T-Ball and Father's Day

So, instead of doing some things I should be doing right now, I decided I'd surprise my sister-in-law, Kathryn, and blog. We have had a busy, but fun weekend. Friday, I started off my weekend with the monthly baby scrapbook class that April hosts where I got a couple more baby layouts done for my girls' books...yes, you read that right...my 5-year old STILL does not have a scrapbook. (gasp) I am a bit of a slacker in that department.  I had really good intentions and took all the appropriate photos, but there is something about putting a scrapbook together with no guidance that just plain stresses me out.  So April's classes each month have been AWESOME because I can just go, copy the cute design she made up, and voila! Well, that is, if I would ever put the photos in their books.

Saturday morning started with Emily's first t-ball game of the season...it should have been the first game last weekend, but the games were rained out.  Her game was at 10 a.m. and I was literally drenched when we left...I am not kidding.  I sweat like a darn pig when it's that hot and there's no pool to cool off in!  I think they tied...not even sure if they keep score in Upward sports, but I was too busy trying to take good pictures to pay attention to the game going on.  I have gotten bad in that department.  I used to pay such close attention when Jarrod was playing in college too!  Speaking of Jarrod, he's coaching her team this season...he couldn't stay out of the coaching arena long ;)
Here's Em on base

Attempting to get the ball

I just love this pic of them...I might just frame it.

Emily was really hot too...as you can tell

She actually ran out to Jarrod during the middle of the game and announced to him that she had to go potty...I just laughed because I knew it was just because she was hot and tired and she didn't really have to go that bad.  He told her that if she held it until the end of the game, he would get her a surprise (the game was almost over for all of you feeling sorry for her)...so she held it...all the way until we got home.

Her surprise was that she got to go out in the boat and go fishing with us...she's quite the little fisher-girl ;)

(I actually do have some pics of her fishing, I am literally just too lazy right now to get out of this chair to put them on the computer...it's late, what can I say)

Sunday we had really good intentions to wake up and go to church, but we had a change of plans...we took Emily to see Toy Story 3 in 3D.  It was totally Jarrod's idea, which surprised me a little considering that it is Father's Day. We had fun and it was a cute movie.  Then we headed to Academy "The Category" as Em calls it to get Grandpa a fishing pole and some fishing line that was an "incredible deal".  I hope you can sense my sarcasm ;)  Whenever Jarrod gets into something, he gets a bit obsessive about the gear involved to support the hobby.  It's pretty funny.  After Academy, we headed to get Alli from Nana and Paw Paw's house and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's to see Mee Maw Fee, who is in town for a couple of weeks from Oklahoma.  Then to finish the day off, I went to Wal Mart to get groceries from my e-mealz menu for the week.  Whew!  I sure hope I have clean clothes for tomorrow because we haven't done a thing that we needed to do this weekend...at least I haven't.

 I just have to finish by saying that my girls have the most amazing daddy in the world in Jarrod.  And I'm pretty lucky to have him forever as my husband and best friend!

E-Mealz

So, if you frequently visit my blog in hopes that there just might be a new entry (and are regularly disappointed), you may have noticed that I added a new button to the right-hand side called E-Mealz.  I just joined this new program (after I convinced my friend, Randi to try it out first) where you pay $5 per month to get custom meal plans based on the diet you pick.  For example, I picked the Wal-Mart (because I shop there most) Points System menu for two (trying to get back on track with Weight Watchers) and the ladies that run this basically look at the Wal Mart ad for that week and they base their meal plan on items that may be on sale to save you $$.  I think it is only supposed to cost us $35-45 per week, so I am really excited to try it.  Of course, if you know you are going to be gone or in a big hurry, you can mix things up a bit.  I am super excited about saving $$ and eating at home more.  We are terrible about grabbing take-out because we are too lazy to cook in a rush to get dinner on the table.  I'm curious, what do y'all do to save money on meals?  Be sure to check out e-mealz and sign up!  I hope it will be great for our family!

MIA

It's not because I go completely blank when I open up blogger, even though my daughters give me enough material to write about for weeks.....And it's not that I have to have the perfect, quiet setting, with no other chores around the house and nobody else in the room....And it's sure not that I am so worried about having typos or sounding dumb that I haven't blogged in the longest time...It's just that it's been a busy couple of months for us.  You believe that, right?!?

Thought so.

So, never in a million years would I dream of all that's happened in the past two months in my family.  Let's start around mid-April.  My dad went on his annual trip to the Llano Crawfish Open with his buddies.  He was pulling weeds, some of which were tougher than others, and developed a terrible headache...fast forward to 3 weeks later and he has brain surgery.  He had a subdural hematoma (brain bleed) that was worsened by him taking the anti-platelet drug, Plavix (which makes you bleed and bleed and bleed).  So when we were told about his condition on April 23, surgery was the only option to remedy his condition and that was not an option for at least 7 days...then it turned into 14 days, thanks to his wonderful and very conservative neurosurgeon, Dr. Stuart Crutchfield.  He had surgery on May 7th and overall (minus a few speedbumps) has had an amazing recovery.  He had the best nurses ever in the Neuro ICU at Mother Frances Hospital, which just so happens to be my amazing mother-in-law's unit.  One of them decorated his head dressing with this since he's a huge Saints fan.

Now rewind to the week of my dad's surgery to May 4th.  Emily loves gymnastics and decided that she would use the arms of our couch and love-seat as makeshift parallel bars, so she pushed herself up with her arms and began swinging her legs from front to back...like she's been told MANY times not to do. So, the momentum of her legs flying back caused her to slam face-first into the living room floor.  After the bleeding, blood-curdling screams, tears, doctor visit and x-rays, we found out that our poor baby girl had broken her nose.  Here she is on the way to DirectCARE that evening:

Here's my poor sweet girl the day after it happened:

We had to wait about a week to see her ENT, Dr. Fulmer, since he needed the swelling to go down before he could really check it out, but he said it did need to be surgically re-set, so we did that on May 13.

OK, now rewind to May 12.  I get a call from a random number on my cell phone, that I totally screened that I wasn't able to answer in time, from a nice man that lives about a mile and a half from our house.  He informs me that he has our dogs, Colby & Katie, and that Katie has most likely been hit by a car.  You see, Colby is a digger and a bad influence.  Poor Katie was just the follower and ended up getting hurt.  The man said that although Colby was extremely skiddish around him, he would not leave Katie's side.  Each time he would walk away, Katie would cry and Colby would go back to her.  How sweet is that?!?!  Anyway, Jarrod went to get them, and I met him at our vet (who by the way is AMAZING for staying open late for us).  She, luckily, had no broken bones and was sent home to rest on pain pills, anti-inflammatories and some antibiotics (she had a nice road burn).  She was getting around pretty slow there for a few days, but she is back to her old self now. 

Whew!  I'm tired just thinking about all that.  The whole brain surgery thing made the others seem like a piece of cake though, so that's the positive part of God's timing in this situation.  During these past couple of months, there were a whole lot of GREAT things in the mix like Mother's Day, Madelyn's baby dedication, Jarrod's Master's graduation, Emily's dance recital, and plenty of other fun stuff too....but this entry is long enough for tonight.

A special thank you to my rockin' sister-in-law Rachel who came to our house at 6:45 in the morning so that I could go to the hospital every day before work and hung out with our girls the night we took the dogs to the vet.

Giveaway

OK, so I haven't blogged in about 2 months now, but I just had to share this great giveaway my sister-in-law is doing on her blog.  Check it out!

Beef Stuffed Zucchini

I started doing Weight Watchers this past week so I am always looking for new recipes that are low in points.  I got this recipe from the Weight Watchers website and decided to try it tonight.  It turned out REALLY good so I thought I'd share!

Beef-Stuffed Zucchini
POINTS: 4

1 spray(s) cooking spray
4 medium zucchini, cut in half lengthwise
1 large egg(s), beaten
1/2 tsp table salt, divided
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tbsp seasoned bread crumbs, divided
2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 Tbsp parsley, Italian, minced
6 oz raw lean ground beef
1 tsp olive oil
1 Tbsp wine, red variety

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat a large baking pan with cooking spray.

Scoop out seeds from zucchini; chop and reserve flesh. Arrange zucchini halves, cut side-up, in prepared pan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine egg, 1/4 teaspoon salt, red pepper flakes, 1 tablespoon bread crumbs, 1 tablespoon cheese, parsley, beef and chopped zucchini flesh; mix well.

Fill each zucchini half with a heaping tablespoon of beef mixture; spread into an even layer. Sprinkle beef with remaining tablespoon of bread crumbs; drizzle with oil and wine.

Bake until beef is cooked through and zucchini is tender-crisp; about 30 minutes. Remove to a serving platter; garnish with remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt and tablespoon of cheese. Yields 2 zucchini halves per serving.

18 months old

I can hardly believe my sweet baby girl, Allison, is 18 months old!  She is such a lovable, happy, funny little girl...and she has the BEST big sister in the universe! Here are both my sweet girlies in the hospital after Alli was born.

 Alli had her 18-month check-up this week and she has stats similar to her sister when she was that age.  She weighs 23 lbs. and is 33.2 inches tall...well, thereabout...poor Christina had to measure her while she was flopping around.  She is in the 31% for her weight and 89% for height...so she's really tall and skinny.  She is such a happy girl and LOVES to eat, even though you can't tell! Here she is eating a cookie last week.

Her head circumference was off the chart, so she's got brains like her sissy too.  She has 12 teeth right now and has recently discovered ranch dressing...so she loves dipping everything in ranch, even her paci!  She is super friendly and says "Hiiii" to everyone she passes by in stores (in the same East Texas accent her mama has). She is an absolute joy to be around and can put a smile on our face instantly!

Photography

Last summer, after much research, I finally broke down and got a DSLR camera and I LOVE it!  There are so many settings that I have no idea about though, and my friend Jennifer was kind of in the same boat.  Jennifer luckily found a guy named Ron Ragan and he graciously spent some time with me, Jennifer and my sister-in-law Kathryn last weekend to show us some things about the settings on our cameras, photography in general and some techniques in Photoshop.  I know this is SO basic, but it's one of the things I wanted to learn how to do...so here's a baby picture of Alli that I got to practice on:

I had it printed to hang in a frame and matte that I bought when I was on maternity leave a while back...I know, how sad is that!  I had big plans to make a collage with cute scrapbook paper and newborn photos, but since I am a HUGE slacker in that department, that did not occur.  When I say huge slacker, I mean like BIG...like my 5 year old doesn't even have a baby scrapbook and I have had the supplies since she was a baby (gasp).  Tomorrow evening though, that shall change.  I am SUPER excited because I am going to make baby scrapbook layouts with Kathryn and Rachel...so maybe I can get Emily's first year done by the time she starts Kindergarten.  One thing I do know though, is where I will print my photos.  Motophoto on South Broadway prints high quality prints and has a highly trained staff to ensure proper color and quality of each and every print.  The BEST thing about Motophoto is that you can upload the photos online and pick them up in their drive-thru, which makes getting photos printed with kiddos SO much easier!