Birthdays and Allergy Testing

Yesterday was Brianna's 7th birthday. Seven years old? That seems so impossible. I have actually been getting used to the 7-year old idea for the last couple of months, but now that the school year is winding down I have to get used to saying my daughter is about to start second grade. And that is just WAY too old for my liking.

I'm so thankful we have such simple kids. We spent the morning playing a couple of games, doing our schoolwork (just math) and then spent the afternoon at our homeschool co-op where she celebrated her birthday with many of her closest friends. When we got home, she was so excited to see that Stephen was already home from work, because that meant she was allowed to open her birthday presents from us. We got her a portable CD player and a custom-made T-shirt that says, "Jeep Hair Don't Care". Hunter and Brianna tend to fight over music in the car (she wants it, and she wants it LOUD, and he either doesn't want it at all or wants to hear the CD without her singing) so we thought the CD player would be awesome for her. Sure enough, she has used it consistently since we got it for her - so much so that I realize how many batteries we are going to be going through...  We got her the t-shirt because we like to ride in the Jeep with the windows taken off completely, and her hair gets CRAZY. Last time we went fishing Stephen noted, "Jeep hair, don't care!" and we decided a t-shirt was necessary. She requested Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner so that's where we went and had an awesome time. We came home and made brownies for dessert.

Today, Stephen stayed home from work. Unfortunately, it was because Brianna had allergy testing. I know that she was so nervous. We didn't really know what to expect. When we pulled into the parking lot, I turned the car off and said, "Do you want me to pray before we go inside?" She shrugged her shoulders and nonchalantly said, "No, why would you?" I shook my head and began gathering my items in my bookbag. I turned around to tell her we could get out of the car and saw her eyes were filling with tears and her face was getting all red and splotchy. She said, "Well, maybe could you pray?" I got into the backseat with her and cradled her while I prayed. She was so scared about those multiple skin pricks. I promised her I would be with her every step of the way, and that we would take it one step at a time. For example, going inside wasn't scary! Talking to the doctor wasn't scary! We could do all those things easily. And that's how we made it through.

When the nurse came in with the huge tray of allergens I asked if she would walk Brianna through the procedure. She showed Bri all the different allergens that are tested, and then let her "scrape" herself with a practice piece so she would know what to expect. Brianna laid on her stomach and giggled while the nurse wrote all the numbers up and down her back. Her voice was shaky and so were her hands, so I know she was a nervous wreck, but she was so brave. Within seconds, her control prick was raised up and already itching. Fifteen minutes of squirming and wriggling around passed by (much quicker than usual since I brought the Kindle for her to play with) and she was done! And all that she's allergic to are oak trees, hickory tress and dust mites. Thank the Lord that we know now, and have a plan for helping her with these yucky allergies. What a trooper. I told her tonight that she's my hero. Being brave doesn't mean that you don't cry or you aren't scared, it just means you have the courage to keep going when you are scared.

And then when we got home we had the whole afternoon with Stephen because we finished all our school work before our doctor's appointment. And for being so brave, he decided to take us all to Fayetteville to eat at a new-to-us restaurant called Mod Pizza. And afterwards we went across the street to the mall and got cookies from Great American Cookie Company! So now we have eaten out two times in the past two days, which is utterly unusual for our family, but I have absolutely loved being out and about with my husband and children. Stephen's work schedule was so rough there for a while that I am just soaking up the time when we are all four together.

Ketchup

The longer I am away from the blog the easier it is to not blog! So I am jumping back in today in hopes that I will post more pictures and stuff soon. This is going to be the Cliff's Notes version of last weekend.

Friday night Keely pulled into Pinebluff around midnight, long after I was in bed. But Stephen woke me up so I could greet her! We chatted for just a short while before heading our separate ways, to the bedrooms.

Saturday, unfortunately, I couldn't get off work. So at 6am I was on my way to work while Keely and Stephen were nestled snugly in their respective beds. So what did Stephen do to entertain Keely while I was at work?

Why, took her shooting of course!

Keely was extraordinarily excited about shooting, and Stephen said her face looked like "Christmas morning" after each pull of the trigger. They ended up shooting for six hours and Stephen said the best part was Keely listened to him the whole time. I find that hard to believe, but probably only because I have gotten so used to tuning him out on certain subjects... Stephen if you do end up reading this blog ever, you know I'm kidding, right? Right. :)

That night after I got home, we grilled ribs for dinner and made it through about half of the movie Just Married. Which, if you ever just need to laugh, you will love that movie.

Sunday was a pretty relaxing day. We went to church, and then decided on Sonic for lunch. It turns out that Keely has this competition going with a friend about eating out at Sonic so she had to text him pictures of her eating there! It was so funny!!! I kind of feel like me and Jenn should do that about Chick Fil-A except she would totally win. After that, Keely and I went to Carrie K.'s baby shower. It was so much fun! Of course I love free food, and I love seeing baby stuff! Well, particularly clothes. Clothes have always been hard for me to quit buying for baby showers. I mean, they're just so adorable!!! By the time we got home from that, we had about 45 minutes to relax before church that night.

Monday morning we got up in time to head off to Chick Fil-A so we could get multiple amounts of chicken minis - which they should seriously serve all day long. I'm serious, Chick Fil-A. Of course it was delicious as usual. If I'm ever really rich, I can see myself building a Chick Fil-A into my basement. Keely wanted to get an early start home so she could get back to Virginia by dark. So we took the opportunity to walk outside in the gorgeous weather. We played with Cassie some, and showed off some of our landscaping to Keely. We had very active nature that morning, and I took some pictures of some odd visitors we have at our house. They are spiders I can't identify. I'll post them soon. We had tons of butterflies on our butterfly bushes, a caterpillar making a cocoon, and of course the usual birds and rabbits that float around in our woods. It was really peaceful and it was about 76, so it was just perfect to go walking around outside.

After Keely left, (both her and Stephen were off for Columbus Day, which is a federal holiday, but I took a vacation day to have it off), Stephen and I spent the rest of the day LOUNGING. Because lounging doesn't happen very often for us!! We watched a couple of movies and just laid around snacking all afternoon. That night I had Ladies Group so unfortunately I didn't get to go to bed very early. But Ladies Group was awesome. The girls that cooked made chips and dip (one pizza dip, one spinach and artichoke), chicken salad sandwiches, sausage bruschetta (I'm sure I spelled that wrong - sorry), peach cobbler and this incredible chocolate/whipped cream layered cake with cherries on top!! Yum! Our Bible lesson was great too, as well as just sticking around afterwards to chat with everyone, cause I rarely have time to do that after church.

Yesterday I left work early for a doctor's appointment. It was just our family medical history appointment, so I was pretty bummed that I wasn't going to have an ultrasound done or anything. Stephen got off work early and met me there. My blood pressure was fabulous, if I do say so myself. 110/64. It hasn't been that low in forever! And I gained two more pounds, which makes a grand total of 5 preggo pounds so far! Then the nurse surprised us by taking us back for an ultrasound! She said because it's so long between the first u/s (around 8 weeks) and the second (around 20 weeks) that they like to throw in a freebie around 12-13 weeks for the mother's sanity. Thank you SP Women's Clinic!! It was amazing! Hopefully sometime I can scan those pictures and put them on here.

Last night we were getting ready for Bible study when we got the call that a church member's father had passed away, so church was cancelled. So we went over to mom and dad's to show them the u/s pictures instead. And then we finished a movie we had started on Monday! So another relaxing night!

Today I will dine with mom and dad for lunch, which will be fabulous as always. And we have church tonight. Tomorrow night I don't know what we'll do. See, we have a week off of school right now because our next session doesn't start until Monday. So we haven't had homework all week long! It's been a nice break. I'm sure we'll find something to do tomorrow night though.

I think that's everything!

In the news today

In semi-baby-related news, work must be rough for Stephen right now. Tuesday night on the way home from church, he assured me that if I decide I do want to work after having the baby, he will be more than happy to quit his job. He called it "taking one for the team". He tried to make it sound like I was getting the better part of the deal. I'm not going to let him sweet talk me though! I asked him if he really thought that spending all day with a crying baby is going to be less stressful than working. He answered in the affirmative.

In recipe-related news, I actually cooked Monday night! I am starting to get some energy back and I really wanted to cook something. And I was craving lasagna. Now, Stephen likes lasagna, but he's not crazy about it. He doesn't like ricotta cheese, which is why he now orders stromboli instead of calzones at Italian restaurants. So a few months ago, Lora brought this lasagna recipe to church, and when he ate it he went gaga over it. So I decided to surprise him by making it. I am posting the recipe here because it was SO EASY to make and great for people who don't like ricotta cheese.

Lora's Lasagna (this is for two hungry people)

1 lb.Hamburger (I would actually suggest 1.5 lbs)
1 box Lasagna Noodles (I used 9 noodles because I like the layers to be even)
1 Jar Prego tomato,onion,garlic Chunky Sauce
2 Cups Sargento Mozzarella Shredded Cheese
1 Cup Sargento Shredded Provolone Cheese
6-8 Deli Style Sliced Mozzarella Cheese

In Large Skillet Cook Crumbled Burger. Drain and add Sauce to it. Set Aside. Boil Noodles until done. Spread Thin Layer of Sauce & Burger Mixture in bottom of 9X13 Baking Dish. Layer Noodles, Mix Shredded Cheese. Layer it. Repeat. Repeat. Lay the Sliced Cheese in a Row on Top. Cover VERY loosely with foil. Bake at 355 for 35-40 minutes. *Remove Foil the last 10 Minutes*

Ours was gone in two days. I'm going to have to do two pans the next time!!!

In eating-related news, I found out this morning that I am completely inept at eating oranges. Is there like, a WikiHow article about peeling oranges or anything?? Oh my gosh, there IS!!! Well, it's too late now. I have never been an orange eater. I'm not prejudiced or anything, I guess I just thought they're so much work for a not so amazing flavor. But then mom pointed out how high they are in fiber, which will come in handy at some point. Also, that Vitamin C never hurt anyone. So I decided to jump in with both feet first. I found out immediately that I wish I was left-handed. See, I use my right hand so much that all my nails are really short on that hand. So it was really hard for me to use those to peel the orange with. Next time I'll probably use the bite and tear method (don't peel the orange, just peel the fruit away from the skin with your teeth). Well, I ended up eating over the trash can because of the juice, and my slices were certainly not coming off in slices, they were coming off in chunks. I am so glad no one walked by during this operation. Needless to say, I felt like a lot of work was put into that orange. But it tasted better than I remembered, so I'll probably head back to the grocery store and get some more later.

In surprise-related news, Stephen has been telling me allllll week that I have a surprise coming. I had a couple of guesses, but really vague ones, like maybe some pregnancy-related thing, or maybe Wii Fit. But no, my surprise came yesterday, and guess what my yummy hubs got me!?!? Guitar Hero: Legends of Rock!! Now I finally have a guitar of my own, and now we can battle or co-op. I prefer battle, Stephen prefers co-op (because I always kick his butt!!) I played about three songs before church and then he had to drag me away. Then after church I made him cook dinner so I could play again. I tell ya, it's addictive! Especially since I know I'm not going to beat GH2 on expert - I only have 3 songs left and I just can't beat them. So I'm ready for a new challenge.

I think that covers everything!!

Highs and Lows

Because it's been so long since I last did a real update, I am taking a shortcut and bringing back some old college memories by playing "High and Low". This game has recently been dug up by Jenn, who loves it and forces Matt to play against his will. Pretty much, you would play this game around the dinner table at the end of your day and tell the high point of your day and the low point of your day. I will not follow that pattern, but this is the easiest way for me to catch up on blogging.

High: Last Wednesday, we went bowling with about 30 other people from church. I bowled four games all over 110 and two games I bowled a 140. (We hadn't bowled in probably 6 months, so I thought that was pretty good!)
Low: I realized that bowling a 140 was on my next 101 in 1001 list (yes, I'm already creating that list!) so I had to change that number to something a little more out of reach.

High: Last Thursday, I finished my last paper for my last summer class!
Low: It made me realize that I only have a few days left to finish my final exam.

Low: On Saturday, one of the women, J.R. had to go to the hospital for stomach pains.
High: She was released three hours later after being given some pain medication.
Low: Two hours after that I had to call 911 due to the fact that she was having an allergic reaction to said pain medication.
High: By 10pm that night, she was home in bed feeling better.

High: After work on Saturday, I went straight to Steve's to watch UFC 87. Several of our friends were able to meet us there, so we pigged out on junk food and watched 3 hours of fighting. Good times! And no low!

High: Monday night was Ladies Night Out at Outback with some of the girls from church. The food was delicious, everyone gawked over the size of my burger, and the dessert that we surprised one lady with (for her anniversary that week) was brought out with 16 spoons so we could all have a taste. We ended up staying for 3 1/2 hours we had so much fun.
Low: Being exhausted when I got home and sat down.

Low: Finding out Tuesday night that my friend Sherri's husband is being transferred to Illinois.
High: Knowing that the military changes their plans so much, there's a shot it will fall through.

I can't wait for this weekend! That sounds bad because actually, Stephen will be gone this weekend to Georgia. I will be a bachelorette! That wasn't an excited exclamation point, I promise. But I do have some great plans. Friday night, Jenn is coming over. I think we may use some of my Buy One, Get One Free pizza coupons at Papa Johns. And I am going to woo her with cheesecake. Then I'm sure we will get into some hair salon stuff and maybe watch a 30 Days episode or something.

Saturday I have to work, but after work I plan on coming home, changing immediately into pajamas, and watching at least one movie on the DVR. Maybe two if I'm not thoroughly exhausted!!!