Menu Monday-Week of 7/20/09

Sunday-Bob made "The Best Burgers" from this cookbook, tater tots. LOVE this cookbook!

Monday-Spaghetti with meat sauce, salad and bread. I've been using ground turkey instead of beef and we are all enjoying it.

Tuesday-Chinese lemon chicken, steamed rice

Wednesday-Check back tomorrow

Thursday-Check back tomorrow

Friday-Check back tomorrow

Ear Infection Update

Kailee had her appointment with the ENT this afternoon. Our suspicion was correct-she is a great candidate for tubes. We are scheduled for next Thursday, 6/30.

One of our concerns is that we are scheduled to leave (driving, not flying) for vacation shortly thereafter. It was recommended that we have the procedure done before leaving due to the fact that she still has fluid (it's been over 1 week) on one ear and we don't want her infection to continue or for another one to develop while we are away.

She will not have to undergo general anesthesia which is a relief. The procedure itself only takes about 15 minutes and we will be home within an hour or two after that.

This procedure will *hopefully* provide much relief for our poor baby.

Another double ear infection

Poor Kailee has had 7 ear infections in the last 12 months. Her first diagnosis was last July and her most recent diagnosis was today. And the majority the infections have been in both ears. We can read the signs now but when she had her first few infections it was quite difficult to tell what was wrong. She doesn't run a high fever or pull on her ears like most children would. It pretty much starts with a runny nose, cough and it's all downhill from there.

She's been on a variety of different antibiotics. Several months ago we found out that she's allergic to penicillin based antibiotics. She broke out with these terrible red welts all over. I'm sure people had some strange thoughts when they saw her.

This coming Monday we will visit with an ENT and weigh our options. As much as we don't want her to have to have tubes put in, it may be the relief she needs to quit suffering from the recurrent infections. Anybody want to share their experiences?

Skip the Latte-$7 on the 7th

Help make a difference with $7 on the 7th! If you have not heard about Matt, Liz and Madeline's story, please visit the Liz Logelin Foundation website or Matt Logelin's blog.

Menu Monday-Week of 7/5/09

Here's the plan for this week. We'll see how it goes. I made some revisions to the last Menu Monday plan that I had posted.

Monday:
Leftovers from Rudy's BBQ and Fazoli's and whatever else is in the fridge

Tuesday:
Black bean quesadillas
Spanish rice

Wednesday:
Salisbury steak-Mix 2 pounds of ground turkey (or ground beef) with one packet of onion soup mix. Cook in a skillet and pour in your favorite gravy into the pan after the meat has cooked through. Makes 8 small patties or 6 medium.
Mashed potatoes
Green beans


Thursday:
Frozen pizza
Salad

Friday:
Salmon patties
Salad

My first time...

Today was my first time to have a mammogram. Yes, I'm only 35 but breast cancer unfortunately knows no age. You see, last year my dear friend Robin was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. She has been through more than any woman (or man with breast cancer) should ever have to endure. In April I participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in honor of Robin. It was a truly humbling experience. Our classmate from high school, Joanna, was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer a couple of years ago. And then there's another employee in my same department that had her double mastectomy last week! Yes, these ladies are all pretty much the same age as I am.

I had an annual visit last week and shared my fears with my Dr. and she said I could certainly have a screening mammogram. Why not, right?

There I sat in the waiting room. I honestly was a bit anxious because I really didn't know what to expect. Stephanie and I were exchanging text messages and it REALLY helped me from getting too nervous! Thanks Steph! Ü The tech was very pleasant and before I knew it, it was over. It didn't even hurt. Uncomfortable and unusual but no pain. She had the Dr. review the findings and gave me a good report before sending me on my way.

So, if you have been putting off to get your mammogram, please do it not only for yourself but for your friends and family. They will thank you for it.

Menu Monday-Week of 6/21/09

Some of the blogs I read have weekly "Menu Monday" posts. What a neat idea! I've decided to give it a try. Hopefully it will help us figure out what to shop for -in advance- so that I'm not running to the grocery store after work several times a week.

Monday-Leftover goodie from our Father's Day BBQ: Chicken, pork, creamed corn, daigu (pickled daikon radish), red rice, homemade apple pie and lemon cream pie

Tuesday-Spaghetti, salad and cheese bread

Wednesday-Chicken adobo and rice (Thanks to Steph for this idea!)

Thursday-Frozen pizza and salad

Friday-Panini's with ham or turkey

Sunday-Skillet Lasagna

Sunday-Pork chops and baked potatoes and a veggie


We may switch things around if needed. My step-son Bobby is supposed to be arriving on Friday so we may go out to dinner if he comes in. Let me know if you like to see more "Menu Monday" posts from me.

So what is your menu??

Preserving our memories

I cherish pictures and the memories that come with them. I first became interested in scrapbooking right before Brendon was born. Because I was a SAHM for quite a while when he was little I had time to scrapbook and be all crafty. For Kailee however, I work full-time and not even one single picture has yet to land on a piece of cardstock.

It isn't that I don't have the supplies. I've been a Close To My Heart consultant since 2002 and have built up quite a collection. No, I have more cardstock than one could ever need. I have more embellishments than one has things to embellish. And more ribbon than one could make the prettiest bows from. And my supplies are pretty well organized too. Each cardstock shade has it's own folder that also has coordinating background paper in it. I have the coordinating ink pads in the event I want to stamp on the scrapbook pages and a great assortment of stamps. All the cardstock, paper and ink pads are organized by season in the order they appear in the CTMH idea book. The stamps are organized by theme. I become a bit compulsive when it comes to organizing things like this-lol!

It's simply time. The lack of time really. Maybe I should go on a scrapbooking cruise someday-how cool is that?? Until then I think I will give myself little challenges to at least get Kailee's scrapbook STARTED. As of today I'm going to challenge myself to complete at least 2 pages by Sunday night. Anybody else want to join me?

I'm still very much upset over the fact that our camera must have fallen out of our stroller while we were at the March of Dimes walk on the 16th. It was our first time to participate and now we don't have the photos to remember the day. There was numerous other photos and videos that are now gone forever. :(

I am a...

I took a fun little personality survey that was pretty much on target. Here are my results...

My personalDNA Report

Marching this weekend

We will be participating in the March of Dimes March for Babies 5k walk this Saturday. I created a team called "March for Maddie-San Antonio" in memory of little Maddie Spohr. So far the team consists of Bob, myself and 2 employees from the bank I work at. A few friends will hopefully join us as well. We are really looking forward to it! I participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure for the first time in April and it truly was a humbling experience.

If you are in San Antonio and would like to join the team, click here. Click here to visit my page. Please remember that every single dollar counts!

Chocolate and Pebbles

I have to start this post with a little explanation...Kailee loves wrapped pieces of candy. She will hold it in her hands and sometimes just puts it in her mouth and lets it hang out. Quite funny to see. We started to realize that she loves to do this back in October when we had tons of candy in the house for Halloween. She was usually content just to hold it but now and then it would start to melt and she might get the slightest taste of some yumminess. Ü

I came home from work this past Monday (4/13) and before I was getting ready to head to a monthly Pampered Chef meeting Kailee became quite fussy. There wasn't much of anything that Bob or I could do to make her happy. She was diagnosed last Thursday with yet another ear infection so I began to wonder if she was in pain from that.

Well, she had been holding two chocolate marshmallow bunnies and a miniature Hershey's bar from Easter. She pretty much had a fit until I opened the little Hershey's bar and gave her a tiny piece of chocolate. Now trust me, it was a tiny piece (see the remaining bar) but she was thrilled with it!

Seeing that she was still fussy, we decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood. We made it about 75% of the way when she decided she didn't want to ride in her stroller anymore. We took turns carrying her and when we got near Brendon's elementary school she wanted to see the playground equipment. We have taken her there on occasion to play on the swings.


After swinging for a while she wanted to got down on the ground. Keep in mind that we were just going for a walk so all she had on was her little shirt. No pants, shorts or shoes. We finally gave in and she was thrilled to play with the pebbles.


After some more play with mommy and daddy...

Kailee was all smiles.

It just took some chocolate and pebbles...

Purple for Maddie

Almost one week ago a precious baby girl unexpectedly earned her angel wings. Madeline's "story" has taken the mommy blogs by storm and has made it a closer community. I can't tell you how many times I have had tear-filled eyes and cheeks reading others posts about her, seeing her adorable sweet face in pictures and reading her mothers blog. One may wonder how somebody you didn't even know could affect you in this way but once you have had a chance to "get to know" Maddie you will understand.

To learn more about Maddie please visit http://www.remembermaddie.com/ and http://amomtwoboys.com/for-maddie/ There are literally over 400 blog posts. The online blogging community has turned purple and like thousands of others that never "knew" Maddie, Kailee and I will be wearing in purple tomorrow in honor of her.

Kailee and Brendon have had extra hugs and kisses these past several days. ♥

Beautiful weather

The weather today is gorgeous. There's only one problem with that though...I'm stuck inside a cubicle at work during the day! At least I can look at it this way-I'm lucky to have a window in my cubicle! I went out for a short bit during my lunch hour and it was just perfect. Not too hot and just a bit of wind. Our hibiscus flowers are in bloom and our grass is becoming more lush as we've had a tiny bit of rain recently.

Days like these make me wish over and over that I could stay at home with Kailee, like I did with Brendon when he was her age. On days like these I wish I could take her to the park and just hang out-mommy and baby. On days like these I wish I could take her for long walks around the neighborhood. On days like these I wish we could meet Brendon at school at the end of his school day. Kailee is always so excited to see her big brother. On days like these I wish Gran had been able to meet her newest great-grandchild. Spring was her favorite season.

Enjoy your beautiful day! Ü

My sweet baby girl turns 1!

Yesterday, 4/8/09, was a big day for our family as Kailee turned 1. While I had been looking forward to the day there was also a big part of me that didn't want the day to come until several more months down the road. I just want her to stay tiny and be my little baby forever. She has such a sweet disposition to her that I (and everybody) love.

Bob and I picked her up from daycare early and we headed to Walmart. Kailee and Daddy had been at Walmart earlier in the week and he said she really liked one of the animated Elmo's. To our surprise she wasn't excited about it anymore. Long story short, what she was most thrilled about was a $3.00 pink rubber ball. She's quite simple to please.

We ended the evening with dinner at home with Brendon, Chris and Eddie. Bob grilled some short ribs and we had red rice, salad, carrots and avocado and delicious Hawaiian sweet bread (thank you Chris!). Dessert was lemon meringue pie (thank you Eddie!) and lemon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Kailee thoroughly enjoyed her cupcake and we all sang "Happy Birthday" to her. Chris brought her the cutest pink Kawasaki 4-wheeler. She's already mastered the buttons for different sounds. I'm glad our great friends were able to celebrate with us.

So until her next birthday, I will continue to cherish her days as my sweet little baby girl. ♥