Grits

I had a couple of really good ideas in my mind for some things I wanted to blog about, but I forgot what they were, and we were without internet for a few days, but are up and running again thanks to Steve's Uncle Mike! Anyways, Saturday I got to hang out with my cousin Michael for a couple of hours because he was in town for a state track meet. He was up from Vegas, and it was snowing when he had to run. I'm sure that was not very much fun for him, but I enjoyed chatting with him before he goes off to the Air Force Academy, I haven't seen him for 3 years, and that was only for a couple of minutes. But for breakfast that morning Simon and I had grits. Does anybody know how to make grits taste good? I tried adding sugar, and strawberries, and butter, but it just wasn't doing the job for me. Was I just not adding enough?
Oh and in other news, I have stooped to all new low in girlyness. I read my first Nicholas Sparks novel, I had seen a few of the movies based on his books but never actually read one. So yesterday I read Dear John. I started on it at work and read the first two hours while I was the greeter and read for 30 more minutes during my breaks, and decided to finish it up at bedtime. I stayed up until 2:17 reading. So much for that becoming a morning person thing. Maybe next week. But I really enjoyed the book, and I am such a sucker I cried my eyes out the whole last half. There is no way I could have read that in front of anyone, it would have been incredibly embarrassing, there were tears streaming down my face. Luckily, not even Steve saw me because he was asleep, but I am sure he heard me sobbing and sniffling.
Anyways, time to get Simon ready for bed so Steve and I can finally watch the movie we rented last week, I'm not too excited for it, but Steve has been wanting it so I rented it for him. We are going to watch the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. It has Heath Ledger in it and a bunch of other stars. It looks weird to me, but we will see how it is... Love you all lots!

mornings

I have decided I need to become a morning person. Maybe I will do it next week.

I've realized that it is much easier to get stuff done when Simon is asleep, but if I wait til he goes to bed at night, I am too tired and don't feel like doing anything but vegging out. But if I wake up say an hour earlier in the morning, I can do dishes and make lunches and whatnot before he even wakes up. I still get as much sleep, but I get more accomplished around the house. It only took me a year and a half to figure this out... Now if I can just get motivated enough to actually do it, I am such a night owl, and have always hated mornings, so this is going to be very difficult for me. I am thinking that if I get my balcony all comfy and decorated like I want to, maybe I can sit out there in the morning for a few minutes eating some fruit for breakfast and just have a few minutes to enjoy being outside. It is an idyllic scene in my mind, the hard part is just implementing it. For someone who loves nature and being outside, I really hate it when the sun comes peeping through the curtains in the mornings and I can hear the birds singing outside. It makes me angry, like they are spoiling my sleep, when in reality I should be like Cinderella when she wakes up in the morning, so happy to hear the little birds singing, and then they can help me make my bed and do all my chores and life will be just like a little fairy tale, that is in until the wicked stepsisters arrive in the scene, the stepsisters being reality.
I can't wait until the day comes when I can be a stay-at-home mom and can focus on the things that really matter in life- my family. I enjoy my job, but it isn't meaningful and I feel it is just something that I do so our family can survive, but I feel like we aren't always thriving. Don't get me wrong, we are doing pretty dang good considering our (and by our I mean Steve's) hectic schedules, but I just know that it isn't as good as it can be, and I can't wait until the day when I can really focus on nurturing my family the way they deserve to be nurtured. Although when that is happening, if things go according to plan, our family will be one member bigger when it does happen. And no, I am not pregnant, and won't be this year, no worries there. Anyone else notice how everyone and their sister is pregnant right now!? I would say everyone and their mom, but I think it would be really weird to be pregnant at the same time as your mom- too weird- so I said sister instead.
Anyways, that was quite the interesting ramble. I hope you enjoyed it, totally unedited, from my mind right onto the keyboard... So yeah, I need to become a morning person, wish me luck- next Monday I will start, and if you run into me and I am grouchy, I apologize, I really hate mornings and it normally takes me a good hour or two at work before I am ready to talk to people.
On a blog-related note, check out this article from Reader's Digest.

Oh and by the way, I can wait to see the new Twilight movie next month!!

fabric and internship!

this pink one reminds me of Arielle
perfect for me and steve!

I can't remember who all of these are, but I like them! I just decided I am going to make a facebook album of fabric I like!

Michael Miller patterns below!

this would make a cute apron for baking in!

cute for backing on a boys quilt!

another cute apron one!

i love owls, love love love them!

I have decided that some day I would really like to sew. I actually have a sewing machine down in our basement that Steve brought home for me. His client is getting rid of some of her stuff, so we are inheriting some cool stuff from her including some cool cookbooks, and now this sewing machine built into a table. So I have decided that some day I am going to sew and will start a cute fabric collection similar to my cute scrapbooking paper collection. I was looking on fabric.com and finding some cute fabric patterns/designers that I really like, so I have decided to blog about it and post some pictures of some of the ones I REALLY like, and can just dream of making the cutest quilts out of. I may just be a quilter in the future (not sure about clothes unless I have a daughter then I will make dresses maybe), quilts and aprons- I am addicted to aprons- not sure I will make much else, but those two things for sure!

So far (from my 30 minutes of searching) Michael Miller is a favorite, Moda, and Robert Kaufman are on the top of my list. I love cute retro modern patterns!

sorry all the pictures on the top, I still can't figure out blogger, I guess I need to put pictures in first and then do my typing, because I can't even cut and paste these words to put them at the top. GRRR! Anyways, I am sure not too many of you care about fabric so I am going to stop posting pictures of a million different patterns. I am so excited to one day have a little bit of time to learn how to sew. Oh and something that deserves its own post, but I am out of time to do that...

STEVE GOT THE POSITION AT THE VA HOSPITAL!! He just got accepted as an intern at the hospital for their Valor Program. It is a paid internship, 200 hours, and he acts as a nurse from the start, and they told him that they want him when he is done with school! He already has a job and he doesn't even graduate until December!! I am so excited, and this is such a blessing for our family. It is definitely going to come with a lot of trials and stress because it adds 20 hours a week to Steve's already very busy school schedule and 8 hours at his other job, but we have to keep telling ourselves it will be worth it. Like my friend Tiffani told me the other day- we need to ask God for a stronger back not lighter burdens. This will be tough for us and very stressful, so I am definitely going to have to pick up a lot more of the work and make sure I take care of my family and husband especially during this stressful but crucial stage of our life. Congrats to Steve on his hardwork and good grades that made it possible for him to get this internship, oh and did I mention it's a paid internship!! This is so awesome for him, he really wants to work at the VA and take care of our Vets and he also wants to work with seniors which will be great in our area, we have a lot of homeless vets who end up in the va hospital needing care, and Steve is just the guy for the job. He is also on the Student Nursing board as the Community Outreach Director. He has been taking care of the Ronald McDonald house once a month, and has recently expanded the program and volunteer work to cook meals for people staying at the Veterans Guest home. He is an awesome man that husband of mine!

Vaccinations/autism

I am really starting to realize that I am a HUGE believer in childhood vaccinations. I mentioned a few posts ago that a large part of it is Simon and the Rotavirus. While doing some personal research on vaccinations and autism I came across this article that I read back in January at my sisters house. It is from Wired magazine, and is a very interesting, informative article. I believe in getting your child vaccinated, I believe in the Rotavirus vaccine, I wish I had known about it a year and a half ago, and I do not believe that autism and vaccinations are related. If anyone can come up with some good scientific research to the contrary, I would love to read it. I am thinking that in the future this is a cause I would really like to get more involved with and would like to be able to spread the word about vaccinations and stop some of the damaging hype/hysteria about autism and vaccines caused by paranoid people who just haven't done research and are basing their opinions on what other paranoid people think instead of scientific research and data. That's my short rant for tonight. To be continued some other time...
If there are any readers who do believe the autism/vaccine link, I would really be curious to know what kind of evidence or information you base your belief on, seriously, this isn't just an attempt to bash, I am very curious to know why people believe what they do. If it's just because Jenny McCarthy said so, or because so-and-so thinks so because their kid got a shot and then started acting weird, or if there is more to it than that.

There are two new posts below so read them both!

my free time

Sorry for new posts in a long time, I have been spending most of my free time either playing with Simon (he is so incredibly fun and the most beautiful boy ever) or painting! I have been painting a lot and loving it. I did one for Simon's room (see it below) a series of three abstracts, then I started one for a coworker but decided I like it and am keeping it for myself, and now a series of two or three huge abstracts for our living room wall (2 or 3 depending on how big they look on our wall and if I run out of inspiration after just 2). The one for Simon's room I used 2 different size cars, a monster truck with nice tread on the tires and matchbox car with tread on the tires (surprisingly hard to find, most of them have flat wheels). I dipped the wheels in paint and drove them all over the boards. This one took for freaking ever because the type of paint I was using took a long time to dry and the tires had to be redipped almost constantly. But it was fun to do, I like the way they turned out, and I like how they look on Simon's wall.
I have also been on a home decorating kick as of late thanks to our recent cable acquisition and a few HGTV shows for free OnDemand. I bought some new bright +-orange throw pillows, and orange picture frame and orange flowers to put in the cool red vase I got from my sister Heather for Christmas two year ago, and an area rug that is brown with green leaves. The living room canvas I have started on is a mostly red textured background and I am going to put a green leafy pattern on it, the next canvas will probably be blue, and the third one... I'm not sure yet...but all have leafy patterns on them.

Talk to you soon! or not, I might just be having too much fun in the real world to spend my time online.
Updates on Simon: I hate my pediatrician, Simon is a tiny boy but I think he has awesome mechanical skills, he is a terrific climber, is incredibly affectionate and cuddly, is a total night owl (he's awake right now playing in the living room) and just is so much fun. He throws balls back and forth, plays fetch (like a dog he picks up the ball puts it in his mouth and carries it to us, we didn't teach him to do it, I think maybe he learned from Eliza-liz), he says UH-oh,dada, mama (sometimes) ouch, bird, ball, boo, hot, no (but only repeats it doesn't use it on his own.. yet), and other words I can't think of right now. Oh and did I say he is a good climber? Really good. like time to bolt furniture down to the ground, climbs on top of everything, can get on the couch even though it's taller than him (he lifts one lg up above his head puts it on the couch and then shimmies himself up onto the couch, it is amazing because he is so short. Anyways, I really need to get him to bed and he is hitting a 3 inch bell around the floor with his stick horse and it is really loud and starting to get annoying...

Love you all!

this one also has a car on it, but simon ripped it off the painting right before we hung them up and so I had to glue it back on after we took the pictures.

sick, sick, sick

Simon was sick again. We are pretty sure it was Rotavirus again. Same symptoms. I stayed home with him Thursday because he had vomiting and diarrhea. Friday morning I woke up and threw up the previous nights dinner and also had vomiting and diarrhea all day long. Saturday we all slept in until noon. Woke up, I was feeling mostly better, just needed to eat, and Simon was doing better until about 4 when the diarrhea started up again. Sunday he has been good. It was not fun at all and Simon puked all over the new area rug I had just bought for our living room and so now it smells like vomit, so we are going to have to get it cleaned. Bummer. We are all doing better, mostly, Simon hasn't had much of an appetite today, but hasn't been puking and his BM are starting to firm up.
I really wish we had gotten the rotavirus vaccine when he was born, it would have saved us a lot of grief and worry and money. I didn't even realize there was a rotavirus vaccine until I was at my sisters back in January and read an article about it in a magazine that they had. I was pretty bitter because Simon's miserable and almost deathly experience with it back on Halloween night oculd hav prevented with a simple vaccine. Luckily we didn't have to take him to the hospital this time, just kept filling him up with Pedialyte and tried our hardest to keep it under control and keep enough fluids in him that we didn't have to go to the hopsital. Oh and it helps that with each time a kid gets it their immunity builds up a little more each time, so maybe by the time he is 5 he won't be symptomatic anymore. Let's hope.
Anyways, I really wish we had known about this vaccine when Simon was born and that he had gotten vaccinated for it. The AAP recommends it and there is a lot of helpful info about it on the CDC website. If you are wary about vaccines, don't be afraid of this one, there is also a link to the scientific research study on the vaccine that should ease any vaccine-related fears you may have for this one in particular. Our next kid is definitely getting the Rotavirus vaccine.
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/rotavirus/default.htm