what tree is this?

Return of the plant quiz!!!!!!!!!!

Amish Peanut Butter, part II (or...I man walks the dog)

The first title is just to get your attention.
This morning we walked the dog in the woods. Like we always do. But today I-man INSISTED on getting down from the front carrier to walk at about the half-way point. He didn't have shoes or socks on. He didn't care. Then he INSISTED on holding onto Maggie's leash for the rest of the walk. So, he walked the dog. He did really well and didn't let go. At one point he needed to be carried (of course!) but he kept holding onto the leash. Wish I had a camera today on the walk, but as I have said before...you can't capture every moment on film.....even though I try! Ha!

No thanks to all of YOU........

but I came upon a post idea....I was at WORK (yeah, I know...rare event) and was eating lunch (very important). There was a jar of Amish Peanut Butter sitting on the table. I thought...hmmm...what makes peanut butter Amish? Well, I'll TELL YOU. Apparently it must have corn syrup, peanut butter, AND marshmallow cream mixed together. Yeah..and if you look at that website you'll note that there are about twice as many dessert recipes as dinner recipes.

Needing inspiration

I'm not feeling very inspired. I thought perhaps I'd ask my audience what they would like me to blog about...work, life in the midwest, countdown to Saturday's NFL draft, more about the neighbor? More book discussions? More bird ids? Or should I just stick to pictures of the boy and dog? Now is your chance...give me some ideas.

Did everyone have this toy?

I knew this day would come...

Recently I-man has been very interested in feeding Maggie her food. Usually Maggs eats it so fast she chokes, but recently she leaves it for a few hours before consuming (I'm guess because she's getting food thrown to her by the boy. She must feel the D.O.G. food isn't quite as appetizing anymore) . So, it's been "cute" watching I-man go to her dish, take out a piece of her food and walk over to her and feed it to her. Piece by Piece. Yeah....you all knew that wasn't going to last. Today I fished a slightly soggy piece of dog food out of I-man's mouth.

A day with G'ma and G'pa

Last week I left I-man with his G'ma and G'pa for the day while I went to work. I came home to this scene. A nap going on 2 hours....snug on his G'ma's lap. Life is good!



Here is the breakdown of the day:
8:30-9am: oatmeal and bananas
10:15: yogurt and applesauce
10:30: change
11-12:14: nap after 3 oz milk
12:20-12:45: chasing cat
1: 00: Lunch: rice, chicken, veggies, banana, grapes, Water.
1:40: change. In a good mood
2:00: 6 oz milk
3:30: more milk
3:30-5:20: nap on G'ma.

Happy Easter

Photo project

New blog to check! A photo blog with my friend...www.carotevi.blogspot.com
check it out. Should be weekly photos.

Look at that belly!!!!

Pestering the cat is SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

Recent pictures

We've been exploring the outdoors a lot this past week and taking our "cars" out for a few test drives in the driveway. Spring is here and apparently the leaves taste good...

A good drink

Cholesterol

I checked my cholesterol the other day. My numbers came back pretty good. Total up from 130's to 143, but triglycerides an all time low of 27. LDL (the bad stuff) up to 70 (used to be in the 50's) but the HDL (good cholesterol) finally got into the 60's! Yeah. I celebrated with an ice cream!

Stay tuned!

Tomorrow I-man and Maggs are going for a fundraiser photo shoot! It will be a spring-themed sitting, so it should be fun. The question remains, however, what outfit I-man should wear?

Looking for Maggie

Caught the I-man doing this when I asked him "Where's Maggie". Little does he know that Maggie's belly is a bit too big to squeeze under the couch! He's been finding the cat under the couch a lot lately (probably hiding from HIM)

New chair?

I-man decided that crawling OVER Maggs (and resting on her a little bit) was the only way to get to Mao (who is sitting on that chair) and pester her. Sometimes this house feels like a circus

Another birthday celebration!

Yesterday was The Husband's birthday. He's old now. We got him a much needed gift. I got a really good deal on this programmable coffee maker
Yeah. He needs another coffee maker like I need another camera. Oh well. It might help him get up in the morning to know a hot cup of coffee is waiting in the kitchen. It might save a little money in the run, too. Since getting him a nice travel mug his daily coffee cost has decreased from $1.99 to $1.60 or so depending on who is serving him. And if he brings in his own coffee he won't even need to buy a cup. Or maybe he'll drink the one from home in the car and still need a second cup to get through the morning?

I am 1

And then there was A TOOTH!!!!!!!

Camp K9

I LOVE Maggie's doggie daycare/boarding place, Camp K9! I just called to make some reservations for her. They always answer the phone like this: "We're having a great day at Camp K9, how can I help you". You can't help but be in a good mood after that greeting and thinking of all the fun the dogs are having! We're thinking of dressing I-man up in a doggie suit and sending him there! He's gotten quite good at giving Maggie her toys and playing "fetch" with her. I think he'd have a blast!

4 am chatting

I was up at 4 am. Just couldn't sleep! Fortunately for me my friend in Hawaii was on google chat! We had a grand time She pointed me to the Baby Rock Lullaby site. A very useful resource indeed.

A super hero makes a visit

Woke up this morning and found Superman sleeping in our room!

Vacuuming the stove and other tricks I've learned

stay tuned for more..........

1. you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink (this can be applied in all sorts of situations...the dog, the kid, the husband, patients....)

2. Feeding child with a spatula ....try it

PSWS?

Talking with The Husband last night about my frustrations/adjustment issues with living here, work, and I-man's daycare situation I came to the realization that I'm experiencing PSWS. Post-school withdrawl syndrome. Could that be it?

For my coffee friends and family

This is from the column "The Amish Cook" in our newspaper:
Coffeecake that tastes like coffee

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
1 cup hot coffee, strong or weak

Mix ingredients (except hot coffee). Then add coffee and beat slowly. Mixture will be thin. Pour into greased 9x9 pan. Bake at 350 for 30-35 min.

Book Recommendations, part 2 (kid version)

This morning I-man brought a book over to me so I could read it to him. This is the first time he's initiated reading. It was pretty cool. The chosen book was Dr. Seuss, The Foot Book. After we read that one he crawled off to get Goodnight, Spot (exciting with it's lift-the-flap features). I don't suppose anyone can remember their favorite books at age one, but just looking for favorite kid book ideas. (either favorites of yours when you were little or favorites you've read to kids)

Baby Signs

Here's I-man's sign for "I'd like a shot of whiskey, please"

Neighborhood and kid update

Just in case anyone is interested in the latest happenings around here....
1. Favorite activity of the week for I-man: pulling books off the bookshelf or anything off of any shelf.
2. Clapping is "in" this week
3. Waved goodbye to his friend today
4. Darn neighbor dogs are still out and bothered us today while we were out for a walk. ARG. Anyone want two good looking, but not super well-trained dogs?
5. Snow is melting...sun is out today
6. Schools around here CLOSED or were DELAYED due to fog this morning
7. We have not been sick this week! Yeah!
8. I-man is wearing two items of clothing marked "12 months" Wow! So what if I have to roll up the pants legs and roll over the waist! And the sweatshirt pretty much fits him.
9. And the big news of the week....I-man took a 2 hour nap at daycare! I think the trick was letting him sleep in his clothes the night before (since I had to get him there on my own that morning and changing clothes was one less thing I had to do). Maybe we all would have better days at work if we went to work in our pajamas?

Sledding!

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGg
I'm having trouble with Blogger deleting my posted pictures or not posting them at all. Anyone have advice?

Spelling fun

Reading a book that mentions a ukulele. I realized I don't think I've ever seen that word in print! Not sure I could have spelled it correctly myself. Here's what Wikepedia has to say about ukuleles. I think I prefer the British spelling.

I'm old

I'm old.
At work the other day there was a question about a patient. The hospital was calling requesting orders for something he was getting done at the hospital. They didn't tell us what that was and we couldn't figure out from notes what it was. So, I looked down at his birthdate. It was 1985. I said "Well, we could always call his mom and ask". Someone said...."ummm...he's married. I don't think his mom would really know". Dang! How can someone born when I was in high school be married already!!! Was 1985 really that long ago?

Insomnia

Fastest way to insomnia this side of the Mississippi....eat many pieces of chocolate in the evening of a day when you've only eaten 2 pieces of toast because you've just had the stomach flu. On the bright side, I came up with a brilliant plan at 5am for fundraising and increasing membership to the little youth camp/nature preserve across from the house. I was just elected as a board member. A hard fought campaign.

Weight loss plan

Fastest weight loss plan this side of the Mississippi.....stomach flu teamed with breastfeeding an infant with the stomach flu. 5lbs down in 2 days.....

Happy Monday....

Movie

We watched a fun movie called Word Wars this weekend. Anyone who likes Scrabble should see it.

Valentine's Day Dinner?

Stole this idea/link from the brother-in-law's blog. But just too good to pass up. Check it out.

Book recommendation please!

Just tried to read "my" bookclub book (in quotes because I haven't actually been to a meeting yet) book for this month and got 10 pages into it and thought it was horrible. The writing was terrible, the story was unbelievable, too draumatic...so I put the book down. I would love a few book suggestions. Has to be pretty easy to read in 5 minute snippets. Any suggestions?

Puppy Bowl!

We caught a few minutes of the Puppy Bowl III on Animal Planet. It was pretty funny, especially the "bowl cam"

What's this one?

Here's a tougher one....

Bird

You should all know this bird, but can you guess what he's thinking?

Entertainment

Other parents stick their kid in front of the TV when they need a minute or two to get something done. I turn on the Roomba! Sufficiently entertains both the kid and the dog for a few minutes AND cleans the floor!

Where are you all?

Where is everyone? Do you guys have jobs or something?

S.N.O.W.D.A.Y. !!!!!!

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!! Snow, snow, and more snow here. I've had trouble getting pictures posted, so hopefully will get those posted soon. I started driving to work this morning and got 2 miles down the road and decided to turn back. Guess I better get those skis on and get out in the woods!

BIRD

What's this?

If you can't get this one....

Dedication

I'm dedicating this post to my dear dog friend Sebastian who passed away a few days ago. He made it to the ripe old age of 15. The only dog I've known who prefers Bach to dog biscuits. Hopefully, he's singing away up there in dog heaven.

Pajama Poll

OK....cast your vote on your favorite PJs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'nuff said

Happy Birthday Miss A!

I-man's buddy Miss A turned 1 today! Happy Birthday!!!!

Today's bird!

What's this?

Cute stuff to brighten your day

uncle 4 pointed me to this website about CUTE things. Sure to make you smile

"Now accepting applications" or "Today's grade: challenging and playful"

Picked up the boy from daycare today and his eyes were bloodshot he was so frickin' tired. Only slept about 15 minutes and only when held. I really need to move "the magic couch" into daycare. He sleeps on that for 2 hours some days. He also got "challenging" and "playful" marked on his flowsheet today. I'm pretty fed up with our daycare situation and really need to make a change. So, we are now accepting appplications for a part-time nanny. Free room and board (if we've done grocery shopping), cute kid to hang out with, happy dog to keep you company, an aloof cat makes an occasional appearance, woods to take walks across the street. All in scenic N. Indiana. Any takers out there?

I'm going to live a long time

A recent NYT article: A surprising secret to a long life: stay in school

New Year's Eve

Such an exciting event at our house this year. The husband was sick with some GI bug and spent all day on the couch trying to keep water down. He couldn't even eat ice cream! The boy and I got kind of bored. The weather was dreary. Rainy. Grey. Cool. We were supposed to go out and get some much needed shopping/exchanges done. Ugh. I was not motivated to do that on my own. I called my sis by 9am, called my mom by noon or so, watched part of English Patient, I-man and I took a nap. I don't think I even took a photo all day?! I called Aunty Assistant Prof. H (AAPH) at 8pm since I really needed to have a conversation with someone! Always can count on AAPH for a good conversation. She was reading a book and trying to stay up past the midnight fireworks, lest they wake her up from a slumber and keep her up. We talked for 88 minutes.

She is the fastest reader I know. I was hoping she'd give me a synopsis of this month's book club book: Galileo's Daughter. She didn't. I've listened to it on books-on-tape, but haven't been able to get even half-way through the book due to the active little 14.5 lb parasite of mine.

Mad Scientist, Jr.

MAD SCIENTIST, JR.
This was his hairstyle after a long nap....