with a short shirt. (Growing up to be a cowboy would be a big improvement for this young woman.)

2. Does anyone else scribble down items for a Quick Taste post on a scrap of paper and realize that by Friday the scrap of paper has been tossed out?

3. I think Spring has finally sprung! (Although I vaguely remember typing that a few weeks ago before the weather turned winterish on us again.) It was 81 degrees here yesterday with similar temps predicted from here until October! I actually worked up a nice sweat during my run this morning and it felt great!

4. I bet you guys are really wishing I hadn't thrown that scrap of paper away because I'm sure my Quick Takes would have been so much more interesting than writing about the weather and my lack of Quick Takes.

5. Christy Long came to our MOMs group this week. She was speaking on forgiveness (specifically forgiveness when there is infidelity in your marriage, but I think we all took something home from her talk because we have all been forgiven by God and we all have someone we need to forgive at some point in our lives. Whew! Run on sentence maybe?)

Her book is entitled God Keeps His Promises and is available on Amazon. (She is friends with Gary Chapman (author of the Love Languages books) and he wrote a forward to her book.)

6. I've been eating smoothies for lunch for the last couple of weeks. I can't really tell a difference weight loss wise but I do seem to have a lot more energy. My favorite combo so far is spinach, greek yogurt, honey, blueberries and bananas. My kids think I'm gross for putting in spinach or kale but I really don't even taste it. They keep asking me to make them one but I know they are going to be disappointed when it doesn't taste like a milkshake!

7. What do you guys like in your smoothies??

All right, head on over to Jen's place to check out everyone's Quick Takes. I'm sure they didn't toss out their scraps of paper....

The poop (finally) hit the fan!

2013-05-09T11:12:00.002-04:00

Quick update on Sarah.

She continued to complain about stomach pains even after the piano recital. I told her we needed to give it a few more days to give the medicine a chance to work.

On Monday, I decided that enough was enough. We had given the medicine plenty of time to work if the problem was truly acid reflux so I called for an appointment. There was an appointment that afternoon with the PA if I wanted to bring her in then.

I asked if the doctor had anything available that week (since we saw a PA the first time) and luckily he had one available appoinment on Tuesday. I figured it was worth the one extra days wait to see the real doctor.

He diagnosed her with constipation saying that 99% of the time when a kid comes in complaining of stomach pain it's constipation but before he prescribed anything for that, he wanted to have an x-ray and an ultrasound done to make sure all of her insides were functioning properly. He said if they weren't and he prescribed a laxative there would be severe pain.

So on Wednesday we headed to the imaging center where Sarah got to see what each one of her organs looked like on the ultrasound screen and got to see what her ribs and spine looked like on the x-ray. She found the whole thing very cool.

And I did too, although I have to admit having an ultrasound when you are pregnant is just a weeeee bit more exciting that just looking at your kidneys or your spleen.

I dropped her back off at school and about an hour later my cell phone rang. It was the nurse saying that the doctor could see lots of impacted poop and that she needed a laxative.

So after homework yesterday afternoon the fun began.

Every 15 minutes Sarah had to drink a mixture of Miralax and Gatorade until there was ((ahem)) movement.

It took 6 glasses of the cocktail, lots of whining, crying and even calling off of Mother's Day because "you're a mean mom for making me drink that disgusting stuff" before we had ((ahem)) movement.

And then might I say, there was ((ahem)) lots and lots of movement!

At bedtime, she was her old self and this morning she was excited to get to school. For the last two weeks she didn't want to go to school because she was afraid her stomach was going to hurt.

Now I'm off to Google "diet to prevent constipation" or possibly "best foods to keep things ((ahem)) moving"!

Cold, wet, tired, happy.

2013-05-06T14:15:00.001-04:00

We had our big PECSAA track meet yesterday.

PECSAA stands for Piedmont Elementary Catholic Schools Athletic Association. Whew! That's a mouthful!

The kid's school competed against 5 other local Catholic elementary schools. It was a cold, windy, rainy spring day. Typically during May in this part of North Carolina, our highs are in the upper 70's and our lows are in the mid 50's.

But not yesterday. Nope. Yesterday the highs were in the mid 50's. And did I mention that it was windy and rainy?

Perfect weather for a track meet.

The meet lasted almost 5 hours and I was on my feet the whole time getting all the kids from one event to the next. But only the last hour dragged and at that point, I was over it all and was ready to go.

Sarah competed in 4 events. She got two 2nd place finishes and two 3rd place finishes. She was thrilled!

Peter competed in 1 event. He (and his relay team) finished 1st. He was thrilled!

The only problem with the day (other than the weather) is that Dan wasn't there with us. But I sent him the following pictures:

Cold, wet, tired, happy. It was a nice Sunday afternoon.

WIWS: Edition I don't care if I'm cold, I'm wearing it anyway.

2013-05-05T08:36:00.000-04:00

I have not participated in WIWS for the last two weeks. Don't worry. I've gone to Mass both weeks but we have been crazy busy and one outfit was a repeat and the other was not worthy of being photographed. But you can sigh a huge sigh of relief my friends because I'm back. And as I am typing this, I realize that this outfit is also a repeat. However, I have styled it differently.

The last time I wore this shirt dress from Target I was dreaming of spring but it was still very cold so I had to pair it with lots of goodies to warm me up. But now it's May and ..... Wait! I'm STILL dreaming of spring. Where is my hot North Carolina spring? I miss her. ....sigh.... But there was no way I was wearing leggings a jean jacket and boots with this on May 5th, so I pretended it was warm outside and went for it.

Don't let the sunshine fool you. It was out for less than 2 hours yesterday and did not warm up the day much at all. Low 60s is not N.C. spring weather.

And yes, Mom, I really need a slip. And no, Mom, I still do not own one.

Apparently you have to do more than just purchase the Jergen's Natural Glow Self-Tanner. You actually have to USE it!

Deets:

Dress: Target
Shoes: Target (old, very old)

And I wish I had taken a close-up of my necklace. It's an old gold (fake, of course) chain and I found a pink stone earring that was surrounded by gold (fake, of course) so I used the earring back to clasp it to the chain and turned the old earring into a charm. I was so pleased with my bad self! I felt like I needed something gold to go with the dress because the belt buckle was gold.

I think the dress, because of the length to my knees, could probably use shoes that are just a little taller than these wedges. But, the shoes matched the belt so I went with it.

And there you have it folks! What I Wore Sunday. (Or in this case, technically, What I Wore Saturday Because I Went to the Vigil Mass.)

This week you need to head over to Messy Wife, Blessed Life to see what everyone else is wearing today.

7 Quick Takes Friday - Edition How I'm Going to Keep From Missing My Husband This Weekend!

2013-05-03T09:04:00.001-04:00

Time for 7 Quick Takes Friday so here we go....

1. Peter's class was working on the Beatitudes recently and as part of their work, they made a flower and on each petal was a Beatitude. On the back the teacher had them each write a prayer. This was Peter's prayer:

Dear God, Please be with my family. They need help. Amen

This prayer totally cracked me up. They need help. Yes, I guess we do. And don't you love how he wrote they need help instead of we need help? Little stinker!

2. Dan has been out of town since Monday and won't return until next Friday. I'm used to him being gone during the week but it really stinks when he's gone over the weekend as well. But we've got lots to do to keep us busy so that's a plus. Let me list a few of them here for your reading pleasure:

3. I got some flowers from Lowes yesterday and I'm actually going to plant them. I typically have lots of potted flowers around on the front and back porch but this year I decided to plant some among the bushes in all of the empty spots we left 6 years ago for plants but I never got around to doing because news flash - I'm lazy! (And was that a run on sentence?)

Of course, I decided to do this when my hole digger isn't around. We'll see how it goes. I may have a project waiting for Dan when he returns next weekend.

4. We are going to the BFF's tonight for pizza. The kids are excited to play with their BFF's. I'm excited that I don't have to cook AND I get to play with my BFF too. It's a win-win for everyone except her husband. He has to deal with the craziness of 6 kids and 2 chatty women. He will probably retreat to the basement or to the TV and honestly, who would blame him?

5. On Saturday morning the kids and I are heading to an auction with my parents. My dad loves going to auctions, buying old stuff and then reselling it (hopefully at a profit) later. Should be a fun morning.

6. On Sunday afternoon the kids will have their final track meet of the season. It's the big one. The one against all the other area Catholic schools. I'm hoping that the rain they are calling for on Sunday holds off until after 6:00 PM because the rain date is next Sunday which is Mother's Day and I don't want to be a track meet on my special day! HA!

7.And the most fun and exciting thing of the whole weekend? Sarah has a book project due in less than two weeks. And she chose to do a diorama and an oral presentation.

Oral presentations good. (Kids need lots of practice speaking in front of people.) Dioramas bad. (Kids do not need lots of practice drawing tiny pictures representing a scene from a book. I'm just sayin'.)

And with that! I'm done with my quick takes! Head over to Jen's place for more.

Balsamic, Caramelized Onion, Goat Cheese Pizza. Sounds fancy doesn't it? But oh, so easy!

2013-05-01T08:55:00.002-04:00

Cari Donaldson and her family are known for their pizza nights which include their homemade pizza dough and use of a homemade personalized pizza peel. They take their pizza very seriously over at Clan Donaldson.

And that's exactly why I took Cari's advice and made this pizza on Saturday.

Y'all. I was not disappointed and I will be making this again. And again. And again.

Balsamic, Caramelized Onion, Goat Cheese Pizza

Ingredients:

Dough
1 cup Balasmic Vinegar
3 lg. Vidalia Onions
4 oz. Goat Cheese

Directions:

I decided to buy fresh dough from the deli at Wal-Mart. It was .88 cents for enough dough to make a 16 inch pizza which just so happened to be the size of my pizza pan. Perfect!

I rolled/stretched/made the dough sort of circular and flopped it onto the pan.

I made a balsamic reduction earlier in the afternoon. Super easy.

I caramelized my onions earlier in the afternoon as well. Also easy.

Cut up log of goat cheese and scatter around the dough.

Place caramelized onions on top of goat cheese.

Drizzled balsamic vinegar reduction over top of pizza.

Bake according to instructions on dough bag. I think it was 20 minutes at 375.

Eat it all up!

Isn't this gorgeous? I wished I had used a little more balsamic drizzle because that is what really made the pizza.

Hurry up! There are only two slices of deliciousness left!

Of course, there are pictures!

2013-04-30T06:00:00.000-04:00

You didn't think I was going to write a post about all of Sarah's ailments leading up to her piano recital and then not post pictures from the recital did you? What kind of blogger and mother would I be?

Sarah wanted a special hair style for the recital and Aunt Cathy was just the one to help her!

I love this girl!

Don't you just love this dress? So pretty and we only had to try on 15 dresses to find it!

Yes. Sarah got 3 bouquets of flowers after the recital. One from me, Dan, and Peter. One from Grandma and Grandpa and one from Aunt Cathy. And yes, I felt a little embarrassed with the amount of flowers she had. And yes, it was worth it to see the smile on her face when she got them!

Humor me with just one more picture of my cutie and all her flowers.

Mrs. Malloy and Sarah. Mrs. Malloy has been teaching piano since 1985. She's a great teacher and Sarah loves taking piano from her! Too bad she wasn't teaching piano in 1979 because I might not have stopped after a month! :)

I've been trying to upload the video that I took of her performance but Blogger won't upload it and it won't tell me why. Wrong format maybe?

We enjoyed the recital. It was so neat to hear everyone play. There was a nice mix of talent. There was one student who had only been taking lessons since January and one student that has been taking lessons for 8 years. She was fabulous. She played I Dreamed A Dream and Dancing Queen. (Two favorites!)

It was a great recital but I must admit, I'm glad it's over. And I think Sarah is too.

Anxiety, hives, and stomach cramps. Oh my!

2013-04-29T11:03:00.001-04:00

My sweet little Sarah has been taking piano lessons for almost two years now. She loves to play and she even seems to like to practice. I usually have to remind her but she always does it willingly (most days).

In February, she brought home a note after one of her lessons that said there was going to be a recital in April. She was thrilled! She picked out her recital piece and we shopped for a new dress and new shoes, and Aunt Cathy was going to be able to attend the recital.

Sarah was on cloud nine. She practiced the recital piece along with her other weekly music and life progressed as normal until a couple of weeks before the performance.

She started complaining of stomach pain usually at bedtime. I figured this was just an excuse to stay up later or to get me to stay in her room for a while.

Also right around this time she had a sleepover with Cheyanne (she's slept at her house too many times to count) but had to come home at midnight because her stomach hurt.

A week later she had a 2 night Brownie camp out and on the 2nd night complained about her stomach aching and missing me.

Anxiety? Separation anxiety?

This past Wednesday night she complained that her stomach hurt at bedtime and I asked her if she was worried about anything. She said her teacher would be out the next day and she was worried about having a substitute who wouldn't know the right way to do things. She also admitted (after I did a little prodding) that she was nervous about the recital. I was volunteering at school the next day and told her I would be there all day. That seemed to calm her down and she went to sleep with no problems.

On Thursday night she had what I would call a mild panic attack. She complained that her stomach hurt and she was going to throw up. She started freaking out because she did not want to throw up. (We all suffered through the stomach bug a month ago and I think that was fresh in her memory.) She complained that she felt like she had throw up in her throat but she never threw up. I finally got her calmed down and her stomach stopped hurting and she went to bed.

I sent her to school on Friday because I just knew all of this was related to the stress of the piano recital.

Of course, I got a call from school on Friday. She was crying in the office because her stomach hurt.

I whisked her off to the doctor where she was diagnosed with acid reflux. (Which can be brought on by stress.) They based this diagnosis off the place her stomach pain was coming from and the fact that the night before she felt like she had something in her throat - acid coming back up.

So we got a prescription for some meds and she felt great for the rest of the day.

My sister-in-law arrived that afternoon, I went out to dinner with some friends to celebrate Jennifer's 40th birthday and the rest of the family went out to eat as well.

When I got home from the birthday dinner, my family was eating their dinner from take out boxes. Apparently Sarah started crying in the middle of the dinner that her stomach hurt and she was going to throw up.

Cathy had a conversation with her where Sarah revealed she didn't like to be away from me.

More separation anxiety.

As she was getting ready for bed she broke out in hives! She had about 15- 20 hives on her back! We gave her Benadryl for the itching. I did some research online and found that stress can cause hives.

On Saturday evening, she got a few new hives and the hives from Friday night flared up again.

FINALLY and Sunday arrived. Sarah was nervous most of the morning but no stomach ache and no new hives. She focused most of her attention on her hair and her dress and her shoes.

We made it to the recital and she was WONDERFUL!

And for the rest of the day on Sunday she had no stomach problems and no hives.

I am praying that all of her ailments are gone for good now that the recital is over.

7 Quick Takes Friday

2013-04-26T08:49:00.001-04:00

It's been a crazy busy week so 7 Quick Takes Friday is just what I need!

1. Last Friday evening Dan, Sarah and I went to Chick-Fil-A. Peter was with my parents. It was a little chilly so I threw on my new white denim jacket. I got it about a month ago but for some reason have yet to wear it. Perhaps because it's been so darn cold and rainy lately that white denim just seemed out of place with my parkas, rain gear, gloves, etc. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little but not much.

When we got home from dinner, I took off the jacket and hung it up. Do you see what I see?

Talk about being embarrased. Dan assured me at home that it wasn't noticeable. But he did call me Minnie Pearl for the rest of the evening.

2. And it's not my first Minnie Pearl episode. Check out this old blog post for a similar yet completed dissimilar incident.

3. Poor Peter's allergies have been giving him a hard time the last couple of weeks. On Sunday morning, he complained of an ear ache and a sore throat. I had Dan whisk him off to Urgent Care because we had a track meet later that afternoon and I didn't want him to go if he had an ear infection or strep throat.

The doctor said his ear looked fine and his throat looked fine...most likely just problems caused by all of his coughing and congestion. He prescribed an antibiotic and off we went to the track meet where Peter proceeded to run faster than normal!

4. Fast forward a couple of days when he needed to use his asthma rescue inhaler twice and then the next day after school covered himself up with a blanket and took an almost 2 hour nap. I decided enough was enough so we headed to the allergist the next day where he got...

A nebulizer treatment.

5. He's had those before and they usually seem to do the trick but it didn't seem to work as well as they normally do so we got to stop by the pharmacy and bring home these....

Not shown - the Zyrtec that he takes daily that doesn't seem to be helping him in the least

6. He's doing much better now thankfully. He's able to breath without so much wheezing and his congestion seems to be clearing up. He hates taking all this stuff but luckily he is old enough now that he can swallow pills which are must less disgusting than all the "flavored" liquid meds for little kids. Plus I let him chase the pills with a shot of Coke which he thinks is the coolest.

7. Another busy weekend on tap...birthday dinner for my BFF tonight, 5k tomorrow morning, Sarah's piano recital (stay tuned Monday for pictures of her in her cute little dress!), track practice, oh! And a visit from Aunt Cathy!!

For less price tags and medicine, head on over to Jen's place for more Quick Takes!

And we're okay with that!

2013-04-22T14:19:00.001-04:00

My parents got the kids tickets to Carowinds for Easter instead of toys that would get tossed sooner rather than later into the bonus room or as I like to refer to it, the land where all the toys go to die.

Carowinds is a large theme park about an hour from here. Peter has been begging us to go for the last few months saying that he wants to ride the roller coasters. He's never been on a roller coaster before so I was skeptical.

I hate roller coasters. I am afraid of heights. I get nauseous on rides that spin around and around.

So basically Carowinds is my worst nightmare and honestly I was afraid we would get there, ride one ride and Peter would be petrified.

Typically if you would ask me which kid is more brave than the other, I would say Sarah. However, after a trip hiking last summer, I discovered that Sarah has a fear of heights. Check out the last two pictures in this post for visual proof. Or for fun, just go ahead and read the whole post.

We got to Carowinds right as it opened on Saturday morning. As chance would have it, we entered through the gate nearest Planet Snoopy which is the kiddie section of the park. We decided to ride on the Woodstock Express which is only one of two roller coasters I have ever ridden in my life. Interesting fact: when I rode it as a kid, it was called The Scooby Doo.

I sat with Sarah, and Dan and Peter sat in front of us. I held Sarah's hand and basically kept my eyes closed the entire time because did I mention? I hate roller coasters.

After the first hill, Sarah screamed, "Get me off of this thing!!!!".

And when we thankfully pulled back into the station, Sarah decided that just like me, she has a fear of heights and a loathing of roller coasters.

We managed to get her on the Red Baron which is a swing ride where all of the seats look like Snoopy's plane. You can hold a rudder straight to keep the plane from swing back and forth as the ride is going around or you can move the rudder to make the plane go crazy.

I promised Sarah I would keep the plane straight and off we went. Since I get nauseous on rides that go round and round I kept my eyes closed except for the two times I peaked to see what Peter and Dan were doing in front of us. But when I did, I could see that they were wildly moving their rudder because their plane was going up and down and sideways and every which way but loose as we were spinning around. And just looking at that made me want to throw up.

We got off that ride and Sarah realized that like me, she gets nauseous swinging around in a circle.

At this point, the boys went into the big park and Sarah and I stayed in Planet Snoopy. I convinced her to go on a few more rides but they were all geared towards very young kids. And we were both very happy.

Peter LOVED all the roller coasters and he already wants to know when we can back because apparently 7 hours of roller coaster fun is just not enough for him.

I'm not sure when he will get to go back, but I am sure that when they do go back, Sarah and I won't be joining them! And we're okay with that!

Happy as a clam on the slow moving boats!

Even happier on the slow moving carousel!

Where else is it going to go??

2013-04-18T08:59:00.003-04:00

Last night Sarah and I were hanging out on the couch waiting for a new episode of American Idol to start. I always let her watch a little bit before her 8:30 bedtime. (Which is such a joke because she is always still awake when I go to bed at 10:00.)

The boys were outside tossing the football and I suppose Sarah and I should have been outside enjoying the beautiful evening but her allergies, or maybe it's a cold, had her feeling a little under the weather so we were plopped on the couch.

We had just finished watching the last 10 minutes of The Voice that I had recorded earlier in the week and it wasn't quite time for American Idol to start so I started flipping channels.

I landed on The Brady Bunch and told Sarah I used to love to watch that show when I was a kid.

She watched with interest and then exclaimed, "Oooooohhhh! Their house is so pretty!"

I think she liked the openness of the floor plan and the floating staircase. At least I hope that's what she liked and not the horrible paneling!

Marcia was talking to Carol and Mike about her latest woe - not be chosen to be hostess for the end of year banquet and Sarah said, "I do NOT like her hair!" (referring to Carol Brady)

We laughed about how horrible it looked and then finally it was time for American Idol! Out walked the judges and Sarah immediately said, "I hate her dress Mommy!"

And I had to agree. Cover yourself up Nicki Minaj! Good grief. (Thank goodness Peter was still outside!)

But I think Sarah summed it up best when she said, "It looks like her butt is coming out of the top of her dress!"

I guess when you've got a butt that large crammed into a dress that tight - it's got to go somewhere!

We were busy and now it's done.

2013-04-15T13:46:00.002-04:00

Busy! That was us this weekend.

On Friday evening I dropped Sarah off with her Brownie troop and they headed for a weekend of camping fun at Dan Nicholas park. She was excited and ready to go!

Sarah's in the blue shirt with the pink shorts and next to her in the pink and black is her BFF Cheyanne.

Then I sent Peter to Grandma's and Grandpa's house and when Dan finally got home from work we went out on a date night. Good food. Even better company!

Dan mowed the yard on Saturday and I cleaned the house. Good times.

Sunday afternoon we picked up Sarah and headed to a track meet! The kids did great. (I do have to note here that Sarah is fast and poor Peter is not as fast. I guess he gets his slow running skills from me! Sorry Pete.)

I am the assistant to the track coach - which is not to be confused with assistant track coach. Remember how Dwight Schrute was the assistant to the regional manager but thought he was assistant regional manager? Ha! Poor Dwight! And don't worry...I have no aspirations to be assistant track coach. Assistant to the track coach is fine with me.

I just handle all the emails and paperwork and forms, etc. so that the coach doesn't have to deal with all of that. Our track team is pretty big (90 kids all together) so there's a lot of "communicating" that has to go on.

Also yesterday I was working at the track meet. After I made sure all 90 kids had their track uniforms (can we say crazy?? luckily I had two people helping me!) I was writing times and getting them to the ribbon table.

Let's just say that after 4 hours of standing on my feet in the hot spring sun I have never been so happy to have one of these...

And tired Sarah had to put the finished touches on her government project. She felt like there was too much white space so after much brainstorming and many rejected ideas, I called in the big guns.

That's right. I called my mom. They decided that adding plastic flowers and little flags was just what the project needed. Unfortunately last week was just too crazy to get it all done before last night. I'm not one to complete projects at the last minute but sometimes that's the only time.

Here she is before she left for school this morning:

And yes, she's taking that pointer to school to use when she makes her presentation.

And yes, I was mad when she wrote her name in the middle of the tree and crooked to boot! And yes, I got over it.

Peter said, "Nice nature project, Sarah!"

Ha! He may not be fast but he's funny.

WIWS - The Oh My Gosh Spring Is Finally Here and I Have Nothing to Wear Edition!

2013-04-14T09:26:00.003-04:00

All right. It's Sunday. Spring has finally arrived here and as I was getting dressed for church I realized that I cleaned out my closet in the fall and don't have a lot to choose from in terms of spring and summer pieces. I guess that means it's time to go shopping!

I managed to cobble this outfit together:

Seriously, do I even need to put the store details down any longer?

Tank: Kohl's
Shirt: Kohl's
Pants: Kohl's
Shoes: Target
Jewelry: Target

Here's a close up of the jewelry from when I wore it with another outfit:

Can we talk about those shoes for a minute?

I got them at Target and wore them with this dress on Easter. And I think they are so cute. And I hoped they would be a versatile pair of shoes that I could wear frequently to church this spring.

I wore them for the second time with this outfit and y'all. I hate them! They are a little too big so I had to stuff the toes with cotton balls to keep them on (which worked, by the way) but they are so uncomfortable that I don't think I can wear them again. Boo. Hiss. Insert frowny face here.

Head on over to Fine Linen and Purple for some real inspiration. I know I'm going to be checking out the other ladies to see what pieces I need to be adding to my closet this season!

How to go from Sarah's project to Steve Jobs in a few short paragraphs.

2013-04-10T12:09:00.002-04:00

Now that Spring Break is officially over, and spring has officially arrived, and Dan is home for a few weeks, we are back to normal around here.

And that's not a bad thing except the kids are so ready to be done with homework, tests, projects and school in general. But that's not going to happen until June 7th so until then...

Sarah has been hard at work on her latest school project....

Three guesses as to what it is.

Yep. That's right. Her project is on the three branches of government and yes, she is being cliche and painting a tree with three branches on her tri-fold display board. But never fear. Sarah is not one to be too cliche - she sprinkled glitter all over it while the tree was still wet.

I'm hoping that she can get all of her information glued onto the board this afternoon and we can be done with this project. She did all the research (looked in two library books so I guess it can be called research) and typed the information into Word herself. It was excruciatingly painful for me to watch her do that because it would have been so much faster for me just to type it up for her. But as she reminded me as she was glittering up her tree, "It's MY project Mom!" And she is taking keyboarding at school so she is slowly but surely learning to type. (With the emphasis on slowly.)

And I feel like such a dinosaur because I still refer to it as typing. When I do the kids look confused until I correct myself by saying "keyboarding". And then there's the time when I told my kids that I didn't even see a computer until 9th grade and all it had was a black screen with a flashing cursor and in order to get it to do anything you had to type paragraph-long commands. Which takes me back to a computer class in college where we had to write programs using page-long commands.

And most of the time my friend and partner in the computing lab could never get the programs to work - even after hours of work and lots of help from the geeks in the lab.

Thank the Lord for Steve Jobs and all the rest of the computer geeks. Or this blog would just be a diary scratched out into notebook. But that seems so cliche now. Perhaps it needs some glitter?

Fruit Pizza Tartlets Recipe

2013-04-08T09:08:00.002-04:00

I had my parents over for dinner on Saturday night. I served a basic ziti, salad, homemade bread and sauteed broccoli. Nothing fancy (and I didn't even make the ziti myself - I bought it from the kid's school as part of a fundraiser. Every few months you can order entrees from a local restaurant and part of the proceeds go to the school) so I wanted to at least make the dessert.

Ziti and bread is very heavy so I wanted to make something light and sort of springy so I decided on a version of fruit pizza.

I have always loved fruit pizza. In fact, I requested that mom make a fruit pizza for my birthday one year instead of a cake. I was probably 13 or 14 at the time.

And while I love fruit pizza, I am always left wishing there was less cookie and more white "icing" and that's where Mini Fruit Pizzas come in. It is the perfect mix of cookie, icing and fruit. Just perfect!

And because I like to pretend that I'm the Pioneer Woman, here are a few pictures I took as I was making these delicious bites of perfection!

Roll the sugar cookie dough into 3/4 inch to 1 inch balls and place in ungreased mini-muffin tin. I preferred the 1 inch balls. There is no need to press the dough down. As they bake they will take the form of the muffin tin.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 7 minutes for the 3/4 inch balls or 8 minutes for the 1 inch balls.

After they cool and firm up, run a knife around the edge and gently remove them from the tin.

Get a cute little helper to help you combine the cream cheese, Cool Whip and powdered sugar. And try to keep her from sampling large spoonfuls of the mixture. And try to keep her from watching you sample large spoonfuls!

Assemble your favorite fruits and cut them into small pieces. I used kiwi, strawberries, blueberries and peaches.

Put frosting into large Ziploc bag and clip the end off. Then pipe the frosting into the cute little sugar cookie cups. So easy and so cute!

Aren't they adorable?

I really need to get some white plates if I'm going to pretend to be the Pioneer Woman because my plates detract from the cuteness. (I guess I also need a cattle ranch ,a blog that's visited by 100,000 people a day, a show on Food Network and a couple of cookbooks if I'm going to pretend to be the Pioneer Woman!)

Put on a cute plastic platter from Target and serve!

Mini Fruit Pizza Tartlets

1 roll Pillsbury sugar cookie dough
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 large container cool whip
1 cup powdered sugar
diced fruit of your choosing

Roll dough into 3/4 inch or 1 inch ball, place into mini-muffin tin and bake at 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes. (There is no need to press the dough. The dough will take the form of the muffin tin as it bakes.)

Let cools cool and firm up before running a knife around the edges and gently removing from pan.

Whip softened cream cheese, then add in cool whip and powdered sugar mixing until smooth.

Place mixture into Ziploc bag, cut off tip of bag and pipe frosting into cups.

Decorate with fruit.

Makes approximately 36-48 cups depending on the size you roll your cookie dough.

Linking up with Tasty Tuesday.

WIWS: The Barney Edition

2013-04-07T13:49:00.000-04:00

It's Sunday and here's what I wore.

This is my typical foot pose for WIWS photos. I never know what to do with my foot so I always point it out like a deranged ballerina.

My brother told me the other day that he thought the way I put my foot out looked strange. So I tried several different poses but didn't know what to do with my foot. This is my "trying to pretend I don't feel stupid with my foot NOT poked out" pose.

This is the sweet rose detail on my cardi. My fashion photographer thought I needed a close-up of this.

Deets:

Tee-Shirt - Kohl's
Sweater - Target
Pants - Target (On clearance - $7.49!)
Shoes - Target

I got these pants on clearance at Target for $7.49. Which was a great deal...until I got them home and wondered what the heck do you wear with purple pants?!

I have a purple and black striped tee shirt that is the exact same shade of purple as the pants but when I put it on I had to laugh. The whole outfit felt very Garanimals so I just couldn't do it - especially not to church.

So I went with the only other thing in my closet that felt safe with purple....and I'm even questioning this. I think I need to pull out some old Barney VHS cassettes to see what he would recommend... a green vest perhaps?

Head on over to Fine Linen and Purple to see what else everyone wore to church today!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that cobbled together to make a post.

2013-04-05T14:24:00.002-04:00

Out of the last 26 days, Dan has been in Ireland for 16 of them. But he returns home tomorrow and will hopefully be home for a few weeks before the next round of trips begin.

I'm not complaining. (Too much anyway.) I'm just stating facts.

I am extremely thankful that Dan has a job, that he's not in the military and gone for a year or more (in a war zone!), that the kids at 8 and 10 can pretty much do everything for themselves, and that we live next door to my parents. In fact, I thank God for those things daily.

But I prefer it when he's home.

The kids have been on Spring Break for the last week and a half and we have kept busy. In addition to shopping for Sarah's recital dress, we have had multiple play dates, gone to the local trampoline park, had more play dates, gone for frozen yogurt (while it was sleeting and snowing outside! Mother Nature must be PMSing or something!), gone shopping for shoes to match that recital dress and slept in.

Sleeping in was by far my favorite thing. Oh sweet sleep, how I love thee.

The kids probably preferred the trampoline park. Even though we have a trampoline in our backyard which gets used almost daily they had a blast here. The boys loved the dodge ball court most of all and the girls jumped until they were sore.

Trampolining (spell check is screaming at me for this one but I think it sounds like a real word so I'm sticking with it) is great exercise in case you've never done it. I got on the one in our back yard for a few minutes the other day and thought I was going to die. Running three miles or doing a Jillian workout seemed like a walk in the park to the trampoline!

And now, after two very cold dreary winter-like days,

it looks like spring my finally, finally be here. We are expecting sunny weather and 70s and low 80s for the highs next week! Which is a good thing because I don't like it when I have to cross my arms, stomp my feet and poke out my lower lip.

Oh, and another reason I'm glad spring is here? All of Peter's pants are waaaaaay to short. His favorite pants are a good 3 inches too short and he looks totally ridiculous wearing them. But he doesn't care so I don't fight him about it. If only capris were in style for 10 year old boys we'd be golden. But since they aren't, I'm hoping that the weather will cooperate so he can finally switch to shorts.

All right. Enough about the weather, have a great weekend everyone!

There's a reason I get everything from Kohl's and Target.

2013-04-02T17:28:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Sarah and I went dress shopping with my mom. Sarah has her first ever piano recital at the end of this month and my mom wanted her to have a new dress. And new shoes.

So we started with an early lunch at Jason's Deli and then headed to the mall. If you are a regular reader of my What I Wore Sunday posts you know that most of my shopping is done at Kohl's and Target.

And yesterday I remembered why.

The mall is big and I think I should have eaten more at Jason's Deli to sustain me for the whirling shopping dervish named Sarah.

She picked out and tried on 10 dresses and then picked out and tried on 4 more. She was in hog heaven parading in front of the mirror, twirling around, posing like a model.

We finally narrowed it down to 5 dresses. We each had a favorite and she was torn. She ultimately although I think reluctantly decided on the one I like the best and we headed out to hang to dresses back on the racks. (At Kohl's and Target you do not have to hang up your merchandise. I'm just sayin'.)

As we began the hunt for the cash register (At Kohl's and Target the registers are conveniently located by the entrances. I'm just sayin'.) we all stopped in our tracks. Hanging on a rack out in the middle aisle was a dress. It was so pretty. It was navy blue with white polka dots. It was just the right mix of sweet, stylish and dressy without being too dressy. It was just perfect for a piano recital.

It looked out of place hanging on a rack with only all white dresses. I am assuming someone just stuck it there because they didn't want to hang it where it belonged. (Another Kohl's shopper perhaps?)

We all looked at it and said, "What a pretty dress!" Sarah smiled when we said, "You should try it on."

So we went back into the dressing room and tried on dress number 15 and we all agreed it was "the one."

If only the shoe shopping had been as smooth.

We went into store after store and continued to come out empty handed. I had enough of the mall and decided it was time to head home. The mall had beaten me down. Worn me out. Made me hungry. I felt like I had just done a Jillian workout.

So on Friday I'm taking Sarah to Kohl's and Target.

I'm just sayin'.

The best.

2013-04-01T09:40:00.001-04:00

The Easter Bunny come yesterday morning even though my kids have their doubts. They both even wrote letters for the bunny. Dan and I suspect that Peter was doing it for our sakes although I think deep down he still really, really, really wants to believe.

The baskets were filled with mostly non-candy items. But don't fill too bad for my kids because Grandma and Grandpa always have another big basket for them full of good chocolate.

And then the bunny does what he normally does....he continues to hop through our house all afternoon leaving little chocolate eggs for the kids to find. It's a continuous egg hunt around our house all Easter Sunday...

I hope everyone had a great day celebrating Easter - which truly is the best holiday of all!

What I Wore: Easter Sunday Edition

2013-03-31T17:17:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter! I hope you all had a wonderful day. We got up, opened Easter baskets and headed to Mass. After Mass we had lunch at my parent's house with my best friend and her family and now we are back home resting up.

I don't normally nap but I'm thinking that today might be a good day to start. The weather was gorgeous here yesterday so it as a disappointment to wake up to clouds and rain. But it's like the priest said, "Don't let the weather dampen your excitement over the risen Lord!"

And I didn't let the weather stop me from dressing like it was warm and sunny either.

Blazer: Wal-mart
Dress: Target
Shoes: Target
Jewelry - Target

(Apparently I only buy my clothes at stores where groceries and automotive products are also sold!)

And here are my munchkins. Aren't they cute?!

Linking up with Camp Patton for Show Us Your Easter Dress! and Fine Line and Purple.