Trying New Stuff or Making a Bigger Effort

In an effort to try to post more often, and to make more of an effort to stay in touch with friends overall, I am trying out new apps to make things easier. This is a free blogging app on my iPod...so we're going to see how it goes...

Most Mondays are Manic!

Or at least it seems to be so recently. I'm on vacation this week, so I have a few minutes to post, provided Alexander lets me!

So, we got a little snow...

Xander is a really big helper.

Inside for (decaf) tea and homemade chocolate chip cookies

Playing with new Thomas toys

Cleaning up with the new baby vacuum

And doing some daring acts involving falling off the sit and spin....wheeeeee!

A big thanks to Sarah at Mommy Elephants Everyday Adventures for hosting:

Manic Monday, November 22

Woo-hoo! It's another Manic Monday...thanks to Sarah over at Mommy Elephant's Everyday Adventures for the ever brilliant:

Watching the Street sippin' on Trader Joe's Vanilla yogurt with mango baby food mixed in. Yummers!

Wearing new shoes to work! Chris bought them for me yesterday...I love the stripes.

Finally home from work, snuggling on the couch, listening to The Wiggles.

Apparently, Alexander was cooking chicken nuggets and green beans...I just don't see it!

His face is out of focus, because he was trying to left up his foot to show off his awesome new sneakers. Vans for toddlers...who knew?

Manic Monday, November 15th

Before I post my Manic Monday pictures, I have to give a big thanks to Sarah over at Mommy Elephant's Everyday Adventure for hosting

All right then, now to the pictures!

Alexander has figured out that he can move the folded step ladder over to the counter by himself. He can almost set the thing up, too. It makes it easy to have him wash his hands, but forget about getting anything else done in there.

I added a but of puffy paint to the bottom of Alexander's hand knit socks. I feel as if I ruined them somehow (I spent a lot of hours knitting those bad boys). I know that the puffy paint will make them less slippery.

Mmmmm...fake chicken pot pie for dinner!

Blocks, blocks, blocks.

Laundry done!

Not bad considering that all this is after I get home from work!

Manic Monday and MIA

I'm baaah-aaack...I've had a rough couple of weeks, but I'll get to that later, after my Manic Monday update...

Early AM Alexander...little guys just do not understand the benefit of the end of daylight savings time, so he was up at 6:30! He's got breakfast in that Take and Toss cuppy...Trader Joe's yogurt. So much easier and cleaner than using a spoon!

My favorite pair of hand knit socks on a cold, dark and rainy day.

Wilson Just Word training, all day today...and all day tomorrow. Aren't I lucky?

Thanks to Sarah for the fabulous:

The next part might be a tad graphic, so if you're not into TMI kinds of situation, I would skip the rest of this entry.

Okay, now for the "MIA" and the "rough couple of weeks"...Wednesday, October 20th, Chris, Ian (my youngest brother), and I went to NYC to meet our friend Keisuke and his friend Ginjiro who both flew in from Japan to attend an internet conference. We had a fabulous night. We had an incredible steak dinner at a 5 star restaurant, we had a couple of beers at Keisuke's favorite bar-McSorely's (also one of NYC's oldest bars...it's fabulous!), we made the train we wanted home because we all had to work the next morning, and Keisuke and Ginjiro were flying back to Japan the next morning. It was truly a perfect evening. Fun, friends, food..incredible. Chris and I got home and we were floating on air and went to sleep.

Some time later, about 4am, I felt sick...really sick. I ran to the bathroom wondering why I felt so sick...I really hadn't had much to drink, but here I was, running to the bathroom, not sure what was going to happen, but something bad was going to have to come out from somewhere. There was no vomit to be had, and what I did see when I stood up was something out of a horror movie to say the least. I was a little freaked, but I, being that I was exhausted didn't think that much of it, until an hour later when it happened again, and then it happened again an hour after that. Then my guts started hurting, so I called into subfinder to take the day off. Being the mommy, I helped Chris get Alexander ready for daycare because I was planning to make a doctor's appointment. After Chris left, I just kept feeling more and more pain, so I called my doc's off hours service. I was told to go to the emergency room immediately. So, I drove myself (I live about 4 minutes from the nearest hospital)

I was in the emergency room hallway fore more than 5 hours. These hours included intravenous fluids, a heavy duty painkiller, a urine sample, blood work, an x-day, a CT scan, and an internal ultra sound, plus more slasher film bathroom visits. My large intestines were completely swollen...diagnosis colitis, which is just a fancy way of saying that my intestines are swollen and they don't know why. No one wanted to give me any more info than to eat bland foods until I can see a gastroenterologist, and to stay home from work for a few days. I was sent home with 2 antibiotics and Vicodin. Good times. I was so sick and in pain all weekend that I thought I was going to wind up back in the hospital.

The gastro the ER doc recommended could not (would not?) give me an appointment until the middle of December. Huh? I called my parent's gastro, and she could see me the next Monday. Awesome. All week leading up to the appointment I'm basically eating nothing but rice, plain pasta, and mashed potatoes. I'm totally scared to eat anything else as my WebMD research has totally freaked me out. What if I have Ulcerative Colitis? Or Crohns? What if I have a horror show bathroom adventure again? Ugh.

I was in and out of the doctor's office in less than 20 minutes, and mostly because she was super friendly and chatty. I had E.Coli. She looked at all my "films" and told me they should have put me in a room overnight because my intestines were completely swollen and I could have used the extra fluids. Fortunately, despite sharing steaks for 2 and 3, no one else got sick. The doctor told me that I just got the magic, lucky piece where someone with unclean hand touched the meat that I ate...or a tiny piece hit a dirty piece of counter. Aren't I the luckiest? I did find out that my digestive system has a really strong immune response...all the blood work came back with normal white cell counts, which means that I had dispelled all the evil in a very short time. Pretty cool, I just wish there had been another way to find out that bit of information.

Manic Monday-Second week in a Row!

Welcome to another Manic Monday! I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but my Manic Mondays start around 3:30pm when I get home from work....so here we are:

Time for some outside fun...with blue puppy, of course.

Last of the tomatoes from the garden.

Hiding from Mommy

My happy boy!

Playing with Daddy...they were crawling all around the house making "Grrrrrr" noises, but Alexander would stop every time I put the camera up to my face. Bah!

A big thank you, as always, to wonderful Sarah for hosting:

Another Manic Monday

Mondays have been so extra manic since school started, I don't even seem to have time to post my pictures half the time...sheesh!

First a little am puzzle challenge. Very fun, and excellent to work on in your superhero pajamas.

Did a little shopping at the mall. It was a family trip. Chris wanted to go to EMS. I scored some skin stuff at Sephora and samples from Bare Essentials (or however you spell that place..)

Fun time with Uncle Ian!

Score! Chris bought Alexander his first Hot Wheels.

We love bath time!

Thanks as always to Sarah for hosting the ever fabulous

Manic Monday - Yay!

It's time for yet another Manic Monday!

I went to Kohl's last night to do a little bit of shopping for work. I forgot how unforgiving those florescent lights can be. I went to WEight Watchers during lunch today, and joined up post haste.

Banana mini-muffins for Alexander.

Homemade roast garlic hummus....Yummmmm.

And finally a little bit of drum practice...apparently the drums needed tuning.

A big thanks needs to be put out there for Sarah for giving us Manic Mondays!

Manic Monday 9/6/2010

I am back for another Manic Monday! Thanks to Sarah for her brilliant

Getting ready to do some toy organization!

I don't need it, but I had to have this elephant lunch bag...on clearance at Target!

Alexander is obsessed with starfish, so when I saw this toy on sale at Target, it had to come home with us.

Drum practice on Daddy's real drum pad.

A quick visit to my parent's house. Alexander threw up for no apparent reason about 3 minutes after this picture was taken, rendering our visit short.

Post barf bath time. Note the new starfish toy above his head.

Roast garlic pizza for dinner...Yum!

Homemade peanut butter cookies for dessert.

Roasted garlic and chick peas soaking in olive oil to make hummus with in a day or two.

Thanks for stopping by!