Mmmmm...

A little eggnog goes a long way. I like mine with some Southern Comfort in it. Hubby just made us a glass to share. I think the whiskey bottle got a little top heavy. The nog is good. So's the whiskey in the bottle...I mean glass...in the nog. I like a little eggnog with my sumpin sumpin...or wait, that's a little sumpin in my nog. oh my...the glass is getting empty. And I'm relaxed. Hubby just reached for the glass and got growled at...by me. The baby was sleeping with a spoon. No no no...not too much comfort in the shnog. The baby found a spoon and was cuddling with it. Not that we keep spoons in our bedroom, that's just weird. He found it in the kitchen and brought it back to the bedroom with him...he's the weird one. Think I need more eggynoggy...buh bye.

Soliciting help and ideas

Okay, this is a mom blog and I need mom help! My lovely child (who now chooses to arise at 4 AM every freaking morning) will eat food at daycare like it's going out of style. But for me at home on the weekends...UH UH. He'll eat a few bites and then he's done. So, why will he eat at daycare? Do I need to borrow people's kids and set them around my kitchen to encourage his eating?? That will get awkward. Anyone have any ideas?? Moms that have been there done that??

My favorite salisbury steak recipe

Okey dokey, I'm sharing the recipe love! Here's where to find the recipe for the salisbury steak that makes Hubby go "OH YUM!"

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Salisbury-Steak/Detail.aspx

I add a can of chopped portabellos to the meat mixture. I've done fresh before, but the canned works nicely and you don't have to clean anything (or chop it). I just read through the comments on this recipe and the alterations that people have done. There are some really good ideas. And I like the idea of browning the patties and then putting them in the oven, but I hate dirtying any more dishes than I have to. I just turn the heat down a little on the skillet and let them cook...and cook.

Let me know what you think if you have the time to try the recipe.

Is that bad?

I've just killed an hour on the laptop while the baby is napping and the Hubster is watching foozeball (football). My feet hurt from walking barefoot on our hard floors while I mopped. And yet, I feel bored and like waking the baby up for something fun. Is that bad? "Wake up, child, Mommy is bored."? And growing up, the b-word was never ever ever allowed in the house. I know that I have something else I could be doing - like cleaning the bathrooms - but still, it would be more fun to play with the baby!

Slacking

Wow, I really slacked on my goal of listing what I'm thankful for every day until Thanksgiving. So, I'm cheating...here's my list and it should get me to the big day!

I'm thankful for...

1. A roof over our heads that doesn't leak and that covers our cozy little house that we call home.


2. The copious amount of food we have in our pantry and fridge and freezer.


3. The fact that we live in a country where abundance surrounds us and we have access to plenty of food, fresh water, and healthcare (even if the triage does suck).


4. Lysol...after the last two weeks, I'm loving the brand.


5. My baby's grin. It makes everything that's wrong seem so insignificant.


6. My baby's giggle. No matter how frustrated I am, that giggle can make me laugh...even when he's doing something he's not supposed to.


7. My husband...who is my best friend and loves me when I'm serious, silly, sad, emotional, or just plain crazy.


8. My marriage. We just celebrated three years and I love my hubby more and more each day.


9. My health and my family's health. It's such a simple thing to take for granted.


10. Two good vehicles that are paid off and are in good condition.


11. A sister-in-law who takes care of Thanksgiving. That way no matter how badly I want to prepare something but find myself so incredibly tired I know I'm kidding myself - it doesn't matter because she has it covered!


12. Blogger...it's been a great outlet for all the things bouncing around in my head.


13. Good friends who will bring you soup and gatorade when you're sick.


14. A job that's been patient with me as I've gone through maternity leave and all of the ensuing daycare illnesses since coming back to work.


15. Clean floors, a napping baby, and a few moments to blog in peace


16. The promise of spring so I can plant all of those seeds I ordered last week. I'm ready to have a garden again!


17. A really good and simple salisbury steak recipe that makes my husband go "OH YUM!" when he sees me preparing it.


18. Losing baby weight (oh so s-l-o-w-l-y)


19. Holidays and time off from work!


20. The freedom to go to church


21. Holiday sales


22. The fact that the Twilight movie is finally out in theatres and I get to go see it! (and nobody can spoil the ending because I've already read the book)


23. Strawberries, hot fudge, and whipped cream...who needs ice cream?


24. My mom and grandmother becuase no one can get up to speed on hometown gossip like those two can!


25. The Honey Baked Ham company becuase I just discovered that they do that sugary coating to smoked turkey breasts...yum yum...back off my turkey!!

Giveaway winner!

Okay, ya'll, my laptop suckies. I haven't installed Microsoft Office on it, and the only way I know how to convert the Random.Org screenshot in to a jpg is through powerpoint. And as far as I know, I need the screen shot in jpg format in order to load it into blogger. So, what I'm trying to say is you're gonna have to take my word for the winner of the giveaway, cause I really did get the number picker to pick the winner. And as it just so happens, the winner wasn't even a pumpkin recipe! Congratulations, Deborah!! Email me at point467 at yahoo dot com and we get your soap picks and I'll get them in the mail to you!

Thank you everyone for playing along! Now that I can look at a screen without getting nauseated, I'll be checking on ya'lls blogs and do some catching up (and meet some new folks!).

Where to start?

Oh my, I don't even know where to start. I suppose our life got topsy turvy two weeks ago on Tuesday night. I had been out of town all day for business, a fly-out and fly back sort of thing. We got to bed around 10 that night and then woke up at midnight to "cough cough, gag, splat"...the baby was sick. He wouldn't stop throwing up and was dry heaving every 10 to 15 minutes, so we got him downtown to the hospital. We knew we needed zofran, an anti-nauseau med, since we've been through this stomach bug routine with him before. We normally go to the children's emergency clinic that's about 10 minutes from the house, but they close at midnight, so we had to go all the way downtown. After checking in and going through triage, we were told that we had a 2 hour wait. I cannot tell you how mad, infuriated, frustrated, and devastated I felt over being told that we were going have to wait 2 hours in a waiting room while our 11 month old infant dry heaved bile into our hands. All he needed was half a pill of zofran and he'd be fine...we could wait it out. Yes, the waiting room was full in front of us, but there were no other infants and no one was vomiting or laying on the floor dying. Isn't that was triage is for? Sort them by importance, not just the order you come in?? I tried going through different channels by trying to contact our pediatrician on my cell phone while Hubby held baby in the waiting room. Evidently while I was out walking a hole in the concrete sidewalk outside and cursing my phone and everyone that was associated with the hospital, he'd decided he had enough and had a little talk with the triage nurses (2 men and one woman) again. Let's just say it was a quiet conversation that I'm glad the security guards couldn't hear. Nonetheless, we were taken back to a room within 10 minutes. We did eventually get the baby's medicine, and we got headed home around 6 that morning.

I spent Wednesday at home and Hubster worked part of the day. We were tapped out from the night before, and were still keeping a cautious eye on the baby. That afternoon, he hurled again, and I got him in to see the pediatrician. She confirmed that there is a virus going around and that we could expect to see him throwing up for up to 7 days. She also cautioned that it was very contagious. Thursday morning, Hubby came down with the bug, and I came home to take care of them. Thursday night, I was throwing up, too. The bug ran through Hubby in about 24 hours. I stopped throwing up and then started having diahrea that lasted 3 days...I couldn't stop it. He almost took me to the ER because my body wouldn't retain any fluid. All the while, our baby was throwing up 2 to 3 times per day, and we kept him on the anti-nauseau med as little as possible but enough to keep fluids in him.

All totalled, the baby threw up for 8 days. He never got diahrea because the virus slowed his system down so much it caused constipation. We finally got that resolved in the past few days and have learned just how badly sick baby poo smells. Two days ago he gave us the first grin and giggle we'd seen in a while. He's lost about a pound, which for him, he didn't have to lose. He's never carried any baby fat. We're working on getting the weight back on him. Today has actually felt normal, and I'm thankful for that. I'm still mad at the hospital system. I hate feeling helpless. On top of all of that, I've had a sore throat for going on four days. It comes and goes. I've been giving my immune system a pep talk....I think it ignores me.

Two of the girls from my work brought us gatorade and homemade soup and shared their prescription of phenegran. (gasp! a shared prescription! whatever! it's the only thing that kept me even remotely interested in looking at a glass of water for four days) We were so grateful to them for doing that. We pretty much wouldn't have had anything if it wasn't for them.

Been sick sick sick

That's three sicks...one for each of us, because we all had it! The evil stomach bug...that lasts a week. I'll announce the giveaway winner in the next day or so. All I can say is that we've kept Tide and Lysol in business the past 7 days and we're making our 3rd trip to the pediatrician today in the same amount of time.

A Bad Mix

First - where'd that funky blue line come from that's running top to bottom on my blog??? It hasn't been there. I didn't invite it! Reason number 284 to get a blog makeover! yessssssssss!

Back to the subject line...a bad mix. After having two glorious weeks of a baby sleeping through the night, K-man has decided that he's tired of what we've been feeding him and now will gag if he doesn't like the taste and then completely quit eating. So, on those days, he's on a mostly liquid diet since if he doesn't eat his food at daycare, the only thing to eat/drink is his bottle. His naps have been crummy at daycare lately, too. Apparently, it's so much fun to walk now, that he doesn't want to sleep. So, that brings us to the evening with both of us trying to get a fussy boy his bath in the kitchen sink, using 3 different towels to wipe up the water that's splashing everywhere, making notes to ourselves that we must figure out a way to make the bathroom and the bathtub less scary for him, and one of us trying to shovel a jar of babyfood in to him. Got the mental image? Good. Now add that on top of the baby waking up once or twice a night (screaming) for another bottle because he's hungry. Got that image? good.

I've also been working on losing this baby weight. I get around to exercising around 3 or 4 times a week. It should be more like 5 or 6, but I'm human and I'm not supermom, so there. I've been limiting my eating to 200-300 calorie installments spaced 2-3 hours apart and not eating after 6 or 7. If I'm hungry after that, it's a big glass of lime water. If I'm absolutely starving and think I can't sleep because I'm so hungry, it's a little bowl of cereal. While that works for the waistline, it doesn't jive too well with my blood sugar. I'm not diabetic, I just have low blood sugar issues and they really tick me off. My husband knows when I need to eat before I do because he can see it in my mannerisms. I get a little cranky...out of sorts...weepy...oh my gosh the world is falling apart. I'm okay. Just shove a sandwich in my mouth and tell me to chew, and then all of a sudden, the world is all rainbows and butterflies again.

This brings us to this morning. Didn't get enough sleep last night. Went to bed hungry. Woke up running late. Didn't eat. Got the baby to the daycare. Still had Hubby on the bluetooth where he could hear whatever came out of my mouth. So, I get up to the main intersection where I have a protected green arrow to turn left out of the single left turn lane. The light turns to the green arrow. I look left. I look right. I do this because I don't trust cross-traffic to stop just because a light is red. All is good. I proceed forward and realize the vehicle next to me in the right lane is also moving forward. WTH?? He has a red light and that's not a turning lane! So I hesitate. And then I see a car from across the intersection start to go on their red light! WTH?? It's not their turn! So, as I'm turning left and the dude next to me is turning left right beside me and blocking me from my lane that I want to be in, he starts edging closer to me becuase the car from across the intersection lurched forward. Keep in mind, I'm sleepy and I'm pissy and my blood sugar isn't helping the situation. So, I elbow-locked my arm right into my horn...and I layed in to it. And I kept laying in to it all through the intersection and on in to my lane of traffic and say a few expletitives. Then I try to make a move in to the right hand lane and the dude is blocking me!!! "DAMMMM, people, get out of my way!", I say as I throw my hand in the air at him (NOTE: I am NOT flipping this person off! I don't do that!). About that time, I pull even with him. Him. The policeman in the civilian vehicle. The POLICEMAN in his uniform in his civilian vehicle. The policeman who looks over at me with my hand in the air. The hand that I quickly slap over my mouth. The mouth that says another expletitive as my foot hits the brakes and slows me down. And then I make another turn and go a different direction. And wish I had eaten breakfast before I left the house.


Oh yeah...the GIVEAWAY is still going on!! next post down...

Hosting a Giveaway!!

Alright, I'm jumping in here with a giveaway and combining it with supporting the Moms Unit Shopping Guide. I was up at 2:00 this morning with the baby crying for another bottle, and my thoughts turned to my blog. And then I started thinking of food (stupid diet). And then I started thinking of pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread...And then I wondered what everyone else's favorite pumkin recipes are. So, here we are...the fruit of my sleep deprived hunger induced state at 2:00 in the morning...my first blog giveaway!

The prize is coming from the Cheeky Maiden Soap Company. I have always loved handmade soaps! They are great for your skin and do more for my complexion than any store-bought liquid magic has ever done. I also love that they are all natural and you skip all of the added chemicals you find in today's body washes.

I browsed through their website and found all sorts of great products. Here are just a few...

Pure soaps made with pure Olive, Palm, Avocado, Castor and Coconut oils

The Selah Salt Bar

all-natural lip balms

handmade washcloths

The prize will be a selection of 4 soaps (choose from Harmonie, Selah Salt Bar, Coffee Kitchen, Energizing, Oatmeal Lavender, and Hummingbird) , a chocolate hombre washcloth, and a Balmy Obsession lip balm.

Here's how to enter. On the comment form, tell me what your favorite pumpkin recipe is! Don't like pumpkin? No problem! That counts, too! A winner will be randomly chosed on Saturday, November 15th!

Thanks for playing along!