Rice Cereal

Sunday Snippet

Getting caught up.

The last month or two.

• I broke our laptop keyboard, (I spilled milk on it) and using the onscreen keyboard is the pits (but it also makes the laptop usable), so I haven't been particularly excited about typing anything.  
• Isaac pulled the mother of all destructive stunts.  While I was getting myself and Abrielle dressed for the day, that terrorist managed to empty a brand new bottle of liquid dish-washing detergent throughout our entire first story. 
  
  
  
  
  It happens to be clear.  I cleaned up what I found, but I wasn't particularly thorough since I figured it was just soap anyways.  Much to my horror I learned that it is much more than just soap.  It's BLEACH and it was very destructive.  It bleached the carpets and it ate the finish off our tile.  I may or may not have called my mother after three days of crying over spilled dish detergent and I may or may not have uttered the phrase I don't want to be a mother anymore. What were we thinking when we bought a nice new home with small children?
• I'm happy to report that Heavenly Father is full of tender mercies and I was able to find something that added the removed color back into the bleached spots from our carpet and it looks as good as new.  
• I celebrated my 33 birthday.  It was a good birthday.  We finally broke down and hired a babysitter, and the Mr. treated me to dinner at Lupe's (one of our favorite places to eat down here).  Our friends Ryan and Kim joined us, it was so nice to get out just as adults. 
• I'm trying to go back to the basics with what I cook and feed my family.  I like to think I'm attempting to do something, that will be beneficial to our health and happiness.  I have been making most everything we eat from scratch.  It eats up almost all of my time.  Our grocery bill is a lot less each month, because it's extremely difficult to find foods that aren't full of unnecessary chemicals, additives, or preservatives, and I am totally overwhelmed at the total amount of time and dedication it takes to keep the fridge and pantry stocked with good for you foods. 
  Come Saturday I'm usually pretty fried and we order take out Pizza because I can't take one more second of trying to do it all.   Maybe I'll find balance and maybe I won't, we'll just have to see how this goes.   With all that being said, I've really enjoyed trying my hand at making things from scratch, I've attempted making mozzarella, yogurt, bread, and tortillas.  Most of which I have loved, so if all else fails I'm learning new things right?  I've also learned I'm a huge fan of extra virgin coconut oil, I use it in just about everything. 
• Derik's work had a 5k event on my birthday so we headed up to that in the morning, Derik, Dylan and Alivia all raced while Isaac, Abrielle and myself cheered them on. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Derik took Dylan to Lego Fest.  They had a great time.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  They both really enjoyed the slices of pizza they grabbed on their way home.  That my friends is one very large slice!
  
  
  
• Alivia "graduated" from Kindergarten.  She has loved school and is growing into quite a lovely young lady.
  
  
  
   
• I re-stained our shudders and most of the wood work around the outside of the house, I crawled out the upstairs window and stood on the overhang of the roof to get to the shudders that are on the second story.  I was gripping the window seal for dear life without realizing I had stain all over my hands.  Alivia's bedroom window frame now has my finger prints stained all over it.
• The kids had their last day of school on Wednesday June 5th.  Summer is officially in full swing now.
• My Uncle Bob and his son (my cousin) Jason were in town for work so we got together and had a BBQ.  It was nice to see them. 
• I had a episode with a Kidney Stone.  I thought I was DYING, seriously, I had no idea what was going on.  It came on all of the sudden.  Derik was at work and I called him and told him he had to get home because something was seriously wrong with me.  He informed me he had just dropped the only running vehicle we have right now at the shop and he couldn't get home.  I tried everything I knew to get the pain to stop but it just wouldn't let up.  After vomiting bile and moaning/screaming uncontrollably, I called my nine months pregnant visiting teacher to see if she could help me out.  She told me she could but she was a half hour away.  Bless her heart she found a sitter for my kids and chased me to the insta-care.  I was asked to leave a urine sample.  Which I chugged some water for.  After drinking the water the pain totally disappeared.  I felt totally sheepish and kept wondering if I was just dehydrated or something.  I was feeling really embarrassed until the Dr came in and informed me there was blood in my sample and that I would need to go have some imaging done.  So my poor visiting teacher than chased me to the other side of town for an MRI.  A few hours later it was confirmed that I had a 3mm Kidney Stone.   Thankfully I never had any more pain and I believe I've passed the stone even though I never saw it.  My heart stills races at the thought of having another Kidney Stone episode (I now have a 50-80% chance of a re-occurrence) . The pain was intense and unrelenting and left me quite senseless.  What a way to kick the summer off !
• I got this baby for Father's Day, yep you read that right I got this....
  
  
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  It's been on my wish list for a while and since we were so generous in giving the Mr. a Nook and some accessories (which he technically bought himself) for Father's Day,  he turned around and rewarded me with this.  I'm really excited to put this to good use!  How lucky am I?
• Abrielle is four months old and she just keeps on growing and growing.  She tips the scales at 18 lbs 4 oz (I think she's in the 95th percentile), and she grew 5 inches in the last two months which now puts her in the 90th percentile for height, her head is somewhere in the 75th percentile.  I adore her bald head (which is technically covered in platinum blonde stubble), and blue eyes and her heart melting smile.  She makes my soul feel joy, oh how I love her!
  
  
  

 
 

Picture Palooza V

Final Installment

Some of my Favorites and a Surprise

Almost three months later I'm finally getting around to wrapping up our Spring Break adventures.  My oldest sister and brother surprised me with this gorgeous 16 x 20 canvas print of Derik and Isaac strolling along the beach. 

Another of my favorites is this picture, I'd love to hang this one on our wall too.  

I also love this picture of Isaac wondering through the fields next to our neighborhood pool.  I'm a little more than sad to note that just three months later those fields are no longer there and in their  place are new subdivisions. 

Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review 

Apr 29-May 5, 2013

Time is marching on and I'm not doing the best job of documenting it the last little while.  It might have to do with the fact that I still haven't found my new normal, or my sweet baby girl really likes my constant attention, or the fact that Isaac has really turned up the notch on his mess making skills and everything just overwhelms me. 

• Isaac's antics for this week include a new found pleasure in peeing where ever he wants just to spite me.  Pouring two brand new and rather large bottles of hand soap all over the house.  Eating almost two pounds of freshly grated cheese (while I was rewarding myself with a bath) and then barfing all over my bathroom the next day because of said cheese gorging.  He managed to find my canisters which I store my sugars in and while I was distracted with nursing a baby, he dumped water and sugar all over the carpet upstairs and now they are a matted STICKY mess!
• Dylan celebrated his 10th birthday.  I have been a mother for a decade and he has entered into the double digit age bracket.  By the end of his birthday we still hadn't given him any gifts.  I could tell he was really bothered by this, so being the opportunist that I am, I decided a good teasing was in store.  I said, "Dylan before we go to bed can you tell me what was the best part of your birthday"?  He quickly exclaimed that this was the worst birthday ever.  I did my best to act shocked at his declaration and then I did my best acting ever by pretending to be heartbroken.  I listed all the things I had done through out the day to make his birthday special, like donuts for breakfast, and birthday streamers hung throughout the house, I reminded him that we had just finished his requested birthday meal which I made from scratch, but none of my gentle reminders made him feel any better, so I decided before he exploded from my teasing that we should finally dig out his presents.  The look of relief on his face was priceless. 
  Happy 10th Birthday Dylan Dear, I Love You!
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Abrielle is three months old.  Time is flying and she is growing way too fast!  I had to box up all of her 0-3 month clothes.  It was rather emotional for me to think I'd never have a "newborn" again.  I love her  irresistible chunky bull dog cheeks.  I love when she looks and coos at me.  She is turning into a rather social little thing, giving smiles freely and laughing with her siblings (when they aren't torturing her in some fashion).  She teased me for a week or so by sleeping through the night, but this past week she's been getting up like three or four times throughout the night to nurse.  She seems to cry less these days, but when she does get mad or hungry or feed up with her siblings, she's learned how to turn the volume and pitch of her scream way up. 
• After 8 or so years I finally let this bad decision go.
  
  
   
  This my friends is one very expensive mistake.  In a dream world it solved all my problems.  I didn't have to go to a gym, I could workout whenever I wanted, I didn't have to worry about the weather or the season.  But in the end is suffered a fate most home treadmills face, it became a (very expensive) laundry rack.  When it was new and shiny and I had more free time and a lot more ambition, it got quite a bit of use.  But then the rollers got noisy and even though the treadmill worked great I didn't like listening to the noise.  After our free two year warranty was up it got to be to expensive to have the noisy rollers replaced, and it saw less and less use.  Then we moved and it got stuck in an unfinished basement and between the noise and having to stare at cement walls and absolutely nothing to look at to distract myself from the mundane-ness of running on a treadmill, it stopped getting used all together.  I insisted when we made our move to Texas that the treadmill came with us.  After all it wouldn't be in an unfinished basement and with the hot summers I was going to need a way to exercise and we paid way to much money to just get rid of it.  So we brought this monstrosity to Texas.  After a few uses here and there I finally came to terms with the fact that I was not going to use the treadmill and that I better let it go before it stopped working and then I was stuck with it forever.  So long story short:  I found a local charity that would pick it up for free.  Since it's still in great shape I thought the treadmill deserved to go somewhere where someone might actually put it to good use.  It's a win-win in my eyes since they took that heavy monstrosity of a treadmill of my hands (for free) and somebody can actually score themselves a very nice treadmill at a thrift store price. 
  • Last week our home teacher was kind enough to let us use his truck to get a load of dirt to finish filling my garden boxes.  I planted some seeds this week (corn, bell peppers and some more carrots).  I'm excited to see how they will do.  Growing things down here is a cinch.  But the bugs are something else, they can eat or infect a plant and the whole thing will be dead in less than a day.  Since pumping my garden beds full of pesticides sort of defeats the purpose of growing healthy food, I'm not sure I have enough skills and knowledge to keep anything alive long enough to have a harvest, but I'm going to keep on trying.  So far I have zucchini and crook neck squash (but they are not doing so well, the fruit starts to rot after a few days growth).  The tomato plants are doing gloriously so far,  We did have a few tomato worms that got away with eating a couple of stems off, but now I know they are there I can keep my eye out for them and pick them off before any more damage is done.  I had to tear out my spaghetti squash becasue it was so diseased.  My raspberry's have sent out new canes and my blueberry plants are looking good.  I chopped up our pumpkin patch so I could try spaghetti squash in that bed. 
  • The Mr. had his foot and ankle looked at.  The screw from his previous surgery on his big toe has started to come out.  He's hoping to get everything back to working order so he can get back to running and having a passion in life again.  

10 Years Ago

 

Its hard to believe it's been a decade since this little sweet heart came into my life and made me a mother.  What a roller coaster ride these last ten years have been.  

Happy Birthday to my first born son!

I love you.

 

Sunday Snippets

A catch-up of the last month or so.

• March 8-9, 2013
  Mr. Giovannoni took the kids to our wards second annual camp out at Bear Creek Park.  I came along for the dinner and evening entertainment, but left with Abrielle to go home to sleep.  The kids had a good time and I'm so glad that Derik put aside his disdain for camping and let Dylan, Alivia and Isaac stay the night with him in our 2 man tent! 
  
  
  
  
  
• March 10-13, 2013
  My sister and her kids came out from Albuquerque for a couple of days during Spring Break.
  It was so much fun having her.  The kids all got along so well and my kids were devastated to have to say goodbye.   Unfortunately my sister was always behind the camera snapping photos for me so I don't have one of her to share.  I'm so glad she came out, and I'm so glad she shared her time and talents with me.  Her older daughters were awesome little helpers with Abrielle and I fell in love with Miss JJ's little personality. 
  It nearly broke my heart to have to say goodbye to my sister and her kids, it made my kids and I realize (all over again) that we really miss and love our extended family, and that being a thousand or so miles away from loved ones stinks!
  
  
  

• March 21, 2013
  Isaac celebrated his third birthday.   We sure are glad he is a part of our family.  He's our funny man.  Right now I have days where I'd like to tape him to a wall rather than clean up another disaster he's made, but I guess that's all part of having a three year old boy, right?
  
  
  
  Speaking of Isaac...I promised myself I'd potty train him after my sister left.  So I stuck to my word.  He's been using the potty on and off for a couple of months so I knew he was ready, and he was ready.  It took getting him a treat jar to pick something out of to get him motivated enough to use the toilet every time he needed to go, but he is now diaper and for the most part accident free.  In fact he doesn't have "accidents", but I do catch him running outside to pee in my garden just about everyday, little rascal, I have no idea where he got that idea from!?!
  
•  March 23, 2013
  Our ward held an Easter Egg Hunt.  The kids had a great time running wild with their friends.
  If you look closely in the bottom left picture (it almost blends in with the dirt) you can actually see the Easter Bunny Dylan stumbled across. 
  
  
  
  
  
• March 28, 2013
  Dylan had the opportunity to once again race a car in this years Pinewood Derby.
  I made him search up a design he liked and then I made him design a template for it on paper.  Since all we have is a jig saw, I did the cutting.  It was pretty darn scary, I was positive I was going to saw some part of my body off.  Thankfully I didn't cause any bodily damage to myself.  Dylan then sanded and painted his car. 
  Unfortunately the car was the SLOWEST thing ever.  It lost every race!  Dylan was so heartbroken, so I tried my best to teach him to be a good sport about it and help him see that we tried and it didn't work out like we hoped, but we could try again next year and that we had an opportunity to learn from our experience.  By the end of the evening he was okay with having the slowest car because they gave him an award for having the most uniquely designed car.
  
  
  
  
  
  • Mr. Giovannoni and a friend took on the massive project of trying to fix our old Honda Accord.  They pretty much disassembled the thing and replaced a lot of parts.  The good news is it's running again.  The bad news is it is leaking something from somewhere so we aren't driving it yet, until that can get resolved. 
    
  • April 2, 2013
    Miss Abrielle had her 2 month birthday.  How I love that little squirt.  She is determined and stubborn I tell you!  When she's in a good mood she'll flash a smile that lights up the whole world.  She is dead set on sucking her thumb, no matter how hard I try to convince her a binky is better.  She gets so mad at herself when she can't maneuver her thumb in her mouth, but in the last week or so shes finally figured out how to get everything just where it needs to be.
     
    
    
    She coo's and talks to me and I LOVE her smile.  Her two month stats are:
    Her noggin measured 15.98"  which lands her in the 88th percentile
    She weighed in at 13lb 13oz, which puts her in the 97th percentile.
    Her length was 22 inches long, which is in the 32nd percentile.
    Short, chubby and a big noggin, can anyone ask for anything better?
    
  • This past week has been a rough one for just about everyone in our family.
    Dylan had a small accident with some microwave popcorn and Miss Abrielle wound up with a couple of burn spots on her nose from hot popcorn kernels. 
    Isaac had a collision with our wood stair banister and split his head open.  The picture below is pretty graphic, you've been warned.
    
    After a lot of screaming and fighting and seven stitches later, he's back to his rambuncous self.
    I caught the stomach flu.  I was so weak and miserable, it took all I had to sit up to nurse the baby.  I'm so thankful to be feeling bettter again! 
    
  •  Home depot had a sale on mulch this week so I bought a bunch and got the yard looking pretty darn nice.  My garden is coming along beautifully, as soon as I get my dirt in the other flower beds I'll get some picture posted. 
    
    
    

Picture-Palooza Part IV

Spring Break 2013

Galveston Island State Park 

Galveston may not be  a tropical paradise, but we have thoroughly enjoyed every trip we've made out there.  The water is usually warm and the kids have a ball doing whatever they please.

The beach was almost empty and the sun was shining brightly, if we could have taken the freezing breeze that was blowing around away it might have been a perfect trip. 

The kids had a lot of fun hunting for hermit crabs.

When the hermit crabs got boring there was a lot of fun to be had teasing the local sea birds.

All the kids had to do was rattle an empty bag and instantly they would be surrounded by a hoard of hungry, noisy birds.

 

There was a pod of dolphins that showed up and swam along the coast line.