Life's Ups and Downs...and My Place in it All

Today my husband, Doc, and I had an Easter Egg Hunt for our two little ones, Baby Boy and Big Brother.  We separated them so each could have their own thing going on.  In Big Brother's case, this was an Egg hunt for eggs with M&M's and 1 egg with $1.00 in quarters (because that seems like more money to him than a dollar bill).  We hid his eggs in various places in our back yard.  Baby Boy's egg hunt was more like dropping all the eggs in an area the size of a 4 foot by 4 foot square.  He is not yet walking and he hasn't been outside much yet.  I figured his main interest would be in the dormant grass he was sitting in.  Here are the results of our egg hunt.    You know it was funny watching Big Brother as he would go from one end of the yard to the other end passing by countless eggs just to pick up one egg he had his eye on.  It was like he didn't even notice all of the other eggs he was passing--You know, he probably didn't see all the other eggs.   

Baby Boy got more out of shaking the eggs than anything else.  We put Cheese-It Crackers in his eggs (no candy for him yet).  He liked the crackers--and was happy eating them while we played baseball with Big Brother...

If you notice closely, in the third baseball picture you can see Baby Boy's feet right under the bat.  He sat there for about 15 minutes munching on crackers.  He never moved from that place.  Big Brother, on the other hand, tried as hard as he could to hit the ball that Doc threw for him--no luck today though.  He has gotten ahold of a couple of pitches before, but his mind was on eating his candy--not on hitting the ball.  I just love how he closes his eyes in the last picture--I am sure he will hit the ball that way :). 

Finally, we got both boys sitting outside next to each other to get those cutsie brother pictures--We actually had plans to get Easter pictures Thursday, but with Big Brother coming down with Strep Throat, we decided not to go get the picts.  Maybe later...In a month or two. 

Now, you might wonder what is going on here...Well in the second one Big Brother is showing Baby Boy his crackers in his eggs...In the third one Big Brother is reacting to Baby Boy dumping all his eggs out (he thought that was not good apparently)...and in the last two I was trying, unsuccessfully, to get both of them to look at the camera and smile at the same time.  The best I could do was the fourth pict---a smile from Big Brother and a scowl from Baby Boy.

Happy Easter!!!

I got a new gadget today!  It is the greatest thing since a crockpot!  I am so excited...I got a BreadMaker!!!  I made fresh, hot white bread and homemade dinner rolls today!  Yes, I said TODAY (as in within 24 hours---Actually within about 6 hours).  Also, almost NO CLEANUP!!  A working mom's dream...(well, maybe not the ultimate dream--oh, yes I can think of a much better dream :)  ).

Here are pictures of my accomplishment!!  They were so good too. I will not be buying anymore $3.00 bread at the store!!  I will make my own homemade bread and get 3 or 4 loaves for $3.00.  I may gain 15 pounds, but hey--I'll be eating good!! 

So here is an update:

Big Brother has strep throat :(  He has been on antibiotics for 1 day now.  He had to easter egg hunt by himself as he is contagious. 

Baby Brother doesn't like his antibiotic.  He threw it up this morning, his but is red and rashed from the poopin' that he is enduring. 

How is it that kids are so resilient that all this can be happening to them and they still want to play and laugh and cuddle?  Thank goodness this is spring break as Doc would have had to stay at home for an entire week (I cannot take off with them anymore--I am out of sick days).

Tomorrow is my last day of freedom--I have enjoyed my week (even with the constant changing of clothes, diapers and bed sheets due to Baby Brother and his massive elimination rituals due to meds).

I am trying out my new bread machine today (I should have freshly baked bread within the hour--And no mess to clean up!  I love it.)

I'll take a picture of it and tell you how it tastes--I agree with Emeril--We need "smellevision."

After reading  Shupe's Blog I was reminded of a frightful sight that I got at Walmart a couple of years ago.  I was wondering around and looking at bedspreads for Big Brother's double bed, when all of a sudden these younger, gang-banger types come up and begin looking through the bedding as well.  From what I gathered, they were trying to outfit one of their bedrooms with new bedding.  Okay, whatever--so I go back to looking for my son's new bedspread when all of a sudden one of the boys reaches up to the top of the shelf to get a bedspread that he could barely reach.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw this...

Now, this is just what I wanted to see that day.  The boy had absolutely no underwear on and he was wearing his pants down below his but.  The only thing saving us all from a view of his heiny was a long t-shirt.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I am pretty easily embarrassed.  I do believe I looked away very quickly and blushed.  Needless to say, I went about my business and never did decide on a bedspread. 

Now that I think back on this moment, I wish I would have said something.  If nothing else, I should have laughed.  Surely the boy could afford some underwear--He was getting a new bedspread for heaven's sake.

Well--Hopefully someone out there has splurged for some new undies for the boy.  Happy Easter!

This week has been a wonderful and restful week.  We had my parents here Sunday through Tuesday.  I had a great time with them and enjoyed seeing the boys visit with their grandparents.  It isn't until I visit with my parents and my inlaws that I realize how fast our lives are changing and how fast the boys are growing.  Each time they see our kids, they see all these new things that each of them are doing, whether it is motor skills such as walking, or just growing up into a larger versions of the little boys that they once were.  I have enjoyed being home and keeping the house together.  It is actually cleaner right now (while I sit here typing) than it has been in the last 6 months--The surprising thing is I really still have not finished cleaning.  I need to do bathrooms, laundry, vacuuming, dusting--and yet...just the picking up that I have been able to do has helped tremendously.  I cannot wait until summer is here and I can hang up my teaching hat. 

Other things that have happened this week---

Baby Boy has double ear infections (he is now on antibiotic)

Baby Boy has 3 new teeth coming in (this will be 5 in the past 2 weeks)

Big Brother started running fever today.

Big Brother went to his first Big Kid Movie today at the theatre--complete with candy.  He did really well according to Doc--He made it through about 3/4 of the movie before getting bored.

Doc and I went out on a date (yea!)--went to see Vantage Point (very entertaining--especially to those who like to figure out movies), played pool and went to eat at Abuelos.  We had lots of fun and are glad we got out.

Hopefully the remainder of the week will keep bringing us surprises and fun.  All of you have a great week.

I thought I would share some pages that I did a while back.  I am still playing around with Adobe Photoshop Elements Version 5, but I am liking it.  I have a long ways to go before I have it all down.  There is so much you can do.  I love doing these scrapbook pages because everything is completely free.  I will never buy another embellishment, sticker, stamp, inkpad, paper or anything else (unless it is a digital kit).  The other wonderful thing about scrapbooking digitally is that you can reuse every element and paper and embellishment & you can create your own in the programs.  In the above page, I downloaded the wings and the heart.  I made the title in Adobe and I cropped the photo in Adobe.  In the second page, "Handsome guys," I got all the paper and ribbon and titles from freebies that I downloaded.  I cropped the picture out in Adobe Photoshop Elements as well.   If any of you are interested in digital scrapbooking, here are some good places to get started. 

Two Peas In a Bucket (this one has online tutorials and free downloads)

Free Digital Scrapbooking

Digital Scrapbook Place (this one has great tutorials)

Scrapgirls

http://lindsayjanedesigns.blogspot.com/ (my absolute favorite place to get freebies--I have a lot of her stuff)

If you scrapbook digitally or on paper, invite me to be a friend.  I would love to see some of your pages.  I will share mine also. 

TGIF!!!  I cannot tell you how ready I was to get out of school today---It wasn't the lack of students due to the neverending amount of extracurricular activities on their plates.  It wasn't the kid who has never passed a math TAKS test who was taking a benchmark and after I had told them 3 times to get a calculator from my room (we were in the computer lab), he asks me for a calculator and then rather than getting his lazy arse up and walking 18 steps to my room, he proceeds to try and use the calculator on his computer (it has no graphing capabilities, dumbass!).  It wasn't the grades that the students who normally do well are getting because they are not in class due to the aforementioned extracurricular activities and their excessive laziness in getting to my classroom to ask for help/guidance over the topics covered while they were gone.  It wasn't the fact that nobody wanted to work today as it was the last day before spring break...No, it wasn't any one thing today....It was ALL of it--And I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there! 

I am free!!!  Free for a week!!!

I am so happy!  Spring Break has finally come upon us.  I have those students of mine for a couple hours tomorrow morning and as soon as they let me, I am OUTTA THERE!!  I have most of my grades done (they are due at 4:00pm the Monday I get back.)  I am sick of reminding people to do their work and study.  I am excited to spend a week with my family.  Grandparents are coming on Sunday (Big Brother is ecstatic!).  Doc and I both have the week off together (he is post-night float).  I am seeing at least 1 date, an Easter Egg hunt, some great baby picts and lots of sleeping in (8:30am is sleeping late in my house)!!  I cannot wait!  With any luck we will have wonderful weather and no more freezes.  I am going to get out in my front flower bed on Saturday and start pulling grass while it is still dormant.  I need to get a handle on the weeds.  I will then have a house to clean, but that is okay---I can handle it cause I get to rest the whole week after.

I love spring... 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23188344/

This article caught my eye today while I was reading the news at school.  I lost my grandmother about 3 years ago (soon after Big Brother was born).  She died of ovarian cancer.  She was not my biological grandmother, so to my knowledge, my mother and I don't have to worry about this cancer type.  When I saw this article I shed a couple of tears...tears of joy because they have found this blood test identifies ovarian cancer early with about 95% accuracy, and also tears of heartache because I think, "if only they would have known this 5-7 years ago."  We used to visit her during Christmas or Thanksgiving vacations.  She lived in Kansas until she died.  I remember going to visit her when I was a little girl and going every year until after I was married and had my first child.  I miss her and think of her often...Here she is with Big Brother when he was just 3 months old.  We had gone to visit at Thanksgiving.  This would be one of the last times we saw her.  Here is another picture of her playing cards with Big Brother...We loved to play the card Phase 10 with grandma and grandpa.  Almost every time we went to visit, we would play that or Yahtzee.  These were some of my happiest times growing up. 

I love you Grandma... 

I am so excited!! I finally got my Noodles and Eggs Boy!!!  My grandmother would be proud as I am finally able to pass the torch of eating noodles and eggs to one of my sons!  My mother used to feed me noodles and eggs when I was little.  She did this because as a child, her mother would also feed her the same thing.  Noodles and eggs were cheap, so with a family of 6 kids, grandma had to be frugal. 

Now, most people hear this and think, "okay---so what?"  When I tell them how I ate the noodles and eggs, I start seeing their expressions.  My husband, to this day, will not try my noodles and eggs.  "What do I do to them, you ask?"  Well, I boil and drain the noodles (elbow noodles) and then I scramble and egg in them.  And then, the wonderful last minute salute!!!....I top it with a little sugar.  Yes, I said SUGAR!  My mother has always tried to explain to me that eating them with sugar is for kids, and that adults eat them differently, but what can I say, I am a kid at heart. 

My firstborn will not eat noodles and eggs...he has never liked them from the beginning.  There has been many an evening while Doc is at work that I will make myself noodles and eggs and also Ramen noodles for Big Brother.  Well, last night I decided to make noodles and eggs.  Now that Baby Boy is 11 months old, an