Too much of a good thing?

Lemonade stand

We finally did it!  The kids and I have been wanting to do a lemonade stand for quite some time.  They have seen pictures of them and wanted to experience the same thing.  However, we live on a cul de sac with a total of 15 houses on our street.  In one hour we are lucky to see 2 cars (and it might be the same car coming and going).  We had one today (Friday) and decided to try again Saturday afternoon when the traffic volume will be a bit higher.

So I contacted a couple of neighbors and had them come over.

First sale of the day

They SCORED!!  We have very generous neighbors.  They had a total of 9 customers and they made $5.45.  Selling the lemonade for .10 left them with a pretty hefty tip jar.  Thanks neighbors! It's going straight into a rothIRA or maybe a 521 savings plan... or we can always just blow it at yogurt palace!!

Lesson from my scar

It has been almost one year since I had my muscle biopsy.  It was supposed to be a simple procedure with a 2 day recovery.  Instead of a 1 hour hospital stay, I was there for 10 hours.  Couldn't wake up from the surgery.  But I did wake up, phew.  Prior to the surgery the doctor told me he would take out a chunk about the size of the tip of my pinkie.  Cool, that's not a big deal.  Except that I think I misunderstood him and he actually said the size of an elephants pinkie.  After the second day of recovery I was still in bed unable to move.  After a week, I was still hobbling and after a month I was able to walk on both legs.  A MONTH!!  I was happy to be feeling better a month later and really hoping that they got a good enough piece to find a diagnosis.  They did.  

Here is what my scar looks like almost one year later....  The doctor said I wouldn't be able to see it at all and even though I do, I like it.  It's a part of me and a daily reminder to not take life for granted.

It has been a very long process to get the exact answer and we are still not there but getting close.  After the initial testing I learned that my muscles and nerves were dying because of a mitochondrial disease.   Since that time I have seen 2 different specialist and have been waiting a LONG time to have that muscle sent off to a special lab for further testing.   It was supposed to have been sent out over 2 months ago but due to "human error" it wasn't.  I received a phone call the other day from the wonderful nurse practitioner that she sent it off to the lab!! She has taken over my case and is taking care of everything that was supposed to be getting done a while ago.  I am so grateful for her!  Now we sit back, wait and pray for the answers.  It will take about 2 months before the results come in but knowing that they have FINALLY been sent is wonderful.  There is still a chance that the muscle won't be good enough (it has been frozen for a year and embedded into the cork it was stored on) so if that happens.... well, we'll deal with that later.  I'm not sure my body wants to go through another biopsy any time soon.

Lesson of the day: live life to the fullest in complete joy

Mother's little helper

The boys took off for the day to do boy things so the girls stayed home to do girl things... clean!!  The cleaning has been falling very far behind lately (like years behind)  

Look how full the vacuum was just from upstairs.... gross!

After vacuuming it was laundry time (Alexis took over the rest of the cleaning from here ~ please don't call the child labor law enforcers on me)

Polished all of the furniture (and floors... eek)

Peek a boo

 The dogs watched her work hoping they weren't going to have to do anything (they didn't)

 I enjoyed a banana (and then a fudgesicle ) 

Mopping is her favorite

I gave her a break after 2 straight hours of work, I'm a tough boss!

This was just too cute not to add.  She loves the carrots from our garden.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

It's the really, really little things

It's the little things in life that bring me joy.  And when I say little I mean so little that most people would have no idea of even looking for it to bring joy to them.  Today when I got in the car to take Wyatt to speech I noticed my odometer... and it read this:

When I was about 15 or so I remember driving through the desert with my dad in our Toyota 4 runner and he happened to look down right at the time the odometer read 77,777.  That was very exciting for me. I think we threw pennies out the window to celebrate.  I love the number 7 and seeing all the 7's in a row have to bring good luck, right?  In Vegas they do.  I was kinda bummed that I missed my car's 77,777 by 1,000 miles.  Oh well, maybe with the next car.... In the meantime, I needed an oil change about 500 miles ago.

Wyatt is doing so awesome in speech therapy.  Working on the sh sound here.

When he started he was able to correctly pronounce 13 out of 26 letters.  He's getting some of the letters on their own now but putting them into a word is still a challenge, but he is trying very hard. He doesn't even fight going anymore or refuse to get out of the car.  That's a major improvement.  It might be the bribery working.  Today his special treat was play-doh.

I'm proud of all the hard work you are doing buddy!  I love you!!
{please keep the play-doh outside, thanks}

How we spent our anniversary

Our anniversary celebration started off at UCSD medical center for my second appointment with the Neurologist.  I look forward to my appointments like a kid looks forward to going to Disneyland.  I have really high hopes that I will show up and the doctors will have some answers followed by great news.  However, when we arrived at this appointment (I did not get to choose the date, this doctor is only at the adult clinic once a month) we learned that the coordinator canceled my appointment.  My first appointment was 2 months ago and in that time the coordinator was supposed to locate my frozen muscle biopsy, get approval from insurance and send it off to a special lab. 2 months was more than enough time and that is why the doctor had me wait to see him again.  He had hoped that we would have the results by now... however, the coordinator never sent it off!!!  She canceled my appointment because she didn't get her work done and the doctor would not have any information for me!!  And she never contacted me to let me in on that bit of news.  Angry, hurt, devastated... standing in a waiting room as the tears welled up in my eyes.  This was my Disneyland trip and they are closing the doors as I got to the front of the line.  There is a much longer story along the lines of crying, the coordinator being very unprofessional and my strong husband demanding we see the doctor.  We did.  And the doctor was very happy he saw us because there were more tests to get done and we were able to speed things up.  By the way, I love the doctor and nurse practioner... if we can only bi-pass that coordinator....

After our appointment we went to La Jolla, had a great lunch at Alfonso's, couldn't find parking to enjoy the beach so we drove up to Carlsbad and had some yummy frozen yogurt.  (Wasn't as good as the local Yogurt Palace, but good enough)

The kids spent the night with Nana and Papa so we picked up Chinese food, 2 movies (yes we watched 2 movies in a row and went to bed at midnight... we are crazy)

 Fortune cookie 

The next morning after sleeping in we went to the delicious Garden Center Cafe.  Great restaurant but they are not fond of children so this is where we go for most of our dates.  (The two dates we have had in the last 6 months)

They have the BEST salads!!  How good does that look??

Wasn't quite enough food to fill our bellies so we stopped at Yogurt Palace and picked the kids up from their stay at Nana and Papas.  Is it pathetic that we missed them the whole time and considered picking them up the night before?  We don't leave them often {obviously} and when we do, we miss them terribly!  How can you not?

Happy Anniversary

Love and Laughter make my heart beat faster...

8 years ago I married my best friend.  Little did I know that the guy I  met 10 years ago at the bar would be the father of my children and the man of my dreams.  I'm pretty sure my parents mentioned NOT picking up on guys in bars.  But this was the Stampede, a country line dancing joint with a much higher class :)  Anthony is that guy that everybody loves.  The fun guy, super positive, happy, helpful, loving, genuine, honest, strong, and mine!!  His love for life radiates.  I love him more each day and can't imagine how much more love I can have for him. We appreciate each other, we are grateful for each other.  We play as a family and we support each other.  Saying that Anthony has been by my side is an understatement.  He has literally held me up, carrying me through thick and thin.  I would not be where I am if it weren't for him.  I love the woman I have become because he lets me be me and provides an abundance of love.  Love is what completes us, it really makes the world a better place to be in love.  I am so excited to be on this journey called life together being so in love and can't wait to see how much fun we have over the next 50 years!!

Enjoy the video:

I love you more than words can say!  I am blessed to be able to share this life with you.  Thank you for the best years of my life and the best life a girl could ever want!

Happy Anniversary Anthony!!

God hung close by today

I had a day where I felt off.  Emotional, moody, disconnected.  The only thing I wanted to get done was plant some flowers in my yard.  A task that seems so simple yet for me with my health  it can be a challenge.  I finally got the flowers planted in the backyard while the hubs was inside reading and napping (sounds like a dream right?)  I was so pooped out but didn't want to go inside to hear, "I told you so."  Instead I took my journal and sat on the front porch where I knew no one would find me.  I became so emotional and am still not sure why I was so upset.  At that time God popped in and my good friend and neighbor drove by (with out her kids in the car).  We had a minute to catch up and I totally started crying and venting about everything.  Bummed about my health keeping me from doing everything I wanted.  Her presence was almost magical.  After a minute of talking I felt so much better.  It is not often, actually I don't think we have ever stopped to talk like that without either her kids or my kids jumping around us, so I really felt she was a God-sent at that moment and I am grateful.  I went back into the house, grabbed my grocery list (since it was dinner time and I had an empty fridge) and I ran off to run my errands.  Feeling closer to God I turned on the radio with intent that the first song I heard would be for me.  Well, it was the song If I Die Young by the Band Perry so I started to cry, realizing how precious life was and to NOT waste any moments in rotten moods.  I went to the post office and stood in a long line feeling more and more calm as the minutes went by.  As I left, a good friend called, she found a lump in her breast and needs to have further testing done.  We compared how our lumps felt (I found one and will be having a biopsy very soon) and we talked about how God has His plan.  I went to the grocery store feeling closer to God than I had in a while.  I know He is always right next to me but today he held my hand, spoke to me, comforted me.

I'm linking up with Katie from minivan diva today.

Apple Pancakes... yum!

My neighbor gave me this great, tasty and easy recipe for Apple pancakes.  Check it out:

It makes 2 pancakes

You will need:
2 glass pie plate
2 T butter in each pie plate (melt)
1/2 pealed and sliced apple spread over butter

In a mixing bowl
1 C milk
1 C flour
4 eggs
beat eggs, flour and milk and stir until combined

put 1 C dough on top of apples and bake
20 min. at 400*

~Enjoy~

And for the people like me that need pictures...

I melt the butter in the microwave in the pie plate

I doubled the recipe and used really small apples but still had too many.  I like lots of apples in it.

This would be the mixing part :)

Here is the part where you put the apples on top of the butter

Pour 1 cup of dough over the apples

Bake at 400 for 20 min

Now this next part is entirely up to you.  You can (a) wash the dishes or (b) leave them.  The breakfast dishes are on the far left (only a couple).  In the left part of the sink would be last nights dinner and in the right part of the sink would be yesterdays lunch.  The far right looks like some dishes I actually washed and left to dry.

Fresh out of the oven...

Sprinkle some powdered sugar and enjoy!!

Thank you Sue for the delicious recipe!!

Random Happy Tuesday

I went for a much needed pedicure today and enjoyed every single moment of it!

(my sister will probably freak out with this picture - she hates feet)

And then I came home and took a nap with Freedom because the pedicure made me so tired.

After I woke up from my very quick nap, it was time to wash the car... well, it was time for the kids to wash my car :)

While outside, my package of clothes arrived.  The morning of the 4th of July I was checking e-mails and Charlotte Russe was having a huge sale.  I got 9 items for $60!!!  The best part about it all is that I LOVE what I got.  You know sometimes (often for me) you order what looks like one thing but then you get it and it's totally not what you were wanting?

Happy Tuesday :)