Once again, I run into an Oklahoman that has no pride in where they live. Our patio set was delivered today. After a bit of small talk, the young Delivery Man, (in not so many words) declared I was an idiot for moving here.
This may sound really funny to many of you. Heck over a year ago I might have agreed! We all know the stereotypes that exist regarding certain places. You know… Texans are all hicks, Californians are dumb blondes, Louisianan’s are red neck hillbillies, Utahans’ are polygamists…you know you’ve heard them before. Yet, there’s a problem when you LIVE in a State and believe your own stereotype.
We moved here from
It seriously pisses me off when I’m asked why we moved to “
I tried explaining the differences. I went back into my house with a smile on my face. He walked to his truck scratching his head. I don’t get it, and I probably never will.
Okay, not too long ago I posted about my "Tween".
Boy #1 is 11 years old and quite the ladies man... Read my first post HERE
Well, I found another note today from his latest lil' sweetheart. It seems the family is expanding. Take a look!! I'm sooooooo not ready for this.
I know, I know. I've been neglecting my blog. Along with Spring came many "projects". Our to-do list is a mile long. I've been out shoveling dirt, assembling a trampoline, digging holes, planting shrubs, tearing up tile.... you get the idea. I'm beat, but I also feel a certain satisfaction when I look at all we've accomplished this week!! Gotta love that part.
Not too long ago our family took a trip down to Dallas,Tx. to visit The Princess's Biological Grandparents. It was going to be a short trip, but we intended to stay overnight. Knowing nothing of the area, I had to rely on the internet to find a good Hotel. What did people do before the internet?? I mean, I can’t even use the phonebook anymore. It’s so difficult to find anything in that big ‘ole yellow book. With the internet, I just sit down and type in what I’m looking for- viola I’ve got answers!
In our search for the perfect Hotel, I found that there are many sites that help you find Hotels. Some are better than others. The site I found, Hotel Reservations is excellent and all you’ll ever need. They have great pictures so that I could see the hotel inside and out. (One of my top priorities), they were clear on what the amenities were. They even have popular area attractions listed and their distance from the Hotel. This is uber cool when you have no clue where the closest shopping mall is. Prices, are of course competitive. You can also book flights and rent cars.
The best part? They have a phone number at the top of every page for you to call if you need help, or if you just want to book online. Don’t you hate it when you are trying to purchase something online and you come up with questions, but contacting a real person to help you is next to impossible? Some sites even seem to HIDE their phone numbers. Is it just me or is that totally annoying?
Anyway, I've been looking online at prices to fly our whole family to Denver. (6 of us!) We will have to go back there to finalize this Adoption. I hate to think about leaving the boys out, but financially it might not be possible for them to go with us. I checked out the prices at:
...and it's not going to be as bad as I thought! Now we just have to wait for a Court Date and we're good to go. (I'm soooo tired of waiting, I just want it over already!!!)
Tween: The age in between child and teen.
Boy #1 is 11 years old going on 25. At Parent-Teacher conferences, his Teacher reffered to him as the ladies man. YIKES! Okay, to be honest we already knew that. Come 4pm after school everyday the phone starts ringing. It doesn't stop ringing until nearly 9pm! Not just 1 girl, but 4-5 girls on average. It's not unusual for him to be talking to several at a time. (via 3-way calling)
OIY!!
Today, laying on the counter was a little note wrapped up into a tiny package. It was out in plain view so it's not like I was snooping through his things. It's so cute, I just have to share with you...
From: Carissa!
Roses are Red violets are Blue I'm In Love with you!
Then there's a little picture drawn.
"This is us in the future"
A girl, a boy and a small child labeled Mashell.
THEY ARE NAMING THIER CHILDREN AT 11 YEARS OLD!!!
When is it not innocent anymore? Will I know?? I am soooo not ready for the teen years.
It occurred to me that among all of the pictures I constantly show of The Princess, I rarely share pictures of my boys. Why? Well because I don’t have many recent shots of the boys! Even with all the Easter Pictures I took, 99.9% of them were of The Princess. I feel guilty about it! I hope the boys don’t feel less of themselves because their mom is busy snapping pictures of their sister.
It’s been weighing heavy on my mind lately and I do make a conscious effort to take pictures of them…but they are boring or they come out silly. In fact, most of the pictures turn out just like this one...what a goof!
I'm so excited to add, I'll finally be getting a better camera. YAY! I can't wait.
We have an animal in the house. It's large, cold and mean. It eats large socks in one gulp!!! Yes, you heard me right, it eats socks. What kind of Animal do you say? Well, my Dyson vacuum. Can you believe it ate an entire sock? I was cleaning, minding my own business and suddenly out of no where it pulled a sock out from under the couch. Before I could turn it off, it had sucked the sock right up. You'd think it would have gotten stuck in the pipes somewhere right? It didn't. In fact, by the time I turned the vacuum off, the socked was already inside the canister. I stood there speechless. Oh, and we're not talking about a little itty bitty baby sock, noooooo. We're talking about my 11yr old's, size 4 sock!! Things like this just don't happen.
So, anyone who's considering one of those really expensive Dyson vacuumes, I can tell you they are G-O-O-D. I have my husband to thank. Strange as it is, he was the one pushing for the Dyson. I didn't want to spend the money on it. I'm so glad we did though!! So, if you ever come to visit me, watch out. The Animal can be dangerous. Who needs a security system when you have a Dyson?
See them here
So, our house is on an acre of land. It's a lot of grass to mow and last summer we used a regular lawn mower to do it. OIY! This year, that's NOT happening. We decided to go with a ride on mower, so I put an ad on craigslist and sold our 9 month old regular lawnmower. (I tend to do things without thinking them through) Of course the mower sold right away. Hmmm, the grass is getting longer and longer. We still haven't purchased a new mower. I just know our neighbors hate us and think we're trying to grow a forest by now. After seeing an ad in the classifieds for yard work I decided to call and get a quote. WOW! Just $55 to mow, edge and trim our entire lot!? (I had imagined it would be upwards of $100) I jumped on it and scheduled an appointment.
Yesterday the man came. He mowed, trimed and edged our entire lot. He's a saint! I sat in my kitchen and watched, breaking no sweat, getting no sunburn, didn't sneeze once! ...I was in heaven and so was my un-handy husband.
Quite frankly, I don't think we'll be purchasing a lawn mower this year. I kind of like having a lawn-man come and do the work for me! Never, in a million years would I have ever imagined myself saying that. Imagine the things my mother would say if only she knew!
Pampers Baby Dry?
We’re a Pampers ‘Cruisers’ family. I love how they stretch, even Huggies “stretchiest” diapers can’t compare.
I was watching my 5 month old niece yesterday and noticed that her Pampers ‘Baby Dry’ diapers now stretch too!! In fact, besides the color of them, they are extremely comparable with their more expensive counterparts.
The Princess traded a diaper (Clean of course!) with her cousin so we could do a test run. She’s happy, I’m happy, the checkbook will be happy… I think it’s time to become a ‘Baby Dry’ family.
Many people don’t understand what it is, and what it’s for. Especially when it’s for a small child. I thought it might be fun to go over what The Princess does in OT each week.
Occupational Therapy: “The use of adaptive, work, and play activities to increase independent function, enhance development, and prevent disability; the task or the environment may be adapted to achieve maximum independence and to enhance the quality of life.”
Let’s start with Tactile Processing. The tactile system interprets touch and the perception of touch. In some children, tactile processing is “off”. The touch, or feeling of certain everyday objects can be very uncomfortable (like sand for instance) while very painful situations (like ripping a fingernail off) are not painful at all. When tactile processing isn’t working quite right it can inhibit a child to develop properly.
Today we’ll talk about Hands. The Princess has very weak hands. This is thought to be because she avoids texture. Rough objects or sticky foods for example. Touching sand is excruciating for her.
In OT we work to strengthen her hands. Her therapist will put little objects inside a ball of play dough. She has to pull the play dough apart and get all of the objects out. Play dough toys are excellent as well. Pulling and pushing the dough through the holes, squeezing the apparatus that creates play dough “hair”. Rolling, cutting, pounding play dough… it’s all fun! We also play with pop beads. Pulling them apart and pushing them together. Squeezing and pulling are some of the best ways we can strengthen her hand muscles.
See? These are typically things we don’t even think about!
We also work on tactile defensiveness. Because The Princess avoids texture, we have to encourage her to get her hands dirty! We play with large buckets of dry rice, beans or pasta. Immersing her hands into the material. Digging, pouring, burying… all to help her get used to the sensation. We don’t want her to avoid touching or the muscles in her hands will continue to be weak. Weak hands= difficultly using pencils in school. If we don’t strengthen her hands now, once she gets into school, writing will be very difficult for her.
We’ve made great progress! Rice and Beans are a-okay with The Princess now. She has no problem sticking her hand down into the mixture. Pasta is still a bit too much. We will eventually address the sand. It’s very uncomfortable for her, perhaps even painful. Now that summer is coming, it’s something we’ll need to address.
Tomorrow I will talk about Tactile Processing and it’s relation to foods. Eating has been an issue for The Princess since she was a newborn.
There's just something about cousins that's special. The Princess has several cousins, but she absolutely adores this one. She's going to be an excellent mommy someday!
Have you ever wanted something so bad you could taste it?? I'm watching an outfit that I ran across on ebay. It's made by Jen Jen, sold by Babystyle and extremely hard to find! I was just outbid and there's not much time left. I have to decide how much I'm willing to spend on this....it's just so cute and hip!! Check it out here.
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