My First Pinterest Project

I completed my first of many Pinterest projects this past weekend.  My inspiration came from Cindi over at This is my Life.  She has an excellent tutorial on how to make this really cute wreath. 

Here is my wreath!  I'm way excited about how stinking cute it is!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Gavin

Happy Birthday to the most special little boy in the world!!

I can't believe my sweet nephew is 3!  We had his "non-party" at Chuck E. Cheese Saturday afternoon at noon.  That place was a madhouse!!  The only people for the "non-party" that were there were Beth, Tommy and Gavin, mom, and Shawn and I.  We had pizza and salad and played games.  Then we headed back to my house where we celebrated by opening presents and having cake and ice cream.  I won Gavin's cake off of the radio the day before when I called in his birthday to WKDQ.  I was uber-excited to have won!!  What a blessing!  Shawn and I got him the big play kitchen (that's still at our house, and that's a whole different story!) and a rolling suitcase to take with him when he spends the night at Nan's or at our house.  I had wanted to get him one for a while and the last time we came home from vacation, I caught him trying to pull one of our heavily packed suitcases across the living room.  Target had a little Seseame Street one sale the other day so I bought it.  Mom got him a new portable CD player, and Beth and Tommy got him a Wii.  Talk about a spoiled little boy!!

See the little icing situation?  I caught a certain little somebody in the kitchen when no one was looking and he was taking his little finger and dragging it along the icing!  =)

Starting fertility treatments again :)

Shawn and I have decided to start fertility treatments again.  I know this is odd, but last Friday when we were getting our taxes done, I was waiting on Shawn to get there and me and the lady doing our taxes started talking and she mentioned that she and her husband had just had a baby after trying for 6 years.  She said they were doing fertility treatments and on their 4th IUI, she got pregnant and they had just had a beautiful baby about 2 weeks ago.  That really encouraged me to start the treatments again.  I talked to Shawn about it and he was definitely on board!

We are going back to Dr. Gentry and had our first appointment on Wednesday, February 22.  We met with Dr. Gentry and he wanted me to come back after I started my period to have blood work done to test my hormone levels and then have another SIS ultrasound done.  I started my period on Monday so tomorrow morning I go for my blood work and then on March 19, I have my SIS ultrasound scheduled.

Daniel Fast: Week 2 and 3

It's the second week of the Daniel Fast and so far so good. 

Here is our menu for the week, along with a few pictures below.

Monday - Meat and potatoes, salad, corn
Tuesday - Red beans and rice, peas and carrots, pineapple
Wednesday - Spaghetti w/sauce, salad, wheat tortillas w/ olive oil and garlic
Thursday - Stir fry w/ fried rice
Friday - Stuffed bell peppers, lebanese potato salad
Saturday - Taco soup w/ tortilla chips
Sunday - Fried potatoes, corn, great northern beans

Meat and potatoes - veggie crumbles, red potatoes, onions, garlic, red & green bell peppers

Whole wheat spaghetti with organic roasted garlic spaghetti sauce, corn, green beans, and whole wheat tortillas with olive oil and garlic powder

Salad - lettuce, tomato, onion, egg and light ranch dressing (I know that the egg and ranch dressing are no-no's on the Daniel Fast food list, but I kept them into my diet during this time)

Stir fry with cabbage, onion, garlic & celery and fried rice with brown rice, frozen peas and carrots, green onions and bean sprouts.  Yummy!!  Too bad I didn't have an egg roll right now!

Red beans and rice, peas & carrots


Week 3 - I'm behind on blogging and didn't get a chance to record what we had to eat.  Week 3 we ate most of the same foods as the first two weeks.  Wednesday night during service, Bro. Heard announced that the Lord spoke to him and asked his people to fast all food from Friday morning until after church service Sunday evening, so we didn't have anything those evenings.  Sunday evening we had veggie burgers and then Monday night I had veggie burgers since I was still on the fast for my last day.
The water only fast for 3 days was one of the most difficult things I had ever done and definitely the longest I had gone without food.  But the Lord spoke to our Pastor and told him that his people would fast food for that time, that the Lord would bless us financially.  Shawn and I are getting ready to start fertility treatments soon so a financial blessing would definitely come in handy there!

Happy Birthday to my littlest BFF

Happy 9th Birthday Zoe!!

My littlest BFF celebrated her 9th birthday on Saturday and Gavin and I joined her in all her fun!

Gavinisms

We had Gavin this weekend and he said and did some of the funniest things.  I'll blog about the entire weekend in another post, I just wanted to get these recorded before I forgot about them!

Friday evening we were in the living room and Gavin was playing with his new kitchen that we got him for his birthday. He told me that he had to go potty, so I told him to run into the bathroom and I was right behind him. Well in his sillyness of waiting for me to come in, he was dancing around the potty and lost his balance and tumbled head first into the toilet. His little arm went straight into the water and into the hole of the toilet. I grabbed him up and he through his arm in the air and started yelling “wash dis off, wash dis arm!” He knows the toilet is nasty so he was freaked out! It was the funniest thing ever!

Then later he was playing with his kitchen, and I was sitting on the couch, and he looked red face and was holding his arms. I asked him if he was ok, or if he hurt his arm. He gives me this crazy look and says "I am trying to poop!" I asked him if he wanted to poop on the potty so we went into the bathroom, but he said he was done. I looked in the diaper, sure enough, he was done! LOL!!

Saturday afternoon we were at Heather’s for Zoe’s 9^th birthday party.  There was kids there of all ages and there were running around the house and playing in Zoe’s room.  I just let Gavin run and play with them.  I was sitting in the living room talking with the adults and I hear people say Gavin is crying, and he comes in the living room and he’s all red faced and crying.  I asked him what was wrong, but couldn’t understand.  Zoe was trying to tell me he didn’t get hurt.  Finally Gavin said “them big kids locked me in the hallway!”  LOL!  I guess the girls ran in Zoe’s room and shut the door and Gavin didn’t get to go in. 

While we were at Heather’s, Gavin was clumsy a few times and tripped over his feet while running and chasing the big kids.  The first time I saw him do it, he jumped up and I asked him if he was ok.  He was and I made a comment about the floor grabbing his feet.  It was but a little bit later and he was running through the kitchen after the kids and he did it again.  This time he jumped up and said “the floor got my feet!”

A lot of words that Gavin says seems to start with the letter H.  I had given him a bowl of fresh fruit and he finished it and asked for more “hoot”.  This just cracked me up cause once when my mom was dating Donnie, she was cleaning an old clock she had hanging up and she found a bag of hoot in it.  So we always joke at work when we are having a really bad day about asking my mom to clean out her clocks.  So when he asked for more “hoot”, I just thought to myself, he’s been hanging around my mom too much!  LOL!!

Another one I forgot about it.  Sunday morning, while trying to get everyone ready for church and in the car, I had put Gavin's coat on him and put him in the car and buckled him in his seat.  I gave him his busy book to look at and left his door open.  I went back into the house and left the door open leading from the garage to the kitchen.  I was in the kitchen finishing getting his bag together and getting my coat on.  I asked him if he was alright out there.  He replied "we are fine."  I thought, we?  Who is out there with him.  So I said to him "We?  Who is out there with you?"  He replied "the cat is out here with me."  I went out in the garage and sure enough, big fat Clifford was out there too!  When I left the garage door open, I didn't think about the cat going out there.  I'm glad I asked, otherwise, we might of left and let Clifford get out in the big world and then Shawn would of been mad at me!

Daniel Fast 2012 - Week 1

Our church is participating in the Daniel Fast again this year.  This time we started it in February instead of January like we have done in the past.  I believe the reason was because we started the weight loss group in January and our pastor didn't want to overwhelm everyone with two things at one time.  The fast started February 1, however Shawn and I didn't start until February 6.  We had late nights the week it started and was going to Shawn's parents for the weekend for their birthdays, and I didn't have time to shop for groceries, so we just decided to do it when we got back.  We'll still do the fast for 21 days, so when everyone else is celebrating by eating yummy, fattening foods, we'll still be fasting, but that's OK with me :)  I love doing the Daniel Fast, especially knowing that my heart is in it and my reasons behind doing it!  The second  year we did it, my heart was not into it at all, and I was felt like I was bragging about this fast we were doing, and I had a horrible time with it.  I didn't like anything I was eating or cooking; I would stand in the kitchen and cry cause I wanted "real food", and I literally stopped eating the last couple of days.  It was not good.  Now I couple the fast with prayer and a desire to serve God!

For breakfast, I have bananas, apples, and peanuts and sometimes cereal with bananas and soy milk.  Shawn will have mixed nuts/berries and cereal.  Our lunches are always leftovers from the night before. 

This week's dinner menu looks like this:

Monday - fried potatoes with onions, great northern beans with green onions and veggie broth, and corn
Tuesday - whole wheat spaghetti, organic spaghetti sauce with onions, zucchini and corn, salad, fresh fruit
Wednesday - tacos on whole wheat tortillas (or taco salad) with veggie crumbles, lettuce, onion, tomatoes, chips and salsa
Thursday - corn and potato chowder, fresh fruit
Friday - veggie burgers with grilled onions on whole wheat tortillas, spiced potato cubes, fresh fruit
Saturday - chili with wheat noodles and veggie crumbles, peanut butter with whole wheat tortillas
Sunday - cabbage soup, fresh fruit

Here is a picture of Wednesday's lunch.  I wish I would of thought to take pictures of Monday and Tuesday's lunch too.  I'll try to do this daily during the 21 days.

Here is a picture of Wednesday's lunch. Spaghetti with veggies and spaghetti sauce and fresh fruit.  I wish I would of thought to take pictures of Monday and Tuesday's lunch too. I'll try to do this daily during the 21 days. 

Tacos - veggie crubmles with taco seasoning, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, on whole wheat tortillas

Cabbage soup

Seasoned potato wedges

Corn and potato chowder

Mexican Confetti Quinoa salad

Taco salad with last nights leftovers and fresh fruit

Our First Hockey Game Experience

On Saturday, January 14, we went to our first Icemen's hockey game at the new Ford Center.  Well it was our first hockey game ever for that matter.  The night we went was a WOW sponsored event so we had free tickets.  It was alot of fun and I can't wait to go back.  It was chilly inside the arena naturally because of the ice so I was bundled up with my blanket, scarf and gloves.  The Icemen beat the Ft. Wayne Komets 3 to 1 to a packed crowd of 9,403 fans!  That's the biggest fan attendance so far!  While I really don't understand all there is to know about hockey, I was there more to see some fights!!  I can tell you that I didn't leave disappointed......there was 3 that night.  One they broke up immediately and two that they let drag on for a bit.  I'm glad I had my zoom lens with me cause we were sitting far away.  And let me tell you, it's hard to zoom through the netting that was up to keep the pucks from going everywhere!  I posted a photo below so you would see what I was talking about!

We didn't have horrible seats for the game, but I think it would of been really neat to be down near the windows!

YES....it was hard zooming in through this netting for the pictures!

One of the 3 fights of the evening!

The third fight of the evening!

And a VICTORY WIN for the Evansville Icemen!!!

Monster Trucks

The monster trucks were at the new Ford Center a couple of weeks ago.  We had been to Roberts Stadium to see them a few years ago and I was less than thrilled to go again.  I told Shawn I would go ONLY if we took Gavin with us.  He was sold!  So Friday evening, Shawn drove to Rockport and picked up Gavin and then came to my work to get me.  We left the cars here and walked down to Lic's to have supper and then walked down farther to the new Ford Center.  Gavin and Shawn were way excited; me not so much!  LOL!!  We had bought Gavin a pair of ear phones, or "ear planes" as Gavin calls them, to block out the noise of the trucks cause Gavin is afraid of really loud noises.  He loved wearing them and didn't want to take them off at all!  His mom and dad gave him money to buy a souvenir so we settled on the Ironman pennant.  I feel sorry for the bald man sitting in front of us cause Gavin poked him with the pennant about a dozen times!  Eventually it ended up in the backpack.

Playing with Aunt CeCe's phone while we waited for Uncle Shawn.  Halfway down to the Lic's, I realized I didn't put Gavin's earphones in his bag so Shawn had to go back to the car to get them.  Thanks Uncle Shawn!

Gavin with his Ironman pennant.  I'm not sure of the pose he's doing!

The poor bald man in front of Gavin!  Hee!

This is my fave picture of the night!!  He was having so much fun!

Ironman right before he flipped his big car/truck over!

The Rottweiler was my fave car/truck of the evening!