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Monday, October 6, 2008

Give Me Five Monday #37

This week's topic for Give Me Five Monday is:

"Give Me Five things you should/will be intentional about this week."

1. Exercising
2. Getting ready for T-man's birthday party this weekend.
3. Organizing the plastic/Tupperware cabinet in the kitchen.
4. Putting out job apps everyday not every other day!!!
5. Catching up on my house cleaning.

For more Give Me Five Monday participants check out BeccA's Buzz!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

PhotoHunt: Sad

This weeks PhotoHunt is Sad. I had a bit of a hard time finding any photos that made me think "sad" until I came across this one. This is a picture of Spunkmeister back in May 04' she was about 18months old, the day after she decided to crawl out the almost second story window. I was at Walmart and daddy was watching her, but she just had to go outside to play. She was fine considering her drop, only had bruises and spent the night in the hospital just in case.
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For more photos and this week's PhotoHunt check out:

The Marathon Kids opening!

Today was the opening of Marathon Kids here in Austin. It is a wonderful program and we have been participating since the boy was in the 3rd grade so for 4yrs now. The kids all love going to the opening because they receive a cool MK water bottle, a neat MK sticker and the UT athletes are there at the end to sign your shirt or water bottle it is pretty neat. It is also a great way to get the kids into exercise and keeping your body healthy. At the end of the year there is another ceremony and the kids receive Marathon Kids t-shirts and a medal for completing the year!

I was so proud of little Spunkmeister she ran the whole mile while I lagged behind her jogging halfway and walking the rest! lol Princess and the boy also ran almost the whole way, I was very proud of all of them. It was so cool we saw one of Princesses BFF's Jasmine while we there and they got to run together! Oh and Lance Armstrong was there with his kids cause they go to AISD and are also in the program. He talked to all the kids about staying healthy etc it was pretty neat. I wish I had gotten a picture of him.

A little bit about the program:
Throughout the year children in the grades K-5th are expected to run, walk, jog 26.2 miles. They can do these laps at school during Gym class or at home with their parents. They even have a program through the YMCA for children that live in not so great neighborhoods to be able to run there safely. The first mile of the year is run at the Marathon Kids opening ceremony and the final lap is run at the Marathon Kids closing ceremony.

Here is the link to the program in case you are interested in seeing if it is your area. You can also request that they bring to your area.
http://www.marathonkids.org/

Last but not least my slide show from this morning!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Friday Fill-Ins #92

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1. October is one of my favorite months, I love Halloween.

2. Flying creatures of any type really scare me!

3. Leaves are falling all around, it's Fall, gosh I wish the seasons changed in Texas! lol

4. My favorite horror movie is American Psycho because it is just seriously twisted.

5. Shawn and Sharon's house = good memories.

6. It was a dark and stormy night when all the lights went out in Ruidoso. Wow what a night that was we all slept in the living room together to keep us all warm.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to the premiere of Sanctuary on Sci-fi, tomorrow my plans include the Marathon kids run in the morning, Nathans bday party and we get to see the T-Man!!! and Sunday, I want to REST! lol

For more Friday Fill-Ins participants click here

Thursday, October 2, 2008

A loaf of Pumpernickel

I think I have found a bread recipe that the kids LOVE more than the Irish Soda Bread! My kiddos love Pumpernickel bagels and the fresh baked Pumpernickel we buy at the grocery store. So I found a recipe online and decided to try it the other day. My kids and the girls that live next door loved it so much they kept asking for more for days!!!! lol So here is the recipe if you would like to try it. It is a bit more in depth than I had done before, but it turned out wonderfully and was not too hard!! :)

Ingredients:
* 1 3/4 cups warm water (100° to 110°)
* 1 (1/4-ounce) packet highly active dry yeast
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 2 tablespoons instant coffee granules
* 1/4 cup molasses
* 4 1/2 cups bread flour
* 1 cup rye flour
* 2 teaspoons salt
* Vegetable cooking spray
* 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 200°. Stir together first 3 ingredients in the mixing bowl of a heavy-duty electric stand mixer. Let stand 5 minutes.

Add coffee and next 4 ingredients to yeast mixture. Beat at low speed with dough hook attachment for 1 minute or until soft dough comes together. Beat at medium speed 4 minutes. (Dough will be slightly sticky.)

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; shape dough into a 9- x 5-inch oval loaf. Place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet; coat lightly with cooking spray, and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Turn oven off, and place loaf in oven. Let rise 30 minutes or until loaf is doubled in bulk. Remove loaf from oven. Remove and discard plastic wrap. Preheat oven to 375°.

Bake bread for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven, and brush with melted butter. Cool on wire rack.

More stuff you can make with the same dough!
**German-Style Pumpernickel Rolls: Pat dough into a 10-inch square (1/2 inch thick). Cut into 2-inch squares. Roll into 1 1/2-inch balls, and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Proceed with recipe as directed. Bake at 375° for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. (Makes 25 Rolls).

**German-Style Pumpernickel Rolls with Caraway: Follow instructions for German-Style Pumpernickel Rolls, adding 1 tablespoon caraway seeds. Proceed with recipe as directed.

**Walnut-Raisin Pumpernickel Boule: Add 3/4 cup raisins (or golden raisins) and 1 cup coarsely chopped toasted walnuts to dough before mixing. Shape dough into a ball, and gently flatten to a 7-inch circle. Cut 3 slits in dough (1/4 to 1/2 inch deep) with a sharp paring knife just before baking, if desired. Whisk together 1 egg white and 3 tablespoons water in a small bowl; brush loaf with egg mixture. Bake at 375° for 38 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Omit brushing on melted butter. (Makes 1 Loaf).

**Sour-Rye Pumpernickel Bread: The Sour Starter gives this bold bread a subtle tangy flavor. Reduce water to 1 cup. Add 2 tablespoons browning and seasoning sauce and 1 cup Sour Starter to dough; mix with dough hook attachment at medium-high speed with heavy duty stand mixer 5 minutes. Proceed with recipe as directed.

The last 48hrs *my rant*

So the last 24-48hrs of my life have been well a bit bonkers.

Spunkmeister came home on Tuesday with what we thought was a bug bite on her right hand near her thumb. The area was red, swollen and sort of warm to the touch. She was bitten/stung no more than a few hours previous and always has a bigger reaction than most to any type of bug bite. So I thought we will put some baking soda/water paste on it to draw out any poison followed by some Balsam and see what it looks like in the morning.

Than yesterday morning it honestly looked better so I thought ok a bit more Balsam and some Benadryl, off to school with you. At around 9:30 I get a call from the school they just wanted to make sure I was aware of her hand. I explained the situation and let them know to call me if it was starting to hurt her at this point it was only itchy. I decided to go on my walk around 12:30 yesterday afternoon instead of last night because I had a feeling I would not be able to go late like I normally do. I was SO right about that and I am glad I got the walk done early. When I got back from my walk I had a message on the machine from the school that I needed to come get Spunkmeister her hand was really swollen and she was in pain. I was a bit irritated to tell you the truth because I mean it is a bug bite right?

Well when I got to the school I realized it was a lot worse than I had thought. Her hand was really puffy, red and hot. It looked like this:
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I took her straight into the doctor, she drew a line around the puffy area and told me that if it swelled past the line or the fever went up her arm to take her straight to the ER. She prescribed an antibiotic to help with infection cause it was looking that way and a steroid to stop the allergic reaction. Off to the pharmacy we get the antibiotic, but low and behold they do not carry that steroid. I asked several times if they had it at a different location they called around and no, I asked if there was an equivalent that they could give her again no. They say to call my doctor of course by now it is after hours. Talk to the doctor and she advises to take her to the ER cause the fever/swelling is spreading up the arm and she needs the steroid to stop the reaction.

We spend 5HRS in the ER waiting room and 1.5 in a private room to have them do NOTHING! I explained why we were there and asked for them to give her the steroid for the reaction, did she get one nope. They tell me keep giving her the antibiotic and if you see red streaks up her arm bring her back in. Then at discharge they tell me to keep giving her both the steroid and the antibiotics. I thought WTF I again say she never got a steroid the pharmacy did not have it I told you all this when we came in!!

OMG so we get home after midnight both of us are tired and cranky she ate the Happy meal grandma sent, had her meds and went to bed. I was of course wired and up till 2am and then back up this morning at 6:30 to start a new day. Spunky slept late I took Princess to school and Jeremy to work. Then off to the doc with Spunky again this morning.

The doc says she has Cellulitis an infection of the skin and hand tissues. Weird thing is she has no cut or bites in her skin and we still do not know if something bit/stung her or what. Regardless she had a pretty decent allergic reaction. She is fine now still a slight fever in her hand and arm, she is on antibiotics, we have another line drawn around the infected part and we are to keep an eye on it. Oh and now since she is so prone to allergic reactions to bug bites etc I am supposed to give her Zyrtec every time I see a bug bite on her to help prevent this type of thing from happening again.


**My rant**
Did I mention that all of this happened after I took my walk at 1:00pm? I did not get a chance to shower, had to drag Princess with me to Spunky's appointment cause I cannot be two places at once to pick her up from school, had no time to make dinner between getting home and leaving for the ER after the appointment, grocery store and pharmacy stop on the way home, so the kids had cereal for dinner and thank god for my mother being able to pick Jeremy up from work and watch the older two so I did not have to take them to the ER also!!!! I swear it feels like 12hrs of my day yesterday got swallowed up by a big black hole! Oh and I missed my shows!! :( Ok I am done whining! lol

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Wordless Wednesday - Crazy kiddos! lol

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For more Wordless Wednesday participants check out these wonderful blogs:

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Pulling out my hair........

Well so far my day has been shist bleh......... Jordan is STILL working on his math homework 3hrs later(he did have a break for dinner) and he is really trying my nerves!!!! Seriously the kid knows how to do this WHY do I have to keep sending him back into the kitchen to redo every freaking problem!?! The girls just informed me right before bath time that there are no more clean undies in their drawer! So they are still gonna have stinky butts after the bath NICE!!!!! Jeremy and I are fighting he just left for work thank god............

and holy crap

Bedtime cannot come fast enough tonight!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

A bit about the boy

So it has been FOREVER since I have updated this blog and I finally feel like the time is right to start it up again. I hope all my blogging friends have been doing well!

Things have as usual been crazy around here especially with school and all the activities etc that are involved. The boy is doing well and loving the freedom of Middle School. He really enjoys Band and playing his Clarinet although he is not so fond of having to practice everyday. He is also in Theater Arts, right now they are learning Mime and he oddly enough is seriously enjoying it. He has also decided to join the IB Program which imo is awesome. I love that he wants to go above and beyond!!

Well I am off to put the kids to bed. I hope everyone has a good night!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Blogoversary!!


WOOHOO!! It's my blogoversary!!! I cannot believe I have had this blog a whole year!