Instagram Update

 The girls playing "car" in a box - Fish for dinner

 Beach day - Settlers of Catan

 Ellie - Warm pj's

 Eating fried dough at Oktoberfest - New bed pillows

 Skinned knees - running errands

 Sweaty Ellie - Abby in the hospital

 X-rays for Abby - Jared's Halloween costume (Guitar Hero)

 Happy Birthday, Rylan - Trick or Treat

 Garrett's pumpkin - Preschool co-op

 Busy bag swap - UF Homecoming Parade

 Saturday morning cereal - Chilling with Garrett

 Ellie dancing - Nature walk

 Abby draws Ellie - Ellie wears Abby's "Tangled" wig

 11.11.11 at 11:11 - Building something at Lowe's

We've finally started working on the third bedroom.  Walls painted, shelves built... it's a start!

Whew.  Life has been busy lately.  The weather has been gorgeous so we've been spending extra time outside.  It's actually a little hot today - 85 - but last week it hovered around the 70s, which called for daily picnics in the backyard and playing for hours on the swings and play house, as well as visiting various parks with friends.  Now I can see the draw for living in Florida.  It's been so nice - it's just too bad that the days are shorter now.  It was even cold last week during the night.  Garrett even turned on his side of the heated mattress pad for a few nights.  This is definitely my kind of weather. 

I feel like I've blogged about all the "major" things that have been going on lately.  It's just the minor things that keep us busy every day and there's not much to say about them.  The girls and I wake up around 7:30, we eat breakfast together.  I work out while they play, then they watch a short show on Netflix while I shower & get dressed.  Then we do some chores, play outside or read books, or go to a park with friends until lunch.  Lunch, then quiet time, then more playing, book-reading, park-going, etc. until dinner.  Some days are full of errands, but that's the general flow to our day.  I love it, and I'm definitely trying to enjoy it as much as I can until Abby starts school next year.  I am trying to take full advantage of the freedom that comes with having no kids in school!

We made a paper chain to count down the days until we go to Savannah for Thanksgiving... according to the chain, only 8 more nights.  Since Garrett has to work on Thanksgiving and Friday, I am planning to go to Savannah on Tuesday evening.  The girls are so excited to go, and I'm excited for the getaway too.  Garrett will be joining us on Friday night (or Saturday morning), so thankfully we won't be without him the whole time.  We are even staying a few extra days after the weekend is over, so that his trip there wouldn't be too short.

That's pretty much all that's happening here!  Oh, and I would like to find a good Christmas book to read in December - preferably something that's focused on the Savior.  Recommendations?

Busy Bag Extravaganza

A couple months ago I was perusing Pinterest and came across an idea that I knew I wanted to try right away. It was the idea of making "Busy Bags" for my kids.. basically, small activities that are kept in gallon-sized freezer bags.  They are ready to "grab and go" whenever we are heading out the door to a place where my kids need to be quiet (and still) for a period of time.  They are perfect for Church, waiting rooms, etc.  Some activities are even good for car rides, too.

(Let me just insert here that I really love Pinterest because it has given me so many great ideas.  Recipe ideas, project ideas, decorating ideas, gift ideas... the list is endless.  And I have actually been doing many of the things I've pinned, so I consider it successful in that way.  I also dislike Pinterest, because now I feel like everything I see in peoples' houses, I think "oh yeah I saw that on Pinterest".  Nothing is "new" anymore.  Oh well.  I love it more than I hate it, so I'm going to keep using it.  You can see my boards here.)

Anyway.  The busy bags.  A great idea, I knew I had to do it.  However, I really hate going out and buying tons of little things to make tons of little activity bags, because I'm always left with lots of extra materials that I will probably never use.  And then, I saw a blog post about a Busy Bag Swap, and I knew it was the solution to my problem.  Basically, you gather a group of friends together and each person chooses which busy bag they want to create.  Then, you make your busy bag X number of times (one for each person in your group), and then you all get together and "swap" your busy bags, so everyone has one of each.

So, in early September I sent out an email to the girls in my ward to see who wanted to participate.   I wanted to get at least a dozen people to do it, because I wanted at least that many busy bags.  I really don't know how many people I originally invited, but about 2/3 of them responded that they were interested.  Final head count? 27 people!

We toyed with the idea of breaking into two groups, but in the end people said they didn't mind making 27 bags, and getting 27 bags in return.  I think that looking back, a lot of them would have changed their minds about that one, but it's done now!  I worked on mine a lot during General Conference and movie nights with Garrett.  It didn't take too much time, and I probably spent about $30-$35 total.

So, last Thursday we had our "Busy Bag Swap", where we got together and showed off what we had made, and handed out our bags to everyone.  It was a lot of fun seeing what everyone had created, and it was even more fun going home with more than 25 little activities for my kids!  There are activities for learning colors, numbers, letters, shapes, fine motor skills, counting, puzzles, memory games, go fish games, tic tac toe, a lacing activity, games with magnets, games with beads and tiny pom poms and buttons and pipe cleaners and foam shapes.... so many to choose from.  You can see many of the activities in the Busy Bag link above, and we also had several more that people found other places online.

It was a really fun night (we were missing a handful of people, but we knew there was no way we could get all of us together at once.  Everyone's husband has such a crazy schedule, we just take what we can get).  We still had a good turnout (picture above), and it was fun to have a little "girls' night".  Usually when any of us are together we are chasing our kids around at the park or the pool, so it was nice to just sit and have adult conversations for a few hours.

"101" Update

As you know, I'm working on doing 101 things in 1001 days.  You can see the full list here.  I'm also going to start putting the ones I'm working on in red so that I don't forget to work on them!

Here are the things I'm currently working on/planning:

1. Establish a better flossing routine

This is coming along.  I'm certainly flossing more than I used to!  At what point is it a habit? I guess it will be a habit when I just start doing it without thinking about it.  I'm give myself a couple more weeks of doing this before I say it's "complete".

4. Plan something awesome for Garrett's 30th birthday (June 2012)

Definitely thinking about this!  It turns out that Garrett cannot EVER take time off during the months of April, May, June, or July (unless he asks like a year in advance, and still then probably not).  So, I am hoping to plan something in February or March... maybe an extra long weekend away.  My mother-in-law has agreed to watch the kids.  I'm keeping my eyes open for some good vacation deals.  A short cruise or something like that would be fun, but we'll see.

19. Have a fondue night

One of my friends and I have talked about doing this together soon, probably in December sometime.

24. Create a will with Garrett

A couple weeks ago, I attended a class about creating wills, and it turns out that it's pretty easy to create a will here in Florida.  Since we don't have any real assets, it's even easier for us... all we really have to do is state who we want our kids' guardians to be if something happens to us.  We are still discussing this but hopefully we'll have something figured out soon.  We just need to write everything down, get a couple witnesses to sign, and have it notarized.  This will be done by the end of the year!

34. Host book club

I'm hosting next Thursday night!  I chose "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand.  Great book.

38. Teach Abby to read

We are currently working on this.... she's doing great so far!

49. Have 6 months of expenses saved up in our emergency fund

A chunk of each paycheck is moved automatically into our online savings account.  We are about 2/3 of the way there.

57. Learn to make bread as good as my mom's

When my mom was here in September, she showed me again how she makes it.  I have made it twice since she was here and it turned out great!  Just in case it was a fluke, though, I'm going to make it one more time just to be sure.  Then I'll mark it as "done"!

73. Go to a farmer's market

I did this with my mom in September!  Bought a gallon of really good honey.  Blogged about it here.

77. Figure out how/where to store all my #10 cans of food (food storage)

I bought some 7" risers for our bed, and stuck all my food under there.  Blogged about it on the food storage blog here.

82. Plan (& execute!) something great for my parents' 30th anniversary, hopefully with all my siblings (it's in March 2012)

Working on it!  I am hoping we can all get together at the farm late next summer (when Garrett is "allowed" to take vacation again).  Yes, the anniversary is in March but that's tough because of school, plus my sister-in-law is having twins around that time.  So, we aren't planning anything "big", just a reunion where we will all just be together and spend time with each other.  And hopefully play Catchphrase, ride on tractors and 4-wheelers, shoot guns, do 1000-piece puzzles, talk a lot... the usual.

99. Have ten quilts in my etsy shop

Working on it... I have 6 in there right now.  Of course, having 10 at once is probably not that great of a goal since that would mean the quilts aren't selling, haha.  

Selling things on etsy is really tough for me because I hate pricing things.  Of course, if I priced things how I think they should be priced, no one would ever buy them. :)  Quilts are pretty pricey to make, especially when you are somewhat of a fabric snob like I am.  Plus I only use the nicest batting, since that's what I like to work with and that's what I like in my own quilts.  I also don't want to sell my quilts too low, because I do think they are worth something and I put a lot of effort and time into each one.  So, I will just be patient and let them sell at their own pace. :)

(I also recently got commissioned to make a quilt, which I am SOO excited (and nervous!) about.  It's my first "commission" project and it should be a lot of fun.  Right now we're in the process of finding fabrics which is always exciting.  I won't really start until after the holidays are done but it's always fun to start looking and planning the design, etc.)

Well, that's my update!  Looks like I should have a lot of things crossed off by the end of the year.  There are also a couple things on my list that I might switch out with something else, just because the things I wrote down I'm not really caring about anymore (like painting my dresser.  It's in my closet.  No one sees it except for me.  I don't care what it looks like, and I don't really feel like spending money on a project I don't care about).  So, I'll probably think of something else to take it's place on the list. We'll see.

Hospital, Take 2

iPad to the rescue!

I'm a pretty overprotective mom when it comes to my kids' health, especially Abby's.  I know I know, it's "good" for kids to be exposed to germs so they can become better immune to them.  I do believe that and I don't mind regular colds/sniffles (I despise throwing-up sick, but who doesn't?).  I will NOT bring my kids to nursery or primary at Church if they are sick in any way, though (runny nose, cough, etc) because I really hate when other parents do that.

Like I said, I don't mind the sniffles or a cold, but last time Abby got a bad cold, she wound up not being able to breathe and landed a 2.5 day stay in the hospital with what we assumed was pneumonia.  She has also gotten pretty bad on previous occasions with a cold, but that was the first time she wound up being hospitalized.  So, I'm pretty wary of coughing kids now, too.

Sure enough, on Tuesday afternoon Abby started breathing a bit heavily (I saw one of her friends coughing in Abby's face on Sunday and just knew it was bad news for the week).  I gave her a breathing treatment right away, trying to stay on top of it, and we gave her treatments every 4 hours through the night.  Wednesday morning we headed to the doctor's office, where they said because of her breathing problems that day, and because of her similar symptoms last July, she probably has asthma, a kind that is flared by upper-respiratory infections.  It makes sense to me.  But, the official name of the diagnosis is not what worries me.  What worries me is that every time Abby gets a cold, she could easily wind up in the hospital!  Sure enough, later that night Garrett drove Abby to the pediatric ER, where they admitted her as a patient and they spent the night.  I took over around noon Thursday so Garrett could come home and get some sleep, and thankfully I was able to bring her home that evening (less than 24 hours there, thankfully).  On Friday she had a follow-up appointment where her doctor gave us a daily prescription for her asthma, and she also got a chest x-ray to be sure there wasn't any lingering pneumonia.  Thankfully, Garrett was able to pull up her x-ray at work and talk to his attending about it almost immediately, so we got our results pretty quickly.

So, that was our life last week.  It was rough.  Like I've said before on this blog, I consider myself to be extremely incompetent as a mom of a sick child.  I freak out and my emotions get way too crazy to deal with anything, so it gets left up to Garrett.  Of course, I can give medications on a schedule, and I can comfort my sick children, but I feel extremely inadequate to deal with the stress of it all (which is really strange because I rarely get stressed out about anything else, I consider myself to be pretty low-key).  Outwardly, no one would probably guess how I feel (I'm not actually freaking out), and I can even hide it from Garrett pretty well I think, but on the inside I'm a mess and I want to run away and put my head in the sand and avoid it all.

So, I officially have a kid with asthma, which is totally new territory for me.  It's stressful, but I'm happy to have a diagnosis and a medication that will hopefully stave off any more hospital stays.  I have been dreading winter for that very reason (upper respiratory infections), but now I can rest a bit easy knowing (hoping) that all will be okay with this medication.  I will say, though, that giving a daily medication (breathing treatment) twice daily is going to take some getting used to.

The blessings:

- Friends at the hospital.  When Garrett took Abby to the ER, they were there for several hours before being admitted into the children's ward.  At 2 a.m., our good friend from Newport News (here doing his residency as well) just happened to be walking through the ER and heard Abby's name mentioned.  He immediately found Abby and Garrett and stopped to say hello and see how they were doing.  It's always nice to see friendly faces at the hospital.

-Nurse friends.  I was having problems scheduling Abby's follow-up appointment, but thankfully our friend's wife (see above note) works as a nurse who actually schedules those appointments!  She was able to get us in with no problems.

-Good pharmacists.  We have a $40 copay with our health insurance, so I was expecting to pay $40 per month for Abby's medication.  However, our doctor had written our prescription with 6 refills, and the pharmacist told us that we could get 3 months filled at one time, with one copay.  So, instead of paying $480 per year, we'll only have to pay $160.  Such a blessing.  I was also able to pay one $40 copay for two refills of her inhaler for emergencies.

-Modern medicine, obviously.

-And, of course the blessing of having good health insurance.  Hospital stays would be a million times more stressful without it.

There are always silver linings, and sometimes you don't even have to look very hard for them.

The great pumpkins

Every year, Garrett carves a fabulous pumpkin.  During medical school people used to tell him he should become a surgeon.

This year, we have been so busy that Garrett almost skipped out.  He did buy a pumpkin, and started carving it a few nights ago, but the shell was so hard that it broke his pumpkin-carving tools.  So, he gave up and we went on with life.  Then, my dad asked where this year's pumpkin was.... so last night on his way home from work, Garrett stopped at the store and bought new tools.  He had to finish his pumpkin... you know, to appease the masses.

Anyway, here are the pumpkins throughout the years:

2006 (it's called "Flesh Feast"):


2007:


2008 (two pumpkins this year):

2009:


2010:


And, this year's offering:

Garrett, the pumpkin-carving pro.

Now if only he could use his talents to build me some furniture....

Trick or Treat

Abby has been talking for months about being Rapunzel for Halloween.  We love the movie Tangled, so I was more than happy to oblige her request.

I'm not really one to go out and buy Halloween costumes, however.  All the Tangled costumes I saw were at least $30, though, and I wasn't about to spend that.  I'm also not really one to spend hours and hours sewing a Halloween costume.

My frugal side won out.  I did some research online about making princess dresses, made a trip to Joann's, and went to work.  All in all, I think I did a pretty good job for my first attempt, and it was actually kind of fun to do.  The silky fabric was not very fun to work with, but that's my only real complaint.  From far away, the dress looks pretty perfect!

Abby told me she "loves it" after I was finished, which of course made it all worth it!  It took me about 2 days to make it (off and on, of course), and I was thankful that Ellie is still young enough that I can just tell her what to wear and she's fine.  She wore her ballerina tutu and was happy as can be.

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!  We got way too much candy and my self-control is quickly deteriorating.  Thankfully, my kids mostly got suckers, Skittles, and other gross candy like that, so there isn't too much left for me to choose from (the Reese's Pieces and Milk Duds were gone in the flash, though.  I could eat those forever.)

I am loving the ages of my kids right now.  I love that they are understanding and enjoying holidays, and that we are starting some fun traditions as a family.  Halloween was kind of fun this year (!!) because I saw how much my kids were enjoying it.  I love this chapter of my life - little kids are awesome.