7 Quick Takes... SATURDAY!

1.
My final is over! I was taking an online nutrition class this semester and there was a lot of busy work involved. We even had a group project that we had to participate in. I HATE group projects with a firey passion... imagine doing it online. Yuck.

I got an A in the class, which I'm pretty happy about. I have one more pre-req to take and hopefully I do well in that class. If I do, I'll be taking a 4.0 GPA into my application process for nursing school and I think that may help... just a little!

2.
I haven't had a chance to blog or even read any blogs because I've been studying when I can for my final. And I have two knucklehead kiddos that are REALLY starting to become quite the pair of trouble makers. Sam is starting to get into that ornery stage. He's definitely more toddler than baby. He can be quite challenging! But now that he's getting older he and Joe are playing together more, which is awesome. It is so incredibly fun to see them chase each other and laugh and giggle.

Oh, the humanity!

Sam loves the tree!

3.
Joe and Sam went to their first dentist appointment this week! I've been procrastinating on taking Joe in and Sam is getting a really bad build up on his teeth since he's on an all-liquid diet. I mean, his teeth look red neck gross. So I called a pediatric dentist and figured that we'd have to wait a couple of weeks to get in. To my surprise, they had quite a few cancellations for the next day. By the time I got off the phone I had made an appointment for my boys... during the day... during Sam's naptime... and at a time that Ryan would not be able to get off work to help me.

I basically chalked it up to being completely crazy for having done that.

But the appointment actually went well! Joe was very good and only cried when they were cleaning his teeth. He has two very small cavities that will be addressed at our next visit in 6 months. His dentist thinks he'll have to be completley put under since she doesn't think the laughing gas will be strong enough for him. I tend to agree.

Sam was fine unless the hygenist or dentist came near him. There was a lot of screaming, but the hygenist got his teeth clean.

I was very worn out afterward but proud for taking the boys myself. Everyone at the office was awesome so that made the experience a little easier!

He got to snuggle with some friends while they examined his teeth.

4.
Last Friday we went to see Santa. When Joe was about 3 months old he sat on Santa's lap with no problem. When he was 15 months old he screamed bloody murder. Last year he sat on a chair by Santa for a photo opp, but didn't tell him what he wanted for Christmas. This year was the first year that Joe really understood the concept of sitting on Santa's lap and telling him what he wants for Christmas. His list? A Monster's Inc. toy and a tummy stuffer. He recently added paper clips to his list. I don't ask questions anymore.

Of course, Sam screamed. But I was a little dissapointed with this Santa. Maybe he thought Joe was too young, but he didn't even really interact with him. He didn't even really smile in the photo. I figured it was because he had a screaming child on his lap, but another friend of mine took her daughter who is older than Joe to the same Santa. She wasn't screaming but this Santa had the same "Kill me now" look.

Joe really did love Santa, despite the deer in the headlights look.

I don't really remember my experiences with Santa as a little kid. I was never afraid of him, but I don't remember if any were particularly jolly. I guess years of watching Miracle on 34th Street set me up for thinking all Santas were jolly and kind.

Thankfully my quest for a "good" Santa came to an end just a few days later after Mass. Santa was there and he actually took the time to talk to each kid. We didn't subject Sam to the torture again.

5.
Yesterday was Sam's occupational therapy session with his new therapist. I'm not too terribly impressed with her demeanor... but I wasn't with Joe's therapist either, but she got the job done very quickly. I'm really hoping this time around will work... I'm just so worried about Sam not getting enough nutrients.

6.
I'm so in the mood to bake. I don't enjoy cooking meals, but I LOVE to bake. I just don't do it very often since I hate cleaning up. My favorite Christmas cookies are called kringle cookies. We always bake them on Christmas Eve at my mom's house, but I'm thinking I might have to make them a little sooner!

7.
Do any of you watch Homeland? Ryan and I love the show and we're psyched for the finale tomorrow! Brody is totally going to die. I just know it!

Well these are completely random and all over the place. It doesn't help that I'm finishing these up at 12:30 at night! Have a good weekend y'all!

Visit Jen for more Quick Takes! 

Did you know I'm on Bloglovin'?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

How to dry a turkey...

So I never got around to writing how hosting my first Thanksgiving went. Well... no one gagged, no one died and no one complained. So I guess that's a success!

I followed the directions for thawing the turkey... but apparently I still failed at that. The inside of the turkey was still somewhat frozen. We couldn't even get the neck out. So I put it in a sink of cool water. Thankfully it warmed up a bit because my mom got the neck out with no problems after about 15 minutes. But when you have a turkey soaking in water that long... it gets really really really wet.

Everything I read said to make sure the turkey was dried off well after rinsing it. Well, water was just SOPPING out of it and no amount of paper towels was getting it dry. My mom suggested using a hair dryer... only half-way kidding. I poo-poo'd the idea until I realized that it might just work.

So I used a hair dryer to dry the turkey. And it actually turned out OK!

Now begins my favorite time of year. I am one of those annoying people who love Christmas. I actually get teary eyed when I see Joe get excited about Christmas lights. I'm Buddy the Elf in female form. I'm trying hard to celebrate the anticipation of Advent... mainly for Joe's sake. I'm trying to focus on Baby Jesus... but I can't help that I get super excited when Santa comes to feed his reindeer at 10:00 central time on reindeercam.com! SANTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. Things will be quiet around here since I'm entering finals week. Happy Advent, y'all!

Joe's Neurology Appointment and Other Tid Bits

Yesterday Joe had his first neurology appointment since his seizures that occurred in October. Thanks be to God his Depakote medicine is working and he hasn't had any episodes. Joe's neurologist is so amazing. She took time to answer our questions and explained things so well. It's been a weird month. My paranoia of Joe having more seizures had kind of faded away until yesterday when we were driving the appointment. But she is very optimistic that he could possibly outgrow this in a few years.

Sam has been having a rough time lately. On Halloween he was diagnosed with hand, foot and mouth disease. His gums were SO swollen AND he was getting his molars at the same time. Poor baby was miserable. He's in occupational therapy for eating issues. I hope to dive more into that issue some other time, but his therapist, who is very very knowledgeable and good at her job, is stumped. Sam just isn't progressing. He's finally eating baby food, but that's a hit or miss sort of deal. His therapist warned us that if things don't progress in the next few months that they might have to put in a feeding tube. I'm still exclusively breast feeding (and yes, I'm exhausted) but his body needs more nutrients now that he's older. I'm hoping that once he gets his last two one-year molars in that it will suddenly click.

I'm making more of my saint dolls. I made a St. Andrew doll for my priest since our parish is called St. Andrew's. I also made one of him. I think he got a kick out of them. I actually have two orders for some dolls which I'm pretty excited about. I have to order the dolls and will be busy working on those before Christmas.

My parish priest. Yes, he's THAT bald. :-)

St. Cecilia

St. Andrew

I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year for my mom and my brother's family. I've cooked a turkey before, but my mom helped me. This year I'll be doing it all on my own. I looked up how to rinse and dry a turkey (DON'T JUDGE!) and I was met with a slew of articles debating on if one should rinse a turkey or leave it alone. I don't remember what I did the last time I cooked a turkey. I probably made my mom do it after I was traumatized after taking out the neck and giblets from the turkey. Hopefully it will all turn out fine... and not like the turkey from Christmas Vacation.

I'm actually looking forward to cooking and hosting. When my mom mentioned me hosting Thanksgiving a few months ago I was all for it. We have a small house, but I can't wait to fill it up with family and the smell of yummy food. Hopefully not burning food....

Good advice.

I job shadowed last Friday at a hospital here in Kansas City. I followed a good friend of mine and was able to get a good feel for nursing. It was really fun! I'm in the process of finishing up my last prerequisite class and setting up more job shadowing hours. I'm excited to get the ball rolling but so nervous that I won't be accepted.

I think that's enough randomness for your day... Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! Eat lots of turkey and pumpkin pie!

Blogging Blackholes and Blogging Friends

The other day I was going through the list of blogs I follow. I'm trying to limit screen time and I wanted to weed out the blogs that I don't read anymore. It wasn't too difficult, because there were quite a few blogs where the author doesn't post anymore. In some cases the blog doesn't even exist at all! I went through some of my old posts and comments and there were some people who used to comment all the time, and I used to comment on their blog. We had a special online friendship, but it soon drifted away into the wind when they stopped posting.

I know that life gets busy and that is cause for a lot of the reason that these bloggers stop writing. But it's always a strange feeling when they shared so much every week, sometimes every day... their thoughts, their feelings, their day to day activities, their struggles and suddenly that door is shut. It's the same feeling I would get when I was young and a dear friend would move far away.

I somtimes wonder if my blog will ever get sucked into the blogger black hole. I often feel an obligation to keep my blog updated because I'm afraid people will stop reading. I get dismayed when posts I spend a lot of time on get no comments. There are times I kick myself for becoming so worried about a little ol' blog. I don't get paid to write this. I don't have deadlines. No one asked me to start this blog.

So why is blogging so important to me?

I started this blog a few weeks after my miscarriage ended in September 2009. It chronicled my first years of marriage, being a housewife, my pregnancy with Joe and the journey of first becoming a mother and then a mother to two young boys. This blog contains my frustrations, my fears, my hopes and dreams. It contains funny stories of learning to cook and sew and getting Joe to sleep through the night. It talks about my struggles with depression and dealing with an unplanned c-section. Basically, this blog contains my heart and soul.

And the best thing about this blog is the people I have come to know through the blogging community. Without blogging I probably would have never come to know Michelle from Endless Strength. She has become a dear friend and inspiration. She is Sam's godmother and I can't think of anyone better to be praying for my son.She probably would have been just part of another of the many families at my parish if it weren't for blogging. Actually, I might not have ever come to St. Andrew's because it was her blog that brought me there!

Katie from NFP and Me are practically twins. We like pretty much the exact same things and both curse like sailors. We both love our faith and sharing NFP. I would have never met her without blogging.

There are so many wonderful women bloggers that I have not met (I'm looking at you, Sarah!) who I consider friends, and without them I would have barely gotten though some tough times. They have sent me care packages, books, music and even hand-me down clothes for my boys. Just knowing I have some very special prayer warriors out there petitioning for me is a great source of comfort. In turn, their sorrows and joys become my own.

That is why I still cling to blogging. I don't feel quite as guilty anymore for not posting as much. I have to cut myself some slack because I am now in school. I have to focus on that in order to hopefully get into nursing school next year. Plus, I have a husband and two young children that deserve more of my attention than blogging. But the words I have written down and the words in my head are far too valuable to give up right now. The memories and friends I have made though this process are too precious to me.

I still wonder where some of my old blogging friends have gone. I know they have moved on and are living their lives and that is fantastic. I still hesitate to delete their blogs thinking that maybe someday they will be back.

In the meantime, I pray for all my blogging friends, both past and present, and I hope it is a long time from now when I reach the point that it is time to stop blogging and close down From the Heart.

DINOVEMBER!

Have you heard of Dinovember? A friend of mine posted about it on her Facebook wall and as soon as I read it I decided that I was for sure going to this. The idea behind Dinovember is a child's toy dinosaurs come to life at night, usually participating in some shenanigans. When the kid wakes up the dinos have frozen in place! Some of the scenes I've seen are dinosaurs singing karaoke, drawing on the walls, and playing a board game.

Last night I secretly gathered all of Joe's toy dinosaurs and arranged them so that T (the t-rex) and Alan (the velociraptor, named after Jurassic Park's Alan Grant) dumped a whole box of animal crackers on the kitchen table! The brachiosaurus sipped on a juice box, and the triceratops fought over a Cheez-it while the stegasaurus pigged out on a whole bag. Having kids is so much fun because it give me a chance to play again!

Joe woke up, saw the table and at first was like "What the heck?!" But then I started explaining what had happened and he thought it was pretty funny. He kept asking, "Did Daddy do this?"

I don't plan on doing this the rest of November since I'm afraid it won't be fun anymore because I'll be stressing out over finding creative ideas. I might do it four or five more days and then I'll post the rest of the dinosaur's adventures.

I overheard the dinos discussing how they wanted to do a family movie night tonight...

Scenes from this morning

DINO PARTAY!

P.S. For some reason the video I tried posting yesterday of Sam smiling didn't work. Here it is. You're welcome. :-)

This Will Make You Smile

Once again I have a million thoughts in my head and would love a chance to sit in peace and write them out. But as usual... that isn't going to happen! So I thought I'd add some pictures and a video that is FOR SURE to make your day.

Sam now smiles on cue. It makes my heart burst into a thousand pieces and melt into a pile of love goo.

He looks like a little old man.

And of course we have video of his cheesy smiles.



He is too cute!

I don't know if I've ever posted it on here, but Sam is in occupational therapy for eating issues like Joe was when he was this age. Sam's issues are a little more difficult. Joe could eat babyfood, but gagged on it a lot and never ate solids. Sam won't eat solids OR baby food and still won't drink out of a sippy cup. Needless to say, exclusively breastfeeding for 15 months is a wee bit tiring. Sam's therapy sessions have been interrupted by Joe's hospitalizations and then getting hand, foot and mouth disease! But much to our delight he is FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY eating baby food!

You can kind of see his baby food mustache! :-)

It's the little things that make me happy. Hopefully this post has made you happy, too!